Washington and Lee University Alumni Magazine Spring 2021

Spring 2021

SHARED SUCCESS Partnerships That Flourish

IN THIS ISSUE FEATURES

10 ‘The Unfortunate Game With Washington and Lee’

The U.Va. baseball team just couldn’t connect with George Sykes’ curveballs.

14 Popping Online

Coco Ellis Howe ’16 and Tani Greenspan ’16 created a successful online art gallery in the middle of a pandemic.

16 A Mile With You

Norman Kim-Senior ’05 created a COVID memorial walk and run to foster community, support local nonprofits and mark the one-year anniversary of the pandemic.

18 Smarter, Faster

In a shifting media landscape, Ted Williams ’07 and Mike Allen ’86 are focused on reigniting local journalism through a new business venture.

DEPARTMENTS

3 Columns 22 O ffice Hours Jeff Schatten, assistant professor of business administration 24 L ives of Consequence Linda Roberts ’71 SABU 28 Alumni 44 Chronicles This page: Troy Larsen ’22, a math major, won a highly competitive Goldwater Scholarship, which promotes research careers in science, mathematics and engineering. Read the story at go.wlu. edu/larsen-goldwater.

Photo by Kevin Remington Cover: A flowering tree on campus.

Photo by Kevin Remington

SPEAK LEGAL EAGLE

Your Winter issue was meaningfully packed with diverse people and perspectives at a time when our community needs it most.

Notably, your inspiring story on “Legal Eagle” Rita Davis ’93 was a testament to progress and perhaps poetic justice. Ms. Davis is in the right place at the right time for a pivotal role in a complicated history that uniquely affects her and all of us. Todd Cloaninger ’95

A Magazine for Alumni and Friends of Washington and Lee University Volume 98, Number 2 Spring 2021 Louise Uffelman Editor Jeff Seymour Assistant Editor Kelly Martone Class Notes Editor

TRIBUTES In October 2006, when I was a sophomore, Roger Mudd ’50 moderated a panel about the liberal arts that was held on the weekend of Ken Ruscio’s inauguration as university president. After the panel I went up to Mr. Mudd, introduced myself as the news editor at the Ring-tum Phi, and asked if I could interview him. A TV reporter tried to budge in. Mr. Mudd stopped the TV reporter and said, “Excuse me, I need to speak with this reporter from the newspaper first.”

Fifteen years after that interview I still remember how one of the leading lights of American journalism overlooked my shaking hands, listened carefully to my pre-written questions, and gave thoughtful, interesting answers. It will always be a personal and professional highlight.

JACOB GEIGER ’09

I was brought to tears as I read the memorial tributes [Winter 2021] of five Trustee Emeriti, three with whom I served closely during my time on the board. While I only knew Guy Steuart and Hayne Hipp from their amazing reputations as generous W&L supporters and through friendships with their children, I came to know Frank Surface, Jack Vardaman and Hagood Ellison as friends and colleagues through our work for W&L. These men are the very definition of “On the Shoulders of Giants.” They

exemplified generosity in its finest form, and they taught me what it means to love an institution and how to treat the people therein. I will be forever grateful to each of them for that gift. Thank you, W&L, for giving me the opportunity to serve alongside people of such great character. Their legacies live on through the many lives they have touched, including mine.

DALLAS HAGEWOOD WILT ’90, TRUSTEE EMERITUS

VIRTUAL FIVE-STAR REUNION

2009 ODAC CHAMPS

It was great to see alumni and students talking together, and the lecture about Frederick Douglass was informative and inspirational. When I spoke at our class reception (has it really been 55 years?!) I made the observation that as the university reviews its past, we should remember all those years without women and minorities in our classrooms. Both my father (Class of 1937) and myself had no classmates or faculty in these groups, thinking somehow that we were superior beings. Later in life we learned better, as has the university.

BRUCE W. RIDER ’66

What wonderful memories that photo of the baseball team’s dog pile on p. 2 [Winter 2021] brought back to my wife and me. Our son, Andrew Henderson ’09, is in the middle of the pile, after becoming the first winning pitcher in the history of W&L in an ODAC Championship baseball game. Greg Laswell ’11 was the middle reliever and Brendan Clark ’09 was the closer. That team remains close to this day.

ROSS HENDERSON P’09

CORRECTIONS The obituary for John T. Morse ’67, ’71L inadvertently omitted the by his name.

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Stay in Touch Letters selected for publication should refer to material in the magazine. They may be edited for length, content and style. Letters reflect the views of their authors, not those of the magazine’s editors or of the university.

W&L Magazine Washington and Lee University 7 Courthouse Square, 204 W. Washington St. Lexington, VA 24450-2116 magazine@wlu.edu

Shelby Mack Kevin Remington University Photographers David Gálvez ’22 Jeff Hanna Tom Lovell ’91 John Meadows ’89 Contributors Billy Chase Mary Woodson Design Jessica L. Willett ’95 Chief Communications Officer Mary Woodson Director of Publications Published by Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA 24450. All communications and POD forms 3579 should be sent to Washington and Lee University, Alumni Magazine, 7 Courthouse Square, 204 W. Washington St., Lexington VA 24450-2116. Periodicals postage paid at Roanoke, VA.

UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT Thomas W. Jennings Vice President for University Advancement Waller T. Dudley ’74, ’79L Executive Director of Alumni Engagement © 2021 Washington and Lee University

Columns NOTEWORTHY NEWS AND IDEAS

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THREEPEAT

W&L is named a top producer of Fulbright U.S. students for the third straight year, earning five awards for the 2020-21 academic year.

3. ODK HONOREES

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CURIOSITIES Over Fall Term, tiny doors began popping up around campus — in the tunnel of Graham-Lees Hall or amongst the ground cover near the Ruscio Center for Global Learning. The student responsible for these miniature creations, who wishes to remain anonymous, said in an interview with the Ring-tum Phi, “I started W&L Tiny Doors to help keep myself positive during the COVID-19 restrictions and also promote

positivity on campus. After all, it’s easier for me to be positive if the people around me are.”

The artist crafted the doors using dollhouse materials, positioned 30 of them around campus, and invited people to take a picture and post it on Instagram at @wlutinydoors.

Some community members added their own touches, including little gnome figurines, which made the creator chuckle.

Read the full interview by Brianna Hatch ’23 at go.wlu. edu/tinydoors.

Philip D. Douglass ’70, professor emeritus of applied theology at Covenant Theological Seminary; Sally Stone Richmond, vice president for admissions and financial aid at W&L; and Andrew Wright ’95, director of legal policy for the Biden-Harris Transition were tapped into ODK as honorary members. Michael Barsanti, the Edwin Wolf 2nd Director of the Library Company of Philadelphia, delivered the Founders Day address.

Read the story at go.wlu.edu/ ODK-2021.

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CAUGHT YOU! (DOING THE RIGHT THING) Public Safety and Residential Life created a weekly recognition raffle program to “catch” students doing the right things during the pandemic — such as physical distancing, wearing face coverings, etc. Students spotted for COVID-safe behaviors received raffle tickets for great prizes.

5. HARD WORK At the Ninth Annual Entrepreneurship Summit, Harry Barringer ’23 took home the $1,000 prize for his concept, Full Force General Services.

Last summer, he assembled a team of local college students with diverse work experiences who were game for anything, including garage and attic clean-outs, landscaping and general maintenance.

Read more at go.wlu.edu/ entrepreneurship-2020.

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Isabel Ryan ’21 and Navid Haider ’21

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FREE SPEECH On March 23, several hundred students gathered on the Front Lawn to support changing the university’s name. On April 2, a smaller group gathered again to continue pushing for a name change.

8. FACULTY PUBLICATIONS

ANNIVERSARIES

The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program is celebrating 20 years with a series of events that includes a film screening, art exhibits and panel discussions. Read more at go.wlu.edu-wgss-20.

Hillel House hit its 10th year celebrating Jewish life on campus. “From the start, Hillel welcomed everyone, regardless of religious affiliation,” said Graham Frankel Smith ’02, the first Hillel student president.

Read more at go.wlu.edu/ Hillel-10.

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Brian Alexander, assistant professor of politics, published “A Social Theory of Congress: Legislative Norms in the 21st Century” (Roman & Littlefield), which explores a new approach to studying congressional norms.

Chris Gavaler, associate professor of English, and Leigh Ann Beavers, instructor of art, published the textbook “Creating Comics: A Writer’s and Artist’s Guide and Anthology” (Bloomsbury Academic) a guide to the creative process, with practical drawing exercises throughout and an anthology of comics demonstrating the eclectic possibilities of the form.

Roger B. Jeans, Elizabeth Lewis Otey Professor of History Emeritus, published “American Isolationists: Pro-Japan Anti-interventionists and the FBI on the Eve of the Pacific War, 1939 1941” (Rowman and Littlefield), which provides the first full study of a small group of diverse Americans who formed a pro-Japan isolationist organization — the Committee on Pacific Relations — which opposed war with Japan.

Domnica Radulescu, Edwin A. Morris Professor of Comparative Literature, published two books. “Voices on the Move: An Anthology by and About Refugees” (Solis Press) and “Exile is My Home: Four Plays by Domnica Radulescu” (Lulu.com) explore the multilayered experiences of displacement.

IN THE NEWS

Supporting Excellence

PHOTO BY KEVIN REMINGTON

W&L’s new provost aims to support the university’s initiatives in interdisciplinary work, diversity, equity and inclusion, and more.

ON JULY 1, DEAN OF THE College Lena Hill will expand her purview to include the entire university when she steps into the role of university provost.

Since becoming the College’s dean in 2018, Hill has worked with its faculty to deliver and improve the unparalleled academic experience students and the community expect of W&L. She has seen significant success, adding interdisciplinary programs in data science and law, justice and society as well as supporting classes, symposia and extracurricular academic activities through her office.

During her tenure, W&L has placed an increasing focus on diversity, equity and inclusion to fulfill its latest Strategic Plan. Hill, who was associate vice president

and interim chief diversity officer at the University of Iowa before joining W&L, has made significant contributions, revamping administrative processes and helping the College hire new professors that make the diversity of its faculty more reflective of its student body.

Hill also created a mentoring program and a group for professionals of color, and she hosts events for new faculty from all backgrounds at her home to foster connection and belonging. “Recruitment doesn’t matter if you don’t work to make sure that the faculty who join us — that goes beyond diverse faculty, all faculty who join us — feel like they’re well supported and can be successful here,” she said. “I’m very interested in the experience my faculty are having.”

Hill is particularly proud of the progress on diversity, equity and inclusion W&L has made over a relatively short period of time. “In higher ed, things don’t happen quickly.

You have to have trust to move forward and to make progress, especially around this issue.”

Hill was appointed after a national search and succeeds Elizabeth Oliver, who has served as interim provost since July 2020 and will return to her role as associate dean of the Williams School at the end of the academic year.

“I am delighted that Lena Hill has agreed to serve as our next provost,” President Dudley said of her appointment. “In her tenure as dean, Lena has demonstrated impressive administrative and leadership skills, as well as her deep appreciation of the liberal arts. As an accomplished scholar and dedicated teacher, she is deeply invested in our faculty and students. I am looking forward to partnering with her as we work to bring W&L’s ambitious strategic plan to fruition.”

Hill, in turn, is grateful for the opportunity. “My tenure as dean of the College has allowed me to form wonderful relationships with the W&L community, and I am eager to continue the collaborative work of advancing our exceptional academic program. We are in the midst of a challenging year, but the difficulties we are confronting remind me of our core strengths and resilience. I look forward to the work ahead.”

BRIEF BIO ◗ B.A. from Howard University

with additional study at Williams College and Richmond College in Florence, Italy. Ph.D. in English from Yale University. ◗ Postdoctoral fellowship at Duke

University, teaching experience at Yale and University of North Carolina School of the Arts. ◗ Associate professor of

English and African-American Studies at the University of Iowa (2006–2018) ◗ Author of the book “Visualizing

Blackness and the Creation of the African American Literary Tradition” (Cambridge, 2014), co-editor of “Invisible Hawkeyes: African Americans at the University of Iowa during the Long Civil Rights Era” (University of Iowa Press, 2016), co-author of “Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man: A Reference Guide” (Greenwood, 2008).

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NOW HEAR THIS

“We don’t have to be perfect in order for our students to learn. We just have to be present.”

Paul Handstedt, director, Harte Center, Jan. 11 newsletter, tips on virtual learning

“If you see something, say something.

Don’t say nothing.”

Dani Roberts, assistant director of inclusion and engagement, on W&L’s video about hate and bias against Asian and Pacific Islander people, go.wlu.edu/stophate-2021

“These are trying times. I’ve got a bit of a hermit gene, so isolation comes easy. It’s been aided by my W&L liberal arts education. I’m never bored.

I’ve never stopped looking, listening, asking, reading and wondering.”

T. Carleton Billups Jr. ’71, 50th Reunion Calyx

“The hardest part about the social distancing aspect is that we can’t hear each other, so it can be really awkward when you’re doing a group rehearsal and you can only hear yourself because everyone is so spread out.”

Emily Nyikos ’21, viola section co-leader in the University Orchestra, on rehearsing during a pandemic

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“BEST VIEWS OF THE [COLON]NADE ARE BEFORE ANYONE ELSE IS AWAKE.” wlulex tweet, March 17

IN THE LEAD

La Comunidad Through his involvement with ESOL, David Gálvez ’22 participated more fully with the Lexington Community.

David Gálvez ’22

Somos una comunidad. We are a community. When I was a first-year, I initially only thought of “community” in the context of this institution; that is, the W&L community: student, staff and faculty. But, after attending their get-to-know-us event, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) showed me that living in community is a reality on and off campus. This meant that my understanding of una comunidad expanded beyond the perimeter of this university to include the people of Lexington. After all, the university is a resident therein.

Now, as a third-year, when identifying who is part of la comunidad, it feels right to say the children, the teens and the adults of our vicinity, just as much as it

is to say those directly marked by the W&L brand. By doing so, I am more compelled to participate in the community organizations of this area. In fact, it is ESOL that has provided me the most opportunities to be a community member. From emceeing and dancing at Rockbridge Latinx Festivals to tutoring and translating in Spanish and English, I have been able to dedicate my time to the community in many forms, thanks to ESOL. I cherish most the tutoring experience I had this past semester with my classmate, Sydney Gómez ’22. Given the pandemic, she and I had to volunteer virtually. Despite the technical challenges, however, we were able to provide English tutoring sessions every week to a

Lexington resident, even when we came back home for the break.

I appreciate the time we spent as tutors because we developed meaningful connections with another member of la comunidad.

That bond between people is the reason I encourage everyone to consider themselves as a member of our community, because it is a fact: We are a community, somos una comunidad.

David Gálvez ’22 is a Romance languages major and an education policy minor. As well as volunteering for English for Speakers of Other Languages, he is an international student orientation leader, a member of CARE Rockbridge, a university student photographer, and a GDL technology and learning specialist.

SALUTE

DR. PAIGE KILIAN ’91: ‘FIERCE LEADERSHIP’

John “Bud” Meadows ’89

Paige Kilian ’91

As the COVID-19 crisis presented tremendous challenges to our health care system, Paige Kilian ’91, who is Inovalon’s chief medical officer, played an integral role in providing evidence-based insights to both our leadership and employees, keeping us abreast of the latest guidelines, vaccine development, safety protocols and best practices.

Last March, like just about every other business in America, we had to transition from working in an office to working remotely, while at the same time trying to deal with a virus that we didn’t understand.

Every morning at 7:30, Paige provided guidance to our company’s leadership on the latest developments

with the pandemic, providing clear and concise facts leveraging her knowledge and information from her network which included the leading epidemiologists in our country. Paige also hosted informational “power hours” for all of our 2,500 employees.

During these webinars, she presented the latest scientific data and took questions about the pandemic, and thoughtfully addressed our employees concerns for their families and loved ones. There’s no question that our employees were concerned — even frightened — about the pandemic. To have someone like Paige, who is recognized as a leader in her field, as an expert on hand to sort through an

overwhelming amount of information, calmly share the facts, correct the false information and help people understand how to prepare during a fluid situation was immensely reassuring — particularly when some of our clients were telling us they had lost colleagues to COVID. Furthermore, she has served as an invaluable asset in consulting with our clients, as they too, sought guidance in navigating the unchartered waters of the pandemic. As CMO, she leads the implementation of clinical analytics that drive improvement in clinical quality and patient outcomes for millions of Americans. Her analysis and insight have empowered healthcare providers

to deliver the highest quality of care where it is needed the most — at the point of care and in real-time.

