President's Class Letters
​NOVEMBER 2022


Dear ‘55er,


Now that our lives are more nearly back to normal after surviving the Covid period of isolation and inactivity, we can look back at that period with gratitude for having brought us closer together by the creation of the class Zoom. Once again thanks to Win Petus Llosa for teaching us how to communicate in the 21st Century. I encourage those of you who have not yet participated to give it a try. It’s easy and it’s fun. I am always willing to help anyone one-on-one to get up to speed so you can join us.

True, we didn’t have our day in the sun at our anticipated 65th reunion, but we have managed to find new areas of connectivity and comradery which have kept us together through these turbulent times. Now we can all look forward to our 70th in 2025! It might actually be true that necessity is the mother of invention. Having a great crew of ‘55ers Zooming each month and enjoying each other wasn’t in our wildest dreams just a few years ago. But here we are, closer than ever, which is really quite amazing.

 Our monthly Zooms are recorded so even if you miss the event you can still view them by clicking the link on the website. And, another thing, even if you don’t have a computer or iPad or iPhone you can just dial in on your landline or cell and listen in to our monthly Zooms. We Zoom every third Tuesday of the month, except in December and during the summer, at 3:30 eastern time. Just give Wink a call (914) 393-5669 or email her joanripley@me.com and she’ll tell you the number to dial and the meeting number and password or set up a time to help you get started Zooming. There is nothing like Zooming to ensure that we are Staying Together.

Don’t forget too that our website is updated every single month with lots of information and news for your reading pleasure. There are pages for Campus News, Book Recommendations, Timely Articles about current events, Updated Class Notes, Funnies, Past Zooms, Pictures, Videos and many other pages you will enjoy. Thanks to Dee Lamb Barstow for proofreading it every month. www.mhc1955.homestead.com. 

Let us tell you about something else amazing. We only mention money once a year and never in our monthly website or Zooms. But we do have to tell you at least once a year how terrific ’55 is in supporting Mount 
Every active member of our class is a member of the Laurel Chain Society which honors the loyalty of donors who make gifts to the college. Remember, we had seven years of 100% participation! This year we topped all other classes by a whopping 14% which is quite remarkable! Our final numbers were $124,403.00 with 92% participation. Thank you, thank you once again for being number one! That’s how ’55 is really Making A Difference!

We are always looking for classmates to help lead our class. Consider this a permanent invitation…we’d love to have you help keep ’55 as engaged and energetic as possible. Just let me know and there will always be a place for you. Yes, we mean you. For instance, Sue Nutter Keller, true to form, was still having trouble gleaning info for our class notes from our reticent classmates. We think it comes from that saying “children shall be seen and not heard” from our youth. We have never been able to get over it. She asked and five classmates responded by becoming our own “Newshounds”. Weeszie Kugler Bush, Ruth Harberg DuBois, Ann (Tommy) Tomlinson Edmundson, Joan (Willie) Willenbrok Leonard and Joan Haskell Vicinus all stepped up to the plate and are assisting Sue in making our Class Notes timely and plentiful for all of us to enjoy. All news is appreciated, and our class notes are always the things we look at first when the Quarterly arrives. Since we are limited in space in the Quarterly our unabridged class notes are always available on our website and are updated every month. 

Birthdays are pretty special at our age, especially this year when most of us will be turning 90, and we try to contact everyone near their birthday. Those with an email get to see our current official MHC 1955 birthday card (which changes every year) and the others are called individually by our official birthday chair Joan Willenbrok Leonard who loves her job and does it so well. She tells us she has such fun talking to ‘55ers, and as Sue Nutter Keller told us in one of her “prompt replies”, “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.” Birthdays wishes certainly contribute to our mission of Having Fun!

Many of us are moving from our larger houses into CCRC’s or smaller places. When you are downsizing, please keep in mind that the Archives would love to have many of those memories you were about to toss out. Just remember to label everything you can remember. Contact Wink and she will insure it all gets to the right place.

Sadly, many of us are having health problems. It has been especially evident in this our 90th year. If any of you know of any classmates who are not doing well, we would encourage you to let us know. If you know of any classmates who have moved to nursing care because of health issues, we would also like to know so that they are not bothered by calls from class agents etc.

 As you can see from this letter we are still committed to ‘55’s Mission Statement: Staying Together, Having Fun and Making a Difference, so we encourage you all to stay connected to your old friends from the class of 1955. They are the best, and our history together makes those friendships very special.


Wink joanripley@me.com 914-393-5669


P. S. If anyone has any information about the following classmates or knows how to get in touch with them or one of their children, we would appreciate knowing.

Nancy Ely
Betsy Andrews



President                 Joan Winkel Ripley914-393-5669joanripley@me.com

Vice President        Nancy Nutting Lane203-536-2660nancynlane@gmail.com

Vice President        Sylvia Johnson Lucas860-223-4780swlill@aol.com

Treasurer                Jane Barth610-724-3437jabar8466@aol.com

Scribe                      Sue Nutter Keller207-633-5797hen19sue33@gmail.com

Scribe                      Sue Eckert Smith201-952-5550sue.eckert.smith@gmail.com

At-Large                  Joan Willenbrok Leonard781-254-7454joanleonard333@icloud.com

At-Large                  M C Bachmann Churchill917-848-1701mcchurchill@gmail.com