Hello, everyone. I hope your summer is going well.
Bud ’54 and Shirley Kirk Ayer ’54 did not return to Maine for Christmas this past year. I didn’t hear how they liked having no snow but at least they were expecting their family to visit sometime during the winter months.
Muriel Verrill Gade, who lives in California, was still having her activities cancelled and she said she felt like she had become a hermit. She was seeing very few friends and was going to the market very early mornings when necessary. I hope by now that the pandemic has settled in her area, and she can return to her usual busy agenda.
Lois Pratt Pulsifer of Valencia, PA, died unexpectedly on May 11, 2022. She was a graduate of Brunswick, ME, High School. At the University of Maine she majored in home economics and spent a semester at the Merrill Palmer Institute in Detroit, MI. She was a member of Pi Beta Phi. She is survived by her husband,
Jonathan T. Pulsifer, two children, and four grandchildren. The Pulsifers lived for many years in Downingtown, PA, where Lois dedicated herself to educating children with disabilities and singing in the choir of Central Presbyterian Church. In retirement they moved to St. Barnabas Retirement Community in Valencia, PA, to be near their children. They built a summer home in Harpswell, ME, where they enjoyed getting together with relatives and friends. Lois loved to entertain and was a great cook. She was a summer member of Casco Bay Art League and was well known for her theorem paintings on velvet, which she exhibited in Brunswick area art shows.
Ken Woodsum passed away in January of 2022. He was a good classmate, good athlete, and smart student. Ken and I spent our school years together from kindergarten, South Portland High School, and the University of Maine. I want to extend our condolences to his family.
Letters of gratitude from the 2021-2022 recipients of the Class of 1955 Scholarship are Madelyn Adams, Emma Harrigan, and Kevin Anderson. Madelyn graduated from Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School and is a freshman from Otisfield who has interests in early childhood education, music, and occupational
therapy. Her major is undecided at the moment. She said, “I hope that I can give back to my community in the future and help others as you have helped me.”
Emma Harrigan is a first-year student and is a graduate of Portland High School. She plans to major in environmental science and is looking forward to exploring more of Maine and the beauty it has to offer. She says, “Thank you for the support you have given me. This means a lot to help pursue my degree here at the University of Maine.”
Kevin Anderson is originally from Texas and studied at the University of Texas at Arlington. He found the University of Maine when he realized that he wanted to study climate science. He said, “This scholarship will allow me to continue my dream of becoming a climate scientist and inspires me to work hard and achieve
my goals. I sincerely can’t thank you enough.”
If you are ever traveling the Maine Turnpike and are near the Portland area, please give me a call. I’d love to see you. We’re right off the Maine Turnpike and Route 295.
I hope that the next issue of the MAINE Alumni Magazine will include news from you and what you are doing and even your life during our pandemic years. Your classmates and I would enjoy hearing from you.