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!

Hi everyone, and happy 2012! Don’t forget to drop me a line as soon as you read this so I can get you in the next newsletter. Be sure to put “Class Notes” in the subject line so I don’t miss it! And please urge everyone to send updated email addresses either to me or to the UMW Alumni Relations office. So many addresses are outdated!

My husband and I celebrated 23 years of marriage – and living in Connecticut – last August. We have had more unusual weather events in the past 18 months than in the first 21 years. Luckily, none of them caused any real damage. We weren’t as affected by last October’s snowstorm as were those in northern Connecticut, but we bought a generator and it provided some relief during the 48 hours we were without power.

Bill Leighty retired in 2007 after serving the state government of Virginia in many capacities, including director of the Virginia Retirement System and chief of staff to Governors Warner and Kaine. In retirement, he joined DecideSmart, a small Richmond consulting firm, and recently conducted training for the newly elected governors of Nigeria. He also has done work for the United Nations and the Scottish national government. Bill’s hobby is bird watching and he serves on the American Bird Conservancy Board, helping protect critical habitat for endangered species. Marti Kearns Leighty ’75 (Bill and Marti attended prom together at Denbigh High School in Newport News, Va.) is a literature professor, chair of the religion and philosophy department, and assistant dean at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. She will complete her second term on the UMW Board of Visitors in June 2012.

Doug Dolton of Mill Valley, north of San Francisco, is married, and, between them, they have four children. His eldest runs a Mill Valley tutoring business, and his son was to go to Paris for a year before starting college. The two youngest boys are 16 and 13. Doug was asked to participate in a planning retreat for UMW’s new College of Business in January, saw many people he remembered, and said UMW seems to be doing great. He started two businesses in the past year, after many years as CEO of financial institutions in the Washington, D.C., area and in California. He doesn’t plan to retire. He loves being busy and being around renewable energy and exotic cars.

Kaaren Reckmeyer Dunn and Robert have been married 25 years. He retired from the Army in December ’99, and they moved to Huntsville, Ala., where Robert is part owner of an engineering firm. Kaaren is a stay-at-home mom, and they have three children. Sarah, 22, graduated from Mount Holyoke College; Elizabeth, 21, is a senior at Virginia Tech; and, Andrew, 17, is a high school senior. They keep in touch with Regan Mulreany Plunkett, Cindy Nightingale Leigh, and Karen Bast Aigen. Huntsville is less congested than Northern Virginia and is a great place to raise children, but they hope to move to the East Coast eventually and live on the beach.

Kathy Pritchard Napier was promoted in January to divisional director of business development for the clinical diagnostics division of Thermo Fisher Scientific, where she still uses her Mary Washington biology degree. Her division has facilities in Middletown, Va., where she is based; Fremont, Calif.; Helsinki, Finland; Hennigsdorf, Germany; and Nimes, France, and she traveled recently to all of them. Husband

Ron Napier ’77 is a juvenile and domestic relations court judge and sits in four different jurisdictions in Virginia’s northern Shenandoah Valley. He traveled with Kathy to Ireland last fall. They also traveled to northern Finland to visit friends they met through Rotary, with which they both are actively involved. Their youngest, Mary Katherine, graduated cum laude in May, and their older son, Andrew, graduated in 2007, both from UMW, so Kathy and Ron have kept up with our alma mater and Fredericksburg. Their younger son, Will, graduated from Goucher College in Towson, Md., in 2010. Both sons are on their own and work full time, and Mary Katherine is student teaching at River Bend High School in Fredericksburg, pursuing her certification to teach secondary history and social studies.

Anne Leckie retired as executive director of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun in Mayo, Yukon, in September. She expects to continue to consult but hopes to be done with the 10-hour days of a high-pressure job. She planned to travel for six months with partner Marc Johnston and pick up some consulting work in the spring. Sharon Atkins Robinson teaches at Lake Ridge Middle School in Woodbridge, Va., but was thinking of retiring soon. Daughter Anna graduated from Longwood University. Sharon and I graduated from Woodbridge High School, although, as a military brat, I was only there my senior year.

Jane Roth Baugh and husband Tom have been in Roanoke, Va., for 25 years, and, for 21 of them, Jane has been the librarian at Woods Rogers PLC, one of Virginia’s largest law firms. Jane’s job has expanded to include records management, and she recently finished a one-year term as chair of the private law libraries subsection of the American Association of Law Libraries. As a law firm librarian in Newport Beach, Calif., Lynn Connor Merring is active with some of the same groups, and she and Jane keep in touch. Jane and Tom have a collie and Siamese cat but no children. Tom is director of music at their church, and Jane is in the choir, helps with the children’s choir, and is a member of the Roanoke Symphony Chorus. Jane runs into Vicki Nichols Sheretz in the grocery store.

