University of Mary Washington Magazine, Spring/Summer 2019, Vol. 43, No. 1

THE GIFT OF A DREAM LAWYER FULFILLS FAMILY’S VISION

FROM THE GROUND UP

FIRM PRESERVES THE PAST FOR THE FUTURE

Contents Features

10 The Gift of a Dream How a family’s devotion shaped generations 16 From the Ground Up Firm preserves the past for the future

Departments 2 9 22 24 25 26 56

On Campus Get the Picture Notable and Quotable Book Report Alumni Seen Class Notes Closing Column

ON THE COVER:

Her grandfather knew there was something special about Jacqueline “Jaci” McClain Kelly ’06, so he sent the child he was raising from his farm in Zimbabwe to live with her aunt and uncle in Virginia. From there, Jaci thrived in secondary school and found an academic home at Mary Washington. She went on to raise her own family, earn a law degree, and serve as a city attorney in Kansas.

Photo by Fernando Salazar THIS SPREAD:

Adjunct Instructor of Art Debra Balestreri and Erin Humphrey ’20 discuss Humphrey’s final project for Ceramics I class. At left, Alaina R. Padden ’20 builds her work.

Photo by Adam Ewing

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ON CAMPUS

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ZIPS TO THE TOP Mary Washington is one of the best places in Virginia to major in business, according to the website Zippia.

The site, which helps recent college graduates with their careers, compared data on 38 Virginia institutions to determine which offers the best career opportunities for business majors. Analysts evaluated admission and graduation rates, cost of attendance, debt on graduation, and earnings and employment statistics.

Suzanne Carr Rossi ’01

Zippia narrowed the list to 10, placing UMW third behind the College of William & Mary and the University of Richmond and ahead of James Madison University, Virginia Tech, Christopher Newport University, George Mason University, and others.

GIVING DAY AGAIN BREAKS RECORDS The UMW family, across the country and around the world, came together to make history on Mary Wash Giving Day, March 19.

During the 24-hour online fundraising marathon, donors in 45 states and nine countries made 4,000-plus gifts totaling more than $600,000 to benefit students and programs across the university, including the arts, academics, athletics, student life, and scholarships. Each gift helps to ensure a strong future for Mary Washington and its students, continuing a tradition of dynamic donor support for the 111-year-old institution.

Donors exceeded the day’s lofty goal of 3,500 gifts and topped last year’s results, breaking the record for the largest day of giving in UMW history. On Giving Day in March 2018, supporters made 2,987 gifts totaling $449,631.

Challenges and matches, unlocking extra funding when milestones were met throughout the day – themed “All In” – also grew this year. Challenges sponsored by alumni, faculty, staff, parents, and friends of the university offered more than $200,000 in matching funds to expand the impact of each gift.

The day’s focus was to encourage participation regardless of one’s ability to make sizable gifts.

Kyree Ford ’21 and Nancy Pham ’19 show thanks to donors on UMW Giving Day.

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UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

SPRING/SUMMER 2019 • VOLUME 43 • NO. 1

Neva S. Trenis ’00 Editor-in-Chief

Laura Moyer

Associate Editor

Anna B. Billingsley

Associate Vice President for University Relations

AJ Newell Art Director

Liz Clark Kuvinka ’96 Maria Schultz M.Ed. ’11 Graphic Designers

Beth Waters Hunsinger ’01 Jill Graziano Laiacona ’04 Lisa Chinn Marvashti ’92 Angela Zosel McCormick ’00 Marty Morrison Cynthia L. Snyder ’75 Mark Thaden ’02 Grace Winfield ’20 Contributors

University of Mary Washington Magazine is published by the Office of University Relations for the alumni, friends, faculty, and staff of the University of Mary Washington.

The magazine staff welcomes your comments.

Email: magazine@umw.edu Mail: UMW Magazine 1301 College Ave. Fredericksburg, VA 22401-5300 Call: 540-654-1055.

Please help us find you: Email address changes to alumni@umw.edu; mail changes to University of Mary Washington Office of Alumni Relations, 1119 Hanover St., Fredericksburg, VA 22401-5412; call with changes to 540-654-1011.

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

Read and comment on University of Mary Washington Magazine online at magazine.umw.edu.

ON CAMPUS

CYBERSECURITY GRANT BENEFITS REGION

Robert A. Martin

UMW will launch a new cybersecurity certification program – the only one of its kind in the Fredericksburg region – thanks to a $110,000 grant recently announced by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. Slated to begin in the spring of 2020, the program will target the area’s shortage of certified cybersecurity professionals, helping to fill existing positions and to create entrepreneurial opportunities.

It will enable UMW to offer a 12-week, 40-hour noncredit program to prepare certified information systems security professionals for successful CISSP exam completion. The UMW grant was part of more than $6.7 million in funding announced

by Gov. Northam for seven regional projects in support of entrepreneurship, workforce, and talent-development initiatives.

UMW President Troy Paino and Germanna Community College President Janet Gullickson meet to sign the Guaranteed Transfer Partnership Agreement.

UMW, GERMANNA SEAL TRANSFER DEAL

President Troy D. Paino and GCC President Janet Gullickson signed the Guaranteed Transfer Partnership Agreement in February. The agreement creates curricular pathways that will smooth the transition from two- to fouryear programs, making it easier for transfer students to graduate on time. The enhanced transfer pathway is similar to an agreement forged between Northern Virginia Community College and Mary Washington last June.

Presidents Paino and Gullickson said the agreement also will enable students transferring from Germanna to UMW to earn bachelor’s degrees sooner, with less student debt. The collaboration will bring the

degrees into reach for a broader group of students.

“It’s imperative that we bring together students from varied backgrounds and diverse perspectives, who not only learn together, but work together to solve problems and serve our communities,” said Paino, who noted that the partnership closely aligns with the university’s larger mission of diversity and inclusion.

AFFORDABLE QUALITY? RIGHT HERE!

UMW ranks 25th on Value Colleges’ recently published list of the country’s Top 50 best-value schools. The group scours the nation’s more than 6,000 colleges and universities to help readers find the best quality education for the most affordable price.

Norm Shafer

UMW has long welcomed transfer students from nearby Germanna Community College, but a new agreement enhances the relationship between the two institutions and gives the transfer students a better chance of success.

Associate Professor of Computer Science Ron Zacharski, right, consults with then-student Taylor Dohmen ’18, far left, and Daniel Mulyono ’19 in a database class.

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ONE OF THE NATION’S BEST Colleges of Distinction, a resource for students, parents, and guidance counselors, has recognized Mary Washington among the nation’s best institutions of higher education. This honor recognizes UMW’s success in four key areas: engaged students, great teaching, a vibrant community, and positive outcomes.

Assistant Professor Kashef Majid leads a business class.

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ACHIEVES AACSB ACCREDITATION The College of Business has joined elite company with its accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International.

Mary Washington is one of only five U.S. schools to receive accreditation in 2018. Just 5 percent of the world’s business degree-granting institutions achieve the status.

UMW set a goal for AACSB accreditation soon after establishing its College of Business in 2010. Led by Dean Lynne Richardson and Associate Dean Ken Machande, the college strategically shaped its curriculum, programs, and faculty to meet the

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15 international standards required for accreditation. Before receiving AACSB accreditation, institutions undergo a rigorous peer review process to ensure that they provide students a first-rate, future-focused business education.

“This distinction is testimony to the diligent efforts over a number of years on the part of dozens of people across campus, most especially the College of Business faculty and staff,” said President Troy D. Paino. “Of course, the true beneficiaries of international accreditation are our students, alumni, and the organizations that hire our graduates.”

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PEACE CORPS NAMES UMW IN U.S. TOP 15 With 10 alumni volunteering around the world, UMW is once again a Peace Corps topproducing institution.

Mary Washington took the 15th spot among U.S. schools with fewer than 5,000 students. The distinction marks the 11th consecutive year UMW has made the Top 25. More than 260 Mary Washington alumni have served the Peace Corps since its 1961 inception.

“There is a longstanding tradition of Mary Washington students involving themselves in public service and in their local communities,” said Center for International Studies Director José Sainz, who helped launch UMW’s Peace Corps Prep program in fall 2017.

“Serving in the Peace Corps is the next logical pathway for those who seek to make a difference in the world.”

ON CAMPUS

FULBRIGHT RECOGNIZES LARUS, FARNSWORTH UMW A LEADING PRODUCER OF FULBRIGHT STUDENTS With three alumni receiving prestigious Fulbright grants for 2018-19, Mary Washington is Virginia’s top producer of Fulbright U.S. Students among institutions that grant master’s degrees. It’s also one of the top producers nationwide.

The “top producer” honor recognizes the success of current students and alumni in receiving grants for study, teaching, and research in foreign countries.

Last spring, three Mary Washington alumni were awarded English teaching assistant grants through the Fulbright program. Molly Bernhard ’14 spent the 2018-19 academic year in Bulgaria; Destiny Williams ’18 was in Taiwan; and Molly Garthwaite ’17, M.Ed. ’18 was in India.

The awards highlight Mary Washington’s continued success in student Fulbright awards, bringing the total to 22 scholarships since 2006. UMW also was named a top producer of student Fulbright awards in 2013-14 and 2016-17.

talking with Malaysian students about American government and politics.”

In all, UMW faculty have received 12 Fulbright grants since 2007.

Political science professors Elizabeth Freund Larus and Stephen J. Farnsworth are the latest faculty to receive U.S. Fulbright grants to research and teach abroad.

Larus has been named a Fulbright Scholar and will conduct field research throughout Eastern Europe during spring semester 2020. Hosted by the Marie Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland, she will research the impact of the new Silk Road – China’s Belt and Road Initiative – on the European Union.

Farnsworth, a previous Fulbright award recipient, has been named a Fulbright Specialist and will spend this summer teaching American government to students of Methodist College in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As the U.S. approaches the 2020 presidential election, Farnsworth said, “now is a great time to be

Elizabeth Freund Larus

Stephen Farnsworth

A GREAT CHOICE FOR NURSES The independent online guide Top RN to BSN, which identifies the best higher education and career options for current and prospective nurses, lauds Mary Washington’s nursing degree-completion program for quality, affordability, and job-market reputation.

The recognition “tells students that they can trust UMW’s program to provide not only an education but an entry to a rewarding career,” said Top RN to BSN Media Manager Gail Harris.

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ON CAMPUS Associate Professor Jon McMillan unloads a kiln.

CHEMICAL SOCIETY HONORS SHARPLESS Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry Charlie Sharpless received the Distinguished Research Award from the Virginia section of the American Chemical Society at a March ceremony in Richmond.

The award recognizes Sharpless’ two decades of research in environmental aquatic photochemistry, exploring the chemical reactions that happen when sunlight is absorbed by dissolved organic matter in lakes, rivers, and coastal marine systems.

McMILLAN A VMFA FELLOW Jon McMillan, associate professor and chair of the Department of Art and Art History, has received a prestigious Virginia Museum of Fine Arts fellowship for 2019-20.

Department of Chemistry Chair Charlie Sharpless mentored former students July Laszakovits ’16 and Orlando Stewart Jr. ’15 in two research projects.

Among other things, he’s studied the effects of sunlight on pharmaceutical compounds in a river downstream from a wastewater plant and on oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Sharpless frequently involves his students in the research, providing mentorship and practical experience.

Because the fellowship coincides with McMillan’s fall 2019 sabbatical, he may use some of the award to fund an artist residency.

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Norm Shafer

McMillan, a ceramic artist who has taught at Mary Washington since 2011, was among 12 professional artists selected. The statewide honor includes a monetary award and opportunities for fellowship recipients to exhibit their work at VMFA.

ON CAMPUS

As the federal government shutdown dragged on earlier this year, faculty and staff from all three UMW colleges put together a daylong program for furloughed federal employees.

Nearly 100 people attended the Jan. 17 Day of Learning, held on the Stafford Campus and featuring workshops to enhance professional and personal development. The event drew national media attention.

Additionally, Mary Washington helped ease a financial burden for those affected by the shutdown, waiving admissions application fees for family members of furloughed government employees.

Suzanne Carr Rossi ’00

“I am amazed and grateful that the UMW community came

together so quickly to support this group of people at their time of need,” said Executive Director of Continuing and Professional Studies Kimberly Young. “The faculty responded with topics and showed up fully to teach and share their passions with the participants.”

Professor of Education George Meadows speaks to community members about 3-D printing.

UMW AN OVERALL BEST College Factual, a leading source for helping students find the schools that are the best fit for them, places Mary Washington among the top 10 percent of the nation’s colleges and universities on its “Best for the Money Without Aid” list and in the top 15 percent on its “Overall Best” list of higher education institutions in the Southeast region.

Suzanne Carr Rossi ’00

UMW PULLS TOGETHER DAY OF LEARNING FOR FURLOUGHED FEDS

Hai Nguyen

NGUYEN’S FELLOWSHIP COMBINES PHYSICS AND POLICY Associate Professor of Physics Hai Nguyen is undertaking a yearlong fellowship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as a science advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in Washington, D.C. As an AAAS fellow, Nguyen breaks complex concepts into digestible information for military leaders, consultants, and lawmakers. In return, he’s getting a firsthand look at how national policy is made and making high-powered contacts that will ultimately benefit his students.

One immediate effect will be to enhance his freshman seminar, Physics for Future Presidents and World Leaders.

“There’s a lot to learn, and it’s sometimes overwhelming,” Nguyen said of his work in Washington. “But I can see that there’s a critical need for more scientists and engineers to step out of their comfort zone and come out of school more suited to serve in this capacity.”

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ON CAMPUS

AMPHITHEATER GETS PRESERVATION AWARD The newly renovated Heslep Amphitheatre has earned UMW the highest accolade bestowed

by Historic Fredericksburg Foundation Inc.

had fallen into disrepair by the 2000s. But three major donors and many other enthusiastic alumni contributed to make the renovation possible.

HFFI’s E. Boyd Graves Award – named for a Mary Washington professor who was a founding member of the preservation organization – recognizes projects “deemed to contribute to the understanding, appreciation, and protection of the history of the Fredericksburg, Virginia, region.”

The amphitheater is named for Donald B. and Josephine McPherson Heslep ’56, longtime supporters of UMW initiatives.

Its Morris Stage was named for former May Queen Marceline “Marcy” Weatherly Morris and Elmer “Juney” Morris Jr., 1950 graduates. Robert S. Jr. and Alice Andrews Jepson ’64 were also major contributors.

DEBATERS BEAT HARVARD Dynamic debate duo Parker Coon ’19 and Gabriel Lewis ’19 outperformed top contenders at the 73rd National Debate Tournament in March.

Terry Cosgrove

Dating to Mary Washington’s earliest years, the amphitheater

Parker Coon and Gabriel Lewis

In the final policy debate tournament of their UMW careers, the pair bested the Harvard University team ranked second coming into the competition.

NATIONAL RANKINGS HIGHLIGHT SPRING ATHLETICS Jeffrey Leckrone ’19 finished fourth in 200yard breaststroke at the NCAA Division III Swimming Championships in Greensboro, N.C., in March. He set a lifetime best and broke Capital Athletic Conference and UMW records with a time of 1:58.89. Leckrone also finished sixth in the 100-yard breaststroke and earned All-America honors in both events.

Leckrone’s top performance was just one highlight of

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an impressive spring for UMW athletics. Also of note: • Women’s lacrosse was ranked in the top 5 in the coaches’ poll all season, holding the No. 5 spot as the magazine went to press.

• Men’s and women’s tennis both stayed in the top 20 national rankings all season, holding the No. 16 (men’s) and No. 12 (women’s) spots at press time.

• Men’s and women’s swimming and UMW volleyball also were ranked or received votes in the coaches’ polls of their sports.

• UMW Rugby has signed to join the ranks of D1A by becoming an affiliate member of the Rugby East Conference starting this fall. UMW was the 2018 D1AA national champion.

Photos from UMW Centennial Image Collection

GET THE PICTURE?

You Got It! Give It Your Best Shot Edward Alvey Jr. and a group of students conferred over a globe in what was then Trinkle Library in this photo from 1963.

“Dean Alvey,” as he was known by students and faculty, came to Mary Washington in 1934 to teach and serve as dean of education; he was named dean and professor emeritus in 1984. When he died in 1999, The Free Lance-Star wrote that he was a “guiding force” at Mary Washington. He is perhaps best known today for his History of Mary Washington College, 1908-1972.

Can you help us identify the students with Dean Alvey? If you have any stories about the photo, we’d like to hear those, too.

Go online to magazine.umw.edu and click on “Get the Picture” to leave a comment. Or send an email with “Get the Picture” in the subject line to magazine@umw.edu.

Cheryl Allen ’77 recognized herself as the woman on the right and recalled that the spoon-and-egg event was a part of Devil-Goat Day. We also heard from Cathy Harwood Lafferty ’77, Phyllis Quinn ’77, Leesa Wolfe Peery ’81, and Mary Ann Mayer ’83. Thanks to all who helped with this identification!

You may also write to: UMW Magazine – Get the Picture 1301 College Ave. Fredericksburg, VA 22401-5300

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Stephanie Kalis

The Gift of a Dream How a family’s devotion shaped generations

by Kristin Davis

J

ust a few years after college graduation, Jacqueline “Jaci” McClain Kelly ’06 had achieved most everything she’d dreamed of.

She’d launched a career, putting her Mary Washington political science education to work as a project analyst for a government contractor. She’d married Darryl Kelly, her sweetheart ever since he’d brought her a corsage on their first date to a high school banquet. They’d started a family.

But when Darryl’s work with the Air Force meant a family move to Wichita, Kansas, Jaci knew it was time to fulfill her most ambitious goal.

Since childhood, she’d dreamed of becoming a lawyer. Maybe the dream started in Newport News, where she grew up in the loving embrace of an aunt and uncle who raised her as their daughter.

Or maybe the dream started even earlier, on a farm in southwest Zimbabwe, where Jaci’s grandfather glimpsed in his tiny granddaughter the intelligence and spark of a scholar.

And now, with a husband whose career sometimes meant months-long deployments, with three young children of her own, and with the nearest law school two hours away, Jaci was more determined than ever. She enrolled in the Washburn University School of Law and committed to

the struggle of juggling family, classes, the long commute, and late nights poring over law texts.

She graduated in 2014 and launched the career that led her to become city attorney in Bel Aire, Kansas, where she provides legal counsel for city officials.

Jaci Kelly’s life today looks and feels a lot like the American dream. And it is. But the dream was never Jaci’s alone.

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n her earliest memories, Jaci roamed the 17 sprawling acres of her grandfather’s farm, with vegetable gardens and livestock and a house that seemed as big as the dreams it held. It sat on the outskirts of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where her grandfather, Samuel Ncube, was headmaster of a primary school.

The farm was the center of 4-year-old Jaci’s universe. It was the home where her father was raised and the place she and her cousins played board games and hide-and-seek. Twice a day, the family gathered around the dinner table to share stories in their native Ndebele.

Years later, Jaci would understand the purpose of these mealtimes – rituals that taught her warmth and strength and the meaning of family. The

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Fernando Salazar

The Kelly family enjoys a walk along the Arkansas River near downtown Wichita. From left, they are Jayda, Trey, Janae, Jaci, and Darryl.

daughter of unmarried teenagers, Jaci had been placed in the care of a grandfather. He believed that education was the only way to make it in the world, that families make sacrifices so that the next generation has more opportunities than the last.

Even if it meant sending his youngest grandchild halfway around the world so that she might have a chance to make a mark on it.

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few years earlier, Samuel Ncube had also sent his first-born daughter, Yvonne, out into the world, to England to become a nurse. There, she was recruited to work at a hospital in America.

After two years as a nurse in Las Vegas, Yvonne visited a cousin in Hampton, Virginia, where she met Ricky “Sipho” McClain, a mailman and Air Force veteran. They married, and in 1987 they headed to Zimbabwe for a honeymoon.

Samuel Ncube surprised the couple with a

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traditional African wedding and a life-altering request. He was getting older, he told them, and couldn’t give Jaci everything she needed. Would they be willing to take her with them to America?

Yvonne wanted a daughter. Ricky told his bride he’d treat her brother’s child like his own flesh and blood.

When her grandfather first introduced Jaci to Yvonne and Ricky, the youngster – who Yvonne said always had a mind of her own – wouldn’t stay with the couple. “She said she’d come back Tuesday,” Yvonne said. “She did. From that day on, she was with us.”

In January 1988, Yvonne and Ricky returned to Virginia as parents of the newly turned 5-year-old girl they called their wedding present.

Jaci remembers that the flight was long. She remembers that the buildings in Virginia were big, the people diverse. She remembers feeling curious and excited. She does not remember feeling sad or homesick.

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Stephanie Kalis

Above, left: Jaci Kelly, far right, visited her family in Virginia last September and spent the afternoon at Yorktown Beach, one of the family’s favorite spots.

Here, from left, are brother Sam McClain, father Ricky “Sipho” McClain, mother Yvonne McClain, and brother Khosi McClain.

Right: School-aged Jaci stands with her father, Ricky, left, and grandfather Samuel Ncube on the steps of the courthouse in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where they had celebrated a family wedding. When the McClains were in the United States, Ricky helped Ncube stay close to Jaci by regularly sending photos.

In Virginia, Yvonne bought her new daughter smocked dresses with ruffled sleeves and headbands to match her blouses. She decorated her bedroom entirely in purple because Jaci said she liked the color. She filled it with dolls and toys.

Quietly, though, Yvonne worried. Jaci was set to start kindergarten that fall, and she didn’t know English. Yvonne enrolled her in preschool and hoped it would be enough.

When kindergarten started, Yvonne scheduled a parent-teacher conference, expecting a problem.

When she explained that Jaci had been in the U.S. less than a year, the teacher looked back, confused.

There was no problem, she told Yvonne. Jaci had not just acclimated. She was flourishing.

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here were family trips to Florida and Washington, D.C., birthday parties and home-cooked meals around the family table. When the weather was warm, Yvonne, Ricky, and Jaci – and later, two of her biological

Courtesy of Ricky McClain

brothers, Sam and Khosi, whom her aunt and uncle also adopted – made day trips to Yorktown Beach, where they splashed in the water and played games and picnicked in the shade. On the Fourth of July, they stayed after nightfall, watching the fireworks light up the dark.

But studies came first; Jaci never forgot what she’d come here for.

In fifth grade, Jaci made her first trip back to her birthplace. She’d been gone half her life, but she took up where she left off, playing with her cousins and roaming the familiar acres of her grandfather’s farm.

Grandfather Ncube had stayed in close touch with his granddaughter despite the distance.

Her self-described “uncle-dad,” Ricky, sent him a stream of photos of the youngster and her successes. Her grandfather died two years later, knowing that his granddaughter was fulfilling his dream for her life and education.

On that first trek back to Zimbabwe, Jaci visited

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Fernando Salazar

Bel Aire city attorney Jaci Kelly, center, shares a light moment with Mayor David Austin, left, and City Council member Jeff Hawes after a council meeting at the Bel Aire City Hall in February. Jaci earned a law degree while husband Darryl was deployed and their three children were small.

her birth father, a man who loomed like a hero in her earliest memories.

“I remember just wanting to be with him, memorizing everything about him,” Jaci recalled.

“I remember riding in his car. He liked country music.”

She saw her birth mother on that visit, too – an intense reunion between Jaci and a now-grown woman who’d started a separate family.

Jaci would not see either of her birth parents again. Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa, was slipping into political and economic turmoil.

Inflation and unemployment soared, health care became scarce, and people of her parents’ generation struggled.

