Fall 2011 – News

Asking �ֲ��ý to welcome change, President Hansen made �ֲ��ý’ framework firmer

�ֲ��ý Magazine — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 04:00:19 +0000

Hansen Timeline

October 2002

President Elaine Tuttle Hansen, a scholar of Chaucer and feminist literary theory and former Haverford College provost, is inaugurated on Oct. 26.

January 2003

�ֲ��ý hosts a major statewide diversity rally that fills and surrounds Merrill Gymnasium with more than 4,000 participants who show vigorous support for the local Somali community in the wake of anti-immigrant actions.

May 2003

�ֲ��ý approves undertaking a Campus Facilities Master Plan to review campus facilities, infrastructure, and surroundings.

October 2004

In a 20-year study of its optional SAT policy, �ֲ��ý finds no differences in academic performance or graduation rates between submitters and non-submitters.

Phase I of the Campus Facilities Master Plan envisions New Commons, Alumni Walk, and a residence at 280 College Street, plus academic renovations to Hedge Hall and Roger Williams halls.

November 2004

The public phase begins for the $120 million Campaign for �ֲ��ý: Endowing Our Values.

February 2005

Begun in 1997, the Edmund S. Muskie Oral History Project concludes with some 440 interviews with those who worked with, knew, or were directly affected by Ed Muskie ’36.

September 2005

�ֲ��ý announces that Maine students enrolled at New Orleans–area colleges devastated by Hurricane Katrina are welcome to take classes at �ֲ��ý, without charge. Eighteen Mainers take up the offer.

December 2005

�ֲ��ý announces that it will purchase electricity from renewable energy sources such as biomass and small hydroelectric generating plants.

Spring 2006

�ֲ��ý breaks ground for a 152-bed residence at 280 College Street.

July 2006

The Campaign for �ֲ��ý: Endowing Our Values concludes by surpassing its $120 million goal.

February 2007

President Hansen is among the first to sign the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, pledging �ֲ��ý to become carbon neutral.

May 2007

President Hansen convenes her first Presidential Symposium, on diversity and demographics in U.S. higher education.

June 2007

President Hansen announces the innovative “swing dean” program, where a dean recruits students during one year then joins the Dean of Students office to mentor the new students in their first year. The program reflects broader diversity efforts at �ֲ��ý.

September 2007

Focusing on writing, quantitative skills, and interdisciplinary thinking, revamped General Education requirements go into effect for members of the Class of 2011.

February 2008

�ֲ��ý opens New Commons. Continuing the college tradition of all students dining together, the facility is an “architectural symbol of what makes �ֲ��ý so special,” says President Hansen.

September 2008

A gift of $2.5 million boosts the college’s already high use of local and organic food and inspires a yearlong food and sustainability initiative called Nourishing Body and Mind: �ֲ��ý Contemplates Food.

May 2009

Ben Stein ’09 and Amrit Rupasinghe ’10 defeat Bowdoin to win the NCAA Division III men’s doubles tennis championship.

September 2009

President Hansen announces Choices for �ֲ��ý, a strategic plan that is the product of two years of campus discussions. Goals are identified around the arts, natural sciences and mathematics, and the �ֲ��ý learning experience.

October 2009

H1N1 influenza virus hits �ֲ��ý as 250-plus students report influenza-like illness. All students return to good health.

December 2009

�ֲ��ý appoints Nancy J. Cable as vice president and dean of enrollment and external affairs. Her newly organized division brings together admission, student financial services, communications and media relations, and career services.

February 2010

Burning biomass for campus heat and some electricity will be key to the college’s newly announced Climate Action Plan, which anticipates college carbon neutrality by 2020.

March 2010

�ֲ��ý begins the restoration and expansion of two historic buildings, Hedge Hall and Roger Williams Hall, as academic spaces.

August 2010

�ֲ��ý announces creation of an Office of Intercultural Education to coordinate academic, social, and residential programs for underrepresented student populations.

September 2010

�ֲ��ý redeploys and expands its career program: the �ֲ��ý Career Development Center.

October 2010

�ֲ��ý dedicates a restored and improved Garcelon Field.

March 2011

The �ֲ��ý faculty announces approval of a major in dance.

April 2011

President Hansen accepts the position of executive director of the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins.

May 2011

�ֲ��ý announces formation of a Presidential Search Committee co-chaired by trustees Michael Chu ’80 and Valerie Smith ’75.

Admission reports a triple crown of gains: record applications; a more selective acceptance rate; and a surge in “yield” — the percentage of accepted students who choose �ֲ��ý.

July 2011

On July 1, Nancy Cable, vice president and dean of enrollment and external affairs, begins her term as interim president of �ֲ��ý, through June 30, 2012.

‘Alive to Change’

By H. Jay Burns
Photographs by Phyllis Graber Jensen

Nine years ago, Elaine Tuttle Hansen based her inaugural address on a line from Emily Dickinson: “I dwell in possibility.”

Those four words gave Hansen the opportunity to suggest what she believed was possible for �ֲ��ý: that the college could meet the challenges of the era by cultivating its historic and distinctive capacity of being, as she said, “alive to change.”

Hansen talks with Owen Harris ’08 about his neuroscience research on therapies for Parkinson’s disease.

In her final �ֲ��ý interview before assuming duties as executive director of the Center for Talented Youth at The Johns Hopkins University, she spoke with �ֲ��ý Magazine editor Jay Burns about her 2002 inaugural vision and the realities that followed during her tenure as the seventh president of �ֲ��ý College.

The key line in your address comes early when you said, “Our goal is to be alive to change.” You then quote cultural theorist Gloria Anzaldua’s comment on personal identity: “Transitions aren’t what we go through. Transitions are what we are.”

The very identity of a college of the liberal arts and sciences is premised on the idea that we are always embracing change. A quarter of our students change each year. At a slower rate, we welcome new faculty and new staff.

A great college embraces new people and their new habits, needs, and expectations. The curricular, educational, and social frameworks of a liberal arts college are just that: frames that contain constant transition.

When I said this in 2002, I had no idea how dramatic the changes were going to be in my nine years at �ֲ��ý. The economic upheaval beginning in 2008 demonstrates that the possibility of positive and negative change is always out there, and we have to expect it even when we can’t predict it.

Hansen takes part in an economics class in 2008, part of her annual President for a Day tradition in which she and a student traded places for one day. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College.

Early in my presidency we developed a 10-year financial model, which reflects the idea that you have to be proactive and keep adjusting your assumptions as part of the planning process. For example, before the recession, we assumed a 5-percent average annual increase in tuition, which went back to the 1970s. Now we’ve significantly lowered that assumption.

We used to assume an 8-percent total return (taking into account spending) on our endowment; we’ve since incorporated a lower assumption into our 10-year plan.

We had to change our assumptions about campus housing in 2002 because of code issues in our wood-frame houses, and through our Campus Facilities Master Plan, we developed a framework to build the 280 College Street residence, New Commons, and Alumni Walk, and to renovate Garcelon Field as well as Hedge and Roger Williams halls.

We had to learn to make plans. To design yourself as a planner is a little presumptuous — as Henry James wrote, “One’s plan, alas, is one thing and one’s result another.” But I do feel our facilities planning and college planning have been effective.

So we run the college the way we ask students to run their lives. We ask them to develop fundamental skills and attitudes that should help them adapt, be flexible, and learn new things for the new jobs that don’t yet exist. �ֲ��ý has to do the same thing.

Setting aside the economic meltdown, it should have been clear to anyone in 2002 that liberal arts colleges needed to take steps to face disruptions. We knew the trends putting pressure on liberal arts colleges, such as the decline in the percentage and numbers of students earning liberal arts degrees.

So if we weren’t alive to change in 2002, we needed to be.

You opened your inaugural with a brief comment about rituals: “Rituals afford us prospective opportunities for expressing our hopes and aspirations, our desire for change, and our will to improve.”

In one sense, rituals reassure people. They emphasize, again, the framework that will contain future change — that’s why they’re rituals. At the same time, they always mark change. They are interestingly complicated, almost oxymoronic moments.

Elaine Hansen laughs with Marcus Bruce ’77, the Benjamin Mays Professor of Religious Studies, prior to Convocation 2010. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College.

In a similar way, I have found great pleasure in observing the construction on campus, something I hadn’t anticipated. Perhaps this is because new buildings and renovations create an image of stability yet they reflect great change. It’s a nice point-counterpoint.

Every �ֲ��ý president has wrestled in some way or another with the question of diversity and inclusion on this campus. In your inaugural, you described the challenge of creating and recreating a college that feels open both to those who never doubted attending college and to “those who have not been able to feel so confident about their destinies” and who “bring a wider variety of experience and perspective to the campus.” What does it means today for �ֲ��ý to “invite those who have not been able to feel so confident about their destiny”?

At our 2007 Presidential Symposium, “A College for Coming Time: Diversity and the Changing Demographics of Higher Education,” I noted how many colleges and universities today are able to tell of both aspirations and frustrations around diversity.

�ֲ��ý is alive to this challenge. We know what it is to seek change while staying firm. Of all American colleges, �ֲ��ý was among the very few that radically put its stamp on diversity long before anyone used that term. It’s part of our sturdy framework.

But for a college founded by abolitionists, always open to women, and known for recruiting freed slaves — what does that foundation mean in the early 21st century, when the world has changed so much around us? The value and definition of diversity and inclusion is very different now than in 1855 or in 1945 with the return of students from World War II or in the 1970s when most of the baby boomers were going to college.

At the symposium, we focused on the changing demographics. We know that fostering diversity and inclusion is as tough as or tougher now than it used to be. The competition for students is tougher. The financial challenge of providing need-based aid for students is greater. Maine is still mostly a white state and located in a region of the U.S. where high school enrollments have been decreasing.

And yet, if I’m proud of anything during my presidency, I am proud that so many people took on the task of working harder to sustain our principles, and prepare all students for the future. �ֲ��ý is more diverse now than ever before, and our incoming Class of 2015 continues this trend: 103 U.S. multicultural students, up from 86 last year, a number that itself represented sustained improvement from prior years. Our increased diversity will continue to affect the culture of the college in ways we can anticipate and in ways we cannot.

Hansen sits for a WRBC student interview shortly after her arrival in February 2003. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College.

In 2002, you said that while society places value on a college education to an individual, “there is no consensus about the social or civic value of higher education” generally.

Society’s understanding of the purpose and value of higher education has only gotten even less clear.

As an example, recall that in February 2009 President Obama called for all Americans to commit to attending at least one year of college. The statement was met with praise by college leaders; ostensibly, the president’s speech expressed a consensus that American higher education represents a great public good.

But when you look at reaction to the president’s suggestions — one critic dismissed it as just another government subsidy — you realize there is even less alignment between our view of higher education, as both beneficial to the individual and to society, and society’s diminishing belief that higher education is a public good that fosters social and human progress.

The call for all Americans to commit to a year of college, while praiseworthy, does diffuse and make much more complex the whole concept of what going to college means in our country. If we have a country that is committed to going to college, yet no agreement on what that means, that pushes us further from a consensus of the public value of higher education.

This lack of consensus of the value of a college education is seen in the national discussion of three-year baccalaureate degree programs, a discussion I’ve joined partly because �ֲ��ý has a three-year option created by President Phillips in the 1960s.

While I do understand that a three-year option is about money, an important consideration, the discussion suggests that a U.S. college education is something that can or should be made briefer. Walking to Gate 4 at LaGuardia Airport recently, I saw a sign in front of a telecom store: “Anything worth doing is worth doing faster.”

Hansen greets a �ֲ��ý parent during first-year orientation. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College.

What I view as the purpose of a higher education is opposite from the idea of getting it over with as quickly as possible. If you attempt to measure our value by that idea, you will never believe in �ֲ��ý. Among other things, we are trying to cultivate the ability to listen, focus, and slow down in a world of, as writer Linda Stone said, “continuous partial attention.”

President George Colby Chase, whom you quoted at length in your inaugural, said that �ֲ��ý must safeguard against existing “to gratify the selfish instincts of the more fortunate.” �ֲ��ý should develop citizens who are “fit exponents” to increase the world’s “sweetness and light.” If �ֲ��ý long ago evolved from the teacher-preacher culture of alumni professions, how does �ֲ��ý prepare people to help society achieve greater “sweetness and light”?

The teacher-preacher culture has been part of some enduring narratives among �ֲ��ý alumni. One particularly enduring �ֲ��ý story that alumni in finance and business tell with real emotion is their feeling that they somehow fell from the high aspirations of the preacher-teacher model by pursuing lucrative careers. This narrative seems quite strong among alums of the 1980s, though some felt it more than others.

Today, I believe we see absolutely no evidence for this narrative on campus. We see strength in the arts and encouragement for students to pursue great careers in the arts. And we have strength in the economics department and encouragement there.

Through both our heritage and distinctive current programs, like the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, �ֲ��ý will always have a culture of social engagement. We tend to seek and attract students who want to do good work, and our seniors desire to find work after graduation that aligns with their experience of having done meaningful and well-aligned academic work while at �ֲ��ý. As President Chase said, our graduates seek work that “exemplifies to the less favored the meaning and uses of life at its best.”

At the same time, �ֲ��ý has taken great strides in better equipping students to discover and pursue careers that help them make full use of their new liberal arts habits and skills. This past year, we reorganized the �ֲ��ý career program and redeployed it as the �ֲ��ý Career Development Center. Again, this is part of �ֲ��ý being a place that looks forward, anticipates, plans.

Hansen and Director of Athletics Kevin McHugh cut the ribbon at the dedication of renovated Garcelon Field in 2010. Photograph by Janet Cuimmei P’12.

So, in terms of helping society achieve greater “sweetness and light,” maybe your calling is to a profession directly connected to helping people. Or maybe your calling is to a lucrative profession. Either way, I hear our alumni talking passionately about how their �ֲ��ý education has helped them be principled, bold, and engaged leaders in their chosen field and in their communities. And I hear the impulse to do good work when alumni talk about helping students and young alumni. This is their expression of doing good work.

What I don’t see at �ֲ��ý is one prescription for how you do good work. And there shouldn’t be one prescription, in my view.

