Reflections Magazine Issue #68 - Fall 2008 | Page 20

Alumni News—Class Notes Anne LaVallee Thousand ’58 of Garden, MI, combined her interests in history and genealogy to write “Antoine Deloria, A Michigan Pioneer,” published in 2000, which includes the story of her ancestors. She continues to write and do research for others. She and her husband Jack (photo below) enjoy life in the Upper Peninsula but now admit to spending winters in warmer locales. Sister Grace Ellen (Marie) Urban ’58 of Sylvania, OH, has been involved with peace and justice issues for many years and also works maintaining the gardens, grounds, shrines and woodland areas of the Sisters of St. Francis retirement community. 1960s Sister Mary Alan Stuart, OP ’62 this spring received the 2008 Outstanding Alumni Award from Purdue University’s College of Consumer and Family Sciences. In May, she was further honored with enrollment in the Foods and Nutrition Hall of Fame at Purdue. Angie O’Neill Bidlack ’64 and her husband traveled “down under” last fall. In Australia, they visited with Beatrice McGlone Player ’61 and her husband. In New Zealand, Angie took her first bungy jump at the Karawau River Bridge—about 140 feet—and did a lot of cycling. (Angie is preparing to bicycle from her Wexford, PA, home to her 45th reunion at Siena Heights in fall 2009!) Members of the class of ’66 (above) gathered at Siena Heights last fall. Joyce Aarsen Cohen ’66 of Morristown, NJ, is an advance practice nurse/psychologist who volunteers at the Seeing Eye animal hospital. “It’s the only time my patients ever lick me!” Regina Winfield Spivey ’67 and her husband Jim of Green Valley, AZ, celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary last summer. Mary Alice Comar ’67 lives in Ossineke on the shore of Lake Huron’s Thunder Bay. She retired in 2005 after 25 years in the Alpena Public Schools teaching high school art and English and now raises hay and trains horses on a farm ten miles south of her home. Ann MacMillan Eichman ’67 and her husband moved several years ago to San Diego, CA, where they “love walking everywhere, enjoying the rich cultural heritage and recreational offerings, and meeting lots of new people.” 20 Reflections Fall ’08 Susan Matych-Hager ’68 retired in 2007 after 33 years teaching music at Siena Heights and has launched a successful new career designing and selling handmade glass art beads and jewelry. To receive her monthly newsletter about exhibitions, email her: [email protected]. Eileen Quinn Knight ’69 of Orland Park, IL, traveled to New York recently for a special Mass celebrating the first step in the effort to canonize Dr. Knight’s great uncle, the late Msgr. Bernard Quinn, founding pastor of the first parish established for black Catholics in the Brooklyn (NY) Diocese. The request for sainthood goes next to the Vatican. in recognition of her work with groups including the Catherine Cobb Domestic Violence Center, the Lenawee County Fair and Relay for Life. Bob Schrock ’84 was promoted this spring to vice president at TLC Community Credit Union in Adrian. He has been with TLC since 2002. Melissa Szymanski ’90 is a Rochester Hills artist who works exclusively in colored pencil. She has won several national awards and was featured last fall in an exhibition at the Northville Art House titled “Wow! That’s Colored Pencil?” She uses a burnishing technique, working in heavy layers to create a painterly look. Ken Kops ’84 of Woodbridge, VA, a commissioned officer with the U.S. Army, has advanced to battalion John Bruzina ’91, who graduated from the Michigan State University College of Law in 2007, commander. is an attorney in the banking practice at Cullen and Dick Nelson ’84 moved to Ludington several years Dykman LLP in New York, NY. He writes: “I live in after retiring from his Detroit career as purchasing lower Manhattan on Water Street, around the corner manager with General Motors. He’s found a new from my office on Wall Street. I walk three blocks career, however, as a hospital volunteer: He first was to work. It’s very quiet down here, which I like.” 1970s a patient advocate in the ER at St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital of Macomb; now he is volunteer coordina- Kathleen Walsh Carlson ’92 and her husband Mary Phillips ’71 of Galesburg, IL, was accepted Neal live in Brooklyn, NY, with their son Quinn, who tor at Ludington’s Memorial Medical Center, overinto the 2008 “Art on the Grand” outdoor art fair. turns three in September. After more than a decade seeing the efforts and orientation of 120 people She showed small watercolors at the July event in working in public relations, Kath took time off to assisting in every department of the hospital. Fa