Class Notes

These are the unedited class notes as submitted by class agents and other alumni. Edited notes appear in the print edition.

If you prefer to submit Class Notes by mail, send to:

UMW Magazine – Class Notes
1301 College Ave.
Fredericksburg, VA 22401

1980s

1980

No Class Agent
classnotes@umw.edu

1981

Lori Foster Turley
lorifturley@gmail.com

Jay Flynn and his wife Teresa live in Birmingham, Alabama where Jay is the university registrar at Samford University.  Daughter Katherine will attend Christendom College in Virginia this fall as a freshman.  Jay reports that life in Alabama is sweet, the people are awesome, and Samford is a great place to work.  After living there for five years, it feels more like home to the Flynns all the time, although Teresa reminds them that they are really just “Virginians living abroad.”  Feel free to contact Jay at jflynn@samford.edu.

In July 2012, Eileen O’Connell returned to the non-profit association world and her first employer out of college when she rejoined the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) in Alexandria, Virginia, as their AMS Administrator.  She spent the first 16 years after college in non-profits in the DC area before heading to the private sector world of software and consulting to non-profit clients from 1997 to 2012.  She’s also been doing a bit of traveling with her Dad.  They took a river cruise in October 2014 from Paris to Normandy on the Seine River.  It was a wonderful trip with great stops and a very memorable visit to Omaha Beach and the American cemetery nearby.  In June 2015, they traveled from Budapest, Hungary, to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, along the Danube and the Rhine Rivers, with amazing vistas and stops along the way from large cities to small littler river towns.  They managed to dodge all the bicycles in Amsterdam (700,000 population and 900,000 bicycles) and enjoyed all the sites.  They’ve also been on trips to Ireland and Italy with hopefully a few more trips in the future.  Eileen has been a docent at the Smithsonian’s American History museum since 2005 when she first got the docent bug for an exhibit honoring the 50thanniversary of the polio vaccine –“ Whatever happened to Polio?” As a polio survivor it was a more than an interesting experience for her since so few visitors born after 1955 had any real interaction with the disease due to the vaccine program.  Once on board, she stayed and moved on to two current exhibits – The Price of Freedom (US military history from 1763 to the present) and The American Presidency.  You can find her there two Saturdays a month.  She’s celebrating 15 years of survivorship from pancreatic cancer and seven years from breast cancer so life is good despite some of the medical challenges.  She is still hanging out in Alexandria, VA, where she has resided since graduation.

Stephanie Hamlett was recently awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from Virginia’s Women in Public Finance.  Stephanie currently serves as the Executive Director of the Virginia Resources Authority, Virginia’s infrastructure bond bank.  She was appointed to this position by both Governor McDonnell and Governor McAuliffe.  She is also an appointee of the Governor on the Virginia Freedom of Information Council.  Stephanie’s favorite downtime is anything that includes grandsons, Walker and Charlie.

Elisa Devorshak Harvey has been living in Sandy Spring, Maryland (halfway between DC and Baltimore) for the last 17 years on a small farmette which has just enough room for the dogs, chickens, horses and barn cat.  She has been working as a small animal veterinarian for 25 years while also working at FDA’s human medical device center for many years and now as a consultant.  She loves being able to work at home most of the time given the DC traffic!  Husband Brian is a physician who also worked at FDA and in pharma for many years, and is also now consulting and traveling quite a bit.  Both boys are grown and out of college.  Duncan graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont in 2014; he lives in San Diego where he is working for a health care app startup, and loves sailing there.  Alex graduated this year from Davidson College in North Carolina and is headed to Georgetown for graduate school in biochemistry and molecular biology.  He is active in the very fast and exciting equestrian sport of polocrosse (google it–NOT polo!).  The Harveys have two polocrosse horses and another one on the way!  Elisa has a couple of Norwegian Fjord Horses for her own fun, driving and riding them.  They are building a horse farm in Southern Pines, North Carolina, to accommodate their growing herd!  Since the boys are both grown and out of the house, Elisa has had more time to pursue her passion of international veterinary volunteer work with http://worldvets.org;  she has been on several trips to help horses as well as do spay/neuter work in Nicaragua, and is headed to Cambodia this fall for a spay/neuter trip.  She was also just selected as one of 70 women scientists worldwide to participate in a three week expedition to Antarctica next February with Homeward Bound (https://homewardboundprojects.com.au) as part of a ten year initiative to develop and promote leadership in women scientists to influence policy and decision-making around the world.  She has been so lucky to be able to get together at least yearly with her fellow Willard Second Backers all these years—it is one of the highlights of her year! She had a great time at MWC’s 35threunion last summer.  Elisa and Brian visited Duncan in San Diego in June, so we enjoyed getting together for dinner.

