“Other” Class Notes

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.

Casey Stein (Col ’10 CM) and Daniel Rooney were married on Sept. 20, 2014, in Reston, Virginia. Ms. Rooney is the daughter of Janet Weissbecker Stein (Col ’79 L/M). The couple lives in New York City, where Ms. Rooney works at the nonprofit American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee while studying at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and Mr. Rooney is an associate at J.P. Morgan.

David Walsh (Engr ’91 CM) has been promoted to colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps. He serves in the H-1 program office at Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Maryland.

Steven Semes (Arch ’75 CM) is an associate professor and director of the graduate program in historic preservation at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture. He is editor of the Classicist, the annual peer-reviewed journal of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, and from 2008 to 2011, he was academic director of Notre Dame’s Rome studies program. Mr. Semes is also the author of two books, The Future of the Past: A Conservation Ethic for Architecture, Urbanism, and Historic Preservation (2009), and The Architecture of the Classical Interior (2004); numerous journal articles; and a blog, The View from Rome. He splits the year between Rome and the Notre Dame campus.

Lynne Benzion (Col ’85) has been appointed vice president of strategic planning for the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, in West Palm Beach, Florida. She is a Certified Economic Developer who works on a variety of business attraction, retention, expansion and entrepreneur development projects. Ms. Benzion served for 10 years with Rockville Economic Development in Rockville, Maryland, where she held a variety of positions, including deputy director. She lives in Hollywood, Florida, with her husband, Ira Benzion; they have two adult children.

Anne Schmidt (Com ’05 CM) and Mike Schmidt (Com ’05 L/M) welcomed a daughter, Marie Virginia, on April 6, 2015. The family recently relocated to Austin, Texas, where Mr. Schmidt is a senior brand strategist at McGarrah Jessee and Ms. Schmidt owns Scout Digital, a web development firm.