Class of 1951 In 2021 - Swarthmore College

Class of 1951 In 2021

I am entering your contributions in the order in which they came to me. It would have been nice to
have them arranged alphabetically, but that is beyond my technical abilities!

Lotte Lazersfeld Baylin
What were the high points of your career? Finally made it to a
tenured academic position
What are your personal high points? 68 years of marriage, only
recently ended
What are you doing currently that makes you happy? Listening
to music, finally getting together with kids
Family/ children/ grandchildren? Two academic sons, 2
youngish granddaughters, one from each son
What else would you like your classmates to know about you? I’ve had a good and lucky life
Nancy Robinson Posel My mother, an Episcopalian, was always interested in Quakerism.
She put me, with my brother, on an overnight train from N. C. to visit the campus and Miss
Cobbs.
  Several chapters later: Ray (with an LLB and I with an MA) came to Huntingdon Valley from
Harvard in 1954. Our daughter Anne was two and a half so we went to the library: three
shelves in the dry cleaners. For five years we and others worked doggedly (3 tax referenda)
to establish a public library.
  In 1959 we moved to Abington for a nearby Friends School for our children. No public
library! I began (part-time) Drexel Library School and Information Science.
  Perhaps in 1966 the chair of the Friends Committee on Education reported to the Abington
Friends Mothers’ Com. on an urban/suburban Friends staff exchange project. I became the
library “consultant”) for two years at the Kearney School in North Phila. That was my real
graduate school: in how the world really works.
Two years campaigning (1968-1970) for an Abington public library. I was hired by the library
board in Jan. 1971. We opened in September in a rented portion of the former Best and Co.
Department Store. By the time I retired in 1994 we had expanded and flourished to become
the busiest (and best!) in Montgomery County.
Swarthmore connections: at some point I was on alumni council. At our 25 th reunion I re-
connected with Frank Elliott (we were both separated by then). We had many wonderful
retirement adventures until his death.
         After retirement I had joined the League of Women Voters. An in-depth 2016 study of
the Pa. criminal justice system exposed untold deficiencies, including finding Pa. is the only
state failing to fund public defenders! I have been working in this area for over four years.
After Frank’s death I began to plan for a future alone (my wonderful daughters live in faraway
spots).Foulkeways was established by Quakers in 1967. I moved to this continuing care
community in 2017. Quite a few Swarthmoreans have also done so! And we are fortunate to
have a Swarthmore CEO! Before the pandemic campus committees in true Quaker fashion
flourished throughout. I feel lucky and grateful for my S’more connections.

Walter Blass PERSONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Perhaps the single
best thing that happened to me in Afghanistan is that I walked into the
International Club in Kabul one day in 1966, saw a 2 year old “blowing
bubbles soft and fine” and jumped in the pool to rescue her. It had nothing
to do with my formal duties as the Country Director of the Peace Corps.
Still, it removed all of the survivor guilt I felt from the Holocaust.
CURRENT ACTIVITES: Fortunately, my health has survived: I had an
aortic valve replacement (TAVR) at 85; prostate problems a year later, and a
couple of torn ligaments in my feet. The benefits of that Swarthmore
education allowed me to teach MBA’s for 27 years, to mentor former
students, to enjoy their children before my granddaughters had any and to savor friendships for more
than 80 years. While my marriage ended in my early 80’s, my ex and I are good friends (now virtually)
again. Those friendships included my roommate, Bob Osborn, who passed away a few years ago, and
Gerry Pollack who is very much alive. I have been a Trustee at Guilford College for 43 years before
being pushed into emeritus status, although recurring financial crises have very much engaged me in
trying to preserve a Liberal Arts college like Swarthmore but without a $2 Billion endowment: a fairly
common challenge in today’s Higher Education world.
FAMILY: Janice, my ex-is in her 95th year and while needing help, is doing well. Kathryn continues to
man the barricades at MIT as the Safety Officer, e.g. the enforcer of OSHA rules on campus.
Christopher is the head of the Finance Office at a non-for-profit in Hurleyville, NY. Gregory is a
superintendent at ThoughtForms, a high-end construction company in Boston. His two daughters Nina
and Julia, my only grandchildren, are respectively the Marketing person at the film company in New
York that produced MOONLIGHT, and Julia in Washington DC is working for an environmental policy
outfit, her Vassar College major.
WHAT ELSE: The intersections of sheer luck and whatever survival instincts I possessed (or learned)
have been repeated over and over in my life; by sheer good fortune Richard Musgrave was my first
professor of economics at Swarthmore and set me on the road to a varied professional experience as a
civil servant, an unelected leader of 400-some Peace Corps volunteers, an oddball upper level executive
in America’s largest corporation ; then I had a chance to teach on three continents just because I
happened to attend a gathering of corporate planners when there were only 80 such people in the
country. The stock broker who served with me on the Guilford Board offered to manage my savings
and in that role assured me of more than enough to live into my 90’s. Lastly, I went to some free lunch
where the speaker talked about an opportunity to become a member of an Assisted Living Program in
the next township, but without leaving my house of 50 years, and being guaranteed even skilled nursing
to the end. That’s called good luck!

Andrea Wilcox Palmer Career high points: Two years in mid-1950s in
a cultural anthropology field study in an Indonesian village.
Personal high points: marriage and children.
Currently happy: phone and Zoom contact with family.
Family: Carl '86 and Sara '91 are on same Swarthmore College reunion
cycle as us. Older sibs Cindy and Mike are Earlham grads. Three great
young adult grandkids.

Clarkson Palmer Career high points: 1) In 1980s, provided on-the-job
orientation to a physician newly hired by the World Health Organization
who went on to become WHO's Director General. 2) In 1990s,
supervised large improvement in childhood immunization coverage
rates for Kentucky. Had a major part in developing a computerized
reminder system that contributed to this.
Personal high points: marriage and children.
Currently happy: reviewing family correspondence and photos.
Family: same as above for Andy.
What else: 1) Biggest enthusiasm in retirement has been to support Nonviolent Peaceforce,
which is pioneering in effective peacemaking. 2) I am rather deaf, so hope classmates will
speak clearly and not too fast.

Ruth Hochheimer Randall What were the high points of my
career? Haven’t received my Nobel Prize yet – still waiting. My jobs
usually had to do with education and training, but, I suspect that like
many of us (women especially) I never thought of them as a career.
  A personal high point was 1972, (really!), when Jim said, “Look,
we’ve got $10,000!” So we took all three children, ages 9, 12 and
15, out of school and traveled in Europe. I don’t think the children
learned much, but it was wonderful for the family unit. Oh, yes, 12-
year-old Tom learned quite a lot about pin-ball machines in bars.
I’m very active in a local group called Community Without Walls,
which was founded to help older people develop new relationships. It’s been great for me
because it’s worked! I have many new friends and relationships which I enjoy, along with
family. I also volunteer at a local pre-school, and STILL sing in a chorus, this time with the
Westminster Community Chorus. One of my current interests is helping friends write their
memoirs .I also like puttering in my house, which I’ve lived in for 55 years.
Some of you probably remember my husband, Jim Randall, who was around our senior year.
He ended up teaching music at Princeton, but died in 2014. We have three children, seven
grandchildren, and one adorable 2-year-old great-grandchild. They’re all on the East coast,
including our eldest, who lives locally.
  What did I get out of Swarthmore? Those honors classes, not because of the subject
matter, but because of the relentless need to write, write, write every week. I’ve never been
afraid to write since!

Dick Frost High points of my career: Education at Brooklyn Friends School, Swarthmore
College, and University of California at Berkeley (PhD in history)
 --Member of professional choir at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Brooklyn, 1941-47, with high
points at Carnegie Hall and Waldorf Astoria.
 --Professor of history at United College, University of Manitoba, Canada, in 1960-63.
 --Marriage to Barbara Crawford of Winnipeg, Manitoba, my wife of 57 years and mother of
my two children, Caitlyn and Heather.
--Professor at Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, l966-96.
--Publication of two controversial books, one on the infamous Mooney-Billings radical San
Francisco labor case by Stanford University Press, and the other on the impact of the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad on the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande Valley.

