UMW Mag Spring 2011

University of

Magazine SPRING 2011 Vol. 35 • No. 1

CONTENTS Features 10

Freedom Rides Semester

Anniversary celebration takes UMW community on an unforgettable journey

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Survey Says …

New questionnaire asks what your university has done for you and what you can do for your university

UMW celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides by building an outdoor exhibit that told the story of the strategic campaign in pictures, words, and music. Shown here is the heart of the exhibit – a 1960s era bus – during sunset on Ball Circle.

The semester-long celebration, the logo of which appears on the cover, was to continue through May 8, 2011.

Photo by Norm Shafer 2

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26 They Love it When “The Plan”

Comes Together

Fervent fans applaud the recent reunion of ’90s indie band with UMW roots

30 Tears for Taylor

Supported by UMW, brother of tsunami victim focuses on healing

Departments

2 Editor’s Desk 2 On Campus 8 Sports 32 Q & A 33 Book Report 34 Get the Picture?

35 Arts 36 Notable & Quotable 38 Alumni Board 39 Class Notes 72 Closing Column

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ED I TO R ' S D E SK

To the editor The latest University of Mary Washington Magazine is superb. It always has such an interesting blend of stories, articles, and accompanying photos. As I read, I am able to see accomplishments of alumni who are near the end of an illustrious career as well as those of UMW students just beginning their years at Mary Washington.

I am so proud of my alma mater and all the wonderful things that are being accomplished there. Thanks to the magazine, our UMW community is able to stay close and current, and we can maintain the excitement and enthusiasm for Mary Washington that we had as students.

I am certain other alums would agree that the magazine is a first-class publication – of which we can be very proud.

Thank you.

Patti Boise Kemp ‘69 Fredericksburg An American

Susan Wagne r

INSIDE

Master

Stamp of Justi ce A Trio of Dean s

Lacy ’70 cre ated highly acclaimed PBS series

ON CAMPUS

Executive Editor: Anna Barron Billingsley Managing Editor: Neva S. Trenis ’00 Editor: Lisa Chinn Marvashti ’92 Editorial Board: Jack Bales, William B. Crawley Jr., George Farrar, Torre Meringolo, Marty Morrison, Cynthia L. Snyder ’75, and Martin A. Wilder Jr. Designer: AJ Newell Graphic Artist: Bridget Walsh University of Mary Washington Magazine is published for the alumni, friends, faculty, and staff of the University of Mary Washington three times a year. Email letters to abilling@umw.edu or mail to University of Mary Washington Magazine, University of Mary Washington, 1301 College Avenue, Fredericksburg, VA 22401-5300. University of Mary Washington Magazine welcomes your comments.

Send address changes to University of Mary Washington Office of Alumni Relations, 1119 Hanover Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401-5412.

University of Mary Washington Magazine is printed with nonstate funds and is made possible through private support.

Visit University of Mary Washington Magazine online at www.umw.edu/umwmagazine.

This edition is printed on recycled paper.

Waste Watchers Take on Seacobeck If you take it, eat it. That is the message from a food-waste survey conducted in Seacobeck Dining Hall this semester. Ecology-minded students, with the cooperation of dining staff members, decided that if they collected everyone’s “leftovers” from one meal and displayed them, diners would be inspired to waste less. The total take from a recent Wednesday dinner? 120 pounds. As one inspired – but disgusted – student put it: “Yikes!”

Norm Shafer

Tori Wong ’11, UMW’s sustainability coordinator, helped lay out the “feast” of passed over food.

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SPRING 2011 • VOLUME 35 • NO. 1

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UMW Numbers Add up to One Great Education Whether comparing graduation rates, best values, or volunteerism, the University of Mary Washington and its students stack up against the best.

PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS The bottom line UMW is No. 1! In February, the Peace Corps announced that, with 32 undergraduate alumni currently serving as volunteers, the University of Mary Washington ranks first among the nation’s small universities (those with fewer than 5,000 undergraduates). The announcement marks the first time ever UMW has claimed this distinction.

Movin’ on up – In 2010, UMW ranked second.

– In 2009, UMW ranked sixth.

– Since 2004, UMW has ranked in the top 25.

The big picture Since the 1961 inception of the Peace Corps, 215 Mary Washington alumni have served the 27-month commitment around the world.

BEST VALUE The bottom line In its February issue, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine listed UMW among the nation’s “100 Best Values in Public Colleges” for 2011. Mary Washington ranked 26th out of 100

four-year public institutions nationwide when comparing in-state tuition costs and 28th when considering out-of-state tuition costs.

Movin’ on up – In 2010, UMW ranked 38th for in-state tuition and 42nd for out-of-state tuition.

– Since 2006, UMW has appeared consistently on the Kiplinger’s best value list.

The big picture Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine selects the best values from a pool of 500 public four-year colleges and universities, ranking them on academic quality by measuring such factors as admission and retention rates, student-faculty ratios, fourand six-year graduation rates, and cost and financial aid.

GRADUATION RATES The bottom line With a graduation rate of 77 percent, the University of Mary Washington ranked fourth among the nation’s public master’s universities, according to an analysis of federal data through 2008 that was done by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Movin’ on up – In 2003, UMW’s graduation rate was 71 percent.

The big picture In computing graduation rates, The Chronicle measures the share of first-time full-time students entering in the fall seeking bachelor’s degrees and finishing within six years.

The analysis included nearly 1,400 four-year public and private nonprofit institutions.

Executive-in-Residence Program Attracts Major League Talent Pittsburgh Pirates Chairman Robert Nutting scored a grand slam at UMW by bringing his business savvy and leadership expertise to the fall semester’s Executive-in-Residence program, which draws corporate leaders to campus.

Committed to education, Nutting – who received his bachelor’s degree in American history from Williams College in Massachusetts – has held multiple posts in support of scholastic institutions. He is an advocate for philanthropic entities and youth organizations, and he serves on the boards of various associations. In addition to his role in major league baseball, Nutting also serves as president and CEO of Ogden Newspapers in West Virginia and as chairman of Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania.

Nutting’s mother, Betty “Snookie” Woods Nutting ’58, is a Mary Washington alumna and member of the UMW Foundation Board.

Robert Nutting heads a trifecta of businesses – a major league baseball team, a newspaper chain, and a resort.

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ON CAMPUS

UMW Students Help Boost Honduran Business

business plans for consideration, and residents, including the presidents of the community’s Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club, helped judge the entries.

Awards included: • First place: $250 to supplement the artisan work of a woman who plans to sell products such as purses made from recycled materials • Second place: $200 to a woman who plans to sell tamales and tajadas out of her home • Third-place: $175 to a man who wishes to work as a welder to supplement the income he generates selling tajadas The contest, which La Ceiba hopes to conduct each year, is a step toward the organization’s goal of establishing an enterprise incubation and development center to help motivated Hondurans start businesses. Those companies, in turn, would employ other community members, providing an exponential economic impact.

Founded in 2008 by UMW Associate Professor of Economics Shawn Humphrey, La Ceiba provides microloans and educational support in an effort to help develop the economy of Honduras and to improve living conditions for its impoverished residents. The group works in conjunction with another UMW student-run organization, Students Helping Honduras, which aims to eliminate extreme poverty in one of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest countries.

Thanks to the efforts of a group of UMW students, three Hondurans received the cash they needed to help bring their business ideas to life.

The lucky entrepreneurs were the winners of a competition launched in December by La Ceiba, a microfinance institution run by Mary Washington students.

The project provided grants and training to help aspiring business owners in El Progreso, a community in the impoverished Central American country of Honduras.

UMW students conducted a study that revealed the community’s lack of businessdevelopment training. Inspired by those results, they provided a weeklong workshop to teach financial literacy and other skills residents need to start new businesses and to improve or expand existing ones.

Prospective El Progreso entrepreneurs submitted

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An April presentation by the UMW Performing Arts Club featured a dance choreographed by former Mary Washington dance professor Kathy Harty Gray. Involving 16 UMW students, the work demonstrated the superiority of men in early Asian tradition and was sponsored by Friends of UMW Dance. Gray has more than 30 years experience in teaching and in directing dance companies. She has choreographed for TV, trade shows, and musicals.

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Karen Pearlman

Dancing in Dodd

Scott Smith

Foundation Lauded for Economic Impact of Eagle Village The University of Mary Washington Foundation received a pair of recognitions this winter for transforming the longstanding Park & Shop retail center into the vibrant mixed-use Eagle Village.

In recognition of its contributions to the state’s economy, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce in December named the Foundation one of three finalists for the Virginia Torchbearer Award in the 1st Congressional District.

In January, the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of

Commerce presented the Foundation with an Economic Impact Award for leading the way in “urban renewal and revitalization of the aging U.S. Route 1 corridor.”

“Eagle Village is a powerful redevelopment example,” said Fredericksburg’s director of economic development and tourism, Karen W. Hedelt, who commended the project for the employment, tax revenue, and renewal it brings to the city.

The UMW Foundation, a private nonprofit, bought the 1960s-era Park & Shop center in 2007, transforming the 23-acre property into Eagle Village, a state-of-the-art complex with Eagle Landing, a 156-unit apartment building for students, and an adjacent structure with restaurants, shops, offices, and a multilevel parking garage. An enclosed pedestrian bridge over U.S. 1 connects the development to the University’s Fredericksburg campus.

Debater’s Award Means More Money for Honduras A Mary Washington senior’s award for debate will bring additional financial aid to the El Progreso area of the impoverished Central American country of Honduras.

Benjamin Richard Saunders ’11 snagged the American Debate Association’s Julia Burke Award at a national championship tournament in March. The recognition is reserved for college policy debaters who respect the debate community and are committed to helping others and maintaining friendships in the face of competition – qualities displayed and held dear by 16-year-old Julia Burke, who died in a 1998 car crash en route to a high school debate.

The award also comes with a $2,000 prize for the nonprofit organization of the winner’s choice. Saunders, an anthropology and international affairs major and fouryear member of the University’s debate team, chose to award the money to the UMW student-run organization La Ceiba, which is dedicated to providing economic support to El Progreso and its people.

A graduate of Blacksburg High School, Saunders’ collection of awards includes a second-place prize in the 2008 American Debate Association Novice Nationals and a first-place finish at the 2009 U.S. Naval Academy Policy Debate Tournament.

UMW senior Benjamin Richard Saunders won the American Debate Association’s Julia Burke Award in March.

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ON CAMPUS

The Stars Came Out

What do a chemistry professor with purple hair, a Mary Washington transfer student from Virginia Tech, and the wife of UMW’s president have in common?

They all have a connection to cancer, and they all helped make Mary Washington’s second annual Relay for Life one of the most successful in this region. To date, the 2011 UMW Relay for Life has raised $67,000 for the American Cancer Society (ACS).

Janet Asper, assistant professor of chemistry at UMW, lost her father last year to glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer. Luke Ruth ’12 was never able to meet his maternal grandfather because he died far too early from “that ugly disease.” Rose Hurley is a cancer survivor.

Hurley provided a motivational keynote address for the opening of the 12-hour Relay for Life, which took place on the Fredericksburg campus April 2 and 3. The idea behind the relay is that cancer never sleeps. Camping out for the duration of the event, each team has one representative walking or running around a track or path at all times. Teams seek support by offering donors the opportunity to honor or memorialize cancer victims.

When Ruth transferred to UMW after his freshman year at Virginia Tech, he was stunned that Mary Washington did not host a Relay for Life. For him, the event at Tech had been “extremely powerful and moving.” He contacted the American Cancer Society and set things in motion for Mary Washington to hold its first Relay for Life last year.

“It was a simple email,” said Robyn Barber, community manager for the American Cancer Society’s South Atlantic Division. “And UMW blew it out of the water.” Barber said, “The most amazing characteristic about the UMW Relay is the student leadership. The kids really know their school.”

Patricia Jackson, area executive director for the ACS, said

Norm Shafer

UMW students shine at day-into-night cancer fundraiser

Connected through cancer, Relay for Life organizers show that purple prevails. Clockwise from top: Samantha Luffy ’11; Luke Ruth ’12; Janet Asper, assistant professor of chemistry; and Laura Allan ’12.

her division can’t stop bragging about the UMW students, who set such a high bar that the relay here is being used as a model for other schools. “The Mary Washington students are shining stars in Central Virginia.”

Because so many members of the Relay organizing committee, which started with a strategic plan last September, have lost parents to cancer or have parents undergoing cancer treatment, “it is very, very personal,” Barber said.

Ruth and Laura Allan ’12 were this year’s co-chairs. The 2011 event exceeded all expectations; the $67,000 in pledges more than doubled the inaugural take. About 500 students, faculty, and community members participated.

Senior Samantha Luffy, committee spirit chair, said, “We were able to work together to reach an awesome goal. Our participants were amazing!”

Asper, one of her professors, caught Luffy’s enthusiasm and went so far as to dye her hair purple, Relay for Life’s theme color. Asper sported the colored ’do at the event and weeks before.

“The really cool thing about the UMW Relay was that it is all student-initiated,” Asper said. “It just goes to show this is a small school where you can do really big things.”

– Anna B. Billingsley

40 Years Old and Still Hitting the High Notes The UMW Philharmonic Orchestra, formerly known as the University of Mary Washington-Community Symphony Orchestra, played up its 40th anniversary season with special performances in the fall and spring.

A March concert featured a series of striking extras, including a pair of renowned guest conductors; the world premiere of a composition written specifically for 6

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the anniversary; a combination of works chosen for their difficult musical demands; and a unique number that had the orchestra singing to music made on water-filled glasses by members of the Philharmonic board of directors.

A holiday performance in early December featured traditional yuletide melodies along with selections from Disney’s 1940 classic Fantasia, accompanied by a big-screen

Students Learn the Economics of Giving The greater Fredericksburg community is $10,000 richer thanks to the financial contribution of philanthropist Doris Buffett and the decisions of a class of UMW students.

Members of a course called the Economics of Philanthropy and the Nonprofit Sector last fall awarded $4,100 to Habitat for Humanity-Middlesex, $2,500 to Rappahannock Goodwill Industries, and $3,400 to the Bragg Hill Family Life Center.

The grants made by the class, now in its sixth year at UMW and taught

by Professor of Economics Robert Rycroft, are funded by Buffett’s private, family-run Sunshine Lady Shin Fujiyama ’07, shown here with Doris Buffett, returned to campus to Foundation. encourage students to pursue careers Students in philanthropy. are asked to review applications for cash assistance submitted by the community and apply the philanthropic principles they’ve learned in class.

This time around, class members scrutinized 52 applications.

Doris Buffett, sister of billionaire Warren Buffett, formed the Sunshine Lady Foundation to provide aid for the disadvantaged, especially for families in crisis and for the working poor. She and Shin Fujiyama ’07, co-founder of Students Helping Honduras, challenged the students in the class to pursue a career in philanthropy.

“This is a magnificent opportunity to do something to give people a hand up and not a hand out,” Buffett said.

Class Breathes Life Into Biology Major’s Research Thanks to a course offered at UMW, senior biology major Thien Phan is conducting research with the potential to yield life-saving results.

Three years ago, Mary Washington became one of the first schools in the Thien Phan ’11, right, reviews country to offer research findings with Biology the phage hunters Professor Lynn Lewis. course, a hands-on biology class that asks students to isolate viruses known as bacteriophages, prepare DNA for sequencing, and make comparisons to other bacteria.

Phan helps students in the class, which is designed for freshmen, and his work there provides a better perspective on his own research, which focuses on more intricate issues.

His project, “Mycobacteriophage Genomics,” developed out of his interest in bioinformatics, which employs computer technology in the study of molecular biology.

Computer programs and UMW’s advanced electron microscope help him conduct his research.

The bacteriophage that Phan is studying, thanks to a research grant provided by UMW, is closely related to the one that causes tuberculosis, and he hopes his project will translate into an enhanced understanding of the disease and the bacterium that causes it.

Phan planned to present the results of his research at the annual meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science in May.

showing of the film in a decked-out Dodd Auditorium.

In 1971, when the orchestra was formed by UMW music professor James Baker, it included 31 musicians. The ensemble now features 85 members and is directed by Kevin Bartram.

Dan Donehey

Three maestros. Kevin Bartram, right, greets his two guest conductors at a special March concert in celebration of the orchestra’s 40th anniversary. Left to right: Anthony Maeillo from George Mason University and Edward Dolbashian from the University of Missouri-Columbia, Bartram’s alma mater.

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SPORTS

Founding Soccer Coach Volleys to the Endline One of the nation’s most respected soccer coaches, UMW’s Roy Gordon, announced his plans to retire at the end of this semester.

Gordon, who has coached Mary Washington sports for more than three decades, leaves an indelible mark, having started the school’s men’s soccer team from scratch in 1977. In his enduring role as the only coach in the program’s Coach Gordon history, he has led the Eagles to success and netted a series of recognitions among soccer coaches. Though colleagues are pleased to welcome Gordon’s successor, Jason Kilby from North Carolina Wesleyan College, saying goodbye to a campus icon has not been easy.

“It is with much discomfort and pain that I announce that Roy will be retiring,” said UMW Athletic Director Ed Hegmann.

“After serving MWC and UMW with distinction, dedication, and loyalty for 34 years, he will be missed.

He has been my lefthanded ‘right-handman’ for all those years.”

After creating Mary Washington’s soccer program, Gordon went on to capture 386 Eagle victories in the sport. Combining that record with the 8

46 wins he gained as head coach at the University of MaineFarmington, Gordon ranks among the elite in college soccer coaching and caps his career with a 432-253-53 record. In 2007, he became one of just eight coaches in NCAA Division III history to achieve 400 wins.

Gordon led the Eagles to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1985 and since then has seen them through nine more, winning eight Capital Athletic Conference titles and achieving a cumulative 329-133-33 record for Mary Washington and an outstanding .698 winning percentage.

He has been named CAC Coach of the Year eight times, National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Regional Coach of the Year five times, and Virginia State College Division Coach of the Year four times. Gordon also was honored as CAC’s Co-Coach of the Year in 2009.

He served as the CAC men’s soccer chairman from the league’s inception in 1991 until 2000, and spent six years as the national convention program coordinator for the NSCAA before being elected to its executive committee. In 1999, he became the 50th president of the 25,000-member NSCAA, and, 10 years later, he received its prestigious Honor Award.

Mary Washington men’s tennis also owes its roots to Gordon, who started the program in 1978, winning 171 matches in 22 years, claiming five CAC championships and four VITA state championships, and leading the Eagles to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1997.

– Clint Often

Left: Coach Roy Gordon juggles tennis balls in his office in 1978, shortly after he began his coaching career at Mary Washington.

UMW file photos

Clint Often

After 34 years at Mary Washington, Roy Gordon scores retirement goal

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Above: Gordon, who started Mary Washington’s men’s soccer program in 1977, talks with Michael Nissim-Sabat, a member of the Eagles team.

Photos on this page by Clint Often

Jason Kilby Named UMW Men’s Soccer Coach Jason Kilby has been named the new head men’s soccer coach at the University of Mary Washington.

“I am extremely excited about this new opportunity,” said Kilby, who led men’s soccer at North Carolina Coach Kilby Wesleyan College, one of the region’s top programs, for the past nine years. “Mary Washington has a great reputation as a great academic school with a top athletic program, and I am excited for this new challenge.”

Swimmers Soak up Career Bests at NCAA Championships A small contingent from UMW enjoyed a big finish at the NCAA Division III Swimming Championships in Knoxville, Tenn., during the spring semester.

Mary Washington’s two representatives – Stephen Clendenin ’11 and Billy Norfolk ’12 – landed the Eagles in 22nd place, claiming four All-America performances and six lifetime bests in the six events they swam.

Clendenin, the first three-time Capital Athletic Stephen Clendenin Conference Swimmer of

At NCWC, Kilby led the Battling Bishops to a 120-43-13 overall record, with a 43-7-6 mark in USA South Conference play. His celebrated tenure at North Carolina Wesleyan included back-to-back undefeated USA South Conference championships in ’04 and ’05 and back-to-back undefeated regular seasons in ’06 and ’07.

In 2008, Kilby led NCWC men’s soccer to an impressive 16-3-2 overall record, to a spot in the USA South Tournament championship, and to a third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. His most successful season at the program’s helm, however, came the previous year, when, in 2007, he turned in a program-best 18-2-0 record, an undefeated regular season, an appearance in the NCAA Sweet 16, and a No. 2 national ranking for most of the fall.

“We’re very excited to have Jason join our staff,” said UMW Athletic Director Ed Hegmann. “Our players are equally excited. We look forward to his maintaining the high level of success that Roy [Gordon] has established over the past 30-plus years.”

Prior to his stint in North Carolina, Kilby spent four years as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Frostburg State University in Maryland. During that time, the school won the AMCC regular season championship each year and the AMCC tournament three times, and posted an overall men’s soccer record of 56-25-1.

A native of Culpeper, Va., Kilby also has played professionally, for both the USL and the USISL, as well as for the Moseley Football Club in London.

– Clint Often

the Year, finished eighth overall in the 200-yard individual medley, setting a new school record of 1:50.67. He took ninth in the 400-yard individual medley, eclipsing his former record by four seconds and finishing at 3:57.90. Clendenin closed his outstanding college Billy Norfolk career with a ninth-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke, coming in at 1:47.89, nearly three seconds faster than his previous lifetime best.

In his début competition at the championships, Norfolk set three lifetime bests and gained All-America honors in the 200-yard butterfly, with a 1:49.75 finish that landed him in ninth place. Norfolk also claimed career best times with a top-20 finish in the 100-yard butterfly and a top-30 finish in the 500-yard freestyle.

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All Aboard With its strong ties to James Farmer – the larger-than-life force behind the Freedom Rides – the University of Mary Washington was ready to get on board as the prime venue for an all-out celebration of the 50th anniversary of a crusade that not only opened the door to unfettered interstate travel but also put America on the path to equal rights for all. | By Neva S. Trenis

The old bus lumbered up the hill behind Lee Hall, the first light of the frigid morning reflected in its silver panels. Its blue paint was peeling and its rims were rusted, but the crowd on Ball Circle erupted in cheers at the longawaited sight. In response came three deep and dissonant notes from its aging horn.

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This wasn’t just any bus pulling into the University of Mary Washington. This was the vehicle to tell how ordinary individuals showed extraordinary courage and risked their lives for justice. This was the reminder of how hundreds of Freedom Riders banded together a halfcentury earlier to change America.

This was the bus that would carry the University’s

All photos in this article by Norm Shafer

The University of Mary Washington chose a 1960s-era motor coach as the canvas on which to tell the story of the 1961 Freedom Rides, a long and dangerous campaign through the Deep South to secure equal access on interstate buses and in facilities. Here, the bus arrives on Ball Circle in the early morning of Feb. 4, 2011.

semester-long commemoration of Professor James Farmer and the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides.

After the bus arrived, Riders came. Four Freedom Riders in all visited the Mary Washington campus to reunite and reminisce. Their presence had a profound impact.

Upon meeting the quartet of individuals who boarded a bus and transformed the course of history, UMW President Richard V. Hurley said, “I don’t think I could feel more proud of the University of Mary Washington than I do at this moment.”

Pride bubbled up during the many campus events tied to the Freedom Rides. And no sentiments could be stronger than those for one of Mary Washington’s own, James Farmer, the brilliant man who was the strategist behind the Rides.

He touched the lives of scores of UMW students with his lived-it-myself lectures on the civil rights movement. He and hundreds of others used Gandhian tactics to strike down Jim Crow laws in the South and bring equality to interstate travel.

To tell the story of these courageous individuals, people from all areas of the University – academics and AV specialists, electricians and editors – banded together.

They installed an exhibit around a bus, which was parked on Ball Circle, of archival images of the Riders and of the government officials and everyday people who threatened, beat, and bombed them. The bus bore the Riders’ words and was surrounded by sounds of the songs they sang together to strengthen their resolve.

Over the course of the semester, the University celebrated “the living daylights out of the Freedom Riders,” as one of the speakers said. It brought in the foremost scholars on the Freedom Rides to share history through stories, facts, and photographs. It worked with PBS to host a preview screening of its American Experience film The Freedom Riders. It mounted academic courses around the Rides – studying the words spoken and every aspect of the successful campaign. Students filmed, photographed, and interviewed the four original Freedom Riders the University brought to campus as part of the commemoration. UMW invited the Fredericksburg community to hear from the Riders, and diverse people gathered from all corners. They were mesmerized by stories of fear, of being disowned by family, of clandestine prison diaries, and of being steeled by the deep voice of James Farmer.

UMW asked two more Riders to speak at its 100th Commencement. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia left college in Nashville 50 years ago to get on the bus with Farmer and the other original Freedom Riders. Rep. Bob Filner

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of California left Cornell University a month later, one of hundreds of reinforcements who flocked south in 1961.

Lewis and Filner would come asking today’s students, as other aging Riders did, “What is your cause? What bus will you board today?”

First Stop: Ball Circle

On Monday, Feb.7, just three days after the bus rolled onto campus, it was ready to meet the public. The exhibit James Farmer and the Freedom Rides was about to open.

Students handed out “Freedom Ride” buttons.

University staff set up microphones, platforms, and chairs.

Administrators dashed in and out of Lee Hall. Most wore sunshine yellow T-shirts that matched the huge banners that hung from the Lee Hall balcony. In bold black letters, they asked, “WILL YOU? GET ON THE BUS.” By noon, a crowd of 600 packed the walkway in front of the exhibit. The mix of University and community onlookers included staff from all over the school, faculty from across disciplines, and lots of enthusiastic students.

Senior Joe Calpin was struck by the diverse crowd and the growing anticipation and chatter. “Everyone was really excited,” Calpin said. “Students were taking pictures with their cell phones. And it helped that it was a beautiful day.”

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Just before noon, the crowd quieted as a lone woman’s deep voice rolled along Campus Walk.

“Buses are a-comin’ oh yeah, buses are a-comin’ oh yeah.”

The powerful song was one that Freedom Riders had sung in a Mississippi prison to fortify themselves and to remind prison guards that more Riders were on the way.

The two most honored guests at UMW that day, Reginald Green and Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, once sang the song in the Mississippi Delta’s Parchman Farm prison, where they spent the summer of 1961. The Freedom Riders were college students when they were arrested in Jackson, Miss. Standing before the UMW crowd, Green and Mulholland held their 50-year-old mug shots, their youthful faces mirrored in the college students who came to hear them.

“It wasn’t until the celebration started that I realized how much historical importance was attached to those people and to that bus,” Calpin said.

UMW Chief of Staff Martin A. Wilder Jr. welcomed the Freedom Riders. He introduced Eric Etheridge, author of Breach of Peace and an expert on the Rides. And he acknowledged American Experience project manager Lauren Prestileo, who worked on the PBS film Freedom Riders.

Civil rights leader James Farmer, the architect of the Rides, was a distinguished professor of history and American studies at Mary Washington from 1985 until 1998, Wilder

said, the same year President Bill Clinton awarded Farmer the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“We have a special appreciation for, and reverence of, the role Dr. James Farmer played in our nation’s history,” Wilder told the assembly. “For hundreds of Mary Washington students, Dr. Farmer’s class was one of the most influential and memorable experiences of their undergraduate years.”

In recognizing Green and Mulholland, Wilder said that all Americans today are indebted to them. “The Freedom Rides demonstrate how a handful of committed individuals can literally change the course of history.”

UMW senior Charles Reed of Jersey City, N.J., echoed that appreciation. Reed said he didn’t know much about James Farmer or the Freedom Rides before he came to Mary Washington four years earlier, but once on campus he wanted to learn more about the civil rights leader who “actually taught at UMW.” Besides his major classes in business administration and accounting, Reed took intensive classes on Farmer, worked in the James Farmer Multicultural Center, and was a leader in the Black Student Association and Brothers of a New Direction.

“Since I have been at UMW, it has been embedded in my soul and way of thinking that no one should feel oppressed because of what they may look like, who they may be friends

with, or what they may believe in,” Reed said. “No matter what race, nationality, or ethnicity, we all are members of the human race.”

Farmer has become one of Reed’s heroes, and the Freedom Rides one of the most courageous stories he’s ever heard.

“The Freedom Riders stared death in the eye every time they got off the bus,” he said. “The opportunities I have should not be taken for granted. I am inspired by their devotion and commitment, and I am indebted to them.”

So is Eric Etheridge. When the editor, photographer, and Mississippi native discovered the more than 300 mug shots of the 1961 Freedom Riders preserved by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, he saw a picture of the emerging civil rights movement. He published 80 of the mugs beside the modern-day faces and stories of the Riders, including those of Green and Mulholland, in Breach of Peace.

“The movement is much bigger than its leaders,” Etheridge told a group gathered at UMW. “One of the things that I really love about the Freedom Riders is that most of them were just ordinary citizens who did an incredible and extraordinary thing.”

He told the history of the Rides and of many of the Riders photographed for his book. But mostly, he was eager to let Mulholland and Green share their stories.

Mulholland grew up in the white world of Arlington,

Above: With a lot of help from across campus, a committee of five got the bus exhibit rolling, including, from left, Courtney Chapman, Neva Trenis, Elisabeth Sommer, and Maria Schultz.

AJ Newell is not pictured.

Right: Life-size images flanked the bus.

Previous page, clockwise: Visitors posed for a shot in front of the bus on opening day; a basketful of buttons; a student answers the question, “Would you get on the bus?”

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Va. The only African Americans she knew worked in her home – and she didn’t even know they had last names.

What led her to the civil rights movement was “growing up in Robert E. Lee’s hometown,” she said.

She attended a Presbyterian church, where they talked about ideals such as “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and “love your neighbor as yourself.”

They sang songs that said Jesus loves all children – red, yellow, black, and white. But, when the church doors shut after worship, Mulholland said, they left all that behind.

“I could see that the lives we were leading were a contradiction to what we talked about on Sunday morning.”

She resolved that she would do everything she could, in keeping with her faith, to make the South the best place it could be for all of its people. As a freshman at Duke University, she joined picket lines and sit-ins in Durham, N.C. Duke kicked her out.

She returned home, where she sought out activists at Howard University. Among her new friends was one of the original 13 Riders who set out with Farmer on May 4, 1961.

A few days later, Mulholland was horrified to see images of smoke pouring from a firebombed bus in Anniston, Ala., in the morning newspaper. She packed her bags, took a plane to New Orleans, and headed into Jackson, Miss., knowing she would be arrested.

Green, a Washington, D.C., native, was a student at

the historically black Virginia Union College in Richmond when he heard about the firebombing in Anniston. He was a veteran of the movement, too, having participated in sitins at Richmond’s White Tower Restaurant.

Like Mulholland, he saw images of the burnt hull of the bus. He got a call from an older Virginia Union student, Charles Sherrod, who was looking for reinforcements for the original 13 Riders.

Green, now a Baptist minister, recalled the words of the biblical James. “Faith without works is dead,” he told the audience. So Green got to work.

He and two classmates, in their best jackets and ties, boarded a Trailways bus at Ninth and Broad streets in Richmond and ended up in jail in Jackson, Miss., with James Farmer and 400 others.

“As I look back on it,” Green said, “it was the proudest moment of my life.”

Hearing the stories of Green and Mulholland carried Fredericksburg artist Johnny Johnson back to the great sacrifices people made for justice, many in his local community. A civil rights activist and the first African American to teach at Mary Washington, Johnson attended the opening of James Farmer and the Freedom Rides. He and Farmer were friends. They spoke often, and Farmer’s students sought out Johnson as a living voice of the struggle for civil rights.

Left: Joan Mulholland holds Breach of Peace open to her 1961 Jackson, Miss., mug shot.

Above: Mulholland, fellow-Rider Reginald Green, center, and the book’s author, Eric Etheridge, attended the exhibit opening Feb. 7 and spoke on campus that evening.

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Putting the Movement on Wheels The Freedom Rides from start to finish:

 The Freedom Rides were designed to test a 1960 Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in public transportation terminals. According to James Farmer, the strategist behind the Rides, “Our intention was to provoke the Southern authorities into arresting us and thereby prod the Justice Department into enforcing the law of the land.”

 On May 4, 1961, a group of 13 racially mixed Riders boarded two commercial buses in Washington, D.C. They planned to arrive in New Orleans on May 17 to mark the day seven years earlier that the Supreme Court had outlawed public school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education. They meandered from Virginia to Georgia with few incidents.

 On Mother’s Day, May 14, 1961, just after church, one of the buses rolled into Anniston, Ala. Led by a local Ku Klux Klan leader, a mob – many still in their Sunday best – smashed bus glass with brass knuckles and battered its metal with crowbars. A firebomb flew through a shattered window, and the motor coach filled with acrid smoke. Frantic riders squeezed through broken windows and dropped to the ground. Others clawed and kicked at doors, but the rioters held them shut, screaming, “Burn them alive!” And worse.

 Later that same day, the other bus was met in Birmingham by what the city’s segregationist commissioner of public safety called a “welcoming committee.” The Birmingham police chief told Klan leaders they could have their way with the Riders.

“We’re going to allow you 15 minutes,” he said. “You can beat ’em, bomb ’em, maim ’em, kill ’em....There will be absolutely no arrests.”

 In Alabama, citizen vigilantes threatened, and civil unrest nearly consumed Birmingham and Montgomery.

A young U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy negotiated round-the-clock with state officials. In the end, the federal government flew the nearly broken original Riders to New Orleans in what Kennedy called a “Freedom Plane.” The nation and its president, John F. Kennedy, breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the Rides were over and the crisis had passed.

 A student group in Nashville, Tenn., knew that if the Freedom Rides ended, it would prove to racist hate groups that violence could prevail. The Nashville students rode buses into the heart of the unrest, Birmingham, and on to Montgomery to continue the Freedom Rides.

 In Alabama, the Nashville student Riders were met by rioting segregationists. The Freedom Riders holed up for days in Montgomery, and newspapers and television screens were awash with graphic pictures and accounts of riots and civil unrest in the Alabama capital. Attorney General Kennedy called in federal marshals.

 As mob rule threatened to govern Montgomery, Attorney General Kennedy asked the Riders to consider a “cooling-off period” to restore peace. James Farmer responded: My objective is not just to make a point, but to bring about a real change in the situation.

We will continue the Ride until people can sit wherever they wish on buses and use the facilities in any waiting room available to the public….We have been cooling off for 350 years.

If we cool off any more, we will be in a deep freeze. The Freedom Ride will go on.

 Inspired by Farmer’s words and the courageous Nashville students, Riders of all races, religions, and ages got on buses. With a Mississippi prison as their certain destination, Riders from all walks of life and all parts of the country flocked to the Deep South.

 During the summer of 1961, 436 Freedom Riders were incarcerated in isolation in the Mississippi Delta’s maximum security Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm.

 On Nov. 1, 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission forced the removal of all “whites only” signs in any terminal serving interstate travelers.

 The Civil Rights Act passed on July 2, 1964.

Victory was achieved.

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J o h n s on r e m e m b e r s w h e n t h e Fredericksburg City Council wouldn’t permit the Virginia NAACP to meet at a local church; that changed when the group threatened to have their statewide meeting on the street in front of City Hall.

While Farmer and the Freedom Riders traveled South, Johnson taught in segregated Fredericksburg schools and welcomed students from Prince Edward County, Va., where the schools were shut down rather than integrated.

Johnson was impressed by Mar y Washington’s efforts to get Farmer the recognition he deserves. “I’m very sentimental, and I had a few tears as I listened and reminisced,” he said. “It was deeply moving to me; I was kind of high the rest of the day. It felt very good.”

While Freedom Riders were walking into segregated bus stations, Fredericksburg’s Gaye Adegbalola and other young black people were sitting at a Fredericksburg lunch counter with whites gathered behind them waving Confederate flags, hurling racial epithets, and spitting.

At the exhibit opening, Green and Mulholland were “radiant,” she said. “I just yelled, ‘Thank you! Thank you!’”

Adegbalola, a blues musician and retired Fredericksburg teacher, was moved that Mulholland, a young white woman, “went out looking for activism and really put her life on the line.”

The exhibit was more of a living history than anyone could find in a textbook – something priceless in education, Adegbalola said. “If you give them the feeling of what it was like to be in the experience – that teaches so much.”

Adegbalola returned to the bus many times, but at night – with the photos bathed in the soft glow of exhibit lights, and with 16

Top to bottom: When Fredericksburg’s Gaye Adegbalola saw the Freedom Riders, she cried, “Thank you!

Thank you!”

Cade Sparks backs the bus onto Ball Circle.

Two years ago, Multicultural Center Assistant Director Courtney Chapman dreamed of a bus on campus to celebrate the Rides. When the bus arrived Feb. 4, she squealed, “I feel like a kid, and I got a bus for Christmas!”

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the subtle music playing – she found it even more powerful.

“Sometimes you just need to see the images to reaffirm what my people did with the help of good white allies. To have that exhibit just really was a way to drive that point home – to see just how much gain there has been since I was a kid. Another thing that was moving was to see all the mug shots of the Freedom Riders; they were college students. I am sure for students up there [at UMW], it was like looking at themselves.”

For senior Joe Calpin, the images transformed the Riders from history book characters to real people – who probably pondered the same issues he does.

Photos in the exhibit of two Mary Washington students made him consider his role today. The two slim dark-haired women seem to stand side by side. But one student, photographed in 1961, is in black and white; the other, a recent image, is in color. Beside them are the words, “Be it 1961 or 2011: WOULD YOU GET ON THE BUS?” “It is as if the exhibit gives the Rides this pressing relevance: There are buses to ride today,” Calpin said. “Seeing the pictures of Freedom Riders when they were our age, and seeing Rev. Green and Joan Mulholland today, you get a sense of what one can accomplish in a lifetime. It makes you think of how fast time goes, how much you can do in a lifetime, and also just how much change you can accomplish in one generation.”

