VT Stories Oral History with Mary and Willis Blackwood, May 10, 2018 (Ms2016-015)

Ren Harman: Good afternoon. This is Ren Harman, the Project Director for VT

Stories. Today is May 10, 2018 at about 1:12 PM. We are on the campus of

Virginia Tech in the Holtzman Alumni Center with two wonderful guests. If you

could just state in a complete sentence my name is, when you were born and where

you were born.

Mary Nolen Blackwood: My name is Mary Nolen Blackwood. I was born in Washington,

DC, October 29, 1950.

Ren: What years did you attend Virginia Tech?

Mary: I was here from the fall of 1969 until June of 1973.

Ren: And your major?

Mary: Psychology major.

Ren: Same question to you.

Willis Blackwood: I am Willis Pulliam Blackwood. I was born in Oakland,

California. I was a Navy brat. I was born August 20, 1950.

Ren: What years did you attend Virginia 00:01:00 Tech?

Willis Blackwood: I arrived the fall of 1968 and surprisingly got out the spring

of 1972 in only four years.

Ren: Your major?

Willis: I was in the business school.

Ren: Mary can you tell me a little bit about growing up in your early life? I

know you come from a pretty big family, right?

Mary: Yes. I grew up in the Washington, DC area and I have six brothers and

sisters, so we lived more a suburban city kind of life. We are all very close. I

was the first in my family to go to college and several of my siblings followed

me, so we have a pretty large group of family members that went to Virginia

Tech. Just from my brothers and 00:02:00sisters, children, nieces and nephews the count

is up to 15. Then if you start counting in-laws, outlaws, whatever, it really

blossoms from there.

A great childhood, went to some great schools. I was very fortunate. I had a

small scholarship to go to school in Virginia and at that time I wanted to go to

a co-ed school and some of the bigger schools were not accepting females at that

time. Our real choices were Virginia Tech, which was VPI at the time and William

& Mary, so I chose Virginia Tech and have never looked back.

Ren: I'm the youngest of five so I kind of know a little bit -- all my siblings

are pretty spread apart. What was it like growing up in such a large family?

Mary: Well busy, always something going on. I was one of the 00:03:00older ones so I did

a lot of babysitting and bossing around and my husband will probably tell you I

definitely have that personality. But it was great fun. We never needed anybody

else to have a party. As I say we all get along and enjoy each other's company

and still do. We try to see each other as much as we can now. The cousins are

close, too, so it is a very close-knit family.

Ren: What did your mother and father do?

Mary: My mother was a homemaker, but my parents were both in the war. They were

both in the Army and when the war was over they decided to settle in "a neutral

territory," so they came to Washington, DC. My father was an auto parts

salesman, with the government contracts, and gas stations; but because we lived

in Washington he handled a lot of the bigger facilities 00:04:00 there.

Ren: What role did education play in your home?

Mary: My parents were so supportive and insistent that education was the way for

everyone to succeed. I wouldn't say strict about it, but it was just assumed

that you were going to do your best, you were going to study hard. We had a very

large dining room table and I mentioned this to someone the other day and they

said, "Oh you didn't study in your room?" and I said, "Well we didn't have desks

in our rooms. We all sat around the table. Everybody did their homework. My

mother walked around and checked the homework, signed the page, whatever it was

that was required and everybody did their best." I'm very proud of all my

brothers and sisters, they've all done extremely well in their careers, very

successful, and I think that's because my parents just never said there wasn't

anything we couldn't achieve, never 00:05:00let us think that there wasn't anything we

couldn't accomplish if we wanted it.

Ren: Where did you attend high school?

Mary: I went Annandale High School, Annandale ATOMS.

Ren: In high school did you do sports or extra-curricular activities? What kind

of things were you interested in?

Mary: I was pretty active in extra-curricular activities. I was voted "the most

active." I was the class treasurer for at least two of the years. I was active

with several civic groups and sorority type activities. I played some sports but

more intermural sports and that sort of thing. I actually had a job after 00:06:00 school

my last two years of school. I worked for veterinarians and I continued to work

for them all the way through college whenever I was home on break. That was an

excellent experience, I loved the medical field.

Ren: You kind of mentioned earlier about Virginia Tech and the decision to kind

of come here was a little different than maybe most. You were kind of interested

in going somewhere else possibly and then you were awarded a scholarship to

attend a school in Virginia like you mentioned. Did you come to Virginia Tech

and enroll sight unseen, is that true?

Mary: Yes, I did. I really was very interested in a school in Washington, DC and

I was accepted early admission. Virginia Tech didn't promote that. We just

weren't familiar 00:07:00with that process. And then I did get a scholarship to go in

Virginia and when I went to that school to visit it just wasn't the right feel.

So I applied to Virginia Tech. I got in and the first time I arrived, my parents

brought me for orientation. At that time your parents stayed in the dorm. I can

remember my father saying, "Okay I'll take the top bunk," and they stayed in a

room down the hall and that's how it was. Obviously there weren't very many

females and so it was just a little different for the school also. You didn't

make 4-5 visits to schools.

Ren: Can you take me to the day when you first saw the campus? Do you remember

what it looked like, how you felt, anything that sticks out in your memory?

Mary: I remember staying in the dorm. I remember the Drillfield. At that time

there were no sidewalks across the Drillfield and obviously a lot fewer

buildings. The Library was just a lovely structure. I liked the small 00:08:00town. We

drove through the town before we came in.

