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Online Class Directory Q-Z

All biographies are alphabetized by maiden name.

Patsy Rankin Jopling

  

Agnes Scott is very special to me for many reasons.  Along with receiving a fabulous education and forming wonderful friendships, I met my husband, John, in September of my senior year at ASC.  John was at Emory Dental School and after his graduation, we settled in Augusta, GA.  John practiced dentistry for 40 years and I did volunteer work and projects through the Junior League, served on numerous committees for Aldersgate United Methodist Church, served on the March of Dimes board and the North Augusta Cultural Arts board.  During this time, I developed a passion for long distance running and enjoyed running with friends!  The highlight of my running years was running in the New York Marathon in 1989.  In the early 1990’s, I computerized John’s dental practice and started working as the Business Manager.
 

John and I have been blessed with two wonderful children and five awesome grandchildren.  We now love being known as “Happy” and “Tune”!  Our son, Patrick, is a dentist in Greenville, SC and our daughter, Lollie, is a neurologist in Greensboro, NC.  Patrick and Becca have two sons, Jack(19) and Michael (17) and a daughter, Wylie (15).  Lollie and Barret have two daughters, Lucy (12) and Maisie (11).
 

After our children were grown, John bought a Harley and we traveled with friends (our motorcycle gang) for one or two weeks a year for approximately ten years.  We loved our “on the road” sightseeing throughout the US and into Canada!  We sported lots of black leather but no tattoos.  Fortunately, all eight of us survived!!!  In a more conventional mode of transportation, I also enjoyed traveling with my mother and sisters, Betty (ASC 1966) and Genie (ASC 1972). The first fabulous trip for “the Rankin girls” was to Russia in 1988.  We continued to love traveling together for many years and would often attend meetings of The International Churchill Society in various cities in the US, Canada, and England.
 

John and I both retired in 2014 and built a house on the Savannah River.  We love our slower pace, our beautiful views of sunrises and sunsets, and our free time for traveling and visiting our children and grandchildren!  
 

Looking forward to seeing all of you at our ASC 50th reunion!


Dorothy Schrader

   

Part I: Memories of our years at Agnes Scott, 1965-69

Agnes Scott was my third choice college, my parents’ first choice, however. In retrospect, Randolph Macon Women’s College may have been too lonely for a socially shy freshman like me, especially being billed as a somewhat isolated suitcase college. I was attracted already as a 10th grader to Vanderbilt, my first choice, at my high school’s College Fair, mainly because of their Junior Year French Study Abroad in Aix-en-Provence, even without having taken HS French yet, just Latin! Instead of either Vanderbilt or Randolph-Macon, I ended up really liking the chance to live in a large urban area where the population was topping a million. Remember that sign near the I-85 14th St. exit that updated Atlanta’s population every minute? I think I would have been lost in a huge university because of all the bureaucracy of class enrollment and ubiquitous teaching assistants, not profs. I needed the small college liberal arts environment, mainly as a contrast to my high school graduating class of over 700 seniors. Pensacola High did offer solid college-prep courses like physics and calculus in our junior/senior years. I had a some advantage over ASC freshmen from small, rural, maybe underfunded school districts and who were surprised to meet intellectual competition in college compared to when they had always been the very best academic students with virtually no peer competition or academic challenges in high school courses. 

The city of Atlanta afforded us many cultural outings, with or without white gloves on. I used to edit a monthly mimeographed newsletter our junior or senior year on campus (with rose colored typing paper) outlining each type of cultural event that was happening. I cut class once a year to stand in line at Presser Hall to get the $4.75 Metropolitan Opera May tickets at the Fox Theatre. My senior year, I had a subscription to Robert Shaw’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concerts. I loved all the new restaurants and the new architecture of the Portman skyscrapers.

In retrospect, I’m quite happy that I did not attend the Vanderbilt in France junior year abroad program. By waiting until graduate school with the Middlebury College in France program, I was more mature, less inclined to go around Paris amid a phalanx of other American female students, and better equipped linguistically to interact with a group of French and other international friends. Thank you, Miss Mary Virginia Allen, for suggesting this graduate program.

