KAYLEE HARTUNG ’07 covers stories from every angle — and shares her career playbook.
MUSIC MAN
After a speaker issue botched the playing of the national anthem at a W&L field hockey match, Athletics Communications student employee Duncan Hart ’24 swiftly volunteered to play the anthem for the crowd on his violin instead. The mathematics and music double major struck a chord with attendees, and he began playing the national anthem at every field hockey home game, as well as home games for 13 other teams. With a 4.0 GPA, Hart was named one of 10 valedictorians for the Class of 2024. Now that’s ending your college career on a high note.
Read more about Hart's time at W&L at go.wlu.edu/Duncan-Hart
FEATURES 10
Top of Their Game
Meet 14 W&L alumni who are heavy hitters in various aspects of the sports industry:
Pete Abitante ’78
Max Adler ’04
Austin Brown ’13L
Matt Dodson ’20
Will Dorrance ’11
Dr. Wiemi Douoguih ’92
John Embree ’75
Drew Fleming ’05
Taylor Garcia ’22
Kaylee Hartung ’07
Sarah Otey ’07
Mike Stachura ’86
Brett Strohsacker ’06
Nigel Wheeler ’15L
DEPARTMENTS
3 Columns
34 Office Hours Faculty Athletic Mentors Robert Humston and Megan Fulcher
36 Lives of Consequence Matt Simpson ’12 goes for the gold at the 2024 Paralympics
38 Alumni 2023 Athletics Hall of Fame inductees, p. 39 Class Notes, p. 40 Obituaries, p. 46 Commencement, p. 53
56 Chronicles This page: Duncan Hart ’24 at North Mountain, Virginia Photo by Kevin Remington
On the cover: Amazon Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung ’07 interviews Los Angeles Rams starting running back Kyren Williams after a win against the New Orleans Saints in December 2023 (Photo courtesy Amazon Prime Video)
SPEAK
MEET THE EDITORS
W&L Magazine’s two new stewards are excited to helm the publication and bring you all the latest news and stories about the W&L community. Editor Jessica Luck, left, has worked in higher education communications and marketing for six years, and in a previous life she was a reporter and editor at weekly newspapers in Virginia and Florida. She’s excited to continue learning about the W&L community and welcomes any stories, tips, memories, thoughts and constructive feedback sent to magazine@wlu.edu.
Assistant Editor Laura Lemon is a 2016 graduate of W&L who double majored in art history and communications. She is a third-generation General, and all generations have traveled together on four Lifelong Learning trips. She was a member of the equestrian team at W&L and still rides competitively. Before joining the W&L magazine staff, she worked for six years as a reporter at The Chronicle of the Horse.
WILLIAM GRAHAM REMEMBERED
I enjoyed Emily Innes’ article (Fall 2023), which celebrates Byron Faidley’s discovery of a copy of James Madison’s “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments.” Madison’s manifesto, opposing the funding of churches by tax assessments, played a key role in Virginia’s tumultuous battle for religious liberty. Importantly, Emily recognizes that Madison didn’t act alone. Zachariah Johnston also advocated for religious freedom. Because he attended Liberty Hall Academy and later was a trustee of Washington Academy, Johnston demonstrates W&L’s “long history of civic and political engagement.”
W&L can take pride in another forebear who advocated religious liberty — William Graham, the first (and 20-year) rector of Liberty Hall Academy. Graham and Johnston were both ardent Presbyterians. Their shared faith is significant due to an often-overlooked aspect of the fight for religious freedom:
Virginia’s rejection of assessment resulted from an alliance between rationalists, such as Madison, and several Christian denominations. It was the latter, primarily Baptists and Presbyterians, who overwhelmed the General Assembly with petitions. They “played the crucial role” in defeating assessment. Graham principally authored the Presbyterians’ August 1785 petition, which opposed the general assessment bill. Graham argued that Christianity could best undergird democratic government — via inculcating moral principles — “when left to its native excellence and evidence to recommend it … and free from the intrusive hand of the civil magistrate.”
William Lee Miller writes that religious freedom “stands very near the moral core of [our] nation.” Madison and Johnston deserve praise for this American treasure. So does Graham.
—SAM CALHOUN, Robert O. Bentley Professor of Law Emeritus at W&L Law
EXTRA, EXTRA
For additional content, be sure to visit go.wlu.edu/summer-magazine-2024 to read more stories about alumni taking big swings in sports (plus longer versions of this issue’s features).
A Magazine for Alumni and Friends of Washington and Lee University
Volume 100, Number 3
Summer 2024
Jessica Luck Editor
Laura Lemon ’16 Assistant Editor
Jamie Lipps Director of Design
Billy Chase Kolton Cannon Designers
Shelby Hamelman
Kevin Remington University Photographers
Sara Butler
Barbara Elliott
Shea Gibbs
Kelsey Goodwin
Emily Innes
Jeff Hanna
Brian Laubscher
Lisa Provence
Susan Sorensen Contributors
Jessica Willett ’95 Vice President of Communications and Strategic Initiatives
Drewry Sackett ’93 Executive Director of Communications and Public Affairs
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
Susan Wood Vice President for University Advancement
NFL sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung ’07 and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman (father of Jordan Aikman ’24) spoke on a March 15 panel in the University Chapel with
professor of journalism Toni Locy, McKenzie Kane ’25 and Jack Hunter ’24. Since retiring as quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys (a career that includes three Super Bowl rings, an MVP distinction and six Pro Bowl
selections), Aikman served as the NFL color commentator on Fox for 20 years, before joining ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcast team in 2022.
Learn why it’s “all about the people ” for Hartung on p. 10
Troy Aikman P’24 (front row, sixth from right) met the W&L football team during his visit to campus.
NEW VICE PRESIDENTS
Susan Wood is the new vice president for university advancement, and Alexander “Alex” R. Miller is the new vice president of student affairs and dean of students. Miller comes from Denison University where he was vice president of student life, and Wood formerly was the executive director of university development at W&L.
3. NEW TRUSTEE
W&L welcomes Jack Sharman ’83, P’20, P’22 to the Board of Trustees. Sharman, of Birmingham, Alabama, is a partner at Lightfoot, Franklin & White. He graduated from W&L with a B.A. in politics and French. He went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts from Washington University in St. Louis and a graduate degree in European studies from the University of Geneva in Switzerland in 1986. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1989.
5UPDATES CONSTRUCTION
The Marketplace dining facility expansion in the John W. Elrod Commons is on track to be completed in August 2024. Most of the structural steel has been installed for the new Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics, which will open in August 2025. The new Lindley Center for Student Wellness has broken ground, and Wilson Field is receiving upgrades to the synthetic turf field and track surfaces ahead of competition this academic year.
A CELEBRATION OF PHILANTHROPY
W&L posthumously awarded its highest honor, the Washington Award, to Letitia Pate Whitehead Evans on May 17. The Washington Award recognizes extraordinary acts of philanthropy in support of W&L and other institutions and distinguished leadership and service to the nation. Cumulative distributions from Evans’ estate bequest make her the most generous benefactor in the university’s history.
FACULTY PUBLICATIONS
Nneka Dennie , assistant professor of history, published “Mary Ann Shadd Cary: Essential Writings of a Nineteenth-Century Black Radical Feminist” (Oxford University Press). Dennie’s book is a compilation of writings by and about Mary Ann Shadd Cary, the 19th-century Black radical feminist, abolitionist and suffragist who was one of the first Black women newspaper editors in North America.
Krzysztof Jasiewicz , William P. Ames Jr. Professor of Sociology, published “Roads to and from Democracy: Studies in Polish Politics, 1980-2020.” The volume is a collection of papers written over the course of 40 years that examine political attitudes, political behavior and the institutional framework for a transition to democracy in Jasiewicz’s native Poland.
Mohamed Kamara , professor of French and chair of the Romance Languages Department, published “Colonial Legacies in Francophone African Literature: The School and the Invention of the Bourgeoisie.” The book analyzes the representation and lasting impact of the colonial school and bourgeoisie in Francophone sub-Saharan literature.
IN THE NEWS
Taking the Helm
Wangdali C. ‘Wali’ Bacdayan ’92 sworn in as rector of Washington and Lee University.
a private investor and entrepreneur and a current trustee of Washington and Lee University, Wangdali C. “Wali” Bacdayan ’92 was sworn in as the university’s 32nd rector on Feb. 10. The board unanimously elected him to this role at its meeting in October 2023, and he presided over his first board meeting in May 2024.
“I am honored and humbled to be selected for this role,” says Bacdayan. “I look forward to working with the entire W&L community to serve our students by providing an environment where our young people can explore and prepare for the pursuit of their highest ambitions.”
A 1992 graduate of W&L, Bacdayan has been a member of W&L’s Board of Trustees since 2019. While a student
at W&L, he was a dorm counselor, co-chairman of the Student Recruitment Committee and a member of the football and track & field teams and Sigma Chi fraternity. He received a B.A., summa cum laude, in economics and mathematics and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa.
As an alumnus, Bacdayan has served as co-chairman of his fifth and 25th class reunion committees, president of the Pittsburgh alumni chapter, an Alumni Admissions Program chair and a class agent. He received the university’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2017. Bacdayan earned an M.B.A. from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in June 1997. In
addition to being a private investor and entrepreneur, he also serves as a venture partner for Delta-v Capital, a technology-focused growth capital fund, and is the principal investor and co-founder of Millie’s Homemade and Southern Steer Butcher. Previously, he was the co-founding partner of Incline Equity Partners, a partner at PNC Equity Partners and a financial analyst in the mergers and acquisitions group of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.
Bacdayan serves as a board director of The Aaron’s Company and is an investor and board director of several privately held companies, including Diamond Kinetics, Envirovac Holdings LLC and FrontSteps Community. He is actively involved in philanthropic organizations and has served as a board member of several nonprofit organizations in the Pittsburgh area and his hometown of Natchitoches, Louisiana. Bacdayan and his wife, Dr. Wendy Neel Bacdayan ’94, have three sons, Ben, William and Charlie.
bacdayan succeeded Michael R. McAlevey ’86, who served on W&L’s Board of Trustees from 2013 to 2024 and as rector from 2020 to 2024. As rector, McAlevey led the university
through a global pandemic and an examination of its name and symbols. During his four-year tenure, the university raised more than $168M toward strategic priorities and campus improvements, including the DeLaney Center, universal Leading Edge programs for first-year students, the Houston H. Harte Center for Teaching and Learning, the Richard L. Duchossois Athletic and Recreation Center, the renovation of Elrod Commons and new facilities for the Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics and the Lindley Center for Student Wellness.
ALL ABOUT WALI
* sports edition
FAVORITE TO WATCH College football
FAVORITE TEAM
The Generals, of course! Next favorite, LSU Tigers.
FAVORITE TO PLAY Golf
NEXT SPORTS GOAL
The Bandon Solstice — playing the four courses of Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Bandon Trails and Old MacDonald in a single day.
Rector Wali Bacdayan ’92 received the university’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2017.
DISTINCTIVELY W&L
THE SPORTING LIFE
BY WILL DUDLEY, PRESIDENT
,,I love the fact that W&L is an attractive destination for high-achieving students who want to pursue both academic and athletic excellence.”
ONE OF THE BEST parts of my job is watching Washington and Lee sports. Swimming and water polo were central to my own college experience, and I have often taught a philosophy course on the significance of sports in human life. I love the fact that W&L is an attractive destination for high-achieving students who want to pursue both academic and athletic excellence.
One-third of our students compete on our 24 varsity teams. Hundreds more participate on 20 club teams. Still more join intramural leagues. Friday afternoon
football is a signature law school experience. And all undergraduates complete four physical education courses. Athletic activity is a part of life for everyone at Washington and Lee.
The varsity athletes who represent W&L enjoy a lot of success. We regularly finish top 20 in the nation for NCAA championship results across all sports. This year alone, 18 of Washington and Lee’s 24 teams were represented in the NCAA postseason. For the first time in school history, four W&L squads made it to the NCAA quarterfinals in the same year.
Men’s soccer and lacrosse advanced to the Final Four, while women’s basketball and lacrosse reached the Elite Eight. Our athletes also represent Washington and Lee with pride and with class. Pulling on the Generals uniform, and feeling the support from fellow students, parents and alumni, is a special experience. Given the centrality of athletics to our campus culture, it should be no surprise that many of our alumni have pursued careers related to sports. Millions of Americans play sports, and millions more root for the teams that
represent and unify their schools, their cities and their country. All of this athletic activity generates professional opportunities, which our alumni have seized with gusto. W&L is well-represented in every area of the sports industry, including journalism, management, finance, communications, data analytics, medicine and law. In this issue of the magazine, we feature just some of the many alumni who are involved in the business of sports. I hope you enjoy reading their stories as much as I enjoy watching the Generals play.
IN THE LEAD
Scoring the Internship
Hanna Bishop ’24 and Rob DiSibio ’24 both worked for the NBA in summer 2023.
Rob DiSibio ’24 and Hanna Bishop ’24 were the 2024 recipients of the Preston R. “Pres” Brown Outstanding Senior award from the Athletics Department. As a forward on the men’s basketball team, DiSibio secured 1,708 points during his collegiate career — fifth in program history — with his 190 made 3-point shots as the second most. Bishop, an attacker for the women’s lacrosse team, earned 218 goals and 295 points during her four years (record-holder in both) and is the only player in Washington and Lee lacrosse history to tally more than 200 goals. Their storylines had intertwined previously, when, the summer before their senior years, both interned for the NBA. DiSibio worked in the
front office for the Milwaukee Bucks, coordinating logistics for the pre-draft process and inputting scouting reports.
“My biggest takeaway from the internship was the level of detail that’s involved in building an NBA roster,” he says. “There are so many moving parts that you aren’t aware of until you see them firsthand.”
DiSibio majored in cognitive and behavioral science, which he credits with helping him on and off the court.
“I gravitated toward psychology because I realized how important mindset is, not just in basketball but in all aspects of life,” he says. “Studying human behavior has helped me become a better communicator and leader, which are skills that are imperative to success.”
INNER DRIVE: TAYLOR GIBSON ’06 ON BRYAN SNYDER ’95
Bryan Snyder’s pride in Washington and Lee University is matched only by his desire to help make it better. A graduate of the Class of 1995 who is currently entering his 25th season as the head volleyball coach, not a day goes by that Bryan (henceforth to be referred to as “Coach”) isn’t making an impact. Whether it’s the players he’s coached, the students in his PE classes, coaches and student-athletes from other teams, we know him for what he is: a cornerstone of the Athletics Department. Read his biography and you’ll see a laundry list of
achievements and milestones. The Hall of Famers he’s coached hold records that may never be broken. His W&L career has seen two athletic directors and four university presidents, yet he’s never gone more than three seasons without his players hoisting the ODAC championship trophy. Twenty-four seasons and 15 ODAC titles — just let that sink in. Every player he’s coached for four years has left campus a champion at least once. That in itself is a legacy that few can rival, but he is so much more than W’s and L’s on a scoresheet.
Coach would likely attribute his success on the court to one main thing: consistency. His discipline is otherworldly — and occasionally infuriating, as it’s nearly impossible to emulate. But as someone who has known him not just as my coach but also as a boss, mentor and now close friend, I have come to understand that both his life and coaching philosophies derive from the same foundational principle: Time is precious. How you spend it and the choices you make are how you show respect and commitment. It is his drive to be the best
Bishop worked for the NBA’s New York City-based social responsibility team, which focuses on philanthropic efforts and community relations initiatives.
“My responsibilities varied from day to day, but a significant portion of my time was spent on event planning for the WNBA All-Star Game and the NBA draft,” she says. “I also coordinated and supported an intern volunteer project with Parks for Partnerships and two State Farm partnership charity events.”
The internship solidified Bishop’s goal of pursuing a career in the sports industry, specifically partner relations and marketing.
“As a student-athlete, I learned invaluable lessons in time management, teamwork, resilience and leadership,” she says.
coach, father, husband and leader that has taught so many how to find that drive in themselves — and that is where being good turns into being great. That’s what makes him our “Coach” and a classic in his own right.
Taylor Gibson ’06 spent six seasons as W&L’s assistant volleyball coach and now serves as a volunteer assistant. Bryan Snyder ’95 , volleyball head coach and associate director of athletics for finance, has earned an impressive 11 ODAC Coach of the Year awards.
SALUTE
The volleyball court is home for both head coach Bryan Snyder ’95 and volunteer assistant Taylor Gibson ’06.
DUBYUHNELL DAY
RECORD YEAR
71.4% Historic run OVERALL WINNING PERCENTAGE AMONG ALL W&L TEAMS
8 ODAC team championships
Volleyball, women’s basketball, men’s and women’s swimming, women’s golf, women’s lacrosse and men’s and women’s tennis
8 ODAC Player of the Year awards
Weyimi Agbeyegbe ’25
Offensive Player of the Year, men’s soccer
Hanna Bishop ’24
Offensive Player of the Year, women’s lacrosse
Evan Erb ’25 Player of the Year, men’s tennis
Lauren Long ’26 Player of the Year, women’s tennis
Brynn Martinson ’24
Swimmer of the Meet, women’s swimming
Eugenie Rovegno ’24
Defensive Player of the Year, women’s lacrosse
Mary Schleusner ’26 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, women’s basketball
5 ODAC Rookies of the Year
Anthony Crawford ’27 football
Katie Crawford ’27
women’s swimming
Jackson Kodenski ’27
men’s cross country
Jonathan McEwen ’27
men’s golf
Tyler Spano ’27
men’s lacrosse
71 FIRSTTEAM ALL-ODAC HONORS
4 ODAC Coach of the Year Awards
David Detwiler
men’s tennis
Kami Gardner men’s swimming and women’s swimming
Erin Ness women’s tennis
59 RECORDS BROKEN (team + individual)
The Blue and White made history with four NCAA quarterfinal appearances in the same year. Two teams — men’s soccer and men’s lacrosse — advanced to the Final Four.
Men’s soccer made their second Final Four appearance in three seasons.
Men’s lacrosse tied for the second-most wins in program history with its Final Four berth.
Women’s basketball was a national quarterfinalist for the first-time ever and set 29 program records.
Women’s lacrosse reached the national quarterfinals for the third time in program history and set five program records.
Making a Splash
Both the men’s and women’s swimming teams were crowned ODAC champions and celebrated multiple athletes (seven men and two women) qualifying for the NCAA championships. individual championships won during postseason meets
accolades from W&L’s varsity student-athletes
17 NCAA TOURNAMENT APPEARANCES
Alex Brown ’24 is the nation’s statistical champion in men’s lacrosse shooting percentage. He was named Region 4 Offensive Player of the Year and earned a first-team regional selection in addition to being named second-team All-America by the USILA and IMLCA.
Jonathan McEwen ’27 was named the National Rookie of the Year for men’s golf and received the Outstanding First-Year Athlete award from W&L Athletics.
Mary Schleusner ’26
was voted Regional Player of the Year for women’s basketball and named Athlete of the Year by W&L Athletics. She led the country with 17.2 rebounds per game, and her 105 blocks were third in the nation. She broke her own single-game rebounding record three times this season and recorded the only 30-30 game in program history.
Eugenie Rovegno ’24 is the first women’s lacrosse player in history to be named a first-team All-America honoree on six occasions, by both the IWLCA and USA Lacrosse Magazine. The three-time ODAC Defender of the Year recorded a program record with 46 caused turnovers and 116 draw controls this season.
