Class Notes

Now free to do some serious traveling, Barbara Bishop Mann and Robert plan to begin with places that are intriguing and far away and work their way around to those closer to home. Barbara continues to exercise, be involved with the Virginia Education Association and UMW alumni, and keep in touch with most of our classmates. Kathy Goddard Moss has graciously and diligently maintained our “MWC 1966” Facebook page; check it out for reunion photos supplied by Kathy, Sally Albrecht Brennan, Anne Clagett, Diana Hamilton Cowell, and Linda Spangler Berkheimer.

Sally enjoys life near the Elizabeth River in Olde Towne Portsmouth, Va.; weekends of community activities, such as art shows, porch parties, and First Fridays; and sailing, ferry rides, and lovely sunsets. Sally travels to Virginia Beach and to Laramie, Wyo., and Woodlake, N.C., to visit her four grandchildren. Her interests include fiber arts, knitting, computer design, gardening, birding, music, reading, graphics, and Facebook. Now retired, Kathy had an exciting spring and summer. The Turkish exchange student who lived with her family for a year while the Moss children were in high school returned for a four-month visit and brought her delightful 3-year-old son, who learned English quickly. Baby sister was due late in June, so the father and grandmother traveled to the U.S. to stay with Kathy and family until after her arrival. It was exciting to have a Turkish “grandchild” born into the Moss household!

Anne stayed at the reunion as an out-of-towner instead of a day-tripper and admitted that she had been missing a lot of the flavor of reunion, since important activities were scheduled all weekend, not just Saturday afternoon. She and husband John Willcox continue to enjoy good health and caring for their dear cat, Night, now 17 years old. Anne is active in the Piedmont Republican Women’s Club and loves losing herself in Vince Flynn and Daniel Silva novels. Niece Suzanne, 22, is an assistant manager at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City, and nephew Jake, 16, is brilliant.

Diana and husband Dan retired from their careers in Huntington, W.Va., moved to South Bethany, Del., and replaced their summer cottage with a roomy retirement home. Part of the sandwich generation, they care for her 96-year-old mother-in-law and their youngest child, age 17. They arranged a sister-city relationship between South Bethany and Periers, France, during their first year in Delaware. They travel, serve the community volunteer fire company and church, visit family, and have two grandchildren nearby in Dover. Diana can swim 45 laps in an hour and is considering taking up masters swimming.

Lois Rucker Scott’s daughters moved from Utah and Hawaii. One lives with Lois and Sam in Arlington, Va., while the house across the street is being fixed up for her. Lois enjoys having her three granddaughters close but admits the move caused a major change in her and Sam’s lifestyle. Their elder daughter was laid off from her job in Hawaii but found a new one in California. Lee Enos Kelly was adjusting to her husband’s early Alzheimer’s and described it as “an adventure” since every patient is entirely different. Lee announced at the reunion class meeting that her surrogate mother story a few years back was a fantasy, and she has decided to teach pole dancing to senior citizens. Mary Morris Bishop of Michigan retired in 2007 after 17 years as a school psychologist for Rochester Community Schools. She and husband Dennis have enjoyed trips to Florida, New England, and around the Southwest. Their blended family includes four children and one grandchild. Mary does genealogy research and church work and reads, gardens, and socializes.

Tyla Matteson attended our reunion, her first since graduation, and enjoyed reconnecting with old friends, meeting new ones, and seeing the Freedom Rides exhibit. Tyla and her husband have a strong interest in environmental issues and are active in the Sierra Club. Tyla challenges all of us to channel our talents and energies into global, as well as family and national, matters. Eileen Perna Thomason’s husband, Phil, retired from 46 years of pediatric medicine and she brought him to the reunion. They are adjusting to a new timetable, cleaning out long-neglected storage space, gardening, reorganizing, and volunteering. They are interested in the newly formed traveling opera company Lyric Opera Virginia.

Clair Golihew Cosby’s husband retired in 1999 from his career as a Methodist minister and, for the first time, they were not living in a parsonage. They bought a one-story home on two acres with woods to admire from the sunroom and clear space for flowerbeds. They repaired structural damage; added a screened-in porch, pond, fountain, and other features; renovated bathrooms; painted and papered rooms; and lots more. Clair is a member of a local book club. Carolyn Eldred of Silver Spring, Md., attended part of our reunion. Afterward, she traveled to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where she once lived, for the 25th anniversary celebration of the Unitarian Universalist congregation there. She volunteers at WAMU, the Washington, D.C., public radio news station where she met her boyfriend; serves on the board of her homeowners association; is involved with a “creative aging” group; and hosts events for members of the Silver Spring U.U. congregation. She has generously endowed a Mary Washington scholarship and a George Washington University graduate fellowship.

