By the time you read this, the snow and ice that embraced the mid-Atlantic region this past winter will be a distant memory. When Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel is reporting from snowy Virginia Beach in February, then you know the weather is bizarre.
Doug Brown ’71, J.D. ’74 sent us an update about his continuing support for the College and W&M Law School.
“I was elected not long ago an honorary trustee of the William & Mary Law School Foundation Board of Trustees. It’s a wonderful opportunity to stay engaged with the law school and continue my service, since 2008, as a foundation trustee. It also facilitates more visits to Williamsburg for Escha and me, which we hugely enjoy!”
Tom Cooney emailed me about the retirement of Hubie Brown, an iconic basketball coach and long-time broadcaster, who got his start as a gym teacher at William & Mary in 1967-68. Tom and I both had the “pleasure” of being in Hubie’s first volleyball/basketball class freshman year. We both agreed that Hubie was under the delusion that he was training aspiring professional athletes rather than decommissioned high school players and freshman men who were at the College for academics, not a professional sports career. Check out a story about Hubie by The Associated Press to learn more. For those who follow sports, it is amazing that Hubie Brown, Marv Levy and Lou Holtz were all part of the College athletic department in the late ’60s at the start of their careers.
We had the pleasure of hosting Kathy Plasmati Baldwin and Jim Baldwin ’70 this winter in Florida. They spent about a month visiting friends and family from Connecticut to Florida. Kathy and Jim described a wonderful experience on their first Road Scholar tour last fall. They visited three regions in Italy, one of which was Basilicata, which includes Matera, where Kathy’s ancestors are from. It was their second visit to Matera, and they had a wonderful gathering with 50 Plasmati cousins. Matera, a UNESCO Heritage Site, is famous for its cave dwellings and dates back 30,000 years. It is considered “one of the longest continuously inhabited places in the world.” Kathy said that “the trip was well organized, economical and educational.”
The W&M Alumni Magazine staff scours the internet for stories about College alumni and forwards the results to us. This issue’s find was Carol Clayman Woody. A W&M Charles Center article profiled Carol and her husband, Robert. Carol was a math major at the College and went on to a very interesting and diverse career in technology long before there were many women in that field. She currently works for the Software Engineering Institute, a research center for the U.S Department of Defense. Aside from her professional life, Carol and her husband are avid art and antiques collectors with over 700 works of art lining the walls of their Williamsburg home. Check out this W&M Alumni magazine article about the Woodys and how they support William & Mary students’ passion for public history, art history and museums through the Woody Internship in Museum Studies.
On a sad note, we received the following news from Susan Bragg Riddle: “I just wanted to let you know that Mike Riddle died the day after Christmas if you need this for the Class Notes. He would always read them when he received his magazine.
He received a B.A. in history from W&M and then went on to get an MBA from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. He became a successful banker for most of his career in Dallas, but also worked for the Small Business Administration processing disaster loans when hurricanes struck the U.S. in recent years. Mike was 76.”
We are always looking for new material. So for those who have thought about writing but were too busy, take a few minutes and send us a note about what you have been doing for the last 53 years! Carpe diem.