50 - 59
1950’s
Eleanor MacLellan ’51 is working for Religious of the Sacred Heart currently living in Cambridge, MA. She is involved in environmental education at Drumlin Farm, a Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary. Along with several other Teacher/Naturalists, Eleanor teaches farming programs and wildlife programs to elementary school children. She hopes to convey a sense of respect and appreciation for all life and an understanding of the interdependence of all things. Her work gives her the opportunity to spend many hours outside and which she says is “fun and rewarding.”
Phyllis “Fif” O'Hara La Morder ’51 picked up her nursing degree in 1952 and one in gerontology in 1964. But before she began working she raised her five kids (the fifth is adopted). Then she went back to school to get the nursing degree at AGE 52. Then to UMass/Amherst, to get the gerontology and public policy at AGE 64! After that, she decided to published a book last year, and get back on the lecture circuit in the New England area. Occasionally she does some pro bono work for clients/families dealing with some form of dementia. “Fif” says she is “too busy to actually retire as she looks forward to age 80 next year.”
In May, Dacia Van Antwerp ’52 graduated from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago with a M Div. She has begun working in the Diocese of Saginaw, MI as a Pastoral Administrator (PA). In other words, she will be in charge of a Catholic parish in that area.
Marie “Maisie” Lufkin RSCJ ’54 is still working full time at Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service (LSAFHS) in East Harlem where she teaches English as a Second Language to 15 – 20 young mothers, and helps with support services at the Agency as well. She has been working there since 1994, and living in East Harlem with her RSCJ community.
Edelmira Fernandini ’55 has had a very happy year with the birth of two new granddaughters, one in Japan and one in South Florida. Edelmira and her husband travelled to Japan recently to visit their son and his family and then went to stay with friends on the beautiful island of Tasmania.
Mary Jane Sullivan ’55 will be celebrating her golden jubilee as an RSCJ on June 19th at Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart.
Virginia Fettig ’56 and husband, Ken, just got back from 2 weeks hiking in Switzerland. Also in the same group was Martha Rowland from their class, and Martha’s husband, Dick. Virginia is still working as an attorney at my home in her office, and enjoys seeing her three grandchildren, who live nearby.
Henrietta Holton Thomas ’56 BFA is wrapping up a fifty five piece art show at the foundry where she cast five pieces. She is going to have another show at a local restaurant in Manheim Central, in Lancaster County. She is leaving for Montana to marry off her third son, Tony, in Bozeman. Her first son, Howard, was married in Las Vegas at Graceland Chapel in March.
Louise McKeon Belt ’57 was married from 1957 to 1996, when her husband was hit by a car. She raised six children and has 20 grandchildren; 13 of the grandchildren are from her daughter Emma Forget. Currently, Louise spends her time caring for her handicapped son, Aelred, watching the stock market on CNBC and growing vegetables and flowers in her big organic garden. Her political interests are prolife and in helping the Belt Environmental Laboratory for the Study and Rivers and Flood Hazards at St. Louis University.
Maria Ujlaky Kosinski ’57 recently left Connecticut and moved to Fort Lauderdale, FL, where her husband opened an office several years ago, Kosinski Architecture. Maria left Yale after nearly 30 years, and just started her new appointment at the University of Miami. UM asked her to start a program similar to the one she established at Yale (Directed Independent Language Study). She says she will “continue to use her Yale email for a while.”
Catherine Gilbane Cary ’58 is happily married and has three married children and eight grandchildren. They all live in Massachusetts and so she feels fortunate to have them nearby. Her family enjoys life on Cape Cod and in Naples, FL in the winter months. As to her favorite past time, she said “spending time with her grandchildren, and then golf.”
Jane Flavin Leary ’58 is an associate broker with Prudential Holmes and Kennedy in Chappaqua, New York. She is married to Barrett and they have 4 children (all married) and 7 grandchildren with 2 more on the way.
Rosie Desnoes McIver ’58 got married in 1970, to Cecil, and she then took on the responsibility of looking after his four children, all of whom have become her very good friends. She continued to pursue her own interests - teaching and landscaping - and in 1976 they migrated to Florida where they had 28 delightful years. In 2004 she returned to Jamaica, with her husband, and they live next door to her mother, who is now 97 years old. Rosie and her family worship at St Peter and Paul, the same church at which she worshipped as a child. Rosie has been looking forward to her 50th reunion and seeing her friends of long standing.
Katherine Hynes Palkhivala ’58 is just peacefully living what her children call “the dream retirement.” Katherine says that “In your twenties and thirties, you really believe in progress and improvement, getting ahead and being a better person; then in your forties life gives you a few smacks upside the head, so that by the time you reach fifty you understand what you have to settle for. After that, forget improvement, you just get more like yourself, and when you reach seventy, you don't give a hoot. And that's the meaning of life.”
For the past three years, Stefani Mazzola Ramberg ’58 has participated in the Gloucester County Senior Citizens art show at the Gloucester County College in Sewell, NJ. She won first place all three years. This year she was surprised to receive 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place and qualified to enter in the state of NJ art show in the fall. Stefani has been working as a Head teacher in a Juvenile Detention center in South Jersey for the past 27 years.
Having advanced to the ripe old age of 70 and having replaced both knees and a shoulder and having had fusion to both back and neck, Joanna Newell Cowell ’59 just couldn't keep her theatre group going anymore. She has now joined the Board of the local Humane Society and is deeply involved in the planning of a new, modern animal shelter/adoption center combination. She also takes part in the Alpine Humane Society and local community band.
Updated by JB - 10/9/08