Class Notes

Rob Hall and I have been in Saltville, Va., since last July and love being closer to family and friends. Rob continues as chief of police, and I started teaching yoga again at several area facilities and singing alto in a choir in nearby Abingdon. Last September I met Pat Seyller in Norfolk, Va., and we saw a full dress and orchestra rehearsal of Virginia Opera’s Aida, for which Pat is the consummate costumer.

Nancy Ryan McNealy of Beltsville, Md., married Mike, whom she met at Mary Washington, in 1982, and has run a small real estate title company since 1986. The youngest of their three grown children is at the University of Maryland; Oblio, a beagle puppy, is the only baby still at home. Laura Stapleton Baker and husband Geoff, who have an Internet-based business, sold their West Chester, Pa., home, divested most of their possessions, and hit the road full time in their RV last summer. They traveled, with their Shih Tzu, Yoshi, across the country, over the Rockies, and back through the Great Plains in their 41-foot Newmar Mountain Aire. They wintered in Florida. Joan Niederlehner spent a couple days with Chris Miller Ostendorff in July, and they met her twin sister, Karen Miller Fales, for lunch in Maryland and had fun reconnecting and talking about Mary Washington friends; Joan hadn’t seen both twins together for a long time. Jeanne Marie McDonough McClure recently retired from her medical technology career.

Janet McConnell Philips spoke last spring at UMW’s Classics, Philosophy, and Religion Career Afternoon and saw her favorite professor, David Cain. Janet has been the White House photo archivist for 23 years. She hopes son Will, 17, and Mary Washington will choose each other in 2013! Julie Mansfield Wilhelm retired in October 2010, after 35 years at the Department of State, and relocated to Virginia Beach. Connie Whittaker Durrett lives in Fredericksburg with husband Bill, who retired from the federal fire service. She was to have been with United Airlines for 38 years in May. Son Christopher, a Richmond carpenter, planned to return to college to pursue a degree in architecture; daughter Keri was pursuing a graduate degree in clinical psychology, with a specialty in drama therapy, in Montreal. She has performed at Riverside Center Dinner Theater in Fredericksburg; the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; the Gospel Chicken House in Montpelier, Va.; and other venues.

Our 35th reunion weekend is set for June 1-3. Theresa “Terrie” Young Crawley and husband Bill will host our Friday evening class party at their lovely home. Hope to see many of you there!