One funny story with my father, I can remember we were here on a Sunday night I

guess and Montgomery County was a dry county, or Blacksburg was dry. And so when

we went to dinner and my father went to order a beer and they said, "Well we

don't serve that," he didn't know where we were? He was like, "What is going

on?" That was kind of amusing when we later found out you couldn't buy alcohol

on Sundays.

Ren: Where did you live freshman year?

Mary: Freshman year I lived in West Eggleston. There were only females in the

Eggleston complex and the Campbell complex and Campbell was upperclassman, so

all freshman females lived in one of the three Egglestons. I think one of them 00:09:00has now been converted to offices.

Ren: I am just realizing that one of the aunts I mentioned she was here around

the same time that you were here, but I don't know if you would remember her

name or anything. Teresa Harman? I think she was a sociology major. I think she

was in one of the Egglestons too. Wonderful. I will turn to you sir. You 00:10:00 said

you were born in Oakland and you said you were a Navy brat. Did you move around

a lot?

Willis: Actually I did not have the typical Navy brat experience. After Oakland

Philadelphia Naval Yard for two years and then moved to Northern Virginia

Loudoun County from the age of 3 I never moved. My father had different

assignments but the family stayed put, so it was not the typical seven or eight

times moving most military brats experience.

Ren: Were you an only child?

Willis: No. I have one brother who went to Virginia Tech and he is a couple of

years older than I am.

Ren: What was your life growing up? What kind of things were you interested in?

Willis: I was interested in goofing off, sports, palling around with my buddies.

I was not a real driven student. I was an average student is probably the best I

can say about myself but family always imposed succeeding in 00:11:00life, so driven in

that regard. It was not always with necessarily a math book or science book in

my hands. Sports -- I played football, basketball and track in high school and

always enjoyed that. I was not very good but enjoyed it.

Ren: I'm sure you get this question a lot but your father being in the military

in that area a pretty strict household?

Willis: No, not necessarily. My father was a career naval officer and a lot of

my growing up years he was not at home. He was stationed not overseas; he was

stationed in Orlando or Baltimore, Maryland and would be in and out. My mother

was probably more of the disciplinarian and focus. She was an older mother.

Actually the day before I was born she turned 43 years old. She was a major in

the Army during the war. My father was obviously in during the war, so that

postponed them having children.

Ren: Is that how they met?

Willis: They did meet in Washington, DC when my mother still had her 00:12:00 commission.

My father had been relieved of duty as the chief engineer on the Battleship New

Jersey during the war and got reassigned to Washington and somehow they were

introduced in Washington, DC in probably about 1945 or '46.

Ren: When you were in high school and you started thinking about college how did

Virginia Tech come into this picture?

Willis: A good question. Growing up as a child I always wanted to be a

commercial airline pilot and that's something that stayed with me actually all

through college. I knew I wanted a business degree but I was not very good in

foreign languages. I barely passed two years of Spanish in high school, and

Virginia Tech's Business School did not require a foreign language to graduate

at that time, so I said okay this is a 00:13:00business school. If I can get in I can

get out and not get hung up on a foreign language. Another compelling reason my

brother was here. He had come two years before I did. He started out in the

Engineering School (pre-business,) so that was probably a pretty major influence

on me as well. I only had one application to college and it was to Virginia Tech.

Ren: Was the first time you saw the campus was it with your brother on a tour or something?

Willis: No. Actually I remember in high school a bunch of us came down for the

state high school basketball championship and Blacksburg High School was playing

in the tournament. My senior year in high school, I remember after a football 00:14:00game that I played, one of my friends picked me up and we came down that

evening; we were going to stay in my brother's dorm. The only problem was that

about 2 in the morning we were getting close to Abingdon, Virginia and said we

think we've gone a little too far.

Ren: [Laughs] A little too far down 81.

Willis: And then made a U-turn and came back realizing Blacksburg was not

immediately on 81, it was a few miles off. And then we got to campus about 2:30

or 3 or whatever it was in the morning and it's like oh, where does my brother

live? At that time of night. We finally found him fortunately. I also came down

for a Virginia Tech/Miami football game, so that was my really first main

experience of being on campus.

Ren: What do you remember about the campus or what did you think about it at

that time?

Willis: It was big, overwhelming even at that time. I remember the Hokie Stone.

I remember the Drillfield. I remember Lane 00:15:00Stadium. I remember Tech lost to

Miami when Ted Hendricks was the Stork, was the defensive end all-American, so I

just had a good time.

Ren: Where did you live your freshman year?

Willis: I lived in Barringer.

Ren: I lived in Pritchard my freshman year so I always ask that question

hopefully to find some comradery. I've only had one person out of everyone we

have interviewed.

Willis: I went to Pritchard the second year. Freshmen weren't there typically

even though my second year there were freshmen in Pritchard at that time, but my

first year everybody lined up. And what was ironic in Barringer I was on the

first floor and just about everybody on the hall their names started with 'B' --

Banks, Berickman, Blackwood, Blakely, Baresback, Bates, I mean that's how they

assigned rooms by alphabetical order. They may not have intentionally done it

but that's what we ended up on our 00:16:00 hall.

Ren: Just to ask both of you some questions. One big goal that we try to ask

people we interview for VT Stories is kind of this role of like advising and

mentorship that maybe some of your professors or advisors or friends or whoever

played here during your time, because that's so important I think as you both

probably know to undergraduates. Are there any professors or mentors that really

stick out in your minds that were influential?

Mary B: In mine there was. My advisor in the Psych Department was Joe Skro. He

was so helpful in course selection, in maneuvering through some of the

requirements, in advising what to do when and how to work out a schedule that

would work for all four years. Very encouraging. I did a lot of research work

with one of the professors and he was terrific in human development and I think

that helped sort of guide me later into some of my career 00:17:00choices, Jim Fritzen.