,,
Generals make the choice to compete the right way every day.”
— JAN HATHORN Director of Athletics at Washington and Lee
Our Cup Runneth Over Driven by 13 teams’ results in the NCAA postseason, the Blue and White finished 16th in the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics’ Learfield Directors’ Cup standings, which allocates points based on a university’s performance in NCAA postseason tournaments and championships across three competition seasons.
Standout Scholar-Athletes
The Generals earned 13 ODAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors, and men’s soccer goalkeeper Will Joseph ’26 was named the NCAA Men’s Soccer DIII Elite 90 award winner for the highest GPA of the Final Four teams.
Read more about our varsity teams’ accomplishments: generalssports.com
national rankings
No. 3 MEN’S SOCCER (United Soccer Coaches poll)
No. 3 MEN’S LACROSSE (USA Lacrosse Magazine)
No. 6 WOMEN’S LACROSSE (IWLCA poll)
No. 7 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL (WBCA poll)
No. 10 WOMEN’S TENNIS (ITA poll)
No. 21 WRESTLING (NWCA – dual team rankings)
No. 25 MEN’S SWIMMING (CSCAA)
No. 28 MEN’S TENNIS (ITA poll)
No. 30 MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY (USTFCCCA Coaches poll)
Beyond DIII athletics, many W&L students participate in athletic endeavors through club teams and intramurals
Squash clubs have been active on campus for decades, but W&L had never had a formal team that was competitive at the intercollegiate level. During his first year, John Williams ’25 realized he missed playing squash competitively and worked with W&L staff to establish a co-ed team on campus.
Collegiate squash is unique because club and varsity teams can play against each other, and W&L regularly competes against schools outside of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and NCAA Division III. In its first season, the team competed against schools along the East Coast, including Duke University and Davidson College, and finished with a 4-4 record.
This year, the team opened the season with a 9-0 victory over the U.S. Naval Academy, which qualified them for the U.S. Squash National Club Championship, where they finished third in their division. In January, the team hosted the second annual W&L Squash Invitational with the University of Richmond, Duke University and Johns Hopkins University.
“People are seeing us as a competitor and a force to be reckoned with,” Williams says. “The fact that we’ve been able to build this up and have strong competition and strong players in only two seasons is awesome.” —
Emily
Innes
Want to know what it takes to become a heavy hitter in the sports industry? Just ask these 14 alums who are in a class all their own. For additional stories, visit go.wlu.edu/summer-magazine-2024
This Emmy-nominated NFL sideline reporter and ‘Today’ show contributing correspondent shows no signs of slowing down.
NFL SIDELINE REPORTER ‘Thursday Night Football’
KAYLEE HARTUNG '07 working overtime KAYLEE HARTUNG ’07
SSumming up Kaylee Hartung ’07 in just a few words isn’t easy, but hardworking, humble and kind-hearted come close.
Hartung is a tenured journalist with a robust resume that every Washington and Lee University J-school student dreams of; from CNN to ESPN, she’s worked for some of the top media outlets in the country. In 2022, she accepted her biggest job yet: sideline reporter for Amazon Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football.” And just a few months after finishing her second season on the field, she received a Sports Emmy nomination for her work.
As if she didn’t have enough on her plate, Hartung accepted an additional high-profile job in 2023: gracing morning television sets as a contributing correspondent for the “Today” show.
“One of the things that’s so fulfilling about the position I’m in now is that I get to work across the spectrum,” Hartung says. “I built the skill set to be able to show up on both the best and the worst days in people’s lives.”
The ‘why’ of it all
When Hartung was 10 years old, she witnessed her father, Joe, a talented pilot who flew in aerobatic air shows, die in a plane crash. At home that night, the family mourned and comforted
one another. CNN was on in the background — and Hartung heard her father’s passing contained in a 30-second report.
“The death of the most important man in my life was covered as an event,” she says. “His life wasn't honored, his accomplishments weren't spoken of, and the incredible man he was wasn’t talked about. I didn’t understand how his life could be simplified in such a way.”
That devastating experience made Hartung want to be the one reporting the news, in a way that humanized every story.
“I didn't want other people to feel the way that I felt in that moment,” she says. “I wanted to honor other people’s stories, and I wanted the people whose lives were impacted by those stories to feel like justice was done.”
Part of the action
After that day, Hartung decided to pursue news reporting, earning a double degree in journalism and politics at W&L. After graduation, she worked at CBS News as an assistant to former “CBS Evening News” anchor Bob Schieffer, whom she was introduced to by W&L alumnus Tom Mattesky ’74, then deputy bureau chief for CBS News in Washington, D.C.
Although a career in news was always the plan, Hartung also aspired to be in front of the camera. Schieffer recognized this and encouraged her to pursue that goal through sports reporting.
Hartung was never an athlete — she laughs when people ask — but the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native grew up immersed in the world of college sports.
“You have to try not to be a sports fan; it’s in your blood down there,” she says. “The Louisiana State University football schedule comes out and weddings are planned around it. Every game is the social event of the season.”
As a reporter for ESPN, she worked as a host for the Longhorn Network and SEC Network, covering everything from the College World Series to NCAA basketball tournaments.
“It’s funny, because now I can’t imagine my career without sports reporting being a part of it,” she says. “But it definitely wasn’t part of the plan.”
In 2017, Hartung joined CNN. She still saw a future in sports journalism, but she wanted to prove to the world — and her 10-year-old self — that she could tackle hard news.
From the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, to the Parkland High School shooting in Florida, she covered stories of “death, despair and destruction” with the utmost care. However, the experience took a toll; she had to walk away after two years.
“I think that was the first moment in my career where I recognized that there is an element of care you have to take for yourself when you are exposed to other people’s trauma repeatedly,” she says. “That’s been an interesting part of my learning process through all of this.”
Hartung realized she needed to find a balance. She spent the next three years at ABC News, but when the opportunity to work in both news and sports arose, she jumped at it.
Yes, juggling two jobs is as exhausting as it sounds. Late nights on the football field are followed by waking up at 2:30 a.m. for a morning “Today” show broadcast. But it’s also invigorating. After riding in a stunt car with actors Ryan Gosling and
Kaylee Hartung '07 talks with Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Aidan O’Connell and wide receiver Davante Adams after a game in December 2023.
Emily Blunt, she gets to watch a pro football game from a seat that fans would spend their life savings on. It’s undeniably cool. But the glitz and glamour are secondary to Hartung’s commitment to storytelling: “Everything I do is about humanizing the people who I cover, whether it’s news or sports. Every story that’s told is someone else’s story that I have the privilege of telling.”
On the field
There are certainly some differences between covering college and professional sports. There’s no denying that the NFL is a business, and Hartung’s working relationships have shifted from athletic directors and university presidents to billionaire team owners and high-powered sports agents. Yet her core focus is the same: the players.
“I want to honor the sacrifices they make, their dedication to their craft and all of the hard work that they put in — in a way that does justice to their journey and their story,” Hartung says. “My goal is always to help fans care more, and invest more, in a game that they’re watching. Whether you are a devout or casual fan, I want you to feel like you learned something.”
After two years on the field, Hartung earned her first solo Sports Emmy nomination for Outstanding Sports Personality/Sideline Reporter in 2024. She couldn’t believe she was included on the same list of reporters who have had a major impact on her career.
“These are esteemed broadcasters, and all are people I have learned something from,” she says. “It’s just wild when you see your name among people you respect so much.”
W&L homecoming
Hartung was equally humbled when she received W&L’s 2017 Distinguished Young Alumni Award at her 10-year reunion, noting that the award provided her a chance to reflect on how W&L shaped her personally and professionally.
In March 2024, Hartung returned to campus to discuss her career journey, sharing the University Chapel stage with former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and NFL Hall of Famer Troy Aikman P’24. She also offered words of wisdom to journalism students, who greatly impressed her.
“I could see their hunger and their true, genuine desire to pursue careers in this field,” she says. “And it’s not easy. It’s not easy to travel this road and be prepared for all the sacrifices that it will require … they reminded me so much of myself.”
Hartung gave up a lot for her success, from a consistent sleep schedule to a certainty about marriage and kids. However, those personal sacrifices have led her to a dream career in storytelling she never could have expected.
“I am finally in a place where I feel like I’m exactly where I belong,” she says. “I’d like to keep doing what I’m doing, for as long as anybody will let me.” — Sara Butler
Favorite sport to cover:
“That’s like asking to pick your favorite child.”
High school nickname:
“Some of my guy friends called me Melissa, as in Melissa Stark (a famed NFL reporter), because I could talk sports with the boys.”
Crazy Hollywood moment:
“I had Oprah compliment my dress on the Golden Globes red carpet ... I can die happy.”
Hartung has served as a contributing correspondent for the “Today” show since 2023. Above: “Today” show's Al Roker, Sheinelle Jones and Hartung interview actress Beanie Feldstein. Below right: Hartung reports from the Golden Globes 2024.
Philadelphia Eagles
Vice President of Football Communications
Brett Strohsacker ’06 talks with defensive lineman Fletcher Cox on the sidelines.
TALKING POINTS
BRETT STROHSACKER ’06
As VP of football communications for the Philadelphia Eagles, Strohsacker helps both individuals and the team navigate the media landscape.
ANAGING CONSTANT DEMANDS of the media and sports fans can be daunting, but in the case of the NFL, there’s always someone behind the scenes providing valuable assistance in balancing these professional and public expectations. For the Philadelphia Eagles, that person is Brett Strohsacker ’06, vice president of football communications.
trohsacker and his team of six communications professionals serve as a conduit between members of the Eagles organization and any outside entity that influences public perception of the franchise — a near-impossible task given Philadelphia’s reputation as a tough sports media market.
“In addition to organizing and managing all of the press conferences and availabilities required through the NFL, our primary role is to assist our players, coaches and executives in all of their interactions to help shape their public image,” he says.
While the lion’s share of this work involves the players and coaches, Strohsacker notes that these interactions are not limited to just the faces you see on the field. Their communication services apply to any employee, such as the 30 coaches and front office members and 70 to 90 players, participating in a speaking engagement, sitting on a panel, talking to a class or performing an interview.
“It’s not only about making sure they are prepared for each interaction they have with the media, but also helping them understand the bigger picture media landscape of the NFL and our local market,” he says. “We develop strategies for the individual players and our organization as a whole.”
Mapping a career route
A four-year member of the Generals soccer team, Strohsacker always knew something involving sports would make for a logical career, but it wasn’t until he spoke with the late Bob de Maria, professor of journalism and mass communications emeritus, that his career path came into sharp focus.
“Professor de Maria was my adviser and mentor,” says Strohsacker, who majored in journalism and mass communications. “He helped guide me toward public relations, which would blend my passion for coaching and teaching with my abilities as a writer and my interest in sports media.”
After an internship with the Baltimore Ravens training camp in 2006, Strohsacker volunteered for the NFL PR office at the 2007 Super Bowl. It was there he met then-Eagles PR Director Derek Boyko, who offered him an internship that kicked off his now 17-year career with his hometown organization (Strohsacker is a Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, native).
As a former college athlete, Strohsacker often draws from his own athletic experiences when helping his players navigate the highs and lows of competitive sport. One of the most difficult aspects of his job is preparing players and coaches for their press conferences in the immediate aftermath of a difficult loss — few were more devastating than the Eagles’ 38-35 last-minute setback to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII in 2023.
“The NFL is a much different level than Division III soccer, but I am at least able to understand how they may feel after a win or loss or at various points of the season,” he says. “I know what it’s like to go through an injury or have something going
on in your personal life but still be expected to perform at a high level on the field. All of that understanding builds empathy and trust with players and coaches.”
The Super Bowl is arguably the pinnacle of American sports and the crowning achievement for any football player. The big game is among the most-watched events on American television, and the intense media attention creates a high-pressure situation for the professional football organizations and their communications teams. In a typical week during the season, the Eagles communications staff hosts 30 to 40 media members for weekday activities and approximately 250 writers, photographers and videographers on game days. For perspective, the NFL issued more than 6,000 media credentials for this past February’s Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.
“The stakes are much higher for the Super Bowl because the attention and scrutiny are at an all-time high,” says Strohsacker.
While Strohsacker’s role overlaps with many sectors of the Eagles organization, he maintains a special bond with one co-worker in particular — his wife, Maura, who serves as the team’s director of corporate partner activation. Together, they’re part of the large network of dedicated professionals who have helped set the Eagles up for success, including the Eagles’ first Super Bowl victory — a 41-33 win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII in 2018.
“Being a lifelong Eagles fan and now working for the team for almost half of my life, it was an incredibly rewarding experience to be a part of the first Super Bowl win,” says Strohsacker. “The Eagles had fallen short of winning a championship many times, so it not only meant a lot to the organization but to our fans and to the city of Philadelphia. It truly does take everyone to achieve something like that, so to be along for that ride and to contribute in even the smallest way to something that brought so much joy to so many people was truly special and something I’ll never forget.” — Brian Laubscher
behind the crowning moment
“One instance I always think back on is (former center) Jason Kelce’s speech at the 2018 Super Bowl victory parade. I had a general idea of where he was going with it, because, as he often likes to do, he used us as a sounding board for a couple of his ideas the day before. But as a PR person, no matter how much trust you have in your people, you always have a certain level of anxiety once the interview begins and you are no longer in control. When I saw Jason get up there in full mummer costume after having consumed what he estimated was ‘north of 20 beers,’ there were certainly a few moments where I couldn’t help but be worried about what was about to happen. But, in the end, it will go down as one of the greatest speeches in the history of the city, which says a lot, considering Philadelphia was the birthplace of America.” — Brett Strohsacker ’06
DDr. Wiemi Douoguih ’92, an orthopedic surgeon, repairs the elbows and knees of top professional athletes. What he’s not fixing the day he talks to W&L Magazine is a flat tire, which has him on the side of the road in Bethesda, Maryland. Undeterred, he discusses the state of sports medicine while waiting for roadside assistance.
The Washington and Lee lacrosse standout (at the time of his 2017 W&L Athletics Hall of Fame induction, his 101 career goals were the third-highest in school history) remembers seeing some of his teammates get injured, have surgery and get back on the field. He thought, “Man, this is a cool way to give back to athletes once I’m done playing and too old to play at the college level anymore.”
“W&L had a tremendous impact on who I am today,” Douoguih says. “I am grateful for the many lessons learned in Lexington. It taught me to never let anyone keep you from your goals, and it afforded me a resilience that serves me to this day.”
Sports medicine segued nicely with his desire to be a doctor, and he’s served as team doctor and medical director for the Washington Nationals, senior orthopedic consultant for the Washington Wizards and Washington Mystics and medical director for the Washington Capitals. After 15 years of consulting for professional teams, he’s stepping away from that role.
He still has plenty to do as co-medical director of MedStar Sports Medicine and director of sports medicine at MedStar Washington Hospital Center’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and chairman of the NBA Research Committee, where big issues are tendon management and understanding whether resting players affects injury risk. Anyone interested in performing research on NBA players has to come through the NBA Research Committee, he says.
On a typical day he sees patients in his clinic and performs operations; he does research on his own time. His research has won awards and been published in multiple peer-reviewed publications.
“I’m dedicated to the science of injury prevention and treatment,” he says.
Since his days of playing lacrosse and competing in judo, Douoguih has seen “drastic changes” in sports medicine.
“It used to be everybody put their trust in the doctor and the doctor was god,” he says. Today, there’s more
As a specialist in knee, elbow and shoulder injuries, Dr. Wiemi Douoguih '92 has performed more than 300 Tommy John surgeries on elbows, often needed by major league baseball pitchers.
data available, more transparency and a team of professionals, such as a sports scientist and physical therapist, involved in care.
“There’s a demand for more rigorous evaluation of treatment that has evolved over time,” he says. “There are all kinds of tools we have at our disposal that we didn’t have then.”
Technology is one of them. For example, there are a number of wearable devices being used by teams that measure how much stress players’ bodies experience so that they can develop better programs and prevent injuries, he explains.
“In the past, we’d often just wait until someone got injured and fix it,” says Douoguih. “Now, it’s more proactive.”
What about pressure to get an injured player back in the game as quickly as possible?
“Having been an athlete, my focus is always on the safety and health of the athlete,” he says. He acknowledges the pressure to get a player back when it’s a playoff situation, and sometimes players will say they’re good to go — a decision they could later regret. “Sometimes our job is to protect them from themselves.”
Different sports have different injury profiles, he says. Football and hockey have high rates of concussions. Cheerleading has the highest rate of catastrophic injury. And women and men playing the same sports can also have different injury profiles: “Women’s basketball and soccer have higher ACL injuries than men’s basketball and soccer.”
In a career in which he’s performed 300 Tommy John surgeries on elbows, often needed by major league baseball pitchers, and over 1,000 ACL surgeries, where he’s pioneered repair techniques for knee preservation and alignment, Douoguih says there are multiple highlights.
Opposite page: Douoguih spoke at the 2024 NBA Player Health and Performance Meeting at the NBA Combine.
“Watching players you’ve operated on return to contribute to playoff wins” is one. So is helping someone who’s finished with professional athletics be able to spend time with their family and do the recreational activities they enjoy.
“Working with professional athletes, you sometimes forget what a privilege it is,” he says. “Being able to take care of athletes in numerous sports whose livelihood is dependent on what I do for them is just an honor.” — Lisa Provence
The doctor is IN
This orthopedic surgeon is pioneering new ways to treat (and prevent) athletic injuries.
CO-MEDICAL DIRECTOR
winning mentality
TAYLOR GARCIA ’22
The pro pickleball player has her sights set on breaking into the top 10 singles rankings.
Taylor Garcia '22 vividly recalls the moment on her campus tour when she envisioned herself attending Washington and Lee University. What she didn’t anticipate was what lay ahead, including a post-graduate athletic career as a professional pickleball player. Garcia had made a name for herself as a four-year letter winner on the tennis and soccer teams at Mount Carmel Academy in her hometown of Mandeville, Louisiana. She played for the 2018 Louisiana High School Athletic Association Division I tennis regional championship team, was a four-time individual singles regional champion (2015-18), two-time individual singles state champion (2015, 2017) and a two-time Louisiana High School Girls Tennis Player of the Year those same years.
Garcia, who graduated high school summa cum laude, knew she wanted an academic challenge as much as an athletic one in her college experience. She looked at a variety of schools, but 10 minutes into her tour at W&L, Garcia turned to her mother and said, “I’m coming to school here.”
Garcia remains one of the most decorated tennis players in W&L’s history — she was a two-time singles All-American and NCAA individual qualifier (2021 and 2022), the 2022 ITA Regional Senior Player of the Year, the 2021 Old Dominion Athletic Conference Player of the Year and reached career-high national rankings of No. 15 in singles and No. 19 in doubles.
“I absolutely loved my teammates and my coach. I loved feeling like I was part of something bigger than just myself,” Garcia says of her time on the tennis team.
Despite her busy schedule as a student-athlete and international politics major, Garcia found time at W&L to serve as Panhellenic Council president, volunteer with Campus Kitchen and spend a summer studying abroad in Spain. Erin Ness, W&L’s head women’s tennis coach, has known Garcia since she was a high school recruit and said while her reflexes and speed are natural assets on the tennis and pickleball courts, it’s Garcia’s spirit and drive that fuel her.
“She just brought so much fire and so much energy to the team,” Ness says. “She was the heart and soul of our program.
