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WISE Worcester Institute for Senior

www.assumption.edu/wise 508.767.7513

www.assumption.edu/wise

1992

Seven founders brainstorm for the first time

Advice received from Jim Verschueren and William Densmore

Assumption hosts a community open house and agrees to be the host campus

Jean B. Griesheimer becomes first WISE president

Charlene L. Martin becomes founding director

Pat Masiello becomes WISE Secretary

1993

Formal name for organization decided: Worcester Institute for Senior Education (WISE)

First WISE semester held in the Spring

146 register for ‘93-‘94 academic year

First edition of Words to the WISE newsletter published

Special events and brown bag lunches offered for first time

Scholarship fund created

Agreement with Assumption signed

1994

Bylaws created June 15, 1994

WISE members join Elderhostel Institute Network (EIN) foreign travel trips

1995

First WISE public relations video

First ad hoc Strategic Planning Committee created

First plans for interacting with undergraduates formed

WISE website created

1996

WISE logo sweatshirts created

First WISE-sponsored trip is to India

1997

Membership rose to 275

WISE members’ art exhibit presented

Five-year anniversary celebration held

1998

WISE-sponsored trips taken to London, Israel, and Italy

First survey of membership conducted

508.767.7513

Welcome to the 20th anniversary of the Worcester Institute for Senior Education. This celebration would not be possible without the vision of a small group of people twenty years ago who recognized that lifelong learning keeps older people stimulated and stimulating! Thanks to our founders, WISE continues today with new course offerings, special events, enthusiastic learners and a commitment from Assumption College to support lifelong learning.

I want to thank our dedicated and tireless group leaders, our faithful Council and committee members, and our 21st century learners. Many thanks to Charlene Martin for her years of steadfast leadership and to Pat Masiello for her outstanding service to the program. Most of all I am grateful to President Cesareo and the members of the Assumption College community for supporting WISE for these last 20 years and the many years ahead.

We hope you enjoy this book that celebrates the combined achievements of all who have been part of WISE. It includes historical information; personal essays about WISE experiences; highlights of a few (of the many) members, volunteers, and leaders over the years; and many other goodies, some funny and some serious.

Enjoy this festive celebration!

Barbara B. Groves President of WISE

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Hagan Center Hall at Assumption College

12:30 pm • Registration

1:00 pm • Welcome and Keynote Speaker

2:00 pm • Attend a WISE course

3:30 pm • Refreshments

Energy – How We Use It (Pete Murphy)

Exploring the Nature of Worcester (Deb Cary)

Jezebel: Wicked but Wise (Sr. Ellen Guerin, RSM)

So You Like to Travel: Travel Writing as Reflection (Susan Perschbacher)

Edwin Arlington Robinson: The Other New England Poet (James E. Foley)

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (Marc LePain)

The Fascinating and the Deadly (Margaret Watson)

Estate Planning Disasters (Kathleen E. O’Connor & Brenda M. Rivard)

Great Songs from Contemporary Songwriters (Joseph Corn)

Looking for OSCAR in Massachusetts (Caroline Chiccarelli)

“Aging is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” — Betty Friedan


Founding Members

Hy Cohen

* Jean B. Griesheimer

Marijane Jones

Maddie Levine

Thelma Lockwood

Betty McGrath Southwick

Shirley Weinstein

Past Presidents

* Jean Griesheimer, 1993-1997

Hannah Laipson, 1997-1999

Lois Feldman, 1999-2000

* Sam Chafetz, 2000-2002

Betty McGrath Southwick, 2002-2004

George Fifield, 2004-2006

Sam Corbitt, 2006-2008

Dolores Courtemanche , 2008-2010

Maddie Levine, 2010-2011

Barbara Groves, 2011-Present

20-Year Members

Marvin Baum

Ruth Bibace

Sylvia Davidson

Loraine Dufault

Lois Feldman

Frances Gordon

Hannah Laipson

Mike Laipson

Maddie Levine

Shirley Weinstein

Arlene Zemaitis

20-Year Group Leaders

Paul Shannon Faith Lang

Charter Members

* Vera Baldwin

* Rae Budnitz

* Al Charney

Shirley Charney

Hy Cohen

Lois Feldman

* Jean Griesheimer

Marijane Jones

Hannah Laipson

Mike Laipson

Maddie Levine

* David Levy

* Selma Levy

Thelma Lockwood

* Sylvia Reck

Betty McGrath Southwick

* Paula Travers

Don Tritschler

Shirley Weinstein

“At twenty years of age the will reigns, at thirty the wit, at forty the judgment.” -— Benjamin Franklin

* deceased

508.767.7513

By Thelma Lockwood

In the beginning, there was retirement.

