Stephen Stonehouse: Well, certainly a crazy year but with face time I have stayed in touch with my 96 year old mother who still remembers dancing at parents weekend at Kenyon. Also speak regularly with daughter Olivia ’15 who is doing a vet med residence at U. Penn equine hospital outside Philly. The in-class teaching of the naturalist program and Reading Partner has gone virtual which is not as much fun as a room full of third graders but I hope to return to open classes soon. Nice living in Socal and near the beach for plenty of outdoors activity with wife Gail and golden retriever Lucca. Be well everyone.
William Scar: These are the years when we are most likely to look for old classmates with whom to reconnect. Physical reunions are difficult, even under the best of circumstances, which have certainly not been recently available. Virtual contact in various ways seems to meet much of the need we feel, whether or not it is rational. My high school class just stumbled into an issue or two that has brought over 300 people into an email thread that has opened both minds and hearts, and stirred a bit of old romance. But there remains some lingering trepidation about such endeavors, and folks may hold back for reasons that perhaps deserve careful personal consideration. What have we got to lose? Have we not achieved the success we promised ourselves? For me this particular journey was further prompted by the death of my wife last year, after a long and horrible illness. I don’t have any other “family” remaining, so connecting with the oldest friends has begun to restore more aspects of my identity. This is not about the supposed accomplishments of our lives...this is about looking in an unclouded mirror and not being afraid of what you will see. And what do we have to lose? I invite any contact that seems appropriate. I am happily situated in the horse country of Aiken, SC, a town about the size of Mt Vernon. My sentiments chose a Mt. Vernon over anything that remotely resembled Boston.
Art Stroyd: Art and Debbie Stroyd enjoyed catching up with Ann (Carter) and Barry Tatgenhorst over dinner in Coral Gables Florida after having been locked down for too many months. All are healthy, happy and anxious to resume their travel schedules - and to reconvene a Deke Reunion in the coming year.
Stephen Carmichael was selected as the Honored Member for 2020 by the American Association of Clinical Anatomists.
Ron Javorcky reports that he has been accepted into the artist pool of Los Angeles County Metro transportation as a fine-art photographer. In music, alas, jazz musicians, among others, are simply not working. He therefore plays to an audience of one--himself.
Michael Ulrey: Every difficult situation has its silver lining, and a current example is the availability of many fantastic online presentations, talks, and discussions by the Kenyon administration, faculty, students, alumni, and invited speakers. Recent highlights for me have been President Decatur's alumni town halls, Kenyon's own Daniel Epstein's ’70 readings of his poetry in English and also in Italian by Simone Dubrovic, the Political Science department's panel discussion of the non-peaceful transition of power this year, which included contributions from James Ceaser '67 H'02, and two wonderful talks by invited speaker Francis Su about Mathematics for Human Flourishing. Yes I was a math major, but his book of the same title makes great reading for anyone interested in how humans meet their artistic and creative needs. I recommend ordering a copy.
Nathan Parker: Hello Classmates, We have been in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island Fla. since October. My wife has been having monthly Zoom cocktail parties with her college classmates from Tulane - I suppose if you go to college in New Orleans, the party never ends even with Covid all around. Maybe some of our tech savvy classmates can set something like this up. It would be fun to connect more with each other!
So we head back to NYC in a couple of weeks - my wife does art and I am trying to start a company to provide services to school districts that serve children from low income families - trying to retrieve all the lost talent by giving these children the same opportunities middle and high income kids have.
Markham Stevenson and Mary-Lou Morassut are visiting daughter Margo and son-in-law Raghav Modh in Toronto to help with new twins boy, Rowan, and girl, Anya born Feb. 9, our first grandkids. Everyone is doing well.
David Vaughn says he and the family have relocated to Topham, Maine. They volunteer in a therapeutic riding program. They also spend time volunteering with an organization that trains Veterans that are disabled with PTS or TBI to manage and train their service dogs.
Charlie Schwarzbeck: Charlie says that he and wife Chandra are in their fourth year of residence in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. They have finished their house and casitas (whatever they are). Chandra continues her work in marketing, and Charlie is busy around the ranch. They have a seventeen year old, Nicholas, who attends the JFK American School where he is a tenth grader. Charlie would welcome visits from Kenyon friends.
Ed Forrest: Ed is asking if anyone has contact with Mike O'Brien ’68. If so, you might get in touch with Ed. He has also expressed some concern and disappointment (which I have also heard from others) about the apparent socio-political inclinations of the faculty and administration of our beloved College and its impact (if any) on the student body. Ed values the acceptance of differing social opinions and intellectual exchange, which we suppose should be cherished at our beloved alma mater.
Mayor Larry Schmidlap: The Mayor relates that he and his family are safe and sound not-withstanding the Covid Virus. He's had his shots!! His son, also Larry, was married in September. Apparently, the Mayor's domain, (Center Island, New York, just across the channel from Manhattan) has instituted some new ordinances that impact travel on horseback. So if you are visiting, be sure to check the city ordinances before mounting up.
Rick Freeman: Rick says he is enjoying good health and still practicing law at what he describes as a "low ebb." He says he shares "locked in time" (which is apparently a reference to the Virus) with his sweet wife, Noreen. He's also busy reading all the great books that he lied about reading as an undergraduate. Especially Dickens, says Rick.
