Diane Fowler Hatch, professor emerita of classics

Diane Fowler Hatch, professor emerita of classics, died Oct. 13, 2018. She was 76. Born April 23, 1942, in Savannah, Georgia, she was a graduate of Sweet Briar College and held a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when she began teaching Latin and classics at Mary Washington in 1966. She resigned in 1968 to pursue a doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill but was recruited back to the Fredericksburg campus in 1972. Dr. Hatch completed her dissertation in 1974. With a Mary Washington colleague, Elizabeth A. Clark, Dr. Hatch co-edited The Golden Bough, The Oaken Cross: The Virgilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba. Dr. Hatch was a founding member of what is now the Department of Classics, Philosophy, and Religion. She retired in 2000. … [Read more...]

William Conrad Pinschmidt Jr.

William Conrad Pinschmidt Jr., professor emeritus of biological sciences, died Oct. 7, 2018, at Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg. He was 91. Born Oct. 30, 1926, he grew up in Ohio and served in the Navy during World War II. He used the GI Bill to attend Mount Union College in Ohio, and earned a master’s degree from The Ohio State University and a Ph.D. from Duke University. Dr. Pinschmidt taught at Mary Washington for 33 years, retiring in 1987. He and his first wife, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Biological Sciences Mary W. Pinschmidt, were well-respected by students and colleagues. Dr. Mary Pinschmidt passed away in 1998. Besides teaching on campus, Dr. Pinschmidt spent many summers teaching marine biology in Deltaville, Virginia, on the Chesapeake Bay. He was a world traveler, a co-founder of Fredericksburg’s Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, a singer in many local groups, and a prolific performer in dinner theater productions. Wife Ogaenia … [Read more...]

CONDOLENCES

CONDOLENCES Elizabeth Simms Hayes ’50, who lost her husband Marceline “Marcy” Weatherly Morris ’50 and Elmer “Juney” Morris Jr. ’50, who lost their granddaughter Mildred Foley Crouch ’52, who lost her sister Christine Harper Hovis ’55, who lost her husband Meredith Puller Townes ’57, who lost her husband Helen Grantz Fortner ’57, who lost her brother Barbara Craft Grantz ’57, who lost her husband Gloria Winslow Borden ’59, who lost her sister Lynne Williams Neave ’61, who lost her husband Ellen Gotwalt Willing ’61, who lost her husband Kathy Clark Wray ’62, who lost her husband Helen-Thomas Ritchey Donnelly ’64, who lost her husband Madeline Sue Rouzie Townsend ’65, who lost her husband Elizabeth Morgan Golladay ’68, who lost her husband Mary King Ives ’74, who lost her sister Terrie Martin Dort ’77, who lost her husband Anna Geisler Hogan ’82, who lost her father Betsy Rohaly Smoot ’82, who lost her father Anne Baber … [Read more...]

IN MEMORIAM

IN MEMORIAM Dorothy Martin Krewatch ’39 Janet Patterson Lefferts ’39 Sylvia Garfinkel Carmel ’40 Elizabeth Hall Lundy ’40 Sally Phillis Blanchet ’42 Marion Marjorie Burgess Parce ’42 Elizabeth Taylor Wetsel ’42 Evelyn Rowlett DuPriest ’43 Bessie Paxson Etheridge ’43 Agnes Constantine Specia ’43 Hazel E. Jeffries ’44 Elizabeth Helvestine Reinhardt Schmidt ’44 Virginia Hazelwood Snellings ’44 Alva Jenks McLemore Allen ’45 Ann White Leonard ’45 June Reamy Maxwell ’46 Marjorie Preissen Morgan ’46 Marjorie Hatch Ritter ’46 Marion Brooks Robinson ’46 Diana M. Tansill ’46 Judith Davis Clardy ’47 Katherine Knight Collins ’47 Marian Butler Conrad ’47 Helen Robertson Creekmore ’47 Aileen Robbins Heflin ’47 Anne Lawson Hoover ’47 Celene E. Idema ’47 Nancy Odin McIntyre ’47 Willie Lee Nichols Rose ’47 Mary Lee Payne Nangeroni ’48 Catherine Newton McGahey ’49 Anne Byrd Pitcher ’49 Katherine Mayo … [Read more...]

