Class Notes

Sandy Wise Conran‘s son graduated in May from Virginia Tech with a degree in civil engineering, and is now back at Virginia Tech pursuing a Master’s in Transportation Planning. Her daughter is a rising senior at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, where she is studying to be an Occupational Therapist. Sandy’s husband, Tom, has retired from the Navy, while Sandy continues to work as a Physical Therapist in a private practice in Reston. She has recently added certification in Osteoporosis and Postural Management to her body of practice.

Susan Jones Hollister attended a reception for Cedric Rucker ’81 at the Capital Ale House with Estie Corey Thomas in May 2016. Susan and Estie stay in touch.

Susan Knowles Alcorn emailed to update on her family: Oldest son Robert graduated from ODU this past December with a Bachelor of Arts in History and a minor in Education.  He has been teaching high school as a substitute and plans to teach summer school. Her middle daughter, Lauren, is working on her Associate in Sociology and is also working part-time at Michaels. Youngest daughter, Jennifer, will be going to VCU in the fall of 2016 for her freshman semester. She graduated from Kempsville High School on June 15, 2016. Susan is still self-employed with a household cleaning business and also works on Amish quilts. Husband Dave is still working as an HVAC design engineer.

Bill Pugh’s youngest daughter, Lindsey, graduated from high school and will attend Kennesaw State University this fall. Daughter Katherine had a great junior year, and will be a senior at Berry College. He and wife Allison celebrated their 25th anniversary in June 2016.  Bill keeps in touch with Tim Money, and while they can’t find time to get away on a vacation together, their wives Melody and Allison made a trip to LA together in June 2016. After eight moves since college, and their third time living in Atlanta, they expect this to be home for good now.

Susan Leavitt ran her first marathon in Paris! She hopes to get to a full Ironman one day. Susan and husband Jon bought a place in Burlington, Vermont, overlooking Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks.

Our youngest son, Frank, graduated from Vassar—we are done with college tuitions!  I stay busy with work traveling all over the country.

Freda White writes that she gets together frequently with Lynn Conville Abraham ’83, Yvonne Koontz Seining, Carole Comly Dezii, Trish Bowdring Gordon, Teresa Negron Lough, Marye Driver Downs, and Cindy Greer Chalkey. They reconnected several years ago at the Mary Washington reunion and have been back for the last three years.

Lynn lives in Richmond and works for the state; Yvonne lives in Gainesville, and even though she is no longer practicing law she stays very busy with her three boys; Carole lives in New Jersey and one of her sons just moved to Hawaii; Trish lives in Reston and also works for the state her and son Joseph just turned 16; Teresa lives in Fredericksburg and stays very busy with her four children; Mary lives in Fairfax and is now a proud bee keeper (her daughter also lives in Hawaii in the same area as Carole’s son); and Cindy lives in North Carolina and is getting ready for her daughter’s wedding.

Freda still resides in Madison County and works in Fredericksburg. She is a hearing aid specialist in private practice and stays very busy with her four kids and her granddaughter.

James Miller is now Vice President, Consulting Solutions with Right Management Consulting in Addison, Texas.

Katherine Knightly Mulholland and her husband, Dave, retired about 2.5 years ago from the hustle and bustle of Houston, Texas, to the beautiful Texas Hill Country near the city of New Braunfels (which is between San Antonio and Austin. Katherine was an Operating Room Registered Nurse and Dave retired from the Army and later KBR. They have three daughters, two sons-in-law, and one adorable seven-year-old granddaughter. Their eldest daughter is a chef, the middle is a Registered Dietician, and the youngest is a CPA—one can cook for them, one can tell them what to eat, and the third who can keep their books!

Katherine writes that retirement is highly recommended!  They spend much of their time traveling both domestically and internationally. At home, she volunteers as an RN with a local health clinic for the indigent, is very active with Pro-Life organizations, and volunteers as a Comal County Master Gardener. They also dabble in conservative politics, support veterans’ groups, care for their aging parents, and, of course, spoil their granddaughter!

