Kenyon Class of 1981 Fall Class Letter

Dear classmates,

Lately, I know it can seem like good news is in short supply. I am writing this letter 15 days before what will be an historic and contentious election. Forty million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Four o’clock is the new norm for cocktails. And we are running out of things to binge watch. So I thought you might like to read some positive news about Kenyon and our fellow classmates.

In-person instruction just wrapped up for the approximately 950 freshmen, sophomores and international students who studied on campus this fall, numbers intentionally kept low so no one would share a room. (Yes, it took a pandemic for a freshman to score a North Campus Apartment for one.) The College developed clear COVID-related policies and protocols that included regular testing for those on campus and the implementation of the “Kenyon College Commitment,” a personal pledge developed in cooperation with the student council that emphasized the well-being of the entire community. Life on campus looked a bit different as Kenyon adapted its many facilities to ensure safe access to dining, athletics, research and more.

In addition to adaptations for on-campus instruction, juniors and seniors and members of the faculty discovered new ways to learn and teach remotely. (Yes, it took a pandemic to make sweatpants acceptable classroom attire for even the professors.) Check out our new faculty notes section to hear how your favorite faculty members dealt with the shift to Zoom classes, virtual office hours and online assignments.

Our alumni community has shifted to meet the challenges of 2020 with an equal degree of innovation — organizing and attending virtual events, connecting with current students and new graduates as volunteer mentors, and giving back during June’s record-breaking online giving challenge, Kenyon Together. And, though it was heartbreaking to see Reunion Weekend 2020 postponed, we’ve shifted our focus to Reunion Weekend 2021. Planning is underway (many Zoom meetings) and, if conditions allow, it could be the biggest alumni gathering in Kenyon history! (We’ll be sharing more details in the months to come regarding the special celebrations we are planning for our milestone reunion this year.)

Yes, good things are happening at Kenyon even during these crazy times and that is why I support it year after year with a gift to the Kenyon Fund — to keep the good news coming. I give to bolster the student emergency assistance fund, which helped dozens of students get home when the spring semester unexpectedly went virtual. I give to make it possible for the College to award more in financial aid this year, when many families’ budgets are strained. And I give to help fund new scholarships like the Kenyon Women’s Annual Scholarship and the Lowry Annual Scholarship for underrepresented students, which was announced just last month along with the renaming of the Kenyon Athletic Center to honor Emeritus Trustee William E. Lowry Jr. ’56 H’99. Sroll down for full details on this exciting piece of Kenyon news!

During challenging times like these, alumni support is more critical than ever. Join me in making your gift to the Kenyon Fund at gift.kenyon.edu to ensure good things continue to happen on the Hill this year, and in the years to come.

Thank you and stay well!

Sincerely,

Grebes

P.S. Scroll down to read our fall class notes.

Introducing the Lowry Center & Scholarship

William E. Lowry Jr. ’56 H’99 was the first Black student in the nation initiated into Beta Theta Pi, was student body president and captained the football, basketball and baseball teams. He went on to serve in many volunteer roles at Kenyon, including as trustee. In honor of Bill’s accomplishments and impact at Kenyon, the Board of Trustees decided to rename the Kenyon Athletic Center in his honor.

Recognizing his legacy, Board Vice Chair Joseph E. Lipscomb ’87 has created an endowed scholarship in Bill’s name to help bring more underrepresented students to Kenyon. Anyone can make a gift to the annual fund portion of this scholarship, or one of many other scholarships at Kenyon, and provide an immediate benefit to a current student.

Support currents students now with a gift to scholarships

Despite a challenging year, the College remains committed to continuing to meet 100% of students’ increased demonstrated need, with donor support. Every dollar you give goes directly to support students this academic year.

Consider giving today in support of:

Hannah More Scholarship for first generation students
Kenyon Women’s Annual Scholarship for female students
Lowry Annual Scholarship for underrepresented students
Pope Memorial Annual Scholarship for students from urban Ohio public school

And, of course, you can make a gift to the Kenyon Fund’s scholarships and financial aid designation, which supports the education of every single Kenyon student.

Make a Gift

Upcoming Virtual Events for Alumni

You're invited to join us this winter at these free events for alumni.

Alumni Town Halls with President Decatur
Thursday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. ET and Thursday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. ET
Five-week mini class with Professor Emerita Pam Jensen
"Democracy & Education: An Introduction to Rousseau's Emile"
Tuesdays, Jan. 5 – Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. ET
A Celebration of Kenyon Green Initiatives (two-part series)
Wednesday, Jan. 20 and Thursday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. ET

Visit kenyon.edu/alumnievents to register and view our full alumni event calendar.