I don’t remember a lot about campus activities but I do remember course selection/registration for our sophomore year classes. Dr. Gary looked at my course choices and said something like “I can’t let you take all 4 of the professors you want as your 1st choice instructors. You already have too many of the top professors. We must leave space for other students to be put in their classes before you.” My top prof list had to be shrunk to just Mrs. Pepperdene, Mrs. Calder, and Mr. Brown. One recurring event I mostly liked was attending the exam teas with the fancy silver serving pieces, but feeling still miserable seeing the professors just after struggling with their quarter “I pledge” tests.

About 10 years ago when I attended a conference on medieval literature on campus, I found Mr. Nelson in his Buttrick office (aka “Never address me as Doctor” on day 1 lecture). We had a pleasant chat. He admitted that the quality of students reached the peak with our classes of the mid-late 60s. For him, it was downhill from there in intellectual curiosity. I don’t have many good memories of his office conferences to discuss our graded essays, but I do remember how he had to tell us in class what the maidenhead image meant in Jude the Obscure. We were really naïve when it came to literary criticism.

Random memories I have of campus life include:

1. Drinking cups of hot tea in the dining hall long after the cafeteria lines in the evening had shut down 

2. Looking forward to no more Saturday morning classes as a junior and then having the whole campus become Saturday-class free that year we became juniors

3. Seeing the alums in their fancy hats during Alumnae Weekend

4. A lonely night spent in the infirmary 

5. The date sign-out/in 

6. Playing a game called Epiphany in the Rebecca living/game rooms with Miss Hutchinson?? 

7. Our special contact as freshmen on the 4th floor of Walters with wonderful seniors living in the corner dorm rooms (Debbi Rosen, Susan Thomas, Portia Morrison, and ?) – maybe Felicia??

8. The heavily starched laundry that came back to us weekly

9. The fervent wish and plan to catch a ride on a freight train on College Avenue to downtown Atlanta (during the afternoon) with Beth Guider our freshman year so that we could attend some event in that Five Points area. We never did and she transferred to NYU the next year to do their film program major.

10. The 70-page NIGHTLY assignment of lengthy 19th French novels (think Balzac, Flaubert, Zola) in Miss Steel’s MTWThF class where there was no chance whatsoever with just 5-6 classmates of not being called upon to answer her pointed questions about the texts. 

Part II: After 1969

Places I’ve lived: (in order since graduating from Agnes Scott 50 years ago)

1. DeKalb County – 2 years at Henderson and Gordon High Schools, teaching French

2. Paris, France – 3 years, as grad student at Middlebury College & English conversation teacher

3. Tallahassee FL – 3 years (at FSU)

4. Edwardsville IL – 1 year (SIU branch campus, one-year position)

5. Stillwater OK – 35 years teaching French at OSU+ 2 more years packing for big move

6. Steamboat Springs CO – usually 4-5 months in every year since 2014 retirement to date

7. Pensacola FL – 3 years now as “reverse snowbirds” but permanent residents

How I spend my time now in retirement, in no particular order:

1. A little bit of traveling with friends within the USA and to visit family members in TX and NC

2. Twice a year partial residence in Colorado, downhill skiing with husband Richard (nearing our 34th wedding anniversary) or avoiding hot humid weather

3. Making effort to meet new friends in Pensacola & reconnecting with a few high school friends

4. Sorting through inherited possessions and papers/photos from my parents and grandparents

5. Planning a kitchen remodeling & searching out contractors & repair workers for this 1946 house

6. Volunteering one morning a week as a United Way Reading Pal in statewide free 4-year old program at my former elementary school

7. Volunteering for Friends of the NW Florida Public Library to help sort donated books once a week and participate in frequent book sale weekends.

