Class Notes
’10s
HarperCollins has bought the North American rights to the debut young adult novel by Elizabeth Acevedo MFA ’15, “The Poet X.” The story follows Xiomara Santiago, a Dominican-American teenage writer who is struggling with her faith, family and feelings for a boy as she discovers the power of slam poetry to give voice to her feelings. Publication is set for winter 2018.
Thomas Luginbill MBA ’15 was named director of the College of Southern Maryland’s newly formed Entrepreneur and Innovation Institute (EII). After graduating from the University of Delaware in 2009, he helped launch Solair Systems, a family-run and Maryland-based contracting firm that specializes in green energy. At UMD, he teamed up with a Naval Research Laboratory scientist who was developing anti-decontaminating materials made from chitosan, a biopolymer made with treated recycled crab shells, and launched Grey Matter, a technology firm that specializes in smart fabrics.
Jessica Cox MBA ’14 married Oliver Davis-Urman ’08, MBA ’15 Oct. 22 at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, S.C. She is an operations manager, overseeing the introduction of new products for Apple in Austin, Tex. He is the vice president for business development in Austin for FanAngel, a sports-driven fundraising and awareness platform designed for teams, athletes, schools and fans.
Katy Hancock ’14 and Sean Thweatt were married June 12 at Antrim 1844 in Taneytown, Md. She is marketing coordinator for Mixpo, and she and her husband live in Seattle.
Evan Lutz ’14, CEO and co-founder of Hungry Harvest, and Ali Von Paris ’12, owner and founder of Route One Apparel, were named to the Baltimore Business Journal’s 2016 “40 Under 40.”
Joshua Schimmel ’14 and Megan Monroe ’13 participated in Cooper Medical School of Rowan University’s annual White Coat Ceremony for the class of 2020. The new medical students were “cloaked” in their first white coats by faculty mentors before family members, friends, and medical school deans and faculty.
Katie Fox ’13 and Christopher DeVore ’12 were married June 11 at the Cylburn Arboretum in Baltimore. He proposed on the stage of Wolf Trap in Virginia during a 2015 show by “Dancing With the Stars” celebrities Julianne and Derek Hough. Fox is a teacher at Ellsworth Elementary-Middle School in Ellsworth, Maine, and DeVore works as a contractor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Ann Minna Horwitz M.S. ’13 (left) was married Oct. 8 to Dr. Ariel Kate Hyman Dubin at the Hayes Mansion in San Jose, Calif. Horwitz is studying for a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Maryland. She graduated magna cum laude from Hamilton College and received a master’s in international education policy from Harvard. She was a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Bandung, West Java Province, in Indonesia from 2006–07.
Steven Lockard Ph.D. ’13 was appointed interim superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools. He has served as deputy superintendent since August 2014. Previously, he was a deputy superintendent for Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland. He was a second- and fourth-grade teacher and also an elementary school assistant principal and principal.
Rabbi Hannah Spiro ’12 was named rabbi of the new Hill Havurah in Capitol Hill, the neighborhood’s first Jewish congregation since 1971. She is in her final year of study at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia.
Matthew Bambarger ’11 married Katherine Comer on June 4 at Damascus United Methodist Church in Damascus, Md., followed by a reception at Linganore Winecellars in Mount Airy, Md. Bambarger earned an M.S. in biohazardous threat agents and emerging infectious diseases from Georgetown University. The couple lives in Severn, Md.
Ryan Blaustein ’11, M.S. ’14 married Dena Cohen at the Elkridge Furnace Inn in Elkridge, Md., on May 29 before 220 guests. He is a doctoral student in environmental microbiology at the University of Florida.
Neva Chait ’11 and Neil Mendelowitz ’11 were married Oct. 15 at the Glen Head Country Club in Glen Head, N.Y. He works at Google, and she works at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.
Christopher M. Henry ’11 joined the law firm of Ober|Kaler as an associate in the finance group. He was formerly an associate in the corporate and debt finance practices of Kirkland & Ellis in the firm’s Houston office. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he worked on the Penn Housing Rights Project, assisting attorneys in negotiating landlord-tenant cases in Philadelphia Municipal Court.
Lee Hawthorne Ph.D. ’11 was named chief of staff for student affairs at Virginia Tech. Most recently, Hawthorne was director of student life at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She has also held positions in student affairs at the University of Richmond and Bowling Green State University.
Dan Plotnick MBA ’11 was named director of Southeast Florida and international sales at PGT Custom Windows & Doors. He has over 20 years of experience growing sales divisions, delivering sales results and implementing corporate strategy, with experience in the U.S., Asia Pacific and India. Before joining PGT, he served as director of sales and marketing for Guardian Industries. He also held sales leadership roles with Pilkington Group Limited and Stanley Tool & Hardware Corp.
G. Nagesh Rao MBA ’11 married Kali Nicole Wasenko Nov. 5 at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel in Washington. He is the chief technologist and entrepreneur in residence in the Office of Investment and Innovation of the Small Business Administration in Washington. He received a law degree from Albany Law School. The couple met on a blind date in Bethesda, Md., in summer 2014.
Shannon Sykes ’11 and her boyfriend and business partner, chef Jordan Keeton, lost their new restaurant, 83 West in Cedar Key, Fla., on May 13 to Tropical Storm Hermine. “All of our dock except for one little section on the left side of the building was completely torn off,” she told ABC2 in Baltimore. Damages were estimated at $200,000; a GoFundMe was launched to help raise that amount. Sykes’ bar manager, Jill Streett ’11, is also a Terp.
Francis Bustos ’10 was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He is one of six students from the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine’s Class of 2017 to be selected for this honor, which is based on academic merit, leadership activity, research achievements, community service, interprofessionalism, humanism and clinical performance.
’00s
John Anthony James Barkmeyer ’09 married Lisa Kate Maloney Sept. 10 at St. James Episcopal Church in Warrenton, Va. He is an associate in the Washington office of the New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. He received a law degree from the University of Michigan.
Alexandra Marie Chagouris ’09 and Paul William Thompson ’09 were married Sept. 3 at the Lord Baltimore Hotel. She is the director of communications and marketing for the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce. He is a consultant to the federal government at BDO. They met at UMD during their senior year, when Alex was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority and Paul was a member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity; they lived right across the street from each other. The two reside in Falls Church, Va.
Kathleen “Katie” Clendaniel M.A.A. ’09 was appointed executive director of Cambridge (Md.) Main Street. She is a former board member of the organization and was most recently program administrator for the Heart of Chesapeake Country Heritage Area, administered through the Department of Tourism for Dorchester County. From 2012 to 2015, she was the coordinator of housing and community development for Delmarva Community Services.
Danielle Hirschberg ’09 and Joshua Holtzman were married Oct. 15 at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. She works in Manhattan as the director of public relations at Kenneth Cole Productions, the fashion brand. She received an MBA from St. John’s University.
Singer-songwriter Janet (Schonthaler) Blair ’09, M.M. ’11 will release her debut album, “Songs for the Waiting” in February. She is also an oboist with the Las Cruces Symphony in New Mexico.
