Change in the editing of this web site

Your editor has checked the statistics on this site, which notes each day how many of us sign in and visit, and the use of this site has dropped off tremendously.  There are gaps of days when no one stops by.  So far in April 2024 we have 5 visits, and at least one person has signed in more than once.  It is time to decide how we want this site to operate.  It costs a few hundred dollars a year to keep it active, and a smaller sum to maintain control of our name.  Some of you have helped out with the financial cost over the years, a very nice act.  Perhaps we can expect an occasional note from a member, and certainly our In Memory section is well received, that will be updated as needed. 

The school's web site, nmhschool.org, has all current activities listed, a reunion section and an alumni portion which allows anyone to post about themselves, family, other graduates, milestones.  The ease of operation and graphical content which includes photos is far less complicated than this site, which is a few decades old technology.  It's time to let NMH carry the alumni information, which you can sort by class year, and the publicity for events like Sacred Concert or Vespers.  Your editor won't be adding to the home page about such activities going forward.

So, drop a note to the Contact Us, which your editor will receive, let us know what you think about how we might go forward with our class site.  If you would like to spend some time working on this Class Creator built work, you could be given administrative permission, there are currently two of us.  We are looking at our 60th Reunion in 2025, are you interested in attending, is Reunion a thing of the past due to travel or health issues?  Time to collect our opinions and see what this year brings.  Thanks for reading.

Christmas Vespers 2023 

Hope you had a chance to enjoy this beloved NMH tradition featuring student musicians. Alumni, friends, and family came to campus on Dec. 3.  Visit nmhschool.org for details and any scheduled off-campus events.

There is no admission fee for NMH Vespers, either on or off campus.

Reunion 2023 was held in June, our next is in two years

Your administrator attended on Saturday, June 3, a day trip to see what Reunion ideas I could glean from what '63 and '68 are doing.  It was cool and windy, the Convocation was spirited and the singing was really enjoyable.  The staff and students really helped make the day smooth, I also spoke with the archivist, Peter Weis.  I have a lot of memorabilia and printed materials I plan to either give the school, or just shred.  Paper is getting more obsolete by the year. Our 60th (!) will be in two years, June of 2025.  You might think ahead this year for opportunities to visit the campus, see friends in your area, or when you are on vacation check in with classmates in that region.  If you are on the Massachusetts coast or visiting northern New England, you might decide to drive across Route 2 past the campus and over the Mohawk Trail, a great time and plenty to stop for if you are going west.  Watch this site for news and read the emails from the school, it's a really bustling place.  Hope you enjoyed the summer.  And think about attending our 60th, and maybe helping out with arrangements and promoting our class.  We will continue to post updates on this home page as 2024 and then 2025 come into view.

Archival notes for Special events from 2022, attend another year?

Celebrate the holiday season with this beloved NMH tradition featuring student musicians. Alumni, friends, and family are welcome to join us for Vespers, on campus on Dec. 4 or in Boston on Dec. 16.

There is no admission fee for NMH Vespers, either on or off campus.

On-Campus Vespers: Sunday, Dec. 4, Memorial Chapel, 3:30 pm and 7 pm

Please join us for a reception between services, from 5-6:30 pm, at Bolger House (the admission building). Guests will not have access to Alumni Hall.

Visitors to campus must be fully vaccinated and test negative on a rapid/antigen COVID-19 test the morning of their visit. Please be prepared to wear a mask indoors. 

A livestream link to watch the 7 pm service will be posted at nmhschool.org closer to the date.

If you are interested in donating a poinsettia in honor or in memory of a loved one, faculty member, or classmate, please email events@nmhschool.org.

Off-Campus Vespers: Friday, Dec. 16, 7:30 pm

Vespers service is at 7:30 pm at Emmanuel Church at 15 Newbury St. in Boston.
All are welcome to join us at a post-event gathering in Boston. 

For more information, email events@nmhschool.org or call 413-498-3600.

