A tiara-wearing taxidermy pig stands on a shelf in the Carnegie Science Hall office of Associate Professor of Biology Lee Abrahamsen.

“I like her smile,” says Abrahamsen. “I’ve always liked her smile. And her snout.”

It’s not exactly a Wilbur-type pig but a javelina, a New World species common in South America and the U.S. Southwest. Biology students from those areas often recognize the creature when they enter Abrahamsen’s office. “They’ve hunted javelinas,” she says. “Other students come in and say, ‘What is that?'”

The specimen in Abrahamsen’s office is a baby, she adds. Adult male javelinas can grow to 100 pounds.

A tiara-wearing stuffed javelina surveys the scene from a shelf in the Carnegie Science Hall office of Associate Professor of Biology Lee Abrahamsen. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Abrahamsen has enjoyed the pig, smile and all, since 1989 when she and Pamela Baker ’69, now retired as the Helen A. Papaioanou Professor Emerita of Biological Sciences, began to share a faculty position and an office in Carnegie.

“We found it in a trash pile,” she remembers. At the time, many items in the college’s collection of pressed plants and stuffed animals, known as the Stanton Museum, were being sent to the Maine State Museum.

Baker, who had worked in the Stanton as a student, immediately recognized the pig, as well as a stuffed porcupine and squirrel. They chose to save the pig. Some pig!

“Everybody should have a tiara.”

This­ pig shall remain nameless. “We just always called her ‘the pig.’ We thought about it over the years and just couldn’t come up with a good one, which is odd. I name everything,” Abrahamsen says.

But that doesn’t mean she and Baker didn’t shower their “girl” with attention. Over the years, they dressed her in feather boas, pieces of glitter, and once, fairy wings. Most recently, she has sported a tiara. “At one point, Pam and I decided that everybody should have a tiara,” says Abrahamsen.

Lee Abrahamsen poses with “the pig.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

When Abrahamsen asked Baker for a pig comment, she sent a sentiment that speaks for both biologists.

“I always liked it as a reminder that all the cells and molecules that we taught about really did add up to be organisms of amazing kinds.”

At the final faculty meeting of the academic year, each retiring professor is honored by a colleague who prepares and delivers a spoken tribute.

On May 6, tributes were offered to Pam Baker ’69, the Helen A. Papaioanou Professor of Biological Sciences and, from 2011 to 2013, dean of the faculty; Tom Hayward, lecturer in classical and medieval studies and humanities reference librarian; Paul Kuritz, professor of theater; Bonnie Shulman, professor of mathematics; and Bob Thomas, professor of biology.

Tribute to Pam Baker by Don Dearborn, professor of biology

Pam Baker is an institutional thinker, a kind and smart person, and someone who loves this college with her entire being.

Pam Baker hugs a student during a reception for Baker’s retirement on May 17. (Mike Bradley/�ֲ���ý College)

She came to �ֲ���ý in 1965. Not as a faculty member, of course, but as a first-year student. Consistent with the wanderlust that would fuel her later travels, she left �ֲ���ý prematurely, taking a B.Sc. in zoology at the University of Wales at Swansea before coming back here to finish her �ֲ���ý degree in 1970. She went on to do graduate work at SUNY–Buffalo, with a master’s degree in microbiology and later a Ph.D. in oral biology and immunology.

Along the way, she and Dave were graced with their daughter, Kate, whom they soon learned was deaf. I mention this because Pam wanted to learn sign language with Kate but couldn’t find a book that a parent could share with a young child. In typical Pam fashion, she took the bull by the horns and wrote and published such a book herself while in graduate school.

Pam came back to �ֲ���ý in 1989, hired with Lee Abrahamsen to share a tenure-track position.  When I interviewed here just a few years ago, Pam and Lee were still sharing both a faculty line and an office. (As an aside, I’ll say that somehow I misread the situation, and my interest in �ֲ���ý was heightened by the notion that the college was making joint hires of same-sex couples 20 years ago.)

My confusion notwithstanding, Pam and Lee were a formidable team in the classroom. They co-taught Cell Hell in Short Term for something like 18 years, and they were the first faculty from anywhere to teach a research-based course at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, a first-rate research institution focused on regenerative medicine, environmental health sciences, and cellular and molecular physiology.

This partnership between �ֲ���ý and MDIBL has thrived under Pam’s guidance and remains important to both our institutions.

For non-science folks, this next point may be a hard one to appreciate, so let me preface it by saying that it’s a big deal.

Pam’s own research combines the study of bacteria, the immune system and the dynamics of infectious disease, along with her an interest in non-Western medicine. Pam has co-authored (with Eli Minkoff) a pedagogically innovative biology textbook that was well ahead of its time, and she has published more than 40 research articles that have been cited by more than 800 peer-reviewed publications.

For non-science folks, this next point may be a hard one to appreciate, so let me preface it by saying that it’s a big deal. She developed an animal system for studying a human disease — specifically, finding a way to use mice to study periodontal disease.

This enabled important findings such as the discovery that the bone loss that goes along with severe gum disease is caused not by the bacterial infection itself but by the patient’s immune response to the infection — this has huge implications for how you would develop clinical treatments.

Beyond her role in biology, Pam of course has been central to the leadership of �ֲ���ý, as division chair, as associate dean, as dean of the faculty and in countless other formal and informal roles.

She was instrumental in starting the first interdisciplinary program at �ֲ���ý, and she spearheaded large institutional grants from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation, the Beckman Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Science Foundation and the INBRE program of the National Institutes of Health.These grants enable us to do a better job of the all the important things that make �ֲ���ý what it is.

