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VCU
Needs
RPI
!
Maintain Your Legacy—Join the VCU Alumni Association
“Watch closely this place, which could not have become what it is
without heeding the voices left among the cobblestones we trod in our
youth so many years ago.” —Ed
Peeples ’57BS/E
Perhaps you couldn’t make it to Reunion 2007. Keep a meaningful
connection to
RPI
values and support its
legacy by joining the VCU Alumni Association. Your Alumni Association
and its dedicated board are an effective, positive force for VCU and the
community. Alumni help with student recruiting and support outstanding
students like this year’s Alumni Student Award winner, effective and
enthusiastic Carita Marrow ’07BFA.
Benefits of Association are many. Renewing college friendships at
RPI
Reunion and other
events is only the beginning. Take a trip through the Alumni
Association’s travel partner and meet adventuresome alumni like
yourself, from VCU and other
Virginia
universities.
Participate in other special rates through our affinity partners.
“During the coming year,” says new association president, Dan Massey ’92BS/B, “the Alumni Association will focus on
increasing the influence and impact of our alumni—especially through
students, faculty, and VCU alumni out in the community. A major emphasis
will be on membership growth to help us achieve these objectives. We
want to build upon the great work of our Alumni Association in the past
and harness the excitement and energy of VCU’s excellence in
athletics, academics, and our new buildings.”
VCU needs you, its parents and grandparents. Dan adds, “There will be
many opportunities to make a positive impact and get involved. We hope
everyone will join and be a part of the excitement!”
So, show your pride and share your enthusiasm! Join or renew your
Association membership online or by phone.
We’ll send you an alumni decal to display proudly on your car,
along with a membership packet as soon as we receive your dues payment.
Join today at www.vcu-mcvalumni.org
; click on membership. Or call
804-828-2586
for details. Life
Memberships are also available.
RPI
Sculpture
Memorial
-
Donate by
September
30th!
The
RPI
Sculpture chosen by an
alumni committee is Tableith
by Charles Ponticello ’94
MFA
, announced in March. The piled stones are reminiscent of the
brownstone of Ginter House (“the Ad”) and the cobblestoned alleys of
Richmond
’s Fan. The edge of
each circular stone will be engraved with a quote from an
RPI
year. The site is now
at the west of Ginter House, where there is more space for such a large
work than at “the wall” in
Shafer Court
.
We
are still raising funds to build and install the sculpture, so there’s
still time to join your classmates in celebrating what a special place
RPI
was—and continues to
be, through VCU. The VCU Foundation will match $.50 for each $1 donated
until September 30th, so act now! Since plans were announced in winter 2006,
RPI
alumni have raised
$18,000 toward a goal of $38,000.
To
join in funding the sculpture, contact Diane Stout-Brown at
804-828-2586
; or dstout@vcu.edu;
or at VCU Alumni Activities;
PO Box
843044
;
Richmond
,
VA
23284-3044
.
Special to Grandparents, Fond Uncles and Aunts—
New
Legacy Scholarship
Your
lifelong connection to
RPI
/VCU often extends through generations, into your VCU family. Sending
your children and grandchildren to your university is one of the
strongest statements of pride and support alumni can make.
To
celebrate and support those ties, the VCU Alumni Association is
establishing Legacy Scholarship Awards of $1,000 each, for incoming
freshmen VCU students who are children or grandchildren of dues paying
members of the Alumni Association. The number of scholarships depends on
endowment proceeds for the year.
Both
students and parents must write essays with the application. Academic
merit and financial need will be priorities; students must have a GPA of
3.25 or higher on a 4.0 scale. Details
and application form Or contact Diane Stout Brown, dstout@vcu.edu,
804-828-7020
“Heart
and Soul”
Eight
years ago, Shafer Court
Connections celebrated music professor and former chair (1950-79) L.
Wayne Batty’s 50 years at
RPI
and VCU. He was good for several encores,
teaching through the 2006-07 school year. Batty was the longest-serving
faculty member at VCU, and the longest-serving employee in the state of
Virginia
. He and his wife Jane are still two of
the most intelligent and enthusiastic listeners at many music
performances on campus. But now the energetic 85-year-old is “taking
early retirement,” he joked with reporter Gary Robertson in the
Richmond
Times-Dispatch.
"In many ways he's been the heart and soul of the music
department," music department Chair John Guthmiller told Robertson.
"He founded the opera program, he led the madrigalists for over 50
years. . . . He's been right at the center of things from the
beginning."
In 1988, Batty was named a
Virginia
cultural laureate. VCU awarded him the
Presidential Medallion for outstanding service and teaching excellence.
He and his wife Jane have been a recurring theme and steady line in
regional music for more than 50 years—directing summer performances at
Richmond’s Dogwood Dell, the traditional performances of the Christmas
classic, Amahl and the Night
Visitors, and many more productions with
dinner theaters, choirs and churches.
Batty helped to build the careers of hundreds of students, in
performance and in teaching others—giving the joy of music to
audiences around the world. "In
music, you're dealing with what's happening inside a person," Batty
said to Robertson, "You're touching the soul."
More
Memories...
I
THOUGHT OUR PLAYS DONE AT SHAFER STREET PLAYHOUSE WERE THE HOTTEST
THINGS THIS
SIDE
OF BROADWAY.
AFTER BEING AWAY FOR 40 YEARS I RETURNED TO DISCOVER THE
NEW
THEATRE
AND
STUDENTS MAKE
US
LOOK
LIKE ACTORS
FROM THE STONE AGES. BUT, DAMN, WE HAD
FUN
.
RPI
FOREVER
---WOODY ENEY
(BFA '63
)(
MFA
'65)
Two
items in your recent memory collection brought to mind some of my
experiences. First, the picture in front of the
Ginter
Building
that appeared in the '54 Wigwam keeps
coming up. A few years ago, the picture was reprinted in the alumni
magazine, and in the next issue it prompted a letter from my old friend
and teammate, Ed Peeples. He recalled being there, but questioned the
nature of the event. At our last reunion, I found out the answer.
Pictured there was a political rally for Bill
McConnell ’69AS/En’72BS/B who was running for President of the
Student Government Association. With him are some fellow music majors
who attracted the big crowd. I remember it well because I am the guy in
the plaid vest in the center of the picture.
The
second item that is related is the memory of Carol
Edds Owen ’58Cert/A
about her little Crosley car. Standing next to me in the picture was Roger Comley ‘55BS/H&S,
a fellow journalism major. He was a big guy, about six feet five. He
drove a little Crosley. You may wonder how he did it. I distinctly
remember he took out the front seats and drove while seated in the back.
Carol was right. Those were the good old days.
Best wishes,
Tom
Monahan '56
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