E. Carolyn Zachary
During our 50th Reunion, some of us wondered whom we’d lost in the Vietnam War. Jim Jandreau volunteered to do the research and compile a list for our 55th in the hope that we’d find a way to honor them, perhaps with a scholarship, or a meditation room in the Union, or something else.
A Google search and an email to the Vietnam Memorial got him nowhere. A search of thewall-usa.com revealed that none of the eight American women who died in Vietnam went to UMaine, so we’re looking only for male classmates. As this website gets its information from the Defense Department, Jim believes it is the best source of U.S. military who died from combat injuries in Vietnam; those who died because of Agent Orange or PTSD are not listed.
Based on an alumni office list of all of our known deceased male classmates, during the Vietnam War years we lost just one in combat: Alan H. Zimmerman. Jim believes there could be more, and asks that we all think back to classmates who served in Vietnam and might have died in combat. His email address is jimjudy86@comcast.net.
U.S. News & World Report lists Dr. Joseph W. Warren as a top doctor in Orlando, FL. A nephrologist, he is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including AdventHealth Orlando and Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford. A graduate of Caribou High School and a zoology major at UMaine, he earned his medical degree from West Virginia University School of Medicine.
In July, seven women from our class got together at RiRa, a pub on the Portland waterfront, for lunch and catching up on 50-plus years of life since graduation. It was fun, and we’ll probably do it again!
Crystal Mayo Gwinn went on to earn a master’s in speech and language from UMaine in 1984 and a doctorate in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern University. She retired as a speech-language pathologist from the Orono school system and then taught math at Husson University for four and a half years. She is currently working on a presentation for communicating with late-stage dementia; her husband is a patient at Togus VA Hospital.
Donna Weaver Stephen’s husband served in the military, which meant travel. In 1981 they settled in Scarborough, ME. Donna retired in 2008 as an elementary school principal. She has three grandchildren, the youngest of whom is now 17.
After earning an MBA at Yale, Nancy Troland helped build WGBH, public television’s flagship station in Boston. Following 18 years in public TV, she went to New York to work for Towers Perrin, a global management consulting firm, then earned a nursing degree and became a nursing director.
Lisbeth Wiley Chapman drove up from Cape Cod, where she runs Hopper House Tours, an auto tour of 30 locations in Truro, MA, where American realist painter Edward Hopper painted in the 1930s.
Armed with a master’s in journalism from the University of Missouri, Beth edited a financial publication that launched her into an executive PR job at Putnam Investments in Boston. She subsequently founded her own public relations business, Ink & Air, in 1991, which she operated until 2015. Along the way, she also created Extra Daughters, a moving management service for seniors, which she ran for two years.
Languages were Susan Rush Walsh’s “thing” — French, Russian, Italian, Dutch, and Chinese — plus she earned a master’s in education at Wheelock. At one time, she supervised Boston’s Head Start programs, parking her car in the notorious “Combat Zone.” Sue had to quit working toward a doctorate in education at Boston University because it was a fulltime practicum and her (now-ex) husband said no.
Funny how those things happened to women of our generation — I was all set to get my MBA at Rutgers, but my (later-ex) husband said no because I’d have no time left for him.
Roberta “Bobbie“ Jones Mulazzi told us her life was more “normal” than most of ours. After graduation she taught second grade and English as a second language in Glastonbury, CT. The jeweler in town introduced Bobbie and her roommate to two young men and wound up selling the men two engagement rings.
And that’s all for now. See you next time.