Washington College Magazine Summer 2019

WASHINGTON COLLEGE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2019

The Hodson Factor

PICTURE THIS

The Creative Process The spring exhibition of the work of five senior studio art majors in Kohl Gallery, The Process, celebrated the complex activity of making, thinking, doing, experimenting, altering, discussing, reflecting, and making again that goes into the creation of any artistic work. At the opening reception in April, Rachel Frebert, Picabo French, Dylan Grimes, Aaron Wallace-Holland, and Chenlin Wang shared the culmination of a year-long process of rigorous artistic production that uniquely reflects their aesthetic and invites the viewer to participate in deciphering meaning.

SUMMER 2019

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F E AT U R E S

20 The Unknown

Voice

A young grad with a rare genetic disorder shares her experience with PDH and proposes in her senior capstone project a business plan to help patients and their families cope with chronic diseases.

Contents

by Ashley Waldman ’18

24 The Hodson

Century

After a chance encounter with its president, Col. Clarence Hodson became WC’s most effusive supporter and changed the course of its history.

by Adam Goodheart

30 The Bunting

Legacy

New College Trustee Marc Bunting follows in the philanthropic footsteps of his grandfather, George A. Bunting.

by Joan Katherine Cramer

D E PARTM E NTS

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Picture This

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Editor’s Note

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President’s Letter

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News National Home Front Project collects civilians’ memories of WWII. The Hodson Trust matches $1 million state grant for GIS programming.

14 Faculty A new program for environmental education.

16 Students A Cater Fellow tackles plastics pollution. Marketing students win honorable mention for campaign.

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Alumni Update Class notes. Alumni spotlights.

46 Development Culp Family Foundation funds seven new scholarships.

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Volume LXIX No. 2 Summer 2019 ISSN 2152-9531

Adam Goodheart and Lisa Daniels (top), faculty members whose positions are endowed by The Hodson Trust, send off graduates whose education was supported by Trust. Among them are Hodson Scholars and recipients of other scholarships and internship funding.

Photo: Matt Spangler EDITOR

Marcia C. Landskroener M’02 ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Wendy Mitman Clarke M’16 CREATIVE ART DIRECTOR

Marie K. Thomas STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Pamela Cowart-Rickman CLASS NOTES EDITOR

Erin Oittinen CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Andrew Darlington ’19 Joan Katherine Cramer Meredith Kenton ’19 Karen M. Jones Kate Livie Meghan Livie ’09 T. Christian Landskroener ORIGINAL MAGAZINE REDESIGN

B. Creative Group | agencybcg.com

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PRINTING AND MAILING

HBP

Dear Readers,

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f it feels as though it’s been a long time since you received your last Washington College Magazine, you are not mistaken. And thank you for noticing. But when budgets shrink, so does our ability to create and mail a print magazine to all of our friends and alumni.

In the upcoming fiscal year, the Washington College Magazine will produce just two issues rather than three—and those print magazines will be mailed only to current parents, friends, and marcia c. landskroener those alumni who make annual m’02 gifts to Washington College. To put it clearly, if you are an alumnus who has been enjoying the magazine but not giving to the college annually, you’ll only have access to the magazine digitally, rather than in print.

All alumni for whom we have good email addresses will receive the digital edition of the magazine via our MailChimp email platform. Some of you may prefer that delivery method, since it makes less of an environmental impact. But for the majority of you, the digital reading experience pales in comparison to holding a physical copy in your hands.

You might share it with parents whose children are looking for colleges, or leave it on your coffee table to impress your friends. If you believe, as recent surveys suggest, that the magazine does a great job of keeping you informed about what is happening at Washington College, I hope you’ll agree that the magazine is worth something more than free. — MCL

Washington College Magazine (USPS 667-260) is published twice a year by Washington College, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, Maryland 21620 Copyright 2019 Washington College.

www.washcoll.edu WashingtonCollege

Address correspondence to Washington College Magazine, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, MD 21620, or by email to mlandskroener2@washcoll.edu.

(Telephone: 410-778-7797). www.washcoll.edu PRINTED IN THE USA.

@washcoll WashingtonCollege @washcoll

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PRESIDENT’S LETTER

Philanthropy Starts at Home

By Kurt Landgraf

O At the dedication of the Brown Advisory Investing Lab in March, College President Kurt Landgraf described the lasting impact of Jim Price’s leadership gift made a decade ago. Tamzin B. Smith Portrait Photography

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ne of my core principles has always been that institutions are social organizations. And social organizations have a responsibility to the community they serve. Our American democracy is founded on that premise. A body of people committed to a particular purpose— whether that be education, health, business, religious practice, the arts, scientific advancement, banking, or governance—must also be committed to the larger community beyond their doors. That responsibility includes financial support of community projects and charitable organizations, as well as acts of kindness and compassion that improve the lives of their neighbors. And that is what Colonel Clarence Hodson, an Eastern Shore native who achieved phenomenal success in the business world, demonstrated so well when he adopted Washington College.

Simply put, he wanted to help. He recognized great potential in this small college where his gifts of time and treasure could make an enormous impact. He would be so proud of his legacy of philanthropy, the educational advances he funded, and the generations of students who have benefited from his generosity and his leadership that propelled Washington College forward.

Like Colonel Hodson, I, too, believe that philanthropy starts at home. Since coming to Chestertown, I joined the Save Our Hospital movement to preserve our rural community’s access to healthcare. I became an active partner with Kent Forward, an initiative among business leaders to rally community support for our local schools. And as a former chairman of the United Way of Delaware, I’m a big cheerleader for the organization that does so much good in the community.

I’m very proud of the employees of Washington College who responded to my challenge to support the United Way of Kent County. If United Way meets its goal for the year, our gifts will account for 20

percent of that total. But more importantly, Washington College is doing the work it was always meant to do, the work that Colonel Hodson envisioned—that is, to produce a new generation of philanthropists who can build a stronger society. I continue to be amazed at the level of philanthropic work our students perform on campus and in the community.

The student chapter of Habitat for Humanity (now in its 20th year), the Student Government Association (SGA), the Food Recovery Network, the Student Environmental Alliance, the Diversity Committee—just to name a few—each have made a real impact in building a safer, happier, healthier, more just society. This spring, the SGA set up a food pantry on campus for students experiencing food insecurity—a growing concern on college campuses around the country. It was a small thing, but emotively, it was a big thing. The fact that our students care enough about other students who might be in need speaks volumes about their character as generous, kind, and caring people.

This is as it should be. Because Washington College is founded on certain core beliefs— moral courage, civility, and respect for others—our value system must cause us to think about how we are perceived and how we act toward each other and in the community. We have in The Hodson Trust, as we did with Col. Hodson, a partner that is not only extraordinarily generous, but that “wants to help” Washington College stay true to its value proposition.

With their support, we are making good on our promise to provide a transformational learning experience built on the relationships students form here, and the exceptional programs and assets only we can offer. I invite you to join The Hodson Trust in this noble endeavor.

CAMPUS NEWS | BY THE NUMBERS

Philanthropy at Work As the $150 million Forge A Legacy campaign nears completion, we celebrate the spirit of philanthropy that has sustained Washington College over the past several decades. Generations of young people have benefited from scholarships, research opportunities, and programmatic innovations funded through the generosity of individual donors, foundations, corporations, and government entities that believe in the value of the liberal arts. While it would be impossible to present a comprehensive catalog of donor support, we are compelled to recognize those donors whose gifts have shaped the very core of our institutional being.

$216,207,132 $26,066,484

COMBINED SCHOLARSHIP ENDOWMENTS

Endowment value as of

December 31, 2018 Scholarships created by Mr. and Mrs. Eugene B. Casey and the Casey Foundation represent nearly 12 percent of the College’s total endowment, as of December 31, 2018.

From left, Betty Casey, Eugene Casey, and Libby Cater, at the 1985 opening of the Casey Swim Center

$166,000 Endowment value per student.

By comparison, per capita endowment at Ivy League schools hovers around $2 million and some private institutions with more than 500 students manage with under $90,000.

$80+ Million

62 48 22

Cumulative gifts from The Hodson Trust

$10 Million Total value of competitive grants awarded to Washington College from the State of Maryland for capital projects over the course of the Forge A Legacy campaign

$150 Million The goal of the Forge a Legacy campaign, expected to close in 2020— just $10 million more to go

Number of scholarships supported

by The Hodson Trust

Number of scholarships supported

by The Casey Family and the Eugene B. Casey Foundation

Number of scholarships supported

by The Starr Foundation SUMMER 2019

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Melissa Sue Lopez ’19, Andrew Darlington ’19, Anna Mayes ’19, and Mark Stewart ’19 interview Chestertown resident Sy Ellenhorn about his service in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Photo: Austin Maddux ’18 Cynthia V.C. Ramsey dons her uniform and holds a photograph of herself as a Women’s Army Corps (WAC) typist during World War II. Her oral history was conducted by Alex Ramos ’20, Rose Stevens ’20, and Kate Voynow ’20.

Centreville resident James “Buster” Mears is interviewed by Elijah McGuire-Berk ’19 and Kate Voynow ’20 about his memories of the Eastern Shore at war. Photo: Cassy Sottile ’21 National Home Front Project interns, from left to right, Trish Rana ’21, Jon Vitale ’21, Michael Hershey ’21, Caroline Taranto ’22, Annie Javitt ’21, Fatima Kane ’19, Jannice Hall ’22, and Saoirse ’20 pose for a photo with Idelia Johnston. Johnston served as both a Rosie the Riveter and Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVE) in the U.S. Naval Reserve during the war. This interview was conducted in partnership with the Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum in Middle River, Maryland.

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CAMPUS NEWS

National Home Front Project:

Collecting Memories of World War II

By Kate Livie

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magine you are a young person— just about college-age—when you hear the news that a major U.S. naval base has been bombed by a foreign country. Overnight, your life changes forever. You leave your small town or neighborhood to enlist to fight, or you see your brothers, family, and friends do the same while you take on their jobs and tasks. Whether on the front lines or the home front, your family, community, career, and life experiences are altered abruptly and profoundly—a moment of change crystalized in your memory.

For Washington College students participating in the National Home Front Project led by the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, this isn’t a rhetorical scenario. Rather, these are the stories they are recording and collecting by the hundreds— the real-life World War II experiences of the Greatest Generation, shared by participants in the project across the nation.

Started in 2013 by the Starr Center as a regional initiative, the National Home Front Project gave Washington College students the tools and knowledge they needed to conduct interviews with local community members who had experienced World War II on the home front. These untold civilian stories, along with photographs of the interviewee’s wartime keepsakes and snapshots, were then partially transcribed for the project website and digitally archived by the students. From scrap-metal drives to USO dances, British air raids to physics research at Los Alamos, the stories recounted in the interviews told of a global conflict that greatly transformed, disrupted, and shaped a generation.

In 2017, with grant support from Iron Mountain, Inc., the program went national.

Designed to help communities across the

country replicate the success of the studentpowered regional initiative, the National Home Front Project collaborates with schools, archives, museums, and universities to collect and archive their own local World War II interviews. Led by Washington College interns who work closely with the partner organizations, “students are at the center of every aspect of the project,” says Erica Fugger, the Starr Center staffer and oral historian directing the national effort.

“Students are very much involved in working with the interview materials from our partners, but they are also the ones creating posters, sending emails, conducting remote interviews, and having conversations with our community partners.”

It’s an experience that has been professionally rewarding for the Washington College students working on the project, giving them a strong, customized foundation in community outreach, oral history collection, research and archiving that will benefit them as they pursue their careers. But the students have also given back to the project in turn. Their cultural, religious, gender, racial, and ethnic diversity has helped to broaden and deepen the stories from the World War II participants as students pursue histories from communities across the country.

“Being able to ask the students to return to their own hometowns and communities as part of this national project,” says Fugger, “allows them not just to re-envision what it was like during the war and the ways that World War II continues to reverberate through the generations. It encourages them to see the world very differently in the places they come from.”

Nationalhomefrontproject.org

TOP: During World War II, civilians were issued ration books like this one for food, gasoline, and other household goods so that resources could be diverted to the troops. (Courtesy of Ann Vansant) BOTTOM: A selection of World War II airplane spotter playing cards depict friendly aircraft.

(Courtesy of Leslie Prince Raimond)

the hodson trust Helped endow the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.

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CAMPUS NEWS

Medieval and Early Modern Studies

Students are spellbound learning about a 13th-century Parisian Bible on a special visit to the University of Pennsylvania Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts.

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t may be a Harry Potter book that introduces young readers to the world of Renaissance science and medicine.

Or perhaps it’s their first reading of The Canterbury Tales, a glimpse of the artwork of the masters of the Golden Age, the layered melody of a Baroque composition, or the stories of social upheaval in 17th century Europe that pique students’ interest in this fascinating period of human civilization.

A new minor in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, to be offered next fall, pulls together coursework from history, English literature, art history, theater, modern languages, mathematics, music, and philosophy and religion to help students delve deeper and make the interdisciplinary connections across time and space.

“We realized that we already have a critical mass of experts working in this area,” notes Professor of French Katherine Maynard, “and that it wouldn’t take a lot of energy to develop a minor that would interest students and elevate the College’s academic profile.”

That strength in medieval and early modern studies can help distinguish Washington College among its peers, says Courtney Rydel, an associate professor of English who teaches medieval literature and who will direct the minor.

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“We have courses that incorporate materials that go into 17th and 18th centuries, and we have a global reach that includes North Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East. We are already offering courses that encompass a wider geographic range and are far more interdisciplinary that any we could find at other institutions. Advanced Shakespeare acting classes, philosophy coursework on Augustine and Aquinas, the history of math, courses in Spanish and French, art history—the span and range are unique.”

Associate Professor Janet Sorrentino, who teaches medieval and early modern history, also notes that Washington College has access to museums and libraries, such as the Walters Gallery in Baltimore, the Freer-Sackler Galleries in Washington, D.C., and The Cloisters in New York City— resources that can enhance student and faculty research.

“I especially love the interdisciplinary opportunities,” Sorrentino says. “Students feel excited when, in a medieval or Renaissance history class, they deepen the discussion by sharing their knowledge of French or Spanish literature, or highlighting the vital role of music in royal courts, or talking about an important painting.”

New Path to Nursing Washington College students who want to pursue a degree in nursing have a new option thanks to a strategic partnership with Johns Hopkins University’s Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) Entry into Nursing Program. With an emphasis on emerging areas of need and health care leadership, the program offers students an accelerated path to a wide array of patient-care careers.

“This Johns Hopkins program is designed for students who have majored in a non-nursing discipline as an undergraduate and decide to pursue nursing after they complete their undergraduate degree,” says Patrice DiQuinzio, Dean and Provost of the College. “Given that this program focuses on leadership and is inclusive of the humanities and public health, it’s a wonderful fit for Washington College and our students.”

The five-semester Entry into Nursing Program “prepares students to be top patient-care nurses who have unlimited choices after graduation by emphasizing leadership, global impact, quality and safety, evidence-based practice, and inter-professional education,” says Cathy Wilson, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing Director of Admissions. Students “will learn from a framework that integrates the humanities, public health, and physical and organizational sciences into nursing practice.” Students graduate with a master of science in nursing and are prepared to take the nursing licensing exam to become an RN, or to continue studies toward an advanced degree.

The new partnership complements Washington College’s current nursing program, which offers a dual-degree option with the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Students may also complete a traditional four-year bachelor’s degree in a major of their choice while completing their pre-nursing prerequisite courses.

the hodson trust Endowed the GIS director position in 2018.

Innovation at Work With $1 million matched by The Hodson Trust, Washington College receives a $1 million state grant to expand its program in Geographic Information Systems (GIS)—an emerging technology with an array of applications.

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ashington College has won a $1 million grant from the Department of Commerce’s Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative Fund (MEIF) to establish an endowed directorship for the College’s GIS Program, broadening student avenues for study and professional experience in the growing geographic information systems field, as well as expanding economic development opportunities and encouraging investment in business development and pilot projects.

Matched by a $1 million grant from The Hodson Trust, this grant marks the third time in three years the College has earned funding through MEIF, a program designed to spur basic and applied research in scientific and technical fields. Washington College is the only undergraduate private liberal arts institution to receive an award three years in a row, joining Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, College Park and Baltimore.

“I’m thrilled and proud that for the third year running, Washington College has earned the support of the Maryland Department of Commerce for this terrific grant. Our GIS program is among our strongest for offering students real-world experience within the liberal arts framework, and this will only enhance that to create more opportunities,” said College President Kurt Landgraf. “I especially want to thank The Hodson Trust for providing the necessary match to make this possible. Once again, the Trust’s support and confidence has made a critical difference in the education that we provide to students.”

The endowed position will enable the program to move beyond its dependence on funded projects, allowing it greater flexibility to work with non-profits and encouraging investment in business development opportunities and pilot projects.

“We are very excited about the strong economic development potential that the expansion of our GIS program will bring to Maryland,” Seidel says, “as well as the handson, collaborative experiences that it will provide for Washington College students and faculty.”

Since 2003, the College’s GIS Lab, overseen by the Center for Environment & Society (CES), has been training student interns in GIS technologies and analyses while executing funded projects across the country, preparing a new generation of GIS specialists who manage projects and work with clients in a professional setting.

The new grant will enable the College to build an academic program in geospatial technologies in conjunction with the GIS Lab, growing the program more widely throughout the liberal arts curriculum as well as broadening collaborations with faculty research and teaching, says CES Director John Seidel, who helped inaugurate the GIS program.

