Class Notes

Happy 60th to all of you.  All six of us had a great reunion in May. Carol Cooper, Sally Hanger Moravitz, Gretchen Hogeboom Fisher, Mary Margaret Papstein Carter, Ann Stricker Doumas, Barbara Trites Peterson, and I were the group, as well as three brave husbands—Skip Fisher, Bill Doumas, and George Carter. Our hearty six (well, in spirit anyway) enjoyed seeing the new buildings, which were spectacular. We walked around the beautiful campus, visited some of the new buildings, attended some lectures, and learned about how much the University has grown into this century. There were still old memories, however, such as a big surprise at Seacobeck where we had a wonderful dinner! Now that familiar building will no longer be a cafeteria. Remember cheese macaroni and liver? Seacobeck will remain for another life. The six of us visited at the picnic, various dinners, and the last night at the hotel where we talked and talked about MWC, old friends, and how it was in the 1950s.  We missed you all, and somewhere ears are burning. On to news; I’m starting back in May.

I’m compiling a lot of emails from Charlotte Fisher Klapproth. She has sent me quite a few emails over a couple of months, for which I am sincerely grateful. The news is getting harder and harder to get except from a very few. Charlotte went to stay and take care of Cindy after hip surgery and once she returned home she became very tired. This was a thyroid problem that has been ongoing, so she was not able to come to the reunion as planned. In her email on June 10 she said she was working on sewing a wool sweater together which she started in 2006 in 91 degree weather. I hope you feel better soon.

Update from Martha Lye Pitmann: Sad news from her. Her husband, W.J., passed away last February, just two months from their 59th anniversary. She said that they had a wonderful journey, having four children and seven grandchildren. Their sons have had successful careers in medicine and law and their daughters in interior design and marketing. This past May their oldest grandson graduated from medical school at the University of Kentucky.

Ann Strickler Doumas wrote that she was invited to the new Dahlgren campus for lunch to hear President Hurley report on UMW. She met a Mr. Jones who heads up that campus and she discovered that his mother, Jane Johnson Jones, was a 55er. Jane now lives in Oregon. Ann also added some notes on the new buildings on campus—Chandler is being replaced, as well as the nearby parking lot. This building completes Ball Circle and even used the old columns from Chandler.  It will now be the student’s living and dining room. As for travels for the Doumases, they are going to Texas for a beach house anniversary and then to France to Normandy Beach in October on a Smithsonian Tour.

Mary-Margaret Papstein Carter reported that several people were unable to come to the reunion because of health problems: Joan Ferrall Shaw, Lena French Fuller, Coralyn White McGeehan, and I can also add Phyllis “Bee” Melillo Shanahan. We missed you all.

Sara Jane Parcells Vignali lives in Providence, New Jersey, where she was born and retired after teaching nursery school for 26 years. Just around the corner lives her three grandsons, with whom she loves spending time. Her three granddaughters live in North Carolina. Sara also had a three-day visit from Polly Stoddard Heim, who traveled from Lewiston, Idaho, to visit her sister, also an MWC graduate, in Long Island, New York. Being so close to New Jersey, she made time for a visit with her old roommate. They had a telephone conversation with their special friend and suite mate, Ann Grubbs Blitchington.

In June, news came from Oklahoma from Ann Lou Rohrback Culwell, who attended her great grandson’s wedding on May 30. In April, she went to see an old friend who had a stroke and then she came home and had problems of her own, so her next event is surgery. She remarked that after 80, things seem to go to pot! Amen to that. Ann says they have had rain, rain, rain. Her office had four inches of water and she had to remove all of the carpet and some of the cabinets, and now summer has come with 94 degrees.

Sally Hangar Moravitz was down to UMW twice in May, the first for the graduation of her granddaughter, Madeline Moravitz ’15, and the second for our reunion. Her only upcoming trip is to a Sacred Dance Festival in Erie, Pennsylvania, in July.

Virginia Marco Hancock says 60 years—WOW! She would have enjoyed being there and is really excited about the planned restoration of the Amphitheatre.  She also remembered that a couple of classmates from the pre-nursing program participated in the May Day festivities. She reports that one of our classmates was lost last April: Mildred Corum Campbell. Mildred had an unbelievable career as a Cardiovascular Nurse Specialist and worked at times with two famous surgeons, Dr. Michael DeBakey and Dr. Denton Cooley. Virginia says that Mike and she will be going for a visit to Winchester, and they might stop in Fredericksburg and Charlottesville.

Well, as all of you have been inundated with the rain, we are now on water rationing with virtually no watering, short showers, and brown lawns and hills plus several fires. It looks like we are returning to deserts. No special news except that I am closing my business after 40 years of working, so we’ll see what life will bring next. I’m having a hard time with that and I will miss the third generation children that I now have. By the way, did you know that the UMW students call the college Mary Wash? However, it will forever be MWC to me. Take care and be feisty!