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Wilson Library appoints new chair, board members

The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library Foundation today announced that its Board of Trustees has elected Charlottesville pediatrician Michael Dickens as its new Chair and appointed six new Board members: Dr. Richard L. M. Coleman of Staunton; Dr. Gordon A. Haaland of Lancaster County, Virginia; Judge Stephen H. Helvin of Charlottesville; Dr. Edward G. Lengel of Charlottesville; L. Gray Marion, Jr., of Charleston, West Virginia; and Richard Robbins Pancake of Staunton and Washington, D.C. All began their terms on July 1. Dr. Dickens succeeds Dr. A. Stanley Link, Jr., who remains on the Board as Immediate Past Chair. William Walker of Staunton was named Vice Chair of the Board. The six new Trustees replaced retiring Board members Dr. A. Tracy Aitcheson, Jr., of Waynesboro, Morgan Peyton of Charlottesville, and Harry J. Warthen, III, of Manakin-Sabot.

Dr. Michael D. Dickens has served on Foundation’s Board of Trustees since 2007 and as Vice Chair since 2010. He graduated with honors from Princeton University and received his M.D. from Columbia University. He did his residency at the University of Virginia, served two years active duty in the Navy, and retired as a Lieutenant Commander. Dr. Dickens’ avocation is American presidential history, and he is the author of From the Papers of RADM Cary Grayson, MC: The Role of a President’s Physician in a Time of Crisis, an extensive two-part article about President Wilson’s physician published in 2007 in the The Grog Ration, a journal of the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. He resides in Charlottesville.

Dr. Richard L. M. Coleman is a retired physician. He has previously served six terms on the Board, including service as Chair of the Board’s Board Resources Committee. His most recent term expired last year. Dr. Coleman is a graduate of Princeton and the University of Virginia Medical School. He resides in Staunton.

Dr. Gordon A. Haaland is a former President of the University of New Hampshire and President of Gettysburg College. As a social psychologist and leader in higher education, Dr. Haaland has published numerous papers in his field and has served on numerous boards and commissions. He resides in Lancaster County, Virginia, and Maine.

Judge Stephen H. Helvin is a retired Virginia District judge. He attended Hampden Sydney College and T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond and has taught courses at the University of Virginia School of Law. Judge Helvin remains active in the Virginia judiciary on a part-time basis. He resides in Charlottesville.

Dr. Edward G. Lengel is a University of Virginia Professor of History and Editor of the Papers of George Washington. He is the author of To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918 about World War I’s last battle, which involved 1.2 million American troops and still stands as the largest battle in American history. Dr. Lengel was the Presidential Library’s Annual Luncheon speaker in 2010, co-led the WWPL’s tour of World War I battlefields and cemeteries in 2010, and advised the WWPL on its new World War I trench exhibit. He resides in Charlottesville.

L. Gray Marion, Jr., has been the Chief Executive Officer of Independent Insurance Agents of West Virginia, Inc., since 1987. He was previously Associate Curator of Exhibitions with the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and with the John Glenn for President campaign in 1983-84 and the Gerald Baliles for Governor campaign in Virginia in 1985. He resides in Charleston, West Virginia.

Richard Robbins Pancake recently retired from work as a trade and government affairs counsel, largely with Agilent Technologies and Hewlett Packard Corporation. He is the son of Colonel Frank R. Pancake, a former leader of the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace Foundation. He received his bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Virginia. He resides in Washington, D.C., and Staunton.

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