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CAMPUS NEWS

Stewards of the Earth Still in its infancy, the River and Field Campus is becoming a hub of new opportunities for students who want to gain a better understanding of the natural world and its inhabitants, including migratory birds, wild plants, and the humans who impact their survival. This spring, Foreman’s Branch Bird Observatory installed two stations that track migratory patterns via nanotechnology, and the Eastern Shore Food Lab began creating an outdoor learning space for the study and production of wild foods, primitive technology, and ecological landscape design.

The Stories of Flight

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TOP: The Motus network facilitates FBBO’s collaboration with Lights Out Baltimore and the Phoenix Wildlife Center, which rescue and rehabilitate birds injured in building collisions in Baltimore. Pictured is an American woodcock that was rescued after hitting a city building. Photo courtesy of Lights Out Baltimore.

BOTTOM: Nanotags emit a unique identifier that is picked up by stations in the Motus network.

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ashington College’s Foreman’s Branch Bird Observatory (FBBO) has become part of an international network that is revolutionizing scientists’ ability to understand the lives and migratory patterns of birds, bats, and even large insects. Two stations installed in late April, one atop a grain elevator at the River and Field Campus and another on the James Gruber Banding Laboratory, are among the first 10 Motus Wildlife Tracking System stations in the state and the only ones associated with a college or university in Maryland.

Motus is Latin for “movement.” Developed in Canada, the Motus Wildlife Tracking System now has more than 500 stations that can track animals using nanotags, digitally encoded radio transmitters that emit a specific signal with an individual identifier. As it passes within range of a station, a tagged animal can be identified, and as the network expands, it’s giving scientists the opportunity to ask entirely new questions in their research into migration patterns and methods.

“While this system probably won’t replace banding in the near future because of economics, it will clearly play a role in tracking a single bird’s migratory pathway from start to finish and return, now and in the future. It will require numerous towers throughout the country to accomplish that,” says Jim Gruber, founder and master bander of FBBO. “With the antennas in place, Washington College students could potentially develop their own localized studies using not only birds, but insects, bats, and other small flying organisms.”

“Once you let a bird go from [traditional] banding, only a handful are picked up,” says Luke DeGroote, avian research coordinator at Powdermill Nature Reserve and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.

“But the Motus network can detect 50 percent or more of the birds we tag.”

The new stations at Foreman’s Branch are part of a $500,000 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant, coordinated through a collaboration of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and eight organizations, to dramatically expand—by 46 stations—the Motus network in Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

This expansion is aimed specifically at eight species deemed in need of conservation in the mid-Atlantic—Bicknell’s, Swainson’s, and wood thrushes; blackpoll and Canada warblers; rusty blackbirds; American woodcock; and northern myotis bats.

“These two stations will provide a whole new way for our students to understand bird migration, life cycle, and how what we do at Foreman’s Branch contributes to that knowledge base,” says Maren Gimpel, field ecologist and outreach coordinator at Foreman’s Branch. “Maps at the banding lab already show where birds we have banded have been recovered, but Motus takes this data to a much more detailed resolution for some individual birds, and students and faculty can use the Motus website to see examples of these migratory pathways for birds that we band here.”

The Foreman’s Branch stations are supporting DeGroote’s first-of-its-kind, three-year study into the long-term effects of what happens to birds after they’ve survived a collision with a building. While the greatest threats to birds include habitat loss and climate change, according to a 2014 study led by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, approximately 600 million birds are killed annually in the U.S. in building collisions.

Still, thousands of birds that hit buildings survive, many of them when they’re found and brought to rehabilitation centers and then released.

CAMPUS NEWS

No one knows, though, how well they survive after rehabilitation, DeGroote says.

“It makes sense that birds may be affected by this terrible collision, not unlike concussions in humans,” he says. “The question is, are the rehabilitated birds surviving, are they migrating, how many days does it take until they migrate, and when they do migrate, do they have a normal migration?”

Wild Foods Outpost

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pring break for some interns of the Eastern Shore Food Lab involved a bit of pioneering, creating a trail and campsite at the College’s River and Field Campus to mark the beginning of an outpost where students will immerse in the context of the land to explore the relationship between people, food, and wildlife. On the 15-acre site amid forest and shoreline along the Chester River, the interns cleared greenbrier and multiflora rose, mapped rainwater gullies and wind corridors, excavated artifacts from long-ago farm use, built a composting area and woodshed, and established a fire ring.

And cooking around the fire each evening, they began to envision what they hope will grow here.

“Fire is really the key for everything that’s going to happen at the outpost,” says Lanning Tyrrel ’22, an environmental science major.

“There’s a reason we put a fire pit in before we did anything else. As the site becomes more developed, fire will not only provide us with cooked meals but create tools and pottery and help us to make our structure durable. I could see hosting courses in permaculture and blacksmithing using the smithy we anticipate establishing here.”

Biology and environmental science major Rose Adelizzi ’19 spearheaded the collaboration between the Student Environmental Alliance and Garden Club, which co-sponsored the camping expedition.

“The future vision of the ESFL outpost is both education and research, so all students can get involved,” she says. “It’s a wonderful space here, just being surrounded by water, beavers by the shoreline, amphibian breeding habitats, and birds. It’s an amazing experience, all centered around making food meaningful.”

Concepts for the outpost include foraging for edible plants and building structures from materials native to the site, incorporating techniques that “might range from homestead-style log cabin building to Iroquois longhouse construction,” Tyrrel says.

TOP: Students pitched in to plant rows of cedar trees to create a hedgerow, providing cover for northern bobwhite, BOTTOM: Lanning Tyrrel ’22 observes the Chester River at twilight.

“We’re going to work with the wild plants that are already here, and we’ll bring in various edible plants to build windbreaks that we could wake up and grab our breakfast from in the mornings.”

Permaculture ethics and principles will inform everything that happens here, says Kelsey McNaul ’19, an environmental studies

and sociology major. “We can introduce elements that enhance the ecosystem services of the space.Everything we do takes nature into account. We’re not just creating structures similar to what we encounter in our daily lives, but that are appropriate for a long-term relationship with the land.”

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CAMPUS NEWS

Tickled Pink Members of the College community gathered this spring to honor Jim Price and to dedicate the Brown Advisory Investing Lab, where student investors grow the $500,000 that Price gave to begin the program.

ABOVE: Cutting the ribbon at the lab’s dedication are, left to right, College President Kurt Landgraf, Jonathan Price ’80, Business Management Chair Susan Vowels, and Richard S. Bookbinder P ’10, adjunct professor in business management and distinguished executivein-residence.

AT RIGHT: Richard Bookbinder P’10, a financial industry expert, mentors participants in the Brown Advisory Student-Managed Investment Fund Program. This spring, the fund hit the $1 million mark.

Tamzin B. Smith Portrait Photography

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hen Jonathan Price ’80 was just starting out in the investment business, his father, Jim Price P’80 H’90, gave him this piece of advice: “He said, ‘Buy when you’re scared to death, and sell when you’re tickled pink. And you and your clients will do well,’’’ Price told a group of students, alumni, faculty, staff, and CEOs during an event to honor his late father, who in 2008 donated $500,000 to start the College’s Brown Advisory Student-Managed Investment Fund. “Jim would be tickled pink to know how well this is going … his love for Washington College exceeded none other.”

The event to honor Price marked the dedication of the Brown Advisory Investing Lab, where students who are members of the Brown Advisory Student-Managed Investment Fund study and work using real-time data and information about the stock market to invest the seed money that Price gave to begin the program. Since its

inception, the fund has routinely performed better than the S&P 500 and, in March, topped the $1 million mark, noted Richard S. Bookbinder P ’10, an adjunct professor and distinguished executive-in-residence who teaches students in the program.

Price, a former member of the Board of Visitors and Governors, was a partner and managing director of Alex. Brown & Sons, and a senior advisor at Brown Advisory. In addition to founding the Brown Advisory Student-Managed Investment Fund, in 2014 the W. James Price IV Professorship in Business Management was established in his honor through a $1 million gift from the Eugene B. Casey Foundation.

Since his death, his planned gifts have added $500,000 to the Brown Advisory Student-Managed Investment Fund and created an endowed scholarship in his name with a corpus gift of $243,096.

“Colleges and universities need to look beyond test scores and GPAs and consider where their applicants are coming from. Are they from a ‘wealthy’ ZIP code or an ‘underserved’ ZIP code?

How can they do more to make college possible for students from the latter?

“These indictments aren’t a scandal. Rather, they are a symptom of the real issue that our country needs to address, and that is the economic inequities that are built into our system of education and our nation as a whole. It’s our moral imperative to reach out to students of promise who might just need a helping hand to achieve their dreams.”

http://bit.ly/2ueirXv

College President Kurt Landgraf, writing in an op-ed in The Baltimore Sun

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Fixing College Admissions

CAMPUS NEWS | CITED IN THE NEWS

Finding Their Way

“They’re not as charismatic as sea turtles, and they sure don’t travel as far (several kilometers for a painted turtle versus several thousand kilometers for a sea turtle), but what they lack in outward charisma they make up in tenacity. When these turtles take to land each summer, migrating to new habitats when their home ponds dry up, they face seemingly insurmountable odds: scorching heat, dehydration, and the crushing tug of gravity (you can’t just float around anymore). And that’s not to mention the new predatory threats from both land and air, and the ever-present threat of vehicles when crossing a road. For a painted turtle, there’s a lot going on during migration.” http://bit.ly/2MKfbvd

Aaron Krochmal, Associate Professor of Biology, writing with his colleague Timothy Roth, Associate Professor of Psychology at Franklin and Marshall College, in Scientific American

Monumental Strength

“Who saved the cathedral? Not only the Parisian firefighters, but also its medieval builders.

“Those 12th and 13th century geniuses, their names now largely lost to history, created a structure whose ostensible fragility—all those flying buttresses, attenuated columns and slender ribs of stone—masked a formidable strength. The architects of Notre Dame and other Gothic cathedrals used pointed arches, ribbed vaults, columns and flying buttresses to transmit the weight of all that stone outward and downward into massive, deep-set foundations.

Flying buttresses brought to bear equal and opposing forces that held—and still hold—the whole thing together.”

https://lat.ms/2IynOtN

Adam Goodheart, Director of the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, writing in an op-ed in The Los Angeles Times

Troubling Times in El Salvador

“Corruption in El Salvador is endemic. It can be found at all levels of government. It infects all public institutions, and none of the country’s parties are immune. Some progress toward battling corruption was made under outgoing attorney general Douglas Melendez, who brought corruption charges against three former presidents, the former attorney general, and powerful businessmen. He also pursued cases against high-ranking police officers for extrajudicial killings. He also established the Historic Crimes Unit to investigate wartime atrocities, including the massacre at El Mozote, the assassination of Archbishop Romero, and the murder of the Jesuits at the University of Central America. And with all of this, Melendez barely scratched the surface of corruption and impunity in El Salvador. It was, perhaps, unsurprising that Melendez’s term was not renewed in December. It is disconcerting that his chosen successor has no background in criminal law and no prosecutorial experience.” http://bit.ly/2FolBhn

Christine Wade, Professor of Political Science and International Studies, testifying before the U.S. Congress and Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.

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FA C U LT Y

Getting Their Feet Wet Students who want to learn what it’s like to be an environmental educator can get first-hand experience in a course that collaborates with nearly a dozen local environmental organizations.

Abby Frey ’19 (center) joins young students and Devin Herlihy, a seasonal educator at Pickering Creek Audubon Center (right) on a marsh exploration.

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ew sixth-graders can resist the opportunity to go mudlarking in a marsh, but what about when they get stuck? Or fall in?

Then it’s up to the teacher to help—or, in this case, Abby Frey ’19, who is shadowing the teacher, because Devin Herlihy, a seasonal educator at Pickering Creek Audubon Center, has her hands full with the rest of the class that’s happily wading through the wetland in search of frogs, tadpoles, crayfish, dragonfly larvae, and myriad other wonders of springtime.

Helping a youngster up from the mud is all part of the experience of shadowing environmental educators, which Frey and 10 other WC students did this spring throughout the upper Eastern Shore. They were part of a one-credit course, Environmental Field Experience.

“It’s opened my eyes to the different ways environmental education works,” says Frey, an environmental studies major with a minor in public health. She shadowed school groups in various settings, participated in public

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outreach events including public paddles and the center’s annual plant-and-seed swap, and got a feel for the kind of office organization needed to operate a place like Pickering Creek, a 400-acre waterfront property whose owners donated it to Chesapeake Audubon Society in 1982.

This new class came about when Brian Scott and Leslie Sherman, co-chairs of the Department of Environment Science and Studies, approached Erin Counihan, coordinator of the College’s secondary education program and a National Geographic Certified Educator, with an idea.

Many of their graduates were landing jobs involving educating the public, and they wondered if there was a way to collaborate with the Department of Education to help prepare students for what sorts of opportunities are out there.

Counihan said that such a course already existed in the secondary education program, in which students logged 20 hours during the semester observing teachers in the classroom, then journaled and reflected on

what they’d learned. She simply had to tailor it to environmental education.

She contacted several local environmental education organizations, including the Sultana Education Foundation, Echo Hill Outdoor School, Pickering Creek, Adkins Arboretum, Sassafras Environmental Education Center, and Tuckahoe State Park.

All were excited to participate.

“If I find out a student has a passion for trees and wants to be a botanist, I will try to get them to go to Adkins Arboretum. Or if one has a broad passion to teach kids about the environment, I might send them to Sassafras or Echo Hill,” Counihan says. “They are asked to complete 20 hours, but once they get to their site they can determine what that looks like.” Some of them will shadow for a few Saturdays, while others go during the week when there might be an interesting opportunity, for instance when clean-water advocate ShoreRivers goes to Talbot County schools. the hodson trust Expanded the College’s environmental program.

Professors We Love

From the Archives:

The Mother of Freshwater Ecology

Tamzin B. Smith Portrait Photography

Rick Locker, the Clarence C. White Associate Professor of Chemistry, retired at the end of the spring semester after 34 years in the classroom. He served as department chair and as division chair on several occasions, and mentored countless students who have gone on to enjoy successful careers in medicine, research, and academia.

Locker brought an unusual breadth of expertise to the department with knowledge spanning analytical, physical, and theoretical chemistry. Bright, naturally inquisitive, and mechanically inclined, he also was known as the “instrumentation whisperer” who kept sensitive equipment operational.

At his retirement celebration in May, his co-workers praised him as a kind, patient, generous, and loyal individual who volunteered his time freely to students and colleagues.

In retirement, Locker intends to remain in Chestertown pursuing his favorite pastimes—fishing and golf.

the hodson trust Andrew Darlington ’19 is a Hodson Scholar.

Sara Clarke-Vivier and Lori Phillips, a doctoral student in archeology at Washington State University, finish a series of 3D replicas for the museum.

Prof. Kathleen Carpenter (third from right, front row) with the Biological Society in 1935. Joseph McLain, who would later teach chemistry and serve as president of Washington College, is pictured in the center of the back row.

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tudent historian Andrew Darlington ’19 followed the trail leading to Kathleen Carpenter, a pioneering scientist who taught biology at Washington College in the 1930s. In a society that spurned professional women, Carpenter fought to receive a doctoral degree from the University of Wales in the 1920s and fought for the acceptance of women into graduate schools.

In a field that neglected freshwater biology in favor of marine biology, Carpenter’s 1938 textbook Life in Inland Waters marked the first freshwater ecology textbook ever written in English; as a result of her studies and publications, Carpenter became known as “the mother of freshwater ecology.”

And in a world that provided her research opportunities at several institutions—the University of Wales in Cardiff, the British Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in London, and Harvard University in Cambridge—Carpenter’s desire to teach brought her to Washington College, where she was head of the Department of Biology from 1931 to 1936.

During her brief time in Chestertown, Carpenter founded and directed the College’s Biological Society, a program whose purpose was to “encourage interest in the less technical aspects of biological science.”

She coordinated the addition of new display cases for biological specimens and local insects, and she welcomed students to help increase the collection. Carpenter served as a member of the Sigma Delta Epsilon society, where she advocated for women in what are now called STEM fields and fought for increased status of women in scientific careers. Perhaps most importantly, in true Washington College tradition, she fostered strong relationships with her students.

Elected into the honor society in 193435, she attended the students’ monthly discussions to “promote scholarship” among juniors and seniors. And upon her illnessrelated resignation in 1936, the Biological Society was renamed the “Carpenter Biological Society” in her honor.

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STUDENTS

The Plastics Problem A double major in biology and environmental science, Larisa Prezioso ’19 used her Cater Fellowship to focus on ecotoxicology and the impact of plastics on the marine environment.

By Kate Livie

the hodson trust Helped endow the Douglass Cater Society.

Larisa Prezioso ’19 works aboard the College’s research vessel, the Callinectes.

FJ Gaylor Photography

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arisa Prezioso ’19 easily remembers the first time she started to notice that plastics were a problem.

“I was in elementary school and we had a class assembly on waste products from the fishing industry—waste nets and lines that were being cast overboard once they weren’t functional anymore,” she says. “They would show us pictures of dolphins entangled in the nets. That really impacted me as a kid.”

As she deepened her interests in marine biology through classes at Washington College, that childhood memory developed into a growing awareness about the looming threat plastics pose to the marine environment—an awareness heightened by a 2015 report that predicted that by 2050 the ocean would have more plastic than fish.

Prezioso’s curiosity was piqued to explore how we as a society have become so dependent on plastics that are used so fleetingly but then last forever.

“The giant trash gyre in the Pacific was really the nail in the coffin,” Prezioso says.