In 2002, you offered the idea that �ֲ��ý campus life should be about “experimentation and creativity,” with room for “both disagreement and mistakes within a certain zone of temporary safety [and] provisional protection.” What have been the challenges? The successes?

If we look at that statement through the lens of residential life, one challenge is no different than ever before. We have 2,000 students, 1,700 of whom are in residence, all age 18 to 22!

Still, I believe we have altered the atmosphere in our residence halls. This is not about casting aspersions on prior groups of students. It’s what �ֲ��ý has done to help students themselves take responsibility for improving the reality of their residential life.

It has helped that �ֲ��ý built a new residence hall at 280 College Street. Its flexible, welcoming, and interactive spaces help communicate the fact that a student’s residential life is fully connected to other parts of �ֲ��ý life.

We have improved the training of junior advisers and residence coordinators, and Dean of Students Tedd Goundie has the perspective that student leaders can and should be empowered to be more accountable for the actions, programs, and outcomes in the residences.

Of course, this is a lot to ask of our students. It can look like �ֲ��ý is abdicating our responsibilities as adults. But the successes, when they come, are proportional to the amount we are asking students to invest in their community. I mean, talk about building!

Being alive to change includes updating our understanding of generational perspectives. In your inauguration, you spoke of young people being highly able and having an extreme emphasis on “self” and “selfhood” but not, ironically, possessing great self-awareness.

When I quoted author and child psychiatrist Robert Coles in that part of my inaugural, I was worried about children who grow up having cultivated perfection their whole lives. They have, as Coles said, “very definite notions” of what should come to them. They are attuned to accomplishing tasks but not attuned to self-reflection. So when they fail, as we all do at some point, do they have the ability not only to start over but also to learn something important about themselves?

At our annual mid-May Senior–Trustee Luncheon, over and over we hear seniors reflect on the incredible value of taking risks and achieving — and the value of not being the best. And these are our stars. They will have great successes in their lives. But what they appreciate, in addition to high-powered academic excellence, is that �ֲ��ý offered a path for them to try something new — join a club, sports team, or musical group — that requires them to stretch and risk not being the star.

Sometimes it is a challenge to convey this part of the �ֲ��ý culture and not make it sound like we encourage dabbling. It’s not that. When you listen to our seniors, they are very intense and serious about what they have pursued at �ֲ��ý. Shot put All-American Liz Wanless ’04 used to say that she worked hard at throwing after being inspired by how so many people seemed to have their own passion at �ֲ��ý: “I’m just another person trying to achieve a goal,” she’d say.

I can hear in my mind other variations of this — “I learned that who I am includes this passion for doing something that no one else was going to expect me to do.” America used to hold this concept up as something highly valuable: the amateur ideal. By trying many things, failing at some, you get a sense of who you are, particularly in relation to others, and what you really love.

This is �ֲ��ý: broad-scale participation, passion, intensity — our Amore ac Studio.

Your Page: Leena Nasser and the silent boy were failing together

�ֲ��ý Magazine — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:09:09 +0000

A Big Lesson

By Leena Nasser ’12

For a Saudi Arabian woman, coming to the United States to attain a bachelor’s degree in politics means facing challenges from many different directions.

In coming here, I have to defy the stereotype of the submissive “Saudi woman” that is embedded in the culture I grew up in. And here in the U.S., I have also faced assumptions, thrown around as if they are facts, about the difficulties I must have faced living in such an “oppressive” culture.

Many of us place oversimplified labels on people’s identities. Me included.

As a volunteer in the Lewiston public schools, I was assigned to work with a Somali boy in the second grade. He had been figuratively but not literally abandoned by the school because of his poor academic performance.

His nickname was Little Man. He was the quiet kid. He never asked a question and never solved one. When spoken to, he only stared. Whether he understood our words as we uttered them was a mystery. The fact was, he was failing.

I was at first burdened by this assignment. I did not possess the supernatural powers that I believed necessary to help a child that even professional educators failed to help.

The irony hit me. There I was, a Saudi woman in Lewiston, Maine, asked to help a refugee boy from Somalia. Who would have ever thought that I would get here? Either I did possess some superpowers, or I just had great faith in my abilities.

And that’s when I realized that Little Man probably just didn’t have faith in his own abilities.

I did possess some superpowers, or I just had great faith in my abilities.

Thus, I demanded that Little Man meet the standard. I asked him to write his alphabet letters exactly as shown in the laminated alphabet sheet taped on his desk. Little Man resisted change initially. When he leaned back and wrote loosely, I made him erase any letter that didn’t look ideal.

Getting tired of having to redo his letters, he voluntarily sat up straight and tried to get them right once and for all. By the end of the day Little Man’s writing performance was shockingly outstanding!

As the days went by, I saw a drastic change in Little Man’s behavior. He sat up straight when he wrote, sometimes stood up even. He asked to stay in class for recess to work with me on assignments. He became one of the first to complete class tasks.

After writing a letter perfectly one day, Little Man yelled, “Yes!” and quickly pressed his hands on his mouth. It was too late; I had heard him, and knew he was just as happy as I was, seeing that he was capable.

From this experience, I learned that people who seem submissive to their circumstances, and remain silent, are not necessarily silent because they approve. They are silent because they see no way out and are unaware of their capabilities that can take them places. To make a difference, I must empower them by first introducing the tools through which they can change their lives.

Little Man was not little in my eyes anymore. He was never little. In our minds, we were too big to understand him.

A politics major with minors in education and women and gender studies, Leena Nasser ’12 of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, is studying on the �ֲ��ý Semester in France program this fall with faculty members Kirk Read (French) and Joseph Hall (history).

‘Multicultural Voices’ takes a deliberate route to multicultural engagement

�ֲ��ý Magazine — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:00:55 +0000

Listen and Learn

By H. Jay Burns
Photographs by Phyllis Graber Jensen

Alumni, students, parents, and friends have the look of listeners during the Multicultural Voices listening tour event in Atlanta last winter. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College.

“The framework is genuine — to listen,” Anecia O’Carroll says.

She’s talking about “Multicultural Voices,” the college’s alumni listening tour that started in Atlanta over the winter.

O’Carroll, who oversees multicultural and international programs for the Office of Alumni and Parent Engagement, is member of the Alutiiq tribe of Alaska. As such, the �ֲ��ý tour is modeled less on the trendy presidential campaign versions seen in Iowa these days and more on O’Carroll’s own background and experiences.

The �ֲ��ý tour, she says, is strongly influenced by the tradition of the Native American talking circle, where each person’s voice is distinct, not lost in a din.

“It’s an ancient approach to resolving problems and promoting understanding,” says O’Carroll, an expert in career counseling, psychotherapy, and multicultural initiatives who has lived in diverse communities around the world.

Fairchild McGough Dixon ’94, who attended the Atlanta session, says the “rousing discussion” felt like a Tuesday night seminar class from college days past. “It’s what I most miss about �ֲ��ý,” she says.

In recent years, �ֲ��ý has been resolving problems and promoting understanding with various alumni cohorts, notably in the athletics realm through Friends of �ֲ��ý Athletics and the LGBT realm through �ֲ��ý PRIDE.

In that context, the current listening tour seeks to improve the relationship between the college and its multicultural and international alumni. Measured through traditional metrics such as giving or volunteering, their engagement with �ֲ��ý is low, says O’Carroll, and that’s why �ֲ��ý “needs to hear from this cohort.”

“The tour is an opportunity to ‘have a real conversation about �ֲ��ý.’”

Today on the �ֲ��ý campus, student diversity is at an all-time high, and new programs seek to make the campus as welcoming as its heritage says it should be. The listening tour, then, is an opportunity for multicultural alumni to “have a real conversation about what’s going on at �ֲ��ý,” said student participant Ben Hughes ’12, a native of Atlanta.

After Atlanta, the listening tour visited New York City in April and in August stopped in Washington, D.C., for a session in the Patrons Lounge at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

Kevin Rodriguez ’95 attended the New York City session, held at the Salmagundi Club. It only makes sense, he says, to “seek input from multicultural and international alumni — we are a great resource. And it offers alumni a unique way to give back to the college and future students.”

As Rodriguez implies, alumni engagement is a two-way street. “This cohort should be able to reap all the benefits and privileges that come with a �ֲ��ý education,” O’Carroll says, “and should also share the responsibility of giving back to �ֲ��ý.”

The listening tour is creating a definition of “�ֲ��ý alum” with more hues.

Atlanta attendee Dixon, who is white and a native of Louisiana, recalls that �ֲ��ý was “seductive” to her as a student because it offered an environment “where it would be OK to be a smart woman.” At the same time, her Southern drawl made her ripe for stereotyping. “I took extreme issue with the notion that the South was the only region guilty of racial inequity,” she says.

During the listening tour, attendees have talked about the “benefits and privileges” idea that O’Carroll mentioned.

“Minority” students and alums, broadly defined here in terms of racial, socioeconomic, or geographic identities, also suggest that they’ve not equally benefited from the �ֲ��ý name as alums who fit neatly into the Northeast culture. Dixon, for example, recalls returning home to Louisiana and realizing that Tulane fraternities offered their alums more networking oomph than the �ֲ��ý name.

Rahel Wondwossen ’05 attended the New York City session. After teaching in New York City with Teach for America, she is the new high school principal at New Orleans College Prep charter school.

This fall, one of her former students, a Latina from the Bronx, is at �ֲ��ý. “It’s a huge victory for her — and a challenge,” Wondwossen says. “Clearly, she will receive an excellent education at �ֲ��ý, along with the support she needs.”

But Wondwossen, who is African American, knows that her student will have to learn quickly how to navigate a new, predominantly white culture at �ֲ��ý. “I had attended a predominately white school, so I had more code-switching skills” — that is, the ability to shift between linguistic styles — “that allowed me to transition in and out of various cultural groups,” Wondwossen says. “She has never experienced such an environment, and I was worried about her feeling isolated.”

From the listening tour, she learned about various �ֲ��ý initiatives around diversity and inclusion. “I left feeling like��the college is moving in the right direction.”

O’Carroll says the process of re-engagement must be sensitive. “�ֲ��ý has not been too present in their lives, so this is no time to show up out of the blue and ask for anything.”

Now, the challenge is to maintain deliberate forward motion. “After listening comes responding, then listening again,” she says. “It’s a cycle of discourse and responsive action. We will let affinities form or re-form, and, yes, accept gifts of time and support for �ֲ��ý as they naturally come forward.”

Listening tour video

About the Cover: February 2011

�ֲ��ý Magazine — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:51:23 +0000

Saying goodbye to Peter Gomes ’65.

At Convocation in 2005, the Rev. Peter Gomes ’65, who died in February 2011, adopts the firm expression familiar to his many friends and admirers.

That day, Gomes told the incoming class that “the day will come when you’ll discover the necessity of relying upon your inner resources of heart, mind and spirit. And if those have been wisely and zealously cultivated at �ֲ��ý, you will not only endure, you will indeed overcome.”

Editors Note: Fall 2011

Jay Burns — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:44:23 +0000

Spare Change

After calling Pettigrew Hall home for much of his faculty career, Sanford Freedman and his English faculty colleagues are now in Hathorn Hall.

“Fifty-six boxes,” Freedman says, explaining how much stuff he, with help from his children and a moving company, lugged the 350 feet from Pettigrew to Hathorn.

The reopening of renovated Hedge and Roger Williams halls (see page 12) started the domino effect of academic and administrative moves this summer:

From Bardwell Street, the environmental studies faculty are now in Hedge, along with philosophy and religious studies, who moved from Campus Avenue.

From Hathorn and Lane, respectively, the foreign language programs and the Off-Campus Study office have joined forces in Roger Williams.

From Campus Avenue’s Alumni House, being demolished due to structural problems, the Office of Alumni and Parent Engagement is in Hathorn.

From Schaeffer Theatre and Coram Library, the dance faculty have stepped into Pettigrew, joining the �ֲ��ý Dance Festival, which moved from Frye Street.

I’ve always thought that �ֲ��ý is pretty good at not allowing stuff, whether buildings or history, to halt the occasional regathering of faculty in different places as academic needs change.

As this issue shows, the concept of regathering resources isn’t limited to the academic realm. Starting on page 22, we explain how �ֲ��ý made great and sometimes painful changes to improve the college’s career-development program.

Elaine Tuttle Hansen, in her final interview as �ֲ��ý’ seventh president (page 16), says that “the very nature of a liberal arts college is that we are always embracing change.” New students and new faculty bring with them new approaches to teaching and learning.

Of course, each change takes something from our shared �ֲ��ý language. Many alums now hitting middle age will recall, or try to recall, that Roger Williams was the dorm that once hit High Times’ “Pot 100” list. The Bill was also known as the “Dome of the Hopers” -— just switch the first letters of “Dome” and “Hopers” to get the joke.

Yet today, because the building has been out of commission for a few years, younger students don’t even know what building “the Bill” refers to.

Still, there are threads that speak to both past and present. In Hedge more than a half-century ago, Bert Knight ’46 worked with chemistry professor Walter Lawrance. As the state-appointed “Rivermaster,” Lawrance tried to get paper companies along the Androscoggin River to limit their pollution.

This fall, the environmental studies faculty and seniors are working on a community project, again based in Hedge, that asks a bold question: What will it take, politically, economically, environmentally, and personally, to make the most of the Androscoggin River?

This fall, Sanford Freedman is teaching familiar courses like Shakespeare and 18th-century British literature. But the forces of change ensure that “every course is different every year,” he says. Each year, preparing a course is like “climbing a familiar mountain and taking a different route to the top.”

See you at the summit, Sanford.