“There were things they were dealing with that I for sure couldn’t understand,” Jaci said.

She next returned to Zimbabwe as a teenager, for her father’s funeral. “This is the saddest I can ever be in my life,” she thought.

Jaci reminded herself that she’d loved him.

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That he would have been proud of who she was becoming. She wondered what might have become of her if not for Yvonne and Ricky, if not for her grandfather’s vision. It was her vision now, too.

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n high school, Jaci filled her free time with extracurriculars – the Mayor’s Youth Commission, the National Honor Society, the Lions Club, nearly 1,500 hours of volunteer work in four years. She began sorting through college brochures.

She lingered over the one from the University of Mary Washington, a school halfway between Richmond and Washington with columned buildings, brick sidewalks, and an air of prestige.

On a clear day in April 2000, Yvonne, Ricky, and Jaci took a tour of the Fredericksburg campus.

A snapshot taken outside Seacobeck Hall captured blossoming trees and beaming parents. The family would visit 10 universities before picking the one that felt just right.

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Fernando Salazar

Darryl and Jaci congratulate daughter Jayda for her first-place win in the local Ford’s Theatre Oratory Festival competition, which gives the eighth-grader the opportunity to participate in a retreat at Ford’s in Washington, D.C. The award considered public speaking, grades, citizenship, and a written essay.

“I was meant to go to Mary Washington,” Jaci said. “I could find myself. I could thrive.”

UMW was, above all, a place where she could feel confident and bold – capable of great things.

She received a partial merit-based scholarship.

“You can’t help but go after your dreams and succeed.”

At Mary Washington, professors challenged her, made her stretch. Victor Fingerhut, now associate professor emeritus of political science, was an expert in political theory and public opinion and a Yale University alum.

Distinguished Professor Jack Kramer took no nonsense. “Learn and understand the history, the issues, the context,” Jaci remembered him telling political science students. “Once you get that, then you can tell me what you think.”

After graduating in 2006, she launched a career and married. She and Darryl welcomed a child, then two more, in the span of six years. Jayda came first, followed by Darryl III (they call him Trey), and Janae.

In 2009, the young family moved halfway across the country, to Wichita, where they gathered around the dinner table each night just as Jaci had done, first as a child in Zimbabwe and then in Newport News. Today, the Kellys’ lives center on homework, the children’s many activities, and ballgames that Darryl coaches.

Jaci chairs the board of trustees at PBS station KPTS and is vice chair of the parent group at The Independent School, which her children attend. She’s active in the local chapter of Toastmasters, too.

The Kellys make sure their children have even more opportunities than they did, furthering the family vision that each generation should surpass the one before it.

Jaci can still remember the look in the eyes of Ricky and Yvonne, who traveled to Kansas to see her graduate from law school.

“There was a peace about them,” Jaci said, the kind that comes when a family fulfills its dreams.

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FROM THE UP Firm preserves the past for the future

BY E M I LY F R E E H L I NG PHOTO S BY NOR M SH A F E R Kerri Barile ’94 studied historic preservation at UMW and co-founded Dovetail Cultural Resource Group. Fredericksburg hired the firm to study and document a historic area along the Rappahannock River on Sophia Street before the city builds the planned Riverfront Park there. Shown here in January, Barile sifts through soil at the site.

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n a January morning, Kerri Barile ’94 crunched through the remnants of snowfall along downtown Fredericksburg’s riverfront to survey two carefully covered sections of upturned earth. As team members from Dovetail Cultural Resource Group bailed water from tarps, Barile consulted with archaeology division manager Brad Hatch ’07 about plans to inspect the foundations of an icehouse and an antebellum residence below the grassy surface.

The work was part of a weeks-long process of documenting historical evidence on a site along the Rappahannock River where the city of Fredericksburg plans to develop a park.

Barile and her team at Dovetail – the firm she founded with colleague Mike Carmody in 2005 – have been a visible presence in Fredericksburg’s historic district. Their studies of the sites of major developments in the area have lent context to sensitive development debates. They also have preserved buildings undergoing restoration and artifacts from the past before new construction seals them away.

As Fredericksburg has grown, so has Dovetail.

It provides full-service cultural resource work for transportation, utilities, municipal building, and other development projects up and down the East Coast.

Barile and Carmody emphasize what they call the firm’s holistic approach to surveying the past.

To them, that means the multiple disciplines of historic preservation – archaeology, architectural history, and the many tools used to interpret the past – are all on Dovetail’s staff résumés.

Key to maintaining that kind of talent is Dovetail’s unique relationship with the University of Mary Washington. Of Dovetail’s 50 employees, 11 are UMW alumni. The firm has employed more than 60 UMW graduates since its founding.

To solidify its commitment to developing talent within the field, the firm this year generously endowed the Dovetail Cultural Resource Group merit-based scholarship to a historic preservation student. The first scholarship will be awarded this fall.

“We wanted to give something back to the

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program that has given so much to us, and to also build awareness that it is such a significant program,” Barile said. “Being able to establish this scholarship is probably one of the proudest moments I have had.”

A Connecticut native, Barile knew from her elementary years that she wanted to come to Virginia for its history. As a child, she begged her parents to take her on a summer vacation not to Walt Disney World, but to Appomattox Courthouse – the central Virginia location of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, which ended the Civil War. “I actually made them drive there from Connecticut,” she remembered. “They were so mad.”

When she started looking for a small college with a central campus and solid academics, “every time I started to look at my list, Mary Washington was on top.”

All it took was one visit during her junior year in high school.

“My parents said, ‘What’s your safety?’ and I said, ‘I don’t have one.’ I applied here early decision, and it was the only school I applied to.”

At first, Barile intended to major in international affairs and theater. “I was going to be a flight attendant,” she said. But on a whim, she registered for a historic preservation class taught by Professor Emeritus W. Brown Morton III, who retired in 2008.

“I remember my freshman year, first semester, Brown Morton started speaking and my jaw just dropped. I was hooked,” she said. “The professors had been in the field and they had done the work, and they were bringing these real-life experiences to all of their classes. I just said, ‘Wow, that is a wonderful way to take this love of history and actually get things done.’ ” Some of her first fieldwork was in Fredericksburg’s historic Market Square with Professor Emeritus Douglas Sanford, who retired in 2017. Sitting in this downtown alley in 1991, she thought, “This is what I want to do.”

Her business partner Carmody, who stumbled into the field as an anthropology major at the

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

University of Virginia, said that kind of epiphany is common in the industry.

“Most professional archaeologists you talk to have that moment where they saw history come out of the ground, and they realize this is different from reading books or memorizing dates,” he said.

Student Olivia Larson ’19, from Loudoun County, made a similar discovery at UMW when she worked on an archaeological dig at Stratford Hall Plantation as part of her American Archaeology class.

“I thought, ‘I could do this for a long time,’ ” she said.

As she completes her historic preservation

major, she’s in her second semester of interning at Dovetail. She started in the lab washing artifacts and has gained experience at the firm cataloging finds from digs. She’s also enjoyed a collegial relationship with Dovetail’s employees, tapping into their expertise as she refines her senior paper.

“It’s helped me a lot with career planning,” said Larson, who is looking at post-graduation work opportunities in Colorado. “Everybody at Dovetail is really supportive. Any time I had a question with my project, I was free to ask around.” In addition to the practical experiences she’s had at a culturalresource management firm, Larson also thinks the breadth of the UMW historic preservation degree Top: Adriana Lesiuk Moss ’11 and Kerri Barile ’94 clean a wall from the Ferneyhough Ice House at the site of a park on the Rappahannock River. Built in 1832, Ferneyhough was Fredericksburg’s first formally established commercial ice house and was used into the early 20th century.

Bottom left: Dovetail’s Katherine Watts, left, and Maddie Kelly ’19 consult outside historic Sligo in Fredericksburg in March. Dovetail is helping its owners get the home on the National Register of Historic Places.

Bottom right: Artifacts found in a dig come back to the Dovetail offices for study, cleaning, and preservation. Here, lab manager Kerry S. González, left, and Reagan Andersen ’18 work on shards of pottery found in Fredericksburg.

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

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was going on.

“It really opens up your understanding of what the other side of the house does, and it helps you understand the profession,” Staton said.

She sees that same broad understanding as an important part of how UMW educates historic preservation majors.

“They come out of Mary Washington with the same philosophy that Kerri and Mike have about cultural resource management,” she said. “They’ve all dabbled in architecture and When she was a historic preservation student nearly 30 years ago, Kerri Barile was doing her first fieldwork with her professor at Fredericksburg’s archaeology, so they already are Market Square, shown above, when she realized that she wanted to make somewhat cross-trained.” historic preservation her career.

In 1981, Mary Washington was one of the first schools in the U.S. to establish gives her a leg up as she seeks jobs in the field. an undergraduate historic preservation major, Barile and her team at Dovetail agree. and it is one of very few undergraduate historic “At Mary Washington, they make you take classes preservation programs in the country. The major in all aspects of historic preservation,” Barile said. is multidisciplinary, requiring students to take “When I graduated, I was able to work for the UMW classes in history, architectural history, archaeology, Center for Historic Preservation and do all kinds of museum studies, preservation law, land-use different things for them.” planning, and the principles of architectural Barile spent three years working for the center conservation. after earning her undergraduate degree, then went on “That is highly unusual, because most to earn a master’s degree at the University of South preservationists are coming out with a degree Carolina and a Ph.D. in archaeology and architectural in architectural history or maybe architectural history at the University of Texas. conservation,” said Lauren McMillan ’07, UMW A job as a historic preservation coordinator for the assistant professor of historic preservation.

Virginia Department of Transportation’s Fredericksburg “Our students come out having taken classes office brought her back to Virginia, where she met in many different fields. It’s important because Carmody, who also was working for VDOT. the majority of our students will go into cultural Both Barile and Carmody bristled at the limitations resource management one way or another. Whether of working within a bureaucracy. They began crafting it’s in the private sector, or if they go into the a vision for a cultural resource management firm that National Park Service, they are going to be working could provide a more complete picture of the past. with cultural resources of all sorts, and they are “If our architectural historians and archaeologists work together, we can produce a more cohesive history, going to need to understand every aspect of what we do.” a better product for our clients,” Carmody said.

McMillan’s husband, Brad Hatch, sees the Heather Staton ’07 sees that concept at work as workforce side of that argument in his job at Dovetail.

Dovetail’s architectural history division manager. She “The hands-on training that you get in the said that while archaeology work was going on along preservation department and the community Fredericksburg’s riverfront, Dovetail’s architectural connections that the department fosters are really historians were invited to come to the site to see what 20

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

beneficial in this career,” he said. “We’ve been able to draw on a pool of talented people when we are looking to hire. That’s really helped our reputation in the region.”

So has Barile and Carmody’s work in Fredericksburg’s historic preservation community. Both have served on preservation advisory committees for the City Council, and Barile is in her second term on Fredericksburg’s Architectural Review Board. She’s also a past board member of the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation Inc. She taught historic preservation classes at UMW from 2005 until 2012, when Dovetail’s growth left her with less time for teaching.

Dovetail staff speak to UMW classes, participate in career days, and give the school community a heads-up on job or internship openings. They also support university events, such as the William B. Crawley Great Lives lecture that featured Jane Goodall biographer Dale Peterson in February. Dovetail gives its employees eight hours of paid community leave each year to contribute to a cause they want to support. The firm also donates 10 percent of its profits to local charities.

“We have committed ourselves as a corporation to make sure we are part of the community and working to make it a better place,” Carmody said.

Both he and Barile see the scholarship as another facet in the reciprocal relationship that Dovetail and Mary Washington have enjoyed. They also see it as crucial to ensuring that future generations are there to preserve the past.

“It is imperative that we continue training historic preservation professionals,” Barile said. “Our connection to the University of Mary Washington was part of our plan before we even opened the doors. I am hoping that relationship continues and flourishes.”

Dovetail Cultural Resource Group not only employs many UMW alumni, it also supports the Department of Historic Preservation and the university with an endowed scholarship and by underwriting a Great Lives lecture, talking to classes at career days, distributing a brochure to educate students about jobs in preservation, and helping with archaeological and archival projects on campus. Dovetail employees and UMW professors regularly help one another on archaeological and architectural research projects in the Fredericksburg area.

UMW alumni who work at Dovetail are:

Kerri S. Barile ’94 President/Principal Investigator

Reagan Andersen ’18 Lab Technician

Varna Boyd ’82 Senior Project Manager

D. Brad Hatch ’07 Archaeological Division Manager

Maddie Kelly ’19 Student Intern

Adriana Lesiuk Moss ’11 Architectural Historian

Mary Ogle ’13 Marketing Assistant

Heather Dollins Staton ’07 Architectural History Division Manager

Not pictured are: Alison Cramer ’17, Archaeological Technician UNIVERSITY OF MARY MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019 Morgan FriesWASHINGTON ’18, Preservation Technician Olivia Larson ’19, Lab Intern

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Miriam Lomaskin

NOTABLE & QUOTABLE

Rebecca Erbelding

Kerwin Miller

Kerwin Miller Takes the Bench in Maryland Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan late last year appointed Kerwin A. Miller Sr. ’95 as district judge in Maryland’s Harford County.

Before his appointment to the bench, Miller was an administrative law judge with Maryland’s Office of Administrative Hearings. He served as a prosecutor in Cecil County, Maryland, handling felony prosecutions and overseeing homicide crime scene responses.

Miller’s other experience includes work as a public defender and as a Legal Aid lawyer.

Miller majored in business administration at Mary Washington and earned a law degree from Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, California.

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Historian Wins National Jewish Book Award Rebecca Erbelding ’03 won a 2018 National Jewish Book Award for her nonfiction work Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe. The book, published

by Penguin Random House – Doubleday, tells the story of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s effort to save Jews from the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II. Erbelding won the JDC – Herbert Katzki Award for “writing based on archival material.” Begun in 1950, the National Jewish Book Awards are the longest-running and most prestigious awards in Jewish literature.

Richmond Leader Recognized Last October, Richmond’s Style Weekly named Theodore “Ted” Lewis ’04 one of its “Top 40 Under 40: Inspiring young leaders who bring Richmond to life” for Lewis’ work as executive director of Side by Side, which provides outreach for the LGBTQ community. Free therapy sessions and housing assistance are just two of the resources Lewis has delivered to Virginia youth. Before working at Side by Side, Lewis had been the first associate director of LGBTQ campus life at the University of Richmond.

Erbelding, who majored in American studies and history at Mary Washington, is an archivist, curator, and historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. She has a Ph.D. in American history from George Mason University.

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

Ted Lewis

NOTABLE & QUOTABLE

Ben Cunningham

Geography Grad Monitors Pipeline Ben Cunningham ’16 is using his UMW geography major and GIS certificate to help protect land in Nelson County, Virginia, and beyond.

The GIS analyst and community organizer uses drones, photos, videos, and maps to track the progress of the proposed 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline to uphold and enforce environmental regulations. The underground natural gas pipeline would go from West Virginia through Virginia to North Carolina. The project is under indefinite suspension due to a federal appeals court’s rescinding of key environmental permits.

As Virginia field coordinator for the pipeline Compliance Surveillance Initiative (CSI) program, Cunningham takes footage and plots it in an online mapping system, or GIS. He’s also training resident volunteers to use the tools to monitor and report pipeline progress and compliance.

Cunningham began the work while at UMW as an intern with the environmental group AlleghanyBlue Ridge Alliance, which sponsors the CSI.

Kevin Leclaire, UltiPhotos

Zach Norrbom ’17, left, competes with the Space Heater Ultimate Frisbee team.

Ultimate Alumni Go National Ultimate Frisbee athletes with Mary Washington connections made a great showing at last fall’s Ultimate Frisbee Club National Championships in San Diego, California.

Jenny Fey ’07; Kyle Khalifa ’15; Christine Valvo ’15, M.S. ’16; and Zachary Norrbom ’17, M.Ed. ’18 competed as part of the mixed-gender team Space Heater Ultimate, which placed third in the national competition.

Austin Bartenstein ’11 and Joseph Richards ’19 competed with the men’s team Washington DC Truck Stop, which placed fifth.

Happy Birthday from Politico When Politico featured Kenny Cunningham ’12 in its “Birthday of the Day” feature last October, he was a director at Prism Group, an influential public affairs firm in Washington D.C. In October, he launched his own firm, Cunningham Communications, where he helps clients enhance and amplify their message or brand through the media. He is also executive director of the national network Maverick PAC, “an organization focused on shaping the future of the Republican Party.”

Cunningham told Politico that politics is in his blood: He grew up

Kenny Cunningham watching his dad work on Capitol Hill as chief of staff to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley. While pursuing a political science degree at UMW, the younger Cunningham interned in Grassley’s office. He worked for political campaigns before joining Maverick.

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

23

NOTABLE & QUOTABLE

Actor in Network on Broadway Actor Eric Chayefsky ’12 opened on Broadway in Network, starring Bryan Cranston, in December 2018. The critically acclaimed adaptation, which runs through June 8 at the Belasco Theatre, is based on the iconic 1976 film written by Paddy Chayefsky, Eric’s great-uncle. Eric Chayefsky plays “ELA member.”

After graduating with a theater degree, Chayefsky pursued acting in his hometown, New York City.

He played Cornwall in an off-offBroadway production of King Lear, and he’s been part of multiple productions at the American Theatre of Actors. Most recently, he played the lead in a short film that won Best Ensemble Cast at the 2018 DC 48Hour Film Project.

Anything Goes!

Wasn’t that Thomas Adrian Simpson ’81 in Anything Goes at D.C.’s Arena Stage?

Eric Chayefsky

Simpson’s TV credits include House of Cards and America’s Most Wanted.

Thomas Adrian Simpson

BOOK REPORT

Books of note Before They Were the Cubs: The Early Years of Chicago’s First Professional Baseball Team Jack Bales, reference and humanities librarian McFarland, April 2019 Quadratic Number Theory: An Invitation to Algebraic Methods in the Higher Arithmetic J.L. Lehman, professor of mathematics American Mathematical Society, February 2019 My Dog and Me: An Inspirational Journal for Dogs and Their People Maria Christina Schultz M.Ed. ’11 edited by Lisa Chinn Marvashti ’92 Bowker, January 2019

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Indeed, fans who joined UMW Theatre on an excursion in December saw the 30-year acting veteran return to Arena.

The D.C.-stage regular counts among his credits Sweeney Todd at The Olney Theatre Center, Crazy for You! and Jesus Christ Superstar at Signature Theatre, Chess at the Kennedy Center, and performances at Ford’s Theatre and The Shakespeare Theatre.

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

After graduating with a degree in math and physics from Mary Washington, Simpson studied at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Featured Book Jean Harley Was Here Heather Taylor-Johnson ’95 Skyhorse, October 2018 When an accident claims the life of the beloved Jean Harley, her husband, son, mother, and best friends are left to grieve in different ways. And the man who caused the accident struggles with boundless guilt.

But as life without Jean goes on, her indelible spirit remains. This literary novel – Heather Taylor-Johnson’s first to be published outside Australia – was shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and was reviewed in the New York Times Book Review.

ALUMNI SEEN

Twenty-nine alumni traveled to Iceland in October 2018 with UMW On the Road. The group spent time in Reykjavík and traveled the Golden Circle.

The fourth annual Young Alumni Eagle Crawl in downtown Fredericksburg brought together 100 alumni to visit several venues.

Nicole Johnson Boynes ’97, Cindy Cherisier Bridges ’94, Angie Willis Ivy ’93, and Colette Webb Wilson ’93 tailgate during homecoming at the Battleground Athletic Complex.

May 31 - June 2, 2019 Register online at alumni.umw.edu

President Troy Paino addresses attendees of the Celebration of Giving in November.

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

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No class agent? No problem. Send your news to classnotes@umw. edu. If you prefer to submit Class Notes by mail, send to: UMW Magazine – Class Notes 1301 College Ave., Fredericksburg, VA 22401

Read It

ONLINE

Find the original, unedited text of Class Notes online at magazine.umw.edu.

1930s

There are no Class Notes for the 1930s, but mathematics major Sarah Hedgecock ’19 of Cary, North Carolina, received the Eileen Kramer Dodd Alumni Scholarship by the Class of 1939.

1940

No Class Agent classnotes@umw.edu Three students have received the Oscar H. Darter Scholarship in History by the Class of 1940. They are history major Jason Elms ’19 of Annandale, Virginia; history and international affairs major Madeleine McCullough ’19 of Virginia Beach, Virginia; and music and history major Kassie Phillips ’20 of Fredericksburg.

1943

No Class Agent classnotes@umw.edu Lauren Quinn ’22 of Charleston, South Carolina, received the Class of 1943 Scholarship in Memory of Levin J. Houston III.

1944

Phyllis Quimby Anderson pqhndson@comcast.net

Five students have received the Class of 1944 Memorial Scholarship. They are economics and accounting major Tea Barndt ’20 of Sterling, Virginia; Bernadette D’Auria ’22 of Hayes, Virginia; biochemistry major Ashley Parkhurst ’20 of Williamsburg, Virginia; communication and digital studies and computer science major Jose Soto ’19 of Laurel, Maryland; and political Dorothy Shaw ‘41 has not heard from any science major Lucas Turney ’20 of classmates recently, but she’d like to!

Dayton, Maryland.

1941

Dorothy Shaw dorothyshaw1919@gmail.com Dorothy Shaw has not heard from any classmates recently, but she’d like to! Updates from family members are also welcome. Email her directly or write to classnotes@umw.edu for additional ways to contact Dorothy.

1942

No Class Agent classnotes@umw.edu Business administration major Madeline Morris ’19 of Ellicott City, Maryland, received the Class of 1942 Scholarship in Business Administration in Memory of James Harvey Dodd.

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My news is that I don’t hear of anybody anymore, but I am still getting around, going places, playing bridge, and more. My son stays with me most of the time, but I also have three daughters nearby who help out.

I have two more great-grandchildren who were born the same week. Another one was on the way. I’m just sorry that they aren’t closer. Two are in Germany and one is in Virginia. If any of you from ’44 are still around, please let me know. Have a good year!

1945

No Class Agent classnotes@umw.edu Computer science major Conrad Donahue ’19 of Stafford, Virginia, received the Class of 1945 Memorial Scholarship.

1946

Patricia Mathewson Spring classnotes@umw.edu English major Katherine Brown ’20 of Manassas, Virginia, and computer science major Liam Caudill ’19 of Fairfax, Virginia, received the Class of 1946 Scholarship.

1947

Betty Moore Drewry Bamman classnotes@umw.edu

1948

No Class Agent classnotes@umw.edu Two students received the Ellen Alvey Montllor ’48 scholarship. They are marketing major Meghan Fens ’19 of Richmond, Virginia, and English major Amani Redic ’19 of Manassas, Virginia.

1949

June Davis McCormick classnotes@umw.edu [Editors’ note: We are sorry to share the sad news that longtime class agent June Davis McCormick passed away Feb. 26, 2019, just a few weeks after she submitted the Class Notes we print below. Throughout her illness, June displayed her characteristic grace and positive outlook, and that spirit is reflected in the final paragraphs of these notes – her enduring well-wishes for her beloved fellow Fabulous Forty-Niners.

Please see her obituary on page 55.]

January began the 70th reunion year for the Fabulous Forty-Niners! We like to think there’ll be classmates returning for that very special weekend Phyllis Quimby Anderson ‘44 still in June, “the good Lord willin’ and the creeks gets around, goes places, plays don’t rise.” With only bridge, and more. the possibility of

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

Let us hear from you!