Class of 1981 Fall Notes

In 2016, Elizabeth Dickinson joined CUNY School of Law as Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives & External Relations, where she contributes what she has learned during 35 years working in NYC’s not-for-profit world. It seems especially apropos to be at CUNY Law where her late husband Luis DeGraffe taught for 20 years. Liz shares a Brownstone in Brooklyn with sons Jamaal and Khalil – who are pursuing their artistic passions in film and music –and their lab Luna. Luna and Liz are working on a daily continuous step record in Prospect Park. As she writes, they’re on day 147. On the eve of our 40th anniversary, Liz notes that this is the perfect time to reflect, reconnect and refocus on the impact Kenyon had in our lives.

Sue Oakes (Jones a/k/a Jonesie) couldn’t agree more with Liz’s sentiments. Missing out on the live fall reunion planning trip, she realized how much pleasure and anticipation - and how many memories - that drive up the Hill brought her. Sue is currently the Administrative Partner of her law firm’s Denver office, where she gets to do fun stuff like making sure almost 500 employees comply with Colorado and Denver’s COVID health orders. Fortunately, most people choose to work from home, including Sue. M&A deals are getting done, so she is staying busy. With fortuitous timing, in November, Sue’s daughter (K’18) moved back to Colorado from Beijing, where she had been living since graduation. Her poor son left college in upstate NY for spring break in March, only to finish out his senior year at the “Colgate - Cherry Hills Village” campus. Graduating virtually was not fun. At least the ski areas are re-opening this winter!

At the end of the year, Kyle Hickok will be retiring from Edward Jones, and he and wife Pam will be leaving St. Louis and moving back to North Carolina. Since starting in 1991, he has enjoyed a number of roles at the firm, most recently responsible for Innovation. They're excited to start writing the next chapter of their lives.

Martha Haddon (Roberts) is thankful that packaging is an essential business and they are all still standing despite this crazy year. They now have 2 of their sons and 2 son-in-laws working with them and have added 3 grandchildren, including twins, this year for a total of 6 so far! She says it's the best thing ever! Martha is still waiting for a mini reunion in SC!

Bill Derks is still living in Cary, North Carolina and working at McAdams, a civil engineering, land planning and surveying firm, as the VP of Land Development, where he has been for 24-years. He will have been married to Colleen for 34-years this November. Of their three kids (Torri, Keaton and Cooper), only Cooper is still home, working and going to school. Bill is an active runner, biker and yes, swimmer, still making it to the pool three times a week, although with slightly fewer yards at a much slower pace these days. He lives just a couple miles from Don Shupe and enjoys seeing him, his wife (Peanut) and their family very often.

Mary Ashley is approaching 30 years as a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a diverse urban public university - and antithetical to Kenyon College in many ways.

Before Covid slammed the door on such gatherings last April, Sam Adams joined Walker Bagby and four other ‘81s (Wells Smith, Mac Durrett, Frank Spaeth, and Tod Colbert) for a tremendous long weekend of showing off their alpine skiing skills skiing at his place at Big Sky, Montana. There was a lot of laughter and plenty of beer, which they needed after long days on the slopes! (See photo below.)

Dorothy Lenard is enjoying a life of semi-retirement, clearing out her parents’ house to turn it into an AirBnB, making and selling jewelry through For the Kids Creations, and coaching students with disabilities.

Jim Archer is keeping public transit in Houston safe while ensuring social distancing - and adjusting to a budget shortfall of tens of millions of dollars during COVID-19, all of which has kept him on his toes. Normally, the transit system makes three system wide bus and rail service changes per year; this year it has made seven bus and three rail service changes with another bus change coming next month. He has fifteen staff working from fifteen different locations with five different primary languages – when added to Brooklyn, Louisiana, and southern California accents – his foreign language degree has been put to good use. Jim’s son Daniel will be graduating from high school in May 2021. While Kenyon has tried to recruit him, he's a native Texan and looking to stay in state. Since his last note, he shared the disappointment of the closing of the Youngstown Vindicator with Mark Brown and the excitement of a Super Bowl victory for Val Schaff's Kansas City Chiefs.

Married with an adult son, Patricia Mickley Guth works as a psych nurse in Columbus for the State of Ohio. Her permanent residence is a farm in Amish country (on the border of Knox and Holmes counties), and she has a houseful with 6 rescue cats, and 2 dogs.

Doug Page and his wife are trying retirement as of early September. Time flies even when you aren’t working, if painting a room, doing some planting and catching up on yard work, adding insulation in the attic is not working…. Meanwhile, their 30 year old daughter is moving home from Brooklyn after being laid off, compliments of the Pandemic. He asks if any of us have connections in the library world - recently completed MS in Library Sciences and a BA in English?