[Ed. note: copied from the school web site November 9]

Reunion 2022 

NMH welcomed classes ending in 0, 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7 on June 3-5. back to campus for Reunion 2022.  Our 1965 attendees joined with 1966 and 1967, staying in Wallace dormitory, sharing the rec room, and eating together in Alumni Hall at the "55th Reunion" tables.  We went to the convocation, sang hymns, hung out in the great weather on lots of new bright blue Adirondack style chairs scattered in groups all over the campus.  Our tour of the new Gilder science center was exciting, we saw how advanced the labs and classrooms are, and the second floor study areas look out over the valley with a view we never had!  The farm was open, the two Belgian horses stabled there were huge, we bought maple syrup and enjoyed the lower fields areas which did not exist when we were there.  There is a new photo gallery, 55th Reunion 2022, check it out now, there are a dozen photos taken by your administrator, and we hope to get others from attendees.  It may appear empty, just click on it and the pictures will appear.  A bit of editing in the futuremay clear that up.  A great weekend!  And, only 3 years until our 60th in 2025, so mark your calendars!  

COVID protocol was lifted in 2023, but check nmhschool. org for any changes.

Review the 55th Reunion section from the menu on the left and watch for specifics about 2025 Reunion activities for our 60th
 

Your administrator has taken part in several Zoom calls with the alumni planners for the 2022 Reunion, and details are pretty well set.  We had a final call on May 5, 10 days before Registration closed.  Our class will join 1966 and 1967 in kind of an enlarged group celebrating 55 years.  Aside from the usual activities like a convocation, a hymn sing, visits to new spaces like the Gilder science center, we will have three time blocks set aside for class activities: 3:00-5:00 PM Friday, 10:00 AM - Noon Saturday, and 3:00 - 5:00 PM Saturday (likely time for Class Pictures in this slot).  You will find further information here.  Feel free to contact us through this web site with questions or comments, or suggestions.  This will be a time to reminisce, tell stories, take a golf cart ride around the campus and check out new places or your old haunts.

More good news, this web site has been renewed for a couple of more years, thanks to some generous classmates.  If you'd like to help in the financial support to keep this going, contact us and we can tell you how.

Reunion 2021 Was Virtual June 4-5

I was able to sign in to a couple of activities this past June, a faculty and staff gathering on Friday, and the Class of 1966 group Zoom on Saturday afternoon.  It was great to spend about 90 minutes talking with those who were Juniors in our Senior year, about 15 guys from MH participated including Bob Bruce, who started with us.  A larger group from Northfield participated as well, but we separated Zoom breakout groups due to the large numbers, so your administrator missed out on the Northfield gang.  Please note that our best timely updates occur via the posts from the school via email, and you can see what may be posted about this year's Reunion under the Alumni section of www.nmhschool.org.  We now get an online version of class notes, which contains August 2020 columns from Henri and Wendy.  We can add to these if we wish, or post your own updates.  Any way we can, we can help each other get through the rest of this pandemic which is a very bumpy ride, toward the new normal.  Stay well!

Managing Pandemic Boredom

Some of our classmates have been curious about what we all have been doing during the pandemic.  Did you hole up?  Clean out your closets and organize the spice rack?  Go out and volunteer?  Stay in and volunteer?  Give to causes as a way of helping?  Start a new hobby?  Sew masks?  Read a lot of good books?  Binge watch TV shows?  Grow your hair longer than it's been since the '60s?  Inquiring minds want to know.  When you read this, think about it.  Your administrator will start:  We had our front porch rebuilt, and are justs finished renovating the upstairs master bath.  We've done a lot of work with our church, since we are having virtual services, so connections are harder to make and assistance with rides to appointments or meals are more difficult.  We take country drives to break up the tedium, two of which.took us to a lovely little canal town an hour from Albany and home, Little Falls NY, to get my two Moderna vaccinations, and more locally for the booster.  And lots of reading, plus televised sports.  What about you??

Why not also update your profile, check in with your friends, look at those shared times in our photo galleries.  Social distancing makes everyone edgy, try escaping it by reaching out on this and other sites like Facebook.  Or call someone.  I've been on the phone or texted more than ever, and enjoy the nice feelings which linger for hours after a good long chat.  We may be tired of Zoom, Facetime, Skype, but use the technological improvements over that pay phone on the wall outside Hayden we guys had to use to call home or across the river.  Don't stay isolated!

I am going to keep the balance of the text below on the site, even though it's outdated as of this editing in February 2021.  We have now had our second conference call about our 2020 55th Reunion.  A nice group of classmates joined in, discussing what we'd like to do that weekend, and who in the class they had kept in touch with.  (Darned preposition ending that sentence, what would our English teachers think?)  It's time to decide about attending and pencil in the dates.  We'd like to hear from you!  Please post your thoughts, thinking of coming, or not thinking of coming, and maybe why, so we can firm up what we might want to plan during the balance of this spring.  Email or call your friends, tell them too.