Paige’s fierce leadership truly exemplifies the values we embody at Washington and Lee University, and I feel fortunate to have her on our team. Her commitment to excellence in all she does both professionally, as well as personally, serves as an example of the caliber of our alumni who drive positive change every day — making our world a better place.

Paige Kilian ’91 received the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association 2020 Luminary Award.

John W. “Bud” Meadows ’89 is president and general manager, Provider Business, at Inovalon.

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DISTINCTIVELY W&L

COMMUNITY SPIRIT

BY WILL DUDLEY, PRESIDENT

“Students, faculty and staff have pulled together, drawing on their shared desire to make the best of an exceptionally difficult situation.

Their abiding passion for W&L has refused to concede to the pandemic.”

ONE OF THE MOST extraordinary academic years on record at Washington and Lee is coming to a close. We have succeeded in keeping the campus open, despite the many challenges presented by COVID, and steadily increased in-person undergraduate classes from one-third in the Fall Term to two-thirds this Spring.

Students are taking advantage of the warmer weather to participate in more extracurricular activities, sports teams are competing, and seniors and 3Ls are looking forward to commencement ceremonies on Wilson Field.

Getting to this point has required hard work, creativity and collaboration.

Students, faculty and staff have pulled together, drawing on their shared desire to make the best of an exceptionally difficult situation.

Their abiding passion for W&L has refused to concede to the pandemic.

That collective spirit, a hallmark of our community, is fully on display in this issue, which features stories of students, employees and alumni pooling their talents and energy on campus, in business and in service to their local communities.

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Our shared devotion to W&L and sense of common purpose are critical to bear in mind as we anticipate the Board of Trustees’ decisions about the university’s name and symbols. There are strong differences of opinion within our community on these issues. Whatever the Trustees decide, thousands of you will be disappointed, even angry or hurt. To move forward successfully, we must do so together, mindful of those who are upset by the outcome and open to understanding their views and experiences.

We are living in highly charged times, emotionally and politically. The pandemic has robbed us of opportunities to be together. As we prepare for the road ahead, I ask each of you to reflect on your connection to W&L — the education you received, the values you learned, and the friends you made. These will always unite us, regardless of whether the university’s name is changed or remains the same, and in our unity we find the strength to continue advancing the mission of the university for the benefit of current and future generations.

DUBYUHNELL DAY

CARING FOR THE QUARANTINED W&L’s COVID-19 Care Team fed, housed and cared for students in isolation and quarantine.

BY JEFF SEYMOUR • PHOTO BY KEVIN REMINGTON

Over the academic year, (l. to r.) Derrick Smith, Zach Funkhouser and Chris Vozzo of Dining Services prepped hundreds of meals for students in quarantine.

THIS YEAR, UNIVERSITIES worldwide have grappled with caring for students who test positive for COVID-19 or have had close contact with someone who had it. The process — known as isolation and quarantine (I/Q) — can take some getting used to.

“Students here are pretty social people,” explained K.C. Schaefer ’04, executive director of auxiliary services and head of W&L’s COVID-19 Care Team.

“It’s a very foreign experience to have to go someplace and stay there for 10 days.”

The COVID-19 Care Team guides students through that experience from the moment a student receives a positive test or is flagged as a close contact until they return to campus life.

They facilitate move-out, ensure students get their meals, help with logistics like receiving packages and printing off class materials, and provide 24/7 problem-solving.

“W&L couldn’t have made it through this year without the COVID-19 Care Team and incredible support from dining services, facilities, the COVID-19 testing team and the Student Health Center staff,” said Dr. Jane Horton, director of student health and counseling services and the chief architect of W&L’s COVID-19 response.

Since Fall Term began, the Care Team has helped hundreds of students through I/Q, sometimes more than once if they get unlucky with close contacts. Each case begins with a phone call, during

which the team explains the process and provides students a checklist of things they should bring into quarantine housing.

A room is prepared for them, and Dining Services is alerted to start delivering the student’s meals. The Student Health Center coordinates distribution of medications.

“During the transition period, food is the biggie,” Schaefer said.

“If somebody moves in at 2 p.m. we’ve got to make sure they get their dinner.”

Sometimes students can isolate in place, if they’re living in apartment-style housing and the whole unit has been exposed, or off-campus. Using a custom database built by Information and Technology Services, the Care

Team monitors them regardless, checking that they’re well taken care of and have all they need.

“We try to be a lifeline and connect students with the right resources,” Schaefer said. “It’s a tough time for them, obviously, to have to go into quarantine or isolation and have their normal student experience disrupted.”

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‘The Unfortunate Game With Washington and Lee’ The U.Va. baseball team just couldn’t connect with George Sykes’ curveballs.

BY JEFF HANNA • PHOTO BY SHELBY MACK

O

n May 17, 1878, the members of Washington and Lee’s baseball team climbed aboard stagecoaches on the first leg of a two-day journey to Charlottesville for what would become a memorable, if not quite historic, game against the University of Virginia in what was then the oldest athletic rivalry in the South.

The stages crossed the mountains to Goshen where the team spent the night before catching the train to Charlottesville. When 10 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

they arrived at 3 a.m. on Sunday, the exhausted travelers were greeted by U.Va. students who gave up their rooms to their visitors. Then, after a day spent recuperating and seeing the sights, W&L’s players woke that Monday with revenge on their minds.

U.Va.’s team had prevailed, 19-17, a year earlier in Lexington, and that loss still stung.

The Southern Collegian, W&L’s student newspaper, had issued a blunt challenge in a pre-game editorial: “The coming game is to be a test of skill between two large Universities,

and the issue will be generally known throughout this and the other States. It would be a pity, then, for us to injure the enviable reputation so deservedly earned by our nines.… We warn our nine that if the result should prove fatal, imprecations, long and lasting, will be heaped on their devoted heads.”

Although few expected W&L could compete with this heavy-hitting Virginia team, no one anticipated the revolutionary and confounding curveballs pitched by W&L’s George Augustus Sykes of the Class of 1879.

The pitcher and catcher team of George Sykes (left) and William McElwee (both members of the Class of 1879) were paraded around the field on the crowd’s shoulders on their return to Lexington.

T

he American version of baseball was a few decades old before a pitcher tried imparting enough spin to make a ball change direction on its way to the plate. W. A. “Candy” Cummings is credited with inventing the curveball, which he discovered while throwing clam shells on the beach in Brooklyn, New York, in the early 1860s. According to the Society for American Baseball Research, Cummings first used the curve in competition on Oct. 7, 1867, when he pitched for Brooklyn’s Excelsior club against Harvard.

Up untill then, pitchers threw underhand, softball-style, from 45 feet and were required to aim where the batter specified — high, low or fair; i.e., between a batter’s shoulders and at least one foot from the ground. The curveball’s introduction benefitted from the 1872 rule change allowing a pitcher to snap his wrist if his hand stayed below his knee.

Others soon copied Cummings. In 1875 Bobby Mathews of the New York Mutuals used his curve against a semi-pro team in Louisville, Kentucky. Two students at Louisville’s Rugby Prep — George Sykes and William McElwee — were at that game and were later W&L classmates and baseball teammates, Sykes the pitcher and McElwee his catcher.

Neither had seen a curveball before. Years later McElwee, then president of Lexington Peoples National Bank, explained that he, Sykes and classmates at Rugby Prep asked Mathews for a post-game lesson on the fine points of the pitch.

Curiously, Sykes never mentioned Bobby Mathews or that incident in a letter he wrote to McElwee in 1934 to settle what had become a controversy over his use of the pitch and whether he was the first college pitcher to employ it.

Sykes’ letter, published in the March 1934 issue of the Alumni Magazine, has this account:

“One day I was pitching to Jack Hamilton, Class of 1877, about halfway along the fence of ‘Old Johnnie’s’ residence. The bell rang for eleven o’clock, and Jack had to go to class, but before he went, I threw the final ball, and I took a different hold on the ball and delivered it with a snap. I asked Jack if he saw that ball curve, and he said he did. I did not go to class but got somebody else to catch and in fifteen minutes I could put that curve ball anywhere I wanted to.”

According to Sykes, this incident occurred either the last week of April or first week of May in 1877, which was a few weeks before U. Va.’s team was scheduled to play in Lexington for that year’s game. Except for these annual games with U.Va., baseball at W&L in those days constituted either intramural affairs or occasional pickup games against VMI cadets or Lexington townsfolk.

The W&L team (the Blues) that played U.Va. (the Reds) organized itself with captains choosing the best available players. Sykes thought he should pitch at the 1877 game, but he was sent to right field with the promise that he could be a relief pitcher. In fact, an injury did give Sykes a chance to pitch in the ninth inning. The Southern Collegian noted: “In the last inning the Sykes curve bothered the visitors not a little, they couldn’t get on to him at all, their three best batters striking out, and closing the game with the Reds two ahead.”

Based on this account, it would appear that Sykes actually pitched his first curve in the spring of 1877, not in 1878. Indeed, Sykes’ obituary in the October 1934 Alumni Magazine ignores his appearance in the 1877 game entirely: “In the spring of ’77, Sykes, pitcher for the Washington and Lee team, ‘invented’ the curve ball, but did not use it until the next year when his team played Virginia.”

FIRST PITCH? The often-repeated claim that Sykes was the first college pitcher to throw a curve is almost certainly erroneous.

Princeton asserts that the Tigers’ Joe Mann used the pitch on May 29, 1875, to record the first no-hitter in the history of baseball, amateur or professional, in a 3-0 win over Yale.

Meanwhile, a history of baseball in Northeast Ohio credits Clarence Emir Allen of Western Reserve College (now Case Western Reserve) with developing a curveball that made him “the terror of the college circuit.”

By the time of Sykes’ death in 1934, the contention that he was the first to throw the pitch in college baseball had already been modified so that his obituary stated he had thrown “the first curved ball in Southern Collegiate baseball.”

No matter, the fact remains that Sykes’ curveball in that 1878 game against Virginia left indelible memories on both sides of Afton Mountain.

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As soon as the game began, it was evident that Virginia’s batters, including Jeffries, were no match for “the Sykes curve.” He befuddled U.Va. all afternoon, striking out 12 and allowing only three hits.

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B

But back to 1878. There was drama before the teams even took the field. Since U.Va. had won the previous year, bettors were putting their money on Virginia — most bettors, anyway. Sykes was warming up by throwing only “the fair pitch,” the one that went straight into the strike zone and was approached by a Virginia student who wanted to place a bet. The student told Sykes that U.Va.’s first baseman, “Mr. Jeffries,” had homered in his first at-bat in the previous game. The student wanted to bet Sykes $5 that Jeffries would do the same against him. “I told him that I never bet on a game in which I was playing but that I thought I would have no trouble finding someone to take his bet,” Sykes recalled in a letter to McElwee. He sent the U.Va. student to the W&L scorekeeper, O.W. “Perg” Thomas, who flashed a roll of bills and was prepared to take all bets.

As soon as the game began, it was evident that Virginia’s batters, including Jeffries, were no match for “the Sykes curve.” He befuddled U.Va. all afternoon, striking out 12 and allowing only three hits. W&L won, 12-0. Sykes and McElwee were paraded around the field on the crowd’s shoulders.

U.Va. was suitably humbled, though one unhappy observer wrote to the Virginia University Magazine complaining that “it will ever be our lasting impression that we were the innocent victims of as scurvy a trick as has ever been exhibited in the annals of baseball....” The U.Va. magazine described the game succinctly: “Mr. Sykes

pitched his curves (he seemed to have an endless variety of them), the batsman made three strikes, and Mr. McElwee (W&L’s catcher) put the unfortunate individual out with infinite regularity and cool enjoyment.”

One U.Va. batter confided he changed his mind five times after the ball left the pitcher’s hand as to how he should swing. The Lexington Gazette reported that Sykes “curves the ball, and such curves, up and down and sideways, would strike with dismay the heart of the most expert batter.” A story in the Staunton Vindicator judged that the field of the two nines was about equal, “but the Sykes’ curved balls were what the University of Va. Nine could not understand.”

Three decades later Sykes and his curve still haunted the folks in Charlottesville. In a speech by Virginia law professor Raleigh C. Minor in November 1912, he recalled that Virginia’s team had been supremely confident

until they faced Sykes: “It is not until the game is over and the shekels have parted from Virginia that we learn we have beheld the first exhibition upon University grounds of the curved ball, then but just discovered.”

The Southern Collegian painted a colorful portrait of the day’s events, noting that the U. Va. players and fans “treated us with great fairness and courtesy, as throughout the entire game nothing unpleasant was said, and the good plays of our Nine were always applauded.” W&L players even received “handsome bouquets” from some of the ladies in attendance, and a post-game banquet was held in W&L’s honor.

Back in Lexington, the team received a hero’s welcome. The Lexington Gazette reported that the W&L players were met at the National Hotel “by their comrades and with a brass band and carried to the University, where the campus was lighted,

and speech-making was had.” McElwee recalled that “our feet didn’t touch the ground from the time we left the coach until we got to bed.”

A night later Alexander Nelson, professor of mathematics, feted the team with a “strawberry feast” where Sykes’ curve continued to captivate. Professor Nelson apparently expressed doubts that Sykes could make the ball do what he claimed. What happened next was described in a 1947 Ring-tum Phi column by Charley McDowell ’48, late columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and host of PBS’ “Washington Week in Review.” Apparently relying on McElwee’s memory, McDowell wrote that, in response to the professor’s doubts, “…Mr. Sykes took the professor out to a tree in the yard and stood him a few yards behind it.

Then he returned to a position about 40 or 50 feet in front of the tree and threw the ball.

To the wonderment of all, it curved around the tree and hit the dubious professor squarely on the noggin.”

Sykes’ curve may not have been the first it was often alleged, but its impact was still profound. Virginia refused to play W&L the following year, presumably waiting until Sykes had graduated or until the U.Va could match.

This latter theory was advanced by the Virginia University Magazine in its coverage of what it dubbed “the unfortunate game with Washington and Lee.” After detailing the many toasts at the banquet and the great goodwill of the event, the account concluded: “…may similar occasions be as pleasant; may the men of the two institutions meet in the same spirit of cordial amity, but we sincerely hope that to these agreeable incidents the next time we meet in the inter-collegiate contest, the University nine will be able to add a curve pitcher.”

THE MAGNUS EFFECT Joel Kuehner, professor of physics and engineering, covers curveballs in his Engineering 311 course, Fluid Mechanics, when the subject is lift and baseball is a way to grab his students’ attention.

“When you throw a ball forward with some velocity but without any spin, the air coming toward the ball is at an even rate and will go over the ball on both the top and the bottom with the same amount of pressure,” said Kuehner. “In that theoretical case, nothing happens.

There is drag. You get it to slow down.

All it would do is fall based on gravity.

“To throw the basic curve, then, pitchers snap their wrists downward to spin the ball forward. The topspin will drag air that would have gone on top of the ball underneath it and squishes it together with the air below the ball.

That causes the air below the ball to go faster, and the pressure on the ball there will be lower. The higher pressure, which is now on top of the ball, will cause the ball to sink faster than gravity says it should fall and to curve.”

That, of course, is simplifying a lecture into six sentences. It’s a far more complicated matter and gets even more complicated when you add changes in speed, grip and angle of release, which give you sliders, screwballs and knuckle-curves.

MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 13

Popping Online Coco Ellis Howe ’16 and Tani Greenspan ’16 created a successful online art gallery in the middle of a pandemic.

W “We love this, but why do we love it, and will our audience be in love?

What about this piece is so amazing?”

—Tani Greenspan ’16

14 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

BY JEFF SEYMOUR

Coco Ellis Howe ’16 (left) and Tani Greenspan ’16 represent artists from all over the country and love discovering new ones.