She keeps raising the bar for herself, and that’s how she’s always been — she’s got a plan she’s going to follow, and she rarely deviates from it. It’s been fun watching her become so successful at this.”
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic “fifth-year” eligibility rule, Garcia played tennis for one year at George Mason University while completing her master’s in international security. She competed in the No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles positions, gained all-conference second-team honors and led the team with 15 wins on the season.
While still playing tennis for GMU, Garcia saw an ad for a pickleball tournament in nearby Chantilly, Virginia, and decided to enter the January 2023 competition for fun. However, she had only begun practicing pickleball regularly in April 2023 when another player encouraged her to sign up for her first professional tournament the following month. That was the catalyst.
“I realized that if I trained for this the way I trained in tennis, I could be good,” Garcia says. “My last tennis season ended April 19, and I haven’t touched a tennis racket since. I’ve only played pickleball — every single day. I just started training as hard as I could.”
nce Garcia decided to take her pickleball career to the next level, she quickly rose through the ranks in the professional scene. Despite starting midway through, she finished the 2023 season at No. 15 in the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) Tour singles rankings. In PPA rankings, she is currently ranked 48th in women’s doubles, 57th in mixed doubles and 17th in women’s singles. She also quickly attracted the attention of sponsors, who have helped her continue to attend tournaments around the country almost every weekend.
“I’ve always just been a fiery competitor,” Garcia says, “and in anything that I did, I always tried to do my best. When I began playing pickleball, I didn’t even know how to keep score. But I knew I wanted to win.” She initially set a goal for herself to reach the top 10 in women’s singles within her first year.
Garcia is balancing her professional pickleball ambitions with her long-term career plans. In November 2023, Garcia accepted a position as a senior federal affairs analyst in global government affairs at RTX, the world's largest aerospace and defense company. She plans to pursue a career in the defense industry and is thankful she can juggle her tournament schedule with gaining valuable professional experience in international security.
“I look back and am so thankful for how W&L challenged me,” Garcia says. “Now, I feel like I’m so well prepared to take on new classes, challenges and experiences. My master’s degree enhanced my education, but it was formed by my undergraduate years at W&L.” — Kelsey Goodwin
Senior federal affairs analyst Taylor Garcia ’22 travels almost every weekend to compete in pickleball tournaments around the country.
pRO TIPS
What’s your No. 1 piece of advice for new pickleballers? One of the best pieces of advice I received when transitioning from tennis to pickleball was to shorten my swing. In tennis, you have way more time to move and get to the ball, taking a bigger backswing when you get there. Not only are you hitting a wiffle ball, which doesn’t bounce high in pickleball, but the court is also smaller, so it’s important to keep your strokes more compact to make contact on time.
Does your paddle matter? Paddle technology is constantly changing and evolving, and the paddle you choose does matter in terms of how you hit the ball. Wooden paddles are a thing of the past, and it’s now standard to have a carbon fiber, or at least a fiberglass, paddle for better power, control and spin. The thicker the paddle (15mm or more), the more control you get, whereas the thinner paddles (10-14mm) provide more power.
What are some of the misconceptions about the sport you would want to dispel?
Just because it’s not tennis doesn't mean it isn’t a real sport. Pro pickleball — or any sport at a high level — requires immense focus, composure, grit and much more. I’ll challenge anyone to a game.
THE GAME OF
The two W&L alums driving the content for Golf Digest share how the sport lends itself to unexpected stories and why it’s important to take big swings editorially.
Golf Digest is one of the largest golf publications in the world, with readership ranging from professional golfers to casual competitors. Playing large roles in shepherding the 70-year-old golf media brand are two Washington and Lee University alums: Max Adler ’04 and Mike Stachura ’86
At the helm is Adler, the publication’s editorial director and vice president. He oversees the magazine’s content, be it assigning articles to writers or collaborating with them on projects. In addition to writing feature stories, Adler uses his monthly editor’s letter to pose questions about golf culture and behavior. Prior to joining Golf Digest, Adler was a member of the men’s varsity golf team at W&L, where he earned a degree in studio art, and a golfer for the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he earned a master’s degree in English.
As senior editor, Stachura oversees the magazine’s equipment coverage. During his 32-year tenure at the publication, one of Stachura’s most notable achievements is the development of Golf Digest’s annual “Hot List.” This buying guide offering honest equipment reviews has become a go-to resource for readers searching for the best new gear.
Stachura — a journalism and philosophy double major at W&L — previously worked as sports information director and W&L Magazine editor at his alma mater before making the move to Golf Digest.
We caught up with Adler and Stachura about their love of golf, career highlights and the future of sports journalism.
What do you love most about sports journalism?
Max Adler: I’ve always said that golf is a game of conversation. You go play for like four hours, but your actual time spent hitting the ball is probably 10 minutes. So, people just look to fill the gaps, and it becomes a game of storytelling.
Mike Stachura: It’s a remarkable venue for the unexpected — for the stories that people relate to so much. There’s always a winner and a loser, and each of them has a story that’s compelling. I think there’s something about sports that either takes us out of the craziness of our normal life or actually returns us to a fundamental part of who we are.
What inspired you to pursue the sports beat?
Stachura: My dad was a high school football coach, so I was sitting in press boxes when I was 7 years old. And I was banging out stories on the typewriter in his office before I was in high school — stories that no one would read, but I was writing them.
Max, you’re a longtime golfer. How did you first get involved with playing? And what was your experience like on the golf teams at W&L and St. Andrews?
Adler: I grew up in a small town 30 minutes outside of Manchester, Vermont, which is home to the Ekwanok Country Club — routinely rated
MAX ADLER ’04
MIKE STACHURA ’86
by Golf Digest as the No. 1 course in the state. I started caddying there when I was 14, and they let us play after work.
I fell in love with golf and wanted to try to play in college, and I had a wonderful experience on the Washington and Lee team. With the NCAA, we had such great support: a coach, buses, planes every now and again. At St. Andrews, we had a ton of natural talent, but the British University Sports Association is more lowkey — you get a shirt and a bag from the university, and you’re kind of on your own for all other costs. And win, lose or draw, you’d usually have a meal and beer with the opposing team. It was a different sports culture but with the spirit of competition just as strong.
Tell me about one of your favorite Golf Digest stories.
Adler: I recently played America’s best new golf course [Ladera Golf Club] with its founders, Irving Azoff and Eddy Cue, which was neat because I was able to tell the story of a unique and unlikely golf friendship between two titans of the music and tech industries. [Azoff is founder of Full Stop Management, and Cue serves as Apple’s senior vice president of services.] Only through golf would I ever get to hang with two guys who’ve had such an outsized impact on shaping our world the past two decades and hear their stories of how they did it.
Stachura: I had a really cool chance to sit down with a golfer named Patrick Cantlay who was far and away the No. 1 amateur in the world. He had a career-threatening back injury and put down his clubs for more than a year. In the course of wondering if he was ever going to play again, his friend and caddie Chris Roth was killed right in front of his eyes in a hit-and-run accident. … Not only did he lose his ability to play, he lost a touchstone of
his entire life. How he navigated his way back really made for an interesting personal story that I got to tell.
In terms of editorial coverage, what is your ultimate approach or goal?
Adler: It’s a balancing act. I want to make sure that we’re producing a variety of content that appeals to our core readers — avid golfers who have been reading Golf Digest for decades — yet, at the same time, produce stories that are welcoming and inclusive to all the new golfers, as golf is having a bit of a cultural moment. I’m always thinking about taking big swings, too. If we miss, that’s OK. But if we can connect two or three times a year with something really great that’s head and shoulders above everything else, people will remember Golf Digest positively.
Mike, you helped launch the “Hot List,” an equipment review guide that has become a massive success. What’s the story behind the project’s development?
Stachura: It was a risk for Golf Digest — they had everything to lose. When the concept was originally suggested to me, I said, “Well, there are two ways you can do this. You can do it where it’s not a review and no one gets upset, or you can do a real, exhaustive, scientific and complete process, but you risk offending a lot of people who financially support your business.” We chose the second option. I don’t have an exact number, but I would say in terms of lost advertising revenue, the “Hot List” has probably cost Golf Digest between $15 million and $20 million. Now, we’ve made up that difference in other areas — other advertising opportunities were presented because we took that risk.
Have you seen the sports journalism world change over the years? Where do you think it’s headed?
Adler: I started in an era when the final putt would drop on Sunday, and it wouldn’t be until Wednesday or
“I think there’s something about sports that either takes us out of the craziness of our normal life or actually returns us to a fundamental part of who we are.”
— Mike Stachura
'86
Thursday that people would read about that tournament. And now, obviously, it’s so much more instantaneous. Whereas we used to work on these bigger projects — could be a 3,000word story about an event — writers need to be more responsive. They’re live tweeting; they’re doing a short post now and working on it so that it’s a better post maybe five hours from now. It’s a little bit more frantic.
Stachura: Sports publications have to decide what the relationship is between your [journalistic] responsibilities and the business end with manufacturers. It was a lot easier to be above the fray when there weren’t a lot of other competitors making side deals with manufacturers. I think the trouble for places like Golf Digest is to figure out if they have to make those same deals to get access or to still be relevant. The challenge is to still be who you were and to put the reader and end user first.
How did your time at W&L impact or influence your career?
Adler: I ended up taking classes in every single building on campus; I was a real generalist. I think this broadened my perspective on the world. Being a journalist is nothing you really train for. A pure liberal arts education is probably the best preparation for so many jobs — it especially proved to be the case for mine.
Stachura: What I learned most from my W&L education, and my experiences as an employee there, is that you don’t have to know how to do everything. You just have to know how to learn to do everything. I was also surrounded by brilliant people that I knew were way better at anything than I was, and they enabled me [to pursue what I wanted to do] and allowed me to develop an ability. — Sara Butler
WHEELER
GENERAL COUNSEL
NHL Carolina Hurricanes
NNIGEL WHEELER ’15L KNEW EXACTLY WHAT TO EXPECT when he became general counsel for the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes. Or so he thought.
“I knew it was going to be nuts,” he says, “but I didn’t think it would always be drinking from a fire hose.”
Not that he’s complaining, mind you. It’s what he’d hoped for. One minute he’s dealing with a player who has a stalker; the next he’s trying to convince a state senator to support a team-friendly piece of legislation — or something else totally unexpected. Although Wheeler doesn’t negotiate player contracts, which are done through the league’s collective bargaining agreement, he has a hand in everything else.
“It’s nonstop,” he says. “We have a lot of unanticipated problems, too. When the war in Ukraine started, we did risk assessments to protect our Russian players.”
The job, Wheeler says, requires communication skills, emotional intelligence, creativity, persistence, resilience, flexibility and relentlessness — all traits he developed in prior careers as a broadcast journalist and as lead singer and guitarist with Egress, a reggae rock band.
Wheeler majored in mass communications with a Spanish literature minor at University of California, Berkeley and reported for stations in Maryland and Florida before moving to KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth, the No. 5 media market. He won numerous awards as a reporter and anchor and was on a clear trajectory toward a network job. Then he up and quit journalism to tour with Egress. It was an audacious move, though his parents had a different word for it at the time — catastrophic.
“I realized I’d never have another shot. I had my midlife crisis early,” says Wheeler, who used his middle name, Kali Green, as his stage name. “We weren’t the Rolling Stones, but we were a mid-level touring band that could’ve made a living with our music if it hadn’t been for the personalities. I loved those guys but wanted to kill them.”
Change in direction
Wheeler faced a choice: return to journalism or try something totally different. So, he studied for the LSAT in the tour van between gigs and landed in Lewis Hall in the fall of 2012 with his sights set on becoming a sports attorney. He chose W&L because it was the antithesis of his undergraduate days “doing the Berkeley thing” — dungarees, Rasta gear and protests.
“I had a pretty myopic point of view, and W&L forces you into the trenches to engage face-to-face with people with different philosophies from yours,” he says. “You’re put in uncomfortable situations and have to fight for yourself and your position. What stuck with me most is having the humility to understand a problem from a new perspective.”
He was also persuaded to attend W&L by the school’s response when he asked to speak with alumni after he’d been admitted. Hours after his request, he was having
As the top defender of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, this W&L Law alum is at the center of lobbying on behalf of his team.
lunch in Dallas with William Toles ’92, ’95L and Morgan Meyer ’99L. He was sold. “I thought, ‘If I have this type of access to these folks, and if I can be in a place that small and powerful, that's where I want to be,’” he says.
Wheeler credits Law Alumni Association Professor of Law Emerita Margaret Howard with helping his transition. “She showed me the expectations on day one, and I tried to stay in line because I wanted to make her happy and be a better law student,” he says.
Waiting for his shot
There were no sports law courses, but Wheeler says classes in contracts, taxes, secure transactions and even criminal law prepared him well for what awaited him in North Carolina. Meanwhile, he developed contacts in the sports industry, including Scott Wilkinson ’88L, executive vice president and chief legal officer for the NBA Atlanta Hawks. He was advised to go with a Big Law firm, do good work and wait to get discovered.
After W&L, Wheeler spent four and a half years with Bracewell LLP in Dallas working in corporate and securities law. All the while, he was putting out feelers and waiting. He’d almost given up when the Hurricanes called. “My wife and I had two young children. We’d just bought a home in Dallas. But I knew I’d have to be willing to jump when I got the chance,” he says. “My wife encouraged me to go for it.”
Growing up in Southern California, Wheeler had been a fan of the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks, but he’d never played hockey, which is historically a predominantly white sport. Recent data show only 3.74% of NHL employees are Black.
“Hockey is pushing hard to become more inclusive, especially at the league level. It’s a work in progress,” Wheeler says. “But I think we do a fantastic job of making the Hurricanes’ games appeal to all in the community, and it’s a diverse community. We sold out the entire season this year.”
One of Wheeler’s noteworthy assignments thus far was as the Hurricanes’ point person on a successful campaign to legalize sports betting in North Carolina.
“The gambling issue started way before I got here and had failed for years. We got together with the NBA Hornets, the NFL Panthers, Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR and the PGA to develop a cohesive message,” Wheeler says. “That’s been my favorite part of the job — working collaboratively on big projects and lobbying on behalf of the team.” — Jeff Hanna
INDUSTRY FRONTRUNNER
As CEO and president of the Breeders’ Cup, this W&L alum has taken the lead in creating
ashington and Lee University attracted Drew Fleming ’05 from the beginning for its strong academics and liberal arts education. Unsure of what career he wanted to pursue, he majored in biology, as he considered going to medical school; however, upon graduation, he ultimately chose to attend law school at the University of Kentucky. Staying in his home state, he worked in the mergers and acquisitions field, with an emphasis on the equine industry. He left the law field in 2016 to work for the Breeders’ Cup as senior vice president of business and development, becoming CEO and president at the end of 2019.
“The value of taking many different subjects makes you a more well-rounded person and more prone to success in whatever career path you choose,” he says. “As an executive in the sports industry, you have to have business acumen; you have to have a strong financial background; you have to understand public relations and media rights. Taking a lot of those courses in multiple subject areas at Washington and Lee helped develop me as a person.”
White House COVID-19 Task Force Sports Committee, Fleming worked on ways sporting events could continue.
“In such a trying time for our country and abroad, horse racing was uniquely positioned to continue safely during much of the pandemic when many sports couldn’t,” Fleming says.
Simultaneously, he worked with other industry leaders to create and pass the 2020 Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, the most groundbreaking piece of legislation to affect racing in the last century. Before, horse racing was regulated on a state-by-state basis. Not only did this make the sport confusing for spectators — imagine a touchdown counting for three points in Virginia and six points in California — it impacted the welfare of the animals. With the industry under a microscope, Fleming believed nationwide change needed to occur.
Known as the “richest two days in sports,” the Breeders’ Cup consists of 14 thoroughbred races worth $33 million. The event, held over two days in the fall, changes locations each year within the U.S. and serves as the year-end championship. With 80 qualifying races spanning 11 countries and five continents, the Breeders’ Cup brings together people from around the world.
“The Breeders’ Cup is the perfect marriage between the Super Bowl and track and field in the Olympics,” Fleming says. “Just like track and field, we have races run at long and short distances, dirt and turf surfaces, male and female, and young and old.”
A few months after Fleming assumed the helm, the pandemic brought the sport to a halt. As a member of the
“The value of taking many different subjects makes you a more well-rounded person and more prone to success in whatever career path you choose.”
“The current system was not working; there were fragmented decisions and integrity issues,” Fleming says.
“Unlike most other major sports where they have official leagues and commissioners, racing lacks that because of how old it is. This was the first step in creating a more formal league concept, where safety and integrity would be uniform across the United States.”
The act led to the creation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), an independent organization that enforces rules on anti-doping, medication control and track safety.
In addition, Fleming sits on the board and executive council of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities and the boards of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and the Thoroughbred Safety Coalition. In 2022, Sports Business Journal named him to its 40 Under 40 list.
“That’s something I’m really proud of,” Fleming says. “Not only does it really recognize success in the sports industry, but it also positions thoroughbred racing at the same level as the NBA and the NFL, and to be included in those distinct groups representing thoroughbred racing, that was very special. ” — Laura Lemon ’16
DREW FLEMING
national safety standards in the horseracing industry. PRESIDENT AND
White Abarrio, with jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., won the $6 million Longines Breeders' Cup Classic in 2023 at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California.
BUILDING A DREAM TEAM
As a top NBA sports agent, Brown knows the power of making authentic connections.
AAUSTIN BROWN ’ 13L GREW UP JUST NORTH OF CHICAGO,
a big-city kid from birth. His Evanston, Illinois, high school had more than 4,000 students, about half of whom were from various racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Today, the sports super-agent — one of the most prolific among all NBA player representatives — says he owes his success to his ability to connect with individuals of all types. Diversity, in other words, is important to Brown.
So, what made the young Midwestern Black man choose a school of approximately 400 graduate students and 1,850 undergraduate students in the small town of Lexington, Virginia, when he decided to pursue a law degree?
According to Brown, diversity is relative.
“It’s all about how you define ‘different.’ It depends on your own experience,” he says. “Even though Washington and Lee is in the South and my first-year [cohort] was a small group, to me, it was very diverse.”
Brown, who as part of the Creative Artists Agency helps manage $1.25 billion in NBA contracts and negotiated more than $300 million in contracts in 2023, says he met people from California, the East Coast, the South, the Midwest and beyond when he arrived at the Washington and Lee University School of Law. Some were former athletes, like himself. Some came straight from their undergraduate studies. Others had already gathered a lifetime’s worth of experience.
“One of my law school classmates was one of the original hand models for Palmolive,” Brown says. “She had a full career prior to becoming a lawyer. That is diversity.”
Full-court press
After high school, Brown played basketball at DePauw University, a DIII school in Indiana. He excelled off and on the court, receiving offers to play professional basketball in Europe after graduation. But instead of heeding his hoop dreams, he followed his father’s financial footsteps and took a job with JP Morgan in New York.
After deciding to go back to school for a law degree, Brown began looking for a summer experience prior to attending W&L in the fall of 2010. He then landed an internship at a sports agency in Chicago where everything just clicked: business and finance, law, basketball, his ability to converse with others from all walks of life — he realized they all blended perfectly in a career as a sports agent.
So with that, Brown arrived on campus for his first semester at W&L’s Law School with lofty aspirations. However, landing clients such as 2019’s first overall NBA
pick Zion Williamson, Cleveland Cavaliers standout Donovan Mitchell, Memphis Grizzlies star Jaren Jackson Jr. and Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma doesn’t happen to everyone who wants to be an agent. For Brown, a few more pieces would need to fall into place.