Deadlines for submissions to class agents: • For fall 2019 issue: June 15, 2019 • For spring 2020 issue: Dec. 1, 2019

Elizabeth “Betty” Fischer Gore’s daughter Carolyn accompanying her from Fairfax, there are no other likely attendees from our now-nonagenarian group.

Unhappily, we must report the loss of three more dear classmates.

Norma Edwards Tyler passed away in July at 90. She came to Mary Washington from Richmond to major in psychology.

After graduation she married Edward Tyler, and they remained in Richmond to rear their family. Preceded in death by her husband, her parents, and a brother, she is survived by two sons, James and Steve; a daughter, Joan Garton; three granddaughters; and four greatgrandsons. Known as “Grammy” and “Grandma Honey” to all, her greatest joy in later years was enjoying and playing with her grandkids. She also was devoted to her church, especially working with its women’s circle. In late July, a celebration of her life was held at Beulah United Methodist Church in Richmond.

Frances “Fran” Scandlyn Henley, also 90, passed away in November at Roane Medical Center in Harriman, Tennessee. Born in Morgan County, Fran grew up in Harriman, where she met young David Henley when she was only 12 years old. They remained sweethearts from then on and married in 1947, returning to Harriman the following year to work together in his family’s store, Henley’s Grocery.

In 1956 they moved to Rockwood, Tennessee, to join Fran’s brother, Hershel Scandlyn, and his wife, as co-owners of Scandlyn Lumber Company. Fran was a member of First Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, of Rockwood.

Fran took art classes at the University of Tennessee, and her paintings now hang in homes, businesses, and art galleries in both Tennessee and Florida. Over the years, Fran won state and local awards for works in oil, pastel, and watercolor.

She shared her love of art with a niece.

Besides her husband, survivors include two sons, two daughters, six grands, and seven great-grands. Fran was deemed a true “Southern lady” who loved sharing laughter and subtle fun with her many friends, who will miss her gentle humor as well as her artistic production.

Word of the passing of our well-known classmate Jane Blair Yeatman Spangler at 91 came in a sorrowful message last fall. Armed with a Mary Washington psychology degree, Jane took classes at George Washington University and obtained a reading specialist degree in 1981 from Millersville University School of Education.

Jane taught elementary school before marrying the love of her life, Robert Spangler, in 1952. They lived in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.

There Jane was an active volunteer in historical societies and political organizations and became deeply dedicated to Episcopal Church Women.

After her children were grown, she resumed teaching as a reading specialist.

Opinionated, outspoken, and quickwitted, Jane was the life of the party wherever she went. An excellent cook with a plethora of cookbooks, she loved trying varied recipes, with her family being most-willing guinea pigs.

by her loving family, Jane suddenly and silently departed this life. Her doctors thought it the result of a cardiac arrest or a quick stroke, but her family recognized her gentle passing as truly her given blessing. Learning of Jane’s final moments, surely we all might wish for such a graceful ending.

After Bob’s death, Jane and Jan started a Christmas tradition of inviting friends whose families were out of town, visiting in-laws or just without any family at all, to have Christmas dinner with them.

Although none of her family could be there, Jan continued that tradition for one more year to honor her mother and held a potluck Christmas dinner for 24 friends. Jan said they had a festive dinner, and everyone agreed that her mom would have approved.

We would be remiss not to include Jane’s relationship with the BFFs whose original friendships endured all these years. Betty Bond Heller Nichols, Charlotte “Chot” Baylis Rexon, and Dorothy “Dotty” Booker Pinkham not only formed their forever-friends status at Mary Washington, they stayed in close contact through the years, attended every Fabulous Forty-Niner Reunion Weekend well into their 80s, and now sadly mourn their first loss.

Preceded in death by her parents and her beloved Bob, Corinne “Conni” Conley Stuart ‘49 planned Jane is survived to be with her entire family for Christmas 2018. by her two daughters, her son, the five grands, two great-grands, and all who loved Jane and Bob reared two daughters, her. A memorial service was held in Janet and Nancy, and a son, Robert November at All Saints Episcopal Jr., known as “Beau.” The family Church in Concord, North Carolina, expanded to include their grandchildren with a later interment to be at Christ and great-grands. After Jane lost her Church in Reading, Pennsylvania. husband of 56 years, in 2008, she also had some health issues. Daughter Janet, Each successive year brings fewer a registered nurse, moved in to oversee Christmas cards from classmates, with her daily care. Jane and Jan enjoyed a no news but only well wishes. Betty lovely European river cruise last year.

Bond and I usually rely on emails to Jan said her mother was in relatively good health last year as they made their annual visit to Beau’s home in Hershey, Pennsylvania, for several days. Jane was in rare form, laughing and joking, especially enjoying being with her children and all the grands and great-grands. Happily surrounded

keep in touch. However, she reports that her computer is old and slow, which sounds vaguely familiar in both senses.

With her usual December activities keeping her busy, she again planned and played for another Christmas song fest for the nearby Kendal retirement facility, which takes a lot of her time

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

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CLASS NOTES but is greatly enjoyed by the residents.

With all four grandkids home for the first time since summer, she anticipated more family gatherings during the holidays. B.B. is still driving herself to her dialysis appointments but limits herself to in-town trips and home before dark. She said things are going along much as usual, just in slow motion!

sounds content in her new residence.

Search concluded, mystery solved!

His parents are very supportive, even driving seven hours to see his game!

His dad was injured on the job as a paramedic and is thankful for our help.

Since writing of Harriet Scott Brockenbrough choosing to spend her 90th birthday last July back on the Eastern Shore, I was eager to The only scholarship requirement is that learn whether she also had returned to her our recipient be an odd-year DEVIL! birthplace for Christmas. Having had three Just as a reminder, our monetary serious spinal surgeries last year, months of awards are made every year, but the physical therapy, and braces, she made it award budget grows much smaller back to Chatham without donations. So please keep our Farm as promised! scholarship alive and healthy for future Son Tom again Devil recipients. End of commercial.

Barbara Trimm Wright ‘49 reported that had the house gaily she is content in her new residence, where As for me, June Davis McCormick, decorated, with I made it through a full year of she can receive the care she needs. the tree in its usual immunotherapies and hope to go even place, and she spent a bit further. We’ve lost too many dear four nights in her classmates in our brief and mutual Relaying her plans for Christmas 2018, old room, for a total of five days there. moment on earth, when friendships Corinne “Conni” Conley Stuart said One of her high school classmates took become even more precious to us. So may her entire family would be together. her to visit another in a nursing home. we keep setting our alarm clocks in the Son Curtis and his family were to leave After a nostalgic and rewarding stay in hope of seeing another new day dawn.

St. Louis to spend the holidays with his her childhood home, son Ben drove her With my love to you all, still June. brother Tony and family at their home back to Covenant Woods in Richmond, in Los Angeles. Joining them from tired but happy. Harriet has made such Toronto, Conni planned to stay on for progress recently she now is driving several weeks after the holidays to look to church and the grocery store and Marcy Weatherly Morris into the possibilities of relocating back only uses a cane for walking outside. classnotes@umw.edu to Los Angeles and taking up residence at the facility for retired members of the Greetings! Carol Bailey Miller’s acting profession. Married for 64 years, usual activities as Conni and Bonar had lived and worked Harriet Scott Brockenbrough ‘49 made it historian emerita of in L.A. for several years before moving back to her birthplace, Chatham Farm, for the Virginia Horse to Toronto, but Conni said most of their Show Historical Christmas, where she spent four nights in contacts and friends are no longer around.

Society continue, as her old room.

It’s a difficult decision to leave Toronto, do her memberships but it may be timely to be near Tony and in the Red Hat his family. Conni attached a great picture Society, the Garden Club, and the Son Scott, a research scientist, and his of herself with both sons, all happily Historical Society of Cumberland County. wife, Jenny, a radiologist, now are fully smiling, and she actually looks too She’s started doing interviews with elderly retired and have relocated to Tucson, youthful to be their mother. Good genes! citizens in her county, which she really Arizona. Harriet was visiting them enjoys! Weather-related balance problems With no word from Barbara Trimm Wright in Phoenix last year when she was seem to be her only real health concern. for a few months, I sent emails to ask if all stricken and feels so very lucky that Nan Riley Pointer and Joe enjoyed a was well with her in South Hill, Virginia. her daughter-in-law had immediate steamboat cruise on the Mississippi In the absence of any reply, my concern access to the hospital for her diagnosis River from St. Paul to St. Louis in grew. She had always enjoyed our email and first surgery. But it’s Harriet’s August. The trip included visits to the exchange, especially the forwarding of indomitable determination that has boyhood home of Mark Twain and humorous material. Contacting her former to the John Deere combine factory. allowed her remarkable recovery. roommate, Alta Towe Fogelgren in Virginia Keep on keeping on, dear Harriet!

My sad news of the death of Beach, also brought no current information.

Billie Mitchell Hanes was reported For a final bit of business, here’s a Finally, direct mail brought an answer. Since in the last issue, but I thought many report on our Class of 1949 Scholarship Barbara lives alone, her nephew and his of you would appreciate a bit of her recipient. Brandon Lefebvre ’21 is an wife felt she needed more care and got life history. After our graduation she accounting major and hopes to earn her admitted to a nearby health facility. taught English for a short time before his CPA and start his own business With that address, I finally heard starting a family. She was a devoted one day. He made the dean’s list both directly from Barbara, but she had left wife to Dick for 68 years, until his semesters of freshman year, is on the her computer at home and now uses her passing in 2017. She was a loving mother men’s lacrosse team, and was voted trusty typewriter for all communication. of Leslie, Diana, and Robert (who the peer leader for his recruit class.

She agreed that she needs more care and predeceased her). She enjoyed eight

1950

28

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

grandchildren and a great-grandson.

She lived in Virginia Beach for many years. How Juney and I miss her!

Further sad news closes my column.

Our beloved 40-year-old granddaughter, Erin, suffered a brief illness in October 2018. She was placed on the national liver transplant list for 14 hours, but her liver deteriorated rapidly, and she passed away Oct. 14, 2018. She leaves a devastated family, which includes four very special children: Lucas, 20; Liam, 17; Chloe, 15; and Oliver, 5.

We request your continuing prayers.

1951

No Class Agent classnotes@umw.edu

Barbara Wilson Taliaferro moved to Westminster at World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida. Barbara lives independently, with her two sons and their families nearby. Her husband, Bob Potter, died in February 2018 at their home on Manasota Key. He was 93.

Their brother, John Chilton Power, will enter high school next fall.

1955

The Class of ’57 is on the move!

No Class Agent classnotes@umw.edu

1956

Ann Chilton Power anncpower1@gmail.com

Hermie Gross Fox, a faithful correspondent for all my years as class agent, sent news via her Christmas letter.

You can read the details online, in the unedited Class Notes, but here are some Corley Gibson Friesen highlights: To celebrate a grandson’s high corleyfriesen@comcast.net school graduation, Hermie and several family members made a trip to Washington, D.C. Nan Riley Pointer ‘50 and Joe enjoyed a Before Christmas, steamboat cruise on the Mississippi River Hermie and her that included visits to Mark Twain’s boyhood sister headed out on a Viking river cruise home and the John Deere combine factory. from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland.

Hermie planned to spend Christmas with son John Fox and his wife in Irvine, California. Besides Betsy Dickinson Surles traveling, Hermie, at 84, keeps busy surles@infionline.net walking, practicing yoga, and doing cardiac workouts.

1952

1953

1954

Mary Ann Dorsey Judy ack915@gmail.com Nancy Root Skinner nan1367@comcast.net Mary Ann Dorsey Judy and Nancy Root Skinner have volunteered as class agents for the Class of 1954!

They would love to hear how and what classmates are doing so they can share that information in future issues of the UMW Magazine.

No Class Agent?

Your classmates still want to hear from you!

Send news directly to classnotes@umw.edu.

1957

Joyce Bristow Wrestler joycewrestler@gmail.com Many of Libby Fordham’s family members have moved to Spotsylvania County, Virginia, and she enjoys sharing time there with them. She spent much of 2018 traveling to Florida, Texas, South Carolina, and Fredericksburg. Libby has been in touch with Trudy Hawk Powers, who has moved to a one-floor apartment and loves it. Nancy Ward Whitmore of California is proud of grandson Colin, a junior at University of Maryland, and granddaughter Olivia, who recently visited China.

Barbara Craft Grantz took time out from getting her Virginia Beach home ready for market to spend three weeks with family in California, where she was “treated like a queen.” Barbara is hoping that the house sale and the anticipated move to the Woodbridge, Virginia, area will be at the same time. She will be close to her MWC roommate and sister-in-law, Helen Grantz Fortner.

Dorothy Rice Clark lives with youngest son Mark Evans in Alpharetta, Georgia, in a big house with room for visitors.

Bruce Ritchie Spain’s visit to Florida included an unexpected stay at Jupiter Medical Center, but it had a view and she was out in time for family Christmas.

Pre-Christmas plans to visit son Quigg Lawrence had to be altered due to Roanoke’s heavy snow. Quigg is a bishop in the Hermie Gross Fox ‘56 and her sister headed Anglican Church.

out on a river cruise from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland.

As for me, Ann Chilton Power, I am the mother of a retiree! My son Ted retired in February 2019 after 39 years with Gannett newspapers! Tom is a lawyer in the cellular tower field. My youngest son, Stephen, is with the Brunswick Group, a worldwide business advisory firm. His daughter, 4, is my youngest granddaughter. He also has a teenage son, Tom. My eldest granddaughter, Kirby Power, is a freshman at the University of Missouri. Her sister, Allison, planned to enter Iowa State University for the 2019-20 school year.

Janie Watson Rawlings has moved to a retirement village in Pennsylvania, Bruce reported. Bruce, Betsy Jones Ware, and Lucy Burwell Meade attended the reunion. Lucy now lives at Westminster Canterbury in Richmond.

Bruce shared sad news of the passing of Joan O’Shaughnessy Kaufmann in August.

Sadly, Virginia Nettles Hutchinson passed away in December. Her husband wrote that she had a stroke.

Kay Nelson Richardson Robson has been living in the Lakewood Retirement Community in the Richmond area for three years. In May 2018 she married a “lovely man” from California who had

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

29

Bennett Broke Gender Barriers in Banking

I

nspired by the pictures she saw in her parents’ National Geographic magazines, Barbara Bennett ’68 had been fascinated with Latin America since she was 8 years old.

And though she wasn’t entirely sure what career she’d pursue when she arrived at Mary Washington College in 1965, she was 100 percent certain it would take her to Spanish-speaking countries – she would see to that!

The New Jersey native applied to Mary Washington because the school had a residence hall, now Marye House, where students immersed themselves in the Spanish language beyond the classroom.

“I just dove into the Spanish House environment,” said Bennett, who went

by Barbie in those days. “We all tried to speak Spanish as much as possible, but . . . the Marines from Quantico provided us with many diversions!”

When she studied abroad in Madrid her junior year, she refused to speak English to any of her classmates. She noted that she often skipped class to travel around the country and to visit Morocco. She was fluent in Spanish by the time she returned to Fredericksburg.

Her challenge was to find a practical way to apply her love of Spanish. She majored in pre-foreign service and entered the banking profession.

“I’ve used Spanish every day of my professional life,” Bennett said.

“Every day.”

Chase Manhattan Bank nabbed Bennett right after college for its International Investment Management Department. The department handled Latin American investments but had no staffers who spoke Spanish.

Bennett excelled and became one of the first two women to attend the bank’s ultracompetitive Credit Training Program, graduating as a certified credit analyst. Simultaneously,

Barbara Bennett, one of the first female bank officers on Wall Street, runs the Q Street Fine Art gallery out of her Washington, D.C., home. she took night classes at Fordham Graduate School of Business, earning an MBA in 1973.

While most of her classmates and colleagues were male, Bennett said she never felt like anything but a valued member of the team. When Marine Midland (now HSBC) lured her away from Chase Manhattan, she became one of the first female bank officers on Wall Street. Within a year, the bank sent her to Panama, allowing her to fulfill her pre-college dream and making her one of the first female officers to serve overseas.

At Bank of America, she was elected the first female vice president to manage a Latin American department for the institution. Later, at Citibank, Bennett played a key role in helping negotiate debt restructuring agreements for Colombia, Venezuela, and several Central American countries.

These days, Bennett is the CEO of

’68 30

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

Anari, which takes large institutional investors on trips to Latin American countries to identify investment opportunities. While there, they meet with bankers, government officials, and industry leaders. When she’s not traveling, she runs the Q Street Fine Art gallery out of her Washington, D.C., home. She’s featured local artists as well as works of artists from China, Cuba, and other countries. She also enjoys spending time with her adult son and three grandchildren, who live in New Jersey.

Bennett attended her 50th reunion at University of Mary Washington, where she was joined by some of her friends from the Spanish House, including roommate Susan Sears Shiriak.

“Everyone was so kind. It was just a wonderful, wonderful school,” she said. “I just loved my classmates. Still do.”

– Edie Gross

come to live at the retirement home. After the wedding they visited California.

Anne Marlene Bost Braun has learned the importance of being a caregiver since husband Carl’s mild stroke. She gets him to doctor’s appointments and exercise programs but still keeps up with her church and music activities. Remember that beautiful organ music at college?

Their daughter lives down the street, and recently a great-grandson and his parents moved from Houston to Chesapeake, Virginia, near Marlene and Carl.

My pal Jean Durham Busboso lives in Madison County, Virginia, which offers interesting museums and historical programs. With Jean and Buz, my husband and I visited Montpelier at the beginning of its restoration. Very interesting place.

Betty May Rose Ballengee lives in Columbus, Georgia, but her family is “spread all over.” They had a gathering of 12 for a few days at Christmas.

Two granddaughters are getting married this year, and there will most likely be gatherings then in Nashville, Tennessee, and York, Pennsylvania.

Mary-Montague Hudson Sikes ’57‘s new book is Spirit Vision Soul Songs. anticipated. She attributes that to the fact that we aren’t “spring chickens.”

Cliff and I haven’t taken a l-o-n-g trip since the January 2018 visit to New Zealand and Australia. Maybe later. He still works, and I still participate in choirs.

I know I’m not a “spring chicken” when middle-aged people address me as “Miss Joyce.” Thanks for your notes.

1958

Susannah Godlove sgodlove5465@gmail.com

1959

Edna Gooch Trudeau ednanewkent@verizon.net Here we are in 2019 – our 60th reunion year! We are an awesome group.

Kay Rowe Hayes, Irene Piscopo Rodgers, and I In May 2018, Kay Nelson Richardson had several phone Robson ‘57 married a “lovely man” who conversations. Kay was hospitalized had come to live in the Richmond retirement but is doing well home where she’s lived for three years. now, and all her kids and grandkids are fine. Irene Ellen Hertz Hewitt and husband Charlie and Kay attended the 2018 reunion to are very happy that they moved from see friends, and they had a grand time! their home of 52 years to an apartment Jane Tucker Broadbooks and John two years ago. She is delighted with the have moved to a retirement home a waterfowl on the lake. “Life is smaller,” few minutes from Jon Karl and family. she says. She no longer drives, and Charlie John’s lung cancer is decreasing. Jane is drives only short distances, but they walk hoping to meet with Molly Bradshaw on errands and for enjoyment. She is Clark and drive together to the 60th. still taking a French class, and Charlie is working on a memoir in a writing class.

Julia Coates Littlefield and Mo wrote a very kind note concerning Matt (my late Nancy Hallett Guest spent the holidays son-in-law) and also shared the sadness in Vail, Colorado, with grandchildren of having beautiful, loving sisters who Kate, 15, and Halston, 2½. are victims of severe dementia. Son Scott Artist, author, and photographer and family were still residing with Julia Mary-Montague Hudson Sikes and and Mo as they made further decisions. husband Olen visited Sedona, Arizona, In August, Julia and Mo planned to in November, and she took a Jan Sitts make their annual visit to Maine, visiting painting workshop at the Sedona Arts daughter Bess in Richmond on the way. center. Her new book is Spirit Vision Frances “Bunky” Bourke Firth and John Soul Songs. celebrated their 60th anniversary in the Pat Falkenbury Cook had a hip fall with a four-week cruise to the South replacement last May and is on the Pacific. Their youngest daughter found mend, though more slowly than she had the man of her dreams and is getting

married. Bunky and John had a fantastic tour of Antarctica last February, and said it was a land of whiteness and beauty.

Celeste “Pug” Shipman Kaufman’s widower, Alan, wrote an update of the kids, which you can read about online, in the unedited Class Notes.

Sad voicemail from Dorothea “Dodie” Reeder Hruby. We lost dear Jane Howard Buchanan in December 2018. These news reports always break my heart.

My sweet Lucas found a piano lesson on Yahoo and taught himself. Virginia found a super piano teacher, and Lucas has a brand-new interest he loves. Dear old Tom would be thrilled.

1960

Karen Larsen Nelson Karenlarsennelson60@gmail.com Jody Campbell Close jclose2@cfl.rr.com Sad news first – then the good stuff.

As of January 2019 we have 96 classmates on our memoriam list.

As you know from reading the last University of Mary Washington Magazine, we recently lost seven more classmates. We also learned in January that Rita Knupp Burke passed away in December and that Natalie Robins Lehmann-Haupt lost her husband in November.

Since we are all 80 or approaching it, that list is sure to increase, but some of us are still pretty active.

Good news: Jan Latven Allnutt recently met with Emy Steinberg Hyans and Cathy Ledner Kuttner ’61 in New York City to celebrate their significant birthdays and have dinner together. Nancy Rorabaugh spent her birthday in Athens, Greece, and Carol Dixon Yonan visited the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Deanna Merrill Albright reminded us that turning 80 is like turning 27 in Celsius. Penny Engle Burkhardt celebrated her 80th birthday with her whole family, attending a “kiddie festival” first and dinner afterward.

Bobbie Garverick Olsen wrote to make sure we knew that Mona Allen Spilo had died in August 2017. “We saw quite a bit of each other in her last years. She fought

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

31

CLASS NOTES ovarian cancer for 20 years and was just amazing,” Bobbie wrote. She also provided a personal update that you can read in its entirety online, in the unedited Class Notes.

Jane Denslow McCrohan and Ed enjoy their home on Puget Sound watching the cruise ships heading to Alaska. And Syd Collson Chichester, although she enjoys her winter life in Florida, is ready to stay in the north and enjoy the cold and snow.

Pat Garvin Dyke has endured hip and back surgeries but is still active. She’s been cleaning out “accumulated stuff” and selling it on eBay. She and John also keep up with the doings of their daughter and 6-year-old granddaughter.

1961

Connie Booth Logothetis (A - G) connielogothetis@gmail.com Renee Levinson Laurents (H – Q) arjle@aol.com Lynne Williams Neave (R – Z) lyneave@aol.com Please send news to the designated class agent according to the first letter of your maiden name.

Betty is in her 42nd year as a volunteer art teacher for elementary students, paints in oils with a painting club, and hosts monthly bridge lessons.

Ellen Gotwalt Willing misses Bill, who passed away last June. She spent the holidays with daughter Susan in Vienna, Virginia. Last August she stopped in to the Vienna Quilt Shop to see Clara Sue Durden Ashley.

Ellen planned to take the auto train to Naples, Florida, to stay from January to early April of this year.

