newsletter P.O. BOX 523, ARDSLEY, NY 10502 ARDSLEYHISTORICALSOCIETY.ORG VOL. 27, NO. 2 FALL 2012 OFFICERS PRESIDENT Beverly Levine VICE PRESIDENT Robert M. Pellegrino TREASURER Richard Cuilty SECRETARY Rick Palladino DIRECTORS Bea Caporale Theresa DiStefano Henry Groth Frank Jazzo Dorothy Kaufman Mary Keehan Valerie S. Lalli Mary Anne Matelli Bernhard Preisser Walter Schwartz EDITOR Theresa DiStefano DESIGN Valerie S. Lalli By YASMIN ANWAR, UC BERKELEY Betty Werther made a beeline for Paris after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1949 and embarked on a life of travel, romance and adventure. Somewhere along the road, she lost her passport. More than 60 years later, a young Portuguese medi- cal student is heading to Paris to return the tattered, 1950-issued passport to Werther. Last summer while studying there, Nuno Fonseca found the passport at a flea market, then embarked on an eight-month search for its rightful owner, enlisting help from residents of Werther’s hometown of Ardsley, New York. “Mission accomplished!” Fonseca, 23, wrote in an email last week to those who helped him locate Werther, née Hatfield, now an 85-year-old American expatriate living in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. “I was wondering what had happened to that passport. I wouldn’t have thrown it out. It was my first passport. It was important to me,” said Werther by phone from her home in Paris. Since 1950, Werther’s travels have taken her to Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Turkey, China, Mexico, Costa Rica, Algeria, Berlin and Zagreb, among other places. It was the exotic array of visa stamps – as well as the bizarre coincidence that Werther had lived in the same student housing complex in Paris where he was staying – that motivated Fonseca to buy the vintage passport at Charlety Stadium flea market. “I knew I had to have the passport of someone who, 60 years before me, took the adventure of going to Paris and lived at the same address” on Boulevard Jourdan, said Fonseca, who is finishing up his final year of medical school at the University of Porto, Portu- gal. “And, of course, I wanted the thrill of finding the passport’s rightful owner.” Lost passport in Paris connects med student to ’49 Berkeley alumna and Ardsley H.S. Graduate Elizabeth Hatfield (bottom row, third from right) and her A.H.S. graduating class, 1945 Although every attempt is made to maintain accuracy in the newsletter, the editor and the Society assume no responsibility for errors. The editor also reserves the right to edit where necessary. , Date: , Description: , OCR Text: newsletter P.O. BOX 523, ARDSLEY, NY 10502 ARDSLEYHISTORICALSOCIETY.ORG VOL. 27, NO. 2 FALL 2012 OFFICERS PRESIDENT Beverly Levine VICE PRESIDENT Robert M. Pellegrino TREASURER Richard Cuilty SECRETARY Rick Palladino DIRECTORS Bea Caporale Theresa DiStefano Henry Groth Frank Jazzo Dorothy Kaufman Mary Keehan Valerie S. Lalli Mary Anne Matelli Bernhard Preisser Walter Schwartz EDITOR Theresa DiStefano DESIGN Valerie S. Lalli By YASMIN ANWAR, UC BERKELEY Betty Werther made a beeline for Paris after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1949 and embarked on a life of travel, romance and adventure. Somewhere along the road, she lost her passport. More than 60 years later, a young Portuguese medi- cal student is heading to Paris to return the tattered, 1950-issued passport to Werther. Last summer while studying there, Nuno Fonseca found the passport at a flea market, then embarked on an eight-month search for its rightful owner, enlisting help from residents of Werther’s hometown of Ardsley, New York. “Mission accomplished!” Fonseca, 23, wrote in an email last week to those who helped him locate Werther, née Hatfield, now an 85-year-old American expatriate living in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. “I was wondering what had happened to that passport. I wouldn’t have thrown it out. It was my first passport. It was important to me,” said Werther by phone from her home in Paris. Since 1950, Werther’s travels have taken her to Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Turkey, China, Mexico, Costa Rica, Algeria, Berlin and Zagreb, among other places. It was the exotic array of visa stamps – as well as the bizarre coincidence that Werther had lived in the same student housing complex in Paris where he was staying – that motivated Fonseca to buy the vintage passport at Charlety Stadium flea market. “I knew I had to have the passport of someone who, 60 years before me, took the adventure of going to Paris and lived at the same address” on Boulevard Jourdan, said Fonseca, who is finishing up his final year of medical school at the University of Porto, Portu- gal. “And, of course, I wanted the thrill of finding the passport’s rightful owner.” Lost passport in Paris connects med student to ’49 Berkeley alumna and Ardsley H.S. Graduate Elizabeth Hatfield (bottom row, third from right) and her A.H.S. graduating class, 1945 Although every attempt is made to maintain accuracy in the newsletter, the editor and the Society assume no responsibility for errors. The editor also reserves the right to edit where necessary. , Z ArchiveInABox,Ardsley Historical Society,Archived Issues of The Beacon,Volume 22-33,ArdsleyHistoricalSocietyVol27No2.pdf,ArdsleyHistoricalSocietyVol27No2.pdf Page 1, ArdsleyHistoricalSocietyVol27No2.pdf Page 1