--Self-appointed advisor to Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, 2018- present.
My personal high points: My wife and daughters keep me going as an old man. A second is
the value of history as a liberal art, that enables you to live on possibilities and probabilities
rather than the need for absolutes--something we have nearly lost in our culture. A third is
light-hearted humor in introducing 4-part madrigals. I published a book of these called, I
Never Saw a Silver Swan. Finally, I have long believed that beautiful things are a special joy
in life.
   What are you doing currently that makes me happy? What you mean by "happy" I would
call "satisfied," which is less emotional but goes deeper. It happens that I received an hour
earlier than your email one from Senator Chuck Schumer, whom I knew distantly when I was
an upper-classman at Brooklyn Friends School about 75 years ago, to join him in creating a
Schumer advisory board to help him deal with a very narrow situation currently in the US
Senate, where he can't afford to make mistakes. I responded at once.

Ellen Lovell As for me, everything is the same -- still enjoying life at my retirement
community, and still in good health. I like reading and doing crossword puzzles. I receive
frequent news and visits from three daughters. Exciting, no? But I do like hearing about
others--it's just that life is naturally somewhat limited these days.

Mary L. Johnson Highpoint of my career: Teaching in Turkey for three years at an
American school for Turkish girls.
  Personal high point: My 90th birthday.
  Family: No children, but 11 nieces and nephews, lots of grandnieces
and nephews and great-grandnieces and nephews, and one
great-great-grandnephew, a few of whom live nearby and whom I see
often. See Jan., 1991 National Geographic for an article and photos
of and by my nephew Warren Johnson, who was at that time studying
pumas in southern Chile and Argentina.
  What makes me happy: Daily walks in the countryside, observing the
wildlife, connecting with family.

Anne Ashbaugh Kamrin An early high point of my career was a
paper I published with Marcus Singer and the man who would
become my husband, Robert Kamrin, called “The influence of
denervation upon trauma‐induced regenerates of the forelimb of the
post‐metamorphic frog.” I went on to teach biology for many years at
the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, and I loved that.
My personal high points were getting married and having three won-
derful children. I now have two grandsons, one of whom is following
in my scientific footsteps, and the other of whom just graduated from
Swarthmore!
  I am taking turns visiting two of my children, until activities at my retirement community re-
sume, and I am enjoying this very much. My third daughter is part of a chamber ensemble in
California, so I watch her videos whenever I can.
  I am also very sad to report that my husband passed away a year and a half ago.

Barbara Thompson Young I hesitated to send in a bio as I left Swarthmore after 2 years,
got married and graduated from UCLA in 1951. But I still remember with great fondness my
years at Swarthmore. It was so different from my other educational experiences because it

was small and I lived in a dorm. I participated in swimming and diving as well as the radio
station programming. Fun years, but my family couldn't afford more years there so I went to
public universities.
  My years since have not been in academia. After marrying and finishing school, I taught
school at a private, independent school, then gave birth to 3 sons, one of whom attended
Swarthmore. I have done a lot of volunteer jobs, from PTA to being a docent at the Los An-
geles County Museum of Natural History, the Huntington Library (where I also worked for 10
years), the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, the Santa Ynez Historical Museum. I have
served on Library Boards and a local outdoor theater board. Currently, I live in the Santa
Ynez Valley in California. I have hiked the mountains here for 35 years, often as leader. I
have hiked in most of the National Parks in California and many western states as well as in
Europe. I no longer hike, but I work in watercolors and paint weekly with a group, I sing in a
church choir, play bridge and belong to 3 book clubs. Plus I am fortunate enough to be in
good health and able to live in my home of 35 years. I will always remember my years at
Swarthmore.

Faith Woodward Eckler OK; you talked me into it. But I can't note any highest point in my
life. It's been a succession of medium heights.
   I have three adult children, two of them retired -- now that's a thought -- the third will call it
quits in a couple of years. I have five grandchildren, but no great grandchildren -- my major
disappointment at this point in my life. I have resided for 8 years in a CCRC (Continuing Care
Retirement Community) in Basking Ridge, NJ where everyone else has hordes of great
grandchildren to boast about. I can’t join that conversation.
   Once I was married, I never held a paying job, but I've worn a number of hats. In the late
1970s, I was the first woman elected warden of the Episcopal Church in Morristown, NJ. For
55 years I was a weekly volunteer in the Norris County Nursing Home and was cited by state
and county for my long years of service. I was also on the boards of several charities in Mor-
ristown.
   My fun activities included hiking with my husband, gardening and writing. I've had a number
of small items published in various niche-magazines. My history of the County Nursing Home
   I haven't really ceased being a volunteer. Here at the CCRC I am chair of the Library Com-
mittee and de facto Librarian for our Library of more than 2,000 books. A small grant enables
us to buy 8 new books every month, and keeping on top of the day to day running of the Li-
brary keeps my mind moderately sharp.
 It has been -- and still is -- a busy and rewarding life. But I suspect that most Swarthmore al-
ums could say the same thing about their lives. Oh; by the way, I have a granddaughter,
Alexa Malishchak, who graduated from Swarthmore in 2000.

