In anticipation of the class's 45th reunion, women on the planning committee reached out to female members of the Class of '75 to ask the following questions:

What are you most proud of since you left Williams more than 45 years ago?

How, if at all, did your time at Williams influence this?

We share below some of their responses.

Anonymous

I have difficulty with the word "proud.” I feel like I've been very lucky in my life. Yes, I worked hard, but if I didn't have successful parents with high expectations, an excellent education, and wasn't white, I could have worked much harder than I actually did and I wouldn't have had any of the same opportunities for my own success. Pride would be a result of thinking that I had some control over my destiny so that my accomplishments were a direct result of something that I did. I don't think that's the way it often works. I've had many things go my way over these last 67 years but I think that my good fortune has been more the result of good luck. So anyway, here's my answer:

I have felt my greatest sense of accomplishment as a teacher. I love the energy of adolescents and was lucky enough to find a career that suited me perfectly. I taught math in our local middle school for 15 years. I went back to school to earn my math credential and began teaching when my own children entered school full time. As a teacher I held my students to high expectations on every level and they never failed to make me proud.

How did Williams influence this? I felt very fortunate to attend Williams. Williams gave me the confidence to know that I could accomplish whatever I wanted. I also learned the value of excellent education while there. I know that my Williams experience contributed to the high bar that I set for my own students.

Lucy Singer Beck

Because of my role as a transfer student I actually had more female friends in the class of 1976 and those who transferred into the class of 1974. However, I would love to reconnect with the other women of our class.

The years from 1971 to 1975 were transformative in awakening women to the idea that they could pursue any career they wished. Although I had a lifelong interest in "healing" before entering college, it never occurred to me to actually become a physician. When I came to Williams my junior year I was already comfortable in my overall academic abilities, but my fellow students, male and female, as well as several professors encouraged me to follow my interests in science and switch to a pre-med track. The excellent education I received first at Smith and then at Williams helped me hone my rational thought processes, and understand the importance of rigorous scientific investigation and the ability to share my conclusions in a clear and logical manner.

On a lighter note, I was encouraged to become an athletic trainer by the guys on the rugby team and welcomed in that role by the physical education department. My ability to deal with the "discomfort" of some of the male athletes was a low-key introduction for what I would experience throughout my career in medicine. And I do not take the term discomfort lightly. There was no real animosity or harassment as I imagine could have occurred elsewhere. I attribute that to the leadership in the athletic training department and my fellow male trainer.

The nurturing community I found at Williams enabled me to create similar ones in medical school, through my residency and fellowship training and throughout my medical career. Knowing how much I could accomplish in a primarily male environment allowed me to create a mentoring environment for the women in gastroenterology who came later. The importance of supporting, not competing with, other women when you are in the minority is crucial. That included modeling respect for the other women in healthcare, and I found that the nurses have been my biggest friends and allies during my career.

I am also proud of my ability to combine my career and my family once I realized that you can't "have it all" at the same time. But you can have a very fulfilling life, incorporating personal and professional aspects with priorities changing and adjusting at different life stages. This was definitely influenced by my time at Williams as I could never have achieved all that I did without the lifelong support of Bob Beck '75.

Julie Berens

What are you most proud of since you left Williams over 45 years ago?

So many ways to answer this, but I’ll go with these three:

1. My three children can always make me laugh and are good citizens. I can say the same of my husband after 41+ years.

2. My career as a public high school English teacher was not flashy, but it was enormously fulfilling. I cannot say I chose a secondary teaching career because I loved children (who were only 4-8 years younger than I when I started teaching in 1975), but I loved literature and the process of breaking it

down, discussing it, and learning more with each reading. And to be totally honest, I loved having an audience. All the other important parts of teaching came over the years, especially the joy of getting to know and work with teenagers. Above all, they wanted to be heard; they taught me as much as I taught them.