In our department I felt the professors were supportive, very helpful if you

just reached out.

Ren: Why psychology?

Mary: I was always interested in that field, always in the mind and that sort of

thing. I ended up not going directly into that professionally but it was a great

background. We were required to take two years of a foreign language, and math

and statistics. It was much more science-oriented, a lot of statistics and I

like 00:18:00that so it was great for me. And our degrees were not in the clinical

field. Ours were much more in the research scientific field of psychology.

Willis: My experience was probably 180-degrees different than Mary's. I was not

the stellar student. I loved the business classes. A lot of the periphery things

I did not particularly enjoy. They were just -- I was obliged to take English

and things so I did it. It was also an interesting period of time because when

we were here from '68 to '72 it was the war protests and it was very prevalent

on campus, and a lot of the mood of the student population was not embracing the

establishment and things like that. So I didn't 00:19:00utilize professors probably the

way I should have as mentors and I just did my classwork and got through and got

my mediocre grades and graduated and got on down the road.

Ren: That was the next question I was going to ask of both of you. Because of

the time that you were here just flipping through and what I know about Virginia

Tech history and interviewing a lot of alums from this time, what kind of things

that you remember about protests and things happening on campus I guess, right?

Mary: Willis will have to fill you in. The biggest protest I remember was the

spring of my freshman year, but unfortunately I had had a very serious accident

and was out of school half of that semester. So I remember some of my

girlfriends writing or calling and telling me what was going on, but I missed it

so he can 00:20:00tell you about the taking over Williams Hall?

Willis: There were different things going on and some of my timelines may be

off. I remember students actually marching around the Grove and protesting. I

think at the time the Hahns actually lived there and that caused them to

actually move out of the Grove because they didn't want students every night out

there protesting and the state police had a barricade around the Grove.

Also the Williams Hall experienced it. I didn't have any direct friends

involved. Some of my brother's friends were involved and it was just ironic.

They were actually removed from the building and thrown in a trailer, but the

front door of the trailer was unlocked so somebody on the outside opened that

door so they were thrown in the back and running out the front and the police

didn't even realize it. [Laughs] Some of that actually ended up being caught on

camera, the students buzzing on through and avoiding the ultimate arrest and

such. [Laughs] It was a tense time. There were a lot of protestors that shut

down schools. 00:21:00Obviously the classes did continue.

Ren: Do you remember like any vets that came back to attend college, came to

Virginia Tech that had been in the wars? Do you remember the relationship with

other students or anything like that?

Mary: I remember one particularly and I actually ended up working with him

professionally years later. He was a graduate student in psych. He was older and

more mature and so we never thought much about it and honestly I don't remember

ever being in class where there was any confrontation. Of course the cadets

always wore their uniforms every day and back then there weren't female cadets.

That didn't come until maybe my senior year I think were the first female

cadets. But no, it seemed like everybody 00:22:00tolerated everybody else and worked

together and we didn't seem to have any problem.

Willis: I think on a country-wide basis some part of the country people looked

down on the soldiers returning which was a tragedy. They were just sort of pawns

in the whole experience. I think the Virginia Tech way that people weren't going

to take it out against soldiers who were called to duty and forced to duty. It

wasn't their fault what ended up happening.

Ren: Right. The reason I asked that question is because we've interviewed a lot

of people recently that were here during when Korean War vets were coming back

and they had the same answer, so I assume it was the same for people coming back

from Vietnam. Do you mind if I ask you about your accident?

Mary: Sure. I was in a motorcycle accident. I was on the back and someone had

illegally parked a car, and we came up over a hill and couldn't avoid the back

fender of the car so I was thrown and the young man driving the motorcycle was

caught and dragged with the 00:23:00 motorcycle.

I split my head open, broke my arm, broke my leg, lots of injuries but recovered

and other than having a knee replacement much later in life, just a few scars.

Ren: So this was your freshman year?

Mary: My freshman year.

Willis: And my side to the story, which surprisingly there is one, the accident

happened right outside of Pritchard and it was spring of my sophomore year. We

hear this big crash bang. And by the time we get out there's probably 1,000

people out around the street around the motorcycle accident. What happened was

someone had actually diagonally parked where it was parallel parking and the

butt of the car was sticking out and they ran into the back of it. The word was

the guy and the girl -- the girl was fine, just scraped up. The guy was 00:24:00 actually

on my hall freshman year who had been riding the motorcycle and I got up through

the crowd and unfortunately saw a compounded fracture of his thigh and it was

pretty dramatic. But years later Mary and I were out on our first date, our

blind date, and she was the girl on the motorcycle with the compound fracture of

her shin and other busted body parts.

Ren: How did you two meet? That's probably a question I should ask.

Mary: A friend of mine was dating a friend of Willis's. We had known each other

since freshman year and we were very good friends and we were both resident

advisors in 00:25:00Ambler Johnston that year. I had been away for the summer and she

had met her boyfriend and she kept saying there was someone she wanted me to

meet. Finally we set a date. It was going to be to a costume Halloween party and

her boyfriend came and picked us all up and I had not met him at that point, and

by the way she described him he was fabulous, and when I met him I said, "Hmm,

boy, I wonder what my date is going to look like." And it turned out to be

Willis. We went to a costume party and he teases and says we had to go out a

second time to see what we really look like. But we hit it off and we are still

very good friends with that couple.