In 1992, after a 30-year career in social service, I, with six friends and colleagues from the social service community, were all retiring within the same two-year period: Jean Griesheimer, Marijane Jones, and Shirley Weinstein from the Children’s Friend Society; Maddie Levine from the Jewish Home for Aged; Hy Cohen and myself from Jewish Family Service; and Betty McGrath from the Department of Mental Retardation. All of us, new to a coming world of no high-pressure demands and no focus, were a little uncertain. Here we were, relatively young, healthy, talented and with expertise in our individual fields. What would we do with undemanding time stretching out before us?

Spurred on by Maddie Levine and Shirley Weinstein, we held an initial brainstorming session. After several meetings, a plan began to emerge. I had recently returned from an Elderhostel program where I learned about the newly developing Elderhostel Institute Network. This was a program of Elderhostel courses similar to the national program of continuing education through peer-learning, but courses would be taken in local colleges in the community.

In a serendipitous turn of events, Charlene Martin, then Assistant Dean of Continuing Education at Assumption College, had recently returned from a national conference on programs for senior citizens interested in lifelong learning. As we approached local colleges to see if they were interested in collaborating with us to develop the Elderhostel Institute plan in Worcester, Charlene stepped forward and offered us the opportunity to hold an Open House at Assumption to introduce the concept to the community. We were looking for a college connection and Assumption was looking for a target population. To quote Dr. Al Charney, one of our earliest members, “This was a marriage made in heaven.” Assumption offered us classroom space without charge and, thus, the marriage contract was signed.

With organizational help from Jim Verschueren, Director of Elderhostel Institute Network in New Hampshire, and Bill Densmore of the Colleges of Worcester Consortium, we advertised an “open house” to introduce our program. This was a “word of mouth” operation with handwritten notices in supermarkets and announcements in churches and synagogues. To our amazement, more than 300 people came to an overflow audience in the Maison Auditorium and more than 100 individuals signed up for our first semester. In our first year, we offered eight courses. Clearly Worcester needed us.

Because this was a peer learning concept, the members were expected to be the group leaders. One of our earliest members, Hannah Laipson, a retired Professor of English, offered a course on the comparison of Shakespeare’s “King Lear” with Jane Smiley’s newly released “A Thousand Acres.” It did not take long for Hannah’s courses to develop a fan club similar to today’s “groupies,” for example Margaret Watson and Bill O’Brien.

New courses were developed along the way in areas of history, science, politics, and religion, among others. Worcester is the home of many colleges with retired professors looking for continued activity, so we “lucked out,” acquiring a superb and unequaled faculty. Even today, a new group leader, Les Blatt, taught one class and enjoyed it so much he proposed five more. Our program extended to domestic as well as international travel. Under the leadership of Sam Chafetz, 39 members of WISE embarked on an unforgettable trip to Russia shortly after the 9/11 tragedy.

Our first President, Jean Griesheimer, chosen from our founding group, was nominated and elected when she left the room to go to the bathroom! Fortunately, she accepted her appointment with grace.

The name for WISE was chosen as the winning entry in a contest. When the suggestion of the WORCESTER INSTITUTE for SENIOR EDUCATION, with its acronym WISE and an owl logo, was put forth, it was a “no brainer.” WISE we were.


By Frank Dufault, MD

Twenty years ago Assumption College was considering opportunities to further expand its contribution to the community. At the same time, a group of retired social workers was looking to establish life enrichment opportunities for the region’s increasing senior population. After exploratory discussions and research, a partnership was created. The Worcester Institute for Senior Education (WISE) was born under the auspices of Assumption and the result became a mutually advantageous symbiosis.

