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40 | Bob Schuyler sent me news that Esther Button Murphy died in November 2004. I can't add to his news except to say I remember her in Home Ec classes. You can write to her husband Stanley at 1046 State Route 80, Tully, NY 13159-9739. Robert Knowlton is a church trustee. He also enjoys playing golf and doing other community activities. Frederick Beardsley, MD '43, lives in Storrs, CT. He is retired and enjoys travel, photography, and fly-fishing. He traveled to Italy, Austria, and Budapest in June 2001.

Elizabeth Muenscher De Velbiss lives in Berkeley, CA. Her principal volunteer activity is a weekly program for people with Alzheimer's disease and related conditions. She attended CAU in July with sister Joanne Muenscher Droppers '53. "We visited the herbarium and saw plant specimens collected by our father W.C.Muenscher, PhD '21, a member of the Botany dept. until his retirement.Visited in St. Albans, England, for two weeks in August with son, daughters, son-in-law, and the two grandsons. Mary Durfey Hewitt lives in a Kendal community in New Hampshire, where she works in the gift shop. She organized the third annual dog show of all dogs living at Kendal, though she says it was definitely not in a league with Westminster dog shows. She also keeps busy with her love of reading. Her son Mark '82 is the registrar at Brandeis U. His wife is a lawyer in Boston. I received a fun note from Ruth Buffum Schoenacker, who lives in Waterloo, NY.

Natalie Gavrin Nixon, MA '41, retired from being a supervisor, consultant, and teacher of clinical social work in 1995. In 1997 she and husband Charles, PhD '47, moved to Tamalpais, a retirement community in Marin County, CA, north of the Golden Gate Bridge. They are busier than ever, as she was president of the residence association. Add to this good friends, home, and the music theater and museums of the San Francisco area. Priscilla Coffin Baxter moved in early January to a retirement community called Stoneridge, only four miles from her former home in Mystic, CT. She was looking forward to reunion in June.

Benjamin Kellogg lives in Nanticoke, PA. "We had the tennis courts re-surfaced on the playground that several of us built for the city--the finest in the county."He organizes the Thanksgiving and Christmas parties for youngsters and members of the playground committee. He was involved in the enlarging of the Sigma Pi house and parking area in conjunction with Cornell's project McGraw Place. He hopes to keep going to football games, especially Homecoming.-- Carol Clark Petrie, Box 8, Hartford, NY 12838; tel., (518) 632-5237; e-mail, floydharwood@juno.com.

41 | Spring is coming to Ithaca as I write this column. I'm sure all of you remember the campus and town all decked out in forsythia,magnolias, and spring flowers. Thanks to so many of you who sent in news so we can have a column again. Helen Hilbert Peterson of Meadville, PA, has spent a year and a half at the assisted living facility she moved to from Corning, NY. She is now near her younger daughter and family. Happily she is still physically active and able to take part in many activities. Martha Pound Steele lives in Haverford, PA. Her husband Joe '39 died in December 2004. Elsbeth Hartman Button and husband Thomas live in Brooksville, FL. Tom still plays golf and Elsbeth plays duplicate bridge.

Marjorie Steinberg Lewis of Pittsburgh, PA, is facing health problems like so many of us. She is too disabled to get to our big reunion. However, she enjoys catching well-known celebrities who graduated from our great university. Carol OgleWoods and husband Lauren of Albany, CA, have moved just two doors from their son. They are keeping fit by walking, and so far are healthy, though last year Carol had two angioplasty procedures resulting in the placements of stents in her arteries. Carol and Lauren keep in touch with friends and family by phone and computer. They have traveled many places around the world and now have visits from friends they made. She says they are "pretty darn happy right here."

Madelon Rufner Umlauf and husband John live in Allentown, PA. Lorraine Matarazzo Farina and husband Joseph live in Schenectady, NY. Cornelia "Connie" Merritt Merwin reports that her husband Roger '42 died in Feb. 2005. Connie has macular degeneration and doesn't see well at all. Jean Palmer Gerlach is comfortably settled in an independent apartment in Judson Manor in Cleveland, OH. She enjoys concerts, good speakers, bridge games, and the well-equipped fitness center that she uses three times a week.

Janet Wilbor Warner and husband Lyle live in Webster, NY, and since Lyle is still recuperating from his broken hip, they stay close to home. Janet attends Kappa Kappa Gamma activities, plays bridge often, and reads. Shirley Richards Sargent Darmer and husband Kenneth of Delmar, NY, had a three-week vacation in February and opted not to go to Punta Gorda because of the hurricane devastation. They visited Shirley's son Scott and wife Ginny in Hermosa Beach, CA, with a great Elderhostel on the middle week at the Santa Catalina Island Marine Research Center, part of USC. L.A. was having its second wettest year in history.

Charlotte Katzman Bunkin sent a nice note. Marjorie Lee Treadwell sent a lovely e-mail after reading the Alumni News. She and her husband are really enjoying Naples, FL, are in good health, and are very active in sports and committees. -- Dorothy Talbert Wiggans, 415 Savage Farm Dr., Ithaca, NY 14850; tel., (607) 266-7629; e-mail, flower@localnet.com.

We'll start with our man with a long name and a short message. Albert Aschaffenburg writes,"Nothing new. Still teaching and enjoying every minute of it." John Powers reports,"My wife Doris died in May 2000. Some time after that, I looked up my Ilin, NY, high school girlfriend Nancy Brown Wright.We had not seen each other for 63 years.We are living in Surry, NH, and expect to move to Cooperstown, NY, later this year." Stanley Reich is semi-retired. "Still teaching medical students at UC San Francisco and UC Davis. Three children and four grandchildren all doing well."