Along those lines, one of Pam’s tireless and effective campaigns has been to increase the money available for student research. And, in fact, student research is so important to her that she has continued to supervise thesis students while serving as dean of the faculty.

As Pam gets ready to transition to a more sane lifestyle, she and Dave are looking forward to a bit of traveling this summer — delayed, of course, by a shift in retirement timeline caused by her willingness to serve as our dean of the faculty.

Pam loves to travel and has been all over the place in North and South America…in Europe…in India…China…Mongolia. The list is long, Pam, but of course it does not approach the list of the ways that you have given of yourself to �ֲ���ý, and for that we all say a heartfelt “Thank you.”

Tribute to Tom Hayward by Margaret Imber, associate professor of classical and medieval studies

First, the res gestae — from the egg to the apples as the Romans would say. Tom came to �ֲ���ý in 1976 as the humanities librarian. Before joining the college, he completed a classics degree, magna cum laude, at Harvard University and received a master’s in library science from Rutgers and served in the U.S. Air Force for four years.

While beginning his career at �ֲ���ý, he pursued and completed a master’s in comparative literature at the University of Maine. He’s published articles of note in The Maine Classicist, Victorian Poetry, Classical World and the New England Classical Newsletter.

Second, an acknowledgement in the pleasure we all take in Tom as a contubernalis.

He began teaching Latin to students before there was any program in classics here. As in baseball, so in Latin: If you build it, they will come.

In addition to his wonderful work in Ladd, as a builder of collections, teacher of students, and resource in research for students and faculty alike, Tom has been a stalwart of the Program in Classical and Medieval Studies at �ֲ���ý.

Indeed, we could properly call Tom the auctor venerabilis of our program. He began teaching Latin to students before there was any program in classics here. As in baseball, so in Latin: If you build it, they will come. Soon there were hires, then a program. Such was the enthusiasm that Tom fostered with élan, a liberal dose of collegiality, offered amore ac studio.

At his retirement reception on April 24, Tom Hayward wears a librarian-themed T-shirt given to him by classics students. The Latin “Scimus quae lemis, et non dicimuc” means “We know what you read and we don’t tell.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Throughout his tenure in CMS, Tom has been an active and stalwart colleague. He has supervised numerous student theses and offered numerous independent studies. He has organized meetings of the Maine Classical Conference on campus.

He has taught all levels of Latin and offering courses on a range of topics in translation. He has piloted and pioneered in our curriculum. It was Tom who introduced the idea of tweeting in Latin — mirabile, as they say, dictu.

Tom’s students recall his classes with appreciation and affection. When we posted about Tom’s retirement on the CMS Facebook page, a number of alumni wrote to us.

Annie Barton ’08, now an assistant principal at Strive Prep in West Denver and then a great scholar-athlete at �ֲ���ý wrote, “I remember Tom cheering me on from the bleachers at my swim meets. It meant so much to me that he cared to support so many different aspects of my life, and that’s what I remember when I think of him.”

Erin Faulder ’08 is now a student in library school (and, oh yes, that trend in classicist librarians that everyone’s talking about: You know whom to thank!).

A wonderful student and a ballroom dance enthusiast, Erin wrote that she remembered most fondly “spending hours at his dining room table with a cup of tea and some cookies while working on thesis and later reciting and translating Seneca’s Troades” and “going to Thorncrag with Tom and his wife one night to listen to the birds singing to each other at dusk. Then, once night had truly fallen, we searched for a certain kind of newt that was just coming out of hibernation.”

Erin Crowley ’12, whose archeological work we’ll all be reading about one day, recalled how Tom offered to meet with her outside of scheduled class time to resolve a scheduling conflict.

“Professor Hayward went above and beyond his duty as a professor to offer me the opportunity to continue with my Latin study, and for that I will be forever grateful. I wasn’t the first student that he had done this for, either, and that shows a dedication to the subject and to his students which made the classical and medieval studies program my absolute favorite.”

Tom embodies Cicero’s observation that a man who has a library and a garden has everything. To Cicero’s library and garden, Tom has added a love of jazz, a talent for watercolors, a delight in birds and a feared ruthlessness on the racquetball courts. He is also a pater familias — the loving husband of Susan, proud father of Abby and Jamie, and, recently, a grandfather.

We are going to miss Tom, and the only balm to our sorrow is the hope that when he’s indulged this foolishness with retirement, had his Italian education, spotted his birds and painted his canvases, he will come to his senses and return to visit.

But for now, we must echo Plautus: Acta est fabula �ֲ���ýiana; plaudite!

Tribute to Paul Kuritz by Michael Reidy, senior lecturer and managing director of theater and dance

Paul Thomas Kuritz retires from the Department of Theater after 34 years of teaching and scholarship. While completing a Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1978, Paul Kuritz joined the faculty as an assistant professor of theater and rhetoric. He taught acting, directing and theater history as well as directing one or two productions annually. Paul was department chair from 1995 to 2000.

Since his professional debut in 1966, he has directed more than 100 productions across the U.S., serving as guest director at the Maine Acting Company in Lewiston, 1986–88, and founding, in 1980, the �ֲ���ý Festival Theatre.

Paul Kuritz served as professor of theater from 1978 to 2013.

The �ֲ���ý Festival Theater was a professional theater company in residence on the �ֲ���ý campus that ran for four years in the summer, bringing professional theater to the Lewiston-Auburn audience long before there was a Public Theater in downtown.

