I haven't posted in a while because, to be quite honest, it has been a difficult winter for Mary Washington Geography.  While our first blizzard was fun, and the second blizzard marked this as an unusual winter, the third had us running for the hills . . . almost literally.

So our anniversary year was wonderful.  I enjoyed meeting so many alumni and getting back in touch with some of our more recent graduates.  We are lucky to have so many of you involved in the department, and I want to make sure to thank as many as I can.

So, first let me thank Stu Geiger, Steve O'Connell, Pete Chirico, Bill Major, and John McCarthy for teaching  courses in environmental geography, human geography, remote sensing, GIS, and planning.  You all add so much to the program by lending us your expertise in these areas.

Congratulations to Dawn Bowen for winning the Pioneer America Society's Henry H. Douglas Distinguished Service Award.

You can find out more about this and our students' victory in the World Geography Bowl on UMW's homepage (you can also follow this link).

These accomplishments reflect the current strenght of Mary Washington Geography and are a fitting way to mark the end of our 50th Anniversary year.

The Mary Washington led Virginia team won the World Geography Bowl competition at the Annual Meetings of the Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers last week.  Led by captain Matthew Holden (2011) and coached by Joe Nicholas, Jackie Gallagher and Jackie Gallagher, 5 Mary Wash geographers and one graduate student from Virginia Tech defeated teams composed mostly of grarduate students from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

We've now hosted four speakers in our 50th Anniversary Lecture series.  John McCarthy (1943), Carole Gallagher (1991), Louis Dean (1990), and LeAnne Carrouth (1984) have talked on subjects incuding planning, Northern Ireland, remote sening, and how geography is great preparation for a career in filmmaking.

This week we're proud to host Dr. Sarah Hinman (MWC 200) who will talk about how she incorporates GIS in her research in historical and medical geography.  The talk is at 6:00pm on Thursday, November 19 in Annex A 109.  All are weclome.

The upcoming (November 22-24) annual meeting of the Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers (SEDAAG) will feature two sessions organized by Dawn Bowen to mark the 50th Anniversary of Geography at Mary Washington.

In these sessions, Mary Washington Geography alumni and current faculty will present ongoing research in both physical and human geography.  

I had the best intentions to post right at the beginning of our new semester, but then four weeks flew by without giving me the time to even compose an entry in my head, let alone write it out.

Since my last post, another Mary Washington Geographer has pledged $5,000.  This brings our total, in gifts and pledges, to $45,000.  Thanks to everyone who has given and I hope more and more of you will help out.

The Mary Washington Geography Department's campaign to build an endowment to mark our 50th Anniversary just passed an important milestone!

Thanks to major gifts and pledges from Alyson Greiner (1998) and her husband Luis Montes; Dawn (1986) and Marshall Bowen; Ellen and Keith Littlefield (1979) and the generous donations of other alumni and faculty, we have now matched Jeff (1991) and Lisa Rountree's initial gift of $20,000.

We've been in Monrovia for a few weeks now.  The GIS lab is mostly set up, the maps have been filed back into their drawers, and the HVAC contractors are trying to get the inside humidity down below 80%.  All in all, it's working out ok.

If you are a member of the Geography Alumni Group on Facebook, check out Dawn's pictures of the deserted Monroe Hall and the inside of Monrovia.  If you aren't a member, I've copied some of them here: