Sweet Briar Alumnae Magazine | Vol. 88, No. 2 | Fall 2018 by Sweet Briar College

SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE

Dear Sweet Briar alumnae and friends, It was a busy spring and summer here at Sweet Briar, where our faculty and staff diligently developed an almost entirely new curriculum and new course descriptions. I could not be more proud of what they accomplished and can’t wait to see their hard work put into practice. As we launched our first-ever three-week intensive session, more than half of the student body took the first course in our leadership core, Design Thinking, meaning that not only did all of our first-year students take it, but about 60 of our upperclasswomen chose to transition to the core, as well. They are just as excited as we are to see where our innovative curriculum leads. You can learn more about our Design Thinking course on page 6. The rest of our students took courses in a variety of topics — from business negotiation to the love story; from smartphone photography to the ways in which the ancient world can provide solutions to contemporary problems. I was able to teach my first class at Sweet Briar during the session and I was pleased — though not at all surprised — by the thoughtful discussions we had. I expect nothing less from the intelligent and insightful young women who make up our student body. Like the academic faculty and staff, the alumnae relations and development staff had a busy summer. Their hard work — and your generosity — led to another successful year of fundraising, exceeding the College’s goal for the third year in a row with a total of $18.4 million in gifts and pledges. My second Reunion was just as wonderful as the first, with more than 300 alumnae on campus remembering their college days and celebrating successes — their own and Sweet Briar’s. You can see pictures from Reunion on page 18. On page 10, you’ll read a story by guest author Repps Hudson, the brother of Ginnie Toone ’53, who enjoyed a road trip to Sweet Briar from St. Louis to attend Reunion. As summer came to an end, dozens of alumnae came to Sweet Briar to clean, weed, paint and more, getting our beautiful campus ready to greet our new and returning students. In the life of a college, we often talk about the end of the year, commencement, as being a time of new beginnings. And of course it is. But the start of a school year is also a time of renewal. For Sweet Briar, that is especially true this year. While there is much new about the College, there is much that remains true to her heritage. It’s still a place where women of grit, courage and consequence come to learn and build a foundation that will lead them into the future. It is still a community that supports its members while also encouraging them to take risks and seek out new experiences. Thank you for being part of our community.

Sincerely,

Meredith Woo

Fall 2018, Vol. 88, No. 2

MAGAZINE

This magazine aims to present interesting and thought-provoking news about the College and its alumnae. Publication of the material does not indicate endorsement of the author’s viewpoint by the College. We reserve the right to edit and revise all material that we accept for publication. If you have a story idea or content to submit for publication, contact the editor, Amy Ostroth, at aostroth@sbc.edu. Magazine Staff Amy Ostroth, Editor Clélie Steckel, Director of Annual Giving and the Sweet Briar Fund SilverLining Design, Lead Design Cassie Foster Evans, Photographer Contributors: Janika Carey ’10, Jane Dure ’82, Fran McClung Ferguson ‘80, Clara Barton Green ‘89, Alex Grobman ‘12, Repps Hudson, Phyllis Watt Jordan ’80, Maggie Saylor Patrick ‘07, Suzanne Ramsey, Gracie Tredwell Schild ‘82, Jenn Wiley Schmidt ‘06, Sybil Slate Contact Information Office of Communications P.O. Box 1052 Sweet Briar, VA 24595 434-381-6262 Office of Alumnae Relations and Development P.O. Box 1057 Sweet Briar, VA 24595 800-381-6131 Parents of Alumnae If this magazine is addressed to a daughter who no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please email us at alumnae@sbc.edu with her new address. Thank you! Find Sweet Briar Online sbc.edu

CONTENTS

2 The Arts at Sweet Briar College

The arts at Sweet Briar are going strong. Learn about the Center for Creativity, Design and the Arts and get to know the center’s director, Carrie Brown.

6 Learning by Design

The Sweet Briar’s Leadership Core Curriculum got started this fall with CORE 110: Design Thinking.

10 Ginnie Toone ’53: On the Road to Sweet Briar

Ginnie Toone and her brother, Repps Hudson, took a road trip to Sweet Briar this summer to be on campus for her 65th Reunion.

12 Outstanding Alumna Karen Hartnett ’70

At Reunion Convocation, Karen Hartnett was recognized for her dedicated service to Sweet Briar.

26 Teresa Pike Tomlinson ’87: Charting a Fierce Legacy

Teresa Pike Tomlinson completed her service as chairwoman of the Sweet Briar College Board of Directors this summer. We asked her about her Sweet Briar story.

28 Makayla Benjamin ’18: Riding Forward 32 Dorothy Venter ’35 40 In Memoriam: Lincoln Brower

Makayla Benjamin became Sweet Briar’s first Cacchione Cup winner this year. Dorothy Venter shares her memories of Sweet Briar. Renowned monarch butterfly expert and Sweet Briar faculty member dies, but his legacy lives on.

DEPARTMENTS

14 On the Quad 38 Alumnae Briefs

35 Giving

42 In Memoriam

43 Class Notes

THE ARTS

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SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE

The arts have long been a part of the culture at Sweet Briar. From its earliest days, students took music and drawing classes to supplement their required classes in English, languages, history, philosophy and mathematics. The arts are no less a part of the College today. In acknowledgment of their importance, both in their own right and as part of a comprehensive liberal arts education, President Meredith Woo announced last fall that one of the College’s new centers of excellence would be devoted to the arts: The Center for Creativity, Design and the Arts. Longtime faculty member

and author Carrie Brown serves as the center’s director. Brown notes that the center is a natural extension and expansion of Sweet Briar’s ongoing commitment to the arts as a critical part of a liberal arts education and to the College’s commitment to interdisciplinary learning. “We want to encourage students to think broadly about creative experience, discovering how art and the making of art — often a problem-solving experience in its own right —positions them to become leaders, advocates and innovators in a variety of realms.”

throughout the 2018-2019 academic year. In spring 2019, the center also will launch an interdisciplinary section of the Expression and the Arts course in the leadership core curriculum to be taught by a cross-genre team of fellows from VCCA. “We’ve begun reviewing the applications and are delighted by the overwhelming number of artists who want to participate in the fellowships, as well as by the thrilling range of exciting proposals,” Brown says. “We’re very grateful to our partners at VCCA for helping to make this truly unique opportunity available to students.” The idea of creativity at the College is broad and shelters a wide range of creative endeavors under its umbrella. This fall, for example, Medford Taylor taught a class in smartphone photography during the College’s initial threeweek session, teaching students to use the tools in their pockets as a vehicle for creative expression. One of the courses in the College’s leadership core curriculum, The Mindful Writer, encourages students to use their creative inspiration

to write in the range of rhetorical styles found in The New Yorker magazine. In October, New Yorker staff writer Rebecca Mead visited campus to give students an inside look at the workings of the magazine. Teaching students to exercise their creative talents in a broad range of pursuits, Brown believes, will help them become more empathetic leaders and problem-solvers, but also more elastic ones, comfortable with and confident about thinking in original ways. She’d also like to see the College’s arts curriculum become more engaged in the future with public service and policy. “I’d like to see Sweet Briar students who don’t necessarily arrive on campus thinking of themselves as creative people to leave [campus] deeply valuing the arts and their own creative impulses and experiences, whatever their chosen profession,” she says. “My hope is that the arts curriculum at Sweet Briar will be a significant piece of educating more innovative, flexible, exciting and excited thinkers.” fall 2018

Students from across the curriculum — no matter their program of study — benefit particularly from the College’s relationship with the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, one of the nation’s largest residential artists’ communities. Minutes away on Sweet Briar’s sister land of Mount San Angelo, VCCA hosts more than 400 fellows a year from around the world, artists with honors ranging from the MacArthur Fellowship and the National Book Award to the Pulitzer Prize and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Academy in Rome, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, among others. Last spring, Brown launched a series of salons featuring fellows from the VCCA. The fellows visit campus for readings or to present or perform their work to members of the campus community — faculty, staff and students alike. Not only do these events add to the cultural experiences available at the College, but they also give students a chance to learn directly from working artists. Those events will continue

THE ARTS

GETTING TO KNOW

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CARRIE BROWN

When President Meredith Woo launched the College’s centers of excellence, she knew they would need talented and dedicated leaders. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that she tapped longtime faculty member Carrie Brown as director of the Center for Creativity, Design and the Arts. Brown grew up in New England, but because of her father’s job, she also spent some of her childhood in England and Hong Kong. She attended Brown University as an undergraduate and completed her Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Virginia. She’s now lived at Sweet Briar longer than she’s lived anywhere else, and her work as a novelist is rooted on the Col-

Brown is the author of seven acclaimed novels, most recently “The Stargazer’s Sister,” which won the Library of Virginia’s 2017 People’s Choice Award — and a collection of short stories. She has won many awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the Barnes and Noble Discover Award, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for work by an American woman writer, the Great Lakes Book Award and, twice, the Library of Virginia Award for fiction. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in many journals, including Tin House, The Southern Review, One Story, Glimmer Train, The Georgia Review and The Oxford American.

lege’s campus. She worked as a journalist for many years but began seriously writing fiction when her husband — John Gregory Brown, director of Sweet Briar’s English and creative writing program — accepted a job at Sweet Briar in 1994. Brown published her first novel, “Rose’s Garden,” four years later. Though her first novel didn’t appear until 1998, she actually wrote her first fiction in middle school, when she and her classmates were given an assignment (“Not a very imaginative one, I might add,” she says) to record the events of their daily lives in a journal. “My daily life was pretty dull,” Brown admits, “and before long I began to make things up in order to liven up my entries. This

made the assignment far more entertaining for me, but my anecdotes grew increasingly dramatic, and eventually my parents were called in to school, and my imaginative excesses were discovered. Now everyone in my family thinks that’s a funny story, which I suppose it is — I made up some pretty outlandish stuff — but in some ways, even though I’d always loved books, it was also my first serious taste of the pleasure of invention. I’ve wanted to be a writer ever since.” That long-ago assignment may have seemed boring to the young Brown, but she seems to have taken the idea to heart, perhaps helped along by some advice Henry James once gave to an

Carrie Brown teaching “The Love Story,” one of Sweet Briar’s fall 2018 three-week courses

aspiring writer, and which she cherishes: “Try to be one on whom nothing is lost.” Now, daily life often provides the inspiration for her writing. For example, the idea for “The Stargazer’s Sister” came while she was listening to a radio program about 19th-century astronomer William Herschel and his sister, Caroline, who was not only his assistant, but also made some of her own important astronomical discoveries. Although it took several years to write the novel after hearing the story, “I could never shake the sense that there was something extraordinary there,” she says. She’s also inspired by the ordinary people she sees in the world going about their everyday lives. “You never know what gifts the world is going to give you, if you’re looking out for them.” Of course, Brown is more than an accomplished novelist. She’s also a teacher. For her, though, the two aren’t in conflict. In fact, she says, “I often feel like my teaching feeds my writing. I’m most awake then to all the resonances of language, and to the many things I love about fiction, when I’m trying to transmit them to my students.” She acknowledges, however, the difficulty in finding enough hours in a day to do all the things that are important to her. Her advice to students and other aspiring writers? “There are things that

sometimes are just more important than writing: caring for a child or a parent or a friend in need, cooking a meal for friends, taking a long walk, dispatching one’s duties to a job other than one’s creative work,” Brown says. “Sometimes you just have to live your life and trust that the writing and the time for it will come.” She enjoys the opportunities she has to work one-on-one with students at Sweet Briar. Through her teaching, she’s had the satisfaction of getting to know some amazing young women as writers, thinkers and people, and to watch their writing and understanding develop over the course of a semester. “There’s almost nothing quite as wonderful in the classroom as watching a student discover a writer she loves, or to suddenly ‘get’ a story or poem that might have eluded her a year before,” Brown says. “The experience of watching students carry what they’ve learned forward into further study and then into the world, and to have that kind of ongoing intellectual relationship with them, is perhaps my favorite part about teaching writing at Sweet Briar.” The sense of community that is an essential part of her classroom is a thread that winds through Brown’s entire Sweet Briar experience. She and her husband have raised three children

on campus — all of them now grown — and she’s grateful for the community her children had at Sweet Briar. Their family benefited, not just from the students, many of whom served as babysitters over the years, but also from the faculty and staff at the College. “It’s been a supportive place to pursue our work as writers, just isolated enough from the world to give us the space and quiet a writer needs, but close enough to keep us in touch with the broader literary world,” she says. “We’ve always felt lucky to have colleagues we like and admire, many of whom we’ve now known for nearly a quarter century.” It’s a community that is nurturing, but also dynamic, and it stretches far beyond the borders of Amherst County into the extended world of alumnae artists who have made some part of their life at Sweet Briar. She says her favorite memories of the College are of the gatherings they’ve hosted at their house when a writer visits. “It might be a mild fall evening or one in spring, when the dogwoods are in bloom,” she says. “There will be tables and chairs set up on the lawn, and white tablecloths, and flowers on the tables, and candlelight, and good food and drink and conversation, with students and faculty and our guests mingling together. Soon we’ll leave the dishes and the fireflies beginning to blink in the field and walk up to campus for a reading.” There have been many such gatherings over the years, she says, and each time, their guests remark about how lucky the Browns are to live and work in such a place. She agrees. She’s excited about what lies ahead for Sweet Briar. “With the establishment of our centers, the re-envisioning of the College’s core curriculum and an increased focus on educating women who are meaningfully equipped and devoted to being innovative, ambitious and compassionate leaders in today’s world, I think we’re embarking on a deeply important chapter for the College.”

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THE ARTS

FACULTY PROFILE

CORE 110: LEARNING BY

DESIGN

Design thinking is a phrase that describes one way that human beings can approach problem-solving. Sweet Briar isn’t the only college that teaches it, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty about what it really means. “I had no idea what it was when President Woo came on board,” says Joshua Harris, assistant professor of music. “But when I learned more about it, I knew it would be relevant to what I do.

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Artists sometimes get paralyzed thinking that they have to create a masterpiece, but that’s not true.

Iteration is part of composing and there’s a lot of overlap between creative arts and design thinking.”

FACULTY PROFILE

One reason it’s the first course in the core is because it can be applied to so many different fields. Kaelyn Leake, assistant professor of engineering, says that although there’s already an engineering design process, design thinking can be complementary and both processes are based on similar principles. “I think anyone who truly learns design thinking will see their field in it,” she says. All of the faculty teaching the class went to Stanford last winter to train at its design school. For them, design thinking is as much about defining problems as solving them. In order to design anything, you first have to know what problem you’re trying to solve, a skill Jessica Salvatore, associate professor of psychology, says can be applied to almost every aspect of college. For example, she says, “It’s a universal experience to be assigned a paper for a class and to not know where to begin because you can’t describe the problem you’re trying to research. If students can learn to define problems, they’ll be able to apply that skill to every project in every class they take, as well as to the professional problems they’ll solve after graduation.” Penfield agrees. “You can’t solve any problem until you identify the issue,” he says. “Learning to locate, identify and define the problem is an important first step in becoming a problem-solver.” One thing that makes design thinking at Sweet Briar different is that it’s a required course that everyone has to take. “We often heard from the students that the class didn’t feel ‘like

college,’ so clearly, it’s not what everyone is doing,” says Salvatore. “I’ve never heard of anyone teaching a framework of defining problems in a systematic way to every single student in an incoming cohort. That makes it different.” For students, although the class may have been strange at first, it was worth doing. “I really did enjoy the class,” says Iris Williams ’22. “The subject matter is relevant to my engineering aspirations. The process was a little slow at first, but it was worth learning about it in depth.” Perhaps the most defining part of design thinking is that it is an iterative process. You talk to someone and empathize with them. You define the problem. You come up with ideas for solving that problem. You build a prototype of that solution and then you test it. But the process doesn’t end there and it’s not linear. Sometimes you think you’ve defined the problem, but during the testing phase, you discover some unthought-of aspect that changes the way you think. Sometimes you test something and it doesn’t work, so you have to come up with new ideas and develop a new prototype. Sometimes your idea works great, but during the process, you discover a different problem you want to solve. To be sure, design thinking has its skeptics. Salvatore was a skeptic until she took the Stanford course. Penfield notes that critics sometimes say that “design thinking doesn’t involve a moment of critique,” but he argues that critique is an inherent part of the iterative process. “It’s important to know when, in the creative process, to apply that critique,” he says. On the first day of class, the students were given a box of items: aluminum foil, tape, pipe cleaners, sticky notes, Play-doh, string, popsicle sticks, straws, colorful circular stickers and more. At first glance, such a box might seem like materials for summer camp, but the items were tools that the students used to prototype designs. On the day that we visited, students were using the materials to test their ideas fall 2018

CORE 110: Design Thinking is the first class in the College’s Leadership Core Curriculum. It was team-taught by four faculty members: Josh Harris, music; Christopher Penfield, philosophy; Jessica Salvatore, psychology; and Kaelyn Leake, engineering.

THE ARTS

DID YOU KNOW?

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The term “design thinking” was probably coined in the 1960s. IDEO, perhaps the company best known for developing consumer products using design thinking tools, was founded in 1991. Stanford University launched the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, better known as the d.school, in 2005.

for a better study space. Using the items in that box, they prototyped things as different as a calming spa space to a smartphone application. According to Hank Yochum, associate dean of academic affairs, “You could probably find a box similar to that in many offices at Google, and there are a lot of people over there making a lot of money using the tools we’re teaching our students.” The faculty noted that a lot of people don’t think they’re creative. Design thinking, Leake says, is a framework that allows people who might not feel creative to come up with innovative ideas. “It’s not about a creative moment of inspiration,” says Penfield. “Anyone can use this process to work collaboratively and come up with innovative ideas and breakthroughs that they might not have come to otherwise. It’s a set of skills that is not often taught in a structured way.” The class is pass/fail, and as a result, doesn’t have an impact on a student’s GPA, but that’s by design, says Lynn Rainville, dean of the College. “Solving problems is a process that by definition involves failure,” she says. “We don’t want our students to be afraid of that or to be concerned that failing to solve an assigned problem will have a negative impact on their grade. We want them to fail — and we want them to learn from those failures.” In fact, taking risks and learning from failures is one of the primary goals of the class.

Students in the class work in teams. Salvatore says the notion of teams — not just “groups” — is important. For students, group work can be an annoyance, but Salvatore explained that the projects they were doing could not be actually done by an individual — she used the example of raising a barn: even if she wanted to, she could not build a barn by herself, just like the projects the students were working on in the class. Unlike a group, a team is a collection of people focused on a common goal, and everyone on the team has a sense of identity and a shared mission. During the course, students worked in several teams, and some of the students acknowledged that they didn’t always get along with other team members, but that, too, is a learning experience in itself. Learning to work with others wasn’t the only skill the students learned. Because the first step in the process is empathy, students had to learn to talk to someone and really listen to what they had to say. While the students were practicing empathy, they were also learning interviewing and listening skills — and that’s before they’d solved any problems at all. CORE 110 gives students an opportunity to learn these skills so that they’ll be prepared to go into the workforce and collaborate with people of various skills and knowledge. And they’ll be able to work effectively with those people and come up with truly innovative solutions.

THE ARTS

HOW DESIGN THINKING HAS LED TO INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS It’s a question that gets asked regularly over kitchen tables when kids are doing their homework: “Why do I have to learn this?” And it was one obstacle the faculty of CORE 110 had to overcome with their own students, so one of the first things the students did was to look at some case studies about how design thinking had led to innovative solutions. One such case study was the story of Doug Dietz, a designer for high-tech medical imaging systems for GE Healthcare. Dietz noticed that though his machines were technological marvels, the kids were so scared to get in them that they had to be sedated. Dietz realized there had to be a better way. He took Stanford’s course on design thinking and learned skills that helped him understand a human-centered approach to design. He had to find a way to make the machines less scary. One of the prototypes he designed turned the MRI machine into a pirate ship and after the voyage was complete, there was a small bit of “treasure” waiting for the child in a pirate chest. Children were now less scared and the hospital had less need for anesthesiologists. Everybody won.

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Some critics of design thinking argue that anyone could come up with these simple-seeming solutions; it doesn’t require a complicated process. But the truth is, before Dietz, nobody had come up with a solution to this particular problem. Simple doesn’t always mean easy or obvious.

ALUMNAE PROFILE

GINNIE TOONE ’53:

We love it when guest writers submit stories to the magazine. Here, Repps Hudson, brother of Ginnie Toone ’53, tells us his sister’s story. You can reach him at reppshudson@msn.com.

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On the Road to Sweet Briar

She couldn’t meet Rice University’s language requirements for entering freshmen. So Virginia “Ginnie” Hudson Toone ’53 turned to Sweet Briar, from which her mother, Ida Virginia von Sandmeyer, had graduated in 1917. Valedictorian of her Carrollton, Mo., high school class, Ginnie had no problem being admitted to her mother’s alma mater. She became a physics major — the only one in her class and a bold step for a woman in the 1950s — and spent 20 years as an engineer for Sigma Instruments Inc. in South Braintree, Mass., one of the high-tech companies of the day. After graduating, Ginnie got higher-paying job offers from Bell Labs and General Electric. Sigma “had a more appealing flavor,” she says. It was, she recalls, “far ahead of its time with women as heads of many departments, profit-sharing, year-end bonuses and so on.”

She’s said she was fortunate to have worked at Sigma, where she was a project supervisor like men who’d graduated from MIT, Harvard and other elite schools. Early on, Ginnie was working on “electrical contact problems such as their ability to conduct current at very low voltages and their ability to carry large surge currents without welding.” She graduated to “designing magnetic amplifiers …, highly reliable low-level [direct current] amplifiers used to monitor nuclear reactors” at N-Reactor at the Hanford, Wash., nuclear complex on the Columbia River. Later, she helped develop photocells. At one time, she was one of the country’s experts on that infant technology. “The tricky part of the photocell was getting reliable production to useful sensitivity,” she says. Years later, she set up a photocell manufacturing line in Rio de Janeiro. She was the only

ALUMNAE PROFILE In this picture, taken several years after graduating Sweet Briar, Virginia “Ginnie” Hudson Toone ’53 stands by nuclear reactor safety equipment she had worked on before it was shipped to the now-decommissioned Hanford Nuclear Works in Hanford, Wash.

Ginnie Toone and her brother Repps Hudson

Many of the things I’ve achieved, I credit to Ginnie’s insistence that I make the most of my life and talents. We are coming to the end of our life’s journey and are reflecting more on what we have done, why we did those things and what they have meant for ourselves and our families. As we moved around the campus from one event to another — usually by van — I asked Ginnie: Did you live in this building? Did you take a class here? Was this building here when you were a student? The kid brother again bugging his big sister again. We enjoyed the meals and what we learned, particularly President Meredith Woo’s plans for reviving Sweet Briar and preparing it for its unique role in educating women for the 21st century, as it had when Ginnie was a student. As I look back over Reunion weekend, two things stand out. First is the way Ginnie and her classmates fell into close, comfortable conversations about their lives today and years past. For instance, her senior roommate in Gray Hall, Harriett Hodges Andrews, of Statesville, N.C., told me, “Seeing Ginnie again is the reason I came to this reunion.” Harriet remembered “Doubtful Diplomacy,” the senior play Ginnie wrote with Mary Littlejohn Belser of Auburn, Ala., and the performance, which my parents didn’t make because of a snow storm in eastern Tennessee. Many of these accomplished women had been in touch with each other in the weeks before Reunion. Then there was the hour we spent with two professors in the engineering department, Dr. Hank Yochum and Dr. Bethany Brinkman. I could see my engineer sister was following the discussion closely. What she wanted to inspect, though, was the machine shop where students make parts and tools with their own hands. She heard there was no machinist on duty. The young women students were learning to fashion things themselves from metal. “I was so impressed that students were taught how to use the machinery safely,” she says. “Working on a milling machine or metalworking lathe is so enabling to carry out one’s designs.”

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student in some physics classes. She says she didn’t realize how many unasked questions from other students she had missed because she was in a tutorial. In the 65 years since she graduated, Ginnie has returned to campus several times. She’s long been a passionate supporter of all things Sweet Briar. When the College was about to vanish in 2015, she was devastated. Since her mother had died when she was 3, Ginnie had long nourished an emotional tie to the College. Long after she graduated, she found her mother’s textbooks. Writing inside noted her mother had lived in room 212 of Grammer Hall, the same room Ginnie lived in one year. It seemed like her mother’s spirit was watching over her. Ginnie’s my big sister — half-sister; we share our father — 14 years older, my third parent, the one person who has raised my sights, challenged me to get off the family farm and into the world. I’ve done that, as a newspaper journalist who made a living reporting and writing and traveling to countries far from home — and teaching — for nearly 50 years. As the Sweet Briar Reunion (May 31-June 2) approached, Ginnie asked me to drive with her from my home in St. Louis to the campus for a three-day visit. Eight of her classmates had signed up to be there. I said yes, even though the distance was nearly 1,200 miles each way, almost all by interstate, through the green rolling grasslands of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky, then the mountains of West Virginia and Virginia. We were carrying precious cargo: 12 red commemorative plates her mother had left her showing Sweet Briar House and her mother’s blue Sweet Briar signet ring, which Ginnie had worn for years. She and I had done road trips before. In 1961, when I was 15, I flew to Boston so we could drive in her 1959 baby-blue Triumph TR-3 from Boston to our farm about 75 miles northeast of Kansas City. I remember little, except that I was proud to be sitting down low in her British sports car as we headed west on U.S. 40 in that pre-interstate era. I could touch the pavement while sitting in my seat beside Ginnie, who drove the whole way. That was the summer Ernest Hemingway killed himself. I remember seeing The Indianapolis Star by the door of a Howard Johnson with my hero’s picture under a headline declaring his self-destructive act. So, our recent road trip to Sweet Briar was an honor for me. There we were, on the road again, learning more about each other than either of us had known.

ALUMNAE PROFILE

KAREN

HARTNETT ’70: RECOGNIZED FOR DEDICATED SERVICE TO SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE

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n March of 2015, Karen Hartnett ’70 heard Sweet Briar College would be closing in the same way most alumnae did — through email. And like most of her Sweet Briar sisters, she couldn’t believe it. “Most everybody started calling their friends,” Hartnett, of Fulshear, Texas, said. “No one could believe it. Sweet Briar was always going to be there. It was incomprehensible.”

A month later, Hartnett was in Florida with her three best friends from the Class of 1970: Kay Parham Picha,

Pam Piffath Still and Susan Lykes Mueller. For days, she said, they sat on Mueller’s porch “talking and talking and talking about ‘How could this happen?’” In the 45 years since they’d graduated, Hartnett said the foursome had been “very, very tight,” but they’d lost touch with Sweet Briar. They didn’t go to Reunion. They didn’t do what Hartnett called the “official stuff.” They just kept close tabs on each other. “Who expects your college to close?” she said. “It was crazy.” Hartnett returned home determined to do something. “There had to be a way I could plug in and be helpful,” she said. By 2015, Hartnett had been a human resources executive for more than four decades. After a few years spent

ALUMNAE PROFILE

Hartnett returned home determined to do something. “There had to be a way I could plug in and be helpful.”

The next morning, wearing her travel clothes and her drugstore makeup, Hartnett showed up at Stone’s office and announced, “I’m Karen Hartnett and I’m here to help you.” And help she did. Over the next 10 days, she gathered information and did an audit of the HR department. She talked with faculty and staff, and said the stories they told her about the previous 10 or 15 years were shocking. “Nobody knew what was happening,” she said. “We thought everything was daisies and pink and green, but the College was slowly strangling.” After that initial visit, Hartnett returned to Sweet Briar a few more times. Working from Texas, she helped Stone recruit his senior leadership team. In the process, she and Stone came to a conclusion: “We realized pretty quickly, Phil and I, that we couldn’t build ‘forever,’” she said. “We had to build for survival. We hired all the people into the critical jobs, so the College could stand up straight again. When Meredith [Woo] came in, she had a strong platform to begin building the forever college.” At Reunion this past June, the College formally recognized Hartnett’s efforts with the Outstanding Alumna Award. Claire Griffith ’80, senior director of alumnae relations and development, presented the award and later called Hartnett an “unsung hero” in the fight to save Sweet Briar. Praising Hartnett, Stone said she was “more than my advisor. She became a dear friend and confidante. She was solicitous of my welfare and always supportive. She was truly one of the heroes in the miraculous rescue and renewal of Sweet Briar College.” Recently, when asked about the College’s future, Hartnett said she is “rock solid sure that we’re going to make it” and that “there’s no doubt in my mind that Sweet Briar will graduate a Class of 2050. No doubt at all. We may have a couple of rough years ahead of us and we can’t lose faith when things are hard or difficult to do. We have to keep pressing forward and I know we’ll be successful. We are Sweet Briar fierce!” fall 2018

working in Sweet Briar’s admissions and financial aid offices, Hartnett left the College in the mid-1970s for New York, where she worked in HR for Mobil Oil Corporation. In the 70s, she said, Mobil was “intent on creating a much more diverse workforce” and started recruiting from women’s colleges and historically black colleges and universities. They made a stop at Sweet Briar and met Hartnett. “I made arrangements for Mobil to interview students and wound up turning that connection into a job,” she said. During her career, Hartnett worked in the banking and financial services, energy and other industries. She served on the executive management committees of four regional banks. She helped take two companies public. She also had a soft spot for nonprofit organizations — the Houston Ballet Foundation, the San Jacinto Battleground Conservancy and others — and has offered her services to them at a rate she describes as “far, far less than my corporate clients.” Shortly after returning home from the Florida trip, Hartnett started working with Sweet Briar 2.0, a grassroots organization of alumnae who were fighting to keep the College alive. Also, by that time, three separate legal cases had been launched in an effort to halt the school’s closure. Considering herself more of an “organizational person and manager” than a fundraiser, Hartnett wanted to help alumnae prepare for what she hoped would be the eventual legal victory. “What do we need to do to get the alumnae ready to be helpful to Sweet Briar when we win the legal case?” she said. “What needs to be in place so that the alumnae can be helpful to the new administration?” A negotiated settlement was reached in June 2015, enabling Sweet Briar to stay open and make a go at survival. Soon after, Hartnett got a call from then-president Phil Stone. He needed help. “Specifically, Phil said, ‘I need HR help. Can you come up here and work with me?’” Hartnett recalled. “I called him about two hours later and said, ‘I’ll be on a flight tomorrow night and I can stay for about 10 days. I’ll find out what’s going on with your HR department, see if you have management or staffing issues and if you have any real legal risk, and I’ll help take the temperature for you at the College.’” Within 24 hours, Hartnett was on a plane. She flew from Houston to Charlotte, where her flight to Lynchburg — the last of the day — was cancelled. In a rented car and without her luggage, Hartnett drove from Charlotte to Sweet Briar, stopping en route at a drugstore for makeup, a hairbrush, a toothbrush and toothpaste.

ON THE QUAD

on the QUAD

news & notes around campus

Friends of Art Award Leads to

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VCCA DREAM INTERNSHIP FOR SWEET BRIAR GRAD

Thanks to the Friends of Art, recent Sweet Briar grad Alexa Dahlin ’18 didn’t have to look far to find her dream internship. Dahlin is the first recipient of the organization’s graduate internship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, an international artists’ colony adjacent to campus. A $5,000 stipend allowed the former business major with an Arts Management Certificate to spend 10 weeks this summer working on a number of projects with VCCA staff. One of them: developing a plan and strategy for the VCCA’s upcoming 50th anniversary in 2021. A big chunk of her time was spent compiling the center’s history. “Being able to do some archival work is great because that has always been an interest of mine,” Dahlin said when we spoke with her over the summer. “I’m super happy that I’m getting hands-on experience with that.” She also worked with Kirsten McKinney, the VCCA’s director of communications, on several other projects, including, as McKinney put it, “magically” organizing a “tremendous backlog of processed applications,” posting fliers around town, helping out with the VCCA’s Open Studios in July and with day-to-day operations such as greeting fellows in the office, sitting in on staff meetings and keeping track of entries to the VCCA’s annual Instagram contest. “Much of what Alexa has done, to us, is a Herculean achievement,” McKinney admitted. “Given our small staff and

demanding mission of providing creative space to 24 fellows at any given time, certain tasks can fall by the wayside as we respond to more immediate needs. We are so appreciative to the Friends of Art for establishing this internship and for Alexa and the time she has given to us this summer.” Dahlin loved the variety, but that wasn’t the only thing: “One of the most exciting parts about my internship is being able to be a part of a women-led arts organization,” she said. “With all my work experience I’ve had over the past four years, I have never worked for a practically all-female staff. The open communication and leadership are truly refreshing and remind me a lot of the atmosphere at Sweet Briar.” For Dahlin, this was internship number five. Focusing on the arts has meant a steady buildup of skills, and she’s learned that she’s on the right track. “All of these experiences have given me a well-rounded foundation that I’ve been able to use here at the VCCA,” she explained. “Being at the VCCA this summer has made me confident in my passion of being an arts advocate, as well as working for a nonprofit organization. “After I complete my internship at the VCCA, I am looking to move south — either Birmingham or Atlanta — and work in development or marketing in the nonprofit sector,” she said. With a résumé like hers, that next step should be easy.

ON THE QUAD

A group of Sweet Briar students visits the studio of a VCCA fellow

Sweet Briar College and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, one of the nation’s largest residential artist communities, have long been collaborative partners. Now, they’re also teaming up in the classroom, thanks to the College’s innovative core curriculum and brand-new fellowships for VCCA artists. Through the College’s Center for Creativity, Design and the Arts, a team of fellows will teach an interdisciplinary section of Expression and the Arts, the foundational arts course in the College’s new core curriculum. The entrance to VCCA The course will take place during a threeweek session — part of the College’s innovative new calendar — in spring 2019. Center learning about and making art that will be unique. They’ll director and professor of creative writing Carrie Brown, collaborate with each other and with a team of distinguished who has been a VCCA fellow herself, says the SBC/VCCA artists who themselves will be collaborating.” fellowships will “give students brand-new models of what Joy Heyrman, VCCA’s executive director, observes that this it means to be creative and an exciting look at the fusion of is an exciting moment in VCCA’s partnership with Sweet artistic disciplines.” Briar College. “We are giving new form to the rich exchange The opportunity to work with VCCA fellows will expand of creative thinking and creative production that has distinthe kind of experiences students will have in the classroom. guished a shared history of nearly 40 years,” she says. “VCCA “Not only will students be exposed to new voices from has been enriched by Sweet Briar’s support, collaboration throughout the world, thereby enlarging and enriching the and proximity and we are looking forward to opening up new academic community at Sweet Briar,” says Brown, “but they’ll avenues of creative exchange for our extended network of also have the opportunity to participate in an experience of artist fellows.”

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New Joint Sweet Briar & VCCA Fellowships

ON THE QUAD

Rainville, Yochum Appointed

Dean & Associate Dean

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Dean Lynn Rainville

Sweet Briar President Meredith Woo announced this summer that the new dean of the College would be a familiar face: Lynn Rainville. Since taking over as acting dean in March, Rainville has been exercising financial and administrative oversight of the library, sponsored research, institutional effectiveness, the Honors Program and study abroad. More recently, Rainville also steered the “complex work of curricular realignment,” Woo said. “She has been actively involved in faculty recruitment and promoting excellence in research and teaching. As historian, archaeologist and anthropologist, she will continue to champion the centrality of the humanities and social sciences in the liberal arts education at Sweet Briar. This mission builds on her decade of public outreach as the director of the Tusculum Institute, dedicated to local history and historic preservation.” Rainville has been a member of the Sweet Briar community since 2001. After receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in Near Eastern archaeology and spending more than a decade directing projects in Turkey and Syria, she has spent the past 17 years uncovering Virginia’s forgotten histories, including research into African-American cemeteries, enslaved communities, segregated schools, town poor farms and the role Virginians played in World War I. Her grant-funded work has appeared in four books and more than two dozen articles. Rainville frequently shares her research through lectures, online databases and social media. “It is rare to find a scholar who can bridge this gap between the academy and the public,” Woo wrote in a letter to the

community. “Her research demonstrates the importance of the humanities in designing research to connect our shared history to our common future.” Engineering professor Hank Yochum is supporting Rainville in his new capacity as associate dean. Yochum has been a member of the Sweet Briar community since 2002. He has taught courses in engineering and physics and led the Margaret Jones Wyllie ’45 Engineering Program since 2007. Yochum earned his Ph.D. in physics at Wake Forest University and his B.S. at the College of Charleston. His research is in photonics and nano-engineering, most recently focusing on developing new processes to fabricate polymer-based optical devices. As director of the engineering program, Yochum led the first accreditation review, which resulted in Sweet Briar becoming one of only two women’s colleges in the country with an ABET-accredited engineering program. Part of his work included developing assessments of learning outcomes so that faculty members can ensure students gain the skills and knowledge to be successful and identify areas for improvement. Together with program faculty, he founded Explore Engineering, a series of spring, fall and summer courses that has brought more than 500 high school women to campus to create compelling, hands-on engineering projects. Yochum has served as chair of the faculty senate and the Personnel Committee. An advocate for undergraduate research, he served as the director of the Honors Summer Research Program and was an elected councilor for the physics and astronomy division of the Council of Undergraduate Research (CUR). As associate dean, Yochum’s duties include being the point person for the Honors Program and institutional assessment. While he remains involved with the engineering program, Bethany Brinkman took over as director.

Associate Dean Hank Yochum works with participants at Explore Engineering

MEET THE

ON THE QUAD

CLASS OF 2022 39

Enrollment up

from last year

Students from states and countries

110 3.53 1098 first-year SAT students compared to 79 last fall

mean grade point average

(combined)

Presidential Scholarships

compared to 3.34 last fall

compared to 1071 last fall

the College’s merit award for the highest academic achieving students

Source: Fall 2018 Sweet Briar College census. Oct. 1, 2018.

fall 2018

ON THE QUAD

REUNION

2018

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Reunion 2018 welcomed more than 450 alumnae and their families back to Sweet Briar’s campus, honoring those classes ending in a “3” or an “8” and celebrating the sisterhood of generations of alumnae.

ON THE QUAD

fall 2018

The weekend came with traditional events such as class picnics; special dinners for those celebrating their 25th and 50th reunions; and Reunion Convocation, during which classes received awards recognizing their attendance as well as giving amounts and participation. The Alumnae Alliance Council continued their now three-year tradition of a festival on Saturday afternoon, which showcased the volunteer opportunities and accomplishments of the council’s working groups.

ON THE QUAD

REUNION

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2018

fall 2018

ON THE QUAD

Survey Affirms

SWEET BRIAR

Values and the Importance of Alumnae Maggie Saylor Patrick '07

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This summer, Sweet Briar sent a survey to its alumnae to find out how they felt about where the College was heading and what they wanted from their relationship with the College in the future. Maggie Saylor Patrick ’07 was hired to lead the project and analyze the results. Here, she shares her initial thoughts from that survey.

In 2017, Sweet Briar College welcomed President Meredith Woo and introduced her to us through a series of letters, videos and events around the country. At one of these events, Mary Pope Hutson ’83, Sweet Briar’s vice president for alumnae relations and development, shared with me the College’s belief that alumnae play a critical role in fostering and sustaining Sweet Briar’s success, as they have since the College’s inception. The overwhelming interest in our new president and in the College’s future made clear the need for an inclusive

and comprehensive review of the needs, perspectives and hopes of the alumnae community. I was delighted to be asked to lead this process by executing an alumnae-wide survey — the College’s first in over 10 years. Alumnae, with their usual Sweet Briar gusto, responded by the hundreds with significant representation from all decades and locations. Beyond answering the questions carefully and thoughtfully, many alumnae spent significant time and energy sharing stories, recollections, hopes and desires. Some of you even mailed in photos or articles pertaining

to your responses. It could not be clearer that Sweet Briar alumnae continue to be active thinkers who care greatly about the future of their alma mater. The Sweet Briar Board of Directors and the Alumnae Alliance Council, along with the Office of Alumnae Relations and Development, will spend significant time in the coming months reviewing this data and creating plans to act upon the information. We are excited to share those insights and new projects with you over the coming year and will share additional details of the survey responses over time. As we prepared for publication of this magazine, however, some key themes emerged from the results and we were eager to share them with you right away. The first is that our alumnae are overwhelmingly hopeful about Sweet Briar’s future and proud of and grateful for their experiences at the College.

ON THE QUAD

ALUMNAE SURVEY OVERVIEW Distributed to alumnae in August of 2018.

viability and recruiting students who are a good fit for Sweet Briar: smart, talented, driven and eager to become a part of our unique community. As Sweet Briar embarks on its new path, the College will face obstacles and challenges. As alumnae, we may especially struggle with this fact. New interpretations of our identity may feel unclear or uncomfortable. Your voices, expressed through this survey and across other forms of media, as well as statements from the College, assure us that Sweet Briar continues to embody the ideals and values that we, as alumnae, cherish. I believe in the character of Sweet Briar women. I know that if we believe in these common values and work toward them with a common character — as women of consequence — our common goals cannot help but be realized. I have faith in our future and I look forward to sharing more results with you from the alumnae survey in the months ahead, and to the path we will continue to forge together for Sweet Briar’s success. More results of the survey and information about the implementation of its findings will be released in future issues of The Briar Wire and in the spring issue of the Alumnae Magazine. Thank you for participating!

