Interesting task -- summarizing life after Hunter ….
I started college in upstate NY at the University of Rochester and finished in California at UC Berkeley with a degree in sociology. I lived in the San Francisco Bay area for 20 years, starting out in a house commune near the Haight Ashbury district with my high school era boyfriend, and ended up in a home perched on the Sausalito hillside overlooking the Bay, with my husband Pat and our son Devin. After graduating from Berkeley in 1971, I started a job as ‘Girl Friday’ for an international container leasing company, intending to earn money for graduate school a year later. Quite unexpectedly, that job led to a career in corporate finance and administration after business classes at Golden Gate and then Harvard Business School’s PMD program. I spent the last five years of my business career as CFO for the Pacific Stock Exchange in SF and LA, working until the birth of my son.

In 1989, my husband and I both retired from the corporate world and moved to Oregon to raise our son. While he was growing up, we lived on 40 acres of forest land near Eugene (home of the Oregon Ducks and birthplace of Nike), and we city slickers actually learned to grow fruits and vegetables! My son lives in Brooklyn now, after graduating from Dartmouth, and my husband and I live in the city of Eugene, with a second home in Seal Rock on the Pacific coast.

During my years in Oregon, I’ve worked part-time in finance and administration for a couple of non-profits, but mostly I’ve spent my time and energy volunteering for various organizations. I helped out for many years in the alternative public schools my son attended, and volunteered as a CASA for 16 years, advocating in court for children in foster care. I’m involved with Eugene’s Friends of the Library, both as a Board member and as a coordinator of hundreds of volunteers for fundraising activities. I’ve ended up as the ‘scribe’ for my women’s power-walking race team and my neighborhood’s community group as well as for my two book clubs. During the last five years, I unfortunately became familiar with the world of dementia as I took charge of overseeing my older sister’s care (she was a Hunter ’59 alum) during her struggle with this tragic disease. To put to good use what I’ve gained from that experience, I recently took on a new volunteer commitment, as an Ombudsman advocating for the rights and dignity of people living in long term care facilities.

Because my son still lives on the east coast, as do other relatives, I visit NYC often and always love experiencing all that this great city offers. And whenever I’m near 68th & Lexington, I walk past Hunter, savoring memories of those long ago days. However much I enjoy New York though, can’t imagine giving up the pleasures of living in Oregon, surrounded by the great beauty and tranquility of the majestic Cascade Mountains, through verdant forests, and down to the sparkling waters of the Pacific. Eugene is an especially welcoming town with friendly, warm-hearted people, a fascinating west coast history, and great athletic traditions. Hope some of you will have an opportunity some day to stop by and experience Oregon hospitality in person!