Congratulations to a most deserving Lou Conti. The Cornell Football Association established a new award, the Lou Conti Lifetime Achievement Award, and Lou was himself one of four recent recipients.He was honored for exceptional loyalty, leadership, and lifetime support of Cornell football. Lou reported the good news that the whole Conti family assembled to celebrate Dottie and Lou's 60th anniversary. Lew Birckhead experienced a new way to cruise from St. Louis to New Orleans on the Mississippi River on a barge. There were two barges tied together, for a total of 730 feet. One had all the staterooms; the other had everything else, including kitchen, dining room, library, lounge, and two bars. The barges were pushed by a tug. There was no vibration, so one had to look out the window to see movement. En route, Lew saw as many as 18 other barges being pushed.

Richard Davis sent the obituary of his wife Elizabeth. They were married 52 years. In WWII she supervised the production of radios in Bridgeport, CT. She later was production manager for Pepperidge Farms. She was a trustee of the county home in Greenville, SC, and the Mary Thompson Hospital in Oak Park, IL. Porter "Pete" Gifford Jr. died of lung cancer in September 2004 at his Dallas home. Pete was well known for conservation of natural foods. He raised grass-fed beef, and his ranch was registered as organic. At Cornell he earned his degree in Mechanical Engineering and was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and Tau Beta Pi fraternities. In WWII he was an aircraft maintenance officer, earned the rank of Major, and was awarded a Bronze Star.When he liquidated the Gifford Foundation, he gave property to the Boy Scouts and to the Diabetes Laboratory at the U. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.We thank John Matthews for sending the obituary. John and Pete were three-year roommates at Cornell.

Lawrence Kalik is still Special Master in the Appellate Division of the NYS Supreme Court. David Altman is still not fully retired. He has a consulting professorship at Stanford U. and is involved in the space program. He is not as optimistic as President Bush, as he feels that Mars is at least 20 years away from human visitation. "On the home front, we enjoy two grandchildren--8 and 11, and bright." Dave still plays tennis with a partner and laments that he too often calls, "Yours." -- Ralph Antell, Beaufort Towers, 7015 Carnation St., Apt. 408, Richmond, VA 23225-5233.

42 | We all received Franz Kafka's The Trial from Pres. Liz Schlamm Eddy, and possibly, like me, you found it difficult reading. Liz had mentioned discussing it on our website or through our column, but to date no one has. So I was pleased to find that the New Yorker magazine for March 28, 2005 had a feature called "Kafka Sings" under musical events.Would you believe there is an opera based on this book by Danish composer Poul Ruders? It premiered March 12 at the Royal Danish Theatre. The Trial is a tale of a hunted bank clerk who is being persecuted for no reason. Ruders wanted to write a comedy, but the material is only morbidly funny according to Alex Boss, writer of the article. Perhaps the opera will appear in this country--or even a movie--and we can all strive for comprehension.

The stories in the alumni magazine have been very interesting, and I especially enjoy the last page, "Cornelliana"--nostalgic and memory-rousing. I remember driving up and down State Street in the snow. I would put the front right tire in the gutter and sort of slide down that way. Can't remember how I ever got up again!

I had another interesting letter from Ken Hubbard (Fort Myers, FL) about his surviving shingles and the four hurricanes. His flowers are beautiful and his trees are growing.While a student he flew airplanes at the Ithaca Airport. Drafted in his junior year, he joined the Navy V-5 program and went to Pensacola for training. His first daughter was born in Ithaca, where he actually graduated in '48. But once a '42, always a '42.We have many in that category, including me. I earned my degrees in '44. Nancy and Dick Graham live in Royal Oak,MD, on the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay. They play tennis and enjoy various book clubs. Dick writes and thinks about justice regarding the Iraqis and Afghanis, based on research he was involved in on some 30 societies when he was director of Lawrence Kohlber's Center for Moral Development at Harvard.His thoughts include: "They value conformity more than we do; the way most people think about justice is established by the time they are 20 years old; we in the Western world place importance on independent thought as we are growing up; and the failure of our leaders to consider these differences is the source of many of our problems today. I want to show that we can take these differences in prevailing thought patterns into account in adopting policies to better deal with these nations." Good luck, Dick.

Sally Ann Rudolph Drachman is moving to Newton, MA, to be near her daughter Virginia, head of the history dept. at Tufts. She recently enjoyed a visit from Estelle Mulwitz Barrett (Sarasota, FL). She brags of her four children and four grands and is busy decorating her new home. Greta AdamsWolfe '48 (Lake Stevens,WA) visited Gig Harbor to attend the Hans Christian Andersen 200th birthday celebrations along with 200 other Danish folk. Greta went to Mineola High School, and I hope to meet her one of these days. Her good friend Ed Markham (and Rosie) of Bainbridge Island,WA, visited the Int'l Pflanzen Messe in Essen, Germany, and enjoyed a million-plus square feet of worldwide horticulture. Ed survived a serious car accident and is recovering now.

Cornell sports are vastly improved in all areas. The always fine men's hockey team came in second in the NCAA and the game was on TV. Gary Bettman '74 is the NHL Commissioner. The Cornell Sun sent information on digitizing the paper's archives that included an ad for the 1938 Dartmouth Hop at the Drill Hall featuring the Bunny Berigan and Ted Howes bands. Tickets were $2.25. Those were the days.