Ashley Sundquist ’09 and her colleagues at PwrdBy, a startup, mobile-first technology company in Santa Monica, Calif., won the Federal Drug Administration’s 2016 Naloxone App Competition. They submitted a prototype of a mobile app, OD Help, that would connect potential opioid overdose victims with a crowdsourced network of carriers of naloxone, a prescription medication that can rapidly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. Sundquist is head of communications and client relations at the startup.
Aria Connor ’08 and Ryan Connor welcomed twins Autumn Aria and Jack Grayson on July 1. The couple met while living in Allegany Hall. She is now the School of Public Policy’s communications manager, and he is completing his degree in philosophy at UMD and is a surveillance manager for Maryland Live! Casino.
Jonathan White Ph.D. ’08 has written “Midnight in America: Darkness, Sleep and Dreams During the Civil War.” He shows how Americans grappled with their fears, desires and struggles while they slept, and how their dreams helped them make sense of the confusion, despair and loneliness that engulfed them. White is associate professor of American studies at Christopher Newport University.
Elyssa Beth Feins ’07 married Michael Nadler Sept. 25 at the Hilton Pearl River in Pearl River, N.Y. She is a vice president and a senior counsel in the credit card legal group at Citigroup in Long Island City, Queens. She graduated cum laude from Brooklyn Law School.
Brendan Lough ’07 was named vice president, tenant representation, of the Baltimore office of JLL. He most recently worked as vice president of CBRE for almost seven years. His professional track record also includes two years as sales and leasing associate with Columbia, Md.-based Manekin LLC.
Mack McGee ’07 joined SC&H Group, an audit, tax, and consulting firm, as its vice president and chief marketing officer. He most recently served as executive vice president and principal at Groove, a Baltimore-based creative agency. He also sits on the boards of Special Olympics Maryland and the Maryland chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Garrett Skinner ’07 joined Reston Association as director of its new Capital Improvements Planning and Projects department. He comes from Atkins, a design, engineering and project management firm, where he served as a senior project manager and office leader.
Hall Chaney ’06, M.RED. ’11 was promoted to president of Chaney Enterprises, the Gambrills-based concrete manufacturer, aggregate supplier and source of construction materials and supplies. Chaney, who last served as executive vice president, is the third generation to lead the company founded in 1962 by his grandfather, Eugene “Babe” Chaney, and later led by his father, Francis H. Chaney II, who serves as chairman of the board.
Retired Army Capt. Florent “Flo” Groberg ’06 was named director of veterans outreach for Boeing. In 2015, he received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the United States’ highest military honor, for his heroism while serving in combat operations in Afghanistan in 2012.
Casey Alexandra Hedden ’06 was married Sept. 17 to Drew Kingston Jennings at Regan Beach in Lake Tahoe, Calif. She was until August a senior sales executive in San Francisco for GuideSpark, a technology startup, for which she sold employee-communication software. The couple was introduced at a party hosted by mutual friends in San Francisco in January 2015.
Heather Gail Klein ’06 and Michael Nolan Kalan were married Dec. 31 in New Rochelle, N.Y. She is an associate lawyer in the Manhattan office of the immigration law firm Fragomen Del Rey Bernsen & Loewy. She received her law degree from Brooklyn Law School.
Osifo Odili Akhuemonkhan ’05 married Hameedat Temi Adeniji Sept. 24 at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Dallas. A traditional Nigerian Yoruba ceremony took place at Noah’s Event Venue in Irving, Tex., on Sept. 22. The couple met in 2011 at Columbia University, from which she received a law degree and he received an MBA. Akhuemonkhan is a vice president in the financial advisory group focusing on mergers and acquisitions at Lazard, the investment bank in New York.
Seth Matthew Stammler ’05 married Cara Kristine Crowley on Oct. 8 at Tralee Farm, an event space in Stone Ridge, N.Y. He is a bond salesman at Morgan Stanley in New York. From 2004 to 2010, the groom was a midfielder with the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer. He received an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Shruti Naik ’05, a postdoctoral scientist in immunology and stem cell biology at the Rockefeller University, was awarded one of five 2016 L’Oreal USA’s For Women in Science fellowship grants to advance her doctoral research. It focuses on understanding the role adult stem cells play in inflammation and how they can be used to treat inflammatory disorders of the skin, like psoriasis. At the Rockefeller University, Naik has grown the Women in Science program from six to over 250 members and has established a weekly breakfast series for trainees to network with prominent female scientists.
Sociologist Dawn R. Norris Ph.D. ’05 shines a light on the experiences of unemployed, middle-class professional men and women and shows how job loss can affect both identity and mental health in her new book, “Job Loss, Identity and Mental Health.” She uses in-depth interviews to offer insight into what losing a job means for daily life, how the unemployed feel about it, and the process they go through as they cope and face their new identities as unemployed people. She is an assistant professor at the
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Dr. Xiomara A. Penn-Becoat ’05 joined Kennedy Family Health Services, where she practices full-time between offices in Washington Township and Somerdale, N.J. She has a master’s of biomedical science from the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, graduated from Drexel University College of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency in 2016 at Cooper University Hospital in Camden.
Wicomico County Public Works Director Weston S. Young ’05 was named the county’s assistant director of administration. County Executive Bob Culver cited Young’s management of an $8 million water tank and distribution line project, which addressed well-water contamination issues, his handling of dredge spoil in the Wicomico River and his efforts to put the county’s Solid Waste Division on stronger financial footing.
Domonique Foxworth ’04 will debut in February as co-host of ESPN Radio’s new three-hour show, “The Morning Roast.” The former Baltimore Ravens cornerback has an MBA from Harvard and previously served as president of the NFL Players Association and chief operating officer of the National Basketball Players Association.
Chris Henson Jones ’04 opened SourceCore, a fitness studio in Vienna, Va., offering yoga, circuits, barre, Zumba and Vixen Dance.
Jason Meyenburg ’04 was appointed chief commercial officer of Vtesse, a company that develops drugs to fight rare diseases. He joined the company from Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he most recently served as senior vice president, commercial operations, the Americas. He holds an MBA from Duke University.
Ryan Sakamoto ’04 was named the Patriot League’s assistant commissioner for communications. He spent more than eight years in the sports information department at Georgetown University. In 2012, he completed his M.P.S. in sports industry management at Georgetown University. Sakamoto has been an active volunteer with Special Olympics D.C., volunteering as a player and referee for SODC’s Unified Basketball League since 2011.
Daniel Adams ’03 joined the North Carolina law firm of Brooks Pierce, bringing extensive experience in the practice of white-collar criminal defense and government investigations. He came from the New York office of Latham & Watkins LLP, where he was a member of the litigation and trial department. He has also previously served as a public defender with the Bronx Defenders. Adams received his law degree from Harvard Law School.
Hillary Berman MBA ’03 recently published “Customer, LLC: The Small Business Guide to Customer Engagement & Marketing.” She writes that thriving small businesses integrate the customer’s perspective. They don’t market to prospects—they connect with potential customers and create relationships.
Danielle “Dani” Harlan ’03 has written “The New Alpha: Join the Rising Movement of Influencers and Changemakers Who Are Redefining Leadership,” a how-to guide for leaders who focus on being ethical, emotionally intelligent and balanced. Founder and CEO of the Center for Advancing Leadership and Human Potential, she operates a blog on leadership. Harlan completed her doctorate at Stanford University and has taught courses at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and UC Berkeley Extension’s Corporate and Professional Development Program.
