W&L Alumni Magazine - Winter 2023

9 other alumni forging their own paths

The Art of the Dream

Photo by Katy Morris

Kenny Sharp ’12 Photo by Kirbie Griffin

Rick de Alessandrini ’84,

Photo by Ellen de Alessandrini P’23

LaKeisha Fleming ’95

Photo by Chris Moore

A PERFECT PAIR

Two more dissimilar advisors there could not have been, yet Profs Gunn and de Maria were the perfect pair for me. In Professor Gunn’s office, he might spend 20 minutes digging through piles of papers to fetch the ideal article on the day’s topic — international economics, usually — although later the topic was landing a Wall Street job. Rather than clear piles from the chairs in his office, he preferred to speak while walking energetically around the halls of the Williams School. Professor de Maria, on the other hand, greeted me from his tilted chair, feet on the desk. “Relax,” he’d say, “Stay a while.” De Maria’s advice: “Just be; observe.”

Reading these two great men’s obits in the Summer 2022 issue brought back all the awe and fondness I still carry in my heart. Rest in peace.

TINA VANDERSTEEL CRESSOTTI ’90

HONOR ACROSS THE DECADES

Having read the alumni magazine for more than 50 years, I find the word honor appearing again and again. This is no accident because this concept is taught to entering students and becomes stronger as the years pass. What was first housed in the mind becomes resident in the heart.

Honor becomes critical in positions of authority. Being a captain in Vietnam, a church elder, the director of an agency serving blind people — all required the ability to provide selfless leadership based on the living reality of honorable service to others as taught and lived at Washington and Lee. We learned to make honor-based decisions, if not ones universally accepted (co-education, keeping the university’s name, changing the chapel’s). We supported these decisions because they were made by honorable women and men.

I am now 80 years old, living in a home for disabled veterans. I use honor — the core value I began to understand those many years ago — as the basis of my new role as president of the residents here. We are rejuvenated at chapter meetings and reunions and Five-Star Festivals by our unity of years and decades of honorable service, taught and practiced at Washington and Lee.

BRUCE W. RIDER ’66

A Magazine for Alumni and Friends of Washington and Lee University

Volume 100, Number 1 Winter 2023

Louise Uffelman Editor

Sara Butler Assistant Editor

Jamie Lipps Director of Design

Billy Chase, Emmaline Nelsen Designers

Kay Hughes Class Notes Editor

Shelby Hamelman Kevin Remington University Photographers

The magazine was in production when we learned of the death of David Parker, associate professor of history emeritus, on Nov. 23, 2022. The obituary will be published in the next issue and is online at go.wlu.edu/parker-obit

PLEASE NOTE

The obituary for Ellis Johnston II ’68 was published in the Summer 2022 issue without the icon. Also in that issue, the photo ID for the “In the Lead” essay should have been Jack Eastman ’22 (p. 7); Katharine Fraser ’93 spells her first name with an “a” (p. 40); and we accidently dropped the letter “a” from Graham Taylor ’83’s first name (p. 45).

STAY IN

TOUCH

and Lee University

Barbara Elliott Kelsey Goodwin Jeff Hanna Amanda Minix Jeff Seymour Susan Wootton ’93

Contributors

Jessica L. 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

Thomas W. Jennings Vice President for University Advancement

John Jensen ’01 Executive Director of Alumni and Career Services

© 2023 Washington and Lee University

Washington

7 Courthouse Square, 204 W. Washington St. Lexington, VA 24450-2116

Columns

NOTEWORTHY NEWS AND IDEAS

1NEW SPACES, NEW PLACES

The second and third floors of Elrod Commons have undergone a recent renovation, providing students and staff with new and improved workspaces. The design process began in June 2020 and construction finished in March 2022. Goody-Clancy, the architectural firm involved with the design, worked closely with Facilities Management, Student Affairs and other partners across campus to reimagine the building to better fit the needs of today’s students.

Among the redesign’s new additions are offices and workspaces for the Class of 1994 Office of Inclusion and Engagement on the second floor.

The clothing closet and food pantry are also located on this floor and were expanded during the renovation. On the third floor, the Executive Committee gained new meeting and office spaces, as well as a break room. Read more: go.wlu.edu/elrodcommons-2022

THIRSTY?

During the 2021-22 academic year, 11,410 single-use bottles of water were sold on campus. This academic year, that number will drop to 0, as W&L has eliminated the sale of single-use bottled water at retail locations on campus.

3. IN HONOR OF BONNER

Bonner Scholars past and present celebrated two decades of W&L’s Bonner Program in October 2022. W&L is one of nearly 70 colleges and universities within the national Bonner Foundation network. The W&L chapter is offered through The Shepherd Program, and pairs students with community service opportunities. Read more: go.wlu.edu/bonnerat20

SAY IT RIGHT

University now licenses NameCoach , a tool that lets faculty, students and staff record their name and share the recording through their email signature.

W&L

The reading list for Sociology and Anthropology’s discussion series includes: “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Erich Maria Remarque • “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” • “Hiroshima,” John Hersey • “Notes of a Native Son,” James Baldwin “Operation Massacre,” Rodolfo Walsh • “Zinky Boys,” Svetlana Alexievich

7. FIRST-CLASS PIPES

BUILDING ‘COMUNIDAD’

The Nuestro Hogar Latino theme house’s new location accommodates more students and offers expanded space for programming. More pics: go.wlu.edu/nuestro-hogar

6University Singers won multiple awards at the City of Derry International Choir Festival on Oct. 19-23 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The group — the first American choir to be selected for this competition — placed third in the festival’s International Open Competition and received the prestigious Visit Derry Award for its final performance. Read more: go.wlu.edu/derrychoirfest

BEARING WITNESS

‘Not Self, But Country’

Three plaques honoring W&L community members were added to the Memorial Gateway.

l l l

IN MEMORIAM

James Howard Monroe ’66 was killed in action as a combat medic in Vietnam in 1967 and awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the U.S. military’s highest award for valor.

Kiffin Yates Rockwell, an internationally renowned aviator, was killed in aerial combat over Alsace, France, in 1916.

W&L HONORED FOUR alumni on Oct. 21, 2022, during a ceremony dedicating the installation of three plaques on its Memorial Gateway during the Board of Trustees’ fall meeting. The plaques had previously been displayed in the University Chapel and were moved to the structure at the Jefferson Street entrance to campus to be displayed with other plaques honoring U.S. veterans.

The Memorial Gateway contains plaques honoring members of the W&L community who served in World Wars I and II; wars in Afghanistan, Korea,

Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf; and two who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Rector Mike McAlevey ’86 and President Will Dudley gave remarks at the event.

The plaques had been painted white as part of an interior redesign of the chapel during the 1960s but have been restored to their original bronze. Several other plaques have been removed from the chapel to prepare them for use in future museum exhibits. The Liberty Hall Volunteers plaque, which commemorates students as well as local volunteers who fought

for the Confederacy, will be contextualized as part of the new exhibit planned for the gallery on the upper level of the chapel annex, adjacent to the recumbent Lee statue. The remaining plaques will be moved to the Chapel Galleries or into the new institutional history museum upon its completion.

“The plaques belong here; the names belong here,” McAlevey said. “They join the names of our fellow alumni who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.”

President Dudley said that the stories of those honored

on the Memorial Gateway plaques embodied the motto inscribed above them, which reads “Not Self, But Country.”

“We owe them, and all those whose names appear here, our deepest thanks for their selfless service,” Dudley said. “Their stories represent the traits of leadership and service to others and citizenship that we prize as central to our institutional mission. It is a privilege for us to bring these stories forward as part of our commitment to presenting Washington and Lee University’s history in its fullness.”

Rector Mike McAlevey ’86 spoke at the Memorial Gateway plaque dedication.

This work to frame enslaved people in terms of the work they completed and events they took part in, rather than just names listed on a historic document, is crucial to representing our history.”

Madison Williams ’23, On These Grounds initiative to catalogue enslaved people at Washington and Lee University. Read more: go.wlu.edu/onthesegrounds-2022

Tim Halloran ’91, response to post about Mock Con’s guest speakers Laura Bush, former First Lady, and her daughter Barbara, @wlunews

BETWEEN MORNING

IN THE EARLY ’70S HAVING COFFEE, CRISPY BACON ON AN ENGLISH MUFFIN WITH JELLY AND A CIGARETTE.”

Robert Floyd ’75, favorite spot on campus, @wlualumni

Move-in day, @wlunews

Well done on getting normal GOPers and not members of the cult.

“Today is the first day of the best days of your life.”

“My goal is to be as good a person as my dog already thinks I am.”

“A BOOTH IN THE OLD CO-OP WITH

Charlie Prioleau ’82, on why he gives to W&L, bio for the Benefactors Book

IN THE LEAD

Making a Lasting Impact

organized campaign led by the Senior Gift Committee to raise support for the W&L Annual Fund. This year’s co-chairs are Tahri Phillips ’23 and Rex Riefler ’23. According to Riefler, student and alumni giving is paramount for W&L to achieve its strategic goals and enhance student life.

funding priorities,” he said. “As seniors, we have a last chance to come together to give back to the school.”

Phillips said she believes every student deserves to be supported academically, socially and professionally –just as she was.

Riefler ’23 and Tahri Phillips ’23

THE FIRST RECORDS OF the Senior Class collectively giving back to W&L date back to 1925. In a letter written by class members, they described

their gift as a “token of the love and esteem in which the class holds the university.”

In more recent years, the Senior Gift has become an

“In the same way I have benefited from the generous alumni who supported the construction of the Duchossois Athletic Center, I want to see future generations take advantage of planned projects such as the Williams School expansion, among other current

“All of the communities that have influenced me on campus the most have been financed in some way by students, alumni and community members who have donated to the Annual Fund,” she said. “I am grateful for their generosity, and I am eager to contribute to the longevity and creation of additional support for students to come.”

Want to support W&L students and university initiatives? Make your Annual Fund gift at wlu.edu/giving/the-annual-fund.

SHOOTING STAR: DR. MAYA BRASHER ’11

BY SUSAN WOOTTON ’ 93

I first met Maya in July 2019 when she was starting her neonatology fellowship at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. Typically, first-year fellows start their training with several months of inpatient service. For Maya, however, plans changed quickly. The first day of her fellowship, a chest radiograph — which was performed because of weight loss and a cough — showed a mass. Maya thought she had tuberculosis (TB) since she had just spent one year working in a pediatric HIV/TB clinic in Malawi. By the third day of her fellowship, she was being evaluated at MD Anderson Cancer Center for primary mediastinal

B-cell lymphoma. The chemotherapy regimen made it impossible for her to initiate her inpatient fellowship rotations.

Consequently, the head of her training program reached out to see if I’d be willing to help Maya with quickly setting up a research project for her to start while undergoing chemotherapy. She thought it would be a good fit because of Maya’s interest in global health and enthusiasm for infectious diseases. We opted to retrospectively evaluate the validity of surface polymerase chain reaction testing for neonates with congenital Herpes Simplex Virus infection. In recognition of her work, she

received a 2021 Pediatric Academic Society Trainee Registration Grant Award. Within just four months of starting her research project, however, the pandemic took off — upending medical training programs across the country. Once again, Maya had to pivot to address unprecedented challenges. Although premature infants were largely spared from COVID-19, their mothers were not. Maya cared for babies whose mothers were not allowed to visit or were admitted to the intensive care unit. Some of these mothers even died. Throughout her fellowship, Maya showed extreme resilience, professionalism and dedication to her field.

Her compassion for infants and their families was unmatched.