Jean Fenton Potter (Washington, CT) lives with her dog Teri within walking distance of two sons. Her other children live not far away. Jean swims winter and summer, plays bridge, and does church work. She visits the family complex in the Adirondacks summer and fall. John, MBA '48, and Alice Sanderson Rivoire '41, MS '48, enjoy Kendal at Ithaca, especially the library and bird-watching. John is in physical therapy from a hip operation and brain surgery, the result of a fall. Good wishes for his recovery. Sadly we report the passing of Roger Merwin (Sykesville, MO). Roger was a Hotel school graduate and participated in all Hotel activities, including Ye Hosts, Hotel Greeters of '42, and Hotel Ezra Cornell. Our sympathies to his wife Cornelia (Merritt) '41 and their family.

Here's our new '42 website: http://classof42.alumni.cornell.edu. Do write to all those submitting their e-mail addresses, as well as to me. --Carolyn Evans Finneran, 8815 46th St.NW, Gig Harbor,WA 98335; tel., (253) 265-6618; e-mail, CeeFinn@juno.com.

43 | Sam Hunter (St. Paul, MN): "Thelma (Emile) '45, wife since 1944, and I returned to Ithaca for her 60th (my 62nd) Reunion--can this really be so! I was saddened to hear of Milt Coe's loss of his dear wife Connie. Let's encourage Milt to come to reunion." 65th Reunion chair Bob Larson (Freeville, NY; margolrs@ aol.com): "Our summer home is Freeville, NY, next to Ithaca. It's a small farm where Margo and I do some gardening and admire the views. Anybody still able to play golf can e-mail me and visit for a little golf. Health: we are perfect in an imperfect way. Beautiful life."

Class Notes for Dummies. Dept. of Travel. Nancy Jessup Underwood, MEd '43 (Manchester, TN): "Both of us--husband Robert '42, ME '49--still kickin'! Two sons retired, one still working. Five grandchildren. Car trips to visit each, plus my brother and younger sister (Rev. Florence Jessup Beaujon '51), keep us on the road--Chicago, Cincinnati, Knoxville, Panama City [drive to Panama City?], Pensacola, St. Louis--plus family on Eastern Long Island. Busy with Retired Teachers 30+, Adult Education, AARP Tax Aide, recycling, and local conservation and beautification work. Also trying to keep two miles of roads picked up. Since retiring from aerospace work, Bob is busy with Lions Club projects.We dated for six years; been married 62.We've been in Tennessee for 50 years after living in 15 states. My father, George P. Jessup, ME 1908, a dam engineer [Got my nose busted for saying that once too often in Boldt Hall], earned his way through Cornell as a campus night watchman and ended his career working for Cornell during the building boom in the '50s. Bob's father, Paul H.Underwood, CE '07, of course, was a C.E. professor who taught surveying from 1907 until he retired."

Rosemary Williams Wilson (Kingston, RI): "Last June, Phil '42, MS '53, and I went to London for several days, then to France, where we rented a car for two weeks. We capped this off with a one-week barge and wine-tasting trip in Burgundy--a delightful experience." Karin Engel Danby (New York, NY, and Palm Beach, FL): "Everybody around me appears to be getting younger and younger--a somewhat difficult situation! So far, have still managed to spend a month in Europe during the summer; however, every year it feels better to return home--not such a good sign.My fondest regards to whoever remembers me, and let's all keep going!"

Clifford Cole (Ponte Vedra Beach, FL): "I wish others, too, could feel 65 at my age! Mary and I highly recommend touring the US by train--with long stopovers!" Robert Cologgi (Seneca Falls, NY): "Drove last summer to Anchorage, AK, from Seattle with my oldest daughter, Sandra Bonanno, in a rented RV.Mostly stayed overnight in government campgrounds. Saw bison, sheep, grizzly and black bears, wild horses,mule deer,moose, eagles, ospreys, lakes, rivers, glaciers, and all kinds of flora. I accompanied Sandra on a few hikes where the terrain was gentle. Returned to Seattle on ferries, spending two days in Juneau and long visits at Sitka and Ketchican. Sandra climbed and explored a glacier. I watched!"

D.O.T. Hurricane Div. Betsy Small Schrader (Pepper Pike, OH, and four to six months in the Cayman Islands): "It's been a busy year for travel: June to Brazil to revisit places we lived and people we knew when we were there 36 years ago; then to England for a week before returning on the new Queen Mary 2. Just returned from 2-1/2 weeks in Grand Cayman, having arrived five days after Hurricane Ivan. The devastation had to be seen to be believed! It'll come back, but there's a lot of restoration ahead." William Hoff (Longboat Key, FL, and Mequon,WI): "Enjoyed another beautiful summer in Wisconsin playing tennis and visiting with children and grandchildren. Fortunately, the hurricanes narrowly missed our house in Florida, so we still have a place to return to."

w/Pets Div. Clementine Birsner Lynn (Huntington, NY): "I worked for the NYS Dept. of Labor in their Employment Division and retired in Feb. 2003. I have two beagles, Pearl and Sir Randy. Pearl is a retired show beagle. She and I traveled with the breeder all over the East Coast and as far west as Wisconsin. I'm presently a volunteer at Little Shelter, a lifecare community for dogs and cats [Kendal for cats and dogs?].

Dept. of Health. John Casale (Vero Beach, FL, and Dorset,VT): "Francoise and I divide our time between Vermont and Florida. Gardening and golf are our main exercise, plus daily workouts on bikes. A stress test and cardiac cath discovered a 90 percent "widowmaker," which was stented without complications. Hooray for our side!" Gladys Haslett Poor (Marblehead, MA): "March '05 will be our 60th anniversary of marriage. George sports a defibrillator and I still paint in spite of advanced Parkinson's disease."