Jim Lincoln What were the high points of your career?
    Starting a company to design, manufacture, and sell a desktop computer two years before
IBM came out with the PC.
   Selling that company to 3M.
   Traveling often to Europe and Japan, frequently with my wife, for combined business and
   pleasure.
What are your personal high points?
   Marrying Maggie MacCollum (Swarthmore '56) and remaining married to her for now more
   than 60 years.

Having two children who have gone into professions devoted toward helping others (medi-
  cine and social work).
What are you doing currently that makes you happy?
  Walking in the woods near our house.
  Meeting an old friend for sushi at a restaurant in Cambridge.
  Taking a watercolor painting class, although I see little difference between what I'm doing
  now and what I did 40 years ago.
Family/ children/ grandchildren?
      Our children as previously mentioned; plus two grandsons, now grownups, by our son.

Dan Singer Still around and still married to my first wife and, at 90, still sentient. Can’t really
do better than that! Obviously, we’re still in DC — kids (4) grown and gone but still very much
in touch. First two kids are Swarthmore grads — Amy, a historian of the Ottoman empire, is
now emerita and retired after years on the faculty of Tel Aviv University, and holds a newly
endowed chair at Brandeis. And Ellen an equine orthopedic surgeon living and practicing in
the UK. The other two kids are Yale graduates (Recall: Maxine and I have our professional
degrees PhD and LLB from Yale and Maxine was a member of the Yale Board for more than
a decade — for more on Maxine, just Google her) — Son David is successfully doing venture
capital stuff from the Bay Area (married, three kids — two in college and one still in high
school). Youngest has a PhD in math and, after getting tenure on Haverford math faculty,
was elected elections commissioner in Philadelphia; now is consulting from Portland Oregon
in election security. Her daughter also in computer security stuff from Bay Area.
    Most of my professional life I spent lawyering in the private sector as a partner in a big
white-shoe multi-city law firm. High points were months spent in 1965 & ’66 in Mississippi
getting civil rights workers and local folks out of jail — and to pay the mortgage and tuition
acting as counsel for the Italian development company that built the Watergate. Also, princi-
pal family recreation in the 1970s-90s was scuba diving around the world— we had built a
seaside house in Curacao. And all of us lived in Israel for the school-year ’71-’72. It was a
rewarding career — personally and professionally — no complaints on that score.

Elisabeth Boessenkool Ketchel I’m happy to be alive, mobile, and
somewhat compos mentis. Love my home and my children and grand-
children and great grands, and my friends. Highlights of a long career in
architecture were: a year as apprentice in Geneva, Switzerland, finally
getting registered at age 50, working with many talented people on many
varied projects, and finally having my own firm for a few years building
solar and underground homes for families who still enjoy them today. Af-
ter retirement, I consulted with a bank in Kuwait during the time of the oil
fires, a great adventure.
    We travelled widely as a family, had two sabbatical years, one in Cambridge. UK where
my kids acquired lovely accents lost after only 1 week back in Tennessee, and one in Ge-
neva, where my kids learned French and my husband worked at the WHO. During these we
explored extensively by microbus and on foot. My husband and I parted ways after 26 years
but are still friends (he’s now 99).
    I discovered a love of acting, especially comedy, at age 81 and have been in many shows
here at my retirement community. I’m also still a guardian ad litem which I love. Keeps me in
touch with children and makes me feel useful! Riding my bike around the community gives
me joy, as do lawn bowling and line dancing. Being in touch with some of you every so often
at Alumni Notes time is also a pleasure. Keep writing!

Renee Schepses Hoffman Here is a very short summary of my life
since 1951.
Personal high points:
             Getting my degree in Social Work
             Getting my own apartment in New York
             Meeting and ultimately marrying my husband, Arthur
            Our daughter’s birth 2 years later
             Ellen’s marriage and birth of granddaughter Maddy

Another track: We moved out of NYC to Bellport, LI in 1971.Good life personally and profes-
sionally—got my own practice, worked until I was in my eighties. Special focus on women
with childhood abuse background.
  Currently in assisted living facility—have become friends with a couple who play chess, so
I’m learning that. It’s challenging but fascinating!! The Pandemic has made life kind of crazy,
but I think we’ve handled it pretty well.