It was only during her fellowship graduation ceremony in June 2022 that we finally figured out our W&L connection — a funny and precious gift we enjoyed with her husband, parents and upcoming arrival (Layla, born in September 2022). Currently, Maya is in her third year of remission with only two years left before being classified as cured. She has secured a faculty position at one of the best children’s hospitals in the country and is looking forward to building a partner neonatology program in Malawi. Many congratulations to this shooting star!

Dr. Susan Wootton ’93 is a professor in pediatric infectious diseases at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Maya Brasher ’11 is an assistant professor in neonatology at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas.

Rex

Tahri Phillips ’23 and Rex Riefler ’23 discuss the importance of leading this year’s Senior Gift efforts.

DISTINCTIVELY W&L

UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS

BY WILL DUDLEY, PRESIDENT

EDUCATORS LIVE FOR the success of their students. And there are few things more gratifying than learning that one of your most exceptional students has earned international recognition for her personal accomplishments and potential to make meaningful contributions to society.

We experienced such a moment very recently at W&L, when Tahri Phillips ’23 was named Washington and Lee University’s 18th Rhodes Scholar (read more about her on the inside back cover).

Tahri is one of three W&L students to win a Rhodes Scholarship in the last seven years, joining Rossella

Gabrielle ’19 and Pasquale Toscano ’16 — all of them recipients of our Johnson Scholarship. These students personify the transformative impact of the Johnson Program in Leadership and Integrity, which has enabled W&L to attract the most talented student body in the university’s history. Each entering class includes about 40 Johnson Scholars, and they have raised the bar for all students in terms of academic quality, demonstrated leadership, and community engagement.

Since the inception of the Johnson Program a decade ago, our students have experienced unprecedented success

in earning prestigious fellowships. During this period, Washington and Lee has had three Rhodes Scholars, while no other liberal arts college in the country, with the exception of the military service academies, has had more than one. We have also been named a top producer of Fulbright Scholars for four straight years, with 25 students and alumni receiving grants during that time. And we have been recognized as a top producer of Gilman Scholars, a program that expands access to study abroad and international internship opportunities for U.S. undergraduate students with high financial need.

Our mission is simple: we develop students’ capacity to think freely, critically, and humanely, and to conduct themselves with honor, integrity, and civility, and in so doing we prepare them for lifelong learning, personal achievement, responsible leadership, service to others, and engaged citizenship in a global and diverse society. We strive to fulfill that mission every day. I am grateful for the Johnson Program and other scholarship funds that make W&L affordable for the most capable students in the country, who in turn will make a powerful impact in the world thanks to the education they receive here.

Our students personify the transformative impact of the Johnson Program in Leadership and Integrity.

DUBYUHNELL DAY

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?

From fish and fowl to beloved cats and dogs, Kaylin Jury ’24 helped wrangle an exhibition that explored the shared bonds between humans and animals.

BY SARA BUTLER

1. MAJOR-CHANGING EXPERIENCE

Last summer, Jury served as a curatorial intern for Washington and Lee Museums. Prior to W&L, an art museum internship was hardly on Jury’s radar. “I thought I was going to be a bacterial geneticist,” she said. However, after researching chemical analyses of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” in a first-year art history class, followed by Professor Erich Uffelman’s Spring Term Course in the Netherlands, Jury was drawn into the art world and changed her major to art history.

2. RESEARCH, WRITE, REPEAT

Jury assisted with the fall 2022 exhibit in the Watson Galleries: Museum Menagerie. The exhibit showcases animal images in W&L’s collection,

from domestic pets to mythical creatures. Working under the direction of Patricia Hobbs, senior curator of art and history, Jury was tasked with creating the descriptive text that accompanied each piece of art. She completed extensive research, focusing on animal biology and their relationship with humans, to write these descriptions.

3. PERSPECTIVE SHIFT

Jury was previously not a fan of museums. “As much as I love art, I hated going to museums. I thought they were the most sterile things.” Jury was determined to push through that and made her contribution to Museum Menagerie engaging. One approach was to turn text blocks into fun facts. “We came up with a term: ‘fun-ify,’” she said. “Coming from an art

history background, things that I think are interesting — like facts about the artist or what it was influenced by — is not the most fun for a five-year-old.”

4. INTERESTING FINDS

Her favorite piece was a little grey bird figurine, stripped of its paint, that was recovered from a shipwreck and a painting by a chimpanzee that was featured on the “Today Show.”

5. HER OWN SHOW

Jury also curated a small exhibit of artwork by the late Daria Hill in Wilson Hall with Clover Archer, director of Staniar Gallery. “It was an amazing experience to take all that I learned and create my own exhibit — even putting the nails in the wall and sticking the labels on.”

the Artof THE DREAM

How to describe our graduates?

Curious, passionate, ambitious, determined, engaged, dedicated, inspirational, imaginative. Meet 10 who bring these adjectives to life.

MANAGING THE MAYHEM

for Albert Yeh ’14, playing video games turned into a dream job: He leads the Florida Mayhem, a team of professional gamers competing in the first-person shooter Overwatch, as general manager.

In 2020, his first in the position, he took the team from last in the 20-team Overwatch League — where franchise slots are valued between $30 and $60 million — to sixth place for the regular season. The following year, Yeh was promoted to the president of gaming operations for Misfits Gaming Group, the esports company that represents the Mayhem and three other teams. He now splits his time between the two roles.

Overwatch is like spectacular laser tag played on computers. At the professional level, it’s dizzyingly complex, requiring teamwork, rapid-fire communication, lightning-quick reflexes and lots of strategizing. As Mayhem’s general manager, Yeh must field a talented team of gamers in a wild, ever-changing league in which top teams often hoover up the best of the best.

“I scout the talent, decide what players and staff to sign, negotiate contracts,” he said, noting he has seven players, three coaches and two team managers working under him. He also handles logistics for travel and the team’s homestands, live events usually attended by 5,000 to 10,000 fans.

Yeh worked as a business analyst before joining the Mayhem. He started out scouting opposing teams before matches. He quickly moved up the ranks and became head of talent development and assistant general manager before landing his current roles.

He credits W&L with teaching him the soft skills so important in his work, and the Honor System with shaping him as a manager. “It’s very freeing and very enabling. I’m rigorous in the hiring process, but once I hire someone, I give them a long leash. It’s, ‘Hey, this is the direction. However you want to reach it, I leave that up to you.’”

And clearly, his approach works. In November 2022, the Mayhem celebrated its best season in franchise history and took home seventh place — this time, in the playoffs. n jeff

seymour

CLASS OF 201 4 albert yeh

PHOTO BY ELLA PRAVETZ

GAME

LAYING DOWN A TRACK

for a singer/songwriter, what comes first — the lyrics or melody? Words matter to Kenny Sharp ’12 (previously Sharpless), which makes a lot of sense for someone who started out as a rapper and percussionist interested in constructing beats.

But he conceded, “The most important part of any song is the melody. Why? Because that’s what everyone will remember first. If a song doesn’t have a catchy melody, the words will get lost. With that said, I often start with the lyrics, something scribbled down on a piece of paper.”

Over the last few years, Sharp has steadily honed his artistic career, building a platform to showcase his talents. As he developed his songwriting skills, he drew inspiration from some of the great Southern musicians like Otis Redding, Johnny Cash and Sam Cooke. “I found my voice through them. That’s such a big moment for an artist, you know?”

His company, Brown Liquor Music (brownliquormusic.live), evokes authenticity, storytelling, heritage and love. “Everyone likes to drink a good whiskey to certain songs,” said Sharp. “They just go together. I have a lot of different elements in my music. I love blues, I love rap, I love country, anything jazz. It’s all right there.”

An early music video “Renege” illustrates the perfect harmony of image, words and sound that capture his artistic vision. A good old-fashioned ballad about heartbreak, Sharp not only composed the song and music, but also acted in and directed the video.

Living in Nashville, working local gigs — and further afield in Miami and Los Angeles — has put Sharp before the movers and shakers in the industry. He signed a publishing deal with Dr. Luke’s Prescription Songs and has written for Benny Mayne, LunchMoney Lewis and others populating Nashville’s pop-country world. He’s opened for Citizen Cope, Wale, the Chuck Brown Band and WPGC 95.5 FM “For Sisters Only” and has scored several sync placements on “Grey’s Anatomy,” as well as a writing credit on the lead single for Durand Jones & The Indications. Although being in the right place at the right time helped, he believes that “the harder you work, the luckier you are” is a more accurate description of his upward trajectory.

It also doesn’t hurt to have a golden voice, a cool cat image and a way with words. n louise uffelman

CLASS OF 2012 kenny sharp

PHOTO BY KIRBIE GRIFFIN

the Artof THE SONG

the Artof

THE MIDWIFE

“watching women bond with their babie s moments after the birth is always amazing,” said Nancy Reinhart ’00, a midwife and health care practitioner at WellSpan Gettysburg OBGYN in Pennsylvania. “There’s phrase midwives use about catching babies — ‘into these hands’ — that reflects the care and support we provide women and their families throughout the pregnancy.”

When Reinhart witnessed her first birth during her Shepherd Poverty Program internship with Frontier Nursing University, she’d already committed to her double major in politics and journalism and mass communications. She remembers thinking, “I love this. I love seeing how midwives serve women and their families, but I feel like it’s too much to go back for all the classes I’d need to pursue this career.” But she held onto that thought.

That experience, plus a Washington Spring Term stint with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in D.C. investigating the disparities of access to women’s health care across the U.S. steered her toward a career in health care policy. After two years serving in Peace Corps Armenia, where she developed community-based health education curricula, she earned her master’s in public health at the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences. She took a job in social justice, doing research about the impacts of fossil fuels on community and maternal/child health and the health benefits of sustainable energy.

During this time, Reinhart and her husband decided to start a family. Their first child died in utero. “I had two health care practitioners in my life at that time: one was there to help me process the grief and the other just didn’t show up.” That grief and her recovery through it pushed her to pursue her longstanding dream of becoming a certified nurse midwife.

“Going back to school for another eight years was a really difficult decision,” said Reinhart, who has three living children with her husband David Mitchell. “It was hard to take so much time away from my family.” However, she believes she is a better midwife for “having a lot of life experience and a lot of grief under my belt.” Reinhart graduated with her master’s degree in nurse midwifery in 2019 at the age of 41.

She and her colleagues, comprised of midwives and OBGYNs, work in a collaborative care model. “I attend labors and births, but if something is beyond my scope, I call in the physician, and we work together to care for the client,” she said. Like most nurse midwives, she offers her patients full scope gynecologic and obstetric care, including routine well woman visits and birth control counseling. She appreciates working in a state that continues to protect access to all reproductive choices. “Restricting women’s healthcare sets a dangerous medical and legal precedent for our healthcare system — we should all be wary of where this leads.”

Reinhart views shared decision making and respecting patient choice as pillars of midwifery and of her own approach to the profession. “It’s really all about helping the women we serve have access to all the evidence and care choices they need to make the best healthcare decision they can.” Over the last several decades, this approach has led to greater numbers of women partnering with midwives for OBGYN care, a trend Reinhart believes is beneficial on several levels. “When women have access to midwifery care, outcomes for them and their babies are better and system costs are lower. Moreover, our care empowers women and families during their pregnancy, birth and beyond.” n louise uffelman

CLASS OF 2000 nancy reinhart

PODRACKY

BRUSHING UP

when the pandemic hit, Katie Wall Podracky ’05 wanted to focus on “uninhibited joy” — words she uses to describe her painting style, as well as her experience artistically documenting all 41 North Carolina state parks.

In 2020, the full-time artist decided to travel around her state with her husband and two children. What started as a mission to get her kids off technology and into nature blossomed into a professional challenge: make a painting of every state park.

“I needed a goal to get me through the pandemic, and the project became the tangible thing I could focus on. It was my way of clinging to a little nugget of joy,” said Podracky, who double majored in studio art and biology.

The project, which she named The Carolina Collection, ranges from large oil pieces (her signature style) to smaller

THE MINIMALIST

watercolors that showcase the beautiful, diverse landscape of the state. The watercolors are a nod to her Spring Term course in Italy with Kathleen Olson, professor of art emeritus, where the group traveled the country and painted plein air.

While Podracky was hoping to also paint the Carolina Collection in the moment, that proved unrealistic with two kids in tow. Instead, she took reference photos and collected snapshots of natural landmarks and personal moments, from Pilot Mountain to her children playing in the creek.

From getting locked out of an Airbnb cabin on Thanksgiving, to her daughter getting sun poisoning on a park trail, it wasn’t all easy. But her series finds the beauty in the pain and uses art to focus on the bright side — in nature and in life. n sara butler

ROAMING FREELY

the coronavirus pandemic turned the world upside down, but out of the chaos some people gained clarity. Among them was Sandy Hooper ’97, ’03L a defense attorney and partner at Lightfoot, Franklin & White in Birmingham, Alabama. When the world shut down in March 2020, he asked his nephew to pack up and go fishing with him in Colorado. They stayed in an Airbnb and relearned how to fly-fish: “I fell in love with it,” Hooper said.

Hooper headed west again in May 2020, visiting Oregon, Idaho and Montana on a four-week trek in a used pick-up truck he bought in Portland. Two years later, he sold his four-bedroom home in Alabama and went part time at work so he could roam the country in a camper van with his Picardy spaniel, Louis. “That trip west was the seed that grew into what has unfolded this past year. Now just felt like the right time — an opportunity when there is more flexibility following COVID,” Hooper said. “I love the outdoors, and this just seemed like something I should do now at 48 rather than at 68.”

His Winnebago features an interior shower/bathroom combination, small

refrigerator and cook top, outdoor grill and modest clothes closet. He later added a daybed, better shocks, an extra water tank, utility box, microwave, ladders and a bike rack while spending time in San Diego, Malibu, Santa Barbara and Big Sur. It runs on diesel fuel and is partially powered by solar panels and lithium batteries. What he’s sacrificed in square footage and personal belongings he gained in freedom and the simplicity that comes with it. “There is no rule that says I have to be anywhere at any particular time, so I have enjoyed meeting up with friends, many who are alumni.”

Work and family commitments bring him back east occasionally. Over Labor Day weekend, Hooper drove from Los Angeles to Birmingham for a jury trial that was postponed. So he took advantage of his location to tour the fall foliage and visit some W&L friends before heading to Halifax, Nova Scotia and then Quebec.

How long will it last? Hooper is keeping his feet firmly planted in the present. “I didn’t have the means to do this when I was 21, but now it is possible for me — and that’s more than enough.” n amanda minix

CLASS OF 2005 katie wall podracky

CLASS OF 1997, ’ 03L sandy hooper

TOP PHOTO BY DAVE

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CLASS OF 2002 wesley rentz

ASSESSING THE YIELD

hurricane season is an uneasy time for Wesley Rentz ’02

As senior director for Southeast Cotton Operation at Olam Cotton, he’s tasked with buying cotton futures — usually two years in advance — and cotton bales at the farm gate. As a rain-set crop, the timing and the amount of rainfall is the difference between a harvest of low-grade to mid-grade bolls. And that translates into dollars in or out of pocket.

The Southeast, he explained, doesn’t typically produce high-grade cotton, and that’s directly linked to the weather. “October and November are fairly wet months, and that’s when the cotton bolls open. The years where we’ve had a lot of rain created some challenges in finding enough buyers to take those lower-grade bolls.”

When Rentz signs a forward contract with the grower, he obviously won’t know the quality of the cotton until it’s harvested. “That’s an area we want to make sure we have a good relationship with that farmer — that they’re a good credit risk.

“It’s a fairly high-stress environment,” he mused, “Risk management is one of the most important skills to have in this job.”

After teaching English in Thailand and China for a few years, Rentz joined Weil Brothers Cotton Inc. in 2005. When cotton futures dramatically spiked in 2008, the 100-year-old family-run company decided to close, and Rentz opted for an MBA to see where that led him. It took him right back to the cotton division within Olam International, the second-largest exporter of U.S. cotton. An early assignment was to grow the firm’s market share in Mexico. “We went from 0% to 10% of the market share in two years. Mexico is a tricky country to work with — there’s a lot of credit risk — but it was really neat to build the supply chain and work on the marketing, sales and management aspects.”

Rentz, who is based in Greenville, South Carolina, and is a member of the American Cotton Shippers Association, sources his cotton from Virginia to Alabama. “We basically buy any cotton we can get our hands on. The U.S. mills use mostly mid- and low-grade cotton to manufacture your white t-shirts, your underwear, your socks and some home furnishings.”

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, Rentz breathed a sigh of relief. “Parts of South Carolina were hit pretty hard, but so far this fall has been good for the cotton crop in the Southeast,” he said. “However, there’s never a dull moment.” n louise uffelman

PHOTO BY JEREMY FLEMING

TAMING THE CURRENT

standing on the shores of northern France, Laura Goodwin ’99 threw her arms over her head into the victory pose. She’d just fulfilled her lifelong dream: to swim the English Channel.

Her journey to the finish line required countless hours of training and sacrifice. A successful Channel swim is a feat claimed by fewer people than summit Mount Everest. And Goodwin, at 9 years old, knew she wanted to be on that list.

Goodwin, who owns the coaching business “Easy To Tri,” has been swimming for more than 30 years, including on W&L’s swim team, under the guidance of Coach Kiki Jacobs. In addition to improving her technique and endurance, she noted that Jacobs instilled in her the importance of balancing athletics with her coursework.

“There’s no way I would ever have been the same swimmer without that experience,” said Goodwin, who majored in biology. “I think that’s one of the great things about the liberal arts is that it does focus on the whole person.”

In 2018, she “mentally committed” to the swim and began documenting the process online (easytotri.com/blog). It required more than a demanding training schedule. There was a long laundry list of items to attend to: finding a boat, securing a crew, arranging visas, booking a swim date, etc.

There were a few setbacks that pushed back her timeline, including COVID. However, in March 2022, the plan was put in action. Four months before the swim, she moved her four-person family to England to complete the final stages of preparation, including training in UK waters with the Durley Sea Swimmers of Bournemouth and Swim Bournemouth Masters.

After a two-week taper, a last-minute transportation scramble, hotel room

key issues, and scarfing down her final meal (a grocery store salmon sandwich), Goodwin got a text at 8 p.m. the night of July 10: the swim was on.

When she arrived at the dock the next morning, the water lay pancake flat. After reviewing the plan with the crew, she strapped on her goggles and tried to breathe. At 7:30 a.m. — after more than three decades of training — she took the plunge.

Goodwin started the swim off strong, expecting conditions to get choppy as the day went on. Yet as she pummeled through icy water and a few jellyfish, the weather prevailed. Over the next few hours, Goodwin focused on her stroke technique modeled after German swimmer Florian Wellbrock. And she was also thinking about something less expected: chocolate milk. Nesquik is her unique choice of beverage for her “feeds,” breaks along the route where she fueled up every 45 minutes by having her crew toss a buoy out to her packed with the dairy goodness.

“I think the crux of this experience is mental strategies, and how you get through it when you’re in the water for such a long time. Someone told me: ‘Don’t look at England, don’t look at France — just swim to your next feed,’” she said. “And that’s what I told myself: If you swim for another hour, somebody’s going to give you chocolate milk.”

In the end, a cultivation of passion, training, patience and a splash of good luck propelled Goodwin across the Channel — in 10 hours and 44 minutes, more than an hour faster than she anticipated and nearly three hours under the average crossing time. On the beach in Calais, France, she celebrated her accomplishment of a lifetime. n sara butler

CLASS OF 1999 laura goodwin

PHOTO BY ILSE BLACK

the Artof

the Artof

CRUSHING THE GRAPE

Enrico “Rick” de Alessandrini ’84, P’23 , owner of Sassaia Winery (sassaia.com), has discovered that producing an award-winning wine involves ancient tradition, modern technology, some luck and a lot of science.

As the son of Italian immigrants, de Alessandrini grew up in both Italy and the U.S. due to his father’s role as the Italian vice consul in Norfolk. “At first, I felt out of place. My father instilled in me the importance of evolving over time like a great wine by having a deep appreciation for your roots and culture. In essence, what my father taught me and what W&L reinforced, is to understand and embrace all traditions and at the same time help ensure their intentions remain relevant. This philosophy drives my winemaking style which respects tradition and embraces innovation.”

When de Alessandrini transitioned into his second career in 2012, he had to brush up on organic chemistry, a prerequisite for admission to the University of California Davis’ Winemaking Certificate Program, which he completed at the top of his class in March 2022. For the economics major and former commodities hedge fund manager, tackling organic chemistry as he approached 60 was no small challenge.

“I had a lot more hair before I took the course,” he laughed.

He is now on a mission to share his acquired knowledge by making Sassaia a collaborative learning center where vintners can learn best practices implemented around the world. “We are becoming ‘glocal’ by collaborating with winemakers from France, California, Virginia and Italy in a quest to revive local businesses by making wine with both indigenous and globally known varieties,” he explained.

Ten years ago, de Alessandrini and his wife, Ellen P’23, past chair of the Williams School Advisory Board, began renovating his family’s ancestral home in the Piedmont region of Italy, purchasing adjoining hectares and growing Cortese (Gavi) grapes for resale in the secondary market. “As central banks around the world drove yields to zero, it was like owning a bond with a decent yield,” he said.

Early on, he reached out to Pierre Naigeon in Gevrey Chambertin Burgundy, also known for its single varietals. In 2017, the two began collaborating to develop Sassaia’s prize-winning Timorasso, a white varietal native to Piedmont. The low residual sugar, low sulfite wine is made the old-school way — handpicked and barrel fermented with the natural yeast from those grapes.

He employs the latest technology to time optimal picking and viability of the natural yeast. “This is where technology blends with five generations of experience. We can grow and vinify with a minimalist and sustainable approach,” he said. n barbara elliott

THE VINTNER

De Alessandrini’s 2019 Derthona Timorasso Platinum earned second place from Germany’s prestigious wine journal Falstaff Magazine.

CLASS OF 1984 enrico de alessandrini

PHOTO BY ELLEN DE ALESSANDRINI

CLASS OF 1995 lakeisha fleming

DEFINING YOUR FOCUS

fourteen years ago, LaKeisha Fleming ’95, launched her own production company, Vision 2:2 Productions (vision22productions.com), because there were certain stories she “wanted to give voice to.” Since then, she has written and directed numerous projects, from client music videos to her own short films.

One of her films, “I Know Too Much,” explores a universal theme: making hard choices. For Fleming, a compelling story comes down to relatability.

“If people can see themselves in a story, even if they just relate to the emotion it’s conveying, then it’s a good story,” Fleming said. “As a writer or director, you must have an ability to draw people into it and draw something out of them — and then make it an interesting journey along the way.”

Fleming, who double majored in journalism and mass communications and French, started her professional journey as a video journalist at CNN, eventually landing in the travel journalism unit. With her passion for language and knack for storytelling, it was a great fit.

“I’m such a geek for words,” she said. “I love finding the perfect word for a sentence, or the right way to say something. Coupled with my love of asking questions, journalism seemed like a natural path for me.”

Although she thrived in the news environment, the whirlwind of long hours and high stress prompted her to switch to a nonprofit setting. Yet she missed the hustle and bustle of her old workplace. Not one to shy away from risk, she took another career pivot.

“I enjoyed the storytelling aspect of journalism, so I thought maybe entertainment was more of what I wanted to do. I started at the bottom again,” she said.

