Class Notes

Jonathan Daniel Distler (Col ’96, Educ ’97) and his wife, Leslie, welcomed a daughter, Elsie Rose Distler, on Nov. 20, 2008. Mr.  Distler is an information technology manager in Arlington, Va. The family resides in Fairfax, Va.

Carmen Stewart Clipper (Col ’96 L/M), Jennifer Erickson (Col ’98 L/M), Daphne Page MacDougall (Col ’99 L/M), Nola Falletta Miller (Col ’99, Educ ’04), Walker Noland (Col ’97, GSBA ’03 L/M), Mark Pinho (Com ’99 L/M), Karl Shin (Com ’97 L/M) and Daniel Van Clief (Col ’99 L/M) are all members of the University’s Young Alumni Council, which represents young alumni interests and concerns to the Alumni Association and the University. The Council also seeks to better serve and support young alumni with programs and communications that are uniquely tailored to their own needs and perspectives. Alumni from the University’s 12 most recent undergraduate classes are considered young alumni and are eligible to apply to the Council.

Andrew Parker (Engr ’95, ’96 L/M) and Meredith Caskey Parker (Col ’99, Law ’02 L/M) welcomed their first child, Olivia Catherine, on Oct. 29, 2008. The family resides in Fairfax, Va.

Jack Kerrigan (Col ’95, Law ’98) was named one of Washington Business Journal’s Top Washington Lawyers in the category of general counsel in the magazine’s September issue. He is the general counsel for Blackbird Technologies Inc., a company based in Herndon, Va., that provides high-end technology products and services to the intelligence community and the U.S.  Department of Defense. Mr. Kerrigan and his wife, Marli Porterfield Kerrigan (Col ’94), have five children: two boys, Kaelan, 8, and Rex, 6; and three girls, Casey, 5, Grace, 2, and Ella, 3 months.  Ms. Kerrigan is an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Denise Koch (Col ’95 L/M) and her husband, Clint Jefferson Farr, welcomed their daughter, Siena Koch Farr, on Oct. 4, 2008.  Siena joins sister, Carmen Koch Farr, 3. The family resides in Juneau, Alaska.

Wynne Krause Kelch (Col ’95 L/M) and her husband,  Greg, welcomed a son, Maxwell James, on Nov. 26, 2008. The family lives in Alexandria, Va.

Deborah Ann Shelton (Grad ’94) is an associate professor at the University of Connecticut School of Nursing and, in October,  received professional certification in correctional health care from the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. Also in October, Ms. Shelton received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health for Formalizing a Research Partnership in Corrections. Her work identifies ways to formalize a collaborative partnership between the University of Connecticut Health Center/Correctional Managed Health Care and the Connecticut Department of Correction. She was also inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in the fall. Ms. Shelton is an associate professor at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and is the director of research and evaluation for Correctional Managed Health Care. In 2004, she was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the International Association of Forensic Nurses. Her research interests include the mental health care of young offenders,  disproportionate minority confinement, forensic psychiatric nursing, child and adolescent mental health and corrections nursing.

Simone L. Pollard (Engr ’94 L/M) is the assistant dean of graduate business programs at Villanova University. She joined the Villanova School of Business in the summer of 2006. She previously held roles in production/manufacturing at Monsanto and in consulting at Sibson Consulting.  Ms. Pollard received her M.B.A. degree from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. She and her husband, James, live in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Kathy Mulrane Piller (Com ’94 L/M) and her husband,  Chris, welcomed their first child, Sophie Clare, on May 27, 2008. The family resides in Rome, Ga.

Virginia Baker Norton (Col ’94 L/M) was elected circuit court judge for the Fourth Judicial Circuit, Florida. She resides in Jacksonville, Fla.

Chase David Patrick (Col ’94 L/M) and Paurenia Boyd Patrick (Col ’94 L/M) welcomed their fourth child and third son,  Oliver Barney, on Dec. 7, 2008. He joins sister Sara “Sally,” 9; and brothers Chase Jr., 8, and Harry, 2. Lt. Cmdr. Patrick is the executive officer on the USS Chung-Hoon. The family resides in Ewa Beach, Hawaii.

Scott McGuffin (Col ’94 L/M) and his wife, Stephanie,  welcomed their second son, Eric Philip, on Jan. 23, 2008. Mr. McGuffin is a database contractor for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Laura Gesicki-Wood (Col ’94, Med ’99 L/M) and Oscar Wood (Engr ’95 L/M) welcomed their second child, Reagan George Abigail, on Aug. 19, 2008. Reagan George joins her brother, Preston George, 3. The family resides in Springfield, Va. Dr. Gesicki-Wood owns Accredited Allergy Center of Springfield, where she also practices. Mr. Wood is president/chief executive officer of Data-Tactics, a government contracting firm.

Diana Magazine Schobel (Col ’93) and her husband, Eric Magazine Schobel (Col ’93), welcomed their daughter, Tegan, on Nov. 10, 2008. Tegan joins a sister, Nora, 4.

Ronnie A. Yoder (Col ’58, Law ’61) has served as the chief administrative law judge of the Virginia Department of Transportation since July 1, 2001, and has served as a federal administrative law judge for 33 years at the Department of Transportation, the Civil Aeronautics Board, the Department of Labor and other agencies, after spending 14 years in private practice in New York and Washington, D.C. In July 2007, Judge Yoder established the Ronnie A. Yoder Scholarship, for students enrolled at Virginia Theological Seminary as master’s degree candidates in divinity and in theological studies,  to advance the study of love as an appropriate philosophical center for Christian theology, life, preaching and practice, and to explore love as an ecumenical theme unifying all religions.

Mark F. Raterman (Col ’93 L/M) and Martha McNeil Raterman (Col ’96 L/M) welcomed their fourth child and first son, Thomas Mark, on June 23, 2008. He joins sisters Ellie, 6; Dory, 4; and Mary, 2. The family resides in Ashburn, Va.

Sarah Richardson Fahrendorf (Col ’93 L/M) and her husband, Gregor, welcomed their son, Theodor Eaton, on Nov. 12, 2008. The Fahrendorf family lives in Columbia, Md. Ms. Fahrendorf works as legislative counsel to AEGON DMS, Inc.

Rosemary Willingham (Col ’92) married Stephanie Kish on Nov. 1, 2008. Ms. Willingham is a partner at Willingham Schmidt Law Corp. in San Diego.

George P. Drake Jr. (Grad ’93) is associate dean for curriculum and accreditation at the College of Education at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Robert E. Eicher (Col ’58, Law ’61 L/M) received the Richmond Bar Association’s Professionalism Award for 2008. Mr. Eicher is chair of the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board and a former chair of the Standing Committee on Legal Ethics. He is a shareholder in Williams Mullen in Richmond,  Va., and is counsel to the firm.

David Matheson (Educ ’92 L/M) is regional vice president for Invesco Aim, where he has worked since 2000. Mr. Matheson directs the marketing of the company’s investment products to independent financial advisers in Maryland, Delaware, Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. He and his wife, Norma, reside in Rockville, Md., with their son, Daniel; and daughters Isabel and Sara.

Norman Crabill (Engr ’58) was inducted into the Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame by the Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society in Richmond on Nov. 8, 2008. Mr. Crabill spent 37 years with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), serving as mission analysis and design manager for the Project Viking mission to Mars from 1968 to 1976 and for NASA’s Lunar Orbiter program, which found Apollo landing sites and mapped 99 percent of the lunar surface. He initiated the Digital Flight Recorder Program and, in the mid-1970s, designed the NASA Storm Hazards Program, which provided valuable data to the aircraft industry. Mr. Crabill worked for Martin Marietta as a contractor and then formed Aero Space Consultants in 1988. He holds two patents and developed the first weather-in-the-cockpit system using a satellite broadcast in the early 1990s, a system that is in widespread use and has had a major impact on the way general aviation pilots fly in weather. He continues to work as an independent consultant to VIGYAN, an aeronautical engineering firm in Hampton, Va.