3. I consider myself a lifelong learner. I’ve been taking piano lessons for five years after a 45+ year hiatus. Having relationships with people of varying ages and learning about the lenses through which they view life feeds my curiosity.

Claire B.



To answer the question posed: I am most proud of my environmental research through the Biology Department, and my wonderful children who are amazing adults now. I hope—as parents—we instilled the intellectual curiosity and resilience we had as the first Williams coeds.

Susan Read Cronin

1. My ability to survive

Being a trailblazer

Having a family

Being a creative entrepreneur

Knowing how to mix business and the arts

2. Being in the first class of women spoke to my “being a trailblazer” and “my ability to survive.”

I married a Williams man ('68), whom I dated my senior year. I wouldn’t have the family I have now if it weren’t for my time at Williams.

Studio art classes at Williams influenced my career as a bronze sculptor.

Being an English major enhanced my writing capabilities and has come in handy as I have turned my hand to poetry now.

During my time at Williams, I had to learn how to use my time efficiently to deal with the volume of material and assignments. I’ve spent a lot of time in the manufacturing world and enjoy seeing how I can be more efficient in production.

Jodi Greenspan

The question "What are you most proud of..." didn't speak to me, so I've reframed it as: "What do you feel especially good about since leaving Williams over 45 years ago?" Top of the list is having been bold enough in my late 30s to embrace single parenthood. Raising my son was both challenging and satisfying; watching him navigate his own life is an ongoing pleasure.

In parallel, I made choices to construct a joyful, never boring, work/life balance. I was fortunate to catch the software wave just as it was cresting, which led to many job opportunities and a career path that suits me well. I view being intellectually engaged with talented colleagues as a continuation of my Williams experience.

I wish I'd had the presence of mind during college to get to know more of my classmates. Since that time, I have focused increasingly on the people in my world, treasuring both long-standing and new friendships. A bonus in that regard has been reconnecting with '75-ers in the Boston area since our 40th reunion. My worlds collide - in a good way!

Pamela Hawkes

1. Not surprisingly, this question seems harder to answer now than it was 20 years ago!

My husband, Scott Teas, and his first wife, Mary Beth, deserve most of the credit for raising my four stepchildren. The youngest was 20 when Scott and I started dating but, after more than 16 years in the family, I take incredible pleasure in the kids’ accomplishments, knowing how hard-won some of the milestones have been. Four grandchildren are simply a delight, not to mention great-nieces and nephews.

On that theme, asking an architect about their favorite building is like forcing a parent to name their favorite child. The expansion of the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH was a wonderful collaboration of staff, trustees and colleagues, one that has presented the landmark and welcomed the community in new ways.

These days, I’m especially proud of chances to pay forward the many opportunities that I’ve been given. Small in scale, but large in impact has been the secondary school for girls in Tanzania that Scott and I have been planning and designing pro bono since 2013. Tables, chairs and huge kettles for ugali were delivered this week to the dormitory compound’s dining pavilion. It realizes the first phase of a vision created with American non-profit “Africa Schoolhouse” to empower girls through education, a goal that is still too often beyond reach for far too many.

Over eight years as Professor of Practice at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania, I’ve welcomed opportunities to mentor young professionals—especially women. I hope that my support, connections and non-traditional career path have given them confidence to follow their own dreams.

2. A week before graduation, “Modern Architecture” professor Ted Sande suggested that I consider further studies in historic preservation. Without that nudge, it’s hard to know whether I would have found my way there, or to architecture school after that. Architecture has proven to be a wonderful outlet for curiosity, creativity and compassion, all drawn from Williams’ liberal arts curriculum and especially the program in Environmental Studies, which was then still innovative.

It’s harder to gauge the impact of being a member of the first class of women admitted to the college, but it may have been an underpinning for much that followed. It certainly gave me the courage to dive into—and excel in—a field that had been dominated by men until just the past decades. I was fortunate in having worked and studied with strong female mentors, but lots of credit goes to my network of Williams classmates, too, especially the sheer number of challenging but supportive men. Even now, it’s not unusual to be the only woman among men in design meetings, but hours of debate in the dining hall taught me how to hold my own with a bit of humor and some grace.

