Gano Evans, Mary Jo Parrish, Retired Lt. Col. Fred Thomas “Tom” Whitman, and Corrine Nelson Woodard.

Gano Evans, who chaired what was the Mary Washington College Department of Business Administration in the 1990s, died Aug. 18, 2017, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Born in Denver, Dr. Evans earned a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Northern Colorado, a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Denver, and a Ph.D. in management and marketing from the University of Washington. He taught undergraduate and graduate students at Mary Washington and many other institutions over his 45-year career.
A talented jazz musician, Dr. Evans played saxophone and clarinet. Known in Fredericksburg as “Dr. Daddy-O,” he played and sang with the Fredericksburg Big Band and served as its master of ceremonies. He also was “widely recognizable around town in his flashy red convertible,” according to Dr. William B. Crawley’s University of Mary Washington: A Centennial History.
Wife Beverly, two sisters, five children, eight grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter survive him.

Mary Jo Parrish, professor emerita of biology, died Feb. 28 in Fredericksburg after an extended illness. Born in 1928, the Nashville native was a member of the Mary Washington College faculty from 1954 to 1987. Dr. Parrish specialized in botany and received a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1957. She was a devoted member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fredericksburg, where she had many friends. She also had friends in the Baha’i community. A member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, she had a special love of cats and cared for many in her lifetime. She is survived by a sister and a nephew, both in Florida.
 

 
 
 
 

Retired Lt. Col. Fred Thomas “Tom” Whitman passed away Feb. 15 at his home in Hartwood, Virginia. He served as an officer in the Marine Corps for 26 years, including service in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive. After his retirement, he joined the faculty of Mary Washington College, where he taught business for 32 years. Lt. Col. Whitman was well-liked by his students, many of whom remember him as an outstanding professor of marketing. Countless friends and neighbors relied on him over the years for financial and yearly tax assistance. He was preceded in death by his wife of 60 years, Pauline Anne Whitman, and their firstborn son. He is survived by five daughters, three sons, 16 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren. He was buried at Quantico National Cemetery.
 
 
 
 

Corrine Nelson Woodard, whose husband was president of Mary Washington College from 1974 through 1982, passed away Nov. 5, 2017, in Easton, Maryland.
Her late husband, Prince Woodard, was Mary Washington’s fifth president. After his death in 1982, she continued to live in Fredericksburg until moving to Easton in 1999.
A native of Smolan, Kansas, Mrs. Woodard was a graduate of Kansas State University. She worked as a buyer in the clothing industry before marrying Prince Woodard in 1950. When the couple moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Mrs. Woodard earned a master’s degree at the University of Alabama.
They lived in Danville and Richmond, Virginia; Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania; and Charleston, West Virginia, before coming to Mary Washington and Fredericksburg. In later years, Mrs. Woodard enjoyed volunteering and playing bridge.
The Woodards’ three children survive them, as do three granddaughters and a great-granddaughter.