“I had this strong feeling that I’ve got to know why it’s there.”

Prezioso started taking classes in marine conservation, biology, and toxicology, where 16

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plastics and its impact on environmental health were a constant and recurring theme.

As her knowledge and research deepened, Prezioso saw a Cater Society fellowship as the perfect opportunity to develop a project around the environmental impacts of plastic waste. She signed up for the three-week environmental studies summer course in Ecuador, led by Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Studies Rebecca Fox, and proposed an independent research project to study a generation of plastic use on the mainland of Ecuador and its impact on the nearby Galápagos Islands.

Her findings surprised her.

“I was kind of naïve going into it, thinking it would be so black and white—that if coastal communities reduced their waste, the Galápagos would be less impacted,” Prezioso says. “But I learned that being able to refuse plastic to benefit the environment comes as a privilege. The places I visited in Ecuador that had absurd amounts of trash also were communities where the focus wasn’t on how food was packaged, but how to get access to food in the first place.”

For the first time, Prezioso’s eyes were opened to the societal, economic, and cultural

backstory of global plastic use that goes far beyond the “don’t litter” mantra. Since returning from her fellowship in Ecuador and the Galápagos, Prezioso has continued to explore the negative impacts from plastic waste and research ways they can be reduced.

Her senior thesis, focusing on ecotoxicology, explores how additives used to synthesize plastics like BPAs, phalates, and PCBs create environmentally poisonous chemicals—and how naturally-derived alternatives from corn or other organic substances might be developed to replace those chemicals in the future.

Prezioso is intent on following her research professionally and is spurred by the exciting possibilities of her work as well as a strong dose of optimism.

“With my Cater project as well as my thesis,” Prezioso says, “I hoped to inspire people to look to their own, everyday actions to see what changes they could make to reduce their own plastic use. It comes down to time, optimism, conversation, and people just caring—and to the greater understanding that you can’t just throw trash away because ‘away’ doesn’t exist. It’s got to go somewhere.”

Targeting Your Market At first, it seemed rather simple—create a marketing plan for an established brand.

But when 10 marketing students enrolled in this four-credit practicum, they were in for a daunting learning opportunity to create an integrated plan that would have to pass muster with the American Marketing Association. And in their first year of competition, the Washington College team brought home honorable mention.

Supervised by Ryan Eanes, assistant professor of business management, and career coach Georgina Bliss—both AMA chapter advisors at WC—the class focused specifically on developing a marketing campaign for this year’s client, the Wall Street Journal, and submitting it to the AMA. Team members included Lizzie Bienert ’19, Conner Cotting ’19, Ashley Davis ’20, Mark Diese ’18, Alex Kincaid ’19, Brennan Martz ’19, Geoffrey Sloan ’20, Brett Van Hoven ’19, Naihui Wang ’19, and Bailey Willems ’19.

“It was definitely a ‘learn as you go’ type of situation, since none of us had ever done something like this before,” Davis said.

“The case competition gave us real-world experience into what creating a marketing campaign is truly like.”

The group developed a proposal to expand the client’s college student subscriptions by leveraging a partnership between the Wall Street Journal and Chegg, a textbook rental service, and then adding elements of fun. The textbooks would include information about student subscriptions inside the packaging.

A tour bus would bring live entertainment, giveaways, and contests to college campuses, while encouraging students to sign up for the Wall Street Journal. Finally, the team suggested that new student subscribers be entered into a drawing to win a grand prize: a dining hall takeover with a celebrity chef, plus the chance to win $50,000 for their school.

In December, the class submitted its campaign for judging and won Honorable Mention, beating out hundreds of other institutions.

“This is an incredible accomplishment that elevates WC students above institutions that are exponentially larger,” Eanes says.

“Washington College was the smallest college in terms of total enrollment that placed in any of the categories.” - Meredith Kenton ’19

Paying it Forward Since venturing from San Diego to Maryland’s Eastern Shore as one of the first George’s Brigade scholars, Alicia Vasquez ’20 has thrived both academically and socially.

the hodson trust Helped endow the George's Brigade Scholarship Program.

Alicia Vasquez ’20 is part of the first cohort of Washington Scholars, an endowed scholarship program supported by The Hodson Trust.

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hether she’s in biology lab, on the rugby field, or organizing her sorority’s next charity event, Alicia Vasquez ’20 feels right at home. She is also incredibly grateful to be here, earning a debt-free college degree that will lead to graduate school and her dream job as a physical therapist. As part of the first cohort of George’s Brigade recruits (now Washington Scholars), Vasquez is liberated from the student debt that is crushing so many among this generation of college students.

“My sister went to college for two years and my parents got into a ton of debt,” Vasquez recalls. “They told me, ‘We can’t do this again,’ so I was trying to get as many scholarships as I could. Once I got the call [telling me I was accepted], it was such a big relief. Literally all of my school expenses are paid for. It’s such a burden off me and my parents.”

Vasquez, a double major in biology and Hispanic studies, was initially matched

with another George’s Brigade scholar from California, and then introduced to staffers—including associate dean Andrea Lange (now retired) and Tya Pope, the assistant dean who now coordinates the Washington Scholars program—who would help them navigate new terrain.

“A lot of us were not prepared to go to college,” Vasquez says of that first George’s Brigade cohort. “Dr. Lange helped me with internships in my freshman and sophomore years, and Tya Pope became our go-to. They really helped set us up to be successful.”

Today, in addition to carrying a double major, Vasquez is president of Alpha Chi Omega sorority and coaches the women’s rugby team, the club team she organized with 22 active members. She still enjoys the camaraderie of fellow Washington Scholars in group seminars and is now a mentor for one of the first-year students.

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A World for Writers Two interns blossom in the Rose O’Neill Literary House.

By T. Christian Landskroener

the hodson trust Provides stipends for summer internships.

With internships supported by The Hodson Trust, Gabrielle Rente ’20 (left) and Tamia Williams ’21 helped run the Cherry Tree Young Writers’ Conference last summer.

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abrielle Rente ’20 and Tamia Williams ’21, both English majors with minors in creative writing, could be a clever study in contrasts. Poet vs. prose writer, oldest sister vs. youngest. But their similarities are much more substantial; each a writer, both started college with a focus on the genres they’d written in the past and each found a new outlook and writing style as they have gone through the first years at Washington College. Rente’s initial emphasis was in poetry, while Williams was inclined toward prose fiction. Each now has a greater understanding of both oeuvres as well as a new interest they share in creative nonfiction.

Each is looking for a new experience in an internship this coming summer, hoping to land a coveted spot with a publisher in New York. And each is already focusing on compiling their best work with an eye on the Sophie Kerr Prize, the world’s largest undergraduate literary award.

Both women also have benefited from The Hodson Trust, which supported their internships at the Rose O’Neill Literary House last summer. They ended up as partners, helping to organize the Cherry Tree Young Writers’ Conference and learning the ropes of arts administration as they shepherded students through a seminar for 18

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high schoolers who, like them, wanted to advance their understanding of the creative process of writing. Williams detailed their preparation for the Cherry Tree conference in her essay “Creating a World.”

“Tamia and Gabby were instrumental in helping us to prepare for the Young Writers’ Conference. But their summer intern duties didn’t end there. They also learned InDesign in order to create marketing campaigns for our Visiting Writers series. They wrote press releases and organized a summer literary salon. They honed skills in marketing, event management, and writing,” said James Hall, associate professor of English and director of the Rose O’Neill Literary House.

When it came time to choose students to attend the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference (this year held in Portland, Oregon), Rente and Williams were natural choices, Hall said. Each year, the Lit House takes four students to the conference, supported by the Maureen Jacoby Fund.

“Tamia and Gabby are terrific young writers and editors, and the AWP Conference helped them gain even more insight into the world of literary editing and publishing,” Hall noted.

Rente, a copy editor with The Elm who is also minoring in journalism, editing and

publishing, found WC while searching for a top-notch college writing program. She found that, and so much more. With a travel grant from the Bennett Fund, she had the opportunity to participate in the College’s Cuba Seminar with associate professor of music Ken Schweitzer and associate professor of anthropology Aaron Lampman in January 2018. As a woman of Cuban descent, that was a particularly important experience for her.

“We had to keep a field journal and take notes on what we observed,” she recalls. “We were constantly moving around, usually in small groups, exploring Havana. I used my time to find the mausoleum where my greatgrandfather and great-great-grandmother are buried in Cuba’s largest cemetery. I also saw Havana University where my greatgrandmother received her teaching degree, and the hotel where my great-grandfather was photographed in his police uniform. I think the experience has given a deeper meaning and specificity to my writing. One of my professors is always telling me to write about the ‘weird’ in life; having experiences like that fueled a lot of ‘weird’ for my writing.”

Rente’s trip to Cuba inspired the subject of her senior thesis—José Martí, a Cuban revolutionary activist, poet, and writer widely known throughout Latin America.

Sophomore Gets Nod for Norton Writer’s Prize

Video Game Heroes A new student club is producing an unlikely class of heroes who can bend time, defy physics, and unleash an array of extraordinary powers. And they are annihilating the competition.

By Meredith Kenton ’19

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In the quest for the best essays written by college undergraduates across the country, a panel of judges at a major publishing house selected the work of a second-year student from Delaware who discovered Washington College through the Cherry Tree Young Writers’ Conference in 2016.

Justin Nash ’21, a double major in English and communication and media studies, submitted an essay he wrote for his Introduction to Creative Writing class.

Nash heard in December that “Moments Suggesting this Body Does Not Always Belong to Me” was a runner-up for the 2018 Norton Writer’s Prize. His work was published on Norton’s website in early March.

“I was trying to compile a list of moments when I felt restricted or didn’t have full control of what I was doing or had to conduct myself in a way that I wasn’t comfortable with,” explains Nash.

“Through the order of them, I wanted to create a narrative of bodily autonomy.”

The judges were impressed. “Using an innovative form, imagery, and dialogue, the writer creates an evocative piece that helps readers reflect on bodies, identity, and control,” his acceptance letter states.

“Justin’s work has a fearlessness about it that creates emotional vulnerability and intellectual rigor,” notes James Hall, his creative writing professor. “His essay impressed me because of its lyric impression and its use of form-as-content. I couldn’t be prouder of Justin, who will always be able to say that his first publication came from W.W. Norton.”

ast fall, it was just a big idea.

Now, over 70 students are involved in one of the biggest organizations on campus—Washington College’s eSports Club, uniting international students, members of fraternity and sorority life, varsity athletes, and campus leaders.

Within the eSports Club competitive component, there are four individual teams, independently led by a student coordinator. Each team is responsible for a different game—Overwatch, League of Legends, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, and Counter Strike: Global Objective. Players meet weekly to practice and talk strategy.

On April 10, the Overwatch team made history, as six of Washington College’s best players shut out Averett University with a 4-0 victory. The Shore team, led by Mike Spence ’21, looks forward to competing through an official league next year.

“My main goal for our team is to keep growing and practicing,” says Spence, an economics major with a minor in accounting and finance. “I am very pleased with where we are right now and really excited to see where we can go in the future.”

The winning streak continued a week later as the League of Legends team, led by computer science major Carl J. Williams ’20, beat Averett University in its first match. It was supposed to be a best-of-three game series, but after a huge win in the first game, Averett decided not to play the second game, resulting in a forfeit win.

Each week, the Hall of Fame Room in Cain Gymnasium is transformed into an uplifting space, full of laughter, encouragement, team-building, and of course, winning.

Synchronously, students like Williams and Spence are cultivating leadership skills and building strong and dynamic teams.

Washington College’s League of Legends team dominated opponents from Averett University.

Photo by Pamela Cowart-Rickman

However, as membership rapidly expands, the group is desperately in search of a permanent space to accommodate the growing organization. Club organizers also want to purchase additional equipment and involve alumni in the group.

Reflecting the speed with which the club is growing, in late April the SGA approved a request for funding for the club to join the Eastern College Athletic Conference, which sponsors intercollegiate esports leagues. And College officials have identified a possible permanent space in Goldstein Hall for the club to use.

“I have never been prouder of a group of students, as a whole, in my academic/athletic professional career,” notes Steve Kaneshiki, the coordinator of campus recreation. “I have never seen so many students from different cliques come together and embrace each other with no questions asked except for one …

‘Do you like video games?’”

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THE UNKNOWN VOICE “Living in the unknown can be pretty terrifying. But I learned that good things can come out of the unknown.”

Ashley Waldman completed her coursework in 2018 but, because of her health issues, took a little more time to complete her Senior Capstone project. She walked with the Class of 2019 in May. Photo: Matt Spangler

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hen Ashley Waldman walked across the stage to receive her diploma at Washington College’s 236th Commencement, she wasn’t walking alone.

“The objective for this work, in simple terms, is to speak for those who could never, or can no longer, speak for themselves,” she wrote in her Senior Capstone Experience (SCE), which describes her lifelong battle with a rare genetic disorder called Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Deficiency (PDH). The Washington College Magazine offers excerpts of her paper on the following pages.

Briefly, PDH undermines the body’s ability to convert food into energy and leads to a catastrophic buildup of lactic acid in the body. It commonly manifests in infancy, and because the brain requires so much energy to function properly, PDH frequently results in a wide range of neurological issues, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

“Because of the severe health effects, many individuals with pyruvate dehydrogenase deficiency do not survive past childhood, although some may live into adolescence or adulthood,” the site notes.

Waldman calls it “living in the unknown.”

Because of lactic acid build-up caused

by PDH, Waldman suffered a stroke when she was just 5 years old. It caused damage to her brain, which means it takes longer for her to complete her work, and to her body, which is why she walks with a limp. None of those realities deterred her from applying to Washington College as a National Honor Society student, enrolling, and finishing her major in business management with a minor in marketing, with a 3.0 GPA. “Living in the unknown can be pretty terrifying,” she says. “But I learned that good things can come out of the unknown.”

Graduating is one of those good things, she says.

“Honestly, I had no idea I would even be able to go to college. I had no idea if I could do it.

“There were times when I would go into my adviser’s office [Lansing Williams, assistant professor of business management] and I would just cry. He had tissues… At some point he was just like, ‘Look. You’re going to graduate.’’’ He and Joseph Bauer, a lecturer in business management and her SCE adviser, she says, “acted as advocates throughout my time at WAC.” Waldman says the staff and faculty at Washington College made her feel accepted and understood. She is grateful to so many people, among them Andrea Vassar, assistant dean for first-year experience and student success, the Dining Hall staff who helped specialize her meals (she can only safely eat 30 carbs a day), the Health Services staff, and many others.

“Everyone was just so helpful,” she says.

“I loved it. I love WAC.”

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s a patient, you realize that the doctors get to leave the hospital, go home, and lead normal lives, as opposed to the people who are affected by terrible genetic disorders and never get to escape their suffering. It is beyond terrifying as a child to sit there and wait to be called back for the doctor to conduct the next MRI or angiogram—waiting, waiting, waiting.

Then comes the anticipation: What will the results show? Nothing. The results are always negative, never stable enough to definitively determine the cause of your constant suffering, a life spent living the unknown. Scary is not a powerful enough word to describe the feeling of constantly facing the unknown of whether you will live or die (soon!).

You begin to realize that you are alone in this struggle and journey. Of course, there are those who are there for you, who help you, and who love you, but they do not feel what you feel. The pain, suffering, and symptoms of your disease are for you to bear alone and that loneliness is what I want to show you. There are people who are living with

mitochondrial and metabolic diseases like this one each day. I am one of those people, and it is far from easy. People who have it, do not have it, or may have a child who has it, need to know that being brave does not mean that you are not afraid. Being brave means there is something to be afraid of. Being brave is not giving in to what the medical records portray. My records look nothing like me. One must know the individual to truly understand what the disease is, what it means, and what her life is like. At the end of the day, that is what matters.

I am proposing the creation of a nonprofit entity to accomplish this mission. I know that this is challenging because there is no guarantee that it could evolve into something more. My only hope is that my story will inspire others and that by doing so it would travel to other event coordinators all over the country. Although I have a compelling story and would like to share it with everyone, some might find it frightening, sad, or tragic. That’s OK, because it is. But I have learned that there is always a silver lining, no matter how bad the situation. That is how I get through every day.

Ashley Waldman ’18 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Before the diagnosis

Ashley Waldman ’18 at age 4.

I was about 5 when my mom discovered that I couldn’t uncurl the toes on my left foot; she called my dad into the room and they decided to take me to a specialist. I was tested for every disease out there, but no one could figure it out. Finally, we ended up at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHoP).

One of the neurologists ordered an MRI, which showed that I had suffered a ministroke on the right side of my brain.

Strokes usually occur when there is a lack of oxygen reaching the brain; for me that was not the case. When I tell people that I had a stroke they look at me and assume that I fainted, was in a coma, woke up in a hospital bed, etc. The reality is that I woke up one day with it. Just another day, that was it.

There were endless hospital visits after that.

We had gone to three different hospitals in three different states. Delaware, New York, and Philadelphia. Doctors at the first two assumed the worst and predicted that I would be dead by the time I was 9 or 10 (obviously they were wrong). Finally, physicians at CHoP figured out that I had experienced a ministroke. But why? That had been the question for more than a decade. Naturally, there was more testing. I was admitted to the hospital on multiple occasions, just so they could do medical testing; that was my new normal.

When I was born, I looked as every healthy baby should. No one would have guessed that I was suffering from PDH. At eight months, I first started showing strange symptoms, including nystagmus, which is when the patient’s eyeballs dart back and forth uncontrollably. I also suffered from a loss of balance. The doctors said it was a medical condition called paroxysmal torticollis, and that I would grow out of it.