The Virginia Trial Lawyers Association (VTLA) has named Valerie Martino O’Brien as its new Executive Director effective April 1, 2016. VTLA is a voluntary statewide bar association, formed in 1959, dedicated to enhancing the knowledge, skills and professionalism of trial lawyers and committed to improving the law and the fairness of Virginia’s system of justice.

Valerie, who has been with VTLA since 1991, was originally hired as Director of Communications & Public Affairs and in 2014 was promoted to the position of Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining VTLA, she was a reporter with the Danville Register & Bee and with Virginia Lawyers’ Weekly. She lives in Richmond with her husband of 30 years, Rick, and they have three children—Kevin (25) in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Michael (21) in College Park, Maryland, and Eric (19) at Hampden Sydney College.

Kathleen Dwyer Miller shares that her youngest daughter finished her freshman year at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), landing on the Chancellor’s list first semester and Dean’s list second semester. Her oldest daughter is a flight attendant for Trans-States Airlines, which flies for United and American Airlines.

Melissa Felts has called Fredericksburg home since 1991. She was a store manager for Hancock Fabrics for nearly 20 years and volunteered at the local SPCA. Melissa used her 14 years of passion for animal rescue and in 2014 opened Re-Tail, a non-profit thrift store in Fredericksburg that benefits Rikki’s Refuge Animal Sanctuary, as well as others animal rescue organizations in the community. Rikki’s sanctuary cares for over 1200 animals of 22 species! Currently, Melissa cares for four dogs and four cats of her own.

Lisa Bentley Brouelette lives in Bothell, Washington, and is awaiting the arrival of a grandson in late August with older son Adam and his wife, Sara.

Jennifer W. Johnston Davidson relocated from Cape Town, South Africa, to Bermuda back in May 2015. She muses that it’s funny to have traveled around Africa for 20 years to now live across the street from where she started! Jennifer is near family, takes a ferry to work, and has great views of Hamilton Harbor to watch the America’s Cup boats practicing in the mornings.

As for us, after living in the Madison, Wisconsin, area for 10 years, Scott and I relocated to Annapolis, Maryland, this spring. Scott completed his Ph.D. in History and will be teaching at the U.S. Naval Academy, his alma mater. I am enjoying reconnecting with friends and family and hope to get a job using my six years of ESL experience in K-12 schools once school starts in the fall. Our daughter continues teaching elementary students in Wisconsin and our son is well-settled working for the Boy Scouts in Seattle.

From Kim: Margie Sanfilippo’s son, Matthew Hardy, just graduated from Eckerd College with a degree in Environmental Studies and minors in Spanish and Biology. He has a job with the USGS in St. Petersburg.

Jane Ellen Brennan Herrin’s husband, Jim Herrin, has returned to his calling and is the editor of a newspaper now. Although Jane Ellen is still available for social media consultations, she is fully involved with voice work. She is working with West Coast University and is the voice of most of their nursing courses. She also works with MDLive and does all their corporate training videos. She states that where there is an e-learning course to be voiced, she is there. Jane Ellen has also done a great deal of work with clients overseas, mostly as a voice in animations to teach kids English. Anna Grace and Jenna are both in middle school. In Putnam County, Tennessee, school is year-round so this school year starts the last week of July and ends the second week of May.

Michelle Evans is working as a critical care RN in Virginia Beach now. Her nest is empty as her two sons are both college graduates now and live in Northern Virginia. She reports that life is good.

As for me, I attended Reunion Weekend in June and had a blast with the Class of ’86. It was fantastic to see so many friends after 30 years, and especially to spend time with Lisa Onucki, Dave McKinney ’86, and Chris Bradford Cohoon ’86. “Memory Lane” was thoroughly strolled! After the reunion was over, I stayed on the East Coast for another week and played tourist. I went to Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, went hiking on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and played tourist all over my hometown of Richmond. It was a much-needed break and was very enjoyable.

Please keep sending updates, either to my email address or you can find me on Facebook under Kim Jones Isaac.

