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UMW’s Great Lives Lecture Series Announces 2025 Lineup, New Director

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The 22nd season of the William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series at the University of Mary Washington will kick off Jan. 21, 2025, and run Tuesday and Thursday evenings through March 20.
The 22nd season of the William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series at the University of Mary Washington will kick off Jan. 21, 2025, and run Tuesday and Thursday evenings through March 20.

A selection of fascinating figures will be profiled during this year’s William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series at the University of Mary Washington. The 22nd season of the popular series was announced Tuesday evening at a presentation that welcomed over 160 supporters, donors, and sponsors to UMW’s Jepson Alumni Executive Center.

This year, bestselling biographers will shine a light on senator and civil rights leader John Lewis, broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, controversial baseball great Pete Rose, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, and over a dozen other notable individuals from history and culture.

Yet, of all the larger-than-life personalities highlighted on Nov. 12, the one that drew the most applause was series founder and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History William Crawley, who announced his retirement. His co-director, Scott Harris ’83, executive director of UMW Museums, will oversee the series – the latest installment of which starts on Jan. 21, 2025 – moving forward.

‘The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA’ by Liza Mundy.
‘Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball’ by Keith O’Brien.
‘As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Sterling’ by Anne Serling.
‘The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters’ by Susan Page.
‘The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams’ by Adam Lazarus.
‘The Earth Is All That Lasts: Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and the Last Stand of the Great Sioux Nation’ by Mark Lee Gardner.
‘John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community’ by Raymond Arsenault.
‘The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook’ by Hampton Sides.
‘President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier’ by C.W. Goodyear.
‘Beyond Genius: A Journey Through the Characteristics and Legacies of Transformative Minds’ by Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Physics Bulent Atalay.
‘The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence’ by David Waldstreicher.
‘Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South’ by Elizabeth R. Varon.
‘The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington’s Most Private First Lady’ by Heath Hardage Lee.
‘Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr’ by Stephen Michael Shearer.
‘Gatsby: The Cultural History of the Great American Novel’ by Bob Batchelor.

UMW students and the local community have been the beneficiaries of Great Lives, Dr. Crawley said, which began as an academic course offered by UMW’s Department of History and American Studies with a free public lecture series.

John and Mary Lou Chappell, the founding donor and his wife, who are long-time supporters of Great Lives, enabled the series to attract biographers who provide insight into the lives of the world’s most prominent personalities. In 2016, the program was renamed the William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series. Numerous local organizations, corporations, and individuals throughout the Fredericksburg area sponsor lectures and support the series.

“No one has benefited perhaps more than I have, because [Great Lives] has allowed me to interact with some of the most interesting and preeminent writers and scholars of our time … including a number of Pulitzer Prize winners,” Dr. Crawley said. Under his leadership, the series has featured more than 325 subjects in the last two decades, with many of the lectures later broadcast on C-SPAN.

“Bill, you are a wonderful representative and role model for our students today,” UMW President Troy Paino said. “You’ve started something that brings together the community, and I want to thank you for making the Great Lives series possible.”

Scott, who was one of Dr. Crawley’s students and has served as Great Lives co-director for the past year, earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in history and historic preservation from Mary Washington and a master’s in history and museum administration from the College of William and Mary.

He has been employed at UMW since 2011 and has served in his current role since 2018, overseeing Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont, the James Monroe Museum, and the Papers of James Monroe. He is past president of the Virginia Association of Museums and is an editorial advisor and frequent contributor to the White House Historical Association’s journal, White House History Quarterly.

“Bill, you have been my teacher, my colleague, and my friend,” Scott said. “It’s been a privilege to work with you over this past year on Great Lives, and I’m more honored than I can say to succeed you.”

