Category: Alumni Blogs

  • A Capital Time!  The William & Mary Geology Reception in Washington, D.C.

    A Capital Time! The William & Mary Geology Reception in Washington, D.C.

    The Geology Department puts together annual receptions for our alumni at both the Geological Society of America and the American Geophysical Union meetings during the Fall semester. It is a great way to connect with Geology alums that are graduate students, academics, or geoscience researchers. But our graduates go on to a diverse array of…

  • Paddle Trip Report 3 – The Long Dash for Home

    Paddle Trip Report 3 – The Long Dash for Home

    The last post ended with my canoe trapped and broken on a granite outcrop at the base of the Fall Zone in Richmond, Virginia. I was on an 8-day journey by canoe from the Blue Ridge Foothills to Williamsburg; a middle-aged journey to mark the 30th anniversary of my arrival as a student at William…

  • Paddle Trip Report 2 – Across the Piedmont and Fall Zone

    Paddle Trip Report 2 – Across the Piedmont and Fall Zone

    At the end of my last post we’d completed the first two days of an 8-day canoe trip from the Blue Ridge Foothills in central Virginia to Williamsburg, and were tucked in on a gravelly island in the middle of the Rivanna River. DAY 3- Rivanna Rain The rain returned during the night. Day 3…

  • Paddle Trip Report 1 – Through the Foothills

    Paddle Trip Report 1 – Through the Foothills

    We successfully completed our 8-day paddle trip from the foothills of the Blue Ridge to Williamsburg. It was all the adventure I’d hoped for. In this first of three posts, I report on the highlights, rough spots, and geology along our journey. This was a personal trip completed with my old friends and goodtime buddies,…

  • A Journey Thirty Years in the Making

    A Journey Thirty Years in the Making

    In 1985 I enrolled at William & Mary. I remember bits of that summer day in which my mother and I made the journey from our home in Albemarle County (west of Charlottesville) to college in Williamsburg. That seems a long time ago. During the past thirty years I have made the journey from Albemarle…

  • Mount William & Mary, Really?

    Mount William & Mary, Really?

    Last week William & Mary News published a story about a second campaign to officially name a peak in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado Mount William & Mary. The mountain in question is a subordinate peak on Mount Elbert, the highest summit in the Rockies, that tops out at an elevation of 14,440’ (4,401…

  • Half a Hundred = A Good Time

    Half a Hundred = A Good Time

    William & Mary’s Geology Department turned 50 years old in 2011. We celebrated the half a hundred mark with a weekend wingding on campus and in the field. Nearly one hundred alums were in attendance and by my reckoning a good time was had by all. Founded in 1961, the Geology department has graduated nearly…