Willis: Well the fellow shows up at the dorm to pick the girls up. My buddy and

I had had a few cocktails that day and would not go to the dorm. He actually

shows up with leotards on and wings. He went as Hiram fly 00:26:00and Mary was wondering

what she was getting. Well when they arrived at our apartment building my

roommate who was a forestry major. He was about 6'3" and weighed about 150

pounds. He was wrapped as a tree and I went as a lumberjack. That was the beginning.

Ren: What year was that for you, your junior or sophomore?

Willis: That was my senior year.

Mary: His senior year and my junior year.

Ren: That's awesome. How long down the road did you realize that she was the one

on the motorcycle? I know you mentioned that but how long down the road was that?

Willis: Well we realized it that 00:27:00night. Yeah, and then actually it was

Halloween. That Thanksgiving she had to go back home and have a plate taken out

of her shin so she was still dealing with it, has the rest of her life actually

some of the scars.

Ren: While you are both here and I'm sure there's hours and hours of stories,

but what are some of your favorite memories or experiences that you can

remember, either separate, together, whatever it may be, and again just a couple

of hits that you like to retell often?

Mary: Our life has been full of VT stories and events. The friends we met

freshman year, we're still friends. We see each other. Our kids know each other.

We've been to weddings and funerals unfortunately, just some wonderful wonderful

relationships. That's one of course. For us, oh my goodness, 00:28:00so many crazy

stories of ballgames and events since then it's hard to separate out everything.

We have our large family and then we have what we call our Virginia Tech family.

Our Virginia Tech group that go to Florida, have get togethers, we have a little

Blacksburg family because we spend so much time here. And so it's lots and lots

of memories and funny stories over the years.

Ren: Any you would like to share?

Willis: I was not in a fraternity but I had a bunch of buddies that most of them

weren't in fraternities, a couple of them were and we have 10 or 12 of us that

have stayed together for almost 50 00:29:00 years.

Mary: We still have our VT friends come and stay at our house, the couples and

their wives and it amazes me because these are all guys that were friends

freshman year or lived on a hall sophomore year, and very different

personalities. You love each other in spite of your idiosyncrasies I will say.

Willis: But we had a lot of fun when we were here. You were talking about

experiences, I'm a big college football and basketball fan and we did a lot of

that, but also in the summer go to the Galax Fiddlers Convention, different road

trips. Several of us did a six-week trip to the West Coast after our sophomore

year driving. We took two cars and a motorcycle and actually that was 1970,

stayed in Haight Ashbury at a friend from home's apartment in 1970 for two weeks

and those were pretty wild times, a lot of good memories.

Ren: And on the flip side of that question and specifically I want to talk to

you because you kind of mentioned when we were out talking with Jenny and 00:30:00 Sally,

during your time here there were some difficult times or memories or

experiences, obviously the motorcycle accident and really a small minority of

women on the campus at that time and doing some research I had read that you had

talked about being some of the only female in your class at times. What was that

kind of whole experience like?

Mary: You know I've tried to reflect back on that and I have never felt

threatened, never felt like I was being discriminated against, and I have to say

since then I have talked to some females, my daughter included, where teaching

aides or assistants or whatever have actually said, "Well women don't belong in

this class or in this field or whatever." There wasn't any of that. I don't know

whether it was because they didn't know what to expect or how to deal with us,

but the 00:31:00women that did come here we got a lot of support from each other. I can

specifically remember our resident advisor the first couple of weeks saying,

"This is what you need to expect. Guys are going to go over to Radford to date

girls. They are not going to know how to ask you all out. They are going to be

threatened. It's going to be new to them having you in their classes," and so on

and so forth. But no one ever said, "No, you can't do this. You can't pursue

that. You can't take this class." Most of our curriculum back then was pretty

much developed. If you were in math you took these set of classes and you got

two or three choices but not many. Nowadays it seems like everybody sort of

writes their own curriculum, which I think is 00:32:00terrific. But they did give us

some options where for instance in the Psych Department I was really into the

math part, the statistics part of individual engineering sorts of issues. They

really encouraged me, "Take some engineering classes," the ones that they would

let you into.

So I did take a few of those and foreign language that's one where I was the

only female in the class, and engineering there would possibly be one or two but

not very many of us. It was a little intimidating, but we wouldn't have come

here I guess if we hadn't had a little bit of strength of character to say we

can do this.

Ren: And the comradery that you talked about between other female students. Do

you know Prim Jones, do you know her, the name?

Mary: I know the name.

Willis: That's Bill Goodwin's friend, right?

Ren: Yeah, so she was an engineer in the mid-60s, one of the very first female

engineers and she said the same thing, there's this comradery that these women

developed. I was just curious because the psychology I just 00:33:00can't place it as if

that was a male-dominated field at that time?

Mary: You know it didn't feel like that. Let me preface it by saying that, but

years later when I ran into my advisor we were at a meeting and he said, "I

looked back and Mary was one of six female graduating psych majors." Well that

blew my mind. It never felt like that, but that I guess was the reality of it.

Ren: What about you Willis, any difficult or hard times?

Willis: No. I just went along to get along and didn't know...

Mary: Were there many women in business? I don't remember.

Willis: There were some but I don't remember a lot in the business because there

weren't that many women here, 00:34:00but there was a significant transformation from my

freshman year to my senior year too, the amount of women on campus. And it

impacted as Mary was talking about the dating scene.

Mary: Housing.

Willis: Freshman year it was slim pickings on campus.

Mary: And sophomore year obviously there was another wave coming in and they

needed more dormitory so they opened up Shanks as a female dorm. There was a

lottery for rooms, if we wanted to stay together we were going to have to move

as a block to Shanks. Nobody thought they wanted to be on the upper quad, and it

was the most fun we have ever had. If you know the campus, that dormitory was

completely surrounded by male dormitories.

