Class Notes

This year we changed the location of our traditional fall brunch in Old Town Alexandria. Linda McCarthy-Milone and Carol Middlebrook came from Washington, D.C.; Carolyn Bess Pantzer came from Chantilly, Va.; and Betsy Larson Kyker, the always-entertaining Gayle Weinberger Petro, and I came from Fairfax, Va., to meet Karen Noss Helble at a Leesburg restaurant. Her eldest daughter married her high school and college sweetheart the day before, and Karen was ecstatic – and probably exhausted. She showed us wedding photos, and her daughter, who received a degree in nutrition from James Madison University in May, was simply beautiful. Karen has another daughter and a son who are also at JMU. After lunch, we drove to the Gateway Gallery in Round Hill, Va., to which Karen belongs. She and husband Stuart also own a pewter shop, drawing on a skill Karen learned from a senior-year internship at Mary Washington. They are among only 60 pewtersmiths in the country and do beautiful work. They’ve done work for Mount Vernon and UMW and were included in Early American Life’s list of America’s top 200 traditional craftsmen. Karen also weaves and does calligraphy.

Carolyn Bess Pantzer, who works for the Office for Children in Fairfax, Va., has two daughters, three stepdaughters, and seven grandchildren. We work in the same complex, but I never seem to run into her. I do see Mary Regan McMahon, as we’ve both been part of a multiyear project implementing a financial-procurement system for Fairfax County government. Gayle Weinberger Petro, a sixth-grade teacher at Silverbrook Elementary, has taught for 32 years. She’s considering retiring, contemplating her second career, and would love to do something with the Alumni Association since she loves being part of it and is an enthusiastic proponent of all things UMW (and George Clooney)!

Carol Middlebrook works for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Washington, D.C., hiked the fjords of Norway in July and August with her husband, and traveled to Maine and Vermont in September. Linda McCarthy- Milone works in admissions for the International School in Washington. She and husband Paul have sons Oliver, who is in college in Hawaii, and Max, who is in high school. I see Betsy Larson Kyker often because she lives nearby and is a partner in crime at craft shows, where we both do our part for the economy. Betsy and husband Bill stay busy with sons Quintin, a high school sophomore, and Jake, an eighth-grader. We missed Judy Kemp Allard this year.

Email me if you’re interested in joining these October get-togethers. And please email your news. It’s always great to hear from everyone when the latest alumni magazine comes out.