100 Candles – Centennial Bash Heats up With Founders Week, More

On Founders Day, one of the country’s premier narrative historians will be on hand as the University of Mary Washington celebrates its own storied past.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough will provide the keynote address at the March 14 Convocation Ceremony in Dodd Auditorium. McCullough’s speech will be one of the highlights of a weeklong celebration of the founding of the State Normal and Industrial School at Fredericksburg on March 14, 1908.

Founders Day is the capstone of UMW’s yearlong commemoration of its centennial. Activities have included special lectures, displays, activities, and concerts.

McCullough, author of John Adams, 1776, and Truman, among many other works, has received the National Book Award twice. His books have won acclaim for their scholarship, vibrant prose, and insight into individual character. McCullough’s appearance at Mary Washington will be a reprise. He was a speaker for the Fredericksburg Forum in spring 2002.

Because space is limited, tickets are required for the 3 p.m. Convocation Ceremony, as well as for the Centennial Ball that will take place on the Fredericksburg campus that evening. 

Other Founders Week activities, all of which are free and open to the public, include the following:

• An opening reception for One Hundred Years Together, a UMW-community art show, will take place in Jepson Alumni Executive Center from 6 to 9 p.m. on March 7. This exhibition features works submitted by artists in the Fredericksburg region in celebration of UMW’s centennial. The works reflect the time, place, changes, traditions, departures, and discoveries of our region and the university that serves it. The exhibit runs through March 31.
• How the Mind Tricks Us, a lecture by Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Eric Mazur, a Harvard University physics professor, will be in Dodd Auditorium at 8 p.m. on March 12.
• Another opening reception for an art exhibition will take place at Ridderhof Martin Gallery from 5 to 7 p.m. on March 13. This is for the Centennial Alumni Exhibition, a juried competition highlighting the artistic accomplishments of UMW alumni. At the reception, awards will be presented by the juror, Janet DeCover, director and curator for Main Art Gallery in Richmond. The exhibition will be on display in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery through June 1.
• Also on March 13, a special lecture in the Great Lives: Biographical Approaches to History series will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium. Peter R. Henriques, professor emeritus of history at George Mason University, will talk about Mary and George Washington.
• Culminating the week, the UMW-Community Symphony Orchestra will present its Centennial Concert, featuring an original score created by renowned composer James Grant especially for UMW’s Centennial Celebration. That will take place on March 15 at 7:30 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium.
• After Founders Day, the Centennial Celebration continues. Please refer to the Centennial Celebration calendar of events. Through the end of the semester, even traditional activities such as Commencement and Reunion Weekend will take on a centennial flavor.
• Also, as a means of marking UMW’s milestone, one special-edition book is hot off the press and another is scheduled to be published later this year. Moments in Time, an exquisite, photo-laden coffee-table book, is for sale through the University bookstore. In addition to a synopsis of UMW’s history, it features images captured by award-winning photographer Lynda Richardson ’81. Books can be ordered by phone at 540/654-1652 or online at www.umw.edu/bookstore.
• University of Mary Washington: A Centennial History will be available in the fall. Written by University Historian and Distinguished Professor of History William B. Crawley Jr., this book tells the comprehensive and engaging story of the institution’s development.

For additional information on these books or any centennial activities, please call 540/654-1055 or visit www.umw.edu/centennial.