Setting Up the Ride

With the anniversary of the Freedom Rides on the horizon last year, President Hurley wanted the University to be the

epicenter of spreading the word about how Farmer and the Riders made and changed history.

“We were honored with James Farmer’s presence on this campus for more than 10 years, and what he did in being a leader in the nation’s civil rights movement deserves recognition at the highest level,” Hurley said.

With the green light from the president, Chief of Staff Wilder a ssembled a g roup f rom across disciplines and throughout campus to plan a semester’s worth of events, including classes, seminars, and speakers. Wilder needed “doers,” he said, so he called Courtney Chapman, assistant director of the James Farmer During installation, workers used Maria Schultz’s exhibit design as a road map. Above, Multicultural Center, who brought a scale model of the exhibit balances on a wheel barrow heaped full of Ball Circle soil. boundless enthusiasm and a big idea – Enter Cade Sparks, owner of the “Big Mac,” once the bring a 1960s-era bus to campus. private touring coach of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc.

You can’t miss a “big ol’ bus,” Chapman said, and Wilder braved the barking of a dog and knocked persistently everybody has ridden them. “Most of the UMW students on Sparks’ door. Wilder was shocked to find that Sparks was rode a bus to school every day when they were kids; they not only willing to team up to celebrate the Freedom Rides, ride the bus to Wal-Mart. Yet they have no idea what buses but that he already had them on his mind. Sparks’ friend, symbolize in U.S. history. The fact is that two friends could the curator of the Greyhound bus museum in Hibbing, not sit on the bus together because the color of their skin Minn., had approached the bus aficionado about working was different.” with him to commemorate their 50th anniversary.

By illustrating the Freedom Rides against the backdrop Sparks got on board with the UMW project almost of something so familiar and with such visual impact, immediately, with one caveat regarding the aging “Big Mac.” Chapman said, UMW could tell the story of how the U.S. “What you see is what you get,” he told Wilder. has progressed from mandated segregation to a nation With the bus under contract to UMW, Wilder assembled where everybody can get on a bus, sit where they want, and a group to plan an outdoor exhibition with the bus as its accompany whom they please. backbone. Five people from among University Design and But you can’t just order up a vintage bus – Chapman Editorial Services, the James Farmer Multicultural Center, even trawled Craigslist and eBay to find one. Fall semester and the Department of Historic Preservation were assigned began with just five months until the exhibit was to open, to get the exhibit rolling. and UMW still was without its wheels. Then, in September, Elisabeth Sommer, a museum specialist and a visiting Wilder was heading home from the groundbreaking for professor of museum studies, guided the group to articulate the new UMW Dahlgren campus. As he drove through the one idea it most wanted to convey – the Freedom Rides rural King George County, he spied it! Off in the woods, of the early 1960s were a powerful example of student action for nestled among computer parts, discarded furniture, and social justice in the face of real danger. other treasures, was a beautiful 40-foot bus.

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Lessons from the Rides Since January, UMW has made local, state, and national headlines for visits by Freedom Riders and top scholars of the civil rights movement and for exhibits such as James Farmer and the Freedom Rides, which was built around an aging bus.

In classrooms, the celebration has been academic – and just as enthusiastic.

Semester-long classes were devoted to James Farmer and the Freedom Rides. Elisabeth Sommer, visiting professor of historic preservation, led her Museum Interpretation and Exhibit Design Lab students in creating the exhibit Down Freedom’s Main Line in the lobby of Dodd Auditorium. They installed much of it before the March 30 screening of the PBS movie Freedom Riders. “I’m extremely proud of what the students accomplished in a short amount of time,” Sommer said. “It was an extraordinary feat of teamwork and creativity.”

Ray Arsenault, a foremost Freedom Rides scholar and professor of Southern history at the University of South Florida, was so impressed by the exhibit that he invited the professor and her students to the PBS gala in honor of the Freedom Riders at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Faculty from the Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication, Anand Rao and Tim O’Donnell, coordinated two classes around the commemoration. Students in Rao’s Documenting Social Movements class learned the story of the 1961 campaign and explored the role of media – old and new – in social change. O’Donnell’s Freedom Riders course focused on applying the lessons of the Rides to contemporary circumstances by asking students to answer the question, “What would you get on the bus for today?”

Together, the classes worked to capture and document the sights and sounds of the semester-long commemoration in addition to creating an online archive of studentgenerated content inspired by its themes.

University-wide, plans are also under way for an annual first-year seminar beginning next fall – James Farmer and the Struggle for Civil Rights. With seven faculty members

from across disciplines teaching sections of the class, many UMW freshmen will start their college careers with a deep knowledge of the civil rights leader who once taught at their school.

Colin Rafferty of the English department taught a first-year seminar on Farmer’s legacy this spring; in American studies, Jess Rigelhaupt and his students studied the Freedom Rides in the PBS chose Charles Reed `11 to context of events of the 1960s. be on board the 2011 Freedom UMW also has established a Ride, which is retracing the Postdoctoral Fellowship in Civil 1961 route. Reed is the only Virginia college student Rights and Social Justice. invited to ride.

To round out the semester and the celebration, two Freedom Riders were scheduled to deliver Commencement addresses on campus: U.S. Rep. Bob Filner of California at the graduate commencement ceremony and U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia at the undergraduate ceremony. They will be at Mary Washington nearly 50 years to the day after the first 13 Freedom Riders, including Lewis and James Farmer, boarded buses from Washington, D.C., for New Orleans.

The last UMW tribute of the semester to the Freedom Riders was set for Sunday, May 8. PBS American Experience is retracing the route of the first Ride with a bus full of original Riders and modern-day students, including UMW senior Charles Reed. The 2011 Freedom Ride leaves D.C. that morning. Its first stop will honor the man who started it all – James Farmer – at his memorial on Campus Walk.

Research began on everything from accurate information about the first Rides, to how to acquire photos, how to design an exhibit around a bus, how to make panels hold up through the harshest winter months, what to do to get the word out about the exhibit, and a whole lot more.

It fell to UMW designer Maria Schultz to figure out how to tell a story on a bus exterior. On the motor coach and on the two 8-by-40-foot panels that flanked it, Schultz carefully arranged photos, quotes from Riders, and narrative about

what happened. She became overwhelmed as she studied images of bloodied passengers and hate-filled faces, and as she read the words of Southern officials who failed to protect those they labeled “agitators.”

Schultz was born 20 years after the Freedom Rides, and the story of the long, hard struggle was new to her. “I just couldn’t believe all this happened in our history and I didn’t even know about it,” she said.

She guided installers as they applied images to bus

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– Neva S. Trenis For more information on UMW’s celebration of the Freedom Rides, go to freedomrides.umw.edu.

windows. She watched as electricians and AV specialists wired for light and sound. And one cold February day, she worked alongside carpenters from sunup to sundown as they built the exhibit on Campus Walk.

Schultz loved the work; it made her proud to see how the University community got behind the exhibit. Painters, gardeners, professors, librarians, campus police officers, students, housekeepers, and everyone who was asked to help gave it their all.

“Everybody I worked with got on our bus,” she said.

That included owner Cade Sparks. After he delivered the bus to a Spotsylvania County garage, he stayed as the images went on the windows. In the quiet, he contemplated the horrible scenes, knowing the most graphic photos never made it to the morning papers. Mobs beat photojournalists and destroyed their cameras.

“It was very powerful for me,” he said.

The next morning, Sparks drove the bus, with those images in the windows, to campus. On the highway, he said, in car after car, people were looking at the pictures, pointing, talking to one another, trying to figure out what the bus was about.

As he turned onto Sunken Road by the University, he got a surprise. “I just got this big smile on my face,” he said.

The sidewalk was lined with dozens of people. “For lack of a better word, it was humbling. I was driving along, and every construction worker, every student, every person on the side of the road who had a cell phone was snapping pictures of the bus. To be a part of that gives you a very warm feeling.”

Front Row Seats

For some Riders, Mary Washington’s March 30 screening of the American Experience film Freedom Riders was a reunion. Freedom Rider Charles Person, then a Morehouse College freshman, left D.C. with James Farmer on the first bus in May 1961. So did Jet magazine reporter Simeon Booker and photographer Ted Gaffney.

On the Ride from Atlanta to Birmingham, Klansmen seized the bus as the journalists looked on. They beat Person unconscious and, at the Birmingham, Ala., station, delivered him to a crowd wielding iron pipes, bats, and brass knuckles.

Booker knew what Southern racists were capable of. He had covered the 1955 trial of two white men for beating Left: Charles Person, top, was 18 and the youngest Freedom Rider to leave D.C. with James Farmer in 1961. Theodore Gaffney, bottom, was Jet magazine’s embedded photographer on the bus and saw Person beaten by Klansmen. Here Gaffney stands by a photo of himself, Riders, and Jet reporter Simeon Booker in the student exhibit Down Freedom’s Main Line. Person, Gaffney, and Booker attended the UMW March 30 screening of the PBS film Freedom Riders. Bottom: Lindsay Hansome ’12 reacts to a difficult scene from the film in Dodd Auditorium.

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14-year-old Emmitt Till to death; they said the boy had whistled at a white woman. But the 1961 Alabama Ride “was a frightening experience, the worst encountered in almost 20 years of journalism,” Booker wrote for Jet after the harrowing trip.

In that same June 1961 Jet article, Booker described how the driver and local Klansmen colluded to enforce the “blacks in the back” rule of the South. The fresh-faced Person sat near the front of the bus. “Without a word of warning, a fist crashed against the head of Charles Person,” Booker wrote.

Person, now 68, still finds it difficult to talk about the Freedom Ride. When he came to Mary Washington and saw Booker and Gaffney for the first time since he was 18, words failed again. He wept.

The surroundings that evening of the film premiere added to the poignancy of the reunion. A historic preservation class had created an exhibit, Down Freedom’s Main Line, in the Dodd Auditorium foyer. Before the film screening, visiting Freedom Riders were surrounded by mementos there, including 1961 photos, some shot by Gaffney.

Buttons from the civil rights movement were on display, including CORE and Freedom Rider buttons. Above a lifesize photo of Riders waiting at the Birmingham station hung an authentic, battered wooden “whites only” sign. A June 1, 1961, edition of Jet was open to Booker’s first-person piece recounting the violent Atlanta-to-Birmingham journey.

Person and his wife had traveled to UMW from their home in Atlanta for the screening of Freedom Riders; Catherine Burks-Brooks had come from Birmingham; Green and Mulholland had made their return to UMW from Washington, D.C. All came at the request of Raymond Arsenault, a historian and author they had come to know well through hours of interviews about the Rides. Arsenault wrote Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Freedom, on which the film they were about to view was based.

Dodd Auditorium was full that March night as today’s students looked across the room at aging versions of themselves. The very Freedom Riders UMW students had seen in black-and-white archival photos came to life in front of them – now with gray hair, weathered faces, and slower movements – but with strong and steady voices that told of risking their lives to make America rise to its promise 20

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of liberty and justice for all. When the four Riders were introduced, the enthusiastic crowd rose to its feet with thundering appreciation.

As the film Freedom Riders rolled, the audience met the Riders in their youth. Footage of students in their Sunday best boarding a Greyhound to face the unknown was followed by images of hate-filled mobs and burning buses.

Interviews included eyewitness accounts of segregationists colluding with officials – they planned to breathe new life into Jim Crow by nearly murdering Freedom Riders.

During the darker scenes, some viewers shook their heads in disbelief; others averted their eyes. At the front of the auditorium, a Rider’s tears reflected thin streams of light from the screen.

But when the soul-steadying songs the Riders had sung in prison rang through the auditorium, all the Freedom Riders joined in full voice.

“We shall not, we shall not be moved! We shall not, we shall not be moved.”

When the final credits rolled, the audience again sprang to its feet, this time for the powerful story, and still more for the heroes who found the power to better America.

Integration: Great Lives and Freedom Rides

Just a day after the screening of Freedom Riders, its writer, author Ray Arsenault, returned to Dodd Auditorium as part of the popular UMW Great Lives lecture series. All of the 436 brave individuals who made their way through the South in 1961 were “great lives,” Arsenault told the audience.

While the American civil rights movement might have appeared to have been orchestrated by charismatic orators in suits and ties, the key element of the Freedom Ride movement was its individuals.

“The power of the foot soldiers – the bonding of people who put their lives on the line – is the power of this movement,” the foremost historian of the Freedom Rides said.

Arsenault, a professor of Southern history at the University of South Florida, told the crowd in Dodd about many of them. He told about the blind 44-year-old white housewife from Rochester, N.Y., whose husband read her

the paper each morning. After reading to her the account of the Anniston firebombing, despite all odds, she got on a bus. Another was an Indonesian exchange student who got on the bus only to have the Jackson police puzzle over whether he was white or black – it mattered deeply to officials in the racially segregated prison.

Arsenault also talked about theology student William Barbee, a “gentle soul” who rode the bus only to have his head held tight beneath a Klansman’s boot as another drove a pipe through his ear. Barbee survived but never recovered.

Committed to nonviolence, he wouldn’t sign the warrant for the arrest of two KKK members, though they were widely witnessed as the perpetrators of Barbee’s injuries. No one man, Barbee said, should be held responsible for the Jim Crow system of the South.

“That is the truest expression of the ethic of love and redemption – these were people who were looking for the beloved community,” Arsenault said. “The Freedom Rides tell story after story of great lives, stories of triumph, but also of incredible sacrifice.”

Arsenault characterized the Freedom Riders as individuals who had “no right” to think they could change society – they were young, they had little money, and movement elders told them they were crazy, or worse, that they would set back “the cause.”

Birmingham native Catherine Burks-Brooks, left, was one of four Freedom Riders who spoke in Dodd Auditorium on March 31.

One very late night in 1961, she recalled, notorious Birmingham police commissioner Bull Connor delivered Burks-Brooks and other Riders from jail to the Tennessee state line, and he told them not to return. “I told my friend, Bull, we’d be back in Birmingham by high noon.” Here, she is part of a panel that included fellow Rider Reginald Green.

Ray Arsenault wrote The Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. He visited campus for the screening of the American Experience film based on his book and to deliver a Great Lives lecture. When Arsenault stopped on Campus Walk to photograph the James Farmer memorial, he caught a photographer’s eye.

“Can’t you wait? Can’t you be patient? Do you really have to have freedom now?” Arsenault mimicked parents asking.

“Their answer was, ‘YES!’” Arsenault told the audience.

“There was a truth-telling power to their lives – 436 stories of courage and commitment.”

With that, Arsenault introduced the people who had lived great lives – Freedom Riders Charles Person, Catherine Burks-Brooks, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, and Reginald Green. For a second night, they were greeted with resounding applause as the crowd in Dodd Auditorium rose to its feet.

Burks-Brooks was among the Riders who provided backup from Nashville after the first attacks at Montgomery and Birmingham. The Tennessee State senior, like most of the student Riders, missed final exams for the cause. At UMW, she recalled how Birmingham’s storied Bull Connor, commissioner of public safety, piled her and other Riders from the Birmingham jail into police cars under cover of night. With no idea where they were headed, the spunky 21-year-old bantered with the segregationist, even inviting him to have breakfast with the group.

When they got to the Alabama/Tennessee state line a couple of hours before dawn, Connor told her, “This is where you’ll be getting out,” adding that the students better U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y WA S H I N G TO N M AG A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 1 1

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get on home and save themselves a whole lot of trouble.

Burks-Brooks, then a big fan of Westerns, shot from the hip. “I told my friend, Bull, we’d be back in Birmingham by high noon.”

As a child Burks-Brooks thought something was wrong with the way African Americans were treated in her hometown of Birmingham. By fifth grade or so she knew something was wrong, so she started speaking – and acting – up. “Something was wrong,” she said. “And I thought everyone should know about it.”

Once, on the way home from high school, she threw the “colored only” sign out the window of a city bus. She trained in nonviolence and participated in sit-ins before she became a Freedom Rider. She said that all along – despite their youth – she and others were thinking of making things better, not just for themselves, but for their children and grandchildren.

Arsenault asked Burks-Brooks what her parents thought of her ways. “My mother used to tell people, ‘Well, you all know she came out feet first.’ And I have been just kicking all the time since.”

Rider Charles Person grew up on the campus of Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he was involved in boycotts and civil rights action. An exceptionally gifted math and science student, he had been accepted at MIT, but Georgia Tech turned the promising youngster down for one reason – his skin color. Person was only 18 when he heeded CORE’s call for Freedom Riders.

He headed to Washington, D.C., and trained with CORE’s original Riders, who included James Farmer. The night before the first Ride departed, the adults went out for Chinese food, he recalled. But Person, the youngest Freedom Rider, drank water and ate pumpernickel bread alone in the CORE office.

“Because they were going to serve ‘adult beverages,’” he said.

The student of Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, and James Farmer was raised to avoid violence. Though he came from a line of hunters, he and his brothers were trained to handle guns but were cautioned not to carry them – or even pen knives – as many boys did. Any weapon would invite retaliation, Person’s father warned his sons.

But Person said neither his training nor his upbringing prepared him for what he and others experienced on the Freedom Rides.

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“We had no idea of the things that awaited us in Anniston and Birmingham,” he said.

Being raised in a culture of civility, Person didn’t believe an adult man would beat up a “kid” or a woman, he said. He was ready to have things thrown at him, to have cigarettes extinguished on his skin, and even to be spat upon. But he wasn’t prepared for faces that betrayed hearts filled deep with hate.

“What does it take to make someone hate someone they’ve never even seen before?” he pondered, as he has done for 50 years. “How could our just being there bring out these kinds of emotions? That is what I don’t understand.”

Though Person’s face has aged from the boy in the Freedom Ride photos, there is still something young about it – a look of slight vulnerability and deep kindness. Person didn’t only study nonviolence; he chose it as a way of life and even stuck to those principles when he served the U.S. in Southeast Asia.

“I was a better Marine because of the movement,” Person told the crowd at Dodd Auditorium. “If it hadn’t been for that experience, I don’t know if I would have survived Vietnam. I was cool. Nothing rattled me.”

Arsenault, who was invited along with all living Freedom Riders to appear May 4 on television’s Oprah Show, said that these courageous individuals “have been forgotten for decades.” On the 50th anniversary, he’s glad they’re being remembered in such a big way.

The Bus Rolls On

In the two months James Farmer and the Freedom Rides was on Ball Circle, it was visited by church and school groups, by families, by out-of-towners, by UMW applicants and their parents, and by the Mary Washington students who passed the bus each day.

Like President Hurley, many in the UMW community said they were “moved by the message and the beauty” of the old bus.

What Farmer and the Freedom Riders did so all could enjoy more equality today, Hurley said, is worthy of an unprecedented celebration. “And I also think it is important for today’s students to understand the courage young students had back then because they believed so strongly in the cause and the sacrifices they made.”

But the original Freedom Riders who came to UMW during the celebration brought more than stories of the past. They brought challenges for the future.

In 1961, Joan Mulholland had no intention of participating in the Freedom Rides, but “when the occasion presents itself, one has to act,” she said. Then a teenager, Mulholland had ribbed her friend Hank Thomas about leaving for a “vacation” down South when he joined the very first Freedom Ride. But when she saw the image of Thomas choking and beaten beside the bus in Anniston, she knew her occasion had arrived.

“In keeping with Gandhi’s teaching, if one person fell by the wayside and couldn’t continue, the next person stepped up to take his place,” Mulholland said. “I was there.

“Us old gray hairs are sort of past our prime, perhaps, but to the students, I say, you have to seize your moment. What we hope is that by knowing what we did, you will have the

inspiration and the knowledge to move forward in a new direction, whether it be right here or on the streets of Cairo.”

Green told UMW students that he and other college-aged Riders who spent the summer in the maximum security state penitentiary became James Farmer’s students. “I remember him singing in Parchman, ‘Which side are you on, boys? Which side are you on?’ with that big, deep voice.”

The young Freedom Riders changed America, Green said, and today there is still more to be done. “Now is the challenge from all of us,” he told the crowd at Mary Washington. “Young people, college students, find some project, some issue that you are passionate about. Maybe it’s hunger. Maybe it’s ecology. Maybe it’s education. Maybe it’s about all that.”

Find something, Green implored. “We’ve come too far to turn back now.” d

Reporter Simeon Booker, left, covered the original Freedom Ride for Jet magazine. He and Rider Reginald Green sit before a life-size image of the Birmingham Greyhound station waiting room. The archival image is part of Down Freedom’s Main Line, the student-created exhibit that also featured Booker’s original June 1961 Jet magazine article about the brutal Ride through Alabama. The sign above the photo is authentic, purchased by students on eBay.

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Survey Says …

New questionnaire asks what your university has done for you and what you can do for your university

| By Lisa Chinn ’92

Fifty-one years have passed since Betty Ditmars Prosser ’60 graduated from Mary Washington, but the gratitude she feels toward her alma mater remains so strong that she was moved to put it into words.

“Mary Washington was a beginning that introduced us to our future and hopefully prepared us for it,” she wrote in her Class Notes entry in the back of this issue. “We are who we are because of those years. A toast to Mary Washington … and cheers to the dedicated professors and staff who nurtured our dreams and made us a ‘family’ away from home.”

Now the University of Mary Washington would like to translate such prose into a poll. A new comprehensive alumni survey, designed to streamline the way the University collects information about its graduates, aims to make the 24

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UMW experience even more meaningful for future students.

Fifteen minutes of time is all that’s being asked of survey recipients. Administrators, who spent months laboriously customizing the questionnaire to fit Mary Washington’s needs, ask everyone, please, to participate.

“As an alumnus, if you have received a good education from this institution, wouldn’t you want that to be continued from generation to generation?” said Taiwo Ande, assistant provost for institutional analysis and effectiveness. “Alumni have a very vital role in the development of this University.”

As UMW President Richard V. Hurley began embracing an important part of his job – publicly promoting the school, its instructors, and its students – one obstacle kept popping up. Despite surveys regularly sent to alumni by an array of departments, including University Relations, Career Services, and the administrative offices of individual disciplines, a

Norm Shafer

standardized collection of information about graduates was missing.

“The right hand was not necessarily telling the left hand what it had been doing,” Ande said.

At Hurley’s request, Chief of Staff Martin A. Wilder Jr. formed a group of college officials to address the dilemma. The committee, made up of key members of Mary Washington’s facult y a nd sta f f, first met last August.

Assistant Provost for Institutional They scoured alumni Analysis and Effectiveness Taiwo surveys distributed by Ande hopes all Mary Washington alumni will complete the first other schools, like the comprehensive survey of UMW grads.

University of Virginia, the University of Wisconsin, and Columbia College. They meticulously whittled away at 17 pages of questions, sculpting two slightly different surveys – one for recent graduates and another for those who finished five years ago or more – that are tailor-made for Mary Washington.

“We went through five, six, seven levels of scrutiny before we finally came up with the instrument we feel we need to garner general information,” said Ande, whose office is responsible for analyzing the data collected. “At the end, we are hoping we’ll have a very clear picture of our graduates.”

What will be revealed are the answers to questions regularly posed to Hurley and other school administrators: • how many students go on to graduate school?

• what professions do graduates choose?

• how much money do they earn?

• in what ways has their Mary Washington education enhanced their careers?

But the survey delves deeper. It also seeks to expose the more sentimental side of the Mary Washington experience. If they had to do it over again, for example, would grads choose to attend UMW? Are they still in touch with college friends?

How often have they visited campus since graduation?

“Mary Washington alumni often describe a feeling of

instant connection and friendship upon encountering a fellow graduate in their everyday lives,” said Alumni Association President Derek M. Bottcher ’96. “This survey presents an opportunity for alumni to help UMW understand our unbreakable bond with the University itself, and with one another.”

Officials hope to complete their analysis of this spring’s initial questionnaire before the start of the fall semester.

After that, they will conduct subsequent surveys in regular intervals to keep the database fresh.

“I look forward to citing this information in speeches to prospective students and their parents, when talking to alumni to build pride in and support for their alma mater, and with legislators and other state officials,” Hurley said in a recent message to UMW faculty and staff.

Because this is the University’s first truly comprehensive alumni questionnaire, officials are hoping for an optimum response rate.

The current economic climate, Ande said, makes participation even more vital. With the University receiving fewer government dollars, he said, it’s up to students, alumni, faculty, and staff to explore alternate ways of moving Mary Washington forward. The new questionnaire can help because the data it collects will allow administrators to tout the achievements of alumni, enhance the University’s stature and visibility, and measure the effectiveness of various departments.

“We know that our alumni do great things. We know that they are highly valued by employers. We know that they get into some of the top grad schools in the nation.

We know that they have very meaningful careers and valuable lives,” Wilder said. “We need to document – and celebrate – all that information.” d

Make sure your voice is heard…

If you have not already completed a survey in response to an email request, please: 1. Go to www.umw.edu/alumni/survey.

2. Select the appropriate survey based on your year of graduation.

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THEY LOVE IT WHEN “THE PLAN” COMES TOGETHER

Fervent fans applaud the recent reunion of ’90s indie band with UMW roots | By Lisa Chinn ’92

The Mary Washington guys had more than their music wrapped up in the boxes delivered to campus back in 1993.

They’d taken precious time away from their studies to record a sampling of songs, invested hard-to-come-by cash to form a start-up label, and ordered their tunes pressed onto a thousand 7-inch records. But, as Mike Charnoff ’95 ripped into the packages and peered inside, he was dumbfounded. The début records – the ones he’d requested in red-and-white-marbled vinyl – had come out … pink.

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boxes were opened, they have become quite a thing, those pink 7-inchers,” Philip Stoneman ’95 said of the nowcoveted bubblegum-colored records The Dismemberment Plan cut in college.

The band, which has enjoyed a high-profile resurgence with a recent string of sold-out reunion shows, would spew its elusive style and boundless energy across the Mary Washington campus – and the world – for the next 10 years. They would tour with Pearl Jam, co-headline with Death Cab for Cutie, and release four albums before finally calling it quits in 2003 and leaving faithful fans hungry for more. Lessons learned and friendships formed in college set

David Holloway

The Dismemberment Plan, featuring members, from left to right, Eric Axelson ’94, Joe Easley, Jason Caddell ’93, and Travis Morrison, got its start when Axelson and Caddell met as college students on the University of Mary

Washington campus.

the stage for The Dismemberment Plan’s success – even if “Their songs were kind of like miniature explosions,” said classmates back then weren’t sure what to make of the music.

Stoneman, who booked most of the band’s UMW shows “Mary Washington, in 1993, was still pretty conservative, through the school’s student-run entertainment committee, and our music was kind of outrageous. We did not sound Giant Productions. He, Caddell, and Axelson worked for Giant like anything else on campus at that point,” said bassist in college, gaining valuable insight into the music industry.

Eric Axelson ’94, who describes The Plan’s style as “like The group’s stage-show gusto was a complement to the Talking Heads but on a lot of coffee.” its eclectic underground sound, described on The Plan’s Axelson, now 39, had been website as “indie rock” and “postat college just days when he met punk funk.” Their signature style Jason Caddell ’93 on the steps of melded an array of musical genres Westmoreland Hall. In addition to with complicated arrangements, a love for the guitar, the two shared angular song construction, and similar tastes in music, and they unusual time signatures. soon formed a punk-rock band with “It could be a bit much for an ironically collegiate name, the some people at first listen,” said Board of Visitors. lead guitarist Caddell. “When you “We toured major locations like combine those elements, you tend Virginia Hall,” Caddell, also 39, said to take people’s heads off from time of the short-lived group. to time.”

But the two stumbled across While The Plan was building something far more enduring when its musical steam, Charnoff and they teamed up with Axelson’s high friends Brian Hollingsworth, who school friends – frontman Travis transferred before graduation, and Morrison, who was at the College Jason Chipman ’95 were toying of William and Mary, and drummer with the idea of starting a record Steve Cummings, who went to VCU label.

Mike Charnoff ’95, Jason Chipman ’95, and Brian Hollingsworth formed Alcove Records – to create The Dismemberment Plan.

“We’d written a bunch of songs, specifically to put out The Dismemberment Formed on New Year’s Day, 1993, Plan’s first record. The red and white vinyl and Mike and his friends offered to the band got its name from a line in they requested accidentally turned out pink, put out the record,” said Axelson, who but decades later, the record’s quirky color the movie Groundhog Day, when Bill has made it a hot commodity. plays bass and keyboard. “In the same Murray’s character runs into an old way we were learning to be a band, friend who’d sold him insurance “with the optional death and they were learning to be a label.” dismemberment plan.” There was talk early on of changing Charnoff named the venture Alcove Records because he the macabre moniker to something shorter, catchier, and a worked out of a closet-like alcove in the home where he lived little less gory, but in the end “it just stuck,” Morrison told on Fredericksburg’s Fall Hill Avenue. The guys produced the worldwide concert publication Pollstar. the 33-rpm records – the ones that mistakenly turned out Morrison wrote the songs, and the group often practiced pink – with only about $1,500. in the Fredericksburg basement of Lisa Biever ’96. They “To call it a shoestring operation is giving it too much hit the local music scene hard, hauling their high-energy credit,” said Charnoff, who is now an attorney and member shows to Mary Washington’s Underground, Eagle’s Nest, and of the UMW Alumni Board.

Great Hall; to off-campus parties and downtown venues like Despite humble beginnings, The Plan started digging Sammy T’s; and even to Washington, D.C., hot spots like its nails deep into the halls of music history. A reluctance the Black Cat and the 9:30 Club. to tour led original drummer Cummings to quit, and his

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SEVEN CLASS ACTS The Dismemberment Plan is in good company. Did you know that the following bands were also born on campuses?

R.E.M.: University of Georgia, 1980 The R.E.M. masterpiece began to take shape when U.Ga. art student Michael Stipe (vocals) met record store employee Peter Buck (guitar), who had dropped out of Emory University. The picture was completed when the pair met two more U.Ga. students at a party – bassist Mike Mills had an interest in English literature and journalism, and drummer Bill Berry was studying pre-law.

Radiohead: Abingdon School, 1985 They might not have been ready for college quite yet, but the members of Radiohead did meet on a school campus – an all-boys prep school in Oxfordshire, England. Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano), Ed O’Brien (guitar), Phil Selway (drums), and brothers Colin (bass) and Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboard) rehearsed on Fridays in the school’s music room.

Styx: Chicago State University, 1969 A lesson in success, Styx got its start at Chicago State, where many of the group’s members were studying to become teachers. Twin brothers Chuck (bass) and John Panozzo (drums) had made music with their Chicago neighbor Dennis DeYoung (vocals) before the trio signed up at CSU. There they met guitarists John Curulewski, a fellow CSU student, and James “J.Y.” Young, who studied aerospace engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Pink Floyd: Regent Street Polytechnic, 1965 Pink Floyd began building a name for itself when a group of architecture students from London’s RSP – drummer Nick Mason, bassist Roger Waters, and keyboardist Richard Wright – joined forces.

Coldplay: University College of London, 1996 Success was written in the stars for Coldplay. UCL astronomy major Jonny Buckland (guitar) met Chris Martin (vocals), who was interested in ancient world studies, during orientation week. Martin played on the school’s hockey team with anthropology major Will Champion (percussion). Engineering major Guy Berryman (bass) joined later.

Queen: Imperial College, 1971 Queen’s reign began at Imperial College, when Brian May (guitar), who holds a doctorate in astrophysics from the London school, was an undergraduate there. May hooked up with bassist Tim Staffell (later replaced by John Deacon), who went to Ealing Art College with Farrokh “Freddie Mercury” Bulsara (lead vocals). When May placed an ad for a drummer on a college bulletin board, dental student Roger Taylor responded, and the group originally called itself “Smile.”

Creed: Florida State University, 1995 The whole gang hailed from FSU. Vocalist Scott Stapp, who studied law, and guitarist Mark Tremonti, a finance major, met in high school, then teamed up with bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips, who majored in business.

The above information was largely gathered from the Online Universities website.

replacement, Joe Easley, clicked well with the band. They began touring consistently, polishing their act along the way and gaining momentum with every show.

“They became much more mature in their playing and their presentation,” said Stoneman, an audio engineer who often has served as tour manager for The Plan and other bands, and has been an adjunct professor.

The Plan was still on an upward climb in 2003, when they decided they’d had enough. It would be nice, they thought, to walk away on a high note.

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Axelson said. “After 10 years of really flogging it, you get pretty damned tired.”

Besides, the corporate world was calling. Living in Washington, D.C., Axelson and Caddell – both English majors – have pursued professions outside of the band. Caddell is a freelance audio engineer, and Axelson, who has worked as a data analyst and taught AP English literature in a D.C. high school, is now a civics program manager for Rock the Vote. Morrison is a developer for The Huffington Post, and Easley works in robotics for NASA. They’ve all maintained their musical ties, as well.

Morrison attempted a in 2011, they just sold out a solo career that stopped major NYC venue two days before it started when the in a row – and everybody online music publication knew all the words! It was Pitchfork slammed his 2004 really incredible.” album. Now he sings in a With the tour now a church choir in downtown wrap, The Plan is slated Manhattan. Axelson has to play the Roots Family played with a group called Picnic in Philadelphia in Maritime and another June and the Pitchfork called Statehood, which Music Festival in Chicago also featured Easley. Caddell in July. After that, it’s tours with his current band, anybody’s guess. If the group Poor But Sexy. is pondering additional “We still are four nerds projects, no one’s talking. who love music and love “Everybody’s busy, so to bounce it off each there’s not really time,” other,” Caddell told NPR said Axelson, who insists in January. he isn’t trying to be elusive.

But The Plan remains “We haven’t closed that the tie that binds. Since its door. We’re taking it day official breakup, the group by day.” has delighted die-hard fans In addition to Pearl Jam with periodic performances, and Death Cab for Cutie, including two reunion The Plan spent a decade shows to benefit the health Top, left to right: Members of The Dismemberment Plan – bassist per forming with bigEric Axelson ’94, drummer Joe Easley, frontman Travis Morrison, needs of a friend. And, in a and guitarist Jason Caddell ’93 – played Chicago’s Metro in February. name bands like Weezer twist of fate, Pitchfork, the The sold-out show was part of the band’s recent reunion tour. and Brainiac; touring in publication that so quickly Bottom, left to right: Travis Morrison, Eric Axelson ’94, and Jason Europe, Asia, and the Caddell ’93 share the spotlight onstage in Chicago. quashed Morrison’s solo United States; and putting career, gave a perfect 10 rating to The Plan’s recent re-release out albums. They were lucky to have done it all once, said of its popular 1999 album, Emergency & I. The resounding Axelson, who considers it a bonus to have experienced The excitement fueled the rousing reunion tour, which was Plan’s renewed popularity, not to mention the success of the launched this winter by an appearance on Late Night With re-issue of Emergency & I, nostalgically done on vinyl-only – not pink – but possibly still a collector’s item.

Jimmy Fallon and wound its way through D.C., Philly, Boston, The color of the records the guys created nearly 20 years and New York, then moved on to Japan, and looped back ago seems to have tinted Caddell’s memories of the alma to Chicago and Seattle. mater of so many who contributed to The Dismemberment The Washington Post covered the group’s final pre-tour Plan’s success. warm-up show, an invitation-only affair held at the Galaxy “I guess you think back to your college years, and they Hut in Arlington, Va. And a January performance at New seem rosier than they really were,” he said, “but I tell you York’s Webster Hall prompted this post on the Ticketmaster what, that whole time [at Mary Washington] was really, website: “I saw them a million times when I was going to really terrific for everybody.” d Mary Washington College and in D.C. in the ’90s. … Now,

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Norm Shafer

Tears for Taylor Supported by UMW, brother of tsunami victim focuses on healing | By Lisa Chinn ’92

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As a junior at UMW, Jeffrey Anderson has penned his share of papers and essays. Perhaps his most challenging assignment, though, came in March, when he helped write his oldest sister’s obituary.

He undertook the task after the mammoth March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that destroyed 400 miles of Japan’s northeastern coastline. One of the hardest-hit cities was Ishinomaki, where Anderson’s sister, 24-year-old Taylor, lived and worked as an English teacher. She was the first confirmed American fatality of the deadly natural disaster.

And as Jeffrey struggled to come to terms with his loss, the Mary Washington community rallied around him.

President Richard V. Hurley called Jeffrey’s cell phone to express his personal condolences. Fellow students held a fundraising event in Taylor’s memory. Professors offered extra time to complete assignments. The outpouring of support was “huge,” Jeffrey, 20, said in an interview two days before his sister’s memorial service.

At a magnitude of 9.0, it was the largest known earthquake ever to strike Japan. The tragedy claimed thousands of lives and caused billions of dollars worth of damage. Yet, from his first inkling that something was wrong – a quick glance at an email newsfeed as he rushed from his Framar dorm room to take a microeconomics test – Jeffrey held to the belief that his sister would be safe. Then came relief in the form of a phone call from Japanese officials, who said that Taylor had been spotted. But the Anderson family of Chesterfield County, Va., soon learned that the report was unconfirmed.

All that could be confirmed was that Taylor spent her final moments making sure her young students were safe.

More than a week after the quake, even though they still hadn’t heard from Taylor, the Andersons – including Jeffrey – clung to hope. They decided to travel to Japan to search for her, to help clean up debris, to stay busy doing whatever they could.