8. Attending some lectures at Leisure Learning (similar but quite inferior to an Osher LL)

9. Searching for a mother-of-the bride dress before our daughter Elizabeth’s March 2020 wedding in Austin

Helen Stavros

   

After leaving ASC in 1969 I moved to New Orleans in September of that year to get my Master’s Degree in Social Work at Tulane University, graduating in January of 1971. I fell in love with New Orleans and its culture and atmosphere so stayed there, except for a year in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1972. I worked for various agencies in the city until 1987 when I went to work in the outpatient psychiatry department at Ochsner Clinic and have been there since. I work with children and families and adults with various mental health issues. In the mid-1990s I began to work part-time on a PhD in social work and got that from Tulane in 2001. I have taught adjunct classes at Tulane, supervised many students over the years but wanted to enjoy my leisure time too so I did not do as much as I could have. In 1988, my best friend introduced me to someone she had met in the doctoral program at Tulane and we got married in 1991. He lived in Portland, Oregon prior to coming to New Orleans and still loves the Northwest so we spend a lot of vacation time there. We have also traveled a lot in the Southwest as he has a brother in Santa Fe. We’ve been to Europe a few times and want to do that more if we can ever decide where and when to retire, which is proving to be a difficult decision as we still like our work.

Eliza Stockman

 Here are some of things I’ve done during the last fifty years: changed careers several times (string teacher, arts administrator, orchestra conductor, real estate specialist, contract manager, and maybe a few more that I can’t remember right now), quit smoking, took a youth orchestra to Europe and didn’t lose any of them even if some managed to sneak beer by me, conducted an award winning high school orchestra, took care of my mother through the last years of her life, hosted holiday family dinners without having a nervous breakdown or screaming at my sister, played violin (and occasionally viola) in several regional orchestras, and survived layoffs, bankruptcies and other aspects of corporate life.

Now I am a professional volunteer and still a musician. I am thankful that my liberal arts foundation taught me to read and write and gave me the tools to meet new challenges

Anne Stubbs

Has it really been 50 years since we graduated?  This special reunion has me thinking about who I was like when I first walked on campus; who I was upon graduation; and the life experiences that have since shaped my perspectives today. This bio is a “quick romp” through some of those experiences which are linked to a career that I never expected but fully loved.

1969 – 1974 (August): Graduate studies at UNC-Chapel Hill with MA and all-but-dissertation in political science, focused on the politics of change and development. While Scott grounded me for the classroom, the social-cultural experiences were 180 degrees. Fellow students from across the country came from wildly different social and life experiences and disparate views on the Vietnam War – all of which made for lively debate marked by mutual acceptance of each other. I learned that teaching was not my passion. Field research on low-income residents’ role in decisions affecting their communities opened my eyes to how local governance decisions are really made, and also stirred my interest in government’s role in problem solving.

1974 – 1977(Feb): Council of State Governments (CSG), Lexington, KY. An incredible experience of traveling around the country and learning from senior state officials about such public policy issues as housing finance, the states’ role in managing growth, and Indian rights. 

1977 – 1980(Mar): Policy Office – Governor of Rhode Island, Providence, RI. An opportunity to put into practice the insights gained at CSG while working in a truly multi-ethnic community. My work dealt with state transportation, state planning, interagency cooperation on air quality, multi-state coordination on coastal zone management, and public-private cooperation on hazardous waste management policy. I also got first-hand experience in emergency response while stranded for five days at the State House during the 1978 blizzard as 40 inches of snow fell and we took the early steps to coordinate first responders.

1980 – 1982 (Aug): Council of State Governments, Lexington, KY. Returned to replace my former boss, and took the direct step into management responsibility for staff, project and budgets. 

1982 – 2015 (May): Coalition of Northeastern Governors (CONEG), Washington, DC. I initially came to this non-partisan regional governors’ organization to staff a project for 11 states to cooperate on siting and managing low-level radioactive waste. In 1984, I became CONEG executive director, and over the next 30 years, worked with state officials and CONEG staff to develop and implement joint initiatives on such regional issues as: improving regional air quality; developing improved regional passenger rail service, including high speed intercity passenger rail service between DC and Boston; reducing – not just recycling – packaging waste through collaborative actions by states, corporations and environmental organizations; and examining challenges to the ability of alternative fuel vehicles to move readily throughout the region. My work gave me the incredible opportunity to testify before a congressional committee and to meet President Obama and Vice President Biden.

During this period, two major personal milestones occurred. I married a very special man, Thomas Bolle, and gained two grown daughters. A few years ago, Thomas and I gained a new perspective on life when dealing with his two major emergencies and multi-month rehab. We give eternal thanks for outstanding doctors and good health insurance!

