Class Notes

Some of our classmates are famous and published! Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda read her poetry and led a panel discussion at a gathering of poets laureate (of which she is a member) in October at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas, Virginia. Carolyn was also a presenter in the Statewide Partners Program for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and at the Hampton University Museum.

Lyn Holmes Gray is retiring from her job in Liberia but will remain there with her husband, Jim, to do some consulting work. They have built a small house in the “upcountry” three hours away from the state capital in Monrovia. She will be helping out with a school there. They also bought a home in Blacksburg, Virginia, where they will spend part of each year on this side of the world. They will be unpacking stuff they have had in storage for 13 years! Anyone want to help open this time capsule with them?

Beth Ball Townsend has moved to St. John’s historic district in downtown Richmond after living in the Richmond suburbs most of her life. Her talented and charming (those are my words) son Gil lives in the same historic district. Gil and Beth treated me to a wonderful dinner in October while I was back East for my 50th high school reunion in Virginia Beach. They are both “foodies” and a lot of fun to be with.

Patti Boise Kemp, one of outstanding class leaders, reminds us that Rick and Rose Hurley have been made honorary members of our class of 1969, and that they look forward to celebrating our 50th class reunion in 2019–which is not that far away, girls! Patti also revealed that the Virginia Hall dorm is now a coed freshman dorm. What a difference a few decades make!

Nina Shepherd lives in Columbia, South Carolina, which had some very serious flooding in early October. Nina built her home 15 yards from the Saluda River there in 1997. She knew the river could flood, so they built the house on 18-foot pilings and got flood insurance (Mary Wash graduates only smart girls!). The October flood brought the water level under her elevated house to three feet deep. Her husband was trapped in the house while Nina was away and he was without electricity, but refused to call the water rescue team (He did not graduate from Mary Wash). They only have some erosion around their foundation piers, but the contractors are so busy, it will be a while before this gets fixed. Exciting lives they live!
Gloria Gibson has had some fun-filled traveling to New York City, Austin, Texas, and Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, where she enjoyed long walks on the beach. She also spent two weeks in Italy from the Amalfi Coast to Rome, Tuscany, and Venice. She doesn’t usually travel that much in such a short period of time. I gather she is resting somewhere in the states now.

Betty Wade Perry has returned from Guatemala for a second time working with villagers in small mountain regions. She helped with the construction of a library and community center for adult and children gatherings, as well as for learning to use computers. She felt a little embarrassed at the richness and ease of life we have here in comparison. She visited Cynthia Lowdermilk in Clarskville, Virginia, while attending her 50th high school reunion nearby in Danville. She also attended a women’s retreat in the Virginia mountains! Who knew those events still existed?

Nancy Allard‘s mother-in-law, who lived with her and her husband Paul, died at age 97. Since then, they’ve spent a lot of time settling the estate. Even so, they have spent precious time with their three grandchildren in D.C., went on a two-week Baltic cruise in June, then had a 10-day trip following the Lewis and Clark trail by steamboat in Washington and Oregon. She also had a great time at her 50th high school reunion.

Ginny Wheaton retired from a management consulting firm in 2014 and moved with her husband to Nosara, Costa Rica, where they are enjoying the “Pura Vida” lifestyle. They live in a pristine beach community in spite of the invasion of American and European expatriates over the last 40 years. She serves on the board of a civic association to keep developers from erecting structures in the nearby wildlife preserve. She is on a quest to save the world from humans, one beach at a time. “Life is good there!”

Beverly “Bev” Holt and her wife Debra Alpert enjoyed three weeks in Australia and New Zealand this year. Next year’s “trip” will be visiting their remodel of their condo at Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina. Bev continues to be a docent with the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh.

Carole Phipps, a good Mary Wash alumna who lives close by, is focusing on grading her papers from her business classes at San Jose State, where she is a professor. Her 94-year-old mother is having a hip replacement right after classes end. Soon she will return to her social self and have more fun news to report!

Anne Witham Kilpatrick got together with Jeanine Zavrel Fearns, Toni Turner Bruseth, and Susie Bender Winterble for their annual spring get-together, this time in Austin, Texas, at Toni’s house. They shopped, ate, talked, and just reminisced about college days at Mary Wash.

Dr. Sharon Dobie lives in Seattle, Washington, and has recently published her book called Heart Murmurs, where she reveals true stories about meaningful learning she and other doctors have received from their patients. She focuses on the importance of relationship-centered care. She has two adopted sons, age 26 and 29. She is contemplating writing another book soon.

Nancy Leeper is in Austin, Texas, and is semi-retired from speech pathology. She does volunteer work at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the Assistance League Thrift House. She regularly visits her 92-year-old mom in Virginia. Her two sons, both married, live in Texas as well. She is visiting Key West, Florida, with her Mary Wash roommate, Carolyn Day O’Leary, soon.

Ann R. Smith writes that she and her husband Tom joined two of her MWC suitemates (Cathy Allen Hughes, with husband Michael, and Nancy Gleason with beau, Gary) for another Viking cruise this past October. They took the Rhine River cruise from Basel to Amsterdam with an extended stay in Amsterdam.  They had a great time in the beautiful scenery and picturesque towns and villages! They took their first Viking cruise in July, 2014, on the Danube River. Kitty Culhane Rogers and husband John joined them for that trip. Cathy, Nancy, and Ann managed a brief mini-reunion in June, 2015, in Richmond with Ann’s Mary Wash roomie, Nancy Andrews, as she was passing through Virginia in route to Tappahannock for a visit with her mother.

I myself am fully retired from contracting now and after 30 years in Silicon Valley am moving two hours north to Santa Rosa, California, which is the heart of the wine country. I don’t drink, so I have become a permanent designated driver for those of you who want a tour of the northern California vineyards. Ann and I have re-formed a five-piece band called “More Joy.” Our tag line is “Folk Music with Friends.” Ann and I have also set up a class of ʼ69 scholarship fund as a form of gratitude for the life we have enjoyed, due to my formal education opportunities at Mary Wash from generous University scholarships. We are hoping you will consider participating in it early this coming year so we can actually meet our first scholarship recipient at our 50th reunion.

Write me with more of your adventures or zen moments…we need them all!