Friends House Newbies 2019

We moved to Friends House June 26, 2020. We had never lived in Maryland, only visited Friends House once because of the pandemic, and are not Quakers and yet, this place holds great promise for us and we’re glad to be here.

Early Years:  Mary Lynne grew up in Huntington, WV where her father was a newspaper editor and her mother was an English teacher. She has one brother, Boyd Jarrell, who is an oratorio director in San Francisco.
     Lawrence was born in Brazil and lived there until he came to college in the US. His parents were American and served as Presbyterian educational missionaries in Lavras, Minas Gerais. His dad was the Rector of Gammon Institute, a boarding school and college. Lawrence grew up bilingual (Portuguese and English) and bicultural. He has two sisters, Charlotte Clontz, Troutman, NC and Elizabeth McNair Frank, Queens, NY, both church musicians.

How We Got Together:  In the summer before our junior year in college, we served as campcounselors at Camp Massanetta, Harrisonburg, VA.  The summer romance that would not quit!  We married at graduation and took turns supporting each other through graduate school.

Education:

Mary Lynne:
o Huntington High School
o Randolph-Macon Woman’s College (now Randolph College) AB (English)
o University of Georgia, M. Ed. and Ph.D. (Special Education)
o Honorary doctorate: Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany

Lawrence:
o Instituto Gammon, Lavras, MG, Brazil
o St. Andrews Presbyterian College BA (Sociology and Psychology)
o Xavier University, Cincinnati MA (Psychology)
o University of Georgia, Ph.D. (Clinical Psychology)
o Clinical Internship: Genesee Community Mental Health Center, Flint, MI.

Work History:  We joined the faculty of UNC Charlotte, Lawrence in 1973, and Mary Lynne in 1982. We grew up with the university and got to witness its transformation to an urban doctoral research university, now with 29,000 students.
     Lawrence, Professor Emeritus of Psychological Science, taught all levels of students, with a special emphasis on clinical psychology and ethics. Along with his colleague, Dr. Rich Tedeschi, he developed a research program that looks at how people respond to traumatic life events, particularly the possibility of posttraumatic growth. The PTG Inventory has been translated into more than 25 languages and is used by researchers worldwide. Lawrence also maintained a part-time clinical practice, with a focus on people coping with life crises.
     Mary Lynne began her career teaching young children with special needs in Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, and South Carolina. As a faculty member in special education, her focus was on children 0-3. She became Dean of the College of Education in 1999 until her retirement in 2013.

Our Adult Family:  Now you will understand an important reason for moving to FH!
     We have two daughters, both of whom live in DC, and two grandchildren.  Eliza is a clinical social worker in a MedStar primary care practice. Her partner Joe is a German-English translator. Mary Laura is a kindergarten teacher at DC Bilingual Elementary School. She is currently on paid family leave, caring for Malcolm who is six months old and Isabel who is 5. Husband Kevin is a journalist for E & E, covering the Environmental Protection Agency.

Travel:  One special travel adventure was when Lawrence went on a faculty exchange to the University of Nottingham, UK and, in addition to exchanging teaching loads, we exchanged houses and cars (we shared space in a former residence of the Lord Mayor of Nottingham!).
     For our 50th anniversary, we took a river cruise up the Mississippi. Other previous international destinations over the years: Brazil, the Caribbean, Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Israel, New Zealand, and Australia. In the US, “the great family trip West” and Sunset Beach NC.

Religion /Spirituality:  Lawrence describes himself as a “Presbyterian agnostic” and something of a secular humanist. Mary Lynne is a traditional liberal Presbyterian, but is not so different from Lawrence.

Hobbies/ What We Hope to Do at Friends House:  In our post-retirement years in Charlotte, Lawrence co-wrote a book, supervised masters-level psychologists, and peer-reviewed manuscripts.  We belonged to a discussion group (The Contrarians) that emphasized social justice issues. Mary Lynne was an Elder at Covenant Presbyterian Church (mainline, Presbyterian USA) and helped plan a capital campaign that created a childcare center and affordable housing. She was a consultant for United Way and she took classes in storytelling.
     We are now ready for “a new thing”. I am Lawrence’s retirement project. I had a stroke in 2016, and now have lots of heart complications. Hopefully, I may be making progress and better days are ahead.
     Lawrence likes listening to something from his CD collection (lots of Brazilian music, traditional and bossa-nova, and 1950’s cool jazz) and watching “futebol”, especially teams from England and Spain and any international matches, such as the World Cup. Mary Lynne is interested in bridge (college dormitory level) and book clubs.  She is also interested in promoting childhood literacy. We are both interested in politics, in theatre, and some concerts.

