Search By Decade
1940s
1942
O. Paul Siple was posthumously inducted into the Salem-Roanoke (Va.) Baseball Hall of Fame in February 2024. He was a four-year letterman as a shortstop for the Eagles and was a professional scout for Major League Baseball.
1950s
1959
Charles “Buddy” Cauley was posthumously inducted into the Bath County (Va.) Athletic Hall of Fame in August 2023. Cauley was one of three Bath County natives to join the inaugural Bridgewater College men’s golf team in 1958.
1960s
1966
William “Bill” Duke Jr. was inducted into the Wilson Memorial High School Hall of Fame. Also a Bridgewater College Athletic Hall of Fame member, Duke began his teaching and coaching career at the Fishersville, Va. school in 1966 and coached five varsity sports for the Green Hornets over a 30-year career.
1968
Michael “Mike” Guinn and Dwight Denlinger ’81 returned to the National Senior Games to participate in the track portion of the competition. Both men ran track for Harry “Doc” Jopson as students at BC. Guinn ran in four races: the 200M, 400M, 800M and the 4X100M relay. He placed seventh, ninth and twelfth, respectively, in the individual races, and his relay team was second. Denlinger finished seventh in the 1500-meter run. Both plan to participate in the 2025 games in Des Moines, Iowa.
1970s
1970
Mike Nunnally has written and published a memoir about his life, Unchained: A Journey from Abuse to Inspiration.
1971
Marci Carter Mason received the North Carolina Governor’s Volunteer Service Award in May 2023 for her concern and compassion towards her community through volunteer service. Mason walks two miles every morning to clean up trash and volunteers wherever she can in her community of Ocracoke, N.C.
1972
James “Jimmy” Dickson welcomed his third grandchild, Brooks Michael Huffman, born July 23, 2023.
1973
Edward “Ed” Clark Jr. announced his retirement as President of the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro, Va. Clark, who co-founded the Wildlife Center in 1982 and has led it for 41 years, is now its President Emeritus.
1974
Martin Smith, Director of Track and Field and Cross Country at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, was inducted into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Coaches Hall of Fame in December 2023. The 2004 BC Athletic Hall of Fame inductee’s career has included cross country team titles in the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-10 and Big 12. Under his guidance, more than 300 athletes have earned All-America honors.
1980s
1980
Jane Tonon Pultz, Dining Shift Supervisor for the Brief Stop located in the Washington and Lee University School of Law, was awarded the Staff Member of the Year Award by the student body in 2023. Pultz has worked at W&L Law in Lexington, Va. since 1997.
Debra Sheffer has retired from Bridgewater College as Graphic Design Director after 18 years. During Sheffer’s tenure, she produced 42 issues of Bridgewater magazine and 14 editions of the College’s Annual Report of Donors.
1981
Mark Barber retired as Chief Operating Officer for TDS Telecommunications LLC at the end of 2023. Barber leaves the Wisconsin-based communications company after three decades in the communications industry.
Jeffrey Bourne announced his retirement effective spring 2024 as Athletic Director of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., a position he has held since 1999.
Dwight Denlinger (see Michael “Mike” Guinn ’68)
1984
Mark Echard celebrated 40 years of service to Rockingham Insurance and the Echard Insurance Agency of Rockingham, Va. Echard began working in the insurance business for his father, the late James “Jim” Echard ’57, while a student at Bridgewater College.
1985
A book co-authored by Wolfgang Drechsler, How to Make an Entrepreneurial State: Why Innovation Needs Bureaucracy, won the Academy of Management’s 2023 George R. Terry Book Award. The Terry Award goes to the book “judged to have made the most outstanding contribution to the global advancement of management knowledge for the last two years.”
1987
Darrell Plogger was named girls basketball Head Coach at Rockbridge County (Va.) High School. Plogger was Head Coach of the boys basketball team at Rockbridge from 2010-20.
1988
Lisa Smith Dutterer was named Chief Operating Officer of Samaritan, a not-for-profit provider of home-based primary care, palliative medicine and hospice care. Dutterer was most recently Vice President, Operations at Jefferson Health New Jersey.
1989
Matthew Smith was named to the Smith-Midland Corporation’s Board of Directors. Smith is the Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Smith-Midland, a Fauquier County, Va.-based concrete product supplier, and the President of Concrete Safety Systems, the barrier rental division of Smith-Midland.
1990s
1990
Nancy Hayter Burgess was inducted into the Bath County (Va.) Athletic Hall of Fame in August 2023. Burgess played one year of basketball and three years of softball at Bridgewater College.
Zelena Craig Martin joined The Neikirk Company in Hagerstown, Md. as a Designer. Martin will help customers choose and design custom window treatments and closet systems at the company.
Greg McCormick, Pastor of Woodland Baptist Church in Nelson County, Va., was part of Bridgewater Baptist Church’s 150th anniversary service in August 2023.