Dept. of Apple & Tree. Bobette Rosenau Leidner (Haverford, PA): "What's in a name? My daughter, Bobette Leidner '81, is active on several committees at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as am I.What's more, she's taken my position on the women's board of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (I was a former trustee).We're always mixed up, so she's now Bobette Leidner Jr. all over Philadelphia!"-- S.Miller Harris, P.O. Box 164, Spinnerstown, PA 18968; e-mail, millerharris@netcarrier.com.

44 | Cherry blossoms are in bloom! Spring is here! It's wrap-up time for '04 news. Charles Bollinger says, "When you get to be 83 years old there just isn't any personal news to report," but he is making plans to settle in Florida instead of trekking back and forth from Vermont. Phillip Lewin, PhD '69, writes from Denver that he and Hindy still work out at a health club thrice weekly and belong to two book clubs. Daughter Elaine, having majored in hospital administration in college, is executive director of a new assisted living facility in Denver. Marilyn Wise Douglass and husband Truett '43 are enjoying living in their home in San Jose, CA, and a condo in Monterey Bay, CA. She reports that grandson Patrick '02 and girlfriend Amy '02 are teaching English in China, though stationed many miles apart. Kenneth Kander of Issaquah,WA, writes, "Enjoying visiting our grandchildren in Sausalito and Lake Tahoe, CA." William Swain reports from Sarasota, FL, that he "and Connie and four children and six grands are active and having fun at home and at work."

Frank Reynolds sent a resume from Springfield,MO.Having retired from Teen Challenge in 1989, he volunteers.He is Chairman of the Board of Teen Challenge of the Ozarks, a women's program. Since 1981 he has been a member of the Southwestern Missouri Citizens Advisory Board for Probation and Parole. He now conducts classes daily in Greene County Jail. Sixty to 70 inmates attend in four sessions. Frank also serves on the building committee of the Evangelical Temple Assembly of God church. Ralph Bigelow of Camp Hill, PA, summarizes his career. After Cornell graduation, he went to Columbia Midshipman School in New York, became an ensign, and served on PT boats. He then spent 37 years working for Bell Atlantic of Pennsylvania (now Verizon). He plays tennis three days a week, gardens, and travels. He claims three children. Arthur Widmer, BS '47, says, "Nothing new relative to me, but things are happening in St. Louis and the surrounding area."He's still active in the St. Louis South Side Lions Club and volunteers at SLPRC. He also mediates at the St. Louis BBB. Eleanor Bloomfield Scholl is busy and happy in her retirement community in Delray Beach, FL. She starts the day on an 18-hole putting green (wins a prize now and then) and goes on excursions such as to a new Seminole Gambling Casino. Harold Ogburn writes from Blue Earth, MN:"Still miss the farm, but love our house in town." They winter in Saint Simons Island, GA. They see Walt Hallbauer '59 and his wife Gloria and classmate William Kaegebein's brother Elmer on Jekyll Island.

Lena Hunt Burdin sent news from Mt. Pleasant, SC, of husband Art '38's 90th birthday celebration. Daughter Judy '69 and her daughter are working for Academic Associates Peace Works in Nigeria. Youngest granddaughter Emily, 14, is on the Ithaca High School swim team, which won against the Ithaca College team. Helen Couch Darling of Odessa, NY, writes about two granddaughters who play basketball for their colleges. One is 6'5", the other 6'1". Their father is Helen's third son. (How tall is he?) She also mentions a boat,Malabar X, which her son Tom helped to build in Ithaca. "They say once you work on a boat you don't want to do anything else." Tom is a construction architect still working in the same shop.

Margaret McCaffrey Kappa, now ofWhite Sulpher Springs,WV, finished her 20th season with Grand Hotel,Mackinac Island, MI, as a consultant, retiring at 82 to write her book, Top Sheet Down. She was born and raised in the oldest operating hotel in Wabash, MN. Her fourth generation nephew sold the hotel in 2002. Emerson Hotels kept the name "Anderson" (her mother's maiden name), along with the Pennsylvania Dutch cooking and the cats (per her request). After the 60th Reunion she flew to Albany, where the Gideon Putnam Hotel limousine took her to Saratoga Springs, NY. There she spent a week consulting at an historic hotel undergoing renovation. After enjoying the food, service, and ambience, she flew to the Greenbrier for a week with her son Nick '82, who also is in hotel work--fourth generation.

Gerald Tohn sent word about two addresses--Stowe, VT, in summer and Palm Beach Gardens, FL, in winter. He loved reunion, and is planning on the 65th and 70th. He made his daughter Margot '86 promise to help him get to the 70th if he needs help. Clifford Earl says he's "still alive and kicking after 21 years of retirement."He and Ann enjoy an active life in Sun City Hilton Head and visit with his brother Dick '43, BS '46, and Barbara "Bobbie" Johnson Earl '42 in Florida.Mildred Bond French is also busy and happy on Hilton Head. Charlie Williams and wife Barbara "live a quiet life" in Scottsdale, AZ. They celebrated their 60th anniversary in September.

Victor Denslow thanks the Kestens for the class website. He says, "The Chicago area is devoid of '44 Cornellians and my closer '44 friends have graduated to paradise." He has written a poem: My chemical engineering is past / Other challenges are coming fast / My ailing back is the last / I still enjoy my breakfast / But getting up is a task.-- Nancy Torlinski Rundell, 20540 Falcons Landing Circle, #4404, Sterling, VA 20165; tel., (703) 404-9494.

45 | By the time you read this, our 60th Reunion will be history, which your correspondent will try to summarize in the next column. From recent e-mail exchanges with William Knauss,MBA '48 (Sarasota, FL) I learned that he was planning to attend in conjunction with a Johnson Graduate School reunion. Despite two major surgeries in the past five years, Bill is as active as ever, working with the Cornell Club of the Suncoast, in the Tampa Bay area, setting up a book award program for nine local schools, and tutoring third graders in English. He also is on the selection committee that screens applicants for Habitat homes. Bill and his wife frequently usher at the local performing arts hall, and in his off-time plays tennis at least twice a week. Is that his idea of retirement?