In 1992 Paul was chair of the Mayor’s Fine Arts Commission, charged with developing a plan for increasing the cultural production in the area. The ramifications of that work are still felt today, and the topic is still in active debate.

Paul was a visiting professor at Indiana University in 1985 while on leave from �ֲ���ý.

He was the first American academic to be invited to teach acting and to direct at the National Theater School in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Paul wrote four books on theater while at �ֲ���ý: Playing: An Introduction to Acting (1982); The Making of Theatre History (1987); Fundamental Acting: A Practical Guide (1997); and The Fiery Serpent: A Christian Theory of Film and Drama (2006).

Gertrude Stein’s Mother of Us All and Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights were described as “irradiant, avant-garde — energetic — spectacular” by colleagues.

�ʲ��ܱ�’s adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper was in included in the anthology The Best American Short Plays 2001–2002.

Paul will be well-remembered for several productions he directed for �ֲ���ý theater over the years.  A production of Brecht’s Galileo that he directed and played lead in was remembered for its spectacular, and expensive, staging and for �ʲ��ܱ�’s passionate performance.

Gertrude Stein’s Mother of Us All and Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights were described as “irradiant, avant-garde — energetic — spectacular” by colleagues.

�ʲ��ܱ�’s Peer Gynt, a massive play by any standard with 70 roles, was cleverly re-imagined to be performed by a small ensemble of 17 student actors.

He was twice a project scholar for the Portland Stage Company and Maine Humanities Council, in 1984–85 and 1988–89.

In a November 1997 issue of the Lewiston Sun Journal, Paul shared the secret to perfect no-fat Rocky Road brownies: It’s half cup of apple sauce and 2 teaspoons of instant coffee.

As a collaborator, Paul was very generous in his inclusion of the artistic team and bringing order to a range of design and production schemes.

In the last decade, Paul turned his attention to filmmaking. He attended Maine Media Workshop and directed two short films while here, A New Life and Amy’s Wish, which have been selected for screening at multiple film festivals around the country.

Paul will also be know for his propensity to resist popular opinion of the day and claim the ground of the contrarian. Like a salmon swimming upstream, Paul enjoyed challenging people to think differently. Hence, he was a lifelong Yankees fan in the heart of Red Sox Nation. Hence, he arrived in Maine as an outspoken political progressive at a time when Maine was considered a conservative state, and leaves a conservative as our community trends toward being more progressive points of view.

He and his wife, Kathleen, live happily in Lakewood, Ohio.

Tribute to Bonnie Shulman by Meredith Greer, associate professor of mathematics

Bonnie Shulman’s route to �ֲ���ý was not a typical one. Most of her peers went to college after high school; Bonnie left school.

As Stephanie Higgins ’08 wrote in a student essay about Bonnie that won a national contest, Bonnie felt at that time that math was inaccessible to women and that science was corrupted by the arms race. For several years, Bonnie wrote poetry, lived on a commune and had her daughter. At age 30 she decided to go back to college, then earned a Ph.D. in mathematical physics. She then came to �ֲ���ý and the mathematics department.

“She surely shook up the department on a number of levels and very beneficially for many students.”

Just three years later, Bonnie won the Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching. One of the students who nominated her, Rachel Hampe ’94, shared some memories of Bonnie with me.

Professor of Mathematics Bonnie Shulman, who retired in June, accepts salutations en masse from math students during the annual Mount David Summit on March 29. (Chip Ross photo)

She recalls that “her arrival in the department was generally very important, but for women who needed a role model to encourage them to continue their studies, it was particularly important.  Rarely wearing shoes and almost always carrying coffee into class, she surely shook up the department on a number of levels and very beneficially for many students like myself.”

Rachel went on to say that Bonnie was a “dynamic teacher who appreciated that everyone had different methods of learning. In one class, I remember (now about 20 years ago!) her discussing how some people understood concepts visually, seeing diagrams, while others learned concepts through equations. She deliberately taught the concepts from both perspectives to be inclusive and to deepen our understanding.”

One more quote from Rachel: “I know that after I graduated she incorporated writing and research requirements into her classes. Later, other professors started doing the same.”

Rachel’s quotes show many of the long-term driving forces within Bonnie: helping women break down barriers, supporting all students in learning and valuing writing within mathematics.

During Bonnie’s time at �ֲ���ý, she has received over a dozen grants in areas including K–12 education and mentoring women in math and science. She chaired Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, from 1993 to 2010. She wrote journal articles that include discussions of feminism as it relates to math and science; reflections on war, peace and mathematics; and mathematics education.

She was very involved with the Program in Women and Gender Studies for several years. And she was one of the leaders of the move toward the current Gen Ed. Our curriculum now has increased opportunity for interdisciplinarity, enhanced writing requirements and emphasis on scientific and quantitative literacy. These were voted in by the faculty as a whole, yet they echo the focus areas Bonnie has always had for educating students.

There are many more things for which Bonnie has made herself known over the years. Here are just a few of them.

She could be defined by her refusal to be constrained. Whenever she, or her whole department, or the entire college, takes on a new goal, Bonnie constantly reminds us to think big: Don’t start out by thinking about restrictions or limitations! Think instead about what we would like to accomplish if we could do anything we wanted. (Then, of course, she is both dogged and ingenious about figuring out how we can accomplish what many would have thought impossible!)

