Class Notes

We finally moved into our new home in a 55+ community last December and were unpacking and getting settled. We’re having a deck with a gazebo built behind the house and completing our landscaping in preparation for our home to be on the Soleil Garden Tour in May. We’re involved in cooking clubs, game nights, and dinner outings, and look forward to exploring more of the area.

Anne Sommervold LeDoux’s husband, John, plays golf in Myrtle Beach and does consulting work that requires travel. Son Justin and wife Cari teach and live nearby with their son, Sean, 17 months. Their other son, Matt, and wife Shannon live in Arizona with grandchildren Hannah, in first grade, and Cash, 3. Anne traveled to Peru – her first trip to South America – with friends last May, visiting Machu Picchu. In March, Anne and John planned a trip to Greece and to cruise the Adriatic Sea.

In February 2013, Frimalee Kaplan Nowicki cruised around the Galapagos Islands with friends. Last July she and husband Vince visited wineries and Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado; rafted and hiked in Canyonlands National Park in Utah; and went to Frontier Days and the rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyo. In September, they traveled to France and visited wineries; olive oil manufacturers; Roman ruins; the mental institution where Van Gogh painted some of his famous works; Avignon, known for its Papal Palace; Albi, home of the world’s largest collection of Toulouse-Lautrec works and Europe’s largest brick cathedral; and Carcassonne, a medieval fortress town.

Barbara Forgione Tansey sold her Tennessee home last July and moved to a single-family condo in a Chesapeake, Va., adult community near daughter Lisa and grandson Bodie. Gretchen Gregory Davis and husband Gene achieved their dream of retiring to the Colorado mountains, where they hike, bike, and ski. Last April Gretchen became president of their Dillon, Colo., homeowners association and joined the Keystone Owners Association’s board. Son Greg works for defense industry contractor BAE. Gretchen’s dad, 93, still travels and last April took an around-the-world cruise. He was a hit when he spoke at a Royal Bank of Canada series last October about his experience with the Cuban Missile Crisis and has more speaking engagements. Gretchen’s sister, Cookie, won an Emmy for her involvement in Ballet Austin’s Light/The Holocaust & Humanity Project.

Martha Pickard Zink and husband Rip of Kiawah, S.C., maintain homes in Ruxton, Md., and Bethany Beach, Del. Rip goes to the beach daily and golfs. Martha bikes, golfs, gardens, paints, sews, plays bridge, and is in book clubs. Last August they traveled to Utah and Colorado, visiting Arches and Canyonlands national parks, Durango, Telluride, Crested Butte, and the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. In November, they cruised from Venice to Istanbul, visiting Croatia, Athens, and Ephesus. Son Matt is busy with mortgages; wife Amy is in real estate. Their children are Hannah, in third grade, and James, in kindergarten. Matt’s brother, Doug, builds and renovates in Charlottesville.

Edith C. “Dibby” Clark took a cruise early in the year with her mother and her sister, Anne Clark ’69, from Miami to Lima, Peru, with stops at Key West, Grand Cayman, and Panama City. They visited archaeological digs and restorations at

pre-Incan sites outside of Salaverry. Edith took the Year of Faith Pilgrimage to Rome, Orvieto, and Assisi, visiting churches and the catacombs. During an audience with newly elected Pope Francis, he twice passed within arm’s reach. During the Institute of Catholic Culture’s Year of Faith pilgrimage to the Holy Land, she followed the locations and events of the Gospel of Matthew, on the Sea of Galilee and in Jerusalem. She visited Masada and Qumran, and swam in the Dead Sea. Last summer, Edith built up her landscape design and four-season garden business. She walked with Vietnam veterans in a Memorial Day parade, completed house renovations, and visited her mother and sister for her mother’s 94th birthday.

Peggy Hall Brown, Lynn Hammes Rayher, Mimi Webb Stout, Lynne Royston Wine, and Judy Wiener Winters, all retired in Virginia, met for lunch recently in Charlottesville. Lynn Amole Horng and husband Albert of Hatfield, Pa., were renovating a house they bought four years ago in Philadelphia. They have children Dunstan, a data manager; Debra, who’s pursuing a Ph.D.; Aidan, who earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Drexel University; and Abe.