Another busy retiree is Catherine Verwoert Work, who is a docent at the Arizona State U. Art Museum in her hometown, Tempe, but found time for a Danube cruise last year and a barge trip in Holland and Belgium this May. She reports that the most recent thing she learned is the meaning of the word "exculpatory," but didn't explain why.We hope it wasn't because her lawyer had to use it on her behalf. Another volunteer is Winthrop Mange, who lives in Williamsburg, VA, and helps out in the famous Colonial Williamsburg.

From Palm Beach, FL, where she avoids New York winters in Floral Park,Marjorie Marks Boas Levins reports plans to attend reunion and will probably see her granddaughter, a student at Cornell Law School, following in the footsteps of her first husband, our late classmate Bob Boas. Marjorie has been married to Jack Levins for ten years now and says she has been blessed with two wonderful husbands, not to speak of three children, two of whom are Cornellians, and ten grandchildren. Jack has three and six, so Marjorie must keep busy with family and it's good she could take time to join us in Ithaca.

Arnold Cogan (Little Egg Harbor, NJ), former president of his Rotary Club, says he'd rather be in Atlantic City playing poker and blackjack, but has learned you can't win. He has six grandchildren, all in Arizona, and a son in Sedona, who is "the mountain guru of Sedona"--he runs several tours a week and is the town supplier of mountain bikes. Barbara BenjaminWestlake (Ft.Myers, FL) would rather be packing a suitcase because "it's later than you think." She says she is going to travel, travel, travel. "You name it and I am either going there or have just come back." Sounds as if she may have a contest going with Fran Shloss, our travel champ from Beverly Hills, CA, who hasn't yet reported in with this year's annual itinerary. Six years ago Fran reminded us that "time waits for no one" and I still crack up when I think of the comment of our late, lamented classmate Mary Sheary, who stated ten years ago, "I'll keep traveling as long as the cosmetics take more room in the suitcase than the pills."Maybe some of the above-mentioned ladies should form a Mary Sheary Club!"

Ernest Gosline, MD '47 (Clinton, NY) plans to be at reunion to tell us of the "basically unreachable horizon" of the golden years of wisdom and maturity. He's retired from active psychoanalytic practice, but does some part-time psychiatric work and is an active violinist and chamber music enthusiast. Alice Ross McCarthy, MS '47 (Birmingham, MI), who enclosed her lengthy and impressive resume, continues her active life's work in the health of children and adolescents. A president of her company, Bridge Communications, she oversees its publishing of books and pamphlets and says she keeps her brain too busy to worry about senility. She has nine grandchildren and five super-achieving children, including Sharon McCarthy, PhD '87, who is a professor at Carnegie Mellon U. Another of our still-working classmates, Gloria Marti (NYC), did find time to go to Alta, UT, for a week of skiing.

James Jenks (Garden City, NY) wishes he were flying to Bermuda, probably to play golf with his 14-year-old grandson Jonathan, who has a 10 handicap and is a star hockey player. Roy Hughes (The Woodlands, TX) is looking forward to reunion, where he will tell why he has learned that girls don't look back when he stares at them. He says that when his four boys were 5 to 12 he wondered what they'd be like when they matured; now he knows. They are workaholics, playaholics, good fathers, and great fun to be around. He hopes his three grandsons will turn out like their fathers. John '44 and Carolyn Jean Hendrickson Cummings (Binghamton) celebrated their 60th anniversary in January and are enjoying retirement, but don't do any more long traveling, Ithaca being the usual destination for visits with relatives. Their four children are scattered, with one each in Florida, Colorado, and Kenya, but fortunately one is still in Binghamton. They belong to the Cornell Club of the Southern Tier, play bridge, and do plenty of walking when the snow isn't too deep. --Prentice Cushing Jr., 713 Fleet Dr.,Virginia Beach,VA 23454; tel., (757) 716-2400; e-mail, cushcu45@wmconnect.com.

46 | Janet Curtin Horning sent an apartment address in Westerville, OH, so I guess she also joined the "Golden Agers" who are moving.Maybe she'll send information about the move.When we visited a few years ago, she had a double picture of herself and Judy Richardson Johnston (Colonial Heights, VA). One photo was taken in 1942 when they were frosh roommates in Risley and the other at a 1990 Elderhostel they attended.What a wonderful memento. Dick and Nancy Mynott Davis (Bloomfield, CT) wrote that they have an annual reunion with Arnold and Margaret Monteith Edelman, BA '45. They also attended Cornell's Adult University (CAU) for two summers. Their son-in-law, of Princeton, NJ, is CEO of Lingraphica, which provides software to help people with aphasia--the loss of the power of speech communication.

Marian Cudworth Henderson (Ormond Beach, FL) wrote that she survived all four hurricanes in '04, "the first one, Charley, all by myself. For Frances and Ivan, I drove with my son Tom to daughter Patty's home near Leesburg,VA, to watch via Internet, and decided to stay for Jeanne, too, and ‘let it roar.' Of course, having six grandchildren to enjoy was quite persuasive." She keeps in touch with Mary Jane Vandewater D'Arrigo and has traveled to Ireland and Paris. Ruth Magid Woolfe (Boca Raton, FL) still keeps in touch with Iris Smith Morris and Naomi Colvin Gellman. One of Ruth's sons published a book entitled The Bible on Leadership, which was translated into Korean; another son sang with the Christmas Revels in Oakland, CA, for a tenth season; and her daughter works for a nonprofit computer company in Cambridge, MA.