Bonnie is known for bringing students to conferences. And when I say “is known for,” I don’t mean just at �ֲ���ý. At national conferences, I have several times had someone read “�ֲ���ý College,” on my name tag and say, “Oh, you must know Bonnie!” One particular mathematician went on in detail, telling me how she had admired Bonnie for many years, especially for the way Bonnie would just load up a vehicle with students and drive them to a regional conference. (I can add to that: Bonnie has a special talent for piecing together funding to support her students and colleagues.)

Social justice has always been a driving force for Bonnie. A culmination of Bonnie’s experiences and talents came with her Math 112 course, “Mathematics for a Just World.” From the course description: “This course teaches quantitative literacy, critical thinking and problem-solving skills in a socially relevant context. Students use mathematics as a powerful analytic framework for understanding and developing realistic solutions to issues of social, political and economic injustice.”

But this is just part of the story. Some students let it be known that they’re taking Math 112 “just to get their [Q] out of the way”; others admit to major math phobia. During the course, students write about math, present math and tutor local children at Tree Street Youth Center. In this class, students keep journals. Many reflect that this is the first time they ever realized that math had a purpose or could be helpful to people. Some, early in the semester, express hesitancy or discomfort about tutoring; some of those same students end the semester saying that tutoring was the most important and powerful thing they did all semester.

Last one — for now. Bonnie is a thoughtful and intentional mentor. She began mentoring me when I interviewed for this job: Though she was on sabbatical at the time, she came to my job talk, introduced herself as the only tenured woman in the mathematics department and warmly invited me to contact her if I had any questions about coming to �ֲ���ý. When I first arrived here, she purposefully introduced me to many people all around campus. Throughout the years, we have talked about teaching, research, tenure, life and much more.

But enough about me! What about with students, or when Bonnie was new here herself?

One of her first thesis students, Toby White ’94, says that “meeting Bonnie was a watershed moment in my academic career. She took me under her wing, helped me find a path. [She] took me to my first conference (my first three conferences, actually), helped me…write an honors thesis, guided me toward graduate school and a master’s degree…became a collaborator when I returned to Maine to teach high school math, and then again gave critical counsel when several years later I decided to go…for a Ph.D. in education.

“I really can’t imagine how I would have found my way or come nearly so far as a scholar without so much help and support from her at the start, and along the way. She remains a dear friend, a model for the ways I advise my doctoral students, and my fiercest, most regular and favorite mobile Scrabble opponent.”

There is much, much more that I and others could say about Bonnie — her sense of humor, her athleticism, her activism — but for now I end simply. Congratulations, Bonnie. You are tremendously appreciated.

Tribute to Bob Thomas by Sharon Kinsman, associate professor of biology

Professor Robert Thomas — sage of seaweeds and lover of liverworts — is the consummate botanist. But he almost wasn’t.

He headed to the University of Michigan to become a history teacher but discovered a greater passion when he chose introductory botany for his science requirement. And the rest, as Bob might pun, is his-tory. Soon he TA’d the course, took field courses, joined the professor’s lab and co-authored two papers with her.

Professor of Biology Robert Thomas, photographed at the McLaughlin Garden in South Paris, Maine, while teaching his Short Term course on nature photography in 2008. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Straight on to graduate study at the University of California–Santa Cruz (a far cry from the North Woods of Michigan), Bob studied with world-famous bryologists and plant physiologists. He mastered several modern research techniques to study liverwort development and physiology.

�ֲ���ý snapped him up even before his defense.

So in 1975 Bob returned to the North Woods, bringing a deep knowledge of plants; a passion for teaching; modern expertise in tissue culture, autoradiographic techniques and electron microscopy; and a determination to help the department steadily acquire modern research equipment.

Bob said “Yes!” to students with diverse interests, from natural plant dyes to lichens as environmental teaching tools to soil quality in urban agriculture.

Mosses and their relatives were model organisms for a multitude of research questions. External grants helped support Bob’s and his students’ year round research on plant development, hormones, and physiology. By the time Bob was promoted to full professor a little over a decade after his arrival, student co-authors featured on nearly all of his many �ֲ���ý research publications.  But you didn’t have to study mosses or their tiny aphids to do research with Bob. Bob said “Yes!” to students with diverse interests, from natural plant dyes to lichens as environmental teaching tools to soil quality in urban agriculture.

And it was an adventure-filled lab to join. Summers began with the annual jaunt down Sabattus Street for opening day at Val’s Drive-In and root beer stand. Field trips took the gang  to nearby forests, mountains and bogs. But it was the cross-country camping trips to attend professional meetings that his students likely won’t forget. Funds were few, but that didn’t stop Bob. He just loaded up the infamous Morse Mountain van with students and Outing Club gear, and drove long distances — to Montreal, to Virginia and once all the way across the continent to Vancouver — camping all the way.

Bob’s courses offered adventures as well. His expertise led to an array of engaging traditional and applied courses, from microbiology and numerous plant biology topics to electron microscopy, to this year’s first-year seminar on GMOs.

Legendary were course field trips: to find seaweeds at the coast, to sample phytoplankton in the open ocean, to press flowering plants, to work with foresters and horticulturalists and florists, and to talk with algologists, ethnobotanists, organic gardeners and plant chemists. Graduation weekends saw packed audiences for the breathtaking slide shows from his popular Short Term course in nature photography.

And yes, Bob co-taught a course in ballroom dancing.

But I think in Carnegie we would agree it was the famous economic botany course that will live on in memory. Certainly it engaged non-science majors, but it made Carnegie lively for all of us. From the paper-making lab with its odd smells and strewn plant debris to the “seed-popping” lab that destroyed more hot plates than we can remember, we saw hands-on education at work. New faculty, not yet in the know, might get a whiff of fermentation but be a little reluctant to ask…just what was fermenting?! Yes, root beer and even real beer, complete with “little accidents” of corks popping…and the occasional muffled explosion as beer bottles burst.

