I transferred to McGill University in Montreal and, despite loving living there, I returned to UVM my senior year because of a boyfriend (who is not my husband!).

 

I worked about 20 hours a week at the Burlington Free Press when in college, and was hired full-time as soon as I graduated in 1976.

 

I “dropped out” one more time to travel in Asia for a year and then returned to the Burlington Free Press as assistant city editor in 1980.

 

In 1983, I moved to Baltimore, MD to work for The Baltimore Sun, which back then was a fabulous newspaper with lots of foreign bureaus.

 

When I was on late-night rewrite (a job once held by Russell Baker!) my late-night cops colleague was David Simon, who went on to create The Wire, among many other TV shows. The newsroom was a bustling, very exciting place to be, and I covered the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and a lot of medical firsts coming out of Johns Hopkins.

 

My first child, Ben, was born in Baltimore, in 1986, and my second son, Christopher, was born in 1989, the year we moved from Baltimore to Southborough, MA.

 

My husband took a job with a MFS, a mutual fund company in Boston and, although I was glad to be back in New England, I really missed my job. I toyed with going back to school to become a librarian but stuck with writing jobs.

 

My second career began in 2001 when I got hired to write for the American Cancer Society’s website. I eventually became the managing editor for internal news, managing content on our intranet and writing a weekly newsletter for all staff.

 

I loved, loved, loved my job and my colleagues who lived all over the U.S. We were known as The BWGSD – the bitches who get shit done. I’ve never worked with a more hard-working (and underpaid) group of folks and have such respect for the American Cancer Society as an organization.

 

I retired on Dec. 31, 2021 and thought I would feel bereft. Well, guess what? I don’t miss work at all – especially being tethered to a computer 10 hours a day. I now spend more time outdoors in my beloved state of VT. In 2019, my husband and I moved to Burlington, where we met in the 1970s, and we are so happy to be here.

 

I swim every day of the summer in Lake Champlain and aspire to be a member of the Red Hot Chilly Dippers, a die-hard group that gets into the lake every day of the year.

 

I am the VP of Communications for a social group called The Women of UVM – which offers 44 interest groups from hiking and knitting to book and film groups to wine groups. I also volunteer for a national organization called VoteRiders, whose mission is to educate the public about voter ID laws, and last year I ran for and was elected to the position of elections official in Ward 6 in Burlington. I am very passionate about people’s right to vote!

 

My kids are my pride and joy. Ben, who reminds me so much of my dad, whom, tragically he never got to meet, is a lawyer in the Boston firm of Goodwin. He was married last September and I am hoping to be a grandmother before I get too much older.

 

The silver lining of the pandemic was that he and his wife bought a house in Stowe and they now live there permanently, with the blessings of their employers.

 

My younger son, Chris, is a junior high school science teacher in Denver. He has a wonderful girlfriend, but it’s complicated. She’s Ethiopian and her parents have yet to meet Chris. I worry.

 

I am so looking forward to our reunion. It took me forever to sit down and write this – and it’s probably more than anyone wants to read, but I encourage everyone to do it.

 

I have so enjoyed reading the bios that have been posted to date.

 

Best to all,

Jane