2016 and moving forward: I happily retired from CONEG in 2016, and am actively engaged in volunteer work with several transportation professional organizations. Thomas and I worship at the Washington National Cathedral and are actively engaged with various ministries and committees. We enjoy trips to visit family across the South and Southwest. Coming up in 2019: a week in Paris to celebrate our 25th anniversary. 

In short: Life is good indeed. 


Tara Swartsel Boyter

  After a career in association management, primarily in the field of community mental health, I retired in 2015.  Originally from central Florida, I’ve been living in Tallahassee since 1978.  A first grandchild, Ross, was born October 26, 2018 to son Ben Boyter and daughter-in-law Carrie Gaudio.  Luckily they live in town!  Retirement has given me opportunities for more gardening, more bridge playing, additional involvement with P.E.O. (a women’s organization dedicated to promoting women's education, providing grants and loans to deserving women from the U.S. and elsewhere) and travel abroad each year.  Coming up, a return to Ireland and England in May!

  

Bunny Teeple Sheffield

Updated

Greetings, classmates.  At Scott, we all knew each other on a daily basis, as we studied, ate, and lived together.  Since then, I’ve kept in close touch with only a few, yet I have fond and quite vivid memories of time with many of you.  

On campus, mainly classes, class meetings in our assigned seats, convocations with the chorus in the balcony, and dining hall where I ate almost all my meals.  Off campus, “Dec Pres WF” and Savannah Street ministry, Tech football games, and random Atlanta-area explorations such as Stone Mountain during a raging thunderstorm – these moments come to mind.

We each have unique, complex life trajectories.  I’m amazed at the intricacies and variety, and that’s even just knowing a portion.  I’m eager to read the collection we compile and to catch up with many in April.

At Scott, I was fascinated with physics and did my undergrad major with Dr. Calder until he went on loan to Fernbank for a year at which point I commuted to Emory to complete my courses.  I’d always known my passion (and I think also the best fit with my skills) was in early childhood ed, and that’s where I’ve been ever since, helping raise tiny scientists.

I completed my B.A. requirements in the summer of ’68 (last quarter at Georgia State) and moved to Maryland to do my M.Ed. at Goucher in K-8 teaching.  High school best friend John and I married after graduations – we’re coming up on our 55th anniversary this August 2024.  

On from wedding to Connecticut, then to New Zealand, back to Georgia, South Carolina, and now a New York City chapter, rejoicing in proximity to grandson Ryan, son of our daughter Perry and her husband Andrew Suseno.  

John and I spent November 2018 and 2022 with daughter Anna who lives and works in Wellington, New Zealand, born while we lived and taught in Matamata.  She grew up in Georgia but moved to NZ in 2003 “for a couple years,” and may or may not ever move back to the US.  A glorious gift to have extended time with an adult daughter we see only sporadically.

Certainly a major part of what I’ve most loved about teaching outdoor education is the children and their families.  I’ve also totally treasured the animals who came into my heart and lessons at High Meadows in Roswell.  I’ve taught some of your children, dear classmates, a special treat.

Main perspectives, perhaps even wisdom, gleaned from seven decades of full participation in this world?  Each year, I grow in awe of the natural beauty of places and people – that’s why I find riding the NYC subway so exhilarating, amidst the full spectrum of humans.  While I don’t have special powers, I do feel a strong sense of stewardship toward our planet and try to do my part in stabilizing her.

I sometimes wish I could unzip my children’s and young friends’ heads and pour what I’ve learned into them.  They’re doing great finding their own ways, though, and maybe they’ll even figure out some of the areas we’ve missed.  Onward!


 One of the most congenial developments in my life in the last five years has been our “Gang o’ 4” monthly chats.  It started unexpectedly in late 2018 when Winnie (née Wirkus) and I connected via Skype before our 50th reunion.  Then, at the Saturday night reunion party, we surprised Betsy (née Fuller) and Marion (née Hinson) by connecting all four of us for a first-time group hello. 

