Class Agents Other decades

1960s & 1970s

Priscilla (Haase) Hickey '61, Irma (Gilman) Richards '61, Donald Richards '61, Margaret Joyce (O'Flynn) Flynn '61, and Jane (Albert) Boland '61 gathered in October at the wedding of Priscilla and Tom Hickey's daughter in Bethel, Conn.

Class Agent Sandra Rosenblad Arnold '65 submitted the following updates for her class. Jim Bennett '65, and his wife Julie are still living in Northfield, Vt. Jim has retired but is still directing the Regimental Men's Chorus and teaching music appreciation. He still performs with the Heritage Brass Quintet of Hanover, N.H., The Yankee Brass Band (a mid-19th century brass band that performs on original instruments), and The Great Western Brass Band in Silverton, Co. Jim summers in Maine at his cottage on South Pond in Locke Mills. Jim and his wife have four grandchildren.

Larry Woodward '65, '80 retired from the Portland Press Herald after 22 years as a sports writer. Sandra noted that “We met in The Villages, Fla., where Larry has resided since 2004, with his wife Judy (Morgan). Larry covers the polo matches and writes for the local newspaper, as well as some international polo magazines. He enjoys playing golf and got his first hole in one in March.

Peg Beecher Hlavacek '65 lives with her husband Jim in Torrington, Conn. She is a principal in a West Hartford elementary school and is planning to retire in two years. She has written an educational book, Developing the Gifts and Talents of All Students in the Regular Classroom, and it is a best seller on educational book lists. She is the grandmother of eight. Don '65 and Linda Gott Provost '65, '77 live in Scarborough. They both retired 12 years ago and are enjoying traveling and spending time with their five grandchildren.         

Ed LeBlanc '65 and Sharon Anderson LeBlanc '65 are both retired. Ed is fighting a courageous battle with Lou Gehrig's (ALS) disease and Sharon has just retired in June from Biddeford Middle School, where she was a math teacher. Sandra Rosenblad Arnold '65 is living in Scarborough during the summers and at The Villages, Fla., for the winter months. She and her husband, Stan, both retired nine years ago and are enjoying their six grandsons, including a set of triplets. Sandra works part time for an educational firm as a math consultant, and spends about six weeks a year in Cleveland working with teachers on the math program. She also reviews math tests for CTB-McGraw Hill.

John Gato '65 lives in South Portland and retired from the Windham School Department after 41 years of teaching. John spent many years coaching various sports and was instrumental in starting the women's basketball program at Westbrook College. John has five sons, and two granddaughters. Mary MacDuffie Jones '65 has retired and spends the summer at her cottage at Sebago Lake. She and her husband, George, have finished building a new home in Maryland. Mary has eight grandchildren, including a set of quadruplets and a set of twins, born within months of each other!

Judith Shute Kinsman '69 lives in Saco. Sandra notes that “Judy was my teaching partner for many years before she retired after 30 years of teaching in Scarborough. Judy has had wonderful success as an artist since leaving teaching.” Judith continues teaching in one of her many watercolor classes in Saco, Kennebunkport, and Old Orchard Beach. She has had solo exhibits at the Saco Museum, UNE, Bowdoin College, and the New England Watercolor Society. She has also done free-lance work for William Arthur Stationery Co. She will paint the gardens of others in her Artist in the Garden program. Her Web site is at: www.judithkinsman.com if you would like to see some of her work. She is the mother of two daughters.

Brian Gordon '63, '72 and Donna Gordon '69, '72 live in Scarborough. Donna is a guidance counselor at South Portland High School and, in 2004, took a sabbatical and spent time teaching and learning in China, India, and Tanzania with Cross Cultural Solutions. Brian retired from teaching full time but has worked part time at Deering High School in Portland for the past four years. Brian was inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000. They have one son.

Linda Lachance Wolcott '70 wrote that after graduation she worked in Windham, Westbrook, and Cumberland school districts, starting out as an English teacher, but moving on to become a library media specialist. She received a master of library science degree from the University of Maine and eventually sought additional training in instructional technology at Utah State University after much urging from Gorham professor Allan Milbury. Allan encouraged a long list of students to study with his colleagues at USU.

