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This letter
was written for Class of 1941 60th reunion for clarifying my quest attendance,
and was too late for the program directory.
Memories from having worked it both New York City and Washington, D.C.
were wrenched apart with the terrorists devastation of those former
"hometowns" on September 11, 2001. In disbelief, I realized how lucky
I had been to have known the Big Apple, the beauty of the nighttime
skyline of its bridges rising into the sky, and in stark contrast, the
shining magnificence of the Capitol dome, the pillars of the White House,
and the seated Lincoln -- all standing reminders of the resolve that
built this country.
It was the end of the war years when I arrived in New York following
graduation from Miami U that June. I spent the next eight
years working mainly in lower Manhattan, initially on Maiden Lane, then
65 Broadway (American Express) and living either in the city or commuting
to Long Island where my oldest sister, Dolly, lived.
Some 25 years later, in Washington, DC, I joined the Center
for Strategic and International Studies working with the Director of
Communications and Public Affairs in daily contact with the White House,
Capitol Hill and Pentagon personnel.
The decades between found me back in Fostoria, later
in Cleveland, and briefly in Chicago. Times were good in 1953
at the Fostoria Pressed Steel working for Russ Carter, Jim Bates, and
Walter Hartzel. But in 1960, I joined Jack Barber, VP Engineering, Jack
PIgman, Paul Krupp and Millard Might to set up like operations in Bradner
as a subsidiary of Edwin L. Weigand Co., Pittsburgh. Highly
successful but when unions tried to move in, Weigand closed our shop.
I spent a short year as women's Editor of the Fostoria
Daily Review Times before heading for Cleveland and 10 years with Eaton
Corporation--a mufti-national with 40,000 employees worldwide.
In the 1975 downturn, I was "axed" (at age 50).
More time of learning came with several top law firms.
then came a call to become temporary directress of Gwinn Estate Bratenhal,
OH--a 27 room mansion overlooking Lake Erie available for (restricted)
lunch and dinner bookings. Offered full-time, I answered to a call from
Chicago instead and landed there in the blizzard of 1978. Four months
later I left for Washington.
Living in Findlay since 1990 has brought an abundance
of activities and special contact with my sister Ruth. As some
know I left Fostoria the end of my sophomore year following the
death of my mother, and lived with Ruth in Sulphur Springs, commuting
to Bucyrus High School That summer she married her superintendent,
S.K. Sollars, and we moved into Bucyrus. He died in 1995.
I feel blessed
to be living where I am, and thankful to be included as part of the
Fostoria Class of 1941
Thanks for reading my story
Vanda June.Nichols
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