Class Notes

Sadly, we lost a fellow classmate in July 2014, Joanne Murcklen; my sympathy goes out to her family and friends. Looking back at my old yearbooks, I believe Joanne majored in Liberal Studies and Business Administration.

On a more cheerful note, this news came along with several updates from classmates such as Mary Sherley Fenimore, who is busy raising her three children in Wilmington, Delaware, where she runs a small public relations company. Mary recently participated in a girls’ weekend in Fredericksburg with Jody Hobbs Hesler, Stacy Warner Price, and Maggie Bassen Liefer McGary. The first stop after checking in at the hotel—Sammy T’s Restaurant! Some things never change.

Stacy Warner Price reports that she is living in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband Kevin, and their two daughters, Katy Rose, 13, and Posy, 10. Stacy enjoys her job as Senior Assistant Director of Admissions at the University of Richmond and accounts that she and her friends, listed above, have enjoyed their own unofficial Mary Washington reunions two years in a row, with many more to come. Stacy adds that she hoped to see everyone on campus in 2015—25 years later!

Tommy Firesheets is living in Georgia and is employed in Gwinnett County, working with its underrepresented Latino and Asian elementary gifted population. Tommy is an executive board member of the Georgia Association for Gifted Children and is active with the National Association for Gifted Children, working to advocate for gifted and talented learners across the nation. In December 2014, he married his partner of 14 years, Mike, in New York City. They tied the knot on Christmas Eve and then enjoyed the holiday with friends and family in the city. Congratulations, Tommy!

While working on his Ed.S. in 2009 at Grand Valley State University (GVSU), Forrest Clift transferred to pursuing his doctorate in Educational Leadership at Eastern Michigan University. Forrest is currently working on his dissertation, Hidden Rainbow: The Search for LGBT Issues in a Teacher Education Program, and he anticipated completing his data collection in spring 2015 to finish his Ph.D. by summer 2015. Additionally, Forrest’s work at GVSU has led him to participate on a development team with Grand Rapids Public Schools to create the United States’ first International Baccalaureate primary years program elementary school, which will focus on the incorporation of the arts in the school instructional model. The projected start date for the school is September 2016.

Forrest’s second textbook chapter was published in December 2014 in the SAGE Publication, Proud Heritage: People, Issues, and Documents of the LGBT Experience.  His chapter, “Virginia,” examines the state’s LGBT history and laws from the pre-colonial period to modern day.

In his free time, Forrest enjoys traveling the U.S., officiating wedding ceremonies of close friends, taking long walks with his border collie, Peasley, and reading.

Last, but not least, Beth Johnston sent in a quick update just prior to the 2015 reunion weekend stating that she is now living in Spotsylvania and teaching in the area.