During his third year at W&L, Brown devised a unique externship with professor of law emerita Mary Natkin, who was at the time assistant dean for clinical education and public service. Most of the school’s externs up to that point had worked in Virginia or Washington, D.C., specifically preparing themselves for their post-graduation legal careers.
Austin Brown ’13L celebrates the Golden State Warriors winning the 2022 NBA Finals with his client Jordan Poole.
Because of the intimate working relationship among students and professors at Washington and Lee, Brown and Natkin were able to work out a biweekly commute to and from Chicago, where Brown would once again be working for a sports agency.
“Dean Natkin was so great with me. Without her, my path would have been a lot different,” Brown says. “She was incredible.”
Brown considered bigger law schools before committing to W&L, but the small liberal arts feel had seeped into his bones at DePauw, and he wanted a second shot at those small class sizes and close relationships with professors. The bucolic environment at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains would be the “and-one,” a place where Brown could focus without distraction.
"Real relationships in this business are hard. But that has always been at the forefront. That sets you up for success in any business.”
Law school was challenging, but he developed a close rapport with his fellow students. He joined the Sports, Entertainment and Intellectual Property Law Society and the Law School Football League, a chance to decompress and further build classmate camaraderie. He took in Lexington’s quaint restaurants, history and scenery. He was focused but still felt tied to the full university community.
“Law school is hard, and you would be lying if you said you weren’t scared,” Brown says. “Those small class sizes and having those real relationships are critical.”
Sports representation comes with plenty of challenges. It’s a nonstop, 15-hour-per-day hustle, and agents aren’t always the most beloved characters in sports. But for all the Scott Borases of the world, there are also the Austin Browns. Brown, named a 30 Under 30 by Forbes magazine in 2015 and a 40 Under 40 by Sports Business Journal in 2020, says his client list will always be about quality over quantity, and teamwork is paramount.
Indeed, Brown says his job is everything he hoped it would be — and then some. Far from a consolation prize for falling short of the NBA himself, getting a chance to work with the world’s best basketball players every day is perhaps a greater award all its own.
“The most important thing in my career is being able to relate to people and be honest and transparent,” Brown says. “You meet people of all different walks of life, and you have to establish a rapport and have familiarity with them in a short timeframe. Real relationships in this business are hard. But that has always been at the forefront. That sets you up for success in any business.” — Shea Gibbs
Brown chats with his client Zion Williamson, a power forward for the New Orleans Pelicans and the No. 1 overall NBA draft pick in 2019.
The NFL Network
Pete Abitante ’78 believes in the power of a handwritten note. After spending two years planning the year-long celebration of the 100th annivesary of the NFL in 2019, the former vice president of special projects for the NFL sent a note to each person he worked with in planning the festivities. After he decided to retire from his 46-year career in the NFL in April 2024, he again got out his pen and wrote cards to people thanking them for their role in his career and life.
“It’s all about people,” he says. “It gives me great satisfaction to help someone else out who might benefit in some way.”
In the fall of 1976, Abitante, a commerce major, started brainstorming ideas for a summer internship, and he distilled down his interests to two things: business and sports. He began writing letters (see a pattern?) to all the major sports leagues and teams in the New York City area explaining his interest in a summer job — he estimates he mailed at least 50. One of the responses was from NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, inviting Abitante to come to New York City for an interview.
Abitante jokes that his time at the NFL has been a more than fourdecades-long internship. In a way, it has, as he has continued growing and learning along with the organization. Part of that growth includes 26 years in the communications department in roles such as information director of the American Football Conference (one of two conferences in the NFL) followed by director of information for the NFL. He’s been a part of 46 Super Bowls, starting with Super Bowl XIII. He’s worked under three commissioners: Rozelle, Paul Tagliabue and current Commissioner Roger Goodell, and says
he’s learned from each one how to conduct business, address issues and treat people well.
He’s traveled overseas many times as part of the NFL’s expansion in the ’80s and ’90s to play preseason games in other countries. And as the NFL representative, along with NFL players, he went on five USO tours to Afghanistan and Iraq to thank the men and women serving our country.
“It’s just incredibly emotional because you think you’re going there to do something for them, and it really goes both ways,” he says. “And the players you take with you become friends for life. It’s unbelievable what I’ve been able to be a part of. It’s been quite a ride.”
When Will Dorrance ’11 was studying accounting at W&L, he had no idea his current job even existed. He came across a posting from the Office of Career and Professional Development for an internship with the NFL’s internal audit department and thought it sounded like an interesting opportunity. Fast-forward a few years, and today Dorrance works as vice president of club finance, in a department that serves as the financial liaison between the NFL commissioner’s office in New York City and the 32 NFL teams and their CFOs.
The department is charged with maintaining and improving the economic model of the NFL, which is directly tied to the organization’s salary cap system. The system allows for competitive balance among teams, which Dorrance likens to an “any given Sunday mindset, where a team can go from the worst team one year to the best team the next year.” Also under his team’s purview is helping NFL teams finance their stadiums — either building new ones or renovating current ones — by loaning teams up to $300 million or otherwise arranging debt on their behalf.
“Every day is different, and the work is really interesting,” Dorrance says.
One of the biggest job perks, he says, is the NFL culture of working hard but giving back. Dorrance, a four-year varsity soccer player at W&L, helped start the NFL Community Teammates program, which brings together hundreds of employees at each of the three NFL offices in the U.S. to volunteer for a different cause each month.
“It’s really rewarding to work with people who are so good at what they do but at the same time are really good people as well,” Dorrance says. — Jessica Luck
VICE PRESIDENT OF CLUB FINANCE
FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF SPECIAL PROJECTS
’78 PETE ABITANTE
’11 WILL DORRANCE
CHAMPIONING Tennıs
Recently retired CEO of the USPTA
John Embree ’75 hopes to inspire members of the younger generation to pursue a career in his beloved sport.
IT’S RARE FOR SOMEONE TO HAVE SPENT 50 YEARS making a living in a sport they first started playing at age 6. And, yet, John Embree ’75 has done just that. “I never would have imagined that I could be so fortunate to work in the tennis industry for my entire professional life,” he says.
A two-sport athlete in soccer and tennis at Washington and Lee, Embree was inducted into the university’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005. He lettered in soccer and tennis each of his four years and was captain of the tennis team in his final two seasons. In tennis, he played No. 1 singles in his final two seasons and was named the team MVP three times and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Player of the Year twice. After graduation, he took a job as the head tennis professional at the Boonsboro Country Club in Lynchburg, Virginia. He spent seven months of the year at the club with the other five traveling the world playing in satellite tournaments. But, three years in, a phone call out of the blue was a turning point in his career.
The U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) was planning to launch a new program in 1978 that focused on adult recreational players in a league format competing at similar playing levels on a national scale. The USTA asked Embree if he’d like to run one of the five pilots in the South. After a successful trial, 25-year-old Embree moved to New York City to serve as the first administrator of the USTA Adult League Tennis program, which now boasts over 300,000 players.
“The creation of USTA Adult League Tennis is my proudest achievement in this sport and will be my legacy for years to come,” Embree says.
After another stint as a director of tennis and GM of an athletic club in New Orleans, Embree left the club business for the corporate world to work for Wilson Sporting Goods Inc. as its director of racquet sports promotions. For more than seven years, he traveled to all the Grand Slams and national and international tour events, working with players such as Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, Lindsay Davenport, Todd Martin, Stefan Edberg, Jennifer Capriati and Chris Evert. He also was responsible for expanding Wilson’s equipment program with a growing group of top tennis teaching professionals and creating sponsorship opportunities.
Corporate moves to consolidate the golf and tennis divisions forced Embree to leave Wilson after 17 and a half years, exiting as vice president and general manager of the global racquet sports division. Following a four-year stint as president of a small tennis apparel brand called Balle de Match, he served as the president of Prince Americas from 2008-2010 during the global financial crisis and “the most difficult time in my professional life,” he says.
He embraced a full-circle career moment when in 2012, he accepted the position as CEO of the U.S. Professional Tennis Association (USPTA), a nonprofit trade association serving over 14,000 tennis teaching professionals and coaches. Continuing education became a vital pillar of the association under Embree.
“Our stated mission was to elevate the standards of our members,” Embree says. “We wanted to make sure our pros and coaches were given the opportunity to become better professionals so that the customer experience on the court or at their respective facilities was fun and motivating.”
At the end of December 2023, Embree retired from his position at the USPTA after 11 years.
“W&L’s core values of honor, integrity and civility were guiding principles for me throughout my business and professional life,” he says. “I am forever thankful for my time at W&L, not only because of the friendships that I still have today but also because of the lessons that I gained, both in the classroom and on the athletic fields. Tennis is truly a lifetime sport.” — Jessica Luck
LOVE GAME In retirement, Embree is getting back into playing competitive tennis in national 70 age group tournaments. He won a national platform tennis championship in the men’s 50s age division 20 years ago and now has his sights set on winning a gold ball in tennis as well.
This New York Giants scouting research coordinator knows it’s more than just a numbers game.
On a typical day during the NFL draft season, Matt Dodson ’20 works long hours as a scouting research coordinator for the New York Giants, creating statistical models on every college player entering the process. These profiles are analytical deep dives that give a full picture of who they are as a player (such as their performances with their respective teams, during pro days and from the four-day NFL Combine) and more importantly how they would fit as part of the Giants. His job isn’t just compiling stats; he leverages all the available data and synthesizes the information to create an analytical opinion on each player (including rookies and free agents) to share with the decision-makers in the front office.
“The thing that attracted me to this job from day one was the ability to combine two passions: numbers and coding, and football,” he says.
Synthesizing the Stats Meet the Commish
Dodson set his sights on a dream job working in sports analytics while he was a mathematics major with a computer science minor at Washington and Lee University. He’d always been good at math it just “made sense” to him and he grew up playing football. He loved the sense of camaraderie a team instills in its players, and he continued playing football at the varsity level at W&L.
Dodson works with several different groups of people in the organization’s management office and says his time at W&L prepared him to “wear a lot of different hats.”
“By taking all the different types of classes at W&L, you learn different ways of problem-solving and how to think critically on your feet,” Dodson says. “Talking through a scheme or project that’s outside of your department and being able to be a valuable member of those interactions is a testament to how W&L prepared me for my career.” — Jessica Luck
The DIII University Athletic Association recently tapped a W&L alumna to lead the organization.
Before leading the DIII Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) for three years as its first woman commissioner and now as the first woman commissioner of the DIII University Athletic Association (UAA), Sarah Otey ’07 spent nine years at the NCAA national office. She says her W&L psychology degree proved useful in the waiver-processing aspect of her role because she could explain mental health diagnoses to coworkers and describe the impact they might have on student-athletes.
Otey frequently thinks about something she learned in a class taught by Julie Woodzicka, W&L professor of cognitive and behavioral science: “There’s a study that looks at cyclists and how much faster they were in a time trial when there were people on either side of them [versus] when they were sitting there by themselves,” Otey says. In both cases, the cyclists were told to ride as quickly as they could, but they did better when they competed against each other. “It’s been fun to remind student-athletes that they are making each other better in competition.”
As the first female commissioner of the UAA, where she facilitates all strategic and operational aspects of the organization, Otey says it’s an opportunity to “demonstrate that it’s a no-brainer to hire women in leadership positions like this,” adding that she’s never felt a professional door was closed to her because of her gender. But, she says, there are generations “just barely ahead of me” that can’t say the same thing: “I am a beneficiary of the people who came before me, and it’s my responsibility to make sure that those doors stay open for the people who come after me.”
Otey, a two-time all-academic Old Dominion Athletic Conference honoree in women’s basketball, says she was drawn to W&L for its balance of academic and athletic opportunities.
“One of the special things about W&L is that I defined myself more as a student-athlete, holistically, than as a basketball player specifically,” says Otey. “My friends that I still keep in close touch with were basketball players, soccer players, field hockey players … there’s just something about our experience that’s created that bond.” — Susan Sorensen
For additional stories and more on the alumni featured here, visit go.wlu.edu/summer-magazine-2024
SARAH OTEY ’07
MATT DODSON ’20
NAME GAME
THE BACK STORIES BEHIND SOME OF W&L’S OUTDOOR ATHLETIC SPACES
ALSTON PARKER WATT FIELD
Watt Field is named for Alston Parker Watt ’89, a two-sport letter winner in swimming and diving and lacrosse. Watt, executive director of the Williams Family Foundation of Georgia, was a member of the first coeducational class at W&L and the first undergraduate woman to serve on the Washington and Lee Board of Trustees, from 2003-2011.
Watt Field, consisting of bluegrass natural athletic turf and completed in 2003 for $1.5 million, is home to the men’s and women’s soccer teams and women’s lacrosse team.
FUGE FIELD
Fuge Field, an artificial turf field, was constructed in summer 2015 as an alternative practice and recreation field for the university. The current field sits on the site of the old Liberty Hall Fields, which served as the home for W&L’s soccer and women’s lacrosse teams for several decades.
Fuge Field is named for former W&L football and lacrosse player C. Douglas Fuge ’77 in recognition of his generous support of the Wilson Field renovations. Fuge was drawn to Washington and Lee in part by its successful Division I lacrosse program. He added to it, becoming an honorable mention All-American in 1977. Fuge began his career at Dillon Rad & Co. and moved on to a successful career with Goldman Sachs & Co. in 1984. He has served W&L on the Williams School Advisory Board and the Board of Trustees.
OUTDOOR TENNIS COURTS
The men’s and women’s tennis teams play a majority of their matches on the university’s 14 outdoor courts (upper and lower), and the courts have hosted numerous conferences and national tournaments, including the 1985, ’88 and ’97 NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Championships and the 1998 NCAA Division III Women’s Tennis Championships.
The lower courts, which were renovated and renamed the William C. Washburn Tennis Courts after the university’s first women’s tennis coach, consist of six courts and a storage building with restroom facilities. In addition to coaching the men’s (1959-64) and women’s (1986-88) tennis teams, Washburn, Class of 1940, served as W&L Alumni executive secretary from 1958-83 and associate director of development from 1983-88.
RICHARD L. DUCHOSSOIS OUTDOOR ATHLETIC COMPLEX
In 2008, Washington and Lee University named its outdoor athletic complex (comprised of Wilson Field, the fields for soccer, field hockey and baseball and the cross country course as well as the outdoor tennis courts and the indoor tennis center) in honor of Richard L. Duchossois ’44, founder and chairman of Duchossois Industries Inc., and chairman emeritus of Arlington Park Race Course, in recognition of his support of the university.
In addition to the outdoor complex, two other athletic facilities bear the Duchossois name. The Duchossois Tennis Center opened in January 1997 and features four indoor courts and a spectator gallery and has hosted numerous conferences and national tournaments. The Richard L. Duchossois Athletic and Recreation Center, which includes a restoration of the existing Doremus Gymnasium, encompasses 165,489 square feet and houses a fitness center, expanded golf practice facilities and locker rooms, offices for coaches and athletics staff and a showcase for the Athletics Hall of Fame.
CAP’N DICK SMITH FIELD
The updated Cap’n Dick Smith Field was completed in spring 1999 for $1.8 million (the stadium replaced the former Smith Field located on the current site of Watt Field). The baseball stadium includes permanent seating for 350 spectators and features two enclosed bullpens, a 2,340-square-foot building with two indoor hitting cages and a state-of-the-art public address/sound system.
Richard A. “Cap’n Dick” Smith, Class of 1913, was a standout second baseman and captain of the team as well as a member of the football team while a student at W&L. He became athletics director in 1921 and remained in that post until his retirement in 1954. He also coached the baseball team for 30 years and saw several players go on to play professionally. Under Smith, W&L developed one of the most comprehensive intercollegiate and intramural athletic programs in the Southern Conference; he was inducted into W&L’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
WILSON FIELD
Wilson Field, home to Washington and Lee University’s football, men’s lacrosse and track & field programs, is named in honor of William L. Wilson, W&L’s 13th president. Before coming to Lexington, serving from February 1897 until his death in 1900, Wilson was a congressman and postmaster general for the Grover Cleveland administration.
Since the initial field was built on its current site in the 1900s, Wilson Field has received numerous upgrades. In addition to the latest FieldTurf replacement this summer, a prior $15.5 million project featured new home and visitor stands and a seating capacity of approximately 4,000 people. The facility also boasts a state-of-the-art press box, scoreboard, sound system, lights for night games and practices and an expanded track.
Robert Humston & Megan Fulcher
Professors Robert Humston and Megan Fulcher are part of a team of faculty volunteers who serve as liaisons between athletics and academics.
BY BARBARA ELLIOTT • PHOTO BY KEVIN REMINGTON
“It forces us to see the whole student, and it really melds together what we think of as two sides of campus.” — Megan Fulcher
The life of a scholarathlete is a delicate balancing act. It takes tremendous dedication and discipline to meet expectations on both sides of the equation. To help students achieve that goal, Washington and Lee established a Faculty Athletic Mentor program in 2008 through which faculty members serve as role models who connect with student-athletes to provide support through additional counsel and advice when issues arise outside the scope of their academic advisers. Faculty mentors are dedicated to the idea of building a harmonious connection between the academic, athletic and social cultures of the university.
Professor of cognitive and behavioral science Megan Fulcher, who oversees the program, admits she was “not a sporty person” when she was invited to mentor the women’s soccer team. Fifteen years on, she laughs that she has learned a great deal about soccer but also valuable lessons about good coaching that
translate naturally to great teaching.
“You can have warm relationships, but you also have to push. I am now more comfortable saying ‘work harder’ and giving critical feedback to my students.
I admire that the athletes can meet these two demands,” she says.
Robert Humston, John Kyle Spencer Director of Environmental Studies and professor of biology, came to his role as mentor for the men’s wrestling team 14 years ago from the other end of the spectrum. He played “any sport they would let me play” in high school, including soccer, basketball and lacrosse. He then played varsity soccer and JV lacrosse in college.
“At first, I didn’t know how much I could learn as a faculty athletic mentor,” he says. “It’s been a revelation. The coaches are fantastic.
I’ve learned a lot about good teaching through watching them. They coach the individual. I see parallels in how they expect a lot of the athletes and how they rise to that expectation.”
Fulcher says the mentor serves as a liaison between the athletic and academic areas.
“They can advise the student-athletes on how
to explain to a professor why they have to be absent or with things like registration, which can be difficult because of their schedules. We can also help with recruiting and answer questions for newcomers,” she says.
CHEER SECTION
For both Humston and Fulcher, the most important part of their role is simply showing up. Fulcher goes to all home games for women’s soccer and some away games and makes cookies as a treat on a regular basis.
“I am a familiar face in the crowd,” she says. “It’s really fun. I have learned so much about soccer, and I get to know students from a different perspective. It forces us to see the whole student, and it really melds together what we think of as two sides of campus. I have started going to other sports events, and I wish more faculty and students attended. I believe it makes the players more engaged in the classroom when they know we care about it.”
Humston attends practices once a week if possible. “I just want to be visible, especially for the first-years,” he says. “The coaches invite me to sit on the bench so I
can connect with those I don’t know as well. I try to attend home matches and at least one away game, and I like to travel on the bus to tournaments. That way, I have a chance to talk with them a little more.” At the end of the year, he invites the team to his home for a dinner of wild game.