We will be posting information as it becomes available on this site, as well as sending email blasts to the larger group of classmates using the school's email list.  So if you aren't on this site, and the school doesn't have a current email for you, please contact them.

We will get to stay in a fine new building with air conditioning and an elevator, so add those amenities to your list of reasons to come back.  Consider maybe combining a tour of parts of New England and a stop on the reunion weekend at the campus.  I travel with a small group each year, focusing on areas in the Northeast, have stayed in Westport CT, Gloucester MA, and Newport RI, and most recently York Beach ME in mid-September.  Plenty to see and do besides reunion.  I enjoyed the 1964 classmates who returned for their 55th in June.  I also recommend the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls, west of Greenfiend on the Mohawk Trail (Rout 2), the dahlias were in full bloom and the bookshops and restaurants were terrific.  We will be using this site to communicate with you all, along with email and phone calls.

We have a new Head of School, Brian Hargrove, who took the reins in the summer of 2019.  I was able to meet him on that Reunion Saturday, very engaging and  interested in alumni.  I was impressed, and right after our short conversation he was taking pictures with Pres Blake, an easy transition for him.  I am told that he has that skill of remembering everyone's name.  Check into the NMH web site to see updates on Brian and the incoming students, and what's new on campus as winter sets in.  I'm also happy that we continue a trickle of visitors, although diminished recently.  I get it, when there hasn't been new content, classmates not posting about what they've been doing, if they retired or moved, the usual, why sign in?  There is constant change though, let us know what's happening in your life!  We've paid for this site through June of 2021, just past our postponed 55th reunion, so take advantage of it!  Never know who might reach out to you.

One more question:  Did you attend a 2019 college reunion?  I know many of us are quite faithful in attending and in supporting the various colleges and universities we attended.   I didn't go to my Syracuse reunion in September, not that interested.  Perhaps some of you from any college or university could post something in your profile about your college experience and opinion on your 50th college year.

Harkening back to Reunion 2018, I got to campus on Saturday.  I didn't see any other 1965 class members, but caught up with a number of the 1968 men and women.  Saw Mark Auerbach '68, Peter Weis '78 (archivist),and Miss Mann from the Northfield campus, as well as outgoing Head of School Peter Fayroian, who will be sorely missed.  I added a few photos to our gallery, Reunion 2018, check them out.

I also encourage you to log in and and let classmates know what's going on post-50th, as we are now firmly into a new decade of our lives . Through email contact, I see classmates getting together, visiting each other, taking trips, checking off bucket list items.  Why not bring everyone up to date?  You could also connect through Facebook, I now have several classmates from both sides of the river whom I've been communicating with as "friends", an interesting term.  I consider everyone in '65 as a potential friend through social media, although we may not have known each other back then, and may not have seen each other in person since the '60's.  Our shared experiences give us more in common than I had ever realized until I had been to reunions and "got it".  And read the News magazine, Wendy and Henri continue to gather a lot from some of us which does not end up on this site, sadly.  Check with them for dealine on the next issue.

JUST DISCOVERED: A picture of 1965 losing to 1964 in the Shadow Lake rope pull!  Just added to this site, it's the last image (#44) in the early photos section.  Try to identify as many of the MH guys as you can!  It's not passworded so any classmate can access it.

(If you are looking for information previously posted on this home page about our 50th Reunion, it has been moved to the Announcements section.)

Through the generosity of a number of our classmates, our site will stay alive through June of 2021, well past our 55th reunion!  Much appreciation and thanks to the donors, who received individual thank-yous as well.  So, now post something in your profile.  Or create one if you haven't yet, and let those who also haven't know we miss them, it's actually a good percentage of us.  If we want to keep this site open after that date, let's discuss it, let me know what you think.  We've always been an active group.  Let's keep the Spirit of "65 rolling!

Reunion photos and articles on the NMH school web site

     Visit the NMH web site alumni page, http://www.nmhschool.org/alumni, for current information directly from the school about activities on and off campus, as well as everything the staff posts about Reunions.

Here is the direct link to view the posted by NMH: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nmhalums/sets/with/72157653842908870.  Lots from Thursday's lobster dinner, and many '65ers took part in the bike ride.  Let me know if the link no longer works.

     If you have any questions, or feedback, please contact Dave Stone (dstonester@gmail.com), web site administrator.