Hood College- Navigation, Summer 2009 - 36

W W W.HOOD.EDU family—daughter Betsy, who was married in October to a great guy, and her wonderful 6-year-old granddaughter Kayla. They all look forward to a new baby in September. Susan volunteers at a Ten Thousand Villages shop supporting artisans in Third World countries. Sunny Grifﬁn was in a very serious auto accident in Thailand in November. Her back was broken in three places and she had multiple fractures in her neck. She wrote, “I was lucky to survive. Five months later, after surgery to put screws and a cable in my spinal cord, I am still in a big brace but by the time this comes out I expect to be totally recovered.” Patricia “Pem” Merrill was injured at work in December 2001 and had her fourth back surgery a year ago. She wrote, “I am now a ‘bionic woman.’ I have metal, titanium, screws, electrodes, wires and a minicomputer implanted in my spinal column and hip. I have a remote control which allows me to adjust electrical impulses to my brain to ‘turn off’ the pain response in various parts of my back, legs and feet. The implanted computer is battery operated and rechargeable. Every four to ﬁve days I strap on a belt with a sensor place over the area of my hip where the battery is and wait for the recharging to take place. Complete recharge takes up to ﬁve hours. This, and other miracles of modern medicine, has enabled me to walk and move about pretty normally in spite of all the damage to my spine.” She has lived in California since 1968. Ann Holmes Flatt and JP went skiing in Utah in March with Rusty Papst Hougland and her husband. They enjoyed a wonderful week of good company, old memories and good sightseeing. Jean Lenhart Golden shared very sad news that her husband John passed away in February. He was diagnosed of pancreatic cancer only two weeks before he died on his 69th birthday. Mike Hugo came from Maine to New York for his “Celebration of Life” worship service but Teal West Hugo was in West Virginia settling family business following the death of her aunt and couldn’t make it. Mike and John had become very close friends over the years and the four of them enjoyed many summertime activities together. Jean’s two sons, Jamie and Rob, and their families have been towers of strength for her. The boys were able to spend almost a week with their dad before he died. Jean is thankful for her friends, family and church, who have been overwhelmingly supportive in every possible way. Mary Alice Chieppo Wolf teaches gerontology at Saint Joseph College in Connecticut. She sent the sad news that Linda Klein Champlin passed away Nov. 12, 2007. Linda transferred to Barnard College after sophomore year, graduated, and later received a law degree from the Univ. of Pennsylvania. She was a professor at Hofstra Univ. Law School. Our sympathy also to the family of Margareta Tegnemark Engstrom who died March 28, 2009. Participation: 31.85% Total Class Dollars: $20,388 Dorothy Snyder Engle 204 Linden Blvd. Middletown, MD 21769 (301) 371-5170 dengle3699@aol.com Jo Ann Twilley Plichta M.A. ’86 43 Consett Place Frederick, MD 21703 (301) 360-9623 I certainly hope you enjoyed our last column as much as I enjoyed writing it. Here are more classmates I (Dottie Snyder Engle) heard from. Pat Taylor Santelli’s son graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and will be attending the Nuclear Power School in Charleston, S.C. for six months. As you know, President Obama gave the address and shook every graduate’s hand. Senator McCain, whose son Jack also graduated, sat three rows away. Pat, like the rest of us, is preparing for her 50th high school reunion. Ann Connell Whitehouse, who left Hood in 1961, reports from Oregon that her time is spent babysitting some grandsons and taking an active part in several 12-step fellowships. One daughter lives near her in Oregon and the other in Pennsylvania. I was so excited (doesn’t take much at my age) to ﬁnd Pat Langan Cook. I was talking to a high school mate who mentioned that he had to call a Jack Cook and I asked if his wife’s name was Pat. She didn’t know she was on our “lost” list. Pat, who majored in home economics, took another career path and has recently retired as a manager for a number of aquatic clubs in Fairfax, Va. She and Jack are working hard on visiting all 50 states and the seven continents. Their recent trips have been to Egypt, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. When closer to home they try to keep up with their 12 grandchildren. Pat says she’s sorry she missed our last reunion. Janet Feick Burmester, “now stuck in D.C. due to health problems,” has had a lot of interesting experiences after earning her graduate degree from Princeton. She has traveled to many places around the world due to husband Sven’s job with the World Bank, from which he is now retired. Sven writes books and newspaper articles, and does TV interviews and lectures on globalization in Denmark. He also spends a lot of time in the Middle East and China. They lived in Egypt from 1992 to 1995, opening the World Bank Mission. Currently Sven is in China working with a reproduction institute. Janet has done a lot of volunteer work, notably with the League of Women Voters involving free trade position. She is happy to have her two children close, a daughter who is a tax lawyer and a son who works for the Energy Information Systems. Janet says her life revolves around meeting up with Sven for a “honeymoon,” the last one being a rail trip through northern Japan which she describes as “lovely.” Tobi Weintraub Bloomberg is employed at Service Coordination, an advocacy and monitoring agency for people with developmental disabilities that sometimes takes her to a Frederick far different than the one she left in 1963. Tobi has a son who has two children and lives in Southern California. Her other son lives in Baltimore and also has two children. Tobi’s goal is to retire to her condo in Ocean City. She reports that the sadness for her is that her wonderful husband took his life in 2001 but she is supported by many friends who have suffered the same tragedy. She would be willing to talk to anyone who wants to discuss suicide. Pat Pinto Tawes reports that she retired from their hardware store to help take care of her mother who passed away in October at the age of 92. Our condolences, Pat. Crisﬁeld is hard hit by the bad economy so the Tawes hardware store closed and Pat’s husband has taken a job working on a tug boat, something he really enjoys. Pat is an amateur photographer who frequently ﬁnds interesting subjects right outside her window. She has even sold some of her shots of local scenes. Here’s the news from Sue Colton Gibbons. She helped start a nonproﬁt in Philadelphia to support children. They have a teen program that meets ﬁve days a week after school. Normally less than 4 percent of these teens would go to college but so far, 100 percent of these young people have been accepted and continue to be monitored. For younger children, extracurricular subjects not offered in school—such as pottery, art, reading clubs and physical education—are offered. Schools there have eliminated the “extras” and Sue’s group has made progress in ﬁve elementary schools and three high schools to get back some programs in music, art and sports. The volunteers work in schools, in after-school programs and as advocates for families that have no voice. Thanks, Sue, for helping ﬁll the gap caused by “No Child Left Behind.” Our condolences to Susan Fowler O’Brien whose husband David died Sept. 5, 2008, in New Milford, Conn. As for me, Dottie Snyder Engle, I am up to the same old “helping people,” mostly older ones; and meeting deadlines. Ron and I took 13 days driving to Florida and visiting a lot of friends and ﬁnally going to Disney and the Kennedy Space Center. This summer we will be entertaining a family of three from Australia whom we met last year on our tour in Europe; and later our exchange student from Denmark—now living in London—who is coming for his 20th high school reunion. Thanks to all those who responded to my calls and e-mails. I hope I didn’t misquote anyone. I urge everyone to e-mail me, especially to update me on any changes and to give me your e-mail address if you think I don’t have it. Put something about Hood in the subject box so it won’t go to spam.

Hood College- Navigation, Summer 2009

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