Cindy Williamson-Hamner left a 25 year career at Gannett/USA TODAY headquartered in McLean, Virginia, on a buyout in 2008.  In hind sight, it was a good decision.  While she greatly enjoyed working there, she began to see the demise of the newspaper business.  About that time, she was reacquainted with a college beau, James Hamner, who had attended Washington and Lee.  A few years after college, they went their separate ways; she started a career and never married, and he went to graduate school, had a career as a priest and headmaster, married, and had three daughters.  Years later, Cindy learned that James’ wife had passed away from cancer.  She sent him a sympathy card, which began another long distance courtship, as he lived in Atlanta.  After two years of flying back and forth between Virginia and Atlanta, he proposed at the top of the National Cathedral in DC.   She left corporate America, got married, moved (leaving family, friends, church community, dance community, etc.), and acquired three teen age girls and a dog.  She courted companies to work, but realized she had a HUGE adjustment in life.  As fate would have it, she too had breast cancer, yet she was lucky; she had a mastectomy, no chemo or radiation, and she is flourishing.  But it was a hardship on the family.  She is now writing a story about this experience; she found a woman in the San Fransisco Bay area who is a writer, author, and therapist who had married a man with a small child who had lost his Mom at an early age.  She read Cindy’s story, became interested, and she has edited it.  Cindy also finds art very therapeutic.  She did a charcoal sketch of a panda and would like to try and package it into note cards to sell to the Atlanta Zoo. Now that Cindy and James are empty nesters, James is retiring from his school and they hope to get back to the mid Atlantic area, or better yet Virginia in the next year or so.

1982

Tara Corrigall
corrigallt@gmail.com

1983

Marcia Guida James
marcia.g.james@gmail.com

Judith Sweetman Gwynn retired after 30 years with the Federal Government. She is looking forward to doing some travel. Judy also finished her second term on the UMW Alumni Board of Directors, which she says was a great experience!

I am still enjoying Ft. Lauderdale, having recently been promoted in my job with Aetna Medicaid. I continue to travel all over the country meeting with physicians, hospitals and health plans and have spoken at a couple of conferences. Oldest son Tommy recently got married in NYC. His husband Dustin is a data scientist and works for Capital One. Tommy is teaching high school math in NYC. Middle son Michael recently moved back to Boston to be a software engineer with a small internet start-up and youngest Frank is still in Silicon Valley as a software developer for an internet start-up.

Don’t forget next year’s Reunion—35 years! Make plans to attend.

1984

Auby J. Curtis
DrAubyJ@gmail.com

Hi Dr. Auby J. Curtis here class of 1984

BS Computer Science

We were the first graduating class of computer science candidates from MWC.

I’m sadly passing the torch to somebody else who might be able to take care of processing the class notes for all of you guys. I’ve been diagnosed with a very aggressive prostate cancer and I’m not sure at this point if I’m going to do anything about it.  I may not even fight it and just live with the cancer and die with it.  My dad has the same cancer and I’ve seen my father fight it for 11 years with not so good quality of life the whole time.

So to all my good friends and classmates at Mary Washington it was great serving you all these years.  ✌May peace be with each you and all your families.

Here’s a little information from a couple of our wonderful classmates, so please send in your information, I will pass whatever I get onto the new class representative, so anybody interested in representing our class please call class notes and our alumni representative.

Take care.

Christine Waller Manca ’84

I am senior editor at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. A museum publication I edited, the 2-volume Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, was listed among of the best books of 2016 by both Apollo magazine and The Spectator magazine. Another book I edited, Julian Onderdonk: A Catalogue Raisonné, received an award from the Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art. Last fall I spent a wonderful week in Florence, where my daughter, Camilla, was studying for the semester; she is a rising senior at Trinity University in San Antonio. My son, Marcus, finished his first year at Rice University.

Thanks very much. Are you a member of the Facebook group for graduates from the 1980s, “My Mary Washington College Friends”? It has been a great way to reconnect, but the class notes are still important and serve a great purpose. I am really hoping to see them appear regularly.

Thank you so much.

Christine

Sarah Kosak Calvert

After an 11 year career as an attorney, I went to seminary and became a United Methodist pastor. After serving two churches, I finished up a doctorate in ministry. I’m currently working in Northern Virginia doing church revitalization and leadership development for about 100 local United Methodist churches. I live in Fairfax, but have a house at Lake of the Woods, so I get down to Fredericksburg area quite frequently.  I would love to connect with any other alumni that are clergy- maybe we could chat? I’m on Facebook.

 

1985

No Class Agent
classnotes@umw.edu

Michael Weigel’s eldest daughter Emily and her Husband Kyle Guthrie had a baby son born November 13, 2016. His name is Kayden Arlo Guthrie.

This is the first grandchild of Michael and Julie Weigel. Their eldest son Matthew Weigel graduated from high school.

Their youngest son John is now 15 and their youngest daughter Hannah is now 11 years old.

Renee Kuntz writes: This year has been marked with new memory making with fellow Mary Washington alumni. In February, Abas Adenan and I got together to see Marshall Crenshaw at The Birchmere in Alexandria, VA. It w made all the more special in that we were joined by special family – my hubby Scott, Abas’ sister Hassie and daughter Colleen. A great show and we even got a picture with our buddy Marshall afterwards! In May, the wedding of Joanne Brenton, 1984, and Mel Shabelski provided a perfect opportunity for a Westmoreland Hall reunion. It was great to catch up with Betsy Hannah Brown, Liz Canale and Dave Hardin! What a special day! We congratulate Joanne and Mel and wish them many years of happiness! Looking forward to the new memories to come!