ON THE MORNING OF NOV. 12, 2020, Coco Ellis Howe ’16 and Tani Greenspan ’16, along with an inventory of carefully curated artwork, a TV tracking their web traffic and a whole lot of coffee and snacks, were crammed into a 10 by 10-foot room in the home of Howe and her husband, Jonathan ’14. They were about to launch their online art gallery, The Poppy Society, and they weren’t sure what to expect.

Following a whirlwind month of business planning, web design and digital marketing, they had been up all night

preparing with Bentley Boldt ’16, who now consults for the business. When they clicked the launch button, “We didn’t know if it would be crickets or if it would be craziness,” Howe said. “I would say it leaned more towards craziness.”

“Coco had the site traffic up to show where everyone was around the country that was looking at us,” Greenspan added. “And even that was just so staggering — how many people had heard about it and were excited to be on there right at 10 a.m.”

“I feel lucky that I have the background in software development and also extremely lucky that I had Tani and Bentley by my side.”

—Coco Ellis Howe ’16

That first day, they sold close to $8,000 of art. By the end of February, they had sold nearly $100,000.

Howe and Greenspan met in Professor Amanda Bower’s advertising class as seniors. Though both were Williams School majors and veterans of Professor Jeff Shay’s popular entrepreneurship course, they didn’t connect until Greenspan relocated to Howe’s hometown of New Orleans in 2019.

“We have such a big support network and so many people we know,” said Greenspan, a New York native who moved to be with her boyfriend, Jack Koch ’16, as he prepares for medical school.

“It was just a seamless transition into living down here.”

Howe and Greenspan struck up a friendship as part of a social group of young alumni who met regularly. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they were laid off from their jobs in software and event planning, respectively, and began exploring their next moves. On an October walk with Boldt near their homes — just blocks apart in New Orleans’ Garden District — they found it.

“We saw all of these art galleries that were closed,” Howe said. “Restaurants and stores were able to pivot and do takeout or go online.” Art galleries, however, seemed to have shut down completely. “It was really sad. Especially in New Orleans, where there’s so much culture, it was striking to me.”

Howe didn’t know much about art, but she had the software skills to design the website an online art gallery would need.

Greenspan, an art history major, missed the marketing she’d done in previous jobs, and had the art training to curate a gallery. Boldt, who manages two retail stores in New Orleans, contributed her expertise with logistics.

“We were a perfect blend,” Howe said.

The team reached out to contacts in the W&L network and poured themselves into all-night work sessions. Cameron Farley ’16, an accountant, provided tax

advice. Jessie Whelan Drennan P’15, ’18 became one of their first artists. Through several iterations of their business plan, they honed Howe’s vision for their market — young people like them, who might feel uncomfortable and outpriced in a high-end gallery but wanted something more personal and upmarket than an Etsy store — and Greenspan’s ability to work with artists.

In curating the gallery, Greenspan and Howe used the skills Greenspan learned in her art history classes — how to examine a piece of art through multiple critical lenses and analyze it more formally than just, “I love the look of this.”

“It’s interesting balancing what we love and asking ourselves, ‘Okay, we love this, but why do we love it, and will our audience be in love? What about this piece is so amazing?’” Greenspan said.

“It’s really important for us to be able to explain why we chose certain pieces.”

For their initial offerings, they signed artists they already knew to short-term consignment contracts. Since then, artists have approached them and asked to participate, and they’ve now shifted to a model of three-month initial contracts, followed by yearlong ones for popular artists. They represent over 20 artists and are looking to expand, figuring out how to scale up without losing the personal touch that makes them stand out.

Given the trials of the past year, Howe and Greenspan are grateful for The Poppy Society and for the help they’ve had creating it. “Being able to build it from the ground up,” Greenspan said, “has just been so rewarding during a time where I felt like I was just treading water.”

“I feel lucky that I have the background in software development,” Howe added, “and also extremely lucky that I had Tani and Bentley by my side. Being able to go from a dark place in COVID to growing this company, proving to myself and to other people that we can create something that’s profitable, that’s been just incredible.”

TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS What’s been unexpectedly hard?

T: Shipping logistics is something that neither of us really have a background in, and you don’t want to ship something and have it get bent or damaged. That was a big learning curve.

C: I didn’t realize how hard it was to start a business in terms of documentation, filings with the state and taxes. Even coming from W&L and an entrepreneurship background, I had a tough time learning all of it. Knowing that so many others do it as well was really eye-opening to me.

What’s been the most satisfying?

T: The number of people that we see on Instagram saving things for later or sharing it with people — just the traction that some of these pieces are getting has been incredibly validating.

C: Being a platform for these artists is so inspiring. We’ve talked to artists who have said, “You know, my parents wanted me to go into banking, and I went into art.

They didn’t believe in me. But now that y’all are selling my work and I’m making income from this, I’m able to do this full-time. And now they believe I’m an artist.”

MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 15

A Mile With You

W

Norman Kim-Senior ’05 created a COVID memorial walk and run to foster community, support local nonprofits and mark the one-year anniversary of the pandemic.

“We don’t know what’s coming down the road, so we need to strengthen ourselves. And while we’re doing that, if we can invite others on the journey and help a community, all the better.”

16 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

On a dreary midwinter morning in 2021, when the mixed precipitation made the roads tricky to navigate, Noman Kim-Senior ’05 laced up his running shoes for a training run.

A Spanish teacher at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, Kim-Senior was training for a marathon — his first. He knew it would push him to his physical limits, but his goal was not just to prove something to himself; it was also to stand in solidarity with people who were mourning personal losses and to raise money for those in his community who had been

BY LOUISE UFFELMAN

impacted by the pandemic.

“I have the fortunate situation of having the physical space to run and to stay healthy,” he noted. “And I have the circumstances in my life where right now, within reason, I can maintain some amount of mental peace and calmness about what’s going on.”

*****

At the start of 2020, Kim-Senior, his family and his colleagues faced deep uncertainy as the news about COVID-19 broke. “We were all wondering what was

going on. There was a lot of confusion.”

In February, he learned that a former colleague in California had already lost nine loved ones to the pandemic.

“The rest of us were just waking up to what this would mean for us, and she’d already been devastated by this new-to-us virus,” he said.

“People couldn’t get together to hug and mourn and support each other — all the things you do to help process the grief. So I started thinking about what I could do beyond buying my friend a card.”

He decided he could run a mile for each person she had lost. To commemorate her loved ones, he asked her to send him a song that best represented a favorite moment with that person. He also offered the choice of a morning or evening run. “The full cycle would be running while listening to the song and then writing a note to my friend. I wanted her to know that I understood the emotional weight of what she was going through and to say, ‘Hey, someone is thinking about you.’”

As COVID-related deaths mounted, Kim-Senior decided to offer his memorial runs to others. He reached out to former colleagues and high school classmates and a few online running forums to float the idea. “I wanted to let others know that if they were going through a hard time, I would like to stand with them for a moment.”

During the next few months, he reconnected with friends who were involved with their own fundraising projects, which spoke to Kim-Senior’s sense of collaboration and community. He completed two half-marathons and a few 5Ks for their causes and wanted to keep his momentum going. “It was great to be part of a larger opportunity and to step up to help in whatever way I could.”

At W&L, the Shepherd Program was an essential part of his education and a continuation of his upbringing. “I grew up poor,” Kim-Senior said. “I learned that communities get by when their members show up for each other. If my mother knew about someone who didn’t have enough to eat, she made sure to share the food that she had.”

He added, “I’ve been fortunate at every stage of my life to have found institutions that supported me through the challenges I faced growing up. So I continue to make that practice an active part of my life.” For this reason, he has incorporated service learning into his classroom and makes sure his students are aware of the challenges within

the community just beyond the school’s perimeter.

As an extension of the partnerships he’s already established locally, he decided to organize the COVID memorial walk and run to benefit nonprofits that supply food, housing and other basic needs to those impacted by the pandemic. His fundraiser began March 27 and lasted for two weeks, the length of a quarantine period. Over the course of the 14 days, participants were invited to join a five-part run/walk series and engage in acts of remembrance. On April 10, the final day, Kim-Senior completed his 26.2 miles.

“We certainly needed something to contain the stress, process that stress and get through the wall,” Kim-Senior said. “We don’t know what’s coming down the road, so we need to strengthen ourselves. And while we’re doing that, if we can invite others on the journey and help a community, all the better.”

In crafting his fundraiser, Kim-Senior took cues from his days on W&L’s varsity cross-country team. “At my peak, I was doing maybe 40 to 50 miles a week,” he said. “The other guys were doing much more, but I knew what my limitations were and that different approaches work for different bodies.”

His goal was to encourage others to move and participate — to engage at whatever level worked for them. “Think of Martin Luther King’s words,” he said. “‘If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.’”

Kim-Senior ran his marathon through neighborhoods hit hard by the pandemic, a stark reminder of why he made this journey in the first place. Knowing the last few hilly miles would be the most difficult, he was thankful his running buddy met him at mile 21 for that final push to the top of West Braddock Hill, where his family was waiting.

While completing his running goal was personally satisfying, Kim-Senior was more focused on acknowledging the more than 546,000 deaths in the U.S. and the countless others left reeling by the pandemic.

“The money we raised is so important to those in need right now. But I think this memorial fundraiser also allowed us to remember our loved ones. They touched us with their love. We carry their light on their behalf now that they’re not physically here.

We are their legacy.”

SUPPORT CREW During his marathon, Kim-Senior was glad to have his family meet him at the 10-, 15- and 20-mile markers to keep an eye on him and cheer him on. From l. to r.: His wife, Tran ’05; Kim-Senior; his children, Damani and Amaya; and his father-in-law, Cao Kim.

FLEET-FOOTED For some of his training runs, Kim-Senior wore a pair of Enda Lapatet running shoes (also called the Black Rainbow Runner) and changed into them for the last five miles of his marathon. The company, based in Kenya, has a social enterprise focus and is building up technical manufacturing skills in Kenya.

“I wanted Enda to be a part of my journey because its mission to improve lives matches my goals here in the D.C. area.

Plus, the shoes look great.”

MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 17

ENERGY &

H DOLNI N EN ST E NEVAI R ME

BRE LAS

TODAY’S HEADLINES

REA

POLITICS AND POLICY

18 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

D M O

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NEW

S A ND

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DEO

SMARTER, FASTER

BREAKING NEWS

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BY JEFF HANNA

In a shifting media landscape, Ted Williams ’07 and Mike Allen ’86 are focused on reigniting local journalism through a new business venture.

HEADLINES

MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 19

“At Axios, we take a clinical approach to our coverage. We don’t cozy up to people, and we don’t sucker punch people. Our ambition is to illuminate all sides. We have good sources, and we hold all sides accountable.”

M

MIKE ALLEN ’86 AND TED WILLIAMS ’07 were deep into due diligence details when they finally made the connection.

Axios, the media company Allen co-founded in 2016, was finalizing its purchase of Charlotte Agenda, the media company Williams co-founded in 2015, dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s in a Zoom conference call (where else?) last fall.

Allen got off Zoom, Googled Williams, and phoned him. “Ted,” he said, “we have the Colonnade in common.”

ENTREPRENEURIAL INSTINCTS

As it turns out, Allen and Williams have more than the Colonnade in common.

They also share shrewd entrepreneurial instincts and a clear-eyed view of the shifting media landscape.

Allen, a politics and journalism double major, started his 35-year career in a traditional manner. He was a general assignment reporter for the Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star and the Richmond Times-Dispatch before he moved up to the New York Times followed by stints at The Washington Post, Time magazine and Politico. Along the way he gained increasing national celebrity, and Williams said he knew Mike Allen as a “media star” rather than a fellow W&L alum. As chief political reporter at

20 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

–Mike Allen ’86

Politico, Allen wrote Playbook, a daily early morning email newsletter that became a must-read in Washington, earning him the title of “The Man The White House Wakes Up To.” In 2016, he and two Politico colleagues, Jim VandeHei and Roy Schwartz, created Axios, the news website Allen once described as providing what you need to know when you sit down to breakfast with your smart friends.

Williams, a business administration major, took a different path. Resisting the siren song of investment banking, he was drawn to the creative side of business.

Although he studied on the second floor of Reid Hall, Williams never did take a journalism class. His first job was on the business side of media with an online health company, The Health Central Network, in Washington, D.C. He relocated to Charlotte in 2010 and held several technology-related jobs before joining The Charlotte Observer as director of digital strategy and new initiatives in 2013.

During the next two years as he appraised the plight of local media, Williams thought he might have some answers to the growing challenges. He took $50,000 from his own savings to establish Charlotte Agenda, a digital news site that was laserfocused on the local community and filled with useful content.

Mike Allen ’86

“To say that Ted is from a different student generation than I am is a significant understatement,” said Allen.

“But what we share is a passion for journalism that makes people smarter, faster.”

AUDIENCE FIRST

“Smarter, faster” is a central tenet in the Axios brand. Each edition of Allen’s daily email newsletter, “Axios AM,” (a successor to his popular Politico Playbook) displays the trademarked phrase “Smart Brevity” and includes a word count and an estimated reading time — e.g., 971 words, 4 minutes. Axios now features almost two dozen industry-specific newsletters, plus two daily podcasts and a documentary news series on HBO. Charlotte Agenda had been online for two years when Axios launched, and Williams’ creation had become a go-to local news source. Columbia Journalism Review devoted an article to Charlotte Agenda in June 2018, and the Poynter Institute hailed the site as “one of the brightest lights in local journalism.” The New York Times reported that Charlotte Agenda’s revenues grew from $1.3 million in 2017 to $2.2 million in 2019, with a profit margin over 30%. It also had 55,000 newsletter subscribers and 235,000

“You build a relationship with people over time.

You earn trust over years. Developing a media brand requires delivering value consistently.”

–Ted Williams ’07

Ted Williams ’07

followers on Instagram.

“I’ve always enjoyed media as a way to bring people together,” Williams said. “One fun thing about local media is that you get to see the impact of creating media that helps people make smarter decisions and connect with their neighbors. It gives them a sense of place.”

Allen and his co-founders at Axios had been mulling the possibility of taking their “Smarter, Faster” model local. And Charlotte Agenda was precisely what they had envisioned.

“It was meant to be,” Allen said. “What Ted built brilliantly with the Charlotte Agenda sums up the first two words of the Axios manifesto: ‘Audience First.’ We always look through that lens to create a great audience experience.”

Charlotte Agenda became the first ingredient in Axios Local, a new series of sites that currently includes Tampa, Denver, Minneapolis and Des Moines.

Williams is the general manager of the entire enterprise, “Ted’s Empires,” as Allen terms it.

Williams and Allen said these local products aren’t meant to compete with local media but are designed to help people there connect.

“As Jim VandeHei, our CEO, says, ‘We come in peace.’ We’re eager to lift up our

journalistic colleagues in those markets, and the Axios Local newsletters are a fantastic way to bring attention to some of the incredible journalism that’s being done in those communities,” Allen said.

BUILDING TRUST

Are Axios and Axios Local the future of media?

“Whatever the future is, this is an exciting time to try to build what a modern blueprint for local media looks like and that makes economic sense,” said Williams. “One thing that’s so important in local media is being more focused on the business model than in the past. People have to understand that model and then say, OK, given the model, how ambitious can journalism be? Otherwise, you get in an untenable economic situation. As much as journalism has changed with the addition of these electronic tools, I think it’s the business of media that has changed more dramatically.”

Axios placed high value on the model that Williams built in Charlotte; the price tag was said to be “close to $5 million.”

Not bad considering Williams and VandeHei, then Axios’ general manager, negotiated the deal in 15 minutes over the phone. “Jim was going through TSA. We

hammered out a deal outline, then took our time to make sure the culture made sense,” Williams said. “I’d never sold a business, so I don’t know if that’s the typical way it’s done. But it was interesting. And fun.”

Allen and Williams recognize the enormous challenge media have in gaining the trust of today’s news consumers. Trust is in short supply everywhere. “People have lost trust in institutions, and that very much includes media — in some cases for quite deserved reasons,” Allen said. “At Axios, we take a clinical approach to our coverage. We don’t cozy up to people, and we don’t sucker punch people. Our ambition is to illuminate all sides. We have good sources, and we hold all sides accountable.