BONUS POINTS
The benefits of this program are evident. W&L led the Old Dominion Athletic Conference with a record-breaking 537 student-athletes recognized for their achievements in the classroom for the 2023-24 academic year for earning a minimum 3.25 GPA. “Division III athletics is much more demanding than it was in my day,” Humston says. “These days, they are doing so much and manage to do it so well. I like to show my appreciation for that, to recognize the effort outside and inside the classroom. You can never put down being a student-athlete. There is no off-season. It takes year-round dedication. It is pretty remarkable, to be honest, so it is not a surprise that it carries over to benefits in the classroom.”
W&L FACULTY ATHLETIC MENTORS
FALL SPORTS
MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY –Paul Youngman ’87 (associate provost, German) and Colin Reid (accounting)
WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY –Helen MacDermott (academic technologist) and Ryan Brindle (cognitive and behavioral science)
FOOTBALL – Matt Tuchler (chemistry) and Michael Hill (DeLaney Center director, Africana studies)
FIELD HOCKEY – Fred LaRiviere (associate dean, chemistry and biochemistry)
WOMEN’S SOCCER – Megan Fulcher (cognitive and behavioral science)
VOLLEYBALL – Melissa Kerin (art history)
WINTER SPORTS
MEN’S BASKETBALL –Jamie Casey ’91 (economics)
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL –Erich Uffelman (chemistry)
WOMEN’S SWIMMING –Julie Woodzicka (cognitive and behavioral science)
MEN’S SWIMMING –Martin Davies (economics)
WRESTLING – Robert Humston (environmental studies and biology)
MEN’S TENNIS – Gavin Fox (business administration)
WOMEN’S TENNIS – Mike Pleva (chemistry, emeritus) and Mark Coddington (journalism and mass communications)
MEN’S TRACK & FIELD –Youngman and Reid
WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD –Sybil Prince Nelson ’01 (mathematics)
Going for the Goal
Matt Simpson ’12 captured silver in goalball at the Paralympics in 2016. He’s hoping to top that this summer.
BY JEFF HANNA • PHOTO BY KARIN POZO
“I love competing for the U.S. Coming out of the tunnel in the red, white and blue is always a thrill for me.” — Matt Simpson ’12
att Simpson ’12 calls goalball “the best sport you’ve never heard of.”
Simpson was 10 years old when he first heard of the sport. Six years earlier he’d been diagnosed with Leber’s congenital amaurosis, a rare genetic eye disorder resulting in severe vision loss at an early age. As his eyesight deteriorated during grade school, Simpson abandoned dreams of playing baseball for the Atlanta Braves. He tried swimming and running, but neither satisfied his thirst for competition.
Then he found goalball, a team sport for visually impaired athletes. His first experience was at a summer camp hosted by the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes. He came home and proclaimed his intention to compete in the Paralympics one day. And so he has — twice: a silver medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and fourth place in Tokyo in 2021. Now, he’s training for the Paris Games in August as a member of the 2024 USA men’s goalball team.
“I love competing for the U.S. Coming out of the tunnel in the red, white and blue is always a thrill for me,” says Simpson. “Having
this chance to compete for another medal in Paris is something I’ve worked hard to achieve.”
PLAYING TO HIS STRENGTHS
Goalball was invented in the 1940s to help rehabilitate World War II veterans who’d lost their sight. Two teams of three players compete on an 18-by-9-meter court, trying to throw a ball into goals that span the width of the court on either end. All players are blindfolded since they may have varying degrees of sight. Lines are tactile so players can feel their way around.
Simpson calls the ball “a big cat toy.” It’s the size of a basketball with bells inside so players can track it by the sound. “The game requires strength and explosive power to throw the ball, which weighs three pounds,” Simpson says. “Then you need quickness and strength to block a ball traveling at up to 50 miles an hour.”
Because he had some vision growing up, Simpson developed valuable motor skills.
“A kid born totally blind won’t know what it looks like to walk or
run or throw a ball,” he says. “I was legally blind but didn’t need a cane or a dog when I was little. That’s been an advantage.”
To gain necessary strength, he’s spent hours in the weight room, starting at W&L. Simpson’s biggest asset on the goalball court is his versatility — he plays both center and wing positions.
“Matt’s father told me he was very slight until he started hitting the weights and increasing his calories at college. He really built his body up,” says Keith Young, coach of Team USA.
“I call Matt a ‘zero to 24’ guy. Whether he plays zero minutes or the entire 24 minutes, he’ll do whatever is needed to help the team win.”
ATHLETIC AMBITION
After graduating from W&L with a double major in history and politics, Simpson spent three years working for the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes before entering the University of Virginia School of Law in 2017. By then, he figured goalball, at least on
the international level, was behind him.
“I’d won a silver medal. I’d done what I had set out to do, and law school didn’t leave a lot of extra time,” he says.
Simpson filled most of his extra time by lifting weights and maintaining his physical conditioning — just in case the competitive itch returned. And it did, during his third year at UVA when he resumed training with Team USA as it prepared for the Parapan American Games. He made that team, which won silver in Lima, Peru, thereby qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
With all his impending commitments — finishing law school, studying for the bar, starting a job with the global law firm Sidley Austin — Simpson thought Tokyo was out. Then COVID19 hit; the Tokyo Games were delayed a year.
“The postponement gave me a sigh of relief, but I still doubted whether I could start work with a big law firm and keep training to be at my best,” says Simpson.
Not only did his firm support his preparations for the Paralympics, but the
pandemic also forced him to work remotely, which meant he could live, work and train anywhere — “as long as I billed my hours.”
Consequently, Simpson competed in Tokyo where Team USA finished fourth and just missed the medals. He’s excited for another chance at the gold medal in Paris this summer.
And yet, he’s driven by more than the wins and losses. As a member of the board of the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes, he’s committed to growing goalball and helping individuals with disabilities discover their potential and value in the world through sports.
“Goalball is something I love and something I’m blessed to be part of,” Simpson says.
MORE ABOUT MATT
LACROSSE LEGACY
At W&L, Simpson was rarely seen on campus without Lacrosse, his yellow Lab guide dog who always greeted everyone with a friendly tail wag. Lacrosse was equally popular on the Grounds at UVA Law, even winning the annual “Paw Review” pet photo contest one year. Unfortunately, Lacrosse died in November 2019.
REUNION ROUNDUP
YOUNG ALUMS, FIVE-STARS AND LAW GRADS RETURN TO CAMPUS
More than 500 alumni and guests from the classes of 2013-2023 returned to campus Nov. 3-5, 2023, for the annual Young Alumni Weekend. Kathryn Stewart Gragg ’13, Wayde Marsh ’13 and Camie Carlock McKee ’13 were awarded the 2023 Distinguished Young Alumni Awards.
On March 7-9, W&L welcomed nearly 70 alumni and guests from the Classes of 1973 and earlier for the Five-Star Festival, with Classes of 1969, 1964 and 1959 celebrating their 55th, 60th and 65th reunions, respectively. Special recognition was given to Hardin Marion ’55, ’58L (69 years post-graduation) and Henry Porter ’58 (70 years post-graduation). The Five-Star Distinguished Alumni Awards honored John Carrere Jr. ’69, Barry Greene ’64 and Lewis “Lash” LaRue ’59.
And on April 12-14, the Law School welcomed more than 350 returning law alumni and guests — the second-highest attendance on record since the law school began holding a separate alumni weekend in 2007. The Outstanding Alumnus/a Award was given to Bill Oast ’71, ’74L; the Volunteer of the Year Award recipient was Calvin Awkward ’06, ’09L; and the Young Volunteer of the Year Award recipient was Kathy McLaughlin ’19L.
To read more about each event, visit go.wlu.edu/ yaw-2023, go.wlu.edu/five-star-2024 and go.wlu. edu/law-alumni-awards-2024
EVENTS
YOUNG ALUMNI WEEKEND
SEPT. 13-15, 2024
We will celebrate the fifth and 10th reunions for the Classes of 2019 and 2014; all alumni from 2014 to 2024 are invited to join. We’ll also celebrate the W&L QuestBridge 10th anniversary and reunion.
POLICY FORUM
OCT. 10-11, 2024
Gather with fellow W&L alumni and community members in Washington, D.C., for a forum exploring the intersection of politics, policy and the private sector.
HALL OF FAME
OCT. 11-12, 2024
Join us to celebrate the newest inductees into the Washington and Lee Athletics Hall of Fame: Mike Wenke ’79 for men’s basketball, Hilary Martin Chaney ’98, ’04L for women’s volleyball, Tim McGlaston ’08 for men’s swimming, Sarah Tilbor ’08 for women’s lacrosse and former men’s lacrosse coach from 1990 to 2001, Jim Stagnitta.
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Alumni from the classes of 1973 and earlier joined the Five-Star Festival.
Law Council President Corrine Hufft ’00L passed the leadership gavel to Neil Millhiser ’11L.
Hannah Dewing ’19, Adit Ahmed ’19, Catherine Simpson ’18 and Caroline Boras ’18 enjoyed the alumni tailgate during Young Alumni Weekend.
Hall of Fame: 2023 Inductees
BY LAURA LEMON ’16
The Washington and Lee Athletics Hall of Fame was established in 1987 by the Alumni Board of Directors to honor those who have made outstanding contributions to W&L athletics. The newest members of the Hall of Fame were inducted during a ceremony in fall 2023.
Emily Applegate ’07 helped the W&L tennis team earn its first NCAA Division III championship in program history in 2007. As a player, she won the 2006 NCAA national championship in singles and garnered five first-team All-American honors and two ODAC Player of the Year distinctions. She was named Intercollegiate Tennis Association South Region Player to Watch in 2005, nominated for the 2006 Honda Award for DIII Female Athlete of the Year and won the 2007 Pres Brown Award as W&L’s most valuable senior athlete in women’s sports.
Sam Chase ’99’s 52 career goals and 117 career points continue to hold the record at W&L in men’s soccer. He was named to four all-ODAC teams, second-team all-region by NCSAA/United Soccer Coaches his sophomore year and firstteam all-region his senior year. He also
was voted first-team VaSID all-state in 1999. The forward’s record remains in the ODAC with the third-most career goals and eighth-most career points in conference history.
As a three-time ODAC Rider of the Year and four-time first-team all-ODAC, Caitlin Lane ’06 helped the equestrian team secure its first ODAC championship in 2006. During her tenure, she won three regional titles and four zone titles and finished third, fifth and fourth (twice) at the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association National Championship, placing seventh in the Cacchione Cup for National Rider of the Year. She now works in equestrian event and sport operations on the national and international level for competitions such as the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, 2019 Lima Pan American Games and 2018 Tryon World Equestrian Games.
Three-time first-team all-ODAC defensive player Kat Michaels ’08 helped women’s lacrosse earn four ODAC titles and NCAA tournament bids. During the 2005 and 2007 seasons, the team’s defense was ranked No. 1 in Division III
in goals allowed. During her sophomore and junior campaigns, she earned all-region honors, with the IWLCA naming her third-team All-American in 2007. In 2008, she was named ODAC and VaSID College Division Player of the Year, selected to the IWLCA all-Chesapeake region first team, was awarded the 2008 Pres Brown Award and earned the National Defender of the Year title with IWLCA, Inside Lacrosse and womenslacrosse.com, in addition to first-team All-American honors.
The 1974 men’s lacrosse team followed up the strong ’73 season with another undefeated regular season (14-0) and an NCAA Division I tournament semifinal appearance. They finished the year ranked third in the University Division with a 15-1 record. Ted Bauer ’74, Skip Lichtfuss ’74 and Skeet Chadwick ’74 were named firstteam All-American, Dave Warfield ’75 earned second-team All-American, and Jim Farrar ’74 was named third-team All-American, with Bryan Chasney ’74 and Rob Lindsey ’76 receiving honorable mention distinctions.
JOHN JENSEN ’01 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI AND CAREER SERVICES
1937
The Central Intelligence Agency placed a star in honor of John Prive Evans on the CIA Memorial Wall. Evans died in a plane crash on Jan. 5, 1969, in Thailand while traveling on official orders during the Vietnam War. The Memorial Wall honors CIA officers who made the ultimate sacrifice and is located in the Original Headquarters Building in McLean, Virginia. Evans’ star brings the total on the wall to 140 stars.
1957
Larry Atler wishes to bring upbeat news to 1950s alumni. He turned 89 in November 2023 and still has fun with investing in oil and gas, apartments and warehouses, type 2 Arizona groundwater, 10 mobile home parks, venture capital/private equity companies and his family’s marijuana farm. He regularly lifts weights, swims and walks. His wife, Marilyn Van Derbur Atler former Phi Beta
ENJOYING AN EVENTFUL TIME
Summer has been busy. Our chapters are welcoming new alumni to their ranks, hosting career panels and planning for the popular Summer Send-Off parties. I am grateful for our chapter volunteers who make this all possible and look forward to a full slate of programs in the fall.
Every new academic year, I get that great “back to school” feeling — crisp mornings on the Colonnade, energized and ready for what’s ahead. Our fall athletes will report to campus soon, which will signal the start of the 2024-2025 year! Shortly after the start of classes, we are welcoming back to campus in mid-September our young alumni, highlighting the Classes of 2014 and 2019.
Make sure to mark your calendars for a special opportunity this fall. We are planning an event in conjunction with the Sept. 21 football game on the road in San Antonio against Trinity University. All football alumni will be invited.
And, somehow, my team still has time to plan for our first-ever ever Policy Forum: National Security and the Economy, taking place Oct. 10-11 in Washington, D.C. That will coincide with our fall career exploration trips, which connect our students with alumni in various fields. We could not facilitate those impactful student experiences without our wonderful alumni and parent hosts, so thank you!
Kappa Miss America, outstanding platform speaker and award-winning author works out with him daily.
Stanley Erdreich Jr. released his debut album, “Songs from Nashville.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, he published a book of poetry, “Swallow Path,” where he asked his grandchildren to each select a poem and create an illustration, and his adventure into songwriting, and subsequent recording with a Grammy-winning producer, stemmed from that experience. A Birmingham, Alabama, native, Erdreich previously worked in international banking, venture capital, real estate and appointments under three presidential administrations for work involving matters of the Pacific Basin.
1970
Bill Phillips completed a sprint triathlon in Cohasset, Massachusetts, which included a 1/3-mile cold water swim, a 13-mile bike ride and a
5K run/walk. He finished third among men in his age category (75-79) and participated with his son and son-in-law.
1973
Richard Bonnifield joined the Husch Blackwell’s Energy & Natural Resources business unit as a partner where he provides energy regulatory services. A resident of Hilton Head, South Carolina, Bonnifield is based in the firm’s virtual Link office and affiliated with the firm’s Washington, D.C., office.
Lat Purser completed the 3.5-mile Tampa Bay Navy Seal Frogman Swim on Jan. 15, 2023. Don Eavenson ’73 was his kayak spotter.
1975
Thomas “Olle” Lundberg received the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Virginia School of Architecture, which recognizes graduates who have demonstrated creativity, innovation, leadership and vision through their
body of work. He studied sculpture and English literature at W&L before enrolling in the Master of Architecture program at UVA. He founded Lundberg Design in 1987 in San Francisco, which has been recognized with the Long View Award for Achievement in Sustainable Design, ASLA-NCC Honor Award, AIA Honor Award, Architizer A+ Award and an IIDA Merit Award.
1976
Harry “Hal” W. Wellford Jr. was appointed to serve as a trial master for the Missouri Attorney General’s Trial Masters Program and Committee. Wellford is one of 14 attorneys statewide selected for this program, which is intended to provide training and mentorship to its next generation of public-service attorneys from experienced litigators from across Missouri. Wellford is a shareholder in the St. Louis office of Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management.
1977
W.H. “Bill” Clemons published his book “Selling Lies.”
1978
Mark A. Bradley retired from the federal government after nearly 30 years of service. His career included serving as a CIA intelligence officer in Pakistan after the Soviet Union invaded neighboring Afghanistan; Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s intelligence and foreign affairs adviser as well as the senator’s last legislative director; and the deputy counsel for intelligence policy at the United States Department of Justice, where he practiced in front of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and oversaw classified counterterrorism and counterespionage investigations and cases. In 2016, then-President Barack Obama approved his nomination from the
archivist of the United States to be the director of the Information Security Oversight Office at the National Archives and Records Administration.
A member of the federal government’s Senior Executive Service since 2003, he received numerous awards for his service, including an Exceptional Performance Award from the CIA, an Attorney General’s Award, two Assistant Attorney General’s Awards and the Director’s Medallion from the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. He is the author of two books and is working on a third about a double murder the Ku Klux Klan committed in Louisiana in 1922.
1983
John K. Butler was elected to the board of trustees of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The Mott Foundation supports and works with organizations in Flint, Michigan, and communities around the world to promote a just, equitable and sustainable society; the foundation makes grants through four programs: civil society, education, environment and the Flint area. Butler has worked in the investment sector for over 30 years and currently serves as chief investment officer and a trustee of the Patrick and Aimee Butler Family Foundation, based in St. Paul, Minnesota.
1985
After 38 years in public accounting, Michael S. Bearup retired from KPMG. His career included serving clients as an audit partner, over 12 years as office managing partner of KPMG’s Colorado offices and serving five years on the KPMG U.S. Board of Directors, including two years as lead director and the last two years as partner in charge-culture for KPMG U.S. He’s looking forward to enjoying some Colorado skiing.
Michael Hudson recently left the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to become head of investigations at the Guardian US, the
American arm of the U.K.-based Guardian news network. He’s leading the launch of an investigations unit that will report on corporate and government misconduct, attacks on democracy and human rights and other challenges facing the U.S.
Gib Kerr published his second book, “Un-Cancel Robert E. Lee.”
1986
Edgar Award-winning author James McLaughlin published his second novel, “Panther Gap.”
1989
John Lawson published his first novel, “Kurtz.”
1990
Phillip Sampson Jr. was named a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the premier legal associations in North America. He is a partner at Bracewell LLP in Houston, where he works with business litigation and arbitration matters involving the energy, construction, manufacturing, steel, oil field services, chemical, petrochemical, software, financial services, consumer products and real estate sectors. He also co-chairs the firm’s construction litigation practice group.
1991
Jenny Kelley joined the Institute for Defense Analyses as director of the Center for Computing Sciences. IDA is a nonprofit corporation that operates three federally funded research and development centers in the public interest. In her role, Kelley leads a team in developing new science to solve intelligence-related problems of importance to national security. Kelley previously worked as global operations program manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, as chief in the cyber-resilience attack scenario department at Morgan Stanley and in a number of roles at the National Security Agency.
1992
Christopher Jackson joined AllianceBernstein as a senior vice president and managing director, acting as point person for all institutional business development for AllianceBernstein’s $17 billion private credit/direct lending division. He continues to work and live in New York City with his wife, Delphina, and their 12-year-old twins, Liam and Leia. He often sees his classmate and pledge brother, Gene Pride
William Toles ’92, ’95L was named a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the premier legal associations in North America. He is a shareholder at Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr P.C. in Dallas, where he works as a civil trial attorney.
1993
Christian Dysart joined Maynard Nexsen during the expansion and acquisition of his North Carolina’s criminal defense firm, Dysart Willis. Dysart has focused on white collar criminal defense and government investigations work for over 15 years.
1994
Sally Obermueller Berry was named director of the Master of Business Administration program at the University of Dayton in June 2022.