Noah Lederman ’03’s memoir, “A World Erased: A Grandson’s Search for His Family’s Holocaust Secrets,” will be published in February by Rowman and Littlefield. He spent 10 years uncovering his grandparents’ past fighting in the Warsaw ghetto uprising, surviving a combined seven concentration camps, and later hiding it all from their family.
Alicia B. Harvey-Smith Ph.D. ’03 was recently named executive vice chancellor of Lone Star College in Houston, which provides academic transfer and workforce education/career training programs to more than 83,000 credit students each semester.
U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell ’03 married Brittany Watts Oct. 14 at the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland, Calif. Swalwell is a Democratic member of Congress who represents California’s 15th district and is the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Subcommittee on the Central Intelligence Agency.
Michael Berry ’02 wrote his first book, “The Modern Legislative Veto: Macropolitical Conflict and the Legacy of Chadha,” examining the ways that Congress has used the legislative veto over the past 80 years. It is a title in the University of Michigan Press’ “Legislative Politics and Policy Making” series. Berry is an associate professor of political science at the University of Colorado, Denver.
Mark A. Wentling M.L.S. ’02 completed the certificate program for genealogical research at Boston University. He owns Ancestor Introductions and has practiced professional genealogy for more than 20 years.
Ashley Gold ’01 joined Hearst Television as a vice president, sales, overseeing sales activities at the company’s 30 television stations and two radio stations. She came from KRON-TV in San Francisco, where she was vice president/general manager. She formerly served for more than a decade with WDCW-TV in Washington, D.C.
Maria Bovich M.A. ’00, principal of Holy Redeemer School in College Park, Md., for the past eight years, was named the Archdiocese of Washington’s Distinguished Principal of the Year. Bovich has been an educator for over three decades, with her most recent tenure at St. Pius X School in Bowie, Md., where she served as vice principal.
’90s
Cynthia T. Luna ’99 has written a self-published e-book on strategic marketing for first-time authors, “The Aspiring Author’s Guide: Write Your Marketing Strategy.” Available at Amazon, the guide aims to empower aspiring authors to set and start their book marketing strategy through four simple exercises. She has been working in communications and public relations for more than a decade.
Ethan J. Ung ’99 joined the law firm of Halloran & Sage. He practices out of the New Haven, Conn., office in the areas of insurance law, civil litigation and intellectual property. He is a licensed patent attorney and has experience drafting and prosecuting patent applications. He received his J.D. from Quinnipiac University, cum laude, and LL.M. from the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Raja Sundararajan M.S. ’98 was promoted to vice president-regulatory services at American Electric Power. He had been vice president-transmission asset strategy and policy for the past four years and joined the company in 2002.
Demetrios Zacharopoulos ’98 joined Flint Law Firm LLC’s Baltimore office as a partner specializing in asbestos litigation.
Matthew Mason M.A. ’97, Ph.D. ’02 has written “Apostle of Union: A Political Biography of Edward Everett.” Known today as “the other speaker at Gettysburg,” Everett had a distinguished and illustrative career at every level of American politics from the 1820s through the Civil War. Mason reveals a complex man whose shifting political opinions, especially on the topic of slavery, illuminate the nuances of Northern Unionism. He is an associate professor of history at Brigham Young University.
Tyrone Brooks ’96 has been named senior director of the Front Office and Field Staff Diversity Pipeline Program for Major League Baseball’s Office of the Commissioner. He is a former Pittsburgh Pirates director of player personnel.
Matthew Burns M.S. ’96 was promoted to technology and innovation leader for the U.S. environment sector at Parsons Brinckerhoff. Burns, who has been with the firm since 2000, has 20 years of chemistry and engineering experience.
Kip Fulks ’96, Kevin Plank’s first partner at Under Armour, was named to the new role of chief product officer. He has served in top leadership roles since the company started in 1996. Fulks has been acting chief marketing officer since November and leading the search for a permanent CMO.
Dale Vanderputten MBA ’96 was named chief scientific officer at Nutra Pharma Corp., a biotechnology company marketing over-the-counter pain management drugs and developing treatments for multiple sclerosis and HIV, among other ailments. He had held similar posts at Omnia Biologics and DirectGene. VanderPutten received a Ph.D. in genetics from the George Washington University.
Matt Klein ’95 joined Spirit Airlines as senior vice president and chief commercial officer. He has more than 20 years of management experience in the airline and travel industries, and most recently worked in various consulting capacities. Klein holds an MBA from the University of Florida.
Ramesh Munamarty M.S. ’95 was appointed to the new position of group chief information officer at International SOS, a medical and travel security services company. He has more than 25 years of experience in information technology and relocated to Singapore for this role.
James F. Davis ’94 was listed as a top criminal defense attorney in Northern Virginia Magazine's Top Lawyers issue in December. He lives and works in Fairfax, Va., where his practice focuses on criminal defense and personal injury law.
Pope Francis appointed Monsignor Adam J. Parker ’94 an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He most recently served as vicar general and moderator of the curia for the archdiocese and previously in parishes in Frostburg and Halethorpe, as priest-secretary to Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and former archbishop of Baltimore, and as vice chancellor of the archdiocese of Baltimore.
Sonny Kakar ’93, founder and chairman of Sevatec, was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2016 in the government services category in the Mid-Atlantic region. Sevatic has provided software, data, and cyber engineering solutions for the federal government since 2003.
Jeff Lavore ’93 was elected to the Associated Builders and Contractors of Metro Washington Board of Directors. He is a manager at Lanigan, Ryan, Malcolm & Doyle P.C.
Rory K. Zuckerman ’93 launched the greeting card company Wee the Veggies, featuring tongue-in-cheek characters such as Albert Onion Einstein and Hillary Kiwi Clinton, that she created and photographed.
Real estate attorney Alexander X. Jackins ’92 joined global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP as a shareholder in its Northern Virginia office. He is formerly a partner at Nossaman, LLP and received his law degree from The Catholic University of America.
Robert Rohan ’92 was named director of athletics, physical education and leisure studies at Hagerstown Community College. He came from Ohio Northern University, where he was assistant professor of physical education, men’s tennis coach and assistant football coach.
Tricia Downing ’91 competed in the women’s 10-meter air pistol event during her first Paralympics Games in Rio de Janeiro in September. In 2000, Downing was struck by a car while riding her bike and became a paraplegic who uses a wheelchair for mobility. She is a former competitive cyclist and has completed more than 100 races since her injury, including marathons, duathlons and triathlons. Downing last year also founded the Cycle of Hope, a nonprofit aimed at empowering adult females who are full-time wheelchair users. Its signature program, Camp Discovery, which she launched in 2009, provides a fitness retreat. For a recap and photos from the October 2016 Camp Discovery in Empire, Colo., visit Downing’s blog.
Alicia Levi ’91 was appointed president and CEO of Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the nation’s largest children’s literacy organization. She previously served as vice president, education at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). She resides in Annapolis with her husband, Frank, and three children.