If you can live that hour to hour, it’s a vital step in building trust.”

Williams emphasized there are no shortcuts. “You build a relationship with people over time,” he said. “You earn trust over years. Developing a media brand requires delivering value consistently.”

In the midst of a transformative, disruptive media environment, when everything is changing how people consume information and about how information is gathered and delivered, Williams and Allen are dedicated to the Axios proposition of making people smarter, faster.

MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 21

OFFICE HOURS

Jeff Schatten The assistant professor of business administration combines philosophy and finance to examine organizational behavior in all kinds of business settings.

BY LOUISE UFFELMAN • PHOTO BY SHELBY MACK

22 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

“I think students who have a good business education in a liberal arts setting are wellpositioned to emerge as leaders.”

LIBERAL ARTS SETTING Many business professors take a circuitous route to academia, and I was no different. After earning my B.A. in philosophy, I was a consultant at a social enterprise incubator in South Africa and also taught philosophy for many years. After my MBA, with a concentration in finance, I had offers from consulting firms and corporations, but I knew that was not for me. So I simultaneously started a real estate investment group and began my Ph.D. in organizational behavior, and by the end of that I was sure that I wanted to go the academic route. My dream, from the very beginning of my Ph.D., was to be at the best liberal arts university that had a commerce program. I’ve always been passionate about the intersection of the liberal arts and business education. While my narrow field is organizational behavior, I approach it from an interdisciplinary lens, often drawing on both philosophy and finance.

I think students who have a good business education in a liberal arts setting are well-positioned to emerge as leaders. This combination fosters a more humanistic perspec-

tive, because they are more likely to work at understanding where the person across the table is coming from and how to effectively engage with that person.

I’ve found that the students at W&L are incredibly motivated and really curious. They ask phenomenal questions and are a joy to work with because they are genuinely interested in learning and developing.

LEADING TEAMS My favorite course that I teach at W&L is Leading Teams, a Spring Term class at the Augusta Correctional Center where our students and inmates take the class together — a unique moment where undergrads and inmates operate on a level playing field. A liberal arts university like W&L can support this kind of educational opportunity, and it enables me, as a professor, to engage students in discussions and activities that are more challenging, engaging and complex than you can get in a typical classroom setting.

The class is about leadership, but much of what we’re trying to understand is the nature of human capacity for change. There’s no better

environment to try and investigate change, and the implications of whether we can change, than in a prison. Many of my students come to the table with preconceived notions about what an inmate is, but by the time they leave, they realize, “Oh, these are really complicated people with aspirations, families and fascinating views on the world.”

We study Nelson Mandela and focus entirely on his development while imprisoned for 27 years on Robben Island. It’s an incredible vehicle for examining leadership and allows our students to explore that subject with people who can provide insight about what it means to try to enact change while incarcerated and how the prison experience influences character. The exchange is equally rich for the inmates. The class is empowering for them because they are treated as equals — everyone is a student — and that’s a humanizing experience for them. I keep in touch with several inmates, as well as one who was recently pardoned by the governor.

THE ART OF NEGOTIATION Negotiation is about trying to come to an agreement

with someone who has overlapping interests, some shared, some unshared. It takes a tremendous amount of skill to get to the bottom of what their interests are, because often you are negotiating with a counterpart who doesn’t want to disclose all of their interests. If you have a complex negotiation you can maximize joint gain so both parties can potentially end up better off. But it takes a large amount of trust. I’m very interested in how trust is formed and the consequences of trust violations, such as the use of deception.

I’m also fascinated by how gender impacts negotiations, and one of the areas I cover in my classes is looking at why women make 82 cents on the dollar to men. One variable, among many others, is that men negotiate more often than women do. By the end of my negotiation class, my students have all participated in one or two different negotiations scenarios. I hope to have imparted how imperative it is for women to negotiate — whether that is about salary, job responsibilities or both — throughout their careers.

MORE ABOUT JEFF PHILOSOPHICALLY SPEAKING One area that often resonates with our students concerns motivation. “What is the role of work in our sense of identity? Why are people motivated to wake up in the morning and spend the day at work?”

I’m interested in these kinds of questions about our place in the universe and tying it into understanding people at work.

FREQUENT FLYER I’ve traveled to over 40 countries and am looking forward to when I can travel again.

PODCAST HOST “Demystifying Organizations” features experts from around the world.

All 50 episodes are available at go.wlu.edu/ schatten-podcast.

MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 23

LIVES OF CONSEQUENCE

Nurturing the NASDAQ Linda Roberts ’71 helped the NASDAQ become a household name during a four-decade career in finance and accounting.

BY JEFF SEYMOUR

24 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

“I helped NASDAQ, in its really formative years, to become a more legitimized high-profile market. People consider the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ pretty much equal competitors now.”

When Linda Roberts ’71 (formerly James Allen) stepped off the bus in Lexington as a freshman, she had a suitcase, an academic scholarship and no idea where to find W&L. “I’d never visited the campus,” she said. “So I arrive in Lexington, and I don’t know anybody at all. I don’t know where my dorm is. I’ve never been to the school. It was quite a crazy experience.”

She found her room at the Dutch Inn and began a journey that took her from the football field and the fraternity house to a 40-year career in finance and accounting and an award for transgender advocacy. Roberts, who began living as a woman after her children finished college, worked as treasurer of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) in the 1990s, helping grow the NASDAQ market, a wholly owned subsidiary of the NASD, into a household name and facilitating its sale to first private and then public investors for over $2 billion.

CAMPUS LIFE Born into a working-class family in Washington, D.C.,

Roberts was the first of her siblings to attend college.

Drawn to W&L by the Honor System and the journalism school, she played football and lacrosse, joined Phi Kappa Psi and majored in accounting after her high school sweetheart’s father reacted skeptically to her plan to become a sportswriter. She credits a number of campus mentors with influencing her — from business professors L.K. Johnson and Jay Cook to film professor O.W. Riegel — but remembers football coach Boyd Williams especially.

“He came from Philadelphia, and I think he played a couple years in the NFL. He was a tough guy. And he said to me one time, ‘I’m gonna make you a good football player.’

That was really inspiring, you know.”

Football was a centerpiece of Roberts’ W&L experience. She remembers the team “absolutely destroying” rival Sewanee after a fiery speech from Williams, playing a charity game in Busch Stadium and half the players throwing up when their flight home from Tennessee hit thunderstorms.

THE BIRTH OF NASDAQ Roberts graduated Phi Beta Kappa and returned to D.C., where she married her high school sweetheart and joined Price Waterhouse. She worked her way up through the firm’s audit division until the birth of the couple’s third child, in 1983.

“Public accounting is a very demanding profession. They expected you to work, during busy season, up to 80 hours a week.” A better auditor than salesperson, Roberts knew her chances of making partner were slim. “And with the growing family, I said, ‘No, it’s time to get out of here and have a more normal life.’”

That decision led her to the NASD, where she pushed to combine its accounting department with NASDAQ’s, then ran the combined department for 12 years as controller and then treasurer. Before retiring in 2011, Roberts also played a key leadership role in the historic integration of the New York Stock Exchange’s regulatory organization into that of NASD’s, forming what is now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). During her long executive-level tenure, she also served as liaison to the finance, investment and management compensation committees.

“When I became controller there, it didn’t have a lot of recognition. It was still like, ‘Oh, it’s a penny stock market, you know, and you can’t trust it.’” Working with NASDAQ’s marketing director, Roberts helped NASDAQ start competing with the New York Stock Exchange. The marketing director told her their

biggest problem was “we’re this invisible electronic market. They’ve got this floor everybody comes and visits, and they think, ‘Wow, this is really cool.’

And we’ve got some computers running in Trumbull, Connecticut, that nobody sees.”

To solve that problem, the marketing director hatched a plan to build the NASDAQ Market Site on Times Square in New York City. Roberts went to bat for it before the NASD’s board.

“We went over budget, and I got some pushback, but this was the greatest thing that we ever did.

That Market Site is worth millions now. People see it, we get news coverage, and people say, ‘Oh, the NASDAQ market, I know that.’”

bicycle, and enjoying swimming pools, social clubs and family visits.

Roberts — who built a career based on trust — credits W&L’s standards of honor and integrity as the foundation for her success.

“There was a time when someone wanted my position. He was inching closer to possibly usurping me. And then they found that he had submitted fraudulent expense reports, and he was gone. His whole career wasted, cheating on an expense report for pennies.”

For Roberts, holding to the Honor System, that was never even a possibility.

EMBRACING RETIREMENT

Roberts received the Capital Pride Alliance’s 2018 Engendered Spirit Award for her contributions to the transgender community. “I felt so humbled. Having been born in Washington, D.C., I was being honored in my hometown.”

When Roberts retired, her picture appeared on the Market Site’s main screen.

“I thought I helped NASDAQ, in its really formative years, to become a more legitimized high-profile market. People consider the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ pretty much equal competitors now.”

In her retirement, Roberts volunteers extensively. She has spent five years on the board and as treasurer of DignityUSA, a national organization advocating for LGBTQ+ Catholics. She also makes regular service trips with Global Volunteers, tackling community-building projects in impoverished areas around the U.S. and the world. She lives in an active adult community in Florida, playing multiple sports including softball, golf and pickleball, dancing and riding her

MORE ABOUT LINDA HONORED

ACCEPTED

When Roberts returned to campus for her 45th reunion, her first time back as a woman, she was welcomed by her classmates with a round of applause at their first dinner. “Buddy LeTourneau ’71 [alumni coordinator for his class] said, ‘I want to introduce everybody to Linda Roberts, who you all knew previously as James Allen.’ He looked to me and everybody started clapping. And I knew then that I was accepted. And that was just wonderful.”

MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 25

LIVES OF CONSEQUENCE

SABU: Advocating with One Voice In 1971, Black students founded the Student Association for Black Unity, launching a 50-year tradition of advocacy on campus.

AS TOLD TO JEFF SEYMOUR BY MATTHEW TOWNS ’74 AND GENE PERRY ’75, ’78L

SABU group photo from the 1975 Calyx. Center: Gene Perry ’75, ’78L (left) and Ernest L. Freeman III ’75.

From l. to r.: Pete Fisher ’78, Randal Johnson ’77, Derrick Abney ’78, Stephen Outlaw ’77, Robert Ford ’75, Stan Packer ’79, Dennis Mason ’76, Curtis Stewart ’78, Larry Crocker ’78, John Evans ’76, Ray Bowling ’78, Marshall Strickland ’77, Elliot Hicks ’78, Hoffman Brown ’77, Michael Brooks ’77, Talmadge Powell ’77, John X. Miller ’77, ’80L, William Harrison ’77, Eamon Cassell ’78, Aaron Lewis ’77, Al Boykin ’78.

Not pictured: Anthony Perry ’77.

26 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

Members of SABU, along with Jerry Darrell, a friend of the group and retired head of dining services, celebrating SABU’s 44th anniversary on campus.

IN THE FALL OF 1970, Washington and Lee enrolled 15 Black students.

Neither the university nor the students were fully prepared for the changes required for success, but both parties were willing to make the effort to transform the university into a more diverse school.

That work reshaped W&L, paving the way for more minority students, faculty and administrators on campus and inaugurating traditions observed today.

During their first year on campus, the students went through a series of racial incidents that emphasized to them that change was necessary. In 1971, they held meetings to discuss the best path forward and decided they needed an organization to fulfill their political, social and cultural needs, as well as provide protection when necessary.

Their solution was to form the Student Association for Black Unity (SABU), which became the voice of the Black student body. Its founding members

included Walter Blake ’72; William Hill ’74, ’77L; Johnny White ’74, ’85L; Matthew Towns ’74; Johnny Morrison ’74, ’77L; Bobby Smith ’74; Thomas Penn ’74; Phillip Hutcheson ’74; Ernest L. Freeman III ’75; Robert Ford ’75 and Gene Perry ’75, ’78L.

IMPLEMENTING CHANGE At the time, there were Confederate items displayed all over campus, and “Dixie” was played at many campus events.

Under the guidance of “elder statesman” Walter Blake ’72, who became SABU’s first president, the students discussed their options and met with administrators, including President Robert Huntley ’50, ’57L, an important ally.

After their meeting, Huntley sent out a memo that prohibited playing “Dixie” on campus at any event. Shortly thereafter, a fraternity sent the group a note: “We’re going to play ‘Dixie’ [at an upcoming basketball game]. And we’d like you to come stop us.”

The Black students and the fraternity attended the game on opposite sides of Doremus Gymnasium.

In the end, the fraternity backed down. “That crystallized what it meant to have a group representing us in force,” Towns said.

Other efforts by Huntley and his administration included helping them acquire more furniture for their unofficial campus house and helping get Black music on the jukebox at the Cockpit, a small restaurant and hangout in the student center. “Those things may seem small,” said Towns, who succeeded Blake as SABU’s president, “but they mattered.”

The undergraduate campus, which integrated in 1968, could be openly hostile, not just to SABU but to Black students individually. Perry, SABU’s third president, had bleach poured under his door and his dorm room vandalized after he switched floors freshman year. SABU became “an all-encompassing entity” that could help with those sorts of incidents.

“We would meet, and we would talk about it,” Perry said. “It helped us to speak with one voice, and you could talk to another Black student who had a similar experience. A wealth of knowledge was brought to these meetings.”

LEADERS IN ACTION In February 1972, SABU held its first Black Culture Week, anchored by keynote speaker Parren Mitchell, the first Black member of Congress from Maryland.

At the end of the week,

they sponsored the first Black Ball — one of the first black-tie events of its kind among universities in the area, most of which had been recently integrated.

Many founders remained involved with SABU for years; some who attended the Law School were active on campus for the better part of a decade. They continued to advocate and hold events, and in ways large and small, they changed W&L. For Towns, who helped change his school mascot from “Rebels” to “Chargers” in high school, their impact reflected their character.

“Just like the other students at W&L,” he said, “the Black students that came in the classes of ’74–’84 were already leaders in sports, student government or other organizations. SABU, like other organizations, helped to fortify the foundation that I received from my parents: be honest and hardworking, always try to do the right thing even when it’s not easy, and if things are not right, try to make them right.”

In SABU’s early years, Perry and White co-authored an admissions pamphlet on its behalf to help recruit Black students to W&L. It read in part, “Black students at all-male W&L are confronted by limitations on social life and the problems of being fully accepted in the small close-knit community that is Lexington. However, Washington and Lee gives the Black Brother who is progressive and has an eye on the future a start that is an asset for life.”

SABU OVER 50 YEARS 1968: W&L’s undergraduate campus integrates.

Two Black students, including future SABU president Walter Blake ’72, matriculate.

1970: W&L enrolls 15 Black students who become SABU’s founding core.

1971: SABU is founded to fulfill the political, social and cultural needs of Black students on campus and help ensure their safety.

1972: SABU hosts the first Black Culture Week, featuring speakers and events including the first Black Ball.

1973–1974: SABU assists in recruiting Black students; around 20 enroll after years of matriculating only one or two.

1985–1986: SABU is converted into the Minority Students Association (MSA); many early SABU alumni avoid campus for years in protest.

2010–2011: SABU re-forms as a separate entity from the MSA.

MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 27

CLASS UPDATES AND SUCCESS STORIES

CHAPTER CORNER EVENTS

THE VIRTUAL RUN AROUND

BY TOM LOVELL ’91, SENIOR ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT A picture says a thousand words, so I will keep this short. Thanks to all our alumni and parents for a successful inaugural virtual 5K run/walk. We had runners and walkers of all ages, from most of the 50 states, 10 countries and 60 alumni chapters. A big shout out to Katherine Fenwick ’11 and Brad Harder ’12 for being our overall winners. Visit the Alumni Engagement website (go.wlu.edu/ alumni-5k) for the complete listing of age-bracket winners and to see all the photos.

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Fingers crossed that we can enjoy one another’s company on campus this fall. Assuming in-person gatherings are allowed, here’s what we have planned.

ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME SEPT. 17–18, 2021 Honoring individuals who have made outstanding contributions to W&L athletics and who have helped bring recognition, honor, distinction and excellence to the university and its intercollegiate athletic program.

YOUNG ALUMNI WEEKEND OCT. 22–23, 2021

3 1. Paul Ziebert ’84 in Chicago.