Winnie had been writing blogs about world events and emailing them to us, and lively written discussions had begun occurring.  Those eventually evolved into sporadic bi-lateral Skype chats.  Of course, the uncharted territory of Covid-19 brought immense changes in household routines for each of us.  As understanding grew and alarm diminished, we found time (and overcame technical challenges) to start participating in scheduled monthly Skype calls, quickly dubbed “Gang o’ 4” by Winnie. 

When we heard news of Scott, we considered together various developments at the college and our classmates’ comings and goings.  We have touched on an endless array of topics ranging from world events to grandchildren, from the evolution of horses to Balinese geology.   

We’ve enjoyed collaborating on this update (as you can tell if you read all four). 

Jane Todd Richards

 

        This month makes 35 years practicing medicine in Center, a town of 6.000 in Deep  East Texas.  My husband died two years ago and I am semiretired.  Still have  that guilty feeling when I am not doing something " productive". I have a  recurring picture in my mind of taking a study book to the opera in Atlanta  while a student.  I see nursing home patients in three facilities, methadone clinic patients twice a week and supervise nurse  practitioners in Center and  Crockett.  Strength training is my passion this past year.  I highly recommend  it, particularly with a good looking young man as the trainer!  Our little  Episcopal church keeps me busy.  Using my wood chipper is a new hobby. 

Rebecca Wadsworth Sickles

  

Hello classmates! Much has happened since 1969, though at times those college days seem like yesterday. During my junior and senior years at Scott, I was a rare married day student - after two memorable years on campus with roommate Anne Stubbs Bolle in Rebekah Hall. Rebecca in Rebekah with its wooden floors, train whistles, group bathrooms, open hallways, wrap around porch and date parlors. I loved it there!

Rick was a FIJI and AE major at Georgia Tech, and we graduated one week apart. Both sets of parents – from Auburn and Orlando – were quite proud. We got a kick out of the fact that Tech gave me a “Master of Husband Engineering” degree. Our dog soon chewed up that certificate. 

The early years after graduation took us to Seattle (Rick at Boeing, me teaching “special ed”) then El Paso (Ft. Bliss and the Army for Rick, me teaching 2nd grade and carpooling with ASC classmate Becky Page Ramirez who was there with her Tech husband Gus - small world). Rick was sent to Korea instead of Viet Nam, and I returned home to my parents in Auburn for several months – yikes!). We had R&R in Hawaii in 1971 – where we returned 40 years later to revisit that dream vacation. We have recently taken two more trips to this favorite vacation spot. 

We moved to Rick’s hometown of Orlando in1972 (soon after Disney arrived), and I learned to love Florida. Our son Todd arrived in 1977 and daughter Elizabeth in 1980. How lucky we were to adopt such beautiful babies. My BA in Psychology provided a strong foundation for my career in education. Later I earned my Master in Education and Education Specialist degrees from Stetson University in Deland, FL. My 35 year career in Orange County Public Schools included working as a classroom and exceptional education teacher, district resource teacher, staffing specialist, assistant principal, and principal. I enjoyed these diverse positions, retiring as an 8th grade American History teacher in a K-8 school.

My work, studies, and our travel have helped me stay a lifelong learner - always proud of the lessons learned at Scott. I retired in 2008 and Rick in 2011. We are fortunate to have our family nearby. Elizabeth lives with us, and Todd and daughter-in-law Erika and granddaughters Allison 18, Lauren 15, and Marika 7 live in nearby Seminole County. 

Formerly Presbyterian, we are now active lay leaders in the First United Methodist Church of Orlando. Our travel outside the US began in our 50s and continues in retirement. We’ve traveled to Greece, Italy, Spain, France, England, Russia, China, and South Africa, and are looking forward to Switzerland and a river cruise on the Rhine in June 2019. 

Life is good! 


Sally Walker Guthrie

   

I wasn’t the oldest bride in Pitkin County last January when, after the lapse of a half century, I married David Hemerick, my college sweetheart. (But it was a near thing.)


During the intervening years, I learned many lessons, the primary one being.: Do not teach first grade in DeKalb County in order to put someone else through law school…because it can (and most probably will) be used against you.


