Tom Roche ’16 of Holyoke, right, and Miguel Dailey of Agawam, left, played battling brothers in HCC’s spring 2025 production of True West.
Heading West
As an HCC theater student, Tom Roche ’16 once played a dancing sandwich. That was in a dream sequence during the fall 2015 production of “American Hero.” It was also the last time Roche had appeared on an HCC stage — until April, when he took on one of the lead roles in Sam Shepard’s Hollywood allegory “True West.” “Being back was surreal,” Roche said. “It felt like coming home, but with a whole new perspective. There was a mix of nostalgia and growth. After seven years away from acting in the theater, stepping back onto the stage felt like reactivating a part of myself that had been dormant.” Directed by HCC theater professor Tim Cochran, the play explores themes such as sibling rivalry and paternal worship while also questioning myths about Hollywood and the American West. Roche played Austin, a screenwriter at odds with his older brother Lee, a petty thief. Roche’s theater credentials aren’t confined to acting. In 2017, soon after graduating from HCC, he took first place in a seven-day film contest for a spy spoof called “A La Mode” that he wrote, directed and starred in. He has also maintained his connections to HCC, writing an original play for Cochran called “Fatal Fisticuffs” that was streamed live in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Getting to work with Tim again and this new generation of students was awesome,” Roche said. “So much has changed, but so much has stayed the same. There’s something beautiful about that. The passion, the work ethic, the camaraderie — it’s still there.”
Nurse Jean celebrates her award with students at Hatfield Elementary School.
Celebrating Nurse Jean
Jean Hobbie ’05 worked as the community health educator for the Red Cross for 17 years before her position was eliminated, prompting her to pursue a nursing degree at HCC. She found the program perfect for adult learners making a mid-career change. “My experience at HCC was a very positive one,” she said. “It began opening doors for me.” One door led to a job as school nurse at Hatfield Elementary School, a position she has held since 2014. Last spring, “Nurse Jean,” as she is known to her charges, was named School Nurse of the Year by the Massachusetts School Nurse Association. This prestigious annual recognition honors “outstanding contributions in the nursing specialty of school nursing.” Hobbie said she was “overwhelmed, deeply grateful, and honored” for the recognition. The job, she told the Daily Hampshire Gazette, is about ensuring all students have a good environment in which to learn: “If they feel healthy and safe, they can be ready to learn and have success in school.” She said the experiential learning at HCC trained her to take a holistic approach to her job. “At HCC, they really worked with the student nurses to help them look at the whole picture when doing physical assessments, to look at what else is going on,” she said.
Catherine Carija ’19 and her “Optics” exhibit at Mount Holyoke College
Learning to See
“Optics” is the name Catherine Carija ’19 gave to her art exhibit and senior capstone project at Mount Holyoke College. The 10-piece show was a series of words written in colorful, overlapping geometric forms, with messages both obvious and subtle. The work was inspired by the artist and color theorist Josef Albers, with the show’s tagline being “Question what you see. Think for yourself.” “I find life and people so perplexing that I can’t help but make puzzles just in the hope of making sense of it all,” she said. “Albers wanted to teach people how to see, and I’m interested in that too.” Carija worked as a massage therapist for 30 years before enrolling at HCC. She had been experiencing some heartbreak and found art classes with the late Alix Hegeler to be the perfect remedy. After graduating, Carija transferred to Mount Holyoke but took time off during the pandemic to help her 92-year-old mother. After returning, she turned her focus from healing others’ pain to healing her own through art. She completed a bachelor’s degree in studio art in 2025 and is now working on a new career as an artist. “When I started taking art classes, I realized that making art makes me very happy,” she said. “I can’t help but feel there is something inside me that is searching for expression.”
George Counter ’57, far right, and his brother Joe, join members of the HCC radio club in the WCCH studio lobby after donating dozens of vintage vinyl records.
Vintage Vinyl Visit
One morning in March, George Counter ’57 and his older brother, Joe, stopped by the HCC radio station to drop off dozens of vinyl records, CDs, and educational tapes. The station lobby was packed with students from the HCC Radio Club who were there for their weekly meeting. “This is the most people we’ve ever had,” said station manager Pat Labelle. “It’s a little crazy.” The records belonged mostly to Joe, 94, but George had arranged the donation. “I mentioned vinyl records, and people got excited,” said George. A Radio Club member hunted down a turntable and put on a Frank Sinatra album. “I was always a jazz fan,” said Joe. “At least in my era, the ’40s and ’50s, some of the greatest bands that ever existed played here in Holyoke at a place called the Valley Arena. “I started collecting. I never did catch onto Bebop. I was a big Sinatra fan, until Tony Bennett came along.” The brothers shared stories about growing up in Holyoke on Congress Avenue. They lived right above Mrs. Frost, the mother of HCC’s first president, George Frost. “He would come over on weekends and play piano,” said George. Mrs. Frost always gave them treats. Joe, George and their brother Dave called her “the cookie lady.” “For those of you who might be in your freshman year and struggling a little bit,” George advised, “let it be known that I made it with four D’s and a C and then changed it around my sophomore year, and then I went on to Westfield State, and the rest is history.”
Hey, Coach
Terry Murphy ’68, ’77 holds a trophy recognizing his induction into the Western Massachusetts Baseball Hall of Fame.
Terry Murphy ’68, ’77 has been involved in baseball in one form or another for roughly 70 years, as a player, coach, camp director, and league administrator. He played shortstop and second base for HCC during his student days and later returned for two stints as head coach (1977-1982, 2009-2013). After HCC, he played baseball for Stonehill College and later in the Tri-County League of Western Massachusetts. He also coached Dean Technical High School and American Legion teams, ran HCC’s summer youth baseball program, and, more recently, founded the John Murphy Youth Baseball League (in honor of his father). Now, for all of that, he is a member of the Western Massachusetts Baseball Hall of Fame. Murphy could not attend the June 5 ceremony at Wycoff Country Club because he was recovering from back surgery, but one of his former players and assistant coaches, Mark Monroe ’79, attended in his stead, picking up the award, and reading his induction speech. “I wasn’t a bad player, but I’m not being recognized because of my playing ability as much as my coaching ability and my ability to promote the sport with kids throughout the area. To me, that’s the thing,” he said. “One of the things that always pleases me, when I see someone I haven’t seen in maybe 40 years, and they’ll say, ‘Hey, Coach. I just want to thank you. You made a difference in my life.”
Mydalis Vera ’11 holds a copy of the book, Survival and Beyond, an anthology that includes her poem, “The House.”
Joy Amidst the Pain
Her hands trembled and her voice shook as Mydalis Vera ’11 read the lines from her poem “The House” to the audience of more than 100 people at the Northampton Center for the Arts. The spectators were there to celebrate a book launch for Survival and Beyond, an anthology of essays and poems written by survivors of domestic violence. The book is the third in a series published by Safe Passage, a Northampton-based human services agency. Writing “The House” about her experience with domestic violence was challenging for Vera, bringing up buried emotions. But she reminded herself that “joy still exists, even after pain.” “Many in the audience were survivors too, and I felt I was speaking for every woman still hiding her story,” said Vera, who completed a bachelor’s degree at Mount Holyoke College and a master’s degree in fine arts at Bay Path University. Currently, she is a social worker who specializes in foster care and founder of Guerrera Writer LLC, which provides editing and consulting services to help empower women through writing and storytelling. “As a social worker, I’ve spent years supporting women and children who’ve experienced trauma,” Vera said. “Writing became a healing tool for me, and I encourage others to use it too.”
