The BIG Five-0

Sandy Mckinley	• Hello Again, First Friends. Where did the last 5 years go! Seems like almost yesterday. Port Ludlow Washington seems quite slow, by comparison. I have been afflicted by some health issues that have left me unable to get around a golf course (bad legs) A characinoid cancer issue I have had for the past 7 years is expanding. I am not allowed to drive but that is a result of loss of memory...so I bring you not very much good news from Port Ludlow. I still can email and talk on the phone and offer quick responses (when I remember them) All kids and 15 grand kids are functioning. Wife, Maelyn, still works part time, she is well paid and they love her at work Lets hope we all make the next 5. Sandy
Michael Shays	• Michael & Nancy Shays are finding they are spending more time with their three married children and now five grandchildren while still holding down their consulting, coaching and public speaking activities. Retirement seems to evolve and allow us to expand into creative endeavors, like remodeling our church edifice, making furniture, landscaping, and writing. We are learning so many new things, like the music business from our eldest daughter's husband who toured with Sting last year and is now scoring the music for his third movie, or the building trades from our son in Hood River and our daughter and her husband in Seattle. We are surrounded by nice people. Life is good.
Jack Keese	• Ry, great to hear from you. I thought homework essay assignments were a thing of the past! The last 5 years are a very faint "blur". Many high points and a few low one's as well. Carol and I continue to enjoy the spring, summers and fall of Long Island's north shore located directly across the Sound from Darien in Cold Spring Harbor. We spend the winters in Jupiter, Fl. and see the Corbetts and the Palmers socially and on the golf course. We miss our constant 4th of the group, Jerry Nielsen who we lost on '04". Year round tennis and golf is an ideal "gig" and I hope the old "bod" continues to hold up. The last 10 years in Fla. I have had the pleasure of playing on our senior tennis team and the last 2 as playing captain. Our results have been mixed and in this period of winning being a must a contract extension is always in question. Since its a volunteer position and no one wants it I will probably retain it by default. We attended a few reunions during this 50th plus year milestone. An outstanding time in Wash. DC and San Diego attending reunions with classmates of my Marine officers candidate class. If you are ever in DC a must see is the new WWII Memorial and the Friday night (Spring, Summer, Fall) sunset parade at Headquarters Marine Corps. It will make your patriotism reach an all time high. Our 2 grandchildren (9) continue to grow like weeds and they live in Jupiter so we see them all winter. I'm trying to instill interest in tennis, but so far for Charlie its basketball and baseball. Emily may have some promise so the Williams sisters should be on alert. The one low point was the loss of our grandchildren's other 2 grandparents over a very short period of time. They were long time social friends of ours long before the kids were married. Summer is here and the Jupiter contingent will be here in July and we head out to Bridgehampton where we join our other daughter for 3 weeks. Always see the Gray's and the Meyers out there for a mini reunion. Hope all is well with the Class of "52" and my basic message is stay active and keep breathing. Jack
Susan Miller Hunt	• We have been here in Brunswick for 3 years and are now considering a move back to the Sherbor, MA area. We are beginning to look at homes there. We have a busy six months. Tom's only brother Bob died in March in N.H. He was 80. In April Tom developed some serious problems with his left hip and was diagnosed with osteoarthritis. He had an injection of cortisone which changed his discomfort and mobility for the best. His doctor advised no more competitive running. Joanie Streets and I stay in very close touch. She comes to visit and we enjoy her company. I also stay in touch with Eleanor Casperson Snow, Charlotte Lindsay and by mail Tricia Condon and Elaine Deran. I have been busy with my daughter and her family here in Brunswick and see my son and his family both here and in Litchfield CT where he lives. I sing in a Freeport Choral Group and take aerobic classes. My husband Tom volunteers for a Hospice Group, audits courses at Bowdoin College, reads constantly and puts up with me gallantly! Stay well and active-- `Susan`
