1964 – Fall ’21 Class Letter
1964 – Fall 2021 Class Letter
Class Agent:
PAT OSTROM KOHNEN ’64
(925) 201-7377 / [email protected]
Greetings to my ’64 Classmates,
I was hoping that by the time I wrote this Fall Letter most of COVID would be behind us. We are still being very careful here at Stoneridge Creek even though there is a high percentage of both residents and employees vaccinated. Outside guests can still only dine with residents at outside venues. Some excursions have started again. A group of us went to the Legion of Honor Art Museum in San Francisco. In order to dine inside at the Café we needed to show proof of vaccination. Some of my friends are starting to travel again, but I am waiting until 2022. I am thinking about a Great Lakes Cruise. Our Book Club is still meeting via Zoom, but a few of the clubs or committees are starting to meet in person with masks. My granddaughter in Sacramento is back at school in-person, but my three granddaughters in the Philippines are still doing distance learning.
My oldest granddaughter who turned 25 on July 4th has moved back to California with her fiancé; she now works for the Sacramento Police Department. She was a criminal justice major in college.
I hope that you are doing well. Aging does come with challenges, but I am trying to keep fit. I now have a personal trainer twice a week to help keep me on track. I think word games are good for the mind. I have recently started to play Quiddler; it is a card game similar to Scrabble. It takes some thought, but not so much that we cannot chat while we play. Reading continues to be a special pleasure for me. During the pandemic I started to explore Netflix.
Alumni and guests from 29 states, including Alaska and Hawaii, were on campus, August 6-8, representing the classes of 1961 to 2023, for the first ever August Alumni Weekend. The weekend included a Commencement Ceremony for the Class of ’20. Next year the Alumni Weekend date will be June 23-26, 2022.
Classes started on Monday, August 30 and the academic year is in full swing with in-person classes. There are 250 first year students and nine transfer students. Seventy-one percent of the incoming class comes from Wisconsin. 74 students represent the 23 other states. The male/female ratio is 52%/48%. Ethnicity is 78% White, 11% Hispanic, 4% Black and 7% other. There are 100 first generation college students. The most common names among the class are Emily/Emilie, Isabelle/Isabella and Jacob.
Thank you to the over 3,600 donors who supported the College this past fiscal year through the Ripon Fund and other initiatives. Many of you have been generous over the years. Even if you have never donated before this could be your year to make a donation. Before my husband, JIM KOHNEN ’64, died, we decided to include Ripon in our will. The College endowment recently hit an all-time high of $112 million.
I have some sad news to share, including that our classmates BILL BEYER ’64 died on July 24, 2021, and BARBARA CARLSON WATTMAN ’64 died May 28, 2020.
WILLIAM “BILL” BEYER ’64 of Greenleaf, Wisconsin, died July 24, 2021. At Ripon, he majored in chemistry, participated in Theta Chi and was commissioned through ROTC. He had worked in healthcare. Survivors include his wife, CAROL HABERKORN BEYER ’66; and children, including ELISABETH BEYER NOLEN ’86. BILL BEYER ’64 and I were both chemistry majors and he was a Theta Chi fraternity brother of my husband JIM KOHNEN ’64.
BARBARA CARLSON WATTMAN ’64 of Wichita, Kansas, died May 28, 2020. At Ripon, she studied art. She also studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, earned a degree in art history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and studied at Wichita State University. She taught at Wichita State and the Wichita Art Association. She was active in the Oz Bicycle Club; and was a member of the Scandinavian Society, researched her Swedish heritage and traveled to Sweden four times. Later in life, she earned a master’s degree in gerontology and worked in the memory care unit at Catholic Care Center. She was active in the Adoration group at St. Joseph Catholic Church. Survivors include one son and two daughters.
RONALD SCOTT HEIDERICH ’64 of Saint Paul, Minnesota, writes, “My wife Kathy Heiderich died September 21, 2020. 57.5 years married! Love of my life. Died of renal cancer.”
RICHARD L. MOSCHEL ’64 of Ely, Minnesota, writes, “This was a year of staying in!”
I did not receive any other class information to share either from the College or from you. Let me know how you are doing; so I can share some class notes in my next letter.
Stay Safe,
Pat Ostrom Kohnen ’64