Carolyn Crum Pannu and Renee Levinson Sarah Leigh Kinberg ‘61‘s children, Laurents get grandchildren, and great-grandchildren together periodically Joyce Neill Krost recently returned visited, and they celebrated a different in California, most from visiting sister Janet in Spain. recently in January holiday each day and packed a whole year’s She’s teaching beginning painting to celebrate the holidays into one week! to students ages 50 to 80 in the 50th birthday of condominium building where she Carolyn’s daughter, lives. It’s fun, and she hopes to Kara. Carolyn and From Connie: discover the next Grandma Moses.

Pat Scott Peck plan a Viking river cruise on the Rhone River to Lyon and Provence, Maddie Contis Marken recently traveled Jody Campbell Close had a season of France, to celebrate their big b-days! to northern Spain and Portugal. She also medical misadventures but has beaten took a local college course on Thomas them all. She celebrated her 80th Dee Doran Cairns and Doug visited Jefferson and George Washington, and birthday in January with a big party their son’s family in Emerald Isle, the teacher was a University of Virginia North Carolina, for Thanksgiving, planned by her daughter. Although graduate about our age. They enjoyed and we got together for lunch – fun she is no longer chairwoman of two reminiscences, and both remembered visit. Jerri Barden Perkins sent genealogical groups, she planned to the honor system as a remarkable part new year’s greetings with a photo visit Salt Lake City, Utah, in April to of their college experience. “I might of herself at the Louvre. Lucky do genealogical research. Then she mention that I still am in awe of the spirit gal who goes to Paris so often! planned a road trip to see old friends. of Mary Washington and its goat and I had to cancel a trip to northern Spain devil traditions,” and Portugal because I got sick. It’s a Maddie wrote. good thing, as we probably wouldn’t Deanna Merrill Albright ‘60 reminded Carole Grant have been able to return because of us that turning 80 is like turning 27 in LeMay is feeling Hurricane Florence. We stayed put in better after a rough Celsius.

Wilmington, North Carolina, and are year physically. personally fine, but there was lots of In April she went damage to our backyard. You can read to Garden Week more about our hurricane experience Karen Larsen Nelson and Darrell made in Richmond and met Ellen “Tommy” online, in the unedited Class Notes. a spring 2018 camping trip in their tiny Hulcher Thompson, her freshman teardrop trailer to parks in New Mexico From Renee: roommate, for dinner one night. Carole and west Texas; spent the summer planned a trip to New York in June with Sandy Phillips Conklyn’s son lives at a resort in Show Low, Arizona; Bee Stone Byrnes. Carole plays bridge, with his wife and 2-year-old twin boys and in September toured around the gives occasional talks on the Civil War, in Laguna Niguel, California, and Yellowstone area, Telluride, and Ouray, and travels with husband Ralph to visit is senior vice president of design for Colorado, before returning to Mesa, their daughter in Birmingham, Alabama.

Speedo. Sandy and her husband have Arizona. They celebrated Karen’s removed themselves from consideration Betty Alrich Latta enjoyed many travels 80th birthday and Thanksgiving with as sample recipients! Sandy’s eldest in 2018 – to Graceland with a widows their daughter, three granddaughters, granddaughter passed the bar and works and widowers’ group; to Puerto Vallarta, and five great-grandkids. They stay in Washington, D.C., for an agency Mexico, where she had fun with her six busy with their church, which meets that lobbies for health care for the grandchildren who live in California; to in an assisted living facility. They LGBTQ community. Another pair of Portland, Oregon, for another grandson’s planned a week of camping this April twin grandchildren are in college now. high school graduation; and to Ashland, in Big Bend National Park – with no Oregon, for the Oregon Shakespeare Judy LaRoe Hare shared news of her hookups! She wrote, “For a couple of Festival with a group from her church. family, which you can read in more 80-year-olds, are we crazy or what?”

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UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

detail online in the unedited Class Notes.

Daughter Tracy is retired from Delta and shows horses. Daughter Susan is a shiatsu therapist who recently opened a school in Portland, Oregon. Judy’s travels this year included Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, and Kentucky.

Pat and Carolyn Crum Pannu plan a birthday trip this summer, a Viking river cruise in the south of France.

1962

Kathleen Sprenkle Lisagor Sue Wilson Sproul wrote about an klisagor@yahoo.com amazing Road Scholar trip to Slovenia Nancy Powell Sykes and Croatia, with an added adventure npsykes@yahoo.com in Italy. You can read her beautiful description of the Brianna Dunyak ’22 of Fairfax, Virginia, trip online, in the received the Class of 1962 scholarship. unedited Class Graham Walker Burns ‘61 went hang Susy Booth Thurber has lived in Alabama Notes. Sue planned for 53 years. She went there because of gliding and checked it off her bucket list. to move from the space program. They were to stay Tucson, Arizona, 18 months! They have now retired, and but hadn’t yet her grandchildren are in high school.

In July, Sarah Leigh Kinberg of decided whether to return to Colorado Susy’s husband no longer travels, but Stockton, California, visited forever Springs, Colorado, or back to Virginia. she and her two sisters were planning friend Nancy Driskill Burnett in She expected to have completed the move a trip to Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

North Carolina, and they saw The by the time this magazine is published!

Lost Colony. Sarah sorely misses Pat Mackey Taylor planned a tour of Eleanore Saunders Sunderland’s husband Tom, who passed away Scotland and Ireland this summer. daughter Jane spent Thanksgiving in in 2016. Sarah’s son and daughter Betty Pritchard Wood moved to Argentina and Chile, but son Willard visited her in Stockton in October.

Georgia two years ago to be closer to and Betsy were with Eleanore. They They celebrated a different holiday her grandchildren. She is now chief were all together at Christmas, including each day and packed a whole year’s driver and has made many new friends. daughter Jude and her three boys, who holidays into one week! She loved having Louise Dunn Fuqua lives in Louisiana traveled from Milan.

Eleanore rescued kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids and, having finally recovered from hip an adorable steel-gray kitten, which scurrying around doing their thing. replacement surgery, visited son Tim has become a good housemate. and family in Tampa. Her younger son I, Renee Levinson Laurents, went on a lives in Alexander, wonderful tour of “America’s Magnificent North Carolina, National Parks.” We started with Mount and maintains a Kathleen Sprenkle Lisagor ‘62 lost her Rushmore in South Dakota and covered huge orchard. about 1,200 miles, taking in parks in buddy, a red-and-white cocker spaniel, who Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New Diana Copple sat on the piano bench as she practiced.

Mexico. This country is immense, both Smith moved from wild and tame, with vast vistas and Kernersville to mountains that seem to touch the sky.

Wilmington, North Graham Walker Burns went hang gliding, A highlight was meeting one of the Carolina, in 2017 to be closer to her which had been on her bucket list for 20 surviving Navajo code talkers of World daughter and family. She enjoys seeing years. She felt as if she were flying like a War II. I’ve decided not to move to the grandson Jackson on his swim team. bird and went up about 1,800 feet beside desert, where climate change has hit and Our hearts and sympathies go out Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, temperatures can reach 117 degrees. to Myrtle Lee Dean France, as her Tennessee. Graham still works full time And I really like my life here in Los husband, Billy, died Jan. 6, 2019. as a real estate agent in Chattanooga.

Angeles, California, with a great climate, They were married for 56 years and She has 14 grandchildren ages 2 to 19, theatre, opera, ballet, a symphony both retired from the Naval Surface plus two adult “bonus” grandchildren. orchestra, and two pro football teams.

Warfare Center in Dahlgren. Since From Lynne: Janie Riles now lives full time in Fort graduation, she and Georgianne Maloy Lauderdale, Florida, but said 2018 was a Hull have remained in touch. Myrtle I must begin this with sad news. I lost year for traveling. She visited friends in Lee still lives in Montross, Virginia. my dear husband of 40-plus years, Mexico and North Carolina. She spent Sandy, in September. Many of you We were also saddened to hear of the the summer teaching art and reconnecting met him at reunions and elsewhere. death in July 2018 of our sweet classmate with friends in San Diego.

In September, Fortunately, he did not have to suffer Joyce Lyons Terhes, a longtime leader she traveled to Berlin to see daughter a long sickness. My family, neighbors, in the Maryland Republican Party. We Annelise receive a lifetime achievement and friends have been amazing to me; send our sympathies to her loved ones. award from the German government for that I will be eternally grateful. and the Humboldt Foundation. She Now for happier news about our spent Thanksgiving with her daughters classmates’ lives and adventures.

Let us hear from you! and their families in Chicago. And in November, she visited Salta, Argentina, Pat Scott Peck met Lloyd Tilton Backstrom Deadlines for submissions to class agents: with her brother and his wife, whose and Art for lunch at the Virginia Museum • For fall 2019 issue: June 15, 2019 family is from that area. She planned of Art in September. She was on her to spend Christmas with husband Jim, way to visit her daughter in Suffolk, • For spring 2020 issue: Dec. 1, 2019 who was doing well in assisted living.

Virginia, before flying home to Texas.

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CLASS NOTES As a reminder with so many moving and downsizing, it is a good idea to update our family, friends, and alma mater with changes of names and addresses.

Kathleen Sprenkle Lisagor is sad to say her cousin Elaine “Woodie” Woodson Markham passed away Jan. 17, 2019, at 96. She attended Mary Washington in the stressful days of World War II before graduating from the University of Virginia’s nursing school in 1944.

This energetic, lovely lady was a nurse in Charlottesville and Richmond.

Kathleen also extends compassion to classmates who have lost pets with long histories as loyal friends and companions.

She recently lost her 10-year-old redand-white cocker spaniel from a brain tumor. He was her buddy and sat on the piano bench as she practiced. She strongly recommends reading The Legend of Rainbow Bridge by William Britton.

1963

“Cover the earth before it covers us.”

– Traveler Betsy Churchman Geary ‘64 Frany Lee Carr wrote that life is grand in Huntington Beach, California, where she enjoys good health, outdoor activities, and lots of friends. Son Lance lives in Huntington Beach with wife Kazuko, and daughter Cynthia lives in New York with husband Dave and two sons.

Suellen Grant Knowles calls 2018 her recovery year after getting a pacemaker in 2017. Ginger Logie Carr wrote that she and her husband planned to see Dick and Carol Van Ness Clapp and Ray and Eileen Hildebrand Andrews in December 2018. Hope to have some news about this get-together for the next issue. Barbara Grant Fox and Faye Russell Hatcher Haggerty sent get-well messages to me but no news about themselves.

Susan Woodward Kilborn wrote that any day she doesn’t hurt and can remember her name is a great day, “so the level of definition of top-notch health doesn’t have to be Arlene Drescher Wilson ‘63 had an thaaaaaat high, incredible time painting in Valmondois, just high enough.”

France, Charles DeGaulle’s weekend home Great attitude, Susan! Kay Barret northwest of Paris.

Bilisoly says getting old isn’t for sissies!

Linkey Booth Green linkeyg@embarqmail.com

Christmas cards brought news from Karen Vandevanter Morrison, Jeanne Chabot Wallis, Mary A. Settle Johnson, and Linda Gulnac Steelman.

Karen and Jeanne are enjoying their grandchildren. Karen’s daughter moved to Portland, Oregon, so they see each other much more often.

Mary A.’s good news is that her cancer checkups continue to be normal after intensive treatment. Mary A. lives in Panama City, Florida, and saw Hurricane Michael firsthand. She lives at the beach and did better than those in town, including her son. As of December, he still had a blue tarp covering his roof.

Linda wrote that Bill preached his last sermon May 6 and retired as associate minister. Linda retired from the Nantucket Historical Association.

They have decided to move to a life-care community and are on the wait list for Kendal-Crosslands in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

34

Ethel Thomas Sanford lost husband Tom last May, so she is making her way down a new path with the support of dear friends and family. Ethel has lived in Long Beach, California, for 50 years. Tom worked there for his entire career, and they raised their two boys there. Ethel taught kindergarten some of the time and volunteered with the Junior League, the symphony, and an Episcopal church.

Ethel sometimes sees Susan Ring Keith and reports that Susan lives in Coronado and is busy with civic and Navy endeavors, plus her grandchildren.

Arlene Drescher Wilson saw Julie Burch Southall while she was visiting her son. In September, Arlene spent an incredible 10 days painting in Valmondois, France, Charles DeGaulle’s weekend home northwest of Paris.

Gloria Moskowitz Fischel had a wonderful trip to Alaska last summer with her two youngest grandchildren.

Glo has been volunteering in schools,

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

reading to “at-risk” children. What fun to be sort-of teaching again and enjoying their smiles and enthusiasm!

Betsy Chamberlain Hartz wrote that she, Mary Saunders Latimer, Eleanor Powell Darden, and Nancy Lee Leidy see Sally Tarrant Bernert in Richmond, Virginia. Betsy says Sally deals well with her health issues and is an inspiration.

I planned to be in Richmond in April for my high school reunion, and I hoped to see Sally then.

1964

Susan Rowe Bunting Susan.bunting@gmail.com As I write this in January, I am watching the snow climb up to 2 feet and am itching to put on my cross-country skis and roam the beautiful New Hampshire woods. All I can hear is the sound of my skis shooshing along the snow. Often I will come upon a deer or two who move away from the trail quickly. I only catch a glimpse of white from their uplifted tails as they leap gracefully away from me. Others will stand their ground, stare, and let me pass. I talk softly to them as I glide by, and they seem very attentive and then ignore me. The story of my life!

I was so happy to hear from Barbara Ioanes and hope others of you will email me so we can include your Mary Washington reminiscences or stories about your life today. Barbara summed up her life since the late 1960s, including time teaching English in Athens, Greece. She retired from a career with the federal government in Washington. She wrote: “I keep active in community service. However, I enjoy most of all helping my son and his wife with their 3-month-old infant and 2-year-old toddler.” You can read more of Barbara’s letter online, in the unedited class notes.

Bronwyn “Bronnie” Jones Polk spends summers in St. Louis, Missouri, and winters in St. Petersburg, Florida. She would love to get together for lunch with classmates when they’re in either area.

She and her husband, married 50 years, have two children and four grandchildren and have lived in six states. They met when Bronnie, a nutrition major, was an Air Force dietitian and second lieutenant in South Dakota soon after graduating from Mary Washington.

Betsy Churchman Geary and husband Ray traveled with Peggy Morgan Tarr and four other friends to Iceland and Norway last August. Betsy and Ray extended their travels with a cruise up Norway’s beautiful western coast and visits to several of Ray’s Norwegian cousins. She and Ray planned to celebrate their 55th anniversary with a cruise to Cuba in January. Over the past two decades they’ve visited 78 countries on six continents. Betsy wrote, “Our motto: Cover the earth before it covers us.”

1965

Phyllis Cavedo Weisser pcweisser@yahoo.com Life in the Atlanta, Georgia, area is still the best! I live in a wonderful community with a wine club, a bridge group, a Hand and Foot card game group, a book club, a game night group, and plenty of other assorted get-togethers with the neighbors.

My only trip out of the country last year was a small (89 passengers) boat trip last summer around the British Isles. I made lots of good friends and enjoyed seeing places my ancestors had inhabited.

better. Her sisters, Kay Flanagan and Liz Patterson Vawter ’72, recently took a camping trip from the East coast to visit Linda and husband Austin in Colorado.

Rebecca Tebbs Nunn was crowned Ms. Super Senior Virginia USA 2019 and will compete in in the Ms. Super Senior USA pageant in Las Vegas in June. Becky also shared that Lynn Bard Jones moved from the Northern Neck of Virginia to South Carolina in September 2018.

Janet Burnett Morrison wrote that she has been missing out on the news and looks forward to hearing from everyone.

Janet Yates Berls and Dick started 2018 with three months at a golf resort in Florida, then returned home to Saratoga Springs, New York, where they’re near son Bob and his family in Lake George and the Adirondack mountains. They had a great summer at the lake, enjoying their annual family vacation with children Christy Rebecca Tebbs Nunn ‘65 was crowned and Bob and Ms. Super Senior Virginia USA 2019 and their families.

will compete in the Ms. Super Senior USA pageant in June.

I play tennis and try to get in a three-mile walk every day, but like most of us, I’m beginning to feel the effects of 75 years.

If you haven’t sent news to me in a while, please do. Also, if you are trying to find a long-lost roommate, I’ll be happy to help.

Margaret “Meg” Cobourn Robinson wrote that she and Kenny finished touring all 50 state capitols (his bucket list) in August 2018. This year they planned to tour Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Meg says her sophomore roommate, Trudy Kitchin Kohl, and Bill moved back to Virginia Beach in November after being in the Raleigh area for several years. Meg also had dinner with Barbara Hagemann Hester and Ben in July.

Donna Lingo Rauch and Lisa Corder Wharton recently got together with teachers they used to work with. Linda Patterson Hamilton endured bad medical diagnoses in 2017 and 2018 but was doing much

UMW president, Troy Paino. One update item that impressed them was that Seacobeck, our dining hall, will soon be transformed into the College of Education building.

Carolyn Eldred ‘66 traveled to New York with UMW Theatre to see three Broadway shows in one weekend.

The most exciting news from our classmates comes from Carolyn Kennett Barry. She and husband Dick have collected art for more than 40 years and decided to share their collection. Since they were both born and raised in Norfolk, they gave it back to their hometown and Old Dominion University. They built the Barry Art Museum at ODU, which opened in November 2018. The monetary donations and art contributions made

by Carolyn and her husband are valued at over $35 million. Suffice it to say, her classmates are very proud of her!

1966 Katharine Rogers Lavery hlavery1@cox.net Barbara “Bobbi” Bishop Mann, Annette Maddra Horner, Susan Bogese MacLaughlin, and Pat Lewars Pace attended an October reception at Richmond’s Ginter Gardens for our

Bobbi and Jana Privette Usry later drove to Fredericksburg for a 1908 Society luncheon at the Jepson Center and were joined there by Joan Cuccias Patton and Carolyn Eldred. They attended a performance of Merrily We Roll Along at the Klein Theatre in duPont Hall.

For Thanksgiving Bobbi and husband Robert flew to Mesa, Arizona, for a family gathering. Bobbi reported that Dee Dee Nottingham Ward’s son and family were affected by California’s Woolsey Fire but came through without injury.

Annette Maddra Horner and husband John are enjoying relocation from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, to Richmond, where they’re closer to extended family. Annette misses former neighbors Ron and Mary Parsons Black, who visited early after the move and have promised faithfully to return regularly.

Carolyn Eldred lives in Fredericksburg and joined the 1908 Society procession in the 2018 commencement. Last summer Carolyn traveled to New York with UMW Theatre to see three Broadway shows in one weekend.

In August Carolyn took a lovely cruise around the British Isles.

Joan Cuccias Patton surprised her siblings and families by showing up at a July family reunion in California. In August she and friend Harry traveled to Ireland for her nephew’s wedding, then proceeded to Basel, Switzerland, to catch a Rhine River cruise. Joan and Harry spent the week before Christmas in New York City visiting Harry’s daughters and family. After a January retreat in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and a February visit to Florida, Joan planned to stay home in Virginia for a while!

Jana Privette Usry celebrated her 75th birthday amassing as many of her former students as possible. She hosted a brunch for 35 students, family members, and close friends. In November Jana’s choir had a gospel concert with guest conductor/composer Rollo Dilworth, who conducted the choir in three of his compositions. Jana

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Judge Gratified When Offenders Reform

I

n courtrooms throughout southern Virginia, Circuit Court Judge Kimberley Slayton White ’85 regularly witnesses the sad consequences of the country’s opioid epidemic. But once in a while White receives letters from former defendants, thanking her for the lectures that set them on the right path or the diversionary sentencing that provided a second chance.

“That’s one of my favorite days, when I can dismiss a felony charge because they’ve done what they were supposed to do,” White said.

“Or they’ve gone bed to bed, from jail to a treatment program, and they’ve come back to court and they look like a different person.”

Long before White became the first woman to serve as a judge in the 10th Judicial Circuit, she served on Mary Washington’s Judicial Council, chairing it her senior year.

She initially visited campus because her father’s cousin, William Anderson, was an executive vice president at the college; Anderson would shortly become its president, and its longestserving one at that. But it was the campus atmosphere that persuaded White to apply early decision.

“I dare anyone who looks at Mary Washington not to just be blown away by what it is,” said the South Boston, Virginia, resident. “The look of the place, the feel of it. It was just a good, all-around liberal arts education, which is what I wanted.”

While carrying a double major in American studies and English with a literature concentration, White also served as the secretary for the College Republicans and, in 1984, editor-in-chief of the Battlefield yearbook. After graduating, she attended Mercer Law School in Macon, Georgia, before returning to Virginia to launch her legal career.

White first worked for her uncle’s law firm in South Boston while also serving as a part-time public defender, working on cases ranging from serious traffic offenses to capital murder. Her

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Judge Kimberley Slayton White with her family, from left, son Hampton, husband David, daughter Katherine, and chocolate Lab Sugar

growing interest in criminal law led her to Lynchburg, where she served as both an assistant and deputy commonwealth’s attorney before joining the Danville office of the Woods Rogers law firm, where she made partner. While on maternity leave with her younger child, White decided to mount a campaign for Halifax County commonwealth’s attorney, a position she held from 2004 to 2012. In August 2012, Gov. Bob McDonnell appointed White as an interim Circuit Court judge, a position the General Assembly then elected her to the following January.

The 10th Judicial Circuit covers eight counties from Buckingham and Cumberland in the center of the state down to Halifax and Mecklenburg on the North Carolina border. White

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

said she generally serves in at least two of those counties each week and more if the docket demands. Her colleagues in the circuit voted her chief judge this year, so in addition to hearing her own civil and criminal cases, she assigns judges to the rest of the circuit’s caseload.

Having served as both a public defender and a prosecutor, White said she feels like she’s brought a diversity of experience to the bench and an ability to see cases from all points of view.

“It is such a rewarding job and at the same time, very heartbreaking,” she said. “The nature of the job is resolving disputes, so it’s a bit of both.”

– Edie Gross

Jana Privette Usry ‘66 celebrated her 75th birthday by hosting a brunch for 35 former students, family members, and close friends. enjoys the activities of the UMW 1908 Society, a growing organization that appreciates our class members’ input.

Cherie Wells Brumfield and husband Joe escaped the wrath of the Florida hurricanes. They thought their “vagabond days” were over when they moved to Florida, but since neither is happy living there they are planning to relocate again. Sally Souder also responded to a query that her part of Florida had escaped hurricane damage and she enjoys life and wildlife there.

Ambler Carter maintains her status quo in Philadelphia. She keeps in touch with Carolyn Kirkpatrick, who has for 40 years lived in Vienna, Austria, not Vienna, Virginia, as we had reported.

Mary Kathryn Rowell Horner and husband Charlie retreated to their Florida home in time to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Looking at their wedding pictures Mary K thinks they must have been only 15 at the time! She recalls thinking she was smart to buy a Butte Knit suit (remember those?) rather than a formal wedding dress she would never wear again. But she never could bring herself to wear the suit again, either. Recent research named Butte Knits as “vintage clothes,” and now Mary K feels old, greatly in need of the Florida sunshine, golf, and social life.

Roberta James East and husband Dennis of North Carolina survived hurricane Florence, though Robbie was stranded away from home and Dennis hunkered down with the cat. They took a December cruise to the Caribbean with friends before returning to Northern Virginia to spend Christmas with all three children and families. Robbie was taking two Brunswick Community College courses on local culture, townships, and architecture. In June Robbie and her sister took a Road Scholar trip to Ireland, and in September Robbie went to Cape Cod with a seniors group.

