Secret code, public education
Matilda “Tillie” Tisinger Massey, W’33
After graduating from Westhampton College, Tillie Massey was eager to return home to Atlanta, join the work force, and make her mark. But it was 1933, the depths of the Great Depression. Since jobs were scarce and teaching was one of the few careers a woman could pursue, she wound up in a remote Georgia town in a makeshift school fashioned from an abandoned general store. For one year, she struggled to impart basic education to a part of the world where life was hard and rudimentary schooling was barely in evidence. Tillie quickly realized that she needed to learn the art of teaching.
After earning a master’s degree in elementary education from Columbia University, Tillie spotted an advertisement encouraging college-educated women to serve their country during World War II. She interviewed with the WAVES, was sworn in on the spot, and dispatched to officers’ training school. She was stationed in Charleston, S.C., where she spent the duration of the war working in the code room. To this day, the former Lieutenant Massey refuses to divulge anything about secret codes used to alert battleships and submarines or methods of intercepting enemy signals.
After the war, Tillie returned to public education, becoming an elementary school principal in Atlanta, where she met Lt. Cmdr. Madison Massey. They dated for 16 years and were married more than 30 years before he died in 2000.
Tillie Massey acquired her independent spirit early in life. Her mother died from childbirth complications. Her father, a young country doctor in Eufaula, Ala., was aided in raising her by his mother and an aunt, the widow of Azor Van Hoose Jr., a former president of Brenau College.
Tillie’s Westhampton years provide treasured memories of lifelong friendships and learning from inspirational professors such as Dr. Susan Lough and Dr. Maude Woodfin, W’16. This spring Tillie celebrates her graduation from Westhampton three quarters of a century ago.
—Sarah McComas
The CPA senator
Walter Stosch, B’59 and GB’84
State Sen. Walter Stosch still remembers the conversation that jumpstarted his career in the Virginia General Assembly. It was with then-Gov. John Dalton in 1982.
“The governor said, ‘We want you to run for House of Delegates,’” Stosch recalls. “To which I replied, ‘Why would I want to do that?’”
Stosch initially declined the offer but soon reconsidered. He did not think he would win, and if he did, he had decided he would only serve one two-year term.
As he was preparing for the election, he applied to Richmond’s new part-time M.B.A. program, thinking his application would be turned down. He was shocked when the school—and the voters—accepted him.
In the past 23 years, Stosch has moved from the House of Delegates to the Virginia Senate, where he served as majority leader from 1998 to 2007. He serves on the Senate Finance Committee and several other prestigious committees and commissions, partly because he is the only certified public accountant in the Virginia General Assembly.
“Early on, I was assigned to the House Finance Committee,” he says. “It was an incentive for me as well as a tribute to my professional background.”
Stosch earned his undergraduate degree in accounting from Richmond. He attended the University on the GI Bill.
In the legislature, he has focused on economic development and education. “I’ve done a lot with business because that’s my background,” he says. “I’ve done a lot with education because that’s my passion.”
Stosch is particularly proud that Forbes magazine has rated Virginia the best state for business two years in a row.
Virginia’s pro-business reputation is no accident, Stosch says. It took “a deliberate, concerted effort to make that happen.” However, he warns, “we cannot rest on our laurels.”
—Joan Tupponce
The family firm
Rodney M. Poole, B’69
Rodney Poole performs an amazing balancing act. He is one of the foremost adoption attorneys in the nation. He also serves as senior vice president and general counsel of The Wilton Companies, a firm that owns and develops apartments, office buildings, industrial properties, and shopping centers in central Virginia.
“My time is supposed to be split 50/50,” he says. “I like to say that means 50 hours a week on each.”
Adoption law is personal for Poole, the father of two adopted children, a biological daughter, and a stepson. He inherited his passion for helping adoptive families from his late father, Travis, an attorney and former foster child who was dedicated to placing children in permanent homes. Poole grew up knowing he wanted to follow his father’s example. After graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law, he joined the elder Poole in establishing Poole & Poole in Richmond.
Approximately 3,000 cases later, he is a leader in the field. Poole is a past president of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. He also served for nine years as liaison between the academy and the Association of Administrators of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (AAICPC), helping to build relationships that make it easier to adopt children across state lines.
He is a recipient of the AAICPC’s Mitchell Wendell Jurist Award in recognition of “extraordinary accomplishment on behalf of children,” as well as the Angel in Adoption Award from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.
In 2002, Poole joined Henry L. Wilton and UR Trustee Rich Johnson, B’73, in the acquisition of The Wilton Companies. In five years, they have quadrupled the value of the company’s real
estate portfolio.
Poole’s family, which includes wife Lauree and mother Helen, is actively involved with UR. Each year a deserving student benefits from an accounting scholarship the family has established in memory of Poole’s two late brothers, Travis Jr., B’73, and Craig, B’73.
—Karilon Rogers
Go East, young woman
Andrea Mae Wilson ’05
Santa Barbara, Calif., native Andrea Mae Wilson, moved east to the University of Richmond and just kept going. She studied international medicine, development, and environmental care in Guatemala, Samoa, and New Zealand. After graduation, she traveled in Bolivia and Peru before taking a teaching assignment in India.
“I thought I’d be teaching English, but it snowballed into anatomy, physiology, community health, and music,” she laughs. She worked in an isolated area of Chhattisgarh, where she encountered abject poverty and warm hospitality.
In her previous travels in developing countries, Wilson had met many foreigners who wanted to help but lacked the necessary skills. “That’s why I decided on graduate work in international public health,” she says. “It fulfills basic needs and fits my background. It’s also an exciting challenge.”
Wilson chose Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health for her master’s internship with Johns Hopkins. “I was drawn to Afghanistan’s plight after decades of war,” she explains. “Women’s literacy rates there are among the world’s lowest. Twenty percent of children die before age five.”
Returning to Afghanistan with her master’s degree, she now serves as a regional manager for a project supported by Johns Hopkins and the Ministry of Public Health. “I have a lot to learn about working effectively within this complex culture,” she says. “The warmth of the Afghans notwithstanding, security issues can be difficult.
“I find extraordinary fulfillment and intellectual stimulation within my work, travels, and attempts at new languages. It’s simply what I’ve found to do that makes me become most alive.”
Wilson plans to work in Afghanistan or Pakistan for another year. After that, a favorite quote from Frederick Beuchner will continue to guide her: “Vocation happens when our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.”
—Karen Telleen-Lawton