Clive H.

1. My daughter (naturally!)

My leadership roles as a volunteer with educational and environmental groups.

My 38 years of teaching science and encouraging young people to enjoy science, to be careful with the environment and each other, and to stay curious.

2. Williams continued the development of my self-confidence and leadership skills which had begun at my girls' high school. While at Williams, I started organizations and had leadership roles in others and honed my skills. My self-confidence continued to blossom as my opinion was taken seriously in (most) classroom discussions and, with a few (awful) exceptions, my gender was not taken into account.

Most of my professors showed me how to make science interesting and meaningful through lab work, stories, and other means and gave me the chance to develop my teaching skills as a TA. I was also afforded the ability to take education classes and do my student teaching at Mt. Greylock High School so that I had a MA teaching certificate when I graduated.

In many of my classes both in and out of science, I learned the Socratic method of asking thoughtful questions and facilitating dialog which I later used in my classes. These professors also encouraged my curiosity in the world around me.

I think these things also contributed to my skills as a mother in a less defined way.

Nancy Reece Jones

1. What are you most proud of since you left Williams over 45 years ago?

I’ve not done anything earth-shattering or world-saving. But what I have done is to maintain relationships, over the years and miles, from every significant chapter in my life. I’m not talking about FaceBook friends because I’m at best a FB lurker. I love the old-fashioned methods of writing notes and making phone calls. I never realized, before the pandemic, how much time and energy I invest in this drive to connect with others: it occurred to me that it can be a bit over-the-top at times. Yet it brings me such joy and satisfaction, and I know others, who may be far less inclined to reach out, deeply appreciate it.

I’m also pleased that writing is such an integral part of my life. Love of the written word and clear communication have been common threads throughout my schooling, career, free-lancing experience, and beyond. In fact, I’m exploring the “beyond” right now, looking into how I can expand my daily journaling into other formats to share with others.

2. How, if at all, did your time at Williams influence this?

Starting at freshman week, I recognized the extraordinary caliber of my Williams classmates. Feeling on par with them was a different thing altogether. I always felt Williams was a great fit for me as a college yet struggles with my inner demons kept me from feeling at ease with others. I was so anxious to do well academically that I didn’t allow myself to get involved with the activities (women’s crew or Outing Club, to name two) that I would have loved. But I determined early on that I wanted to stay connected to Williams through reunions, which actually helped me confront and expunge the demons. I feel that I was “imprinted” at Williams (and my high school) with exposure to stimulating, intelligent, fun, and curious people and have made it my mission to seek out similar folks in all the places I’ve worked and lived since graduation. Sustaining these friendships has greatly enriched me.

As for writing, my time at Williams gave me the confidence to market myself after graduation as a writer/editor at an environmental consulting company. That job set me on a path in communications that shaped my entire career. I had the opportunity to write a tremendous amount at Williams and was encouraged and supported by all my professors—one of the many things I cherish about my time there.

Helen Kelly

As someone who never really had a career after college, I feel somewhat awkward answering the Two Questions. I certainly can’t point to a list of professional accomplishments as a source of pride, and though I’m delighted that my two kids are happy and successful, and just generally good human beings, I feel like so much of that is just the luck of the draw. I don’t feel I formed them into the people they are, and while I hope and believe that they’re proud of themselves, and I take huge pleasure in their successes, those accomplishments belong to them; I can’t take credit.

I feel similarly about my relationship with my husband, Josh, who’s been my sweetheart since sophomore year. I certainly didn’t go to college to find a husband, but I did nevertheless. After all those dreary weekends freshman year, when the campus seemed utterly emptied by the exodus of road tripping upperclassmen, I do take a sort of revengeful satisfaction in the fact that I married an exchange student who came to Williams from Trinity for his junior year. But I wouldn’t call that pride, and I don’t feel pride over the fact that we’re still together, more than 48 years later. What I do feel is just incredibly lucky.

