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CLASS NOTES
42 SUMMER 2012 | ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE
According to the St. Lawrence athletics media
people, former Saint player and assistant coach
Bill Wilkinson
has accepted a coaching job with
the Melbourne Mustangs of the AIHL in Mel-
bourne, Australia. “Wilkie”had been coaching C.H.
Jaca in Spain, winning three consecutive cham-
pionships there. He was head coach at Western
Michigan and at Wayne State, totaling 437 career
victories before becoming an international coach.
1971
Susan Christensen Besanceney ’71
73 Briar Hill Road
Orchard Park, NY 14127
716-662-4952
SusanBes@roadrunner.com
Next Reunion: 45th, 2015 (cluster with ’69, ’70)
Each fall,
Dan Berggren
visits the students on
St. Lawrence’s Adirondack Semester. “Arcadia” is
the name of their “habitat” on Lake Massawepie,
about an hour from campus (and o -grid). Dan
wrote a song that views the “occupy movement”
through the lens of the Arcadia students. For a
link to the song, go to BerggrenFolk.com.
Bryon Bissonette
writes that he has retired from
his job as recreation director for the city of Platts-
burgh, N.Y. Bryon and his wife, Beth, spend fall
weekends at Bu alo Bills games. They have three
grandchildren in Germantown, Tenn., and they try
to visit them as often as possible.
While on a business trip with my husband to
Cooperstown, N.Y., I had the pleasure of meeting
Connie Young. She is the great-granddaughter of
Owen D. Young, an early 20th century-industrial-
ist and philanthropist who was born near Cooper-
stown, in Van Hornesville. Our main library was
named in his honor. I learned that he also built
a school in Van Hornesville to consolidate all the
rural schools in the area, and that school is also
named in his honor.
1972
Barbarajean Schaefer Blodgett ’72
1145 Harrison Street
Watertown, NY 13601-3811
315-788-0098
Barbarajeanious@gmail.com
Next Reunion: 45th, 2018 (cluster with ’74, ’74)
It goes without saying that this column would
be jammed with news from our 40th Reunion cel-
ebration, but we were celebrating on campus as
it was in production. I took copious notes about
classmates to report next time.
I did, however, want to use this column to tell you
about some very dedicated Laurentians in our
class.
Cheryl“PeeWee”Gross
has done a simply
fantastic job co-chairing our Reunion. She single-
handedly broke the class down into teams based
on our former a nity groups, assigned captains
to each group and sent numerous email blasts to
encourage attendance. Further, she instituted a
competition between teams for highest turn-out.
Along with this, she, husband
Gene Mally
and
Steve Hill
created a bicycle trip from Vermont to
campus hoping to raise additional funds for our
class gift. Oh, and she works at her own business,
Cheryl Gross and Associates, a project manage-
ment and facilitation rm in Boston. PeeWee is a
major task master and organizer, Gene is a gifted
consultant; they make the ultimate combo!
Likewise, co-chair
Paul Gilbert
has put his en-
thusiastic stamp on the festivities by hosting our
initial cocktail gathering and providing numerous
ideas and suggestions. Paul’s fabulous people
skills are put to use daily in his successful real es-
tate management business in Boston. Paul has
attended every one of our reunions and his sense
of history and place de nitely helped with the
planning stages.
Before I get lost in reunion remembrances, I want
to add my congratulations to
Chris Angus,
who
has had three of his books published this year.
The Last Titanic Story, London Underground
and
Flypaper
are all intriguing novels with compel-
ling story lines containing historic and scienti c
undertones. Chris has been writing for most of
his life but this trifecta is very special indeed. For
more, see "Laurentian Reviews" in "On Campus."
Terry Moran
has been given the 2012 John
"Snooks" Kelley Founders Award from the Ameri-
can Hockey Coaches Association. The award is
named after the famed Boston College coach
and honors coaches who have contributed to the
overall growth and development of ice hockey in
the United States. Terry is assistant men’s coach at
Castleton State College in Vermont and has been
instrumental in developing the team's success.
The award also went to his St. Lawrence coach,
George Menard, in 1988.
JudithHowe
was featured in a fascinating article
in The Atlantic.com about her chosen profession
as a gerontologist: www.theatlantic.com/health/
archive/2012/02/accidental-tourists-how-2-ger-
ontologists-found-their- eld/252777/1/?single_
page=true#bio. Judy recounts how she was lov-
ingly surrounded by older adults as a child and, as
the daughter of a minister, was drawn to a “help-
ing profession.” She credits her success in the eld
to numerous mentors and specialists who guided
and directed her to actively participate with the
elderly rather than just “study” them.
In the article, she expresses her concern for the
future of her eld as there appears to be a short-
age of college courses about aging and its rami-
cations on society, as well as a lack of interest
by many college students in the eld as a career
choice. Judy is a professor in the departments of
geriatrics and preventivemedicine at Mount Sinai
School of Medicine; director of the NewYork Con-
sortium of Geriatric Education Centers; and editor
in chief of
Gerontology and Geriatrics Education
.
I am continually awestruck by the range and
breadth of talent, expertise, commitment and
joie
de vive
our Class of 1972 encompasses. It is a privi-
lege to be your voice!
1973
Linda Tirelli Herrmann ’73
70 Lebanon Hills Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15228-1819
412-563-1628
classof73SLU@gmail.com
Next Reunion: 40th, May 30-June 2, 2013
I’d like to begin my rst report by thanking
Faith
Prentice White
for writing this column for many
years. When I saw Faith at a KDS reunion on Cape
Cod last fall, she told me she felt it was time for a
change and asked if I’d be interested. Faith did a
great job for a long time and I’m sure we all ap-
preciate her work.
One of Faith’s last o cial duties was to pass on a
letter from
Mary Shea Herzog.
After a few years
in Boston, she earned a master’s in special edu-
cation at Syracuse and married Bill Herzog M’81.
They returned to the North Country with their
two daughters when Bill accepted a position as a
guidance counselor at Canton High School; Mary
later worked in special education in Ogdensburg.
They now live in Greenwich, Conn., and in 2008,
Mary successfully completed the NYC Marathon,
“placing in the top quarter of my age group!”They
spend summers on the St Lawrence River, and
she celebrated her 60th birthday there withmany
family members and close friends, among them
The 5th Annual SLU Class of 1970 Vail Reunion was held March 10-11, 2012, as detailed
in the 1970 Class Notes. From left are Heidi Hansen, Tom and Connie Harris Saddlemire,
Al and Sue Gemberling Olszewski and Wendy Van Romer Dunster.