My parents, unknowingly, changed the course of my life when they gave me a solo trip to British Columbia for my high school graduation present.  I was the only southern American on the work crew of a Young Life Resort, called Malibu.  I found it very stimulating to become acquainted with people who were very different from me.  Seeking the unity in the diversity has been a major theme in my life since this first international experience.

In 1964, Jim Upchurch, from the class of 1960, and I married.  We had been childhood sweethearts and started dating again at my senior prom.  Jim graduated from Guilford College and I became an RN, studying at N.C. Baptist Hospital School of Nursing and graduating from Charlotte Memorial Hospital School of Nursing.  Our only son, David, was born in 1966.

When David was only five months old, Jim and I took him to live with us in a Mexican village for two years.  Jim and I were Co-Directors of an American Friends Service Committee Youth Services Community Development Project, designed to offer opportunities for alternative service to young Quaker conscientious objectors, as well as service opportunities for American women and Latino youth, between the ages of 18 and 21.

I have worked as a public health nurse, social worker, and even as a volunteer for the United Farm Workers, where I met Cesar Chavez in La Paz, California.  I was in California studying the UFW Farmworker Clinic System as I was developing a UFW Farm Worker Clinic in Avon Park, Fla.

When David Upchurch was 10 years old, Jim, David and I went to Gaborone, Botswana (Africa).  Jim was working for the Cooperative Housing Foundation in establishing a Self-Help Housing Program in Botswana.  (Eventually, Jim became the International Director of the Cooperative Housing Foundation).  I taught Pediatric Nursing at the National Health Institute, served as Peace Corps Nurse for two years, then as American Embassy Nurse for 6 ½ years.

My 17-year marriage to Jim Upchurch ended in Botswana in 1983, and I remained in Botswana for a total of 10 years.    In 1985, I married Jim Brody, a USAID Controller, and became the step-mother of his two children, who were 8 and 10 when we met.  Jim Brody (sometimes called Jim #2 by my family, his children and I were posted to Cairo, Egypt following his USAID tour in Botswana.  This time, we were in Cairo for 3 ½ years, leaving just as the Gulf War was beginning.  I served as one of the School Nurses at Cairo American College, a K- 12 International School.

Jim and I had two more tours in Cairo.  In between our first two tours, I studied Transpersonal Psychology, worked as a Hospice Nurse, became a Reiki Master and lived in the Washington, D.C. area for the first time.

During our second Egyptian tour, I taught Reiki, studied Sacred Geometry with an Egyptian Architect, and started an International Women Healers’ Group, which still exists today.

Following our second Egyptian tour, Jim and I lived in Rome, Italy for a year.  Jim worked for the World Food Program and I studied Metaphysics and taught Reiki.

In October, 2001, Jim and I were on one of the first international flights to leave Dulles Airport, following the 9/11 attack.  We were on our way to Kiev, Ukraine for Jim’s two-year assignment with USAID. I worked as an Embassy Nurse for our first year and then as a Peace Corps Medical Officer for our second year. I also taught Reiki and studied Acupuncture with a Ukrainian MD and met and sponsored a Ukrainian Visionary Artist while we lived in Kiev.

Jim and I have also had short assignments in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Budapest, Hungary.  In Phnom Penh, I loved meditating with the Buddhist nuns and monks in our neighborhood wat.  I also served as a relief medical officer for the UN High Commissioner of Refugees, providing medical care to Vietnamese refugees who were living in a half-way house, awaiting resettlement in the USA, and I taught Reiki.

Since returning to the USA, I have completed a two-year Quaker-sponsored School of the Spirit Spiritual Nurturing Program.  I also completed a two-year program in Spiritual Guidance, sponsored by Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation.  I am a Spiritual Director and particularly enjoy working with people who have had unusual spiritual experiences.  I recently served for several years as a volunteer Hospital Chaplain.

Ten years ago, Jim and I moved to Friends House.  I continue to enjoy writing and recently discovered that I have a gift for sculpture.  I play recorder with a FH quartet and sing with Encore Chorale, a group started by our Director for people 55 and over. 

Jim and I have 4 grandchildren.  Three live about an hour away, in Springfield, VA and Towson, MD.  The fourth grandchild lives in Raleigh, N.C.

