New Alumni Association officers and board members for 2002-03

New Alumni Association President John B. Higginbotham (civil engineering '77), President-Elect Paul M. Saunders (agricultural engineering '54), and Vice President Kimble "Jay" Reynolds Jr. (English '88; M.S. health and physical education '95) have begun one-year terms.

Higginbotham, founder and chairman of the venture capital firm SpaceVest, earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1979, serves on the College of Engineering Committee of 100, and was the recipient of the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award in 1986.

Saunders, owner of Saunders Brothers Inc., an orchard and nursery in Piney River, Va., has served on the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Leadership Council and the Ag Alumni Board of Directors.

Reynolds, who received a J.D. from Washington and Lee University School of Law in 1993, owns a general practice law firm in Martinsville, Va. He has served on the Pamplin Advisory Council, the German Club Alumni Foundation Board of Directors, and the Reynolds Homestead Advisory Board and is a director of the Diversity and Conflict Resolution Leadership Program.

Newly elected board members are Ronald Ball (political science '70), Douglas Graham (forestry and wildlife '94; DVM '98), Joseph Harris (architecture '68), Wayland Hundley (marketing management '84), Gregory Jones (accounting '77), Cecil Maxson (building construction '52), Roberta Minish (vocational-technical education '77), Brian Slingerland (finance '00), and Jean Swartz (chemical engineering '84). Incumbents elected to a second term are Scott Cappiello '94, B. Keith Fulton '89, Susan Hensley '77, Melissa Nelson '92, and Nicholas Valdrighi '57. Terms are three years.

Jermoluk addresses L.A., Orange County alumni

Alumni from the Los Angeles (L.A.) and Orange County, Calif., chapters recently gathered at the famous Century Club to hear fellow Hokie Tom Jermoluk (computer science '78; M.S. '79) speak on venture funding and what it takes to make it as a venture capitalist or an entrepreneur since the bursting of the dot-com bubble. Jermoluk, a recipient of the L.A. chapter's distinguished alumni award, is a general partner with the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and was featured in the fall 2001 issue of Virginia Tech Magazine.

"Virginia Tech Student Media Alumni: Celebrating Milestones"

Virginia Tech's student-run newspaper, the Collegiate Times, celebrates its centennial in 2003. In honor of the past 100 years of student-run media and their indelible mark on campus life, the first reunion of student media alumni will be held on March 14-15, 2003 at Virginia Tech. This event will celebrate the many accomplishments of the Collegiate Times, as well as the literary magazine Silhouette, the Bugle yearbook, radio station WUVT, television station VTTV, and the student publications photo staff.

If you have friends or classmates to add to the mailing list, please contact the Alumni Association by phone at 540/231-6285 or by email at VaTechAlumni@vt.edu. For questions or to share suggestions about the event, please contact Kellie Wolff, general manager, Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech (540/231-4054 or kawolff@vt.edu).

NOVA chapter endows scholarship

Tom Tillar, vice president for alumni relations, and Debbie Shelton, associate vice president for alumni relations, were at the winter Chilifest, a popular annual fund-raising event, to accept a $25,000 check from the Northern Virginia (NOVA) alumni chapter. The gift will be used to establish an endowment to support scholarships. In the past five years, the NOVA chapter has provided over $40,000 in scholarships to local area high school students planning to attend Virginia Tech.