Ruth Rothschild Mayleas (NYC) is co-producer of the Women in Theatre broadcast on Channel 75. I wrote about it a few issues ago. Marianne Michaelis Goldsmith (Bedminster, NJ) wrote, "Friends and family enjoy visiting the bench we sponsored at the Plantations in husband Karl '47's memory. Our grandson is a sophomore at Cornell." She called me to find out how my husband was doing after his cancer surgery in December.How thoughtful and very much appreciated. Joyce Lee Fletcher (Portland, OR) is retired and loves to travel. "I've been to Denmark, Norway, Egypt, Turkey, Central America, and the US. Now I paint and still photograph my grandchildren." She spent the season working on the Kerry for President campaign.

Bill and Phyllis Stapley Tuddenham (Naples, FL) wrote, "We are fortunate to still be traveling. Besides our annual two-week time in London, we cruised on the Columbia River, watched animals up close in South Africa and Botswana, and took the Blue Train to Cape Town." I'm exhausted reading about it. Keep going as long as you can! Barb Warden Ihrig (Madison, TN) had a granddaughter's wedding last July; the bride and groom are in graduate school at Andrews U. in Michigan. Another granddaughter has been promoted to head of the occupational therapy department of Hallmark Rehabilitation in Monterey, CA. Last summer, husband Harold and she went hiking in the Smoky Mountains. -- Elinor Baier Kennedy, 9 Reading Dr.,Wernersville, PA 19565; tel., (610) 927-8777.

Ray and Barbara Hunicke (Roxbury, CT) had planned to retire much earlier, but hitches developed in the sale of their commercial property. Now, they have a major customer on a long-term lease with an option to buy their one-acre building for the firm's world headquarters. It hasn't been easy. Ray writes, "In June, to get ready, we removed a large paint booth. The floor was covered with dried epoxy paint as deep as 5/8 inch.We rented impact hammers (two types, two days) to chip the epoxy off. Barbara helped by prying off semi-loose pieces. At one point I told her she was working like a 51-year-old, not the 81 she really is!"Ray and Barbara are very pleased with their children's progress in the business world and their grandchildren's academic prowess.

Arthur and Doris Ticknor Van Vleet (Richmond, IN; hoosierad@aol.com) now live nine months each year in Richmond, IN. Their other three months are spent on the Florida Panhandle. In both venues they play lots of tennis, golf, and bridge, as well as swim. Richmond affords them propinquity and time to enjoy their expanding Indiana family. Courtesy of their son and his wife, they have two grandchildren, one great, and two on the way. In this idyllic setting, Arthur has not forgotten about giving back. He has recently completed five years as chair of Prime Time for the United Way. Prime Time solicits retired givers, who might otherwise discontinue giving. Not only have these prospects resumed giving, some have also become part of leadership and solicited many important gifts successfully.

Gabriel, ME '51, and Lois Pesce (Ventura, CA; gvpltcl@aol.com) returned two years ago from an eight-year Spanish assignment. Gabe was Base Civil Engineer at the USAF base near Seville. Since returning they have split their time between their ranch near Santa Barbara, CA, and their Cape Cod home. They met old Cornell friends Sy Volpe '49 and Ty Scalzi '49 at that class's 55th Reunion and later visited with the Volpes while at Cape Cod. This summer, they will migrate to the Cape again, where they will try to find more old Cornell friends and classmates.

Two of our classmates took part in Cornell Adult University programs. Barbara and Arthur Bernstein, JD '50 (Los Angeles; ahb10@cornell.edu) participated in a May 2004 London Theatre program led by David Feldshuh and Glenn Altschuler, PhD '76. Edward Raser and a friend joined The Wine Class in August 2004. The Hunickes, Van Vleets, and Pesces hope to attend our "60th in '06" Reunion. If each of us calls a classmate and asks him or her to join us on the Hill, we can look forward to a mammoth turnout for a great event.

TO PUBLISH YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS, e-mail it to me. Include your name and city and state of residence. Send news to: -- Paul Levine, 31 Chicory Lane, San Carlos, CA 94070; tel., (650) 592-5273; e-mail, pbl22@cornell.edu. Class website, http://classof46.alumni.cornell.edu.

47 | It is mid-April as I write and I have just returned from a wonderful Cornell/Rochester wedding. The bride is my friend Gail Freeman Kayson '59, and the groom is Bertram Warner '49. Both of them, widowed, attended an area Cornell alumni club picnic a year and a half ago, met for the first time, chatted a little, started dating a couple of weeks later, and are now happily wedded! Bert's daughter AmyWarner Charlton '79 and her husband Joseph '78, with their three children, were part of the festivities.My husband Doug Anderson '50 and I went to the event with our class president Pete Schwarz and his wife Elaine (Drobner), where we joined many area Cornell friends: former class columnists for the Class of '51 Bob and Joanne Bayles Brandt, Carol Sue Epstein Hai '60, Heidi Friederich '63, Jean Grant Whitney '56, Russ and Jan Booth Anderson '56, Howard and SallyWheaton Gillan '59, and Larry '57 and Marilyn Zeltner Teel '58, who stood up with Gail. She was escorted by her son Glenn. The flowers at the church were beautifully arranged by Michael Miller '72. There was a deep feeling of love and joy present, realizing the marriage and all our friendships happened and exist only because of Cornell!