In 2011, Rochele HC Hirsch moved from Atlanta to Singapore in February but returned in November to the Los Angeles area, where she lived until February 2013. During that time, she wrote Relationship Chemistry: Understanding the Unspoken. Her business includes relationship/transformation consulting. In February 2013, she drove cross-country, visiting friends, including Professor Emeritus of Physics Bulent Atalay and his wife, Carol Jean, in Virginia, and Tony and Jan Sullivan Chalmers in Florida. In August 2013, Rochele returned to San Francisco for an event she organized honoring Suzanne Caygill’s color analysis legacy. Rochele was involved directly with Suzanne from 1982 until her death in 1994, and graduated from her Academy of Color in 1989. She plans to travel this year and work on her next book, Get a Better Return on Your Crash & Burn.

Patricia Piermatti retired and spent time in the southeast in December, visiting Fort Sumter, the USS Yorktown, Disney World, and the Ernest Hemingway House. She’s taken day trips with the Adult School of Montclair to the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, N.J., and the WWII & NYC exhibit at the New-York Historical Society. She also has traveled with the Victorian Society in America to the Pinchot family home, Grey Towers, in Milford, Pa., to see the Lincoln assassination flag at the Pike County Historical Society at the Columns, and to Edgewater, the former Livingston family home in Barrytown, N.Y.

Kathleen Horstkamp Beach and husband Dave live in Littleton, Colo., near daughter Stephanie, who last November expected twin girls. Kathleen retired from teaching high school English and focuses on her ceramics, recently on display in Colorado galleries.

Judy Templeman Miller and husband Ron raised four children in Bethesda, Md. Her older daughter died in 2005, and Ron died in 2007. When daughter Jenny and husband Nick moved to Newburyport, Mass., Judy relocated there and was awaiting the birth of her first grandchild. Her sons live in Berkeley and Ann Arbor. Judy’s still close with freshman roommate Aileen Reynolds.

As I wrote this, snow was falling in York, Pa. It was a long, snowy winter, but I enjoyed it since it was the first year I wasn’t working and didn’t have to go anywhere. That Medicare booklet in the mail on your birthday is a bit disconcerting. How did we get to 65?

Barbara Exline Staller, Liz Keith, and I met for lunch near Lancaster, Pa., as we did last year. Barbara lives not far from York. She and Walt bought a house and finally renovated and unpacked. Liz lost her 20-year-old Westie and was training her new Westie puppy, Pippa. Since retiring from teaching, Liz has cruised and traveled.

I hear from Kathy Lewis Newbold, who lives in Flatrock, N.C., and was anxious to get on the golf course and beat Greg. She and I wore the eagle, globe, and anchor several years after graduating and still hear from Mary Washington friends.

Mary Weaver Mann’s mother is 104 and going strong. Mary’s son Zephyr moved home for a while and has worked on films, including Divergent and Thor. Mary still works at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library in Fredericksburg.

Mary Jane Chandler Miller and Fred of northeastern Vermont welcomed their second granddaughter in December and celebrated their 42nd anniversary in February. Mary Jane stays in touch with Bonney Barber Mayers from the French House; freshman year friends from Virginia second back Nancy Lindberg, Carol Kling Walker, Pam Hudson, Carol Surber Lewis, Judy O’Donoghue Batterson, and Jeannie Mitchell Brobst; and our counselor, Carole Findlay Phipps ’69.

Pam Rave Hall and Diana Rupert Livingston, who is retired, are still close and met in Williamsburg before Christmas. Our condolences to Pam, who lost her mother over winter.

Mary T. Bradley MacPherson and I email, trying to connect in person. We missed each other while I was in Brussels and she was working in North Africa with Vital Voices. She, Betsy Morrell Bryan, professor of Egyptology at Johns Hopkins, and I are on the UMW College of Arts and Sciences advisory board under the leadership of Dean Richard Finkelstein. We look at aspects of the college, act as advisors and possibly mentors to students, and engage in outreach, especially to out-of-state prospective students.

Laurie McIntosh travels to help young military men and women hone their writing skills for business and government. She plans a tentative retirement next year to spend more time with her mother, 90, but will continue to work if she can do sessions nearby. The winter weather kept Laurie and me from meeting, but hopefully we will soon.

Hello, fellow classmates. I hope everyone came through the winter with flying colors.

Cheryl Prietz Childress and I listened to the Moody Blues in college and finally got the chance to see them in concert at Richmond’s Altria Theater, formerly the Mosque. Cheryl and Dave stay busy on their farm, and with horse-related events and colonial re-enactments, posting pictures on Facebook in full costume. Cheryl makes buttons for colonial re-enactors and was a movie extra for the TURN series being filmed in Richmond for AMC. Dennis and I hoped to connect with them again during the April Fort Frederick event.