As I grew older, I started to fall behind in my developmental skills. Simple tasks, like walking, became hurdles that I had to overcome. Even after learning to walk, I was uncomfortable walking on grass and sand.

I would insist that my parents carry me because I did not feel comfortable walking on different terrains. I never told my parents why, because I could not express how I felt.

When I was about 3 years old, everyone thought I was getting better. My motor skills and developmental skills improved. I was speaking clearly and progressing through my early schooling. I had my IQ tested and it was well above average. In addition to excelling in school, I was a very athletic child. I participated in soccer, gymnastics, and dance. I vividly remember running across the playground. With my improved balance, I would walk across balance beams and never fall off.

This would change, however.

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High School The summer after eighth grade, at age 15, I underwent a difficult and relatively rare procedure: a split anterior tibialas transfer (“SPLATT”) and an Achilles tendon lengthening, so that I would be able to walk again.

The surgery was a success, but no one told me that would be the easy part. I lay there for weeks just doing nothing. I actually love doing nothing, but after a while even that gets boring. After the first part of recovery I had to learn how to use crutches, which is not as easy as it looks, especially for someone who has had a stroke.

Once I had mastered the crutches it was not long until my cast was removed and replaced with a heavy boot that hit just an inch below my knee. As summer came to an end I knew that it was time to start my high school experience. For most of freshman year I crutched around all three very large floors of Harriton High School [in Pennsylvania].

I remember one day during my first week I was in tears after accidentally going down the wrong hallway and having to backtrack; I still went to class that day, crutches and all.

Diagnosis While visiting an exhibit about Titanic (the ship, not the film) at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia over Thanksgiving break during my junior year, I had a grand mal seizure right there on the floor. After that, my doctors began testing me for epilepsy. It was the first time in a while that I saw my neurologist look concerned. I was terrified; I was old enough to know that my health was on a downward spiral, and there was nothing we could do except possibly delay death. Again, all the tests were negative. Sometimes it is easier to give up or give in to the disease. Luckily, I had my family’s love and support to get me through that rough time.

While I was giving up hope, the doctors decided to send me for genetic testing. When the results came back, I was sent to see a metabolic specialist. We went through the normal neurological routine tests (touch your nose, touch my finger). Then the nurse walked in and asked about my medical history, which just agitated my parents who knew it by heart but were tired of reciting it.

After the nurse left, the doctor came into the room and explained what my issue was and why the disease presented itself as it did. I heard what he was saying, I understood it, but that did not mean that I liked it. After offering his explanation and a series of medical terms, he said: “Random genetic mutation.” I sat there with a look of annoyance, not because I was angry at him, but 22

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because I thought this meant more testing.

Then I heard: “Limit carbs to 30 grams per day.” I started to cry, which I now realize was overly dramatic and completely unnecessary.

In my defense, I was 17 and liked sugar more than regular food. When I think about the situation I was in, I should have been incredibly grateful that they figured it out. At the time, it felt like a cruel joke.

Then we started to discuss my going to college, wearing a medical bracelet, and living my new life. At first, I refused to wear a bracelet, which did not go over well. After the doctor’s ultimatum, I figured if I really needed one for the rest of my life, why not start a collection? I am proud to say that I have about 10 medical bracelets scattered throughout my room. Some people collect stamps or coins or teacups. Apparently, I collect medical bracelets.

When I was told that I could no longer eat more than 30 carbs a day, of course I was curious as to why. It turns out that this specific disease affects the Krebs cycle, which is the biochemical pathway that the body uses to create its energy from carbohydrate.

However, when my body has too much carbohydrate, it essentially poisons itself.

The doctors had said that they had found a way to shortcut the Krebs cycle by using beta oxidation of fats. This allows the body to produce the necessary enzymes from fats instead of carbohydrates. For the body to use this process though, I needed to be in a state of ketosis—which means to have an abundance of ketones (fat) in the body.

What is PDH? Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Deficiency (PDH) is a metabolic disorder that leads to abnormal functions in the energy-producing mitochondria of cells. The mitochondria function as the powerhouse by providing the energy needed for a cell to function. With PDH, the body cannot process carbohydrates normally. There are two regions of the body that the disease can affect—the metabolic processes that are used to break down the enzymes, and the brain. A patient with PDH usually has neurological symptoms that get progressively worse. They can start right at birth or a bit later during infancy.

Although PDH can occur in male and female genders, the disease’s presentation differs. Males are usually impacted by metabolic challenges, while females are more susceptible to the neurological effects of the disease. The metabolic challenges that males experience are fatal because the mutation is in an X-linked gene, and the Y chromosome is not engineered to negate this deficiency in the X chromosome. Females tend to have

more of the neurological symptoms that are derived from PDH. This too is because of the faulty X chromosome, but females have another X chromosome that usually makes up for the deficiency. This typically happens for a few years until the body is slowly overcome by lactic acid buildup, as it does with men, and eventually causes death.

As this suggests, I should not be alive, or at least able to write this paper. A typical PDH patient has 10 amino acids used for the metabolization of pyruvate. A normal person metabolizes pyruvate at 100 percent. My metabolic function is 36 percent. I have a low enough amount that I cannot eat carbohydrates and must remain on the ketogenic diet. I also suffered the lactic acid buildup on my brain and the resulting symptoms.

The reason I am not dead is that the buildup occurred at a slower rate and when I began the ketogenic diet, it was enough to reverse the lactic acid buildup.

After Diagnosis Once the doctors figured out what was wrong with me, I was immediately put on the ketogenic diet. However, since the diet alters bodily functions, there was a temporary risk of seizures and other brain lesions until the body achieved a state of complete ketosis. For most of my senior year I went to the nurse’s office a few times a week to rest. I felt terrible about missing classes and was upset that I was missing so much classwork.

Senior year was difficult for more than one reason. It was also the year that my cousin, who was also my best friend, committed suicide. This tragic event led to more absences and depression. It was a huge stress on my body and mind, but that was when we knew the diet started to take effect. Although my brain swelled, the effects were not noticeable and did not last as long. After about two weeks I started to go back to school fulltime, and I started to have hope again. My health was drastically improving due to the diet.

At first the doctors did not believe that my disease would allow me to live long enough to go to college, let alone graduate. I had two doctors, though, who have believed in me from the beginning. Every time I was skeptical or I lost hope, one of them would tell me that I was her star patient. When I did graduate from high school and started to look at colleges, they strongly advised that I stay close to home, but since I like to prove everyone wrong I chose to come to Washington College almost two hours away. At first the doctors did not particularly approve, but I did not have to give them a reason why. They already knew.

“I want to bring hope to these families, I want them to know that if I did it, they can too.

It is not the end. This is only the beginning.”

The Business Plan

Ashley Waldman ’18 (at right) poses with her Zeta Tau Alpha sisters Jenna Rogge ’15 (left) and Allison Halt Donehower ’16 (center).

College Life It seemed as though at the end of every semester I would experience swelling on the brain, just in time for finals week. This would interfere with my performance on examinations, presentations, and term papers. Most of the professors were extremely understanding and accommodating during this time.

Some of them were afraid for me.

When looking back on college I realize that it was one of the greatest challenges of my life.

Although I knew I would be okay, the odds were definitely against me. Sometimes I think about what my life would be like if I had taken the easy way out and did not go to college. But I have never taken the easy way out. I worked just as hard as any other student in school.

That is what made me so sick that I could not go to class sometimes.

I was either up all night doing work or recovering from the week before. The most difficult part was figuring out how to expend my energy throughout the day; some days I would have to choose a single class to attend. While I was trying to figure that out I would also consider my grades in each class, but at that point I was so tired I would just go to class and sit there. Although some days were a struggle, college taught me that I could live life as best I could while managing my disease.

I would like to educate children and families to bring awareness and provide a support network for those with chronic diseases. Within the year I would like to gain exposure by coordinating events at hospitals along the East Coast. Within five years I would like to start working on a book giving advice on how to live with a serious, incurable disease. I will need ample time to prepare my performance and to tailor it to the audience.

I will also need funding for materials and expenses. The ultimate goal is to secure an invitation to speak for TED, a nonprofit organization that chooses the most remarkable people to share their expertise.

My business would be a sole proprietorship, and I would eventually hire assistants and other employees once the business grows.

I would run and manage the company. I would also be providing the details, facts, and opinions on how to support children with diseases that others may not understand. My target market would include children, their families, and medical professionals. As for the medical professionals, although they know about disease, they might not understand that the patient does not always match the paper.

The goal would be to have healthcare institutions pay for my appearances as a service to their patients and families, but that would not happen immediately. I would advertise and market the business online and through newspapers, magazines, and emails to healthcare providers, institutions, and groups that support those with various diseases. I will run the business from a home office since my work will include going to different places every day, not going and sitting in an office.

Competitors would include other motivational speakers and charitable organizations since they would be trusted if they have an established brand. My personal experience— since I am living with a rare genetic disease— is what will give my company a competitive advantage. Few other speakers have done what I have accomplished.

The greatest challenge that my company will face is funding. Since I have not yet established a brand, it will be difficult to find donors or hospitals to recognize who I am and what I am trying to accomplish by speaking

about my experience and other chronic diseases.

My company would have the opportunity to gain competitive advantage by observing how other public speakers and performers present themselves. This way I could learn how to better my performance.

I would tell my story, which will hopefully prompt others to do the same. My intention is for everyone to understand that believing is a big part of the battle. I would also bring in medical students to help them understand that these diseases and the people they affect are real. I would also like to educate the families of patients with chronic illnesses of all kinds, by sharing my story. I want parents and siblings to understand how to treat children with diseases such as these, which are difficult for people to talk about. But most people do not realize that once they share how they feel, others will speak up as well.

My Story Continues Throughout my years at school I was always treated differently by other students.

They would think I was intentionally ignoring them, that I did not like anyone, or that I was mentally challenged and could not communicate with them. Some days I was not in school because I was sick or had a medical appointment. Since I had the stroke when I was so young, it takes me longer to do work, which meant that I had almost no time for anything else. When I was inducted into the National Honor Society in my junior year, I thought that this would be my chance to make good friends. I was wrong; it actually meant more work to do. I think that creating a support group at schools for people with chronic diseases or disabilities would greatly benefit the students and allow them to develop lifelong friendships.

Although these diseases give families and patients more than a million reasons to cry, I want them to smile. I learned at a very young age that life is unfair. One day it can be great, but in a second everything can change. The unknown is terrifying. I would know, but that does not mean that you should give up. I want to bring hope to these families, I want them to know that if I did it, they can too. It is not the end. This is only the beginning.

SUMMER 2019

23

The Hodson Century A

s the $150 million Forge A Legacy campaign nears completion, Washington College Magazine thought it appropriate to celebrate the spirit of philanthropy that has sustained Washington College’s mission as a college of the liberal arts and sciences over the past several decades.

Generations of young people have benefited from scholarships, research opportunities, and programmatic innovations funded through the generosity of individual donors, foundations, corporations, and government entities that believe in the power of education to sustain our democracy. Classrooms, athletic facilities, and campus buildings all bear

the mark of philanthropic support, as do signature centers, co-curricular programs, faculty positions, study/travel funds, and an array of lecture series. While it would be impossible to present a comprehensive catalog of donor support within these pages, we are compelled to recognize the donor whose gifts have shaped the very core of our institutional being.

It was 100 years ago this spring that Col. Clarence Hodson first visited the Washington College campus; he came away determined “to be helpful” to an institution intent on educating tomorrow’s leaders.

Today, The Hodson Trust is the school’s largest single benefactor. Since its first grant of $18,191.12 to Washington College in 1935,

the Trust has directed more than $80 million to Washington College.

“Everywhere you turn on our campus, you will find the influence of The Hodson Trust and its generosity to our students, our campus, and our programs,” College President Kurt Landgraf remarked last December, when the Trust gave $3.6 million to Washington College for student scholarships and matching funds to secure a new endowed director’s position in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). While facilities such as Hodson Hall Commons and The Hodson Trust are overt symbols of Hodson’s generosity, The Hodson Trust’s greatest impact has been its investment in people and programs.

“Give Heaping Measure”

By Adam Goodheart,

Hodson Trust-Griswold Director, Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience

M

arking the 100th anniversary of Colonel Clarence Hodson’s first visit to campus, historian Adam Goodheart recounts that fateful meeting and Hodson’s “intense desire” to lift up Washington College. The Hodson Trust—created by the Hodson family in 1920—has since become Washington College’s largest single benefactor, directing more than $80 million over the past several decades to scholarships and student internships, faculty chairs, undergraduate research in the sciences, academic initiatives, waterfront facilities and programming, and several other capital projects. There is no aspect of Washington College’s physical campus or educational mission untouched by The Hodson Trust. And it began quite simply enough with a chance encounter and a shared philosophy to help those individuals of good character and strong work ethic to achieve the American dream.

The Colonel’s Visit Colonel Clarence Hodson.

One summer morning not long after the end of the First World War, a sleek, chauffeur-driven Cadillac pulled up the main driveway of Washington College. From its back seat stepped a stranger.

He was a tall, slender man of middle age, with round spectacles framing a pair of inquisitive blue eyes. He had stopped to inspect something that had caught his attention as he motored down the dusty highway toward Chestertown: a row of venerable brick and granite buildings surveying a sloped green quadrangle from the crest of a small hill. Probably it was their air of history that attracted him. Since the early days of automobiles, he had loved taking road trips to sites like Mount Vernon, Yorktown, Antietam. Here was another spot to pique his antiquarian curiosity.

His interest in education, too—a subject to which he had devoted increasing thought.

Perhaps he just intended to take an inconspicuous stroll around the old dormitories, stretch his legs for a few minutes in the shade of the college elms, and then continue on his way. But in a place like Chestertown—especially on a sleepy midsummer morning—a tall stranger in a custom-tailored New York suit, with a brand-new midnight-blue touring car idling at his heels like an obedient spaniel, couldn’t remain inconspicuous for long.

Indeed, within just a few minutes, the stranger caught the attention of the college president, Dr. Clarence Gould, who happened to be crossing campus to pick up his mail. After an exchange of pleasantries, the gentleman handed him a calling card: Colonel Clarence Hodson. The name meant nothing to Gould, who nonetheless offered to show the visitor around campus.

Little did Gould know that he had just made the most important decision of his entire presidency— indeed, one of the most fateful in Washington College’s long history.

Decades later, Gould would remember: “As we went over the plant he would every now and then mention something that needed to be done and tell me to have the work taken care of and charge it to him. All together there were 12 small items, amounting in total to perhaps $400 or $500 in cost.”

Then Hodson climbed back into his car and resumed his journey.

The prudent Gould, knowing that even such a modest list would strain Washington College’s finances if the visitor reneged, eventually completed one of the smallest repairs and sent the bill to the Colonel. Within days, as Gould would recall, a check arrived from New York—tucked inside a long letter reminding the president of the other 11 things that Hodson had offered to pay for. These Gould took care of with considerably more alacrity. * * * By the late autumn of 1919, a torrent of paper was pouring out of Manhattan toward the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Most of these sheets bore an engraved letterhead: “CLARENCE HODSON & CO. Established 1893. Brokers. Stocks. Bonds. Havemeyer Building, 26 Cortlandt Street, NEW YORK.” And there must have been many small, oblong pieces of paper, too, beginning “Pay to the order of....”

(Unsurprisingly, nothing from this latter category remains in the College’s files.)

Colonel Hodson’s initial to-do list had grown ... and grown ... and grown. It was as if those inquisitive blue eyes were still minutely inspecting every nook and cranny of campus, albeit now from

SUMMER 2019

25

a distance of nearly 200 miles. Did the College library require a set of books on Maryland’s colonial history? All 39 volumes would soon be on their way via parcel post.

Perhaps it needed some more paintings, in addition to those he had already sent? And where should he remit his check for a new boat pier? Could he set up a loan fund for financially struggling students? How many undergraduate publications existed, and would each of them appreciate a modest donation “as a little encouragement?”

All this was in just a single letter from Hodson to Gould, dated November 20, 1919.

There would be dozens more like it over the ensuing eight years.

The Colonel had showered his munificence upon Washington College at the best possible moment. The institution was only just emerging from one of the worst periods in its history. But like other American colleges and universities—and like the nation as a whole —it was about to enter a decade of thrilling new opportunities.

By the time of Colonel Hodson’s fortuitous visit, the College was pulling out of its financial tailspin. In fact, rather than scaling back, the ambitious President Gould decided to increase the number of students and faculty, adopt a broader and more rigorous curriculum, and ramp up fundraising.

From their first meeting, a close bond quickly developed, and Hodson and Gould became not just allies but partners in this effort to elevate Washington College.

The two men exchanged frequent letters about matters large and small. Despite the demands of his own business, Hodson began attending meetings of alumni and trustees in Chestertown, Philadelphia, New York, and beyond, and soon became a Board member himself.

And the gifts kept coming. Scientific equipment. A fund for planting trees. Bronze busts of Julius Caesar, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Chief Geronimo of the Apaches.

Books, books, and more books—including some from the personal library of Hodson’s late father. Life insurance policies for every member of the faculty and staff. The Colonel even wrote personal checks to the president and senior faculty to pay for their summer vacations. Once, when Hodson & Co. found itself with an extra supply of blackboard chalk, he wrote to see if the College might put it to use. His offer was gratefully accepted.

On one occasion, the Colonel’s enthusiasm had unintended consequences. He invited President Gould to meet him in Atlantic City, his favorite vacation spot, to discuss plans for Washington College.

