 |
"Never Gone" |
 |
Our 1954 class website gives us an added way to keep in touch, and to do so in a more timely way than our Smith Quarterly. We thought we might begin by sharing profiles of friends who have died since our last reunion in May 2009.
| Katherine Tobin Gute (Kitty) | graduated from the Milwaukee Downer Seminary before entering Smith. At college she became a sociology major, lived in Morrow House, and took her junior year abroad in Geneva. Looking back in 1964, she said: “I worked as a secretary in Milwaukee for two years before marrying an intern on his way into the Navy.” Dan was a flight surgeon with an anti-submarine squadron and the Gutes spent the 2 ½ years of his service time (in Fla. and R.I.) becoming avid water skiers and winter skiing enthusiasts. A five-year urology residency and three daughters (Mary, Susie, and Connie) followed. From Boston, the Gutes took up residence in Whitefish Bay, Wisc. and restored an 1850 farmhouse for weekends on 300 rolling acres of a “stony, hilly, boggy area of the state.” After Dan’s retirement, a house on the Milwaukee River became home, and later the Gutes spent time in Tucson, Ariz. Back in Wisc., Kitty wrote for our 50th reunion book: “Grateful I am--for terrific daughters, sons-in-law, darling friends in various states—especially for growing older with a man who’s kept me on my toes intellectually, spiritually, and physically.”As stated in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the husband and wife of 53 years “chose to leave this world in dignity on July 18, 2010.” |
| Jacqueline Jones Foster (Jacque) | of Perrysburg, Ohio, came to Smith after Chatham Hall. An art history and American studies major, she lived in Talbot House. With humor, she recounted living in five locations (Cambridge, Mass; Nashville; St. Louis; Charlotte, N.C., and Westwood, Mass.) before returning to Perrysburg. Jacque was married to the late Dr. Hugh M. Foster, Jr. from 1956 to 1976.The couple had three children (Scott, Catherine, and Blair)of whom Jacque wrote in our 50th reunion book: “My three children and their families are joys, and I try to stay connected to their lives…I love them, consider them friends and am proud of them.” For more than 40 years Jacque was a docent at the Toledo Museum of Art who “offered visitors a new way of seeing.” She stressed the importance of research for docents, “meaning we all had our facts right, so that we were representing the museum professionally [and] with great care.” Through a museum-educators program, of multiple visits, she helped high school students grasp how American art can bring history and literature to life. On July 13, 2010 Jacque Foster died of cancer in Hospice of Northwest Ohio. |
| Martha de Mey | came to Smith from Stamford, Conn., attending The Roedean School in Brighton, England the year before. An art major, she lived in Hopkins B. She married John Clow, moved to Ross, Calif. In 1970 with their five children. “Kiki” became a serious writer, producing Starbreed (a science fiction novel) in 1970, and volunteering for many school-related tasks. Founder of and performer in both the Patriot Players acting troupe and the Ross Valley Players, she also designed and built the 1977 Ross School playground. She loved to play the piano, pioneered in desktop publishing, and read voraciously. She died June 16, 2010, following a four-year battle with breast cancer. |
| Sabra Kent Drohan | attended the Anna Head School in Berkeley, Cal. before entering Smith. A history major, she lived in Washburn House. She toured Europe and worked in summer stock theater after college, then took a job in advertising in San Francisco. She then moved to New York, working in advertising and then CBS. Sabra married Thomas E. Drohan in 1956 and three years later they moved to Tiburon, Cal. Here the couple’s four children (Tom Jr., Sabra, Michele, and Daniel) grew up. Their mother was an ardent and popular community organizer and fund raiser, an avid competitive bridge player, and enthusiastic traveler. She died June 14, 2010, at a Modesto hospital after suffering a heart attack at the family’s ranch near Columbia in the Sierra foothills, two days before her 77th birthday. Sabra’s husband died in 1984; survivors include her children, six grandchildren, her sister Margaret von der Linde of Basking Ridge, N.J., and a brother, Edward Kent of Redwood, Cal. |
