Children: Dan and Ben, twins
Continuing Education: Schools/Degrees/Years:
BSN, 1970, WVU
MSN, CWRU, Cleveland, OH, 1972
PhD, UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 1989
What have been the highlights in your personal life since your Mount days?
Ken and I met on a blind date in 1973, and married the next year, in Cleveland, OH, where I was working after graduate school and he was completing his medical residency. We moved to Charlottesville, VA, where he did a medical oncology fellowship, and I began teaching at the School of Nursing at UVa. I had never seen myself a teacher, but found I loved doing that. After completing his fellowship, Ken opted for private practice rather than academia, and we moved to Greensboro. He has practiced medical oncology here since 1978, and I’ve been on the faculty of the School of Nursing at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro since then. It took us a while to get pregnant, so the boys were not born until I was over 30, in 1981; they were my only pregnancy. Dan and Ben have been the greatest joy to us – as I’m sure your children have been to you. They graduated in December 2005, one from UNC Chapel Hill, and the other from NC State in Raleigh, NC. They are a little older than other graduates because they took a year off after high school. They are currently job hunting.
I started at UNCG on the teaching faculty, but I have been Assistant, then Associate Dean at UNCG since 1990. I work primarily with undergraduate nursing students. Over the years I have published in nursing, including 5 editions of a textbook of pharmacology for nurses, but I’m no longer involved with that.
Parents and siblings names and any interesting stories about them:
My parents both died many years ago, but my siblings and I have kept in close contact, and vacation together for a week a year at the NC coast (I have two sisters who are M de C grads, Louise in ’72, and Jane about 10 years later.) We were from Elkins, WV, but I never get back there because no family lives there any more.
What you like to do? - hobbies, sports, recreation, church, etc.
Ken and I like to ride bikes, although his idea of a short ride is 20+ miles, which is more than I like to do most days. I crochet some, and have recently taken up machine quilting, which I love. Ken and the boys ski/snowboard, so we take at least a week a year out west: Vail, Park City, etc. I enjoy traveling, but with our work schedules it is hard to take many long trips. Ken gardens a lot, and he has a hobby greenhouse filled with orchids. I don’t do much more that go oooh! And ahhh!, but that is fun.
What is your first memory of Mount de Chantal?
I remember clearly the first time I walked into the little dorm the weekend I took the scholarship exam, and I thought it was the “coolest” place! I also remember clearly how this wave of pleasure/joy/warmth spread over me each August when we drove to the circular drive and the red cannas were in bloom, and I felt like I had reached my second home. I honestly loved every minute at the Mount, which people I meet who never went to boarding school cannot understand. I’m sure that many young people at boarding school do not have the same feelings I did, but there it is: I loved it.
What is your last memory of Mount de Chantal?
We were leaving the morning after graduation. I was cranky from having stayed up all night for the grad dance, and I started to cry because we were leaving. My mother had no time or patience for that kind of stuff, and she gave me a stern lecture about how foolish I was.
Favorite musical group while at the Mount: Who can remember? It was there, though, that I first heard Broadway soundtracks, and I loved them.
Favorite movie: I have no memory of movies there.
Favorite teacher or class: Favorite teacher: Sr. Mary Helen, followed closely by Sr. Gertrude, because my favorite course was chemistry.
Favorite non-classroom activities: I’m sure I didn’t study all the time, but I don’t remember what I did in my off-time. As resident students we sat around and talked a lot in the dorm.
Favorite locations on campus and off campus: The chapel was very restful and comforting. I was quite a drudge; I don’t remember too many off-campus places, because I could not afford to get off campus much.
Place/space/sound that captures the Mount in memory: I can still picture so many places: the library, the study hall, the practice rooms, the Music Hall where I practiced for my senior recital ad nauseum.
How many miles will you travel to attend this reunion? 420 miles