Terry Caruthers retired after 22 years with Northrop Grumman and started Caruthers Coaching and Consulting, doing orals coaching and proposal management. Terry and her husband moved in May to Mooresville, N.C., after a lifetime in Virginia, to be close to their two daughters and six grandchildren. Terry was working to publish her cousin’s poetry and her husband’s great-grandfather’s Civil War letters and is deeply involved in genealogy research. After the reunion, Terry composed a nostalgic poem, MWC Reunion – We Are Not Alone, and posted it on Facebook. Pat Lewars Pace enjoys her five grandchildren, who live nearby. Last year she spent a month in Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. Her volunteer work includes the “Dining for Women” project, where members bring bag lunches to meetings then donate the money they would have spent eating out to help needy women in their area.

Linda Glynn Hutchinson and Pat Lewars Pace have traveled to Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Netherlands, and Belgium and spent a month in August touring Eastern Europe. Candy Schumacher Jepsen and Mogens, her husband of 42 years, have lived for 33 years in Houston, where their two married daughters and five grandchildren also live. Candy does designing and teaches embroidery, quilting, and beading. Dee Dee Nottingham Ward sold her CPA firm but still works part time. She and husband Nat, married for 46 years in June, spend lots of time with their five grandchildren on the San Diego beaches and in their mountain home. Dee Dee serves on the board of directors of the San Diego MS Society; she has a special interest because their son has MS.

Judy Zipf Phillips still works but has developed a strong interest in getting together with friends from high school and college. After a 17-year battle with Alzheimer’s, her husband passed away, leaving her and their five children and six grandchildren, all of whom are doing well. Dee Marks Duncan of Gainesville, Va., retired in 2007 after 41 years teaching middle school math. She and her husband are fortunate to have son Bill Duncan ’91, daughter-in-law Erin Patrick Duncan ’92, and two granddaughters right across the street. Dee divides her time between Virginia and Kiawah, S.C.

Ginny Bateman Brinkley published her first fiction book, Earth Quest, the story of life, love, and the pursuit of red meat. Begun by her uncle, the manuscript was “unearthed” two years ago when he moved into a nursing home, and a friend in her writing group helped Ginny finish the story and prepare it for publication. She mentions Mary Washington in the author’s bio. Ginny and Bill welcomed their 14th grandchild (seven girls and seven boys), Makayla, in May. Ryan Stewart Davis and husband Roger retired two years ago and downsized to a cottage in Port Townsend, Wash. Their grandchildren, ages 4 and 1, live nearby in Seattle and visit frequently. Ryan enjoys communing with her garden and volunteering as a guardian ad litem advocate for kids in the county court system.

Dale Quel Woods did some substitute teaching after retiring five years ago. She and her husband have visited places in the West and Northwest, down to Texas, and in the Bay area, where both daughters live. They ventured to Hawaii and Europe last fall and planned a trip up the Danube this fall. Dale works out at the gym and makes jewelry. Lynn Smithey Campbell, an instructional technologist for Tazewell County (Virginia) Schools, earned her master’s degree from Virginia Tech and was looking forward to retiring and possibly relocating after a career teaching algebra, geometry, and computer science. In May 2010, she lost her husband of 41 years. They have a son in Richmond, a daughter in Raleigh, and four grandchildren.

Mary Kathryn Rowell Horner and her husband of 43 years, Charlie, still live in the same home in Alexandria, Va., and are big golfers. Mary Kathryn was impressed that “everyone at reunion was so young!” Every March, Mary Kathryn dons a colonial costume and serves as waitress in the lunchroom during Woodlawn Plantation’s annual needlework exhibit. Mary Parsons Black and husband Ron live in Elizabeth City, N.C. Annette Maddra Horner and husband John also bought a home there in the historic district. In June, Mary and Ron took a weeklong trip with another couple to Scotland. Mary has a painting class, and they golf, play bridge, and dote on their two precious grandchildren, Jonah and Ian.

Kay Dawson Meyers of Tennessee is retired but busy as church treasurer; intake counselor at the Good Shepherd Center, a community effort to help the poor; Bible study teacher; and lay speaker for the United Methodist Church. Kay also tutors math students, does water aerobics, and travels whenever she can. She inquired about Linda Mitchell Spiers, an Episcopal minister in Connecticut who was unable to attend our reunion.

