Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993 TAG: 9312160243
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JIM STRATTON THE NEWPORT NEWS DAILY PRESS
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium
He was active in the student government, a leader in his fraternity and an organizer who helped the school's off-campus student group arrange and throw parties. But there was a critical difference between Wynn and his friends. Wynn wasn't a William and Mary student - never had been. He was an impostor who fooled the campus for more than a year with a well-told story and a healthy dose of chutzpah.
"Once it got started," Wynn now says of his yearlong lie, "it was not something I could stop. That's really all I could tell you."
The fantasy began in late 1992 when the Hampton man showed up at a college-owned house for off-campus students. The home was used as a gathering place for commuter students to study, fix a quick meal or just hang out. Wynn rolled in sometime in the fall, telling students that he, too, was a commuter who had recently transferred to William and Mary to study history and economics. Before that, he told them, he'd been at Virginia Military Institute.
That part was true. Wynn had been a student at VMI, but he was dismissed after less than one semester in 1986. School officials won't say why but Wynn attributes it to immaturity.
He became a popular fixture of the off-campus house and, with a believable premise as his foundation, Wynn set about building his reputation at William and Mary. He got involved in commuter student issues - once addressing college officials on the need to secure a permanent off-campus student gathering place - and pitched in when the Off-Campus Student Council needed someone to help organize and manage parties. When spring came around, he pledged the Sigma Mu Sigma fraternity - later becoming rush chairman - and was appointed as an off-campus student representative to the student government association.
He also got a part-time job working with other William and Mary students at the Williamsburg Winery and rented a house on winery property from winery President Patrick Duffeler. His roommate: fraternity brother Patrick Duffeler II.
Wynn even doctored a bogus William and Mary student I.D. card for himself.
Throughout the charade, he talked about classes and campus issues with friends. People noticed he never seemed to study, but he knew enough about what was going on at William and Mary to squash any questions.
It was like that until this past summer when rumors - no one can pinpoint the source - started to fly that Wynn wasn't a student.
Things came to a head shortly after the new school year began when suspicious fraternity members went to the college administration. They were told, said fraternity President Anthony Hines, there was no record of a Gershom Wynn's attending William and Mary. About that same time, Melissa Bomberger, the acting president of the Off-Campus Student Council, was instructed by campus police to notify them the next time Wynn showed up at the commuter student office.
He showed up, she called and, on Nov. 5, William and Mary police told Wynn to stay off campus. College officials said Wynn was able to go unnoticed because he never did anything that required the school to formally check his background. He hung out at the library and other open facilities, for example, but never tried to attend classes.
"In a population of close to 10,000," said Samuel Sadler, vice president for student affairs, "unless somebody does something to call attention to themselves, you can see how this could happen."
In an interview this week, Wynn apologized to the friends he'd misled, saying he concocted the story because "I've always wanted to go to William and Mary." Hanging out at the off-campus house, he said, put him in touch with a group of people with similar interests and likes. The support from those friends, he said, was important because, over the last few years, his family life has been rocky. His mother died in 1990 and he is not close to his father.
But Wynn admits what he did was wrong and for now, at least, does not seem to be making excuses. He said although the lies bothered him, he rationalized his behavior by telling himself one day he would apply, be accepted and actually become a student.
"I had the choice to either tell the truth or lie," he said, "and I lied. I had a large circle of friends and I hurt every one of them."
He still hopes to attend William and Mary one day although he concedes there's "very little" chance of that. If he doesn't, he'll look for a college elsewhere and quietly disappear.
"I hope you never hear from me again," he said. "I don't want to be famous, just comfortable."
by CNB