CLASS OF 1978 | 2024 | FALL ISSUE

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Greetings ’78ers,

Here’s what several of your classmates have been up to lately:

Lucy Mize has had a busy year traveling to Thailand, Indonesia, Belize, Mongolia, Canada, Philippines, and Morocco. She reports that next year will be pretty much the same with Cambodia and Fiji thrown in. Her travel is all for work, which she says depending on the election outcome, could come to a screeching halt. Between trips, her granddaughter turned one and she will defend her DrPH on November 4, 2024.

Lindsay Mathews went hiking in Switzerland, Italy, and France last summer and is looking forward to hiking in Madeira, Portugal, in March 2025.

In June, classmates Eleanor Maine, Barbara Malt, and Joyce Manchester converged at the home of Judy Packer Jesudason and James Jesudason in Boulder, Colorado, for three days of high-altitude fun and reminiscing.

Jim Washington checked in from Hanover, New Hampshire, where he just graduated from Dartmouth’s Master of Arts in Liberal Studies—Creative Writing degree program (poetry). His prior MA was earned at the University of New Hampshire—English/writing. He was surprised not only to be elected class marshal by his fellow students but also to receive a Thesis Excellence award.

Bill Adler has loved living in Japan for the last 10 years. He still enjoys writing short stories, playing with his cat, and traveling in the country.

Last year, Beth Robinson left her career in global health care and began helping to care for her one-year-old grandson. She enjoys spending a lot of time with him and helping support her daughter and son-in-law as they juggle full-time work schedules. Beth has also gone back to writing creative nonfiction—where she started and what she loves. In the prior 40 years, Beth has co-authored public health books, directed strategic communication, information dissemination, knowledge management, and learning programs, edited many hundreds of reports and articles, trained working journalists in Africa to report on HIV, and taught scientific paper writing to scientists in Latin America and Africa. It has been her privilege to collaborate with ministries of health, civil society organizations, and others in Africa to develop national health communications strategies and to manage communication on groundbreaking HIV research trials.  

A shout-out to five pioneering women athletes from our class: Joan Chevalier, Dianne Edgar, Kathy Keeler, Cynthia (Pygin) Markert, and Fran Rivkin will be inducted into the Wesleyan Athletics Hall of Fame Class of ’24 at a reception and dinner on campus on November 1, 2024. Joan, Dianne, Kathy, and Cynthia were on the 1978 women’s crew varsity 8 boat that captured first place at the Dad Vail Regatta. Fran excelled in five sports: track and field, field hockey, ice hockey, basketball, and lacrosse.

We always look forward to hearing from you. Please email us any news and we’ll be sure to share it with your fellow classmates in the next Class Notes.

Cheers,

Susie and Ken

SUSIE MUIRHEAD BATES | sbatesdux@hotmail.com

KEN KRAMER | kmkramer78@hotmail.com