University of Mary Washington - Index

University of Mary Washington - summer08 - Index

William B. Crawley Jr.
Phi Beta
Kappa selects
key individuals
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In addition to inducting 51 new
student members, the UMW
Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa elected
as honorary members longtime
academic dean Philip L. Hall, now
retired, and Professor Emerita
of English Carol S. Manning. At
the same time this spring, Mona
Davis Albertine ’71 and Carolyn
Kreiter-Foronda ’69 were
elected alumni members of the
UMW chapter, established in 1970.
Albertine, a businesswoman
and former rector of UMW’s Board
of Visitors, is active in alumni
affairs. Kreiter-Foronda – poet,
painter, sculptor, author, and
lifelong educator – is Virginia’s
Poet Laureate. (Read about her
new poetry collection, River
Country, on page 47.)
The nation’s oldest academic
honor society, Phi Beta Kappa
was founded in 1776, during the
American Revolution.
Karen Pearlman
Centennial Series Highlighted
History’s Best
Special Great Lives lectures celebrate some of the most
influential people of the past century
Great Lives, a series of lectures
that focus on exceptional people
throughout history, has long been
a popular UMW program. This year,
organizers put a special spin on the
program, with a centennial edition
that featured talks about important
historical figures whose lives coincided
with the University’s existence, from
1908 to 2008.
Philip Nel, author of Dr. Seuss: American Icon, and
associate professor of English and director of the
children's literature program at Kansas State University,
presented the April 15 Great Lives lecture, Dr. Seuss.
Endowed by the family of the late
Carmen Culpeper Chappell ’59 and
presented by UMW’s Department of
History and American Studies during
each spring semester, the Chappell
Lecture Series is called Great Lives:
Biographical Approaches to History.
The series wrapped up on April
24, with a lecture on former president
Bill Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton. The talk was
presented by Sally Bedell Smith, author
of the biography For Love of Politics:
Bill and Hillary Clinton. Also featured
this year was a mother-and-son pair
of particular importance to UMW –
Mary and George Washington were
the subject of a March 13 Founders
Week presentation by Peter Henriques,
professor emeritus of history at George
Mason University.
This year’s lectures also highlighted
a host of military and political figures,
including Douglas MacArthur; Richard
M. Nixon; Eisenhower
and Marshall; Lenin,
Stalin, and Hitler; and the
Roosevelts – Franklin D.
and Theodore. Showcased
figures from the literary
world were children’s
writer Dr. Seuss and
Pulitzer Prize-winning
author Margaret Mitchell,
who penned Gone With
the Wind. Featured from
the music realm were
influential jazz vocalist Ella
Fitzgerald and British rock
phenomenon The Beatles.
Women’s rights activists
– nurse Margaret Sanger
and writer Betty Friedan
– were spotlighted in
separate lectures during
Women’s History Month in March.
Other Great Lives presentations
focused on architect Frank Lloyd
Wright, baseball great Babe Ruth, and
evangelical icon Billy Graham. And
special because of their subjects’ links
to UMW were lectures on Mary Ball
Washington, for whom the University
was named, and civil rights leader
James Farmer, who taught history at
Mary Washington from 1985 to 1998.
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