Deb Stanley Leap has helped folks in arid lands find potable water for years. Her mission multiplied tenfold since she visited Jordan and Israel last year, picking up insight into the tensions and issues of the Middle East. Daughter Amy Leap ’12 works at the Explore More Discovery Museum in Harrisonburg, Va., and mother Ruth Smith Stanley ’45 is 90.

My nose is constantly to the grindstone on the job, but I still sing and am planning new programs to take to different venues. I have many upcoming “Hon” activities.

Here’s hoping more of you will touch base. It’s always a pleasure to hear from each of you.

Pam Smith McGahagin wrote to Diane Harvey Smith from Atlanta, where Pam works in marketing for the local NBC affiliate. Between work, family, friends, dogs, and cats, she and husband Mike travel. Last year they stayed with friends in Haamstede, a resort town on the North Sea in the Netherlands. In September, they visited Kauai in Hawaii. Recently Pam had dinner with fellow Atlantan Martha Fisher Bucknell and treasures her yearly “old gal” weekends with Pat Denton Rounds and Diane Harvey Smith. The last one was at Pat’s Queen Anne home in Siler City, N.C. Pat completed renovation of the kitchen, baths, den, and living and dining rooms, and added a porch. Son Adam married Californian Lindsay in March 2013 in Palo Alto and moved to Northern Virginia.

Four years ago Patti Goodall Strawderman asked Linda Fotis, who attended MWC from 1970 to ’71, on Facebook, “Are you the Fotis that lived in Willard Hall freshman year?” Linda reconnected with her Mary Washington sisters and had two mini-reunions. After leaving Mary Washington, she earned degrees in religion from Tufts University and in music from American University, but her MWC connections are the most precious. This is a special kind of miracle that happens because of the place MWC truly is. Linda was anxious to get back to campus for our 40th reunion.

Linda Raflo Raford has practiced acupuncture and Chinese medicine for 14 years. After a 20-plus-year career as a certified nurse-midwife, she started an acupuncture department in Denver senior medical centers about eight years ago. She’s traveled to Nepal with Acupuncturists Without Borders to treat monks in mountain monasteries, to India to treat Tibetan refugees, to Myanmar to train Burmese acupuncturists, and to Bali to train Australian acupuncturists. She took her 22-year-old daughter along. She visited New Zealand for her 60th birthday and was taking a Master Herbalist course. Her son, his wife, and Linda’s grandchildren, ages 3 and 5, live in Dubai, so she planned to visit again in spring.

Bobbie Burton relinquished her role as executive director of Longwood University’s Hull Springs Farm, a working farm in transition to an environmental education center, last year. A Northern Neck Land Conservancy preservation specialist, she helps landowners place conservation easements on their properties. She sails, kayaks, crabs, gardens, and is senior warden for Cople Episcopal Parish and an active Virginia Master Naturalist.

Dianne Doering Junker met husband Tom Junker through Kate Crouch and Marnie Crouch just before graduation. They were to celebrate their 39th anniversary in July. The Junkers have been in touch with the Crouches through the years, visiting Moab, Utah, for a horseback riding and canoeing trip on the Green River in April 2013. Dianne has three children, including twins, and three granddaughters. They love to ski and moved to Conifer, Colo., in 1996. They’ve traveled to the Caribbean, Brazil, Europe, Ireland, Iceland, Mexico, Tanzania in East Africa, Alaska, and Hawaii. Tom works on a Mars spacecraft. Dianne retired as Denver’s University of Colorado Hospital Health System manager after 17 years there and 30 in nursing. She does daycare for her youngest granddaughter, 9 months, and has monthly dinners with Linda Raflo Raford, Betsy Clark Butler ’75, and occasionally Ann McCauley from the Boulder area. She keeps in touch with her children in Arvada, Colo.; Lander, Wyo.; and Santa Rosa, Calif., and her siblings in Minnesota and Nebraska. She couldn’t make the 40th reunion but said you never know when their ’73 VW Kombi bus might swing into another reunion.

Betsy Clark Butler has lived atop a mountain at 9,000 feet for 32 years and is a computer programmer in Denver. Her husband grew up a couple mountains over. They feed hundreds of birds every day and hike in the woods with their Lab/cattle dog mix. She thanks the 40th Reunion Committee – Bobbie Burton, Sid Baker Etherington, Peg Hubbard, Patti Goodall Strawderman, Diane Harvey Smith, Jeane Baughan Stone, Suzy Passarello Quenzer, and Leslie F. Tilghman.

