dkeller@observer-reporter.com

When Ashley Phillips walks by a picture of Marian Ream at Washington & Jefferson College, she points out the woman to her friends.

And introduces her, too.

Marian Ream is her grandmother, one of the first four women to graduate from W&J.

Today, Ashley Phillips will graduate from the college. Her mother, Cynthia Ream Phillips, also is a W&J graduate. The Ream family is the first to have three generations of W&J women.

It was 1970 when women first stepped onto the campus as students. Marian Ream graduated in 1971.

The campus was a different place then.

"I was in classes with all males," said Marian Ream, now 75 and living in Florida. "A couple of the guys helped me with statistics."

The men in her classes were all younger than she. She was 38 when she graduated, while most of them were in their early 20s.

"They kind of took care of me," Ream said.

And the cheerleaders?

"They had all boys as cheerleaders back then," said Cynthia Ream Phillips about her mother's time at W&J.

Marian Ream graduated with a bachelor's degree in English and taught in Washington School District. She and her husband, Charles Ream, started a school that educated children of Westinghouse Electric and Bechtel Power employees living overseas.

When Cynthia Ream Phillips attended W&J, the ratio was eight men for every woman.

"It was a great situation to be in," she said with a laugh.

She said the college had only one female dormitory until her last year, when another became co-ed. She enjoyed college but was ready for graduation.

"I wanted to go to California to do my thing," she said.

Cynthia, now 51, graduated in 1977 after three years of college with a degree in French and a teaching certificate and then attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

She worked in television and in several films before turning to a sports broadcasting career. She also earned a law degree and now lives in Washington.

"I wanted to live a simpler life, and I wanted to live well," she said.

Both Cynthia and her mother serve on the W&J Alumni Executive Council.

As they recalled the memories of their time attending college, Ashley Phillips said it's definitely not the same.

"It's interesting," said 21-year-old Ashley. "A majority of my English classes are women."

National statistics bear that out. Women made up 56 percent, or about 8 million, of the undergraduate student population and 59 percent, or about 2 million, of graduate students in 2005, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Ashley said she's glad so many girls are taking advantage of the education and opportunities that W&J offers.

W&J wasn't on her original wish list when she was picking colleges. However, as soon as she visited the campus, Ashley said it was where she wanted to go.

"It's another thing we can share," she said of her mother and grandmother.

Now that she's so close to graduation, Ashley knows how much work it takes to get there. And the idea that three generations of women from her family did it?

"It really is an accomplishment," she said.

Marian Ream glanced lovingly at her daughter and granddaughter as she thought about all three of them graduating from the same college.

"It's great," she said. "W&J was my life for 32 years."

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