1 20 38 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/a875cb0903fb570cf6fe9ad7b4d0b007.pdf d1e8b6a85fb25873ccd2c942f72d428f PDF Text Text �STJOHN’S College ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE The College (usps 018-750) On Aristotle ristotle impresses us with both his breadth and his is published quarterly by St. John’s College, Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM. Known office of publication: depth. Breadth: he explains why we feel the way we Public Relations Office do when we watch a tragedy, he lays out all the pos­ St. John’s College sible types of friendship, he explores the founda­ Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404-2800 tions of logic and grammar and rhetoric, he marvels at the life cycle of butterflies, he prescribes cures Periodicals postage paid for lethargy, he explains motion and time. Depth: at Annapolis, MD he asks the most fundamental questions about nature, humanity, virtue, postmaster: Send address causes, - and he makes profound ­ lype in Aristotle’s name onthinking the search engine Altavista and you(yet getexquisitely simple) prochanges to The College nouncements: “ Man is by nature a political animal, ” “ Man, by nature, Magazine, Public Relations 12.4,335 entries, including “Aristotle and Target Marketing?” as well as Office, St. John’s College, desires to know. ” scholarly sites and Annapolis tutor Joe Sachs’ translation of The Physics A on barnesandnoble.com. Aristotle’s writings - in Latin translation were the “source of the dominant teachings of the European universi­ ties” for about five centuries up to 1600; “for the four centuries since then they have been reviled as the source of a rigid and empty dogmatism that stifled any genuine pursuit of knowledge,” according to Sachs in the introduction to his translation. Almost every book of philosophy read on the program alludes to Aristotle, whether to follow him or to divert from his supposed course. For example, Kant, in his preface to the second edition of the Critique ofPure Reason, notes: “That logic has already, from the earliest time, proceeded upon this sure path [of a science] is evidenced by the fact that since Aristotle it has not required to retrace a single step...” Aristotle lived from 384 to 32a B.C. He was the student of Plato, the teacher of Alexander the Great. His dad was a physician, so as a youth he probably was channeled into the kind of studies that would prepare him for a career in medicine. He founded a school in Athens, the Lyceum, where he walked around and lectured; he’s variously described as slight, a dandy of a dresser, and speaking with a lisp. When he wanted to write about politics, he collected information about the government and history of 158 cities. At St. John’s, a lot of time is spent reading and talking about Aristotle, and this is a place where what he actually said is taken seriously. -BG Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. Annapolis 410-626-2539 b-goyette@sjca.edu Barbara Goyette, editor Sus3an Borden, assistant editor Jennifer Behrens, graphic designer Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Katherine Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 classics@mail.sjcsf.edu Laura J. Mulry, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board Alexis Brown Robert Glick Grant Franks David Levine Margaret Odell John Rankin Ginger Roherty Tahmina Shalizi Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �{Contents} PAGE IO DEPARTMENTS a FROM THE bell TOWERS A Conversation with • • • • • John Balkcom Santa Fe’s new president talks about his past life as a consultant, his present challenges at the college, and his vision for the future. PAGE • • • l6 The Logos According TO Aristotle Introducing The College A spooky Mellon Hall Belly dancing alumnae Febbie class to be discontinued Philanthropia encourages thumos among future alumni Top ten program books Summer Classics offerings The life of Leo Raditsa 9 ALUMNI VOICES • Annapolis tutor Joe Sachs (A68) has translated four of Aristotle’s works. His principle: use ordinary English to capture the freshness of the philosopher’s thought. A defining moment for everyone from the 1940s: Pearl Harbor Day. a6 LETTERS aS ALUMNI NOTES ALUMNI PROFILES ag Lisa Simeone (A79 ) wins a role at NPR. PAGE 2,0 The Education That is Parenthood 33 Heather Moore (SFoo) became a shopaholic - for the coolest circus around. PAGE z6 Six Johnnies whose professions focus on children discuss the trials and triumphs of parenting. PAGE 35 Phil Woods (A61) combines his love of books with his devotion to Paris. 37 STUDENT VOICES • 2^ A transfer student trains her eye on the two campuses. 38 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION • • Choral Kaleidoscope To recreate an ancient Greek chorus, a tutor looked to Greek pottery, Plato’s descriptions of physical conditioning, and accent and meter in the tragedies. All about Senior Dinners Election Notices 41 OBITUARIES • PAGE 30 Nancy Buchenauer on Robert Bart 43 alumni connections 44 ST. JOHN’S FOREVER ON THE COVER Aristotle: His workspervade the St. John’s program. Illustration by David Johnson. �2. {From the Bell Towers} Introducing The College In which the editor utters heresy. Last fall, we bid farewell to The Reporter, which had been the St. John’s publication for alumni since 1974. We thought the time had come for a new look and a new way of present­ ing information that befits the many changes at St. John’s. Many changes at St. John’s?!? Heresy! Why do I write this? The program remains intact; McDowell Hall still stands; today’s Johnnies still have that head-in-the-clouds, not-distracted-by-fashion, young intellectu­ al air about them; Monte Sol still beckons for a solitary climb. The year I graduated from St. John’s is the year Becky Wil­ son, then public relations direc­ tor for the college, started The Reporter. When I returned to St. John’s after 20 years labor­ ing in the publishing world, the college, I found, was over­ whelmingly the same. The pro­ gram, after all, is still what’s important; the words that Barr and Buchanan used to describe the college, and the essays in which Jacob Klein explained the basis of liberal education still hold true. Yet there are differ­ ences: i) The college adminis­ tration is professional and the college is on sound financial ground. 2) The Santa Fe campus has grown to the same size stu­ dent body as Annapolis, with its own cast of fascinating and com­ mitted tutors, an array of stu­ dent activities that are Johnnielike yet uniquely southwestern, and a full complement of appro­ priate buildings. 3) The stu­ dents are as a whole more stu­ dious, and they are better ■ qualified. Sitting in on classes now, I find that almost everyone has prepared, everyone can par­ ticipate. (In my day, in a good class it might have been half The artwork on the cover is by David Johnson, who also draws PORTRAITS FOR THE NeW YoRK TiMES BoOK ReVIEW. EvERY COVER OF The COLLEGE'VniA. feature a writer from the program. who had done the translation or worked through the proof.) 4) The tutors represent a wider range of ages and backgrounds; they have a variety of interests that they are willing to share with students. 5) Student servic­ es are much improved - there is a full-time counselor and a stu­ dent activities coordinator on staff, and a thriving athletic program. 6) The alumni body as a whole has gotten much larger and much younger - more than 60% from the classes of the 1980s and after. And they have become much more actively involved with the college. 7) A lot of little things, mostly physi­ cal: the Woodward Hall library, newly renovated when I was a student, had become shabby and overcrowded and a new library was opened in 1996; there are {The College- new spaces like the Mitchell Gallery and the Conversation Room; the food in the dining hall seems pretty good. I’m sure that if I had been a student in Santa Fe and returned there the changes would have seemed even more striking. Alumni and others who care about the college should be aware of all this change. They should know how vibrant, funny, endearing, smart, intense, and talented the cur­ rent students are. They should know how St. John’s is governed and how decisions are made. They should be reminded of their shared experiences at these two places - Santa Fe and Annapolis - and their shared experience that is entirely placeless: the reading, study, and discussion of Plato, Sopho­ St. John's College ■ Spring 2001 } cles, Descartes, Aquinas, Cer­ vantes, Kant, Hegel, Austen, and the whole gang. That’s what this new magazine. The College, is all about. Although the look is new and different to better reflect St. John’s today, there are some things about this magazine that we wouldn’t want to change from their old and trusty Reporter format: class notes, profiles of alumni, college news, campus concerns. You’ve told us that you want to read about the program, so there will be more stories about the books and the curriculum itself. John­ nie traditions carry on through the decades, but since it’s always a new set of students playing croquet or setting up the games at Reality, we plan on telling you what’s happening with those. St. John’s history is a rich lode - through photos and articles, we hope to connect you with the college’s past. We hope to hear from alumni through letters, class notes, and article submissions. As the name suggests. The College is about the one college, St. John’s, that exists on two campuses. News from both cam­ puses will be included; students, tutors, and alumni from both campuses will be profiled. Although the actual production will be handled in Annapolis, alumni can feel free to contact the magazine’s staff at either campus about The College. Let us know what you think. Barbara Goyette, A73 Editor b-goyette@sjca.edu 410-295-5554 Laura Mulry, SFGI02 Santa Fe Editor classics@maiLsjcsf.edu 505-984-6104 Sus3an Borden, A87 Assistant Editor s-borden@sjca.edu 410-626-2538 �{From the Bell Towers} Down in the basement truly the weird and creepy lair ofCharon the storage areas have been emptied... Tales from THE Crypt It’s not Hades, land of shades. Although the hallways of Mellon now look nightmarish, fit for endless wandering with no hope of escape, they are in fact being stripped for a useful purpose: the beginning of a $12.5 million renovation. During spring break, workers took up the worn hall tiles, removed the rain-stained ceilings, and exposed crawl spaces in the south and west wings of Mellon (these wings contain the music rooms, music library, and all lab rooms). Down in the basement truly the weird and creepy lair of Charon - the storage areas have been emptied of their boxes of admissions propaganda, dusty chandeliers, broken desks, and seminar chairs in need of new seats and rungs. The circa 1958 heating, plumbing, and electri­ cal systems are being exposed and marveled at for their Rube Santa Fe Yearbook in THE Works The completion of the new gym and the installment of John Balkcom as president of the Santa Fe campus have con­ tributed to the creation of an energetic and highly motivated student body in Santa Fe this year. Enthusiasm for extracur­ ricular activities and attendance at school functions is much higher than in recent years. To quote Brendan O’Neill (SF93) in the Student Events Office, “This is the most involved stu­ dent body I have seen on this campus in a long time.” To tap this creative energy (and also to eliminate one comparison 3 Always dingy, the hallways of Mellon look even darker now that THEY have been TORN APART. ThE $13.5 RENOVATION WILL RESULT IN A BRIGHTER, MORE INVITING SPACE. Goldbergian nature. “There’s some old machinery down there all right,” says Sid Phipps, superintendent of buildings and grounds. Plans call for new mechani­ cals to be installed this summer, and the first series of renovated classrooms should be finished between Annapolis and Santa Fe) a few members of the sopho­ more class decided that this year they would create a year­ book. For the past 20 years or so the students on the Annapo­ lis campus have been able to put together an annual yearbook, but it was not something that happened in Santa Fe. According to Student Activi­ ties Director Mark St. John, over the years various groups of students have thought to put one together but didn’t have enough material when press time rolled around. Then last year’s Reality committee recom­ mended to the rising sopho­ mores adding a yearbook to the list of possible fundraisers. While the idea of a yearbook as a fundraiser was soon deemed impractical, the thought of cre­ ating one was openly embraced. After a month or so of planning. {The College. by Christmas. Work on an addi­ tion with tutor offices on the Heating Plant side of the build­ ing will commence this summer. Other phases of the project include installing a new roof, spiffing up the auditorium, adding a glassed-in satellite cof­ fee shop in the courtyard, and ''This is the most involved student body Ihave seen on this campus in a long time.'' Brendan O’Neill Student Events Office as well as meeting with the administration and Polity to gain their support, the year­ book staff was ready to go. Notices were posted in the Ephemera and MoonTag adver­ tising for writers, photogra­ phers, and graphic designers anyone interested in joining the fledgling staff. Not long after ideas about theme and content St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } putting in a new art and pottery studio, darkroom, and confer­ ence room. The whole project is due for completion in 2003. The Hodson Trust has given St. John’s a $4.5 million chal­ lenge grant to complete the Mellon Hall funding. The col­ lege has already raised more than $10 million for the project, leaving less than $2 million to be raised; the Hodson Trust will match dollar for dollar any donation for the Mellon Hall renovation. were being discussed and assignments handed out. Sub­ missions were collected, although layout work was delayed until the beginning of the second semester in order to upgrade the technological capa­ bilities of the office that is being shared with the MoonTag. The ambitions of this first yearbook are small. We do not hope to rival anyone’s high school yearbook in size, although we certainly hope to match, if not exceed it in quali­ ty. While the yearbook has yet to be named (a campus-wide contest is being held to choose a name), the theme for this year is community. The goal of the edi­ tor is to have every aspect of the college community represented, not just the undergraduates, so submissions are being sought from tutors and staff alike, -BY Erin Hanlon, SF03 �{From the Bell Towers} Febbie Class to be Discontinued The Instruction Committee on the Annapolis campus has rec­ ommended that the January Freshman class be discontinued in Annapolis in five years, with the last class enrolling in aoo6. Called the Febbie Class because its members originally came to campus in February, the mid­ year freshman class was con­ ceived to help keep the college at capacity by compensating for first-semester dropouts. The ao to 40 students began their freshman year in January, worked through the summer, and joined the rest of the fresh­ man class as sophomores the following fall. Today, admis­ sions to the freshman class are at an all-time high and keeping the class full is no longer a prob­ lem. Twenty years ago, many of the Febbies were transfers from other colleges; today most of those who enter in January wanted to come in September, but the class was already full. “The change is made possible by the relative financial health of the college and by substantial growth in the applicant pool for the fall freshman class,” said Dean Harvey Flaumenhaft in explaining the decision. “The reasons for discontinuing the mid-year class are instruction­ al...The regular freshmen get a school year with six more weeks of reflection and conversation together. They also have more time to prepare their essays, and are less likely to suffer a change of tutors between semesters.” The break between the end of the summer semester and the beginning of the sophomore fall semester is short, and Febbies are often exhausted just as their sophomore year is beginning. Beginning in January is attrac­ tive to some prospective stu­ dents, for example those who are undecided about college by the spring of their senior year in high school, or those who need to earn more money before beginning college. “Despite its inherent disadvantages, mid-year entrance has given many stu­ dents access to the benefits of a St. John’s education.” notes Mr. Flaumenhaft. The Santa Fe cam­ pus plans to continue to offer the option of enrolling in January. A Far Cry from Essay Writing ascertain how the web could be used to Si. John "5 College is a co-educatiooal, Si. lohn's was fouaded tn i6!>6 and has keep them more fotr-year liberal arts college known for it* two ctutpuses, one in Annapolis, disiinciive "greaf books" tuthMiwn. Maiylsid. and anorher in Santa f e. New Through <he reading of original lenis, Mexico. The College awards both (he involved in the col­ siodeni.'i (cOeel on ibc gteai igKSlioits of Bachelor ufArts »d Master ofAm ihe Western iradiiion from ancient Greece degreet. St. Julia’s has no ndijious lege (possibilities to nioilem tunes Siudenls study from the affilisrion St. John's is one coHeye on two ciassittof liierature. phiSosofil^. theology. cam}xtsc» The campuses idiare a conunou [«ychologs. ]»liticaf science, ectinomiCi, cuniculuni, and siudoils may transfer being explored (usury, nudiemMics. laboratory sciences, befweendsuu during the course of their music, and the visual am sanhes. include chat rooms, bulletin boards, email for life, and password-protected directories); and third, a site will be “architected” (web people actually use this word) and then bruit. Time­ line for the project is about a year. The initial telephone sur­ veys of alumni begin this spring. Like many small colleges, The St. John’s College web site St. John’s struggles with tech­ is in for a facelift. The college nology issues. On the one hand, has hired a firm called Genera­ the college needs a web site and tion to help redevelop the sites administrative computing sys­ for the two campuses, to look at tems that are comparable to ways to unify the sites, to those at other schools. On the increase functions for alumni, other hand, being technologi­ to explore avenues for market­ cally up-to-date doesn’t matter ing the Graduate Institute in the context of the program of online, and to provide prospec­ instruction. But even though tive students the kind of infor­ the program can function with­ mation they look for on the web. out it, the internet holds huge Generation has lots of experi­ potential for bringing alumni Megan Miller (SFGIoi - left) and Logan Wink (SFoo - right) start­ ence with higher education together in cyberspace and for ed BELLY dancing TWO YEARS AGO FOR EXERCISE AND FUN. “It WAS MY WAY TO clients and will help St. John’s increasing their involvement GET OFF CAMPUS AND RELIEVE STRESS DURING SENIOR ESSAY WRITING,” SAYS through a three-part process: with the college. 4" Wink. As the duo got more involved with the ancient Babylonian first, the college will look at DANCE FORM, THEY PROPOSED TO THEIR TEACHER, TaNYA KeRN (cENTER), internal and external needs and THAT THEY PERFORM. ThEIR FIRST SHOW WAS AT St. JoHn’s IN SaNTA Fe AND define audiences for its site; sec­ THEY RECENTLY FINISHED A THREE-SHOW RUN AT El FaROL ON GaNYON RoAD. ond, alumni will be contacted to SljOtlN’SCOLLlXJ Web News @SJCA.EDU {The College - St. John’s College • Spring 2001 } �{From the Bell Towers} 5 The Spirit of Philanthropia “Knowledge is power,” wrote Francis Bacon. And knowledge is powerful, says Amber Boydstun (SF99). Boydstun is chair of the Spirit Committee, part of Philanthropia - the alumni organization dedicated to fundraising for St. John’s. The knowledge that Boydstun finds powerful is the knowledge she gained while working as a student aide in the advance­ ment office for four years. There, she learned how the col­ lege works. She learned about college finances and fundrais­ ing. And she got to know the men and women who have dedi­ cated their professional lives to St. John’s. It made a powerful difference when it came to her decision to donate money to the college. “I’m not the kind of person who would normally have that team spirit, not the kind who normally donates. But I’m going to be donating every year and I already have in the two years since I graduated,” says Boyd­ stun. “Why? Because I have the facts and information that tell me that the college does need my help, that tuition is not enough to pay for the education provided to students.” Boydstun’s plan is to share this information with current students, and under her leader­ ship the Spirit Committee will meet with all Johnnies at four critical times in their college years: during freshman orienta­ tion, at the beginning of senior year, after essay writing, and before graduation. The idea is that seniors are just a step away from being alumni, and it would be a good thing if they could realize how important alumni are to the college from the very beginning. This year, there’s been a reception for seniors at the President’s house in Santa Fe and a series of dinners at the President’s house in Annapolis. “We ask the seniors about their experience at the college, what they would have liked to be dif­ ferent, what they thought was particularly good,” says Annapolis Vice President Jeff Bishop. “They have a chance to ask questions about the admin­ istration of the college. We also present our case to them: that St. John’s really needs financial support from alumni after they graduate; that tuition only cov­ ers 75% of what it costs to edu­ cate each student, and that the rest of the money to run the col­ lege must come from contribu­ tions. We encourage them to stay connected to the college after they leave. They really seem to appreciate the informa­ tion and to enjoy the evening.” “So many people graduate loving the great books and thinking St. John’s as a school is greater than anything else in the world, but they don’t donate. My goal is to encourage spirit - thumos - for St. John’s as an institution,” says Boydstun. “I’d like to help them under­ stand that St. John’s the school they love is the same as St. John’s the institution that needs their help.” > {The College Thomas Burke Top Ten of THE Favorite Five The fundraising brochure sent out last fall by the alumni group Philanthropia pictured five Johnnies in the midst of their daily activities - with their five favorite books from the pro­ gram. The idea was to ask alum­ ni to think about how the books had permeated their conscious­ ness, about how important the St. John’s curriculum is to the intellectual development of the teachers, businesspeople, par­ ents, artists, computer pro­ grammers, and whatever else St. John’s alumni become. Along with their checks, many alumni sent in responses to the question: What are your five favorite books from the program? Here’s the tally of the win­ ners. Many people answered by listing an author (Plato) rather than a book (The Republic). There were many books/ authors receiving one vote: Claude Bernard’s Introduction .St John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } (SFgz) poses in HIS home office in Baltimore WITH HIS five favorite PROGRAM books: Montaigne’s Essays, Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things, The Prince, Joyce’s Ulysses, and Thucydides. to the Study ofExperimental Medicine; Tacitus; Hume; Henry Adams’ History ofthe U.S. In all, alumni named 87 different books or authors. The top ten of the alumni’s five favorites are: • Plato (The Republic was mentioned most often) • Homer (equal numbers named The Iliad and The Odyssey) • Euclid • The Bible • Jane Austen - Shakespeare Aristotle (The Ethics was most named) were tied • Greek drama (Sophocles, Euripedes, and Aeschylus) • The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky • Kant - War and Peace by Tolstoy were tied • Thucydides • Dante �6 {From the Bell Towers} Off TO Santa Fe FOR Summer Classics Dante and Milton and Eva Brann... Oh My! Summer Classics, the program that brings book and opera lovers from across the country to Santa Fe, will be held July 15 to August 4. Participants go to seminars in the morning, spend the afternoons on field trips and other southwestern activities, then attend the Santa Fe Opera in the evenings. You can sign up for one, two, or all three weeks (one seminar topic per week), and can either stay on campus or arrange accommodation in Santa Fe. The program is appro­ priate as an introduction to the college and also for those who’ve done it before - alumni and those who have participated in community or executive sem­ inars. For more information, check the web site at www.sjcsf. edu/classics/classic.htm, or e-mail classics@mail.sjcsf.edu, or call 505-984-6104. Week I, July 15-21 • Opera: Donizetti, Lucia. Sem­ inars led by William Fulton and Elliott Zuckerman • Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. Seminars led by Michael Bybee and Caleb Thompson • Darwin, The Voyage ofthe Beagle. Seminars led by Mark Rollins and Linda Wiener • Milton, Paradise Lost. Semi­ nars led by David Carl and Claudia Honeywell • Paul Scott, The Raj Quartet. Seminars led by Eva Brann and Janet Dougherty • Thucydides, Peloponnesian War. Seminars led by James Carey and Matthew Davis Week II, July 22-28 Week III, July 29-August 4 • Opera: Richard Strauss, The Egyptian Helen and Mozart, Mitridate. Seminars led by William Fulton and Robert Glick. • Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics. Seminars led by Clau­ dia Honeywell and George Lane • Dante, Purgatorio. Seminars led by Basia Miller and Caleb Thompson • Dostoevsky, Demons. Semi­ nars led by James Carey and Frank Pagano • Plato’s Critique of Rhetoric: The Ion, Gorgias. Seminars led by Jan Arsenault and Elliott Zuckerman • Shakespeare, Richard II and Henry IV. Seminars led by Judith Adam and Warren Winiarski • Shakespeare, Pericles and Twelfth Night. Seminars led by William Alba and Krishnan Venkatesh • Opera: Verdi, Ealstaffand Alban Berg, Wozzeck. Semi­ nars led by William Fulton and Robert Glick • Dante, Purgatorio. Seminars led by Cary Stickney and Susan Stickney • Goethe, Theory of Colors. Seminars led by George Lane and Julie Reahard • The Plays of Kalidasa. Semi­ nars led by Michael Bybee and Michael Wolfe • The Poetry of Wallace Stevens. Seminars led by James Forkin and Thomas Scally {The College- St. John’s College ■ Spring zoot } India is the setting for two Summer Classics readings: The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott AND The Plays of Kalidasa (Above). Two seminarswill read Dante’s Purgatorio (Below). �{From Bell Towers} the One College - How to Make It Really Work For 36 years, St. John’s struggled with how to administer a eoUege with two campuses that are sepa­ rated hy 1800 miles, a two-hour time difference, at least six hours of travel time, and hundreds of different ways of dealing with both day-to-day and long-term issues. The curriculum has always been the great unifier and under the direction of the Joint Instruction Committee (composed of tutors on both campuses) it has remained virtu­ ally identical in Annapolis and Santa Fe. But administration is another matter. Over time, tiny management decisions on each campus led to more substantial policy differ­ ences. The Board of Visitors and Governors, while acknowledging the importance of a president for each campus, last year re-organ­ ized the college’s basic adminis­ trative structure, creating a Management Committee that includes the presidents and deans of both campuses, who may bring in other college officers during their discussions. The Committee’s purview is cer­ tain college-wide functions and its single executive (a chair) han­ dles comprehensive issues with­ out diminishing the responsibihties of the campus presidents and deans for their own opera­ tions. Annapolis president Christo­ pher Nelson is serving as the “We need topre­ serve the special sense ofcommu­ nity that exists on each campus, and we will not take any action that would threaten that. Chris Nelson, Annapolis president and chair of the Management Committee, says,“We have a lot of work ahead of us.” {The College. first chair of the Management Committee. “There is a clear spirit of cooperation,” he says. “John Balkcom (the new presi­ dent in Santa Fe) and I are com­ mitted to the notion that with respect to certain issues, col­ lege-wide treatment is essential. We need to preserve the special sense of community that exists on each campus, and we will not take any action that would threaten that.” During its first year, the Man­ agement Committee: • Equalized tutor salaries, which had been less in Santa Fe since 1994-95 • Formulated a plan for equaliz­ ing tuition, which had been different on the two campuses • Worked out a college-wide budget, with separate consid­ eration of capital projects and other issues specific to each campus • Considered differences in the financial aid policies of the campuses and began to work on making them more consistent • Re-organized the advance­ ment offices to prevent dupli­ cating all functions on each campus • Adopted an information tech­ nology plan for both campus­ es, including a joint web site • Provided for a joint recruit­ ment strategy and new publica­ tions for the Graduate Institute • Prepared a framework for a college-wide strategic plan that considers needs and resources well into the future • Formulated a way to resolve inconsistent alumni databases on the campuses • Standardized a host of report­ ing functions so that college­ wide information is available on everything from budget matters to admissions enroll­ ment During this first year the Man­ agement Committee concentrat­ ed on resolving differences that had arisen over time. The com­ mittee is also beginning to make college-wide policy decisions, for St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } example; it extended benefits to the domestic partners (same and opposite sex) of faculty and staff. In the coming year the Com­ mittee will complete a strategic plan and needs assessment for the campuses, and will help organize the elements for the college’s next fundraising capi­ tal campaign. “I anticipate focusing on the need to have comparable faculty staffing, class sizes, and faculty develop­ ment programs on both campus­ es,” says Nelson. St. John’s in THE News An article called “Where Plato Is Your Professor” in the Febru­ ary aoor issue of Smithsonian magazine describes the col­ lege’s program, the students and classes, and the various extracurricular activities. Also interviewed are several alumni, identified as a building contrac­ tor, a lawyer, a biologist, and an editorial assistant. Written by Edwards Park, a retired Smith­ sonian contributor who lives in Annapolis, and photographed by Cameron Davidson, the arti­ cle focuses on the intellectual atmosphere of St. John’s. St. John’s is also featured in a book about investing (yes, the financial kind). Latticework: The New Investing by Robert G. Hagstrom (published by Texere ) describes an approach to invest­ ing that is based on a liberal arts-style understanding, where the interconnections between the important ideas from a num­ ber of fields are discovered. Hagstrom, who is a senior vicepresident of Legg Mason Focus Capital, talked with alumni in investment fields, who cited the importance of St. John’s in their development as “better thinkers.” -f- �8 {From the Bell Towers} Leo Raditsa The Face of SJC Today About the freshmen who arrived in Santa Fe and Annapolis in September and January: There are 319 of them, 167 men and 152 women. 8 didn’t finish high SCHOOL (they are CLASSIFIED “eARLY ENTRANCE”) AND 52 ATTENDED ANOTHER COLLEGE BEFORE THEY BAILED OUT, SAW THE LIGHT, AND CAME TO St. John’s. Age range is i6 to 51. About 68% receive financial aid. 223 ATTENDED PUBLIC SCHOOLS; 93 ATTENDED INDEPENDENT OR PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. 6o% RANKED IN THE TOP FIFTH OF THEIR CLASS; 4% MeRIT HONORS. St. John’s doesn’t require SAT scores for admission, but of those RANKED IN THE FOURTH FIFTH. 183 RECEIVED NATIONAL THAT submitted SCORES, THE RANGE OF THE MIDDLE 50% VERBAL IS 65O TO 750 AND THE RANGE OF THE MIDDLE 50% MATH IS 580 TO 680. 39 STATES AND 3 FOREIGN COUNTRIES ARE REPRESENTED (HIGHEST NUMBERS ARE 32 FROM California in Santa Fe and 20 from Maryland in CHRIS QUINN SFGIo Annapolis), Within a few weeks, the FRESHMEN BLENDED IN SO WELL IT WAS HARD TO DISTINGUISH THEM FROM MORE SEASONED Johnnies - you had to check WHAT they were READING TO FIND OUT. Students are SHOWN ON THE AnNAPOLIS (left) and AT Meem Library (above). GREG WHITESELL quad {The College - Leo Raditsa, a tutor at the col­ lege since 1973, died February 22 in Annapolis after suffering a stroke. He had been ill with myeloma. Born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1936, where his father, Bog­ dan Raditsa, was a delegate to the League of Nations, Mr. Raditsa came to this country in 1940 when his father joined the Yugoslav Embassy in Washing­ ton, D.C. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and then from Harvard College in 1956. At Harvard he founded and edited i.e.. The Cambridge Review. The grandson of the noted Ital­ ian historian Guglielmo Fer­ rero, he held two graduate degrees in history from Colum­ bia University: a 1962 master’s in medieval history and a 1969 doctorate in ancient history. He was also a University Fellow and a President’s Fellow at Colum­ bia. In 1964-65 he held a Ful­ bright Fellowship at the Univer­ sity of Munich. After teaching at New York University, Washington Square College, from 1965 to 1973, he joined the faculty of St. John’s College. He was the founding editor of The St. John ’a Review. He was affiliated during the 1977-78 academic year with the Hoover Institute on War, Revo­ lution and Peace at Stanford, Calif., as a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow. Mr. Raditsa was the author of numerous articles and of two books: Prisoners ofa Dream: The South African Mirage, which he wrote following 1991 when he was a lecturer at the Rand Afrikaans University and at the University of the Witwatersrand, seoA Some Sense About Wilhelm Reich, concerning the controversial psychiatrist. Mr. Raditsa was also a painter whose watercolors were exhibited at galleries in the Annapolis area. Mr. Raditsa was a member of a distinguished Italian family St. John’s College ■ Spring soot } Leo Raditsa and great-grandson of the crim­ inologist Cesare Lombroso; he divided his time between Annapohs and his family home outside Florence. Survivors include his son, Sebastian, and a sister, Basiljka Raditsa, both of New York City. His marriage to Larissa Bonfante of New York City ended in divorce. The fami­ ly requests that gifts be made to the St. John’s College library, P.O. Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404. A memorial service for Mr. Raditsa was held in March. A memoriam will appear in the next issue of The College. �9 {Alumni Voices} CARNIVAL IN FLANDERS A Pearl Harbor Day memoir BY Peter Wolff, A44 y the time I got to St. John’s in the fall of 1940, the New Program was in full swing. A few (less than a dozen) Old Program stu­ dents still remained. The college got a boost from an article in Life magazine that appeared in February of 1940. It spoke glowingly of the Program in a spread of 10 or B I cannot resist a swipe at American journalism: One of the pictures showed a student reading Horace’s poems in Latin. A fine picture except that the student shown was an Old Program student; the book he was reading was by an author (Horace) not then being read in the Program; the book was being read in the original Latin instead of in translation, whereas all of the great books authors were and are being read in English. I took to the college immediately and felt that I had found my intel­ lectual home. I read the books, dis­ cussed them and thought of little else. I had little money but I didn’t need it: $a6 lasted me through the first semester, as I barely stepped off the campus. I cannot remember what I did in the summer of 1941, but I returned to St. John’s in the fall of that year with enthusiasm and threw myself into reading the second year list. It includ­ ed Virgil, but also St. Augustine’s Confes­ sions and large parts of St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa The.ologica. I had joined a film club that was being formed by a few students. It proposed to show classic movies to those who joined In 194a, THE COLLEGE HELD A DANCE TO ReLIEF. In ATTENDANCE WERE STRINGFELLOW BaRR (left) and Admiral Beardall, Superin­ tendant OF THE Naval Academy. RAISE MONEY FOR ALLIED WaR the club. The movies were obtained from the Museum of Modern Art on a rental basis. Club members were mostly St. John’s students but also faculty members and a few faculty from the Naval Academy. I can only remember two films. One was A {The College . St. John’s College ■ Spring soot } Nous La Liberte, directed by Jean Renoir; the other. Carnival in Flanders, was scheduled for the evening of December 7, 1941. The gymnasium, an old building, had to be prepared for the film showing. So at a little after noon, several of us were setting up the screen and folding chairs for the audience. At about r:3o in the afternoon, some­ one came running into the building and 12,yelled, pages. “The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.” For a little while, I did not fully take in what had been said; then we all abandoned our efforts (we were nearly finished anyhow) and repaired to our dormi­ tory rooms to listen to the radio. The film showing did take place in the evening. Not many of the Naval Academy members of the club showed up; those that did for the first time wore their uniforms. The next day, a radio (these were pre-television days) was brought into the dining hall and at noon we listened to President Roosevelt referring to December 7 as “a day that will live in infamy,” regretting the many casualties that had been incurred, and asking the Congress to declare war on Japan. People of my age and generation all remember what they were doing on December 7,1941. For younger people, it is just another date. For some of them, November aa, 1963 has a similar significance, but even those who remem­ ber President Kennedy’s assassination are now growing old. What are the mythic dates for those who are now in their twen­ ties or thirties? The first moon landing? President Nixon’s resignation? The fall of the Berlin Wall? �IO {Interview} A CONVERSATION WITH JOHN BALKCOM The newpresident in Santa Fe begins his tenure Johnnie-style—in a dialogue with students, faculty, and alumni. N November 7 John E. Balkcom became the fifth president of the Santa Fe campus of St. John’s Col­ lege. A fit and athletic 53-year-old with wide interests beyond a career as head of a college, he radi­ ates an affable, energetic person­ ality and addresses the complex challenges of his new job with cheerful confidence. He has enjoyed a close association with the college, having been not only a graduate student in Santa Fe but also a member the Board of Visitors and Governors for five years. In January the president sat down for an interview with James Idema, a Santa Fe writer whose affection for St. John’s stems from his participation in the Community Seminar Series. Q: Your background is an unusual combination ofbusiness and academics. Your education includes an AB in philoso­ phyfrom Princeton, an MBA from the University of Chica­ go's Graduate School ofBusiness,and a master’s degree in liberal artsfrom St. John’s. You have also pursued a career as a business consultant and served as an adjunctprofessor ofeconomics at Chicago. Is itfair to say that, with this back­ ground, your visionfor St. John’s ispractical as well as ide­ alistic? JB: I would hope so. Practical in the sense of my aspiring for this program - “this brilliantly conceived small college,” to {The College- quote one of our tutors emeritus. Bill Darkey - to be far more secure financially in the future, to have the ability to deliver this distinctive kind of education, this expensive way of doing an education, and to give that method long economic life through significant improvements in the endowment. This would allow us to maintain a student body of about 450 undergraduate and about 60 graduate students. My feeling is that we could continue to grow somewhat in the graduate program. We have no aspiration to make the undergraduate program 500, 600, 700, but rather to keep it at its current size or smaller, to serve that population well, and to continue to sustain the intimacy that happens at the seminar level between tutors and stu­ dents. I believe that the seminar table is the locus of the unique value of this program and I want to continue to be able to deliver that close personal attention of our tutors to our students, both in and out of class. Q: More to the idealisticpoint. I’ve been reading in the local press about the kind of epiphany you experienced in which ethics came unexpectedly into your approach to life, per­ haps gaining ascendancy over the business aspect. Can you comment on that? JB: One of the primary responsibilities of a partner in a management consulting firm is to sell business, to build new client relationships and to provide services that are both valuable to the client and profitable to the consulting firm. It’s a rather weak joke among consultants that when St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �ERIC SWANSON {The College -St John's College • Spring 2001 } �{interview} one receives a call from a prospective client asking the question “Do you do X?” the answer is almost always “Why, yes, of course. And, indeed, we are deeply expert in that area. That’s our business and we have just the people who can help you.” I certainly appreciate the commercial impera­ tive of growing one’s business when one is a management consultant, but at times I found it troubling that I was at least stretching the case for my capability or my firm’s capability for what we might do to help a client. In particular, after reading Augus­ tine’s Confessions for the first time in the Graduate Institute, I had this blinding realization of the three white lies a management consultant tells when a prospective client calls him. “(i) I’m thrilled to hear from you. (2) I’m utterly fascinated by your problem. (3) I’m immediately avail­ able to help you.” Out of the realiza­ tion that none of the above is always true and in the process of reading the Confessions, I began having much more candid conversations with my clients and prospective clients, asking them background questions and then, with increasing fre­ quency, suggesting that I was not the right person to handle their problem but giving them names and phone numbers of others who might be better qualified to serve them. JB: Sure. We have eliminated that disparity as of January i, which, as a board member, I wanted to see hap­ pen during my five years of tenure. So I’m pleased that we have now taken the steps that were needed. Q: It took a long time. It took a long time because of differences in resources available to the two campuses. And it put some added pressure on this campus in terms of balancing our budget going forward. We’ve had several areas of cost increases in the last two years. First, the increase in salaries for fac­ ulty. Fortunately, we’ve had generous benefactors who have increased our endowment to help us fund the need­ ed increase in faculty salaries. Two years ago my predecessor and his staff did an evaluation of staff compensa­ tion and found that it was off the mark quite a bit. So we have had some significant staff compensation increases as well. We’ve also changed the kind of retirement plan for the staff to be similar to that of the faculty. Our health insurance costs, like those of almost every other organization I know, are rising rapidly. And then throw into that the recent spike in natural gas prices, and our fixed costs have gone up tremendously. JB: It did. Ybelieve the seminar table is the locus ofthe unique value ofthis program... Q: One might think you risked losing clients that way. That was the risk I expected at the beginning of those con­ versations, but I must tell you it brought clients back to me repeatedly, clients who had appreciated my candor. More important for me, my speaking that way proved to be hugely liberating. Now you’re no longer a consultant but the man in charge. What are some ofthe major challenges youface in thisposition. Can we start with the faculty salary disparities between this campus and Annapolis? {The College Bad timing, indeed. But I must say, we’re still finding our friends, alumni, and certain foundations quite generous. It’s not an easy challenge to raise the money, but they’re continu­ ing to be generous with us. Friends of the college are still com­ ing to us with significant gifts. So, in that sense, our timing is quite fortuitous. JB: JB; Q: Q: Also a weakening ofthe economy. Bad timing. Q: You ’re going to be able to increase the endowment? The board and the capital campaign committee are just beginning to plan for the next capital campaign. But my person­ al aspiration is to see the endowment move from its current level JB: ■ St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �{interview } 13 ‘7found the... issues ofthe nature of the soul [in the ' Phaedrus 7... quite immediate and urgentfor every man and woman in the room. of just under $ioo million for the whole college to something in excess of $250 mUhon hy the end of this decade. That’s not an easy task. It takes a great deal ofwork. But I know it can be done. Many other fine hberal arts colleges in a similar period have raised significantly more than that. I think we have the opportunity to present this story to alumni, friends, and foundations and corpo­ rations in a way that wiU be com­ pelling, to improve our endowment substantially. That, by the way, will help with our sustaining and improving the salaries of faculty and staff. study area that would be more friendly to students. Probably the most notable physical change that a number of us would like to see is an auditorium that would house 600 to 800 at one time. Today we have no single venue within which we can convene the entire college commu­ nity, meaning faculty, students, and staff. L Q: Would this replace the Great Hall? Q: Willyou yourselfbe taking an active role infundraising? JB: Oh, yes, I already have been. I am traveling some in con­ nection with that task, and Robert Glick, the vice president for advancement, has scheduled me for a minimum of three lunches and two dinners a week with potential donors of vari­ ous kinds in the Santa Fe area. envision physical expansion of the campus, bricks­ and-mortar improvements? Q: Do you JB: Yes, in a modest way. Again, we are at the maximum stu­ dent size that we want, so we won’t be growing in that sense. But I would like to add - and again, this is yet to be worked out - another 60 rooms on campus, which would allow us to house up to 75 to 80 percent of our student body. Q: That means new dormitories. JB: Two new dormitories would be my guess. Q: The dormitories arefilled up now? JB: To the brim. So that’s one physical change - a modest one, I think. A second needed improvement: We have about $12 mil­ lion of deferred maintenance on campus buildings and need very much to upgrade the fire protection systems. Thirdly, I’d like to see a project suggested, just as a possibility, by the head of our bookstore of breaking the wall between the bookstore and the coffee shop and combining them into a sitting and {The College . JB: I hope it would replace the Great Hall. And it would do three impor­ tant things for us: It would give us a venue for convening the entire college community. Second, it would give us a more attractive space for student productions of plays and musical performances. Third, it would give us an opportunity to bring the local community here for events of various kinds, to house musical events and professional performances, and allow the community to become even closer and better acquainted with the college. So, I’d like to see that change. It might be the most noticeable of the changes I would envision in bricks and mortar. Q: I was going to ask whether St. John "s alumni, as other college alumni, are generally successful, well off, dependable support­ ers ofSt. John's. Or does the St. John'sprogram tend toproduce scholars who don’tpursue more remunerative careers? JB: We produce alums who enter a great variety of careers, from teaching at the secondary school level to advanced aca­ demic careers in higher education to authors to producers and directors and screenwriters for movies to proprietors of pri­ vately owned businesses to heads of investment management businesses. We have the variety of alums you would find in many other colleges, and a wide range of economic success in that population. It is an alumni body that has the capability of providing great support for the college. During the last capital campaign, we had a participation rate that was quite attrac­ tive, compared to our other liberal arts competitors. On an annual basis, the participation rate is modest, but growing rapidly, and we expect to continue to see that grow. We have a new organization of alumni called Philanthropia, and its pur- St. John's College • Spring 2001 } �^4 I { 1 NT E RVI E W } 'Tor sure, we could do a betterjob ofreaching a more diversepopulation.'' pose is to engage the alumni in their support of the college. That holds great promise. enjoy it newly every time. So, one aspect of a great book is the re-readability. A second aspect of “greatness” is the connectedness, the pervasiveness, of the ideas of these texts in our culture. When I read a new piece of fiction that somebody says is a really great book, I frequently find it enjoyable reading. However, I’m not likely to read it again because it’s not terribly re-readable. But it may have three or four ideas in it that came out of Plato or out of Aristotle, whose ideas remain pervasive. Q: In the category ofother changes and chal­ lenges, what about the curriculum? JB: My expectation is that the curriculum will change very slowly, if at all. The way that our founding document, the Polity, is writ­ ten, it assigns to our faculty, to our joint Instruction Committee of the two campuses, and to the deans the responsihility for over­ seeing the design and content of the curricu­ lum. Our faculty retains to this day a very strong commitment to what was called in 1937 “the New Program.” £ I think one of the reasons people ask you that perhaps frivolous question is that it’s such a long time between Aristotle’s day and today. Q: o Q: It's still the New Program? is still the New Program. And I think that’s a distinguishing characteristic of this college that will change very little. It’ll he a little more of this and a little less of that. Add a Platonic dialogue here and two fewer essays of Montaigne there, or whatever. These things go through care­ ful consideration and dehate at our faculty meetings and in our Instruction Committee meetings. By design, they change very slowly. JB: It JB: But the program comes to the 19th and aoth centuries.We certainly talk about Kant, Hume, Hegel, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Yeats. And the sciences, from Galileo to Newton all the way forward to Einstein. There are a few Gommunity Seminars, I believe, with Richard Feynman’s writings, in them. So we have, in some of our courses, very contemporary authors. Q: “Ijust read a great new book. Why don ’tyou include that?” That is an interesting question, I think. What does make a great book? Q: Surelyyou must run intopeople who say, JB: Well, I’ve just heen re-reading the two opening essays, one by Mortimer Adler and one by the former president of the Uni­ versity of Chicago, Robert Maynard Hutchins, for the original editions of the Great Books, as they were published by Ency­ clopedia Britannica, and there are a few ideas that I found quite intriguing. One of them is the notion that a great book is highly re-readable. That is, it deserves to be read, not once, and maybe not even twice or three times. Every time I read the Iliad - and I’ve read it four or five times in the last five years I find half a dozen things that strike me as, “How could I pos­ sibly have missed this?” The Iliad and the Odyssey and the Platonic Dialogues and the works of Aristotle - there are many others, of course, with this character. For me, personally, I re-read the poetry of Yeats weekly and {The College. Notjust dead white guys. JB: I’ve certainly heard that charge. No, I think they’re quite alive. In my last preceptorial in the graduate program, we had seven graduate students and six undergraduates reading Plato’s Phaedrus. It has to do with rhetoric, with erotic love and with the nature of the soul and with poetry. And I found the issues of how one expresses oneself in writing or in speak­ ing, the issues of the nature of the soul, the issues of the nature of erotic love, quite immediate and urgent for every man and woman in the room. And not at all stale by virtue of having been written by a “dead white guy.” Q: That naturally leads to the question ofwomen. And I know you expressed interest in that and thefact that your wife and daughters sometimes bug you to pay more attention to the female gender. Two things I should mention in that connection. In one of my very early classes in the Summer Glassies, one of the tutors JB: St. John ’5 College • Spring zooi } �{interview} 15 Y think ofthe students as thefirst group lam responsiblefor serving. son we consider as a potential student is that person’s seriousness about and capability for studying in this particular way, reading a text slowly and discussing it at length with col­ leagues in a classroom. put me onto the text The Book ofthe City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan, which is quite a remarkable story of court life in the 15th or i6th century from a woman’s point of view. And I’ve mentioned as well that we have had a preceptorial in the Graduate Institute on the work of Toni Morrison. Q: JB: My meetings with students are what I call I want to ask you about the relationship between St. John’s College and the city of Santa Fe. Do you sense an affinity between this comparatively new (1964) institution and this ancient (1610) city? Q: JB: Yes. In the last ao years many adult learn- 2 z ers, if I could use that phrase, have moved 5 o into Santa Fe. These are men and women 2 cc who may have retired or may be in the « process of winding down their full-time pro­ fessions, and who are seeking an opportunity to look with some seriousness into matters of the quality of life and whether or not the soul is in fact perpetual. And to examine, to stop and lookback on what they’ve done in the last 30 or 40 or 50 years of their lives and reflect on them in a thoughtful way. We draw many such men and women to us through our Com­ munity Seminars, through our Summer Classics, even through our Graduate Institute. So, I think that’s part of the affinity with this town. Q: Santa Fe has a notoriously poor public education system itself. Many ofthesepeople you refer to arepart-time residents, and, as you say, are retired, and they can afford to stop and reflect on their lives. One would wish that somehow this oppor­ tunity could be made available to people who have not had thatprivilege. Let me say that we make all of our admissions decisions at the undergraduate and at the graduate level on a needs blind basis. I’ve heard more than once some passing comment about this elite program in which rich white folks come and study the dead white guys. But approximately 70 percent of our stu­ dents currently receive financial aid of one kind or another, so we welcome a very wide variety of students. And for sure, we could do a better job of reaching a more diverse population. We are working on that. The biggest question about every per­ JB: Tell me aboutyour meetings with students. “town hall meetings.” I regard the agenda as belonging to the students. You call the students customers, your ‘^pri­ mary customers. ” Q: I think of them as the first group whom I am responsible for serving. They’re here, they are living here, they have entrusted themselves and their education to us. I feel responsible to them. So in that sense they are my primary customer. And so, once every four to six weeks I want to have a town hall meeting, invite any and all students who would like to come, and discuss what they would like to discuss. I don’t always have the answer, but I’m willing to take a question and tell them I’ll get back to them. JB: about exhausted my question list unless you sense an omission in what we’ve covered that you’d like to add to this informal accounting to St. John’s alumni. Q: I’ve JB: My added message would be that, whereas I regard the stu­ dents as my primary customers, if I can say that, I think of the alumni as a very close second. And it’s helpful to me - I’ve already heard from quite a number of alumni by e-mail and have received feedback on communications I’ve sent them, on publications we’ve put out as a college as well as articles that have been published elsewhere about the campus. Q: Well received? well received. We have listened to suggestions for improvements, too. This is a very thoughtful alumni body and I have a great deal to learn from them. Dialogue is the hallmark of this school. It is vital that we continue to have a rich dialogue with the alumni, as well as the students and faculty. 4" JB: Very {The College -St John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �{The Program} THE LOGOS ACCORDING TO ARISTOTLE Tutor Joe Sachs thinks the key to understanding Aristotle lies in ordinary speech - whether its Greek or English. BY Barbara Goyette, A73 o surprise: Joe Sachs, an alumnus who graduated in 1968 and became a tutor in Annapolis in 1975, first encountered Aristotle in his freshman seminar, which was led by Bob Bart and Debbie Traynor. Slightly surprising: He found a kind of joy in reading and Studying Aristotle that was a deep­ ening of the delight he experienced while reading Plato. His favorite book was The Physics. “There were two things that happened,” he says. “1 realized that what 1 thought of as sci­ ence and philosophy didn’t have to be distinct. And then I realized that the world didn’t have to be thought of the way I’d been taught in high school. The Physics denies things I had assumed about space, time, body, cause, and explana­ tion.” Downright surprising: Sachs has spent a good part of the past ten years translating four works of Aristotle: The Physics, The Metaphysics, On the Soul, and The Nicomachean Ethics. The first two have been published, the oth­ ers have found publishers and will appear in print soon. Considering that Aristotle is probably the philosopher who most permeates Western thought - from his tutelage of Alexander the Great, to the adoption of his Latinized vocabulary as the very speech of philosophy for hundreds of years, to the easy acceptance of the nickname “The Big Aristotle” by basketball’s superstar Shaquille O’Neal - why {The College- would there be need for more translations? Because the translations out there are inadequate, says Sachs. The prob­ lem with the translations dates to the i6th and 17th cen­ turies when scholarly work that had previously been avail­ able only in Latin began to appear in modern languages. The Latin versions of Aristotle established a vocabulary that carried over into the modern languages, a vocabulary that included such familiar philosophic staples as “acci­ dent,” “substance,” “essence,” “actuality,” and “priva­ tion.” Not only did the Latinized versions of these words become a jargon, but that jargon disguised much of what is important in Aristotle, Sachs thinks. “The twists and turns of the tradition that got lost from view led to mistakes and misunderstandings of Aristotle,” he says. Here’s an example of how the words used in the scholar­ ly tradition don’t really capture the Greek: The phrase kata sumbebekos became, in Latin translations of Aristotle,/>er accidens, and then in scholastic English the Latin word’s descendent, “accidental.” “The Latin is a good translation for the Greek, and the English is cognate with the Latin,” says Sachs. “But the original Greek meaning doesn’t come through when you make kata sumbebekos into ‘acciden­ tal.’” He renders kata sumbebekos as “incidental” rather than “accidental.” In his Glossary to The Physics, he explains, “The word ‘accidental’ is appropriate to some, but not all incidental things; it is not accidental that the housebuilder is a flute player, but it is incidental. To any St. John's College • Spring 2001 } �{The College -St John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �{ThePkogram} ''LikePlato 's dialogues, Aristotle's writings lead us onfrom untested opinions - those expressed in ordinary speech toward more reliable ones. " thing, an infinity of incidental attributes belongs, and this opens the door to chance (196 b).” Nineteenth and aoth century English translations of Aristo­ tle include those found in the Loeb editions and in the huge beige McKeon edition that Johnnies of the 1970s and 1980s relied on. Loeb translations are loose by design. McKeon’s edi­ tion contained parts of a series of Oxford translations made early in the aoth century. Some were very graceful, but they relied entirely on the Latinized vocabulary carried over from the earlier translations. Beginning in the 1960s, Hippocrates Apostle produced a set of translations that attempted to stan­ dardize Aristotle’s vocabulary in English - Apostle always used the same English word for each Greek term, but he still relied on the adopted Latinized words. During the course of many years’ worth of classes, study groups, and advising sessions, Sachs found himself having to say to students “it doesn’t really mean that” about many of the words they were wrestling with. He would give long explanations of each such word, and wish there were some better way to translate it. Behind Sachs’ resolve to try to render Aristotle into English more effectively lies a deeper reason than being discontent with the use of the fossilized Latin vocabulary. Aristotle looks at ordinary speech and the thought behind it, and he “puts together the most ordinary words in unaccustomed combina­ tions. Since the combinations are jarring, our thinking always has to be at work,” says Sachs. Here’s the paradox of Aristotle for us today: He’s at the same time the most referred-to thinker whose ideas form the very foundation of all Western philoso­ phy, from Locke, Kant and Hegel to Whitehead and Husserl, and yet - according to Sachs - he’s the freshest because he makes us examine the most simple assumptions about our lives and what they might mean. Getting to the root of this fresh quality of Aristotle’s work was Sachs’ aim in translating the the­ oretical books with the resources of “ordinary English.” Gertainly this is an enterprise characteristic of how the Greeks are treated at St. John’s. “[Jacob] BClein is the main source of my thinking about Aristotle and Plato,” notes Sachs. He cites Klein’s essay “Aristotle, an Introduction” (which appears in Jacob Klein: Lectures and Essays, St. John’s College Press) as something he’s read many times. But Sachs calls his translations an appropriate entry point for any educated reader - not just Johnnies - into the world of the ancients. {The College Turning The PHYSICS wyg English rom 1990 to 1992, Sachs held the National Endow­ ment for the Humanities (NEH) chair at the col­ lege. This fellowship enables tutors to spend their time studying a topic in depth for two years; dur­ ing the second year they also lead a faculty study group on their topic and give a lecture. He used the tim begin a translation of The Physics. “At first I didn’t know was practical - whether I knew enough Greek, whether there were solutions to the difficult problems I saw,” he says. But he began to work with the aim of making Aristotle’s sentences real by getting rid of the jargon and using instead everyday, common words that exist in both English and Greek. “Aristotle respects ordinary speech more than most modern philosophers do. We use a lot of important words in inconsis­ tent ways. For Aristotle that is an indication of something deeply true,” explains Sachs. For example, take the Greek word kalon. Sometimes it is translated as “beautiful,” some­ times as “noble.” But the English word “noble” loses most of the vividness and power of the Greek. Aristotle considers the linguistic usage as a clue that leads to an understanding of moral virtue as something for its own sake, that hits a mean. In English we might also say, “That’s a beautiful thing you did.” We all know what that means, and it somehow tells us some­ thing about that action. “Ambiguities in speech that are deeply revealing about the thing referred to can arise in similar ways in more than one language,” says Sachs. “The trouble with ordinary speech for the purposes of phi­ losophy,” says Sachs, “is that it carries too much meaning. We are so accustomed to its use that it automatically carries along all sorts of assumptions about things that we make without being aware of them. ..Like Plato’s dialogues, Aristotle’s writ­ ings lead us on from untested opinions - those expressed in ordinary speech - toward more reliable ones.” Getting something out of The Physics depends on how will­ ing people are to let go of their assumptions. “It’s full of things that people laugh at when they encounter them - take his notion that bodies falling in a void would speed up without limit. But reading Aristotle is a way of getting back to the ques­ tions. Sometimes to get that fresh look you have to uproot things that stand in your way. The Physics has everything to do with living in the world.” F St John’s College • Spring 2001 } �{TheProgram} 19 ''The argument is on the way somewhere and things are changing. Things get revised. Progress on the translation was sometimes slow - a sentence in a day - and sometimes faster. Sachs found that he couldn’t leave a decision half-made. “So many things that I hadn’t paid attention to turned out to he very interesting and important,” he says. But at the end of the second year he had a draft. Find­ ing a publisher was a real-world challenge. His translation wasn’t favored hy the classicists because “it wasn’t good Enghsh,” meaning that it read like philosophy instead of litera­ ture. The philosophy departments, on the other hand, didn’t like Sachs’ translation because it wasn’t consistent with the other works in the tradition - no “substance,” “essence,” “accident,” etc. Sachs wound up using Rutgers University Press, and his Physics appeared in 1998 as part of their “Mas­ terworks of Discovery: Guided Studies of Great Texts in Sci­ ence” edited by Annapolis tutor Harvey Flaumenhaft. been obscured by technical jargon the same way they had been in the theoretical works. But there were enough ways that I thought those translations fell short that I decided to try doing my own,” says Sachs. All of the books reflect the basic aims of recapturing the original focus of Aristotle’s thinking. What’s Aristotle Doing? hat has Sachs learned about Aristotle after spending so much time with him? Not a few St. John’s students and alumni have trouble reading Aristotle because of his style - it’s so densely packed, the sen­ tences are opaque, and it lacks the drama of the dia step-by-step explications of Kant, or the perverse Nietzsche. Sachs doesn’t exactly buy the commonly accepted story that Aristotle’s writings are transcriptions of lecture The Other Translations notes. “I think they may have begun as lecture notes, but they he year following his second spent holding the got written down and polished,” he says. He compares the method to that described frequently in Plato’s dialogues, when NEH chair, Sachs had a sabbatical, which he used a character says “I heard this from so and so, and then I wrote to begin working on a translation of The Meta­ it down and checked it with the source.” physics. That book was published in 1999 by Green “I think you can feel the movement in the classroom,” says Lion Press, an independent pubhshing house con­ Sachsofabout the writings. “An objection outlined is something centrating on primary texts in the history of science, history someone brought up in one of the classes. Or there might be a mathematics, and history of ideas and run by St. John’s alumni joke about the educated person being pale - that would refer to Wdham Donahue (A67) and Dana Densmore (A65). someone in the room. A lot of the things we puzzle about would Even more than The Physics, The Metaphysics has been mis­ have been obvious to Aristotle’s hsteners.” The movement of understood, thinks Sachs. It’s commonly criticized as not the arguments is dialectical - that’s the structure that prevails being cohesive, because it appears to make new beginnings in The Physics, The Metaphysics, and even in The Ethics. “The over and over again, as well as covering the same ground argument is on the way somewhere and things are changing. repeatedly. Sachs found an underlying order as he worked Things get revised,” says Sachs. This flowing structure to the through the translation; rather than becoming so enmeshed in works is another reason the accepted notion of Aristotle laying details that a sense of the whole is obscured, the opposite hap­ down the law or offering a series of set answers is so wrong. pened - he came to a clearer understanding of the differences “Instead, I find it a record of careful thinking,” says Sachs. between demonstration and dialectic. Aristotle’s record of careful thinking is something that has At the urging of tutor Brother Robert, Sachs also translated kept Sachs busy translating for about ro years. Although he On the Soul over the course of a few summers; it’s currently says the efforts never turned into a chore, he’s finished with being prepared for publication by Green Lion. And, during a translating, at least translating Aristotle and at least for now. second sabbatical, almost 10 years after working on The But the thoughts are still alive for him: “Every time I pick up Physics, he translated The Nicomachean Ethics. That transla­ one of his books or sit down with people to talk about Aristo­ tion is being prepared by The Focus Philosophical Library in tle, I find new things.” Massachusetts. “The Ethics is a book that I love. The translations seemed good enough because the things Aristotle was saying had not W T {The College -St John's College • Spring 2001 } �{Johnnies on Parenting} THE EDUCATION THAT IS PARENTHOOD From birth to the empty nest, raising a child means learning to deal with each new challenge. BY Sus3AN Borden, A87 OR ALL WE LEARN FROM THE GREAT ROOKS, they don’t seem to answer parent­ hood’s most pressing questions: What did Penelope do to make Telemachos sleep through the night? Would attachment parenting have saved Oedipus? If Desdemona and Juliet had been allowed to try “group dating,” could tragedy have been averted? Pedi­ atric rheumatologist Jim Jarvis (A75) agrees that there are limits to the insights on parenting to be gained at St. John’s. “Will studying Apollonius make you a better par­ ent?” he asks. “I don’t think so.” He suggests more intimate sources for learning how to raise children. “You learn from your parents, you learn from your children, and you learn from your heart, if you leave your heart open and attentive to all the wonderful things your child is trying to teach you,” he says. And that, he explains, is where St. John’s comes in. “St. John’s prepares your heart to be open,” he says. “I remember tutors Michael Littleton and Elliott Zuckerman teaching me that it’s okay to love something because it’s beautiful. I remember seeing the look on Michael Little­ ton’s face when he was listening to Beethoven’s Eroica Sym­ phony. I realized that I was watching not only a man who found this piece of music intellectually satisfying hut who, in the very core of his heart, found it beautiful. If you let it, your St. John’s education can prepare your heart for accept­ ing the incredible beauty and mystery of childhood.” Granted, Piaget and Montessori are not on the St. John’s reading list. And there’s no manual for raising children that {The College- provides an answer for every troubling situation. But in this inaugural issue of The College, six alumni who work with parents and children offer their insights into the education that is parenthood. I•Convocation Birth Parenting studies - like college studies - begin with a sud­ den immersion into a completely different kind of life. Eor both experiences, it’s a change you’ve been waiting for for months, mainly with excitement, but also with anxiety. You pack your bag, climb into the car, and the adventure begins. One key difference: when you’re heading for col­ lege, it’s just butterflies in your stomach. One similarity: you’re beginning a new life with a journey into the unknown. Midwife Laureen Sutton-Borgilt (SP86) says that, because she works mainly with home births, the couples she works with have a high sense of responsibility. But, she says, taking responsibility can be confused with taking con­ trol, and when it comes to childbirth, control is an illusion. “One of the biggest jobs in preparing for birth is accepting what it means to deal with uncertainty. You don’t always get to choose how things are going to come out. You can choose the little things, like to stay home or to have the baby in water, hut birth doesn’t always give you your choice. Parenting doesn’t always give you your choice either,” says Sutton-Borgilt. “Parenting plunges us into an unknown over which there is no control and pregnancy is definitely a first step into this realm of the unknown.” St. John’s College • Spring 2001 } �ai their own temperaments, their own way of dealing with the First year oflife “God Creating Adam” world,” she says. “The best a FROM Chartres Cathedral parent can do is help them learn how to Sure you studied virtue at St. John’s, make good judgments and accept but these days you’re modeling good themselves with whatever limitations behavior at home. Of course you read and strengths they have.” about beauty during college, but par­ Friehling offers a Johnnie-like enthood leaves you marveling at your approach to child-raising: “Just like baby’s perfect features. And while love tutors are not professors but are there was once a subject for discussion and to guide students in dialogue, I see par­ contemplation, it’s now something ents as guiding their children in a dia­ that overtakes you every day. Like logue. From the time the child is six freshman year, early parenthood fasci­ months old, parents should set up a dia­ nates us with its subject matter. But logue to help the child figure out this there’s a lot to learn and a world of world on his or her own. By the time adjustments to make. Jim Jarvis [A75] they are adolescents, children are very “There’s no bigger transition in the much participants in the dialogue and world than becoming a parent,” says they don’t have the same kind of rebel­ pediatrician Melissa Sedlis (A73). “No lion issues as children whose parents set themselves up as matter how old you are, you’re just someone else’s child arbitrary authorities.” until you become a parent yourself. There’s a great divide II- Freshman Year J. ''Ifyou let it, your St. Johns education can prepare your heart for accepting the incredible beauty and mystery ofchildhood. ” you cross. “Everyone has watched a child misbehave, seen how the parent handles it, and thought, ‘I’ll do it so much better. My child will never go to McDonald’s. My child will never want sugar cereals.’ There are a lot of illusions that parents have to lose. What we often have in our minds during pregnancy is an idealized version of what our child will be like. We try to fit the child into our idea of what the child should be.” Pediatrician Linda Friehling (SF71) warns parents not to impose such ideas onto their children. “Children have {The College- III-Sophomore Year Toddler andpreschool years More than any other year, sophomore year seems to focus on a single book: the Bible. Parents of toddlers and preschoolers, their faith tested by temper tantrums and toi­ let training, can find themselves haunting bookstores’ par­ enting sections, praying for a divinely inspired source of wisdom. Some find a favorite - a parenting “Bible.” Among St. John's College - Spring 2001 } �2,2, {JoHNNiES ON Parenting} ‘7sometimes have to remind parents that the ape at which you first eat preen beans is not on the applicationfor Harvard. ” Melissa Sedlis [A73] today’s most popular are T. means and interest to support Berry Brazleton’s Touchpoints, good daycare.” Penelope Leach’s Your Baby But what about intellectual and Child, Arlene Eisenberg’s enrichment? Wouldn’t a top­ What to Expect the Toddler notch daycare offer children a Years, and Dr, Spock’s Baby and head start in the academic Child Care. world? Berkowitz doesn’t think Steve Berkowitz (A8i), associ­ so. “You can get your kid to read ate professor in child and adoles­ earlier, to know the capitals ear­ cent psychiatry at Yale Medical lier, to do math earlier, but what School, says he likes some, but has been demonstrated is that it not all, of these works. “Throw all evens out in the end,” he says. Brazleton out the window,” he “The important factors in pre­ says. “He’s a nice guy but all too school are the social and nurtur­ easy.” Berkowitz says that Bra­ ing elements. While formalized, zleton’s “let it happen natural­ rigid education in reading, writ­ ly” approach is too hands-off for ing, and arithmetic is becoming most parents and children. “For more popular, this might be at instance, toilet training,” says the cost of something very Berkowitz. “I don’t think you important to children: the use of just sit there and tell a kid ‘you their imaginations, working can potty train whenever you’re things through, and learning ready.’ I don’t think you have to and understanding through play demand it when they’re i8 and imagination.” months old, but at 3 years, when Sedlis says that this rush to they’re not potty trained, you academics is particularly a prob­ An icon of parental affection - a madonna and child can say ‘we want this, you have lem in New York City, where she to do it, it’s what kids your age lives and practices. “Children do.’” Berkowitz thinks parents should be more directive than begin to apply to nursery schools at the age of one or two. They Brazleton advises. “I don’t think young children want a mil­ go on a round of interviews and many of them get rejected. lion choices,” he says. “They want comfort, nurturing, direc­ There’s enormous anxiety over this and parents beheve if you tion. They wantyou to make choices for them. That’s what par­ don’t get into the right nursery school, you won’t get into the ents do.” right ongoing school, then the right college, and then the right While he’s not so crazy about Brazleton, Berkowitz does like job. I sometimes have to remind parents that the age at which Penelope Leach. “I think she’s great and has a lot to offer,” he you first eat green beans is not on the application for Harvard.” says. “Like anybody else, there are things I disagree with her about, like her strong stance against daycare. Studies show IV • Enabling that good daycare is very good for children, there’s just very Are youfit to continue? little of it.” What is good daycare? Berkowitz points to the daycare cen­ It’s the end of your sophomore year. You go to your mailbox ters affiliated with Yale. “Theyhaveverylowchild/staffratios, and find a letter from the dean. You’re either in or out. But as highly trained staff who are well paid and have the benefits of a parent, it’s not that simple. There are many points in a being in an academic environment, and parents who have the child’s life when you find yourself scrutinizing your perform{The College - St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �{JoHNNIESOnPaRENTING} 2,3 JOHNNIES RECOMMEND... great books on parenting Touchpoints: Your Child’s Emotional and Behav­ ioral DevelopmentYyY. Berry Brazleton Toddlers and Parents: A Declaration ofIndepen­ dence by T. Berry Brazleton Infants and Mothers: Differences in Development by T. Berry Brazleton The First Twelve Months ofLife by Frank Caplan ance, uncertain if you’re really V • Junior Year and Theresa Caplan qualified to proceed. And like tutors Elementary school How To Talk So Your Child Will Listen, and Listen at an enabling meeting, there are So Your Child Will Talk by Adele Faber plenty of people who seem ready During junior year, you read Hume and willing to judge your fitness as a and Rousseau. As the parent of a The Magic Years by Selma H. Fraiberg parent. Certainly you can ignore schoolage child, a visit to the play­ First Feelings: Milestones in the Emotional Develop­ onlookers at the grocery store when ground reminds you that life can ment of Your Baby and Child by Stanley Greenspan your child is having a tantrum. But still be nasty, brutish, and short. The Course ofLife by Stanley Greenspan what about your mother, your The temptation to tighten control spouse, your adolescent who is strong as your child learns to Your Baby and Child: From Birth to Age Five by screams “I hate you,” your in-laws, Penelope Leach negotiate the social contracts of the or your child’s pediatrician or school yard, soccer team, and Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn teacher? scouts. But even as the outside The Emotional Life ofthe Toddler by Alicia F. When daycare director Karen world claims more and more ofyour Lieberman Shavin’s (Aya) son was diagnosed child’s time and interest, the The Interpersonal World ofthe Infant: A Viewfrom with a learning disorder at age experts agree: it’s time to loosen Psychoanalysis and Developmental Psychology by three, she was devastated by his your grip. “Most of my peers from Daniel N. Stern prognosis. “They told me he would St. John’s will remember that I’m a never go to college and never have rabid baseball fan,” says Jarvis. . The Toddler Years: A Practical Guidefor Parents & Caregivers by Irene Van De Zande friends. And they said that all his “And yet I know that my son’s problems were related to an overfavorite sport is not baseball. He’s a protective mother.” good player, but he’s not as excited Shavin says that, being in the child development field her­ as he is about soccer. One of my most important jobs as a par­ self, she tried to follow the advice of the experts she periodi­ ent is to share his excitement about soccer and not push base­ cally consulted. However, she saw that even professionals ball on him. “When we lived back east we saw parents trying to don’t agree and noticed they can fall into the trap of giving live vicariously through their children through their academ­ one-sided advice, influenced more by their training than by ic and artistic endeavors. In Oklahoma, it’s through football the needs of the child. “I needed to hear the experts’ recom­ and cheerleading. I call it child abuse by sports.” mendations,” she says. “But then I needed to analyze what “Some parents wrongly view their children’s accomplish­ they said to see if their method really applied to my child’s ments as their own,” says Friehling. “That’s where distance needs.” Shavin recommends that parents in similar situations becomes necessary. You’re there as an enabler. You can nei­ learn as much as they can from professionals, but then think ther reap the accolades nor accept the blame for what happens about what they know about their child and be willing to do to your children as they move through school. There’s a differ­ what the child needs, regardless of anyone’s advice. ence between encouraging and pushing.” This approach worked well for her son, who has made great progress despite a significant auditory processing disability. VI- Senior Year “He’s 18 now, just finished his first semester of college, got all Adolescence As, and has a steady girlfriend,” she reports. “When he makes friends, they’re friends for life.” It’s not unusual to be intimidated by senior seminar readings. What is this phenomenology, this theory of parallels, this Beaute that Baudelaire seems so taken with? Fortunately, a second reading and some careful reflection often reveal that {The College St John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �“4 {JohnniesonParenting} ''The adolescent is like Socrates, asking the tough questions, forcing parents to examine themselves and how they ve lived their lives. Linda Friehling {SF71) these are the questions of freshman, VII "Graduation sophomore, and junior years dressed Empty nest up in fancy clothes. So too with adoles­ cence. Like commencement, the empty nest is “Parents of adolescents constantly both a beginning and an end. “It’s won­ pull their hair out, forgetting that they derful and painful, letting go,” says are struggling with the same issues Friehling. “When my first child was in with their children at 14 as they were the middle of college I was cleaning out with their children at 3,” says a room in the basement where a lot of Berkowitz. “The difference is that you the toys were. I kept going up to him can’t pick up a 14-year-old and say no.” and saying, ‘Mattie, do you want this Parents can find themselves regret­ any more? What about this? Is this ting this difference when it comes to important to you?’ He was very gentle, issues like sex. “Sexuality exists from but finally he said, ‘Mom, do you think very early on, but adolescents are actu­ I’m going to play with any of my toys ally able to do something about it that again?’ I had a tear in my eye because I they couldn’t do when they were 3,” realized no, I suppose he’s not.” Berkowitz says. He adds that this is Friehling says that, while the vision more troubling to parents of girls. “It’s of a grown child can provoke tears, it an issue of biology. Boys don’t get can also bring joy to a parent: “Ifyou let pregnant.” Sibling interaction depicted by Rembrandt yourself enjoy each phase, you can look In her practice, Sedlis offers adoles­ back at it with pleasure.” cents a safe place to talk about sex, drugs, and alcohol. And she gives them at least one important Steve Berkowitz (A81) is an assistantprofessor in child and adoles­ piece of information. “With older teenagers. I’ll say, ‘have you cent psychiatry at Yale University's School ofMedicine as wed. as the medical director of the New Haven Child Development-Community ever heard of the morning after pill?’ They look at me like I Policing Program and the Yale Child Study Center Intensive Home­ have two heads,” she says. “But every four to six months, a girl based Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Services. He is also thepsychi­ will come to me for this, a girl you would think of as a good atric consultant to the National Centerfor Children Exposed to Vio­ girl, who is a good girl, who has made a mistake.” While Sedlis lence. He is thefather oftwo daughters. encourages teens in such difficult situations to leave the hnes Linda Friehling (SF71) is a pediatrician and the mother ofthree sons. of communication with their parents open, she says that there She lives in Great Falls, Virginia. are some thing a child needs to keep private. liM Jarvis {A75) is director ofpediatric rheumatology at the Children’s Fortunately, the world of teenagers isn’t all about risky Hospital of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, and a clinical associate pro­ behaviors. Friehling is energized by the intellectual and moral fessor ofpediatrics at the Oklahoma University Health Sciences Cen­ challenges teens constantly pose. “Adolescents are wonderful ter. He is thefather oftwo daughters and one son. because they are thinking, idealistic, and energetic. They keep Melissa Sedlis (A73) is a pediatrician in private practice in New York you on your toes and don’t take any nonsense,” she says. “The City. She and her husband, Steven Sedlis (A7;j), have three daughters. adolescent is hke Socrates, asking the tough questions, forc­ Karen Shavin (A73) is the executive director ofBright Beginnings, an ing parents to examine themselves and how they’ve lived their infant-toddler and preschool Head Start program for homeless chil­ lives. You have to back up what you say and give reasonable dren in Washington, D.C. She and her husband, Jeff Crabtree (A72), arguments. They’re not going to take things at face value; are theparents ofone daughter and two sons. they’re going to question everything.” Laureen Sutton-Borgilt (SF86) is a midwife and the mother of two daughters. She lives in Ashland, Oregon. {The College - St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �as {Campus Life} CHORAL KALEIDOSCOPE BY SuS3AN Borden, A87 he Great Hall of McDowell has seen many Odysseus,” says David. “When they have finished their performance with Demodsights in the past 200 years: the schooling of ocus of the tale of Ares and Aphrodite, Francis Scott Key in 1796, a hall honoring Gen­ two youths are singled out to make a solo display of their gymnastic prowess, throw­ eral Lafayette in 1824, and the treatment of ing and catching a ball in mid-air.” Following Plato’s formulation, David’s Civil War casualties in 1863 and 1864. In recent group began with a bardic rendition of the years, it has been the site of college registra­ opening of Homer’s Catalogue of Ships with the singer in the middle (like tion, Fehhie convocation, and G.I. commencement. It has Demodocus) circled by dancers. Then two of the students, hosted coffee houses, rock parties, and waltz parties. PlaysJohann du Hoffman (A04) and Danae Marshall (A03), performed a have been staged and freshman choruses have sung within its carefully choreographed gymnastic dance. Next, Sarah Frost (A04) gave a solo per­ walls. And one chilly afternoon this past February, it was the formance of a short Sappho poem, and setting for a spectacle rich and strange. finally the group presented a full choral T Drawing inspiration from the figures on GrEEKVASES, AmIRTHANAYHGAM David (center, left photo) leads stu­ ANCIENT dents IN A recreation OF A CHORAL DANCE. Annapolis tutor Amirthanayagam David (A86) and Miriam Rother, a choreographer from Switzerland (and mother of sopho­ more Noam Gedalof), led eleven students in a two-week workshop reconstructing a Greek chorus. When the group presented a “workshop-performance” in the Great Hah, about 150 students and tutors showed up to watch. David explained that the first part of their presentation was a reconstruction of a gymnastics lesson described by Plato in the Laws. “It is likely not a coincidence that the two types of dancing Plato pre­ scribes, one imitating the language of the Muse, the other more gymnastic and ath­ letic, correspond to the two types Alcinous has his Phaeacian youths display for {The College. St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } rendition of the “Ode to Man” from Antigone. A key to the reconstruction was David’s theory of Greek prosody, which allowed the dancers to know where to stress their words. Since the main floor of the Great HaU was packed, many onlookers saw the per­ formance from the second floor balcony. From on high, the movement of the dancers looked like the jewels in a kaleido­ scope moving through a set of comphcated but orderly symmetrical patterns. �2,6 {Letters} Editor 's Note: Thanks to those who wrote in with information about thephotos in the calendar. We were hoping that thepho­ tos would elicit memories and waitedfor the e-mails and letters to come in telling us who waspictured in each shot. We weren i sure about the date ofthe staircasephoto (hence the ''ca. uj7O ”). But we are sure about thephotographer because his name is stamped on the back ofthephoto: Mari­ on Warren, an Annapolis artist who took manyphotos ofthe college—on both cam­ puses—from the late tgsos through the mid-iQ’^os. E-Zine Proposal Photo Recollections For the record, the picture accompanying the month of March in the aooi “Founders & Foundations” calendar is Brother Robert’s freshman (not sopho­ more) geometry class in the fall of 1973. Since we aren’t wearing heavy jackets (and Lauren has her shoes off) it must be early in the semester and we’re all sweating. Sweating because we’ve each been given a proposition to demonstrate; judging by the models on the table we’re proving the existence of the regular solids. I had to prove the existence of the cube. Sara Anastaplo did the dodecahedron (better her than me) That’s Leslie Combiner at the blackboard. Clockwise from Leslie are Carolyn Wade, Sara Anastaplo, Paul Rneisl, Janis Popowitz, Louis Eckler, Jean Murdock, Lauren Ballard, Brother Robert, Michael Levine, Eric Salem, Charlie Bor­ ders, Rick Smith (I think) and Elizibeth Hennessy. I seem to remember Ann Browning and Pam Lobdell in this class also. Once I hit Pam in the face with a snowball thrown from the fire escape right next to this room (three stories up...do the physics) and she didn’t cry even though she wanted to. Don’t think I’ve forgotten that I owe you, Pam! me an impression he had about the photograph on the back cover. John and I con­ curred that the picture of six students sit­ ting on the stairs is not from 1970, but from 1965-66. The students are from the Santa Fe class of 1969, in order, clock­ wise, beginning on the left: Robert Rosenwald, Karen Jurgensen (feet), Helen Smith (with cigarette in hand), Jim Pipes (next to the rail), Ted Propeck (at the bottom of the picture), and Jim Walk­ er (in the center). My hunch is the photo was taken by Carl Bostek, SF68, who took a number of pictures around campus dur­ ing that period. If someone out there has a different “perspective” I would certainly welcome correction. But, as John noted, some shoes you never forget! — JoE Reynolds, SF69 As profound as most of the content of The Reporter may be, isn’t it about time to move away from consuming the natural resources of our planet, i.e. trees, for the manufacture of paper, and energy to print and to disseminate it by mail? Isn’t it time to put The Reporter on-line and distribute it as an E-zine? At the very least, let alumni choose the printed version or the web version. If some tidbit inspired by divine madness tickles the fancy of an E-alum, he or she can print it, or save it on a diskette. There needn’t be concern over losing E-articles. If a magnetic pulse occurs in the manner in which is predicted, there will be neither college nor alumni left to lament the loss. — William Malloy, SF77 Editor’s Note: Currently weput the Class Notes—the mostpopularfeature—from The Reporter (and nowfrom The College) on the St. John’s web site (www. sjca. edu click on “Alumni”). Weplan to include articles, letters, and other sections p/The College on the redeveloped St. John’s web site in thefuture. — Paul Kneisl, A76 Two PHOTOS FROM “Founders & Foundations” cal­ THE I enjoyed receiving the new “Founders & Foundations” calendar, poring over the pictures, and reliving memories. Regard­ ing memories, I had dinner with John Strange (SF69) and his wife, Carol, recent­ ly. John pulled out the calendar to run by endar INSPIRED rec­ ollections; THE FRESHMAN MATH CLASS (above) AND THE STAIRWELL STUDY GROUP (lEFt). {The College. St. John ’5 College ■ Spring soot } �{Letters} Seminar Dynamics To the tutors - Consider whether this is a fair description of what happens in semi­ nar: Jane is making a point. The instant her mouth shuts, John launches in on his own topic. Or he may not even wait for Jane to stop, or he may have to drown out several others who are equally ready to jump in. John makes his point, and the instant he stops, somebody else jumps in without the slightest pause. In my experi­ ence, this was how it went two nights a week for four years. But in order to be ready to start talking as soon as Jane stopped, John must have ceased listening to Jane and begun formulating his answer long before she was finished. Some or most of what Jane said, John didn’t hear, because he was busy composing his own speech. The result is not a discussion, but a series of monologues. The opening question is a jumping-off point, and for­ gotten by 8:05. Those students who plan their own speeches instead of listening are rewarded with air time; those unfortu­ nates who can’t help listening and trying to understand what’s being said never get a word in. Yes, I was one of those. But I’m not writing to complain. I love St. John’s. A lot of the best of what I am I got at St. John’s. Even the seminar was valuable to me, although I wasn’t very valuable to it. I got a lot of good thinking done in there. I’m writing to talk about teaching lis­ tening. When I was a student I heard that the tutors keep to the background in sem­ inar because their job is not to teach what the books say, but to help students find it for themselves. But because you’re not in seminar to teach the correct interpreta­ tion of the book doesn’t mean you’re not there to teach. In the seminar setting, you are in the perfect position to teach hstening - an important part of learning, maybe the most important. Imagine this alternate scenario: John gets halfway through his speech and you, the tutor, interrupt: “John, how does this relate to Jane’s point? Are you agreeing or dis­ agreeing?” With a few such words inter­ jected, you would completely change the nature of the seminar. If you were to con­ sistently enforce relevance, the students would have no choice but to listen before talking. We would be in a real discussion. We would be forced to take each other seriously, to really come to grips with the fine points of what the other person is try­ ing to say. After two hours of that careful listening, two nights a week for four years, we would graduate with a life skill as important as anything the college can give. And on the way we probably would learn a lot more about the books. — Jack Armstrong, A83 In Defense of a Telescope Maker I find Duncan North’s expressed disdain for “pansy philosophers” and telescope makers shocking. Although Galileo was not mentioned by name in the article “The Tao of Duncan” [The Reporter, Fall/Winter aooo), he was clearly implied by Mr. North’s reference to telescope makers. How can anyone say Galileo did not live his philosophy! For goodness’ sake, he stood trial before the Inquisition for it! For what? For believing that reveal­ ing the truths about the natural world could only benefit mankind and give greater glory to God. Galileo walked a precarious line, balancing on one side his incredible insight and vision, and on the other the salvation of his soul. Although the Church at the time felt that he lost his balance in favor of his own vision, Galileo maintained his innocence until his death, denying that he had violated the tenets of the Church. Galileo believed that the workings of the universe could be explained, especial­ ly with the aid of mathematics, in terms that could be comprehended by the human mind. These might not reflect the means God used to accomplish these phe­ nomena, but they are no less useful for man’s purposes. In so doing he replaced otiose theorizing about causes with quan­ titative observation of phenomena, and essentially created modern science. His emphasis of the practical application and value of science set Galileo apart from most philosophers of his time. He was interested in the physical world, from tel­ escopes and the moons of Jupiter, to the laws of falling bodies and the creation of the pendulum clock. His vision was star­ tlingly clear, his mind was never idle, even through his frequent illnesses. And how can anyone in this modern day and age deny the results of his efforts? We may be concerned with limiting the scope of mod­ ern science, but we certainly cannot do without it! {The College. St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } 2,7 Perhaps most important to remember, yet also most difficult to comprehend given the conflict between his insight and intellect and his treatment by the Church, Galileo was a believing Catholic. Not just paying lip service to those more powerful than he, but a believer in Holy Scripture and the preciousness of his soul. Believ­ ing that unveiling the truths about the natural world could only give greater glory to God, he published his Dialogues, incurring scientific jealousy and the wrath of Pope Urban VIII. Tried, convict­ ed, and imprisoned (under house arrest) by the Court of the Inquisition, Galileo thought that his works would no longer be valued and his reputation would be forev­ er stained. Yet, in the wretchedness of his confinement, at a time when most of us would be bitter or frightened or at best cautiously unproductive, Galileo wrote Two New Sciences. Galileo lived his phi­ losophy literally until he died. — Janette Fischer, SF85 Remembering Robert Bart For me, the most memorable character in my time at St. John’s was Robert Bart; we might grieve his passing, but delight in the full life and years he had. I have always thought of myself as an “Athenian;” no Spartan naked-on-theground sleeping for me. But Bart could outdo me: once, during a counseling ses­ sion with him, I mentioned that I always needed cold water on the face first thing in the morning. “How can you DO that?” was his astonished reply. What a dear softie! — Jerry Milhollan, A58 The College welcomes letters on issues of interest to readers. Letters maybe edited for clarity and/or length. Those under 500 words have abetter chance of being printed in their entirety. Please address letters to: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, md 21404 or The College Magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, nm 87501. Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: b-goyette@sjca.edu, or via the form for letters on the web site at www.sjca.edu click on “Alumni,” then on “Contact The College Magazine.” �2.8 {Alumni Notes} 1938 With the birth of Grace Townsend Mullaney, Francis Townsend, Jr. now has nine grandchildren. 1939 At age 83, Malcolm Silver is in his 58th year of practicing dentistry. 1947 John Brunn has retired, but is still taking classes at the Fromm Insti­ tute in San Francisco. “A Johnnie never graduates!” he writes. er as well as an author of books in five or six different genres. Twenty to thirty times a year, I amuse myself by visiting schools around the country to perform my stand-up comedy/poetry assemblies and workshops. I also speak at confer­ ences for reading teachers and librarians, where I show them how to make learning a lot more appeal­ ing and fun for their students. (Amazingly, I get paid for this mis­ sionary work.)” Bruce’s books have sold more than 12 million copies overall. More of his poetry as well as poetry lessons and contests to enter for kids 6 to 13 can be found on gigglepoetry.com. David Schiller recently delivered papers on Confucius at four confer­ ences. songs, chant, or dance from the Baha’i, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Lat­ ter-day Saints, Protestant, Roman Catholic, and such faith communi­ ties. I’ve directed the InterFaith Conference since 1979, just after it was founded. Learn more about its work at www.interfaith-metrodc.org or 202-234-6300.” 1968 During a sabbatical from teaching, Bart Kaplan (A) spent seven months cruising the Caribbean in a 32-foot sailboat. He visited Cuba twice. His wife and two daughters visited him in the Bahamas several times. Charles Watson’s (A) eldest son is 1964 1951 Tom Williams writes: “This past July I moved after 43 years in the same apartment. What to do with some 2,000 books? I gave my favorite, Euclid’s Elements, to my grandson who has a real feel for mathematics, sold some, threw away some, and boxed others for donation. Others, mostly from St. John’s, I took with me to our new address, and will feel at home with them in their new bookcases. They are indeed old friends - and the reason I went to St. John’s.” 1959 Barbara Tower is still living in downtown Annapolis and still in real estate. Her children, Elizabeth, John, and Alex, all live locally. She has eight grandchildren, including triplets. 1962 Lenke Vietorisz reports that she and her cousin’s son, Richard Repasy, have put out a book useful and handy for those learning Hun­ garian: A Guide to Hungarian Verbs (525 pages, including conjugations of 300+ verbs), which may be viewed (and acquired) at accessi.net/lenkev. Jeremy Leven is prepping in Paris, Prague, and Italy for a film on the theft of the Mona Lisa in the 1920s. He’ll be directing stars Robin Williams and Antonio Banderas from his own script. “I have taken the Harvard Negotia­ tion Course and now, though still/always a student, I am giving workshops on this ever-useful skill,” writes Cecily Sharp-WhiteHILL. Calvin Byles (who now uses the name Leif Smith) co-owns a research and training business with his wife, Pat Wagner, in Denver. “I run a think tank with mostly technology, business, and research clients - indi­ viduals who care about exploring new ideas (check out the web site at www.pattern.com),” he says. 1966 Penn State Press has published Postfoundational Phenomenology: Husserlian Reflections on Presence and Embodiment by James R. Men­ sch. Mensch teaches philosophy at St. Francis Xavier University. 1967 Bruce Lansky’s publishing compa­ Clark Lobenstine writes: “The ny, Meadowbrook Press just pub­ lished IfPigs Could Fly, his seventh book of children’s poetry and his “70th, 80th, or goth book overall I forget,” he writes. “I’m a publish­ InterFaith Conference’s 21st Annu­ al Interfaith Concert at Washington Cathedral featured a world pre­ miere of the five-part setting of an ancient Hebrew text, as well as {The College. now NPR correspondent to West Africa after a two-year stint as pro­ ducer for CNN in Moscow. “Our baby is looking at colleges with Russian languages and marine biol­ ogy,” he writes. Donald J. Schell and Marilynn (Wills) Scott (both SF) report that their daughter. Patience Alexandra Schell, was married in September to Arturo Costillo. “The wedding guests included almost 10% of the class of’68,” they write. Their daughter is a research fellow and lecturer at University of Lon­ don; her Oxford DPhil is in Latin American history. 1970 Edward Macierowski (A) reports that his latest publication, which came out in October, is his English translation of Henri de Lubac’s “Medieval Exegesis, Volume 2: The Four Senses of Scripture.” Hudi Podolsky (SF) writes: “I am the executive director of the Coali­ tion of Essential Schools - a great mission and a great team to work with. Bringing some of the wisdom of the St. John’s design to public schools-small schools and depth over breadth. Having a blast! ” Ken Joseph (A) was the subject of a column in the Pittsburgh Post­ Gazette. Brian O’Neill reported on Joseph’s circumnavigation of Allegheny County (Penn.) by bus, lightheartedly comparing his accomplishment to that of Magel­ lan. Joseph dates his love of public St. lohn’s College ■ Spring 2001} transportation to when he was ii and his parents sent him and a friend downtown with specific instructions about which streetcar to take. “Of course,” he says, “we didn’t take that one. We saw anoth­ er and said ‘Let’s see where it goes.’ It was really a feeling of freedom.” 1971 George Elias (A) writes that his wife, Deborah Nikkei, has finished her 40-chapter novel based on the takeover of Bank of America. His oldest daughter, Ingrid, will be studying in India this summer and fall as part of her undergrad work at UC Berkeley. 1972 SusannW. Rogsdale (SF) reports: “After 27 years in technology, we left it all behind and moved to the beach to pursue our first love books. We have a small used and rare bookstore in Cannon Beach, www.jupiterbooks.com. Our son is pursuing the liberal arts at Reed (the next best choice) although cur­ rently taking a break doing techni­ cal support - the job experience!” Evan Dudik (A) has been spending his time since last June publicizing his new book. Strategic Renais­ sance: New Thinking and Innova­ tive Toolsfor Creating Great Corpo­ rate Strategies... Using Insights from History and Science, which was published by the American Management Association. He claims major business schools and consulting firms are mired in the Middle Ages and says it is one of the few recent business books that starts with an auto defe. “Jay Leno hasn’t called yet,” says Evan, “but I’ve given 4 radio interviews, sever­ al print interviews, and had a num­ ber of speaking engagements. The book has made a steady climb up Amazon.com’s charts from their 1,437,936th to their 8,913th most popular, but who’s counting. Harry Potter watch out.” Alvin Aronson (A) submits this report about himself: “He has been writing a comedy for many years called Dr. Feelgood, based on the life of the famous Dr. Max Jacobson, who treated John F. Kennedy for his back problems. Jacobson was later disbarred by the American Medical �{AlumniProfile} 2,9 Lisa Simeone: Our Woman at NPR By Roberta Gable, A78 t’s not just the voice. But the voice is unmistakable: rich, intimate, memorahle - and intelligent, hut neither wiseacre nor world-weary. Perfect for National Public Radio (NPR), which has suited Lisa Simeone (Aj^g just fine: recently she became the host of NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered. Simeone’s post-St. John’s radio odyssey began with a focus on classical music. She had first discovered her passion for it while a student (at one point early in her enthusi­ asm rushing down to the music hbrary to ask Liz Bolotin, then the music librarian, if she had “anything by Brandenburg” on hand); then, after graduation, she volun­ teered at the ten-watt station at Anne Arun­ del Community College near Annapolis for three hours a week, the lone voice of classi­ cal in a sea of rock. She landed a job at WBJC, the classical station in Baltimore, in 1983, stayed there for a year and a half, then moved over to WETAin D.C., alarger, more important station, but a helluva commute from Baltimore. Two years was about enough of that, and she quit, not sure of the future, but meanwhile tiny WJHU in Balti­ more was about to upgrade from its humble status as a ten-watt station to something more substantial. Simeone became part of the original professional team, and stayed at WJHU (which, like WBJC and WETA, was an NPR affiliate) for ten years, from 1986 to 1996, hosting the afternoon classical music program. That’s a lot of classical music, even for an aficionado. She made things more interest­ ing for herself (and, as it turned out, for her audience) by running short interviews right before All Things Considered, the NPR evening news show. Her first interviews were with people having to do with music, and were four minutes long; gradually she extended the interview segment to 10, then 30, then 60 minutes, and the interviews to any topics that interested her, from music to health to science to social issues. She did the whole thing herself, editing, producing, and cutting the tape for the segments. In 1996, burnt out, she left WJHU to go freelance. She joined AFTRA, the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, and worked doing voiceovers and narration Lisa Simeone Y didn "t want to talk aboutJust music. I wanted to talk about a lot ofstuff.'' both on-camera and off. She also enrolled in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins Uni­ versity, getting an MA in non-fiction writing in 1997. But public radio was far from finished with her. The NPR documentary show Soundprint was looking for a new host in 1997, and they called Simeone to see if she was interested. She was, especially since it was a regular gig, but not full-time. She hosted the pro­ gram for the next three and half years, pro­ duced three documentaries herself, and also filled in as the perennial guest host of NPR’s Performance Today. (“I was always leaving, and every time I did they threw a cham­ pagne party.”) She turned down an offer to become the permanent host of the program, because she wasn’t interested in re-niching herself back into classical music. “I didn’t want to talk about just music. I wanted to talk about a lot of stuff! ” She had that {The College. Si. John’s College . Spring 2001 } opportunity when she began filling in occa­ sionally for Liane Hansen on Weekend Edi­ tion Sunday. Then one day Weekend All Things Consid­ ered (WATC) gave her a call. They wanted to know if Simeone was interested in audition­ ing for the host job. “I told them, ‘No! I’m not working weekends!’” But they finally persuaded her to audition, and she got the job. Her first show was October 14, aooo. Most NPR affiliates air WATC Saturday and Sunday evenings, from 5:00 until 6:00 (and most NPR listeners will be chagrined to learn that, in-house, “WATC” is pro­ nounced to rhyme with “Yahtzee”). Simeone’s show ranges from hard news to cultural pieces, from the ephemeral to the substantial, from soup to nuts, giving her the opportunity to talk, as she wished, about a lot of stuff. And although the ideas about what stories to do on the show come from her daily meetings with the producers and editors, Simeone’s preferences are influen­ tial. “This job is a generahst’s dream,” she says, “and I became a more thoughtful, wellread generalist thanks to St. John’s....! loved St. John’s, and the truth is there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t thank my lucky stars that I went there, or that I don’t call upon what I learned there. Just this morn­ ing I did an interview with the two transla­ tors of a new edition oiAnna Kareninawhat could be more St. Johnnie than that?! ” Remembering her one-woman interview show on WJHU, where she was interviewer, editor, and producer, Simeone revels in the luxury of not having to cut her own tape. She reads, she looks at books and CDs, she writes up questions, she conducts inter­ views, she writes introductions and leads, and she loves it when it’s live rather than on tape. Early on in her WATC career she start­ ed her show at 5:00 one fateful Sunday, when Katherine Harris was expected to cer­ tify the presidential vote count in Florida. She stayed on the air five until 10:00. The producer saved her some cold pizza. Working at National Public Radio is a pleasure for Simeone. “I love the environ­ ment - I spend my time with creative, inter­ esting people, with rich lives, who are burst­ ing with ideas.” Sounds like a talking college, with fewer books and more micro­ phones. �{AlumniNotes} 3° Association for his unorthodox practices, and this play is in defense of his methods. Archie Smith, the 83-year-old brother of the late Winfree Smith, has been an actor for ao years with the Denver Reperatory Company. He is going to stage a reading of the play in Denver the week of February 15. Alvin has many claims to fame: he was stage manager for Kennedy’s last birthday party at the Waldorf Astoria in 1963, when Audrey Hepburn sang ‘Happy Birthday.’ He had a talk with Louis Armstrong that night and told him how much he admired him, to which Armstrong replied, ‘Thank you. Pops.’ He shook hands with Marilyn Monroe, had lunch with James Dean, acted with Geral­ dine Page, and was once put down brilliantly by the late Jacob Klein (who was quite right).” 1973 Peter Ellison (A) is now Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. His new book. On Fertile Ground, was due to be published by Harvard University Press in March. 1974 2000 marked a year of big changes for Roger Burk, USAF ret., (A) and Robin Kowalchuk Burk (A72). In July Roger left his posi­ tion as a senior consultant/analyst with the Aerospace Corp, and joined the faculty of the U.S. Mili­ tary Academy (West Point). He now teaches optimization and decision theory within the Systems Engi­ neering department, drawing on his doctoral degree in operations research and his experience in the use of computer models and deci­ sion analysis to guide the selection and evaluation of complex national security systems. In addition to teaching, he mentors junior facul­ ty, assistant-coaches the crew and fencing teams, consults, and con­ tinues research activities. Accepting the position entailed a move to a few rural acres in the mid-Hudson Valley, where Robin keeps busy raising and training champion show dogs (English Cocker Spaniels, a hunting breed). She reports that the sight of an out­ standing dog standing with unself­ conscious grace or moving with perfect intensity through the fields takes her breath entirely away. Indoors, her weaving studio houses several looms and a not-yet-bigenough stash of linen, cotton and woolen yarns. She says that dogs and weaving provide some solace to the right hemisphere of her brain, sadly neglected during 25+ years in the computer industry, during which time she also perpetrated several technical books on unsus­ pecting Amazon.com customers. In her spare time and on the principle that her MBA should probably be put to some use even if there wasn’t a single right-brain course in the whole degree program, Robin con­ tinues to consult to companies try­ ing to figure out how to use all this new Internet stuff in their busi­ nesses. 1975 Kristin R. Lucas (SF) is working in downtown Houston in the IT department of an energy commodi­ ties trading company. Her older son is a junior at Carnegie Mellon Uni­ versity and her younger son is a high school senior. extraordinarily different wants and needs, and they let you know it. Since I never did/will father a child, this work is very satisfying to me, and a shock to the nurses, since many babies who don’t stop crying for relatives, never cry when ‘Uncle Bill’ holds them. I recom­ mend volunteerism for any and all. Children and youths can con­ tribute as well. Find something that is energizing, and ‘just do it.’” 1978 Caroline (Charlie) Allen (A) writes: “My occupations in life since graduation have been music (both classical and rock), software engineering, and writing, pretty much in that order. I got married in 1990 to Christophe (Kokou) Dossou, a master drummer from Togo whom I met while I was living in Germany and touring with various bands. I co-own a small but sophisti­ cated studio (24 tracks digital, 30 tracks HDR) called Dos Gatos in Los Angeles with my business part­ Diane Lamoreux Ciba (A) has finished her course work for a PhD in marketing at the University of Connecticut. She is currently teaching and has the research and dissertation writing ahead of her. Quantum Leaps 1976 van Canter (A81) writes: “When reading the last Peter Clark (A) writes that he’s still alive and well, living in Ranches­ ter, Wyoming. “Not the end of the world, but close enough to see it.” 1977 Carol Highshaw (SF) has left the academic world and moved back to the Washington D.C. area, where she’s working as a researcher and writer. William Malloy (SF) writes: “Although discussing ideas found in books and films can be very satis­ fying, I have found something at the other end of the spectrum of activi­ ty to be very wonderful as well. Since late 1999,1 have been a volunteer at a children’s hospital in Houston. One evening a week, I work giving respites to parents, by talking/playing with older children, or holding/rocking infants. On Sat­ urday afternoons, I hold, rock, or just comfort premature babies. They are not just ‘smaller newborns.’ Since preemies ‘aren’t supposed to be here yet,’ they have many {The College. ner, also my bass player. Like me, he works a lot in software, particularly digital signal processing. We have a band called BushTaxi which has one independent CD out and is about to release a second. Apart from that I’ve played on about five records/CDs for other bands, and have credits on a number of movies (for writing special effects code) the one I’m most proud ofis/a/nej and the Giant Peach, for which I was Sony’s CG software supervisor. Lately I’ve been focussing more on biotech and digital audio than on computer graphics. I can’t help think of Mr. Golding when I consid­ er my own dislike of telephones, but I’m very good with e-mail (it is, after all, one of the bases of my cod­ ing life since about 1986) and would love to hear from folks. My e-mail address is caro@nwc.net.” issue of The Reporter, I was reminded of a moment in my first day of junior French with Mr. Littleton. He was leading us in reading the first paragraph of Baudelaire’s ‘Recueillement’: ‘Soi sage, o ma doulour, et tiens-toi plus tranquille...’ We could hear the Freshman Chorus singing ‘white sands and gray sands, w buy my white sands.’ Mr. Littleton, who had been our Freshm Chorus tutor two years before, told a story. He was visiting Switzerland when he learned a local song about the change of sea­ sons and the level of the snowcaps in the mountains. ‘When the snow caps go up, I can roll up my shirtsleeves’ or something like that. He said it was remarkable to him because it showed that you can see time. He said sitting in that room with us as juniors, hstening to the song we sang as freshmen wafted up the staircase of McDowell, showed him that he could hear time, as well. We sat stunned, astounded at this quantum leap. “And now, reading The Reporter each time I have discovered a new phenomenon. I start with the class notes from the present graduating class and turn backward to find the news of my class­ mates, the class of 1981. And each year our class recedes farther and farther. It is as if we are retrograding into the past, soon to take our place next to the hero generations of the college. And so now as I turn page after page, I know I can feel time, as well. “My wife Ellen, five-year-old Taha, new baby Emma, and I hve in Chicago. I am now a course developer for Unext.com, an online grad­ uate and executive education university. I have been a lawyer, ele­ mentary school teacher, school administrator, and web developer.” ->■ E Sf. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �{AlumniNotes} Michael Ciba (A) continues as pas­ tor of Mill Plain Union Church in Waterbury, Conn., and is enrolled in a spiritual formation program with the Shalem Institute in Washington, D.C. Their daughter Rachel is a jun­ ior at UConn, majoring in anthro­ pology. Their son Daniel is a fresh­ man at Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y., majoring in drama and dance. Connecticut is the twelfth place they’ve lived since they were married, and it seems to agree with them. Anyone who remembers them is welcome to con­ tact Michael at RevCiba@aol.com or Diane at DiCiba@aol.com. 1979 Gregory R. Cowell ( SF) writes: “With my second child on the way I thought I would send in an update of my life, not having done so since I drove away 31 years ago. My wife Jeannine and 1 have been married for eight years. We have two future St. John’s candidates at our house: our daughter Cathryn is three and a half, and we are expecting a son in the next month. I have been practic­ ing medicine for 16 years and cur­ rently I am the medical director of a medium-size emergency room in llhnois. Music is my passion, but I have yet to figure out how to make a living as a musician. My e-mail is gcowelled@aol.com. Regards to all, but especially to old E and F dorm­ ers who might be reading.” 1980 News from Tony Waters (A): “I live in Auburn, Calif. My wife, Dagmar Waters, and 1 have two children, aged 12 and 9.1 am currently an assistant professor of sociology at California State University, Chico, and recently published a book. Bureaucratizing the Good Samari­ tan: the Limitations ofHumanitari­ an Relief Operations (Westview 2001). It is in part based on my work in the Rwanda Relief operation in Tanzania, in 1994-6. In terms of teaching responsibilities, I do the crime classes (criminology and juve­ nile delinquency), population, eth­ nic relations, and ‘macro-sociology’ in general.” in November in Columbia, Md. “Email me at Nhrosen@aol.com for any good reason,” he says. 1981 “I was married to the lovely SherryAnn Jhingai in June 2000,” writes Joshua Berlow (SF). “Sherry con­ vinced me to move back east from Santa Fe, where I had been living. We were married in St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Sherry has a lot of friends and family. The wedding took place on the famed North Side of St. Thomas, in a very dramatic villa (Villa LeMcAi) over­ looking the sea. My best man was Eric Quinn (A82). Sherry is origi­ nally from Trinidad, in the south Caribbean, so after the wedding it was off to her home village of Cumuto in Trinidad. I’ve never seen anyplace so lush and green! What seemed like the entire village turned out for a wedding party held in our honor. We are in the process of buying a house in Baltimore, and will be moved there by the time the magazine comes out. Anyone inter­ ested can check out my web site at www.joshuaberlow.com They can purchase my newly-published book Insanity Factory: A Psychiatric Mem­ oir on the web site, as well as view various articles, and some papers written for classes at St. John’s.” Joe Roach (A) e-mails: “My wife BJ (Sisson) (A) and I dropped off our daughter Katie at St. John’s - Katie matriculated with the new January Freshmen class. Our two other chil­ dren, Molly (15) and Nicholas (ii) helped move Katie in. After Nicholas was introduced to Peter Kalkavage (who was a freshman tutor when I was a freshman), he asked me, ‘Was he your college roommate?’ The cruelty of children. “I am in my sixth year as a staff member at The New School in Newark, Del., which is a democratic (or liberty-based) school. Melanie ( Jago) Hiner (A80) asked me to give her some help when she opened the school in the fall of 1995. At that point we had 7 students - now we have over 50. Nick and Molly have been at the school since the opening.” 1982 Nathan Rosen (A) and his wife Roberta Babbitt announce the birth of Brina Tamar Rosen on July ii. “Yes, that’s six children, for those who are keeping score,” he notes. His production of The Crucible ran {The College. 1983 After 13 years in the practice of law, Michael Henry (A) recently opened his own law office in center city Philadelphia. He has been mar­ ried for 13 years and is living in Media, Penn. His wife Lorie and he have three children: Michael, age II, Devin, age 10, and Daniel, age 7. “We are actively involved in our parish and children’s school, St. Mary Magdalen,” Michael writes. “My practice consists mainly of civil trial work and immigration. I have organized a Lawyer’s Retreat group under the auspices of the Cathedral Ministries for the Diocese of Cam­ den, N.J. We meet four or five times a year to discuss faith issues and the practice of law. I would love to hear from old classmates and other alum­ ni.” Michael’s address is i Gordon Drive/Media, Pa. 19063. Robin B.G. Laylin (SF) and his wife, Laura, report the birth of their daughter, Catherine, on June 26, 2000. 31 ness law at a big firm in Miami. I’m married to a beautiful and brilliant woman who hails from North Dako­ ta and Seattle, and who is a lawyer as well. We have two babies, Allegra (just two) and Ethan (6 months). Have visited with Mitch Buroker (SF84) in L.A. recently, and gotten a nice letter from Jack Armstrong (A83). Would love to hear from any St. John’s friends. E-mail at whill@steelhector.com.” 1984 ALUTHA JAMANCAR (BRAD WEST- gaard) (SF) says that he’s reached three milestones this pastyear: “I celebrated my six-year wedding anniversary with Daniela Chiapella, a native of Northern Italy; I changed careers from print to web publishing; and I changed my name from Brad Westgaard to Alutha Jamancar. Drop me aline at alutha@alutha.com or stop by my homepage atwww.alutha.com. I’d love to hear from old classmates, especially my freshman core group! Visitors to our home in Silicon Val­ ley are welcome, but had best not have any cat allergies! ” David Walworth (A) has finally While Scott Fitzpatrick (A) does do freelance web design, as reported in the fall issue of The Reporter, he has also been the Principal Site Architect for Computer Sciences Corporation for several years. He has designed all the classified intranet sites for the Ballistic Mis­ sile Defense Organization and is now currently creating the web sites and the Director/Flash interactive CD ROM demo disks for CSC’s elec­ tronic knowledge management group. “In other words,” he writes, in reference to our omission, “I do have a full time job.” Darrel Moellendorf (A) writes: “Last year, in my 40th year, my wife - Bonnie Friedmann - and I became parents for the first time. Our son’s name is Marino Arnold Friedmann. I am still living in South Africa, and teaching philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand. My book. Cos­ mopolitan Justice, will be published this year. And I’d love to hear from old friends.My e-mail address is 103dar@muse.wits.ac.za.” A note from William Hill (A) says: “I’m alive and well, practicing busi­ St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } gotten his yacht design business up and running: Walworth Yacht Designs, P.O. Box 3792, KingshiU VI00851. Karen Tourian (A) completed her first Gentury (100 mile) bike ride on Labor Day. Peter Green (A) writes; “Still in Prague, though probably not for much longer. Spent a week in August sailing in Groatia with Jason Walsh (A85). Then found myself in Belgrade in October to cover the demise of Slobodan Milosevic. Arrived in New York in time to expe­ rience the unending madness of Election 2000.” Connie Bates (A) writes: “My hus­ band and I are proud to announce the birth of our first child. Dean Calvin Calloway, on November 16, 2000.” �{AlumniNotes} 3^ 1989 1985 1987 Bonnie Bishop Stark (SF) is finish­ ing her third year of a nurse-mid­ wifery program at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio. She will complete the program next year. “In December I completed my first (and probably last) marathon,” writes Marjorie C. Kaplan (A). “My mother died of lymphoma in June 3000, and in her memory I joined Team in Training, a marathon training program that benefits the Leukemia and Lym­ phoma Society of America. After four months of training that required 30 to 45 miles a week of roadwork, I completed the Honolu­ lu Marathon the same day I started it, crossing the finish line smiling and under my own power, and NOT dead last - there were about a dozen elderly tourists behind me, but they may have strayed onto the course by accident.” 1986 “My life has completely changed in the past two years,” writes Lucy Duncan (SF). “My business partner and I closed the Story Monkey Bookstore in Dec. ’98. We were growing but not fast enough to war­ rant continuing. It was a sad loss for me and for the community (Omaha), but we were able to walk away without significant financial scars. I took a job in January of ’99 with the Friends General Confer­ ence of Religions of Friends (Quak­ ers) in Philadelphia as their book­ store manager. I really love the place and the work. FGC is by far the healthiest organization I’ve ever worked for. We do primarily a mail order and Web business (quakerbooks.org). In Oxfordshire, Eng­ land, in April of ’99 I met my fiance, Graham Grarner, at a conference of Quaker publishers and booksellers. We will be married in April of aooi at the London Grove Meeting House outside Philadelphia. Sheila Virgil (A88) will play flute at the wedding. We plan on settling in Philadelphia, though Grant is keeping his house in England so who knows about the future. I see Amy Murphy Bianco (SF86) regularly. She is an editor at McGraw Hill launching a science trade division. I’d love to hear from anyone else. My email address is: lucyd@fgquaker.org.” Erik Mueller-Harder (A) e-mails this report: “My wife Karen and I are extremely pleased to announce the birth of our daughter Clara Jean in October of 2,000. Our son Timo­ thy is about to turn four, and he’s promising to be a great older broth­ er for Clara. There’s lots of news and photos on our family web site, www.praxisworks.org. I’m stiU spending most of my time building Praxis News Digest, at pnd.praxisworks.com.” 1992 Susie Attar Antebi (A) is living in Michael Stevens (AGI) writes: Panama City, Fla. with her two kids, Daniela and Isaac, and husband Alberto. “Miss the Johnnies and would love to hear from long-lost friends,” she says. Her e-mail is danisa@sinfo.net. “We welcomed a daughter, Juba Linda, into our home on April 22, 2000. We tried a homebirth this time around - quite a wonderful way to have a baby. The midwife was a dynamo - no ‘windeggs’ such as beset Socrates! Julia joins brother Ethan, three.” Chris Tegeler (A) e-mails: “At the end of January, I moved to Athens, Greece to work in our land agent’s office in Piraeus, Arete Tours. A rather appropriate name for a com­ pany employing a Johnnie, I must say. My address: Xenokratous 42, 10676 Athens, Greece. My e-mail is StiU the same, ctegeler@yahoo.com. Looking forward to hearing from anyone passing through.” Mark Hentz, III (A) is attending Northeastern University School of Law while working full-time at Northeastern in the office of enroll­ ment management. “Jack Gunther and I were very happy to be in Ted Hanratty’s wedding party this past October,” he writes. Bryan Dorland (A) e-mails: “I Brett Heavner (A) writes: “My 1988 Kim Paffenroth (A) has just been hired as an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y. His book yfz/gizjtine and Liberal Education (Ashgate Publishing, 2000) has just been favorably reviewed in The Heythrop Journal, and his next book, Judas through the Centuries, will be pub­ lished next year by Westminster John Knox Press. As a gratifying part of his last days teaching at Vil­ lanova University, one of his stu­ dents has again been honored with the highest writing award given to a first year student at ViUanova. John Lavery (A) is still in London and working in the commercial banking world, despite Leo’s advice. “Have developed a weak­ ness for skiing,” he writes, “and will take any invitation offered in that regard.” Erin Milnes (A) writes: “I’m still living happily in San Francisco (five years now - can you believe it?!) I continue to freelance edit and write, but I’ve added some video work to my repertory. In the past year I worked on a documentary shoot in Nepal and one in Death Valley (where temperatures soared to 120 degrees in the shade). I’ve also been sea kayaking a lot lately and heartily recommend it. Life is good.” {The College. wife Christine and I proudly announce the birth of our son, David Graham Heavner, on January 31, 2000.” Garfield Goodrum (A) writes: “We have adopted two thorough­ breds from an equine rescue group in Pennsylvania, and I just compet­ ed in my first horse show - dres­ sage, to my wife’s chagrin (she’s into jumpers!). We’re loving the horses, whose names are Turtle and Clem, and young Graham Heavner has even ridden them! Don’t forget to spay/neuter your companion animal!” ■ David (A) and Cherie (A90) Reese live in Vienna, Vir., with Sam and Lydia Reese, ten and three years old. Their St. John’s education, they write, allows them to live lives of total and constant bliss. 1990 David Marquez (SF) says that he “escaped the slavery of the Star­ bucks Corporation” and now works for Arch Wireless Corporation. “I look forward to receiving survival tips from any and all,” he says. Ken Turnbull (A) is now an associ­ ate at Piper, Marbury, Rudnick & Wolfe LLP in Baltimore, where he is in the litigation department. 5r. John’s College ■ Spring sooi } received a Master of Science in physics from the University of Maryland in August 2000. In Janu­ ary 2001,1 passed the PhD qualify­ ing exams in physics at Maryland, and I am set to begin thesis research this semester. Anyone who wants to contact me can reach me at dorland@physics.umd.edu. ” Leah Ankeny (SF) is enjoying a challenging new position as an admissions counselor for Cornish College of the Arts, a private, fouryear visual and performing arts col­ lege located in Seattle, Washington. “Despite the rumors of my impend­ ing marriage, I am living on my own and revisiting a more independent life.” she says. “I am thrilled at the arrival of my beautiful ‘niece,’ Ema (Cooney) Bargeron, daughter of my dear friend and fellow alumna Joanna (SF). I continue to study yoga and search for my path spiritual­ ly, setting aside performing and writ­ ing for a while. I look forward to see­ ing all the ’92 Santa Fe folks at our tenth reunion in Spring 2002.1 can be reached at: Lankeny@yahoo.com and I always welcome visitors to the Peaceful Pacific Northwest.” Judah M. Domke (SF) writes: “I just appeared as a lead actor in a movie called ‘Whipped’ that came out this past November. If you missed it on the big screen, John­ nies can rent it when it comes out on video in February 2001. It’s an R-rated sex comedy that isn’t for the faint of heart.” �{Alumni Profile} 33 Shopaholic by Profession Heather Moore (SFoo) landed a dream ofafirstjob: she getspaid to revel and shopfor the coolest circus around. BY SuS3AN Borden, A87 eather Moore’s been buying quite a lot these days, going from city to city, picking up an odd assortment of goods: nuts, bolts, earphone antennas, eye makeup remover, marine antifreeze, used CDs, a ping pong table, even mail-order sequins. But she’s no itinerant shopa­ holic. She’s hard at work - as the assis­ tant buyer on tour with the Cirque du Soleil, the avant-garde circus that’s much closer to The Matrix than it is to Dumbo. Moore lucked into the job this summer, after a post-graduation move to Denver with her boyfriend, Joey Chernila (SFoa). A temp agency sent the couple to Cirque du Soleil, where they worked as runners, acquiring the products purchased by the buyers. When a permanent job opened up, Moore applied, won the position, and head­ ed to Montreal for training. Since then, she’s been to Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Miami. New York, Chica­ go, Boston, and Philadelphia are slated for the coming months, and by the time the tour’s over in 2002, she’ll have hit Houston, Dallas, and Phoenix. She says the travel is a dream come true. “For the last four months of school I kept telling my roommate, ‘If I could just get a job where they would pay me to travel I would never complain.’ It’s exact­ ly what I wished for,” she says. Although Moore travels within the United States, her co-workers come from 52 coun­ tries and include Chinese acrobats, Russian jugglers, and all manner of Canadian col­ leagues. Most business is transacted in Heather Moore (above) is an assitant buyer ON TOUR WITH DrALION, WHOSE ACTS ARE ENHANCED BY HIGH-TECH EFFECTS (bELOw). French, which Moore says is difficult even after Phedre and Fleurs du Mai. “I’m working on speaking French, which is a big challenge, especially since it’s not really French, it’s Quebe­ cois,” she says. “Speaking French will be integral in my later career with Cirque.” Later career? How long can a first job last? Moore, who knows a good thing when she falls into it, says that while her job lasts until the end of the tour in another year and a half, she’s already exploring different departments and thinking about different opporutinites within Cirque, which has headquarters in Montreal, Amsterdam, Singapore, and Orlando. Her current fascination is the tech department. “Our show has a lot of effects - lighting and rigging - to facilitate some of the acts. There’s an aerial ballet with two dancers on a long silk rope doing a series of acrobatics in the air. The behindthe-scenes tech stuff helps make the show spectacular.” Moore is also considering working with Cirque’s development of a permanent com­ plex in London consisting of a hotel, a restaurant, a retail area, and a show. In the meantime, she’s enjoying the Cirque du Soleil life, which she says resembles her justbygone undergraduate days. “Who would ever think they could get a first job like this?” she asks. “It’s been so exciting, and it’s come at such a great time. I didn’t even get good and used to being out of college before I joined up with Cirque. You live with these people, you work with them, you eat with them. You the get chance to develop intense relationships with every­ body around you while you’re on a constant road trip. It’s like college on wheels.” 4" Michael Deutsch (SFGI) has been Jonathan Secora Pearl (A) writes Aaron Mason (SF) reports: “I am promoted to vice president of Wad­ dell & Associates, Inc., a provider of investment and financial counsel located in Memphis, Tenn. He earned his CFP (Certified Financial Planner) license in 1997 and served previously as assistant vice presi­ dent at the firm. that after leaving St. John’s in 1990 he studied music at Indiana Univer­ sity, then received a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Rice in 1997. He is currently pursuing a PhD in musicology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with an emphasis on the cognition of speech and song. alive and well, living in Manhat­ tan’s Upper West Side with my boyfriend of nearly five years. Still an aspiring actor, I have taken a ‘dayjob’ with a large architectural firm writing and editing for their marketing department. In March, I am acting in a ten-minute play that I wrote; it’s a dark comedy called ‘Mr. Oedipus.’ Looking forward to 1993 Alex Ellerman (AGI) is a flight instructor with Navy Training Squadron 29. VANESSA Ellerman (A) is practicing law with Hornblow­ er, Manning & Ward, and they’re both still celebrating the birth of their son Ian on April 20, 2000, (The College. St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �{Alumni Notes} 34 JohnnyXpress 1994 An Unofficial Bulletin Board/E-mail List for the St. John's Community Hallie Leighton (SF92) has started a new yahoo “eGroup” to function as an unofficial hulletin hoard for the St. John’s commu­ nity. On johnnyXpress, members of the SJC community worldwide can post and read announcements and queries (e.g., “Moving to a new city - looking for area Johnnies/alumnae chapter/contacts” or “Whatever happened to Johnnie Doe, class of ‘__, A/SF?” or “Hey, I have a gallery opening...”). These announcements are received in the e-mail boxes of all Johnny subscribers. Subscribing is free and easy - just e-mail johnnyXpress-subscribe@egroups.com. For more information about johnnyXpress, e-mail johnnyXpressowner@egroups.com or go to http://www.charm.net/~bfant/ johnny/bulletin.html, part of the unofficial alumni site run by Bill Fant (A79). The purpose of johnnyXpress is to enable members of the St. John’s College community to get and/or share information with other Johnnies as quickly as possible. Thus it is for announce­ ments and brief queries. Though the list is not moderated, meta­ physical meanderings or idle banter will not be allowed. (The rea­ son for this draconian rule: there is already an e-mail list for conversation, “the Johnny List.” To subscribe to the high-volume Johnny list, send an e-mail to majordomo@charm.net with the words “subscribe johnny” or “subscribe johnny-digest” in the body of the e-mail message.) Why is this bulletin board “unofficial”? Because it’s not run by the college. The college is working on a new web site that will have more features for alumni but it won’t be online until next fall at the earliest. warmer weather and hearing from long lost Johnnies! Aaronious@earthlink.net. ” reads them, though upside-down, rather than eating them, we know she is headed for SJC class of 2030.” John Markos O’Neill (SF) reports that he is in his fourth happy year of “bicycling, singing (in Schola Cantorum, a local cho­ rus), dancing (swing), and coding in Silicon Valley. I would love to hear from Johnnies in the SF Bay area or elsewhere! E-mail me at Jmo@ipsmedia.com.” Jim and KRISTEN (Riddlespurger) Litsinger (A) happily celebrate the first twenty-four months with their daughter, Emily Golden Litsinger. “Born in April 1999, she is a true delight with curly (can’t explain that one!) blond hair. Her eyes always smile and she is quick to gig­ gle. Big brother Nathaniel (31/a), also adores his sister, particularly as long as she doesn’t play with the toys he might want to play with. Emily already shows a great love of books and now that she actually Ethan Schoonover (SF) is e-business director for Lowe Lintas and Partners (an international marketing/communications agency) in Southeast Asia, currently based in Bangkok. He oversees online mar­ keting, web site development, and internet strategy for multinational clients. “I get to travel frequently throughout the region, which is enjoyable as I continue to be a stu­ dent of the many cultures I encounter. I do miss the mountains and beauty of Santa Fe, but the year ’round tropical beaches in SE Asia go a long way towards assuaging my homesickness for the USA. And of course, ever true to St. John’s, I am obligated to occasionally quote Homer in meetings with clients. I’d love to hear from friends/enemies. Here is my e-mail address: ethan. schoonover@lowehntas .com.” {The College. A note from Emi Ima-Kohn and Colin Ray (both A94): “We met at St. John’s. Emi was living in the U.S. although she was Japanese. Colin had been hving in Nigeria although he was American. We both had Mrs. Maschler for Fresh­ man Greek. Although we were in the same Greek class, we did not really get to know one another until late in the spring of our Freshman year when we took a clowning class together. Cohn exceUed at jugghng; Emi excelled at falling-down. By the end of the year, we were very close friends. During the summer of 1991 Emi taught at a camp in Vermont and Colin returned to Nigeria to visit family and friends. “After spending part of sopho­ more year in Santa Fe, Emi moved to France and put herself through the French university system by being an au-pair for a French fami­ ly. After completing St. John’s, Colin went to Cameroon as a Peace Corps volunteer to teach math in French. For nine years, we kept in touch-sometimes more frequently, sometimes less, hut always as close friends. After completing a mas­ ter’s degree in Russian studies at the Sorbonne, Emi was accepted into the D.E.A. (a degree between a master’s and doctoral degree) pro­ gram at the Political Science Insti­ tute in Paris, where she focused her studies on the new Independent States of the former Soviet Union. After the Peace Corps, Colin returned to the U.S. to study law and business at Willamette Univer­ sity in Salem, Oregon. “In 1999 we started keeping in touch more and more. In March 3000 Colin traveled to Paris to see Emi. In May, Emi came to the U.S. for Colin’s graduation ceremony. On graduation day, we became engaged. After announcing our engagement, we hopped on Colin’s motorcycle and seven days and 3800 miles later we arrived in New York. In June, Emi then had to return to Paris to complete an internship at the OECD - Organiza­ tion for Economic Cooperation and Development. At the end of July, Colin took the New York bar exam. At the beginning of November, Colin happily accepted a position as an Associate Attorney with a smaU international law firm in Amster­ Sf. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } dam. He will primarily work in international corporate and inter­ national tax law. And ... at 11:00 on November ii, 3000, in Linlith­ gow, Scotland, we were married. The best way to reach us is by e-mail at: Emikocolin_ray@hotmail.com.” Johnny Metelsky (A) and Lydia Rolita (A96) were married on June 17th in their backyard in the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California. Johnnies in attendance were: Muneet Rakshi (A94), Hope DelCarlo (SF94), Jen Donnelly (A96), JOELLA KLINGHOFEER (A96), Aimee Lalone (A94), Sundance Metelsky (AGI90), Paul More (A94), John Williams (A96), and Ron Wingate (A94). Honorary Johnnies John Metelsky and Ethan Billotte were also in attendance. Lydia and Johnny plan to move back East in a couple of years when Lydia finishes medical school at Loma Linda University and Johnny finishes his masters in astrophysics atUC Riverside. E-mailjmetelsky@hotmail.com. Bill Kowalksi (SF) writes: “I am happy to announce that my second novel. Somewhere South ofHere, is finally finished and will be pub­ lished by HarperCollins in March of 3001. Most of the action takes place in Santa Fe, and readers of this pub­ lication will probably recognize a certain small liberal arts college which plays a minor but noticeable role in the story - though of course any similarities to colleges either living or dead are purely coinciden­ tal. In addition, Eddie’s Bastard, my first novel, is out in paperback, and is now being translated into 12 languages - including Finnish, Hebrew, Czech and my grandmoth­ er’s personal favorite, Polish. No word yet on Tagalog or Urdu. So far nobody has bought the film rights, either, but hope, as they say, springs eternal. Another piece of good news is that HarperCollins has also purchased the rights to my third novel, which is still in its very early stages, and my fourth, about which I have no clue. After two loud and smoggy years in Brooklyn I’ve moved to Toronto, where I live with my non-Johnny companion and freaky consort, Alexandra. I wel­ come email from friends and class­ mates, so please write to wilham. kowalski@CIMteration.com.” �{AlumniProfile} 35 La Vie Parisienne Phil Wood, owner ofParisfixture the San Francisco Book Co., is afrancophile success story. BY Sus3AN Borden, A87 or much of his adult life, Phil Wood (A67) knew he wanted to live in Paris. He had first visited the city when he was in the army in ighr, stationed in Ger­ many. The charm of the culture, the intellectual bent of the people, and the beauty of the country attracted him from the start. In 1986, he rented an apartment on the lie St.-Louis but ended up spending most of the year working at his job in California. Undaunted, he continued to study French. Ten years later, when he was working for Parallax Press in Berke­ ley as comptroller/computer systems administrator, he found himself in Paris for several weeks. “I had very little hope of extricating myself,” says Wood, who was at the time a devoted employee. “Then my boss, who knew I wanted to move and who’d been interviewing people to take his place, told me on the phone that someone he’d inter­ viewed was not suitable for his job but could do my job quite well. He said, Tf you’re ever thinking of leaving, now might be the time.’ I remember the moment when I came out of that phone booth on Rue Monge in the fifth arrondissement and realized that I might actually be able to move to France.” Wood decided to take the leap. He signed up for the Cours de Langue et Civilisation Frangaise at the Sorbonne, found an apart­ ment on the lie de la Cite, and began to investigate starting a business. Learning about the French educational system and about the French business world, he says, was an adventure in the French way of doing things. Having always admired the intellectual disposition of the French, Wood enjoyed learning how to write the French disserta­ tion, a composition with a strict form: the question, the thesis, the antithesis, and the synthesis. “I realized, here is a very power­ ful cultural difference. They’ve gone through this process throughout their edu­ cation and they all know how to do this.’” But when it came to starting a business. Wood was not certain that the intellectual approach was best. Planning to open a book­ store on the left bank, he took a weeklong Phil Wood didn’t do a market survey, as his French business advisers dictated; he STARTED THE BOOKSTORE AND WAITED TO SEE IF ANYONE WOULD COME IN. workshop on French business practice and found that much emphasis was placed on the etude de marche, the market study. “Every­ one kept asking me if I had done one. I said no. My feeling was, the way I’m going to do my market study is by starting the store and seeing if anybody comes in,” says Wood. “The etude is an intellectual approach, but it can be counterproductive, at least for an American. You can think a lot and do studies and in the end never do anything.” As it turns out. Wood was not hampered by skipping the etude. His English-language bookstore, San Francisco Book Co., does a fine business, selling used books to a clien­ tele about half French-speaking and half Eng­ lish-speaking. Wood says that the French are careful about what they read and tend to buy serious books, especially history and good literature. “Books that are somewhat criti­ cal of America or a little offbeat sell well, books by Bill Bryson and Hunter Thomp­ son,” says Wood. “The French also like con­ spiracy-type works about JFK.” Wood’s Eng­ lish-speaking customers include a tourist trade with an appetite for paperback edi­ tions of literature and modern fiction. Although Wood deals with the business rather than the retail side of the store, he is not deprived of encounters with the public. {The College. Sf. John’s College • Spring 2001 } He and his principal book buyer, Dick Toney, spend many afternoons looking through books, often in private collec­ tions. The advantages of such excur­ sions, says Wood, go beyond the com­ mercial: “You get to meet interesting people and see their apartments in Paris, go to parts of town you’ve never been to and see how people live.” Wood remembers one picture-perfect afternoon when he and Toney visited two sisters, “respectable old ladies,” at their house near Fontainebleu. “It was like something out of a movie: a beauti­ ful village, nothing moving, no cars, a little river. The house was right across from the church. Two elderly women answered the bell and the first thing they wanted was not to talk about the books, but to sit down and have drinks in the garden. There we were, Dick and I, two old guys from California sitting with two elderly spinsters, drinking apple juice. The sun was out and the birds were singing and the church bell was ringing and finally we had to say, ‘what about the books?’ ” But it’s not just respectable old ladies that Wood has met. In 1999, he married Anouk Malaquin, whom he met through mutual friends. “Our first ‘date’ was actually the result of a misunderstanding on my part about the time I was supposed to show up to help some friends,” he says. “When they said to come at ‘six-thirty,’ it never occurred to me they meant 6:30 a.m., so when I arrived at 6:30 p.m. - i8h3o French time Anouk was there and my help was no longer needed. I said, ‘I guess I’ll go to the movies,’ and she said ‘What a good idea! ’ and off we went. We saw Breaking the Waves, which I had been intending to see but probably wouldn’t have chosen for a first date! ” Today, Wood’s vie Parisienne is complete. He lives in an apartment in Montmartre, has married into an old bourgeois family, and runs a bookstore on the left bank. And he’s enough of a Paris fixture that the guide­ book Paris Access published a list of his city favorites, including the Jardin du Luxem­ bourg, the market in the Rue Mouffetard, the city lit up at Christmas with concerts in the churches, watching the boulistes around Montmartre, and - appropriately enough for a bookstore-owning Johnnie - the reading room of the Bibliotheque Ste. Genevieve. �{AlumniNotes} 3® Amanda Dulin (A) writes that she is happy in Charlottesville with Dominic. Delsen) Flynn (A). “We are scuba diving and changing lots of dia­ pers!” Nathan Humphrey (A) has a piece Alice Brown (A) writes: “Greg and in the Fall 2000 issue of re:generation quarterly about how sophomore year at St. John’s - in particular his reading of the Confessions - led to his spending the summer at a Catholic Benedictine monastery. As the son of an Evangehcal Christian minister, Humphrey was taught to file “Cathohcism” under “cults,” along with Mormonism and Scien­ tology. But at the monastery “the false dichotemy between the ‘sacred’ and the ‘secular’ disap­ peared.” His piece is a plea for understanding among the various Christian denominations. I are in Columbus, Ohio, where Greg is earning a PhD in classics at OSU and I am teaching at a charter school. Life is grand. Best wishes to all.” 1995 October 29, 2000 saw the wedding of China Williams (A) and Matt Baum (A). The ceremony was held at Sigmund Stern Grove in San Fran­ cisco, Calif. A report from Carrie Sager (A): “In the fall, I spent three great months in China studying acupunc­ ture and traditional Chinese medi­ cine. The experience was fantastic. Surprisingly, I grew to really love China and was sad to leave. After China, I visited Hong Kong - a nice return to civilization. Then it was six weeks of travelling around Thai­ land. One of the funniest things on my trip - there I am standing on a pier in the middle of Bangkok and who do I run into... a fellow John­ nie, Diedre O’Shea (A97). In all, an awesome trip although my body was really ready to come home and eat good old North American food by the end. I would love to offer what little advice I can to anyone travelling to those countries. For now, I will keep my e-mail address at carrie_china@yahoo.com. My other news is that I am getting married. My boyfriend proposed the week before I left - guess he wanted to make sure I came backNow I have just nine months to get ready for the big day - Sept. 28, 2001. Knowing my timing, it will conflict with Annapolis homecoming again!” “My husband, Ethan, and I are doing a two-year tour of duty in Guam,” writes Sarah (Van Cheryl Heneveld (AGI) is still in 1996 Adrienne Jakowski Rukensiein married Peter Rubenstein (both A) in July of 1998. They are currently living in Arlington, Vir. After gradu­ ating, Adrienne got an MA in Teach­ ing Secondary English, taught for two years with Denver Public Schools, and is now getting another MA in Deaf Education at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. She was recently offered a job teaching English to high school seniors at a deaf school in D.C. Peter has been exploring technical jobs with USwest and an Internet company in DC called Covad. He enjoys eating a bowl of Lucky Charms while watch­ ing the Powerpuff Girls or Dexter’s Laboratory on Cartoon Network. His favorite philosopher is still Leibniz and his favorite color is green. James Cromer (AGI) is going back to school - to Skidmore College - to learn how to design web pages while he completes his ninth year of teach­ ing. Joy Pope (AGI) and Miguel Alandete have welcomed a daughter into their lives. Maya Lucia Pope Alandete was born on October 3, weigh­ ing in at an astonishing 9 lbs., ii oz. Sid Ranck (AGI) has accepted the role of godfather. The new family is doing beautifully in Eugene, Ore. their home now - and they’d love to hear from classmates or Johnnies in the area. Alandete@oregon.uoregon.edu. Melissa Cate (A) and Darcy Christ (A94) were married on October 7, 2000. Douglis Beck (AGI) and Susan Allen are thrilled to announce the birth of a beautiful daughter named Veronica Vandenberghe Beck on December 22, 2000. Says Douglis, “She has brought not only joy to our {The College - world, but also a good number of sleepless nights, a small amount of chaos, and general mayhem for all concerned. I continue to work as an architect at Cannon Design in St. Louis, while Susan is a manager for Borders Books & Music. Veronica is currently unemployed and search­ ing for a position in waste manage­ ment.” New Delhi. “I have not found any Johnnies here yet, and I miss the Washington, D.C., alumni discus­ sions,” she says. Her e-mail address is cheryls@vsnl.com. 1997 John Carle (SF) reports that he and Cheryl are alive and well in metro Atlanta. After a short stint with CNN, he’s working as a web developer with a consulting firm. E-mail is welcome at jcarle@newtousbaby.com. Juan Villasenor (A) will graduate from Vanderbilt Law School in May 2001 and has accepted a clerkship with a federal judge in Nashville, Tenn., for one year beginning in September. 1998 my husband Chris and I just had our first child on November i6th, 2000. Her name is Rosalyn Ophelia.” Kathleen (Tinning) Connelly (A) writes: “Patrick Connelly and I were married June 12,1999, and have been living in Vicenza, Italy, ever since. Italy is beautiful.” Susie Lorenzini (AGI) and Jason Salinas (AGIoo) were married in June 2000, in San Diego. In the summer 1999 issue of The Reporter, an unknown perpetrator sent in a false report about Eve Gib­ son (A) and Todd Pytel (A). Here’s a correction from Eve: “Todd will not be ‘working closely with the Warner Brothers Network in the upcoming months’ because he is too busy teaching high school math at Senh, a Chicago public school, nor am I teaching fifth graders science at a Catholic school in New York. I have been playing rugby for the Chicago Women’s Rugby Football Club and tutoring at Literacy Chica­ go, and toiling in an office.” 2000 Valerie Whiting (A) reports that she got her Peace Corps assignment: She headed to Panama in January to be an environmental educator. Max R. Fink (SF) reports: “Work­ ing in Chicago as a corporate recruiter (probably for something I did in a past life!). Just returned from a vacation to the rainforests of Costa Rica. Thinking of becoming a tour guide in South America.” Heather (Miller) and Nate Greenslit (both A) are the proud parents of Emily Ruth, born March 25. Heather taught middle school math and science in a private school outside Baltimore until Emily’s arrival. She’s now a stay-at-home mom and a private tutor. Nate got his master’s degree in cognative sci­ ence at Johns Hopkins and will begin a program in the history and sociology of technology at MIT. The Greenslits now live in Worcester, Mass. 1999 Erin Gage Bates (A) writes: “I was married February 5th, 2000, and St. John’s College • Spring 2001 } Calling All Alumni 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 tvill be published in July; copy deadline is May 20. In Annapolis: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404; b-goyette@sjca.edu. In Santa Fe: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Public Relations Office, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87501-4599; classics@maiLsjcsf.edu. Alumni Notes on the Web: Read Alumni Notes and contact The College on the web at: www.sjca.edu - click on “Alumni.” �{Student Voices} Through a Photographer’s Eye The Transfer Experience A Imost 30% of St. John’s students have spent a year or more as transfers, making them true hi-campus members of the / college community. Whether their “year abroad” is spent in Santa Fe, after some time in the brick-clad East, or in / Annapolis, after a year or two in the mountain air, transfer students almost universally enjoy the experience. Sylvaine Rameckers, Aoi, spent last year in Santa Fe. An avid photogra­ pher, she fell in love with the landscape of the southwest. Although St. John’s students generally rate the location of the campuses low on their list of why they chose the college, Santa Fe and Annapolis are nevertheless both beauti­ ful places-each in its own way. Here are some of Sylvaine’s favorite photos that capture the flavor of each location. {The Colleges?. John’s College • Spring 2001 } 37 �38 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Greetings! Thanks to you all for giving me the opportunity to lead the Association as its new president. You have a dedicated and creative Board of Directors, who will he focused on maintaining tradition and building new opportunities for alumni to connect with each other and the College. For example... I wish you could all have joined us for a delightful evening on January ay. Eighteen groups of alumni and current St. John’s seniors met at Santa Fe restaurants for Senior Dinners. The dinners, which have become tradition on both campuses, are designed to wel­ come soon-to-he alumni into the Association. As you can imagine, the conversations are lively and varied, ranging Electing Alumni Representatives to the St. John’s and Alumni Association Boards Election ofAlumni Representatives to the St. John's College Board of Visitors and Governors In accordance with Article VIII, Section II of the By-Laws of the St. John’s College Alumni Association, notice is hereby given that the following alumni have been nomi­ nated by the Alumni Association Board of Directors for election to the St. John’s Col­ lege Board of Visitors and Governors. from essay topics, to career possibilities, to current pic­ tures of student life, to news of tutors and mutual friends, to life after St. John’s, to activities of the Association. Mem­ Glenda Eoyang ories, hopes, and fears are traded and relished across time and geography. This is one of my personal favorites among the many Association activities. It is Notice is also given that nominations may be made by petition. The rules governing submission of nomi­ nations by petition are as follows: I. Petitions must be signed by at least fifty members of the Alumni Association in good standing. a pleasure to revisit that invigorating time in my life. I am always surprised to see how similar the experience of today is to that of the mid-yos, when I made my transition from student to alumna-and also how different it is. The current crop of seniors are so bright and curious and verbal and excited as they come to terms with integrating their Johnny experience with the rest of their lives. If you live in the Santa Fe or Annapolis area and would be interested in hosting a dinner, let the Alumni Directors know. Usually, two alumni co-host eight seniors at a local restaurant. The college Alumni Directors select the sites, but they also take suggestions. The cost is shared by the hosts, the college, and the Alumni Association. You’ll be asked to distribute some information about the Association and explain the benefits of staying in touch with other alumni. It is a wonderful opportunity to connect and see what’s happening in the world of St. John’s! For the past, the present, and the future. ST. JOHN’S college alumni association Whether from Annapolis or Santa Fe, undergraduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, 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 Alumni Association news and events of interest. President - Glenda Eoyang, SFy6 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary -Barbara Lauer, SFy6 Treasurer - Bill Fant, Ayg Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team ChairTom Geyer, A68 Glenda Holladay Eoyang, SFy6 Eoyang@chaos-limited.com Web site -www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404 or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87501. {The College- St. John’s College • Spring 2001 } �39 {Alumni Association News} 2. Nominations must be accompanied by a biographical sketch of the nominee. 3. The consent of all persons nominated must be obtained. 4. The petitions must reach the Directors of Alumni Activities NO LATER THAN DECEMBER i, 2001. c/o Alumni Office St. John’s College P.O. Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404 If nominations by petition are received, there will be an election conducted by mail ballot. If there are no such nominations, the nominees listed below will be consid­ ered elected. Terms will begin in July of 2002. Eor his second term: Jason Todd Walsh, A85 New York, N.Y. MBA, Harvard Business School, 1989; entrepreneur-in-residence, McKin­ sey & Company, 2000present; executive vice president/ start-up gener­ al manager, Oncology.com, 19992000; vice president of business develop­ ment of Quest Diagnostics, Incorporated, 1998-1999; vice president/general manager. Long Island Region of Quest Diagnostics, 1996-1998; associate director for strategy and development for the Opto-Electronics Group of Corning Inc., 1993-1995; business manag­ er, television components. Corning Asahi Video Products Company, 1990-1993; mem­ ber of the St. John’s College Alumni Associa­ tion Board of Directors, 1990-1996; Treasurer of that Board, 1998-2000; Vice- President of that Board, 2001-; Lady Liberty Regatta chairman. New York Harbor Sailing Founda­ tion, 1998 & 2001; member, St. John’s Col­ lege Board of Visitors and Governors, 1999-. For his first term: Mark Middlebrook, A83 Oakland, Calif. Mark is a rabid liberal artist in sheepish techno-geek clothing. After earning his BA from St. John’s in 1983, he completed a Master’s degree in structural engineering at the Uni­ versity of California, Berkeley. Since 1988, Mark has been the sole proprietor of Daedalus Consulting in Oakland, Calif. In this guise, he fools around with computer aided drafting (CAD) software for money. Seeking moderation in all things-especially time spent with computers-Mark remains active in the liberal arts and the St. John’s College community. He has participated for many years in the Northern California alumni chapter and the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors. Since 1999, he has taught St. John’s-style seminars at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif. Mark’s other avocations include music, languages, and cooking. He currently is working on perfecting his tortilla espanola, Andalusian Spanish, and flamenco bulerias. For his second term: Clinton Dale Lively, A78 Princeton Junction, N.J. MS, Mathematics, University of Virginia; MBA, Finance, University of Chicago. Man­ aging Director and Head of Portfolio Risk Management, Merrill Lynch, NY; directing firmwide event analysis, process risk manage­ ment, country risk assessments, internal risk capital allocation, and oversight of market risk taken within the Private Client, Asset Management and Merrill Lynch Treasury divisions. Managing Director and Partner in charge of the Corporate Risk Management Group for the Bankers Trust Company, 199799; previously for Bankers Trust: joined the bank in r984 in Sales, Trading and Funding Department; in 1987 a member of the team that developed the Global Market Risk Man­ agement function; in 1989 transferred to Tokyo to set up the Global Market Risk group for Asia, Australia, and New Zealand; in 1992 returned to New York as head of the Global Risk Analytic group and was appointed head of market risk globally in 1995; in spring of 1997 chosen to manage the Corporate Risk Management function overall. A member of Bankers Trust Asset Liability Committee (ALCO) and Management Committee on Controls. On the Board of Directors of Bankers International Corporation and LongTail Risk Insurance, Ltd. Election ofOjftcers and Directors ofthe St. John ’a College Alumni Association In accordance with Article VII, Sections I and II of the By-Laws of the St. John’s Col­ lege Alumni Association, notice is hereby given that the following alumni have been nominated to serve as officers and direc­ tors on the St. John’s College Alumni Asso­ ciation Board of Directors. Notice is also given that nominations for the positions as officers and directors of the Association may be made by petition. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } The rules governing submission of nom­ inations by petition are as follows: 1. Petitions must be signed by at least thirty members of the Alumni Association in good standing. 2. Petitions must be presented to the Sec­ retary of the Alumni Association prior to the Annual Meeting at which the election is to be held. Petitions should be sent to Barbara Lauer, c/o Alumni Office, St. John’s College, P.O. Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404. 3. The election will be held at the Annual Meeting on Saturday, July 7 at 1:30 p.m. in Santa Fe. 4. The candidates for Officers and Direc­ tors receiving the highest number of votes for those offices shall be declared elected. Terms will begin on January i, 2002. For his first term: William Tilles, A59 Rockville, Md. William R. (Bill) Tilles is an Organization Develop­ ment consultant specializ­ ing in the planning and facilitation of processes that enhance organiza­ tional performance. Before he retired from IBM in r992, he held man­ agement and staff positions working with government and commercial clients. He was a principal in Collaborative Decisions, Inc., a small, women-owned business focusing on decision support technology. Currently, as an associate of CI International, based in Den­ ver, Colorado and Washington, D.C., he pro­ vides facilitation and planning services to government and commercial clients. He is also an active participant in the DC Cultural Alliance Business Volunteers for the Arts pro­ gram, where he was honored as Business Vol­ unteer of the Year in 1999. Tilles is in his third term on the Board of Visitors and Gov­ ernors, where he is the Chair of the Visiting Committee and member of the Executive Committee. For her first term: Valerie Pawlewicz, A89 Annapolis, Md. Currently designs educa­ tional trips for the Smithsonian-the largest, most diverse, museum-based travel program in the world (1998-). She organ­ izes performing arts, fine arts, culinary, history and �40 {Alumni Association News} literature seminars, working directly with such organizations as the Santa Fe Opera, Toronto International Film Festival, and the Spoleto Festival USA, and with such individu­ als as Ken Burns, Holly Mondavi and Gian Carlo Menotti. Prior to the Smithsonian (1996-98), she worked as an independent folklorist on community oral history projects, including a St. John’s College oral history project (over ao interviews were collected from faculty, alumni, staff at both campuses). She was the Senior Resident for Student Activities at St. John’s College, Annapolis, Md. (1994-96), at the same time serving as in­ house substitute teacher at the Key School in Annapolis. From 1992-94, she completed graduate work at UNC Chapel Hill in folk­ lore, taking on oral history projects as diverse as furniture factory workers and Southern funeral directors. She served as a class leader for The Campaign for Our Fourth Century (1993-95). She is married to Leo Pickens (A78), Director of Athletics on the Annapolis campus. For her first term: Martha Black Jordan, SFGI86 Mexico City, Mexico Jordan was born in Mexico City and educated in the U.S. She holds a BA from Sweet Briar College, an MA from St. John’s, and an MFA from Vermont Col­ lege. She is the founder of the Tramontane Poets of Mexico City, a collective dedicated to being a bridge between the poet­ ry worlds of Mexico and North America, which has sponsored visits to Mexico City and readings by Reginald Gibbons, Joe Somoza, William Merwin, Grace Schulman, Mark Strand, Naomi Shihab Nye, William Snod­ grass, and others. She has read her own work, as well as translations, on National Public Radio and at various organizations around the country. Her poems have appeared in IfI Had My Life to Live Over, Latitudes, The Tree is Older Than You Are, California Quar­ terly, The Texas Observer, the eleventh MUSE, Grand Street, and Tameme. She has also published many translations from Span­ ish to English, some from English to Spanish, and has edited two bilingual books. She has served on the board of the Junior League of Mexico City; Christ Church Episcopal, Mexi­ co City; National Board Medical College of Pennsylvania/Hahnemann University, Philadelphia; Women’s Auxiliary American British Cowdray Hospital, Mexico City. For his first term: Rohert A. George, A85 Brooklyn, N.Y. Currently Associate Edito­ rial Page Editor for the New York Post. He is also a columnist for National Review Online. Previously, George served as Director of Coalitions for the Republican National Com­ mittee. Reporting to the RNC Co-chairman, he acted as party liaison to diverse business, eth­ nic and interest groups. From January 1995 through May 1998, George served as Special Assistant & Senior Writer to the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1994, he was a Legislative Assistant to former Con­ gressman Michael Huffington (R-CA). From 1988 to 1993, he served as Communications Director for the Republican National Finance Committee. Contemporaneous with his pro­ fessional full-time career, George has held sideline occupations as a researcher, disk jockey and free-lance writer. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Wash­ ington Times, National Review, New Repub­ lic, Billboard, Diversity & Division, The Weekly Standard, CRISIS, San Francisco Chronicle, Intellectual Capital, com. Salon', and he was a contributor to Generations Apart: Xers vs. Boomers vs. the Elderly and Black & Right: The Bold New Voice ofBlack Conservatives in America. He is an Adjunct Fellow with the Center For New Black Lead­ ership, a national African-American advocacy group exploring entrepreneurial and freemarket issues, and Third Millennium, an organization dedicated to multi-generational public policy issues. George was born on the Caribbean island­ country of Trinidad and Tobago and raised in Great Britain and the United States. His interests include reading, jogging, cultural analysis, and a proclivity for withering puns. as the Director of College Placement for the school, the only college preparatory school for Native Americans in the country. Origi­ nally from Boulder, Col., Boydstun chose to attend St. John’s instead of going to a per­ forming arts school to pursue her love of act­ ing. She remained active in theatre at St. John’s, however, and since her gradua­ tion has performed with Shakespeare in Santa Fe (Measurefor Measure and A Mid­ summer Night’s Dream) and as the title role in Queen Elizabeth I at Santa Fe Stages. She recently auditioned for several graduate act­ ing programs around the country, and she hopes to spend the next three years pursuing an MFA. CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowfor information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-880-^134 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 315-465-0344 ANNAPOLIS Roberta Gable PORTLAND 410-295-6936 360-883-9058 AUSTIN Jennifer Chenoweth 513-483-0747 SACRAMENTO Helen Hobart 916-453-1083 BALTIMORE David Kidd SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 410-738-4136 619-433-4353 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 CHICAGO Dale Mortimer SAN FRANCISCO/ NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Jon Hodapp 831-393-9496 Lorna Anderson SANTA FE For her first term; 847-467-3069 John Pollak Amber Boydstln, SF99 DENVER Santa Fe, N.M. Elizabeth Pollard Jenny SEATTLE Amber Boydstun has spent the two years since she graduated from St. John’s teach­ ing at the Native American Preparatory School (NAPS) in Rowe, N.M. Last year she taught Advanced PreCalculus and Geometry at NAPS, and this year she serves 303-530-3373 Jon Bever {The College- St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } LOS ANGELES Elizabeth Eastman 563-436-1934 MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 613-833-3316 NEW YORK Fielding Dupuy 313-974-3933 NORTH CAROLINA Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 505-983-^^144 306-739-1163 WASHINGTON, DC Bill Ross 301-330-4594 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 973-3-6717608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �{Connections} How Can Alumni Stay Connected TO THE College? Let us count the ways. For alumni from lacrosse-loving days of the r93os to the most recent of the 1990s, St. John’s occupies a special place in their consciousness. There are many ways alumni can be involved in the life of the college, or stay involved with the college from afar. Indeed, the proliferation of new kinds of activities has some alumni confused. Here’s a short version of the activities of different alumni groups. The St. John’s College Alumni Offices College staff and resources devoted to encouraging alumni connections to the col­ lege. The Offices of Alumni Activities plan and carry out Homecomings, Summer Alum­ ni Programs, and Croquet Weekend; take care of the database of alumni names and addresses; coordinate the Alumni Register; staff Alumni Association projects; work with current students to foster continued relation­ ships with the college; serve as touchpoints for all alumni dealings with the college. Contacts: Annapolis: Roberta Gable, Director and Dolores Strissel, Assistant. 410-626-2531. alumni@sjca.edu Web site: www.sjca.edu, click on “Alumni” Santa Fe: Tahmina Shalizi, Director. 505-984-6103; tshalizi@mail.sjcsf.edu Web site: www.sjcsf.edu, click on “Alumni” St. John’s College Alumni Association Non-profit association independent of St. John’s College; Alumni Association dues help support Association projects-dues are not a contribution to St. John’s College. All alumni are automatically members of the Alumni Association. The Alumni Association mission is: To provide an active place for alumni in the life of the college; to promote the continuing association of alumni with one another; and to serve, preserve, and advance St. John’s College as one community of and for liberal education. Usually held the last Saturday in April, the St. John’s-Navy Croquet Match draws HUNDREDS OF ALUMNI BACK TO AnNAPOLIS. ThIS YEAr’s DATE: ApRIL 28. The Alumni Association, through its Board of Directors, helps plan and sponsor Homecomings and Summer Alumni Programs in cooperation with the college offices of Alumni Activities; helps sponsor the Alum­ ni Register; awards Honorary Alumni status and presents Alumni Association Awards of Merit; coordinates Alumni Association chapters in cities around the country; pub­ lishes the Alumni Association News (a pages in The College, formerly The Reporter). Contacts: Glenda Eoyang, SF76, President Web site: www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml Philanthropia A subcommittee of the Development Com­ mittee of the Board of Visitors and Gover­ nors, comprised of alumni volunteers inter­ ested in encouraging financial support of the college by alumni. Philanthropia’s main efforts are centered on the Alumni Annual Fund, direct contributions to the college which provide the campuses with operating expenses. Philanthropia volunteers help plan fundraising strategies in cooperation with the college development staff; build aware­ ness of the college’s financial needs and alumni’s responsibilities for support through publications like the “Founders and Foundations” calendar; encourage class reunion organization for the purposes of fundraising; help plan phonathons, “meet the president” receptions, and other activi­ ties in various cities. {The College -St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } Contacts: Leslie Jump, A84, President; Alex Fotos or Mary Simmons in the Annapolis Advancement Office, 410-626-2507; Ginger Roherty in the Santa Fe Advancement Office, 505-984-6109. Web site: www.sjca.edu/advance/philan. phtml Alumni Admissions Representatives Alumni who volunteer to help the Admis­ sions Offices with various recruiting proj­ ects, such as hosting prospective student receptions; interviewing or answering ques­ tions from prospective students, parents, and high school counselors; answering e-mail questions from prospective students; helping to represent the college at college fairs. Contacts: Annapolis: Dorcey Rose, Associate Director of Admissions, 410-626-2527; d-rose@sjca.edu. Web site: www.sjca.edu/admissions/representative.phtml Santa Fe: Ana Alvernaz, Associate Director of Admis­ sions, 505-984-6003; aalvernaz@mail.sjcsf.edu Alumni Placement Office Contacts Alumni who volunteer to help the Place­ ment Offices on each campus. Placement Office contacts provide information and networking advice to current students look­ ing into graduate programs and career fields. Contacts: Annapolis - Karen Krieger, Director of Place­ ment, 410-626-2500; k-krieger@sjca.edu Web site: www.sjca.edu/placement/office. phtml Santa Fe - Margaret OdeU, Director of Place­ ment, 505-984-6066 Web site: www.sjcsf.edu/placement/ �{Obituaries} Albert Patterson Close Class of tgsS Retired Judge Albert Patterson Close, Sr., an administrative judge of the Circuit Court for Harford Coun­ ty (Md.) for many years, died in December. Judge Close served for more than two decades on the local bench, where he presided over some of the highest profile criminal and civil cases in Harford County history. Born near Bel Air, Md., and the youngest of seven children, he grad­ uated from St. John’s in 1938 and received a degree from the Universi­ ty of Maryland School of Law. Dur­ ing World War II, he served in the Marine Corps in China, attaining the rank of major. After the war, he practiced law for many years in Bel Air, served as People’s Court judge for eight years, and was appointed to the Circuit Court bench in 1967. The following year he was elected for a 15-year term. Rather than retire in 1984, he sought a second 15-year term, which he won. Judge Close was active in the Republican Party, volunteered with the Boy Scouts, and was a member of the Susquehanna Law Club, the Jar­ rettsville Lions Club, and the board of directors of Upper Chesapeake Health System. He is survived by his wife, five sons, three daughters, two sisters, and six grandchildren. Patrick D. Davis, Class oftgs^ Patrick D. Davis, a member of the class of 1950, died January 32 in Seattle. He was born in Dewey, Okla., and grew up in Washington, D.C., where he often worked as a child actor. He served three years in the Navy in World War IL After St. John’s, he attended the University of Maine, Orono, and Canterbury Col­ lege in New Zealand. He lived, trav­ eled, and worked for 13 years over­ seas, mostly in England, France, and Turkey. He was employed as a civilian with the U.S. Air Force as an educa­ tion officer and regional director of adult eduction affiliated with the University of Maryland. He subse­ quently was a federal employee and regional administrator in Washing­ ton, D.C., and Seattle, both with the Office of Economic Opportunity and Health & Human Services’ Head Start Program, working to improve opportunities for disadvantaged chil­ dren and mothers. His love of traveling, history, for­ eign affairs, theater, archeology, politics, art, music, and great books led many to call him a Renaissance Man. He will be remembered for his love and caring for people, his gen­ erosity and sense of humor, and his devotion to social justice and envi­ ronmental causes. He is survived by his wife, Verrelle “Susie” Davis and son, Justinian A. Davis. Beach, and Vermont College. Gifts in Michael’s memory may be made to The Vermont Respite House, 99 Allen Brook Lane, Williston, VT 05495. —Sapna Gandhi, Agi Michael Kraemer, A93 In his short life, Michael Kraemer touched and influenced more than most people do in their entire lives. He spent most of his free time volun­ teering at animal shelters, tutoring students of all ages in their school­ work, and helping new immigrants adjust to life in America. It was his approach that made him special: he approached every task and every per­ son with love and kindness. And at the young age of 19, Michael knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life serving humanity and protecting ani­ mals. Michael was one of those peo­ ple who truly had no enemy. After leaving St. John’s in 1991 after his sophomore year, Michael moved back home to Miami to five with his family. Still a Johnnie, Michael loved learning so he contin­ ued to study on his own-learning Spanish and Portuguese, before set­ tling on holistic studies. He was inspired after treating his own health with alternative medicine. He began a correspondence course at Vermont College’s School of Holistic Studies. After several trips to Vermont to complete his coursework, Michael and his sister eventually moved there. Michael had always loved good music and over the last several years had acquired quite a collection of reggae, bossanova, funk, African, salsa, and other groovy music. One of his gifts was making music tapes for his friends. So it was not a sur­ prise that Michael taught himself rocar and drums and became part of a performing samba group. Michael was diagnosed with can­ cer in early April 3000. He had a very shm chance of treating the cancer successfully with Western medicine. Instead of compromising his faith in Eastern healing arts, Michael chose to try acupuncture and Chinese herbs to heal. For a while, it seemed to be working and making him stronger. The last two months of his life were spent in a hospice, where he was surrounded by family and close friends. For the first time, Michael let himself be loved and nurtured, instead of always being the strong and generous one. Michael passed away on Novem­ ber 25. He will be loved and remem­ bered by his friends from St. John’s, the Annapolis Society for the Pre­ vention of Cruelty to Animals, the Jewish Community Center in Miami {The College- William Allen Ruhl, Jr. Class oftg44 William A. Ruhl, Jr., a bank execu­ tive in Salisbury, Md., died in December. He was a member of the St. John’s class of 1944 and served in the 83nd Airborne Division during World War IL Mr. Ruhl was the first managing officer of First Shore Fed­ eral Savings and Loan Association when it was founded in 1953, and was named executive vice president in 1964, the position he held until retirement in 1984. He served as a member of the board of First Shore Federal from 1969 to 1998, when he was named director emeritus. Mr. Ruhl was active with the Salisbury Chamber of Commerce, the Mary­ land League of Financial Institu­ tions, scouting, the Salisbury Rotary Club, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, and the American Field Service exchange student program. He is survived by his present wife, a son and three daughters, five grand­ children, a brother, and a sister. Adolph W. Schmidt Member ofthe Board Adolph W. Schmidt, a longtime sup­ porter of the college who served on the Board of Visitors and Governors since 1949, died December 17 in Pittsburgh. He was 96. Mr. Schmidt was active in many spheres during his life: in the busi­ ness world as a banker and financier for various Mellon family business­ es, in the city of Pittsburgh as founder of the Pittsburgh Playhouse and the Pittsburgh Symphony, in the international sphere as a diplomat who served as ambassador to Cana­ da from 1969 to 1974 and also found­ ed organizations dedicated to stabi­ lizing the world’s population and resources, and at St. John’s-which he once called “the finest under­ graduate liberal arts program in the United States today, barring none.” A native of McKeesport, Pennsyl­ vania, Mr. Schmidt graduated from Princeton and the Harvard Gradu­ ate School of Business Administra­ tion. He served as an intelligence officer in the Army during World War II, and after the war he was active in developing political unity among the countries that eventually formed NATO. Professionally, he worked with the Mellon National Bank and its St. John^s College - Spring 2001 } affiliated institutions and organiza­ tions beginning in 1929 until his retirement in 1969. He was a presi­ dent and trustee of the A. A. W. Mel­ lon Educational and Charitable Trust, and a trustee of the Old Dominion Foundation. Mr. Schmidt’s interest in St. John’s began when he read the February 1940 article about the college in Life magazine while on a flight from Pitts­ burgh to Washington. He felt the St. John’s curriculum represented much that was lacking in his own educa­ tion. He called the college and spoke with Stringfellow Barr, who invited him to come for a visit. After attend­ ing a seminar and then a mathemat­ ics tutorial the next day, Mr. Schmidt began to think about taking the year off to enroll. Back in Pittsburgh, he showed a copy of the Life article to Paul Mellon; about a week later, the two discussed the college and Mr. Mellon told Mr. Schmidt that he should remain in Pittsburgh since there was so much work to be done. In fact, Mr. Mellon had decided to enroll at St. John’s himself. Mr. Schmidt was elected to the St. John’s Board of Visitors and Gov­ ernors in 1950; he became chair in 1954 and again in 1962. From r969 to 1974, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Canada and did not participate on the Board, but upon his return he again joined. In 1980 he was made a member emeritus. The Adolph W. Schmidt Endowed Thtorships were estabhshed with a gift from Mr. Schmidt in r985. Alter­ nating between the campuses, the tutorship enables a faculty member to take release time from teaching for further study and the leading of a fac­ ulty study group, either in the areas of pohtics and economic and mone­ tary theory, or in some other area of importance to the program. Mr. Schmidt was named an hon­ orary alumnus of St. John’s in 1987, and was given the Alumni Associa­ tion Award of Merit in 1989. ALSO NOTED... Gretchen L. Berg, A75, died in June 3000 Patrick D. Davis, A50, died in January 3001 John D. Edinger, A34 Vincent W. McKay, A46 Ben Moskowitz, A50, died in June 2000 Col. Frederick L. Smith, Aa7, died in November 1999 Robert Arne, SFG83, died in November 2000 Theodore A. Buder, SF94, died in August 2000 �{Obituaries} In Memory of Robert Bart Remarks delivered by Nancy Buchenauer at a memorial servicefor Robert Bart, tutor in Annapolisfrom ig4Q to ty~7 and in Santa Fe from to 2000. Robert was my friend. And he was a great and terrible friend. I first met him in 1979 when I went down the hill from Los Alamos to apply to be a tutor. He was the Dean in Santa Fe in those days, and for me he embodied what a dean had to be. Really, he embodied the col­ lege. When I was appointed he told me that he had serious reservations about whether any­ one who lived 40 miles away could be a tutor. My response was to form the determination then and there that I would never miss a class or Friday lecture, and I would never let my students down in any way. I would show him what I could and could not do. He had planted in me an expectation that made me demand more of myself than I ever had before. That was the beginning of my education from him in what the college was. He made me desire to show him that I too was capable of giving myself completely to something that was valuable and difficult. In effect he was asking me to be more than myself. I didn’t know then what I later came to know from watching what he did as well as hearing what he said, that only in giving oneself to some­ thing greater, outside oneself does one have a chance to find out who one really is and so really to be something. From his love of art he taught me to see. From childhood my mother had taken me to museums and said, “Look, isn’t that beauti­ ful?” But when Robert took me to Michelan­ gelo’s statue of Moses he asked me a question. Pointing out the curl of the upper lip, he asked, “Is he feeling contempt?” Robert taught me intelligent looking. He showed me that the best paintings and statues demand a response from our innermost selves. Just like poets, artists use the tricks of their trade-per­ spective, rounding, color, light, shape-to express a meaning, to show us what is impor­ tant about their subjects for human beings. Painting technique is a language as much as written words or musical notes, and one can learn to read and understand from it the truth of being a human being. A building in the hands of a great architect becomes an organic whole designed to satisfy our craving for wholeness: our lives are elevated by it and made more orderly and purposeful. If one looks at Manet’s painting, “Le balcon,” one sees the artist Berthe Morrisot looking out Robert Bart and down, with ferocious intensity: perhaps above all, artists by looking are teaching us that it requires effort to look and that no part of the world we inhabit is just present for us without our labor. Nick Maistrellis, by mentioning to me what he was thinking about saying here today, helped me to understand that the key to what came to be my friendship with Robert is learn­ ing, that is, my learning. That was an inevitable consequence of how Robert did everything and of who he was. He was posi­ tively unable to keep anything at a “safe” dis­ tance, from which one might think or talk about it as if one were not involved. To every­ thing and everyone he had an immediate, vis­ ceral response. Never for him was the life of the mind divorced from our personal relation­ ships to one another, and the one always importantly informed the other. He taught me that taste is absolute and that people of integrity have to judge. His judg­ ments often made me terribly uncomfortable, but I also learned from them that to stay alive and awake and questioning, to encounter peo­ ple and ideas genuinely, one has to make judg­ ments. Part of why Robert was such a holy ter­ ror to many students and colleagues was because in his presence everything one said and did was constantly and relentlessly judged. There could be no off-hand, unthinking remarks, because he was thinking all the time, and he was unscrupulously honest about what he thought. At times he would take enormous offense at a chance remark, unable himself to believe that the words were not intended, because for him everything was intentional. But he suffered also from staircase self-hon­ esty. He would go through paroxysms of remorse over what he had said to people. He also had the peculiar quality of frequently {The College -Sr. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } 43 doing more justice to people behind their backs than he could do to their faces. It was not uncommon in Instruction Committee meetings for him to speak in praise of people whom he only bristled at face to face, and at such times nothing of what one might call per­ sonal feeling clouded his ability to evaluate. This intellectual generosity was accompa­ nied by a truly remarkable generosity in other ways. AU his life he lived by a standard of extreme ascetic economy while giving prodi­ gious amounts of money to the college and to his friends. In the last years of his life he became friends with a young woman he hoped would help him to remain in his home a little longer, but when he learned of her desire to go to graduate school in Washington, he made up the difference between her scholarship and what she needed to be able to attend. When he had first come home from the hospital after his second heart attack, I was spending seminar nights staying in his house, and I woke up one morning finding him sweeping the snow off my car with a broom, hardly able to walk. For him it was easy to give to and to spend on oth­ ers and next to impossible to spend on himself. He was terribly lonely and often agonized by a sense that he had driven away some of the finest friends he had had. He told me once on one of the rare occasions that he spoke of his past and his childhood that in school he had never had a friend. I came to see how coming to the college meant so much to him personal­ ly as well as intellectually. At the college he made the first real friendships of his life. He needed others around him constantly, and his life was best for him when he could spend two meals a day in conversations with one other of those he cared about. Once someone became his friend they were a part of him forever, even though there were few with whom this did not take the form of a constant struggle. Bill O’Grady once said of St. Paul that just exactly a man who found it hard to love would have to struggle to come to know (and to say) what love is. Those words could just as well have been said about Robert, for because love, the most intense and close relationship of one human being to another, was so hard for him, he devoted his life to trying to see it, to learn it, to say it, to do it, and to give it to others. Such was Robert. I think he was a great man. 4" The college has established the Robert Bart Endowment Fund, to be usedforfinancial aid for students. Contributions can be sent c/o Advancement Office, St. John's College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87501-4599 �{St. John’s Forever} he King William Players “girl trouble” as a result of his effort. Al staged the American pre­ Sugg (A54) played the Skeleton, a mysteri­ miere of Thomas Cranmer of ous spirit figure who offered counsel to the Canterbury, a verse drama embattled Cranmer. Jo Thoms, wife of about Henry VIII’s archbish­ tutor Bert Thoms, played Anne Boleyn op who suffered martyrdom (third from left in the photo) and also as a result of his stance on the kingdesigned ’s the set and the costumes, which divorce from Catherine of Aragon.included Two a medallion necklace for the king productions took place-February 9 and 10, that was fashioned from tin can lids. 1951-in the Great Hall. A group of students Richard Edelman (A51) produced and had read and discussed Charles Williams’ directed. In his quest for authenticity, difficult, disturbing work the previous Edelman tried to rent furniture appropri­ spring and vowed to put on the play. Talk ate to the period but was unable to find it. about a production: this one took nine When he spotted some pieces that looked months of preparation and involved a hun­ like they ’d work in the lobby of Lowe’s dred students and townspeople. Valencia Theater in Baltimore, he wrote Tutor Hugh McGrath played Cranmer; the owners, who allowed the KWP to bor­ his dramatic bearing and resonant English row the furniture. Always avant garde, the accent must have been perfect for the part. King William Players employed unusual Paul Rickolt (A52) was Henry VIII (second three-leveled staging and at times they from the left in the photo). According to played their roles standing-or racingnews accounts from the Annapolis paper. among members of the audience. And, in The Evening Capital, Mr. Rickolt spent the St. John’s spirit of trying to get to the months growing a beard so that his looks would be authentic. 1951 was not a big year root of every issue, tutor Winfree Smith for the popularity of facial hair, and he gave a lecture before the play on the reported being stared at and experiencing British Reformation period. T {The College - St. John’s College . Spring 2001 } From the college archives COMES THIS 1951 photo OF AN elaborate King William Players production. V ► ■' �{Alumni Events Calendar} Croquet Match St. John'’s vs. U.S. Naval Academy Saturday atj, 1 p.m., (Rain date; April 29) CLASS OF Summer Alumni Program, Week 1 Section I - The Art ofLiving Well Readings from Montaigne’s Essays and Chuang-Tzu Led by Mark Rollins and Krishnan Venkatesh If to philosophize is to learn how to die, by” what can we learn how to live? These semi­ nars will constitute an imagined conversa­ tion between one of the greatest Taoist sages and the i6th century Frenchman who first wrote the personal essay. Although the cultural roots of these two men are quite dif­ ferent, both share a deep suspicion of human claims to know, and both draw from huge treasuries of story and anecdote in their nimble interrogations of life. They engage many of the same issues-among others: dying, illness, disability, ambition, thought itself, and even the value of doing nothing-and introduce us to some surpris­ ing teachers. Lord Wen-Hui said, “That’s good indeed! Ting the cook has shown me how to find the Way to nurture life.” Section II- Two Dialogues With God Readings from The Bhagavadgita and The Book of Job Led by Phil LeCuyer and Michael Wolfe Participants will explore two conversations with God, one from the Hebrew scriptures and the other from an Indian epic. Morning seminars will revolve around Job’s encounter with the Lord in the Book of Job. Afternoon seminars will be devoted to Arju­ na’s exchange with Krishna in The Bha­ gavadgita. 7 A , Informal mini-reunions happen at the Croquet Match. Last year, the class of ’89 MET on the lawn; they brought new <*• All-Alumni Art Show in Santa Fe BABIES, SPOUSES, FRIENDS, AND LOTS OF FOOD AND WINE. lecoming aooi - Annapolis o' tiuii lecoming aoor ■ ® ' it' - Santa Fe Frid! Reunion classes: 71, 76, 81, 86, 91, and 96 September 30 Reunion Classes: 36, 41, 51, 56, 61, 66, 71, 76, 81, 86, 91, and 96 JT Summer Alumni Program, Week ^unudy) JLLiy xo j?ixuHy, j fflta Fe Mysteries and the Law: The Nature ofEvidence Led by Eva Brann, Grant Franks, and Barbara Lauer Who done it? How do you know who done it? How does the polity justly deal with he or she who done it? This week of mixed media and conversa­ tion addresses questions of crime, investiga­ tion, and punishment. Through the eyes of modern filmmakers and both contemporary and ancient playwrights and authors, we will examine the influences of perception and judgment in relation to mysteries. Texts include Billy Budd, Eumenides, Twelve Angry Men, and Pirandello’s So It Is (IfYou Think So). {The College - St John's College • Spring 2001 } For information on events, contact the Offices of Alumni Activities: Tahmina Shalizi, Director of Alumni and Parent Activities Santa Fe - 505-984-6103; tshalizi@mail.sjcsf.edu Roberta Gable, Director of Alumni Activities Annapolis - 410-626-2531; alumni@sjca.edu �STJOHN’S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS > SANTA PE Published by the Public Relations Office Box 2800 Annapolis, Maryland 21404 ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED Periodicals Postage Paid � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 44 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 The College, Spring 2001 Description An account of the resource Volume 27, Issue 2 of The College Magazine. Published in Spring 2001. Misnumbered as issue 3. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Goyette, Barbara (editor) Borden, Sus3an (assistant editor) Behrens, Jennifer (graphic designer) Mulry, Laura J. (Santa Fe editor) Johnson, David Hanlon, Erin Wolff, Peter Balkcom, John Eoyang, Glenda H. Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 27, Issue 3 Spring 2001 The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/6000ce628b9c12de7dd73c8bb1995edd.pdf 1e31c95a58ad4b1ad8f3c4c869929f25 PDF Text Text �STJOHN’S College ANNAPOLIS ■ SANTA FE On Faraday The College (usps 018-750) ichael Faraday was the Horatio Alger of Victorian Eng­ land. His father was a not-especially-successfnl black­ smith who had emigrated to London from Westmorland when the family fell on hard times. Faraday was born there in 1791. He went to school until he was 13 and at 14 he was apprenticed to a bookbinder. Through reading, the young man became fascinated with science. By the time he was 19 he was conducting chemical experiments on his own, with equip­ ment and materials he was able to scrounge, and he attended public lectures at the Royal Institution with tickets provided by one of the bookbinder’s patrons. In a positive effort at self-improvement, Faraday worked to purge his accent of Cockney origins. He corresponded with like-minded young men who also sought to expand their intellectual horizons. He considered science a noble activity and once wrote: “My desire was to escape from trade, which I thought vicious and selfish, and to enter into the service of science, which I imagined made its pur­ suers amiable and liberal.” On a long shot, without any introduction, Faraday wrote Sir Humphrey Davy, the eminent chemist, and enclosed the notes he had taken on Davy’s lectures. Later, when Davy injured his eyes in an experiment, he sent for Faraday to write for him and serve as an assistant. From there, Faraday’s rise in the very active Victorian world of science was swift. By 1813 he had been appointed Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution. By 1835, Faraday was the director of the laboratory at the Royal Institution. He lived upstairs, having married the daughter of a well-to-do silversmith, and had his laboratory in the basement. His focus was experimentation and on explaining to the public the principles governing nature. In r83i he began research into electromagnetic induction, resulting in a paper that established his reputation. He published 400 articles and books, including the monumental Experimental Researches in Electricity. Scientists in Victorian Britain felt a civic responsibility to use their expertise for the public good. Faraday made recommendations on railway safety. In his 60s he traipsed over rocky seacoast terrain to visit lighthouses and study how to improve their operation. He was called in to investigate a fatal mine explosion. He tried to improve the quality of steel by making different alloys. Faraday wasn’t a mathematician, and his experiments did not depend on or seek to find a mathematical explanation of the world. Faraday belonged to a strict Christian sect called the Sandemanians. He saw the natural world as divinely created, and sought the natural laws he felt reflected God’s will. Maxwell, who later developed the equations that described what Faraday had dis­ covered about electromagnetism, called him “The Great Electrical Philosopher.” M ~BG is published quarterly by St. John’s College, Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM. Known office of publication: Public Relations Office St. John’s College Box a8oo Annapolis, MD 21404-2800 Periodicals postage paid at Annapolis, MD Send address changes to The College Magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, Box a8oo, Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. postmaster: Annapolis 410-626-2539 b-goyette@sjca.edu Barbara Goyette, editor Sus3an Borden, assistant editor Jennifer Behrens, graphic designer Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Katherine Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 classics@mail.sjcsf.edu Laura J. Mulry, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board Alexis Brown Grant Franks Robert Glick David Levine Margaret Odell John Rankin Ginger Roherty Tahmina Shalizi Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �{Contents} Page Z2i Commencement 2001 DEPARTMENTS Elliott Zuckerman delivered a series of “preludes” for graduates in Annapolis; in Santa Fe, Cornel West urged graduates to challenge the assumptions of contempo­ rary mass culture. Page 2, FROM THE BELL towers • • • • • • • • • z6 Sophomore Seminar Forever All Johnnies have wrestled with the questions about faith, suffering, God, and mortality. But some alumni, whether by conviction or vocation, live in a world where theology is more than a speculative study. Faraday, the Experimenter Balkcom Inauguration invitation Liberty Tree clones New dean and GI director appointments McDowell’s facelift Poetry Slam highlights Philanthropia news The studs of St. John’s Mortimer Adler, an appreciation II ALUMNI VOICES • Marx Redux 36 ALUMNI NOTES ALUMNI PROFILES 38 Barbara Rogan (SF73) is a novelistshe can’t help writing Page 2/0 31 Robert Bienenfeld (SF80) markets tomorrow’s cars today Rousseau and Realpolitik 33 Tia Pausic (A86), a lawyer by training, works to build democracy in Croatia Five alumni in the world of politics discuss how the political philosophy on the pro­ gram relates to the issues they deal with in their professional lives. 36 Catherine Allen (A69), a cultural anthropologist, focuses on the people of the Andes Page 28 40 LETTERS It Takes Two Villages 41 OBITUARIES Timothy Miller considers what it means to learn in a community in his Dean’s Statement. • 43 HISTORY • Page /j-6 Nick Maistrellis on Leo Raditsa (page 43) The colorful past of Hunt House PAGE 46 43 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Say It Isn’t So What happened to St. John’s domination in croquet? ON THE COVER Michael Faraday. Illustration by DavidJohnson. • Finding lost alumni • Welcoming new alumni • Amendment procedures 48 ST. John’s forever �2. {From the Bell Towers} The Experimenter as Entertainer Michael Faraday was more than “the great electricalphilosopher. ” Who would think the burning of an ordinary candle a fascinating subject of study? Michael Faraday did, and his lecture on the topicoriginally delivered for childrenwas re-created this spring at a conference on Faraday held in Annapolis. “There is not a law under which any part of this uni­ verse is governed which does not come into play, and is not touched upon, in these phenomena,” wrote Faraday in the introduction to his lecture “The Chemical His­ tory of the Candle.” Grant Franks (A78), a tutor in Santa Fe, donned the garb of a nineteenth century gentieman­ scientist (a suit put together by his wife, based on a pattern for an Abe Lincoln Halloween costume) and grew three month’s worth of side­ burns in order to play Faraday. His demonstra­ tions performed in front of a crowd of students, faculty, visi­ tors, and children kicked off the three-day conference. Franks-asFaraday showed how a candle forms a cup for the melted wax, how capillary attraction occurs as a candle burns, how a candle’s vapor is combustible even after the flame is blown out, why a can­ dle flame is brightest at the top and darker toward the bottom, and how tongues of flame differ from a single candle flame, among other things. Learn­ ing the hues to the talk was the easy part. More challeng­ ing was assembling the props. “Finding different kinds of candles, shaping the glass tubes, practic­ ing the technique of piping gas out of a flame, figuring out how much copper chloride to add to the alcohol to make a green flame-it involved a lot of STUFF,” says Franks. Faraday dehvered public lectures, not in an academic setting but at the Royal Institution. The lab where he carried out his own experi­ ments was in the basement. “Faraday is important because he learns about the world by manipu­ lating it with his hands, not by casting it into algebraic forms that he can play with on a black­ board,” says Franks. “Of course, no scientist is obhvious to experi­ mental results, but Faraday is especially wonderful in the way his thoughts take physical form in the apparatus he builds.” Faraday understood the idea that there can be some show business in science-“Faraday was, among other things, the precursor of Mr. Wiz­ ard and of Bin Nye the Science Guy,” says Franks. The conference (sponsoredby the Dibner Fund) focused on two issues: How does experiment lead one to knowledge of nature, and how can such knowledge be made accessible to others, especially to non-scientists. Faraday is particu­ larly apt as a focus for these ques­ tions, says Annapolis tutor Howard Fisher, one of the confer­ ence organizers. While Faraday’s Experimental Researches in Elec- Santa Fe tutor Grant Franks, FaRADAY, PLAYING THE PART OF demonstrates the characteris­ tics OF flames. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } tricity is read in junior lab and several of his experiments on electromagnetism and electro­ magnetic fields are performed, his method of thinking and his approach to experimentation are themselves worthy of investiga­ tion and thought. The confer­ ence’s keynote lecture was dehv­ ered by tutor emeritus Thomas Simpson (A50) on the topic “Was Faraday a Mathematician?” Other lecturers included David Good­ ing, from the University of Bath (U.K.), Frank James, from the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and Ryan Tweney, from Bowling Green State University. In addi­ tion to the lectures and the candle demonstration, the conference featured a roundtable discussion of Faraday’s “Lecture on Mental Education” and some student demonstrations of classic Faraday experiments. Faraday, whom Maxwell called “the great electrical philoso­ pher,” has been studied at St. John’s for more than 30 years; a part of his 7th series on electro­ chemical equivalents was done in senior lab and small segments of the nth series on induction in junior lab. About four years ago, Annapohs adopted the Santa Fe manual for junior lab electricity and magnetism, which included much more generous portions of both Faraday and Maxwell, who developed the mathematical equations for the phenomena of electromagnetism that Faraday showed. A book by Howard Fish­ er, Faraday’s Experimental Researches in Electricity: Guide to a Eirst Reading, has just been published by Green Lion Press (run by Bill Donahue, A67, and Dana Densmore, A65, SFGI93); Green Lion has also just come out with a three-volume reprint of Faraday’s Experimental Research­ es in Electricity. “The conference was a great delight,” says Fisher. “I saw again, first hand, how deeply Faraday’s way of pursuing a ques­ tion resonates with ordinary read­ ers who respect a natural clarity in the things around them.” �{From the Bell Towers} Balkcom Inauguration Set for September All St. John’s College alumni are invited to attend the inaugura­ tion of John E. Balkcom as Santa Fe’s fifth president. Events will take place on Friday and Satur­ day, September 14 and 15. Dr. Hanna Holborn Gray, president emeritus of the University of Chicago, will give the inaugural address. Students, faculty, alum­ ni, and staff have been working on committees to organize the celebration, which wiU include events for all segments of the college community. The theme “Inviting Conversations” was developed to capture a sense of Mr. Balkcom’s vision for his Liberty Tree Lives On? When the Liberty Tree suc­ cumbed to damage from Hurri­ cane Floyd in the fall of 1999, lovers of the tree took heart in the fact that there were several offspring: a seedling planted across front campus, in front of what is now the Greenfield Library, by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1889 is now a very large tree; a Liberty Tree descendant from a seed hatching project begun by the Caritas Society in 1975 thrives on the grounds of the U.S. Capi­ tol; and some crack scientists at the University of Maryland are working on cloning the Liberty Tree using shoots taken from the tree’s new growth just months before the hurricane. Now it seems that the baby Liberty Tree on the Capitol grounds may be endangered itself. A plan to expand the Capi­ tol building with the construc­ presidency: a commitment to the program, including his intention to further relations within the college community and expand relationships with those who are unfamiliar with the college. On September 14, students, faculty, and staff will launch the weekend with a picnic on the soccer field, followed by an all­ college Chicago-style softball game (an athletic challenge that resembles “mush ball”). On Fri­ day evening, inaugural guests and college community mem­ bers will join with the Santa Fe community for a performance at the newly renovated Lensic Per­ tion of a visitors cen­ ter calls for the Lib­ erty offspring, along with 83 other trees that have national significance (some planted by Congress­ men to honor people or events important in their state’s histo­ ry) to be cut down. The tree, planted in 1978 by Maryland’s then-senator, Charles McC. Math­ ias, is now 40 feet high, with a trunk that is almost ao inches in diameter. Because the tree is so large, moving it would be expensive and perhaps fatal. However, after a couple of articles in the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun reported on its fate, the Liberty progeny suddenly appeared on the list of trees slated to be moved rather than chopped. Rebecca Wilson, former public relations director at St. John’s and the planner of forming Arts Center in down­ town Santa Fe. Students and alumni, in addition to profes­ sional musicians, will perform in honor of the occasion. There will be an Inaugural Breakfast for guests of the college and dele­ gates from distinquished liberal arts institutions on Satur­ day morning, followed by the official Inaugu­ ration at IO a.m. on Meem Library Placita. Immediately after the 3 installation of Mr. Balkcom, a reception will take place on the Upper Placita. Saturday evening, the festivities will conclude with a Student and Alumni Waltz Party in the Great Hall. 4- John Balkcom will BECOME Santa Fe’s fifth PRESIDENT IN AN INAUGU­ RATION THAT CELEBRATES THE St. John’s Program. ''The clones have been recalcitrant to rootformation ...bittwehaveni given up.'' The Liberty Tree, ca. 1955. WILL ITS OFFSPRING SURVIVE? the Liberty Tree seedling project in the 1970s, expressed dismay about the transplanting. “I don’t think it can survive the move,” she told the Baltimore Sun. She hopes instead that the design of the visitors center can be {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2001 } modified to save the trees. As for the clones, Gary Cole­ man, a University of Maryland professor who took cuttings of Liberty Tree shoots, says in an email that he is still working on the project. “We have estab­ lished tissue cultures and have managed to increase the number of cultured shoots through this process. Although this is good news, the clones have been very recalcitrant to root formation,” he says. “We haven’t given up and will continue until we suc­ ceed.” 4- �{From the Bell Towers} New Appointments FOR Dean, GI Directors Bill Pastille GI Director, Annapolis What qualifies a tutor to lead the Graduate Institute? Annapolis tutor Bill Pastille has one idea: “An advanced sense of not knowing anything.” As he begins his three-year term as Director of the Annapolis Gradu­ ate Institute this summer, Pastille discusses his Socratic take on life: “Socrates has become more and more understandable to me, his repeated refrain: I know that I don’t know. People either regard that statement as a sham, false modesty, or they try to take it seri­ ously,” Pastille says. “Socrates seems to know all the answers, but the more I live with him, the more I see it’s just a simple human truth. We’re constantly pretending to ourselves that we know something so that we’U have something to hang onto.” Pastille earned a BA in music from Brown University and an MA and PhD in musicology from Cor­ nell University. He became a tutor in 1986 and served as assistant dean from 1994 to 1996. It’s entirely likely that Gradu­ ate Institute students share Pastille’s sense of not knowing. Outgoing Director Michael Dink has recently written that they are in some sense more self-selected than undergraduates because “they have decided that they are in need of a liberal education when they had passed the stage of life when such a need is often con­ ceded, if not heartily endorsed, by common opinion.” By SusgAN Borden (A87) Frank Pagano GI Director, Santa Fe As the newly appointed director of the Graduate Institute, Frank Pagano has struggled with the question: what is an administra­ tor? Undoubtedly the title brings with it a slew of managerial mess­ es, loads of paperwork, and tons of added concerns. But Mr. Pagano, like many tutors, looks beyond the trifling details to the heart of his job. He believes the role of the administrator is to “think about how to keep the pro­ gram alive,” and to work to main­ tain the integrity of the program. Before joining the faculty at St. John’s, Mr. Pagano taught at the University of New England. Class­ es geared towards professional training began to replace the lib­ eral arts focus of the college, and the emphasis placed on grades reminded him to appreciate the importance of a liberal education. It should come as no surprise, then, that Mr. Pagano views his move to St. John’s, “where the grades were not paramount,” as the beginning of a “second life.” But this was not his only “sec­ ond life.” Along with marrying tutor Janet Dougherty and father­ ing two children, Rachel and Ron, Mr. Pagano counts his work with the Eastern Classics among his life-changing experiences. Teach­ ing classes in both Chinese and Ancient Greek have illustrated for him the uniqueness of both intel­ lectual traditions. Yet, he sees a startfing similarity between the Chinese and the Hellenic views of history, and he understands this similarity as a “point of contact” despite their differences. While on sabbatical, Mr. Pagano pre­ pared two lectures on Herodotus’ Histories, and the past fall semes­ ter he led a preceptorial on Sima Qian’s The Records ofthe Grand Historian. Studying these two eminent historians has provided him time to reflect on the nature of historical thought and how it is capable of traversing the wide gap that distinguishes Eastern and Western culture. Mr. Pagano sees this sort of inquiry as crucial to the life of the graduate program. In his eyes. Eastern Classics provides an excellent complement to studies in Western tradition. It helps stu­ dents discover, through another cultural perspective, “how human beings choose to live their lives.” Students in the Graduate Institute in Liberal Education also apply themselves to the study of this question, but within the context of their own cultural heritage. Mr. Pagano understands that by keeping the idea of their “point of contact” active, he keeps the two halves of the Graduate Instituteand the study of their distinctive programs-vigorous and alive. By John McCarthy (SFoz) David Levine Dean, Santa Fe David Levine (A67), appointed dean in Santa Fe this spring, brings to the office the experience of being a Johnnie himself. He feels he knows what it means to be on the other side of the desk, and often tries to view his administra­ tive tasks from the perspective of a student. That knowledge cou­ pled with 15 years of teaching experience, including holding the positions of assistant dean and the director of the Graduate Institute, prepare him for the role of dean. His academic career was not always aimed straight for the office of the dean, or St. John’s College for that matter. He spent his first year of undergraduate work at the University of Pennsyl­ vania, and it was not until he encountered that “sting ray” of a philosopher, Socrates, that he made a move for St. John’s. “Plato (The College ■ St. John's College ■ Summer sooi } “Should the dean wear jeans?” GI Director Frank Pagano (left) and Dean David Levine (right) address all manner of QUESTIONS IN THEIR NEW ROLES. ruined my medical career,” he says. Mr. Levine also had no idea when he was a student that he would ever become a tutor. After completing his graduate work at Pennsylvania State University, and while he was teaching at the University of Oklahoma, he received a call from the dean’s office offering him a position on the Santa Fe campus. He accepted because he knew that the interac­ tion with colleagues and students would be of a high caliber at St. John’s. He has thoroughly enjoyed the teaching side of the St. John’s experience, and is ready to meet the challenges associated with being dean. In that role he must address a variety of questions and demands, everything from “Should the dean wear jeans?” (Mr. Levine sports denim rehgiously) to decisions about faculty employment. He sees his new role as an opportunity to become more involved with student life by meet­ ing with organizations such as the Graduate Institute Council, the Student Polity, the Student Review Board, and the MoonTag, and by eating in the dining hall more often. In support of stu­ dents and the importance of their opinions in the decisions of the college, Mr. Levine would like to see the Student Committee on Instruction re-instated. 