The Carnegie basement brewery is gone, and other changes have come. When Bob arrived, most department chairs were “forever.” Departments used one phone line for everyone, mimeograph machines for handouts and typewriters for writing. Ladd Library was brand new, and Carnegie Science was about half its current size. The number of women faculty could be counted on two hands. Tenure procedures were, well, more relaxed. In fact, it was Bob who asked senior colleagues if he should provide some names of outside evaluators. They responded: “OK, why not?”

In the department, Bob has seen whole new subdisciplines of biology arrive, along with more student majors and more assistants in instruction. Six classical majors’ core courses have become three, electives have multiplied and our crowded “old Carnegie” is now an equally crowded “new Carnegie.”

Much of the department’s development was facilitated by Bob. Upon tenure, Bob agreed to a “temporary” two-year stint as chair. The two years became 10, as Bob oversaw new faculty lines, a core curriculum revision, a building addition and the installation of the first of two electron microscopes. Bob then continued to support the work of the department in ways too numerous to name. Early work for the college included six years on the Student Conduct Committee, an insightful report on athletics, and work on long-range planning and development of audio visual support.  Service on many college committees followed.

But many of us know Bob best as our own colleague and friend. From procuring our research equipment through national grants, to supportive listening to junior colleagues’ concerns, to adding a voice of experience to countless searches, to modeling patience and compromise in departmental matters, to advising on grant proposals and tenure dossiers, Bob has made an enormous positive difference for many new colleagues. Arriving at �ֲ���ý, we immediately find in Bob a modest, moderate, mild-mannered, and mannerly colleague who is reliable, kind and supportive. At length we are blessed to discover that wry, dry sense of humor complete with dead-pan delivery.

And many �ֲ���ý students have known Bob best as their �ֲ���ý Outing Club adviser. Firmly committed to student leadership of the club, Bob provided steady support over decades and over maintenance of 40 miles of the Appalachian Trail. A colleague recalls how the “Outing Clubbers of the late ’70s warmly remember evenings at Bob’s house on Nichols Street, the livingroom ringing with folk songs, the floors pounding with dance steps.”

These evenings of potluck dinners, music, laughter and dance were long a part of the heart of southern Maine’s traditional music and dance scene. A wonderful musician and dancer, Bob sings and plays mountain dulcimer and concertina and helped found the �ֲ���ý Free Will Folk Society.

Bob’s music now graces community events, often as part of his devoted family life. With two sons now in their teens, Bob and Carol generously offer their skills and support to a variety of local educational and non-profit institutions, including Sandcastle Clinical & Educational Services, with its focus on inclusive education, and St. Joseph’s Special Religious Education.

In thanks to Bob, a few student voices:

“A very big thank you is due to my adviser, Bob Thomas, for all of his patience, encouragement, guidance, and generosity over the last three years.He continually challenged me and advised me in such a way that made research and the thesis experience lots of fun.”

“The lectures were pure gold!”

“A very fun and interesting course.”

“I felt very included and the professor was very kind and respectful.”

“…a great FYS professor…I had a really good time in the class.”

The department won’t be the same without the nature photography shows; Bob’s supportive, moderate, and kind demeanor; and his well-timed puns and amazing recall of departmental history.  As one colleague notes: “Woe unto us when he’s gone on that front.” But he’s not going far: just over to Taylor Pond. So, Bob, if someone asks, “Would you Lycopodium?” it’s OK to decline, but we will miss you.

With thanks to Bob for providing materials, and to Greg Anderson, Judy Marden ’66, and Nancy Kleckner for contributions.

The 2013 honorands with President Spencer. From left, Vivian Pinn, speaker Gary Hirshberg, Elaine Hansen, William Cronon and Spencer. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

In business, the environment and government, “the bottom line is that many of the so-called experts have been wrong and now need to be second-guessed,” the co-founder and chairman of organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm told the �ֲ���ý College Class of 2013.

“And that’s actually your job.”

Gary Hirshberg was the featured speaker at the May 26 ceremony, held in Merrill Gymnasium,  that started a new chapter in the lives of 436 �ֲ���ý seniors. He also received an honorary degree, along with environmental historian William Cronon, �ֲ���ý President Emerita Elaine Tuttle Hansen and Dr. Vivian Pinn, inaugural director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health.

Class of 2013 by the numbers.

Professor of Sociology Sawyer Sylvester (left) and retiring Dean of the Faculty Pam Baker ’69 just prior to Commencement. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

The event was a milestone for at least three people besides the graduates and their families. It was Clayton Spencer’s first graduation as sitting president of the college. But it was the final commencement for Pamela Baker ’69, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty, and Multifaith Chaplain Bill Blaine-Wallace, both of whom are retiring from �ֲ���ý.

The Sunday morning ceremony also presented a milestone in giving to the college. As reported to the gathering by Senior Gift chairs Nancy Weidner and Hank Geng, the Class of 2013 hit a new �ֲ���ý record for participation in the senior class gift, as 400 seniors, or 92 percent of the class, donated nearly $18,000.

If the weather fell short of ideal, warm feelings abounded within Merrill. Spencer’s welcoming remarks spread the good feelings around, drawing warm applause with a request that the graduates show some love for the people who supported them in all ways through their �ֲ���ý years — families and professors, for sure, but also members of the Lewiston-Auburn community, and the college staff “whose work on campus makes our lives possible, and whose work made this ceremony possible” (a reference to the need to move the ceremony indoors).

