Class Notes

Thanks to everyone who sent news. Please continue (or start) to do so. Some of us keep in touch through email and Facebook, but this magazine’s format is a wonderful way to stay connected with Mary Washington and one another. I hope to see many more updates in the future!

In April, my husband, Tom, and I visited my family in Lexington, Va., and attended my cousin’s wedding in Mechanicsville. In May, we vacationed at Sandals Whitehouse, scuba diving, kayaking, and stand up paddle boarding along the south coast of Jamaica. We are still active with the Atlanta Outdoor Club and lead hikes and floats along/on the Chattahoochee River. I celebrated my 43rd birthday in June with friends and three days of activities. In the rainy weeks that followed, we remodeled our home’s exterior with new siding, paint, and gutters. The noisy construction kept our cats, Leo and Luna, hiding under beds and behind curtains. I stay busy volunteering in our community. In my second term as social director, I welcome new people to the neighborhood, organize fun events like bunco and supper clubs, host pool parties, and more. I’m also still the editor of our community newsletter. Tom and I were counting down the days until our week on St. Simons Island, Ga. After a work conference, we planned to celebrate Tom’s birthday and spend a few days lounging on the beach and exploring historical sites. We also planned an October trip to St. Lucia, our fourth time on the island, to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary.

Kate Stanford McCown; husband John; daughter Mary Ella, 10; son Jack, 8; and daughter Ashlyn, 2, were to move again this summer to Marietta, Ga. John took a position as a senior director of tax strategy for Home Depot in Atlanta. They’re happy to be closer to friends and family on the East Coast and to “get back to the Peach State!” They took a family vacation in May to Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

Donald Rands Fuller was nearing the end of his assignment with the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. He is a Kiowa Warrior senior instructor and master gunner instructor and was awaiting a promotion to chief warrant officer 5 and preparing for another overseas rotation to Afghanistan. He spent nearly half of the last 10 years in CENTCOM (Iraq/Afghanistan). After completing flight school in 1994, Donald moved to Fort  Bragg, N.C., working as a junior Army aviator and living through not one but two “one-in-a-million” aircraft incidents unscathed. He moved to Fort Rucker, Ala., in 1998 to be a senior standardization instructor pilot, instrument examiner, and combat tactics instructor at the U.S. Army Flight School. He started overseas hardship tours in 2002, with an assignment that led to daily patrols of the DMZ in Korea. Next he moved to Fort Carson, Colo., where he spent most of his time assigned to the CENTCOM area. Donald moved to Washington state in 2009 and had a special assignment flying a year of medevac for the Army, but he found his years as an attack pilot had jaded his opinion of other types of flying, so he left that job with the promise of preparing another unit for a deployment overseas and headed to Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He hopes to retire in the Pacific Northwest and be near family in Boise, Idaho. He was to be eligible for retirement in December. He’s ready to leave the military – but not the lifestyle – behind. Donald is in contract negotiations for a post-Army civilian job flying in the Middle East on behalf of the Department of Defense, Department of State, and more, and hopes to do a two- to four-year contract before going back to Washington and hanging up his hat for good.

Marc Tate has been with Booz Allen Hamilton for 13 years and joined the SkillSource Group board of directors, helping individuals seeking employment and employers seeking a qualified workforce. This summer Marcus, 12, attended Boy Scout camp, and Maddie, 10, attended gymnastics. The family planned an August vacation at their Bethany beach house.

Edna Coste Borchetta, husband Gene, son Christian, and daughter Carriella looked forward to seal and whale watching and exploring the national seashore on their annual Cape Cod vacation.

Heather Martin Montgomery lives with her husband, dog, and cat, in northern Alabama, where she explores the wilderness and writes children’s books about nature. Her 10th book, Wild Discoveries: Wacky New Animals, published by Scholastic, was featured in the summer edition of UMW Magazine.

Tamara Tasheiko Tucker ’91 and lawyer husband Bill live on a small farm in Ruckersville, Va. Tamara found their indoor cat, Frosty, who is deaf, 13 years ago by a road in Fredericksburg. They also have a barn cat, Maybelline, who recently adopted them. Tamara competes in hunter/jumper shows and showed her two horses in Ocala, Fla., in February. The Tuckers took a ski trip last year to Stowe, Vt., and planned a fall trip to California to see Monterey, where Tamara was born, and visit family in Berkeley. She and Bill, partners in Charlottesville’s Tucker Law Firm, PLC, practice in the areas of equine and employment law, insurance coverage, workers’ compensation, and other civil litigation matters. Tamara stays in touch with Danielle Favreau Santos ’90, Heather Cawthon Deane ’90, Denise Mickelson Campbell ’91, Lisa Williamson Dargay ’91, Dia Pullen ’91, and Morey Oare. Over the last couple years, they’ve met up at Rabble Rousers reunion concerts.

Pete Chirico ’93 and wife Bethany moved to Vienna, Va., after 14 years in Falls Church. Pete has been a geographer at the USGS for more than 16 years, mapping natural resources in conflict zones and developing countries. He travels a lot but keeps ending up in places like Afghanistan, Guinea, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When Pete and Bethany aren’t remodeling their house, they spend time with their rescued German shorthaired pointer, Reese, who likes to play Frisbee. Pete has run several marathons and half-marathons recently. The Chiricos get together with friends and family and are close to Pete’s younger sister, Liz Chirico ’08 of Alexandria, Va., who works for the Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, D.C.

John T. Williams Jr. ’93 caught up with many college friends at the 2013 UMW Reunion Weekend. He lives with wife Ann and children Caroline, 16, Ellie, 13, and Carly, 5, in Onancock on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. He and his family travel and boat, and John T. plays golf whenever he can. He manages his family’s businesses, Williams Funeral Homes, Shore Crematory, and Peninsula Monument & Vault Co., and was named 2013 Small Business Person of the Year by the Eastern Shore of Virginia Chamber of Commerce. He was especially honored, since his father had received the award in the past. John T.’s parents, Peggy Gray Williams ’58 and John T. “Johnny” Williams, live nearby, and they spend time together.