Alumnae of all ages and backgrounds affirmed that Sweet Briar provides an excellent, challenging education for women that is grounded in the liberal arts and its small, close community.

Alumnae believe that Sweet Briar’s identity rests in critical thinking, intelligence and leadership.

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Alumnae of all years and backgrounds have affirmed these common values: that Sweet Briar provides an excellent, challenging education for women that is grounded in the liberal arts and in its small, close community. It would seem these values are ones in which the alumnae body and the College administration are in strong alignment. In announcing Sweet Briar’s tuition and curriculum reset, President Woo identified Sweet Briar’s three most defining characteristics as its rural location, its small size and close community and its commitment to educating future women leaders. You also indicated a belief that critical thinking, intelligence and leadership are core aspects of the Sweet Briar identity. As such, alumnae also recognize the complicated path to success. In open-ended responses to questions about the curriculum and tuition reset, alumnae indicated a sense of “holding their breath.” Many of you reflected the importance of the liberal arts and of excellent, well-supported faculty, and a recognition of the challenging financial situation presented by the near-closure and within the higher education market in general. You hope that the College will emphasize growing enrollment, ensuring financial

Received more than 1,000 responses, electronic and hard copy.

ON THE QUAD

SWEET WORK

sbc.edu

WEEKS

ON THE QUAD

fall 2018

Sweet Work Weeks, which just finished its fourth year, has become an annual tradition to bring alumnae and friends of the College back to serve as volunteers to keep Sweet Briar beautiful. In the summer of 2018, more than 140 participants returned to campus to weed, trim, paint, power wash, work in the library and celebrate the beauty of these 3,250 acres. Alumnae participants ranged from the Class of 1958 to 2018, and they brought with them their classmates, family members and even a friend from Hollins.

ALUMNAE PROFILE

Teresa Pike Tomlinson ’87:

Charting a Fierce Legacy One of the leaders in the Saving Sweet Briar movement, Teresa Pike Tomlinson ’87 became chairwoman of the Sweet Briar College Board of Directors in 2015 and just completed her three-year term. The 69th mayor of Columbus, Ga., she has been named among the “100 Most Influential Georgians” for the last six consecutive years. We’re grateful to Mayor Tomlinson for all of her hard work on behalf of the College and recently asked her to tell us a little bit about her Sweet Briar story.

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How did you find out about Sweet Briar? A postcard in the mail. It was the most beautiful picture I had ever seen and on the back it said something to the effect of: Where we create women leaders. I didn’t even know there was such a place. Needless to say, there was only one college for me after that.

What was your major and what did you plan to do when you graduated? Did you always intend a career in politics? I double-majored in government and economics and obtained a certificate in business management. I never had any intention of going into politics until I decided to run for

mayor of Columbus, Ga., in 2010. I wanted to be a lawyer, and I loved practicing law. How did your SBC experience prepare you for your career? My Sweet Briar education prepared me for all that I wanted to do in life. It taught me to think and to love knowledge. What is your favorite memory about your college days? The campus, the women, the professors and the support and encouragement to do big things. Who was your favorite professor? Not fair! There are too many to list. Probably Tom Gilpatrick (government) or Chris Pikrallidas (economics). What was it about your experience that led you to be such an active voice for Saving Sweet Briar and your tenure on the Board of Directors? Sweet Briar offered a type of education that is particularly relevant for today’s world and today’s women. We need Sweet Briar now more than ever. I happened to have the skill and

ALUMNAE PROFILE

What are you most proud of in terms of your involvement with the College? Most people mention the 2015 commencement speech as the effort I should be most proud of, and I am. However, there have been so many other critical efforts along the way: • Finding the higher education experts (General Charles Krulak, Linda Flaherty-Goldsmith, John Gibb) who would testify in the Saving Sweet Briar litigation and give us the credentials to challenge the decision of the prior Sweet Briar leadership; • Instituting the “Tomlinson Challenge,” which started at an Atlanta event and turned into a national fundraising tidal wave, ultimately resulting in hundreds of alumnae contributing millions of dollars in three- and five-year pledges; • Working with the great Phil Stone, devoted faculty and staff, and some awesome board members to reorganize the College, retool our budget and get the word out to prospective students that we were open for business so the College could survive and thrive;

• Assuring that the stakeholders from alumnae to students to faculty received transparency, respect and access to the board through our bylaws; and • Leading an incredible search process for our next president, Meredith Woo, while maintaining a sense of stability and steady leadership among our stakeholders and the media. I am grateful the commencement speech had that effect in that moment and helped push the SSB movement to victory. Yet, the truth is, as with any epic effort, many critical moments and pivotal decisions occurred outside the reach of the cameras and the microphones, and I am so very proud of those. What about in your professional life? As mayor, there are those achievements the media cites like reducing crime and saving tax dollars, but the proudest moment is when a 4-year old little girl looks at you and says: “When I grow up, I want to be the ‘mayor.’” How would you encourage other alumnae to get involved with the College? Continue to be engaged. Know about your alma mater. Never lapse into the complacency we had before. A college is like a living organism. We are all connected and we are each an integral part of Sweet Briar’s success. Don’t forget that.

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experience that was useful to the effort to save Sweet Briar, and I was honored to be part of the movement, along with too many other soldiers to mention like Nancyellen Keane and the entire Atlanta crew.

ALUMNAE PROFILE USEF/Cacchione Cup Winner Makayla Benjamin ’18

MAKAYLA BENJAMIN ’18: sbc.edu

RIDING FORWARD

Jan Benjamin still remembers her daughter’s first hunt trail ride. Makayla was about 4 years old, she recalls, perched proudly on top of her pony, Marshmallow. “How was it, Makayla?” the field master asked her. Makayla sighed. “A little bit slow,” she replied. Seventeen years later, Makayla Benjamin ’18 would be the first in her family — and the first Sweet Briar student — to win the coveted Cacchione Cup, the nation’s highest honor for a collegiate rider. It was the first time she’d even qualified, during her senior year at Sweet Briar.

ALUMNAE PROFILE

Sweet Briar taught me how to fight for something I love and believe in, how to be a good leader, how to face challenges and overcome them, how to be involved, and how to manage it all.” rewarding at the same time. I think being able to work with horses my entire life gave me such an appreciation for being patient and humble. And I loved that about them, so I think just being able to learn so much about them developed my deep interest in them.” Makayla showed ponies for several years and competed in the Pony Finals when she was 11 and again when she was 14. Soon after, she moved on to horses and throughout high school, learned the ropes of equine care as a working student at Gavin Moylan Stables. At 16, Moylan put her in charge of all the horses he left at home while going to Florida for the winter. “He had a horse that was pretty much broken mentally, that no longer would jump,” Jan remembers. “That was her project over the winter — to work with him and get him going again.” By the time Moylan returned, his horse was jumping just fine. Makayla kept the horse from December until August and, in partnership with Moylan, made enough money selling it to import a new horse from Germany. In order to work with her new horse, Makayla completed her high school credits early and spent her final semester in Florida. Then the Benjamins sold the horse and she was off to

Andrew Benjamin speaking at Founders’ Day convocation

fall 2018

But her historic victory had been long in the making. “Makayla started riding when she was a baby,” Jan says. “I would put her in front of me on a horse, between my arms.” It’s no surprise the two have been best friends ever since, bonding over their shared passion. Jan herself had owned horses since she was a child, so they’d been a staple of the Benjamin family and their home in Lucketts, Va., from the start. There might not have been a Benjamin family without horses — after all, it’s how Jan met her husband, Andrew: The two competed together on Purdue University’s Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association team when Jan was a freshman. Andrew graduated the next year, but as soon as Jan finished college, they got married. Seeing their former Purdue coach again at this year’s IHSA nationals — and grabbing him for a group photo with Makayla — was “really neat,” Jan says. Did she expect Makayla to win the Cacchione Cup? Nope. “I mean, it’s the top riders in the country,” Jan says. “I was hoping for her to be in the top 10, you know. When we were there watching it, and once they announced the fourth-place rider, I turned to my friend and said, ‘She won it.’ I knew the other two riders, and I had taken notes through all of the classes. I was like: ‘She won it. They can’t beat her.’” “We were all shocked and crying for joy,” Andrew Benjamin says. “All I could think of was, ‘What a year, and this is the best possible way to cap her college career!’” Makayla was 5 when she entered her first horse show. Jan didn’t want her to show until she asked to do it. “It was more important for her to learn how to ride, and how to take care of horses first,” Jan explains. And Makayla did. “I think I was so involved with horses from the get-go that each moment just reassured my interest in horses and the sport,” she says. “I liked to be able to see my own progress with a horse. It was always challenging and frustrating, but so

sbc.edu

Sweet Briar — a place she had fallen in love with as a flower girl when she was 6 years old. A few campus visits confirmed it was still as magical as her memory. And that magic continued. “My experience at Sweet Briar was phenomenal,” Makayla says. “I will forever cherish the friendships I made there, and the relationships I had with my professors, who were always so supportive. The entire environment truly made it seem like you could accomplish anything you dedicated yourself to. Sweet Briar taught me how to fight for something I love and believe in, how to be a good leader, how to face challenges and overcome them, how to be involved, and how to manage it all.” Her first semester was a blur of equitation finals, with little time for academics. She was planning to catch up over the summer, her mother remembers, to make sure she’d be in good shape to major in engineering. And then March 3, 2015, happened: Halfway into her second semester, Makayla — and everyone else in the Class of 2018 — found out the College was closing. Or was it? Makayla took action. On April 20, she and one other student filed a lawsuit against Sweet Briar’s previous board. Her father, now vice chair of the current board of directors, remembers it well. “When she testified in court and was asked to explain her thoughts about the closure, the first thing she said was, ‘I have lost my home.’ To me that made it worth fighting for in earnest,” he says. While painful, the near-closure and subsequent saving of the College played a huge role in Makayla’s personal devel-

opment. “I did not know that I was going to have to take the stand, but I am so thankful that I did because it helped me to believe that I could fight for something, and I would be heard,” she says. The summer’s uncertainty put her behind academically, so Makayla had to change course: She dropped her engineering major to a minor and went for a mathematical economics major instead, with another minor in business. But she’s glad she was able to stay at Sweet Briar. So is Jan. “We looked at other colleges, and all it confirmed for us was that [with] Sweet Briar, we made the right choice the first time.” And 2015 wasn’t over yet for Makayla. That winter, she qualified for the AIEC-SRNC World Finals in Marburg, Germany — as one of three riders on Team USA. And she ended up winning the show jumping competition. Back home, then-President Phil Stone organized a special awards ceremony to greet the champion. “President Stone was amazingly supportive,” Makayla remembers. “I was overwhelmed by all the support from my classmates, alumnae, board of directors and parents, and I wanted to do all I could to help the school be recognized.” Over the next few years, Makayla did just that: She won lots of ribbons and was crowned high-point rider at nearly every IHSA show. Her parents were right there, cheering her on. She became part of Sweet Briar’s first National Collegiate Equestrian Association team in 2017, competing as the only Division III school against Division I schools. And each year,

ALUMNAE PROFILE

“My parents are the biggest influence on my life. They are such a wonderful example of everything I want to be throughout my life. They have always encouraged me to work hard for what I want, fight for what is right, and remember to stay grounded while I do it all.” - Makayla Benjamin ’18

she’d always be just short of qualifying for IHSA nationals. But her Sweet Briar experience was about so much more than just ribbons. “The riding program was always very supportive of me and helped me to emerge as a leader on the teams,” Makayla says. “Honestly, the skills I learned being a team leader have stuck with me the most.” Nevertheless, when she rode to victory in May, it was a moment she had been waiting for her entire life. “Winning the Cacchione Cup for me was like the fairytale ending to my college riding career,” Makayla says. “It truly helped me recognize that hard work and determination can pay off in the most incredible ways possible. I was ecstatic to finally have made it to the national final. It was three long years of fighting it to the bitter end and being just short of it each time. And when I was there, I just wanted to leave it all out there. In the moment, I just wanted to give the horse I was on the best ride I could, so that it would leave the ring more confident than it walked in. The overlying motivation was that I wanted to prove that Sweet Briar was still around and still relevant. That the attempted closure hadn’t shaken us in our renowned riding program. That was my motivation.” Since her historic win, Makayla has been working as a

wrangler at Bitterroot Ranch in Wyoming with her friend and classmate Courtney Barry, who found the job online — a dream job for both. When she’s done, she’ll head back to Germany to work for two months at the riding facility in Marburg-Dagobertshausen before she starts her first “normal” job in accounting back in the U.S. “I think I am in a fascinating place in my life and career,” Makayla notes. “I have had wonderful opportunities, but also time to explore what I want to dedicate my time to. I will be exploring many more opportunities to decide which one suits me best!” And who knows what might come next? Winning the Cacchione Cup has definitely given her an extra push. “It reignited my big fat dream of going to the Olympics — and believing in myself that I could get there with more hard work and determination,” Makayla says. There’s no doubt in her mother’s mind she’ll find her way. It’s in her personality. “She has always been an old soul and extremely comfortable in her own skin,” Jan says. “She doesn’t care what other people think. She does what she wants to do and doesn’t let anything get in her way. I think a lot of that, too, is Sweet Briar.”

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Makayla Benjamin with her parents and the Cacchione Cup

HISTORY

Dorothy Barnum Venter ’35 came to Sweet Briar from Connecticut in the middle of the Depression. She now lives in a retirement community, where she enjoys visits from two children, eight grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and Ellie Plowden Boyd ’74, who kept her informed during the Saving Sweet Briar days. We thank her for sharing her memories of her time at the College. These are her words.

Dorothy Venter in her junior year at Sweet Briar

DOROTHY VENTER ’35:

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GRADUATE OFFERS GLIMPSES INTO OUR SWEET BRIAR HISTORY

y best friend wanted to go to Wellesley, so I thought I should go to Wellesley, too. Then all of a sudden, in the spring of my senior year in high school, I decided I would like to go somewhere else. My mother went to play bridge with some friends, and one of them was Charlotte Alford MacVicar ’26, who had gone to Sweet Briar. Charlotte had loved Sweet Briar and told Mother I should look into Sweet Briar. I talked to Charlotte on the phone a few times and that’s how I decided to go. In those days, I didn’t even get a visit. I just decided to go. I got to Sweet Briar by train. Mother put me on a sleeper in New York to go down to Sweet Briar, and I got there in the morning. I was put into a suite with a junior and a senior and was overcome, being a new little freshman. The dean then put me in Manson with a sophomore whose roommate had not come back, and she turned out to be my roommate until she graduated and became my very good friend — Emily Marsh Nichols ’34. We didn’t do much on weekends. If you knew boys at Washington and Lee, VMI or the University of Virginia, you’d go visit them, but I didn’t happen to know any, so I had kind of a dull time with dating down there. Mostly we stayed on campus, made do with being there and enjoying what you did in college: studying, hiking, whatever. We used to hike to a house in Amherst where we were served tea. We went on the road, about two miles; there wasn’t a lot of traffic on the road in those days. We also would hike to a mission and deliver supplies to the people who lived nearby. I played field hockey and was a member of Paint and Patches. I wrote articles for the Sweet Briar News almost every week — often reviews of lecturers who came to the College. By my senior year, I was the assistant editor.

HISTORY

I was also in the dance group, and my senior year I was head of lake, and I was in charge of all things going on on the lake. I used to swim in the lake, although it was muddy, and people didn’t really like to do that. The main thing I had to do was to run sort of a regatta at the end of the year — each class had a float and there was a faculty committee that awarded prizes. Meta Glass was president of the College. I admired her immensely; she was a very good president. There were about 450 students total; the goal was 500 students. I majored in psychology and philosophy. I took a lot of philosophy courses from Lucy Crawford and psychology courses from Elizabeth Moller, English from Ethel Ramage and art from Miss Virginia McLaws — I think she was the daughter of a Confederate general* in the Civil War. I took all of the art Sweet Briar offered, and Miss McLaws was very good. I have maintained my interest in all of these fields, as I read a great deal, and it shapes my thinking today. [After graduating] I was a bookkeeper at a bank, taking care of accounts. I knew I didn’t have much of a future there. It

The Reading Room of Mary Helen Cochran Library in 1935

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Quad Road in 1935

HISTORY

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was still the midst of the Depression, but I was able to live at home. I wouldn’t have been able to survive on my salary if I hadn’t been able to live at home. I saved my pennies and went to a small secretarial school in NYC and learned typing and shorthand. That’s what it was like then, to get a job I had to go to secretarial school. In my day, there were no openings for women unless you knew shorthand and typing. And actually, I hardly ever used my shorthand. I had always thought it would be lovely to be a secretary for a professor at Yale. So I wrote to Yale, hoping I’d get a job. I ended up getting a job at Sterling Memorial Library at Yale, working in the serial records department, handling the publications of other universities. I have given to the Annual Fund every year and attended Reunion. My last was in 2005. Attending Sweet Briar was a good experience. It is such a beautiful place, and I was very susceptible to it. I loved the countryside, and I would not have gone to a college in the city. I made some good friends. I am grateful for that experience, grateful for my teachers. At the beginning of my senior year, I had an extra hour that I didn’t know what I was going to take. My advisor, Lucy Crawford, said, “Well, you have taken all of this art. Don’t you think it might be wise to take a music appreciation course?” So I took the course and Clockwise from left: Dorothy Venter’s senior portrait; Mary Helen Cochran Library in 1935; Lillian Cabell, Ethel Shamer and Dorothy Venter from the 1935 Briar Patch learned a great deal. After I graduated from college and was working at the bank, a friend of mine was going to the Woolsey Hall Concert she thought the balcony seat was better, so I took that. I sat next to a couple—the man eventually became my husband. I Series at Yale University and asked me if I’d like to go, too. often think, if I hadn’t taken that music course and if I hadn’t Well, if I hadn’t taken the music course, I never would have taken that particular seat, I never would have met him. considered going, but I did. They had already gotten their tickets, and I would have to sit alone. I called the box office * She was the daughter of Confederate Major General Lafayette McLaws. and there were only two seats left at the price I wanted to pay. I asked the girl at the box office which was the better seat, and

GIVING

2018-19 Sweet Briar Fund Priorities:

The 2017-18 fiscal year marked another year of unprecedented support for the Sweet Briar Fund, or the College’s unrestricted giving program. With a total of $18.4 million raised, $13,077,000 was for current funds, $4.5 million was made in future-year pledges and the remainder consisted of contributions to Sweet Briar’s endowment, which continues to increase in scope and in its diversified investments. This past fiscal year marks the third year that alumnae, parents, faculty, staff, students, foundations, corporations and friends have provided extraordinary levels of support for their college. In her year-end message to alumnae and donors, Mary Pope M. Hutson ’83, vice president for alumnae relations and development, said, “I’m in awe of the generosity of our alumnae and friends. Their generosity not only ensures that we’ll be able to

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You Make the Difference

GIVING

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“I’m in awe of the generosity of our alumnae and friends. Their generosity not only ensures that we’ll be able to continue to educate fierce women, but also that we’ll be able to be a leader in the future of higher education.”

scholarships, a distinguished procontinue to educate fierce women, fessoriate, stewardship of the land but also that we’ll be able to be and facilities, and now, a grounda leader in the future of higher breaking academic framework that education.” U.S. News and World Report has Corporate and foundation giving ranked as among the most innovaincreased by 15 percent over tive in the nation. fiscal year 2016-17. Highlights in No matter the year, no matter notable foundation giving include the goal, and no matter what a grant provided by the Lettie compels alumnae and friends of Pate Whitehead Foundation and the College to make their gifts, one renewed commitments by the An— Mary Pope M. Hutson ’83 fact remains the same: every gift drew W. Mellon Foundation, the matters. An unrestricted gift to Jessie Ball DuPont Fund and the the Sweet Briar Fund is the greatRoller-Bottimore Foundation. In est demonstration of confidence and trust in the College addition, the College continues to build streams of auxiliary that any alumna or friend can show to Sweet Briar. revenue. The 2017-18 fiscal year saw a major refresh of The Florence Elston Inn & Conference Center. The funding for Priorities for the 2018-2019 Sweet Briar Fund the refresh was made possible by an endowed fund. With the start of the 2018-19 academic year, President Woo The impact of giving on the College is broad. Donations and members of the Board and President’s Cabinet identiallowed Sweet Briar to renovate several residence halls and fied priorities essential to Sweet Briar’s continuing renewal, volunteer hours provided by alumnae as part of Sweet Work strength and position as a leader and innovator in liberal arts Weeks extended the impact of those dollars. Gifts last fiscal education. year made the Living With Art Initiative possible, enabling Every gift made to the Sweet Briar Fund will directly students to select pieces from the College’s art collection to be impact the College’s capacity to: hung in their residence hall rooms. This program continues in fiscal year 2018-19. A grant by the Judith Haskell Brewer • Launch activities for each of Sweet Briar’s centers of Fund of The Community Foundation Serving Richmond excellence. For example, the College has launched a new and Central Virginia supports the College’s environmental partnership with the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Cenprograms, providing support for a student internship and its ter for Innovative Technology to demonstrate projects community garden. More than 250 scholarship funds bolster in sustainable agriculture. The Center for the Arts, Crethe College’s recruiting efforts. ativity and Design is welcoming well-known authors, As the College’s financial health improves, the reliance on like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Beth Macy, to revenue from fundraising decreases. For the 2018-19 fiscal campus to discuss their writing. Other activities are sure year, the College’s goal for unrestricted funds is $10 million, to follow as these centers become more established over or 39 percent of its projected budget. This is down from its the next year. all-time high of 82 percent in 2015-16. The alumnae relations and development office continues • Recruit the next generation of Sweet Briar women. to implement strategies based in major gifts and leadership The College is implementing a number of marketing annual gifts, corporate and foundation relationships and by activities — print and digital — to tell the Sweet Briar supporting class leaders who reinforce the messages of the story. These nationwide efforts feature the award-winCollege to urge classmates to continue making their best gifts ning “Fierce” campaign and deploy the College’s staff every year, not just in their anniversary reunion years. as well as alumnae admissions ambassadors to achieve Each year, the Sweet Briar Fund provides the all-important Sweet Briar’s goal of 20-25 percent enrollment growth core support that enables the College to create and maintain each year over the next four years. an environment in which excellence can thrive, underwriting

• Conscientiously care for the campus’s natural and built environment. Sweet Briar’s campus is one of its most valuable assets, and the College is committed to stewarding and maintaining it. College leadership is pursuing a comprehensive plan for the campus that will focus on issues of deferred maintenance, address the needs of a growing student body and align capital expenditures with Sweet Briar’s strategic vision. • Address the needs of the “whole student.” There’s more to college than what students learn in the classroom. The Office of Student Life supports programs and activities beyond the classroom that help students cultivate wellness, engagement and a sense of community, from service projects in Amherst County to gatherings and special events with neighboring colleges, to reactivating the College’s Outdoor Program.

Your gift to the Sweet Briar Fund will support all of these initiatives and help make sure that Sweet Briar College is prepared to meet the needs of every student and is an example to colleges around the nation. To make a gift to the Sweet Briar Fund, visit sbc.edu/give. Making a monthly gift to Sweet Briar allows you to support the College throughout the year. To make a gifts of securities or a wire transfer, call 800-381-6131. Should you need a gift agreement established for a pledge, our gift officers will be happy to set up any reminders for you to support the College before June 15, 2019.

What Can You Do to Support Sweet Briar? • Make a gift to the Sweet Briar Fund • Wear your Sweet Briar colors • Tell your Sweet Briar story • Sign up to be an admissions ambassador • Recruit a student • Read the latest news at sbc.edu/news

Make Your Gift

sbc.edu/give • 800-381-6131 fall 2018

• Successfully implement 10 new courses comprising the leadership core curriculum. The core is supported by both resident and visiting faculty who are deploying the latest teaching methods. These faculty members are continually assessing and refining to ensure students are not only having an amazing experience while at the College, but are also prepared for their futures. Of course, the leadership core will not only benefit students who are on campus today, but will also lay a sound foundation for future classes of Sweet Briar women.

ALUMNAE BRIEFS

WELCOME TO THE

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CLASS OF 2018

On May 12, 2018, 61 new graduates of Sweet Briar joined the ranks of some 14,000 alumnae. Three recipients of the M.A.T. degree processed across the stage in the Quad with these women; all of them received a charge from President Meredith Woo as they embarked on the next steps of their journey: “As I stand here, I am reminded that sometimes where you study is as important as what you study,” she said. “As the Class of 2018, you studied at a place which is a significant part of American cultural history. … Sweet Briar is an important American legacy. Year after year after year, it produced women of strength and talent — women who carried all before them, in their families and communities, always being ‘useful members’ of their societies as in Indiana Fletcher Williams’s charge to us.” She continued: “Cherish the history and beauty of this place, and carry it in your heart. Remember all the things you loved here — your long walks, the horse whispers, the mist that rises over lakes, the shouts from the bleachers — that

helped form who you are today. With the exquisite sensibility formed in these beautiful surroundings, and the capacity for love and hope that you have shown, may you go forth, touch many lives and change them for the better.” The Class of 2018 is as fierce as any. From Cassie Fenton, who is pursuing a master’s degree in musicology at the University of Oxford; to Mackenzie Crary, who has stayed in the Amherst, Va., area working at GoMeasure3D making 3-D CAD models; to Jessie Meager, who is now earning a master’s degree at the University of Virginia in architectural history; these alumnae are showing the world what Sweet Briar women are made of. These young women, who bravely began their sophomore year in the fall of 2015, have been shaped by Sweet Briar at a critical moment in her history. As senior class president Annabeth Griffin said, “We are so proud to become alumnae; we are so proud to join the warrior women who came before us. Wonder Woman has nothing on them, although she would totally fit in here.”

ALUMNAE BRIEFS

Alumnae Artists Come Together for Show Mimi Holland Dinsmore ’86 has had a career in arts administration, thanks in part to the arts management certificate she earned while a student at Sweet Briar. She’s worked in galleries and museums in Washington, D.C., Mississippi and London. Most recently, she has served as the gallery director and a guest curator at The Art Store in Charleston, W.Va. As part of her work there, she had the opportunity to curate a show for Elisabeth “Dolly” Wallace Hartman ’53. Hartman earned a master’s degree from Marshall University in 1990 and has studied at the Arts Students League in New York City, the Madison School of Art in Connecticut and Columbus School of Art in Ohio. She has participated in numerous workshops led by noted American artists such as Wolf Kahn, Katherine Liu and Charles Reid. She has a lengthy exhibition history of solo and group shows around the county and has won numerous awards in juried exhibitions. Her work is held in a number of public and private collections, including at West Virginia University, Farnsworth Library, Morgantown, W.Va.; Marshall University Graduate Center, South Charleston, W.Va.; Glenwood Estate in Charleston, W.Va.; and the Charleston Area Medical Center in Charleston, W.Va. Sweet Briar also owns several of her pieces.

Dinsmore extended an invitation to Hartman and her daughter, Mary, an accomplished artist in her own right, to do a joint show. Together, Dolly and Mary created new works for a show called “Lines and Lineage.” Mother and daughter made two individual bodies of work, but the pieces are linked through the relationship the women share, as well as their use of line. Their approach “allows for spontaneous dialogues between strong linear marks and the powerful use of negative space,” according to the official description of the show. “The show reflects maternal lineage and an artistic lineage as seen in their expressive use of line work,” Dinsmore said. “The near sell-out show was very well received. Dolly's gracious manner and everlasting talent really is an inspiration to all who come in contact with her.”

A Better Way to Stay Connected stricted gifts and one for restricted gifts) and will have two additional modules to generate excitement about giving: Days of Giving and Crowdfunding. Each of these components will allow alumnae and supporters to follow fundraising progress toward goals in real time, which is especially exciting for days like #GivingTuesday (Nov. 27, 2018) and Sweet Briar’s March Days of Giving (March 1-10, 2019). In addition to fundraising information, alumnae will be able to see a listing of upcoming alumnae club events around the country and register for ones nearby. In future phases, classmates will be able to email each other directly from the new alumnae portal and can submit their class notes there. As Sweet Briar implements the new alumnae platform throughout the fall, alumnae should make sure the College has their most updated information. Vsit sbc.edu/alumnae-development/update-yourinformation or call the alumnae relations and development office at 800-381-6131.

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This fall, Sweet Briar will introduce alumnae and friends of the College to iModules, a new platform on the College’s website for engagement and giving. Powered by Encompass, this platform exchanges data with Banner, the alumnae relations and development office’s database, ensuring that records in the Alumnae Directory continue to stay up to date and are available in a user-friendly, accessible way. The College embarked on a search for a new platform for alumnae and friends in the fall of 2017. Taking into consideration Sweet Briar’s existing systems and needs for alumnae to be able to engage with the College and with each other, the alumnae relations and development office evaluated several different software products and services. Ultimately, the choice was clear when iModules made their demonstration, as it uses the College’s existing technology while also being user-friendly for alumnae and friends. The first phase of the project migrates the existing alumnae relations and development website to a microsite. In addition to finding information about alumnae clubs, class leaders, admissions ambassadors and publications for alumnae and friends, the site will have two giving forms (one for unre-

In Memoriam:

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Renowned Monarch Butterfly Expert Lincoln Brower Dies, But His Legacy Lives On

The Sweet Briar community was saddened to learn of the death of Lincoln Brower, a world-renowned entomologist and research professor at the College. Brower died peacefully at his home in Nelson County in July after an extended illness. Brower came to Sweet Briar in 1997 after retiring from the University of Florida as Distinguished Service Professor of Zoology, Emeritus, joining his wife and research collaborator, Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Ecology Linda Fink. Born in New Jersey on Sept. 10, 1931, he was well-known internationally for his research on the chemical and physiological ecology of monarch butterflies, and was an ardent conservationist on their behalf. He worked tirelessly to protect the monarch’s overwintering habitat in Mexico, raising awareness through his research reports and dozens of interviews with national and international media organizations. “I feel keeping it on the front page is really important,” he said in a 2013 interview for the Sweet Briar Magazine. “To me, the monarch is a treasure like a great piece of art. We need to develop a cultural appreciation of wildlife that’s equivalent to art and music and so forth.” During his two decades at Sweet Briar, his work also provided unique opportunities for students, exposing them not only to the rigors of field and laboratory research but to the scientist’s role as a communicator. But to students and colleagues alike, Brower was more than “just” a scientist. “His prodigious and pivotal contributions to biology were exceeded only by his humility,” says John Morrissey, a longtime professor of biology at Sweet Briar. “In fact, I knew him

for two to three years before I realized that he was the Lincoln Brower who had authored all those amazing papers that I read as a student! He was simply too warm, too generous, too gregarious and too thoughtful to be that famous! Simply stated, he is one of the finest humans that I have ever met.” Morrissey says he’ll especially remember Brower’s “infectious,” “unfettered enthusiasm” for the natural world. He recalls the first time he had dinner at Brower’s home, eagerly awaiting an evening of interesting conversation about insect biology. “Instead, he chose to show me a small sampling of his collection of geodes, complete with his poetic, awe-struck, nearly tearful description of their beauty,” Morrissey remembers. “To me, the only thing more beautiful than the accumulation of crystals lining the cavities of those rocks was the joy that Lincoln exuded while sharing them with me. I am a better person for being inspired by him.” Brower’s impressive career began in 1953, when he received a B.S. in biology from Princeton University. At Yale University, he worked with Charles Remington, earning his Ph.D. in zoology in 1957. A Fulbright Fellowship allowed him to spend a year in E.B. Ford’s ecological genetics lab at Oxford University before joining the biology department at Amherst College, where he rose from instructor to the Stone Professor of Biology. In 1980, he moved to the zoology department at the University of Florida. Brower authored or coauthored more than 200 scientific papers and produced eight films. His early research on insect adaptive coloration led to collaborations with chemists and

scientist was a spiritual experience for me. Lincoln never talked about Lincoln; it was always about his work, photography, politics, the environment — and he listened. He was a gentle soul, a man of high intellect and a gentleman of the highest order. I feel honored and very humbled to have called him friend. His work and his spirit will live on.” Brower conducted field and laboratory research to understand the monarch’s habitat requirements, worked with conservation organizations and government agencies to design the monarch butterfly reserves, and encouraged the public to care about monarchs through innumerable public lectures and consulting for dozens of articles, books and documentaries. In 2013, President Jimmy Carter joined him on a visit to Mexico to learn more about the monarchs — one of the highlights of his life, Brower said. In 2015, Brower was a signatory on the petition to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to designate the monarch butterfly as a threatened species. Brower’s awards include the E.O. Wilson Award of the Center for Biological Diversity, Reconocimiento a la

Conservacion de la Naturaleza from the Mexican federal government, the Marsh Award of the Royal Entomological Society, the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal from Yale, the Henry Bates Award of the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera, the Distinguished Animal Behaviorist Award of the Animal Behavior Society and the Linnaean Medal for Zoology. He was a fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and Explorers Club, the Entomological Society of America, an honorary life member of the Lepidopterists’ Society, and a research associate of the Smithsonian Institution and the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera at the University of Florida. Brower is survived by his wife, two children, two grandchildren, his brother, three German shepherds and two cats. His professional family includes research collaborators, former graduate and undergraduate honors students and conservation professionals around the world. A celebration of his life was held at Sweet Briar’s butterfly research garden in September.

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ecologists in exploring the chemical ecology of milkweeds, monarch butterflies and bird predators. When the winter location of eastern monarch butterflies was announced by National Geographic in 1976, Brower’s focus turned to studying the extraordinary winter colonies and to the microclimatic protection provided by the forests. On his first visit to Mexico in 1977, he recognized that the colonies could be lost to deforestation, and his work expanded to include conservation of this endangered phenomenon. It was during one such visit in 2005 that he met Medford Taylor, a renowned photojournalist who now teaches at Sweet Briar College. Taylor had decided to photograph the monarch butterfly sanctuaries in Michoacán. Brower connected him with the right people, Taylor says, in addition to briefing him on his work. “I was fortunate to climb and ride horses up the mountains to those colonies with Lincoln [after that],” Taylor recalls. “Standing in those fir tree forests bursting with millions of butterflies with this world-renowned

in MEMORIAM 1933

Jane Ramsay Olmsted July 14, 2018

1949

1953

Anne Elliott Caskie April 22, 2018

Cynthia “Cinnie” Hooton Magowan August 23, 2018

Mary Goode “Goodie” Geer DiRaddo May 29, 2018

Martha Moore Cuenod May 23, 2018

1964

Dorothy Langdon Timmons August 25, 2018

Sarah Gay Lanford June 25, 2018

Caroline Miller Ewing September 8, 2018

1940

Margaret Towers Talman September 5, 2018

1955

Margaret Milam McDermott May 3, 2018

1936

Arnold Susong Jones December 16, 2016

1939

Olive Whittington Ehrich September 8, 2015 Eleanor “Ellie” Snow Lea August 26, 2018

1944

Betty Farinholt Cockrill May 22, 2018 Lucille Randall Southerland May 3, 2012

1945

Anne Fiske Thompson July 10, 2018 Nancy Jones Worcester April 27, 2018

1950

Frances Martin Lindsay August 5, 2018 Julia Freels Chwalik January 4, 2018

Marcia “Sandy” Rhodes Berglund April 30, 2018

1957

Patricia Lodewick May 25, 2018 Elynor “Suzy” Neblett Stephens August 13, 2018

1959

Sally Martin Manning April 26 2018

Louise Streeter Smith May 16, 2018

1946

1951

Aimee Des Pland McGirt June 25, 2018

1952

Mary Barcus Hunter August 15, 2018

Edith “Edie” Duncan Wessel January 22, 2018

1973

Gwendolyn Ferguson Bates February 1, 2018 Lucinda Young Larson January 11, 2018

1975

Gale Hirst September 3, 2018

Nancy Ellen Feazell Kent April 19, 2018

Shirley Small Edwards August 23, 2018

1972

1958

Elsie Landram Layton June 6, 2018

Jean Duerson Bade June 19, 2018

Jillian Cody Jones June 5, 2018

Laura-Hope Walton Griffin May 1, 2013

Elizabeth “Beth” Mears Kurtz August 13, 2018

Julie Micou Eastwood Date unknown

Carol Crowley Karm June 29, 2018

Jane Rather Thiebaud April 29, 2018

Sally Lane Johnson July 31, 2018

1947

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Nancy Ellen Craig Carter June 6, 2015

Anne Macfarlane Clark July 8, 2018

Lucy-Charles Jones Bendall September 5, 2018

1963

Suzanne Fitzgerald Van Horne June 29, 2018

Ann Smith Heist Date unknown Trudie Jackson Smither Oct. 19, 2016

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Suzanne Taylor Gouyer August 25, 2018

1962

Judith Abernethy Kyle December 3, 2017

1980

Anna Carter Kendall June 6, 2018

1995

Kelly “Pepper” Coggshall September 23, 2018

1996

Rebecca Arkus June 21, 2018

2016

Meredith Haga Fox July 20, 2018

1947

Linda McKoy Stewart 18 Osprey Lane Rumson, NJ 07760 lmckstewart@verizon.net A note for our 1947 graduates from Mary Ames Booker ’82: I would like to share that my Aunt Suzanne Fitzgerald VanHorne ’47 passed away in June at the age of 92. She majored in art history and was a fine pianist and did both as careers while raising two sons. She was my mother’s (Kay Fitzgerald Booker’s) twin sister, and passed away on the same day, 18 years apart. I’m sure they visit the SBC campus together now! They are sorely missed here.

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Preston Hodges Hill 3910 S Hillcrest Dr. Denver, Colo. 80237 edhillj@earthlink.net Katie Cox Reynolds reports that she and Phil have moved into a smaller more conveniently located apartment in their retirement home. New address is 60 Loeffler Rd. P316 Bloomfield, CT 06002. They had several visits with their children this summer and most accompanied them to a memorial of a dear friend held on Cape Cod. A granddaughter is in graduate school in Boulder, CO, for a year’s study in Early Childhood Education. Her bother is living in Denver. Caroline Casey Brandt, our class president, reports that all of our Richmond ’49ers live in Westminster-Canterbury Retirement Home, as does she. Libby Trueheart Harris is in the Health Care unit and is in failing health, Margaret Towers Talman is doing well, Kitty Hart Belew is there as well. All have recently celebrated 90th birthdays. Caroline has given her outstanding collection of miniature books to the UVA. The

Miniature Book Society met recently in Charlottesville, and Caroline, accompanied by most of her family, attended a celebration honoring her. The Society has published a catalog of the 100 most important books in the collection. She has given a copy of it to Sweet Briar. Caroline’s ex-banker son is now an Episcopal priest in Richmond, serving at their family church. He recently had successful cancer surgery. She has a married granddaughter living in Boulder and another living in France. The one in France had a very premature baby, but after months in neonatal care, the baby is at home and doing well. Carter Van Deventer Slattery lives in Knoxville, TN. She visits her house at Hilton Head Beach, N.C., or Tennessee, and she is blessed with eight grandchildren and a great-granddaughter named “Carter”! Ruth Garrett Preucel lives in Santa Fe, N.M. She recently moved there after living fifty years in Philadelphia. She is living in an “adobe” (clay) house her architect daughter designed and built for her. Ruth also has a son who is a professor at Brown University and one who lives in California. She is more interested in the future than the past! Carolyn Cannady Evans still (10 years) lives in a large retirement home 15 miles from Dulles Airport. She welcomes “en route” overnight guests! Two of her four daughters live nearby, two in Raleigh, N.C. Her son is in Baltimore. They gather frequently. Carolyn enjoys working in clay, sculpturing, and making pots, etc. She walks her dog daily and is in good health. She and her children take a “Sibling & Mom” trip around the country every year! Sarah Melcher Jarvis passed away on Sept. 15, 2017. She raised four children and wrote children’s stories for Humpty Dumpty magazine that were later published as two books, “Little Plays for Little People” and “Fried Onion and Marshmallows.” Sally taught English for several years at Lancaster County Day

School and was a writer and editor at Continental Press. As the assistant director of the North Museum from ’74 to ’92, she initiated the “Rambles” travel program, leading local excursions as well as expeditions to China, Egypt, Russia and Scotland. Sally was a 50-year member of First Presbyterian Church, where she served as an elder, and helped write its history on its 275th anniversary. She was a past board member of Demuth Foundation, Planned Parenthood, Lancaster Summer Arts Festival, Friends of Lancaster County Library, and a member of the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America. She is survived by four children, eight grandchildren, and five great-greatgrandchildren. I continue to live in my home of 54 years in Denver. My children are out of state but come often, and Margaret’s close friend from prep school has moved to Denver, which is great for me. My son Gene continues his work in health care, his wife, Joan, lectures on her book Chasing Miracles and does a blog monthly on health issues. Their oldest son is an ER doctor in Chicago and has my year and a half old great-grandchild, Enzo Dylan. Alyssa Hill is an attorney in NYC and Greg Hill works in the wine industry in Napa, CA. Margaret Hill Hilton is a Senior Sales Executive for Cox Communications in Las Vegas. Her son Palmer finished law School at UNC Chapel Hill. I joined that family for the graduation in May followed by a delightful few days in Charleston & Myrtle Beach. Ginny Hill Martinson and Lowell live in Ojai, CA. (fortunately their house survived the fires last fall). Ginny is enjoying renewed interest in art and has joined the Patel Society there. Her 19-yearold twins have just finished freshman year at the University of Colorado Boulder for Michael (in aerospace engineering) and Boston at Berklee School of Music for Karen. All of us are thrilled with our percentage of giving to the Annual Fund.