Assumption led the way by providing office space, support, access to campus facilities including classrooms, rooms for meetings and special events, the library…even dining opportunities. Technical help was provided, as were invitations to a variety of on-campus cultural and educational programs.

WISE brought to the campus an appreciative population willing to provide talent, time and treasure to complement the College’s mission. As a sociologic resource, WISE members were happy and able to contribute to academic programs by availability for classroom interaction as well as for student or faculty research. The undergraduates also couldn’t help but take note of the presence of a group exemplifying a commitment to the richness, value and importance of a lifelong commitment to learning. It probably occurred to neither group that rubbing elbows in the dining facilities or participation together in campus-sponsored theatrical productions could be so enjoyable.

Since WISE’s founding at Assumption and over the years, capabilities and goals have been significantly enriched and expanded by affiliation with several receptive and cooperative partnering organizations. The College, the community at large, and literally thousands of seniors have benefitted from this exemplary collaboration.

On a personal note, several WISE members (including me) who are alumni of Assumption have, interestingly, spent more years attending WISE courses than we did fulfilling our undergraduate requirements.

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By Edward Landau, MD

In 1995 I found myself in a quandary when I retired from a long and rewarding career as a physician. What do I do now that the world was my oyster, and I could choose to do anything I wished? I had spent more than five decades first learning how to, and then being, a physician. I had used a leave of absence to earn a degree in Landscape Design. After retiring, I was certificated to be a court mediator, working as one for five years. Even so, I found myself feeling that I missed out on becoming really educated.

Luckily, I heard about WISE and the eclectic curriculum it offered. I started then, and I continue, to take courses in literature, music, art, sciences, philosophy, theology, and many courses that can’t be categorized. All of this is done without mandatory homework, papers or exams. I do all the reading (required or optional) and often do extra reading to gain further insight into the topic being studied. The joy I find in becoming enlightened by my courses is immeasurable.

At some point I realized that in order to help WISE prosper I should become administratively involved, so I became an active member of many different committees. I also took advantage of the many additional WISE offerings: special events, local and foreign trips, and a social atmosphere of being with a very special, educated, group of fellow students. The hardest part of WISE is missing it during the long summer and winter breaks, when no courses are available.

WISE has been a panacea for me in my search to broaden my mind and understand the joy of feeling that I’m beginning to be educated. If you haven’t tried it yet, I strongly recommend WISE as one way to truly enjoy retirement.

“Every time I think about exercise, I lie down till the thought goes away.” — Anonymous

By Joe Reynolds

As an original member of WISE , Ruth Bibace was in at the ground level when WISE first began organizing twenty years ago, and she has seen it grow from a small group to close to 450 members today.

Ruth has not been a passive member. Through the years, she has been very active in WISE and served the organization well as member of the WISE Council and Nominating Committee. As Membership Chair for two years, she worked diligently to secure new members, especially male members because there were few men in the early days. She recruited members by speaking to organizations such as the Holden Senior Center and the Greendale Men’s Club. She serves on the Communications Committee, where she attends regular meetings, writes occasional articles and searches out quotations for each edition, “quips on aging,” as she calls them.

As a lifelong learner, Ruth enjoys taking WISE classes, often one or two each session. Her favorite courses are in the humanities: literature, philosophy and music. She loves to extend her thinking by vigorous classroom discussions. She claims to have a few favorite teachers too, whose courses she gravitates to when offered. Ruth Bibace has been a model member of WISE. She has not only witnessed and enriched its growth through these twenty years, but also has been one of its chief cheerleaders.

WISE has not only broadened and satisfied Ruth’s intellectual curiosity, but also enriched her social connections. She has made many new and interesting friends and intellectual companions through WISE. “I am a Jew,” she says, “and before WISE my friends were primarily Jewish, but no longer.”

Ruth is a vibrant senior; she has a great zest for life. Besides taking WISE classes, she enjoys travel, the daily New York Times, her Bridge Club, streamed Netflix movies, and exercise classes at the JCC. She thinks Worcester is the best; it’s her Mecca, an intellectual goldmine with its numerous colleges, cultural events and, of course, WISE.


By Joseph Reynolds

Charlene Martin refers to WISE as her "baby" and rightly so. As founding director of WISE, she was involved in adult education as Dean of Continuing Education at Assumption College long before the founding members of WISE came knocking at the doors of Assumption looking for a host college. They found a receptive and enthusiastic educator in

Charlene. And for most of the past 20 years, she has been WISE's Director.

