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Alums are bringing their talents to a wide range of hobbies and pursuits—and discovering more about themselves in the process

Life after 91���� Northampton has led generations of alumni to careers filled with purpose, challenge, and success. But for this story, we wanted to know what inspires Wildcats when they are not on the job. What are the hobbies and pursuits that bring you joy, that let you express your creativity, that restore your sense of adventure? Dozens of you responded to our recent survey, sharing a remarkable range of answers. We heard about familiar pastimes such as gardening, crafting, and hiking, but also stories about deeply personal pursuits, from making violins for underprivileged children to raising cattle to performing improv comedy. As the following profiles show, for our classmates, curiosity and learning continue long after graduation.

 

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Off the Cuff Comedy

You’re on stage in a packed theater, staring into a sea of expectant faces, and all you have for lines is whatever you can make up as you go. For some, that’s the stuff of recurring nightmares. But for Sally Ekus ’03 and Paul McNeil ’01, it’s a dream hobby that has changed their lives. Ekus and McNeil are both members of Happier Valley Comedy (HVC), a nonprofit improv troupe that offers a variety of weekend shows at its theater in Hadley, Massachusetts.

They came to improv from opposite perspectives: Ekus was hoping to overcome her fear of public speaking; McNeil loved the spotlight from his time at 91����, where he acted under Ellis Baker ’51 and sang with the Caterwaulers and Teller Chorus. Today, Ekus does a monthly comedy show with her mainstage group, Not in Charge (she also serves on the board and recently led a successful capital campaign), while McNeil and his Understudies group create an entire improvised musical. Occasionally the two alums perform together at special events.

For both, improv has become both a hobby and an approach to life, drawing upon the comedy form’s cardinal rule: respond to any situation on stage by taking it further with “yes, and…”

“That philosophy has really shaped my ability to be a way better communicator,” explains McNeil, whose day job is serving as a prevention specialist with the Office of National Drug Control Policy, where he helps kids develop healthy coping skills. “It’s really, really powerful. I’ve seen it change lives. It’s definitely changed my life.”

Ekus, who runs a cookbook-focused literary agency, found improv similarly transformative. She recalls years ago attending a conference and shaking uncontrollably when she stood to ask a question. Hoping to gain more confidence, she signed up for a class with HVC founder Pam Victor. “I walked in and thought, ‘This is what I’ve been looking for.’”

Improv continues to offer life lessons for both actors. “It’s like jumping on a bronco,” explains McNeil, who notes that as the seventh of eight children, he would often act out for attention at home and at school. “You get out on stage, and it’s a chaos that I’m familiar with, being from such a huge family. The more emotionally committed you are, it’s just unbelievable what ends up happening.” Ekus agrees. “What it does is redefine your relationship to fear and failure” she says. “Those feelings are still within me because they’re part of who I am, but my relationship to them and how they serve me is different. I welcome them. I say, ‘Hello, thank you for being here. How can I use this energy?’ That has served me in life, and that is what I’ve learned through HVC.”

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Stained Glass Erin McCullough ’10 has recently taken up the art of stained glass, inspired by the many hours she spent as a child in the studio of her grandmother, a stained-glass artist. “I’ve loved learning this craft while connecting with my grandmother’s legacy,” she explains. “I’ve been working on Tiffany-style pieces, including projects with lead panels, and it’s been so fulfilling to create something beautiful with my hands.”

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A Van of One’s Own

Ash Strange ’20 discovered a love for hands-on building in 91����’s tech-theater program, a life-changing experience that would inspire Strange to pursue a career as a freelance stage manager. Then, during the summer of 2021, Strange came across the social-media phenomenon #vanlife, promoted by influencers who converted vehicles into mobile homes to ride out the pandemic. Something clicked. “It was one of those things that just felt right,” says Strange. “I don’t like having a lot of space or a lot of things. I don’t know where I want to live and work, and I love to travel, so being mobile is the right fit for me.”

And so Strange got to work. The result, still under construction, is Vanessa, a 2016 Dodge Ram Promaster van that Strange has spent the last year converting into a home on wheels. As functional as the final product will be (Vanessa will have a full kitchen, bathroom with shower, and sleeping quarters, all powered by batteries charged by solar panels), Strange says the construction process itself is already bringing benefits. “This whole project is maybe one of the biggest projects of my life,” Strange says. “I’ve been learning a lot about myself, and how I deal with long-term projects. The thing I was most worried about was the electrical work, because electricity isn’t something I’ve ever understood. But I’ve had to work through it, and I’ve watched so many videos, and I’m at the place now where I feel like I can wire an outlet or install a light and it’s not a big deal. The satisfaction comes from being able to flip a switch, see the lights turn on, and know that I did that myself.”