Demetria Smith Laird and husband Doug celebrated their 30th anniversary in April. Their two children threw them a surprise May anniversary party, and they all took a summer Caribbean cruise, snorkeled, and swam with sea turtles in Barbados. Patricia Ringle Vandever, who has taught high school English for 32 years, traveled to Italy with the high school orchestra in June. Her first grandchild, Ethan, was born in February to son Jason.

Cindy Nightingale Leigh is a dentist in Charlotte, N.C., and has three children. Beth Doggett Atkinson and husband Dwight traveled to New Zealand in April after the giant quake there and stayed with friends on the South and the North islands. They survived their own quake in Virginia in August. Daughter Virginia Atkinson ’03 of Northern Virginia has attended and spoken at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and Brussels, as well as the United Nations in NYC. Beth’s husband, son, and daughter all work in Washington, D.C. Beth, a volunteer docent at Gunston Hall in Lorton, Va., was pictured giving a tour to schoolchildren in the September 2011 issue of Southern Living. She and Dwight celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary and newly empty nest this summer.

Sharon Doggett retired in July 2009 after 30 years with the Coast Guard Reserve. She had lunch in July in Williamsburg with Sallie Washington Braxton ’77 of Spotsylvania, Va., Yita Gomez ’79 of Petersburg, Va., Marilyn Delone Hopkins ’78 of Montgomery, Ala., and Thelma Washington Turner of Williamsburg. Beverly Wood-Holt works with directors and cameramen at Deluxe Entertainment in Los Angeles. Bev and husband Brian look forward to retiring to their Virginia property and travel there at least twice a year. Bev’s mom passed away five years ago, and her dad, who is 86 and active, came to live with them. She keeps in touch with Roseanne Galzerano-Wyatt, who lives in the Middle East with husband Jeff, a Chevron consultant.

Karen Bourgeois works for Lockheed Martin and does volunteer work. She is speech director of the company’s high school speech contest, editor of the local International Council on Systems Engineering newsletter, and became a certified manager through James Madison University last year. She works in her garden, plays Sudoku, and spends time with her cat, Spunky. She and her high school son visited her parents in South Carolina; her mother is a ’53 Mary Washington alumna.

Virginia P. Thompson teaches kindergarten through fifth-grade art in a Kingsport, Tenn., private school. Her students have won international awards eight of the nine years she’s been there. She plans a second retirement soon; her first was from pharmaceuticals in 1998. Virginia and her husband have three children and seven grandchildren. Ann Plough Shaw lives in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh with husband Daniel and her children. She works part time as a psychologist at The Watson Institute, evaluating children with autism-spectrum diagnoses and their parents. Daniel is a professor of clinical psychology and chair of the psychology department at the University of Pittsburgh. Daughter Alyssa, a junior studying psychology and Italian at Smith College in Massachusetts, planned to begin a year abroad in Florence, Italy, in September. Son Zachary, a high school senior, hopes to play college volleyball. Her youngest, Joshua, is in eighth grade. Ann spends time in Cape Cod every summer with both sides of the extended family and recently returned from trips to Barcelona, Spain, and to volleyball nationals in Minneapolis. “I can’t believe any of our class is old enough to have grandkids or be retiring. I am still running carpools and washing sports jerseys!”

Martha “Happy” Clark Scala has connected with many alumni via Facebook. She has a part-time private psychotherapy practice near her Palo Alto, Calif., home. She recently was published in Cooking Comfort: Stories with Recipes, Poetry Now, and an anthology called Fault Zone: Words from the Edge. Martha publishes the monthly “e-zine” newsletter Out on a Limb. Karen Vogen Gayle has worked for 11 years for the country’s largest charter school organization, Imagine Schools, and recently became national education and achievement coordinator. Karen’s sons graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design. Matthew teaches art at Imagine Schools, and Sean works at a printing company, creating designs for shirts and other items. Daughter Heather is a freshman social work major at Florida State University.