She comes to the job supremely qualified. She holds both a B.A. and M.A. from Assumption College, and an EdD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she wrote her doctoral thesis on higher education and lifelong learning. Her illustrious career, however, goes far beyond administrative work. She is an adjunct professor of education and a writer.

In 2011 she co-authored and published a book entitled "Voices of Worcester Women: 160 Years after the First National Woman's Rights Convention" to wide acclaim. The book

interviews 68 Worcester area women involved in education, work, health and politics.

The past presidents of WISE, all ten of them, are unanimous in agreeing that Charlene has greatly enriched WISE with her many gifts. Through the years she has proved a valuable resource as liaison officer with Assumption College and other institutions in the greater Worcester area. She is, by all accounts, bright, personable, organized and highly professional. As someone remarked, “Charlene is a young wise elder.”

She deftly manages WISE business almost daily and attends monthly WISE Council meetings and the many sub-committees of WISE, like the Curriculum Committee and the Communications Committee, giving her valuable input and advice.

Charlene has nurtured WISE along these past 20 years and helped it grow, almost beyond imagination from its infancy, into a model of adult education with a national standing. WISE would not be as reputable and popular an institution without Charlene Martin. We are all greatly indebted.

During the 20 years of WISE’s existence, a Curriculum Committee has arranged for hundreds of classes. A few of the many popular leaders/classes are listed here, in no particular order

Literature (John Reilly, PhD)

Politics and the media (Tim Connolly)

Various medical courses (Ed Landau, MD and Frank Dufault, MD)

Classic films (Caroline Chicarelli)

Adapting to the technological age (Karl Hakkarainen)

Art (Toby Noris)

History (Dick Oehling)

Music (Joe Corn and Richard Kimball)

A Special Events Committee was founded in 1995; between then and 2011 the committee sponsored hundreds of events focusing on theater and movies, art, history and politics, music and literature, sports, and science. These included travel both locally and internationally. Perhaps the most exciting was a speech by Dr. Craig Mello in 2007, just one year after he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. From 2011 to the present, the committee stepped up its efforts and sponsored more than two dozen events, including two on Worcester-related historical topics.

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“Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.” — Anonymous

By Marjorie Glazer

“I was referred to the WISE program by another clergyman because I now had the leisure to learn in my retirement. So far, I've taken a course on the Bible and Literature and am now enrolled in a course on John Donne's poetry. I find WISE programs intellectually stimulating and I like the structure of five-week classes one and a half hours once a week.”

Edward Provost (retired clergyman)

“After I was encouraged to join WISE, I went online, read about WISE and signed up. So far, I've taken Introduction to Islam and Early Feminist Stories where I learned that women hundreds of years ago had similar thoughts to the students in my class. Now I'm taking Writing Memoir Pieces and I'm impressed by what my classmates have accomplished. It's incredible!”

Mary Handley (retired Director of State Contracts at UMASS Medical School)

“A friend recommended WISE when I retired. I was eager for new information. First, I signed up for a course on Worcester's Slave Narratives. Now I'm taking Film and American Political History and Early Feminist Stories, reading things like Louisa May Alcott's "Transcendental Wild Oats." I find class participants capable and knowledgable and I enjoy the interaction between them and the instructors, who really seem to enjoy teaching us. I also enjoyed the April trip to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Art Museum in Boston. I find it wonderful that Assumption College has the WISE program on its campus.”

Carol Fauerbach (retired fifth-grade classroom teacher)

“While at Assumption on another matter, I noticed the WISE office nearby. I went in, looked at a brochure, and signed up. I took a course on English Romantic Poets and couldn't believe the level of depth and excitement; it was like being a graduate student again! Another class I took was Terrible Mothers in Literature (like Medea). It was great. I've taught a couple of Shakespeare courses myself: That was a great thrill! “

Joe Earls (retired high-school teacher)

“A friend told me about the WISE program. It's nice to meet people in an informal social gathering. I very much enjoyed the course on contemporary music I took the first semester. It was interesting to hear the teacher talk about the verses of the songs. As kids, we'd sing the choruses of many of those songs.”

