CLASS OF 1998 | 2024 | FALL ISSUE

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Hello classmates,

For those who hadn’t heard, in June 2024 we lost Kate (Dunton) Middleton, wife of Pat Middleton, when she died unexpectedly of heart failure and COVID. It was a huge loss to her family. She is survived by Pat and their children, Sophie and Joe, as well as her parents and siblings. After Wesleyan, she went on to a master’s of education from BU, and was the lead writing specialist at the OWL (online writing lab) in the College of Professional Studies at Northeastern University; helped run Milton Porchfest, an annual gathering of local musicians; was active in local political campaigns and issues; and was an avid nature lover. Her enormous circle of friends will miss her big smile and willing-to-help attitude, and her wake had a line around the block that went on for four hours. Her dad, John, reports that her entire family has been stunned not only by her death but by the way she affected so many people in so many different ways. You can read the lovely obituary written by her brothers David ’88 and Brian (UMass) at https://www.dolanfuneral.com/obituaries/kathryn-l-middleton/.

For myself, this summer I was lucky enough to spend time with Elise Gould ’93 playing at the Great Grand Masters Women’s ultimate in Denver and have surprise catch-up sessions with Susannah Goodman ’87, Farrah Darbouze ’99, and Alison MacAdam ’99 in the Washington, D.C. area.  And I get to have regular contact with Eric Glatt ’91 as he not only lives in the same apartment complex as I do, but we serve together on the Board of the Anchorage Curling Club! (Where we are definitely the strange East Coast liberal arts folks in a sea of mostly upper Midwesterners and others with a less . . . structured? [perhaps they’d say uptight . . . ] way of being.)

All my Wes interactions are reminders of how lucky I was to go to Wesleyan and be surrounded by such smart, thoughtful, interesting people. It always feels easy and natural (and almost always fascinating) to chat with a fellow alum, in a way that feels especially rare up here in the cold last frontier! 

I hope all of you are well, and please stay in touch.

ABBY ELBOW | aelbow@gmail.com