Meet the Candidates: Del Oehms Hamilton

Del Oehms Hamilton, class of 1984 is a floor nominee for treasurer . After receiving her BS from MUW, Del attended USM. Del is a first generation college graduate.

 At the W, Del was a member of the Highlander Social Club. She served on the SGA and the Student Entertainment Association. She was in the Library Science Club and KDE and served as a photographer and staff member for both the Meh Lady and the Spectator.

Del has  been on the Board of Directors for the Alumnae Association and was awarded the Alumnae Achievement Award. She helped implement many of the electronic tools that the Association uses. She served as Chair of the Information Management Committee.

Del is proud mom to two furkids. Misty and Stormy have attended several W events including homecoming.

Del is currently serving as Project Manager for the Tulane Recovery Center overseeing contracts valued at several million dollars. She also oversees projects in Los Angeles and other areas as needed.

She is a candidate because she would like to be able to continue serving the association to my fullest ability. About being a member of The Long Blue Line, she states "My attendance at MUW literally saved my life and changed it completely. The experiences and education I had gave me opportunities I would have never received elsewhere. MUW is a very special place and molds people into incredible human beings that are both successful and giving."

If you have any questions for Del, please post them here.

Moving In Day

Ah, that yearly ritual of moving college students into their dorm rooms....remember the overloaded cars, the tired Dads, the tearful Moms, the excited friends.  This year Move-In Day at The W is August 15.  If you are in the area, Wesley is looking for volunteers, and for water.  The MUW Alumni Association (the official affiliated group) has said it will be helping students and giving out water as well.  The photo is Madeleine Gardiner, who will be a Sophomore this year, on last year's Move-In Day.

I asked for people's memories of Move-In Day when they were students.

 I moved to MUW with a friend from high school - we were roomies in Calloway Hall.  I remember thinking when we packed up a trailer with our stuff that we'd brought far too much, but then was stunned to realize that some girls had brought a trailer full of just their own stuff.


I was an Orientation Leader my Sophomore, Junior & Senior years at The W, and those years, just like my own Freshman Move-In Day were memorable for the constant buzz of excitement across the campus.  Meeting new friends, starting off on new adventures, bridging that gap between childhood and adulthood, created a palpable energy that I always found invigorating.  Neely Woods Hunter, '95



Wow...so long ago yet seems like just yesterday! 


I went to the W in the fall of 1983 with my dear friend from high school. I don't know how I would have made it without her.


It didn't take us long to move our stuff into our room in Calloway on the 3rd floor. Home for us was just up the road in Monroe county so we knew we would be going back almost every weekend.


We were very coordinated with matching bedspreads and curtains. We had a large piece of pink carpeting that was a scrap given to us by our small town flooring guy.  We had a full size refrigerator in our room - an old one my dad repainted. It seems like lots of folks on the hall keep stuff in that refrigerator.  The room was huge.


We got rid of the refrigerator the spring semester so we could move into a small room with a private bath!


I have great memories of those sweet girls from Calloway and the fall of 1983. Michelle Byars Gray '87



My freshmen year I had an entourage come to help me move in: My mom with her Durango loaded down, my grandparents bringing a few things in their pickup, a couple of my guy friends from high school coming to help and me with my car loaded.  My grandparents beat me by about ten minutes and Mom was a little bit behind me.  Since Mom and Grandmother were W girls and I had been there the week before to paint, we had no trouble finding where we needed to be, but the boys got so lost that I had to run out to the car to get my new Columbus map so we could tell them how to get to campus. When we started to unload in front of Callaway, a swarm of Lockharts just descended and started helping take my stuff up to the 3rd floor. Between all the help from campus and my folks, we had everything unloaded in about 30 minutes. After that was the requisite trip to Walmart for groceries and supplies.


I was in SAA every year I was at the W which came with the perk that I got to move in early so we could help with official Move In Day. I think we got more organized as time went on with unloading zones around the buildings so we could keep things moving.   Erin Gioia 2007


The big thing was that it was beastly hot and I had to move to the second floor of Peyton. My dad and mom came to help, and I was afraid my dad was going to have a heart attack from carrying all my heavy stuff since there wasn't an elevator. I was happy to be coming to school, but it was much harder on my parents. They had collected all my stuff for months in the "room that was too good for anybody except company." My dad called it "the staging area." I think it was difficult for them because I was only 16 at the time. My 17th birthday was in a week. Part of the reason they wanted me to come to the W was to keep me away from boys . (They weren't counting on Sandra Day O'Connor!)Laura Amundson 1984


When I think of Move-In Day, I remember two in particular.  My Freshman year my dad brought me and my stuff up from Long Beach.  No one I knew was going to The W and while in some ways I liked the idea of a new start, it was kind of scary once he left me alone--but it didn't take long for me to realize that there were people who cared. Before dinner than night I had messages from my admissions rep and from Marian Lion, who had been my Beta Club sponsor in junior high, and who was then working in the Alumnae Office.  Linda Elliott, who I did not know, but whose mom was friends with my parents, banged on my door and told me to call her if I needed anything.  Shortly thereafter, my SIA big sister showed up.  