4" By John McCarthy (SFoi) �{From the Bell Towers} Of Bricks AND Mortar Venerable McDow­ ell Hall is covered with a fretwork of scaffolding this summer, as the exterior of the 259year-old building undergoes a reno­ vation. Workers from the A.J. Marani Company and Coastal Exteri­ ors in Baltimore are cleaning the brick, chipping out deteriorated grout, and putting in new grout (22 tons of it) where necessary. The cupola, whose tin roof had devel­ oped several leaks, is being re­ roofed with lead-coated copper. Begun as the governor’s man­ sion for the colonial head of the Maryland colony in 1742, the building was abandoned before being completed because of a dispute between governor Thomas Bladen and the legisla­ ture, which thought his original plan for the house too grandiose-£3000 for a house with a central three stories and single-story wings extending to each side, a colonnade of pillars, and on the inside marble floors and elaborate woodworking. When St. John’s was chartered in 1784, the state gave the building to the college. By 1789, the first classes were being taught in it. As late as 179a the college’s Board was stiU petitioning the General Assembly for funds to complete the hall. Until the mid1800S McDowell (named for the college’s first president) served every function on campus-it was the only classroom building, dormitory, dining hall, and pro­ fessors’ quarters (the hbrary Draped in plastic sheets and COVERED WITH A FRETWORK OF SCAFFOLDING, McDoWELL GETS A FACELIFT. hved in the octagon room under the cupola). During the Civil War, McDowell became the headquarters of the Union Army Medical Corps, which used the college as a hospital for exchanged prisoners. On February 20,1909, McDowell was gutted by a fire which began in the cupola and destroyed much of the front of the building. At the time St. John’s had compulsory mili­ tary training and ammunition was stored in the basement, but students managed to remove it before fire caused an explosion. The building was rebuilt accord­ ing to its original design. A com­ plete interior renovation in 1989 reconfigured former administra­ tive offices on the first floor into classrooms and included modern heating and air conditioning. Repointing the brick this sum­ mer proved somewhat controver­ sial with the Annapolis preserva­ tion community, some of whom felt that grout hke the original (made from lime and oyster shells) should be used, rather than the cement and lime compound proposed by the contractors. After a review by the Annapohs Preserva­ tion Commission, the contractors’ methods were approved. “This building was con­ structed in several phases over a period of many years,” notes John Christensen, the Annapohs admis­ sions director who has written a book about the architec­ ture and history of McDowell. “Its brick and the mortar hold­ ing it together are of different kinds. So this careful restoration is impor­ tant because it will ensure the building lasts another 250 years.” Tutor ExtraCURRICULARS Peter Kalkavage, a tutor in Annapolis, has a new transla­ tion of Plato’s Timeaus out. It’s published by Focus Press . . . Annapolis tutor Amirthanayagam David (A86) has a lecture “ ‘I Know Thee Not, Old Man’: The Renunciation of Falstaff’ published by the Universi­ ty of Chicago Press as a part of his teacher David Grene’s festschrift. Literary Imagina­ tion, Ancient and Modern: Essays in Honor ofDavid Grene.. .Annapolis tutor emeri­ tus Curtis Wilson is the author of a chapter called “Newton on the Moon’s Variation and Apsidal Motion; The Need for a Newer ‘New Analysis’” in the new book, Isaac Newton’s Natur­ al Philosophy, published by MIT.. .Santa Fe tutor emeritus {The College. St. John's College • Summer 2001 } 5 Charles Bell is featured in two recently published books by New York photographer Mariana Cook. The first. Couples: Speak­ ingfrom the Heart, shows Mr. Bell with his wife, Diana Bell. In the second. Fathers and Daugh­ ters, he is with his daughter Carola. . .Annapolis tutor Andre Barbera has recently published articles in The New Grove Dic­ tionary ofMusic and Musicians, Macmillan Publishers; “George Gershwin and Jazz” in The Gershwin Style: New Looks at the Music of George Gershwin, Oxford University Press; and biographies of Aaron Thibeaux (T-bone) Walker and Dianah (Ruth Lee Jones) Washington in American National Biography, Oxford University Press... Annapolis tutor Adam Schulman’s book review oIAll Shook Up by Carson Holloway appeared in the Wall Street Jour­ nal in March. The book’s subject is the potentially destructive effects of popular music.. .Santa Fe tutor William Alba is run­ ning the Bard Writing and Thinking Workshop in Santa Fe this summer. The workshop, sponsored by Bard College, is for high school students interested in creative writing. Mr. Alba has also started a publishing compa­ ny, Pulley Press, specializing in small runs of books that are chal­ lenging to print. The hrst book is An Oz Album, a collection of visual poetry related both to Dorothy’s journey in Oz in search of a way home and to a person’s hfe in Chicago in search of love.. .Annapohs tutor Eva Brann’s new book. The Ways of Naysaying, has been pubhshed by Rowman & Littlefield. It’s the third part of a trilogy that includes The World ofthe Imam­ nation: Sum and Substance and What, Then, Is Time?. .. Annapolis tutor Jim Beall had articles pubhshed in Proceedings, the U.S. Naval Institute, “Tech­ nology Policy and Military Readiness at the Dawn of the Millennium” and “Restore the Focus on Technology.” �6 {From the Bell Towers} Franz Strum Slammin’ Stanzas (SF04) delivers VERSE AS PERFORMANCE ART IN THE FIRST ANNUAL POETRY In celebration of National Poet­ ry Month, Meem Library and the Bookstore in Santa Fe spon­ sored the campus’ first annual poetry slam in April. Poetry slams make a competitive art of performance poetry. Partici­ pants are judged on both the content of their poems and the quality of their performances. The most exciting performers interact with their audiences, and the structure of a slamwith poets advancing in the rounds according to their judged scores-depends on the performer-to-audience and audience-to performer relationship. At the St. John’s slam, a panel of judges from the college commu­ nity that included tutor David Carl, library staff member Tim Taylor, and junior Paul Obrecht rated the 15 high-energy contest­ ants on their delivery, content, form, and style. The poets exhibited great variety in form, style, and above all-content. From haiku to blank verse to pure rampage, the contestants never let the audience’s attention waiver. Not for a second. The contestants were students, freshmen to sen­ My Lady’s Blancmange (3poem by winning slammer Mirabai Knight, SF02) iors, with one lone, brave tutor (William Alba). The rounds were fast-paced and fun. The decisions about who should go on to the next round and who should join the audience were difficult indeed. Mr. Carl said he was “impressed with the virtu­ osity and level of skill” of the poets. The first place winner was Mirabai Knight, a junior. Knight proved herself a true actress: with each poem she changed her stance, her accent, and her tone. —Marika Brussel Ye Gods! Her smile, a tender eel whose spark and sinew strike the fray of pallid, melancholy meal awash in jellied consomme. The ringlets twining ‘twixt her thumbs along a swathed stretch of brow, beneath which Thought’s Dark Lantern hums and sput­ ters rich, (as per allow) the treacle-coats of mallow, ripe until they wither, sweet and spenthut yet they wax, as folds of tripe unfurl to zaftig firmament! The pearly spiralling within, whose snares admit of no escape, the slumb’ring lips and sinking chin, the ridge of silk, the sulk of nape... My bosom fluttersOh, my soul! Would that her ochre eyes were mine, and intermittent brilliance through a patient augure’s agar shine. Student ExtraCURRICULARS On campus, they are united by a single program. Off campus, their interests are as numerous as the entries in the Lidell-Scott Lexicon. Here’s a quick look at what Johnnies are doing off-campus these days. Ellie Kocezela (SF04) and Erin Hanlon (SF04) traveled to Nashville, Tenn, to attend the aooi Amnesty International Annual General Meeting as rep­ resentatives the SJCSF Amnesty group. They spent three days attending panel discussions and participating in breakout ses­ {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer sooi } SlAM. sions as they looked for ideas to make the campus group more effective. Adriana de Julio (SFoi) has won a one-year fellowship with the National Institutes of Health to conduct cancer research and Susannah Daniels (SFoi) has a conservation internship at El Malpais National Monument in Grants, N.M. Philip Bolduc (SFoi), Brian Ballentine (SFoi), Karen Gosta (SFoi), and Justin Kray (SFoi) have internships to teach English in France through the French Department of Edu­ cation. Elizabeth Royal (Aoi) will spend two weeks this summer at the Claremont Institute, a con­ servative think tank, as a Pub­ lius Fellow. She will attend semi­ nars on political philosophy and the American political tradition, contemporary political issues, and political rhetoric and writ­ ing. Among the 18 Annapolis stu­ dents pursuing Hodson Trust internships this summer are Randy Pennell (A02), interning with the Philadelphia ybers; Hannah Ireland (Aoi), working with a documentary production company; Lydia Frewen (Aoa), learning to make violin bows at the University of New Hamp­ shire; and Peter Heyneman (A02), attending the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. �{From the Bell Towers} Phoning for Philanthropia Tuition only covers about 75% of what it costs to educate students at St. John’s. The rest comes from the endowment andfrom contributions to the Annual Fund. Phonathons are part of the story behind those contribu­ tions. Q: You throw a phonathon and who shows up? A: In the case of St. John’s, 33 alumni from classes spanning 48 years, from Everett Wilson (A56) to Hayden Brockett (A04). Q: And just what does everyone do (besides making phone calls)? A: Eat dinner and compete for prizes for the most donations and the most new donors (the phone calls involve chatting with alumni, outlining the college’s needs, and asking for $$$). Q: So where do you throw that phonathon? A: In Annapolis, it’s the Conver­ sation Room-where else? In Santa Fe, it’s the Senior Com­ mon Room. Q: And who sits where? A: Interestingly enough, says advancement officer Mary Sim­ mons, at the Annapolis phonathon the very youngest and very oldest choose to sit right next to each other. It’s a Alumni phoning alumni; EFFECTIVE FUNDRAISING AND SUCCESSFUL FUN. social event that brings alumni together for a good cause. Simmons reports that the spring phonathon, held May 15, was a success. In Annapolis, ao volunteers made 619 calls, rais­ ing $r6,arr.5o from 149 donors. Among the donors, 63 were making their first gifts to the Annual Fund. In Santa Fe, 13 volunteers made 38a calls rais­ ing over $4aoo (gifts are still coming in). Of Santa Fe’s 59 phonathon donors, aa were making their first gifts. These high proportions of first-time donors are particularly satisfying to members of Philanthropia, the alumni organization dedicat­ ed to fundraising among fellow alumni. While Philanthropia’s goal is to increase alumni finan­ cial support to the college, it’s not just the number of dollars they want to increase. The num­ ber of donors counts too; foun­ dation and corporate support is often linked to the percentage of alumni who donate. Ginger Roherty, Director of the Annual Fund for the Santa Fe campus, is a fan of the phonathon approach. “There is a tremendous synergy when phonathons are conducted around seminar tables and there is a great sense of everyone working toward a common goal,” she says. “Everyone is truly having a good time and enjoying each other’s company.” Phonathons are one tactic Philanthropia employs to involve alum­ ni in financial support for the college. They also solicit alumni with bro­ chures and letters and they organize reunion class­ es to focus on social events. 7 cyber-networking, 3,035,763 Dollars given by Alumni and giving. FYOl Annapolis cam­ pus vice president 2,083,984* Jeff Bishop says that 1,953,944 FYOO Philanthropia 1,520,683 FY99 expects to meet its FY98 goal of a ten-percent increase in alumni participation in the Annual Fund. “We’re laying the groundwork for the plus $5,000,000 from the estate of Paul Mellon future of the col­ lege,” he says. 2,187 Number of “More young alum­ pYQj Alumni Gifts FYOO ■ ni are becoming 1,710 acquainted with FY99 Philanthropia and FY98H recognizing the col­ lective power of the number of gifts given to St. John’s.” Before the creation of Philanthropia, alumni giving was around 20%, well below the median of other small liberal arts colleges, which garet Odell (SGI97), Rachel is 44%. “Today, we’re up to 25%, O’Keefe (A82), John Oosterhout with reunion classes making the (A5r), John Wood (SFoi), Elaine biggest improvements, now up to Coleman Pinkerton (SGI88), and 30%. “While we have a long way Inga Waite (SF87). to go,” says Bishop, “we feel Philanthropia’s leadership confident that someday we will recently changed. Leslie Jump get there.” (A84) is the new chair of Philan­ Philanthropia wants to thank thropia. Other members of the the phonathon volunteers, Steering Committee are Amber including Mary Pat Justice Boydstun (SFpp-overseeing “spir­ (SGI71), Katherine Haas (A60), it” activities), Eloise Collingwood Merle Maffei (AGI86), Harry (A79-overseeing communica­ Zolkower (A82), Chris Olson tions), Brett Heavner ( ABp-over(A78), Thea DelBalzo (AGIoi), seeing the reunion class leaders), Rosamond Rice (AGI81), Karen Marta Lively (A78-at large), Paula Salem (A76), Everett Wilson Maynes (SF77-overseeingpoh(A56),Tom Tandaric (A98), Pilar cy/membership), Becca Michael Wyman (A86), Tim Pomarole (A97-overseeing strategy), and (A98), Steve Wilson (AGI99), Amy Thurston (A95-overseeing Jim Heyssel (A84), Hayden events/phonathons). -ijiBrockett (A04), Isadora Sageng (A03), Stephen Steim (A03), Stephanie Porcaro (A03), Brooke Lee (A03), Gin Behrends (AGI90), Anne Ferro (A80), Joni Arends (SF89), Carisa Armen­ dariz (SF99), Claiborne Booker (A84), Kit Brewer (SGI98), Alex­ is Brown (SFoo), Peter Dwyer (A86), Geri Glover (SF80), Mar­ {The College -St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } Philanthropia seeks volunteer help from all alumni who want topar­ ticipate, whether in a small or large role. Ifyou ’re interested, please call or e-mail Maggie Griffin in Annapolis: 410-626-2534, m-griffin@sjca.edu or Ginger Roherty in Santa Fe: 5O5-g84-6og<). �8 The Studs of St. John’s Ostensibly as a fundraiser (but primarily for the novelty value) several juniors in Santa Fe cre­ ated the wildly popular “Studs of St. John’s” calendar. Featur­ ing the 15 most macho men per­ suaded to pose for a project ini­ tially dismissed as a dubious attempt to raise money, the cal­ endar turned out to be a raging success. While this “success” was mostly realized in terms of school-wide interest rather than fiscal returns (due to con­ fused leadership and poor financial forecasting), the entire project served Santa Fe well. It’s not every year that the campus is hit with a Studs calendar-and despite the lack of a precedent, the outrageous pic­ tures amused all those exposed to the handsome visages and physiques displayed in the cal­ endar. The project was conceived to finance the so-called Junior Block Party, another first for Santa Fe. The block party-held on a pleasant sunny day in May-featured live music, a bar­ becue, outdoor games, much {From the Bell Towers} lounging in the sun, the third annual women’s arm wrestling contest, and kegs of beer to help facilitate the atmosphere. The block party, financed by pre-pro­ duction sale of the calendars, treated all to a good time and lived up to its expectations. Unfortunately, with a business plan that drew on the dot-com legacy, the calendar’s start-up money got spent on the party and there were no funds left to produce the calendar. After many rounds of creative negoti­ ations with several businesses in Santa Fe and a few helpful mem­ bers of the St. John’s adminis­ tration, the calendar was pro­ duced at a cost far below initial expectations-with photos of superb quality and ridiculous content. —BY John Rankin, SFoa Greatest Hits (in Russian) Valery Serdyukov (left), the governor of Leningrad, recently LiSA RICHMOND (RIGHT), PRESENTED A GIFT OF 30 RUSSIAN BOOKS TO GrEENFIELD LIBRARY AS BuD BiLLUPS, COLLEGE ThE BOOKS INCLUDED WORKS BY ToLSTOY, DoSTOEVSKi, Chekhov, and Pushkin, The governor was in Annapolis to SIGN A TRADE AGREEMENT WITH PaRRIS GlENDENING, GOVERNOR OF Maryland, and expressed an interest in donating books to a local COLLEGE. The Russian classics found a home with the other “greats” at the St. John’s library. LIBRARIAN AT THE A point of history: As John Rankin points out, it’s not every year that the college is hit with a Studs calendar. But such an event did happen at least once before-in Annapolis in 1987, when Ben Birauss (A88) pro­ duced “The Men of St. John’s.” Drawing on the non-PC transla­ tion of the college motto “I make free men out of boys by means of books and a balance,” TREASURER, LOOKED ON. the calendar featured comely men posing in St. John’s-esque situations: Krauss in front of the pendulum pit mural, Steve Hulbert (A87) in the King William Room, Chandran Madhu (A88) in front of an Apollonius proof, Mark Shiffman (A89) at the switchboard, Jeff Kojak (A89) at the plane­ tarium, Andre Wakefield (A87) in a music room, Scott Vineberg (A88) near the French Monument, Toby Barlow (SF88) in a Humphreys bathroom, Vince Pruden (SF89) in the art gallery. Matt Krawiec (A88) at the boat house, John Lavery (A87) in the weight room, and John Pronko (A90) in the con­ versation room. La plus qA change; St. John’s studs in aooi and 1987. {The College - Si. John’s College • Summer 2001 } �9 {From the Bell Towers} Mutant Gene Discovery When Marc Priest (Aoi) began an internship at the National Institute of Allergies and Infec­ tious Diseases during the sum­ mer before his senior year, he thought he’d be learning some lab techniques and helping out with minor projects. Instead, he discovered a gene mutation that was causing a i6-month-old patient to be particularly suscep­ tible to common bacterial infec­ tions that most people fight off with no trouble. Under the direction of Dr. Steve Holland (A79), Priest set out to find what was causing the patient’s interferon gamma receptor-alpha deficiency. They knew that a gene mutation pre­ vented the receptor from processing a chemical that is essential to the functioning of the body’s immune system. He isolated the gene, cloned it, and then com­ pared it to normal genes to locate the mutation. Priest found that both the child and his mother had a deletion on the gene that acts as a chemical receptor for the immune sys­ tem’s pathway. “After I found the mutation I met with the Marc Priest, shown AT GRADUATION WITH President Nelson, LOCATED A GENE MUTA­ TION THAT CAN AFFECT THE IMMUNE SYSTEM. patient and his mom,” says Priest. “I explained to her that the child’s condition was treat­ able. This was certainly gratify­ ing.” Treatment consisted of injecting double the amount of the chemical that cannot be uti- barred, music-wise) Annapolis Homecoming 2001 . The traditional Saturday Take a handful of Annapolis alumni and ask them which building, Mellon or McDowell, is closer to the heart and soul of the college. Only the incorrigible will say Mellon. Yet Mellon’s FSK lobby has been the site of all Homecoming registrations in recent memory as well as the big Saturday evening cocktail party, when the acoustically challenged room echoes with a din ren­ dering individual words inaudible. This year we say, “Enough of this.” Homecoming (Sep­ tember 28-30) will at last reflect the fond feehngs of alumni for McDowell, with regis­ tration moved to the cozy quarters of the Coffee Shop and the cocktail party moved to the Great Hall and the first and second floor classrooms. Other decidedly non-lobby events will include: • A career panel, both for cur­ rent students and job-chang­ ing alumni • Two rock parties, one Friday night in the boathouse (all seventies music, sans disco), one Saturday night in the Coffee Shop (no holds night waltz party in the Great Hall Seminars running the gamut from Plato to Emerson, from Robert Frost to Chfford Geertz, from Shake­ speare to Toni Morrison, with a seminar on Harry Potter for children Reunion dinners, picnics, croquet games, and cocktail parties, for reunion classes 1936, 1941,1946, '95>-1956, 1961,1966,1971,1976, 1981,1986,1991, and 1996 • The Special Meeting of the Alumni Associa­ tion, where Nancy Lewis, John Moore and Beate Ruhm Von Oppen will be made Honorary Alumni “Essay Conference” by Jo Ann Mattson, A(i7 {The College- St. John’s College - Summer 2001 } lized because of the missing gene. “This particular deletion occurs in only one out of 200,000 patients, but it is significant to study it. Looking at the few that are with­ out the receptors in their immune system pathways helps us to understand how the pathways work. This helps us understand how to help normal people who are susceptible to such bacteria as tuberculosis,” he says. • The Saturday night Homecoming banquet, where Tom Williams (A51) and Warren Spector (A81) will receive the Alumni Association Award of Merit • The Soccer Classic, with the alumni rarin’ to avenge last year’s loss to the students • The Homecoming auto­ graph party, with alumni and faculty authors signing books ranging from western novels to translations of Aristotle and Plato • Sunday brunch at the home of President Christopher B. Nelson (SF70) The Homecoming lecture Fri­ day night will be dehvered by Abraham Schoener (A82), who will speak on “The Biology of the Fermentation Vessel.” Before and after the lecture, students, faculty and alumni will gather, yes, in the FSK lobby. Some things never change. 4" Contact the Annapolis alumni office at 410-626-2331 or alumni@sjca.edu to registerfor Homecoming. �IO {FromtheBellTowers} Mortimer J. Adler, An Appreciation ortimer Adler-a teacher, author of books that popularized themes in philosophy, and compil­ er of the Great Books published by Encyclope­ dia Brittanica-died on June 28 in San Mr. Adler played an important role in Mateo, Calif., at the age of 98. the establishment of the St. John’s Pro­ gram, of which he was a vigorous support­ er over many decades. From the earliest days of the New Program he visited St. John’s, both in Annapolis and Santa Fe, many times to lecture and to meet with fac­ ulty and students. He was an articulate spokesman for liberal education and for the reading and discussion of great books as central and fundamental to it. Along with such colleagues as Scott Buchanan, Stringfellow Barr, Mark Van Doren, Richard McKeon, and Robert Hutchins, he made a major contribution to the estab­ lishment of great books programs not only in Annapolis and Santa Fe but also in New York, in Chicago, and all across the country. In the more than three dozen books that Mortimer Adler wears a crown after being he wrote, Mr. Adler sought to clarify for a PROCLAIMED, A LA NaPOLEON, THE HOLY EmPERwide general audience a variety of pro­ OR OF THE Western World in the 1992 lec­ found philosophic questions illuminated ture PRANK. by the study of the greatest authors. His books included How to Read a Book, How to Think About War and Peace, The Differ­ then went to the University of Chicago as a ence ofMan and the Difference It Makes, professor of the philosophy of law. Aristotlefor Everybody, miHov: to Think Mortimer Adler did not believe that the About God. full exercise of intellect was something for a Born in New York City, Mr. Adler small academic elite. In 1946, he joined with dropped out of De Witt Clinton High Robert Hutchins to organize a Great Books School when he was 15, and worked for the program for the general public and arrange editor of the New York Sun. Deciding that for the Encyclopedia Britannica to print a he wanted to study philosophy, he attended 54-volume set of such books, for which he Columbia University and completed the contributed the Syntopicon, a guide to the course of study, but did not receive a diplo­ themes, questions, and arguments to be ma because he refused to take the swim­ found in them. In 195a, he organized the ming test that was a physical education Institute for Philosophical Research. He was requirement. Even without his degree, editor and then chairman of the board of however, he became an instructor in phi­ editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica losophy, and in 1928 he received his PhD beginning in the mid-1960s. He organized (eventually being granted a BA by Colum­ and led seminars for executives at the Aspen bia in 1983.) He did research in psychology Institute, and initiated the Paideia Project and taught at Columbia from 1923 to 1930, to make practice of the liberal arts and dis­ M cussion of great books central to the high {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2001 } school curriculum. At St. John’s, Mr. Adler is remembered as an energetic advocate of studying the great books and practicing the liberal arts-one who never stopped ask­ ing the big questions, both theo­ retical and practical, and who always relentlessly insisted on clarity in discussing them. He showed himself as such a man in the course of visiting this Col­ lege as a lecturer, with undimin­ ished vigor, for almost sixty years. In the early years, his lec­ tures were several hours long, which gave rise to the tradition, ever since the late 1930s, of interrupting his talks with a stu­ dent prank. Some were simple­ like the first, which consisted of a hall full of alarm clocks which all began ringing at exactly one hour into the lecture. Some were quite elaborate, like the one in which the curtain opened behind the lecturer, to reveal a tableau of students costumed and posi­ tioned to resemble the Renaissance painting “The School of Athens”: there was a Homer in it, and a Virgil, and a Plato, and the restbut no Aristotle; out came a student, who placed a wreath on Mr. Adler’s head and escorted him into the scene, to take the place of Aristotle. Mr. Adler loved it. He took the pranks as they were meant to be taken-as signs of affection and regard for a man who loved reading hard books, asking deep questions, clarifying alternative answers, and making thought make a differ­ ence in the world. Mr. Adler is survived by four sons: Mark, of Chevy Chase; Michael, of Grand Junc­ tion, Colorado; and Douglas and Philip, both of Chicago. A memorial will be held for him at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 29, at Homecoming in Annapolis. 4" —Harvey Flaumenhaft For a retrospective ofpranks staged during Mortimer Adler’s lectures, see page 39. �{Alumni Voices} MARX REDUX By Sarah Fridrich, SF99 n the two-year anniversary of my senior oral-on my essay concerning Karl Marx and his discus­ sion of capitalism-I found myself, late at night, scribbhng a letter in a notebook near my bed­ side. It was addressed to Ms. Engel, the chair of my senior oral committee. The letter began: “I’ve been thinking about and slowly sort­ ing out what excited me about Marx’s assessment of capital­ ism. Now, I would like to contin­ ue the discussion that had only just begun at the table in Meem during my oral. You had posed several questions to me about my essay. The most troubling question was about revolution.” Recent protests at the World Trade Organization talks in Quebec, Washington, D.C,, and Seattle had given me new incen­ tive to decipher what Marx was trying to say about capitalism. The protes­ tors questioned whether impacts that world trade agreements could have on the environ­ ment and on the populations and socioeco­ nomic stability of developing countries would be brought to the discussion tables. Sitting comfortably at my mother’s home in Annapolis where I grew up, I wondered why they thought these things. Why did pro­ testors believe, even though many of them had no first-hand proof of it, that certain issues were not being addressed? Why did they feel compelled to shout and carry signs? It had been five years since I’d participat­ ed in similar activities. I’d started a petition signed by the majority of female students demanding that the administration permit us to wear long stockings during the winter months at our CathoUc high school. I’d Sarah Fridrich, who currently works in MARKETING in AnNAPOLIS, WRITES SONGS AND PERFORMS WITH HER BAND IN HER SPARE TIME. marched past the White House with a body of young people shouting to be heard on the issue of gay rights. I’d made posters and got petitions signed while shouting for more culturally diverse faculty and curricula to serve the needs of a diverse student body at a small liberal arts college in upstate New York. Then, in 1994,1 enrolled at St. John’s and I knew there wouldn’t be shouting, it wouldn’t be necessary. I became accustomed to being heard and having fruitful discussions-in attempts to figure out what it means to be human-on topics such as heroism, war, and revenge; truth, knowledge, and intellect; god, cer­ tainty, and morality; rights, givens, and {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } assumptions. At times I may have felt like holding up a sign to get my point across, but it was never necessary. In silence, I often learned more. I found that, by listening, I prepared others to better hear me. When the discussion turned to Marx’s essay on alienated labor, I felt compelled to put some words on paper, but there was still no need for it to be fluorescent poster board. In my senior essay, I managed to say a few things and to clarily what he meant when he criticized the German Ideologists and when he talked about the effects of capitalism on society. But when the hour for the senior oral was up, it felt like I had just started to uncover what I needed to know from Marx. Ms. Engel asked why I thought that non-vio­ lent revolution was possible within Marx’s philosophy. I really didn’t have an answer. The dilemma highlighted my need to sort out what Marx said from what Marx had inspired me to say. This would take much longer than the weeks we had to write an essay. Working in the business world after graduation gave me the opportunity to test my understanding of the philosophy that labor in capitalism is a commodity, and that capital must create more capital. Two years later, on the couch in my living room, I wondered if these shouting protes­ tors might benefit from a Johnnie-like dis­ cussion on Marx’s ideas. Had Marx laid the foundation for these protests? Did the pro­ testors know it? Maybe not. In my letter to Ms. Engel I submitted: “Much of Marx’s concern about capitalism was that it dehu­ manized common laborers ... Yet in Europe and America most of those labor issues have been addressed in the time since Marx wrote. Might Marx’s insights on capitalism still shed some light on current issues of working conditions? Is there a connection between the globalization of trade and the nature of capitalism as an ever-expanding economic system? ... Should I be making some signs and protesting?” I haven’t felt it necessary.. .yet. �{Commencement} COMMENCEMENT 2001 Ed Moreno (Santa Fe) and Barbara Goyette (Annapolis) BY he graduating Mr. Zuckerman attempted to clothe seniors-95 in the inevitable graduation bromides in Annapolis and in attire appropriate to St. John’s. He said in Santa Fe-chose he would present the seniors and mas­ as their com­ ter’s candidates with seven “preludes,” mencement which “have no required form. They may speakers one each be perfectly made miniatures; or they from the two basic may be mere fragments, famously pools: tutors at baffling to the experts.” the college whose real thoughts they The subject of the first prelude was the have been curious about for four years Tutors Peter Pesic and Janet Dougherty claim that at St John’s, the books are the CONGRATULATE THE SaNTA Fe GRADUATES. and “outsiders” who might have teachers. “It is easy enough for me to thoughtful words to send them on their agree with the truism,” he said, “for one way. In Annapolis, tutor emeritus Elliott of my own exaggerated opinions about Zuckerman presented a perfectly constructed, wittily pack­ teaching is that all a teacher can do is point to something. aged set of what he called preludes, while Harvard professor, Since in the St. John’s seminar the places pointed to are in the author, and lecturer Cornel West wove the theme of radical texts... that gives us both a role, the person pointing and the questioning into his address to the Santa Fe graduates. page that is pointed to. And this becomes a richly complicat­ ed process when, in the course of a seminar or a class discus­ Bromideless Preludes in Annapolis sion, all the participants are doing the didactic pointing.” Mr. Before the assembled seniors and the a6 master’s degree can­ Zuckerman’s second prelude also had to do with his role as didates and all their families and friends, plus students and teacher: “Even though I was officially an historian, I never alumni, Elliott Zuckerman, who’s been a tutor since 1961, was worried about our not doing official history. I have seen what introduced on the bright sunny morning of May 13 by Presi­ happens elsewhere when lectures on the Greeks intrude upon dent Chris Nelson. It cannot be said of Mr. Zuckerman that he Homer, and Machiavelli is crowded out by arguments about is incapable of uttering a trite remark, but it can certainly be when the Renaissance began...” said that he is incapable of uttering a trite remark and not Third, Mr. Zuckerman related anecdotes from his own stu­ identifying it as such. This character trait put him at some­ dent days, when he was enrolled in a course at Columbia thing of a disadvantage in delivering remarks at a graduation, taught by poet Mark Van Doren on Narrative Art. The course since, as he said, “Abromide [which is a commonplace] is rec­ included works like the Iliad, Don Quixote, and a novel by ognizable not necessarily by the inevitability of its words but Kafka. “The exam, as I remember it, consisted of two ques­ by the triteness of the very thought behind the words...Bro­ tions. The first question was: Which of the books in the mides are not only the expected material of commencement course did you like least? The second question was: To what speeches, but they are the substance of Graduation Day deficiency in your character do you attribute not liking this itself.” book as much as the others?...In classes in cultural history or {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer aooi } �{Commencement} ‘‘‘ Use your intellect to cut though the thicket ofmass tastes and mass culture...'' Cornel West {The College- St. John’s College • Summer zoot } ^3 �14 {Commencement} lost, or known students who have felt lost. the history of ideas there was one sort of “Perhaps at such times it might be useful to final exam that I found particularly vex­ remember the grapefruit crate, and to think ing. I refer to the Imaginary Conversation. of oneself as not entirely lost, but as in some One is asked to compare the view of (say) way analogous to the stray object that is both Saint Augustine and Hegel and Jane Austen lost and found and therefore neither lost nor on (say) what is the most important pursuit in Elliott Zuckerman in Annapolis (above). found. Allow oneself to hang poised, like a life. I was never able to get started on such a Santa Fe Seniors reflect on Cornel West’s QUESTIONS (below). character in Henry James who may want to comparison because I couldn’t decide how give two contradictory responses at the same these miscellaneous characters should time.” address one another. Does Saint Augustine Mr. Zuckerman wove the theme of myriad-mindedness versus sin­ call Hegel George? Is it in good taste for Jane Austen to ask Augus­ gle-mindedness throughout his address, and concluded with a prel­ tine to convey the greetings of Emma Woodhouse to Santa Monica? ude on the subject. A fable of La Fontaine, he said, is about a bat who At St. John’s College the students can engage in the Great Conver­ finds himself twice trapped in the nests of different weasels. The first sation without such stifling problems of entering into it.” time, he convinced the mouse-hating weasel that he was a bird; the Prelude number four involved the study of biology at the college. second time he convinced the bird-hating weasel that he was a “We used to do a whole year of biology lab in the sophomore year,” mouse. “And even though such myriad-minded animals are lovable said Mr. Zuckerman. “There was a student who, in the seminar, was enough, it is difficult for people to remain entirely comfortable with particularly taken with Plotinus, and with a principle called the mixed natures in these days that still recommend the Romantic One, which, as you know, is transcendental and undifferentiated. It virtues of sincerity and authenticity, virtues that seem to imply one­ happened that in the lab that student failed utterly to complete the ness. So it may not be so bad to take as a model La Fontaine’s inven­ fruit fly experiment. It was suggested at his Don Rag that he simply tive Chauve-souris.” couldn’t deal with the fruit flies because there were so many of them.” Facing the Big Questions in Santa Fe The fifth prelude included a story about Mr. Zuckerman’s gradu­ ate school experience at Cambridge, where he became friends with An uncommon May rain in Santa Fe marshaled the St. John’s Gollege Watson and Crick at the time they were discovering the double helix Glass of 2001, their families and friends across campus and into the structure of DNA. He and his literary friends had not been open with Student Activities Genter for commencement exercises on May 19. Watson because he was a scientist. “Part of our prejudice,” said Mr. Beneath a soft glow through skylights, in undergraduates received Zuckerman, “had been owing to the fact that those were the years the Bachelor of Arts degree, and 26 received the Master of Arts in when there was a sharp split between the sciences and those pursuits Liberal Arts degree. Nearly 700 visitors watched as the members of that were known as the Humanities. They were even called the Two the largest of the Santa Fe campus’ 34 graduating classes received Cultures, and there were scandalous revelations about physicists their degrees. who had never read Euripides... and The commencement was the first poets who didn’t know how many equa­ major event in the Student Activities tions bore the name of Maxwell.” Center, the new building-opened last Not all Mr. Zuckerman’s preludes fall-that overlooks the Atalaya Trail were from the academic world. The Arroyo. Although commencement is sixth told of a boy at a summer camp usually held outside on Meem Library who constructed a lost and found box, Placita, the crowd seemed not to mind a grapefruit crate that was already that rain forced the ceremony into the conveniently divided down the middle new space. The graduates and many vis­ into two sections. For each section he itors gathered in the gymnasium, while had a sign, one reading LOST and the others watched from the mezzanine. other reading FOUND...Day after day I The Anasazi Brass and the St. John’s watched people come up to the box ... College Chamber Choir performed, trying to decide which half ...was the with selections from the Brass includ­ more appropriate repository.” Some­ ing two trumpet tunes by Henry Purcell times, noted Mr. Zuckerman, he has felt 5 and from the Choir, “Regina Caeh” by {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2001 } j �{Commencement} 15 Gioaccino Rossini and “Sicut Cervus” by Gio­ to raise the courage to evaluate the evaluations, to interrogate the most basic presuppositions vanni Palestrina. The event was a milestone for the college. In and prejudgments in the spirit of intellectual his first commencement as president, John E. humility-back to the grandpop, eye-pop, potBalkcom revealed fondness and love for his first belhed, big-lipped, flat-nosed Socrates,” West ensemble of graduates, recalling numerous said. occasions on which students welcomed him into He continued, “Tradition is not something you inherit. If you want it, you gain access to it by the college community. Balkcom had become president of St. John’s College in Santa Fe just Cornel West in Santa Fe (above). means not just of hard labor but sacrifice, com­ nine months earlier, after a long career in busi­ Annapolis graduates parry and party bat. Looking deeply inside of yourself, and after the ceremony ( below) . ness and management consulting. always acknowledging that when you look inside Commencement speaker Dr. Cornel West, the yourself you’ll see, in part, the antecedent reali­ Alphonse Fletcher Jr. University Professor at ties, the histories, the social structures that have Harvard University, called upon the graduates to use their critical in part shaped us, but never render us captive, because we’re agents. thinking to challenge and question the seductions and shallowness We can make choices and commitments and decisions.” of mass culture and to remain true to their humanistic training. West In an address filled with references to Leo Strauss, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Seneca, and St. Paul, West brought a very contemporary is known for his best-selling book Race Matters, which triggered a national debate on race issues. Touching on influential traditions in focus to the age-old question that faces all graduating students: How religion, philosophy, democracy and populism, he lectures on race to adopt away of life of “genuine questioning.” That questioning, he said, “has to go hand-in-hand with the legacy of Athens: the spiritu­ issues, education and other subjects. Dr. West Uved part-time in Santa Fe throughout the academic year. He attended lectures at the ality of genuine loving, serving, situating oneself in a story bigger than oneself, being able to locate oneself in a narrative grander than college and stayed to participate in discussions that followed, which is how the students got to know him. As in Annapolis, the seniors in oneself, that tries to tease out the better angels of one’s nature, to Santa Fe choose who will be invited to give the commencement get one out of one’s egocentric predicament.” West said young people might realize the importance of not “sell­ address. West posited the essential question: “The one question that will ing their souls for a mess of potage,” but they nevertheless must continue like a drum beat to confront you, the most frightening somehow confront our market-driven civilization, where the guid­ question, the most terrifying question, the question that sits at the ing principle is “the nth commandment: Thou shalt not get very center of the humanistic educa­ caught.” West concluded his remarks by urg­ tion; What does it really mean to be human? We will not get out of space and ing the graduates to continue to use time alive, and what are you going to do their “intellectual and existential armor” acquired at St. John’s to fight in the meantime?” West illustrated his point with refer­ for justice, “not because you would somehow create a better world ences to Socrates’ remark in Plato’s Apology, that the unexamined life is overnight, but rather, as my grand­ not worth Uving (and to Malcolm X’s mother used to say going all the way addition: “the examined life is back to gut-bucket black churches and painful”). As Socrates, who was on trial Jim Grow Mississippi, that ‘if the king­ for questioning the “pretenders to wis­ dom of God is within you then every­ dom” of his day. West challenged the where you go you ought to leave a little graduates to use their intellect and to heaven behind.’ Leave the world just a “cut through the thicket of mass tastes little better than how you found it,” he and mass culture” that dominate socie­ said. ty in the present day. Both commencement addresses are “Intelligence is a manipulative facul­ ty. It allows us to evaluate immediate on the web. Elliott Zuckerman’s speech context. But intellect is about awe and is at www.sjca.edu, and Cornel West’s wonder and astonishment. It forces us is at WWW. sjcsf. edu. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } �{Johnnies on Theology} SOPHOMORE SEMINAR FOREVER Reflections on theoloflcal questions by religious alumni. BY Sus3AN Borden, A87 t St. John’s, we come to seminar seeking answers bnt walk away with questions. Nowhere is this more true than in sophomore seminar, where we read the Bible, the “A saints” and Martin Luther, Dante and Chaucer. At year’s end most of us gather our thoughts, settle on answers, and resolve to live with our doubts and difficulties. But some, by conviction and often vocation, live in a world where theology is more than a speculative study. They are pastors and can­ tors, rabbis and chaplains, ministers and seekers. Their lives are a permanent search, where the questions of sophomore seminar are forever open. Bible ioi The Bible is the stepping stone in the rushing stream of reli­ gion at St. John’s-no matter what their religious upbringing (or lack of it), sophomores all read and discuss the Bible as a part of the program rather than as a basis for belief. For some students, it’s hard to separate past associations and to address the text directly; for others, reading the Bible opens their minds to a new world. The Rev. Janet Hellner-Burris (SF77) remembers her sen­ ior enabling oral: “I had boned up on all those seminar books and I was ready to go,” she says. “The tutor asked me, ‘Ms. Hellner, do you remember the story of the prodigal son?’ and I thought, ‘Come on, I grew up on this stuff.’ He said, ‘It’s in Matthew,’ and I said, “No, it’s Luke 15.’ And then they knew who they were talking to.” Familiarity with the text, says Hellner-Burris, did not turn out to be an advantage: “I had a miserable exam. I could not get beyond a Sunday school understanding of the story.” Hazzan (Cantor) Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo (A95), howev­ er, had never read the Bible until sophomore seminar. The son of a Jewish mother and an Italian-Catholic father, his reli­ gious background was fairly limited: “The only Judaism I had in my family,” he says, “was when my mother got angry at my father. Then she would say, ‘Frank, don’t forget you’re a Jew!”’ When Lanzkron-Tamarazo finally arrived at the sophomore seminar table, he says it was an awakening; in some ways, a rude awakening. “To hear about a God who destroys an entire world of people except for Noah, to hear about a God who would let Abraham sacrifice his son, to learn about David betraying his soldier, that made me angry,” says LanzkronTamarazo. But, he says, that anger led to some lively discus­ sions in the Nick Capozzoli-Wendy Allanbrook seminar and brought him to study Hebrew with tutor Michael Blaustein (A74) for a year and a half. Nine years later (five of them spent studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America), Lanzkron-Tamarazo is now a cantor. Both his training and his cantorial practice require the reading of the Talmud and the AfwAraa-biblical commentaries that inform the Jewish interpretation of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). “You can’t read the Torah just by reading it as a book,” he says. “What makes it a part of the Jewish tradition is the way the rabbis understood it in the writings of the Talmud and the MishnaT Lanzkron-Tamarazo’s problems with stories like the bind­ ing of Isaac were put to rest by the commentaries. “I asked, {The College. St. John’s College • Summer 200 f } �I? ing to him because of his work. “I think there is a tragic char­ acter to existence. God, for bet­ ter or worse, created the world in a certain way and we have to deal with the consequences. That may be blaming God some, but that’s all right with me. I think God knows there’s lots of trouble in this world and it’s not all our fault. I guess I’m more involved now with how to manage the cre­ ation as we find it, not so much asking how it became this way.” The relationship of God and suf­ fering comes up often in Dillard’s work because of the degree of pain he encounters and because of the population of patients he works with: mostly poor, sometimes undereducated, and often with a strict religious background that features a punishing God. “One of the main things patients here need to believe is that you don’t have schizophrenia because of sin. It’s a medical thing, not the response of an angry God,” he says. “That’s a big issue for people here. They think they’re suffering because of something they did.” “Why is the universe as it is?” he asks. “The longer I con­ tinue with my faith and ministry, I become less and less clear about issues that were so plainly clear when I was growing up. I’d like to have God come out looking good, but I think it’s a process where the universe is emerging and God’s under- how could God tell Abraham he’s going to he a father of a multi­ tude of nations and then ask him to destroy his only son?” he says. “I was bothered that Abraham would go ahead with it, even if it Outward symbols of religion like a church steeple or meno­ rah SERVE AS reminders OF PROFOUND THEOLOGICAL ISSUES. was God who asked.” As it turns out, the great rabbis of the ages have had some of the same prob­ lems. “The rabbis weren’t so troubled by God as by Abraham. Before this story, Abraham ques­ tioned everything and haggled with God. But when it came to Isaac, he said okay. He went up the mountain and lied to his only son,” says Lanzkron-Tamarazo. Janet Hellner-Burris (sf 77) “A hero can be flawed.” Yhave a deeper understanding ofthe question ofsuffering than I did in college, but I don i have the answer What About Job? Reading the Bible as a book, as it’s done in sophomore semi­ nar, leads some students to examine the stories in an almost literary way-the implications for their beliefs recede into the background as the stories’ universality is considered. Rev. David Dillard (A89), a psychiatric chaplain at a state mental hospital in Kentucky, wrote his sophomore essay on Job and says that, in the context of his current work, the ques­ tions of that book remain. “Why are people born with mental illnesses? Why should they suffer the way they do? How is a righteous God involved in all of that?” he asks. The questions he first dealt with on a theoretical level now have more mean- {The College - St John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } �i8 {JohnniesonTheology} Y think ofinterfaith work as an opportunity to share our glimpses ofGod. None ofus, by assumption, has seen Godface toface, but each ofus has experienced God in a variety ofways."" Clark Lobenstine (A67) standing is emerging too. I think God is struggling with cre­ ation as much as any of us are. “There’s a theology called ‘God Wins’ theology, where we do everything we can to make sure that God comes out look­ ing good. If there’s a problem, it’s not God’s fault, it’s some­ thing else’s fault. I don’t think God respects that frame of thought any more than a free-thinking individual would.” Dillard knows there are objections to his point of view: “One criticism of this kind of thinking is that I’m anthropomor­ phizing God, but I can’t bring the other kind of theology into a room with a patient.” Rev. Hellner-Burris, pastor of an urban church facing urban prob­ lems (violence, addiction, poverty, racism), also struggles with the question of suffering. “I have seen so much suffering in my workthat question doesn’t go away,” she says. “I would say that I have a deeper understanding of the question [than I did in college], but I don’t have the answer. All I know is that I would rather live with God and all of those questions than without God.” The Rev. Dr. Glark Lobenstine (A67), director of an interfaith organization, tells the story of William Sloan Coffin, a former chap­ lain at Yale: “His son was killed and someone gave him the tradi­ tional line about it being God’s will, and Coffin lashed out and said, ‘To Hell it was! God was the first to cry!’” As for Lobenstine’s understanding of God’s relation to suffering, he says that for him, it isn’t a question of how to understand suffer­ ing but a challenge of how to remain faithful in the face of suffering. “I am very clear that God never promised us a rose garden. There are joys that are part of the spiritual journey, some of which come in the midst of pain and suffering and some of which come in what appear to be much easier ways.” Glimpses of God When Lobenstine was in high school, he asked God to make clear His personal love for him. “I never doubted the existence of God,” says Lobenstine. “But I wanted something more personal.” The summer before his senior year, Lobenstine was in a car acci­ dent. “It was my fault. I broke the windshield and they had to pull the glass out of my mouth, but no one was injured,” he says. “I was very struck by this being the answer to my prayer. God didn’t cause the accident, but I felt he protected me in it. I responded to that experi­ ence, a revelation to me of God’s love, as a calling to my ministry. I was God’s to do with as he wanted.” Lobenstine’s ministry is an unusual one. As director of the Inter­ Faith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., he works with people of many faiths and representatives of many communities on a host of social issues from housing and child welfare to racial toler­ ance and interfaith understanding. Through his work, Lobenstine says, God is revealed to him in many ways: “I see a great variety and depth of God’s love. Although I’m profoundly grateful to be a Chris­ tian, I know from Sana the Muslim and Jan the Baha’i and D.C. the Hindu the great joy they have in their own relationship with God and the depth of that relationship with God. “I think of interfaith work as an opportunity to share our glimpses of God. None of us, I assume, has seen God face to face, but each of us has experienced God in a variety of ways. By sharing ghmpses, whether we are all Presbyterians or all Muslims or all Catholics or of diverse faiths, we deepen our understanding of God while we grow in our appreciation of our own traditions and our understanding of others’.” In her own spiritual journey, Vicki Manchester (SF71) has seen glimpses of God through different religions, from her Episcopalian childhood to a time when she attended a Jewish temple to now, when she has found what she was searching for in Tibetan Buddhism. Manchester says that faith does not demand understanding. Rein­ carnation, for example, is an important idea in Tibetan Buddhism, and although it doesn’t make sense to her, she has faith that it will. “I keep listening to my teachers and seeing that everything else they say makes sense. My respect for the dharma, the teachings, has steadily built up, mainly because it works. Being kinder to people really did increase my own happiness. That’s kind of a law of karma which is connected to the idea of reincarnation,” she says. “A lot of the teachings are mysterious to me. I can’t understand all of them, but I have faith that someday, maybe, I will.” The Rev. Rachel Frey (Agi), an associate minister at a suburban parish, agrees that questions of doubt can live within a faithful per­ son. “I wrote my senior essay about doubt,” she says. “I asked if you could be both faithful and doubtful, something I was thinking about and wanted affirmed.” Now, after seven years as a minister, she says she no longer looks for answers in theological readings. “I have more life experience that affirms my faith,” she says. “When I was at St. John’s, I thought about God in an academic way. Being a minis­ ter, my experience with congregations of faithful people has led me to believe in having a relationship with God, as opposed to thinking philosophically about a concept of God. I used to believe because it was logical, but now I believe because of the things I see in people’s lives.” Frey, who works part-time at the University Christian Church, in Hyattsville, Md., says she set out to find a position at a church with more than one minister so she could continue learning from some­ one with more experience. “I’m at U.C.C. because my senior minis­ ter, Marshall Dunn, is the kind of minister I wanted to be with and work with and learn from. He’s an excellent pastor. He loves his {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer soot } �{Johnnies on Theology} 19 ''When I was at St. Johns, I thought about God in an academic way. Being a minister, my experience...has led me to believe in having a relationship with God.'' Rachel Frey [A91] church and he’s beloved by his church. He loves people and he loves being a minister, which sometimes seems kind of rare. There are a lot of disheartened ministers out there.” Keeping the Faith As a pastor at an active and diverse church near Pittsburgh, Rev. Hellner-Burris has sought to avoid the disheartened minister syn­ drome by focusing on her prayer life. She recalls a time early in her ministry when she saw she was heading for burnout. “I became com­ mitted to daily prayer,” she says. “For me the inner journey is what feeds the outer journey. The inner focus of my prayer life has been crucial to my outward expression of ministry. I can’t do one without the other.” For Dillard, the psychiatric hospital chaplain, the difficult cir­ cumstances of his work keep him from burnout-an irony not lost on him. “This is a place where there’s a lot of suffering and mental anguish, but we’re able to do some good and help people out. Patients really give us the greatest affirmation.” As an example, Dil­ lard describes a group he leads in geriatric music: “These folks can’t remember what they had for lunch, but they remember all the words to the a3rd Psalm or ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’ or ‘The Old Rugged Cross.’ We’ll use these songs to access memories and emotions. We’ll sing the old church song ‘Break into the Garden,’ and it’ll bring somebody back to a little country church in Kentucky. “It’s a gift to worship with people who really want to be in a wor­ ship environment, a gift to be in a service with people who aren’t driving up to the church in a Jaguar. They come with a rawness you rarely see out in the real world where people put on their church clothes and church personas and don’t show their true selves.” -#■ Theology Bookshelf David Dillard (A89) is a psychiatric chaplain at Central State Hos­ pital in Louisville, Kentucky. He is a member of the Alliance of Baptists. He recommends: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky Tragic Vision and Divine Compassion: A Contemporary Theodicyiyj'^&aAy^sAey Either/Or by Soren Kierkegaard The Crucified Godby Jurgen Moltmann Rachel Frey (Agi) is associate minister at University Christian Church in Hyattsville, Maryland. She is a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She recommends: Desiring God: Meditations ofa Christian Hedonist by John Piper Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales by Leo Tolstoy The Christ-Centered Woman: Finding Balance in a World of Extremes by Kimberly Dunnam Reisman Janet Hellner-Burris (SF77) is pastor at the Christian Church of Wilkinsburg in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She recommends: Jesus and the Disinheritedby Howard Thurman Open Mind, Open Heart by Thomas Keating Pedagogy ofthe Oppressedby Paolo Frieire Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo (A95) is hazzan (cantor) and education director at Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim in Cranford, New Jer­ sey. He is a member of the conservative movement. He recom­ mends: The Guidefor the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides The Talmud over 500 years of rabbinical commentaries The Jewish IFtzz-by Josephus (around 37 c.e.) Clark Lobenstine (A67) is director of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He recommends: The Illustrated World’s Religions: A Guide to our Wisdom Traditions by Huston Smith A New Religious America by Dr. Diana Eck Vicki Manchester (SF71) has taken refuge vows as a Tibetan Bud­ dhist. She recommends: The Dhammapada (teachings of the Buddha) Liberation in the Palm p/’FoMr/ZazztZby Pabongka Rimpoche Ethicsfor a New Millennium by His Holiness The Dalai Lama The Art ofHappiness by His Holiness The Dalai Lama The Four Noble TFiztAj by Venerable Lobsang Gyatso What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula {The College - St. John’s College ■ Summer aoot } �ao {Politics} ROUSSEAU AM) HKAI.I'OI I I IK How alumni in the world ofpolitics are influenced by their St. Johns background. By John Rankin, SF03 rom a C-SPAN production studio to the diplomatic negotiating table in F Cyprus, St. John’s graduates have found their calling in the field of While the alumni interviewed for this article politics and government. Could express a great appreciation for their education, they­ this array of positions held by alum see the value moreniinindicate the mental tools and skills they a connection between picked up at St. John than in the content ofread the pro ­ the’spolitical philosophy at St. gram. Reading political careersphilosophy chosen? was not particu­ larly persuasive for any of them in terms of choosing a career; they felt a desire to get involved and pursue the causes important to them. However, all the alum­ ni profiled value the fact that they have read the majority of the political texts that played a role in the evolution of western political thought, and they cite this as an indispensable background for a thoughtful, substantive take on the political world of today. The stories of five alumni follow: an ambassador, a television producer, a writer and television panelist, and two who work at think tanks. Donald Bandler (sfgi 73) “Getting things done-that’s what it’s about,” quips Donald Ban­ dler, American Ambassador to Cyprus. Appointed to the post by former President Bill Clinton in May 1999, Bandler faces the complex and delicate issues concerning this small island nation off the southern coast of Turkey. As ambassador, Bandler’s pri­ mary mission is to represent American interests in Cyprus. This involves everything from providing political analysis to the U.S. State Department, to managing the 200-employee embassy in Nicosia. Recently, John’s and the he played a role in facilitating a major sale of Boeing planes to the commercial fleet of Cyprus Air. The issues facing any diplomat in Cyprus demand thoughtful analysis and careful handling. Divided since 1974 by a Turkish invasion, the status of the island as a whole, and potential unification, remains uncertain. Tensions run high, and lives have been lost in demon­ strations and uprisings. Bandler came to this post with a solid background in interna­ tional diplomacy. After j oining the State Department in 1976, his career took him to posts in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, where he participated in the negotiations leading to the unification of Germany. Consistent with the practice of political appointees, Bandler submitted a letter of resignation to President Bush when he took office. The Bush administration, however, has given no indica­ tion it would like him to leave, and Ambassador Bandler expects to stay at his post. Bandler’s connection with St. John’s began during his under­ graduate years at Kenyon College, where he met several profes­ sors who had studied with Leo Strauss and other academics involved in the Great Books movement. Bandler married Jane Goldwin (A71, daughter of former Annapolis Dean Robert A. Goldwin, A50) and completed the Graduate Institute in Santa Fe several years after graduating from Kenyon. {The College- St. John’s College • Summer sooi } �{The College* St. John’s College • Summer 2001 } �{Politics} ^...the conceptualfoundation acquired from studyingpoliticalphilosophy can be very helpful in thepolicy debate. Donald Bandler [SFGI73] Philosophy Meets Politics Bandler discusses the role that his political philosophy background hasplayed in the world ofRealpolitik in ‘"Philosophy Meets Politics. ” Talking with John Rankin caused me to reflect on whether and how polit­ ical philosophy, my academic concentration at Kenyon College and St. John’s College, was a good background for a career in international rela­ tions. The short answer: a resounding yes. Early in my career I had the privilege of working as Special Assistant to Dr. Paul Wolfowitz, currently the Deputy Secretary of Defense. As Director of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, Paul assembled a group of 20 or so policy thinkers-many grounded in political philoso­ phy, some taught by students of Leo Strauss-with a mandate to provide an independent judgment on policies developed largely by career experts. The policy debate often turned on issues that would appeal to the student of political philosophy: What are the necessary conditions for security of human rights? What deters hostile human behavior? Fear? Hope? And why are so many people so desperately poor, i.e., what causes poverty? Or the better question: what causes prosperity? Later, I had two assignments in Paris, six years in all, ending up as Charge d’Affaires at our embassy. The ambience alone was a political philosopher’s daydream: Ben Franklin’s statue in the courtyard. Jeffer­ son’s name carved at the top of the list of U.S. Envoys. Rousseau and Lafayette memorabilia to explore. Even the pervasive reek of Gauloise cigarettes did not dent the pleasure of a bistro lunch with Jean-Francois Revel, a visiting Alan Bloom or Robert Goldwin. But Paris was not all atmospherics. France wields considerable international influence and enjoys playing her role as a counterweight to America. Although the French Revolution and U.S. Constitution emerged at a common moment, 1789, France had a string of different regimes and the U.S. only one. Understanding the similarities and differences is important in striving for good relations and cooperation. For its part, the French “classe politique” is steeped in history and political theory that rein­ forces its self-image as a competing pole of civilization. This comes out in foreign policy seminars (“colloques”), which are often contentious and are taken seriously. So too, are our discussions with French leaders in the Elysee Palace, the Prime Minister’s office, and the Foreign Min­ istry. Realpolitik generally prevails in those sessions, but the conceptu­ al foundation acquired from studying political philosophy can be very helpful in the policy debate. And when the U.S. and France agree, it is usually a lot easier to build an international consensus. Political philosophy also figured large in my work in Germany on its reunification and on Israel’s peace negotiations with the Palestinians and Jordan-and it is at the heart of my current ambassadorship. “The Cyprus Problem” revolves around whether and how to negotiate a set­ tlement to reunify this island that has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974. Debate centers on “political equality” and whether the set­ tlement should be a federation, confederation or some hybrid. The issues parallel those in the Federalist Papers, especially debate over the respective powers of the states and central government. I maintain an intensive dialogue on these subjects with the Greek-Cypriot and Thrkish-Cypriot leaders on the island, in UN-led talks, and in unofficial study groups led by U.S. academic experts. I would hasten to add that political philosophy is only one of many fields that provide a good background for a career in diplomacy. In fact, the best preparation is probably a good liberal arts education, one that dwells on books of lasting value, leads students to grapple with funda­ mental ideas, values inquiry, and cultivates the art of serious conversa­ tion. Seth Cropsey (spya) A Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Wash­ ington, D.C. (a public policy think tank generally labeled con­ servative), Seth Cropsey studies national security and defense. Newt Gingrich, Lynne Cheney, and former Annapolis dean Robert A. Goldwin are just a few of his well-known colleagues. Cropsey analyzes how the United States military may best take advantage of new technology. He studies the questions raised by the increased accuracy and range of new weapons systems. As history has demonstrated, technological advances such as the longbow in medieval times and the Tomahawk cruise missile of today can render old strategies and plans useless or even deadly. Cropsey’s work creates new methods the military can use to keep their tactics resonant with their technological capabilities. Cropsey also studies the implications raised by the “kinder and gentler” military of today. In recent years, the American mil­ itary has undergone serious structural changes and adopted new training methods. American military personnel often find them­ selves in foreign countries as “peacemakers”-an ambiguous type of policemen far from the typical (and expected) role of a soldier. This often frustrates individuals in the armed services, as few enrolled in order to police the streets of an unfamiliar land. Furthermore, the character type the military has tradition­ ally rehed on to excel-those interested in taking risks and test­ ing themselves in combat-is put off by the style of the modern military and less inclined to enlist. Cropsey began his career in national security in 1981 as a recent St. John’s graduate concerned with the relationship between the United States and Russia. He has served as a profes­ sor at the Marshall European Center in Germany, run jointly by the governments of the United States and Germany. There, Cropsey taught military personnel from former Warsaw Pact countries principles of modern liberal democratic governments {The College - St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } �{Politics} ^3 ''Because I work in politics, lam especially grateful to have read works