Class Notes

My last Class Notes submission was in November of 2014. A lot has happened since then.

My husband Tom works for Thompson Engineering, which is headquartered in Mobile, Alabama, and we traveled there several times in 2015. In February, we attended our fifth Mardi Gras and second Fifty Funny Fellows ball in Mobile. In July, ALDOT named Thompson the lead design firm for the Mobile River Bridge Project. Tom will be the Project Manager for the roadway design of the tallest suspension bridge in the U.S. We celebrated the news and Tom’s birthday at Perdido Key Beach Resort and enjoyed a multi-day drive along Florida’s Emerald Coast, stopping in Pensacola, Fort Walton, Destin, Seaside (where we’d gotten engaged in 1998), and Panama City before heading home to Atlanta. Tom’s company told him that they needed him in Mobile full time as soon as possible, so we finished renovating our home, including a to-the-studs re-do of our 14’ x 15’ master bathroom and whole house paint job. We celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary in October, and Thanksgiving weekend we put our house on the market. By Christmas we had a strong offer, and as I write this we’re in the due diligence period of our home sale and planning a house hunting trip to Mobile right away. So Tom and I, along with our 14-year old cats Leo and Luna, will soon call Mobile home. I hope to connect with alumni in the area and would love to hear from anyone and everyone interested in sharing their MWC/UMW memories and stories. Please email me at charjung@hotmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Christine Harrison Casey and her husband Tom celebrated their second wedding anniversary in December of 2015 and are planning a trip to New York City in the spring of 2016 to celebrate. She accepted the position of Senior Major Gifts Officer with Transitions LifeCare in Raleigh, North Carolina. The organization provides hospice, bereavement, and palliative care services in five counties around the Triangle. Christine started her position in January.

Bonnie McPheeters Phillips and husband Scott celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary in September of 2015. They spent New Year’s in Charleston, South Carolina. Bonnie is very excited about her new position as sales manager with Chattanooga Magazine. She embarked on this new adventure the summer of 2015, after a 20-year career in marketing and public relations, most recently at a local non-profit. Bonnie says that when she was approached with this opportunity, her gut said go for it, even though she’d never been in sales or worked in the publishing industry. She says that it’s exciting, the people are nice, and she gets to do her most favorite thing, which is connecting people. If you ever need advertising help, she encourages you to let her know. To see her digital edition go to chattmag.com, which is also a part of the Apple News app.

Nellie L. King recently remarried, and together she and her husband have five children. She travels nationally for professional and speaking obligations and took a trip to Budapest this past summer for pleasure. Nellie continues to practice exclusively criminal defense work in state and federal courts and owns the Law Offices of Nellie L. King, P.A. in West Palm Beach, Florida. She is a Past President of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and currently serves on the Board of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, which brings her to D.C. regularly, and on a number of charitable boards, including Boys Town South Florida. She occasionally sees the Happy Twins (Jeni Levering Galvin and Katie Levering Sears) and enjoys getting together with UMW President Rick Hurley and his wife, Rose, when they travel to South Florida.

Helen Heath Thompson Mosher is back in Fredericksburg and has been managing communications for St. George’s Episcopal Church since March of 2015. She says that it’s crazy being back in Fredericksburg and seeing how much has changed—and yet how much has stayed the same. She had a great time catching up with her Class of ’90 pals during the 2015 summer reunion weekend. Her older son, Kieran Shaw, graduated from Mary Washington. He’s a Class of 2015 theatre major and working at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.

Heather Martin Montgomery just published her 12th book, a children’s book about bugs who won’t mind their manners, with Scholastic. The book is dedicated to Mary Washington Professor of Biology Dr. Joella Killian, who got Heather hooked on entomology.  Heather, her husband Laddin, dog, and cat live near Huntsville, Alabama.

Donald Rands Fuller is still stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. He has been there since 2012. He is assigned to the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, as a CW5 (chief warrant officer 5) in the position of Brigade Standardization Instructor Pilot (senior pilot/instructor). He is in a 4500 person-strong unit. He returned from his fourth deployment in the Middle East in October of 2014. He had a great deployment, and everyone came home mostly unscathed. He has been on temporary duty, off and on, for most of 2015 since he has been back, overseeing training and transitioning into a new attack aircraft, an AH-64E attack helicopter. His days of flying the Kiowa Warrior attack helicopter are over, as it has been retired from service.