After raising two marvelous daughters, I had the opportunity to earn a partnership in the company that my father co-founded. As a consequence, I’ve become involved with numerous organizations that promote women, particularly women in business. I’ve been fortunate to have been able to share some of this with undergraduates at Agnes (that’s what they call our vibrant alma mater these days) where I’m honored to be serving my second term on the Board of Trustees. My marriage and those of our offspring have resulted in a total of 7 children and 7 grandchildren, all of whom live in Florida (most of them in the Tampa Bay area).

Shelia Wilkins Harkleroad

I hope these bios don’t have to be “pledged” because at 72, I can’t attest to the last five decades with complete clarity. 

I was born at what was then Emory   University, Georgia in 1946. Yes, Emory was its own little town and address. I was a breech baby, born at 11:50 p.m. on a Thursday, so Friday the thirteenth loomed before me. Fate? Witchery? I still muse on this when I have a string of bad days.

At the age of seven I returned to Emory as a polio patient with non-paralytic polio, one of the defining moments of my life. I became a mini poster girl for my home town as children collected dimes in my name through “Shelia Clubs.” I now realize this was a stroke of genius by the press (our friends) that brought polio to a level that the small canvassers could understand. I hope that one effort brought money to advance the fight against this disease.

I have told my cohorts at the DeKalb History Center that I was a person born to live in one town and forever love the people there. That is true as almost my entire life has played out with Decatur and Agnes Scott as a backdrop, with me on the stage. After finishing Decatur High School in 1965, I took a short stroll across the railroad tracks and enrolled in Agnes Scott. This was a foregone conclusion as my father used to push me by the College in my stroller and tell me I would one day attend this college. Thankfully he and my mother lived to see me graduate. (Perhaps I should have said “eke by” instead of graduate, but time taught me that is better to be at the bottom of the rolls of an august body of women than leading the list of a lackluster place.)

I did what many classmates did at the time, married and got a job. My first job was at - - ASC in the Alumnae Office, where I edited the Class News section of The Alumnae Quarterly, the alumnae publication at that time. This was a great period of my life as I met so many alumnae from other decades. Those ladies of the 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s remain my favorites. They had outstanding character, and were truly gracious women who had endured much. At this time I divorced and moved on to work at several other jobs at a bank and at Head Start. 

I married a second time to Charlie Harkleroad and in 1974 our family expanded with Susan Leigh, ASC (Class of 1996.) But I returned yet again to Agnes Scott in 1976 and worked in the Development Office with Dr. Paul McCain. I loved all my years working at Agnes Scott as the academic world surrounded me and that had been my comfort zone for many years.

In 1980 I felt it was time to leave the halls of ivy and venture back to almost where I began. I joined the ranks of what was then The Center for Disease Control (CDC), a click down the road from Emory Hospital. It was here that I “found myself.” Granted, a degree from Agnes Scott did not qualify me for a scientific career, but a liberal arts education prepared me for my true calling. I served in various jobs, until I found my niche in the Training and Career Development Branch—a great fit for someone who trained to be a teacher. The pinnacle of my career was here as I served as the liaison for the CDC and ATSDR Mentoring Program. (By this time CDC had become the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry had joined our ranks.) The Mentoring Program offered employees an opportunity to be mentored by a seasoned leader at CDC, and many people benefitted and are now the leaders of the agency. This was what I was meant to do, and I continued to fulfill a career there of 25 years.

I kept my connection to ASC through working phonathons to garner funds from supportive alumnae. I also served as the Reunion Giving Chair on the Agnes Scott Alumnae Board. I loved these duties as once again I was connected to my “sisters.”

After taking an “early out” from CDC, I am living the good life of retirement. My greatest points of pride are my daughter Susan (who graduated from ASC with honor, though I could not) and my granddaughter, now thirteen. I have helped to home school her from first to eighth grade where we are now. The teacher in me never left. Susan has built a career as a restoration artist here in Atlanta.  I still stay active in my neighborhood association and am a current board member for the DeKalb History Center. I also serve as the Nursery Assistant at Valley Brook Baptist Church in Decatur.

