The Last Word

Memories

I enjoyed the piece on the Houghton choir (I was a member in 1948 and '51), but was sorry to see no mention of the names of Professor Butterworth and Professor Finney.

Darwin Townsend '51
Fayetteville, NC

I wanted to thank you for the tribute to my father, Herman Osterhus, in the fall '07 issue. It captured the essence of his contributions to Houghton College.

Brian Osterhus '89
Westwood, NJ

Presidents Past and Present

Through my years at Houghton I worked on the custodial crew at Luckey Building. When cleaning and polishing President Paine's office, I always felt rather awkward—as if I were invading the "holy of holies!" Occasionally Dr. Paine put in an appearance and was ever friendly and congenial. I am always proud to defend the NIV Bible because Dr. Paine contributed to the translation and I knew of his deep love for the scriptures and vast understanding of the ancient languages.

Chuck Hurne '70
Montpelier, VT

The summer '07 issue included an article entitled "All in the Family" about the new president, Shirley A. Mullen. In truth, Houghton boasts 13 alumni from Mullen's family.

Mullen is descended from William Sabin, the next-door neighbor of Stephen Payne—both were founding members of Rehoboth, MA (now East Providence, RI) in 1643 and each had descendants who became presidents of Houghton College (Mullen and Stephen Paine). Thirteen of William Sabin's descendants are Houghton alumni: Robert Sabean '58, David Sabean '60, John Sabean '61, Shirley Mullen '76, Barbara (Mullen '78) Pointer, Andrew Mullen '82, James Mullen '86, Kirk Sabine '90, Linda (Mullen '92) Dingley, Laurence Mullen '95, Jeffrey McMullen '98, Benjamin Sabine '02 and Jessica Mullen '08.

Robert "Bob" Sabean '58
San José, Costa Rica

Last summer the class of '71 had its 36-year reunion. We had a great time and one of our classmates, Dave Hayes, wrote this lovely poem expressing his feelings from that weekend. I think all alumni would enjoy reading it.

Ginny (Alexander 71') Halberg
Houghton, NY

You can read many more details of the Sabine/Sabean-Mullen/McMullen- Payne/Paine connections that Bob Sabean has written about by visiting the Milieu section of the Houghton College Web site.—Editor   Click here for complete story.

Alumni Directory Coming

The printed version of the alumni directory will be mailed shortly. All alumni who confirmed their information with the publishing company will receive a copy in the mail— others may purchase a copy ($20) through the alumni office. Contact Liz Bordonaro '07 at 585.567.9546 or elizabeth.bordonaro@houghton.edu for further information.

Correction

In the summer '07 issue we listed the members of the men's 4 X 800M relay team ("Eight Compete at National Meet," pg. 6) incorrectly. The correct members were (from left to right in picture): Ryan Fadden '07, Chad Stauring '09, Josiah Snellgrove '08 and Dan Ballard '09. Milieu apologizes for the error.—Editor