Ren: Thomas and Monteith.

Mary: Right. We had cadets and we had two, that year also they moved civilian

men up there, so Thomas and Monteith were civilian men and then the male other

dorms were the 00:35:00cadets. It was a terrific place to live because we could be to

any academic building in two minutes.

Ren: Was that in Wallace?

Mary: Wallace Hall, so way on the other side of the campus. But other than that

you could just be in and out of class very easily, so we found it and we had our

own cafeteria up there then. Schultz was up there and the food was good so we

really enjoyed it. Of course the guys I think enjoyed having females up there.

Ren: We're in Shanks. We're in the Center for Rhetoric and Society so my office

is in Shanks. That's where all the interns work, so hearing that Shanks was once

a dorm is really interesting. It just speaks to the changing of campus. So after

you graduated, you graduated in 1973, is that correct?

Mary: Correct.

Ren: And then 1972 for you, and 00:36:00then you later got a master's degree in Health

Administration from VCU, is that correct?

Mary: Correct, although mine was from Medical College of Virginia, but it's now

been all incorporated into VCU.

Ren: What year was that?

Mary: That was in 1979.

Ren: And then you an MBA from VCU?

Willis: Correct.

Ren: Around the same time?

Willis: Exactly.

Mary: The same year.

Ren: So when did you all get married?

Mary: In 1973 May, 46 years ago, so right before I graduated. Willis had gone

into the service. He was in Pensacola and we decided we would get married and I

finished two weeks 00:37:00 later.

Ren: So once you got married did you move to the Richmond area or where did life

take you after that?

Willis: Well after I graduated from college I went into the Navy for a while. It

was a short stint and I was getting out of the Navy and trying to figure out

what I was going to do with my life. We were living in my home town for a short

period of time and a job opening for me came up in Richmond so I went to

Richmond. Mary had taken a job up in northern Virginia and had a six-months

commitment, so we were weekend husband and wife for six months and then she came

to Richmond after that. But the job opportunity for me is what took us to

Richmond and the job was in real estate with a national corporation.

Ren: One thing I wanted to ask you and I always found this interesting is you

have two children who are also Virginia Tech graduates, Morgan and Nolen, is

that correct?

Mary: Right.

Ren: When they were deciding about college how much did mom and dad say, "Why

don't you 00:38:00look at Virginia Tech?"

Mary: You know we really didn't have to. They may say that we influenced them

but specifically with our daughter I remember she was very interested in

engineering, so she did look at different schools.

But she really on her own felt that the program, the industrial and systems

engineering program here was one of the best in the country and she said, "Why

would I want to go anywhere else? This has the program." And she did very well

here and it was a great choice for her. Our son we were sort of surprised that

he picked Virginia Tech. I thought he would want to get away, but he applied, he

got in and I don't think he ever applied anywhere else.

Willis: They both grew up spending a lot of time here.

Mary: I think they were very comfortable.

Willis: We were at football games and 00:39:00coming up for basketball or different

functions, so they were fairly well immersed with the campus before they came

here as students.

Mary: And we have been very fortunate because many of my nieces and nephews have

also gone here, so they're all friends besides being cousins, and they see each

other in social settings. Several of them are in the same peripheral professions

so they see each other that way and that's been a lot of fun for them.

Ren: I want to ask you this question and then I want to get on to ways that

you're involved with Virginia Tech and all these wonderful things that you've

been a part of and things that you've done. The question that we always like to

ask people is when someone simply says the words Virginia 00:40:00Tech what's the first

thing that you think of?

Mary: Family, home. It's just a part of our life.

Willis: Works for me.

Ren: Wonderful. So Mary you are here on campus for a very special recognition,

the 2018 Alumni Distinguished Service Award. I don't want to simply read all

these things, but you can just talk a little bit about your involvement with the

university after you graduated and being on the committee for the campaign at

Virginia Tech, the College of Science, boards and things? How have you kind of

given back to Virginia Tech?

Mary: I think it was '86 I was still full-time employed at that time. I remember

getting a call from the Development Office inviting me to 00:41:00be on an advisory

group for the College of Arts and Sciences back then. I talked to Willis and we

had two small children, both of us were working full-time, life was busy, but I

really thought that I would like to do that.

He encouraged me. My boss at the time encouraged me and so I went on the

Advisory Committee and it was such an eye-opener. It really brought me back to

the university. Willis had been coming to ballgames, to sports events, but I was

busier with the family so I wasn't really engaged, and the programs that were

going on and the level of competence of the students just outstanding, so I

stayed on that group and we really struggled with a lot of issues. We needed to

get legislative support so we have a legislative committee and I was in Richmond

and that's what I did in my job so I worked a lot with that group. 00:42:00We did

development. We needed to find excellent students from outside Virginia and

Virginia. We wanted top students and we weren't always the first choice, dealt

with a lot of those issues and core curriculum and on and on. There were just

any number of issues. I've stayed on that committee so it's been over 30 years

that we've been working. Every dean has been just wonderful to work with,

wonderful wonderful insight. They have direction. They have goals not just for

the college but the university and now the College of Science, we went through

that division. So having been on that committee and chaired it for a few years,

I am convinced Science plays a very major role in the future success of the University.

Ren: The first female chair, is that correct?

Mary: Yes. We had one chair and then I took that position. From that work with

that committee I think the dean was comfortable with me 00:43:00and asked me to chair

the College of Science's campaign and that was great working with alumni. And by

then I had met a number of alumni at different events and some very generous

people, very successful people from the college of science, so that wasn't too

hard really. People were so generous.