“There were people still being found,” said Jeffrey, an environmental science major. “We were still hopeful that she was alive.”

A phone call they received the morning they were to leave for the airport put an end to the optimism.

Taylor’s body had been discovered.

Like so many college students, Jef frey communicated with his sisters, Taylor and 22-yearold Julie, mostly through emails, text messages, and Facebook postings. The last time he actually spoke with Taylor was when they were both home for Christmas break. When she left to return to her job in Japan, the two never doubted they’d see each other again. There were no gushing sibling-related sentiments, no poignant parting scenes.

Jeffrey has made his peace with that. “It’s cliché,” he said.

“You never get the perfect goodbye.”

Among his treasured memories of Taylor are those from his visit with her in Japan in 2009, the summer after his first year at UMW. She showed him her apartment and the places where she taught English to both children and adults. They visited a karaoke club, a ramen market, and a park famous for its cherry blossoms.

Taylor’s love for Japan and its people began early, sparked by a teacher who got her attention not only by instructing her in the fundamentals of the Japanese language but also by revealing the wonders of a faraway place, the intrigue of an unknown world. Taylor graduated from St. Catherine’s School in Richmond and Randolph-Macon College in Ashland.

Jeffrey, too, is captivated by different cultures, and he plans someday to experience life overseas. Despite the tragedy that cut short his sister’s life, he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of living in Japan.

Until then, as he and his family begin to heal, he’s determined to remain immersed in his studies at Mary Washington and stay focused on defining his own future.

“We’re picking ourselves up and starting to try to move on,” he said. d For information on contributing to the Taylor Anderson ’04 Memorial Gift Fund to help rebuild schools destroyed by the tsunami in Japan, visit www.st.catherines.org/tayloranderson.

UMW junior Jeffrey Anderson shared memories of his sister, Taylor, who was killed in March in the tsunami that struck Japan.

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Leah Cox

Leah Cox is practicing what she teaches: how to make a successful transition.

Former assistant dean of academic services, Cox now holds the newly created position of special assistant to the president for diversity and inclusion. It’s a big switch.

This administrative faculty member, who has been at Mary Washington since 2000, also has been director of the James Farmer Scholars Program and the Student Transition Program (STP), which guides students as they navigate between high school and college.

In her new job, Cox serves as a member of President Richard V. Hurley’s Cabinet, and she closely advises him on programming, recruitment, and ways that the University can be more inclusive. In touch with colleagues on other campuses, Cox collects materials about diversity issues and serves as a resource for offices throughout UMW. She is gradually and rather reluctantly relinquishing her duties with STP and the James Farmer Scholars Program, which is targeted toward middle and high school students, many of whom may not have considered college as a part of their futures. Physically, she will move from Lee Hall to George Washington Hall.

A native of Baltimore, Cox earned an undergraduate degree in art and deaf education from Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College. Her master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling is from the University of Arizona, and her Ph.D. in college administration is from the University of Maryland.

She has worked with rehabilitation patients in a hospital, with deaf students at Gallaudet University, and as an administrator in Maryland’s state system of higher education.

A former single mom to 13-year-old Omar, Cox is also transitioning into a new role as spouse. She and Timothy O’Donnell, associate professor of communication at UMW, married on Jan. 1. She says of her new husband, whom she met when he came to teach the Farmer Scholars how to debate, “he’s the kindest, smartest person I ever met.”

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Norm Shafer

By Anna B. Billingsley

What do you love most about UMW? That it’s a small college. You get to know people on more than a “hi, bye” basis.

You run into people from UMW at Target and all sorts of other places. Also, because it’s such a small school, you have the freedom to be creative and learn a lot of different things.

What would you change about UMW? I’d make it more diverse. Yes, that is the new job talking. But I do wear down when students come to me and say, “I don’t see anybody who looks like me.” Plus, I like tradition, but sometimes I feel like we’re a little stuck. We need to move into the 21st century.

How would you describe yourself? Intelligent, caring, giving…someone who has curiosity to learn and try new things, someone who has enthusiasm for helping students grow and change and figure out which way to go.

What motivates you? Things that are new and different or when people say, “I don’t know if this can be done.” Of course, students motivate me. I love it when a student comes in and says, “I listened to what you suggested I do.”

Who and what inspires you? Things that are going on around me, particularly projects like UMW’s current tribute to the Freedom Rides. My parents were and still are a great inspiration. They were not college-educated, but my dad is knowledgeable about so many things. Being blind, he soaks up all sorts of information and uses it in his life. Both my mom and my dad exposed me to so many things.

What matters most to you? My family. Also, pursuing my interests; I am taking Spanish, and I want to start painting again.

What keeps you awake at night? I’m always fearful I’ve forgotten one last thing, one last email or that I’ve doublebooked a meeting. I have too many irons in the fire!

What one thing would people be surprised to learn about you? For a whole summer, my job was on an island making T-shirts. I worked as a tailor on Nantucket. d

BOOK REPORT All of the following books are available in the UMW Bookstore.

Books by Faculty Anthropology and Egalitarianism: Ethnographic Encounters from Monticello to Guinea–Bissau

By Eric Gable, UMW professor of sociology and anthropology Eric Gable introduces readers to the concept of culture in his book Anthropology and Egalitarianism.

The book explores the role of ethnography, the scientific description of individual cultures, in shedding light on the human condition. Gable credits as the text’s impetus a lecture he gave at the University of Virginia 20 years ago. In the lecture, he attempted to show that people’s prejudices affect what they allow themselves to learn about those who live in other places. By using findings from his field work – from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello to West Africa and Indonesia – in conjunction with discussions of major works, Gable broaches key themes of cultural anthropology, including its relationship to racism and colonialism.

Critics have used such terms as “deeply personal,” “provocative,” “eloquent,” and “disarmingly colloquial” to describe Anthropology and Egalitarianism. The book “is precisely the kind of work that should be taught at the undergraduate level,” wrote Liam D. Murphy, co-author of A History of Anthropological Theory.

– Published by Indiana University Press, November 2010

Evil in Contemporary French and Francophone Literature Edited by Scott M. Powers, UMW associate professor of French One might call this collection of essays edited by Scott Powers “a necessary evil,” at least in exploring the ways in which the concept of evil is central to contemporary French-language literature.

The book creates an international perspective by bringing together a vast variety of views from a wide range of scholars, each of whom focuses on one of several key French-speaking novelists from the United States, France,

Belgium, and beyond. Fundamental ideas explored in the book include the origins of evil, the limits of expressing the extreme, and the adequacy of words to depict the horror of disturbing events and human tragedies, from genocide and gender oppression to the terrorist events of Sept. 11 and the Holocaust.

Edward K. Kaplan of Brandeis University calls the text a “book of wisdom, courage, and lucid interpretation.”

– Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, January 2011

What Comes After

By Steve Watkins, UMW professor of English, linguistics, and communication With a stroke of his pen, Steve Watkins turns a tragic event into inspiration. An article about a young girl placed in foster care after suffering an act of violence was the stimulus for Watkins’ most recent book, What Comes After, a novel for young adults, ages 14 and older.

“I recognized her – and others like her – through my work as an investigator and advocate in the juvenile justice system,” Watkins commented on the Candlewick Press website. “I knew her story deserved to be told.”

He shares the girl’s tale through the book’s main character, 16-year-old Iris, who has been abandoned by both her mother, who is abusive, and her father, who dies.

She’s forced to live on a farm with family members who mistreat not only the animals but also Iris. When the violence escalates, Iris is placed with a foster family, but she still feels compelled to care for the farm animals.

Kirkus Reviews said of the book: “Beautifully written, this story is an unflinching look at the cruelty of life as well as the resilience of the human spirit.”

What Comes After and Down Sand Mountain, also written

by Watkins, are slated to be recorded as audio books, and the latter is set to be released in paperback this spring.

– Published by Candlewick Press, April 2011

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BOOK REPORT

Books by Alumni The Science of Single: One Woman’s Grand Experiment in Modern Dating, Creating Chemistry, and Finding Love

By Rachel Machacek ’95 Rachel Machacek sets out to discover the formula for making a love connection in her book, The Science of Single. Propelled into a methodical search for Mr. Right after a miserable date with yet another Mr. Wrong, Machacek embarks upon a yearlong study to learn what would happen if she put all the trappings of modern-day matchmaking to the test.

After a foray into online dating leads to a series of ill-suited suitors, Machacek tests dating books and dating coaches.

She tries speed dating, blind dating, and professional dating services. And she dissects the singles scene in a string of locales, from Southern California to New York City.

Machacek’s first-person account is heartfelt yet hilarious and laced with antics familiar to anyone who’s suffered through a failed first date or a disappointing breakup.

Machacek, a communications manager and freelance writer, lives in Washington, D.C. The Washington Post’s Ellen McCarthy wrote that the book stands to make Machacek “into the Bridget Jones of Washington.”

– Published by Riverhead Books, January 2011

Get the Picture?

Give It Your Best Shot!

In the last issue, we asked for help identifying the women involved in this 1962 Mary Washington “pillow fight,” and we got it! Two readers recognized the students in the middle, who are the main focus of the photo. Both identified the pillow-wielding woman in the back as Lois Hartman ’62 and the woman in the front who’s about to get whacked as Donna Stevens Boyd ’62. Not only that, but one of the readers who wrote in said that the picture must have been taken in Ball Hall, because she remembers seniors being housed there that year. The five amused onlookers have not been identified, but we’d still love to hear from anyone who knows who they are.

A stamp on the back of this picture says it was taken on Sept.

26, 1942. But who is the lovely young lady playing the harp in the foyer of Dodd Auditorium? Can you help us identify her?

This image is among the hundreds of historic photos in the UMW Centennial Digital Image Archive, an interactive and searchable database that is available to the public at http://archive.umw.edu. Some of the images in the archive are identified only partially or not at all.

If you can shed more light on this photo, please contact us. Our archives will become more complete with shared information from UMW friends and family. Send email to abilling@umw.edu (please put GET THE PICTURE in the subject line) or write to the University of Mary Washington Magazine – Get the Picture, UMW, 1301 College Ave., Fredericksburg, VA 22401-5300.

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UMW FOR THE

David E. Hunt Jr.

Geoff Greene

David E. Hunt Jr.

The cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, below, celebrates a contestant’s unusual spelling technique. Left, at top, two couples – one human, one lizard – discuss relationship problems in Seascape; at bottom, a lonely minister’s daughter, Alma Winemiller, happens upon Archie Kramer, a traveling salesman, in Summer & Smoke.

How Do You Spell D-I-V-E-R-S-E? That is the word to describe the productions offered by UMW’s Department of Theatre and Dance. This season’s offerings included the quirky and wildly popular musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; Tennessee Williams’ sultry Summer & Smoke; and Seascape, Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning wry and whimsical play.

Mark your calendars now for an equally diverse and dynamic 2011-12 lineup.

Sept. 29-Oct. 9, 2011 • THE WOMEN OF LOCKERBIE In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing its 259 passengers and 11 people on the ground. Seven years later, Madeline and Bill Livingston travel to Scotland to recover the remains of their 20-yearold son. This is a poetic drama in which compassion and hope emanate from unspeakable horror.

Nov. 3-20, 2011 • RENT Christmas bells are ringing, but all is not well for Mark, a troubled filmmaker, and his roommate, Roger, a struggling musician. This groundbreaking musical, winner of both a Pulitzer and a Tony, is reminiscent of

Puccini’s La Bohème. Mark, Roger, and company struggle to make ends meet, grapple with changing relationships, and celebrate the triumphs of life as the unremitting reach of AIDS casts its inescapable shadow on their lives.

Feb. 9-19, 2012 • MOON OVER BUFFALO Theatrical hijinks ensue in this uproarious farce featuring fading stars George and Charlotte Hay, who are caught in repertory theater purgatory in Buffalo.

When news spreads that renowned movie mogul Frank Capra is coming to a performance in hopes of signing actors, mistaken identities, jangled nerves, and epic misunderstandings escalate into a riotous performance where anything that can go wrong does.

April 12-22, 2012 • HEDDA GABLER Returning from their honeymoon, George and Hedda Tesman begin to settle into their new life together.

With the return of George’s academic nemesis, the couple’s relationship unravels amidst whispered secrets, professional disappointments, passion, and rivalries. This adaptation breathes new life into Ibsen’s classic tale.

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NOTABLE & QUOTABLE

UMW Presents Challenge at National Summit What began several years ago as a class project for an introductory macroeconomics course at the University of Mary Washington has gained national recognition via the first U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy in Washington, D.C. Because of innovative approaches to engaging citizens in the worldwide fight against poverty, the Two Dollar Challenge, with its nonprofit partner Opportunity International, was among 10 groups invited to the conference last fall.

Representing Two Dollar Challenge from UMW were Shawn Humphrey, the program’s founder and associate professor of economics; executive director Erin Kelly ’09; national president Meredith Greenwell ’11; and campus president Laura Dick ’13.

Meredith Greenwell ’11, left; Shawn Humphrey, associate professor of economics; and Laura Dick ’13 represented UMW’s Two Dollar Challenge at the first U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy in Washington, D.C., last fall.

Faithful Citizen Helps Make Hampton Anniversary Shine A member of the UMW Foundation Board received the Distinguished Citizen Award from the City of Hampton, Va. At a January gala, Gwen Amory Cumming ’52 was honored for her dedicated volunteer Gwen Amory Cumming ’52 work as co-chair of the steering committee that made the city’s 400th anniversary celebration a soaring success.

The celebration commemorated the 1610 settlement of English colonists at the site of the Kecoughtan Indian Village, an area that later became known as Hampton. An array of events honored English settlers and American Indians, as well as the African Americans who came to the site in 1619, marking the first known arrival of blacks in the United States.

Cumming’s affection for her hometown radiates.

A founder of the Hampton History Museum, she was appointed by the city council to co-chair the anniversary celebration. But her drive to get involved developed long ago. She was student government president at Mary Washington and later served 17 years on the school’s Board of Visitors before assuming a spot on its Foundation Board.

“I love Mary Washington,” Cumming said. “I love my church. And I’m crazy about the city of Hampton.”

Conservationist Recognized for Efforts to Save the Bay The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has named Katherine “Kay” Slaughter ’61 its 2010 Virginia Conservationist of the Year.

A retired lawyer, Slaughter also is a published nonfiction writer, adjunct university faculty member, and former Charlottesville mayor. Through all her roles, Slaughter – who spent nearly 25 years with the Southern Environmental Law Center – has maintained a keen interest in protecting the natural wonders that surround her, not the least of which is the nation’s largest Katherine “Kay” estuary, the Chesapeake Bay. Slaughter ’61 Slaughter, who lives on the Rivanna River in Charlottesville, has worked to protect nontidal wetlands, restrict billboards that inhibit scenic views, and fight the confined feeding of animals. She also was a founding member and former president of the Virginia Conservation Network and was named an outstanding Virginia Environmental Leader in a 2004 presentation by the Virginia Military Institute.

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Alumna Devotes Decade to Climbing the Political Ladder Julia Ciarlo Hammond ’01 had put her political career on the fast track to success well before she left Mary Washington. During her junior and senior years, the political science major managed to juggle her college studies with her duties in Richmond as Julia Ciarlo Hammond ’01 legislative assistant to Republican Dave Albo of the Virginia House of Delegates.

After graduation, Hammond worked for Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore and Sen. John Chichester. She was tapped in January to serve as director of legislative affairs in the policy office of Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Prior to her recent appointment, Hammond spent three years as Virginia state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, where she worked to protect small businesses by speaking out against laws mandating smoke-free restaurants and punishing employers for hiring undocumented immigrants, among other issues.

Hammond also has served as director of government relations for the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association.

A native of Cranston, R.I., she lives in Richmond with her husband, Todd.

Proponent of Premature Infants’ Families Honored Mary Beth Leightley Hazelgrove ’95, executive director of Preemies Today, was awarded the 2011 Public Mary Beth Leightley Citizen of the Year Hazelgrove ’95, left, with Award from the National Heather Carruthers Hall ’94, Association of Social secretary of the Preemies Today Workers, Virginia Chapter. board of directors.

The mother of a child who was born prematurely, Hazelgrove said the award raises awareness of the difficulties that parents face when having a premature infant and the emotional support that is needed in the hospital and after their baby is discharged.

Love of Horses Lands Alumna in Hall of Fame A horseback rider since the age of 14, Carol Joan Bailey Miller ’50 of Cumberland County, Va., has been inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Virginia Horse Shows Association (VHSA).

From her college roles as president of the Hoof Prints riding club and captain of the Carol Joan Bailey Miller ’50 Mary Washington Cavalry troop to her recent work writing the history of the VHSA, Miller has dedicated much of her life to equine efforts.

After earning a degree in biology and working for the Department of Defense, she became a histology technician for research laboratories, working at the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg for 15 years before retiring. She is a member of the U.S. Equestrian Federation and the American and Virginia horse councils, and a licensed hunter steward and judge. Miller adds the Hall of Fame honor to a full stable of awards, including the Virginia Horse Council’s Distinguished Service Award and the Susan Hagan Award for sportsmanship, camaraderie, and fairness.

Pair of UMW Professors Receives Recognition ® Margaret A. Mi, professor in the College of Business Department of Management and Marketing, received the O’Hara Leadership Award from the educational foundation of the Direct Marketing Association of Washington (DMAW), the country’s largest regional direct marketing association.

Mi created UMW’s first advertising-related course, which revolved around e-commerce, and she developed a prototype suitable for adoption by other colleges. ® Mindy Erchull, assistant professor of psychology, was recognized with the 2011 Psi Chi Southeastern Regional Faculty Advisor Award for her performance as the University’s Psi Chi chapter advisor, a role she took on in 2006. At last year’s American Psychological Association Convention, Erchull also was honored with the Mary Roth Walsh Teaching the Psychology of Women Award for her innovative ways of addressing diversity in teaching the psychology of women.

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ALUMNI BOARD FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION TO: All Alumni FROM: Derek M. Bottcher ’96 In the spring, the University seems to buzz with activity and events, along with large groups of prospective students touring the campus. the University is aiming to Those students are part of a broad audience to which nded to a recent online respo you of red hund articulate its distinctiveness. Several a larger effort to enhance our survey designed to aid in this goal. This is part of region and the nation, and I thank visibility and recognition within the mid-Atlantic being asked to complete a are i all who took the time to participate. Now alumn increased and improved with ington Wash separate survey that will provide Mary ts, and their feelings about Mary information about our graduates, their achievemen lete it at your earliest convenience.

Washington. I hope you will watch for it and comp have a wonderful opportunity to If you’re celebrating a class reunion this year, you and look at many exciting changes reconnect with Mary Washington and get a firsth you back into the classroom with on campus. Reunion Weekend events will entice members, provide opportunities y Alumni College lectures featuring UMW facult Landing (and the stunning Eagle at nces to see the amazing new student reside to reacquaint yourself with you allow 1), Route U.S. s new pedestrian bridge acros give you a chance to catch up with campus facilities through student-led tours, and dars for June 3-5, and make the calen classmates you haven’t seen in years. Mark your I’ll be there, celebrating my urg. ricksb Frede in nd commitment to spend that weeke to see you there, too.

15th reunion with the Class of 1996, and I hope ing considerable time on the road This spring, President Richard V. Hurley is spend vision for the University. Events his g sharin and s meeting alumni in various region takes place near where you live, are being held all around the United States. If one our alma mater’s priorities and I hope you will attend and become familiar with t leadership, along with his vibran challenges. President Hurley’s energetic and rating days and a bright future exhila es ensur n, genuine passion for Mary Washingto of the excitement. ahead. I invite and encourage you all to be part

Above, top: Lloyd Tilton Backstrom and Mary Turner Willett are looking forward to celebrating the Class of 1961’s 50th reunion in June.

Above, middle: President Hurley displays the new license plate holder that helps promote UMW. Above, bottom: Colin Mackey, a member of UMW’s incoming class of 2015, attended the Richmond reception with his grandmother, Pat Ellis Archer ’58, and his mother, Heather Archer Mackey ’82.

Photos by Cynthia Newmark

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Above: Recent grad Justin Mattos ’10 met fellow alumni at the reception at the Country Club of Virginia in Richmond.

Left: Joe Payne ’02 and Emily Mosley Payne ’04 enjoyed the event.

Class Notes If you prefer to communicate by post, we welcome your news in care of Class Notes at: Office of Alumni Relations, University of Mary Washington, 1119 Hanover Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401.

Be sure and include your class year.

1936 Ruby Lee Norris rnorris@oasisonline.com

1940 classnotes@umw.edu Ruth Duff Dyckman turned 90 in January and planned to celebrate her birthday with friends, family, and members of her church and garden club. Born in 1921, Ruth attended Mary Washington for two years and majored in commercial education. She remembers Mrs. Bushnell, who always told the young ladies to sit up straight in the cafeteria.

1941 Lois Loehr Brown loislbrown@aol.com

Kathryn “Suzy” Newcome Skeirik and her husband moved to Lakewood Manor, a continuing care community in Richmond, six years ago and enjoy the lifestyle there. Several Mary Washington alumnae, including Rita Stone ’52, live there. Kathryn and former Mary Washington roommate Jane Rocap Lewis get together when Jane visits her daughter in Charlottesville. On a beautiful notecard that featured her artwork, Jane wrote that, after her husband passed away, she moved to Tuscany, a retirement home in Scottsdale, Ariz., to be near son Rick and his family. She enjoys her post as resident council president. Last year, Jane and daughter Marty visited Mary Washington and Jane reported that she hardly recognized the campus!

Kathy Ellis wrote on behalf of her mother, Mary Miller Crigler Boldridge. Mary and husband Frank live at Culpeper Baptist Retirement Community but often visit the farm (now run by Kathy and her husband) where Mary was born and raised. She became a great-grandmother with the birth of Grayson Robert Ellis last year.

Grandson Chad Ellis received his doctorate in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University and is doing research at Cornell.

I have suddenly been discovered by various Fairfax County, Va., historians! I was happy to contribute information, quotes, and pictures (one from more than 50 years ago!) to a county government publication about the Asian-American population.

One of the historians made a video of me discussing Fairfax public schools from the 1950s and now I’m on YouTube! The A friend took Lenore Magill Fairfax County Retired Educators Grimwood of Sun City, Ariz., on wrote about my early experiences as a teacher for their publication. I am also Lenore Magill Grimwood ’41 working on an oral history of Sun City, Ariz., celebrated report about a portion of Middlesex County, Va., for her 90th birthday on a hot-air a Tidewater publication. balloon ride in Sedona.

It’s all quite exciting.

Thanks to Lundy Baker Updike ’76, whose son, Jim, is a sophomore computer science major at Mary Washington, for help with computer communications and to Anne Radway ’63, a wonderful outdoor gardener who has helped me a lot with my little indoor garden.

a hot-air balloon ride in Sedona to celebrate her 90th birthday in July.

Lenore attended a Rhodes Scholar program in Quarryville, Pa., about the Amish and Mennonites. She is a hospice volunteer and a spiritual caregiver at Banner Health hospitals.

The sad news of the death of Arabelle Laws Arrington arrived as I was getting ready to make arrangements to visit her nursing home in Warrenton, Va. She was a wonderful friend and suitemate. I shall miss her.

Myra McCormick Cole lives in her home and receives a little help with cleaning and laundry.

One daughter is in charge of the local state veterans home. The other one has moved in with her to open and operate her own

high-tech business, which might Isabel Hildrup Klein said have inspired Myra. She wrote in that everything is about the same her email, “At the ripe old age of 90 with her. Marie Kennedy lives at (yes, the gals put my photo in the At the ripe old age of 90, Myra paper and we had McCormick Cole ’41 bought a a big celebration dinner), I bought new computer and lives on it! a new computer and live on it! I really didn’t want anyone to think the Belle Meade continuing care that crafts and puzzles were my community in Southern Pines, N.C., life.” When she’s not surfing the and writes a monthly column for the Internet, Myra crochets scarves, in-house newspaper. Former Mary baby blankets, and other requested Washington suitemate Virginia items. In her spare time, she McCartney Newcombe is selling enjoys word puzzles and keeping the house where she lived most of up with her grandson and two her life and moving to a retirement granddaughters. community in Westchester County, N.Y., near one of her daughters.

1942 Virginia Bennett Skillman classnotes@umw.edu

1943 Lee Hall Archer huntenlee@charter.net

1944 Phyllis Quimby Anderson pqhndson@myfairpoint.net I want to thank all the classmates who took time to send news for this issue.

I am still involved in church and Westminster Cares, and I’m doing as well as most of us octogenarians can hope to be doing. Hank’s USS New York battleship annual reunion was held in Annapolis, Md., this year, and we had a tour of the Naval Academy and a two-hour sail on a small schooner. We also went to see the beautiful World War II Memorial in Washington, where a wreath was laid in memory of those who passed away. Last summer, our girls planned a family reunion that was both relaxing and hectic. We are on the list for a soon-to-be-constructed retirement home in our small town and think that most of our elderly friends also have signed up, so we shouldn’t be lonely. There will be lots of bridge playing. Speaking of bridge, our daughter and her boyfriend play here every Tuesday night, with each of us taking turns doing dinner.

Also, I am finally going to be a greatgrandmother; a girl was due in March!

Anna Roberts Ware enjoys having lunch with her son-in-law, who harvests corn and soybeans nearby and on her farms. She is lucky to have irrigation because the growing season was terribly dry in that area. After a very hot summer, she had three carpenters restore her 1724 meat house. The logs inside are hand hewed, a new outside covering was constructed in 1900, and Anna had a new floor put in, so she has a new place to store things out of the weather. She had Libby Phillips Roe and Bill, a Navy pilot in the Pacific, over for lunch. Libby and Bill are fine for their age and busy at Cokesbury Village in northern Delaware.

Elizabeth Cumby Murray misses her waterfront home on Monomoy Island, Mass., especially her garage, because her car now sits out in all kinds of weather! She was looking forward to Thanksgiving with most of her family and to the fun of watching her greatgranddaughter, who was to turn 2 in December, at Christmas in Brookline, Mass., where she lives with parents Andrew and Kirstin.

They were to have returned from Paris, where they took some of Elizabeth’s son-in-law’s ashes to the family plot in his hometown of Niort. Elizabeth is happy at Sherburne Commons and still plays bridge with friends.

Mary Ellen Starkey is lucky to have some of her children nearby.

Her son, Donny, continues to do well with his restaurant in La Plata, Md., where Mary Ellen still lives. She has four grandsons and a few greats!

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CL ASS NOTES

1945 Frances Watts Barker jbarker@intercom.net

1946 Patricia Mathewson Spring classnotes@umw.edu

1947 Betty Moore Drewry Bamman bdbamman@verizon.net

1948 classnotes@umw.edu

1949 Anna Dulany Lyons June Davis McCormick jaymccee@yahoo.com As the long, hot summer slowly evolved into autumn, several classmates reported a rather languid lifestyle, with less traveling for many of our Fabulous Forty-Niners.

While Mary Elwang Sharpley of Charlottesville takes part in most of the activities afforded by her residence at the Colonnade, a health issue negates further traveling. Mary reported the arrival of Barbara Westerman Newlon and husband Howard, who sold their Charlottesville home and relocated to the Colonnade at the end of August.

Howard now needs a walker and the blizzards of last winter reinforced their decision to make the move.

Mary said she is happy to have a classmate at hand, especially since her dear friend Elizabeth “Betty” Fischer Gore moved to Northern Virginia. When the Newlons were introduced during a welcoming meeting of the residents, Howard was further identified as “a humorous speaker.” How well those who attended our 55th Reunion Weekend recall his hilarious recap of their effusive efforts to find Barb’s former roommate when passing through her hometown, all to no avail. In early September, Mary related the sad news of the death of Barbara’s sister, Rosemary Westerman Butterworth ’48, whom Barbara followed to Mary Washington. We have no further details but offer our heartfelt sympathy to the family.

Leaving their longtime home and friends in West Chester, Pa., five years ago was a difficult decision for Jeanne 40

Farrington Leslie and husband Mike. Relocation to a wonderful retirement community in Roswell, Ga., near Atlanta and family, proved to be a blessing to them all, and Jeanne said it’s like living in a resort.

Visits to their extended family of four daughters, 15 grandchildren, and five great-grands have been curtailed, but they have many family members nearby and are happy and content in Georgia.

Frances Houston Layton called it the hottest summer she could remember in the mountains of Greenbrier County, W.Va., where she also spent most of her summers when growing up in Charleston.

Her travels are limited to driving to Kentucky as often as possible to visit daughter Sarah, son Matthew, their spouses, and Sarah’s two daughters and three granddaughters, who make Frances a great-grandmother. At home in Lewisburg, she continues to play her cello as often as she can get a trio or quartet together for a session of chamber music. Still heading the spay-neuter program for the local humane society, she added to her own ménage by adopting an abandoned 3-year-old Boston terrier she named “Peggy” after her first dog of the same breed. Fran said Peggy is sweet, cute, funny, and loving. Her two aging resident Labs readily accepted the young newcomer and, Fran believes, think she is their puppy. Fran added, “Because of my dogs, I always have someone to talk to, and sometimes they even answer back!”

Lucy addressed the group, relating the history of Sullins College. She then “passed the doorknob” to a younger alumna from Blacksburg, Va. Lucy enclosed a copy of a Bristol Herald Courier article that included a picture of three special attendees, including Lucy. She was identified as representing the earliest class present.

Lucy added that at least they didn’t report that she was the oldest one present. (She was!) The next reunion is planned for September, and we’re sure our Lucy will be in the midst of that occasion, too.

she had to wear a cumbersome boot but still was able to get around.

During her two-week stay, Martha served as chauffeur wherever they went and Kate was again grateful for her presence. The boot wasn’t due to come off until after Thanksgiving, when Kate was expecting a visit from her niece, a college student in Dallas.

Kate also was looking forward to spending Christmas with son Bill Jr. and his wife, Terri, at their home in Albuquerque, N.M. Kate stays busy with business things and keeping both the home and farm going.

Gwen Brubaker Connell of Florida felt rather unwell during the entire summer but said that changed in September when she underwent an angioplasty and a stent was inserted into an artery in her heart. Gwen said the difference the procedure made was amazing, and she’s thankful to live in a time when such things are possible. After recovering, she and husband Jack visited friends in North Carolina, hoping to see some glorious fall color. They had a nice trip but missed the usual autumnal display.

After a hot, dry summer, the lack of coloration was widespread. The Connells were eagerly anticipating the mid-November wedding of a couple (widow and widower) they introduced two years ago. The couple asked the Connells to stand up with them, which was a thoughtful honor.

They enjoy their life, friends, church, and each other, and Gwen thinks that’s pretty good for a couple who celebrated their 64th anniversary in October.

Marion “Wendy” Selfe Kelly and husband George of Lynchburg, Va., haven’t traveled much recently, except for jaunts to visit their offspring in Richmond and Fairfax and Winston-Salem, N.C. The Kellys expected to have their family together for Thanksgiving at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel in Staunton, Va., and to take in a production at Blackfriars Playhouse. Wendy enjoys getting together at least once a month with Anna “Andi” Dulany Lyons for lunch and a “gab session.”

Earlier in the spring, Lucy Vance Gilmer attended a Sullins College alumnae weekend in Corinne “Conni” Conley Stuart ’49 Bristol, Va. As was called to audition for a Movie of you may recall, Lucy is an the Week. She enjoys new roles and alumna of both thinks that having to learn lines for Sullins and Mary Washington, auditions keeps her sharp. having transferred in 1947 after her Katherine “Kate” Mayo sophomore year. Throughout the Schmidt of Palestine, Texas, took a years, Lucy has contributed greatly three-week trip in May to Virginia to Sullins by compiling alumnae and Alabama, but she wrote of having lists, writing and mailing newsletters, an idle summer. Her daughter-in-law and helping organize reunions long and an artist friend spent a week after Sullins closed in 1978 and King creating their line of jewelry at the College later took over its records. nearby Schmidt farm. Kate enjoyed When a 2009 reunion produced only their visit and was anticipating sister four attendees, Lucy again answered Martha’s arrival from Alabama, but the call of younger members to the week before she came, Kate fell help contact alumnae for the 2010 and suffered a hairline fracture of her reunion. An avid archivist, Lucy right ankle. As you know, Kate spent was no doubt responsible for more the past year healing from injuries than 30 attendees and a special suffered in the Schmidts’ tragic auto reunion that she deemed “a happy accident. With her ankle impaired, occasion.” At the reunion luncheon,

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As reported previously, two of Andi’s granddaughters followed in her footsteps by attending Mary Washington. Because we think you’ll find the post-graduate endeavors of these two alumni interesting and inspiring, we have provided an update on them and a closer look at the social awareness of their generation.

Andrea Devening ’04 earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology with a concentration in anthropology. During her senior year, she studied in Samoa as part of the SIT Study Abroad program.

Since graduating, she has spent five years working in refugee resettlement in Washington, D.C., and Chicago. During the past two years, she worked in job placement for the refugees and in after-school programs for their children. In November, she was applying to graduate schools to study urban planning and historic preservation.

Chelsea Devening ’10 cut quite a swath during her four years at our alma mater, while majoring in international affairs with a concentration in Middle Eastern studies and the Arabic language. After graduation, she traveled to Damascus, Syria, for three months to further her knowledge of the Arabic language and Middle Eastern cultures. While attending Damascus University, she lived with a Syrian woman who housed several other foreign students.

Chelsea traveled throughout Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, experiencing

the diverse cultures, societies, and restraint do we resist the temptation customs of the region. Her father and to make an obvious observation mother, Clay and Martha Devening, here!) As an added excitement, they arrived for the last week of her stay recently saw a quartet of raccoons in Syria, during which they traveled cross their roof to a handy dogwood together to several cities in the that gave access to their deck. Norah area. The experience was culturally concluded that, even when staying at educational in that Chelsea was home, life is not dull! able to refute the stereotype many Corinne “Conni” Conley Stuart associate with Syrians and Middle and Bonar also were in a dilemma Easterners and to recognize them when Betsy Thorne Bultman and as some of the most welcoming, Phelps again wanted to host the group warm, and loving people she has in New Hampshire. Conni said she encountered. Upon returning home, absolutely can’t make that long drive Chelsea’s immediate priorities were again and Bonar finds air travel too finding a job and attending graduate difficult these days. In addition to all school, but she’s eager to return to Syria. If Andi’s granddaughters Two granddaughters of Anna and our own third“Andi” Dulany Lyons ’49 followed generation Mary Washington alumni in her footsteps by attending are so concerned Mary Washington. with the problems of today’s world and dedicated to trying to make the pre-flight screening, when flying tomorrow’s world better, we believe to the States, the Stuarts also must go our planet will be in good hands. through customs, remove their shoes, While the aforementioned and stand around while agents peer generation travels to many faraway through their luggage. Conni said, places, our classmates tend to think “The thrill is gone!” After selling their their own wanderlust has waned. lovely lakeside cottage, the Stuarts Norah Pitts Byrnes of Atlanta felt quite forlorn and wondered recapped their many annual flights what summer in the city would to London, where Bill enjoyed the be like. They quickly learned that latest plays, and their return trips summer in Toronto is really hot, in aboard the Queen Elizabeth II, where terms of both weather and activities.

Norah indulged her love of gambling There’s the Toronto Jazz Festival, the and bridge. After the QE2 left that Toronto International Film Festival, route, they took their return trips and the Luminato, featuring events on the Queen Mary II but didn’t from around the world. There’s The care as much for that luxury liner.

Opera House, the ballet, and various Recently, they have stayed closer to museums and art galleries. For lovely home. Norah plays in several bridge weekends in the country, there’s the groups and, during the summer, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, the tries to get the exercise she requires Shaw Festival in picturesque Niagarabecause of a recent heart issue. After on-the-Lake, and numerous local many years of attending and, in turn, wineries that offer tastings. Conni hosting their annual suite reunions, summed it up like this: “If we can no the Byrneses have not been able to longer paddle our canoe, Toronto is a join the group of BFF suitemates good place to be!” During an August (Norah, Conni Conley Stuart, week spent entertaining a friend from Primm Turner ffrench, and Betsy Florida, Conni was called to audition Thorne Bultman), who planned for a Movie of the Week. She enjoys new roles and thinks that having to their itineraries and traveled many learn lines for auditions keeps her miles with their respective husbands sharp. Son Tony and his wife arrived for the fun-filled weekends. Now, from Los Angeles to celebrate their time and distance have taken their 26th wedding anniversary and were toll. As much as they loved the there during the film festival. Elsa, reunions, Norah and Bill no longer the Stuarts’ granddaughter in St. enjoy flying, and the long drives to Louis, now is a freshman honors New Hampshire, Massachusetts, or student at Mizzou, the University of Toronto have become prohibitive.

Missouri in Columbia. She sent them They have season tickets to the a copy of her advanced class schedule Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and that includes botany, ecology, to three other theater groups, which meteorology, and anthropology. keeps them busy, involved, and close Remembering her own freshman to home. They also have spent time classes, Conni queried, “Whatever dealing with the many bats they happened to English, social studies, hadn’t known had taken up residence history, and biology?” in their attic. (Only in using great

Thanks to our responding classmates for all of the above. As ever, love to all of you from both of us.

1950 Dorothy Held Gawley dnigawly@juno.com Greetings to all. I will continue to be your Class Agent, God willing, at least until our next reunion, when maybe someone else will take over. I do enjoy the position, especially when I receive news of your activities and family events.