H. Jay Burns, Editor

Obituaries: Fall 2011

�ֲ��ý Magazine — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:59:58 +0000

Edited by Christine Terp Madsen ’73

1926

Virginia Whittier Ames, June 6, 2001
At a time when women were forced to choose between marriage and a career, Ginny Ames chose career all three times she could have married. A history major, she taught at Aroostook Normal School (now UMaine–Presque Isle) for 17 years before completing a master’s and doctorate in education at NYU and joining the faculty at Douglass College (now part of Rutgers). She started as an assistant professor of hygiene and physical education, and became the head of the department before retirement 21 years later. She had shown her athletic ability while at the College: She lettered in soccer and tennis, earned her “B,” served on the athletic board, captained the hockey team and the hiking group, and managed the basketball team. She chose �ֲ��ý over the Institute of Musical Art (now Juilliard), the better to prepare for a career. She continued playing violin and viola (and golf) well into her 80s.

1929

Libby Rachel Goldman, Jan. 5, 2011
Born in Lithuania, Libby Goldman moved to Auburn when she was 3 because a relative had written her family that they could buy a house for cheap. The relative had actually written that one could buy a horse for cheap, but the move worked out well. She was encouraged by a junior high school principal to go on to college; her parents had set aside money for all three children to get started in life, but her brothers gave up their shares to make �ֲ��ý possible for her. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in French, and taught Latin, French, and algebra for one year at Jay High School. She hated it. She enrolled in business school, but the same high school principal stepped in again. She promised that if Libby taught at her school, she would like it. And indeed she did; she taught at that junior high school and then at Edward Little High School for the next 40 years. After retiring in 1971, she traveled extensively. At her 100th birthday celebration, she credited her longevity to a string of “nevers.” She never smoked, never drank, never learned to drive (all the walking kept her fit), never got married, never gave advice. “I just love people,” she told the Sun Journal. “I think that’s what kept me living. I love so many I don’t want to leave them.” She also prayed daily to “have the good sense to enjoy whatever is enjoyable” and to be given “the courage to take all the hard things.” She is survived by nieces, nephews, and cousins, among them Fran Morrill Schlitt, to whom she was especially close.

Lithuanian-born Libby Goldman ’29 and her family moved to Auburn after a relative wrote that they could buy a house for cheap. The relative actually wrote horse for cheap, but the move worked out well.

1930

Norma Merrill Harvey, March 15, 2007
Norma Merrill Harvey received a nursing degree from Central Maine General in 1933 and taught nursing at hospitals in Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland. She retired in 1965. Her husband, Marshall Harvey, predeceased her.

1931

Lorna McKenney Brown, April 28, 2002
A French major, Lorna McKenney Brown was active in Lambda Alpha at �ֲ��ý, serving as its secretary, vice president, and finally president. She married Theodore M. Brown ’32 shortly after graduation; he died in 1973. Her daughter, also deceased, was Margaret Brown Bondaruk ’54, whose husband, John Bondaruk ’54, survives. Her late sister was Charlotte McKenney Parker ’35.

1932

Vesta Brown Mitchell, Oct. 3, 2010
An English and Latin major, she sought employment in Texas and New Jersey after graduation, but returned home to Maine with perfect timing: She ran into her childhood friend and �ֲ��ý classmate Elmer Mitchell while renewing her teacher’s license at Portland City Hall. They married two years later; he passed away in 1998. She taught briefly before her marriage, and worked in banking after her two daughters, Lynne Ramsey and Diane Welch, were grown. They survive her, as do four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

1933

Dawn Elizabeth Orcutt, Nov. 25, 2010
Her college career cut short by the Depression, Dawn Orcutt remained close to �ֲ��ý and her classmates. She taught school briefly in her hometown, Ashland, before working as a stenographer at Sears and at Old Town Canoe. During World War II, she was a stenographer and clerk for the war department. She moved to New York City in 1954, where she was the executive secretary of Housing Security Inc. She retired to Millinocket in 1975, where she worked for the Millinocket Times. She regaled cousins, nieces, and nephews with her “joke of the week” from her home there. She is survived by many of them, including Ryan Spring ’98.

1935

Grant Milton Dixey, Jan. 29, 2011
Grant Dixey was a urologist in the Boston area and became chief of the department of urology at Boston Univ., from which he earned his medical degree. He served as president of the New England section of the American Urology Assn. and as president of the medical staff at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, Mass. He and his wife, Eleanor, owned a ski lodge in New Hampshire. Shortly before his 50th Reunion, he was making plans to resume skiing following knee surgery. “If there were an opportunity for a second time around the track,” he said, “I would be most happy to grasp it.” An avid fisherman and golfer, he was a member of three golf clubs. His wife predeceased him. Survivors include daughter Pamela Abbott; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Louise Williams Sweetser, June 8, 2010
Louise Williams Sweetser credited �ֲ��ý with finding her a husband: “If I hadn’t gone to �ֲ��ý, I wouldn’t have gone to Presque Isle to teach, where I met my husband.” An English major, she remained involved with literature throughout her life. She was a trustee of the Ipswich (Mass.) library for over 25 years, and was active in the library at her summer home in Dennisport, Mass. She also co-owned a bookstore in Ipswich for a number of years. She was active in DAR and in Eastern Star, where she was a 50-year member. Her husband, Lawrence W. Sweetser, predeceased her. Survivors include daughters Carol Gilbert and Meredith Sweetser and brother Robert W. Williams III.

1936

Valeria Kimball Glaser, Dec. 20, 2010
Volleyball, archery, hockey, soccer, basketball, baseball — the list of sports that Val Kimball Glaser played while at �ֲ��ý goes on and on. She served on the WAA Board and was its treasurer. She also served on numerous dance committees. In 1959, she earned a master’s in education from USC, supplementing her degree in Latin from the College. She taught Latin, English, and reading at high schools in Maine and California, retiring in 1969 when she married Leo Glaser. Together they traveled the U.S., enjoying time at their homes in Florida, California, and Maine. Survivors include nieces and nephews.

1937

Clara Marshall Whitney, April 22, 2010
Tommy Marshall Whitney lived in Nashua, N.H., for many years, where she taught at the Pilgrim Church and served as director of volunteers at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center. Survivors include daughter Judy Marzec and son Stephen Whitney; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Margaret Melcher Chamberlain, Sept. 13, 2010
Peg Melcher Chamberlain was deeply involved in Adelynrood, an Episcopal retreat and conference center for women in Byfield, Mass. She was chair of the chapel there for eight years. This work followed a career as a kindergarten teacher in Rhode Island; she also briefly taught English at South Portland High School. She married classmate George W. Chamberlain in 1942. Following retirement, they moved to Harpswell, where they raised sheep. George passed away in 1987. While a student, she was vice president of her class and of the WAA. As an alumna, she served as secretary of the Rhode Island �ֲ��ý Club and as a class agent. Survivors include daughters Maralyn Fowler and Margaret Chamberlain; two grandchildren; a great-grandchild; sister Rosamond Melcher Toomey ’33; brother-in-law William Chamberlain ’48; and nephew Garry Chamberlain ’67. Her late brother-in-law was Charles Toomey ’35.

Granville Wallace Oakes, Nov. 17, 2010
For over 100 years, �ֲ��ý has watched members of the Oakes family walk its campus. Granville Oakes was a member of the middle generation of five. His grandfather Henry graduated in 1877, his father Raymond in 1909. His sons graduated in the 1960s, and his grandchildren in the 1990s. He served as class president and as class agent for many years. His degree from �ֲ��ý was in economics, which he supplemented with an M.B.A. from Harvard in 1939. The majority of his career was with Hartford Steel Ball, where he was a production manager. Later, he and wife Betty Stockwell Oakes ’37 opened a children’s clothing store, The Acorn Shop. Betty, herself part of a strong �ֲ��ý family, passed away in 2000. He was active in several churches in the Hartford area, as well as the local soup kitchen and literacy program. He especially helped Laotian families resettle in Connecticut in the 1970s. Survivors include children Betsy Oakes, Peter Oakes ’66 and wife Sara Jones Oakes ’66, Raymond Oakes ’68 and wife Lynda Anastos ’67, and Robert Oakes; 11 grandchildren, including Kate Feiring ’93, Stacia Johnson ’91 and husband Kurt Johnson ’94, and Alison Oakes Charbonnier ’92; and 18 great-grandchildren. His late brothers were Robert ’49 and Henry ’32. Robert’s wife is Avon Cheel Oakes ’50, and their daughter is Thalie Kleijwegt ’79.

1938

Mary Chase Conover, Nov. 9, 2010
Mary Chase Conover’s love of chamber music was a constant. She retired as a math teacher in 1974 and then enjoyed a second career teaching and playing flute in a number of ensembles, some with her husband, Towne Conover. They especially enjoyed the Appalachian Mountain Club music committee, which organized events combining chamber music with skiing, hiking, and other AMC events. Shortly after World War II, she led an American Youth Hostel trip to Holland, Luxembourg, and France to rebuild hostels damaged by the war. When she returned, she worked briefly for AMC, where she met her husband. In 1990, she received the first exemplary citizen award from the Friends of Music of the Acton-Boxborough Regional High School.

Alfred Lee Colesworthy, Jan. 15, 2011
Al Colesworthy thought nothing of skipping class for days at a time in 1936 to watch the flooding Androscoggin and its impact on the surrounding towns. His fascination with water — and anything you could use to travel on it — influenced his entire life. He vividly remembered watching as a 10-year-old the last six-masted schooner burn in Portland Harbor. Even when the weather prevented sailing, he indulged his passion by going “boatyarding,” to watch what was being built, repaired, or stored. During World War II he enlisted in the Navy and spent part of his time as captain of the Trim Fore, a boat he had studied before he enlisted. He took his future wife Dorothy sailing on their first date, and he taught his grandchildren how to handle a boat on the lobster boat he bought when he was 76. An economics major, he was a manager at Porteous and later earned his real estate license. Survivors include son Peter and five grandchildren.

Grace Jack Hight, Nov. 28, 2010
Grace Jack Hight once described her life this way: “All winter getting three off to Sugarloaf each weekend for skiing. Summer evenings watching Little League games, and weekends hanging over rails at horse shows. Fall and spring being sure all fishing and hunting equipment is available and ready.” She took up full-time motherhood after teaching high school in Norway and Skowhegan, where she met her husband. She served on the Skowhegan school board for nearly 15 years, and had a significant role in building its high school in 1971. Her husband, S. Kirby Hight, owned and operated two car dealerships, and she ran the auto parts business associated with them for 40 years. Over the years, they amassed a collection of vintage and classic cars. Her husband survives her as do children Jane Edmunds, Louis Hight, and Walter Hight; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Her late sisters were Bertha Jack Marshall ’27 and Lucille Jack Swallow ’33. Another son died in infancy.

Donald Dutton Pillsbury, Jan. 4, 2011
Don Pillsbury managed the crime and glass division of the Insurance Services Office (formerly the National Bureau of Casualty Underwriters) for 40 years. He was active in his church in New York City as a teacher and superintendent of the Sunday school and as an elder. He also was chapter leader of the John Birch Society. He served on the board of the Greater New York Sunday School Assn. In the 1960s, he was vice president and then president of the New York �ֲ��ý Club. During World War II, he was a sergeant in the Army Air Force. His wife, Madeline Brown, predeceased him. Survivors include three sisters and nephew Andee LaFleur ’73.

1939

Dorothy Harms Alexander, Dec. 12, 2010
Her father was Professor of German and Spanish Samuel Harms and her mother was Aletha Rollins Harms, Class of 1913, and Dot Harms Alexander always enjoyed reading letters from students who received scholarships in her parents’ names. A psychology major, she worked as a psychiatric aide before marrying Charles Alexander ’38. After her three children were grown, she worked to index over 20 years of the Lexington (Mass.) Minuteman and then was a copy editor. In the late 1970s, following the death of her husband, she became a home health aide to senior citizens on Cape Cod. Survivors include children Cheryl Paplinski, Richard Alexander, and Janice Schott; seven grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and brother Donald Harms ’44.

Chester Randolph Parker, Jan. 21, 2011
Classmates Chet Parker, his wife Eleanor Smart Parker, and the late Dana Wallace called themselves “the Hardy Perennials” because they tried to — and usually succeeded — in attending any and all �ֲ��ý functions. Though Dana passed away in 2007, Chet and “Smarty” were present at, and helped to organize, their 70th Class Reunion in 2009. Chet served as class president for decades, as well as on gift committees and Reunion committees. His degree from the College was in history and government, and he received a master’s in education from Boston Univ. in 1959. By that time, his long career in education was thriving. He served as teacher, principal, and superintendent in over a dozen towns in Maine, and was a past president of the Maine Parent Teacher’s Assn. and Maine Prevention of Blindness program. A proponent of school consolidation, he was a leader in establishing three school administrative districts in Maine. A longtime North Bridgton resident, he volunteered on the Bridgton Appeals Board and the Harrison-North Bridgton Water District. He played tennis into his 80s and skied and sailed nearly as long. Besides his wife, survivors include children Eleanor Schiavi ’64 and Randolph Parker; two grandchildren, one of whom is Deborah Schiavi Cote ’89; five great-grandchildren; and sister Marion Gibbs.

1940

Sylvester Martin Bronson, June 15, 2010
Martin Bronson attended �ֲ��ý for only one year, when he was known as Saul Bronstein, before his father’s illness forced him to return home. A radiologist in Tennessee for many years, he grew trees and plants in retirement. He also worked with victims of child abuse and counseled drug and alcohol addicts.

Leo Philippe Dube, Jan. 16, 2011
Leo Dube had to leave �ֲ��ý early to help run the family’s Lewiston-based flower business. He was named Young Man of the Year in 1954 in Lewiston. The next year, he and his family moved to California, where he began a career in real estate. Survivors include three children and 12 grandchildren.

1941

Richard Lawrence Raymond, Oct. 9, 2010
A Massachusetts native transplanted to Michigan, he was known there for his “Boston humor.” A 1947 graduate of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, he spent his career in food services. During World War II, he served in England in the Army’s finance division. An avid golfer, he was a member of two golf clubs, and also fished and bowled. Survivors include wife Kathryn Johnson Raymond; children Patricia Christopherson and Larry Raymond; five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

1942

Chandler DeNike Baldwin, Sept. 19, 2010
Chan Baldwin grew up about 15 miles from Yankee Stadium and liked to recall watching Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig play there. His interest in baseball was lifelong, and in retirement he enjoyed watching spring training games in Tucson, Ariz. His �ֲ��ý degree was in economics, and he later attended the Wharton School. During World War II he served in the Army in the Philippines and in occupied Japan. His professional life was in group insurance, and he worked for Metropolitan Life, Travelers, and Phoenix Mutual, eventually becoming regional group sales supervisor for the Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington areas. His wife, Patricia Bradbury Baldwin ’42, died in 2009. Survivors include children John Baldwin ’67, Mary Ellen Urquhart ’77, and Tracey Newhall; 12 grandchildren; and 15 great-grandchildren. Another daughter, Joan Slingsby, died in 2005.

