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�STJOHN’S
College
ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE
On Mozart
magine what Mozart would have thought of the sweeping claims made of his music
today, and of the various commercial enterprises that sprouted up as a result.
Listening to Mozart, according to some studies, can help produce smarter babies,
stimulate creativity in adults, and even motivate cows to produce more milk.
This report on the “Moozart” effect can be found on ABCNews.com: “On Hans
Pieter Sieber’s Priegola dairy farm in Villanueva del Pardillo, Spain, the secret to
success is not some newfangled technology or machine. . . Rather it is the dulcet, layered
tones of classical music.” In this case, the report claimed, Sieber’s 700 heifers went more
happily to their milking stalls when exposed to Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp in
D Major.
As the recipient of a “Mozart effect” CD, I can find no evidence as to whether Mozart’s
music has rendered anyone in my family smarter, more creative, or a better test taker.
However, personal experience has shown that “5oare sia il sento” from Cosifan tutte,
played on a continuous loop, has been proven to soothe both colicky babies and desperate
adults in the middle of the night.
While Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus gave Mozart a new prominence in the aoth century, it
also reinforced in modern popular culture all the myths that begin as rumors soon after
Mozart’s death in lygr. Here was a genius hounded, undermined, and ultimately driven to
death by that sulking mediocrity, Salieri. The fact that Mozart died while trying in vain to
finish his Requiem, along with reports that his body swelled up dramatically in his final
hours, helped to contribute to the conspiracy theories.
William Stafford debunks a dozen or so misconceptions about the composer in his book
The Mozart Myths. In short, Stafford concludes: Mozart was not poisoned, but died from
an infection; rheumatic fever may have factored in his rapid decline. Mozart didn’t suffer
from mental illness, wasn’t the playboy or drunkard he is sometimes made out to be, and
by most accounts was devoted to his wife, Constanze. Salieri, while no genius, really wasn’t
such a bad composer. Mozart’s professional and financial failures had more to do with his
inability to play along with the patronage system and to cater to the popular tastes of
his time.
At St. John’s, juniors discuss Don Giovanni in seminar and listen to several other Mozart
works in tutorial. Annapolis tutor Bill Pastille says the opera is sometimes a challenge to
discuss in seminar. For him, the archetypal Don Juan story of the libretto doesn’t quite
measure up to the superb music of this opera, though he points out that Kierkegaard found
the opera fascinating.
Pastille prefers The Marriage ofFigaro, often discussed in music tutorial. “The last two
minutes, the scene in which the countess forgives her husband, is a beautiful moment. It’s
like grace shining into the world.”
This issue of The College^ celebrates music at St. John’s by focusing on some of our
tutors-and there are many more at the college than can be profiled in these pages-who
share their musical talents with all of us.
-KU
I
The College
is published three times a year by
St. John’s College, Annapolis, MD,
and Santa Fe, NM
Known office of publication:
Communications Office
St. John’s College
Box 2800
Annapolis, MD 21404-2800
Periodicals postage paid
at Annapolis, MD
Send address
changes to The College
Magazine, Communications
Office, St. John’s College,
Box 2800, Annapolis, MD
21404-2800.
postmaster:
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443-716-4011
rosemary.harty@sjca.edu
Patricia Dempsey,
managing editor
Jenny Hannifin,
Santa Fe editor
Jennifer Behrens, art director
The College welcomes letters on
issues of interest to readers.
Letters can be sent via e-mail to
the editor or mailed to the
address above.
Annapolis
410-626-2539
Santa Fe
505-984-6104
Contributors
Ann Deger (SFii)
Sara Luell (A09)
Brooke McLane-Higginson
(AGI09)
Anna Perleberg (SF02)
Deborah Spiegelman
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Claude Skelton Design
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�I -|
College
The
ZINE FOR Alumni of St. John’s College
Annapolis
{Contents}
PAGE
ZO
DEPARTMENTS
From Freshman to
Johnnie
Was it speaking up in seminar, finishing
up the freshman essay, falling in love
with Ptolemy? Members of the class of
2011 share experiences that helped make
them feel like a Johnnie.
PAGE
Zz^
The Book that Changed
My Liee
Sometimes a book is so powerful it can
change your life in subtle or dramatic
ways, suddenly or over time.
PAGE
2
FROM THE BELL TOWERS
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Celebrating campaign success
Developing young leaders in Annapolis
What the tutors did last summer
Keeping the great books alive in Chicago
It’s all about community in Santa Fe
High praise for St. John’s
The reading list
A Graduate Institute family
Levan Hall update
News and announcements
9
LETTERS
30 BIBLIOFILE
Toby Barlow (SF88) explores lycanthropes
in love in Sharp Teeth-, also, new alumni
books in brief, and what the tutors
are reading.
2(0
Music in the Key oe Liee
34 ALUMNI
Exploring another side of our
multi-talented tutors.
PAGE
PROFILES
32 Deputy Police Chief Clark Kimerer (SF78)
keeps law and order in Seattle.
36 Judge Jean K. FitzSimon (A73) aims for
fairness in bankruptcy court.
38 Austin architect Francois Levy (SF87)
designs sustainable buildings.
40 Abby Weinberg (SFoo) is saving forests.
28
Alumni Voices
On Saturday nights, the fishnets
are on and the gloves are off for
Jane McManus (A93) and her roller derby
alter ego, Lesley E. Visserate.
48 SANTA FE ALUMNI RETURN
50 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS
PAGE 32
ON THE COVER
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Illustration by David Johnson
52 ST. John’s forever
�{From
the
Bell Towers}
Celebrating Unprecedented Success
Exceeding the most ambitious
fundraising goal in the college’s
history called for saying thank
you in a big way, and of course,
saying it twice: first in Santa Fe
on July 25, when the college
announced it had raised $134
million, and again in September
in Annapolis. Alumni, parents,
board members, community
supporters, and friends from
across the nation joined
together to celebrate a land
mark achievement. In both
cities, the college marked how
much has already been achieved
through gifts to the campaign
and thanked those whose
contributions made the
campaign a success.
In Santa Fe, President
Michael Peters hosted a distinc
tively Southwestern-themed
celebration that began with a
reception in the tented parking
Spirits were high at Santa Fe’s July 25 “Celebracion.”
lot of the Student Activities
Center. Monsoon rains that
visited the campus earlier in the
parents, and foundations, as well as its faculty and staff and the
week yielded to sunny skies, and mariachis in studded charro suits
communities it serves, is what has been most heartening to me.”
greeted arriving guests. The main event took place in the SAC
Among the speakers were Reed Dasenbrock, secretary of the
basketball court, transformed by draping, banners, black carpet
New Mexico Department of Higher Education, and Santa Fe
and strikingly decorated tables. A jazz ensemble entertained as
Mayor David Coss. Both expressed their appreciation for the
guests enjoyed dinner and dessert.
college. “I grew up with St. John’s as a neighbor, and I am proud
“Without every gift, no matter how large or small, we would
that St. John’s is here,” said Coss. “You fit in right from the very
not be here tonight celebrating the campaign-a campaign that
beginning.”
achieved virtually every one of its goals-increased college
Ray Cave (class of 1948), a member of the college’s Board of
endowment, student internship programs, new dormitories in both Visitors and Governors and chairman of the college’s previous
Santa Fe and Annapolis,” Peters said. “This enthusiastic participa
campaign, was called upon to lead a champagne toast. He referred
tion, the knowledge that St. John’s is valued by its alumni, friends.
to a draft of a proposed new strategic plan for the college, which
The Campaign for St. John’s College raised $134 million for
the college, much of which is already at work in supporting
the Program;
• $43.6 for the support of financial aid
• $14.4 for improvements to student life, the libraries,
internships, and grants for teachers to attend the
Graduate Institute
• $29.3 million for increased faculty salaries and faculty
development
• $12 million for the construction of Gilliam and Spector
halls in Annapolis
• $13.5 million for the renovation of Mellon Hall
• $5 million for the construction of Norman and Betty Levan
Hall, to house Santa Fe’s Graduate Institute
• $5 million for a new dormitory in Santa Fe
{The College-
states: “mere survival is no longer an issue for St. John’s.”
“So I propose a toast. First: to a St. John’s where ‘survival is no
longer an issue.’ Second: To the glorious prospect that-once again
and for the foreseeable future-with due thanks to a successful
capital campaign-the following teachers will return to St. John’s
each fall: Homer and Plato, Kant and Descartes, Tolstoy and
Twain-along with too of their friends,” Cave said.
Although the news was already out, the celebration in
Annapolis, held in the FSK Lobby, was no less ebullient. A group
of grateful Johnnies sang “Ode to Joy” and Annapolis President
Christopher Nelson (SF70) thanked supporters for helping the
college surpass the $125 million goal for the campaign.
“We knew from the very start that to reach such an ambitious
goal we would need the support of everyone who knew and cared
about the college: our alumni, our friends in Annapolis and Santa
Fe and across the nation, and the parents of our alumni and
students-everyone had to play a part,” Nelson said. “And you
St. John’s College ■ Fall 200S }
�{From
the
Bell Towers}
3
Honoring Two Exceptional Supporters
Ron Fielding (A70) is named a Fellow of the college, to the
APPLAUSE OF (l. TO R.) AnNAPOLIS DeAN MiCHAEL DiNK (A75),
BVG Chair Sharon Bishop (class of 1965), and Santa Fe Dean
Victoria Mora.
The July campaign celebration included a special presentation
to two alumni whose contributions were essential to the success
of “With a Clear and Single Purpose”: The Campaign for
St. John’s College. Santa Fe Dean Victoria Mora and Annapohs
Dean Michael Dink (A75) named two new Honorary Fellows of
the College, a distinction that has been bestowed by the faculty
of the college to just a handful of people over the years.
Ronald Fielding (A70) was honored “in appreciation of his
outstanding leadership as chair of the Campaign for St. John’s
College, his extraordinary generosity to the college, and in
recognition of his accomphshments in the field of finance.”
Sharon Bishop (class of 1965) was recognized “in appreciation
of her distinguished service as chair of the Board of Visitors and
Governors, her generosity and leadership during the period of
the Campaign for St. John’s College, and her contribution to the
field of human resources and social services.”
Both were moved by the honor, with Bishop noting, “none of
my tutors ever would have expected this from me! ”
Philanthropist Paul Mellon (class of 1944) and Columbia
University’s Mark Van Doren (HA46) were made honorary
fellows of the college in 1958-59. In 1996, Ray Cave (class of
1948) and Stephen Feinberg (HA96), co-chairs of the Campaign
for our Fourth Century were made honorary fellows.
came through! Boy, did you come through! My heart is so filled
with gratitude toward all of you for what you have done to secure
the future of this small but important college. We can’t say
thank you often enough for the good things you’ve helped us
accomplish.”
Before the speeches gave way to swing dancing, Elsabe Dixon
(Aio) took a moment to thank donors for what their gifts make
possible for St. John’s students now and in the future: “You have
given us the ability to be a great college through your contribu
tions to financial aid, student housing and student internships,”
she said. “You are the ones who have put in the time as a commu
nity to continue to support this community. And for everything
that you all have done for me and my fellow students, I am grateful
beyond what these words can say.”
{The College.
Above,
clockwise:
Santa Fe students
offered a hearty thanks to
CAMPAIGN donors; TUTOR ToM MaY AND HIS WIFE, PAMELA, AT THE
Annapolis; Luke Russell, Sam Porter, and Robert
Shaver (all Aog) perform; Dr. Norman Levan (SFGI74), Santa Fe
GI Director Krishnan Venkatesh, and BVG Member Michael
Uremovich (SFGI05).
reception in
St. John’s College ■ Fall aooS }
�{From the Bell Towers}
Learning Leadership a
Long Way from Home
This past August, three
St. John’s students and alumni
traveled with five Annapolis
teenagers to the Dominican
Repuhhc, where they spent a
week living and working in the
remote mountain village of
El Ramon. The service trip,
designed to foster leadership
skills to prepare the teens to
make a difference in their
hometown communities.
was organized by Epigenesis, an
outreach project created and led
by Annapolis students.
Last spring, the group’s
founders (Jamaal Barnes, Aio;
Raphaela Cassandra, Ato;
Joshua Becker, Ao8; and Rachel
Davison, Ao8) received a
$10,000 peace grant from the
Kathryn Wasserman Davis
Foundation for their program.
They contacted local community
groups to develop ideas and
support for the program, then
recruited their participants.
Beginning last June, they met
together in Mellon HaU for
seminar-style discussions on
topics including leadership,
race, and social activism. The
international trip offered the
students an opportunity to put
their training into action.
Cassandra, Becker, and Adam
Meyers (A07) made the trip,
serving as chaperones for the
teens. The Dominican
Republic’s Ambassador to the
U.N. met their plane in Santo
Domingo. They stayed at a local
Cathohc school near El Ramon
for two nights, then packed up
their gear and two heavy suit
cases filled with books donated
by The Annapolis Bookstore for
the village’s library. Next came
the steep ride up the mountain
to El Ramon. “It was so steep we
had to get out and push at
Johnnies
and their
Epigenesis
PARTICIPANTS IN THE DOMINICAN
Republic. Back row (l. to r.):
Yosy Valasquez, Bryanna
Greene, Tobi Yusuf, Adam
Meyers (A07), Joshua Becker
(A08), Raphaela Cassandra
(Ato); Front row: Timothy
Greene and Tony Connor.
What the Tutors Did Last Summer
Ah, the lucky tutors. Each
summer they get to delve into
something new, seek a deeper
grasp of a familiar work, or
study unfamifiar subject matter
to prepare for a class they have
yet to lead. AU we get to do is go
to the beach.
In Annapohs, six tutors read
Virgina WoolFs The Waves.
Tutor Tom May, who led the
group, said, “Our study of the
novel ranged from close and
lengthy consideration of the
imagery of the interludes and
their relation to the foUowing
sections, to the development
and aging of each of the six
characters, to the larger effort
that Woolf makes to refashion
the novel as a literary form.”
The group also read and
discussed two poems that
resonated with particular
sections of the novel:
Wordsworth’s “Lines Written
on Westminster Bridge,”
related to Bernard’s arrival in
London, and W. H. Auden’s
“Stop aU the clocks” in connec
tion with NevUle’s account of
Percival’s death.
A group of Santa Fe tutors
delved into comedic hterature
with a study group that arose
from tutor David McDonald’s
{The College -5f.
aooy lecture on Rabelais.
The lecture sparked a dialogue
between McDonald and tutor
Alan Zeithn, and the two began
discussing ways in which
comedic works might be better
apprehended in the Program.
“Comedy has a reputation of
being hard to talk about at the
coUege,” said McDonald.
The two had three principal
aims for their summer study
group: to help participants
become better readers of
comedic writings, to look at the
many deep and intrinsically
interesting questions raised by
the study of these works, and to
John’s College • Fall 2008 }
times,” Cassandra says.
In El Ramon, the group
settled in on sleeping mats at La
Esperanza Community Center, a
concrete building with stone
floors, but no running water or
electricity. They shared long
days of hard work and learned to
dance the merengue at
communal dinners with local
village leaders. They also discov
ered “the parallels to service
work in the United States, and
the ways we could have an
impact back here in Annapolis,”
says Becker.
Working with Peace Corps
volunteers and local leaders, the
group conducted a census of the
350 families in El Ramon. They
also ventured into the lush rain
forest outside the village to dig
up plants for a prayer garden
they created near the village’s
community center. “The garden
was a way to cross the language
barrier,” says Cassandra. “We
learned how to work together,
planting side by side.”
For more on the project, visit
the group’s Web site:
www.epigenesisprogram.org.
—Patricia Dempsey
consider carefully the place of
comedic works at the college.
They set out to look beyond
surface-level comedy to
discover deeper meaning.
“Being amused [by a work] too
often means dismissal of its
intellectual seriousness,”
said Zeitlin.
The group was startled by
how different from each other
various comedic traditions
were-Aristophanes from
Terence, Chaucer from Lucianyet all managed to show how
our expectations of the world
are at odds with our experience
of it. “Comedy teaches us the
hmits of being able to control
our world,” said McDonald.
�{From the Bell Towers}
5
Summer in Santa Fe
In Santa Fe, the bustle of
campus life doesn’t slow during
the summer months-in fact, it
just gets busier. January
Freshmen and Graduate Insti
tute students are joined by
conference attendees from
around the world. The campus
hosted i6 groups this summer,
including Middlebury College’s
Bread Loaf School of English,
the Santa Fe Institute, the Glen
Workshop, and a bevy of biolo
gists, cosmologists and physi
cists from Los Alamos National
Labs. During the month of July
the college also hosted partici
pants in the Summer Classics
Johnnies and
Santa Feans of
all ages spread
blankets on the
athleticfield.
program, a diverse group
of alumni, Santa Feans,
and friends from across
the nation who gathered
for week-long seminars on
works including the
Mahabharata and the
Iliad and on topics such
as World War I in prose
and poetry.
This summer marked
the third year of the
college’s enormously
successful Music on the
Hill series, envisioned as
a way to bring St. John’s
and the Santa Fe commu
nity together through family
centered concerts. This year.
Music on the Hill kicked off
June II, beginning six weeks of
performances that drew crowds
of up to 1,500 people (up from
450 in the first year). National
and local acts representing a
range of styles from jazz to folk
to reggae to blues graced the
stage each Wednesday. John
nies and Santa Feans of all ages
spread blankets on the athletic
field to mingle, picnic, dance,
and enjoy music on beautiful
summer evenings.
This summer also saw the
college’s participation in the
5th Annual International Folk
Art Market, a global celebra
tion of international craft tradi
tions and the artists who partic
ipate in them. More than 100
artists from 40 different coun
tries attend the market, which
provides an opportunity for
artists and craftspeople to
share their work, exchange
ideas, and create sustainable
economic opportunities for
their home cultures. St. John’s
housed artists in the dorms the
first year of the market, and
many of the original attendees
recall their stays on campus
fondly. Some, particularly
those hailing from troubled or
strife-torn regions, remarked
that the market was “one place
we could always feel safe.”
As the event has grown.
artists no longer stay on
campus, but the college
continues to sponsor the event,
and President Michael Peters
sits on the market’s board of
directors. St. John’s also hosts
and organizes the One World
Dinner, a festive meal for more
than 350 people that allows
artists, organizers, sponsors,
and international dignitaries to
join together in cross-cultural
conversation. The success of
the International Folk Art
Market played a role in Santa
Fe’s recent designation as a
UNESCO Creative City.
—AnneDeger (SFii)
Above: Participants in the
International Folk Art
Market. At left: Summer aoo8
MARKED THE THIRD SEASON OF
Music
{The College.
St. John’s College ■ Fall 200S }
on the
Hill.
�6
{From the Bell Towers}
Supporting Chicago’s
Great Books College
Against all odds, a small,
independent liberal arts college
with a great books curriculum
overcomes serious financial
difficulties to survive. Sound
familiar? Shimer College,
“the great books school of
Chicago,” shares many aspects
of its history and educational
mission with St. John’s. In addi
tion, Shimer shares Christopher
Nelson (SF70), president of the
Annapohs campus and current
chairman of the Shimer Board
of Trustees.
Since he joined Shimer’s
board in 2005, Nelson has
helped advise the college in
critical matters such as
fundraising and student recruit
ment, a move from Waukegan to
Chicago, and choosing an
interim president. He also
assisted in the search that led
Shimer to its new president,
Thomas K. Lindsay, deputy
chair of the National Endow
ment for the Humanities.
Nelson has known of
Shimer since the early 1970s,
when as president of the
Chicago alumni chapter, he met
several St. John’s alumni who
were teaching at the college.
“I was very interested because
Shimer has a core curriculum
that looks a lot hke St. John’s
and a faculty that was clearly
dedicated to the college’s
mission,” he says.
Shimer was founded in 1853
in Mount Carroll, Illinois.
Under Robert Hutchins’ guid
ance, it became the great books
college of the University of
Chicago from 1950-1958. When
Chicago pulled out, the great
books remained. Falhng enroll
ment and crushing debt led the
college’s trustees to desperate
measures in the 1970s. They
voted to close the college and
sell the buildings and campus in
Mount Carroll; however, a
group of faculty and students
refused to give up. They
borrowed money to keep the
doors open, and the college
moved to Waukegan in 1979. “A
dedicated group of people kept
it going,” Nelson says. “The
faculty did all the administrative
jobs, as well as teaching, and
even the maintenance. Students
continued their studies, and the
college rebuilt itself.”
In part because St. John’s also
struggled to survive at times.
Nelson finds Shimer’s story
inspiring. Although students
can choose major fields of study
at the college, a required core
curriculum includes seminars
on the great works of Western
civihzation.
Nelson’s involvement with
the college began when he
became a friend of Shimer’s
former president, Donald
Moon, who remains on the
faculty. Throughout the years,
Nelson offered Moon advice and
support, and he joined Shimer’s
board at the invitation of Presi
dent William Rice. Nelson even
tually became vice chair and
began his term as chair in 2007.
Nelson is pleased that things
are looking up for Shimer. Two
years ago the college sold its
Waukegan buildings and moved
to the campus of the lUinois
Institute of Technology in
Chicago. Last year, the college
was profiled in the New York
Times and earlier this fall, the
college welcomed 45 freshmen,
its largest entering class in 30
years. “It’s important that this
school survive,” Nelson says.
Cassie Sherman {A04) is one
of four St. John’s alumni among
Shimer’s faculty and staff; like
Nelson, she’s determined to see
Shimer succeed. As assistant
admissions director, she does
everything from visiting high
schools to producing student
recruitment material. “I feel
hke I’m doing a good thing,”
she says.
{The College-
As CHAIRMAN OF ShIMER ColLEGe’s BoARD OF TRUSTEES, AnNAPOLIS
President Christopher Nelson (SF70) advises the college
LEADERSHIP.
“The Most Important
Ideas of our Civilization”
St. John’s is often mentioned favorably in books about educa
tion, but it’s always nice when a highly respected figure issues
high praise. In this case, it’s Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, who for
30 years was the president of George Washington University.
In his newly pubhshed memoir, Trachtenberg mentions
St. John’s in a chapter titled “The Ideal University”:
“St. John’s College ... is a smaU, intimate, teaching-oriented,
classics-focused institution that is sometimes mentioned as one
ideal. I remember when in 1954 a St. John’s representative came
to speak to a parent/student meeting at my high school in
Brooklyn. As interested as the parents were in what the man had
to say about the college, it was clear that they were needlessly
concerned that if their kids chose St. John’s, they wouldn’t be
able to get into medical school. To them, it was, perhaps, too
unconventional a place that was following a curriculum they
perceived as too far from the norm to be recognized by
professional schools as providing a legitimate education.
But for many other people, St. John’s was and stiU is the very
best form of undergraduate education, a chance to immerse
oneself in the most important ideas of our civihzation.”
St. John’s College • Fall 2008 }
�{From
the
Bell Towers}
Levan Hall
Plans
Approved
Building in environmentally
sensitive Santa Fe is never an
easy feat, but the college’s longawaited center for the Graduate
Institute, Levan Hall, has made
its way through the city’s
extensive review and permitting
process, and building should
begin in the spring. A gift from
Dr. Norman Levan (SFGI74)
made the project possible.
The first step, approval from
the City of Santa Fe Planning
Commission, was achieved in
June. The next hurdle was
cleared July aa, when the board
approved a height exception
(the building is 39 feet at its
tallest, compared to the
regulation 16 feet), but required
college officials to return for
approval of additional design
features, including some varia
tion in design from surrounding
buildings, and the architect’s
use of COR-TEN, a resilient
steel designed to weather to a
pleasing copper color. The
review board approved the
college’s plans on Sept. a3.
Levan Hall is being designed
With
plans approved, the college should begin
Levan Hall
CONSTRUCTION NEXT SPRING.
to achieve a silver rating in the
United States Green Building
Council LEED rating system.
Reading List
CHANGES
In with Medea, out
with the Rat Man
The Instruction Committees on
each campus have made some
changes to the work in progress
that is the seminar reading list.
In Santa Fe, where the
committee focused on
All in the GI Family
Two GENERATIONS OF THE ThOMAS/GrOENENDYKE FAMILY, SHOWN WITH
President Michael Peters (l.), graduated from the GI last May.
Abbie Thomas (not in regalia) received her degree in May in
Annapolis. Her mother, Cheryl Groenendyke, and Cheryl’s
HUSBAND, Richard (a BVG member), received their degrees a week
later in Santa Fe. Ms. Thomas was awarded a prize for her
preceptorial essay, “Rereading Proust,” an honor announced
AT the Santa Fe ceremony.
freshman and junior years,
some of the more significant
changes involve replacing
Plato’s Sophist with the
Protagoras, swapping “The
Two-Part Prelude of 1799” for
“Tintern Abbey,” and
replacing Euripides’
Hippolytas with the Medea.
All three replacement texts
have been on various reading
lists before, and it is likely that
all will appear again in the
future. One plan, adopted a few
years ago, was to alternate the
Sophist and the Protagoras on a
regular basis. Similarly, Medea
might likely find itself replaced
with another Euripides play,
and “Tintern Abbey” could
give way to a different
Wordsworth poem.
To take the Sophist off the
reading list is “to lose a great
good,” says tutor Matt Davis,
but the Protagoras has its own
virtues. Considered one of
Plato’s most dramatic
dialogues, the Protagoras is a
literary masterwork offering
students an opportunity to
learn about Protagoras-the
representative of relativism-in
more than one dialogue
(Theaetetus being the other).
By studying the dialogues
together students learn
more about one of the most
important problems of our
(The College. St. John’s
College ■ Fall 2008 }
7
time. The dialogue also allows
greater insight into Socrates:
readers see him in a slightly less
saintly role and learn about his
relationship to the Sophists.
It has been about eight years
since Medea was on the
freshman reading list, Davis
estimates. Medea elicits
questions about the status of
the Greek heroes and about
mortals’ relations to the gods.
“Tintern Abbey” can present a
challenge in seminar due to its
brevity, but one virtue in
reading shorter texts is the
opportunity for a deeper, more
leisurely conversation.
In Annapolis, freshmen will
have two seminars on De
Anima, with their Lucretius
seminars moving to sophomore
seminar. This exchange undoes
a long-standing, but anom
alous, departure from the
rough chronological order that
prevails through most of the
reading list. Annapolis Dean
Michael Dink (A75) says, “it is
hoped that freshmen will
benefit from bringing the three
major Aristotle readings
together: Physics, Metaphysics,
and De Anima. The other
changes all followed the
principle that any author
worthy of being on the
Program is worthy of at least
two seminars.”
That means in sophomore
year, a second seminar will be
read on Calvin. Seniors will
have two seminars on Faulkner,
with additional selections from
Go Down, Moses, and two
seminars on Heidegger’s Intro
duction to Metaphysics, instead
of one on “What is Philos
ophy?” Removed from the
reading list are Rabelais’
Gargantua and Pantagruel in
sophomore year. Sacrificed in
senior year: Flannery
O’Connor’s “Parker’s Back”
and Freud’s “Notes on a Case
of Obsessional Neurosis” (Rat
man).
�{From the Bell Towers}
8
News & Announcements
New Tutors
The following tutors have
joined the Santa Fe faculty:
Arcelia Rodrigue/,
received her BA, MA, and PhD
in Government and Politics
from the University of Mary
land, College Park.
Her areas of special interest
include political philosophy
and international relations.
Seth Braver received his
MA in Mathematics from the
University of California at
Santa Cruz and his PhD in
Mathematics from University of
Montana. Before coming to
St. John’s Braver was adjunct
associate professor at the
University of Montana.
Topi Heikkero received his
MA (Theoretical Philosophy)
and MTh (Theological Ethics
and Philosophy of Religion)
from the University of
Helsinki, Finland. He special
izes in the ethics of technology
and the philosophy of tech
nology.
Llyd Wells received his BA
in Natural Science and Ancient
Near Eastern Studies from The
Johns Hopkins University, and
his MS and PhD in Oceanog
raphy from the University of
Washington, Seattle. Before
coming to St. John’s, Wells
held a Mellon postdoctoral
fellowship at the University of
Pennsylvania, and was scholar
in-residence at Sterhng
College, Vermont.
Annapolis welcomed the
following tutors:
Michael J. Brogan earned a
PhD in Philosophy from
Villanova University, where he
also earned his master’s
degree. He was a visiting
researcher at the Catholic
University of Louvain in
Belgium and earned his bach
elor’s degree at Swarthmore
College.
Matthew S. Linck joins
St. John’s from The New School
of Social Research, where he
was an adjunct professor in the
New School for General
Studies. He has also taught in
the honors program of Long
Island University, SUNY’s
Purchase College, and New
York University. He is author of
The Ideas ofSocrates (London:
Continuum, 2007). He earned
a BEA in Painting at Syracuse
University.
Marcel Andrew Widzisz
earned a PhD in Classics from
the University of Texas at
Austin, where he also earned
his master’s in Greek Litera
ture. He earned three bach
elor’s degrees from Southern
Illinois University: in Classics,
French, and Philosophy.
A visiting tutor in the
Graduate Institute this fall,
Sarah Benson earned a BA in
Philosophy at Pennsylvania
State University, an MA in
Comparative Literature from
the University of Texas, and a
PhD in the History of Art from
Cornell University.
Members
New BVG Members
The college’s Board ofVisitors
and Governors welcomed these
members:
John M. Belcher is the
Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of ARINC Incorpo
rated. He has more than
30 years of experience in the
aviation, information tech
nology, and defense industries,
and is a leading authority in
aviation and air traffic services.
Stephen Jon Bohlin (SF81)
retired recently after a long
investment career with
Thornburg Investment
Management in Santa Fe.
He also serves on the New
Mexico State Treasurer’s
Investment Committee as a
public member.
Michele C. Farquhar is a
partner at Hogan and Hartson
law firm in Washington, D.C.
She is a member of the Cali
fornia and Washington, D.C.,
bar associations and is on the
board of trustees at her alma
mater, Duke University.
Jana Howard Carey retired
as a Partner at Venable, LLP, in
December 2003 after 26 years
of law practice. She is an active
of the aikido club go through their moves as part of a
STUDENT activities FAIR EARLIER THIS SEMESTER.
{The College -St. John’s
College ■ Fall 2008 }
community leader in Maryland.
Richard A. Groenendyke,
Jr. (SFGI08) recently retired
after a 35-year career in the law.
Most recently, he was a share
holder and senior litigator with
Hall, Estill, Hardwick, Gable,
Golden & Nelson,
Attorneys at Law, in Tulsa,
Oklahoma.
John C. Jeeferies, Jr.
recently stepped down as dean
of the University of Virginia
School of Law. He is a member
of the bar in both Virginia and
the District of Columbia.
Awards
In October, Annapolis
Treasurer Bronte Jones was
one of six recipients of the
Fannie Lou Hamer Award,
named for the groundbreaking
civil rights leader. Presented by
the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Committee, the award recog
nizes women who continue
Hamer’s efforts. Jones was also
accepted to the HERS Institute
at Wellesley College.
The Arts Council of Anne
Arundel County earlier this fall
presented Annie Awards to
Lucinda Edinberg, art
educator for the St. John’s
Mitchell Gallery, and Anna
Greenberg (HA96), honorary
member of the college’s Board
ofVisitors and Governors.
Edinberg was named Arts
Educator of the Year, and
Greenberg was recognized as
Arts Patron of the year.
The Epoch Journal,
a magazine on current affairs
published by Annapolis
students, was named a finalist
in the American Collegiate
Press’ 2008 Magazine
Pacemaker Award, which
recognizes excellence in
student journalism. For more
about the Epoch, visit the
publication’s website:
http://news.
epochjournal, org/.-^
�{Letters}
A Loss FOR THE COLLEGE
On a hot summer day in 1997,
Chris Colhy (HA08) showed
me how to use the most
intimidating machine in the
Print Shop: an industrial-grade
paper cutter, armed with a hlade
powerful enough to sever a
hand. 1 stiU recall Chris’ patient,
soft-spoken manner when he
explained how to operate the
menacing machine. Thankfully,
for my sake, the machine had a
fail-safe method of operation,
requiring the use of hoth
hands to trigger the cutting
mechanism.
1 had the privilege to know
and work with Chris, not while I
was a student, hut after I gradu
ated. For a year, before 1 went to
law school, 1 was a hookmaker,
among other things, at the
Touchstones Discussion Project,
which required my almost daily
presence at the Print Shop.
Chris trained me in the art of
paper cutting, binding, and
copying. Soon, not only did 1
lose fear of operating copying
machines, I also became part of
Chris’ Print Shop family, and my
tedious work became much
more enjoyable.
During my time at the Print
Shop, Chris and 1 had many
conversations about pretty much
every subject. 1 recall one partic
ular anecdote he related about
his grocery shopping habits,
which 1 try to practice to this
day. He recommended going to
the store with specific meals in
mind so as not to overspend or
buy on impulse, thus defeating
the expectations of the grocers.
Chris had a rebellious streak in
him. He said, in his matter-offact way, that one saved much
money that way. After threeand-a-half years of St. John’s
(1 was a Febbie), 1 appreciated
Chris’ real-world savoir-faire.
While Chris.. .was unable to
finish college, he was well-read,
knowledgeable and informed. In
his time at the college, he had
caught the “Great Books bug,”
having read many of the books
Christopher Colby (HA08)
students read, which always
made for pleasant conversation,
as we discharged our respective
duties and tried to drown out
the repetitive noise of the
printing presses and the
copiers. Chris also enjoyed an
unexpected perk from the tutors
who came every day with mate
rial to copy for their classes.
Chris would keep an extra copy
of any material that interested
him (short stories and poetry in
particular) and would read them
at his leisure.
I last saw Chris during my 10year reunion in aooy. He
showed me the many improve
ments in equipment and tech
nology that he had accom
plished since I had left. As we
toured the Print Shop, I could
not help but think how proud
Chris was of the changes that
had occurred. He had brought
the Print Shop from the Guten
berg years to the aist century.
Chris was a humble, loyal and
dedicated member of the college
community. I am not only
saddened about his death,
but also about the loss for
the college.
Juan Villasenor (A97)
Applauding TheLogic of
Desire
I recently read and was
entranced by.. .Annapolis tutor
Peter Kalkavage’s The Logic of
Desire: An Introduction to
Hegel’s Phenomenology....
The book is a remarkable
embodiment of the teaching art.
Kalkavage creates a living
joining of inwardnesses, which
he is able to awaken and hnk in
a remarkable way; the inward
ness of Hegel’s written words,
his own inwardness as medi
ating presence, and the inward
ness of the reader. The paradox
to me was that when I’m able to
teach like this, it’s because I can
stand in the thing to be under
stood and in the particular
embodied learning soul of the
student before me and adapt
what I say to the way that
student learns, while watching
aU the time not only what the
student says but the modulation
in the student’s eyes, opaque or
melting to insight, resistant or
ardent. Kalkavage does the
same thing, but without the
individual student before him.
Yet he addresses the reader in
such a way as to reach a wide
array of individual readers. His
book is a model of this art.
Kalkavage writes, “Commen
taries on the Phenomenology
tend to give the reader a
summary of its conclusions and
teachings, often brilhantly,
without necessarily helping him
become a better reader of
Hegel’s book.” Becoming a
better reader of Hegel’s book
means to be able “to make sense
of things from the inside as they
unfold.” [This] points to a
deeper effect of Kalkavage’s way
of shaping our experience of
reading his book.
Let me try to say succinctly
why this is so by starting with a
comparison. Ifyou read John
Bunyan’s great narrative. The
Pilgrim’s Progressfrom This
World to That Which is to
Come, you will be able to share
in the immediate experience of
Christian as he moves from one
crisis of Christian growth to
maturity after another. This is
aimed to support more of an
inner transformation of the
reader than a doctrinal
summary of Christian teaching
might do.
Similarly, Hegel wrote The
Phenomenology ofSpirit to
enable the reader to share in the
{The College ■ St. John’s
College ■ Fall aoo8 }
9
immediate experience of spirit
through its intrinsic and neces
sary sequence of stages and
transitions as it moves through
one crisis of growth after
another toward its complete
realization. In helping us
become better readers of Hegel,
Kalkavage stays within the
perspective of spirit at each
point of its unfolding as Hegel
represents it. In this way we are
helped to pace and share an
unfolding that is also happening
in each of us. Thus Kalkavage’s
commentary, as Hegel intends,
supports a self-reflection that
helps us discover who we are.
Such more than personal yet
also personal self-reflection as
this enables is a great gift.
Where do I find myself in
Hegel’s great gallery of arche
types of stages of spirit’s self
consciousness? Master? Slave?
Stoic? the Unhappy Conscious
ness? Rameau’s Nephew?
Beautiful Soul? Or any of the
many other archetypal states of
consciousness? I will confess
only that I recognize myself only
part of the way along the course
of spirit to maturity and no
doubt as I read I reduce Hegel’s
description of what is ahead to
fit the lens of my present
consciousness of self and the
world. Nevertheless, I’m
grateful that I found myself,
almost by accident, among “the
courageous non-specialists” for
whom Kalkavage writes.
Richard Freis (class of ig6i)
The College welcomes letters
on issues of interest to readers.
Letters may be edited for clarity
and/or length. Those under
500 words have a better chance
of being printed in their
entirety. Please address letters
to: The College Magazine,
St. John’s College, Box 2800,
Annapolis MD 21404. Letters
can be sent via e-mail to
Rosemary.Harty(@sjca.edu.
�{The Program}
IO
FROM FRESHMAN
TO JOHNNIE
Interviews by Sara Luell (Aog)
AND Jenny Hannifin
he College posed this ques
tion to members of the
Class of 2011: Was there a
moment during your first
year when you felt like you
really became a Johnnie?
Their answers were as individual as their
own personal experiences have been at
St. John’s, but also reflective of the
college as a community of learners.
Hein Myatt, Santa Fe. “It was definitely the moment I first
spoke in seminar. It took me a long time to speak up; it was
very challenging for me. I’m from Burma, and we didn’t have
these kinds of discussions in school. I wondered: ‘what if I say
something really stupid in front of the class?’ My tutor,
Ms. [Janet] Dougherty, was very encouraging. She said,
‘everyone says stupid things at times; you say them, and then
you can learn from them.’ So, when we were talking about the
Odyssey, I was moved by it, and I finally spoke. From there, it
got a lot easier.”
{The College*
Jake Simon, Annapolis. “I really became a Johnnie when I
realized how deep the Program was, during freshman essay
writing. When I was writing on The Sophist^ I turned in a
rough draft to my language tutor. She told me just to reread it
with a question in mind. WTien I was rereading it, I realized
that there is so much more going on than I thought was
possible. And then I was like, ‘Oh wow, aUofthe Plato that I’ve
read, I haven’t read it at all.’ Then feeling that I could spend
years going over just this book. The Sophist, just with one
question in mind. It makes you feel incredibly impotent, going
up against these great minds.”
Natasha Barnes, Santa Fe. “There are so many little times
when an experience allows you to step outside of yourself for a
second and say, ‘Oh wow! I’m really a part of this.’ It usually
hits you right after a class. You’re so engaged when you’re in
the class, so if you’re going to have a great experience it’s
because you aren’t thinking about other things in the middle
of it. You get out of seminar and start talking to people about
it, and all of a sudden you think‘Oh my gosh! This is crazy! I’m
in the middle of this, which is exactly why I wanted to be here.
So that I could have this kind of experience.’ I feel like [as a
freshman] you feel something starting, because it’s really a
longer process. Because you’re never aware that it’s actually
happening until later in the year: you realize that something
has changed from when you first got here. That now you’re not
looking at this community of thinking, you’re in the middle
St. John’s College * Fall 2008 }
�{The Program}
of it as much as anybody else is.
And that happens throughout
the whole year.”
Freshmen still have to contend
WITH their first DON RAG, BUT AT
LEAST “running THE GAUNTLET” IS
ONE FRESHMAN EXPERIENCE TODAY’S
STUDENTS don’t HAVE TO ENDURE,
AS THESE Johnnies did in 194a.
Lucy Ferrier, Annapolis. “I
think the first time that I sort of
became aware that I belonged
was coming home from Thanks
giving break. Coming back to
the campus, I felt like I was
coming home. You have to be
away to appreciate it. Everyone
was running up to me saying,
‘Hi, how are you?’ I was back
with people I knew, everyone
knew who I was, I knew where
my stuff was and where my life
was based.”
After years of self-identifying as
a liberal arts major. I’ve discov
ered a deep love for lab tutorial.
The study of grammar now
beguiles me, instead of boring
me. I even like Ptolemy. I did not
expect to love the Program itself
as much as I do, even as I find I
do not love the culture of the
school, the culture that brought
me here.”
Anne Deger, Santa Fe.
“Although my feelings about
being a Johnnie changed over
the course of the first year, at
the end of the first seminar,
sitting around the table, I
definitely experienced an ‘I’ve
come home’ feeling. But I think
the most compelling momentof-Johnnieness I’ve had has
come this year, after talking to
freshmen. I feel more a part of it
now that I’m introducing other
people to St. John’s, so perhaps
it just took a while to find my
place. I am an older student, and this may be part of the
problem. I’ve been disappointed in the lack of rigor I see in
some of my fellow students, though I hope that much of this
may be attributed to the process of growing up. And that
learning to live in a community takes time.
Still, that’s a poor excuse for skipping readings or coming to
class stoned. My ovm expectations of the school varied as
wildly from the college’s nature as my classmates’ natures. I’m
happy to have had some of those expectations proven false.
{The College-
Nathaniel Torrey, Annapolis.
“I would say the moment when I
really felt like I was ‘in the club’
was the night I turned my
freshman essay in. As soon as
that seminar was over, I was in it
to win it. From then on I was
like, ‘I made it.’ Because every
thing else was a weird freshman
trial at the college, it was so
unknown. I felt like I had done
the big thing that everyone else
does every year. I wasn’t just a
freshman who had just shown
up. I had actually proven my
mettle, I fought, and I deserved
to be here.”
Nareg Seferian, Santa Fe. “‘Does it bother anyone else that
these figures can be conceptualized, but not visualized?’ Thus
spoke a classmate, as we were starting Euclid. No, the circle or
triangle, as he describes it, simply cannot exist in ‘the real
world’ (whatever that is). We can think of it, though, think in
terms of it, work with it, prove things with it. I think all the
time, about all sorts of things, but there come these moments-
St. John’s College • Fall 2008 }
�la
{The Program}
Tutor William Darkey
leads a math
ematics TUTORIAL FOR THE FIRST
FRESHMEN IN SaNTA Fe, IN I964. HoW
MANY FRESHMEN LEARNED TO LOVE MATH
BECAUSE OF EuCLID?
and I’ve had a fair few at St. John’s already over the past six
months-where one is compelled to be extra pensive. It’s invig
orating and refreshing. ‘Good for the soul’ is a classic way of
expressing it. This ‘antiquarian’ sense that comes with
St. John’s is reinforced in Santa Fe by an idyllic setting: nestled
amidst hills, with arcades of pillars supporting a small commu
nity of learning. Some may criticize the philosophy behind the
college, and in response to that, all I can say is this: St. John’s
is indeed not for everyone, but it fulfills the function of filling
the very unique gap it fills, for those who yearn for just such a
place. That’s what it does for me, anyway.”
Dave Maher, Annapolis. “The first time I realized I was a
Johnnie was the first time in seminar when I realized that
someone hadn’t done the reading, and it made me very, very
angry. The college is essentially a communal effort to come to
learning and these people were not doing their part.”
{The College.
Anna Goold, Annapolis. “Before
I got here I had a different view on
what I thought a Johnnie was. I just
assumed that all my classes and all
my seminars would be perfect, that
we would get somewhere with all of
them, and we would come to great
conclusions. I think that changes
when you start having classes that
aren’t that way, and you realize that
everyone is struggling through
everything. That was the big differ
ence for me, when I felt like I
belonged here. It probably was by
the end of the first semester
freshman year, when I was able to
differentiate between it being just
seminar and it being awesome.
Being able to look at each problem
we were discussing, whether it was
good or bad, whether I thought it
was going somewhere or not,
whether I thought it was perfect or
not. I think a lot of people [come to
the same conclusion]. For a lot of
us, this was the only school we
applied to and we worship it as this
ideal institution. It is kind of when
we realize it is not ideal that we realize we are just people
grasping at ideas.”
Kyouhee Choi, Santa Fe, “Was there a moment when I felt
like I really became a Johnnie? Sure. When I balanced a
seminar chair. When we do Archimedes, we learn about
balance. There’s a saying that seniors have: if you can balance
the seminar chair, you’ll graduate, and if you can’t, you won’t.
I knew that it was stupid and not true, but it irked me anyway.
So I was really relieved when I balanced the chair. I even took
a picture.”
Martin Greenwald, Annapolis. “I think it was in the period
of the couple of seminars before winter break, when we were
reading Thucydides and the Republic, when the workload had
picked up, and our seminars picked up. Everyone settled into
their routine, everyone got what was going on. One big thing
St. John’s College . Fall 2008 }
�{TheProgram}
[about being a Johnnie] is being able to take the attitude we
have in seminar and try to cultivate that in everyday conversa
tion, try to bring the respect and open-mindedness of seminar
to conversation anywhere. Always looking at a text for what it
is worth, without prejudging it beforehand. Trying to get a
coherent view of the Western canon and our civilization, and
where it’s been and where it is taking us.”
Han Qi, Santa Fe. “One who has gone to a normal college
probably would never think of college as personal and humane
as St. John’s. I certainly never did. From my experience, when
a student registers for four courses at a generic school, four
professors each demand a considerable portion of his time
according to some regimented syllabus, expecting him to
produce projects almost every other day-a five-page interpre
tation of a Shakespeare sonnet on Monday; a Microeconomics
presentation, Tuesday; a quiz on Spanish verb forms,
Wednesday; and on Thursday, he is supposed to know the
difference between Paul’s messages to the Corinthians and the
Romans.
Students at work in a freshman laboratory
STUDENTS STILL READ GaLEN AND HaRVEY.
class, circa 1945.
The
{The College.
13
It is sheer madness. At St. John’s there are fewer readings in
mathematics, language and laboratory classes, but more focus
and more time to reflect and remember. Tutors let students
digest rather than devour. A school does not become personal
just by having a small pool of students. It has to give students
space and time to connect their learning with their life. The
moment I felt I became a Johnnie was in my first don rag. A
tutor criticized me for being overly prepared. Something as
singular as this has only happened to me at St. John’s, and I am
convinced that for a place so special, you cannot prepare to be
ready. You must be here in person to experience it.”
Matt Hendershot, Annapolis. “It sort of came gradually,
after winter break, maybe, when you’re coming back onto
campus, and you’re no longer a novelty. You’re no longer some
little freshman, wide-eyed and rubbernecking, talking about
how excited you are about the Program. You’re still excited
about the Program, but you are excited to be a part of it, now.
You’ve faced down your first don rag, sat in real open-faced
criticism ofyourself andthe wayyou conduct yourself. There’s
a lot of overblown talk
about how it is all about
finding a personal philos
ophy, or coming to rest at
home in the classics, but
plenty of people do that
without ever being John
nies.
What really makes you a
Johnnie is the fact that you
are here with all sorts of
other people that really
want the same thing out of
life and out of their educa
tion. You and the people
around you really come to
accept that when you’ve
made it through that first
semester. It can be tough. I
know my class lost a few,
even in the first couple
weeks. So I feel like you are
really here to stay, and
people sort of know that
when you step off the plane,
and you come back, and it is
like coming back home.”
labs may be more modern, but
St. John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
�{books}
14
THE BOOK THAT
CHANGED
MY LIFE
he College asked alumni to to me about the anti-historical approach that the Program
describe a book that was represented.
I did not return to the college that fall. I did manage to
important in their lives. What resolve my dilemma, as it were, and returned to St. John’s
we received in return were the following fall, to graduate three years later with my
stories of career paths found, “new” class of 1954. But Spengler has remained the single
greatest influence in my life. He gave me a context in which
dilemmas resolved, passion I could comprehend various stages, or the ‘development’ of
and purpose discovered, faith strengthened,
a particular people (for example, the Greeks, or time, or
how
to imagine what Beethoven’s late quartets meant in our
and questions answered.
T
“A
Fruitful Tension”
Edward Bauer (Class of 1954)
I spent the summer after my freshman year at St. John’s
(1949-50) at home, trying to come to terms with the
Program’s total absence of “historical background,” which
of course is an issue of critical importance for the Program.
I don’t remember how I came upon Oswald Spengler’s huge
work. The Decline ofthe West. But I soon became convinced
that a broad knowledge of the history of an era (or of a work
of literature, or a particular architecture or art form, etc.)
was absolutely necessary for understanding it. Since I felt
that so strongly, I did not see how I could return to St. John’s
in the fall. I wrote to Mr. [Jacob] Klein, the dean, and tried
to explain my decision, and I will always be grateful to
him for his understanding and for taking the time to write
{The College-
earlier Western culture). I also understood howwhat we are
experiencing now in the late stages of Western civilization
is one more historical example of the birth, growth,
achievement, and decline-the biological analogy, in a
word-of a particular cultural entity.
In a very real way, my whole life has exemplified this
tension between historical and anti- (or un-) historical. I
would like to believe it has been a fruitful tension.
“A Meaningful
Life”
Isaac Smith (A03)
I tend to date the point when I stopped being a teenager and
started to become an adult to the time I was reading Middle
march in junior seminar. Middlemarch being, of course, the
great novel of dashed hopes and bruised idealism. It had
been a few months after the September ii attacks, and I was
coming to grips not only with my own mortality (the passage
when Casaubon stares death in the face is one of the novel’s
St. John’s College - Fall 2008 }
�{books}
high points) but with my own anonymity, the knowledge
that all my deeds, thoughts, and high ideals would be
swallowed up by time and forgotten. As a result, I strongly
identified with Dorothea, Ladislaw, and Lydgate, and their
attempts to carve out a meaningful life for themselves even
if the results weren’t what they intended. For similar
reasons, I also fell in love with Milan Kundera’s The
Unbearable Lightness of Being-'which in its own way
grapples with the same themes.
BOOKS HAVE THE POWER TO INFLUENCE OUR LIVES, EVEN WHEN We’rE
NOT AWARE OF IT AT THE TIME.
school, which turned me into quite a little snot until
St. John’s classes and discussion thankfully beat that out of
me. My first big-people book was War ofthe Worlds by H.G.
Wells when I was 8, so that set the stage for everything.
“The Question
“Watching Stars and Planets”
of
Opportunity”
Jennifer Hoheisel (AGI89)
by Dave Prosper (SF02)
I suppose an actual Program book that changed my life
would be Ptolemy’s Almagest. As wrong as he turns out to
be, I found his descriptions of how to watch the sky
extremely useful, and thus I tend to stay up watching stars
and planets and debating if I should just ditch the
computer-job thing and become an astronomer. Then I
remember that my math skills are lacking and decide
against it.
There was also Carl Sagan’s Demon-Haunted World.,
which was a nice skeptical smack in the brain. I realized
that my weird dreams when younger were just memories
of weird dreams and not weird memories of actual aliens
poking around in my room. I can blame a Johnnie by the
name of Whitley Strieber (A67) for that earlier confusion,
thanks to Communion and his vivid descriptions of
naughty, nosy aliens. I also read The Prince and Johnny
Rotten’s autobiography simultaneously during high
{The College-
15
Before reading Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, I
hadn’t really thought about the fact that for centuries many
women were in a cycle of constant pregnancy and childbirth
that left little energy or brain power to do much that was
academic. Personally I was in no frame of mind to do philos
ophy for at least a few months after each of our two sons was
born-although I know women who feel otherwise. The cycle
of frequent childbirth also was bound to interrupt the studies
of those few women who did have access to higher education.
All of this helps to explain why we don’t have many works
from women prior to the advent of birth control and the
opening of many institutions of higher education in the 20th
century. (I know there are exceptions; I was writing a disser
tation about a 14th-century female mystic when I was in grad
school at Georgetown.) Woolf’s book speaks about the
need for women to have both the time and the financial
independence to be able to write.
St. John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
�{books}
l6
Y discovered thepower ofsheltering myselfinside a story
Erin Martell (A98)
Not only did the book cause me to think
about texts from women, it also made me
realize how few women had been part of
my higher education to that point. As an
undergraduate majoring in Classical
Civihzation at the College ofWilliam and
Mary, I never had a female professor, and
at St. John’s, all my tutors were male. I am
not saying that there is anything inher
ently different about male and female
scholars; rather, it made me think again
about the question of opportunity. In my
own family, my extremely bright grand
mother was sent to work in order to send
her brother-a man who took seven years
and didn’t finish the degree-to college.
