Class Notes

Rob Hall and I still live in Southwest Virginia, where Rob has made great strides as Saltville’s police chief. I teach yoga, including chair yoga for seniors and those recovering from surgery or illness. It’s rewarding to reacquaint so many with their body’s ability to move and breathe.

Jackie Alby Gardner works for the growing nonprofit Vitiligo Support International and hopes to garner enough funding to hire a director, so she can step back into a part-time position. She’s looking for volunteer support and help with Facebook, Twitter, data entry, or marketing. Husband Jud Gardner ’80 had another tough but successful year in insurance and still plays golf. Older daughter Lauren teaches kindergarten in Charlotte, N.C.; Bryn is marketing manager for an events venue in Nashville, Tenn., and son Morgan graduated from the University of Alabama and plans to pursue a master’s in accounting toward becoming a CPA.

John and Marjorie “Susie” Jordan Lavender, manager of the cancer cytology unit at the North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health, have been married 21 years. Susie is still a Girl Scout leader and probably will remain one after Katie, a recent high school graduate, leaves the troop. Katie plans to study elementary education and music at Wingate University near Charlotte. Gary and Laurie Fisher Calloway have been married for 30 years, and Laurie has taught music at Fredericksburg Academy for 18 years. Daughter Beth is part of a prostate cancer research team for Duke University Health Systems. Son Adam, a 2011 graduate of the Naval Academy, is stationed at Quantico, Va. Son Neil continues communications studies at Virginia Wesleyan College. Laurie and Kim Barlow Hoffman ’78 are part of a knitting group started by Vanessa Vance Moncure ’78, who provides the knitters gourmet food. Laurie and I have been playing online Scrabble.

Tommy and Janet Ogden Thompson of Mechanicsville, Va., took their 24th Caribbean trip. Janet is retired and volunteers at Memorial Regional Medical Center and at her church gym. She trained her miniature dachshund as a therapy dog, and they work at Sheltering Arms Physical Rehabilitation Center. Tommy is owner/manager of Mechanicsville Drug Store and has other businesses. Daughter Kate, 25, has a criminal justice degree and was accepted to the VCU School of Pharmacy. Mary Catherine has a UMW chemistry degree and studies culinary and pastry arts.

Steve and Kathy Diehl Hartman took a Hawaiian cruise to celebrate getting all four children through college with no debt for anyone! Kathy is helping daughter Amanda Hartman ’05 plan her wedding. Kathy’s friends, Kathleen Baldwin Geary and Jody Nutter Amberly ’76, are helping their daughters plan weddings, too. Mary Anne Ruiz Pace is a therapeutic treatment counselor with the Empowering Families Program in Charlottesville. Son Nick works at electronics retailer Crutchfield. The twins graduated from American University and U.Va. Husband Mike, a U.Va. environmental science professor, teaches and does aquatic ecology research. Mary Anne said Elaine Wagner Jaber and banker and businessman husband Paul Jaber live in Rocky Mount, N.C. Daughter Katie is a teenager.

Vicki Sprague Ravenel married William Ravenel last November in Hilton Head, S.C.; Terrie Martin Dort, Craig “Skippy” Strickland Robinson, Pam Roberts Albrecht, and Jo McTague Townsend were there. All planned to attend our 35th reunion. Vicki planned to work remotely in sales after she and William moved to Charleston, S.C., in March. Her boys are in Nashville, Tenn., and Lexington, Ky. Lynn Walton Lowe of Abingdon, Va., read in UMW Magazine that I’d moved to Saltville, Va., and she and husband Bill met Rob and me one evening to traipse down memory lane. Lynn is counselor and coordinator of the trustee workforce program at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail Authority’s Abingdon facility; Bill retired as a lieutenant with the Bristol, Va., Police Department, where he was in charge of the crime division.

Myra Fleenor Foreman ’78, an elementary reading intervention teacher in Frederick, Md., completed her reading specialist master’s certification. She has been married 31 years to husband Steve, who works for the federal government. Son Brian works for a Washington, D.C., public relations firm. Daughter Martha is a senior at Towson University, majoring in chemistry with an emphasis on forensics. Take care and send news anytime to the email above.