That leap of faith landed Fleming at Tyler Perry Studios, where she worked as a production assistant on various TV shows. It was a grueling gig — and one she executed with fervor. She had been scouted for the job by one of the studio’s producers, who was visiting a set Fleming was working on pro-bono for a different studio.

“The producer was like, ‘Wow, who is that person running around like that,’ and when she found out that they weren’t paying me, and she said, ‘I want her,’” Fleming recalled.

Left: Fleming on the set of the TV movie “First Impression.”

A year into her job at Tyler Perry Studios, an opportunity arose to write a script for “Meet the Browns,” one of the shows she worked on. Her long hours on the sitcom’s set as a production assistant granted Fleming the insight to know the right words for the characters’ lines and the best scenarios to place them.

“I knew the character’s voices — I felt like I lived with these people,” she said. “So when I sat down to write a script, I thought about what would really spark something in these actors, and help bring the show alive.”

Her approach worked. The studio adapted her script for an episode, and she was promoted to a staff writer shortly after. Fleming said the experience provided her a platform to make connections, secure other gigs and build up confidence in her ideas, which ultimately gave her the courage to start Vision 2:2 Productions.

“It really showed me that hey, my voice matters,” she said. n sara butler

the Artof

CLASS OF 2020 nate abercrombie

FINDING COMMON GROUND

Nate Abercrombie ’20 doesn’t know how anyone who spends four years in the Shenandoah Valley can walk away not caring about the environment — no matter where they fall on the political spectrum.

Abercrombie is the conservative outreach coordinator at Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL), a nonprofit that advocates for federal regulations to stop climate change through nonpartisan efforts. The group focuses on the Carbon Dividend Act — a policy which would put a price on carbon for large corporations and reallocate those collected funds into the pockets of Americans.

Note the word choice of “price” versus “tax.” A key part of persuading Republican or right-leaning congressional representatives to join the climate change conversation, Abercrombie said, is appealing to their values through choice of language. This is not an act of a deception; rather, it’s an opportunity to show them that the policy is a solution that aligns with their political interests. Case in point: without change, the U.S. economy, agricultural system and health of American citizens, among other things, are at risk.

Abercrombie said he had a narrow view of climate change before coming to a liberal arts university, which granted the business administration major the opportunity to take environmental studies and geology courses. But his experiences inside and outside the classroom — literally in the outdoors, such as Appalachian Adventure — helped him see how critical, and complicated, the issue of climate change is.

“CCL understands that we need lots of people pushing for something climate related if we ever actually want to see legislation on it pass and be long-standing. We’re reaching out to absolutely anybody who will hear us out, whether they already believe in it or still need to be convinced,” Abercrombie said.

And for change to happen, his job is to guide conservatives on that same journey. That’s not always an easy task.

“I think it’s definitely helped me improve my communication abilities having to talk to people who not only disagree with me, but maybe think that what I’m doing is wrong, bad or objectionable,” he said. “It’s really interesting trying to work with them and come to an understanding when it seems like there’s just so much distance between the two of you.” n sara butler

Food for Thought

As well as operating her own farm, Professor Rebecca Harris teaches American politics, public policy and food policy.

BY LOUISE UFFELMAN • PHOTO BY SHELBY HAMELMAN

TYPICAL DAY

If you followed me around on a typical day, you might see me hovering in an office with my agronomist to pick out seed or plan a fertilizer program while we catch up on industry gossip from his winter meetings.

Or you might catch me in my professor clothes sharing a laugh and having a 20-minute conversation with the warehouse guys at the local co-op where I buy feed and medicine for the cows on my way home. I could be standing in a Tractor Supply parking lot leaning on the bed of my pickup truck with my farm comrades complaining about the weather.

You might overhear me on the phone with my grain merchandiser, asking about her health and the grain bids that day. Need to know something farm related or need to hire somebody? Just ask the gang at the diner. Have a political or legal question? Ask the professor.

FLEX TIME

I know how to drive a tractor-trailer and a combine (I have a class-A CDL), as well as run the hay baler, calibrate my equipment, and precision plant no-till wheat, corn or soybeans. My husband and I built every barn on our property, and I can repair fences and all our farm machinery. Farming also requires flexing my brain — I poured over the three-volume, 10-inch thick manual for the combine and am always reading the latest scientific literature regarding crops and conservation practices. I have to be able to troubleshoot unexpected issues.

VOTING WITH YOUR FORK

Food has always been a kitchen-table issue for many American families on many levels, whether that be food security, food safety or nutrition. Some years ago, as a farmer-professor, I worried that partisan politics might get in

the way of good food policy, and I have used my earlier scholarship, “Party Food” (Common Ground Publishing, 2021), to investigate Democrats, Republicans and farming. Who are the heroes and who are the villains? Democrats have supported generous social welfare policies as a means to help citizens — and farm subsidies are historically social welfare policy. Republicans, on the other hand, prefer market solutions and see farm subsidies as an artificial, expensive and inefficient way to allocate scarce resources. That said, Republicans are very sensitive to the business needs of the farmer, particularly for risk management and regulatory relief.

I sense a sea change in conventional political thinking about American agriculture, which is the subject of my next book, “Barnstorming.”

My intent is to catalogue conventional and progressive (revolutionary!)

values and beliefs in American farm policy.

IN THE CLASSROOM

I teach a class on public policy and environmental policy, and then a Spring Term class on food policy. In both of those classes I might reference Shenandoah farm practice or examples from farmers

I know to discuss the larger framework of why a particular policy isn’t succeeding. Are certain environmental regulations impacting smaller farmers who can’t afford a consultant to keep them in compliance compared to a larger farm?

One of my goals for my students is to help them understand how what government agencies do translates to what happens on the ground — how it impacts the lives of individual. I have also calibrated my teaching in the Williams School to make sure future professionals possess some level of policy literacy about food production in a large, industrialized nation like ours.

MORE ABOUT REBECCA

LAY OF THE LAND

176 acres on multiple properties around the Shenandoah Valley growing mostly corn, soybeans, orchard grass hay, as well as a little wheat. Cows and chickens, too.

SPECIAL SKILL

Can load three tons of hay in a half hour.

CORE FACULTY

Shepherd Poverty Program; Community-Based Learning Program

“One of my goals for my students is to help them understand how what government agencies do translates to what happens on the ground.”

Allyship in Action

Alexis Yee-Garcia ’01 leads the way in generating greater diversity, equality and engagement in Big Law firms.

BY JEFF HANNA • PHOTO BY GORDON STEWART

In the fall of 1997, Alexis Yee-Garcia ’01 answered the phone in her room in Graham-Lees to hear an anonymous caller — using an exaggerated, cartoonish Asian accent — tell her to go work at Hunan Garden, Lexington’s lone Chinese restaurant at the time.

“The caller made some allusion to karate, too,” Yee-Garcia said. “I remember being so surprised that I actually laughed when I hung up the phone because it was so bizarre.”

Yee-Garcia figured her “super weird” name in the campus directory made her an easy target for a racist prank call. Her mother is Chinese; her father is Mexican. Hence, the hyphenated last name. “People often assume it’s my married name,” she said. “Photographically, I read a bit more Asian. I like to say I’m ethnically ambiguous.”

EYE-OPENER

Born and raised in Sacramento, California, Yee-Garcia wanted to go somewhere completely different for college. She

chose W&L because of its size, the not-too-cold weather and its charming campus. Another plus: “I’m a big fan of ritual and traditions.”

She knew the campus lacked diversity, especially compared with her experience growing up in California, but the prank call was still an eye-opener and caused her to reassess where she was. In response, Yee-Garcia threw herself into every campus activity she could find. “I’m fundamentally a joiner,” she said. “I majored in extracurricular activities.” (In fact, her major was journalism and mass communications.)

A FOCUS ON DEI

Fast forward 20 years and Yee-Garcia credits her W&L experience with shaping her philosophy on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion, which is critical to her work as director of attorney engagement at Kirkland & Ellis in San Francisco.

“To put yourself in a position that is not

always comfortable requires a degree of personal fortitude,” she said. “It might have been easier if I’d gone somewhere else. But I don’t regret having gone to W&L. In many ways the experience made me who I am today.”

Yee-Garcia stayed at W&L as an admissions counselor for two years after graduation, followed by a year in residential life at St. Lawrence University. Then she went to Vanderbilt where she directed campus-wide diversity and service programming, including high-liability programs that put her in contact with Vanderbilt’s attorneys.

“I’d never thought about law school, even a tiny bit, until I started working with the lawyers at Vandy,” she said.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, she spent five years as a securities litigator in San Francisco before shifting gears to become diversity

director for two major law firms. In September 2022 she began her current position in which she supports recruitment, retention, training and development of Kirkland’s associates from all backgrounds. She also facilitates the diversity, equity and inclusion programs for two of the firm’s offices.

BETTER RESULTS

“Big Law is always looking for ways to increase the diversity of our ranks. The demographics have been heavily majority,” said Yee-Garcia. “It’s not uncommon to hear from a minority lawyer who shows up in a courtroom and is assumed to be the stenographer or the client or otherwise not belonging in the place as a lawyer.”

However, she noted that studies have concluded that diverse teams get better results. Moreover, law firms serve increasingly diverse clients who want to see themselves

reflected in their service providers. In her previous roles and in her current position, Yee-Garcia creates programming aimed at making a firm’s environment work for everyone.

“Improving our understanding of each other and the way we interact with one another doesn’t stop,” she said. “It’s ongoing for everyone, myself included.”

MORE ABOUT ALEXIS

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Yee-Garcia served as co-chair and treasurer for Children’s Community Center in San Francisco.

TALKING POINTS

Listen to her discussion about diversity and inclusion in the legal profession on the Law School Toolbox’s podcast at go.wlu.edu/ yee-garcia-podcast.

RECOMMENDED READING

“The Inclusion Dividend” by Mason Donovan and Mark Kaplan and “Smarter Collaboration: A New Approach to Breaking Down Barriers and Transforming Work” by Heidi Gardner and Ivan Matviak

“To put yourself in a position that is not always comfortable requires a degree of personal fortitude.”

LIVES OF CONSEQUENCE

‘Crafting Solutions’

Whether in the courtroom or on the golf course, Jerry Maatman ’78 is a force to be reckoned with.

BY JEFF HANNA • PHOTO BY KEVIN REMINGTON

In his four years as Washington and Lee’s No. 1 varsity golfer, Jerry Maatman ’78 never lost a match. He was 50-0 and a two-time First Team All-American.

Today, as one of the nation’s premier litigators for workplace class action lawsuits, Maatman invariably calls upon lessons he learned on the Generals golf team in the courtroom.

‘PRINCIPLES FROM COMPETITION’

“I’ve realized the same principles from competition apply,” said Maatman. “Life’s not always perfect. If things don’t work out in the courtroom, you have to be resilient. You have to instill confidence in people around you, be a leader of a team, be kind of fearless and step up there and try things that have never been tried before. It’s like W&L golf all over again, just in a little different arena.”

Maatman turned down Big 10 scholarship offers to attend W&L. He was recruited by legendary W&L coaches

Cy Twombly and Buck

Leslie ’49. He graduated magna cum laude in history and credits Professor Harry Porter, his advisor, as guiding him toward law school. After W&L, he earned his law degree from Northwestern and found his niche defending so-called “bet-the-company” lawsuits — complex, existential litigation that could bankrupt a company.

“They’re grueling cases, and crafting solutions is like figuring out a multi-dimensional Rubik’s cube that is fluttering in the air. These cases scare some people; I’m attracted to them,” said Maatman, whose clients have included Ford Motor Co., Exxon Mobil Corp., Marriott International Inc., Jimmy John’s, the City of New York and Sterling Jewelers.

