Edna Gooch Trudeau ’59 and Danielle DeSimone ’14 graduated 55 years apart. Yet, each returned to the University of Mary Washington’s Reunion Weekend for the same reason.
“I’ve kept in touch with friends I met here 69 years ago,” said Trudeau, tearing up as she recalled classmates she has lost over the years. But her face brightened as Ann Brooks Coutsoubinas ’59 arrived. Trudeau added, “I absolutely loved my time at Mary Washington.”
DeSimone expressed the same sentiment after reuniting with friends she met on her first night in college. “It’s so wild that it has been a decade since we graduated. We can’t wait to relive everything.”
Over 600 graduates and guests returned to the University of Mary Washington for 2024’s Reunion Weekend, May 30 through June 2. Photo by Karen Pearlman.
Over 600 graduates and guests gathered for 2024’s Reunion Weekend, held May 30 through June 2. Some came with canes and walkers, while others were there with strollers in tow. Yet, everyone was excited to reconnect with the campus and each other and rediscover all the things they loved about UMW.
Kate Barbuto Charette ’04 showed her daughter around Virginia Hall. Susan Willis Tomaiko ’84 remembered the fun times she had in the Lee Hall Underground. Lorenza Amico ’79 wanted to see old friends and make new ones. And Gloria Shelton Gibson and Lin Hawkins Brannon, both 1969 graduates, stayed in their former residence, Ball Hall, which housed dozens of alumni during the weekend.
The four-day celebration featured parties and picnics, faculty lectures, campus tours, family fun, class photos, arts and culture, trolleys to downtown Fredericksburg and Carl’s for ice cream, and more. Alumni visited the academic departments where they learned, the residence halls where they lived and the favorite haunts where they made meaningful memories at Mary Washington.
“It’s fun to come back to an environment where you began as kids and left as adults,” said Jennifer Henley ’04, whose class was the last before Mary Washington became a university. The name and the campus may have changed, she said, “but the vibe is still the same.”