The five decades since we all went our separate ways have been challenging and rewarding. But it was a good set of parents and our days at Agnes Scott that prepared me for it all. I truly believe that I could go anywhere in the world, meet an Agnes Scott alum, and we would be friends. This magic place unites the women who study there and they are bound for eternity. The black onyx stone continues to cast its spell of “sisterhood.”

Marsha Williams Norman

  

Marsha Norman is co-director of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at the Juilliard School. She was awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and Hull-Warriner and Drama Desk Awards for her play 'Night Mother. In 1992, she received Tony and Drama Desk awards for her libretto of The Secret Garden. She also wrote the books for the Broadway musicals The Color Purple, for which she received a Tony nomination, and The Bridges of Madison County.  She won a Peabody Award for her writing on the HBO television series, In Treatment, and has received both Emmy and Grammy nominations. She has taught playwrighting at The Juilliard School for 25 years, and for the last five years, has taught Musical Book at Yale.

 Her other work includes the plays Getting Out, Third and Oak: The Laundromat, The Poolhall, The Holdup, Traveler in the Dark, Sarah and Abraham, Loving Daniel Boone, The Master Butcher's Singing Club, and Trudy Blue; the novel The Fortune Teller; and numerous television and film scripts including Face of a Stranger, Cooler Climate, and Samantha, An American Girl.
 

Norman serves on the council of the Dramatists Guild. She received the William Inge Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in Theatre Award and other awards and prizes. She is a Founder and President of the Lilly Awards Foundation, an organization that raises money for young women writers and honors established ones. And in 2016, she was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.


Rosie Wilson Kay

  

Following my graduation from Agnes Scott, Daddy sent me to "business school" to learn to type and to master accounting (my checkbook). With my two invaluable degrees I landed my first job ever at the Trust Company in Atlanta because the brass knew that "since you are a product of Agnes Scott we know we can train you to do anything". And so my nine month career began before marrying Ben and heading to Charlottesville for him to finish his last two years of law school at Virginia and for me to write thank you notes and try to learn to cook. Off to San Antonio for the Army and then home to Augusta where Ben continues to practice law and I continue to learn to cook.  

When our two wonderful children were in public middle school I hauled to the University of South Carolina for my MLIS. Armed with the skills learned during my masters program and my four years of living in McCain while at ASC I launched my second and longer career as a media specialist in our neighborhood public school.

We have two marvelous children: Benjamin Kay IV, who is a urologist and lives in Augusta with his charming wife Julia and their two sons Jim and Rob; and Elizabeth Kay Yaeger, who is a lawyer for U. S. Customs Chief Counsel in Seattle where she lives with her terrific husband Julian and their son Weston. 

Life continues to be fascinating for Ben and me. Our children are grown, married, and successful; and we have fun being together at the movie, on trips, and enjoying whatever is happening at the moment. I shall be ever thankful for the education afforded me at Agnes Scott and the special friendships that kept me going during the six days per week of classes. I look forward to our reunion with great excitement.


Winnie Wirkus Djajengwasito

Updated

  Hello from Bali 50 years on.

52 years in my case. I left ASC after my sophomore year, a decision I regretted then and still regret. But I was not in a good place at the time and I couldn't benefit from what ASC had to offer. I have been so blessed with a roommate and classmates who have reached out to me.

I did graduate work at Cornell (western New York) where I met my husband. He was an Indonesian university lecturer also doing graduate work. We had two children at Cornell: a daughter (now living in former East Germany) and a son (now living in the US). In 1975 we moved back to Indonesia permanently. 

We lived in a small university town on the slopes of a volcano south of Surabaya, the capital of East Java Province. My husband, Subandi, returned to his job at the university and our children -- now including another daughter born in Indonesia -- went into Indonesian schools. My sister in law, who still lives in the family house in the family village, sent her three children to live with us and go to school in "the city". The youngest niece was just a couple of years older than our oldest child, so it was a good fit. For the end of Muslim Fasting Month Eid holiday, all the cousins would go home to the village together on the bus. My husband and I would come later and pick everybody up. On the way home, our car was crammed full of rice from my mother in law's paddy field  because she didn't trust "city rice". The cousins are still close through a WhatsApp group.