Joan Broman Wright	• Your third communiqué and last chance alert for laggards was the final blow to my already feelings of guilt, so here is a bit of what I have been doing with myself. I have stayed busy doing some work for my college, tending the gardens, watercolor classes, volunteer work, tracing family genealogy and the usual tasks that keep a household running. Jim and I traveled to Cuernavaca, Mexico with Florida friends for a fun time at the home of Texas friends, and I have just returned from a wonderful trip to Holland and Belgium with my sister. Summer always brings a visit from our daughter and family and we now eagerly await their arrival. We cherish this time together. This year our time with our grandchildren will be limited, however, as Huntley, 11 years, is going to Chatham Hall to equestrian camp, and Helen, 9 years, will attend camp with emphasis on golf. What fun for them! Thank you, Ry, for persevering in the effort to keep us all in touch. Best to you and Suzy and to the Class of '52. Joan Broman Wright
Calvin Kendall Ellie Kent Kendall	• Dear Friends, Pack, unpack, and repack pretty much describes our yearly cycle. We are in the unpack phase now, having just arrived in Vermont at the family cabin for the summer and fall. Our son (from Madrid) with his two children will spend three weeks with us in August sailing, hiking, riding, drawing and making music, and putting on the annual Warren Square Dance. Our daughter is touring the Great Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway this summer. Though officially retired Calvin never leaves off working on his academic interests. His ongoing work on a translation of Bede's (8th century) Commentary on Genesis meant a trip to England to peruse 11th and 12th century manuscripts at Cambridge, Oxford, and London. Five years' work came to fruition when he received word that Liverpool University Press confirmed that it would publish his book in 2008. While Calvin was peeking into medieval manuscripts I was peeking under medieval misericords, the hinged shelf-like seats in choir stalls that allowed the monks to take a load off their feet during the long hours of the services they were expected to attend You wouldn't believe what the carvers carved there---everything from naughty to nice, classic to "crassic," biblical to bacchic! With our travel-while-you-can mindset we're in the midst of planning a trip to Sicily in November, something we've been wanting to do for years. Calvin and I send our best to you all, Ellie Kendall
Emmy Nichols Wharton	• There is nothing really new to recount about me. I've been in Stonington full-time now since 1975 after having been a weekender starting in 1971. Still serve on the boards of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and the Southeast Connecticut Committee on Foreign Relations. This winter, I've amused myself mightily by transcribing letters that I wrote my parents from Paris 1955-58, when I worked in the American Embassy. I wrote several times a week and told them everything -- or nearly everything -- every guy I dated, trips I took, the Embassy scene, right down to what I served at my first cocktail party! I now have about 125 typed, single-spaced pages of a virtual diary with about six months left to transcribe. I enjoy the occasional bridge game with Ann Kimball and frequently run into Wibby Ritchey's sister Linda Dohrman. Thank you so much, Ry, for keeping us all in touch. All the best, Emmy Nichols Wharton
T. K. Woods	• From Charlottesville, VA. Since The Reunion, my family has added 4 new members. A son-in-law and three grandchildren. Both sons-in-law are gainfully enough employed that my daughters can be, and are, full time mothers. Elizabeth and Tom Baker live in Lakeland FL with Maria Cooper Baker (11), Samuel Woods Baker (7) and T. K. Baker (3 1/2). Jeannie and Rob Livingston live in Seattle with Madeline Montgomery Livingston (2 1/2) and R. Will Livingston (10 mos.). The Seattle family is currently being mentored by Sandy and Maelyn McKinley. My golf handicap has become high enough to allow me to be competitive in events in which those sorts of numbers are factored in. The biggest change in my life, though, is a zero turn radius lawn mower. I maintain over 8 acres of lawn...and do so 30 times a year. That is the true definition of "an old goat." I try to buy most of my clothes at Sam's Club...but I do serve first class liquor in case anyone wants to stop by. Map Quest me at 2080 Arrowhead Farm LN, Charlottesville, VA 22903. T. K. to see pictures of TK's family