Gail Story Upton and husband Mike are empty-nesters who have been in the same Oklahoma home for 15 years, where they live with their three large dogs. Their oldest child, Dan, has been a vagabond, traveling in Central America, Europe, and the U.S. for seven years. He does odd work, including fire dancing, to support himself. His 3-year-old son, Chaim, lives in NYC with his mother. Katie, the Uptons’ middle child, a CPA at Ernst & Young, bought a house with her husband near Gail. Lisa, their youngest, in her second year with Teach for America, taught first grade in rural Alabama last year and teaches fifth grade in Tuscaloosa this year. Mike is deputy director at Enterprise Services Center for the FAA, and Gail directs an accreditation program for the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, working with people around the country from her desk at home. Carrie Wagner Connick and Jo-Anne Smith Burlew get together each year. Jo-Anne lives in Reston, Va., loves her new job, and was looking forward to her younger daughter’s wedding. Carrie, who lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and two teenage sons, works in the biochemical field for Johnson & Johnson.

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.

Laura Lowe Collins, husband Jim, and daughter Devorah went on a 7,000-mile, eight-week singing tour that started in Rapid City, S.D., and hit Fredericksburg, Laura’s hometown of Loudoun County, and everything in between. Eldest daughter Stephanie is a graduate of the Art Institutes International in Minnesota. Laura and Jim have granddaughter Madison Marie Collins, daughter of middle son Michael, who serves in the South Dakota National Guard.

IIona Kassey took a summer family cruise to the Bahamas to celebrate the graduation of son Warren, a freshman engineering student at Cornell University. Younger brother Aaron is in seventh grade and plays football and drums. Both parents teach in the private sector. Barbara Moseley has a son and is still trying for the self-sustaining farm life, while slowing the horticultural business and starting other endeavors. Niece Briana Wilson is a sophomore studying biology. Barbara gathered some of the following news from classmates.

Sameena Ahmed of Potomac Falls, Va., works at SAIC. Debbie Sharp Fitzgerald and husband Mike are enjoying an empty nest in Washington State. Cyndie Hammond Sosnowski has two children and works for the school system in New York. Pat O’Hara Wykoff of San Antonio is a grandmother. Vicky Nichols Wilder and husband Marty took a three-week trip on the Royal Clipper, visiting Venice, Italy; Corsica; Spain; Morocco; and Portugal – the unexpected gem. They acquired new friends and the title of “Mr. and Mrs. Royal Clipper” for their singing-and-acting shenanigans. “What a way to celebrate those big birthdays!”

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell appointed Stephanie Hamlett of Richmond to the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council. Stephanie is executive director of the Virginia Resources Authority, which provides financing for local governments and serves as manager for the Virginia Transportation Infrastructure Bank. Stephanie, previously deputy counselor to Gov. McDonnell, has children Kristen Spain and Sterling Grotos and son-in-law Josh Spain, who all live in Richmond.

Eleven 1981 graduates who were unable to attend Reunion Weekend at Mary Washington in June got together in September for a late celebration of our 30th reunion at Mike and Katrina Ray Landis’ Annapolis, Md., home on the Severn River. Mike and Katrina, who is CEO of BP’s alternative energy division, returned to the U.S. from England about a year ago. They traveled across the Atlantic last summer on their 55-foot sailboat. Babette Thorpe, who came from southeast Idaho, where she lives with her husband, traveled farthest for the reunion celebration. She is land protection director at Teton Regional Land Trust. Karen Snyder Boff, who traveled from Marietta, Ga., had surgery at Emory Hospital in May to correct an abdominal aortic aneurysm and was almost back to normal. She has a small business called “Clutterfree.”

Ellen Stanley Booth of Arlington, Va., is vice president for communications at National Geographic. Ellen and husband Bob’s daughter, Mariel, models in New York and attends NYU. Elisa Devorshak Harvey is a regulatory consultant for medical device companies and a part-time veterinarian in suburban Maryland. Husband Brian was doing well after suffering a heart attack in April. Son Duncan is a sophomore at Middlebury College in Vermont, and Elisa stays busy with 17-year-old son Alex and their cat, dogs, horses, and chickens. Nancy McEntyre Kenefick teaches in Fairfax County. Katie Kulp Jones is a school media specialist in Roanoke, Va. Patty Churchill Shippee has a daughter in high school and another at U.Va. Also there were Colleen McCahill Turley of Fredericksburg, Bobbie Dwyer Leon of Ellicott City, Md., and Pam Clapp Hinkle of Plymouth, Mass. Everyone greatly missed Charlotte Clare Snyder, who passed away unexpectedly last summer.

Teresa Childers Peterson and Mark of Atlanta enjoy their proximity to Florida and visit their beach house to kayak, bike, and walk on the beach. Mark made a speedy recovery from a recent hip replacement. After serving as the National Portrait Gallery’s acting director of exhibitions and collections management since June, Claire Kelly was promoted to director of exhibitions in October.