He and his unit got notice of yet another deployment back to the Middle East, so they have begun the preparation/training cycle to get ready. Don has the option of not deploying and leaving Washington to go to another assignment, but he decided that as the senior guy, he will feel better if he goes with the unit. Don has been serving for 22 1/2 years and could have retired a couple of years ago, but he’s not ready to let go. He will probably stay in until his 25th year and then move on to his next career.

Don spends his free time at the gym or playing with Tommy, his favorite four-legged friend (rescue Pit/Boxer mix). He lives in downtown Tacoma, Washington, in a beautiful modern loft overlooking Mt Rainier and Commencement Bay. He can step right out onto the boardwalk/marina where his new boat will be parked. His family is all doing well, and they are all in Boise, Idaho. He’s looking forward to joining them soon.

Julie Lail Porter and her husband Steve moved to Northern Virginia (Fairfax County) in 2014 from Virginia Beach. They and their two children Jacob, 15, and Maura, 13, are settling into the faster-paced lifestyle, but they miss the beach. Julie lost her father in April after a long illness. Their family traveled to Norway over the summer with Steve’s parents to fulfill a “bucket-list” trip for Steve’s dad. Julie kept her old job from before the move and is working full-time from home as a Business Intelligence Architect for Sentara Healthcare. She meets Marie Ryan Cox regularly for lunches and fun stuff. Marie, her husband Allen, and their two girls live in Fairfax also. Julie sad it was great to catch up with Libby Johnston Ross in the fall of 2015 after they realized they live very close to each other!

Rebecca Gajdalo Gruber lives in West Friendship, Maryland, with her husband Dave and three children. She got together with some fellow MWC/UMW friends in December of 2015 for a girls’ weekend on Kiawah Island, South Carolina, at the vacation home of Erin Patrick Duncan, who resides in Gainesville, Virginia, with her husband Billy Duncan ’91 and two children. Also in attendance were Karen Richardson, who resides in Fredericksburg, Virginia; Sarah Perri Spalding, who resides in Apopka, Florida, with husband John and two children; and Sheri Whited Masich, who resides in Herndon, Virginia, with her husband Jack and two children. They all enjoyed catching up in the unseasonably warm weather over bike rides, crabbing, and time at the beach! Suzie Head Smartt, who resides in Austin, Texas, with her husband Chris and three children, was unable to join them, but Rebecca and Sarah spent a great weekend with Suzie at Disney World in February of 2015.

Rachael Schmeller Crout lives in Capon Bridge, West Virginia, with her husband Eric and their daughters Anna and Heather. Anna will be attending Shepherd University in 2016, and Heather is in high school. Rachael is a fifth grade English inclusion teacher at Daniel Morgan Middle School in Winchester, Virginia.

Mike “Gunner” Nelson and his family had a great experience in China over Christmas 2015 and New Year’s. They visited Beijing (his wife Ting’s hometown), Xi’an, and Chengdu. While in Xi’an they saw the Terra Cotta warriors and great deal of Chinese history as Xi’an is the “Ancient Capital” of China and one end of the famous “Silk Road.” After Xi’an, they visited the Panda Preserves to see these wonderful animals and the beauty of the Chinese countryside. Mike had a “Mary Washington Flashback” when he and his family went to Cancun for Spring Break in April of 2015. They stayed in a much nicer place than he remembered from 1989! Seeing Chichen Itza (missed in the 1989 trip) was incredible along with swimming in the cenotes!

Mike’s daughters are growing up so quickly. Kaitlyn is in her junior year at Dominion High School and college is right around the corner for her. Savannah is in seventh grade and plays softball and basketball. Savannah is a star pitcher on her travel softball team, the Great Falls Sharks. The team was 19-3-1 with two tournament championships in the fall 2015 season. Lastly, he and his family live in Lowes Island, which is a community in Potomac Falls on the Fairfax/Loudoun County border. They were in the feature article and on the cover of the local magazine, “Island Living,” in the summer of 2015. Savannah had her own article as the “Athlete of the Month” for her softball exploits. Time goes so fast —from college graduation, to careers, to watching our families grow and thrive. The best advice is to fully enjoy it while it’s happening!

Jarrod Anthony Epps, his wife, and twin three-year-old boys are now splitting their time between living in San Francisco and Prague, with the San Francisco side becoming more dominant. It’s interesting to be living back in the U.S. after almost 20 years away.