BIGGER CHALLENGES

During his 20 years with Seyfarth Shaw LLP, he served as co-chair of the complex discrimination litigation/class action practice group

and pioneered employment practices audits, which he called “preventive lawyering” designed to mitigate or reduce a company’s risk of being sued.

In September 2022, he joined Duane Morris LLP as chair of the firm’s new workplace class action defense group. “This is a bigger challenge, intellectually stimulating and something to embrace rather than fear. I’m excited,” he said.

He’ll continue to author and publish his annual report on class action litigation trends, which many consider “the Legal Bible” for corporate counsel on complex litigation, as well as teach the trial advocacy course for third-year law students as an adjunct professor at Northwestern, which he’s done for more than 30 years.

GOLF AND LAW

When Maatman left W&L, he put away his golf clubs for three years. Once he had his law degree, he returned

to the greens and was quickly ranked among the top amateurs in the Midwest. He also became involved in the administrative side of the sport, serving as general counsel and president of the Chicago District Golf Association and on the United States Golf Association’s Sectional Affairs Committee.

His expertise — in golf and law — was just the combination journalists sought when several players on the controversial Saudibacked LIV professional golf tour initiated an antitrust suit against the Professional Golf Association. Maatman was competing in the Scottish Senior Amateur tournament when reporters from Fortune, Golfweek, Sports Business Journal and CNBC called to get his perspectives on the lawsuit.

Although Maatman correctly predicted the fate of the LIV players’ suit against the PGA during a TV interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” he expressed his disappointment

over the unfolding bitterness.

“I’ve always viewed golf as a little different in terms of integrity; it’s a sport where you call a penalty on yourself,” he said. “As someone intimately involved in golf for years, it’s uncomfortable to watch what’s happening.”

MORE ABOUT JERRY

BEST ADVICE

“Coach Leslie impressed upon me to stay calm and keep your nose to the grindstone and never give up,” said Maatman, who endowed a scholarship in Leslie’s honor.

W&L SERVICE

Maatman joined the Alumni Board in 2022 and has served on his 30th reunion committee.

EXTRACURRICULAR

When back on campus, Maatman visits Leyburn Library’s Special Collections to do research on his book about the Civil War.

“They’re grueling cases, and crafting solutions is like figuring out a multi-dimensional Rubik’s cube that is fluttering in the air.”

CLASS UPDATES AND SUCCESS STORIES

YOUNG ALUMNI WEEKEND BACK ON CAMPUS

Washington and Lee University welcomed more than 450 alumni and guests from the classes of 2012-2022 back to campus Oct. 28-29 for its annual Young Alumni Weekend. Reunion participants traveled from 24 states to reconnect with one another and their alma mater. Read more: go.wlu.edu/yaw2022

EVENTS

FIVE-STAR FESTIVAL

MARCH 2-4

Senior alumni are invited to reunite with friends and reconnect with W&L during a weekend full of events, including meals, presentations and receptions. The festival is open to all classes 1972 and earlier.

ALUMNI WEEKEND

MAY 4–7

Come one and all to celebrate your milestone reunions during one of the loveliest times on campus. See you soon! Visit go.wlu.edu/alumweekend for more information.

ADMISSIONS MAZE PROGRAM JUNE 17-18

Questions about applying to college? This program is open to any child or grandchild of a W&L alumnus entering the 11th or 12th grade. For more information, visit go.wlu.edu/ maze-2023 . Registration opens in April.

SEND US UPDATES

1.

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3. Alumni and guests enjoyed lunch at the Young Alumni Tailgate on Saturday. Front row, l. to r.: Naima Rashid, Kiki Spiezio ’17, Zahra Yousofi ’17, Jordan Abada, Rachel Oguntola ’17 and Mauricio Bustamante ’17. Back row, l. to r.: Azmain Amin ’17, Lauren Kim-Arviset ’17 and Charles Arviset.

4. A group of Class of 2012 alumni, who were celebrating their 10th reunion, pose for a photo outside the tailgate and football game.

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Distinguished Young Alumni winners Shiri Yadlin ’12 (second from left) and John Grigsby ’12 (third from left) with President Will Dudley and John Jenson ’01, executive director of Alumni and Career Services.

Jenny Lee ’17, Monette Carli ’17, Gabby Shaw ’17 and Alexandra Seymour ’17 celebrated their 5th reunion at the Welcome Back Bash on Friday evening.

‘EQUAL JUSTICE’

BY LOUISE UFFELMAN

1967

Kenneth M. Greene ’67 of Carruthers & Roth, P.A. in Greensboro, North Carolina, has been named to the North Carolina Bar Association’s Legal Practice Hall of Fame for ’22. The Hall of Fame recognizes oustanding lawyers whose careers have served as models for other legal professionals by exhibiting the highest standards of ethics, professional competency and service to both the bar and the community.

1981

James K. Vines ’81, ’88L retired from King & Spalding.

1985

Gibson Kerr ’85 wrote his first novel, “States of Rebellion, The Rise and Fall of the Ocasio-Cortez Administration,” which was recently published by Bombardier Books/ Post Hill Press. When not writing or traveling, he serves as the managing principal for Cushman & Wakefield’s Kansas City office.

Dr. Frederick G. Jones ’85 moved and is an oracle developer and analyst for Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

1986

Michael P. Allen ’86 published a book with the Axios co-founders Jim VandeHai and Roy Schwartz titled, “Smart Brevity: The Power of

LONNIE D. “CHIP” Nunley III ’81 received the 2022 Lewis F. Powell Jr. Pro Bono Award from the Virginia State Bar. Nunley served as the chair for Hunton Andrews Kurth’s pro bono program for six years and led the delivery of more than 60,000 pro bono hours by the firm’s Richmond lawyers. He personally has provided more than 5,000 hours to pro bono clients over the past decade. Additionally, Nunley has been the partner in charge of the firm’s George H. Hettrick Church Hill pro bono office since 2015.

Nunley practices product liability and mass tort litigation, energy regulation, and retail and consumer products litigation. Most of Nunley’s pro bono work involves representing tenants in housing disputes. “It’s usually a David vs. Goliath situation because landlords usually have representation and tenants can’t afford a lawyer,” he said.

After attending law school at the University of Virginia and clerking for a federal District Court judge, Nunley joined Hunton Andrews Kurth, where there was already a solid W&L alumni presence. One alum who predated Nunley at the firm was Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell ’29, ’31L. Powell, whom Nunley describes as “a centrist voice of wisdom and reason,” created the Legal Services Corporation while president of the American Bar Association, “giving birth to legal aid as we know it in this country today.”

After receiving his pro bono award at the Virginia Pro Bono Conference on Oct. 19, the assembled crowd gave Nunley a standing ovation. But for Nunley “the real heroes in our profession are legal aid lawyers. They sacrifice so much to do the work they do. They insure that for many, many Americans, equal justice is not merely a caption on the façade.”

Saying More with Less.” It teaches readers how to say more with less in virtually any format. The book pulls from communication lessons learned from their decades of experience in media, business and communications.

Charles T. Pinck ’86 produced the award-winning short documentary, “Operation Overlord: OSS and the Battle for France.” The documentary on D-Day was shown at NATO Special Operations Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on May 6, 2022, to military personnel from the 30 nations that comprise NATO.

1989

James C. Ambrosini ’89 received a lifetime achievement award for outstanding contributions to the field of information

assurance, risk, governance and security by ISACA. The event was held in New York City on June 16, 2022.

1990

The Rev. Christopher A. Beeley ’90 is the next rector of The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation. He has served since 2018 as the director of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies and as the Jack and Barbara Bovender Professor of Theology, Anglican Studies and Ministry at Duke Divinity School. The 124-year-old parish is located in Dallas.

1993

Jennifer McCann Crovatto ’93 accepted a new job as operational effectiveness manager

for Q2 Solutions. She will develop a plan to harmonize across sites and systems, implement new technology and develop custom templates. Previously, she spent nine years as a senior consultant developing solutions for capturing experimental data in the pharmaceutical industry.

1995

Matthew M. Haar ’95 was appointed to the Pennsylvania Bar Association board of governors as the unit county governor.

1996

Rebekah K. Prince ’96 joined Bank Rome LLP’s corporate, M&A and securities practice group as a partner in the Los Angeles office. Her practice includes represent-

Justice Stephen R. McCullough (left) with Lonnie D. “Chip” Nunley ’81 .

OUR W&L COMMUNITY

BY JOHN JENSEN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI AND CAREER SERVICES

DEAR FELLOW ALUMNI, parents and friends of W&L: It is an honor to serve as the new executive director of Alumni and Career Services. Lexington felt like home the minute I stepped on campus as a first-year student in 1997, but there was no way for me to know even then just how big of an impact this institution would have on my life. I cherish so much about those four years, but the greatest gift was finding my wife, Lauren Stearns Jensen ’02, who has been my rock ever since. We are blessed to have called Lexington home for the past 10 years, bringing it all full circle.

After graduation, I remained actively involved with W&L. Serving as an alumni admissions rep, chapter leader, class agent, and reunion chair allowed me to connect back to campus in meaningful ways. My volunteer experience culminated in chairing my 10th reunion with a dear friend, Sarah Ann Hardee Knier ’01. We had record attendance and the largest amount raised by a 10th reunion at that time. It felt good giving back to a place that gave us so much. I urge you to find a role that helps you connect back to W&L, too.

In 2011, I pivoted from Wall Street to higher-ed, joining the W&L staff as assistant dean of the Williams School

ing public and private companies, as well as clients in the sports, media and entertainment, and franchising industries. She joins the firm from Barnes & Thornburg LLP.

1999

Hillary Coombs Jarvis ’99, ’02L joined R&Q Insurance Holdings in Richmond, as chief claims officer for North America.

Jill Jamieson Misener ’99 joined Fox Rothschild LLP as council in the taxation and wealth planning department. She represents businesses and individuals in controversies before federal,

state and local tax authorities. She handles a variety of matters, including examinations, appeals, litigation, collections and voluntary disclosures and has experience representing U.S. taxpayers with offshore tax and reporting issues.

2003

Jane Ledlie Batcheller ’03, ’08L was promoted to associate general counsel, M&A, at WestRock in Atlanta.

2004

Dr. Paul A. Sibley ’04 was named chief of hand

surgery at Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

2005

Marie Trimble Holvick ’05, ’08L has been promoted to managing partner of the San Francisco and Oakland offices of Gordon & Rees.

2006

Allan C. Galis ’06 made Hunter Maclean’s Best Lawyers in America 2023 list. He is a partner at the firm’s Savannah, Georgia, office.

Tiffany A. Todd ’06 has joined Cerebral Inc. as senior employment

(thank you Larry Peppers for providing the opportunity). More than 10 years in and having worked in academic affairs, student affairs and university advancement, I am ready for my new role. The Office of Alumni and Career Services is committed to continuing the work we have always done: provide best in class career services, engage you personally and professionally through alumni programs big and small, and offer opportunities to come back to the classroom through lifelong learning. Shameless plug: the After Class podcasts are amazing and feature current and past faculty in every episode!

Our spring schedule is packed and we would love to see you back on campus. Five-Star Festival and The Institute for Honor kick off the alumni programming March 2–4, followed by Alumni Weekend May 4–7. Also, the Admissions Maze is back in person June 17–18. The Maze is open to any child or grandchild of W&L alumni entering the 11th or 12th grade. As a parent of a rising 11th grader, I hope to see you there!

On behalf of everyone in Alumni and Career Services, remember that the magic of being back on campus awaits — we hope to see you in Lexington soon.

counsel. Cerebral is a mental health telehealth company. She is looking forward to taking this next step in her career in a fully remote capacity and will work from Crested Butte, Colorado.

