Wellesley Class of 1950

JOAN SAYWARD FRANKLIN

It was “standing room only” at the Memorial Service of “Say” on Thursday, November 8, 2007 at the West End Collegiate Church, NYC. Several Wellesley 1950 classmates attended, including Sally Huggins Griffith, Barbara Loomis Jackson, Christie Myers Tolstoy, Norma Joseph Hart, Barbara (Bobbie) Carlson, and Betty Brown Hayes.

Friends, neighbors and business associates spoke at the service, detailing her life from its beginning in Cape Elizabeth, Maine through the present. She was President of the West 75th Street Block Association in New York City and conducted a business in sound recording first with her late husband, Robert Franklin, and then by herself with business associates in her spacious townhouse which they owned. Thanks to Joan, her neighbors all knew each other as they walked in the neighborhood, through their participation in the Block Association, making the neighborhood safe.

One family moved into an upper floor of her townhouse and raised their two sons there.
One of their sons decorated the foyer of Joan’s townhouse with season-appropriate themes for Halloween, etc. She had full grown rabbits in the backyard, who hopped in and out of the lower floor of her home. There were tears in the eyes of a neighbor as he described planting a tree with Joan, and he said it grew to be the most beautiful tree on the block.

“Say” was 1950 Class Secretary in the years 2000-2005.

Submitted by Betty Brown Hayes, ’50.

P & J SUMMER INTERN

The Peace and Justice Studies Department has informed the Board that the Class of 1950/ Emily Greene Balch Summer Internship was awarded this year to Gladys Onyago '07. Gladys worked as an intern in the communication department of the Third World Network - Africa Secretariat in Accra, Ghana. The Third World Network is an international organization that carries out research and advocacy on issues of social and economic policy in order to advance the needs and interests of the world's most marginalized.

Gladys writes, "I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Class of 1950 and the Wellesley Peace and Justice Department for giving me this unique and humbling learning opportunity. Thank you very much for being my quiet and supportive companions every step of the way... I am sincerely humbled for being given the opportunity to honor the memory of Emily Greene Balch. I continue to keep the principles of social justice and equality in my heart as I pursue my professional and academic career in Media and politics."

OUR WORLD

We are distressed to learn that not everyone received OUR WORLD, our illustrated international newsletter that was mailed to the whole class last September. It explains our two scholarship programs, one of which supports Wellesley's global Peace and Justice Internships. It also includes essays from classmates who recount their own unique international experiences. If you never received OUR WORLD, please contact Elaine Lackman Smith (elsmith@rcn.com) as soon as you can. We believe this is such an important publication that we are planning to reprint.

Meanwhile, if you have changed your mailing address, e-mail or phone, please call the college Update Telephone Line, (800)339-5233 or go online to http://www.Wellesley.edu/Alum. We want to keep in contact with you.

CLASS SCHOLARSHIP FUND

In a letter to the class Kathryn A. Osmond, Director, Student Financial Services, expressed the thanks of the College for our "commitment to Wellesley's financial aid program." Our Class of '50 Scholarship Fund, as of January 31, 2008, has grown to over $578,000, with an estimated 2007-2008 income of over $26,000.

Our Scholarship Fund recipient for the 2007-2008 year is again Joanne Wong '08. A senior from Boston, Joanne is completing her double major in economics and East Asian studies. She writes, "My hometown is Boston, and I am proud to say that I am an avid Red Sox fan. In my free time, I enjoy traveling and volunteering at various organizations, including the American Red Cross, Wellesley Words on Wheels, and Alternative Spring Break. I have taken several opportunities while here at Wellesley to participate in study abroad programs that have taken me to the Far East, particularly China, Taiwan, and Korea. These cross-cultural experiences have motivated me to keep improving my Chinese language skills and have inspired me to pursue a career in the financial services industry in Asia."

Last May Joanne wrote to express her gratitude to the Class for her generous financial aid package: "Your financial support has further provided me with opportunities to travel and study abroad. These experiences have enhanced my perspective of the world and allowed me to explore different cultures that I could only have dreamt of as a child. For that, I am extremely grateful to you and your continued support. Within these past three years I have grown personally, academically and professionally. Your contributions have made a difference in my life. Thank you."

ANNUAL GIVING REPORT 2006-2007

I was thrilled last year that 1950 had the highest participation rate of all non-reunion classes (75.1%). THIS YEAR WE ARE TOPS!!! An unbelievable 90.7%
of our class contributed to the College during the 2006-2007 fiscal year.

For those who like numbers: 225 of the 248 solicitable donors in our class donated a total of $220,731. We had 25 Durant members, compared with 21 last year, the first year of the new higher minimum.

Maybe we don’t break records in per member donation, but in terms of loyalty to the college, we are NUMBER ONE!

My heartfelt thanks to:

My committee: Julie King Norris, Dorothy Baird Leib, Joann Outcault Munn, Elizabeth Wester Muzzy, Dorothy Davis Pruden. Jane Everhart Rand, Alice Macpherson Ryan, Barbara Chrisman Welles, Mary Brown Wilinsky,and Nan Lavis Wilson. If anyone else would like to join this committee, please let me know.

My liaison at the College, Blair Cruickshank and the elves who developed and maintained the superb web site for tracking donations.

Most of all: the 224 classmates who joined me in supporting the College in 2006-2007.

Gratefully,
Fran (Rouse) Gaver
Annual Giving Representative

IN MEMORIAM

Since our 55th Reunion in 2005 we have lost twenty classmates.

• Sally Brackett Bryant, August 30, 2005
• Mary Anita deVillafranca Rider, October 3, 2005
• Libby Pemberton Forscher, October 10, 2005
• Prentice LarRieu Sack, January 14, 2006
• Mara Brown Stidham, March 5, 2006
• Joanne Healy Hines, July 20, 2006
• Barbara McClung Hallman, November 19, 2006
• Diane Allen Goodman, January 16, 2007
• Judith Anderson Sterling, May 22, 2007
• Jane Reeves Kuhl, May 22, 2007
• Nancy Bonsall Vail, June 10, 2007
• Mary Simmons Flynn, June 10, 2007
• Joan Sayward Franklin, August 11, 2007
• Nicole de Messieres Spurney, August 18, 2007
• Bettie Warner Thompson, October 15, 2007
• Phyllis Shannon Degen, January 10, 2008
• Helen Waldie Hicks, January 18, 2008
• Margaret Allen Gramling, February 14, 2008
• Gloria Anderson, February 17, 2008
• Elizabeth Weiss Parnes, May 13, 2008

We lost Ibby Grey Danforth on March 30, 2005, but Barb Baird Rees notes that Ibby's husband Bill continues Ibby's tradition of posting Christmas greetings and concerns in August. Bill is now 81, and writes that he is close to their four children and fourteen grandchildren, and they are all now "competitively caring" for each other.

We worry about other classmates in poor health and wish them solace and loving care .