Ren: Doing some research again your decision to ask to be chaired this campaign

you said you were really interested because the previous campaign there were no

female chairs, is that correct?

Mary: Yes. I had sort of forgotten that, but I did have a problem when I... Let

me back up and say the campaign before that I had gotten a call and asked to

participate in some way and I just couldn't do it at that time. There was too

much else going on in our lives and again with small children I just couldn't do 00:44:00it, so I respectfully declined. Then when I saw the pictures come out of who was

on the committee there was hardly any if any female representation and I had a

real problem with that. So I was rather vocal in saying the next campaign we

must be aware of minority representation, a female representation. We need the

campaign to look more like our student body looks and our alumni-based looks,

and they must have heard that because we had a very representative group on the campaign.

Ren: Right, right. That's wonderful. Willis for you, real estate program,

Pamplin, all these things. What ways and how have you kind of served Virginia

Tech after graduation?

Willis: My interest was primarily sports-related early on. Mary and I would

constantly have 00:45:00debates of supporting academics versus supporting athletics, and

I think over time we have both come to realize they both are very symbiotic

relationships and each needs the other. Obviously after 1999 National

Championship Game applications went up. All of sudden you are a much better

academic university if you have great athletics, while there's truly no

correlation whatsoever but that's the perception. So as time went by we have

stayed very involved with the athletics and supporting the athletic programs

financially and any way I can, as well as the need for supporting the academic

programs. Being in the real estate development business like I am,

entrepreneurship is key to me. Actually the previous business dean Sorenson and

I, he liked to talk about leadership programs, I liked to talk about 00:46:00entrepreneurship and there's room for both, but entrepreneurship has always been

key on my mind. And a lot goes to Virginia Tech needs to step up its game. We

obviously have had a lunch pail mentality for years and years and that continues

to evolve and change. Maybe a lot of the alum operate with chips on their

shoulder and want to make this the best university in the State of Virginia and

the whole East Coast, so it's just trying to improve what we have here. It has

come a long long way. Sure there's room for improvement, but what we have now is

something we can be very proud of.

Ren: Really the antithesis of the idea for VT Stories came from the gallop

survey that talked about people having an affinity for Virginia Tech. Now that

doesn't necessarily translate into the fact that they 00:47:00give to Virginia Tech, but

they do love this university. To the both of you what do you think it is maybe

about this campus, about Blacksburg, Virginia Tech more specifically that makes

alums have such an affinity for the college and for the university?

Willis: It's just the Hokie Nation is what it really comes down to. It doesn't

get any better from a geographic position, the mountains, the campus. it's just

absolutely gorgeous. The way of life here and the quality of life is fantastic

so to visit it, people coming in is fine, but living here is fantastic. We own a

place here and have for a number of years. What always concerns me 00:48:00is the people

who have never experienced Virginia Tech and have never been here and may know

nothing about it. They don't consider kids coming here as students and they

don't know what they're missing but shame on them. We need to do a better story

of educating the public of what really is going on here.

Mary: Well I think the location has over the years it has drawn student

population whose parents may not have had college experiences, that they want

their children to have that opportunity. And because of that you meet a lot of

genuine folks, family people that have come with the feeling they want to make

new friends. They want to experience of a family situation and there's a lot of

warmth, a lot of welcoming people and support and that makes a 00:49:00difference. And

part of that has to be the location. Maybe if we were in an urban setting it

wouldn't be quite that way. People would be more spread out. Housing would be

more spread out, but with everybody together it helps a lot.

Ren: Yeah. To that over the past 30 or 40-plus years what changes kind of have

you seen the growth of this campus both structurally, the way the student body

is, degrees, athletics, however it may be and kind of what do you think about

some of those changes?

Mary: Physically my goodness, the physical plant.

Willis: Just fantastic. We've had out of state friends come and visit and they

just can't believe what's here and there's plenty more planned with the

Corporate Research Center and continues to expand and the university is

positioned 00:50:00for additional land west of 460 Bypass. It's just a gorgeous campus

and it keeps getting better. Maintaining the continuity of the Hokie Stone

concept in the new buildings was really a very smart move on the university's part.

The academic programs certainly enhance the availability of the programs and the

old "invent the future," which I love that phrase. There's a lot going on

academically which should appeal to a lot of researchers and future students.

The sports facilities just have made tremendous strides over the years and great

facilities, it's very unique. They are very close to each other and they are not

spread out over places. Sometimes I look at other 00:51:00campuses via area photographs

and they may have a football stadium but they don't have a parking space to

speak of within miles, and we are very blessed and fortunate to have parking

facilities all together for that game day experience.

Ren: For now right?

Mary: Well I think the level of student is amazing. I don't think you run into

very many alumni our age that wouldn't say I would have a difficult time getting

in today.

Ren: I say that.

Mary: It's just incredible. I do sometimes sit on scholarship committees and

will interview students and it just blows me away the level of talent and

ability and creativeness that these kids have. I think that definitely you can

see that just are taking leaps and bounds in every direction, every curriculum.

I think 00:52:00another change that I see possibly I'm not close enough but I just don't

see the infighting that there seemed to be in years past of the various

colleges, because more and more of these programs are becoming integrated. I

don't know whether it's forced them or there's just a different mindset that we

need to all work together. When you get out very few people say, "Well I'm a

graduate of the College of Science. I'm a graduate of the College of Business."

They say, "I graduated from Virginia Tech," and that's all people are interested

in. So I think that they see that there is a real need for them to work together

to really build the programs, that's a big change.