Wendy MacLeod’s comedy SLOW FOOD, which premiered at Merrimack Rep pre-COVID, was done online in September by Arizona Theater Company. After a summer in New Hampshire with Read ’84 and her two sons, Wendy is back in the classroom with a mask on, with some students in the room and some on screens.

Sam Adams, Walker Bagby, Wells Smith, Mac Durrett, Frank Spaeth, and Tod Colbert

Read notes from the Class of 1980 and the Class of 1982.

New this year! Read notes from faculty.

Support Kenyon

If you missed the chance to share your news for this letter, you can submit a class note at any time via class.letters@kenyon.edu.

Class Listing

Kenyon is grateful to the following donors for their generous support of the College, including the Kenyon Fund, during the 2019-20 fiscal year. An asterisk (*) indicates a donor is a member of the Henry J. Abraham Society for loyal and consecutive giving. An obelisk (†) indicates an individual who is deceased. Please note that as of July 1, 2019 Kenyon’s annual giving societies have changed. Visit kenyon.edu/societies for more information.

1981

Annual Fund Total: $86,650

Class Participation: 51.70%

President's Society

Donors of $50,000 or more

James F. Parker P'10*

David P. Rose*

Philander Chase Society

Donors of $10,000 to $24,999

Robert H. Dearborn P'11*

Clark S. Kinlin*

Brian D. Rance*

The Rev. Canon Mark K. J. Robinson P'12*

Bexley Society

Donors of $2,500 to $9,999

Jane W. Heiden*

Frederick S. Roffman*

Kenyon Society

Donors of $1 to $2,499

Barbara Ann Belovich*

Jonathan A. Bernstein P'10*

Mark A. Brown*

Hugh J. Burnstad

Margaret P. Calkins

R. Claiborne Capute*

Stuart W. H. Ching*

Stephen T. Coenen*

Wendy W. Cook P'11*

Suzanne W. Crable*

Leslie Dallas

Lori L. Dhiraprasiddhi*

Daniel O. Dietchweiler*

Adrienne S. Doobin

Elizabeth A. Dougherty

Katherine N. DuHamel

Wm. McPherson Durrett P'12*

Lilith Z. C. Fondulas*

Michele P. Fracasso*

Karin Franck-Larsson*

Barbara Frazer Franks*

Douglas Gertner Ph.D.*

Laura H. Gifford*

Randolph B. Gorman*

Mark S. Granger*

Clarence R. Grebey III*

Kerry Hall*

Philip N. Haselton*

Susan S. Hatcher

Catherine Hazlett*

Philip A. Hooker*

Samuel M. Howell*

David C. Hoyle

Susan J. Hudson P'19

Kaye Lynn Johnson

Andrew E. Katz MD P'10*

Janet R. Katz P'10*

David L. Kaufman

Richard I. Landau*

Susan Lawko Cuiffo*

Ronald J. Link

Kathleen S. Litchfield*

H. Gates Lloyd Jr.

Patricia D. Lynn*

Kathy Magan Smith

David L. Maloney

Maurice Y. Mongkuo

Rhonda Moore Bedall*

Margaret Morgan*

Andrew P. Newcombe*

Mary Louise O'Connell*

Susan Oakes P'18*

Peter M. Olson

Susan K. Orlady*

Betsi L. Orth

Lisa S. Palais*

Michael J. Pariano*

J. Jeffrey Pasquale*

Robert F. Phillips*

Brett M. Pierce*

Matthew P. Richey

William M. Rigger

Sue A. Robb*

Merrill Robinson Peterson (widow of Curtis A. Seichter '80)*

Jonathan B. Schulze*

Gregory P. Sesler P'10*

Donald L. Shupe Jr.*

Katherine Simonds Dhanani H'16*

Wells Smith

See A. Soon

Lenore J. Sprague*

Lisa Staffileno Laube P'16*

James H. Stueber*

Sandra P. Stueber*

Barbara Swank (widow of Michael A. Swank '80 P'12)*

Elizabeth G. Swartz

Richard B. Talbott*

David P. Thomas*

Nancy VandenBerg (widow of Peter H. VandenBerg '80)*

Peter White Jr., MD

Lisa C. Wood*

Urquhart A. Wood*

Daniel G. Zeiser*

George Wharton Mariott Society

These alumni have included Kenyon in their estate plans or have made other planned gifts.

Margaret C. Chapin and Rory P. Mach '82, P'14

Elizabeth A. Dougherty

Bruce A. Freeman

Douglas E. Page

James F. Parker and Julia Parker P'10

Robert B. Payne

Sue A. Robb

Mark K.J. Robinson

Kenyon College
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Kenyon Class of 1981 Fall Class Letter

Introducing the Lowry Center & Scholarship

Upcoming Virtual Events for Alumni

Reunion Committee

Class of 1981 Fall Notes

Class Listing