Fox News political analyst Kirsten Powers ’91 joined CNN in the same role. She also contributes to USA Today. Powers was a former political operative who had worked in communications/media roles in the Clinton administration for the U.S. Trade Representative as well as on the New York State Democratic committee. She wrote the book, “The Silencing: How the Left Is Killing Free Speech.”
Michael Smith ’91, M.S. ’96 co-wrote the new book, “Streaming, Sharing, Stealing: Big Data and the Future of Entertainment.” He and co-author Rahul Telang, experts on the economics of the entertainment industry, show how the success of “House of Cards” upended the film and TV industries— and how companies like Amazon and Apple are changing the rules in other entertainment industries, notably publishing and music. Smith, who has a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is featured on a Yahoo Finance video on this topic.
Bill Murnane M.S. ’90 was named president and CEO of the RV dealership company Lazydays. Murnane, who is a partner at Wayzata Investment Partners LLC, which owns Lazydays, will retain his title as chairman of the board. He was chairman and CEO at Innovex Inc. from 1999 to 2008.
Peter Suazo ’90 joined the real estate investment banking team of D.A. Davidson & Co. in Baltimore as managing director. He worked most recently as a principal with FIDES Capital Partners and was previously with BB&T Capital Markets. He has also held senior investment banking roles with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Lehman Brothers and Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.
Inc. magazine ranked Golden Gate BPO Solutions, founded in 2006 by Stephen Foster ’90, No. 975 on its 35th annual “Inc. 5000” list of the nation’s fastest growing private companies. Foster is CEO of the company, which provides multichannel contact center, customer engagement and business process outsourcing solutions.
Ho Shin ’90 joined Yext, a global location data management company, as executive vice president and general counsel. Shin was most recently general counsel and chief privacy officer of Millennial Media. He received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University.
’80s
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan appointed Montgomery County District Court Judge Jeannie Cho ’89 to the Montgomery County Circuit Court. Cho had served in county District Court since 2012. Before her appointment to the bench, she was a partner in the Rockville-based law firm Hall & Cho. Previously, Cho was with Schulman, Rogers, Galdal, Pordy & Ecker. She also served as an assistant state’s attorney for Montgomery and Howard counties. She received her law degree from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans.
William Eisig ’88 was re-elected to a three-year term on the board of directors for BDO USA, a professional service organization. He serves as the managing partner for the Atlantic region and was previously its assurance managing partner. Eisig serves on the advisory board of the Robert H. Smith School of Business.
James Frauen ’88 joined Massaro Construction Group as vice president of finance, chief financial officer. He has more than 25 years of progressive experience in financial leadership, most recently as CFO for Astorino, one of Western Pennsylvania’s largest integrated firms. He has an MBA from Duquesne University.
Rajeev Mehta ’87 was promoted to president of Cognizant Technology Solutions. He joined Cognizant in 1997 and has served as CEO of the IT services business, group chief executive of industries and markets, and many other positions.
Cindi Michael ’87 has written “The Sportscaster’s Daughter: A Memoir,” chronicling her troubled relationship with her father, George Michael, host of the popular TV show “Sports Machine.” She lives in rural New Jersey with her family, and is a big data expert who has written five business and technology books.
Mike DeGrace ’86 was appointed senior vice president of sales, North America at Amplify Snack Brands. He has more than 30 years of consumer packaged foods experience at companies including Kellogg Foods, WhiteWave Foods, Chiquita, ConAgra Foods and Kraft Foods.
Maria Korsnick ’86 was elected president and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the policy organization for the U.S. nuclear energy industry. She served as its chief operating officer since May 2015 as a loaned executive from Exelon Generation and Constellation Energy Nuclear Group. During her 30-year nuclear energy career, Korsnick served as acting CEO at CENG, vice president for corporate operations, site vice president at the Ginna nuclear power plant in New York, and a federally licensed senior reactor operator at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear station in Maryland.
Julie Boughn ’85, MBA ’89 joined Audacious Inquiry LLC, a health information technology and policy company. She previously was chief innovation officer at Cognosante LLC and served in several leadership roles at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Jon Franke M.S. ’85 was named vice president, generation technical services at Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). He has more than 30 years of nuclear industry experience, obtained while working in positions of increasing levels of responsibility in the U.S. Navy and at Carolina Power and Light, Progress Energy, Duke Energy, PPL Corporation and Talen Energy. As an officer in the U.S. Navy, Franke served in several nuclear power and fleet assignments, and retired with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He also has an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
Paul W. Ishak ’85 was named a Circuit Court judge for Harford County, Md. He had been a partner in the local law firm of Stark & Keenan, P.A., which he joined in 1989. Until his appointment, he also served as the city attorney for Havre de Grace.
Rob Wengel ’85 joined the law firm of Korn Ferry in its Stamford, Conn., office as senior client partner, solutions architect, innovation. He came from the Cambridge Group, where he was principal and leader of strategic innovation.
Dick Koch ’84 joined George Mason Mortgage, a subsidiary of Cardinal Bank, as managing director, strategic growth and acquisition. He has worked in the mortgage banking industry for over 30 years, most recently as regional sales executive for Bank of America in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland.
Nellie Liang M.A. ’84, Ph.D. ’86 retired from her position as director of the Division of Financial Stability at the Federal Reserve Board, after 30 years there. Liang was a key participant in crafting the Federal Reserve’s response to the financial crisis and, in 2009, helped lead the Supervisory Capital Assessment Program, or bank stress tests, which helped increase public confidence in the banking system.
Karen Morris ’84 was promoted to chief of negotiations and restructuring at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a federal agency that protects the pension benefits of nearly 40 million Americans in private-sector pension plans. Morris has served in a variety of roles there, most recently as deputy chief counsel. She has a law degree from Georgetown University.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan appointed Clara Eva Campbell ’83 as a district court judge in Cecil County. After graduating magna cum laude from UMD, Campbell attended University of Maryland School of Law at night while serving as the sole law clerk for two Cecil County Circuit Court judges during the day. After working for an Elkton-based lawyer, she stared her own practice, now the largest in Elkton.
Catherine Luther ’83 was named director of the School of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She has received numerous teaching awards and has written or co-written many scholarly articles and papers, as well as a book, “Press Images, National Identity and Foreign Policy: A Case Study of U.S.-Japan Relations from 1955–95.” She was awarded the Fulbright Research Grant to conduct research in Japan in 2007.
William J. McMahon ’83 was appointed Howard County sheriff by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. He last served as acting executive director of the Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions and director of its Leadership Development Institute. McMahon was Howard County chief of police from 2006 to 2014. He has a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and graduated from the FBI National Academy.
Greg Furrow ’82, M.S. ’84 was hired as vice president of quality and compliance at Southern Research. He last served as vice president of quality and regulatory compliance at WIL Research. Furrow is also a board member and past president of the Society of Quality Assurance and is active in the quality assurance community globally.
Gary Rosen ’82 was named president of Engineering Solutions, which provides software, systems and mission assurance services to the intelligence community. Before joining ESI, Gary served as Senior Vice president of Leidos, leading its national intelligence solutions operation. Rosen has a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University.
Carol Williamson E.D.D. ’82 was named deputy state superintendent for teaching and learning for the Maryland State Department of Education. She was superintendent of the Queen Anne’s County Public Schools from 2008 through June 2016.