After living and working many years in Miami, Caroline Hogeland Stone resigned from her job, sold her house, and moved to Annapolis, Md., to accept a job as director of admissions at Annapolis Area Christian School and move into a new home on the water in a marina. Sally Souder relocated to Sarasota, Fla., in 2004; is involved in cultural activities and political volunteer work; tutors; travels, most recently to Egypt; and monitors sea turtle nests. Though she was married many years and has three grown children and seven grandchildren, Sandra Hutchison Schanné said at reunion that she has felt like a newlywed since marrying Richard last spring. They were companions for more than 25 years, but sharing a home has been a new beginning! Sandra’s mother suffered from dementia with Lewy bodies for six years and passed away in July. Sandra’s daughter in Colorado was expecting twins this fall and also expecting “Nana” to come for a long visit.

Marty Spigel Sedoff is retired but busier than ever. Her tap dance class performed at the Mall of America, near Minneapolis; watch her “Sweet Feet” début on YouTube. Gerry Sargent Habas thought that our reunion class meeting allowed us to get to know our classmates better than we did while we were students, that our class members seem “wise and accomplished,” and that everyone has given back for the good of humanity. After the reunion, one of Gerry and husband Len’s four grandsons visited them on his first extended stay away from his parents, then they all flew back to his home at the Jersey shore. Martha Young Roberts, our adopted classmate who has participated in the Mary Washington travel group, lives in Virginia with her husband and spends winters in Key Largo, Fla.

Linda Spangler Berkheimer and family spent a June week in Nags Head, N.C. Hank and I were there with our huge blended family then, too, but we never connected. My daughter, three granddaughters, and I had lunch at Harbor Point in Manteo with Muriel Haley Montgomery, who relocated there with her husband after retiring several years ago as a school counselor. Muriel is active at church and visits and shops with her daughter, who lives in Suffolk, Va. Kitty Downs Gregg had to cancel plans to come to reunion because husband Don fell ill with chest pains and was hospitalized. Fortunately, it was bronchitis complicated by an adverse reaction to medication, rather than something more serious. Kitty vows to come to Virginia for our 50th. Susan Roth Nurin retired from teaching high school Spanish, plans to move to New York City and downsize from a house to an apartment, and found a prospective home near Central Park, where she can enjoy theater and concerts.

Carolyn Corwin Thomas ’67 resurfaced after all these years. She lived in Marye House our junior year with Susan Roth Nurin, Yvonne March, Betsy Chappelear Tryon, Winnie Woodson Stribling, Barbara Barriga Rowe, “Corky” Wells Shaha, and me. Carolyn earned her master’s degree in education from U.Va., taught in Virginia for six years, married Purdue University graduate George Thomas, and moved to Lafayette, Ind. They had two children, and George’s career required frequent moves, so Carolyn also lived and worked in Tennessee, Michigan, and Ohio. She is now retired in Texas, weaves baskets, and teaches a class for seniors at the Academy for Lifelong Learning. Son Rollin has a doctorate in astrophysics and works at the Berkeley [California] Lab; wife Dianna is an artist who specializes in fabric pattern design. Daughter Sarah is a certified interior architect in Columbus, Ohio. After retiring, Carolyn and George took a driving tour of the West and have adopted a cat.

UMW Vice President for Advancement and University Relations Torre Meringolo reported that nearly 50 percent of the Class of 1966 contributed to and raised nearly $1.8 million for the Fund for Mary Washington. Many thanks to all of you; our class is terrific! Now that Virginia state assistance has been significantly reduced, it is even more important that we continue to support our alma mater.

Sixty-six of us, plus George Van Sant and his lovely wife, Milena, were at our Friday night class dinner at Brock’s Riverside Grill. Dr. Van Sant has been involved with our class since 1962 and is considered an official member. In addition to the ladies already mentioned, class members at the dinner included Carolyn Bingley Wiley, Pam Kearney Patrick, Prentiss Davies Murphy, Julie Bondurant Freeman, Pam Hughes Ward, Jana Privette Usry, Eileen Goddard Albrigo, Mary Wright Day, Carol Pettigrew Hallman, Michelle Spicknall Pasternak, Joan Cuccias Patton, Nancy Thompson Mountjoy, Marguerite Wingo Saady, Peggy Beeler Burns, Kathy Fowler Bahnson, Midge Meredith Poyck, Genie McClellan Hobson, Dianne Twiggs Woodworth, Ambler Carter, and Patti Bergin Bergman. Our class meeting Saturday also included Susan Bogese Wagner, Charlotte Hansley Chappel, Mary Anne Pyne White, and Sheila Denny Young. Thanks to all for making our 45th reunion a resounding success.