Betsy Chappelear Tryon has been traveling from California with granddaughter Maddy for volleyball tournaments in Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, Reno, and Orlando, plus a few games overseas. In 2019 Betsy planned to accompany the club

team to Kansas City, Spokane, and Dallas.

Susan Roth Nurin participated in the dedication in her mother’s memory of the newly constructed children’s wing of the Hendrick Hudson Free Library in Montrose, New York. Her mother, a beloved elementary school principal and lifelong avid reader, was a constant presence in that library.

Susan’s brother’s family donated the wing, and it bears their mother’s name: the Leonora Roth Children’s Library.

Ginny Bateman Brinkley has published a second novel, and wrote that though “much of the story is based on our days at MWC, it is fiction and any similarities to persons living or deceased is purely coincidental.” GODDESS—A Child of the Sixties is a story of first love, something we can all identify with.

Carol Bingley Wiley is forever grateful for her art history education plus all she learned while modeling/listening in Julien Binford’s art classes. She has created many watercolors while living in Maine with husband Peter and two golden retrievers. She showed paintings at two Maine galleries last summer.

hiking. She also belongs to a great book club with very interesting other women and takes a fine arts course. Midge’s main focus is her family, including six grandchildren. Midge’s son is president of Hubble Lighting in Greenville, South Carolina, and her daughter, a lawyer, has a consulting business with her husband in Tucson, Arizona.

Anne Meade Clagett and husband John are still enjoying the country life in northwestern Virginia. Anne joined Barbara Bishop Mann, Jana Privette Usry, Annette Maddra Horner, Carolyn Eldred and Anne Powell Young in Fredericksburg in December for a small Mary Washington lunch gathering.

Gloria Langley Parker retired from medical social work 10 years ago to work on her bucket list. She and husband Jim visited Italy, France, England, Ireland, Amsterdam, Germany, Mexico, and the Caribbean islands and have only Greece left on the list.

Gloria plays bridge regularly with friends including Merrilyn Sawyer Dodson ’68 and Lou Magette Thomas ’58.

Gloria keeps in touch with freshman roomie Evie Tune Shelton, who lives in Chapin, South Carolina, and keeps busy with quilting and church activities. Evie and Clay have two adult daughters and two granddaughters. For more from Carol sees Pam Hughes Ward often.

Gloria – including a reminiscence about being president of a local Mary For 40 years, Carolyn Kirkpatrick ‘66 has Washington alumni chapter – see the lived in Vienna, Austria. unedited Class Notes online.

She and Peter have traveled to Cuba and Egypt with Pam and Jim. Carol also keeps in touch with fellow watercolor artist Pam Kearney Patrick, whom she visits in Alexandria, Virginia, when she attends art seminars and classes. Pam Kearney Patrick exhibited three pieces during the holidays in Bethesda, Maryland, and was to have several paintings at the SOMA gallery in Cape May, New Jersey, in April.

Ann Kales Lindblom actively tries to stay “healthy and in reasonably good shape” by attending a barre3 class three days a week and walking three miles a day. She and Steve enjoy summertime cruising on their boat on the Chesapeake Bay and were eager to meet their seventh grandchild in March.

Midge Meredith Poyck looks out her back windows in Arizona at a spectacular view of the mountain range where she enjoys

Tyla Matteson and Susanne Landerghini Boehm enjoyed a get-together last summer. Tyla also ran into Barbara Bishop Mann in November at the second anniversary of Liberal Women of Chesterfield County. Tyla completed another active year as chair of the York River Group, Sierra Club, with a variety of programs – more about them online, in the unedited Class Notes! In December Tyla took a Road Scholar trip to Martinique, hoping to make good use of her French.

Cathe Cantwell Luria and husband Eric purchased their rental home in Mexico, near Guadalajara. Cathe studies Spanish and voice and began teaching a level 3 ESL class in December. She and Eric traveled to Israel and Jordan with a rabbi and an Episcopal priest, visiting many Jewish and Christian sites.

Cathe and Eric frequently fly back to

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CLASS NOTES Portland, Oregon, to visit their daughter, her wife, and three grandchildren.

Yvonne Hutchinson March hosted son Sean and his wife last January so they could escape the Ohio winter in favor of Tampa and Sarasota, Florida.

Yvonne flew to Connecticut to visit a childhood friend from Cuba, then traveled to Maryland for her sister’s 70th birthday plus a visit to Longwood Gardens and Cape May, New Jersey.

Yvonne and Chris spent Thanksgiving with his daughter and granddaughter.

Mary Morris Bishop and husband Dennis live in Rochester Hills, Michigan, but spend summers with friends and family at Lakeside Chautauqua on the Marblehead Peninsula of Lake Erie – an interesting place you can read more about online, in the unedited Class Notes. Mary and Dennis travel every few weeks to Ohio to visit their children and grandchildren. When she’s home, Mary plays bridge, exercises at the senior center, and is active in church.

Genie McClellan Hobson retired in 2016 from Nemours Biomedical Research in Wilmington, Delaware, but still works several days a week as principal research scientist emerita.

She and Don bought a motor home last year and spent last August at the Aloha Campground on Mullet Lake in Michigan, where their daughter and family were on vacation. They all went to the Headlands International Dark Sky Park to see the Milky Way, four planets, and innumerable stars.

Read more about their travels online, in the unedited Class Notes.

Eileen Goddard Albrigo and John welcomed their 14th grandchild, Margaret Maria, in October. With six brothers and a sister to help spoil her, she is a very contented baby! John works as hard as ever and helps care for his 96-year-old mother. Eileen enjoys being retired so she can visit their three children’s homes and help with the grands.

Eileen hoped to visit sister Kathleen Goddard Moss and husband Tom in their Oakland, California, retirement community. Kathy and Tom participate in exercise classes, writing classes, and interfaith gatherings and enjoy their new Church of Christ, fondly dubbed “The Jazz and Justice Church.” Two grandsons, ages 8 and 5, live nearby.

Their daughter who lives in Spain brought her family to visit last summer,

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and they all explored the Bay Area.

Lee Enos Kelley moved into a retirement community in Bethesda, Maryland, in March 2016. She enjoys her independence in her two-bedroom condo with the option of community meals and activities. Lee’s husband, Kevin, died in 2017 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Her son, William, married in February 2018. In fall, she enjoyed a two-week cruise from Venice to Barcelona with nine port stops.

burning for her 11-year-old grandson while Jane’s son and his wife worked long hours for the Department of State.

She enjoyed going to soccer practices and games, visiting D.C. sites, and seeing her twin cousins in Alexandria.

Catherine Wilson and Donna Sinclair Seward joined a National Geographic tour to Africa in September 2018, and Donna reported that the trip was an experience of a lifetime. You can read details online, in the unedited Class Notes. Catherine and Donna are in Katharine Rogers Lavery and husband touch with Sandi Lawhorne Green, Hank skipped their annual Outer Banks Claudia Bischoff Vroman, and Robin vacation last summer to drive south to Williams Blair.

Donna’s daughterin-law is also a Katharine Rogers Lavery ‘66 plays cornet Mary Washington regularly at historical St. John’s Episcopal alumna, Kerin Ziobro Seward ’96.

Church in Centreville, Virginia.

Florida and back, visiting friends and relatives along the way. They filled the rest of the summer with their senior bowling league, senior fitness classes, lawn and garden work, visits to their son’s “river house” on the Northern Neck of Virginia, and family gatherings. Katharine plays her cornet regularly at historical St. John’s Episcopal Church in Centreville, Virginia, and enjoys Arena Stage plays, sewing, knitting, and tutoring math students.

The Class of ’66 extends condolences to Ryan Stewart Davis on the loss of her husband, Roger, in October 2018 and to Cornelia Bowles Dexter on the loss of her husband, Benson, in August 2018.

1967

Mary Beth Bush Dore mbeth1945@gmail.com Gail Balderson Dise joined friends in Amsterdam before taking a cruise with stops in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, and Skagen, Denmark. Details – including the European heat wave with a heat index of 102 degrees – are online, in the unedited Class Notes. In November, Gail met roommate Mary Beth Bush Dore and husband Casey in Fredericksburg for lunch at the alumni house with other 1908 Society members. They took in a UMW Theatre performance of Merrily We Roll Along.

Jane Farrar Montague visited her son’s family in Arlington, Virginia, in October and kept the home fires

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

Patsy Monahan Holden and Mike celebrated their 50th anniversary last summer by taking their triplets and their families, including four grandchildren, to Hawaii. Patsy works one day a week as a psychotherapist and enjoys cards, water aerobics, and entertaining.

Mary Basnight Donovan recommends UMW-sponsored trips after a trip to Italy in October 2017 and one to Great Britain in July 2018. Jo Walters ’65 and a friend were on both trips. Mary has also recently traveled in Russia and the United States, including a visit with roommate Judy Boyd Colella in Asheville, North Carolina. For more than 30 years Mary has lived in Maryland, where she taught for 18 years and raised two children.

You can read more of Mary’s update online, in the unedited Class Notes.

Nancy McDonald Legat and Dan live in Lexington, South Carolina, and enjoy spending time with family: three daughters, three sons-in-law, seven grandchildren, three greatgrandchildren, and one more expected by the time this magazine publishes.

Let us hear from you!

Deadlines for submissions to class agents:

For fall 2019 issue: June 15, 2019

For spring 2020 issue: Dec. 1, 2019

campus and marveled at all the changes.

Catherine Wilson ‘67 and Donna Sinclair Both now live in the Seward ‘67 joined a National Geographic Charlottesville area.

Mary is retired from tour to Africa last September.

Time-Life Books and does community work. Charlotte Eleanor Frith Peters and Mike celebrated owns and manages Albemarle Ciderworks their 50th anniversary by cruising with and Vintage Virginia Apples and is a vice friends from Lisbon, Portugal, to Dublin, president for the Wells Fargo Financial Ireland. They have loved living in New Management Group.

York City but wanted to be closer to their daughter and her family, so they planned to build a home in Greenville, South Carolina, this spring. Their son planned Iris Harrell to retire as an Army colonel in July and morejoy43@gmail.com move with his family to Madrid, Spain.

1969

I, Mary Beth Bush Dore, my husband, Casey, and our dogs evacuated from South Carolina before Hurricane Florence, but the hurricane didn’t hit our area. We visited UMW in November for the 1908 Society luncheon and enjoyed staying at the new Hyatt in Eagle Village, where Gail Balderson Dise also stayed.

We traveled to Williamsburg, and Gayle Atwood Channel and Warren came from Portsmouth to meet us for lunch.

1968

Meg Livingston Asensio meglala46@gmail.com I am heartbroken to announce the passing of my dear friend and senior year roommate, Lucinda “Cindy” Parshall Long. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s about two years ago, she collapsed suddenly on Nov. 25, 2018.

Dodo Fisher Roberts and I attended her memorial service, at which I was privileged to share my memories of her.

At Mary Washington, Cindy acted on her sense of justice, participating in numerous protests and marches. Our third roommate, Jean Eley Thompson, remembers covering for her by telling her parents, should they call, that she was at the library. Cindy was a role model to me and so many others – the smartest, most confident, and most fearless woman I have ever known. She fought passionately and tirelessly for justice and equality. Her passing leaves a huge hole in my heart and in the Class of 1968. You can read more about Cindy’s life and distinguished legal career online, in the unedited Class Notes.

Mary James Wright sent a nice note about reconnecting with classmates at the 50th Reunion. She and her Mary Washington roommate, Charlotte Shelton, stayed on

Interdisciplinary science studies major Morgan Bates ’21 of Fredericksburg received the Class of 1969 50th Reunion Scholarship. Communication and digital studies major Cedric Ansah ’21 of Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Cathryn Puglia ’22 of Pleasantville, New York, received the Class of 1969 Laura V. Sumner Memorial Scholarship.

As these notes were submitted, we were just $6,145 short of making our Class of ’69 scholarship become a $200,000 endowment! Classmate Catherine O’Connor Woteki planned to match every dollar that came in before our reunion. If you have not contributed or would like to chip in a little higher pledge, help us crest the $200,000 endowment line.

Former Virginia poet laureate Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda has published a new poetry collection, These Flecks of Color.

She sent me a photo of her with the late Mary Oliver, whom she met in 2008 at a writer’s conference in Block Island, Rhode Island. Carolyn does several speaking engagements each year.

Barbara Marks Poppleton left the summer heat of Florida to enjoy cooler weather at their second home on the beach in south New Jersey.

They stopped en route at Quantico, Virginia, for the 50th reunion of her husband’s Basic School class.

Sharon Dobie is trying to figure out retirement. She and three friends took a bike and boat trip through Croatia.

She traveled to Botswana and South Africa with her late son’s girlfriend and two of his best friends. Son Matt passed away from scleroderma, and Sharon is now on the board of the Scleroderma Research Foundation. In 2018 she was named Family Medicine Educator of the Year for Washington State. Sharon plans to come to reunion!

Betty Wade Miles Perry spent four days hiking in New Mexico and learning about the history of the land. She visited the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe and spent three days in Taos. For more about Betty Wade, see the unedited Class Notes online.

Bev Holt and wife Deb went on a Maine coast cruise and a trip to the Kentucky Ann Simpson Brackett won the Bourbon Trail. Bev has also recently Distinguished Alumnus Award last revisited Charlottesville and planned a year and attended her first-ever river cruise along the Danube this summer.

Mary Wash reunion then. She plans She still lives in Cary, N.C., but enjoys her condo in Ann Simpson Brackett ‘69, last year’s UMW Wrightsville Beach.

Distinguished Alumnus, co-founded Women and Girls Thriving, a nonprofit that helps women and girls living in poverty.

to return for our 50th to catch up with French major friends including Lyn Howell Gray, CeCe Smith Riffer, and Donna Cannon Julian. Ann has three daughters and two grandkids, likes to hike and snowshoe, and enjoys travel to Italy and France, where her husband has family. She co-founded Women and Girls Thriving, a Brookline, Massachusetts, nonprofit that helps women and girls living in poverty.

Barbara Black went to Paris for a week to attend a convention about the Spartacus TV series. She got selfies with the stars and went to great panel discussions. She is learning mah jongg for brain sharpening.

I, Iris Harrell, have just returned from a 10-day trip to Maui to celebrate my wife’s birthday. It was sunny and warm with delightful views from our lanai of waves hitting the shore. We played golf and pickleball and went hiking in the Haleakala National Park to see the bamboo forest.

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CLASS NOTES No Class Agent?

Send news directly to classnotes@umw.edu.

I am still working diligently as an owner’s rep for a family who lost their home in the 2017 Santa Rosa fires. This year we had to stay indoors for eight days due to horrible air quality from another California fire, 180 miles away.

Jean Polk Hanky submitted the following news after calling classmates as part of the reunion planning committee: Laura T. Johnson Atherton was recovering from back surgery so wasn’t sure she’d be able to come for our reunion. Tee stays in contact with Pam Hogan Baynard.

Janis Purdy Brewer is a retired high school social studies teacher living near Annapolis, Maryland, where she grew up. She travels to Kansas City every spring to read Advanced Placement European history essays but might make an exception this year to attend reunion. She would like to reconnect with her college roommate, Gloria Holland. Janis has two daughters including a Mary Washington alum, Sara Brewer Sumpolec ’94, who lives in the Fredericksburg area.

Carole Clear Flores majored in physics and became an aerospace engineer, retiring from the Office of Commercial Space Transportation of the Federal Aviation Administration.

She attended our 45th reunion and was considering coming to our 50th. She has a daughter and two grandchildren in Hawaii and a son at home.

Nancy Brittle retired from teaching and is a successful artist in Fauquier County, Virginia. She is a landscape and genre painter in the impressionist and postimpressionist styles and shows her work in Fredericksburg and surrounding areas.

Catharine Rossi Mannering is a high school administrator in Comfort, Texas.

She regrets missing reunion but needs to be present for her high school’s graduation.

She and her husband operated a bed-andbreakfast for 23 years before closing it recently. Catharine has two stepchildren and eight grandchildren, all reasonably close. Catharine keeps in touch with Suzanne McCarthy Van Ness, Pam Hogan Baynard, and Kathleen Hill Marks.

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Sudie Bagley Heartwell is retired from a social work career and lives in the Fincastle, Virginia, area with husband Buck, a lawyer. Sudie has three horses and still enjoys riding. As newlyweds, she and Buck did the hippie trail in India (look it up; I didn’t know what it was either).

Lyn Howell Gray and Jim still live in Liberia but have bought a home in Blacksburg as they transition into retirement. Lyn and Jim planned to spend more than five months in the U.S. this year. In the past couple of years, they have visited South Africa, Zambia, India, and Mexico.

My husband, Jack, and I, Jean Polk Hanky, sold our river home in the Northern Neck of Virginia this past year and now live in Richmond, near most of our family. We miss the beautiful property, nice people, and gorgeous sunsets, but it was time to leave the maintenance and stress of storms behind.

Birdie Nuckols retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel and retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency several years later. A math major, she was stationed over the years in Korea, Belgium, and Germany. She met her husband, a United States Military Academy graduate, while serving in the Army, and they were happily married until he passed away in 2014. Birdie keeps up with Ginny Wheaton and Priscilla Geier Munson.

Hatteras. Lee Howland Hogan and Ed visited the Peruvian Amazon and Patagonia.

They took a Mediterranean cruise with the family to celebrate their 30th anniversary.

Susan Duffey DiMaina’s daughter earned a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and works in the cardiac care unit at INOVA Fairfax Hospital. Susie’s husband, John, retired from the International Monetary Fund, and they have rented a flat in Florence, Italy, for a year. As of the end of 2018 they were only halfway through this excellent adventure. You can read more about their experience online, in the unedited Class Notes.

In October, I, Anne Sommervold LeDoux, took a river cruise from Nice to Paris and enjoyed the wonderful weather and sights. John and I plan to move in June to an over-55 community in Stafford County, Virginia, just across the river from Fredericksburg. It is tough to move after living in a house for 39 years!

1971 Karen Laino Giannuzzi kapitankL11@yahoo.com

1972

Sherry Rutherford Myers sherryhon2011@gmail.com

1970

1973

The clock is ticking, and our 50th reunion will be here in just over a year! I urge you to come if you can. Our class voted at our last reunion to designate our class gift to the student mental health center. As of this writing, we had not yet met our goal.

Every donation is greatly appreciated.

Last June our class celebrated our 45th reunion. As your class agent, I encourage you to send at least two or three sentences once a year.

Anne Summervold LeDoux ledouxanne@yahoo.com

Donna Accettullo DeNyse is expecting her fourth granddaughter this spring.

Barbara Forgione Tansey enjoyed the

Joyce Hines Molina Joyce.molina@verizon.net

Our 4-year-old granddaughter was in her first dance recital and stole the show when, in her enthusiasm at “9 o’clock rock,” her tap shoe flew off. She spent most of the dance putting it back on, only to jump up and rejoin the dance in progress.

The audience applauded loudly.

Lee Howland Hogan ‘70 visited the Peruvian Amazon and Patagonia.

Outer Banks of North Carolina with her daughter and grandson. They visited the Currituck Beach Lighthouse and Cape

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

In August we explored Alaska on the Alaska Railroad. Starting in Fairbanks we covered the 600 miles to Seward, with incredible stops along the way. While we were in Alaska, my

sister Grace Hines Sorey ’70 traveled with Bill to Norway. We both took tours crossing the Arctic Circle within hours of each other – just in different countries.

I spent time with Anne Bevans Cooper, Jeanne Coats Black, Virginia Davey Addison, and others at the Richmond alumni meeting in October. Anne and husband Jerry also traveled in Alaska this summer, taking a cruise. Virginia and Will enjoyed a trip to Maine; otherwise they are devoted to their five grandchildren. I recently learned that friend and fellow parishioner Sally Smith ’58 is a Mary Washington alumna. She is an energetic world traveler.

was born to daughter Amanda and her husband, Ben, on Jan. 8.

1975

Armecia Spivey Medlock vagirl1805@msn.com

1976

Madelin Jones Barratt madbarratt@aol.com

Wendy Francis wrote from British Columbia near Vancouver, Canada, where she moved in 2016. She intended Marianne Schwartz Reed retired after 35 to work less but has been the executive years working in a mental health clinic. director of the Sunshine Coast She and husband Smokey travel, read, Community Foundation. She plans to retire in about three Eva Grace ‘76 is still working at the American years. She stays College of Cardiology in Washington, D.C. in contact with Robin Rimmer Hurst and spent New Year’s with her family in Mexico. go to concerts, sleep late, and pare down their possessions. Marianne is nostalgic Patti Finamore Wingfield, Margaret about all the concerts she’s attended: The Spivey, and Ann Chryssikos McBroom Doors in 1967; The Allman Brothers in traveled to Virginia Beach in January 1971; Ella Fitzgerald in 1978; Placido to visit Robin Hotchkin Warren Domingo in 1982; Bonnie Raitt in 1990; at her beautiful condo two blocks and John Prine, James Taylor, Joan Baez, from the water. The weather was and others. She wrote: “It is a good fine to walk to the ocean, shop a feeling to look back and feel good about little, and have some great food. it all, knowing that one of the major foundations of my life was the four years of freedom I had at Mary Washington.”

1974 Sid Baker Etherington sidleexx@yahoo.com Suzy Passarello Quenzer suzyquenzer@gmail.com Diane Harvey Smith retired in March 2018 from the fast-paced world of academic librarianship at George Mason University.

She and husband Steve sold their Great Falls, Virginia, house last year and moved to a house on the Rappahannock River in Westmoreland County. In June, Diane hosted an “old girls” reunion with Pam Smith McGahagin and Kate Rounds, a daughter of the late Pat Denton Rounds.

It was bittersweet but healing for all.

In August, Diane and Steve traveled to Thailand to visit their son, daughter-in-law, and two grandsons under 3 years old.

Bev Haynes Vaughn is a new grandmother! Sloane Ella Shafer

Lundy Baker Updike had a bit of a Hallmark/Folgers Coffee Christmas (remember those teary ads?) with one son coming in by plane, another by train, and the third by car. They decorated the house with everything they could find; baked too many cookies, cheesecakes, and breads; and had a wonderful time!

Lundy and Jim planned a late-spring trip to California to visit son Tom.

house in Irvington when not working in Richmond. Dawn Hill and her husband visited Mary Ruth at the river this past summer. They are planning a sailing trip to Spain this summer. She saw Hannah Patterson Crew at Christmastime.

Hannah and Todd have a grandson, Winston Crew Johnson, born to daughter Elizabeth and husband Chris on Dec. 12.

Hannah retired last fall and loves it. It gives her the time to visit daughter Emily and husband Brandon in St. Petersburg, Florida, and help with Winston, too.

Eva Grace is still working at the American College of Cardiology in Washington, D.C. She and husband Brett, son John, and his fiancée, Noelle, recently visited her sister, Ellen Grace Jaronczyk ’70, in Williamsburg. They were busy planning John and Noelle’s July wedding.

Ann Singleback Devereux is enjoying retirement in Ashburn, Virginia. She’s in two book clubs, spends time exploring Loudoun County, and likes having her kids visit. Daughter Allison teaches elementary strings in Fairfax County.

Daughter Meredith is a television news producer in Baltimore. Son Andrew Devereux ’12 works at REI in Woodbridge and was finishing his master’s degree in urban planning.

Jan Biermann considers herself retired.

Her boyfriend of 10 years had a knee replacement, so she was helping to nurse him back to health. Jan’s former roommate, Carolyn Roberts, planned to retire in March after 40 years in commercial banking. She planned a hiking and biking trip to Chile and Easter Island in April.