Maxine Fowler Minar lives in Rockville, Md., with her husband, who planned to retire from the Washington, D.C., Police Department this spring after 28 years. Daughter Casey is majoring in criminal justice and education at Montgomery College, lives at home, and works as an equestrian instructor and trainer. She bought a 10-year-old thoroughbred and was training him in dressage. Their son is a freshman studying engineering at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Ala., where he plays lacrosse. Maxine, president of Comprint Military Publications in Gaithersburg, Md., likes to golf.

Amanda Ormond’s oldest daughter, Renee, studies Chinese and international affairs at Colorado State University. Youngest daughter Kelly played freshman volleyball while juggling honors classes. Amanda has been a renewable energy development consultant in the West for 10 years. She and husband John celebrated their 23rd anniversary in September. Sharon Robertson Williamson, who works in IT for WellPoint, and husband Brian, who engineers green equipment and buildings, bought an RV and traveled the East Coast. Daughter Shelby, 17, is a high school senior applying to colleges. Son Hunter, 15, is lead singer in a band and is in two select school choirs. They have three cats.

Nelly Castano Garza, who no longer works for Frost Bank, was helping her mother-in-law with medical needs. Younger son Andrew, 20, started at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Ariz., in August 2010. Her older son teaches computer and coaches basketball and six-man football at Castle Hills First Baptist School. Nelly works part time and has an at-home business. Her husband, a technical support coordinator for Castle Hills First Baptist Church, has worked there for 15 years.

Dave Petersen, who remarried in June, celebrated his 50th birthday in Las Vegas, where he heard from people he hadn’t seen in a long time. Oldest daughter Jenn is in her last year of grad school at FSU. Middle daughter Michelle, a junior at FSU, got into the education program. Youngest daughter Kelly is in 10th grade and driving. Dave’s 25th med school reunion was scheduled for April. He has published two textbook chapters; taught minimally invasive spinal surgery at Johns Hopkins, the Mayo Clinic, and other U.S. medical centers; and lectured abroad in several countries. He has about 20 patents issued and 10 pending, mostly in spinal surgery. Dave has had three major back surgeries, which gives him a different perspective from most doctors in the area.

Kiki Connerton Smith and husband Dixon left Hawaii after his November change of command and were in San Diego. After a Thanksgiving trip to Oregon to visit family, Dixon was to take command of Navy Region Southwest. Dave Hardin, a Longwood University geography professor, helped teach a field course at Yellowstone and Grand Tetons in May for the third year. The family traveled to Europe for nearly a month so Dave could continue his research on the Homeland War in Croatia and took side trips to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia to check out the Karst topography. They spent time with Steve Jalbert ’82 and family at their home in Germany near Ramstein Air Base, and Dave and Steve searched for remnants of the Siegfried Line. Dave and his family attended his nephew’s wedding in Green Bay, Wis. Sidelined by an August foot surgery, he enjoyed reconnecting with Mary Washington alumni on Facebook.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Carswell and Carol Wayman planned a December wedding. Elizabeth is a public interest advocate for a nonprofit and a division chief at the National Geospatial- Intelligence Agency. They are renovating Elizabeth’s Capitol Hill row house, and Elizabeth is doing online grad work in geospatial intelligence through Penn State.

Monique Gormont Mobley and husband Scott are enjoying their Wisconsin empty nest. She works with high school English Language Learner students, and Scott is pursuing his doctorate in history, after 30 years with the Navy. During their 25-year marriage, they moved 13 times, including a tour in Argentina. They’ve called the Midwest home for six years but probably have another move ahead of them.

Linda Burch, who retired in 2006 after 34 years in medicine, puts her historic preservation degree to work at James Madison’s Montpelier in Orange County, Va. Kathy Shenkle lives in Alexandria, Va., on one of George Washington’s farms. She is retired from a military historian career that included service with the Coast Guard, Navy, Army, and Air Force and eight years producing exhibits on World War II veterans at Arlington National Cemetery. She earned a master of divinity at Oral Roberts University in 2002 and served as a pastor for two years. Now Catholic, she teaches music, drama, history, and religion to children, sings in several choirs, plays keyboard in a band that performs at nursing homes and churches, and composes and arranges music.

Michele Adams Mulligan, an attorney with MercerTrigiani, was named a 2011 Virginia Super Lawyer for professional liability defense, real estate law, and insurance coverage and listed in Super Lawyers magazine. Super Lawyers rates lawyers from more than 70 practice areas. Mulligan, a 1990 University of Richmond School of Law graduate, represents common interest community associations and practices legal and accounting malpractice defense.