Class Note 1979
As I write this we are nearing the end of what has been an unusual winter in many parts of the country; here in northern New Jersey the ground is covered with more snow than is typical. And speaking of ice and snow, a number of our classmates chose to spend Winter Carnival 2011 celebrating with Bill and Bray Mitchell at their Hanover home. They welcomed Mark Winkler, Burr Gray, Otho Kerr, Mike Jackson, Alex Spaulding, Carl Briscoe, Phil Odence, Buddy Teevens, Jim Wasz, Tim Taylor, Kim Donovan Henley, Joe Henley, Guy Van Wie, Nancy Malmquist, T. Weymouth, Rick Reno, Bruce MacDowell, Bob Whalen, Joan Crane Barthold, Libby Roberts, Lizanne Galbreath, Steve Johnson, Rick Swanson, Nancy Lager, Charlie Carr, Dave Dowd and John Currier. Among these classmates are several who live or work in the Hanover and Lebanon area.
Another one of the participants was Regina Barreca, who was in Hanover as a featured speaker. On the Friday afternoon of Winter Carnival weekend you could find Gina, an English professor at the University of Connecticut, giving a talk titled “Enduring Winter Carnival: Babes In Snowland” in the 1902 Room of Baker Library. Gina then signed copies of her book during the reception that followed. If Gina was half as entertaining as she was at our 20th reunion, I’m sorry I missed this presentation.
Also in February I had the pleasure of welcoming Adam Samuels to our home. Adam and his partner, Frank, live in California, but Adam was in New Jersey for the week so we decided to get together. It turns out to be a small world, since my husband and I have friends—twin brothers—who grew up with Adam; we all got together for this dinner and had a blast. During our conversations I learned that one of the brothers also knows Otho Kerr! Anyway, my husband so enjoyed Adam’s company that when we travel to San Francisco this spring we’re going to try to get together with him again.
Rob Evans is a successful, accomplished artist. I remember him from Hitchcock and had not been in touch with him since graduation, but I had the pleasure of coming across his website where I was able to see examples of his work. The site explains that Rob worked as a scenic painter on sets for theater, opera, video and cinema before beginning his career as an independent muralist and exhibit painter. The company he founded, Robert Evans Murals Inc., specializes in realistic, depictive painting devoted to exhibits of natural history, history and ethnography. His work appears all over the country, from Boston to Seattle, in locations including the Smithsonian Museum of American History and the Estate at Mount Vernon. Rob lives in Sherborn and works at his studio in South Natick, both in Massachusetts.
—Deborah Krieger Jennings, 34 Godfrey Road, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043; (973) 744-2582; djennings@mka.org
