Two centuries after he signed legislation to have the Virginia Executive Mansion built, James Monroe has received a formal invitation to the home of the state’s governor. A near life-size portrait of the fifth United States president, on loan from UMW’s James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library and attributed to American neoclassical painter Rembrandt Peale, was unveiled in the mansion’s State Dining Room on June 21. It will remain on view there for two years in celebration of the 2013 bicentennial of the building’s construction. Installed in February in the oval- shaped dining room, the three- quarter-length portrait and its large gold frame have considerable heft. The piece was carefully transported and installed by art handlers from Ely Inc. and staff members from the Executive Mansion and the Library of Virginia. James Monroe Museum Curator Jarod Kearney and Director Scott Harris also were on hand for the installation. Once the portrait was in place, Harris said, “first … [Read more...]
New Director Takes the Lead in UMW Athletics
Ken Tyler dreams big. UMW’s new athletic director wants to make Mary Washington one of the top 25 NCAA Division III programs in the country. Tyler, former director of athletics at West Virginia Wesleyan College, comes from a school with the largest athletic program in that state. He succeeds a UMW legend, Edward Hegmann, who retired in July after serving the University for 36 years. At a press conference in May announcing Tyler’s selection, the new athletic director conceded that he had big shoes to fill. Tyler described Hegmann as “the architect of UMW athletics.” “Mary Washington’s outstanding academic reputation, combined with its strong and broad-based athletic program, makes this one of the best small-college positions in the country,” Tyler said. Present at the news conference were several of his former athletes as well as two teammates and lifelong friends from his time as a student at the College of William and Mary, where he played on the men’s basketball team. At … [Read more...]
Three Alumni Named to UMW Board
In June, the office of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell named three new members to the University of Mary Washington Board of Visitors. The recent appointees are Tara C. Corrigall ’82 of Virginia Beach, Theresa Young Crawley ’77 of Fredericksburg, and Mark S. Ingrao ’81 of Falls Church, Va. Corrigall, a financial adviser and certified investment management analyst, is director of advisory and brokerage services at the Virginia Beach branch of the global firm UBS. She is a member of the boards of directors of the Central Business District Association of Virginia Beach and the YWCA of South Hampton Roads. A longtime UMW President’s Council donor, Corrigall is on the President’s Council Committee, having served as the group’s first chair. She was a member of the UMW Alumni Association Board of Directors beginning in 1992 and served as president from 1998 through the end of her tenure in 2000. She also is a class news agent for UMW Magazine. Crawley, a dentist and avid community … [Read more...]
Give It Your Best Shot!
Mary Washington’s first major art exhibit opened in 1956 in conjunction with the inauguration of Grellet C. Simpson as chancellor. Organized by Professor of Art Emeritus Julien Binford and featuring 50 works from New York dealers, the show became an annual event. Art students were asked to study – and sometimes copy – the works on display, and the début exhibit sparked the tradition of student participation in mounting the show. Do you recognize this young art student who posed with a painting outside Melchers Hall in 1958? If you know this student, please leave a comment below or send an email with Get the Picture in the subject line to ntrenis@umw.edu. The Spring 2012 edition of Get the Picture featured a photo of a student working at a bulky computer terminal in Combs Hall in the ’80s. UMW Magazine asked readers to help match a name to the “mustachioed user.” Cheryl Little Sutton ’87 wrote to identify the student as William “Bill” R. Waller ’84 and said she had … [Read more...]
CLOSING COLUMN
Historian Neil Howe has spoken and written extensively on the collective personalities of today’s generations. With co-author William Strauss, Howe coined the term “Millennial Generation” and wrote the best-selling Generations, 13th Gen, The Fourth Turning, and Millennials Rising. Howe’s articles have appeared in such national publications as The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. What follows are excerpts from his address to UMW graduates at the May 12 Commencement Ceremony. A generation is a group of people who share a basic outlook on life shaped by their common age location in history, their common “generational setting.” Youth, on the other hand, is just an age bracket. It’s like an empty hotel room that different generations move into – with their own baggage – and then soon leave. Sometimes that room swells with sweet music, sometimes it throbs with death metal, sometimes it’s utterly silent. But it’s never the same. Bottom line: All of you Boomer … [Read more...]
Nights With Mrs. Bushnell Led to “Days of Our Lives”
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...]
Sabrina Johnson
At one point in her career, Sabrina Johnson was well on her way to the bench. In the early ’90s, she earned a law degree, passed the bar, worked for Alexandria Circuit Court, and had aspirations of becoming a juvenile court judge. Luckily for Mary Washington, Johnson’s personal and professional life had come to a turning point, and she felt it was in her family’s best interest to move. She took a job as a counselor with the Department of Employee Relations in Richmond, and her career turned away from the courtroom. October will mark 15 years since Johnson joined the UMW team. As associate vice president for human resources and affirmative action-equal employment opportunity officer, she deals with issues involving personnel policy and employment laws; handles concerns and complaints from employees and students; provides management consultation; and heads an eight-person staff. While juggling all this, she tries to stay ahead of issues that might crop up. “You know what it … [Read more...]
Attorney’s Got a Thing for the King
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...]
Literature Helps Ethicist Explore What It Means to Be Human
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...]
Through Hike Helps Kids Heal
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...]