Daniel G. Katzenbach of Cranfill Sumner LLP was named to Best Lawyers 2024 “Lawyers of the Year” in the field of professional malpractice law defendants. He is a partner in the firm’s Raleigh, North Carolina, office and chair of the construction law practice group. He focuses on construction law, premises liability, environmental and toxic torts and architects’ and engineers’ professional liability.
1995
Elizabeth Murphey Downey was promoted to the rank of full professor at Mississippi State University.
Theodore “Ted” Dimitry is now managing director and energy
Clemons ’77 SELLING LIES
AND INFLUENCE
James McLaughlin ’86 PANTHER GAP
John Lawson ’89 KURTZ
Regina Mills ’09 INVISIBILITY
W.H.
▼
Gib Kerr ’85 UN-CANCEL ROBERT E. LEE
and marine practice leader in the Houston office of Higginbotham, a national insurance brokerage and risk management consulting firm.
On Nov. 23, 2023, Matthew Mogk suffered from a basilar artery stroke in his home in Charlotte, North Carolina. This type of stroke occurs in less than 1% of stroke suffers and is 85% deadly and the majority of those who survive lose total physical function while maintaining mental acuity. When Mogk went into emergency surgery, many felt his prognosis wasn’t good. However, with the help of surgeon Dr. Andrew Griffin ’04 , Mogk made an incredible recovery. “When I woke up after the operation, Dr. Griffin and I were pleasantly surprised by our common connection,” Mogk says. “Six weeks later and after a month in the hospital, I am walking and talking just fine. I have full use of my hands and arms and and have driven my children to school. There are no obvious physical or mental signs of a stroke.”
1996
Michael Hewlett joined The Assembly, an online North Carolina news outlet, where he covers criminal justice. Hewlett previously worked for the Winston-Salem Journal as the legal affairs reporter.
1998
Clyde “Russ” Woody joined Conner & Winters as a partner in its Oklahoma City office. Woody is a civil litigator who specializes in employment law and is a certified mediator.
2000
Elizabeth Abrams’ landscape and wildlife photography and mixed media art was featured in a solo exhibition called “Antidotes: Seeing Beauty, Finding Connection” at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Scott LeTourneau was named executive vice president and
chief financial officer of Cox Automotive in Atlanta. Cox Automotive is the world’s largest automotive services and technology provider, and in this role, LeTourneau is responsible for all finance functions and the company’s financial solutions business, NextGear Capital. LeTourneau has been with Cox since 2012.
2002
Benjamin Johns was elected to serve a six-year term as a magisterial district judge in Upper Darby, which is the sixth-largest municipality in Pennsylvania. He is also a co-founder and named partner of the class action firm Shub & Johns LLC, located in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. In the past few years, Johns has argued in both the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
Samuel P. Langholz was appointed by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to serve as a judge on the Iowa Court of Appeals.
2003
Lincoln Rose uploaded episodes of his TV show, “The 5th Quarter,” which was his independent study while at W&L, to mark the 20th anniversary of the 2002 football season. The show features players, coaches and even a trick play ESPN ran. All eight episodes and additional weekly player diaries are reposted on www.LincolnRose.net/5q .
Joseph Vitta is an associate professor at Waseda University in Tokyo.
2004
Meghan Hayde Bollens completed her Doctor of Education degree from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development. Her research focuses on belongingness among independent school educators, in partnership with the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) to explore how feelings of belonging influence faculty retention.
2005
Kaitlin “Katie” Abplanalp Brown ’05, ’11L joined FisherBroyles, LLP in Detroit as a partner. Her practice focuses on employment law.
Tyler Wolf ’05, ’08L joined Barnes & Thornburg LLP in Atlanta as a partner.
2006
Elizabeth Twentyman Gilmore won gold for the second year in the elite VERSA Championship at the World Indoor Rowing Championship. She defeated a former Olympian to take the prize.
Matthew Lawless was promoted to vice president-general counsel of Roseburg Forest Products, a timber company with $2.5 billion in annual revenues. His wife, Jessica Lloyd ’06 , maintains a busy practice as a pelvic floor surgeon. The couple, along with children Abe and Anika, reside in Eugene, Oregon.
2009
Regina Mills published her first academic monograph, “Invisibility and Influence.”
Dana Statton Thompson published her first edited volume through American Library Association (ALA) editions, “Unframing the Visual: Visual Literacy Pedagogy in Academic Libraries and Information Spaces.” Thompson is assistant dean of libraries and a research and instruction librarian and associate professor at Murray State University.
2012
T. Brooks Proctor was elevated to partnership at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Birmingham, Alabama. He was a member of the Bradley team with the Innocence Project that exonerated a man who was wrongfully convicted of a double murder and incarcerated for 14 years. Proctor works on a variety of litigation matters such as contract disputes, business torts, general commercial litigation and class actions and was selected to the
Alabama State Bar’s 2022 Leadership Forum.
2018
Matthew Kaminer ’18, ’22L serves as a law clerk to the Hon. Julio M. Fuentes with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Newark, New Jersey.
2021
Darcy Olmstead graduated with a master’s in modern and contemporary art history (MODA) from Columbia University in May 2023.
BIRTHS
Paul N. Downey ’00 and his wife, Liza, a daughter, Rosie, in November 2023. She joins siblings Daniel, 11, Betsy, 8, Johnny, 6, and Hank, 4.
Kara Lehman Green ’05 and husband, Chris, a son, Samuel, on Aug. 29, 2023. He joins brother Jacob, 4.
Ashlee Metcalf Williams ’06 and her husband, Derrick, a daughter, Haley Grace Williams, on May 8, 2023. She joins sister Madison.
Rebecca Susan LeMoine ’08 and husband, Matthew Alan Taylor, a son, Julien Lewis Taylor, on June 8, 2023. He joins brother Bernard. The family lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Lisa Martinez ’08 and husband, Adam Banks, a daughter, Elena, on Oct. 17, 2023. She joins sister Sophia.
Kyle Daniel Koka ’11 and Ann Burton Gerhardt Koka ’13 , a son, Nils Henrik Koka, on Oct. 10, 2023. The family lives in Stockholm.
Jamison Shabanowitz ’15L and Kerriann Shabanowitz ’13, ’16L , a girl, Sydney, on July 28, 2023.
1. SoRelle Peat Rodriguez ’12 to Marc Rodriguez on May 7, 2022, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Alumni in attendance included Alex Utsey Jones ’09, Christine Balistreri ’11, Dominika Kruszewska-Eduardo ’12, Emily Harlan Starks ’12, Ryan Starks ’14L, Jennifer Bulley Faubion ’14, Mark Faubion ’14 and Dr. Caroline Vines ’13. The couple resides in Washington, D.C.
2. Claire Meyers Williams ’18 to Jonathan “J.T.” Williams ’18 on Aug. 27, 2022, in Cincinnati. Alumni in attendance included Maggie Sands ’18, Vicky Kazmierczak ’18, Cole Wilbur ’18, Jack Lenz ’18 and James Willey ’18.
3. Todd Alan McDonald ’17 to Laura Waggener McDonald ’17 on Oct. 15, 2022, at the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia. Alumni in attendance included Cody Bills ’15, Sam Gibson ’17, Callie Ramsey ’17, Spencer Payne ’17, Cody Solomon ’17, Andriana Bove ’17, Abby Beasley ’18, Riley Messer ’16, Andrew Donchez ’17, Wes Cutler ’17, Allie Barry ’17, Emily Cook Solomon ’17, Conley Hurst ’17, Edward Thompson ’17, Karen Santana-Garces ’17, Asha Campbell ’17, Cory Paton ’17, Kade Kenlon ’17, Peyton Bryant Kenlon ’17, Elisabeth Holmes ’17,
Thomas Ferguson ’17, Alexandra Viers ’14, Kevin Kirschner ’18, Joe Beeby ’16, Zac Santangelo ’17, Alexander Rurka ’17, John Struckell ’17, Hadley Smith ’17, Tommy Concklin ’17, Michael Lukas ’17, Finn Barrett ’17, Will Lyon ’17, Wheeler Reiss ’16, Grayson Graham ’17, Mitchell Hamilton ’16, Nick Lico ’17, Brooke Peccie ’17, Teddy Bowie ’18, Lindsay Castleberry ’17, Joe Siami ’16, Katie Degnan ’17 and Brian Daniels ’17.
4. Catherine Acomb Richardson ’11 to Scott Richardson on April 15, 2023, in New Orleans. Alumni present included Billy Crosby ’13, Catherine Lindley Rouse ’11, Patrick Rouse ’11, Maggie Dozier Carr ’11, Alex Carr ’12, Holly Suthers Gainer ’11, Hugh Gainer ’11, Anne Collier Reid Wood ’11, Mary Helen Turnage Skeadas ’11, Shelby Lawrence Freiman ’11, Anna Claire Skinner ’11, Katie Geddes ’11, Carson Haddow ’11, Anne Lykes Woodard ’12, Sarah Agnew ’16, Bennett Hermann ’19, Lily Horsley ’20, Garrett Horsley ’90L, John Monroe ’82 and John Buttarazzi ’83.
5. Katelyn “Katie” Degnan ’17 to Jake Barden on May 28, 2023, at the Cedar Room in the historic Cigar Factory in Charleston, South Carolina. Alumni in
attendance included James Steel ’15, Ryley Steel ’16, Elizabeth Schmitz ’17, Price Bohrer ’14, Sara Moir ’16, Laura Waggener McDonald ’17, Thomas Ferguson ’17, Elisabeth Holmes ’17, Emily Solomon ’17, Andriana Bove ’17, Cody Solomon ’17, Matt Bartini ’12, Peyton Bryant Kenlon ’17, Kade Kenlon ’17, Asha Campbell ’17, Rainsford Reel ’17, Lindsay Castleberry ’17, Todd Alan McDonald ’17 and Nicole Kasica ’16. The couple resides in Atlanta.
6. Logan Brand ’20 to Anna Soroka Brand ’20 in June 2023 in Lexington, Virginia. Alumni in attendance included (front row) Jimmie Johnson ’20, Jenny Graham ’20, Allie Case ’20, Ashleigh Meade ’20 and Amanda Ebling ’19; (middle row) Joe Gagnon ’20, Collin Sherman ’19, Matt Dodson ’20, Riley Bartlett ’20, Kristen Castle ’20, Mollie Ray ’20, Emily Roche ’20, Brynne Gould ’21, Kiera Borthwick ’21, Annie Lentz ’20, Brian Legarth ’20 and Walker Brand ’18; (back row) Trevor Stalnaker ’20, Hannah O’Connor ’22, Allison Webb ’20, Molly Roberts ’20, Kate Groninger ’22, Jay Roberts ’20, Val Sokolow ’22, Phil Davis ’20, Jack Grim ’20, Colby Boudreau ’20, Braxton Wall ’20, Drew Richardson ’20, Sean Clark ’20 and Andrew Brouse ’20.
1. John Carrere ’69 of New Orleans (right) reunited with his cousin Richard “Dick” Colton ’64 in December 2023. Carrere was honored with W&L’s Five-Star Distinguished Alumni Award in 2024.
2. Dornoch, owned in part by Larry Connolly ’79 ’s (left) West Paces Racing syndicate, won the 156th Belmont Stakes on June 8 in Saratoga Springs, New York, with jockey Luis Saez up.
3. Five W&L alumni with connections to the NFL made some new friends at the organization’s annual meeting in March 2023 in Phoenix: recently retired NFL Vice President of Special Projects Pete Abitante ’78 , NFL Vice President of Club Finance Will Dorrance ’11 , Vice President of Football Communications for the Philadelphia Eagles Brett Strohsacker ’06 , Amazon Prime Video NFL sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung ’07 and NFL Senior Director of Event Strategy and Business Planning Alex Brooke ’10. And in July 2024, Brooke won the Commissioner’s Award, which is the top award given every two years to an NFL employee who makes a tremendous contribution to the organization and lives out its values.
4. Six members of the 1973 The Play’s the Thing: Shakespeare in Performance Spring Term class gathered for a 50th reunion on April 22, 2023, at the Morris House along with George W. Ray, professor emeritus of English. Standing: Jim Hornor ’74, Rick Anderson ’74, Bill Melton ’74, Ray, Barney Skelton ’75 and Ted Blain ’74 . Seated: Rich Bonnifield ’73 , who holds a portrait of the same group in roughly the same order taken on Shakespeare’s birthday in 1973 at Stratford-Upon-Avon, England.
5. Alumni gathered during the Washington celebration of Bill Connelly, professor of politics emeritus (second from right), including four members of the Class of 1992: Jamie Tucker, David Bohigian, Tom Snedeker and Marc Short
6. Mark Davis ’56 and Charlie Castner ’52 reunited to celebrate Castner’s 95th birthday at the Louisville Country Club in Louisville, Kentucky. Castner played piano at W&L in a group called Southern Collegians. Davis sang while Castner played the “W&L Swing” at the party.
Alumni Weekend Marks Record-Setting Giving
Washington and Lee welcomed nearly 1,000 alumni and guests from the classes of 1974-2009 back to campus to celebrate its annual spring Alumni Weekend, which also saw record-setting giving. Reunion participants traveled from 40 states to reconnect with one another and their alma mater, and the collective class reunion gifts raised more than $5.3 million for the Annual Fund.
“There are so many reasons to love W&L. Reunion Weekend reminds us that chief among those is our shared sense of experience with a unique community of friends … some we may be seeing again for the first time in decades,” remarked William “Billy” M. Webster IV ’79, emeritus trustee and 45th reunion co-chair, during the Opening Assembly. “Let us lean in and glory in Washington and Lee as we did when we first sat here, in this chapel, many years ago, and began our journey.”
The Alumni Association elected Sandy Hooper ’97, ’03L as incoming president and Kristen Youngblood Archer ’06 as vice president, as well as six new members of the Alumni Board of Directors: Cory Chung Allison ’94, Kevin Anderson ’86, Cory Mettee Birdsall ’99, Stephen Hostetler ’02, Lorena Manriquez ’88 and Mikel Parker ’99.
Omicron Delta Kappa honor society welcomed honorary initiates Jennifer Stone Wolkind ’99, Matthew L. Wotiz ’99, Thomas A. Mattesky ’74 and John M. Zamoiski ’74. And five recipients were honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award: Theodore “Ted” Bauer ’74, James “Jim” Farrar ’74, William “Bill” Wallace ’74, ’77L, Thomas “T.” Blair ’99 and Elizabeth Richey Thompson ’99.
The success of the weekend was underscored by the class reunion gifts and class and program records that were set. Collectively, this year’s reunion classes raised more than $1.4 million for the 2023-24 Annual Fund and committed a total of $5.3 million in current gifts and future pledges to the Annual Fund.
For more on this exciting weekend, visit go.wlu.edu/alumni-weekend-2024
The Class of 1974 presented their 50th reunion class gift, totaling more than $4.8 million — the largest 50th reunion gift in four years — with 64% of the class participating.
The Class of 1999 had an exceptional year with a total of $7.3 million, shattering the existing 25th reunion record of $4.7 million held by the Class of 1996.
The Class of 1994 broke two all-time program records. Raising more than $1.4 million in current gifts and future pledges committed to the Annual Fund, they surpassed the record of $1.3 million set by the Class of 1969 in 2009. And, raising $382,000 for the FY23-24 Annual Fund, the Class of 1994 surpassed the program record of $359,000 set by the Class of 1979 in 2014.
Two reunion classes (1999 and 1994) raised over $1 million for the Annual Fund. This has only happened once before, in 2014.
W&L’s senior class (2024) and the Class of 1999 (25th reunion) competed in the second annual Senior Class vs. 25th Reunion Class Participation Challenge. The two classes competed to see who would have the highest participation in the Annual Fund by Alumni Weekend. The Class of 1999 won the challenge and were bestowed gold medals by the senior co-chairs.
Clockwise from top: The Class of 1974 celebrated their 50th reunion. Members of the Class of 1994 joined the open house hosted by the Class of 1994 Office of Inclusion and Engagement. Much of the programming in this space is supported by the endowment created as part of the Class of 1994’s 25th reunion gift. Illuminations decorated the Colonnade to start the Alumni Weekend festivities.
OBITS
1940s
Dr. Edward M. Cooper ’43 , of Loudon, Tennessee, died on July 1, 2023. After serving in the Air Force, he became the first board-certified specialist at St. Bernards Hospital in Jonesboro, Arkansas. He served as president of the Craighead Poinsett Medical Society and frequently flew his personal aircraft to conduct radiology consults at hospitals in Missouri and Arkansas. He belonged to Sigma Chi.
Dr. Guy B. Merritt ’44 , of Roanoke, Virginia, died on Feb. 8, 2024. He enjoyed a 60-year career as a dentist.
Brent Breedin Jr. ’47, of West Columbia, South Carolina, died on June 9, 2023. He worked as a sports journalist before entering the public relations field. He was an undergraduate class agent of the Annual Fund. He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Delta Chi.
Harry H. Hill Jr. ’49, of Charlottesville, Virginia, died on Nov. 17, 2023. He was on the soccer team and belonged to Delta Upsilon and Phi Eta Sigma.
Matthew W. Paxton Jr. ’49, of Lexington, Virginia, died on Sept. 23, 2023. A career newspaperman, he retired as publisher and editor
of The News-Gazette, in Lexington. He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Eta Sigma, Sigma Delta Chi and Omicron Delta Kappa.
1950s
The Rev. Marion G. “Pat” Robertson ’50, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, died on June 8, 2023. Robertson found the Christian Broadcasting Network whose signature program was “The 700 Club.” He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Eta Sigma.
Dr. William B. Stodghill ’50, of New Albany, Indiana, died on Sept. 30, 2023. He practiced internal medicine and worked in the intervention process for chemical dependency.
Robert W. Vaughan ’50, of Louisville, Kentucky, died on Oct. 8, 2023. He became a partner in the family insurance agency, which after a merger became the largest independent insurance agency in Kentucky; he retired as senior vice president. He belonged to Phi Delta Theta.
Richard O. Carden ’52 , of Richmond, Virginia, died on Sept. 12, 2023. He worked in newspapers and public relations before becoming executive director of the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers.
After retiring, he built and flew his own airplane. He belonged to Pi Kappa Phi and Sigma Delta Chi.
Charles O. Dean Jr. ’52 , of Leland, Mississippi, died on Jan. 5, 2024. He served as managing partner of Panther Burn Company, a farm in Mississippi, as well as president of Big Panther Inc. He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
The Very Rev. Robert D. Schenkel Jr. ’52 , of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, died on Nov. 2, 2023. After a career serving in Episcopal ministry, he retired as dean and rector of the Cathedral Church of the Nativity. He was a member of the Reunion Class Committee. He was on the soccer team and belonged to Phi Kappa Sigma.
Donald L. Shuck ’52 , of Easton, Maryland, died on Jan. 14, 2024. He worked for the family business, Shafer Coachlines, before becoming a stock broker with Moore, Leonard & Lynch. He belonged to Delta Tau Delta.
Hugh H. Bond ’53 , of Lynchburg, Virginia, died on June 30, 2023. He worked for more than six decades at Scott and Bond, Inc. as an insurance and real estate agent.
William Kent Ford Jr. ’53 , of Millboro, Virginia, died on
June 18, 2023. He designed and installed electronic image tube spectrographs on telescopes around the world for the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. He belonged to Delta Tau Delta.
Stephen F. Lichtenstein ’53 , of Stowe, Vermont, died on Dec. 21, 2023. His law career spanned four decades. He was a member of the Reunion Class Committee. He was on the lacrosse, soccer and wrestling teams. He belonged to Phi Epsilon Pi, Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Eta Sigma.