Mary Bartlett Gardner, Sept. 6, 2010
Mary Bartlett Gardner moved to Lewiston when she was 9 and her father joined the �ֲ��ý faculty to teach business economics. An economics major herself, she worked in the field for four years before “retiring” to raise her family with husband Kenneth Gardner. She later earned her teaching credentials at the Univ. of Maine and enjoyed teaching more than she ever expected, she once wrote. She taught elementary school for 20 years in Windham, retiring in 1981. Her husband passed away in 1999. Survivors include children Gary, Joann, and Carol Gardner; two grandchildren; brother Stephen Bartlett ’44; sister Barbara Hammond ’47 and brother-in-law Burton Hammond ’49; and nephew James Hammond ’81.

Robert Nathan Langerman, Nov. 4, 2010
After back surgery when he was 90, Bob Langerman was impatient to get back on the golf course — his home in Naples, Fla., overlooked a 32-hole course. He and wife Goldythe Berman Langerman had retired there after his successful career in life insurance. One of the highlights of that career was being named Man of the Year by the northeast office of Prudential in 1975. He graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in economics, and delayed his career to serve in the Army during World War II. He took a crash course in Chinese and served as a liaison officer in Kunming for a year. He joined the family clothing business as its CEO before joining Prudential. He and son Fred later became partners in the business. As an alumnus, he was a member of many Reunion gift committees, a class agent, and president of the New Haven �ֲ��ý Club. His wife and son Fred survive him, as do sons Lawrence and Peter and nine grandchildren, including Elliot Langerman ’03.

Hartley Cabot Ray, Aug. 21, 2010
Lee Ray left �ֲ��ý with a degree in religion, Phi Beta Kappa, and went on to the Univ. of Chicago for a bachelor’s in divinity. He cited the mentorship of professor Rayborn Zerby, whose creative concept of religion and progressive ministry shaped his own. In 1955, he preached at a nascent Unitarian congregation in Chicago on the importance of recognizing prayer that does not match the theological norm, and called this contemporary sort of prayer the sure cure for loneliness. He grew up in Auburn and was ordained at the High Street Congregational Church in June 1947. He served as a minister at Congregational and Unitarian churches in Texas, Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Certified as a family therapist and a pastoral counselor, he provided pastoral services to psychiatric patients at the Philadelphia State Hospital. After retiring from the ministry, he served as director of the Philadelphia Protestant Home for the Aging. He also studied at Andover Newton Theological School and Columbia. Survivors include wife Katherine Haiges Ray; daughters Bethel Hentz and Nadine Blackburn; and five grandchildren.

1942

Ruth Stevens Gardner Haley, Jan. 5, 2011
With a degree in sociology, Ruth Stevens was a social worker at the Letchworth Village in New York and the Roxbury Neighborhood House in Massachusetts before marrying Robert Gardner in 1945. After her two daughters were grown, she became certified as librarian at Salem State College, and was a school librarian in Rowley, Mass., until retiring in 1984. Two years later, she married Robert Haley; he died in 1998. She then moved to Belfast, Maine, to be closer to her daughters, and especially enjoyed the large variety of senior courses available in town. As an alumna, she was a class agent and co-chair of Reunion gift committees. Survivors include daughters Louise Gardner Foster ’70 and Judith G. Moore.

Erland Stanley Wentzell, Aug. 7, 2010
If visiting the Bethel (Maine) Historical Society, keep an eye out for Erl Wentzell’s masterpiece: a carving of a horse-drawn sled loaded with 11 cords of wood. It is only one of the artistic accomplishments of his retirement, and no doubt was created from his memories of working with his father on the farm in Bethel. His �ֲ��ý chemistry degree afforded him a long career in the field, including six years in Calcutta, where he managed a jute company. He also was a chemist for American Cyanamid and Ludlow Textile Co. In 1958, he joined S.D. Warren, eventually becoming an assistant superintendent. He retired in 1981. His first wife, Marilyn Howe Wentzell, died in 1960. He married Margaret Robinson Steeves in 1964. They were leaders in the Sebago Maple Grove Grange for over 30 years and helped to start the AFS programs at Lake Region High School. He served on the Falmouth School Board and the Lake Regional School District. His wife survives him, as do children C. Stanley Wentzell, Judith Wentzell, Rowena Strout, and Shirley Keene; stepchildren Bonnie Dwyer and Gerald Steeves; 17 grandchildren; and 15 great-grandchildren.

1943

Weston Attwood Cate Jr., Sept. 23, 2010
Weston Cate was a forward-looking historian: Long before it was fashionable, he was collecting seeds from historical strains of vegetables, “heirloom seeds,” recognizing that the extensive hybridization under way by seed companies would make them endangered species, as he called them. But his career as an historian was his second. His first career was foreshadowed by the neighborhood newspaper he wrote, printed, and distributed as a teenager. An English major, he wrote for local newspapers and teachers’ organizations throughout his first career as an English teacher. In 1953, he won a national contest sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary on the topic “Why I Teach.” In 1958 he became executive director of the Vermont state education association, then in 1974 began service as executive director of the Vermont State Historical Society. He produced a book on the history of the society and one on the history of Calais, Vt. In 2006, he received the lifetime achievement award from the Center for Research on Vermont. He served as an officer of many educational, historical, and religious bodies. His wife, Jean Stetson Cate, died in 2004. Survivors include children Weston, Paul, and David Cate, and three grandchildren, one of whom is Alison Cate Fanning ’09. His sister-in-law was the late Dorothy Stetson Conlon ’50.

Before it was fashionable,��Weston Cate��’43 collected heirloom seeds, recognizing that hybridization by seed companies would make them endangered species.

Gordon Leroy Corbett, Oct. 23, 2010
Gordon Corbett dutifully filled out questionnaires from the College over the years and at least once added some questions and answers of his own, such as, “When the going got tough, what helped you survive?” His multiple-choice answers were (a) humor; (b) family and friends; (c) religious faith; (d) professional counselors; (e) sheer determination that you would not let the bastards get you down. (The correct answer, we think, is “all of the above.”) He was a 1948 graduate of the Yale Divinity School, having served in the Army Air Corps. He served Baptist and Presbyterian churches in Alaska, California, Connecticut, Kentucky, Indiana, and New York, and held executive offices in the Presbyterian church in Kentucky and Alaska. He considered his work with refugees from the Hungarian Revolution one of the highlights of his career, along with his role in creating the Appalachian Regional Hospital System. He was a trustee of the hospitals as well as of Sheldon Jackson College. His wife, Winifred Pickett Corbett, survives him, as do children Christine, Douglas, Patricia, and Carolyn Corbett, and two grandchildren.

Arthur Leighton Watts, Sept. 30, 2010
Art Watts took advantage of all �ֲ��ý offered — he played tennis and basketball, served on the student council and as a proctor, sang in the glee club, took a flying course, presided over the publishing association and the Outing Club — before graduating with a degree in economics. That course in flying was especially valuable: He became an aviator during World War II. Afterwards, he began a career in insurance, using an introduction from classmate Tommy Thompson to open doors at Aetna. Some 36 years later, he retired as vice president of the central region. He was class president for 20 years, and served on his 50th Reunion Gift Committee. His first marriage to Eleanor Darling ’44 ended in divorce. His second wife, Lois Jackson Watts, survives him as do sons George and Richard, and four grandchildren.

Bradford Russell Adams, Nov. 2, 2010
Brad Adams attended �ֲ��ý for one year before leaving to serve in the Navy during World War II. He worked for Nissen Bakery and for George Business Forms. Survivors include wife Marguerite Armstrong Adams; daughter Charlotte Asen; stepsons Maxwell Lewis and Donald Lewis; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

1944

Philip Milford Goodrich, Jan. 5, 2011
Phil Goodrich spent the day of his graduation from �ֲ��ý aboard ship near Naples, Italy, as an ensign in the Navy. He served 18 months on an amphibian attack ship, and landed at Okinawa, among other battles. His economics degree, supplemented with a master’s from Columbia, gave him entry into the business world, and David Whitehouse ’36 hired him at Container Corp. of America, where he remained for his entire 36-year career. He was president of his class for five years in the early 1960s. Survivors include wife Carolyn Knapp Goodrich; sons Donald, David, and Craig; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

1945

Priscilla Crane Merrill, Sept. 20, 2010
Pat Crane Merrill worked on the Manhattan Project shortly after graduation and later as a research chemist developing diamond abrasives. She held international and U.S. patents on her work. After her children were grown, she returned to work as a teacher in Indiana. In between, she was president of several PTAs and served as secretary-treasurer of the Worcester �ֲ��ý Club and as president of the Ohio �ֲ��ý Club. She also volunteered with the American Red Cross, her church, and a local park. Her husband, Charles Merrill, passed away in 1995. Survivors include children Karen Barkman and Susan Peters.

Mary Guiney O’Leary, Oct. 22, 2010
Mary Guiney O’Leary set her mind on a career in social work, and took her �ֲ��ý degree in that field to Boston College, where she earned an M.S.W. in 1947 and met her husband, Thomas O’Leary, who also was working toward that degree. She worked briefly at the Boston Family Society, but left when she married, to avoid any perception of conflict of interest between their jobs. She reported she was busy enough with five children. She later worked as a substitute teacher in Andover, Mass. She was very active at the College, in the dance club, the Spofford Club, the Newman Club, among others, and she was class president her senior year. She was just as active as an alumna, serving as class agent and on Reunion gift committees. Her husband and a daughter, Beth Morrissey, predeceased her. Survivors include children Thomas O’Leary, Marilyn Earle, Mary Elizabeth O’Leary, and Dinae Barrett; nine grandchildren; and great-niece Jennifer Wilkins Morse ’10.

Jean-Elizabeth Rupp Bollinger, Nov. 18, 2010
Jean-Elizabeth Rupp Bollinger was at �ֲ��ý for only one year but remained in contact with the College and her classmates throughout her life, and vowed to send all eligible students its way. Some 45 years after the fact, she could still recall where she sat in Chapel, and who sat next to her. Her husband, Benjamin Bollinger, predeceased her. Survivors include children Elizabeth Andrews, Bruce Bollinger, and James Bollinger, and seven grandchildren.

V-12

William Milliken Moody, Oct. 4, 2010
Bill Moody started at Bowdoin, transferred to the �ֲ��ý V-12 program, and then went to the ROTC program at Brown, earning varsity letters at each school, a feat that earned him the nickname “3B Moody” by Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. He saw active duty in the Korean War, and returned to his native Portland to marry Jane McLane Smith in 1951. A few years later he bought Rufus Deering Lumber Co., and became very active in civic and business affairs. He co-founded Greater Portland Landmarks, and volunteered for many organizations. He was vice president and later president of the board of trustees at the Waynflete School. Survivors include his wife, three children, and four grandchildren.

Francis Edward Winslow Jr., Jan. 11, 2011
Frank Winslow came to �ֲ��ý as part of the V-12 program and graduated from Harvard. He earned a medical degree at Duke and completed training in pediatrics at the Univ. of Maryland. In 1961, he established his practice in Raleigh, N.C., where he served as chief of pediatrics at Rex Hospital and WakeMed. He was a founding board member at the Tammy Lynn Center for Developmental Disabilities. Survivors include children Cecelia Covington Winslow and Francis Winslow III, and two grandchildren.

1947

Wallace Adolph Johnson, Jan. 2, 2011
Wallace Johnson transferred to �ֲ��ý from Springfield College and graduated with a degree in history. He earned a master’s in education from the Univ. of Vermont and a doctorate from Calvin Coolidge College. During World War II, he served in England and France, and received a Purple Heart. He taught in Chester, Vt., was a guidance counselor in Auburn and Worcester, Mass., assistant principal in Grafton, Mass., and principal at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School. In 2005, he was named volunteer of the year by Elder Services of Cape Cod. Survivors include wife Marion Anderson Johnson; daughters Louise Johnson Bacon ’75 and Nancy L. Johnson; and two grandchildren.

Charlotte Grant Walker, Oct. 26, 2010
Charlotte Grant Walker settled in Poland Spring, where her husband, Ted Walker, and his family had lived for generations. Together they built a home on family land. She used her degree in mathematics to help run his mechanical contracting business. She was instrumental in building the Alvan B. Ricker Memorial Library in Poland Spring. She served as president of the ladies’ auxiliary of the Maine Assn. of Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Contractors and was a member of the National Assn. of Women in Construction. Survivors include her husband; sons Peter, Thomas, and David Walker; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

1948

Shirley Travis Blake, Dec. 6, 2010
Valedictorian of her high school class in Sanford, Shirley Travis Blake returned to teach in its schools after graduating from the College with a degree in political science. She was a member of Beta Sigma Phi, an international women’s friendship network, and of the Order of the Eastern Star. Her husband, Robert Blake, passed away in 1992. Survivors include children Frances Thibaudeau, Shirley Shelley, and Steven Blake; eight grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Arthur Carl Hansen, Sept. 5, 2010
Arthur Hansen happily returned to his native Maine after World War II to start his college years at �ֲ��ý. A bomber flight instructor, he was en route to the Pacific to pilot a B-29 when the war ended. With a degree in economics and a minor in history, he enrolled in a master’s program at Columbia but found himself distracted by ads seeking pilots for the Berlin Airlift, a chance to make history rather than study it. However, distraction also appeared in the form of a fellow student, Roberta Gerdy, whom he married in 1953. He returned to Maine with both master’s degree and new wife, and started a 41-year career as a history and government teacher at North Yarmouth Academy, from which he retired in 1990. The school has an annual award in his name. He remained in the Air Force Reserves until 1966 and retired as captain. He was known for his handmade and restored furniture, and enjoyed working with his wife in her antique business. She predeceased him. Survivors include children Evan, Carl, Diana, and Terry Hansen; five grandchildren; and brother Glen Hansen ’48 and wife Elizabeth May Hansen ’47.