I was recruited by a River Valley Development Agency (think Tennessee TVA: dams, irrigation, flood control, etc.). My first task was to figure out "what we are doing right and what needs improvement". From evaluation, the next logical step was planning. So my team trekked through rural areas -- roads were few and far between in those days. Great fun (at that age)! Later on, the central Ministry in Jakarta used our team for national projects, so we were trekking through really remote areas -- many of which are now tourism destinations! 

In 1987 my husband took early retirement because the university was becoming politicized. (This was during the military dictatorship.) He was offered a job as the first Indonesian Executive Director of the US Agency for International Development USAID - Indonesian Foreign Ministry Bicultural Center in Surabaya. In addition to offering English language classes, the Center was the official host for USAID visiting artists. “Bandi was also ex officio a member of the Surabaya Arts Council. So every month or so, we'd get all gussied up in formal Indonesian national dress and go hit a gong (instead of cutting a ribbon). That was fun, too.

I was offered a tenured position at the Faculty of Economics, Airlangga University and campus housing. So for the next 25 years, I walked to work. I was able to schedule classes flexibly and began doing international consulting. I also served a term in the government which let me do some theoretical work on outsourcing and supply chains at a time when corporations were just beginning to get into this. 

My husband died in 2010 and I began the 1000 day official Javanese mourning period. That ended just as I reached mandatory retirement age. My vision was already failing. Then the neighbours across the street from my daughter in Bali put their tiny house up for sale. So here I am in Bali. I keep busy helping with household chores (laundry doesn't require lots of vision) and being available for grandchildren: a girl in 8th grade and a boy in 3rd. When I retired, I promised my colleagues that I would write Indonesian language textbooks for the courses I taught. The work is slow but it's coming.

I won’t be able to attend the reunion, but look forward to getting back together with classmates. Lalla has my e mail. 


 One of the most significant developments in my life in the last five years has been our “Gang of 4” monthly chats.  It started unexpectedly in late 2018 when Bunny (née Teeple) and I connected via Skype before our 50th reunion.  Then, at the Saturday night reunion party, we surprised Betsy (née Fuller) and Marion (née Hinson) by connecting all four of us for a first-time group hello. 

Covid turned Bali’s world upside down permanently. Indonesia as a whole did relatively well, thanks to swift and decisive government policy. International borders were sealed and inter-island transport (planes, ships and ferries) were stopped except for deliveries of food and other necessities. This policy, which kept the spread of covid relatively limited, devastated Bali. Our entire economy is based on guests.  With no guests, businesses shut down. For more than a year, the only people with incomes were farmers and civil servants. Guests are returning but inflation at home and higher travel costs means they have less money to spend in Bali.

The result is a loss of the mid-market segment of Bali tourism, what economists call “hollowing out”. Tourism facilities are now either premium or budget class. Pre-covid, a middle-income family like ours could go for an occasional Sunday brunch buffet at a mid-market international class hotel or celebrate a birthday at a beach club. Now those venues have either closed or downgraded to budget class. For locals like us, the quality of service is no longer worth the price venues have to charge to cover their increased costs.

My personal situation is comfortable. I have very little vision left but Microsoft has tools to help blind people use computers. So I continue to research and write. When I retired, I fulfilled a promise to my university colleagues and wrote a book (in Indonesian) on the economic history of Indonesia. During the past 10 years, there has been a tremendous amount of new research, particularly into early times. I realized that the first chapters of the book were badly outdated.

But instead of revising directly, I decided to try a new approach. I started a series of blog posts (short incidental pieces) in an informal style. Fully researched, but no footnotes or academic references. The results were so satisfying that I have continued beyond the original idea to revise the early historical period. I even branched out on a related topic inspired by fellow Gang of 4 Bunny Teeple Sheffield. Her daughter married into an ethnic Chinese Indonesian family who had emigrated to the US. I got so interested in the family stories that I did a whole series on the economic history of the ethnic Chinese Indonesians and their contribution to the country’s history. 

Maybe you too will find a new/old Scottie friend you don’t know well and start corresponding.  Keep us posted!

 

 


Copyright © 2018 Agnes Scott College Class of 1969 50th Reunion - All Rights Reserved.


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