As you can see, my home address is no longer at the top of the column (for privacy reasons), so I can be reached only by email. If you don’t happen to have my address from another time, you can mail your news to the UMW Office of Alumni Relations.

I want to thank everyone who donated and pledged to the annual gift and pledge program at our reunion time. Our class raised $83,551.02 and came in second in percentage of donors at 45.27 percent. You may remember that, at our 2000 reunion, our class endowed an Arrington Scholarship and each year one of the recipients who qualifies is named Class of 1950 Arrington Scholar. The legacy of our class’s generosity is that the endowed scholarship will forever provide funds for a qualified student who is a child of a Mary Washington faculty or staff member. Marcy Weatherly Morris and I are so proud of our class.

In May, just before our reunion, The Free Lance-Star ran a segment on how the all-female Mary Washington College welcomed World War II veterans. We all know about that!

A side article entitled Veteran and Freshman featured the meeting and courtship at Mary Washington of Marcy and Juney.

Thanks to Carmen Zeppenfeldt Catoni, we found a lost member through Facebook.

Anne Garlette Maling of San Marcos, Texas, has done a lot of moving around, with many address changes. Messages were received from some who could not attend the reunion. Ginny Hardy Vance of College Park, Md., caregiver to husband Paul, said they live quietly and peacefully and don’t worry about what they can’t do.

Kay Venezio Boffa sends greetings to all from Shelburne, Vt., with regrets that she couldn’t join the group. Mary Cottingham Hardy

was sad that this was the first reunion she missed. Unfortunately, the fall she had 12 years ago was causing increased pain in her back and left leg, making it difficult for her to walk without a cane.

She still lives alone, manages her stairs, and drives. Her son and daughter live fairly close by in California and are a tremendous help. Mary has four grandchildren and four great-grands. Gracia Plyley Kather, who lives with Rudy in Framingham, Mass., also has a mobility problem. She has the neurological disease CMT, but she manages to get around the best she can. We had a nice phone chat and she sounded upbeat. Barbara Lloyd Hiller was sorry to miss our get-together. Since husband Jim can’t travel well anymore, she hopes to talk her daughter into driving her down to see the campus. First, they are concentrating on settling her granddaughter, who is interested in teaching special needs children, into college. The family was to have its annual Thanksgiving gathering in Ocean City, Md., and Barb was looking forward to spending time with her 9-month-old greatgranddaughter.

Mary Chilton Newell ’54 informed me that sister-in-law Betty Harpine Chilton died in early August. She said Betty’s life was characterized by a love of books that was nurtured at our alma mater. After graduation, Betty’s devotion to Mary Washington and a lifelong quest for learning led her to enroll in college courses in Northern Virginia and earn her master’s degree in liberal studies at Mary Washington. She taught French, Spanish, and college-bound English at Osbourn High School in Manassas, Va., from 1950 to 1958. When her sons were older, she became a reference librarian for Fairfax County schools. Upon retirement from teaching, she became a sales associate at Borders bookstore, leaving in 2006 to care for her husband, who predeceased her.

I had two recent “it’s a small world” experiences. While on Cape Cod, I attended a lecture at the historical society of Harwich, Mass. Refreshments were served afterward, and I overheard someone mention she had taken the train to Mary Washington in June.

Naturally, I had to speak with her; it was Bonnie Davis Hall ’60, who had gone down for her 50th reunion. We found out we had a lot in common; she is from New Jersey and we knew some of the

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CL ASS NOTES same people on the Cape. Then, enjoy taking cruises and planned during a Road Scholar (Elderhostel) to travel in February from San program in the Pennsylvania Amish Francisco through the Panama country in October, I found out that Canal and back to Miami. Mel one of the other attendees, Lenore wrote that Jo Bidgood Dunbar Magill Grimwood ’41 of Arizona, called her with news that Shirley was a Mary Washington graduate.

Van Epps Waple passed away in We both were there during the Richmond in September.

Mrs. Bushnell era and knew Virginia Orkney Philbrick ’52 the same has continued her involvement in professors, so we had a lot Democratic politics, animal welfare, to talk about. and church and community activities.

Lenore said she had attended her 50th Virginia Orkney Philbrick reunion but hadn’t returned to the sent me newspaper clippings campus since then. describing UMW’s ambitious plans I know most of you enjoy for the future. She and husband reading about what has happened to Phil retired from their work in and what is going on in the lives of the San Francisco area to live in your Mary Washington friends, but Virginia. Since Phil’s death five we also want to hear about you, so years ago, Ginny has continued her please email me or get in touch with involvement in Democratic politics, the Office of Alumni Relations. animal welfare, and church and community activities. She keeps up with her nine children and 13 grandchildren, who are scattered throughout the country.

Roselyn Bell Morris Two of Susan Hutcheson classnotes@umw.edu Jergens’ grandsons are in graduate school. One is pursuing his master’s degree in accounting at George Mason University; the other was Corley Gibson Friesen ready to start work on his doctorate corleyfriesen@comcast.net in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois.

There has not been much news from the Class of 1952 lately. I Thank you for sending apologize for neglecting my Class your news.

Agent duties. My husband and I left our mountain home of 20 years and moved to a senior community near Denver and our children and grandchildren. I hope to volunteer in Rebecca “Becky” Spitzer Harvill becbub@earthlink.net the third-grade class of my daughter, who is a teacher, and to help my Bub and I enjoyed a great trip to granddaughter, a teacher who Newfoundland in Canada last works in a second-grade classroom summer. What a desolate, beautiful in Aurora, Colo. We no longer place! We continue to follow Hokie have toddlers to babysit; our oldest sports, with five children and/or grandson is engaged to be married. grandchildren following in Bub’s footsteps at Virginia Tech. A Hokie My sister, Marjorie Gibson granddaughter was married last Blaxill, was to visit us for May and planned to graduate from Thanksgiving and we planned to dental school at VCU this year. enjoy being together in Aurora. She had a stroke last summer, which has After many years of serving on slowed her down, but we celebrated the Virginia Opera’s statewide board our 80th birthday together at her of directors, Joan Schlesinger home in Princeton, N.J. Her son, Miller was serving the second year Mark Blaxill, published a book of her term as board president. about autism.

The opera is unique in that it performs four full productions Melita Whitcomb Vonier at three venues, in Norfolk and and husband Bill have lived in Richmond and at George Mason Naples, Fla., for 12 years and enjoy University, and works with a budget visits from friends who vacation of $5 million. This means that Joan nearby. They have three children, spends the bulk of her volunteer who live around the country, and time with the organization. When eight grandchildren. Mel and Bill

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her term as president ends, she hopes to continue working with the hospital auxiliary.

Vanessa Vance Moncure ’78 wrote to remind us of the death of her mother, Catherine Wyvonne Weaver Vance, in December of 2009. Vanessa’s son, Avery, also spent some time at Mary Washington, so that makes them another threegeneration UMW family!

Deigh Renn described her summer as being “family-, friend-, and fun-filled.” In October, she enjoyed a visit with Barbara Faxon Stout and husband Hal, who left for Colorado soon after. Alberta “Bert” Shelton has entered the world of the historian. Her second article in a series of condensations of her book, Arnold, Maryland: The Little Post Office That Grew, ran in the Anne Arundel County Historical Society’s quarterly publication.

Let us hear from you!

Deadlines for Class Notes submissions: Material received by

Appears in

JULY 15

FALL/WINTER

NOVEMBER 15

SPRING

MARCH 15

SUMMER

death was especially sad for her.

Barbara Pritchard Jones said that “the loss of Jo Harris is still a very sad spot in so many hearts. She was a dear friend who always made one laugh even when things looked gray.” Ginny wrote, “Jo never lost her remarkable sense of humor. We started laughing soon after we met and laughter still punctuated our lunches over the years.” I’m sure each of us has treasured memories of an encounter with Jo.

As usual, our class “Energizer Bunny,” Peggy Hopkins Johnson, is on the go! She enjoyed a trip to Ireland with her sister in June and Ginny directs a church went to Italy for almost two weeks choir, plays piano for various in October. In the meantime, she activities, and helps John with his bought a condo off Sunken Road, photography hobby. Their grandson just below the Jepson Alumni Executive Center, and moved in with The second article in a series help from daughter of condensations of Arnold, Liz and friends. I’m looking forward to Maryland: The Little Post going up to check Office That Grew by Alberta out everything.

“Bert” Shelton ’53 ran in the

Speaking of Anne Arundel County Historical moving, Betsy Dickenson Surles Society’s quarterly publication. reminds us that it is not for sissies at our age! She and Lenny is a freshman at UMW, and their had to move on rather short notice granddaughter, a UMW graduate, and she passes on this wisdom to is a student at U.Va. Ginny said, “I her classmates: “A little is enough if could ask for nothing better for my it meets a need.” grandchildren than to have them keep their special UMW classmates We must add Virginia Bailes’s as close friends for 57 years.” evaluation of the summer of 2010 to all those we heard in July, August, In December of 2009, Carolyn and September. Her adjective of Keck Redic began a four-month choice is “disastrous!” As she cleared journey (with 29 others) as part of the garden in the fall, she found an Elderhostel University at Sea herself wondering if she could group. She visited the Taj Mahal cope with another season. She and rode an elephant in India, continues to clear things out of her then boarded a ship in Singapore house, hoping to move someday, to sail the Indian Ocean. The ship and she stays in contact with Kitty thwarted a Somali pirate attack. In Obenshain and Betty Buck.

Madagascar, the temperatures were so hot that, when a boa constrictor The sad news that Jo Harris died in July came from Ginny Poole was placed around Carolyn’s neck, Kinniburgh. Ginny recalls rooming she welcomed its cool skin! Some of her favorite destinations were with Jo, then being suitemates with Bali, Komodo, Hong Kong, Cape Gen Suits Lasker and Ada Dodrill Gaskill. Gen’s lifelong partner, Paul, Town, Victoria Falls, and Petra.

She also enjoyed a Kenyan safari died last May, so the news of Jo’s

and sleeping on a Vietnamese junk school reunion in August and boat in Ha Long Bay. The Egyptian hoping for cool weather. monuments were awesome, but Betty Lou Maier Irwin helped the Cairo stay was extended nine her daughter-in-law while she days due to Iceland’s volcanic ash. recovered from a hip replacement.

Carolyn’s husband, Jim, has been They have adjoining backyards, gone for two years. When she isn’t traveling the world, she Carolyn Keck Redick ’53 took a spends her days four-month Elderhostel University transporting grandchildren at Sea journey, visiting such places and enjoying her as Bali, Hong Kong, Cape Town, family.

Victoria Falls, and Petra. Along

Nancy the way, she rode an elephant and Melton Miller and I have had handled a boa constrictor; and her a couple of ship had to thwart a pirate attack. conversations lately, which means I’ve met my laugh quota. What a delight so Betty Lou didn’t have to go far. she is!

When waiting for the ferry leaving Nantucket in the fall, she found Please keep in touch and be Mary Ann Dorsey Judy and her grateful for the Mary Washington guest, Nancy Root Skinner, also memories we treasure. heading home, so they had a minireunion, too. Betty Lou planned to head to Naples, Fla., in January.

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Ruth Gillespie Simpson regs2000@aol.com Linda LeHardy Sweet; her houseguests, Barbara “Babs” Wilson Taliaferro-Potter and Margaret “Margie” Hogg Sullivan; and I met in Occoquan, Va., for lunch and a mini-reunion in late July. Linda and Babs attended our last reunion, but I hadn’t seen Margie for several years, and we had a great time.

Margie was to stay in the area for another week or so while house-sitting and visiting family and friends. Babs and Bob planned a trip to Africa along with their usual annual travels.

In late August, Ann “Lewie” Payne Long had a back surgery that was more extensive than the one she had last year. (I hope there will be no competition among our “bionic club members” over the amount of metal in anyone’s body.) In November, she said she was better and about to move from a walker to a cane but still not driving. We wish her a speedy recovery.

Edith Moody Sheffield emailed that it was too hot to do much last summer, with temperatures climbing to 107.

They went to their Kitty Hawk, N.C., condo once but not to the beach. Her son was in Mexico for a week, where it was cooler. She was working on plans for her high

Jane Bradfield Davison had a bad fall and hit her head in June, but she is fine now. She still volunteers with the ladies hospital board, garden club, and thrift shop.

Husband Jack, though paralyzed on his left side after a stroke in 2002, uses a wheelchair and the computer with ease. A nurse helps five days a week.

Carolyn Osborne Jenkins and Bob went to London, Va., in September to see a huge light show in which son Craig participated.

Carolyn said his 30 fixtures were phenomenal and the presentation was fantastic. They also had a great time sightseeing.

Sadly, we send our sincere condolences to Joan Pershing Poling, whose husband, Don, died suddenly at home in August, and to the family of Nancy Poarch Daugherty, who died in November.

1955 Christine Harper Hovis chrishovis@aol.com It seems as if I’ve hit a “recession” in news from you all. I started early with my abject begging to no avail – nada, zip, nothing. Even threats of my creative “filler” writing didn’t strike fear in anyone’s heart. After a second plea, I finally got results, and I thank you very much.

My news revolves around my granddaughter, who is spending her junior year of high school in Germany and having a wonderful time. Her overseas family has taken her all over the place and she has kept a computerized journal. Her German is coming along nicely and her English is beginning to take on German construction!

In August, Lena “Frenchie” French Fuller received from the printer copies of her book Original Land Survey Atlas of Shenandoah County, Va. 1739-1850s, which has been well received and helps families who are searching for their ancestors’ land. She drew each Shenandoah County survey issued

by Lord Fairfax and the Virginia Land Office and placed it on modern USGS topographic maps.

Her two oldest grandsons, along with eight of their cousins, married last year. Luckily, the happy days were spread throughout the year.

and Mike put more than 2,000 miles on their Subaru and saw some beautiful countryside.

Betsy Land Johnson of Green Bay, Wis., had a wild and woolly summer of traveling. She and her oldest daughter took a tour of Eastern Europe that started in Berlin. They planned to spend seven days in the city and hit most of the high spots, but it wasn’t long enough to see all the wonderful museums. They then traveled to Warsaw, Krakow, Budapest, and Prague. The tour was outstanding and they loved every country they visited. Betsy then headed to a family reunion in Myrtle Beach, S.C., where she spent a week with her entire family, as well as her sister and most of her family. There were 28 to gather around the table! Next, she traveled with Wisconsin United Methodist Church to Ica and Pisco in Peru on a two-week medical mission trip that was rewarding but physically challenging. She then went to Germany for the

Joan Kleinknecht started work on a gigantic sunflower Betsy Land Johnson ’55 had an painting and was entire summer of adventure: She off to care for two children whose and her daughter toured Eastern mother, one of Europe, she then joined 27 other Joan’s former students, has family members for a reunion in become a director Myrtle Beach, S.C., after which in her company.

she traveled with Wisconsin For Betsy Blackwell United Methodist Church to Ica Fowler, the and Pisco in Peru on a two-week highlight of 2009 medical mission trip. To top it all was having deep brain stimulation off, she then went to Germany for surgery for the Oberammergau Passion Play.

Parkinson’s.

This involved implanting in the Oberammergau Passion Play. She brain electrodes that are connected thinks this summer will be a Green to a sort of pacemaker. It was highly Bay summer. successful in relieving some of the annoying symptoms of the disease.

Charlotte Fisher Klapproth She also had cataract surgery on and Chris took a September trip to both eyes and a tooth implant. She Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tenn. hoped and expected to return to They had a mini-reunion with the a travel mode in the coming year; two couples they traveled with on meanwhile, gardening is her big riverboat cruises in Europe. They passion. (Betsy, I hope that 2010 was drove through the Great Smoky a better year for you and that you Mountains, shopped, and drank had some wonderful adventures!) beer. There was even moonshine available! In November, Charlotte Ginny Marco Hancock sends and Chris took their RV to Cape greetings to everyone. She and Charles, Va. She loves the hardware Mike drove to Traverse City, Mich., store there and had heard of a to visit daughter Rebecca, who is great fabric store on the way to the second mate on a 1,000-foot Great Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

Lakes bulk carrier. When she was Next, they traveled to the Outer growing up, she was told that girls Banks of North Carolina, where can perform any job, so there she they visited some of their old is helping keep this behemoth of a haunts, saw some old friends they ship on course and loving it! Ginny U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y WA S H I N G TO N M AG A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 1 1

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CL ASS NOTES hadn’t seen in a few years, and ate by driving up to Telluride in at Charlotte’s favorite pizza place. It southwestern Colorado and having was a restful week for both of them. a nostalgic time walking around Now everything is back in full the runs they used to ski every swing: bell choir for Chris, chorale Sandra Cutchins Pittman ’56 and performances for Gary have traveled to all 50 states, Charlotte, and the usual meetings as well as Norway, Germany, and gatherings Russia, China, and Spain. with friends. She said, “I cannot forget about the canasta group, either. My gosh, year for more than 30 years. Their have we gotten this old this fast?” four children (hope that’s right and I didn’t miss anyone) live in Polly Stoddard Heim and Ken California, Colorado, Indiana, and were back in Tucson, Ariz., where Santa Fe, and they visit blue skies and sunshine abound, for fairly regularly. the winter. She hoped to see MaryMargaret Papstein Carter when she Again, I want to thank everyone makes her annual trip to Arizona. who responded with news. You all are saved from my meanderings and Mary Kate Bird Dellett lives in my inability to leave great unfilled Oregon in the summer and Arizona spaces. So, until the next deadline, in the winter and would love take care and stir up some trouble. visitors in either place. Her hobby is volunteering as a tax preparer for the elderly from February through April. She also stays busy with the American Association of University Ann Chilton Power Women, church, friends, and acpower1@earthlink.net travel. She is proud and excited that I keep busy with my Out of the Attic daughter Katherine (Kathy Grace) column for the local newspaper, Hammack was appointed assistant which led me into a small group secretary of the Army in charge of writing a history of Warrenton, Va., all Army installations worldwide. for its bicentennial. I visited Chicago Mary Kate said that Katherine in June and British Columbia in is well qualified for the post and July with my cousin, Mary Chilton extremely good at telling everyone Newell ’54 and her husband, Bill. I what to do. Mary Kate was to spend went on the Rappahannock County Christmas with her and the family artists’ tour last fall and visited at Hilton Head, S.C. Nancy Schultz ’58, who is a popular Sally Watson Castle took the artist there. She was a member of Mary Washington trip to Egypt Russell Walther’s equestrian group and Jordan with her son and his and is in touch with Marion Lee. I wife. Since then, the couple has remember Ozzie Mask and Claire had twins, which makes eight Williams Parker being part grandchildren for Sally. Both of that group, too. Nancy, who her son and daughter live in Sun returns to her native Wisconsin in Valley, Idaho, but she is thankful the summers, explained that she that her third child lives near her. came to Mary Washington when She planned to travel to Florida in she learned of its riding program February for the winter. from a school catalog that fell at her feet from a shelf in a high Nancy Shope Armbruster school study hall! and Joe still live in Plaza del Monte, a retirement community In October, I attended a in downtown Santa Fe, N.M. Last reception and lecture at George February, they took a Caribbean Washington’s Mount Vernon, where cruise on Holland America. They Sandra Day O’Connor was the left Fort Lauderdale, Fla., visited speaker. Coincidentally, she had several islands, then traveled recently visited my son at his office down to the Panama Canal, where in Reno, Nev., where he is publisher they learned about how the canal of the Reno Gazette-Journal. I also operates and some of its history. attended a re-enactment of Ware Nancy said the food on cruises vs. Hylton, a 1790s Supreme Court is remarkably delicious and case, that was presided over by constantly available. Weight gain, Justice Samuel Alito in the Supreme not seasickness, is the great danger Court chambers, with a reception of cruising. In August, she and Joe following. Both events were very celebrated their 55th anniversary informative to this political science

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junkie! I had never toured the Supreme Court building and am infatuated with the new museum at Mount Vernon.

Sandra Cutchins Pittman and Gary celebrated their 50th anniversary with a trip to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania with their four sons, their daughters-in-law, and their six grandchildren, who range from kindergarten- through college-age.

Sandra and Gary have traveled to all 50 states, as well as Norway, Germany, Russia, China, and Spain.

They planned to travel to Australia and New Zealand in late fall and return home in time for Christmas.

column is only as good as the news you all take the time to send.

I’ll begin with the sad and end with happier news. Barbara Dill Montgomery died in October.

Her husband, Charlie, sent a short synopsis of Barbara’s life. They had three daughters, Susan, Linda, and Elizabeth; a son, Stephen; and five grandchildren. Barbara was quite a golfer and won many tournaments at Washington Golf and Country Club and Rehoboth Beach Country Club.

She was stricken with peripheral neuropathy, which caused her to wear leg braces. When she was forced to give up golf, she switched to bridge, after a 40-year hiatus!

She stayed busy with women’s organizations and was a driving force behind the Susan G. Komen Rally for the Cure at Rehoboth Beach Country Club. Having been a breast cancer survivor since 1986, she was perfect for the job, as she was always bright and optimistic about life and people.

Barbara will be sorely missed by all who knew and loved her.

Mickey Foley McDaniel was busy preparing for our 55th reunion the first weekend of June. She traveled all the way from Atlanta to UMW in August for the planning meeting. Carole Petley Toone, Nanalou West Sauder, and others, including myself, joined her for a day. We hope you will reward us with your attendance. Nanalou Ann Davis Spivey had lunch has arranged for our class to have with Susan Bender Trotter in dinner at Brompton, a lovely setting Richmond and enjoyed catching for us to get together over surf up on grandchildren and quilt and turf, veggies, salad, dessert, projects. Ann and husband Joe and wine on that Friday evening. visited with Judy Denton Quillen Imagine drinking on campus! and her husband, also Joe, at their Nanalou loves her new home in cabin in Abingdon, Va., during the Kendal at Lexington. She can cook height of the autumn color. She had when she pleases or eat with peers in the dining Erna MacLaughlin Lawrence ’57 room. She enjoys her two cats and and Kent attended a gathering of exercises regularly her clan at the MacLachlan Castle in the community pool and by on Loch Fyne in Scotland. At the walking her 1796 castle, they met MacLachlans cocker spaniel, Layla. She keeps from eight countries. in touch with another cocker the opportunity to visit with our owner, Ozzie Mask, who continues new president and his wife in early with her Sweet Adelines choral October. They traveled together to group. Who doesn’t remember Chile in 2008.

Ozzie singing and strumming in the halls of Mary Washington?

Betty Rhodes O’Donnell wrote a lovely note. She wields her My computer is aging faster pen like an accomplished writer, than I am, and the feedback is so I’ll just copy her words. “On an sparse. Perhaps it is time to “hang overcast late October afternoon, the it up,” but I hope to see you at the deciduous trees at Craftsman Farms reunion first. were especially vibrant and the beautiful property most appealing where noted turn-of-the-century designer Gustav Stickley’s former Joan Callahan Frankhauser home and workshops are located in mahlonandjoan@verizon.net Morris Plains, N.J. The property is a National Historic Site and offers Special kudos go to Polly Smith visitors an appealing glimpse of the Nelson for the wonderful job Arts and Crafts Movement, with she did as our Class Agent the its distinctive wooden furniture, past three years. I thank those of textiles, metal, and ceramic, all of you who responded to my recent high quality. The small museum was postcard with your news. The

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a recent discovery, as my daughter, Megan, who my husband and I were visiting, moved to Morristown two months ago.”

Virginia Wesleyan College. She’s thankful she can still sing and even, sometimes, still hit the old high C. (She still has her sense of humor intact, I might add!) She continues to quilt and sew a little and is part of the worldwide service organization Pilot International. She and Cliff, who celebrated their 50th anniversary last year, have traveled quite a bit. Last summer, they took a cruise to Italy and Greece, witnessed a Stromboli eruption, and saw Pompeii and the Roman ruins. The poor job market

Jean Durham Busboso and husband Buz celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with family and friends. With one exception, their wedding was a simple one.

Buz’s family in Hawaii was unable to attend and sent a bushel of orchids. The flowers were used to decorate the cake, reception table, and matron of honor’s bouquet, Joyce Bristow Wrestler ’57 and and scattered by Cliff, who celebrated their 50th the flower girl as she walked anniversary, took a cruise to Italy down the center and Greece, witnessed a Stromboli aisle. Orchids were also used for eruption, and saw Pompeii and the decorations at the Roman ruins.

50th celebration, again on the cake and also in combination with has affected some of the Wrestler magnolia leaves to decorate the offspring, but Joyce has faith that tables. Among the guests were Jean’s things will slowly improve. They former roommate Joyce Bristow have four grandchildren.

Wrestler, who also attended the Betsy Jones Ware’s son, Latani Busbosos’ 1960 wedding, and her Jr., and his family plan to remain in husband, Cliff. She ends with this Argentina for three years instead of statement: “Orchids (from Hawaii) the two they’d previously planned. and magnolias (from Virginia) are a Betsy’s granddaughters, ages 13 and winning combination, just as [the] 10, go to St. Andrew’s Scots School marriage has been!” and their parents take courses at the Meredith Puller Townes and University of Buenos Aires. Latani husband Jack had quite a year. They and Betsy were looking forward to spent five days in London, then flew visiting them in December. Daughter to France, where their visit to the Elizabeth works for a financial beaches at Normandy was a powerful consulting firm in Richmond. Betsy and moving experience. The often sees Lucy Meade and husband Towneses have two granddaughters, Eddie, who retired from Davenport one in high school and one in middle and Co. in Richmond. school, and three grandsons, two Erna MacLaughlin Lawrence in college and one in high school. and Kent attended a gathering of Grandson Jake received the Eagle her clan at the MacLachlan Castle Scout Award in the spring. Meredith on Loch Fyne in Scotland. Clan still plays golf and bridge, and she Chief Euan MacLachlan, who sees Ann Winters Haynie once in still lives in the “new” 1796 castle, a while. hosted the three-day event. They Barbara Morton Williamson met MacLachlans from eight moved to Carol Woods, a retirement countries, including Australia and community in Chapel Hill, N.C., New Zealand, and loved visiting the to be closer to daughter Amy, hauntingly beautiful ruins of the who lives in Charlotte, teaches in original 1300s castle, destroyed by a charter school, and had baby the British after the 1746 Battle of Penelope (Barbara’s first grandchild) Culloden. The clan is trying to raise in October. At her new home, money to restore the old castle and Barbara enjoys an interesting group to keep the on-site restaurant going. of people, many who have taught Contact Erna if you’re looking for a at nearby colleges and universities charming place to stay in Scotland! and have fascinating tales to tell. She Vickie Majure Souder was would love to hear from classmates heading to London, where one in the area, and you can contact me daughter and her family live, then to for her address.

Paris to visit her younger son and his Joyce Bristow Wrestler family. Jane Sjostrom Wyman and continues to sing in a church choir her husband, both active Shriners, and in community performances, enjoy a quiet and peaceful life with like The Messiah and concerts at their family.

Ellen Hertz Hewitt and Charlie were in France for a month, spending a week with Barbara Russell Karski, who went to Mary Washington her freshman year, and her husband, Michel. The Hewitts also spent three days with a French friend Ellen hadn’t seen in 65 years.

He and his brother lived with her family in Connecticut after World War II, while their parents returned to Paris to see if it was safe to bring the family home. After several attempts, Ellen finally located the brothers and had a wonderful visit with one of them. The other lives in Philadelphia. She and Charlie planned to attend an ecumenical convention in Fredericksburg in December and had reservations at the Jepson Alumni Executive Center. They thought the price was worth it for the fun of spending a night on campus. Ellen visited with Cathy Wall Rice in Charlottesville, where Ellen’s husband, Charlie, and Cathy’s husband, Ben, former fraternity brothers, were celebrating their reunion. The couples see each other at U.Va. football games.

would be more complete. Carol said, “I think fondly of Lois Prime, Meredith Puller, Sandy Ball, and many more.”

Thank you all for sending your news!

1958 Susannah Godlove sgodlove@valleyhealthlink.com Jerry Stocks Sample had a surgery that went well but left her on painkillers for a while. Over the Halloween weekend, Jerry, Mary McCardell Furr, and Carol Ann LaSalle McMahon Roberts, along with their husbands, had their annual roommates’ reunion at Mary’s house in Norfolk, Va., where they have met for 17 years.

Their fourth roommate, Francis Karins Updike, and husband Bud, who had already left for their winter home in Florida, could not join them this year. The group is grateful that Mary Washington helped form these wonderful friendships so many years ago.

Let’s step back a bit more to Sally Boyce Sullivan has our days at Willard! Carol Bewley lived in Dallas with her family Dalhouse wrote that she lived on since March of 1960. She writes the third floor of Willard and the that Dallas is a beautiful, cultural, top floor of Mason. She’ll never and booming community. Sally forget bringing her 6-week-old daughter to visit and catching Peggy Kelley Reinburg ’58 has her class lining performed solo organ recitals up in Ball Hall to practice for throughout the United States, graduation!

Canada, Germany, France, and the That baby, by the way, Netherlands. She also is an organ was Laurie design and restoration consultant Dalhouse Saunders ’79. and frequently lectures on that topic Carol’s father as well as on sacred music. was on the board at that enjoys spending time with her two time and was able to award her children and two grandchildren, diploma. It was a great moment! who live nearby. Her husband, a Carol has many friends nearby who CPA, has had his own business graduated from Mary Washington since 1980 and she has been his (May Meyer Justice and Helene secretary. They enjoy going on Martin Vest) or spent a year or two cruises, especially to the Panama there (Joyce Lennon Goodwin, Canal, Alaska, the Mediterranean, Virginia Lee Cox Trippear, Nancy and Northern Europe.

Pilcher Hagan, and Carol’s dear friend Ann Masters Davy, who Kay Martin Britto had died last December). Sadly, Carol’s fun attending the American sister, Janet Bewley Edmunds ’59, Library Association meeting died two years ago. Carol said that, in Washington, D.C., with her though all of us are much older daughter, a librarian in Leesburg, than we ever imagined, she still Va. Kay had a great visit with her pictures our classmates as young sophomore roommate, who lives in and full of spirit as we were in her family home outside Richmond. the mid-’50s. She keeps up with everyone by avidly reading Class Nancy Prosee Kurz shared Notes and wishes more people memories of living on Adams Street would write so that her memories in Fredericksburg, playing on the U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y WA S H I N G TO N M AG A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 1 1

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CL ASS NOTES golf course that is now the site of UMW’s Battleground Athletic Complex, and being a day student.

She still has family in Fredericksburg and visits every few months. She has a large doll collection and participated in the annual doll show there last year. Some of her favorite Mary Washington memories are from the years when she sang in the choir under the direction of Dr. George Luntz. Nancy’s minor was in school music and she taught in Maryland and Delaware. Her oldest son, a pianist, is on the staff of Rice University in Houston and plays in the Houston Symphony.

In January of 2010, Nancy, her husband, and her other son attended the symphony’s performance of The Planets at Carnegie Hall. She retired 10 years ago after a career in human resources at a local bank. She spends time with her two grandchildren, roots for the Philadelphia Phillies, reads, and sings with her church’s cantata choir.

Peggy Kelley Reinburg has had a long career in music. She received a bachelor’s degree in music from Mary Washington and a master’s degree in church music and musicology from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., where she studied with Richard Enright.

She completed postgraduate coursework at the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and was a student of the renowned Gustav Leonhardt. Peggy is artistic director of the Organ Swell recital series presented by the Tidewater chapter of the American Guild of Organists at the Virginia Arts Festival and is founder and artistic director of Ensemble Baroque, based in Norfolk. She has performed solo organ recitals throughout the United States, Canada, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. She is an organ design and restoration consultant and frequently lectures on that topic as well as on sacred music. Peggy, a strong advocate for youth involvement in music, designed and co-implemented the 1988 AGO national pilot projects for the Pipe Organ Encounters youth program. This year, she will tour the United States with her lecture-recital commemorating the centennial anniversary of French organist and composer Jehan Alain.

I moved to another unit at Fort Loudoun Apartments, and my mail has been a little messed up. When the Office of Alumni Relations sent postcards, I received one addressed to myself in Winchester, Va., and 46

one, which I forwarded, addressed to Betty Morin Goble in Snellville, Ga. I want to thank our classmates who took the time to write.

1959 Edna Gooch Trudeau ednanewkent@verizon.net My 18-month-old grandson, Lucas, starts running as soon as his feet hit the floor in the morning and falls out at night. He’s speaking in short sentences and his grandmother adores everything he does.

Martha Spilman Clark’s boys’ home in Lima, Peru, was washed away during the summer floods, and they were temporarily housed in an old hotel. They were looking for a place to rebuild in the same area. Martha’s husband, Paul, found land for another home that was to be added to their worksite this year. Repairs to the Amazon Hope medical ship are complete and it can again sail to provide aid to those in need. The Clarks’ program for the deaf is growing. Son Billy is busy with work teams that have shown much advancement.

Martha enjoyed her daughter’s visit and especially her three children.

Martha teaches a community Bible study class for women of all ages and sings in a women’s choir in Lima. Paul continues as director of Scripture Union. They enjoy good health and are committed for life to their missionary work.

Cecile Duncan Folan received a letter from Frances Bourke Firth, who took an Alaskan cruise and land tour with husband Roger.

Cecile also spoke with Mary Louise Cork Hendrix, who was recovering from a broken bone in her upper arm after falling while watering her yard, and Sigrid Stanley Jackman, who planned to take a two-week trip to Barbados with husband Bill in October.

Marne Reese Jones had a mini-reunion with Cecile, Carol Kowalski Reidy, Yvonne Wright Floyd, and Zada Taylor Knackle.

In one afternoon, they managed to overeat, talk nonstop, and solve many world problems.

1960 Jody Campbell Close jodycampbellclose60@alumni.umw.edu Karen Larsen Nelson karenlarsen60@alumni.umw.edu It’s hard to believe that our 50th reunion was a year ago. Jody and I are still processing all the memories, as are most of you who were there, I’m sure.

Darrell and I (Karen) had a busy two months of RV travel on the East Coast last summer, including Mother’s Day with our son and his family in Florida, driving the Blue Ridge Parkway, attending the reunion, visiting friends and relatives in the Washington, D.C., area, and ending with a week at Disney World with our whole family, including 17 grandchildren and their parents!

We celebrated our 50th anniversary in September with two parties, one during a dance weekend in Albuquerque, N.M., and a later

Irene Piscopo Rodgers and Don visited relatives in Kansas and Pennsylvania during the summer.

Irene still does microscopy at Hunter College but on her own terms and when she wants to!

Gloria Winslow Borden was in Hawaii last summer, and Audrey Dubetsky Doyle joined Jane Tucker Broadbooks ’59 and John her for five days. Aud is celebrated their 50th anniversary with hanging in a cruise to Bermuda. there, with some good one here in Mesa, Ariz., with local and some not-so-good days. Her three children live nearby and are friends. We still round dance in her strongest support. the winter. We plan to return to our trailer in the mountains for Phyllis Hartleb Rowley was Memorial Day and a relatively planning a big birthday party for peaceful season at senior summer her husband in October. They camp, with no major travel plans. visited son Phillip and family in San Francisco in September and Jody’s two sons are Marine planned to see Stanford play Wake colonels stationed at Quantico, Forest and USC. Jane Tucker Va., and her daughter, who lives Broadbooks and John celebrated in Washington, is a leadership/ their 50th anniversary with a cruise organizational development to Bermuda. Son Jon Karl and counselor. As if owning up to the family visited for a week in July. years during our 50th reunion

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wasn’t enough to turn Jody’s hair white, her first-born, who created quite a stir at Mary Washington just before graduation, turned 50 in 2010 and plans to retire in the next couple of years. Jody said, “I am NOT old enough to have an old retiree for a son!” She also wrote that she has “enjoyed” one adventure (or misadventure) after another since our reunion. Most recently, the refrigerator installers inadvertently pinched the copper water line that ran behind the wall, and it streamed water for some time before she discovered it flowing into the dining room.

Much repair and confusion, not to mention sloshing, followed. It kind of spoiled her new-car celebration, but with reliable wheels, she was itching for a road trip and said that she might have to take an alumnae tour and pop in on many of you to collect your news. Jody still enjoys genealogy and planned to take a 14-week certification course at Boston University.

Janet Hook Foley, Dee Merrill Albright, and Rita Knupp Burke (roomies and suitemate) did not attend the reunion in June but chose to do their own in July.

They toured the campus, had fun watching and giving directions to the new students who were lost, and enjoyed cutting across the grass in Ball Circle, legally. They visited old haunts in downtown Fredericksburg, were amazed by the new Eagle Landing apartment complex, and planned another reunion in a year or so. (Sounds like what we did at the official reunion, and there were 42 of us doing it together.)

Sharane “Mickey” McManus Dukatz wrote that she had intended to reconnect with us for years, after she began receiving the alumni magazine, and is delighted to be back in touch. (She and I, Karen, were Mary Washington majorettes.)

Mickey transferred after sophomore year and finished her education at the University of Minnesota. She and Frank winter at Bullhead City, Ariz., just a few hours from us.

Joyce Neill Krost has gotten back into painting seriously in the past few years and loves it, as always. She spent a few months in Spain, with a side trip to Africa, visiting family and painting. Her sister lives in Spain, and her son, Neill, a diplomat with the State Department, lives with his wife and two boys in Tunisia. Needless to say, Joyce was well taken care of and spoiled in both places. She lives in

a condo near a lake in Cleveland.

Her three other children live within a few miles of her, so she gets lots of time with the grandchildren.

