Diantha Hawkes Grant
As I sit here at my laptop, we are under social distancing/isolation/seclusion — choose your word. It sure is a crazy time. Don and I are still in Florida and hoping that Maine Gov. Janet Mills will let us back into Maine in May! I have to believe we will survive the COVID-19 pandemic and by the time this issue of MAINE Alumni Magazine comes out, things will be getting back to normal.
On January 30, 2020, the latest inductees for the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame were announced. Congratulations to classmate David Halligan ’74 and ‘79G, one of 17 new members. A graduate of Falmouth High School, he has coached basketball and soccer for 34 years at his alma mater with over 526 wins. His teams have won 11 Western Maine championships and six state titles that worked out to over 1,000 wins. His record in basketball is 526-135, and 396-103-46 in soccer. The state titles were in classes A, B, and C. He continues to coach and teach in Falmouth. He loves his position and doesn’t see it as a job. According to Dave, “It’s just fun.”
Jan Coates was recently appointed to the board of trustees for the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory. She brings her local connections, her nonprofit and business experience, and higher education administration background to the position. Jan’s is founder of Island Readers and Writers, a local nonprofit dedicated to bringing books and educational programs to over 2,800 children living on Maine’s coastal islands and rural Washington County towns. Her organization has collaborated with MDI Biological Laboratory by introducing schoolchildren to scientists and science.
Jan earned her master’s degree from Indiana University in college personnel administration and her doctorate in college and university administration from Michigan State University. She held administrative positions at Hamilton College and Albion College prior to returning to Northeast Harbor. She was owner and manager of Port In a Storm Bookstore in Somesville. Jan is also a member of the board of Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve.
For those of you on Facebook, please join our Class of ’74 Facebook group. It’s another place we can share updates and happenings. Many of us will also be celebrating 50 years from high school. Let’s hope our reunions happen and that fall sports will be back!
Stay safe! Go Blue!