Class Notes

Like the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes, the Class of ’73 scribe is ending her five-year hiatus. To those of you who sent news that didn’t get printed, thank you for not losing faith. In the age of email, it’s easy to send a quick update. Our section in UMW Magazine has looked so empty; let’s make a renewed commitment to stay in touch.

Karen Wands Parker advocates for people with behavioral health concerns to receive “person-directed” services and received the 2011 Mental Health Consumer Award for Effective Advocacy. Beginning in the ’60s, when her own behavioral health became disabling, she has proactively supported her peers by testifying at forums, co-facilitating focus groups, presenting at conferences, and writing for publication. In 1993, she received an award for three conference presentations. Also close to her heart are fighting stigma and assuring compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. In the mid-1990s, she was one of five mental health assistant counselors in the pioneering Supported Housing Options Program. Learning how to live with her own disabilities helped her empathize with and care for others, including her late husband, who developed violent clinical depression, Parkinson’s-related dementia, and cancer. Karen is a certified Wellness Recovery Action Plan facilitator, a Living Well with Chronic Conditions trainer, and vice-chair of the peer-run Reston Drop-In Center.

After 27 years in Florida, Mary Stevens Porter and husband Ken moved to Atlanta and were away from home much of summer 2010. Ken had statistics meetings in Vancouver, so they enjoyed their first trip to British Columbia then tacked on an Alaskan cruise. His work also took them to Missouri then they visited their son and his wife in Madison, Wis., detouring through Chicago on the way home. They made multiple trips to Northern Virginia for Ken’s EPA panels and visited his mother in Louisiana and their grandchildren in Florida. Ken was promoted to head of his unit at the American Cancer Society’s national home office. Thanks to Cathy Findley ’65, Mary has joined the Emory Women’s Club bridge group.

Mary stays in touch with her roommate, Carolyn Weems Lacks, and Pat Burgess Zerbe, who transferred home and didn’t graduate with us. Pat’s son was to graduate from high school, and her daughter was to make her a first-time grandmother. Carolyn and Wayne bought a Florida condo in anticipation of retirement.

After graduating, Barbara Taylor Moore earned a master’s in organ performance from Baylor University and returned to Charlottesville to open a piano teaching studio. She still teaches piano, organ, and music theory; teaches classes at U.Va.; plays for a church; and is active with local music organizations. She is married, and their cats are their “children.” Barbara finally realized her lifelong dream of becoming a volunteer firefighter with the City of Charlottesville. She still weighs less than 100 pounds, which makes some of the work challenging, and nothing in her six years of fine arts education prepared her for it, but she compensates with dogged determination, and a command of English and writing she uses as their secretary. Barbara sees other UMW organ majors every Christmas break.

This note is a couple of years old: Daniel “Duke” Price lives in Mechanicsville, Va., with wife Ingrid and daughter Danielle. Duke has worked for the Virginia Department of Health for 37 years and has been program manager for the Office of Environmental Health Services in Richmond for 13. He coaches high school and middle school girls’ tennis and is a certified tennis official. Ingrid completed the Court Appointed Special Advocate program to help abused and neglected children. Danielle, a 10th-grader, swims competitively and plays viola in the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra Camerata.

Deb Reynolds Linder and Bruce live in Coronado, Calif. Bruce retired this year from Booz Allen Hamilton to devote more time to writing and is the published author of four books on maritime history. Knee surgery forced Deb to give up tennis several years ago, but she turned her energies to golf. She is a member of a philanthropic organization that promotes the continuing education of women, stumbled into Web development, and acts as her friends’ IT consultant. Both daughters married in 2007. Kelly and husband Jonathan are in the tech industry in Silicon Valley, Calif. Terri, who works for Google, and husband Andreas, director of a hotel consultancy, live in England, so Bruce and Deb travel to Europe at least once a year. Last year they traveled through Switzerland by train, and this year they planned to be in London for the Olympics.

If you are reading this, you are obviously interested in your classmates’ news, and you can be sure they are interested in yours. Please go straight to your computer and send an email. Class Notes is published three times a year.