70TH-REIUNION-PAGE

NEW 70TH REUNION PAGE

REMEMBER WHEN WE LOOKED LIKE THIS?

Well it's time for a new image!

Who is Planning on Being There????

(If All is Well?)

Who Knows They Can't?

Anne Riker Butterick

Jan Curtis Green

Barbara Garland Clinkenbeard

Nancy Boardway

Carol Comly Orvis

Ruth Harberg Dubois

Jean Bryant Campbell

Carol Monnick Huth

Pat Stevenson Coulter

Joan Stauffer Sowers

Beryl H. Smith Naviarsky

Elizabeth Bergamini Lucas

Polly Laszlo Brody

Judy Clarke Johanson

Pat Stevenson Coulter

Who Wants to but Doesn't Know Yet?

Joan Willenbrok Leonard

Joan Wharton Witkin

Bernice Siman Wolk

Ann Austiin Mazlish

Jan McIntosh Carreau

HERE'S THE REALLY GOOD NEWS!

IT'S FREE!

YES YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY!

THE COLLEGE IS PAYING FOR EVERYTHING FROM FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY FOR ALL CLASSMATES

We will have to get ourselves there as transportation costs are not included, but no one should worry about $ because we have scholarship $ available for anyone that feels they can't pay their transportation cost.

We want you there!

Ellie Graham Claus is our Reunion Chair

and so far

Jane Barth, Sue Nutter Keller, Sylvia Johnson Lucas, Nancy Nutting Lane, Joan Willenbrok Leonard and Wink

are signed up to help.

But we want all of you involved. So email Ellie at egclaus@comcast.net and offer to help.The College really treats us well and does all the hard work, so our input is really just cerebral, and we know you're all good at that.

REMEMBER...

email Ellie at egclaus@comcast.net and offer to help.

There will be NO HEAVY LIFTING!

Until Our Next REUNION!

So far...

Wink

Ellie Graham Claus

Jane Barth

Sue Nutter Keller

Nancy Nutting Lane

Sylvia Johnson Lucas

Julie Shea Towell

Mary Lou Judd Carpenter

Peggy Henry Weeks

Lois Gaeta Baker

Mac Croft Osborne

Pam Moody Harkins

Barbara Mulvehill Gray

Jan Williams Libby

Mary Carey Bachmann Churchill

Judy Vernon

Win Petus Losa

Sue Eckert Smith

Barbara Suchman Kasman

Joan Haskell Vicinus

Mollie Hibbard

Dee Lamb Barstow

Tommy Tomlinson Edmondson

Sallie Barr Palmer

Debby Walsh Kennedy

Gay DeLong Goodheart

Weezie Kugler Bush

Nancy Schuster Hanson

Ada Ball Liggett

Diana Alexanian Jalelian

Alice Czyz

Chirpy Wesseler Monroe

That's 32 & counting!

We'll be staying at Willets with our own bathrooms!

(There goes that worry!)

And all of our meals will also be in Willets.

We'll have a bus tour of the campus with students guides and time to talk to them about life on campus in 2025.

Our Honoraries will join us for meals and social hours

and it will be

FUN, FUN FUN!

My countdown

DONATIONS TO THE ARCHIVES

We're all in the process of "cleaning out stuff" so this is the perfect time to think about sending some of it to

The Mount Holyoke Archives!

Archives and Special Collections collects the papers and other records of individuals, institutions, and organizations connected with Mount Holyoke College. Archives and Special Collections also collects rare books related to a wide variety of areas, fields, and disciplines. All of these materials are maintained as primary resources for teaching and research conducted by students, faculty, and other users.

Archives and Special Collections has been shaped and strengthened through the generosity of thousands of individuals who have supported it through the decades. The rich and diverse collections are the result of the thought and effort of generations of loyal alumnae, faculty, librarians, archivists, and friends of Mount Holyoke.

We welcome donations of collections or of single items that directly support or complement the historic collections.

The first step in making a donation is to contact Deborah Richards, head of Archives and Special Collections. She looks forward to discussing what materials you have.

Donating archives

The manuscript collections document the academic, administrative, and social history of Mount Holyoke College through the letters, diaries, photographs, scrapbooks, and course materials of faculty, staff, and students.

Each year, these collections are consulted by thousands of researchers from around the world. With the donation of each new collection, we are able to increase the breadth and depth of our resources to better serve the educational needs of the College and of scholars who are drawn to our collections due to Mount Holyoke's prominent place in the history of women's education. Each donation helps to enlarge the documentation of not only the effect of Mount Holyoke on the world but the effect of individuals on the institution itself.

Below are lists of some types of materials that Archives and Special Collections collects. Please note that these lists are not definitive; there may be other types of documents or records that may have continuing research value. Printed and digital materials are welcome.

Personal papers

ocorrespondence

odiaries and journals

oscrapbooks

ophotographs

oMHC course syllabi

obiographical information

oaudio/visual recordings

Institutional and organization records, including class years and student organizations

oarticles of incorporation

oby-laws

oannual reports

oclass histories

ocorrespondence

oevent flyers and programs

omeeting minutes

ophotographs

oplanning documents

opress releases

opublications

oaudio/visual recordings

Donating rare books

The Rare Books collection serves as a primary resource for teaching and research conducted by students, faculty and other researchers. Donations to this collection, or monetary donations for the purchase of rare books, help us to increase the breadth and depth of our collections and allow us to better support the curricular needs of the College.

