Nick and Mary Lynn Kotz are spending some of this winter on Long Boat Key, Florida. They report several visits with Iris and Bob Fanger on occasion of Iris’ dance reviews for The Boston Globe. Nick is semiretired but continues to jot down fiction and fact. Mary Lynn has recently published her third volume on Robert Rauschenberg, who, with Joseph Albers, put together a powerhouse art faculty at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Mary Lynn also reports her book, Upstairs at the White House, which was on the bestseller list in 1977, has been republished, is also on audio, and, after 41 years, is again a bestseller. After Dartmouth Nick was commissioned in the Marines. Upon attending his reunion at 559th Basic School, Mary Lynn observed, “I thought he was the only one I knew who was not only polite, but gracious, chivalrous, and smart, but I found amongst those young Marines they were everywhere.” At Gilmont Farm, Virginia, the Kotzes live next to Susan and Bill Lenderking. Nick remembers freshman year he, Bill, Jim Hall, and Jack Krumpe bought a derelict car to drive to Montreal for the weekend: Friday night at UVM, on to Montreal, back to class Monday despite a blizzard.

Audrey and Dick Gardner of Dover, Delaware, recently attended the induction ceremonies of their grandson at the U.S. Marine Corps boot camp on Parris Island, South Carolina. Additionally, they traveled to the Mormon genealogical library in Salt Lake City, Utah, for expanded research on their family trees. Audrey was able to trace through a distant relation back to another relative on the Mayflower. Dick stated that no rustlers or horse thieves were uncovered in his line. Stan Bergman and Jack Doyle and Marilyn are just back from a trip to Colombia. Jack reports a delightful, welcoming, and friendly experience. They planned the trip themselves and stayed at Cartagena on the north coast and enjoyed the spectacular views of the ocean and the mountains safely away from the troubled border areas.

Sadly, we report the passing of Jay Brooks and Bill Kofoed.

—John Dinan, 20 Gardiner St., Richmond, ME 04357; (207) 252-7442; captdinan@yahoo.com