Distinguished Professor Emeritus Bill Crawley (left) and UMW Museums Executive Director Scott Harris ’83 have served as co-directors of the William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series for the past year. On Tuesday, Crawley announced his retirement. Harris, his former student at Mary Washington, will oversee the Great Lives Lecture Series. Photo by Karen Pearlman.
Great Lives Director Scott Harris ’83 announced the 22nd season of the William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series. Photo by Karen Pearlman.
From left: Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Engagement Katie Turcotte, Kelly Paino, President Troy Paino, Distinguished Professor Emeritus Bill Crawley, and Dr. Terrie Young Crawley ’77 listen as Scott Harris ’83 announced the new Great Lives season on Tuesday. Photo by Karen Pearlman.
Great Lives Director Scott Harris ’83 announced the 22nd season of the William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series. Photo by Karen Pearlman.
Distinguished Professor Emeritus Bulent Atalay (standing) will present ‘Da Vinci, Shakespeare, Newton, Beethoven, and Einstein’ on Feb. 25, 2025. Photo by Karen Pearlman.
Great Lives supporters, donors, and sponsors gathered in the Rappahannock Grand Ballroom in UMW’s Jepson Alumni Executive Center on Tuesday to hear about the fascinating figures who will be profiled in the 22nd season of the popular lecture series. Photo by Karen Pearlman.
UMW Director of Community Events Ali Gauch Hieber and Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Great Lives founder Bill Crawley. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

This year’s series kicks off Jan. 21, with New York Times bestselling author and reporter Liza Mundy’s The Sisterhood: The Secret Women of the CIA, spotlighting the female operatives who have gathered intelligence for the United States over the last century. Mundy is also the author of Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II, which she brought to UMW in 2018.

Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Physics Bulent Atalay will delve into the world’s most brilliant brains in a lecture titled “Da Vinci, Shakespeare, Newton, Beethoven, and Einstein.” A scientist, writer, and artist, Atalay is the author of Beyond Genius: A Journey Through the Characteristics and Legacies of Transformative Minds.

Other lectures will chronicle the lives of Twilight Zone creator and host Rod Serling, enslaved African American poet Phillis Wheatley, First Lady Pat Nixon, starlet and inventor Hedy Lamarr, and even Jay Gatsby, referring to both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel and its titular character. Audiences will also have the chance to learn about the unlikely friendship between astronaut John Glenn and baseball legend Ted Williams, Confederate general James Longstreet, President James A. Garfield, and Captain James Cook.

Great Lives lectures are held Tuesdays and Thursdays through the end of March 2025. All are open to the public free of charge and begin at 7:30 p.m. in George Washington Hall’s Dodd Auditorium.

Dates, topics, speakers, and sponsors for 2025 are:

Jan. 21
Women of the CIA, presented by Liza Mundy. The Chancellor’s Village Lecture.

Jan. 23
Pete Rose, presented by Keith O’Brien. The John and Linda Coker Lecture.

Jan. 28
Rod Serling, presented by Anne Serling. The Russell Mait and Barbara Stone Mait ’79 Lecture.

Jan. 30
Barbara Walters, presented by Susan Page. The Gemini 3 Group Lecture.

Feb. 4
John Glenn and Ted Williams, presented by Adam Lazarus. The Davenport & Company Lecture.

Feb. 6
Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, presented by Mark Lee Gardner. The Synergy Periodontics and Implants Lecture.

Feb. 13
John Lewis, presented by Raymond Arsenault. The Irene and Curry Roberts Lecture.

Feb. 18
Captain James Cook, presented by Hampton Sides. The Stephen Gaske and Patricia Powers Gaske ’75 Lecture.

Feb. 20
James A. Garfield, presented by C.W. Goodyear. The Yuh Prosthodontics Lecture.

Feb. 25
Da Vinci, Shakespeare, Newton, Beethoven, and Einstein, presented by Bulent Atalay. The Coldwell Banker Elite Lecture.

Feb. 27
Phillis Wheatly: America’s First Black Poet, presented by David Waldstreicher. The UMW Museums Lecture.

March 11
James Longstreet, presented by Elizabeth Varon. The Walter Jervis Sheffield Lecture.