2008

Lauren Sapikowski Barnett ’08 is thrilled to announce her first book, “Death Lines: Walking London’s Horror History,” which will be published by Strange Attractor Press. The book is the first walking guide to London’s role in the evolution of horror cinema, inspired by the city’s dark histories, labyrinthine

architectures, atmospheric streetscapes and uncanny denizens.

2010

Amy Conant Hoang ’10, ’13L joined Seyfarth Shaw in Washington, D.C., as partner and co-chair of the government contracts practice group.

2012

James K. Pickle ’12, ’15L joined Protective Life Corp. in Birmingham, Alabama, as vice president and senior counsel.

1. Christopher Lauderman, ’06, ’09L to Dr. Kay Younggren on Dec. 19, 2021 in Phoenix, Arizona. They reside in Artesia, New Mexico.

2. Rosemary Hambright ’11 to Metincan Kaban in May 2022 in Galveston, Texas. Alumni in attendance included (from l. to r.): Laura Persun Gerhardt ’11, Cass Lewis ’11, Cara Sullivan Tippett ’11, Rosemary Hambright Kaban ’11, Tracy Richardson Rivard ’11 and Claire McCandless Attisano ’11.

3. Camie Carlock ’13 to Matthew McKee on April 30, 2022, at Camp Waldemar in Hunt, Texas. The bride’s sister, Happy Carlock Madden ’15 served as matron of honor, and the bride’s brother-in-law, Rev. James Madden ’08 officiated and served as a groomsman. Ellen Stauffer Hatcher ’13,

Elizabeth Ward Nation ’13 and Noel Price Perkins ’13 served as bridesmaids. Alumni in attendance included (from l. to r.): Steele Burrow ’13, James Madden ’08, Alex Utsey Jones ’09, Ellen Stauffer Hatcher ’13, Trey Hatcher ’14, Elizabeth Ward Nation ’13, Happy Carlock Madden ’15, Christine Balistreri ’11, Noel Price Perkins ’13, Eric Perkins ’13, Lacey Flanigan Fisher ’13 and Wilson Miller ’17. Both attorneys live in Dallas. She practices energy law with Haynes and Boone, and he practices real estate law with Munsch Hardt.

4. Liza Boldrick ’15 to Ian Hooley ’15 on April 30, 2022 in San Antonio, Texas. The wedding party included Jamie Boldrick ’11, Sarah Sorenson Foster ’13, Sarah Strunk ’14, Betsy Cribb ’15, Caroline Crichlow-Bell ’15, Margaret McClintock ’15, Steven

Vranian ’15, Patricia Kirkland Wellborn ’15 and Patrick Wellborn ’15. Liza and Ian reside in Brooklyn, New York.

5. Tyler Kaelin ’16 and Kelly Douma Kaelin ’16 celebrated just over two years of marriage on June 18, 2022. They were married in Lexington on May 2020.

6. Julia Wilson ’18 to Carter Huffman ’19. They live in Glen Allen, Virginia.

Kristen E. Brown ’93 to William C. Weaver, on Jan. 22, 2022, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The bridal party and guests took a traditional second line from the church to a reception held at the historic Columns Mansion. The couple live in Shreveport with their seven children and five grandchildren in the house or nearby.

BIRTHS

Ellinor Hindsley Clendenin ’05, ’08L and her husband, Ken, a son, Charles Austin on June 2, 2021. He joins his brothers Carson and Peter.

Stephen L. Welker ’05 and his wife, Emily, their first child, a daughter, Elizabeth Carmichael, on June 13, 2022.

Blair McCartney Nash ’08 and her husband, Tyler, a daughter, Hollis Elise, on July 20, 2022.

Erika Rost Moretz ’09 and her husband, Eric, their first child, a son, Orlando James, on July 13, 2022.

Elizabeth Bucklee Peacher ’13 and Nicky Peacher ’15 , a son, Charles “Charlie” Clarkson, on Aug. 16, 2022.

1. Dr. Rebecca Bagdonas ’98 and her husband Vineet Budhraja hosted Dean Kimber and Kenny Melvin, gift officer, along with 50 NYC alumni at their home. Badaa wrote,” We had a ton of fun, and we had grads ranging from the Class of 1960 to 2022.”

2. Howard Kaylor ’50, ’52L was named a trustee emeritus of the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts. He was also honored for his work with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra and the Maryland Theatre.

3. Alumni from the early 1970s gathered at the Homestead in West Virginia last June to celebrate.

4. 1959 classmates, l. to r: Jack Kotz, Bert Hudnall, Tom Bryant and David Messe got together at the Bishop Gadsden Retirement community in Charleston, South Carolina. Jack, David and their wives live in the community. Bert lives in Mount Pleasant, a town also located in Charleston, and Tom lives in Orangeburg, South Carolina, about 70 miles away.

5. Generals took home some hardware at a local member-guest golf tournament at the Wee Burn Country Club in Darien, Connecticut. From l. to r.: George Craft ’05, John Huntington ’99, Tim Blair ’06 and T. Blair ’99.

6. Charles Hartley ’89 (left) and Walker Hays ’88 have both been named to the Fastest Growing Advisors list by Advisor Hub Magazine. Hartley, ranked 4th, majored in European history and French and received his MBA from UCLA. Walker, ranked 9th, majored in business management and holds CRPS and CPFA certifications. They are managing directors in the Private Client Wealth Group at B. Riley Financial, with Hartley in the firm’s D.C. office and Hays based in Memphis, Tennessee.

What a Celebration!

After five years of scheming and planning, and a two-year-long pause due to Covid-19, Lambda Chi Alpha alumni — spanning from the 1950s to current undergrads — gathered at Big Spring Farm in Lexington on Sept. 16–17, 2022, to celebrate the chapter’s centennial. Over 200 alumni, spouses and friends, plus one dog and a 6-year-old redhead who wants to be a Lambda Chi like his old man, attended.

Alumni in attendance included: Henry Porter ’54, Andy Leonard ’63, John Crockett ’70, Philip Tissue ’70, Tom Suydam ’75, Kerry Scott ’76, Marshall Weaver ’77, J.R. Downey ’77, Bill Oglesby ’77, Jim Lawson ’77, Bruce Cauthen ’78, John Collmus ’78, Joel Loving ’78, Greg Sieminski ’78, Bill Joost ’78, Will Deeley ’79, Bob Brewer ’79, Ralph Ownby ’80, Bruce Wilmot ’80, Andy Lassiter ’80, Randy George ’81, David Cook ’81, Peter Taylor ’81, Jamie Hall ’82, Hank Artz ’82, Tim Baird ’82, Mike Bernot ’82, Jed Dunn ’82, Kip Gordon ’82, Tom Hunter ’82, Will Somerville ’82, Gordon Grubb

’82, Steve Anthony ’83, Teddy Galanides ’83, Brian Holdaway ’83, Warren Watkins ’83, Jim Berry ’85, Charles Nusbaum ’87, Matthew Steilberg ’87, J.C. Cummings ’87, Ross Darling ’88, Matt Upton ’88, John Pipkin ’89, Puddin James ’89, Joel Miller ’89, Peter Parker ’89, Theman McLane ’89, Dirk van Assendelft ’90, Tom Hamilton ’90, James Fuller ’90, Ann Fuller ’90, Evan Kline ’90, Paul Matuch ’90, Greg Euston ’90, Bill Hoehn ’91, Rob Aliff ’91, Krista Vollack ’91, Tim Truxell ’91, Garrick Slate ’91, Erik Jones ’91, Shane Kimzey ’92, Broderick Grady ’92, Clint Wheelock ’92, John Godfrey ’93,

Todd Askew ’93, Chris Dreibelbis ’94, Brian Widener ’94, Chris O’Hagan ’94, Bob Ferris ’95, Will Shepherd ’95, Dave Lupo ’96, John Bator ’97, Demian McGarry ’98, Doug Panzer ’98, Daniel Hilley ’99, Owen Meeks ’99, Kevin McManemin ’00, Rob Baldwin ’00, Thomas Wood ’01, Dustin Olson ’02, Billy Green ’10, Dennis O’Leary ’10, Scott Centorino ’11, Connor Donaldson ’17, Jennings Huntley ’19, Ryder Babik ’19, Christopher Baumgarten ’19, Lukas Campbell ’19, Skyler Zunk ’19, Aiden Donaldson ’20, Jacob Day ’21, Lucas Flood ’21, Owen Hadden ’21, Bradley Jones ’21, Jeremiah Kohl ’21 and James Lawson ’21.

OBITS

1940s

Dr. Philip A. Wilhite Jr. ’42 , of Milboro, Virginia, died on June 21, 2022. He belonged to Sigma Chi.

Alfred K. Walter ’49, of Olympia, Washington, died on April 11, 2022. He served in the Army as a telephone lineman and in the European Theater during WWII. He worked for Beaumont, Heller

and Sperling Inc. for 40 years. He belonged to Beta Theta Pi.

1950s

Philip P. Friedlander Jr. ’51 , of Falls Church, Virginia, died on June 2, 2020. He belonged to Zeta Beta Tau.

Myles M. Johnson ’51 , of Rockville, Maryland, died on July 10, 2022.

Richard L. Jones Jr. ’51 , of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, died on June 1, 2022. He served in the Navy for four years. He belonged to Delta Tau Delta.

Samuel E. Miles Jr. ’51 , of Signal Mountain, Tennessee, died on Aug. 22, 2022. He served in the Navy and was active in his community. He belonged to Kappa Sigma

M. THEODORE VAN LEER ’51, TRUSTEE EMERITUS

Maurice Theodore “Ted” Van Leer ’51, Trustee Emeritus of Washington and Lee University and retired president of Van Leer Chocolate Corp., died May 17, 2022. He was 92.

“Ted was one of W&L’s strongest supporters,” said Farris Hotchkiss ’58, former director of University Advancement.

“He was completely down to earth and was genuinely positive about Washington and Lee’s future. He had such a love for his alma mater and seemed to not care how time-consuming his volunteer efforts on behalf of W&L might be.”

While a student, Van Leer was a four-year member of the cross country team and the track team. He was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity.

After graduating from W&L with a B.S. degree in commerce, Van Leer joined the Van Leer Chocolate Corp. He helped build the business, which manufactured chocolate and chocolate coatings from raw coca beans, into a national company supplier for boxed chocolates, bakeries, dairies and food service companies. He is a former chairman of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and past-associate member of Retail Confectioners International Ice Cream Association. He retired as president of Van Leer Chocolate Corp. in 2000.

In 2012, he noted in an interview for a University Advancement publication: “I got a great deal out of W&L. The Honor System formed a good model to follow in business. It is a wonderful practice that still is so important to the university today. In the chocolate industry you buy and sell contracts on

and was father to Brian Miles ’86.

Ferdinand Phillips Jr. ’51 , of Coral Gables, Florida, died on April 11, 2022. He belonged to Phi Epsilon Pi.

James D. Ward ’51 , of Mechanicsville, Virginia, died May 3, 2022. He served in the Army and worked in lumber production and sales shipping.

He belonged to Alpha Tau Omega.

Dr. Thomas A. Wash, ’51 , of Newport News, Virginia, died on July 5, 2022.

He served as a medical officer in the U.S. Air Force. He also served on the Virginia Board of Medicine and spent his career delivering babies and giving back to his community. He belonged to Phi Kappa Sigma.

your word, without signing papers,” Van Leer explained. “The integrity that came with the Honor System was recognized. Our customers could rely on us to deliver our products on time with the product they needed.”

Van Leer joined W&L’s Board of Trustees in 1989, a few years after the university became coed. “W&L has come a long way in education,” he observed. “The opening of the school to women greatly enhanced its reputation.”

In addition to serving on the Board of Trustees, he was the past president of the George Washington Society and a member of the Alumni College Advisory Board, his 50th reunion committee and the cabinet for the Campaign For the Rising Generation. He stepped down as a trustee in 1998.

Van Leer and his wife, Susan, generously supported many areas of the university, including the Annual Fund, the David G. Elmes Endowment Fund, the Class of 1951 Thomas K. Wolfe Jr. Distinguished Lectures, the Indoor Athletic Center, the Natatorium, the Generals Club, the Sidney M. B. Coulling Scholarship Endowment, Friends of Rockbridge, Mock Convention, the Lenfest Center Endowment, Wilson Field Renovation, Hillel House, the Class of 1958 Farris and Judy Hotchkiss Alumni House Endowment, the Wilson Hall Art & Music Building, the Vernon W. Holleman Jr. ’58 Scholarship, the Thomas H. Broadus Jr. ’59 Professorship, the James William McClintock III Honor Scholarship, and the Susan D. and M. Theodore Van Leer/Farris P. Hotchkiss Honor Scholarship.

In 2004, the university added the couple’s names to the Honored Benefactor’s Wall in Washington Hall. Van Leer noted at the time, “It sure is nice when you have a product as good as Washington and Lee, and you believe passionately in that product.”

Van Leer’s wife, Susan, predeceased him in 2021. He was father to Theodore J. “Tad” ’77 and grandfather to Elizabeth ’10.

Sam Bucholtz Jr. ’53 , of Tampa, Florida, died on April 27, 2022.

Dr. Brian Crowley ’54 , of Bethesda, Maryland, died on July 17, 2022. He served in the Navy and worked as a psychiatrist in the D.C. area. He belonged to Pi Kappa Phi.

Stanley H. Flinn Jr. ’54 , of Richmond, died on June 14, 2022. He belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.

William R. Hill ’54 , of Greenville, North Carolina, died on May 25, 2022. He served in the Army. He worked in advertising, as a reporter and photographer, in fundraising, and as a courier with his son’s law practice. He belonged to Pi Kappa Alpha and was father to Bill Hill ’80.

J. Robert Wingert Jr. ’54 , of New Oxford, Pennsylvania, died on Aug. 8, 2022. He was the co-founder of the Hanover Area Human Resources Association and belonged to Pi Kappa Phi. He was father to G. Paige Wingert ’87.

Harold J. Blacksin ’55 , ’57L , of Norristown, Pennsylvania, died on Aug. 6, 2020. He worked for Levitz Funiture Corp. and belonged to Phi Epsilon Pi.

Robert H. Davidson ’55 , of Charlotte, North Carolina, died on May 4, 2022. He served in the Marine Corps for five years and worked on the Sprint Missile System and the SAM-D System at Lockheed Martin Corp. He belonged to Pi Kappa Phi.

R. Pegram Harrison ’55 , of Atlanta, died on July 5, 2022. He served in the Navy, practiced law in New York City and Atlanta, and owned several radio stations. He belonged to Phi Delta Theta.

Ralph C. Porter, III ’55 , of Middleburg, Vermont, died on May 17, 2022. He was an intelligence officer in the Navy and served in the Foreign Service for 28 years. He was father to Chris Porter ’80.

Sidmon J. Kaplan ’56 , of Providence, Rhode Island, died on Sept. 16, 2022. He established the Kaplan Scholarship Fund to support Jewish students at W&L and belonged to Zeta Beta Tau.

Gilbert R. McSpadden Jr. ’56 , of Memphis, Tennessee, died on May 24, 2022. He retired from Labor Express. He volunteered as the wrestling coach at the Mississippi Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. He was inducted in the W&L Sports Hall of Fame in 2009 for Wrestling and Track and Field. He belonged to Delta Tau Delta.

Henry F. Smith ’56 , of Tallahassee, Florida, died on July 3, 2022. He belonged to Sigma Chi.

The Hon. Henry C. Morgan Jr. ’57, ’60L , of Virginia Beach, died May 1, 2022. In 1991 President George H. W. Bush nominated him to serve as a U.S. District Court judge. He was a Distinguished Alumni Award recipient in March 2022. He belonged to Sigma Nu.

Donald J. Currie ’58L , of Lake Mary, Florida, died on May 26, 2022. He served in the Army as a second lieutenant in the Air Defense Artillery, the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps and the National Guard.

Harold R. Gillespie ’58 , of Orange Park, Florida, died on March 9, 2019. He belonged to Pi Kappa Phi.

Arthur W. Kehlhem ’59, of Palm City, Florida, died on July 9, 2022.

1960s

Allen Mead Ferguson ’60, of Richmond, died on June 25, 2022. He joined the Marine Corps and spent over 40 years as an investment banker. He belonged to Sigma Nu.

W. Kendall Lipscomb Jr. ’60, ’62L , of New Kent, Virginia, died on May 21, 2022. He practiced with Taylor, Hazen, Kauffman, Lipscomb & Smith and belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.

Kenneth Kleeman ’61 , of Marblehead, Massachusetts, and Deer Isle, Maine, died on June 12, 2022. He worked as a financial advisor, loved hiking and sailing and belonged to Zeta Beta Tau.

William N. Martin ’61 , of Vero Beach, Florida, died on Sept. 10, 2022. He served in the Army and worked for Aetna. He belonged to Sigma Chi.

Winthrop L. Weed ’61 , died on Aug. 28, 2022. He worked for Mrs. Fields Cookies Australia and belonged to Delta Tau Delta.

Andrew J. Conroy III ’62 , died on Sept. 13, 2022. He president of Spring Grove Cemetery for 27 years. He belonged to Beta Theta Pi.

James S. Sagner ’62 , of Greenland, New Hampshire, died on Aug. 21, 2022. He was a veteran of the Air Force and worked for The University of Bridgeport. He belonged to Zeta Beta Tau.

Stephen F. Tomasek Jr. ’62 , of Columbia, Maryland, died on June 2, 2022. He served in

the Army during Vietnam and worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He belonged to Pi Kappa Alpha.

Thomas T. Moore Jr. ’63 , of Charlotte, North Carolina, died on Aug. 31, 2022. He worked for Bank of America and belonged to Kappa Sigma. He was brother to Hullie Moore ’65 and uncle to Frank Moore ’92.

Wistar C. Silver ’63 , of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, died on April 29, 2022. He served in the Army and and worked for W.S.A. He belonged to Phi Kappa Psi.

The Rev. E. Edwin Brooks Jr. ’64 , of Harrisville, New Hampshire, died on Aug. 25, 2022. He served in the Peace Corps and spent 36 years teaching in the Religious Studies Department at Northfield Mount Hermon School.

Dr. Bruce T. Chosney ’64 , of Indianapolis, Indiana, died on July 27, 2022. During the Vietnam War he served as an Army MASH doctor. He retired from CompHealth and belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.

The Hon. Mark W. Gee ’64 , of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, died on June 23, 2022. He served in the Navy, was an instructor at the Officer Indoctrination School in Newport, and held many elected offices. He belonged to Sigma Chi.

James C. Bussart ’65 , of Marietta, Georgia, died on May 24, 2022. He was an air traffic controller with the Marine Corps and served during the Vietnam War. He owned Bussart Law Firm and he belonged to Phi Kappa Sigma.

James S. Legg Jr. ’65 , of Saint Johns, Florida, died on May 6, 2022. He worked for Goddard Space Flight Center helping to build the Space Station, on JPL’s Galileo space craft, and at Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. on the Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Space Telescope. He belonged to Sigma Phi Epsilon.

M. Lanier Woodrum ’65 , ’80L , of Roanoke, died on Sept. 8, 2022. He practiced insurance law with Woodward Fox & Wooten for 20 years. He belonged to Kappa Alpha.

William J. Hart ’66 , of Lake Bluff, Illinois, died on Sept. 26, 2018.

Frank Q. Jones III ’66 , of Massachusetts, died on Aug. 19, 2022. He worked as a tech on the set of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” in the ’60s and ’70s, and was a founding member of The New Pittsburgh Film Group. He belonged to Delta Upsilon.

Lawrence E. Orme ’66 , of Durango, Colorado, died on Sept. 26, 2022. He retired from O’Connor and Co. and belonged to Kappa Alpha.

Gaylord C. Hall III ’67, of Dallas, Texas, died on May 2, 2022. He served in the Navy and worked for Rustown Homes. He belonged to Sigma Phi Epsilon.

Cary J. Hansel Jr. ’67, of Martinsburg, West Virginia, died June 13, 2022. He served in the Army and worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and at Rust-Oleum as a plant manager. He belonged to Sigma Chi and was father to Cary Hansel III ’96.

Richard V. Johnson ’68 , of Boston, died on July 22, 2022. He worked for H.P. Hood Co. as a software

LEONARD E. JARRARD, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY

Leonard E. Jarrard, Robert Lee Telford Professor of Psychology Emeritus, died Oct. 11, 2022. He was 91.

He received his B.A. from Baylor University (1955) and his M.A. (1957) and Ph.D. from Carnegie Institute of Technology (1959). From 1952 to 1954, Jarrard served in the Air Force.

Jarrard joined the W&L faculty for the first time in 1959. In 1965, he accepted a one-year National Institutes of Health fellowship at the University of Florida College of Medicine, where he specialized in experimental neurosurgical techniques. Upon leaving Florida, Jarrard returned to his graduate alma mater, now Carnegie Mellon University, where he taught and conducted research from 1966 to 1971. He returned to W&L in 1971 as professor of psychology and head of the department. In a university publication from the 1970s, Jarrard wrote, “One of the important considerations in my decision to come back to Washington and Lee was that I missed the exposure to undergraduates an awful lot.”

During his 19-year tenure as department head, Jarrard solidified the department’s emphasis on experimentally oriented psychology and expanded its base by hiring faculty who shared his vision and views on the importance of undergraduate research. Jarrard successfully brought in more than $1 million from the National Science Foundation, as well as other sources, to support student summer research, purchase equipment and hire research technicians. He was also the moving force behind the creation of the interdisciplinary neuroscience program in 1990 and chaired this rigorous and popular major from its beginning until his retirement in 2001. He also established an exchange program between University College, Oxford, and W&L, which for 20 years offered enriching academic and cultural opportunities for professors and students alike.

Jarrard became known globally among neuroscientists for his elegant and rigorous research on the hippocampus, a structure in the brain most often associated with learning and memory. Jarrard’s research, which deftly combined innovative surgical techniques and ingenious behavioral tasks, challenged popular views of the hippocampus’ function — not once, but several times during his career. He published over 100 papers and presented his work at countless professional

EMERITUS

meetings, gaining a reputation as one of the foremost experts in the field. His work was so important to the field that he was invited to write the lead article for Hippocampus’ inaugural edition. In 1992, he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Throughout his career, Jarrard interacted with an astonishing number of scientists from near and far — from VMI to Japan, Canada, England, France, Morocco and New Zealand — including two who would go on to win the Nobel Prize in medicine. Many even traveled to Lexington to learn Jarrard’s surgical techniques. One colleague remembered grading an exam where the student quoted one of Jarrard’s most important papers to answer the question, “What does the hippocampus actually do?”

In the classroom, Jarrard was a respected and beloved teacher. He taught Brain and Behavior, Physiological Psychology and Psychoactive Drugs and Behavior — a highly popular Spring Term class. In seminar settings, Jarrard masterfully blended his research focus with pedagogy to produce a superb example of how scholarship and teaching are intimately intertwined. He led many of his students to successful research careers. In 1987, he received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia, and he was named the Robert Lee Telford Professor of Psychology at W&L in 1991.

