A Few Emory & Henry Alumni Stories

- See the latest E&H Alumni News stories of what alumni are doing every day! Updates added weekly.

- Get to know alumni who have won Distinguished Alumni Awards.

Jarrell Christian (Class of 2009) is an assistant basketball coach for Maine Celtics.
Zack Edwards (Class of 2012) and Tim Kilborne (Class of 2008) are two of the members of the band Annabelle’s Curse.
Mike Young (Class of 1986) is the head men’s basketball coach at Virginia Tech.
Eloise Leonard (Class of 1955) was the first E&H grad to be recruited to work at NASA during the space race. More than 20 E&H alums worked there during that period: read a story about E&H’s role in the Space Race.
Stephen Gunter (2004) is an engineer with Norfolk and Southern Railway. If you listen, sometimes he blows a special little whistle as he’s guiding the train through Emory! Read more…
Joshua Ross (1860), was a member of the Cherokee Nation and a nephew of John Ross. Here is an old historic sketch: http://sites.rootsweb.com/~itchertp/history/obeirne/joshua_ross.htm
E.C. Huffaker (Class of 1880) worked with the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk.
Toni Atkins (Class of 1984), is President Pro-Tempore of the California State Senate. She has also served as the mayor of San Diego and was briefly governor of California.
Morgan Griffith (Class of 1983), is in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Brooklyn Sawyers Belk (Class of 2002) is a partner of counsel and chief diversity and inclusion officer for Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial.
Eloise Johnson (Class of 1949) was the first of more than 20 E&H alums hired by NASA during the space race.
Louisa Littleton (Class of 1939) was the first woman to intern at Charlotte Memorial Hospital and in 1951 opened an integrated private pediatric practice in Statesville, North Carolina. An annual award at the hospital is named for her.
The book Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly, mentions alumnus John Young (Class of 1955) who worked for NASA and on development of the Space Shuttle. The book’s main character, Katherine Johnson, had a nephew who graduated from Emory & Henry: Scrapper Broady is a member of the E&H Sports Hall of Fame who graduated in 1970.
Mary Blakemore Johnston (Class of 1946) was a code-breaker and medical officer in WWII.
Chris Burnett (Class of 2008) owns his own business consulting firm in New York.
Rev. Wil Cantrell’s (’01) book Unafraid and Unashamed, has been considered the “go to” resource for the United Methodist Church in the midst of controversial church decisions.
E&H Alumni have won Emmy Award, include Joel Hilton (1998), Bonnie Widener Wood (1990), Eric Scott (1988), Jeff Tewksbury (1982), Jay Webb (1999), Tyrone Bachman (1998), and Sheila Evans (1988).
E&H boasts of two governors of Virginia, Henry Carter Stuart (Class of 1874) and George C. Peery (Class of 1894). George Peery was governor when the Virginia State Park System opened in 1936.
Dorothy Buck Boucher (Class of 1944) was the first female E&H graduate to become an attorney.
Rev. Paul Seay (’01) is the co-author of a book on Christmas entitled, From Heaven to Earth: Christmas for old believers, new believers, and non-believers. He was an alternate delegate for the 2019 United Methodist General Conference.
Dr. Beverly Clark III is Dean of Instruction at Central Community College in Grand Island, Nebraska.
R.J. Reynolds attended Emory & Henry.
Robby Thomas (Class of 2001), U.S. State Department, is the former manager in the Secretary of State’s 24/7 Operations Center.
Luke Grooms (Class of 2001), is an opera and musical theatre performer.
Mike Austin (Class of 1975) is a world-renown tenor singing with the Stuttgart Opera House in Germany.
Doug Dalton (Class of 1994), dot com wiz, now more than 8 very trendy bars in San Francisco.
Monica Gonzalez (Class of 1998) is an attorney in private practice at Faletti And Gonzalez, PLLC.
Dr. Emily Sturgill (’09) is the founder of PurSolutions,a company that promotes the impact of cytoskeletal research by commercializing research and educational-grade tubulin and actin reagents.
The movie Big Stone Gap (based on the best-selling novel by the same name authored by Adriana Trigiani) features a host of E&H alumni who served as extras in the film. Ms. Trigiani was the Emory & Henry commencement speaker in 2018 and received a rare standing ovation.
J.A. Morrow (Class of 1916) wrote the E&H alma mater as well as UVa’s official alma mater, “Virginia, Hail, All Hail.”
Michael de los Santos (reunion Class of 2006) is the owner of Mike D’s BBQ, and was featured on a reality television show on the Discovery Channel.
Glenn Roberts (Class of 1935) is credited as one of the inventors of the jump shot. According to the Naismith Hall of Fame, the 3-second rule came about to slow down Glenn’s scoring.
Lindsey Hurd Layman (’08) is an environmental engineer for Virginia’s only cement company. Since her hire, the company has consistently met environmental standards every year.
Gary Reedy (Class of 1978) is the CEO of the American Cancer Society.
Many government leaders at the state and local levels are E&H graduates. Joe P. Johnson (Class of 1954) served as a Virginia State Representative from 1992-2014.
Dr. Bob Buchanan (Class of 1958) is a microbiologist retired from the University of California, Berkely who has authored a textbook on microbiology and has won the Charles Reid Barnes Life Membership Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists.
Henri Fitzgerald (Class of 2000) is director of non-profit solutions at PNC Bank in Winston-Salem.
The Hon. Teresa Chafin (Class of 1978) is a member of the Virginia Supreme Court.
Dr. Zaneta Tutuh Hamlin (Class of 2008) is a graduate of Howard University’s dental school and is a Fellow of the Academy of General Dentistry (FAGD).
Dr. Ed Ripley (Class of 1987) is a Nuclear Metallurgist at Y-12 National Security Complex and a magician of world-renown. He holds more than 20 patents.
Martha Spencer (E&H alumna, Whitetop Mountain Band) was featured in a 2018 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine as an “artist you need to know.”
Dr. Patricia Bear Huber (Class of 1976) was elected in 2017 to serve as the first female president of New River Community College in Dublin, Virginia.
Arthur “Scrapper” Broady (Class of 1970) was among Emory & Henry’s first African American students. He is a member of the E&H Sports Hall of Fame.
Gerald Anderson (Class of 1976, deceased) was a master luthier who trained under the famous Wayne Henderson. Gerald made guitars for Dolly Parton and Marcus Mumford of Mumford and Sons).