1986

Lisa Harvey
lisharvey@msn.com

1987

René Thomas-Rizzo
rene.thomas-rizzo@navy.mil

Kim Jones Isaac
mwc87@infinityok.com

From Kim:

Agneta Dahl retired from the USCG and settled in Seattle 6 years ago. That is the longest she has lived anywhere since she was 14 and her family moved to the U.S. from Sweden. She is busy with a new career which recently took her to Hong King. While there, she had a chance to meet up with Miranda Yen. Agneta said that it didn’t feel like it was 30 years ago since they had seen each other!

Chris and Joanne Bartholomew Lamm, ’85 have a son who is a rising junior at Mary Wash majoring in Political Science and minoring in French. Their daughter is a 2013 alum of UMW who majored in International Affairs. Chris and Joanne’s middle child, a son, graduated from Virginia Tech in 2016 and is an officer in the U.S. Army. Chris is still employed with NASCO and Joanne is an Army civilian. Joanne recently lost both her parents.

Toni Moore Milbourne changed careers in March and left the newspaper industry after 20 years. She is now serving as Library Director for the Bolivar-Harpers Ferry Public Library. She says it’s a lot of fun and is a dream job surrounded by books. She is still writing freelance for the local papers since she just can’t get writing out of her blood! She is also applying to grad schools to earn a Masters in Library Science and is leaning toward the online program at the University of Syracuse. Another of her chicks has flown the nest as her third child, Maggie, graduated from high school in May and joined the U.S. Army. She shipped out to Ft. Leonard Wood, MO in June for basic training and then headed to Arizona for tech school focusing on Military Intelligence. Toni’s fourth child, Samantha, is now a senior in high school and Toni says that the time sure has flown since 1987!

Kathleen Henderson Allenbaugh joined Johns Hopkins Medicine in March, serving as senior director, consumer and physician engagement for the national capital region. She leads the development, management, implementation and measurement of marketing, digital media and social media initiatives that support the growth of clinical service lines across the National Capital Region, including product/service line and physician marketing. This includes Sibley Hospital in NW D.C., Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, MD and affiliated Johns Hopkins faculty physicians.  Kathleen has 30 years experience in marketing and communications.

As for me, Ken and I are in our 21st year with our computer business, but we are burned out on IT and looking at other opportunities. My best friend and I just celebrated our 4th anniversary owning our yoga studio and we were recently named one of the top 10 yoga studios in the state of Oklahoma. I love teaching more each day and sharing my passion for yoga with others. I continue to hike most weekends and to sharpen my photography skills, so maybe that can become a career some day.

Our 30th reunion took place in June. I did not attend, but I saw lots of pictures and it looks like a fun time was had by all. Where has the time gone?! Keep those updates coming through email or Facebook.

Additional note:

First, my name is Mark A. O’Connell and I graduated in the class of 1987 at what was then Mary Washington College where I majored in History.

In 1990, I began a career with the Commonwealth of Virginia as an Adult Probation and Parole Officer and served for 25 years and retired on May 1, 2015.

Eight years into that profession, I added a part-time career in sports journalism and began working both as a freelance sports correspondent and as the play-by-play announcer for the local radio station which broadcast the local high school football games. In 2002, the owner of the radio station sold the business and he was offered the job as the station manager at Culpeper’s local television station. He asked me to join him there to continue our professional relationship which I did. Today, I am still employed by the station as the play-by-play announcer for both the high school football and lacrosse games that we broadcast.

Beginning in 2016, I had my first books published. Both are still listed on Amazon. Their titles are Criminal Minds in Real Time and Justice Denied.

My third book is in the publication process and will be titled The Team the Titans Remember. The movie made no mention of the real team that the Titans played in their 1971 Group AA state championship game. The movie portrays the Titans playing the Statesmen of George C. Marshall in a nail biter of a game decided on the last play. In reality, the Titans beat the Wolverines of Andrew Lewis (of Salem) by a score of 27-0. This book tells the history of the Wolverines.

I am working on a fourth book and it is a biography of an army chaplain.

1988

Nee-Cee “Ringo” Baker
rstarr66@msn.com

Beverly J. Newman
bevnewmn@yahoo.com

Jay Bradshaw
jaybradshaw747@aol.com

1989

Leah Wilson Munnis
leah.munnis@verizon.net

Hello Class of ’89, how amazing is it that most of us are turning 50 this year?  I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel mature enough to be 50 years old – I still remember MWC and Mason Hall and the Pub like it was yesterday.

David Kidwell ‘89 (B.A. Music) recently completed his 20th season as conductor of the Holyoke Civic Symphony. He is also in his 18th year as Minister of Music at the Edwards Church of Northampton, MA.

As for me, I’ve been the ’89 class agent for several years and am currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Systems Engineering, so I’m looking to turn over my agent duties to someone else. Please let me know if you are interested, it’s not much work and it’s nice hearing from classmates.  Hope you all have a great summer!

(Editor’s note: If you’d like to become the class agent for 1989, please email classnotes@umw.edu to let us know you’re interested!)