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Pat Layne Winks 312 Arguello Blvd., Apt. 3 San Francisco, CA 94118 415-221-6779 plwinks@earthlink.net Trips I’ve taken this year have enabled me to connect with some of you. A June visit to Boston, current home of my granddaughter, included a special added attraction: seeing Joanne Holbrook Patton at her home in Topsfield. After so many years regretting my inability to join many of you at one of Joanne’s summer picnics at Green Meadows Farm, I finally made it! Joanne and I settled in for happy reminiscing, looking through photograph albums. Joanne continues to stay active, undeterred by physical limitations. In the spring she went to D.C. for a women’s leadership conference at George Washington University, where she was honored for her years of outstanding service. Recently, the sailing ship once owned by the Patton family was put to shore near the Hamilton museum, which houses the Patton archives. Joanne, with her equipment, was hoisted aboard, then photographed at the helm beside the captain, as if they were ready to sail off to sea. Another trip I took this year – to London and Paris – was brightened by Pauline Wells Bolton, former roommate and Junior Year in France companion. Pauly had recommended a London hotel that was a real gem. She and her sister Josephine Wells Rodgers ’53 go to Europe nearly every year. Once Sweet Briar’s Junior Year in France has cast its spell, we stay spellbound! Recently fellow JYF’er Ann Whittingham Smith attended a theater presentation of Cyrano de Bergerac in the company of an Alliance Francçaise group. Ann and I observed that people seem to speak French so quickly these days! Ann has resumed playing the piano and has joined a chamber music

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CLASS notes

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group. She also sings in the church choir and participates in a choral group that visits nursing homes. We continue to lose beloved classmates and their spouses. The obituary for Jane Ramsay Olmsted reminds us what a remarkable woman she was. After Sweet Briar, Jane studied at the Corcoran School of Art. Her paintings are in numerous public and private permanent collections. She was actively involved in garden beautification as a floral designer and judge of flower shows. A member of Les Dames d’Escoffier (an organization of women in the culinary industry), she wrote restaurant reviews and pursued her passionate interest in the cuisine and culture of Italy. For many years she planned receptions for club members and international dignitaries at the Sulgrave Club in D.C. Definitely a Renaissance woman! Nancy Hamel Clark is recovering from hip replacement surgery with the loving help of her children. Her daughter Ann, an educational consultant, is working with University of North Carolina’s chancellor, Margaret Spellings, on ways to improve the quality of teacher education and recognize its importance. Nancy has a project of her own: She writes articles for her retirement community newsletter, and especially enjoys interviewing residents and researching the community’s Quaker history. Pat Beach Thompson, at her home outside Mt. Kisco, N.Y., not only gardens but dredges the stream that leads to their pond! We agreed that California could benefit from the rain that has been inundating her part of the country. Pat has a wonderful plan to prepare a set of SBC classmate photographs with brief commentary for each. If we can’t reunite in person, we can still see and greet each other. What I have found especially rewarding in acting as your secretary is picking up that old-fashioned instrument, the telephone – no smart apps needed – and talking to classmates. Try it! I count on you to keep in touch – with each other, with me, and with the College.

1953

Florence Pye Apy 40 Riverside Ave, Apt. 6Y Red Bank, NJ 07701 floapy@verizon.net Our 65th Reunion has ended. Although the number of classmates attending was fewer than we had hoped for, the nine of us there were happy to be back to our beautiful, renewed campus and visit with one another. Here’s who came: Ginnie Hudson Toone, Flo Pye Apy and Chet, Maggie McClung and David, Harriette Hodges Andrews, Jane Perry Liles, Katzy Bailey Nager and C.J., Kirk Tucker Clarkson and Jack, June Arata Pickett and Dolly Wallace Hartman. Family members added another welcomed dimension to the gathering. The Apys had four members of the family there: son David and wife Tricia, and granddaughter Emily Bera with husband Danny. Ginnie and her brother, Repps, drove all the way from Carrollton, MO, and Dolly was transported by son John. I heard from several other members of the class, including M.A. Mellon Root and Jeanne Duff, both of whom wanted to come but could not find appropriate transportation. Unfortunately, the Southern Railroad and trains no longer stop at Monroe station as they did when we were there. I will be returning to Sweet Briar the last weekend in October with my granddaughter, Marissa Apy, where she will take part in an engineering demonstration program for prospective students. Too frequently this column ends on a sad note. Unfortunately, since our last alumnae gathering, two of our classmates have died, Anne Elliott Caskie and Martha Moore Cuenod. Anne fell down steps while exiting the Sunday service at her church in Richmond, on Sunday, April 15. Sadly, she died a week later as a result of her injuries. Anne was born in Birmingham, AL. She married Challen Ellis Caskie, who predeceased her, as did her brother George. During the course of her marriage to Challen, she moved many times, ultimately settling in Richmond, where she was a member of St. James Episcopal Church, the

Senior Board of Children’s Hospitals, the Country Club of Virginia, and the Junior League. She is survived by her daughter, Trudy Caskie Porter, and her husband, Cliff; three grandchildren, Anne Pulliam and husband Dave, Caroline Porter, and Borden Porter; and her brother John Elliot. We will miss her. Martha Moore Cuenod died May 23, at age 86. She was born in Houston, TX. She graduated from Lamar High School, attended Sweet Briar, and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. She married Marc Cuenod in 1954 at Christ Church Cathedral in Houston, where they started to raise their children. Later they moved to Galveston. In both cities she served on the Episcopal Altar Guilds, the Board of Directors of the American Red Cross, and as an active member of the Junior League. In 2008 she and Marc returned to Houston to be closer to their children and grandchildren. Martha is survived by her husband, two daughters, one son, one granddaughter, one grandson, and two great grandchildren. Our sympathy goes out to her entire family. P.S. In an uncontested election Ginnie and Flo were returned to office as president and secretary of the class.

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Bruce Watts Krucke 201 West 9th St. N.-Unit 1844 Summerville, SC 29483 bwkrucke@gmail.com The good news is that there are no new obituaries to start these brief notes. The other good news is that our class is very near the top in percentage of giving to the most recent fund drive. The bad news is that I got few responses to my recent email requesting to hear from you. I am not able to handwrite to all you ’54 people; so if you have an email address and don’t hear from me, please send your email address to mine above, and you’ll get occasional notes from me. Thanks. Shirley Poulson Broyles writes that they are hoping to move into a new active adult retirement community that will be ready next year. She

doesn’t look forward to the de-cluttering and downsizing process! Norris took his children and her children on a cruise to the Western Caribbean last November to celebrate a birthday of Shirley’s ending in “5,” which will remain undisclosed. Then she and Norris went in February to Belmond Maroma in Mexico to celebrate their 25th anniversary. This Christmas they are going with a group of friends to the Eastern Caribbean, since their children are all with their own children at Christmas. They still go to Hilton Head when the children are not using the beach house. Shirley is giving up her apartment in Baltimore in late September, and they will stay in a hotel when visiting family there. She says they are slowing down a bit but still having fun. Both of them are doing yoga and have physical and massage therapy to keep the bods in shape! Shirley says she has to keep moving with seven great-grandsons, one great-granddaughter and number nine due next February. Thinking about next year being our 65th reunion, Sweet Briar can’t locate our class banner. Do any of you have it or know where it might be? It’s not at Sweet Briar, and none of your class officers have it. They are expensive to replace, so we’re hoping it can be located. Caroline “Kobo” Chobot Garner writes that in May 2018 her daughter Laurie, granddaughter Caroline, and she flew to Calgary, British Columbia, rented a car, and toured the Banff/Lake Louise area. It was a six-day trip, and they were pleased to still be speaking to each other at the end! Laurie remarked — “Have you ever planned a trip for an 80-year-old, a 50-year-old, and a 20-year-old??” No, I haven’t, but Mary Jane Roos Fenn has. She got back in August from a week’s vacation with her daughter Susan, and Susan’s daughter Dana, at her old stomping grounds, her beloved Shelter Island, N.Y. Last year they all went to Bermuda together, and the threesome plans to take an annual trip together from now on. Mary Hill Noble Caperton writes that she is happy in her retirement condo community, keeping very busy on several committees

this year with the opening of a new 18-apartment residential building and a new 88-bed medical and rehab center. We also have just gotten a new executive director — hope he doesn’t change everything. In July we joined my sister Virginia Watts Fournier ’44 for a few days at North Topsail Island, N.C. Our families have been meeting there for 20 years, but this is probably the last one — we have aged out. If you don’t see notes about anyone you remember or yourself, you know why! I can’t write what nobody tells me. Please send me emails or little letters about you and your family. Inquiring minds want to know.

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Emily Hunter Slingluff 1217 North Bay Shore Drive Virginia Beach, VA 23451 emilyslingluff@aol.com Starting with deaths of classmates: Patricia Collins Massa passed away in February and Rosemary Mancill Berry in April. We send much sympathy to their families. Mary Reed Simpson Daugette’s daughter kindly wrote about her some months ago, saying that her mother had the flu last winter and was in the hospital, followed by four weeks of rehab, and that it had been a setback for her. She can no longer use the telephone and will probably remain in a wheelchair. She had traveled to two of four weddings of her grandchildren in 2017 and was thrilled to have a great-grandchild born in Birmingham in October and named Mary Simpson Nolan. Nella Gray Barkley gave the commencement address at Sweet Briar this year. Dede Harrison Austin is “alert,” said her husband, Larry. She can see and read but cannot talk or eat or move. Seven years ago, a church van ran into the car she was driving, with Larry by her side, as they were going to their house in the North Carolina mountains. She is staying in a hospital bed in her beautiful living room, facing the fireplace. Various machines are connected to her, along the wall, so hardly noticeable in the lovely setting. Larry seems to be by

her side much of the time but also has professional care for her at all times. Her children seem to come often, too, and I saw many good, happy photos of them when I was there. When I first looked at Dede, I immediately thought, “You still look like you did at Sweet Briar!” It seems that lying in bed nonstop keeps wrinkles away! The scenario there keeps coming to my mind. Larry is a gold star husband. Dede is gold star too, always has been, and still is. It is a terrible situation, but also heartwarming to see the loving care. Kay Roberts McHaney phoned and what a treat it was to reconnect with her! Her life sounds most interesting although her husband has Alzheimer’s. Kay was only at Sweet Briar for two years, feeling a desire, as many of our Texas classmates did, to also go to the University of Texas. However, she has fond memories of SBC and went back for the 1954 graduation to see her good friend, Cathy Munds ’54, graduate. After that, she said she went on a driving trip across the country and then even on to Hawaii for a while, too, with three of our classmates, Nancy Douthat, Jane Lindsey, and Susan Seward. Kay’s father had owned the newspaper in Victoria, The Victoria Advocate, since the early 1940s. It is Texas’s second oldest continually operating paper. Since his death some years ago, Kay and her brother have been involved with the paper. She still participates on the editorial board and the ethics committee. She and her husband, Jim, met when they were both living in Victoria and were in second grade. He became a chemical engineer, and they lived in California and in Ohio for 10 years before moving back to Victoria, where her husband became involved with the paper. When in Hudson, OH, she was friends with Mary Ann Mellon Root ’53. Kay and Jim have three sons and a daughter, and all are living in Texas. One son is in Longview, with the paper the family bought six years ago. Another son is an attorney in Austin. Her daughter and another son live in Victoria with their families. There are 12 grandchildren, the oldest is 24 and the youngest are twins age 8. She has been involved in many organizations. She helped create the history museum on the Victoria College campus, where she was

the first woman on the board and is still serving on that board after 30 years. She worked closely with the Victoria Symphony and is still chair of the endowment, she was a part of creating the Bach Festival, now in its 43rd season, and was the first woman on the Victoria County Hospital board where she was also chairman. She loves traveling, which she thinks may go back to that trip across this country with SBC friends! She has also taken two Sweet Briar trips, one in 2005 to Peru, Machu Picchu, and the Amazon and another in 2007 to other places in South America. Also, she has traveled with her husband and on separate trips with her children to India, Egypt, Morocco, Spain, and Alaska. As she said, life is busy, and also happy. Newell Bryan Tozzer is happily staying in her house where she has been for many years. Son Brent and his wife, who is the daughter of Sue Lawton Mobley’s first cousin, also live in Atlanta. Brent works with the bookstore at Emory University. Newell’s daughter, Ellen, and her husband and their three children have recently moved to Callaway Gardens, a resort town a little over an hour from Atlanta. Newell is involved at All Saints Church and on the board of Historic Oakland Cemetery. Ethel Green Banta is still living in her nice historic house in Natchez, MS. This summer, she went to Seattle to visit her youngest, Kate, and “her wonderful family.” Ethel said it was a long trip, but worth it! She has another daughter, Alice, in Richmond, who is the vet for the city of Richmond, and a son, Jim, in Richmond, where he is VP of Capital One Bank. Between the two of them, she has six grandchildren; so she says she really enjoys her visits to Richmond. Her oldest child, Ruth, lives in Northampton, MA, where she is CEO of Pathlight, an organization to help people with special needs. Last Christmas, she visited Ruth and was caught in the Atlanta airport shutdown: 100,000 people in the terminal and no power except from their cell phones! But, as she said, somehow, they all survived! Jane Feltus Welch writes, since leaving Natchez years ago after her marriage, she is feeling older. She said she has had pneumonia and that

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there and doing things in town as well. She still goes to water aerobics at one of the city pools five mornings a week and walks her Jack Russell terrier 3 to 4 times a day. The views from up on the hill there are wonderful, and she feasts on them every time she ventures out or looks out the windows, which is often. There are mountains to the east and west and the landscaping is beautiful there at the complex. Landscaping is one of the committees she’s on. Mary Hill hopes we are all dealing with our advancing age well. We are sending our hopeful and prayerful thoughts to Mary Hill’s son Doug, who underwent a nine-hour surgery for pancreatic cancer in late August. The prognosis is good. We can always count on Jerry Driesbach Ludeke for some interesting adventures. In July she treated herself to a month-long trip with all transportation paid for with points. She first flew from Bakersfield to Charlottesville for a week’s visit with her sister Georgia. From there she took Amtrak to Arlington for a week with a granddaughter, her husband, and the two great-grandsons (one of whom she met for the first time). Jerry finds that spending time in Washington, D.C., is always fun. Her new great find was the Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Gardens of Marjorie Meriweather Post. They are extraordinary! (I wonder if there’s any connection with our late classmate Meri Hodges Major.) From there, Jerry flew to Pittsburgh, where she took an excursion to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water, which exceeded her expectations. In Pittsburgh she boarded the American Line’s Queen of the Mississippi for a ten-day trip down the Ohio River to St. Louis. The day she got off the boat she boarded the Texas Eagle Amtrak for a four-day ride back to Bakersfield. That train goes right along the border with Mexico. Jerry pronounced all this a fun trip! Bill and I join those mentioned above who are happy in their retirement communities. We too are very involved here. I’m half-way though my term as president of the Residents Council. We don’t meet in July and August, and I have pages of things that people have come to me about during those free months. There have been huge changes here

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she pulled some tendons or muscles in one leg. But, Jane felt she would be better soon! Also, she said that she had been in New York City the week before, for a week, and was able to see The Iceman Cometh and My Fair Lady. She enjoyed being in her apartment there, which she recently had upgraded to be fresher and more “with it!” She says she can enjoy relaxing there, while at her house, Jessamine Hill, in Kentucky, something is always going happening! In April she went with son Jim and daughter Lucy and Lucy’s husband to San Francisco for the marriage of another daughter, Eliza, who lives there and is a chaplain for Hospice. Among other things, Jane belongs to a foreign affairs group that meets every month and requires preparation and to a book club. She mentioned that she had the Sweet Briar Open House at her house last winter and enjoyed that, and shortly after, met our new Sweet Briar president and was very impressed with her. Ginger Chamblin Greene came with her friend, Fred Landess, to a party that my friend Doug Mackall had at his Charlottesville condo during the University of Virginia Law School Reunion in May. Fred and Doug were classmates some years ago. Ginger looked fabulous and seemed so happy. It was a treat for me to have a small visit with her. We feel so connected as do most of us from our wonderful class at Sweet Briar. Pam Compton Ware our May Queen, writes, “We can’t be this old! In my head I don’t feel it, but the body tells it like it is. ‘Life is swell when you keep well.’ Remember that one? It’s the current game plan. I feel blessed with my wonderful sons, their wives, and nine grandchildren, eldest graduated, two in college, six in high school/junior high. Hobbies remain as before: gardening (joints permitting), reading, church activities, and bridge (unremarkable). However, genealogy has captivated me, and I’ve spent hours researching several family lines, but I won’t bore you with that. Dig into your own, though; it is fascinating. As an SBC government major, I was long ago bitten by history as it is happening, and heaven knows there’s been a lot of that going on. Yes, I’m an addicted news junkie, as well as a Jersey Shore

worshipper, where our annual Pilgrimage takes place with as many as we can crowd in. Often I think of our idyllic time at SBC and am so grateful it is still alive with new direction and purpose. I miss the wonder of all that and especially all of you.” Emily Hunter Slingluff is enjoying life in the same house on the bay and close to the ocean for about forty years. Her daughter is several houses away and her son nearby in Charlottesville. It is a thrill to stay in touch with wonderful Sweet Briar classmates. I enjoy playing bridge and spend lots of time speaking and writing about parenting. My first book, A Present to the Newborn, has just come out in audio, with a sympathetic narrator, and is available on Amazon. This is exciting for me, and I hope will help parents with a child of any age. At one of our convocations, our Sweet Briar president, Anne Gary Pannell, said, “When you educate a woman, you educate the world.” Yes, mothering matters. Sweet Briar mattered, too.

1956

Mary Ann H. Willingham P.O. Box 728 Skyland, N.C. 28776 hicklinw@bellsouth.net Thanks to each of you who either sent an e-mail or a real letter! You make my job fun! You all are great! I have always maintained that old friends are the best; so especially good to hear from you – and we are old! Ann Greer Adams was treated to a “step back in time” last spring when her son and his wife included her on a trip to Virginia to pick up their daughter, who was finishing her freshman year at W&L. She says Lexington looked just as it did 60 years ago, when she was last there. They took her to SBC, where they walked the whole campus. Particularly interesting she says is the columbarium around the perimeter of the Monument, where several of our friends are buried: Mr. Hapala, Dr. Nelson and Helen McMahon. Then on to Charlottesville for the full Virginia tour, loving every minute of “remembering.”

Bunny Burwell Nesbit writes that she is living a wonderfully full life in a continuing care community in Sarasota, FL. A highlight of the year was the 100th Reunion of her dad’s family in Upperville, VA, which lasted 11 days! Lots of other SBC alums (’52,’55,’58,’66,’82, &’84) we’re in attendance, making it a super special event! Macie Clay Nichols shared lots of Kentucky news. Meredith Smythe Grider spent the summer in Michigan, having previously sold her gift-ice cream shop there. Each of her three daughters spent some of the summer with her. For the past two summers Macie has followed campers to Beaufort, N.C., where she enjoyed good times with Mishew Cooper and her husband, Murray Williams, who now live there in a condo with a marvelous ocean view. She also reconnected with some old UNC friends. Macie tells us that Norma Davis has moved from Tunica, MS, to a retirement community in Memphis, where Norma is very content. Norma had called Macie for a Derby tip, and no doubt Norma was delighted with the tip, Justified. Macie and Robert celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary this year and have lived in the same house for 55 of those years. Her daughter and her children live nearby. Son Rob and family live in Spain; so Macie is hoping to win the lottery to buy a plane for more “togetherness.” Macie recently attended an SBC gathering at the beautiful home of Jane Feltus Welche ’55 for an inspiring update by SBC Board Member, Mason Rummel. Macie laments that our class giving participation is low. [Be of cheer, Macie: this past fiscal year we are up to 31.3 percent, up from 25 percent the previous year, See? I said you all are great! Now, if we had a class fundraiser, think how marvelous we could be! And here is my plug: Please, please send something — large or small — to SBC when the next solicitation arrives!] Sudie Shelton Moseley lives fairly close to Macie in Kentucky; whereas Sudie’s two sons live in Louisville. Sudie attends an annual seminar each year at Cambridge, joined by other perpetual students of many nationalities. Lee Chang Crozier wrote that all is well with her and hers in California, although definitely concerned

about the August fires. She is still involved in “committee responsibilities,” helps coordinate the music at church, and plays the piano and sings in the choir. She and Al are coming up on their 59th wedding anniversary! Lee and I exchanged a couple of e-mails reminiscing about painting posters and decorating for our Spring Dance, the theme for which was “Occidentally Oriental.” Remember? Janet Monroe Marshall writes that she is settled into her new retirement home in Ellicott City, MD, having moved there from Pennsylvania. Much to do there, so much so that she finds it hard to find chunks of time to read, contemplate, and keep up with family. For her, the biggest change that she has seen since we left college is the speed of everything: film, talking, soundbites versus discussion; brief flashes of information to stay with shorter and shorter attention spans of everyone. There is also more and more online activity, as in anything involving the oxymoron called “Customer Service!” Nancy Ettenger Minor has recently moved from Savannah, Ga., to a continual care community on Hilton Head, S.C. She is still playing a lot of bridge and is rapidly adapting to and enjoying her new location and all it offers. Nancy Howe Roberts continues enjoying traveling, recently taking a delightful trip to the Gulf Coast with Jim’s two sons and their families. She still lives in a retirement community, enjoying a very active life there. She plays bridge and golf and plans to go to Chicago for Christmas. A wonderful note from Peggy Ann Rogers recapping her fascinating life. An English Lit major at SBC, she went on to receive a Ph.D. from Oxford. She attended the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 and had a day with Mother Teresa in Calcutta in 1989 with Medical Missions of NY (1985-1989). She was with the Philadelphia School Board for 35 years and taught in England for 30 summers with The Institute of International Education. She has generously donated many books to Sweet Briar. Now about 85% deaf, she is active with organizations focusing on deafness. She would love to hear from classmates: 635 Alexian Way #805 HC, Signal Mountain, TN 37377.

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Eleanor St. Clair Thorp 3 Stoneleigh #6D Bronxville, N.Y. 10708 schatzethorp@gmail.com Our 60th Reunion was a very special time for all the alumnae, especially those from our 1958 class. There was a large turnout, but ours

was especially well represented. Though we missed many of you, 20 made it, with an assorted number of husbands. We all had time to visit with one another, hear very good and informative words from President Woo, and get a very positive update on the College and its future. At the meeting for class elections, Claire Cannon Christopher was elected our new president, M.L. Bryant our treasurer/fundraiser, and I was elected secretary. Our heartfelt thanks to outgoing president Mollie Archer Payne and secretary Jane Shipman Kuntz. Now some news from our classmates: Beedy Tatlow Ritchie and her husband, Bruce, moved from Los Angeles to Palm Desert, CA, and are enjoying life there in “Paradise.” Son Hank and his wife, Meredith Hobik, live in Bethesda, MD, and son Chad is engaged to Katherine Nedelkoff and lives in NYC. Daughter Laura and her offspring, AJ, live in Beverly Hills. Beedy and Bruce spend three months in Traverse City, Mich., and they welcome any of you for a visit any time. Winnie Leigh Hamlin was delighted to be at Reunion and writes that her first grandchild Winborne Leigh Hamlin, graduated cum laude with a degree from UVa in bio-medical engineering! Winborne’s two brothers and two cousins will be at UVa next year, two in each class. Winnie underwent surgery to remove a kidney stone and is still recovering. Ina Hamilton Hart was given a fabulous surprise 80th birthday party by her children, with relatives from near and far attending. Ina has been writing stories and now is writing poetry as well. As she says, it’s a great outcome for an English major. Peggy Smith Warner and her husband, John, are currently in their vacation home in Cashiers, N.C., and will return to Nashville in the fall. Grandson Blake will enter Vanderbilt as a freshman this fall, but she says her real connection to Sweet Briar is her son John’s marriage to Jane Shipman Kuntz’s niece Jane Shipman. John is a surgeon in Lexington, KY. Adele Caruthers is now living in Santa Fe with her second husband, Harry, whom she married two years ago after having been divorced

and widowed. She and Harry just returned from a fabulous Viking Cruise around the Mediterranean. Tibby Moore Gardner had a great time at our reunion and suggests we get together more often than every five years! Agreed, Tibby. She and Bill are in their Virginia Beach home, where her oldest son Ryland and wife and her parents came to visit for a few days. Eleanor Humphrey Schnabel has moved to an assisted-living complex in Salem, MA, to be nearer her daughter Ellie ’85, who lives in Woonsocket, R.I., with son Nathan Henry, who is five years old. Hump is now retired and works with a needlepoint group and is definitely enjoying her new life. Mimi Garrard writes that she has been very busy the last few years creating dance for video and showing her work on television, in festivals, and in galleries around the world. She won six first-place awards for her video work. She and her husband, James Seawright, had a show in Kentucky and will have another in the fall at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. They also had a concert at New York Live Arts in May. We should all go online to read her newsletter, at The Mimi Garrard Dance Company, Inc. Betty Rae Sivalls Davis and her husband are very excited about the country western party that her children are hosting for their sixtieth wedding anniversary in September, replete with a country band and Southern food. They are also taking their first cruise this month. Mary Johnson Campbell says she keeps “busy doing nothing note-

worthy”! She stays in touch with Ruth Carpenter Pitts, whose granddaughter was married in August. Patty Sykes Treadwell lost her husband, Dick, on February 13. Patty regularly attends her grandson’s soccer games in the San Francisco area and keeps Mary {Mary who?] informed about his victories. Jane Shipman Kuntz loved being at our reunion and sends the good news that her herniated disk was operated on, repaired, and that she is now recovering. Prior to Reunion, she and a friend took a long and fascinating trip through the many parks in the western United States. Her grandchildren are all thriving and busy with more activities than can be listed here, but lots to make Jane very proud. Thanks to all of you who responded to my email asking for your news, and I look forward to hearing from more of you for the next edition. In the meantime, keep in touch and enjoy the fall.

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Ali Wood Thompson 89 Pukolu Way Wailea, HI 96753 808-874-8028 travisnali808@gmail.com A big reminder that next year (2019) is our 60TH REUNION!!! The reunion dates are May 31-June 2. If you are ever going to go to a reunion, THIS IS THE YEAR TO DO IT! Car, bus, train or plane (SBC does pick you up at Lynchburg airport) …

Di Doscher Spurdle ’59 and family! Doug and his brood (Sophia, Savannah, Mason and Lincoln) from CA on the left, Craig, Brooks and Mij from FL on right . Our two great-grandsons are on the far right and far left

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Karen Steinhardt Kirkbride is delighted with the progress Sweet Briar is making! Still in Annandale, VA, her husband is undergoing extensive therapy for which Karen is deeply grateful. She is the sole driver now for extra safety, meaning double appointments and extra errands, but their life together is as wonderful as ever. Their three sons and their families are a major source of joy. Steven lives nearby; however Kevin is in Seattle and Trevor is in NYC. Joan Broman Wright loves reading the class notes! Nothing astounding to report, she says. She is valiantly trying to landscape her yard in Coral Gables, FL, in the excruciating hot summer sun! Her son, Jim, who lives in Raleigh, recently spent a week with her. Daughter Elise and family live nearby in Coral Gables, where Elise is busy with her Interior Design Company. We in Western N.C. are excited that Louisa Hunt Coker is soon moving from Franklin, VA, to a retirement home in Hendersonville, N.C., about 15 miles from me. This way, she will be much closer to her family. As for me, I stay quite busy! Fortunately, I’m still enjoying good health; so I can do a lot of gardening, which I love (always welcoming winter, however!). I do some traveling still, but mostly to visit daughters and their families in NYC, Atlanta, and Baltimore. The last NYC grandchild is off to college this fall, and the oldest Baltimore grandchild is visiting colleges this fall in preparation for next fall. Wow! The years just fly by! Please, please remember to send money — any amount — to SBC when the solicitation arrives! I am so proud of our improving percentage! And many thanks to each of you who has made all this news appear!

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Val Stoddard Loring ’59 and husband Stephen

Plan to make it a trip and bring your spouse along or a companion to help you get here. For those of us going, we should book at the Elston Inn early. Just a thought. We will need some volunteers to run this reunion, I believe. Joanne Bossert Thompson: We are going to our 3rd grandson‘s wedding on Sept. 15 in Vail, CO. 5 days later we leave for Vancouver, BC, to take the Rocky Mountaineer train to the Canadian Rockies. We will be gone a total of three weeks. Will send pictures from our trip. Other than that, things are pretty stable. The other exciting thing is that I have reconnected with my roommate, Sally Bertelsen Maguire, and we are getting together the beginning of November. Mary Boyd Davis: I have nothing much to report from Ponte Vedra Beach, but as frequent hurricane evacuees, we hope all is going OK for you. I’ve never heard of so much water in such a short time! Hope you’ve been able to stay dry! The most exciting thing in our life right now is that our 3-year-old great grandson took off on a 2-wheeler bike a few

days ago. He was apprehended, but they may have to hide the bike! Mary Harrison Cooke Carle: (ed. note: I don’t know where she is. I seem to have lost her. Does anyone know where she is?) Tricia Coxe Ware: Judy Sorley Simpson invited Betsy Duke Seaman, Tabb Thornton Farinholt and myself to join her for a few days while she vacationed in Gloucester, VA. It was fun to catch up on news and share pictures. Di Doscher Spurdle: Just got back from Red Mountain Ranch in Idaho with the whole family (minus two). Couldn’t have been a more perfect vacation. With West Coast and East Coast, it’s not easy to get together. I ran into an SBC grad, class of 2017, who thanks all alums who helped keep things going so she could graduate. Deborah Dunning: I’m competing with Ruth Bader Ginsburg for being the woman works longer than any of her friends and loves what she’s doing. At 81, I’m having a great time developing training that enables all types of enterprises reduce their

waste, water and energy use so we all can leave to our grandkids a healthy and sustainable environment. I feel blessed to live in Providence, Rhode Island — a beautifully restored city where most people can walk to work. And we all have access to some of the best beaches and best restaurants in New England. And my grand-kids all live nearby. Hope to see you at our 60th! Alice Cary Farmer Brown: Greetings everyone! President Meredith Woo has been engaging our oldest son Lyons to advise her on sustainable farming for Sweet Briar. She knew him when she was at UVA and he was teaching at the Darden School there. Lyons and his wife live on a lovely farm in Batesville, VA, outside of Charlottesville, where they have over 200 bee hives. They sell the honey, and it is DELICIOUS! [check them out: www. elysiumhoney.com] To date, Lyons has put 20 bee hives at Sweet Briar and is instructing interested students in their care. He says he had never been to Sweet Briar in the daylight! I can’t wait to see all of you at our 60th reunion — especially Travis Thompson. Penny Fisher Duncklee: Fun June this year. I helped a friend take his annual student trip to a bunch of National Parks. 8 kids: 5 girls and 3 boys, all just finished 9th grade. His school and kids are from Lexington, VA. We all flew into Phoenix and piled into one large van with our camping gear. Drove to Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, past Death Valley and on to Mt. Whitney. We camped a couple of nights at each National Park. We sure do have a beautiful country. Then we drove over to Yosemite, before the fires started! Lucky us. Then we drove down to Disneyland for a fun day, and back to Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, AZ. Really fun 2 weeks. And, my good luck with the weather held out one more time. Whew! Here are just a few of the almost 300 pictures I took. The last picture of all the traffic on the way down to Disneyland shows one reason I do not want to live in California. Of course, now that California is all burning up, I guess that would be another reason I don’t want to live there. Meriwether Hagerty Rumrill: My news is mostly my grandkids

and that’s the best. Attended the last high school graduation of my 3 South Dakota grandsons. They all have full scholarships to college and 2 may go into medicine. In Chris’ yearbook, in the ‘most likely’ dept., it was said about him: “most likely to find a cure for cancer.” WE WISH. My 4 Virginia (Richmond and Fairfax) grandkids are the littlest - sweet, adorable and funny, love music and dance, animals, sports. My 2 New York granddaughters both gave me joyful visits this spring and summer and one is with me at this moment. I took her from the plane to a dance (waltz) and later contra - 4 hrs. of dancing. Have to admit I did not dance every one (I’d driven up from Tidewater, my excuse), but she did and was ecstatic. Love having a relative as nuts about dancing as I am. Gay Hart Gaines: Stanley and I are winging our way home from Sitka, AK, to Seattle tonight and then Seattle to Florida tomorrow. We have had a marvelous trip with our son Ralph and family and some friends and their family. It was a great success on a National Geographic ship, and we all so enjoyed the eagles, orcas, humpbacked whales, seals, puffins, and on and on! I am working hard on the Ron DeSantis race for Florida’s governor as well as Rick Scott for US Senate, to replace Sen. Bill Nelson who is a dinosaur! On Feb. 20, Stanley had a new aortic valve operation and also a stent, at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, which was a huge success! It is the number one heart hospital in America and we were mighty impressed! My “Founders and Us” series at The Society of the Four Arts has been a huge success for the past two years and I was asked to do it again in 2019. Next season we will have four lectures on the “Founding Documents “and I have four outstanding historians and scholars coming: Gordon Wood, Akhil Amar, Jon Meacham and Rick Brookhiser. They are all brilliant and sensational speakers! Love to you wherever this finds you! Trudie Jackson Smither: (ed. Note: this is an email from Judy Welton Sargent) “In reading the newsletter I saw Trudy’s name listed. I guess SBC is unaware of her death. She and I shared a long and close friendship. She was a very caring person and

times this year. They are at Rappahannock Westminster Canterbury, which is near us. All four of our children and their families have been here for weekend visits this summer, Sally’s being the latest. I hope to go to the 60th Reunion and hope many others will too! Ann Pegram Howington: No news really. I didn’t even try to go to the new and returning students tea party. As lucky as usual, I took a beach house and had myriad children in globs. It was fun but . . . shhh . . . I noticed not REALLY liking having very small children around for extended periods. Don’t you think we are excused at our wonderfully long age? That, by the way, is only 2 weeks. I do see Betsy Brawner Pittman pretty much and Nina’s daughter, Mary, is next door down through the woods so I really can’t SEE her sans appointment. A sweetie, though . . . sounds like SBC is going to be OK, a good thing. Do send girls and money, though. I would LOVE to see any of you all coming to Atlanta. Rew Price Carne: Moved from retirement community to condo mid-June. My daughter lives in same building. We can take care of each other if necessary. Health improving. Life is good. Stay safe. Debbie Von Reischach Swan Snyder: Another beautiful summer in Boothbay Harbor, ME. Just returned to Maine from fabulous 2 1/2-week Baltic Cruise on 2-year old Regent Explorer: Denmark, Berlin, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, St. Petersburg (don’t go in the summer; too crowded with cruise ship passengers but wonderful to see), Finland, Sweden and the highlight of 3 days with Norwegian friends in Oslo. Back to Naples mid-October after visits to friends in Williamsburg, VA, and son and family who just moved to Raleigh, NC. Mary Blair Scott Valentine: Our granddaughter, Taylor Redd, headed off to Yale this weekend. She is also the granddaughter of the late Marylew Cooper Redd ‘57. I am laid up with a new hip. Too much running on hockey field and lacrosse and tennis court. Ann Smith Heist: (received from her husband, John): Just wanted to let you know that Ann passed away. She dealt with a very rare lung disease,

Ali Wood Thompson ’59 and husband, Travis

lymphagioleiomyomatosis for over 20 years. Her disease never slowed her down from world travel, though she used oxygen 24/7. She loved her GCA Garden Club and being able to judge shows around the country. She owned a wonderful women’s store for 30 years and enjoyed all the fashion markets. She had such an eye for design. She’s survived by her husband John of Ormond Beach, FL,and a daughter Amanda Grant of Ridgefield, CT, and 4 grandchildren. Judy Sorley Chalmers-Simpson: I have some great SBC news: I just spent a week in Ware Neck, VA, near Tabb’s home, and Tabb, Tricia Coxe and Betsy Seaman spent three days with me there. Pure bliss. I hope to host this class “mini-reunion” every summer the 4 of us, all widowed, spent time reminiscing, sharing, and talking about life “then” and “now,” our children and grandchildren. It was a very positive experience for each of us. Polly Space Dunn: I am doing ok. Still having residual problems

from broken shoulder 1.5 years ago. Golf is not good and painting takes too much impetus. Good news: kids and grands doing great. Am still in our summer home in North Carolina and am enjoying the cool. Discovered Mahjongg last summer and am addicted! Val Stoddard Loring: We moved to the OceanView Retirement Community, Falmouth, ME, in June 2017. With the closing of our Holden, MA, house on July 31 this year, we look forward to more fully taking advantage of all it has to offer. To celebrate my 80th and Steve’s 85th birthdays plus the college graduations of 3 grandsons, we took our family to Jackson Lakes Lodge in Grand Teton National Park where the photo was taken. It was a fabulous place to gather our 3 active families, 18 of us ranging in age from 13 to 85! Susan Taylor Montague-Reese: I have moved to a retirement home: Goodwin House, in Alexandria. I am not a happy camper. My new

fall 2018

dear friend. ou may remember that she came with me to our 2009 SBC Reunion. Elizabeth Johnston Lipscomb: I spent several hours in the Sweet Briar Library during Sweet Work Weeks, helping identify 1950s photos in the archives — a delightful nostalgia trip through our college years. There were a number of alumnae on campus doing much more strenuous work (painting and gardening) than I was willing to attempt. The Lynchburg paper reported this week that an enthusiastic freshman class has just arrived. Lloyd and I continue to enjoy traveling and participating in many activities here at Westminster Canterbury. I’m looking forward to having all our children and grandchildren here in late December to celebrate my 80th birthday. I am also looking forward to our class of 1959 60th reunion at Sweet Briar. I hope that many of us will be able to gather for that. Jini Jones Vail: I have been preparing my “Rochambeau, Washington’s Ideal Lieutenant” book for Audible.com. The process is a blast, if a little more time-consuming that hoped. My daughter, Heather, helped me with the computer “stuff,” and through ACX we put up an ad for a narrator who is fluent in French. Can you believe there were over 100 applicants? Finally chose one from CA. After a few weeks of listening and checking it was finished, and my book is now available on Audible.com. All my fun reading has been on Audible for years. If you like listening to books performed by actors, you will enjoy it. Also preparing to publish: “Summering in Loire Valley: A Decade of Art” and “Cuisine, History and Music.” Will meet with dear SBC buddies, Erna Westwig, Sarah Jane Moore, Mary Davis and Polly Taylor at Sandy Sylvia’s daughter Lisa’s, summer home on Buzzard’s Bay, MA, Sept. 14. We are still kicking, but not jitterbugging! Virginia MacKethan Kitchin: Watching Roger Federer play at the 1,000 level tennis tournament outside Cincinnati, OH. Also saw the Terra Cotta Warriors at the Cincinnati Art Museum where son Cameron is the director. Judy Nevins LeHardy: Ward and I have gotten together with Cay Ramey Weimer and Ben a couple of

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address is 4800 Fillmore Ave. #201, Alexandria, VA 22311. Phone and e-mail have not changed. Nina Thornton Asgeirsson: Right now, I am at our Cape Cod family house in Falmouth. My parents retired here in the 1960s, and my brother, 2 sisters and I have kept it as a family retreat. My brother and I shared the 4th of July week here with 4 of our offspring and 12 of our grandchildren. This week my son and his wife and four girls (aged 11, 8, 7, 4) sailed up from Long Island to Nantucket. Along the way they stopped here to pick up my daughter and son-in-law and their 3 girls (aged 16, 13, 9). So, I have really been enjoying my 7 granddaughters; they sure are all a lot of fun! I love getting all those cousins from the next generation together — an amazing highlight of my fabulous summer. Thanks for keeping us all connected; hope to attend our 60th reunion next year! I’ve attended a few of the Sweet Briar Boston Club gatherings, but I’ve never attended a class reunion. Tabb Thornton Farinholt: Had a wonderful visit with classmates Betsy Duke Seaman and Tricia Coxe Ware with Judy Sorley Simpson, our hostess, when she was visiting again in Ware Neck, VA. Really look forward to our book club’s reconvening in the fall. Hope Mary Ballou will be able to join us. She is bravely recovering from a mishap which resulted in her having to get an elbow replacement. I have purchased a condominium in Richmond but don’t seem to be able to leave my river house for very long. I have managed to confuse myself utterly and probably my descendants with my peripatetic ways. Mary Todd Singh: My husband and I have sold our house and moved to a condo in Kailua. The address is 408 Kailua Road, #7110, Kailua, HI 96734. The driving required to live in a rural area was getting to us. At this location we are able to walk or bus to most desired destinations and visiting family has access to the car as needed. My husband is available to teach more training sessions and will do one next month with the military. I continue to have no significant activities but am trying to settle into a new location. Moving is emotionally difficult.