| Georgia Hertzman Pampel | came to Smith from the Faulkner School for Girls in Chicago, lived in Baldwin House, stayed a year and completed her B.A. in Music at the University of Michigan. She spent 12 years on the editorial staff of Time in New York; married and had two children. In 1995 Georgia, who had been divorced, moved to Rockford, Ill. to be near her sister. There she became the music critic for a local paper. Her daughter, attorney Martha Pampel, and her husband Dean West live in Chicago and were on hand to assist as Georgia grew ill in the spring of 2010. They and her son were with her when she died May 13, 2010. |
| Polly Jamieson Meara | grew up in Trenton, N.J., attended Miss Fine’s School, and at Smith lived in Dewey House, and was a Government major. After graduation, she went to work in Washington, D.C. for the National Security Agency. She was an avid reader, had an abiding interest in politics, and a deep love for the beach. She volunteered at the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, St. Lawrence Rehabilitation Center and the Trenton Library. Polly died April 12, 2010, She is survived by her husband, Edward F. Meara III, their five children and five grandchildren, two sisters and a sister-in-law. |
| Virginia Brane Schulz | came to Smith from Yonkers and The Halstead School. Jinny lived in Northrop House and was a Psychology major. After graduation, she married Charles Schulz, and attended Radcliffe Management School as he went through Harvard Law School. The couple moved to San Francisco and produced three children. By 1994 Jinny had divorced and “contentedly single” was Database Manager at Disney Information Services (“a huge electronic library”) in Palo Alto. Her first grandson, Matthew Schulz, was born in February that year. At her next writing for our 2004 book, her older son had marked his 25th college reunion from Cornell, her daughter Jincy Knight had served as a Navy ER physician in Afganistan, Jinny was still working (for Dialog) in the Silicon Valley, and her nine-year-old grandson Matthew was living nearby. Jinny died February 27, 2010. |
| Bettina Reed MacAyeal | entered Smith from Lake Forest, Ill., where she had attended Ferry Hall. An English language and literature major, at Smith she lived in Gardiner House. After graduation from Barnard, she wrote, “Howard [MacAyeal] and I lived in Boston for three years where he attended Harvard Law School and our first child, Doug, was born.” Later they moved to Cincinnati, where his work with a chemical firm meant overseas travel, which she shared often. By 1979, Tina was divorced, living in Cleveland, a college librarian, with Doug in graduate school as a budding glaciologist, Berry a college junior and Jean at Chatham Hall. In 1994, Tina was newly retired from an editorship with the American Library Association, and back in Chicago. Tina died November 28, 2009. |
Catherine Parsons Smith |
came to Smith from Rochester, N.Y., where she attended Brighton High School. She was a European history major and lived in Albright. “Although I was a history major, I never gave up the flute, and after my marriage in 1955 to Ross W. Smith, I returned to Northwestern for a master’s in flute performance. There followed a period of childbearing and rearing (boy, girl, boy, all healthy) in which I took considerable delight.” Obtaining a Doctorate in Musical Arts from Stanford (1969) gave her the means to combine loves of history and music, and opened the academic career that followed in Reno, Nev. Early on she produced books on historical flute methods, and then four major books on American composers Mary Carr Moore and William Grant Still, plus a host of articles and presentations to professional associations to present her findings. Her death September 1, 2009 occurred following a recurrence of breast cancer. Survivors include her children, five grandchildren, and partner of ten years, retired Brooklyn College sociologist Paul Charosh. |
| Jeanne Hawes Faulkner | entered Smith from Chatham Hall. She grew up in New Canaan, Conn., and lived in Hubbard House, majoring in history. Next she lived in New Haven, was a docent at the Yale University Art Gallery, and married Winthrop Faulkner in 1955. Following Army service (CIA) and completion of his graduate study in architecture at Yale, they and three children moved to Chevy Chase, Md. and then into Washington, DC. Jeanne died August 8, 2009. |
| Prudence Luneburg Ross | grew up in Whitman, Mass., where she attended Whitman High School before entering Smith. An economics major, she lived in Wallace House. Married Donald Ross in June 1955, lived in Cleveland for eight years, producing three children (Janette, Julie, and Peter) before moving to Lebanon, N.H. Here Prue became a volunteer and a teacher in the public school music program. She died June 14, 2009. |