Corinne “Conni” Conley Stuart ’49 learned at an early age to fib when adults asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. She’d tell them she wanted to be a journalist. It sounded respectable, and no one snickered when she answered that way. But Stuart really wanted to be an actress. She can’t remember a time when she did not feel drawn to the stage or to the stories on the radio. (There was no TV when Stuart was a child.) “I guess I was a little bit of a show-off,” she said. Stuart was born in New York, lived for a time in Biloxi, Miss., and then settled in Radford, Va., where her father worked for Hercules Powder Co. manufacturing munitions during “the war years.” Stuart graduated from high school in Radford at 15 and headed to Mary Washington, selected because her older sister had attended the all-women’s college. “I had never been away from home, never even went to summer camp,” Stuart recalled. “It was a great place for me to go. At that time, it was a little … [Read more...]

It all started as a stunt in his Bushnell Hall dorm room in the fall of 1988. Bob Lunger ’93 was listening to an audiotape of a Geraldo Rivera show about whether Elvis Presley was still alive. The tape included some humorous commentary from Elvis –or someone who sounded a lot like him – and with roommates Mannin Dodd ’95 and Doug Flamm ’93 egging him on, Lunger started mimicking The King’s voice. “They thought this was hysterical,” recalled Lunger whose pals then urged him to call the campus radio station as Elvis. Pretty soon, the station sported a banner that said “Elvis Lives and Is Here at Mary Washington,” and Lunger had a new hobby. A theater major, he did guest appearances on the station, performed Elvis covers with a friend’s band, and gave motivational speeches to the Eagles baseball team – often in a jumpsuit sewn by his mom. “I put on this suit – and I find this happens a lot - girls think, ‘I’m supposed to fling myself all over him and scream like mad,’ ” … [Read more...]

An excellent liberal arts education from University of Mary Washington positioned Virginia L. Green Bartlett ’01 to thrive as a clinical ethics consultant. The assistant director at the Center for Healthcare Ethics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center learned “how to pay attention and how to pursue a question” at Mary Washington, she said. “I learned how to ask questions and how to learn with other people.” Bartlett works with patients, families, and health care providers to identify and help resolve concerns, conflicts, and moral challenges that emerge in health care settings. Her consultations can take 10 minutes or six weeks. At UMW, Bartlett double majored in English and religion. She continued her studies at Vanderbilt University, where she earned master’s degrees in theological studies and religion, and a doctorate in religion. Today, along with consulting, she teaches and does research in the 1,000-bed medical center in Los Angeles. Bartlett recently gave a lecture at … [Read more...]

The mountains are where Andrew Eaton ’07 can always go to test his own limits with a long hike or a difficult climb. Last summer, it’s where he met up with some kids facing far tougher challenges. Eaton was a counselor at a camp for children who had suffered serious burn injuries and were trying to recover from their physical and emotional wounds. One 11-year-old boy, he said, was at the Estes Park, Colo., camp just a few months after suffering severe burns. He went backpacking with Eaton and other campers. “We had to have a nurse on the trip who changed his bandages every night,” he said. “But he was the happiest kid, so happy to be hanging out with the older guys. It really affected me.” Now Eaton, 27, is trying to raise money to help burn camp programs. He’s in the middle of a 2,180-mile hike of the Appalachian Trail and has a goal of raising $10 per mile. He’s working with Peaks for Peace, a group formed last summer by two of Eaton’s fellow camp counselors who also were … [Read more...]