Joyce said, I am “thankful for my years at Mary Washington and the liberal education that seems to have prepared me for whatever comes my way.”

on last-minute plans to attend our 50th reunion, and she praised the committee members for their excellent work. This past fall, Joan spent a week in Connecticut, followed by two weeks with friends in France, where there were no crowds, few tourists, and nice weather, and they were fortunate to have had the use of a Paris apartment on Boulevard du Montparnasse. They weren’t terribly inconvenienced by the strikes but had problems finding gas on strike days. Joan also spent time with friends on a horse farm in Normandy and visiting a UNESCO heritage site at Carcassonne.

Several months ago, Jody and I gave the ladies on our email lists an assignment to share their Mary Washington memories with us.

Betty Ditmars Prosser listed these reminiscences: the hushed sounds of footsteps and the smell on an early spring morning as we walked to the dining room, midnight curfews, makeshift kitchens on Jody was in touch with several the dorm floor, hotplates warming classmates. Bayla Goldberg Manis endless cups of coffee, bridge reported that she is well and sent games, cramming for exams, greetings. Nancy Moncure Deiss, Marine Corps balls in October, the who was at Reunion Weekend bookstore and the heaviness of the and seated in the front row of texts, visits to Washington, Sue Smith Goodrick ’60 celebrated D.C., crossing her birthday with a four-day trip, the highway to Howard visiting Asheville, touring the Johnson, formal Biltmore Estate, and taking a lazy teas with white gloves, lyceums, drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway. talking long into the night, bonding with our room- and our infamous class picture, also hall-mates, having sisters after all sent her good wishes. Sue Smith the years, gathering the mail at the Goodrick, in the second row of school post office, awaiting letters our picture, was planning an April from far-away boyfriends and river cruise on the Rhine. She family, wearing Bermudas under was on a barge cruise last season our trench coats, being addressed and made a run to Australia right in class as “Miss” instead of by after Reunion. She celebrated her our first names, and watching and birthday with a four-day trip, waiting for life to happen to us. visiting Asheville, N.C., where Betty wrote that Mary Washington she toured the Biltmore Estate was “not only an education; it and took a lazy drive along the was cultivation, motivation, and Blue Ridge Parkway. Betty Call inspiration. There were lessons to Snead Dorset’s husband’s serious be learned inside and outside of health concerns kept her from our books. There was maturity to be reunion, but she wanted to hear all reached and recognized. We were your news and was proud to tell us learning about the world and our about her daughter, an acclaimed place in it. Mary Washington was physician; her son-in-law, an a beginning that introduced us to equally skilled Air Force physician our future and hopefully prepared serving overseas; and her four us for it. We were what we would darling grandchildren. become and we are who we are Finally, on a sad note, Mary because of those years. A toast to Jane Stevens Taylor reported that Mary Washington … and cheers her four-year Mary Washington to the dedicated professors and roomie, Jean Clark Weatherson, staff who nurtured our dreams died in September of medical and made us a ‘family’ away from complications following surgery. home. We shall remember Mary She was a military wife who Washington always.” devoted her time to her family, military families, and her church.

Betty Oliver Bridgman wrote to thank us for remembering her Keep those emails coming, birthday and said it’s still great to ladies. There are lots of classmates live in Colorado. Joan Scarritt waiting with baited breath for Reynolds wrote that she was your news. happy that she followed through

1961 Connie Booth Logothetis (A – L) connielogothetis@gmail.com Lynne Williams Neave (M – Z) lyneave@aol.com [Please send news to the designated Class Agent according to the first letter of your MAIDEN name.]

From Connie: By the time you read this, our 50th reunion will nearly be upon us. I am excited and hope you are, too! Much of my news is gleaned from making my reunion giving calls, which were such fun, as though 50 years had not passed.

Andy and I spent a week exploring the Outer Banks of North Carolina in September, before all the rains, and planned to go on a South American Overseas Adventure Travel trip in January to Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and the Chilean fjords.

Due to an editing error in the fall/winter issue of University of Mary Washington Magazine, the following information regrettably was linked to the wrong class member. It should have read: Connie Booth Logothetis is playing some tennis and was on a USTA senior team that went to the North Carolina state championships. She said it was lots of fun even though her team didn’t win the trophy! She and Andy spent 10 days visiting her sister, Linkey Booth Green ’63, in Carlisle, Pa., where they biked, kayaked, ate out, and went to outdoor concerts.

Connie and Andy enjoy grandson Leo, who is a constant talker!

Mary Hatcher and Connie got together for lunch and to exchange gardening information. Mary has taken the Master Gardener course and Connie is partially re-doing her yard.

was appointed to the Real Estate Appraisal Board and makes several trips to the United States each year. She joined the local theater group and starred in the play Proof. Husband George is retired and daughter Catherine joined Noreen’s company.

Boson Books of North Carolina published Kelly Cherry’s collection of stories called The Woman Who as a paperback and an e-book in September. She spent time last summer working on a long poem at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. Husband Burke Davis was renovating their house, which meant they spent a few months in a rental. Earlier this year, Kelly was named Virginia’s Poet Laureate.

Pepper Jacobs Germer and Hank discovered what several classmates already have undertaken: trips with Grand Circle Travel or Overseas Adventure Travel. The Germers went to Paris and on a Seine River cruise for three weeks in March and were “treated like kings and queens!” Their other travels were to local attractions such as Franklin, Tenn., where they visited Carnton Plantation and Battlefield. They have gone to Branson, Mo., for fun, shopping, and excellent shows and to Virginia to visit old friends. They have one grandchild, 2-year-old Henry, and were delighted that their daughter and her family moved from California to the Houston area.

Now they can make the 10-hour drive from Jonesboro, Ariz., to visit as often as possible. A trip with their son to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico was planned for the fall. Pepper’s summer project was making “fussy” seat covers for her dining room chairs. She and Hank are active in their church and feel very blessed. Pepper said, “We can’t wait to come to our 50th reunion!”

Charlotte Howard Austin and Hank of Papillion, Neb., In August, Noreen Galvin also are excited about coming to Dunn, who lives on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Linda Sue Olinger Shaw ’61 has a Islands, wrote that she and graduate degree from Harvard and Judy LaRoe is a retired economics professor at Hare are interested in Longwood University. “this amazing reunion.” During Fredericksburg for our 50th. In the last 50 years, Noreen has had October, they planned to visit plenty of fun and been lucky friends as they traveled across the enough to travel, work in many country to Charleston, S.C., where places, and achieve a little bit of they were to spend eight days and success. At 68, she passed the exam attend Hank’s 50th reunion at The to become one of three commercial Citadel. On a 2008 visit to the Mary appraisers on St. Croix. She also U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y WA S H I N G TO N M AG A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 1 1

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Washington campus, they ran into the assistant dean of admissions, who gave them a tour and showed them the renovations to Ball Hall.

Charlotte said, “I am looking forward to seeing everyone.”

again. Carolyn spoke with Lynne Williams Neave about money for the Reunion Eagle Award and said that she is saving for that donation and hopes our class will be generous. She is thankful to have received a solid education and made lifelong friends at Mary Washington. Carolyn visited with Renee Levinson Laurents in Los Angeles twice, staying once with

Dee Doran Cairns and Doug returned from New York in November, having spent two days at West Point, seeing a parade and attending the Air Force-Army The Chesapeake Bay Foundation football game.

Air Force named Kay Slaughter ’61 Virginia won, but Dee Conservationist of the Year for 2010. said that, as an Army brat and mom, she would have been her and her darling pet family happy either way! Being at West and again on Labor Day weekend, Point brought back memories when she and Kara joined Renee of weekend trips from Mary for a snack in Santa Monica.

Washington and visits with son Carolyn planned to go to Dallas Rob during his four years there. for Thanksgiving with son Raj and They planned to come to the grandson Alex, a kindergartener reunion with Patty Cairns Hourin who is reading and loves sports and Jim. On a trip to Virginia and school. and Pennsylvania last year, Carol Grant LeMay visited Mary Babs Buse Johnson of Bowie, Washington for the first time since Md., transferred to Gettysburg graduation and couldn’t believe all College after two years with us, the changes. The highlight of the but she feels very close to our trip was meeting Bev Carlson Shea class and plans to come to the and Jim in Gettysburg, Pa. Carol reunion with Matt McCeney felt as though they had just seen Campbell of Nashville, Tenn., each other a week before. They and Jean Ryan Farrell. Babs lives also visited the National Museum close to her 96-year-old mother, of the Marine Corps at Quantico outside Annapolis, but her two and traveled through West Virginia daughters and five grandchildren on the way home. The LeMays are in Seattle and Orlando, Fla.! spend a lot of time running the Her husband died a few years roads to Birmingham, Ala., where ago. Matt, who also transferred daughter Jill lives with her family, from Mary Washington after two and they attended grandson Jacob’s years, went to the University of sixth birthday party. Carol still Tennessee in Knoxville, majored conducts tours of historic Natchez in English, and earned her master’s in Mississippi. They planned to degree in English education in take a 12-day cruise on the eastern 1982. Through the years, she Caribbean in February as an early worked as a newspaper reporter, celebration of their 50th wedding English teacher, and real estate anniversary. Carol hopes to make agent in Atlanta and Nashville, and it to the reunion and looks forward she served on a higher education to seeing everyone. commission. She has a daughter and a son, both of whom are Eleanor Knight Jensen married with children. Marie and Cliff of Connecticut took Butler Skalski of Springfield, Va., a short trip to New Hampshire sells furniture for JCPenney at and Vermont to view the fall Springfield Mall. Her ex-husband foliage. The weather cooperated died last year, and she has one son and the colors were spectacular. and three grandchildren. Marie isn’t They stayed at the Crotched sure she can come to the reunion Mountain Resort in Francestown, but is still in touch with former N.H., which is operated by Shell roomie Margaretta Kirksey Bir, a Vacations, the company they rent widow who lives in her hometown from on the Big Island of Hawaii. of Eutaw, Ala., and Sue Butzner Maschino of McLean, Va. Marie Carolyn Crum Pannu wrote also said that Sandy Noyes of that she is thrilled about the Florida has three daughters. reunion. She and Pat Scott Peck, who plan to be roommates, are to I talked with two classmates meet in Washington, D.C., before from freshman year in Cornell, the reunion and return there for roomie Carlotta Croghan Clark a short visit before heading west

of Annapolis, Md., and suitemate Sandee Judkins Armitage of Peoria, Ariz. Sandee married Bob in 1961, and they plan to take a family cruise from Bayonne, N.J., to Bermuda in June to celebrate their 50th anniversary! She and Bob lived in Connecticut for more than 25 years and have three daughters and five grandchildren. Sandee sounds as fun-loving as ever. Carlotta and Preston had a successful six-store lighting business for many years and sold it in 2009. Their two daughters and four grandchildren live nearby. After graduation, Carlotta worked for three years at NIH with Rosie Borke, and then taught science at a private high school before going into the lighting business. Now she has more free time to play tennis (she ranks 4.0) and travel. She and Preston planned to take a repositioning cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Copenhagen and to hopefully fly home in time for the reunion.

Shirley Garman told her that our freshman suitemate Jane Snyder Osman Felber died of liver cancer a few years ago. Neither of us knows about former suitemates Ginny Cusick Hanlon and Sandy Kollender.

in Boca Raton, Fla. Pam has three children from her first husband.

Bob promised to convey our wish that they both attend the reunion.

I was delighted to talk with “Georgie” Georgeou Rahnias, as our husbands were classmates at the same high school in Thessaloniki, Greece. George has not attended any of those reunions, but Georgie said they plan to attend ours. He is a dentist, and she works full time as his office manager. They lead a quiet life in Holmdel, N.J., and have two married daughters and six grandchildren. Georgie took up ballroom dancing three years ago, after giving up tennis. Another classmate of Greek descent, Maddie Contis Marken, lives in Falmouth, Mass., and does per diem social work full time for local hospitals and clinics. She has three children, including a son who is engaged to be married in early June, and she hikes and bikes in various countries. She and her daughter visited the village her parents are from in Epirus, Greece. Maddie and Cathy Ledner Kuttner of Basking Ridge, N.J., who has three children and works as a mental health clinician, hope to come to the reunion together.

Beautiful Aundriette Miller Vesta “Monnie” Smith Smith and her Marine, John, have Newhouse, who has attended returned to her childhood home in Summer Shade, Ky., to a farm where several reunions, plans to come to our big one with Sue Southern they have a herd of 50 registered Roush of Gainesville, Va., and Angus cattle. After three years of Cherry Sarff Everett of Port Royal, Marine life, they lived in Belleview, Va. These three went to Wakefield Wash., where she was a hotel High School in Virginia and were caterer. They have a son, a daughter, freshman year roomies in Betty and four grandchildren, two of Lewis Hall. Monnie works full whom are considering attending time at NBC station WRC-TV UMW! Linda Sue Olinger Shaw in Washington, D.C., in the sales has a graduate degree from department and traffic area, and Harvard, is a retired economics professor at Longwood At age 68, Noreen Galvin Dunn ’61 University, passed the exam to become one of and lives in three commercial appraisers on St. Floyd, Va. Judy Reese Nye Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and went to Mary was appointed to the Real Estate Washington for two years before Appraisal Board. transferring to another school compiling the program log. Sue and lives in her hometown of went to Mary Washington for two Columbia, S.C., with husband John. years, then to nursing school at Judy worked as vice president/ U.Va. Cherry went for one year manager of an insurance agency before getting married. Monnie and has been in contact with passed on the sad news that their Sandra Williamson, who also suitemate Henrietta Overton lives in Columbia and was with us Hutchinson died several years ago. for one year. Pam Ristori Sigda is busy as a self-employed clinical In addition to Mary Hatcher psychologist, so I talked to her and me, Connie, there are at husband, Bob, a retired college least two other classmates in professor, instead. They enjoy life Wilmington, N.C., Elizabeth U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y WA S H I N G TO N M AG A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 1 1

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CL ASS NOTES Stewart Grenzebach, who was in Fla., with wife Maria and works the medical technology program and at the Naval Air Station in left to spend her senior year at MCV, Jacksonville. They were expecting and June Walton Lederle. Elizabeth a baby boy, their fourth, in lived in Cornell freshman year December. The Ashleys’ oldest son, with Mary McMorrow Swanson of Chris, lost his job and started two Clearwater, Fla., and Chloe Irvin part-time jobs. Their fourth son, Weaver of Dunedin, Fla. Elizabeth, Andrew, works in Washington, D.C. whose husband, Jim, died in 1989, Polly Updegraff Champ ’61 recently sold her house and was to continues her theatrical rent an apartment involvement, recently working for a year before deciding where to wardrobe, dressing the children for live. She was born the Broadway tour of South Pacific in Virginia. June married Albert, a and for Porgy and Bess. pro football player from Georgia We Logothetises and Ashleys had State and former Washington a wonderful time at the wedding of Redskin, in 1959. Her roomies were our roomie Janie Riles to Jim Dietz Eli Dunn Moody of Charlotte, N.C., in an old country church, with who later went to MCV; Sylvia a reception at the beautiful farm Garland Wickwire of Savannah, of Jim’s sister and husband near Ga.; and Renee Levinson Laurents Staunton, Va. of Culver City, Calif.

I caught up with Bobbie Brookes Nation while she was in Richmond visiting her 96-year-old mother and her sister, Pamela Brookes Weiseman ’63. Bobbie has lived in London for 41 years, having married an Englishman who is now deceased. She has two daughters and two grandsons, all of whom live near her in Chelsea, “a lovely part of the world.” I expected her to have a British accent, but she said she didn’t want to have a “bad accent” and made a point to keep her American dialect! Her own interior design business kept her busy for several years, but she has retired from that and hopes to come to the reunion.

Finally, I called my sophomore roomie, Elizabeth Wright Coxe, of Phoenix, Md., and put in a strong message to come to the reunion!

Elizabeth, or “Bitsy” as she didn’t mind being called then, married in 1959 and finished her degree at Goucher College in Baltimore. She was a partner in a travel business until Sept. 11, 2001. I went on one of her walking trips to Alsace, France, and the Black Forest in Germany in 1999. She has two grown sons and a granddaughter, Alice, who is about 5.

Clara Sue Durden Ashley and Clarence planned to attend the December retirement ceremony of their second son, Park, at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida. He served for 20 years and was looking for a job, with his first choice being to work as a civilian at WrightPatterson AFB in Ohio. Their third son, Dennis, lives in St. Augustine, 50

Renee Levinson Laurents took a short trip to Sierra National Forest in August. She said that the giant trees are jaw-droppers, the fauna is wonderful, and deer, bears, chipmunks, and other denizens of the forest abound. She still writes and does the constitution and current events classes. Some days, she does nothing but read, and she loves it! Other days, she’s all over the place, with theater, events around town, and lunches and dinners with friends. “I’m as busy as I want to be,” she said. “Some days, I just don’t want to be!”

I believe I neglected to thank Renee for serving as Class Agent for the past three years. She certainly has a lively writing style, which we will miss. Thank you, Renee!

Many, many thanks for sending your news and for the kind words about our Class Notes columns. It’s a lot of work but well worth it. See you in June at UMW! From Lynne: I was delighted to hear from a few people who have never before submitted news. The other exciting thing is that almost everybody I heard from plans to attend our 50th reunion. It is going to be the best one ever, I think.

Sandy and I are well. We did not take any exotic trips last year, but we planned to take a cruise around New Zealand and Australia in February. Patty Cairns Hourin and a high school buddy of ours visited me in New York in October.

We did many touristy things but spent much time reminiscing about

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our years in Virginia. Upon leaving New York, Patty flew to Hawaii to visit son Scott and his family, who live in Haleiwa, on the north shore of Oahu.

Judy Saunders Slifer and Eleanore Saunders Sunderland planned to take the 2011 Grand European Tour on a Viking ship in May to celebrate Judy’s return to good health after having multiple myeloma. She is on a maintenance regime, which is going well. She has only a few side effects from the chemo, has gained all of her weight back and more, and loves being outside and active again. Judy and Eleanore had a mini-reunion at her home last summer when Babs Buse Johnson and Sue Butzner Maschino visited after reading about her illness in Class Notes.

Eleanore and Judy get together frequently with Linda Taylor Drustrup for dinner or the theater.

Polly Updegraff Champ, who also visited Judy last spring, continues her theatrical involvement, recently working wardrobe, dressing the children for the Broadway tour of South Pacific and for Porgy and Bess.

Thanks to the Mary Washington theater department, she always receives accolades. They are in Florida for the winter, where Polly has resumed church activities as president of the women’s fellowship.

They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in November with a special communion worship service. She plays tennis, walks, coleads an exercise class, and has been a volunteer for the Delray Beach Police Department for 11 years.

Janie Riles and Jim Dietz married in October (see reference in Connie’s section), after being friends for 12 years. They plan to continue their bi-coastal lives between Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and San Diego and to come to our reunion in June. Janie continues to lead her watercolor workshop in Cannes, France, and it was great fun and a huge success last summer.

Barbara Upson Gravely Welch and Chuck are pilots and fly their plane from Delaware to their other home in the Poconos most weekends. They had a wonderful trip up the West Coast, from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore., in September to visit their son. They also visited the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., where they met up with Marilyn “Mouse” Messier Whitmore, who is a docent there and plans to attend the reunion. Barbara also spoke to Maria “Bunny” Rogallo Samuels,

who told her how Mouse got her nickname, but we’ll have to wait until the reunion to find out. Mouse and Bill continue to spend a week each month at their Las Vegas home and to enjoy their 10 grandchildren, who all live in Simi Valley.

Kay Slaughter has been in touch with many of our classmates.

Last spring, she saw Cynthia Scott Cozewith, her roommate who transferred to Carnegie Tech. Cynthia lives in Houston with husband Charlie and makes beautiful ceramic and metal sculpture. Kay also visited with Judy Kennedy Matthews, who graduated from nursing school at U.Va. and lives with husband John in Martinsville. Suzanne Stafford of Marin County, Calif., who left Mary Washington with Kay to attend UNC-Chapel Hill, visited Charlottesville in April with others from Kay’s Carolina sorority Kappa Delta. Suzanne is retired, sings in her church choir, and takes lots of classes and trips.

Kay retired in August, amid a slew of fun parties, after 24 years with Southern Environmental Law Center. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation named her 2010 Virginia Conservationist of the Year. She said she was flattered and it was gratifying to receive so many accolades. “It was like being at your funeral, only you’re alive to hear the funny stories and the appreciation.”

Since retirement, Kay has traveled to the Tuscany region of Italy, to leaf-peep in Vermont, and to visit a granddaughter expecting Kay’s great-grandson in Kentucky. She plans to be at our 50th, which is also her 50th at UNC and her 25th at U.Va. School of Law. Renee Skinner Wheeler, freshman year roomie of Peggy Howard, said she has read all the class news for years. After sophomore year, she transferred to the Norfolk, Va., branch of the College of William and Mary, which later became known as Old Dominion University. She married her high school sweetheart in 1961, so their 50th is coming up, too. Skip Wheeler retired in 1986 after 27 years as a pilot in the Air Force, then went to work for SRA. The Wheelers moved 17 times in 21 years, and Peggy taught or substituted when she could. They have lived in Springfield, Va., since 1980 and don’t intend to move.

They have three children – Cheryl Mittelman lives in Bristow, Va., and has three children; Michael, the general manager at Cherokee

Town and Country Club, lives in Atlanta with his two sons; and Jennifer lives in Seattle, where her husband is a vice president at Alaska Airlines, with their two children. Peggy and Skip have a log home at Lake Anna, just outside of Fredericksburg, where they spend most weekends. Her mother will be 96 in April.

Pat Scott Peck left her place in Calais, Maine, early last year to oversee a construction project in the basement of her Washington, D.C., duplex. On her way to Miami, she spent the night with Lloyd Tilton Backstrom and Art in Richmond, and Walter Scott, widower of Vaughan Hargroves Scott, joined them for dinner. Pat looks forward to reconnecting with old friends at our reunion.

Lynne Wilson Rupert and Jim are grateful to be in good health, as are both of their daughters and their families, and they often get together with their grandchildren. Last year, they traveled to Germany, Austria, and Prague and saw the Oberammergau Passion Play. They live in Temecula, Calif., but continue to get together with the members of their old Simi Valley, Calif., dinner group. Several of them planned to take a South American cruise in January. The Ruperts also travel in their motor home and are out with camping groups most months. Lynne continues to be a member of the American Association of University Women and the Philanthropic Educational Organization. She is busy with book groups, bridge, and volunteering at the library bookstore and in her grandson’s second grade class.

1962 Patricia Mackey Taylor ptaylor55@cox.net Greetings, ladies. I hope this issue finds you and your family well and happy.

Barbara Hauser Scott met Deanne Lohrman O’Neill at their 50th high school reunion in Scotch Plains, N.J. They attended Catholic grammar school, public high school, and Mary Washington together. Barbara still hears from Peggy Hobart Mailer and Barbara Parker Sutton of Virginia, and Terry Carbone Webber of New Jersey. She’d like to reconnect with Marilyn Smith Edmunds, who lived in Florida with husband Charley last time Barbara heard from her.

Barbara lost her husband, Bob, in 1988 at the age of 48.

They have three sons. Robert, 45, is a professor at Monmouth University in New Jersey and a freelance writer for Disney, and is married to Aundrea, who also is a teacher. Charles, 42, is a surfer, fisherman, and contractor. He and Deb have two children, Gwen, 8, and Drew, 10. Youngest son Steven, 40, is a restaurateur in New York City and Philadelphia, while still holding on to his bachelorhood.

Through the years, the family migrated to California but have all returned to the East Coast. Barbara spent a year in Paris and loved every minute of it. She visited 12 countries from her flat, which was located two blocks from the Seine River and overlooked the Eiffel Tower. The history, antiquities, art, and cultures left her breathless. She was revived by the wine, cheese, and baguettes, and by taking French lessons and walking, since

Katharine Nell Robinson May already has made Marcia Kirstein Fitzmaurice ’62 reservations for founded Teal Toes, a nonprofit our reunion.

They enjoy with the sole purpose of educating taking classes the public about ovarian cancer, at the College of William and she was interviewed about the and Mary and foundation by NBC. spending time with their five grandchildren. They took a she had no car. After careers in riverboat cruise in Europe and several areas, including real estate, visited Canada’s capitals in August. professional fundraising, retail, Jean Ryan Farrell and Frank stay and business management, she is busy with volunteer work and settling into retirement. She reads, enjoy their grandchildren, ages 2 to writes, and spends time being a 22. They plan to travel to Vietnam grandma. She emails and would and Singapore, and to Turkey, and love to hear from classmates, but to be back in time for our reunion. she is not on Facebook … yet!

Marcia Kirstein Fitzmaurice of you, particularly those I speak and husband Ed spent a week in with on the phone.

Galway, Ireland, where she met Last fall was busy for Jonathan Ed’s aunt Teresa, who is still in and me, with a second honeymoon great form and is the youngest of trip to Lake George, N.Y.; a the 12 children of Ed’s Granny trip to Jonathan’s hometown of Fitz, who died at age 106. They Brattleboro, Vt., for the fall foliage; had dinner in Dublin with Sheila and a Thanksgiving filled with Cooper Hanna and husband family, with my brother and two Fergus, who live about 70 miles of my children, and their families, north of Rostrevor, a village in County Down in Northern Ireland. descending on us. As of this writing, we were looking forward Ed and Fergus got along well, to more family at Christmas and a while Marcia and Sheila had fun winter with considerably less snow reminiscing about their four years than last year! at Mary Washington and their two years as roomies in New York City Jane Gholson Lanham married after graduation. Next, Marcia high school sweetheart Bob in and Ed headed to Madrid, which August of 1962, commuted from was nostalgic for Marcia, who Fairfax to Fredericksburg for her spent her junior year in Spain. She final semester, and finished Mary visited many people she’s known Washington in January of 1963. for 50 years and/or their children They have three children and five and grandchildren. They went grandchildren, and lived in Vienna through the Thyssen-Bornemisza, in Northern Virginia for many years a private palace turned art gallery before moving to Wake Forest, that is near the Prado Museum and N.C., in December of 2005. Their houses an amazing collection of daughter and her family live nearby, paintings. Marcia said she was almost ready Janet Deal ’64 has two for another junior certified Havanese therapy year in Spain; too bad the dollar is so weak. dogs that go with her to senior Marcia said it was an centers, nursing homes, and exhausting trip. She uses a cane and was elementary schools every week. diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists from too so they often see their youngest much time spent on the keyboard grandchildren. Their sons live in and knitting. She was in the High Point, N.C., and Leesburg, middle of knitting a sweater for Va. Jane quilts and is active in her son Evan with yarn she purchased book club. in Galway. Marcia founded Teal Barbara “Linkey” Booth Toes, a nonprofit with the sole Green wrote that Karen purpose of educating the public Vandevanter Chapman, who was about ovarian cancer, and was widowed a few years ago, married interviewed about the foundation Kent Morrison at a small family

by NBC in September. Marcia, we wedding on Whidbey Island, Wash., all wish you and your family the in August, and took an extensive very best for 2011. honeymoon in Scandinavia It’s so good to hear from in the fall. She and Kent were classmates. We would love to hear pinned for our first couple years how you are doing, where you at Mary Washington. Karen still are, and your plans for the future. has her house in Rhode Island, Please take time to share your but for all practical purposes, she special news in a short email. lives on Whidbey Island. Linkey and husband David continue to participate in the International Fellows Program of the U.S. Army War College, where they live Anne Radway in Carlisle, Pa. The officer they tiazelda1@verizon.net recently were sponsoring is from Belgium, and Linkey said that he I want to thank all of you who and his wife are a lot of fun. Linkey responded to my phone calls and has trained her dog, Molly, to do emails and particularly those canine freestyle dance. Her group, who responded to the postcard the Steppin’ Woofs, performed mailing. It was gratifying to hear for summer reading programs from classmates who hadn’t sent at the Cumberland and York information previously. Please stay county libraries and were back to in touch, as I enjoy hearing from all

1963

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CL ASS NOTES doing nursing homes in the fall.

Maggie, Linkey’s shy poodle, was just starting freestyle. Linkey and David, who belong to a Dog Scouts of America troop in Carlisle, had a wonderful troop camping trip in September and were gearing up for Salvation Army bell ringing.

“It’s amazing how much money we can bring in when we have the dogs ringing the bells!” They also have raised money to donate pet oxygen masks to local fire departments. Linkey is also active in the Newcomers Club and two book groups, and she volunteers at the public library.

Barbara Moore Wheeler and husband Jim still enjoy living in the Stonehouse community near Williamsburg. Two of their sons

and their families live in the area, so they get to see them often and can attend their grandsons’ soccer and football games and school programs. Their oldest son, Randy, is the city manager of Poquoson, Va. Chris is a landscape architect in Smithfield, Va., and Bryan and his family live in Raleigh, N.C. The Wheelers have six grandsons and two granddaughters, who fill their lives with love and laughter. Jim was recuperating from his second knee replacement while Barbara organized their church’s second Christmas bazaar and served on the community’s social activities committee.

Betty Caudle Marshall enjoys serving as state president of Delta Kappa Gamma Society

Lessons Learned at UMW Drew Alumna to Animation When Sara Bleick ’63 played the teacher in the Mary Washington production of Helen Keller, she fell in love with the stage. But the same production led her away from a career in acting.

“It became clear that I didn’t have the talent,” Bleick said.

So the theater major focused on her second love – stage production. A gifted artist, Bleick painted sets and assisted set designers. Eventually her Theater major Sara Bleick ’63 acted creative drive led her off the in a play at Mary Washington. It stage and pushed her toward fostered a love for the stage and her true calling – animation. ultimately led her to a career in animation.

With theater undergraduate and graduate degrees in hand – the master’s from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – Bleick headed to New York City for work in stage production. An ache for home led her back to her native northern California and more stage production.

But everything changed when she was introduced to animation.

Mesmerized, she watched and learned.

“Animation is all about solving puzzles,” Bleick said. “It was fascinating to me.”

In the late 1960s, she landed a job with Hanna-Barbera as an animation checker. She fixed errors – like realigning stripes in a shirt or painting missing mouths.

International, a society of women educators that is located in 17 countries. She was busy visiting some of the 107 North Carolina chapters, planning conventions, holding training sessions, and conducting executive board meetings. Betty retired from teaching math in 2005 but continues to do some tutoring.

Three of their four children and eight of their grandchildren live in North Carolina, while their youngest child moved last year to Rhode Island. Betty’s husband, Tom, has been able to do more painting since retiring, so they have new and colorful paintings on the walls. Betty also wrote that she reconnected with Betsy Bourke Christian when their husbands, Tom and Meade, and several others

from their elementary school met for a reunion at Betty’s home in Raleigh, N.C. They later visited Betsy and Meade in Chapel Hill.

Marilyn Erskine Darnell of Burke, Va., trains horses and riders, as well as dogs, and has two grandchildren in Baton Rouge, La. Sally Granger Daughtrey lives in a golf community in Whispering Pines, N.C., where she works with AARP clients who are filing taxes.

She planned to take a Christmas cruise to the Bahamas with her six grandchildren. Sally sometimes sees Linda Voght, a retired teacher, and Leslie Levy Wachs, who is in a choral society in Pinehurst.

Sally Sutherland suffered a fall from her horse last March, bringing her lifelong love of

“I’d go frame by frame,” she said. “Often it was the last chance to get it right.”

Technology made the job easier. Hanna-Barbera was the first animation company to get a computerized system, and Bleick was first in line for training.

Her expertise and experience led her to Universal Cartoon Studios and Disney, where she worked on productions including Clifford’s Really Big Movie, Hercules, Runaway Brain, Pocahontas, Animalympics, and the restored version of Lady and the Tramp.

In the 1990s, Bleick got the opportunity to work with special effects, such as flowing rivers, mist, and smoke, for The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

“I loved the detail,” she said.

Her favorite characters to draw were the Smurfs.

Bleick’s success didn’t add up to fame, as an actor’s might, but she was content to remain behind the scenes. It was exhilarating, she said, to see her name in the credits.

After working on dozens of movies, she retired in 2007 to pursue another form of artistic expression. She now creates short graphic films about politics from her home in Burbank, Calif. Fans find her work on YouTube.

Before she retired from the industry, Bleick had to create within the lines of others’ concepts and curb her own creativity. Now she has the freedom to write her own scripts, create her own characters, and voice her own films.

“Before, I had a narrow place on the assembly line,” she said.

“Now I have creative freedom to do anything I want. I am enjoying life very much.”

Bleick has fond memories of the school that set her on the path to this life. Mary Washington, she said, prepared her for her career and more.

“Coming from California, it took some adjusting to the South,” Bleick said. “It gave me a wonderful chance to grow and bend myself to learn how to get along with people from all walks of life.”

– Janet Showalter

horses to an abrupt pause. She has recovered from surgery for back injuries and five broken ribs and is back to riding and driving horses.

She writes a monthly column called “Virginia is for Driving” for the Virginia Horse Journal and continues watercolor painting lessons.

Conn., and lecture to adults on literature and on art history at Manhattanville College. My big trip to Ireland in June was wonderful.

What great hosts the Irish are!

The country was gorgeous, Dublin was pretty and interesting, and the food was good – an unbeatable combination! I planned to travel to the Holy Land in February with a group of friends. I must say, however, that I was a bit nervous and still “iffy” about it, considering the current unrest in that area of the world.

Sheryl Gillmor Winkler and her suitemates, who she hadn’t seen since 1962, met at the summer home of Judy Ross Flora and husband Ben near Blowing Rock, N.C., in 2009. Judy graduated in 1963, but Linkey Booth Green ’63 Mary Frances Pace Herrin transferred continues to train her two dogs to Louisiana State and do canine freestyle dance University after our sophomore year. with the Steppin’ Woofs.

Marjorie Smith Keller Patti Jones Schacht and was Sheryl’s roommate their her family enjoyed beautiful sophomore and junior years, but weather and had a wonderful Sheryl left Mary Washington in summer with visits from some 1962 to attend MCV in Richmond. of the 13 grandchildren. They They had a wonderful time getting visited museums in Washington, re-acquainted and planned to go D.C., and crammed in as many to New York City in November for genealogical mystery hunts as three nights of sightseeing, theater, possible! Patti is as amazed as I and shopping. Sheryl got remarried am that it is 50th-reunion time in 1997 to Jim Winkler, who died in for those of us who graduated August of 2008. from high school in 1960. Patti Finally, on a sad note, Mary and her husband had planned a Owens Daitz died in October in trip to Opryland but had to cancel Corrales, N.M. In what has to be because of the terrible early spring my worst timing ever, I called in flooding in the area. They plan to the middle of the celebration of travel to Northern Ireland this year Mary’s life, held at her home by for more genealogical work. Patti her friends; her former husband, and I had a great time comparing Ben; her sons, Ian and Tim; and notes about Ireland, a country her grandchildren, Mamie and we both love for its beauty and its Samantha. A kind and generous warm, welcoming people. Truly, friend took the time to talk about there are no strangers in Ireland, Mary’s life. She was innkeeper of we both agreed. the Plum Tree Inn in Corrales, After teaching English in a docent at San Isidro Church, a Massachusetts for 22 years, Janet champion skater, and a gourmet Deal is married, retired, and cook. Her friend commented living on Long Beach Island, N.J. that Mary had been “the most Her son is married and lives in supportive person she knew.”

New York City. Her daughter and her family live in Boston, where Patti enjoys visiting her 6- and 9-year-old grandchildren. Janet Victoria Taylor Allen loves horse racing and has two vallen1303@aol.com certified Havanese therapy dogs that go with her to senior centers, Members of the Class of ’64 will receive this newsletter long after the nursing homes, and elementary holiday season, but I hope that 2011 schools every week! What a worthy endeavor, Janet! will bring each and every member of our class good health and Sally Crenshaw Witt told me happiness. We received a number about Penelope “Pennie” Outten of emails from our class. For a Borchers, who sent an email. group of people who assure me that Penelope is the special collections “nothing much is new,” it seems librarian at the P.I. Nixon Medical to me as if we are all madly busy, Historical Library at the University engaged, and as active as ever! of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. She lived abroad I still work at the Convent of for 30 years, first in Switzerland, the Sacred Heart in Greenwich,

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then Belgium, and later Berlin.

She earned her degree at the Free University of Berlin. She and first husband Dietmar had two daughters. The older daughter, Katya, died after a tragic motor vehicle accident in 1991. The younger daughter, Veronika, lives in Manhattan, where she owns her own public relations/celebrity outreach/product placement business. Pennie lives in Alamo Heights, Texas, with Fernando, her significant other of 15 years, and a white bull terrier that keeps things buoyant. She loves photography, travel, and mah-jongg.

Betsy Churchman Geary and husband Ray moved to North Carolina in 2007 to be closer to daughter Jill and her family. Jill has four children, and Betsy and Ray felt that she could use some help.

Betsy’s mom, Elizabeth Churchman, passed away at the age of 100, after a lifetime of good works, such as starting a community scholarship fund that is going strong after more than 50 years. Ray’s 95-year-old mother lives with them. What longevity, Betsy! The Geary family motto is “cover the Earth before it covers us.” They have traveled to more than 50 countries around the world, seeing places such as the Arctic Circle, French Polynesia, and Australia and New Zealand. Africa and Antarctica are on the “wait list!”

With travel and eight grandchildren, the Gearys lead a busy life.

Norma Bass Mears had a great time at her 50th high school reunion in Fredericksburg. Since her 2004 retirement, she has enjoyed travel, long lunches with friends, and welcoming more grandchildren. She and daughter Lee Ann were heading to London and Paris this past fall. Lee Ann is assistant director of the U.Va. Hampton Roads Center. She and her husband have two children.