David Walsh (Engr ’91 L/M) received a Master of Science degree in technical management from Johns Hopkins University. Lt. Col.  Walsh serves in the U.S. Marine Corps and is currently assigned as the director of operations at Fleet Readiness Center East and resides in North Carolina with his wife, Christina; and their two sons.

Bonny Gray Mitchell (Col ’91 L/M) and Jesse Mitchell announce the birth of their second child, Patrick John, on Oct. 19, 2007.  Patrick’s grandfather is Edward Emlen Gray (Col ’69) and his great-grandfather is Edward Irvine Gray (Col ’40).

Meg Munder Rafter (Col ’90 L/M) and her husband, Joe,  welcomed a third son, Nicholas Fisher “Cole,” to their family on Oct. 16, 2008.  Cole’s brothers are Jack, 6; and Charlie, 5.

Cameron Costa Donohue (Col ’90 L/M) and her husband,  Brian, welcomed their second child, Elizabeth Cecile, on Sept. 3, 2008. “Libby”  joins her 2-year-old brother, Jack. She is the granddaughter of Alan Arthur Costa (Com ’67 L/M), and the niece of William Bradley Bohn (Engr ’91 L/M) and Deborah Elizabeth Costa Bohn (Col ’92 L/M). The family resides in Minnetonka, Minn., where Ms. Donohue is a marketing director for General Mills.

Cynthia Shepherd Torg (Col ’89, Law ’92 L/M) and her husband, Jay, welcomed their third child and daughter, Carrie Sullivan, on May 23, 2008. Carrie joins brothers Will, 4; and Daniel, 2. She is the great-granddaughter of Maurice Shapero (Col ’23, Law ’23), granddaughter of George Baer Shepherd (Col ’56, Med ’60 L/M), and the niece of George B. Shepherd Jr. (Com ’88 L/M), Celia Shepherd Glennon (Nurs ’89 L/M)  and Stephen Shepherd (Col ’00). The family resides in Arlington, Va. Ms.  Torg practices law in the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Terry Hecht Swartz (Engr ’89 L/M) and her husband, Jeff Swartz, welcomed their second child, Penny Irene, on Nov. 2, 2008. Penny joins a brother, Mitchell, 3. The family resides in Clifton, Va. Ms. Swartz is an engineering manager with Raytheon.

Maureen McCarthy (Col ’89 L/M) married Christopher Chapman Graham on Dec. 27, 2007. On Sept. 12, 2008, they had their first daughter, Margaret Ellen Washington Graham. She is the granddaughter of Mary Washington Bergin (Grad ’86, Educ ’92) and Thomas Bergin, a former professor at the Law School, as well as the late John Graham, a former associate professor at U.Va. Her cousins are Elizabeth Culp (GSBA ’10) and Sarah Ann Hald (Col ’09).

Catherine Haley (Arch ’89 L/M) is director of interior design in the Washington, D.C., office of global architectural design and services firm HOK. She is currently overseeing the interior design for the Abu Dhabi Marina 5-Star Residences, Crystal Tower in Kuwait and Wake County Courthouse. Ms. Haley was formerly an associate partner at SOM in New York and was a managing director at Lehman Smith McLeish in Washington, D.C. She received the 2007 Business Week/Architectural Record Good Design is Good Business Award of Excellence and the 2007 U.S. General Services Administration Sustainability/Workplace Environment Citation for the U.S.  Bureau of the Census.