I have received my first new 2005 news-by-mail! Bonnie Kauffman DeLamater lives in Macungie, PA, and keeps in touch with some of her AOPi sisters who are also in Pennsylvania: Jane Mange Morrison of Broomall (near Philadelphia) and Elinor Baier Kennedy '46, who lives in Wernersville. Bonnie has two daughters, but they are not near her. She keeps busy in church and women's groups and has taken several "Learning in Retirement" classes at Cedar Crest College in Allentown. She found a recent "Ethics in Health Care" very interesting. Bonnie wrote that several of her sorority sisters gathered in Florida last winter and promised to send her news. She also wrote of the death in June 2004 of Eleanor Beiswenger Crinnion, another sorority sister with whom Bonnie had kept in touch over the years. She said Eleanor had suffered a stroke and spent her last few years in a nursing home in Dallas, PA. Thanks for writing, Bonnie.

Our class inside informer Barlow Ware has told me of contact he had with Jim Vlock, MBA '48, who was delighted to report the acceptance and planned attendance next fall to our College of Arts and Sciences of his granddaughter, who represents the fourth generation of his family to be a Cornellian. Jim is still working as chairman and CEO of the Fox Steel Co. in Orange, CT.

Joy Gulling Beale and her husband Arthur "Bill" '46 are doing well since having some health problems. They have four children, including Randy '79, and five grandchildren. Their oldest son, age 55, has completed his career as computer expert at a nuclear plant in Oswego and will receive his nursing degree this spring and start a nursing career in Syracuse, where he received his training. Joy also shared some good news about classmate Evelyn "Puddy" Steinman Cook, an Ithaca resident. Evelyn's daughter, who lives in Jakarta, Indonesia, with her husband and three children, escaped the devastating tsunami in December. Both are teachers, so the whole family was on holiday in New Guinea when the disaster struck.

I received a memo from the Admissions Office reporting on the year's applications and admissions. Cornell received 24,444 applications for 2004-05. This is up significantly (17 percent) from 2003-04. The most dramatic increase was in applications to the Arts college (up nearly 30 percent). The Admissions Office and the Arts college attribute the increase to a joint initiative targeting prospective students interested in Liberal Arts. Of the students admitted to Cornell for the Class of 2009, 11 percent are legacies. Around the Ivy League, Princeton and Harvard also had more applicants this year, while Yale had fewer.

New construction is planned for Martha Van Rensselaer Hall in 2006. The north addition to the main building, added in 1966, was evacuated in July 2001 after structural problems were discovered. It has remained empty since and is now slated for demolition this summer. Human Ecology's new dean, Lisa Staiano-Coico, PhD '81, who came to Ithaca from the medical college, is busy and well-received.

The News and Dues letters have surely arrived in all of your mailboxes, so I expect a deluge of information for the next column. A deluge! In addition to news, I'd like you to send me some of your recollections. Because of the war, our time at Cornell was very different from that of earlier and subsequent generations. Let's try to get some of our memories down on paper.What did we wear? What were the rules? What did we listen to on the radio? What did we do on the weekends? What did we learn in class? What did we do during the summers? How old were you when you started and finished? This is for posterity!

Also, Class Treasurer Margie Newell Mitchell would surely like pieces of gold.

Happy summer to all! Many thanks to my daughter Beth Anderson '80 for her welcome, able, and helpful assistance. -- Arlie Williamson Anderson, 238 Dorchester Rd., Rochester, NY 14610; e-mail, arlie47@aol.com.

48 | James Ford Jr., Gulf Breeze, FL: "Cleaning up after Hurricane Ivan.We vacation in our Fairfield time-share in Hawaii. Great-granddaughter born last August (my first); wife Jacque has five! I'm legally blind, but still golf with one eye and rake leaves. No car, very little TV or computer. Problem is to stop telling Jacque how to drive a car. The little dog looks like a bus--to me. I'm getting pills in India for best price and service. Call me for a contact. Life is beautiful when you stay positive and eliminate the negative."

John Sterling, Utica, NY: "Completed 48 years with American Express Financial Advisors in May '04. Chairman of Town of Schuyler Planning Board. President of Mohawk Valley Nursing Home Foundation and director on the nursing home board. Spent a week cleaning up damage to our condo in Indian Harbor Beach, FL. Roof blown off, water damage, and mildew on walls. That was Frances. Then Jeanne came through and tore off the temporary roof with much more water damage."

John Van Zandt,Winston-Salem, NC: "Retired from New Jersey Dept. of Agriculture.Had a total hip replacement, but am back to walking a mile every day or so. Read, play bridge, volunteer, eat chocolate, and boost Wake Forest sports. Going to Denver and Cancun. Have 14 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. Problem today is winning at ‘Rummikub.' Solution is to play bridge. The world's problem is erosion of moral and ethical standards. Solution is stronger faith in God and more involvement of family in religious upbringing of children."

Jacqueline Smith Flournoy,Westport, CT: "Being Yacht Club secretary for 20 years and trying to keep new board members from ‘reinventing the wheel.' Busy sailing, working with crafts, playing bridge, and walking, raking leaves, going out to lunch, and paying bills. Learning to live alone since Jim died in March '04. One month later I lost my sister Cynthia Smith Ayers '52. Jim's brother Hugh '50 came here many times from California to see him. I recently celebrated my son's and daughter's 20th anniversaries. Problem today is going through 54 years of saved ‘things' and trying to get rid of some. Leave it for the children to sort. The world's problem is war and famine, which can only be solved with international cooperation. Have learned that people are really kind and caring, and love is the essence of everything. The wonderful outpouring of love after Jim's death sustains me."