2. John Stafford ’79, Stuart Fauber ’70, Norwood Morrison ’70, Billy Giles ’61, Sam Meeks ’72 (and Bailey) on the Lynchburg bike trail.

4 3. Arthur Fang ’07, Ton Chartisathian ’98, Christine Feng Chartisathian ’13 and Anatolia (Class of 2043?) in Hong Kong.

4. Rachele Reis ’15L and Marla Reis P’15L in Mobile, Alabama.

SEND US UPDATES

Call 540-458-8955 (subscription questions only)

Use magazine@wlu.edu to send: • Wedding and other photos • Changes of address/subscription questions • Letters to the editor

Magazine Washington and Lee University 7 Courthouse Square 204 W. Washington St. Lexington VA 24450-2116

28 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

Join your classmates, make new acquaintances and enjoy the fall splendor of our campus. We will celebrate the 5th and 10th reunions for the classes of 2016 and 2011. All generals who graduated from 2011 to 2021 are invited!

STAY IN TOUCH Submit a class note: colonnadeconnections.wlu. edu or magazine@wlu.edu

Distinguished Five-Star Alumni This year’s Distinguished Five-Star Alumni Award winners are Bob Feagin ’60, Holt Merchant ’61, Blaine Brownell ’65 and Dave Redmond ’66, ’69L. Read their full bios at go.wlu.edu/DAA-2021.

Robert R. Feagin ’60 joined Holland & Knight in 1964, where he organized and led Holland & Knight’s antitrust and trade regulation practice and was chairman of the firm’s litigation section. He is a driving force behind the founding and support of the Institute for Honor. Established in 2000 at W&L by a generous endowment from the Class of 1960, the Institute for Honor includes an array of initiatives and specific programs designed to promote the understanding and practice of honor as an indispensable element of society.

50s 1955

David W. McCain ’55 and wife, Eleanor, are leaving icy New Hampshire for the sunny climate of Jacksonville, Florida, where they started out married life 63 years ago.

He said: “The move not only puts us closer to our younger daughter, but it also lets us reunite with old friends from our over 20 years living there.

Retired life has been relatively good to both of us, with only minor medical issues. As are many of my classmates,

John Holt Merchant ’61 ran cross-country and track and joined the W&L faculty in 1970, teaching in his specialty areas of the American South and the Civil War until his retirement in 2013. For more than four decades, he was a dedicated and respected professor and mentor to undergraduate students and is remembered fondly by hundreds of former students and advisees.

In 2014, he published “South Carolina Fire-eater: Laurence Keitt, 1824-1864.”

I am terribly distressed with the direction the university appears to be taking these days. I hope and pray the board will work to reinstitute the college we all knew.

60s 1961

Harold J. Fischel published his seventh book, “And What Would You Do?” It received multiple four- and five-star reviews on Amazon. He lives in Chelsea, Michigan.

Blaine A. Brownell ’65 is a recognized authority in urban history and the history of the American South. Brownell held many key administrative roles within academia: department chair, dean and graduate dean, director of international programs, president and a tenured full professor at four different universities. W&L commissioned him to research and write “Washington and Lee University, 1930 2000: Tradition and Transformation,” the supplement to his mentor Ollie Crenshaw’s history of the university.

1966 David N. Marchese’s company, wineworldtours. com, was rated Superior Wine Tour Company and Most Client Focused Wine Tour Operator in the U.S. by Lux Magazine, a London-based luxury travel publication. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.

70s 1971

Marshall B. Miller Jr. was selected for inclusion

David D. Redmond ’66,’69L joined Christian & Barton in Richmond. For over 45 years, he represented commercial lenders, real estate developers in connection with the acquisition, zoning and financing of land development, and business entities in connection with the acquisition, sale and leasing of their properties He has served W&L as member of the Alumni Association Board and president of the Law Council.

in the 2021 The Best Lawyers in America list.

He is a partner at Jackson Walker L.L.P. in San Antonio, Texas.

1973 William P. Peak Jr. narrated the audio version of his book “The Oblate’s Confession.” He said, “In some ways it was as if I were writing it all over again, only writing it this time in an entirely new medium, watercolors instead of oil.

He retired last December and is still looking for the hammock and accompanying drinks with the little red umbrellas.”

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Harold J. Fischel ’61 AND WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

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William Peak ’73 THE OBLATE’S CONFESSION MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 29

A New Trustee Nomination Process

WE ARE PLEASED TO GIVE THIS early notice that all alumni will have a more direct voice in the election of a trustee at regular intervals. The request for a change originated from alumni. The revised approach will broaden the pool of potential candidates and invite all alumni to vote.

Over the years, a very high percentage of university trustees have been alumni; currently 27 of 29. This institutional knowledge has served the university well.

Every other year for the last 18 years, the Alumni Board has developed a confidential slate of three alumni. This slate was tendered to the Trusteeship Committee of the Board of Trustees, which has chosen one of those three as an incoming trustee. While that process worked very well, the new process of the Board of Trustees and the Alumni Association will increase the level of transparency and alumni participation.

30 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

Late this summer, the Alumni Association will make a formal call for nominations. More information will be provided, but for now please know that any alumnus/alumna will be able to nominate someone. Alumni nominated will be contacted and directed to some guiding documents on the Alumni Engagement website. They will also

“We encourage your participation and look forward to many more qualified alumni becoming trustees.” be permitted to submit a statement in support of their own candidacy.

After appropriate due diligence, the Alumni Board will place three alumni

on an electronic ballot sent to every alumna and alumnus for whom we have an email address. The individual selected will be expected to take office in May 2022, and the process will be repeated at regular intervals in the future. We encourage your participation and look forward to many more qualified alumni becoming trustees.

Stand by for further information and thanks in advance for your support of the new approach.

Dana Bolden ’89 Chair, Trusteeship Committee, Board of Trustees Beau Dudley ’74, ’79L Executive Director of Alumni Engagement

1974

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Mark A. Bradley ’78 BLOOD RUNS COAL

Nicolas R. Wreden III is under coronavirus lockdown in Malaysia, where he has lived since moving from Atlanta in 2003 to teach technology management at a local university. Officially he is retired, but he still freelances occasionally, conducts seminars now and then, and does odd branding projects for the government. He is also working on his latest book, “How to Ask Smart Questions for Useful Answers.” If you’re ever able to get to Kuala Lumpur, look him up!

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Todd C. Peppers ’90 OF COURTIERS & PRINCES

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Christopher Swann ’92 NEVER TURN BACK

1976 David R. Braun is celebrating his 44th year in the financial services industry and first-year anniversary as executive vice president with Insurance Designers of America. He and his wife, Janna, split their time between Ft. Myers, Florida, and Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

1977

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Christian B. Keller ’94 THE GREAT PARTNERSHIP

Joel W. Mohrman was named to the 2020 Texas Super Lawyers list and has the distinction of being a top-rated intellectual property litigation attorney in Houston. He has been listed in Texas Super Lawyers since 2012. He is a partner at Akerman L.L.P.

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James C. Nicholson ’01 RACING FOR AMERICA

Mark A. Bradley ’78 published his second book, “Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America” (W. W. Norton

& Co.), about the New Year’s Eve triple murder of union reformer Joseph “Jock” Yablonski and his wife and daughter, and its aftermath.

1978 Jeffrey M. Sone was included in the 2021 The Best Lawyers in America list. He is a partner with Jackson Walker in its Dallas office.

80s 1981

The Nasdaq MarketSite at Times Square celebrated the first anniversary of R. Chris Gammon ’81’s Charlotte-based registered investment adviser firm Verum Partners with a tribute on July 2, 2020.

His daughter Sydnor is a Charlotte-based senior manager in health care strategy with Deloitte Consulting. Chris’s younger daughter Betsy is an M.D. and ob-gyn resident at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

1982 Timothy C. Taylor was included in the 2020 Super Lawyers list and the 2021 The Best Lawyers in America list.

He is a partner at Jackson Waler in its Austin, Texas, office.

1986 William W. Baber III, during sabbatical travel in 2019, made academic presentations at Heidelberg University, Aalto University, University of Oulu, EM Lyon and IESEG Lille and was an invited

speaker at Technical University of Munich.

Topics centered around business model innovation and business negotiation. He is a professor at Kyoto University, Japan.

1987 Michael F. Wacht earned his master of science in strategic communication from Purdue University.

He focused on public relations, earning a 4.0 GPA. He is the vice president of technical support and special projects at Global-5 Inc., a public relations and marketing firm that specializes in government, transportation and technology.

Headquartered in Florida, its client list includes the Florida Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration and the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority.

1988 LeRoy F. Laney is president of the South Carolina Bar. He previously served as president of the Richland County Bar Association and practices law at Riley, Pope and Laney L.L.C. in Columbia, South Carolina.

Kevin S. Webb (’95L) joined the office of international affairs at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington, D.C.

90s 1990

Todd C. Peppers published “Of Courtiers and Princes: Stories of Lower Court Clerks and

Their Judges” (University of Virginia Press). He is the Henry H. and Trudye H. Fowler Professor of Public Affairs at Roanoke College and visiting professor at W&L Law. Christopher M. Weed returned to Virginia after 24 years of living in New England, working first as a prep school French teacher and coach and then, after a second round of graduate school, as a psychotherapist and coach at both the college and independent high school levels. In July, he got married in front of three socially distanced family members in his yard. He is now in the Richmond area looking to continue his work as a psychotherapist and to reconnect with good friends in the area.

1991 Jonathan M. Bull was included in the 2021 The Best Lawyers in America list. He is a partner at Jackson Walker in its Dallas office.

1992 John T. “Trey“ Cox III joined Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as a partner in its trial section. He will continue to focus on complex commercial litigation at the trial and appellate levels. Cox, who is married to Northern District of Texas U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox, was a lead lawyer representing Purdue Pharma in litigation over the opioid epidemic.

Christopher C. Swann published a new novel, “Never Turn Back” (Crooked Lane Books).

Classmate Ax Norman ’92 is the voice actor who narrated the audiobook.

MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 31

1993 Charles H. Campbell was included in the 2021 The Best Lawyers in America list. He is a partner at Jackson Walker in its Austin, Texas, office.

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1994

Frederick M. Heiser (’04L) was promoted to managing shareholder of the Irvine, California, office of Klinedinst P.C. He is a member of the firm’s business and commercial litigation, commercial general liability and employment practice groups.

Daniel G. Katzenbach was listed among the Best Lawyers in America 2021. He is a partner at Cranfill Sumner L.L.P. in Raleigh, North Carolina.

James C. Nicholson published “Racing for America: The Horse Race of the Century and the Redemption of a Sport” (The University Press of Kentucky).

He lives in Versailles, Kentucky.

Christian B. Keller published “The Great Partnership: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and the Fate of the Confederacy” (Pegasus Books). It won the 2020 Douglas Southall Freeman History Award and was a finalist for the 2019 Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History.

1995 Gamble T. Parks (’99L) joined Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s corporate and business department as a shareholder in its Santa Barbara office.

Gamble is a certified specialist in estate planning, trust and probate law by the California Board of Legal Specialization.

00s 2000

Ian R. Conner joined Latham & Watkins as a partner in the antitrust and competition practice.

He previously oversaw antitrust enforcement at the Federal Trade Commission as director of the Bureau of Competition. He managed the nearly 300 attorneys and staff of the bureau during the pandemic and oversaw the most prolific antitrust enforcement and policy period at the commission in several decades, including overseeing the commission’s monopolization case against Facebook.

ALUMNI NEWS

In August a small group of alumni gathered in Asheville, North Carolina. From l. to r.: Tom Cocke ’84, George Lupton ’84, George Youmans ’84, Turner Simkins ’86 and Chris Robinson ’84.

2002

2006

Justin P. Novak has been recognized in the 2021 edition of The Best Lawyers in America and is listed in the 2021 edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in the areas of alternative dispute resolution, commercial litigation and professional malpractice law.

He serves as special counsel in the Charleston, South Carolina, office of Barnwell, Whaley, Patterson & Helms L.L.C.

G. Calvin Awkward III (’09L) joined Goldberg Segalla in Baltimore as a partner.

2003 Edward V. Arnold (’08L) was elected a partner at Seyfarth Shaw L.L.P., where he focuses on government contracts and construction in the Washington, D.C. office. He is also pursuing his LL.M. in government procurement from George Washington University School of Law. He and his wife, Maia, reside in Baltimore with their kids Emmy, 3, and Alex, 1.

Ian J. Bambrick was elected partner at Faegre Drinker and is one of 17 attorneys elected in the new partnership class. He lives in Woodstown, New Jersey.

Michelle Moore Smith was included in the 2020 Rising Stars list. She is a partner at Jackson Walker in its Austin, Texas, office.

32 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

Richard S. Bruno (’11L) was promoted to partner at Mozley, Finlayson & Loggins in Atlanta.

He focuses on defense of insureds in the trucking, aviation, construction and premises arenas.

Allan C. Galis, an attorney in HunterMaclean’s Savannah, Georgia office, was recognized as a 2021 Georgia Rising Star.

2008 William B. Larson (’11L) was recognized by Delaware Today Magazine as the leading government affairs attorney in its 2020 Top Lawyer rankings. He is an associate with MG+M in Wilmington, Delaware.

Rebecca LeMoine was promoted to associate professor of political science with tenure at Florida Atlantic University, a public university in Boca Raton, Florida.

2009 Oliver M. Krischik is a principal at GKC Law P.C. He joined the firm in 2007.

John H. Scully (’12L) joined Eller, Tonnsen, Bach in Greenville, South Carolina, as an associ-

ate. He concentrates on civil litigation and corporate matters, with an emphasis on business litigation and insurance defense.

William E. Underwood (’12L) was promoted to partner with Jones Walker in Atlanta. He focuses on construction litigation, alternative dispute resolution, and contract drafting, review, and negotiation.

10s 2012

Timothy M. D. McAleenan Jr. was recognized by Best Lawyers as a Best Lawyer, One to Watch, in the field of Best Lawyers for Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants in St. Louis, Missouri, for drafting a brief that was successful before the Missouri Supreme Court.

2017 Simon A. Michnick (’20L) joined the real estate finance group at Ballard Spahr in Baltimore.

The 2021 DAA Winners During this year’s virtual Alumni Reunion, W&L celebrated the 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award winners. Read the story at go.wlu.edu/alumniweek-dda-2021.

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1. Madison “Matt” F. Cole Jr. ’71 joined Wesleyan School in 1998 after 25 years in profit businesses. In his 20 years there, he served as executive headmaster of development and had additional responsibilities in finance, endowment, college advising, mentoring and teaching AP History. During his tenure, he raised over $130 million. He serves on several nonprofit boards in Atlanta.

2. Andrew G. Kumpuris ’71 is a clinical cardiologist at the Heart Clinic of Arkansas, an adjunct professor of health policy at the Clinton School of Public Service of Little Rock and a Robert Wood Johnson Health Care Policy Fellow. He is on the boards of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement; the University of Arkansas, Little Rock; and St. Vincent’s health systems.

He has served on a number of nonprofits in Arkansas and was

a founding board member of the Shepherd higher education consortium on poverty.

3. Harry “Buddy” D. LeTourneau Jr. ’71 received his MBA from the Darden School of the University of Virginia and operated BLT Consulting, a retained-search practice specializing exclusively in the higher education market segment. As well as serving as a class agent for 26 years, he served a four-year term on the Alumni Board and a twoyear stint as a member of W&L’s Annual Fund Council.

4. Staman Ogilvie ’71 spent 41 years Hines, a global real estate development company.

His not-for-profit interests include healthcare, educational organizations, performing arts entities and the United Way. He has served on the board of the Kinkaid School since 1999.

5. Joseph B. Tompkins Jr. ’71 began his legal career in Washington, D.C., Sidley & Austin before joining the Department of Justice under the Carter administration. He returned to Sidley & Austin and started the firm’s white-collar crime practice, later serving as a team leader of the firm’s complex commercial litigation practice.

6. Betsy Blunt Brown ’96 has serving as past president of the Chattanooga Alumni Chapter, past treasurer of the Atlanta Chapter and co-chair for her class’ 20th Reunion Committee. She has also been an active participant in the Connolly Center’s annual Entrepreneurship Summit.

