Ann Larson? Hi! What have you been up to?

I think of my life as a braid that has three main strands -- ministry, music, and social justice. I seldom engage in one without at least one of the others.

I graduated from Yale ('74, psychology) with no clear idea of what to do when I grew up. So, I went to Harvard Divinity School -- a great place to explore oneself and the big questions. Refound my Lutheran roots and finished my M.Div. at the Lutheran seminary in Philadelphia. I was ordained 3/15/80-- and as far as I know, was the first woman ordained in a Catholic church--the Lutheran bldg was too small to accommodate the expected crowd.

My ministry has been nomadic -- campus ministry stints at MIT and Penn (while in seminary), and then Stanford, Indiana University , and Butler (which plagiarized Yale's colors, bulldog mascot and motto -- but does much better in basketball). I have an impressive beer mug collection. There were also a lot of interim positions in challenging Indiana congregations. Two of them completed major renovations started under my tenure -- after decades of starting and aborting projects. So I must have done something right--tho' I doubt they give me any credit :-)

After 9/11, I needed to come home to the east coast. I moved to Burlington Vermont area in 2002 for a parish position. (Chittenden County is practically a colony of the NYC region.) That put me close to family -- my sister and my twice-widowed mother -- for the first time in my adult life. After three years, the congregation's money and my health were depleted. So for the past five years I've pieced together p.t. and contract work and managed my mother's financial affairs. I do some fill-in preaching (I'm told I'm good -- the same congregations keep inviting me back.) I'm involved in Vermont's very active folk and classical music scenes and work on social justice issues, primarily domestic and sexual violence.

I've managed not to have any serious long-term relationships, nor children. But I'm a doting aunt, even if I don't see much of my brother's kids in California and Arizona--or even my sister's kids in Vermont (they're very busy teens). And I'm known as the pastor who likes to sing with kids. I'm a two-time cancer survivor (1990 and 2001 -- caught early, no chemo). I love living in a state where I am toward the middle of the political spectrum instead of on the far left. And I love having visitors for mini-reunions.

Welcome, Susan Shaffner!

Here's 40 yrs in 7 sentences:
I went to Oberlin College, but dropped out to change the world after a year. I didn't like the classist system of expensive colleges turning out the next generation of power-brokers. I visited some communes, and volunteered as a teaching assistant in Harlem, and then landed a job in Oberlin Public Schools for a couple years.. I followed a boyfriend to Boston, (short-lived romance) and settled there for 9 years, getting married, had my one son, and started Snake and Snake Productions, my cards and t-shirt business, which I still operate http://snakeandsnake.com. We moved to a backwoods cabin in the Blue Ridge Mtns in 1981, and after divorcing, moved the Durham NC in 1986, where we all still live. I started my second biz a few years ago, Pathway to English. Tutoring Korean school children is much more fun than printing t-shirts, and with the economy hurting my retail biz, I had to do something.

MarySue Moses says HI!

This is me in a nutshell: Majored in Theatre Arts in college (Case Western Reserve U., Cleveland), promptly became a waitress, then joined a Children's Theatre company in Vermont, went to drama school in London (transformative, hooked on Shakespeare ever since), joined Illusion Theater in Minneapolis (I have lived in St. Paul now for two decades), worked there for 17 years, then co-founded Theatre at Work (we do theatre-based training for businesses, the company still exists as a back-burner operation for me) after that. Oh yeah. I got married at age 33, but it was a dismal failure in most respects, and I stayed too long, but had a daughter, Eliza, who is a very bright light, now 23. Got divorced in 1995 and thought life couldn't be happier. Reconnected with my old high school best friend and boyfriend (well, the romantic phase lasted 3 weeks after we graduated from RHS) Phil Kilbourne (cousin of Ed) and we got married in 1997. Much happiness (and laughter, the guy is funnier than ever) ever since. He's an actor (fabulous), and I now work full time with persons with Alzheimer's and dementia at an assisted-living, doing activities, and coaching and training resident assistants. My mom had dementia (she lived with it for over a decade) and that inspired my career change. I got my Master's in Gerontology in 2008 and am now finding training opportunities for myself outside of my regular job when I can. Busy! I love working with memory care residents, it's a great joy. Sometimes I teach them Shakespeare. They can learn it, cause it's like music.

