Walter Andrews had a difficult year health-wise but is back in relative good health and has been busy playing golf, running, and playing tennis. Walter still runs his “digital humanities” undergraduate research project at the University of Washington, which employs about 15 undergraduates from humanities, social sciences, and technology disciplines. He is also still teaching children and writing curriculum for the Unitarian Church.
Don Drew turned 80 and is enjoying life. He did most of his world travelling before age 40, including living for extended periods in Cambridge, England and Vienna, and now is happily living with his “wonderful, understanding and patient” wife Paula in Adelaide, Australia. He wishes all the best to his classmates in the Class of ’57!
Dutton Foster spent two weeks in southwest England visiting friends, including a former SPA AFS student from 1969-70 who lived with the Shepard family and graduated from SPA. Dutton and wife Caroline ’60 loved the English countryside and small towns. Back in the States, Dutton and Caroline are back to their usual activities: making art and music, enjoying theater and concerts, volunteering here and there, and visiting and Skyping with their children.
Ruth Huss and husband John took a trip through the Northwest Passage, beginning in Greenland where they boarded a ship to Nome. After stops at several Greenland villages, they sailed west, spotting polar bears and whales, but a third of the way through the trip, the ship was “stopped” by the ice and Ruth and John spent the week’s delay wandering around the ship and enjoying lots of good food and wine. They were eventually sent back to Greenland to board a charter plane back to the US. “It was a great adventure, but I still want to see Nome!” Ruth says.
Tuck Langland and his wife completed their 48th trip to Europe and traveled home on the Queen Mary II. Tuck is happily retired but works in his studio every day, and in the last year unveiled a large sculpture of Father Hesburgh (long time president of Notre Dame) linking arms and singing with Martin Luther King. He recently received a prize in a national sculpture show, and was awarded the Outstanding Alumnus award from the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. He has also been writing, and has recently completed a collection of fables called Fifty Fables for Fun, Fantasy and Filosophy and is working on a sequel, Fifty Further Fables; he is also the author of Hannah, a novel about the old west with a feisty heroine. He has two daughters, one of whom is an immigration lawyer in Washington state and the other is a professor at the University of Michigan.
Tom Milton recently published his 14th and 15th novels, The Godmother and The Last Resort. He continues teaching full time at Mercy College in New York.
Sandi Mundy Irvine-Pirtle lives in Nashville but misses Minnesota! She has one grandson, Shane and his wife still there, but her daughter CeCe and Hod Irvine and son Julian moved to British Columbia two years ago. Her daughter Tara still lives in McKinney, Texas and is flying all over the world with Delta. Sandi is sorry she missed the 2018 reunion but plans to be there for 2019 and more if she can make it! She still keeps up with the theater and also stays busy in Nashville, and spends the winter months in Boca Raton.
Grant Nelson is Professor Emeritus at three law schools—the University of Missouri-Columbia, UCLA, and Pepperdine, representing a total of 50 years of teaching. He is still teaching one course at UCLA. The Nelsons spend significant time with grandchildren—three in Tacoma and three in Los Angeles.
Marna Page and husband Bob are politically active, working to support House candidates in California and a few out-of-state candidates.
John Ratigan and his partner Barbara recently went on a two-week venture into Louisiana, Mississippi, and Memphis, which began with a train ride from DC to New Orleans and ended with a tour of Elvis’s Graceland. He is now looking for a good gumbo recipe.
Patsy Spadavecchia continues to manage her house on an island off of Sicily (Salina), an apartment in Florence, and her beloved loft in New York not far from Washington Square Park where she can do “the Little Old Lady thing” and watch break dancers and listen to jazz groups. She also recently had a hip replacement. She encourages classmates to stop in whenever in Italy.
Susan Ward had an Eastern European trip planned for last fall, as well as her annual week in Key West. She always looks forward to seeing classmates from Summit and SPA.
Ellen Widmer is still teaching at Wellesley College and living in Cambridge. She keeps up with all things Minnesota, including politics and the symphony, and hopes to visit again sometime soon.