She is the founder and CEO of Pendleton Square Trust Co. and also serves as a director of Pendleton Square Holdings.

She is also a general partner in The JumpFund, an angel

investment fund dedicated to investing in female-led businesses in the Southeast.

7. Megan Fernstrum Taylor ’96 works for HPS Investment Partners, a leading global credit investment firm, leading its strategy and the development of new business lines. She is a board member of the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund and the Ayco Charitable Fund and serves on the Williams School Advisory Board.

8. Patrick White ’96 is a managing director for Benefit Street Partners in San Francisco, where he leads the firm’s investment activities in the western U.S. He is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he served in numerous combat leadership roles as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army.

He has been president of the Alumni Board, as well as the Los Angeles Chapter president.

MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 33

BIRTHS

WEDDINGS

Kiersten Salander Barnet ’05 and her husband, Alex, a daughter, Elin Amelia, on June 10. She joins brother George.

Christopher S. Colby ’05, ’08L and his wife, Holly, a son, Pierce, in February 2020. Pierce joins his brother Stuart at the family home in Stafford, Virginia.

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Lucas A. Gredell ’06 and his wife, Hillary, a girl, Emily Katherine, on Sept. 7, 2020.

Callie Ellis Beebe ’07 and Riddick Beebe ’08, a son, Riddick Ellis, on Feb. 5, 2020.

4 1. Richard Knack ’10 to Andrea Dodson on Feb. 2, 2020, (Groundhog Day, Super Bowl Sunday, a magical palindrome of a date 02022020) at Meadowlark Gardens in Vienna, Virginia. Generals in attendance included David Knack ’76, Robert Jones ’77,Kara Fitzgibbon ’11, Cailin Slattery ’11, Robert Warneford-Thomson ’12, Josh Kuckley ’10,Matt May ’10, David Doobin ’11,Jock Pflug ’10, Rob Saliers ’10, Bridget Franklin ’11, Rob George ’11, Evan Sharber ’11, Eric Veres ’10, Davis Franklin ’11, Dev Kori ’12, Mathew and Chloe O’Sullivan ’12.

2. Dr. Kimber Lauren Wiggs ’10 to William L. Stewart ’10 on Dec. 5, 2020, at the home of the bride’s parents in Lakeland, Florida. The fathers of the couple officiated the small family wedding. The couple postponed the reception for their many W&L and out-of-state friends and family until December 2021. They are building a home and will reside in Lakeland.

3. Rebecca Guynn ’11 to Josh Langford on Feb. 29, 2020, in Roanoke. From l. to r.: Katherine Sackman ’12, Andrew Sackman ’10, Shiri Yadlin ’12, Dana Hargrove ’12, Greg Lennon ’11, Sunny Altman ’13,

5 Chris Washnock ’12, Felice Herman ’11, Chris Dadak ’08, Julian Harf ’16L, Erin Schwartz ’12, Shaun Levesque ’79, Jeremy Carroll ’93, Jim Guynn ’79 and (not pictured) Allison Lemon Burke ’11.

4. Cailin Slattery ’11 to Zach Sullivan on May 25, 2019, in Charlottesville. From l. to r.: Davis Franklin ’11, Jill Refvem ’11, SoRelle Peat ’12, David Doobin ’11, Rich Knack ’10, Bridget Donovan ’11, Melissa Deokaran ’11, Alicia Budich Amling ’11, Kara Fitzgibbon ’11, Rob George ’11, Evan Sharber ’11, Cristina Bratu ’11 and Matt Amling ’09.

5. Courtney Ridenhour ’13 to Jack Apgar ’13 on Nov. 9, 2019, in Charlotte, North Carolina. The wedding party included Ashley Astolfi McNeely ’13, Chelsea Gloeckner ’12, Amanda Grywalski ’13, Clark Jernigan ’13, Drew Martin ’13, Colleen Paxton ’14, Evelyn Rupert ’14, Ian Shaw ’13, Stephen Stites ’13 and Eric Wisotsky ’13. Courtney and Jack reside in Charlotte, where Courtney will be joining Bank of America after completing her MBA at Duke University in May 2021 and Jack is a managing partner at LexPine Capital.

Padrick D. Dennis ’07 and his wife, Mary, a son, Jackson Padrick, on Aug. 4, 2020. Jack joins sisters Mae, 4, and Maggie, 2. The family reside in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Abbie Jackson Kessler ’07 and her husband, Kyle, a son, Seth Douglas, on July 3, 2019. He joined his sister Daphne to add to the household chaos.

Dr. M. Tucker Laffitte IV ’07 and his wife, Caroline, a daughter, Charlotte Ashley, on Feb. 5, 2020. She joins Louisa, 7, Mose, 6, and Brantley, 4, in Savannah, Georgia. Their grandfathers are Tuck Laffitte ’79 and Drew Sims ’79.

Dr. Rebecca Susan LeMoine ’08 and her husband, Matthew Alan Taylor, a son, Bernard Alan, on June 29, 2020. They live in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Catherine Gerhardt Fuge ’09 and Kevin Fuge ’09, a girl, Mary Haden, on July 4, 2020.

Alexandra Raab Stratz ’10 and husband, Brandon, a son, James Brian, on March 12, 2020, in Fairfax, Virginia.

Reed Stevens ’10 and Mary Morgan Radcliff Stevens ’11, a son, Coleman Radcliff, on July 12, 2020. The family reside in Houston.

Norris L. Laffitte II ’14 and his wife, Rachel, a daughter, Nell Duvall, on Dec. 17, 2020. They live in Kansas City.

34 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

OBITS 1940s J. William Doswell ’47, of Richmond, died on Aug. 22, 2020. He served in the Marine Corps. He served as director of external affairs for the CIA during the first term of the Reagan administration and ended his career overseeing government affairs for VCU. He belonged to Phi Kappa Sigma.

T. William Sommer ’47L, of Loveland, Colorado, died on Dec. 8, 2020. He served in the Air Force during World War II. He was an attorney in the IRS for 28 years. He belonged to Sigma Nu.

Dr. James C. Cranford Jr. ’48, of Jacksonville, Florida, died on Jan. 7. He served in the Navy. He had a private practice in radiology. He was father to Jimmy Cranford III ’75 and Bill Cranford ’79.

Gordon A. Fox ’48, of Peterborough, New Hampshire, died on Aug. 24, 2020. He served in the Army during World War II. He worked for Lone Star Industries Inc. He was father to Jim Fox ’75 and belonged to Kappa Alpha.

Charles C. Hubbard ’48, of Montgomery, Alabama, died on Nov. 4, 2020.

He served in the Army during World War II. He was an investment banker.

He belonged to Phi Delta Theta.

The Rev. Sherwood F. Smith ’48, of Lynchburg, died on Feb. 8. He was a retired Presbyterian minister whose combined ministries spanned more than 60 years.

Ben E. Grimm ’49, of Rapidan, Virginia, died on Nov. 9, 2020. He served in the Army during World War II. He had a career as a librarian, serving as the director of the Jersey City Public Library System for 12 years.

He was father to Jeff Ney-Grimm ’74 and Kevin Grimm ’78. He belonged to Delta Tau Delta.

Harry Harding ’49, of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, died on Jan. 4. He and his wife were owners and operators of Industrial Distributors in Roanoke Rapids.

He belonged to Pi Gamma Delta.

J. Forester Taylor ’49, ’51L, of Fishersville, Virginia, died on Oct. 16, 2020. He served in the Army during World War II. He had a private law practice before retiring. He was uncle to Catherine Currin Hammond ’84L and belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

1950s Arthur A. Birney ’50, ’52L, of Edgewater, Maryland, died on Jan. 14. He served in the Army and Air Force. He practiced law with his father and became the managing general partner of Washington Brick and Terra Cotta Co. He belonged to Sigma Chi.

W. Randolph Cosby Jr. ’50, of Richmond, died on Feb. 13. He served in the Marine Corps. He was president of W.G. Cosby Transfer & Storage. He belonged to Sigma Nu. W. Scott Glore III ’50, of Lexington, died on Dec. 31, 2020. He served in the Air Force. He retired from Dean Witter Reynolds. He was stepfather to Bryant Pless ’94 and belonged to Phi Delta Theta.

Dr. Robert T. Helmen ’50, of Wheaton, Illinois, died on Oct. 18, 2019.

He served in the Army.

He was a general and thoracic surgeon.

George W. Layman ’50, of Bristol, Tennessee, died on Jan. 5, 2020. He served in the Marines during World War II. He retired from UNIVAC in 1987.

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MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 35

ARTHUR A. BIRNEY ’50, ’52L, TRUSTEE EMERITUS Arthur A. Birney ’50, ’52L, trustee emeritus of Washington and Lee University, died on Jan. 14, 2021. He was 93.

A native of Washington, D.C., Birney graduated from St. Albans School before attending W&L. He served in the Air Force before practicing law with his father, Dion Birney. He was the managing general partner of Washington Brick and Terra Cotta Co., where he established a career in real estate, golf course, and marina investment and development in the greater Washington, D.C., area. He was also the co-founder and chairman of the Washington Real Estate Investment Trust and director of the Washington Hotel Co. Birney was elected to the W&L Board of Trustees in 1990 and served on the Campus Life, Campus & Physical Facilities, Development and Academic Affairs committees. His term on the board ended in 1997.

In 1986, he and his wife, Ally, established the Arthur A. Birney Scholarship. The couple also supported other university projects, including the sciences, theater and the Lee Chapel Endowment. He was also a member of his 50th reunion class committee and on the cabinet committee for the On the Shoulders of Giants Campaign. He noted: “We all have to make the world a little bit better, and it’s a great joy to me to help W&L students in some small way.”

For his philanthropic support of W&L, Birney’s name was added to the Benefactor’s Wall in 2001.

In the D.C. area, was Birney was active in the Chevy Chase Club, the Metropolitan Club, the Alibi Club and the Annapolis Yacht Club. He was an avid sailor and co-founder of Port Annapolis Marina. He authored “Noon Sight Navigation: Simplified Celestial” and “Sun Sight Navigation: Celestial for Sailors.”

Birney is survived by his wife of 66 years, Alison; his three sons, Lex ’78, Rodney and Charlie; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

William D. Livengood ’50, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, died on Aug. 17, 2020. He served in the Army during World War II. He was employed

by Southeast School Assemblies, owned Madison Ford and started a residential development, Dogwood Acres.

Joe Bergstein ’51, of Los Alamos, New Mexico, died on Dec. 10, 2020. He served in the Army during World War II. He worked

at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, retiring in 1987. He belonged to Phi Epsilon Pi.

of orthopaedics at Underwood-Memorial Hospital in Woodbury, New Jersey.

Virgil M. Bowles ’51L, of Leesburg, Florida, died on Sept. 7, 2020. He belonged to Kappa Sigma.

Barton MacDonald ’51, of Ballwin, Missouri, died on July 3, 2020.

He belonged to Phi Kappa Psi.

Dr. Frederick George ’51, of West Deptford, New Jersey, died on Sept. 23, 2020. He was a staff orthopaedic surgeon for the Navy and a member, past president and chief

36 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

Barry T. Newbery ’51, of Asheville, North Carolina, died on Jan. 3. He belonged to Phi Kappa Psi.

Walter E. Smith ’51, of Atlanta, died on Aug. 5, 2020. He was a retired priest of the Episcopal Church, licensed marriage and family therapist, and fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association. He was father to Howard Smith ’83 and belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Dr. Clovis M. Snyder ’51, of Hagerstown, Maryland, died on Oct. 1, 2020. He served in the Army medical corps. He was an allergist in the Hagerstown community. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.

Henry B. Stern ’51, of Fairmont, West Virginia, died on Dec. 13, 2020. He served in the Army. He founded and operated The Outlet for Arts and Crafts in Fairmont.

Henry J. Waters III ’51, of Jefferson City, Missouri, died on Aug. 20, 2020.

He had a long life of civil engagement, philanthropy and entrepreneurship. He was father to Andy Waters ’91 and belonged to Beta Theta Pi.

Roger J. Perry ’52, ’54L, of Charles Town, West Virginia, died on Dec. 4, 2020. He served in the Army Judge Advocate Corps and practiced law for 35 years. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.

John G. Sharp Jr. ’52, of Owensboro, Kentucky, died on Sept. 6, 2020.

He served in the Air Force Reserve during the Korean War. He worked for General Dynamics, co-founded Pan Petroleum and co-founded Union County Livestock Inc. He belonged to Phi Delta Theta.

Warren W. Shipman III ’52, of Fort Worth, Texas, died on Nov. 3, 2020. He served for three years as a first lieutenant in the Judge Advocate General Corps and later became counsel at Cantey Hanger.

He belonged to Phi Delta Theta.

William A. Swarts Jr. ’52, of Wayzata, Minnesota, died on Oct. 17, 2020. He served in the Army. He worked for Reynold’s Metals and belonged to Sigma Chi.

Raymond W. Haman ’52L, of Langley, Washington, Talbot W. Trammell died on Oct. 30, 2020. ’52, ’54L, of Boca Raton, He served in the Marine Florida, died on Aug. Corps during World War 19, 2020. He served in II. He practiced law in the Navy. He had a law Seattle, retiring in 1991. practice for more than 50 years in the Miami J. William Key ’52 died area. He belonged to Phi on Dec. 29, 2020. He Delta Theta. served in the Navy. He was president of First Dr. W. Yates Trotter South Bankcorp.

Jr. ’52, of Springfield, Missouri, died on Jan. The Hon. Jackson 17. He was a longtime L. Kiser ’52L, of Springfield physician. He Martinsville, Virginia, died belonged to Kappa Alpha. on Oct. 20, 2020. He served in the Army. He John B. Dixon ’53, of was a senior federal judge Charlotte Harbor, Florida, for the Western District died on Dec. 27, 2020. He of Virginia. served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War. He Vernon J. Kreienbaum Jr. was a financial analyst, ’52, of Roanoke, died on stockbroker and financial Jan. 1, 2019. He belonged advisor. He belonged to to Pi Kappa Phi. Delta Upsilon.

Leon W. Edwards ’53, of Birmingham, Alabama, died on Jan. 16. He served in the Air Force.

He owned a Chevrolet dealership and belonged to Phi Delta Theta.

Thomas M. Madison ’53, of Jacksonville, Florida, died on Nov. 2, 2020.

He served in the Navy.

He retired from Florida Machine and Foundry Co. and FLECO Corp.

He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

The Rev. C. Scott May ’53, of Rogers, Arkansas, died on Sept. 20, 2020.

He was cousin to Frank McGehee Jr. ’74 and belonged to Kappa Alpha.

Daniel E. Popovich ’53, of Roswell, Georgia, died on Dec. 12, 2020. He served in the Navy. He worked for Exxon’s R&D department. He belonged to Delta Tau Delta.

Dick J. Ralph ’53, of Houston, died on Sept. 4, 2020. He served in the Army. He worked in banking and real estate. He belonged to Sigma Nu. Ellis B. Schulist ’53, of Kentfield, California, died on Dec. 24, 2020.

He served in the Army.

He was brother to Dick Schulist ’61 and belonged to Zeta Beta Tau. Barrett C. Shelton Jr. ’53, of Decatur, Alabama, died on July 12, 2020.

He retired as publisher of The Decatur Daily.

He was father to Clint Shelton III ’86.

PHOTO BY PATRICK HINELY ’73

The Hon. H. Evins Hamm ’53, of Huntsville, Alabama, died on Aug. 19, 2020. He served in the Army. He had a private law practice in Huntsville and served as a senior federal administrative law judge. He belonged to Kappa Sigma.

ROGER MUDD ’50, JOURNALIST

Roger Harrison Mudd ’50, an award-winning journalist who endowed the Roger Mudd Center for Ethics at W&L, died March 9, 2021. He was 93.

“During his 50-year career as a journalist in print, radio and television Roger Mudd set the standard for ethical reporting. His legacy lives on at W&L, where his generous gift founded the Roger Mudd Center for Ethics,” said President Will Dudley. “We will always be grateful for Roger’s service to his country and to his alma mater. I will miss his wisdom, grace, and humor, and on behalf of the entire W&L community I extend condolences to his family.”