Vivian Killoran (retired special-needs teacher)

“I'm grateful there is a WISE program. The faculty is filled with humorous, intelligent teachers responsive to the needs of the participants.”

Lars Larson (retired hospital administrator)


By Dolores Courtemanche

Graying hair and hearing aids make it all too easy to stereotype people over a certain age. WISE members know what a mistake that is. We are a varied group and, among us, you will find doctors, lawyers , and even a hooker.

The lives of WISE members are the stuff movies are made of. But since space here is limited, let me apologize at the outset for being brief.

In 1933, when Edith Morgan was a three-year-old Jewish child, and two months after Hitler was elected, her father, a judge, was placed under house arrest. Somehow her mother managed to get the family a furlough to travel by train to the Black Forest. Luckily, the only stop was in Switzerland. There they were told to cross the border to France on foot, where they’d be met by a refugee committee. The family settled in Paris. There were hardships and, for a time, Edith and her brother were sent to live as foster children with a Gentile family.

Edith marvels at her mother’s intuition and courage. “She had an unerring sense of when to leave,” she says. “She gave us the feeling that no matter what, she could get us through to safety.”

In 1940, when the Germans marched into France, the family escaped once again on foot to the south of France with the help of her foster parents. “These non-Jews came to our rescue and gave their life savings to get us on a Portuguese ship.” She says this was one of the last ships to carry refugees to the U.S. where immigrant quotas were nearly filled. Two months later, Pearl

Harbor was attacked and no refugees would enter the country for some time. The family settled in Iowa where her father eventually taught law and German in a college that later provided tuition for his children.

During these harrowing years, Edith says she never felt poor or deprived. “We always had literature, art and music. I learned how quickly material things can be gone.”

For most of her life, Anne Jones has had her nose in a book. The retired textbook editor is a voracious reader. Years ago, Anne and a friend brought nine women together to form a book discussion group. Twenty-eight years later, nine members (of whom five are originals) are still meeting.

The first book on the group’s list was “Jane Eyre”; the most recent, “The Friends of Eddie Coyle.” In all, they’ve read and discussed more than 250 books.

Undoubtedly all this reading has enriched their lives but so have the memories they’ve created during their long relationships. The group has shared meals, recipes and jokes. “We laugh a lot,” says Anne.

They’ve gone to Bar Harbor, Maine to visit a founding member who has retired there, kayaking in Mattapoisett, and sledding followed with dining by a fireplace in Washington, N.H. “We’ve gone through many life changes. We’ve seen each other through divorces, remarriage, illnesses, grandchildren. And there have been countless hugs, calories, jokes and, sometimes, flashes of brilliance.”

There’s an old joke that doctors bury their mistakes. And that makes it very difficult not to poke fun at Sam Pickens who is a medical doctor and who has also worked as a grave digger. “But not at the same time,” he says jovially but emphatically.

Sam did a four-month stint as a grave digger at a Washington, D.C. cemetery while waiting to go into the Navy during World War II. “It’s was hard work,” he recalls. “It took two men eight hours to dig a grave. There were no machines.” He’s also worked as a waiter and a lineman.

After serving in the Navy, Sam went to college, medical school in Detroit, then to Worcester’s Memorial Hospital where he worked as a surgeon. And, for 13 years, he was a medical missionary in India. Back in the U.S., Sam was on the staff of the Barre Health Center and he still teaches residents in family medicine.

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Some news stories are so fascinating that, years later, the details are still vivid. The Patty Hearst case was such a story. Marsha Addis not only had a front-row seat at the trial, she was privy to much of what went on behind the scenes.

In 1975, Marsha was the administrative chief of staff in the office of the psychiatry chair at UCLA’s medical school, Dr. West, when he was asked to serve as a court-appointed psychiatrist to determine if Ms. Hearst was competent to stand trial.

For weeks Marsha was immersed in pre-trial preparations. She researched Hearst’s school records and the relevant professional literature for the report on her ability to stand trial. Marsha participated in interminable meetings with attorneys, FBI agents, the U.S. Attorney, and psychiatric and psychological experts who had been brought in for various reasons. But, she says, her most powerful experience was transcribing the interviews the director conducted with Ms. Hearst while she was in jail. In one particularly heart-wrenching interview, Ms. Hearst told how she’d spent two months locked in a closet where she’d been raped. Throughout this time, she had been harangued by the terrorist rants of her Symbionese Liberation Army captors.