David Orr was named to Golf magazine’s Top 100 instructors in the U.S. for the fifth straight year. Orr is an Instructor at Pine Needles Lodge in Southern Pines, N.C.
1991
Anita Welch Lynn accepted a position with Virginia Beach (Va.) City Public Schools where she will serve as Middle School Chorus Director.
1992
Darla Kay Bowman Deardorff has been named to the UNESCO Chair in Intercultural Competence for Stellenbosch University in South Africa. She has also been named to The PIE Leadership Digest’s list of 50 influential voices in international education for 2023.
1993
E. Neil Burke was named President and CEO of Benchmark Community Bank and its holding company, Benchmark Bankshares. Burke joined Benchmark in 1999 and was most recently Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Farmville, Va. bank.
Darin Bowman joined Bridgewater College as Senior Graphic Designer in January. Bowman was most recently Graphic Designer for the James Madison University College of Business.
1994
Nicoll A. Keeney won the women’s division of the Delaware Senior Amateur golf tournament at DuPont Country Club for the second consecutive year.
Artwork by Dave Rupe, “Heavy Metal Apocalypse pARTy,”was featured at New River Community College’s Fletcher Gallery in Dublin, Va., from October to December 2023.
1997
Cheri Fines-Mills was named Culpeper County (Va.) High School’s Teacher of the Year.
1998
Kelley Stewart Calhoun, a third-grade Teacher for Alleghany Highlands (Va.) Public Schools,received recognition from the Comprehensive Instructional Program as one of the most successful teachers of at-risk students. The recognition is based on standards of learning test scores for 2022-23.
Joseph “Andy” Cline was inducted into the Rockbridge County (Va.) High School Athletic Hall of Fame for 2023-24. Cline played football and basketball at RCHS and played football at BC for two years before his career was cut short due to a neck injury.
Jeremy Koster is the Director of Funding Programs for the National Science Foundation where he oversees programs for both the social, behavioral and economic (SBE) directorate and the technology, innovation and partnerships (TIP) directorate.
1999
Jesse C. Lohr Jr. was named Director of Student Activities at Riverbend High School in Fredericksburg, Va.
2000s
2002
Henry Eggleston Jr., Chief Human Resources Officer executive for Caf2Code in Harrisonburg, Va., helped the software development company and B2B consultancy achieve a Microsoft Solutions Partner Designation for Business Applications in July 2023.
Kirk Monroe and his wife, Amanda, celebrated their 18-year wedding anniversary by traveling to northwest Ohio along Lake Erie’s shores. Highlights of the trip included visits to Marblehead Lighthouse, National Great Lakes Museum, Kelley’s & South Bass Islands and historic Fort Meigs.
Emila Sutton joined the city of Raleigh, N.C., as the new Housing and Neighborhoods Director in October 2023.
Joseph “Dean” Wood was promoted to Vice President of Enterprise Risk Management at REV Federal Credit Union in Summerville, S.C.
Ryan E. Keebaugh, Assistant Professor of Music at Bridgewater College, presented “From Inspiration to Design: Creating Custom and Effective Marching Band Arrangements,” at the 2023 Virginia Music Educators Conference in Richmond, Va.
2003
James Mahoney III, a Clinical Neuropsychologist at West Virginia University,was featured in The Washington Post for his research work on low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU), a noninvasive brain stimulation therapy.
2004
Kyle Walling was inducted into the Wilson Memorial High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Walling was a four-year member of the Fishersville, Va. school’s baseball team before committing to playing baseball at James Madison University and later finishing his college career at BC.
2005
Avis Wheatley presented an organ recital for the 30th season of the Emmanual Concert Series at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Chestertown, Md., in September 2023.
2006
Logan Dunkum was named Head Coach of the softball program at Fort Defiance High School in Fort Defiance, Va.
Megan Studwell Byler, Bridgewater Assistant Town Manager for Public Works, was named to the Daily News-Record‘s “10 Under 40” list for 2023.
2007
Lacey Harold Johnson joined Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., as an Instructor of Mathematics.
Josh Maupin was featured in the Staunton News Leader in a story about overcoming addiction and now beginning a business, vaLaced Customs LLC, which began as sneaker restoration and customization but has evolved into videography.
2009
Amanda “Mandy” Nelling Lee was named to The Roanoker’s “40 Under 40” for 2024. Lee is currently the Director of the ​Roanoke Valley (Va.) Crisis Intervention Team and Marcus Alert System at Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare.
Sara Edwards Salvato received a 2023 R.E.B. Award for Teaching Excellence from the Community Foundation for a Greater Richmond and the R.E.B. Foundation. Her award includes a $10,000 grant to explore accessible employment, training and recreational opportunities for people with cognitive disabilities. Salvato is an adaptive curriculum special education Teacher and Certified Athletic Trainer at Mechanicsville High School in Mechanicsville, Va.
