Ever since I was a freshman in 1963, Nan Grogan Orrock ’65 has been a part of my life, though she doesn’t know about this. I want to thank my classmate Mary Carter Bishop ’67 for her great article on this wonderful woman (Impatient for Justice, spring 2014).
Nan introduced me to the unfairness and injustices in our country, especially in regard to black Americans. This, of course, was before the decades of women’s rights and all the other rights that came after the 1960s. I have only a dim memory of many of the aspects of my college life, but I will never forget the time spent with Nan and also with her sweet roommate, Kathy Burke House ’65.
Those young women changed my life. I went back to school after getting my English degree at MWC and became a nurse and then a clinical nurse specialist. I have spent my life working with people who have health problems, who are dying, and who suffer from mental illness. I currently work as a volunteer at a primary care free clinic in central Virginia. I am not sure that my life would have gone the way that it has without the influence of Nan Grogan.
Thank you Nan, and thank you, Mary Carter, for this article in our UMW Magazine. I cried when I saw it. It does not go into the recycling bin!
Charlottesville, Va.