The Rt. Rev. Charlie F. McNutt Jr. ’53 , of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, died on Oct. 25, 2023. He was a bishop coadjutor of Central Pennsylvania and retired as chief operating officer of the National Episcopal Church. He was a member of the Reunion Class Committee. He belonged to Sigma Chi and Phi Beta Kappa.
George W. St. Clair ’53 , of Richmond, Virginia, died on Dec. 3, 2023. After service in the U.S. Navy, he worked in the commercial banking industry and owned Janosko Food Equipment Corporation. He was an
undergraduate class agent for the Annual Fund and a member of the Reunion Class Committee. He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Beta Gamma Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa.
J. Robert Cross ’54 , of Richmond, Virginia, died on Aug. 30, 2023. He worked for 40 years at C&P Telephone and Bell Atlantic and retired as comptroller of Bell AtlanticVirginia. He was an undergraduate class agent for the Annual Fund and co-chairman of the Reunion Class Committee. He belonged to Sigma Nu and Phi Beta Kappa.
Samuel L. Davidson ’54 , ’57L , of Dallas, died on Sept. 13, 2023. He was a patent attorney for a number of years before entering the fiberglass and aluminum boat manufacturing field. He was a law class agent for the Annual Fund and member of the Law Council. He belonged to Phi Eta Sigma.
The Rev. Peter R. Doyle ’54 , of Charlotte, North Carolina, died on Jan. 2, 2024. He served as an Episcopal and Presbyterian minister. He was on the soccer team and belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
Dr. Harold J. Quinn Jr. ’54 , of Charleston, South Carolina, died on Dec. 18, 2023. He worked as an ear, nose
DONNA ‘CHRIS’ BUTLER BALL, TRUSTEE EMERITA
Donna “Chris” Butler Ball P’96, P’00, P’01 and trustee emerita of Washington and Lee University, died on April 7, 2024, in Jacksonville, Florida. She was 76.
Ball was born on Feb. 4, 1948, in Columbus, Georgia, to Clarence and Weezie Butler. She graduated from The Westminster Schools in Atlanta in 1965 and Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, in 1969. While at Hollins, she met her future husband, Willis Manville “Billy” Ball III ’69, an All-American swimmer and Hall of Fame inductee at W&L. The couple married on Feb. 14, 1970, in Columbus, and they ultimately settled in Jacksonville in 1971.
Both Ball and her husband treasured W&L and served the university in various capacities when their first child, Philip “Butler” Ball ’96, attended, followed soon thereafter by their son Christopher McNeil Ball ’00 and daughter Sarah “Sallie”
and throat doctor. He was a member of the Reunion Class Committee. He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Alpha Epsilon Delta, Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Eta Sigma.
Dr. Richard W. Bank ’55, of Beverly Hills, California, died on Nov. 22, 2023. He worked as senior attending physician at Cedars Sinai Hospital, was a professor emeritus at the University of Southern California School of Medicine and served as a consultant for biotechnology companies. He was a member of the Reunion Class Committee. He belonged to Phi Epsilon Pi, Alpha Epsilon Delta and Psi Chi.
Harry M. Ford Jr. ’55, of Towson, Maryland, died on Dec. 9, 2023. He worked for nearly six decades as a Legg Mason stockbroker and investment adviser. He was a member of the Reunion Class Committee and was on the lacrosse team. He belonged to Phi Delta Theta.
Douglas D. Monroe Jr. ’55, of Kilmarnock, Virginia, died on Aug. 31, 2023. Following his military service in the U.S. Navy, he enjoyed a 58-year career with Chesapeake Bank, serving as CEO and chairman of the board.
At W&L, he belonged to Sigma Nu.
Gilbert Ball ’01. Ball served on the Parents Leadership Council from 1996-2001 and on the W&L Board of Trustees from 2001 to 2006.
Ball valued education, and in addition to her service at W&L, she was the first female chair of the Bolles School Board and board member of the University of North Florida Foundation. Ball returned to school in her midlife to pursue a master’s degree in comparative religious studies at the University of North Florida. Years later, she completed a master gardener program where she underwent intensive horticultural training and, upon completion, volunteered to share her knowledge with her community.
She also advocated for children, health care and the arts, serving on boards such as the Junior League of Jacksonville, the American Cancer Society, the Women’s Board of Wolfson Children’s Hospital, the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, the Jacksonville Zoo, the Bradley-Turner Foundation and the Baptist Health Foundation.
Ball is survived by her husband, Billy; sons, Butler (Hilton) and Christopher (Lyssa); daughter, Sallie; six grandchildren; sister, Elizabeth Butler “Betsy” Ramsay (Al), and brother, Stephen Turner Butler (Kent).
Rudolph J. Stutzmann ’55, of Woodstock, New York, died on June 25, 2023. He served as director and president of R. Stutzmann and Son Funeral Home. He was a member of the Reunion Class Committee. He belonged to Kappa Sigma and Psi Chi.
David S. Weinberg ’55, of Frederick, Maryland, died on Sept. 14, 2023. He established the law firm of Weinberg and Weinberg with his father, where he practiced law for more than 30 years. He belonged to Zeta Beta Tau.
Arnold M. Applefeld ’56 , of Delray Beach, Florida, died on Jan. 4, 2024. He belonged
to Zeta Beta Tau, Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Eta Sigma.
William B. FitzGerald III ’56 , of Columbia, Maryland, died on Feb. 28, 2024. After his military service for the U.S. Army, he worked as a stockbroker for Orvis Bros. as well as for the Social Security Administration. He belonged to Pi Kappa Phi.
Jamie M. Howe ’56 , of Flower Mound, Texas, died on Aug. 27, 2023. He worked for his family’s business, the Howe Lumber Company, and later managed KFFA radio. He belonged to Sigma Chi.
Dan B. Moore ’56 , of Purcellville, Virginia, died on Sept. 14, 2023. He worked for Minter Home Corporation. He belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.
James L. Pullen ’56 , of Bluffton, South Carolina, died on July 26, 2023. He worked as a special agent in criminal and counterintelligence for several government organizations. He was on the football team and belonged to Sigma Delta Chi.
Lt. Col. S. Lawrence Weinerth Jr. ’56 , of Lexington, Virginia, died on Feb. 16, 2024. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine
LAMAR CECIL, WILLIAM R. KENAN JR.
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY
EMERITUS
Lamar John Ryan Cecil, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History Emeritus, died on July 16, 2023, in Lynchburg, Virginia. He was 91. Born in Beaumont, Texas, he attended Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Rice Institute in 1954 and served in the U.S. Army for two years. In 1962, he received a Ph.D. in history from Johns Hopkins University, where he then taught for a year following graduation. He went on to teach for five years at Princeton University, followed by 14 years as a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1982, he joined the W&L faculty, and, a year later, he was named the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History. He specialized in 19th-century European and German history. His primary research interests included Albert Ballin, a German shipping magnate, and Kaiser Wilhelm II, a German
Corps after 23 years of service.
Frank R. Ahlgren Jr. ’57, of Charlottesville, Virginia, died on June 29, 2023. He worked as a reporter for the El Paso Herald Post for 30 years. He belonged to Pi Kappa Phi.
Joseph Carl Knakal Jr. ’57, ’59L of Amherst County, Virginia, died on June 8, 2024. Knakal practiced law at Caskie Frost in Lynchburg for his entire career, including a Supreme Court case involving Sweet Briar College. A baseball player at W&L with a lifelong love of sports, he became the first “Voice of the Hokies” as
a 20-year-old, when he and best friend Bob Bradford ’54 served as the first radio team for Virginia Tech football. Knakal enjoyed a five-decade avocation as a broadcaster for college football, including 18 years as the “Voice of the Keydets” for VMI football.
Warren R. Welsh ’57, ’61L , of Scottsdale, Arizona, died on Nov. 10, 2023. He served with the FBI for eight years and retired as director of security for the NFL. He was an undergraduate class agent for the Annual Fund and law reunion member of the Reunion Class Committee.
emperor and king of Prussia. He wrote books on both individuals, including a two-volume biography on the emperor where his first volume won the German Studies Association Book Prize in History and Politics.
Cecil retired from W&L in 2000. However, he continued to teach at the university as a distinguished visiting professor of history for the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 academic years.
In addition to teaching, he served the university as chair of various faculty committees, and he was active throughout his career at W&L with the university’s Lifelong Learning programs, lecturing in many campus Alumni Colleges and on abroad programs.
Outside of W&L, he was president of the Historic Lexington Foundation, a board member of Lime Kiln Arts and Yellow Brick Road Day Care Center and a member of the vestry of Robert E. Lee Episcopal Church (now Grace Episcopal Church). He was also a member of the American Historical Association.
Cecil is survived by his wife, Geri L. Cecil; two daughters, Mary Robinson Cecil Heermance and Emma Reed Cecil Malik; a sister, Grayson Reed Cecil of Austin, Texas; and four grandchildren. He is also survived by four stepchildren, Peter and Matthew Leggett, Ann Leggett and Katherine Mabry ’04. His niece, Callie Burns, is a member of W&L’s Class of 2011.
He belonged to Pi Sigma Alpha.
Manley P. Caldwell Jr. ’58 , ’60L , of West Plam Beach, Florida, died on Dec. 23, 2023. He was a partner with the law firm Caldwell, Pacetti, Edwards, Schoech & Viator, where his practice focused on estates and trusts. He was a member of the Reunion Class Committee and belonged to Phi Delta Phi and Phi Beta Kappa.
Dr. Donald R. Fowler ’58 , of Staunton, Virginia, died on Feb. 26, 2024. After working as a flight surgeon and retiring as a captain in the U.S. Navy, he served as
chief medical officer of Augusta Medical Center. He was on the wrestling team and belonged to Delta Tau Delta and Alpha Epsilon Delta.
Frank M. Hoopes Jr. ’58 , of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, died on June 4, 2023. He worked for nearly 40 years for the DuPont Company. He was a member of the Reunion Class Committee. He belonged to Delta Upsilon and played baseball at W&L.
The Hon. Frank A. Hoss Jr. ’58 , ’60L , of Cary, North Carolina, died on Dec. 19, 2023. He served as a general district and circuit court judge in the 31st Circuit in Virginia.
O. Brooks Pollock Jr. ’58 , of Virginia Beach, Virginia, died on Oct. 1, 2023. He retired as a captain in the U.S. Navy and then founded his own development company. He belonged to Kappa Sigma.
William A. Towler III ’58 , of Lancaster, South Carolina, died on July 23, 2023. He was a member of Delta Tau Delta.
Dr. John H. Borghi ’59, of Los Altos, California, died on Oct. 18, 2023. He was a professor of psychology at San Jose State University for many years before going into private
practice. He belonged to Psi Chi.
1960s
William T. Bosserman ’60, of Fairview, North Carolina, died on July 31, 2023. He served for 22 years in the U.S. Marine Corps and worked in the aerospace industry after retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He belonged to Phi Delta Theta.
Robert C. Hinkel ’60, died on Sept. 30, 2023. He belonged to Phi Gamma Delta and Alpha Epsilon Delta.
Dr. H. Hutson Messer ’60, of Tallahassee, Florida, died on Feb. 2, 2024. Dr. Messer, an OB/GYN, had a 49-year medical career. He belonged to Kappa Alpha and Alpha Epsilon Delta.
Thomas F. Motley III ’60, of Chatham, Virginia, died on July 4, 2023. He managed and owned several businesses including serving as chairman of Duffie Graphics Inc. and president of Chatham Insurance Agency Inc. He belonged to Kappa Alpha.
William L. Quillen ’61 , of San Angelo, Texas, died on Feb. 12, 2024. He spent his career in banking and served as president and CEO of the State National Bank in Odessa. At W&L, he belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.
Dr. Brian H. Vitsky ’61 , of Jacksonville, Florida, died on Dec. 7,
2023. He served as an associate professor of pathology at Vanderbilt University and later worked as the chief of pathology at both Baptist Medical Center and St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Jacksonville, Florida. At W&L, he belonged to Zeta Beta Tau, Alpha Epsilon Delta, Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Eta Sigma.
Don A. Wagenheim ’61 , of Wheeling, West Virginia, died on Oct. 11, 2023. He worked for more than 50 years for H.E. Neumann Company, which provides commercial, industrial and residential mechanical contracting services. He served as the company’s president and CEO and chairman of the board. At W&L, he belonged to Delta Tau Delta.
William M. Bailey ’62 , of Macon, Georgia, died on Oct. 16, 2023. He owned his own insurance company, Bill Bailey Insurance Agency, and was instrumental in helping bring specialized insurance for Volunteer Fire and Emergency Services to the state of West Virginia. He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
Charles E. Commander III ’62 , of Jacksonville, Florida, died on Nov. 30, 2023. He worked in real estate, corporate and financial transactions law and founded his own firm, Commander,
Legler, Werber, Dawes, Sadler & Howell, P.A., which merged with Foley & Lardner LLP, one of the largest and oldest law firms in the country. He was an undergraduate class agent for the Annual Fund, a board member of Chapter Volunteers and member of the Reunion Committee. He was a member of the lacrosse team and belonged to Phi Delta Theta.
Kerford A. Marchant Jr. ’62 , of Brunswick, Maine, died on Dec. 20, 2023. He worked as a chemist for Amoco Chemicals and later moved to the business side as sales manager for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.
Rugeley P. DeVan III ’63 , of Lexington, Kentucky, died on Jan. 14, 2024. He served as president of the Allen Construction Company and later bought Allen Concrete and Supply, which he eventually sold to IMI, the largest concrete company in Kentucky. He was on the tennis team at W&L and belonged to Phi Delta Theta.
John Duncan III ’63 , of Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, died on Dec. 7, 2023. He belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.
Daniel H. Markstein III ’63 , of Birmingham, Alabama, died on Aug. 8, 2023. He was a shareholder at Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C. He was
on the soccer team and belonged to Zeta Beta Tau and Phi Beta Kappa.
J. Holmes Morrison ’63 , ’67L , of Bend, Oregon, died on Dec. 4, 2023. He served as chairman, president and CEO of One Valley Bancorp, which merged with BB&T. He was an undergraduate class agent for the Annual Fund, board member for Chapter Volunteers and member of the Reunion Class Committee.
Andrew A. Smith Sr. ’63 , of Daphne, Alabama, died on Jan. 17, 2024. He worked as a trust officer and vice president of the Wilmington Trust Company. He was on the baseball team and belonged to Pi Kappa Phi.
Charles T. Vance ’63 , of Hernando, Florida, died on Sept. 24, 2023. He retired from the U.S. Navy at the rank of commander and went on to work in the insurance business.
H. Warren Holden ’64 , of Springfield, Ohio, died on June 21, 2023. He worked in commercial lending. He belonged to Delta Upsilon.
Howard M. Schramm Jr. ’64 , of Mobile, Alabama, died on July 20, 2023. He served as president of his family’s industrial supply business, Turner Supply Company,
established in 1905 by his great-uncle. He was a member of the Reunion Class Committee.
Joe F. Bear Jr. ’65, of Montgomery, Alabama, died on Nov. 11, 2023. He worked as a general contractor, becoming a third-generation member of Bear Brothers, founded by his grandfather. At W&L, he was treasurer of the Chapter Volunteers. He belonged to Phi Delta Theta and Omicron Delta Kappa.
Larry M. Meeks ’65, of Los Angeles, died on Aug. 5, 2023. After many years of practice, he retired from the firm of Pircher, Nichols, and Meeks, LLP. He belonged to Sigma Phi Epsilon, Omicron Delta Kappa and Pi Sigma Alpha.
Robert B. Hudson III ’66 , of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, died on Aug. 30, 2023. He taught at Brandeis University and Fordham University before teaching gerontology for many years at the Boston University School of Social Work. He was a leading commentator on the intersection of aging and social policy on federal and state levels. He belonged to Phi Epsilon Pi and Pi Sigma Alpha.
Anderson D. Smith ’66 , of Atlanta, died on Aug. 21, 2023. He was a professor of psychology and senior vice provost for academic affairs
J.
BROWN GOEHRING,
PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY EMERITUS
at Georgia Institute of Technology. He was a member of the Reunion Class Committee. He belonged to Sigma Phi Epsilon and Psi Chi.
Lawrence J. Fisher III ’67, of Charlotte, North Carolina, died on Aug. 1, 2023. He worked for 50 years in the textile industry. He belonged to Pi Kappa Alpha.
John E. Worthen ’67, of Spartanburg, South Carolina, died on Dec. 15, 2023. He served in the U.S. Army and had a career in manufacturing, working for International Paper and retiring from Simkins Industries. He
J. Brown Goehring, professor of chemistry emeritus at Washington and Lee University, died on March 7, 2024. He was 88.
Goehring was born in the Pittsburgh area to J. Lindsay and Dorothy B. Goehring. He attended Davidson College and was the valedictorian of the class of 1956. He earned his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a dissertation on “A Light-Scattering Investigation of Aggregation in Aqueous Solutions of Sodium Molybdate.”
Goehring joined the W&L faculty in 1963 as an associate professor of chemistry and earned full professorship in 1970. He taught instrumental analysis and advanced inorganic chemistry, as well as introductory classes in the field, for 38 years before retiring from W&L in 2001. In 1969-70, he completed a National Science Foundation fellowship at UCLA.
He also spent 22 of those 38 years at W&L serving as the secretary/treasurer for the university’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter. He did it all alone: collected dues, paid bills and
belonged to Sigma Phi Epsilon.
D. Whitney Thorton II ’68 , ’70L , of Bluffton, South Carolina, died on Aug. 8, 2023. He practiced government contract law in private practice with Lockheed Martin. He was an associate class agent for the Annual Fund and member of the Reunion Class Committee. He belonged to Psi Chi.
1970s
J. David Field ’70, of Monroe, Georgia, died on Oct. 5, 2023. He was a professor at DePauw University and taught literature and writing. He belonged to Sigma
organized grades for elections and paperwork for the national office. He mentored more than 700 students during his time, and in 2009, the chapter named the Phi Beta Kappa J. Brown Goehring Sophomore Award in his honor. This award is given to the student with the highest academic average during their first four terms at W&L.
Outside of his academic career, Goehring loved composing music. He created a fulllength musical play, “Isadora,” in high school, experimented with marches and waltzes in college and composed children’s pieces with the arrival of his daughters and son. He frequently accompanied operettas, campus musicals, the Lexington Presbyterian Church Sunday school, the Lexington area drama programs and assisted-living events. On top of this, he loved photography and cultivated a stamp collection.
Goehring is survived by his daughters, Patricia Goehring and Dorothy GoehringSomalwar; son, Alexander Goehring; and three grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife of 60 years, Ouida Goehring.
Alpha Epsilon, Phi Eta Sigma and Pi Sigma Alpha.
C. Douglas Walker ’70, of Alexandria, Virginia, died on June 7, 2023. He worked in investment management and belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.
Robert E. Minor ’71 , of Lexington, Virginia, died on Feb. 21, 2024. He worked as vice president of development, behavioral health division, at Universal Health Services. He was on the Annual Fund Council for the Annual Fund, vice president for Chapter Volunteers and member of the Reunion Class Committee. He
belonged to Phi Delta Theta and Phi Delta Phi.
Michael L. Unti ’72 , ’81L , of Raleigh, North Carolina, died on July 24, 2023. He was a partner at Hunton & Williams, working in civil litigation and specializing in the field of nuclear power plant construction; he later formed his own firm. He belonged to Phi Beta Kappa.