Danita Nias ’81 was appointed vice president for institutional advancement and chief executive officer of the Florida Atlantic University Foundation. Nias spent the previous five years at the University of Florida, most recently as senior associate vice president for external affairs. From 1995 to 2011, Nias held numerous leadership positions at Maryland, including assistant vice president for development and alumni relations.
Andrew Shipley ’81, partner in Perkins Coie’s Washington, D.C., office, was named a 2016 Law360 MVP in the Government Contracts category. The award recognizes attorneys who have distinguished themselves by securing successes in high-stakes litigation, complex global matters and record-breaking deals.
Christopher A. Havener Jr. ’80 was appointed senior director of investment strategies at CenterStar Energy Services, a national construction and installation partner for the solar industry. He has an extensive background on Wall Street as an investment banker, including with Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch.
Sam Malhotra ’80 was appointed chief of staff to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. He had been serving as Maryland Department of Human Resources secretary and has more than 20 years of private-sector management and organizational experience.
Gail Rubin ’80 has written “Kicking the Bucket List: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die” to help baby boomers clear their clutter, firm up their financials and leave the world a better place. She’s the author of two other books, a pioneer of the “death café” movement in the United States and an advocate for pre-need funeral planning. Watch her TedX talk here.
Clifford A. Shaffer ’80, M.S. ’82, Ph.D. ’86, professor of computer science in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, was awarded the W.S. “Pete” White Chair for Innovation in Engineering Education by the university’s board of visitors. Shaffer is known for his work on tools for online interactive learning and student data analytics.
Mike White ’80, M.S. ’81 was appointed to lead the air and missile defense sector at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He had been its mission-area executive for air and missile defense since 2005.
’70s
Debra Ellen Halpert ’79 married David Mark Greenberg at a friend’s home in Water Mill, N.Y. She is the publisher of Hamptons magazine in Southampton, N.Y. Although the couple attended the same day camp in the Catskills and John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, N.Y., they did not get to know each other until 2015, when each attended the 40th reunion of their high school class.
Arthur Gitajn M.A. ’77 joined Ceridian, a human capital management provider, as chief financial officer. He has over 25 years of global experience in the technology industry, including serving as CFO for companies such as SAP Canada, SAP EMEA, Workbrain and Intentia.
Arun Menawat M.S. ’77, Ph.D. ’82 was appointed chief executive officer at Profound Medical Group, a company focused on prostate cancer care. He had been a member of Profound’s board of directors since October 2014. Most recently, Menawat served as president and CEO of Novadaq Technologies Inc. Before that, he held senior management positions at Cedara Software Corp., Tenneco and Hercules. In 2014, Menawat was named the EY Ontario Entrepreneur of the Year in the health sciences category.
Curtis Mobley Ph.D. ’77, an expert in applications of radiative transfer theory to problems in optical oceanography and ocean color remote sensing, was named the 2016 recipient of the Oceanography Society’s Jerlov Award. It honors researchers who advance our knowledge of the nature and consequences of light in the ocean. He has been vice president for science and senior scientist at Sequoia Scientific since 1996.
The Durham Public Schools Board of Education extended the contract of Superintendent Bert L’Homme ’75, Ph.D. ’89 through June 2020. He has held this position since 2014 and was most recently superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of Washington, as well as interim chief operating officer of the Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign for Marion Wright Edelman and the Children’s Defense Fund. He also spent many years teaching and working in administrative posts in North Carolina.
Mitchel P. Roth ’75 is the author of the new book, “Convict Cowboys: The Untold History of the Texas Prison Rodeo,” which ran from 1931 to 1986 and drew up to 30,000 spectators on October Sundays. Roth covers the history of rodeo, the prison system and convict leasing, as well as important figures in Texas penology.
Frederic G. Reamer ’74 culls from his 24 years on the Rhode Island Parole Board in his latest book, “On the Parole Board: Reflections on Crime, Punishment, Redemption, and Justice,” published by Columbia University Press. He explains from an insider’s perspective how a variety of factors play into the board’s decisions: the ongoing effect on victims and their loved ones; the life histories of offenders; the circumstances of the crimes; and the powerful and often extraordinary displays of forgiveness and remorse. Reamer is a professor in the School of Social Work at Rhode Island College.
Tom Williamson ’74, general manager of Hampton Inn by Hilton & Courtyard by Marriott Cocoa Beach/Cape Canaveral, Fla., since 1998, was named General Manager of the Year by the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association. He serves as chairman of Brevard County’s Tourism and Development Council and president of the Cocoa Beach Hotel Association, and sits on both the Merritt Island High School Hospitality Academy and Cocoa Beach High School International Business Academy. Williamson also serves as a board member of the Space Coast Chapter of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.
Wanda Q. Draper ’73 was named executive director of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture. She was most recently the director of programming and public affairs at WBAL-TV 11 and is one of the founding members of the museum board.
President Barack Obama appointed Deborah Taylor ’73, MLS ’74 to the National Museum and Library Service Board. She is coordinator of school and student services at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, where she has worked since 1974. Taylor is a member of the Voice of Youth Advocates Editorial Advisory Board and served as president of the Young Adult Library Services Association and chair of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards. She received the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Practitioner Award for Lifetime Achievement from the American Library Association in 2015.
William P. Selig ’72 writes in his new memoir, “My Journey to Become a Hospital Chaplain,” how it has made him a more sensitive listener, a better husband and a better human being. He is an interfaith hospital chaplain in the D.C. area and earned his master of religious education and doctor of ministry degrees from the Unification Theological Seminary.
’60s
Good Counsel High School head football coach Bob Milloy ’67 was enshrined in the Washington, D.C., Sports Hall of Fame. The state’s all-time-winningest high school football coach, Milloy first made his mark at Springbrook, guiding the Blue Devils to a 168-35 record and six Maryland state championships in 18 seasons. In the following nine seasons at Sherwood, Milloy compiled a 77-22 record, including state championships in 1995 and 1996. From 2009-12, Milloy guided Good Counsel to four consecutive WCAC championships.
’50s
Ralph Crosby ’56, chairman of Crosby Marketing in Annapolis, Md., has written his third book, “Memoirs of a Main Street Boy: Growing Up in America’s Ancient City.” In it, he tells his story of coming of age during a time of historic and social change against the backdrop of the nation’s first capital city.
Michael D. Dingman ’55 was appointed to the board of directors of GeoPark Limited, an independent Latin American oil and gas explorer, operator and consolidator. The benefactor of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, he has more than 50 years of investment experience and is currently founder, president and CEO of the Shipston Group, an international private investment firm.