I realized several years ago that I enjoy living and working in different cultures, having outer journeys, and that I am also, simultaneously, journeying inward into the great mysteries of life.

Married in the fall of 1999, Shannon and Wallace lived in Pittsburgh for about ten years. Wallace continued teaching English and holding administrative jobs at Duquesne University until his retirement in 2004. Shannon, having worked for some years in PPG Industries’ human resources and legal departments, attended law school at Duquesne while working full time—passing the state bar at age 61—and then served as an attorney at PPG and the state teachers’ union.

They spent as much time as they could in the summers in a simple cottage on one of the smallest of the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River (Canadian side), which Shannon’s parents had given her many years before (after purchasing it for $900!). After retirement, she and Wallace looked for a home closer to that little bit of Paradise, and moved into an intergenerational cooperative, Ecovillage, near Ithaca, NY, after working with others for several years to help establish a new third neighborhood.

Developing health problems—Wallace’s cardiac irregularity, resulting in a pacemaker, and Shannon’s slowly developing Alzheimer’s—led them to look for a retirement community with promising medical support near Shannon’s daughter, Sarah, an anthropology professor at George Washington University (two siblings live in California and Minnesota) and to the happy discovery of Friends House, to which they moved in late March 2019. Probably in July, they will move from one of the older cottages (17211 Quaker Lane) to nearby Lodge 1.

Shannon’s past includes parents who grew up in what is now North Korea (children of Presbyterian missionaries), her father having become a recognized Asian geographer who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his service as first postwar civil governor of the Riyuku Islands. She grew up mostly in Hamilton New York and spent a year each with her parents in Washington, DC, and in Tokyo. After graduating in French from Colby College in Maine, she married and lived with her husband and three children for nearly a decade in Winnipeg, Canada and later for several years in North Dakota and Madison, Wisconsin. In the latter, she joined the Unitarian-Universalist Society, of which she has been member ever since.

For all her adult life, Shannon has been a serious chorister, singing in opera choruses and church and symphonic choirs, including (most satisfyingly) the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh. She enjoyed singing last fall in the Friends House Chorus and intends to join the shape note singers at the Friends Meeting House on Sunday evenings once a month. She greatly enjoys walking and swimming, at the Olney swim center and especially in the cold St. Lawrence River around the island she has recently gifted to her daughters.

Wallace was born and raised in the small city of Florence, South Carolina. The local Methodist Church was central to his family’s lives, and as a teenager he decided to follow his grandfather into the ministry. He attended Wofford College (BA English, 1958) and spent one year at Duke University Divinity School before deciding he would prefer to teach literature. He completed an MA in English at Duke and, a few years later, a PhD in English at Indiana University-Bloomington (1966). Over the next 38 years, he taught and did administrative work at several colleges and universities. His teaching was largely focused on English and American literature of the early 20^th century. He has three children from previous marriages, who live in Colorado, South Carolina, and Minnesota.                             

Wallace became a Quaker in 1970 and has been active in several Meetings (he is currently moving his membership to the Sandy Spring Friends Meeting). Partly in association with other Quakers, he has been involved in inter-racist and social justice work, particularly with the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network.

He has been an enthusiastic gardener for most of his life. More recently, he developed a serious interest in astronomy and has enjoyed observing celestial objects through his two inexpensive telescopes, particularly with other people (as had happened several times already at Friends House), and reading and thinking about the philosophical and religious implications of what humans have learned about the history and structure of the universe. 

Background and/or childhood:  Grew up in N. Baltimore with one brother.  Father died when I was 11.  Went to Old St Paul’s Episcopal Church every Sunday.  John sang in the well-known Men and Boys Choir, thus my love of Choral music.  Had many wonderful summer days “out in the valley” where mother was nursery-kindergarten teacher and church school director.  Thus, my love of horses.

Education:  Private and public school; U of Md, undergrad and two graduate degrees in Speech-Language and Psychology, plus a complete graduate program for ESOL for my retirement years.

Family and children:  Married, two wonderful children, son Jay and wife and stepdaughter in Florida; daughter Jody and husband and two wonderful young grandchildren in LA area of Ca.  Divorced long ago, co-parented through the years.