Stephen M. Apgar ’73 , of Bridgeport, Connecticut, died on Jan. 7, 2024. He served as owner and editor of The Mortgage Journal, a mortgage information trade and consumer publication. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.
Francis J. Crilley III ’74 , of Merritt Island, Florida, died on Sept. 20, 2023. He belonged to Phi Kappa Psi.
Christian M. Rohrs ’75, of Gloversville, New York, died on Aug. 27, 2023. He belonged to Delta Tau Delta.
David R. Braun ’76 , of Fort Myers, Florida, died on Oct. 6, 2023. He worked in the insurance and financial services industry. At W&L, he was Alumni Admissions Program chair of the Chapter Volunteers and a member of the Reunion Class
Committee. He was on the lacrosse team.
Neil L. Johnson ’76 , of Shreveport, Louisiana, died on Dec. 23, 2023. He was renowned for his illustrious photography career.
David A. Kennedy ’76 , of Baltimore, died on July 3, 2023. He belonged to Beta Theta Pi.
Norwood H. Powell Jr. ’76 , of Midlothian, Virginia, died on Oct. 24, 2023. He worked as a geologist and high school teacher.
Mark T. Rushing ’77, of North Little Rock, Arkansas, died on Nov. 30, 2023.
J. Peter Clements ’79, of Carson, Virginia, died on July 28, 2023. He enjoyed a career in banking and belonged to Sigma Chi.
Gardner T. Umbarger III ’79, of Marion, Virginia, died on
Oct. 26, 2023. He served as an officer in the Army Medical Service Corps and later became a professor of special education at Bowling Green State University and Saginaw Valley State University. At W&L, he was on the soccer team and belonged to Zeta Beta Tau.
1980s
Donald E. Swagart Jr. ’80, of Washington, D.C., died on June 29, 2023. He worked in the development and alumni office at St. Albans School. He was on the baseball team and belonged to Delta Tau Delta.
Peter F. Bariteau ’81 , of Norfolk, Virginia, died on Aug. 10, 2023. He worked as director of the audit department at Zukerman & Associates, LTD. He belonged to Chi Psi.
W. Michael Herrnstein ’83 , of San Diego, died on Nov. 3, 2023. He belonged to Beta Theta Pi.
Michael G. Schuler ’83 , of Bozeman, Montana, died on June 25, 2023. He worked as a teacher and school administrator, as well as newspaper owner and editor. He was All-American in lacrosse and belonged to Phi Kappa Sigma.
Daniel J. Seal ’84 , of Columbia, Maryland, died on Dec. 19, 2023. He was a member of the football team.
Michael S. Wyatt ’84 , of Dallas, died on Sept. 24, 2023. He had a 35-year career as a commercial real estate broker at Cushman & Wakefield. He was an undergraduate class agent of the Annual Fund and co-chair of the Reunion Class Committee. He belonged to Kappa Alpha.
STEWART MORRIS SR. ’06, HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENT
Stewart Morris Sr., 2006 honorary degree recipient, died on March 11. He was 104.
Morris was born in Houston on Oct. 28, 1919, the youngest of five children, to Willie Stewart Morris and William Carloss Morris. He graduated from Southern Methodist University Law School and then attended the Naval Midshipman School at Columbia University. He served in the Pacific during World War II as an executive officer aboard the USS LST-38 in seven invasions.
He started working for his family’s Stewart Title Company at 10 and was thrown into leadership with his brother, Carloss Morris, in 1950 upon the death of their father and two other company leaders that same year. The brothers worked for over 60 years, with Morris leading the affiliated title office operations. Morris advanced to president of STC, and he later served as president and co-CEO of the holding company, Stewart Information Services Corporation. Morris helped expanded STC nationwide and worldwide.
James W. Bradner IV ’85, of Richmond, Virginia, died on Sept. 4, 2023. He worked as an IT analyst for Bank of America for 23 years. He belonged to Beta Theta Pi.
Richard C. Emrey Jr. ’85, of Lexington, Virginia, died on Oct. 20, 2023. He worked for 35 years as an independent insurance agent and was a board member of the Chapter Volunteers. He was on the golf team and belonged to Omicron Delta Kappa.
1990s
George L. Karavias ’91 , of Centerport, New York, died on Aug. 16, 2023. He belonged to Chi Psi.
W. Kennedy Theus ’98 , of Boerne, Texas, died on Oct. 14, 2023. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.
In addition to STC, he participated in land development in Houston as well as owned a string of banks.
In his personal life, Morris and his wife, the late Joella Mitchell Morris, loved church, education, history and art, and they collected horse-drawn vehicles. He was the last surviving founder of Houston Christian University. Joella founded the Museum of Southern History on the campus, and Morris helped establish the HCU Morris Family Center for Law and Liberty.
Morris and Joella restored and endowed the 1842 house in the front of W&L’s campus. It was renamed the Morris House, and it serves as a guest house and special-events venue. In 2006, the Morrises were given honorary degrees at W&L.
Morris is survived by his children, Carlotta Coffman, Stewart Morris Jr. (Joy) and Lisa Simon (Jerry); eight grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.
FLORINDA RUIZ, FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE WRITING PROGRAM
Florinda Ruiz, former director of the Writing Program and visiting associate professor of writing at Washington and Lee University, died Jan. 31, 2024. She was 62.
Ruiz was born on Nov. 12, 1961, in Guadalajara, Spain. She received her B.A. in classical languages at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and went on to receive both her M.A. and Ph.D. in classical languages from Johns Hopkins University.
Ruiz’s lifelong passion for classical study, Spanish language and teaching led her to teach classics and Spanish at Washington and Lee, after moving with her husband, Mark Rush, W&L’s director of international education and Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Professor of Politics and Law, to Lexington in 1990. In 1993, she took a full-time teaching position in the Foreign Languages Department at Roanoke College, where she retired as associate professor of foreign languages in 2007. At Roanoke, she was honored with the Dean’s Exemplary Teaching Award in 2005-06.
After working in the United Arab Emirates from 2010-13, Ruiz returned to Lexington and served as director of the Writing Program at W&L from 2014 until her retirement in 2023. As her career evolved, she focused her courses on two of her passions: the immigrant experience and the connection between visual arts, poetry and literature.
Ruiz’s research focused on the transmission of classical Greek and Roman cultures, Spanish Islam, Ekphrasis studies, 20th-century Spanish culture and writing pedagogy. The various strands of her research interests intertwined after her time in the Middle East, when she discovered a love of photographing people. An avid traveler, Ruiz made lasting friendships during her many trips with W&L’s Lifelong Learning program.
Ruiz is survived by Mark Rush, her husband of 36 years; sons, William and Alex; daughterin-law, Meaghann; granddaughter, Celia; mother, Florinda; brother, Guillermo; and dog, Humphrey.
EDWIN YODER, PROFESSOR OF JOURNALISM AND HUMANITIES EMERITUS
Edwin M. Yoder Jr., Pulitzer Prize winner and professor of journalism and humanities emeritus, died on Nov. 30, 2023, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He was 89.
Born on July 18, 1934, in Greensboro, North Carolina, Yoder decided to pursue journalism at the age of 16, after a summer job at a local newspaper. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he served as editor of the student newspaper and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1956. A Rhodes Scholar, he went on to study philosophy, politics and economics at Jesus College at the University of Oxford in England and received a master’s degree in 1958.
Yoder, known for his erudite editorials, began his career at The Charlotte News in 1958 as an editorial writer, then worked for the Greensboro Daily News starting in 1961 and The Washington Star in 1975. He took a sabbatical in 1964-65 to teach American history at the University of North Carolina
Greensboro. He won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1979 and was praised by the prize committee for writing about “current national events with the confident understanding of the political specialist, the objectivity of the historian and with masterful literary grace.” Later, he became a syndicated columnist with The Washington Post Writers Group; he retired from regular column writing in 1996.
Yoder served as the first Class of 1963 Scholar-in-Residence at W&L. He joined the faculty in 1992 and taught journalism and humanities courses for over a decade.
He received an honorary fellowship of Jesus College and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Yoder received UNC’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2015.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Jane, in 2021. He is survived by daughter, Anne; son, Edwin “Terry” Yoder; and three grandsons.
Commence Celebrating!
“You have been prepared to learn, to lead and to serve,” said President William C. Dudley, Commencement speaker, to the Class of 2024 on May 30. “If we have done our jobs, and you have done your jobs, you are ready to make significant contributions wherever you go, for the benefit of yourselves and your families, but also for the benefit of those who are less fortunate and the communities in which you live.”
For the 237th Commencement, Dudley told the graduates that the world needs their professional contributions and volunteer service — but it is in even greater need of the kind of people they have become. At the ceremony, W&L conferred degrees upon 448 seniors, who hail from 40 states and hold citizenship in 23 other countries. The Class of 2024 earned degrees in 53 majors, with more than half of the class completing at least one additional major or minor. The most declared majors were business administration, politics, accounting, cognitive and behavioral science and economics; the most declared minors were poverty and human capability studies, data science, philosophy, law, justice and society and mathematics. Martha Ernest, president of the Executive Committee of the Student Body, spoke on behalf of her class.
To read more about the special day, visit go.wlu.edu/commencement-2024
BACCALAUREATE
On May 29, the Baccalaureate service featured speakers Kiersten Barnet ’05, executive director of the New York Jobs CEO Council, and Katie Yurechko ’24, this year’s recipient of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award. Yurechko was selected by the faculty as the individual who best demonstrates high ideals of living, spiritual qualities and generous service to others.
SCHOOL OF LAW
The School of Law celebrated its 169th Commencement on May 10 and awarded 141 juris doctor degrees. “You arrived to W&L Law with the smarts and the aptitude,” said Melanie D. Wilson, dean of the law school. “Now you have the skills and education. You are ready to handle hard better. You are ready to overcome any adversity thrown at you.” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox ’01L served as this year’s commencement speaker.
FAMILY TIES
Class of 2024 graduates and their alumni family members commemorated the day with a photo.
1. Sandy Brown ’85 (seated) and Alex Brown ’24
2. Seated: Rob Thomas ’94L, Lee Kelliher ’90 and Bob Kelliher ’59. Standing: Annie Thomas ’24 and Fleming Kelliher ’24
3. Rachel Ribbeck ’90 (seated) and Molly Ribbeck ’24
4. Seated: David Weaver ’18, Agnes King Weaver ’20, Charlie King ’85 and Charlotte King ’26. Standing: Robert King ’24
5. Seated: Tucker Alford ’89, Jake Williams ’21 and Jim Williams ’88. Standing: George Alford ’24 and Fraley Williams ’24
6. Seated: Andrew McCaffery ’16, John McCaffery ’86, Stephen McCaffery ’19, James Hess ’94, Tommy Pritchard ’84, Bill Pritchard ’80 and John G. Kennedy III ’83. Standing: Natalie McCaffery ’24, Lana Hess ’24, Hall Pritchard ’24 and Elizabeth Cross Kennedy ’24
7. Seated: David Symonds ’89, Beth Symonds Grimley ’92, Joel Symonds ’97, 04L, Douglas Lamb ’93 and Robert Miggins ’94. Standing: Alexander Grimley ’24, Thomas Lamb ’24 and Lily Miggins ’24
8. Seated: Robert Covington Jr. ’97, Josephine Schaeffer Covington ’96, Jay McKnight ’92, Jonathan T. Symonds II ’91, Hugh Robinson ’80, Liz Smith Robinson ’89 and Weld Robinson ’20. Standing: Nell Covington ’24, Walker McKnight ’24, Jonathan T. Symonds III ’24 and Stuart Robinson ’24
9. Seated: Chris Cerone ’90, Bo Russell ’92, Chad Meyer ’91, Christopher Commander ’91, F. Lewis Biggs ’96L and Lindsay King Biggs ’96L. Standing: Claire Cerone ’24, Sam Russell ’24, Avery Meyer ’24, Christopher Commander Jr. ’24 and James L. Biggs ’24
10. Seated: Katherine Welligan Steuart ’89, Carter Steuart ’88, Anne Bernot ’22, Michael Bernot ’82, John Gammage ’88, Valerie Pierson Gammage ’89 and Ted Cover ’89. Standing: Langley Steuart ’24, Virginia Bernot ’24, Pierson Gammage ’24 and Kathyrn Cover ’24
11. Seated: Rob McGinley ’97, Katie Mehlburger McGinley ’97, Peter Keefe ’78, Deborah Munson Ealer ’96, Stefanie Brown Wright ’94 and Lee Wright ’94. Standing: Madison McGinley ’24, Tim Keefe ’24, Jennifer “Jenni” Munson Ealer ’24 and Wyatt Wright ’24
12. Seated: Bland Warren ’90, Jean Stroman Warren ’91, Buck Ogiluie ’64, Trey Cox ’92, Charles Kranich ’91, Courtney Hall Murphy ’92 and Clayton Hall ’00. Standing: Evelyn Warren ’24, Amelia Cox ’24, Caroline Kranich ’24 and Jane Murphy ’24
CHRONICLES
BY JEFF HANNA
G THE PLAY’S THE THING
oogle “The Armadillo Play,” and you’ll find several grainy black-and-white YouTube videos of the most unusual athletic contest in Washington and Lee history.
“Unusual” is one way to describe the lacrosse match between the Generals and the University of North Carolina on April 24, 1982. It’s been called other things. Embarrassing. Brilliant. Infamous. Historic.
“Rather outlandish” is the phrase favored by Jack Emmer, the Hall of Fame coach who masterminded the formation in an audacious attempt to upset the No. 1-ranked Tar Heels.
Going into the game, odds of an upset were steep. W&L had stopped awarding athletic scholarships in 1954 but competed in lacrosse against scholarship programs in the NCAA’s Division I until joining non-scholarship Division III in 1987. Despite the clear disadvantage, the Generals had been more than holding their own, making seven straight trips to the NCAA DI tournament from 1972 to 1978.
By 1982, though, the imbalance was increasingly apparent. The week before the North Carolina game, W&L was beaten badly by Virginia. And the Tar Heels were the defending national champions and winners of 19 straight games.
“We had a solid team but not nearly up to what Carolina was putting on the field. We had to find a way to stay close and maybe win at the end,” says Emmer, who coached W&L for 11 seasons (1973-1983) before going to Army where he was the nation’s winningest college lacrosse coach when he retired in 2005.
So, Emmer dreamed up a drastic scheme to keep the ball away from North Carolina’s vaunted offense. He created a formation with one player cradling the ball in a sawed-off goalie stick with a huge pocket encircled by five teammates with their arms locked to form a human shell — hence the aptly named Armadillo. Emmer figured the Armadillo could not only keep the score close but also frustrate the Tar Heels. He was right on both counts.
As chairman of the national rules committee, Emmer knew his plan was legal. To be certain, he checked with game officials in advance.
“I wasn’t going to do it if it was illegal,” Emmer says.
What would his players and coaches think, though?
“Chuck O’Connell, my assistant coach, is a traditionalist, whereas I was something of a renegade. I had to get him on board,” Emmer says. “Then I had to sell the players. Our kids were used to competing, not standing still.”
Phil Aiken ’84 had mixed emotions. “I thought it was technically legal but not the most sporting approach,” says Aiken, a goalie who produced one of the game’s most dramatic moments. “But we all went with the tactic.”
When the Armadillo was unleashed in the first quarter, no one knew what was happening, least of all the stunned Tar Heels.
W&L employed the Armadillo for about 25 of the contest’s 60 minutes. The game got progressively more physical as Carolina’s players tried to dislodge the ball by using their sticks to prod and pummel W&L players from behind, above and even below the Armadillo. The trash-talking accelerated, too.
“In the end, Carolina got frustrated, as you might expect,” Emmer says. “I was concerned our guys might get hurt. For a game where there wasn’t much action, there was a lot of tension.”
Carolina led 5-4 late in the second quarter when goalie Aiken came up with his highlight.
“We were in the Armadillo just behind Carolina’s goal when the rawhide in the pocket of the shortened goalie stick broke, and the ball plopped onto the ground,” Emmer says. “Carolina picked the ball up and rushed toward our goal.”
Since only one goalie stick could be on the field at a time, Aiken was wielding a smaller attackman’s stick as the Tar Heels bore down on him.
“When I was a kid, my dad had me play goalie with an attack stick as a training exercise,” Aiken says. “If you can stop the ball with a small stick, you can stop it with the bigger one.”
And stop it, Aiken did. His save sent W&L fans into a frenzy and kept the Generals within a goal at the half.
Using the Armadillo to stay close, W&L was tied 7-7 early in the fourth quarter, but Carolina made three straight goals to win it 11-8.
The game sent shockwaves through the lacrosse world. Within 48 hours, the rules committee squashed the Armadillo by clarifying the rule on withholding the ball.
“I was glad they outlawed it — and quickly,” Emmer says. “I didn’t want to be responsible for anyone else doing it.”
Outlawed perhaps, but never forgotten. More than four decades later, Aiken says that when the subject of lacrosse comes up, people usually have heard of the Armadillo game.
“Some may still look at it with disdain,” he says, “but I like being part of the lore.”
PHOTO BY PATRICK HINELY ’73
Every time we ask Caroline to serve, she enthusiastically accepts. As a current parent and an alumna, she connects in so many ways across the W&L network. Her leadership and unwavering dedication to Washington and Lee make her an exceptional choice to chair the W&L Fund.” Susan Wood
Vice President for University Advancement
CCaroline Boone Mitchell ’89, P’23, P’25, P’28 holds a unique perspective. She was admitted to Washington and Lee in the first year of coeducation at the university. In the decades following graduation, Mitchell has continued her strong connection to W&L through volunteer leadership roles, including as a member of the Williams School Advisory Board, class agent, Parents Leadership Council member and, most recently, as co-chair of the 1989 35th Reunion Committee. She and her husband, John, are also three-time W&L parents to sons Jack ’23 and Will ’25 and daughter Kate ’28. Mitchell is once again taking on a leadership role as the new chair of the 2024-2025 W&L Fund, the university’s annual giving program.
Q. Why did you decide to accept the position of chair of the W&L Fund?
A. I believe the W&L experience is truly unique — from the extraordinary faculty to the time-honored traditions. Annual giving represents my commitment, as both a graduate and a parent, to keeping those unique aspects of our university alive and relevant.
Q. Why is it important for alumni to participate in annual giving?
A. Washington and Lee has given us so much more than just an education and a college degree — it’s given us friendships, experiences and opportunities. It is my hope that alumni recognize all of these gifts that we have received and choose to honor those gifts with a donation to the W&L Fund. Annual giving enables the programs that make W&L a university of distinction.
Q. What is one of your favorite memories from when you were a student?
A. I have so many incredible memories from my time at W&L. But one element is consistent; in every one I am surrounded by the people who helped make those memories — hallmates in Graham-Lees, a professor in the classroom, a study group in the old C-School or a friend at a party in Red Square. They are filled with laughter, joy — occasionally some challenges — and respect for those with whom I share these memories.
Q. In what ways did W&L teach you to lead a life of consequence?
A. The Speaking Tradition, honor and civility — all basic tenets at W&L — prepared me for a life of consequence. Whether it is a simple, friendly greeting to a stranger or a more complex interaction, if you act with honor and civility, you will be able to achieve a life of meaning and purpose.
Caroline Boone Mitchell ’89 2024-2025 chair, W&L Fund