Kathy Tyler Sheldon: In the last 6 months we seem to have gotten a great deal older, leading us to finally part with our sail boat which we will give to our middle grandson who is on one of the large vessels servicing the oil rigs and so enjoys sailing with us. We had two university graduations, our granddaughter in theater after she was a female Hamlet and worked in an outdoor theater in Toronto this summer. Our eldest grandson in robotic engineering who has already been sent to Norway and Norwich, England, clearing the ocean floor in robotic machines. What a world we live in. We continue on much the same in same place, now enjoying the fruits of John’s garden and the fish and seafood abundantly again around us. Judy Welton Sargent: I am celebrating my 80th birthday all year long! First: I took my family of 6 on safari to Kenya and Tanzania in March over my 10-year-old grandson John Paul’s spring break. We had a fabulous time! Second: My daughters Susan and Catherine had a lovely party for me at the time of my birthday. Third: I flew to New York where Di and I went to Yankees vs. Astros game at the beautiful new Yankee Stadium. It was such fun, and the Yankees won! We also went to the ballet and to “The Band’s Visit”, not to mention dining at fine restaurants, including lunch at Majorelle! Next: daughter Susan and her Beau Regan took me to a Paul Simon Concert! Then, daughter Catherine, husband Tom and grandson John Paul took me to see “Hamilton” in DC. This week Ann Turnbull Lowry and I went to San Antonio to a Lyle Lovett concert. A return to NYC in September for a Yankee vs Red Sox Game, a couple of ballets, theater and fine dining plus an Elbe River Cruise with Di the end of October from Prague to Berlin will conclude the celebrations. So wonderful to be 80, to be well and to do fun things with great friends and family. How fortunate I am! Ali Wood Thompson: In May, Travis and I headed east to have a visit with our daughter in Windham, ME. Then we drove down to Providence and watched our youngest granddaughter graduate from Providence College (1,000 graduates! - but it all went smoothly). We

hopped the train down to N.J. to spend a few nights with Travis’ sister and then flew off to Germany to explore that country for about two weeks. Back to N.J. to attend Travis’ 65th high school reunion and then we were homeward bound. It is always great to get back home though. A few days ago, we headed off to Hana (on Maui) for a “stay vacation” to celebrate our 60th anniversary and had a great time. Just to let you know, we are not affected by the Big Island’s volcano spewing. Only when the wind shifts and sends us “Vog” (like smog). Hurricane Lane missed us on Maui thank heavens but as of today (Sept. 9), we are going to experience Hurricane Olivia. (P.S. Since I am resending this letter: Hurricane Olivia didn’t touch us where we live. I think our 10,000 foot mountain protected us.)

1960

Lura Coleman Wampler 1406 Thomas Rd Wayne, Pa. 19087 lcwampler@comcast.net Jane Tatman Walker: En route home from Florida in April, Frank and I had a lovely stopover visit in Atlanta to see Linda Sims Grady Newmark, Bill and Nina Wilkerson Bugg and Phyz and Ann Crowell Lemmon. In late, July my family surprised me with a most special dinner, complete with a 32-page tabloid called The Gran Gazette, featuring articles each family member and some friends submitted focusing on my life and shared experiences. Turning 80 did not seem so bad. With 18 out of 19 family members present, it was a wonderful and fun evening with many surprises. Norma Patteson Mills: Olan and I have just returned from spending most of the summer at our house at DeBordieu Beach on the coast in South Carolina. We enjoyed many family members rotating through but had some lazy days too. Becky Towill McNair: My current hobby is keeping up with my grandchildren. Hard to believe that four of them are experiencing college life (University of Texas, University of Georgia, and W&L). I want so

much for them to have the positive experience and lasting memories I treasure. The other four are not far behind. Am also enjoying memories of our Christmas trip last year to Peru. Hope to see Teddy and Liz someday soon, as they have retired to the same Savannah community as my sister. Winkie Wimbish Chalfant: Ed and I have returned to Ponte Vedra Beach following a lovely July in Maine. We were fortunate in March to enjoy a visit from President Woo and learn of the exciting plans for Sweet Briar’s future. Carolyn Gough Harding: I don’t have much news: same home, same husband, no additions to the family. We traveled to Toronto to visit friends, and I thought about Pat and wished she were there to visit also. We are looking forward to a Mediterranean cruise at the end of September. Carol Barnard Ottenberg: We have been in Maine for much of the summer, with family members coming and going. Highlights of our trip from Rochester, N.Y., where I had a jigsaw puzzle meeting, explorations of the Erie Canal and catching “West Side Story” at Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown. Anne Rienecke Clark: I helped Gwen Speel Kaplan celebrate her 80th in Richmond last February. I flew up from Florida, and my daughter (who has been good friends for years with Gwen’s daughter) and her husband flew down from New York City. Gwen had all her family there too. Then, to reciprocate, Gwen and Ellie came up to NYC, and we “girls” celebrated mine in the big city. We always joke that Gwen is two months older; so at 80 I really rubbed it in! Rhett Ball Thagard: Greetings from Chautauqua, in beautiful upstate New York. Next, lovely Hudson River Valley to celebrate with West Point grandson as he receives his senior class ring. Then dinner in the city with NYU grandson. Finally, back to Sweet Home Alabama. Barbara Murphy Hale: We just had our first gathering in 18 years of all children at one time at Virginia Beach. Much fun. Caring for the farm is becoming very challenging, but we still love living in the Maryland marsh country.

Sandy Schuhmacher Lawrence: Few in our class may remember me because I transferred to University of Texas after our sophomore year. I am living in Southlake, TX, now. Husband has dementia, but we’ll celebrate our 55th anniversary in October, and our three children and five grandchildren and pets are the joys of our lives. Gwen Speel Kaplan: This is the sixth year that our Richmond-area alumnae have gotten together in May to celebrate SBC ’60. Mickey Oliveri Svoboda hosted us for a lovely lunch at the Country Club of Virginia. No one would guess that some of us have already celebrated, or will soon celebrate, 80th birthdays! Teddy Hill and Liz Few Penfield: We are still spending winters at The Marshes, a retirement community on Skidaway Island, which is a few miles from Savannah, and summers in Carbondale, CO, in a homesteader’s log cabin Liz and her husband bought and resurrected 40 or so years ago. Another favorite place of ours is New York City; last year we were lucky enough to spend some time there with classmates Grace Suttle, Norris Smith, and Kadri Niider. The only thing missing these days is an animal friend, dog or cat,

were we simply “flowers fair?” I think Shakespeare would say that because the Sweet Briar rose blossom is consumed by the value of its sweet apple fragrance, so were we as blossoming graduates consumed with our own unique value. Isabel Ware Burch: I celebrated my 80th birthday in Philadelphia with all of my children and grandchildren. That same weekend my grandson, Owen, graduated from the George School and is going to the George Washington University School of International Affairs this fall. In July, I spent almost two weeks in Austin, Texas, where I was a deputy to General Convention of the Episcopal Church. It was an amazing experience. In August, I enjoyed visits from children and grandchildren. My son, Charlie Hall, is still enjoying touring with his band, the War on Drugs. They won a Grammy in January for Best Rock Album of the Year. Patti Powell Pusey: Our Richmond and close-by classmates again enjoyed our annual get-together. Mickey Oliveri Svoboda treated us to appetizers at her home and then lunch at the Country Club of Virginia. Several of us attended the recent beautiful memorial service for Anita Perrin Towell’s husband. It’s a true blessing to share all stages of life with our classmates. Linda Sims Grady Newmark: In April Frank and Jane Tatman Walker stopped in Atlanta on their way home to Indianapolis from their winter home in Sarasota. Nina Wilkerson Bugg and Bill, Ann Crowell Lemmon and Phyz, and I had a delightful weekend visit with them. Ann and Phyz hosted a wonderful dinner for us all. All hope to make it to SBC in 2020 for our 60th. Barbara Beam Denison: Best to all from Beam & George. Turning 80 has been a blast so far — still painting, golfing, swimming, and traveling; so all is well Gale Walker Young: Most recently I am in the middle of reading of classmate Elizabeth Meade Howard’s Aging Famously. Just checking in here to recommend it, highly. It’s engaging to pair readings — try Bp. Spong with Carol Channing, or Laurent de Brunhoff with Gordon Parks. Sparks will fly, connections made, and the power of

role-models enhanced, this reader promises! Melissa Meyers Gibbs: Still going strong — 55 years in the same apartment in New York — last year I celebrated my 80th on a Silversea cruise to Galapagos. I just returned from another Silversea cruise to Alaska. I keep busy by volunteering at Mount Sinai (Roosevelt) West, which I have done for over 30 years. We attend the opera (Met), ballet (American Ballet Theater), and onand off-Broadway theater. Lucy Martin Gianino: Busy, busy, busy what with six grandchildren and their parents coming and going from our beach home on Fire Island this summer. I continue my acting career, having shot a Law and Order Special Victims Unit segment a few months ago and have been doing other theatrical projects in the city. I have taken on a huge job as co-president of my beloved nonprofit NYC-Parents-in-Action organization. We work with 30 to 40 independent schools in the city to provide parenting education on everything from preschool concerns, social media, drugs, alcohol and the second stage of sending children off to college! Of course, my heart is always with SBC and our class. 1960 was and is the best class ever. Thank you everyone for your continued responses and good humor. Thanks to Carolyn King Ratcliffe, we learned of the death of Anita Perrin Towell’s husband, Richard, in mid-August. We send Anita our love and prayers of comfort. Lura Coleman Wampler: I feel so fortunate to be healthy and able to keep up with the care of the animals here on the farm as well as the maintenance of the property. The best times are when some or all of our seven grandchildren come to visit! I sit on numerous committees at my church, garden club, and the Shipley School. I also do a fair amount of judging of horticulture and photography. In a weak moment I agreed to have our farm on a garden tour next spring; so this will require a lot of preparation. Thank you all who responded to my request for news; keeping in touch stirs up wonderful old memories and lets us make new connections! fall 2018

Richmond’s Class of ‘60 met for lunch in May, beginning at Mickey Svoboda’s house and then to lunch across the street at the Country Club. Not bad for 80-year-olds, or almost so. Front row: Jane Ellis Covington, Micki Oliveri Svoboda, Anita Perrin Towell. Second row: Gwen Speel Kaplan, Carolyn King Ratcliffe, Grace Suttle, Isabel Ware Burch. Back row: Susan Hendricks Slayman, Ginger Newman Blanchard, Patti Powell Pusey, Mary Ellen Dohs Acey

unless you count the mice in the cabin and very friendly raccoons at The Marshes. Nancy Corson Gibbes: A favorite was a trip to Portugal and Spain staying in the posados and paradores. Finding the pension that I lived in for a month in Sevilla was a full circle. Lee Cullum: Currently I host a program of interviews with CEOs on the PBS affiliate in North Texas. The one who’s gotten the greatest response in recent months is Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks who also appears on Shark Tank on ABC. Watch out for him, he may run for president. Heidi Wood Huddleston: I continue to divide time between Kentucky and my home in Hilton Head, S.C. I was fortunate to have all three girls and all grands visit me this summer. So it was back-to-back guests, which I loved. The biggest news is that I will be a great-grandmother in a couple of months! My grandson, who just got his master’s in divinity, and his wife who got her bachelor’s in biblical studies/counseling at the same time, are proud parents-to-be. Granddaughter Alexandra and husband live in Knoxville, where she is a labor and delivery nurse. And Sophia, my other granddaughter, just returned with Kristina, my youngest daughter, from their yearly visit back to Vienna and a trip to northern Italy. Sophia just started high school! I plan to accompany them next summer — still mulling over where to go. Elizabeth Meade Howard: Enjoying peddling my books near and not so far…. En route, happy to run into some friendly Sweet Briar classmates. Margo Sauer Meyer: I recently discovered that the Sweet Briar rose is growing along with a mass of other “wild stuff ” beside the path leading to the beach of our summer home. I photographed the blossom with its petals and dark green leaves that when gently rubbed, give off a sweet apple-like aroma. While researching, I was reminded of Shakespeare’s love for the Sweet Briar rose as opposed to other wild roses that look but don’t have any aroma at all. (Sonnet #54). Making the assumption, then, that as graduates of SBC, we are all Sweet Briar roses (metaphorically, of course), my next question would be,

1962

sbc.edu

Parry Ellice Adam 908-782-3754 33 Pleasant Run Rd. Flemington, N.J. 08822 peaba@comcast.net

Laura Connerat Lawton: The news from Savannah is that Chloe Fort is moving back to Nashville after a number of years in her attractive townhouse in the historic district. Chloe was always available for lunch or other activities, and as the great cook she has always been, she attracted lots of people to her house for supper. Chloe has always been a supporter of the arts and was a benefit to our local Telfair Art Museum. She will be missed by all her Savannah friends who are counting on her return visits. On my visits to Charlottesville to see my daughter, I always enjoy seeing Fran Oliver Palmer and Ginger Borah Meislahn, who conveniently live on the same campus at Westminster Canterbury. Ginger is often traveling somewhere with attractive husband Skip Meislahn, and Fran always has a place for me in her extra bedroom. Fran has introduced me to pickleball, but I explained I didn’t want to ruin my tennis game. She still wins all the points at tennis; so it didn’t hurt her game at all. I get to see Ann Ritchey Baruch, who lives across the river on Spring Island, but not enough. She disappears when the weather gets too hot down here in Georgia and South Carolina, but I’ll see her in the fall. Mary Jane Schroder Oliver Hubbard: Just got back with James from our August at Chautauqua. A great time: I was asked to sing in the “Pie Jesu” solo in the Faure Requiem with the choir/orchestra, performing in the newly renovated amphitheater. Went great! Spent part of May trekking in Scotland, completing St. Cuthbert’s Way with my same group who walked the English Way of the Camino des Santiago through Galatia two falls ago. Prior to heading for Chautauqua, James and I were part of a choir serving a choir residency at the Cathedral of Gloucester, England, for a week. A great trip! Kids and grandkids are all terrific. Son Jasper is a great teacher with “teacher of the year” awards; Shelley, my SBC

daughter-in-law, is a very super pharmaceutical rep.; grandson Loren will become a teenager in September and is a terrific soccer and lacrosse player; his sister, Emily Hamilton, is a stellar swimmer and lacrosse whiz AND an artist par excellence. James’ seven grands are, in fact, quite GRAND, too. James once again failed retirement as he has been called to the Episcopal church in Lexington, VA, a church that may be known by many of our classmates. At its founding it was named Grace Church, but was renamed “Robert E. Lee” shortly afterward. With the current political turmoils through the country, the parish changed the name back to Grace Church. The church has gone through an upheaval over this, and the difficulties resulted in James being called as interim rector. He is very gifted in this sort of work so has hopes for the best. It does mean the back and forth trip over the mountain on Route 60 and lots of hard work, but we will pray that all goes well. Also, in October, I had a very successful art showing that filled the Academy Center (Lynchburg) main gallery. Do stay tuned for all the amazing progress as it appears from campus. We all should be very proud and grateful. - Parry

1963

Allie Stemmons Simon 3701 Guadalajara Ct. Irving, Texas 75062 asimontc@outlook.com Greetings, Ladies of ’63! Our 55th Reunion is history and what a grand time it was! Sixteen of us were there, plus two husbands, and a couple of others who came for a day! Pictures are posted online, including a couple of McNair and me accepting three silver bowls for our class’s 43 percent giving percentage (Yes!), and our over $1 million in gifts to Sweet Briar during fiscal year 20172018! Congratulations and thanks to all – and let’s keep it up! The Class of 1963 is not done!! After that great news I must move on to some sad news. The daughter of Carol Crowley Karm has notified Sweet Briar of the death of her mother on June 29, 2018. And while I was still digest-

ing that came an email from Ginger Mitchell that Cynthia Hooten Magowan died on August 23 from a brain aneurysm – suddenly and unexpectedly. Our sympathy goes out to the families of both. And two of our dear classmates have lost their husbands of many years. On April 16, Jane Yardley Amos’s husband, John, had an unexpected heart attack and died at their kitchen table. Strong woman that she is, Jane fired up her RV and came on to Reunion, picking up four classmates along the way: Nancy Dixon Brown, Susan Scott Robinette, Lucy Otis Anderson, and Betsy Parker McColl. According to Nancy, they had a blast! On July 15, Tom Holmes, husband of Margaret Millender Holmes, also died of a heart attack. Tom had suffered from Parkinson’s for many years and Maggie had patiently cared for him. Our bereft classmates are in our thoughts and prayers. Now to happier things – practically every note I received was a celebration of our Reunion or regret at being unable to attend. It appears 55th college reunions conflict with high school graduations of grandchildren! Or in one case, the birth of a first grandson, Jack Fontaine Keown to Stevie Fontaine Keown and Mark. Everyone seemed to be traveling the rest of this summer – the Keowns were off for a trip to England, Scotland, and Ireland on a small ship stopping at out-of-theway ports and islands and ending up in Edinburgh. Nancy Dixon Brown followed up her RV adventure with an Alaska cruise and a trip to Arizona helping her nephew’s family get settled after moving from Seattle. Ginger Cates Mitchell and Ed took four grandchildren on their own Alaskan adventure, and according to Ginger, “we hope it was as memorable for them as it was for us!” In the fall Ginger and Ed were planning a barge trip through the Champagne area of France. Jean Meyer Aloe reports that she just got back from 10 days in Poland, attending a poetry writing workshop held in a castle in the countryside. Her room was in the “tower” up an old curved stone staircase. Her 12-year-old grandson just spent two weeks in a gifted program at UVa. Sue Jones Cansler and Chuck were

among those who missed our Reunion due to a graduation. Two of their three grandchildren are now in college, Southern Methodist University and Louisiana State University, and the third is “looking at” Sweet Briar (fingers crossed). They are off to spend three weeks at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York, looking forward to great programs and cooler weather! Jane Goodridge, who drove over from Richmond on our Reunion on Saturday, is now going to visit an old friend in Mission Viejo, CA. Betty Stanly Cates was lavish in her praise of Reunion and of President Woo. Betty is off to North Carolina for her brother’s 80th birthday. Both Betsy Parker McColl and McNair Curry Maxwell sent thanks and congratulations to our classmates for prize-winning generosity to the Sweet Briar Fund. McNair particularly worked very hard on the fundraising. Afterward she and Bob went to a cousin’s birthday in South Carolina, then to stay at a famous old inn and a log cabin in a tree farm in North Carolina. Finally, they spent the last week of August with children and grandchildren on the coast of Oregon. Keitt Matheson Wood and Frank (one of the brave husbands who came to Reunion) had a good visit with Anne Leavell Reynolds and Herbert in Louisville before their trip to Sweet Briar and afterward visited them again at their home in Hershey, PA. Then the Woods continued to Colorado for what is becoming an annual visit with Heinz and me, bringing along their daughter, Helen, who lives in Denver. They also visited son Gordon and his family in Kansas City, where their two grandsons are freshmen in college and high school, respectively. A few of us are still working and refusing to slow down. Irene Pschorr Belknap writes, “I continue to work on my paintings, having done many series. Google “Irene Belknap” and check out my website if you are interested. We adore living just outside of San Francisco. We look forward to the next “Culture Vulture” season and attend many concerts, operas and theatre.” Pat Calkins Wilder has had a busy season with a few weeks photographing in Portugal, showing work

MLHA with sons 40 years apart

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Peggy Aurand 26387 Oak Plain Drive Santa Clarita, Calif. 91321 pegzaloha@yahoo.com Nancy Banfield Feher and husband Ted enjoyed a beautiful cruise on the Adriatic Sea and then visited Lake Como. Ginny Debuys relays that her husband Jerry’s golfing adventures take her places where, more often than not, she has a classmate. This past spring, they went to Mountain Lakes in Lake Wales, FL. Allison Jennings McCance is living there. Always caring Ginny, with the help of Allison’s caregivers, arranged to have tea with her. Even though Allison won’t remember the visit, they connected while Ginny was there and had a good time. Ginny played the video of Claire Hughes Knapp and the class singing “Fever” for her, and later sent a copy. It is likely that Ginny and Jerry will return this coming spring, and they’ll repeat the visit. This fall they go to Sea Island, where Ginny hopes to see Nancy Hall Green. This past summer she enjoyed a few days at Sweet Work Weeks at Sweet Briar, eating very well as the food is delicious now. After that, Jerry joined her for a tour of Hot Springs, VA (the Homestead), and White Sulphur Springs near Lewisburg, W.Va., where they took the Greenbrier Bunker tour. While there, they went to a state fair, and Ginny showed Jerry where she went to Camp Allegheny. Further travel took them to Asheville, N.C., where they toured the Biltmore and visited her sister-in-law. They stopped in Brevard, N.C., where Ginny was able to see Mibs Sebring Raney and Bev. A stop in Savannah, GA, was

Ginny DeBuys ’64 visits Allison Jennings McCance ‘64

where they enjoyed the best food. Finally, they came to rest at home. She admits missing the mountains but very much enjoyed being in the “Virginias.” Mary Green Borg is still teaching a full load of American history and Colorado history, how to be a secondary social studies teacher, and mentoring her department’s student teachers at UNC. As if that weren’t enough, she teaches a Writing Your Life class at the Greeley Senior Center. She is blessed with five terrific sons, their wonderful spouses/ girlfriends and 12 grands. The first grandchild is off to college this fall. One of her kids just reminded her that pretty soon she will have been a widow longer than she was married! Life for Mary is weird, often unexpected, but she has found it always profoundly interesting, challenging at times, and mostly absolutely delightful and fun. Hedi Haug White reports that she has finally retired — to the extent one ever retires from a family business. She and Tom are both well and looking forward to another ski winter. She plans to go to our 55th!! and is looking forward to it! Yes! Martha “Tuck” Mattern Harvey says that she and Ralph continue to spend six months each in Texas and Virginia. This year, they are leaving Virginia a little earlier than usual so

she can have her right knee replaced in Texas. She and Ralph both think all they do is go to doctors and funerals. Says Martha: “This old age stuff is not fun!” Lynne Smith Crow is still traveling. Last fall she went to Bangkok and Myanmar. She says that she liked Bangkok but that Myanmar, although interesting, was not her favorite place. This past spring, she did a cruise in the Baltic. Luckily, every day was beautiful. She stepped off the plane in Newark, and it started to rain! This past summer she rented a house on the Cape (Chatham) with her two married children, their spouses, and three grandchildren, with one on the way. She has a lot of family there, too. She has another trip scheduled for October. Because of her traveling habit, Lynne is still working! Your scribe, Peggy Aurand, is enjoying running her vacation rental in Honolulu. Fortunately, despite three days of ominous coverage on the Weather Channel, Oahu dodged a bullet, remaining unscathed from Hurricane Lane. She and some California friends planned to head to Hawaii at the end of September for a fun stay. In August, she enjoyed a wonderful visit from her younger son, Peter, from Taiwan.

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at seven art shows around the East Coast, visiting family in Seattle and other family visiting from England, and “hours and hours of watering the gardens just to keep them going between rare rain events.” Anne Funkhouser Strite-Kurz sends news that she and Bill are moving to Easton, MD, in November to be closer to their children. Anne will not be retiring since she is returning to the region where she started her embroidery-teaching career but looks forward to cutting back her schedule and doing fewer long-distance seminars. Karen Gill Meyer and Jim continue to enjoy their work as financial consultants in Phoenix and have taken on two partners who allow them the luxury of flexible time. They attend quarterly meetings at Kansas University, where Jim is on the Chancellor’s Athletic Board. A last-minute note from Katharine Bradford Collins says she spent a lot time out in the woods enjoying Wyoming summer. Sarah Hitch Hill and Harvey visited her in late July, and they had a wonderful time hiking and catching up. Heinz and I (Allie Stemmons Simon) spent the summer on our mountaintop in Snowmass Village, CO, and feeling very sorry for our friends who were frying in Texas. I just attended (by phone) my last Sweet Briar board meeting. It has been a privilege to work with this extraordinary group of people who have literally resurrected our College. I am proud of what has been accomplished and look forward to a great future. Best to you all - Allie

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sbc.edu

Sally Hubbard 47 Parsons Green Circle Sewanee, Tenn. 37375 sally@hubbard.net

Eugenia Caldwell and husband Peter are enjoying a cool, sunny San Francisco summer, marred sometimes by summer winds and fog! Classmates are so welcome to visit. Their big news is that they’re going on a birding trip to Madagascar for the month of November. Eighty percent of the flora and fauna are endemic, and they’re looking forward to the 20 species of lemur as much as the birds. Melinda Musgrove Chapman is so glad that our 50th reunion did not turn out to be our last. She turned 75 on Mothers’ Day and is starting her fourth quarter! Her family is scattered all over the country. Her son and his wife and her oldest daughter are in Dallas. Her oldest grandson is out of college and working in San Diego. His sisters are both college seniors, one in Boston and one in Auburn. Their younger brother is a freshman at King’s College in NYC. Melinda’s youngest daughter is in Birmingham; her college student is at Appalachian State in Boone N.C.; her daughter, the youngest grandchild, is in 10th grade. Melinda loves Face Time. She is still selling houses and has too much energy to retire. See you in 2020! Eileen Stroud Clark says all is well with her family. They live in Rehoboth, DE, nine months of the year and Palm Springs, CA, the rest. Their three children are married, and they have 12 grandchildren. After 40 years of working in IT and volunteering, she is now taking it easy. She hopes to see Mel Freese Cota at the end of August. Foy Roberson Cooley is traveling from Montana to Utah and back to New Jersey soon and hopes to see Mel when she visits Connecticut in September. Mel Freese Cota celebrated her 75th birthday with a grand family reunion. She has six grandchildren and the oldest is 17. Daughter Vicky and family live in Mexico City and spend the summers in Santander, Spain; Vicky’s daughter just celebrated her 15th birthday. Memo lives with Mel

and Alberto and will care for his father while Mel travels with son Beto and his daughters for a visit at their home in Connecticut in September. After 50 years in the same house, Alice Foster Ficken moved to a nearby cluster-home neighborhood. She loves the house and has wonderful friends in the neighborhood, and her yard is completely taken care of by the HOA. She hopes to get together with suitemates Elvira McMillan Mannelly, Libba Hanger Luther, and Aline Rex McEvoy in the fall in the N.C. mountains. Babette Fraser Hale and her 97-year-old husband, Leon, have recently traveled to NYC and across Texas catching up with grandchildren and far-flung relatives. Her novel manuscript has been submitted to publishers by her agent, and she is working on a story collection. She’s busy also with fundraising for Winedale and with voter turnout and her newspaper column. Leon and Babette continue to write about their life experiences and connections, and recast memory into novel, interesting shapes. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter. Babette is in touch with Marianne Micros, who has written at least five books, the latest of which is a fascinating story collection, EYE, which came out in July. Bunny Sutton Healy says, “Patience is a virtue” — and she’s delighted to see first grandchild Eliza in Denver every couple of months. Bunny is healthy, energetic, and busier than when she was working. Sally McCrady Hubbard is on a pink cloud of gratitude for the opportunity to walk 110 miles of the Camino de Santiago with daughter Anna, 52, of San Francisco. She had drive-by visits recently with son Hayne and Katie as they took their daughter Margaret to begin college at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. She’s caring for her brother Waring McCrady for the next few weeks as he recovers from foot surgery. Incidentally, Waring went to France with Sweet Briar in 1958 so is considered an SBC alumnus. After 30 years in Florida, Libba Hanger Luther and husband Steve are happily settled in Trilogy, a 55-and-over community in Denver, N.C., near 6 of their 10 grandchildren, who live nearby on Lake Norman. The lake has 500 miles of

The Cota family celebrates Mel’s 75th birthday! Beto and family are on the left; Vicky and family on the right, with Memo and Mel’s brother Dick and wife, Sigrid. Queretaro, Aug. 13, 2018

shoreline and is just north of Charlotte. They’ve downsized but have a guest room and invite us all to visit. She says, “Happy 75th Birthday to one and all.” Nancy MacMeekin is enjoying retirement with family, friends, church, and volunteer work. She travels with Vicky Thoma Barrette to various places, including a recent “Uncruise Adventure” on the Columbia and Snake rivers in the Pacific Northwest. Mary K. Lee McDonald’s work as our Class Fund Agent was spectacularly successful; she and her crew enjoyed personal contact with many classmates and inspired a class-giving percentage of 39.8% and total contributions of $106,980. Mary K. still helps clients with real estate needs. She does house and 20-yearold landscaping maintenance; she’s helping sell John’s HUGE model railroad collection and traveling. Dasha “Daria” Obolensky Morgan: Daria has enjoyed local SBC club get-togethers and would love to hear from classmates. Her biggest interests are gardening, music, and tennis, but she also writes for and edits family publications, weekly Tribune newspapers, and her nephew’s monthly magazine, Capital at Play. With her brother she is re-publishing her grandfather Alexis Obolensky’s memoirs, updated with photos and other writings. From this project she has learned details of her mother’s escape as a baby from Russia during the Revolution. She and

local cousins recently celebrated the refurbishing and placement of the plane her uncle Bob Morgan piloted, the Memphis Belle, at the Air Force Museum in Dayton. Laura Haskell Phinizy continues caring for Stewart, who has Alzheimer’s, and once again enjoyed all the family at their Kanuga cottage in August. Carol Reifsnyder Rhoads announces the sale of their Colorado house and purchase of a home right off the Blue Ridge Parkway between Boone and Blowing Rock. They are having fun exploring this part of N.C. They had a great reunion at Kill Devil Hills in August with their three kids and their families. She’s glad to return to the East Coast closer to their daughter. After breast cancer treatment in 2017, Saralyn McAfee Smith’s thin straight hair grew in thick and curly. She and Hamp are doing okay. Older granddaughter Sierra lives with them; she is in her second semester of college and does deskwork at a local motel after classes. Younger granddaughter Cheyenne just entered middle school. Daughter Laura is the sales manager and fundraiser for the Boot Hill Museum and organized a revival involving more than 15 churches this summer. After 4 decades, Chris Kilcullen Thurlow and Steve have moved from Greenwich, CT, to Grand Harbor in Vero Beach, FL, for golf, biking, and beaching. Their six grandmonsters are still in Connecticut; so they spent

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Susan Sudduth Dodson Hiller 4811 Garrison Rd. Little Rock, Ariz. 72223 ssdh22@yahoo.com Congratulations to the Sweet Briar Board of Directors for their wisdom in selecting our classmate Keenan Colton Kelsey to become a member! We know well that she will be excellent as she serves in this position. She writes that she attended her first Board meeting in August and says that she “is so pleased” and “in awe” to be on the Board. While at SBC, she saw Jane Nelson, who was there doing Sweet Work Weeks work. Since Makanah Dunham Morris came over for lunch on Sunday, they had a mini-reunion! Keenan also keeps busy with periodic preaching, involvement with kids and grandkids, 12-step work, and political campaigning and fundraising. In other words, she “is finally enjoying retirement!” Speaking of Jane Nelson … she says that retirement continues to be very busy, as she spends time between Richmond and her home in Culpeper. Anne Ward Stern, her sister Dearing Ward Johns ’63, and Dearing’s husband, Harry, had a lovely visit with Jane when they came to Culpeper for lunch in July, when Anne was visiting Dearing in Charlottesville. Jane is looking forward to seeing roommates Keenan, Penn Willits Fullerton, and Susan Sudduth Hiller in September for their annual gathering and also plans to see Randi Miles Long and husband Herb on the same trip. As Keenan noted, Jane was at SBC for Sweet Work Weeks. Also, she continues to enjoy her niece, nephew, and their families. Penn Willits Fullerton sent her news from the deck of their cabin on the Boulder River in Montana, where they go to fly fishing every

summer. “Golden days shared with family.” She says that she and her husband, George, are blessed with good health and family nearby. She agrees that it will be wonderful to be with the three SBC roommates in Ashland, OR, this fall. Penn enjoys teaching creative writing in her local elementary school. “Life is full and happy.” Anne Ward Stern writes that she still lives in Cincinnati with Ed, her husband of 50 years. He has some challenging health issues but continues to direct plays around the country. She is enjoying retirement (Is there a theme here?), loving the time she spends with family and friends, volunteering at a drug and alcohol treatment center, and riding her horse, Dickens. In addition to the visit with Jane Nelson, she also caught up with Bunny [aka Bonnie] Cord and Nel Wheatly Turner. Bunny lives in Houston and was visiting family in Cincinnati. They chatted with Nel in Virginia via phone. “It is such a blessing that our SBC friendships are a continual source of joy and support!” [Amen!] Makanah Dunham Morris and husband Bob celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary at Chautauqua, along with Betty Booker Morris, Bob’s brother Dabney, and Susie Helm, and her husband, Nelson. The programs while they were there focused on “how ‘American identity’ needs to stretch and evolve to genuinely include diversity in new ways.” Later in July they had a wonderful trip to England and Scotland with the Jefferson Choral Society. (Bob is a member.) They sang in several cathedrals in Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and also a Benedictine Abbey. “Very grateful.” Mary Ann Farmer Calhoun: “I guess Tom and I are the proudest grandparents after attending our oldest grandson Miller Farley’s graduation from St. Christopher’s in Richmond. With honors and soccer awards, he is off to Virginia Tech in the fall!” Her roommate Jane Strickler has a granddaughter at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. She is still enjoying her dance and tennis and spends many weekends with friend Bill Word in Highlands, N.C. Mary Ann and Tom enjoyed a family (all 16 of them!!) beach trip on Tybee Island. They also have planned in August a

riverboat cruise into Puget Sound, around the San Juan Islands, and to Victoria, B.C. Pam Jones Brown and her husband, Joe, celebrated 52 years of marriage in August! He still practices law full time, and Pam has her Stoneprints Jewelry business and enjoys sharing with many collectors and clients. In that pursuit, she loves working with natural gemstones and ancient amulets collected from her travels. She sells privately from her studio and trunk shows. “We are blessed with four sons, five grands, and now a great-grandson! My love to all of our classmates!” Susie Moseley Helm and her husband, Nelson, spent the summer at their wonderful place at Chautauqua, N.Y. Son Pen was with them for a bit, and all is well with Ted and Steph in Somerville. She truly enjoyed seeing Makanah Dunham Morriss, Betty Booker Morriss, and Marcy Fisher at Chautauqua this summer. Barbara D. Van Cleve stays very busy visiting her grown children and their families in Seattle, Tulsa, and central Illinois. Her oldest and family live nearer to her, in Greensboro, N.C. She took her daughter and granddaughter to Paris in May and will travel to Spain in the fall. It is easy to see why her friends in High Point tease her that she is never home. “They might be right, but life is good, and there’s so much to learn and celebrate.” Sally Thomas Hoffman and her husband, Paul, live near Seattle on five wooded acres in Snohomish, near a large equestrian park, where they see many animals — deer, raccoons, coyotes, bobcats, bears, eagles, herons, ravens, hawks, and owls. Sally has been retired for more than 20 years from a career as an engineer in electronics and medical devices. Her husband worked at Boeing. She enjoys the Seattle chapter of the American Sewing Guild as well as her big, fenced vegetable garden. Her battery-operated chain saw is kept busy as she attempts to “neaten up” the woods. She especially likes the lily of the valley, trillium, and others that grow there. They travel to visit their nieces and nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews, who live all over the country and Brazil. Traveling widely, they have been to Mexico,

Brazil, Argentina, Thailand, China, Canada, Hawaii, and Australia. Future plans include Hungary, where Paul’s father lived, and to Prague, perhaps also France and Portugal. Dianna Rankin reports that she now happily lives in Florida, having moved there six years ago. Her oldest son and his family live nearby. All five children are doing well: oldest daughter is an attorney, married with two children, living in Toronto; second daughter is a teacher/librarian/ writer, married with three children, living in Wisconsin; oldest son is in tech sales, married with one child; youngest daughter is a tech guru, unmarried, living in lovely Los Gatos, CA; and youngest son, unmarried, lives and works in Wisconsin, where he graduated from the university. She attended the Kentucky Derby this past May and got to see close up the winner, Justify, who went on to win the Triple Crown. It was her first Derby and number one on her bucket list. While in the area, she also visited Thoroughbred horse farms in Lexington and the impressive Kentucky Horse Park. Randi Miles Long says that she feels so fortunate to have Penn Mullin Fullerton and Keenan Colton Kelsey nearby. Through them, she gets to keep up with Jane Nelson and Susan Sudduth Hiller. “Time marches on — grandchildren are getting older” (one graduated this year from George Washington and another will be a sophomore next year, studying engineering). There are still two younger ones. Randi enjoys gardening, birding, volunteering (in community and local Presbyterian church), and traveling. Being part of an interfaith group of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish women is one of the most meaningful things she is currently involved in. This is Susan Sudduth Hiller, now telling my story. I have truly enjoyed acting as class secretary and gathering these accounts. While assembling and entering them, I have felt Ms. Ethel Rammage over my shoulder, making sure that my grammar and punctuation are correct. (If you find any errors, please don’t tell me!) Chuck and I are also enjoying our retirement years. He is involved in many activities. I continue to be especially focused on my triple efforts as a grief counselor, lay

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much of the summer there, and also traveled to Niagara Falls and Banff for golf and over-eating with friends. For their 50th anniversary, they plan to take the whole family — kids, spouses, and grands — rafting through the Grand Canyon. Health is good and life is full of blessings.

chaplain, and Hospice volunteer. I was truly humbled by being named Volunteer of the Year for Arkansas Hospice and have now been asked to join their board. Also, I am working in a number of capacities with St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church. Even though still heavy-of-heart over the passing of our precious 16.5-yearold Cardigan Corgi Finian in October, we are blessed to have sweet puppy Drea (short for Andreas, Welsh for Andrew), who came from the same kennel. My daughter is still amazingly busy being an attorney, mom to dear Katie, Andrew, and Ethan, wife, gardener, skier (hmm… where did she get that interest?), traveler, etc. etc. I am so proud of her. I do thank each one of you who sent me your wonderful information. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting a bit caught up in your lives.

