Class Notes

There was an interesting article in the spring 2012 issue of UMW Magazine on physical therapist Roberta Ann Newton, an internationally recognized leader in fall prevention for older adults. Roberta received the American Physical Therapy Association’s highest honor, the Catherine Worthingham Fellow award, and recently retired as a clinical professor of medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia. She lives in Greensboro, N.C., where she gardens, dances, and does tai chi. She also teaches an online course, writes and reviews manuscripts, and helps former students with their projects. Congratulations on an outstanding career!

Our hearts go out to classmates whose homes suffered damage during Superstorm Sandy in October. No damage was done to the apartment of Linda Huff Alderson and husband Sandy of Manhattan, but their daughter and her family, who live in New Jersey, lost power and stayed with them. Barbara Marks Poppleton’s Jersey Shore home wasn’t damaged.

Last October Bonnie Page Hoopengardner moved her 95-year-old mother, who’s still quite independent, from her Nashville, Tenn., condo to a smaller apartment with more amenities. Bonnie is still a CPA in Northern Virginia, but the 2013 tax season was to be her last. She wants more time for family, especially grandchildren. Bonnie and husband Roger visited with Linda and Sandy Alderson at a Nationals baseball game in August and planned a January trip with friends to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Connie Cline Bukzin welcomed second grandson Mitxel (pronounced Mitchel) Sotelo Bukzin last July. Connie retired from teaching and takes cooking classes. She and husband Mitchell enjoy fine wine and attend wine tastings, including one last April, when they visited Argentina and Chile. Jane Jackson Woerner of Florida retired after 22 years as a sales representative for Plasco ID and stays busier than ever. She often visits her mother, who’s in assisted living in Bristol, Va.

Iris Harrell completed her Wilderness Connection experience in Lake Tahoe National Forest last July with 23 other Silicon Valley executives, who spent a week in cabins and tents. The goal was to learn how to be better leaders and include the entire community in efforts to shape and embrace the future. Iris returned personally renewed and more intensely committed to protecting our natural surroundings. She, Phyllis Newby Thompson, and Suzanne McCarthy VanNess had an August lunch in California, where they all live, with Donna Gray Mejia, UMW’s Director of Leadership Giving and Corporate/Foundation Relations. In September, Suzanne visited Phyllis at her home in Hawaii, and Suzanne’s family welcomed new granddaughter Castellini.

Patti Boise Kemp was invited to speak at the rededication of the newly refurbished Mason and Randolph halls in September. She spoke of her memories of living in Mason in the ’60s and reminisced about how different the dorms, now called residence halls, and campus life were then. Karen Kilgore Ralston visited Germany, France, and Italy in September with husband Jim and saw The Last Supper in Milan. Karen still volunteers with the Victorian Village in Memphis, Tenn., and has won many awards for the millinery work she does for the local theater.

While visiting family last summer in Virginia and Maryland, Mary Pat Tull Jenkins spent two nights with suitemate Mary Kneip Tyrrell and husband Bob, and Mary Pat’s roommate, Ann Rayburn Curry, and husband Duncan joined them for dinner. The Tyrrells visited Mary Pat and husband Gordon’s California home last spring while on a West Coast trip. Mary Pat, Ann, and Mary hadn’t seen each other since the ’70s.

Nancy Yeager Allard of Springfield, Va., is retired. She and Paul traveled to France in September for their 40th anniversary. Nancy volunteers with the local friends-of-the-library group and spends time with her two grandchildren.

I, Linda Marett Disosway, took a three-week trip to China in September with friends, hitting highlights, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and the Yangtze River. It was humbling to see sites that have existed for thousands of years.

By the time you read these notes, Christmas will have come and gone. Get out those Christmas letters from classmates and send me an email with all the news. Thanks!