In the next generation, my mother was
given the opportunity to go to college and
was expected to excel, but her parents then assumed that she
would marry, raise a family, and not work outside the home.
When my sister and I arrived, we were expected to go to
college and establish ourselves doing what we loved before we
even thought about marriage. It was quite a difference
among the three generations.
Woolf’s book caused me to think about all these issues
related to scholarship and opportunity for the first time. It
made me appreciate anew my room in Humphrey s Hall and
the luxury of time to read and read deeply.
“A Profound
Experience”
Erin Martell (A98)
One of the first “big kid” books my mother read me was The
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Order triumphed over
chaos and I discovered the power of sheltering myself inside
a story. I tore through the remaining books as fast as my
newly-learned-to-read brain could process. I read This
PresentDarkness\3y Frank E. Peretti at a time in my life when
I was seeking the answer to a question I didn’t even know I
had. As I finished the book, I realized with sudden clarity
that I couldn’t accept the religious precepts I’d been taught,
their fundamental contradictions caused my constant
struggle against the church, and that it was time to give up,
be free and figure out what I believed on my terms. Last, as it
{The College-
A Room OF One’sOwklw Jennifer Hoheisel
(AGI89) TO THINK ABOUT women’s
OPPORTUNITIES.
was for many others. War and Peace
was a profound experience for me. I
don’t think I captured the thoughts quite
right in my senior paper, hut the idea
that difficult things are worth doing
and worth surviving even if the surviving
is all you have in the end has stayed
with me.
“Challenged and
Transformed”
Laura Anne Stuart (A93)
When I was a sophomore in Santa Fe, I
came upon the book Angry Women while browsing at a
record store in town. This book contains interviews with
women artists, activists, and writers, most notably sexuality
educators Annie Sprinkle and Susie Bright. My view of femi
nism and female sexuality was challenged and transformed,
and I began to think that the field of sexual health might he
where my passions lay. It hadn’t even occurred to me before
then that it could he a job!
While at St. John’s, I followed my passion by co-coordinating the Women’s Literature Study Group and organizing
trips to Washington, D.C., to attend the 1992 March for
Women’s Lives and the 1993 March for Lesbian, Gay, and
Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. After graduating from
St. John’s, I earned my master’s degree in public health and
worked as a sexuality educator for more than a decade. This
year, I published a sex education curriculum for young adults
and became the proud owner of a sex toy store in Milwaukee,
the Tool Shed. When I finally met Susie Bright, she was
amused to know that one interview that she had given years
ago had started me on my career path. I spend a lot of time
teaching and mentoring young people and hope that I can
inspire someone in a similar way.
St. John's College ■ Fall 2008 }
�{books}
17
Ybelieve only authors are capable ofchanging our lives.
Christopher Benson
“A Lifetime’s
(SFGI07)
Christopher Benson says authors,
NOT books, have THE POWER TO
Pursuit”
Harrison Sheppard (Class of 1961)
CHANGE LIVES.
Plato’s Apology did not merely
change my life; it virtually formed
it. When I was 16, an uncle of
mine-who had introduced me to
“literature” when I was eight years
old with an eight-volume set of the
works of Edgar Rice Burroughsgave me a small volume containing
five of Plato’s dialogues: the
Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Sympo
sium, and Republic. I vividly recall
the moment, more than 50 years
ago, riding on a Philadelphia
subway train, when I finished my
first reading of the Apology. That
Socrates was willing to give up his life, defiantly, rather
than abandon the search for knowledge as he had been
pursuing it, had a stunning effect upon me, an effect that
was simultaneously thrilling and exalting. I left that train
transformed. It was a year later that I learned about
St. John’s College. But it was the Apology that awakened
me to a lifetime’s pursuit of self-knowledge in its deepest
sense, the difference between what appears to be and what
is, and living with integrity based upon one’s self-recogni
tion. Along with my experience at St. John’s, it also
accounts for my chosen professions as a lawyer and writer
and my enduring devotion to what one might yet learn from
reading Plato and his companions in “The Great Conversa
tion” (as Robert Hutchins termed it).
“In Search
of
Resonant Voices”
Christopher Benson (SFGI07)
To the shock of every Johnnie, no book has changed my fife! I
believe only authors are capable of changing our lives.
St. John’s was a transformative experience for me because the
institution facihtated an intimate encounter between reader
and author, an encounter that crosses time and culture. I read
in search of resonant voices. To borrow an insight from Ralph
Waldo Emerson, a resonant voice is “spoken over the round
world” but comes “home through open or winding passages.”
{The College-
It is a voice that I ought to hear,
that belongs to me, that vibrates on
my ear, consoling me when I am
downtrodden and guiding me when
I am lost. It is a voice of inex
haustible pleasure and needful
wisdom, never flattened by the
tyranny of time or the vicissitudes
of fife. It is a voice that treats my
dark inertia, risks my securities,
heals my hidden wounds, deepens
my faith, awakens my somnolent
imagination, expands my imper
fect sympathies, and shapes my
“final vocabulary.”
I am tempted to mention other favorite authors-Dante,
Shakespeare, Pascal, Thoreau, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Dick
inson, and Frost-hut I will discipline my list to include only
the resonant voices:
Jesus: His subversive wisdom and edifying teaching
inaugurate an upside-down kingdom-both in my soul and in
the world-where the low is brought high and the high is
brought low.
Saint Augustine: When the Bishop of Hippo authored his
autobiography. Confessions, he authored the biography of
every Ghristian. His prayers and tears are my prayers and
tears. His conversion is my conversion. He reminds me of a
terrible truth, “Without God, what am I to myself but a guide
to my own self-destruction?” Gonsequently, “nothing is
nearer to God’s ears than a confessing heart and a life
grounded in faith.”
Soren Kierkegaard: In Fear & Trembling, Philosophical
Fragments, and Works of Love, Kierkegaard goads me,
against my own sheepish obstinacy, in two directions: to
enter the prodigious paradoxes of the Ghristian faith and to
five the scandal of the Gospel.
G.S. Lewis: I read the apologetic works of Lewis-Mere
Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, Miracles, The Great
Divorce, The Problem of Pain, A Grief Observed, and The
Abolition of Man-tsot as an “outsider” who surveys the
St. John ’5 College • Fall 2008 }
�{books}
i8
''Thatfateful, rainy Saturday morning, I wanted something to read...
Valerie Pawlewicz (A89)
landscape before undertaking a difficult journey, but as an
“insider” who leaves the famiharity of the boat for a thrilling
deep-sea dive. The analogical imagination of Lewis turns the
Christian faith intelligible, challenging, and winsome. No
one has done a finer job of holding the Fact and Myth of Chris
tianity together. His translation of theology into the vernac
ular is magical, leaving me with goosebumps of wonder, just
as Lucy experienced when she first beheld Narnia.
“More than Thought”
Steven T. Brenner (SFGI83)
When at age 15, I read Albert Schweitzer—An Anthology
(edited by Charles R. Joy) I knew I’d been spared a lifetime
of susceptibility to the dogmas and pretenses of the world,
for which in return I would owe a lifetime debt of higher
endeavor. Schweitzer’s thought is more than thought; it is
heroically won conviction born of total engagement with
the mysterious condition in which we find ourselves. It
never ceases to challenge me to revolutionary change in my
own thought and way of life.
Until I discovered Hermann Broch’s The Death of Virgil
37 years later, I had no idea that such knowledge was avail
able to human beings in their mortal state. Overwhelming
as it is on first impression, a single reading of this human
and cosmic creation poem-the most profound, most
difficult, most beautiful work I know-barely contains a
glimpse of its true riches. I still don’t understand a tenth of
it, but I know there’s nothing to fear.
“A
Second Chance”
Charles Green (AGoa)
Pride and Prejudice, in addition to being the funniest novel
I’ve ever read, also showed me the importance of giving
books a second chance. I first read the novel in loth grade,
and failed to see its point. Re-reading it during my junior
year in college, I was amazed at how accurately Jane Austen
captured aspects of myself in the main characters. I could
see that some days I’m Elizabeth Bennet, witty and
charming, while at other times I’m like Mr. Darcy, haughty
and isolating, and every once in a while. I’m a silly, shame
less flirt like Lydia Bennet.
{The College.
“The Wonder of Life”
Valerie Pawlewicz (A89)
A book that affected my life-although I didn’t know it at the
time-was a garden book called Making Things Grow by
Thalassa Cruso. She was a British gardener who hved in the
Boston area and in the 1960s and 70s had a gardening TV
show called-ta da!-“Making Things Grow.” In a bunch of
books my mother sent me when cleaning her house out about
IO years ago, in the middle of my busy life, I found this book
about keeping houseplants ahve. At the time I was working at
the Smithsonian, commuting, putting in intense hours, and
not quite content with the frenetic way of hfe in the Big City.
That fateful, rainy Saturday morning, I wanted something
to read, and on a whim, I opened this book. Inside I discov
ered a world of calm, of green living things, and good, plain
common sense. What surprised me was her delightful prose
style. It was like having breakfast with a good, enjoyable
friend. She would tell a story, give plant characteristics as if
they were people, throw in details about growing up in a
great house in England before World War II, explain what
she looks for in buying plants from a local nursery, and share
personal failures (growing gardenias) as well as successes
(growing almost anything else).
The reason that this book “changed my hfe,” as I see it
now, was that it inspired me to learn more about gardening.
I don’t grow many houseplants, and I don’t really work that
hard to maintain the ones that I do. But I have learned to
acknowledge my love of being outdoors and being with green
things as a worthwhile way to spend my time and earn my
money. I had always thought that working outdoors and
gardening was for other people, a waste of my education
beneath a “true” career. During the next 10 years, I took
courses on the side, experimented in my garden on sunny
weekends, and read more gardening books on rainy week
ends. Along the way I found other good garden writers like
Geoffrey Hamilton, Penelope Hobhouse, and Michael Dirr,
who add as much personality as information when they write.
Eventually, four years ago, I turned to gardening full-time
and now run my own personal gardening business, working
only with private residential clients to help them to infuse
something of themselves in their private gardens. I came to
gardening late in life, being too busy to realize it was okay to
be happy while I was busy. Now I have a business that is hard
St. John’s College • Fall 2008 }
�{books}
19
''From all sides, friends offered su^esfions ofbooks to read...
Christopher Sullivan {A89)
work but a delight. It involves my
brain and body equally. It requires
patience, research, labor, focus, art,
and lots of techne. I also work closely
with my clients to introduce them to
the wonder of life growing right
outside their door. For some clients, I
am the most regular person in their
lives-someone who knows about
their worries, their careers, their
doctor’s visits, their dogs, their chil
dren, their security codes, their birth
days, their art, and their opinions
about the upcoming election. I am
the only person in the lives of my
clients who knows their outdoor
spaces as well as their personalities.
I don’t think I’ve actually read the hook in years-I just
remember the feeling I got the first time I opened it up and
became involved in her story. Now I feel I am living the book.
Thalassa would like that.
“Attending the Particular”
Alan D. Hornstein (AGI86)
Reading Vico’s Nuova Scienza in a preceptorial with [tutor]
Howard Fisher transformed my way of thinking. As the
product of American legal education and with a career as a
law professor, I had generally approached matters through
the manipulation of ahstractions-a thoroughly conceptual
approach not only to the life of the mind, hut to life itself.
Vico’s (and Fisher’s) insistence on attending the particular,
in all its singularity, was a revelation-one that I continue to
struggle with, hut which has also enriched my life and
understanding enormously.
“A Very
Metaphysical Place”
Christopher Sullivan (A89)
Following several sudden and unexpected deaths of people
close to me, I fell into a miserable depression revolving
around the fear of my own mortality and the mortality of
those dearest to me. From all sides, friends offered sugges
tions of hooks to read, people to talk to, workshops to take.
Law professor Alan Hornstein (AGI86)
FOUND A REVELATION IN ViCo’s NVOVA
Scienza.
mind-hody work to do, and medica
tions to take to try to lessen the hitter
sting of the depression. I read Viktor
Frankl, the Dalai Lama, Epictetus,
Lin Yutang, and so many more, hut
for months, no matter what I tried,
no matter how much wisdom from
throughout the ages I exposed myself
to, that grim, immohilizing fear held
its horrible grip.
Then in a slow process of distrac
tion that led me from gym workouts
to reading mystery novels and almost
everything in between, someone
recommended yet another book, one I’d never thought I
would read, though I’d heard of it-even thought of as a
joke!-foryears.
Surprisingly, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
offered the first chink in the depression’s armor that finally
let me begin to climb out and get back to my life. After
several chapters of vague and business-oriented ideas, in
chapter 15, he shifts into a very metaphysical place.
Addressing the fear of death, he reminds the reader that as
we learned in elementary physics, the entire world is made
up of only matter and energy. According to the concept of
conservation of energy, one can transform into the other, but
neither can be created or destroyed.
Suddenly my years of worrying and wondering about soul
and afterlife and reincarnation and death came to a peaceful
resolution. At death, I realized, whatever energy makes each
of us the person that we are loses its connection to our body,
but it is not lost or destroyed. From there, all those ideas
about “we are all one with the Universe” or “God is within”
or that life and death are an unending cycle came, finally,
into a clearer focus. Exactly what becomes of that energy,
that “soul,” remains a mystery, but I found it hugely
comforting to recognize that simple, physical, scientific
truth. And I’m immeasurably grateful.
{The College. St. John’s
College ■ Fall 2008 }
�{Musical Tutors}
MUSIC
in the
KEY OF LIFE
BY Deborah Spiegelman
AND Rosemary Harty
ach Friday afternoon,
after the last elass ends,
Annapolis tutors Carl
Page and Eric Stoltzfus
join with seven students
to sing sacred music.
From the Pendulum Pit,
the voices of Primum
Mobile send the beautiful
sounds of Palestrina’s “Missa Papae Marcelli”
resonating through Mellon Hall, a gift to
everyone else within earshot.
Around lunchtime on the Fishpond Placita,
Santa Fe tutor Cary Stickney (A75) may be
found opening his guitar or banjo case, ready to
play and sing with any music lover who has the
time and inclination. Spontaneous dancing is
always welcome, too.
Just as conversation spills out of the classroom
at St. John’s College, music enlivens and unites
our college communities beyond the bounds of
freshman chorus and sophomore music tuto
{The College-
rial. Many talented tutors help make it possible:
through formal groups and polished perform
ances, community sing-a-Iongs and Collegium,
jam sessions, and musical mentorship to
students. The college is fortunate to have gifted
pianists in Elliott Zuckerman in Annapolis and
Peter Pesic in Santa Fe. On Wednesday evenings
in Annapolis, Peter Kalkavage leads a commu
nity chorus of students, staff, and tutors emeriti
that practices all year for a spring performance.
In Santa Fe, Phil LeCuyer and John Cornell
collaborated on “To Strike the World,” a
performance of orchestral music and spoken
word that brought together musical tutors and
students last December.
Among the tutors profiled in these pages are
individuals who found their passion for music
later in life and those who had early and exten
sive training. Several perform regularly as part
of professional music groups. Some compose,
one won’t sing, but all consider music one of the
great passions of their lives.
St. John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
�{MuSICAlTuTORS}
2,1
"There s this tension between the intellectual and this wacko rock bass-playing
side ofme thatsjust been something Tve decided to negotiate all my lije. ”
Henry Higuera
It’s only rock ’n
{The College
roll but
St John’s College • Fall 2008 }
Henry Higuera likes
it.
�{MusicalTutors}
Long Live Rock______________________________
Henry Higuera
play lead guitar on some of his favorite rock songs. When he came
to St. John’s, he sometimes joined up with students who put on loud
concerts in the Coffee Shop. Marriage (to tutor Marilyn Higuera,
current director of the Annapolis Graduate Institute) and children
(Adam and Helen), along with the busy life of a tutor, meant his
instruments were often at rest in the basement.
Having a steady group of musicians and singers at the college
(with various membership over the years) has given him more
opportunities to play, and he’s always eager to strap on the Gibson
or the Fender for a concert.
“There’s this tension between the intellectual and this wacko
rock bass-playing side of me that’s just been something I’ve decided
to negotiate all my life,” says Higuera. “It’s so intense, it’s so loud.
The only thing more exciting than being at a concert is being
on stage five feet in front of your own large amphfier. You can see
how it can get in the way of other more refined pursuits you have in
your life.”
In tutor Henry Higuera, a rock star lurks beneath the surface.
Just watch him strum his Fender Telecaster, even when it’s not
plugged in, and you’U get a hint that here is a man on the verge of
rocking out.
In 1966, Higuera bought a bass guitar. (His first instrument was a
ukulele.) With his neighborhood friends in Evanston, Illinois, he
formed a garage band called the Knight Lords. They played songs
hke “Louie, Louie” and “Gloria” on second-hand instruments and
with amplifiers heldtogetherby duct tape. After listening to Beatles
songs on his transistor radio, Higuera learned that rock music
opened up to him in a whole new way when he first heard songs from
the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane on a good stereo.
“The songs to me sounded a million times better, and what made
the difference was the bass,” Higuera explains. “The bass sings
—Rosemary Harty
underneath the melody. It’s not obvious, but it gives the song its
structure.”
Fantasy for Violin____________________________
In junior high, Higuera invested $300 in his first quality bass, a
Christine Chen
Gibson EB-3. The Knight Lords never made the big time, but they
played teen clubs, parties and junior high dances. They were an
Santa Fe tutor Christine Chen’s proclivity for music became
enthusiastic group, Higuera remembers. “But we would have made
evident when she was quite young. Her instrument of choice was
a lot more money if any of us had been able to sing,” he says.
a Quaker Oats cereal box and her bow a ruler. “It was in the key of
Music followed Higuera to Cornell, where he earned his under
granola,
” she says ofher makeshift violin.
graduate degree. He joined a band of hippies that played in Ithaca’s
most popular bars, and Higuera was good enough to
consider pursuing music as a career. But watching
musician friends eke out a meager existence and
traveling from gig to gig made it all seem less
romantic. “It was really part of my identity, and I had
to rework that,” he says. “After junior year, I wasn’t
playing, but I always had the bass with me.”
At the University of Toronto, as a doctoral student
in political philosophy, he played music for fun with
housemates and friends. One of his professors was
Allan Bloom, author of The Closing ofthe American
Mind. “That book was based on an article he wrote
for the National Review, and I was his ‘big expert’ on
rock,” says Higuera.
Higuera tried to make a case that rock ’n roll was
about more than just sex and drugs; it could play a
powerful role in political reform. But by the time
Bloom began working on the book, Higuera was
“dethroned” as Bloom’s rock expert.
Santa Fe tutors David Bolotin and Christine Chen have performed together
Higuera was teaching at Dickinson College when SEVERAL times AT THE COLLEGE, BOTH AS A DUO AND AS PART OF A TRIO, IN WORKS FROM
he bought the Telecaster, a six-string that lets him Bach to Shostakovich.
{The College-
St. John’s College • Fall 2008 }
�{MusicalTutors}
Equipped with a more responsive instrument, she soon
embarked on a 13-year journey through the competitive world of
adolescent classical musicians. Under the tutelage of Eudice
Shapiro at the University of Southern California School of Music,
Chen seriously considered a career in music. “I thought long and
hard about conservatory, but I decided I’d rather have a liberal
arts degree,” she says.
While Chen earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at
Wellesley, Harvard, and Yale, her music remained a central part of
her life. She played in the first violin sections of the Yale
Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.
Her teachers included Nancy Cirillo of the New England Conser
vatory and Sidney Harth, former concertmaster of the Chicago
Symphony and professor at the Yale School of Music. As a doctoral
student at Cambridge University, Chen helped found the Rusalka
String Quartet.
When she spotted an ad for St. John’s tutor positions, Chen
thought, “this is really perfect for me.” That was more than three
years ago, and Chen has successfully fit music into the challenging
work of being a tutor at St. John’s. Weaving in the musical context
during seminar discussions is “a way of connecting disparate
parts of learning,” Chen suggests, adding with a laugh, “I prob
ably [do it] to an annoying extent.”
Chen has discovered that a surprising number of tutors play an
instrument, including a group that regularly plays bluegrass
music. Ensemble playing involves the “necessity of being better
attuned to the other musicians,” she observes. Along with
colleagues including David Bolotin, Chen played the viohn in the
2007 performance “To Strike the World.” Bolotin introduced her
to a 70-year-old cellist in town, which led to the formation of an all
female string quartet with seemingly unbounded energy for
music. In addition, Chen will soon appear with The Serenata of
Santa Fe, a professional chamber music group.
In a setting where the emphasis is on the mind, Chen finds it
refreshing to be able to step into the realm of music.The college,
she adds, has given her the encouragement and support to
perform in addition to teaching. “Music reminds me that there’s
something else besides what I’m doing,” she says. “It is deeply
important that a college has a sustained musical life.”
a3
“I always told myself that I’d return to the piano,” Bolotin says.
He began piano lessons at age 6. Music followed him to college,
but slowly receded to the background as lessons became increas
ingly sporadic. Engaging with academia more fully, Bolotin
thought his piano-playing days were over.
Born and raised in western Pennsylvania, Bolotin earned a
doctorate at New York University and lectured in classics at Yale
before joining the Annapolis faculty in 1974. In 1981, he trans
ferred to the Western campus.
Four years ago, music reentered his life. “I saw an ad for a
digital piano, and then suddenly I had one,” Bolotin says. He
played casually for about eight months until a student showed
him a book of 17th-century songs. While Alexis Segal (SF05) set
about mastering the vocals, Bolotin accompanied her. Thor
oughly hooked, he resumed his long-discarded practice of regular
lessons and loved it.
Musical performance also found its way into a seminar on
Chekhov. When the discussion focused on a passage the class
found depressing, a student suggested that “in a musical, this
would be the cue for an upbeat song.” Bolotin challenged the
young man to write the piece. The student not only wrote it, but
also found a fellow student to present the song.
Bolotin has been taking lessons for more than three years from
Jacquelyn Helin, an internationally known classical pianist and
teacher who lives in Santa Fe. Since the auspicious digital-piano
purchase, Bolotin has acquired an upright piano as well as a
grand. “Two years ago, we remodeled our house to make a sound
proof piano studio out of our former one-car garage,” he adds.
What Bolotin really enjoys about music is the intimacy of
performing with others. Ensemble playing-collaborating with
both students and fellow tutors-is a source of deep satisfaction.
He was Segal’s accompanist in a recital this spring. “ She wouldn’t
take ‘no’ for an answer,” Bolotin recalls. Most recently, he joined
tutor Christine Chen and recent graduate Susanne Ristow (SF06)
in July in a performance of Brahms and Haydn piano trios in the
college’s Great Hall. “I’m so lucky to have a community to make
music with and a hall to do it in,” Bolotin says.
— Deborah Spiegelman
Deacon Blues
— Deborah Spiegelman
T. Andrew Kingston
Piano Man
David Bolotin
When Santa Fe tutor David Bolotin talks about music, his voice is
unmistakably reverential, which might have something to do
with his recent reunion with music after a hiatus of nearly 40
years.
{The College-
Four years ago, while awaiting the arrival of his moving van and
family from the East Coast, T. Andrew Kingston occupied himself
much as any new musician on the scene would: he found a blues
club in Santa Fe and became a fixture there-at least until it was
time to unload the truck.
St. John’s College • Fall 2008 }
�2'4
{MusicalTutors}
Raised in Chicago and Washington,
D.C., Kingston came to music through
classical training on the piano and his
parents’ influence. Both amateurs, his
father favored the church organ and his
mother lyric opera. In high school,
Kingston played various instruments in
school bands.
He credits two people with bringing
him to jazz; Miles Davis, whom he heard
in concert in 1981, and a teacher at
Kenyon College who was a jazz pianist.
Resuming regular piano lessons,
Kingston began exploring what many jazz
musicians insist is true American clas
sical music. During his junior year abroad
in Padua, Italy, he traveled with a local
blues group. At Boston University, his
graduate studies in an interdisciphnary
program combining the philosophy of
aesthetics and music were largely
financed by his blues and jazz gigs around
town.
While at BU, Kingston learned of a pianist and teacher proficient
on a wide range of instruments. Three years after putting his name
on Charlie Banacos’s waiting fist, Kingston began lessons. “He is a
great jazz educator,” Kingston says, and in a month of lessons, “he
changed my fife.”
Ultimately, the hard fife of a full-time musician wasn’t for him.
Instead Kingston returned to Kenyon to teach before becoming a
tutor at St. John’s in Santa Fe, where his musical and teaching fives
are well integrated. “Tfie seminar is like jazz interpretation,”
Kingston notes, sharing an observation made by a fellow tutor. The
greatest jazz musicians are those who can listen and work with
others, similar to seminar in that individual contributions create a
whole piece. Like jazz, the seminar moves along on interpretation
and improvisation.
Musical expression is a regular feature of campus fife, including
botfi scfieduled performances and spontaneous jam sessions.
Kingston offers piano lessons informally and has helped form a
number of jazz groups, alternately composed of students, tutors,
and local musicians. “There is a chance to work with the students
who are here,” he says, noting that an instrument that might not
fit, strictly speaking, into an ensemble presents an opportunity for
some innovative arranging.
Kingston has kept his hand in the music scene in Santa Fe (his
latest endeavor: salsa gigs), and is grateful for the freedom to play
{The College-
Like jazz, the seminar moves along on
INTERPRETATION AND IMPROVISATION, SAYS
Santa Fe
tutor T.
Andrew Kingston.
music at his own pace. “Music is a way of
talking about being human.”
— Deborah Spiegelman
Songbird
Judy Seeger
Judy Seeger is always singing.
The Annapolis tutor sings at home,
she sings in the car, she sings with
colleagues and students in formal
groups and impromptu gatherings.
When she gave the Commencement
speech in 2006, it was natural for her
to urge everyone to join her in a chorus
of “The Water is Wide,” even though
she was struggling with laryngitis.
There is no occasion, Seeger believes, that can’t be made more
joyful by adding a song.