“When I arrived he was already out on the beach and left word for me to join him,” Gould remembered. “We journeyed up and 26

WASHINGTON COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Gifts that first focused on campus facilities (the original Hodson Hall, above, was built in 1935) evolved over the years to encompass academic programming, signature centers, faculty initiatives, scientific research, the rowing program, and scholarships—always scholarships.

down that shore all morning in the broiling sun.... After lunch, to my astonishment, he immediately said: ‘Let’s get back onto the beach.’” That evening, Gould stopped at a drugstore for several large bottles of sunburn lotion and “practically bathed myself in it at the hotel.”

“I am filled with an intense desire to be helpful,” the Colonel wrote to the college president in 1924—by that point perhaps simply stating the obvious.

‘The Unexpected and the Generous Thing’ Who was this intense, curious, generous man—and why did he so passionately devote himself to the betterment of a small, distant college?

Clarence Hodson himself never received a university education. His business partners and employees often bore diplomas from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton—but others had worked their way up from modest origins, and he treated them with no less favor and respect. He earned his own schooling largely at what he once called “an educational institution ... without a campus or college building, without laboratories, dormitories, study halls, or classrooms; without endowment, faculty, or even a college yell.”

A university, in other words, of enterprise, hard work, and life experience. Hodson’s

ancestors settled early on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In 1681, they acquired a plantation called Maiden’s Forest, where their descendants would remain for most of the next two centuries. By the 19th century, however, the soil was exhausted, the farm divided piecemeal, and the family’s fortunes depleted.

Shortly after Clarence Hodson’s birth in 1868, his parents, Thomas Sherwood Hodson and Alice Mauck Hodson, resettled in Crisfield, a rough-and-tumble, liquor-soaked, mosquito-plagued railroad town, its frame structures hastily built on heaps of oyster shells or wooden pilings to raise them above the marshes. Some of Clarence’s early memories were of hunting the wharf rats that scurried and squealed beneath the Hodsons’ house during daylight and invaded its upper stories each night.

Despite these sometimes squalid surroundings, Colonel Hodson remained ardently attached to the Eastern Shore throughout his life. “Everyone who imagines the ideal section of the earth can here, in fact, realize that ideal,” he wrote in 1912.

“No section offers a more healthful community life, better or more even conditions for health, happiness, and prosperity, or a more law-abiding or sociable people. The only wonder is that everyone knowing of this Eden, does not form the ambition to ... spend his declining years upon this ideal peninsula.” * * *

A successful college, in Hodson’s view, must leave its graduates “equipped for the struggle of life.”

“You must not get the impression that I think that the principal aim of education is to train people to make money.”

Rather, a college must teach young people “how to think and reason things out,” as well as offer them “the advantage of a refined cultural environment.”

At the time of Hodson’s road trip through Chestertown, he was 51 years old, just attaining full social eminence and financial success— and was one of the busiest men in New York, where he had established his professional headquarters after stints in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Newark. He had prospered as a lawyer, a bank president, and an insurance executive; it was later said that he had founded, run, or served as a director of more than 40 different businesses in the course of his life. He earned his military title as an officer of Maryland’s state militia in the 1890s.

Colonel Hodson’s greatest, most lasting, and most distinctive business legacy began in 1914, when he established the Beneficial Loan Society (later Beneficial Corporation). Progressive Era legislation had only recently created conditions allowing corporations to make small loans at reasonable rates to ordinary Americans—replacing loan sharks who charged annual interest of as much as 1,000 percent. Beneficial took the lead in providing affordable credit. The company deliberately positioned itself not as a facilitator of irresponsible consumerism, but as a liberator of the disadvantaged. Its print advertisements featured clients like a young female shop clerk whose loan from the company allowed her to support her sick father. By the 1920s, Beneficial and other Hodson companies were lending some $50 million “on character alone” every year.

The Colonel’s father once admonished him that his only substantial flaw was being too selfless and generous in his professional life. Any honorable businessman, Clarence Hodson wrote, “must in every transaction give heaping measure, well pressed down and flowing over. His customers, or his clients, are his friends.” So too were his employees.

At Beneficial, Hodson initially drew a monthly salary of just $200 – a fairly modest sum even in the 1910s, and only $60 more than the minimum monthly wage for his managers. His approach paid off handsomely as talented young executives flocked to the company. Within a decade, it had 80 offices in 12 states.

And the Colonel’s interests ranged far beyond the world of commerce. His letters and memoirs reveal a high-spirited man whose curiosity was almost boundless. A passionate student of American history and genealogy, he also embraced new inventions, enthusiastically recording his first glimpse of an airplane and visit to the cinema.

As a 14-year-old boy, he acquired the first bicycle in Somerset County, and later the county’s first phonograph, as well as its first pair of roller skates—on which, he later recalled, he soon

In his will, Col. Hodson expresses his wish that “the Trustees of the Hodson Trust will be liberal and helpful to said Washington College.”

Col. Clarence Hodson visits WC, where he meets President William Gould and pledges his philanthropic support.

Shortly before the death of Thomas Hodson, he and his son Clarence established The Hodson Trust.

SUMMER 1919

1920

The Hodson Trust makes its first gift to WC—$18,191.12 for a dining facility to be known as Hodson Hall. The Colonel’s widow, Lillian Brown Hodson, made a personal gift of $5,000 to help fund construction. She would later serve on the board.

Col. Hodson dies of a heart attack.

JAN. 13, 1928

learned to “cut fancy capers.” Even in middle age, his interests included cycling, yachting, billiards, acting, automobiles, piano music, and Egyptian art. He chronicled his experiences in near-obsessive detail, jotting down menus of meals, measurements of buildings, conversations overheard on trains, and the heights and weights of family members. His personality seemed at times to embody the spirit of an America embarking hopefully, even exuberantly, on the twentieth century. * * * Hodson’s intellectual contributions to Washington College proved as valuable as his monetary ones. His letters to the College’s presidents (both Gould and his successor, Dr. Paul W. Titsworth) overflowed not just with offers of financial support, but with strategic guidance and philosophical reflections. He enclosed pertinent clippings from newspapers and magazines and suggested readings from authors as various as Arthur Schopenhauer and Upton Sinclair.

A successful college, in Hodson’s view, must leave its graduates “equipped for the struggle of life.” In addition to literature, history, and science, it should teach more “modern” subjects like economics and psychology—both of which he saw as key preparation for success in the business world. And yet, he wrote to Titsworth: “You must not get the impression that I think that the principal aim of education is to train people to make money.”

Rather, a college must teach young people “how to think and reason things out,” as well as offer them “the advantage of a refined cultural environment.”

In such a setting, the Colonel wrote, they would develop relationships with teachers and peers that would continue to ripple throughout their lives.

No doubt part of Hodson’s faith in the struggling Washington College stemmed from the fact that it had been founded upon just such a philosophy. At the time of its establishment in 1782—as the first college chartered in the new United States—its creators envisioned a radically new, characteristically American institution, one that would train its students not necessarily as clergymen or scholars, but as enlightened and useful citizens of the young republic. Its deep connection to George Washington would have excited Hodson as an aficionado of American history.

Hodson encouraged Washington College to reconnect with its historic roots. He even personally tracked down the diploma that it had issued to President Washington in 1789—the first honorary degree awarded to any sitting president—and

Somerset Hall is funded by the Trust and named in honor of the Maryland county where Colonel Hodson grew up.

CIRCA 1946

Hodson Trust Chairman Charles H. Watts, along with Mrs. Hodson and daughter Lelia Hodson Hynson, attend the dedication of Hodson Hall. Over the next several years the Trust and the Hodson family made gifts to fully cover the cost of construction.

At the urging of College Trustee Lelia Hynson, the Hodson Trust donates a new Schoenbrod racing shell to replace a second-hand boat.

The following season, Washington’s oarsmen powered the Lelia to a semi-final win at the Dad-Vail Regatta.

1967

The Trust begins funding merit-based scholarships in addition to the need-based scholarships it had always supported through annual distributions.

1978

triumphantly presented a framed copy to the school. But Hodson also spurred the institution to embrace a more modern, businesslike approach to managing its financial affairs.

And he backed up his ideas with money. In support of Gould’s belief that Washington College needed to create an endowment, Hodson not only lobbied alumni and trustees, but also donated $1,000 as a lead gift. He gave an additional $1,000 toward the expenses of fundraising, and further funds for publicity and advertising. He encouraged the school to hire a full-time development officer at a time when very few institutions had them.

Although Washington College had officially gone coed in the 1890s, its handful of female students were still barred from living on campus. Against the strong opposition of some trustees, Hodson worked with Gould to integrate women fully into classrooms and campus life—and also funded construction of a new dormitory for them.

Indeed, the Colonel believed that the vibrancy and value of the college experience must extend beyond just its curricular offerings. He urged Presidents Gould and Titsworth to invite prominent guest lecturers and commencement speakers to Chestertown, including the venerable Thomas Edison (who declined) and a young novelist named F. Scott Fitzgerald (whom Titsworth had never heard of, inviting instead a columnist from The Baltimore Sun). Hodson urged Washington College to build school spirit by establishing glee clubs and commissioning an official song.

He also proposed adopting a mascot. “It is not necessary to take an animal,” Hodson counseled Titsworth. “A grape, strawberry, pine tree, muskrat, chicken, or anything else that is raised in the community that is a matter of pride, is available.” Perhaps wisely, the president chose to ignore this particular nugget of wisdom, thus sparing future generations of Washington College students from being known as the Fighting Strawberries.

In countless other ways, though, the Colonel’s unfailing enthusiasm for Washington College continued to bear fruit. “You have a delightful flair for doing with ultimate felicity the unexpected and the generous thing,” Titsworth wrote.

By 1927, the high-flying year of Lucky Lindy, Babe Ruth, talking movies, and the stock market boom, Washington College was flying high as well. Since Colonel Hodson’s first visit

just eight years earlier, its student enrollment had more than tripled, its annual income doubled, and the size of its faculty increased nearly as much. Its crippling debt was a thing of the past, and its endowment campaign was well on its way to reaching the initial target of $200,000.

The future had never looked brighter.

And as the school’s president would later recall, never had Clarence Hodson been more involved in Washington College than during that memorable year—which turned out to be the last year of his life.

* * *

A Fitting Monument Hodson could easily have favored other, more prominent institutions with his patronage.

In 1918, he had delivered the commencement address at William & Mary. Some years earlier, he had accompanied his father on a visit to Thomas’s alma mater, Princeton, and been highly impressed with its president, “Dr. Woodrow Wilson, the American historian,” whom the Colonel presciently called “a builder by instinct ... and a compelling administrator of large affairs and plans.” Aiding one of those schools, instead of a little-known college in Maryland, would certainly have won him more prestige in Manhattan business and social circles.

Yet when Hodson penned a very brief autobiography just a few months before his death, the only academic affiliation he mentioned—and, indeed, his only philanthropic relationship of any kind—was that with Washington College. Noting that “the Hodson family for centuries has been interested in the advancement of education,” he described his service as a Washington College trustee and the honorary degree that it had awarded him in 1922.

Clearly, Colonel Hodson’s attachment to the Eastern Shore partly explains the favor he showed Washington College. But judging from his correspondence with the school’s presidents, it is equally clear that he was excited to have found a place where both his money and his leadership—and the same talents as a builder that he had demonstrated in the business world—could make an enormous difference. At a place like Princeton, he

The Trust allots nearly $9 million to endow merit scholarships. As a gesture of appreciation, WC continues its long tradition of funding full four-year scholarships for dependents of former Beneficial employees.

The Trust funds creation of the Lelia Hynson Boating Park, with a pavilion at water’s edge. With this gift, the Trust’s total support of WC tops $10 million.

During the Campaign for Excellence, the Trust helps endow two faculty chairs, honoring Louis L. Goldstein ’35 and Joseph H. McLain ’37.

The Trust endows a chair in economics.

The Trust endows the directorship and programming for the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.

1984

1990

2006

2007

would simply have been another big donor. At Washington, he was not just an institutional savior, but a founding father of the 20th- and 21st-century college.

So it was a grievous blow when the bad news reached Chestertown. On the morning of January 13, 1928, the Colonel was at home in East Orange, N.J., when he was felled by a sudden and fatal heart attack. He was barely a month short of his 60th birthday.

President Titsworth wrote: “Colonel Hodson was a man of untiring energy, fixity of purpose, and unswerving determination.

He looked only forward, clinging to his ideals with such tenacity that obstacles were swept aside.... Not only has Washington College lost in him a substantial contributor to its physical needs but likewise a sage counselor, an astute well-wisher, and a layman of unusual educational vision.”

Elsewhere, Titsworth wrote regretfully that he believed Hodson had “made no provision in his will for Washington College.”

But this was not quite true. In fact, Hodson had set in motion during his lifetime a legacy of philanthropy to the College that would endure for generations. His spirit of generosity brought forth The Hodson Trust.

And so it happened that on Dec. 2, 1935, the Trustees had decided to grant Washington College the first gift of many to come—more than $18,000 in available income that the Trust had generated since Hodson’s death seven years earlier. This money, supplemented by a $5,000 personal gift from the Colonel’s widow, Lillian Brown Hodson, would help fund the construction of a new dining facility.

The building would be called Hodson Hall. * * * This article is excerpted from The Hodson Century: A Legacy of Leadership at Washington College (Literary House Press, 2015), with permission of the author, whose position at the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience is endowed, in part, by The Hodson Trust.

The Trust invested $2.5 million in ambitious plans for a new waterfront campus and boathouse.

2008-09 The Hodson Trust Star Scholarship program at Washington College, inspired by Hodson Chair Finn M. W. Caspersen, was one of the first initiatives in the nation to offer full scholarships to military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Trust commits $4 million to endow George’s Brigade/Washington Scholars program.

2015

The Bunting Legacy An entrepreneur and philanthropist in the mold of his ancestor who graduated from Washington College more than a century ago, College trustee Marc Bunting is poised to help Washington College demonstrate its worth to a new generation.

By Joan Katherine Cramer

Photos by Tamzin B. Smith Portrait Photography

M

arc Guenter Bunting grew up steeped in family lore—specifically tales of his larger-than-life greatgrandfather George Avery Bunting, Class of 1891, a Baltimore pharmacist nearly as famous for the sunflowers he grew in his backyard as for his invention of an iconic skin cream that would allow him to indulge not only his own generous impulses but the philanthropic activities of several generations of his descendants.

“I’ve always felt a connection to the Eastern Shore, and, of course, to Washington College,” says Bunting, a passionate supporter of environmental causes who joined the WC Board of Visitors and Governors last fall.

Shortly thereafter, he directed a $1 million gift from the Bunting Family Foundation toward construction of the Semans-Griswold Environmental Hall, slated to open this fall.

“For years I’ve heard how much my great-grandfather enjoyed his time there, and about all of the things named for him, from Bunting Hall (the College administration building the elder Bunting originally donated as a library) to scholarships, to sandwiches in

the dining hall. But, for me, what really sets Washington College apart is not only its history but its unique program in environmental education.”

Great-grandfather Bunting, who grew up on the Eastern Shore in Bishopville, Maryland, enrolled at Washington College when he was only 16 and graduated in 1891 with a degree in education. He went home to Worcester County to teach, but then moved to Baltimore to earn a degree at the Maryland College of Pharmacy. In his drugstore on North Avenue near Charles Street, he experimented for years with his own skin creams and other remedies.

By 1914 he had perfected the mixture of clove oil, lime water, menthol, eucalyptus oil, and camphor (touted as so pure salesmen would volunteer to ingest it in front of customers) that would become Noxzema, a name inspired by a customer who said the formula originally known as Dr. Bunting’s Sunburn Cream had “knocked out his eczema.”

Packaged in distinctive cobalt blue jars, it would become one of the most popular skin creams in America.

“I wasn’t driven to be a pharmacist or go into cosmetics, but I like to think I inherited my great-grandfather’s entrepreneurial and philanthropic instincts,” says Bunting, who went to Chesapeake College and then to Stevenson University in Baltimore County, where he earned a degree in business administration. After he graduated in 1991, Bunting and his brother Jeff were contemplating starting a business, and it occurred to them that, at least in those days, it was nearly impossible to find a good bagel outside of New York.

So they started researching likely communities to launch a bagel business and ended up focusing on college towns—Knoxville, not far from the University of Tennessee; Nashville near Vanderbilt University.

Vanderbilt, noticing that students were leaving campus to patronize the new bagel shop, was the first school to invite the brothers to start a business on campus. Soon they were operating bagel/deli stores, selling wraps, grilled foods, smoothies, “anything the kids wanted,” at Duke University, MIT, the University of Virginia Medical Center, and

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“[...] in the debate we are all having about the value of liberal arts colleges, Washington College is uniquely positioned to demonstrate its worth.”– marc Guenter Bunting

Noxzema inventor George Avery Bunting, Class of 1891, was an early benefactor of Washington College.

the University of North Carolina. “We even operated a Dunkin’ Donuts at MIT,” he says.

Today Bunting is CFO of the award-winning Alpine Food Service Solutions, which now also helps run a family restaurant/sports bar, The Carolina Ale House, with nine locations throughout the Southeast. But he spends most of his time managing the Blue Jar Private Trust Company and the Bunting Family Foundation.