I do have one thing I’m semi-proud of, though not for the reasons you might expect. A few years after graduating from Williams, I applied to and was accepted into Yale’s program for a Masters in Public Health, with a concentration in environmental health. It was a two-year program, and while I did reasonably well, after the first year I realized I wasn’t enjoying the program. In retrospect, I should have concentrated on epidemiology rather than environmental health, but I didn’t see that at the time. All I thought was that I wasn’t enjoying the courses and couldn’t see myself enjoying a career in that field, and I seriously considered dropping out altogether. But I was paying for that degree myself, and I had taken out student loans to do so—loans that I would have to pay back whether I got the degree or not. So I guess I’m proud that I had enough sense to see that it would be smarter to have the debt and the degree, rather than just the debt. And the degree did lead to a job, even if only a couple years’ worth.

There’s one other thing that, if I’m honest, I’m probably actually proud of, but it was so much fun that it hardly seems right to describe it that way. One of the advantages of being essentially a rather over-educated homemaker was that I had time to volunteer, and my volunteer activity of choice was to become the costume lady for the local high school’s annual musical production. My first year was 2001, and the show was “Guys and Dolls,” and I went on to provide costumes for every musical from then until last spring’s “Wizard of Oz,” a total of 19 shows. Being a one-woman costume department was equivalent to having a full-time job, though fortunately only for a few months. And it was a job I loved, partly as a creative outlet, but mostly for the opportunity it gave me to be in the company of smart, funny, talented teenagers, which is the very best company there is.

As for how my time at Williams influenced the above, I honestly don’t think it did. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t love it, because I did. Beyond anything.

Polly Smith

1. I am most proud of having a career, raising two wonderful people who started as our children, maintaining a strong relationship, doing various volunteer or elected side pursuits, and staying in shape…. all at the same time. More recently, I have transitioned from paid work to pursuing my art and even more athletic activities.

2. I was only at Williams for two years, but I enjoyed the various sports teams I played on and I appreciated the inter-disciplinary approach of the American Civilization major and those it attracted. I think those tenets have stayed throughout my life. Williams gave me the freedom to pursue my interests at the time and to form a key friendship which has stayed with me over the years.

Alicia Torre

I have not been much involved with the Williams alumni as I live in California, and I am more interested in hearing women reflect on these questions than any other alumni activity. I wish I had had closer female friends when I was at Williams—lost opportunities—but I had a good experience at Williams. And so did my son, Joshua Nimer, class of 2014! My answers to your two questions are intertwined below.

Although there are a variety of things I am proud of and take delight in, no single big achievement comes to mind. Rather what I am most proud of, certainly most happy in, is having made a life in balance, with meaningful, interesting work, a happy marriage, three blossoming sons, the ability to aid ailing parents and others, and time to cultivate friends and community. And some time to read and travel! That combo has often meant a lot of exhaustion, but happy exhaustion.

Although my extended-family role models growing up included brilliant, respected women of learning and creativity, none of them worked. I really hadn’t thought a lot about what to do after college. While I was at Williams, I was very focused on academics and assumed I would go on for graduate degrees and teach. Although there were doubtless opportunities for career counseling at Williams then, I wasn’t really aware of them. Perhaps there were also groups of young women who discussed the need to find fulfilling careers as well as balance in their lives, but I wasn’t part of such a group. I was SLOW!

So it took me all of my twenties to figure out “what’s next.” I married my Williams love at 21, taught English in middle and high school, got a graduate degree (MA in Medieval Studies) and then our marriage ended when I was 28. My Williams degree, recommendations and grades helped me get into graduate school and into business school at UC Berkeley. I ended up with a 30-year career in energy project development (cogeneration, large solar, wind and more) in a management role where I was usually the only woman.