Work history:  Speech-Language Pathologist in Anne Arundel Co. Public Schools 39 years, including starting the unique Mobile Diagnostic Team and Diagnostic Center program in the mid ‘70s, which started our AACo.  Special Education programs for the Emotionally Impaired and for the Autistic.  Retired in 2010.  Worked with clients, part time in a clinical psychology practice, as a Psychology Associate.

Where lived and significant travels:  Raised our children in AA Co. in a special waterfront home (which I secretly called kiddie haven!).  Moved when they went off to college to my present home of 28 years, in Severna Park, on a high hill above the Severn River.  My community of Round Bay is beloved.
     Traveled in Europe, Central and South America and the Galapagos, and several trips to Mexico; trip from Beijing to Tibet, Mt Everest base camp down to Kathmandu and on to India to the Taj Mahal.  Spent summers in Bethany Beach when my children were young.  Love trips to NYC for Broadway shows.  Love to go on retreats.

Volunteer activities:  Early volunteerism in first class of Mediators with AA Co. Conflict Resolution Center, 1995; Baltimore’s National Aquarium Exhibit Guide; AA Medical Center Hospice Volunteer; Centro de Ayuda (Hispanic Center for Help); More recently AA Co. Literacy Council; Court Appointed Special Advocate; Mentor (and now friend) to former student from age 10 till present, age 32.

Interests:  Nature lover, animal lover, birder; love keeping up with family and friends; 35 + years in Annapolis Chorale and Open Circle Book Group to present; writing/poetry groups; Spanish language classes; Humanities class; movies and theater, exercise and walking groups, playing board games/card games with Cameron and Bronwyn in Ca.; visiting family and friends in Florida.; At Friends House, maybe start knitting and bridge playing again; interested in bible study, good conversation, reading, walking, volunteering at the local high school and also in our Rehab, and… having some fun!

Religious/spiritual life:  Convinced Quaker since 1992 at Annapolis Friends Meeting; Anti-racism group, International Day of Peace, various committees; co-clerk/clerk, Outreach Committee for welcoming new attendees.

Lastly, I am looking forward to getting to know everyone and discovering our common interests.

Hi.  My name is Marty Levin, and I got that name from when I joined the service a very long time ago. I hail originally from White Fish Bay, Milwaukee, where my parents lived until I was 6 and then we moved to East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania

My father had been working for Kaiser Roth, a company that made women’s gloves and nylon stockings, not pantyhose. When we moved to PA they purchased an old house built in 1854 that was a boarding house on 80 acres of land.  That was in 1956, and they bought the house and land for $20,000.  The land had then and still has now the foundation for a barn, rows of stone fences for the cows, lots of dogwood, an old spring house, and a small pond.  I loved to play in the pond and the spring house with my sister Sara.  I loved to pick the daffodils and look at the dogwood each spring.  I learned how to ski down the small hill wearing my dad’s world war 2 wooden skis and steel toe boots.  Then I graduated to head skis from Camelback ski area that still exists.  There was a deer path that led to the top of the hill and an old wooden chalet that seated 2 people.  That look out was my get away.

I graduated from high school in 1967 and went to Green Mt. College in Poultney, Vermont for 2 years.  Then I went to nursing school in NYC at Cornell.  My mother was an art teacher and she taught in Bangor and Portland and Rosetta PA in the Italian community grades 1-6 and 9-12.  My father was the CFO for Delightform Foundations in Easton PA, and they both drove the distance to Easton and Bangor daily while my sister and I took the bus to school from the corner bus stop,

I always wanted to work with animals and did an internship with the local country vet;  wow, do I remember that experience.  I also worked as a candy striper at the local, then general hospital, which is now a medical center connected to East Stroudsburg University that was then East Stroudsburg State College.  My folks were active in the community and the hospital in planning for things such as MRI machines.

After Green Mt. College and Cornell, I joined the Army in 1972 and went to Fort Mc Cleland, Alabama, for my basic training.  Then I went to Fort Sam Houston, followed by Fort Bliss for a year training as an LPN, then on to my permanent duty station at Fort Gordon Eisenhower Medical Center in 1975 .

I was in the reserves in Augusta, GA for 3 years and went back to Medical College of Georgia for my BSN and then returned to the Army as an Officer.  I then went to Fort Sam Houston for office basic training and then on to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 1977 and into the new hospital in Dec 1978.

I have been here ever since.  I met my husband in 1979 at the JCC in Rockville, and it was love me love my poodle, Rusty my first brown poodle that I had gotten in Augusta, GA for $35.   Rustye was the runt of the litter and his master was the person who blows the horn at Westminster Kennel Club show. Rusty came with me to Maryland and lived a good life of 17 years. He passed from heart worms and a heart murmur because of that.