Son Don and his wife live in Richmond with their two children, one of whom was born in June!

Congratulations, Norma! Don owns Don Mears Photography in Richmond. Norma, we wish your husband good health and a coming year of respite from hospitalization.

Ann McCallum Murray enjoys their five acres and the trout stream that runs through their property in Snake River Canyon, Idaho. Ann retired in 2009 from practicing law and is involved with the Rotary in Buhl, Idaho, where she also volunteers for Court Appointed Special Advocates and serves as webmaster for the Idaho Metal Arts Guild. Ann said that it is essential for people our age to have intellectual stimulation. To that end, she has kept up her Idaho Bar Association membership and plans to go back to work part time.

She feels that Mary Washington did a great job preparing her for all sorts of roles in life. Ann wants us to know we are welcome if we get out to Yellowstone. They are only a

I stay in touch with my freshman Ilona Dulaski-Williams ’64 played roommate, Sally Crenshaw Witt.

Parthy Hawks in Show Boat at She writes that the Shenandoah Summer Music Diane Dorin Theatre in Winchester, Va. The Clark, Barbara Humphries performances were sold out.

Davenport, Sue Parker Burton, Sara Page Cosby 20-minute detour off I-80, so stop Mayo, Helen Vakos Standing, for a visit! and their husbands were all at Sally’s house for dinner in October.

Betty Waller continues to Unfortunately, Joanne Crockett teach psychology, tutor students, Lewis and her husband were unable and work in the library of Bryant to come, but the group had a great & Stratton College, a small, private time at the “mini-reunion,” which vocational school in Richmond. continued into the next day with Betty loves the academic a visit to and lunch at the newly environment and the opportunity renovated Virginia Museum of Fine to help students reach their goals.

Arts. A follow-up from Helen tells She and Sam travel, attend festivals of the great time had by the group. and concerts, and engage in a She and her husband of 45 years variety of outdoor activities. Betty still live in Virginia Beach, as do her had lunch with Joyce Liggitt daughter and son, their spouses, Tollinger, who was in Virginia and the grandchildren. They spend for a family reunion. Betty said winters in Fort Myers, Fla. Helen Joyce looks great and has adorable said they’re in the phone directory, grandchildren. Betty looks forward so look them up if you’re in Florida! to Richmond-based reunion events, U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y WA S H I N G TO N M AG A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 1 1

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CL ASS NOTES so, you Richmond gals, keep planning reunions!

great, and it’s fun to write up this column. Bear in mind that the news is submitted months before it is printed. The University sends out only one card and email blast per year; I do the rest. So, if you’d kindly send me all your information by the next deadline listed in this issue, I’ll be sure to add it to our Class Notes. Keep safe, happy, and well.

Jean Klix Luce, my junior and senior year suitemate, and husband Charlie are busier than ever, with Jean’s work at the hospital and Charlie’s volunteer activities in Florida’s Bradenton/Sarasota area.

As I write this newsletter, Charlie is working from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the local voting precinct! Jean and her family had a fabulous trip to Cancun, Mexico, last September.

They were astounded by the beauty of the beaches and the aquamarine Phyllis Cavedo Weisser water. Four members of their pcweisser@yahoo.com group went inland to visit the Life is still good for me here in Mayan Ruins at Chichen Itza, Atlanta! I stay busy playing tennis and Jean wrote that it is a journey and bridge, volunteering with the well worth taking. Another day, Dunwoody Woman’s Club, and the group traveled along the coast traveling. I returned from the last from Cancun to the walled waterside site of Janice Helvey Robinson ’65’s Tulum. Jean and Charlie plan to go back often, choir was invited to sing in since it takes little more Manger Square in Bethlehem. than an hour to fly there from Miami. Jean wishes everyone in our class all the best Blue Angels show of the season. and says to keep in touch. If you I’ve had a wonderful three years, are in the Bradenton/Sarasota touring the country, watching my area, stop by for a visit. She said son perform, and babysitting for their “doors are always open to old his two children. He and his family friends and we would love to see planned to head to Lemoore, Calif., you!” in February for his next assignment.

Sharon Belknap Brown This thrills my daughter, Ashley, writes that retirement is great who lives less than three hours from because you’re free to do whatever! where they will be. She had her She still does some substitute first child in September and looks teaching. She and John love to go forward to having him close to his to Virginia Tech football games, cousins. It looks like I’ll be chalking travel, attend family gatherings, up lots more miles on Delta for and enjoy leisure time. They have trips to see them all! three wonderful daughters and two Patty Boyette Taavoste retired grandchildren, who by the time you read this, will be about 5 and 1. from teaching math after 30 years in New Jersey schools, the past 27 Ilona Dulaski-Williams at Ridge High School in Basking played Parthy Hawks in Show Ridge. She and husband Heino Boat at the Shenandoah Summer were debating whether to stay in Music Theatre in Winchester, Va. Bedminster or relocate. Heino, who The show was sold out and the has had Lyme disease for more experience was fabulous. It was one than three years, has good and bad of the best shows Ilona’s done in days, and is unable to do many her many years since graduating of the things they used to enjoy, from Mary Washington. She including just taking long walks still does Spanish and English on the beach. They spent nearly a television and radio commercials week with Penny Partridge Booth for MediaForce PR. She also has in Holly Springs, N.C., touring the sung in a number of operas with Raleigh area with her guidance. her trio, the Cantati Ensemble. In Penny’s daughters, Lisa and Tricia, November, they sang at the Café and their wonderful families were Italia Ristorante in Arlington, Va. there the night they arrived, so they all enjoyed lots of fun and laughter.

Classmates, please don’t be Patty has begun several regular modest about writing your news! tutoring jobs and, with Penny’s Each of us leads a different life, encouragement, is starting some and we love hearing your updates. new craft projects.

We are a wonderful group of interesting and well-educated Jere Maupin Graham said women. Keeping in touch is “aloha from Hawaii.” She moved

1965

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to Paris after her second year at Mary Washington but has fond memories of her time there. She has had a colorful life as an art student, dancer, actress, nurse, and now a child and adolescent psychotherapist, after many years as a women’s health nurse practitioner.

She lives in Kauai with her husband of 43 years, still hula dances, teaches modern dance and yoga, and attempts to paint scenes from the island. Jere’s daughter has produced two beautiful grandchildren and plans to move her family to Spain.

Jere’s son lives on Kauai but plans to relocate to Las Cruses, N.M. He is responsible for another grandchild; this one plans to become a nurse.

1966 Katharine Rogers Lavery hlavery1@cox.net I have joined Facebook and reconnected with many of you, several former students, some high school classmates, quite a few relatives, and friends from all over.

I have also joined the 21st century by setting up Skype to tutor young friends and family members who don’t live close. I still love math! My littlest granddaughters in North Carolina enjoy Skype for fun and for doing homework, and I’m only too glad to respond. In addition to church music, year-round Pentagon Sailing Club activities, senior bowling league, tutoring, and gardening, Hank and I enjoy as many of our grandkids’ activities as possible. We interrupted our routine to travel to San Diego for a lovely Lavery beach wedding in July and to visit my California cousins.

I plan to attend our 45th reunion in June and heartily (and financially) support the endowment fund for the student stipend mentioned in

Bobby Barrett Crisp writes that she thought the 45th reunion, especially the Friday night function at TruLuv’s on the Rappahannock River, was wonderful. It truly was an event to remember, seeing old friends, making new ones, and now dreaming of our 50th. She hopes everyone will attend and visit her hometown of Fredericksburg. She’s lived in Stafford County, Va., most of her life except for some time she spent in Alabama and California.

Joan Cuccias Patton ’66

hosted her daughter’s wedding Janice Helvey Robinson is thrilled at home in October, with to have a new family and friends from all granddaughter! The baby joins an 11- and over the country present. a 3-year old and makes three grandchildren the following paragraph. I sincerely for them. Janice’s daughter got hope you will join us! remarried two years ago to a guy she knew all through school. Their Barbara “Bobbi” Bishop re-acquaintance was through Mann has been working hard to a combination of high school add to the list of classmates to reunion and Facebook and is a invite to our 45th. New additions great love story! Janice’s choir was include Barbara Ann Enders invited to sing in Manger Square Hughes, Gloria Langley Parker, in Bethlehem, so they were to Kathy Gelscleichter Rottiers, and head to Israel in late December Linda Broyles Wilson. Welcome and also visit Egypt. Husband to “the list,” ladies! Our Reunion Rob was recovering well from Committee consists of co-chairs a hip replacement. He is truly Lee Enos Kelly and Jana Privette a bionic man at this point! Lee Usry, Eileen Goddard Albrigo and Smith Musgrave’s daughter, Lisa Kathleen Goddard Moss (Friday Ryan Musgrave-Bonomo ’90, was night dinner), Linda Spangler awarded tenure at Rollins College Berkheimer (slide show), and Joan in Winter Park, Fla., where she is an Cuccias Patton, Mary Morris assistant professor of philosophy.

Bishop, Pamela Ward Hughes, Ann Moser Garner’s husband, Cherryl Wells Brumfield, Pat Clarence, was recovering from Lewars Pace, Anne Clagett, and major surgery and had been in a Bobbi. Jana and Lee are trying rehabilitation facility. to establish a class endowment fund in the name of our beloved Please keep sending your news. class sponsor, George Van Sant, to If you’re not getting emails from provide a stipend for professors to me, it’s because I don’t have your offer to selected students. Dr. Van address!

Sant is excited about the possibility of such a worthy cause coming to fruition. We need to have pledges

totaling $25,000 payable over five years in order to establish the endowment. Any pledges made to the fund will count toward our class donation total, which will be tallied during Reunion Weekend.

Bobbi also works with the Virginia Education Association.

In early October, she chaired a committee to coordinate the Central Virginia regional conference for VEA-Retired.

Several speakers were followed by “techie” demos for iTouch, Droid, digital picture frames, and Skype. After the conference, Bobbi relaxed a bit and organized another Mary Washington Lunch Bunch gathering at Fredericksburg’s Capital Ale House in late October.

Nine ladies were expected to be present: Bobbi, Anne Clagett, Jana Privette Usry, Joan Cuccias Patton, Lois Rucker Scott, Sheila Denny Young, Tyla Matteson, Pam Kearney Patrick, and UMW’s director of alumni relations, Cynthia Snyder ’75.

Sheila Denny Young of Fredericksburg lost husband Phil in February of 2010. Sheila has two small grandchildren and was looking forward to traveling to Newfoundland to spend Christmas with her son-in-law’s family. Joan Cuccias Patton finally decided to retire from her math teaching career so she can travel more.

She spent most of the summer visiting family in Mississippi, California, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina, then hosted her daughter’s wedding at home in October, with family and friends from all over the country present.

Pam Kearney Patrick brought news of Peggy Beeler Burns, who visited while staying with son Jay’s family in Alexandria, Va. Peggy adores her granddaughter, Jessica, and visits as often as possible. Pam also mentioned that our noted artist classmate, Carol Bingley Wiley, had a great recent assignment in Africa, traveling with Pam Ward Hughes to advise on curricula at American schools, check out art galleries, and research favorite artists.

Tyla Matteson and her husband continue their involvement with the Sierra Club.

They were scheduled to travel to Cancun, Mexico, in December to join the club delegation at the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Eileen Goddard Albrigo is a grandmother of eight!

Todd and Carrie have four boys

and a girl. In September, Kevin and Molly had twin boys, little brothers to the couple’s 5-year old. In October, daughter Liz was married in a beautiful ceremony overlooking the beach on Hilton Head Island, S.C., the family’s favorite vacation spot. After the wedding, Liz and Chris moved from Denver back to Virginia, close to the rest of the family. Eileen is retired and still trying to figure out how she ever had time to work!

Jana Privette Usry, despite her current aggressive battle with breast cancer, remains amazingly active with her mediation services in Richmond courts and her singing with the One Voice Chorus, which promotes diversity and racial reconciliation in its policies and music. Their November concert featured all Broadway music, with selections from West Side Story, South Pacific, and Show Boat highlighting the resolution of ethnic and racial conflict. Jana also is chairman of the U.Va. Club of Richmond’s schools committee, which held a party for all incoming members of the Class of 2014 from the Richmond area. Among the 165 attendees was Virginia’s First Family, including Gov. Bob McDonnell, his wife, and one of their twins, both of whom are in the incoming class.

Sandra Hutchison Schanné enjoyed a brief trip to the Denver area to visit daughter Amy’s family. Grandson Layne was the major attraction, as she sees her three Texas grandchildren and her three Virginia grandchildren more often. In October, Sandra suffered through a long, confusing stint of jury duty on a personal injury case in Fairfax County, Va. It dragged on longer than expected and was difficult to adjudicate, but it satisfied the jurors’ civic responsibilities for a few years.

Susan Roth Nurin is thinking of retiring from teaching Spanish in Annapolis, Md., so she can return home to New York City. Susan and her brother moved their 97-yearold mother into an assisted living facility north of the city near her brother’s home and Susan likes to visit as often as possible. Son Justin, 31, is engaged to be married and daughter Tamara, 37, has a serious boyfriend. But, Susana laments, she has no married children and no grandchildren yet.

She joined Facebook and invites you all to find her there before she comes to our reunion.

Winnie Woodson Stribling and husband Brad retired, but she continues to work part time with the San Ramon Valley Unified School District in California. She serves

Sally Winnie Woodson Stribling ’66 serves Albrecht Brennan on a preschool assessment team that traveled in helps determine if youngsters qualify September with her for special education.

Fabulous Four suitemates: on a preschool assessment team Carol Pettigrew Hallman, Julie that helps determine if youngsters Bondurant Freeman, and Prentiss qualify for special education.

Davies. Their annual trip turned Winnie also directs the handbell historic, with stops at Gettysburg, choir at her church. Daughter Sarah Antietam, and Harper’s Ferry, plus graduated summa cum laude with two nights at Carol’s home in Great a major in religious studies from Falls, Va. Carol was in the middle Humboldt State University and is a of packing for her move to Orange, graduate student at Pacific School Va. All four ladies plan to attend of Religion, Graduate Theological our reunion in June.

Union in Berkeley, Calif. Winnie is eager to attend our reunion Nancy Shackelford Jones and hopes to reconnect with Ann moved from New York’s Manhattan Martin Allen, Sandy Pearson to her home in Manakin Sabot, Va. D’Acunto, and Eleanor McJilton.

The move marks the completion of her volunteer work at the Cloisters Mary Kathryn Rowell and Museum, the Metropolitan husband Charlie enjoy retired life Museum of Art, and the Brick and playing golf. They accepted a Church, and as regent of the DAR’s friend’s invitation to spend most of New York City chapter. Throughout January in sunny Naples, Fla. Mary the next two years, Nancy plans to Kathryn continues to volunteer continue as president general of at Woodlawn Plantation with the Colonial Dames of America, Nelly’s Needlers and invites us to concentrating on the group’s goals attend their annual needlework of historic preservation, education, exhibit and stay for lunch, when and scholarship.

she proudly becomes a Colonial waitress each year.

Ginny Bateman Brinkley and husband Bill enjoyed a lovely August visit at their Florida lake house with Rick and Kathy Fowler Bahnson. Rick and Kathy were on a “celebrating Rick’s retirement” tour, and there was much fun, laughter, and reminiscing. In October, Ginny and Bill flew to Seattle for another memory-filled and memory-making weekend with Roger and Ryan Stewart Davis. Ryan’s home is close to Whidbey Island, Wash., where Ginny’s Navy flight officer grandson is stationed, and they spent a day with him there. Ginny described Ryan’s new town of Port Townsend, Wash., as a “storybook, hippie-like little place” that they all fell in love with. Ginny and Bill have 13 grandchildren, including the addition of three new babies.

Son Scott and his wife in Tampa, Fla., had a baby girl in September.

Twin boys were born to Bill Jr. and his wife in Huntsville, Ala. Mila Grace, Marc, and Broc all are growing beautifully and adored by the entire family. Ginny finished the manuscript she unearthed while closing out her deceased uncle’s place last year and had his intriguing science fiction story published. She promises to bring copies to our reunion.

Patty Bergin Bergman also lives in the Seattle area, a few hours from Port Townsend.

She spends most of her time working out at the YMCA, doing yoga, cardio, strength training workouts, and spinning to keep in shape. Her youngest daughter was married in Seattle in July but has lived and worked in the mining business in Australia since her 2007 graduation from Colgate University. The wedding guest list included 20 Australians, all six of Patty’s children and their families, East Coast relatives, Megan’s Colgate friends, and some local friends. Since Megan’s husband is Australian and they live in Sydney, Patty must rely on email and Skype to stay in touch. Another daughter lives nearby with her three children, while her husband is on duty with his reserve unit in Afghanistan, giving Patty ample opportunity to attend soccer games, help drive the children to lessons and practices, and generally be on standby. Most of Patty’s travels are to visit her children, who are scattered around the world.

In addition to the one who lives

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CL ASS NOTES close by and the one who lives in Australia, one lives in Denver but works in Alaska; one is in Belgium; one is in Texas; and another one is in San Diego. Patty plans to attend our reunion in June.

Cathe Cantwell Luria of Gig Harbor, Wash., is a family nurse practitioner/psychiatrist. She sings, and she and her husband belong to an active group of English country dancers, giving them opportunities for travel.

In August, they spent 10 days in Portland, Ore., with their daughter’s family, during a pretend retirement, enjoying their two small grandchildren.

Cathe volunteered in her daughter’s ESL class and assisted with hands-on science lessons.

It was delightful watching the “newest English speakers in fifth grade” get excited about their first science kits and seeing how the enthusiasm sparked better language development. Cathe’s 50th high school class reunion is coming up, so she plans to join us next time at UMW for our 50th.

1967 Nancy McDonald Legat dlegat1@sc.rr.com I continue to enjoy retirement with my husband. We spend lots of time with our three daughters and their husbands, and our seven grandchildren. We are active at our church, and I mentor at a nearby elementary school and volunteer at a charity thrift store and food bank.

I also enjoy writing and making note cards.

Jacqueline C. Rueff Wingert retired after 40 years in special education. She and John live outside Syracuse, N.Y., but plan a permanent move to Aurora, Maine, where they bought a farmhouse and barn built in 1805. Christine Brooks of Vienna, Va., retired after 42 years and loves it. She still wakes up early but can take long walks as soon as it’s light outside, and when she gets home, she can actually read the paper. She joined a small writing group and enjoys living at a slower pace. She hasn’t felt this relaxed since living in India as a child and feels lucky that she could afford to retire. Last but not least, her cat loves having her home.

Betsy Chappelear Tryon celebrated her birthday with a three-day stay in Las Vegas.

Daughter Maureen and Ann Dalby Cole is happily granddaughter Maddy traveled retired in Albuquerque, N.M., with her and they found many kid-friendly things to Alexis Ball Smith ’67 and do. Their room in the Bellagio overlooked husband Walter have a beef the musical cattle farm in eastern Orange fountains. They attended The Lion County, Va., near Lake Anna.

King musical and found a restaurant after a long career in medical that specializes in chocolate. Who technology, which included could complain about chocolate supervisory, managerial, lab tech, pizza topped with marshmallows? and medical sales jobs, plus MBA What a birthday! school, with a few detours along the way. She lived in the Orlando, Nancy Alford Newell Fla., area for 18 years; in St. Paul, spent two months last summer Minn., for 13 years; and has been in vacationing in their Montana Albuquerque for 11 years. Partner mountain home in a “heavenly Rudie passed away in 2005 and Ann place called McLeod,” halfway still maintains a family relationship between Bozeman and Billings, with Rudie’s sisters and nephews. and about an hour and a half from Last Christmas, 10 of them stayed Yellowstone. Nancy returned to in her house. She plays duplicate reality in Virginia in October. bridge and lots of golf, sings in two Mickey Black Kapa proudly choruses, and hangs out and travels announced her reentry to acting with her BFF. Since retiring at age after a 40-year hiatus, landing a 60, she has been to Alaska, Hawaii, part in Swift Creek Mill Theatre’s Costa Rica, and all over the western production of The Foreigner.

United States. She got her real estate Mickey played innkeeper Betty license, and she pet-sits, mystery Meeks in 23 performances shops, and paints houses. in Colonial Heights, Va. Alexis Ball Smith and Congratulations, Mickey! husband Walter have a beef cattle farm in eastern Orange County, Va., near Lake Anna. She retired 56

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in 2007 after nearly 40 years in education in Orange. She was a teacher, curriculum coordinator, principal, and central office curriculum director, and she said that Mary Washington prepared her well. She received her master’s degree from U.Va. in 1992. When she received her UMW directory, she was excited to finally get contact information for her freshman- and sophomore-year roommate, Rhetta Spoonts Yount! Turns out, Rhetta lives in South Carolina, not too far from Lex’s first grandchild, and she hopes they can get together.

1968 Meg Livingston Asensio meglala@aol.com

1969 Linda Marett Disosway ldisosway@gmail.com I’m writing these notes in November, with Thanksgiving almost here and Christmas around the corner. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, as it will be spring before you read this.

Barbara Marks Poppleton, Jane Jackson Woerner, Martha Pickard Zink ’70, and I gathered last November at Barbara’s beautiful home in St. Augustine, Fla. Unfortunately, Jane had to leave to attend the funeral of an uncle in Virginia but managed to return before the end of the visit.

We visited historical sites in St. Augustine, shopped, and caught up on what’s going on in each other’s lives. I don’t believe we ever ran out of things to talk about.

sorely missed, but we plan to get together again before the next UMW reunion in 2014.

Catherine O’Connor Woteki, recipient of UMW’s 2009 Distinguished Alumnus Award, was confirmed by the Senate in September to be the USDA’s undersecretary for research, education, and economics.

Catherine served from 1997 to 2001 as the first under secretary for food safety. Since then, she has served as Iowa State University’s dean of agriculture and professor of human nutrition. Most recently, she was global director of scientific affairs at Mars, a multinational food and confectionary company headquartered in McLean, Va. Catherine majored in biology and chemistry at UMW. She received master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Maryland at College Park’s human nutrition management education program.

Lucy Bowles Wayne’s book Sweet Cane: The Architecture of the Sugar Works of East Florida, chronicling the history of the Florida sugar industry from the late 1700s, was published last year. The industry flourished for decades, but by January of 1836, it was devastated by Native American attacks during the Second Seminole War intended to rid the Florida frontier of settlers, and the industry never regained the same level of importance. Lucy studied art history at Mary Washington and earned master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Florida. She is vice president/ archaeological and architectural historian principal at SouthArc in Gainesville, Fla.

Connie Hinson of Kilmarnock, Va., sings with the Linda Huff Alderson, Bonnie Chesapeake Chorale in the fall Page Hoopengardner, and Karen and with the Rappahannock Kilgore Ralston planned to attend the mini-reunion but ended up with A book by Lucy Bowles Wayne ’69, other commitments.

Sweet Cane: The Architecture of Linda’s husband, Sandy, was hired as the Sugar Works of East Florida, the general manager chronicling the history of the for the New York Mets, so she had to Florida sugar industry from the attend several related late 1700s, was published last year. functions during our reunion. She’s excited about moving to New Choral Society in the spring.

York, since daughter Cate lives in The 100-participant Chesapeake New Jersey with her husband and Chorale presented three two children. There’s nothing like performances in three counties being close to the grandchildren! last December, with the proceeds Bonnie had family commitments, donated to local school music and Karen was enjoying a family programs. The 35- to 50-woman vacation in Mexico. They were

Rappahannock chorus was to present one concert, in conjunction with the Northern Neck Big Band, in May. Connie traveled some last year, attending a niece’s wedding in Jamaica in January and spending a week with family in Kitty Hawk, N.C., in August.

Gloria Shelton Gibson spent long weekends last summer with friends at Wild Dunes Resort in South Carolina, a few days with girlfriends in the mountains outside of Galax, Va., and some time with friends at Beech Mountain, N.C. She said she is lucky to have friends who invite her to these great locations. Gloria also visits her parents in Danville, Va., every month or so.

fuller and more interesting as we get older. We are definitely an active group, so tell us about your accomplishments, hobbies, travels, families, and anything else you think we should know.

1970 Carole LaMonica Clark clarktjcj@skybest.com Ted and I were looking forward to a Thanksgiving visit from his daughter and her family. Please send news. We’d like to hear what y’all are doing!

Ellen Grace Jaronczyk’s husband, Bob, passed away in October. Bob was diagnosed with cancer before they attended our class reunion last June, but they did not share that news with anyone. There was hope that he could beat it until last fall. On

Suzanne, studies book art in graduate school at the University of Alabama, where she teaches an undergraduate course with another professor.

1971 Karen Laino Giannuzzi kapitankL11@yahoo.com

1972 Sherry Rutherford Myers dllmyers@netzero.com Dennis and I continue to stay on the go. My new legal assistant job is going well, and it’s a pleasure to still learn something new every day. We attended the wedding of the daughter of David and Cheryl Prietz Childress at Hotel Roanoke in Virginia. It was a stunning affair and Thea made an exquisite bride.

Son Alex made a handsome usher and we all got a bit misty-eyed when he escorted Cheryl to her seat. We felt honored to be at the table with the bride’s parents, as they’ve always viewed us as “honorary family.” Welcoming Thea’s husband, Eric, into the family was a genuine pleasure.

What a nice guy! The boating trips and Colonial reenactments were on hold through the winter, so things were a bit quieter for Cheryl and Dave. We planned to visit them during Thanksgiving weekend.

Claudia Stell Hawks retired in 2009 after 24 years of teaching AP English literature at NansemondSuffolk Academy in Suffolk, Va. She received her master’s degree in education from U.Va. in Natalie J. Belle ’76 earned a graduate 1970, worked in degree in biochemistry and molecular speech therapy for three years, biology, completed medical school and then went and surgical residency at U.Va., and back to earn her graduate hours has an academic practice in Ohio. in English. For many years, behalf of all of our classmates, I she traveled the country to grade offer our sincere condolences to the national AP English literature Ellen and her family. exam. She married Jimmy in 1970, when he was also at U.Va. He Brenda Jennings Louthian practiced law and is a circuit court took her grandsons, Richard, 8, judge in Portsmouth, Va., where and Trent, 5, to Fredericksburg Sherrie Mitchell Boone and they live. They have three children. last July. They visited the John are doing fine in Roanoke.

Carney, 36, lives in Greenwich, George Washington Birthplace Sherrie’s daughter, Leighanne, Conn.; Ned, 34, lives in Washington National Monument and George and husband Scott spent some state; and Lindsay, 22, is a senior art Washington’s Boyhood Home at time at the Colorado condo with major at George Mason University.

Ferry Farm, and the boys enjoyed daughters Anna, 4, and Molly, Claudia has three grandchildren, a Civil War reenactment that 2. Sherrie’s son, Trey, came back ages 2, 4, and 5, who live in included the firing of a cannon. from a three-month trip to Asia Greenwich. She loves retirement They were impressed that the and returned to British Columbia and plans to do nothing worthwhile Civil War re-enactors wore wool before meeting up with the family in the future. She has promised to uniforms on a come to our next reunion. hot and humid Sherry Rutherford Myers ’72 summer day in Connie Cline Bukzin and Virginia. Brenda and Dennis attended the wedding husband Mitch attended son Jay’s was impressed marriage to Tiffany Sotelo in Santa of the daughter of David and

by UMW’s new Barbara, Calif., last October. It was Cheryl Prietz Childress ’72 at walkway over U.S. 1. a small wedding, but the couple had a party with East Coast friends Hotel Roanoke in Virginia.

Last March, upon their return to Virginia. Jay Martha Veasey is a private practice oral surgeon Sawyer and husband Roger in Colorado. Trey was headed to and Tiffany is a urologist at George celebrated their ninth anniversary Pittsburgh to work on his doctorate Washington University Hospital. with a trip to Asheville, N.C. They in philosophy of time and science, Connie and Mitch are delighted stayed at the Grand Bohemian and Sherrie is thrilled to have him that Tiffany has become part of Hotel, toured Biltmore Estate, back in the same time zone. She and the family. shopped in Historic Biltmore John also spend time in Hyattsville, Village, and had dinner at Red Please let me hear from Md., with John’s daughter, Kate, her Stag Grill. (Ted and I have you. It’s fun to find out what husband, Scott, and their children, season passes to Biltmore Estate our fellow classmates have been ages 1 and 3. Sherrie and John say and love visiting and dining doing. Our lives seem to become it’s fun having grandchildren ages there.) Martha’s stepdaughter,

1, 2, 3, and 4. They took an August beach trip for John’s mother’s 90th birthday.

Mary Saunders Williams again hosted a group, including Sherrie, Nancy Mahone Miller, Brenda Franklin, Terri Hall Alford, and Shirley Harris Sutton, for beach week. Shirley planned to host everyone again this fall, and Sherrie was disappointed that she couldn’t go due to a high volume of pianotuning work. The “girls” always have a wonderful, nostalgic time at the mini-reunions and say it’s easier to reconnect with the children grown.

In closing, I hope everyone had a good 2010 and a happy holiday season. Let us pray for a prosperous 2011. Until next time …

1973 Debby Reynolds Linder bdlinder@mac.com

1974 Sid Baker Etherington sidleexx@yahoo.com Suzy Passarello Quenzer sq3878@att.com

1975 Armecia Medlock vagirl805@msn.com

1976 Helen Salter ahsalter@bresnan.net Dear friends, I hope you all are well. I think of you often. Many of you are aware that our 35th reunion will be in June. As I submitted this entry in November, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to attend, but I hope many of you will consider coming. Reunions are a lot of fun, and I enjoyed our 25th in 2001.

I am thankful for my Mary Washington friends who wrote and sent condolences upon the death of my father on April 11, 2010.

Many of us have aging parents, and it is difficult to muddle through such times, but many of us also are blessed with siblings, children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and cousins. The older I get, the more I realize how special Mary Washington friends are, and I wish I could visit each of you.

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CL ASS NOTES Through the wonders of technology, I have discovered Facebook! It is an amazing and quick way to stay in touch, and our school has a huge online presence.

In the past year, I’ve “friended” many Mary Washington alums from our class and others. News from recent months is summarized below.

As many of you know, I still battle chronic fatigue and immune deficiency syndrome. Fortunately, my patient husband, Alan, helps me so much. My mother lives close by in Grand Junction, Colo., and we cook, paint, read, and shop together when possible. My stepchildren are doing well. Jeff received his master’s degree in chemistry from Montana State University last year and teaches high school chemistry in Salt Lake City. His wife, Elise, works for JetBlue, and their children, Joshua (11), Grant (7), and Lauren (5) play soccer. My stepdaughter, Rachele, completed nursing school in 2006 and is a recovery room nurse in Denver.

Natalie J. Belle completed medical school and surgical residency at U.Va. and has an academic practice in Ohio. She earned a graduate degree in biochemistry and molecular biology, which led to her decision to apply to medical school at the ripe old age of 45. She teaches and flies her little airplane around, taking care not to hit the KeyBank building in Cleveland.

North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church. She has preached, taught, and led a women’s retreat. Karen has searched diligently to find two of her roommates, Judith Martens Staples and Margaret Spragins, to no avail.

If you know how to reach either, please let me know and I’ll contact Karen. She emails with her French House roommate, Alison Cross Denler, who lives in Colorado, and she hears from Faythe Calandra, another French House resident, every Christmas. On another sad note, Karen’s father passed away in January of 2010.

Rebecca Reames lost her mother in September. During the fall, Becky was on sabbatical from her position as associate professor of music at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam near the Canadian border. Since our last reunion, she took her choir to China and visited Italy. Now, if I could just get her to visit Colorado.

Judy Clark Hays’s son, William, studies dentistry at the University of Maryland at Baltimore. Daughter Hannah studies at the Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago. Judy is a part-time librarian for the local school district in Cary, N.C. We talk on the phone frequently but haven’t seen each other since 2003, when Judy, Dan, and the children visited Colorado.

Patti Jo Anderson “friended” me on Facebook. She is a project Sandra Nelson Smith earned manager for Verizon Wireless a master’s degree in library science from the University of Tennessee in Jan Biermann ’76 heads the Knoxville, married education and health promotion an engineer, and moved to Seattle, department, educating motherswhere she is a to-be, with the March of Dimes. librarian for the King County Library System. and loves to read on her Kindle.

She and her husband have three She planned an October 10, children. Stuart teaches English in 2010 (10/10/10) wedding for Korea, Thyra attends law school in daughter Lauren Grose and Tyler New York City, and Lee lives and Pasake. Patti Jo’s entire family, works in the university district, including husband David Grose where he isn’t going to school and daughter Kaitlynn Grose, but is having fun! Sandra and her celebrated. In learning about PJ’s husband enjoy outdoor activities, activities, I’ve been in touch with mostly sailing in the San Juan and her sister, Cynthia Anderson Gulf Islands. Sadly, Sandra’s father Schmidt ’79, and their mother, passed away in 2003, and her Helen Anderson. mother needs her help from time to time.

Fellow music majors Perrie Arnold Carrow and Suzanne Karen Sullivan Iseman and Hawkins Stephens stay in husband Ron are retired and live touch through Facebook. Perrie in northern Alabama, between works for New Castle County Huntsville and Birmingham. Karen is a certified lay speaker in the in Wilmington, Del., providing 58

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reference services at the library and maintaining special collections. Perrie and Bob have been married for more than 25 years and enjoy their children, Bill and Christine. Sadly, Perrie lost her mother-in-law last spring.

Suzanne lives in Long County, Ga., with husband Jack and their two daughters, Emily and Linda. For you music majors who remember Roger Bailey, I also found him on Facebook. He lives in Kingsport, Tenn., and directs a professional choir.

Susan Still Protich’s son, Sam, graduated from UMW last year! Her daughter, Mary Protich Dell, has two boys, Phinneaus and Atticus. Susan retired as an art teacher for Newport News Public Schools.

She emails with roommate Laura Macomber Cowan, who lives in the Washington, D.C., area with husband Mark; daughter Mattie, 25; and son Travis, 18.

The following news was submitted in August of 2007 but was not published. I am not sure why. Consequently, I am resubmitting my news below, with updates where possible.

Myra McCord Lovelace still works in the chemical industry in Fulshear, Texas. She has two daughters and a stepdaughter.

Relocation seems unlikely, since husband Jim moved from the oil service business to an international chemical firm. He continues to travel overseas and Myra joined him on a trip to Germany and Austria.

Helen French Thornton Branch retired in 2005 but is one of those people who just can’t stop working. She continues the work she did for more than 20 years with problem populations, provides counseling and other services to women in a long-term transitional housing program, and continues to work with victims of domestic violence and is writing a book for their use. Helen has two grandsons, CJ and Avery.

Sir Henry, her dog, continues to manage the household in Peachtree City, Ga.

Lundy Baker Updike and Lois Brown ’41 have become friends.

Lois lives nearby and Lundy helped her with her Class Notes for this issue. Lundy’s second son, Jim, a sophomore at UMW, is veering from history Mary Ann Kalafat Wray ’76 to computer sciences.

He lived in Mason his and husband Tim live in freshman year and is Vienna, Va., where Mary Ann now “down the hill” in Marshall. Sam, Lundy’s practices psychotherapy for oldest, is set to graduate Kaiser Permanente. in May from VCU with a bachelor of fine arts degree in theater/lighting design.

Meg Costello reminds us His summer experiences included that she started at UMW with the Operafestival in Rome; Texas, the Class of ’73 and graduated the musical drama in Palo Duro with the Class of ’76. She enjoys Canyon, Texas; and an internship wandering in the woods with her in project design in Madison, Wis. dog and scouting for blue heron.

Tom, Lundy’s youngest, is a high For the past three years, she has school sophomore and plays his completed triathlons, and she tenor sax every chance he gets. swims from May until November Lundy found Debbie Dawson in the lake near her house. She Troy, a radiologist who lives in the presented a paper in June of 2007 Pittsburgh area with Phil, whose at the Conference of the Working law specialty covers several states.

Class Studies Association in St. Son William was prepping for Paul, Minn. Meg earned a master’s college, and daughter Kris would degree in communications, live at the stables with her horse if specializing in workplace conflict she could! management, and that keeps the path of her life varied. Despite Jane Reese-Coulbourne was living in Massachusetts for more named executive director of the than half her life, she said that Reagan-Udall Foundation. The home is still where her mother nonprofit, created by Congress lives in western Maryland. She to help the FDA enhance often thinks about the pileated regulatory science capabilities woodpeckers that hammered and to convene public/private away at the trees along the stream partnerships, was awarded a behind duPont, but mostly she grant from the Bill & Melinda thinks of the wonderful friends Gates Foundation. she made at Mary Washington.

Meg returns to Fredericksburg to visit Molly Jones ’75, sister of Madelin Jones Barratt and one of three Jones sisters to graduate from Mary Washington. Molly is mentor/godmother to Meg’s Aizen, who lives and works in New York City. While working near Burlington, Vt., Meg enjoyed several meals with Matt Welz ’03, who studied math in the University of Vermont’s graduate program. On a trip to Jacksonville, Fla., Meg stayed with Mary Moody Kress, who started in the Class of ’73, received a degree in journalism from VCU, retired as financial editor of the Jacksonville newspaper, and delights in barrel race competition. Meg sends greetings of peace to each of you.

Margaret “Fred” Brown Douglas lives in Ashland, Va., which she says is a hidden treasure.

