Class Notes

In April my husband Tom and I had a great visit with my aunt and uncle in Sarasota, Florida. Trip highlights: making glass art and jewelry in their kiln, hunting for sharks’ teeth, eating lots of fresh seafood, and photographing tropical birds and alligators at Myakka State Park. Summer brought Braves games, Chattahoochee River floats, neighborhood Supper Club events, and our birthdays. In July we spent a week exploring St. Simons and Jekyll Islands. In August we spent a few days in Mobile, Alabama, and then traveled to a friend’s fish camp in Manchac, Louisiana, near Lake Pontchartrain. A water moccasin under our cabin was a scary “welcome to the bayou.” We then headed to New Orleans, our first time in the Big Easy. Bourbon Street, live jazz, hurricanes, jambalaya, etc.! In October Tom and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary and spent 13 days at Sandals Grande Riviera in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. This was our seventh visit to that property, and we liked scuba diving with old friends on the dive team.

I co-hosted a Mary Washington Alumni Network Atlanta Happy Hour with Dean Lynne Richardson (college of business) and was so pleased to reconnect with Meta Winston ’94. She doesn’t live too far away, and I hope we make the time to get together again soon.

Tom continues to enjoy working for Thompson Engineering and will start reporting to their corporate office in Mobile in early 2015. We’ll finish our home projects and put our house on the market as soon as possible. When our house sells, we’ll look for a place to live in Mobile. We’re looking forward to settling into a new place and having a fresh start. I’ll keep you posted on how things go for us!

Marci Morgan Taylor husband Okley Taylor celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary, her step-son’s high school graduation, and a new addition to their family – a third horse, MoonShine. Marci has been working as a mental health therapist at the RACSB Crisis Stabilization house for three years now and doesn’t miss her former commute to Woodbridge at all. She and her family continue to travel to the southwest, with a recent trip to Sedona, Arizona, and the Grand Canyon. She plans to return to competitive riding with her new horse, and her husband joins her every weekend for a leisurely trail ride.

After 16 years of living in Virginia Beach, Julie Lail Porter and her family relocated to Northern Virginia in June 2014 for her husbands job. She was lucky enough to be able to keep her job as a Business Intelligence Architect for Sentara Healthcare and now works full-time from home. She’s very happy that she doesn’t have to fight the traffic for a daily commute, and she’s home when her kids are not in school. She has a son, Jacob, in ninth grade and a daughter, Maura, in seventh grade. They stay busy with all the usual family stuff, including a lot of weekends on the soccer fields. For fun they like to travel, and have been to Italy, Mexico and several Caribbean islands in the past couple of years. They enjoy exploring the D.C. area and all the great things to do there. Julie feels that one of the best parts of moving to Fairfax County is being close to her best friend from college, Marie Ryan Cox. They visit regularly and have lunch together frequently. Marie is married and has two adorable daughters: Clare a fourth grader, and Kate a first grader.

Donald Rands Fuller returned from Afghanistan in October. He was on his fourth deployment, and deployed there with the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, which is the largest aviation brigade in the U.S. army with a fleet of 150 aircraft and a couple thousand soldiers. They were there for seven months overseeing the retrograde of U.S. troops and handover to the Afghans. Donald is at the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 5 and is the Brigade Senior Instructor or Standardization Instructor Pilot. He is at 21 years of service, all of which have been flying as an attack helicopter instructor pilot. He is currently going through school to learn another aircraft, the AH-64E attack helicopter. He will be in school for about six months before he returns home to prepare for the next deployment. As of now, he plans on staying in for 25 years. Donald is currently single and living in Seattle. His family all resides in Idaho, where he still plans on hanging up his helmet.

Wendy Scott is in Newport News with her husband Ken Stuck ’90 and their two children. She teaches Spanish at Denbigh High School. Ken is an archaeologist for VDOT. They will celebrate their 20th anniversary with a trip to the Biltmore, Cherokee, and Dollywood. Their children are Ellie (15) and Joshua (12). They had to put down their beloved dog, Boots, in August of 2013, after loving her for 16 ½ years. They hope to have a new pooch in their house by the time this is published.

Nicole Davidson reports that the Davidson Clan finally made a trip back to the Old Dominion (it’s been five years!) and spent a week visiting Nicole’s parents in Fredericksburg, as well as a few side trips to Washington, D.C., the Shenandoah Mountains, and a ferry ride to Tangier Island, Virginia. Visits to Mary Washington and Carl’s Ice Cream were in order as well. Nicole says that like many alum, she cherishes her time spent at Mary Washington and enjoyed seeing all the campus changes in person. Labor Day week they camped in the Rocky Mountains in their new pop-up camper. Nicole felt that at 40 something, tent camping had started to lose its appeal! A week in a tent at Yellowstone National Park last summer just about did them in. Nicole and her family are keeping very busy in Littleton, Colorado. After 16 years as a paralegal for the United States Attorney’s Office in Denver, Nicole took advantage of a great opportunity and is now working as a Civil Investigator for the Drug Enforcement Administration. Her husband Steve continues to manage a hydraulics shop and was recently elected to the Deacon Board at their church. Their son Samuel (8) started the third grade, and his sister Rebecca (5) started kindergarten. Nicole recently discovered that a Mary Washington graduate is a teacher at their school. Small world!

Thanks to Marci, Julie, Donald, Wendy, and Nicole for sending me their news. I hope to see many more updates in the future. Some of us keep in touch through means like email and Facebook, but this magazine’s format is a wonderful way to stay connected with Mary Washington and one another. Please touch base and let me – and other alum – know what’s new with you!