Athletically obviously that has just blossomed and it's encouraging to see a lot

of the young next generation for us, they all seem to be friends. They are all

working toward a common goal and that's very 00:53:00positive. Very diverse student

body. That's a big change and that's good.

Ren: Willis was talking about the continuity of buildings and I was going to say

we don't need to talk about Derring Hall do we?

Mary: No, really.

Willis: A few exceptions.

Mary: But that's all right. There are a few.

Ren: We always used to joke about that when we were here because I was a biology

major as an undergrad and we would talk about Derring. And then you were talking

about the deans of the colleges. Bob Bates I interviewed and his story is on our website.

Mary: Oh good.

Ren: He was wonderful. He was in town and we were in there and he worked with

one of our interns and just a great story, so it's on our website so you will

have to check it out. He was really involved, not to Mickey's level but he was

pretty involved. So in 2013 you were inducted in the College of Science Hall of

Distinction. You are both members of the President's Society and the President's

Circle, Legacy Society, the Pilon Society and you served on the Virginia Tech 00:54:00Foundation Board. John Dooley was another person that I've interviewed.

Mary: Willis did too.

Ren: Wonderful. When you found out about this award that brings you to campus

this weekend what was your reaction?

Mary: I was shocked and humbled, very much so. There's so many people that give

so much to this university. I wasn't quite sure how my name even showed up on

the short list, and I must say that I give a lot of credit to my husband because

he has given me an opportunity and the support to be able to give back and to

encourage me to continue on the Dean's Advisory Council for instance, and was

quite supportive when I was on the campaign. So without him I wouldn't be 00:55:00 here

for sure.

Ren: I want to ask you about the Virginia Tech program in real estate, donated

and endowed the director's position. What was that story and how did that make

you feel? What was the motivation?

Willis: Well I have a passion for real estate. That's been almost my entire

career and it's been a good career. When we were starting the concept of the

real estate program I wasn't at the very beginning but I got on board within a

few months of what was going on, and it showed just what a great opportunity for

a program like that here at Virginia Tech. I mean the goal is really to make it

the best undergraduate real estate program in the United States, and you hear

that lots of time and it's unrealistic. In this case it's truly realistic with

the five 00:56:00colleges that support the program, the courses available crossing

various colleges from engineering to architecture to business.

Mary: To agriculture.

Willis: Agricultural, and it's just a tremendous opportunity to create this

program. It's new. It's only been in existence for 41/2 - I guess 5 years at the

end of this spring. Actually my business partner's nephew was one of the first

graduates from beginning to end and we've talked to some other people and

educated some other people about the program. Students have come here thank

goodness. So being new there have been challenges with funding and we wanted to

make a statement with a significant gift and hopefully that can be leveraged

into other gifts being given, or larger ones than that, naming rights for the

entire program. From recent conversations with the 00:57:00director of the program I

gather there's some conversations going on with other significant donors so

hopefully that game plan is working out. Time will tell.

Ren: Do you have anything to add?

Mary: I support him. Real estate was his area and from the very beginning he had

a vision and began to work with the provost. At that time Mark McNamee saw the

same sort of vision, that it could be across college lines and that was a new

concept and went to bat and supported it and they went off from there.

Ren: There's so much here. With the Virginia Tech athletic fund, bronze

benefactors, Pamplin College of Business, provided bequest 00:58:00positions for

Virginia Tech athletics, the College of Sciences and your estates, leadership

gift and then this new golf indoor facility is named for the both of you. What

advice or when you talk to other alums how do you frame it in giving back? What

do you tell alums?

Willis: Well everybody has got to work within the parameters that they have

financially. We've been lucky to be in a position to give what we have given. We

would love to be in a position to give more and hopefully there is more on the

way. We were just at Abbington at a Virginia Tech athletic-oriented outing for

select givers and it was a fantastic time. One of the former football players

who is very well known and has 00:59:00given significantly to Virginia Tech commented

that night when he was speaking that we have an obligation to give back, so

that's what we try and do.

You know some people as we know they are passionate about Virginia Tech but as

we have seen statistically they don't get off their wallets, and it's really

unfortunate. Virginia Tech need to do a better job of developing that giving and

it's an obligation to give to the university and support it.

Mary: And I have always been very interested and supportive of assistance to the

students. Someone helped me and I feel like it's only fair to pass it forward.

It's so important to give these kids an opportunity and we've been involved with

several different 01:00:00scholarships. Tech does a wonderful job of the students

letting you know that they appreciate it and what they are doing and this and

that. And you get some wonderful insight into how much it really can help an

entire family and it sets an example. I just feel like it's so important for at

whatever level we really encourage all of our alumni to give. I love the giving

date concept. I thought that was wonderful, give at your own level whether it's

$10 or it's $10-million, you need to give back and support the students coming

along because we got that support.

Ren: Absolutely. And to the other side of that question as a student here and I

know you probably feel the same way, which it is a little different now, but

what advice would you give if any student sees the 01:01:00success that the both of you

have had, that you've been able to give back to Virginia Tech, what advice do

you give current students? Maybe you will be speaking to some at some point. I

know you do some in the real estate program, what advice do you give current students?

Mary: Do something you are passionate about and you enjoy, your career. It may

not be a huge moneymaker but if you love it you will be successful.