The Archives and Special Collections main rare book collections include books written specifically for girl readers between 1830 and 1970; American history; illustrated editions of Dante Alighieri's Divina commedia; 19th-century books that are known to have been used in the courses of study at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary; rare children's books; published works related to the Collège de 'pataphysique; Renaissance science books; and fine press books. Because our collections cover more than these main areas, gifts of books will be considered on an individual basis.

DONATIONS (NOT MONEY THIS TIME!!!)

SOME FACTS...PLUS OR MINUS A FEW!

In September, 1951, when we entered Mount Holyoke, the Class of 1955 numbered 331. Their biggest class so far.

In 1955 271 of us graduated. Lots got married over the years and had to leave as I'm sure you all remember. Currently at the end of 2024, 98 of us remain.

Now, so far, 322 of us (that’s almost 30%!) plan to attend our 70th reunion, May 23-25, 2025. We're reaching out to contact everyone to hear their plans.

MARY LOU JUDD CARPENTER

NANCY SCHUSTER HANSON

JOAN WINKEL RIPLEY

ELEANOR GRAHAM CLAUS

SYLVIA JOHNSON LUCAS

DEE LAMB BARSTOW

BARBARA SUCHMAN KASMAN

PAM MOODY HARKINS

DEBBIE WALSH KENNEDY

NANCY NUTTING LANE

ANN TOMLINSON EDMONDSON

MARY CAREY BACHMANN CHURCHILL

SUSAN NUTTER KELLER

JANE BARTH

MARY ANNE CROFT OSBORNE

ALICE CZYZ

SALI BARR PALMER

ALREADY REGISTERED WITH A BED RESERVED!

February 19, 2025

Dear ‘55er,

You should have now received your registration letter for our 70th from the college and the Reunion Committee’s letter that was sent in the same envelope. Today’s email is an information report from your committee that we hope will be helpful.

First and foremost, Sue Nutter Keller has volunteered to be our reunion information expert…bless her. She is your contact for any questions you may have about our 70th. We know you’ll have questions and we’re ready to help.

Sue Nutter Keller

Cell 908-795-1647

Emailhen19sue33@gmail.com

If she doesn’t know immediately she will find out and get back to you.

We know many of you would like to be with us, but we all are a bit diminished since our college days, and health issues have raised their ugly heads. Many of us will be clutching our walkers and canes as we travel the campus. We will have transportation everywhere, but we still do need to get in and out of the transport!

But just because you can’t be physically present with us doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy our 70th We are determined to make this as interactive and inclusive as possible.

Thanks to Dee’s brilliant idea we have arranged for all of our programs and Honoraries’ Presentations by Vinnie, and Edwina after dinner to be available on Zoom, so you won’t miss anything! Our main program, an update of Uncommon Women – Generations Apart led by Eleanor will also be Zoomed. Unfortunately, you will not be able to contribute to the conversation, but you can enjoy the conversation and see how wonderful we all look for 90 + year olds!

We need an updated photo of you. You can send it in snail mail or by email, but we plan to have graduation pictures and current pictures for all of us.

And there is another very important way that you can participate in our 70th and we are counting on all of you!

To commemorate this distinctive reunion, we are planning to give everyone that contributes to our idea a gift that we hope will be meaningful for you, your kids and grandkids and the college archives.

Information about our Storyworth Book Project is explained in the enclosed letter. Now it is time to finish the story. As you can see, we will be creating a folio with remembrances from all of you.

We also need your ideas. Many heads are certainly better than eight heads especially when they are Mount Holyoke Alums! What have we missed? What additionally can we do to help you enjoy our reunion? This is probably our Last Hurrah folks so we’re trying to go ALL OUT!

You can email me anytime at joanripley@me.com or we could set up a phone date as we want as much input as possible. This reunion belongs to The Class of 1955

Wink, Ellie, Dee, Sylvia, Willie, Nancy, Sue, M.C. & Jane

P.S. Since we don’t know who actually uses their email addresses, we will be sending this by both email and snail mail. If you don’t need to receive a snail mail copy, please hit reply and let us know.

IMPORTANT: Please let us know ASAP if you are planning to attend Reunion, definitely not coming, or undecided. You can change your registration up to the last day…remember it is FREE.

We also need a Backup Contact’s Relationship, Cell Phone and email for everyone in our class whether you are coming to Reunion or not. This will not be shared with anyone, even the college. It’s just for 1955, but we’re beginning to lose tract of some of our friends and that’s disturbing.

Hit reply NOW BEFORE YOU FORGET!!!!!! And send in your picture too.

LETTERS ABOUT REUNION SENT TO '55ERS

February 17, 2025

Dear ‘55ers,

As I write this, we have 95 days, 19 hours, I9 minute and 11 seconds until our long awaited 70th Reunion, and time’s flying by! Soon many of us will be stepping back on campus and remembering….

