Western Maryland College

Western Maryland College will greet the holidays with six concerts this year, featuring classical to seasonal favorites to jazz. The eight-day musical celebration opens today. All performances are free to the public. The schedule is: Today: Gospel Choir, 7:30 p.m., Baker Memorial Chapel. The choir, under the direction of music lecturer Eric Byrd, will perform contemporary and spiritual favorites. The choir will collect canned food, blankets and pillows, or $1 cash for donation to a local charity.

Helen B. Wolfe, an outspoken advocate of women's rights who also had been a member of the faculty of McDaniel College for more than a decade, died March 5 from cancer at Carroll Hospice Center's Dove House in Westminster. She was 79. With a head of thick white hair, flashing porcelain-blue eyes and an outsized personality, Dr. Wolfe made an instant and lasting impression on those she met, friends said. "When she came to the college, she had already had a distinguished career and in that sense showed a lot of the younger women the variety of roles she had undertaken," said Joan Develin Coley, who retired as president of McDaniel College in 2010.

Five Western Maryland College seniors from Carroll County received academic, activity and leadership awards at the college's annual Senior Investiture and Honors Convocation May 1.Joanne M. Engler of Sykesville received the Wall Street Journal Student Achievement Award. It is presented annually to the student who, in the judgment of the economics and business administration faculty, has exhibited the best overall academic performance. Ms. Engler, a business administration and economics major, is a member of the WMC Non-Traditional Students Organization for students 25 years and older.

H. Samuel Case, who taught human physiology and exercise science at what is now McDaniel College for four decades, died Aug. 22 of complications from leukemia at Carroll Hospice Center's Dove House in Westminster. The longtime Westminster resident was 70. "I've been here for two years, but I very quickly came to see how much Sam embodied the essence of McDaniel College. His death is such a painful loss, " said Roger Casey, president of the college. "In my speeches to prospective students, I tell them that the faculty is not in your life for just four years, but 40. And I got that from observing Sam," he said.

WESTMINSTER -- Western Maryland College will hold its annual four-day orientation beginning Thursday, Sept. 3. Each year the college chooses a relevant topic for its new student colloquium, in which freshmen are introduced to the intellectual rigors of college life.This year's colloquium, "When Cultures Meet," will take place Sept. 4 beginning at 1 p.m. 1992 marks the 500th anniversary of the historic first encounter between the cultures of indigenous Americans and Europeans. Through a simulation, a discussion of common readings and a play, students and faculty will address this singular event.

Western Maryland College will sponsor activities throughout next month in recognition of Women's History Month, including a presentation by a young woman whose HIV infection has progressed to acquired immune deficiency syndrome."

Western Maryland College will honor the college and community services of two of its graduates during homecoming next weekend.For their volunteer work, James E. Lightner, Class of '59, of Westminster was named WMC Alumnus of the Year, and Roxanne Benjovsky McClanahan, Class of '89, of Crofton won the Young Alumna Service Award.The alumni will be recognized during halftime ceremonies of the homecoming football game Saturday between WMC and Dickinson College.Lightner, who retired this year after teaching mathematics at the college since 1962, has been an active member of the community for nearly 40 years.

Western Maryland College has fewer students than most Baltimore high schools. It can't recruit top-seeded athletes, and doesn't care to. But the quiet school on the edge of Westminster lays claim to something no other college in the state can: A branch campus in Eastern Europe.Four years ago, the college muscled aside two other schools to open a campus in Budapest. This week, the institution will hold commencement in Westminster for its inaugural class -- 19 students who have added an international flair to the serene beauty of the Maryland campus.

WESTERN Maryland College's new Science Center offers spectacular views from its glass-wall rear hallways, the inspiring vista of the Catoctin Mountains.But the educational outlook for the private Westminster college is even more impressive after last month's dedication of the four-story, 50,000-square-foot academic building. The $13.4-million center houses 21st-century laboratories and space for student research at an institution long recognized for its undergraduate scientific instruction.

Western Maryland College officials are in the final stages of selecting a successor to Richard F. Seaman, vice president of institutional advancement.Seaman, who has been at the college since 1991, in January announced his plans to retire. He said he will remain at the school until a successor is found.The college has received applications from 85 candidates seeking the top fund-raising position at the school, according to Donald W. Schumaker Jr., spokesman for the liberal arts college.A search committee of faculty and staff members has been reviewing applications since April and has whittled the number of prospective candidates to "a handful of finalists," Schumaker said.

