Class Notes

Lynda White is working with Judy Youngman Wigton ’61 and Lloyd Tilton Backstrom ’61 to establish a UMW scholarship in honor of the beloved art history professor, Pauline Grace King. UMW Gift Officer Jan Clarke is helping send letters to art history grads and publicize the scholarship. They hope you’d like to help or contribute. Mary Anne Burns was instrumental in the success of our 40th reunion and has enjoyed reconnecting with classmates. She works at the Library of Congress, a big change from the oil world. Mary Anne set up a Facebook page for our class. For security, it’s a closed site, so ask to join.

Natalee Spiro Franzyshen’s husband, Henry, retired after 32 years with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, joining Natalee in devoting more time to family and church. It was great to reconnect with Natalee last fall. Freda Lodge retired after 24 years with the Department of Defense. She lives in Sarasota, Fla., near her father, daughter, and son-in-law. She misses the defense mission and colleagues but not the D.C. traffic. She had lunch with classmates Janet Dempster Crow and Linda Shoemaker Maxwell. I hope to see Freda when she comes to York, Pa., this summer.

Susan Brown Lohin is a grandmother. Her daughter is to finish veterinary medicine studies in St. Kitts in the Caribbean in August, and her son is working on a start-up business. Susan was to celebrate her birthday with Wendy Dickinson Smith at a spa in western Massachusetts. She hears from Pat Naybor and Diane Redfern Shelton.

Rich and Elaine “Cookie” Brennan Wright and family left New Jersey for the Chesapeake Bay five years ago. Between boating and dogs, Elaine does environmental consulting here and in Central and Eastern Europe. After earning a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and a master’s degree in systems engineering from U.Va., daughter Elisabeth is set to finish the executive MBA program next year. Daughter Katie has a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Wake Forest and was to join the MBA class of 2014 in August. Still with QVC, Diana Rupert Livingston hosted fellow UMW Foundation Board members, including Jeane Baughan Stone ’74 and Lisa Bratton Soltis ’79, for a March retreat at her Florida home.

Jim and Mary Mann have six grandchildren. She’s a lector at St. Mary’s in Fredericksburg and continues in the Fredericksburg Patriots Tea Party affiliate. Son Zephyr is learning to program animation and movie special effects at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Older son Geoff, a Blackhawk helicopter instructor, returned after a tour in Iraq. Mary said Helen Marocchi Iwanik, usually seen taking pictures in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, spent a few winter months in Florida.

Pat Brown Reedy lost family members, including her mother, in 2010 and 2011. Daughter Melissa Dawn Reedy ’02, an accountant, finished Cattle Rustlers, her second book in the A Westward Adventure series, with a third coming. Robin Michelle Donovan ’01, an elementary school teacher, began the Tales from the North Pole series; the first book is Christmas Rescue. Bryn Irving Roth of Fredericksburg continues her church literacy program for women refugees from Africa, volunteers in an ICU waiting room, and is active in a quilting ministry. She and her husband enjoy children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and planned a cruise to Iceland and Norway.

On a sad note, I learned that Tina Rolen passed away at 60 from an aggressive lung cancer in December 2009. Lisa Barker did some research and learned that Tina’s full name was Cornelia Christina and she was director of Hollins Career Center. She was a wonderful person and will be missed by her Mary Washington friends.