In still another milestone, a graduating senior spoke at Commencement for the first time in at least half a century. Tommy Holmberg, a history major and �ֲ���ý actor-director from Winnetka, Ill., was selected by a Commencement committee from a field of three finalists nominated by classmates.

An exuberant Zaihra Ahmed ’13 shows off a product of four years’ hard work at �ֲ���ý. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Holmberg offered a love letter to the college that celebrated, among other cherished aspects of the �ֲ���ý experience, the passing of knowledge and lore from one class to the next, and from the college to the world. “You see, it’s a beautiful cycle we’ve got here,” he said. “The goodness of �ֲ���ý is passed on out of admiration and gratitude for what was, and excitement and pride for what will be.”

After today, he said, “We will be intelligent, because of the ardor and devotion of the good people of this institution. We will be passionate, because �ֲ���ý allowed us to follow our passions and realize our dreams. We will be fun, because we’ve had fun here.

“We will be loving, because the �ֲ���ý community showed us so much love.”

Baker and Spencer presented the honorary degree recipients. Cronon, father of Jeremy Cronon ’13 and recipient of a Doctor of Letters degree, is an environmental historian whose “rigorous scholarship, imaginative arguments and elegant prose,” Baker said, “break new ground in our understanding of nature, wilderness and the American West.”

President of �ֲ���ý from 2002 to 2011 and now executive director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, Hansen also received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree. As �ֲ���ý president, she “helped us to dream well and take action on our good ideas,” Spencer said.

Another �ֲ���ý parent, the father of Ethan Hirshberg ’13 was honored with a Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Gary Hirshberg’s achievement with Stonyfield, Baker said, is “considered one of the great stories in the realm of sustainable and organic agribusiness.”

Stonyfield Farm Chairman Gary Hirshberg is shown during his Commencement speech. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Recipient of a Doctor of Science degree, Pinn “has worked her entire life to open medicine’s portal to women and people of color,” said Baker, who quoted Pinn’s remark that, “I don’t think you’re truly a good doctor or a good researcher if you don’t reach back to help others coming along.”

Drawing lessons for the graduates from his experiences getting Stonyfield off the ground, Hirshberg’s address was funny, folksy and plainspoken. But if the tone was light (speaking of milestones, this may have been the first-ever mention of camel dung in a �ֲ���ý Commencement address), the thrust of his message was anything but.

The world’s in trouble — social, medical, economic, environmental. “It is clear that we have brought the same short-sighted, greed-driven [sense of] entitlement that we’ve used to guide our economy,” he said, “to how we manage our planet and even our health.”

He said, “Simply put, the meltdown of traditional ground rules and a tough, albeit improving, jobs picture mean you have to think differently. There is a saying that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. And now the only person who can invent your future is you.”

Basia Braboy ’13 and a family member walk toward Alumni Gymnasium for a post-Commencement luncheon. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Hirshberg held out four pieces of advice, illustrated with tales from the precarious early days of Stonyfield Farm — now a business topping $350 million in annual sales.

• • “Think on your own,” he said. “Much of the so-called conventional wisdom is instead a fabricated aura of inevitability bought and paid for by massive lobbying and campaign finance donations [by] special interests.””Challenging their conventional wisdom is key. Asking loudly and repeatedly, ‘Why not pursue an alternative?’ is your job.”
  • “You can only succeed if you love what you are doing. So do what you love.”
  • “Believe in yourself and be determined, even when others doubt you. Fear of failure gets you nowhere. … Winston Churchill summed up my career beautifully when he said, ‘Success is the ability to move from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.’ “
  • Finally, show up. “Never underestimate the value of performing service and doing good,” said Hirshberg, who previously had praised �ֲ���ý’ efforts in community engagement and the senior class Pledge of Social Responsibility.

“The good news is that by attending to our social and environmental problems, there are endless opportunities. If you are creative, determined and opportunistic in putting your amazing �ֲ���ý experience to work, you and the world will benefit. Those who question conventional thinking will be in the best positions to seize the next wave of jobs and economic opportunities.”

He added, “I do know Gandhi was right when he said that anyone who feels they are too small to make a difference has never been in bed with a mosquito.”

In his closing benediction, Blaine-Wallace urged the graduates to shun complacency and stay in touch with the inner voices that urge something better. Quoting John Donohue’s Benedictus: A Book of Blessings, he said:

“May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire / That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.

“May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease / To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.”

Baker succeeds Jill N. Reich, who has served as vice president and dean since 2000. Last fall, Reich announced her plan to step down from the post on June 30 and, following a sabbatical, return as professor of psychology.

In announcing Baker’s appointment, President Hansen noted that “Pam Baker is both an outstanding teacher and researcher in her field who regularly involves her students in the creation of new knowledge. I have appointed Pam to this key leadership position with great pleasure and am excited about what I know will be her continuing contributions to �ֲ���ý in this role.”

“A deep understanding of what makes �ֲ���ý a national and international leader….”

Baker earned a bachelor of science degree in biology, cum laude, from �ֲ���ý in 1969. She received a master’s degree and doctorate from the State University of New York at Buffalo, joining the �ֲ���ý biology faculty in 1989 and being promoted to associate professor in 1996. A distinguished researcher and teacher, she was named the inaugural Papaioanou Professor of Biological Sciences in 2005.