Strange’s father, a retired cabinet builder, has also been lending a hand (as well as his workshop at the family’s Woodville, Virginia, home), and if all goes well, Vanessa will make her debut for the upcoming theater season. “I’m about halfway,” reports Strange, who notes that Instagram users can follow the action @TheStrangest01. “I’ve just gotten started on the kitchen cabinets. The goal is to be ready to have it livable by the time I leave for my summer job.”

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Rinks and Racing Josh Mervis ’88 has pursued his love of motorcycles by managing a MotoAmerica race team, “the pinnacle of professional motorcycle road racing in the USA,” he explains. He also helps build ice rinks, driven by a lifelong devotion to hockey. A former college coach, he continues to work preparing players for the NHL draft and Division I college hockey. In both his career and hobbies, he says, he has been guided by a quote from the German philosopher Hegel, which appeared on a poster he received after his sophomore year at 91����: “We may affirm absolutely that nothing of consequence was ever accomplished without passion.”

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Running Rider Bishop ’20 started running in college and recently completed his first half-marathon. Inspired by the challenge, he plans to run two more this year and a full marathon next year. “Running clears my mind and keeps me motivated,” he says, aiming one day to tackle the Boston Marathon.

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Photography Jason Bornstein ’96 recalls discovering photography as a student of Bob Couch ’50 in the winter of 1995, and studying with him for the next three semesters. After 91����, he dabbled with disposable and then point-and-shoot cameras, “and every once in a while, I would see something in the camera that struck my eye: the type of setting that I would look for to fulfill a photography assignment,” he recalls. “That little flame kept burning in me.” Preparing for a family cruise to Alaska last summer, he realized he now had a reason to invest in a new camera and get back in practice. “I’ve continued with it, and now I have close to a dozen new photos printed on metal in a mini home photo gallery, with room for many more.”

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Home on the Range

After 45 years in accounting—auditing credit unions and becoming a partner in major Texas CPA firms—Dan Moulton ’73 was ready for a new kind of fieldwork. And so, 12 years ago, he emptied out his 401(k) to buy a couple hundred acres in Van Alstyne, Texas, north of Dallas, where he now spends his days raising a hundred head of Hereford cattle.

“It keeps me going,” says Moulton, who grew up in Vermont and worked on a dairy farm before taking a postgraduate year at 91����. “If I’m watching TV and politics comes on, I’ll head to the field to find my cows. It’s just so relaxing, not any different than when I was a kid.”

Back then, Moulton enjoyed the outdoors so much that, while filling out college applications, he told his counselor he’d like to study agriculture or forestry at the University of Vermont. “He looked down at his paper, then up at me, and said, ‘OK, I’m going to put down accounting,’” Moulton recalls with a laugh. “I didn’t fight him. I figured he knew what paid the bills in those days.”After earning his degree, he moved to Texas and built an impressive career. As much as he enjoyed the work, he says, “my heart was always with the country.”

Now, he’s come full circle. It’s familiar work: riding tractors, cultivating hayfields, and tending to the herd. To help track the cows’ birth order, he names the females alphabetically; the males are named for Texas cities. When they are old enough, he sells them to others for breeding—or as a tax break. In Texas, it turns out, raising cattle on your property can have huge benefits. “If you’ve bought land out here for a house, and you put cattle there, as long as it’s at least 11 acres, you save a lot of money in property taxes,” Moulton explains. Spoken like a rancher who still thinks like an accountant.

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Climbing Ellie Scott ’18 thrives on adventure, spending her time rock and ice climbing. “They are fun ways to challenge myself and enjoy the outdoors,” she reports.

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Live Music John Anz ’82 has long been passionate about live music—not just as an attendee, but as a promoter and advocate, working to bring great musicians to his community. For more than 20 years, he has also been researching the unpublished music of his father—pop and jazz composer Johnny Anz—from the 1950s and ’60s, a journey that culminated last year in a CD featuring some of New York City’s finest musicians, and a release concert in the Pioneer Valley. “Surrounding myself with the joy and peace of music is second only to that derived by surrounding myself with friends and family,” he says.

