Richard and Dory Stephan

The children of Richard and Dory Stephan, 1744 Rt. 72, Parishville, are pleased to announce the celebration of their parents' 60th wedding anniversary on Jan. 6.

The couple was married on Jan. 6, 1951 at the Atonement Lutheran Church on Northland Avenue, Buffalo, with the Reverend Goetz officiating.

Honor attendants were Bob Brauch, Gay Campbell, Guy Fleming, Alice Francis, Nola Green, Clara Richmond, Ed Sendker, and Norm Yearkee.

Richard graduated from Fredonia State University with a Bachelor's in Music Education, Eastman School of Music with a Master's of Music, and Doctoral Studies in Music Education at University of Buffalo and Brigham Young University.

He was an instructor in Australia for 6 months as a winner of the Fulbright Senior Scholar Award.

He was drafted in the Army in 1954 and served in 101st Airborne and 1st Army Band in Atlanta, Ga.

Richard was a music teacher in elementary and high schools in Buffalo and Hamburg, N.Y. He was also a music professor at Potsdam State University for 32 years, retiring in 2000. He is an accomplished musical composer and arranger who conducted the music for the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in February 1980.

Richard's hobbies include fishing, woodworking and playing gigs.

Dory was a music major at Fredonia State University.

She was a switchboard operator at Council of Churches, a waitress, a wife and mother (aka chauffeur, nurse, teacher, cheerleader, chef, detective, an angel and queen in disguise).

Her hobbies include serving others, church work, book club, cooking and baking, genealogy, water color and oil painting, creating greeting cards, dehydrating food for which she wrote a book "Dry, Dry Again"), music and dancing.

Dick and Dory met at a band camp and have been making beautiful music with an occasional off-tune note ever since.

Their greatest joy is in their family. They have five children: Carey Stephan (deceased), Cheryl and Dru Burton, Orem, Utah; James Stephan, Shanghai, China; Tim and Colette Stephan, Orem, Utah; Michelle and Bryon McConkey, Chico, Calif. They also have 13 grandchildren living in Utah, California and Oklahoma and 7 great-grandchildren with 2 more on the way.

The family has enjoyed many years of camping, has had more laughs than tears, more love than discord.

Their children want them to know it has been a blessing to call them their parents.