Potash Hill Committee

For more than a year, alumni have expressed broad support for a re-founding of Potash Hill (formerly known as The Marlboro College Alumni Magazine and The Magazine of Marlboro College) under the auspices of the MCAA. Although we no longer have the campus on Potash Hill in Marlboro, VT as a place to gather, we envision Potash Hill, the publication, becoming a place where alumni can meet one another, share news, stories, ideas, and intellectual work in its pages. We hope it will be both social (class notes, sharing news, etc.) as well as intellectual and creative (journalism, articles, art, literature, etc.). This committee is tasked with developing a plan for the re-founding of Potash Hill as a magazine (in print, online, or both) of the Marlboro College Alumni Association, for alumni and friends of the former Marlboro College on Potash Hill in Marlboro, VT.

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Committee Members

This committee is made up of three alumni volunteers: Joanna Hochfelder ‘79, Peter Hutchinson ‘74, and Dianna Noyes ‘80. You can read bios for all three committee members below.

Joanna Hochfelder ‘79

I attended Marlboro from 1976 through 1979. I loved Marlboro while studying art and music under the umbrella of Peace Studies for my Plan. Many years ago Marlboro strengthened and mirrored the heartbeat of my creative and critical thinking. Marlboro's glorious mountain, its breath-taking Vermont winters, invigorating spring-time, and enriching personal community was as significant to me as a youth as it is now in the later chapters of my life. After Marlboro I continued undergraduate and graduate studies in Cambridge, MA and at Tulane University for further graduate work. Marlboro’s affirmation of independent thinking and sense of true community has remained an indelible value throughout my life as a professional, as a spouse, and as a parent to my “Marlboro-like” children! I've been a psychotherapist in the Midwest for the last 36 years. While operating my own private practice all these years, I've had to sculpt, market, and breathe life into its momentum and mission - which is some of what we need to do to ignite and revive Potash Hill's publication. We have lost our physical campus but we want to preserve our shared legacy. I look forward to making this happen with you as the soul of our alumni and their incredible voice comes to life again on the pages of Potash Hill!

Peter Hutchinson ‘74

I attended Marlboro from 1970 to 1974 and graduated after completing a Plan in history. My wife and I live in the Bay Area. I'm retired now, but spent my career in publishing--mostly as a magazine publisher. Marlboro College played a large role in my life, and I'd like to see Potash Hill revived as a vehicle that ties our unique and diverse community together. We haven't reached the last chapter of Marlboro College yet!

Dianna Noyes ‘80

After graduating from Marlboro in 1980 with a Plan in Anthropology, I joined the 20-mile club, living in Brattleboro and working at the Retreat for a few years. In 1985 I became alumni director at Marlboro (best job ever), took graphic design classes at Community College of Vermont, moved to Marlboro, and in 1990 left the college to work at the Putney School in their publications office. I returned to Marlboro yet again a few years later and worked all over the place—in the kitchen and coffee shop, the development office, and, for most of my tenure, in the publications office until my final departure from the college in 2013. Throughout my time at Marlboro I was involved in Potash Hill, from helping Hilly write alumni notes as a young Alumni Council volunteer to being design editor for many years. I was fortunate to work with many talented editors, writers, and photographers, including students, and never stopped learning from them. For the past 8 years, I have been working as a gardener and elder companion, taking photographs, wandering the woods, traveling to Italy, and spending quality time with my husband Max and our dog, Lucia di Labrador. Potash Hill is perhaps the one tangible thing that can live on after the unfortunate close of our dear Marlboro. I am honored to help to make that happen.