Tell Us:
Close Encounters of the Adrian Kind

AT THE EQUATOR

I have had several interesting encounters with AC alums, but the most interesting is the following. I was the Regimental Surgeon for the 381st Regiment, 96th Division. We were aboard ship in the South Pacific at Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. I was given the responsibility to take a small boat and go to the command ship, the Rocky Mount, to receive orders for our regiment in the upcoming combat. As I climbed to the deck I noted the officer looked vaguely familiar. As I approached and saluted, I realized it was indeed a college friend, Harlan Farnsworth ’40. We exchanged greetings and tried in the short time to renew old Adrian memories. This was 1944, in the area of the Pacific just above the equator. Small world!

It happened again in 1955, when I took the family on an extensive trip through the Western states. We stopped at various motels along the Oregon coast, and on one such occasion, we stopped at a very nice one on the waterfront in Gold Beach. The cottage we rented there was so very nice that I went to the office and complimented the owner, who was very pleasant. It turned out not only was he also from Adrian, but he was an Adrian College graduate and an ATO, as I am. It has been a few years since this event and I have forgotten the gentleman’s name.

I have had several other contacts with alums from Adrian, but none quite so unusual.

—Dr. Bill Hewes ’37


AT WORK IN CHICAGO

I had an interesting experience in meeting a fellow alumna at an unexpected place. In July 2001, I was in the process of moving to Chicago from Cleveland and was on my first job interview at a Christian social service agency called Lydia Home. I walked in the door and went to inquire about the person with whom I was to meet. A woman came out of the reception office, and I immediately said “Christine!” She looked at me and said “Jill!” The woman was Christine Garno Tabor ’90, and we were in the same class at Adrian. We were so surprised to see each other.

I explained that I was there for an interview, and we had a quick “catch-up” conversation. Chris works in the Development Office at Lydia Home. She has lived in Chicago for 11 years, and is originally from the Palmyra/Blissfield area. I have worked as a therapist with teen girls here for the past two years. Chris and I didn’t know each other very well during our time at Adrian. She was a commuter student, and I lived on campus. However, our paths crossed frequently in choir and Singers. We went on choir tours together, our most exciting trip being to Europe with Dr. Art Jones in 1988. Since working together, we have had opportunities to reminisce about choir and these trips. We have also brought in our photo albums and shared these with each other. It is very fun to have someone with whom you share the Adrian connection in your place of work. This is especially nice because we have a common bond in our experiences with singing at Adrian.

No matter where you go in life, when you meet an Adrian alum, you instantly have something in common with that person!

—Jill Geddes Curry ’90


ACROSS THE FENCE

My wife Anita and I have lived here on 77th Street in Indianapolis since 1972. In 1976 our next-door neighbors told us they had sold their house to a couple that had graduated from the University of Michigan. Soon after on a nice spring weekend, while I was working in my yard, I saw my neighbor near his split rail fence. I went over to introduce myself, and we talked briefly. Later that day, I saw his wife outside so I walked over to the fence to meet her. At the same time I saw her husband across the yard again, and something seemed familiar about him. “Where did your husband go to college?” I asked. “Adrian College,” she replied. Then I said I had also graduated from Adrian College, in 1962. Our new neighbors were Judy Hoadley McLean ’66 and D. Michael McLean ’65. Needless to say, I was surprised! I recognized Michael from the distance because of all the basketball games I attended when he was a student manager.

Since 1976, we have enjoyed seeing their four children grow up, and now we are seeing their grandchildren climb over and under that split rail fence!

—Weimer K. Hicks Jr. ’62