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Volume 6 Relation of U.B/EUB Virginia Conferences to Shenandoah University Dec. 26, 2013
C. SHENANDOAH COLLEGE PROSPERS IN WINCHESTER, 1960-2008
This section begins by extracting parts of the short history of Shenandoah College and
Conservatory of Music for the period 1960-75 from the Centennial issue of Zynodoa, Shenandoah’s
yearbook. The section concludes with a more detailed history written by Shenandoah’s longest-serving
president, Dr. James A. Davis. With the new administration of Dr. Tracy Fitzsimmons,44 Shenandoah’s
history continues in a magnificent manner.
1. Zynodoa 1975: Centennial History of Shenandoah, 1960-7545
In September 1960 Shenandoah’s 86th session began on the new campus in Winchester. The
transition was difficult for some and exciting for many. The character of the transition is captured in the
following:
Death of an Era: Shenandoah at Dayton Is dead… . You who knew this Shenandoah;
you who wore coats in Rocky Hall on cold December mornings; you who pilgrimaged to Kissing
Rock when others were asleep; you who defied the dead to walk silent through the cemetery
in the night; you who sat along the banks of Silver Lake, somewhere, but never saw the water,
and you who did; you who sat atop Mole Hill and saw the valley; you who were crowned
Queen Shenandoah while people looked on from one side and cows from the other; you who
spent more time at the bakery than you did in class and you who didn’t; you, who did these
things, and more, shed a tear, or two, or three, for these too are dead… . There is still a
Shenandoah, a New Shenandoah. It is one that is still in the building process, one that needs
your help… . Yes, it is the death of an era, but it is also the birth of another. —THE
ARROWHEAD, Dec. 2, 1960.
Physical and academic expansion marked the first decade that Shenandoah College and
Conservatory of Music experienced in Winchester. Only two buildings on the new campus, the
Armstrong and Gregory Buildings, were completed at the time of the move. But between 1960 and
44 Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., became Shenandoah University’s 16th president on July 1, 2008. She is the institution’s first
female president since its founding in 1875 and one of the youngest university presidents in the Commonwealth of
Virginia. She came to Shenandoah in 2001, as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, became Vice-President for
Academic Affairs (VPAA) in 2002, and was named Senior Vice-President in 2006. She holds a faculty appointment as
Professor of Political Science. Previously, Dr. Fitzsimmons was a tenured faculty member and faculty leader at the
University of Redlands in Redlands, Calif. As President of Shenandoah University, she leads an institution of 3,700
students, 250 full-time faculty, and 450 staff at its 129-acre site in Winchester and a satellite campus in Leesburg. In
September 2010, Shenandoah was accepted as the 14th full member of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, the first
addition to the conference since 1999. Following the January 2010 Haiti earthquake, Dr. Fitzsimmons led several trips
to Haiti in support of the College Catherine Flon, a K-12 school of 4,500 students in Carrefour, Haiti, a suburb of Port-
au-Prince and home, at that time, to three Shenandoah students. Working with numerous organizations, including
Rotary International, Shenandoah University has pledged to rebuild the school. With regional expertise in Latin
America, Tracy Fitzsimmons has taught courses on development and disaster relief, world politics, Latin American
politics, global democratization, women, and politics in Latin America. Her published research on democratization, civil
society, and gender in new civilian police forces has taken her across the world. Her undergraduate degree in politics is
from Princeton University, magna cum laude, and her master’s and doctoral degrees are from Stanford University in,
respectively, Latin American studies and political science. Fitzsimmons serves on the boards of Shentel (Shenandoah
Telecommunications, Inc.), NAICU, Blue Ridge District BB&T; Bank, Powhatan School, and The Global Good Fund.
She and her husband, Charles Call, live in Reliance, Va., with their 8-year-old daughter, Shayla, and 6-year-old twin
sons, Dash and Jag. Dr. Chuck Call is on the faculty at American University in Washington, D.C. The Fitzsimmons-
Call home is a converted schoolhouse, and the couple frequently hosts theatrical productions, concerts, and poetry
readings.
45 [Zynodoa 1975, pp. 14-16].