“My mother tells me that I sang before I talked,” says
Seeger. Her earliest memories are of singing in her family’s
Pittsburgh home with her father, a Gulf Oil executive who
loved to play the piano. Seeger sang while her father played
music from Schubert, Schumann, Beethoven, and others from
a collection of songs stashed in the piano bench. “Not Bach,”
she says. “My father was not a fan of Baroque music.”
As a child, she studied the piano, but like her father, she
always preferred to play in accompaniment to a song. A love of
music brought Seeger together with her husband, Tony, a
member of a musical family (folk singing legend Pete Seeger is
his uncle). The two met as youngsters in New York City, and in
their teens, they both attended the Seeger family’s Camp
Killooleet, where campers sing folk music and traditional
songs all summer long. Seeger also learned to play the acoustic
guitar at the camp.
“Music was one of the things that brought us together, and
it’s one of the things we keep on doing together,” she says.
Seeger earned a bachelor’s degree at Harvard and master’s
and doctoral degrees in Romance Languages and Literature
from the University of Chicago. Her husband became an
ethnomusicologist. Together they spent nine years in Brazil
St. John’s College • Fall 2008 }
�a4
{Musical Tutors}
Raised in Chicago and Washington,
D.C., Kingston came to music through
classical training on the piano and his
parents’ influence. Both amateurs, his
father favored the church organ and his
mother lyric opera. In high school,
Kingston played various instruments in
school bands.
He credits two people with bringing
him to jazz: Miles Davis, whom he heard
in concert in 1981, and a teacher at
Kenyon College who was a jazz pianist.
Resuming regular piano lessons,
Kingston began exploring what many jazz
musicians insist is true American clas
sical music. During his junior year abroad
in Padua, Italy, he traveled with a local
blues group. At Boston University, his
graduate studies in an interdisciphnary
program combining the philosophy of
aesthetics and music were largely
financed by his blues and jazz gigs around
town.
While at BU, Kingston learned of a pianist and teacher proficient
on a wide range of instruments. Three years after putting his name
on Charlie Banacos’s waiting list, Kingston began lessons. “He is a
great jazz educator,” Kingston says, and in a month of lessons, “he
changed my fife.”
Ultimately, the hard life of a full-time musician wasn’t for him.
Instead Kingston returned to Kenyon to teach before becoming a
tutor at St. John’s in Santa Fe, where his musical and teaching fives
are weU integrated. “The seminar is like jazz interpretation,”
Ki ngston notes, sharing an observation made by a fellow tutor. The
greatest jazz musicians are those who can listen and work with
others, similar to seminar in that individual contributions create a
whole piece. Like jazz, the seminar moves along on interpretation
and improvisation.
Musical expression is a regular feature of campus fife, including
both scheduled performances and spontaneous jam sessions.
Kingston offers piano lessons informally and has helped form a
number of jazz groups, alternately composed of students, tutors,
and local musicians. “There is a chance to work with the students
who are here,” he says, noting that an instrument that might not
fit, strictly speaking, into an ensemble presents an opportunity for
some innovative arranging.
Kingston has kept his hand in the music scene in Santa Fe (his
latest endeavor: salsa gigs), and is grateful for the freedom to play
{The College.
Like jazz, the seminar moves
along on
INTERPRETATION AND IMPROVISATION, SAYS
Santa Fe tutor T. Andrew Kingston.
music at his own pace. “Music is a way of
talking about being human.”
— Deborah Spiegelman
Songbird
Judy Seeger
Judy Seeger is always singing.
The Annapolis tutor sings at home,
she sings in the car, she sings with
colleagues and students in formal
groups and impromptu gatherings.
When she gave the Commencement
speech in aoo6, it was natural for her
to urge everyone to join her in a chorus
of “The Water is Wide,” even though
she was struggling with laryngitis.
There is no occasion, Seeger believes, that can’t be made more
joyful by adding a song.
“My mother tells me that I sang before I talked,” says
Seeger. Her earliest memories are of singing in her family’s
Pittsburgh home with her father, a Gulf Oil executive who
loved to play the piano. Seeger sang while her father played
music from Schubert, Schumann, Beethoven, and others from
a collection of songs stashed in the piano bench. “Not Bach,”
she says. “My father was not a fan of Baroque music.”
As a child, she studied the piano, but like her father, she
always preferred to play in accompaniment to a song. A love of
music brought Seeger together with her husband, Tony, a
member of a musical family (folk singing legend Pete Seeger is
his uncle). The two met as youngsters in New York City, and in
their teens, they both attended the Seeger family’s Camp
Killooleet, where campers sing folk music and traditional
songs all summer long. Seeger also learned to play the acoustic
guitar at the camp.
“Music was one of the things that brought us together, and
it’s one of the things we keep on doing together,” she says.
Seeger earned a bachelor’s degree at Harvard and master’s
and doctoral degrees in Romance Languages and Literature
from the University of Chicago. Her husband became an
ethnomusicologist. Together they spent nine years in Brazil
St. John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
J
�{MuSICALTuTORS}
living with the Suya Indians and studying the role of music and
song in their culture. In 1989, Tony joined the Smithsonian
Institution as Curator of the Folkways Collection and Director
of the Smithsonian’s Folkways Recordings, and Seeger joined
the St. John’s faculty.
The place of music at the college, both in and outside the
classroom, was one of the factors that drew Seeger to St.
John’s. “The whole college is a musical community,” says
Seeger. “Where else do all the freshmen sing?”
With Annapolis tutors Jon Tuck, Henry Higuera, and
Chester Burke, and Santa Fe tutor Cary Stickney, Seeger is a
part of a continuing tradition called “Begone, Dull Care,” a
musical gathering meant to brighten the winter doldrums.
The event started at the behest of Eva Brann, who was looking
for an event to brighten the dark days between winter and
spring breaks. After a few experimental years-including a
performance in the Pendulum Pit with Seeger, tutor George
Doskow and then-music librarian Tina Davidson, the gath
ering found its home in the Great Hall. A folksy, high-spirited
community sing-along that takes place every winter in
Annapolis, “it lifts people’s spirits,” Seeger says.
A song has the unfailing power to get people to put aside
their individual pursuits and come together. “We do music at
St. John’s the way we read books,” she says. “You read the
book by yourself, butthat’s not the end ofit-it’s when we come
together and talk about it that the magic happens. It’s the
same way with music.”
— Rosemary Harty
as
Galloping on the Guitar
Chester Burke (A74)
Playing the pedal steel guitar takes more than just musical
ability, says Annapolis tutor Chester Burke (A74). It’s a feat of
coordination and concentration. Burke was first drawn to the
challenge by the sounds he heard in country music: a happy
twang, a mournful wail, a nameless longing, all produced by
masters of the steel guitar. But there’s great risk involved: when
played poorly, the steel guitar can produce some of the most
wretched sounds known to the human ear.
The pedal steel guitar has two necks, each with 10 strings. It
has seven pedals and five knee levers, which control the volume
and pitch of the string. With his right hand, Burke plucks the
strings with two finger picks and a thumb pick; the left hand
(instead of pressing against the fret on a guitar) moves the steel
“bullet” up and down the frets to raise and lower the pitch of
the notes he’s plucking out on the strings. “It’s many instru
ments in one instrument, and it takes longer than most instru
ments to master,” he says.
Burke has been a serious musician since childhood, starting
with the violin, cello, and piano before setthng on the flute as
an object of serious devotion. After graduating from St. John’s
he studied music and performed in Paris. He returned to the
states to earn a master’s degree in performance at the Univer
sity of Michigan. Since 1982 when he returned to the college,
initially as lab director, he has played the flute professionally as
a member of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra.
The steel guitar began to intrigue him, especially when he
became the temporary custodian to colleague Walter Ster
ling’s treasured collection of classic country music. “In the
country venue, the steel guitar is the instrument that best
accompanies the singer,” Burke says. “It best imitates the
emotions.”
Determined to play the difficult instrument, Burke took
lessons from one of the best in the business. Buddy Charlton,
who played with Ernest Tubb and the Texas Troubadours. He
invested la years in lessons and practice before he was
comfortable performing before an audience, but he began
carting the instrument along with his flutes for concerts and
special events.
Burke is now turning his efforts to the acoustic guitar. So
far, he’s not producing the sounds he so admires in Andres
Even
if she wanted to,
SINGING.
{The CoLLEGE-5f. John’s
College ■ Fall 2008 }
Judy Seeger couldn’t keep from
�2.6
{MusicalTutors}
Segovia, but he’ll keep trying. “The sound of the guitar
intrigues me,” he says. “But it’s much harder to play than the
flute, and 1 feel I’ll never get very good at it.”
At St. John’s, every musician is fortunate to have receptive
audiences, whether it’s Purcell in the Great Hall or Crosby,
Stills, Nash and Young on the quad. “As audiences go, the
St. John’s community listens very well-we make a practice of
hstening to one another with respect and appreciation, and it’s
a pleasure to perform here,” Burke says.
And while he’s game to try almost any instrument, Chester
Burke will never sing. “I’m terrified of singing,” he says.
— Rosemary Harty
Practice Makes Perfect
Stephen Houser
Santa Fe tutor Stephen Houser routinely powered his habit of
practicing the guitar into the early morning hours with peanut
butter-and-jeUy sandwiches-but that’s getting ahead of the story.
Growing up in Lakewood, Colorado, Houser started taking
piano lessons at the age of five, received a guitar for Christmas at
ten but “didn’t do much with it,” and played oboe in the juniorhigh band. A high-school friend with an electric guitar was his
first musical influence. Together, they bowdlerized several
guitars to create their Frankenstein, dubbed “the Astrocaster.”
Houser later upgraded to a better
electric guitar, with which he dutifully
annoyed his family. During his first
semester at St. John’s in Santa Fe, he
met a fellow student who played clas
sical guitar. “I was mesmerized,” he
recalls. “He helped me choose a clas
sical guitar to buy, and I practiced my
brains out.”
Houser saved up money from a job
with the U.S. Postal Service and
invested in a steel-string guitar, a 1943
Martin. He dedicated his summer
after freshman year to music, prac
ticing IO hours every day, and made a
habit of daily practice through college
and after graduation. Returning home
in the evenings from his day job as a
paralegal, he would eat his sandwiches
and practice until he couldn’t keep his
eyes open.
But Houser “had an itch” to pursue music more seriously. So
he enrolled in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where
he studied, took master classes, and played in a bluegrass band
until the money ran out. Returning to Santa Fe, he taught guitar
and “on a lark,” applied to the college as a tutor. He joined the
faculty in August 1983.
Houser has been at St. John’s ever since, except for sabbaticals
and the 1987-1990 academic years, when he pursued his
doctorate in philosophy at the University of Virginia. He tried to
keep up practice, but it became too difficult as he became more
involved in extracurricular obligations at the college.
Music, however, continued to play a role in class discussions.
“I rely on the common experience that students-sophomores,
juniors, and seniors-have with music,” he says. “Music was a
very important part of my St. John’s experience [as a student]. It
was natural and easy for musical things to happen.”
Houser has collaborated musically with students and tutors,
including playing the lute with young singers and accompanying
a tutor who played the recorder. More recently, he has been
concentrating on the violin-guitar repertoire and currently is
partnering with a viohnist from Santa Fe Pro Musica on “enough
pieces for a concert.” He is hoping to reach beyond the St. John’s
audience to make a contribution to the community.
Houser also understands the soothing quality of music, having
in the past played guitar for the residents of nursing homes and,
most importantly, for his mother as
she battled a form of bone-marrow
cancer. When his mother moved to
Alaska to be cared for by Houser’s
sister, he sold his 1943 Martin and
bought recording equipment to make
CDs of his guitar music for his
mother’s solace.
After 25 years at St. John’s, Houser
consciously integrates music into
his fife as a tutor. “I want to make
some space for my music,” he
explains. On sabbatical for the 20082009 academic year, he will be doing
just that.
—Deborah Spiegelman
Annapolis tutor Chester Burke (A74)
PLAYS flute for the BALTIMORE
Chamber Orchestra, but says the
guitar is the hardest instrument he
has tried to learn.
{The College
s?.
John’s College • Fall 2008 }
�{MuSICAlTuTORS}
Johnnie Song Book
”" hen a group of St. John’s tutors performs
for special events, these two Johnnie clas
sics are showstoppers.
Tutor Henry Higuera wrote the
“Battle Hymn of the Republic of Letters”
in the early 1990s, after someone
announced a contest for a new St. John’s anthem. Although the
contest never materialized, Higuera’s muse took over. “I was
idly amusing myself with various joke anthem ideas when all
these great lines from specific books started occurring to me,
all set to the tune of the ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic,’”
Higuera explains. “After about a year of this I showed it to some
seniors, and the rest is history.”
Tutor Jon TRick’s “The Western Canonball” was inspired by
both Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon, published in 1995,
and a lively song about a train. “There was a certain pomposity
about the book that I found amusing,” says Tuck, who has
always liked Roy Acuff’s “The Wabash Cannonball.” “I put the
two of them together, and just started fiddling around with it.
My words are funnier when you know the original lyrics of
the song.”
Audiences love his booming, Opry-inspired delivery of the
song, but Tuck remains modest. He loves performing for college
events, big or small. “It’s a wonderful fringe benefit of being at
St. John’s,” he says. “You don’t have to be any good. I’m always
invoking what I call the Pyramus and Thisbe principle: the
worse you are the better you are.”
W
The Western Canonball
From the great Atlantic Ocean, from that European shore.
From Athens and Jerusalem come the authors we adore.
They’re dead and white and masculine, they’re known and loved
by all.
They’re the regular combination of the Western Canonball.
[Chorus: ] Oh, listen to the Logos, and listen to your heart.
As you glide through all the authors, through every lib’ral art.
Hear the mighty rush of the Freshmen, hear the lonesome
Seniors call,
“I’m traveling through the jungle on the Western Canonball.”
Now the Eastern books are dandy, say the folks in Santa Fe,
From the Vedas to Confucius, and Lao-Tse by the way.
But we won’t give up Plotinus, till the darkness round us fall.
No changes can be taken on the Western Canonball. [Chorus]
Here’s to our daddy classics, may their name forever stand,
And always be remembered, and taught throughout the land.
Though their earthly race may falter, in the West’s decline and
fall.
Still we never study history on the Western Canonball. [Chorus]
The Battle Hymn of the Republic of Letters
My mind has seen the glory of th’ Idea of the Good,
That it’s not the same as pleasure I have firmly understood.
And I wouldn’t take a tyrant’s power even if I could.
I’m marching from The Cave!
Marching, marching towards the sunlight.
Marching, marching towards the sunlight.
Marching, marching towards the sunlight.
I’m marching from The Cave!
The Fool conceives of God but thinks the faithful are deceived,
BUT a “Greatest Being” whose reality is not believed
Is a being than which something greater still can be conceived,
Which contradicts itself!
Ontological rebuttal.
Ontological rebuttal.
Faithlessness will ever scuttle,
For it contradicts itself!
The State of Nature’s character we know from good report
To be very solitary, nasty, brutish, poor and short.
So let’s give the Sovereign all our rights and every gun and fort.
And then we’ll all survive!
Ratify the Social Contract...
Deterministic limits on my freedom are erased
By the transcendental ideality of time and space.
So my atoms are determined but my will’s a different case.
It’s pure autonomy!
Hail the Transcendental Ego...
They came from old Chicago U. some sixty years ago;
As they rolled into the Program, you could hear the whispers
go:
“There’s Homer, Hobbes and Hegel, there’s Plato and St. Paul,
They came with Scott Buchanan on the Western Canonball.”
[Chorus]
I’ve been through all the steps in my phenomenology.
So it’s Master, Slave or in between it’s all the same to me.
I’m Unhappy and I’m Conscious so I’m absolutely free.
I’m fully synthesized!
I’ve undergone the Dialectic...
{The College -
27
John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
�2,8
{Alumni Voices}
The Secret Life of a Roller Derby Queen
Dressing Up and Acting Out on a Saturday Night
BY Jane McManus (A93)
it was my first night scrim
maging. I was part of a
visiting roller derby team in
an ancient skating rink
called Roller Magic. The
women there had names like
Bleeding Rainbow and Pinky Swears, and I
knew once we got started they were going
to try their hardest to knock me off my
skates and onto the polished wood floor.
And as much as I had butterflies, I
wanted to get at them first.
My 5-year-old daughter was at the snack
bar, playing with some of the other kids
tagging along with moms, and a few
fathers, tattooed or nose-ringed, casually
watched over them.
First two-minute jam, I was a capable
blocker. I can do this, I thought, and I
rammed into Pinky. Once I got comfort
able, one of the veterans threw me the
jammer helmet cover, meaning I was the
only one who could score points for the
team. The whistle blew, and I cut through
the pack of skaters quickly and cleanly,
beating the other woman at the spot.
I skated out fast and glanced at the tables to
see Jean jumping up and down.
“Go, Mommy, go!”
I knew I was going to like roller derby
before I pitched the story to the newspaper
I write for. The Journal News in the New
York City suburbs. I’ve worked as a sports
writer for the last to years, covering most
sports from amateur to professional. Some
I try, some I like better than others. I loved
roller derby from the start: the physicality
of it, the speed and, let’s face it, the
fishnets, I joined the local league. Suburbia
Roller Derby, and adopted a name a sports
writer can live with-Lesley E. Visserate.
I got an e-mail from longtime sports broad
caster Lesley Visser after I told her. Subject
In ordinary life, Jane McManus (A93), on the right in this promotional poster, is a jour
line: “How are we doing?”
nalist AND the mother OF TWO LITTLE GIRLS. On SATURDAY NIGHTS, SHE BECOMES LeSLEY E.
Visserate, roller derby queen.
Some background on me. I am in my,
ahem, 30s and I live in the New York
suburbs. I have two little girls, ages 5 and 3.
Stockings, stripes and Jolly Rogers
But I love derby for the same reasons you
Although I got my first tattoo at age 19, you
colliding in a tangle of wheels and limbs. I
can find features on the sport in any news
wouldn’t know about it unless you work out
like the theater of it, and the fact thatpaper lucky enough to have a hometown
at my gym or know me really, really well. So
before
the crowd and the DJs at a public
league:
it
’
s
sex
and
violence
in
one
sporty
I’m not the usual derby demographic on
bout-it’s just a group of women practicing
package.
the surface.
T
SATURDAY. JUNE 28 - 7pm
{The College-
St. John’s College - Fall 2008 }
�{Alumni Voices}
for months on a dusty sport court at the
police gym in Yonkers, drenched with sweat
hy the end of the night.
For me and for a lot of women who I play
with, roller derhy means getting out of the
nest, out of the life that has been made
comfortable. Out of the world of white
collar workers and academia, out of
affluence and covering other people’s
achievements. For a night, it’s my chance to
be cheered, to dress up and act out.
In the last five years, roller derby has
attracted thousands of women. And, in an
age when the WNBA has to beg for the
insignificant coverage it gets, women in
ponytails and skates get the front page of
the sports section. It reminds me of the
mid-1980s, when a women’s basketball
team had players dress in unitards to titil
late the fans.
I am a basketball player first, even now,
so that double standard irks me. But I don’t
blame derby for being sexy. Wlien she bats
her pretty eyes at me, it’s hard to stay mad.
American audiences still have a hard
time with women and sports. Tennis has
short skirts, so it gets a pass. Softball might
have lesbians, so that’s scary. Volleyball
players are in bikinis, which is awesome.
Just like in life, pretty athletes get the
coverage-why, hello, Danica Patrick! Who
are you wearing?
Given what I do for a living. I’ve given
this some thought. I also noticed that it was
really hard to find a women’s basketball
league nearby. After the passage of Title IX
in 1973 and the millions of women who
started playing sports, I assumed there
would be legions of women playing basket
ball once I got out of St. John’s in 1993.
I’m still waiting.
''Although Igot myfirst
tattoo at age ig, you
wouldn i know about it
unless you work out at
my gym or know me
really, really well So Im
not the usual derby
demographic on the
surface.
‘7 sat on the chicken sandwichfor the go-minute
drive home, shifting uncomfortably in my seat the
whole way I thought about what I was doing—
wedgingfrozen meat under my tailbone—and
whether it was really a sensible decisionfor me to
play a sport like this. ”
And so are a lot of soccer players,
lacrosse players-in fact, most anyone who
played a team sport. Adult women’s leagues
are few and far between in my area just
north of New York City. I did a story on this
a year ago, and I actually sat down and
counted, calling up leagues and recreation
departments and talking to women who
once played a sport in high school.
You want to know why so many women
run? It’s because there aren’t a lot of other
options, and it’s easy to schedule. I’ve
talked to women who hate running, but
hate being inactive just slightly more.
Some of those women come over to the
dark side. Kimberly O’Leary, a woman who
goes by Vixen Von Bruisen on Suburbia,
played seriously in high school. You can see
it from the way she leads practice, very hard
physically, but fun.
As much fun as it is put on a flirty
uniform on the Saturday nights we hold our
bouts at E.J. Murray’s Memorial Rink in
Yonkers, there is a ton of work leading up
to it. We are a young league, just a year old,
and we are still learning. Some of our
players come from other leagues and could
mop up the court with us rookies, but it
really is a cooperative environment where
we try to help each other get better at the
basic skills.
My learning curve is slow. I have a
competitive streak, and I want to be the
best player out there immediately, which I
definitely am not. I throw my elbows, which
is just one of the illegal habits I have. There
have been nights I’ve been so frustrated
with myself that I wanted to quit, and other
nights when I wondered if I was insane.
In early February, I was blocking Jeri
Fling’her (a mother of two and health tech
nician who lives in Connecticut). I was a
little off balance but thought I had her.
I missed her and fell backwards, slamming
my tailbone on the floor. It hurt, but I
told myself to get the $ *#% up and finish
the jam.
{The College -St. John’s
College ■ Fall 2008 }
After practice, I drove to a gas station in
a crappy part of town and asked, through
the bulletproof glass, for a frozen sandwich.
The guy tried to sell me a refrigerated Hot
Pocket but I said, “No, it has to be solid
ice.” Just then my teammate Black Star
Heroine pulled up in a station wagon to ask
if I was OK-a woman in a sketchy neighbor
hood wearing fishnets-and I paid for a
chicken sandwich.
I told her what happened and that I was
in a lot of pain.
“Oh, that happened to me, too,” Black
Star said. “It’s probably going to wake you
up for the next few nights.”
I sat on the chicken sandwich for the 30minute drive home, shifting uncomfortably
in my seat the whole way. I thought about
what I was doing-wedging frozen meat
under my tailbone-and whether it was
really a sensible decision for me to play a
sport like this.
I did wake up in pain. I popped Advils. I
couldn’t drive my stick shift for weeks. It is
a solid six months later, and my tailbone
still aches. You know it’s the one bone they
can’t do anything for when it breaks?
Still, I was back at practice the next
week.
Call it my midlife crisis. I’m staving off
the creep of mediocrity. I had my lame old
tattoo redone in brilliant colors and
invested in fishnets of every variety. My
body has emerged from the years of preg
nancy and nursing, wonderful in their own
way, but over.
I have abs again.
This might not last forever. I’m covering
the New York Jets for the first time this
season, and I’m aware that I could get an
injury tomorrow that causes my little hobby
to intrude on my real life. But I will savor
my tenure as a roller girl while I can.
�30
{Bibliofile}
Ee, tutor Ben Kraus had a trunk fuU of
Marvel comics. I was always moving
between the trunk of comic books and the
great books.”
Sharp Teeth
Toby Barlow (SF88)
HarperCollins, aoo8
A lover’s revenge takes on satisfying and
creepy possibilities in Toby Barlow’s darkly
humorous thriller, Sharp Teeth. Early in the
story, set in the sprawl! ng neighborhoods of
Los Angeles, a certain “She” muses about a
failed romance with yet another lover. “She”
finds comfort on the shoulder of Lark, a
successful attorney, werewolf pack leader,
and long-time friend. As they have a latenight chat Lark promises her something that
will change her “completely...with it comes
a certain power.” Instead of offering another
glass of wine. Lark slices open his forearm
and invites her to mingle her blood with his.
By morning “She” wakes up as “her own
brand of beast,” a werewolf in Lark’s pack.
Sharp Teeth is a romantic thriller that
threads multiple plot lines teeming with
rival gangs of lycanthropes, high-stakes card
games, dog traffickers and catchers, and
organized crime in the seething underbelly
of Los Angeles. In blank verse that jumps
like rap music, Barlow dances between
human consciousness and the musings of
lycanthropes. With almost scientific
authority Barlow sifts through the centuries,
describing how small packs survived, biding
their time, roaming the wilderness and
surviving by killing “men that no one would
miss.” Rest assured, Barlow chants, despite
technology and surveillance, “the blood
sugar fever still survives.” Barlow dispels the
myths about how humans transform into
lycanthropes: “It’s not the full moon. That’s
as ancient and ignorant as any myth. The
blood just quickens with a thought... So that
one can self-ignite...becoming something
rather more canine.”
Unlike popular science fiction stories in
which aliens inhabit human bodies (revealed
when one is face-to-face with their green
reptilian eyes) there are no clues-only
surprises-as to who is and isn’t a werewolf
in Sharp Teeth. “Even the werewolves do not
recognize another werewolf,” says Barlow.
Yet what makes the novel so gripping is not
so much the strangeness of the mysterious
crossover into a fycanthrope that characters
like Lark deftly navigate. Rather it is the
human struggles-the beast that resides
within each of us-the desires, rages, loves,
competitions, that makes the book a
page turner.
“A classic werewolf fears the transforma
tion and the deeds he might do as a beast.
—Patricia Dempsey
Racing Odysseus:
A College President
Freshman Again
Becomes a
Roger H. Martin
University of California Press, 2008
deeds he will not remember; but my were
wolves, like humans, are wholly conscious,”
says Barlow. They remember their blood
thirsty deeds, and like us, they have long
ings, regrets, dreams, and heartbreaks.
Sharp’s Teeth is populated with hip char
acters such as a persistent LAPD detective, a
blonde surfer-chick (who is also a werewolf),
a Hispanic meth manufacturer, and Cutter
and Blue, bridge tournament finalists who
just happen to be werewolves in Lark’s pack.
These lycanthropes are clever. So is Mr.
Venable, a mysterious sage that Barlow says
“pays homage to an old tutor at St. John’s,
Bruce Venable. He was a man out of time,
a dichotomy, and a tremendous amount of
fun. Like my tutor, Mr. Venable in the book
embraces fife in all its highs and lows.”
