| Esther Darlington |
| My job as information Services Librarian at the Philadelphia Yearly of Friends will end June30th, and I plan to move from Swarthmore to Ithaca, NY. My daughter Ellie Rosenberg, her partner Janis Kelly, and my 3-year-old Cambodian granddaughter Irena have a rental apartment in their house. Also, my brother Dick, George School '55, and his wife Betsy Day Darlington, GS '56, live in Ithaca; Dick teaches at Cornell. Ithaca has an active Friends Meeting; I will perhaps find a new job; and I plan to write up my vast research in genealogy for the family. Most lines go back to the first century of Quakerism. It is fun, like doing a puzzle, but more blanks keep opening up. I spent my senior year as exchange student at the Gertaudenschule in Berlin, Germany, following the summer of '53 at the GS workcamp near Bad Godesberg along the Rhine. At a refugee center for people from the Baltic states, it was led by our English teacher Hugh Cronister and his wife, my first cousin Ginny. After knowing Heide Spruth both as our exchange student my junior year, and the following year when she was back home in Berlin, we decided, a generation later, to start our own exchange program. Two of her daughters spent half a year with my family, going to public school, and two of my daughters spent half a year with her family, attending the bilingual John F. Kennedy Schule in West Berlin, where Heide taught art. My third daughter lived with Heide's sister Edda's family later. In brief: At Swarthmore College I majored in Biology, inspired by our wonderful teacher Dr. John Carson. I married Alburt Rosenberg in 1958; within five days I graduated, he got his PhD from Penn, and we were married. Then I taught Biology and General Science at Moorestown Friends School in N.J. In 1959 he started teaching Physics and Biology at Swarthmore College, and we moved to Swarthmore. Also, that summer we directed an AFSC high school workcamp on a reservation in North Dakota, building an earthlodge under the direction of Native Americans whose ancestors had lived in them. Al and I had four children; Ellie 1960, Betsy 1962, Amy 1966 and Ken, 1972. My mother lived with us from 1974 until her death in 1982; she had Alzheimer's and my job was taking care of her. I was active on the Pendle Hill Board from 1968-80; the Quaker retreat and conference center was a mile from where we lived, and I gained a great deal as well as helped in many ways. In 1985 we were divorced, and Al retired and moved away. '58-'85 has a symmetry to it; the ending was rightly ordered. From 1986-94 I was director of a small Quaker retirement home, The Harned, and enjoyed the contact with many wonderful people there. I took some library courses, and in 1991 I got an MA in Counseling Psychology from Immaculata College, evening school. As my children moved away, I rented rooms to Swarthmore College students. Working now in the library at Friends Center, a block from City Hall and the statue of William Penn, I feel right at home, answering questions, looking up things, getting in discussions about Quakerism, beliefs and history. At a GS reunion, probably our 25th, I sat in the meeting house looking at the lighted EXIT sign over the door. At first it seemed not to belong to the peaceful spirit and the ancient feel of the building, recently moved up there when 12th Street in Philadelphia was widened and the building had to go. Then it came to me that we always need to exit, to move out,beyond, into something new. First we prepare ourselves, as George School prepared us, then we move on. However, it is good to have an opportunity to return, to remember how it was at an earlier time, to review our lives, to think about what it has all meant, and to see what we are led to do next. |
| Dottie Thomson Hilton |
| Since I'm not able to attend the 50th alumni reunion, I wanted to send a brief bio. Durning my pre-retirement years I worked as an executive secretary, a nurse and a paralegal and only "retired" when my husband did from his position in aerospace engineering in Southern California. We relocated to Springfield, Missouri shortly after that time and are quite involved in activities here. We're both very active in our church where I am Sunday School Coordinator and lead a weekly women's Bible study and he is an Elder. I assist him in his position as Adjutant in his local Purple Heart Chapter, as well as the State Purple Heart organization. He was on an aircraft carrier during WWII and we are very active in their organization where he is editor of the twice yearly newsletter. We also attend his annual May ship reunion in various parts of the country. |