Last August Henry and I, Madelin Jones Barratt, celebrated daughter Anna’s marriage to Abel Ferreira Mendes, who hails from Paris and just completed a master’s degree in philosophy. Anna started a consulting job in the food industry after Mary Ruth Burton is still at the helm having been a chocolatier for the past three of Burton-Fuller Management, an years. They live in Northern Virginia, as do our older two children, William and Ellen, their Carolyn Roberts ‘76 planned a hiking and spouses, and our biking trip to Chile and Easter Island in April. four grandchildren. organizational development and executive coaching firm she started 32 years ago in Richmond. She became a grandmother to three children under 2 as her son and his wife had boy/girl twins who were not quite 2 and a new baby boy in November.

She and her husband and enjoy their

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Your classmates still want to hear from you!

Send news directly to classnotes@umw.edu.

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A

s a student at Mary Washington, Andrew Ward ’01 scurried up and down Campus Walk, handing out flyers and encouraging his classmates to attend studentorganized shows at the run-down but beloved amphitheater. He and his circle of music and theater fans hoped that students who eschewed productions at the more professional on-campus venues, like Klein Theatre and Dodd Auditorium, would embrace shows “run by a bunch of derelicts like us – and they did,” recalled Ward.

The religion and philosophy major, who has earned three advanced degrees since then, said he’s used that same grassroots approach to organizing the iKnow Concert Series. It attracts thousands of music fans each year to what is billed as the largest free music festival in Uganda while simultaneously providing complimentary health services, most notably HIV testing.

“There are definitely elements of the amphitheater onstage in Uganda,” said Ward, who launched the festival in 2014 in Kabale, Uganda, the same year he received UMW’s Outstanding Young Alumnus Award.

The amphitheater, now the Heslep Amphitheatre, was renovated in 2018.

After a study by the Global Livingston Institute identified high rates of HIV and economic privation as major concerns for Kabale residents, the Denver-based nonprofit – which partners with communities on international development projects – contacted Ward, a New Orleans resident who had volunteered extensively with citizen-led rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Katrina. Was he interested in joining forces with Ugandans to organize a music, dance, and arts festival that would encourage residents to learn their HIV status while also providing Kabale an economic shot in the arm?

Combining promotional skills honed at Mary Washington with a little New Orleans magic, Ward

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attached a megaphone to a truck and drove around Kabale, talking up the event, handing out flyers, and throwing beads and condoms to passers-by.

He hoped to attract 2,000 people to the first show and that 200 of them would agree to on-the-spot HIV testing.

Instead, 4,000 people showed up and 826 were tested for HIV before organizers ran out of the finger-prick kits, Andrew Ward which provide results prepares for a 2017 in 30 seconds. The iKnow Concert, same folks who had part of a series of avoided walking festivals in Uganda into Kabale’s HIVthat attracts music testing clinics for fear lovers and provides of being seen and complimentary health stigmatized turned services, especially out in droves to the HIV testing. festival, responding enthusiastically to the musicians who announced Africa, officials in Colombia have from the stage, “I just got recently asked iKnow to consider tested. You should too.” sponsoring a festival there aimed Four years later, iKnow has at reducing the stigma associated produced 18 concerts in six cities with breast cancer, Ward said. in Uganda and Rwanda, featuring a The 2019 iKnow series recognized range of artists, from hip-hop and International Women’s Day with a R&B to jazz and traditional. Roughly show March 8 in Uganda’s capital 224,000 people have attended the city of Kampala – featuring Michael free shows, and nearly 30,000 have Franti as one of the headliners – been tested for HIV, Ward said. All before moving to Masaka on March of the clinicians who administer the 9 and Kabale on March 12. Reducing tests are also trained counselors the stigma associated with illness who speak the local dialect and can and linking at-risk populations with immediately connect those who existing but underutilized services need it to judgment-free services. is the series’ goal, Ward said.

At the request of community “It’s about connecting the members, healthcare services dots,” Ward said, adding that offered at the shows have expanded efforts like iKnow only work with to include tetanus shots, kidney buy-in from the community. “We disease screenings, blood donations, outsiders launch the ball, but they and health initiatives like cervical carry it across the goal line.” cancer screenings and adult male

circumcisions. While the series

– Edie Gross has focused its efforts in East

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

Joel Woodman

Music Festival Helps Medical Care Go Down

1977

Anne Robinson Hallerman arhmwc77@yahoo.com Margaret Nichols Honeycutt moved to Richlands, Virginia, in June 2016 to practice general pediatrics in a large multispecialty clinic serving several counties in Virginia and West Virginia.

Sadly, husband Don died in August 2017 after a long battle with congestive heart failure. Maggie is active in a Pentecostal church and Bible study and is learning to be engaged in life after being consumed by caretaker responsibilities.

and are glad they live close enough to help with them. She still runs her business, Trinity Title, but is encouraging Dave to retire after more than 35 years with Lowe’s. In 2017, she started the Weaver-Vaden cousin reunion, hosting three generations of cousins for a weekend. She has watched cousins from five states reconnect over family, food, and fellowship.

Tigers team song for a surprised and enthusiastic groom, Will Mosley.

The couple resides in Melbourne, Australia. Grandmother Mary Jo Lacey Littlefield ’53 attended, as did Keith’s twin brother, Michael Littlefield ’88.

Glenn Markwith ’76 ably represented early male residents of Trench Hill, now the hub of the alumni center.

The Roanoke Regional Chamber recognized Lisa Bratton Soltis for her economic Rebecca DelCarmen Wiggins ’79 joined development efforts the NIH Office of Research on Women’s by naming her Health, working to address the gender Small Business Janice Wenning, husband Brad Stewart, Advocate of the imbalance in biomedical research. and their schipperke, Blaze, split their Year, according to time between their home in Berkeley, Gayle Weinberger California, and Ambergris Caye, Belize.

Petro. Gayle added They also explore the United States and that Lisa Carle Shields has retired and Canada during annual cross-country lives at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia.

Barbara Goliash Emerson drives from California to Virginia Nancy Quaintance Nelles retired Emers3@msn.com and New Hampshire. Janice has an from teaching. She, Donna Anaya, her online consignment business, helping Rebecca DelCarmen Wiggins joined brother, and a friend traveled to national people downsize. She volunteers for the Office of Research on Women’s parks out West last summer. Nancy Seacology, a nonprofit that supports Health in the Office of the Director and Karin Hedberg went to St. Kitts in island conservation projects. of the National Institutes of Health, the West Indies after Thanksgiving. working to address the gender imbalance Don’t miss the Class of 1979’s 40th in biomedical research. She and Dr. reunion, May 31 through June 2, 2019!

Stephen E. Wiggins, a graduate of Janet Place Fuller the Medical College of Virginia, have janetpfuller@aol.com been married for 25 years and live in Potomac, Maryland. They have two I am happy to report that my husband, Susan Garter children, Daniel, 23, and Elizabeth, 20.

Tom, and I enjoyed attending skaygm@aol.com Washington Capitals games last After Mary Washington, Rebecca earned It was wonderful to hear from so many year and cheering them on to their a master’s degree at Catholic University classmates – keep those updates coming! first-ever Stanley Cup win. and a Ph.D. at Ohio State University. She Please join our class Facebook group taught briefly at “MWC Alum 1980 and Friends.”

American University and Georgetown After 34 years as a program and project Janet Place Fuller ‘78 and husband Tom University, then manager for AT&T, I, Susan Garter, enjoyed the Washington Capitals last year, began her career at have spent the last three years with especially cheering them on to their firstNIH 28 years ago.

Verizon, working to bring “internet of “I recently visited ever Stanley Cup win. things” products to the marketplace. A Mary Washington far cry from my biology and psychology and was so happy department roots, but UMW graduates to see how the campus has grown. It is are certainly versatile! My son, Alex, Carol Mills retired from full-time in many ways just the way I remembered is a third-year law student at Yale. My teaching but continues part time for it, but even better!” she wrote. “The husband and I are looking forward to Prince William County Schools. She library is very nice, and I did some more opportunities for leisure travel after also took an adjunct position last fall reading in a quiet corner of the second a trip to Southern Italy in fall of 2019. with Old Dominion University to floor while I was visiting. It is great that supervise a student teacher. An avid We spent last Thanksgiving in it is open to the public and to alumni.” baseball fan, Carol enjoyed going St. Petersburg, Florida, with Jan to the All-Star game, hosted by her Katie Littlefield, the daughter of Keith Stankiewicz McCarthy, her husband, favorite team, the Nationals. Besides Littlefield and Ellen Erskine Littlefield, Mike, and daughter Maggie. They attending concerts and theatrical was married at the beautiful UMW hiked Foster Falls in Tennessee and performances, her highlight of 2018 was Jepson Alumni Executive Center in toured the George Dickel Distillery with a tour of Italy with her church choir.

October 2018. The UMW a cappella Wendy Prothro Howard ’82 and family group One Note Stand performed the in November. Jan was fortunate to see Martha Weaver Campbell and husband Australian Football League’s Richmond Janice Webb Schmidt ’82 in February Dave enjoy their three grandchildren

1979

1978

1980

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CLASS NOTES and said that having friends visit is one of the benefits of living in Florida!

Also, within the last two years, I enjoyed a mini-reunion in Asheville, North Carolina, with senior year Bushnell suitemates Barbara Gant Kinner, Deb Caton, and Sandy Slusher Smallwood; visited Becky Bradley Price in Virginia’s Tidewater; and visited Wendy Prothro Howard ’82 and husband Jay in Bethany Beach, Delaware.

from Auburn University in 1993 and was an assistant professor of mathematics for 20 years. After returning to get a Master of Science in 2010 and a Ph.D. in 2013, both in computer science, Mary is on the faculty of the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. She has two children – David, a nurse, and Melissa, an actress.

Barbara “Cookie” Pittman Ferrier retired after working for 31 years with the Department of Juvenile Justice in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her mother graduated from Mary Hudachek-Buswell ’80 owns MWC in 1953, and her son, Thomas T. and operates Materia Prima Ventures, Ferrier V ’16, carried a consulting business to help startups on the proud Eagle commercialize their technology. tradition. Barbara is pleased to be reunited with our class through the magic of social media, Barbara and husband Greg have become though she said she also is thankful we went full time RV-ers and enjoy traveling the to college before Instagram and Facebook! country, visiting as many national parks and states as possible. Deb and Sandy each live with their families in Virginia, and Sandy is a proud grandmother.

Becky is semi-retired after 36 years as a full-time pharmacist. She moved back to the Tidewater area, is involved in the community, and loves to travel. She plans to visit Australia and France in 2019.

Becky’s daughter Haley was married in 2018, and daughter Laura is engaged.

Lisa Langenbach is in her 33rd year as a professor of American politics; she has been at Middle Tennessee State for the past 26 years. She lives in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. Lisa spent the last two summers in Germany, studying the language. She has visited most eastern European countries and has been to every western, central, and northern European country except Norway. She is a volunteer at the local animal shelter and loves to garden and to read history and historical novels.

Carmela Sperlazza Southers retired in fall 2017 from the Ken Blanchard Companies, where she was senior consulting partner. She and husband Phil live in Fredericksburg, and Carmela is happy to report that her two adult children are successfully launched and off the “family payroll.” In retirement, she and Phil have enjoyed traveling the U.S. and Canada in their camper van.

Traveling, reading, and playing the ukulele make a great daily to-do list.

Mary Hudachek-Buswell received a Master of Science in applied mathematics

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Kathy Shelton Sieg lives in Virginia, where she is a private reading tutor teaching struggling readers. She is writing an online curriculum to train others to do the same. Kathy married Sam, her high school sweetheart, and they have four grown children and five grandchildren.

Laura Lee Lowe Collins and husband Jim live in Rapid City, South Dakota, where they enjoy their two granddaughters, ages 4 and 8, and sing at nursing homes and retirement communities. In February 2018, they visited the balmy Mississippi Gulf coast with family. They celebrated son Michael’s wedding to Cynthia at a mountain vacation home in Jaco, Costa Rica; their oldest daughter, Stephanie, a professional photographer, joined them to capture the occasion.

Later, Laura and Jim celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary in Paradise Valley, Montana, near Yellowstone National Park. In October, they enjoyed fall weather in southern Minnesota, Northern Virginia, and the Myrtle Beach area, traveling by train and making several stops to see family and friends.

Former New Yorker Carol Aarseth Jackson has lived in the Washington, D.C., area since 1984. She and husband Kevin celebrated their 30th anniversary last year by visiting Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton national parks. They enjoy world travel. Daughter Kim, a Yale Law School grad, lives in D.C. and is a law clerk for a Supreme Court justice. Son Stephen, a Virginia Tech grad, also lives in D.C. He does operations and IT work for a nonprofit educational foundation. Carol works part time with an employee assistance company and has a Pembroke Welsh corgi, Kara, who is 8.

Ford Hart retired from a 33-year foreign service career in 2016, at the end of his appointment as U.S. consul general to Hong Kong and Macau.

He lives in Wellington, New Zealand, where his partner and former Kiwi counterpart in Hong Kong, Gabrielle, is assigned to the foreign ministry.

Ford has gone into the private sector, dabbling in consulting, blockchain technology, and exports to China. He encourages all Mary Washingtonians visiting New Zealand to contact him.

After 28 years in IT, Della Thacker Carrico retired in 2017 as a senior systems analyst from Sentara Healthcare. She and her husband, who retired in 2018, have two sons. Daniel is a team leader at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Taylor is an Army captain, stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The Carricos have four grandchildren, ages 12, 11, 4, and 1.

Della said that being able to spend time with their grandchildren is the best! She’s lived almost all of her life on her family’s farm near Smithfield, Virginia, where she and her husband have been renovating their home, biking, playing tennis, doing church missions work, and traveling.

Pamela Troutman and her husband retired in 2014; in 2017 they moved to New Mexico and have no regrets.

Between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, Rio Rancho adjoins the Santa Anna Pueblo reservation. There are mountains and nature all around, and they have a fantastic view of the Sandia Mountains from their backyard. They enjoy the region’s Retired Carmela Sperlazza Southers ’80 history, balloons, wrote that traveling, reading, and playing and art. Pam the ukulele make a great daily to-do list. volunteers with several nonprofit organizations

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and supports the Bead Society of New Mexico. She designs and creates jewelry, and after selling her work in Occoquan, Virginia, for four years, she is again in a gallery, this one called Amapola, in Old Town Albuquerque.

Environmental engineer Amanda Bruch McNeil retired from Gulf Oil and Chevron. She is sailing and serving as a board member and treasurer of the local figure skating club, which represents U.S. Figure Skating in the Annapolis, Maryland, area, where she lives. Amanda and her husband have two children. Matt, 30, works in Baltimore. He has a business degree from the College of Charleston and an MBA from Loyola University. Caroline, 18, is a freshman at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, studying pre-med and doing varsity sailing. Amanda’s sister, Lindsley Bruch Murphy ’83, lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and two daughters.

Kathy Matt Reilly has lived in Chicago for the past 15 years with her husband and two sons. Her oldest son is in a Ph.D. program in physical therapy.

Kathy has followed two careers since graduating: She owns a medical/scientific graphics and design firm, and she is the strategic partnerships manager for the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program out of headquarters in the Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.

Lewis Wendell lives in New York City.

He is an urban planning consultant with wife Abbie. Their son and daughter, highschoolers, are on Ultimate Frisbee teams, which can be traced back directly to Lewis’ time playing at Mary Washington.

He gets to play the occasional pickup game in New York, and sometimes his son joins in. Lewis took his family to Pakistan and showed them where he attended first through fourth grades in Lahore. It was a magical experience for Lewis and his wife, an intrepid traveler; not so much for the Vicki Prescott ’80 retired after 37 years kids. In 2018, they visited Cuba, which with the Department of Defense. was also wonderful.

Lewis and family spent the recent holidays in the Catskills.

Kathy McMullen Lueckert, husband Don, and their two dogs live in the Kansas City area now, but they have lived all over the country – Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Louisville, and Seattle.

Kathy is director of operations at Village Presbyterian Church, a 5,000-member congregation with three campuses and an operating budget of $6.5 million.

A big accomplishment was completing her first half marathon at age 59, a week before breast cancer surgery.

Kathy is a two-time cancer survivor and would welcome connecting with classmates who share that experience.

Leslie Wheeler Hortum and husband John live in Alexandria, Virginia. He recently retired as an Episcopal priest.

Older son Vanya is a U.S. Marine at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He recently married a woman with three children, making Leslie and John instant grandparents! Younger son Dru lives in Alexandria, where he is building his career in the hospitality industry.

Lewis gets to Fredericksburg regularly.

He and his son stayed in Fredericksburg for an Ultimate tournament in Richmond and met up with Bob Smith. His good friend from high school, Ellie Regan ’77, visited him last winter in New York with Linda Reynolds Thornton ’79 and Dawn Machonis ’77. Shannon Elder ’83 and Leslie Bird ’13 visited Lewis in Roxbury, New York, last summer. Both accomplished landscape designers and gardeners, they helped him with ideas and plantings for his garden and helped to beautify the historic railroad depot near Lewis’ home there. Last Memorial Day, Lewis and his wife attended the wedding of the daughter of Scott Chilton ’79 and Sonia Garcia Chilton ’79, Emily, at Woodlawn in Alexandria. Before Christmas, Carol Altstatt ’81 traveled from D.C. to visit Lewis and family.

She was about to be deployed for at least a year to Afghanistan to advise the Afghan military on health care issues.

Leslie is the managing partner of the Washington office of Spencer Stuart, a privately held executive search and leadership advisory services firm. She said it’s been a great career with opportunities to work with many impactful organizations.

Martha Williams still enjoys her job but wishes she had more time to travel. She swims, sails, bikes, and hikes. She took a Danube River cruise, skied in Tahoe, and spent a few weeks at her Ohio lake house. Martha’s older son is in the Coast

Guard, stationed in Alameda, California, near San Francisco, and plans to marry in August. Her daughter has a master’s degree and teaches high school world history; she and her Army officer husband live near Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Martha’s youngest is studying computer science at James Madison University.

Martha attended a U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1978 reunion and spent the weekend with Jennifer Boyd Ross ’78.

Jennifer is busy running and doing triathlons. Her husband, Paul, retired in the last year.

Martha reported that Carin Carr and her fiancé, Jay, live in Castle Rock, Colorado.

Carin is retired and was expecting her third grandchild. While in San Francisco over Thanksgiving, Martha had lunch with a swimming friend, Phyllis Quinn ’77.

She also saw Lori Foster Turley ’81 and her husband, Craig, in Annapolis.

Martha, Alison Roedy Mack, Beth Murray Patterson, and Vicki Prescott travel together regularly to celebrate big birthdays. Alison lived across the street from Martha, and their sons are very close. Alison relocated to Florida, but she does a good job of keeping in touch. Vicki retired in June from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence as a defense intelligence senior leader. She had been with the Department of Defense for more than 37 years. We send our condolences to Vicki, whose mother died last fall.

1981 Lori Foster Turley LoriFTurley@gmail.com We’re sad to learn of the death of Beth Richwine in January. According to her obituary, she had been objects conservator at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History for the past 30 years. Her hobbies ranged from making artistic pottery to being a master cheesemaker. She and husband Randall Cleaver had lived in Takoma Park, Maryland, for the last 10 years.

Our thoughts are with Ellen Stanley Booth, who lost her sister.

1982

Tara Corrigall corrigallt@gmail.com Virginia “Ginger” Deane Bushman retired from teaching in 2015 and works

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Businessman’s Got the Drive

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first-year seminar on civil rights activist James Farmer was the highlight of freshman year for Charles Reed Jr. ’11. Before the class, Reed knew very little about Farmer, who co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), organized the 1961 Freedom Ride through the South to protest segregated public transportation, and taught history and American studies at Mary Washington from 1985 to 1998.

“Come to find out he was a civil rights pioneer and a force to be reckoned with, and he actually taught at the university. I thought, ‘I have to get in on that,’ ” Reed said. “That played a huge part in me contributing my time to issues of social justice.”

Among a host of other activities at UMW, Reed served as president of the Black Student Association, vice president of Brothers of a New Direction (BOND), a member of Students Educating and Empowering for Diversity (SEED), and a student aide at the James Farmer Multicultural Center. He capped off his senior year by earning the university’s Citizenship Award for Diversity Leadership – as well as a coveted seat on the PBSsponsored 2011 Freedom Ride bus, which took 40 college students from around the country and a handful of original Freedom Riders along the route of Farmer’s harrowing 1961 ride.

Reed, who missed commencement to participate in the 50th anniversary trip, called the 10-day experience “life-changing,” the perfect bookend to a college career defined by a commitment to diversity and inclusion.

“What do you really want to get out of your university experience?

Every chance I get, I tout UMW, what the university meant to me, and what I was able to expose myself to,” said Reed, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting.

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Charles Reed Jr. was a campus leader in social justice. Today, the recipient of a 2017 UMW Young Business Alumni Award is sharing the lessons he’s learned with youngsters in the community.

“I honestly feel like the four years you spend in college is what you make of it. You have to be driven. You have to be the one saying, ‘I want to be part of this opportunity.’ ” Reed, a New Jersey native who lives in Sterling, Virginia, said he applies that same drive to his professional life. After college he worked for three years as a client financial management analyst for Accenture, tracking resources, expenses, and staffing for 20-plus federal government contracts totaling $100 million. Since November 2014, he’s been a management consultant at KPMG, advising federal clients on issues such as profitability and efficiency. He credits his extensive extracurricular involvement at UMW with helping him hone the

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

skills he uses daily to communicate and collaborate with others.

In 2017, Reed received one of five inaugural UMW Young Business Alumni Awards. And in July 2018, he became engaged to sociology graduate Missira Amuda ’12, whom he met at Mary Washington. Over the years, Reed said he’s embraced several opportunities to coach at-risk youths on financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and the importance of working hard to achieve success.

“You can aspire to be something else other than LeBron James or Tom Brady or whatever famous athlete is out there,” he tells youngsters.

“I want you to be the next doctor.

I want you to be the next CEO.”

– Edie Gross

part time for the schools. Her daughter graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018 and set her sights on living in Florida. Ginger and her husband plan to help her move this summer and to spend time with Ginger’s brotherin-law, Mark Bushman ’94, and his wife, Kim Strafalace Bushman ’96.

Last summer, Laura Wong Dolloff ’83 visited, and she and Ginger walked campus and saw the new buildings.

Ginger stays in touch with Virginia Wagner Pugh and her roomie, Margaret “Tad” Gillie Stanley.

Rhonda Nash wrote that her niece “Calli-co,” Calli Lowery Fox, graduated from UMW in 2011, and her nephew, Lucas Hidalgo, graduated in 2018. She is a proud alumna and an even prouder aunt!

Douglas K. Harvey had already taught history and English for five years but always had a burning desire to work in museums when he came to Mary Washington to pursue a BLS in historic preservation. He did an internship at the Smithsonian Museum, and with his degree, he embarked on a 36-year career in Virginia museums. He worked in Manassas and Richmond, and for the last 12 years in his hometown of Lynchburg. He retired at the end of 2017 but is consulting on a limited basis.

Mary Washington gave him a career, he wrote, and he will never forget the kindness of the faculty, especially “class act” Bill Crawley, who helped him plot his course as the school tried to figure out what to do with a guy who already had degrees in education, history, and English from Radford University.

Doug later hired Scott Harris ’83 as curator at the Manassas Museum.