Emory & Henry is proud that many of our graduates are published authors. In 2019, we hosted our first Homecoming Book Signing, and here are the alumni who participated:

- Rev. Paul Seay (E&H ’01) and Rev. Wil Cantrell (E&H ’01): From Heaven to Earth: Christmas for New Believers, Old Believers, and Non-Believers
- James Ballard (E&H ’74): William Edmondson “Grumble” Jones: The Life of a Cantankerous Confederate
- Chrissie Anderson Peters (E&H ’93): Blue Ridge Christmas

- Dale McGlothlin (E&H ’87): Great Big Small Things: The Extraordinary Life of Fred Selfe

- Joe Cundiff (E&H ’90): Broken Chain: The Echo of Lone Howls
- Josh Stamper (E&H ’07): Ugly Me
- Emily Wallace (E&H ’04): Road Sides: An Illustrated Companion to Dining and Driving in the American South

Other Fun E&H Trivia:

When the University of Florida Gators won the SEC football championship in 1994 they beat Alabama by one point using a tricky formation called the Emory & Henry Play. Coach Steve Spurrier (who grew up in East Tennessee) had seen this unusual play used when he came to Emory & Henry games when he was a kid – so when he used it with his teams, he named it for Emory & Henry.
The first game the Vols played in UT’s Neyland stadium was against E&H. That’s also the first time the Vols wore orange. Because E&H held the Vols scoreless for two quarters newspapers said we gave them “quite a stinging;” this may have been the genesis of our mascot nickname Wasps. (We are the only college in the country with a Wasp for its mascot. Could be worse: UC-Santa Cruz gets to cheer for the Banana Slugs.)
The last person to coach the Lady Vols before Pat Summit was Dr. Margaret Hutson who coached and taught at Emory & Henry and started the E&H Athletic Training program. Dr. Hutson was responsible for the UT women wearing very orange uniforms. While she is now deceased, her Scottish Terrier (Bonny) can still be seen walking around the campus.