I have always had dogs but did not go on to vet school because that took a long time. I still love dogs and I teach Pet CPR and First Aid and Safety for pet parents, like many who may be reading this.  I am a pet advocate and attend Paws in the Park annually with my dogs, this time with Rebie only on April 26.

Since I have been in Maryland I have lived in Wheaton on Georgia avenue south of Friends House and in Gaithersburg.  I have one daughter, Jennifer, age 36, who lives in Germantown and is married.  No grandchildren as of yet (that I know of).

I have worked at almost every hospital in the area and mostly WRNMMC, even the new place on Wisconsin Avenue.  In 2004 I graduated from U of Maryland with my master’s in environmental health and occupational health nursing. I am retired now but feel like I do nursing every day with my dogs, and sometimes offer advice, if asked, to my friends.

I love theater, arts, needlepoint, photography and nature, and taking trips with or without my dogs.

My vision is my biggest challenge these days, yet I manage to get around using public transportation.

I look forward to this move sooner rather than later and am trying to get a good price for this home; 30 years ago it was on the market 4 hours.  Some houses just don’t last on the market and my agent and I are trying to figure out when is the best time to sell it.

Hope this is not too long.  Any questions please feel free to write me  back.  I forgot to mention that my folks were from the five towns on Long Island and went to Lawrence High School.  My dad went to Cornell class of 29, was Phi Beta Kappa, and was also a troop commander in the WACS at Fort Oglethorpe, GA.  He instructed me prior to my joining and followed me everywhere I went by watching the weather, including when i was in El Paso, TX and it snowed.

Thanks for listening.

Marty Levin, Retired Army Nurse 31 years LTC USAR, Cold Nose Warm Heart Pet Advocate

Libby was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina and lived there until she was fifteen when her family moved to Miami, Florida. Her father was a Presbyterian minister with pastorates in Spartanburg and then Miami.

Walt was born in Birmingham, Alabama and at age nine moved to Corpus Christi, Texas. His father was a doctor with TVA for a while and later in private practice in Corpus Christi. I mention the fathers rather than the mothers because as we all know, in those days it was usually the profession of the fathers that determined where one’s family lived.

Libby graduated from Queens College (now Queens University), a women’s collegein Charlotte, North Carolina and Walt graduated from Davidson College, a men’s college, about 25 miles up the road from Queens.

And that’s where life really got interesting! It just happened that both Walt and Libby attended a joint college YMCA-YWCA Retreat at the Quaker Retreat Center at Quaker Lake in North Carolina. Amazingly, out of all those attending they met each other and a friendship-to-love-relationship was begun. They married in 1958.

It started unintentionally, but then became something of a pattern in which Walt and Libby would find one new thing each year to do together. Sometimes it was entering a new degree program as Walt did when he attended Union Seminary and they learned to live communally in one seminary-dormitory-room in New York City. Another year it was as ordinary as having a baby (can having a baby ever be ordinary?) or studying French in Brussels before going to Congo to teach in a theological school under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church, or taking dance lessons at Arthur Murray (a disaster!). We won’t go into the details but in keeping with the idea of new experiences they have four children each born in a different place: one in New York City; one in Brussels, Belgium; one in Lubondai, Congo and one in Kananga, Zaire (same country, different names).

After Walt received his PhD from Boston University the family moved to Ibadan, Nigeria where both Libby and Walt taught and lived during the 1970’s. This was followed by a 20 year teaching career for Walt as Professor of Ethics and Director of Advanced Pastoral Studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California. During that time Libby worked as Coordinator of Volunteers and Community Activities for Mental Health Association of Marin and later, Marin Community Food Bank.

All during their children’s teenage years they spent vacations going on 400-600 mile bicycle trips and staying in youth hostels. Following retirement and a 5 month biking trip in Australia and New Zealand, they gave up long distant bicycling trips and bought a motorcycle with a sidecar (World War II type) for traveling around this beautiful country.

It is wonderful that their relationship started at a retreat center at Quaker Lake, North Carolina and that they are now going to live at Friends House. It feels like a full circle and new adventure!

Marie Schaub

Marie chooses not to put any information about herself on any computer, ever.