Mary Beth Jones of the Pacific Northwest, a practicing physician for 35 years, specializes in emergency medicine. She earned a master’s degree in health care ethics last year and is program director for ethics for Legacy Health in the Portland, Oregon-Vancouver, Wash., area. She and her husband of 28 years, a U.S. Department of the Interior attorney, have two daughters. One is an attorney; the other was wrapping up her Peace Corps service in Albania. Mary Beth planned to come to the reunion with husband Bill Back.

Mary Ruth Burton and husband Rich McClain spent New Year’s Eve in D.C. with Dawn Hill, who transferred to UNC, and husband Hal Hiemstra. Hannah Patterson Crew visited Mary Ruth in Irvington last summer with girlfriends.

Jean Patton Hippert and husband Brent of the Baltimore area celebrated their 38th anniversary in October. They met on a Valentine’s Day blind date her freshman year. He was one of the Marines at Quantico OCS we were warned about. He started a business after a career in large brokerage firms. Jean is managing director in PNC Bank’s health care division. Only child Hillary moved from Pittsburgh back to D.C. with her Boston terrier. The Hipperts are active in the church they helped plant nine years ago. They planned a trip to Africa this fall for a photo safari and hoped to scuba dive.

Cathy Kroohs, an Alexandria Fire Department paramedic for 28 years, plans to retire soon and hopes to visit some of her 10 nieces and nephews around the country. Cathy is in three choirs, on various committees, and in her second year as congregation council president at Peace Lutheran Church. She looked forward to biking after all the snow.

Jean Ellis Crabtree, a Trickling Springs Creamery AR specialist, moved to Chambersburg, Pa. She’s visited daughter Diane Crabtree ’14, who was accepted into a JFK University graduate program in California, in Fredericksburg. Daughter Carol manages a Maryland horse farm, and Claire teaches elementary school music in Florida.

Myra McCord Lovelace and Helen Taylor Salter connected when Helen attended a Houston wedding. Myra met Helen’s family, and they pored over Myra’s 1976 Battlefield yearbook, laughing about the condition of Helen’s Willard Hall room and how Myra was in Combs Hall 24/7. Myra does market research for a chemical company and is involved with the art community. Husband Jim is in the oil and gas business. Daughter Alex is 30.

Ann Chryssikos McBroom of Salem, Va., gets together annually with Robin Hotchkin Warren, Margo Clifford, and Robin Cress Bernard. Son Kerry III married Megan in fall 2012, works in Rockville, Md., and lives in Arlington, Va. Younger son Connor, a music education major at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, has marched with the JMU MRD Drumline. Ann’s husband, Kerry, retired then re-entered the workforce for a while. Ann substitute teaches, helps an elderly lady, and does freelance photography.

Evelyn McKee-Heath, with the Philadelphia Police Department for 33 years, is chief inspector of investigations. She was the department’s first female inspector and chief inspector. She breeds, owns, and shows prize-winning American Staffordshire terriers and bulldogs. Two of her bulldogs have been official mascots for Mack Trucks. Evelyn earned a master’s degree in public safety administration from St. Joseph’s University in Philly.

Margaret “Fred” Brown Douglas is grandmother to Ophelia, born to daughter Lucy Beadnell on Fred’s birthday! Fred retired last year and keeps baby Phe several days a week. She does fitness training, travels, and volunteers at Richmond’s VCU Massey Cancer Center. Carrie Bell Jacobus’ middle child, a daughter, married in June 2012. Her youngest, a son, got engaged. Carrie worked with the College Board to create an AP chemistry lab book and inspires teens at her New Jersey high school to pursue STEM careers. She creates art in her studio and was in the traveling exhibit iView.

I hope more of you will send news. It’s always great to hear from you!

Greetings to Mary Washers of the Class of 1977! I’m your new class agent, giving Mary Byrd a well-earned respite after many years. Thanks to everyone who submitted news!

Mary lives in Saltville, Va., with Rob Hall, sings alto with the choir and is part-time office manager at her church, and teaches yoga in Abingdon and Chilhowie, Va. As chief of police, Rob instituted the area’s first Citizens Police Academy, teaching community members what it means to be a police officer. They have boxer-mix Calvin.

