Class Notes
Judith Baroody (Grad ’85 CM)
Judith Baroody (Grad ’85 CM) published her third work of fiction, Return of the Silent Sovereign, a sci-fi fantasy mix of Star Trek and Wonder Woman with a twist of Romeo and Juliet. Baroody retired from the foreign service at the rank of minister-counselor and continues to work part-time for the Department of State.
John Ragosta (Col ’08 CM)
John Ragosta (Law ’84, Grad ’08) has published his fourth book, For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle (UVA Press). In 1799, at the behest of President George Washington, Patrick Henry came out of retirement to thwart Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and the radical states’ rights agenda of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. Washington and Henry believed that their opponents were putting party over country and threatening the still fragile union. Rebuking Jefferson and Madison, Henry insisted that in a democracy change must occur “in a constitutional way” or monarchy threatened.
For the People, For the Country tells the remarkable story of how the most eloquent public speaker of the American Revolutionary era and the leading antifederalist during debates over ratification of the Constitution reemerged from retirement to defend the Constitution that he had opposed, but that had been adopted by his co-citizens. Much more than a fire-breathing demagogue, the Patrick Henry we encounter here comes to life as a principled leader of the young nation who believed above all in working with a government elected by the people, advocating for political change in “a constitutional way”—at the ballot box.
Caroline Rayner (Col ’13)
Caroline Rayner (Col ’13) published her first book, The Moan Wilds, in May 2023. Published by Shabby Doll House, The Moan Wilds consists of one long poem, and Caroline describes what it’s about like this: “Lighting fireworks in the yard during a party, then escaping into the house to cut your hair in the bathtub, or down the road to where everyone promised you could perfectly see the moon. Sharing a bottle of wine while riding through the Blue Ridge Mountains in the back of a station wagon with no air conditioning and nothing but weather and sports on the radio. Writing each other’s names on the windows with melting lipstick. Putting glitter on your eyes. Crossing your legs over her legs to make a move on a giant rock in the river. Getting blood on your dress. Sweating in pink sheets until noon with someone you got to sing ‘Someday I Will Treat You Good’ then ‘Trains Across the Sea’ then ‘Farewell Transmission’ with at karaoke. Yelling on the phone from the porch about a psychedelic kind of light coming in like water but also like velvet through the magnolia that everyone needs to see to believe and we can make a whole goddamn night out of it if someone goes to get more wine.”
Selah Saterstrom says, “THE MOAN WILDS is a queer feast…Caroline Rayner can write lines that stop your heart, or rather, relocate it.” Dara Barrois/Dixon says, “Here we have a book of the excruciating intoxication of passionate, ardent, not altogether unrequited love…Rayner’s not holding anything back and the music of her words and the beauty of her soul makes it all bearable.” Ocean Vuong says, “Steeped in the hybrid and maximalist tradition of C.D. Wright, Bernadette Mayer, and Alice Notley, The Moan Wilds nevertheless forges a path so inimitable it becomes the very thumbprint of its author, which to me is the crowning achievement of any book worth its salt. Here Rayner has produced an indelible and unforgettable voice, full of heart, intelligence, hunger and a wildness that shakes us into new, hallucinatory order.”
Excerpts from The Moan Wilds can be found online in Annulet, Black Warrior Review, b l u s h, KEITH LLC, and Peach Mag. An interview with Caroline about THE MOAN WILDS can be found in The Millions.
Jeannine Johnson Maia (Col ’86)
Jeannine Johnson Maia (Col ’86) published The Filigree Master’s Apprentice, her second historical novel about Portugal. It’s the story of a young man who, in 1877, escapes the harsh Douro Valley vineyards for a new — and precarious — life in the big city. (https://mybook.to/FiligreeMaster)
It was published earlier this year by Portuguese publisher Marcador under the title O Rapaz do Douro.
Rossio Square N.° 59, which takes place in Lisbon during WWII, is her first novel.
Lucas Hobbs (Law ’98 CM)
Lucas Hobbs (Law ’98 CM) was elected as secretary of the Association of District Court Judges of Virginia at the Association’s annual meeting in August. He serves as a General District Court Judge in the 28th Judicial District.
Shira Lurie (Col ’19)
Shira Lurie (Grad ’19) will publish her first book, The American Liberty Pole: Popular Politics and the Struggle for Democracy in the Early Republic, with UVA Press in October. Lurie is an assistant professor of history at Saint Mary’s University.
Stephen Rider (Com ’80)
Stephen Rider (Com ’80 CM) has been recognized in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America. Rider works for McGlinchey Stafford and was recognized for his work out of the New Orleans office.
Kevin Clouther (Col ’01)
Kevin Clouther (Col ’01) will publish a collection of stories, entitled Maximum Speed, in November 2023. In the stories, character Billy’s improbable reappearance connects Nick, Andrea and Jim, and forces them to revisit the shared secret of their past. The book moves across time and plays with multiple points of view to dramatize youth’s aftershocks.
Clouther is also the author of We Were Flying to Chicago: Stories (2014).
