Class Notes

Marion Briechle Yonce and John of Virginia have been married 43 years and have three sons and two granddaughters. He is a retired chemical engineer specializing in submarine design. Marion still does occasional consulting work with drug development and regulatory submissions.

Ann Boatright Bonadio lives outside Rochester, N.Y., and has two children and three grandsons who live in the area. In fall 2012, she lost her homebuilder husband of 43 years, who she met while at MWC. Ann retired from teaching math at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. She babysits grandchildren, volunteers at her church, and tutors a little boy with sickle cell anemia. Her 93-year-old father recently visited from Georgia.

Cheryl Tate Duke and her husband live in the Fredericksburg area. Their daughter was married in October. Because their 42-year-old son has had Duchenne muscular dystrophy since birth and depended on a ventilator for about 22 years, Cheryl is heavily involved with disability rights advocacy and is president of W.C. Duke Associates Inc., a consulting company on the human side of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Since 1988, she has published access information for Virginia and maintained a disability travel Web portal for the nonprofit The Opening Door Inc. Hobbies include website development, genealogy, and family history.

Mary Mac Blanchard Harris’ husband, Craig, has been retired three years. She retired last year after 25 years working an annual stint for a delegate at the General Assembly during the legislative session. The Harrises garden and play golf. They moved in 2004 to an “empty nester” house in Richmond with a large yard. Mary Mac is in a woman’s club and a book club. This past year, their travels revolved around children and grandchildren, including trips to Figure Eight Island and Yellowstone in Montana. Son Sam lives in Crozet with his wife and three children. Daughter Kelly lives in Austin, Texas. She and her husband expected their first child in March. Mary Mac sees Mary Lou Murphey Lee often, now that she lives in Richmond, and Helen Callaham Hutter, when she visits her children in Richmond.

Laurie DiPadova-Stocks’ husband, Hugh, turned 75 in December 2012. They celebrated last summer at his favorite national park, Sequoia. The children arranged the gathering and five of the six were there, along with 12 of the 16 grandchildren. One absent grandchild is the mother of Laurie and Hugh’s great-grandbaby, so they visited them on the way to and from the event.

Patsy Monahan Holden retired from school counseling in 2005, worked as a full-time therapist at a local psychiatric hospital, retired in 2012, and maintains her private psychotherapy practice, working a couple days a week. She’s involved with church, does water aerobics, walks, reads, gardens, entertains, and plays cards with friends. Patsy and her husband, who retired in 2004, have been in Houston since 1979 and travel often to Austin to see their triplets and three grandchildren. They’ve also traveled to various parts of the world.

Sheri Gates Brindle and husband Paul left Florida in their RV in April 2013 and spent most of the summer in the desert Southwest. They spent the winter in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., along the Colorado River, just a day’s drive from their older son and his family in San Diego. Driving north, they visited friends in Fredericksburg and saw the campus, the first time Sheri had been back in years. Even with all the changes, she still thinks it’s the most beautiful campus they’ve ever visited. The Brindles have five grandchildren, ages 4 to 16. The three grandsons in San Diego are older. Their younger son, his wife, and their two granddaughters live near Ramstein Air Base in Germany. They see them once a year but hope they’ll be back in the U.S. soon.

Donna Lorance Porcaro of Alexandria, Va., visits her mother in Charleston every month or so and gets to San Francisco a couple times a year. They took a fall Baltic cruise and have seen some of Canada, Alaska by ferry, Europe, and Australia. They planned to get a dog. When she wrote, from her daughter’s house in San Francisco, Donna was waiting for knee replacements.

Charlotte Gregg Morgan remembered how beautiful campus was in November in the ’60s, saying it seems like a blink ago in some ways. She writes, heads a small VAIS school, and owns an art gallery with husband John in Lynchburg. She’s writer-in-residence each year at the Nimrod Hall Summer Arts Program in Bath County, Va. Her second novel, Protecting Elvis, is available on Kindle. Her youngest was to marry this year. Charlotte is still glad she’s a devil, not a goat!

Eleanor Frith Peters and husband Mike were blessed in 2013 with grandson Charlie, born to their son, Michael, and daughte-rin- law Christy, who live in D.C. Brother Max was 20 months old when Charlie arrived. Michael, an Army colonel, and Christy, a Foreign Service officer, are co-located in the U.S. The other three grandchildren, Jack, 14, Michael, 12, and Wylie (their only granddaughter), 10, still live in Greenville, S.C., where daughter Becca works for Neighborhood Focus and son-in-law Patrick Jopling is a dentist. The Peterses planned to take Wylie on a “double digits” trip to NYC, a family tradition to celebrate turning 10. They took a barge cruise in the Champagne district of France last year during the week of the Champagne grape harvest, witnessing all aspects of production and sampling the finished product. Mike is president of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, N.M., and Eleanor keeps her hands in the mud at the college pottery. They get back to the D.C. area often to check in with family and on college business. All the children and grands came for Christmas 2012, and Max took his first steps there! They expect to gather everyone again in Montreat, N.C., this Fourth of July.

Nancy McDonald Legat and husband Dan of Lexington, S.C., are retired. They have three daughters, three sons-in-law, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandson, and they’re thankful they’re all fairly close by. Nancy writes, gardens, and spends time with her husband.