Association news & class notes
As I read the news sent to me by our classmates, I was moved by the depth of friendship and connection to community. Please note that our college is trying to create summer Reunion events that increase the time for reconnecting. This could become a great community-building effort. We could organize and show up in large numbers, take over the golf course at night, and hold sunrise services with permission — and promise to not get involved with any upperclassmen who are burning furniture in the quad or relocating every plant in all the common areas as a joke! I truly miss all your spunk and count our college years as some of the best fun I’ve ever had!
Nancy Held expressed gratitude for “WMC’s enduring friendships.” She is still frequently in touch with Jayne Kernan Lacy, Beth Green Jarkowiec, M.Ed. ’83, Nan Sadler Neely, and Cyndy Church Clatterbuck, M.S. ’86. Nancy is retiring in two years but will continue to freelance. She is enjoying family and friends, the great outdoors, hiking, and gardening. She especially loves being Great-Aunt Nancy!
Catherine Basti DiVello and her husband, Doug DiVello, have moved from their mountainside home in Vermont to the suburbs of southeast Massachusetts to be closer to their newly engaged youngest daughter (and the beach). Their oldest daughter was married in 2024 and resides in Arizona. Cathy and Doug made the best of throwing an “out West” wedding by touring the Grand Canyon and Sedona’s red rocks. Doug retired from his role of hospital CEO after a 40-year career, and Cathy is still working part time in data analysis.
Pam Damon Kenworthy was planning to see Claire Morris North and Nancy Zuidema Radcliffe this summer, and hoping to catch up with Kathi Hill ’80 at the beach. Pam is living in Bernardsville, New Jersey, and shared that divorce began a new adventure as a single person. She is working full time, until retirement in 2027, in corporate governance for a telecommunications association and is busy running board of directors meetings. Pam is off to California three to four times per year to visit her son, who happily works for Apple, and his family, including three grandchildren.
Jim Dawson was inducted into the McDaniel College Athletics Hall of Fame, which gave him and Barbie Peterson Dawson a great weekend of fun visiting with teammates Scott Peters ’80, John Sieler ’84, and Doug Pinto ’83, and coaches Alex Ober ’63, M.Ed. ’69 and Nicholas Zoulias M.Ed. ’78. Jim is in his 42nd year of teaching physical education, and Barbie has retired from teaching. They live in Boca Raton, Florida, and are blessed with two adult daughters nearby. Their son lives in Tampa, Florida. They have five grandchildren, two of whom are champion basketball players! Barbie spent much of last year in Maryland helping and honoring her mother, who passed away in January.
Greg Peterson and his wife, Tara, moved back to Maryland in 2019 and are loving Hagerstown! They keep in touch with Rick Koplowitz ’83 and Steve Ports ’83. Greg has retired; Tara is still teaching but plans to retire soon. They became first-time grandparents in February to a grandson from daughter Janie and her husband Pavle. They are traveling a lot to California to see them!
Tamarie Watson, M.Ed. ’83 lives in Ellicott City, Maryland, and is happy to be traveling the world again. She went on a river cruise this summer on the Seine, from Paris to Normandy. She is really enjoying retirement!
Claire Morris North keeps up with Nancy Zuidema Radcliffe and Pam Damon Kenworthy! Claire and her husband, Michael, took an amazing trip to Finland in January 2024. They went ice fishing, dogsledding, and snowshoeing through an Estonian bog, all at zero degrees and below. They say it was like being in a snow globe the whole time. They finished up spending the night in an ice hotel in Lapland, which made for a fun, memorable trip. Meanwhile, their son is finishing his family medicine residency in Charleston, South Carolina, so they end up down there periodically.
Joe Impallaria recently skied with Dennis Yancheski at the Breckenridge Resort in Colorado. Joe is still chief of acquisition and fiscal law at U.S. Space Force, Space Operations Command in Colorado Springs. His son Joseph — along with his daughter-in-law, Masha, and granddaughter, Eva — live in Omaha, Nebraska. Joe’s other son, Dominic, and Joe’s daughter, Marlena, live in Colorado Springs.
Checka Leinwell has lived in South Dakota for the past 10 years. After retiring from 42 years in higher education, she is enjoying new changes and adventures by completing her bucket list. She says, “Life is good on The Great Plains with dogs, hobbies, family, and friends!” She went on a two-week cruise around the Hawaiian Islands and loved it! She is now planning trips to Norway, the British Isles, Alaska, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons. Checka warmed my heart by sharing an insight similar to my own grandmother’s wisdom: “Sometimes I look in the mirror and wonder who that old lady is looking back at me, when most of the time I still feel like the same girl who lived on Whiteford second.” When I was about 20, my 87-year-old grandmother told me that an 18-year-old lived inside her old body and that folks should never forget that people with gray hair and wrinkles wanted love, fun, and friends till the end of time.
Again, I’ll urge you to stay connected, have fun, and pursue your dreams. Love comes more than once — even more than twice, as my current husband, Tim Goertemiller, and I know. We are still running our environmental and marine contracting company Living Ecosystems, developing our retirement plan of being subsistence farmers, raising four adopted children from protective services who love our hogs, goats, sheep, and chickens. I traded adjunct teaching of political science and sociology to college kids for part-time teaching of political science to middle schoolers, who are way more enthusiastic. This year, my class founded a student government association for the private school and held elections! I m tempted to say life is getting harder not easier — more muddy, more drama, more loss, some tragedies — but we are living faithfully and surviving happily. Loving most of it and ignoring the rest!
Looking forward to seeing everyone in 2027!
Jenny O Neill1982 Class Reporterjoneill377@gmail.com