Hood Magazine Summer 2008

HOOD MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2008 live in Virginia Beach. Lois Vandermark Moore just called me. I told her I was writing my Hood news. What great timing! She and Scott are great. Their daughter Sandy lives in the Atlanta area and they travel there to see her often. I am ﬂying to Pennsylvania for my daughter-in-law’s baby shower next week. Larry and I are excited about becoming grandparents for the ﬁrst time in June. We are still enjoying living in Florida. We love traveling to see our kids and spouses. Life is good! Elizabeth Anderson Comer 4303 N. Charles St. Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 243-2626 ecomer@eacarchaeology.com First, please, please e-mail me your e-mail contact. I promise I will only use it twice a year for the column news request. I want to do my part for the world and stop mailing notices via snail mail, but I don’t want to lose you! Even if you think I have it, send it again to ecomer@eacarchaeology.com. Thanks! News from Windham, N.H., comes from Ann Kowitski Barber: Ann opened her own law practice in January in Windham and has found it to be continually challenging and fulﬁlling. “It certainly is keeping me busy as there is still so much to learn. Elizabeth’s freshman year at the Univ. of Hartford has ﬂown by and she’s on the dean’s list. She has had a great ﬁrst year and will spend the summer babysitting and going to summer school to pick up 8 credits. Otherwise, I am busy with my Beta Sigma Phi (international social sorority) and Rotary International. I look forward to lots of gardening after our very snowy winter in New Hampshire!” Kas Kluth Rohm writes from White Hall, Md.: “Greg and I are gearing up for our last (phew!) college move as daughter Sarah graduates from college and moves to New York City to accept a position as a civil engineer. This kind of move was fun the ﬁrst 5 or 6 times, but it’s getting old now! Daughter Emily is moving back to Maryland to attend law school, so we’re hoping to see her a bit more. It’s been a beautiful spring in northern Maryland … time to ﬁnd out if the old lawn mower has any life left in it after last summer.” Debbie Simcox Fortuna sends this news: “I changed jobs a few years ago after my previous employer retired. I now work for an internal medicine practice doing medical billing. I also had the opportunity to go to Kentucky in February with a Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team to help after tornado’s ripped through the area. Three people had been killed in the area where we were working. It was a true blessing to be able to help. We were in southwestern Kentucky. They were hit by an F3 tornado. The people there were so gracious and welcoming. My dad has been involved in disaster relief for several years but this was my ﬁrst deployment. It was a great experience to be able to share this experience with my dad.” Ruth- ann Melching Arneson says: “My daughter Emma will be attending Hood in the fall. She will be in the Honors Program and will study biology or environmental science. She is very interested in their coastal studies program as well. As for me, I am enrolled at Marshall Univ. in their doctoral program in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis in early childhood. I’m still working full time as an education specialist for Head Start. I started with the spring semester taking statistics. Am I crazy or what! The rest of the family is ﬁne. My son Ethan (Down syndrome) is in a fully inclusive class. He will be in 5th grade in the fall. He is the one who will have major separation anxiety when his sister goes to Hood. Denise Swan Isacson writes with greetings from outside Savannah. “We relocated August ’06 after 9 years in Stockholm, Sweden. We still have one foot in Sweden though as my stepdaughter Jonina, 28, is keeping an eye on our condo which we’ve rented out. My husband now works for Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute at the Savannah campus helping to bring knowledge-based businesses into the coastal Georgia area. Our daughter Liv, 15, is a sophomore at Richmond Hill HS and absolutely loves it! In November, I will complete 30 years (count ‘em!) with Delta Airlines. Since I still love my job, I won’t be retiring any time soon! A few months after we moved stateside, we became ﬁrst-time dog owners when we adopted our-boySydney (an Australian shepherd mix) from a shelter. What fun he is! It’s not the family I sometimes worry about while I’m off ﬂying, it’s Sydney! He just doesn’t get the love and attention he gets from Yours Truly! Liv and I are volunteers with the Bryan Animal Caregivers, a nonproﬁt group that raises money for low-cost spaying and neutering.” Denise keeps in touch with two classmates: Carol Clavir who lives in Charlotte, N.C., with her husband Ed and works for Wachovia Bank; and Stephanie Mazza Uhrig who’s an events planner in Baden-Baden, Germany. Sadly, Steff’s sister, who lived near her in Germany, passed away at the end of last year after a battle with cancer. Patricia was just shy of her 50th birthday. For those of us who remember Georgiana VanSyckle Snavely who was at Hood our ﬁrst two years before transferring, she’s in Columbus, Ohio with husband Dave and their two boys. Terri Pyle Reed reports she is working as the admissions assistant for the physical therapy and the biomechanics and movement science programs at the Univ. of Delaware. “UD offers a doctorate in PT and either an MS or PhD in biomedical science. (I was hired as the senior secretary in November and promoted in February. I’m still guiding through the gardens of Winterthur—An American County Estate and Museum, which I love doing. Donald, Emily and I are busy getting ready for prom and the upcoming Blue-Gold All Star Football Game, which beneﬁts the DFRC (visit www. dfrcfoundation. org). Next is Emily’s senior year of high school and all that comes with it (like SATs, college visits, pictures, graduation, etc. Our baby has grown into a lovely young lady! My, how time as ﬂown!” Terri also reports that Ann Nicodemus Thompson has written with her news of becoming a grandma! Ann is bursting with pride and joy! I saw Barrie Briscoe Reightler at the Grand National Steeplechase in Butler, Md., in April. Barrie and Billy were cheering for friends (human and equine) and reported that daughter Betsy is graduating from high school in June and planning to attend Towson Univ. in the fall. Margaret, our oldest, will graduate from The Bryn Mawr School in June and in late August we will help move her into her dorm at Berkeley! She applied to college thinking she would major in international relations but changed majors before enrolling (that may be a record) and is now planning to study anthropology. Doug and I are amazed … maybe all these years discussing cultures around the dinner table has paid off! Jacob is ﬁnishing his junior year at Gilman and will be college shopping this fall. He will study in Hildesheim, Germany and St. Andrews Univ. in Scotland during the summer (German and creative writing respectively). Anne, our 11-year-old, will spend the summer doing what she loves—singing and acting at summer stock. Doug is still working at Petra, in Jordan, and I am happily digging in various places in the U.S. Michele Payer Wood 738 Saint Johns Place Dallastown, PA 17313-9506 woodmsrd@comcast.net Our condolences to the family of Diane McDermott Stich who died Dec. 13, 2007, in Saluda, N.C. Our sympathy also to Elly Williams M.A. ’78 whose mother Katharine died March 20, 2008. Carolyn Fiery Shearer 4721 Yorkshire Drive Ellicott City, MD 21043 (410) 465-1260 ckbnb@comcast.net No news this issue. Allison Horne 126 S. Darlington St. West Chester, PA 19382-3212 (610) 429-3202 auntieal@verizon.net Our condolences to the family of Lisa Wilson Cunningham who died Dec. 29, 2007, in Pitman, N.J. Betsy Grasso Sahagun writes, “I have been a realtor with Long and Foster serving the northern Virginia area for the past 31/2 years. I have lived in this area since graduating from Hood. Prior to that, I utilized my communications degree by working various

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