Mudd arrived at W&L in 1948 as a transfer student, having served in the military. He was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, the student executive committee, the Troubadours and varsity crew. He graduated with a B.A. in history.

After earning his M.A. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1953, Mudd began his career in Richmond, where he was a reporter for The Richmond News Leader and radio station WRNL. He then joined WTOP Radio in Washington, D.C., and covered Congress and Capitol Hill for CBS News from 1961 to 1980. At NBC, Mudd co-anchored “NBC Nightly News” and “Meet the Press,” as well as its news magazines “American Almanac” and “1986.”

From 1987 to 1992, he was an essayist and political correspondent with the “MacNeilLehrer Newshour” on PBS. He taught at Princeton University and Washington and Lee from 1992 to 1996 and was also a primary anchor with The History Channel for more than 10 years.

Over the course of his distinguished career covering the Civil Rights Movement, Congress and political elections, Mudd was the recipient of the Peabody Award, the Joan Shorenstein Barone Award for Distinguished Washington Reporting and five Emmy awards. He authored a memoir, “The Place to Be: Washington, CBS, and the Glory Days of Television News.”

In addition to sharing his experience with W&L students as a visiting professor, Mudd served on the Committee on the 250th Observance from 1997–1999, was a member of the journalism advisory board and was a member of the Mock Convention advisory board. He was inducted into ODK in 1966 and received a doctor of letters degree from W&L in 1976. In 2011, the university bestowed Mudd with its highest honor, the Washington Award, which recognizes distinguished leadership and service to the nation and extraordinary acts of philanthropy in support of Washington and Lee and other institutions.

His name was added to the Benefactor’s Wall in 2011.

In 2006, Mudd and his late wife, E.J., donated their collection of 20th-century Southern literature first-editions to W&L. In 2010, the couple donated Mudd’s papers, which document his successful career and contain extensive records of his connections with the university. Later that year, Mudd gave $4 million to W&L to establish the Roger Mudd Center for Ethics, which leads curricular efforts to enhance and expand the study of ethics. The center serves as a national resource for the study of ethics in contemporary life, and an endowed Roger Mudd Professorship in Ethics supports a distinguished senior scholar to direct the center.

He noted: “For 60 years I’ve been waiting for a chance to acknowledge Washington and Lee’s gifts to me. Given the state of ethics in our current culture, this seems a fitting time to endow a center for the study of ethics, and my university is its fitting home.”

He is survived by his children, Daniel Mudd P’20, Jonathan Mudd, Matthew Mudd and Maria Mudd Ruth; 14 grandchildren, including John Mudd ’20; and two great-grandchildren.

MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 37

various jurisdictions throughout Virginia.

He belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.

WILLIAM EMERSON BROCK III ’53, TRUSTEE EMERITUS William “Bill” Emerson Brock III ’53, trustee emeritus of Washington and Lee University, died March 25, 2021. He was 90.

Born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Brock graduated from W&L with a B.S. in commerce. After three years in the Navy, he joined his family’s business, becoming vice president of the Brock Candy Company.

Brock served in the House of Representatives from 1962 to 1970 and was elected to the Senate in 1970. He became chair of the Republican National Committee in 1977 before joining President Ronald Reagan’s administration as a U.S. Trade Representative and U.S. Secretary of Labor. He founded the Quad Forum, a quarterly informal meeting of the trade ministers of Europe, Japan, Canada and the United States, and founded the Rio Group of 17 leading trading nations to facilitate greater coordination between trade and finance ministries.

After leaving government, Brock co-chaired the National Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce and chaired the Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, both focused on education reform. He was also a senior counselor and member of the board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he chaired the International Policy Roundtable.

From 1988 to 1991, Brock served as chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy, an organization he helped found in 1980.

In 1994, he established and served as CEO for The Brock Offices, a consulting firm specializing in international trade and human resource development.

Brock joined W&L’s Board of Trustees in 1991, stepping down in 1993.

His mother created the Brock Family Scholarship in 1986 in honor of Brock and his brother Pat ’54. Brock was a member of his 50th reunion committee and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from W&L in 1974.

He is survived by his wife, Sandra; two brothers, Pat ’54 and Frank; six children and stepchildren, including Bill IV ’81; 17 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Hugh F. Van Deventer III ’53, of Summit, New Jersey, died on Sept. 11, 2020. He served in the Navy. He was an executive at the Celanese Corp. and president emeritus of the Council of Employee Benefits. He was father to William Van Deventer ’85 and belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Albert Schwabe II ’54, of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, died on Dec. 26, 2020. He was president of SchwabeMay clothing store.

He belonged to Zeta Beta Tau. Richard P. Wallis Jr. ’54, of Chardon, Ohio, died on Oct. 19, 2020. He was a purchasing manager in

38 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

the torpedo manufacturing industry. He belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.

Wiley R. Wright Jr. ’54, ’56L, of Lynchburg, died on Oct. 27, 2020. He served in the Army. He practiced complex civil litigation law primarily in northern Virginia and served as a substitute circuit court judge in

Robert Howdershelt ’55, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, died on April 27, 2020. He worked for Farmers and Merchant Bank and Giant Food.

Charles M. Patrick Jr. ’55, of Dallas, died on Dec. 24, 2020. He served in the Coast Guard. He worked in the insurance brokerage industry. He was father to Pat Patrick III ’82 and Michael Patrick ’92; brother-inlaw to John Lancaster ’58; and uncle to Jim Lancaster ’88, Delaney Rolfe ’13, Matney Rolfe ’14L, Charlotte Rolfe ’19 and Gigi Lancaster ’20. He belonged to Beta Theta Pi. Francis O. Schaefer Jr. ’55, of Memphis, Tennessee, died on Nov. 16, 2020. He served in the Army. He was chair and president of Central Woodwork Inc. He was brother to Billy Schaefer ’60, uncle to Pat Schaefer ’88 and cousin to Dave Schaefer ’59. He belonged to Pi Kappa Alpha.

Basil Doerhoefer III ’56, of Floyds Knobs, Indiana, died on Sept. 20, 2020.

He served in the Army Reserve. He worked at Louisville Gas and Electric as a geologist. He belonged to Pi Kappa Phi. James H. Jackson ’56, of Columbia, South Carolina, died on Feb. 6. He served in the Army Reserve.

He worked at the Life of Georgia Insurance Co. in Atlanta. He was brother to Walt Jackson ’50 and belonged to Pi Kappa Alpha.

Forrest L. Moses Jr. ’56, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Palm Springs,

California, died on Jan. 22. He served in the Navy. He was a landscape painter. He belonged to Kappa Sigma.

John T. Evans Jr. ’57, ’59L, of Lynchburg, died on Dec. 12, 2020. He served in the Marine Corps. He retired from Rubatex Corp. He belonged to Sigma Nu. John H. Ferguson Jr. ’57, of Penhook, Virginia, died on Oct. 5, 2020. He founded Ferguson Land and Lumber and Rocky Top Wood Preservers.

He was father to Sarah Ferguson Harris ’97 and uncle to Bill Cooper III ’76. He belonged to Kappa Alpha.

Michael S. Johnson ’57, of Boca Raton, Florida, died on Aug. 24, 2020.

He partnered with his wife in Boxwood House Inc., an antiques, interior and architectural design firm. He belonged to Pi Kappa Alpha.

John D. Marsh ’57, ’59L of Hillsboro, Virginia, died on Feb. 1. He served in the Air Force. He was a financial consultant with Wheat First Securities and mayor of Purcellville, Virginia, from 1994–2002.

He was father to Dave Marsh ’86. He belonged to Pi Kappa Phi. Barry M. Storick Sr. ’57, ’61L, of Summerville, South Carolina, died on Sept. 13, 2020. He was an attorney in Charlotte, North Carolina.

He belonged to Phi Epsilon Pi. Dr. Robert C. Tolle ’57, of Statesville, North Carolina, died on Oct. 1, 2020. He practiced general dentistry in Tiffin, Ohio; Lansing, Michigan; and Statesville. He belonged to Sigma Nu. John L. Wellford Jr. ’57, of Brookhaven, Georgia,

Herbert C. Caldwell ’58, of Wakefield, Massachusetts, died on Nov. 7, 2020. He served in the Army. He held executive marketing positions at California Products Corp.

H. Raymond DeMott Jr. ’58, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, died on July 1, 2020. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.

E. Worth Higgins Jr. ’58, of Richmond, died on Sept. 7, 2020. He served in the military.

He co-founded Worth Higgins & Associates Inc. He belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.

Rice M. Tilley Jr. ’58, of Fort Worth, Texas, died on Oct. 28, 2020. He served in the Army. He practiced law with Law, Snakard and Gambil and later Haynes and Boone. He belonged to Beta Theta Pi. Charlton M. Wilder ’58, of Parker, Colorado, died on Sept. 9, 2020.

He served in the Army during the Korean War. He belonged to Beta Theta Pi. Irving Ebaugh III ’59, of Port Saint Lucie, Florida, died on Feb. 24, 2020. He belonged to Pi Kappa Phi. Dr. Thomas P. Foley Jr. ’59, of Pittsburgh, died on Jan. 17. He served in the Air Force. He was professor emeritus of pediatric endocrinology at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. He belonged to Sigma Chi.

TED DELANEY ’85, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY EMERITUS Theodore “Ted” Carter DeLaney Jr. ’85, professor of history emeritus and former chair of the Africana Studies Program, died Dec. 18, 2020. He was 77.

“Professor DeLaney’s life and work represent the best of the university’s core values; he was a beacon of moral clarity. During his career at W&L, Ted worked tirelessly to make the school a more welcoming and inclusive environment.

His scholarship provided keen insights into the history of the university and the local community, which illuminated the national conversation around civil rights. He was a mentor to numerous students and faculty, providing them with wise counsel. W&L is a better place because of Ted, and we are immensely grateful to him. Our entire community mourns Ted’s passing, and joins me in sending condolences to his widow, Pat, and the rest of their family,” said President Will Dudley.

DeLaney was born Oct. 18, 1943, in Lexington. He declined a scholarship from the United Negro College Fund that would have enabled him to attend Morehouse College in Atlanta; his mother was worried that he would get caught up in the civil rights movement there.

Instead, after working as a gardener and a waiter and a brief stint as a postulant at a Catholic monastery of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement in upstate New York, DeLaney took a job as a janitor at W&L in 1963 and was quickly promoted to laboratory technician. In 1979, he enrolled in his first class at W&L and became a full-time student four years later.

DeLaney graduated with a B.A. in history, cum laude, in 1985 at the age of 42. He also had 15 undergraduate credits from Virginia Military Institute. He earned his Ph.D. in history from The College of William & Mary in 1995.

After graduating from W&L, he taught American history for three years at the Asheville School in North Carolina, before beginning his graduate studies. While he was working on his dissertation, he taught at W&L from 1991 to 1993, and then at the State University of New York at Geneseo from 1993 to 1995. He returned to W&L as a full-time faculty member in 1995. DeLaney received tenure and was promoted to associate professor in 2001 and to full professor in 2018. He retired in 2020.

During his career at W&L, DeLaney brought his “passion for justice and inclusion to the classroom and to his scholarship,” noted his History Department colleagues in his retirement citation. “He offered essential courses in the histories of the disadvantaged, the dispossessed and the oppressed. Well before it was part of the Strategic Plan, Ted valued both inclusiveness and diversity in his courses.”

DeLaney taught courses on colonial North America, comparative slavery in the Western Hemisphere, African American history, civil rights, and gay and lesbian history. His popular Spring Term class about the civil rights movement took students on the path of the Freedom Riders through the South.

“Ted cared deeply about his students, who came to his office in droves to meet with him,” said David Peterson, professor of history emeritus.

“They were attracted by his empathy and by the model he provided of a public intellectual who was able to make his learning directly relevant to contemporary affairs. He had a marvelous ability to put people at their ease while standing politely but firmly by his principles.”

In 2005, DeLaney co-founded the Africana Studies Program, which he directed from 2005-07 and again from 2012–17. He chaired the History Department from 2007–13, the first Black department head at W&L. He served on over a dozen university committees, including the Working Group on the History of African Americans at W&L and the Commission on Institutional History and Community — for which he also developed a course on the institutional history of W&L that introduced students to archival research in Leyburn Library’s Department of Special Collections.

Read the full obituary at go.wlu.edu/ delaney-obit.

PHOTO BY KEVIN REMINGTON

died on Dec. 13, 2020.

He was father to John Wellford III ’99; fatherin-law to Kelly Benson Wellford ’99; and cousin to Harry Wellford ’46, Scott Wellford ’73, Harry Wellford Jr. ’76, and Buck Wellford ’81L. He belonged to Kappa Alpha.

MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 39

JOSEPH MARTIN RAMSEY JR., PROFESSOR EMERITUS Joseph Ramsey Martin Jr., professor of philosophy emeritus, died on Dec. 4, 2020, at the age of 90.

Martin graduated from the University of Virginia in 1952. He served in the Navy as an aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea, continuing his service as a flight instructor in Pensacola, Florida. Subsequent to active duty, Martin returned to U.Va., where he earned an M.A. in English. He joined the faculty at Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, in 1960.

Martin then joined U.Va. as both assistant dean of admissions and an English professor, and while there earned his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1967. After a year teaching at Transylvania College, Martin joined the faculty at W&L in 1968, retiring in 1996.

The late Harry Pemberton, professor of philosophy, honored Martin at his retirement as a “congenial chairman of the motley bunch known officially as the Philosophy Department.” Martin, he said, “is a man of a memorable personality” who “stirred the students’ minds into philosophical activity.”

Known for his vibrant smile, sense of humor and sharp intellect, Martin enjoyed stimulating conversation and was an enthusiastic debater. One of his greatest joys was aviation; he especially loved flying his friends and family in his planes. Pemberton recalled flying back from Oberlin in thick fog and marveling at Martin’s precise landing on the runway at Weyers Cave.

Martin served as a member of the Piedmont Environmental Council and was on the board of directors for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy. He was a member of the American Philosophical Association, the Virginia Philosophical Association and the Airplane Owners and Pilots Association. Marquis Who’s Who listed Martin as a noteworthy philosophy educator.

In retirement, Martin volunteered for Planned Parenthood, Elk Hill Farm, Book Buddies, Youth Empowerment Services and the U.Va. Cancer Center. He spent many hours at the Miller Center and supported animal rescue organizations.

Martin’s family noted that “he found much delight in his years at W&L, not only in challenging young minds with course content in philosophy, logic and ethics, but also in spending time with his advisees off campus. These students had great fun camping, canoeing and enjoying home-cooked meals with the family.” Many remained lifelong friends.

Thomas P. Foltz Jr. ’59, of Fort Smith, Arkansas, died on Jan. 3. He retired from the insurance business in 2017. He was brother to Harry Foltz ’62, ’65L and stepfather to Grant Purdy ’88. He

belonged to Phi Delta Theta.

Lowe ’21 and belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.

Walter Matthews Jr. ’59, of Florence, Alabama, died on Oct. 6, 2020. He was a businessman. He was grandfather to Julie

R. C. Gunnar Miller ’59L, of Jacksonville, Florida, died on Dec. 1, 2020. He had a private law practice. He belonged to Pi Kappa Alpha.

40 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

Edgar B. Myrtle ’59, of Athens, Georgia, died on Oct. 2, 2020. He served in the Army during the Korean War. He retired from DuPont and ran an antique business.

He belonged to Pi Kappa Alpha.

Dr. Louis C. Rehlen ’59, of Laguna Beach, California, died on Aug. 26, 2019. He was founding partner of his dermatology group. He belonged to Sigma Chi.

1960s George E. Anthou ’60L, of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, died on Dec. 2, 2020. He served in the Army. He was an attorney and father to Greg Anthou ’96.

Robert L. Hylton ’60, of Virginia Beach, died on Jan. 25. He belonged to Phi Kappa Sigma.

A. Eugene O’Dell Jr. ’60, of Ormond Beach, Florida, died on Dec. 28, 2020. He was a district manager with the Social Security Administration.

He belonged to Phi Kappa Psi. Karl E. Rohnke ’60, of Galena, Illinois, died on Sept. 20, 2020.