Barlow, an executive creative director at
an advertising agency in Detroit, didn’t plan
on writing a book. But
several years ago when
he was living in a
Chicago hotel room, an
article on a dogcatcher
caught his eye. “I
needed something to
pass the time and at a
certain point the char
acters came alive.”
Barlow did intend for
Sharp Teeth to be visu
ally rich, just like the
comic books he discov
ered at St. John’s.
“When I got to Santa
{The Colleges?.
John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
When he was 61 years old, and then still
the president of Randolph-Macon College,
Roger Martin decided to become a
freshman again-at St. John’s College.
Having survived melanoma against
tremendous odds, Martin was looking to
find new perspective and new challenges
when he joined the freshman class in the
fall of 2004. He sat in on freshman
seminar, became a member of the crew
team, and even attended waltz parties in
the Great Hall.
In this honest and deeply personal
memoir, he chronicles his journey from a
life in which he was an over-controlling,
efficient time manager to a life in which he
became a student immersed in the liberal
arts. At St. John’s, Martin writes, he redis
covered the art of questioning, conversa
tion, and contemplation. He shares his
great admiration for St. John’s students
and tutors, and has special words of praise
for Athletic Director Leo Pickens (A78),
whom Martin got to know well as the harddriving coach of the St. John’s crew team.
Toward the end of his stay at St. John’s,
Martin wrote: “I have arrived at seminar
15 minutes early...I am finally enjoying
myself. I’m enjoying being a member of the
crew. I’m enjoying reading the Great
Books. I’m enjoying hanging
out in the Coffee Shop and
meeting students. I’ve attained
nirvana.”
Gumbo Tales: Finding
My Place at the
New Orleans Table
Sara Roahen (SF94)
W.W. Norton, 2008
There are as many gumbos in
Louisiana as there are accents
writes Sara Roahen in her book.
Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place
�{Bibliofile}
at the New Orleans Table. But in New
Orleans her favorite gumbo is “as thick as
a cypress swamp in flavor.” In post-Katrina
New Orleans, Roahen finds another reason
to savor gumbo-as a symbol for the city’s
resilience.
Roahen lived in the Crescent City for
several years, while her husband attended
medical school. In August 2005, Hurri
cane Katrina disrupted their lives and
forced a move to Philadelphia, but Roahen
frequently returned to New Orleans to
taste gumbo and other favorites.
The result is not a compendium of
recipes, but essays about food and place.
She cobbles together aromas and flavors,
conversations with patrons at local
eateries, oral histories, and food history in
this personal celebration of the city’s
culture. Roahan explores the wonders of
familiar dishes such as po boys, red beans
and rice, crayfish bisque, coffee and
chicory, beignets-“naked or sugared”-as
well as dishes introduced by the city’s
varied cultures, including Vietnamese pho
and Sicilian braciolone.
Roahen and her husband, Mathieu
DeSchutter (SF94) are now back in
New Orleans.
Violent Video Game Effects on
Children and Adolescents:
Theory, Research and Public
Policy___________________________
Craig Anderson, Douglas Gentile (A86),
Katherine Buckley
Oxford University Press, aoo8
Do violent video games contribute to aggres
sive and violent behavior? Douglas Gentile
(A86) has coauthored an insightful explo
ration of this question that incorporates
both scientific research and pubhc policy in
an exploration of a possible link between
violent video games and aggression.
Gentile is a developmental psychologist,
assistant professor of psychology at Iowa
State University and director for the National
Institute on Media and the Family. Violent
Video Game Effects presents the results of
three studies that use various measures of
aggression and research on elementary, high
school, and college-age students. The
authors note that critics confuse the scien
tific question (Are there harmful effects?)
with the legal question related to First
Amendment rights. In the meantime, as the
debate rages on, the book offers tips for
choosing video games and a wealth of
What the Tutors Are Reading
Frank Pagano, Santa Fe: “I am revisiting
Philip Roth’s American Pastoral. The novel
is not about the (late) ‘60s generation so
much as what they reacted against: the
perfect American, Roth’s Seymour Levov,
the Swede. Roth brings to life the all-Amer
ican boy, and shows why the baby boomers
chose to make him the enemy.”
David Levine (class of vjhy), Santa Fe: “I’m
just finishing Henry James’ The Princess
Casamassima, which is the first James
novel I’ve read. Published in 1886, it’s
about the fate of culture amidst the rise of
popular democratic movements.”
David Carl, Santa Fe: “Steven Pressfield’s
The Virtue of Warts a work of historical
adventure fiction based on the fife of
Alexander the Great, which gives a very
engaging fictionalized vision of the fife of
the great Macedonian general. Pressfield is
perhaps most famous for his novel Gates of
Fire, a fictional account of the Battle of
Thermopylae (before the comic book and
movie goo brought it to pop culture atten
tion). Pressfield’s portrayal of Alexander is
an inspiring vision of conflicted leadership,
perhaps even of the tension between
philosophy and politics.”
Nick Maistrellis, Annapolis: “I’m on
sabbatical leave so I have much more time
to read. I have read a novel named/ZZZ, by
Phillip Larkin who is a well-known English
poet. The novel is about a lower middle
class scholarship student at Oxford in 1940
and his attempts to fit into an upper-class
world. The novel is beautifully written and
quite moving. I’m also reading Out ofthe
Labyrinth, by Robert and Ellen Kaplan. It
{The College-
St. John's College ■ Fall 2008 }
31
resources on how to be an involved
consumer and citizen. Says Gentile, “The
media are far more powerful than we want to
admit, but we are far from powerless to
control the effects.”
The Theater of Insects___________
Jo Whaley, contributions by Linda Weiner
Chronicle Books, 2008
Santa Fe tutor Linda Weiner wrote the
primary essay for The Theater ofInsects, a
new book by Jo Whaley. Weiner’s identifi
cation of the insects accompanies Whaley’s
dazzling, theatrically-staged photographs
of butterflies, beetles, dragonflies and
other colorful bugs. The collaboration
resulted in a work that echoes the style of
natural history dioramas, and-thro ugh
Wiener’s contribution-offers a thoughtful
reflection on the intersection of art and
science. The Theater ofInsects, titled after
a 1658 work of the same name, is published
to coincide with a series of exhibitions
across the country, including the Photo
Eye Gallery (Santa Fe, N.M.), the National
Academies Keck Center Gallery and
National Academy of Sciences (both in
Washington, D.C.).-^
is the best book on teaching and learning
mathematics I have seen.”
SamKutler, class ofig54, Annapolis: '''The
Warriors, by J. Glenn Gray. He describes
many of the horrors of war and reflects on
them. My father was in the first World War,
and my childhood is steeped in memories
of the second World War. The day he
received his doctorate in philosophy. Gray
received a letter from President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt which began ‘Greet
ings.’ He found that all the philosophy he
had been studying no longer meant
anything to him because the war became
his whole world.”
Pamela Kraus, Annapolis: "Posthumous
Keats by Stanley Plumly. I have a long
standing interest in Keats, so I read a lot of
things by and about him. Plumly, who is a
poet and occasional essayist, has written a
reflective account of Keats as living on
through his fife, poems, and reputation. It’s
a lovely book.” dlk
�32
{Alumni Profile}
Seattle’s Philosopher Cop
Clark Kimerer (SC78)
BY Patricia Dempsey
the distant horizon but completely
here have been
misses the immediate threat.”
moments in his 25When making split-second
year career when
decisions, Kimerer can’t afford to
Seattle’s Deputy Chief
be contemplative. “It’s a time to
of Police Clark
stand watch. If you think too much,
Kimerer (SF78) has
you won’t survive.”
questioned his line of work. In
Kimerer honed his ability to
aoo6 when a Seattle gunman shot
make split-second decisions
several young adults at a rave dance
during stints as a patrol officer,
after-party and then pulled the
SWAT Team training officer, chief
trigger on himself, Kimerer and his
hostage negotiator, captain
boss. Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske,
charged with vice and narcotics,
were called to the scene. Kimerer
and today as head of emergency
had to share the grim news with the
preparedness for the city of
victim’s families, brief the media,
Seattle. After he joined the force as
and console the teenagers who were
a patrol officer 25 years ago, his
grieving for their friends. “It was
survival depended on being
one scene of human despair after
constantly alert and mindful
another over a six-hour period,”
because “the situation could
says Kimerer. “When it came time
degenerate instantly.” Kimerer
to walk through the scene, I turned
excelled at making critical deci
to Gil and said, ‘I’m not sure if I
sions under pressure and in 1985
want to walk through another
became a SWAT Training Officer
slaughter. I see my own kids every
and Team Member, handling lifetime I do.’”
and-death situations every day. He
“You have to do it,” Kerb kowske
trained “the guys [who] crash
told his deputy chief. “One, you
through the front doors, the
have in your life been devoted to
deadly force cadre [whose] goal
understanding this. Everything you
always is to save lives. I had to
have read and thought about the
create a curriculum dealing with
human endeavor to find out what is
these issues as well as post-trau
good in the world, you have devoted
matic stress syndrome. We were
yourself to. Two, you have to do it to
often faced with making a good
show the world that you care. And
choice among many bad options.”
three, you have to do it to show
Kimerer’s education at St. John’s
yourself that you care.”
“is a real conversation starter when
As Kimerer walked through the
In his 25-YEAR CAREER, Clark Kimerer (SF78) rose from
sitting in a roomful of pohce
grisly scene, trying to make sense
PATROL officer TO SECOND-IN-COMMAND OF ONE OF THE NATION’S
LARGEST POLICE FORCES. He’S GAINED A NATIONAL REPUTATION
chiefs.” He is a gifted leader who
of what his eyes were taking in, he
FOR HIS EXPERTISE IN EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND HOMELAND
studied at the FBI, Northwestern
thought of readings from Plato,
SECURITY.
University, and the Program on
Montaigne, Homer, and Hegel.
Negotiation at Harvard Law
“Snippets went sweeping through
School. He is a philosopher cop
my mind: What is good? How can
who reads voraciously and is as
you find sense in this kind of
Yet Kimerer is quick to note that deep
compassionate as he is rational about his
slaughter? How do you make peace with
reflection does not always have a place in
fellow human beings. Kimerer volunteers to
what is bad? If you don’t make peace, the
the line of duty. “Where do the readings not
help disabled adults, particularly the home
alternative is despair. Kierkegaard was
belong? They do not belong when there is a
particularly poetic in how he explored this.”
danger in thinking too much. In Moby-Dick, less, and embraces Oscar Romero’s libera
tion theology, which maintains that values
Each day Kimerer asks himself, “How do
Melville describes how the last person you
and ethics should be part of public policy.
these great works have a place in my small
want in the crow’s nest is someone ‘given to
Kimerer never loses sight of the irony that
life as a police officer? To make sense of the
unseasonable meditation’ up there with a
he has “one of the most unusual job
good is one way of dealing with the bad.”
copy of the Phaedo, because he’s looking at
T
{The College. 5t. John’s
College • Fall aooS }
�{Alumni Profile}
descriptions in civilization” and as deputy
chief, he uses “coercive force to keep law
and order.” As second in command of the
igth-largest municipal police department,
with a $aa6 million dollar annual budget
and 1,870 employees, he also investigates
cases, prevents human misery, and
“protects every citizen, day in, day out.”
Ultimately Kimerer is a public servant,
“bound by duty and responsibility, rather
than authority and prerogatives.”
Kimerer also oversees emergency
preparedness and homeland security for the
city of Seattle. Most city police departments
do not oversee large-scale emergency and
disaster response; however Seattle is a port
city and headquarters of the Microsoft
Corporation, a symbolic target for terrorist
threats. Seattle is also vulnerable to natural
disasters such as windstorms, landslides,
and earthquakes. In 2001 the Nisqually
Earthquake (magnitude 6.8) under the
Puget Sound caused over $200 million in
damage, and in 1999 the city’s New Year
celebration was cancelled when a man was
caught smuggling bomb-making materials
into the U.S. at Port Angeles, with plans to
stay in a hotel near the city’s famed Space
Needle. To keep abreast of emergency
response and terrorist-prevention methods,
Kimerer travels globally to meet with his
counterparts in various governments and
also advises the Major Cities Chiefs, an
organization for the chiefs of the nation’s 56
largest police and sheriff departments, on
such strategies. “Here in Seattle we have a
leading edge with data and communications
systems that are interdependent. All these
things help us to manage disaster.”
Just five years into his career, Kimerer
faced disasters of a different kind. He was
tapped from SWAT Team training to
become Chief Hostage Negotiator (a posi
tion he held from 1985 to 1992). In the midst
of a tense situation, Kimerer learned to
calmly persuade another human being by
hstening and asking questions. “It’s a real
devotion to understanding through
listening,” he explains. “Basicallyyou’re
trying to get a desperate person, someone
who’s taken over a hostage, on a wavelength
where you can reason with him or her.”
Kimerer has seen 300 to 400 such
scenarios in the past 25 years. “There are so
many causes-behavioral disorders, chem
ical disorders-but the one thing each
hostage taker has in common is singlemindedness, an inabihty to look beyond a
self-formulated view of a course of action to
be taken.” As a crisis negotiator, Kimerer
built a rapport. “I had to convey a profound
level of attention to the person. I had to try
to let the subject construct a larger
universe, one that had options and other
choices than suicide or murder.”
Just as the horrific shooting scene from
the rave after-party lingers in Kimerer’s
mind, so too does one hostage episode in
which a suicidal-homicidal man, obsessed
with his caregiver, barricaded himself and
the woman in a clinic. “In this incident,
you’re looking at a lot of things. Sometimes
that person wants to do what’s called
‘suicide by cop.’ He wants the cops to
kill him in front of someone that he’s
angry with; he wants to act out in a
murder/suicide in front of those who have
wronged him,” says Kimerer. “I’ve seen
hundreds of those cases.”
''How do these great
works have aplace in
my small l^e as apolice
officer? To make sense of
the good is one way of
dealing with the bad.
Clark Kimerer (SF78)
In this case, Kimerer took it step-by-step.
“The first thing I had to decide was who not
to involve, such as the ex-spouses and
psychiatrists. A lot of hostage takers have
issues with authority and even clergymen
can create problems. There are a lot of
sensitive spots and each situation is
different. The second thing I did was try to
draw the hostage taker out to assess his
personality by constantly asking question
after question: ‘Why would you want to put
her at risk?’ ‘Let’s not do anything until we
can keep exploring this. Let’s keep talking.’
‘Where’s the weapon?’ I get him to put the
weapon down, if possible. It’s a dialectical
exercise. It’s Socratic. We know what we
want the answer to be. It’s not an openended, unconditional exploration. But you
only see hostage takers change when
they learn for themselves and discover for
themselves.”
{The College -John’s
College ■ Fall 2008 }
33
Finally there was a breakthrough. Says
Kimerer, “The subject admitted that the
woman was I ike his mother and he was
abused as a kid. Here was a chance to make
contrasts, to point out that the woman he
was keeping as hostage and planning to
murder was not his mother. I could progress
the dialectic along, tell him, ‘This is not
your mother. Let’s talk about the differ
ences and start creating some separation
and some options.’”
Kimerer’s ability to walk such delicate
situations with skill and patience makes him
a natural for law enforcement. Yet even
though he grew up in a police family,
Kimerer had no intention of joining the
force. “My stepfather and my mother were
both assistant police chiefs. My mother was
the highest-ranking policewoman [in the
country]. When she retired, she became a
U.S. Marshall. My great uncle was a fire
chief, my brother was chief of police, so the
whole family was involved in the police
force. I grew up socializing with the chiefs,
so I was never intimidated by them or the
paramilitary culture.”
After he graduated from St. John’s,
Kimerer worked as assistant director of
admissions in Santa Fe and studied at the
Graduate Institute while his (now) wife Julie
Berg (SF79) finished as an undergraduate.
Today they live in Seattle and are raising
three teenage sons. When they first moved
to the city in 1979, Kimerer worked in a
small business for several years, but he
wasn’t fulfilled. As a Big Brother volunteer,
he got involved in a case where he worked
closely with police detectives who were on
the trail of a child molester. The criminal
was sent to prison for several years, and
Kimerer gained appreciation for the detec
tives’ dedication. “I discovered that I was
really excited about justice, even if it’s not
perfect justice,” he says.
From his 8th-floor office with views of the
Puget Sound, Kimerer recollects the
dangerous days of his career; “I lookback
on my life, my St. John’s education, the cop
who spent four years looking at great books
and argues vehemently for the rights of the
downtrodden. Is this unusual? I don’t know,
but this is where my life has gone.”
Today Kimerer is more likely to be
dashing to a meeting than to a crime scene.
“When I’m called out, that’s when it’s
really bad, like the mass killing at the rave
after-party. Otherwise, the biggest threat I
might encounter these days,” he says, “is a
paper cut.
�{Alumni Notes}
34
1935
Richard S. Woodman writes
that he is still enjoying life and
the practice of law in lovely
upstate New York.
1937
Jack Owens sent a poem to
The College:
Let the music and adventures
play on
Until we must give up the gift of
life
Then comes a place of mercy to
give us relief and liberation
from
The tangled web we have woven
in our busy life in wonderland
Full of good works, and vanities,
plus all the ills and pains
We leave all of these our history.
Our love will live forever
So sail away to this new place of
supreme rest and peace
Now when friends and family,
smell a new blown flower.
Or hear a joyful tune, or see a
graceful wild bird-they will
think of you
1943
“Peg and I have been married for
65 years,” writes BURTON
Armstrong. “And it all started
at St. John’s.”
1953
“In a spirit of reason and good
will,” Jennie Alexander has
put away her former name, John
D. Alexander, Jr., and gender.
She continues to perform with
the Baltimore Jazz Trio. Indeed
the trio once again performed at
McDowell Hall during
Homecoming. Alexander also
continues her study of American
vernacular post-and-rung chair
making and 17th century joinery.
She has recently co-authored an
article on chair making to be
published in American Furniture
2009.
1954
Bernard Jacoh completed
29 years as a law teacher at
Hofstra University Law School
and was granted emeritus status
as of the 2008-09 academic year.
1962
My profile in View, the journal of
the Library of American
Landscape History, describes me
as a “preservation hero” because
of my efforts at Hampton in
Maryland; Stan Hywet Hall and
Gardens in Akron, Ohio; and
Ford House in Grosse Point
Shores, Mich. I retired June 30,
2007,” writes JOHN FrankLIN
Miller.
Steve Almy writes: “My wife
and I are happily retired in
California, on the western slope
of the Sierras, a really beautiful
spot. I am the president of our
local chapter of the National
Active/Retired Federal
Employees Association,
Hangtown Chapter 1503, in
Placerville, Calif. Our goal is to
protect the earned benefits of
retirees from the federal
government. Congress has tried
to cut our pensions but we have
(so far) successfully resisted. We
were visited recently by another
class member, George Jones,
and his beautiful wife. I wonder
how many classmates realize we
have a genuine war hero among
us. I spend my time Ashing,
reading and gardening, very
relaxing after a lifetime spying
against our country’s enemies.
My wife is the world’s greatest
cook of food from the Middle
East and Southeast Asia, where
we lived for so many years, so I
am constantly fighting the battle
of the bulge. I’d like to hear from
anyone in our class, particularly
if you’re going to be in the area
and can drop by, Yia sasC
Cecil Wade reports that his
daughter Cynthia won the Oscar
for Short Documentary at this
year’s Academy Awards
ceremonies.
1966
Barbara Hockman just retired
1964
i960
teaching English in China.
“My kids are a lot more daring
than I am! ” she writes.
Arlene Andrew is still working
full time as a senior planner for
the city of La Verne, 3.3 miles
from her home in Claremont,
Calif. She has no immediate
plans to retire. Her daughter,
Abby Banks, has had a book
published: Punk House, a photo
documentation of the homes of
groups of “punk” young people
she visited as she traveled across
America. Her son. Josh, is
after 30 “delightful and intense
years” teaching English as a
Second Language at the City
College of San Francisco: “I
taught all levels and types of ESL
from vocational and crosscultural studies to many years of
advanced academic classes. I was
helped in my work by my St.
John’s foundation followed by
five years abroad, teaching in
Japan, and traveling overland
around the world. Now I’ll have
time to paint and focus on my
Tibetan Buddhist studies and
practice (ongoing for more than
Decorating Idea
Leo Pickens (A78) wants to give alumni the first shot at a
bargain: two classic wooden AyLING sweep oars, made in 1971, WITH
THE DISTINCTIVE St. JoHn’s ORANGE-AND-BLACK DESIGN ON THE BLADE.
They’re 12' long, ideal for either dedicated rowers or those
WITH AVERY BIG HOUSE TO DECORATE. PiCKENS IS ASKING $250 OR BEST
OFFER, AND SAYS ALL PROCEEDS GO BACK TO SUPPORT THE ROWING
PROGRAM. Call 410-268-2558 or e-mail leo.pickens@sjca.edu.
(The College -Sr. John’s College . Fall zoo8 }
�{AlumniNotes}
25 years), simplicity dictated by a
teacher’s pension. Feel free to
send me an e-mail.”
1967
Division of Pediatric
Pulmonology at Childrens
Hospital Los Angeles. He is
married to Susan Keens, PhD, a
clinical psychologist. Daughter
Jenny is a fifth-grade teacher, and
will be married this summer. Son
Peter is a computer programmer.
Ezra Harris (A) and
Eve Cohen Olman (A6g)
got married about three years
ago at the Keren Or center for
special education in Jerusalem.
“It was a gas. We have recently
been blessed with the birth of
our fourth grandchild. Praise
the Lord!”
1968
More retirement news, from
M. Joy Avery (SF): “After
completing three careers, I
finally retire at 62 years: 5 years
as a technical writer, 26 years as
an interpreter to the deaf,
10 years as an occupational
,
therapy assistant.”
Tom Keens (SF) is the chair of
the Pediatric Pulmonology
Sub-board of the American Board
of Pediatrics: “This is a seven
member board who writes the
board examination for pediatric
pulmonology, which aU
physicians wishing to be certified
in this subspecialty must take and
pass. Members serve a seven-year
term. In my last two-years, I was
elected chair of the subboard. I
was initially reluctant to agree to
serve, but I realized that this
group has important obligations
not only to write the board
examinations, but also to
determine the knowledge area
which defines pediatric
pulmonology as a subspecialty. It
has been a very interesting seven
years.” Tom is also a Professor of
Pediatrics, Physiology and
Biophysics at the Keck School of
Medicine of the University of
Southern California, and he
holds a faculty position in the
1969
Joseph P. Baratta (A) writes:
“My big book. The Politics of
World Federation (2004),
continues to make slow, scholarly
progress. It has been reviewed
eight times. It has been cited in
the first note of Paul Kennedy’s
The Parliament ofMan. It is also
cited in a note in Joshua
Goldstein’s International
Relations and in a Wikipedia
article on “world government.”
My website on the book contains
the introduction and pictures of
me, worn out with labors to
realize the dream of world peace
and justice: http://web.mac.com
/Josephs aratta. ”
L. Luis Lopez (SFGI) has
published three books of poetry.
Musings ofa Barrio Sack Boy, A
Painting ofSand, and Each
Month I Sing (October 2008). He
teaches Latin, Ancient Greek,
Greek and Roman Literature, and
Mythology at Mesa State College
in Grand Junction, Colo. His
daughter, Reina Lopez, is
preparing to enter the Graduate
Institute in Santa Fe in January.
“To all who wished me well,”
writes BARBARA MORDES BOSS
(A), “it has been six years since I
was hit by a truck and I am finally
feeling good. The hardest part of
healing was going to the doctors.
Most doctors merely prescribed
drugs, and then more drugs. Two
months ago, a new doctor.
Dr. Brilliant and Beautiful, ran
her fingers over my body, from
my ears to my wrists, and then
from the back of my head to my
{The College. 5f.
35
Dancing All Night
DELL Kesselman (SFGI76) has been working in Phoenix
for four-and-a-half years as a psychotherapist at a
nonprofit agency, “using my liberal education daily. In
March, my only child became a Jewish wife, and I danced
and smiled all night. Living with my two cats, I continue
to sing and purr with abandon, laughing more as I near
60 than ever before.”
I
wrist. She then forcefully
declared that I must decaffeinate
and she immediately ordered an
echocardiogram. I stopped all
drugs as so ordered and after one
week, felt better than normal.
Still do. Last week I went to the
heart ultrasound doctor. I was not
able to see the screen as he
probed and muttered, but what I
heard was rather creepy; retarded
valves not quite clapping,
coughing and wheezing, as they
applauded the heart. (The doctor
had muttered ‘What a beautiful
heart!’ upon finding a good
viewing spot. At 60, any
compliment to a body part is nice
to hear.) Through the splashing
and whistling he made comment
on my ‘heart murmur’ describing
my weak mitral valve. If any
friends have advice please pass it
on. Truth, Beauty, and the Good
have not languished in my heart
but is there not an aspect of each,
particular for the aged? Any
thoughts, let me know. I do not
dream of my Rock ’n Roll time;
not Dylan, The Stones, The
Doors, Jimi, nor even Hiatt...
every night I dream of
St. John’s!”
“Retired, built a new house
(Curmudgeon Castle West), got a
new dog (Simon) and kept the
important stuff: wife (Sarah),
health (like bull) and business
(for the dogs),” writes JAMES
Scanlon (SF). The view to
Monte Sol is a bit dim; it seems to
be just over the curvature of the
earth from here (about 4000
miles). Reflection on the
St. John’s experience progresses
from pricey at the time to
priceless over time.”
1971
George Elias (A) writes: “After
more than 20 years seUing
businesses, I have embarked on a
new career as a financial advisor
with Morgan Stanley. I am part of
a new program that began late
last year in New York and is now
piloting in San Francisco. My job
is to help people preserve and
grow their financial assets- so
that they can enjoy a long,
comfortable retirement. A
curious fact: two members of my
office are longtime clients and
admirers of Dan Sullivan (A71),
President/Owner of the Strategic
Coach. Go Dan!”
Susan Volkmar (SF) moved
from Raleigh, N.C., to the Boston
area. She continues to be active
with the National Association of
Science Writers and the New
England Science Writers.