“It’s very much like the 1950s still in Ashland, in all the most positive ways. When you get sick, neighbors bring a pot of chicken soup and the Fourth of July parade comprises kids on bicycles with playing cards pinned to their spokes. We love it!”

Fred lives in an old home adjacent to Randolph-Macon College with husband Jack. In 2001, she finished a George Washington University program in landscape design, which she practices with Jack, a landscape architect. They design commercial, residential, and municipal projects on the East Coast, from Pennsylvania to South Carolina. Fred also continues to do part-time management consulting for the Navy. Jack is an adjunct faculty member at U.Va’s School of Architecture. Fred’s daughter, Lucy Mears, graduated from the College of William and Mary and was completing the Master’s International Program at George Mason University, spending 27 months in the Peace Corps. Jack’s daughter, Courtney, lives in Italy and manages a Tuscan villa. His son, Hurt, lives and works in Asheville, N.C. Mary Ruth Burton of Richmond still operates her seven-person consulting firm, Burton-Fuller Management, which provides organizational development, executive coaching, and training services to companies in Virginia and across the country.

Mary Ruth’s daughter majored in international political science and sociology at Christopher Newport University, where she was in student government and a sorority.

Mary Ruth’s son majored in

Alumna’s Devotion to Public Health Pays Off in Africa In 1976, Lisa Nichols ’80 had it all planned out. She wanted to attend Mary Washington because of its small size and proximity to her Richmond home, so she applied nowhere else. She wanted to work in the U.S. Congress, so she studied political science, interned, and became a legislative aide to Sen. Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa.

Her rise to program director of a U.S.-sponsored health project in Mali, Africa, more than 30 years later wasn’t in the plan. But it does illustrate how an education that encourages broad-mindedness and diverse experience prepares you to change your life – and the lives of others.

While working for Hayakawa, Nichols was inspired by Peace Corps volunteers returning from abroad. “I was interested in doing something completely different, something that had the potential to contribute to someone else’s path in life,” she said.

She left her job in the Senate, and, in 1982, joined the Peace Corps to teach high school English in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

During the African drought of 1985, she went back to the continent with a nongovernmental international organization to provide emergency food relief.

“I was eager to return because, when I left, I felt I hadn’t finished the challenge,” Nichols said. “Every day is different. The environment is very complex, so the challenges are sometimes enormous and yet sometimes very subtle.”

Now in Mali, Nichols, 52, maneuvers through the political system and foreign language of the former French colony for Abt Associates, a social science research company contracted by USAID Mali. She manages a $22 million budget and four subcontractor organizations with 60 employees, 59 of whom are Malian. She meets with Ministry of Health and other officials to discuss obstacles to and strategies for improving public health in every region of the country.

Nichols’ project works to facilitate vaccination, better nutrition, malaria prevention, family planning, and more. It focuses on women’s health, a key factor in changing the course of a country’s development.

Though she didn’t pursue the career she’d originally planned, her Mary Washington education gave political science major Lisa Nichols ‘80 the foundation she needed to excel in her role as program director of a U.S.-sponsored health project in Africa.

“It’s fulfilling to see the maternal mortality rate and the infant mortality rate going down,” Nichols said.

In her career, Nichols has worked in Cambodia, Haiti, and a host of other countries.

She became fluent in French and briefly returned to the United States to earn a master’s degree in public health.

“I always say that I stopped planning my life once I finished the Peace Corps and just went through the doors that were opened to me,” Nichols said. “So, in effect, international development and public health chose me.”

Mary Washington gave Nichols policy background that helped her understand and address the complex issues involved in public health, and it also nurtured her passion for it. Nichols said the expectations of her professors helped her learn to think on her feet, be creative, and be able to negotiate in diverse environments.

“At Mary Washington, you were asked to defend your opinion, articulate in your own words what you had read, and draw your own conclusions … to go beyond just learning the facts,” Nichols said. “I can say I was pretty narrow in my thinking about what I wanted to do in life, but, thankfully, my UMW education helped me when I finally branched out.”

– Lorna Webster

CL ASS NOTES finance and biology at the College of William and Mary, works for a consulting firm doing supply chain management for hospitals, and lives in Washington, D.C., when he isn’t on the road. Mary Ruth remarried a few years ago but kept her maiden name. She works with Robin Rimmer Hurst.

level. Youngest son Jonathan was considering the medical profession.

The following news was collected by Madelin Jones Barratt and Sue Luscomb, while in the process of working on Reunion Giving: Sue’s 27-year-old daughter, Alicia, was married last May in Charleston, S.C., and is a graduate student in clinical psychology.

Sue’s husband, Rich, is also a clinical psychologist. Daughter Ashton, 23, is a marketing administrator in Memphis. Both girls graduated from Auburn University. Sue has served on the Tennessee state executive board of the P.E.O. Sisterhood for six years and was to be installed as state president in May. She has served

After college, Kim Stambaugh Jureckson moved to New York City, where she worked, studied, and danced for several years, and where she met husband Mitchell.

They’ve been married more than 25 years and have three children, Britta, Erica, and Max. Kim has been a dance educator and choreographer in Lancaster, Pa., for the past 21 years. She is co-director of the nonprofit dance organization New Movement Jane Reese-Coulbourne ’76 is Center of Lancaster, artistic director of executive director of the Reaganthe Lancaster-based Udall Foundation, which was intergenerational Grant Street Dance awarded a grant from the Bill Company, and a & Melinda Gates Foundation. faculty member at Lancaster Country Day School, where as regent of her DAR chapter for she teaches dance at the high three years and volunteers at the school level. Kim stays in touch Veterans Affairs Medical Center with Marti Taylor but would love in Memphis. to hear from other dance major classmates.

Madelin’s son, William, graduated from U.Va. with a Cathy Day Morris would also double major in Russian studies love to connect with classmates. and economics and is engaged; All of her family’s moves, including daughter Ellen was on track a relocation to Dallas in 1993, to earn her master’s degree in were connected with husband teaching from U.Va. in May; and Bob’s continuing education. He daughter Anna is a high school completed his undergraduate sophomore. Madelin’s husband, degree in Georgia, attended Henry, is a commercial lender seminary in Dallas, and pastored at Xenith Bank, while Madelin for six years in Sulphur Springs, participates in the women’s Texas. He then switched gears, ministry at The Falls Church, becoming a pharmacy technician where she was assistant director of and leading music at their church. the children’s choir last year.

In 2007, Cathy reported another move might be on the horizon, Debbie Daniels Sagmiller’s as Bob had applied to Dallas older son graduated from The Theological Seminary for Citadel and is married, her doctorate studies. middle son graduated from Clemson University and works in When she wrote in 2007, Cathy Maryland, and her daughter is in was assistant to the marketing high school. and foundation directors at her local hospital. She said her English Donald Wolthuis ’77 and degree has come in handy, since she Patty Buckley Wolthuis live writes ads for radio, newspaper, and in Roanoke, Va., where Donald other media. Oldest son Andrew is an assistant U.S. attorney. moved back to Mechanicsville, Va., Patty works at a bank. They for a manager training program have two children, ages 27 and with Chili’s restaurant. Middle 25, living in Massachusetts and son Philip received a degree in New York. Mary Ann Kalafat philosophy from the University of Wray and husband Tim live in North Texas and planned to pursue Vienna, Va., where Mary Ann his master’s and doctoral degrees practices psychotherapy for in hopes of teaching at the college Kaiser Permanente. Tim is at the 60

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State Department after retiring from the Marine Corps. Faythe Calandra has been at The World Bank for 28 years. She serves on the advisory committee and teaches Sunday school at Arlington Community Church.

Margo Clifford is an elementary school resource teacher in Henrico County, Va., and puts her artistic efforts into fixing up her house. Jan Biermann heads the education and health promotion department, educating mothersto-be, with the March of Dimes.

Judy Sledge Joyce and husband Rick have three children. Jack, 14, is a freshman at Gonzaga College High School; Julianne and Jeffrey, 10, are in fifth grade. Rick is an attorney at Venable. Judy is a stay-at-home mom who’s always in the car!

Carolyn Roberts is on the road to early retirement and enjoys a four-day work week at PNC Bank. She was engaged to marry Jim Everett in February.

Susan Grimes, Jan Biermann, and Judy Sledge were planning a girls’ weekend to celebrate. Susan and husband Scott went to South Africa with Carolyn and Jim. They enjoyed cycling and a safari.

a group specializing in women’s imaging, went to medical school six years after graduating from Mary Washington. She and her husband, a Naval Academy graduate she dated in college, have daughter Christine, 16, and son William, 20, who attends Clemson University.

Jill Turner Morris and her husband own a beef cattle farm and have six children; the youngest is 22 and the oldest is Jill’s 42-yearold stepdaughter. Jill has attended several reunions and hopes to be at our 35th. Susan Cole Friend’s husband, Robert, is rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Richmond and planned to perform the ceremony for daughter Taylor’s April wedding. Susan is very involved in church activities.

Thanks to everyone for writing. It’s always wonderful to hear from you.

1977 Mary Byrd byrdland55@yahoo.com Rob Hall and I were in Virginia last September for his daughter’s wedding and saw lots of family and friends. Sally Curtis Wimberley ’80 and husband Steve of Woodbridge, Va., hosted a mini-reunion for us while we were in the area. It was wonderful to catch up with Pat Seyller, Deb Rundgren ’80, Michael Harris ’80 and fiancée Midori Clough Calimlin, Anne Kight Lloyd ’81,

Daphne Johnston Elliott and husband John live in Northern Virginia, where she is an assistant kindergarten teacher in Loudoun County. Daughter Missy received a degree in landscape architecture from U.Va. and is in grad school there. Son Jay is pursuing a degree in computer engineering at Kathleen Williams Pyrce ’77 George Mason served as musical director of her University. The Elliotts traveled to first show, wrangling 45 pre-teens Alaska, Bavaria, and in Seussical the Musical, last Tokyo last summer.

November at Immaculate Heart of

Sharon Reel Mary Catholic School in Atlanta.

Fuhrmeister’s daughter, Krista, is married; son Gregory works in Chicago; and Steve Whitaker, and Debi Hart Sharon’s youngest, Erica, is at Harris and to reminisce about dear Johns Hopkins University. Sharon old Mary Washington. is a speech/language pathologist Kathleen Williams Pyrce in New Jersey. Marcia Richards served as musical director of Suelzer works in legal publishing her first show, wrangling 45 and studies mental health pre-teens in Seussical the Musical, counseling in graduate school at last November at Immaculate Trinity International University Heart of Mary Catholic School in outside of Chicago. Marcia has Atlanta. Way to go, Ms. Williams! three children, a son who was to Daughter Mariah is a high school finish college this year and two junior. Maggie Jeffries-Honeycutt daughters. became a certified trainer for Deborah Dawson Troy, a the Equine Assisted Growth and radiologist in private practice in Learning Association last fall and

hopes, along with husband Don, to help troubled children and teens.

Jacki Vawter, former UMW professor of education, sent pictures of her trip to South Africa. She and husband Rod of Charlottesville travel a lot.

Please send news anytime.

I hope everyone is well.

1978 Cindy Clark cclarkct@optonline.net

1979 Barbara Goliash Emerson emers3@msn.com I still work as manager of organizational development and training for Fairfax County. My husband retired from the fire and rescue department and our son is a sophomore at East Carolina University, where we love to watch the Pirates play football.

For the past few years, several of us have gotten together for a fall brunch in Virginia’s Old Town Alexandria. This year, we were happy to have Karen Noss Helble join us. She and husband Stuart have a pewter shop in Leesburg.

Their creations are amazing as is the house they designed with a gorgeous mountain view in Round Hill. Their two beautiful daughters and handsome son are all students at JMU, which makes visits easier.

Karen also works for Loudoun County Public Schools.

Jane Daniels Ferguson was another new face at our annual brunch. She’s as funny as ever and looks exactly the same. We discovered that Jane lives about a mile from me! One of her sons, Jack, graduated from West Virginia University and was considering graduate school. Her other son, Alex, is in the Air Force. Linda McCarthy Milone still lives in Georgetown with husband Paul. Older son Max attends the University of Denver, while younger son Oliver is in high school. Carol Middlebrook and husband John of Washington, D.C., were getting ready for a trip to Italy.

Carol works for the FDIC. Gayle Weinberger Petro teaches Fairfax County sixth-graders and still keeps us in stitches with hilarious stories.

Gayle was getting ready for the Montpelier Hunt Races she attends with Lisa Bratton Soltis and other Mary Washington alums.

Betsy Larson Kyker and husband Bill live close to me in Fairfax and keep busy with sons Quint and Jake, who are in high school and middle school. Betsy’s 89-year-old father also lives with them, so she has her hands full taking care of her family but still has time to do incredible holiday decorating and is a legend in her neighborhood.

Finally, my sister, Patty Goliash Andril ’80, joined us for this year’s brunch. She spends most of her time driving to her son and daughter’s regattas. Katie is a sophomore on the sailing team at Connecticut College, and John, a senior, started the sailing team at the Potomac School. Patty also is an artist whose work has been exhibited throughout the country.

If anyone else would like to join our fall brunches, please email me.

Anita Churney Keeler’s sister, Doris Marie Churney ’76, died in August after an 18-month battle with cancer of the appendix. She had retired from her work with the federal government in July of 2009.

She is missed!

That’s all the news I have for now. Please send more for the next issue.

1980 Suzanne R. Bevan serb@cox.net

1981 Lori Foster Turley turleys@sbcglobal.net Last spring, I gave up my job at United Through Reading to focus on volunteer commitments, not the least of which is serving as president of our local youth soccer league!

Also, I’ve been working with Eileen O’Connell, Ellen Stanley Booth, and Bridget Meaney Weaver on the Reunion Giving Committee for our class. We hope you’ll support Mary Washington with a gift in honor of our reunion year!

Susan Dishman Boyd of Fredericksburg is a registered nurse but took the last year off after a right knee replacement. She spends time taking care of grandson Chase, who was born in 2009. Husband John is off of active duty and has two more years in the Navy Reserve before retiring at 30 years as a captain.

He has taken a job with the staff of the Secretary of Defense. Daughter Michele, Chase’s mother, is 24, in

college, and working part time. Son Michael is 19, a part-time chef, and a community college student in Fredericksburg. Michael, Michele, and Chase live with John and Susan, so they have a full house!

Steve Ball and Susan Whitman Ball, also of Fredericksburg, had an exciting year. They celebrated their 29th anniversary with a Caribbean cruise in May, booked a cruise to Alaska for their 30th, and welcomed their first grandchild, Daniel Jonathan Ball, in July.

In October, Susan’s novel, Restorations, was published (under Susan Elizabeth Ball) by OakTara.

It’s available at online bookstores, including Amazon and Christian Book Distributors, and at some Fredericksburg bookstores. Oldest son Chris was to receive his master’s degree from Villanova University in December. Twins Jon and Matt are both married and live in Stafford County.

Nancy Novak Riester and husband Peter live in Valley Lee, Md. Nancy teaches high school.

Son PJ, a 2007 Naval Academy graduate, is stationed aboard a submarine out of Bangor, Wash.

Son Ben earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Villanova University.

Glenis Riegert Pittman has worked part time for more than six years with the pastoral care team at The Falls Church in Virginia. She and husband Ken of Centreville celebrated 25 years of marriage last September. Ken was starting Oak Leaf Technology Solutions, LLC, a consulting business that will help companies write proposals for government contracts. Son Andrew, a senior at Virginia Tech, plans to be a systems engineer. Son Marshall is a high school freshman.

See you in June!

1982 Tara Corrigall corrigallt@gmail.com I visited with Lori Foster Turley ’81 in October, when I attended a UMW career event, and we grabbed a late lunch at Sammy T’s. She was already busy planning her 2011 class reunion; ours will be next. I ran the Wicked 10K in Virginia Beach with niece Jordan Filchock ’12. We dressed as cupcake fans with hot pink tulle skirts and cute hats designed by Jordan’s mother, Mona Corrigall Filchock ’84. We had a great time, and I enjoy staying current on UMW through the eyes of a junior psychology major.

Nancy Skinner Woodhouse teaches eighth-grade math and In late September, Jennifer earth science at Great Neck Middle Goodwin Donegan and I hosted School in Virginia Beach. Husband a “Russell Reunion” for several Bill is a financial advisor at First of our roomies and unit-mates.

Command, where he has worked We had a great weekend of food, for 25 years. Daughter Sarah is a beach, shopping, and, of course, 2009 graduate of JMU and a Web wine. Vicki Haynes Morris, publisher in Charlottesville.

Jo-Marie St. Martin Green ’82 Son Greg is a works as general counsel and junior at Virginia Tech, majoring runs the legislative operation for in aerospace Rep. John A. Boehner, Republican engineering.

Speaker of the House.

Tom Valente is on sabbatical from teaching at the University of who flew in from Wisconsin, Southern California. He and his won the award for traveling the family are in Paris for a year, while farthest. She kept us entertained he works at the French School of with stories and talk about world Public Health. events. Vicki’s letter to the editor was published in People magazine.

Mark Ingrao enjoys his job as Annmarie Cozzi flew in from president and CEO of the Greater Newark, N.J., and spent time Reston Chamber of Commerce, comparing Virginia Beach to her where he’s worked since 2009. own Jersey Shore. She spent three Mark also is working with Cedric weeks in Italy with her parents Rucker and John Coski to plan and brother. Debbie Snyder our 30th reunion! Please mark Barker stopped in Fredericksburg June 3 to 5 on your calendars and to pick up Carl’s ice cream for plan to join us for a wonderful the group. Her family was busy weekend on campus! with homecoming that weekend U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y WA S H I N G TO N M AG A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 1 1

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CL ASS NOTES

Reston VIP is on the Ball

Mark Ingrao ‘81, head of the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce, holds a second “job,” working the sidelines during Washington Redskins home games (below). Ingrao said the economics degree he earned and the opportunities he received at Mary Washington helped prepare him for a diverse and successful career.

Shamus Ian Fatzinger/Fairfax County Times

Whether he is working to make Reston, Va., a great place to do business or working the sidelines at a Washington Redskins football game, Mark Ingrao ’81 is never far from his experience at Mary Washington.

Ingrao, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics, is president and CEO of the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce.

“Mary Washington really helped set me up for a leadership role,” he said. “The whole experience was exactly what I needed.”

Ingrao came to college wanting to be involved in all facets of campus life, and UMW, with its close-knit student body and small classes, was ideal. He was president of his sophomore class and served on the Honor Council as a senior.

“If I wanted to try something,” he said, “the opportunity was there. It was the perfect place for me.”

Ingrao also took full advantage of a school that encourages social interchange between students and professors. “If you had a question,” he recalled, “you could walk down the street, knock on your professor’s door, and get an answer.”

After he graduated, he worked as head of the compensation division for Washington Gas and immediately put his economics training to use. “I could deal with the job ... understand the mechanics of it,” he said.

Before he took the helm at the Reston Chamber, Ingrao was president of AspenStrategies. He has worked as a lobbyist and for a recruiting firm. He has been an executive with the National Apartment Association and the Apartment and Office Building Association.

Now, about his other job – on the Redskins’ sidelines.

Ingrao and a nephew are two of the four members of the “Chain Gang,” working the chains at Redskins home games by holding the poles that signify which down is being played and how far a team has to go to make the next one. The job, handed down by Ingrao’s father, puts him as close as a spectator can possibly get to an NFL game.

So close that he has been banged up by players barreling along the sidelines and sometimes has to drop the pole and scurry aside when players come hurtling his way.

Still, it’s the dream job for a die-hard Redskins fan like Ingrao. And it’s an extension

of the passion for sports that he had at Mary Washington. A multisport athlete at Arlington’s Bishop O’Connell High School, he took up tennis at UMW and made the team. Eventually he concentrated instead on rugby and played with the Mary Washington squad.

Ingrao frequently visits his old stomping grounds. “I like to walk the campus, see the improvements,” he said. And he makes a point of looking up classmate Cedric Rucker ’81, now UMW dean of student life. Rucker and Ingrao are helping organize the class’s 30th reunion, as Ingrao has done for every reunion starting with their fifth. He plans, he said, to stay closely involved with Mary Washington as it grows and changes.

– Randy Hallman

for daughter Leah and their Spanish exchange student. With younger son Chip off to Virginia Tech, Debbie was worried about a quiet house, so they arranged for the student to spend a year in the busy Barker household.

Carla Richardson Barrell drove in from Roanoke, Va. Daughter Kaitlin is enjoying UMW and trying to decide on a major. Ann Lambert Sensabaugh, who works in banking and often can be found in Blacksburg for Virginia Tech games, joined us for dinner on Friday along with Donna DeAlto Stacia. She and husband Bill moved into their new house and stay busy with work and running. It was fabulous to be with old friends.

We started and finished each other’s sentences, as if no time had passed.

I pulled out my college tub and we sorted through old pictures and memories. Several had burned their photos of college beaus when they got married, so they were thrilled to see them again.

Kay Howard-Strobel still plays soccer in three leagues: women’s over-30 indoor, women’s over-40 indoor, and coed outdoor. She said, “the main difference with hitting 50 is that after playing, and a shower, and a glass of wine, I don’t keep the eyes open quite as long as I used to.” Daughter Hannah is a junior biomedical engineering major at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Son Matthew, a high school senior, is considering mechanical engineering as a college major. Husband Charles is a senior biologist at the Environmental Protection Agency in Narragansett, R.I. Kay is a research associate in marine sciences at the University of Connecticut.

Jenifer Blair attended the 13th annual Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival with Nancy Kaiser, Mary, and friends from Richmond. They have attended the festival since its second year.

JB had an early 50th birthday surprise trip to an October taping of Oprah with her sister, mother, and aunt. The show featured teenage heartthrobs and included Oprah’s interview with Jackie Jackson of the Jackson 5 and live performances

by Shawn Cassidy (remember Da Doo Ron Ron?), Peter Frampton and his band, and the Backstreet Boys.

They spent the rest of the weekend in Chicago, enjoying unseasonably warm weather and great shopping and food! JB spent her 50th birthday at the beach with Nancy, Mary, Donna, and roomie Barb Dixon. JB was appointed to UMW’s Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Georgiana Hall (G.G. Hall) promoted to a director position published her first novel, Hershey, and am traveling a bit more.

A Tale of a Curious House Rabbit, a Kiki Connerton Smith and heartwarming and humorous story husband Dixon are still in Hawaii, that takes readers into the mind where they expect to be until next and life of a house rabbit named summer, but they aren’t sure where Hershey. Georgiana has degrees the Navy will send them next. in physics and engineering and Oldest son Tucker married his is a laboratory supervisor in the high school sweetheart in August, physics department at Florida Kay Howard-Strobel ’82 still plays International University in Miami. soccer in three leagues: women’s She is an educator over-30 indoor, women’s over-40 and a volunteer for her local chapter of indoor, and coed outdoor. the House Rabbit Society. She and works as a civilian for the Navy physicist husband Oren share their in Washington, D.C., and lives in home with six rescued rabbits, Baltimore. His wife is in graduate several birds, and two box turtles, school at Johns Hopkins University. which all appear as characters in Middle son Zach was to receive his the novel. bachelor’s degree in media arts and animation from the Art Institute Cheryl Fetterman has been of Portland in December. Daughter a community college business Cragan is a freshman at Oregon instructor for 17 years. She is State University. president of the Huguenot Society of North Carolina and stays busy Kathie Enfield Jerow’s oldest with SPCA activities and FarmVille. child, Shelby, 19, is in her second Gray Wells of Huntsville, Ala., year at the College of Southern attended a recent Auburn-Georgia Maryland and works at American football game with daughter Jesse.

Eagle Outfitters. Daughter Jo-Marie St. Martin Green works Michelle, 16, a high school junior, as general counsel and runs the is a cheerleader and works at legislative operation for Rep. John Panera Bread. Christena, 10, is in Boehner, Republican Speaker of fifth grade and Girl Scouts, and is the House. She married Rob Green taking up the violin and yearning 14 years ago and has no children to be a teenager like her sisters! but loves to spoil her five nieces Husband Tim works for Homeland and her nephew, and she’s a huge Security in Washington, D.C., Washington Capitals hockey and travels several times a year to fan. Congratulations to our own various border protection sites, Gregg Stull. I hope you saw the when he isn’t tooling around great article in the summer issue on his Harley! Kathie, a French of University of Mary Washington teacher at an alternative school Magazine. During the 2010 in Charles County, Md., where commencement, Gregg received she started a French conversation the Grellet C. Simpson Award group, is working on her teaching for Excellence in Undergraduate certification. Their family took a Teaching and became, the article Carnival cruise to the Bahamas said, “the only professor in the last summer, which included a institution’s history to win the visit to Atlantis Resort. trifecta of top UMW teaching honors.” Shannon McGurk lives Danette Stormont Drew in Washington, D.C., with her was awarded the EPA Gold husband, who is partner in a Medal for Exceptional Service. management consulting firm.

Congratulations, Danette! One of Katherine Farmer’s sons, Thanks for all your notes and Jonathan, attends J. Sargeant comments on Facebook. Stay in Reynolds Community College touch and let me know if you visit and lives at home. Her other son the Virginia Beach area. is to graduate from Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, S.C. Katherine hopes to visit Mary Washington this spring.

Marcia Guida James Susan Leavitt was recognized marciagj@aol.com as Philanthropist of the Year by theYMCA of Metropolitan Healthcare reform continues to Washington, due to the Nancy keep me on my toes at work, with Dunning Endowment, which many new developments. I was

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sends kids to camp. Husband Jon Andrus was sworn in as deputy director of Pan American Health Organization and was busy with the cholera outbreak in Haiti.

Donna Snyder Sayre was named to a three-year appointment as vice chairman of the Virginia DAR’s Volunteer Information Specialists Committee. She was to visit the Las Vegas area for a technology conference and, perhaps, to hunt for a retirement house.

Joe Davoli and wife Margaret welcomed a baby girl, Annamaria Hoeger, in October of 2009. Wendy Burnette Dickinson’s husband, JD, spends a great deal of time on the road. Daughter Hillary, a senior and year-round swimmer, was applying to colleges, including UMW. Daughter Anne Marie is a high school freshman.

1984 Auby J. Curtis aubyj@comcast.net Tara Kilday Lindhart taralindhart@hotmail.com

1985 Deona Houff deona.houff@gmail.com Patricia Keenan Charlton works for the school system in Fairfax County, Va., and has two sons in middle school and one in elementary school. Daughter Allyson plans to graduate from UMW this spring. Patricia enjoys her Alexandria home and doing community service.

University of Maryland, has been a human resources consultant for 10 years, and works with a strategy consulting group based in Chicago.

Ivonne lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., with husband Lou. Son Louie, 12, plays baseball. Daughter Christina, 8, plays soccer. The family enjoys travel and was planning a spring trip to Europe.

Christy Miller Robinson lives in Richmond with husband Wally and daughters Morgan, 19, and Molly, 16. Christy celebrated her 25th anniversary with Anthem, where she started working right after graduating from Mary Washington. Christy’s college roommate, Robin Jones Kilby, lives nearby in Chesterfield, Va., with husband Don. She has worked for Genworth Financial in Richmond since graduation.

Robin has two stepchildren, Erin, 27, and Christopher, 25, and two grandchildren, Alex, 3, and Carlo, 2.

Judy Smiley Newman and husband Jack, who live in a golf community in Georgia, welcomed their fifth grandchild, a boy named Jack. Mary Ann Cromley Duffy stays busy in her pottery studio and loves her life. She completed a half-marathon in two hours and 20 minutes last October. She has four children. Her oldest son, Tim, is a junior at Western Washington University in Bellingham. Her youngest, Seamus, is in fifth grade.

Her husband, Sean Duffy ’84, is a family physician at a community health clinic in Walla Walla, Wash.

Last fall, Julie Clark started a new position as procurement analyst at XO Communications in Herndon, Va. Prior to that, she worked as an inventory planner and buyer for the National Geographic

Sara Jones Uzel and husband Mark live in Arlington, Va., where they own Danette Stormont Drew ’83 Technology Trends was awarded the EPA Gold Group, a small consulting firm. Older Medal for Exceptional Service. daughter Mallory, 18, is at the University Society’s museum and online stores. of North Carolina Wilmington.

She traveled to Italy, where she took Younger daughter Camille, 17, a cooking class, and plans to watch lived in Virginia Hall during a the Tour de France this year in the field hockey camp she attended town where Brent (French House) at UMW and was exposed to RA Christine Adenis lives. Julie Carl’s ice cream and Sammy T’s. helped plan a recent celebration for Could she be a third-generation the 50th birthday of her sister, Ann Mary Washington student in the Clark Lockhart ’83, in Cary, N.C. making?

After graduation, Anne Hunt After working for the State Braun went back to her native Department, Fannie Mae, and peninsula and worked at Newport DTE Energy, Ivonne Cotto News Shipbuilding, where she met Steffens went into consulting. husband Bob. She quit working in She attended grad school at the U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y WA S H I N G TO N M AG A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 1 1

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CL ASS NOTES 1997 after the birth of son Curtis.

Bob’s job sent them to Bremerton, Wash., for a five-year contract. They returned to Poquoson, Va., just in time for Hurricane Isabel and have been there ever since. Anne saw Sidney Griffith Keith last June, just before the Keith family went on a cross-country trip.

alums, including Cabby Bennett and wife Becca Cuddy ’85, Jane Carroll Wilson, Liz Proutt Connelly ’87, Ginny Farquharson Voyack, Jackie St. Martin ’85, Karin Soyster Fitzgerald, J.J. Rickerich Schifsky, Maggie Russell Eastman ’84, and Ellen Henderson Briggs ’88, attended

Allison Cornell Julie Clark ’85 helped plan a is in training to be recent celebration for the 50th a chaplain in Long Beach, Calif. She birthday of her sister, Ann Clark and her wife, Robin, Lockhart ’83, in Cary, N.C. have been married six years. Allison keeps in touch a wedding at the Army and Navy with Jenny Utz ’82, Stacey Aucoin Club in Washington, D.C. Baca, Chris Hruby ’81, Deb Reid Arcadia Publishing has ’82, Susie Leavitt ’82, and Linda published Julian Preisler’s Lemanski Blakemore ’84. latest book, Images of America, Please send me your news, Jewish West Virginia, which the long and short of it, for the contains vintage and current next issue. images of Jewish life and history in the Mountain State. Julian, a professional genealogist, is working on a book about pioneer American Jewish congregations Lisa A. Harvey and conducting research for Fox lisharvey@msn.com Music President Robert Fox and Congratulations to Stephanie noted author and television writer Doswald Sebolt, who earned her Anne Kreamer. doctoral degree in curriculum Melissa Haines Sleeth and and instruction from Virginia husband Ron consider themselves Tech, and to Sheryl DeVaun blessed to have adopted baby Manspile, a registered nurse who Jeremiah Elvin in April. Melissa graduated from Bon Secours works for the Valentine Richmond Memorial College of Nursing in History Center and occasionally 2009. Stephanie got together with at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.

Irene Thomaidis Cimino and Maureen Kearney Fleegal and her commiserated about our upcoming husband sold their family business 25th reunion! and moved to Loveland, Colo., Lisa Brown received her where the weather is beautiful, master’s degree in business the traffic is non-existent, the administration, with a people are friendly, and there’s no concentration in contracts and humidity! They are renovating procurement management, from houses and looking into starting UMW last May. She is proud to another business. Maureen enjoys have worked with fellow students photography. Her oldest son is a in Professor Alan Heffner’s class sophomore engineering physics developing Phase II of the Eagle major at Colorado School of Mines, Village Development Project. She and her youngest son is a high planned to meet up with Pam school junior.

Piqui Schaub Graham for a funIn July, Scott Kaplan attended filled November weekend in New the George Washington Teachers’ York and New Jersey.

Institute, directed by Nancy Donna Metzger Lantagne Hayward ’80, at Mount Vernon, was shopping for colleges with where select teachers from around son Joseph. Henry Talavera the country spent a week learning has her beat, with two children about the nation’s first president. already there! Donna runs into Scott plans to conduct a workshop Kristi Williams McCune once at the local or state level, telling in a while, as their daughters other teachers about the program. attend St. Gertrude High School Before the event, he visited Mary in Richmond. Jocelyn Piccone Washington and was amazed at all completed more races this past the changes. summer and thinks work is highly Our 25th reunion will be held overrated! Gayle Schmith Kelly June 3 to 5. Please block the dates and a host of Mary Washington

1986

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on your calendars and make travel plans now. Let’s make this the biggest and best reunion ever!

1987 Kim Jones Isaac mwc87@infinityok.com René Thomas-Rizzo rene.thomas-rizzo@navy.mil From Kim: Most of my big news concerns our son, Chris, who has almost finished his freshman year at Oklahoma State University, where he is majoring in agribusiness. In October, we were extremely proud to learn that he was one of only 15 freshmen granted early admittance to the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine. He is to complete three years of undergraduate school, and then, during his first year of vet school, he is to complete requirements for his undergraduate degree. Obviously, he should be very busy over the next seven years. Chris also played intramural soccer last fall and is a member of the pre-vet club.

My husband, Ken, and I are in the 15th year of our computer services company and are pursuing new business ventures. Ken continues to travel around the country to radio control flying competitions, where he takes pictures and video for a radio control website.

of Richmond in 1999. She was named a Virginia Super Lawyer in 2009 and 2010 and recognized as one of 25 leading women attorneys in Virginia last year. She’s a member of the Virginia, Richmond, and Metropolitan Richmond Women’s bar associations; the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys; and the John Marshall American Inn of Court. She also serves on the national Amicus Committee and the Virginia Legislative Action Committee of the Community Associations Institute.

Jane Ellen Brennan Herrin is part of the nationally syndicated weekly radio show The Live Ride with Marty McFly on the Envision Network. She was in the pilot of Mary Steenburgen’s series Outlaw Country on FX and was featured in Billy Ray Cyrus’s PSA for the lung disease COPD. She has published two mini-cookbooks on her website and does lots of local TV. Last January, she hosted A Fashion Affair, a large charity event featuring vintage celebrity apparel, such as June Carter Cash’s hat collection. Jane Ellen has two daughters. Anna Grace is doing amazing in kindergarten and Jenna can’t wait to go to “big school.”

Husband Jim works at the Putnam County Election Commission and local radio stations. In July, the family adopted a stray dog named Max.

Toni Moore Milbourne was named managing editor of the Michelle Adams Mulligan Spirit of Jefferson newspaper in joined the Richmond office of Jefferson County, W.Va., where the MercerTrigiani law firm, representing common interest In July, Scott Kaplan ’86 attended community the George Washington Teachers’ associations and continuing her Institute, directed by Nancy practice in legal Hayward ’80, at Mount Vernon, and accounting malpractice where select teachers from around defense and the country spend a week learning insurance coverage. about the nation’s first president.

Previously, Michelle was a she had been a reporter for 10 partner with McSweeney, Crump, years. Last year, she interviewed Childress & Temple, P.C. in Erik Estrada, Ricky Skaggs, and Richmond, where her practice John McCain. Not too bad for a focused on civil litigation matters small-town paper! Her oldest is a relating to legal and accounting college sophomore, the second is malpractice defense, insurance getting ready to go to college, and coverage, commercial litigation, two more will go soon. and community association law.

Michelle earned her law degree at Look for me under “Kim Jones the University of Richmond School Isaac” on Facebook. I, along with of Law in 1990 and her master’s your fellow classmates, would love degree in business administration to hear what’s going on in your at the University lives, so please send updates!

1988 Marsha D. Baker rstarr66@msn.com Beverly J. Newman bevnewmn@yahoo.com Jay Bradshaw jaybradshaw747@aol.com

1989 Cheryl Woody Danielson cheryl.danielson@earthlink.net

1990 Susan Crytzer Marchant march66358@verizon.net

Sandi Hubbard Esposito and husband Mike live in Amherst County, Va., with son Michael, 10, and daughter Ashton, 8. Michael is homeschooled and Ashton is in third grade. Sandi was part of History Tech, LLC, a group that surveyed nearly 300 historic properties in Amherst, and she was completing work on nominating the village of Clifford as a historic district.

Lisa Poindexter Hayslett left Northern Virginia and moved back to Roanoke, where she lives with husband Sam and daughter MacKenzie Plaia, a high school sophomore. Lisa is a senior property manager at CB Richard Ellis. She runs into Mary Washington alumni, such as Ellen Nelson Phillips, from time to time. Lisa and her family love being back in the valley, where they spend time kayaking, hiking, and enjoying the outdoors.

My husband, Joseph, and I live in Manassas, Va., and have three sons, Adam, 8, Brett, 6, and Shane, 3. Joe is an HVAC technician for Boland, and I am a program manager for Stephen Gurley and Jennifer two mapping-related development Norris Gurley ’93 have lived efforts at the National Toni Moore Milbourne ’87 was GeospatialIntelligence named managing editor of the Spirit Agency, of Jefferson newspaper in Jefferson where I am surrounded County, W.Va. Her interviews for the by too paper last year included Erik Estrada, many Mary Washington Ricky Skaggs, and John McCain. grads to mention. in Richmond since 1996. They Our family is involved with Scouts have three children, Will, 9, and sports, such as swimming Mary Catherine, 7, and Tate, 5. and basketball. I stay in close Will swims and plays baseball contact with my Mary Washington and soccer, Mary Catherine roommate, Susie Hankel Riccio, has participated in ballet and whose 9-year-old son, Ethan, has gymnastics, and Tate plays soccer. followed in his mother’s footsteps by taking up competitive horseback Jennifer works part time at Willow Oaks Country Club, writes a blog riding. for PoshTots, and owns a children’s clothing business. Stephen is the national field marketing manager for Samsung Electronics America Shannon Eadie Niemeyer and travels quite a bit. sfniemeyer@comcast.net In October, Billy Germelman Hello, Class of 1991! I hope you all celebrated his first year in are well. Here’s the news I’ve received his new house in Winchester, since our last update.