Until recently he sat on the board of his alma mater, Stevenson University. He is chair of the board of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, with its stated mission of inspiring “conservation of the world’s aquatic treasures.” He recently joined the board of the Chesapeake Conservancy. And he is CEO of the Blue Jar Family Council, which helps protect and manage his great-grandfather’s financial legacy and educates younger heirs about the family’s philanthropic philosophy and goals. His father and aunt manage a foundation focused on projects in Baltimore. But for Bunting and his generational cohorts, the environment and human welfare around the globe are major concerns, and they work hard to identify promising ideas to solve problems and provide seed money to help get them off the ground.

“The goal is to fund an idea and help prove its impact so that a larger funder will pick it up and make it sustainable,” he says.

Growing up in a storied Baltimore family whose members have contributed to countless causes and whose name adorns buildings all over town, Bunting is eager to make his own contribution to the future. But as a child, what he really wanted more than anything 32

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was to be a race car driver. Even now, racing is probably his favorite thing to do.

“I guess I always had a need for speed,” he says. “Even when I was really young, skiing or riding a bicycle, my mom said I just had to be in front of the pack.”

So at the same time that he was building his food service company, Bunting began indulging that passion.

“In my early 20s, a friend invited me to an Autocross, which is really just driving your regular car—I had a VW GTI at the time — around a parking lot where they set up cones and you compete against a stopwatch. It’s not head-to-head racing. But I enjoyed it and wanted to do more.”

He bought a series of old cars he turned into race cars and was eventually racing professionally. In 2005, a North Carolina car dealer hired him to race his Corvettes.

In 2004 and 2006 he was a champion in the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series, an endurance racing series held in the United States and Mexico. He has twice finished second in the 24-hour endurance race held annually at Daytona. And in 2006 the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association recognized him as a second-team All American.

Bunting raced competitively from about 1998 to 2007, when he lost his sponsorship as a result of the financial crisis and decided to focus on his business, his philanthropic projects, and spending more time with his two daughters. But then, in 2010, he learned that there was to be a Baltimore Grand Prix, a series of street races through Baltimore’s Inner Harbor district that would begin on September 4, 2011, and continue every year through 2013. ESPN would call that September 4 race the “most successful inaugural American street racing event in the past 30 years.” He couldn’t resist.

“It was too tempting to be able to race legally in my own backyard,” he says. “So I rented a car from a race team and competed for all three years. My goal was to win and my best finish was third, but it was a wonderful experience, racing in my hometown where my friends and family and sponsors were able to come out and support me.”

Bunting says it’s not just the adrenaline rush he finds enthralling.

“It’s the constant pursuit of a perfection you’ll never attain. There are so many minor movements—turning a second late, not getting back to the throttle quickly enough, braking too soon or a second too late—that go into a perfect lap. So you’re always going back and looking at things you could improve.”

Happily for WC, Bunting is bringing that penchant for perfection to his work as a new trustee.

“He’s a wonderful addition to the board,” says former acting president, veteran board member and board chair, and fundraiser par excellence Jay Griswold. “He’s very smart, has a photographic memory, a great sense of humor, loves the Eastern Shore, understands the institution. The College is very lucky to have him.”

Bunting says two things cemented his commitment to the College.

“The first is my great-grandfather’s legacy, which has allowed me to live the life I lead and support the groups I have the privilege to support, and knowing the role WC played in everything he achieved. The second is that, in the debate we are all having about the value of liberal arts colleges, Washington College is uniquely positioned to demonstrate its worth.

The Center for Environment & Society, the Natural Lands Project, the new Eastern Shore Food Lab, its proximity to the Chester River— all of these things create real value for students who want hands-on experience working in science and environmental studies.”

In the meantime, Bunting has not ruled out racing at least one more time.

“I certainly think about it,” he says.

“There’s a race called the Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb out in Colorado that’s been on my bucket list. It’s once a year and they have to pick you. I’ve already filled out the application, so we’ll see what happens.”

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WEDDINGS 40 | BIRTHS & ADOPTIONS 41 | OBITUARIES 4 4

BUILDING COMMUNITY: Washington College’s Habitat for Humanity Club celebrated its 20th anniversary in April as current and past members gathered for a Framing Frenzy service event. Bright and early on a Saturday morning, students and alumni transformed the Kent lawn into a construction site, building the exterior walls of a house right in the middle of campus and sharing stories about the Habitat adventures they’ve had along the way. Photo by Pamela Cowart-Rickman.

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A L U M N I U P DAT E | C L A S S N O T E S

WC Alumni: Share your news!

We are proud to share your stories with our community in “Class Notes.” Submit your alumni news and photos to CLASS_NOTES@WASHCOLL.EDU

1937

Phoebe Anthony is still kicking at 102 but is confined to her bed at the Golden Rule Assisted Living facility in Rock Hall. To get in touch, contact Terry Anthony at 410-726-4347.

1950

E. Rankin Lusby is now retired and living in Florida.

However, he returns to Maryland every December and during the summer months, and he always attends the Older and Wiser Loyalists event during Alumni Weekend.

1969

Marie WarnerCrosson worked in the field of emergency services for many years, retiring as a regional administrator for Maryland Emergency Medical Services in 2011. A year later she signed on as a planner for the Maryland Emergency Response System, retiring again in 2016.

Now Marie is a consultant for Witt O’Brien’s, a firm that specializes in emergency response planning, training, and coordination. In her spare time, she reads, paints, and herds cats (she has three).

1976

Linda Brettschneider Drawsky and her husband, Mike, visited Washington College friends over the Thanksgiving holiday, including Jeff and Susan Aiken Coomer ’77 in Chestertown and Nancy Beery Gabel ’73, husband Greg Gabel ’75, and sister Suzie Beery Ebbert ’76 in the Towson area. Jeff and Susan have built a lovely new home in the historic district of Chestertown, and Nancy and Greg live in a spacious restored home originally constructed in 1888. Linda and Mike always enjoy reconnecting with family and friends in the Maryland and Pennsylvania area.

1980

Vintage Track and Field After receiving the last issue of WCM, Arnie Sten ’58 wrote in to identify some of the spectators pictured at a track meet as Mark Diashyn ’60 crossed a hurdle. Pictured standing, from left: Jim Scott ’59, Jim Murphy ’59, and Bob Warren ’60, all of whom were Kappa Alpha fraternity brothers with Diashyn. Sitting above them in the bleachers are, from left: Dixie Walker ’59, Arnie Sten ’58, and Rich Devine ’58, also KAs.

Last December, Carolyn ChoateTurnbull ’80, P’15 retired from the TV production industry in New England after 35 years. After wintering in Arizona last year and this, while working on a memoir about her epic adventures around the world following advanced breast cancer, she’s excited about her new career as director of development for a private K-8 school near her home in Nashua, New Hampshire. Carolyn is thrilled that her daughter MacKenzie Turnbull ’15 is enjoying life in Beantown as a stylist for Wayfair.

1993

Jude M. Pfister M’93 has published his sixth book, The Creation of American Law: John

Jay, Oliver Ellsworth, and the 1790s Supreme Court. Published

by McFarland Press, the book is available via all traditional outlets.

1994

After almost eight years supporting the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General for Price Waterhouse Coopers and other contractors, Eric Jewett recently left to become program manager for DCG Communications supporting the U.S. Army Chief of Public Affairs at the Pentagon.

1995

Matt Murray and Sharla Ponder Murray ’95 joined the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China, in August 2018.

Matt is the minister counselor for economic affairs and Sharla is in charge of the protocol office. The three-year assignment is their sixth overseas posting with the State Department, and it is their second time in Beijing.

2005

Rebekah Hardy Hock is the new director of development for ShoreRivers, a nonprofit agency charged with protecting and restoring Eastern Shore waterways through sciencebased advocacy and education.

She joins three other alumni on staff; Jeff Horstman ’82 serves as executive director, Elle Bassett-Miles is the Miles-Wye riverkeeper, and Julia Erbe ’14 is the development and events coordinator.

2011

Alexander Ian Gaits Hoffman is a doctoral candidate in community health and human services with a concentration in health behavior at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. He is researching alcohol and drug use among college students and is employed as both a research assistant in the School of Public Health, Department of Health Behavior and as a course instructor in the School of Education, SUMMER 2019

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How Crew Came to Washington College

the hodson trust Helped fund a new boathouse.

On the occasion of his 50th class reunion, one former oarsman reflects on the founding of the ultimate team sport where everyone—including a community of supporters—pulls together.

By Philip R. Scott-Smith ’69

CDR, U.S. Nav y (Ret.)

I

n the spring of 1968, just prior to my enlistment in the U.S. Navy, I was privileged to witness the newly formed Washington College crew engaged in a spirited race against the oarsmen of St. John’s College. It was the first time racing shells had ever competed on the Chester River. That moment marked the birth of competitive rowing at Washington College.

We all know the saying, “Many hands make light work.” It quite literally applies to the sport of competitive rowing, wherein every oarsman must expend his or her best efforts to win each grueling race. That same disciplined devotion also is required of those who train the oarsmen or maintain the shells, as well as other volunteers who arrange for practice times, transportation, and the actual races.

The late James Stuart Johnson ’69 (1946-86) truly was the founder of crew at Washington College. He learned to row while attending South Kent School, Connecticut, as a boarding student. He took to the sport naturally, and gradually became excellent “behind the oar.” Johnson brought his enthusiasm for competitive rowing with him when he arrived at Washington College in 1965. In addition, Johnson’s previous experience as an oarsman proved to be a valuable asset when interacting with other rowing organizations.

Equally valuable were the efforts of the late Peter Frank Tapke (1930-1999), professor of religion at Washington College. He was an avid oarsman during his undergraduate years, and he enthusiastically supported the establishment of competitive rowing as a varsity sport at Washington College. As a 36

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direct result of Tapke’s initiatives, the faculty of Saint Andrew’s Preparatory School in Middletown, Delaware, graciously allowed their crew coach, David Washburn, to train our fledgling crew.

In addition, the strong leadership of Don Gilmore ’67 was indispensable to our success. Gilmore came to Washington College just after having completed an arduous enlistment in the U.S Navy, including on-scene battle readiness during the Cuban Missile Crisis. As our stroke (leading oarsman), Gilmore’s maturity and leadership fueled our best efforts as oarsmen. He expected excellence from us, and he got it!

Also among our early benefactors was Vesper Boat Club in Philadelphia. Jack Kelly, who is Vesper’s—and America’s—most famous Olympic oarsman, enthusiastically supported our goals. It was he who arranged for the donation of a beautiful, eight-oared racing shell to Washington College, directly from Vesper’s assets.

No chronicle of rowing’s debut at Washington College would be complete without grateful recognition of the late John Urie Truslow (1919-1977). Truslow owned and operated a poultry farm across the river from Chestertown that supplied nationallevel medical research facilities with avian blood samples, etc. His contributions to the medical community played a key role in the development of important vaccines against infectious diseases, including rubella (German measles).

Over the three years that I spent at Washington College, John Truslow and I became good friends. He showed me how to obtain and prepare those avian blood

Shortly after this photo was taken (spring 1968), crew members built a floating dock at the end of the rickety boardwalk on the Queen Anne's County side of the river.

samples he needed, and I taught him how to play Scottish Highland bagpipes. When he learned that our crew needed a boathouse for its racing shells, he immediately offered one of his long chicken barns for our use. That initiative inspired another Eastern Shore enterprise, Friel Lumber Company, to donate all the materials we needed to construct a floating dock for launching our racing shells on the Chester River. It almost seemed to build itself! Before we knew it, our dock was “up and ready” and moored within John Truslow’s river shoreline. Once again, we were deeply grateful for Truslow’s unfailing generosity.

Eventually, as years became decades, a new boathouse was acquired on the “college side” of the Chester River. Quite appropriately, it is named The Truslow Boathouse.

As the saying goes, the rest is history.

Recently, a memorial plaque honoring Jamie Johnson was placed in the Truslow Boathouse.

Johnson would have been deeply moved by that honor, and even more delighted that his dream remains alive and well.

A L U M N I U P DAT E | C L A S S N O T E S

Department of Human Studies.

Previously, he worked as a research assistant at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and as a high school drug counselor in northern New Jersey.

Mike Powell opened a new dental practice in Port Charlotte, Florida, in August 2018. He is the proud new owner of Affordable Dentures & Implants, Port Charlotte P.A. Business has been steady and growing since the grand opening. If you are in southwest Florida and looking for a dentist, he says give him a call.

2013

Corinne Ziccardi is a major account executive with Cision, the industry leader in earned media management software.

“Couldn’t be more excited to have WAC’s communication’s department as my client here at Cision. Really looking forward to watching their PR and comms strategy evolve through Cision.

I officially have a new favorite client!”

2014

After graduation, Ana Lipson completed a couple of internships and worked at non-profit organizations in Baltimore and DC. She interned for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and completed a master’s degree in digital media from Loyola University Maryland in 2018. Last fall, Ana moved to Los Angeles and has been working with influencer marketing relations and social media marketing for a creative agency called YES MAM Creative in West Hollywood.

Heather T. Smith earned a bachelor of nursing degree at Salisbury University and completed a year-long nurse residency program at University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, where she now works on the medical surgery/oncology/ hospice floor.

James Comotto, MD ’14 and Nicole Stanton McFarland, RN ’08 are working together at the University of Maryland Medical Center in the psychiatric emergency department. McFarland has been a nurse on the unit for nine years and Comotto is in his first year of the UMMC/Sheppard Pratt psychiatry residency program. Both biology majors at WC, they have enjoyed reminiscing about their time in Toll and the great professors they fondly remember.

2015

Elizabeth Godorov is living in Baltimore. She enjoyed a fulfilling career as a wedding florist for three years post-graduation and advanced her career with a position as a catering sales specialist. She would be honored to help any fellow alumni plan and execute a high-end catered event. For professional inquiries, contact elizabeth@copperkitchenmd.com.

2017

For a little over a year post-graduation, Caitlin Renee Figiel worked as an animal biologist for Global Solutions Network in the neuro-oncology branch of the National Cancer Institute at National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. She was recently selected for a postgraduate research position at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. As a laboratory technician, she is working on a project investigating drug therapy development for traumatic brain injury, using in-vivo models of neuro-protection and neuro-restoration.

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Writing the World Her Washington College connections helped Rachel Brown ’16 land a position at National Geographic.

A

Marty Smith ’67, the only living member among the first four African Americans to attend Washington College, has received another honor: He was recently inducted into the Salem County Sports Hall of Fame in New Jersey. Marty is also a member of the College's Athletic Hall of Fame and was awarded the Alumni Citation for Excellence in Economics in 2017.

the hodson trust Rachel Brown received the Hodson Merit Scholarship.

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s an undergraduate majoring in anthropology and Hispanic studies, and minoring in creative writing, Rachel Brown’s curiosity was insatiable. No question was too obscure, no path too long, even if it led her down another path.

She traveled to the Navajo Nation to study contemporary Navajo poetry, how it relates to cultural identity, and what strategies of resistance the Navajo employ to keep their language alive. In Cuba, she wanted to compare perceptions of Havana from the points of view of locals and an American woman (herself), so she befriended three women, gave them cameras, and asked them to photograph what was important to them about their hometown.

Now, she’s bringing that same open-minded curiosity and sense of story to her job as a writer, associate editor, and producer for National Geographic’s digital travel team, helping create stories like that of the Emberá Katío people who live in La Puria in Colombia, where only women are left after the country’s civil war killed all the town’s men. Or how the 27 leather-bound volumes comprising a 19th-century photo archive of a wealthy young couple who traveled the world on an extended four-year honeymoon led to a story of their tumultuous lives. Or how a South African conservation biologist has dedicated his life to save Botswana’s Okavango Delta since the first moment he saw it at age 21.

“I’m assigning and editing stories from other folks and also working my own stories,” she says.

“It’s really fun to call someone and say ‘I’m from National Geographic,’ and everyone is so excited to talk.”

Brown, a finalist for the 2016 Sophie Kerr Prize, was also editor-in-chief of The Collegian, a leader of the Día de Fútbol committee, and part of the Starr Center’s StoryQuest oral history program. Starr Center Director Adam Goodheart, who had written a cover story for National Geographic, introduced his prize student to Susan Goldberg, NatGeo’s editorin-chief, when she visited campus in 2016 to give the Harwood Lecture Series in American Journalism.

“I was able to attend a dinner with Susan at the Custom House afterwards,” Brown recalls.

Rachel Brown ’18, pictured here at the Sophie Kerr event in May 2016.

“Susan asked to be seated at a table of students only.

She talked with each of us individually and shared her business card.”

Brown wrote a follow-up email which ultimately led to an interview with National Geographic’s digital director for a position as administrative assistant in Washington, D.C. With the job lined up in April, she began two months later. By early 2017, she was writing short news stories in addition to her regular responsibilities, and then moved into photo stories. Then, after nine months on the producer team, she jumped at an opportunity to join the travel team.

“I’m a writer and associate editor/producer for digital travel. So I can choose the stories a lot more now. I’m writing only the stories I’m personally interested in. The ones I think should be published but can’t do, I’ll assign to a freelancer.”

Landing a job at a publication as dynamic as National Geographic has given her the ideal way to continue to feed that insatiable curiosity.

“I worked really, really hard, I did all my research, I had all my talking points, all of that,” she says of her career preparations. “But I was also very lucky to have the connections that WAC had given me.”

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Acting on Instinct Most people start conversations with a word. Mark Christie starts them with a character, a stage, and questions that aren’t always easy to answer.

By Karen M. Jones

H

e was in high school when he first fell in love with theater, thanks to a teacher, “Ms. T,” whose positive energy made Mark Christie ’18 want to “put life on stage.” But his natural talents emerged even earlier, when Christie realized his trademark little-kid humor had an appreciative audience.