John Joseph Margarones, Nov. 15, 2010
As a boy in Old Orchard Beach, John Margarones listened to his immigrant father, a barber with a fourth-grade education, converse in his native Greek with �ֲ��ý President Clifton Daggett Gray, a classicist, during haircuts. It was President Gray who admitted John as a student after service in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He went on to earn two bachelor’s degree (�ֲ��ý, B.A. in history and government, Gorham State, B.S.), two master’s degrees (Univ. of Conn and Boston Univ.), and a doctorate (Boston Univ.) Appointed to the faculty in 1966, he transformed the education department to integrate a hands-on approach. The goal, he said, was to give aspiring teachers skills that can’t be learned in a college classroom. He continued to help out in his father’s barber shop until 1971, and lived in OOB nearly his entire life. He published several books on the history of the town, and was inducted into its high school hall of fame. Before �ֲ��ý, he was on the faculties of the Univ. of Connecticut and Hartford Univ. He was the first president of the Maine Chapter of the Assn. of State Teachers and New England Colleges, and president of the Maine Teachers Assn. Survivors include wife Viola Fedorczyk Margarones; children Estelle ’88, Joseph, Margot, Katherine, and Melissa ’96; and nine grandchildren.

Charles Isaac Pendexter, Sept. 30, 2010
A geologist by training, Charles Pendexter was a gardener by choice. His undergraduate degree was in geology, and he received a Fulbright to study in London. He then earned a master’s and a doctorate at Washington Univ. His career was as a research geologist with Exxon. Following his retirement in 1981, he rented an apartment in Gorham and set about building a garden on a patch of land the landlord regarded as a dump. He spent up to six hours a day in the garden, and was especially fond of roses and lilies. His uncle was George Pendexter, Class of 1900. Survivors include a cousin, Jane Pendexter Delson ’72.

James Miller Towle, Jan. 23, 2011
An economics major, James Towle worked in sales, primarily with radio stations and automobile dealerships. He was a member of the East Longmeadow (Mass.) School Committee, a Little League coach, and a church volunteer. He enjoyed model railroads, Masters swimming, and golf. His wife, Arlene Mack Towle, died last year. Survivors include children Bradford, Phillip, Andrea, and Gregory; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Ellen Swift Marston, Jan. 13, 2011
Ellen Swift Marston was a founding member of the Topsham Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She and her family served a mission together at the temple in Washington, D.C. Survivors include husband Bruce Marston; children Susan, Marilyn, Serena, and Thomas; 10 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

1949

Irving Charles Davis, Oct. 7, 2010
Hank Davis served in the Air Force during World War II, and was recalled to active duty during the Vietnam War. His military career spanned 30 years, and he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. An economics major, he worked for Travelers Insurance and for the Maine Department of Economic Development. He was a longtime member of the Herman Masonic Lodge and American Legion Post No. 4. Survivors include children Dale Goodwin and Mark Davis; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Charles Edgar Fehlau, Dec. 5, 2010
Chuck Fehlau was able to leave high school after three years and take courses at �ֲ��ý before military service intervened. He was in the Navy during World War II, stationed in Argentina and Newfoundland. When he returned to the College, he threw himself into his studies and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude in physics. He had a long career with General Electric, eventually becoming the engineering manager in the heavy military electrical department. A licensed navigator, he was a member of the U.S. Power Squadron for many years, and a member of several yacht clubs near his home in Syracuse. He served in the Lutheran Campus Ministry at Syracuse Univ. for many years, and was an active member of his church. Survivors include his wife, Lois Javier Fehlau ’49; children Eric Fehlau, Patricia Nickles, Karl Fehlau, and Kenneth Fehlau; eight grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and sister Lois L. Kemp ’53. Another sister, Ruth E. Prince ’51, predeceased him.

Maurice Stillman Flagg, Aug. 16, 2010
Maury Flagg took his degree in English and turned it into a long career in public relations and fundraising, primarily for the Red Cross. He took a five-year leave from the Red Cross to serve as director of information services to President Johnson’s Committee on Mental Retardation. During that time, he also served briefly as director of communication and information for the Council for Exceptional Children. He was also very active in town and county affairs in Arlington, Va. Survivors include children Maurice (Buck) and Anthony Flagg, and two grandchildren. Another son, Richard, predeceased him.

Robert Duane Ramsdell, Jan. 9, 2010
A psychology major at the College, Bob Ramsdell switched fields and earned a doctorate in philosophy at Boston Univ. He went on to found the philosophy department at Framingham State College and was on its faculty for 30 years. He was a contributing member of the Philosophy of Education Society. Following retirement in 1990, he taught at the Harvard Institute of Learning and Retirement. His marriage to Nancy Haines ’54 ended in divorce. Survivors include partner Shirley Bean and stepchildren Eric, Marilyn, and Ethan Zimmer.

Winifred Sweet Register, Sept. 25, 2010
Despite living in California for most of her life, Winnie Sweet Register never lost her Maine accent. She and husband Frederick Register tried to move back to New England once, early in their marriage, but decided California was the place to be. She worked on and off over the years as she raised her family, including as a payroll clerk for the U.S. Navy, as an associate engineer at Lockheed, and as a substitute math teacher. She also taught piano and volunteered for community concerts. Her husband survives her, as do children Daniel, Damon, and Valerie Register, and five grandchildren. Her late sister was Arline Sweet Noss ’49.

1950

Robert Daniel Cook, Nov. 11, 2010
Robert Cook turned 17 just in time to join the Navy near the end of World War II. He returned home to attend �ֲ��ý, where he was a history and government major. He was active in the Newman Club and played intramural sports. In 1952, he joined Aetna Life Insurance Co, and retired 37 years later as a director of the company. Survivors include wife Joline Huard Cook; children Kathie Brielmann and Robert D. Cook Jr.; and two grandchildren.

Donald Edwin Davis, Sept. 24, 2010
Don Davis deferred college until after service in the Navy during World War II. A math major, he returned to campus shortly after graduation to marry Barbara “Scotty” Mason in the Chapel. In 1960, he completed a master’s of science degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His career was at Pratt and Whitney, where he was an engineer, retiring in 1987. He and his wife led the beautification committee in Bloomfield, Conn., planting some 28 gardens and seven highway medians. He was a ski instructor at Butternut and Blandford ski areas. Along with his wife, survivors include children Donna Davis Keenan ’75, Scott Davis, and Andrea Davis-Griffin; son-in-law Russell Keenan ’75; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Diane Wolgast Parker, Dec. 20, 2010
Diane Wolgast Parker and her husband, David, took full advantage of sabbaticals and vacation time to travel spontaneously and leisurely throughout Europe. Both were teachers in New York. Diane earned her teaching credentials through SUNY and taught in Great Neck, N.Y. She advocated for civil rights and universal healthcare. Fully involved in the life of her retirement community, she especially supported its scholarship fund for its employees. Her husband died in 2007, and son William in 2006. Survivors include daughter Pamela Parker and three grandchildren.

Frank Leslie Walker Jr., Oct. 24, 2010
A biology major at �ֲ��ý, Frank Walker made his career at Liberty Mutual as a claims adjuster and then manager of claims in Manchester, N.H. He used his knowledge of biology to grow roses at his home there. He taught himself to invest by reading, one of his favorite pastimes, and in turn became an experienced investor. His wife, Madeline Cutler Walker, died in 2007. Survivors include children Cheryl Walker and Brian Walker, and four grandchildren.

1952

Donald Hiller Graves, Sept. 28, 2010
Generations of �ֲ��ý students have worked in Commons, but Donald Graves probably had better memories than most: It’s where he met his future wife, Betty Lewis Graves ’55. After a master’s in education at Bridgewater State Univ. and a doctorate at SUNY–Buffalo, he found his calling as an advocate for children’s writing. At the Univ. of New Hampshire he taught early childhood education, established the Writing Process Laboratory, and soon became an internationally recognized expert on the subject of children’s writing. His best advice for elementary school teachers: Write. Just as art instructors create art, and music instructors create music, teachers who teach writing should write. He was the author of 26 books, the best known being Writing: Teachers & Children At Work, which revolutionized the way writing is taught in schools and is still in wide use. In 1982, he received the David H. Russell award for distinguished research in the teaching of English from the National Council of Teachers of English; today, the NCTE presents an award in his name. Eager cyclists, he and his wife prepared for their European trips in September by bicycling the Kancamagus Highway. She survives him, as do children Marion Chang, Alyce Graves, Caroline Hodsdon, William Graves, and Laura Graves; eight grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Donald Graves��’52 gave this advice to teachers of writing: Write. Just as art instructors create art, and music instructors create music, teachers who teach writing should write.

Dorothy Wood Gugelman, Oct. 23, 2010
Dotty Wood Gugelman was a kindergarten teacher in Phoenix for 24 years, having moved there with her first husband, Glendon Collins ’51. She brought computers into her classroom in 1982, and found simple computer programs her students could use. She married William Gugelman following the end of her first marriage. He had a condo in Hawaii, where they headed as soon as school was out. She retired in 1991, but continued to tutor at-risk kindergarten students in Prescott, Ariz., where they had moved. She also was a reading aide at a local elementary school and a volunteer at the Veteran’s Hospital. She joined the Daughters of the American Revolution in 2005. Her husband survives her, as do children Gary and Alan Collins, and two grandchildren. A daughter, Virginia, died in infancy.

John Stanley Patterson, Jan. 11, 2011
Stan Patterson said his experience in debate at �ֲ��ý served him well throughout his life — more than his degree in economics. Following service in the Army, he had a long career with Lockheed Missiles & Space Co., starting with personnel work and retiring 31 years later as director of marketing support. In the 1970s, he and his wife, Katie Lang Patterson ’55, and their children lived in Beirut, where he was regional director for the Middle East and Africa. He returned determined to do whatever he could to bring a peaceful end to the conflicts in the region. He became active in the World Affairs Council of Monterey Beach, and in 1989 received the Outstanding Leadership award from the National Assn. of Arab-Americans. He and Katie returned to Lebanon last year to serve as managing director of a public-private organization assisting in rebuilding Lebanon’s government infrastructure. He was on the executive board of the Arab-American Chamber of Commerce, and a past president of the LA chapter of the National Assn. of Arab Americans, as well as a member of the national board. His deep involvement in Middle East affairs complemented the delight he took in his Scottish heritage. He played in bagpipe bands and was instrumental in the formation of the Western U.S. Pipe Band Assn., which he served as president for many years. Along with his wife, survivors include children James ’75, John Jr., and Jeffrey Patterson; six grandchildren, one of whom is Micahela Cyr Patterson ’05; and two great-grandchildren.

1953

Joan Huston Tainter, Oct. 21, 2010
Joan Huston Tainter remained in Auburn, her hometown, and taught French and Latin at the Walton School and then English at Falmouth High School. The sojourn in Falmouth was brief: She returned to Auburn and Edward Little High School after one year to teach English there. Her husband, Burchard Tainter, predeceased her.

Rosemary Feck Caldwell, Jan. 15, 2011
“Bib” Feck Caldwell left �ֲ��ý after two years and finished her degree in English at Simmons. In 1971, she and husband John founded ETC Mailing Services, of which she was CEO at the time of her retirement. Her husband and her son, Mark Caldwell, predeceased her. Survivors include children John and James Caldwell, and four grandchildren.

1954

Robert Murdoch Miller, Jan. 19, 2011
Robert Miller left �ֲ��ý after one semester to join the Navy. He graduated from Stetson Univ. and earned a master’s from the Univ. of Florida. Survivors include partner Roderick C. Clark and siblings Arthur and John Miller and Mary Miller Kelly.

1955

Alfred Herbert Kafka, Oct. 27, 2010
Al Kafka was well into his second successful career when he found his third standing in front of him. A government major, he went on to law school at Boston Univ. and then entered the Army. He served in the Judge Advocate General’s office at the Presidio in San Francisco. He started his second career by forming a law firm with two of his brothers and was a practicing attorney for over 50 years. But when one of his legal clients offered to barter for legal services, he realized the untapped potential of business-to-business barter, and started Bartermax. The company offered a network of bartering, not limited to direct swaps of goods, and set up a system for companies to “bank” their bartering. He served as chair of the board of the National Assn. of Trade Exchange as well as its president, and was a recognized leader in this field. Survivors include wife Valerie Jackson Kafka; children Rebecca Manor, Benjamin Kafka, Elizabeth Escarzega, and Victoria Allen; and five grandchildren.

1957

James Milton Muth Jr., Sept. 11, 2010
Jim Muth brought basketball to the Arctic. It happened while he was serving in the Navy, though history is unclear if they played on ice or aboard ship. Following Navy service, he joined Connecticut General Life Insurance Co., and continued there until retirement in 1991. He and wife Margo Driesen Muth moved to Cape Cod, where they had summered for many years. She survives him, as do children Deborah Reilly, Robert Muth, and Timothy Muth; four grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Richard Albert Levine, Nov. 4, 2009
Dick Levine left �ֲ��ý after three years and finished his degree at Adelphi. He was a financial consultant on Wall Street. His son, Michael, is a member of the Class of 1980.

Edward Mace Pike, Sept. 1, 2010
After two years at the College, Edward Pike earned a B.S. degree from Boston Univ. in 1962 and an M.B.A. from Northeastern in 1972. After working for General Electric and United Shoe Machinery, he purchased two foundries near his home in Newburyport and made custom fittings for boats. Survivors include children William and Robert Pike and Mary Fisher; seven grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

1959

Martin Wayne Kane, Jan. 28, 2010
Wayne Kane was captain of both the football and the baseball teams his senior year and received football’s Goddard Award in 1956. He started with Mutual Life Insurance Co. right out of �ֲ��ý, and continued in the insurance field his entire career. In 1976, he started his own agency offering group insurance. In 1958, he married Beverly Jacobson ’61.