Gray Wells was bitten by a copperhead snake in her pool in Hilton Head, South Carolina, in 2017. She wrote that the involved finger was doing well, and she was feeling close to normal. She and husband Dan moved back to Reston where she grew up, and they were excited about the unexpected downsize.

Dan retired after 41 years with Boeing Computer Services and SAIC. They have kept their home in Hilton Head.

Ellen Coleman and I were thrilled to meet the current recipient of the David Hawkens ’82 scholarship at the annual UMW Scholarship luncheon.

We shared stories and background on David’s student days with the recipient.

Nancy Kaiser and wife Mary, Debbie Snyder Barker, Annmarie Cozzi,

Jenifer “JB” Blair, and I held a mini-reunion in Bethany Beach and celebrated Annmarie’s retirement. JB is president-elect of the UMW Alumni Association and chaperoned a high school trip to London and Paris in January; glad she majored in French.

1983

Marcia Guida Marcia.G.James@gmail.com

After nearly 29 years, Leslie Bellais retired in late January as curator of social history from the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Gray Wells ‘82 is feeling close to normal She immediately began working after being bitten by a copperhead snake in as a teaching a swimming pool in 2017. assistant in U.S. history in the Department of Vicki Haynes Morris is living in History at the University of WisconsinWisconsin and took the big step Madison. For two years, she has been of downsizing in 2018, which working on a dissertation in U.S. was no easy task with a hubby history and material culture, and she with a large M&M collection. plans to receive a Ph.D. in May. Carol Gillespie Guerin got “burned We send condolences to Lisa Wright, out” as a medical malpractice paralegal whose mother passed away last summer. and switched careers through Virginia’s She lost her father during our senior year Career Switcher program 17 years ago. at MWC. Lisa retired after a full 30-year She teaches legal systems administration career in law enforcement. A licensed and Oracle programming at a technical real estate agent since the ’90s, she’s high school in Chesterfield County, worked part time but now is launching Virginia. Her programs have been cited a full-time real estate career. With the by the state for having a 90 percent excitement of Amazon coming to Virginia success rate for certifications and for the and a baseball stadium to Fredericksburg, success of her graduates. Carol and Ken she was looking forward to it! recently celebrated their 35th anniversary in Jamaica. Youngest daughter Jessie celebrated her first wedding anniversary Labor Day weekend; middle daughter Christine Waller Manca Carrie is an analyst for the FBI in christine.manca@att.net Richmond; and oldest daughter Dani is a preschool teacher in Lorton, Virginia.

Our 35th reunion is nearly upon us! I have enjoyed serving on the reunion committee We send our condolences to Carol on with Linda Lemanski Blakemore, the death of her father, who passed Carey Smith Monts, and Dan Steen. away in March 2018 after an eight-year We look forward to seeing many of struggle with Alzheimer’s. Last year, you for a wonderful weekend at Mary Carol and Laura Shreave had lunch Washington, May 31 through June 2! together, and Carol said, “It was as if we were right back at Mary Wash.”

Karen Warren Beall and husband Jim

1984

As for me, Tara Corrigall, I had a fabulous time at my high school reunion in Helena, Montana, last summer, reconnecting with friends and visiting Yellowstone. I had my bear spray, but I didn’t need to use it. My job and volunteer work keep me busy, and I have been fortunate to represent UMW at various student admission events.

My pride for our alma mater grows every day – it has been fun learning and introducing potential students to our school without telling stories of keg parties in the ACL ballroom and road trips to U.Va.! Facebook reports weddings and retirements, but I encourage you to send me your news.

moved to Fredericksburg after living in Maryland most of their lives. They celebrated 34 years of marriage this year and have four children and seven grandchildren. Karen and Jim opened a Fredericksburg Castle Key Realty office last summer. She has been a top Realtor for the past 15 years and opened Castle Key Realty in Maryland in 2010.

Besides being a Realtor, Jim retired from the Maryland public schools and is teaching for Orange County Public Schools. Karen keeps in touch with roommate Elizabeth Carriker McGinnis.

Denise Zawadzki Doucette is also back in Virginia, living in Vienna, and happy to be so close to D.C. Jim Emery

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CLASS NOTES a design-and-build firm, specializing in unique residential and commercial projects. He also administers “Our Mary Washington College Friends” on Facebook, which celebrates lives and friendships Joanne Brenton Shabelski ’84 met her at MWC. He soccer-referee husband on the pitch. He wrote, “We’ve just accepted our encourages her love of the sport.

2,030th member, and we’re waiting for you.”

Pam Johnson Jemmison lives in After graduation, Jasmine Jelesoff Larimer Chesapeake, Virginia, and gets together switched from a med tech job to education. every fall for long beach weekends with Jane Coleman Campbell, Lynne Ballard Certified in French and Spanish, she taught Lansford, Kathy Harris Hutchison, in Stafford County and at Fredericksburg Tina Sawanobori Fredo, Carolyn Academy before switching to a 14-year Lankford, and Jackie Turk Epling. stint as stay-at-home mom to her daughter They all hope to make it to reunion! and two sons, volunteering and subbing at their school, Holy Cross Academy.

Joanne Brenton Shabelski was married Now Chris, 24, and Victoria, 20, go to May 2017 with Liz Canale, Betsy UMW; Sean, 18, is studying at Germanna Hanna, Dave Hardin ’83, and Renee Community College. Jasmine is in Allen Kuntz ’85 in attendance. Joanne her sixth year back teaching Spanish, met husband Mel, a soccer referee, on the currently at Massaponax High School. pitch, and he encourages her love of the Her husband works at Dahlgren. sport. She plays on six teams, including is commissioner for a recreational field hockey league in Herndon, Virginia.

Susan Johnson Hoehne lives in Lexington, Virginia, where she teaches seventh grade.

a coed team with Abas Adenan ’85, and participates in local and state Senior Olympics. She plans to travel in June to New Mexico for nationals. With a master’s degree in special education from George Mason University, she teaches in Fairfax County Public Schools. Her children are Skye, Colton, and Elliott.

In May, Teresa Nugent Forbes and Jesse Forbes’ son Jay is to receive a master’s degree in music therapy from Shenandoah Conservatory and University. Daughter Emily will receive a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Bridgewater College. Emily’s twin sister, Jennifer, graduated in December from Shepherd University with degrees in piano performance and psychology. Teresa and Jesse have lived in Purcellville, Virginia, for almost 15 years. Teresa is a special education teacher in Loudoun County, and Jesse is self-employed. They are the proud grandparents of 6-year-old Leah.

Blair Howard was in Washington, D.C., through the late 1980s and early ’90s, working in the hospitality and entertainment industries with his own live-entertainment marketing firm. In 1996, he became a creative director for a New York internet startup – but 9/11 brought that industry to a standstill. He met Celine Robbins as he was leaving the city, and they have been happily married for more than 10 years. They live in Alexandria, where Blair owns

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Mark Scott and Marianna Rixey Scott ’85 have a daughter, their youngest, about to graduate from high school. Their two older daughters live in Charlottesville, Virginia, where they were raised.

The arrival of their 14-month-old granddaughter changed the couple’s retirement plans from moving to coastal Alabama to staying closer to home – with a “saltwater address somewhere.” Mark is “basically” retired from mortgage banking and finished 34 years of officiating high school football. These days, he deals blackjack for a casino company, substitute teaches, works on a snowplow crew, and even drove a truck for a 12-piece band on the East Coast for five months last summer.

Bill Waller married his high-school friend Rhonda Ritter in 2014, and he “shares” her two grandchildren. They live in Knoxville, Maryland, with the Appalachian Trail in the backyard and the C&O Canal and Potomac River in the front, with deer and bear as yard pets. Bill’s daughter, Alie, graduated from Towson University and is a first-year law student in Baltimore.

It was great to see Dan Wolfe featured in the cover story of the fall/winter 2018 issue of this magazine. His career in movie marketing in L.A. led him back to Mary Washington to teach a class on that subject. You can read about Dan online at magazine.umw.edu.

Sadly, Victor Bradshaw died Dec. 10, 2018, after suffering a heart attack. Vic grew up in Spotsylvania and lived in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He began his journalism career while at MWC, as an intern at The Free Lance-Star. He worked for papers throughout Virginia and South Carolina, most recently at the Harrisonburg Daily News Record.

Vic is remembered for his concern for people and desire to help others.

1985

Joanne Bartholomew Lamm jlamm88@verizon.net

1986

Lisa A. Harvey lisharvey@msn.com Our condolences go to Mary Loose DeViney, whose husband of 24 years, John, died on Father’s Day, June 17, 2018, at their home in Keswick, Virginia. We are keeping Mary and her family in our thoughts.

Terri Botsford Whitticar works with her husband of 32 years, Michael, in his Northern Virginia law firm. Their three children have graduated from college and work in management, finance, and health care. Their middle child planned to marry in 2019. Terri enjoys family, church, raising orchids, and traveling.

1987

Kim Jones Isaac mwc87@infinityok.com Rene Thomas-Rizzo Rene.Thomas-Rizzo@navy.mil Wendy Santia Huber’s older son, Jake, recently married in Charleston, South Carolina, where he and wife Hanna live.

Sara Marple Piehler is settling into her new community of Pittsburgh and would love Sara Marple Piehler ’87 wants to hear from to hear from any alumni who would show her around her any area alumni new community of Pittsburgh. who would show her around.

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

In May 2018, she took a job with the Institute for Transfusion Medicine, part of Vitalant in Pittsburgh, where she works the overnight shift in blood bank labs at some of the local hospitals. She is now closer to her daughter, Jill, who is studying radiologic technology at Trocaire College in Buffalo, New York.

Condolences to Jane Ellen Brennan Herrin, who lost both parents in 2018.

However, she did get to learn more about her father’s time as a POW in WWII, his presence on the last flight of B-17 bomber Miss Prissy, and about Vietnam. Jane Ellen and Jim, her husband of 25 years, have daughters ages 12 and 13. Jane Ellen prerecords weekends on Lite Rock 95.9 in Cookeville, Tennessee, and does podcasts for Stonecom Radio, which she loves. She also does makeup for Estee Lauder at Belk, which allows her to be a makeup artist without the travel. Jim is a reporter at the Herald-Citizen.

Please, keep the updates coming, classmates!

1988

Nee-Cee “Ringo” Baker rstarr66@msn.com Jay Bradshaw jaybradshaw747@aol.com Beverly J. Newman bevnewmn@yahoo.com

1989 Jim Czarnecki jimczarnecki@yahoo.com

1990

Susan Crytzer Marchant march66358@verizon.net Roberta Rouse’s father passed away in July, and her husband passed away in mid-October. We are sending prayers to Roberta and hoping friends and family near her home in Hereford, Arizona, have provided comfort.

Rebecca Murphy Fox and husband Michael live in Ashland, Virginia, where Rebecca has been working at Chesterfield County Public Schools for 17 years. Son Matthew graduated from Virginia Tech and is a naval engineer in Norfolk. Daughter Jordan is to graduate in May from University of Maryland, where she is in Army ROTC

and is a distinguished military graduate in the top 10 percent in the nation.

Joseph “Jay” Comfort wrote that life is good. After a decade dividing time between Ashland and Northern Virginia, he and his family – wife Lara, daughter Zoë, 7, and son Grayson, 14 – have moved to Arlington, just two miles from the homes where he and Lara spent their school-age years. The couple traveled to Thailand for a wedding, to visit Lara’s sister in Bangkok, and to catch up with friends from Lara’s tenure in Hong Kong with Star TV and BBC. Jay and Lara both have celebrated “that” birthday, he said, with travel to New Orleans and New Mexico.

Jay has owned IRON HORSE restaurant in Ashland for 11 years. In September, the restaurant staged a gala fundraiser that raised more than $70,000 to help restore the historic Ashland Theatre, which reopened in December. In September, after 10 years managing operations for the Lebanese Taverna Group, Jay became vice president of operations for the Washington, D.C.-based Jamie Leeds Restaurant Group, which operates six properties in D.C. and Virginia.

At a recent college fair, he narrowed his choices down to four Virginia state schools, Mary Wash being one of them.

1991

Shannon Eadie Niemeyer sfniemeyer@comcast.net Hello, Class of ’91! I didn’t receive much news this time, so I hope to hear from more people before the next edition.

DeAnna Toten Beard was recently appointed chair of the Department of Theatre Arts at Baylor University, where she is professor of theater history and co-director of Baylor in Oxford.

DeAnna and husband Kemper celebrated 27 years of marriage last summer.

1992

Courtney Hall Harjung charjung@hotmail.com

In August, my husband, Tom, and I moved into a 150-year-old home in midtown Mobile, Alabama. Just two days later, a 200-year-old, four-ton live oak tree crashed onto our garage. What a welcome to the neighborhood! I volunteer with several local nonprofit organizations and Since graduation, Nicola Mason ’90 has serve on the boards made her career as a fiction writer, a visual of the Mobile artist, and an editor.

Arts Council and the SouthSounds Music Festival.

Since graduation, Nicola Mason has made her career as a fiction writer, a visual artist, and an editor. She’s received an NEA Individual Artist Fellowship and a Pushcart Prize; her work was included in the annual New Stories From the South prize anthology. After several years at The Southern Review and LSU Press, where she edited the late poet Claudia Emerson among others, she moved to Cincinnati in 2002. In 14 years as managing editor, she led the fledgling Cincinnati Review to its current status as one of the most prominent literary magazines in the country. Last year, she started Acre Books, a bookpublishing offshoot of Cincinnati Review.

The very first book she acquired for Acre was named to the short list for PEN America’s prize for best debut.

From the Marchant household: My oldest son, Adam, took his SAT, and we have begun the search for the right college.

In October 2018, Tom and I celebrated our 19th anniversary in Navarre Beach, Florida, and in November we attended our niece’s wedding in Phoenix. In February, we looked forward to the start of the 2019 Mardi Gras season with weeks of balls, parades, and float barn parties. We planned to become rescue diver certified on a springtime Caribbean scuba vacation.

Rene Rios and Sonya Snider Rios ’91 live in Ashburn, Virginia. Both of their children attend Virginia Tech.

Nicholas is a senior who plans to graduate this spring, and Natalie is enjoying her freshman year.

Christine Harrison Casey was promoted to director of philanthropy at Transitions LifeCare, formerly Hospice of Wake County, in Raleigh, North Carolina. She manages a three-person team and aims to raise more than $1.5 million for the agency each year. She won a scholarship

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

49

CLASS NOTES from the local chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals to attend the international AFP Conference in San Antonio in March. She and husband Tom recently welcomed his oldest daughter, April, to live with them after she returned from a year in Thailand.

reminds everyone of the importance of getting a colonoscopy and not to delay.

1993 Cheryl L. Roberts Heuser chatatcha@yahoo.com

In his 26th year as an educator, Courtney Hall Harjung ‘92 and her Stephen Covert is principal at Pine husband looked forward to Mardi Gras View School in season in Mobile, Alabama, with its balls, Sarasota, Florida, parades, and float barn parties. a school for the gifted that is ranked sixth in the nation among magnet schools. He also is an Kate Stanford McCown, husband adjunct faculty member in the Education John, and children Mary Ella, 15; Jack, Leadership Program at the University 14; and Ashlyn, 7, enjoy the Canton, of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee.

Georgia, home they moved to in the Wife Cara teaches gifted third-graders summer of 2017. About that time, they in Sarasota. They both love what they also welcomed Oscar, their 100-pound do. All four of their children – two Bernese mountain dog. In August juniors, a freshman, and a fifth-grader 2018, Kate returned to the working – attend Pine View. The two older kids world as an area director for AuPair are starting the college search process.

Care Inc., a national au pair agency.

The family traveled to her nephew’s After getting a master’s degree and a wedding in Leesburg, Virginia. doctorate in art history from Rutgers University, Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio Donald Fuller retired after 26 years of spent seven years in Italy, where she service to the Army as a chief warrant married husband Giuseppe and had their officer 5 and attack helicopter pilot/ first child, Tommaso. She pursued a instructor. After six long deployments postdoc at the state archives in Florence and several shorter ones, he decided it before they moved in 2003 to Burlington, was time to move on to an adult job and Vermont, where she is a professor of art focus on family and the rest of his life. history at the University of Vermont. In His first post-military career takes him 2007, they welcomed baby Elisa. Besides to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where being a professor, Kelly is now associate he will be flying and remaining in the dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. attack-aviation world. He’s excited to She has published six books and dozens be close to Europe, where he grew up. of essays and articles. She has lectured He plans to stay overseas for a while, at major institutions across Europe then return stateside for good. His and the U.S. The children, now 16 and long-term plan is to get a postgraduate 11, love to travel, and they all make degree in something interesting but frequent trips to Italy to see relatives. completely useless, and to open an animal sanctuary. He hopes to end up near family in the Boise, Idaho, area.

Tevin Chaney, still in McLean, Virginia, works with data analytics for the federal government. He was diagnosed with stage 4a colorectal cancer in late August, which has kept him out of work. Treatment has been aggressive but is going very well – due to very positive results, he finished chemotherapy in December, earlier than expected, and began chemoradiation in late January. He expected to have surgery in April. Tevin maintains a positive outlook despite an initially disappointing prognosis, and his body is responding to treatment better than expected. He

50

She is so grateful that she was trained at Mary Washington as a scholar by a wonderful art history faculty, and that she had opportunities for leadership, like through Class Council. She also is grateful for an amazing group of dear friends who taught her the value of supporting each other through thick and thin; she cherishes lasting friendships with such great women as Janet Marshall Watkins, Lori Rose Drew, Devon Williams Cushman, and Lydia Cordes.

As for me, Cheryl L. Roberts Heuser, I had a wonderful time catching up with everyone at the Class of 1993 Reunion in June 2018 – 25 years! In August I made a career move, and I’m in the president’s office at Navy Federal Credit Union’s headquarters in Vienna, Virginia. I use my legal and financial services regulatory compliance background in the Regulatory Compliance and Public Policy Group as senior compliance officer – I love Navy Fed and the new opportunity!

This has brought me back to Virginia, where I have enjoyed being closer to my family and reconnecting with my many Mary Washington friends, including Jen Studt Schimmenti, Jean Sudlow Simpson, Aimee Cooper Starr, Kathy Opiela King, and Bethany Zecher Sutton. If you’re in the area, hit me up!

1994

Jennifer Dockeray Muniz dockeray@apple.com

Fannie Davidson Gray, of Montclair, New Jersey, has been reconnecting with classmates. She caught up with Jill Whelan Salp and Andrew Salp while they all were in San Francisco. She also hiked with Karri Ellis Smith ’93 while in San Diego. Fannie said there was a manhunt for a fugitive and a massive snake sighting on their hike, followed by the newsmaking collapse of part of a cliff – which Karen Hatwell ’94 is senior advisor for they’d been under.

chemistry in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Kelly said she faced a difficult moment at work when a prospective student was trying to decide between the University of Vermont and Mary Washington. Kelly said she had to be honest with her because she owes so much to Mary Washington.

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

David Janes has taken up a new position as senior advisor, Office of the President, at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University in Okinawa, Japan.

Karen Hatwell lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, close to family. She enjoys rock climbing and running, and she

volunteers with several organizations, including Dogs XL Rescue, Girls on the Run, and Bike MS. Karen completed a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1999 from University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She held a two-year postdoctoral position shared between Johns Hopkins University and Switzerland’s University of Basel. She taught for seven years at Swarthmore and Vassar colleges and Stevenson University. She’s been working for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the last 10 years and is senior advisor for chemistry in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. She hopes to attend our 25th reunion this spring.

enjoy watching elder son Andrew play the same position for his school team and summer league. After a five-year hiatus, Amy accidentally restarted her vintage and antiques business last year via Instagram, and it has really taken off.

Her older son has begun to think about college, and they’ve visited Mary Wash to see the rugby team and tour campus.

Jamie Simpson started a new job at the end of January as director of meetings for the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. She and Phil Stoneman ’94 have been married for 18 years and live in Vienna, Virginia, with their 14-yearold daughter and 11-year-old son.

I, Michelle Trombetta, started a new job in January, as director of product innovation for Surescripts. I work in the Minneapolis office but will be at Surescripts headquarters in Northern Virginia Amy Costello Miller ’97 married a prop, often and look had two sons, and is now part of a rugby forward to seeing friends and campus family. more. I’ve been spoiled seeing Kira Stchur Villarreal a few times a year, despite our living far apart. She and her husband, Eddie, celebrated Jane Archer Thanksgiving with us in Minnesota, jane@janearcherillustration.com and then we celebrated a mutual friend’s birthday in Las Vegas. We are planning to see Kira and Eddie at their home in San Antonio later this year.

Jennifer Rudalf Gates jeni17@me.com We’re all looking forward to seeing who can make it back to Mary Washington for reunion, May 31 through June 2, 2019!

1995

1996

1997

Michelle Trombetta michelletrombetta@gmail.com Congratulations to Dianna Rowell Boschulte and her husband, Rich, who welcomed their first child, Liam Patrick, Jan. 10, 2019!

Jennifer Wilson Watson and Chris Watson ’96 live in Fredericksburg and recently celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary. She was promoted to director of membership engagement at the FBI National Academy, where she enjoys new work challenges and opportunities to travel. Jennifer still is out on the track, now in her sixth season playing for Fredericksburg Roller Derby.

Amy Costello Miller and her husband have sons in eighth grade and 10th grade.

This is her fourth year homeschooling younger son Ben. The Millers are a rugby family; Amy married a prop. They

1998

Erika Giaimo Chapin erikagchapin@gmail.com Jen Carter Tsimpris lives in Richmond, Virginia, where she is resident life services manager at Cedarfield, a premier retirement community in the West End. Last July, she and her husband, Basil, celebrated nine years of marriage. They and children John Landon, 7, and Anne Kathryn, 3, are happy and well, and Jen hopes all fellow Mary Wash alums are, too! Jen said our 20th class reunion in June was amazing, and it was so wonderful to see so many old friends.

Darien Berkowitz Jacobson, husband Andy, sons Alex and Ben, and dog Snack

hosted a mini-reunion of sorts in Seattle last summer. I, Erika Giaimo Chapin, was there, along with Katie Shea Britton, Caitlin Jenkins Losh, Courtney Lamb Whitworth, Alexis Kingham Fuge, Clint McCarthy, Kelly Sutton Russell, and Deacon Chapin.

We had lots of laughs in Darien and Andy’s new home on the West Coast.

Please send your updates!

1999

Amanda Goebel Thomas goebel_amanda@hotmail.com

2000

Jennifer Burger Thomas jenntec14@gmail.com Angela Zosel McCormick is happy to be back on campus as the associate director of UMW alumni communications, a position she took in June 2018. She helps to plan reunion weekend, and she is excited to help prepare for our 20th reunion in June of 2020. Angela’s son, Liam, 11, loves UMW basketball games and hopes to be an Eagle one day. Daughter Lara, 17, is a senior working on college applications and has no desire to attend Mary Wash – “she wants out of the ’Burg!”

Rob Eastman-Mullins’ scenic design for Macbeth was selected for the U.S. exhibition at the June 2019 Prague Quadrennial, the preeminent international exposition of performance design. Last year, Rob and his wife established the Eastman-Mullins Scholarship for Theatre at UMW, which will be awarded annually to a theater student. The first recipient was Erick Boscana ’20.

Dave Tilman is putting his geography degree to good use: A year ago, he and his family moved to Mons, Belgium. Dave manages training courses and teaches NATO members how to use GIS software in support of military operations. His three little kids are in local Frenchspeaking schools, and the family travels around Europe as much as possible.