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Stephanie Lucas Harrison 5458 Lynbrook Drive Houston, Texas 77077 sharrison@coatsrose.com

Gail Robins O’Quin: “We’re back from Alaska and still cannot get back in the grind. We had a grand trip; I had no idea of the majesty of the state. We did hear a presentation on the Iditarod Race. Back in the 70s, I had a plea from an SBC graduate (several years ahead of us) for money to support her poodles in the race; I sent her $50 that we did not have, struggling with family, school tuition, etc. I finally found out that there was a team of poodles that actually finished the race, but the head musher was a man. Had to have been the same team. One of the presenters did assure me that the poodles died because their coats froze; I didn’t sleep for two nights, sure that I had killed poodles, but she was obviously just pulling my leg! Does anyone remember any of the story of an SBC graduate being involved with this race with poodles? We’re off to Costa Rica in November; Bill and I decided that we’d better get in all the traveling that we can while we’re still able!” Pat Neithold Hertzberg: “Mike and I have done a lot of celebrating this summer: For the big 50th anniversary, we were in the mountains in

Susan Tucker ’67 (center), honorary chairman of the Forward Arts Fashion Show Luncheon in Atlanta with co-chair Duvall Fuqua (left) and co-chair Aimee Chubb

southern Spain with Diana Cassidy Rich ’69 and husband Sandy. Celebrated our nephew’s high school graduation in Niagara Falls. Relaxed in North Topsail Beach, N.C., where Mike and my brother commiserated their adjoining birthdays. In Florida for seven months, starting in December. Have seen Pat Sadtler Baxter and Maria Wigglesworth Hemmings there.” Karen Schwabenton Shipper: “Reporting from the Colorado High Plains, where we haven’t viewed Pikes Peak all summer because of smoke from wildfires out West, but not nearby. I am delighted with last year’s hip replacement and the fact that otherwise I am not arthritic. Getting back to riding my horses, gardening, and chores without pain was wonderful. Alas, I am currently healing nicely from stable pelvic fractures from falling from my very ‘Irish’ Connemara. The local hospital said I was in great shape for a ‘horse injury.’ Meanwhile, husband John cares for my two horses and our persnickety barn cat.” Carroll Randolph Barr: “All is well with the Barr family. Spending summer in Michigan is our usual M.O., and we do love it, though we are always happy to go back to Virginia, our home on Lake Latane, our friends, UVa athletics, and everything that happens in Virginia. The children and grandchildren plus lots of cousins, nieces, and nephews, and their friends were here for two weeks in July; our house on the lake with boat and other water toys was camp

headquarters! We loved it, and when they left, I got out my blower and blew the sand out of the house. Hesitate to say that our health is good … Mike still struggling with his knee … the small percentage of people whose knee-replacement surgery has not been ‘the best thing I ever did.’ He is a very good sport, but I dread another operation, which is a possibility.” Mary Gillespie Monroe has a new address: 3615 Hawthorne Avenue, Richmond, VA. 23222. Judy Benson Stigle: “Florida has not been a summer thrill this year with heat, humidity, Red Tide, and constant rain and thunderstorms. Hoping for a nice trip but so far only Knoxville and Indianapolis. Gotta work harder on my guy. Working three days a week, and life is good.” Linda Fite: Since our last class notes (I think), I have been to Ireland and Scotland with two of my three sisters plus one of their pals, a very nice trip during which I backed into only one stone wall. My nextborn sister has Alzheimer’s, and she had requested that I take her on perhaps her last foreign journey. She wanted to visit Northern Ireland. It went well, she did amazingly well, and even though I am a lazy sod, I am very glad I was able to do that for her. I visited Pam Ford Kelley in Newport twice this summer (in case you hadn’t heard, her beloved husband, Brendan, died on May 18), one time along with Joanne Tumolo Bario ’68 (she transferred to George Washington University after sophomore year). We had a good visit,

including a terrific chamber music concert by the Imani Winds at the Breakers ... what a venue!! My surviving chickens made it through the summer, none killed by predators (I still have five hens and Brewster the Rooster, whose beauty makes up for his annoying crowing). All my children (remember that soap opera?) seem to be doing well. And their children, ditto. We all spent a week together in mid-August at Bethany Beach, DE, which is an annual tradition going back decades. My deal: I pay, but I don’t shop, cook, or clean! And I just hosted a weeklong Grammy Camp for my two Brooklyn grandsons, which also went well (no trips to the hospital, no poison ivy, only one fistfight, lots of swimming, Legos, and video games). I’m excited to be going to Cuba in October ... a longed-for visit. Health OK. Job good. Cars are both still running fine (one is a 2003 Mini Cooper; the other, a 2003 Subaru -- I like ‘em old, like ME!). I may not be aging gracefully, but I am aging gratefully! Carole Munn: “Wish I could weigh in with something fab but got nothing new! Still living in Cape Canaveral, FL, working as flight attendant (48 years now), and flitting around the world on fun trips like parties, cruises, various causes and donor trips. Sorry to say, no pets, not even plants, since I’m seldom home but so enjoy living on the beach when I am.” Gracey Stoddard: “Still retired as a paid social worker but otherwise working as a volunteer head of a foundation (African Dream Academy Foundation) that supports a tuition-free, co-ed school in Liberia West Africa. Reaching the end of my fifth year as president, I am now making the transition back to vice president, while my VP becomes the new president, a good move for me, since eventually I will have more time for travel, painting (new hobby), and other, as-yet-to-be-discovered adventures. This summer, I enjoyed traveling to the West Coast to visit Yosemite National Park and San Francisco with my two sons for a week, just before the fires got started; visited with a group of painting friends in New Hampshire, where we painted au plein air, except when there was plenty of rain to dampen our enthusiasm; and visited with my

reunion at the University of London. My London roommate called me from her home in Calgary and insisted that I join everyone. Amazing fun to have so many 50th reunions! My husband, Bill (who has decided he hates dealing with our airports), will hold down the fort. Daughter Rebecca, who amazingly has turned 45, is such a joy, and we are blessed that she and our grandchildren live so close. Can’t believe our SBC Reunion was just over a year ago. So much learning and living since we all gathered in September 1963! I am very thankful for good health and good doctors, who have been amazing. Joy and Good Health to all!” Barbara Annan: “I am enjoying life in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I finished the restoration of my historic home in Rapid City and have started my application to the DAR after years of procrastination. Last year I completed an MFA in creative nonfiction at Goucher College, thus bringing my degree tally to five. Sweet Briar’s seeds were planted deep and numerous! The other degrees were two in religion and two in psychology. With that background I have written a book on Mongolia, looking at the cultural impact of the Communist repression on folk beliefs. I balance that with hiking, hunting, and time with my Siamese cats.” Barbara is proud of SBC for rallying and continuing to flourish as the flagship of women’s education. Peggy Minis Trethewey: “Last May, we were in Greece with me attending my annual board meeting of the Anatolia College of Thessaloniki. Before that we spent one night-day in Athens & five days in beautiful Santorini. Honestly the sky was so blue & the buildings so white it looked just like the postcard pictures you see of the Greek islands. Since then we’ve been in Sonoma with a nonstop stream of houseguests. We’ve had family from Australia, godchildren from Cleveland, and I get more family from Savannah. It’s been fun but exhausting. As we’ve decided to put our Sonoma property on the market, I think everyone is racing to get one last visit in before it’s gone! We will be heading back to Palm Beach in late October & stay there until late May. But in January we will go to Australia for our annual visit of one month to see Peter’s fam-

ily and to catch up with our friends down there. We are excited because we have tickets to the men’s semifinals at the Australia Open (tennis). That’s about it from me; I’m happy to say Peter and I are healthy, as are our families, which is such a blessing at this age. Maria Wiglesworth Hemmings: “I am sitting on a plane as we are on our way to see Emery (Wyoming) to hike and chill and help her with her new house. Summer was quiet, and I loved it. Worked eight hours every week and took a watercolor class, which was fun and interesting. I am trying to paint at least one painting a week. We are back to traveling domestic and international, then to Florida for several months.” Beth Glaser Isaacs: “We are traveling like nomads! Canada, New York (for “Hamilton”!), London, and then Italy: Naples, Capri, Sorrento, and the Amalfi Coast. So fortunate to have the time, resources and energy for all of this. President Woo is awesome!” Sandi Hoag Ippolito: “Hi all! Don’t know how many remember me, after all these years. Lou and I have been living in Virginia for over 20 years now. We have four kids, five grandchildren, five horses, three cats, and three dogs. Lou is retired but still teaches a couple of courses a year in the graduate program of George Washington University. Our youngest and her husband have moved back to the farm so they can help with all the animals … and with some free time, Lou and I are about to embark on a new adventure. We camped a lot when the kids were young and loved the spontaneity of it; so we have an RV on order, and we will be tripping the light fantastic on trips around the country. We will visit places on our bucket list, visit old friends, have new adventures. This was something we spoke of, even before we were married … only took us 52 years to get around to it, lol. Love hearing what everyone else is doing!” Susan Tucker: “Being named Honorary Chair of the Forward Arts Foundation annual Fashion Show Luncheon was very special. The foundation has supported the visual arts in Atlanta since 1965. Saks Fifth Avenue sponsored the event with a runway show of designs from the

house of Oscar de la Renta. It was so wonderful of fellow SBC alumna Flossie Mobley to organize a table of Sweet Briar friends. I continue to enjoy work at Tucker & Associates PR and have the best clients ever.” Eleanor Crossley Rees: “I am writing this from Wales at the end of a month-old long trip around the U.K. My husband is Welsh, and my background is English and Scottish; so we have had a marvelous trip in spite of the hot weather. Our first anniversary is next month, but we had a two-week trip to India to celebrate our marriage. I am blessed to still be fit enough to travel. Life is good!” Ted and I spent the summer as substitute parents to our granddaughter (10½) and learned an enormous amount about what unsupervised kids can find on the Internet that you cannot block. We also had terrific fun with her and miss her. My older son and his family were here over Labor Day, and my younger son and his family live here; so we had a blast with four consecutive days of four little boys and happy chaos. I am thoroughly enjoying my work — it’s interesting and fun. Life has been mostly work and family, hoping someday our master bath renovations will be finished. It’s is very happy, and I am very blessed.

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Anne Kinsey Dinan 8 Peter Cooper Road, Apt. 11F New York, N.Y. 10010 akdinan@rcn.com As always, many thanks to everyone who submitted news and photos. Jule ( Julie) Seibels Northup: I officially retired in 2017 from the practice of law but have enjoyed pro bono work for Pisgah Legal Services as well as having time to visit our children in Houston and Seattle and be at our house in the Virgin Islands. The fact that I was unable to attend the SBC Reunion was mitigated when we got together with a group of 10 alumnae from the class of 1980 celebrating their 60th birthdays on Water Island! Fred and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in June. We met while attending Sweet Briar Junior Year in France, lived in France twice after that, and are head-

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sister and her husband who live on Lake Champlain in northern Vermont. Plans were to travel to Maine in mid-September to paint with my same group of friends; and finally, in mid-January, to travel solo to Vietnam and Cambodia on a Rhodes Scholar walking tour and to see a high school classmate who lives in Hanoi. Would anyone like to join me?” Bonnie Blew Pierie: “Tim and I have spent the summer trying to catch up on taking care of our Grafton place and visiting with friends who have come through at various times as their travels permitted. It seems like downsizing has come into view here as we find we can only do about half a day’s work compared to our younger days. And, it sure has been a warm summer. Still, we enjoy it here and hope to slowly make the dreaded ‘transition.’ I am voting for a yard service, but Tim is adamantly against such ... thinks we should give it all up before he could stoop so low! I am also wanting a new tractor for Christmas or my birthday or his birthday or any other occasion I can drum up, but that it not a present I will receive; I will have to give it instead. He continues to row, and I continue to ride (my daughter’s horse). Our granddaughters are now 19 (out at Oregon State) and 17 and the twins are now 14. We had our 50th anniversary in June with no fanfare and had a little trip out to see the races at Saratoga and plan another to Vermont next week to see friends who have rented a home near Woodstock. There is also hope for time to get to Cape Cod for another chance to see old friends, but Florida calls and may interfere.” Ginny Stanley Douglas: “Bill and I now have a 10-week-old puppy, a mini Australian Shepherd we’ve named Kipling. He is doing well sleeping through the night; however, he has started chewing up the drip system in our garden with his puppy teeth. Getting to be a very expensive puppy. Our grandchildren, Genna and Miles, visit us more often so they can see Kip! They live four blocks away, fortunately. I had a fun trip with girlfriends to Southern Italy in April and to Japan in June. And I am about to leave for Northern Italy in mid-September. Early October was to be my 50th

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ed back to France in October. Leslie Bissell Hoopes: Glad that the 50th Reunion was such a success! The highlight of my year was getting a knee replacement (!), which has enabled me to continue to give museum tours. Our son had his hip replaced this spring — now that really makes me feel ancient! We’ve lost both kids to the West Coast — La Jolla and San Francisco. Toby spent six weeks this summer sailing in Newfoundland. We’re going to Iceland to celebrate his 75th. Frances Kirven Morse: Since our wonderful 50th, I have done a lot of traveling. John and I traveled with Pembroke Herbert Kyle and Bill to the Paso Robles region of California and saw Hearst Castle, beautiful Morro Bay, and lots of interesting wineries. John and I also took each of our granddaughters on weeklong vacations — Ella to Yosemite National Park (yes, with smoke!), and Xylia to Southern California for Universal Studios (exciting rides and Harry Potter), beaches, and the traveling King Tut exhibit. After all those motion simulation rides, we are glad to be land-based again. Still admiring my pink and green feather boas and that nifty ’68 Apron designed by Pam Burwell Benton. Jennie Lyons Fogarty: Spring 2018 brought retirement and grandchild number nine. I spent August traveling with a few of the other eight and am now ready to go back to work — for the lower activity level and the income! Was sorry to miss the 50th and look forward to helping plan a mini-reunion. Bonnie Pitman: Summer is a time to reconnect with friends and family and to have new experiences to celebrate our lives. Joyfully, I was able to accomplish two visits to see my dear family at Lake Oscowana in New York. Hugging grandchildren Franny and Clark renews my body and spirit. My son, David Gelles, is thriving at the New York Times in the business section with his regular interviews of CEO’s in Corner Offices as well as other feature stories. I was able to attend many museum shows in NYC — The Met’s “Heavenly Bodies” show is a spectacular new assessment of the collection and the amazing couturier and roles of the Catholic Church. A new activity for me was attending my first Tex-

as Ranger’s game in 103º heat. My book is moving forward and research on the neuroscience of observation is opening new ideas for my teaching. Conover Hunt: Well, my return to the SBC campus for our 50th was a real eye opener, and great fun! The Book Shop had copies of my murder mystery, The Constitution Murders (thank you, Diane Hunt!), and I got to jump in the lake without being thrown! I re-retired in April and have spent a relaxing summer doing nothing constructive except enjoying Buckroe Beach and feeling confident that SBC will survive and thrive. Mulling another novel; I will keep you all posted! Nancy Hickox Wright: We just completed a family and friends summer odyssey across the country — starting with seeing so many of you, dear classmates, in June. Linda Pattberg Meixner: I’m so sorry to have missed the Reunion — sounds like a great time! Life is good in Washington, D.C. (politics aside!). I’m still working as development director for Woodley House, a nonprofit residential program for people with mental illness. Will probably retire next year but for now, it’s still fun. Five grandchildren, with three close enough to visit often, and happily in touch with Celia Newberg Steingold and Sally Ruth May — old friends to the max. Toni Wikswo Best: Genie Carr ventured out to California recently, and we had a wonderful time. She had great things to say about the Reunion and friends she saw there. I am attaching a few pictures — one is from Genie’s visit when we went to Arts Visalia, a local gallery that had a show of the children’s work from seven weeks of classes offered. She is standing in front of wings created by the students so they can look like they are flying. I no longer am a musician. Gee, no one ever said that you had to be able to survive on your chosen work. Instead, I am a basket weaver and gourd artist. Many people don’t know that I started basketry when I was in the 8th grade. Now, I teach classes around the country. I was invited to teach at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tenn., two years ago and Pocosin’s School of Fine Craft in Columbia, N.C., as well. Since then I have taught in Washington, Nevada,

and around the state of California. My pieces have been featured at the National Basketry Organization’s conference in 2015 and Handweavers Guild of America at their Convergence in Reno. Attached are a few examples of what I create. My website is tonibest.online, and you can also see my pieces at Toni Best Art on Facebook. I do not drive very far since my eyes play tricks on me; however, the train works well for most places in California. If any of you are in the area, I would love for you to come by and visit. Catherine Porter: Loved our 50th Reunion! So many great friends came back. Have been enjoying a wonderful summer in Aspen but returning to D.C. for the fall. Amy Thompson McCandless: Steve and I had a wonderful trip to Amsterdam and the Norwegian fjords in June. Unfortunately for

Amy Thompson McCandless ’68 and husband, Steve, in Whitesands, NM

Genie Carr ’68 at Arts Visalia in Visalia, CA, visiting Toni Wikswo Best ‘68

Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp ’68 with daughter Whitney and granddaughter Isabel

Catherine Porter ’68 with classmates Sally and Pembroke, at their 50th Reunion

Julie Seibels Northrup ’68 celebrating Mardi Gras in the Virgin Islands

Charlie and Barbara Baur Dunlap ’68 in smoky Canada and enjoying golf in the Canadian mountains

Nancy Hickox Wright, Class of ’68, husband, Gil, with their Montana family: son Prescott and grandchildren Emerson, Fisher and Quinn

Brenda Darden Kincaid ’68 and Doug’s wonderful grandchildren. Front row: Kate (6), Jimmy (9), Rett (9); Back row: Jack (18), Ellie (21), Hardt (15), Crawford (13), Ann Everett (12)

Frances Kirven Morse ’68, Bill Herbert, John Morse and Pembroke Herbert Kyle visiting Morro Bay, CA in August

Anne Kinsey Dinan ’68 and Terry at 50th Reunion

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50th Reunion LAKE LEAPERS: Libby Harvey Fitzgerald, Nancy Hickox Wright, C’Anne Anderson, Pembroke Herbert Kyle and Conover Hunt

Bonnie Pitman and Ann Biggs Jackson at 50th Reunion

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Anne Stoddard and Susie Brush Croft at 50th Reunion

Frances Kirven Morse ’68, Anne Kinsey Dinan ’68 and Nancy Hickox Wright ’68 enjoying their 50th Reunion

us, the timing was during our Reunion, which we hated to miss (keep posting photos from the weekend, please). It was nice to leave the sweltering Charleston weather for the temperate clime of Scandinavia, and we were blessed to have beautiful sunny days for the entire trip. Mary Matheson: I have moved and am happily ensconced in my new apartment, still in North Carolina and close to lots of family. I’m heading up to Washington, D.C., soon to visit old friends, and will be spending Christmas in New York City this year with Anne Kinsey Dinan and her family. Am looking forward to spending a lot of time with my godchildren and grand-godchildren. Barbara Baur Dunlap: Charlie and I were in British Columbia when they had more than 600 forest fires burning. We met a forest ranger watching planes take load after load of water from Lake MacDonald in Glacier National Park to fight the fires, and we played golf in smoky Canada. Canada in the summer does prescribed burns (no longer called ‘controlled’ burns since they get out of control) to protect the environment. Lesson learned: Don’t go to N.W. Canada in August unless you like smoke! By contrast, Sweet Briar in June was beautiful, fun, and heart-warming — loved our 50th. The weekend was just wonderful. Brenda Dardin Kincaid: Loved being with so many friends from the Class of 1968! After five years of retirement I have returned to the classroom teaching Honors Math Analysis as a part-time faculty member at Virginia Episcopal School. My grandson is one of my students! My SBC education gives me confidence! Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp: I am still at CDC, continuing to work on the epidemiology of developmental disabilities with an interest in children outside the United States. Thanks again for voting for me for the Sammies Award. I am still a finalist, with final decisions in October. I look forward to participating in Sweet Work Weeks in 2019; I had a glimpse during a recent Board meeting. Ralph and I stay busy grandparenting. Hope all of you are staying healthy. Kristin Kuhns: “Altar Rock,” the feature thriller, is finally set for

release next summer. I wrote, produced, and raised the funds for this. It stars KJ Apa, a hot young star who was in “A Dog’s Purpose” and “Riverdale.” My next project is a TV series about a woman dedicated to saving wild creatures. Susan Hinner Avesian: Retired and living in Canton, Ga. We left our beautiful lake house due to an ongoing illness that necessitates my being close to Atlanta and my doctors. We have 11 awesome grandchildren and enjoy watching their sporting events. Sorry, I cannot travel. Would love to see you all. Anne Kinsey Dinan: The Class of 68’s 50th Reunion was indeed terrific: 48 hours of connecting and reconnecting with old friends and all of us reminiscing for hours on end. It was especially joyful to watch as our very own classmate Bonnie Pitman received Sweet Briar College’s Distinguished Alumna Award! And here’s to Ann Biggs Jackson for the outstanding pink and green boas and Pam Burwell Benton for our marvelous SBC aprons! Please remember that Frances Kirven Morse, Nancy Hickox Wright, and I are continuing our efforts to find contact information for “missing” classmates. To that end, I once again request that anyone in the Class of 1968 who receives this Alumnae Magazine but did not receive an email from me requesting news, please email or write to me with your email and/or mailing address at: akdinan@rcn.com or Anne Kinsey Dinan, 8 Peter Cooper Road, Apt. 11F, New York, N.Y. 10010.

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Mardane McLemore 719 Jones St. Suffolk, Va. 23434 jlmmrm39@gmail.com Thank all of you who sent notes and pictures. I enjoyed hearing from you! Those of you who didn’t make it this time, be thinking of what you want to include in the next set of notes — Remember you can email me or Kristin any time with news! Fundraising for SBC: thank all of you who have given. SBC appreciates your donations. It would be great if our class participation

joyed meeting some alumnae from other classes. She notes that Gately is totally amazing and reminds us all that 70 is not old. It’s not what you have; it’s what you do with what you have! She, Deb, Deb’s husband, John, and Barbara Hastings Carne have all been friends since graduation and will be celebrating their friendship together for Labor Day. Elizabeth Holloway Playforth just returned from the beach visiting son John and Krupa, his wife, and their three-year-old granddaughter and eight-month-old grandson. Elizabeth says they are the best part of being a bit older. She and her husband are selling their farm and planning on spending more time with these youngest grandchildren and doing more traveling. They have loved being “farmers” but find now that it is time to move on to other interests. There is an invite to anyone visiting Lexington, Ky. She is proud of SBC for surviving. Phyllis Blythin Ward also celebrated her 70th in a big way with a trip to Egypt in February. She and John followed in the footsteps of King Tut, Howard Carter, Ramses II, and Agatha Christie, traveling from Cairo to Abu Simbel and sailing the Nile from Aswan to the Valley of the Kings on the SS Sudan, fulfilling her bucket list wish since the days of ancient art history classes at SBC! Not long after, they spent a fun weekend in Atlanta with Stuart Davenport Simrill and her husband, Spenser. In the spring they traveled to Lexington for John’s 50th reunion at W&L and spent three weeks in Ontario in the summer — a nice respite from the hot weather. She and John are still in Louisville; so if anyone ever gets that way (Derby weekend maybe?), don’t hesitate to get in touch. Jane Gott and her husband, Ron, spent a month in Kauai for her 70th birthday — before the massive rain. She has enjoyed taking watercolor classes and staying active in the Potomac Valley Watercolorists. Ron had surgery on his Achilles tendon in May and has recovered better than expected. Recently she met Ruth Stokes for lunch. She and Ruth lived with the same family in Paris their junior year. Ruth is an equine veterinarian in Maryland. Jane notes the entire group from Sweet Briar Junior

Kristin Herzog ’70 in front of her painting at the Laoshan Museum in China

Ann Gately at 2018 Sweet Work Weeks

From left, front row: Katie McCardell Webb, Lorie Harris Amass, May Humphreys Fox, Jessica Holzer, Wallis Wickham Raemer. Back row: Connie Haskell and Frances Gravely

Year in France 1968-69 is meeting in NYC the weekend of September 29 to celebrate their 50th reunion. There will also be a reunion in Paris at Reid Hall in October. If any of the eight other women from SBC who spent that year abroad have not received information on the planned reunions, email Jane at janegott@ verizon.net. Jane is excited that Barbara Offutt Mathieson’s son and family moved this year to Great Falls, VA — now she will see roommate Barbara even more often. She and Barbara had a wonderful visit in May and in early September and are flying to Boston for a reunion on Cape Cod with classmates Laura Sickman Baksa, Candace Buker Chang, and Jo Shaw. Candace is now cancer free! Candace Buker Chang sold her condo in Boston a year ago and moved around the corner into her daughter’s first-floor apartment. She is happy to say it is working out very well. Unfortunately, she was diag-

nosed with metastatic breast cancer a week before moving; so Sonia (who is the state senator for Boston) and her husband were great support, and the two grandchildren a great joy on a daily basis! After a year of chemo plus surgery and radiation, she is now happily cancer free and hoping to remain so. It was a pretty rough year — her daughter Jean and her family live and own a business on St. John (Virgin Islands), which was hit by Cat. 5 hurricanes Irma and Maria. Fortunately, they and their business are okay, but it was a stressful time wondering. The island, which has become Candace’s second home, was just devastated. Jean’s family (two more grandchildren) was without power for 80 days, and everyone on the island is still struggling to recover. Candace encourages everyone to take their vacation dollars to the Virgin Islands. Since tourism pretty much their entire economy, they need people to come! Worn out by

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percentage was higher (looks good on grant requests), so if you haven’t given this year, think about giving something — Please! Congratulations to Karen Hartnett! Because of her efforts to save Sweet Briar, she received Sweet Briar’s Outstanding Alumna Award for 2018. She was recognized for her work with Phil Stone to stabilize SBC and bring in a management team that could move the College forward. Thank you, Karen! Ann Gately and her husband, Ira, had lots of fun and good food celebrating their 70th birthdays hiking and cycling around Europe for three weeks in April and May (Italy, Holland & CR). Ann, who has been so faithful, again completed a several-week stint at SBC Sweet Work Weeks ... an “always gratifying & satisfying” experience — a reunion with a purpose! Her gardening fashions included a special T-shirt provided by Kay Parham Picha and Karen Hartnett. The T-shirts were well-received by her (much younger) fellow weeders. Ann is still in New Mexico. If you go to there, give her a holler! Katy Warren Towers thought life would be settling down at this point but says it almost seems to be accelerating! She still misses Charlie a lot but feels very blessed to have good health, dear siblings and friends, nice trips, and meaningful experiences! In April Katy went on a Viking river cruise on the Rhine and then spent several days at the gorgeous Cloister at Sea Island — both places were a ball! In May she and two graduate school friends from Nashville went to Santa Fe for several days to celebrate their 70th birthdays. In late June and early July, she spent a couple of weeks in the North Carolina mountains — her favorite place in all the world — and since then she has been sweltering in the Florida heat and being very thankful for AC! In early September she plans to go to Colorado for a Christian conference and then visit and hike with her roommate, Mary Jo Murphy (hopefully these plans won’t have to be canceled as they were last year due to Hurricane Irma!). Jonna Clarkson is still working with a mission to alleviate the water crisis in El Salvador. She also had fun at Sweet Work Weeks. She worked with Deb Ohler Bowman and en-

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Convocation at Sweet Briar in May 2018 honoring Karen Hartnett as the Reunion Outstanding Alumna. From left: Susan Lykes Mueller, Heather Tully Click, Karen Hartnett, Kay Parham Picha, Debbie Ohler Bowman and husbands

all the cancer treatment, Candace retired in January, earlier than originally planned; but now that she is feeling much better, she will be keeping her brain active by starting a very part-time new job in September doing intensive case reviews for MassHealth (Medicaid in Massachusetts) on services purchased for families of children with serious mental illnesses. Hopefully the new job will fund at least one more dive trip to Fiji with Jo Shaw Lawson. They both took up scuba diving when they were over 60 — never too late for new adventures! Candace was so appreciative of the support she received from Jo during the past year — Jo flew up from Memphis several times keep her company. Candace, Jane Gott, and Barbara Offutt Mathieson will be having a mini SBC reunion with Laura Sickman Baksa on Cape Cod just after Labor Day. Those friendships, made freshman year in the Meta Glass dorm, have been enduring! Candace reports seeing Laura more frequently since they are both in Massachusetts. Betty Glass Smith is still very much appreciating the quieter, country life and retirement. She’s busy with quite a few ongoing projects at her new place but is also taking time to smell the roses and enjoying a little slower lifestyle. She loves the Northern Neck of Virginia in all its beauty, especially the river vistas and waterfowl. She and Bill have seen as many as four bald eagles at the same

time up close to their property, and Betty now wishes she had taken ornithology at SBC from Mr. Edwards (as do many of us)! Betty has learned mahjongg and plays regularly. She attributes her success to her logic-math background and dear Miss Lee. It’s interesting how frequently thoughts go back to SBC these days. Francis Dornette Schafer spent a wonderful weekend with Debrah Denemark in Dallas on the way back from speaking at the AICPA Advanced Estate Planning Conference in Las Vegas. In July she joined Sandy Hamilton Bentley and her husband, Bob, for a trip to Asheville, N.C., to see the Biltmore, which had a special exhibit of Chihuly glass in the house and the gardens. Wallis Wickham Raemer is fully retired and looking forward to travel, biking, and hanging out with dear SBC friends in the next decade. She is proud to report this past June Mary Jane Hipp Brock was honored by the Interfaith Center of New York City for 20 years of service and leadership promoting human dignity for all peoples and creating peace in New York and beyond. Wallis recently had a blast at Frances Gravely’s lovely cottage in Maine. They had a great weekend of traveling together, sailing, shopping, dining on lobsters and wild blueberries, talking endlessly, and laughing lots with dear friends! Carpe, carpe to the last diem! Jessica Holzer is still not retired,

working at Citi, welcomed her first grandchild, is still occupied with Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, and enjoys cooking for friends. Lorie Harris Amass celebrated the big 7-0 in Montana with her precious family and was treated to a special birthday book of good wishes and surprise fireworks on the lake! May Humphreys Fox fills her days post-retirement with travel, children and grandchildren, board work, and some consulting. Reunions with her SBC Carpe Diems fill her heart too! Katie McCardell Webb sends her thanks to all her classmates for their support of the Alumnae Fund! Connie Haskell is still tap dancing. She had a great trip to Portugal and Northern Spain with Jim and is going to Bulgaria with her sister in September. Frances Gravely is roosting near Franklin Street in Chapel Hill with children and great friends nearby. Happy as a lark! Kristin Herzog traveled to China in June with an art group. The highlight of her tour was an international watercolor show at the Laoshan Museum, where she enjoyed seeing her painting on display. She also visited many local and regional art collectives, galleries and painting studios, which was a huge treat. Kristin is still unpacking boxes at home in Naples, FL, and can’t believe it’s been almost a year since she moved into her new home. She has a great neighborhood community and has already met up with five SBC alums in the area. She’s received another fellowship to attend VCCA over Thanksgiving and can’t wait to be back on campus! Betty Brewer Caughman has been in a whirlwind this past year. On August 20, 2017, her son, David, married Shannon O’Grady on Bainbridge Island, a short ferry ride from downtown Seattle. Among the guests were Suzy Yates Cahill and husband Bob. David and Shannon are now happily ensconced in Brooklyn, a short commute to jobs in Manhattan, where Shannon works in finance (Blackstone) and David in management consulting (Simon Kucher). It’s a great place to visit! Two days after the wedding, she traveled with yoga buddies to Peru for a week in the Sacred Valley and

Machu Picchu and then was off to the Amazon jungle with friends and fellow birdwatchers. In February, after a few days in Mexico City, friends and Betty went to Macheros to visit two monarch butterfly reserves — she saw hundreds of butterflies open their wings, turning the trees orange, as they took off and began to fly down from the mountains. Truly an amazing sight! In September, she, Suzy Yates Cahill, and Bob will celebrate their 70th birthdays with several days in Paris and a barge trip on the canals in Burgundy. Joining them will be Betty’s sister Carol Brewer Evans ’75 and Jim Evans. When not traveling, Betty stays busy with yoga, book clubs, bridge, church work, lunch with friends, dinner with friends, drinks with friends ... Life is good! I have loved reading notes and emails from our SBC classmates. I’m enjoying traveling, and am planning trips to Detroit and Mackinaw, Jackson Hole, and Arizona this fall. I have also been enjoying duplicate bridge — very, very slowly accumulating some of the master points. Lately I’ve been overcommitted and overwhelmed with volunteer work, but I do enjoy it all. I’m sure that Suffolk, VA, is not a major stopping point on most travel agendas, but just in case you’re in the neighborhood, please stop by! KEEP THOSE NOTES COMING!

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Beverly Fonville Van Zandt San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico beverlyvz@gmail.com Lynne Manov Echols and her husband, Frank, enjoyed a trip to London and SE England last fall, and Lynne notes that a tour of Dover and the subterranean command center for Dunkirk is a must! In November they head to Portugal with a group. Lynne has begun teaching riders again and has written a book! Visit www.facebook.com/RiderSeatMD for a preview! Mimi Fahs, our SBC Board of Directors secretary, continues to teach public health policy and economics at the graduate level. She is excited to be “mother of the groom”

third grandchild is due in November. Sally and Bob remodeled/rescued a 1920’s house that they love and write that if anyone travels to San Antonio, they have two guest rooms and would love to see you. Anne Milbank Mell has really been busy this year — births of two granddaughters and the fun of helping their families negotiate the addition of “child #2.” She and John had kids and grandkids with them for five weeks this summer, the last week of which all 15 (five under the age of three) were together in a cabin in N.H. In September she and John are traveling to Italy, her first visit since Junior Year Abroad, 49 years ago. Anne Wiglesworth Munoz wrote that she and Milton went to Morocco last winter and are going to India and Nepal this November. Then they will head back to Arizona to visit their daughters and grandson. They are even thinking of moving to Arizona to be closer to them. Jacque Penny had a wonderful time in Canada recently, spending two months with her mum (now 90) at their home on Prince Edward Island. Jacque is now home and says hello to all with much love. Alisa Yust Rowe and I had a wonderful visit this summer. She and Richard still live in Houston and look great. Alisa enjoys spending time with their grandchildren and going to the country. She is still helping with an arts non-profit for children. She has recently picked back up a manuscript that she wrote some years back and has been revising it for fun. Wendy Weiss Smith has really been on the “go” recently — she and her husband biked in Munich, hiked for a week in the German-Austrian Alps, and flew into Cape Town to board the Royal Mail Ship for its final sail to St. Helena. This spring they enjoyed Susan Greenwald’s company on a W&L trip to the Languedoc area of France. Wendy also celebrated her mom’s 102nd birthday with her SBC ’74 sisters in July. Bev Van Zandt continues to love living in Mexico and is having fun working with Anne Holler on Anne’s “Rebellious Nuns of San Miguel” seminar. She is now headed to Marblehead to watch daughter Roberta race in the J70 Worlds. There’s

Cissy Gott ’72 and DeDe Conley ’72 at Cissy’s home after Reunion 2018

Jean Chaloux Miani ’72 and DeDe Conley in Milan with cards for Jean signed by many classmates

nothing like getting a “sailing fix” through your daughter! Daughter Beverly is in her fourth year of med school, and her family is doing well.

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Jill Johnson MarySue Morrison Thomas 98 Pine Bluff Portsmouth, Va. 23701 72sweetbriar@gmail.com Once again we are extremely proud to acknowledge another super classmate who has given so generously of her time, talents and energy to Sweet Briar. Please enjoy the information found at sbc.edu/president/ board-of-directors chronicling the amazing life and accomplishments of the class of 1972’s own Georgene M. Vairo, who was elected chairwoman of the Sweet Briar College Board of Directors during its August meeting.

Deirdre “DeDe” Conley expresses that she is grateful and so impressed with the results of everyone’s hard work for SBC culminating in a 42% increase in enrollment! She has enjoyed SBC for the past 12 months, especially Sweet Work Weeks, which she highly recommends. DeDe was also in attendance at Founders’ Day activities and President Woo’s Inauguration — to whom she refers as a Super Star for us. After our 45th Reunion, she enjoyed a good visit with another classmate, Cissy Gott, in D.C. DeDe spent the summer in Europe and is delighted that her husband finally got his green card renewed. The highlights of her summer included visiting with Jean Chaloux Miani in Milan, attending several college fairs, and keeping us all informed with the AA news. In the fall, DeDe plans to recruit more students for SBC and continue with her extensive travels. Thank you, DeDe, for keeping us all in the loop! We are thrilled to have heard

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next Memorial Day. Mimi continues to love playing fiddle with her band, the Mudflats. The name reflects the oyster ponds at low tide near her home in Orient, Long Island — along with the band’s desire to keep expectations low! Maggie Mather Feldmeier is still working, yet manages to go on many travel adventures — an expedition to Alaska this June and one to Ireland this fall. She and her husband are thrilled that their younger daughter has moved closer, and they can now see lots of Maggie’s granddaughter, Mather, her namesake. She reports that they are busy and healthy and couldn’t ask for more! Carol Remington Fogelsong is still finding new ways to enjoy retirement — lots of leisurely lunches and quick adventures to new places (from riding a monster truck to new-to-me art museums). Carol travels often to Baltimore to see 95-year-old Mom (Ann Moore Remington ’44), and she enjoys connecting with classmates by email and phone. Pam Henery Arey wrote that she loves the freedom that retirement allows and that she sees Bonnie Moe Stook ’72 in the neighborhood regularly. Pam is the president of the board and trip chairperson at her local senior center, where she also takes exercise classes. She recently had successful surgery and treatments for melanoma and is having to spend too much time indoors right now! Dee Kysor is still enjoying being music director at Grace Episcopal Church and is looking forward to riding again now that Badger is sound. This summer she and her husband, George, led a storytelling workshop. George taught storytelling, and Dee sang songs to go along with the stories. Their performance team is called “Woven Yarns.” Kathy Wilson Lamb reports that life in Lexington and Northern Michigan continues to be good. She and Rex loved two weeks of children and grandchildren in the Straits of Mackinac and continue to enjoy the cooler weather. They are heading to Alpine Europe for a couple of weeks in September. Sally Uptegrove Lee and her husband, Bob, retired and moved to San Antonio to be closer to their daughter, Rachel, and her husband, Nathan, and two grandchildren. A

All my SBC roommates — together again after 45 years. From left: Kathy Pretzfelder Steele, Debbie Pollock Arce, Linda Lipscomb, Lisa Fowler Winslow

Renee Renata Sterling ’73 supports families in jeopardy. Pictured here at a Family Place event with Gretchen Carlson

from another classmate, Claudine Clarke Elian. She writes that in conjunction with her ongoing art projects, she continues to divide her time between Lucerne, New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles! Claudine’s life in Switzerland is spent with her longtime companion, Fabian Bautz, who teaches music at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Lucerne and at the Conservatory in Zurich. Together, they contemplate returning stateside upon his retirement but for now continue to shuttle back and forth. Perhaps we can convince them to come back for our 50th Reunion!

Lisa Winslow: It was a busy spring and summer for me. My son, who lives in San Diego married a lovely woman in April — really a fun wedding. Then my daughter and I took off for two weeks in France, staying in Paris and the Riviera. We had a fabulous time — constantly on the go. I then went to our SBC Reunion and had a wonderful time with fellow classmates. SBC looks really good. I relocated this spring to Orange County to be closer to my mom (95 years old!) and my kids in Laguna Beach. I’m loving total retirement after being a law librarian for 42 years and involved in all kinds of new activities including sailing. Life is good. Kathleen Schultz: Steve and I retired and moved to a waterfront home near Jackson, MS. We are really enjoying the slower lifestyle of retirees with lots of visitors! We have time to explore the waterways by pontoon or kayak, which we claim is a great replacement for exercise. We welcomed our first grandchild last March and our second one is due in September. We have also enjoyed the opportunity to travel and are moving up the cruise levels! I accepted the presidency for a local women’s club for 2019; so I’m keeping my toe in the quasi-working world. We were so sorry to miss our Reunion but look forward to the next one. Deirdre Conley: I enjoyed getting back in touch with my graduating class and helping to organize 73’s 45th Reunion. So much fun to reconnect! Seeing so many friends after so long, hanging out at the barn, taking the eco walk with Professor Fink, sharing a dorm room — felt like 1973 all over again. I hope to see

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Evelyn Carter Cowles PO Box 278 Free Union, Va. 22940 ecc52@icloud.com

Joan May Harden: Jill Heptinstall and I so enjoyed Reunion. I think it was my favorite one so far. Rick and I are expecting our fifth grandchild in January. It will be Bill and Jessica’s first baby. We went to Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Venice in Sept., where we rented a car and explored. It was our first time using AirBnBs, so the whole trip was an adventure. Allison Baker: I live in midtown Atlanta, still trying to live the Artist’s Life. My memories of directing our senior play “Toad of Toad Hall” is one my favorite memories of being part of the Class of 1973! Cindy Bekins Anderson: My news revolves around our two granddaughters — one is 22 and the other

is 4! We have four kiddos (48, 47, 28 and 26), three of whom are here in Omaha, with the youngest away in pharmacy school, and we hope he returns at some point! We had a wonderful family trip to celebrate my hubby’s BIG birthday in the mountains of Colorado this summer and looking forward to fall and winter travels as well. I keep busy with being a master gardener, and with a local garden club and church, and we’ve had our 4-year-old granddaughter every Thursday since she was an infant! Ginger Woodward Gast: My husband, Paul, and I spent a wonderful week with Susan Dern Plank and her husband at their house in Belize in January. It was hard to come back to “winter” after walking around in shorts. Paul and I headed over to Italy this fall to teach English in the Italian schools for six weeks. He was in the middle school, while I preferred the younger students in elementary school. We still have so much fun visiting with our six grandchildren and our four adult children in South Carolina, Florida and Virginia. Kathy Pretzfelder Steele: Dave and I continue to enjoy our life in Florida, where we live not too far from our daughter Kelly and her family, and help care for our two precious granddaughters (3 and 6). Our other daughter, Tracy, was married in August in a glorious rooftop ceremony and reception in midtown Atlanta. Dave and I continue to enjoy an active life of golf, pickleball, traveling as often as possible to our favorite beach in Hilton Head, S.C., and exploring the many interesting places in Florida.

even more classmates for our 50th in 2023. Put it on your calendar now! Ann Major Gibb: I enjoyed a quick overnight visit with Anne Billings McDougall at her home in Orlando in February. This summer, our son David finished his work at Yale and moved to L.A. to open a research lab at Cedars Sinai Hospital. Our daughter Emily was married to Steve Ciotonni in Philadelphia in July. California and Philadelphia are in our fall travel plans! Betsy Meric Gambel: This summer I spent three weeks in Africa (Tanzania, Zanzibar and Cape Town). From a Serengeti safari to sailing in the Indian Ocean to the breathtaking Cape of Good Hope, I experienced so much and realized that I could, indeed, take that much time off due to my incredible staff. Gambel Communications continues to grow, and The New Orleans 100, with affiliates in 18 cities, has been so rewarding. Life is the best ever! Diane Dale Reiling: I had a marvelous Reunion week, with a stop before heading to the College with Jane Potts in Charleston. She and I also visited Savannah and visited with my daughter’s in-laws. I then headed to Salem, S.C., outside of Greenville, to stay with Karol Kroetz Sparks. She and I had toured the Biltmore during the Chihuly Glass Exhibit before flying to Reunion. After SBC, I took the train to Philly to visit another friend. Fabulous! Roberta Culbertson: I tend chickens, goats, and fence lines at Farm Colony, a 300-acre farm outside Stanardsville, VA. Daughter Lea is associate chair of the VCU Dance Department and also a poet and dance critic. Daughter Kay married

Rishi Patel this autumn in a joint Indian/Western wedding. They then returned to Geneva, Switzerland, where Kay works for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Rishi for CERN. It’s all good! Renee Renata Sterling: Enjoyed a respite from the brutal Texas summer heat up in Victoria and Vancouver this August. My financial planning practice continues to blossom in its 26th year — hard to imagine 26 years! Boyd Zenner, Linda Lipscomb and Cary Davis King and I keep in close contact. Susan Dern Plank: Lots of travel this year: Belize for vacations (joined by Ginger W. Gast and husband during a soggy week) and a friend’s high school graduation as salutatorian of her class, Texas to see my younger sister and Florida and Tennessee to play with grandchildren. Sadly, my sister lost her 7+ yr. battle with breast cancer in April. I finally completed 300+ dives as a “palm tree” (warm water) scuba diver. See everyone in 2023! Anita McVey O’Connor: My life hasn’t changed much since the last time I corresponded, but I am so happy and proud of all the alumnae who helped to save my beloved college. I’m grateful to former president Stone and current president Woo for successfully leading SBC into the future. Debbie Arce Pollock: I had such fun at Reunion and hope many more classmates come to our 50th. Kathy Ptretzfelder Steele, Betsie Meric Gambel, Lisa Fowler Winslow, and I extended the fun by driving down and back together from D.C. I was reminded again how special the bond we all have is, as I instantly

felt like I was with my best friends, in spite of not seeing them for many years. See you all in five years! Evelyn Carter Cowles: I am pretty much the same. Riding, painting, gardening, fishing, and hiking still fill my leisure time. I visited Missy Leib Veghte ’74 in Nantucket in August and have traveled to Hawaii, England, and of course Montana as well. Planning a trip to Cuba to fish next spring; so life is good. Reunion was fun rooming with Linda Lipscomb and seeing many others I haven’t seen in years. Everyone should try to come for our 50th!