Va., and his first year working onsite at the Pentagon, where Ellen McCrary-Mayer retired he has reconnected with Army as a successful clinical psychologist friends. An associate of Booz to pursue a career that called her Allen Hamilton, he saw Mary after 11 years of volunteering in Washington friends who also work her children’s classrooms. She’s for the company, including Mike in grad school again, this time Smith.

The oldest of Billy’s three to become an elementary school children just finished high school. teacher. Her husband, Geoff Mayer,

1991

was promoted to fire department lieutenant. They keep in touch with several Framar women and their families.

Todd Spangler and Nicole Franchois Spangler welcomed their fourth child, Avery Grace, in September. Mark Mesterhazy and

wife Kim’s fourth child was due in December.

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program. He planned to raise more money for the cause by running the Shamrock Half Marathon in Virginia Beach, and he was eagerly awaiting another ski season.

Andrew was in Seattle for his brother’s wedding and getting

Denise Mickelson Campbell, Amy Rose LaPierre, and I have been working with the Mary Washington Alumni Association to plan our 20th reunion. Everyone should have received information about the event, which is set to take place June Andrew Salp ’93 ran the Bank of 3 to 5. Join our Facebook America Chicago Marathon and group, Mary raised nearly $6,000. While in Washington College (UMW) Seattle for his brother’s wedding, – Class of 1991, Andrew was at Top Pot Doughnuts for updates.

We’re looking when President Obama stopped in forward to a for a photo opportunity. fun, casual gathering on the lower deck and bar area at Brock’s donuts at Top Pot Doughnuts when Riverside Grill (formerly Sophia President Obama stopped in for Street Station) on Friday evening a photo opportunity. Andrew’s and to many on-campus activities family was able to chat with him for throughout the weekend, including a minute or so. another Rabble Rousers reunion Ngozi “Zi” Obi published her show on Saturday. Become a fan of first book, a Christian romance the group on Facebook. It’s a great novel called Love’s Destiny, available way to keep up with the band for at bookstores and online. Jen Studt the reunion and future events.

Schimmenti, a meeting planner for Keep your news and updates Strategic Analysis, celebrated her coming. Hope to see you all in June!

10-year anniversary with husband Mike. Becca Dotson of Alexandria, Va., is in graduate school at George Washington University and pursuing a career teaching ESL. Kate Stanford McCown kate.mccown@live.com Len Ornstein ’94, a teacher, lives outside of Phoenix with There isn’t much news this time wife Yut Wah and his son. He is from the Class of 1992. I guess learning medical transcription everyone is having a busy fall. and trying to get back in shape Regina McWethy Phillips and with CrossFit. His students tell husband Michael live in Germany him that the best thing about and have adopted four children from Poland. Keep sending updates! his classes are his college stories of “Dimeglio,” “Latha,” “Crazy Andy,” and “Captain Boring.” Len keeps in touch with many Mary Washington folks from the classes Cheryl L. Roberts of ’93, ’94, and ’95 via Facebook chatatcha@yahoo.com and reports that Andy Woodfin moved to the West Coast near I have had a great year in San Francisco.

Columbus, Ohio. My wedding was to take place early this year (just under the wire before my 40th birthday)! My fiancé and I took a trip to France and fell in Nathan Wade love with Provence. I continue smileynate72@yahoo.com to keep busy tending to my Greetings from Tucson! Our class menagerie of animals! has been busy.

Andrew Salp and Jill Much has changed in my life Whelan Salp ’94 of Richmond since the last report and reunion. have two boys. Andrew works I’m single for the first time in four for a pharmaceuticals company years, and I made a huge decision and Jill works at CapitalOne. In to relocate to Tucson, leave my October, Andrew ran the Bank of career in college admissions, and America Chicago Marathon and start law school at the University of raised nearly $6,000 through the Arizona. It’s an exciting challenge

1992

1993

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CL ASS NOTES and the hardest thing I’ve done, but I’m happy to be pursuing a dream. I volunteered on the successful re-election campaign of our local congresswoman and settled into a little bungalow close to campus. It’s been quite the new beginning!

Debbie Hodges Shelton lives in Manassas with husband Jon and their two children, Alex and Natalie. Alex is 7 and has autism.

He enjoys soccer and therapeutic horseback riding. Natalie is 5 and loves going to school, singing,

Dianna Rowell ’97 returned to I want to congratulate my Mary Washington in September freshman roommate as the psychology department’s Al Wolstenholme graduate-in-residence. She gave on his recent engagement to lectures in several classes and a Kathryn Hallquist! public talk about her work with It’s about time someone from veterans with post-traumatic Room 519 settled stress disorder. down. Al plans a May 21 wedding, with Kevin Ahearn, Sean reading, and being creative. Debbie Mahoney, and Shannon Kasley is a full-time mom, PTO volunteer as groomsmen. coordinator at Natalie’s elementary school, and active member and Anna Marie Martin of officer of the Junior Woman’s Club Spokane, Wash., was expecting her of Manassas. She keeps in touch first bundle of joy in late February! with Mary Washington friends on Jennifer Rambo and husband Facebook.

Chad Mohr of Spruce Pine, N.C., own and operate The Pizza Shop I love keeping up with so many & Dry County Brewing Co. They of you on Facebook. Please feel free homestead and use their own and to “friend” me to send updates or other locally grown vegetables. just say “hi!”

Somehow, they also find time to raise Sidney, 4, and Ruby, 2. If you’re in the area, stop by for a brew and a slice.

Jane Archer Jennifer Rice Henderson and jane@janearcherillustration.com husband Dave Henderson ’95 live in Charleston, S.C. Dave is Megan Concannon Richardson assistant professor of accounting mythreebeauties@gmail.com at the College of Charleston and Jennifer is a freelance writer and editor. In January of 2009, they adopted a daughter named Anna.

In other baby news, David Janes Jennifer Rudalf Gates and Patricia Janes ’96 welcomed jsmartypants@cox.net Emerson Bryan in August.

Jill McDaniel Another entrepreneur is jmmcdaniel@fcps.edu Stephen Wilson, president of River City Hospitality, LLC, a boutique provider of event planning services for premier sporting events. He and wife Jessica live in Richmond with Michelle Trombetta their two cats. blondebombchelle@yahoo.com

1995

1996

1997

Karen Hatwell bought a house in Silver Spring, Md., close to her job as a regulatory chemist for the FDA. She completed a half-Ironman competition, plays soccer, rock climbs, and enjoys life with her dogs and her many friends in Maryland.

Nick Miller of South Texas is a brand performance consultant for Choice Hotels. He and wife Robin were building a home and looking forward to moving in with their two boys in December.

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I really hate all the traveling my position at UnitedHealth has in store for me, but I enjoy the perk of seeing friends across the country. I’m on a 20-city tour and hope to see more alumni this year. Drop me a line and let me know where you are.

In October, I had dinner on the San Antonio River Walk with my senior year roommate, Kira Stchur, who sings in the band Twelve Step Academy and works for San Antonio Lighthouse for the Blind.

I was excited to meet her Great

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Dane puppy. At 6 months, Gatsby was already quadruple the size of my dogs.

Katie O’Leary Preston took her passion for marketing and knitting and launched her own business, Learn-to-Knit with Katie. In the fall, her group of knitters completed helmet liners to help keep our troops warm while they serve overseas.

Dianna Rowell returned to Mary Washington in September as the psychology department’s graduate-in-residence. She gave lectures in several classes and a public talk about her work with veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. She enjoyed interacting with students, catching up with her former professors, and being back on campus, which felt very familiar despite many changes.

Myra Simpson is in her sixth year at Ranney School in Monmouth County, N.J., as director of college guidance. She hopes to be able to visit Mary Washington more often.

Susanna Fisher Parker and husband Rob welcomed daughter Caroline Elizabeth in October. She joins brother Stevie, 3.

1998 Erika Giaimo Chapin erikagchapin@gmail.com Deacon Chapin deaconchapin@yahoo.com

son Deacon last May and enjoyed her time at home with him for his first six months. Older son Anthony loves being a big brother, and Larissa and husband Michael are living the middle-class suburban dream.

After they all had baby girls within a year of each other, Abby Mitchell, Amy Wachenfeld, and Wendy Sulc completed the cycle by having three boys within a year. Amy’s son, Jack Eagen, was born in September of 2009; Wendy’s son, Aidan Dehne, was born last June; and Abby’s son, Nathaniel Pearce, was born in July. They plan to take a summer trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, with six children under 5. That still doesn’t scare away Matt Galeone, who plans to join in the fun again!

Anne and Tristan Daugherty-Leiter live in the Madison, Wis., area, where he is an emergency veterinarian and she is a lawyer. Their second son, MacKinnon Andrew, was born in October, joining Griffin, 4. They were looking forward to a December visit from Lara Fedorov. Caitlin Jenkins Losh and husband Jason welcomed Paul Arthur Jenkins in July. Born in Manhattan, he is a true New Yorker. Mike “Pasta” Paolino enjoys life as a father of two with wife Diane in Rhode Island.

Todd Hamlin and girlfriend Kelly welcomed a different kind of new addition to their family, a 1-year-old chocolate Lab rescue dog named Nestle. Todd led Team Husky, his Northern Virginia Division 4 co-ed soccer league in scoring. He and Adam “Smitty”

Several classmates celebrated the births of their children about a year ago, and we now turn to celebrating first birthdays! Deacon and I can’t believe Eliza has been here for a year already. Her future Mary Washington classmates include The second book by M. Leigh Tommy Lowther, Carson ’99, Dead Awakening, son of Lauren Dwyer Lowther a supernatural mystery thriller and husband and the sequel to her first book, Brandon; Sofia Fuge, daughter of Midnight Reflections, was Alexis Kingham published under her pseudonym, Fuge and husband Dylan; Emma Shea Katrina Michaels.

Britton (who was soon to be a big sister), daughter of Katie Shea Smith ’97 visited Mike “Moose” Britton and husband Craig; and Carney ’97 and his family in Maegen Ramsay, daughter of central Vermont. The news from Alyson Andrews Ramsay and across the pond is that Sean Tuffy husband Peter. Adrien Snedeker plans to tie the knot next fall with Dickerson and husband Adam Irish fiancée Lorraine in Dublin. were expecting their first child in We hope this finds you well, February. and we look forward to hearing In other baby news, Larissa from you all again soon!

Lipani Peluso-Fleming welcomed

1999 Amanda Goebel goebel_amanda@hotmail.com Things are moving along here in Atlanta. My boyfriend and I traveled to Ireland in December for a long pre-holiday weekend. I hope things are going well for everyone.

Please keep me up to date with what you are doing!

Courtney Rossi and family finally moved into their new house in Herndon, Va. Jennifer Reyes graduated from the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine and is doing a general practice residency at Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

She loves New York and working out with the hilarious Tina Fey, and she still thinks about and keeps in touch with many Mary Washington friends!

2000

Heather Woody Snead and husband Travis were expecting their second child, another little boy, in January, when their first son, Tyler, would be just shy of 4.

Heather works in human resources for BB&T in Richmond.

2001

M. Leigh Carson’s second book, Dead Awakening, a supernatural mystery thriller and the sequel to her first book, Midnight Reflections, was published under her pseudonym, Katrina Michaels.

Sara Harney Correll lives in Gainesville, Va., with husband Jim, 2½-year-old son Noah, and 6-month-old daughter Hannah.

Jessica Bergner DaSilva of Washington, D.C., is a middle school math coach in Fairfax

Daniela Kelley Sicuranza daniela.sicuranza@gmail.com

Caroline Jarvis carolineljarvis@gmail.com Teresa Joerger Mannix teresamannix@hotmail.com

County, Va. She and her husband were expecting their first child in May. Brianne Patchell Friberg earned a doctorate in human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin.

She and her family relocated to Virginia, where she is assistant professor of psychology at Liberty University in Lynchburg.

Amanda Culler Glenn and husband David welcomed their first child, Dominick David, in June.

Amanda is assistant director of marketing and public relations at Frederick Community College in Maryland, and is pursuing an MBA at Frostburg State University. Laura Indzeris Johnson and Thomas B. Johnson ’97 of Athens, Ga., were

Computer Science Major Configures “KickApps” Career Peter Clark ’96 graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, departmental honors, and plenty of good career options before him.

But he didn’t play it safe. Instead, Clark took a chance that bringing his own tech creations to the emerging Internet market might be more fun, and he was right.

After graduation, Clark created voice-recognition technologies that launched two successful businesses, NetByTel and Quadfore. And, in 2006, Clark co-founded New York-based KickApps, where he leads the design of social media technologies for the websites of more than 450 clients, such as NBC Universal and American Express.

Clark’s innovations have won over the Web market: In January, KickApps was bought by KIT Digital, a Czech Republic-based company, as part of a deal valued at $77 million.

“It’s really neat that he had the desire and the nerve and the wherewithal to go out on his own,” said UMW professor of computer science Ernest Ackermann, who remembers Clark as “a really solid person and a smart guy. He was a student that all of us felt comfortable talking to.”

What makes Clark’s success even more striking is that he’s done it while working from his home in St. Augustine, Fla., where he and his wife, Melinda Voguit Clark ’96, are raising sons Sammy, 7, and Benjamin, 5. Melinda is an occupational therapist with a master’s degree from the University of St. Augustine. Peter gets their boys to and from school and spends his other waking hours designing the technologies for KickApps, where he’s described as the “architect, developer, and chief cool-feature creator.” Even with the company’s sale, Clark said his work “is exactly the same thing that I was doing before.”

Clark grew up in Sea Girt, N.J., and knew about Mary Washington from his mother, Susan Schnettler Clark ’68. His balance of career and family was always a goal.

Working from home, computer science major Peter Clark ’96 co-founded the hugely successful social media technology design company KickApps. He is pictured here with his dog, Lily, wife Melinda Voguit Clark ’96, and sons Sammy, 7, and Benjamin, 5.

“While many of these start-up companies did require long hours, I never ever wanted to do them at the expense of my family,” he said. “I made a promise to myself at the beginning of my career that I’d never do that.”

Clark took his first programming course when he was 7 years old, using a Texas Instruments computer that his grandmother and parents bought for him. For a kid who grew up obsessed with tech gadgets, he said, the University was a good launching pad.

On his first visit to Mary Washington, “it just felt like home to me,” he said. “I think that’s really the way the University helped prepare me for the real world. People have asked me, ‘Why did you go to a liberal arts school for computer science?’ But it worked out great. If I had gone to a bigger school, I wouldn’t have had as good a relationship with my teachers.”

– Robert Burke

’96

CL ASS NOTES expecting a baby girl in November.

Laura is a marketing director and Tom teaches physical science.

Tony Lambiasi hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2009, from Maine to Georgia. In March, he completed a three-week visitor period at Twin Oaks Intentional Community in Louisa County, Va., and joined the commune in June.

Gina Clough Leonard bought a house last year, just before the birth of their first child, Ariana Grace, in April. Teresa Joerger Mannix works at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and has enrolled in the school’s Certificate in Marketing program.

She also is working with Natalie Alexander Buttner to plan the 10th reunion for the Class of 2001, set to take place June 3 to 5. Learn more on the “MWC Class of 2001” Facebook page.

Angela Mills was to present on volunteer alumni

management at the annual CASE District VI conference in January. She continues to oversee the alumni chapter and club program for the University of Tennessee Alumni Association and is a candidate for a master’s of public administration degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She also is an independent consultant for Thirty-One Gifts. A highlight last year for Angela was the opportunity to visit with Debby Klein, wife of the late Albert Klein for whom UMW’s Klein Theatre was named, and share the impact the Albert R. Klein Memorial Scholarship had on her while she was at Mary Washington. She is excited to be co-chairing the Class of 2001 10th Reunion Giving Committee with Kelly Turcic Bailey. Help us reach our goal of 100 percent participation!

Kelli Kramer Petrick and Joe Petrick have worked at Teton

Science Schools in Jackson, sons, ages 1 and 4. She works in Wyo., for four years and love physician services for Henrico the Wild West. They climbed Doctors’ Hospital. Carla Villar the Grand Teton last summer Walby and Nathan Walby of with Kelli’s family, including her Reston, Va., married in September sister Christi A highlight last year for Angela Kramer ’03, and Mills ’01 was the opportunity to visit hosted Jason with Debby Klein, wife of the late Engelhardt for a week in the Albert Klein for whom UMW’s Klein mountains.

Theatre was named, and share the They looked forward to a impact the Albert R. Klein Memorial month-long Scholarship had on her while she was sabbatical in India in at Mary Washington.

November.

Richard Speakman, who teaches sixth grade in Anchorage, Alaska, met his wife, Jennifer Goodeliunas, during a cancer research fundraising event in the Caribbean, where they swam from one island to another. Koonj Kapoor Spicer and husband Joey live in Richmond with their two

of 2009. Their first son, Elvis Diego, was born in August.

Jonathan Williams and Erin Pickens Williams received promotions. Jonathan is vice president of Easter Associates, a government relations and association management company

Is UMW in your family tree?

Karen Pearlman

If multiple branches of your family have attended Mary Washington, you are a Mary Washington Legacy.

This special designation honors UMW families with multiple Mary Washington connections − including grandparents, parents, children, siblings, aunts, uncles, or cousins. Be sure to register your legacy information to ensure your family receives communications and invitations to special events, including the next Mary Washington Legacy Breakfast planned for Family Weekend in September 2011.

Martha Aaron Nelson ‘75 and her son Andrew Nelson ’09 attended the 2010 Legacy Breakfast.

If you have not yet registered all your special UMW family relationships, please complete the form at www.umw.edu/alumni/legacy.

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with offices in Charlottesville and Richmond. Erin is policy and planning coordinator for the consumer protection division of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Kim Winslow celebrated her eighth year at KPMG, where she is a senior manager. Chris Winslow opened a second law practice, with offices in Midlothian and Petersburg, Va.

2002 Travis Jones tljones8@hotmail.com Carolyn Murray Spencer turtlecjm@yahoo.com Steffany Slaughter Plotts and husband Greg welcomed their second child, Preston Gregory, last April.

2003 Jessica Brandes jessbrandes@yahoo.com

Arlington, Va., became the lead Naval warfare logistics analyst for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Emily Grogg works for the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office in Colorado and plans to graduate from the Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver in May. Nicole Springer is assistant director of the arts management program at George Mason University. Tommy Rogers is an associate for Goldman Sachs. In 2009, Katie Dolph Lewis received her doctorate in educational policy, planning, and leadership, with an emphasis in gifted education administration, from the College of William and Mary.

She was named Norfolk Public Schools’ Teacher of the Year. She teaches education courses at Texas A&M International University.

In June, Katie married Border Patrol agent John Lewis in Laredo.

Rebecca Romaneski Sneller and husband Deric live in Alamosa, Colo., and work at a church, as Deric prepares to become an Army chaplain. They welcomed their first child, Tobin Jon, in June.

After graduation, Kelli Zezulka studied stage management and technical theater at the London Mike Roth married Jessica Academy of Music and Dramatic Gordon in Chicago in June. They Art. She has worked for the Royal took a six-week honeymoon to Court Theatre in London, the Southeast Asia, visiting Singapore, Royal Shakespeare Company, and Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Laos, and Indonesia. Mary Leeds. Kelli married in 2007 and Washington classmates involved lives in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, in the wedding celebration just outside Leeds. She recently included Mandy Dunn-Sampson, left theater and is a proofreader Joe Thornhill ’04, Carla Villar for an investor relations company ’01, Allison Golden, Andrea producing annual Kelli Zezulka ’03 studied stage reports. She expects to management and technical theater complete work at the London Academy of Music and on a master’s Dramatic Art after graduating from degree in research at UMW. She has worked for the Royal the University Court Theatre in London, the Royal of Leeds this year.

Shakespeare Company, and the West Kirsten Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.

Barnum started Kilkenny, Andrea Hamlen ’08, work on her MBA in the fall and Michael Lange. Mike and his at Dartmouth College’s Tuck wife live in Chicago, and Mike School of Business. Prior to teaches fourth grade at a private graduate school, she worked for school on the North Shore. In the Corporate Executive Board, July, Paige Golden Callahan a research and advisory services married Jay Dee Callahan ’05 in company based in Rosslyn, Va., Connecticut. Alana West, Chris which is sponsoring Kirsten and Hillers, and Dave Lovins were paying her expenses at business in the wedding party. Danny school. Upon graduation, she is Douglass, Adam Kelly, Kelly to return to the CEB as a senior Kirkendall ’06, Mike Merrill, director. Jeffrey Frankston of

Mike Pattie, and Alyssa Tice ’04 attended. Paige and Jay Dee live in Meriden, Conn. She is a literacy coach for New Haven Public Schools, and he is an advertising distribution manager in New London.

2007

2004

Jay Sinha, who is in his second year of law school at the College of William and Mary, worked as a summer law clerk for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. This summer, he plans to be with the LeClairRyan law firm in Richmond and, hopefully, living in the Shockoe Bottom area.

Katharine E. Leesman katie.leesman@gmail.com Sarah B. Smith sarahbsmith@gmail.com Sameer Vaswani sameervaswani@msn.com

2005 Allyson V. Lee allyvlee@gmail.com Emily Frabell and Andrew Lawson ’04 were planning an April wedding in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.

Bridesmaids were to include Pam Peach Silvers, Jenn Kern Congdon, and Christy O’Loughlin Rolka.

2006 Shana A. Muhammad email.shana@gmail.com Carl Frank Puleo cfpuleo@gmail.com

Jay Sinha jay.sinha9@gmail.com Daniel Clendenin daniel.clendenin@gmail.com

Daniel Clendenin is in his fourth year as an advisor with the Richmond-based investment firm Cary Street Partners. His group was recognized by Barron’s magazine as one of the top advisors in the country and ranked within the top eight advisory groups in Virginia. He had a blast catching up with several alums at the recent weddings of Ben Beavers ’06 and Megh Cudahy ’06 and of Frank Puleo ’06 and Christina Ford ’09.

Andrew Eaton was heading to Africa for a six-month deployment on a ship tasked with hunting down pirates preying on both private and commercial boats.

Mallory Frazier and Steven Esperon tied the knot in June.

After a honeymoon and many job applications, they relocated back to the East and live in Rockville, Md., where Mallory does traumatic brain injury research with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Steve still teaches middle and high school history. Sad to see

Mary McCarthy moved to Louisiana to pursue a master’s degree in public administration at the University of New Orleans.

She lives in the Mid-City neighborhood and works in communications and regulatory compliance Adam Suleske ’06 received a master’s at Canal Barge Co. degree in alternative energy technologies Adam from Arizona State University.

Suleske received a master’s degree in alternative energy him leave, his Texas students all technologies from Arizona State signed a print of Wolverine for him.

University in December. He Congratulations to Stephen and Sue Jeffries were looking George and Amber Forster forward to moving back to George, who welcomed Maggie Virginia and reconnecting with Diane in June! the friends they’ve missed. Kristen Borkoski is a human resources Shawn Hough graduated last specialist for the Department of spring from Hofstra University Labor Employment and Training School of Law, with an honors Administration in Washington, award for real estate and property D.C., and is happy to be back in law. He was business editor for the area and able to see more of her the Hofstra Law Review and Mary Washington alumni friends. practices real estate, bankruptcy, and banking law in New York with Stiene and Associates, P.C.

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CL ASS NOTES Suzanne Volinski of Greenwich, Conn., continues to work at Malcolm Pirnie, an environmental consulting firm headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., and was promoted to senior marketing coordinator in December of 2009. She received her master’s degree in public relations from Iona College in August. For her thesis project, she created a strategic marketing and communications plan for a local commercial/residential painting company that was featured on the Discovery Channel reality series Construction Intervention.

2008, bought their first house in Alexandria in 2009, and welcomed their second son, Peyton, in April of 2010. Amanda is now a project planner for High Performance Technologies, supporting the Veterans Relationship Management project with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Law School. Marion Craig and Dan Hinkley of Virginia Beach married last February, after dating since freshman year. Dan is a Naval Supply Corps officer serving on a one-year deployment in the Mediterranean Sea. Marion substitute teaches, teaches piano, and plays as many sports as possible at all times.

Stephanie Tait is still single After two years as a and sane in Rockville, Md. She works in Cindy Abernathy ’07 is a licensed communications for a nonprofit therapist working for the Center for and is pursuing Addictions and Pregnancy at the her master’s degree in Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical After serving two years as publications Center, where she incorporates art an IT policy analyst at the Office design from of Management and Budget, the University and art therapy in her approach Catherine Stewart is an MPP/ of Baltimore. to helping pregnant women in MBA dual degree student at Duke She still has an University’s Sanford School of undying love for recovery from substance abuse.

Public Policy and Fuqua School of Jay Sinha and Business. In June, she traveled to all that is UMW. DoD consultant with ICF Uganda with her church to help Ken Coulter began work on his International in Fairfax, Va., Watoto Child Care Ministries MBA at the Melbourne Business Steven Grodek was accepted build a schoolhouse at an School in Australia. into the United States Marine orphanage in Gulu. Ellen Brandau Tori Kuhr left her job at Corps Officer Candidates School graduated from the Columbus Family Circle magazine in New and commissioned as a second School of Law of the Catholic York City to pursue a graduate lieutenant following graduation University of America in May, was degree at City University London, in 2009. He is in training at The admitted to the Virginia State Bar, where her undergraduate Basic School at Marine Corps Base and works for the government. history major is taking shape Quantico in Virginia.

Samantha Blackburn married all around her. Tommy Park Ian Bernard in August. They coaches D.C. United’s Super-20, moved to the St. Louis area, where DeMatha Catholic High School she continues to work for the and SAC U19 soccer teams and Boeing Company and he pursues Trish Lauck is pursuing a master’s degree in his dental degree at Southern trish.lauck@gmail.com sports industry management at Illinois University in Edwardsville, Georgetown University. Cindy Mo. Scott Berry was promoted Alyssa Lee Abernathy of Columbia, Md., is to director of the municipal and alyssa.linda.lee@gmail.com a licensed therapist working for utilities construction division the Center for Addictions and Mallory Deutsch Storus married and director of Kevin Storus ’09 in July and Jay Sinha ’07, who is in his second international attends law school at the University programs for year of law school at the College of Miami.

Associated of William and Mary, worked as General Contractors a summer law clerk for California of America Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. in Arlington, Elizabeth Jennings Va. Alison elizabethsjennings@gmail.com Baker Berry started a new job as Pregnancy at the Johns Hopkins research analyst for state and local Bayview Medical Center, where Alexandra Meier she incorporates art and art government affairs at the National alexandra.m.meier@gmail.com therapy in her approach to helping Apartment Association, also Petey Lytle works at OUCH Sports pregnant women in recovery from in Arlington.

Medical Center and OUCH Pro substance abuse.

Amanda Grubbs married Cycling in Temecula, Calif., and Elizabeth Isabelle and Jeremy Kent shortly after coaches lacrosse at Chaparral Gregory Berck of Albany, N.Y., graduation. They moved to High School. Sarah Isaac moved married in October in Montpelier, Alexandria, Va., in 2008, when to Charlotte, N.C., where she is Vt., with many UMW alumni Amanda accepted a job with meetings and events manager at the present. Elizabeth earned her Métier as a project management Hotel Sierra Charlotte Center City, master’s degree in women’s health specialist working on the which was set to open in March. from Suffolk University in Boston.

Decennial Response Integration Charlotte Rowell Sellier and Greg received a juris doctorate and System program for the Census husband Joel welcomed daughter master’s degree in environmental Bureau. They welcomed their Felicity in November! Christina law and policy from Vermont first son, Parker, in November of

2008

2009

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Ford and Frank Puleo ’06 of Fairfax Station, Va., tied the knot at the Tower Club in McLean, Va., in November. Jacqui Newman and Greg Scanlon of Richmond married last July in New York’s Central Park.

2010 Michelle Bond michellesbond@gmail.com Kelly Caldwell kellyecaldwell@gmail.com

IN MEMORIAM Lucy Hobson McKerrow ’27 Gladys Custis Drummond ’32 Nona Irene Deckert Morse ’36 Edna Harley Sickels ’36 Sara Turner Grimes ’37 June Upshaw Guiles ’38 Agnes Virginia Gayle Harris ’39 Susan Woodward Pearson ’39 Katherine Moss Dodd ’41 Mary Elizabeth Lewis Broughton ’42 Edna Everton Pittman Gatzman ’42 Emma Jane Davis McDermott ’42 Ruth Helen Conover Sütter ’42 Janet Thornton Hurt Willis ’42 Ellen Ross Johnson Coleman ’43 Margaret E. Lamberth ’43 Dorothy “Dottie” Barrett Martin ’43 Natasha Kadick Pickrel ’43 Rose Elizabeth Orts-Gonzalez Scudder ’43 Mildred Bell Trevvett ’43 Dorothy Woodson Baber ’44 Joan D. Lane ’44 Irma Rose Everton Pollard ’44 Corabel Garretson Wallace ’44 Charlotte Reynolds Durrett ’45 Virginia Baldwin Ladendorf ’45 Anne Avery Moyse ’46 Sallie Woodson Scott ’46 Mildred “Mickey” Dixon Sullivan ’46 Jane Everett Tucker ’46 Betty Sue Potterfield Tyler ’46 Margaret Lee Walke Anderson ’47 Isabel Larrick Brown ’47 Gloria Vivian Conte Keith ’47 Marianne King Frazier ’48 Marjorie Batty Hill ’48 Virginia Littlegreen Filling ’49 Beverly Walsh George ’49

Harriet Willson Rice ’49 Betty Harpine Chilton ’50 Lola Gaines Murray Clements ’50 Mary Ann Gillespie Corbett ’50 Betty Jean Lyle Dunbar ’50 Iris Macheras Vlandis ’50 Harriette Seely Atkinson ’51 Betty Shufflebarger Butler ’51 Eugenia Moran Cheney ’51 Marguerite “Margie” McNeil ’51 Dorothy Kinsey Richardson ’51 James Donald Whittle ’51 Althea Mae Scholl ’52 Joanne L. Harris ’53 Catherine Wyvonne Weaver Vance ’53 Nancy Poarch Daugherty ’54 Joan Bennett Dishman ’54 Patricia Shipley Hook ’54 Patricia Francis Chirogene ’56 Elizabeth A. Hess ’56 Patricia Hubbard Johnson ’56 Patricia “Pat” Clark Porter ’56 Naomi Johns Bowles ’57 Nancy Simpson Finch ’57 Carol Dunnavant Lerz ’57 Barbara Dill Montgomery ’57 Anna Mae Fowler ’58 Sally Shepherd Harrison ’58 Joan Frances Pillsbury Rutherford ’58 Marcia Kyes Price ’59 Carolyn Ruth Lawrence Jackson ’60 Judith Saunders Lawrence-Wicks ’60 Kristen Paige Peery Vesell ’60 Jean Clark Weatherson ’60 Carmen Portenier Fare ’61 Gail Picton Warlow Sessions ’61 Carolyn Gaye Eustace Spence ’61 Sandra Louise Stevens Doty ’62 Mary E. Owens Daitz ’63 Kathleen Boschen ’64 Patricia Cuffia Rankin ’65 Mary-Helen Hutcheson McMenamin ’66 Eddie Lynne Young Carr ’70 Virginia Crow Acors ’72 Frances Guthrie Flynn ’72 Christie Jaeger Thomas ’72 Doris Marie Churney ’76 Louis Philip Cox III ’81 Ronald L. Hutson ’81 Barbara Joyce Perkins Bates ’88 Linda Lee Tucci ’95 Anne Eleanor Parker ’97

CONDOLENCES Mary Privott Baird ’42, who lost her husband Virginia Lamberth Edwards ’45, who lost her sister Dorothy “Skip” Potts Taylor ’45, who lost her husband Nancy Aitcheson Taylor ’45, who lost her husband Marguerite Dameron Albert ’46, who lost her husband Mildred Lamberth Chamberlain ’46, who lost her sister Sylvia Francis Sheffield ’47, who lost her husband Gene Watkins Covington ’48, who lost her husband Elva Welday Newdome ’48, who lost her daughter Joan Marie Pershing Poling ’54, who lost her husband Carolyn Ann “Susie” Miller Maclay ’55, who lost her husband Phyllis Melillo Shanahan ’55, who lost her husband Jeanetta Bishop Patane ’56, who lost her husband Cynthia Niesley Potts ’58, who lost her husband Ann Moser Garner ’65, who lost her husband Donna Gates Mason ’65, who lost her husband Sheila Denny Young ’66, who lost her husband Ellen Grace Jaronczyk ’70, who lost her husband Bobbie S. Burton ’74, who lost her father Joanne Zech Lyons ’74, who lost her father Karen Marie Sullivan Iseman ’76, who lost her father Helen Taylor Salter ’76, who lost her father Ellen Stanley Booth ’81, who lost her father Tammy Faulconer Burton ’81, who lost her husband Monecia Helton Taylor ’81, who lost her husband David E. Turley ’81, who lost his mother Erin R. Devine ’82, who lost her husband Liane C. Vesell ’96, who lost her mother Sarah Holt Trible Pierson ’05, who lost her mother Hannah E. Ridenour ’13, who lost her father

Stephen James Burton Stephen Burton, who taught music at Mary Washington for three decades, died Dec. 31, 2010, at his home in Spotsylvania County after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

After beginning his teaching career at Towers High School in Decatur, Ga., Burton taught for one year at St. Mary’s College in Maryland before moving to Fredericksburg. While at UMW, Burton started the popular show choir ensemble now known as Encore.

At a performance last fall, several dozen choir alumni surprised a tearful Burton by joining the current members onstage to sing Lean on Me. Later, Hannah von Oeyen ’11, who sings with Encore, told The Free Lance-Star newspaper, “He’s the reason why we have a show choir. He’s very, very, very important to us, and he’s made a huge impact on everyone in show choir.”

A native of Illinois, Burton graduated from Florida State University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music. He received a Ph.D. from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.

Survivors include his wife, Tammy Faulconer Burton ’81.

Burton was a member of Salem Baptist Church, and he served many local churches in music ministry. During his years in the Fredericksburg area, he worked with a variety of musical groups, including the Maranatha Touring Choir, the Fredericksburg Singers, the Fredericksburg Community Chorus, the Stafford Regional Choral Society, the Historyland Barbershop Chorus, the UMW Women’s Chorus, and – most recently – The Spotsylvanians. In addition, he performed at the Riverside Center Dinner Theater, where he was affectionately known as “Birdie” and was in more than 30 productions.

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CLOSING COLUMN Mary Washington has been fruitful. It has produced three Virginia Poet Laureates in a row.

The latest is Kelly Cherry ’61.

She was appointed last summer to a two-year term succeeding Claudia Emerson, UMW professor of English and Arrington Distinguished Chair in Poetry. Emerson won the Kelly Cherry ‘61 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her collection, Late Wife. Her two-year tenure as state Poet Laureate followed that of Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda ’69, a poet, painter, sculptor, and educator who has published four books of poetry.

Cherry is the author of 20 books of fiction, poetry, memoir, essay, and criticism. She also has published eight pocket-sized “chapbooks” and translations of two classical dramas. Her

Mary Washington College, 1957 We had no poetry workshops then – my freshman year in college – but we had trees. Yes, trees, even then thick-trunked and tall, with branches that wrote on the sky. Looking up, I read about myself in leaf-language, and though it seemed profligate to read about oneself, I learned that way enough of leaf-language to want to write in leaf-language.

Call poetry poet-TREE, I like to joke these later years of mellowing and reminiscence.

A campus green and slightly wild will teach a student metaphors and the lasting beauty of the meanwhile.

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– Kelly Cherry ’61

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most recent titles are The Woman Who: Stories, The Retreats of Thought: Poems, and Girl in a Library: On Women Writers & The Writing Life. Her new and selected poems, Hazard and Prospect, was a finalist for the Poets’ Award.

Cherry is a professor emerita of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has taught a range of writing genres, including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as contemporary American poetry.

After majoring in philosophy at Mary Washington, she earned a master of fine arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Now a resident of Halifax, Va., Cherry said her years as a student at Mary Washington greatly influenced her writing. “Geography is compelling,” she said.

“You look out the window and you see what you see. You listen to the language and you hear what you hear. And all of it goes into one’s work.”

Cherry wrote the following poem at the request of University of Mary Washington Magazine.

Think back.

Come back.

Give back.

Reunion Weekend June 3-5, 2011 Register: www.umw.edu/alumni Make a gift: www.umw.edu/onlinegiving For information: 540/654-1024

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Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage

PAID PPCO

Norm Shafer

1301 College Avenue Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401-5300

“In the end, it was a success.”

– James Farmer, on the Freedom Rides

When Freedom Riders Joan Trumpauer Mulholland and Reginald Green, above, first saw the exhibit James Farmer and the Freedom Rides on Ball Circle in early February, they instinctively reached out to touch the long-ago photo of a friend recovering beside a bombed bus in Anniston, Ala. Half a century ago, both Mulholland and Green heeded the call of the Freedom Rides, a strategy designed by the late UMW Professor James Farmer. Their sacrifice and that of the other 434 Riders paid off with open interstate bus travel for all.

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