Class Notes

In less than three years we will be celebrating our 50^th reunion! Seems hard to believe but time marches on. If you have not already done so, please go to Facebook and friend Mary Washington College Class of ’70. There you can find some extra news about what is going on at UMW and catch up with some other classmates. Please send more news as I am sure many of you have interesting things going on in your lives!

Joyce Burcham sent news of what she has been up to these last years. She wrote: I ticked a major item off my bucket list on New Year’s Day 2016, when I set foot on the Antarctic mainland. That trip of a lifetime means I now have been on all seven continents. Antarctica was (as the kids would say) totally awesome, surrounded by the overpowering scale of nature. And en route I had five fabulous weeks doing the samba in Brazil and tango in Buenos Aires. Had lunch in the little cafe on Ipanema Beach where Jobim wrote ‘Girl from Ipanema’ over 50 years ago, while we were at MWC. I am living on Upper West Side, Manhattan, after spending most of life outside the US. Two weeks after we graduated, I left for Europe, and after working au pair in Paris and running a restaurant in Spain, I spent a year hitchhiking around the world through the Middle East and South Asia, ending up eventually in Sydney, Australia, where I lived, off and on, for 40 years, with a four year stretch in London. In the late 80s, I moved to New York to do a PhD in biostatistics, and have lived in Manhattan, off and on, since then.  After a career in the computer industry, I went into the pharmaceutical industry, working on clinical trials. This turned out to be a very satisfying direction, providing interesting, meaningful work that took me to Geneva, The Netherlands, and back to Sydney. Currently, I am working for IBM Watson Health involved in machine learning for radiology (after retiring twice!). I am planning a two week trip to Sydney in June, just to catch up with friends. I met our classmate, Cathy Haringer Christensen ’70, at our 50th high school reunion. We had been together all through high school in Alexandria, and in Virginia Hall freshman year. Cathy is now in the home she built for retirement in North Carolina.

Helen Kim lives in Birmingham, AL, where she is president of the Alabama Asian Cultures Foundation. She is a retired Associate Professor from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She and her husband are diehard Bama football fans.

Jane Bourdow writes: “I am “sort of retired. I left my position as organist and choirmaster at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Alexandria in May of 2015 after 33 years.  However, most Sundays I’m still on an organ bench somewhere as a substitute, as well as performing occasionally.  It’s great to have more free time for taking long walks and reading…so many books, so little time!  I’d love to know what the other music majors in our class are up to!”

Jean Burgess Botts took a wonderful trip to South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. I have to agree with her that seeing that part of the world is absolutely amazing! We traveled to Spain and Portugal in March and are headed to England, Scotland and Wales in Oct.