Passings
Katherine Ard Iseman ’07, the first female firefighter for the city of Camden, S.C., died suddenly Sept. 20 while attending a conference in Texas. She was 31. Born in Camden, Iseman was the daughter of Escol Gillard Ard Jr. and Jennifer Lee McLeod Ard. A 2003 graduate of Lugoff-Elgin High School, she received her bachelor’s degree in fire science from UMD. She was a firefighter for Charlotte Thompson Fire Department and municipal coordinator at the State Fire Academy and a former law enforcement officer. She was also a volunteer with various foster animal rescues. She is survived by her husband, Jonathan Chase Iseman; two daughters, Laken Elizabeth Iseman and Riley Alice Iseman; siblings Stephanie Beam and Kevin Ard; and several nieces and nephews,
Luis Carlos Montalvan ’02, a veteran, advocate and author, died in El Paso, according to CBS News. He was 43. Montalvan served 17 years in the Army, doing two tours in Iraq, and received two Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart. His service dog, Tuesday, was the subject of Montalvan’s book, “Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him,” which became a New York Times best seller. Montalvan earned a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Several men who served with him claimed the book exaggerated or fabricated details, but Montalvan contended it was accurate. Hachette Book Group is planning to publish his second book, “Tuesday’s Promise: One Veteran, One Dog, and Their Bold Quest to Change Lives.”
Kim DiGiovanni Aluisi ’82, a prominent divorce attorney who encouraged potential clients to try to repair their relationships before hiring her, died Dec. 5 at her home in Annapolis after an 18-month battle with pancreatic cancer, according to The Baltimore Sun. She was 56. DiGiovanni Aluisi was born Aug. 10, 1960, and raised in New Carrollton, the daughter of Frances and Donald Dawson, a homemaker and a gambling industry worker, respectively. She graduated from Elizabeth Seton High School in Bladensburg and earned a bachelor's degree from UMD and a law degree from the University of Baltimore in 1985. DiGiovanni Aluisi worked for 15 years as an associate attorney at Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller’s law firm early in her career, then opened her own law firm in 1999. She married Jimmy Aluisi, a former Prince George's County sheriff whom she had dated in law school, in 2004. She had a son, Frank DiGiovanni, now a resident of Washington, from a previous marriage that ended in divorce. She asked Allen Kruger, another friend and renowned Annapolis attorney, to merge his practice with hers last spring. They created Kruger DiGiovanni Aluisi, and Kruger said he plans to keep her name on the firm as a tribute. DiGiovanni Aluisi was so devoted to her profession that, aside from chemotherapy appointments, she only missed 21/2 days of work in the year and a half after her diagnosis, said her husband. In addition to her husband and son, she is survived by her mother, Frances Eve DeLargo; a brother, Anthony Dawson; a sister, Laura Priolo; and nieces and nephews.
Rayna Barroll Aschaffenburg Ph.D. ’80, a classical concert pianist and professor, died Dec. 20 in Columbia, S.C. She was born April 23, 1930, the daughter of Joseph and Ida Klatzkin, in Trenton, N.J., as part of the city’s large Lithuanian Jewish community. At age 17, Aschaffensburg enrolled in Radcliffe College but left after her junior year to marry a Harvard student, J. Leeds Barroll. There followed a 25-year period of global travel, as she accompanied Barroll, a Shakespearean scholar, to various universities. Aschaffenburg completed her college degree at the University of Texas while raising two young sons and continued to give numerous piano lessons and concerts. Aschaffenburg received her first full-time appointment as a music professor in 1968 at Fisk University in Nashville, despite not having a graduate degree. During another move the following year, to Montclair, N.J., she received her master’s degree in music at Rutgers University. After amicably divorcing, Aschaffensburg received her doctorate in piano performance at the University of Maryland. She then became a professor at Arizona State University, where she was given tenure. In 1987, she married Walter Aschaffenburg, a noted composer, in Phoenix. She retired in 2000 after 20 years of teaching. She was predeceased by her husband and her brother, Lloyd Klaskin, and is survived by her children, J. Leeds Barroll IV, James E. Barroll and Ellen Barroll; three grandchildren; and a brother, Clive Klatzkin. She is also survived by her first husband, numerous nieces and nephews, and a special friend, James Hancock.
Michael John Ganley ’78 died at his Owings, Md., home on Aug. 16, according to Southern Maryland News Net. He was 73. Ganley was born on June 6, 1943, in Washington, D.C., and married Bev Ezell in 1967. He retired in 2014 as director of strategic planning and analysis from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. The Ganleys moved to Owings in 1978 and were members of the Covenant Community of Jesus the Good Shepherd and participated in the Marriage Enrichment Group. He served on the church’s Collections Committee and the board of directors for Project Echo, volunteered with Christmas in April and coached for the Calvert County Parks and Recreation. He enjoyed listening to a wide variety of music, gardening, reading and woodworking. He was a fan of the Terps, the Washington Redskins and the Boston Red Sox. Ganley is survived by his wife and two children, Kelley Maddox and Kevin Ganley; seven grandchildren; and siblings Louise Czwartacki, Mary Walter and Charley Ganley.
Mary Patricia (O’Grady) Sand M.Ed. ’74 of Lincoln, Neb., died Aug. 12. She was 89. Born in Dawson, Neb., to Patrick J. O’Grady Jr. and Lillian (Steinauer) O’Grady, she received a bachelor’s degree in business education from the University of Nebraska before attending UMD. She taught for many years in two high schools in Montgomery County, retiring in 1985. After retirement, she and her husband, Paul F. Sand, moved from Silver Spring, Md., to Hampstead, near Wilmington N.C. O’Grady is survived by four children, Susan Sand, Carol Anadale, Dr. Stephen P. Sand and Michael P. Sand; eight grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; two brothers, James F. O’Grady and Charles J. O’Grady; and a sister, Catherine C. Rokke. She was predeceased by her husband; her parents; her brothers, John Clinton O’Grady and Gerald Eugene O’Grady; her sisters, Theresa Marguerite Wixson and Rose Colleen Vestecka; and one granddaughter, Christine Fellows.
Joan E. Gildemeister Ph.D. ’72, who taught educational and developmental psychology at Howard University from 1976 to 1992, died Nov. 17 at a care center in Mitchellville, Md., where she lived. She was 87. Gildemeister was born Joan Ely in San Antonio. She taught at San Francisco State University, the City University of New York, St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., and Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., before joining the Howard faculty. She was also a psychotherapist for the D.C. public schools and had a private practice in Washington and Shepherdstown, W.Va.
Fred J. Link M.A. ’72 died Sept. 10 in the UMass Memorial Medical Center due to complications of an acute blood disorder. He was 72. Link was born in Philadelphia, the son of the late Frederick and Dorothea (Blenk) Link. He attended Villanova University, earning his B.S. in electrical engineering in 1966 before coming to UMD. Link worked as an electrical engineer for many years in both the government and private sector computer fields. During this time, he met his wife of 45 years, Patricia A. (Curtis) Link. Link also leaves three sons, David, Peter and John; two grandchildren; a sister, Hildegard Brennan; and nieces and nephews. A sister, Elizabeth Link, predeceased him.
