Richmond’s friend-raiser
Gordon Cousins, R’49
During his senior auditing course at Richmond, Gordon Cousins started second-guessing his decision to major in accounting.
“I was more interested in marketing and advertising,” he recalls. But after graduation, Cousins started working as an accountant for FFV-Interbake Foods, a Richmond company that baked cookies.
“I hated every minute of it,” he says. Finally he asked to be transferred to the sales department, but the branch manager was skeptical, Cousins recalls. “I was shy—very shy.”
So the branch manager devised a plan. Once a week, he followed Cousins down Broad Street and required him to introduce himself to everyone he encountered on the sidewalk.
“Good morning! How are you? My name is Gordon Cousins,” he repeated again and again, extending his hand to hundreds of puzzled pedestrians. Some people ignored him, but many of them smiled and shook his hand—even when he introduced himself two or three weeks in a row.
Gradually, the shyness dissipated. “I found out that I really enjoyed meeting people,” he says. And people enjoyed meeting Cousins. His sales persona (and his accounting background) eventually propelled him to vice president and general manager of the company. He also began volunteering at the University, serving on numerous alumni committees, the Board of Associates and ultimately the Board of Trustees from 1987–91.
Cousins retired from Interbake in 1991 and took a part-time fundraising job at the University in 1992. He persuaded many prominent alumni—including major benefactor Marcus Weinstein, R’49 and H’02—to become more involved with the University.
For a while, Cousins kept a running total of how much money he helped raise, but even that accounting exercise became too tedious. “It was so large that people didn’t believe it anyway,” he says with a grin.
Editors’ Note: While the magazine was in production, our friend and colleague, Gordon Cousins, lost his long battle with cancer. His obituary will appear in the winter issue.
An attorney’s journey
Grace Robinson den Hartog, W’74
During her trial law career, Grace Robinson den Hartog lost only one jury case, and the National Law Journal named her one of America’s top 50 female litigators in 2001.
So it comes as no surprise that she studied psychology and sociology at the University. A native of Galax, Va., she also was a varsity cheerleader and a member of the Westhampton College Government Association.
Both of her parents attended Richmond, and her mother’s family, the Pitts, have a long history with the University. Her great-uncle was Malcolm “Mac” Pitt, R’18, Richmond’s legendary baseball and basketball coach. (Pitt Field is named for him.)
Following graduation, den Hartog earned paralegal certification, and McGuireWoods hired her as its first litigation paralegal. “At that time, paralegal was a brand-new field,” she recalls. “I had to beg for the job. I pestered them … until they hired me.”
After receiving her law degree from the University of Virginia, den Hartog returned to McGuireWoods in 1984. For most of her career there, she served on Ford Motor Co.’s national trial counsel team, specializing in rear-crash, fuel-tank-fire cases. In 2000, she won a California jury verdict against a badly injured plaintiff who was seeking $40 million in damages.
In 2003, den Hartog took her current job as senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Richmond-based Owens & Minor, a Fortune 500 distributor of medical and surgical supplies.
She met her first husband, the late Wilhelm den Hartog, R’73 and L’77, while they were Richmond students. They had two children: Jonathan, 26, an aerospace engineer in Philadelphia, and Mattie, 21, a junior at Tulane University.
She married her second husband, William H. King Jr., a senior partner at McGuireWoods, in 1997. They live in Goochland County on a 17-acre property called Old Mill Cottage, where they are developing a five-acre arboretum.
Striking a country chord
Thomas Paden, R’79
In high school, Thomas Paden wrote a country song called “Wild Heart Beyond Those Baby Blues.”
“It was terrible,” he says. “The lyrics were one cliché after the other.”
Country maven Tammy Wynette never would have recorded it, but she did record Paden’s later tune, “All I Am to You,” as a duet with Aaron Neville. It is one of nearly 1,000 songs Paden has written since he moved to Nashville. He also writes pop, Christian, bluegrass and R&B, but there’s country in everything he does.
To Paden, the country qualifier is simply, “Do you understand the music? I mean it literally,” he says. “Can you understand what he’s singing? But also, does it relate to you? Is it part of everyday life? Does it strike a chord and touch somebody?”
Paden left Richmond in 1978 to try his luck in Nashville. “I completely bombed,” he admits. He finished earning his business degree in Tennessee and took a job with his father’s valve company. He returned to Nashville in 1985, determined to stay.
“I was a doorman at The Vanderbilt,” he says. “I drove a tour bus. ‘On your right is Dolly Parton’s house.’” He also worked in the mailroom at MCA Records, where he played songs for friend Buzz Stone. When Stone moved to the artist and repertoire department, he made some calls that led to Paden’s first songwriting job for Reba McEntire’s Starstruck Publishing.
More recently, Paden has gone independent with Paden Place Music (www.padenplacemusic.com), plugging his own tunes, critiquing songs and producing albums for Aspirion Records and independent artists. CBS’s Jericho recently featured a Paden song in prime time.
His tunes have been recorded by the likes of Lee Greenwood, Kenny Rogers, Faith Hill and Ricochet. Those songs have not bulleted up the charts, but Paden keeps writing and is happy nonetheless.
“There are so many blessings in my life—my family, my health and my God-given ability to write songs,” he says. “It’s not just about the music anymore.”
More than a job
Summer Gathercole Spencer, ’97
Ten years ago she started helping homeless people find jobs. Now she runs the District of Columbia’s Department of Employment Services.
Summer Gathercole Spencer oversees 540 employees and a $100 million operating budget for an agency that serves nearly 100,000 people in Washington, D.C. She is one of the youngest members of D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty’s cabinet.
“I love my job, and I’m so passionate about the work,” Spencer says.
When she graduated from the Robins School of Business, the Connecticut native had no inkling that she would someday work in big city government. She planned to crash through glass ceilings until she was CEO of a Fortune 500 company. In a logical first step toward that goal, she moved to Northern Virginia and accepted a job with the accounting firm of Grant Thornton.
Spencer also began volunteering a few hours a week at New Hope Housing, where she helped homeless people prepare for job interviews. Eventually, she became the shelter’s full-time office manager.
“A lot of people thought I was crazy when I left accounting to work in the nonprofit sector,” Spencer says. But she quickly discovered her passion as an employment specialist at Community Family Life Services. She also recognized the need for a regional workforce development program.
As she worked with others to create Workforce Organizations for Regional Collaboration, someone suggested that Spencer, then in her mid-20s, should become the program’s first executive director. She led the organization for five years, overseeing its merger with Goodwill of Greater Washington, where she served as vice president of training and employment. She joined Fenty’s cabinet a few months after she left Goodwill.
In the past 10 years, Spencer has helped thousands of people find work, and it looks like she is just getting started.
“So much of people’s lives is affected by work, but you can’t get housing or decent clothes or food unless you have a job to support your family,” Spencer says. “Work helps to give people dignity and self-worth.”