Say "Hi!" to Bob Thompson!

Greetings to Dr. Ed Kilbourne!

Like most everyone else here, I was RHS ’70, and then (like my father and uncle) went to Cornell for my undergraduate degree and for medical school. Then, I went south to Birmingham, AL for my internship & residency, where I met a beautiful young nurse on the wards, now my wife Barbara. We met in ’78, but didn’t marry until ’82—which Barbara thought was FAR too long a courtship—but I was young and … well … whatever … you know how men are. We married when I finally realized that there was just no way I could even contemplate living my life without her.

After residency in internal medicine and an additional two years of epidemiology training at the CDC, I joined the CDC staff where I worked, primarily in environmental health and toxicology, for the next 22 years. A real life changer was CDC assigning me to live and work in Spain for two years 1985-1987 to assist the Spanish government with a large toxic epidemic (20,000 cases). I loved it (the work, of course, not the epidemic). I worked in a Spanish-only environment, so I got to learn Spanish, I was in great shape, and I had the most scientifically productive period of my career. But when I was asked to stay longer, Barbara said it was time to “get serious,” that is, we needed to go back to the States (Atlanta), buy a house and have a bunch of kids.

She, of course, was right, and we did. Davey (born with Down’s syndrome) is about to turn 22 and will get a Special Education “completion” diploma from our local high school. Despite expected difficulties, Davey flourishes, and looks astonishingly like me. Mikey, is 20 and is finishing his second of four years at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America, near Poughkeepsie, NY) which trains high-end chefs. I was worried about Mikey finding a vocation he liked, but he’s really latched on to cooking and is really good. We also have two daughters: Becka (17), is a great student and truly a star high school athlete. Katie (14) is the most studious of the four, kind of like me in that regard. Both girls are gorgeous, and consequently, “boyfriend issues” arise frequently.

Of possible interest, I spent a year (2005-2006) away from my family as an employee of the State Department at our Embassy in Baghdad, where my job was to assist the smartest and most effective of Sadam’s weapons scientists to find productive civilian work. It was a tough job. I had to wear body armor, travel in helicopters, the armored “rhino” bus, military convoys, or with Blackwater, and things in Iraq were just not going very well right then. Since 2006, (back home) I’ve worked as a consultant in public health, epidemiology, and biodefense. Finally, if anyone actually cares to know more, they can see excruciating detail (and a few cute family photos) on my web site: http://kilbourne.net

Welcome Bob Marlow!

Hey Bob, tell me what you have been up to in the last 40 or so years so I can post it here! Welcome aboard!

Barbara (Tomkins) Melnick

I work as an accountant and consider it my third career. After graduating from Beloit College with a BS in biology I worked as a medical research assistant at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston . I married Jerry Melnick (also from Beloit ) after living together for 6 years and we had 3 kids who are now 21, 23 & 25 years old. So my second career (but first in my heart) was staying at home with the kids when they were young, and finally after becoming divorced I started doing part time bookkeeping which has evolved into my third career as I now work full time as an accountant. I’m currently open for ideas on what should come next – accounting has served me well but it is a tad dull!
I’ve lived in the Boston area (Wayland) for years now and for fun I hike, garden and travel as much as I can afford. I leave for France in 2 weeks!

Welcome Susan Main!

Coach Johnson - Maroon and White! Fight! Fight! Fight!

Charlee Belmore... Where are you?

Aloha Peter Carlisle...Your Honor, Sir

And we can say "We knew him when...". Click here to see what Peter is up to lately.

Mr. Filacy

Remember Gail Brightman Davis? We do!

Hello, Pam Simonsen Beaubien

Stan Brown! Hi!!

Stan writes:

With respect to Memory Lane topics, the mind boggles:

- Safety Patrol: eating lunch in the bookroom and telling 'dirty' jokes not realizing Ms. Blumquist was lurking in the stacks waiting to narc on us, for which we were demoted (does this episode ring a bell, Irene?);

- Troop Seven: countless moments of death defying lunacy with explosive devices all in the context of a paramilitary organization;

- Thanks for the Mammaries: remember the striking resemblance between Mrs. Duff's front end and the front bumper of her 1958 Cadillac?; and

- Times have Changed: back to Safety Patrol, can you imagine a parent today allowing their child to be responsible for crossing other people's children on a busy road?