Class Note 1970
Issue
Mar - Apr 2017
In November our class adopted six female exchange students from our time at Dartmouth. Please welcome Batya Billinkoff, Janis Nelson Ruxin, Paula Sinclair, Janice Littleton Smith, Lis Tarlow and Louise Weeks Thorndike. I’ve invited them to share comments on their experiences at Dartmouth and since. Mike Smith and Louise Thorndike are the first to contribute.
Mike Smith states: “I am writing to express my deep appreciation for our class for allowing my wife, Janice, a chance to be an honorary class member. Jan has never been interested in Mount Holyoke since her graduation in 1971. In the winter of 1969 she told me how she looked up out of her basement window in South Hadley and said she needed to get out of there. She ended up in Hanover. When the first offer came to write something for the reunion, I saw her excited in a way I haven’t seen her in years when it came to college. When the letter came to be an honorary member, she read it to me. That is distinctly unusual for her to do. She was touched, and when I asked her what she would do, to my surprise, she said she would join, right on the spot. That is incredibly unusual for her. She is honored to be a member of the class. So please accept my heartfelt thanks. Well done.”
Louise Thorndike provided the following comments: “Thanks so much for the welcome. I loved my year at Dartmouth. I came to Dartmouth from Mount Holyoke and mainly hung out at Foley House with my constant companion Richard Kenney (no relation now other than friend). I did see Richard Sprague, also Foley House, this summer at the reunion. My dad was in the class of 1939 for three years before he went to West Point, then off to World War II. I still have his 50th reunion sweater and know he would have been thrilled to have known that I’m an adopted member of the class of 1970.”
Kevin Kennedy finds himself doing regular reflections about the progression of his life. Kevin figuratively shakes his head when he thinks how naive and unworldly he was at Dartmouth. Since then he has grown in ways that he could not have conceptualized 50 years ago. He credits his wife, Pam, who often challenged him to leave his comfort zone. In the most important things he is still the same person inside. He says, “My working career has been spent in ‘helping’ professions: probation and parole, youth home, mental retardation and mental health, and the last 28 years as an adolescent and family counselor in Virginia.”
Keep those cards, letters and emails coming.
—Gary Miller, 7 East Hill Road, Canton, CT 06019; william.g.miller.jr.70@dartmouth.edu
Mike Smith states: “I am writing to express my deep appreciation for our class for allowing my wife, Janice, a chance to be an honorary class member. Jan has never been interested in Mount Holyoke since her graduation in 1971. In the winter of 1969 she told me how she looked up out of her basement window in South Hadley and said she needed to get out of there. She ended up in Hanover. When the first offer came to write something for the reunion, I saw her excited in a way I haven’t seen her in years when it came to college. When the letter came to be an honorary member, she read it to me. That is distinctly unusual for her to do. She was touched, and when I asked her what she would do, to my surprise, she said she would join, right on the spot. That is incredibly unusual for her. She is honored to be a member of the class. So please accept my heartfelt thanks. Well done.”
Louise Thorndike provided the following comments: “Thanks so much for the welcome. I loved my year at Dartmouth. I came to Dartmouth from Mount Holyoke and mainly hung out at Foley House with my constant companion Richard Kenney (no relation now other than friend). I did see Richard Sprague, also Foley House, this summer at the reunion. My dad was in the class of 1939 for three years before he went to West Point, then off to World War II. I still have his 50th reunion sweater and know he would have been thrilled to have known that I’m an adopted member of the class of 1970.”
Kevin Kennedy finds himself doing regular reflections about the progression of his life. Kevin figuratively shakes his head when he thinks how naive and unworldly he was at Dartmouth. Since then he has grown in ways that he could not have conceptualized 50 years ago. He credits his wife, Pam, who often challenged him to leave his comfort zone. In the most important things he is still the same person inside. He says, “My working career has been spent in ‘helping’ professions: probation and parole, youth home, mental retardation and mental health, and the last 28 years as an adolescent and family counselor in Virginia.”
Keep those cards, letters and emails coming.
—Gary Miller, 7 East Hill Road, Canton, CT 06019; william.g.miller.jr.70@dartmouth.edu