“Publication” Class Notes

Tom Evans (Col ’53, Law ’56 CM), former U.S. Congressman from Delaware, is the subject of a new book by Lois Hoffman, Barriers: The life and legacy of Tom Evans. With our nation divided between left and right, Barriers reflects on a time when politics worked in Washington. Evans represented Delaware in the 1970s and 80s and worked his way into the center of political power. He built coalitions of Democrats and Republicans, including President Reagan, to pass major environmental legislation despite opposition from big-money lobbyists. The Coastal Barrier Resources Act, touted by the New York Times as “the most important environmental legislation no one has ever heard of,” and the Alaska Lands Act are among his most significant achievements. He’s hopeful his neighbor, President-Elect Joe Biden, will also champion sound environmental policies. The book is available on Amazon.com. 

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Although he ran with the biggest names in Republican circles while in Congress, his influence extended before and far after his time there. Evans gave hundreds of speeches at political and non-political venues to share wisdom and inspire his audiences. At 89, he continues to give interviews and pen op-eds to chastise politicians who are on the wrong path or tap the consciousness of the American people.

Barriers is a window into his life’s work. It speaks to a common-sense approach to legislation and consensus building in interactions with others that got lost in the last decades since he served.

Tom’s legacy is a message for those serving in political office and a call to citizens — use your voices before we cease to have them. 

“Tom Evans worked tirelessly in Congress and afterwards as a lobbyist and advocate to protect wetlands essential to our coastline and wild lands in Alaska. Evans reminds us all of the proud conservationist tradition of the Republican Party who built our national park system and preserved large tracts of national forests and wilderness. Evans worked across the aisle to achieve great things in preserving America’s wild spaces and biodiversity, and his story is both important historically and an inspiration for our future.”

~ U.S. Senator, Chris Coons

Robert Schwab (Col ’79, Med ’83 CM) will publish his third novel, Eddie’s Boy, in February 2021. The novel is a sequel to his first, Holy Water. Dr. Schwab serves as chief medical officer for a hospital in the Texas Health Resources health system based in the Dallas-Forth Worth Metroplex. He also teaches an undergraduate seminar on the healing power of stories at the University of Texas at Dallas. He returns to UVA regularly to serve as a guest lecturer in the post-baccalaureate premedical program in the School of Continuing Education and Professional Studies.

Karen Young Foley (Col ’87, Educ ’08) published her second picture book, Santa’s Sleigh Is Stuck: A Hog Island Christmas Tale. The story, illustrated by Michelle Simpson, takes place on one of Virginia’s beloved barrier islands. 

Sheldon Zablow (Col ’73, Med ’77), a psychiatrist, published a nutrition book, Your Vitamins Are Obsolete:The Vitamer Revolution—A Program for Healthy Living and Healthy Longevity. This book is about the disparity between what we expect of our vitamins and what they provide. Food often has its natural bioactive vitamins (vitamers) stripped out while the synthetic forms are substituted back in. This vitamer deficiency is exacerbating the universal illness of chronic inflammation which contributes to the onset of depression, dementia, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, etc. The book explains the newly understood mechanism by which this occurs by focusing on the two most essential vitamins—B12 and folate. Vitamers are the forms of vitamins that are used by cells and are critical to the functioning of biochemical activity from the expression of genes to the production of energy molecules to the cleansing of cellular waste. For example, if there is plenty of Vitamin D and calcium but a deficiency of B vitamers, osteoporosis still occurs. The unhealthy pro-inflammatory mechanism explored is the relationship between the deficiency of the vitamer forms of B12 and folate and reduced DNA epigenetic methylation. I call this process the Vitamer Revolution.  

Brenton Sullivan (Grad ’13) published a new book, Building a Religious Empire: Tibetan Buddhism, Bureaucracy, and the Rise of the Gelukpa, this fall. Sullivan teaches religion at Colgate University.

Jordan Gruber (Law ’88) published Your Symphony of Selves: Discover and Understand More of Who We Are with his coauthor, psychologist James Fadiman. Learn more about the book here or on Amazon. 

Charles Edwards (Col ’69 CM) published a book on aging, Much Abides: A Survival Guide for Aging Lives. He was a cardiovascular surgeon in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, for 29 years. After both of his parents died from dementia, he sought training at Johns Hopkins in dementia and returned to Charlotte to open a nonprofit center dedicated to the care of patients and families struggling with memory loss. His late-life experience with these patients and families inspired this book, which focuses on living the last years of your life with passion and purpose. It’s available at www.mmclt.org and on Amazon. Sales will support Memory & Movement Charlotte.    

Ashley Bristow Bartley (Col ’06) published her first children’s book, Diamond Rattle Loves to Tattle, in July 2020. Bartley is a school counselor whose writing has been published in The Joyful Life Magazine and on the Kindred Mom blog. Her second children’s book is currently under contract with Boys Town Press. She lives with her husband and three young boys in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Kyle Elliott (Col ’07) announced his candidacy for the democratic nomination for the Virginia House of Delegates 68th District. He writes: “I am excited for this next step in my public service and I welcome conversations, support, and enthusiasm, from the UVA community. People can find out more about my campaign from my website or email kyleelliott@kyle4va.com. I am on Twitter @Kyle4va. 

Deborah E. Sheetenhelm Hammond (Arch ’82) published her 22nd novel, Wesbury. Quentin Killington returns from a prolonged stay in India, working for the East India Company in order to amass his fortune and marry childhood love, Rosemary Whitcomb. When he returns home, he is stunned to learn that his life will not be as he planned. He must now face the Regency England bon ton alone and on his own terms. This and all of Hammond’s novels are available on Amazon and at local book signings and events.

Paul E. Stroble (Grad ’91) has published a poetry chapbook, “Backyard Darwin,” and a full-length poetry book, Walking Lorton Bluff, both with Finishing Line Press. He is adjunct faculty at Webster University and Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis. 

Nelson D. Neal (Educ ’85) published a biography about Hemsley Winfield, the first African American modern dancer. Winfield was a contemporary of the pioneers of modern dance, he founded, directed, choreographed, and danced with his company The New Negro Art Theatre Dance Group from 1931 through 1933. He was the first African American to be contracted by the Metropolitan Opera when he danced the role of the Congo Witch Doctor in The Emperor Jones in 1933. The book describes Winfield’s life and career as an actor, director, dancer, choreographer, and teacher until his untimely death at the age of 26 in 1934. Dr. Neal is the authority on Hemsley Winfield and this is book is the culmination of his 28 years of research. His previous publication, in 2018, was an annotated bibliography about Hemsley Winfield with 511 annotated sources.

Duncan Clarke (Grad ’70) published a novel, A Little Rebellion Is a Good Thing: Troubles at Traymore College. It is a fictionalized account of his year (1969-1970) as an associate professor of political science at Radford College, then a public women’s college. Among other things, that time saw successful lawsuits against the college and its repressive president which eventually led to the removal of the longest-serving college president in the Old Dominion, coeducation and the founding of Radford University, and restoration of long-denied academic freedoms and civil liberties for faculty and students.

Mark Andrew Bradley (Law ’83) will publish his second book, Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America, in October 2020. Publishers Weekly calls it “a page-turning study of the 1969 triple murder of union leader Joseph Yablonski and his wife and daughter, and the crime’s impact on the United MIne Workers of America and organized labor in general… The result is both a juicy true crime story and a tribute to the power of effective labor movements.”