1972
Melissa Kaplan Drolet (SF)
was happy and proud to attend
the graduation of her daughter,
Megan Josephine Drolet
(SF08) in May: “Also in
attendance were my sister,
Sharon Kaplan Wallis (Class
of 1964) with her husband
Leonard Weeks and my brother,
cont. onpages'^
John’s College . Fall ^008 }
�36
{AlumniProfile}
The View from the Bench
Jean FitzSimon (A^g)
BY Rosemary Harty
he Philadelphia couple was
drowning in deht. They hoth
held low-wage jobs: she as a
waitress, and he as a retail
clerk. A compulsive gambler,
the man hid $120,000 in
credit card bills from his wife. When he
finally hit the jackpot, he spent some of the
money and gave her the rest to pay off their
mortgage. But other creditors were
waiting, and that’s what brought the man
before Judge Jean K. FitzSimon (A73) in
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania last year.
In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a debtor can
seek a discharge of certain debts,
preventing creditors from taking further
legal action to collect. It’s unusual for
FitzSimon to deny a discharge, but in this
case she ruled that the man intended to
“hinder, delay, and defraud” his unsecured
creditors. “This is not the action of an
Presiding over the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Judge
‘honest but unfortunate debtor’ seeking a
Jean FitzSimon (A73) seeks the gray areas in the cases that come before her.
fresh start,” she wrote in her ruling.
Reflecting on the case later, FitzSimon
said it was a difficult one for her. “It’s not
ever forced to use a credit card, but teaser
She later moved to Chicago, where she was
my fault that this man gambled. But you
interest
rates, credit checks, confusing
appointed Acting U.S. Trustee for the
have this poor woman and her two children
language, and other marketing devices are
Northern District of Illinois, gaining
who will effectively be out on the street
at best ethically questionable, FitzSimon
expertise in bankruptcy law.
unless they can refinance their home,” she
says. And no one in Washington paid atten
After IO years with the government, she
says. “It was very clear that these were
tion
when
the
economy
was
booming.
needed
a new challenge and launched a
poor people who were in a bad situation,
FitzSimon speaks from personal experi
private practice in Phoenix, working on
but the code was clear. The only thing
ence. Right out of law school (the Univer
behalf of debtors. Apart from the long
that’s harder in what I do is when someone
sity of Notre Dame), she acquired two
hours, she enjoyed working on her own.
actually has to lose their house.”
credit
cards,
each
with
an
$1,800
limit.
She
But a headhunter led her to a job as in
At a time when many Americans are
used them to equip her first apartment,
house counsel for Sears, which was dealing
struggling financially, FitzSimon sees the
buy work clothes, and acquire the neces
with legal troubles stemming from its debt
human costs of ready credit. In the case of
sary elements for “building a life” as a staff collection practices. In less than two years,
the lottery winner, she wonders: how did a
attorney with the Department of Justice.
she became the company’s chief compli
man earning $19,000 a year acquire 9
Concerned about mounting debt on top of
ance officer and vice president. Her skill in
credit cards and a $200,000 line of credit?
school loans, she kept her spending down.
digging Sears out of legal quagmires led
“There are people out there digging
“I was smart enough to know I had to pay
her to Whitehall Jewelers, which was strug
themselves into a hole who are not plan
more than just the minimum, but it still
gling with financial difficulties and fending
ning to pay off their debt,” FitzSimon
took me three full years to pay those cards
off a proxy fight. As part of a small execu
acknowledges. “But there are also people
back down to zero,” she recalls. She has
tive team, she sometimes put in 100 hours
who lost their jobs, or they have illnesses
never carried a balance since.
in a workweek, but she enjoyed great
and medical bills they can’t pay. So they
FitzSimon was attracted to the law for the discounts on jewelry.
put it on the credit card this month,
same reason she was drawn to St. John’s:
Climbing the corporate ladder and
thinking that maybe next month they can
the freedom to pursue a wide range of inter keeping abreast of developments in the law
get a second job, that somehow they can
ests. She began her legal career at the
left little time for a social life. But
catch up. But they never do.”
Justice Department, where she started out
FitzSimon’s life changed when she made
There’s plenty of fault to spread around
in the Office of Information and Privacy.
time for a summer alumni program in
for the credit crisis, she adds. No one is
T
{The College.
St. John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
�{Alumni Notes}
Bart Kaplan (Class of 1965),
with his wife, Betty Kaplan.
Greatly missed at the graduation
was Megan’s father, Raymond
Drolet (SF69), who passed
away September 27, 2007.”
Geraldine Kline (SFGI) is
returning to Cochabamba,
Bolivia, this September, for the
20th anniversary of INFANTE,
an organization she founded in
1988. INFANTE has as its mission
the protection and education of
women. Among other activities,
the organization began and
fosters transitional homes for
abandoned babies and national
adoptions for Bolivian families.
1973
Mary L. Batteen (A) has been
chair of the Oceanography
Department at the Naval
’
Postgraduate School for seven
37
Deep in the Mountains
ews from Susan Read (SFGI85): “My son,
Harry, is now 13 and able to do some of the
repairs around our old Victorian house-1837,
colorful history. I still teach English at Wooster
School, but I also now do the yearbook, which
provides a kind of tedious creativity. I built an
Adirondack lean-to last week, deep in the mountains with
15 friends. All is well.” -*■
years: “I am a professor of
oceanography and am about to
write a book on ocean dynamics
that I hope will inspire a new
generation to study climate
change.” In August, Batteen gave
a seminar at the Ocean and
Climate Sustainability
Conference on “Science and the
Public” and on reaching an
understanding on global climate
change. “I hope to visit the
original St. John’s College, our
college while in Oxford! ”
Jan Lisa Huttner (A) writes:
“Approximately five years ago, I
created a movement that is now
known as WITASWAN (wit-uhswan = Women in the Audience
Supporting Women Artists Now).
After three increasingly
successful annual programs in
Chicago, WITASWAN
transformed this year into
International SWAN Day when
the Fund for Women Artists
joined the cause. Over 160
groups in ii countries on 4
continents celebrated the first
International SWAN Day on
March 29, 2008, and we have just
received a $25,000 grant from
the National Endowment for the
Arts to spread the word about the
next International SWAN Day on
March 28, 2009. (International
SWAN Day will always be on the
last Saturday of every March as
the wrap-up event of Women’s
History Month.) For more info,
see my blog
www.TheHotPinkPen.com
and/or www.SwanDay.org.”
1974
News from MARTHA (Mackey)
Pendleton and Randal O.
Pendleton (both SF): Randy has
retired and the Pendletons
expected to start renovating their
home this year. Son WALKER
(A99) is married to Rachel
Vedaa (SF99). The Pendletons’
cont. on page gg
Santa Fe in 1986, where she was intro
duced to therapist Lee Fischler (SF68).
They married in 1987.
Philadelphia is Fischler’s hometown,
and his love for the city is one of the
reasons FitzSimon put her name in the hat
when the bankruptcy court vacancy came
up. As a merit appointment, not a political
one, the post was within her reach, but she
was still surprised to be offered the job.
“Did you mean to call Jean FitzSimon?”
she asked the Circuit Court judge who
called her with the news. With the court
room filled with friends and family, she
was sworn in on Aug. 16, 2006. She and
Fischler found a place close to the
Philadelphia Art Museum, and she settled
into her chambers in the city’s massive
Robert C. Nix United States Courthouse.
A year later, FitzSimon is still pinching
herself. “In spite of the long hours, I have
enjoyed all my jobs,” says FitzSimon.
“But never in my life have I been as
satisfied as this.”
To an outsider, it may seem that her
court is where the American dream comes
to die. But FitzSimon tries to make the
system work for everyone. Few individuals
get the opportunity to interact with the
legislative or executive branches of Amer
ican government; FitzSimon wants citizens
to see the judiciary at its best. “I have the
opportunity to give people a magnificent
experience of the court system,” she
explains. “They may not agree with what I
do, but they feel that they are heard and
that I mean to be fair. If you’re ever going
to have the sense that government can be
trusted, it’s going to be with the judiciary.
It’s incredibly important that we treat
people with respect and listen to them.”
After she’s reviewed a case, FitzSimon
may point out the weaknesses and
strengths she sees and give the parties a
chance to come to an agreement before she
makes her official ruling. “Sometimes if
the borrower can come up with any kind of
plan, any source of funds, the creditor may
be better off. Then they can both walk
away with half a loaf,” she says.
It takes more time in court to do things
this way, FitzSimon says, but it’s closer to
her idea of justice. She explains her
approach by employing the men-de
construction from Ancient Greek: on the
one hand this, on the other hand that.
{The C
o l l e g e
. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
“I’ve never been good at seeing things in
black and white,” says FitzSimon. “I think
the world is largely gray.”
In a bankruptcy court, helping each
party see the other’s side often leads to a
better solution. The creditor recoups some
money; the debtor regains a measure of
control in his or her life. There are days,
though, “when I can’t make magic
happen,” FitzSimon says. “There are the
days when someone has to lose their
house.”
After 30 years of impossible hours
FitzSimon is enjoying more free time: to
spend with her husband, enjoy Philadel
phia’s cultural offerings, and sample the
city’s fine restaurants. A former member of
the college’s Board of Visitors and Gover
nors, she hopes to become more involved
with the college again. But as enjoyable as
her job is, it can be unpredictable: “There
are days when I read the pleadings and it
looks like an easy, straightforward case.
Then the lawyers start talking, and it’s
‘whoa, Nelly, bar the door-we’re going to
be here a while,”’ she says, “It’s not always
pretty. But it’s justice. And it works.”
�38
{AlumniProfile}
A Sense of Place
Francois Levy (SF87)
BY Anna Perleberg (SFoa)
orn in Paris and raised in the
U.S., Francois Levy gradnated
from the Santa Fe campus in
r987. He’d come to St. John’s
“1 thought architecture
sounded
at the tender
age of inter
i6, and
esting, so didleft
diplomacy
foreign
withoutand
a clear
direction.
service. So I applied to a lot of different
grad schools, and the architecture schools
accepted me.” This Aristotelian accident
led him to a career he loves.
Levy moved to Austin (where he still
lives with his wife and three children) to
attend the University of Texas’ first profes
sional degree program for students who,
like him, had not studied architecture as an
undergraduate. It was during a srx-month
internship in Australia that he “finally fell
in love with architecture-before that we
were just dating.” After graduating with
his master’s in 1993, he plied his new trade
with several noted Austin firms, while also
teaching at UT and, in 1995, working
briefly in Paris on a new bne of the Metro.
Architecture, says Levy, is as much
science as art-perhaps more. “While you
make use of your artistic faculties, in the
end, you have to end up with a building
that people can inhabit.” The most
B
gorgeously conceived structure is
useless if it doesn’t stay up. But
there’s certainly a creative dimension-“pure functionality leads to
things like strip malls. There’s a
really fine line you have to walk
between self-indulgence and prac
ticality, between ego and humility.
You have to invest yourself in the
building or it won’t be any good.”
On the other hand, when an archi
tect becomes too self-centered,
“you get buildings neighbors love
to complain about.”
In May 2008, Levy received
another UT graduate degree, this
time in architectural engineering.
He’d returned to school for a
variety of reasons-for one, he says, “I’ve
always been a frustrated scientist,” and the
refinement of techne offered by the disci
pline was “a way to scratch that itch.” But
he also, in the progress of his career in
mostly residential architecture, found his
concerns shifting from buildings them
selves to their interaction with, and impact
on, the environment. “I was working on an
8,ooo-square-foot house for empty nestersit wasn’t even their primary residence. I
kinda felt like a fiddlemaker for Nero.”
Levy’s attraction to the trend of sustain
ability comes from his concept of architec
ture as beholden to place, “the intersection
of climate, technology, and society.”
Houses were formerly built of necessity,
using materials at hand-earthen struc
tures in desert New Mexico, wooden cabins
in forested Wisconsin, half-underground
sod houses in treeless, humid Kansas.
Without climate control or artificial
lighting, buildings were oriented to take
advantage of sun and wind; the size of a
residence depended not just on the
comfort of the inhabitants, but the practi
cality of heating, cooling, and maintaining
the structure.
Technological advances in building tech
niques and materials have meant that,
provided with the means, homeovraers can
impose any look or style they want on their
dwellings, ignoring landscape and climate.
At its most innocuous, this attitude leads
only to incongruous eyesores, but as Amer
ican houses get bigger and families get
smaller, resource and energy consumption
per capita explode, negatively impacting
the disregarded environment. In a worst
case scenario, the sudden re-introduction
of the outside world can make ill-suited
Built around two relocated rooms of a
German homesteader’s cabin, Francois
Levy’s MoonRise Ranch was designed to
EXIST IN COMPLETE HARMONY WITH ITS SITE IN
THE Texas Hill Country.
{The College. Sf. John’s
College ■ Fall 2008 }
�{Alumni Notes}
daughter. Laurel, is fundraising
for La Clinica de la Raza in the
San Francisco Bay area and
attending graduate school at
California State East Bay.
“After 30 years of grueling trial
practice, I needed a change,”
writes MiKE PANTER (A). “I had
taught one class in litigation at
my law school, DePaul, and I
asked them about a full-time job.
Law professors are usually
credentialed academicians, which
definitely rules me out, but I
proposed a new idea. A small
class of law students sitting
around a table would meet to
debate and discuss a different
issue each week. Each week, a
different lawyer would pay the
law school $350 to bring in an
open issue on an active case for
the students and lawyer to
workshop together. I call it
‘Litigation Lab.’ The school
agreed to give it a try. Last night
we finished our 32nd session and
it’s a smashing success. Some of
the students call it the best class
they had in law school. Lawyers
come back for two and three
sessions. They credit us for giving
them thoughts and ideas that
directly lead to better results for
their clients. Everyone learns,
even the seasoned lawyers;
everyone teaches, even the
inexperienced law students.
People don’t leave-they hang
around talking long after class.
Whatever I do in this class, I
39
think always of what I did in my
year at St. John’s with my great
tutor, Eva Brann and classmates
like Chester Burke and Mike
Blaustein. If this program is a
success, it is certainly due to the
principles of learning that I
learned in even one year at
St. John’s, 38 years ago.”
and I engage in a collaborative
process of inquiry to generate
and test hypotheses regarding
the causes and effects of their
abrasive behavior. Late this year
I plan to open the Boss
Whispering Institute to share
this method with other executive
coaches.”
“I’m almost done with the
treehouse,” writes JEFF
ViCTOROFF (A). “Maia and Ivan
are jumping up and down! Next
week: our first sleepover.”
1977
1975
Laura Craws haw (SF) writes:
“Following the publication of my
book Taming the Abrasive
Manager: How to End
Unnecessary Roughness in the
Workplace (Jossey-Bass, 2007), I
relocated my coaching firm (The
Executive Insight Development
Group) to Portland, Ore. I
research and coach abrasive
bosses as part of my mission to
reduce suffering in the
workplace. Also known as The
Boss Whisperer, I will be
speaking at the Sixth Interna
tional Conference on Workplace
Bullying in Montreal this June.
I’ve put my St. John’s education
to good use, having incorporated
a technique I’ve termed Socratic
whispering into my coaching
method, through which my client
continued
houses the cause of needless human
suffering. Levy sees this as one of the
lessons of Hurricane Katrina: “I saw a
connection between how we choose to
develop on a large scale and the inevitable
effect of natural disasters. When you build
responsibly to the climate, when you don’t
have conveniences, it’s less of a hardship.”
His master’s project was entitled
“Indoor Air Quality Engineering Chal
lenges in Lunar Habitats,” based in part on
1979
Kevin W. Parker (A) writes:
Judy Kistler-Robinson (SF,
SFGI79) is baking for the fourth
summer in plain oT Texas. She is
a user-experience architect
(designing web applications),
which is the “best career for a
right-thinking person who
learned to be left-aligned at SJC.”
She volunteers as a literacy tutor.
1978
Lucy Tamlyn (A) just finished
up a three-year tour as Deputy
Chief of Mission at the U.S.
Embassy in N’Djamena, Chad. “I
am currently posted as Regional
Coordinator for the Kurdistan
Region in Erbil, Iraq. The
Regional Office is an outpost of
the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. We
represent the United States in the
region and coordinate U.S.
assistance in support of
reconstruction efforts. Children
Ben (16) and Filipa (13) are in
a paper he delivered (with J. Fardal) at the
2007 Rutgers Symposium on Lunar Settle
ments, exploring the impact of radon-emitting lunar soil in the hermetically sealed
environments future settlers might five in.
Concerns like these, though currently
theoretical, are a logical extension of the
idea of responsible architecture as
subservient to a location’s available
resources.
Though Levy has been practicing in his
field since 1993, with his own firm since
1997, he feels his career is just beginning.
{The College . S:. John’s
College ■ Fall 2008 }
boarding school in the U.S.; my
husband is planning some
motorcycle trips across Europe
and possibly all the way to
Central Asia. We are all hoping
the next overseas posting will be
easier for visiting friends and
family! ”
“I just received my diploma for a
master’s degree in astronomy
from James Cook University in
Townsville, Australia. The degree
program was quite an interesting
experience, all done through the
Internet and in some ways just
the opposite of the St. John’s
experience, as there was no
direct human contact at all unless
you count e-mail (which I don’t!).
I’m still working as a software
engineer at the Goddard Space
Flight Center and my wife, Tina
Rhea (also A79), and I
celebrated our a5th wedding
anniversary last year.”
1980
Gina Ironside (SF) and
Ben Goldstein (SF79) report
that their son, Ben, is 13 and that
the family is still enjoying home
schooling. He and his dad are
both playing soccer intensely.
“One of the really beautiful things about
architecture is that you don’t really hit your
stride until you’re 50. You peak when
you’re 70. Hot young designers maybe the
darlings of the magazines, but their work
isn’t necessarily profound-the profession’s
not like football, more like baseball. Or
curling.”
More about Levy's design philosophy
andphotos ofhis work can befound at
francoislevy. com.
�{AlumniNotes}
40
Making a Case for Endangered Forestland
Abby Weinberg (SFoo)
BY Brooke McLane-Higginson (AGI09)
n her work as manager of the
Conservation Research Program at
the Open Space Institute in New
York City, Abby Weinberg (SFoo)
finds the ideas of John Locke and
Adam Smith helpful in under
standing the challenges to conserving the
nation’s endangered forest and farmland.
It isn’t easy balancing private property
rights and free markets with the less
tangible benefit of a forest as a good in
itself, but Weinberg uses research to
make the case for conservation-with
good results.
Weinberg brought her enthusiasm for
the outdoors to St. John’s, where her
studies of Smith and Locke helped her
better understand the formative philoso
phies driving human’s interaction with the
natural environment. After graduating
from St. John’s, she worked as an economic
analyst for the Federal Trade Commission.
Four years later, Weinberg earned a
master’s degree in Forestry at the Yale
Progress needs to be considered not just from the standpoint of what we produce from
School of Forestry and Environmental
FORESTS, BUT ALSO BY WHAT WE GAIN BY LEAVING THEM AS THEY ARE, SAYS AbBY WeINBERG (SFoo).
Studies. She worked as a forest technician
at the City of Seattle’s 90,000-acre water
shed before joining the OSI in 2004.
agriculture than the market would other
destroying it. However, these days, land
The Institute protects scenic, natural,
wise dictate. On the other hand, “Adam
prices are driven more by development
and historic landscapes to ensure public
Smith argues that agriculture is inherently
than the potential for forest products.
enjoyment, conserve habitats, and sustain
contrary to economic development,
Development speculation has driven prices
community character. Weinberg’s work
because division of labor doesn’t apply to
three or five times what can be justified for
focuses on evaluating and developing tools
forestry conservation, she says.
agriculture,” Weinberg explains. “The
for the conservation of actively managed
same person plows, sows, and reaps,
It’s part of Weinberg’s job to make a case
forest and farm landscapes in the
making it hard to increase production
for the value of preserving forests. One of
United States.
without increasing labor costs.”
her first research projects at OSI was to
Although one-third of the country is
In her work at the Institute, Weinberg
complete an assessment of conservation in
forestland, “people don’t necessarily see
relies on economic research and land
Massachusetts for the Kohlberg Founda
the value of standing forestland,” Wein
use analysis to recommend changes to
tion. Her work led to the creation of an
berg says. “Some of this goes back to Locke conservation and public policy. Up until
entirely new grant program for conserving
and his idea about labor and ownership.
2000, the amount of forestland in the U.S.
forest and farm landscapes in the area and
The labor of clearing trees and planting
was actually increasing as marginal farm
the dedication of another $6 million
agricultural products is evidence of owner
land was allowed to return to forests,
towards land protection.
ship, whereas people assume the forest is a
explains Weinberg.
With lessons from Locke and Smith,
public resource that takes care of itself and
The picture changed dramatically as
Weinberg has found a way to address both
isn’t necessarily worth paying for even
suburban sprawl, fed by rampant real
natural and economic issues by researching
though it is the source of our clean air
estate speculation, began encroaching
how to conserve forests while using their
and water.”
more urgently on forests. “In the tradi
resources sustainably. The traditional idea
Such ideas have made agriculture more
tional analysis of forestland prices you
of progress, that is, the conversion of our
prominent in our society, Weinberg
don’t assume someone is going to cut the
natural resources for economic goods, she
explains. Agriculture receives more
entire forest at once,” she says. Instead,
says, “is in many ways no longer valid when
government subsidies and funding than
“you need to know what you can earn from
we recognize the values lost when a forest
forests, to the point that more land is in
sustainably harvesting the land” without
is cut down.
I
{The College. Si.
John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
�{AlumniNotes}
Ben is coaching, too. Ben’s web
engineering company. End Point
Corporation, is doing beautifully
(visit endpoint.com). Several
Johnnies have turned up among
their recruiting respondents!
Gina attends the alumni seminars
in New York City from time to
time, and enjoys Scottish country
dancing: “The balls remind me of
St. John’s waltz parties, only
better, with the men in full
highland dress (kilts). Best wishes
to all.’’
“We have enjoyed looking at
colleges with our 17-year-old
daughter, Michelle,” says
Debra Ann Rutherford (SF).
“St. John’s College is still
the best!”
1982
Stanley Schiff (SF) has been
practicing tai-chi and chi-gong
for 35 years. “I became a certified
Lifetime Practitioner who uses
both modern healing techniques
and the ancient energetic and
spiritual techniques of China and
India.”
1985
Jeffrey Wilson (A) serves as
associate dean of the College of
Communication and Fine Arts at
Loyola Marymount University in
Los Angeles, where he has taught
philosophy since 1995. “As a
hobby, I participate in recitals
and other events for amateur
classical pianists. One of my best
St. John’s memories involved
Douglas Allanbrook giving me
the combination to the Steinway
in the Great Hall for early
morning practice, where
housekeeping staff would listen
from the balcony. Today, I
practice on a restored 1897
Steinway and take special
pleasure in sharing live classical
music with those who may
otherwise have no access to it.”
1986
privilege of working with an Iraqi
intelligence officer who was by far
the best officer in the division, if
not the Iraqi Army, and we put
many insurgents behind bars, or
in the ground, and won the
hearts of the people in our area
well worth the trip.”
Todd W. Masilon (A) has just
returned home from a year in
Baghdad working as an
Intelligence Operations Advisor
to an Iraqi Army battalion,
“ready to hang up my captain’s
bars after 10 years in the Army.
I’ve been away from wife, Renee,
daughter Molly, and son Ian for 3
1/a of the last 3 years (training/
Afghanistan/Iraq), audit’s their
turn now. I have a new job already
as a contractor working with the
Army Test and Evaluation
Command. I’m glad to be back as
the first seven months of the
deployment were consumed by
daily fighting in the main AlQaeda stronghold in Baghdad at
the time (we fought alongside our
Iraqi battalion in the one square
mile of B’dad with the highest
density of insurgent activity in all
Iraq). It was sad, horrifying,
frustrating, and terrifying on a
daily basis. Fortunately, I had the
Barbara A. Roberts (SFGI)
made her eighth visit to the
Pilgrim Center of Avatar Meher
Baba in Meherabad,
Ahmednagar, Maharashtra State,
India.
1987
“My husband and I welcomed our
second child, Samantha Danielle
Lewin last July,” writes Sallie
M. Fine (A). “Samantha and her
now 5-year-old brother,
Benjamin, made their first visit to
St. John’s for Homecoming this
past September, and while I’m
not sure if there is a second
generation of Johnnies in our
future, everyone had a great
time. I am head of the English
department at Charles F. Brush
High School in Lyndhurst, Ohio,
“Absolutely Proud”
lizabeth Natterman (Ara) has made Jeff
Natterman (AGI93) a happy father: “I want to
E
41
and I am grateful every day to
have a job in which I can always
find meaning.”
After years of teaching,
Elisabeth DuRard Keller
(SF) is currently Director of
Education Programs at the Santa
Fe Children’s Museum. “It was
great fun working with fellow
alum Jason Scott until he left
for graduate school at Stanford in
June and much fun working with
current Johnnie interns. Past
development director at the
college. Ginger Roherty, is also at
the museum and we enjoy talking
about our shared connections. I
recently attended a wonderful
afternoon of tea and poetry at
Will (SF86) and Janette
(Hradecky, SF85) Fischer’s.
Love raising my family and
enjoying the sky in beautiful
Santa Fe.”
1989
Jennifer Lee (SF) writes:
“Dimitri, I, and our daughters,
Fani (14) and Maro (ri), are
happy in Baltimore. I am
teaching fifth grade at the Park
School and loving it. I will finish
the Johns Hopkins Creative
Writing program this fall and
plan to start guitar lessons again.
I have also taken up running in
my middle years (who would have
thought!) and have completed a
few triathlons.”
share how absolutely proud I am that 15 years
after I graduated from the Graduate Institute,
my daughter is now a freshman on the same
Earlier this year George
campus. When I first was accepted into the
T
urner (A) acquired an electric
program in the early 1990s, Elizabeth was only about ayearbike
to make his nine-mile
and-half old. We toured the campus, and my wife, Donna, took
commute to and from work, to
a picture of us in front of the Liberty Tree. For years, I boasted
save on gas, and to save the
of my life-altering experiences at St. John’s. And foryears Eliz
planet: “So far I’ve only used it
abeth listened to my stories, intrigued by the tales of my
three times. So much for
having taken classes in the cupola, pausing the conversation
grandiose plans.”
each time the bell rang. Or, my silly refutation of the asymp
totic triangle as a mere intellectual play on words. Last week,
we watched Elizabeth shake Chris Nelson’s hand after her
name was called at the Convocation ceremony, and receive her
Greek lexicon. I nearly burst with pride. I only wish the
Liberty Tree was still around so I could take a new picture with
her when she graduates. Now that’s priceless!”
