“In a polycrisis world, big changes are coming, but out of chaos comes opportunity,” commencement speaker and 2001 Simon's Rock graduate Chloe Demrovsky told the graduates. “It is essential to stay curious, keep learning, and figure out how to be useful."
After her children were school-age, she went to work as a teacher's aide in the Lenox Public Schools for several years and also worked at Hillcrest Hospital, Berkshire Clothing Company and the gift shop at Canyon Ranch.
Mary Jane taught the LPN program at Berkshire Community College for eight years. For the past eight years, she worked as the school nurse at Lenox Memorial Middle and High School and Morris Elementary School in Lenox.
While Toomey saw action at both the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, it was the fact that the peace treaty was signed in Tokyo Bay in 1945 aboard the very ship on which he was serving that he was most proud.
Tom passed on his love of hockey to his children who faithfully joined him on rinks too numerous to count and, over two decades, coached dozens of school and travel soccer and hockey teams.
