Psi Chapter of Sigma Chi at the University of Virginia • Fall 2024
From left: Jim Mallon '81 and wife Gina Mallon '84,
Stephanie Steele Fitzgerald and husband Tim Fitzgerald '81.
Jim's 5-year-old lab, Astro, always deserves to be front and center!
The Ward family at Trick-or-Treating on the Lawn, circa 2012.
Jeff Ward '81 and Jim Mallon '81, both Marines,
raise the colors during a pre-game ceremony.
Not Just a College Town
Alumni Perspectives on Retiring in the Hook
Jim Mallon '81
It was October 2002, and I was celebrating
my wedding anniversary with my wife, Gina,
a UVA graduate of 1984 and a Kappa Delta.
We were headed from our Northern Virginia
home to a friend's home in Yorktown—or so
I thought! Gina surprised me with a trek to
Charlottesville to look at potential real estate
to build on, and we purchased a lot that very
weekend. Three years later, we moved here.
It's one thing to be a student here, living in an
insulated UVA community, and quite another to
experience all that Charlottesville and Central
Virginia have to offer. I am unabashedly a
fan of "the Hook." I am ecstatic that I get to
reconnect with all the visiting Brothers who
I've known through the years, and I cherish the
fact that I get to live near the Grounds where
we all had so much fun.
Jeff Ward '81
Though I am not yet retired, it has been an
absolute gift to raise Matty in the Hook.
Plugging into UVA athletic and arts programs
is an obvious benefit, but there are little things,
like Trick-or-Treating on the Lawn, that
made his childhood something special and
memorable for all of us. We consider ourselves
very blessed to have been able to raise Matty
here in Charlottesville!
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