University of Mary Washington - Index

University of Mary Washington - summer08 - Index

photos by Terry Cosgrove
ALUMNI HONORED AT REUNION WEEKEND
The Alumni Association honored four outstanding Mary
Washington graduates during its 2008 Reunion Weekend
festivities on Saturday, May 31. The awards were presented
by Benjamin Hernandez ’95, the Alumni Association’s vice
president for alumni awards.
The Frances Liebenow
Armstrong ’36 Service
Award was presented to
Nanalou West Sauder
’56 of Lexington, Va., for
her service to the Alumni
Association and to the
University. Sauder served
on the Board of Visitors
from 1990 through 1994
and from 2003 through
2007, and was reappointed
in 2007 to a third fouryear
term. She is currently
vice rector of the Board.
She also has served on
Nanalou West Sauder ’56
the Board of Directors of
the Alumni Association
and has been elected to receive emeritus status. She is a longtime
member of the President’s Council and served as co-chair of the
Class of 1956 reunion gift committee.
Rebecca Erbelding ’03 and Harry Thomas ’97 received Young
Alumnus Merit Awards, which recognize alumni within 15 years of
the date of graduation for outstanding achievement in any of the
following areas: profession or career, civic activities, humanitarian
causes, and endeavors in
creative arts and sciences.
Erbelding is an archivist
at the United States
Holocaust Museum.
In 2007, the museum
received an album of
photographs depicting
several Nazi officers
stationed at Auschwitz and
participating in various
recreational activities.
Erbelding’s research helped
to identify the album’s
creator as well as several
other subjects in the
photographs, including
Josef Mengele, who also
Rebecca Erbelding ’03
is known as “The Angel of
Death.” The project has been described in The New York Times,
in The New Yorker, and on a National Geographic documentary.
Erbelding has been interviewed on French, British, German,
Brazilian, and American
television and radio, and
has been featured on
programs with Holocaust
scholar Elie Wiesel. Read
more about her work in
Disturbing Discovery on
page 32.
Thomas discovered
a passion for working
with students during his
undergraduate years at
Mary Washington. He
began his career as an
academic advisor at George
Mason University. Later,
Harry Thomas ’97
he moved to secondary
education as a guidance
counselor and then to director of guidance for Stafford County
Public Schools. His path led to his appointment as assistant
principal at James Monroe High School in Fredericksburg, where
he served for three years before being named principal of the city’s
Walker-Grant Middle School. There, his leadership, visibility, and
support make him popular among students, teachers, and parents.
Betty Orr White ’68,
Head of School at Sacred
Hearts Academy in Hawaii,
was named recipient of the
Distinguished Alumnus
Award. Under White’s
leadership, the academy
recently was recognized
as a National School
of Character, one of 10
institutions nationwide to
receive that designation,
which goes to K-12 schools
and school districts for
providing exemplary
comprehensive character
education programs.
Betty Orr White ’68
Initiatives developed
under White’s leadership include an annual science symposium to
encourage girls to pursue studies in math, science, and technology;
a financial literacy conference for girls; and a weeklong economic
summit focusing on specific occupations and professions. White
joined Sacred Hearts Academy, Hawaii’s largest all-girl school, as
a social studies teacher in 1971 and eventually was named vice
principal and then principal. She is a member of the Board of
Trustees of the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools.
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