Hansen added that Baker “has a deep understanding of what makes �ֲ���ý a national and international leader in liberal arts and sciences education. She was nominated for this position by her peers and comes highly recommended by them as well as by Dean Reich — herself a model for outstanding performance in the position.”

Baker’s nomination was forwarded to President Hansen by a 10-member search committee of faculty and staff chaired by Sowell Professor of Economics James W. Hughes and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Holly A. Ewing.

The vice president and dean of the faculty serves as an advocate for a strong faculty as the foundation of an outstanding College. The office of the VPAA recruits, develops and evaluates faculty members; fosters the development of academic programs; and cultivates excellence in the academic and intellectual life of the �ֲ���ý community.

A member of the College’s senior staff, the VPAA is involved in long-term policy making and strategic planning and works closely with the Office of College Advancement to secure funding for the faculty and academic programs, including student-faculty research. The VPAA oversees a range of programs integral to the academic mission at �ֲ���ý, including the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, the Department of Athletics and the �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art.

At �ֲ���ý, Baker’s teaching and research has focused on cell and molecular biology and immunology. She has developed a laboratory model for periodontal disease that she has used to demonstrate the roles of genetics and the immune system in bone loss in the jaw. Widely recognized in the field of immunology, her research has earned major grant support from the National Institutes of Health.

“We are constantly learning and revising what we know.”

Baker has involved many student research collaborators in her work, noting that “having a research project that I can involve students in is some of the best kind of learning we can give.” Of her teaching and research mission, she says that “we are constantly learning and revising what we know. It is our responsibility to get the students to think about the implications of what we know and what we’re still learning.”

In the area of academic administration, she was instrumental in establishing �ֲ���ý’ interdisciplinary Program in Biological Chemistry and served as chair of the faculty’s Division of the Natural Sciences before becoming associate dean of the faculty, overseeing faculty research and scholarship, in 2002.

Baker lives in South Paris, Maine, with her husband, David Baker, a 1970 �ֲ���ý graduate who is acting director of academic operations for finance at �ֲ���ý and a clinical dentist. In 2005, the Bakers together traveled to India on Fulbright sabbaticals to study public health dentistry at Maulana Azad Dental College in New Delhi.

I received a Hughes Faculty-Student Research grant to work with Pam Baker, an associate professor of biology and biological chemistry. We spent eight weeks studying genes that contribute to alveolar bone loss and gingivitis. We compared gene expressions in infected and uninfected mice, and we came to the conclusion that some people with “good” genes can go without brushing their teeth and never get gingivitis, while others can brush all they want and still get it. It is a preventable disease, but some people are more susceptible to it.

It was a lot of work, but it was fun — and I got paid! I took full advantage of all the resources in Carnegie Science Hall, which has incredible laboratory equipment that many big universities don’t even have. At the end, my research partner, Lauren Okano ’11, and I presented our findings at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor. Of all the college presentations given, ours used the most in-lab, original research.

I’m enjoying it here. I’m majoring in biochemistry and Chinese and minoring in economics. I feel fortunate to have financial aid, so I’m taking a broad range of classes — as many as I can! The teachers are available when you need them, and all the resources are right here on campus. �ֲ���ý is a great school. It’s up to you to take advantage of it.

�ֲ���ý College has named Pamela Baker, a biology professor known for her research into periodontal disease, as the college’s first Helen A. Papaioanou Professor of Biological Sciences.

This endowed professorship honors Dr. Papaioanou, of Grosse Pointe City, Mich. A member of the �ֲ���ý class of 1949 and a trustee emerita, Papaioanou is a longtime allergy, asthma and immunology specialist in the Detroit area. The Papaioanou chair was established with a gift from Ralph Perry, class of 1951, and his wife, Mary Louise Seldenfleur, of Orrs Island.

“It is a real honor to be chosen for a distinction that pays tribute to such a wonderful person as Helen, who embodies the best of our mission at �ֲ���ý,” says Baker. “She has had a distinguished career as a doctor, and is a warm and generous person who has always taken the time to get to know faculty and staff and support their work.”

A member of the �ֲ���ý class of 1970, Baker began teaching at �ֲ���ý in 1989. Her teaching focuses on cell and molecular biology and immunology. As a researcher, Baker has developed a laboratory model for periodontal disease that she has used to demonstrate the roles of genetics and the immune system in bone loss in the jaw. This research is widely recognized in the field of immunology and has earned major grant support from the National Institutes of Health. In addition, Baker has involved many student research collaborators in this work.

“Pam Baker possesses an incredible intellectual generosity, devoting her time and considerable talents to her students, involving them in her research and helping them make their own scientific discoveries,” says Jill Reich, dean of faculty. “And beyond all that, she herself is an indefatigable learner. Her curiosity and openness to new ideas make her a model for students and fellow faculty alike.”

Baker recently received a Phillips Faculty Fellowship at �ֲ���ý to support her sabbatical research during the next academic year, and a Fulbright Fellowship to support her work during the sabbatical on the development of research-based undergraduate biochemistry curricula with faculty at Maulana Azad Dental College in Delhi, India.

Baker has been a creative and effective faculty leader. She was instrumental in establishing the college’s Program in Biological Chemistry and has served as chair of the Division of the Natural Sciences and, most recently, as associate dean of the faculty.

Baker and her husband, David Baker, have lived in Auburn for eight years. A member of the �ֲ���ý class of 1970, David Baker is an associate at Willow Run Dental Associates, Auburn, and teaches in the dental hygiene program at the University of New England. Their daughter, Kate, is finishing a master’s degree at Rochester Institute of Technology in a combined study of graphic design and secondary special education.

