“Other” Class Notes

Richard Thurston (Grad ’73, Grad ’79) has rejoined the New York office of Duane Morris as of counsel in the firm’s intellectual property practice group; he was a corporate and intellectual property attorney at the firm from 1980 to 1984. Mr. Thurston also has retired as senior vice president and general counsel of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, an independent semiconductor foundry company. He has more than 40 years of business and legal experience in the corporate, international, micro-electronics and transactional/licensing markets.

Raymond Abramson (Col ’73 CM) has been elected to an eight-year term on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, effective Jan. 1, 2015. Judge Abramson practiced law in Holly Grove and Clarendon, Arkansas, for 34 years. He served on the Arkansas Court of Appeals by appointment of the governor from 2010 to 2012. Judge Abramson has also served as chairman of the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, the Monroe County Community Foundation, the Holly Smith Grove Library and the Holly Grove food pantry. He and his wife, Mockie, have two daughters: Anne, a graduate of Columbia and Yale universities, and Margaret Emily Abramson (Col ’07).

Erin McDonald (Educ ’06) and her husband, Jeremy, welcomed a son, Henry George, on Oct. 28, 2014. Ms. McDonald was recently named assistant dean of students at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.

Dennis Unkovic (Col ’70) has been named chairman of the board of Meritas Law Firms Worldwide, a global alliance of independent business law firms. He is a partner and international transactional lawyer at Meyer, Unkovic & Scott in Pittsburgh. Previously, Mr. Unkovic was a member of the Meritas board and the executive committee and also was chair of the membership committee.

Mark Krebs (Col ’70 CM) has received the 2015 Senior Leader Award from Northwestern Mutual in recognition of an outstanding year of performance, serving the financial security needs of clients and policy owners throughout the region. Mr. Krebs is a financial representative in the Van Der Hyde network office of Northwestern Mutual in Richmond, Virginia.

Frank Quinn (Col ’66, Grad ’67) has been named University Distinguished Professor Emeritus by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. A member of the Virginia Tech faculty since 1977, Mr. Quinn has engaged many of the best mathematicians of the late twentieth century in a dialogue on the direction of the profession. He organized several mathematics conferences and special sessions, served on five committees of the American Mathematical Society, and served on the council of the American Mathematical Society. In addition, Mr. Quinn has held editorial roles with the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society and served on a national K-12 mathematics standards panel. Over the course of his career, he has been elected a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has also received numerous awards for his work at Virginia Tech, including the Virginia Tech Alumni Award for Research Excellence, a Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award, and a University Distinguished Professorship.

Kevin Donleavy (Col ’61) has published his second book, The Irish in Early Virginia, with Pocahontas Press. A past resident fellow of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Mr. Donleavy is a retired Latin teacher and political organizer. He is active in Clann Mhór, a research group documenting the Irish and slave workers who built the railway through the Blue Ridge Mountains in the mid-1800s. His first book, Strings of Life: Conversations with Old-Time Musicians From Virginia and North Carolina (2004), focused on traditional music from Virginia, North Carolina and Ireland.

Stuart Pachman (Col ’58) has been selected as one of the recipients of the New Jersey Law Journal’s inaugural “Lifetime Achievement Awards,” given to attorneys who have helped shape New Jersey law. He is a member of the corporate, estate and trust and litigation practice groups at Brach Eichler in Roseland, New Jersey, where he counsels businesses and nonprofit corporations and their directors and officers. He has been named to Best Lawyers in America every year since 1993.

George McMath (Col ’54 CM) has published You Win Some, You Lose Some, an account of his life as a Virginia legislator in the 1960s and ’70s, when he represented the Eastern Shore in the Virginia House of Delegates for 15 years. The book describes an era of politics very different from today, before computers transformed legislative and campaigning procedures; when social activities were gala affairs; and proposals reflected local citizens’ concerns and desires.

Matthew Meyers (Col ’01, Law ’06 CM) was elected a partner of the law firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath in February 2015. Based in the firm’s Philadelphia office, he represents public and private companies in a variety of corporate and securities matters, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, joint ventures, corporate governance, capital-raising transactions in public and private markets, public company reporting obligations and general business matters.

Laura Pall (Col ’08) has received an M.B.A. degree from the Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary.

Jerry Tuttle (Engr ’74 CM) has earned a Master of Arts degree in educational technology from New Jersey City University. He is an actuary with RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. in New York City and teaches math part time for the University of Phoenix.

Eugene Facey (Engr ’70 CM) has received the U.S. Coast Guard Meritorious Public Service Award for his exceptional commitment and substantial contributions to the Coast Guard while serving as chairman, vice chairman and a member of the National Offshore Safety Advisory Committee from January 2004 to January 2015. Throughout Mr. Facey’s leadership, the committee made an unprecedented number of recommendations that helped the Coast Guard develop and implement regulatory standards and policies on a wide variety of topics.

Myla Spencer (Col ’98) has earned a doctorate in biology from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. She also holds a Master of Science degree in biotechnology from the Johns Hopkins University.

Charles Printz (Col ’72 CM) has been elected president of the Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia. A partner with Bowles Rice in Martinsburg, West Virginia, he focuses his practice on civil litigation. Over the course of his career, he has tried more than 80 jury trials to verdict and argued more than 40 appeals before the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Printz is also a member of the Defense Research Institute and its commercial litigation committee.

John Wilder (Col ’62 CM) has published The Mover: The Travels of Charles Wilkins in 1838, the fictional story of a young carpenter from the English Midlands who emigrates to the American Midwest. After securing passage on a merchant ship, Wilkins is asked by the ship’s captain to take over the duties of the injured ship carpenter, and adventure ensues. Mr. Wilder, a history buff, was inspired to write the book after reading a family diary from 1831.