March 13
Pat Nixon, presented by Heath Hardage Lee. The Jubilation by Silver Companies Lecture.

March 18
Hedy Lamarr, presented by Stephen Michael Shearer. The Roxanne M. Kaufman Lecture.

March 20
Jay Gatsby, presented by Bob Batchelor. The UMW Dining Lecture.

For information on Great Lives sponsorships, please contact Jeremy Vaughn ’08 in the Office of University Advancement at jvaughn@umw.edu or 540-654-2063. 

– Article written by Assistant Director of Advancement Communications Jill Graziano Laiacona ’04 

Alumna, Author Uncovers Hidden Black History in Great Lives Lecture, Feb. 8

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An archaeological dig revealed the remnants of a notorious slave jail in Richmond. The groundbreaking discovery led journalist and Mary Washington graduate Kristen Green ’95 to use different tools to unearth information about Mary Lumpkin, a formerly enslaved woman who began her family’s quest for freedom on that site.

Kristen, an award-winning reporter and author, utilized the writing, critical thinking and rigorous research skills she honed through her college journalism courses to piece together a riveting portrait in her 2022 book, The Devil’s Half Acre (the jail’s nickname). Documents, deeds, death certificates, and more weave a tale of a woman all but erased from the American narrative.

Journalist and author Kristen Green '95 will share the story of enslaved woman Mary Lumpkin as part of UMW's Great Lives Lecture Series on Feb. 8.
Journalist and author Kristen Green ’95 will share the story of enslaved woman Mary Lumpkin as part of UMW’s Great Lives Lecture Series on Feb. 8.

“We know figures like Harriet Tubman, but most enslaved women didn’t try to escape because they wouldn’t have left their children behind,” Kristen said. “Instead, Mary Lumpkin used her agency … to secure an education and freedom for her children, nearly a decade prior to the Civil War.”

Kristen will shed light on Lumpkin’s story – including how she became known as the mother of Virginia Union University, one of the country’s oldest Historically Black Colleges and Universities – on Thursday, Feb. 8, for the William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series. A part of UMW’s 2024 Black History Month Celebration, Mary Lumpkin: Enslaved Woman, Liberator will be held in George Washington Hall’s Dodd Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Sponsored by LINKBANK, the lecture is open to the public and free of charge and will be posted online shortly after the event.

The lecture reunites Kristen – a member of UMW’s inaugural Alumni of Distinction class – with series founder and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History William Crawley. She cites him as the reason she chose to attend Mary Washington, after a chance encounter when she was working at her high school job in a furniture store.

“I naturally followed Kristen’s progress with great interest, while she was a student and in her journalism career,” Dr. Crawley said. “I’m so proud of what she has accomplished.”

Kristen said taking courses in history, religion, historic preservation, and English pointed her toward the interdisciplinary American studies major. She also registered for every class with Steve Watkins, who taught journalism at UMW for over two decades.

“I came from a small town and had never encountered anyone like him,” said Kristen, who joined the student newspaper, then called The Bullet. “He encouraged me to question everything.”

With that curiosity, she earned a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and wrote for the Boston Globe, San Diego Tribune, and Richmond Times-Dispatch. Covering other communities inspired her to take a closer look at her own hometown.

Her New York Times bestseller, Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County, investigated how the Virginia community shuttered public schools, rather than admit Black students, after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision.

Kristen Green pieced together the story of Mary Lumpkin using letters, court documents, slave manifests, census and city directories, and more, as well as interviews with formerly enslaved people from the early 20th century.
Kristen Green pieced together the story of Mary Lumpkin using letters, court documents, slave manifests, census and city directories, and more, as well as interviews with formerly enslaved people from the early 20th century.

“I had only been told parts of the story,” said Kristen, who explored her own family’s role, learning that her grandfather helped open the segregated private academy that she herself attended as a child. “That’s what my books have become – this history hidden in plain sight.”