Patricia Peters Eliot ’69, M.Ed. ’70 died Dec. 4 at the age of 87 at home on Sonoma Mountain, Calif., whose beauty she helped preserve. She was born in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 2, 1929, lived there and in Seattle, and at age 7 moved with her family to Marin County, Calif., where she attended first Dominican and then the Katherine Branson School. In the summers when she was 14, 15 and 16, she worked on the Jack London Dude Ranch, now a state historic park, and fell in love with that countryside. She was married for over 65 years to Theodore Eliot, a career Foreign Service officer, and accompanied him to his posts in Sri Lanka, Germany, the Soviet Union, Iran, Afghanistan (where he was the U.S. ambassador) and Washington, D.C. Their four children were born in four different countries. After she earned her master’s degree in early childhood education, she taught in a charter primary school and a special school for emotionally disturbed children in the District of Columbia. While her husband was dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in the 1970s and ’80s, she was executive director of the non-profit Association of Homes for the Aging in Massachusetts, and was appointed by then-Gov. Michael Dukakis to two related statewide commissions. The Eliots moved to Sonoma in 1988, where Eliot helped found Sonoma Mountain Preservation, which led the effort to transfer 600 acres of Sonoma Developmental Center land to Jack London State Historic Park, and to persuade the Board of Supervisors to pass an ordinance strictly protecting the scenic vistas of Sonoma Mountain. She also served on the Board of LandPaths, a countywide organization focused primarily on acquainting youths with open spaces. She and her husband donated to Sonoma County a conservation easement on their property and a loop at the southern terminus of the East Slope Sonoma Mountain Ridge Trail. Eliot was also a passionate horseback rider, a member of the State Parks’ Mounted Assistance Unit and of the Sonoma Development Center’s Posse. She was elected to the Sonoma Horse Council’s Hall of Fame. She has ridden across Scotland and on the Iranian Steppe. She was a passionate backpacker and climbed both Whitney and Shasta mountains. She was also an excellent tennis player and fly fisherwoman. In addition to her husband, Eliot is survived by her children Sally Schnitger, Ted Eliot III, Wendy Eliot and Peter Eliot; nine grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Larry Allan Pearson ’63 died Dec. 9 in Mandeville, La. He was 76. He was born on June 2, 1940, in Greensboro, Md., to the late Clarence A. Pearson and Naomi West Pearson. He was editor and publisher of Passenger Vessel News and the Riverboat and Offshore Gaming Report and had earlier worked for the E.I. duPont de Nemours and Com. in Wilmington, Del. He was also a lifelong enthusiast for the UMD men’s basketball team and the Philadelphia Phillies. Pearson is survived by his wife of 52 years, Armine Smith Pearson; his children Alan, Phillip and Caroline Caronna; seven grandchildren; and a brother, Michael.
Richard P. O’Mara ’62, a former Baltimore Sun reporter, foreign correspondent, editorial writer and editor whose career spanned four decades, died Sept. 29 from frontal temporal dementia at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson, according to The Sun. The Mount Washington resident was 80. The son of Edward O’Mara, a Navy veteran, and Helen O’Mara, a bank teller, Richard Paul O’Mara was born in Philadelphia and raised in the city’s Cork neighborhood. He attended St. Thomas More High School—until he was expelled—then West Philadelphia Public High School. He eventually dropped out and joined the Army in 1956, serving in Alaska until being discharged in 1959. He applied to enter the University of Maryland despite not having a high school diploma. Based on his test scores and English and history credits, he entered the university as a sophomore. While at Maryland, he met and fell in love with Susana Maria Hanza M.A. ’64, a young lawyer from Argentina who was studying on a Fulbright scholarship. They married in 1962. O’Mara's first job in journalism was with the old Baltimore News-Post as a $97-a-week reporter. Before coming to The Sun in 1965 as a reporter, he worked for about a year in the Washington bureau of United Press International, writing radio news for the wire service’s clients. O’Mara rose through The Sun’s newsroom from reporter to editorial writer for The Evening Sun, a job he held for six years. He worked as a Washington correspondent and overseas as chief of the paper’s Rio de Janeiro bureau. He served as editor of Perspective, a commentary and analysis section in The Sunday Sun from 1976 until 1979, when he was appointed foreign editor, a job he held for 12 years. When O’Mara returned from London in 1994, he joined The Sun’s features department and turned out memorable stories that displayed his curiosity and showcased his elegant writing style. A former Tuscany-Canterbury resident who later moved to Melrose Avenue, O’Mara resided since last year at Springwell Senior Living Community in Mount Washington. He enjoyed spending time at a second home in Bethany Beach, Del., and also enjoyed reading, painting, gardening and riding his bike. In addition to his wife, he is survived by a son, Michael O’Mara; two daughters, Andrea O’Mara and Lisa Armquist; and five grandchildren.
Charles L. Schultze Ph.D. ’60, an economist who served two Democratic presidents, died Sept. 27 at an assisted-living center in Washington, according to The Washington Post. He was 91. Schultze was born in Alexandria and graduated in 1942 from Gonzaga College High School. While serving in the Army in World War II, he was awarded a Bronze Star for combat in Germany, where he manned a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on a Jeep under heavy fire and was shot in the shoulder. Upon his return home, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Georgetown University before receiving his doctorate from UMD. Schultze developed early expertise on fiscal policy while serving as a staff economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in the 1950s. In 1962, he was named assistant director of the Bureau of the Budget, now the Office of Management and Budget. He became director in 1965, when he was only 39 years old. Amid the rapid increase in Pentagon spending to put troops in Vietnam, Schultze spent two years urging an increase in taxes before President Lyndon B. Johnson acquiesced. During the presidency of Richard M. Nixon, Schultze helped start a Brookings series of annual reports called “Setting National Priorities.” It came to be regarded during Republican administrations as an opposition budget. Schultze then served under Jimmy Carter as chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1977 to 1981. Between and after his years of government service, Schultze was affiliated with the Brookings Institution public policy center, where most recently he was senior fellow emeritus. He also was a past president of the American Economic Association. He was predeceased by his wife of 67 years, Rita Hertzog, who died in 2014. Survivors include six children, Karen Hoffman, Kevin Schultze, Lynn Jones, Kathleen Schultze, Carol Kasunic and Mary Chris Weintrob; a brother, Bill Schultze; 16 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Constance Cornell Stuart ’60, former staff director and press secretary to first lady Patricia Nixon, died of natural causes at her home, Rose Hill, in Port Tobacco, Md., on Aug. 27. She was 78. Stuart spent her childhood in Wheeling, W.Va., where she was born on July 15, 1938, the third of four daughters of Vernon Everett Cornell and Ada Kathleen Bellis Cornell. She graduated as valedictorian of her high school class in 1956, then studied theater and speech at UMD, graduating magna cum laude. Stuart moved to New York City in 1962 to work as an account executive with a public relations firm. She became involved in Republican politics, serving as a volunteer with Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign. In 1966, she joined AT&T corporate headquarters as an in-house producer of training films and TV programs. She married Charles E. Stuart in 1967. He was an advance man for Richard Nixon during the presidential campaign, then after the election worked as a White House staff assistant, making domestic and international travel arrangements for President and Mrs. Nixon. Mr. Stuart introduced Mrs. Stuart to Mrs. Nixon during a 1967 campaign stop in Boston. In October 1969, Mrs. Nixon named Mrs. Stuart as her staff director and press secretary. In these roles, Mrs. Stuart oversaw a staff whose duties included managing press relations, correspondence, scheduling, travel arrangements and social events for Mrs. Nixon, Tricia and David Eisenhower and Julie and Edward Cox. Following her White House tenure, Stuart served from 1973–77 as director of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitors Program. From 1978-81 she held jobs as a program director with a land-development corporation and a public relations and government affairs manager for a manufacturing firm. She returned to federal government service in 1981 as the press secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy. From 1985–89, she was the staff assistant to the assistant secretary for international affairs at the Department of Energy. Stuart served on the University of Maryland Board of Regents from 1980–88 and was president of the University of Maryland Alumni Association and chairwoman of its board of trustees. She served on the Maryland Higher Education Commission from 1988–96. In 1989, Stuart left the employ of the federal government to assist her husband with managing Rose Hill, the historic Georgian home (circa 1783) of Dr. Gustavus Brown, friend and physician to George Washington. The Stuarts purchased the 330-acre Rose Hill estate in 1972, restored the home and managed it in the ensuing years. Stuart is survived by Rose Hill farm manager Steven Willett and stable manager Guadalupe Chavez, whom she thought of as sons; her youngest sister, Lynda Oakes; and her nieces and nephews.