Linda has lived in Logan, Utah, since 1979, except for two years at the University of Georgia where she earned a doctoral degree in instructional technology. In 1991, she joined the faculty of the Department of Instructional Technology at USU. Several years ago, Linda moved into administration and has been serving as the vice provost for libraries. She has been married for nearly 25 years to a rocket scientist (really!); he is the chief engineer for the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters. “Tired of being a tourist in my own home state, I am taking early retirement at the end of this academic year and we plan to move back to Maine. Great mountain and desert scenery, great fishing, great skiing here, but no ocean (the Great Salt Lake doesn't count).”

Linda would enjoy hearing from former classmates, especially if any of them live in the West or plan to visit. Contact her at linda.wolcott@usm.maine.edu. “I'd also like to encourage members of the Class of 1970 to invest in the future of other Portland/Gorham students by contributing to USM's annual fund.”

In the fall, Daniel D. Hupp '72, a CEHD alumnus, was one of 21 state employees honored by Governor John E. Baldacci as Employee of the Year within their respective departments. The honorees were nominated by the heads of their departments or agencies for their distinguished service and accomplishments in the service to the state of Maine. Dan is a mathematics specialist/SAT coordinator in the Department of Education.

Hope Emerson Winslow '75, of Holly Hill, Fla., wrote that after a 22-year career in graphics (desktop publishing, art direction, production, illustration), which included self-employment in the San Francisco Bay area, PCWorld magazine staff, and graphics as a missionary in South Georgia, she is now in the services sector, selling and cooking food as a deli associate at Publix Super Markets, Inc. She still does illustrations on the side.

Susan Lebel Young '76, '96 has written the book, Lessons from a Golfer: A Daughter's Story of Opening the Heart, about her father well-known Maine golf champion Ray Lebel. “This wonderful story connects the dots between the game of golf and the life lessons it can teach us,” says Nancy Storey DeFrancesco, executive director of the Maine State Golf Association. Ray Lebel was a decorated Navy pilot, one of Maine's foremost oral surgeons, a jazz musician, and a loving husband and father of seven children. His illustrious golf career spanned several decades. He earned 47 club championships from five different courses, a national record, which earned him recognition in Sports Illustrated. In 1940, at age 17, he won the Maine Interscholastic Championship, the Maine Junior Championship, and the Maine State Amateur, the only player ever to win all three in the same year. He holds 12 Maine senior titles and three New England senior titles. Susan and her siblings teamed up with the Maine State Golf Association to create the Ray Lebel Scholarship Fund. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each book will be donated to the fund. Contact Susan at sly313@aol.com for a list of book stores selling the book. Susan, a psychotherapist in private practice, received a B.A. from Middlebury College. After teaching elementary and adult education for 10 years, she completed master's degrees in counseling and education at USM. She and her husband, Jon, live in Falmouth.

Gayle Packard Russell '77, '93 says to UMPG School of Nursing Class of 1977 that 9/11 happened and a 25th reunion didn't. “It has been a long time since we were together. If you are interested in a 30th reunion, let's regroup and make it happen in 2007! Send your ideas for events, or possible dates/time of year (summer vacations; fall foliage) that might work for a reunion to: Gayle at russell@megalink.net or call (207) 461-2530.

O.J. Logue '77 was inducted into the Maine Running Hall of Fame in November. An article in the Bangor Daily News noted that Logue overcame deafness, a speech impairment, and asthma to become one of the state's best runners. At Orono High School, he was the captain of three state championship teams: cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track. In college, he finished fourth in the NAIA regional qualifying meet in cross country as a sophomore and earned an invitation to the national competition. He achieved two racing milestones in 1981 when he was the first Maine finisher in the Boston Marathon and won the Maine Coast Marathon. He was the first person in Maine to compete in the Deaf Olympics and represented the United States in track and field in 1981 in Cologne, West Germany.

Diane (Labonte) Casavant '78 is an R.N. on the Rehabilitation Unit at St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, N.H. In June, she passed her certification exam in rehabilitation nursing and added CRRN to her B.S.N. She lives in Hudson, N.H., with her husband of 27 years and their three daughters.

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