Shortly after the trial, Ms. Hearst was sentenced to federal prison and many people agreed with the court. Dr. West, however, believed that Ms. Hearst was guilty of three things: of being a Hearst, of being a woman, and of surviving her ordeal. Marsha agrees.

What Marsha learned from that experience led her to work with victims of mind-controlling cults. She co-founded and was a volunteer at the Cult Clinic, an educational and counseling program for families at the Los Angeles Jewish Family Service.

Oh yes, about the hooker. That would be Louise Gleason who has been hooking rugs for about 15 years. She creates her own patterns and once was featured in “Hooking” magazine.

“You know you're getting older when you know all the answers but nobody asks you the questions.” — Anonymous


“Inside every 70-year-old is a 35-year old asking ‘what happened?’ ” -— Ann Landers

It was an honor for me to work with the founding members of WISE to create a lifelong learning

institute in Worcester in 1993. Twenty years later, I continue to be amazed by the enthusiasm and

active participation of so many of the members. It is a learning community that demonstrates the

power of older adults—not only do you seek intellectual stimulation by attending classes, but you

contribute to the administration of the institute by serving on committees, volunteering to be class

assistants, and sometimes even leading a course. I congratulate all the members of WISE for working

together to develop one of the best institutes in the country.

Charlene L. Martin, EdD

Director of WISE

20th

ANNIVERSARY CONGRATULATIONS!

The Elderhostel Institute Network (EIN), now known as the Road Scholar Institute Network (RSIN), is very pleased to send 20th Anniversary Congratulations! to the staff and members of the Worcester Institute for Senior Education (WISE) at Assumption College. Reaching this milestone is a remarkable accomplishment that has been achieved thanks to the dedication, enthusiasm, and hard work on the part of everyone involved with WISE.

The unique curriculum, opportunities, special programming and interest groups, community involvement, and educational travel offered to your members are proof positive of what it takes to make a program like yours truly great.

Your continued success over these past twenty years has also served as a model and inspiration to the more than four hundred other Lifelong Learning Institutes (LLIs) across North America. WISE truly exemplifies its vision of a learning community that offers older adults intellectual stimulation, socialization, personal growth, and opportunities for service. The philosophy of this vision was also one of the reasons the Elderhostel Institute Network was established in 1988.

It has been twenty-five years since we first began working with LLIs like yours, all across the country. Our association has been a rich one. Since those early years, the benefits of keeping our minds, bodies and spirits active and fulfilled in our later years have become common knowledge, due in no small part to the successful work of both our organizations.

Today, while WISE serves your local community, RSIN operates as a central resource and communications network, working not only with our four hundred plus affiliated programs, but with reporters, authors, scholars, and anyone interested in learning more about the value of continuing to learn as we grow older. WISE and RSIN are truly partners in helping to make the lives of older adults rich and rewarding.

Congratulations, and very best wishes to everyone currently involved with the Worcester Institute for Senior Education, and to the early leaders whose vision has been so fully realized. We look forward to working with you in the years to come. Thank you too for the contributions you all make to the Learning in Retirement movement of which you are so vital a part.

Nancy Merz Nordstrom, Director Road Scholar Institute Network

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“The worst thing about getting old is having to listen to the advice of one's children.” — Anonymous


Twenty years ago when WISE was founded, there was no Facebook, no Twitter, and email was just beginning to be a means of communication. We held paper copies of newspapers and periodicals; some of us had computers! And we thought 75 was really old! Today WISE uses digital technology for most of its communication to members and we have many vibrant 85 year olds whom we consider young in wisdom and at heart!

As we look ahead to the next twenty years of WISE, we envision a growing confidence among our members with technology. We foresee registering for courses online and receiving class materials digitally. While we don’t envision online courses for our population, we might host conversations outside of class online.

Most importantly, we will continue to need support from Assumption College for our programs and spaces. We will need to recruit new members and increase scholarship funds to help those living on a limited income. We will need members to serve on committees to assist with special events, course planning and travel opportunities. We need to keep our website and video updated and continue membership surveys to assure that we are meeting the needs of our lifelong learners.

