Club Update, May 6 2010

Hopkins Redux: We are pleased to say that the Hopkins School has reconsidered, and will be rowing this year after all! Apparently a warm response from parents of the young athletes caused Hopkins to make rowing a priority for the fall once again: the board was informed at the end of April. We will be pleased to welcome them in the fall.

Sunshine Committee: Nancy Brackett reports that Sandy Blanchard and John Sword are recovering nicely; Sandy is home from the hospital. Both are probably impatient to get up and at 'em! We are sad to report that Norm Thetford's mother passed last week at age 96: please see the full report in the post immediately below.

Derby Sweeps and Sculls: Save June 5 on your calendar now!! We need our usual enthusiastic volunteer turnout for this smaller, but mighty, regatta. If you are new to the club, please know that we raise a major portion of our budget through this and the Head of the Housatonic in the fall, making it possible for us to have a membership cost that actually does not represent what it costs to run the club. It's also a fun way to hang out together and remember that even though we have many differences we are all NHRCs!

From Susan Schofield:

I know it's hard to believe, but the DSS regatta is now less than a month away (June 5). I need some assistance attaching medals to the ribbons. By Saturday, I will leave bags of medals/ribbons on the upstairs window seat near the office. The best tool to use for this task is a pair of needlenose plyers.

Thanks in advance for your help. As you all know, our regattas are run completely with volunteer help, so please mark June 5 on your calendar and volunteer to help out. Volunteers will also be needed before and after the actual regatta date. Let's have another outstanding regatta!

Sunshine Committee: Meda E. Thetford, June 3 1913-April 26 2010

We are sorry to report that Norm Thetford's mother, Meda E. Thetford, passed away on April 26, her children by her side. Thanks to Nancy Brackett, we have the obituary from the Asbury Park Press:

Meda E. (Young) Thetford, 96, of Eatontown, passed peacefully from this life on Monday, April 26, 2010, at her home. Meda was born June 3, 1913 in Palmyra, N.Y., the second daughter of Sanford and Genevieve Young. She graduated valedictorian from Palmyra Classical High School in 1931. She won a New York State Regents' Scholarship to attend Cornell University, where she majored in psychology and earned a Phi Beta Kappa in 1935. She completed her Masters in Social Work at the New York School of Social Work, now part of Columbia University, while living at International House in upper Manhattan. She met her husband, Norman D. Thetford, M.D. while they were students at Cornell. On July 17, 1939, they were married at the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn, N.Y. They lived for seven years on Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, where Norman served in the U.S. Public Health Service, and then moved to Eatontown in 1947. They had been married for 69 years at the time of Norman's death in 2008. With a great desire to beautify her community, Meda was the founder and charter member of the Eatontown Shade Tree Commission and a leader in creating the Pride in Eatontown Committee. In these and many other civic affairs, she was active for over 40 years. In 1983, she received a Special Recognition Award from the Borough of Eatontown for her public service.

She is the mother of four children, Virginia and her husband, Professor Ivan Valiela of Falmouth, Mass., Dr. Norman A. Thetford and his wife, Dr. Mary Lou (Williams) Thetford of Hamden, Conn., Lois Thetford, PA-C and her partner, the Honorable Jean Rietschel of Seattle, Wash., and Dr. Constance and her husband, Dr. Clair Hixson of Kingsport, Tenn. Her descendants include nine grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Meda will always be remembered by her family and her many beloved associates as a woman of great kindness, intellect, courage, and determination to fight for the right. She had a warm smile and a generous spirit that brought joy to those who spent time with her. She was a wise counselor to her husband and her children, and to many other family members and friends.
A gathering of family and friends to memorialize Meda Thetford's life will be announced when arrangements are complete. In lieu of flowers or donations, the family asks that the donor plant a tree or flowering bush in Meda's memory in a location of his or her choice.