{The College. Sf.
John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
�4a
{Alumni Notes}
it up in the slam pit that formed
late in the night, amongst a
group of rabbis, Talmud scholars
and Israeli settlers that
responded to the Hassidic band’s
rendition of a popular Nirvana
ode. In June, Michael and Yael
returned to Hollywood, Cahf.,
where Michael runs a law
practice concentrating on trial
work in the areas of criminal
defense, personal injury and
employment litigation.
Jessica Trupin (A) is returning
Blake Sitney (SF91) has been making a difference for orphans in Thailand. The Ban Mae Maeh
ORPHANAGE IN THE ChIANG MaI PROVINCE HAD BECOME UNREACHABLE DURING THE MONSOON SEASON AND WAS IN
DESPERATE NEED OF BOTH FOOD AND SCHOOL SUPPLIES. WiTH THE HELP OF A LOCAL RESIDENT NAMED JONG,
Sitney was able to deliver rice,
fruit, noodles, and other food, as well as school supplies to the
ORPHANAGE. SiTNEY ALSO PROVIDED THE CHILDREN WITH ART SUPPLIES SUCH AS CRAYONS, COLORED PENCILS, AND
WATERCOLORS SO THAT THEY COULD EXPRESS THEIR CREATIVITY. SiTNEY HAS CREATED A PHOTO ESSAY WEBSITE TO
SHARE THEIR ARTWORK WITH THE WORLD. HTTP://cOMMUNITY.LrVEJOURNAL.COM/aRTFORORPHANS/.
to the New York City area to
launch a startup nonprofit called
Bees Without Borders
(www.beeswithoutborders.org).
She expected to be in the city all
summer, just bringing husband
Dave and eight-year-old daughter
Bridget for the first couple
weeks, working on the nonprofit
and at the farmer’s markets.
Michael Zampella (A) and
1990
Kilian Garvey (A) was recently
named to the editorial boards of
The Journal ofSocial,
Evolutionary, and Cultural
Psychology and The Journal of
Evolutionary Studies. He is an
assistant professor of psychology
at the University of New England
in Biddeford, Maine.
thought to who might want to
place a baby for adoption. We are
so very glad to be parents.”
Geneva M. Fulgham (SFGI)
published a book about
secondary school teaching. Wit
and Wisdom Needed in the
Classroom (Rowman & Littlefield
2006). “I’m entering in national,
state, and local poetry contests
and sell the occasional opinion
essay,” she writes.
Lila Kerns (SF) and Kevin
Depew (Ago) are delighted to
Kevin (SF) and Khin Khin
Guyot Brock (SF88) are
delighted to announce the
adoption of their son,
Christopher Arden Brock, born
February 18, aoo8. “Christopher
is more wonderful than we
imagined,” writes Khin Khin.
“Christopher’s birth parents,
teenage sweethearts, are kept
informed of his development via
e-mail, photos and, in time,
visits. Thank you to all who saw
our earlier appeal and gave some
School (a prep school in Pebble
Beach): “I am married to a
woman named Andrea Price, and
we have an infant daughter
named Siri who was born on Nov.
7, 2007, and two spotted dogs. It
is quite a full house. I am
enjoying life here, balancing work
and time in the ocean with the
new responsibilities of
fatherhood. If you are in the
Monterey area, look us up.”
1991
“Retirement is enriching,” writes
Ronalie a. Moss (SFGI). “I am
rereading The Ramayana-a new
translation.”
1992
Charlie Henrikson (SF) is
living in Pacific Grove, Calif.,
teaching science at the Stevenson
{The College -5t.
announce the birth of their
daughter, Lucinda Lee Kerns
Depew (Class of 2029, expected),
born April i, 2008, in New York,
N.Y.
Michael Kopple (SF) was
married in Jerusalem in May
2008. His wife, Yael, is Israeliborn and hails from a family of 12
children who grew up in the West
Bank settlements. Luke Warren
(SF92) and his partner, Patricia,
attended the wedding. Witnesses
report that Luke was seen mixing
John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
his wife, Caitlin, are happy to
announce his commissioning as a
Naval Intelligence Officer in the
United States Navy Reserve.
“I want to reassure my fellow
alumni that this will in no way
affect my support of my alma
mater during the USNA/
St. John’s Croquet Match.”
1993
J. Walter Sterling (A) and
Meghan Haid were married at
sunset, on Father’s Day, June 15,
at the Hyatt Tamaya on the Santa
Ana Pueblo. In attendance were
alumni Noah Kay (SF92),
Elliott (A92) and Amy (Johns,
A91) Callahan, Melissa
Duke, (SFGI07), and Susanne
Ristow (SF06), playing her
cello, and tutors David Carl and
(of course) WALTER Sterling
(class of 1963), pere. The
weekend of vigorous celebration
included a long Friday night at
�{AlumniNotes}
the Cowgirl. Walter is a tutor in
Santa Fe. Meghan is a DPT
(doctor of physical therapy).
would love to hear from any of my
old friends via email:
deslong@yahoo.com.”
Stella Schindler (AGl)
1994
Colin (A) and Emiko (Ima)
Ray (SF) still live in Tokyo. Their
daughter, Marina, is 3. Son
Thomas Michael (Tom) was born
on January 8, 3007. They enjoy
meeting up with any Johnnies
who happen to be in town.
“John and 1 are very happy to
announce the birth of our second
son, Gilpin Edward Turkington
Ruhl,” writes IVY Turkington
(A). “His big brother Henry is
certain this guarantees him a
sailing crew member for the rest
of their lives, but I guess we’U see
whether Gilpin is captain or crew
material in about 8 years. Gilpin
was born September 34 (8 lbs, ii
oz, 30 inches) and we are aU
rejoicing much though sleeping
little.”
announces the release of her new
CD, Distant Hum.
1997
Patience Melnik (SF) writes:
“John Kochendorfer (SF95),
our three-year-old, Abe, and I just
moved from California to
Knoxville, Tenn. John has a post
doc at the National Oceano
graphic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) in Oak
Ridge, and 1 will attend the
graduate program for
architecture at the University of
Tennessee. We just tried chowchow for the first time and think
we’ll be all right here. If anyone
rolls this way, e-mail us at
patiencemelnik@gmail.com.”
1998
1996
Jennifer (Wamser)
Deslongchamps (AGl) has
indefinitely postponed work on
her doctoral thesis (she started a
PhD program in Medieval
Philosophy at Yale in 1997 and is
now ABD) in order to care for her
growing family: “Our son
Thomas Robert was born in
3000; Elena Margaret, 3003;
Camille Therese, 3003; Charles
Joseph, 3005; Zachary Louis,
3006 and our 3008 edition,
Stephen Benedict, was born three
months ago. Needless to say I
have been keeping very busy,
although I am woefully behind on
my reading! I remember with
great fondness my days in the GI,
discussing life’s deepest
questions with such wonderful
tutors and fellow students. 1
“I have made some big changes
(professionaUy) this summer,”
writes Dawn Star Borchelt
(A). “I left my position at the
Unitarian Universalist church
where I was Director of Religious
Education for 10 years. I will
continue to do some consulting
and contract work with UU
organizations and congregations.
but I also have enrolled in the
Birthing From Within Mentor
and Doula Certification program.
I am starting a private practice as
a childbirth educator and doula
in the Washington, D.C., area, so
if you are having a baby,
especially near the nation’s
capital, get in touch! I am doing
exactly what I want to do, and I
am working on remembering it
aU of the time. My spouse and two
young children, the dog, and the
birds are all fine, too.”
GlenScott Thomas Copper
(AGl) retired from teaching last
year and is finishing the novel he
began writing his first summer at
St. John’s in 1994.
Tobin Shulman (SF99) and
Julie Gronneberg (SF) report
that Tobin finished his master’s
in Architecture last May, and
Julie is the senior designer at the
MFA, Boston. “Our best design
project so far has been our sonLincoln Olav-who loves guitars,
the ocean, and dinosaurs,” and
turned 3 in July.
1999
George Finney (SF) graduated
from Southern Methodist
University’s Dedman School of
Law in May 3008 with a Juris
Doctorate.
From A to /J. Bottom
43
Kara Luna (Fenske, A) and
Richard Luna (Schmidt, A96)
are excited to announce the birth
of their daughter, Evie Teresa
Luna, on April 13, 3008. Mom,
dad, and baby are all healthy and
happy.
Sheridan Phillips (EC) is ABD
at the European Graduate
School.
From across the pond, Patrick
Reed (AGI) reports that he and
his wife, Jana, celebrated their
daughters’ 3rd and ist birthdays
this summer (Lucille and Anja,
respectively). They are loving life
in Europe and recently competed
in an ultra marathon
competition, in Davos,
Switzerland. Check out the
website at www.swissalpine.ch.
Mike and Abby Soejoto (both
A) are proud to announce the
first birthday of their third child,
Cecilia Anne (born June 3007).
Mike, Abby, Lucy (41/3), John
(almost 3), and Cecilia live in Los
Angeles, where Mike is a tax
attorney and Abby stays home
with the kids. They’d love to see
any Johnnies in the area (or hear
from any not in Southern
California) at
msoejoto@pircher.com or
asoejoto@sbcglobal.net.
2000
D. Read Lockhart (SF) was
awarded the Shapiro Grant from
the Art Students League in New
York City to paint in Europe.
Last spring, he was in Oslo after
having been to London, Paris,
and Amsterdam. He expected to
conclude his studies in Italy and
Vienna and return to New York in
September.
ow many heavy metal bands went by the name
“Absurdity”? We have Dan Nelson (A95) to
thank for the answer: seven. Nelson’s tome.
All Known Metal Bands, is simply that: an
alphabetical listing of every heavy metal band
(as of 3007). Opening with a quote from
For the past two years, Andre
Blaise Pascal, Mr. Nelson lists about 51,000 bands, including
30 different known “Genocides.” Learn more about Rodriguez (SFGI) has been
working as the staff attorney at
Nelson’s book, on his MySpace page: myspace.com/
the YMCA International Services
allknownmetalbands.
H
{The College-
St. John's College • Fall 2008 }
�{Alumni Notes}
in Houston, Texas, representing
immigrants, especially refugees
and victims of human
trafficking-modern day slavery.
In addition, he teaches an
undergraduate course at the
University of Houston.
Deberniere Torrey (AGI)
plans to marry fellow Penn State
comparative hterature graduate
student, Nathan Devir, on June
27, followed by a move to
Vermont in July. Nathan will
teach Hebrew at Middlebury
College and Deberniere will
continue working on her
dissertation and related projects.
2001
Colin King (SF) writes: “Anna
Canning (SFoa) and I were
married July 19 under an old
sugar maple on my family’s farm
in Clotho, Minn. An unusually
heavy rainstorm dropped more
than two inches before blue sky
appeared and sunlight filtered
through maple leaves. We were
blessed by the presence of family
and friends, including several
Johnnies.”
SUZANNAH LATANE SIMMONS
(SF) has been living in
Washington, D.C., for two years.
“A group of us SJC alums have
been working on fostering a
stronger chapter. There is now a
Facebook page for all interested
D.C. (and surrounding area)
alumni to join. Please check it
out. It is called St. John’s College
Alumni, Washington, D.C.
‘Social’ Chapter. As of June, we
have 66 members. I am working
at Whole Foods Market at
Tenleytown in the District. I am
an Assistant Team Leader for
their Specialty Department
(wine, beer, cheese and coffee).
Stop by and see me if you are in
the area. I make decent pairing
suggestions.”
2002
Jim Crotty (SFGI), of Monk
Media made his mark as the
“dashboard publishing” pioneer
of Monk: The Mobile Magazine
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M
onk_Magazine), author
(www.jamescrotty.com/),
multimedia auteur {Playboy,
Voyager), blogger
(WWW. crottyfarmreport. com),
media rep
(www.rumpleville.com,
www.HoleintheHeadmovie.com,
www.johnfrummovie.com
www.boristhedog.tv), and
filmmaker (www.resolved.tv).
With fellow ‘Monk’ Michael
Lane, Jim is the co-founder of
Monk Media (www.monk.com), a
global branding concern. Jim will
work with anyone who takes the
time to complete the Monk
survey at this link:
www.monkmedia.net/client/.
Patrick W. Harris (EC) begins
doctoral studies this fall at
Western Michigan University,
where he will focus on the history
of medieval Iberia.
The Sullivans have been busyas usual. Rachel (A) just
graduated from medical school in
May, and will begin her residency
training for psychiatry at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center in
Washington, D.C., in July. At the
same time she was promoted to
captain in the Army, and
continues to be among the ranks
of active duty soldiers. Michael
(SF) is nearing the end of his PhD
in Philosophy at Catholic
University, and hopes to finish
next fall. Clare celebrated her
4th birthday in May, and Grace is
looking forward to her 2nd
birthday in the end of July. The
girls are healthy, happy and
begging for more siblings!
“This May I completed my
Master in Arts in Art History
from the University of St. Thomas
in St. Paul, Minn.,” writes Laura
Thayer (A). “My master’s
qualifying paper was titled
‘Rebuilding Identity: The
Nineteenth-Century Faqade of
the Duomo of Amalfi.’ Now that I
am done with school, I look
forward to spending as much
time as possible in Amalfi, Italy,
continuing to study Italian,
figuring out what happens next in
my life, and maybe even getting
around to finally reading
Proust!”
2003
“I just finished my first year of
teaching philosophy at the
University of Nevada. Kathy is
working on her PhD in English
literature,” writes John Anders
(SF).
Meg Eisenhauer Barry and
Thomas Barry (both SF)
welcomed their second daughter
on April 27. “She shares her
mama’s birthday! Liesl Jane was
born at home on a beautiful
spring morning. She joins her
elder sister, Aviva, age 3, in
keeping our home a very lively
place indeed. Best wishes to all!”
Aaron Foster (A) is leaving
behind his “beloved” New York
City to move to Inman Square in
Cambridge, Mass., with his
girlfriend Eva: “Boston Johnnies
should feel free to look me up
(aaron.foster@gmaiLcom).
Recently, I’ve been consulting for
a major specialty food distributor,
mostly about cheese. In Boston,
I’ll be looking into opening a bar
focused on craft beer.”
Abram Trosky (AGI) is the
recipient of Boston University’s
highest academic scholarship,
the Presidential University
Graduate Fellowship. Trosky has
been Presidential University
Teaching Fellow for the
department’s introductory
courses in Political Science,
aty (Christopher) Davis (SFoi) writes: “Billy
American Politics and Interna
(Davis, SF02) and I are living on a beautiful
tional Relations, has solo taught
homestead in northwestern Oregon with my
Introduction to Political Theory
mother and our i-year-old son, Sam. We’re busy
and has guest lectured for
building our own cabin and raising chickens,
Modern Political Theory. A
goats, sheep, and alpacas-it’s wonderful to be
University
Scholar in Philosophy
exactly where we want to be. Though we haven’t yet reached
our
goal of self-sufficiency, we’re getting closer and are thoroughly
at Washington and Lee
enjoying ourselves. For now Billy is still commuting part time
University, Abram has been
into Portland, but expects to become self-employed by the end
steeped in classical pohtical
of the year; I am fortunate enough to be able to stay home with
theory and Socratic-style
our wonderful, adorable child and run the farm while helping
pedagogy, but has an abiding
my mother with her craft business. If anyone’s interested, we
interest in international relations
occasionally post on this blog: www.arcadiafarm.blogspot.com;
and postmodern political
and post pictures at: http;//si75.photobucket.com/albums
thought. He has studied abroad at
/wi37/samsilverlock/.” -tjk
Raising Chickens
K
{The College-
St. John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
�{AlumniNotes}
the University of Melbourne
under the auspices of The
Ashworth Centre for Social
Theory and in the U.K. as a
junior fellow of the EnglishSpeaking Union. Abram passed
his qualifying examinations in
February 3008 and is currently
in Vienna as a visiting junior
fellow of the Institute for Human
Sciences where he will be
researching the matrices between
cosmopolitanism, cognitive
development and moral
philosophy for his dissertation
proposal. At the termination of
his fellowship he plans to attend
the Institute’s intensive summer
program in International
Relations in Cortona, Italy,
before traveling from the Balkans
to Scandinavia with his
girlfriend. He will return to co
teach the History of American
Foreign Policy, 1865-present, at
BU this fall.
Namir Yedid (A) was appointed
“I’m serving my first tour as a
diplomat in the U.S. Foreign
Service in Rangoon, Burma,”
writes ChELSIA WHEELER (SF).
“Between political protests and a
major cyclone, it has been an
interesting experience so far.”
graduated summa cum laude
from the Dickinson School of
Law; he was also valedictorian.
2004
Suzanne Vlcek (SF, EC05) is
two-thirds of the way through
chiropractic school and looking
forward to starting her own
practice in the spring of 2010 in
the San Francisco Bay area: “I
will begin seeing patients at the
Palmer West Clinic, San Jose,
Calif., in January 2009, so if
anyone is in the area please stop
in and let me practice my skills.
This summer, I completed a 200houryoga teacher training
program and have begun
teaching classes on a regular
basis. Life is good!”
yth-grade dean at Pacific Ridge
School in Carlsbad, Calif., where
he teaches English and social
studies. “I’ve led the design of an
integrated curriculum and have
gathered administrative and
community support to make our
school carbon-neutral.”
Kelly Zeibak and Alexander
Kantner (both SF) were
married in the redwoods on June
21,2008, and enjoyed a
wonderful honeymoon in
Vietnam and Cambodia. They
recently earned their teaching
credentiasl, in mathematics and
English respectively, and are
currently teaching on the north
coast of California.
2005
Gregory W. Bair II (A)
Christopher DeManss (AGI)
is celebrating the worldwide
release of his first solo album.
The act is entitled Vib and the
album. The Letter K. It’s
available in stores and through
the Internet. A fair collection of
the songs was crafted while
attending St. John’s College. “In
other news,” he writes, “with
every day comes reflection upon
the beauty of my St. John’s
experience.”
Paul and Anita Fairbanks (SF)
are delighted to announce the
birth of their daughter, Charlotte
Eden, on May 20, 2008. “She has
brought us so much happiness.
We are living in Columbus, Ohio,
where Paul is studying business
in preparation for dental school.
I am simply enjoying
motherhood; my current
ambitions are to sing lullabies
and read great books aloud.”
45
Very Busy
ndy and Katie
(Lehner) Patton
A
(AGI05 and
AGI04, respec
tively) have
welcomed William
Kelly Patton (Liam) into their
little family. He joins hig brother
James (a), who is working on his
PhD in Dump Trucks; both keep Katie very busy. Andy is
interning at an investment bank in Nashville and starts the MBA
program at Vanderbilt this fall. “Send money,” they write.
Amy Taylor (A) writes: “I am
completing my PhD coursework
in clinical psychology at
Duquesne University in
Pittsburgh. In the past year, I
completed my MA in psychology
and a graduate portfolio in
women’s and gender studies. I’ve
recently made several conference
presentations and earned two
awards for my writing on identity
development and how individuals
represent themselves to others
(currently beginning research
into how we ‘write ourselves into
being’ on Internet communities).
Next year I will continue to teach
undergraduate courses and
practice psychoanalyticallyoriented psychotherapy with
clients from the Pittsburgh
community and from a local
liberal arts college. Missed you at
Croquet, hope to see you at
Homecoming.”
Jonathan Morgan and
Allison Kilgore (both SF) are
enjoying their third summer in
Seattle, and are slowly growing
accustomed to the intervening
winters. Allison is working as an
investment analyst at a
retirement finance company, and
Jonathan currently works as a
web editor at a dot-com well past
its glory days. He will begin a
PhD program at the University of
Washington in User-Centered
Design this fall. These two can
often be found palling around in
bars and coffee shops with Maia
{The College. St. John’s
College ■ Fall 3008 }
Swanson (SF03) and overheard
lamenting the dearth of Johnnies
and good green chili in the
Northwest.
2008
Shant Shahrigian (A) is off in
search of la dolce vita in Milan,
Italy, paying the bills by editing
for a new website. He tells his
fellow Johnnies: “Holla!”
What’s Up?
The College wants to hear from
you. Call us, write us, e-mail us.
Let your classmates know what
you’re doing. The next issue
will be published in February;
deadline for the alumni notes
section is January 5.
In Annapolis:
The College Magazine
St. John’s College, P.O. Box 2800
Annapolis, MD 21404;
rosemary.harty@sjca.edu
In Santa Fe:
The College Magazine
St. John’s College
1160 Camino Cruz Blanca
Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599;
alumni@sjcsf.edu
�{Obituaries}
James W. Stone, Class of
1955
Jim Stone of Arlington, Va.,
a retired linguist and active
St. John’s alumnus, died in a
boating accident on the Chesa
peake Bay on July 27 when his
i6-foot catamaran sailboat
capsized in a brisk wind,
Jim earned a doctorate in
linguistics from the University
of California at Berkeley in 1971.
His career as a linguist spanned
more than 40 years, nearly 25 of
which he spent as a supervising
linguist and language training
specialist at the U.S. Depart
ment of State’s Foreign Service
Institute in Washington, D.C.
There, he oversaw training in
various languages including
Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Nepali,
Amharic, and Persian. After
retiring from the State Depart
ment, Jim was Director of
Translation Services at the
Center for Applied Linguistics
for II years.
Sailing and music were life
long passions. Jim began sailing
at age 15 when he was a Sea
Scout, and he later sailed as a
member of the St. John’s Boat
Club. He loved choral music and
other vocal music in the clas
sical tradition, and for 30 years
he sang as a member of the
Cathedral Choral Society in
Washington. Classmate Dorothy
Olim, who attended some of his
choral performances, recalls
“seeing the joy on his face as
he sang.”
Jim traveled extensively for
work and pleasure in the U.S.
and abroad. He and his wife of
39 years, Crawford “Corky”
Feagin Stone, had been plan
ning a trip to Yellowstone
National Park to celebrate his
75th birthday, which would have
been on August 10.
Jim maintained close ties with
classmates and other members
of the St. John’s community. He
enjoyed being part of a Wash
ington area St. John’s alumni
reading group and, in 2005,
James Stone
served as the class of 1955
reunion leader.
Classmate Jane Gerber
Denison remembers Jim as
someone who was gracious and
“the quintessential
gentleman,” Others, like Sam
Kutler, recall his quiet intel
lect. Jim is also remembered for
his unassuming ways. His
great-niece, Allison Dietz
(Aio), recalls the way he intro
duced her to St. John’s without
saying a word-when she was
still in elementary school, Jim
gave her a St. John’s sweatshirt.
Among the St. John’s friends
who attended Jim’s funeral
service July 31 were Dorothy
Olim (Class of 1955), Jane
Gerber Denison (Class of 1955),
Emily (Class of 1955) and Sam
(Class of 1954) Kutler, Diana
Cartier (Class of 1956), Sandy
and Joe (Class of 1956) Cohen,
Nancy Eagle Lindley (Class of
1958), Mark Lindley (Class of
1967), and Paula DelPlain
Binder (Class of 1959).
He was president of the
Hunt Family Foundation,
a charitable trust set up to
serve nonprofit organiza
tions in the El Paso region.
He had recently been named
chairman of REDCO, the
Regional Economic Devel
opment Corporation of El
Paso, Las Cruces, and
Ciudad Juarez.
Mr. Hunt was actively
involved in economic devel
opment in the El Paso area,
having served as a board
member of the El
Paso/Juarez World Trade
Center and the Camino Real
Angels, and as a member of the
Paso del Norte Group. He was
on the boards of the New Mexico
Nature Conservancy, the El Paso
County Historical Society,
Project Arriba, the Trans-Pecos
Regional Center for Innovation
and Commercialization, and the
Lydia Patterson Institute.
After graduating from
St. John’s, Mr. Hunt studied law
at Golden Gate University in
San Francisco. He is survived by
his wife, Stacey, and their two
daughters, and had been eagerly
anticipating the birth of a son in
August.
Memorial contributions can
be made to Texas Tech School of
Medicine-Department for
Mental Health Research, 4800
Alberta Avenue, El Paso, Texas
79905; or The Nature Conser
vancy of New Mexico, 212 E.
Marcy St. Suite 200,
Santa Fe, New Mexico
87501-2049.
Marcel Fremont
Marcus Hunt (SF95)
(SFoi)
Marcus Hunt, businessman and
philanthropist from in El Paso,
Texas, died on June 24, 2008,
in La Jolla, Calif. A fourth
generation in the Hunt family
businesses, he served as the
financial manager for invest
ments of Hunt Companies,
Inc., and affiliate companies, as
well as the Managing Partner
for Hunt Holdings, L.P.
by Kee Zublin (SFoi)
There’s a story by
Gabriel Garcia
Marquez entitled “The
Handsomest Drowned
Sailor in the World”
that I never understood
until the morning I
Marcel Fremont
{The College.
St. John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
read Veronica Fremont’s
account of her son Marcel’s
burial.
Marcel David Fremont (SFoi)
died on June 25, 2008, when his
motorcycle collided with a truck
in Montana. He was traveling
around the country to visit
family and friends before he was
to begin his doctoral studies in
neuroscience at Washington
University in St. Louis.
Veronica described how at
Marcel’s burial the mourners
gathered around the grave site
to toss in a few mementos:
a $2 bill, a sprouting potato.
Then, as the attendants began to
lower the pine box, one whis
pered, “It doesn’t fit.” Atten
dants and foreman cranked the
coffin back to the surface, and
friends and family began strip
ping off pieces. The bereaved
removed poles, bolts and blocks
as they tried three times to
consign Marcel’s mortal
remains to the earth.
One of those present
commented, “He wasn’t ready
to go.” Marcel’s father, Rick
Fremont, countered that Marcel
was a “connoisseur of awkward
situations” and that he knew his
friends and family “weren’t
ready to let him go.”
Although I was not in that
group, as I read Veronica’s
account I could picture why
Marcel’s coffin wouldn’t fit: He
was simply too big for any hole
in the ground. Everything about
�{Obituaries}
Marcel was too big to go easily
into the ground: his shoulders
were too broad, his legs too
long, his heart and brain too
oversized.