Willis: I tell people to stay involved with the university. Just don't lose

touch, and the challenge really is for a young graduate to come back, how do

they get involved and stay in touch. The ironic thing about Mary's invitation to

the Advisory Board for the College of Science years ago was she had given some

money. I mean she would give them $100 or $200 and she showed up on the radar

screen so they invited her. It didn't take much. Hopefully those numbers are

significantly larger now but they may not 01:02:00be as large as we all think. It's not

just giving, it's hiring future Hokies. It's mentoring them. It's giving them assistance.

I just gave somebody a business card yesterday, a young graduate or fairly young

graduate who is going out in the real estate and I said, "If you ever need any

help just give me a call and I will give you advice."

Ren: Have you met a lot of Hokies in your professional life, in your careers,

and what are those kids like? Have you worked with a lot?

Mary: Oh my goodness, everywhere. I did work with some. Some were older than I

when I first started out, but I meet them everywhere. There's always a

connection. It's amazing. I mentioned we happen to live in Florida in the winter

time, there 01:03:00is always a Virginia Tech connection and I have brought some friends

here, some of whom didn't have the college experience and some just brought them

here to visit and to a ballgame or whatever. They all have fallen in love with

Virginia Tech. Now they all follow all of our sports programs and anything in

the news. Their grandchildren have come here and on and on. It's just amazing

how we run into the Hokie Nation.

Willis: In my business career -- yes, I have run into a tremendous amount of

Virginia Tech people because it transcends to the architects, the engineers, but

it's also the bankers, it's fellow developers, it's people in planning

departments. It could be people working for retail corporations that have some

Tech backgrounds and that has truly happened. People in California, yep, we've

got a real estate guy from the company who went to Virginia Tech and things like

that. The development industry has a lot of Virginia Tech people in it 01:04:00that were

in the same brotherhood. We don't necessarily compete with each other but it's a

significant amount and I think that number will continue to grow as time goes

by, especially when you start producing graduates of the real estate program and

stay in the industry and become successful.

Ren: My brother lived in San Diego for 10 or 11 years and he would wear Virginia

Tech stuff and he worked with people at LA Fitness which is where he worked who

attended Virginia Tech. You can always find a Hokie somewhere. I mean we have

interviewed people who have been in Paris or London or wherever, Tokyo and they

run into another Hokie.

Mary: Oh we have.

Willis: In San Diego there's Bub's Bar and it's a Virginia Tech bar.

Ren: Yes, that's right.

Mary: We have definitely done that. We have been on an island in New Zealand and

off a bus and ran into a Virginia Tech, remember with the girl that day? A

Virginia Tech 01:05:00graduate. We have been in Innsbruck Austria on a mountain and ran

into somebody wearing a Virginia Tech hat and it turned out later we became

friends with them. It's amazing. We always are running into somebody.

Ren: Yes. We kind of talked a little bit about this, kind of the changing of the

campus and what you are inspired by with the students and the development of the

programs and athletics and things. Is there any part that concerns you at all?

Willis: Something, and I alluded to this previously is the outside world that

doesn't know Virginia Tech needs to be educated on what Virginia Tech has to

offer and I think they would look completely differently once they were aware of

all the things that are going on here. And just again, the quality of life, the

beauty, the students, the town, it's a special 01:06:00 place.

Mary: I still don't think they get quite enough publicity in Richmond and

probably Northern Virginia on everything that is going on here. The programs and

some of the research is just amazing and nobody knows it's going on. I get

concerned a little bit about the infill of the campus, so I looked at the

10-year plan and I think they need to preserve some of the green space. I think

they need to preserve some of the campus as it feels now because I think that's

very enriching for the students. I think one of the things that was most

appealing was that everything was walkable, and now I know they have a bus

system which helps, but we didn't have to have a car. I never had a car when I

lived here and we could walk everywhere, and what was 01:07:00 important.

Willis: Another challenge for the university is with a lot of things being

created and invented here that need to be monetized and commercialized as the

venture capital start-up money to fund that and that is a challenge. We have

even been involved with a company that was not with the College of Science but

it was a spinoff from some things from the College of Science and it was a

challenge to bring capital in.

Ren: Just a couple more question and thank you both for being so generous with

your time. This is kind of a big one and I alluded to this earlier to both of

you but what does Virginia Tech mean to you?

Mary: Well it's an intricate part of our life. Obviously we wouldn't have 01:08:00 met

without it so our lives would have been very different. It's given us a lot of

friendships, a lot of wonderful fulfilling experiences. Helped us certainly with

our careers and our life. It's a big big part of our world.

Willis: We are fortunate enough that it's a big institution but our involvement

can have some impact and you don't get that everywhere and it can be anywhere

from donating money or helping students out. When I was on the Foundation Board

I helped negotiate the Smith Landing Hilton Garden transaction with Bruce Smith

and Armada Hoffler and using my real estate knowledge and it's great to be able

to help. Our children both being 01:09:00grads and coming back and involved, our

daughter is on the Alumni Board and just rolled off in that recently a year or

so ago. Our son is involved with the Hokie Club so it's a family affair.

Ren: Kind of the last question, if there is anything I haven't asked you that

you would like to add. If there is anything else you would like to add it's kind

of an open floor, anything you would like to say.

Willis: I think we've covered a lot of territory.

Ren: I tried. Thank you both so much for sitting down with VT Stories.

Congratulations again. Congratulations on everything that you both have

accomplished individually and as a couple, and Happy Anniversary coming up

pretty soon, right.

Mary: Thank you.

Ren: I really appreciate your service and giving to Virginia Tech and everything

that you've done. Mary Nolen Blackwood, class of 01:10:001973, Willis Blackwood, class of 1972, thank you both so much. Wonderful to meet you all.

Mary: You too Ren. Thank you.

Ren: Thank you Willis.