Pamela Baker earned a bachelor of science degree in biology at �ֲ���ý and a like degree in zoology at the University of Wales at Swansea. She received her master’s degree and doctorate from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

A pediatrician and educator, Helen Papaioanou served as a �ֲ���ý trustee from 1965 until 1999. A biology major at �ֲ���ý, she received her medical degree from Boston University and a master’s of science from the University of Michigan.

She is credited with leading the modernization of the �ֲ���ý health center in the 1970s, and in the 1990s she chaired the college’s $59 million fund-raising campaign and was the trustee leader of fund raising for construction of Pettengill Hall. �ֲ���ý awarded Papaioanou an honorary doctor of science degree in 1997 and the Benjamin E. Mays Medal, the college’s highest alumni award, in 2003.

Three members of the �ֲ���ý College faculty have been awarded institutional Phillips Fellowships to support a full year’s leave at full pay for the pursuit of significant scholarship, new research or the development of new courses or pedagogical approaches.
Funded by a college endowment established through a bequest of �ֲ���ý’ fourth president, the late Charles F. Phillips, and his wife, Evelyn M. Phillips, the fellowships honor excellence among faculty.

This year’s Phillips Faculty Fellows are Pamela Baker, of Auburn, professor of biology and a member of the college’s class of 1970; J. Dykstra Eusden, of South Paris, professor of geology and a member of the class of 1980; and Rebecca Herzig, of Lewiston, associate professor of women and gender studies.

Baker has been invited by the Maulana Azad Dental College, in India, to work with its faculty on incorporating student research into the basic science curriculum. Such a change will require new approaches to education, specifically a shift to a more investigative approach rather than rote memorization of facts — a shift already embraced at �ֲ���ý, where inquiry-based science teaching and learning are standard practice.

Baker will also study strategies from Indian public health education that can help her integrate a health literacy perspective into her teaching at �ֲ���ý. Focusing on oral diseases and HIV/AIDS, she will investigate factors influencing how public health initiatives put scientific responses to disease into practice. A key part of the project is to promote cooperation between science educators in India and the United States.

Eusden’s project involves field study and three-dimensional modeling of active faults on New Zealand’s South Island. He will evaluate the structural geology, fault motions, earthquake hazard potential and landscape development in the Marlborough Fault Zone, an active plate-tectonic setting. The study area is part of the Seaward Kaikoura and Amuri Mountain Ranges, which are currently experiencing rapid uplift.

Based at Canterbury University, Eusden will conduct field research in fall 2005. Geodynamic modeling at the University of Maine will take place the following winter, and in spring 2006 he will return to New Zealand to finish fieldwork and examine regions where modeling and field-based interpretations are at odds.

With the support of her fellowship, Herzig aims to complete a book tentatively titled The Technological Animal: Hair Removal and the Making of Modern America. The project is intended, first, to bring an empirical, historical perspective to recent theoretical debates about the nature of sexual difference, by illuminating some of the mundane practices used to maintain the appearance of sexual dimorphism.

Second, Herzig seeks to elucidate the growth of these practices as indicating larger historical trends — in fact, to use the history of hair removal as a window through which to examine America’s political transformation from the Colonial era to the present.

Phillips Fellowship leaves typically take place away from �ֲ���ý, so that recipients can interact with leading scholars in their fields. The fellowship includes support for the replacement of the faculty recipient, as well as travel expenses to research venues. Two or three of the fellowships are awarded to faculty annually.

The Phillips bequest also supports Phillips Student Fellowships, which afford students the opportunity to undertake research in international and other culturally distinct settings.

In the �ֲ���ý contingent were Rachel Austin, assistant professor of chemistry; three associate professors from the biology department, Pamela Baker, Lee Abrahamsen and Nancy Kleckner; and John Kelsey, professor of psychology. �ֲ���ý was one of 29 colleges and universities to send a team to the institute, which took place at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, Calif.

The SENCER Summer Institute was designed to support a national reform effort broadening the relevance of undergraduate science education. “The overall idea was that learning can be improved by connecting the teaching of science to current global issues, particularly those which are complex and largely unsolved,” says Pamela Baker.

“Many of the issues we face as citizens have a science or technology dimension,” Baker continues. “While not everyone can be an expert on everything, learning to be a critical thinker and knowing how scientfic knowledge is produced can help people contribute to these debates and decisions.”

Participants in the SENCER institute proposed courses that teach rigorous science content through problems that require scientific knowledge and expertise.

SENCER is planned as a five-year national dissemination project that will promote reform through faculty development, a focus on local systemic change and improved assessment strategies. The project is supported with a grant from the National Science Foundation and has three goals: 1) to improve science education, especially for students who will never major in a scientific field; 2) to connect science education reform to more robust and relevant general education programs; and 3) to stimulate informed civic engagement with scientific questions on the part of today’s students.

Divorcing scientific facts from the social context and the research methodology of the era in which they were discovered “makes it very difficult for people to apply those facts in the real world,” says Baker. “Making an effort to tie science education to real-life issues not only motivates students to learn the facts, but helps them learn to apply the scientific thinking process to issues they encounter in the future.”

She added, “It was gratifying to see that �ֲ���ý is quite far ahead of many places in doing this kind of teaching.”

The Association of American Colleges and Universities is the leading national association devoted to advancing and strengthening liberal learning for all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Founded in 1915, AAC&U has more than 700 accredited public and private colleges and universities of every type and size.