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NEWS ITEMS
May/June 2006
This year we have three long time and loyal faculty members retiring from SFS: from the Upper School Language Department: Josee Pavlovich and Peggy Lodeesen; from Lower School: Carol Borut. We will include a short tribute to them in the first issue in the fall and in the meantime, we wish them well and an especially restful summer.
Ele and Peggy
Anne Kaufman, former Upper School math teacher:
I'm finishing up year 4 in the math department at Milton Academy and husband Rob is teaching at UMass-Dartmouth. Sophie (almost 9) is in the 3rd grade at BB&N in Cambridge. She and I went to a number of Harvard women's basketball games this year to cheer on Jessica Holsey (SFS '02) and actually lucked into a pair of tickets for the very exciting UMD game vs. UNC at the women's final 4 here in Boston. Maya (almost 6) is in kindergarten in the Milton public schools; they have been very responsive to her learning issues and she is thriving. I hope that spring '08 will see the publication of my book on American and Canadian women writers from U of Oklahoma Press. We are all happy to be back in New England but I miss my SFS colleagues!
Gretchen Hall, former assistant director of Development and Alumni Relations:
Delighted to hear such good news all around! I'm off to Buenos Aires in May to visit my daughter Rachel. Her daughter Jessica is turning 15 and that's a VERY big deal. I look forward to the main event as well as some quieter family visiting.
Florence Verdin, Lower School Blue Room teacher:
You two are too much for me. Nothing wrong with me but I've spent a lot of time in doctors? offices lately. I am happy to hear that Peggy is going to Europe. No one can keep her down. I am going to see my granddaughter graduate from University of California at Berkeley on the seventeenth of May, and then I'm off to Luxembourg on the thirtieth of June. Hope to get to Holland this trip. Even more exciting, I took my first trip on the Metro. Now, on the twelfth, I'm going by myself on the Metro to the Smithsonian Station. I hope I make it.
Good luck to everyone, especially for Ele's husband.
Michelle Parker, former Upper School chemistry teacher:
I am doing well. Nick is 10 1/2 and a total "big boy". He still tells everyone that he was the Sidwell mascot when I used to bring him in as an infant while I taught (Susan Wooden babysat).
I am working full time as a child psychologist in Bethesda. I do a lot of work with Sidwell kids so I don't feel totally disconnected. Somehow, though, I've managed to find a career filled with all the cases that we found to be the toughest as teachers. Makes me miss the well-roundedness of being in the classroom.
On another Sidwell-related note, I am looking forward to my 20th reunion. Hope to see some of my former colleagues there, as well as classmates...
Stay well...
P.S. If anyone is interested in doing tutoring on the side, I often have cases to refer.
Denise Terry, former Middle School English teacher:
Greetings from "traveling girl." This has been a year of accompanying Donald on several trips. I enjoyed London in October. Have you ridden in "The Eye"? I have come to love the Imperial War Museum, which is very much concerned with the damage done by conflict. Next, my first trip to Amsterdam. What's not to love?
I spent several days with daughter Amy in Manhattan near Christmas. Donald and I were ten days in Brazil this spring. He goes frequently, but this was my first time. We went to Rio and to the Minas Gerais region, famous for agriculture, history, a gold rush, and gems.
I am writing this from Sacramento after three nights in San Francisco. Donald and I lived in the Bay Area 1969-72, and decided that a trip down Memory Lane would be a good way to celebrate our upcoming 60th birthdays. Tomorrow we go to Yosemite. Of course, I have been to Falmouth several times, and will be there for the summer beginning on June 15th.
All the Terry girls are fine. Ellie, as part of the New York Teaching Fellows, is teaching 9th and 10th grade Math in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Grandson Henry is adorable. He's 18 months old. So cute and so much fun!
Karen Bralove, former Middle School drama teacher:
She's baaaack! After 10 years in LA, I've moved back to Bethesda. As most of you know, my wonderful husband, Dick Stilwell, was tragically killed in a car accident 3 years ago. I've relocated to be close to my delightful one-year old granddaughter, Sasha, her parents Brooke Bralove Ugel '92 and Ed Ugel '90, and Mara Bralove '89 and her husband Ari Fisher. While living in LA I became obsessed with yoga and have been teaching for 5 years. It certainly kept me grounded while dealing with grief. If you have yet to try yoga, now is the time! I will be teaching from my home, as well as a few other locations in the area. Please contact me, yogaandever@verizon.net, for info on my classes, which are nurturing, yet challenging, as well as for info on my sublime yoga workshops in Italy.
Pauline Rice, former Lower School special education tutor:
Pauline Van Norman Rice has moved from Port St. Lucie, Florida to the Eastern Shore to be near her sons, Peter and Terry Rice. Peter is owner and director of Echo Hill Camp and the Echo Hill Outdoor School on the Chesapeake Bay. Terry is a CPA in Maryland. I am blessed with six grandchildren. Four of whom are college graduates, one entering college this year and one in service in Hawaii.
I have moved to a lovely home overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. My address is in the directory.
David Miller, former head of Development:
On Wednesday, March 15, an overflow crowd greeted SFS graduate Trevor Corson at the Patten Free Library in Bath, Maine, as he discussed his best-seller, The Secret Life of Lobsters, as part of four library collaborations, offering events, discussions, and events as part of the yearly Community Read program. After his address he proceeded to the Topsham, Maine, library for a repeat performance. In response to my query about important influences on his writing career, Trevor listed three: Susan Banker, Anne Yondorf, and Neal Tonken. English teachers are immortal.