In the next twenty years we hope to launch new program initiatives, maintain communication with other lifelong learning centers in the Northeast, assess our marketing and communication opportunities, develop new partnerships with area venues, and maintain a healthy ongoing relationship with Assumption College.

Indeed we are already planning for the next generation of older learners by modeling the vibrancy which only comes from acquiring further knowledge and remaining social with one another. Most of all we need people with vision and enthusiasm to step into the roles most of us will step away from in the next few years. Indeed WISE provides a cycle of learning and living for older citizens. The future looks bright!

Barbara B. Groves, President of WISE Karl Hakkarainen, WISE Council member

The two presidents signing a renewed agreement between Assumption and WISE (May 2013)

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1999–2000

Tuition of $120 full-year and $70 half-year approved

New members orientation program begun

Domestic travel program under EIN planned

Audio equipment for Kennedy classrooms purchased

First budget for special events established

Millennium celebration at end of 1999 held; lecture focused on computer use

2000–2002

Recognized by Friends of Worcester’s Senior Center “for outstanding work with seniors”

Association for Continuing Higher Education’s “Exemplary Older Adult Program Award” presented to WISE Director

WISE provides the most number of presentations/panelists at an EIN conference

Laudatory citation from City of Worcester received

$25,000 raised for Assumption College

2003–2009

Tenth anniversary celebration held

Partnership with Briarwood for shared resources

Brian Bercier takes over as Director

WISE welcomes Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Craig Mello to speak

Charlene Martin returns as Director when Brian Bercier leaves Assumption

Partnership with Willows at Worcester for shared resources

2010

Strategic planning committee made standing committee

WISE Resource Bureau created of volunteers to assist undergraduates and professors

WISE members act in Assumption production of Oliver

Honorary Membership awarded to 10-year group leaders

2011

Financial reports expanded to show current vs. budget

Increase in dues implemented

First WISE Leadership Orientation

2012–2013

First membership survey conducted electronically

20th anniversary celebration held

Newsletter Committee transformed into Communications Committee

Number of members totals 425

Special Events Committee sponsors 16 events — a record number

Updated agreement makes WISE a formal component of Assumption’s Center for Continuing and Career Education

Most regrettably, Director Charlene Martin resigns

Paul Mahon appointed new Director

www.assumption.edu/wise 508.767.7513

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Worcester Arts Council, a local agency which is supported by the

Marsha Addis Assumption Print Shop

Ruth Bibace

Joseph Corn

Dolores Courtemanche

Frank Dufault

Rose Anne Ferrandino Marjorie Glazer

Barbara Groves

Karl Hakkarainen

Sandra Hakkarainen Ed Landau

Thelma Lockwood Charlene Martin

Joe Reynolds

Our Contributors, Writers, Photographers, and Technical Experts

A VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU TO Pat Masiello, without whose help, from the beginning, WISE could never have grown into the Worcester Community’s and surrounding areas’ premier lifelong learning institute.

Our Host

Assumption College

Our Community Partners Briarwood Retirement Community

Willows at Worcester American Antiquarian Society

EcoTarium Hanover Theatre

Higgins Armory Museum Massachusetts Audubon Society

Preservation Worcester Worcester Art Museum

Worcester Center for Crafts Worcester County Bar Association

Worcester Historical Museum Worcester Public Library

Worcester Women’s History Project

Marsha Addis

Samuel Corbitt

Joseph Corn

Dolores Courtemanche

Frank and Loraine Dufault

Sue Durham

Lois Feldman

David and Jane Gilligan

Marjorie Glazer

Barbara Groves

Mike and Hannah Laipson

Ed Landau

Zelda Schwartz

Our 20th Anniversary Sponsors

Our 20th Anniversary Committee Hannah Laipson (Chair)

Sam Chafetz Hy Cohen

Sam Corbitt

Dolores Courtemanche Lois Feldman George Fifield Barbara Groves

Sandra Hakkarainen Marijane Jones Maddie Levine

Thelma Lockwood

Charlene Martin Betty McGrath Southwick

Shirley Weinstein

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