Bruce E. Packham ’54, a retired electrical engineer who worked for the old Glenn L. Martin Co. and AAI Corp., died Aug. 15 of leukemia at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium, according to The Baltimore Sun. He was 84. The son of Eldridge Thornton Packham, a civil engineer, and Alberta Kahler, a homemaker, Bruce Eldridge Packham was born in Baltimore and raised in Ednor Gardens. He graduated from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and majored in industrial management at UMD. He served in Army counterintelligence from 1955 until 1963, and while stationed at Fort Holabird, he began attending Johns Hopkins University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. At the old Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River, Packham worked on such projects as Vanguard, Matador, Saturn launch rockets and the Apollo lunar module. He joined AAI Corp. in Hunt Valley in 1966 as a senior design engineer. There he worked on simulation projects and special projects for the Department of Defense, Treasury Department and the National Weather Service. Packham also wrote technical and nontechnical articles, which ranged in topics from electronics to racing hydroplane hull design and magic. He retired in 1994. Packham’s Timonium home was one of the first in the area to be heated by a hot air-based solar system, which he designed and installed, family members said. He toured the state giving magic shows and was a member of the Baltimore Yogi Magic Club. Other interests included golf, amateur radio, classical and popular music. He also played the pipe organ and classical guitar. He also flew radio-controlled model airplanes and was a member of the Radio Control Modelers of Baltimore and a founding member of the Baltimore Area Soaring society. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, the former Sallie Hipp; two sons, Gregory S. Packham and Brian G. Packham; and three grandsons.
David Kornblatt ’50, who went from renting West Baltimore rowhouse apartments to building downtown office buildings during a long career in Baltimore real estate, died of cancer Dec. 14 at Roland Park Place, according to The Baltimore Sun. The former Harbor East resident was 89. Born in Baltimore and raised in Lansdowne and Forest Park, he was the son of Harry and Rebecca Kornblatt, who ran baked-goods stalls at city markets. His parents, born in Russia, became interested in real estate and bought rowhouses they converted into apartments. He graduated from Forest Park High School in 1945, served in the Coast Guard, then earned a business degree at UMD. Kornblatt founded the David Realty Company in the 1950s and renovated and managed homes and apartments in Hampden, Harlem Park and South Baltimore, the decided to focus on selling and leasing industrial and commercial properties. In 1963 he established Kornblatt and Fenneman with a partner, Lawrence Fenneman Jr. A year later it became the Kornblatt Co. Among his properties, he leased offices in the IBM building and the USF&G building., and with several partners, built the First Maryland Building, now M&T Bank Building, at 25 S. Charles St. He also bought and replaced buildings at St. Paul and Lexington streets, including, St. Paul Plaza, which houses the Maryland attorney general's offices. An early member of the Greater Baltimore Committee, Kornblatt was an enthusiastic proponent of downtown renewal. He was a contributor to the capital campaign of the Beth Am Synagogue on Eutaw Place. He also established a fund for new music to be performed at the Shriver Hall Concert Series. He was a past chairman of the Counselors of Real Estate Chesapeake Chapter and had served on the boards of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors and the Suburban Club. In addition to wife of more than 65 years, Barbara, who founded the B.R. Kornblatt Gallery on Charles Street; survivors include a son, Henry Kornblatt; daughters Rebecca, Anne and Sondra; and eight grandchildren.
Jerome B. “Jerry” Trout Jr. ’50, who founded a real estate brokerage business and leased stores throughout Baltimore's shopping malls, died of respiratory failure Jan. 4 at his Ruxton home, according to The Baltimore Sun. He was 88. Born to Jerome B. Trout, a Hutzler’s department store supervisor, and Olga Trout, he was raised on Mount Royal Terrace near Druid Hill Park and graduated from Polytechnic Institute. He was a Baltimore Sun All-Metro lacrosse player that year. At Maryland, he played lacrosse and earned a business administration degree, then briefly joined an uncle, Leonard Trout, who ran a talent agency that booked vaudeville performers and dancers for local theaters. Trout served in the Army during the Korean War. He was assigned to the military police patrolling an Army prison near Okinawa, Japan. After his military service, he became a leasing agent for the B. Howard Richards real estate firm on Charles Street in downtown Baltimore. Trout worked with developer Ralph DiChiaro to lease the Towson Plaza Shopping Center on Dulaney Valley Road, then founded Trout & Fox, Inc. in 1967. With his partner, Milton Fox, he set up a real estate brokerage specializing in retail work. Trout identified newcomers to the Baltimore retail scene. Among them were Giant Food, Baskin-Robbins ice cream and Amy Joy-Dunkin’ Donuts. He also worked with officials of Montgomery Ward to place their stores around the Baltimore Beltway. That work led to Mr. Trout's becoming a real estate developer. He assisted in the development of Annapolis Mall (now Westfield Annapolis), Severna Park Mall and neighborhood shopping centers throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. After Fox retired in 1985, Trout’s son, Jerome III, joined the company, which was renamed Trout Segall & Doyle. The elder Trout remained active in Trout Development until his death. Trout was a sports fan and served on the board of the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum. He was a member of Oheb Shalom Congregation. In addition to his son, survivors include his wife of 26 years, Sallie Stewart; a daughter, Sallie F. Trout; two stepdaughters, Ashley A. Chertkof and Hilary S. Trader; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Marjorie J. Sprague ’49, a retired teacher and guidance counselor, died Aug. 28 at Southern Ocean Medical Center in her community of Manahawkin, N.J. She was 91. She graduated from Barnegat High School in 1943, and after earning her degree at UMD, taught Spanish and English there for six years, then four years at Central Regional High School. While teaching, Marjorie attended Rutgers University and graduated with a Master of Arts degree. She then became a guidance counselor for 31 years until her retirement from Central Regional High School in 1991. Sprague was a charter member of the American Association of University Women of Ocean County. She was a member of the Central Regional Education Association and a life member of the New Jersey Education Association and the National Education Association. She was a member of the Barnegat United Methodist Church and the First United Methodist Church of Beach Haven Terrace for 77 years. She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star of New Jersey, a Past Matron at Bethlehem Chapter #40, and a past grand officer for the State of New Jersey. She was a founding member of the Barnegat Historical Society. Sprague is survived by her brother-in-law Roy Bahr; niece Janet Spadola; nephews Jason and Gary Bahr; and four great-nieces and nephews.
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