Emily Dayton Slowinski I am pressed right now by the issues in-
volved in selling our Wisconsin lake cabin, but here are my limited re-
plies (to the invitation to the virtual reunion). I will not be joining you as I
do not own a computer. I made that choice 5 ½ years ago when my
husband, Emil died and I feel I can live the rest of my life happily without
one.
  My social work career was cut short as I stayed home as our 5 chil-
dren were growing up as was the accepted form in the 50’s and 60’s.
We had 4 biological children and one girl adopted from Korea at age 11. Since then we have
10 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren. None live any closer than 100 miles from me.
  Speaking of life highlights what stands out for me is the event in 1966 when, as a member
of the Bach Society of the Twin Cities, I sang in a performance of the Mozart Requiem with
the Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of visiting conductor Robert Shaw.
  Music and gardening have always been my main interests. I have always found a choral
group to sing with, even on sabbatical years in English speaking countries. At Swarthmore I
played French horn in the college orchestra and I continued with that instrument until my mid-
forties. I took up the cello when our youngest daughter started that instrument in summer
school. I bought my own cello after that summer with the 4 th graders, found an excellent
teacher and eventually joined an amateur orchestra and found people interested in playing
chamber music. I put considerable energy into cello practice and playing over the next 40
years when I had to give it up due to a shoulder injury.
  I would like my classmates to know I live in a senior housing co-op in South Minneapolis. It
is independent living in a very attractive area with interesting and active resdents and lots of
committees to get the work done and decisions made. I am hoping to stay here for the rest of
my years. Have a good time zooming. Give me a call if you pass through the Twin Cities.
tel: 612-721-0488

Jerry Pollack High points of my career:The high points in my career came in the early part of my
life. I think back on my first job as a high point. It came just as I was finishing my doctoral dissertation
and was looking for a job in private industry. I aspired to a career in public service as a graduate
student, but in 1958 when my graduate work was nearing completion, Eisenhower was President and
government service seemed unexciting. Just then it was my great luck to meet the mother of our

classmate, Jim Cox. She was working in the Princeton placement office at the time and, as she and I
chatted, she asked about my plans. When I told her, she showed me a letter from a Philadelphia
engineering firm that wanted to hire an economist. I applied and got the job. It was with
Leeds&Northrup, a manufacturer of high-quality industrial control equipment, and for three years I got
a lot of useful experience and made good friends. It was one of the best things that ever happened to
me. Also, because I received a good salary, much more than I could have earned in academia, it gave
me a leg up in negotiating compensation in the jobs that followed.
  My second high point came shortly after JFK became president. Washington now seemed an exciting
place and many of my graduate school classmates were drawn into government. Much as I enjoyed my
situation at Leeds&Northrup, I didn't see much of a future for myself there. And so, through a friend, I
moved to a job in the State Department, working on international financial matters. After a little more
than a year, I had the extraordinary luck to become the international economist for the Joint Economic
Committee of Congress, chaired at that time by Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois. He was a liberal
Democrat, a celebrated economist, and a wonderful person. Being able to work closely with him was
certainly a high point in my career.
Personal High Points: I think my senior year at Swarthmore was a personal high point. By then I had
survived my traumatic experience with advanced calculus in my junior year, had good friends, and
enjoyed warm relations with several professors. I felt really at home. This was in sharp contrast with
what I experienced when I began graduate school later in the year. There I was again among strangers,
in an unfamiliar environment, and at the bottom of another ladder.
  Of course, my marriage was a very special high point. I met my wife, Pat, in Washington in the early
1960s at the great social mixer society, the Washington Ski Club. This club featured not only skiing, but
also hiking and tennis. After tennis, there were usually beer parties at the home of one or another
participant. And that is where Pat and I clicked. Pat grew up in Argentina and was then working at the
World Bank. By then I was at the Bureau of Economic Affairs in the Commerce Department. The great
special events in our lives were the births of our daughters in 1971 and 1973, and then the births of our
grandchildren – three girls and one boy. Pat and I will shortly celebrate our 53rd anniversary.