Charlie Schaub

Background and childhood.  I am originally from Baltimore/Catonsville MD.   Irish/German/etc. heritage.   Enjoyable but unexciting childhood.  Did well in school and mostly liked it.  I’ve never had any athletic ability, but as a kid played Charlie Brown version of baseball.  Started reading seriously at about age ten and have never stopped.  Started watching television at about age four and have tapered off during the past few years.

Adult family (partners, children, grandchildren):  It’s just Marie and Charlie; no children, no grandchildren.

Education:  Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts with a major in mathematics from Catholic University of America, Washington DC.  Later returned to CUA and received a Master’s degree in mathematics.

Work History:  I started working as Mathematician for the Dept. of Defense (NSA) right after college and continued there for over 25 years including a 2-year military separation [I got drafted in 1966 but did not get sent to Viet Nam].  NSA was a great adventure.  I had the opportunity to work on interesting and challenging projects and with many very intelligent and very dedicated people.  As the Cold War ended, the whole NSA culture changed.  I got disheartened and retired at the first opportunity.  I got bored and signed on with a defense contractor, and I ended up back at NSA but in a different section working in software design and coding.  After about 7 years, the contract ended, and I retired for good.

Residences and travel:  Marie and I have lived in Cloverly (about 5 miles from FH) for 27 years.  Being the typical parochial-attituded Baltimorean, I almost always lived within 50 miles of my birthplace although I did have a 3-year work assignment in Ottawa, Canada.  I have not done any extensive foreign travel.

Volunteer activities and causes:  I am not the volunteering type.  [See, I learned something during those 2 years in the Army.]  However, I have been very active in service in a 12-step fellowship to which I belong.

Hobbies and interests:  I do a lot of reading.  I also enjoy doing puzzles: acrostics, crosswords, and sudokus.  I love live theater; we have season subscriptions to Olney Theatre and a number of local community theaters.  I watch some television and spend a lot of time on YouTube, but I’ve NEVER watched a cat video.

Religious/spiritual life:  I was raised Roman Catholic, but I’m now not associated with any religion nor looking for one. 

Type of activities like to pursue after moving to Friends House:  Charlie: I am keeping an open mind.  (1)  I get the sense that everybody at FH is encouraged to take part on some activity for the common good.  I am certainly willing to do my share, and I’m sure I will be able to find a niche.  (2) I plan to continue with my current interests.  I’d like to find a bridge group willing to put up with someone who hasn’t played a hand in over 40 years.

My life has not been nearly as intriguing or accomplished as everyone else’s, but nevertheless here’s my introduction.

I grew up in a middle class neighborhood in Westchester County, NY (in contrast to almost all of Westchester’s very posh real estate), squandered an opportunity to graduate from UNC Chapel Hill by being more interested in partying than studying, came back home and managed to graduate from secretarial school after which I relocated to Washington, DC. I was fired from my first job with Senator Stephen Young of Ohio (he was a nasty old fart) after about six months because I took a three-day weekend to visit an old college boyfriend, but immediately landed another job with Congressman Robert Duncan of Oregon (Duncan was a sweetheart) and worked for him for about three years, during which time I met and married my first husband and had my first child, Robert.

For the next few years I stayed home and concentrated on raising Rob and Kristi, who came along two years later. After a few more years, my first husband and I parted ways, the kids and I moved to College Park where I attended UMD part time and worked part time to make ends meet in a variety of jobs — secretary for UMD basketball coach Lefty Driesell (remember him?!), interior and exterior painter with a women’s paint crew, and intern (unpaid of course) at the National Arboretum. During this time of relative poverty Rob and Kristi attended Sandy Spring Friends School with a good scholarship and some financial help from my parents — bless their souls. It was an exceptionally rewarding experience, a magical time for them and me, and I was so happy they had the opportunity to gain such a superior education.

After graduating from UMD with a degree in horticulture, I worked for a landscape designer and a couple of garden centers, but after a few years (disillusioned with landscape design and the old-boy network that pervaded the industry at the time) convinced the good people at Wheaton Park Stables that I could and would get up at 5 am to be there at 6 am to feed, water and turn the 30 or so horses into the field for the day until it was time to bring them back to be groomed and tacked up for lessons. I love horses, and for this privilege I was happy to earn $5/hr — much to my second husband’s chagrin.

The next phase of my life involved attending and graduating from Potomac Massage Training Institute, and I practiced massage (somewhat more lucrative than grooming horses) for a few years until I ruptured a lumbar disk and took that opportunity to retire. Back surgery proved successful, my back is fine (or pretty good for my age), and I now live quietly in Olney, enjoy my kids and grandchildren, my good dog Charli, gardening, beekeeping and listening and dancing to Queen. Rob lives in Olney and has three daughters; Kristi lives in Melbourne, Australia and has a son. I very much look forward to meeting you all at Friends House.

This collection of Introductions of Friends House residents started in 2019, when many potential new residents, called Newbies, were preparing for their move to Friends House. They liked the idea of getting an early start on getting to know each other. Some existing residents also contributed introductions and now, since the newbies have moved in and have become residents, the publishers invite any resident who wishes to do so to contribute their introduction to the collection. Here’s how:

How to Contribute Your Introduction

1. If you have previously written a brief introduction/bio just place a copy in Doron Antrim’s mailbox in the Building A Common Area (marked 17143 Friends House Road) and add changes if you wish to make any. (Skip to #4 below if you will provide an existing bio.)
2. Decide how you would like to organize your Introduction. You will note if you glance through the Introductions here that many are organized in responses to these ten topics. But others are free form. Write your Introduction in the form you feel most comfortable using.
   1. Your early background and/or childhood
   2. Your adult family; partners, children, grandchildren
   3. Your education
   4. Your work history
   5. Where you have lived and your significant travels
   6. Your volunteer activities and causes
   7. Your hobbies and interests
   8. Your religious/spiritual life
   9. The types of activities (currently existing or new) you would like to pursue after moving to Friends House
   10. Anything else you would like us to know
3. If you can, prepare your Introduction as a document in Word or a similar text program and email the document to Doron at doron.antrim@gmail.com.  But if you prefer, you can hand write or type your Introduction and place it in Doron Antrim’s mailbox in the Building A Common Area (marked 17143 Friends House Road).
4. Doron will add your Introduction to the booklet and notify you via email when it is published.  You can then review it and notify Doron if you want to make changes or if there are errors to correct.  This process can be done via smail if you lack access to a computer.

How to Access Introductions

Internet.  You are reading this on the internet site that contains the introductions,  fhnewbies2019.org.  It is readable on your mobile phone or tablet as well as a larger computer, and we recommend that you bookmark it for ease of use.

Printing.  Right click on any introduction that you would like to print and click “print” on the menu that appears.

Searching the Introductions.  If, for example, you want to see if any other Newbies are interested in birding, type that into the search window (at the bottom of page on mobile phones) and you will be presented with any Newbies who have that word in their introductions.

Paper.  An up-to-date binder with all Introductions is maintained in the Library.

I was born and raised on a small farm in Iowa, and I still consider myself an Iowan at heart (despite the fact that it has become the center of presidential politics every 4/3/2 years).

After having attended college in Iowa, I chose to take my MA in Political Science and leave rural-small town America and move to the heart of politics—DC.  During my first three years in DC, I moved quickly across Capitol Hill from a Congressional office, to a Senate office, to a Joint Committee office, before saying “that’s enough of that” and moving on.  From there I touched the city’s quadrants doing such stimulating/boring jobs as collecting overdue paperwork at the Department of Education; shredding documents for a private sector entity; typing (before computers became a part of our life) documents about corrugated cardboard and waste management; and managing the DC office (an office of one) of a state-based education organization.  This was all before finally landing a job researching Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego and discovering all one might want to know about the national parks and other places to travel throughout the world, at National Geographic.

Travel, even before my last job researching guidebooks, has always been a dream, so you will frequently find me at my computer looking for new places to visit.  Last year’s trip was to Bosnia & Herzegovina, where I had to face the fact that—while tens of thousands of people were being killed, as they lined up for simple necessities like water—I ignored what was facing me on the nightly news and fussed about how crowded the subway was on my morning commute.  Just one example about why my travel is not about seeing how many countries I can visit, but rather about facing the real world.

Today, I’m enjoying my retirement, spending my time reading, walking, and ignoring deadlines. The only regular structure I now have is volunteering at the Smithsonian’s Freer|Sackler galleries and showing up at my numerous water aerobics classes.  Additionally, you might find me enjoying the neighbor’s animals and helping friends with “special-assistance needs.”

I hope this missive gives the Newbies an idea of who I am.  I so look forward to hearing when the Friends House construction will be finished and having the opportunity to meet and get to know all the residents—both old and new—at Friends House.