1960

Ruth Brockner Ellwood, Oct. 8, 2010
Ruth Brockner Ellwood attended �ֲ��ý for one year before transferring to Central Connecticut State Univ. She also held a master’s from Trinity College. An elementary school teacher, she was the master teacher in a nationally recognized pilot program for students who were poorly adjusted socially and emotionally. She taught special education for 35 years in Bloomfield and Vernon, Conn., and served several terms as president of both towns’ educational associations. Survivors include husband Donald Ellwood; son Michael Ellwood; and two grandchildren.

1962

Gilbert A. Clapperton, Dec. 29, 2010
He wasn’t “warm and fuzzy” with his students, said one colleague of Gil Clapperton. He was a “warm and compassionate man,” according to another. At Loyola Univ., his students knew they would get a solid education even without pampering. A clinical psychologist, he held a master’s from UNH and a doctorate from Baylor in that field. He was recruited by Loyola in 1968 to establish its department of psychology and serve as its chair. During his tenure, he established both the university’s master’s and doctoral programs in clinical psychology. In private practice, he specialized in psychological evaluations and stress management for police departments in the Baltimore area. A Lewiston native, he married his sixth-grade sweetheart, Helene Cloutier, in 1960. Despite living in the midst of crab country, she said, and considering himself a pretty good amateur crabber, he still preferred lobster. She survives him, as do sons Scott and John Clapperton. His late father was Gilbert Clapperton ’32.

Arthur Woodbury Ridlon, Nov. 27, 2010
When Art Ridlon spoke to the Daughters of the Confederacy in Dayton, Va. — the first Yankee to ever address the group — he received a standing ovation. His interest in the Civil War, among his many interests, was sparked by the movie Gettysburg. He had chucked Maine winters for those in West Palm Beach after a successful tenure at an insurance agency in Bath, and found small-town life there not unlike Maine — except, he said, “Ace Hardware doesn’t sell snow shovels.” Just before he moved to the South, he took up tennis, a sport he would enjoy for the rest of his life. He won the Bath city championship in 1980 and the Palm Beach County championship in 1982. Ten years later, after he and Cindy Ohlin Ridlon ’65 divorced, he and second wife Ann moved back to Boothbay Harbor, where he joined the firm of J. Edward Knight. His tennis again started to shine, and he won two gold medals at the Senior Olympic Games in 2001. He competed at the 2003 National Senior Olympic Games and made it through the first round. He also devoted time to instruct high school players. At his death, Art was class president and had served previously as class agent. His long involvement with children with disabilities will culminate when the first gymnasium at Ability Tree in Siloam Springs, Ark., is named for him. Besides his wife, survivors include sons Sam Ridlon and Joe Butler, and five grandchildren.

1964

Barbara Clapp Kawliche, Jan. 9, 2010
Barbara Clapp Kawliche recognized early on that the Internet could be used to make the world better. She created a comprehensive website devoted to youth development, Youthwork.com, at a time when few other sites were available. She made the site she wished she had been able to find. Her interest in youth sprang from her degree in psychology from �ֲ��ý and her M.S.W. from Boston Univ., and she worked professionally in the field before and after tending to her sons’ growing up. She also worked with AdCare, which provided recovery services for professionals in the field of substance abuse. Her belief in human rights and equality for all was enhanced by home stays in Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Lithuania. Her husband, Stanley Kawliche ’48, survives her, as do sons David and Gregory Kawliche; one grandchild; stepson Boris Kawliche; and two step-grandchildren.

Barbara Clapp Kawliche��’64 created a website devoted to youth development at a time when few other sites were available. She made the site she wished she had been able to find.

John Robert Strassburger, Sept. 22, 2010
John Strassburger came to �ֲ��ý intending to study mathematics, but history professor Ernest Muller set him on a new path. Some 20 years later, John returned the favor by becoming president of Muller’s alma mater, Ursinus College. He earned a master’s at Cambridge Univ. and Ph.D. at Princeton. He taught at Hiram College and worked for the NEA as acting director of its education programs, where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award. He served as dean of the college and executive vice president at Knox College for 10 years. In 1995, he was inaugurated as president of Ursinus, retiring in June 2010. There, he instituted a first-year course called “Common Intellectual Experience,” an interdisciplinary inquiry into the beliefs and truths that underpin life, just one of many changes — in academics, student quality, endowment, and facilities — that he brought to campus to strengthen its commitment to a liberal arts education. A tribute to him noted that “we hear often of transformational leadership. John embodied it.” His early experience at Cambridge, still wrapped in class distinction and social inequality, convinced him that education could be a great equalizer, and he sought to bring that democratic ideal to Ursinus. He regretted that being the college president meant he didn’t have time to teach, but he served as chair of the board of the Council of Independent Colleges, as well as on the boards of the American Academic Leadership Institute, American Council on Education, President’s Council of Project Pericles, and the Lenfest Foundation. Survivors include wife Trudy Mackie Strassburger; daughters Sarah and Trudy; and two grandchildren.

1965

Philip James Brookes, Sept. 16, 2007
Philip Brookes spent most of his career attached to the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He was the director of the graduate degree��programs there, having previously served as deputy director of the program and as director of the communicative arts program. While earning a doctorate at the Univ. of Kansas, he was an instructor. At CGSC, he was twice recognized by the Army for his outstanding performance. His marriage to Lois Paynes Lindner ended in divorce.

Peter John Gomes, Feb. 28, 2011
Despite all the accolades, despite 39 honorary degrees, despite being named one of Time’s seven most distinguished preachers in America in 1979, despite being a best-selling author, what defined Peter Gomes to Peter Gomes was that he was a �ֲ��ýie. “My ultimate epitaph,” he said to a Reunion gathering in 1998, “should be that I went to �ֲ��ý.” Except for his parents, he explained, he owed “everything valuable, precious, and honorable to �ֲ��ý.” A history major, he threw himself into life on campus, and was president of the Choral Society, Campus Association, and Chase Hall Dance Committee. He sang wherever he could, assisted in the music department, and reveled in what he called a “peculiar” college, one that admitted women and minorities decades ahead of others. As he did in other realms of his life, the friendships he made in his very first days at �ֲ��ý he cultivated and nourished forever. He once recalled walking into the Chapel “to cry in privacy” after his parents dropped him off at �ֲ��ý his freshman year. “There I saw a tall, spare, bald-headed man slowly picking up the litter in the pews. I took him to be a janitor. He noted my distress, and in a solemn but friendly voice said that I’d soon feel better about college.” That man turned out to be Dean Harry W. Rowe ’12, “with whom I would be friends for the rest of his life. At my most vulnerable moment, he was the human face of �ֲ��ý.” Although his family and friends back in Plymouth, Mass., assumed he would become a minister, he wasn’t certain until he spent the year after graduation at Harvard Divinity School, a challenge proposed to him by a �ֲ��ý professor. He received the S.T.B. degree there in 1968 and was ordained in his hometown. He taught history at the Tuskegee Institute for two years and served as choirmaster and organist. He returned to Harvard in 1970 as an assistant minister and two years later became its acting minister. In 1974, he was appointed Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Minister in the Memorial Church, the university’s leading religious officer. In 1991, as much to his surprise as anyone else’s, he announced that he was gay during a Harvard rally in Tercentenary Theater. This, he said a few months later, gave him an unambiguous vocation: to address the religious causes and roots of homophobia. “I will devote the rest of my life to addressing the ‘religious case’ against gays,” he told The Washington Post. Gomes authored many books, including the best-sellers The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart and Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living, as well as numerous articles and papers. He received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from �ֲ��ý in 1996, the college’s Benjamin E. Mays Award in 1998, and had been a �ֲ��ý trustee. Survivors include several cousins, as well as his numerous sermons and books.

1967

Douglas Michele Camarco, Dec. 9, 2010
In addition to his B.S. in math from the College, Doug Camarco held an M.B.A. from Rutgers. He was a CPA and worked for ITT for 19 years. He then moved to the Maine State Retirement System, and ended his career at Boston Univ. Survivors include companion Cheryl Kerrick; children Michele James and Jeffrey Camarco; and three grandchildren.

William Sanford Rafter Jr., Nov. 26, 2010
Successful as a businessman and mayor, Bill Rafter found a way to combine the two to turn around the financial status of Gloucester, Mass., and save its residents money in the process. His first career was in trash and recycling, which grew out of his grandfather’s landscaping business. He developed cutting-edge recycling systems that gained national renown. His business became so profitable it drew the attention of the rubbish giant BFI, which bought him out. He worked in the mortgage industry for a few years before running for city council in Gloucester, and then for mayor. He proclaimed that he would never be a skilled politician, but that the real issue in town was managerial. “I believe in government by consensus,” he said during his first mayoral campaign in 1991. He inherited $1 million in debt when he took office; a year later, he submitted a budget that showed an operating surplus of $200,000 and cut long-term debt in half. Survivors include wife Christina Foley Rafter; children Robert Foley, Caitlin Sumner, and W. Sanford Rafter III; and six grandchildren.

1968

James Edward Day, Jan. 28, 2011
Jim Day attended �ֲ��ý for part of his undergraduate education, and earned a degree in business from the Univ. of Maine. He was a registered Maine CPA and had his own firm in Biddeford. He served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, retiring as reserve captain. Survivors include a number of nieces and nephews.

1970

Judith Schultz Botwick, Oct. 3, 2010
Judith Botwick left �ֲ��ý after two years to marry William Botwick. She later completed her degree at Oakland Univ. She was a healthcare executive in Tucson. Survivors include her partner, Bob Rossi, and son Jason Botwick.

1971

David Walter Carlson, Sept. 26, 2010
David Carlson studied city planning at Pratt Institute after receiving a degree in psychology from �ֲ��ý. He then joined Planners Diversified in New Jersey, and later established the firm’s Cooperstown (N.Y.) branch. In 1991, he and his wife, Linda Pierce Carlson ’70, started their own firm as consultants in city planning in central New York. The firm obtained over $200 million for its client communities. Along with his wife, survivors include children Steven and Lauren.

1975

Kenneth Joseph Gallant, Jan. 16, 2011
Ken Gallant, a biology major, worked briefly as a research assistant at the Univ. of Chicago medical school and then taught for several years before starting osteopathic training at the Kansas School of Osteopathic Medicine. He once told the College that there is “an unlimited reward for being able to help people through medicine.” He worked in emergency medicine in Sanford and Lewiston before establishing his solo family practice in Arundel. As an alumnus, Ken sponsored several interns over the years. He also enjoyed a sideline as a Maine humorist. Survivors include children Aaron and Chloe and stepdaughter Alexandra. His great-uncle was George Nash, Class of 1901.

Donna Gregory Lubow, Sept. 7, 2010
Donna Gregory Lubow moved from job to job until she found her calling in teaching. She worked at the Board of Cooperative Educational Services and, in 1996, joined the staff of Lindenhurst (N.Y.) High School, where she soon became a favorite English teacher. “The news of her passing brought dismay to every person it reached,” wrote the school newspaper in an article recounting anecdotes and lessons learned from her. The school plans to start a scholarship fund in her name. In addition to her English degree from �ֲ��ý, she held a master’s from SUNY. Survivors include partner Lars Hjelmquist; son Akil Lubow; and mother Pearl Gregory.

Al Maxwell��’75 described himself this way: “I am an earthy crunchy techno-dweeb.”

Alfred Winthrop Maxwell III, June 26, 2010
Al Maxwell described himself this way: “I am an earthy crunchy techno-dweeb.” His earthy crunchy side is evident in his early career building energy-efficient “off the grid” structures, including his own shelter at West Carry Pond. The techno-dweeb came a bit later, when he joined Lotus Corp. and then IBM, from which he retired in 2008 as a senior software engineer. In between, he held several jobs with the state of Maine, most notably with the Energy Audit Program, designed to evaluate and curtail excessive energy consumption in schools and state buildings. He also became a financial planner during this time. In 1998, he married Janet Vermeulen, and they moved to a farmhouse set on 60 acres in Bridgton. There, he kept his Maule M4 airplane in a hangar he built himself. He took a number of trips to the Far East to feed his interest in Eastern philosophies. He felt a special connection to Nepal after trekking through its mountains. A physics major, he was a registered professional engineer in Maine. Survivors include his wife; mother Dianne Maxwell; and brother David.

1976

Russell John Erickson, Dec. 20, 2010
Russ Erickson worked for the Social Security Administration for 33 years and received several Commissioner’s Citations. He developed WAC, the agency’s national and international case management system. He also taught computer programming at St. Joseph’s and Andover colleges. A committed cyclist, he biked to work and took long trips through Florida and Maine. He rode in The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, a seven-day trip that bills itself as “the oldest, largest, and longest bicycle touring event in the world.” A history buff, he led walking tours through Portland as part of Portland’s History Docent Program. Survivors include wife Teeter Bibber; children Rilla and Dana Erickson; and three stepchildren.

1980

Patricia Marion James, July 30, 2010
“PJ” James joined the �ֲ��ý admission staff after graduating with a degree in psychology and spent two years as an assistant dean. Then, she told another staff member, she had to move on because of her fears she would “become a lifer.” She moved on to a career with Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she became the manager of curricula for USP Learning. (United States Pharmacopeia is a non-governmental official standards-setting authority for prescription and other medications sold in the U.S.) While a student, she was a Benjamin Mays Scholar and was nominated as a New York City Urban Fellow. She directed and coordinated educational and referral services at the Androscoggin County Jail while at �ֲ��ý, and was an intern at Riker’s Island. Even though she didn’t want to be a “lifer,” she remained close to the College, most notably as a member of the Alumni Council. She was also a class agent, an Alumni-in-Admissions volunteer, and a member of the College Key. Survivors include son Jared James; mother Cecilia James; sisters Melissa Webb and Courtney Steele; and dear friend Joanne Stillmun ’80.

1982

Mark Kevin Dickman, June, 18, 2010
Mark Dickman left �ֲ��ý after one year and worked in the electrical distribution industry, most recently with Electrical Wholesalers Inc., in Hartford. Survivors include fiancée Marianne Enes; mother Marjorie Dickman; and brother Jeffrey.