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Nancy Mortensen Piper 28 Newbold Sq. Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971 703-371-5583 npiper@virginiasoftware.com JoanBarb Ashton Nicol: We had another wedding this year. Robert’s son, Sage, married Marilyn Keller in Corpus Christi, TX, in July. All 12 of us were there! Robert and I are enjoying retirement with 3 grandchildren: Parker (4,) Grace (2 1/2), and Ashton (1). Enjoyed a Caribbean cruise in February and a trip to the beach with Liz Thomas Camp and Emory Furness Maxwell in May. Hope to make our 45th Reunion! Mary Witt Will: Who knew one could be so busy in “retirement”?? I’m a busy volunteer: in the endoscopy unit at a local hospital, broadcast reading for the visually impaired, and lots of time with the UVa School of Medicine as a trustee and class representative. We just had out UVa

the next two years from Prescott Valley, AZ. The places we are examining are Boise, ID; Bentonville, AK; Wyoming; and Montana. We want a TINY YARD! No fires or floods, bending or stooping! Good luck, Mitch! Little weather humor here! I find that the main thing for me and for Jo is to laugh a lot and to tell jokes (even the ones that don’t quite make it). Laughter can get you through just about anything (maybe not through what is going on in Washington ... that requires the 2 Ls: liquor and laughter). I love to cook and Jo likes to eat — nice partnership! The peaches this year were limited, but the ones we got I made into cobbler. We grind up the pears and freeze them. That pear sauce is so darn good on just about anything, especially pork tenderloin.” Mimi Hill Wilk: “I just celebrated my second grandson, Heath’s, 1st birthday! Heath’s big brother, Georgie, was a double jackpot winner; so it was super fun watching all the action at the pizza place! Love that age!!” Wanda Cronic Howell: “Our 21-year-old middle daughter, Jessica, graduated from Furman University. Mom, Dad, and her two sisters (Nicole and Destiny) all went to Greenville to celebrate her accomplishment. Jessica is now embarking on the newest chapter in her book of life, working on staff of Young Life in Greenville, S.C. Nicole is in her last year at Kennesaw State University and Destiny is in her junior year of high school. To celebrate Jessica’s graduation (and because it had been three years since we had gone to Europe), we spent two weeks “riding the rails” through Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and The Netherlands. Jessica had a great deal of input into our itinerary because she has wanted to go to Salzburg and the Alps ever since she saw ‘The Sound of Music’ when she was small.” Wanda is a car dealer, and based on her sales performance, she was one of only a handful of dealers in the Zone – Georgia and parts of Alabama and Florida – to receive the Mark of Excellence award from Buick. She and her husband, Lee, were then treated to a vacation in Vail, CO, with other top performing dealers. Andria Francis: “It’s been 4 years since I retired from CTB/

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Happy hour Friday night, Reunion 2018

40th reunion, and it was so much fun! I also love more time to spend with family and friends. I’m so lucky to have Sandra Taylor in Richmond, and we get together every few weeks. Hope all is well. Sandra Taylor: I was just with Mary Witt. I have retired but stay very busy with family and my other volunteer activities. I did get a chance to visit with Elizabeth and Bobby Watts. Had a lovely visit on the Eastern Shore! Cathy Weiss Thompson ’74, Wendy Weiss Smith ’71 and Weiss family members gathered for Betty Weiss’s 102nd birthday celebration at the end of July. Elizabeth Watts reports that a highlight for her this year was a trip to Kiawah and Charleston with Jane Hutchinson Frierson, Leslie Elbert Hill and Susan Stephens Geyer. “Susan has a lovely home on Kiawah, where we stayed and enjoyed the many activities the resort island has to offer. We also attended some wonderful events at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston.” Leslie Elbert Hill had a wonderful mini-reunion with Elizabeth Watts, Jane Frierson and Susan Geyer at the Geyer vacation home on Kiawah Island. Dolphins, biking, swimming, lots of cooking, as well as several trips into Charleston for the annual Spoleto festival and garden tours made for some classic memories. These reunions get more special each year as the memory sharing increases and the makeup decreases. Mitch Dore: “Ola! JoAnn, my partner, and I grow many heirloom vegetables in our garden, and this year has been extremely hot so some things made it and others ... well, we know there is no such thing as a master gardener, just a practicing gardener. However, what we have is quite wonderful. Our favorites are purple Viking potatoes and our onions. This year has been relaxing for the most part. Jo and I have been in our current house for 13 years so that I could work on my art and we could grow our own food. On the flip side, we are finding that we are not IMMORTAL! In other words, we have found parts of our bodies that appear to have been asleep all these years ... and now they are awake and rearing their ugly heads! Who knew? We are thinking of moving within

Wanda Cronic Howell (to the right of the graduate) with her family at her middle daughter’s graduation from Furman University

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Boxwood Quad triplets, Liz Thomas Camp, Emory Furniss Maxwell and Barb Ashton, ‘sans’ Dr. Mary Witt Will, partying at Perdido

McGraw-Hill after 28 years of service there developing educational achievement tests, and I LOVE retirement! I continue to volunteer at Animal Services (my 15th year!) I also volunteer weekly at Meals on Wheels and have been doing taxes for low-income persons for the United Way for the last three years. My daughter Ashleigh graduated in 2015 with her Ph.D. in Archaeology. I’ve been to England several times to visit with her in the last few years. She and her husband bought a home in England. They were here for a visit last Christmas, and I will be going to England in December to spend the holidays with them this year. I can’t believe that we are now “seniors” on Medicare and Social Security! HAPPY Belated 65+ Birthdays Classmates of 1974!” Sherrie Snead McLeRoy: “Sorry I haven’t been able to keep in touch. My husband of 44 years has endured several major illnesses over the last few years, and I haven’t even been home to Amherst except for a long weekend for my high school reunion.

Liz Thomas Camp and Ellie Boyd, artist of EllieBoydPortraits.com, hangs work, “The Kayaker,” with Reid Freshman Roomie, Liz Thomas Camp, on a 2018 visit to Handy Crossroads, Ga. Acquisition, the SBC online auction

Had to give up writing after my last book (on Texas women). On the good news side, our daughter (only child) and her fiancé are expecting a daughter in October, which probably makes me the oldest first-time grandmother in the class! Of course, I keep in touch with Jane Piper Gleason. In fact, she visited us for a few days in June before going on to a conference in Dallas. Have been much encouraged by the reports from Sweet Briar!” Nancy Mortenson Piper: “My family is doing well. My daughter Liz just started her senior year at Elon University in N.C. She just accepted a job offer with Phillips 66 at their headquarters in Houston. She will start right after her graduation in May. My oldest daughter, Kate, is living in Berkeley and working in San Francisco and loves it. Both girls will be home for Christmas. I had some health issues this year that resulted in heart surgery this summer. There were complications which resulted in a 2nd surgery. But I am healing well and getting stronger every day. My

Bonnie Brophy ’74 (far left) at Cliffside Beach with her family

Mary Witt Will ’74 and Sandra Taylor with Sandra’s niece and a friend

Cathy Weiss Thompson ‘74, in white behind the birthday girl in pink; Wendy Weiss Smith ‘71 (second from right)

husband, Chris, has been a huge help during this time. I hope to be well enough to get to SBC in September for the Leadership Conference and Founders’ Day. Plan for our 45th Reunion next June. I hope to see many of you then. Thanks to everyone who submitted news and photos.

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Anne Cogswell Burris 1437 Headquarters Plantation Dr. Johns Island, S.C. 29455 acburris@comcast.net Bet Bashinsky Wise: I finally hung up the spurs and am traveling more. Doug and I did a fantastic REI trip to Croatia in May, then headed to Montana for the summer. Wild fire smoke was pretty bad in the Flathead Valley. We then dashed to Wisconsin in August to help Gail Ann Zarwell Winkler ’76 with her son’s wedding, followed by a visit to Nashville with my son Case before

Elizabeth Watts ’74 with Jane Hutchinson Frierson, Leslie Elbert Hill and Susan Stephens Geyer during a trip to Kiawah Island, SC

Cece Clark Melesco’s 2015 wedding of son Clark

preparation for the new school year. Meeting other alumnae from a wide variety of class years is rewarding and fun! We should organize a ’75 class effort for SWW next summer! Coni Crocker Betzendahl: Richard and I are both doing well. Blessed with two more grandchildren! Keeping busy with family, painting, gardening, skiing, boating, and riding. We took a trip to Iceland, toured for a week, and I trekked on horseback for a week. Fabulous trip! I ended up buying one! Icelandic horses are super fun to ride and the ground is much closer, as they are really ponies but they call them horses! Looking forward taking both horses up to our place in Vermont for fall riding and fox hunting, where I am a whipper in with the hunt. Lisa Hall Isbell: I continue to reside in Fairfax, VA, and work as a paper conservator at the National Archives in College Park, Md. Ellen Harrison Saunders: Whitney and I are still in Suffolk, VA, enjoying our daughters and their families, who live in Norfolk, including a 2-year old granddaughter. Our son and his family with a 3-year old granddaughter live in Philadelphia. I am still active with the Free Healthcare Clinic, Sweet Briar Alumnae Admissions, and church. We traveled to Vietnam and Cambodia in the spring. Life is busy! I love seeing Betsy Brooks Jones and Kathy Rose Rawls whenever possible, and it is great having Penny Czarra in the Norfolk area and to see her at Sweet Briar events. Ann Henderson Stamets: We have retired to Arroyo Grande on the California central coast. Our son, Jon, graduated from Cal Poly in 2005 and never left the area. He found a good job and married Jamey in 2011. We decided to move to the area to be closer to them and our granddaughter, Rylee. Granddaughter # 2 will arrive in early Oct. We’re enjoying some traveling and will be visiting New Zealand and then Peru in 2019. Chris Hoefer Myers: I am adjusting to life without my beloved husband, Jim, who died in February 2017. Still a fulltime fundraiser at USC (South Carolina, not Southern Cal) and grandmother to five. I devote my free time to gardening (garden was featured on the 2018 Co-

lumbia Green Tour of Gardens) and to training my handsome solid black German Shepherd puppy, Elvis. Christine Kjellstrom Douglas: I still live in Syracuse, N.Y. One twin daughter is working at MUSC Charleston, and other twin daughter is a PT in Richmond, having gone to MUSC for PT school! I have met up with Linda Lucas Steele in Richmond, as my son also works there. While at Whole Foods in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., in July, I just happened to be looking at this “girl” who was checking out; long story short it was, indeed, Chris Hoefer Myers! 45 years since SBC! Susie Lilley: I am still teaching AP Literature at Trinity Prep in central Florida. Big news is I am serving as Orlando’s first poet laureate! It’s challenging and fun to try to bring the joy of creative writing to more people in my community. Also, I have a new book of poems coming out in Spring 2019, The Green Hand of Venus. I’ve been enjoying sharing life adventures on Instagram with my old partners in crime, Patti Tucker O’Desky and Missy Nesbitt Voigt! Although I only had one year at SBC, I remember so fondly the Meta Glass gang of the early ’70s. Linda Lucas Steele: I am celebrating life with friends & family. I recollect special times with Claiborne Gooch Hammond, who personified the essence of friendship — she passed in March 2018. Retired from marketing, I travel with purpose, preferences defined over time through experiences — Chihuly in Asheville, N.C.; Napoleon in Richmond; Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain; gardens in Charleston; and wineries in Haro, heart of Rioja, Spain. Thanks to technology, Roger and I watched every game of the men’s soccer World Cup, enjoying the championship in Valladolid, Spain, with daughter Molly. Son Austen follows my marketing/sales career path in Richmond, while son Evan follows Roger’s in cattle ranching. Beth Montgomery: I left Hollywood, CA, and moved to my hometown, Richmond, and LOVE it. Have enjoyed being back in touch with Ann Wesley Ramsey, Gray Thomas Payne, Catherine Cranston Whitham, and Betsy Rawles. Thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Mo-

rocco in the spring with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Best to all. Ginny Shipe Cameron: It has been a tough year! I lost my mom in October 2017, then my brother-inlaw in January 2018, followed by my cousin’s son who was murdered in Virginia. Medicare coming in handy since I was diagnosed with cancer in July. I have undergone chemoradiation treatment at Hopkins. Meanwhile enjoying some beach time in Ocean City, MD, with my son Andrew, my grandson Colton, and sister Jan. Still working full time running this crazy insulation business and trying to sell my parents’ homes and contents. Someday, I’ll slow down, but for now I’ll enjoy living life to the fullest. Hope everyone is doing well. Barbie Tafel: I am still in Louisville with my own business as an exterior designer and contractor. I have had my real estate license for several years, so that now I can help clients with the whole process of finding a home and adapting it to fit their needs while adding curb appeal and value. I still make time for tennis, and my life is very full with activities, family, and traveling to see grandchildren in San Diego, Denver and Ft. Lauderdale. I am very involved with a local Breast Cancer Organization, Derby Divas (it has been nine years since my mastectomy, chemo, and radiation), and now we have partnered with Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Oaks Day “Pink Out.” It has been a phenomenal experience. It is hard to believe we are all turning 65, but life has never been better for me! Dorsey Tillett Northrup: Frank and I enjoyed a three-week trip to Alaska in August. However, it was the beginning of the rainy season; so go in July if you can!! We are enjoying good health and hope that the rest of the Class of 1975 is too. Our children all live far from us — most young people leave West Virginia — so we keep busy visiting N.Y.C., Houston, and Flagstaff, AZ. If you go to the Grand Canyon, get my daughter Maggie Northrup to be your tour guide. Love to all!! Patti Tucker O’Desky: Greetings from California! After 20 years in our home in Newport Beach, husband (of 40 years) Billy and I decided to downsize to a townhome in Corona del Mar, so we can live the “European village lifestyle” and walk

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heading back to smoke in Montana. Doug cheated and rented an E bike to ride during our BackRoads River Boat Bike trip along the Duoro in September. Life is full, and it’s good to catch up with old friends. Cece Clark Melesco: David and I are spending most of our time at our home on Smith Mountain Lake, VA. He is retired but still does some substitute judging and mediations. I spend a lot of my time with my mother and his mother, who are in assisted care near the lake. Life is good. Our children are happy and healthy and love each other, and we are in good health. My daughter Alex and her fiancé bought a house in Old Village of Mt. Pleasant, S.C., and are planning a 2019 wedding. My oldest son, Todd has a 15-year old son — only grandchild at this time. Daughter Cameron and her husband are in Roanoke, VA; son Clark and his wife are in Falls Church, VA; and son John is in Rocky Mount. I keep in touch with Kathy Osborne Spirtes and see her when she stops by on her way to N.C.. I’d love to reconnect with other classmates. Carol Clement: I got married last year to Richard Knapp. After we went on a lovely honeymoon in Europe, we bought a new home together in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif., and redecorated. He is adopting my two sons, and life is so sweet right now. I love teaching yoga and baby-sitting my first grandbaby. If you are coming to L.A., let me know, so we can show you around. Sarah Clement: I am planning to retire from Federal service February 2019, following my 66th birthday. I have no immediate plans except to join fellow retirees on weekday bike rides and sign up for more volunteer activities. I’ve been on SBC campus more times in the past couple of years than I managed in the past 40. I am so impressed with the progress the new leadership has made in setting the College on a course for the 21st century. Presidents Stone and Woo have my everlasting gratitude for accepting the challenge and insuring that SBC continues its mission begun more than 100 years ago. I have especially enjoyed four summers of Sweet Work Weeks, begun in 2015, where alumnae help with painting, power washing, gardening, and office projects around campus in

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to the beach, restaurants, and shops. After five months of paying for two residences, we decided to lease our townhome. Naturally as soon as the tenants moved into the townhome, our house sold with a quick escrow, leaving us 15 days to do everything, including finding an interim place to live. We ended up on the bay front of Newport Harbor. (Purging and packing nearly did us in!) Now we sit on our lanai and watch the sailing races, outrigger canoe fleets, paddle boarders, and bay cruisers go by each day. It’s a great life, and we aren’t sure if we ever want to move to our townhome. We even have a big guest bedroom for anyone who wants to visit! Moral of the story: Flexibility pays! You never know how things will end up until you get there! Precisely what I learned in 1971, when I traveled 3,000 miles to SBC freshman year. I ended up on second-floor Meta Glass and made the most awesome life-long friends! Carroll Waters Summerour: Toby and I took the whole family (14 of us) to the Tryall Club in Jamaica for my 65th birthday — same place we went for my 60th, just more people! The latest addition to the family is William Michael Reynolds (Will) — Kaki and James’ second. I think everyone is done; so we have six grands ranging in age from 12 to 1. Toby continues as the chaplain for Whiteside Cove Summer Chapel in Cashiers/Highlands area of North Carolina, averaging 200 each Sunday. I continue to do volunteer work (several boards and the vestry at Good Shepherd) when we are not babysitting grands. We are planning a trip down the Danube from Budapest to Prague to celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary. Ann Wesley Ramsey: Highlight this year was celebrating 40 years of marriage with a trip to Africa. Travel certainly helps to have a better world view and reminds me to appreciate the good ole USA. I have loved seeing SBC friends in Maine, Charleston, and Richmond. Old friends make the best friends! Rocket and I will hopefully be blessed with our 5th grandchild Dec. 26 (the 27th anniversary of my 39th birthday)! All is good! Libby Whitley Fulton: It has been a busy year with the business I started in 1996 after I left Wash-

ington, D.C., which means I am approaching my 25th anniversary as a “minority business owner.” My company, Mid-Atlantic Solutions Inc., has grown to be the largest provider in the U.S. of workers under the temporary/seasonal H2 visa program. We work with 1,200 employers in 46 states providing 30,000 seasonal agricultural and non-agricultural workers, who come to the U.S. on legal visas. On the home front, husband Dave and I still live on the farm in Nelson County, VA, which I bought in 1989. After a major reconstruction of the ca. 1820 farmhouse in the early 2000’s, I’m now into a re-do of some of the interior. I also still import/breed/show Dartmoor ponies, a British rare breed. We are holding steady at 12 dogs at the farm (and office), including German Shepherds, Catahoulas, Havanese, and Dachshunds, three cats, and one donkey. I stay in touch with Randy Anderson Trainor and Catherine Cranston Whitham on a regular basis. Randy’s second daughter is getting married in the spring, but you’ll probably hear that from her. Go SBC! Ashton Williams Harrison: I live in Richmond (have downsized to the city) with my husband. We travel between a river house (White Stone,VA) and a mountain house (Wintergreen, Va.) when I am not working at my current job (a turnaround for a company I invested in): Brass Beds of Virginia (and yes, we manufacture a lot more than brass beds!). I came out of retirement (I sold my lighting business in 2011) to save this company. Could be the subject of my next book! I keep up with Christine Kjellstrom Douglas, Ann Wesley Ramsey, and Gray Thomas Payne. Call me if you are in the area! Wendy Wise Routh: The past year was full of highs and some lows. Carlos spent the year perfecting his golf game at Gulfstream and Shinnecock. Luckily for us, Lon and Anne Cogswell Burris joined us in Florida for the member-guest! I was working on some projects; so I flew back and forth, managing to be in Water Mill for every Nor’easter. Lexie is at the Broadway League. If you tuned into the Tony’s, that was me in the 2nd row orchestra pit in the pink and turquoise in every performance shot on TV. We went to the after-party and

then onto The Band’s Visit Celebration for sweeping all the awards. We Ubered to bed at 4 a.m.! John Carlos worked the TriBeCa Film festival, the U.S.G.A. Open at Shinnecock, the U.S. Open tennis, and Fashion Week. So, pretty fun year! The pups are great, and if you are my friend on Instagram @Wisestwendy, you will see how cute they are! ’Til next year. Beverley Crispin Heffernan retired from the Federal Government in April 2016 and doesn’t know how she ever had time to go to the office. Still riding the horses, had two but just bought a third, and lately, competing in the fun sport of mounted archery. Husband Jim continues to work as an administrative law judge for the Department of the Interior. Sons Jimmy and Chris are doing well. She and Jim have been able to enjoy lots of travel in recent years, including Italy, Hungary, and Austria this past May; Canada in June; and they will be off to China in October. Getting together with college roomies Nancy Haight, Robin Singleton Cloyd, and Cynde Manning Chatham in North Carolina in September. And I, Anne Cogswell Burris, continue as your mediocre class secretary with last- minute newsgatherings! Lon is still at Wells Fargo Advisors. I am still part-time bookkeeper at a small law firm in Charleston, which allows me to make my own schedule, so I can enjoy golf, bridg,e and grandchildren (Thomas, 5, Birdie, 2 and Ben, 1). As I write this, grand #4 is due any day! Enjoyed a brief but fun visit with Beth Montgomery and Ann Wesley Ramsey while at a family wedding in Richmond in December 2017. Had a fun time in Florida last spring with Wendy Wise Routh, as husbands played in a member-guest golf tournament. Instead of retiring, we are building a house, which should be ready by early 2020. Thanks to all for submitting news. It is good to hear from everyone! And to those who have reason to come to the “#1 City in the World,” look me up and we can catch up over lunch or a glass of wine!!

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Margaret Weimer Parrish 862 Main Street Danville, Va. 24541 peggyparrish@gmail.com Lynn Kahler Rogerson was married last summer, and husband Steve and she honeymooned in South Africa and went skiing in Italy in January. They acquired a classic 36-foot sailboat and have enjoyed much sailing this summer. Daughter Olivia attended SBC as a freshman last year, Class of 2021. Sadly, she has decided to spend her sophomore year at Sewanee (the small student size at SBC was a concern), but she hopes to return to SBC for the Jr. Year in France program. Lynn hosted a bridal shower for Maureen O’Hearn Slowinski’s daughter and celebrated the happy event with her at the wedding in November. Sally Mott Freeman and Lynn have enjoyed getting together, including a fun evening of ’50s dance lessons. Caroline Bickel McLoughlin is a grandmother. Her daughter had a baby boy on April 11, and they just had a baptism in the chapel in Hyannis Port, where her daughter was baptized as well as married. Caroline was on the Cape for the summer, enjoying sailing in her grandad’s classic 67-year-old wooden sailboat, playing golf and tennis. Husband Hollis has retired, and they went on the Windstar cruise from Greece to Italy and then explored Italy on their own for another 10 days. Last Thanksgiving, they took a road trip south to see family in Alabama and stopped to see Ookie Hayes Cooper in Nashville. Caroline also saw Meg Shields Duke in Delray, where Meg has beautifully renovated her beachfront condo. The spring was filled with her new grandson, who luckily lives a few minutes from Caroline outside of D.C. In June she took a group trip to Israel with the minister from St. Mark’s Church in Ft. Lauderdale. Connie Radford Butler has just begun her 30th year of teaching preschool and is delighted to still be able to sit cross-legged on the floor! Third grandson joined the family last October, born to son Robert and his wife, Alex. Connie says she is blessed to have both children and their families living in Louisville. Children’s

Old Kitchin, Lisa Nelson Robertson, Susan Snodgrass Wynne, and Ann hosted President Woo’s visit to the Virginia Beach area. Debbie Mutch Olander is once again heading into the hurricane season after two rough years in a row. She has been forced to become a sports fan of sorts, with two brothers in pro golf and a nephew with the NFL — so that’s exciting. Mostly she is concentrating on ridding her life of stress. Gina Spangler Polley and her husband, David, are still importing LVT from China for the hospitality market, and at the age of 84, David is still going to Korea and China. Gina just competed in the world championship horse show in Louisville and got 2nd place in the junior fine harness mare class. Son Frank and his wife, Mariya, just graduated with MBAs from Stern (him) and Wharton (her). Gina and David took them on a cruise of the Greek islands. Ann Works Balderston spends 4 months in Jackson, Wyo., in the summer, riding, hiking, and enjoying the wildlife! Her two daughters, both SBC graduates, live there — Maggie is the Head Kid Wrangler at the R Lazy S Ranch, and Sarah is a nurse at the Jackson hospital. Her son comes out from NYC for a couple of weeks each year. Her husband, Biv, is inching toward retirement, but not there yet. The rest of the time they are in Pittsford, N.Y. Ann stays in close touch with Andie Yellott, saw Christy Sauer ’77 a couple of times in the past year, and has enjoyed catching up with Dede Alexandre LeComte. She loves all of her Facebook connections too. If anyone heads to Wyoming, please be in touch for wine and a view.

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Suzanne Stryker Ullrich 820 Waverly Rd. Kennett Square, PA 19348 suzullrich@aol.com Well, WHAT a 40th Reunion it was! We were 62 strong! That pushed us to win the Nancy Godwin Baldwin Award for highest Reunion attendance, named for Cannie Crysler Shafer’s aunt, so it was appropriate that we were able to pull

off THAT coup! The descriptions sent in by some were ‘epic’, ‘a blast’, ‘awesome’ and ‘amazing’ and everyone arrived by ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’! It was so much fun to have so many back on campus, but we wished we could all have been there. Life takes us to far-away places, bringing in those life experiences that force us to choose, always wishing we could be in multiple places at one time! Those that could not be there in person were greatly missed, but hope you got a sense of the excitement from the many pictures that were submitted and compiled! (Please contact Muffy or me if you would like that link again.) And, did I mention the pre-party at Toni Christian Brown’s farm in Lexington? The weekend was kicked off in grand style with 36 classmates, and some hubbies, in attendance! (Yes, there were 10 brave souls in all!) There was food and fun galore, and maybe a few drinks, with friendships being rekindled and memories rehashed! Those who were able to come to Virginia a day early stayed in Lexington and at Toni’s, complete with Lauren Place Young and Jean Beard Barden pitching a tent! The weather cooperated beautifully! Toni and Jim were gracious to host what has over the years become a bit of a tradition started years ago by both Toni and our Robin Jones Eddy, each of them taking turns hosting. “Pre-Reunion helped me get lots of little projects cleared up!” It was also Toni’s birthday, so there were many cards and balloons! “The horse and pig were a big hit with the ‘grands’!” Toni took a birthday ride the next morning while the rest of us sat and drank coffee on the porch! (Be sure to free up your calendar to attend in 2023!) Fortunately, this early start to the weekend allowed Betsy Moore Conti to see some classmates before heading of to hubby, Gene’s, 50th Reunion at Georgetown. Deb Davison Klein came into Baltimore from CA for Reunion, and was able to spend extra time with Mary Page Stewart, and after picking up Cannie at the train station, and Kathy Jackson Howe at the airport, the four of them headed south to VA. What a ride that must have been! Once back in Baltimore, Deb was able to spend time with Mary Goodwin Gamper, and vis-

it with Freshman and Sophomore roomie, Suzy Gillette Chewning who is teaching riding in Monkton, MD. “Laguna Beach has been beautiful this summer, I’m still selling real estate and riding horses, and of course partying! Missing my ’78 Crew!” Katie Renaud Baldwin has finally retired, again, but says she seems busier than ever! There is “lots of home remodeling and babysitting my granddaughters, trips to Michigan to see my parents, and many friends have stopped by the farm. All in all, life is good but sad to have missed Reunion!” You too were missed Katie! Lee Carollo Boyes keeps thinking of retiring from teaching science at Petaluma HS in CA, but ‘I love my teaching, so I don’t!” Riding keeps her busy, along with ballroom dancing for fun. “Two big dogs to walk keeps me in shape.” Bet the dancing does too! There were a few weddings recently. One of Cathy Mellow Golterman’s twin daughters was married in June. Christen and Peter Grote are now living 5 minutes away and Christen will be teaching at The Special School District in St Louis with her twin sister, and bridesmaid, Catherine. Son Woody is in his 2nd year of law school, does Bike for the Cure for Kids with Cancer and is working part time at a bike shop in Tampa, FL. Cathy continues to teach, nanny and dog sit on weekends! A couple of summer getaways included a trip to Wisconsin and to a nephew’s wedding in TN. Muffy had the most wonderful time scheming with Suzanne, helping take care of details, ordering the fun cups, napkins etc. Afterwards, she kindly sent out select pictures from Reunion to all who attended! Always so thoughtful! The fun that created was reflected in the many notes that followed! (We are really trying to keep ‘the glow’ going!) Janet Rakoczy wrote that Maggie Laurent Gordy had been in town and got together, as well as always being in touch with Paula Brown Kelley and Anne Riordan Flaherty. Janet was very much looking forward to seeing Carrie Ruda in late September, to listen to those wonderful wedding bells chime! A fun tidbit from Janet...” I ran into

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equipment, toys, and games once again fill the house and yard! Teesie Costello Howell enjoyed a fun lunch with Peggy Weimer Parrish, Norma Neblett Roadcap, Lochrane Coleman Smith, and Elliott Graham Schoenig in Richmond when Lochrane was visiting relatives there, and she entertained us with stories of her antics to raise funds for charity, à la SBC “Asses,” complete with wig and boa! Glad to know she hasn’t changed. Teesie is still working as a mortgage loan officer, with retirement not yet in sight. Husband Chris retired in the spring and plays a lot of golf. She is getting ready to go to Nashville with a bunch of high school friends for a few days. In addition to the aforementioned lunch, Norma Neblett Roadcap and husband Richard traveled to Dallas this summer to see one of her roommates from senior year, Anne Simonds Lowe ’78. Melanie Coyne Cody is still working as VP of director of talent for Y&R /Wunderman Chicago. Daughter Sarah was married April 7 at the Deerpath Inn in Lake Forest. Missy McNatt flew out for the festivities. The wedding was their “big trip” this year; so no travel adventures to share. Daughter Caitlin received a promotion: VP of group planning director at Digitas. Catherine Farrar Adams is still working with Christine Fox in her ladies boutique in Warrenton by the same name. She’s retiring in December; so she will have ample time for other endeavors. She went to see daughter Sally in Colorado Springs this summer and, as of this writing, just returned from a visit with her cousin in Maine who is a Hollins girl. Son Preston is a chef in Asheville, which he loves. Her aunt, Frances Brooke ’38, turned 101 on June 7 and is still living at home in Lexington ... sharp as a tack!! Ann Kiley Crenshaw welcomed granddaughter Carlisle Crenshaw into the family in September. Son Clarke and his wife, Whitney, live in Dallas with big sister Kiley Crenshaw. Son Gordon received his MBA from Wharton in May. He and his wife, Hannah, live in Richmond. She enjoyed a family vacation this summer and plans to celebrate family Christmas at the Greenbrier. Sally

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my vet at the farmers market. His daughter was with him. I had never met her before. He had told me that his daughter loved going to farmers markets while she was away at school so they decided to check out some of the local ones while she was home for the summer. Turns out she is at SBC, has her horse there and is loving it. I was the first alum “in the wild” (outside of a Sweet Briar event) that she ever met.” Great minds think alike! Janet closed with “It so makes me smile to think of everyone!” Reunions will do that to you! Maggie spent a lot of time this summer in her oasis of a garden in St. Augustine, FL (Pictures don’t lie! It’s gorgeous!), along with the mosquitoes! “I start at about 7:30 or 8 to be done by 10, when dear old Mother Nature turns up the dial on her oven from “bake” to “broil”. Then I go inside and play house.” It’s been that kind of a summer for many! Jane Hemenway Sullivan was unable to attend Reunion, as there was a conflict with her daughter Elizabeth’s graduation from Williams. Later in June she was busy continuing training with the Empire Dragon NYC Dragon Boat team (breast cancer and cancer survivors all!) for competition in the Dragon Boat crew races in Florence, Italy! The races were in early July, and Betsy Moore Conti was there to cheer her on in Florence, while Ieke Osinga Scully was able to be part of her cheering section at races in Harford, CT, last August. (For more information on the Florence races and Dragon Boat races in general, go to https://thetablet.org/breast-cancersurvivors-inspire-on-the-water/). Cannie Crysler Shafer’s daughter, Francie, was also married this past Spring! Becky Mulvihill McKenna was also busy planning a late summer wedding for her daughter, Erin. The new couple moved to Seattle, which is fortunately fairly close to oldest daughter, Katie. Katie finished her Family Medicine residency and lives as a Family Doctor in Hood River, OR. Glad Becky is able to catch her breathe since she will have to dive right into planning Katie’s wedding for next March in Guatemala where she had worked in the Peace Corps! Second daughter, Maggie, “gifted us

with a beautiful, redheaded granddaughter, who is just one. We are loving the whole ‘grandparent’ thing!” Along with all of this, Becky is still working full time as a Marriage and Family Therapist in St Louis. She also continues as an adjunct professor, teaching school professionals about families. Husband Ken still works as a counselor at a local HS, while spending as much time with his passion, traditional Irish music, as possible. “We are busy and enjoying being a part of our daughters’ life transitions!” And news from Carrie Ruda! As of Sept. 29 she became Mrs. James Carlsen! Congratulations to the new couple! “Jim is certainly my blessing – we are having so much fun and finding love in our sixties so surprising. We enjoy watching my sister-inlaw at National Symphony concerts, dancing at Glen Echo, and definitely eating out too much!” Carrie is still working so they “mostly enjoy simple things like talking after sunset on our screened porch and watching the fire flies. I’ve learned to plan fall weekends around Notre Dame football… Jim even took me to South Bend for the Navy game!” Jim retired from Northrup Grumman after 25 years, was USMC JAG, and also practiced with McGuire Woods. “We are still getting settled in our new home but try to spend weekends at Jim’s place on a creek off the Chesapeake Bay, where there are also fire flies….and osprey, geese and herons!” Jamie Anne Murray Ferreira: Wishing all well. A turbulent year for me but now in good hands medically and feeling much better. Our house is almost completely renovated, and we spend a lot of time in the garden. Merlin, our Springer keeps me busy. Still riding, if not as often. Portugal is lovely. Always enjoy hearing from alums and students, adore SBC. Kim Hershey Hatcher: My husband, George, and I celebrated our 40th anniversary in June! Our son, Georgie, and his wife are living in Denver, CO, where he is working at the University of Denver. Our daughter, Lynn, graduated from Gettysburg College in May of 2017 and is now a communications assistant with Nahigian Strategies, located in the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. We visit Sweet Briar often and

stay with George’s aunt, Mary Brugh ’57, in Clifford. Lenore Cox was delighted to see everyone at Reunion, “especially my Roomies – Katherine Powell Heller and Lisa Spruill Darby.” Lenore will be moving back to Lynchburg at some point in the future. No excuse for not getting to campus from there! A wild time was had by Ieke Osinga Scully and Cassandra Smith Babbitt after Cassandra picked her up in Connecticut to head down to Virginia for Reunion festivities, complete with a roadside picnic on the way! With all three boys and an empty nest, Ieke and retired hubby Mark have taken on an historic renovation project in their hometown of Simsbury, Conn. They are trying to update it with as many energy-efficient features as such a project will allow. Ieke enjoys her trips back to SBC and “feeling the good energy there, especially during Sweet Work Weeks! Always more to do than I have time for, but the sense of accomplishment each time for that special place each time!” Thanks, Ieke! Those weeks are really amazing! Perhaps a class group next year? As for Cassandra, life is too busy! Her quilting business is really taking off, her mother recently moved in, and Jim will again be traveling back and forth from Riyadh. “The best part of this year was touching base with so many classmates as ‘hands’ flooded into my life! I had the BEST time!” She had a short visit with grandchildren last summer, and was hoping to visit them again in Victoria, BC this fall. “Right now, I make do with reading books via Skype!” Great idea! Another highlight was a visit with Becky Burt ’76, who was in Maine last summer. Lu Litton Griffin reflected joyfully about all of the activities of the Reunion weekend, remarking on a special get-together for lunch with Margaret Simpson and most of the ’78 Bio Majors! Sadly, Anne Stelle couldn’t make it at the last minute after breaking a leg (ironically the same leg she had broken in school!). Here’s a twist: bio major Nancy Robinson Lindberg, turned family practice doctor, retired, is now weaving and hiking! Nancy surprised all of the biology majors, and Miss Simpson, with lovely pale pink and green bam-

boo scarves that she had woven! Talented lady! There were lots of tales told, and memories stirred, complete with The Cut Up Crew! Lu had been busy with all of the festivities and special events around her church’s 125th Anniversary. Daughter Sarah finished her Community Pharmacy Residency at Wake Forest Baptist Health this past June and is now working for them in Winston-Salem. Son Ivey is living life in Raleigh working for Infosys as a software engineer, has bought his first house, and plays percussion with a band that had their first public event in late summer! That’s exciting! “Alan works in Linville and Morgantown with his custom home construction business while I continue to be as busy as ever! We, like many our age, have elderly parents and relatives that increasingly need assistance.” True! Donna Mihalik Lee writes “Thank goodness for my studies in English and creative writing from Sweet Briar!” Hermanuscript Intersection on Neptune has won the Prize Americana for Poetry 2018. The book is to be published by The Poetry Press of Press Americana. http:// www.americanpopularculture.com/ prizeamericana.htm . She has another book, On the Altar of Greece, which is now available at The Book Shop at Sweet Briar! “Thank you, Anne Doolittle and Lynn Lewis!” And an interview with Donna was just published in the Rappahannock Review. “In it, I talk about Sweet Briar and creative writing. I thought you might be interested. Here’s the link: http://rappahannockreview.com/ issue-5-3/interviews/donna-j-gelagotis-lee/ . Donna has a long list of published poetry! If you are interested please contact her or me!) And it seems we now have two ordained ministers in our class! Cindy McKay, who gave thanks and a lovely tribute to those we have lost in our class during Reunion, (and kept us all laughing!), is now joined by Beth Cone Preston. Beth was ordained July 15th and is living in Spencer, Iowa. A lovely write-up of the event can be found at http:// www.dickinsoncountynews.com/ blogs/1954/entry/71765 . Congratulations, Beth! Elizabeth Perkinson ‘Perk’

Beth Cone Preston ‘78 was ordained July 15

Lots of smiles at 1978’s Class Welcome in Grammer Lounge Friday night at Reunion.

We are off to Reunion! Class of ’78 members: Cindy McKay, Muffy Hamilton Parsons, Ann Key Lucas

The Cut-Up Crew of ‘78 reunites! Suzanne Stryker Ullrich, Lu Litton Griffin, Carey Johnson FLeming, Prof. Margaret Simpson, Nancy Robinson Lindberg, Katherine Powell Heller and Susan Negaard Harley

Jane Hemenway Sullivan ‘78 and Betsy Moore Conti ‘78 celebrating after the Dragon Boat Races in Florence

Simmons misses everyone from Reunion! “Don’t feel like we hardly got there before we were all leaving! Love rekindling my real estate career here on the NC Coast with Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage and Carolyn Birbick Thomason ’80. They use the latest, most up-to-date technology so I am in a steep learning curve and having a grand time!” You’ve got this, Perk! During trips to Topsail Beach this summer, and always, come wonderful memories of fun times from May 2017! Might

fabulous party and farm. Thank you, Toni, for hosting our class! It was a blast seeing and reconnecting with so many classmates at reunion. Since March I have traveled to Nantucket once a month visiting Marianne Hutton Felch ‘79 and my daughter, Brittany, who both live there yearround. Marianne’s husband Bob Felch reached out to Jean Beard Barden to cater Marianne’s 63rd Birthday party on July 31st. Jean, her daughter, my two daughters, myself and sous chef Suzanne Ullrich, all

there be another mini-reunion in our future? (stay tuned!) As I was writing these notes I was able to catch up with Carey Johnson Fleming. She and her extended family rented Perk’s cousin’s cottage in Topsail Beach in September! Lots of fun times! (This was the same house we rented for the Mini-Reunion in 2107) Gus was very much looking forward to his return visit to the beach as well! Carey and David have been between houses during most of the summer, renting a house next

to the new house being renovated in Pendleton, SC. Feel free to ask Carey about the unwanted visitor in the rental house during all of those rainstorms last summer! Again, wonderful memories from Reunion, and catching up with so many! Lauren Place Young has been bopping all over New England, down to school and back, fitting in visits and time with as many as possible! In her words…. “I had so much fun camping out under the stars and fireflies with Jean Barden at Toni’s

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Lauren McManus Huyett ‘79 and Suzanne Stryker Ullrich ‘78

Cassandra Smitth Babbitt and Becky Burt ‘76 in Maine

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Class of 1978: Cannie Chrysler Shafer, Lisa Wray Longino, Mary Page Stewart, Becky Dane Evans, Kathering Powell Heller, with Lynn Spilman Williams and Cassandra Smith Babbitt in the background

helped transport from the mainland, prep, cook, then serve the yummy ‘Jean’s Cuisine Specialties’ in ‘Sconset. Thumbs up and very good job, Jean! You outdid yourself. A special thank you to Suzanne for picking up the THREE forgotten layered birthday cakes in CT. (Can you imagine the looks crossing on the Ferry?) ‘Hut’s’ party was a special reunion for us all. We made a Hollins graduate at the birthday party very jealous of our fierce SBC group and bond. I had a fun overnight visit on 8/1 with Barbara Peck at her beautiful Hartland, VT, home. My commute to work the next day was only 20 minutes so we are stoked that we are so close and look forward to many more get togethers! Ironically, I just moved to Hartland myself to be closer to my job and work week to avoid the daily 1 1/2 hour drive.” Lauren works in Hanover, NH, at ‘The Greens at Hanover’ running an independent retirement home which has 28 condos. “Last Fall I sold a condo owned by an SBC graduate from ‘48 to another SBC ’50 graduate, “Jo Grant” who now calls her condo the ‘Briar Suite!’ How is that for keeping it in the SBC circle?! Cassandra Babbitt and husband came to visit me at The Greens during our Friday hospitality Happy Hour(s)! I hope to reconnect with more SBC friends this summer

and fall” During her late August visit to Nantucket, Lauren was able to reconnect with ‘lost, now found’ classmates Margaret Meads Nordlinger and Lindsley Matthews. Margaret is in NYC and looking forward to reconnecting with more SBC friends, while Lindsley now lives on Nantucket selling real estate after having lived in VA and NYC. Lauren ends in typical Lauren fashion. “For now I am still smiling and laughing from our 40th! Hugs to all of you. Aloha!” Yes, we all get around, hopefully always connecting with SBC sisters, near and far! On my travels back from Nantucket I was able to have some blueberry pie at the Hot Chocolate Sparrow in Orleans, on the Cape, with again new grandmother, Anne Taylor Quarles Doolittle. Daughter Betsy had a ‘little’ 9lbs 12oz baby girl in August. Thank goodness she was taken a bit early! Guess we know where ATQ will be for a while! Keep those thoughts and prayers flowing their way! Life throws challenges at us, which gives us a chance to rise to the occasion! (ATQ, you are strong and will get all through this!) Maybe that is why we are all so good at finding new passions in life as we? Or is it that we got to test the waters in SO many areas while at school? Keep on painting, Anne! Another treat while on the Cape was a visit with Lauren

McManus Huyett ’79 in East Falmouth. Eating, sitting on the beach, ice cream and relaxing…just a great time catching up! I continue to travel with Rick periodically, sometimes he even travels for vacation! We went to Ireland for a nephew’s wedding, as well as seeing a friend we met in New Caledonia and another friend whom I have remained friends with since second grade. Ireland was experiencing a drought, so the weather was consistently warm for us, while the Irish were ‘sweltering’! It was glorious! It was also a treat to spend some time in Scotland. Think ‘Outlander’! Castles, haggis, black and white pudding, kippered herring….and of course, a ‘wee bit ‘o whiskey’! Two out of the three boys are nearby with the ‘grands’, one each, while the youngest is in AL. Ned decided to take a hiking trip that has been in the works for many years with his friend (since pre-K!) to Zion, Escalante, and back country hiking in Grand Canyon Nat’l Parks in Sept. Oldest Alex has taken on any and all sorts of cycling activities, making this mom a little nervous on a regular basis! His 1-year-old son, Leo, is the apple of his eye! Second son, Andrew, is also smitten and stays busy with 2-yearold Laurel. On a personal note, I cannot fully express my total surprise

and gratitude for the amazing quilt, and book of the collection of notes and chronological pictures from all our Reunions that so many of you contributed to. A special shout out to Muffy for taking the time to compile the lovely personal notes and pictures into such a treasured keepsake! I find I need a tissue nearby every time I look through it! It was such a hoot, conspiring with Muffy on everything leading up to our 40th! (Thank goodness we don’t have ‘long distance charges’ of old to deal with!) The hours of planning were all worth it just to see everyone’s faces as they chatted and laughed all weekend! We already have a few more plans up our sleeves, so…Watch out! For those of you not in the Class of ’78, a little background… Instigated by Cassandra Smith Babbitt (‘Quilter Extraordinaire’), and Muffy Hamilton Parsons, brainstormed with various other classmates, classmates were asked to submit a picture/scan of their hands. A total of 72 hands came streaming in by mail, email, and FB from across the country, and around the world, to Cassandra! Keeping track of it all was (I’m sure!) controlled chaos! Each hand silhouette (many with hidden special meanings, one with our 4-legged Mini Reunion 2017 mascot, Gus’s paw print and another with a spoon from Chef Jean!) was then made into a fabric block and used to create a unique, and oh! so special quilt for this Class Secretary! I was in shock, in tears, somewhat speechless, and more than a little touched! The black and white ‘newsprint’ fabrics (appropriate from a ‘notes’ perspective~), accented with pink and green (of course!) were put together in such a way that during a recent period of ‘stuck in the house’ I truly felt all the hugs from the arms attached to those hands! It was so very comforting, and I can’t thank you all enough! It will be treasured for MANY years! Cassandra also presented Muffy with a well deserved, magnificent quilt for being my cohort in crime during the past couple of years, and now our Class President! Being your class secretary is an honor and a joy, but I haven’t done it alone! Over the years there have been others…Paula Brown Kelley, Janet Rakoczy, Michelle Tarride Frazier, (did I miss someone?)… and all of you! Thank

1979

Robbie McBride Bingham 773 Shady Dr. E Apt. 101 Pittsburgh, PA 15228 maryrbingham@gmail.com Louise Mueller Cook: Both of my sons are out of undergrad school. One is applying to grad school. The younger one is engaged! I am feeling a bit old and irrelevant. [Fortunately, she is great and we love her.] Both boys, the fiancé and I are going to Utah for a horseback trip to three national parks. Longest day is 9 hours in the saddle. We are going to be sore. Can’t wait for every aching minute of it. I see Claire Cartwright Vaughn once in a while. Also Diane Dillworth Gates. Really looking forward to our 40th. I hope many of us will be there. Susan Andrews Cruess: Leigh retired on March 31 and is enjoying the relaxed lifestyle. With no limit on vacation days, we have had the following adventures: just returned from 5 weeks in Ontario at Leigh’s family cottage; drove out to Deep River, taking the northern route through Canada on the way out and the southern route through MI, MN, and N.D. on the way home. At least we missed the worst smoke in Calgary from the wildfires in British Columbia. We were home for a week before flying to Toronto for our son Jim’s wedding. We adore his fiancé and are looking forward to sharing in the celebration with friends and family from across North America. Looking forward to trips to France and Palm Springs this fall. And of course the highlight for 2019 travel will be Reunion! Can’t wait to see everyone in June. Vicki Wingate Wilkes: I’m still working in S.C. state government handling real estate needs for the intellectually disabled. Husband Craig has retired from being a pastor at First Presbyterian Columbia.

Together we shuffle bio son George (10th grade) and adopted daughter from Russia, Susannah Kate (7th), to school, golf, and gymnastics. Our schedule isn’t our own with things to do for our elderly parents, 2 cats, and 2 dogs. We’re the “poster” couple for the “sandwiched” generation! Our favorite family times outside home and church are UGa football, times in N.C. mountains and south GA timber farm, and any historic site in-between. Have squeezed in trips to Alaska, Arizona/Utah, and New England. Hope to make 40th both at SBC and UVa (where I finished), but reunions coincide with kids’ exams week. Who would have thought at my 40th I’d be hindered by such! Lauren Huyett: We are doing great up here in Massachusetts. Bill and I both still work full-time — he is at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, and I am still working a ton for my own decorating company. All 5 kids are doing well. Kate is in Manhattan working for Bombas. Phil and Megan are in Pasadena for a fellowship year (he is an ENT surgeon). They are expecting our first grandchild any day! They will be back in Boston next June. Peter and Chip live together in Boston and work for 451 Research and Wayfair. Susan is off to London for a graduate program in production design. She had a lot of fun working on the TV show “Billions” last year. Anyone near Concord or Falmouth, please come visit! Robbie McBride Bingham: Sold the condo, William moved closer to work and in with his girlfriend, and I am in a wonderful 1929 apartment. Sam graduated from UNM with a B.S. in math and a B.A. in philosophy. He got an internship with the Air Force and is starting a master’s program of his own design. I spent the summer catching up on my act 48 continuing education hours and went to Nags Head, N.C. and Sweet Briar for SWW, with stops in Washington, D.C., where I caught up with Megan Morgan ’76. Lots of fun. Susan Lineburry: I recently joined Cindi Little Townsend to celebrate her birthday. It was a very entertaining experience in a salt cave spa. I wish it had made all the wrinkles go away. Finally, I am truly looking forward to seeing everyone at Reunion in 2019. It’s hard to believe it has been 40 years.

1980

Myth Monnich Bayoud 6269 Oram St. Apt. 21 Dallas, TX 75214 mythbayoud@yahoo.com Florence Barnick writes that “gasp” 2020 is our 40th reunion, so we need to make a big effort to be there. She has been trying to fit in Sweet Briar Work Weeks and almost made it this year. Felecia Bernstein attended Sweet Briar Work Weeks for the second year. It’s work, but such good work. If you have not been back — the food service is great and the campus still needs some work, but it has life in it. Leslie Bires in San Francisco has a new job working for the dynamic young female president of First Republic Bank. Her oldest son, Alex, heads off to Cal Poly in September. Colin is a freshman in high school. Her active, golf-playing Dad turned 90 on Labor Day, and her ever-youthful, on-the-go Mom (SBC ’53) will be 86. Lind Robinson Bussey has crossed over into her 60s. She saw Ireland via horseback with husband and friends this summer. All of her children are married and she is expecting her 5th grandchild at Thanksgiving. She would love to cross paths with Sweet Briar classmates. She stays busy playing golf. Martha Freuhauf spent a fabulous weekend with Georgia Schley Ritchie and Beth Fletcher Lubin at Georgia’s mountain retreat in Highlands, North Carolina. Charlotte Gay Gerhardt writes that 2018 has been an exciting and very busy year. She became a firsttime grandmother, and like many of us turned 60! Oldest daughter and her husband welcomed Emmaline into the world this spring, and youngest daughter is off to get her MBA at Oxford this fall. All three joined forces from Salt Lake City, Richmond, and NYC to throw a party for Charlotte with an Elton John theme. On top of that, they recently sold their home of 21 years and are dramatically downsizing. Lisa Heisterkamp Davis writes that life is good. Augusta (28) is a

bona fide social worker and Dashiel (26) is a law school student at Boston College. Lisa and her husband, Josh, went to Morocco and the Canary Islands to celebrate their 30th anniversary. She met up with Sarah Skaggs ’79 and Mary Gearhart ’78 at Christmastime and went to see the choreography Mimi Garrard ‘58, in NYC. Aimee Kass’79 joined them for a spirited walk on the High Line and they passionately reminisced about Sweet Briar! Ginny Hoff says we need to plan a reunion for the Class of 1980 during Sweet Briar Work Weeks in 2020. She has been for the last three years and really enjoyed meeting alums from other classes. Ginny, Amy Campbell Lamphere and Myth Monnich Bayoud discussed making something happen at the Boathouse. Phyllis Watt Jordan is officially an empty nester, with son Jake starting his freshman year at the University of Vermont and daughter Miranda a senior at Emerson College in Boston. She’s working at Georgetown University, helping think tanks translate their research for a broader audience. She met up with Emily Quinn McDermott, Lisa Ward Connors and Cindy Stover Motyko at Emily’s home near Narragansett in July. Tinsley Place Lockhart’s son Beauregard and his wife Beatriz had a daughter in June, Elodie Lockhart. At two months old, she’d already been to Azerbaijan and travelled on a train from Baku to Georgia (not the US state!). Tinsley and husband John have travelled a lot this year: Bermuda in May, London and Isle of Wright in July, home in Edinburgh seeing great comedy at the Festival Fringe in August, then the beach outside of Venice for a couple of weeks in September. She enjoyed seeing Laurie Newman Tuchel, who spent part of the year at Leith College of Art in Edinburgh. They all caught up with Georgia Schley Ritchie when she was passing through as part of her travel agency business. Richard and Ellen Clement Mouri are in Rixeyville, VA, daughter Sarah and her husband Erik are in Paris, KY, and son Cameron is in Boulder, CO. Ellen writes that Cameron is a sushi chef at Sushi Zamni

fall 2018

you for being true SBC Sisters! Keep reaching out to each other, re-kindle friendships and support each other. You never know who will need that little something extra, putting a smile on their face, or lending a shoulder to cry on. As always, sending Hugs!

John Wiles, Janel Wiles ’80 and Myth Bayoud ’80 in Vail

class secretary, has been busy! Her son, Charlie (who now calls himself Chuck Ryan on the radio) is a sophomore majoring in Journalism at Mizzou. She is now a Mizzou Tiger fan! In February, she was in Vail with Janel Hughes Wiles and her husband John. They skied and took a long snowshoe trek on the Vail Golf Course in the wet snow. The back 9 was even closed! She spent Memorial Day in Kennesaw, Georgia, at the Wiles’ playing golf and swimming. She sees Carolyn Birbick Thomason and Tish Longest Tyler about twice a year. If you have a new email address, please email it to her at: mythbayoud@yahoo.com.

1981

Mary Claire Purnell Five Park Place, Apt. 408 Annapolis, MD 21401 cpgd@verizon.net

sbc.edu

Myth Bayoud ’80, Janel Wiles ’80 snowshoeing around the vail golf course

and loves everything about living in CO. Sarah and Erik just returned from a trip to Norway in July. Ellen kept the “grand dogs” while they were gone and they fit in with Ellen’s Dobermans. She stops and visits Monument Hill on her way to dog shows several times a year. Her youngest Doberman is one major win away from an AKC Championship. She is still riding and took her OTTB to his first dressage schooling show last month. She writes, “Life is busy here on our little farm and the animals keep us humble!” Judi Noel is retired now and enjoying her farm in Bedford, VA, with her husband and two spoiled dogs. Life is good. Ann Conolly Simpson writes that 2018 has been great! She was in Mexico In December, hiking in Utah in June, and boating this summer… plus LOTS of tennis. She is still at the Dragon’s Nest selling toys like crazy and Hannah (29) is a teacher at a middle school. Myth Monnich Bayoud, your

Susan Pinkard Morgan is still teaching 6th grade math and living in south Florida. Married 28 years this May, her daughter will be 23 soon. She loves living with two cats, one dog, “and the folks mentioned above.” Quinne Fokes is busy doing UX research projects, looking for an on-going gig, painting, doing Kempo, almost done with MS in HCI (two more classes to go), and she put up a blog called ConversationsWithMyCat.com. Susan Graham Campbell moved to Medford, NJ, this past spring to be closer to her horses after nearly 30 years in center city Philadelphia. She has been semi-retired for 20 months and is just now starting to think about re-entering the workforce in some capacity. Her daughter, Sarah, lives and works in Philadelphia so she gets to see her regularly which is very nice. She just spent a week in NE Harbor, ME, with her wonderful parents. Life is good! Anne Grosvenor Evrard and husband, Walter, are grandparents again: Helene gave birth to Mathide last November. Raphael is now 16 months and is walking and talking! Anne is about to begin renovating their house in the Basque Country. She will be in Memphis for Thanksgiving to see her daughter Clotilde who now lives in Tennessee.

Carol Hays Hunley and Tom are loving Charlotte, NC. Tom has retired and Carol continues to enjoy her role at Ally Bank. They are excited for their daughter Chrissy’s wedding in Gloucester, MA on September 2 and I can’t wait to see Vickie Archer there! I have become active in the local MS Society chapter and enjoy connecting with others dealing with MS. “I am blessed to be living a full life surrounded by loved ones.” Hillary Lewis Bennett lives in Alexandria, VA, and is still close with Dana McBride Jackson. They even went hiking this summer on Mt. Rainier. She retired from teaching, but is still singing, cycling and enjoying theatre and Bible Study. “Look me up!” As for me, Claire Purnell, our big news is that our daughter Mary (24) married Paul Hearding last May in Telluride, CO. It was a wonderful weekend with all kinds of weather including a little snow on the wedding day. Liz (21) is a senior at Fordham U and is studying Sustainability. I am headed to Pittsburgh, PA and am excited to stay with Liz Winson Sweeney. I also stay in touch with Kearsley Rand Waggoner who is as witty as ever.

1982

Patti Snodgrass Borda Mullins 15 Tenth Avenue Brunswick, Md. 21716 pattibmullins@gmail.com Patti Snodgrass Borda Mullins: I am vicariously enjoying my husband Earl’s retirement; with his boat moored in Annapolis, we frequently sail on the Chesapeake Bay. We were part of a chartered flotilla in February from St. Lucia to ports in Martinique and thereabouts. Novice sailor that I am, I enjoyed the opportunity to handle a 51-foot ship in 10-foot waves and 30-mph winds. Daughter Virginia is a rising senior, who soon will start applying to colleges (and knows only at this point, that she wants a “big” school). My job as communications coordinator for The City of Frederick, Md., continues to engage me in familiar and new endeavors that are quite fulfilling. Fundraising kudos: Our class had a final participation rate of 25.7 per-

cent and raised a total of $168,799 to all funds at Sweet Briar. Thank you, classmates, who are able to support beloved SBC financially, and to those who find other ways to sustain our alma mater. Jean Von Schrader Bryan: Loving life in Amherst. Empty nest is nice! New pool has made me very happy this summer. I’m so proud of our class for its increased giving percentage! Turning 59 [in September] ... Sliding down toward 60 next year. Deborah Price Bowman: My children are both seniors — Kate in college at the New School in Manhattan; Kessler at White Mountain School in New Hampshire. I’m enjoying N.J./NYC, tennis, paddle, running singles social and tennis groups locally, and possibly helping my mom move. Observing her Marie Kondo-like “Swedish Death Cleaning,” I am inspired to start on mine now rather than later! Ruth Fowler Whitlow: I still live in my great hometown, Athens, GA (Remember Michelle & me blaring out B52’s and newly-famous REM, Athens being the birthplace of those icons?). Bruce and I enjoy our summer wake surfing and veg gardening. Ready to embark on a bicycle journey through Slovenia and Croatia in September. I see Michelle when in Chi — and Lisa Blake, too. My oldest boy works in California; youngest, Magill, is studying and punts on football team at Georgia Southern University. Life is GOOD! Monty Tripp: Year 1.5 of retirement continues to be fabulous, and SBC remains an amazing connection! With the help of Professor Paul Cronin and SBC alumna Jane Frierson ’74, I have found a fabulous new riding instructor in Northern Virginia. Between riding, travel, volunteering, and the publication of husband Don’s second book this fall, life is full and truly wonderful. Jennifer Rae: Not so much news from me, which is a good thing, for things have stabilized in my life. I adopted a rabbit, Oatmeal, from the Alexandria Animal Welfare League, and he is the ripe age of 10. I continue to drive for Lyft and Uber, which I thoroughly enjoy. I recently signed up for TaskRabbit. Reading the new board bios, one of the new board members is the founder of TaskRabbit. The economy has changed

Fitzgerald VanHorne ’47 passed away in June at the age of 92. She majored in art history and was a fine pianist and did both as careers while raising two sons. She was my mother’s (Kay Fitzgerald Booker’s) twin sister, and passed away on the same day, 18 years apart. I’m sure they visit the SBC campus together now! They are sorely missed here.

1983

Virginia Claus Buyck 414 Seminole Ave. Florence, SC 29501 vbc414@aol.com Would like to start our class notes with a big “thank you” to Mary Pope Hutson, whose incredible, immediate, passionate response that raised multi-millions for Sweet Briar was one of the main reasons our college was saved. In addition to raising money, she generated energy and enthusiasm to make Sweet Briar great again. But — more importantly — she hosted the after-parties at Red Top during Reunion – so much fun! Elena Quevedo wrote what so many of us said – that it was so nice to see everyone at the 35th Reunion. She also said she hoped the annual mini reunions keep going! Elena’s daughter, Olivia, who graduated from RISD, is back home working for the Gagosian Gallery and writing for them on Instagram. Her next stop is grad school in Textile Design. Bobbie Serrano Black shared happy wedding news! Her daughter Anna was married at Sewanee on April 7, and the family gained a wonderful son-in-law, Jack Rogers. They live in Atlanta. Bobbie’s oldest daughter, Lizzie, married Franklin Pogue last July, and they live in Nashville. Youngest daughter Gracie lives in D.C. Amid all this joy, sadly, Bobbie lost her sweet father on Dec. 21, 2017. She was most thankful her parents made Lizzie’s wedding. Kim Howell Franklin writes that when she graduated from SBC, she moved to London for a year to participate in the Sotheby’s Works of Art program, headed by Derrick Shrub. Fast forward 35 years, and she has just joined TTR Sotheby’s International Realty as the D.C.

franchise’s director of relocation and referrals and her boss’s name is Derrick with a last name staring with “S”! Kim is hoping this coincidence is the bookend to her working career! Miriam Morris Baker missed Reunion because she was singing with her choral group in Italy! Clay and Miriam are in Birmingham, and Miriam keeps busy playing tennis, learning bridge, tap dancing, singing, attending a Discipleship class, and napping whenever she can. She has enjoyed seeing Suzy Turner Brennan, Virginia Claus Buyck, Lee Anne MacKenzie Chaskes, Ellen Clare Gillespie Dreyer, Heather Willson Flaherty ’84, Mary Pope Hutson, Elizabeth Cahill Sharman ’84, Laura Morrissette Clark ’85, and Lesly Allen Bell ’85 over the past year. Wendy Chapin Albert and Tolly will be celebrating their 33rd anniversary this year! She is proud of her girls – Eleanor graduated from High Point University in May, and Annie is pursuing her Master’s Studies in Historic Preservation and City Planning at UPenn. Wendy has a 1-year old standard poodle with tons of crazy energy and race horses in training (cross your fingers for them!) Katie Grosvenor has just moved from Chattanooga to Memphis, as her youngest graduated from McCallie. Katie said that she welcomes all SBC visitors – call if you are in Memphis! A shout out to Lee Anne MacKenzie Chaskes who encouraged us to give, and give often, as our Annual Fund leader. Lee Anne loved gathering with Ellen Clare Gillespie Dreyer, Miriam Baker Morris, Suzanne Turner Brennan, and Elizabeth Cahill Sharman ’84 when she invited everyone to spend the week-

Class of 1983

end at Mimi Kitchel DeCamp’s beautiful home in Nashville (not a joke, ask Mimi). Their night at the Blue Bird Café was truly memorable! Lee Anne also had a wonderful time celebrating the marriage of Heather Willson ’84 and Mark Flaherty in Newport, R.I. Ann Hart Sterling still runs dressage shows in Florida, and just did her first International Show (CDI-Prix St. Georgies/Intermediaire 1) last year with her mare, Kashmir. Ann shares good news of her daughters: Stephanie is engaged to a very nice young man who is an International Engineer, and Ali is living in Shreveport, La., and working as a biology professor, while her significant other is finishing his residency for dental surgery. Polly Parker McClure and her husband have a son who is a freshman at the University of Alabama and a daughter who graduated from college a year ago and lives in Columbus, Ohio. Polly works for Allstate Insurance and loves to travel in her spare time. Life is good for Mason Bennett Rummel – she and Rick both enjoy their work and life in Louisville. Mason has enjoyed trips to Cumberland Island, Georgia, Maine, and to SBC for board meetings. Their youngest child, Emma, is a Turning Point student at SBC and graduates in spring 2019. Bennett is married and living in N.Y.C., and Annie is in Nashville. Adriana Garza Read and her husband, Tom, are finally enjoying being empty nesters after an entire year of recovering from Harvey. They dropped their son, Will, off at Texas A&M a year ago and the dam release flooded their home the following weekend. Adriana said she was thankful they were able to evac-

fall 2018

so from what we knew, but I do try to keep up with the trends that will secure paying work. Monika Kaiser: If I could describe this year, it would be a year of travel and construction. I went to Germany three times this year — first picking up Mom, taking her to her school luncheon in Ohio, then to take her back, and finally for my hometown’s festival, which I celebrated with the family and friends. The kids, Richard, and I took a fun cruise, and I finally visited Cuba. Home construction’s a nightmare, but we’re almost done. Lizbeth Kauffman: Keith and I are getting the Kentucky farm in shape (new horse fencing, new tractor and hay baler, automatic waterers in paddocks, seeding pastures, etc.). Going to breed several mares this spring; so hoping for some beautiful foals in 2019! Rosemary Hardy: Life is grand — continue to thoroughly enjoy retirement, with the best part being creating my own schedule of my own activities for each new day. I find there are not enough hours in a day still. Home improvements continue to be done; much easier to arrange for contractors without a 9-to-5 work schedule interfering. Liz Hoskinson: It’s just keepin’ on, keepin’ on here, as I continue to spend the days with the horses, caring for and riding my own, serving on committees at the U.S. Eventing Association, and working each July as co-chief dressage steward for the Millbrook, N.Y., Horse Trials. I’m taking advantage of some drawing classes, am ensconced in a knitting group and a book club, gardening like crazy, staying in touch with family and caring for an elderly parent, enjoying the company of a step-granddaughter, and slowly updating the weekend house. I am so, so grateful for the efforts of our classmates, which are my link to what’s developing with our beloved, restored SBC. Alice Dixon: Alice didn’t send this news, but it was all over Facebook, so it must be true: On Oct. 19, 2018, the Richmond chapter of U.S. Lacrosse celebrated the induction of the 2018 Hall of Fame honorees, including our own Alice Dixon! Mary Ames Booker: I would like to share that my Aunt Suzanne

sbc.edu

Bobbie Serrrano Black ’83 family wedding

uate and save some of their things. Daughter Christina graduates next May from Belmont University in Nashville, and Will is now a sophomore. Heather Riegel Harper and family are in New York – check out her company Harper-Lawrence – her Italian handbags are beautiful! If you aren’t Facebook friends with Amy Osaki Boyce, you are missing some beautiful photos of her hiking tours! Amy is celebrating 22 years of being self-employed (Mountain Hiking Holidays, and Art Tours by Amy) with husband John. Their daughter graduated from high school and will start in September 2018 at the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon. Amy saw SBC friends Marijtje van Duijn from the Netherlands in the U.S. this summer, and Desiree Bouchat last summer. She continues to enjoy Portland, Ore., and hiking and travel. Ellen Chaney Webster has been working as a sales associate for J.Jill since 2015. She also works as a freelance writer and editor, and encourages anyone who needs help with writing and/or editing documents and fiction/non-fiction manuscripts to contact her. Ellen’s sons, Andrew and Robbie, now 17 and 15, are about to start school. Andrew loves astronomy, and Robbie is a tech guru. Big changes on the way for Leslie Wright Root and her husband, Randy (W&L’83). With their sons

grown and out of the nest, they have sold their house in Dallas, Texas (home for the past 30 years) and moved to Telluride, Colo. They are enjoying the active Colorado lifestyle, and plan to spend lots of time traveling, volunteering, and visiting family. Leslie Malone Berger — our new class president! — works as a speech language pathologist and started at a new school this fall. She loves working on the newly formed Pre-School Assessment Team. Leslie said their biggest news was son Alex’s wedding last October to his lovely fiancé, Elena – two W&L alumni! Pamela Dickens Sellars attended the wedding and provided wonderful support — There is nothing like a Sweet Briar sister! [PHOTO – Pamela Dickens Sellars and Leslie Malone Berger at the wedding of Alex Berger and Elena Dorogy in Macon, Georgia] Cary Cathcart Fagan, our fabulous class secretary for the past 10 years, sent a beautiful note about how wonderful it is to stay connected and the value of our friendships. In case any of you think she has lost her sense of humor, she signed off with “Now, enough sap, Whip it, Whip It Good.” Wylie Jameson Small and her husband, Stuart, have done a lot of traveling this past year, to their second home in Hilton Head, S.C., Napa, and England. They remain busy with son Rudy (24) and dogs Peyton (11) and Cleo (5). Wylie has

been playing a lot of golf and continues to train for her first-ever elusive half marathon. Tracy Gatewood is living the college town life in Tuscaloosa, Ala., where she started a completely new career at the youthful age of 50 as a commercial real estate broker. She also dabbles in residential investment property. Tracy is writing her second book and has a blog www. sacredramblings.com. Tracy said she loved seeing Bobbie Serrano Black and Janet Lewis Shepherd at Anna Black’s wedding. Alicia Nygaard Formagus and her husband, Nace, are working to retire in two years. They have a 17-month-old grandson who brings them tremendous joy. Bet Dykes Pope loved catching up with everyone at Reunion and celebrating our own Mary Pope Maybank Hutson! Bet writes that both of her boys are happy and OLD! Carter, Jr. married two years ago and works in real estate in Atlanta. Ross is getting his MBA at UNC-Chapel Hill and is newly engaged. Bet is busy with the arts in Atlanta and continues to flip houses. She has enjoyed seeing Ellen Clare Gillespie Dryer and Mimi Kitchel DeCamp at the beach, Virginia Claus Buyck when she darts into town for dinner and laughs, and Mary Pope Hutson when she comes to Atlanta on SBC business. She also sees Jewett Winn Rothschild, but only when she’s not busy with her two adorable grandchildren and buying the boutique where she’s worked for several years. Blair Redd Schmieg also loved seeing everyone at Reunion and welcomes any and all to Marblehead, Mass.! Leigh Cox Garry has lived continuously in the U.K. since 1990. Now that her elder daughter has started studying for a Ph.D. at Princeton and her younger daughter is starting at the University of Bristol, Leigh and Peter will be empty nesters and hope to visit the U.S. more often. If anyone is in London or near the South Coast, please get in touch with them. October 2018 will mark the 33rd year Cate McNider has lived in N.Y.C. She writes, “This poem in my growing second collection of poetry about sums it up:”

Crossroads in the Garden of Being A flower cannot be rushed To blossom; leave it to the sun, The soil and the rain, To realize it already has Grayson Harris Lane is still living in Menlo Park, Calif. Grayson and David are empty nesters and travel often and have fallen in love with scuba diving. Their daughter, Virginia, graduated from U.S.C. in May and is working as a medical device engineer in San Jose. Their son is a junior at Duke University, also studying engineering. Grayson is very involved tutoring young children in reading and art. It was great to hear from Deidre Platt, who lives in the highland city of Loja, Ecuador, with her family. She was on summer holiday with her two sons in their house in Puerto Lopez on the seaside, enjoying their spacious wild garden and lots of fresh fish daily. Deidre’s eldest daughter, Tanya, who studied at Sweet Briar, is happily living in Nashville. Deidre expects to live in Loja for a few more years while her children study, and she can discuss environmental issues and toxic chemicals on a number of radios, and also receive SIT students in ecology. She said she is still a nature girl and enjoys hikes in Podacarpus National Park, where over 30 years ago she worked as a Peace Corps volunteer. Sarah Babcock happily lives in Richmond on a tiny farm with lots of animals and endless projects to keep her busy. She is the chief of education & training for the Richmond SPCA (17 years now) and currently teaches 20 dog agility classes each week. She continues to do plenty of clicker training with her dogs, but also now with one cat, two horses, three ponies, a mule, and a new parrot! Virginia Claus Buyck: Mark and I live and work in Florence, S.C. It was fun to attend both the 35th SBC and W&L reunions this year – a great group at both. Our daughter Elizabeth is an accountant in Charleston, and we have two (Mark and Brooks) at the University of South Carolina. Been very lucky this year to have seen many SBC friends in many fun places.

1983 celebrating the marriage of Heather Willson ’84 and Mark Flaherty in Newport, RI. Virginia, Mimi, Lesly, Elizabeth, Ellen Clare, Suzanne, Lee Anne, Laura

Ann Hart Sterling’ 83 with Kashmir

Thomas McNutt, Julie McNutt, Alicia Formagus ’83, Nace Formagus, Michelle McNutt, Will McNutt Sarah Babcock ’83 and her parrot

Grayson Lane ’83 family

Pamela Dickens Sellars ’83 and Leslie Malone Berger ’83 at the wedding of Alex Berger and Elena Dorogy in Macon, GA

fall 2018

Annie, Tolly, Eleanor and Wendy Albert ‘83

1985

sbc.edu

F Caperton Morton 30 E 55th Street Kansas City, Mo. 64113 cape1916@gmail.com

Kim Knox Norman and husband Bart are happily adjusting in Atlanta to being empty nesters with both Sally (22) and Joseph (18) in college. After four years as Conservator at the Georgia Archives, Kim is thrilled to be back at Emory University as Head of Library Conservation. She spent a great week with Leah Humenuck ’15 in Charlottesville, attending Rare Book School at UVa. Kim will see classmates Katie Hearn, Lenetta Archard McCampbell, Christine Corcoran Trauth, Ann Martin Gonya, and Karen Gonya Nickles ’86 later this year, and again for their annual beach trip early next year. Barbara Tragakis Conner is still the director of college counseling at Foxcroft School. She loves living in Middleburg, VA. Barb is a grandmother! “It is as wonderful as everyone says. My little grandson has brought enormous joy into our lives.” Each year, she visits college campuses around the country. This March, she’ll be visiting schools in the south: Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. She would like to meet up with Vixens during her travels. Email Barb if you’d like to grab lunch or dinner. She’d like to catch up with you! Barbara.Conner@foxcroft.org Caperton Morton is still enjoying gathering stories for her upcoming podcast. She and Chris crossed off some major items on their list with their trips back East to Cherrywood Farm (just down the road from Sweet Briar). Cape gets to go back in September to paint some more fences. Anyone want to help? It’s SO much fun! ;) On the Fourth of July, DeAnne Blanton and Dick Higgins drove down to meet Caperton and Chris at the Blue Mountain Barrel House in Arrington, VA, for some good music. Mitzi Morgan joined her husband, Chris Caragher, on his business trip to Kansas City, Mo., in June. Cape and Chris enjoyed the heck out of their stay!

Mitzi went down Memory Lane as they visited her first childhood home near K.C. Madge Hall Vosberg and husband Paul’s daughter Vaden left Green Bank, W.Va., for grad school in Boulder, Colo., in August. Cape and Chris were thrilled to have her stay with them in Kansas City and enjoyed their walk to the Plaza for dinner with their lovely, first bundle of joy.

1989

Emmy Leung 1011 Oakdale Rd NE Atlanta, GA 30307 fan-han@prodigy.nem Raquel Hickman Thiebes is still living in Stuttgart, Germany, with her Army husband! Kids have grown and flown with one in Alabama and the other in Colorado attending university. Empty nesters unite! Two years from retirement and trying to decide where to retire. Anyone retired yet in AL or FL? She is currently writing a book and doing tons of traveling. Many friends use their home as home base, so let her know if you roll thru the area! Camelia Washington Gunn and family have also settled into life in Germany and Camelia now has a teaching job with DoDEA. Having enjoyed one year as a stay-at-home Mom, she was looking forward to getting back to the classroom. She ran into a fellow Vixen all the way over in Ramstein, Tiffin Fox. She said she also has two younger sisters who are alumnae. Small world! Kimberly Brookes Driver and husband, Barry, are still living in Apex, N.C. They recently celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary! The kids keep them busy as they range from 13-30. Live music is their passion and she loves showing off Sweet Briar to friends each year when they go to the Lockn’ music festival in Arrington, VA. Kimberly recently left her position at Duke and returned to nurse practitioner school this fall for a post-master’s in psych mental health. Lisa Claypool Stevenson, Gina Pollock Davis, Kimberly Willock Pardiwala, and Heather Daly Jones ’92 managed another get together in July (fourth year in a row), this time

At Heidi Belofsky Turk Cromwell and Douglas Cromwell’s wedding reception. Ellen Weintraub ’72, Martha Swanson, Rebecca Young Metro ’86, DeAnne Blanton, Ginger Ryan Church, Suzanne Weaver Zimmer, Heidi, Kate Byrne, Christine Corcoran Trauth, Karen Williams, Joan Byrne Voss and Vicki Vidal Blum

Heidi Belofsky Turk Cromwell ’85 wedding photo from May 27, 2017. From left: Wesley and Cynthia Junker, Heidi and Doug Crowmell, Devin and Grant Turk, our beloved goldendoodle Tyson

at Kimberly’s home in Larchmont, NY. Emmy Leung: I was happy to have a mini reunion in Richmond in August with JoAnn Bogolin, Sherri Brockwell Dyman, and Richie Boyd McGuire. I am looking forward to our 30th reunion next summer! Hope to see you there!

1993

Norma Bulls Valentine 206 Four Oaks Rd. Wagener, S.C. 29164 Norma_v0@yahoo.com Dianne Hayes Doss No changes ... and big changes. Bill and I continue with our jobs, but Dan has started college, and Jenny has started high school. Great fun to see those

who could make it to Reunion! Love you all! Norma Bulls Valentine: Still working in real estate, mainly in Wellington, FL. Went to Sweet Works Week at SBC & brought my step-granddaughter, Grace, who is 16. Had a great time! Sabryna Roberson: I happily call Northern California home — NE of Sacramento, between San Francisco & Lake Tahoe! Day-trip areas: Napa, Sonoma, Lodi, Yosemite, Monterey. Come visit! During my REUNION East Coast Trip, I was graciously hosted by Katherine Schupp Zeringue ’94, Kelly “Dr. Pepper” Coggshall ’95, Laura Warren Armstrong and Mimi Davies Wroten. So enjoyed our 25-year Reunion — we missed those not present and see y’all in 2023, if not before!