Rita Lemelman Alper, Stony Brook, NY: "Still working at our local library and volunteering at Meals on Wheels.Went to New Zealand with daughter who participated in an Ironman triathlon.Visited nephew in Norway with sister Jean Lemelman Meadow. Selma Chernigow Reiff, MA '50, Jerusalem, Israel: "Husband Samuel is deceased. I'm retired. I'm a volunteer organizer of study/vacation programs for American seniors in Israel (à la Elderhostels). Also synagogue activity and ‘grandma wheels,' courtesy of three of our eight daughters.Walking home from a concert at 10:30 p.m. on a weeknight, I passed a dozen eateries (restaurants, cafés, pizzerias, etc.) all filled to overflowing, with wait lines outside, three days after a suicide bombing in the neighborhood. Life in Jerusalem goes on! My big problem is the bustling traffic on busy streets, so I use buses, walk, or stay home.World's problem is peace, unqualified. Solution is communication, open minds,mutual understanding, and appreciation."

Bill McCurdy, Fort Lauderdale, FL: "Retired; do as little as possible all day long. Elected to board of governors of Coral Ridge Yacht Club for two years." Herb Podel, Westport, CT: "Sold my company three years ago. Still work for the new owner. Are there any classmates still at work as we approach our 80th birthdays?" (Ed. YES! Some over 80!)

Eugene Littman, Newburgh, NY: "President of U.S.A. Illumination Inc. I manage and operate a lighting fixture manufacturing factory. I'm on the regional board of directors of Key Bank. Play golf in Newburgh almost every Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday from April to November. I go to Florida to our home at Frenchman's Creek in Palm Beach Gardens every December, January, and February for two-week trips to play golf daily. Three children are also lighting fixture manufacturers, owning their own companies. One son owns four lighting fixture manufacturing companies.We also have another son who is a doctor in Baltimore."

Alan Strout,Weston,MA: "What does one do next after a professional lifetime of unlikely adventures--oil well drilling in Venezuela, work for a future Nobel Prize winner on the structure of the American economy, heading the USAID policy-planning shop during the Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson years, representing a rural social sciences foundation for four years in Indonesia while teaching a raw form of econometrics at the U. of Indonesia, a later stint of research on the worldwide future demand for raw materials, and finally, a longish spell of teaching and administration at a major US university, followed by consulting for a few years.My latest mini-adventure has been to work for over three years with the Town Historian Emeritus, a woman of broad vision and encyclopedic local knowledge, on a history of the small town of Davenport, NY, in the northern Catskills, about 90 miles east of Ithaca. Davenport's bottom line, worth remembering today in other contexts, was foretold by Heraclites of Ephesus, a Greek philosopher from about 513 BC: ‘There is nothing permanent except change.' " --Bob Persons, 102 Reid Ave., Port Washington, NY 11050; tel. and fax, (516) 767-1776.

49 | There is good news and scary news. The good: we have a bit of news, and the promise of more to come after the Dues Letter from our Leader, Jack Gilbert. From your e-mail comments, I know you've received the letter. The opening sentence threw a number of you into "Blue Book" confusion.We understand your plight. It is a little "Pennsy Dutch," but finally works its way back to understanding.My guess is that Jack did not write it. Even an EE who made all his eight o'clocks would not do that to us! The letter was possibly compliments of the Cornell Temple of Templates (Alumni House), which will supply written communications for all classes who do not wish to write their own. Sometimes the "one size" doesn't fit all. So just send in your dues and news. As you will see, there are no templates for class columns.We all just bumble along.

The scary: people from other classes read this column and can use the Internet to express their opinions. Evan Hazard '51 commented on our anatomical digression in the March/April issue. Evan is a professor emeritus of biology (Bemidji State U.) and contributes two columns per month to the local newspaper. He forwarded one entitled "Nerdy Date Bureaus" that was a delight. It makes reference to select classified ads carried in this publication. Seems to me that the bulletin board in Barnes Hall got instant results with much less exposure/giggles.

In response to a '49er query: yes, there was a group of professors who secretly wrote and exchanged off-color limericks for their own amusement under the name of "The Spilt Milk Society."Morris Bishop '14, PhD '26, was the leader and it cut across a number of the schools. The efforts of these writers were collected and mimeographed in the office of the dean at G.S. and distributed under the aegis of Prof. Baxter Hathaway. The trick for the students was to seek out discarded "master forms" or have a friend in the office. Bishop published a book of their output in the early Forties under the title "Spilt Milk."

News at last.We have no idea how many address changes we have reported for Dee Mulhoffer Solow over the years. She is a real moving target! But now, she has moved with daughter Emily Lizbeth to Brookville, PA. Emily is a general surgeon at the Brookville Hospital. Dee is "unpacking boxes that have not been opened since we moved to Scotland some years ago." She brought her 13-year-old grandson to reunion last year. The two had such a great time that they were off to this year's CRC (Continuous Reunion Club). Rev. Willett Porter, Mahopac, NY, tells us that he has been a Methodist clergyman since 1951. He is currently pastor of Mount Hope UMC in Mahopac.Will has been married for 53 years and has four sons and six grandchildren. From Howard Lemelson, Boca Raton, FL: "Enjoying retirement, traveling, and spending good times with Sidney Laibson '51, Phil Steinman '50, and Irwin Sitkin '52."

Obtuse Observations: A man who won't lie to a woman has very little consideration for her feelings. Confidence is that feeling you have before you understand the situation. Those who complain about the way the ball bounces are usually the ones who dropped it. Experience is what causes a person to make new mistakes instead of the same old ones. The longest odds in the world are those against getting even.

Now that we have reached this point, a template of any kind is looking mighty good. Fresh news would be better. Stay well. Stay happy. Be proud to be a '49er.-- Dick Keegan, 179 N.Maple Ave., Greenwich, CT 06830; tel., (203) 661-8584; e-mail, rjk27@cornell.edu.

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