In Acton, Mass., environmental activist��Mary Sinnamon Michelman��’82 kept a close eye on the W.R. Grace pollution cleanup. “The irony of her contracting cancer,” said the chair of the Board of Selectmen, “is not lost on the community.”

Mary Sinnamon Michelman, Dec. 17, 2010
When Mary Sinnamon Michelman graduated with a degree in biology, she was named a Dana Scholar and received the Abigail Smith Award, given to the senior man and woman who have done the most to contribute to residence hall spirit. She went on to earn a master’s in biological oceanography from the Univ. of Rhode Island. She spent two years on a fishing trawler, then moved inland, to Acton, Mass., where she became known for her volunteer work on environmental issues. She organized Earth Days and stream cleanup days. She was president of Acton Citizens for Environmental Safety, and kept a close eye on the W.R. Grace pollution cleanup. “The irony of her contracting cancer,” said Lauren Rosenzweig Morton, chair of Acton’s Board of Selectmen, “is not lost on the community.” She had survived breast cancer and a double mastectomy only to have the cancer return. Survivors include husband Tom Michelman and daughters Julie and Valerie.

2002

William Adams Thomas III, Aug. 21, 2010
Adam Thomas had a peripatetic four years at �ֲ��ý: He studied in six countries on three continents. Beyond learning about different cultures and languages, he said more than anything else he learned understanding. He put that knowledge to work after graduation by earning a law degree from the Univ. of Pittsburgh School of Law and becoming a telecommunications attorney dedicated to the public interest. He focused on democratizing knowledge, and worked with Public Knowledge, an organization that defends consumer rights in the emerging digital world. The organization has started a fellowship in his name. He previously worked with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and was a fellow with Free Press. He fought off three bouts of a rare brain cancer, but its fourth recurrence proved too strong. Survivors include wife Katie Strumpf; father Bill Thomas; and brother Ian Thomas.

2006

Nathan Dowd Dorpalen, Oct. 7, 2010
Nate Dorpalen died while backpacking on the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway. He was a master’s candidate in environmental agroecology at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Pursuing this degree was a natural progression after earning a bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences from the College. He was interested in small-scale organic farming, and had worked at farms in Maine, Alaska, and North Carolina. While at �ֲ��ý, he apprenticed himself to the town of Palermo, where he learned forestry, carpentry, and orchard management. Immediately after college, he worked in Alaska, assisting with cleaning up gold mine sites and monitoring peregrine falcon nests. He hiked Denali and also hiked in Siberia. Survivors include parents Peter and Mary-Louise Dorpalen; twin sister Erica Dorpalen; and grandmother Rose-Marie Dorpalen. To celebrate his life, family and friends hiked up a mountain near his parents’ home in Connecticut.

Friend

Sally Donavan Goodrich, Dec. 18, 2010
Sally Goodrich and her husband, Donald, took inspiration from their son’s outlook on life when they were confronted with unspeakable despair on Sept. 11, 2001. Their son was Peter Goodrich ’89, who was aboard the second airplane that hit the World Trade Center. They said, and his friends would agree, that Peter had “insatiable curiosity about life in all its various forms.” Sally and Donald decided to find a way to spark that curiosity in Afghan students, taking funds donated or awarded after the attacks to build a 26-room school for girls in Afghanistan. “The idea that we could go to Afghanistan…where the planning for our son’s death took place and provide an alternative way of looking at the world was very appealing to us,” said Don. They sponsored over a dozen exchange students from Afghanistan to the U.S., housing many of them themselves, and helping them obtain scholarships to American colleges. Among them is Mohammed Mustafa Basij-Rasikh ’12. To date, the foundation they formed in their son’s name has raised over $1 million. Survivors include her husband; son Foster Goodrich; daughter Kim Trimarchi; five grandchildren; and Peter’s wife Rachel Carr Goodrich ’90.

Staff

Joseph Woodhead, Oct. 18, 2010
In his 25 years as an assistant coach of track and field, Joseph Woodhead created a legacy of unparalleled success. His specialties were the indoor weight throw and the outdoor hammer throw. During those years, 15 �ֲ��ý throwers won 43 All-America awards, including six NCAA championships. In February 2009, following renovations to Merrill Gymnasium and Slovenski Track, the throwing area was named in his honor. He won many coaching awards. Woodhead himself was a record-setting hammer thrower at Springfield College, as well as an All-New England football lineman. He also had a standout career at Lewiston High School. He coached at Lisbon High School for many years, winning four state championships. Among survivors are wife Mary Ellen Woodhead and sons Andy and Mike.

Emeriti

L. Ross Cummins, Sept. 21, 2010
L. Ross Cummins stepped into various roles during his 37 years at �ֲ��ý. He was a professor of education, chair of the department of education and psychology, and director of guidance and placement. Educated at Yale — bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate — in psychology, he served a term as president of the Maine Psychological Assn. During World War II, he became chief clinical psychologist at Battey General Hospital in Georgia, and left the Army in 1945 to establish the Veterans Administration Guidance Center in Savannah. A world traveler with a special fondness for London, he continued to participate in campus events after retirement. His wife Margaret died in 1983. Survivors include daughter Jane Cummins Fowler; two step-grandchildren; and four step-great-grandchildren.

Honorary

Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke, Dec. 13, 2010
The College honored Richard Holbrooke’s dedication to peace with an honorary degree in 1999. �ֲ��ý President Donald Harward used these words to describe him: “Diplomat, scholar, forger of the prism of resolution, you have extended to international conflict opportunities for accord. Your efforts at the unfinished work of peace have offered the promise, through diplomatic negotiation, of the sanctity of inviolable rights, as well as the responsibilities of justice.” He was the driving force that ended the war in Bosnia in 1995, and was a key player in the Obama administration’s efforts to convince President Karzai of Afghanistan to take responsibility for security in his country. President Obama called him “simply one of the giants of American foreign policy.”

Free, audacious and confounding Peter Gomes ’65

�ֲ��ý Magazine — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:49:00 +0000

Peter’s Freedom

By Carl Benton Straub

Several years ago, a young �ֲ��ý development officer and I arrived at Sparks House at Harvard for a visit with Peter Gomes.

Gomes and Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe greet one other after Commencement 1996, when both received �ֲ��ý honorary degrees. Photograph by Marc Glass ’88/�ֲ��ý College.

We were barely seated in his study when Peter looked at me and said, “If you’ve come to ask for money — don’t.”

I was startled — money was not at all on our minds. So I quickly said, “Peter, if the college were going to ask you for money, it wouldn’t send lightweights like us.”

Well, that made Peter pause. That lower lip went out, the chin went up, and he gave that eternal nod. “Good point,” he said.

��This essay and the selection of remarks that follow were adapted from addresses delivered at the at Reunion 2011.

Like Peter’s other friends, it took me a while to learn to intuit the deep rumblings just beneath the fleeting surfaces of Peter’s humor, quips, and targeted disdains. It took me a while to know his tenderness, and the kindnesses that flowed from it.

Many have spoken about Peter’s complex character. This is what I have seen: Peter said what he said, did what he did, and hoped what he hoped out of his audacious and confounding freedom as a Christian man.

The Rev. Peter Gomes ’65 is shown with members of his class during the Reunion parade in 2005. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College.

He called his life “a work in progress.” I will add that it was a work beyond the reach of pietism and beyond the range of moralism. Peter experienced the antinomies of life, the paradoxes and contradictions in living, and the ambivalences of being human. But he also experienced them being reconciled in him by a loving God. Out from this inner reconciliation, and because of it, he taught us.

A traditional moment of his teaching in Harvard Yard was his benediction at the traditional Senior Class Chapel on the morning of commencement. It always passed over the platitudes, always transcended the academy’s prejudices.

One year, he famously told the seniors that “you are going to be sent out of here for good, and most of you are not ready to go. The president is about to bid you into the fellowship of educated men and women, and you know just…how…dumb…you…really… are.”

After the seniors cheered their agreement, Peter continued on.

“You know that you can no longer fool all the people even some of the time. By noontime today you will be out of here. By tomorrow you will be history. By Saturday you will be toast. That’s a fact — no exceptions, no extensions.”

But there is always hope, Peter told the seniors.

“The future is God’s gift to you. God will not let you stumble or fall. God has not brought you this far, to this place, to abandon you or leave you here alone and afraid. The God of Israel never stumbles, never sleeps, never goes on sabbatical. Thus, my beloved and bewildered young friends, do not be afraid.
“God grant you life until your work is done, and work until your life is over.”

Carl Benton Straub, professor emeritus of religion and the Clark A. Griffith Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies, joined the �ֲ��ý faculty in 1965.��

To whom should we look?

I met Peter in 1970 at Harvard Divinity School. He and I were both thin, and if I must say so myself, one Afro was as good as the other. Not yet was Peter Gomes the national treasure, not yet an icon. But he was then, and always was, sincere, earnest, talented, unique, smart, interesting, kind, and funny. In a sermon, Peter once argued that plagiarism has its place in a discussion of moral worth. We all strive to be honest and unique, he said, but few of us are truly honest, fewer still are unique. So life becomes a kind of imitation — a sort of plagiarism. The question is, to whom should we look for a vision of a good life? Peter Gomes’ life was a beautiful sermon. It was a good life. And one certainly worth plagiarizing from time to time. — James Lawson P’13

Gomes preaches at the 2010 Alumni Memorial Service in the Chapel. In 2012, �ֲ��ý named the Chapel in his memory. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College.

Simple joys of our beautiful existence

Peter Gomes once said that if we are to be true to our �ֲ��ý identity and inheritance, “we will continue to be very peculiar people in a very ordinary world. I want us to stand out.” Peter’s journey taught me that standing out is a spiritual process. It is one that requires trial and error, deep reflection, and a certain sense of restlessness. His journey also taught me to savor the reunions we have in this life. These gatherings fulfill our common purpose: sharing the simple joys of our beautiful existence. — Marshall Hatch ’10

While on campus for Reunion 1998 to receive the college’s highest alumni honor, the Benjamin Mays Medal, Gomes creates a bit of theater by searching the ivy-covered walls of Carnegie Science for the Class of 1965 ivy stone. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College.

At the fee of masters

I would listen to Peter Gomes and Kate Stimpson lead the discussion during meetings of the trustee committee on honorary degrees. For a young trustee, it was like sitting at the feet of the masters. They were connected to every major thread in our country: economic, social, cultural, political. I saw how they offered their personal values to this important process, and I learned what it means to bring all the elements of your life together into service of this great institution. — Jamie Merisotis ’86

Knots holding?

We all knew Peter as a best-selling author and one of the world’s great preachers. But he was also a pastor who could, with a two-word question, drive to the heart of things. Long ago, he helped me with cogent advice as my first marriage was ending. In subsequent years, he would occasionally peer gently at me and, with a simple two-word question, ask about my second one. “Knots holding?” For those of us who loved him, our presence here today reflects knots that are still holding strong. — Bill Hiss ’66

Letters: Memories of Jim Carignan

�ֲ��ý Magazine — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:34:23 +0000

Opinions from Our Readers

Farm Semester

I thoroughly enjoyed the Winter 2011 issue and the story “Good Eggs.” My love affair with chickens began on a bulletin board at �ֲ��ý in the spring of 1945. Because of the war and the draft, �ֲ��ý students could graduate in two and a half years by attending summer sessions. I had been at �ֲ��ý for two summers, but that was enough. I wanted some other experience.

A small note on the bulletin board asked for volunteers for the Women’s Land Army. This meant working on a farm in Maine to help with the labor shortage. I landed on a family farm in Fairfield. For three months I took care of 1,500 chickens, helped in the fields, fed the bull, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

If I hadn’t been at �ֲ��ý it wouldn’t have happened. Were I at �ֲ��ý now, I would certainly be involved in social-justice issues. The students who are involved will be influenced for life, as I was by working on a farm.
Rohna Isaacson Shoul ’46
Newton, Mass.

Carignan’s Way

I wish to share a few lessons that I learned from a lifetime mentor and friend, Dean Emeritus of the College Jim Carignan ’61, who died Aug. 14, 2011.

I got to know Jim professionally in 1999, when he asked me to join a civic leadership institute in Lewiston-Auburn. During our work together, he talked about his own growth as a leader. In the trajectory of his story, which became a case study during my doctoral studies, I saw parallels to what leadership theorists have learned about good leadership: At its core, it is about people and relationships.

In his 33 years at �ֲ��ý, Jim moved from a top-down, command-and-control leadership style to a collaborative and relational approach. As Colin Powell has said, “Leadership is not about organizations…. It is all about people — motivating people to get the job done.”

Jim learned that leadership sometimes means serving as an intermediary and a facilitator of process — a servant leader.

For example, I’m sure some alums recall when seniors, years ago, turned Wood Street into an out-of-control block party during Senior Week. The rowdiness attracted a great number of Lewiston police, and they were on the verge of arresting students when Jim showed up.

He asked the police for 10 minutes so he could work with the students to get them to take control of the situation. In the end, he got the street cleared and the stereos turned down, and the police were able to drive away without making arrests.

This is what Jim said about that event: “If you’re in a crisis situation, you’ve got to change from confrontation to something short of that, where two or three parties are able to fulfill their expectations while respecting the other groups.”

Jim had a reputation for taking risks and for solving problems face to face and in the moment. He once called an open forum in the Chapel on sexual harassment issues that turned explosive but, finally, productive. Afterward, the president told Jim that “one of these times you are going to roll those dice and it is not going to work — but I am glad it worked this time.”

Jim brought an incredible spirit, optimism, and integrity to his leadership. One of his toughest times was going through not one, but two heart transplants. He was on a heart-lung machine for two days before a second heart could be found. In fact, the doctors were reluctant to do a second transplant. But Jim basically said, “Look, we didn’t come this far to turn down a heart. You take me in there and do it. I’ll make it.”

Jim’s third heart was a woman’s heart — he joked that it was the reason he was able to see the relational side of leadership.