Lynne Walton Lowe, a counselor and coordinator for the trustee workforce program at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail Authority, planned to retire soon. She and her husband were working on their Abingdon, Va., house. Lynne’s daughter moved to North Carolina from Colorado.

Pat Seyller is costume director for Virginia Opera and the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. They planned another show, The Magic Flute, this summer with Isaac Mizrahi. A past contestant from Project Runway worked for her and was making hand-knitted long underwear for their production of 27 about Gertrude Stein. In Virginia, they were doing a 1950s-era Carmen. Pat went with the designer to LA to rent costumes and attended the Art Directors Guild Awards, where Martin Scorsese received an honorary award presented by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill. June Squibb was there, and the orchestra conductor was Johnny Crawford, the kid from the old TV show The Rifleman.

Julie Mansfield Wilhelm retired from the U.S. Department of State after 35 years and moved to Virginia Beach in 2011. Daughter Megan joined the Peace Corps in 2011; lives in Tiznit, Morocco, where Julie visited her while on tour last year; married in November; and was due to come home in May. Julie, a Master Gardener intern, remarried. She and Gary planned a March trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. She lived in Saigon as a child and hoped to locate her old house and nursery school.

Janice Wenning and her husband of Berkeley, Calif., are retired. They recently spent two months at their place in Ambergris Caye, Belize, scuba diving and snorkeling in the Caribbean. Janice volunteers there, distributing water filters to families in rural villages and poor communities. In Berkeley, she volunteers for Seacology, a nonprofit focused on worldwide island conservation projects, and represents her neighborhood on the city’s Zero Waste Commission. She has a consignment business on eBay. She’s in touch with Laura Stapleton Baker, Mary Dornin Michaud, Karen Hertzel Pratt, and Carol Yancey Orlando.

Mary Beth Briggs is retired, plays bridge, and does genealogy. Mindy Campo Thomas, a private career consultant, connected with George Clark ’75, Mike Dwyer in the City of Brotherly Love, Liz Smith, and Nikki “Kathy” Billos ’76, who moved to Athens, Greece, after graduation. While on a European jaunt with daughter Andrea this past year, Mindy met Nikki in Venice, Italy.

Tom and Melinda Peed May vacationed with her sister, Rebecca Peed Finelli ’86, husband Charles, and daughters Caroline and Annabelle in Quebec City during Christmas. They stayed in the 100-year-old Chateau Frontenac, with a view of the St. Lawrence River and below-zero temperatures, and took toboggan rides. Melinda and Tom planned to connect with Terri Navas Slocomb and Steve, Kathy Haffey Bova and Chris, and Grace Matheny Lalonde and Francois for a May weekend at Deep Creek, Md. The Slocombs’ home, Great Oaks, is on the lake.

That’s all the news for now. I look forward to hearing from more classmates next time!

Sonia Garcia Chilton reviewed Barrie Jo “B.J.” Miller Kirby’s novel, No Such Thing as a Cherokee Princess, on Amazon.com. Barrie is pastor of North Carolina’s Spencer Presbyterian Church. Husband Randy Kirby ’79, associate pastor for pastoral care and counseling at First Presbyterian Church in Salisbury, still plays Frisbee golf.

I’m in touch with several classmates in the D.C./Virginia area and met Carol Middlebrook, Linda McCarthy Milone, and Betsy Larson Kyker for brunch in Old Town Alexandria. Carol and her husband traveled recently to Bali, where her brother, John Middlebrook ’82, and his wife own a bed-and-breakfast in Sanur. Linda sent a Christmas card of her family skiing in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Her two sons are in college. Her sister, ambassador to Lithuania, recently visited. Betsy lives in Fairfax, and her two sons, a sophomore and a senior, are in high school.

Gayle Weinberger Petro and friend Jim traveled to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. She keeps up with Lisa Bratton Soltis, who’s on the UMW Foundation Board and in Roanoke economic development. Lisa has a grandson, Owen. Gayle said Nancy Quaintance Nelles was planning daughter Meredith’s July wedding. Judy Kemp Allard came out of retirement to become a Richmond-area Christian school principal.

My sister, Patricia Goliash Andril ’80, keeps me posted on some of her classmates. Thomas Bogar, husband of Gail Melanson Carr ’80, wrote Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination. Patricia gave the book to my husband for Christmas, since his great-grandfather, Ned Emerson, was acting in the play that evening. It’s a great read.

I’d love to hear from more of you. Please email news to me.