Wilbur D. "Woody" Preston Jr., a retired partner in the Baltimore law firm of Whiteford, Taylor & Preston who was Maryland's special counsel during the 1985 savings and loan crisis, died Monday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. He was 90. Mr. Preston's yearlong investigation into the causes of the savings and loan crisis that swept Maryland in the mid-1980s resulted in the publication of the highly acclaimed Preston Report, which was a thorough and detailed analysis of the debacle.

Anne Arundel Community College has hired Maryland native Dawn Lindsay, who now heads Glendale Community College in California and has an extensive background in local academia, as its next president. Lindsay, 52, will be the sixth president in the school's 50-year history, replacing Martha A. Smith, who will retire from the position after 18 years on Aug. 1. AACC officials said that Lindsay has signed a three-year contract worth $234,500 annually, with required annual evaluations.

Roger N. Casey, the provost of Rollins College in Florida and a scholar of literature and media with strong international ties, will become McDaniel College's ninth president in July. Casey, 48, will replace Joan Develin Coley, who is retiring after holding the job for 10 years and leading the college through the name change from Western Maryland College. At Rollins, located near Orlando, Casey oversees academic affairs for three schools and has helped the college achieve a No. 1 ranking among master's comprehensive universities in the South, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Amanda Corinne Evler and Christopher Eric Saumenig were married on October 3rd, 2009 at Towson United Methodist Church. The bride is the daughter of Sharon Evler and the late Richard A. Evler, Sr. of Cub Hill, MD. The groom is the son of Wallace and Susan Saumenig of Fullerton, MD. A reception was held at Hunt Valley Golf Club in Phoenix, MD. The bride is a graduate of Towson University with a bachelor's degree in early childhood education, as well...

The former two-year women's Catholic school in Baltimore County had come a long way, transforming itself into a multiple-campus university with professional graduate programs and a draw beyond Maryland. But administrators worried that its name - Villa Julie College - didn't match. Years of market research commissioned by the school found that the name Villa Julie stubbornly sounded to prospective students and employers like a single-sex, religiously-affiliated place - even though the now-secular college went co-educational in the 1970s and has expanded beyond its main Stevenson campus to a large parcel in nearby Owings Mills.

Betty Lee Seiland, a retired social worker active in her college's alumni association, died of cancer Feb. 12 at her Sykesville home. She was 79. Born Betty Lee Robbins in Baltimore and raised on Linnard Street, she was a 1946 Western High School graduate and earned a degree at Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College. She later headed its Baltimore alumni association chapter and was a visitor of the school's alumni association board. She was the 1971 recipient of the Western Maryland College Alumni Meritorious Service Award.

Once people learn that Mona Estime-Amira is a native of Haiti, she often can't even put on hand lotion without being asked whether she's practicing voodoo."

Six months after McDaniel College announced its new name, many students and alumni are still coping with a bittersweet mix of emotions from the demise of their alma mater's former name, Western Maryland College. "McDaniel College is the best of all possible names," said Brian C. Griffiths, a 2000 graduate who had chaired the Coalition to Save Western Maryland College. But while he respects the administrators who oversaw the change, "that doesn't take the sting away. When I look down at my college ring, it's technically not there any more."

Raymond Clarence Phillips, a colorful and witty English professor who kept several generations of Western Maryland College students riveted with his classroom dramatizations of literary characters, died Monday of a stroke at Chesapeake Regional Medical Center in Chesapeake, Va. He was 75. Dr. Phillips, who maintained homes in Uniontown and Williamsport, Pa., had been vacationing in Corolla, N.C., when stricken. He was born and raised in Williamsport and graduated from Williamsport High School in 1949.

Florence Ellen Earp, a retired piano teacher, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease July 12 at Ridge Overlook Assisted Living in Westminster. She was 94. Born Florence Ellen Rowe in Mechanicsburg, Pa., she earned a degree in music education and English at Westchester College. In 1938, she married Dr. James Pearsall Earp, a sociology professor at Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College. He died in 1984. Mrs. Earp taught music for 15 years at Westminster Junior High School and gave piano lessons at home.