James & Mary Hoban

Jim was born in Providence, Rhode Island. Several years of his secondary education were completed in Wiesbaden, Germany, where his father was an architect in the 1950s. Jim also attended schools in the family’s home base, Alexandria, Virginia, before going to the University of Virginia.  Jim’s graduate work was at the University of Illinois, receiving his Ph.D. in 1971.  He was a college professor, teaching at Illinois, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Virginia before finally retiring from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in 2004 after 21 years as chair of the Communication Studies department there.  

Mary was born in Richmond Virginia, and reared mostly in North Carolina, where she attended and graduated from Duke.  She then went to Illinois for graduate work, where she met Jim, who proposed on their first date (a longish story followed!).  She received her Ph.D. in 1974, two years after they married in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  She taught at Western Michigan University, the University of Illinois, and at New Mexico. For 31 years, she was a professor of English and at various times department chair at Hampden-Sydney College, retiring in 2007.  Her proudest accomplishment is her role in establishing the college’s Rhetoric Program in 1976-79. 

In the course of their academic careers, both gave numerous scholarly papers, including some at conferences abroad:  Mary in England, and Jim in Germany, Poland, Japan, and Rio de Janeiro.   And both published articles in their fields.  As a matter of local fact, Jim has an essay on Pearl Buck’s fiction-into-film in a book edited by WC’s own Elizabeth Lipscomb and Frances Webb.

Jim and Mary have been married for 44 years.  Jim enjoys sketching, painting, traveling and reading.  He is an active member of Holy Cross Catholic Church, a past chair of the board of the Adult Care Center, and currently on the board of Lyn-Cag. Mary enjoys traveling, reading, photography, gardening, and film.  She is a dedicated supporter of the Lynchburg Humane Society, where she hopes to resume regular volunteering once her life is easier and refreshed!

And here are some miscellaneous footnotes, of central Virginia relevance:   Jim is a WC legacy:  Both of his parents were residents here, his mother in Drinkard until 1998.  Jim has a neat studio at the Art Box in downtown Lynchburg.   His art has been inspired by his travels, especially in India. Mary always taught under her maiden name, Saunders—thanks to a trick Jim pulled on her forty years ago!