“I made a lot of jokes, and I really didn’t care what people thought as long as I was being positive and making people happy,” he says.

“That was always my thing, and that’s what theater is—getting people to feel something.”

Christie, now 22, has been making rapt audiences feel plenty since last fall, when he took on the role of Tommy in the InterAct Theatre and Passage Theatre’s co-production of Salt Pepper Ketchup in Philadelphia. The play explores the tensions in a gentrifying south Philly neighborhood, with Christie’s character serving as a lightning rod. “[InterAct Theatre] believes in performances that are about social justice,” Christie says. “My character does some sketchy things, but overall, he wants to do something to help. It ends up not being the smartest thing to do, but it definitely raises questions about whether or not this kid’s good, or whether he deserves what happens to him. I love characters like that, that make you think. They’re not just on stage; they’re on stage with a purpose.”

Christie’s purpose came into sharper focus when he decided to major in theater at Washington College.

“The theater department welcomed me with open arms and made everything I ended up doing feel so natural,” he says. “I did so many different plays and took so many different classes my junior year. The only reason it wasn’t overwhelming was because, anytime I had a question or a problem, anytime I was looking for help, there was always someone in the department, one of the professors, with a door open.”

He also wanted to give dramatic talents a boost by minoring in marketing. “To be a successful professional actor, you have to learn how to market yourself, to take the first step, to apply for that audition, or to communicate with the person the right way so you can keep taking that step forward. Marketing definitely helps me with that.”

Mark Christie ’18 appeared with fellow actor Tessa Kuhn in a production of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale at Curio Theatre Company in Philadelphia this spring. The show was directed by Liz Carlson-Guerin.

His point was borne out when, on the heels of his Senior Capstone direction of Diana Son’s Stop Kiss, he earned a coveted artistic apprenticeship with the InterAct Theatre and the chance to audition for Salt Pepper Ketchup.

“It’s one of the most awesome experiences I’ve ever had. We performed in Jersey for a month, and then we moved to Philadelphia and performed for three weeks. And we performed every day except Mondays—I can say every line in my sleep!”

But as a dramatic conversationstarter, Christie is ready to ignite more chatter. And the live stage may not be able to contain him. He’s been signed by the Greer Lang Talent Agency and is auditioning for work ranging from

commercials to TV pilots to a studio film.

“I want to go back at some point to directing,” he says. “I’d also love to take a break from acting eventually and move into music. I love to make music but haven’t had time. I want to do it all!”

He laughs, although it’s not at all hard to believe he will make good on his plans.

One imagines Christie, in his quest to open people’s eyes and minds, lighting creative fires and leaving folks talking while he moves on to light another.

“Life’s short, so I’m trying to do everything I can before I go,” he says.

“I’m definitely staying positive, staying humble with it all. I’m going wherever God takes me.”

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Just Married George ’15 and Macauley Brooks-Gabriel ’14 were married last September. Pictured left to right, back row: Ryan Polak ’14, Lauren Dockrill Polak ’14, Sam Draper ’15, T. Daniel Grosscup ’15, Claire Mattox ’14, Trish Langley ’16, Matt Wilfong ’15, Brandon Wilfong ’15, Schuyler Reed ’15, and Lin Robinson ’15. Front row: Hilary Rosenberg ’14, Joe Fili ’15, Macauley and George Brooks-Gabriel ’14, Rachel Kurtz ’16, Taylor Price-Kellogg ’15, and Bob Libera ’15.

John Rolewicz ’12 and Emily Rey were married Sept. 8, 2018, in Annapolis, with lots of Washington College alumni there to celebrate. Pictured standing, left to right, Chelsea Vetick Marinelli ’12, Nick Marinelli ’14, Casey Frisch ’14, Kyle Aldrich ’13, Ben Cameron ’14, Brian Lewis ’14, Joe Willis ’13, Shane Mattingly ’12, Tyler Cotterell ’13, Kevin Lynch ’12, Joe Kearney-Argow ’13, Liz Carbone Cotterell '12, Tom Fiala ’14, Johnny Helenek ’12, Frankie Brigante ’12, Jen Potts Helenek ’12, Steve Cameron ’12, Morgan Phillips Cameron ’12, Hunter Draheim ’12, and Shannon Davis ’11. Kneeling/Sitting left to right: Liam Aquino ’14, Ryan Normoyle ’12, Bethany Dahler Normoyle ’14, Mr. and Mrs. Rolewicz, Kellie Rogers ’15, Kelley Freeman ’15, and Brian Alexa ’15. The Rolewiczes, who both work at Booz Allen Hamilton, honeymooned in Greece and Italy.

Rachel Puglia and Jeffery Sullivan ’14 were married Nov. 10, 2018.

Several alumni, faculty, and staff helped them celebrate.

Alexandria Sumner ’15 and Justin Barker '13 were married Oct. 28, 2018 in Edgewater, Maryland. Lexie and Justin met at Washington College as student workers at the Help Desk. Alumni in attendance included John Anderson ’11 and Aundra Weissert Anderson ’08, Megan Conway ’15, Ryan Holtschneider ’15, Sam Hartman ’13, Nick ’14 and Samantha Bitzelberger Pace ’14, Thomas Landskroener ’13, and Pamela Holland ’17. WC staffers Karly Oristian and Bob Bishop also attended.

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Steve Schnur ’05 and Shelley Holtmann ’08 M’10 were married Nov. 3, 2018 in Annapolis, Maryland, surrounded by family and friends, including Dan Himmelberger ’05, Caitlin Dorer Donis ’06, Nick Donis ’03, Stacy Schapiro Del Gallo ’05, James Vorhies ’06, Heather Blain Vorhies ’05, Tom Stromberg ’05, Jess Bradley Stromberg ’06, Emily Hofler ’10, and Kirsten Hower ’10.

Mike Powell ’11 and Tim Whaley (in matching tuxes) were married August 4, 2018 in Cambridge, Maryland. Many alumni and faculty helped them celebrate. Pictured from left: John Lyle ’11, Kristin McAdam ’11, John Horlick ’11, Gaven Blundon ’11, Meghan Blundon ’12, Trish Tomczewski ’09, Posey Daves ’11, Brittany Dunbar Calloway ’11, Tina Gardner ’11, Alex Hoffman ’11, Katelyn Malchester ’11, Latoya Gatewood-Young ’11, Megan Easter ’11, Dani Szimanski ’08, Matt Szimanski ’08, Danielle Bellezza ’11, Thor Deegan ’12, Laura Lazenby ’11, Roy Littlefield ’13, Steve Moore ’12, Khlail Karrakchou ’12, and Matt Gibson ’12 with his wife, Meaghan. Not pictured: professors Aaron Krochmal and Erin Counihan, Becca Nicely ’11, Chris Waldeck ’11, Ryan Smuz ’14, and Spencer Dove ’09.

Weddings Chester on the

Richard Adrian ’05 married his wife, Mary Kate Adrian, on May 12, 2018 at The Oaks in Royal Oak, Maryland. Pictured from left: Eric Gerstein ’05, Bill Murphy ’05, Sean Foley ’04, the bride and groom, Mike Gurdineer ’06, Kevin Connor ’04, Andrew Sears ’07, Allison Rickards Gurdineer ’04, Mike Lynch ’06, Connor Lines ’09, Moira Johnson ’08, Autumn Gerres ’08, Jeff McMahon ’04, Mandy Leahy Spencer ’08, and Vinny Antonio ’04.

Washington College is now hosting waterfront weddings, using the Hodson Boathouse as the backdrop for your special day. Let us help you celebrate in classic Eastern Shore style.

Our catering services can accommodate gatherings large or small and create a custom menu just for you.

Oh Baby!

We’re booking dates now.

For more information email: conferences@washcoll.edu or call 410-778-7253

Jamie Reed Brown ’05 and her husband, Mike, welcomed twin girls Abigail Frances and Katherine Eleanor on Dec. 16, 2018.

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Dispatch from Capitol Hill: Things That Matter English major Cara Koontz ’15 is employing her mad language skills to lay the social media groundwork for the next presidential election.

By T. Christian Landskroener

C

Cara Koontz ’15 is working as a digital director for the House Ways and Means Committee.

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ara Koontz ’15 describes herself in a medium.com Q&A as a “former English major turned Hill digital staffer.” She is in fact helping to shape the spectrum of visual communications for the Democratic Party with an eye specifically on the 2020 campaigns across the country.

When she left WC, she frontloaded her master’s degree studies, moved to Washington, D.C., and landed a job with Louise Slaughter’s office, first as an intern and then as press assistant. Slaughter was a formidable figure on Capitol Hill as Chair of the House Rules Committee. Because of her age, Koontz had the digital portfolio thrust at her.

An unapologetic millennial, she quickly fell in love with visual storytelling and the narratives that emerge—things that reminded her of her studies at Washington College.

She says that the impact of social media on modern American politics started with the Obama campaign leading up to the 2008 election.

“Back then you got a high five if you merely had a website. And now the platforms are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and even traditional media.

The question is, how do we use those pop-ups to communicate the message to our constituents?

That is a massive part of my job. When you look granularly at my job it is videography, photography, and graphic design. I squeeze all the small pieces under the digital umbrella. It’s still very new and it’s so great being on the Hill.”

She seems naturally savvy about the platforms.

“It really depends on the target audience. Facebook is where most people over 40 are, Twitter skews slightly younger and is where most journalists and reporters are, so that’s the platform for breaking news and press releases. Instagram seems to be the place for staff and political leaders like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; they are blowing up that particular social media platform.

And that’s where the millennial audience tends

to go. Instagram will probably be the platform for the 2020 campaign, more so than in 2016.”

She believes that the optimism of the Obama campaign is key to resonating with voters in 2020. Tactically, Koontz recognizes that effective digital media relies on authenticity.

“It’s why Hillary got dinged and Bernie didn’t. How can we make policy and Democratic messaging authentic and real? We have regular people from all over the country come to us and respond to questions so we can find out what is important to them—health care and so forth.

We then put it out in the ether and it is getting great traction. People want to see others like themselves reflected in the policy that’s being discussed on the Hill.”

As for what prepared her for this career path, she points directly to her alma mater and the professors who helped her hone her critical thinking skills.

“Washington College is unquestionably the reason I am where I am. And that’s not hyperbole.

Especially my English professors. I think about Drs. James Hall, Rich Gillin, and Courtney Rydel—they forced me to look at the granular, look at the language, think big-picture, and talk about it in meaningful ways. And now that’s all I do all day—think about policy, take it to the mass level, and bring it back to a more individual level.

It was preparing me in larger ways than I knew at the time.”

But Hall sparked her social conscience early on.

“The first thing he said to us on the first day of class was this: ‘In this class, we’re going to talk about things that matter.’ It was a simple declarative sentence and I thought ‘Oh my, we should be talking about things that do matter.’ And that’s the reason I wanted to get into politics.”

Follow her on Instagram @cara_koontz or carakoontz.com

As sailors, Alex Smith ’17, a double major in business management and economics, and Allison Cochran ’18, a biology major with minors in chemistry and psychology, spent a lot of time down at the boathouse. So when they were choosing the ideal venue for their engagement photos, they knew they had to return to the place where their journey as a couple began. Another sailing alumna, Alex Crawford ’16, a human development major and owner of Alexandra Kent Photography, captured the special moment.

Marshal Richard De Prospo (left) and Alumni Board Chair Patrick McMenamin ’87 P’16 (right) present the Alumni Service Award to Régis de Ramel ’97 as part of George Washington’s Birthday Convocation ceremonies in February.

A former varsity rower, de Ramel provided a $1 million gift toward construction of the Hodson Boathouse, which was dedicated last fall.

Peter Franchot, Comptroller of Maryland, presented the William Donald Schaefer Helping People Award for Kent County to Barbara Murphy Reed ’98 at a ceremony on campus in early March. Barbara was recognized for her distinguished career as a nursing professional, providing in-home care to patients and allowing older residents to “age in place” through her business, Loving Touch Home Care. Those attending the ceremony included, from left, Franchot; Mike Arntz, community liaison for Congressman Andy Harris; Ryan Snow, Eastern Shore Outreach Coordinator for Governor Larry Hogan; Chestertown Councilman Marty Stetson; and College President Kurt Landgraf.

Chris Mocella ’01 was honored to have published the third edition of The Chemistry of Pyrotechnics in collaboration with John Conkling '65, professor of chemistry emeritus at Washington College. After serving as Conkling’s undergraduate research assistant and working for his summer pyrotechnics seminar through its 26th year, Chris assisted his former professor with the second edition of the book in 2010. When the publisher asked for a third edition, Conkling passed the torch to Chris to update and publish the book. “This sort of deep collaboration is what makes Washington College the model of liberal education higher learning that it is,” Chris says. “Special thanks to Dr. Tyler Benedum ’98 for his mentorship and for introducing me to Dr. Conkling!”

From left, Dan Biscoe ’98, Chip Merrick ’98, and Chris Daily ’98, along with Meggan Smith Saulo ’98 and Katie Daily ’98 (not pictured), got together with friends to celebrate Dan’s good health. He has been pronounced free of testicular cancer.

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A L U M N I U P DAT E | O B I T U A R I E S

In Memoriam Farewell to Friends Birch Bayh, a Senior Fellow at the Starr Center, an American hero of historic stature, and an extraordinary mentor and friend to many Washington College students, faculty, and staff, died March 14.

The nation will remember Birch Bayh as the principal architect of two constitutional amendments and the author of Title IX of the Higher Education Act. Those who knew him as a Senior Fellow at Washington College’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience will remember him as a warm and unpretentious man who easily connected with those who were passionate about history and politics.

W. James Price IV, a decorated World War II veteran who become a partner and managing director of Alex. Brown & Sons, as well as a senior advisor at Brown Advisory, died Dec. 11, 2018. Jim served on the College’s Board of Visitors and Governors for eight years and was co-chair of the Campaign for Excellence. He and his late wife, Midge, gave more than $2 million to the College over their lifetimes—including $500,000 to establish the Brown Advisory Student-Managed Investment Fund, which has since topped $1 million in value. In 2014 the Eugene B. Casey Foundation established the W. James Price IV Professorship in Business Management. His survivors include son Jonathan Price ’80, vice president of Brown Advisory.

Harry Hughes, the two-term Maryland governor whose Eastern Shore roots tied him especially close to Maryland’s oldest chartered college, died March 13. In 1980, Washington College honored its native son with the Award for Excellence, recognizing his commitment to environmental protection. During his governorship, in 1983, he signed into law the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement and later served as a member of the Chesapeake Bay Trust. Hughes helped found Queenstown’s Center for Agro-Ecology in 1999, which was later named for him. He served as its board president until 2018.

E. Ralph Hostetter, a former Naval intelligence officer and a newspaperman who served on Washington College’s Board of Visitors and Governors during the Douglass Cater administration, passed away March 26. He was 97. As a trustee in the mid-1980s, he directed much of his philanthropic support to The Washington Fund and to the endowed chairs created to honor Louis L. Goldstein ’35 and Joseph H. McLain ’37.

Judith C. Kohl, a Washington College parent who with her late husband, Ben, provided the lead gift for the College’s Kohl Gallery as well as substantial support for Miller Library, died Dec. 4, 2018. A retired professor of English and humanities, she was a generous supporter of many non-profits in Kent County and helped promote the humanities, historical preservation, and the visual performing arts through a small charitable trust. Her most recent gift supported a performance art series at Kohl Gallery.

Morton C. Katzenberg ’45 passed away Oct. 9, 2018. Morton was a man whose strength and moral compass exemplified the Greatest Generation. He is survived by a son, Steven.

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Lois K. Rook ’48 passed away April 19, 2018 in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. She was 90.

Predeceased by her husband of 60 years, she was a member of Paxton Presbyterian Church.

William A. "Pat" Biddle ’50 passed away Nov. 29, 2018 in Easton, Maryland. He was 91. Pat had a 35-year career in education with Queen Anne’s County Public Schools and founded Kent Youth

Incorporated, a group home in Chestertown where he was president of the board for 10 years.

Charles Lawrence “Larry” Brandenburg Jr. ’50, 91, of Rising Sun, Maryland, died Oct.16, 2018. A retired dentist, he was 91. Larry served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and the Korean conflict. He was active with several organizations, including the Maryland State Dental Association. A member of Advent Lutheran Church, he spent 30 years in the mission field as a dentistry volunteer.

A former track athlete and a member of WC’s Athletic Hall of Fame, he leaves behind Elizabeth, his wife of 67 years.

Carolyn Brant Lense ’51 of Greenville, South Carolina passed away Dec. 22, 2018. She was 89.

Carolyn earned her degree in microbiology and worked as a microbiologist in civil service for the U.S. Army prior to her marriage.

She spent the majority of her life as a mother and homemaker.

Clyde McKinley Roney, Jr. ’51 died Oct. 15, 2018 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He was 92. Clyde served in the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Ordinance Corps, and the Army Reserve. He was active in several Kiwanis groups, was an emergency room volunteer at his local hospital, and helped establish the bloodmobile program in Frederick, where he had donated over 25 gallons of blood over the years. A lifetime member of All Saints Episcopal Church, he was also a charter member of the a cappella group The Catoctones.

Dian Latshaw Sutton ’51 passed away Sept. 23, 2018 in Asheville, North Carolina. She was 89. Dian met her husband, the late Ray Sutton ’50, at WC. She taught high school psychology in South Carolina for 25 years. She and Ray were avid campers and enjoyed spending winters with friends in Florida.

Ronald Hugh Defelice, Sr. ’56, of Hagerstown, Maryland, passed away Dec. 21, 2018. He was 85.

