Owl Snowbirds Land in Same Retirement Nest
Owls aren’t snowbirds, but they are wise. So it comes as no surprise that over the years many Keene State alums have retired to Florida, escaping the wrath of winter or setting up permanent residence. While there are former Owls scattered all over the Sunshine State, six KSC alums from the late 1960s, including two couples, have landed in the same retirement nest in Sarasota, FL.
While many Keene State students make lifelong friends in college, Ted Miller ’68 and Sue (Chatfield) Miller ’69, Bruce Marsette ’68 and Martha (Ferris) Marsette’68, along with George Manekas ’69 and Mike Clemons ’68 and their wives, have reunited and rekindled their friendship amid the abundant amenities, beaches, and resorts of southwest Florida, turning Oakwood Manor, a 55-plus community in Sarasota, into Keene State South.
“We all had different lives and our children went off in different directions, so I never thought that we’d come together and be one happy family again,” said Ted Miller. George Manekas started the migration. Originally from Lowell, MA, Manekas, who taught for 41 years and retired in 2011, has spent the last three winters at the complex. “It’s a nice community with friendly people,” said Manekas, who spends a good deal of his time shuffling off to the complex’s shuffleboard court. “We have everything that you want if you want to be active.”
The Millers, Sue and Ted soon followed Manekas to the complex and Mike Clemons wasn’t too far behind. Clemons, a Nashua native, had been a frequent visitor to the area, traveling down in his RV during school vacations and staying at trailer parks. After taking a tour of Oakwood Manor, Clemons and his wife decided to buy a permanent place to live. The Millers and the Marsettes, who purchased a home last year, round out the Keene State contingent at the complex.
Connecting the Keene State dots, Martha Marsette, who hails from Fayville, MA, knew George, Mike, and Ted while attending the College. Meanwhile, her husband, Bruce, got to know Ted while working at Keene High School, where they both served as department heads for several years. The connection doesn’t end there. Ted, who is from Beverly, NJ, was a former college roommate of both Mike Clemons and George Manekas, while Ted, Mike, and George were all Kappa Delta Phi brothers.
“Having the common thread of Keene State is nice,“ said Bruce Marsette, who also took part in Greek life at KSC as a member of Theta Chi Delta fraternity. “It always seems to come up in conversation.”
All four couples love to talk about their days at Keene State. Manekas readily recalls his inauspicious arrival at the College. “I remember when I first got there, I applied to be a physical education teacher and on my very first day they told me it was a mistake and they only had physical education for women, so I had to switch my major,” he said.
To make matters worse, Manekas was also assigned to Randall Hall, which was a female dormitory at the time. Fortunately, he was able to find off-campus housing.
Bruce and Martha Marsette also had an eventful first day on campus, meeting each other at a freshmen bonfire on the A field. Because of a shortage of housing her sophomore year, Martha had to live off campus. Getting back to campus for classes and meals wasn’t easy. “Second semester my father argued with the dean of women, so instead of paying for the food portion of our bill we put the money toward groceries for our apartment,” she said. George Manekas and his Kappa frat brothers were highly involved in the social scene at Keene State, putting on a skit for the entire campus called “Kappa Capers.” George and Ted were also active musically, playing in the frat band. “I loved the band,” said Sue Miller. “Ted played the drums and I would dance next to the band. I was a good groupie until we had children.”
All six KSC alums had careers in education. Clemons taught social studies and coached track at Central High in Manchester. He served as head of his department and as the school’s assistant principal, retiring, after a 40-year career, in 2008. In 2000, Clemons was elected to the Nashua School Board and also served for two terms as a Hillsboro County Commissioner.
Bruce Marsette began his teaching career at Monadnock Regional before moving on to Keene High, where he became a big proponent of art, teaching and serving as the department head for art and music. A member of the New Hampshire Coaches Hall of Fame, Marsette also coached skiing and tennis at Keene High.
Graduating with a double major in elementary and special education, Martha Marsette was offered a job on the spot following her first interview in Westborough, MA – on the same day that her husband Bruce was hired at Monadnock. A year later, she joined her husband at Monadnock before taking some time off to have kids.
She returned to work, teaching in a three-room schoolhouse in Munsonville before accepting a special education in job in Nelson, where her classroom was the janitor’s closet. Despite the less-than-ideal working conditions, Marsette was an innovator, introducing transition and collaborative special education programs throughout her career. Marsette, who also worked at several elementary schools in Keene, still serves as a substitute teacher at the Wheelock School when she returns to the area.
After graduating, Manekas returned home and never left, spending 35 years teaching in Tyngsboro, Mass. After taking early retirement at the age of 58, he taught six more years at the Parkside Middle School in Manchester. Manekas’ son Christopher followed in his father’s footsteps, attending KSC and earing his degree in 1998.
Ted and Sue Miller, whose son Ross was a 1998 KSC grad and daughter-in law Suzanne Letendre got her degree from KSC, also had long and distinguished careers in education. While Sue preferred the younger kids, working at local nursery schools and kindergartens, Ted favored the older kids, working in both secondary schools and colleges.
Ted stayed at KSC for a bit longer than Sue, earning his MEd in 1971, and later came back to campus to get an MAT in 1993. After spending five years teaching at Thayer High School in Winchester, Miller headed up Route 10 to Keene High, where he taught social studies. Ted began working as an adjunct professor in several area colleges, including his alma mater, in 1981. “I used to call myself an “adjuncky,” said a Miller with a laugh. Miller never thought he’d return to Keene State as a professor. “I would pull into the back lot behind the science building and look around and say, Oh my God – I never thought I’d be teaching a class here,” he said. “I was in awe of it all.”
Ted Miller, who taught geography, earned several notable honors during his 25 years teaching at Keene State. He was one of 71 teachers selected to attend the National Geographic Alliance program in Washington, DC, and later earned a summer teaching Fulbright scholarship to Asia. Miller also coached basketball at Thayer High and wrestling at Keene High School.
With a multitude of Keene State memories and countless teaching tales, the Millers, the Marsettes, Menakas, and Clemons aren’t lacking for stories to tell when they get together to lounge around the pool, attend complex functions, or retreat to one of their homes for an evening of board or card games. “We get together and talk about the glory days,” said Clemons. We’re always together.”
“We just think it’s very special and we’re very lucky,” added Martha Marsette. “Everybody seems to be having fun and in good health. If it wasn’t for Keene State, none of us would be here in this group.”
“It’s a great place to be and we all love it here. Now that there are more of us, we get together four or five times a weeks. We need a couple of days off just to rest from each other,” said a laughing Manekas.
Manekas says he hasn’t received any commission for steering Keene State alums to the complex. “I haven’t been recruiting lately, but every year we seem to get someone new. It all depends on who comes to visit,” he said. “For some reason, they come to visit and end up buying a place. I must be a pretty good salesman.”
