LEXINGTON, Va. Sept. 1, 2025 — The Virginia Military Institute Museum will host a talk and book signing by Mayling Simpson, Ph.D., author of “Lives Guided by Honor: How VMI Shaped the Class of 1968,” on Friday, Sept. 12, at 3:15 p.m., in the Nichols Engineering Building auditorium located at 413 Letcher Avenue on post. The event free and open to the public. 

Simpson’s book arose out of curiosity. A cultural anthropologist by training, and after years of wondering why her husband, Paul Hebert ’68, chose to attend a military college, she began a quest to discover why VMI. She focused on his class of 1968 and studied the history of VMI through her anthropologist’s lens. Nothing escaped her examination: the art and architecture of buildings on post, the Institute’s changes throughout time, the people who were there, and how the Institute uniquely influences and forms its cadets.  

Simpson’s work spans global research and storytelling. She has conducted research in Ireland, Iran, the Philippines, and Serbia on public health issues, and has served as a senior technical officer with the World Health Organization. Her other publications include, “A Paper Life: Belgrade’s Roma in the Underworld of Waste Scavenging and Recycling,” “Ecological Sanitation,” and the award-winning short story, “Mrs. Nickle Pickle.” She holds a doctorate in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  

Copies of “Lives Guided by Honor: How VMI Shaped the Class of 1968,” a book for cadets and their families, alumni, historians, graduates of other military colleges, educators, or anyone interested in lives guided by honor, may be purchased with credit card only at the event.  

Marianne Hause
Communications & Marketing
VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE