Category: What’s New @ UMW

The winner of the Great Lives contest has been determined! The FIRST person to correctly identify the faces on the display in Monroe Hall is… Jeremy Thompson.

The 17 persons featured in the display who have been the subjects of biographies and film are:

1.      Kurt Vonnegut (American novelist)

2.      Marie Curie (discoverer of radium)

3.      Madam CJ Walker (cosmetics entrepreneur)

4.      The Wright Brothers (inventors of the airplane)

5.      P. T. Barnum (circus showman)

6.      Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (first President of Turkey)

7.      Clarence Darrow (American attorney)

8.      Jackie Robinson (first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era)

9.      Noah Webster (creator of the first American dictionary)

10.     General Marquis de Lafayette (French-born general of the American Revolution)

11.     Anne Frank (diarist of her experiences as a Jewish girl in hiding)

12.     Mildred Loving and Richard Perry Loving (plaintiffs in landmark case overturning laws forbidding mixed marriages)

13.     Aaron Burr (American Revolutionary War general, later Vice President)

14.     Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women)

15.     Christopher Columbus (explorer of the New World)

All of the above will be the subjects of presentations in the Great Lives Lecture Series beginning in January 2012. As the winner, Jeremy will have his choice of either dinner for two at the Fredericksburg restaurant of his choice; or, dinner for two with the guest speaker/author of his choice in the spring Great Lives Lecture Series.

Congratulations, Jeremy.

– From Charles J. Shields, associate director of the Great Lives Lecture Series

Free Jazz Concert

Robert Jospé

Robert Jospé, renowned jazz drummer, percussionist, composer and educator leads the Inner Rhythm Quartet. The group presents a vibrant repertoire, fusing the buoyant grooves of salsa, samba, swing, funk, and African rhythms into their distinctive sound.

Jospé will be joined by Jeff Decker on saxaphones, Bob Hallahan on piano, and Randall Pharr on bass.  This free concert/lecture program explains the history and structure of Jazz, Blues and Standard song forms and performs compositions that illustrate how West African rhythms have influenced American music.

Beginning this Monday, October 31, the University Web team — Cathy Derecki and Curtiss Grymala — will hold walk-in labs to assist people with managing and enhancing their websites in the new UMW WordPress environment. Open labs will be held at George Washington Hall, Room B010 three times per week at the following times:

• Mondays, 2:30 pm
• Thursdays, 10:30 am
• Fridays, 9:00 am

The James Monroe Museum and the Fredericksburg Area Museum are pleased to present a talk by Andrea Wulf, author of the recent New York Times best-seller Founding Gardeners, on Friday, November 4, at 7 p.m. at the Area Museum!

For the Founding Fathers, gardening, botany, and agriculture were elemental passions, as deeply ingrained in their characters as their belief in liberty for the nation they were creating. Wulf’s talk will offer a fascinating look at the revolutionary generation from the unique and intimate perspective of their lives as gardeners and farmers. A book-signing will follow.

Tickets are $12 ($10 for Friends of JMM) and can be purchased by calling Adele Uphaus-Conner at x1123 or e-mailing auphaus@umw.edu. Find out more about Andrea Wulf and the book at her website.

Additional support for this program comes from Ron Singleton, Roxbury Farm and Garden Center, the Ann Page Garden Club, and the Rappahannock Area Master Gardeners Association.

The University of Mary Washington athletic department co-hosted the first annual Run with the Law 5K and Special Olympics fun run on Saturday, October 22 with the Fredericksburg City Police. The races raised over $5,000 for Special Olympics Virginia, and more than 350 UMW student-athletes provided support for the fun run by lining the course and cheering for the runners.

“I was truly blown away by the support of the UMW athletes”, said Carrie Dyer, the Director of Development for Special Olympics Virginia. “I know our athletes felt extra special with all those fans cheering them on… Truly spectacular.” Several UMW athletes also accompanied some of the 75 competitors throughout the race.

The day began with a 5K run, followed by comments from UMW President Richard V. Hurley. The final event was the fun run, which began at the William M. Anderson Center and stretched to the Campus Bell Tower and turned back across campus to the starting point. The Student Athlete Advisory Council provided UMW athletes with t-shirts, lining the course and providing support.

“The 5k race for the Special Olympics and one mile ‘fun run’ helped raise over $5,000 dollars for the Special Olympics,” said UMW men’s basketball coach Rod Wood, who helped organize the event.  “That pales in comparison to the reward our athletes, coaches, and UMW community received from the special friends we met, encouraged, and shared with on Saturday. This will be a life-long memory for all of us. It really puts in perspective what we do and what we, as a community, can do. We changed lives this weekend, mostly ours. It was a powerful day and something I hope we can continue for years to come.”