Homecoming Highlights

UMW Homecoming was Saturday, Oct. 20. The weekend included men’s and women’s soccer, a concert on Ball Circle, an alumni happy hour, brunch with faculty faves, women’s and men’s rugby, and tailgating while cheering for Eagles athletes.   … [Read more...]

Coveted Science Grant Goes to 2013 Grad

Robert Higgins ’13 was chosen from hundreds of applicants for one of only six 2018 NatureNet Science fellowships. The Nature Conservancy program selects promising early-career scientists for two-year fellowships focusing on challenges associated with climate change. Higgins, who received a doctorate in chemistry from Colorado State University, will research rare earth ions at the University of Pennsylvania with Associate Professor of Chemistry Eric Schelter. Rare earth elements are used for technologies such as data storage and wind turbines, but current techniques of purification and separation are environmentally damaging. Higgins will investigate new methods to separate rare earths from waste materials and minerals in an environmentally friendly, single-step process using their intrinsic magnetic properties. At Mary Washington, Higgins received an Irene Piscopo Rodgers ’59 and James D. Rodgers Student Research Fellowship in chemistry. He worked with Associate Professor of … [Read more...]

Director of Dance Represents NEA Nationwide

Sara C. Nash ’01 joined the National Endowment for the Arts as its new director of dance in August. In that role, Nash will oversee a grants portfolio that in 2017 numbered more than 165 grants totaling $4.2 million. She will represent the NEA at dance-related conferences and meetings across the country. Nash, who graduated from Mary Washington with a degree in theater and dance, has nearly two decades of national and international experience in dance as a funder, producer, and project director. Before joining the NEA, she was director for dance at the New England Foundation for the Arts, overseeing its national dance project. Earlier, Nash managed the USArtists International grant program at Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. She also worked as senior producer at Dance Theater Workshop (New York Live Arts) for more than six years, where she oversaw the international program, the Suitcase Fund, and developed residency programs for commissioned artists. Nash’s international experience … [Read more...]

Literacy Association Founder Honored for Life-Skills Advocacy

For 45 years, the Trident Literacy Association (TLA) of Charleston, South Carolina, has helped adults acquire the literacy and life skills needed to reverse the cycle of generational poverty. In March, association founder and literacy advocate Patricia “Pat” Barrack Gibson ’62 was among several women in her community honored at TLA’s Founder’s Award Luncheon. The TLA serves about 1,000 adults a year with classes in basic literacy, GED preparation, English as a Second Language, and work-readiness. Besides founding the literacy association, Gibson retired in 2006 as dean of the learning center for Trident Technical College, also in Charleston. At Mary Washington, Gibson and her husband have endowed the Patricia Barrack Gibson ’62 and Mervyn Gibson Scholarship, which assists UMW students from the Northern Neck of Virginia who aspire to careers in education or medicine. … [Read more...]

Lawyer Is Firm’s First Female President

Courtney Moates Paulk ’92 has been elected president of the board of directors of the Hirschler Fleisher law firm in Richmond, Virginia. It’s the first time a woman has filled the role, equivalent to that of a chief executive officer. Paulk also chairs Hirschler Fleisher’s litigation section and co-chairs the construction practice. She will continue to advise clients on such matters as the negotiation and drafting of contracts, early dispute avoidance, and dispute resolution. Outside of the courtroom, Paulk is known for her ultra-distance swimming feats. She is among only 200 people to complete the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, having swum the 21-mile English Channel, the 20-mile Catalina Channel, and the 28.5-mile circumference of Manhattan Island. She is only the fifth person to complete the Triple Crown twice. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in performing arts from UMW, Paulk earned a law degree from the University of Richmond School of Law. She joined Hirschler … [Read more...]

Professor Unites Cultures

Monica Band ’11 practices what she teaches as an assistant professor of counseling at Marymount University. She received the Exemplary Diversity Leadership Award from the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development. The honor came in April during the annual conference of the American Counseling Association. … [Read more...]