CREATIVE THOUGHT Life stages J


aye Austin Williams ’78 calls her Skidmore graduation one of the proudest days of her


life. But there was a catch: she walked across the stage in 1978, but she was short a few credits, so the actual degree didn’t come until much later. After completing the courses at Hunter College in 2004, Williams received her Skidmore degree at a Saratoga Springs lunch with assistant registrar Judy Stephens. Williams


calls this peri- od between “graduating” and graduat- ing her “25- year delin- quency.” She spent the intervening years honing her acting, directing, and writing; her work gained


her positions as guest artist at Cornell and Middlebury colleges. Still, the missing degree gnawed at her. “That completion—that coming full circle and confronting such an important piece of unfinished business—has come to symbolize so much for me about not just per- severance, but recrafting oneself.” Williams didn’t stop with that Skidmore


bachelor’s. In 2004 she received an MFA from New York University in dramatic writing, and in 2013 a PhD in drama and theater from USC- Irvine, where she is currently a visiting assis- tant professor in the drama department. At Irvine she is planning to direct The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, about Kenyans’ opposition to colonialism. It requires from actors “a very par- ticular kind of creative stamina, in that one def- initely suffers the slings and arrows of being an innovator—which, by definition, means creating against the grain.” Williams wants the cast to focus not only on their acting, but on the histo- ry that shapes the words they speak. The creativity of her work comes through in


her advice to others: “Ask yourself how the arts are in conversation with the world you live in. Enjoy culture and social media, but also interrogate them. Live in the world as someone curious.” —Robin Adams ’00


involved as volunteer, contact me at noreen.reilly@verizon.net. Paula Wesolowski Michaels and hus- band Clyde own a horse farm in Great Falls, Va. A VP with Morgan Stanley, Paula has been fox hunting for 10 years. She serves as a board member of the Loudon Fairfax Hunt and she made the finals for the 2013 North American Fox Hunting Championships. She is also an active vol- unteer with the USO and sits on the board of a therapeutic riding center in northern Virginia. Paula’s daughter is pursuing a doctorate at University of Colorado; when Paula visits, they skydive together. I spent a fun weekend in St. Petersburg,


’75


Fla., during the weekend of the winter solstice, attending the bar mitzvah of Matt Rosen’s ’76. It was a classic Matthew event, and was attended by Brenda O’Hara Kingdon, Verne Phillips, and Carden McGehee ’76, Leslie Ferst ’76, Doug Dreishpoon ’76, Chris Teasdale ’76, and Peter Appelbaum ’76. The rocking party carried on throughout the night. Every alum there said they plan to attend our 40th reunion in 2015. NONI REILLY 114 CUSHING AVENUE BOSTON, MA 02125-2033 617-288-2104 NOREEN.REILLY@VERIZON.NET


founded in Tupper Lake, N.Y., “continues to evolve and thrive in wonderful new ways.” Matt Rosen celebrated a somewhat belated bar mitzvah this past winter attended by Noni Reilly ’75, Brenda O’Hara Kingdon ’75, Verne Phillips ’75, Carden McGehee, Leslie Ferst, Doug Dreishpoon, Chris Teasdale, and Peter Appelbaum. The celebration included a rocking party that carried on throughout the night. INGEBORG HEGEMANN CLARK 26 KERRINGTON WAY STOW, MA 01775-1036 IEHEGEMANN@GMAIL.COM AND NANCY REEVES REARDON 420 SOUTH GREENWOOD PASADENA, CA 91107-5019


’76


the Advancement of Women in the Legal Profession. Managing attorney at Electric Insurance Company in Beverly, Mass., she was recognized for her extensive record of


’77 38 SCOPE SPRING 2014


Patricia Ratner was named the 2013 recipient of DRI’s Award for


Elizabeth Lowe reports the Wild Center, a natural museum she


Our big 40th reunion will take place May 30–June 1, 2015! To get


handling complex cases and for mentor- ing women at the firm. Mary Alice Boudreau Katon works for


the Communities in Schools program in Charlotte N.C., which helps low-income and underserved students complete high school and enroll in college. Most of the kids are the first in their families to con- sider a college education. Mary Alice observes, “Every day is different and our students are eager to learn.” KATHRYN A. GREGORY 41 LAWRENCE STREET WAKEFIELD, MA 01880-1849 781-224-3324 JBHKAG@VERIZON.NET


Committee Archives. Her book Exit Berlin was published by Yale University Press this year. The book is based on a collec- tion of WWII-era letters from the estate of Luzie Hatch, a German Jewish refugee who fled to America a week after Kristallnacht and became a translator and advocate for family members who were left behind. Luzie made copies of her out- going letters later and the responses to them, creating a rare collection of corre- spondence that tells their stories, which unfold in Germany, Vichy France, Shanghai, Palestine, and Bolivia. Donna Wiegand-Bicknell and daughter Kappes Wiegand Emmon ’09 had lunch with R. Cameron Miller ’76 recently in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Donna was surprised and happy to learn Cam relocated to the area and lives less than three miles away! EMILY WALKER BRACCHITTA 36 FLAT ROCK ROAD, APT. 5 FITCHBURG, MA 01420-2282 EBRACCHITTA@GMAIL.COM


’78


husband Scott cele- brated sending the youngest of their three children off to College of Charles- ton (where Maura Connelly’s daughter is a junior) with a trip to South Africa. Kathleen highly rec- ommends travel to that part of the world. Susan Detwiler Nitahara works at Johnson & Johnson as a global dossier leader in regulatory affairs; she is doing her best to get new drugs approved world- wide. Her daughter, Lauren, works for Japanese medical device company Terumo in regulatory affairs. Susan’s son,


’79 N MAY 29–JUNE 2


Kathleen Dobbin and


Charlotte Bonelli is the director of the American Jewish


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AT WORK


LAUREL HUNGERFORD


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