From Beverly: I went to visit Matt Fogo ’87 a few months ago and had a blast catching up! I finally got to meet his soon-to-be husband, Kevin, and we all just talked and talked and talked about the last 30 years! They’re getting married this fall now that they finally can!! While I was driving to see them I talked to Laura Starbling Kowalewski for a couple hours of more catching up after many years. She has three beautiful daughters—Allie, Maddie, and Morgan— and Allie just graduated high school and will be attending UVA this fall. In early June, Kelly Gould Stewart‘s daughter, and my Goddaughter, Joie, graduated high school from St. Margaret’s girls school in Tappahannock, Virginia, and I was lucky enough to be able to go and watch. Really proud of this super-smart girl—Kelly did well!! Joie will be attending Drew University this fall, just outside of NYC.

In June, Kim Jones Issac ’87 came to stay with me for the class of ’86 reunion and we got to hang out and catch up a lot, having some fun days and nights and lots of reminiscing! I also see Michelle Martin every few months, and we meet in Fred at Sammy’s T’s, of course, for usually a three-four hour lunch, then the walk around town; just something about Sammy’s and Fred that can’t be beat, as y’all might remember!!

Like most of you in our graduating class I hit 50 this year!!  Can’t believe it, but have been doing lots of celebrating because of it! Susan Thomasson Coleman and Tricia Tosi Willis (transferred out after our sophomore year) and I are planning a big bash in celebration this fall, and are headed somewhere fun and relaxing where we can just talk and drink and talk and drink some more! Sue has three kids; Wes in college, Allie who just graduated high school and will be a Mary Wash Legacy this year (!!), and Emma, who’s in high school. Both Tricia’s kids graduated college this year—Michael Tyler from West Point, and Maddy from Penn State. Been talking to Jen Smith also, and she took an amazing trip to Mexico to celebrate her 50th! It’s been so much fun this year reconnecting with several Mary Wash friends and remembering the last 30 years of good times!!

I hope all of y’all have had as much fun as I have celebrating this year, and I hope you continue to do so!!

Michael Hendron moved to San Francisco in 2005, after working twelve years at the Smithsonian Institution as a decorative arts conservator. He married Bill Quinn, his partner of ten years, in 2014. Michael is now the Assistant Verger at Grace Cathedral. He is also president of the Reed Organ Society, and has many videos on his YouTube channel, Mustel1887.

Beth Mazza Robertson is celebrating her fifth anniversary of living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Last September, she and her husband, Lance, started their own small business consulting service called Robertson Consulting Group. They love working together from home, helping small businesses with their website and marketing needs. Beth and Lance have two children; Henry, who is finishing his sophomore year in high school and Emily, who is graduating from eighth grade middle school this June. Beth laments about how time passes so quickly and she is surprised to have two high school students now! She and her family miss living in Virginia and being able to road trip to Fredericksburg and Mary Washington (and Carl’s), but she hopes both kids will look at east coast colleges when the time comes. For now, the family loves living in sunny California and have embraced the lifestyle completely.

Tina Forbes Pullen wrote from Chesapeake, Virginia, to share the happy news that her daughter Leslie will be going to UMW this fall, in the class of 2020. Her son Phillip recently graduated from Virginia Tech and starts law school at the University of North Carolina in the fall. Tina and her husband, Phil, will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in July. She works in public affairs for the federal government.

Robin Carrier‘s son, Wyatt Lipscomb, will also start at UMW in August as part of the Class of 2020. Wyatt was awarded the Talon Award.

Kara Thurmond and her husband, Andrew Amelinckx, recently launched an online shop, Fellow Well Met, which specializes in vintage and handcrafted men’s gifts and accessories. Kara is also a freelance graphic designer and lives in Catskill, New York.

Meghan Baldwin Lau and her family recently moved to Katy, Texas. Her older daughter, Rachel, moved with them, and her younger daughter, Hannah, just finished her freshman year at UT-San Antonio.

Mike Tringale was accepted into a postgraduate program to study healthcare research and bioethics at the University of Oxford—No sleep for him, as he’ll be pursuing this part-time while still keeping his full-time job.

I started working at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in February, and will be following Mike’s lead in pursuing my Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in the fall, studying systems engineering with a focus on cybersecurity. Glad to hear from everyone!