Remembering the good times, and yes, of course the times that were perhaps not so great, when papers were due and blue books were on the horizon.

Remembering is the key word here.

As we wrote you, we want all of you to be a part of our 70th Reunion even though some of you can’t be physically present on campus. Our programs will be Zoomed so you can watch them too. And most importantly we want your thoughts and your words to be included in this event. Our goal is to make this Reunion as interactive and inclusive as possible.

We are counting on you to do your part by contributing to our 70th Reunion Book. This will not be our usual type of Reunion Book. We hope it will be much more meaningful to both you, your family and The Mount Holyoke Archives.

Perhaps you remember that a few years ago we had some Storyworth prompts on our website, and we started remembering. Now it’s time to finish the story. We will be creating a folio with remembrances from all of you about all of you.

The world is a very different place than the innocent time when we first entered Mount Holyoke’s Gates. Our grandchildren and great grandchildren have no idea what life was like back in the day. Would they be interested in knowing? We think so!

We have a good start with several entries from a few years ago when there were originally seven prompts. We will be using all these entries as well as

adding five more new prompts. Naturally we would like everyone to answer them all, but we are realistic. Some will be much more appealing and easier for you to write about. They can be as long or as short as you like. It is all up to you…the author.

We also need an updated photo of you. You can email it to joanripley@me.com (with maybe a little help from those grandkids) or snail mail it to Joan Ripley, 6 Fox Den Rd. Mount Kisco, NY 10549. But please do it.

Attached is the complete set of 12 Storyworth Prompts we will be using for our book, along with a few examples of some short entries to give you an idea of what we’re after. We hope you will write more rather than less.

As you can see by the opening of this letter, we don’t have much time left, because we still have to assemble the book after we receive your prose and your pictures. That means…

1.Start writing NOW

2.Find a picture

3.Once again, send the material in via email or snail mail to:

Joan RipleyJoanripley@me.com

6 Fox Den Rd

Mount Kisco, NY 10549 Questions: 914-393-5669

And if you haven’t yet sent in your backup contact information, please include it.

We hope all of us, and our families, will enjoy these stories and the history that surrounds them.

Everyone who contributes entries for the book will receive a book. We’re looking forward to reading them all.

All material must be submitted by April 15th.

But the sooner…the better!

Some short examples of answers to our first six prompts.

Prompts for our Storyworth 1955 Project

#1What do you remember about your very first day at Mount Holyoke?

Confusion, do I have the right things sent from Oklahoma to furnish my single room? NO! Pleased to have a single as I am a light sleeper! Thrilled at seeing the mature trees and vintage architecture around the campus, so different from where I come from! Also thrilled to think the intellectual atmosphere here is heady, no boys to put their hands up FIRST to answer the teacher’s questions. IT IS UP to US gals!

#2Tell us about some of the most fun things or happy times you remember about college.

Sneaking into the sculpture gallery one night with a small group of Art Majors and clothing the sculptures. Playing “who am I” to study for blue book exams. Sledding on borrowed cookie trays…

#3What unexpected occurrences do you recall encountering while at MHC?

Mostly everything was unexpected in some way -- it was the first time I'd ever lived away from home But one of the most exciting discoveries I made was --- PIZZA. I had never had pizza, or even seen one, before some of my classmates introduced me to this exotic dish. And I still like it today!

#4What teacher or teachers influenced you the most and why?

Mr. Rox and his splendid art course had a major influence on me. Whenever I go to the Met and view the paintings of the little Dutch painters particularly, Vermeer, I remember Mr. Rox pointing out that the light always comes from the left, and illuminates the clothing, face, hands, etc. of the subject. I look at Titian, and the hues of red, rose, rusty red in the cloaks and drapes of the subject and remember Mr. Rox. I could go on and on. Whenever I hear Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony I think of Mr. Leedy.

#5What were your friends like at Mount Holyoke?

The few close friends I made at Holyoke remain very special to me. But while thinking about college friends it struck me that over the years whenever I came in contact with a classmate, whether I remembered her well or not, there was always a certain bond. I think that affinity is what makes Mount Holyoke in general, and our class in particular, so unique.

#6What were your favorite movies when you were in high school or college and what do

you remember about them?

I remember Rear Window and The African Queen well. My husband and I watched them both, among many others, during the pandemic lockdown. But the one movie that really stands out is Kind Hearts and Coronets. I was so entranced with my date that evening that it was years later when I finally realized that Alec Guiness played all of the parts. P.S. I married my date of that evening and yes, we did watch it together again last winter.

#7. Why did you pick your major, and if you could do it over again,

would you pick it again? Why or why not?

#8. What were your political leanings back in the 50’s? Are they the same now?

#9. Would you choose a woman’s college if you were about to enter college? Why

#10. What are you learning from the next generations? Children?, Grandchildren?, etc.

# 11 What best describes you now and what best described you when you were in college?

You don't have to answer them all if you don't want to. Just pick a few that interest you and start composing.

It will bring back memories you haven't thought of in a long time and at the same time make a contribution to Mount Holyoke and a lasting memory for your family.