Jennifer Murray Davis (Col ’89 L/M) and her husband, Kirkland W. Davis (Engr ’90 L/M), welcomed their fourth child, Margaret Walsh, on Sept. 5, 2008. Margaret joins Katherine, 11; Tom, 8; and Emily, 5. The family lives in Madison, Wis., where Mr. Davis is a professor of radiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Ritt Deitz (Col ’88 L/M) is executive director of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Professional French Masters Program, which he helped launch in 2000. He lives in Madison with his wife and three children.

Michael Fordham (Law ’88) was named “Public Law and Human Rights QC of the Year 2008” at the Chambers UK awards in London and has published the fifth edition of his acclaimed Judicial Review Handbook. He has appeared in some 25 cases in the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court, formerly known as the House of Lords. He continues as a college lecturer at Hertford College,  Oxford University.

Andrew Langhoff (Law ’87) is president and chief executive officer, local media, at Dow Jones & Company. He works in Manhattan and lives in Bronxville, N.Y., with his wife, Katy Barrett; and their three children: William, 10; Caroline, 9; and Elizabeth, 4.

David E. Jackson (Com ’87) is a partner in the federal tax practice of the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG, where he focuses on commercial banking, investment banking, stock brokerage, mortgage real estate investment trusts and other investment activities. He joined KPMG in 1987 and is a certified public accountant licensed in Virginia.

Chad Brandt (Engr ’87 L/M) is executive vice president of Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago and now manages its banking group. He and his wife, Kate Burkhardt Brandt (Law ’93); and their daughter, Lindsay, live in the Wrigleyville neighborhood of Chicago.

Paul Grenert (Col ’86) published 20/30, a novel, in 2008. He has published two other books, Existential Exodus and Ashes of X-Girlfriends and Other Stories. He has published poetry and short stories in several magazines and anthologies, and has written screenplays. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, Manuela.

Youtha C. Hardman-Cromwell (Educ ’85) is a full professor at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., and was appointed assistant dean of its Mount Vernon Place Project in July. She previously served as the director of Wesley’s Practice in Ministry and Mission Program.

Spencer Phillips (Col ’85 L/M) is vice president for ecology and economics research at the Wilderness Society, a national nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to protecting wilderness and inspiring Americans to care for wild places. Mr. Phillips lives in West Charleston, Vt., with his wife, Missy; and daughters Claudia and Molly.

Jennifer Widmann Gittins (Col ’84) married Rich Harfst on Oct. 3, 2008. Ms. Gittins is a business analyst for Electronic Data Systems/Hewlett-Packard. The couple resides in Annandale, Va.

John B. Cudahy (Col ’83 L/M) is president of the International Council of Air Shows, a trade association representing individuals and organizations working in the air show industry. The organization is based in Leesburg, Va., and held its annual convention in Las Vegas in December. Attendees of the convention included Cmdr. Sean Drumheller (Col ’92 L/M), who now serves as the F/A-18 Super Hornet Readiness for the U.S. Navy, and Lt. Page Felini (Engr ’00 L/M), who finished a one-year tour as the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornet demonstration pilot while assigned to VFA-106 at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach.  Lt. Felini was the U.S. Navy’s first female demonstration pilot. Also attending was John Piggott (Com ’70), a civilian air show pilot and president of Wilanco, a commercial real estate company based in Berkeley, Calif.

Reese Campbell (Com ’83 L/M) received a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grant, a full two-year scholarship, to pursue the professional master’s degree at Clarion University of Pennsylvania. He previously served as director of the F.O.R. Sto-Rox Library in McKees Rocks,  Pa., and currently works at the Warren (Pa.) Public Library and heads up a band, The American People.

Robert C. Hauhart (Grad ’82) is associate professor of criminal justice and sociology at Saint Martin’s University, Lacey, Wash.  Professor Hauhart was named the Monks of Saint Martin’s Abbey’s Outstanding Faculty Memberfor 2008, based on his teaching, research, publications and service. His article, “The Blue Collar Comedy Tour: Southern Fried Humor in the Context of Class Society,” was published in the Journal for Cultural Research in July 2008.