Zynodoa on History of S.C., 1950-75 55
C. SHENANDOAH COLLEGE PROSPERS IN WINCHESTER, 1960-2008
This section begins by extracting parts of the short history of Shenandoah College and
Conservatory of Music for the period 1960-75 from the Centennial issue of Zynodoa, Shenandoah’s
yearbook. The section concludes with a more detailed history written by Shenandoah’s longest-serving
president, Dr. James A. Davis. With the new administration of Dr. Tracy Fitzsimmons,44 Shenandoah’s
history continues in a magnificent manner.
1. Zynodoa 1975: Centennial History of Shenandoah, 1960-7545
In September 1960 Shenandoah’s 86th session began on the new campus in Winchester. The
transition was difficult for some and exciting for many. The character of the transition is captured in the
following:
Death of an Era: Shenandoah at Dayton Is dead… . You who knew this Shenandoah;
you who wore coats in Rocky Hall on cold December mornings; you who pilgrimaged to Kissing
Rock when others were asleep; you who defied the dead to walk silent through the cemetery
in the night; you who sat along the banks of Silver Lake, somewhere, but never saw the water,
and you who did; you who sat atop Mole Hill and saw the valley; you who were crowned
Queen Shenandoah while people looked on from one side and cows from the other; you who
spent more time at the bakery than you did in class and you who didn’t; you, who did these
things, and more, shed a tear, or two, or three, for these too are dead… . There is still a
Shenandoah, a New Shenandoah. It is one that is still in the building process, one that needs
your help… . Yes, it is the death of an era, but it is also the birth of another. —THE
ARROWHEAD, Dec. 2, 1960.
Physical and academic expansion marked the first decade that Shenandoah College and
Conservatory of Music experienced in Winchester. Only two buildings on the new campus, the
Armstrong and Gregory Buildings, were completed at the time of the move. But between 1960 and
44 Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., became Shenandoah University’s 16th president on July 1, 2008. She is the institution’s first
female president since its founding in 1875 and one of the youngest university presidents in the Commonwealth of
Virginia. She came to Shenandoah in 2001, as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, became Vice-President for
Academic Affairs (VPAA) in 2002, and was named Senior Vice-President in 2006. She holds a faculty appointment as
Professor of Political Science. Previously, Dr. Fitzsimmons was a tenured faculty member and faculty leader at the
University of Redlands in Redlands, Calif. As President of Shenandoah University, she leads an institution of 3,700
students, 250 full-time faculty, and 450 staff at its 129-acre site in Winchester and a satellite campus in Leesburg. In
September 2010, Shenandoah was accepted as the 14th full member of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, the first
addition to the conference since 1999. Following the January 2010 Haiti earthquake, Dr. Fitzsimmons led several trips
to Haiti in support of the College Catherine Flon, a K-12 school of 4,500 students in Carrefour, Haiti, a suburb of Port-
au-Prince and home, at that time, to three Shenandoah students. Working with numerous organizations, including
Rotary International, Shenandoah University has pledged to rebuild the school. With regional expertise in Latin
America, Tracy Fitzsimmons has taught courses on development and disaster relief, world politics, Latin American
politics, global democratization, women, and politics in Latin America. Her published research on democratization, civil
society, and gender in new civilian police forces has taken her across the world. Her undergraduate degree in politics is
from Princeton University, magna cum laude, and her master’s and doctoral degrees are from Stanford University in,
respectively, Latin American studies and political science. Fitzsimmons serves on the boards of Shentel (Shenandoah
Telecommunications, Inc.), NAICU, Blue Ridge District BB&T; Bank, Powhatan School, and The Global Good Fund.
She and her husband, Charles Call, live in Reliance, Va., with their 8-year-old daughter, Shayla, and 6-year-old twin
sons, Dash and Jag. Dr. Chuck Call is on the faculty at American University in Washington, D.C. The Fitzsimmons-
Call home is a converted schoolhouse, and the couple frequently hosts theatrical productions, concerts, and poetry
readings.
45 [Zynodoa 1975, pp. 14-16].
Zynodoa on History of S.C., 1950-75 55