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Custom knitting An avid knitter since her days at 91����, Kayt Racz ’05 produces all manner of wooly creations, which she shares on Instagram (@progressivecrafting). Check out her stuffed dinosaurs, knitted for friends’ children from yarn collected on her travels.

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Social Sports Missy Retsky ’73 stays active with pickleball and curling, both of which offer exercise and camaraderie. “They are great ways to meet people and share laughs,” she says.

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Building the Gift of Music

It takes about three months to make a violin, says Sam “Lee” Hawkes ’60, “if you really put your heart into it.” Hawkes knows this firsthand, having built 10 instruments, each of which he has donated to Escuela de Música Santa Cecelia, a music school for underprivileged children in the pueblo of Zaachila, outside Oaxaca, Mexico. A retired mechanical engineer who worked in the oil and computer industries—as well as a prizewinning beer brewer, professor of Buddhism, and avid bicyclist—Hawkes became an instrument maker after meeting his former partner Dorothy Bittner, a nurse and violinist. “She had a friend who was a luthier,” Hawkes recalls. “And so I said, ‘Well, Dotty, I’ll just make you a violin then.’ I’d go once a week for a year, and little by little, we made a violin together.”

Sadly, Bittner was never able to play the instrument. Diagnosed with ALS, she died in 2016. But before she died, a musician who was visiting her at her nursing home did play the instrument. “He said, ‘Hey, this isn’t so bad,’” Hawkes recalls. So Hawkes kept making them. “For a while there I was making two or three a year,” he says. “Everything I do is from scratch,” he says of the careful and painstaking construction process, which ends with 25 coats of varnish, each of which takes days to dry. When each instrument was complete, Hawkes would send it to the music school, along with money for one child’s music lessons.

As gratifying as the hobby has been, Hawkes now says his luthier days are over. He plans to hang up his last violin in his new home in Rhode Island, where he now lives with his wife, Gale. One hobby he plans to continue is bicycling, which he does every Sunday with a local riding club. Over the years, he has biked across the Canadian Rockies, through Yellowstone National Park, and across the United States, with thoughts of violins sometimes helping him pass the time on long rides. “In Buddhism, when thoughts arise, you’re supposed to thank them and ask them to please go away,” he said. “But when I crossed the country, I would go through every single step of the making violins in my head.”

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Easy Riding When Susan (Hendrickson) Harrington ’62 is not tending the gardens around her Cape Ann home, she can often be found tooling about town on her 125cc Yamaha scooter, which is “similar to a Vespa,” she explains.
“I have been riding motorcycles and/or mopeds since 1963. Handy for around Cape Ann and beach transportation.”

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Healing Through Dinosaurs

During treatment for kidney cancer last February, Charles Ferguson ’67 was advised to take a six-month break from teaching at Stanford University. A classical guitarist who also trained as a fine artist, and a professor of music for the last 50 years, Ferguson enjoys staying active—something his wife knew well. “She said, ‘How bored are you going to be?’” recalls Ferguson, and suggested that he think of a project to pass the time.

When Ferguson answered, simply, “Dinosaurs,” his wife could not suppress a laugh. “What are you,” she asked, “four and a half years old?”

Clearly not. No four-year-old could produce the carefully rendered dinosaur portraits that Ferguson began painting, nor the models he constructed from kits and painted by hand. Certainly, none could fashion the remarkable dinosaur dioramas he eventually created, shaping each creature from clay and armature wire, painting it, and then setting it in a prehistoric environment. Over the months, Ferguson produced about 60 dinosaur models, roughly 30 dioramas, and a dozen large-scale paintings. To cap it off, his artwork was recently published in Prehistoric Times, a magazine for other paleo art enthusiasts.

Now cancer-free, Ferguson credits his artistic pursuit with aiding his recovery. “I think the therapeutic qualities of it were immense, honestly,” he says. “It was not just a lark. It became dead serious right away. Anything that I try to do, whether it’s music or art, I’ve got to go in full bore. So, yes, it was a serious adventure, but it really did contribute to my health. I’m a professional musician, that’s what I do for a living,” he notes. “But to be recognized as a paleo artist has been very satisfying.”

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Gardening Kelly Marra ’04 has turned her home into a lush oasis with more than 100 houseplants and a thriving fruit and vegetable garden. “It never ceases to amaze me that you can stick a tiny seed in the ground and grow something magical and delicious,” she reports. “Gardening is good for my body and my soul.”