The next year I volunteered to be a big sister and was given the name of Laura Amundson from Brandon Mississippi.  I sent her a letter during the summer, and then on Move-In day, dropped by to see her.  As she said, both her parents were there and they were all talking.  They seemed nice enough, but they sure didn't sound like they were from Brandon, Mississippi, and I told them so.  They said they were from a small town in Wisconsin, a small town just down the road from the small town in which my Mom was raised, and where I'm related to half the town.  I told them that my mother was from Durand, and Laura mentioned that her uncle married a woman from Durand.  It turns out that woman  was my mother's first cousin and one of the few whose name I'd know.  Ruth Wilz Curcuru '83

Fur Baby Friday: Misty and Stormy

Anyone who spends any time with Del Oehms Hamilton, MUW Class of '84, knows that her furbabies are Misty and Stormy.

They are adorable! 

Of course a Coast girl's dogs will love the beach!

Lynn Miller: Art and Ministry Combine for this MUW Alumna

Usually when one thinks of the ordained ministry, the pastor and  his/her assistants come to mind.  However, Lynn Miller, MUW class of 1984 is  an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the PC(USA), whose current assignment is to supply preach around the presbytery (most recently at Trinity Presbyterian in Meridian, where she averages  3 Sundays a month).  She also does art-related programming for congregations. She designs  textile pieces and stained glass for churches, writes arts-related curriculum, serves as artist for various church conferences, and presents workshops on the arts in congregational life and worship. She has presented lectures, written articles, led retreats, etc.   She is also the Head of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Madison-Ridgeland Academy in Madison, MS where she teaches  middle and high school art (like many artists, she doesn't find that art pays the bills).  She teaches all week and then on weekends does art programming or preaching somewhere.      

Lynn was raised in the Presbyterian Church and as she said, she has  "chosen it ever since. :-)",  She considers herself a product of the theology in which she was raised, and  always knew the love of Jesus Christ.

During her years at The W (1980-1984) she attended First Presbyterian Church in Columbus (out on Bluecutt Road). While she didn't have any ministry leanings in Columbus, she was nurtured by that congregation.

After getting her BFA from The W, Lynn got an MA in art history from the University of Georgia.  Her original decision to attend seminary was to get a theological education to accompany her art degrees.  Said Lynn "I realized in grad school that much of the history of art was tied to the church, but none of my professors were people of faith (and that's not my judgment, it was their assertion...one of the professors concluded a lecture on a particular church's iconography with the statement 'If you believe that sort of thing'). I thought it would be helpful for me as an artist/art historian to have a theological education to support my art studies, and I also thought it would be important for someone in my church to be able to talk about the arts."

While attending Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, VA, she began to think about ministry in a sense broader than just a theological education.

While at Mississippi University for Women, Lynn was involved with SGA, Kappa Pi, Honors Program, Silhouettes and Jesters.  She credits  MUW and the friends she made there  for a huge part of who she is.  Lyn said "I know the old standard line about leadership opportunities for women may seem rehearsed, but, really, having the opportunity to do the things I did (which I never did in high school) was invaluable in making me believe that I could do whatever I set my mind to. My love of art history was nurtured by the esteemed Mary Evelyn Stringer. She was such a formative influence. I can't overstate how much of who I am I owe to The W."

The thing she enjoys most about the art portion of her ministry is its  ability to combine the two things she loves: art and faith. Says Miler, "It's delightful to help people put their faith in conversation with the arts. Remember the overquoted line from 'Chariots of Fire' that when he ran, Eric Liddell felt God's pleasure? You'll never catch me running, but when I'm creating and leading others to create I do feel God's pleasure. The 'punch line' of Frederick Buechner's (also probably overquoted) comment on vocation is: 'The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. '"

Lynn finds being "on" at least 6 days a week is difficult. She has to do lesson preps for 6 classes 5 days a week besides studying and writing liturgy and a sermon every week.  The  required energy and focus, she says, are sometimes found at the end of the rope.

"Do what you love -- even if you have to explain yourself everywhere you go." is her advice to today's students.  " I had to explain faith to the UGA faculty, and I had to explain art to the Union faculty. When I applied for the D.Min. program and talked with the program director about possible doctoral project subjects, the program director said, 'You already know more about that than any of our faculty do.'  But it was a good experience nevertheless, and I both learned from and, I think, taught the faculty."

Lynn's website gives the general idea of her work, along with some images of it. 

When not working she enjoys sleeping, cooking, reading,  and watercolor painting.

Lynn has two "W" stories to tell us.   

When I was in seminary in Virginia, there was an action for which the students were pushing, but it was slow going. I was in a meeting about the situation, and I said, "I believe it's time to put on our pearls and pumps and go to Jackson." The other students looked at me.  I had to explain about the continuing lobbying of the legislature in my W years to keep the school open and that students and alums alike would "put on their pearls and pumps and go to Jackson"...and return as victors. That phrase became a code for any time my classmates got really serious about something. Even the guys would "put on their pearls and pumps and go to Jackson." Go, W Girls! 

and

 Back in December I was asked by a church member at one of the churches where I preach if I would officiate at her mother's funeral. I didn't know her mother, but she really wanted me to do the service. So I met with the member and her brothers before the service and said, "Tell me about your mother." They told wonderfully warm and funny stories about their mother. I thought for a minute about their ages and her age and I asked, "Where did she attend college?" Of course, it was The W. You can identify us anywhere, and I love that.