Sweet Briar College Magazine - Fall 2018

sbc.edu
Val Stoddard Loring ’59 and husband Stephen
Plan to make it a trip and bring your
spouse along or a companion to help
you get here. For those of us going, we
should book at the Elston Inn early.
Just a thought. We will need some volunteers
to run this reunion, I believe.
Joanne Bossert Thompson: We
are going to our 3rd grandson‘s wedding
on Sept. 15 in Vail, CO. 5 days
later we leave for Vancouver, BC, to
take the Rocky Mountaineer train
to the Canadian Rockies. We will
be gone a total of three weeks. Will
send pictures from our trip. Other
than that, things are pretty stable.
The other exciting thing is that I
have reconnected with my roommate,
Sally Bertelsen Maguire, and
we are getting together the beginning
of November.
Mary Boyd Davis: I have nothing
much to report from Ponte Vedra
Beach, but as frequent hurricane
evacuees, we hope all is going OK for
you. I’ve never heard of so much water
in such a short time! Hope you’ve
been able to stay dry! The most exciting
thing in our life right now is
that our 3-year-old great grandson
took off on a 2-wheeler bike a few
days ago. He was apprehended, but
they may have to hide the bike!
Mary Harrison Cooke Carle:
(ed. note: I don’t know where she is.
I seem to have lost her. Does anyone
know where she is?)
Tricia Coxe Ware: Judy Sorley
Simpson invited Betsy Duke Seaman,
Tabb Thornton Farinholt
and myself to join her for a few days
while she vacationed in Gloucester,
VA. It was fun to catch up on news
and share pictures.
Di Doscher Spurdle: Just got
back from Red Mountain Ranch in
Idaho with the whole family (minus
two). Couldn’t have been a more
perfect vacation. With West Coast
and East Coast, it’s not easy to get
together. I ran into an SBC grad,
class of 2017, who thanks all alums
who helped keep things going so she
could graduate.
Deborah Dunning: I’m competing
with Ruth Bader Ginsburg for
being the woman works longer than
any of her friends and loves what
she’s doing. At 81, I’m having a great
time developing training that enables
all types of enterprises reduce their
waste, water and energy use so we all
can leave to our grandkids a healthy
and sustainable environment. I feel
blessed to live in Providence, Rhode
Island — a beautifully restored city
where most people can walk to work.
And we all have access to some of the
best beaches and best restaurants in
New England. And my grand-kids
all live nearby. Hope to see you at
our 60th!
Alice Cary Farmer Brown:
Greetings everyone! President Meredith
Woo has been engaging our
oldest son Lyons to advise her on
sustainable farming for Sweet Briar.
She knew him when she was at
UVA and he was teaching at the
Darden School there. Lyons and his
wife live on a lovely farm in Batesville,
VA, outside of Charlottesville,
where they have over 200 bee hives.
They sell the honey, and it is DE-
LICIOUS! [check them out: www.
elysiumhoney.com] To date, Lyons
has put 20 bee hives at Sweet Briar
and is instructing interested students
in their care. He says he had never
been to Sweet Briar in the daylight!
I can’t wait to see all of you at our
60th reunion — especially Travis
Thompson.
Penny Fisher Duncklee: Fun
June this year. I helped a friend take
his annual student trip to a bunch of
National Parks. 8 kids: 5 girls and 3
boys, all just finished 9th grade. His
school and kids are from Lexington,
VA. We all flew into Phoenix and
piled into one large van with our
camping gear. Drove to Grand Canyon,
Zion, Bryce, past Death Valley
and on to Mt. Whitney. We camped
a couple of nights at each National
Park. We sure do have a beautiful
country. Then we drove over to
Yosemite, before the fires started!
Lucky us. Then we drove down to
Disneyland for a fun day, and back
to Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix,
AZ. Really fun 2 weeks. And, my
good luck with the weather held out
one more time. Whew! Here are just
a few of the almost 300 pictures I
took. The last picture of all the traffic
on the way down to Disneyland
shows one reason I do not want to
live in California. Of course, now
that California is all burning up, I
guess that would be another reason
I don’t want to live there.
Meriwether Hagerty Rumrill:
My news is mostly my grandkids
and that’s the best. Attended the
last high school graduation of my 3
South Dakota grandsons. They all
have full scholarships to college and
2 may go into medicine. In Chris’
yearbook, in the ‘most likely’ dept.,
it was said about him: “most likely to
find a cure for cancer.” WE WISH.
My 4 Virginia (Richmond and Fairfax)
grandkids are the littlest - sweet,
adorable and funny, love music and
dance, animals, sports. My 2 New
York granddaughters both gave me
joyful visits this spring and summer
and one is with me at this moment.
I took her from the plane to a dance
(waltz) and later contra - 4 hrs. of
dancing. Have to admit I did not
dance every one (I’d driven up from
Tidewater, my excuse), but she did
and was ecstatic. Love having a relative
as nuts about dancing as I am.
Gay Hart Gaines: Stanley and
I are winging our way home from
Sitka, AK, to Seattle tonight and
then Seattle to Florida tomorrow.
We have had a marvelous trip with
our son Ralph and family and some
friends and their family. It was a great
success on a National Geographic
ship, and we all so enjoyed the
eagles, orcas, humpbacked whales,
seals, puffins, and on and on! I am
working hard on the Ron DeSantis
race for Florida’s governor as well as
Rick Scott for US Senate, to replace
Sen. Bill Nelson who is a dinosaur!
On Feb. 20, Stanley had a new aortic
valve operation and also a stent, at
the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, which
was a huge success! It is the number
one heart hospital in America and
we were mighty impressed!
My “Founders and Us” series at
The Society of the Four Arts has
been a huge success for the past two
years and I was asked to do it again
in 2019. Next season we will have
four lectures on the “Founding Documents
“and I have four outstanding
historians and scholars coming: Gordon
Wood, Akhil Amar, Jon Meacham
and Rick Brookhiser. They are
all brilliant and sensational speakers!
Love to you wherever this finds you!
Trudie Jackson Smither: (ed.
Note: this is an email from Judy
Welton Sargent)
“In reading the newsletter I saw
Trudy’s name listed. I guess SBC
is unaware of her death. She and I
shared a long and close friendship.
She was a very caring person and
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