SeniorSPOTLIGHT Mary Tatum Hodges, ’22, graduated from Cumberlands this spring, exactly 50 years after her grandfather, Michael Burchfield, ’72, walked across the stage at his own graduation. To say Grandpa was thrilled would be an understatement.
It is so heartwarming knowing Mary chose my school and is now graduating from there. Cumberland was a great starting off place for my wife and I. It has a warm spot in my heart. In all, Michael; his late wife Mary (Bryant) Burchfield, ’71; their daughters, Maria (Burchfield) Hodges and Margaret Elizabeth Burchfield; Mary’s sister, Gina (Bryant) Hoffman, ’81; and Mary Tatum attended Cumberlands. It’s safe to say it’s a typical family thing. As Michael puts it, Maria and Margaret both “got their MRS. degree” at Cumberlands before completing their bachelor’s degrees at other schools. He used to tease his wife that she got her MRS. as well as her bachelor’s in college, thanks to him – a pretty good two-for-one deal. Neither of Michael’s parents nor either of his late wife’s parents ever graduated high school. Michael’s dad was a coal miner, and the family was quite poor, though not as poor as Mary’s family. Michael said, “My wife and I didn’t have a snowball’s chance of going forward in this world if it had not been for Cumberland. We both graduated with our bachelor’s, and now we have four grandchildren in colleges around the country.”
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It was the middle of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War when Michael and Mary graduated, and Michael was soon drafted into the Army. He served 28 years of active and reserve military duty. Aside from the military, he worked as a grade school teacher and school administrator for approximately 30 years. He is now retired and living in a townhouse in Lakeland, Florida, with seven beloved rescue dogs.