Thomas Cook (Com ’81)
Thomas H. Cook Jr. (Com ’81 CM) has been named the Best Lawyers® 2024 Tax Law “Lawyer of the Year” in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is also listed as a leading tax lawyer by Chambers USA, a prominent ranking agency for law firms and lawyers. Cook works with Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP in Raleigh.
Frank Macgil (Com ’91)
Frank S. Macgill (Com ’91), a partner at HunterMaclean, a law firm with offices in Savannah and St. Simons Island, Georgia, was recently selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© 2024. Founded in 1983, Best Lawyers is an annual publication that recognizes attorneys for outstanding achievements in their areas of practice. Attorneys are selected through peer-review surveys that have been completed by thousands of leading lawyers who confidentially evaluate their peers.
Michael Trimble (Col ’04 CM)
Lt. Col. Michael Trimble (Col ’04 CM) has earned a Ph.D. in military strategy from the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, the U.S. Air Force’s graduate-level strategy school. His dissertation focused on security cooperation and air advisers in the war on terror.
Phillip Fowler (Educ ’78 CM)
Christopher Corbett (Col ’78 CM) and Phillip Fowler (Educ ’78 CM), first-year roommates at Humphreys Dorm in 1974, reconnected on July 22, 2023. They had not seen each other since 1978. Corbett was a resident advisor for three years and Fowler for two.
Mark Delcuze (Col ’80 CM)
Rev. Mark S. Delcuze (Col ’80 CM) is retiring after 10 years as rector of Christ Church Parish, Kent Island, Maryland. In 38 years of ordained life he has served Episcopal Church parishes in six dioceses. A lifelong ecumenist, he was appointed ecumenical and interfaith officer in two dioceses and held leadership positions in the Virginia Council of Churches and other interfaith councils. He is a five-time deputy to the General Convention and has been active in promoting the full inclusion of LGBTQ persons in the life and leadership of the church. He and his wife Mary Jerome Delcuze (COM ’82 CM) will live in Annapolis, Maryland.
Tom Kloiber (Com ’90)
Rob Elliott (Com ’90 CM) and Tom Kloiber (Com ’90 CM) took on the Triple Bypass, a 118-mile bike ride across Colorado, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their 1993 cross-country bicycle trip. They proudly wore their Virginia crossed-sabres bike jerseys, drawing plenty of attention and remarks from fellow riders. The jerseys also allowed them to meet several other Wahoos from all over the country who were participating in the ride.
David Hein (Col ’76, Grad ’82 CM)
David Hein (Col ’76, Grad ’82 CM) has been appointed distinguished teaching fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in Mecosta, Michigan.
Amy Rosenberg (Col ’95 CM)
Amy Rosenberg Allshouse (Col ’95 CM) graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law in May, 2023 with a J.D., CIPP/US certification and a High Tech Law Certificate with Honors.
Anne McCall (Col ’81 CM)
Anne E. McCall (Col ’81 CM) was named president of The College of Wooster, effective July 1, 2023. Her inauguration is scheduled for October 28, 2023.
An inspirational and values-driven administrator with a track record for building innovation through inclusive excellence, a dedicated teacher and mentor, and internationally recognized scholar of nineteenth-century French fiction and life writing, President McCall is the second woman to lead Wooster since its founding in 1866. She also is a tenured professor in the Department of French and Francophone Studies.
McCall previously was provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at Xavier University of Louisiana—ranked fifth among Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the U.S. according to U.S. News & World Report and first among all institutions for the number of African American graduates completing medical school and multiple Ph.D. programs.
William Gentry (Col ’81 CM)
William C. Gentry (Col ’81 CM) of Gentry Law Firm LLC in Marietta, Georgia has been elected to serve as secretary of the 54,000-member State Bar of Georgia. Gentry was installed June 10 during the organization’s annual meeting in Savannah.
Gentry also serves on the state bar’s executive committee and has represented the Cobb Judicial Circuit on the Board of Governors of the State Bar. He earned his law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law and was admitted to the state bar in 1986.
His law practice focuses on family law, including divorce, high asset property division, child custody and alimony cases. He serves as chair of the state bar’s Senior Lawyers Committee and is a past president of the Cobb County Bar Association.
Edward Coleman (Col ’04)
Ed Coleman (Col ’04) has been named in the 2024 edition of Best Lawyers in America for his practice in insurance litigation and personal injury. Inclusion is by peer evaluation only and fewer than 6% of all U.S. lawyers are included in this annual publication.
Thomas Grant (Col ’92)
Thomas C. Grant (Col ’92) has been named to the 2024 edition of Best Lawyers in America® in the practice area of Commercial Litigation. Grant is a partner with Freed Grant LLC in Atlanta, where he focuses his practice on commercial litigation, commercial real estate, and insurance defense matters. He received his law degree at Emory University School of Law.
About Freed Grant LLC www.freedgrant.com
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Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication company in the legal profession. Their lists of outstanding lawyers are compiled by conducting exhaustive peer review surveys in which tens of thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers.
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