They’ll return to San Diego in 2022.

Angela Zosel McCormick ’00 is happy to be back on campus as the associate director of UMW alumni communications.

Jill Ellis Frank transitioned from a full-time stay-athome mom of two girls to a full-time working mom last fall. She works with Best Buddies

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51

CLASS NOTES International to improve the lives of those with disabilities. Kristine Reid Milne spends her workdays making babies: She is the lead manager of a Virginia branch of Shady Grove Fertility.

When she’s not adventuring with her two boys, Alison Martin Simpson preserves history in St. Augustine, Florida, as the historian for the Florida National Guard. Julie Houts Frame is loving life in Sedona, Arizona, and is the lead pharmacist for a CVS. Annette Hibbert Nelson just had her second son in February 2018 and co-founded Silver Oaks Cooperative School, a nonprofit private school in Maryland.

As for me, Jennifer Burger Thomas, my husband and I have dreamed of living in Asheville, North Carolina, and we recently made that happen. We are unpacking and settling in. I am self-employed, doing environmental consulting.

2001

Annie Johnston anniebatesjohnston@gmail.com Carla Villar Walby is a registered nurse with the Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, and manages the Federal Occupational Health Clinic for the agency. She lives in Reston, Virginia, with husband Nathan Walby and 8-year-old son Elvis. Carla was expecting a daughter in April 2019.

Madelyn Marino sold her NYC apartment and purchased her first house with her husband, Michael Walker, in Glen Rock, New Jersey. She now walks to the train station instead of the subway.

Michael easily commutes to Ramsey, New Jersey, where he teaches high school math. I, Annie Johnston, visited in December to help them decorate.

In July 2018, Jacquie Frank Caswell and husband Rory welcomed their third child, Madeline Grace. Big brothers Evan, 5, and Colin, 3, were thrilled to have a sister.

Andrew Ward and Allison Albert of Maytown, Pennsylvania, eloped in Sri Lanka in late 2017. She is the CEO of Pet Krewe pet costume company, and he is founder and chairman of the HIV Awareness “iKnow Concert” Series across Uganda and Rwanda.

The series returned to East Africa with an all-star lineup including Michael Franti and Vusi this spring. Read more about Andrew on page 42.

Teresa Joerger Mannix is senior assistant dean for communications at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, where she has worked for nearly a decade. She recently completed an executive certificate program at Georgetown in leadership and change management. Teresa lives in Gainesville, Virginia, with her husband and two sons.

2002 Travis Jones tljones8@gmail.com Carolyn Murray Spencer turtlecjm@yahoo.com

2003

Jessica Brandes jessbrandes@yahoo.com Marcy “Lee” Crockett Darcy began working on a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at New England College last January. She was delighted to discover that one of the professors is Allison Titus ’98!

Lt. Cmdr. Lauren Cameron Fiske, Stephanie Scheibe Barb was promoted to Medical Corps, U.S. Navy, completed her active duty service Registered nurse Carla Villar Walby ’01 obligation at Fort Belvoir Community manages the Federal Occupational Health Hospital as an Clinic for the Department of Justice, Office attending physician of Justice Programs. in June. She joined the Mary Washington Medical chief of the Unix System Section at the Group Infectious Diseases practice Library of Congress. She is now in charge in Fredericksburg, and she practices of the Unix Enterprise Systems across the at Mary Washington and Stafford four data centers managing LOC content. hospitals. A 2007 graduate of Virginia

52

Commonwealth University School of Medicine, she completed residencies in internal medicine and pediatrics there in 2011. She did an infectious disease fellowship at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in 2013 and earned a master’s degree in tropical medicine and hygiene from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 2014. Board certified in infectious diseases, internal medicine, and pediatrics, she is a member of the Infectious Disease Society of America, American Board of Internal Medicine, and the American Board of Pediatrics.

Lt. Cmdr. Lauren Cameron Fiske ’03 joined the Mary Washington Medical Group Infectious Diseases practice in Fredericksburg.

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Garett Seeba, president of the Ninth District Dental Society of the Texas Dental Association, is on a partnership track at Oral Surgery Associates in Webster, Texas. Wife Tashia practices dental hygiene in the Houston area and is active in DREAM Dachshund Rescue.

Bonnie Ryan Lefkowitz organized an awesome mini-reunion for a few friends in Fredericksburg in November.

We laughed, we cried, we drank lots of Natural Light. In attendance were Emily Ruesch, Ryan P. Quinn, Diana Daly Epstein, Jill Davis Parker, Jeff Howard, Rebecca Comninaki Duarte, Nick Mancini, Tommy Rogers, Rebecca Griffith, Sarah Sedaghatfar Little, Brad Johnson, Christine Brown Johnson ’05, John Paxton, Katie Helldoerfer Lunne, Caroline Otto Lamire, Matt Aruch, Rob Graceffo, and Jess Brandes.

2004

Sameer Vaswani sameervaswani@msn.com Andrew Blate, CPA, is co-president of Beautiful Home Services LLC. BHS proudly sponsored the UMW College of Business’ second annual Case Competition, in which participants worked to come up with the best solution to a business-related case study. The company awarded $6,000 in prize money to the winners. Andrew’s charitable foundation, the Blate-Schneibolk Charitable Foundation Inc., raised more than $25,000 in its 11th annual charity event. Andrew was recognized by the COB in 2017 with a Young Alumni Award. He and wife Jessie Thomas-Blate ’03 recently moved to Alexandria, Virginia, with their son, Leo.

Becky Jaeger Turner married Andy Turner in 2006. They and their two daughters, Lia and Ally, live in St. Louis, Missouri.

Becky works part time with her husband on their video business, StoryPoint Films, and part time as a volunteer coordinator for their daughters’ school.

2005 Allyson “Ally” V. Lee Marzan allyvlee@gmail.com Cara Stout married Steven Wilkinson on Nov. 3, 2018. She is an account executive for Edgenuity Inc. Steven is an information security officer for Algebraix Data.

Lauren Benere married Michael Forder on March 24, 2018, in a ceremony for immediate family. Mike’s daughter, Kelsey, was flower girl. The family lives in the Richmond area. Lauren teaches high school English but is branching out and getting a post-master’s certificate in instructional design from the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Kimberly Pittman Gordon, husband Shamus Gordon ’06, and daughter Tierney, 2, welcomed Brenna Davis Gordon on July 16, 2018.

2006

Shana Muhammad email.shana@gmail.com Maggie Toolin Cummins and husband Chris welcomed their first baby, Annie.

Colin Jones and his wife, Liz, welcomed their first child, Penelope “Poppy” Marie, on Oct. 22, 2018. They look forward to returning to the D.C. area this summer as part of Colin’s Marine Corps duties.

Megan Hein, husband Nick Wallwork, and daughter Charlotte, 4, were delighted to welcome Alice Rose on Aug. 31, 2018. Megan is a licensed clinical social worker and licensed clinical alcohol and drug counselor at a residential treatment center in New Jersey.

Megan Jones married Tiffany Sutherland on June 30, 2018, in Baltimore. In

Jane Mangione ’07 embarks on a crossthe-U.S. cycling trip this summer for World Bicycle Relief. attendance were Mary Washington friends Lauren Decot Lee, Ashley Matthews, Jennifer Bell, Jessica Brown, Catherine Stewart Willis ’07, and Jennifer Yox ’08.

Megan is a library manager with Prince George’s County Memorial Library System, and Tiffany is a reference supervisor at Calvert Library. They live in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland.

Abby Lindsay finished a Ph.D., focusing on climate and water governance, from the School of International Service at American University. She married Payam Ostovar on Nov. 11, 2018, in a park overlooking the ocean in Monterey, California, where they moved earlier in the year.

Shana Muhammad moved to Denver in late summer 2018. She’s had a blast reconnecting with fellow Eagles and welcomes visitors anytime!

2007

Jay Sinha Jay.Sinha@alumni.umw.edu Sarah Eckman sarahje@gmail.com Daniel Clendenin Daniel.clendenin@gmail.com Matt Pask ’07, M.Ed ’08 and husband Matt Richards welcomed twin baby girls, Maci and Madison, on Sept. 18.

Jane Mangione works for Backroads, an active travel company based out of Berkeley, California, and Pernes-lesFontaines, France. She spends most of her time between Italy and New Zealand, where she designs, manages, and leads hiking and cycling tours. She plans to embark on a cycling trip across the U.S. in the summer of 2019 and will be fundraising for World Bicycle Relief.

She blogs at magicandpasta.com and is on Instagram as Magic.and.Pasta.

Shana Muhammad ’06 moved to Denver and has had a blast reconnecting with fellow Eagles!

Kanise Carter Marshall, who studied English at UMW and has an MBA in risk

management from Walden University, published a novel, Call From the Willow. She helps other writers through her business, Writeportunity Consulting.

After building an independent artist management and festival promotion career in Ithaca, New York, for 10 years, Russ Friedell, who studied physics, moved to Denver in 2017. He and three partners launched Mammoth Music Group, focused on artist management and event marketing and production, in 2018.

2008

Trish Lauck Cerulli trish.lauck@gmail.com Alyssa Lee alyssa.linda.lee@gmail.com Liz Hickey Hudy married Ryan Hudy last fall in Virginia Beach, with her sister, Meghan Hickey ’10, as maid of honor. The only athlete in any sport in Mary Washington history to have her number retired, the basketball standout was inducted into the UMW Athletic Hall of Fame in February. Liz is in her eighth year as the head women’s basketball coach at Averett University.

Jess “Muzz” Herzog was named director of adult services at Spartanburg County (South Carolina) Public Libraries after nine years with the system. The back of her head was spotted on NBC at the Tryon International Equestrian Center, where she was a judge during the World Equestrian Games in September.

Alyssa Lee and girlfriend Kim moved into their new home in Reston, Virginia, last July, then promptly disappeared to Kauai. In November, Kim proposed and Alyssa happily accepted. Their fluffy rescue dog, Nigel, loves the local trails and stealing pizza when no one is watching.

Oneida, New York, native Brendan R. Kelley is the new executive director of the Gratiot (Michigan) Area Chamber of Commerce. He and wife Paige, an insurance actuary, recently moved to the area from Knoxville, Tennessee.

Brendan is pursuing a master’s degree.

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CLASS NOTES

2009

Elizabeth Jennings elizabethsjennings@mail.com Alexandra Meier Alexandra.m.meier@gmail.com Kathryn Carter Esworthy, Jack Esworthy, and son Jack, 3, welcomed Samuel Joseph in September. Kathryn planned to receive a master’s degree in nurse anesthesia from VCU in December 2018 and a doctorate this May. Anastasia Sullivan married Lee Wacker in Philadelphia on Oct. 13, 2018.

Anastasia’s best friend, Katherine Connolly, was her maid of honor.

2010

Kelly Caldwell kellyecaldwell@gmail.com Justin Anderson became a UMW lecturer and head men’s and women’s swim coach in August 2018. Mary Bennett married Jonathan Evens on Oct. 27, 2018, in Roanoke, Virginia. Laura Pilati and Rob Richards welcomed daughter Annaliese Marin on Nov. 5, 2018.

first child, Kyle F. Allwine II, on July 26, 2018. Chris O’Kelly is the president of Art First Gallery, a professional art gallery in Fredericksburg. Eric Chayefsky opened with Bryan Cranston in Network on Broadway in November.

2013

Andrew Hogan andrew.hogan819@gmail.com Amanda Buckner McVicker amandabuckner1@gmail.com Jackie Veccia and Josh Craig married in June 2017 at the Old Silk Mill in Fredericksburg. Michele McNeill ’12 was among the bridesmaids. Jackie is an engineer at Northrop Grumman and is pursuing a master’s degree in public health. Josh is a sales rep for HercRentals equipment rentals. They live near Cocoa Beach, Florida.

2014

Elizabeth Storey estorey@mail.usf.edu

Hannah Hopkins hhopkins89@gmail.com

Business administration graduate Molly Baldovin earned a master’s degree in arts management from George Mason University in May 2018. Soon after, she and her boyfriend, whom she met at GMU, moved to New York City to follow their dreams of working in the arts.

Kira Lanewala klanewala@gmail.com

2015

Congratulations to Christine G. Adams, whose essay Terms of Venery won the 2018 Prairie Schooner Creative Nonfiction Contest, which comes with a $500 prize. The essay was to be published in the spring 2019 issue.

Moira McAvoy Moira.jo.mcavoy@gmail.com

2011

2012

Mandi Solomon msolomon211@gmail.com Lindsey Jiao Rivers and Russell “Matt” Rivers ’11 married in August and live in Staunton, Virginia. Christine Boyer DeMarr and Matthew DeMarr ’10 welcomed their third child, Georgianna Kathleen-Jeanne DeMarr, on June 11, 2018. Kelly O’Grady ’12, M.Ed. ’13, the English department chair at Seneca Ridge Middle School, has been teaching for six years in Loudoun County, Virginia.

Kyle F. Allwine ’12, MBA ’15 and Libby Baker Allwine MBA ’15 welcomed their

54

Evan Smallwood esmallwood15@gmail.com

Maggie Lovitt joined SAG-AFTRA, the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

2016

Quinn Doyle quinnmdoyle@gmail.com After conducting pediatric neuropsychology research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, Holly Aleksonis moved to Atlanta, Georgia, last fall to begin a doctoral program in clinical neuropsychology at Georgia State University. Her boyfriend, Patrick, and their two dogs accompanied her. Since graduation, she has visited Kathryn Erwin in the Kansas City area, where Kathryn

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

works developing utility-scale wind farms throughout the midwest.

Helen Bower married Jacob Ferguson on Oct. 13, 2018, in Fincastle, Virginia. Jacob did not attend Mary Washington, but he certainly spent most weekends on campus!

2017

Samantha Litchford slitchfo@gmail.com Samantha Litchford has volunteered to be class agent for the Class of 2017.

Send her your news, and she’ll prepare it for publication in Class Notes.

2018

Brittany McBride bmcbride2128@gmail.com Brittany McBride has volunteered to be class agent for the Class of 2018.

She’d love to share classmates’ news with readers of this magazine.

IN MEMORIAM Helen P. Battista ’36 Frances Thomas Sledge ’39 Helen Burton Vincent ’41 Marjorie Burgess Parce ’42 Virginia Hawley Butler ’44 Jean Krout Haberle ’44 Ruth Samuel Legnini ’44 Jean Adie Mogavero ’44 Betty Schaeffer Briggs ’45 Carolyn Ann Williams Carr ’45 Doris L. Einbinder ’45 Barbara Byrne Pool Williams ’45 Beverly Parker Blythe ’46 Elinor Dobson Brown ’46 Helen Gawron ’46 Essie Joyner Harrell ’46 Lydia Pellinen Knutila ’46 Lorena Dawson Mills ’46 Maria C. Rodriguez ’46 Anna Ruth “Anne” Jones Wilson ’46 Jean Frances Drummond Broaddus ’47 Florence Williamson Chandler ’47 Mary Freeman Clarke ’47 Kathryn Glazier Livengood ’48 Alice C. Daniels ’49 Frances Evadena Scandlyn Henley ’49 Barbara Daniels Johnson ’49 June Davis McCormick ’49 Jane Blair Yeatman Spangler ’49 Norma Edwards Tyler ’49 Sue Howard Lancaster ’51 Barbara Corr Powell ’51 Martha Stack Sim ’51 Mary Cooper West ’52

Eleanor “Petie” Upshur Whittock ’54 Margaret S. McRoberts ’55 Katherine Drogaris Pappas ’55 Sigrid Dorn Woodworth ’55 Elizabeth Buckley Canalizo ’56 Mary Harris Clause ’56 Joanne Thompson Gratton ’56 Lou Ann Ashby Steffey ’56 Virginia Nettles Hutchinson ’57 Judith J. Rogers ’58 Jane Howard Buchanan ’59 Mary Johnson Aurand ’60 Betty Meaders-Lynch ’61 Patricia Branstetter Revere ’63 Elizabeth M. Ruth ’64 Patricia Johnson Orgain ’66 Catherine Stewart Carter ’67 Lucinda “Cindy” Parshall Long ’68 Ann Gallahan Rhodes ’68 Linda J. Desell ’72 Dale Everton Stucke ’75 Rebecca Myers McCall ’77 Beth Richwine ’81 Victor H. Bradshaw ’84 James R. Morgan III ’86 Nancy Reichart Mitchell ’90 Joann H. Payne ’91 Troy B. Tignor ’92 Patricia Buck ’00

Katrina N. Miodek ’03 Joanne G. Moore ’03 Angele Nicole Lynn Landries ’13

CONDOLENCES Betty Drewry Bamman ’47, who lost her son Jacquelin Carter Alexander ’52, who lost her husband Barbara Wilson Taliaferro ’54, who lost her husband Sandra Sheesley Burnaman ’58, who lost her husband Lynne Williams Neave ’61, who lost her husband Myrtle Lee Dean France ’62, who lost her husband Ethel Thomas Sanford ’63, who lost her husband Ryan Stewart Davis ’66, who lost her husband Cornelia Bowles Dexter ’66, who lost her husband Doralece Lipoli Dullaghan ’70, who lost her husband Margaret Nichols Honeycutt ’77, who lost her husband

Victoria Prescott ’80, who lost her mother Ellen Stanley Booth ’81, who lost her sister M. Eileen O’Connell ’81, who lost her father Carol Gillespie Guerin ’82, who lost her father Lisa Wright ’83, who lost her mother Jane Ellen Brennan Herrin ’87, who lost her parents Anne Crowe Kroger ’88, who lost her father Roberta Rouse ’90, who lost her husband and her father Alycia DeMayo ’97, who lost her father Janet Cropp ’02, who lost her husband Joseph D. Landries ’07, who lost his sister Michaelangelo P. Maimone, student, who lost his father The family of Janet Hofer The family of Josiah P. Rowe III

OBITUARIES Patricia “Pat” Branstetter Revere ’63, whose service to her alma mater included two terms on the Board of Visitors, passed away Dec. 22, 2018. She had ovarian cancer.

Born Jan. 4, 1942, in Baltimore, Mrs. Revere held a conjoint bachelor’s degree from Mary Washington and the Medical College of Virginia and a master’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.

She worked professionally in the travel industry but was known especially for her volunteer endeavors at Mary Washington and in her community. Besides serving on the Board of Visitors, Mrs. Revere had been a president of the Alumni Association and was a member of the UMW Foundation Board of Directors. She was a recipient of the Frances Liebenow Armstrong ’36 Service Award.

A resident of Chesterfield, Virginia, she was active in the community as a member of numerous charitable organizations and health-related commissions.

She is survived by her husband, honorary alumnus Dr. James H. Revere Jr., who will join the Foundation Board this summer. Other survivors are daughter Patricia Margaret Revere, son James Hall Revere III, a grandson, and a sister.

Longtime class agent and Fabulous Forty-Niner June Davis McCormick ’49 passed away Feb. 26, 2019, a day after her 92nd birthday.

A native of Reedville, Virginia, she attended Mary Washington with the support of an elder sister, the popular singer Evelyn Knight. From 1950 through 1953, June Davis served as her sister’s assistant and driver as Mrs. Knight performed at supper clubs across the country.

June Davis married Chicago radio personality John McCormick in 1953, and the two moved to St. Louis, Missouri. She lived in the St. Louis area for the rest of her life.

Mrs. McCormick was devoted to her beloved Class of ’49 and her alma mater. She created a music scholarship in honor of her sister and was a member of the Heritage Society and the Washington Society.

Mrs. McCormick was preceded in death by her husband, two sisters, and two brothers. Survivors include a stepdaughter, nieces, nephews, and cousins.

UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

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CLOSING COLUMN

The Common Experience – Theater

By Laura Moyer 4:39 a.m. is a hideous time to get a text message. But the 100 or so students who received it on a chilly March morning knew they were lucky – picked by lottery from more than 900 UMW applicants for a free trip to see live New York theater.

Wake up! The day has arrived!

Time to get to duPont Hall to get on the bus to go to NYC to see DEAR EVAN HANSEN on Broadway!

The script and cast recording of Dear Evan Hansen were the subject of this year’s Common Experience – a campuswide reading-and-listening pursuit involving students, faculty, and staff. It’s the fourth year for the Common Experience program (originally Common Read) and the first to highlight a theatrical work.

Dear Evan Hansen is a musical, but it’s no frothy comedy. It deals with loneliness, social alienation, teen suicide, and a deception that spins out of control on social media.

The UMW community created a video performance of the musical’s gorgeous anthem You Will Be Found – about clinging on through life’s bleakest moments and eventually making connections. You can see it at umw.edu/youwillbefound. The hopeful message resonates with people in their late teens to mid20s. It’s also relevant to people old enough to be their professors or parents, and a few of us from that age group got to go along.

Invited as a University Relations “embed,” I willed myself into invisibility throughout the 17-hour trip and just listened.

What I heard reminded me how much I like Mary Washington’s smart, funny, empathetic, and enthusiastic students.

Outside in the cold before the buses arrived, there was lots of chatter. But as the bus I was on rolled north in the dark, conversation diminished to whispers and then to nothing as students made up for lost sleep.

Hours later a student excitedly told her seatmate, “We’re in the Meadowlands. Keep looking right and you’ll see the New York skyline.”

As the bus trundled toward Times Square, the conversational tap opened full force: “Hey guys, look!

You can see Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish.” “I see a man dressed as a shamrock and pushing a girl on a bike.

Why?” “He’s happy. Let him live his authentic life.”

Dear Evan Hansen, by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Steven Levenson, won the 2017 Tony

Award for Best Musical. It’s still a tough ticket to get, but David Spry ’08, a senior director for a major theatrical producer, arranged for UMW’s Common Experience program to buy the tickets.

No professor had to coax discussion on the bus ride home.

Plot and character analysis tumbled out.

Evan Hansen, an alienated high school senior, allows a misunderstanding to go unchecked so as to comfort the parents of a classmate who dies from suicide. But what starts as an unwitting deception morphs into an intentional lie and a viral social media phenomenon.

It’s an agonizing mess even as it delivers Evan some surprising benefits: the confidence to break through his social anxiety and a sweet relationship with the girl he’s fallen for.

“Honestly, I didn’t like reading this play, but it was good to see it performed.”

“Oh, I loved it, though! I read it to my mom. And she loved it.”

And then, as the bus traveled through Pennsylvania and Maryland and back into Virginia, thoughts returned to the realities of college life. A five-page paper due Monday. A Spanish test to study for. Chemistry problems.

Roommate problems.

But the students had gotten something beyond the ordinary out of this long day. A common experience, and an uncommon one.

Theatergoer Laura Moyer is the associate editor of UMW Magazine.

Taylor Malone ‘20 holds her signed program.

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UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON MAGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2019

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Thank you for making a difference in the future of Mary Washington.

You can ensure that your legacy defines and shapes the future paths of others by including Mary Washington in your will.

Please let us know if the University is in your estate plans so we can thank you during your lifetime, make sure your wishes are understood, and recognize you as a member of the Heritage Society.

umwheritage.org 888-692-0004 540-654-2064

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University of Mary Washington

Home Run!

Eagles baseball players celebrate a home run by No. 42 Stephen Johnston ’19 in UMW’s 7-0 win over the College of New Rochelle on March 2 at V. Earl Dickinson Stadium. From left, they are No. 2 Marcel Barrett ’19, No. 6 Garrett Lyons ’20, No. 7 Tyler Ray ’19, hitter Johnston, and No. 3 Norman Holcomb ’22.