And suddenly, I understood
Marquez’s story: A drowned
man washes to the shore of a
tiny island village. The man is
large, so large that the children
who find him at first think he’s a
ship or a whale. When they lay
him in one of the village homes,
there is barely enough room on
the floor. Even when they
merely look at the man, there is
“no room for him in their imagi
nation.”
The villagers grow to love the
man, whom they name Esteban,
and so they hold “the most
splendid funeral they could
conceive of for an abandoned
drowned man.” And, as they
carry him to the sea, they
become “aware for the first time
of the desolation of their streets,
the dryness of their courtyards,
the narrowness of their dreams
as they face the splendor and
beauty of their drowned man.”
They did not need to look at
one another to realize that they
were no longer all present, that
they never would be. But they
also knew that everything would
be different from then on, that
their houses would have wider
doors, higher
ceilings, and stronger floors so
that Esteban’s memory could go
everywhere without bumping
into beams...and they were
going to break their backs
digging for springs among
stones and planting flowers on
the cliffs...
My friend Marcel’s life was too
brief. But in 29 years, he knew
and loved many people, and it is
indeed true that where he has
been we look around and realize
that we are no longer all present
and never will be. It is also true
that we can fill the big empty
space he left behind with some
thing beautiful.
To make room for Marcel’s
memory, we can build wider
doors and higher ceilings, live
less confined lives, think bigger
thoughts. And we can honor our
friend by emulating his insa
tiable curiosity and creativity,
searching in unlikely places for
water to bring forth flowers.
Marcel could always see the
hidden potential of little things.
He was big that way.
In Marcel’s memory, parents
Veronica and Rick, and brother
Nathan, have established “The
Marcel Fremont Fund,” admin
istered by the Oak Park, River
Forest Community Foundation
(www.oprf.org). The fund will
make small donations for
causes related to education,
arts, sciences, recreation, and
the environment. For more
information, e-mail Veronica at
marcelsmom@comcast.net, or
visit Marcel’s memorial website
at www.marcelfremont.
com/wp.
Anjali Pai (SFGI08)
Last spring, the Santa Fe college
community lost one of its Grad
uate Institute alumnae, Anjali
Pai, who died March 30 from
injuries suffered in a car acci
dent the previous day. Anjali
completed the Liberal Arts
program in December 2007,
and those who knew her
remember her bright person
ality and love for education.
Born in Ottawa, Canada, she
earned a bachelor’s degree at
Lake Forest College and a
master’s from the University of
Toronto, where she focused on
the study of music. While in
Santa Fe, Anjali worked as a
tutor for at-risk Santa Fe teens
as part of the Advancement Via
Individual Determination
program, tutored at Santa Fe
Community College, taught as a
substitute at Santa Fe Prep, and
worked as a freelance editor. She
described herself as “proudly
Canadian, 100% (East) Indian,
surrogate Scottish, and over
identified with the underdog.”
Anjali wrote a novel at age 13,
rode horses, was an accom
plished singer and musician
(violin and piano), and directed
musicals when she was in high
school. She had read the
complete works of Shakespeare
long before enrolling in St.
John’s, and published more than
150 short stories on her website.
She had more than 1,000
Anjali Pai’s sister Tanya
RECEIVES AnIALi’s DIPLOMA FROM
President Michael Peters at
COMMENCEMENT LAST MaY.
{The College.
St. John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
47
friends worldwide with whom
she kept in touch.
The Pai Memorial Fund has
been established to provide
annual funding to a graduate
student who plans to become an
educator and hopes to make a
difference in the lives of chil
dren from disadvantaged back
grounds. The fund’s first recip
ient will be a fall 2008 graduate
student. To contribute to the
Anjali Pai Memorial Fund,
please contact Penelope
Bielagus at 505-984-6113 or
pbielagus@sjcsf.edu.
ALSO NOTED
Frank Bannerman (class of
1938), July 12,2008
William Barrett (class of
1956), May 17,2008
Victor Barton ( class of 1947),
DATE UNKNOWN
George Gerlach (class of
1953 June 23,2008
Rosemary Ingham (AGI95),
July 13,2008
Ogden W. “Peter” KelloggSmith (CLASS OF 1943) May 28,
2008
Edward Lee (class of 1952),
July 17,2008
Renee Ronelle Letven (SF69),
July 12,2008
C. Ranlet Lincoln (class of
1950), Nov. 15,2007
Jane Mill (SFGI85),
July 19,2008
Pasquale “Pat” Polillo (class
OF 1956), Sept. 4,2008
Charles Powleske (class of
1953), Aug. 1,2007
Michael Slota (SFGI86),
July 31,2008
John Williams (class of 1946),
July 17,2008
Gerald Zentz (class of 1954),
June 2,2008
�48
{Alumni}
Return of the Pioneers
July Reunion Brings Together Santa Fe's First Classes
BY Harold Morgan (SF68)
Tth the aid of a
decision to move Santa Fe’s Homeborrowed MacBook,
coming to the fall. During the summer
Bruce Baldwin (SF68)
of 2007, the idea of a summer reunion
tuned a harpsichord for emerged, and a group of alumni settled
Roy Stegman (SF68),
on a full week-July 13-19-of activities.
who was leading a tuto Phil Chandler (SF68) conceived of the
rial on “Bach’s Temperament
” in the
format,
and Lindsay Ridgeway (SF68)
Peterson Student Center. The
computer
pitched
in as organizing committee
provided the note-perfectly, of course
chair and treasurer. Organizing and
allowing Baldwin to tune each string to the
planning took place via e-mail, the
computer’s purity.
college provided meeting rooms for
In the tutorial, Stegman described a
the gathering, and Santa Fe Alumni
recently rediscovered keyboard tuning
Director Michael Bales (SF06) helped
system Bach used, and he demonstrated on
coordinate activities at the college.
the instrument: a 1968 harpsichord, an
Santa Fe President Michael Peters and his
appropriate choice for Santa Fe’s pioneering wife, Eleanor, hosted a reception
class of 1968. The tutorial was one of a
welcoming alumni and their families back
number of offerings-inteUectual and social- to campus.
organized by a group of alumni for a July
The reunion attracted 29 alumni from
reunion of the pioneers, their families, and
classes through 1971, 8 tutors and 35 others
members of the classes who shared the
including alumni from later classes. From
campus with them: the classes of 1969,1970,
as far away as Gbteborg, Sweden, alumni
and 1971.
came to see the remarkable changes to the
The self-organized reunion grew from
campus, catch up with one another, and
objections by some alumni to the college’s
enjoy a host of options for spending their
W
time in Santa Fe, from seminars and
lectures to an evening at the Santa Fe
Opera and a morning rafting the Rio
Grande. “It was a wonderful experience,”
says Rick Wicks (SF68), who with 5,000
miles to travel from Sweden was a vocal
proponent for a summer reunion.
“Usually at a Homecoming one only
knows one’s own classmates, because most
of the others are younger (or older) in
multiples of five years,” he explained. “But
here we had members from the next three
classes, not all of whom I knew before, but
all of whom I very much enjoyed getting to
know better. Organizing the reunion also
brought me into contact with members of
the class of ’68 who had dropped out before
I arrived in Santa Fe for my junior year,
again a very rewarding experience. By the
time my family and I arrived, participants
had already been there for several days, so
there was an active community into which
we walked. It felt very good.”
The reunion week featured six seminars
(including two on the Odyssey), led by
tutors emeriti, alumni, or both together. In
addition there were several tutorials,
including a session by Beth Kuper on the
Above, Joy Avery (SF68)
catches up with
TUTOR EMERITUS CuRTIS WiLSON (HA83), ONE
OF THE FIRST FACULTY MEMBERS IN SaNTA Fe.
Left, Claudia Nordstrom Larcombe (SF69)
AND Antigone Phalares
{The College -Sf.
John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
(SF68).
�{Alumni}
I Ching and feng shui. Tutor emeritus
Curtis Wilson (HA83, one of the first
faculty members on the new campus) gave
an informal lecture, “Reflections on Lunar
Theory,” and tutor Peter Pesic performed a
concert. Outdoor activities included the
rafting trip and a hike up Monte Sol. In
between scheduled events, alumni enjoyed
several ad hoc get-togethers, restaurant
meals, and gatherings in the homes of
Santa Fe alumni.
The closing event was a Quaker-style
meeting, led by Kuper and Phil Chandler,
focusing on the theme: “What have you
learned since leaving St. John’s?”
Maurie Wills Scott (SF68) was very glad
she made time to attend: “I realized what
wonderful friendships I had,” she said. “It
49
was easy to talk with people, and our shared
background laid the groundwork for recon
necting.”
Harold Morgan attended St. John’s in Santa
Fefor three semesters. An Albuquerque
resident, he is a syndicated columnist and
blogger.
Left, Enjoying the view from Monte Sol are Antigone Phalares (SF68), Gus Goldstein (SF68), Ellinor Garbring, Linnea
Garbring-Wicks, and Rick Wicks (SF68). Right, Jeff Hockersmith (SF69), at Sunday brunch.
The Pioneers
On October a, 1964, the opening day
of classes for the Santa Fe campus,
8a freshmen signed the college Register
at Convocation. Everything was new and
unsettled. After all, “colonizing a
college,” in the words of then-president
Richard Weigle (HA49), wasn’t easy.
The campus had three buildings: a
student center, one classroom building,
one laboratory building, and a cluster of
dormitories on the upper campus. One
women’s dorm had ground-level windows
facing south to the pinon trees. A year
later, to discourage male visitors, a spot
light was pointed toward the trees. On its
second night in place, the spotlight
turned a flashing red.
The Rolling Stones and the Beatles
were featured artists in common room
parties. There was no television on
campus.
Ford K. Brown was a kind of genial god
of the II tutors, bringing wisdom, humor
and deep experience to the classroom.
and
Hendrik
In February 1966,
St. John’s drew a visit
from Beat poet and anti
war activist Allen Gins
berg, who traveled to
campus in a 1960s icon,
the battered Volk
swagen mini bus.
For the pioneers,
their years at St. John’s
coincided with a time of
great social upheaval.
The graduation year,
1968, was marked by
momentous events: the
assassinations of Martin
Luther King, Jr., and
Robert Kennedy, a riot
at the Democratic
Students play a spirited volleyball game on the Santa Fe
National Convention in
CAMPUS IN 1964.
Chicago, and Vietnam
War protests.
culture, but lacking older models,
Looking back years later, Weigle
students had to figure things out them
wondered whether importing a seminar
selves, with the help of their tutors.
size group of juniors could have helped
And in time, they did. ♦
younger students adapt to the college
{The College.
St. John's College ■ Fall 2008 }
�5°
{Alumni Association News}
From the Director
OE Alumni Relations
Dear Alumni,
It’s been a busy couple of montbs in Alumni
Land, and if we’re running around, it’s
because you’ve been especially activeand believe me, we’re not complaining!
St. John’s alumni came out in unprece
dented numbers to support the college’s
capital campaign. When Jeff Bishop
(HA96) told us in aoo6 that the goal was
$125 million-by far the most ambitious
goal the college had ever attempted-I don’t
think anyone believed we would reach it
without a miracle. It turned out that the
miracle was you. With the inspirational
challenge from Ron Fielding (A70), we
alumni helped the college to not only meet
that goal, but to exceed it by more than
$9 million! Thank you!
Alumni participation in the campaign
really caused the college to sit up and take
notice of you, the only permanent members
of our community, and it prompted us to ask
the question: how can we work with the
Alumni Association to make our programs
better for you? I’m very grateful that a small
team of alumni, led by Ray Cave (class of
1948), has begun working together with an
outside consultant to tackle this very
question. The group is called the Alumni
Task Force, convened by our presidents,
Christopher Nelson (SF70) in Annapolis
and Michael Peters in Santa Fe. Other
members of the Task Force are Dave
Heimann (A87, vice chair), Jason Walsh
(A85), Steve Thomas (SF74) Patricia Sollars,
(A81), PheloshaCollaros (SFoo), Brett
Heavner (A89) Matt Calise (Aoo), Pam
Carter, (SFGI08), Jo Ann Mattson (A87),
and the college’s vice presidents for
advancement, Barbara Goyette (A73) and
Jim Osterholt.
The Task Force met for the first time on
October 23. If there had been an opening
question it would have been, “How can the
college better serve its alumni and how can
our alumni better serve the college?” We
barely scratched the surface in attempting
to answer that question after four hours of
discussion. And we all have homework
due by the next meeting on November 13:
to research alumni programs at other
comparable colleges. We’re all really
excited about the impact the committee’s
work will have on the future of alumni
relations at St. John’s.
Another new development on the alumni
front is the amazing growth of activities in
alumni chapters and groups. To keep up
with the expanding endeavors of our chapter
leaders, the college has hired a new parttime employee in the Alumni Office. Torii
Campbell joined the Annapolis team,
although she will be working with alumni
groups across the country, as coordinator of
regional chapters and groups. You can look
forward to Torii helping your chapter plan
parties, seminars, and other activities, as
well as work to get the word out about these
events to the broader alumni community.
Feel free to send her an e-mail to introduce
yourself. She’d be happy to hear from you at
torii.campbell@sjca.edu. Thank you to all
the chapter presidents whose efforts with
alumni have made this position a necessity.
Finally, I need to say a word about the
current alumni directory project managed
by Harris Connect. First, a little history: up
until eightyears ago the Alumni Association
used a significant portion of the money they
received from your alumni dues to pay for an
alumni directory that was delivered free of
charge to all alumni. Contact and employ
ment information was gathered from alumni
every five years, and the college used this
information to update its database. About
seven years ago, the Alumni Association
decided to support the college’s onhne
alumni community. But unless we continue
to sohcityour most recent contact and
career information we will not have an
up-to-date database.
Harris Connect is the company we’ve
always used for this project; indeed, Harris
is pretty much the only game in town when it
comes to producing print directories. Their
arrangement is that they will gather the data
for us for free and offer you a directory for
sale. I understand it costs as little as $80 for
{The College -St.
John’s College . Fall 2008 }
ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
All alumni have automatic membership in
the St. John’s College Alumni Association.
The Alumni Association is an independent
organization, with a Board of Directors
elected by and from the alumni body. The
board meets four times a year, twice on each
campus, to plan programs and coordinate the
affairs of the association. This newsletter
within The College magazine is sponsored by
the Alumni Association and communicates
association news and events of interest.
President - Jason Walsh (A85)
Vice President - Steve Thomas (SF74)
Secretary - Joanne Murray (A70)
Treasurer - Richard Cowles (A70)
Mailing address - Alumni Association,
St. John’s College, P.O. Box 2800, Annapolis,
MD 21404, or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca,
Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599.
the book and as much as $120 for the book
and CD. I appreciate all of you contacting
Harris and giving your time to update our
records, but I’m concerned about the
reports I’ve heard about some aggressive
sales representatives on the Harris end. I’m
sorry about this, and I’m working with
Harris to resolve it. Please don’t feel an
obligation to buy the book. It is expensive,
although a treasure for alumni, with photos
and personal stories-more fike a yearbook
than a phonebook. Again, it’s very impor
tant for the Admissions, Career Services,
and the Advancement offices to have your
most current information, so we are all very
grateful for your participation.
The Harris directory is not intended to
replace our online Alumni community
(which is still free). It’s an excellent resource
for staying in touch with your classmates,
sharing your news and photos, career
networking, and finding Johnnies wherever
you go. Find out more at:
http://alumni.stjohnscollege.edu/
Thanks to all of you who attended Homecoming in Annapolis and Santa Fe! We’U
talk more about that in the next issue of
The College.
Keep in touch,
Jo Ann Mattson (A87)
Director of Alumni Relations
jamattson@sjca.edu
�{Alumni Association News}
51
It’s Always Homecoming for the Annapolis Chapter
""There are Memories Here ”
“We had 15 participants for the first
ike most women, Annapolis
seminar in 2002,” Gammon says. “It was a
chapter president Beth
great start. We typically have about 12 to 20
Martin Gammon (A94)
participants, but there are certain readings,
juggles career and family
such as Shakespeare, that draw a specific
with one or more other
crowd.”
passions. In Gammon’s case,
Typically,
it’s St. John’s College, where she has
rein participants include both
and graduate alumni who
vigorated the Annapolis chapter undergraduate
of the
range in age from 20 to 80. “There is a
Alumni Association. Her husband, Alex
wide range of life perspectives in the mix,”
(A94), is one of her biggest supporters, but
says Gammon. “I find the different lenses
they can’t attend chapter meetings
together. “We take shifts to take care of our to be fascinating and welcome the chance to
revisit Program readings now that I have
two-year-old so one of us can attend the
had more life experience. But we’re all still
monthly chapter seminar gatherings,” she
Johnnies, still approaching the readings in
says.
the same way.”
When Gammon joined the Annapolis
Last spring, the group read and
chapter in 2001, the chapter had been inac
discussed Thucydides over three seminars.
tive. With assistance from the Alumni
In September they went more modern, with
office, she built a network and began
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford.
sending postcard announcements about
chapter seminars. Alumni are on the invita Madame Bovary was planned for October.
“We do a mix of literature from the
tion list; spouses and friends are usually
Program and some philosophy,” says
welcome. A core group of regulars attends
Gammon. Gammon acknowledges that her
the monthly seminars, held in the private
dining room in Randall Hall. This dedicated family’s busy lifestyle helps drive the
chapter’s reading list. “When I have more
group includes Paula Binder (class of 1959),
time we’ll do more philosophy,” she
Melvin Bender (AGI05), Jerome May
explains. “Right now, with a two-year-old, I
(AGI92), Joan Vinson (AGI81), Valerie
don’t have enough time to prepare those
Garvin (A96), Charles Green (AGI02), and
readings!”
retired tutor George Doskow and his wife,
In the future. Gammon hopes to work
Minna (AGI71).
L
CHAPTER CONTACTS
Call the alumni listed belowfor information
about chapter, reading group, or other alumni
activities in each area.
ALBUQUERQUE
Robert Morgan, SF76
505-^75-9012
rim2u@c0mcast.net
ANNAPOLIS
Beth Martin Gammon,
A94
410332-1816
emartin@crs.org
AUSTIN/SAN
ANTONIO
Toni Wilkinson, SGI87
512-278-1697
\vilkinson_toni
@hotmail.com
CHICAGO
Rick Lightburn, SF76
847-922-3862
ricklightburn@alumni.
stjonnscollege.edu
DALLAS/FORT
WORTH
Paula Fulks, SF76
817-654-2986
puffjd@swbell.net
DENVER/BOULDER
Elizabeth Jenny, SF80
303-530-3373
epj727@comcast.net
HOUSTON
Norman Ewart, A85
BOSTON
Dianne Cowan, A91
713-303-3025
norman.ewart@rosetta
617-666-4381
resources.com
diannecowan@rcn.com
Beth Martin Gammon helped to rejuve
THE Annapolis chapter by organizing
monthly seminars.
nate
with her fellow volunteers to launch an
occasional social event, such as an evening
gathering at the Boathouse. For now,
socializing is informal, as attendees stroll
over to a nearby restaurant after seminar.
“We’re lucky to have the familiar turf of the
campus,” Gammon says. “We don’t have
the challenge of convincing people to come
to an unknown place. There are memories
here.”
—Patricia Dempsey
MADISON
Consuelo Sanudo,
SGIoo
608-251-6565
sanudoc@tds.net
PHILADELPHIA
Helen Zartarian, AGI86
2i5-482r5697
helenstevezartarian@
mac.com
SANTA FE
Richard Cowles,
SFGI95
505-986-1814
rcowles2@comcast.net
MINN./ST. PAUL
Carol Freeman, AGI94
612-822-3216
Freem013@umn.edu
PHOENIX
Donna Kurgan, AGI96
623-444-6642
dakurgie@yahoo.com
SEATTLE
James Doherty, SFGI76
2o6-542r344i
jdoherty@mrsc.org
NEWYORKCITY
Daniel Van Doren, A81
914-949-6811
dvandoren@
optonline.net
PITTSBURGH
Joanne Murray, A70
724-325-4151
Joanne.Murray@
basicisp.net
SOUTH FLORIDA
Peter Lamar, AGI95
305-666-9277
cplamar@yahoo.com
NORTH CAROLINA
Rick Ross, A82
919-319-1881
Rick@activated.com
Elizabeth Ross, A92
Elizabeth®
activated.com
PORTLAND
Jennifer Rychlik, SF93
503-547-0241
jlr43@coho.net
NORTHERN CALIF.
Reynaldo Miranda, A99
415-333-445^
reynaldo.miranda@
gmail.com
{The Coll
eg e
SAN DIEGO
Stephanie Rico, A86
619-429-1565
srico@sandi.net
SALT LAKE CITY
Erin Hanlon, SF03
916-967-2194
e.i.mhanlon@
gmail.com
• St. John’s College • Fall 2008 }
SOUTHERN CALIF.
Jan Conlin, SF85
310-490-2749
conlinjani@yahoo.com
Providing
OPPORTUNITIES
FOR MORE ALUMNI
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Ed Grand,! A77
301-351-8411
egrandi@aoLcom
WESTERN NEW
ENGLAND
Peter Weis, SF84
413-367-2174
peter_weis@
nmhschool.org
TO CONNECT
MORE OFTEN AND
MORE RICHLY
�5a
{St. John’s Forever}
his picture from 1900 evokes
lacrosse, basketball, baseball, football, and
two bygone aspects of life at
tennis. The college’s biggest rival-espeSt. John’s College: the days
cially in lacrosse and football-was Johns
when the college fielded
Hopkins University. Compulsory military
teams in many different
training was discontinuedin 1923, the
intercollegiate competitions,
same year the college switched to an elec
and a time when military trainingtive
wassystem. President Stringfellow Barr
compulsory for every student. These
to intercollegiate competition
put John
an end
nies, posed with their trophies, were part
soon after the New Program began in 1937.
of a strong athletic program at the college.
In 1908, the college began construction
In addition to track, students also
on what was to become Iglehart Hall,
competed in boxing, fencing, crew.
named for Lieutenant Edmund Berkeley
T
{The College-
St. John’s College • Fall 2008 }
Iglehart, an 1894 graduate who was a base
ball and football star and later returned to
the college as a faculty member. Next year,
the college will mark the looth anniversary
of Iglehart Hall, where runners put in laps
on the suspended running track, and fierce
intramural competition takes place on the
basketball court.
�{Alumni Events Calendar}
:a
Alumni Calendar
■roquet; i
St. John’s College vs. the United States
Naval Academy, in the quest for the
Annapolis Cup
Piraeus 2009
Join us in Santa Fe or Annapolis--and this
year, in Washington, D.C.-for Piraeus, the
college’s continuing education program for
alumni.
I p.m. Sunday, April 19
Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov,
led by David Starr and Keri Ames
January r6-18, aoog, Santa Fe
Cost: $375 person, including all seminars,
receptions and Sunday brunch.
Registration and payment deadline is
January 5, aoo8.
Milton’s Paradise Lost, led by Eva
Brann and David Carl
June 4-7, aoog, Annapolis
Cost: $400 per person, including all
seminars, receptions and Sunday brunch.
On-campus room and board is $200 per
person for three nights. Registration and
payment deadline is May 15, aoog.
Stendhal’s The Red and the Black,
led by Michael Rawn and Ned Walpin
June 14-19, aoog, Santa Fe
Lee Branner (A07) brought her grandfa
ther, Frank Branner, to campus for a
Piraeus weekend on the Odyssey.
The week begins with a welcome dinner
Sunday evening. The program will consist
of seven seminars spread over the week.
There will be a morning and an evening
seminar on Monday, Tuesday, and
Thursday. The final seminar will take place
Friday morning followed by a closing
lunch. Wednesday is a free day to enjoy
Santa Fe and prepare for the final three
seminars.
Cost: $475 per person, including all
seminars, lunches, and dinner on Sunday.
On-campus room and board is $350 per
person for five nights.
Registration and payment deadline is
May 33, 3009.
{The College-
St. John’s College ■ Fall 2008 }
Shakespeare In Performance
King Lear, led by Louis Petrich
and Jon Ihck
Acting Instruction by Shakespeare
Theatre Company’s Academy
for Classical Acting
June i8-ai, aoog
Harman Center for the Arts,
Washington, D.C.
In collaboration with Washington’s
Shakespeare Theatre Company, this
combination seminar/performance-based
workshop will feature stimulating scholarly
discussion integrated with an exploration
of the actor’s craft and approach to classic
text. This weekend is packed with activity,
beginning with a Thursday noon
registration, a tour of the new Harman
Center for the Arts, an afternoon seminar
and Shakespeare Theatre Company’s
performance of King Lear. Mr. Petrich
and Mr. Tuck will participate in the
performance workshops and lead two other
seminars before the closing session Sunday
afternoon.
Cost: $990 per person, including all
seminars, ticket to performance otKing
Lear, instruction, breakfasts, receptions
and tours.
Registration and payment deadline is
June 5, 3009.
�STJOHN’S COLLEGE
ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE
Published
by the
Communications Office
P.O. Box 2800
Annapolis, Maryland 21404
ADDRESS service REQUESTED
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
Paid
Annapolis, MD
Permit No. 120
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The College </em>(2001-2017)
Description
An account of the resource
The St. John's College Communications Office published <em>The College </em>magazine for alumni. It began publication in 2001, continuing the <em>St. John's Reporter</em>, and ceased with the Fall 2017 issue.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The College" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=56">Items in The College (2001-2017) Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Creator
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Annapolis, Md.
Santa Fe, NM
Contributor
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
Language
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English
Identifier
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thecollege2001
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
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paper
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52
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The College, Fall 2008
Description
An account of the resource
Volume 34, Issue 3 of The College Magazine. Published in Fall 2008. Misnumbered as volume 3.
Creator
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St. John's College
Publisher
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Santa Fe, NM
Date
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2008
Rights
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St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Type
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text
Format
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pdf
Language
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English
Identifier
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The College Vol 3, Issue 3 Fall 2008
Contributor
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Harty, Rosemary (editor)
Hannifin, Jenny (Santa Fe editor)
Behrens, Jennifer (art director)
Dempsey, Patricia (managing editor)
Deger, Ann
Luell. Sara
McLane-Higginson, Brooke
Perleberg, Anna
Spiegelman, Deborah
Johnson, David
The College
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