Jarrard was a lifelong academic. For almost 20 years following his retirement, he continued his research collaborations with far-afield colleagues, maintained a near-daily practice of working in his W&L office, continued to socialize with departmental colleagues and mentored young faculty members. All his colleagues remember Jarrard as an extraordinarily thoughtful and careful scientist and as a kind and gentle person.

Outside of his career as a scientist and professor, Jarrard was a union card-carrying jazzman. He played trumpet to help with the costs of his education in Pittsburgh and continued to play for many years. He was a favorite at Parents and Family Weekend jazz concerts. Jarrard always looked forward to the Society for Neuroscience meetings where he was a member of a band of distinguished neuroscientists. As one said, “Those of us who had the opportunity to play jazz with him will remember his extraordinary and influential musical talent.”

Jarrard is survived by his wife, Janet “Jan”; three children, Alice, David and Hugh; and five grandchildren.

The family requests that donations be made to Rockbridge Area Hospice, 315 Myers St., Lexington, VA 24450 or to the Len Jarrard Endowment in Neuroscience, Attn: Development Office W&L University, 204 W. Washington St., Lexington, VA 24450

JOHN KEVIN GREEN, PROFESSOR OF ACCOUNTING EMERITUS

John Kevin Green, professor emeritus of accounting, died Sept 6. He was 85 years old. “Kevin was the head of the Accounting Department when I arrived, and he was a kind gentleman,” said Rob Straughan, Crawford Family Dean of the Williams School and professor of business administration. “I was introduced to him early on the morning that I interviewed at W&L. Despite that fact that he was in a different department, he took a few minutes to visit with me and provide encouragement. I saw him later that evening, as I was getting ready

engineer. He belonged to Pi Kappa Phi.

The Rev. John E. Passavant III ’69, of Allison Park, Pennsylvania, died on Aug. 19, 2021. He served in the Marine Corps and was a co-founder of North Way Christian Community Church. He belonged to Pi Kappa Alpha.

1970s

Peter R. Besson ’70, of Fairfax, Virginia, died in May 2022. He belonged to Zeta Beta Tau.

Michael J. O’Donnell ’72 , of Orange, Virginia, died on June 16, 2022. He belonged to Phi Kappa Psi.

James M. Stege ’72 , of Satsuma, Florida, died on Sept. 16, 2022. He was an architect and the owner of Stegbones, a fish camp in Florida. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.

Stephen P. Fluharty ’73 , of Tampa, Florida, died on Aug. 11, 2022. He was a second lieutenant in the

Army and served in the Florida Army National Guard for 20 years before retiring with the rank of major. He worked for the Bank of Florida and belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.

Cary K. Johnson ’74 , of Morgantown, West Virginia, died on April 25, 2022. He worked for West Virginia University.

Patrick J. McCarty ’74 , of Richmond, died on May 8, 2022. He wrote a column on music criticism, “Altered States,” for the Richmond News Leader, worked for MX106 FM and founded a marketing company, McCarty & Associates.

S. Lawrence Dumville ’75 , of Virginia Beach, died May 16, 2022. He held a 38-year career as an attorney and served as the president of the Norfolk Law Library. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.

Larry V. Banks ’77, of Charleston, South Carolina, died on June 9, 2022. He served in the

to meet folks for dinner and as he was getting ready to leave campus for the day. Again, he stopped and asked me how things had gone throughout the day and put in a compelling plug for teaching at W&L. I remember the impression those two encounters made all these years later.”

Green earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia and taught at Sewanee before joining W&L in 1984. He taught Introduction to Financial Accounting, Introduction to Managerial Accounting, Cost Accounting and International Accounting. He served as a reviewer for the American Accounting Association, Decision Sciences Institute, Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants, and Institute of Management Accountants. Green published and/or presented accounting research at the Association of Management, Institute of Management Sciences, American Accounting Association, and Decision Sciences Institute. He was also a C.P.A. Green retired from W&L in 2007.

He is survived by his wife, Donna.

Army and worked as an anesthesia technician at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

Edwin H. Callison Jr. ’77, of Chicago, died on July 18, 2022. He joined the family business Breakthru Beverage, serving as executive vice president. He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon. He was father to Anne Faulkner ’05.

Clarence N. Frierson Jr. ’77, of Shreveport, Louisanna, died on May 17, 2022. He worked for the Frierson Plantation. He was brother to Archer Frierson ’73 and uncle to Marion Kacos ’05 and Allen Frierson ’11. He belonged to Kappa Sigma.

Jeffrey S. Gould ’79, of Largo, Florida, died on March 3, 2022. He was a writer and poet.

1980s

Scott G. McLam ’80, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, died on June 13, 2022. He earned the nicknames

“Dr. Dodge” and “The Professor” on the W&L lacrosse field. He later played for the Chicago Lacrosse Club and New York Athletic Club. He held a 35-year career in the textile industry. He belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.

Robert K. Moir ’80, of Alexandria, Virginia, died on May 22, 2022. He was an attorney at Lankford & Reed.

Timothy P. Griffin ’81 , of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, died on July 20, 2022. He worked for Hilton Head Limousine Co. Inc.

Michael Judge ’82 , of Potomac, Maryland, died on May 20, 2022. He was an actor, playwright, and congressional historian and guide. He belonged to Sigma Phi Epsilon.

1990s

Chisolm L. Coleman ’92 , of Charleston, South Carolina, died on Sept. 28, 2022. He worked for RBC Dain Rauscher.

William B. Chappell Jr. ’94 , died on Aug. 17, 2022. He was a managing director for Truist Securities.

Brian C. Shearer ’94 , of Richmond, died on Sept. 15, 2022. He had a 25-year career with KPMG LLP in Roanoke.

2000s

James F. Rippy IV ’02 , of Smyrna, Georgia, died on May 8, 2022. He worked for Nalley Infiniti and belonged to Sigma Phi Epsilon.

Friends

Josephine Susan Hotinger McCown, a former nurse at W&L’s Health Center, died Aug. 31, 2022.

William Berkeley Harner Jr., former manager of W&L’s Copy Center, died on Sept. 13, 2022.

Sandy Little, administative assistant in Admissions, died Oct. 24, 2022.

CHRONICLES

Lost and Found

BY LOUISE UFFELMAN

AFTER GRADUATION, Laura Hobby ’94 packed up her belongings and had to leave behind a large painting she created as part of her senior thesis.

“My parents weren’t about to pay to have it shipped home, and it didn’t fit in the trunk of my Toyota Camry,” she said. So she gave it to Larry Stene, professor of art. “In my mind, that was code for ‘I don’t have the heart to throw it out. Can you?’ ”

Even though Hobby came back to campus for her class reunions, she never allowed herself to wonder about that painting. “I never had the heart to ask because I didn’t want to hear that it ended up in the dumpster.”

Hobby, who double majored in European history and studio art, is the supervisor, visual and theatre arts education, K-12, in Hillsborough County Public Schools, the seventh-largest school district in Florida. She overseas and trains 260 art teachers, impacting more than 85,000 students.

“It’s been a tough couple of years for our teachers,” she noted. “We’ve been dumped on by COVID and budget cuts. Over the summer I was working on a teacher training presentation wondering how to motivate them to display their students’ art — it’s a lot of extra work for them. But I also know how much it means to the kids to have their work seen.”

Cue the timely email from Kaylin Jury ’24, who spent her summer as a curatorial intern for Washington and Lee Museums. In the email was a picture of Hobby’s painting, now hanging in Leyburn Library (albeit upside down, according to Hobby).

Laura Hobby ’94 and one of her kindergarten art classes. Inset: Hobby with her senior thesis, now hanging in Leyburn Library.

“I was so overwhelmed with emotion,” said Hobby. “I cannot tell you how meaningful it was to hear from her.” The connection with Jury and reconnection with her painting became an important part of her presentation to her art teachers on why art matters.

“We’ve gone more and more towards standardized testing, where’s there’s only one right answer,” said Hobby. “I think art is beneficial to the children because there isn’t one right answer. It gives them mental space, to just be themselves and create.”

Hobby, who is taking her high school daughter to visit colleges, has put W&L on the list. “I don’t care where she goes to school, but I’m definitely going to check on my painting.”

Post-Graduate Playbook

When I found out that I had been selected, I was absolutely speechless,” said Tahrington “Tahri” Phillips ’23, who is W&L’s 18th Rhodes Scholar. “I told my parents that it felt like being told that the entire trajectory of my life had shifted in an instant. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I am ecstatic.”

At the University of Oxford, Phillips plans to pursue a master’s degree in evidence-based social intervention and policy evaluation. She will build on her undergraduate studies by exploring potential intervention strategies for at-risk and underrepresented youth inside and outside the classroom and how to best create more equitable learning environments for them.

“Oxford is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the United Kingdom, making it an ideal place to learn and practice values and behaviors related to diversity, equity, inclusion and justice,” said Phillips. “Through the Rhodes Program, I hope to learn alongside individuals who endeavor to build inclusive spaces, seek difficult truths, and push me to be courageous in making change.”

Phillips’ commitment to W&L is extensive, and last spring, she received the Edward Lee Pinney Prize, awarded to an undergraduate student who “demonstrates extraordinary commitment to personal scholarship and to the nurturing of intellectual life at Washington and Lee.”

She is the head community assistant for Woods Creek and Theme Houses for the Office of Residence Life, a leader with the Perry Minority Athlete Coalition, the treasurer and public relations chair for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., and a student representative on the Student Affairs Committee. She is also a captain on the varsity women’s basketball team, co-president of the all-female acapella group, a research assistant in a cognitive

and behavioral science research lab and a three-time student co-facilitator for W&L’s First-Year Experience course.

Phillips, a Johnson Scholar who is double majoring in cognitive and behavioral science and English, also wrote a “Diversity and Inclusion Playbook” for W&L that serves as an educational tool for sports teams. For her work, Phillips received the university’s Decade Award, given to the rising junior who “has shown involvement and leadership within the W&L academic and extracurricular communities and who has furthered discussions of women’s issues on campus and beyond.”

Phillips expressed appreciation for her network of support at W&L. “I don’t have the words to wholly express my gratitude for my community. I am incredibly blessed and thankful for the people I have had supporting me throughout my entire educational journey. I owe so much to my friends, educators, coaches, mentors and, most importantly, my parents and older brother, Trey, who have shaped me and fueled my passion for equity and justice.” n

“I don’t have the words to wholly express my gratitude for my community.”

Tahri Phillips ’23 is W&L’s 18th Rhodes Scholar. For her master’s program at the University of Oxford, she will focus on evidence-based social intervention and policy evaluation.

W&L Magazine

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SCENE ON CAMPUS

1. Mike Allen ’86, co-founder of Axios, spoke to Professor Brian Alexander’s class in Leyburn Library.

2. A group from the Appalachian Adventure Leading Edge trip relaxes at an overlook on the Appalachian Trail after a long day of hiking.

3. Students enjoy fine food during the monthlong celebration of National Hispanic month.

4. During the Geology Department reunion, Sept. 16–17, alumni, faculty and staff planted a tree in memory of Professor Ed Spencer ’53 and his wife, Betty, on the Sunnyside Trail near Kendal.

5. Tade Omisore ’25 explains his summer research project to a parent at the Scholars Poster Session during Parents and Family Weekend.

6. Jan Hawthorn, Mike F. Walsh Director of Athletics (far right), welcomed the 2022 Athletics Hall of Fame inductees. From l. to r.: Paul McClure ’05 (tennis), Kendall Korte ’08 (field hockey) and Margaret Hoehl ’99 (swimming). Not pictured: Tommy Tongue ’50 (lacrosse). Read their bios at go.wlu.edu/halloffame-2022.