Norma Bulls Valentine ’93 and granddaugher Grace at Reunion 2018

1994

Molly Flasche 152 N Remington Rd. Bexley, OH 43209 molly.flasche@gmail.com

CAPS Playoffs, game 1 watch party in DC, Sabryna Roberson ’93 with Pepper Coggshall ‘95 June 2018 #ALLCAPS

Amelia McDaniel writes that she’s still loving life in RVA! She’s busy with work and kids. Wyly has started school at St. Margaret’s in Tappahannock, VA. Amelia is thrilled that she’s getting to experience an all-girl’s school. Jed is going into 7th grade. “God love all mommas of middle school boys!” She sees Kristen Osmundsen Boyd often, and will sometimes see Polly Crawford ’93 and Lyssa Vaught ’95.

had a great time getting together with local alumnae ladies. She and Margaret Frederick ‘93 attended Diner en Blanc together. She’s still riding and working at Pegasus Therapeutic Riding Academy. Kim Bramley Estep writes that Morgan is a senior and in full college exploration mode. She loves JMU, High Point and Elon so far. She doesn’t want the SBC experience, unfortunately. She plans to study business management and entrepreneurism. Was just voted field hockey captain. Ryleigh is a junior and she’s not interested in a college search yet. Isn’t sure what she wants to do other than NOT have a cubicle job and to travel the world. Scott is her rock as she continues to grow Convention Nation. They are looking at being empty-nesters in only 2 years and are beginning to think about the second stage of their lives. She would love to catch up with SBC classmates. Amy Biathrow Ross has been at Red Hat, a Fortune 500 software company, going on 17 years. She was recently promoted to senior manager, global compliance, which means that her team is responsible for making sure that all Red Hat companies comply with laws and regulations that apply when doing business internationally (trade compliance, anti-corruption, establishing entities in foreign countries, etc.). She feels lucky to have a fascinating job at a company that she feels really appreciates her. She and Craig celebrated their 21st wedding anniversary and are still enjoying Raleigh, NC. She’s got teenagers! Kate will be 15 in November, is taking Driver’s Ed and is in high school. Reid is in 7th grade and will turn 13 this fall. The Ross family is managed by two Bergamascos (Italian Sheepdogs) who constantly herd them and follow them everywhere. She’s looking forward to our 25th reunion (GULP) next spring and hopes to see many 1994s there! I, Molly Flasche, am staying busy with Eddie (4), who just entered pre-K. He’s a bundle of energy and thankfully Chuck and I are still able to stay a step ahead of him! I’m still a docent at the Columbus Museum of Art, and now that Eddie’s in school every morning, I’m getting

fall 2018

Dianne Hayes Doss ’93 on a family trip to Alaska

Vinca Swanson is in Portland, OR, dabbling with a comic book idea about immigration and the history of American Manufacturing. She built an “outdoor bathtub/ deck experience” her back yard over the summer. She’s working on a small mural and trying to get in rock climbing and mountain biking when she can. She tries to avoid social media (except when I hound her about class notes!) She’s having fun with her girlfriend, Lisa, and enjoying working from home with her cat, Tyrone. Linda Lombardo is still loving retirement and is setting sail in October for a long-awaited cruise vacation. She has been retired since 2009 and Tony retired in 2017. They have been watching their third grandchild during her first year and Madison is now in daycare so it is time for a getaway. They were thrilled to watch their first grandchild Logan in 2010 and Hannah in 2013. Linda and Tony’s oldest son, daughter-in-law and youngest son are still at the law firm in Charlotte. Their middle son is a buyer for Whole Foods. They all live within seven miles so that is the dream. Linda and Tony manage properties in Huntersville. They are considering some side projects once they get bored. Linda remains in contact with Leslie Rodgers and would love to hear from the other Turning Point students from the 90s. “That program was, and I hope it continues to be, a blessing to woman outside of traditional college age,” she writes. Last summer Molly Phemister took a break from the food forest, her darling three-year-old and the cat she adopted from Katherine Cook to go galivanting around the West solo for two whole weeks, including a short stint of gardening and hiking with Melissa Broderick Eaton ’96 and her passel of handsome sons. The trip was rejuvenating, and now it’s nice to be home with the family. Katherine Cook moved into an almost-tiny house in October 2017. She’s happily single and embracing the role of Crazy Cat Lady. She loves her dogs, her horse, and her garden and she’s considering taking up witchcraft, just to be contrary. Alexandra Stewart Manwarren

Sisi Zirkle Carroll ‘93 (bridesmaid), Katrhyn Czarkowski, Gretchen Vida, Kara Dickey Moore, Kathy Whitby, Cat Ehlen Breeden, Catherine Orr Nihem ‘95

Jen Parker Raudenbush ’95, Karen Giorgetti ’95, Kelly Hall ’95 and Cari Miller James ‘95

more involved with that, and taking on some new responsibilities. 2018 was a summer of projects on our own version of This Old House, so we stayed close to home, but I’m looking forward to being in Virginia in late May-early June 2019 for reunion. I hope you’ll join us!

Clarkie Woods Duke ’12 and Katie Maxwell Schellhammer ’95

1995

sbc.edu

Katie Maxwell Schellhammer 22914 Goldenrod Dr. Brambleton, Va. 20148 Katie@schellhammer.net

Sarah Young Bass and husband Mike visited Australia, where she saw friends in Brisbane and then headed to Cairns. A highlight of the trip was staying at sea, with frequent dives in the Great Barrier Reef. Last year, they moved from Colorado Springs to Denver, where Sarah is the HR director for a Fortune 300 energy company. Feel free to visit them and their yellow lab, Henry, anytime. In August, Cat Ehlen married Jeremy Breeden at her parents’ home in Durham, N.H. They honeymooned in Mexico and live in Lake Tahoe Incline Village, Nev., where they moved last December for Jer-

Kelly Hall ’95 in Ireland

emy’s dream IT job. She has been busy skiing, hiking, mountain biking, and loving the lake. Kelly Hall is teaching for the U.S. Navy and had some great port visits in Batumi, Georgia, and Jordan. She went to Iceland on her own for two amazing weeks. (She says, “Thanks, Jane Rabadi for the good advice!”) In July, Kelly got together with Cari Miller James, Jen Parker Raudenbush, and Karen Giorgetti. Gwen Hickey Babcock, Beverley Stone Dale, and Bergen Hall Daley had a mini-reunion with husbands and kids over the summer.

Stephanie’s last Virginia Girls’ Night Out. Katie Maxwell Schellhammer ’95. Heather Aspinwall Chiles ’95, Anna Reilly ’95, Anna’s sister Laura, Stephanie Pearson Davis ’95

Gwen Hickey Babcock ’95, Beverley Stone Dale ’95 and Bergen Hall Daley ’95 had a mini-reunion with husbands and kids over the summer

1996

Eileen MacMurtrie 718 Larchwood Ln. Villanova, Pa. 19085 Eileen.macmurtrie@uphs.upenn.edu

Sarah Reidy Ferguson continues to write her Atlanta-based lifestyle blog, Duchess Fare, featuring reviews of recently published interior design books, culinary happenings, decor finds & more. She’s happy to be a part of the Alumnae Alliance as cochair for social media and managing the AA Twitter feed; please follow along @sbcalumnae. Sarah is super proud of the Class of 1996 and the success of our “Wear Your Pink, Give Your Green” giving campaign, with over 40 percent class participation! Robin Bettger Fishburne writes that her daughter, Gibbs, made the varsity volleyball team this year as an 8th grader and will start as a rightside hitter. She and her husband are super proud! Son Parker started 1st grade and loves getting hugs from his big sister every day at lunch. Robin loves being a room mom for his classroom and continues to work as a realtor, which she’s been doing for 18 years! They also have a new addition to their family, Hunter, a handsome Bay Holstein. The Fishburnes love showing people around Charleston;

so let them know if you’re headed into town. Heather Baskett lives in Northern Virginia and is the Animal Care Operations Manager at Fairfax County Animal Shelter. She has a house of animals, and she also lives with her longtime girlfriend. She recently saw Mary Gordon Gill ’95 while at Smith Mountain Lake. Life is busy and good! If you’re in Northern Virginia and are looking for a new furry BFF – go and find Heather! Beth Ike is still living in Charlottesville and is glad to see Susie Gross Leroy and Margaret Brodie Williams ’97 as often as possible. This August the three of them went to the music festival Lockn’, just up the road from SBC at Oak Ridge, and enjoyed the company of another Charlottesville-based vixen, Hobby Holmes Cole ’98. Sadly, we do not have any photographic evidence, but a good time was had by all! Catherine Lanter Carrick and husband John traveled to Malawi over the summer with GAIA (Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance) to support this organization that helps those most affected by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Afterward, they went on safari to the Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti & Tarangire National Parks in Tanzania. The last part of their trip was a 9-day trek to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Epic adventure! Ardas Hiribarne Khalsa and family moved to Las Cruces, N.M., for the last leg of her husband’s residency. Her children, Dharam Inder (10) and Gian Kamal (6), are doing well in their new home. She continues to teach kundalini yoga and perform healing treatments. Leah Jorgensen Jean had a pretty busy year and summer! Leah married Asa on June 1st at the Red Fox Inn in Middleburg, VA. Classmates Meg Magistro Arcadia, Eileen MacMurtrie Zuckerman, and Cindy Rakow Readyhough were attendants. Leah and Asa are also expecting a baby boy in January. They’re about to close on a small farm home in Newberg, Ore., in wine country, where she produces her wine, just as they are getting ready to begin harvest. Meg Magistro Arcadia had a

wonderful time celebrating Leah Jorgensen Jean’s wedding with Cindy and myself. Meg and husband Chris have been living in New Providence, N.J., for the past three years with their two children Nico (12) and Nina (7). Meg teaches 2nd grade at Montclair Kimberley Academy and also serves as the diversity coordinator. Jesse Durham Strauss writes that after taking six months off from being a meeting planner at Strategic Analysis, Inc. in Arlington, Va., she now works very part-time, which allows her to be with their 3 active children, Anna (6th grade), Audrey (5th grade), and Ari (2nd grade), as well as their chocolate Labradors, Coco and Rosie (named in honor of the Sweet Briar Rose). She enjoys grabbing lunch with Rachel Baltus Price and seeing Janeen Sharma when she comes east. Lastly, Laura Lechler Hornef and husband Jim are thrilled to announce the birth of their beautiful daughter, Rhea Jane Hornef, on June 3, 2018. Rhea was born at the Tripler Army Hospital on Oahu at 9:49 a.m., weighing 6 lbs., 10 ozs., and measuring 20 inches long. Laura and Jim were overjoyed to welcome their Hawaiian princess to their family.

Rhea Jane Hornef, daughter of Laura Lechler Hornef

Catherine ’95 and John Carrick, Uhuru Peak, Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

1998

Cynthia Hineline 1613 Finefrock Rd. Fremont, Ohio 43420 Cyndi.hineline@gmail.com Class president Chantel Bartlett, says, “It was such a joy seeing everyone at Reunion. Y’all save the date for our 25th! Thank you to those of you who honored me with being able to support and serve our class. All is well in my world, settling more and more into the new house with Mom. Lots of painting going on! Exciting project is underway, will update soon.” Heather Thomas Armbruster: In May, I started full time with Southern Union State Community teaching Human Anatomy and Physiology. These are the same classes that I have been teaching part time for 14 years. I have designed and

April Collins Potterfield ’96, Jesse Durham Strauss ’96, Rachel Baltus Price ’96, Jen Beck Locke ’96, Mary Copeland ’96 and Janeen Sharma ’96 at Hall Wines in St. Helena, CA, in November 2017

completed 2 quilts so far this year, and I’m starting on my first block of the month quilt, which will be a king-size quilt. I still strive to learn something new with every project. For the first time in many moons, Cynthia Bumgardner Pucket is no longer in charge of anything nor homeschooling. It is definitely a shock

fall 2018

Stephanie Pearson Davis and family have moved to Monument, CO, where her husband, Rob (VMI ’95) is currently assigned at Peterson Air Force Base. Their oldest, Page, started her sophomore year at Young Harris College. Zack is a freshman in high school, and their youngest, Katie Belle, is starting 6th grade. Before the move out west, Stephanie’s amazing roommates, Anna Reilly and Nicole Stewart Fowler, brought dinner and made plans for a visit out West in February. As for me, Katie Maxwell Schellhammer, I spent a July week at the A Bar A Ranch in Wyoming, where I met another alumna, ranch employee Clarkie Woods Duke ’12. My daughter Nora adored the horses and the young W&L & UVa boys/ employees. I think I have a future SBC girl in the making!

to her system. Darrin is a happy guy! Kelly Bowman Greenwood has been traveling: Dana Bordvick Poleski and I met up in Paris in June and then spent a week painting our way through Southern France in a floating watercolor workshop on a canal boat. We stayed in Arles and Aix-en-Provence as well. Hard to believe it has been 21 years since we roamed Paris together in JYF! Also visited Sophie Simonard ’96 and her sweet baby Lucien this spring! Alison Burnett has some catching up to do: I haven’t updated in forever; so excuse the old news. I had Tommy (age 5) in 2013. In 2016 the Cubs won the World Series, which still thrills me since I literally waited for them to win my entire life. I married Joe in 2017. I’m not working at the moment, but we’ve started construction on a multigenerational farmhouse in Wisconsin; so I’m definitely busy. I’ve really enjoyed seeing classmates at our Reunions and connecting with Midwestern alums back home. My family and I are living in Chicago. Please look us up if you are ever in town! As for myself, Cyndi Hague Hineline, I just finished a run in Sondheim’s “Assassins” and am looking forward to a busy opera chorus season, starting with “The Magic Flute.” Alex is starting eighth grade, and I can hardly believe how much faster every year flies by! Being brand new to the class secretary position, I promise I’ll get better at gathering and compiling our notes! It was lovely seeing many of our classmates at Reunion, and I hope to join some of you before our next 25th!

2001

sbc.edu

Meredith Eads 1905 Vandover Rd. Henrico, Va. 23229 Meredithk8eads@yahoo.com

The Class of 2001 has had an eventful year. Our members have survived floods and wildfires. There are new babies joining our families and children heading off to high school. Many of us are turning 40 this year. Here are updates from a few of our SBC sisters. Christina Paolichi was promoted last year to project manager

within Wood Group, with whom she has been employed since leaving the Navy in 2013. Unfortunately, she was adversely impacted by Hurricane Harvey, resulting in the need to gut and rebuild her home. This will be a long restoration process, but she is grateful for the aid of countless work volunteers and the contributions and/or expressions of concern by Shweta Sharma Mistry, Elizabeth Hamshaw Mitchell ’00, Jessica Shannon ’03 and Jennifer Taylor Catano ’02, who brought Christina and her volunteers an awesome lunch. Christina — we all hope that your restoration and recovery is going smoothly, and you are feeling settled and secure once again! Jessica McCloskey wrote earlier in the spring that she was minutes away (or 4 months, depending on how you count!) from submitting her thesis on restorative justice to earn her doctorate in clinical psychology; so that is most of her life right now. She’s still in England, outside of London, applying for her first job as a forensic clinical psychologist to start in the fall. She’s raising a little miniature schnauzer puppy named Gerda, who takes beach holidays without her. By now, I imagine that her thesis has been submitted. This is so exciting! Wishing you all the best, Jessica! This spring, Amy Tabb let us know that she is continuing her work at a USDA lab in W.Va. and raising two kids (3 and 7) with husband Dave. She’s had a busy travel schedule with talks and conferences this winter but was happy to get down to SBC for Engineering Week, where she got to chat with Meta Glass floormates (from 1997!) Megan Thomas Rowe and Meredith Taylor Eads (me!). Megan Thomas Rowe and her family recently moved to Fredericksburg, VA. This was a short move from Caroline County, but it made a huge difference for her family. Now the kids play in the neighborhood and ride the bus to school. Megan is still working as a scientist for the Navy but was recently put in charge of a new branch requiring her to spend a lot of time recruiting. It is new and exciting! Megan and I, Meredith Taylor Eads, were happy to join Sweet Work Weeks again this year in August. We painted rooms

Megan Thomas Rowe ‘01 with her husband, Matthew Rowe (HSC ‘03), at a 60th Anniversary of the Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile Program

in Reid and are looking forward to doing it again next year. We’ll be recruiting classmates to come and work and play with us as soon as dates are released. Julia Kientz Ambersley recently wrote that she can’t believe that it’s her 14th year of teaching! This year she has a new adventure with teaching second graders. She’s excited to share that she was chosen as a presenter at the NCAIS Annual Educators’ Conference in Oct., where she will be presenting the class Writing Essays with Elementary Students. She always loves catching up with

our SWEET sisters, and recently had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Jamie Solimando! I’ve enjoyed catching up with Megan, and Amy this year at different events. I was also able to spend the year working with Donna Harwood ’99 in Hanover County Public Schools! She was a great partner on our Special Education Elementary Lead Team! After a 6.5-year stint with HCPS, I decided to head back to the private sector and now work full time as a behavior analyst with Dominion Youth Services in Richmond. I miss Donna but am enjoy-

Megan Thomas Rowe ‘01 with her family at Isle of Palms, SC, for the solar eclipse last August

2002

Kathleen McNamara Brown 2115 Natahoa Ct. Falls Church, Va. 22043 mcnamara02@gmail.com Amy Mullen is currently illustrating her next board book with Duopress — Colors of the Southwest. Her ABC Animals flash cards will hit shelves this October. Amy’s flip book (My First Lift-the-Flap Animal Book) is at Target stores nationwide. Illustration aside, Amy loved seeing Ashley Trantham Saunders, Dr. Michelle Dunn, and Joanna Mullen, at the wedding of Meg Fronk Nice this past July! Katie McNamara Brown recently earned her CISM certification and enjoys the challenge of working in Cyber. Katie continues to enjoy being a Girl Scout Troop leader and reports that her troop of 5th graders are all phenomenal young leaders! Between all the kids’ activities and camps this summer, Katie and her family did enjoy a relaxing week at the beach. Katie and her husband, Adam Leary, are overjoyed to share that they are expecting a baby boy in March 2019. Katie, Adam, Emma, Carolyn, and all the pups and horses are looking forward to welcoming the new family member when he arrives! In April, Denise McDonald Gentry and her husband, Temple (HSC ’03), hosted a get-together with her SBC girls, their husbands and kids at her family’s beach house in Tybee Island, Ga. It was wonder-

ful to spend time together! Denise’s son, Graham, had a great time with all the guests! Attendees included Lori Smith Nilan, husband Andrew (HSC ’01), and son Thomas; Brook Tucker Buck, husband Trey, and son James; Kelly Monical Goossens, husband Dustin, and sons Lachlan and Weston; and Maria Thacker Goethe, husband Patrick, and daughter Cecilia. Ashley Johnson McGee ’03 and her family couldn’t make the trip, but paper Ashley had a good time! Brook Tucker Buck has moved back to Raleigh to be closer to family. Husband Trey got a job with IBM in international tax, and Brook started a new nursing job in the operating room at the WakeMed Raleigh Campus, switching from orthopedics to neurosurgery! Brook will be meeting up for a much-needed girls’ weekend in Oct. to celebrate the birthday of Lori Smith Nilan! “We’re headed to N.Y.C. with Maria Thacker Goethe, Kelly Monical Goossens, Denise McDonald Gentry, and Ashley Johnson McGee ’03. Can’t wait!!” Stacey Armentrout Fallah had quite the busy summer this year between family reunions, several camps for son Jackson, and the family beach trip to Topsail Island, N.C. “While we were at Topsail, Jackson participated in a great camp where he worked with sea turtles! Jackson and our daughter Emma are both getting so big and growing up so fast — time needs to slow down!” Heather Christensen Smith recently moved back to Santa Barbara with her husband and 3 daughters! She is running Wazi Shoes, a socially conscious company making handmade sandals in Tanzania and donating a percentage of sales to nursing scholarships in East Africa (www.wazishoes.com)! In addition, Heather is still curating an exhibit! Shannon Robinson started a new job with the Dispensary of Hope in Nashville, Tenn., this past February. It’s a nonprofit organization that coordinates the donation and distribution of pharmaceuticals to low-income and uninsured community members. Shannon reports that the role has been both challenging and rewarding! Shannon also started a family with her partner, Shawn Capley. Cecelia Ann (future

Top left to right: Lori Smith Nilan ’02, Denise McDonald Gentry ’02, Brook Tucker Buck ’02, Maria Thacker Goethe ’02, paper Ashley Johnson McGee ’03, Kelly Monical Goossens ’02

class of 2040!) was born April 19, and Shannon and Shawn are both still solidly in the sleep-deprivation stage of new parenthood. Donyele Gibson Wilkerson just celebrated one year in her new home in Hanover, MD, where she lives with her husband and 4th grade son, Earl. She continues to work as an education and training coordinator for the Department of Defense, just finishing an 18-month detail with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She loves keeping up with fellow classmates on social media. Amanda Davis Stevens was happy to see Kathlyn Pierce at the Sacramento Sweet Briar back-toschool event. Amanda is in her 5th year at her firm and was named a Rising Star again! Amanda and her husband just bought a new house and are busy making it “home.” Amanda is also training for her 3rd marathon; she will be running the CIM on Dec. 2. Kathleen Fowler has happy news to share! Kathy just celebrated her 1-year anniversary of her successful cancer surgery — 1 year cancer-free! Kathy reports that the change is night and day. She and her wife, Amy Waller, did a bit of traveling this summer, down to Asheville, N.C., for a week, then to visit family. Kathy’s sister has moved to Northern Va. with her husband and her parents have moved to Orange, where they plan to stay in their retirement. Kathy loves that they are all so close by now! She has just started her 17th year teaching at Fauquier High School in Warrenton and reports that she loves teaching

Jackson and Emma, children of Stacey Armentrout Fallah ’02, enjoying 4th of July fireworks

Heather Christensen Smith ’02 with sister and co-founder of Wazi Shoes, Alice Christensen Majid

as much now as she did when she first began! It might sound silly, but Kathy’s starting to feel like a proper “adult” at last — she certainly has enough white hair! She’s starting a streak, and she expects she will be

fall 2018

ing my new work! Looking forward to meeting up with Angela Aiken Cameron for Hip Hop Nutcracker in Baltimore this upcoming holiday season! I know that many of us keep in touch over Facebook and feel like we’ve got nothing new to share when it comes time for class notes. But, please send in your updates! Tell us about the new beer you’re brewing, your new puppy, or that miracle baby you just had! I know that I love these old-fashioned updates as much as the instant ones online, and I’m sure many of you do, too. :-) With love, Meredith.

Rogue from the X-Men for Halloween this year! Ashley Trantham Saunders was married on April 14 in Raleigh, N.C., in a lovely ceremony. Arney Walker provided gorgeous calligraphy and Aja Grosvenor Stephens gave a beautiful reading. Ashley celebrated the day with fellow alumnae Melissa Cates, Amy Mullen, Joanna Mullen, Jee-Yon Park Pae, Dr. Michelle Dunn, and Meg Fronk Nice. Meghan Gregory was promoted to administrative manager with the Knoxville General Office of New York Life and moved to Knoxville in late April. She is excited about the new role and is looking forward to discovering Knoxville!

2004

sbc.edu

Ginny Wood Susi 2929 Dorell Ave Orlando, FL 32814 ginnysusi@gmail.com

Ginny Wood Susi and husband Phil are expecting their 3rd child. This baby will join Evie (6) and Nicholas (2) and 2 chiweenie rescues. Ginny still lives in Orlando and looks forward to our 15th Reunion next year. Sara Gredler changed careers in May 2018 and moved from Austin, TX, to Salt Lake City, UT. She’s now working as a full-time genealogical researcher at AncestryProGenealogists, the research arm of Ancestry.com. She still presents on various genealogy topics and is working on becoming a certified genealogist as well as exploring her new city. Mary Morris Park, along with her husband, Robert, welcomed their 4th baby boy on 3-1-18, Brooks Alexander. Brooks joins big brothers Ethan (12), Davis (10) and Colin (8). Everyone is adjusting well to the new addition. Mary continues to serve as the director of Christian education at First Presbyterian Church in Richmond. Tiffany McCabe Carr finished teaching elementary music for Southampton County Public Schools after 14 years. This year she joined Suffolk Public Schools and will be a middle school music teacher. She lives in Suffolk with her hus-

band, Joseph, and their three sons: David (9), Charles (3), and Michael (1). Tiffany and Joseph celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary on 7-19-18. Jozanne Summerville has taken on a new role as Auntie JoJo to her fun-loving nieces and nephews. Their energy keeps her going while she continues her career as a financial analyst for the Navy. She misses her SBC crew and hopes to make the trip for our 15th Reunion next year! Stacey Maddox is living in Anchorage, AK, and working as an internist at Alaska Native Medical Center. She and her husband, John Hetzel, recently drove up the Dalton Highway above the Arctic Circle to Deadhorse. They went for a dip in the Arctic Ocean, crossing an item off their bucket list. Stacey will be celebrating her 36th birthday in Nov. in Hawaii with John and their daughters Beatrice and Zinnia. They plan on spending two weeks in New Zealand in the spring. Schyler Ellis Burke and husband Peter relocated to Houston. Peter accepted a new position as senior drilling engineer/drilling manager for Tellurian Energy. They live in Fulshear, TX, with their 5 children, 1 dog, and 2 cats.

2006

Victoria Chappell Harvey 8618 Waldon Heights San Antonio, TX 78254 sweetbriarcollege2006@gmail.com

Just a quick reminder that the Alumnae Alliance needs volunteers to fill all kinds of positions from Admissions Ambassadors (join the AA team!) to Alumnae Clubs and everything in between. Please consider volunteering; you can give as little or as much time as you have. Check out the opportunities at http://sbc.edu/ alumnae-development/alumnae-alliance/. Also, make sure to make your best gift to SBC to help with our class participation and to help SBC reach its goals for dollars and participation. Michelle Badger has been busy recovering from ACL surgery in March, but she has had the opportunity to travel for work and for fun since April. In April she was able to

Patty Cole Monroe ’86 and Michelle Badger ’06 randomly meeting on an Alaskan cruise

Victoria Chappell Harvey ’06 and Michelle Badger ’06 at The Alamo, San Antonio,TX

see Victoria Chappell Harvey when she attended the National School Board Conference in San Antonio. In June she visited SBC for Reunion Weekend, and she hopes more of our class can attend next year. In July she went on an Alaska Land and Sea Cruise, and it was amazing! On the cruise, she met Patty Cole Monroe ’86, thanks to her collection of SBC gear — it definitely comes in handy! Nicole Brandt married Brian Turner on May 28, 2017. To keep their first year interesting, they both went back to school — she started a graduate program in Fish and Wildlife at Colorado State University, and he started an apprenticeship at the pipe-fitters union as a welder. They are getting ready to move into their first home purchase — a 1920’s farmhouse in Loveland, CO, with their 3 ducks, 2 chickens, and 1 dog. Charis Chase Lease-Trevathan passed her LCSW exam in June! Now she is making her way through the paperwork until she’s a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She has really embraced Dialectical Behav-

ior Therapy working at Princeton House Behavioral Health, and having a clinical-level license will give her the opportunity to have her own DBT practice one of these days. This spring, Lindsey Cline left 10 years in communications and fundraising (and her position as director of communications and annual giving at a nonprofit) and made the career switch to landscape designer. She has been a gardener all her life and has always wanted to leave office jobs for work that is particularly meaningful to her. She and her husband, Shrader Stone, together transform sad backyards into beautiful spaces across central Virginia. She kept her favorite client, the Shenandoah National Park Trust, with whom she consults on communications projects, but devotes her time to designing edible and native landscapes and earning a master’s degree in landscape architecture. She can’t wait to celebrate Joanna Meade’s wedding this fall and keeps up with Jenn Wiley and Abby Adams. Maureen McGuire will be enrolling in a Ph.D. program in Visual Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz. Victoria Chappell Harvey is finally settled into Texas life. She works as a contractor for the Department of Labor and travels around facilitating workshops for military members transitioning into the civilian workforce. Earlier this year she had a fabulous reunion with Michelle Badger, and they loved exploring San Antonio together.

2007

Emily Nicole Olson 1106 N. Rio Street Fort Stockton, TX 79735 emilynicoleolson@gmail.com Danielle Briggs-Hansen, Elsa Mittelholtz Cannon and Renee Modzelewski Jauregui ’06 had a mini reunion to celebrate Renee’s baby shower in August. Laura Jane Schaefer visited Natalie Pye and Margaret Loebe ’06 in July! Daughter Maisie started pre-K and is as much a delight as always. Laura continues to work at OHSU’s West Campus leading their sustainability efforts. “I am preparing to take

Ashlee Mays Kidd ‘09 with her husband Adam, daughter Skylar, and son Lucas

the SPCD program at CAVILAM in Vichy, France. Whitney Wheeler lives in Charlotte, N.C., and loves her new job as an assistant property manager for RKW Residential.

2009

Jenny Walkiewicz Dill 13938 SW Crist Court Tigard, Ore. 97223 Jenny.Dill11@gmail.com

Heidi Trude ‘07 was named the 2018 SCOLT World Language Teacher of the Year in March 2018

the first exam for the International Society of Sustainability Professionals certification; so hopefully by the time this is published, I will have passed and be scheming on how to make it to the next level.” Heidi Trude was named the 2018 SCOLT World Language Teacher of the Year in March. She is now one of five finalists for the title of ACTFL National Language Teacher of the year. Heidi will compete for the national title in Nov. at the ACTFL Convention in New Orleans. Heidi spent most of her summer in France traveling with her students and then participating in

Maggie Nicholson joined the staff of Georgia Institute of Technology as event coordinator in Oct. 2017. She graduated from Emory University’s Landscape Design certification program in June 2018 and has been accepted to Georgia State University’s Master of Heritage Preservation program with plans to start classes in spring 2019. Currently renovating her tiny horse farm house, she will be making a career change to residential remodeling in the coming years. Follow @southernscotch on Instagram for DIY project updates and to partner on designs/projects; she’s looking to build her portfolio to focus on offgrid equestrian properties! Maggie met classmates Lauren Ogilvie and Maeve Tibbets in Rodanthe, N.C., for a mini-reunion in May, meeting Lauren’s daughter Evelyn for the first time. Maggie also reunited with

Amanda Strickland, Melissa Diehl Perry, Melissa Ramos Jacklin ’10, and Gretchen McDonough ’08 in The Plains, VA, in July for Amanda’s bachelorette party. She is looking forward to visiting campus in Nov. for Amanda’s wedding. Meagan Bell Bigham and her husband, Justin, purchased and are renovating a house in Lynchburg (there are 3 SBC alumnae on their street!). Justin and Meagan got engaged in December and ran off to St. Augustine, Fla., to get married April 27! On June 3, Meagan had the honor to stand beside her best friend and SBC sister Melissa Viars as she married the man of her dreams! Meagan is still working at Harris Corporation and was promoted to financial planning and analysis manager in June. Doreen McVeigh and her husband, Ken, have just moved into their new Canterbury, England, home, Broughton House, with the ruins of St Augustine’s Abbey (founded 597 AD) in their garden. SBC students and alums are most welcome to visit! Heather Theunissen is an account/project manager at Fathom Creative, a branding agency in the heart of Washington, D.C. Heather is also getting married this fall, tying the knot with her fiancé, Bradford Gregg, in Nov.! Heather still dabbles in the equestrian world and teaches riding lessons and trains horses on the weekends, in addition to leading hikes, camping trips, and exploring the great outdoors!

Brooke Agee recently moved to Troy, VA, with her daughter Harper-Page! Mary Susan Sinclair-Kuenning and her husband, James Flanagan, now live with their three cats and dogs in Largo, FL. James is a 3rdyear resident physician, looking to specialize in pulmonary critical care. Mary Susan is working with an agency out of Orlando as their only Volta wheel performer and is teaching modern dance, Cyr wheel & Gyrotonic, as well as performing throughout the U.S. She was recently on the “Harry” show with Harry Connick, Jr., performing Cyr, and has four different performances coming in Sept.! She hopes to bring Cyr wheel back to SBC and share her passion through a workshop within a year or so. Ashlee Mays Kidd and her husband, Adam, welcomed their son,

From left: Blair Sutton ‘09, Shannon Schalestock Friedman ‘09, Matt Friedman (HSC ‘04) Laura Jones Davis ‘10, and Alexis Parker Van Selow ‘09

fall 2018

Danielle Briggs-Hansen ‘07 guesses Renee Modzelewski Jauregui ‘06’s belly size at her Aug. 2018 baby shower while  Elsa Mittelholtz Cannon ‘07 looks on

sbc.edu

Brooke Agee ‘09 and her daughter Harper-Page

Diana Simpson ’08, Jenny Wakiewicz Dill (with daughter Alexa) ’09 and Megan Behrle ’09 meet in Washington, DC, in August

Rebecca Girten ‘09 and engineering professors Hank Yochum, Kaelyn Leake ‘09 and Bethany Brinkman pause to take in the scenery during the Explore Engineering summer course

Melissa Viar ’09 (left) and Meagan Bell Bigham ’09 at Melissa’s wedding on June 30, 2018

Melissa Ramos Jacklin ‘10 (far left), Gretchen McDonough ’08 (second from left), Maggie Nicholson ’09 (third from right) and Melissa Diehl Perry ’09 (second from right) gathered in The Plains, VA, for the bachelorette party of Amanda Strickland ’09 (far right)

Lucas Avery Kidd. Their daughter, Skylar, loves being a big sister! Rebecca Girten is starting her third year on staff at Sweet Briar, orchestrating all things engineering and happily making new memories with former roomie and current engineering professor Kaelyn Leake, along with the rest of the Guionites. Her younger self would love that she finally got that master key to Guion and this year became advisor for Falls on Nose. Don’t forget to call her up when you’re visiting campus! Laura Cromwell is still living in Denver and now is working for a digital marketing agency. She is also starting her M.B.A. at the University

of Denver in September. She loves getting to see Mallory Sherwood Engelstad and had a ball seeing so many Vixens at the home of Meg Duke earlier this year. Shannon Schalestock Friedman got married to Matt Friedman (HSC ’04) on 6/23/18! It was a beautiful day in her hometown of Warrenton, VA — despite lots of mud and even a tornado! The sunshine came out, and everyone embraced the mud by dancing the night away. It was a true horse country wedding and so much fun with all of their SBC and HSC guests! I, Jenny Walkiewicz Dill, have had a busy few months helping my

husband, Jon, with renovations on our house and continuing to work part-time for Portland General Electric. This summer Jon and I, along with our 2-year-old daughter, Alexa, were able to travel to the East Coast for a vacation. While in Washington, D.C., I had dinner with Megan Behrle and Diana Simpson ’08. I was also able to have lunch with our class president (and my sophomore roommate!) Lauren Guyer Thomas in Charlottesville. I love getting to collect class notes every few months, but nothing beats seeing my Sweet Briar sisters face-to-face. I am really looking forward to our 10th Reunion in June!

Meagan Bell Bigham ’09 married Justin Bigham in St. Augustine, FL, on April 27, 2018

2011

Heather Marianne McTague 1065 Brennan Drive Warminster, Pa. 18974 HMMcTague@gmail.com mctague11@sbc.edu Brittney Bolin Casale was married to Garrett Gerard Arthur Casale on May 26 in Richmond, VA. The ceremony took place at St. Peter’s Catholic Church and the reception at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. Brittney and Garrett will remain in Charlottesville for the duration of Garrett’s ENT residency. Brittney

Lincoln Harper, son of Sarah Jennings Harper ’11, is proud to announce that he’s going to be a big brother

continues her work as a behavior analyst for the Virginia Institute of Autism. They look forward to spending their life together as husband and wife. Heather McTague successfully completed a 120-hour TESOL Certificate Program. She also completed separate certificates in Teaching Business English and Teaching English to Young Learners. She is excited to announce her promotion to Lead Teacher at The Albert Career School. Heather happily attended the wedding of Katherine Paige Tisher Carothers ’13 and Matthew in May with Lauren McTague ’13, Yulia Rigg ’13, and Eleftheria Treklas ’12.

Alicia Modzelewski was accepted to the EVMS Physician Assistant program and will start in Jan. 2019. She got married on Sept. 29. Sarah Jennings Harper and her husband are excited to announce they are expecting another baby boy in Dec.! They also just moved back to Lynchburg, so they’re closer to friends and family. Alexandra Schlomer has completed one semester of classes at the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons University (formerly College) and has earned another promotion. She now proudly works full time as a Library Assistant II at Lynchburg Public Library.

Meagan Oliphant Herman ’11 , Sara Buttine Parsatoon ’11, Sarah Schofield Wright ’11, Brittney Bolin Casale ’11, Melissa Ramos Jacklin ’10 and Natasha Weiss Huff ’10 at the wedding of Brittney Bolin Casale to Garrett Casale in Richmond, VA, on 5/26/18

Claire Carwile Voss ’11, Baby Isaiah Kai, and husband, Jon

The saga continues as she begins her 2nd semester of classes and adjusts to her new role. Claire Carwile Voss and her husband, Jon, welcomed their 1st baby this July, a son named Isaiah Kai.

2012

Carol Ferguson 978 Ravine Drive Villa Hills, Ky. 41017 ferguson12@sbc.edu Greer Gordon married Christopher Spangler. Lindsay Eneg-

uess Paulette ’11, Jane Wiley ’10 and Grace Jones Caskey ’14 were in attendance. Greer also secured a full-time job as a 7th-grade English teacher at a middle school for girls and is excited to groom a new pack of mini-Vixens! Alexandra Grobman is excited to be back at Sweet Briar as the assistant director of the Sweet Briar Fund. If you are on campus, please make sure to stop by the Boxwood Alumnae House and say hi! Vicki Bergs recently changed careers and is starting her first year of teaching! She is teaching 12th-grade English at Barbara Cardwell Career Preparatory in Irving ISD (Texas).

fall 2018

Eleftheria Treklas ’12. Katherine Paige Tisher Carothers ’13, Matthew Carothers, Lauren McTague ’13, Yulia Rigg ’13 and Heather McTague ’11 all smiles at Paige and Matthew’s wedding reception in Annapolis, MD on May 5 2018

2013

Jackie R. Montero jackiermontero@gmail.com Katie Bitting recently defended her Ph.D. in chemistry at Duke University. She has relocated to the Charleston, W.Va., area with her dog, cat, and horse to start a tenure-track position as an assistant professor of chemistry at WVU. She will be teaching organic chemistry and biochemistry, starting a research laboratory, and mentoring undergraduate students. Alyssa Berkeley Doneghue is starting her 3rd year as a special education teacher with Bedford County Public Schools. She, husband Logan, and her stepson, Silas, are excited to welcome Baby Girl Doneghue to the family in Dec. 2018!

Madeline Hodges Rodriguez ’13 and her kids at Garden of the Gods, summer 2018

sbc.edu

Madeline Hodges Rodriguez is busy taking care of her two children, Amelia (2.5) and Abraham (1) while her husband, Andrew, is deployed to Afghanistan for a 9-month tour. They will celebrate their 5-year anniversary upon his return. Maddie also keeps busy running her calligraphy business, Longhand Edition, and volunteering for the Colorado Springs Army Community as the Family Readiness Group Leader.

2015

Lea Gray 2606 Hanover Ave., Apt 2 Richmond, Va. 23220 Graylm27@gmail.com Lea Gray graduated from her master of accounting program at the College of William & Mary in the spring of 2017. In the fall of 2017, she started her job as a tax associate at BDO USA, LLP, and in July 2018 she obtained her CPA license in Virginia. Jesse Schaaf recently became a member of AmeriCorps through the Kansas State College Advising Corps. She is serving at Turner High School as their college advisor. Emily Rogers received a grant from the Polonsky Foundation for work on the Shadow Lines Project (shadowlines.org). She was published in Fwd: Museums and finished her M.S. and advanced certificate at NYU. Marissa Sword and her husband moved to Tucson, AZ, after getting married on March 24, 2017. She works as an RN in one of the top stroke units in Arizona. She graduated from UNCC RN-BSN in Aug. 2018. Last Christmas, she and her husband added Finn, a Vizsla, to their little family! Verena Joerger celebrated 1 year working as a physical scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency in January. This past summer, the Journal of Atmospheric Pollution Research published some of Verena’s work from her graduate studies at Cornell University. Outside of work, Verena enjoys taking improv classes and riding her horse, Solei. Leah Humenuck completed her 1st year at West Dean College, earning a Graduate Diploma of Book and Library Materials Conservation and was accepted to a master of conservation program starting this fall. She is currently interning with the U.S. Army Heritage Education Center Conservation Department. At a Rare Book School summer session, she serendipitously ran into Kim Knox Norman ’85, who attended the same week! Kim is a previous conservation supervisor and an inspiration to Leah.

Marissa Sword ’15 and her husband, Chris, on their wedding day

Leah Humenuck ’15 and Kim Knox Norman ’85

Lea Gray ’15 at her sister’s wedding in May

Jesse Schaaf, Turner High School College advisor

Start Planning Your Legacy

In 1899, Indiana Fletcher Williams founded Sweet Briar College through a visionary planned gift. Indiana’s vision of a college for the education of young women inspired her to establish a trust of land and other assets that became her enduring legacy. This planned gift has provided transformational education opportunities for generations of young women for more than 100 years.

Please join us as a Williams Associate to ensure that her legacy — and yours — will prosper in perpetuity.

Become a Williams Associate

Not sure how to get started? Visit: plannedgiving.sbc.edu For questions, contact: Claire Dennison Griffith ’80 434-381-6479 | cgriffith@sbc.edu

Box 1057 Sweet Briar, VA 24595

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If this magazine is addressed to a daughter who no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please email us at alumnae@sbc.edu with her new address. Thank you!

REUNION WEEKEND: May 31-June 2 Come home to Sweet Briar for Reunion 2019! Although we will be celebrating classes ending in 4s and 9s in particular, remember that all classes are invited to attend and we hope you’ll join us! Find out more at sbc.edu/reunion. Register starting Feb. 4, 2019.