That’s what drew her to Mary Lumpkin, who was forced to bear the children of a brutal slave trader, Robert Lumpkin, but used her limited resources to help them have a better life. And Kristen wanted to share the stories of other enslaved women who were exploited during the domestic slave trade.

She used the Library of Virginia and Ancestry.com to trace Mary Lumpkin’s journey through personal correspondence, court documents, wills and deeds, census and city directories, slave manifests, advertisements, news articles, and birth, marriage and death certificates.

“There are so many little records that seem like nothing, but when you put them together, a story starts to form,” said Kristen, who also used recorded interviews with formerly enslaved people from the early 20th century to round out what Mary Lumpkin’s life might have looked like.

Mary Lumpkin saw a different future after Robert died, Kristen said. “She … found freedom, mobility and love and carved out a life of her own.”

A complete lineup of Great Lives lectures, including dates, speakers and sponsors, can be found at umw.edu/greatlives. Learn more about Kristen Green’s work at kristengreen.net. Read more about UMW’s inaugural Alumni of Distinction class.

– Article written by Assistant Director of Advancement Communications Jill Graziano Laiacona ’04 

UMW’s Great Lives Lecture Series Announces New Co-Director

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The University of Mary Washington’s Great Lives lecture series announces the addition of Scott Harris ’83 to its team. As executive director of UMW Museums, Harris joins Great Lives founder and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History William Crawley as co-director of the hugely popular biography series, which returned for its 21st season in January.

Great Lives lectures are held Tuesdays and Thursdays through the end of March 2024. All are open to the public free of charge and begin at 7:30 p.m. in George Washington Hall’s Dodd Auditorium.

Executive Director of University of Mary Washington Museums Scott Harris ’83 was recently named co-director of the Great Lives lecture series.
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History William Crawley, who founded Great Lives in 2004, will co-direct the hugely popular biography lecture series with Harris. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

Harris is well known in the Fredericksburg area for his extensive involvement in historic preservation, having earned his bachelor’s degree with honors in history and historic preservation from Mary Washington. He has been employed at UMW since 2011 and has served in his current role since 2018, overseeing Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont, the James Monroe Museum, and the Papers of James Monroe.

In addition, Harris is past president of the Virginia Association of Museums and is an editorial advisor and frequent contributor to the White House Historical Association’s journal, White House History Quarterly.

“I’m honored to work with Bill Crawley and the rest of the Great Lives team to bring such a distinguished lecture series to the public,” Harris said. “This year’s lineup is excellent, and we are looking forward to a terrific one in 2025.”

In his new position, Harris will collaborate with Crawley in presenting this season’s lectures, as well as assembling the schedule of topics and speakers for the coming year. According to Crawley, who has led the series since its inception in 2004, the co-directors will be working together to devise a programmatic structure that will enable the series to thrive in 2025 and beyond.

Great Lives began as an academic course offered by UMW’s Department of History and American Studies with a free public lecture series. A significant endowment by John Chappell, in honor of his late wife, Carmen Culpeper Chappell ’59, enabled the series to attract bestselling biographers who provide illuminating insight into the lives of the world’s most prominent personalities. More than 300 subjects have been featured over the last two decades.

In 2016, the program was renamed the William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series. Numerous local organizations and corporations throughout the Fredericksburg area sponsor talks and support the series.

Lectures continue this month with World War II spymaster Wild Bill Donovan on Feb. 1 (rescheduled from Jan. 16), followed by George Washington on Feb. 6.

On Feb. 8, Kristen Green ’95 will share the story of Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who turned a notorious slave jail into a school for Black men, the precursor to Virginia Union University, one of America’s first Historically Black Colleges and Universities. An award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author, Green penned Lumpkin’s biography, The Devil’s Half Acre.

Each lecture is recorded and will be available online shortly after the event.

A complete list of events, including dates, speakers, and sponsors, can be found at umw.edu/greatlives.