In his good humor, his strong and sincere relationships, and his ability to read people, Jim was the best of leaders. He was, and is, a remarkable model.
Joc Clark ’86
Paradise, Calif.

caption:��In 2003, Jim Carignan ’61 stands next to an oak planted near the Chapel to honor his retirement as dean of the college.

Is Winning a Losing Proposition?

That was a beautiful photo in the Winter issue of refurbished Garcelon Field, iconic venue for fierce athletic competition. Ironically, a few pages beyond, �ֲ��ý sociology professor Francesco Duina maintains that we Americans are too competitive and “obsessed” with winning. It makes us unhappy and disliked abroad. He says the Danish noncompetitive system is “more civilized” even though it “does deprive a lot of people of freedom.” He knows they are not the happiest people — “but they are content.”

Americans of my generation will recall that most Danes were “content” to be deprived of their freedom under Nazi occupation, which they endured with only a murmur of resistance. If Americans were like “contented” Danes, America today would be a British dominion fenced in east of the Mississippi by foreign powers who had divided up everything west of it. But, hey, Professor Duina is a sociologist, not a historian.

Neither is he a political scientist, but he thinks that Al Gore is viewed as a loser because he should have won the 2000 election because “his opponent was perceived as weaker.” Perceived by whom? Among those who have experienced American politics and politicians close up, I am not alone in perceiving Al Gore as a phony political windbag.

Professor Duina says that he was inspired to write his book in part because of “George Bush’s insistence on ‘winning the peace in Iraq,’” which he calls “an absurd concept.” Would he apply that label to Barack Obama’s insistence on spending trillions of borrowed dollars on “winning the future”? Probably not. �ֲ��ý would consider that racist, and he would be shunned in the faculty lounge (assuming that after all the recent building �ֲ��ý actually has a faculty lounge!).

Professor Duina seems an amiable young man who is probably not obsessed with winning. But he knows how to win in the competitive world of leftist, feminized academia: write a book denigrating America’s competitive spirit and throw in a few barbs at our 43rd president.
Charles W. Radcliffe ’50
Annapolis, Md.

Francesco Duina responds: Mr. Radcliffe, in his comments about my book, Winning, doubts whether I would be critical of President Obama’s recent fixation on “winning the future.” As it turns out, I have discussed our president’s language during town library meetings and in a number of interviews, including with David Phillippi for the blog New Books in Sociology and with Connecticut Public Radio’s Where We Live program. I’ve talked about President Obama’s language about the future, including wanting to be “No. 1” in the world, as “circuitous” and “terribly confusing and loose phrasing,” which is representative of our collective American tendency to view much of life in competitive terms, with serious consequences for how we live our lives, how we educate our children, and how we relate to others.

‘Friendliness Without Pretense’

Kudos for running the very interesting story “Family Affair” (Winter 2011), about my classmates Erik Mercer, Rachel Segall, and Tony Hurley. The article, as well as Rachel and Tony’s uncommon generosity, was a vivid reminder of all of the characteristics that caused me to apply to �ֲ��ý 25 years ago and are ones that have kept me connected to it: its open and tolerant outlook, the firm commitment to diversity and egalitarian principles, and an enduring friendliness without pretense.

Rachel and Tony’s gift to Erik and Sandro is a very contemporary twist on those ideals. The fact that �ֲ��ý Magazine ran the story made me proud to be a Bobcat!
Steve Moore ’91
Boston

Passing Thoughts

The article “The Gay Resume” (Winter 2011), which reported on a Homecoming 2010 panel discussion about the intersection of careers and sexual orientation, failed to address the larger implications of identity masking during the job search. The very notion of passing as straight presupposes an understanding of several nuanced conversations. The first is what potential employers might deem “queer,” whether through attire and body language or through a resume that includes certain club affiliations.

The second is procedural: How might one best succumb to hetero-normative stereotypes? And how would doing so merit a capacity for ethical decision making?

The third would be qualitative: How do we measure the emotional, physical, and even monetary sacrifices that one undoubtedly undertakes in order to pass?  To this regard, what does the article’s implicit approval of sometimes hiding one’s sexual identity say about other marginalized groups facing issues of discrimination? For example, a black woman cannot with the same ease hide her perceived race or gender, though research abound tells us that both categories will also place her at a disadvantage in achieving the career goals espoused by panelist LK Gagnon, “to be paid and be comfortable.”

While this article does remind us that workplace politics are as complicated as ever, it surrenders to the ill-fated norms of present-day inequalities rather than offering a spirited advance toward the aspiration of our mission statement, where we “engage the transformative power of our differences” and cultivate the very noble notions of “informed civic action” and “responsible stewardship of the wider world.”

Here, at this “college for coming times,” I would’ve hoped for this to be normal practice.
Walter Garcia Fairfax ’12
Stonington, Maine

Please Write!

We love letters. Letters may be edited for length (300 words or fewer preferred), style, grammar, clarity, and relevance to College issues and issues discussed in �ֲ��ý Magazine. Email your letter to magazine@bates.edu or post it to �ֲ��ý Magazine, �ֲ��ý Communications Office, 141 Nichols St., Lewiston ME 04240.

Recalling the 1971 Lisbon Street mural project

�ֲ��ý Magazine — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:40:29 +0000

A 1971 project to paint a colorful mural on a Lisbon Street brick wall was a sign of the times.

Students paint the Lisbon Street mural in 1971 as an unidentified man films the work.

Donald Lent, �ֲ��ý’ new Dana Professor of Art, was looking for a Short Term project that would connect students to his civic efforts around urban renewal in Lewiston.

The city, wanting to open a new pedestrian walkway linking upper Lisbon Street and Park Street’s retail and parking areas, had demolished a wood-frame building next to Edward’s Clothing Store, at 114 Lisbon St.

The store’s newly exposed brick wall caught Lent’s eye. Encouraged by the city’s Urban Renewal Authority, Lent got permission from the building’s owner to paint a mural on the wall, then selected 13 students from 30 who showed interest.

Lent had a knack for putting students on the right tasks. Norton Virgien ’74 was interested in filmmaking, so Lent charged him with producing a documentary about the project with his 8mm camera. Now an animated-film director in Los Angeles, Virgien told �ֲ��ý Magazine in 2004 that the “thought processes that went into telling that story are still the ones I use today.”

Guided by Lent, the students developed sketches on butcher paper and painted the mural in white, blue, red, and a particularly tenacious traffic yellow. The mural’s narrative was straightforward: pedestrians moving through familiar Lewiston places. “I wanted the mural to connect to people in town,” Lent says. Silhouettes of downtown features included the onion domes of the Kora temple and the spires of the Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul.

�ֲ��ý had just approved an art major, and Lent was no fool: He stocked the project mostly with freshmen eager to prove their artistic zeal. Those were heady times, says Jonathan Lowenberg ’74, who came to �ֲ��ý to major in chemistry but switched to art partly because of the mural project.

But one day a decade later, Lent saw workers sandblasting the mural. “That felt awful,” he says.

“It was a great dynamic,” he recalls. “We were enthusiastic about the major, and the project was something completely new for all of us.”

In ’71, urban renewal still seemed like a good thing. Lent recalls the project “feeling so integrated with what was going on in the town.” Lowenberg, whose Mirror portrait shows him painting the mural, remembers everyone thinking that the “mural was going to be there a long time.”

But one day a decade later, Lent saw workers sandblasting the mural. “That felt awful,” he says. Lisbon Street was losing its retail businesses, and the clothing store had closed, to be replaced by an Asian restaurant.

“Maybe,” Lent says, “the mural was more like an installation, designed for a specific place and time. After a while, it just didn’t fit into the plan.”

Today, the wall belongs to an Indian restaurant. Tiny white and yellow paint chips from the mural still cling to the bricks. And if you stand back, you can still see the outline of one of the mural’s pedestrians, walking through the scene.

On an Urban Scale: Andrew Cyr ’96 and Metropolis Ensemble make contemporary classical music hip and accessible

�ֲ��ý Magazine — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:11:09 +0000

By Bob Keyes

Andrew Cyr ’96 can only smile and giggle.

It’s a little after two o’clock, and the upscale Café on the Beauty Level at Bergdorf Goodman is swimming with fashionable women glammed up in makeup, fur, and heel.

Metropolis Ensemble founder and artistic director Andrew Cyr ’96 is at the apex of Manhattan’s bustling new-music scene. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen.

Cyr sheepishly rises for a handshake and an awkward hug. He apologizes for choosing a restaurant that’s straight out of Sex and the City. “I asked at a board meeting this morning where I should meet for lunch, and two women recommended Bergdorf Goodman: ‘They have the best sandwiches.’”

Yet, the choice works. Cyr has much to celebrate these days, and this modish spot on Fifth Avenue seems the place to catch his breath, relax, and allow himself to be fawned over. He orders a glass of water with lemon and a bowl of split pea soup, and saves room for dessert.

Newly honored with a Grammy Award nomination, Cyr finds himself at the apex of Manhattan’s bustling new-music scene. At age 37, he is succeeding at what music directors at orchestras around the country have been trying to figure out for years: How to make contemporary classical music hip and accessible to a range of listeners, especially young people.

“They listen to classical music. It’s on their iPods. But they don’t go to Carnegie Hall.”

Cyr is founder and artistic director of Metropolis Ensemble, a chamber orchestra and ensemble that commissions and performs new music for eager and enthusiastic audiences in nontraditional venues around Manhattan.

Performing about once a month, Metropolis seeks venues that promote interaction and community among musicians and the audience. One month’s venue might be a bar, while the next might be Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center, where Metropolis performed Chinese composer Tan Dun’s Martial Arts Trilogy in August — “a splashy multimedia event” performed with “skill and exuberance,” The New York Times noted.

The loose-knit group of a few dozen composers and musicians is clearly getting noticed in the city, and national exposure came last year with Metropolis’ multiple Grammy nominations. Cyr didn’t win, but had a blast at the ceremony in Los Angeles in February.

“It was an orgy in self-congratulations. We were all telling each other how great we are,” he says.

Cyr received a nomination as best conductor, and mandolinist Avi Avital as best soloist, for their work on Avner Dorman’s Concertos, the first studio album from Metropolis Ensemble. David Frost, who produced the disc, won the 2011 Grammy for Producer of the Year.

For Cyr, the best part is that people are responding. The audiences are fervent, and growing. The evening before our lunch, Metropolis Ensemble raised four times its financial goal at a benefit event, its first major public event since the Grammys. Cyr was flabbergasted. “It’s a big moment for us, a real endorsement from the people who support us,” he said over lunch. “We just tripled our budget overnight.”

Andrew Cyr conducts a Metropolis Ensemble concert featuring the premiere of an electro-acoustic remix of John Corigliano’s Three Hallucinations, based on his Academy Award-nominated film score to Altered States.

His success with such a bold venture speaks to his training at �ֲ��ý. He often cites the influence of �ֲ��ý music professors Marion Anderson and Bill Matthews, who encouraged him to think big.

“They taught me how to ask questions,” Cyr says. “They are my mentors and guides, and important people to me. I looked up to them, and they taught me. When I failed, they helped me get back up. I was a young person in college. I was not a straight-A student. They helped me at every turn.”

Anderson remembers Cyr for his intellectual curiosity. “Over coffee after class, I learned that he had a real passion for classical music and, in particular, opera,” says Anderson, who retired in 2005 and now lives in Seattle.

Anderson encouraged Cyr to pursue those interests, and the student did so vigorously, eventually changing his major from pre-med to music. Meanwhile, Matthews prodded Cyr — a native of the far northern Maine town of Fort Kent, where more than half the residents speak French at home — to explore his own French heritage. For his senior thesis, Cyr researched Franco-American songs, recorded local French singers, and transcribed their lyrics into English. Later, he studied in France.

He moved to New York in 2000 and is married to Kate Gilmore ’97, an acclaimed artist herself, in the performance and video realm (“Break on Through,” Summer 2009). They live in Brooklyn.

Cyr’s vision for the Metropolis Ensemble began to evolve as he accompanied Gilmore to art openings. He noticed the galleries were filled with people just like him — young New Yorkers with an appetite for the arts. They come out for art openings, but not for classical music.

“They listen to classical music. It’s on their iPods. But they don’t go to Carnegie Hall,” he says. “That traditional classical music concert experience doesn’t fit into the rhythm of their life.”

�ֲ��ý roots run deep in Metropolis Ensemble. Mikhail Iliev ’96 provided key legal advice and is now the ensemble’s treasurer. Sound engineer Nils van Otterloo ’96 helped to record early Metropolis concerts. And videographer Timothy Bakland ’96 has captured concert footage.

With �ֲ��ý friends and others under his wings, Cyr learned, on the fly, how to transform a performing arts start-up into an active arts-presenting organization in a city chock full of them.

While good things may come from the Grammy nod, all will have to be earned. “It changes everything and it changes nothing,” he says. “We still have to do everything we do, although it should open us up to donors and allow us to communicate our message to a larger community.”

In one of those “if you can make it in New York” moments, Cyr mentions an idea of starting a festival in China to serve the country’s growing demand for music programming.

“Did you know there are 40 million piano students in China?” he asks.

Bob Keyes writes about the arts for The Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram.

Fall 2011 – News

Asking �ֲ���ý to welcome change, President Hansen made �ֲ���ý’ framework firmer

Your Page: Leena Nasser and the silent boy were failing together

‘Multicultural Voices’ takes a deliberate route to multicultural engagement

About the Cover: February 2011

Editors Note: Fall 2011

Spare Change

Obituaries: Fall 2011

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Friend

Staff

Emeriti

Honorary

Free, audacious and confounding Peter Gomes ’65

To whom should we look?

Simple joys of our beautiful existence

At the fee of masters

Knots holding?

Letters: Memories of Jim Carignan

Farm Semester

Carignan’s Way

Is Winning a Losing Proposition?

‘Friendliness Without Pretense’

Passing Thoughts

Please Write!

Recalling the 1971 Lisbon Street mural project

On an Urban Scale: Andrew Cyr ’96 and Metropolis Ensemble make contemporary classical music hip and accessible

Asking �ֲ��ý to welcome change, President Hansen made �ֲ��ý’ framework firmer