Ronald started his 42-year career in the United States Armed Forces as an administrative contracting officer for the Frederick Cancer Research Center at Fort Detrick and retired as director of operations at the National Institutes of Health.

Louis Borbely ’57, of Highland Park, New Jersey, passed away Dec. 25, 2018. An all-star athlete, Lou carried his love of sports (specifically baseball) into adulthood. After being drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates, Lou played in the minor leagues for one year. A compassionate and caring teacher, he taught fifth and sixth grade for 40 years at John Marshall Elementary School in Edison.

The Rev. Romie Hollingsworth Payne, Jr. ’57 passed away Dec. 2, 2018 at his home in Laurel, Maryland. He was 94. Romie was born on a farm near Centreville and farmed until he followed his calling into the ministry at 28. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Wesley Seminary in Washington, D.C. An ordained elder of the Peninsula Delaware Conference, he served numerous charges in Delaware and on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Franklin Lyle Tinker Jr. ’59 of Southampton, Pennsylvania, passed away Sept. 21, 2018.

Frank completed his education at WC after serving three years in the U.S. Army. He tried his hand at several careers before launching what would become a long career in banking. Frank was a lifelong Philadelphia sports fan.

Once he retired, he enjoyed Little League games at the neighborhood ball field.

Susan King Gibson ’62, of Charles City, Virginia, died Nov. 29, 2018. A graduate of Roland Park Country School in Baltimore, Susan attended Washington College on a senatorial

scholarship. She worked at the library of Johns Hopkins University for several years before transitioning to a position at Colonial Williamsburg. While living in the Robert Carter Kitchen, a colonial house on the Palace Green, she became concierge at the Colonial Williamsburg Inn. Susie was also involved in a little theater group in the Williamsburg area. While she led a quiet, unassuming life, she touched those she came in contact with, especially her college friends.

Charles E. Lawson, Jr. ’62 of Havre de Grace, Maryland, passed away Oct. 14, 2018. He was 82. A proud graduate of WC, Chuck went on to work for the Department of Corrections as an addictions counselor. He was a veteran of the U.S. Naval Reserves and a member of the Grace United Methodist Church and Masonic Lodge 130.

Steve Amick ’69, who served Newark, Delaware, in the state legislature for 22 years, died Jan. 23. He was 71. Amick, a political science major, was first elected to the Delaware House of Representatives in 1986 and served until 1994. He was then elected to the Delaware Senate, where he served from 1994 to 2008. A graduate of Dickinson School of Law, Amick worked as a lawyer for DuPont and later for the Newark-based law firm Cooch and Taylor. He was active in many community organizations, including the Newark Historical Society and the Civic League of New Castle County. In 2016, he received the Alumni Citation for Excellence in Public Service.

Amick is survived by his wife of 49 years, Louise Amick ’69, professor of mathematics emerita. The family suggests memorial gifts be made to Washington College.

Raymond W. Keen ’70 of Perryville, Maryland, passed away Nov. 15, 2018. He was 70.

After graduating from WC, Raymond earned a master’s degree

in philosophy from the University of Delaware. He worked at the Maryland Department of Corrections for 30 years, leading efforts in the state’s work release program. In retirement, Ray enjoyed teaching philosophy at Harford Community College and archaeological exploration with the Maryland Archaeological Society.

Curtis Lee Kiefer ’73, of Albany, New York, died Dec. 1, 2018.

Shortly before his death, he talked with friends about his “charmed life,” recounting that at all stages in his life he felt loved.

Curtis served as youth services manager at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library from 1993 until 2014. He also worked with the Oregon Library Association in protecting intellectual freedom.

With Walter Frankel, his surviving husband of 37 years, Curtis was an active plaintiff in the Oregon court cases for marriage equality.

Sue Barrett Bullitt ’74, of Little Britain, Pennsylvania, passed away Dec. 27, 2018. She was 66.

After graduating from college, she earned a veterinary technician degree from Harcum Junior College. Sue met her husband, James, at a dog training class and they married in 1999. In addition to her love for breeding and showing Labrador retrievers, Sue enjoyed horse shows, science fiction conventions, Renaissance fairs, and gardening.

Gali Sanchez ’74, of Front Royal, Virginia, passed into spirit on Sept. 16, 2018. He was 66. Gali grew up in Maryland and Mexico City. Gali saw himself as a teacher who lived an adventure. As a Latin percussionist, he toured with Santana and performed with Steve Winwood, Stevie Wonder, Dave Matthews Band, and other nationally renowned music groups. He worked at TSR as a game designer for Dungeons & Dragons. He served as a bilingual counselor for Chicano communities in the Midwest. For the last 18

years he taught at Warren County Middle School and Wakefield Country Day School. Gali was a member of the Abenaki Nation of New Hampshire and First Nations of Canada Metis Abenaquis de l’Oeste.

William Rowe Janney III ’76, of Naples, Florida, died Nov. 4, 2018. Bill worked as a tennis pro right after college and later joined his father’s real estate company in Naples, Florida. In May 1996 Bill attended his 20-year reunion and was reunited with classmate Margaret Goldstein ’76. They married seven months later.

Together they operated Janney Real Estate Services, Inc. A member of Kappa Alpha, Bill was devoted to his alma mater and served on its President’s Advisory Council and the Athletic Hall of Fame Committee. For several years, Margaret and Bill enjoyed hosting annual Fourth of July parties at their home on the Chester River.

Richard Peter Van Der Wende M’80 passed away Nov. 1, 2018, at his home in Centreville, Maryland. He was 70. Rich taught history at Queen Anne’s County High School for 12 years and coached baseball and wrestling before exploring other careers in sales and restoration. Some of his favorite times were spent with his family and his dog Lucy.

Rich loved to travel and enjoyed attending the theater.

Lindsay Tanton ’88, who grew up in Baltimore, died Jan. 15 of cardiac arrest caused by cardiomyopathy. She was 53.

During the last decades of her life, Lindsay’s favorite thing was spending time with her partner of 25 years, Sheaffer Reese ’87, and their corgies at Lake Osceleta in Westchester County, New York.

The couple made their home in Mercersberg, Pennsylvania.

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A DVA N C E M E N T

Three for Belize When an alumnus learned about a faculty member’s project at a museum in Belize, he jumped in to fund three students’ travel there this summer as part of a global field experience in education.

By Wendy Mitman Clarke M’16

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year after helping launch the Crooked Tree Museum and Cultural Center in Belize, Assistant Professor of Education Sara Clarke-Vivier is returning this summer to the inland lagoon community, this time with three Washington College students whose travel has been funded by an alumnus who made an instant connection to Clarke-Vivier’s work.

Thanks to the support of Robert Stewart ’60, Colin Levi ’21, a communications and Spanish double major with a minor in secondary education, Holly Schaffer ’21, a human development major and psychology minor, and Kayla Mehrtens ’21, a chemistry major and secondary education minor, will travel with Clarke-Vivier for two weeks in June to work and learn firsthand at the museum that is dedicated to educating local students about Belize’s Kriol culture and history.

“Having worked in museums and libraries, I know that they’re very important educationally,” says Stewart, who works at the Asbury Park Library in New Jersey and earned master’s degrees in library science at Rutgers and in public administration at Fairleigh Dickinson. “People don’t think of it like going to school, but they’re important, so maybe the students will help the museum be part of the education in that area, but also they’ll learn that museum work is a profession unto itself and there are a lot of job opportunities in that field.”

“I was so touched when Bob reached out to me to say he had been to Crooked Tree, and that he intended to visit the museum on his next visit,” says Clarke-Vivier. “The generosity that he has shown our program after his visit is truly amazing. It has made it possible for three bright, ambitious students to undertake their own independent research and contribute in meaningful 46

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ways to the Crooked Tree Museum and community with barriers related to the cost for that experience. That is huge.”

Though students in education have studied abroad in other programs, ClarkeVivier’s Belize research trip is the first program designed to bridge formal and informal learning environments.

“Future classroom teachers, like Kayla, Colin, and Holly, can learn a lot about curriculum design, assessment, and highimpact teaching practices from museum environments,” Clarke-Vivier says.

Stewart had only a brief career at Washington College, transferring from the University of Delaware as a senior and getting his undergraduate degree in political science. He says he hasn’t been a very active alumnus—at least, not until he saw a story in the Fall 2018 Washington College Magazine about Clarke-Vivier’s work helping develop the museum and curriculum at Crooked Tree. An avid birder who travels to Central and South America on birdwatching trips,

TOP: Holly Schaffer ’21, Assistant Professor of Education Sara Clarke-Vivier, Colin Levi ’21, and Kayla Mehrtens ’21 are heading to Belize.

BOTTOM: Robert and Nancy Stewart at the La Milpa archaeological site in Belize.

Stewart had been to Belize four times, even to Crooked Tree.

“We have some interesting connections, and right away that was my interest. I contacted Sara right away and asked about the museum.”

Clarke-Vivier explained that one of her goals was to get Washington College students to Belize as part of an education study-abroad experience, in which they could see first-hand how education happens in another country and also participate in some of the museum-based curriculum development. Stewart asked how he could help, and ended up funding all three students’ travel with a gift of $6,700, acknowledging that, “I haven’t been particularly generous to any school I’ve gone to, so I thought maybe I can make up for a little bit of lost time.”

He also visited the museum during a previously planned trip in January, after talking with Clarke-Vivier. “I thought the museum is quite good for a small, remote museum, it’s a well-done set-up,” he says.

For the students, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They will spend time observing teachers at the Crooked Tree Government School working with K-8 pupils, and during the evenings they will be in residence at the museum helping develop programs for a teachers’ workshop being held in June, Clarke-Vivier says. They’ll also tour some other local schools, taking in some sightseeing along the way.

Also, Instructional Technologist Raven Bishop, whose specialization in virtual museum tours earned her the 2018 Innovation Award from the National Digital Stewardship Alliance, will spend a week at the museum helping Mehrtens create a virtual tour of the space, and she will support Levi in designing and implementing a community curation/ digitization day. Meanwhile, Brian Palmer, director of digital media services, is also helping Schaffer create some laser-cut wood teaching objects for a traveling trunk project.

“Belize is a great place for students,” Stewart says. “Besides the nature and the extensive Mayan ruins and the people who are still there, with their culture and languages, if they take a pair of binoculars and a bird book they will see all kinds of wildlife and birds.”

Culp Foundation Funds Scholarships

Larry Culp ’85, chairman and CEO of GE, has created a scholarship program for the children of GE employees.

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his fall, the Class of 2023 will include seven students awarded the brand new and coveted Chairman’s Scholarship, made possible through the generosity of Larry Culp ’85 and the Culp Family Foundation. A College trustee and former chair of the Board of Visitors and Governors who now serves as chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric (GE), Culp extended the offer to the children of GE employees around the world shortly after he took the helm of the multinational company.

Five $20,000 scholarships and two $10,000 scholarships, all renewable, were extended to incoming members of the Class of 2023. The recipients hail from India, Kenya, and Russia, as well as the United States.

“This scholarship brought Washington College to the attention of students and families who otherwise may not have known us,” says Lorna J. Hunter, vice president for enrollment management. “Not only does this scholarship broaden our reach for

prospective students, but those who applied were very strong academically, and those who were awarded the scholarship will add a great deal to our campus. We are excited to welcome each recipient this fall.”

Susie Chase ’90, vice president for College advancement, notes that while corporate leaders are well-positioned to fund scholarships of this size, alumni and friends of the College of more modest means can also have an impact.

“Scholarship funding is perhaps the most meaningful way to make a difference at Washington College and in the lives of young people who can benefit from the extraordinary opportunities offered here,” Chase says. “My colleagues and I are so grateful to Col. Hodson, and to Chairman Culp, for their foresight and generosity, and we welcome the opportunity to help others create their own legacies at Washington College.”

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THE LAST WORD

Choose to Serve In her remarks at Washington’s Birthday Convocation, the president of the Student Government Association reflected on the character-building aspects of the Washington College experience.

By Victoria Cline ’19

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f you didn’t know this already, being a college student isn’t easy. Hard work, long hours, not enough sleep, missed meals. It’s a test of endurance for most of us.

But Washington College students are committed. That’s what makes us different.

We will go the extra mile, stay up until 3 a.m. to meet that deadline, wait outside a professor’s door for office hours, get the tutoring, lose the sleep, make the financial sacrifice, skip going out with friends to study for that exam, grab the extra cup of coffee.

We will do it.

That same commitment and sacrifice is what we will bring with us as the leaders of tomorrow. We may not realize it right now as we are in the thick of college life, but we are learning to be someone so much greater than who we are today.

Success, I have learned, is not about making the right grade, leading a certain club, or landing the dream internship. It’s not even about walking across the stage to receive your diploma, as my class will do in a few months.

Success is about making an impact.

Changing the way people approach an issue.

Speaking up when you really don’t want to. Helping the student next to you believe they can make it through, because you have been right where they are. Success is about changing lives.

I’m not saying success is achieved one single way or ends with fireworks or a gold plaque of recognition. Living a successful life isn’t about that at all. It is about how you impact the world around you.

You may wonder, how do I change a life?

That sounds like a pretty big task. How do I live a successful, impactful life? What does that really mean?

Well, I like the way American author Harriett Jackson Brown, Jr. answers this 48

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question. He writes, “Earn your success based on service to others, not at the expense of others.”

It really is that simple. It is an active choice we have to make to take into consideration the person in front of us, next to us, and behind us.

What I mean by that is that there is a person in front of you. A person who through whatever means, honorable or not, is in a position ahead of you. This could be the person holding up the line at the coffee shop with a giant order, the professor who you think doesn’t understand you, the person who received the promotion or position of leadership instead of you, the individual who appears to have more than you do. Instead of being frustrated or annoyed, I challenge you to serve that person.

Then there is the person next to you. This is a co-worker, student, friend, teammate, roommate, or the stranger sitting across the table from you in the dining hall. Serve that person too. Remember that whatever you may be going through—stress, anxiety, discomfort, heartbreak, or joy—is the exact same for them. You have no idea what is going on in their world. Choose to serve that person.

And last is the person behind you. This is who will receive the world you are creating today. It’s the next class of students, the next team, the next leader, and more broadly, the next generation.

What are you doing to serve that person—a person you have never even met, but who will be impacted by what you do? Make the choice to serve that person too.

So what kind of impact do you want to have on the person in front of you, beside you, and behind you? What kind of success story do you want to have? I hope you will choose to live a life of service. Not because it’s rewarding or the right thing to do, but because you believe people are worth investing in.

Victoria Cline ’19, a double major in political science and English with a minor in Hispanic studies, is a beneficiary of The Hodson Scholarship Foundation and the Francis Waters Scholarship.

Service is not easy. It takes a leap of faith, but remember what I said earlier about the commitment and sacrifice college students have to maintain to be successful. We all need that same commitment and sacrifice in order to be a leader. A leader who has an impact. A leader who serves. I hope you’ll be that leader, because we all can be. We just have to choose to do so.

the hodson trust Victoria Cline ’19 is a Hodson Scholar.

Alumni Citation recipient Barry Glassman ’84.

Prof. Rick Striner with Olivia Diaz and Faith Stahl.

First-honor graduate Patrick O’Neal with Abigail Cannole and Ione Clarke.

Gold Pentagon Award winner Victoria Cline. Sophie Kerr Prize winner Shannon Moran.

Congrats, Class of 2019!

Alumni Citation recipient Carolyn Choate-Turnbull ’80 P’15. Casey Medal winner and first-honor graduate Julia Portmann.

George Washington Medal and Award winner Kelsey McNaul. Delaware Chief Justice Leo Strine.

I College Magazine 300Washington College Avenue Volume LXVII No. 2 Spring 2017 ISSN 2152-9531

Chestertown, Maryland 21620 Washington College Magazine Volume LXIX No. 1 Fall 2018, ISSN 2152-9531

In Person: Caitlin Donovan ’19

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n introductory class in public health, a summer internship in Baltimore, a semester abroad at Leiden University, and a little advice from an alumnus helped bring Caitlin Donovan ’19 to this momentous point in her life. Just weeks before earning her degree in sociology with a minor in public health, this varsity lacrosse player is committed to enroll at Duke University School of Law—regarded as one of the top ten programs in the country—and embark on a career to help eliminate health care disparities among the most vulnerable populations.

“I didn’t want to be one of those students who graduated from college without knowing what she wanted to do,” says Donovan.

Introduced to policy in an environmental class and to healthcare disparities in a public health class¬¬¬, she was leaning toward a career in social work or public health until an unpaid summer internship with Healthcare for the Homeless in Baltimore—funded by The Hodson Trust—directed her focus to the study of law. This was when Donovan saw first-hand how legislation can hinder access to the most basic human rights, including healthcare.

As she worked to connect clients to resources such as food banks, educational opportunities, and addiction treatment programs, Donovan says she “became frustrated by the citations given for public nuisance crimes, which essentially criminalized homelessness and made it difficult for the clients to access housing, employment, or other public benefits as they worked to get back on their feet.”

Her semester abroad gave Donovan time for reflection and decision-making. She began thinking about health law, made plans to take the LSATS, and reached out to a fellow alumnus, Tim DiSalvo ’14, who graduated from Duke School of Law last year, as she began to narrow her options.

“Duke’s Health Justice Clinic reminded me of why I wanted to pursue law in the first place. And its small class sizes and student access to professors was a major factor in my decision. That’s exactly why I chose Washington College.”

Photo by Pamela Cowart-Rickman

non-profit org us postage paid chestertown, md permit no. 2