Dick Daniels	• Still working at J. P. Morgan in their asset mgt group responsible for east coast US and Latin America. Travel a lot and last month a week in Brazil and a week in Chile and Argentina. Don't know how much longer this will go on but still love it and enjoy working with "kids". Guess part of the reason is to bring home bread for Mari and my own kids, Ricardo now 8 and Sofia 6. However, there are signs I'm starting to slip as Ricky beat me in a one on one B ball game of HORSE this afternoon. Reminded me of all the times Ry used to whip me in the same game more than 50 years ago! Mari, the kids and I get out to Darien in the summer to see my sister Jill who still lives on 5 Mile River Rd and invites us to Wee Burn beach for lunch and swims where we sometimes see old friends like Scott Miller and Dukie Felt . Still pretty out there but doesn't really seem like the same Darien we grew up in. OK my Darien friends from our youthful days many years ago, got to get up and practice in the mirror my latest golf swing secret picked up watching the Open this afternoon so I can try it out on the range tomorrow morning. Probably won't work any better than the last 200 secrets I've had over the past 30 years. . Hope you are all happy. Dick
Ry Smith	• It's been a wonderful five years, mostly because it's been life as usual - our weekly movie, our weekly tennis games, our weekly luncheon date with each other, Sunday breakfast downtown with sinful pastries, regular walks in our adjacent open space. Are we in a rut? I suppose, but it's such a pleasant one. So you don't think we have become unbelievably boring, we have taken on two new internet projects. Kabubble.com, a site for having fun with your Grandkids and Pingxit.com a site for exploring great websites at random. Check them out. We've traveled some. A driving trip through Spain and Portugal, an Eastern junket for Ry's 50th Princeton Reunion, winter respites in Kauai, a driving trip to Alamos, a wonderfully remote colonial town in Mexico's Sierra Madres, and last summer, a glorious western junket to Jackson Hole to visit the Knoblocks and the Millers. Our grandkids grow and continually enchant us. Next year we will have a teen-ager in our midst. It's going by too fast. Suzy & Ry to see pictures of Suzy, Ry and Grandkids.
Elaine Deran Kilbourn	• Hi, I am working in the Darien Social Service/Health Dept located in the Town Hall (our former High School) and have been since 1986. My husband, Joe is still practicing law, for the past three years in Mt. Kisco, NY. We have five children, four are married and we have five grandchildren, ages, 20, 17, 2, 1 and 9 months. Our 20 year old grandson, a junior at Univ. of Louisiana in Lafayette, is in the ROTC there and has just signed up with the National Guard. Needless to say, we are very proud of him. Elaine Deran Kilbourn
Emmy Champion Knobloch	• Not much news from here. Carl had a couple of operations in April and is now fine, but, at our age, I don't think that qualifies as news. We go to Wyoming on May 25th for the summer and fall. We are going to the Arctic on a converted icebreaker in July so would have some interesting news after that. The trip will have biologists, global warming experts, and other scientific types so we hope to learn something. I have a new dog named Knobby who has a fine lineage from the Atlanta Humane Society. Fun but tiring to be in the dog business again. That's about all. Much love, Emmy
Doug Merkle	• In the summer of 2003, a week after our 1988 Taurus was rear-ended in a low-speed accident, Carol and I flew to Scotland for a delightful week of excursions from Sterling with a Cornell alumni group. We tried to surprise the Loch Ness Monster in his native habitat, but no luck. It was a wonderful trip. This past Memorial Day I gave a talk at the Panama City Garden Club, before the wreath-laying ceremony at their war memorial. I referred to a brief talk I gave as a Cub Scout on Memorial Day in Darien in 1946. Sitting next to me on the speakers' platform was retired Lt. General Leslie Groves, who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and later the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. When I looked up his biography in Wikipedia, I discovered a link to Darien, because Groves had retired to Darien after the war, although he didn't stay there very long. Check out the Darien link. It's quite interesting. Cheers, Doug
Tricia Alexander Condon	• Sorry to be so late in responding to your efforts to bring everyone up to date on the latest news. We have been very busy having a wonderful time here in Punta Gorda, Fl.. There is so much to do with so many great people, that we barely have time to catch our breath! Our "kids" think it's wonderful we are so occupied that we don't have time to harass them....just kidding. Boating, volunteering at the local Visual Art Center, socializing (Dick is Rear Commodore of the Isles Yacht Club), Art exhibit's, church, reading, etc. takes our minds off any physical infirmities we may have! Seriously, we are very blessed in every way. Life is good. Our best to all, Tricia
SOME OF THE FOLKS WE HAVEN'T HEARD FROM	Al Palmer, Kitty Benedict, Joanie Lambourne Streets, Anne Bogardus Kimball, Robin Gregg Worcester, Tony Potter, Peter Corbett, Scott Miller, Jan Meyer, Mary Davidson, Woody Grey, Ed King, Carter Walker,