Accomplishments? I got a 7th grade class to love The Odyssey; I developed the largest solar energy project in the world at the time (400 MW on 4.5 square miles of the Mojave Desert); I fostered children’s interfaith education for a group of Jewish-Christian parents; I had three children in three years and survived and thrived!

I am not sure how my time at Williams influenced all this. Certainly I was used to being outnumbered by men and not being fazed by it. Certainly my analytic and writing skills were honed, and I was used to hard work. But I have always valued a humanities education more for personal development than professional work.

I thoroughly loved my time at Williams, and I certainly grew in confidence both intellectually and as a person. Perhaps my experience at Williams helped me to continue to strive for both personal and professional fulfillment and not “settle” for what would have felt to me like only half of a full life. It is hard to assess the inter-twining influences of childhood, friends, college and work.

Amanda Van Dusen

After Williams, I wanted nothing more to do with school and floundered around a bit until I discovered public finance, and its wonderful blend of public policy, democracy, and solving problems for the delivery of public services and finding ways to enhance them. For over 40 years I’ve been a lawyer representing cities, counties, school districts and local authorities in Michigan, which has been in a depressed state more often than not.

Every day I feel as though I am working on whatever issue, large or small, is most important for the communities my clients serve. Occasionally I’ve been able to subvert attempts at fraud. In 2016 working with several voter protection organizations I wrote a lot of an anti-gerrymandering amendment to the Michigan Constitution which was adopted with a 64 percent favorable vote in 2017. (Its companion amendment which permits universal absentee voting and same-day registration passed by a similar margin, thank God.) Other highlights include helping the Detroit Public Schools stay afloat and developing partnership agreements for them to help them better meet the needs of their students; representing the City of Detroit during and after its bankruptcy to figure out how to put back together what the bankruptcy lawyers took apart (working some with Corinne Ball in the process—yes, Corinne, I agree that the bankruptcy was necessary!); spinning the southeast Michigan regional water and sewer system into a new regional water authority serving four million people (at the same time providing more resources to Detroit to replace its crumbling infrastructure); transferring Detroit Metro Airport to a separate governing authority for which we wrote the legislation.

Those are examples of the big stuff, but there have been just as many examples involving the smallest communities and school districts across the state. The opportunity to come up with practical, understandable solutions which serve the public good feeds my soul and keeps me going.

Being far from a superwoman, I also feel proud of my 40+ year marriage and our two wonderful children who are now pursuing their own passions and raising families of their own.

Williams’ role in all of this has been threefold. The power of a great liberal arts education should not be underestimated; it fuels creativity and critical thinking and has made me a much better lawyer, parent and citizen. Williams gave me the confidence to pursue non-traditional pathways, especially when others could not imagine the value of doing so. And Williams helped me become a better writer (another Williams graduate and mentor at my law firm honed my skill even more). While I have been out of touch with most of our class since graduation (one of the things I gave up to survive working motherhood), I am really eager to connect and learn more about their paths and what role Williams played for them.

Polly Wood-Holland

So it’s been 50 years since we entered Williams; it seems hard to believe that much time has passed. What am I most proud of? I suppose, it’s that I have met the various challenges thrown in my path (both personal and professional); that I have achieved success as an artist in the uncertain and fast-paced entertainment industry. I have put work onstage at the Metropolitan Opera, at Coachella Music Festival, on Broadway, at the Dolby Theater in LA. and in Major Motion Pictures.

No question that my Art History education served me well. I was certainly inspired by Whit Stoddard, and Lane Faison and all the professors in the Art History Department. But I think it was my fellow students in the Theater that taught me to take on challenges large and small, to take risks.

We arrived on campus as outsiders; not part of the social construct of an all-men’s school, and most of us thrived, though I think we became a pretty independent bunch as a result. I do think that the Williams community was far more accepting than many of the schools transitioning to co-ed in the ‘70s.

I am proud of my female classmates and the paths they have taken. What changes we have all seen!