He belonged to Pi Kappa Alpha.

J. Walter Weingart ’60, of Walla Walla, Washington, died on Jan. 6. He was professor emeritus of history at Whitman College. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.

Robert T. Hollohan ’62, of Arlington, Virginia, died on Oct. 21, 2020.

He belonged to Delta Tau Delta.

Albert L. Pierce Jr. ’62, of Dallas, died on Dec. 30, 2020. He was a pilot with Delta Airlines. He belonged to Sigma Chi.

Stanley A. Walton III ’62, ’65L, of Chicago, died on Oct. 28, 2020. He was a partner at Winston & Strawn and then Seyfarth Shaw. He belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.

William E. Brown Sr. ’63, of Waleska, Georgia, died on Jan. 1. He served in the Army during the Vietnam War. He was a life insurance representative. He belonged to Kappa Sigma.

George T. Coward ’63, of Fort Meade, Florida, died on Dec. 11, 2020. He was an attorney. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.

William S. Gibson ’63, of Wheeling, West Virginia, died on June 15, 2020. He served in the Army. Before retiring he was a partner in PG Energy Services.

Charles F. Gummey Jr. ’63, of Mendenhall, Pennsylvania, died on Dec. 23, 2020. He worked at Wilmington Trust Company, retiring as vice president and managing director in the trust department.

He belonged to Delta Tau Delta.

Ian R. MacKenzie ’63, of New York City, died on Sept. 8, 2020. He co-founded American and Overseas Asset Services, renamed Intermarket. He belonged to Sigma Chi. Samuel D. Tankard III ’63, of Virginia Beach, died on Feb. 20. He worked for Norfolk Botanical Gardens.

He belonged to Phi Kappa Sigma.

Dr. Arthur E. Broadus ’64, of New Haven, Connecticut, died on Oct. 22, 2020. He was a scientific leader at Yale, with special expertise in hormonal disorders of mineral metabolism who discovered the PTHrP hormone. He belonged to Kappa Alpha.

F. William Burke ’64, ’67L, of Naples, Florida, died on Oct. 1, 2020. He was

a lawyer, professor and banker. He was father to Taylor Burke ’95 and belonged to Beta Theta Pi. Dr. Robert H. Carlson III ’64, of Mountain Brook, Alabama, died on Dec. 19, 2020. He practiced emergency medicine and started one of the first urgent care practices in

Alabama. He belonged to Phi Delta Theta.

Dr. Thomas C. Lewis ’64, of Nashville, Tennessee, died on Jan. 23, 2021. He served in the Army. He was an assistant professor emeritus of anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He was brother to John Lewis ’66 and

KENNETH E. VAN NESS, PROFESSOR EMERITUS

Kenneth E. Van Ness, the Robert Lee Telford Professor of Physics and Engineering Emeritus, died Nov. 24, 2020. He was 75.

Van Ness graduated from Bucknell University with a B.S. in physics and earned his Ph.D. in mechanics and materials science from Rutgers University. He joined W&L in 1986 and retired in 2011.

“Ken Van Ness was without a doubt the top scientist at W&L for 25 years,” said Ken Lambert, professor of computer science. “Equally at home with equations, the electron microscope and the extruder for the polymers he was designing, developing and testing, he made his mark both as a world-class researcher on the recycling of plastics and as a teacher of and advisor to the many students who worked with him on engineering projects.”

Van Ness taught mechanics, thermodynamics, solid mechanics, physical metallurgy and polymer science. “Students gravitated toward Ken

Charlie Lewis ’68, ’71L. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.

Henry M. Sackett III ’64, of Lynchburg, died on Dec. 18, 2020. He was an attorney with Edmunds and Williams. He was father to Henry Sackett IV ’88, Matthew Sackett ’90 and Christopher Sackett ’93; father-in-law to Drewry

Sackett ’93; and grandfather to Matthew Sackett Jr. ’18. He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Kirk A. Griffin ’65, of Vestavia, Alabama, died on Jan. 12. He served in the Army. He was a financial analyst in the U.S. Department of Defense.

He belonged to Sigma Phi Epsilon.

as they quickly learned that his apparent tough exterior was a thin layer over a caring individual,” said Joel Kuehner, professor of physics and engineering.

“Whether you were struggling to grasp a difficult concept or your car was making an unsettling noise, Ken always seemed to be around with the right amount of wisdom and advice, often wrapped inside subtle hints rather than direct statements. He inherently understood that knowledge was better discovered by the person seeking it rather than handed out by someone else.”

Known for his creative, rigorous lectures, Van Ness is also remembered by his colleagues as a professor who seamlessly integrated teaching and research. “Whenever you saw him, he had on his magnifying glasses; you never knew if he was coming from the lab or going to class, and there wasn’t much difference between the two,” noted David Sukow, Robert Lee Telford Professor of Physics and Engineering. “He cultivated research collaborations, turned out generations of well-trained engineers and showed us all how to mentor our students through scholarship.”

Van Ness’ research interests focused on polymer blends composed of both refined and unrefined recycled plastic wastes which had applications in construction materials. In 2002, he and his research colleagues at Rutgers and Princeton received a $2.35 million seed grant from the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology to study immiscible polymer blends. Earlier in his career, Van Ness received grants

D. Byrd Gwinn II ’65, of Pinehurst, North Carolina, died on Feb. 4. He served in the Army. He was an executive in the property casualty insurance business. He was brotherin-law to Jay Fox Jr. ’57 and uncle to John Fox III ’81, Ted Fox ’90, Andrew Fox ’92 and Anne Fox ’20.

He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

from the National Science Foundation, the Center for Innovative Technology and the Plastics Recycling Foundation at Rutgers to study the mechanical strength and structural integrity of recycled plastics.

“Ken created an internationally known research program in the development and use of recycled plastics,” said Ron Reese, professor of physics emeritus.

“This program drew students to us like a magnet, and many went on to successful careers in materials research thanks to the mentoring and research skills they learned under him. Despite much skepticism within the materials community, he and his collaborators at Rutgers University developed structural plastics strong enough to build tank-carrying plastic bridges for the military and railroad ties suitable for transit systems.”

Prior to joining W&L, Van Ness was a blacksmith and was admired for being able to repair anything from fences to small engines. “His hands and fingers were impressively large and strong yet simultaneously as delicate as those of a concert pianist as he measured the material properties of his many plastic samples,” said Reese. “He was a wonderful colleague who broke many a stereotype at W&L with his flowing hair, beard and casual attire that belied his intelligence, professorial rank and expertise. His reputation and legacy here at W&L will endure as long and as well as the plastic materials he developed — for the ages.”

Read the full obituary at go.wlu.edu/ vanness-obit.

MAGAZINE.WLU.EDU 41

Philip H. Shafer ’65L, of Mansfield, Ohio, died on Nov. 8, 2020. He served in the Navy. He was an attorney in Ashland, Ohio. He belonged to Phi Delta Theta.

Robert S. Schaeffer ’66, of Southampton, New York, died on Nov. 17, 2020.

He served in the Army.

He worked in the travel industry. He belonged to Pi Kappa Phi. H. Platt Staunton ’66, of Charlottesville, died on Jan. 27. He was founder of Platt Staunton Associates.

He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Douglas M. Dobson ’67, of Acworth, Georgia, died on Nov. 2, 2020. He served in the Air Force.

William H. Lowry ’67, of Logan, Utah, died on Aug. 19, 2020. He belonged to Sigma Phi Epsilon.

Warren E. Stewart ’67, of Denver, died on Feb. 2. He was an advertising executive and founder of Ed Yardang and Associates.

He belonged to Delta Tau Delta.

The Hon. Ronald H. Marks ’68L, of Virginia Beach, died on Oct. 1, 2020. He co-founded White & Marks and served as chief judge to the Virginia Beach Juvenile & Domestic Relations District Court.

He was father to Jeff Marks ’87 and belonged to Pi Kappa Phi. Robert L. Payne III ’68, of Norfolk, Virginia, died on Nov. 15, 2020.

He taught at Norfolk Collegiate Upper School.

This issue contains notices about deaths that we received before our deadline, which is about three months before an issue lands in your mailbox.

Questions?

Please email us at magazine@wlu.edu.

He belonged to Delta Tau Delta.

The Hon. Andrew Wierengo III ’68L, of Muskegon, Michigan, died on Dec. 30, 2020. He served in the Army. He practiced law and served as a judge in the 60th District Court.

William S. Foster IV ’69, of Levittown, Pennsylvania, died on Aug. 22, 2020. He worked for Barnes Group.

He belonged to Phi Epsilon Pi. Bruce C. Leckie ’69L, of Charleston, West Virginia, died on Jan. 3. He was a retired trust officer.

He was uncle to Shawn Copeland ’90, ’95L. Thomas M. Newman ’69, of Tampa, Florida, died on Jan. 29. He was managing partner of Neurological Specialties. He belonged to Phi Epsilon Pi.

1970s David K. Higgins ’70, ’75L, of Charleston, West Virginia, died on Feb. 13, 2021. He served in the Army. He co-founded of Robinson & McElwee. He was cousin to Kemble White III ’66, ’69L and Kemble White IV ’94.

He belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.

Ralph E. Deitrich ’71, of Louisville, Kentucky, died on Aug. 28, 2020. He was a restaurateur and consultant. He belonged to Beta Theta Pi. Capt. David J. Kantor ’71L, of Chantilly, Virginia, died on Sept. 22, 2019.

He served in the Army.

He was a legal officer in the Coast Guard.

Beverly C. Read ’71L, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, died on Sept. 10, 2020.

He served in the Army during the Vietnam War. He was a former

42 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

Rockbridge County and Lexington commonwealth attorney.

Michael J. Kuhling ’72, died on Sept. 12, 2020.

He had career in dance and theater. He earned a graduate degree in architecture and worked at the Michael Graves architectural firm. He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

The Hon. James E. Patterson ’73L, of Ellsworth, Maine, died on Jan. 16. He served in the Navy. He practiced law for over 40 years.

David E. Torrance ’73, of New Brunswick, Canada, died on Nov. 8, 2020.

He was a professor and scholar in the history department of Mount Allison University.

M. Pierce Rucker II ’75L, of Glen Allen, Virginia, died on Feb. 13.

He was a trial lawyer with Sands Anderson in Richmond. He was cousin to Lewis Powell III ’74, Hannah Powell ’18 and Luke Powell IV ’20.

He belonged to Beta Theta Pi. Caroline Watts ’75L, of Madison, Virginia, died on Nov. 8, 2020. She practiced law at Watts and Watts in Madison. She served as commonwealth attorney of Madison County from 1984–1995 and Madison County Clerk of the Circuit Court from 1995–2009.

Dr. Ferdinand Richards III ’76, of Tampa, Florida, died on Sept. 21, 2020.

He practiced emergency medicine at Tampa General Hospital. He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

John F. Shettle Jr. ’76, of Oxford, Maryland, died on Sept. 15, 2020. He worked in the insurance industry. He was cousin to Stewart Shettle

’84 and belonged to Beta Theta Pi. Dr. Richard F. Rathbone ’77, of Clinton, Louisiana, died on Sept. 10, 2020.

He had a medical practice in Clinton. He belonged to Sigma Chi.

Rupert F. Chisholm III ’91, of New Canaan, Connecticut, died on Jan. 5. He worked at Moody’s Investors Service, Lehman Brothers and One William Street Capital. He belonged to Phi Kappa Psi.

Michael S. Brown ’79, of Lexington, Kentucky, died on Oct. 29, 2020. He was a bloodstock consultant and publisher of Racing Update and Fax Trax.

Daryl L. Rice ’98L, of Fairfax, Virginia, died on Feb. 8. He was an attorney with Sidley Austin in the firm’s energy practice.

Michael D. Maddocks ’79, of Williamsburg, Virginia, died on Jan. 6. He served in the Navy. He worked in banking. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.

Charlotte Graham Gingerelli ’99, of Raphine, Virginia, died on Aug. 30, 2020. She worked with the Santa Fe Opera Company and The Virginia Gazette as education editor. She was the music teacher for A.R. Ware Elementary School, Bessie Weller Elementary School and Dixon preschool for 15 years. She was married to Marc Gingerelli ’98.

1980s Dana J. Bolton ’86L, of Charlotte, Vermont, and Montclair, New Jersey, died on May 16, 2020. He was a corporate lawyer in New York City.

Peggy K. Engle ’86L, of Dallas, died on Sept. 19, 2020. She was a managing attorney at North Penn Legal Services.

William R. Harbison ’87, ’90L, of Columbia, South Carolina, died on Jan. 24.

He was a partner with Gallivan, White and Boyd.

He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Paul A. Morrison ’87L, of Warrenton, Virginia, died on Nov. 3, 2020. He was founding and managing partner at Morrison, Ross and Whelan Attorneys at Law.

1990s Jacqueline Loughman Powell ’90L, of Unionville, Pennsylvania, died on Oct. 26, 2020.

She retired from the practice of law to pursue her artistic passions and do volunteer work in her community.

2000s Sarah B. Moughamian ’13, of Idaho City, Idaho, died on Feb. 6. She worked at a market research firm in Utah.

Perry M. O’Connor ’17, of Denver, Colorado, died on Dec. 25, 2020.

She belonged to Alpha Delta Pi. FRIENDS Paul Ellis Henderson Sr., of Lexington, died Feb. 15. He was 70. A native of Rockbridge County, Henderson joined W&L’s Facilities Management Department as a custodian in 1986, retiring in 2011.

Melvin Kenneth Davis, retired public safety officer, died Feb. 17. He was 82. Davis, who was born in Lexington, joined W&L in 1992 and retired in 2008.

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CHRONICLES

PHOTO BY PATRICK HINELY ’73

Roger Mudd ’50 with his 1995 Spring Term class.

TUESDAYS (& THURSDAYS) WITH ROGER

BY LOUISE UFFELMAN

I

n the spring of 1995, 18 students enrolled in Journalism 295, taught by the distinguished journalist Roger Mudd ’50, who died March 9.

Titled The Washington News Media with Roger Mudd, the six-week seminar examined how print and electronic media covered politics and government in Washington, D.C., and deliberated on whether the Washington press corps was providing its audiences with the reporting they required to be informed citizens.

“This will not be a How-tobe-a-Journalist course,” noted Mudd’s description of the seminar. Journalism majors and nonmajors alike were invited to apply with a one-page letter explaining why they wanted to take the course.

44 THE WASHINGTON AND LEE MAGAZINE

Assignments included a daily reading of The Washington Post, The New York Times and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, as well as watching two evening network broadcasts. “This being a class about journalism, deadlines will be adhered to,” read the syllabus. “From time to time, I may ask you to write against the clock.” Students were alerted to the possibility of occasional pop quizzes.

Meeting twice a week for three hours, students discussed the power of talk radio, the privilege of being a member of the White House press corps, political privacy, dealing with Congressional contempt of the press and the pitfalls of schmoozing with sources. Guest speakers included Brian Lamb, president and co-founder of C-SPAN; Diane Rehm, an NPR talk show host; Bob Schieffer, host of CBS’

“Face the Nation”; and Charles McDowell ’48, a columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

“Roger Mudd’s Spring Term class was the only class in four years that I never missed,” said Brian McClung ’95, co-CEO of Park Street Public. “As you would expect, he was an amazing teacher who knew how to tell a riveting story and how to get the best out of his students.”

Twenty-six years later, McClung thinks about that experience regularly. “Roger’s thoughtful and ethical approach to journalism and life are something we should all reflect on. I am so grateful that he was a W&L alum and that I had an opportunity to learn from him.”

Read Roger Mudd’s obituary on p. 37.

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SCENE OFF CAMPUS

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1. Nick St. Pierre ‘21 in W&L’s 4-1 win over Bridgewater College.

2. Wild crocuses bloom in front of Tucker Hall.

3. Kevin Finch, associate professor of journalism, teaches in Wilson Concert Hall.

4. Emily King of Alumni Engagement made cookies for “Coffee and Cookies with the President and Provost.”

5. The sun sets behind the Lenfest Center for the Arts.

6. Todd McDonald ’17 proposed to Laura Waggener ’17 on the Colonnade. She said yes!