related to societies organizing themselvespolitically, from Plato andAristotle to the Federalist Papers. ” Eloise Collingwood [A8o] and related national security issues. He also worked with Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Sr. as the Deputy Undersecretary of the Navy from 1984 to 1990. Cropsey values his St. John’s education for enabling him to deal with a wide range of material and understand the fundamen­ tal issues at stake. He suggests one change to the program, which should not come as much of a surprise considering the path of his career. “Edward Gihhon \Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire\ is no longer on the program, and he should he,” says Cropsey. Eloise Collingwood (A80) C-SPAN producer Eloise Collingwood uses the problems of Washington, D.C., as the raw material for a television show. Collingwood is responsible for getting C-SPAN’s national morn­ ing call-in show, “The Washington Journal,” on the air. This is no small task. Each day begins at 4 a.m. Collingwood thinks up seg­ ment topics for the show, finds guests, determines the leads for each segment, and works with the director and technicians to ensure a seamless program. Collingwood reviews scores of arti­ cles from newspapers, magazines, and the Internet to stay on top of the issues and find new material for the daily show; under­ standably, she values St. John’s for helping her learn how to get to the gist of an argument and relate ideas to one another. Like many Johnnies in politics, Collingwood finds the pohtical books she read in seminar valuable in her professional life. “Because I work in politics, I am especially grateful to have read works related to societies organizing themselves pohtically, from Plato and Aristotle to the Federalist Papers.” Tom G. Palmer (A82) Palmer is a Fellow in Social Thought at the Cato Institute, a public policy research institute in Washington, D.C. He publishes papers, lectures at universities and insti­ tutes around the world, and edits book man­ uscripts and policy papers, determining whether they meet Cato’s standards. He is also director of Cato University, which gives seminars on the principles of free markets, limited government, the rule of law, and other issues central to modern classical liberalism. The libertarian Cato Institute suits Palmer’s interests well. “My life work has been dedicated to advancing individual liber­ ty,” he says. The Cato Institute has allowed him to immerse him­ self in the study of the ideas he loves. In his work. Palmer fre­ quently revisits texts he read at St. John’s. However, he feels that books do not always hold the answer. “I learned at St. John’s that there are lots of people who read a lot, but who have no wisdom or who are bad people, and many more who don’t read much, but who are wise and good,” he says. Palmer does suggest some improvements to the program. He argues that St. John’s “seriously underestimates the importance of economics” and cuts off the study of economics with “one of the most disastrous dead ends in the history of thought: Karl Marx.” Palmer would like to see inclusion of the work from the Marginahst Revolution of 1871, in which economists Karl Menger, W.S. Jevons, and Leon Walras independently solved several prob­ lems facing the classical economics of Marx and Adam Smith. Will of the People? In January 2001, Palmer and two colleagues, John Samples and Patrick Basham, released a paper titled '"Lessons ofElection 2000. ” Among other contrarian views ofthe election, the authors argue that the electoral college should not be discarded, high campaign spending did not discourage voters but actually increased voter turnout, and the misguided appeals to the "will of the people ” by politicians on both sides of the debate represent a confused claim to a concept opposed to the nature ofAmerican representative democracy. The United States is a constitutional republic, not a regime intended to embody “the will of the people.” Talk of the will of the people is profoundly misleading. Indeed, the idea of the will of the people is a deeply authoritarian idea completely at odds with the idea of government under law. It derives, not from the American Founders or from any “Whiggish” antecedents in Britain’s constitutional history, but from the radical authoritarian and anti-liber­ al philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who postulated a “general will” of the people as the foundation of the state. According to Rousseau in The Social Contract-. “The general will is always right, and always tends to the public good; but it does not foUow that the deliberations of the people will always have the same rectitude. We always desire our own good, but we do not always recognize it. You cannot corrupt the people, but you can often deceive it; and it is then only that it seems to will some­ thing bad.” As political historian J. L. Talmon noted in his classic study of the play­ ing out of Rousseauian politics, “The very idea of an assumed preor­ dained will, which has not yet become the actual will of the nation . . . gives those who claim to know and to represent the real and ultimate will of the nation-the party of the vanguard-a blank cheque to act on behalf of the people, without reference to the people’s actual will.” {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer zoot } �{Politics} 24 ''Thepersonal is the universal [in America]. Each individual experience is a chapter in the larger drama called the American Story. Robert George [A86] The United States is not based on some grand notion of the will of the people. American government depends on the more modest idea that the people may delegate certain limited powers to a representative government operating on principles and procedures set out in our Constitution. If by “will of the people” pundits have in mind the Constitution, that is closer to the occasional use of the term by the American founders. But current debate indicates that what they have in mind is, instead, whatev­ er the will of the people is (should be) about particular matters ofpolicy, or who should be president. If the Constitution is the abiding will of the people, then it sets the terms within which policies and officers will be selected, and continual recourse to the “will of the people” is otiose. The phrase “the will of the people”-along with “dimpled chad”-has no place in a system of equal liberty under law. Instead of confusing our­ selves with airy metaphysical talk about the will of the people, we should, with Jefferson, “with courage and confidence pursue our own federal and republican principles, our attachment to our union and rep­ resentative government.” Robert George (a86) As an editorial writer for the New York Post, Robert George writes five or six unsigned pieces for the newspaper each week, covering issues from the national level to the local concerns of New York­ ers. Where George really lets loose, though, is in his regular columns for National Review Online. Favorite topics of recent months are Bill Clinton’s par­ don fiasco and the early stages of Hillary Clinton’s senate term. George’s columns feature slick appeals to his view of the issues and a rhetorical flair unmistakably his own. Although at heart a thoughtful commentator, his columns often leave the reader more impressed by his brazen style than his cunning erudition. Before working at the Post and National Review, George helped staff the communications office of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, writing speeches and press releases and formulating public relations strategy. He then went on to coordinate the efforts of grassroots organizers with the Republican National Committee. His latest project is serving as a regular panelist on the Saturday evening CNN show “Take 5.” On the show, he discusses topics from politics to popular culture -with two co-hosts and guest panelists. My Independence Days Last year, Robert George took a breakfrom his clever and combative style to write a sentimentalJuly 4th columnfor Salon, com, “My Inde­ pendence Days. ” Here we celebrate the Fourth of July. For this writer, everything that the dream called America represents can also be found in two personal “independence days.” The first is January ai, 1971. It was the day an eight-year-old boy first landed in the United States at JFK International Airport. At the time, U.S. hospitals were experiencing a nursing shortage, so the boy’s moth­ er responded to an inquiry from New York City’s Mt. Sinai Hospital. The boy wasn’t happy about leaving his island home. It was only later that the lesson of taking advantage of an opportunity when presented sunk in. Fortunately, a volatile case of air-sickness endured by the young boy on the flight over did not prove to be a portent for future experience in the United States. Living in a country for close to three decades, there are any number of days and experiences that might stick out that also symbolize America. But this writer selects November 3, 1989....the swearing-in ceremony [for my citizenship]. The event itself was rather low-key; ultimately, it seemed somewhat prosaic. The poetry was supplied moments later as the new American emerged into a crisp Maryland morning and looked up in the sky. There, fully unfurled over a government building, was Old Glory flapping in the wind. Couldn’t have been more perfect if Spielberg had directed it. Many people consider the passage of the first 18 years as the initial step from childhood into adulthood. This particular r8-year passage marked a period separating arrival and “Americanization.” Other opportunities followed. Less than three years later, a few of the writer’s words ended up in the last speech Ronald Reagan delivered at a RepubUcan Convention. Just a short phrase, but for a young island immigrant, it was certainly a thrilling, awe-inspiring moment. And then, a few years after that, the immigrant found himself writing for the first Republican Speaker of the House in 40 years. As we celebrate the nation’s birth, it’s not a bad idea to pause and con­ sider our own personal “independence days.” These are the moments in our lives that stand out as uniquely American. At one time, for many, it was the Ellis Island arrival. For others, it’s starting a business, beginning the novel or casting the first vote. These are the days that connect each of us intimately with the opportunity that is America. The personal is the universal here. Each individual experience is a chapter in the larger drama called the American Story. The opportunity to excel within the story is the connection we all share, regardless of race, gender, or any other superficial attribute. {The College -St John’s College • Summer 2oot } �as {The Program} It Takes Two Villages In his Dean s Statement, Timothy Miller considers what it means to learn in a community By Barbara Goyette, A73 very year the chairman of the Instruction Committee (which alternates hetween the dean in Annapolis and the dean in Santa Fe) submits a Dean’s Statement of Educa­ tional Policy and Program. Topics for the Dean’s Statement vary from the hroad to the more specific; sometimes the Statement serves as an institutional don rag or propos­ es major changes to the program. This year, Timothy Miller, acting dean in Santa Fe, characterized his topic as “the intrinsic fundamentals that make this small college precious to its memhers and also a precious resource within the larger educational sphere.” The Statement begins, “For St. John’s College it takes two villages-one in Santa Fe and one in Annapolis. Even in an age of spin the notion of a village has an appeal Timothy Miller (right) included passages that is not merely sentimental. Reaching FROM Simone Weil and William James in his more deeply into our souls, it suggests Dean’s Statement. mutual care and nurture, the daily support of family and neighbors, help in emergen­ cies, the sharing of rituals . . ., recurring celebrations . . ., and ceremonies by which, often recedes to some vanishing point in as thinking animals, we mark the stages of the future.” Tenured tutors are more likely our growth, maturity and decline.” to be granted partial or full leave from Mr. Miller discusses the primary goal of teaching, and they are more likely to have the college as the education of young peo­ added responsibilities such as administra­ ple who are emerging from adolescence to tive posts that free them from the class­ early maturity. The college must meet their room. A result is that on the Santa Fe cam­ educational needs and see to their personal pus, throughout the 1990s, “approximately needs and interests as well. That American 60 percent of tutors have been tenured, but colleges and universities operate on a fourtenured tutors have taught only about 40 year cycle to bring students to this desired percent of the classes. . . Clearly a majority maturity makes for some difficult decisions of our classes depend on the energy and dis­ along the way. tinction of our newer tutors.” He expands on some of the problems this Mr. Miller also discusses the perennial compressed schedule creates for tutors, problem of there being too many books to whose primary responsibility is to “teach read in too little time. The Statement sug­ and make ourselves as competent as possi­ gests alternatives for dealing with the music ble in all parts of the St. John’s program.” and visual art tutorials-including a sugges­ In their early years, faculty must spend tion to move the visual arts tutorial to soph­ much time and effort to learn the parts of omore year and to focus more time in lan­ the program they are teaching. Even after guage tutorials on writing. He also receiving tenure, tutors find that the goal of considers a larger question: “We intend our teaching at all levels in all areas of the pro­ program of studies to have a wholeness that gram is still elusive-“achieving that goal does not exist in the typical college curricu­ E {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } lum. Whatever our judgment about the incompleteness and inadequacy of specific parts of our program most of us believe that the program as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Whether this wholeness may be a reflection of a wholeness existing in the world is worth our atten­ tion...” Passages from William James and from Simone Weil illustrate some approaches to this question of how it’s possible to pay atten­ tion to the most important things. In a passage from Psychology, James lays out an approach to learning that demands “willful attention in study,” while Weil denies the effectiveness of will power and posits that leaving our­ selves open works better: “Attention con­ sists of suspending our thought, leaving it detached, empty, and ready to be penetrat­ ed by the object,” she writes. Mr. Miller cites a passage in Weil’s “Human Personality” that addresses “the proper balance between the individual intellect and the collective in which an indi­ vidual has its natural origins”: “When sci­ ence, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible...But above this level...is the level where the highest things are achieved. These things are essentially anonymous...The human being can only escape from the collective by raising him­ self above the personal and entering into the impersonal...” This passage serves as a source for his final question: “Are we over­ weening in the hope that our lives as stu­ dents and faculty at St. John’s College are directed toward the sacred realm of the impersonal?” Thefull text ofthe Dean’s Statement is online at www.sjcsf.edu/academic/ deanoi. htm, or is availablefrom the Dean’s Office in Santa Fe (505-g84-6o7o). �{Alumni Notes} 1935 Richard Woodman writes: “Glad to read the article on St. John’s in the Smithsonian^ February aoor issue. Those prior to the 1937 class did get a good liberal education with a chance to see the Maryland legislature and U.S. Congress in session without having to wait in line and go through metal detector systems. It was a poorer but it seemed a kinder world in some respects. I wonder how many of the class of 1935 are stiU alive and working as I am.” 1936 Gilbert Crandall, a Civil War buff, recently had articles on that subject published in the Washing­ ton Times and the North Georgia Journal. 1938 Frank Townsend reports that he is still alive and thriving. 1942 Ernest Heinmuller writes about two classmates: “Bill Ruhl died in January. As a community leader in Salisbury, Maryland, he was prop­ erly honored by a large gathering of friends and officials at the funeral. Some of you 4aers might like to send a note of encouragement to Al Poppitti (use the register address). Al suffered a severe heart attack but is showing improvement daily. I have been busy working for World Vision, a ‘feed the hungry’ effort for Rwanda and other Third World peoples.” 1949 Oscar Lord reports that his son, Lt. General Lance W. Lord, USAF, is Commandant of the U.S. Air Uni­ versity Maxwell Field, in Mont­ gomery Alabama. copal parish in Palm Springs, Calif. “This Sunday ‘work’ and a variety of physical problems keep me from attending Sunday alumni seminars in Los Angeles. Health problems hit us hard from Christmas into January. Son David broke his left leg and is in a wheelchair, and wife Rita is on oxygen 24 hours a day due to emphysema. So I get food and run errands until we get David on his feet and Ruth free of oxygen tanks.” 1950 “I regret not being able to attend the 50th reunion of my class this last fall,” writes Tom Meyers. “My health is generally quite good, but that of my widowed sister is not. Perhaps I will be able to make the next one. It will not be quite the same, but one does what one must. Amazingly, I will be 80 years old this coming October-both astounding and amusing.” stayed in pubs, B&Bs, and resort hotels. “It was a blast!” he says. “Great scenery, great people.” Jennefer Ellingston is active in 1953 Charles Powleske reports: “My fourth year of retirement finds me at work on ‘The History of BCIU (The Business Council for Interna­ tional Understanding)’ where I began working in i960.1 also con­ tinue to be active with BCIU’s working group that brings about its annual benefit at the Metropolitan Opera (since 1984); also still active in the affairs of The Princess Mar­ garita of Romania Foundation as a member of its board. I still ‘rest up’ in Mexico when I can (Puerto Vallarta, mainly) and, in 2000, enjoyed April, May, and October there.” 1955 Priscilla Bender-Shore and Merle Shore (class of ’54) write 1951 Alfred Franklin sends a message to classmates; “Our 50th reunion is this year. Myself, Ray Stark, and Herman Small are starting togeth­ er a committee for setting up the agenda. We would like to expand the committee to establish what the class gift should be, who we can get to tutor, and choose the reading.” from California. Priscilla curated and juried an art exhibition, “Susan B. Anthony on Mt. Rush­ more,” for the Santa Barbara Coun­ ty Arts Commission. The exhibit ran from February through April and celebrated Women’s History Month. Eighteen artists were repre­ sented. Priscilla gave two lectures in connection with the exhibit. William Roberts writes that he spent last March bumbling around England, Wales, and Scotland. He A Happy Accident ARL Hammen (A44) sent in the following contribution: “I was a Maryland scholarship student, class of 1944. Going to St. John’s was a happy accident for me. I last Mostly I studied visited oyster metabolism taught cellular and comparative the campus and in October 1999, and enjoyed seeing physiology courses. Also ran the Boston Marathon times. Sinceand a few classmates. Most of my career12was teaching retirement in 1993 I have in taught freshman biology at of a community col­ research biology at the University Rhode Island. lege several times and have held other part-time jobs, the most interest­ ing: enumerator for the 2000 census. I became so good at obtaining information that I was promoted to denominator. Beginning in August I C Richard Frank was made an hon­ orary member of the Societe Asiatique. The Rev, Frederick Davis says that he is still assisting at an Epis­ 1956 plan to teach math review at the Ringling School of Art and Design, one of the best art schools in the U.S. I remember that Jacob Klein said that if you have a mind at all, it is a mathematical mind. My running career continues. In 2000 I was ranked number one M75 in Florida for both 5 km and 15 km.” {The College. 5t. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } the Green party and reports that it now has 84 elected officials. “Yes, we are small, but everyone is grow­ ing green or withering away. Global warming continues and the Arctic ice cap loses four inches a year.” 1957 Arianne Laidlaw writes that she is going to Vietnam as the guest of people she and her husband spon­ sored in 1975. She will spend three weeks there, from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi. She also plans a few days in Hong Kong and Bangkok. 1959 John McDevitt says that he con­ tinues to teach part time at the community college and to make dulcimers and harps. His daughter, Gianna, has joined with his wife in the operation of a country general store and trailer park. “ISI Books of Wilmington, Delaware, has just brought out my newest (of nine) books,” reports Hugh Curtler. “It is entitled Recalling Education and it propos­ es a traditionalist approach to high­ er education that is counter to the major trends today (except, of course, St. John’s) where the liberal arts are in serious jeopardy.” i960 “I am in the third year of a fouryear great books program at the University of Chicago downtown campus,” writes Peter Ruel. “We meet once a week for three hours (one and a half seminar and one and a half tutorial) for three iiweek semesters. Forty years makes a difference in how one reads a book. It is definitely worthwhile to return to what we all loved as young people, and breezed through ivith little understanding.” 1962 Lenke Vietorisz reports a new web site address: members.net/ rrrepasy. �{AlumniNotes} Jon Cohen retired last summer after ai years as a social worker for the State of New Jersey. David Schiller writes that he is planning to deliver another paper for the International Society of Chi­ nese Philosophers in Beijing in July 2001. David Benfield has enjoyed elec­ tronic correspondence with various classmates and suggests that the class of 1962 plan an electronic reunion to coincide with Homecoming 2001. “At this reunion we can make plans for a real face-toface reunion in 2002 to celebrate 40 years of reality. Write to me at david.benfield@montclair.edu.” 1964 Judith Laws Wood has moved to Visalia in the San Joaquin Valley of California. She is a reference librar­ ian at the county public Ubrary. 1966 Constance Baring-Gould writes: “Congratulations on the Smithson­ ian article! My sister wrote to me about it and I really enjoyed reading it. I still protect my books rather than my hair-I’llbet we all do!” 1967 Meredith Burke continues to publish editorials on the subjects of AIDS control and negative popula­ tion growth. Her pieces have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Exam­ iner, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Hope Zoss has been appointed Associate Director of Development at the Chemical Heritage Founda­ tion in Philadelphia. 1968 Ellin Barret (SF) writes that there are several St. Johnnies in the San Francisco Bay Area who are involved with a winter production called the California Christmas Revels. Revels uses a unique form of music theater to dramatize the celebratory traditions of diverse cultures and eras. Both profession­ als and amateurs perform, and there are carefully planned moments of audience participa­ tion. The 2001 show will focus on music as a force for ethnic and reli­ gious reconciliation, drawing espe­ cially on Irish-Celtic heritage, to portray some of the unifying themes underlying the on-going struggles that beset warring fac­ tions over generations. This year’s script is built on the story of the greatest Irish harper of all times, the blind O’Carolan, who, against great opposition, steadily dedicated his life to using music to heal enmi­ ty among peoples. Antigone Phalares (SF) has been a part of the Sacramento alumni seminar group for over 20 years. “Our crown jewels are Marion and Tom Slakey,” she writes. “How lucky it is to have our very own St. John’s tutor and tutoress to con­ tinue those enriching conversa­ tions we began long ago, in Annapolis and Santa Fe. This is life lived to the full.” “Our daughter has joined the Peace Corps. We are planning to visit her in the Dominican Republic this spring,” writes Carol Neitzey Dale (A). tour the ancient Temples in Noa (Japan’s first capital), and see Kabuke. He is a professor of Pedi­ atrics, Physiology, and Biophysics at the University of Southern Cali­ fornia and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. 1969 “Got caught in the dotty-com melt­ down. An interesting experience but one I don’t want to repeat,” writes Frances Burns (A). Joseph Baratta (A) will be teach­ ing the history of math at Worces­ ter State College in Worcester, Mass., in 2002. Carl Severance (SF) is now living in Lexington, Ky., teaching adult education (GED Preparation). His wife Deanna is Director of Ken­ tucky’s historic Frontier Nursing Service. His son Alex is in his sec­ ond year at Boston College Law School, and his daughter Sarah Sebestyen is pursuing a singing and song writing career in New York. Greetings may be sent to carlsev@aol.com 1970 Allison Karslake Lemons (SF) Steven Hanft (A) says, “In nine reports: “I am currently teaching French part-time at Wichita State University and at East High School in Wichita. My husband, Don (SFGI), teaches physics at Bethel College, in North Nevrton Kansas, and my oldest son, Nathan, is a freshman at (dare I admit it?) Ober­ lin College, studying piano (among other things). I’m afraid making money just isn’t in the genes; but we’re leading enjoyable lives (and possibly even somewhat virtuous ones) all the same.” years I can retire.” Thomas Keens (SF) received a fel­ lowship for Foreign Scientists to Japanese Institutions from the Japanese Foundation for Emer­ gency Medicine. He spent nearly two weeks at the National Chil­ dren’s Hospital in Tokyo. He gave two major presentations on his research on sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and discussed SIDS and respiratory research with Japanese colleagues. He also had a chance to walk in the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Catherine Carroll (A) announces her marriage to Gilbert T. Lusero on January 6, 2001, at their home in Portland, Oregon. She continues to practice law, spe­ cializing in domestic relations; Gilbert is semi-retired. They will be traveling to Spain and would like to hear from any St. John’s people who are there now or who have travel suggestions, recommenda­ tions, or reminiscences they’d like to share. Their address is 8100 SW 68th Place, Portland, OR 97223. Maya Hasegawa (A) and Bor Wycoff (A) were sorry they missed the 30th class reunion in 1999. Maya’s father Ichiro had become very ill and they went to Richmond several times that autumn to visit before he passed away Christmas Eve morning. Maya continues to work at the Boston Housing Authority, overseeing compliance with civil rights requirements man­ dated by HUD. Bob, working for {The College. Sr. John^s College ■ Summer 2001 } ay Data Dimensions as a systems con­ sultant, survived Y2K and now looks forward to at least several more years of steady employment dealing with the changes required by the 1996 HIRPA legislation. “This January we detoured into Annapolis for a few hours on the way back to Boston from Richmond and strolled around the campus, stopping in to see the new library,” they tvrite. “We had the sensation of being ‘ghosts,’ invisible or nearly so, to the students there, as doubt­ less past alumni were invisible to us when they stopped to gather mem­ ories as we lolled around on a donothing Sunday afternoon in 1967,” Hudi (Schneider) Podolsky (SF) reports: “I’m now the executive director of the National Coalition of Essential Schools-back to the world of teaching and learning that I love so much. It has taken me a long time to come back to this great work, but my sojourn in the profit-making world has given me skills and perspectives that I can now put to good use. You can see what we’re up to at www.essentialschools.org.” 1971 Vicki Manchester (SF) is teaching English and drama at the CIUA Charter School in Colorado Springs. “I helped to start the school four year ago and after three years of incipient chaos the school is stabilizing and even has a waiting list. I get to seminar lots with the seniors. On the non-professional side I took refuge vows as a Tibetan Buddhist in 1998.” Jane Goldwin Bandler (A) and Donald Keith Bandler (SFGI73) are currently living in Cyprus where Don is serving as the Ameri­ can Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy. Jane is a psychological counselor with a specialty in par­ enting skills. They have three chil­ dren: Lara (25), a PR account exec­ utive in New York City, Jillian (23), beginning University of Maryland Medical School in 8/01, and Jeff (24), in eighth grade in Nicosia, Cyprus. �a8 {Alumni Notes} The Writer as Addict Praising a writerfor writing is likepraising a crack addictfor assiduous smoking. Writing is an addiction, and like all addictive substances, it stokes thepleasure centers ofthe brain. Emma Roth in Suspicion by Barbara Rogan BY Sus3AN Borden, A87 mma Roth, the main charac­ ter in Barbara Rogan’s (SF74) novel Suspicion, is, like Rogan, a full-time writer and part-time soccer mom. Like Rogan, she’s Jewish, has a love of jazz, and lives on Long Island. But, Rogan says, Emma is not her. “The main thing about Emma is that she’s very vulnera­ ble, emotionally fragile,” says Rogan, “whereas I, despite my share of occasional woes, am as healthy as the proverbial horse.” Still, even without knowing Rogan, you get the feeling that the two have a lot in common, especially when it comes to writ­ ing. Rogan agrees with Emma’s comparison of writing and addiction. “That speaks for me very accurately. Writing has always been the thing I do that gives me the most pleas­ ure and the fact that I can make a living at it is great. That reinforces it: when you get published and get paid and get all the stroking that goes with it.” Rogan says she always wanted to be a writer. “I always could write, even as a kid I had a talent for writing, a great love for words. I was a huge reader. That’s what led me to St. John’s in the first place,” she says. At St. John’s, Rogan wrote several good essays, but was nearly silent in class. This led, temporarily, to an interesting problem: “There was one essay that was so good and so out of line with my participation in class, that I was accused of plagiarizing it. It was a Jungian analysis oiDon Quixote. I was into Jung that year and it kind of clicked for me in one essay,” she says. “There was a great One of Barbara Rogan’s St. John’s essays brouhaha, a lot of fuss made in the attempt WAS so good, she was accused of plagia­ to find my ‘source.’” When the smoke finally rism. She took that as encouragement to cleared and it was acknowledged that Rogan BECOME A WRITER. had written the essay, many of the tutors involved in the investigation told her that in 1974 after she graduated from St. John’s she should be a writer. and moved to Israel. There she worked as a Though an accusation of plagiarism is an production director and English editor for a unusual source for encouragement, Rogan Tel Aviv publishing house while she wrote took it as such and started writing seriously E {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2001 } her first book, which she describes as a prac­ tice book. The following year she opened her own literary agency, which eventually became the largest in Israel, supplying over 50 percent of the Israeli market for translat­ ed books. In 1980, Rogan met and married Ben Kadishson, an Israeli musician. Their first son (they have two: Jonathan, 18, and Daniel, 14) was born during the 1982 war in Lebanon. During the same year Rogan’s first novel. Changing States, was published simultaneously in England, the U.S., and Israel. “Getting my first book published was a huge thrill and it was published in three countries. I was so new to the business I didn’t realize what a terrific piece of luck I’d had,” she says. Rogan’s good fortune has continued. She now has seven novels to her credit and is co-author of a non-fiction book about the Middle East. Two of her books- A Heartbeat Away and Rowing in Eden-wcxc Literary Guild selections. Her 1999 book. Suspicion, was a Book-of-the-Month Club featured selection. “Every book is a thrill. And a heartbreak usually. It’s a tough career; not the easiest business to be in. You never really feel suc­ cessful entirely,” she says. Rogan explains the trials that come with a book’s publica­ tion: “Very rarely do things just click and go the way you want them to. I’ve seen it from a lot of angles: as an agent, as an editor, and as a writer. There’s always a lot of expectation built up around publication and it doesn’t always pan out.” She discusses the econom­ ics of book distribution, advertising, and dis­ play: “Most books that are published have little or no advertising budget. They’re just shoved out the door with the hope that someone will pick them up. The advertising budgets go to Nora Roberts and Stephen King-a guaranteed return on investment. But publishers do this for sound business reasons. I have maybe the misfortune of understanding their point of view; neverthe- �{Alumni Notes} less, it is often frustrating for the writer.” On the whole, Rogan has heen among the more fortunate writers. Her hooks have been reviewed in the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. They have been released as audio books and published in eight languages. The movie rights to Rowing in Eden were optioned and the movie rights to A Heartbreak Away were sold to MGM. Rogan says that A Heartbeat Away is a favorite among her books, combining sever­ al subjects important to her: a hospital set­ ting, which grew to interest her after her son dragged her to a number of emergency rooms when he was little; jazz, an interest she shares with her husband, a jazz musician when they met; and Jane Austen-Rogan bor­ rowed the plot for the book from Pride and Prejudice. Rogan doesn’t always turn to the Great Books for story lines, but program works are often present in her books. Whether a char­ acter is compared to Don Quixote, shudders when she thinks of Medea, or hides a piece of evidence in her copy of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Rogan’s ease with the great books will seem familiar to Johnnies. Not that she feels at ease with all of St. John’s. “I still have nightmares about Greek,” she says. “I dream that I took a year off and came back and couldn’t remember a single word.” Although she has long since left Monte Sol behind, Rogan remains in the classroom. 1972 JuanHovey (SF) reports: “My wife EUse Cassel and I, being now empty nesters, have bought a lovely town­ house at the far northern end of Topanga Canyon Road in the San Fernando Valley, up on a hilltop among huge stone outcroppings and oak trees that formed the back­ grounds for the Tom Mix movies, for the Lone Ranger TV series and, it is said, for one or two scenes from the John Ford classic ‘Stagecoach.’ There are bobcats up here plus at least one mountain lion and plenty of coyotes, of course; people tell us there is also a small herd of wild goats in these mountains. I continue to write a weekly column on business finance and insurance for the Los Angeles Times and contribute to a number of other publications on the same subjects. Life is sweet!” She writes quickly, notpausing to think, just letting the words spill out. Later she will cut and edit ruthlessly, hut not now. First drafts are playgrounds where anything goes. FROM Suspicion now as a continuing education writing teacher. She encourages her students to write quickly, the way she describes Emma as writing, but she doesn’t practice what she preaches, Rogan approaches her first drafts with a bit more deliberation. “I plan more carefully and have to rewrite less than I used to,” she says. “I’m trying to be a httle bit more efficient. I try to plan out my themes James Burress (A) notes that his son, Toby Burress, is entering the St. John’s class of 2005. Louise Romanow (SF) sends this report: “I find it amazing how busy one can be and not be earning any money! Bill’s and my son Curt is now 14 and cycles to school every day, a rare event today. I continue to push the catbriar back, planting indige­ nous shrubs and perennials under the forest canopy around our house. I’m active in the League of Women Voters, a bunch of opinionated women-always lively discussion, and I produce our newsletter and do a bit on our web site. Keeping up with technology keeps me learning new stuff every day.” 1973 A medical journalist for more than 20years, Nancy Plese (SF) is cur­ 29 more and let the story drift less.” Before she starts a chapter, Rogan writes a list of goals and makes notes on the interweaving plot­ lines she has to work with. She then thinks up ways to dramatize her goals and invents incidents that do so. Rogan says that her new approach to writ­ ing might be related to the fact that she’s now working on her second mystery. “Mys­ teries have to be plotted more succinctly,” she says. “With a character-driven novel, you can meander a little bit more.” Her new mystery, to be published by Simon & Schus­ ter sometime in aooa, is centered on a reunion of old school friends who vowed to get together again after ao years. When the time comes, one of them is missing-mur­ dered by one of the friends. The idea for the book, Rogan explains, grew out of real life, when she and a group of classmates vowed to meet on the eve of aooo. “For some bizarre reason a lot of us did remember and six months before the night we started reaching out and contacting each other,” she says. “It was a pretty amaz­ ing experience and the book grew out of that.” Any chance that some of her SF74 classmates will recognize themselves in the book? Unfortunately not. The group that inspired the mystery was from Rogan’s high school in Westbury, New York. rently Executive Editor of The Pfizer Journal, a bimonthly health policy publication with an audience of sen­ ior health policymakers. She is also the mother of two, Andrew (17) and Katelyn (7), and recently celebrated the 22nd anniversary of her mar­ riage to George Lewert. She lives in Brooklyn, having moved to New York in 1973, shortly after graduation. “My son’s search for the right col­ lege brought back memories of the decision to go to St John’s, which was one of the best decisions I have made in my life,” she said. “On a daily basis, I draw on the knowledge and experiences gained there.” “A bill has just been introduced in the Michigan legislature to require the teaching of ‘creationism’ in our public schools, which is, of course, the starter’s gun to revisit Origin of Species,” writes JoN Ferrier (A). “Jane Spear (A) and I both begin our sixth decades this year, hoping {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } that the owl of Minerva truly does fly at dusk. Tuesday’s New York Times reported on the launching of scien­ tific studies to assess the medicinal properties of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocy­ bin in treating alcoholism, phobias, and other illnesses. Is there no limit to the powerful strangeness of life? Let’s hope not. May chaos find us ready.” 1974 Virginia Newlin (SFGI) is retired but teaching autobiography, working as a poet, and volunteering as an environmental activist. “I’m a family practice physician working at Lovelace,” writes Anne Ashbrook Fitzpatrick (SF). “For fun I sing with the Albuquerque Women’s Choral Ensemble and the Harmony Project.” �{AlumniNotes} 3° 1975 John A. White (SFGI) has had his book Kevvy published by Xlibris of Philadelphia. “Set in future time, it’s an epic novel with twin themes, a society that has abolished marriage, and which has made scientific dis­ coveries which are too successful. It provides ideas and value exploration for the thoughtful, and adventure, science fiction, sex, and romance for folks looking for a good yarn. It’s the culmination of many years’ work. Further information is at www.Xlibris.com/Kewy.html.” Howard Meister (A), having suc­ cessfully defended his very cool the­ sis, “Media and Metaphor,’’ has received the MA in media studies from The New School in New York City. He is currently looking for suit­ able employment as a teacher, writer, exhibit designer, or curator, following 20 years as an internation­ ally exhibited visual artist. Howard can be reached at HMMeister@aol.com. Jim Jarvis (A) says, “I enjoyed see­ ing so many classmates at reunion time last year. Hope we can have as good a turnout for #30.” G. Kay Bishop (A) is commissioning a “musical commentary” from com­ posers Chris Turner and Rich Robe­ son. Text for the pieces will be drawn from her poetry, including poems from the collections Zero and The Book ofLillith. Plans are to combine the five performance and text pres­ entation on a CD to appear next year. 1976 Victoria Hanley (SF) has written The Seer and the Sword, a fantasy novel for young adults. Published in December 3000 by Holiday House, it is also being published in Britain, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Spain, Finland, and Japan. Hanley is a Montessori teacher and massage therapist; she says that although she didn’t finish St. John’s, “the experi­ ence of daily dialectic during that time has influenced my life ever since.” The novel, which garnered praise from reviewers, is about a princess who discovers she has the power to see the future but must confront the issues of greed and revenge and perhaps fight to save her kingdom. 1977 Ann Worth (SF) writes; “I am an active member of the Local 510, Sign, Display, and AUied Crafts. We set up tradeshows and conventions in the greater Bay Area and I am fre­ quently the steward. Anyone want a new job?” Susan Holton (A) reports: “For the last four years I’ve worked as a senior designer for Tribune Media Services, one of the companies, along with the Chicago Tribune, of the Tribune Company. I design everything from sales collateral for our properties, which include columnists, editorial cartoonists, and comic strip cre­ ators, to corporate brochures and web sites. Through it all I’ve also maintained a freelance illustration and graphic design business. Cur­ rently I’m one of the artists on the Millennium campaign for posters for the Northwest Indiana Forum.” Jon is still enraging DAs as he suc­ cessfully defends ‘innocent citizens wrongfully accused of heinous crimes.’ I am in the lower profile job of engineering manager at Zairmailsee what my team is doing at www.zairmail.com.” 1980 Liz Pollard Jenny (SF) was the organizer of the first Alumni Art Show, held in July in Santa Fe at the campus gallery. Nancy Jene Cline Wright (SF) writes: “No major changes; still teaching, still married to the same fine fellow, still in Richmond, Vir­ ginia. I do have a computer now, with an e-mail address: cornishogre@earthlink.net. I have not figured out how to forward things to multiple addresses, and probably won’t anyway, but enjoy watching the way things end up moving about to multiple groups of people with a few button clicks-a different sort of ‘Great Discussion,’ I guess. I’d enjoy hearing from fellow Johnnies.” David Pex (SF) is the director of finance for RuleSpace, an Internet infrastructure start-up company. He got certified as a scuba diver fast year, dove in the Cayman Islands, and is off this summer to St. Vincent and Tobago for more diving and snorkeling with his family. 1978 Larry Ostrovsky (A) writes: “I have been living back in Anchorage for the past seven years. If you can look beyond the typical western sprawl, it’s really kind of an undis­ covered gem of a city. There’s excel­ lent hiking and skiing, long summer days and crisp winters. There’s even some big economic scheme every five or ten years to keep everyone excited. If anyone comes through this way. I’d love to hear from them. My e-mail is Larryostrovsky@h<itmail.com.” 1981 Mary Filardo (A) wrote an editorial in the May i edition of the Washing­ ton Post. As the executive director of the nonprofit 31st Century School Fund, she outlined the phght of the physical facihties at the D.C. public schools. Her editorial stressed the importance of planning for the future and of keeping a good handle on current design and construction needs and services. James Schamus (A) co-wrote and was producer for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” He’s worked with Ang Lee on other films in addition to the Oscar-nominated surprise hit about Chinese warriors, such as “The Ice Storm” and “Eat Drink Man Woman.” Schamus also wrote the lyrics for Crouching Tiger’s theme song, “A Love Before Time.” Marilynn Smith (SFGI) reports: 1979 Marie Toler Raney (A) and Jon Raney (A74) report that they are “still happy in Portland, Oregon in our house ‘Wits End.’ Soon to be empty nesters, we expect to find it easier to come east to see friends. “I’m still working at Coachella Val­ ley High School in the Southern Cal­ ifornia desert-and looking forward to retirement (or is it re-focusing) in about a year and a half. Teaching composition and literature at the College of the Desert is a great joy. So are my four grandchildren!” {The College. St. John^s College . Summer 2001 } 1982 Lemuel Martinez (AGI) ran on the Democratic ticket for the 13th Judi­ cial District Attorney post in Albu­ querque. He’s an assistant district attorney and an instructor at the University of New Mexico who was formerly a public school teacher for ten years. Eileen M. Renno (A) is living in beautiful southern Oregon on the east fork of the Illinois River. “I am the proud mother of two daughters, Molly (17) and Katy (6). I am work­ ing in Human Services as a Job Coach for The Job Council. I work with ‘hard-to-serve,’ long-term wel­ fare recipients, supporting them in their efforts toward self-sufficiency. It’s a challenging and rewarding position with never a sometimeslonged-for dull moment. I miss the Chesapeake Bay and look forward to visiting family in Shady Side and Frederick, Md., this summer. It’s a happy thought that I’ll be visiting Annapolis and St. John’s again, too.” 1984 John L. Bush (SF) says that he has a new place of employment-he’s work­ ing in the office of the university architect at Virginia Tech in Blacks­ burg, Va. “I’m enjoying walking to and from work every day. Elizabeth is finishing her masters degree at Virginia Tech in plant pathology. Salem is finishing his senior year of high school at Blacksburg High and looking at colleges to attend. He is hoping for an athletic scholarship for track and cross-country. Loran is finishing his freshman year of high school and enjoys playing soccer and basketball. Hope everyone is well and prospering.” Karl and Lisa Walling (both A) write that Karl is now a professor of strategy at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. Lisa is now the direc­ tor of the Tiverton Public Library system. Barry and Cynthia Hellman (both A) have a new daughter, born 11-700, named Abigail Faith Hellman. They now have three children, Barry III (14), Joel (7), and the new baby. Tracy Mendham (A) e-mails: “After living in Brooklyn, N.Y., for nine �31 {Alumni Notes} Thinking in the Future Tense BY Barbara Goyette, A73 A yjobistothink /I about the ! I future,” says / I Robert Bienenfeld(SF8o).As senior manager of alternative-fuel vehicle marketing for Honda, Bienenfeld works to promote the use of cars that run on fuels other than gasohne. The present is rapidly approaching the future as far as internal combustion engine technolo­ gy is concerned. What with the energy crunch in California (and elsewhere), the high price of gasohne, the arguments about the best ways to deal with environmental problems like pollu­ tion and misuse of non-renewable resources, hybrid automobiles-which are fueled by gaso­ line and electricity-are in the news today. Bush has proposed a tax incentive to encour­ age sales of hybrids. The American auto com­ panies are working to develop hybrid versions of their top-selling SUVs. Honda and Toyota promote their small hybrids in hip ads in major magazines like Time and the New York­ er. Movie stars, gear-heads, and environmentally-sensitive politicians are buying the Hon­ das and Toyotas currently on the market. “Technology is changing all the time, and I’m optimistic about how social priorities are changing, too,” says Bienenfeld. “We’re con­ suming way too much petroleum and we need to be really concerned about that. There’s been progress, but we need to go further.” Alternative-fueled cars are one factor in the mix of regulations, proposals, and products that aim to help us deal with these current problems and prepare us for the future. Bienenfeld has worked for Honda since right after he graduated. “I knew I wanted to go into business, and I didn’t want to go to graduate school right away to do it. I thought my St. John’s education was great for any W I years, my partner Dana Chenier and I are moving back to Massachusettswe’ll be relocating to Natick in May. In July, I’ll be graduating from the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College. For the time being, my e-mail address will be tmendham@nish.pair.com.” Sue (Price) Gavrich (A) e-mails: “My husband Bob and I joyfully career,” he says. “At St. John’s I was used to picking up a new, difficult book every week and then applying myself to under­ stand it. I thought about the business world; ‘How hard could it be?’” After a threeyear stint as a con­ tractworker, Bienen­ Robert Bienenfeld WITH the Insight, feld was hired Honda’s hybrid. full-time. He worked in parts inventory management and then spent a year and a half in Japan. In 1993 he was assigned to the alter­ native fuel task force. Over the past decade Honda has developed cars that are fueled by natural gas, battery electric power, and a combination of gas and electricity (the hybrid). The Insight, a hybrid, uses its gaso­ line engine for most driving but has an elec­ tric motor as a supplement. When the driver brakes, the battery recharges. “It’s a huge challenge to provide alternatives to gas-pow­ ered vehicles,” Bienenfeld says. “However, the social and environmental benefits are great, like reduced dependence on imported oil and reduced emissions.” Bienefeld helped Honda launch a battery electric car in California in 1997. Although the car was very advanced, battery electric cars are not new. It turns out that electricity is a very old method of powering cars. At first, electric cars outsold aU others. Other fuels had their drawbacks: steam was dangerous, and gas engines were smelly and noisy. How­ ever, when demand grew for travel between cities, the battery-powered electric cars fell announce the birth of our daughter, Anna Lucy Gavrich on October 18, 2000. You can see pictures of Lucy on her web site, www.annalucy.com. We recently moved to a Craftsman bungalow in Alameda, Calif., which is basically Mayberry with good sushi. I’m working from home as a self-employed fee-only financial planner. You can e-mail me at sue_gavTich@moneywell.com.” into disfavor with the public, who instead bought gas-powered cars that could travel farther. Now, the almost perfect infrastructure-with a gas station every corner­ makes introduction of alternative-fuel cars difficult. The supply of natural gas is in the hundreds of years, says Bienenfeld, and Honda has developed a car that runs on natural gas. But there are only about 1,500 places around the country to refuel such a car, as opposed to 200,000 places that sell gasoline. Bienenfeld is work­ ing with another company to develop a home­ refueling appliance for natural gas vehicles. “The answer to the marketing challenge is in education,” says Bienenfeld. “We have to look at innovative advertising, reach key opin­ ion makers. A variety of people have to throw their support behind these new cars-the automobile magazines, the environmental groups, even government.” Bienenfeld is also busy with the next step in the consideration of the future: product planning for Honda-thinking about what the next generation of Accords, Civics, and Odysseys will be like. He’s been pondering the difference between speculating and plan­ ning. “I read Paul Erlich’s The Population Bomb while I was in junior high,” he says. “I was really influenced by that book-what he thought was going to happen. Yet every pre­ diction he made was wrong...In 20 years we’ll still be planning for the future-after all, we never really get there. The principles will be the same: you need to have a really clear understanding of your goals and mission.” John Wright (A) has published short stories in Isaac Asimov’s SF magazine and in Year’s Best Annual (David Hartwell, ed.) His two novels, Golden Age (sf) andLa.st Guardian ofEverness (fantasy), are due for publication in aooi and 2,002, by Tor Books. John is a retired attorney, newspaperman and news­ paper editor. He presently lives in fairy-tale-like happiness with his {The College .St John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } wife, the authoress L. JAGI LAMP­ LIGHTER (A85), and their two chil­ dren, Orville and Wilbur Wright. 1985 Sarah (A) and Dan Knight (A84) write that they had a wonderful time at Homecoming weekend. “It was great to see everyone and we were �{AlumniNotes} 3^ surprised by how relaxed and ‘at home’ we felt on campus.” Robert George (A) is going to be a regular on a new talking head show on CNN, airing Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. The show, called “Take 5,” pre­ miered on March 17. Karen Bell-Andrews (A85, also AGI93) is married to Ben Andrews, a singer very popular in England and currently on tour there. She is an athome mom working on her PhD. With their three children, Amelia, Eliza, and Ian, they live on a historic old farm in Fairplay, Md. (near Hagerstown). Karen raises cows and chickens as well as bees. 1986 Debbie Jones Humphries (SF) is stiU teaching part-time. She loves working with graduate students. She has also started homeschooling her two sons, Ranier (5) and CameronJack (3), “and that’s keeping me busy,” she says. Julie (Spencer) Moser (SF) sends this request: “Would anyone who has experience teaching in a Paideia high school please contact me? I’m helping found a new high school and I need your advice. My e-mail is rainyday@taosnet.com.” 1987 is so much fun and we love him so much we can hardly stand it,” says Claudia. “I would love to hear from classmates-it seems like just yester­ day we were at Homecoming for our loth reunion. Please e-mail me stackc@uncwil.edu.” 1989 Pamela Jeffcoat (SF) writes: “I finally got a job as a Russian inter­ preter, and now I’m starting to learn Turkish. I play ping pong with a lot of Chinese guys but so far, I haven’t learned a word of Chinese.” Koko Ives (A) writes that she now has two beautiful daughters, Zoe and Cate. 1988 Alden Joseph Stack was born to Claudia Probst Stack (A’88) and Joe Stack on October 29, 2000. “He Roberta Faux (A91) live in downtown Baltimore where they are restoring a historic building that functioned as a pharmacy with living quarters above. Roberta received her MA in classics in 1999. After receiving his doctorate in composition from Boston Universi­ ty and teaching for several years in Colorado, Travis now operates a music production studio. The Apothecary, with Frank A (Ago). “We love doing this stuff and are always looking to work with on interesting film and video projects. Music from some of our recent proj­ ects can be heard at our web site www.mp3.com/TheAp0thecary.” T Marion Gunn Jenkins (SFGI) is still in retirement, living in New Haven next door to her only grandchild and her daughter and son-in-law. “I’m active observing local and regional government for the League of Women Voters of New Haven. I hope to take up my study of Greek which gives me great pleasure despite the obstacle of age.” “Young Adam Pittman was born April ig, 2000,” writes Clinton Pittman (SF). “Thought about a Homerian name, but then decided against such a radical step-not everyone gets all those Odyssey ref­ erences in Oh Brother, Where Art Thour “I am leaving my job as an attorney in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice to take up a one-year Visiting Assistant Professor post at the Northwestern University Law School, where I received my JD in 1994,” writes JOE MILLER (A). “I will be teaching intellectual property law courses. My residence at the Law School starts June 4, 2001. One thing will not change-namely, my permanent e-mail address at findjoemiller@hotmail.com.” Amanda Dalton (A) played the parts of Delightful and Nadine in a Colonial Players production of Dear­ ly Departed this spring in Annapolis. A professional clown who graduated from Ringling Brothers’ Clown Col­ lege, she has appeared in summer theater productions for the past sev­ eral years. Charlotte Glover (SF) reports: “I’m living with my husband David Kiffer in beautiful, wet Ketchikan, Ala., and we are enjoying our first child, a darling boy named Liam Benjamin Kiffer, born December ii, 2,000. So far, his favorite ‘great book’ is Bugs in Spaced ravis Hardaway (A91) and his wife our four-year-old daughter, Imogen, loves her Montessori pre-school. Hope all is well with the many friends I’ve lost touch with.” Margaret (Meg) Lewis (A) is work­ ing at the Academy of Natural Sci­ ences in Philadelphia as a Ubrary specialist. She invites alums and stu­ dents to visit. The MP3 Scene 1990 Margo Maganias Thomas (A) writes: “What a difference 12 years makes! My husband Bill and I are still living in Arlington, Va., and appreciate its village/urban charac­ ter. We’re planning on renovating and expanding our Cape Cod which over the past four years has become too small for our family. Our oldest. August, is enjoying kindergarten and GenevaMacDonand Pulgham (SF) co-authored a book with her sister; it was published in igg? by Texas A&M Press- Women Pioneers in Texas Medicine. Fritz Hinrichs (A) writes; “I am very pleased to announce two great gifts of God to me. On March 25,1 had the privilege of marrying Christy Hass of Rocklin, Calif. On January 4, we were blessed with the birth of a beautiful girl-Annabelle Faith Hinrichs. With great grief, but also trust in God’s loving provi­ dence, I must also relay that after let­ ting forth a short, beautiful cry, she mysteriously passed into the land of the living (Job 1:21). We would love to hear from you all-contact us through our web site, www.gbt.org.” Sundance Metelsky (AGI) and Tom Oehser, her partner of nine years, were married on May 7 in Luray Cav­ erns. More than go people attended, including their children, Bela Wolf­ gang Zoltan Seaton Williams Metel­ sky Oehser (son, age 5 ) and Zina Xena Metelsky Oehser (daughter, age 14 months). Johnnies in atten­ dance included Johnny Metelsky (Ag4) and Lydia Rolita Metelsky (Ag6) and honorary Johnnies, John Metelslcy and Ethan Billotte. Also on hand was a film crew from the cable TV show, “A Wedding Story.” The episode will air sometime in Septem­ {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } ber or October on The Learning Channel. Sundance says, “The wed­ ding was a unique celebration, fea­ turing the casting of the circle and calling of spirits, a hearty group singing of‘Yellow Submarine,’ humorous legal proceedings featur­ ing Tom’s cousin, Tina Oehser, who asperged the couple with water from the sacred springs near the Oracle of Delphi, Tom and Sundance being wrapped in a blanket held up by four friends (one doing the holding in spirit) and time in total darkness in the cave, a talking stick in which each attendee had a chance to offer a blessing, and closing with the Grate­ ful Dead song ‘Ripple.’ If you want to know when the episode airs (or just want to say hi!), please e-mail me at sundance@toms.net.” 1991 Nate Downey (SF) is helping to organize the tenth reunion in Santa Fe this summer and would like to gather e-mail addresses for any and all classmates. E-mail him at nate@sfpermaculture.com with “Hegel rocks! ” in the subject line. Elliott Tullock (SF) writes: “In December I will complete training at the Texas Maritime Academy and receive a third mate unlimited ton­ nage any oceans license. Upon receiving my license I will sail on a general cargo steamship trading from the U.S. Gulf to Europe and Africa. Wife Diana and son James (3) are doing well. We expect to return to Belize next year and take up ranching and tropical fruit cultiva­ tion when 1 am home from sea.” Karen Andrews (SF) recently par­ ticipated in a group theme show fea­ turing “functional/dysfunctional” art at the Flux Gallery in Denver. �{AlUMNiPrOFILE} 33 Democracy Brokering IN THE Balkans BY Roberta Gable, A78 hat moment after you graduate election systems (our forte!) and party-building from law school (in the case of Tia Pausic, A86, Harvard Law to commercial legal School) can be one of the most reform and economicfree moments in life. The rig­ related issues like pension reform, the creation of ors of the academic world are small and medium enterprise, and the devel­ behind you, and the long grind towards opment of trade unions. The CDP opened the becoming a partner somewhere looms ahead; Zagreb office in May of ’92, and Pausic was but in the meantime, Sisyphus can take a the first executive director. couple of weeks off and relax. Pausic cele­ She had been back to Croatia three times brated her freedom by going with her father on CDP business but now we’re talking on the Croatian Fraternal Union of Pitts­ immersion. There was the language to be burgh’s more or less annual trip to Croatia reckoned with (“I tried not to be afraid of (her father is Croatian and her mother is speaking”), the lack of consumer goods (“I Romanian). They had a swell i8-day trip, including a weeklong cruise on the Adriatic. developed a scavenger mentality that has been hard to shake! ”), the toilet paper (“like Then, back to reality, and Pausic moved to tree bark”), and her living situation. She had D. C., where she had a typical entry-level j ob a small one-bedroom apartment, which was as an associate at a fairly large law firm. They did government contract work and also some not only her home, but also the CDP office and the crash pad for any CDP visitors. international and immigration work, which Pausic set to work developing projects to was Pausic’s area of interest. In the meantime, as a result of the Croat­ submit to funding agencies, both public and private. For example, the Children’s Hospital ian vacation, she became involved with the in Zagreb was in need of a mobile medical Croatian American community in D.C. clinic, since they were basically the only pedi­ Young professionals, mostly children of atric hospital in the country and also tasked recent emigres, would get together and talk with health care for refugee children politics: it was 1989, and change, with the throughout Croatia. She found funding with prospect of multi-party elections in Hungary, the Soros Foundation to purchase and equip Poland, and Czechoslovakia, was sweeping the vehicle, and in 1993 they were then able Europe. And then they did more than talk: to help children in remote places. (By 1999 they started to host visits from democratic the local hospitals were enough recovered political leaders in Croatia, hoping to get U.S. governmental support for free elections that the vehicle was then donated to the mili­ tary unit in charge of mine-clearing opera­ there. tions.) Finally they decided they needed to form a By 1994 she had to face reality once again. non-profit organization to support this work, She was making next to nothing working for and the Croatian Democracy Project (CDP) a non-profit, and had deferred her law was born. As the situation in Croatia heated school loans for two years, but now had to up, Pausic’s interest in government contract think about shouldering that burden again. work cooled down-her pro bono work for the “I left in December ’93, thinking I was CDP became her focus. never going back. I cried on the plane to In 1991 war broke out in Croatia. The CDP Frankfurt.” (and Pausic, the president thereof) realized Back in Washington, she camped on her that the only way they would succeed in sister’s couch and continued to help out at bringing democracy-building resources from the U.S. to Croatia would be to open an office the CDP while she looked for a job. She talked to the president of America’s Develop­ in Zagreb. And what exactly are “democracy­ ment Foundation (ADF) about possibly get­ building resources,” do you ask? In response ting involved with their projects. In March to the democratic changes in eastern Europe in the eighties, an industry of support grew 1994 he called her and told her that USAID had issued an RFA (Request for Applications) up in the United States, for everything from T { T H E C o L L E G E . St. John’s College ■ Summernoot } Tia Pausic (bottom row, far left) poses with Croatian friends and co-workers. for a human rights project in Croatia, and asked her if she would help write it and be the Chief of Party (basically, be the person who would be in charge if the grant were given). She would, she did, and ADF, a non-profit in Alexandria, Virginia, was awarded the con­ tract for a project to strengthen the abilities of the human rights organizations in Croatia. So, having left Croatia expecting never to return, she moved back in October ’94 to provide training, give technical assistance, and bring grant funding to the Croatian groups. This time her set-up in Zagreb was a lot different. The grant was for $2.5 million over a three-year period. She had her own apartment, and in her office she had actual equipment, actual staff, and an actual salary; and she had become fluent in Croatian, fluent enough even to be a Croatian/English inter­ preter. She designed a grant program, but when they were about to give their first grants in ’95 the government initiated a mili­ tary operation to seize occupied territory from the Serbs, and Zagreb was bombed, making for a certain amount of, shall we say, uncertainty in her life. Nonetheless, they stayed, the occupied territory was liberated, and life got back to more or less normal. A pleasant influx of additional funding turned the three-year $2.5 million project into a six-year, $10 miUion project, which from mid-1996 focussed on displaced persons and repatriation issues. The pursuit of happi­ ness continues abroad for Pausic. She left this June for her next posting with ADF-Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where she will be directing a $4 million, three-year project cre­ ated to provide training, technical assistance, and grants to local nonprofits to encourage more civic participation, advocacy, public­ private partnerships, and coalition-building among the local groups. �{AlumniNotes} 34 Christopher Johnson (SF) says: “I Dianne Cowan (A) is still in Boston, recently completed my PhD in com­ parative literature at New York Uni­ versity. My dissertation, ‘Hyper­ boles: Exemplary Excess in Early Modern English and Spanish Poetry, and its Origins in Classical Epic and Rhetoric,’ won the Outstanding Dis­ sertation Prize in the Humanities for 2000-01 at NYU. Currently, I am also teaching at New York University and City College, but this summer I’m off to a friend’s organic farm in the Pacific Northwest to clear the head and get the hands dirty.” still working for the same software company. Her e-mail address is diannecowan@mindspring.com. 1992 Kate (Griehs) Sullivan (SF) and her husband John Sullivan (SF94) live in Austin, Tex., where John is a project manager for 7-24 Solutions and Kate homeschools their four children, Madeline (7), Jack (5), Lily (3), and Claire (i). John’s e-mail is Jsullivan@724.com and Kate’s is Kate@willdev.com. Boaz Roth (AGI) recounts his recent life: 1999, marriage; 2000, baby #1; 2001, home ownership. He asks: “Will I ever get a chance to read Proust again?” “The charter school I’ve been work­ ing on for the last two and a half years finally got chartered, so we’ll be opening in September,” says Taeko Onishi (SF). “It will be a multi-aged, project-based K-5 school targeting low income families in Troy, N.Y. It is an outgrowth of a community learning space for K-12 in a local public housing neighbor­ hood where I work now. I’d love to hear from any and all Johnnies. Come for a visit or just get in touch, ktaeko@hotmail.com.” Amy Elizabeth Parton (A) says, ‘I am working as a clinical research monitor in the pharmaceutical industry. Still enjoying life in Austin, Tex., and would love to hear from old friends. The rest of the world knows me by my middle name so I can reached by e-mail at elizabeth.parton@austin.ppdi.com.” Elyette (Block) Kirby (SF) reports: “I’m having a baby in May and soon after will be transferring from The Netherlands to the UK with my job at Amazon.co.uk. I enjoy working at Amazon where every interview situation seems to fit in a discussion on who one’s favorite authors are. I am what’s called a ‘communications specialist,’ which means I write a lot. My husband I hope to be settled in the London area by June and would love to hear from anyone close by-or far away! My e-mail is elyette@hotmail.com.” Trish Dougherty (A) reports that Sean Donald Dougherty was born 5/5/01; he joins his big brother Owen and his mom and dad in Orwell, Vermont. Simon Bone (SF) sent in a photo of himself in front of Kant’s grave in Kaliningrad. “He is still dead,” notes Simon. J. Elizabeth Huebert (SF) received her MD from University of Nebraska Medical Center, May 5, 2001. She will do a one-year internship at Broadlawns Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, and then return to Omaha for three years of specialty training in anesthesia. Alec Berlin (SF) released an album of original jazz in October 2000, “Crossing Paths.” It is available at www.cdbaby.com/alecberlin. Since then he’s been composing a lot and working in the new media world, all the while freelancing in bands around New York City. 1993 Jennifer Council Jones (A) moved to Newport Beach, Calif., where she is opening an office for an ad agency and having a great time learning to surf. Nereos Gunther (A) writes, “I am completing my period of indenture in the City of Baltimore and plan to begin an entertainment web site and educational association for vivisectionists.” Valerie Duff (SF) is currently teaching at Boston University and at Harvard Extension. She plans to take a year off to attend Trinity Col­ lege in Dublin, Ireland. While there, she will be in an MA program in cre­ ative writing. Valerie received an MA in creative writing from Boston Uni­ versity, and has since published extensively in Agni, Salamander, Verse, and other literary magazines. She was managing editor of Agni (the literary magazine of Boston University ) for two years. Aaron Mason (SF) works as a mar­ keting writer/editor in the NYC offices of STV Inc., as an architectur­ al consultant; most projects involve public transportation planning. Aaron and Nick Gray (SF97) were both involved with a theatrical per­ formance in New York City in March-Mercury Retrograde: An Evening of 4 Original Short Plays @ the Sanford Meisner Theatre. Aaron wrote a lo-minute play called “Mr. Oedipus,” which is, he says, “artful­ ly directed by goddess-on-wheels, Elysa Marden. Appearing with the hilarious Laura Agudelo (roles of Hillary and God), I play the title role of a man trapped between two conflicting identities. One personali­ ty is an angry white rap star (sound familiar?), and the other side of him remains a reclusive author of chil­ dren’s books. It is VERY loosely based on the original Oedipus.” In another lo-minute play, “Bye Bye Love” by Milton Johnson, Aaron plays the proud owner of a trailer­ home, a Trans-Am, and a hidden past... “‘Bye Bye Love’ is directed with zen-like poise by the unflappable Beth Ouradnik. And Nicholas Gray has written a 20minute play, ‘Coat Room,’ directed by the wise and wooly Sean McGlynn. ‘Coat Room’ is a romantic farce that takes place (where else!) in the bed­ room/coat room of a party. Mr. Gray plays a lovelorn twentysomething lad in the midst of a messy separation.” Anna Vaserstein (A) writes that she and Warren Ellison announce the birth of Daniel Vaserstein Ellison on May 6, 2001 at their house in Jeri­ cho, Vt. Jenna Palmer (SF) and James Michel (SF92) send word that Jenna received her MA in literature at San Francisco State University with a thesis on Jane Eyre, as well as certificates in the teaching of com­ position and reading. She is current­ ly teaching at San Francisco State and the College of San Mateo and hoping to hook a permanent posi­ tion. Jim’s law practice is in its fifth year and has recently moved to downtown San Francisco. You can {The College. St John’s College ■ Summer aooi } contact them at jpalmer@sfsu.edu and jamich@pacbell.net. Jeff Natterman (AGI) is currently involved with the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Council and Baltimore City Schools. He says, “I could spend an hour at least describing the deplorable conditions of the elemen­ tary schools in the city. In particular, their books are in some cases 20 years old (history books with Richard Nixon as the current presi­ dent); their libraries in disrepair and mostly empty of books of any kind. The city pleads for more funding from the state; the state attempts to meets the needs, but fails...badly! I have developed a program called ‘Great Books for Great Kids: The Tench Tilghman Project.’ This pro­ gram targets just one elementary school in Baltimore City. I am hop­ ing to solicit either funding or ele­ mentary school age resource books for the school by August 2001.1 believe these children will never rise above a ‘mediocre at best’ environ­ ment without the best possible resources for learning starting with books. Please contact me if you’d like to help out; jnatterm@jhmi.edu.” Special greetings to the class of ’93 from Amalia Uribe (SF). She writes, “I have two pieces of good news to report. First: Graduated with honors from Massage Therapy school in October 2000. Since November I have been a full time certified Mas­ sage Therapist, and I absolutely love my new career. I work at a chiroprac­ tic clinic and at a small day spa, both in the East Bay of California. Sec­ ond; On July 14, 2000,1 eloped!!! I am now happily married. My hus­ band is Mustapha Moutri; he is 28, a 2nd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and is from Rabat, Morocco. We are quite happy big smile, and NO, there are no plans for little ones just yet. I would love to hear from any of you, but especially from my class­ mates: My e-mail is amaliacmt@yahoo.com (this is a new address). If any of you have tried to get in touch at the old address, I have not had that for a few months, so please try again. I would also very much like to hear from: Jonathan Bricke Rowan (SF96) Will and Amy Glusman (A93) Julie (Girone) Martin (A) and her husband Eric announce the birth of their second daughter, Josephine �35 {Alumni Notes} April. She was born on April 24. Says Julie, “I’ve been a housewife since Charlotte, our first child, was born three and a half years ago. At the moment, we’re still in Somerville, N.J., although we’re moving to a house on an organic farm in Hopewell, New Jersey, this fall, where my husband is the care­ taker. He’s still the executive chef and manager of a fine-dining restaurant in Hamilton as well. Any Johnnies interested in either line of work (especially the farming­ apprentices are always wanted), give a call.” Matthew Wright (A) writes: “Hello to everyone. Michelle, Anne, Emily, John and I are still living in Philly. We are homeschooling and living in a small intentional commu­ nity we helped get started last August. I would love to hear from people at matthew.wright@wholefoods.com.” 1994 Sarah Liversidge (A) and Mike Afflerbach (A) were married Sept 16, 2000 in the Great Hall. Their reception was held on the back lawn of the house of President Chris Nel­ son and Joyce Olin. Many Johnnies were in attendance. The Afflerbachs are still living in New Bern, N.C. and are enjoying racing sailboats. Sarah will be taking her architectural exams this year and Mike is loving the radio biz. Peter Bezanson (SF) has been appointed tutor at the College of the Humanities and Sciences in Phoenix, Arizona. The College of the Humanities and Sciences is a great books distance learning col­ lege established in 1997; it offers undergraduate and graduate educa­ tion in the humanities with concen­ trations in imaginative literature, natural science, philosophy and reli­ gion, and social science. Kenneth Wolfe (SF) is spending this year as a visiting assistant pro­ fessor at Reed College. He received his PhD in classics from UC Berkeley in May 2000. Paul Barker (AGI) will be moving back to Maryland from Ohio. He has been appointed principal of John Carroll School in Bel Air. Antique Information Systems Tracy Whitcomb (A) says she is still enjoying life in Burlington, Vt. Michael ViLLACRUsis (AGI) writes n article about Randolph Stakk (A98) called “Under­ that he and his wife Jennifer had ground Mail Road” appeared on the front page of the New their first child on February 15, York Times metro section in May. Stark, identified in the Emily Rose. article as an entrepreneur, is interested in the under­ ground pneumatic tubes installed in the 1890s to carry Sarah (Van Deusen) Flynn (A) says: mail throughout the city. He wants to use them to hold “We are enjoying Guam. It’s a very fiber optic cable which would connect with telecommunications nice systems place for young families. Ethan that already exist. The pneumatic system was state-of-the-art in several is stationed here at the Naval Hospi­ East Coast cities until about rgrS, Stark discovered, until it was phased out tal until September 2002.” by a quicker and less expensive form of transport that could also carry a greater volume-motor wagons. It was not until 1953 that the tube system Thea Agnew (SF) is still living in was closed. Stark is quoted in the article as saying it would cost “about Alaska. She’s working for herself $roo million a mile to repUcate the conduits today...making even five miles writing grants, particularly working of them a worthwhile resource.” He’s currently searching for the original with rural development in Alaska blueprints for the system. Native communities. She completed an MA in history in May 2000 focus­ ing on 19th century encounters and coordinate the distribution of Patricia Greer (AGI) wiU be a tutor between Yupik Eskimos and Russian marketing materials for the various at the Santa Fe campus next year. Orthodox and American Protestant FtvS products. She will be responsi­ missionaries. ble for sales materials and press kits Dan Farley and Elizabeth Rhodes on projects as diverse as the upcom­ Farley (both A) write: “In addition ing local Fox World Productions ver­ to our daughter, Hannah (now three sions of “Temptation Island” and years old), we have a son, Dylan, the movie based on popular chil­ born May rq, 2000 (Mother’s “John and I are busy planning our dren’s author R.L. Stine’s story enti­ Day!).” house-to be built this summer on tled “When Good Ghouls Go Bad.” our II acres of slightly wet paradise A 1996 1995 Emily Murphy (A) was one of four Pennsylvania graduate students to receive the Outstanding Graduate Student award from the Pennsylva­ nia Association of Graduate Schools. Of course, she says, “around here it’s ‘for the Glory of Old State,’ but I think that a lot of the credit goes to St. John’s as well.” Susan Talkington (SFGI) is cur­ rently working as a software engi­ neer for the Seattle offices of Mer­ rill Lynch. She married Ian MacGillivray of Santa Fe in March 2oor, and the two are currently residing in Eldorado. Rontt Koren (SFGI) has been pro­ moted to Manager, Marketing, Fox Television Studios. Ms. Koren will continue to develop marketing opportunities for Fox Television Stu­ dios, including top series suppliers Regency Television and the Greenblatt-JanoUari Studio, alternative studio Fox TV Studios Productions, international production specialist Fox World Productions, Fox Televi­ sion Pictures and non-fiction pro­ duction companies Foxstar and Nat­ ural History New Zealand. Ms. Koren will continue to help design icksT in central Maine,” writes Allison Eddyblouin (SF). “The girls (Mary Catherine and Thalia) are great­ homeschooling is a blast. It was great to have Jason Voigt come visit. He will be doing the same boat build­ ing program that John did four years ago! Any other Johnnies want to come visit? If so, drop us a line.” Mara Giles (SF) writes, “Just read Geoff Marslett (SF) currently has the Spring 2oor The College and enjoyed reading about a distant and not-so-distant past of my own. I rem­ inisced about my years on both the Santa Fe and Annapolis campuses. I am enjoying my life very much with my non-Johnnie husband, a biology professor, and our wonderful daugh­ ter in Nebraska. I work for a comput­ er software company located in New Mexico and feel quite lucky to be able to telecommute. I still enjoy the academic life, can’t seem to get away from it (married into it), and am pur­ suing more (yea!) degrees in litera­ ture and philosophy with hopes of...??? Well, let’s just say it’ll ruin the surprise if I tell you now. Best of luck and regards to each of you.” an animated short film out called “Monkey vs. Robot.” For more infor­ mation, check out his website at WWW. swervepictures. com. Rosemary Ingham (AGI) writes: “I retired from teaching at Mary Wash­ ington College in May and am spend­ ing the summer at the Utah Shake­ spearean Festival where I will be designing costumes for Two Gentle­ men of Verona and The Fantask- Nada Khader (SFEC) is teaching French and private tutoring students at the United National International School in Manhattan. She’s also a Girl Scout troop leader. {The College. St. John ’5 College ■ Summer 2001 } Jon Stephen Pearson (SF) is com­ pleting requirements for an MFA degree in comparative literature while teaching literature under an assistantship at the University of Georgia in Athens. Amy (Norman) Morgan (A) reports: “I was married in June 1998. During the ‘99-00 school year my husband (Bill) and I taught Eng­ lish and methodology to secondary school English teachers in Ovorkhangai, Mongolia. Now, we live in the Cincinnati area where Bill teaches elementary school music and I teach English to foreign business people and their spouses. I am applying to study applied lin­ guistics at Indiana University or �{AlumniProfile} Cultural Jam Session Anthropologist Catherine Allen explores the culture ofthe Andes. BY SUS3AN Borden, A87 cattered throughout Catherine Allen’s (A6g) office are Andean textiles-woven pieces in reds, black, and white with patterns marching down one side and up the other. Allen nods towards one, a woman’s shawl, and points out the seam down its cen­ ter. “You’d think that they’ve just taken two complete pieces and sewn them together, but it’s really a single pat­ tern,” she says. “The two halves are part of the design. In the Andes, everything needs a companion.” Allen’s knowledge of Andean culture goes well beyond textiles. An anthropologist, she did her fieldwork with the Quechua-speaking people in the Peruvian region of Cuzco, where she lived and partici­ pated in community life by harvesting and planting potatoes, cooking, learning to spin, and helping to herd animals. She has written many articles, a book, and a play that draw on her fieldwork in the Andes. And she has just won a Guggenheim Fellowship to write a book examining Andean expressive media (such as storytelling and weaving) and write another play. Allen didn’t start out as an anthropologist. She was originally interested in classical archaeology, an interest that led her first to St. John’s and then to the University of Illi­ nois to study archaeology at the graduate level. It wasn’t long, however, before Allen found herself frustrated with the narrow focus of archaeology. “I was interested in questions of meaning, questions that needed Catherine Allen (second from left) SWITCHED from IMAGINARY TO REAL FRIENDS THROUGH THE STUDY OF QEROS, ARTIFACTS FROM THE Andes. a living context” she says, “but all the peo­ ple I was studying were dead.” In pursuit of her master’s degree in the iconography of ceramics from the southern coast of Peru, Allen spent hours staring at museum collections and studying pictures of ceramics. She learned plenty about the ceramics themselves, but little about what they were used for. “It was like having the grammar of a language, but not knowing what any of the words mean,” she says. When she considered questions of meaning, she had only her own mind to consult: “I felt like I was making up my imaginary friends.” Allen moved from imaginary to real friends during her dissertation research. { The C o llege-St. John’s College • Summer 2001 } which began with the study of lacquered wooden cups called qeros. Although the first part of her project brought her back to museum work, the sec­ ond part sent her into the world of people, meaning, and anthro­ pology. Qeros date back to the 17th century, but they are still used for drinking rituals in some communities in the Peruvian highlands. Allen decided to study one of these communi­ ties, Sonqu, hoping that current drinking rituals would shed light on past qero uses and answer the questions of meaning she had been formulating. Allen went to Sonqu and immersed herself in the communi­ ty’s way of life. While her academic interests centered on the per­ formative aspects of life (storytelling, cere­ monies, and rituals), Allen found herself focusing on the community’s everyday modes of interaction. “What I studied was a kind of etiquette, really,” she says. “Ritual is an intensified expression of everyday courtesies.” Among the people of Sonqu, the basic vehicle of rit­ ual is the coca leaf, always chewed in a cere­ monial context. And so her dissertation moved away from the qeros that had brought her to Sonqu. “I ended up writing on coca chewing,” she says. “Coca is the bare bones of their ritual life.” Allen completed her dissertation. Coca, Chicha, and Trago: Private and Communal Rituals in a Quechua Community, in 1978. Ten years later she published The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an �{AlumniProfile} 37 ''When Ifirst studied culture, I thought ofit more as a symphony: each person has apart to play and the culture gives you a score. But the class made me realize there isn i any score; culture is something that is always emerging '' Andean Community, the book that devel­ oped out of her disser­ tation. It is still in print today, read pri­ marily by anthropology students; a second edi­ tion is in the works. And as her book is a perennial at universi­ ties, Allen is now a perennial at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Hired 20 years ago as a newly-minted PhD, she is surprised to find herself still teaching there. “I never expected to stay,” she says. “I thought I would go on to a small experimen­ tal college, but I began teaching in an era when experimental programs were folding or contracting.” Allen says her longevity at George Wash­ ington is primarily due to the congenial atmosphere of the anthropology department and the university’s Division of Experimen­ tal Programs. Through this division, Allen has collaborated with colleagues from the school’s religion, art, literature, history, and political science departments. In 1993 and 1994 she wrote a play. Condor Qatay, with a colleague in the theater department and the two teach a class together: “Anthropology in Performance.” She describes a typical exercise from one of their classes: “Rather than explore a situ­ ation intellectually and analytically, we do an improvisation. We set up situations like waking up or harvesting, assign participants kinship and household roles, and have them play out these situations without speaking English.” It is through negotiating these improvisational roles that students gain insight into the rituals of another culture. But Allen says that it’s not just the students who benefit from the exercises: “I’ve learned a lot from teaching and watching the improvs,” she says. “I get flashes, moments that show me how cultural prac- Catherine Allen tices grow out of the dynamics of the inter­ action of a group. “When I first studied culture, I thought of it more as a symphony: each person has a part to play and the culture gives you a score. But the class made me realize there isn’t any score; culture is something that is always emerging,” she says. “Culture is more like jazz. You have some basic sequences in your head and general expectations of other peo­ ple, but the jam session never comes out the same way twice.” Starting this Septem­ ber, Allen will have the chance to further her studies of the cultural jam session. As the recip­ ient of a Guggenheim fel­ lowship, she’ll have a year off to work on two proj­ ects. The first is a book on Andean aesthetic strategies. It will include examinations of story telling, weaving, and ceramics. “It draws on my original interests,” Allen says. “I’m finally going to include a chapter on qeros." The other project is a second play. “My first play. Condor Qatay, means the Condor Son-in-Law. The condor carries off the Indi­ an maiden and becomes the son-in-law,” Allen explains. “This play is the converse: the star woman who marries an Indian man.” Like the textiles in her office, the two stories form a single design: they are reflections of each other, companions. Catherine Allen’s FAVORITE BOOKS IN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Argonauts ofthe Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski The Nuer by E. E. Evans-Pritchard Tristes Tropique (or The Savage Mind) by Claude Levi-Strauss The Ritual Process by Victor Turner The Interpretation of Cultures by Clifford Geertz Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas Pigsfor the Ancestors by Roy Rappaport The Spoken Word and the Work ofInterpretation by Dennis Tedlock Unnatural Emotions by Catherine Lutz Andean Lives by Valderrama, Escalante, Gelles, and Martinez {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } �{AlumniNotes} 38 TESOL at the University of Cincin­ nati in the fall.” “I am completing study for my mas­ sage therapist certificate and plan to eventually specialize in maternity care and rape recovery treatment,” writes Erin (Hearn) Furry (A). She’s heen married to William C. Furhy tV for a year. Erin has plans to start an Alaska alumni chapter after this summer. “If anyone is interested in helping, I can be reached at celebrinthol@usa.net.” Loreen McRea Keller (AGI) writes that she and her husband Greg are expecting their third child in May-“maybe a third girl? We can’t wait to find out! ” Jennifer (Wamser) Deslongchamps (AGI) writes: “The year after graduation, having just returned from a year studying medieval philosophy in Pisa, I met my future husband in a laundromat in Fairfield, Conn. Paul Deslongchamps and I were married in January 1999 and this October we were blessed by the birth of Thomas Robert. While I’ve been taking this year off. I’m currently ‘all but dis­ sertation’ at Yale, where I’m work­ ing on the notion of infinity in the work of Meister Eckhard and Nicholas of Cusa.” Scott Field (SFGI) and his wife Jes­ sica will celebrate their fifth anniver­ sary this summer, and they will have their son Henry (born September 33, 3000) along. “I’m still teaching fifth grade, although I now have senior elective psychology and a philosophy course to teach as well,” says Scott. “Finally, I’m putting all of that liber­ al arts background into my perform­ ances each weekend at ImprovBoston, the improvisational comedy troupe I’ve been performing with for over three years now.” Erica Maria Ginsberg-Klennt (SFGI) writes: “We sailed away from Annapolis in 1997 and stayed in the Bahamas for a year before crossing Panama to French Polynesia. I’ve been writing articles on technomodism (the use of technology to make your location irrelevant) for French, German and Italian magazines. Our daughter Antonia Tahia was born in Hawaii in August r999 and we are all moving to the south of France this summer with the ‘Pangaea Nui.’ Check out our web site, www.pangaea.to for more stories.” 1997 Ryan ViGUERlE (SF) writes: “Shortly after graduating from some college no one’s ever heard of, I moved out to LA to try and make it as a writer. Then, after floundering about for a few years, I decided to go back to school and am now studying at the American Film Institute. A swell place. Greetings maybe sent to raoulduke@mediaone.net.” Rebecca Michael reports that she and Mike Gaffney (A95) are getting married in Annapolis on June 39, 3003. They are living in Jack­ sonville, N.C., where Mike is sta­ tioned for the Marine Corps. Rebec­ ca is finishing her master’s thesis. Kit Linton (A) and Sonya Schiff Linton (Aoo) were married last September and are living in Washington, D.C. Romance novelist HiLLARY FIELDS (SF97) had an article in Cosmopoli­ tan (April 3001) called “The Tough Girl Trap.” She offers advice to “strong women” whose independ­ ence is seen as a threat by men. She’s the author of two books. The Maid­ en ’s Revenge and Marrying Jezebel. “I finally got my dream job-working in the ‘new’ field of agri-tourism,” writes Mary Beth Stevenson (AGI). “I am the assistant manager of a site in Grafton, Wise, called the Family Farm. It is a 135-year-old, 46-acre farmsite. I five on site, too, in a stone farmhouse built in 1890. Any Wis­ consin alumni should check it out.” Postcard from Panama Luke and Rachel Trares (both A) have moved to Fort Worth, Tex., where Luke is attending Southwest­ ern Baptist Theological Seminary in the hope of becoming a church planting missionary, probably some­ where on this continent. “I am really enjoying school,” he says. “Please don’t hesitate to contact us with questions about Christian ministry (ltrares@yahoo.com).” Genevieve Goodrow (A) writes: “Hooray! I passed the bar exam and started work, and while it’s nice to get paid I’m beginning to fantasize about school again. At least I have plenty of time to read while commuting.” Christopher English (SFGI) and Diane Shires (SFGI98) are getting married on December 37, 3001 on Catalina Island, Calif., 170 years to the day Darwin set sail on the Beagle. 1998 “Lest anyone is interested, I am cur­ rently working as a flight instructor for Swissair at the Flight Safety International Academy in Vero Beach, Fla.,” e-mails Ariel Szabo. “Through the Swissair Aviation ow I’ve been in Panama with the Peace Corps for School (SRAS), I train pilots for both almost four months. I spent three of these months Swissair and Austrian Airlines. If in training, in a suburb of a suburb of Panama City. anyone is interested in information Had a great host family (whom I visited and partied concerning airline careers or flight with for my birthday), and made good friends, both training under the new European Panamanian and American. There were 17 other regulations (JAR/JAA), please feel free to contact me at Thesmophopeople in training with me. The best of training? Los Carnavales” they rivaled Brazil and definitely beat Mardi Gras in Newria@mac.com. Orleans! Recent graduate Valerie Whiting (Aoo) writes aboni her assignment in the Peace Corps. N Now I live in La Raya de Santa Maria, in the province of Veraguas, almost in the middle of the country. It’s hot, dry, about 800 people. We have TV, water, and some houses have indoor toilets, but the house I’m renting has a latrine. As an environmental edu­ cation volunteer, I work in the school (K-6) doing projects and teaching English (oh joy!). More so, this community needs organi­ zation. I’m a hit because my town meeting actually had 100 people (out of 800). Trying to end the family feuds, religious clashes (Catholic vs. evangelical), and pohtical partisanship seems to be my main goal. I love Panama-the music’s loud and tacky, the food’s greasy (and sometimes unrecognizable as to which animal it came from), we all paint our toenails hot pink and wear tight jeans and tank tops. It’s my kind of country. I’m still feeling out the Peace Corps and its effectiveness here. I’ve only got one month in site, so we’ll see how that goes. If any­ one would like to reach me, my mailing address is: Entrega Gener­ al, Santiago, Veraguas, Republica de Panama, or valeriewhiting@yahoo.com. David Braden (SFGI) teaches fifth grade math at Casady School, a pri­ vate Episcopal day school for grades K through 13. He and his wife have three children: Hannah (almost5 years old), John Henry (3), and Paul (i), and they are expecting their fourth in October. Kristina Rodriguez (SF) writes: “We had another baby boy in Sep­ tember 3000. We named him Matthew. I’m currently living in Alamogordo, N.Mex., where my hus­ band manages an Applebee’s. I’m fortunate enough to stay at home with my boys.” Greetings may be sent to brianandtina@tularosa.net, or 1454 Columbia Ave., Alamogor­ do, NM 88310. Nathan and Heather Greenslit (both A) five in Worcester, Mass. {The College. St. John's College ■ Summer aoot } �39 {Alumni Notes} Summa Adlerologica dler goes with Prank the way that Reality goes with Week­ end.when Andhis thetalk Adler Prank has John’s was in 1937, lasted over a longer pedigree than Reali two hours. The following year, students were­ tysomething Weekend. Mortimer determined to do about the over­ Adler ’s first lecture at St. whelming length. They gathered every alarm A clock on campus, brought them to the bal­ cony of the Great HaU (where lectures were then held), and timed them to ring one hour into the lecture. In Adler’s biography. Philosopher at Large, he recounted his reac­ tion to that first prank: “I stood my ground, waited for the din to subside, and then, with a smile and bow to acknowledge their ingenu­ ity, completed the lecture. The students plot­ ted another way to defeat me.” Such a plot was executed the following year when, again an hour into the talk, someone cut the power to the Great HaU. “Utter darkness-and silence-reigned for a moment,” wrote Adler. “I knew they expected me to rise to the chaUenge, so I took matches out of my pocket and continued the lecture by matchlight for the brief interval it took for a mem­ ber of the faculty to restore the electricity.” They were married in June 1998 and have a beautiful daughter, Emily Ruth, who is now a year old. Heather taught middle school math and sci­ ence until Emily was born. She now tutors and sells Discovery toys. Nate got his master’s degree in cognitive science from Johns Hopkins last year and is now in a doctoral program at MIT called “The History and Social Study of Science and Technology.” They are expecting another baby sometime in August. Lorna Anderson (A) is engaged to be married on May 25, 2002, to Aaron Johnson, a classical pianist, and they are both living and working in Chicago. Lorna flirted briefly with a career in journalism, was accepted into Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and after two months decided she’d leave the hot pursuit of the ephemeral up to someone else. She is now working part-time and writing poetry, which she has come to admit was her voca­ While the records of decades of Adler pranks have been lost to the coUege, the pubhc relations office still maintains a hefty file stuffed with reports of lec­ ture high jinks. According to a igUr clipping, prank­ ing seniors scattered throughout the audi­ Adler — named Holy ence interrupted the lecture with their own Roman Emperor DURING A PRANK — conversation. They COMPLETES HIS LEC­ imphcated Adler in TURE WITH CROWN IN some of the world’s PLACE. most significant works and deeds, including Adler Grossing the Delaware, Adler the Great, Adler’s Last Stand, The Critique of Pure Adler, Thus Spake Adlerthustra, Summa Adlerologica, Cain and Adler, E Pluribus Adler, Huckleberry Adler, and Wealth of Adlers. The 1984 prank featured a “This Is Your Life” segment where Adler’s parents were interviewed. Mrs. Adler, played by Nancy tion all along. She also volunteers for a great books organization in the city and has been leading poetry discus­ sions at venues throughout Chicago. She welcomes a visit from anyone passing through. Mease (A84), spoke of her son’s early years: “Even as a baby he had this annoy­ ing habit of going on and on, and we sometimes thought he’d never stop! He would latch onto some topic. I think it was the forms first, and ethics later, and he would just keep talking.” In 1987, television journalist Bill Moy­ ers filmed Adler’s lecture for a series on the Gonstitution. WeU before the event, then-president WiUiam Dyal (HA89) assembled the ringleaders of the senior class and swore them to a prank moratori­ um. When junior class members heard of their oath, they decided to take matters into their own hands. They went to Maria’s Pizze­ ria, bought a pepperoni pizza, and wrote in large letters on the box, “From the Junior Class.” Midway through the lecture Thomas Burke (SF91), dressed as a delivery boy, brought the pizza onstage to Adler. Adler reached into his pocket, pulled out a ten, and gave it to Burke, who propped up the box on the front of the lectern to remind the audi­ ence who had delivered the pizza-and the prank. Moyers declared it fine television. “A little prank at St. John’s probably keeps the mind awake,” he said. Ruth Busko (SF) is currently living in Columbia, Md., pursuing a mas­ ter’s degree in acupuncture at the Traditional Acupuncture Institute there. Tilman Jacobs (SF) has been living 1999 From Scott Larson: “I am writing this note just to let you know some recent events in my life. On March 18, 2000,1 married my long-term girlfriend Jennifer (nee Rodgers) (AGI99). On December 7th 2000, we had a son, Oliver Scott Larson, weighing 6 pounds 15 ounces. We are both (my wife and I, not our son) working at Thomas Jefferson School in St. Louis.” Kelly O’Malley (A) is pursuing a master’s degree program in forestry and ecosystem management at Duke University’s School of the Environ­ ment. in Sweden since last August and plans to stay for another year in Europe. 2000 Andre Rodriguez (SFGI) is cur­ rently teaching eighth grade Ameri­ can history; he’s applying to law school. Stacy Allen (AGI) reports that she had a son, John Brady Allen, 9 lbs., 5 oz., born one month after graduation. “I am now a student in the psycholo­ gy department at New School Uni­ versity in Manhattan,” reports James Lewis (SFGI). {The College .St John's College . Summer 2001 } Calling All Alumni 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 November; copy deadline is September 20. In Annapolis: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404; b-goyette@sjca.edu. In Santa Fe: The CoUege Magazine, St. John’s College, Public Relations Office, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; classics@mail.sjcsf.edu. Alumni Notes on the Web: Read Alumni Notes and contact The College on the web at: www.sjca.edu - click on “Alumni.” �{Letters} On The College Whether it is a work slowdown from the world of writing ency­ clopedia articles, anticipation of Jon Ferrier’s 50th birthday this coming Wednesday, or my own youthful longings, I do not know. But my week has been full of dreams of Prince George Street, Thucydides, (never really TOO far from my psyche, I confess) the scent of boxwood, and the glories of an Annapolis spring. When I opened my mailbox this Saturday morning, I found the new issue of The College. On this Saturday afternoon when I would rather be enjoying Reality weekend than cleaning house, please know what a joy and com­ fort this brilliantly-conceived, marvelously-executed “new” magazine brought to my soul, my heart, and, ah, my mind! Some mail days are better than others. Thank you for being such an integral piece of a pretty good mail day. —Jane E. Spear, A73 I have just completed The College cover to cover and take my (proverbial) hat off to you all for the obvious work and resulting high quality. My wife graduated from the Graduate Institute in 1991 and I only completed half the program before 1 went on to (gasp) make money! The one regret of my life is not complet­ ing the, G1 program. The concept and the execution of The College is wonderful! Please keep up the hard but great work! —Sean P. Scally, AGI89 In your introduction to the new alumni periodical, you asked readers to “Let us know what you think.” Here’s what I think. I think the new format is excel­ lent. It allows for lengthier and more serious treatment of issues than The Reporter. The content of the first issue was excellent and thought-provoking. It invites alums to reflect on how they might interpret their current lives in light of the program. The professional format is appealing. I hope to see wonderful things in the future. “This hath offended; oh, this unworthy hand! ” -James A. Cockey, A71 —Michael Ciea, A78 I’d like to commend the staff of The College for a wonderful new format for your publication. It’s much more enjoyable to read. In fact, for once, I read every arti­ cle. —Lisa Lashley, SF80 Good show-big improvementexcellent start. And only St. John’s could offer a wrestling bout with Aristotle and then deal with the technicalities of dehcate training of the very, very young a few pages later. Go to it. St. John’s ranks near the top (or at the top) of Ameri­ can educational institutions. And I’m glad that at least one of my children had the benefit of it. —Donald Harriss Historical Accuracy I enjoyed your article about the r95i St. John’s production of Thomas Cranmer ofCanterbury [“St. John’s Forever”], but I must point out the obvious error, about which I suspect you have already heard many times. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer did not “suffer martyrdom as a result of his stance on the king’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon.” His stance on the divorce actually made his career with Henry VIII, and led to his appointment as the first Protes­ tant archbishop of Canterbury. He continued in his position under Henry VIII and Edward VI, and only got into trouble under Queen Mary. She imprisoned him because of his Protestant involvement, and coerced him to a recantation of his Protestant views before his execution. He then dramatically reversed his position again before he was burned at the stake, asserting that his only sin was his previous recantation of his Protestant position. Before dying, he put the hand which had signed the recan­ tations into the fire, saying. More Great Books on Parenting I loved the parenthood piece in the spring issue [“The Education That Is Parenthood”]. The Pro­ gram is surely an excellent prepa­ ration for parenthood, since, whatever the great books may be about, it trains you in open and respectful dialogue, the proper relationship with one’s child. Of books about parenting, I have fond memories of Children the Challenge, by Rudolph Dreikers, Hawthorn Books, New York, 1964. It too fosters such dialogue. And for little children of course Dr. Spock. With reference to Janette Fischer’s letter on Galileo’s talents, it’s evident from Dava Sobel’s recent Galileo’s Daughter that he was an attentive and loving father too. —John A. White, SFGI75 I am breaking a 25-year silence to share this one thought with the St. John’s community. The best book on parenting I have ever read, in fact the best book I have ever read, the book I would keep if I had to give away every other book I own, the book I have bought ao copies of over my life and given away to troubled par­ ents and been thanked again and again for the gift.. .was not included in the list. From the first time I read it 15 years ago, I said if there ever was a book writ­ ten about parenting for a mem­ ber of the St. John’s community, it is Whole Child/Whole Parent by Polly Berrien Berends. —George Kiberd, A7a I read your recent article on par­ enthood with enjoyment. I am a mother of two, a La Leche League leader and something of a “birth junkie,” and I’d like to recommend a few more books. For birth. Dr. Bill and Martha Sears’s The Birth Book, and Birthing From UY'zAzzibyPam England and Rob Horowitz. {The College- St. John's College • Summer 2001 } La Leche League’s The Woman­ ly Art ofBreastfeeding is essen­ tial for nursing moms, and Dr. Sears’s The Baby Book is a wonderful book on parenting and baby care. The Sears books promote attachment parenting­ breastfeeding and holding the baby whenever he wants it, carry­ ing him in a sling, co-sleeping. This produces secure, independ­ ent children, contrary to what advocates of the old “don’t pick that baby up or you’ll spoil him” school might say. I also wanted to mention the large part that breastfeeding can play in the first year or more of a baby’s life, since it wasn’t dis­ cussed in your article. Breastfed babies are smarter, have stronger immune systems, and have a lower risk of leukemia, MS, obe­ sity and heart disease later in life. Breastfeeding moms have a lower risk of breast, ovarian, and cervi­ cal cancer, as well as a lower risk of osteoporosis. In addition to its many, many health benefits for mother and baby, breastfeeding helps to forge a stronger bond between them, and gives the mother a wonderful parenting tool as the baby gets older. Nurs­ ing is a wonderful way to soothe the bumps, bruises, hurt feelings and tantrums of toddlerhood, and I didn’t think it should be left out of a discussion on parenting! For more information on breast­ feeding, check out www.lalecheleague.org and www.breastfeeding.com. —Tamara Steblez Ashley Aga/gs Hurray for Planning I was excited to read in “One Col­ lege-How to Make it Really Work” (Springissue) that “...the Management Committee pre­ pared a framework for a college­ wide strategic plan that considers needs and resources well into the future.” What a great idea! —James Laws, SF86 Corrections Probably due to my somewhat illegible scrawl/penmanship �{Obituaries} C. Thomas Clagett Jr. Class ofiQsg C. Thomas Clagett Jr., a retired business executive who graduated from St. John’s in 1939, died on June 18. Mr. Clagett served in the Navy during World War II and became a lieutenant commander. He worked for the Zeigler Coal Company beginning in 1947; he was board vice chairman and head of the board’s executive committee when the com­ pany was bought by Houston Natural Gas in 1973. Mr. Clagett continued to serve on the board of the new company until he retired in 1985A lifelong resident of Washington, D.C., Mr. Clagett was involved with many civic and church groups, including Decatur House, the Navy League, the Masons, the Sons of the American Revolution, Washington Hos­ pital Center, Washington National Cathe­ dral, and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. He was also a yachtsman and sailor who established the Leiter Trophy, in honor of his wife, who died in 1977. He is survived by a son, a daughter, and four grandchildren. Constance Darkey Constance H. Darkey, who was known to every generation of New Program students and tutors, died May a6 at her Santa Fe home of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of eighty-four. She is survived by her husband, tutor emeritus William Darkey; a son by a previ­ ous marriage, Peter Nabokov, professor of anthropology at UCLA; by a daughter, Catharine Darcy, who works with a real estate firm in San Bernadino, Calif; by a sis­ ter, Sally G. Holladay of Schroon Lake, NY; and by a number of grandchildren. Mrs. Darkey was born and grew up in Min­ neapolis, Minn.; she graduated in 1938 from more letters there were a number of typos in the Alumni Notes for a listing I submitted which appeared in the 1986 section in the Spring 2001 issue: Firstly, I married Graham Gar­ ner, not Grant as listed once in the note. I work for the Friends General Conference of the Reli­ gious Society of Friends (not the Religions of Friends) and my email address is lucyd@fgcquak- Wells College in Aurora, NY, where she majored in Engbsh literature and drama and then did graduate study in literature with Professor Lane Cooper at Cornell University. In Annapolis she became deeply persuad­ ed of the rightness of the St. John’s curricu­ lum, a conviction which never waned. For several years she was manager of the College Bookstore in Annapolis, resigning in 1944 to take an editorial position in New York with a trade publication. Returning to Annapolis in 1947 she, with a group of other parents of young children, became involved in an enterprise which resulted in the Key School. She was first the librarian and had great fun buying books and then devised the school’s history program, which she taught delightedly. She understood and was an enthusiastic supporter of and participant in both the intellectual and social life of St. John’s, well understanding that these were not separable provinces. She favored the idea of the western cam­ pus and once in Santa Fe took up her resi­ dency with all of her considerable energies, making new friends, reading widely and deeply in the literature and history of the Southwest, and traveling throughout the entire region. She put her new knowledge to work first as a docent in local museums, and then became the librarian of the Wheel­ wright Museum of the American Indian. When her husband became the dean of the Santa Fe campus, she again turned her ener­ gies to the social life of the college, acting for five years as hostess to visiting lecturers and to generations of students. She was a regular and excellent partici­ pant in Gommunity Seminars, and for one year she was happily a co-leader of an under­ graduate seminar. er.org not lucyd@fgquaker.org. The wedding was really beautiful by the way-a really perfect day. —Lucy Duncan, SF86 Editor’s Note Due to a computer software glitch, many households received multiple copies of the first issue of The College. We hope the soft­ ware problem is corrected and apologize for loading up your Donald S. Elliott Class oftg48 Donald S. Elliott, who taught at Garrison Forest School for 30 years, died on March 13. Mr. Elliott also wrote children books devoted to teaching about music, “Alligators and Music,” “Frogs and Ballet,” and “Lamb’s Tales from Great Operas.” At the private school in Owings Mills, Md., where he taught, his favorite course was an interdisci­ plinary one that combined art, literature, history, and music. Mr. Elliott was born and raised in Lutherville, Md., and entered St. John’s when he was 14. He received his degree in 1948 and went to work for the Baltimore Life Insurance Company in the actuarial depart­ ment. He left to become a teacher at Garri­ son Forest School. He is remembered as a Renaissance man who taught himself to play the piano, read philosophy and literature constantly, and built his own swimming pool. He is survived by his wife, Cielito Obina, and by three sons, two daughters, and four grandchildren. ALSO NOTED: Elizareth D. Hatch, A76, died in Decem­ ber 1998 John A. Joh, Class of 193a, died in March 2000 Craig Allen Johnston, A95 Kenneth Lenihan, AGI88, died in May 2001 Jesse Elhert Morgan, Class of 1954 F. Scott Seegers, Class of 1967, died in February 2001 Tad Sanwick, Class of 1938, died in May 2001 George F. Wohlgemuth, Class of 1919, died in June 2001 mailboxes unnecessarily. Contacting The College The College welcomes letters on issues of interest to readers. Let­ ters 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 or The College Maga­ {The College- St. John’s College . Summer soot } zine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, nm 87505-4599- Letters can also be sent via email to: b-goyette@sjca.edu, or via the form for letters on the web site at www.sjca.edu - click on “Alumni,” then on “Contact The College Magazine.” �{Obituaries} 42, In Memory of Leo Raditsa emarks delivered by tutor Nick Maistrellis at a memorial service for Leo Raditsa, tutor in Annapo­ lis from 1973 to aoor. Mr. Raditsa died in January. R I first met Leo in the mid-yos when we shared a sophomore seminar-the first of three seminars we shared over the next 35 years. We may have a record. I liked him immediately although we disagreed, almost from the beginning, about many things; poli­ tics, the college, the purpose of seminar. I thought of him as a political conservative because of the passion with which he believed in the inherent evil of the Soviet empire. But he himself rejected that label. He thought of himself as a partisan of free­ dom and humaneness. He was also deeply skeptical about the college’s approach to the books. He did not believe they could be read without the context of the struggles which surrounded their birth, and without the con­ stant guidance of a teacher. At bottom, Leo believed that the task of the tutor is to show students what is impor­ tant in the extraordinary books we read together. I, being more conservative, thought that no such thing can be done in seminar, and that all we can do is to allow students the occasion to examine their own insights into the books. For me, the main job of the seminar leader is to wait and listen, whereas for Leo it was to assert and provoke. What he cherished most in seminar was oneon-one exchanges between himself and a stu­ dent who was responding to something he had said. He told me that he didn’t believe students could sustain an important conver­ sation just among themselves. This made for seminars in which there was always at least the possibility of tension between the tutors. I found being in seminar with Leo difficult and wearing, but also very exciting. If we had not been in seminar together, I do not know if I would have ever allowed myself to know and care for this extraordinary man. Many people one meets are interesting for what they know or for what they have done. It is much rarer to meet one who is interesting in himself. Leo was one of these. I have often, over the past many years, experi­ enced a lack which on reflection turned out to be a need to have lunch with Leo, just to be with him. In every encounter with him you knew you were in the presence of someone. Every opinion he expressed had that in it which marked it as one of Leo’s utterances. In this way he had of always being truly pres­ ent in every conversation, Leo was one of the most intimate human beings I have known. Leo always said what he thought, and what he thought was never ordinary. His thinking had for me the following quality; he seemed to be the conduit for opinions coming from a deeper source, rather than the originator of them. His own awareness of this quality of his thinking is probably reflected in his respect for the discovery of the unconscious by classical psychoanalysis, and especially for the work of Freud and Wilhelm Reich. I remember so many occasions when he said things I could not possibly have expected, or expressed opinions I could not imagine any­ one holding, that I could spend hours relat­ ing them. One in particular happened 25 years ago in the sophomore seminar we shared. In those days we read John Calvin’s Institutes ofthe Christian Religion, a formi­ dable book best known for its austere teach­ ing on the predestination of souls for salva­ tion. Leo had never read it before, and came to the seminar very excited. It was his open­ ing question. He looked at the class and said, “Isn’t this the sweetest, the warmest, the most humane author you have ever read?” Of all the things I could have imagined being said about Calvin, this was the least expect­ ed, and yet, it became the beginning of a very good discussion, for it challenged us to reassess our own first opinions. What Leo saw was that the doctrine of predestination {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer noot } removed an unbearable burden of responsibility from human beings. This story also has its own irony, for it shows Leo being a seminar stu­ dent in the best St. John’s tradition in spite of his own doubts about being a seminar leader. Leo cared about his students. His manner was often abrupt and challenging. He was sometimes grumpy. It is hard to know how much of this was from the chronic pain in his leg, for he never com­ plained. He could be unfairly criti­ cal, and judgmental. He often mis­ judged students. But, he cared deeply both for their learning and for their personal welfare. He didn’t talk about students very often, but when he did he surprised me by how much he knew about them. He was impatient with what he saw as phoniness, and much of his harshness was directed against perceived laziness, or what he thought was the mere parroting of fash­ ionable opinions for effect. But if he thought a student was doing his best Leo could be extraordinarily gracious and encouraging. I remember two occasions when he saved me from unfairly undervaluing the written work of students, when I had allowed myself to be too critical of superficial defects. He was often more generous in formal evaluations than in oral exams. We were together on more than one occasion on senior essay com­ mittees when he was very harsh in person to a student to whom he gave a good grade on the essay itself. His response to this apparent discrepancy was to say that he thought the student was too pleased with himself, and needed to be woken up. My favorite times with Leo were outside class, and especially when we were not talk­ ing about college matters where he was usu­ ally furious about a decision that had just been made by some officer of the college in which, all to often, I was implicated. I loved to hear him talk about Italy. He cared deeply about the world, and in his presence I cared about it more too. We had both adopted chil­ dren at about the same time, and it was with him that I shared my feelings about the spe­ cial joys and challenges of being an adoptive parent. He gave the best dinner parties. �43 {History} HUNT HOUSE The sprawling Santa Fe-style adobe home with the courtyard perfectfor viewing sunsets once belonged to a colorfulpoet. BY Alexis Brown, SFoo new president for the Santa Fe campus travels to Asia, Bynner had a newfound love and appreciation for poetry. He settled down occupies the Hunt House, and as he and his in the hills of Santa Fe and began to expand on his poetic expression, using the simple, wife begin planning for their future there, elegant styles of Asian poetry. is it, exactly, that the house named one wonders about the house’s history. Not forHow Robert Hunt, Witter Bynner’s partner, is much is known about the house in the hills now being used by the college as a home for president? This isn’t the house Bynner across from campus, even less of our con­ its lived in on Santa Fe Trail-the house where famous parties were held. Instead, it’s a nection with the man who donated it to thethecollege, poet sprawling set of buildings, a main house with Witter Bynner (1881-1968). two guest houses surrounding a courtyard. A In 1922, Witter Bynner moved to Santa Fe, a place he would call home the rest of his life. For decades, Bynner was a prominent citizen in Santa Fe and an active participant in the cultural and political life of the city. He had no official affiliation with the “new” college that was built in Santa Fe in the mid-sixties. His association with St. John’s was a result of his appreciation and respect for the college and its program. Bynner and Robert Hunt, his companion of more than 30 years, lived in a house on Old Santa Fe Trail. There they held parties that attracted artists, literary figures, and celebrities who lived in or were visiting Santa Fe-people like D.H. Lawrence, Ansel Adams, Errol Flynn, Robert Oppenheimer, and Georgia O’Keefe. In his 87 years Witter Bynner produced many volumes of poetry, translated Greek and Chinese works into English, taught poetry classes at Stanford and Berkeley, trav­ eled throughout the world, and made numer­ ous friends. Yet despite his achievements few Americans recognize his name. Bynner’s obscurity is mostly due to the 1916 “Spectra Hoax,” in which Bynner and Arthur Davison Ficke, writing under pseudonyms which they later revealed, established “Spectrism,” a supposedly new school of poetry that attract­ ed many advocates. When Bynner and Ficke revealed this “new” type of poetry as a hoax. and their identities, they offended many of their peers, and thus lost respect in the literary world. Despite lack of recogni­ tion from his contempo­ raries, Byn­ ner contin­ ued to Santa Fe president John produce many Balkcom and his wife carol excellent writ­ are new residents of the Hunt House. ten works throughout his lifetime. He also translated Iphigenia in Tauris from the original Greek to English in 1915. During these years, he lectured throughout the United States on poetry and women’s suffrage. In 1917, soon after the Spectra Hoax, Byn­ ner visited Japan and China, spending approximately two months in each country. He wished to explore Asia and to escape America’s involvement in World War I. A staunch pacifist, he loathed Europe’s war and strongly denounced violence. After his {The College -5f. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } Up in the hills, it affords wonderous views of Santa Fe sunsets. The story goes like this: Hunt and Bynner were travel­ ing south to sell a house they owned in Chiapas, Mexico, because they were planning to move into a new house in Santa Fe designed andbuUt by Hunt. On the way, though. Hunt died suddenly. Bynner was so grief-stricken that, although Hunt left the house to him, Bynner could neither move into the house by him­ self, and nor could he sell it. A year later, Bynner had his first stroke, and was confined to living in his own house, the one that had been site to so many parties. Neither Hunt nor Bynner ever lived in the house Hunt built, but they are now both buried near there, in a spot marked by a bronze statue of a dog once loved by Hunt. When Hunt died, Bynner acquired the titles to both houses. Bynner himself died in 1968, leaving both houses to St. John’s, presum­ ably because he admired something about its philosophy of education. The college sold the Witter Bynner House on Old Santa Fe Trail because it was too expensive to main­ tain. But, luckily, the Hunt House still stands strong, home to a new president. �44 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Senior Dinners: Welcoming the Newest Alumni Dear Johnnies, St. John’s may have you for four years, but the Alumni Association has you forever after. That’s the message alumni pass along to their newest fel­ low alums—the soon-to-be-graduated seniors-during Senior Dinners. These dinners, which take place in Santa Fe in January and Annapohs in April, have become an important tradition for the seniors and for their alumni hosts alike. It’s a chance for Johnnies who’ve been out in the “real world” to welcome students into the Association. The hosts, the college, and the Association all work together to make the evening a success. The Alumni Directors, Tahmina Shalizi and Roberta Gable, choose the local restaurants (with input from participating alumni). The students choose the friends they want to go out with. And the alumni hosts put their social skills to good use in bringing the evening together. Leo Vladimirsky, a member of the Annapolis class of 2001, says he enjoyed his dinner at North­ woods with Mark Middlebrook (A82) and Robert Bienenfeld (SF80). “The food was great-Northwoods being one of the best places to eat around Have you received your copy of the St. John’s College Alumni Register aooi? Have you checked to make sure your own info is right? Have you seen who’s lost and who’s found? (More about that later.) Have you scanned your class to see who’s married or divorced? Who’s moved or changed johs? Have you used the new e-mail section to send ehellos to old friends? I certainly have, especially because I’m getting ready for the 25th reunion of my class! Glenda Eoyang We owe a note of resounding thanks to Roberta Gable, Direc­ tor of Alumni Activities in Annapolis, and her team for the tremendous work they did preparing the Register. Every five years, the Alumni Association and the college fund the effort to collect data about alumni and to publish that information for all of us to share. The Register is an excellent tool to help us stay connected with each other and with the college. Many thanks to all! Now, about those lost alumni.... As you browse the new Register, you’ll note that some names are marked with an asterisk for “address unknown.” These are alum­ ni who have lost contact with the community. The Alumni Association and the col­ lege will be making an effort over the next few months to rebuild connections with these missing persons. You can help! If you’re in touch with ones who are “address unknown,” please contact them and encourage them to get in touch with the col­ lege (or call or e-mail the Alumni Office so that they can follow up). A phone call, a note, or an e-mail will provide the information tie that hinds us. I hope your summer is joyous and rewarding and that you have a chance to partici­ pate in some of the summer’s alumni activities: Homecoming in SF, Summer Alumni Weeks, GI graduation, various chapter gatherings, listserve conversa­ tions, or a private visit to one of the campuses. For the past, the present, and the future, Glenda Holladay Eoyang, SF76 ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Whether from Annapolis or Santa Fe, undergraduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, 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 Alumni Association news and events of interest. President - Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary-Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer - Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team ChairTom Geyer, A68 Web site - www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml eoyang@chaos-hmited. com Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapohs, MD 21404 or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. {The College- St. John's College ■ Summer 2001 } �{Alumni Association News} Annapolis. It was a nice conversation among people who didn’t know each other,” he says. The students knew each other, he hastens to add-“we all decided to list each other on the forms the Alumni Office sends out, to be sure we’d be with our friends.” After an initial discussion in which each sen­ ior talked about his or her future plans, the con­ versation turned to more general matters about college life, graduate school, the business world, working as an engineer, and other matters, says Vladimirsky. There wasn’t any purposeful net­ working, but the students all got the feeling that their alumni hosts cared about what happened to them and would be willing to help out in job searches or with graduate school advice. They also learned a fife skill-how to “taste” wine. Mark Middlebrook, who lives near the Napa Val­ ley wine region, demonstrated how to swirl the wines around in their glasses before smelling and tasting. “AU around, it was a nice evening, and it’s great of the Alumni Association to do this for seniors,” says Vladimirsky. Himself, he’s not sure what he’ll be doing come fall. After some rest from academic matters, he’ll probably go to graduate school. He knows he can count on alumni for advice or networking once he has an idea of where he’d like to study. One thing for sure, though, “the chocolate cheesecake at Northwoods was great.” Amending the Amendment Mechanism In order to make it easier to explain proposed changes in the Alumni Association By-Laws to the alumni ofthe college, the Alumni Association Board isproposing thefollowing amendment to the By-Laws: In accordance with Article XIII, Section I of the By-Laws of the St. John’s CoUege Alumni Associ­ ation, notice is hereby given that the following by-laws amendment has been proposed by the Alumni Association Board of Directors. This amendment will be voted upon at the Special Meeting, September 29, 2001, 2:00 p.m. in the Conversation Room in Annapolis. The amendment to Article XIII is indicated in capitals. ARTICLE XIII AMENDMENTS SECTION I. Any and all provisions of these ByLaws may be altered, amended, added to, or repealed by a majority of the membership of the Association, present in person or by proxy, at any regular or special meeting of the member­ ship, provided that a copy of any proposed amendment shall have been mailed to each member at least six weeks prior to that meeting OR PROVIDED THAT A NOTICE, AS SPECI­ FIED HEREUNDER, SHALL HAVE BEEN MAILED TO EACH MEMBER AT LEAST SIX WEEKS PRIOR TO THAT MEETING. THE NOTICE SHALL INDICATE THE ARTICLE(S) AND SECTION(S) PROPOSED TO BE AMEND­ ED; AWEB SITE ADDRESS DETERMINED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AT WHICH A MEMBER MAY ACCESS THE COMPLETE TEXT OF THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT; AND A STATEMENT INFORMING EACH MEMBER HOW THEY MAY RECEIVE A COPY OF THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT BY MAIL OR FAX. Amendments to these By-Laws shall be sub­ mitted to the membership upon the vote of the Board of Directors, or by Petition of at least fifty members in good standing which is received at least ten weeks prior to the date of the meeting. SECTION IL Unless so stated, any amend­ ment to these By-Laws shall take effect immedi­ ately foUowing its adoption. The Croquet Match is a favorite gathering SPOT FOR 1980s AND I99OS ALUMNI (lEFt). At the Match Alumni Association Board MEMBERS sported SHADES PRINTED WITH “Beat Navy” — in Greek, of course. CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowfor information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE PHILADELPHIA Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-880-2134 Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 ANNAPOLIS PORTLAND Valerie Garvin 410-280-6119 Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 AUSTIN SACRAMENTO Jennifer Chenoweth 512-482-0747 Helen Hobart 916-452-1082 BALTIMORE SAN DIEGO Roberta Gable 410-295-6926 Stephanie Rico 619-423-4252 BOSTON SAN Francisco/ NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 CHICAGO Lorna Anderson 847-467-3069 DENVER Elizabeth Pollard Jenny 303-330-3373 LOS ANGELES Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 NEW YORK Fielding Dupuy 212-974-2922 NORTH CAROLINA Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer soot } 45 Jon Hodapp 831-393-9496 SANTA FE John Pollak 505-983-2144 SEATTLE Kyle Kinsey 206-715-1081 WASHINGTON, DC Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 972-2-6717608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �{Campus Life} Say It Isn’t So What happened to St. Johns domination in croquet? VI Sus3AN Borden, A87 e were, perhaps, a bit smug. We were, you might say, a tad over­ confident. And we were, no doubt, somewhat drunk. But still, it doesn’t add up. When did smugness become an obstacle for a Johnny? What good is a croquet team that’s not overconfident? And why would a martini or two ever keep us from the Annapolis Cup? And yet it happened. After a nine-year win­ ning streak and a 15-3 series record, St. John’s lost the 19th croquet match against the Naval Academy, held the last Saturday in April on the front campus. While we were unahle to contact Imperial Wicket Paige Postlewait (Aoi) for this story, her teammate and next year’s Imperial Wicket, Jonathan Polk {A02), has some insight into the loss. “We might have heen a little overconfident,” he says, “but I’m tempted to think of it as just a combination of bad luck-lots of people’s different bad luck in combination.” “It’s been a pretty rough year for us,” Polk says. “We didn’t compete in the National Championships and we didn’t start practic­ ing until about a month beforehand.” (Why the team didn’t go to the Nationals, where they were three-time champions, is another story-involving a change in the game from traditional nine-wicket to something called “golf croquet.”) Still, he says, even with the late start the team logged so much playing time they felt they were ready to play and prepared to win. An article in the Trident, the Naval Acade­ my’s newspaper, suggests that the win may be a result of strategy, the players’ lucky ties and lucky mallets, or brainpower-the team included two Trident Scholars and a Pownall Scholar. Word around town is that the Acad­ emy brought in a croquet coach from Yale to beef up the middies’ strategy and skills. Whatever the reason, says former Imperi­ al Wicket Bob DeMajistre (A88), the mid­ shipmen deserved to win. DeMajistre attend­ ed this year’s match, as he does most years. One of the college’s four losing Imperial Wickets {1987), DeMajistre is well qualified to analyze the play. “I watched the court where we played the first lost game and the mids were shooting very well, they were dead on. They were making long shots, they were hitting balls. And we weren’t.” Johnnies, as usual, were a bit more fla­ grantly OUTFITTED THAN THEIR OPPONENTS. {The College. St John’s College ■ Summer zooi } �47 Steven Werlin (A85), St. John’s first defeated Wicket, recalls that losing was no surprise to him in 1985. “Two separate cro­ quet things were happening at St. John’s that year,” he says. “There were serious croquet players and then there was the croquet team. The only person who fell into both groups was James Hapner (A85).” Only later, Werlin says, did croquet play become more serious and practice become intense. Once practice did take hold, it became St. John’s secret weapon. Or perhaps not so secret, as it was revealed in a Sports Illustrat­ ed article, “The Best of Everything” ( April 28,1997, special issue on college sports). Citing the croquet match as the Most Obscure Rivalry, the article quotes a Naval Academy plebe explaining St. John’s strate­ gy: “They’re out practicing croquet every afternoon! Alabama should take football this seriously.” Louis Elias {A91), another former Imperi­ al Wicket, recalls the year his team lost the match (i99r). “I sort of knew we were going to lose all along,” Elias says. “I lost heart Jonathon Polk lines up a long shot (top). Polk AND Imperial Wicket Paige PostleWAIT WAIT THEIR TURN (BOTTOM LEFT) WHILE CURRENT Johnnies enjoy the festivities (bottom Right). {The College -St John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } that year. The hype and media attention [G<2 covered the event] and the reaction to the attention seemed, to me, to detract’from the spirit of the event.” Still he says, the loss was not without a silver lining: “I figured we were due for a loss if only to keep the Acade­ my interested.” DeMajistre agrees that an occasional loss can serve a strategic purpose: “The main reason to lose is so that the mids will come back. You got to throw them a bone every once in awhile. ” * �48 {St. John’s Forever} These photos of student desks were TAKEN BY EdWARD GrAY, CLASS OF I934. The date on the photos is 1933. From the 1933 yearbook, THE Rat Tat, describing the TENOR OE COLLEGE LIFE AT St. John’s: ...Like all other freshman classes we gave lit­ tle evidence of ability, although we did study a bit between building bonfires, attending rat meetings and football, basketball and lacrosse games...One of the outstanding features this year was the inauguration of the new presi­ dent of the college [Amos W. Woodcock]. Another was the coming of Hopkins. What a fight! If you don’t believe me, ask the Annapolis police, the Annapolis firemen or the jail keeper...By the time we were juniors, we had forgotten most of our high school and prep school training and were beginning to realize that it takes a smart man to admit there is plenty he doesn’t know...Each one of us came here with ideals and aims. Some of us have done things we set out to do, others have done more, others have met with disappoint­ ments. Most of us brought little to St. John’s with us. The amount of knowledge and the number of friends we take away with us depends on the individual. Everything the school could offer us was placed at our feet. Who picked it up and who trampled it is another question. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer zoot } �{Alumni Events Calendar} Homecoming 2001 - Annapolis Friday, septemDcrau-siwflay, September 30 Reunion Classes: 1936,1941,1951,1956, 1961,1966,1971,1976,1981,1986,1991, and 1996 Homecoming Highlights Friday, September 28 • Homecoming Lecture by Abraham Schoener (A82): “The Biology of the Fermentation Vehicle” • Wine and Cheese Party in the Dining HaU • Rock Party in the Boathouse Saturday, September 29 • Memorial Service for Mortimer Adler • Saturday Morning Seminars • Children of alumni seminar on Harry Potter (followed by croquet) • Freshman Chorus Revisited led by Elliott Zuckerman • West Street Story, a reprise of the Class of 1981’s senior prank show • Alumni-Student Soccer Classic • Autograph Party • Cocktail party in the Great Hall and McDowell classrooms • Homecoming Banquet: Tom Williams (A51) and Warren Spector ( A81) will receive the Alumni Association Award of Merit; Nancy Lewis, John Moore, and Beate Ruhm Von Oppen will be recognized as new Honorary Alumni • Waltz Party in the Great Hall Sunday, September 30 I • Rock Party in the Coffee Shop: Robert ■ George (A85) will make a cameo DJ 3 appearance i • Champagne Brunch at the President’s House - ? ‘ I t A Johnnie is a Johnnie—no matter if their GRADUATION YEAR WAS IN THE 1950’s OR THE 1990’s. Inauguration of John Balktom as Santa Fe President _____ - ' -1 Friday, September 14 and Saturday; September 15 “Inviting Conversations” is the theme of this inaugural weekend where festivities will include: Friday, September 14 • Picnic on the soccer field • All-college Chicago-style softball game • Performance at the newly renovated Lensic Performing Arts Center Saturday, September 15 • Inauguration at 10 a.m. on Meem Library Placita • Reception for all in attendance will take place on the Upper Placita • Waltz Party in the Great Hall For information on events, contact the Offices of Alumni Activities: Tahmina Shalizi, Director of Alumni and Parent Activities Santa Fe - 505-984-6103; alumni@maiLsjcsf.edu Roberta Gable, Director of Alumni Activities Annapolis - 4io-6a6-253i; alumni@sjca.edu �STJOHN’S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS • SANTA PE Published by the Public Relations Office Box a8oo Annapolis, Maryland 21404 ADDRESS service REQUESTED Periodicals Postage Paid � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 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 The College, Summer 2001 Description An account of the resource Volume 27, Issue 3 of The College Magazine. Published in Summer 2001. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 27, Issue 3 Summer 2001 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Goyette, Barbara (editor) Mulry, Laura J. (Santa Fe editor) Borden, Sus3an (assistant editor) Behrens, Jennifer (graphic designer) Johnson, David Harvey, Keith Eoyang, Glenda Holladay Brown, Alexis Maistrellis, Nicholas Hellner-Burris, Janet Goyette, Barbara Moreno, Ed Fridrich, Sarah Flaumenhaft, Harvey Rankin, John Knight, Mirabai https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/938f6f2472711f9912b0822a2e68aac0.pdf 6335d8f431ff3f801f2daa2f9f765041 PDF Text Text The FALL Santa F e 2002 Library Darwm Understanding Our Fellow Animals St. John’s College S?nta Fe NM 2 0 0 1 �On Darwin he name Charles Darwin carries a lot of baggage for us. It’s T difficult to find the man—the great scientist—under the popu­ lar misconceptions about evolution, the emotional debates that have raged for decades over the place of humans in the Darwin was born ingrand 1809, scheme the fifthofofthings six children of his physician father in and artis­ post-Darwin, the movement some tic mother. As a childAmerican he collected pebbles, plants, bird eggs, and shells; he was elementary and high schools to teach “creation­ STJOHN’S College ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE slower than his sistersism, in school-what ’d symbols politely call today late bloomer. “The ” the Darwin we fish above car abumpers, the concept school as a means of education to me was applied simply atoblank, ” Charles wrote to his of social Darwinism everything from anthropology to business. brother. His father complained: “You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat catching.” Sent to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine, Darwin devel­ oped an interest in sea creatures and microscopic beings, even discovering that the polyzoon ova of/Z/zrz/zz had cilia. He failed to develop any interest in anatomy, however, and was sickened by watching surgery performed without anesthesia. Dad sent him off to Cambridge in hopes that he would study for the clergy. There, he spent three years and amassed a wonderful collection of beetles in addition to learning bird taxidermy. In 1831, when Darwin was 22, a family friend arranged an unpaid internship for him—as a naturalist aboard the HMSBeagle. The captain, a believer in phrenology (the study of the shape of the head and features), hesitated to take Darwin along because he was worried about his large brow and nose. He relented, and the young man spent the next five years traveling 40,000 miles to lands around the globe. Carrying a book of Milton’s poetry in his pocket, he rode horseback through the south Amazon jungle. He watched phosphorescent plankton, formulated theories about coral reefs, observed tortoises and finches, searched for fossils, and docu­ mented hundreds of species of plants and animals. Back in England, Darwin married, fathered ii children, and retired to live like a country gentleman, his inheritance assuring a comfortable life for his family. The material he gathered on his voyage proved enough to keep him busily thinking for many years. Evolution wasn’t a concept introduced by Darwin, but he did describe a mechanism for it to happen—natural selection. His deep analysis of the natural world is shown in Origin ofthe Species by Means ofNatural Selection or the Preser­ vation ofFavored Races in the Stragglefitr Life. The book was published in 1859 and went through five editions in his lifetime. Darwin’s importance—and the source of all the hubbub—stems from how his theories bring humankind into the same fold as other species, into the natural world. In this issue of The College, wc look at some St. John’s alumni who spend a lot of their time thinking about or working with animals-from the fairly common interest in dogs to the more exotic devotion to elephants. In the tradition of Darwin, they are fascinated by the inner workings of the lives of animals and find that their com­ munion with other species somehow enriches their understanding of their own. -BG The College (usps 018-750) is published four times a year by St. John’s College, Annapolis, md and Santa Fe, nm. Known office of publication: Public Relations Office St. John’s College Box 2800 Annapolis, md 21404-2800 Periodicals postage paid at Annapolis, md postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, md 21404-2800. Annapolis 410-295-5554 b-goyette@sjca.edu Barbara Goyette, editor Sussan Borden, assistant editor Susanne Ducker, graphic designer Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Kathryn Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 classics@mail.sjcsf.edu Laura J. Mulry, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board Alexis Brown Grant Franks David Levine Margaret OdeU John Rankin Ginger Roherty Tahmina Shalizi Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �{Contents} PAGE 12. DEPARTMENTS a FROM THE BELL TOWERS Great Books for Tough Times William Pastille muses on the place of the college in the larger community, in light of this fall’s events. PAGE l6 Hearts of Animals PAGE la Alumni who work with animals explore what we can understand about dogs, horses, elephants, and other species. PAGE The events of 9/11 Barr and Buchanan: St. John’s and Beyond Santa Fe swordplay In New York for a St. John’s musical New tutors Announcements Miss von Oppen honored Remembering Bill O’Grady Rebound math Catastrophe summer Santa Fe community day 10 LETTERS 11 BOOK REVIEW 20 William Alba’s An Oz Album Job’s Life Through New Eyes Robert Sacks’ translation of Job, along with a commentary, brings new insights into the mysterious story. • • • • • • • • • • • ag ALUMNI NOTES ALUMNI PROFILES 31 Jim Rooney (A74) is a homeowner helper 34 David Maclaine (SF74) - an almostmillionaire PAGE 16 36 Samantha Alderson (A86) conserves art PAGE 22 objects of the past Much Ado About Nothing 39 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION AWARDS 41 CAMPUS LIFE Eva Brann’s trilogy covers the imagination, time, and non-being. PAGE Not your usual summer jobs 4a ALUMNI association NEWS 26 Tale of Two Homecomings Alumni Art Show 44 OBITUARIES 46 ALUMNI VOICES PAGE aa Alumni love to return to campus for seminars, prank reprises, and other fun stuff. How basketball can soothe the soul. 48 ST, JOHN’S FOREVER ON THE COVER Charles Darwin Illustration by David Johnson �<2 {From the Bell Towers} Alumni Response 9/11 September ii was a difficult day on the campuses of St. John’s. Students found out about the news from the few televisions around, from the Internet, from radios set up in the coffee shops, from their friends; col­ lege officials in Annapolis and Santa Fe called everyone together to tell what was known and try to answer questions. Phone banks were set up so that students could call home, and counselors were sum­ moned. “We at the college are a community,” said Annapolis president Chris Nelson, “and we have available to us the ben­ efits of community.” Classes were held so that students might gather and discuss events; with most students far from home, the presence of their friends and tutors proved reassuring. Some classes opted to proceed with their scheduled tutorial tasks-“They found comfort in close, finite work that was free of uncertainly,” said David Levine, dean in Santa Fe. Community dinners and services of mourning were held on each campus on the Friday following the attacks so that students, faculty, and staff could acknowledge together the tremendous loss to the nation and express personal sadness. In Santa Fe, David Levine noted that students would “never read a political science book in the same way again,” while in Annapolis, President Nelson cited passages from Homer’s Odyssey that had been read that week by freshmen and noted that Odysseus’ suffering and griefboth in his reactions to battle and in his dilemma about the suitors-must seem more imme­ diate to all of us now. Santa Fe alumnus Matthew Lippart, a ''Now, more than ever, dialogue must continue. aooi graduate, talked at the dinner about his brother and two friends who worked at the World Trade Center. After not talking to them for months, he had spoken with them by phone the previous night. The tragedy, he said, had made him think about the importance of staying connected with loved ones. “You shouldn’t be taking people for granted,” he told those assembled. In Santa Fe, a weekend’s worth of activities planned for the September 15 inauguration of president John Balkcom were cancelled. Carlos Fuentes, the Mexican novelist and diplo­ mat, had been scheduled to speak on the topic of “The Great Books” on Thursday. Even though travel was almost impossible that week, he drove a car from Texas to Mexico, then took a small plane to New Mexico, then drove to the cam­ pus to keep his engagement. He spoke movingly about the importance of reading and the significance of the college’s program. When asked why he {The College- Flags everywhere, including THE SJC COFFEE SHOP. made such an extraordinary effort to reach the campus, Fuentes said, “Now, more than ever, dialogue must continue.” Students on both campuses felt called to act in some way. Many donated blood; others began to organize to raise money for relief efforts. In a very Johnny-like way, they questioned their place at the college, and the college’s role in the world. Maya Alapin, a junior from Canada, wrote in The Gadfly: “We have all been catapulted into what we could probably deem the most real identity crisis of our lives. What are we to do? And why weren’t we doing anything before? We feel guilt that our now seemingly selfish St. John’s pursuits have no ‘real life’ benefits, and that people doing the dirty work... have probably never read Plato or learned about a conic section.” Several students, including Alapin, met with a columnist for the Baltimore Sun, who reported their conversation in an article that was published in papers across the country. St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } By the afternoon of September II, alumni began to try to con­ tact their friends in New York and Washington. The listservs on the Internet proved to be a way for people to check in with each other and to let others know they were safe. Alumni in the reserves and on active duty are participating in the assaults on Afghanistan; others have found their lives affected in ways they could not have anticipated. Bart Lee (A68), a lawyer who is an amateur radio operator, served as the night shift super­ visor for the New York City Red Cross Radio during the week following the attack. The Red Cross managed about a dozen shelters 24/7 via ham radio, he says. “The cell phones, land­ lines, and internet connections didn’t work or were spotty at best...My earliest traffic per­ sonally handled was an emer­ gency evacuation order, and traffic at that level was all too common in the first couple of days.” One recent alumna, Sylvaine Rameckers (Aoi) had just fin­ ished an internship with NBC Dateline at Rockefeller Center in New York. On September la, her supervisor, a senior pro­ ducer, called and asked if she’d like to come back to the net­ work full time. “That first week, we worked round the clock,” says Rameckers. “The pace has been incredibly intense. At first, we would interview, get footage, try to document what was happen­ ing, and get pieces on the air the very same night...By the time a month had passed, things were a bit calmer, but it’s still an intense pressure to get the news out. I feel like I’m at boot camp. I feel disconnect­ ed from what has happened, but I do feel like we’re doing something to help.” Another alumnus, John Sifton (A96), had just returned �{From the Bell Towers} from Afghanistan when the Trade Center was attacked and the political and social situa­ tions in that country suddenly became of importance to everyone in America. Sifton wrote an article for the Sep­ tember 30 issue of the New York Times Magazine, “A Last Road Trip Through Premod­ ern, Postmodern Afghanistan.” As a human rights attorney and humanitar­ ian aid worker, Sifton had trav­ eled the country and worked in desert areas, bargaining with local Taliban leaders for the opportunity to document con­ ditions. “I was just fascinated by the realness of it all,” he said in the article. “You look out an office window, and you see a displaced family living in a bombed-out school, sleeping on the balcony and cooking Barr and Buchanan: St. John’s AND Beyond “Radicals are a dime a dozen among us, but radicals who suc­ ceed in imprinting their ideas and ideals on other human beings and transmitting them to future generations by reshaping actual institutions are few indeed,” says William W. McNeill in the Foreword to a new book about the radicals St. John’s knows best; New Pro­ gram founders Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan. The book. Radical Visions: Stringfellow Barr, Scott Buchanan, and Their Efforts on behalfofEducation and Pol­ itics in the Twentieth Century, is by Charles A. Nelson (A45) and represents the culmination of an effort that began as early as 1994, when Nelson started col­ Carrying On Ambassador Carlos Fuentes TRAVELED TO SaNTA Fe TO SPEAK ABOUT THE GREAT BOOKS. some birds they caught, doves. This is their life. They can’t change the channel.” lecting material for two books commemorating the looth birthdays of Buchanan and Barr. Those books were pub­ lished in 1995 and 1997. Researching the hves of the two men who started the great books program at the college in 1937, Nelson became interested in their friendship. (Barr was outgoing and multi-talented, a voluminous writer and ener­ getic speaker. Buchanan was quieter, with a “quicksilver quality” to his ideas and con­ versations. The two were friends for life, having met at Oxford in the igaos.) Nelson himself knew both men during their early days at the college since he served as administra­ tive assistant to Barr while a student. In the new book. Nelson dis­ cusses Barr and Buchanan’s early collaborations and their work at St. John’s. In the sec­ ond half of the book, he lays out what they did after they left the college in 1947-both had a sincere interest in world gov­ ernment, which they conceived {The Colleges?. Following the attacks, students have tried to carry on with their work. In Santa Fe, stu­ dents who wanted to learn more about Islam joined a study group led by tutor Michael Wolfe(SF94), who con­ centrated on Islam while earn­ ing a master’s degree in the his­ tory of religions at the University of Virginia. “Unfor­ tunately, oftentimes the only source of information people get on Islam is through events like these,” said Wolfe. “It tends to produce a distorted view of what Islam is about. In the study group, I hope we can help to distinguish between Islamic terrorism and more tra­ ditional views of Islam.” The college also collaborated with the Council on International Relations and presented a lec of as dependent on economic development of the Third World. Buchanan spent time in Israel, where he was interested in the cooperative living of the kibbutzim. Barr went to India and met with leaders who want­ ed to use an agrarian society model to benefit the people and make the best use of the land there. Nelson speculates that the desire to transform society manifested in their John ’5 College ■ Fall 2001 } 3 ture, “The Islamic Perspective of Current Events,” by Fethi Benhalim. At the Friday night lecture the week following 9/ii, Har­ vey Flaumenhaft, dean in Annapolis, took a moment to talk about why it is important for the college to continue nor­ mally. “Our work, at this col­ lege, does in fact, in various ways, make us better able to defend our country,” he said. “And it also makes us better able to preserve what’s best about it, and even to improve it; but above all, the work that we do here helps to make our country worth defending.” The title of the lecture, by Neal Weiner (A64), was “Generosi­ ty, Truth and Tolerance.” — Reported by Marissa Morrison in Santa Fe and Barbara Goyette in Annapolis. Charles Nelson (A45) shows DAUGHTER JaNET BeRGGREN (A72) HIS EARLIER BOOK ABOUT Buchanan. work at St. John’s carried over into the political realm later in their lives. Radical Visions is published by Bergin & Garvey, Green­ wood Publishing Group. A review will appear in a subse­ quent issue of The College. �4 Santa Fe Swordplay The newly completed Student Activities Center in Santa Fe played host to a regional fenc­ ing tournament for over 50 fencers from as far away as Amarillo, Tex. on September a8. A major tournament at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs was cancelled due to heightened security concerns following the tragedies of Sep­ tember II. James Odom, head coach of the High Desert Fenc­ ing Club in Santa Fe, decided to host a smaller, replacement tournament, giving half of the Heather Upshaw (SF04) WAITING TO FOIL AN OPPONENT. proceeds to the relief effort. St. John’s College donated the use of its gym. The tournament, along with a youth tournament held in town, raised $400 for the World Trade Center-911 Relief Fund. Swordplay has had an inevitable role in the history of the civilized world. Man has been poking stuff with sharp, pointy metal things long before he took the time to write great books-or any books for that matter. Sword duels continued to solve personal disputes until the end of the nineteenth cen­ {From the Bell Towers} tury (sort of like paper, scis­ sors, rock that really counts). Modern fencing as a sport con­ tinues the tradition and at least in form preserves the ceremony and prestige of swordplay from its aristocratic hey-day. The weapons used in fencing are foil, epee, and saber. Foil, by far the most popular, is a fast-paced point weapon used for poking, not slashing. Only the torso is a legal target. Epee (the author is an Epeeist at heart) is a slower-paced, men­ tally-oriented point weapon that has the whole body, even the toes, as a target. Saber is a curved, slashing weapon with everything above the waist a target. It originated from saber­ bearing cavalry charges and is fast and aggressive. The three weapons draw distinctly differ­ ent fencers. Saberists are usual­ ly short and angry. Epeeists are usually tall and relaxed. And foihsts are everybody else. Fencing bouts take place along a fourteen-meter strip. A bout between two fencers lasts, depending on the importance of the bout, either five or fif­ teen touches (not gashes. Mom) or until four or twelve minutes have elapsed. The point weapons have buttons that are depressed on the oppo­ nent, whereas saber blades are electrified (you really don’t want an explanation of how this works). There are two things fencing is not-dangerous or easy. Fenc­ ing is one of the safest contact sports. The blades are made of treated metal that among other things will break flat, reducing the already small chance of serious injury. And fencing is truly difficult. It doesn’t matter to me how many times you might have seen The Princess Bride. Skilled fencing resem­ bles playing good chess at a full sprint. The Santa Fe campus’ club, the Sexy Fencers (get it, SJCSF) has just this year gotten togeth- {The College Giving Regards to (Off-) Broadway About 100 New York City alum­ ni began their “getting back to normal” attempts on October 3, as they gathered for an evening at the theater-for a properly thoughtful, entertain­ ing, and inspirational show called The Spitfire Grill. The musical is based on the movie of the same name, written and directed by Lee David Zlotoff (A74). A Sundance Festival win­ ner, the movie was picked up for national distribution in 1996The college purchased seats in the Duke Theater on 42nd Street for New York alumni. The evening proved to be both a celebration of community- er to form an actual club, thanks to juniors with more dedication and organization than the author. Local coach and foil fencer Rob Madril, who happened to finish third in the recent tournament, instructs the team with help from talent­ ed tutor Krishnan Venkatesh. Representing St. John’s at the September 28th tourna­ ment were intrepid leader Eric Baldwin, intrepid lefty Jonathan Zecher, the dedicated and over-worked Erin Hanlon, sophomore talent Stephen Vorkoper, fellow transfer St John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } Lee Zlotoff(center) with Joe Boucher and Fielding Dupuy. Johnnies from every era seemed glad to see each other and spend time at a very St. John’s-related show-and great entertainment. The musical was first performed in Wiscon­ sin, where a writer/composer duo adapted the story of the lonely young woman, newly released from prison, who finds her way into the hearts of a group of small-town residents. After the performance, Zlotoff and James Valcq, who wrote the songs for the musi­ cal, talked with the alumni and answered questions about the production. “It was wonderful for the college to bring us all together,” said Zlotoff (who had traveled from LA for the event). “The play seemed to have the right kind of messages for us at this time, and we enjoyed meeting and talking with one another about it.” 4" Heather Upshaw, and 1. Indi­ vidual scores and rankings among the 33 foil fencers attending would not convey the satisfaction and personal pride that the Johnnies gained from simply competing. And hey, if Rob Madril places third, it was a tough meet. Any alumni still fencing are encouraged to contact the author by mail at the Santa Fe campus. I’d like to see what kind of fencer base we have in our community. -4 — BY Evan Hancock, SFoa �{From New Tutors The college welcomed nine new tutors thisfall. Joining the faculty IN Santa Fe:_____________ Martha Franks (SF78) earned a law degree from the University of New Mexico Law School. She clerked for Chief Judge Seth of the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, then practiced law in Washington, D.C. and Santa Fe, developing an expertise in environmental law. She also attended the Virginia Theologi­ cal Seminary. She is an attorney for the U.S. Department of the Interior. She taught a sopho­ more seminar first semester. John Gibson (SF88) is finish­ ing his PhD in the Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Depart­ ment at Cornell (his disserta­ tion is “Dynamical Systems Models of the Turbulent Boundary Layer”). At Cornell he worked in the Computation­ al Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, managed the Graduate and Fac­ ulty Computational Research Facilities, and was an instruc­ tor in mechanical and aero­ space engineering. He also studies piano and vocal per­ formance. Patricia Greer has a BA from Notre Dame of Maryland, an MA from Johns Hopkins, and an MA from the St. John’s Graduate Institute. She received her PhD from the University of Virginia (her dis­ sertation was “The Net of the Mahabharata: Reading the Epic as Literature”). She lived in India, where she co-founded and ran a documentary film production unit, taught Eng­ lish, helped establish and administer the International Educational Institute, and was head of the International High School. She speaks Sanskrit, Tamil, and French. Ewan Harrison earned a BA in biology from the University of Cahfornia, San Diego, and the Bell Towers} an MS in Biology from the Uni­ versity of Michigan. He’s fin­ ishing up his PhD there (with a dissertation on “Mate Choice and Life History Evolution in Mexican Mollies”). He has taught at the University of Michigan and at Eastern Michi­ gan University. Jay Smith (SF77) received an MA in philosophy from Mar­ quette University and has been working toward his PhD from Fordham University. His disser­ tation explores our obligations to future generations. He has worked for the Environmental Protection Agency and has also worked for a range of interna­ tional organizations on projects in the South Pacific, Nepal, Somalia, Nairobi, and Fiji. Lise van Boxel earned a BA in political science from the University of Toronto and an MA from Boston College. She received her PhD in political science from the University of Toronto, with a dissertation titled “Revealing Perspectives: A Study of the Standard of Truth in Nietzsche’s Philoso­ phy.” She has taught at the Uni­ versity of Toronto and in a con­ tinuing education program modeled on St. John’s called Classical Pursuits. In Annapolis: Dylan Casey received a BS in physics and a BA in political theory from Michigan State University, and an MA in physics and a PhD in experi­ mental particle physics from the University of Rochester. He has designed, constructed, and tested equipment to be used at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He is interested in the nature of measurement, probability, and quantitative decision-making as these mani­ fest themselves in determining what are the smallest pieces of matter and how they interact and are related. Jeffrey Smith received a BA from Emory University with a double major in philosophy and political science, and a PhD from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. He is completing a book on human nature in Rousseau’s Emile, which has been accepted for publication. His interest in community 5 development in Chicago led him to found and edit an annu­ al journal of urban affairs and to host a weekly radio program on which he interviewed com­ munity leaders and local politi­ cians about community issues (like the participation of gang leaders in the political process) and about innovative policy ini­ tiatives (like community devel­ opment banking). John Tomarchio received a BA in English from Columbia University and an MA and PhD in philosophy from the Catholic University of America, where his work focused on the relationship of the metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas to that of Plato, Aristotle, and the Neoplatonists. He has taught at Catholic University, in the Core Curriculum at Boston Universi­ ty, and at Villanova University. He has published articles on the metaphysics of Aquinas and on the computerized research methods that he used in doing his research and in producing the indices upon which it is based. Crash Proof: After years of the “Camp St. John's” entrance sign for the Santa Fe campus being dam­ aged REGULARLY BY ERRANT DRIVERS, ANEW (HOPEFULLY IMPENETRABLE) SIGN WAS FINALLY INSTALLED - AT A SAFER LOCATION, NoW ALL THAt’s NEEDED IS LIGHTING. PICTURED ARE MEMBERS OF THE CaMPUS PLANNING COM­ MITTEE, FROM left: TUTORS MiCHAEL RaWN, CHAIR; JuLIE ReAHARD; JaCQUES DuVOISIN (A80); Hans VON Briesen, director of Laboratories and past chair; Kathy Mizrahi, director of Housing and Residen­ tial Life; tutors Judith Adam and Mark Rollins; and student representative Christian Blood (SF02). {The College. 5f. John^s College ■ Fall 200/ } �{From the Bell Towers} 6 Announcements New Dorms Slated FOR Annapolis A confluence of factors led to crowding in the Annapolis cam­ pus dorms this fall. As a result, freshmen were assigned to triples in the largest rooms in Humphreys, and some former singles were made into doubles. Although total enrollment is only slightly above the opti­ mum of 460, a greater number of upperclassmen requested rooms on campus, leaving fewer rooms available for incoming freshmen. The largest landlord in Annapolis had changed some rental poli­ cies over the summer, and more apartments close to cam­ pus that had formerly been rented to Johnnies were being “upgraded” for the upscale market. The Campus Planning Com­ mittee (a group of faculty and administrators who examine physical plant issues and make building decisions) resurrected the perennial question of whether another dormitory should be built. Currently, there are enough dorm room spaces for about three-quarters of the students to live on-campus. Because improvement in off-campus housing availability is not likely, the committee decided to go ahead with plans for a new dorm. Student forums and a faculty discussion of the project brought up important issues: should the college sacri­ fice any more back-campus space to dorms? would a new dorm change the social pat­ terns of students? how about suites, or rooms with kitchens? During the coming semester, the committee will address the questions, find an architect, decide on a location, and secure permits. Projected date for the new dorm’s opening: in time for the Febbies who will arrive in January 2003. Shopping Benefit Alert OK-so the Internet has not proved itself to be the best place to buy furniture, find a job, make investments, or order groceries. But plenty of stuff is being sold online, and now there’s a way for shoppers at some of the best-known web sites to benefit St. John’s. GreaterGood.com has set up an online system for benefiting a number of charities and non­ profits. Here’s how it works: go to their site at www.greatergood.com, choose a cause (St. John’s!), click on Shop to visit sites like Barnes and Noble, Lands End, and Dell Computer. A percentage of your purchase will be donated to the collegeat no extra charge. New Vice President FOR Santa Fe Sought The college is conducting a search for a new vice president for the Santa Fe campus. The vice president, in partnership with the vice president on the Annapolis campus, helps supervise all areas of develop­ ment, including corporate and foundation relations, planned giving, annual giving, alumni relations, government rela­ tions, and public affairs. The advancement staff on both campuses work as a single team for advancing the national pro­ grams of the college, while pur­ suing and supporting local and regional programs of interest to each campus. Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to major donor cul­ tivation and stewardship, devel­ opment and implementation of capital projects, participation in strategic planning, manage­ ment of staff, and maintaining local community and govern­ ment relations. The qualifications are a bachelor’s degree plus eight to ten years experience in advancement/development work with a major institution, preferably in higher education. The candidate must have exceptional communication and organizational skills. Also, he/she must have experience managing staff and volunteers, and in participating in annual fund and capital campaigns. Letters of interest along with a current resume should be sent to St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM, 87505-4599, Attention: Director of Personnel. Lower Rates for Student Loans A notefrom Caroline Chris­ tensen, director offinancial aid: Now is an excellent time for alumni to consolidate student loans-interest rates are the lowest in the history of federal student loans and with consoli­ dation a student can lock into these rates. Excellent informa­ tion is available at www.loanconsolidation.ed.gov. Miss von Oppen Honored Annapolis tutor Beate Ruhm von Oppen was honored by the Republic of Germany in Sep­ tember, when she was present­ ed with the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington, D.C. An authority on the German Resistance during World War 11, von Oppen grew up in Ger­ many, moved at 15 to Holland, where she attended high school, and then moved to Eng­ land, where she attended the University of Birmingham. During the war, she served with the British Foreign Office and later worked in the Royal Institute of International Affairs and on the research staff of Nuffield College, Oxford. After coming to the U.S., she was a member of the staff of the microfilming project of the American Historical Associa­ tion’s Committee for the Study of War Documents. Her translations include Konrad Adenaueher’s Memoirs. She is the editor of Documents on Germany under Occupation 045'54 and Religion and Resis­ tance to Nazism. She is also the {The Colleges?. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } Beate Ruhm von Oppen (right) Glenda Eoyang (SF76) WITH editor and translator of the wartime letters of Helmuth James von Moltke, published in German as Briefs ann Freya and in America and England as Letters to Freya, 1939-45. Moltke was a member of the German government staff who was executed just before the end of the war because of his opposition to the Nazis. Von Oppen has also recently edited and translated a second voL ume, this of letters from Moltke’s mother Dorothy to her family in South Africa, A Life in Germany. Ironically, Dorothy’s letters were written in English and had to be trans­ lated for publication in Ger­ many. The book awaits an Anglo-American publisher. Von Oppen has taught at St. John’s since i960. This fall she was made an honorary alumna by the St. John’s Alumni Asso­ ciation (see p. 40.) �{From the Bell Towers} Remembering Bill O’Grady Every year Philanthropia, the group of alumni volunteers who help the college with fundraising, looks for reunion class leaders who will bring members of their class together in common cause. When Kate Lufkin Day (A76) was asked to be a reunion class leader, she decided to bring her class together to give a gift to St. John’s in the name of a tutor who meant a great deal to them: the late Bill O’Grady. O’Grady, a tutor from 1970 to 1986 who taught on both campuses, was well known for his open heart, his poetic spir­ it, his commitment to students, and his love of the college. Stu­ dents assigned to his lab classes considered themselves lucky and called the class “poetry lab,” a reference to O’Grady’s ability to shed light on the lyri­ cal side of any subject. The class of ’76 felt particularly close to him. Having been freshmen early in his tenure, they shared fond memories of his classes-especially an O’Grady-Simpson freshman seminar and an O’Grady-von Oppen sophomore seminar. To honor the tutor they so well remember, the class will give a gift to the college’s O’Grady Fund, whose purpose is to provide money for stu­ dents on both campuses in times of emergency. The fund is used to help students who face unexpected needs. The fund could help a student afford a plane ticket in the event of a death in the family. If a parent loses a job, the fund could help the student buy books. When a financially-stretched student breaks a leg and can’t walk to an off-campus job, the fund could be used to help cover necessary expenses. Day herself came up with the idea for the fund shortly after William O’Grady (far left) at a Senior Oral in the 1970s. O’Grady’s death in 1986. The seeds of the idea were sown years ago, when Day was a friend of O’Grady’s in Santa Fe, where she lived after gradua­ tion as her husband. Bill Day {SF80), finished St. John’s. “I remember agonizing to Mr. O’Grady one day about how we could not afford to move back to Minnesota after my hus­ band’s graduation,” Day wrote in a letter to her class suggest­ ing they make the gift. “In typi­ cal fashion. Bill offered to lend us-no, give us-the money. T have much more than I need. Really. I’d be happy to help you out,’ is how I remember his words at the time.” Although Day and her husband did not have to take O’Grady up on his offer, his compassion and gen­ erosity have stayed with her. And it seems that his spirit of compassion and generosity is also alive among her class­ mates. So far, the class has responded with ii gifts totaling $20,970, and contributions continue to arrive. Day is pleased with the results. “It was certainly successful beyond anything I had hoped for,” she says. “Everybody who respond­ {The College -St ed seemed to really care about current students and their needs-and to remember keenly their own needs as students. I don’t know if current students realize this, but a lot of alumni really do care about their lives and want to help them make it through. We all know how hard it can be.” Rebound Math All basketball fans can rattle off the basic statistics of a game: field goals, free throws, rebounds, assists, turnovers, blocked shots, and fouls. But how many know about the working man’s stat? The trillionaire’s club? The plus/minus? Annapolis senior Randy Pennell can explain them all, now that he’s finished a Hodson Trust internship working in the statistics department for the Philadelphia 76ers. Pennell spent last summer in a small, cramped room in Philadelphia’s Spectrum gathering every kind of NBA statistic you can imagine for both teams and individual players. The working man’s stat? “That’s when a player gets something in every category in the box scores: shot attempt­ ed, shot scored, shot blocked, free throw, foul committed, turnover, etc.” explains Pennell. The trillionaire’s club? “It’s more or less the opposite-when a player gets a one and nine zeros.” Plus/minus, Pennell says, refers to the points scored by the team while a player is on the floor over the points scored by the oppos­ ing team while that player is on the floor. While Pennell sticks with real basketball rather than fantasy (he’s a Druid), the summer satisfied some basketball fantasies he never knew he had. He attended home games for the Eastern Con­ ference and NBA finals and met all of the Sixers, as well as Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Pennell’s internship should prove helpful as he pursues a career in sports-writing. He’s already gotten a jump start: he published a series of human interest articles on the basketball playoffs in the Chester County Press while working for the Sixers. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } �8 {From the Bell Towers} and Grounds crew worked extra hours to accommodate the pipeline contract crew, “People stayed until nine o’clock many nights just in case the gas came back on, because they would need to re-light the pilot lights to start the water heating process,” said B&G Director Ted Gonzales. Without the use of gas apphances in the dining hall kitchen, Aramark adjusted the meal service to include veg­ etables, hamburgers, and hot dogs cooked outside on a char­ coal grill. Catastrophe Summer When my husband, tutor William Alba, and I moved onto the Santa Fe campus in July to take on the role of sen­ ior residents, we found it hard to contain our excitement. Our new position would provide a beautiful little apartment at the base of the mountains plus a chance to become more closely connected to the college we love. What could go wrong? We didn’t know then that we were moving onto campus just in time to experience Catastrophe Summer. A TWISTER BLOWS THROUGH CAMPUS Wilting plants SIGNAL GAS POISONING At the beginning of the sum­ mer, Grounds and Landscape Supervisor Pat McCue (SFGI83) started to worry about campus trees that were dying. A large cottonwood as old as the Santa Fe campus, which for decades had wel­ comed visitors at the parking circle, was dead. Nearby a tall ponderosa, nine pinon trees, and a number of chamisa bush­ es were all on their deathbed. “I couldn’t find any sign of disease,” said McCue. “I was sure it was some type of pollu­ tion.” He asked tutor Linda Wiener, an entomologist, to look at the trees. “Herbicides or pollution didn’t seem likely, and the only other thing I could think that would have that kind of effect would be a gas leak,” she said, “Pat took a shovel and started digging. He said it just reeked of gas.” The gas had been killing the trees in the same way it would a human being or other living body-by interfering with the ability of the organisms to carry oxygen, McCue explained. “Gas doesn’t really poison a tree. It suffo­ cates the roots,” he said. Luckily, McCue and Wiener discovered the problem before Taking down the cottonwood TREE WHICH HAD BEEN POISONED BY A NATURAL GAS LEAK. any explosions occurred. Since the campus gas lines belong to St. John’s, the college needed to fix the problem. A contractor was hired to test every campus pipe for leaks. For the next month, the grounds and roads were torn up and gas was large­ ly unavailable on campus. For those staying in campus housing, this meant taking cold showers for about three weeks, Jennifer Brookes, director of Conference Services, worried that summer conference atten­ dees living in the dorms would be unsettled by the lack of hot water, but she heard few com­ plaints. “Most everybody was very understanding,” Brookes said. “One group leader said he {The College - Messagefrom the switchboard: a mother bear and cub had been sighted on Atalaya trail. could give up coffee if he con­ tinued to have cold showers in the morning, because they were so exhilarating.” Presi­ dent John Balkcom offered the use of the guest shower at the Hunt House, less than a mile from campus, and the showers at the Student Activities Center had hot water after less than a week. An understaffed (two employees were out on short­ term disability leave) Buildings St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } During one of these outdoor meals, when the soccer field was set up with canopies and grills for a staff picnic, a twister passed through campus. It picked up the canopies and dumped them in the middle of Camino Cabra, The canopies were replaced before the party started and no one got hurt. But Gonzalez couldn’t believe the string of near-misses the campus was facing. “We had so many things going on-one after another,” he said. Brooks agreed: “It was totally wacky.” Lightning STRIKES Atalaya From July 8 to July ai, I worked as an RA (resident assistant) for the Monte Sol Writing Work­ shop, a residential program that helps high school students develop their creative and ana­ lytical skills. On the morning of Saturday, July 14, the students headed up Atalaya Mountain, just above campus, for a hike with the workshop’s other RAs, John McCarthy (SFoi) and Liz Borshard (SF99). At breakfast, shortly after saying farewell to the hikers, I opened the local newspaper and panicked. According to a news report, a fire had started near the top of the mountain the previous day and had not been extinguished. Luckily, the fire was out between the time �{From the Bell Towers} the newspaper was printed and the hike began. The fire, caused by a lightning strike near campus, occurred on Fri­ day the 13th. A WOODPECKER STRIKES The next exciting event was a brief power outage caused by a woodpecker. On July aa, the bird landed on a transformer near the gym, causing a short. “It fried the woodpecker and knocked out the electricity,” Gonzales said. This time the affected struc­ ture was not on college proper­ ty, so St. John’s did not bear the cost of repair. The utility com­ pany had power back on within a few hours. Magic on Campus Santa Fefreshmen dig deep on Community Service Day. While most freshmen come to St. John’s expecting to embark on a rigorous intellectual jour­ ney, few expect to be handed a shovel and asked to do some hard, physical labor. But on Community Service Day, held the Saturday before the first full day of classes, roughly onequarter of the new freshman class volunteered to roll up their sleeves along with upper classmen, faculty, and staff (including college president John Balkcom) and tackle some labor-intensive jobs on campus. Participants cut down a mature cottonwood tree (a landmark meeting place on campus) that was killed by a natural gas leak so that it could be replaced with a young sycamore. They also dug a trench-50 feet long and a feet deep-for a new gas line that Toilets stop flushing Throughout July and the begin­ ning of August, I often con­ soled myself during a cold shower with this thought: “At least the toilet works.” One morning in early August, the water lines in the walls of our apartment moaned, then the water stopped flowing. I ran down to the academic build­ ings, hoping to find a function­ ing lavatory, but they were all out of order. The water short­ age was caused by an accident during work on the water lines. Yes, in addition to the gas lines being replaced, water lines were being replaced to increase the water pressure in case of fire. This was a project the col­ lege had planned long before the other catastrophes will run under the beautiful grassy lawn north of Weigle Hall. “The lawn is one of the most central landscape areas of the college, both socially and physically,” said assistant gar­ dener Mike DiMezza (SF98 and EC99). It was DiMezza who first suggested the college dig the trench by hand to save the lawn from the ravages of a backhoe. The day had a festive atmos­ phere, reminiscent of barn rais­ ings and filled with good humor. Some staff members teased the students, saying that when they finished digging the trench they could start on the hole for the long-proposed swimming pool behind the gym. Those whose physical exertions rarely surpass haul­ ing heavy backpacks worked alongside the more muscular members of the crew. When the day was over, the volunteers were rewarded with a barbecue on the Fishpond Placita, spon­ sored by the senior class. DiMezza estimated that the 35 volunteers contributed at least 140 hours of labor that day. “I cannot tell you how {The College. occurred. The crew had hit a water main and needed to get a part from Albuquerque before they could repair it. The col­ lege reacted swiftly, procuring porta-potties as well as bottled water for the washrooms and the dining hall kitchen. At this point in the summer, I was enrolled in the Summer Classics program in a seminar on The Plays of Kalidasa. When it was time for the mid-morn­ ing break, we stepped outside and were happy to see that porta-potties had arrived. They were painted a bright yellow, which helped boost spirits. By this point in Catastrophe Sum­ mer, people were eager to be cheered. “I only told a couple of peo­ ple that I wanted my mommy,” said Gonzales. Digging WITH student backs— NOT A BACKHOE—SAVES THE LAWN. deeply grateful I was that I didn’t have to dig that trench by myself,” he said. Brendan O’Neill {SF93), director of college events, said that Community Service Day is about building community. St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } 9 Bears head TOWARD CAMPUS By the time students began mov­ ing into dorms for the fall term on August ai, I breathed a sigh of relief that Catastrophe Sum­ mer had ended. But later that morning, Vivian Duran at the switchboard delivered a voice­ mail message to the college community, alerting us that a mother bear and her cub had been sighted on Atalaya trail. As I listened to Duran’s recorded advice on how to behave during an encounter with a bear-hold your hands high to seem taller and back away slowly-I smiled. Surely, this was just one more potential disaster that the col­ lege would manage with grace and determination. 4— BY Marissa Morrison (SFGI03) “We are fortunate because of our small size, but we still have to work on ways to bring every­ one together,” he said. “When we come together as a commu­ nity - faculty, staff and student^ helping each other out - that’s when the magic happens on this campus.” -4 — BY Teri Thomson Randall �{Letters} IO Wrong Author I’d like to correct an easily made but signif­ icant error in John Rankin’s series of pro­ files on Johnnies in the world of policy (“Rousseau and Realpolitik,” The College, Summer aooi). Mr. Rankin cites me rec­ ommending reading Karl Monger as an economist. It should have been “Carl Monger,” who published his path-breaking and revolutionary Grundsatze der Volkswirtschaftslehre [Principles ofEconomics] in 1871. His son Karl Monger became a noted mathematician, who also occasional­ ly wrote on such topics as the role of uncer­ taintyin economics. It was Carl Monger (with a “C”) who dissolved the great prob­ lems that had bedeviled classical econom­ ics by introducing the concept of choice at the margin. The confusion between the two is a common mistake, but one with signifi­ cant consequences when one goes to the library or the bookstore. — Tom G. Palmer, ''Iknow that the St. John s oftoday is not the St. John s of my day, but it still hets a very tender spot in my heart. sections are central to his main thesis. I’m not sure if it exists in an easily acquired print medium, but it’s on the web at http://www.abelard.org/turpap/turpap.htm. I don’t know what the current Sopho­ more readings are, so I can’t propose some­ thing to drop to make room for this. That’s always the rub, isn’t it? — Thomas N. Day, A71 A8a there must be more pictures out there. I know that the St. John’s of today is not the St. John’s of my day; but it still has a very tender spot in my heart. My connection goes back to 1913, when my father was on the faculty. — Edward E. Gray, Class of 1934 An Adler Rememrrance Just another of those examples of how seemingly minor events can impact one's entire life: Why or how it came about, I can’t recall, but in late 195a I began read­ ing Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book, wherein, of course, he mentioned St. John’s and the great books program. Two years later I was enrolled at St. John’s. Although there may have been an opportunity-he lectured once while I was there-I never made a point of thanking him for what turned out to be a seminal experience in my life. — Jerry Milhollan, Class of 1958 Reading List Suggestion I finally got a chance to read A. M. Turing’s paper “Com­ puting Machinery and Intelli­ gence.” I’d like to propose that SJC include it as part of the sophomore seminar read­ ings. The paper is extremely accessible to a non-technical student, reading almost like one of Maxwell’s papers. It contains the original description of the famous Turing Test. It also contains the germ, though not pursued, of Chaos Theory. It makes predictions about the future of Artificial Intelligence which coincide with the present time. It also pres­ ents, in very general terms, the function­ ing of a digital computer. It represents a source document that much of our present society rests upon. If Johnnies are sup­ posed to understand the roots of their cul­ tural assumptions, then this is a very acces­ sible way into the beginnings of the impact of computers. On the down side, Turing makes a pitiable response to religious objections to Al, mostly because he doesn’t take religion seriously and doesn’t make a serious effort at a counter-argument. He also has a touch­ ing faith in the statistical provability of ESP. On the other hand, neither of these Sje DESK -1935 St. John’s Forever I was amazed to see pictures of my desk in my room at the Delta Psi Omega fraternity house in the Summer issue of The College. I was intrigued with the comment about my neckties that were hanging on the wall. I wonder if the students of today have any neckties. My roommate in 1935 was Robert H. Lampee of the class of 1935. His desk is the one on the left of the picture. He was the editor of the St. John’s Collegian, the college newspaper. There was an Under­ wood typewriter under that cover. Several years ago I sent my collection of photographs of St. John’s to the Alumni Office. I suggest that alumni of my vintage send their collections to the college also. Our ranks are getting thinner, but I feel {The College - St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } The CoZZege welcomes letters on issues of interest to readers. Letters maybe 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 or The College Maga­ zine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: b-goyette@sjca.edu, or via the form for let­ ters on the web site atwww.sjca.edu - click on “Alumni,” then on “Contact The Col­ lege Magazine.” �{Book Review} POETRY PUZZLES William Alba combines visual andpoetic whimsy in his book An Oz Album. BY James Idema R obert Frost defined “The Figure a Poem Makes” in an introduction to the 1949 col­ lection of his complete poems. “It begins in delight and ends in wisdom,” he wrote. “The figure is the same as for love.” William Alba, a Santa Fe tutor, could have had something like that in mind with An Oz Album (Pulley Press), a chapbook of his own delightfully eccentric verse, inter­ spersed as it is with fragments from the writings of Sandburg, Blake, Dante, Woody Guthrie, Whitman, and L. Frank Baum (author of The Wizard of Oz). In a whimsi­ cal tribute to Walt Whitman, for example, Alba frames verses from Whitman’s “Song of the Open Road” between lists of the zip codes of the places the author has lived and their corresponding dates. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and other characters from The Wizard of Oz-i ncluding the Wicked Witch of the West (aka Sister Frances Dolores, his first grade teacher)-drop in on the fun. We open the book to a boldly abstract four-color map of Oz and close it on a high­ way map of Chicago. We discover that Oz and Chicago (where the poet lived for four years before coming to Santa Fe) have had major influences on his writing. Their landmarks appear throughout. This is a poem he calls “Madison/ Wabash.” It is printed in bold type over a faint reproduction from Sandburg’s “Chicago.” There’s different kinds, I want to say. There’s different kinds of pain. It takes all kinds: your ears go deaf from squealing trains. Your eyes get stares when you forget, and smile at a commuter. A blast of cold chills your soles. The broken heater. Your temples tense. Your mind goes flat as highways, suburbs, prairies. The land is flat for miles and miles. You wait. You wait. “A BEAUTIFUL BOOK IS A CONSERVATOR OF KNOWLEDGE,” SAYS AlBA. Your tongue tastes smoke. That’s nothing new. Your throat turns dark as night. The sun falls down as lights appear. Not stars. Lights. Here is a pair of winsome, haiku-like poems under the heading “wakes of innocense”: 1/ memory of 1968 this Monarch alights on my chest, opening, closing, opening its wings I run through the park; look, mommy, look it flattens and flutters away 2/ mystery the one I love like my constant dog is never in my dreams the places I’ve lived recur after I move like the seasons in a year {The College- St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } Some of the material in this small book is set in acrobatic arrangements and various sizes of type, some of it minuscule strips across the top of a page requiring serious squinting to discern the message, which is, in this case, to follow the yellow brick road. Several poems describe driving experi­ ences. One limns road rage on Chicago’s Edens Expressway. It is composed in the shape of a balloon. The invocation is reprised in tiny type in the shape of a butterfly. When I met Alba, he was teaching a sum­ mer writing and thinking workshop for high school students in a Bard College pro­ gram held at St. John’s. I told him my first reaction was that his poetry, which I found compelling and entertaining, but at the same time challenging in both content and typography, seemed a cross between Wal­ lace Stevens and e.e. cummings. He seemed to find the observation amusing, which is how I intended it. Still, when I suggested some readers might be put off by having to turn his book upside down or reach for a magnifying glass to read it or leaf backward to confirm elusive refer­ ences, he defended his approach earnestly. “Poems are the hardest writing to make public, to get read by people I don’t know,” he said. “My poems are revealing and inti­ mate, so I needed to publish them myself. But I wanted most of all to make a beautiful book, something one cannot see on the Internet. A beautiful book is a conservator of knowledge, not easily discarded, and its content should engage the hands and body as well as the mind of the reader. Touch is as important as sight, which is why I ask the reader to handle my book, move it around.” Please don’t attack these pages hoping to squeeze messages from my verses, he seems to be saying. Rather, loaf, as Whit­ man says, invite your soul, pause frequent­ ly, read aloud, open yourself to my experi­ ences and, of course, read them more than once. As T.S. Eliot entreats us in the open­ ing lines of The Love Song off. Alfred Prufrock: “Oh, do not ask, ‘What is it?’ / Let us go and make our visit.” �{The Program} GREAT BOOKS FOR TOUGH TIMES In a speech delivered to the Caritas Society on October 2001, a tutor muses on the events ofthisfall and the role ofSt. Johns in the larger community By William Pastille HEN I WAS FIRST ASKED TO speak on this occasion, the suggested topic was the role of the college in the larger community. That was last summer, a time that now seems unapproachably distant-a lifetime ago. What I am about to say has become a cliche, but I will say it anyway: On September ii, everything changed. Our shock at the terrible loss of life in New York and in Washington reminded us of the meaning of mortality; it reminded us that we are creatures of a day only whose light can be extin­ guished at any instant; it reminded us that every moment is a pre­ cious treasure, given to us on loan and hkely to be withdrawn with­ out the slightest notice. Some Americans even seem to be changing the way they live as a result. Some things that seemed to make sense before September ii no longer seem to make sense now. It is only fitting, therefore, that the topic of this talk should change somewhat as well. I will still speak mostly about the role of St. John’s in the larger community that is our nation; but it might be appropriate also to say a few words about what the study of the Great Books offers to us at a time of crisis such as this. The best way, I think, to give some impression of the value of Great Books in these times is to tell some recent stories from the classroom. Just yesterday, for instance, I was leading a small study group which was discussing Plato’s Crito, a dialogue that takes place in Socrates’ prison cell as he awaits his execution. At one point in the text Socrates makes the following statement: “One should never do wrong in return,” he says, “nor injure any man, whatever injury one has suffered at his hands.” Immediately, one of the students replied to this with a question: “If Socrates is right,” she asked, ’’does that mean we shouldn’t have responded to the terrorist attacks?” This sort of thing has been happening frequently ever since September ii. The students are finding the events of this time to be intimately connected to the books they are reading. It is this ability to make a personal connection across the centuries that makes a book great. The Great Books speak just as powerfully to us as they did to our forefathers and to their forefathers. This is a time of conflict, and conflict is a major theme in many of the Great Books. The first book that the freshmen read in their seminar classes, Homer’s Iliad, focuses on the conflict of the Tro­ jan war. It is about the overweening wrath of Achilles, the strongest of the Greeks. In the week following the attacks, the stu­ dents were coming to the end of the book, and another tutor told me that, in his class, one of the young men became very upset at various criticisms of Achilles that had been leveled by some of his classmates. “How can you say such things about Achilles?” he finally said. “I want to be like Achilles! ” When pressed for his rea­ sons, it came out that he admired Achilles’strength and the power it gave him to destroy his enemy utterly. And he added, “If we had a few more Achilles today, Afghanistan would already be in ruins.” At this juncture, my colleague said, anotheryoung man pointed out that Achilles’ victory, which was motivated by an unconsid­ ered and self-absorbed thirst for revenge, was won at the cost of a great deal of death and suffering for his own people. You can imag­ ine, in those days shortly after the attacks, when it was not clear what the American response would be, that these issues were intensely critical for the members of that class. This sort of timely and intensely personal conversation can only happen because the books speak so directly to us, no matter where or when they were written. And that brings me to the first digres­ sion I want to make concerning the contribution St. John’s makes to the larger community: we contribute our graduates to the nation. St. John’s believes that the truest service a college or uni­ versity can do for its country is to educate the young to be the best citizens they can possibly be. The principal obstacle preventing this is a certain particularly American parochialism described by Tocqueville-a widespread tendency in this country to ignore other places and times. We are so chauvinistic about our national superiority that many of us quite unconsciously seem to feel that if it’s not happening in America, then it really doesn’t count. And we’re so pragmatic as a people that many of us quite unconscious- {The College -St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } �{The Program} adults to discuss a series of the ly seem to feel that if it’s not Great Books over a long period happening right now, it’s of time. Two weeks ago I was either dead and huried in the leading one of these seminars past or inaccessible in the in Philadelphia, and we were future. Consequently we live discussing the second half of far too much in the moment to Homer ’ s Odyssey, in which develop the kind of long-term Odysseus returns home to find and global perspective that we his household being preyed need to see the larger picture of upon by the many suitors of his hfe on earth. abandoned wife Penelope. One The program of study at St. of the women in the group, John’s is meant to counter this after listening to lots of talk focus on the present and the about the action and plot of the close-to-home. St. John’s story, finally said, “I’m sorry, believes that the study of the but all 1 could think about while Great Books opens up the larg­ reading this was the extra­ er perspective an American ordinary restraint Odysseus really needs to conscientiously showed. I know exactly what he perform his function as a citi­ must have felt: 1 am so angry zen, because, unlike the citi­ about these attacks that I just zens of some other nations, we want to do something, any­ are not merely the subjects of thing, to strike back. But 1 have the rulers, but the rulers of the to keep restraining myself, rulers. We must keep our eye on because 1 know that lashing the larger picture so that we can outwon ’ thelp. It’s almost tear­ direct the actions of our repre­ ing me apart. ” This was, of sentatives to the right ends, so course, a few days before the that we can criticize and correct bombing began. them when they are wrong, and Again, the book was speak­ so that we can urge them on ing directly to the experience of when they are right. The Great this woman, and again on a very Books, we think, are the finest timely topic-the matter of self­ preparation for citizenship restraint. The Great Books are available to our nation’s young replete with discussions of this men and women, and St. John’s issue. For instance, in Tolstoy’s contributes to the nation each War and Peace, the masterful year about 200 young men and old commander-in-chief of the women who are well-prepared Russian army. General Kutu­ for the duties of citizenship. William Pastille zov, spends most of the book Let me return to another restraining the younger generclassroom story now. Some of als and officers under his command from taking any action against you may not know that St. John’s offers what we call “Executive the invasion by Napoleon. He suffers great criticism for being Seminars” in Annapolis, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, senile, unpatriotic, even treasonous, criticism levelled by those Washington, and Chicago; these are monthly meetings for busy John s believes that the truest service a college or university can do for its country is to educate the young to be the best citizens they can possibly be. Theprincipal obstaclepreventing this is a certain particularly American parochialism... ” {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } �14 {TheProgram} So knowledge can be taught, but it cannot govern; wisdom,on the other hand can govern, but it cannot be taught. who feel that some response simply had to be mounted. But Kutu­ zov was deeply in touch with the tide in the affairs of men; he sensed that Napoleon was riding the crest of a wave and that to attack that wave before it was ready to turn back from the shore would simply lead to ruin for his forces and to subjugation for his country. And he was right; once Napoleon reached Moscow, the tide began to turn. Only then could a response from the Russians be successful. Kutuzov’s restraint in the face of horrible losses ended up saving the Russian nation. We might ask ourselves. What do people like Odysseus and Kutuzov know that allows them to exercise restraint when neces­ sary and to act at the right moment? But it seems to me that this question is improperly formed, because it is not their knowledge that makes the difference, but their wisdom. And this brings me to the second digression 1 want to make concerning what St. John’s offers the larger community: through the study of the Great Books we offer an entry into the love of wisdom, which is even more important than knowledge when it comes to leading life well. If colleges and universities take seriously the welfare of their stu­ dents and their countries, they ought to be concerned about grad­ uating people who not only have knowledge but who also have a sense for how to use it well. But no amount of knowledge is suffi­ cient for this end. Something besides knowledge is required for the proper employment of knowledge. Why is that? The simplest route to understanding the limitations of knowl­ edge is to meditate on two familiar adages: “Knowledge is power” and “Power corrupts.” Though we tend to accept both of these adages quite readily, we seldom make a connection between them. And yet the connection could not be simpler: if knowledge is power, and power corrupts, then knowledge corrupts. Of course, this is facile syllogizing that cannot stand up to logical scrutiny, but the conclusion nevertheless contains a kernel of truth. Knowledge can certainly be wielded as a sort of power; indeed our society tends to advertise education and training as a source of empowerment. And although power does not necessarily corrupt, we all understand the temptations offered by power to bend the rules, if not break them, for oneself and one’s inner circle. There­ fore it simply is a fact that a person who uses knowledge as a source of power will be tempted, and may succumb, to the cor­ ruption that is offered by all sources of power. Consequently, something besides knowledge is necessary if one is to avoid using one’s knowledge poorly. What is that? The answer, as the founders of the St. John’s program of study knew, is wisdom. And so they wanted to add to the idea of the uni­ {The College - versity as an institution devoted to knowledge the further qualifi­ cation that it should also be devoted to wisdom as the higher source to which knowledge answers. But here they encountered a problem that is truly insurmountable: wisdom, unlike knowledge, cannot be taught. Wisdom requires judgment, and judgment requires not just knowledge and the ability to draw conclusions from knowledge, but also the sort of life-experience that engen­ ders habits which make us tend toward the Good even when we do not know what is right. And the sort of life-experiences that lead to such habits cannot be provided by someone else, not even the most skillful teacher; they must be lived through in the concrete and practical situations that come up in daily life. So knowledge can be taught, but it cannot govern; wisdom, on the other hand can govern, but it cannot be taught. How, then, could wisdom, being unteachable, take up a position in higher education beside knowledge, which implies a great focus on teaching as the correl­ ative to learning? The answer is that it cannot. Wisdom itself stands above teach­ ing and learning; as Socrates pointed out, it is either divine or almost divine. But it is well within human capacities, as Socrates also pointed out, to cultivate the love of wisdom, even if wisdom itself lies beyond our reach; and perhaps the love of wisdom, if pur­ sued diligently, can somehow communicate some of the qualities of wisdom to the seeker, in the same way that any lover begins to take on some of the attributes that are admired in the beloved. What is more, love of wisdom is both teachable and learnable as a form of contagious enthusiasm: the teacher’s love of wisdom can be communicated to the student by example. So whereas wisdom itself cannot find a place in the academy, love of wisdom can. Indeed it should, if colleges and universities are concerned with the good of the students who attend and the good of the societies in which those students will be citizens; for it is love of wisdom alone that can keep the students on track until they have enough judg­ ment to guide themselves and their society well. And St. John’s takes this obligation seriously: in addition to contributing to the nation graduates who are well prepared for citizenship, we also send forth graduates whose love of wisdom will steady them until they acquire experience, judgment, and perhaps even wisdom itself. Let me return to another story from the classroom. The week after the attacks, 1 was leading a discussion with about eighteen graduate students on Francis Bacon’s very brief essay On Revenge. Bacon makes the following bald statement about the prudence of taking revenge: “Wise people,” he says, “know that they have enough to do in the present and with whatever might St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } �{TheProgram} 15 Ifcolleges and universities take seriously the welfare of their students and their countries, they ought to be concerned about graduatingpeople who not only have knowledge but who also have a sensefor how to use it well happen in the future. They don’t spend their time taking revenge. People who spend their time worrying about past injuries just waste their time.” Nowyou can imagine the electrifying effect that statement had at a time when so many innocent lives had been so recently lost, and when some people in the room desperately hoped for retribution, while others were confused about the prop­ er course that should be followed. Nevertheless, because all of the students had been at St. John’s for a while and had learned how to converse intensely but politely, we had a civilized, if highly charged, conversation, and I think that everyone left the meeting feeling that he or she had seen just a bit further into the complex­ ities of justice and retribution. This classroom story about graduate students and the earlier one about the participants in the Philadephia Executive Seminar bring me to the third and final point I want to make about St. John’s contribution to the larger community; In addition to con­ tributing to the nation young people who are very well-prepared for citizenship and whose love of wisdom will help them to help the country in years to come, St. John’s also offers its experience in the study of the Great Books to adults. St. John’s takes seriously this commitment to adults who are long past school age. After all, those of us who teach here are adults, and we do not keep doing it only because we enjoy helping the young to find themselves, although we certainly do enjoy that calling. We keep doing it also because continued exposure to the Great Books and to the ideas of others keeps us steadily growing in the same skills we hope to give to our students. For although we are adults, we are also mindful of Socrates’ continual admonition that we don’t really know who we are, because we always take ourselves to be much more knowledgeable than we actually are. And the best way to keep an awareness of this ignorance alive in ourselves is to be constantly talking with others about the most important things in hfe. The infinite variety of responses to life’s most important questions will always keep us on our toes if we let it. Since those of us who teach here are adults, and since we can benefit from the Great Books in this way, there is no reason to doubt that other adults could also benefit from what we do with the Great Books, as long as they are willing to engage in civil discus­ sion and are open to really trying to hear and understand the opin­ ions of others. So St. John’s also has programs for adults that allow them to participate in the conversation with the Great Books in a number of different ways. In addition to the Executive Seminars and the Master’s degree program already mentioned, our Santa Fe campus has what is called the “Summer Classics” program, and we {The also offer what is called a “Continuing Education” program. So, as I see it, St. John’s makes a three-fold contribution to the larger community in times such as these: first, it produces young people who are well prepared to shoulder the burdens of citizen­ ship in these difficult times; second, it produces young people whose love of wisdom can help them to make better choices in these difficult times, both for themselves and for the nation; and finally, it offers us adults the opportunity to continue to grow both as citizens and as lovers of wisdom. Let me leave you with one more story about a discussion with students. This conversation happened outside of class, and, as it happens, I do not even know the students I was speaking with, a young man and a young woman who had joined a conversation already in progress and remained after the other students left. The young man had been reading Matthew Arnold’s famous poem Dover Beach, which many of you probably learned in high school. Well over a century ago, Arnold looked out across the English Channel on a breezy evening, looked out on the ancient world that had been bloodied so terribly in the European wars during the hundred years before his time, and wrote the following lines: Ah, love, let us be true To one another! For the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams. So various, so beautiful, so new. Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light. Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight. Where ignorant armies clash by night. The young man recited the last line slowly. Thinking about the current situation and the recurring violence in human affairs, he said “Have we learned nothing at all? How can there be hope when the ignorant armies continue to clash, year after year after year?” The three of us stood in silence for a while. Then the young woman said, “But the poem gives the answer: ‘Ah, love, let us be true,’ it says.” The two of us looked at her quizzically. “Well,” she drawled, as if she were belaboring the obvious, “where there is love there is hope.” 4" William Pastille is a tutor in Annapolis. He’s currently the direc­ tor ofthe Graduate Institute. COLLEGE'S:. John’s College ■ Fall noot } �{Johnnies on Animals} HEARTS o/ANIMALS Reflections on our relationships with other members ofthe wild kingdom. By Sus3AN Borden, A87 an an elephant hold grudges? Can a dog experience separation anxiety? What makes a horse love its rider? Do animals have souls? Intelligence? Emotions? Johnnies have read Aristotle’s Parts of Animals, dissected a sheep’s heart, strug­ gled with the foundations for and implica­ tions of Darwin’s Origin of Species. In today’s lah curriculum, freshmen observe squirrels, spiders, and seagulls. Seniors trace the ancestry of fruit fly families. In seminar and tutorials, love and friendship are frequent topics of discussionfrom Plato’s Phaedrus to Yeats’ “When You Are Old And Gray.” Alumni who enter careers that involve working with animals continue to think about the relationships between humans and animals-they are confronted with the conundrums of under­ standing between the species every day. But even after years of observing and caring for animals, they say there’s much they don’t understand. In the end, we are left to wonder: what can we really know about the heart of another? Tales of Two Critters Claudia Probst Stack (A88), a horse trainer, riding teacher, and competitive rider, tells the story of a boy she once gave riding les­ sons and his old, arthritic horse. “The boy wasn’t a bad kid, but he was raucous and loved to ride hard,” she says. “He could be rough on the horse. When he took off the tack and bridle, he didn’t unbuckle it, he just pulled it off. Typically, a horse in his condition would not want to have a lot to do with a boy like that, but this horse loved that little boy. Every time the boy showed up at the gate, the horse would come running over. He didn’t mind being galloped around, even though I’m sure it hurt his joints.” “What made that horse rise above his discomfort?” she asks. “What was he getting out of it? Why did he enjoy that relationship?” For Stack, these questions reflect the mystery of love-not only between people and animals but, in a larger sense, any love. “What brings any two critters together? Whether it’s a horse and a person or two people, you always think to yourself: why are these two together?” she says. “I guess it’s hke many relationships that aren’t perfect and yet are working. There seems to be some kernel at the heart of the relationship that’s either good or bad. If it’s wrong from the start. {The College- it doesn’t matter how many supplements you give the horse or what kind of equipment you buy for him.” If it’s right, she sug­ gests, then a raucous boy can “ride the bejeesus” out of an arthrit­ ic horse and the two will be happy together. It’s not just the four-legged creatures who can find joy in a seemingly mismatched relationship. Emergency veterinarian Elizabeth MacDonald (SF83) says that in many cases, it’s the nature of the person that determines the relationship. MacDonald has worked with difficult dogs, including those she calls “real problem children,” who are adopted from the pound after living in stressful, often abusive situations. These dogs can thrive in the care of committed, responsible pet owners. “They may shred the house from stem to stern, they might constantly have accidents, they may be barkers, yet these people are absolutely bonded to them,” she says. “These are the lucky dogs. When it comes to pound dogs, there are very few lucky dogs, but I’ve see them.” MacDonald is convinced that the strength of the bond comes from the person involved. “It’s not so much the temperament of the animal. It comes from the people-how much they’re willing to give, to sacrifice. My feeling is that animals are our responsibility, our charge, not our right, but not everybody thinks like that.” MacDonald sees a range of people in her practice. Some agree that, once pets are taken in, the owner is responsible for them no matter the inconvenience. At the other end of the spectrum are the people who asked that their cat be euthenised after they’d changed the color of their decor and it became obvious that the cat shed too much. She has even encountered people who, when told the cost of treating their cat, said it would be cheaper to buy another than to treat their sick pet. For the most part, people who would balance their cat’s life in their checkbook have opted out of the game before they even meet veterinary behaviorist Barbara Simpson (A71). Because she’s a specialist, Simpson’s clients’ willingness to devote time and money to their pets is demonstrated in the very fact that they are consulting with her; they’ve shown they have a commitment that goes beyond standard veterinary care. “It’s sometimes astounding,” Simpson says. “There seem to be quite a lot of people who have a very close relationship with their companion animals. They share their beds with their animals and work their schedules around them. They celebrate animal birth­ days and take them on trips.” In a few cases these are single peo- St. John's College - Fall 2001 } �{Johnnies on Animals} ''Myfeeling is that animals are our responsibility, our charge, notour right, but not everybody thinks like that. ” —Elizabeth MacDonald [SF83] “Are you my mother?” is the title of AnNAPOLIS PHOTOGRAPHER Amy Raab. The rancher raised the THIS PICTURE BY HEIFER, which HAD BEEN BORN DURING A Wyoming spring snowstorm and ABANDONED BY ITS MOTHER. {The College . St John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } 17 �i8 {JohnniesonAnimals} y^nimals use the same signals to communicate with people as they do to communicate with each other.'' —Barbara Simpson pie for whom a pet is a substitute for other companionship, or adults who don’t have children but treat their dog like a child. But this is by no means the rule. “These are often people who have very normal relationships with other people, but are incredibly attached to their animals,” she says. Brain Eater Unfortunately, man’s relationship to animals is not exclusively one of love and devotion. Eric Scigliano {SF75), a Seattle-based journalist whose book about elephants will be published this spring, has explored in depth the relationship between man and elephants. A key to understanding this complex relationship, he says, is to realize that elephants are “uniquely non-domesticated domestic animals.” Although they have been captured, trained, and worked for more than three thousand years, elephants have never been bred for docility or any other qualities. Genetically, they’re still “pure,” wild animals. Whatever qualities of loyalty, affection, and gentleness they show are those they are naturally endowed with. This lack of genetically-manipulated docility means that, while in some cases elephants are dominated by affec­ tion, there will always be a role in the relationship for coercion and intimidation. Dominating a 12,000-pound creature through coercion and intimidation is at best an uncertain enterprise. At worst, it can be lethal. Scigliano describes the traditional relationship a mahout (elephant keeper and driver) has with the Asian logging elephants in his care: “It’s a lifelong relationship. The young elephants and young boys grow up together, sleep together, live together. The elephants have been known to sacrifice their lives for them,” he says, “yet the mahouts can get themselves killed if they abuse their elephants.” He tells a story he heard in Sri Lanka about one rogue elephant whom the national elephant catching team had been sent to catch and relocate. The locals had named him Molekanna, Brain Eater. This nickname seemed unthinkable, Scigliano says, because ele­ phants are vegetarians, but the team had been dispatched after the elephant was believed to have killed his eighteenth human. Eventually, the team found the nineteenth victim, a school teacher, with his head missing. When they finally captured the elephant, they learned what had turned him into a carnivore. He was a study in animal abuse: he had been blinded in one eye, per­ haps by acid, was half blind in the other eye, and was full of gun­ shot wounds. “Elephants remember abuse. They remember friends and enemies,” Scigliano says. “They can take revenge years later. That bit about an elephant never forgetting is pretty {The College. [A71] close to the truth.” Scigliano describes the roots of his own interest in elephants in his book. Love, War and Circuses: The Age-Old Relationship Between Elephants and Humans: I still remember when I first felt the allure, though I never saw circus elephants as a young child; we hved in Saigon, between Vietnam’s French and American wars, where circuses fol­ lowed European tradition and lacked grand animal spectacles. But Saigon’s zoo had many beasts and few barriers separating them from visitors; crocodiles lazed beneath a footbridge, monkeys would escape their cage, and ayoung elephant would reach her trunk across to visitors, nuzzhng their faces and tak­ ing peanuts from their hands and whatever else seemed inter­ esting from their pockets. I imagined that she recognized me out of all the kids who thronged around her. Elephants’ noses and memories are so discerning, perhaps she did. Horse Midwife____________________________________ Lyn Desmarais’ (A83) introduction to animals was far less exotic; she grew up working a family dairy farm in New Braintree, Massa­ chusetts, with her brothers and sisters. She began milking cows at age six and delivered her first calf by the time she was ten. It was Desmarais’ responsibility to know when the cows were about to calve so that, when the time neared, the cows could be kept in the barn in case any problems arose during delivery. “Every once in a while you’ll have miscalculated the due date or a cow will outsmart you and run off,” she says. “We had 100 acres-plenty of pasture running in and out of woods, and springs and brooks as well. When a pregnant cow ran off to calve, it was often my job to get on a horse and ride back and forth covering every foot of ground.” Desmarais remembers one occasion when, after searching the farm, she finally found the missing cow and her newborn calf. She put a halter on the cow and tried to lead her back to the barn. “I was yanking and yanking, but the cow was not going anywhere. The next thing I knew, my horse was behind the calf, nudging it to its feet and pushing it all the way to the barn.” The cow, of course, followed her offspring. Desmarais says there are two aspects of this story that interest her. One is the horse’s understanding of how to get the cow and her calf back to the barn. The other is the horse’s concern about the calf. “I understand animals having a very strong sense of sur­ vival,” she says, “but I don’t understand why they’d be so gentle with the young of others.” St. John’s College ■ Fall aooi } �{Johnnies on Animals} Simpson, the veterinary behaviorist, gives the broad strokes of an explanation: “Mammals are highly evolved, sophisticated beings and they share the vast majority of their physiologi­ cal systems with us-their brain structure, hor­ mones, reproductive modes, maternal care-we have a tremendous amount in common,” she says. “Many animals also share complex social behavior. They live in societies, have long-term relationships, and demonstrate clear individ­ ual recognition. These can be fairly complex societies and with that goes complex communi­ ty behavior.” Behavior can become even more complex in a society made up of more than a single species. The result can be a bemusing positive, as with Desmarais’ horse and calf. But the complexity of inter-species societies can lead to negative behavior as well. If I Could Talk to the Animals In her practice, Simpson sees many such nega­ tive cases. Often they are the result of miscom­ munication. “One of the disorders I treat is separation anxiety in dogs,” says Simpson. “A dog can get very attached and when the owner leaves the house, the dog misbehaves, or is destructive, or gets so nervous it eliminates in the house. When the owner comes home and finds what he’s done, he may punish the ani­ mal. He may interpret the behavior as spiteful rather than understand it as an anxiety disorder for which sympathy and treatment are needed rather than disciplinary measures.” Simpson says this is a common failure to understand and respond to what the dog is communicating. “Animals have their own systems of commu­ nication,” says Simpson. “Some of it is innate, some learned. It is especially refined in social species like dogs or horses. Animals use the same signals to communicate with people as they do to communicate with each other.” As pet owners try to understand what ani­ mals are communicating to them, horse riders work to help their horses understand what they are saying. Stack, a rider since age 8, began to learn natural horsemanship when she turned 25. She describes the method: “You use body language to show the horse the direction you want him to go, if you want him to speed up or slow down. You either come at him or back off, you kind of dance with him a little bit to show him what you’re looking for.” Stack uses dance as a metaphor for training within a single ride. It also works as well to Animal Bookijst Claudia Probst Stack Think Harmony With Horses by Ray Hunt and Ground Work by Buck Brannamanboth these books are by the natural horse­ manship experts whose work inspired the book and movie The Horse Whisperer. Eric Scigliano Bonobo by Frans de Waal and Frans Lanting-a good introduction to our neglected and fascinating “next of kin.” The Elephant in the Greek and Boman World H.H. Scullard and The First Fos­ sil Hunters by Adrienne Mayor-elephants in classical history, war, and myth. The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy-this novel is a remarkable effort to imagine the African elephant’s consciousness and world. To Whom It May Concern: An Investiga­ tion ofthe Art ofElephants by David Gucwa and James Ehmann-a quirky but intriguing account of the first elephant­ drawing project. Elephant Tramp by Shm Lewis-the best circus memoir. Burmese Timber Elephant by U Toke Gale, and Elephant Billby J.H. Williams­ best memoirs of working with elephants in Asia. Ganesa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord ofBegin­ nings by Paul B. Courtright-a scholarly study of the elephant-headed god. Lyn Desmarais Lassie Come Home by Eric Knight AU Creatures Great and Small and other books by James Herriot BeautifulJoe by Marshall Saunders Black Beauty by Anna Sewell “The Most Dangerous Game” by Roald Dahl (a short story) Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White Barbara Simpson Know Your Dog: An owner’s guide to dog behavior\sy Dr. Bruce Fogle Know Your Cat: An owner’s guide to cat behartorWXIt. Bruce Fogle The Expression ofthe Emotions in Man andAnimaki by Charles Darwin {The College- 19 describe the communication between a horse and rider throughout a long-term partnership, allowing the rider to communicate more abstract things, such as good judgment and trustworthiness. “You have to put horses in situations where you can show them they can do what you’re asking them to do,” Stack says. “You build up a trust, let them know that you’re not going to put them in a bad fix. In eventing [an equestrian triathlon, more or less], you can’t really fake it. There are some disciphnes where, if you can hold the horse together for 10 or 20 minutes, you can fool the judge. But in eventing, when you hit a cross country course that the horse has never seen, you know really fast where you are in your training.” Trust. Communication. Anxiety. Gentle­ ness. Revenge. Love. Devotion. Are our relationships with animals really that complicated? What about the role of dependence? Maybe we’re reading a lot into animals’ good-sense policy of not biting the hands that feed them. “People think it’s all about food but it’s not,” says Stack. “I never hand-feed my horse and I don’t give him treats. But if I call him, he comes right over.” She describes a time when she was pregnant and unable to ride. She still, of course, fed and cared for her horse. “He knew something was up,” she says. “Every time I came to the barn my horse would just look at me in a way that said, ‘What happened? We used to do things together. We used to go out all the time.’ ” 4" Lyn Desmarais (A83) grew up working a dairy farm in Massachusetts. She raises butterflies, is part of a program to reintroduce bluebirds to Massachusetts, and has near-future plans to raise honey bees and begin small-scale farm­ ing. She lives in Weston, Mass. Elizabeth MacDonald (SP83) is an emergency veterinarian. Her clinic is in Ardmore, Pa. Eric Scigliano (SE75) is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Outside, The New Yorker, Mother Jones, Newsweek, and the Utne Reader. He lives in Seattle. Barbara Simpson (A71) is a veterinary behavior­ ist. Her clinic is in Southern Pines, N. C. Claudia Probst Stack (A88) is a horse breeder, trainer, riding teacher, and competitive rider. She lives in Rocky Point, N. C. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } �{Faculty Books} JOB’S LIFE THROUGH NEW EYES Robert Sacks'trarbslation ofthe Book ofJob helps readers re-examine some important questions. By Mark Sanfilippo, SFGIoo he Book of Job...is a constant play between the way in which a lovely surface can obscure a darker center and the way in which our view of the deeper intent of things can often obscure our view of their simple surface.” In many ways, this quotation from The Book ofJob with Commentary: A Trans­ lation for our Time (Scholars Press) by Santa Fe tutor emeritus Robert Sacks sums up the book’s effort. Sacks’ translation focuses not only on the simple surface-level beauty of the text, but it also tries to present a way to comprehend the deeper secrets housed within those words. Sacks never seems to lose sight of the nature of the work at hand-that the Book of Job, in addition to being a theological/philosophical text, is just as importantly a work of literature. While accuracy is indeed a moti­ vating factor for a scholarly translation, a bit of an artist’s hand is required of the translator when the piece is to be enjoyed for the beauty of its words and phrasing as much as for their content. Sacks prefaces his translation with a brief introduction in which he recalls the dichotomy of Greek philosophy and the Hebrew Bible-or Athens and Jerusalem, as he puts it. Sacks states that these two traditions, while they address many of the same ques­ tions, do so from such different standpoints that oftentimes mak­ ing a comparison of the resulting “answers” is all but impossible. He believes that the Book of Job touches on some of the questions most central to Greek philosophy and does so in such a way as to make a comparison of Athens and Jerusalem not only possible, but inevitable. This has led him to an exploration of the Book of Job. Luckily for the students of both the Bible and the develop­ ment of Western thought, Sacks was kind enough to make a good record of that exploration. The first half of the book consists of the translation. Here one notices immediately that he does indeed have the necessary “artist’s hand,” for the text flows effortlessly and its images come {The College- across in clear, striking tones. Sacks has provided ample footnotes to aid those tvith little or no knowledge of Hebrew. He makes dis­ tinctions between the various usages of words like LORD, GOD, God, and The Almighty, which are consistent and correspond to the original text. In addition, he attempts to convey in English the ambiguities latent within those all too frequent Hebrew words that have multiple definitions, e.g. horn/light/ray. Sacks says that one verse in particular inspired him to produce his own version of this difficult text: verse 6 in chapter 42. The King James Version reads: “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Sacks explains that this line brought to a cUmax his misgivings about the existing translations. The verse comes after God has rumbled from the clouds and left Job awestruck; it is in many ways the summation of what his experi­ ence has been. But Job doesn’t abhor himself, and to have him say so in this final part of the book distorts the thrust of the story. Robert Sacks’ version of 42:6 reads: “Wherefore I have both contempt and compassion for dust and ashes.” Job’s realm of understanding at this point has far surpassed the solipsism of a “why me?” character; Job is not simply concerned about himself or his lot. That wasn’t his dilemma to begin with, and Sacks felt that the existing translations were incorrect in conveying this meaning. Job’s was a cosmic question dealing with the nature of justice. By this time. Job has come to possess a balance of con­ tempt and compassion for the necessarily dual existence of man (“dust and ashes”)-his existence as both a part of Nature and sep­ arate from Nature. The second half of the book consists of commentary. This por­ tion remains true to its name in that Sacks resists trapping himself in a “Job theory” and then simply applying such a theory to the text in its entirety. Instead, he comments on the chapters and does so with a driving inquisitiveness that pulls the reader along. While he does track and expand on themes like the realm of human logic vs. the realm of cosmic/Godly logic and civilization vs. the Land of the Jackals, Sacks doesn’t resist the urge to explore whatever St. John's College ■ Fall 2oof } �{Faculty Books} ai Sacks never seems to lose sight ofthe nature ofthe work at hand— that the Book ofJob, in addition to being a theological/philosophical text, isjust as importantly a work ofliterature. might seem of interest in each chapter, be it a word that is used in a noteworthy fashion, or the history of a phrase’s usage throughout Biblical literature, or even a comparison of other translations. The question that Sacks feels is most central to the text“Shall a man be more just than his God?”-is played with throughout the commentary, inevitably becoming a question of “What is Justice?” Job is forced to deal with his prior “knowledge” of justice being shattered or superseded. How is he to come to terms with the dissolution of what he previous­ ly held to be permanent? Sacks says: “The surface world, to which Job has commit­ ted himself to taking seriously, is a crazy, contradictory world. full of wisdom, valor, and madness, full of roads to glory that lead nowhere. The simple world of growing corn and barking dogs has become more like a Picasso still life which when it first comes to sight seems to be no more than a blue bottle and a bowl of fruit lying on a country table. Yet as one looks on, order begins to evap­ orate, and one begins to wonder how, if Durac is right, Ptolemy could ever have even seemed to be right.” The rules/maxims that had formerly ruled Job’s life (and had apparently “worked”), no longer apply. Even Job’s “friends” (hav­ ing never experienced his level of disillusionment and pain) can offer no sympathy or compassion, and their bhnd adherence to tra­ {The College- dition just simply won’t jibe with Job’s new-found perspec­ tive. Of particular interest in the commentary section is the chapter entitled “Reflections on ir:6.” This chapter delves into the nature of the word “perversion” as it is used throughout Bibhcal literature. The word comes from the Latin meaning “to twist through and through.” The effect of perver­ sion, this twisting, necessarily spans generations. Sacks explains it like this: “In the Torah there is a general tenden­ cy to use the wordperversion to refer to those acts of the fathers which have a lasting and devas­ tating effect on the whole of the nation: for example, black slav­ ery in early America. Or, to put it in other words, even an immigrant who has newly become a citizen of this country, although he. like all others, is innocent of any crime his father may have com­ mitted, has by virtue of becoming part of us, inherited a debt to the Native American Peoples, a debt which we shall never be able to pay in full.” These perversions of the fathers affect the branches of the children for generations, and the only relief in sight hes in ritu­ al and, in the case of the Old Testament, sacrifice. There is much ofinteresttobe found in The Book of Job, and Mr. Sacks’ translation and commentary serves as a good guide book. It points us in several different directions of possible interest, but leaves the ultimate decision of what to explore to the reader. St. John ’5 College ■ Fall 2001 } �{Faculty Books} MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING Eva Brann examines three subjects of non-being in aphilosophical trilogy. By Barbara Goyette, A73 t first glance, the imagination, time, and negativity don’t seem to have much in common as topics of thought, except perhaps that no single philosopher or writer has produced the definitive book on any of them. Threads of their myster­ ies are woven into many of the great books though, from Plato to Newton to Tolstoy. They tickle our minds with feathery wisps of interest but don’t become as solidly consuming as the larger questions of being, human emotion and perception, knowledge, or nature. But to Eva Brann, a tutor since 1957 and dean in Annapolis from 1990 to 1997, these three are related in more profound ways. She’s written a trilogy of books about how we deal with and think about them. And for her, the topics all derive from a fascination with­ it’s hard to express this without sounding like one of the impossi­ bly dense St. John’s metaphysics readings-that which has no real being. Imagination is “a vision of something not actually there,” time trades in memory, a picture-as in imagination-of what no longer exists, and “naysaying,” our ability for negativity, is some­ how a font of dialectic and understanding. She may be examining what’s not, but everything Eva Brann writes is full of ...stuff. Open her book The World ofthe Imagina­ tion randomly, for example to pages 750 and 751, and find discus­ sions of or references to: Bachelard on Herman Hesse, a Chinese landscape painter who “wandered off into the space projected by his own imagination,” Wordsworth, Don Quixote’s grand notion of reality, Santayana’s “normal madness,” T.E. Lawrence on the fort of ancient Azrak, Guy Davenport on Grant Wood’s images of Iowa, and Louis L’Amour’s westerns. The acuity of her examples and her ability to bring disparate ideas into contact with each other are hallmarks of Brann’s writ­ ing. Pages 750 and 751 contain the end of a discussion about Proust and the beginning of a discussion about imaginative places. That the imagination can turn “space into place insofar as it is ... a propensity for projecting human feeling into space and a readiness to be affected by its local presences” can be demonstrat­ ed by citing examples from literature. Brann’s Don Quixote exam­ {The College- ple is particularly illuminating. Don Quixote attacks a band of windmills which he sees as monstrous giants. He is dragged off his horse and suffers bruises. Sancho Panza delivers the obligatory “I told you so.” Everyone knows the basics of this story. But Brann finds the imaginative wellspring of Cervantes’ hero to make her point. “An old enemy, a sorcerer wise in the black arts, wishing to cheat the Don of his glory, has turned the giants into windmills. It is Sancho Panza’s prose, not Don Quixote’s poetry, that is delud­ ed,” she writes. “The point, implicit but crucial, is that it is our mundane soulless world of flour-grinding windmills that is under a spell, a reverse or disenchanting spell cast by the enemies of glory. This spell is the ... pervasive notion that the ordinary is the actual.” Through Don Quixote’s imagination, the spell is broken and the true landscape emerges. The deep mystery of the imagination Brann attributes her initial interest in the imagination-which ultimately led to development of the themes in the trilogy-to the heavily intellectual content of the St. John’s program. “We always focus on the use of reason. That induces an appetite for imagining and reading works of fiction,” she says. Although she wrote many articles and two interpretive books during the first thirty years she was teaching, Brann says that the push to think more thor­ oughly about the faculty of imagination was different in character. She felt her own imagination coming alive, “blooming,” as a com­ plement to the rigors of the program. “It’s the opposite of what people might think,” she says. In 1978-9 she spent ayear away from St. John’s at Whitman Col­ lege in Walla Walla, Washington. “It was beautiful there, so dif­ ferent. The landscapes reminded me of that Beatles movie The Yel­ low Submarine. I used to ride around the golden and mauve hills and look at the little cabins, and I began to think I’d like to write about the workings of the imagination.” She began the project by reading everything she could find on the subject. Whitman had a good hbrary, so she read widelyphilosophers, psychologists, artists. She found few serious books on the imagination, but much material that was useful to her proj­ ect. When philosophers wrote about the faculty, she found, they didn’t seem to uncover it completely. “Kant called it a mystery too St. John's College • Fall 2001 } �deep to write about,” she notes. In the new science of cognitive psychology Brann discovered some important leads. “The psychol­ ogists had gotten into a terrific battle about whether or not we actually have a mind’s eye,” she says. “It was plain to me that we do have internal pictures. But what does that mean? What are they?” When she actually got down to writing the book, she found that her real work would be to bring together the thousands of things she had read, thought about, and seen. Once the organization was clear, however, the book quickly took shape. The World of the Imagination: Sum and Substance (published in 1991 by Rowman & {The College- Littlefield) is a large book-800 pages. There is a chronological accounting of how various philosophers from Plato through Wittgenstein dealt with the imagination; a discussion of the psy­ chological aspects of the imagination: consciousness, representa­ tion, direct perception, and theories about how visual imagery occurs physically; a consideration of the metaphysics of images (are they nonexistent entities? are fictional objects real in any way?); a discussion of literature as the words representing the visions of imagination; an examination of imagination and space, including various geometries and visual art forms; and, finally, a St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } �{FacultyBooks} ^4 ^Ifl di^ up a Greekpot, that is not ancient, it ispresent. The only aspect ofantiquity is what I imagine about it. look at “worldly” imagination: images of the divine, creation of utopias, public vision, common imaginative landscapes. “I tried to write about what, in each discipline, the essence of the imagination is, and then I wrote a soberly romantic conclusion,” says Brann. Her conclusion-which she unashamedly calls her favorite part-outlines the important role that imagination plays in human action. “You can’t act purposefully unless you have a mental image of how things ought to be,” she says. This imaginative mechanism applies to pohtical and social action, and also in a deeper way to everyday life. “Unless there are days on which you are filled with the image of something loveable, your life, your job, your work will be dry as dust,” she says. Where do the images come from? From reading, memories, your childhood. “Good images, those that are usable for us, have a certain gauziness about them,” they are not too precise, she says. Precise images don’t give us enough breathing room, space for actions and reali­ ty to interact with what our imaginations devise. Brann doesn’t use Don Quixote as an example for this point, but it’s helpful to think of how broadly the errant knight takes his charge: every event, every item in daily use takes on a new and different mean­ ing under his gaze; imagination has the power to transform. The what, when, and where of time Brann’s second book. What, Then, Is Time?, yN^s, written in 1998, after she spent seven years as dean of the college. During her tenure as dean, she didn’t “think anything out, there wasn’t reflection.” Administration calls for a different type of thinking­ deliberating rather than contemplating. She was hungry for reflection, and for what comes from reflection when you’re Eva Brann-writing. “When 1 handed the keys to the dean’s office to Harvey [Flaumenhaft], I sat down and could hardly stop writing,” she says. (Indeed, after the book about time, she produced two more-7%e Ways of Naysaying, published in aooi, and a book about the Odyssey, to be published this spring. ) In answer to the question of how time became the second sub­ ject for her consideration, Brann says in her introduction: “My previous preoccupation had been with the imagination. It turned out that to think about the imagination entailed thinking about its treasure-house and workshop, that is, memory. But memory is largely (though not altogether) of the past, and the past is a phase of time.” Another source for the imagination is more elusive yet: {The College- memory of things that never were. Fiction writers, she notes, draw from a deep fund of such memories. And as readers of fic­ tion, we shde in and out of worlds that are constructed of such memories; strangest of all is that we can somehow share the land­ scapes of these worlds. She approached the book about time in the same way as the book about imagination-with extensive reading on the subject. However, the organization of the book is not based on the approaches of the various disciplines to the basic questions, as the first book was. Instead, Brann devised an ingenious pairing of thinkers. Plato and Einstein, she notes, both view time as a clock (Plato posited a cosmic clock, Einstein a local and “artificial device”); Aristotle and Kant consider time as something meas­ ured by the human soul. Other pairs include Plotinus and Heideg­ ger, Augustine and Husserl, Hegel and Bergson. The pairings show, among other things, that the problems we have with under­ standing time have not changed over the millennia. The second part of What, Then, Is Time? contains Brann’s own reflections on time; here the connections to imagination are made more clearly. She looks at what it means to have memory: “You go into the storehouse of your imagination and flip through a file. If you flip for a long time it is an old memory, if not, it is newer. Therefore the past arises by the study of the imagination.” Even concrete objects from the past do not give a true sense of time, because “we always live right on the cusp of the present.” She offers an example from her former life as an archaeologist: “If I dig up a Greek pot, that is not ancient, it is present. The only aspect of antiquity is what I imagine about it.” In a discussion of what she calls time pathologies, Brann explores some of the “practical effects on the economy of life and the choice of ends” that certain attitudes toward time bring about. She is particularly interested in the future, since she considersalong with the minor devil of C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Lettersthat “nearly all vices are rooted in the future” and that there is a “widespread current enslavement to the future.” The examples she cites to confirm her view are well-known. We revel in the fast tempo, the novelty, of modern life, but an ever-increasing push for novelty will lead to things happening at a speed that human expe­ rience can’t take in. The emphasis then switches from thoughtful reaction to past experience as a basis for dealing with what the St. John ’5 College ■ Fall 2001 } �{Faculty Books} as We revel in thefast tempo, the novelty, ofmodern Ife, but an ever-increasingpushfor novelty will lead to things happening at a speed that human experience can i take in. future might bring to a kind of frantic projection toward what is imagined to be inevitable (“prepare to meet the future or be overwhelmed by it,” as the saying goes). Brann worries about the effects of this futuremindedness on our ability to be happy because it so strongly burdens our present. She quotes Octavio Paz: “Whoever builds a house for future hap­ piness builds a prison for the present.” Something from nothing In the third book Brann under­ took, she considered what was common to imagination and timethe “non-.” Imagination is of what does not exist and time is what no longer exists. “Both capacities for seeing images and for hav­ ing a sense of time are governed by something intellectual. It’s the ability we have for negativity, for non-being,” she says. In The Ways ofNaysaying: No, Not, Nothing, and Nonbeing, published in 2001 by Rowman & Littlefield, Brann explores our many kinds of negative saying and thinking. She begins with children and the ubiquitous tendency among them, when aged around two, for saying “no” and refusing to accommodate our wishes for them. She points out that the saying of “no” is often in conflict with the child’s action (every parent has seen a dashingly independent toddler refusing to drink her juice while simultaneously clutching the cup to her lips); “the naysaying does not concern the objective issue but the ownership of the will,” she says. “Along with the will and from the same source, from naysaying, comes thoughtfulness.” A child includes “no” among the very first words uttered, and as the child’s capac­ ity for exerting will develops, so too do language and thought. Brann argues that this delight in negativity is the beginning of the ability to discriminate and make reasoned choices. Brann cites a saying which “happens to be the fundamental dic­ tum pinpointing the crucial constructive function of naysaying,”-Ozn«M determinatio est negatio, which translates: All deter­ {The C o ll eg e • mined devotion involves some naysaying. Thus, far from being a dark, dreary path, the study of negativity is “the most wonder­ ful subject,” says Brann. She goes on to discuss the logical implications of non-existence, fictions of imagination, the metaphysics of non-being, Hegelian negativity, the noth­ ing that is the “supreme attain­ ment of the East,” and finally, how “nothing” becomes, for philosophers like Heidegger, the source of Being. Along the way there are side-routes that investigate many of the most mysterious of the St. John’s perenni­ al seminar questions like how the appearances are both not the original being and yet like the original (Plato’s question in the Republic, the Sophist, and other dialogues). Perhaps it is this reiteration of the questions called to mind in the St. John’s seminar readings that makes Eva Brann’s books so interesting. One needn’t be a Johnnie to recognize the impor­ tance of these questions, but for those who’ve read the same books Brann has spent the past 30 years with, her treatment of the issues is a re-illumination. The startling juxtapositions-Plato and Ein­ stein, for example-and the insights into the books-Don Quixote’s world as the rightside up one, the flour-grinding wind­ mills as the upside down one-seem to epitomize the places we’d all like our minds to carry us. In addition to raising and discussing the perennial issues, Brann has a knack for reminding us of the moral dimensions and implications for human action that accom­ pany philosophic points of view. Half apologetically, Brann calls her books the Trilogy of the Human Center. They are about what lies between the sense and the intellect. While students we were sometimes abashed at living in any world other than that of the intellect, and as we’ve grown we’ve become more comfortable in the middle ground-the place of imagination and memory. That she shows us so much of the “stuff’ at the human center is certainly not nothing. St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } �{Homecoming} TALE OF TWO HOMECOMINGS Whether to Santa Fe in July or Annapolis in September, alumni like revisiting their college days. Santa Fe another. At the post-lecture reception, they showed their books, he Program, the tutors, the students, the campus: talked about their publishing work, and displayed no persisting alumni remember their time at the college as a func­ rancor from their deep disagreement earlier in the evening. tion of all four (and perhaps of some unnamed factors The later evening led inevitably to the coffee shop party, where as well). At Homecoming in Santa Fe this July, where the class of ’76 reveled in the contribution of A.T. Michael Mac­ alumni flocked back to campus to celebrate the Donald reunions of the classes of 1996,1991,1986,1981,1976,1971, and (SF76), who burned a hit parade CD of dance tunes from room parties from their era. We’re talking Hollywood 1966, all the elements of nostalgia were present in force, as commons class­ Swingin’, Signed Sealed Delivered, and Respect. mates reunited, returned to seminar and lecture, and partied the Saturday morning, on the other hand, brought seminar, a more night away with the traditional gusto of liberal artists. programmatic experience. There was the gamut to choose from: From the very first, all went well hatted: at registration Friday Mr. Carey on Dostoevsky’s Notesfrom the Underground, Ms. Reaafternoon. Alumni Director Tahmina Shalizi and her able assis­ hard on Basho’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Mr. Davis tants Leslie Wolfe (SF03), Anna Perleberg (SFoa), and John and Ms. Adam on Balzac’s Gobseck, Mr. Cornell on Chekhov’s The McCarthy (SFoi) gave out stylish low-rise khaki baseball caps Black Monk, and Mr. Bybee on Plato’s Meno. From there, all with the SJC monogram on the front and “aooi” on the back. repaired to the soccer field for the traditional fiesta picnic, with After the barbecue dinner on the Placita, it was time for lecture fun for kids, including a pinata, and group photos for the reunion in the newly outfitted Great Hall. The universally deplored buck­ classes. et-slouch chairs, used in the Great Hall from the start (because the The Annual Meeting of the Alumni Association was held after chairs in the Great Hall must be stackable), have at long last been lunch in the portico of the new Student Activities Center. For supplanted by-brace yourselves-comfortable chairs. Still stack­ many of the alumni, it was their first encounter with the buildingable, but with actual arms, and straight backs, and attractive the most frequently overheard remark was “Wow.” At the meet­ maroon upholstery. The alumni gasped. The alumni stared. The ing, John Balkcom (SFGIoo), president of the Santa Fe campus, alumni sat. The alumni smiled. and David Levine (A67), dean of the Santa Fe campus, reported on The lecture was also a treat. Dana Densmore (A65) and Bill the state of the college; and Glenda Eoyang (SF76), president of Donahue (A67) gave a point-counterpoint talk entitled “Bringing the Alumni Association, reported on the association’s year. Elec­ the St. John’s Ethos Into the Real World.” Ms. Densmore defend­ tions were held: Jason Walsh (A85), Mark Middlebrook (A83), and ed the thesis that all the Great Books are true, while Mr. Donahue Clint Lively (A78) were elected as alumni representatives to the maintained that all the Great Books are wrong. Bold assertions on Board of Visitors and Governors; and Bill Tilles (A59), Valerie both sides! The Densmore/Donahue team does more than argue Pawlewicz (A89), Martha Jordan (SFGI86), Robert George (A85), politely about extreme ideas: they are the founders of Green Lion and Amber Boydstun (SF99) were elected to serve as directors on Press, which publishes works in the history of science, from New­ the Alumni Association board. Michael Rodriguez, Director of ton to Aristotle to Faraday to Euclid; and they are married to one T {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } �{Homecoming} Tutor Peter Kalkavage with alumni from the ’80s - top left; Dana Densmore (A65) and Bill Donahue (A67) lecturing in Santa Fe - bottom left; a group meets up on the quad, just like 2,7 Annapolis_____________________________ uring Homecoming weekend in Annapolis this September, the St. John’s-bred dichotomy of “Same and Other” seemed to take center stage. Johnnies attend Homecoming looking for the Financial Aid, and Richard Lampert, a founder of the Library and same: they want to talk with their same tutors, Fine Arts Guild, were made Honorary Alumni. Mr. Lampert said enjoy the same mental excitement they once felt in semin he hoped that the new Student Activities Center would spur the eat in the same dining hall where they once spent hours disc college on to fielding a foothall team, because it had been his life­ virtue, justice, and whether the coffee shop’s milkshakes were as long dream to he able to relax in front of the television with a heer good as those at Chick ‘n’ Ruth’s. of a Saturday afternoon, to root for his alma mater. But while Johnnies come seeking the same, they’re often most The Saturday night banquet saw the reunion classes gather in excited by what is other. They explore the the Great Hall for a fine meal, toasts to renovations of Mellon Hall and wander themselves and each other, a few short and ii5TH eunion for i ks through the Greenfield Library and the excellent speeches (Mike MacDonald Barr-Buchanan Center. When they get the SF76 received the alumni award of Meritchance, they chat with current students to see p. 39), and dancing into the wee hours. The first event of the weekend was a private party hosted by Rick Lightburn (SF76) and his brother-inlearn what effects MTV and the Internet The hallmark of a successful Homecom­ law, Claiborne Booker (A81), to celebrate the reunion have had on the logos. And in seminar, in ing, it seems, is exhaustion, happy exhaus­ of the class of 1976. A warm summer evening on the the same classrooms where they once sat, tion. Not too much exhaustion, however, Bookers’ pristine courtyard provided the perfect perhaps even discussing the same text, to go to the President’s Brunch at the Hunt backdrop for catching up and reminiscing. Victoria they sometimes learn just how “other” House Sunday morning, the laid-hack yet Hanley (SF76) showed classmates her new book The Seer and the Sword, while Glenda Eoyang (SF76) they themselves have become. elegant end to the weekend’s festivities. shared her thoughts on being president of the Alum­ Homecoming itself is a play of same and All in all, what was heard around the cam­ ni Association. And everyone got a kick out of an old pus this weekend was delight at the event class picture: there they were in their flashy 70’s garb other. Some activities have been repeated so often you’d think they were started hy itself, pleasure in seeing the college thriv­ with flaring collars, feather boas and all. The party Barr and Buchanan: the alumni soccer ing and improving, and renewed fondness was a great success and proved to he a perfect kick­ off for the weekend’s events. classic, the picnic lunches, the coffee shop for all things St. John’s. party, and the Sunday brunch stay largely by John McCarlhy(SF01) IN THE OLD DAYS - RIGHT. D R {The College -St -6 John ’5 College . Fall 2001 } �2,8 {Homecoming} The class of ’8i reprises “West Street Story,” their prank skit TOP left; typical seminar gestures are never forgotten - BOTTOM left; alumni children discuss Harry Potter during their own seminar-RIGHT. the same from year to year. But this year the Alumni Office (Roberta Gable, Ay8, assisted by Dolores Strissel) tinkered with a few of the old activities and introduced some new ones to make the weekend just a little more “other” than Homecomings past. One new event, a career panel, started the weekend with a bang. A panel of la alumni discussed their careers and career paths before a standing-room-only crowd of current students and young alumni. During the discussion the room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. When the formal part of the panel ended, students were invited to step up and talk with the alumni whose work interested them. The students positively (but politely) lunged for the alumni, and many talked for so long at the 6:30 p.m. event that they missed lecture. While those who stayed were happy with the way they spent their time, those who attended lecture said it was not one to miss. Annapolis tutor-on-leave Abraham Schoener (A8a), who is study­ ing viticulture in Napa, spoke about “The Biology of the Fermen­ tation Vessel,” a suitable prelude to the wine and cheese party with current seniors that followed. For those whose tastes ran to beer and chips rather than brie and cabernet Sauvignon, a boat­ house party was held with music requested by the class of’76. “No disco” was the rule, although a Rod Stewart song managed to fall into the mix. The incident spawned no complaints. The next morning brought alumni back to the classroom with leaders Douglas Allanbrook (HA85), Eva Brann (HA89), Samuel Kutler (A54), Chaninah Maschler (HA98), Bill Pastille, John Sarkissian, Malcolm Wyatt, Peter Kalkavage, Joan Silver (MA76), Nick Maistrellis, and Curtis Wilson (HA83) leading seminars on {The College. readings from Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye to Augustine’s Con­ fessions to Robert Frost’s “Black Cottage.” Susan Ashmore (A76) and Adam Wasserman (A76) led a seminar on Harry Potter for children of alumni. Afternoon events included Freshman Chorus Revisited, where tutor emeritus Elliott Zuckerman (HA95) led alumni in classics such as “Gaudeamus Igitur,” “The Heavens Are Telling,” and “Ave Verum.” The class of 1981 staged a reprise of their senior prank skit, “West Street Story.” Outside by the gym, the soccer classic proved an exciting game despite the students’ victory, and in the bookstore an autograph party brought together nine authors and scores of readers. One of the best changes made to Homecoming this year was the moving of registration and the Saturday evening cocktail party to McDowell Hall. With the fireplace room of the coffee shop pro­ viding a warm backdrop for registration, the bright elegance of the Great Hall and McDowell classrooms made the cocktail party a special affair. A series of moving toasts-thankfulness for com­ munity in the face of what had happened earlier in the monthgraced the Saturday night banquet and Mr. Zuckerman played the piano for the waltz party afterwards. A coffee shop party DJ’d by Robert George kept alumni dancing until the wee hours. Those who managed to turn in early were able to play croquet on the front lawn Sunday morning and still make it to the President’s House in time for a champagne brunch. While Homecoming’s “other” events were a hit with alumni, the “same” seemed to carry the day. Bill Pastille’s seminar on Augus­ tine’s Confessions was as enjoyably contentious as any sophomore ever witnessed. Eva Brann, whose seminar was on an essay by anthropologist Clifford Geertz, said that not only was the reading about a cockfight, but a cockfight almost broke out in the class. Homecoming reports were written by Roberta Gable and Susgan Borden. St. John’s College ■ Fall siooi } �{AlUMNiNoTES} 1941 Bruce Graybeal writes to say that he helps his wife Barbara manage and operate a private conservative school at Ohve Branch, Mississippi: De Soto County Academy. He is studying homeopathy. Davies spent time with Jacqueline and Dave Rea (class of ’49) while the fisherfolk fought the fish and seasickness (just joking). This trip has become a long-standing tradi­ tion for St. John’s alumni who live on Long Island.” i960 1951 1945 William Lieb attended the Santa Fe Homecoming where he had two pieces in the All Alumni Art Show: “Unreal” and “Original Bliss.” After 25 years in the film business, he graduated at age 70 from Santa Monica College of Design Art and Architecture in 1993. He had a seven-year retrospective solo art show at the University of Califor­ nia, Riverside, in 1996. He has two grandsons: Danny, 5, and Alex, 3. In the fall of 2000, George Wend took a river cruise from Amsterdam to Vienna. Tony Hardy is semi-retired, still working half-time as a psychologist. He plays tennis and gardens in his “spare” time. He’s working on a book on phenomenology, with roots in Kant and Cassirer. as an active partner in the Philadel­ phia office of the law firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP since January i, 1993,1 am now Senior Counsel to the firm. I continue professionally active as cochair of the Joint Philadelphia Bar Association/ United States Dis­ trict Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, as judge pro tern in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Day For­ ward and Commerce case-manage­ ment programs, and as chair of the latter program’s advisory commit­ tee. I am certified by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. as an arbitrator in the BBB Auto Line program. I take an occasional engagement as an expert witness on issues of professional responsibihty, as an arbitrator, or as a medi­ ator.” had a hip replaced; gotten a novel. Naturally Bad Manners, accepted by a publisher (it is scheduled to appear before next May); am presently beginning to negotiate a position as a resident Research Scholar at Hanazono University’s International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism in Kyoto, Japan, and hope to become a Rinzai Zen lay brother; have been invited to attend the 2001 meetings of the Eranos Circle at Ascona in Switzer­ land as their guest because of my translations and books concerning Adolf Portmann and his work; and otherwise I am enjoying the life of a penurious seventy-year-old Liberal Artist. My e-mail address is presently rbcc@erols.com. Jerry M. Hynson, retired teacher, school principal, and coordinator of Baltimore Public Schools, has been elected a trustee of the Mary­ land Historical Society. {The College. Donald Schell (SF) writes: “In sings polyphonic sacred music out­ doors in New York City. You can read about it at WWW. streetsingers. org. 1968 1969 John Falencki (A) reports that his Mabshall Clark (SF) is purchas­ oldest child married this June. He is living in New York and enjoying work as a family physician in a col­ laborative office with a physical therapist, family therapist, manual medicine therapist and homeopath. ing energy for the state of Califor­ nia with fellow St. Johnnie Jonathan Teague (SF75). At the time he wrote in, he was expecting a very interesting summer. Johanna Evans is owner and CEO ofXenopus I Inc. Medical Research. Tipping the Scale Lawrence G. Myers (1951) writes: “We all know that we improved our minds at the college, but let me give high praise (greek word epainos} to those at the college who helped me to improve my physical health. Six weeks prior to starting my freshman year, I left the U.S. Army’s Tilton General Hospital where I had been a patient for 23 months after being wounded in the Battle of Luzon in 1945. When I left the hospital and arrived at St. John’s, I weighed 135 pounds. After my sophomore year, I tipped the scales at 175 pounds. So let me thank the dining hall staff and those who provided the hundreds of hamburgers, fries, and cups of chili that I ate in the Coffee Shop while poring over Euclid or looking up the aorist passive for of some Greek verb. Now at age 79,1 stiU weigh 175 pounds but I look forward to putting on a few pounds when I return to the college this fall to celebrate our class’s 50th anniversary. If some of you guys are on a diet. I’ll gladly take your desserts.” r. 1959 Charles B. Watson’s (A) son, Ivan is NPR correspondent in West Africa-Lagos, Nigeria. His daugh­ ter, Anya, graduated from high school and wiU attend Connecticut College in the fall to study Marine Science. 19981 walked the Camino de Santi­ ago with my second daughter, Maria. Our book about that pil­ grims’ walk came out this spring. My Father, My Daughter, Pilgrims on the Road to Santiago. We’ve read at the College of Preachers in Washington, D.C. and in October will be part of a symposium on pil­ grimage at Stanford University and then traveling up to Seattle to open a forum on pilgrimage at St. Mark’s Cathedral. We carried small stones from the windmills in Navarra to add to the mound at Cruz de Ferro and I thought frequently of Don Quixote as we walked. In our read­ ings, I finally noticed that I’m the Don Quixote character in the book. Maria is the Sancho Panza charac­ ter, of course.” John Hetland leads a group that Richard Carter writes: “I’ve just On 7/20 at Montauk the SJC Annu­ al Striped Bass and Bluefishing Charter sailed again with Allan Hoffman (class of ’49), Harvey Goldstein (class of’59), Cora and Peter Weiss (class of’46), Peter Davies (class of’48), his brother and nephew. Says Allan, “Mary Goldstein (class of’59) and Phyllis George B. Jones HI writes: “My wife died in June 1991 and I retired to play golf. Met my current wife Randi playing golf in Hilton Head Island, S.C. We married in August 2000 and honeymooned in Vegas, Hawaii, San Francisco, Monterey. Had a great visit with Harrison Shepard (A61) while in San Fran­ cisco. Now living in Hilton Head. Since the telephone company didn’t list our number, 843-8376657 will get us. 1964 1954 Edward Mullinix writes: “Retired 1949 "^9 D St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } �{Alumni Notes} 30 The Helping Life ebecca Thompson (SF71) writes: “My first community serv­ ice job at St. John’s was helping an elderly Hispanic family and tutoring a young Hispanic girl. Thirty years later. I’ve just left a migrant education job with 3-4-year olds, preparing the children and families for entry into kindergarten. This year I worked with middle school kids, tutoring and ESL. I must be where I want to be! My kids are 18 and 21, and continue to provide us with interest and debate. We bought our home in Petaluma and have an endless vista of landscaping and improvements, should we choose to follow that road...love to hear from old friends.” R Michael Anthony’s (A) son. Will, graduated from Lake Oswego High School and is now attending the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In addition to teaching at Thomas Aquinas College, Richard Ferrier (A) is president of the Declaration Foundation, and with another tutor has co-authored a hook for high school civics. The book is America’s Declaration Principles in Thought and Action and is available from the foundation’s website at declaration.net. 1970 William Wade Douglas (SFGI) is CEO of Sangraal by the Sea Confer­ ence Center, hosting groups, churches, and colleges. Sangraal is also a youth hostel and provides lodging to worldwide members from many countries as part of hosteling international. St. John’s College staff, faculty, and students may stay one night free. His wife Linda (SFGI83) is coordinator of gifted education for Middlesex Co. public schools in Virginia. 1971 After finishing St. John’s, Dwight Platt (A) went to Virginia Theo­ logical Seminary and ended up in Baltimore teaching at St. Mary’s College. In 1975, he started a busi­ ness in commercial real estate to supplement his salary at St. Mary’s. Today that business owns 42 build­ ings around Baltimore, and Dwight’s younger son. Sage (Haverford ’96), runs the Con­ struction Division. Dwight and his wife Nina live in the Greenspring Valley at a farm they have owned peacefully for over 27 years. This year they decided to totally reno­ vate the house, and within the last 2.7 months, the peace has been lost forever. (“Just kidding!” he notes.) Dwight sees David Johnson (A68) quite frequently and has kept up with the college over the years. He and David ran a seminar for adults for a couple of years at the Mary­ land Club. Dwight win not be at the 2001 reunion because his oldest son, Charlie, is getting married the same weekend, but he hopes to see more of his class at the 35th reunion in 2006. Nick Patrone (A) graduated in 2001 with a BM in composition from the East Carohna University School of Music. Now he’s in the Master’s program for composition. He’s still practicing medicine as a rheumatol­ ogist in Rocky Mount, N.C. His son, Paul, wiU be entering St. John’s in the fall of 2002. 1974 Richard Ferguson (A) received and accepted an early retirement offer from his company. Who says that a soft economy is bad news? He is tak­ ing a year off to decide what he wants to do. He is still hving in Boulder Colorado, with the same address, the same phone number, and the same wife as he has had for the last twenty years or so. 1975 Mark Habrel (SF) writes: “I have Paul Eitner (SF) and his wife Denise Roy are enjoying their first grandchild. Turner Gene Eitner, born December 1999. Paul is an aerospace/communications engi­ neer and Denise is a certified nurse midwife. They have settled in Southeastern Pennsylvania, not far from Philadelphia. Barry Sher (A) closed his office last year and is now running a virtu­ al design studio out of his dining room. “My staff is stretched across two states,” he writes. 1973 Donnel (A) and Janet O’Flynn (A74) write: “Our son Aidan will be a freshman in Annapolis in the fall of 2001! Our daughter Kathleen is also starting college, at Simon’s Rock College of Bard in Great Bar­ rington, Mass. Our empty nest is on {The College- Martha’s Vineyard where Donnel is rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven. I am doing pediatric occupational therapy in the Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools. We look forward to lots of parental visits to St. John’s.” this year been named Director of Music at St. Edward the Confessor Episcopal Church in Wayzata, Min­ nesota. For those who don’t know, I have a six-year-old son: Aaron John Rening-Habrel. I have also been married three times and, at each wedding, fellow SF75 alumnus G. Kevin Johnson has been my best man. (Talk about overworking a friendship!) 1976 Betsy Davenport (SF) received a PhD in psychology in 1989. She married Joe Kaplan in 1987 and has one child, age 9, two stepchadults, 33 and 36, and two grandchildren, 5 and 4. Her work includes writing a column on parenting, public speak­ ing, the occasional local talk-tv show, private practice psychothera­ py, parenting consultations, diag­ nosis and treatment of St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } ADD/ADHD. She is preparing a book for publication and has more in the works. Victoria Hanley’s (SF) book. The Seer and the Sword, is being pub­ lished in the U.K., the U.S., and Canada, and translated and pub­ lished in Holland, Norway, Fin­ land, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Japan. Her second book. The Heal­ er ’s Keep, will be pubhshed in 2002. “I’m happy!” she writes. 1977 Corry Miller Weierrach (A) reports she’s enjoying two years off from work, keeping busy with daughters Madeleine and Helen, and engaging in several volunteer activities. Andrea Williams Ham and Robert James Ham (both SF) write: “Jim and I were thrilled to be able to attend our niece’s gradua­ tion with St. John’s College Santa Fe campus in May 2001. INDIA Clarke (SFor) is a third genera­ tion graduate of St. John’s College. Both her grandfather, John L. Williams (class of ’50) and her mother, India Williams (SF73) preceded her as did Jim and 1. Con­ gratulations India Clarke. We‘re all proud ofyou!” News from Marlene Strong (A): “I just found out last week that I passed my licensing exam for my Marriage and Family Therapist license! I’ll continue to work as a social worker at a foster care agency until I figure out what to do nextone of these days I hope to find a job that combines my research skills and my clinical skills. Right now I’m exhausted from all the studying-there was a four-hour written exam in January and then an oral exam in April-it all comes down to you and two strangers in a hotel room with a tape recorder for 35 minutes! Anyway, I’m very relieved it’s over and I can go back to having a life instead of studying all the time.” Deborah Cohen (A) writes that her firm, Cohen Marketing Ser­ vices (CMS), has been granted a patent for a new process of formu­ lating soy products. The process �{AlumniProfile} 31 Household Name Jim Rooney’s days arefilled with the nightmares that homeownersfear. By SuS3AN Borden, A87 e’s the Click and Clack of the home­ front, Annapolis’ answer to Sherlock Holmes. Jim Rooney (A74), a home inspector and house maintenance columnist, is the man to call about mysterious leaks, odors, drafts, and buzzes. Not long ago, a woman called Rooney about a sewage smell whose source she couldn’t trace. He asked her if she had a family room. She said yes. He asked if she had a bar sink. She said yes. He asked if she drank. She said no. “So there’s the problem,” Rooney says. “The trap in the bar sink dried out.” Rooney sees his ability to diagnose problems-sometimes over the phone-as a legacy of his St. John’s days. “I’m just using what we learn at St. John’s,” he says, “a way to approach a prob­ lem.” Rooney has always put his problem-solving abilities to good use, even during his St. John’s days. He organ­ ized and headed a carpentry crew while a student at St. John’s, framing single family homes and light commercial and town­ house projects. Later he became a project manager for commercial construction proj­ ects costing from $200,000 to $5 million. Rooney is a licensed Maryland home improvement contractor and a member of the National Historical Trust. He has writ­ ten instruction manuals for the Stanley Tool Company and lectured on residential homebuilding, repair, and restoration. He has acted as an arbitrator and served as an expert witness in construction-related cases. And, he is known throughout Annapolis as the author of “Homefront,” a popular house maintenance column. Rooney has been writing Homefront for the Annapolis Capital since October 1994, “The VENT PIPE DOWN THERE NEEDS TO BE EIXED,” NOTES JiM RoONEY (A74) AFTER A TRIP column to “On The Level” and is now offering it to newspapers across the coun­ try. While he is pleased to join the organization that syndicates Ann Landers, Molly Ivins, and the comic strip “Andy Capp,” Rooney says it was a long road to syndication. “The first thing you do when you’re trying to get syndicated is get used to rejection,” he says. “Some of my letters just barely made it over the transom before they came flying back.” Rooney finally got a break when the Capital announced the results of a readers survey: Rooney’s column was the favorite, beating every col­ umn in the paper, including Dear Abby. He sent the syn­ dicates the survey and rewrote the opening of his cover letter to read: “This column sells papers.” The approach worked. Creators signed him on, and Rooney is now poised to become a household name to house­ holders nationwide. AlUMNI HoUSE Reverdy Johnson House ). INTO THE BASEMENT OF THE (AKA giving Annapolis residents advice about hot water heaters, ductwork, gutter guards, roof venting, replacement windows, con­ crete, and septic systems. What are the things that are most on a homeowners mind? Rooney says that the most common problems are wet basements, leaky roofs, inoperable heating and cooling systems, and plumbing malfunctions. But he prefers solving more esoteric problems. “I’ve investigated everything from bat odor in an attic to a mysterious houseground causing lights to brighten and dim,” he says, clearly fond of the very nightmares that cause homeowners to lose sleep. This past August, Rooney signed with Creators Syndicate, which retitled his {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } On the Bookshelf The Reader’s Digest Guide to Home Repair - Jim’s comment: Oddly enough, this is one of the best books for do-it-yourselfers on the market. The Old House Journal Guide to Restoration - For more aggressive projects The following periodicals are for anyone who wants to turn pro: The Journal ofLight Construction Fine Homebuilding �{AlumniNotes} technology makes a whole new gen­ eration of soy products possible. The range of products span the bakery and snack categories; a press release lists soy tortilla chips, soy tortillas, or even soy “wraps” and soy “Chinese wrappers” as pos­ sible products. 1978 George Harper (A), an attorney at large, reports that he “holds court (up) at 14744 Main Street, Upper Marlboro, MD 2,0772.” 1979 Greg Cowell (SF) writes: “With my second child on the way I thought I would send in an update of my life, not having done so since I drove away ar years ago. My wife Jeannine and I have been married 8 years. We have two future St. John’s candidates at our house, our daugh­ ter Cathryn is three and a half, and we are expecting a son in the next month. I have been practicing med­ icine for r6 years and currently I am the medical director of a medium­ size emergency room in Illinois. Music is my passion, but I have yet to figure out how to make money as a musician. My e-mail is gcowelled @aol.com. Regards to all, but espe­ cially to old E and F dormers who might be reading.” 1980 and Etym(bi)ology, Omnidawn Press, 2002. 1981 Warren Spector (A), along with Alan Schwartz, has been named co­ president and co-chief operating officer of the Wall Street firm Bear Stearns. Spector continues to head the firm’s fixed income division and other units. 1982 Randy Linder (SF) writes: “Life rolls on. (Anyone out there have any ideas how to stop/slow this train?) I’m starting my sixth year as a professor at the University of Texas in evolutionary biology. Which means I’m up for tenure. Oh the joys of stress. Otherwise, life is good. Well, except for truly infernal summers, rra degree heat is not compatible with cycling home from work. Lord help Austin when global warming really kicks in. I hope there’ll be a good turnout for our ao- year reunion next year. I’m very interested in what youse guys have been up to. Do feel free to stop by if your travels bring you to Austin, Texas.” Pedro Martinez-Fraga (A) was selected as the 2001 Lawyer of the Americas by the University of Miami Interamerican Law Review and the School of Law. The award recognizes extraordinary accom­ plishments in the area of interna­ tional law. Pedro’s successful repre­ sentation of several countries in federal district court in the U.S. and arbitral proceedings in Europe and South America gave rise to this most prestigious hemispheric recognition. Pedro also chairs the Greenberg Traurig International Litigation Department. Melanie Longoni (SF) is currently in her third year of study at Austin Presbyterian Theological Semi­ nary, where she is enrolled in the Master of Divinity degree program, in preparation for ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She is especially interested in min­ istry with children and with adults with developmental disahihties. Erik Jacobs (A) has two daughters: Ada, who turned four on June 12, 2001, and Katie, who is nearly a year old. 1983 Linda Douglas (SFGI) is coordina­ tor of gifted education for Middle­ sex County Public Schools in Vir­ ginia. For news of her husband, William, see notes for the class of 1970. Steve Barkhimer (A) writes that Elizabeth Travis (SF) writes: “I’m since graduating from the Eastern Classics Program in rggb, he has been enjoying an extremely active life in the Boston theatre world, and has just released a CD of origi­ nal music called “Time Was,” which can be obtained through www.cdfreedom.com or sbarkhimer@aol.com. still in California. Turning 40 too soon. Heard from Dave Larom (SF83)-he is in San Diego with wife Nancy Lovinger and their new baby. Sounds like life is good for them these days, too. What’s up with the rest of us that came together dur­ ing the fall of ’7g to first discuss ashtrays and the capital ‘G’ Good?” Roh Crutchfield (A) e-mails that the info for him in the Alumni Reg­ ister is about a year out of date. He’s currently living in Henderson­ ville, North Carolina and his e-mail address is robcrutchfield@yahoo.com. Liz Waldner (A) writes that she has three new poetry collections coming out: Selfand Simulacra, Alice James Books’ Hawley Prize winner for 2001; Dark Would, Uni­ versity of Georgia Press Contempo­ rary Poetry Series winner for 3002; {The College. 1984 Beth Lohr Koolbeck (A) writes that she and her husband Gregory had a new baby girl, Joy, born in January. 1985 Jeffrey Wilson (A) writes: “I was granted tenure at Loyola Marymount this year. My first publica­ tion, an article on Kant’s sublime, is forthcoming in the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly. I am in my fourth year of co-teaching graduate philosophy seminars in Germany through the University of Frankfurt. I am increasingly involved in St. John’s Episcopal Church in South Central Los Ange­ les with parishioners from 27 coun­ tries. St. John’s is one of the Epis­ copal parishes that already 5t. John’s College ■ Fall 200/ } performs same-sex unions-and I’m still looking for the boyfriend to make that commitment with.” Beth Anderson and David Stahl (both A) have moved to Camp Hill, Pa. Their new address is 853 Wynnewood Road, Camp Hill, PA 17011-1635. 1986 Linda Hamm Grez (A) writes: “My husband Joe Grez and I got married on the steps behind the Quad in Annapolis in June of 2000. Guests included Roger Lowe (A86) and Sallie Fine (A87). I’d love to hear from classmates in Annapohs or Santa Fe. E-mail: llhamm2@earthlink.net.” Barbara Roherts (SFGI) has returned home to the Denver area, where she is a special educator in a public elementary Montessori school and a school for the gifted and talented. From Todd Masilon (A): “After having served for about six months in Bosnia as an enlisted Intelhgence Analyst (to Tia Pausic (A)— just missed you while you were working in Croatia), I have recently returned to the U.S. and have grad­ uated from the Army Officer Candi­ date School (euphemistically referred to as “Charm School”). Currently, as a newly commissioned Second Lieutenant (at 37 years of age, I think I’m the oldest 2LT in the Army), I am at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., preparing to attend the Mili­ tary Intelligence Basic Officer Course. Wife Renee and daughter Molly (three years old) will join me here shortly (I’ve seen them for a total of about three weeks since leaving for Bosnia last Septemhera welcome reunion indeed). “Upon graduation in December, my orders take us to Darmstadt, Germany. This is a good thing, since I’m sure to be deployed to Bosnia/Kosovo/Macedonia at least twice during the three years that we’re there, and Renee and Molly will be at liberty to have adventures in Europe while I’m away. “Despite the fact that I’ve yet to use the Arabic language skills the Army has taught me, I continue to �{AlumniNotes} maintain my fluency (thank God for the BBC and their Arabic broad­ casts on the Internet). “As a former Johnny, and holder of two MAs in Unguistics, friends and family thought I was nuts for joining the Army a little over three years ago. While there have been many trying times, and a lot to gripe about. I’m happy to say that, upon reflection. I’m proud to be a philosopher-warrior. Yes, the mili­ tary trains me to be ready to destroy and kill, but it also trains me to pre­ serve and protect. Happily, my philosopher-wife is consonant with this life and its requirements.” O’Neal, and his wife, Lynn Thomp­ son, is the Director of the Southern Pines Public Library. Across Spain.” “Any Johnnies pass­ ing through San Francisco give me a call!” he says. Teresa Jeanne Fullinwider (A) and Christopher John Bailey (A) Picot Floyd (A) reports that he is working at Citibank, for the Latin American Consumer Banking Divi­ sion. He is the UNIX systems man­ ager. His wife Suzy is alternately homeschooling and Montessori schooling their daughters, Myrina, 6, and Daphne, 4, got married in October of 1996. She now goes by the name Teresa Bailey. They live in Pittsburgh, where Chris is a free-lance writer and Teresa is a Doula. On March 20, 3001, they had a baby boy named Simon David Bailey. 1988 1989 Jennifer Lee (SF) writes: “After Christina Paige (A) writes: “Since 1987 “It would be nice to hear from old friends,” writes Mira Skadegard Thorsen (SF). “We are moving to a little horse farm not too far from Copenhagen (ao min.). Since I just finished a degree in Literary Theo­ ry and Anthropology, I assume I’ll be working either in some sort of research or on a PhD within the next year or so. Having three kids does keep us fairly busy though...Anybody interested in Danish dressage horses should drop me a note. I’d also love to hear from anyone working with post­ colonial discourse theory, and race and gender theory (and human rights and business). There aren’t too many people working in these areas in Denmark. Our new address is: Mira, Sune, Tess, Tara and Tai Skadegard Thorsen, Sortmosen 6, 3520 Farum, Denmark.” Sai,LIE Fine (A) e-mails that she’s recently completed her education administration program and is now certified (and certifiable!) to serve as a principal for grades 7-13. “I plan on teaching one more year before making any career decisions. I moved last March and my new address is 3136 Richmond Road; Beachwood, OH 4412a. I also made a cyber move and can now be reached at salhefine@msn.com.” Bob Howell (AGI) is Director of Technology and English Depart­ ment Chair at the O’Neal School in Southern Pines, N.C. Bob’s daugh­ ter Emma is a sophomore at 1999 I’ve been teaching math, sci­ ence and literature classes at Kino School in Tucson, Ariz. Now I’m in charge of the Junior High Reading and Writing Program, which suits me to a T. The best part of teaching at an alternative school is that my daughter goes to work with me every day. After all those different sur-names (Smith, Freeman, etc.). I’m very comfortable as Christina Paige. I miss Chris Colby and the Annapolis campus print shop, and Mr. Starr, but I’m still friends with Deirdre McGlynn (A86) and Robert Beeson (SF88).” Diana Shaw-McCarthy (A) is working on a master’s degree in public administration at New York University. Her husband, Jonathan, is a research economist at the Fed­ eral Reserve Bank of New York. Elaine Pinkerton Coleman (SFGI), having committed to fulltime writing, has completed editing of her father’s World War II letters. Her book, titled From Calcutta With Love, is being published by Texas Tech University Press in early 3003. In July 2002, she will have a book signing and talk at the St. John’s Santa Fe campus as part of the “speaking volumes” program. Jeffrey Falero (A) reports that he graduated in June with an M.S. in Civil Engineering (Structures) from Stanford University. He also co-authored an article about the construction of the latest leg of Spain’s bullet train; it appears in Civil Engineering magazine, June 2001, Vol. 71, No. 6, “Speeding eight wonderful years in Greece, Dimitri and I are returning to the States with our two daughters. Our new address is: 2804 Goodwood, Baltimore, MD 31314.1 haven’t held a proper job in all my time in Greece, but I did get a masters in education and plan to teach middle school math. Lots of new begin­ nings...” The first big-screen appearance for Christopher Sullivan (A) was in Metropopular in Spike & Mike’s 200! Classic Festival ofAnimation. He was the voices of Los Angeles and New York. Metropopular won Honorable Mention in Short Film­ making at the Sundance Film Festi­ val and tied for runner-up for Best Short at the Texas Film Festival. Brad Stuart and Sara Larson Stuart (both A) are delighted to report the birth of their daughter, Eleanor Kay Stuart, on June 18, 3001. Marty Gelfand (A) had an article published in the American Bank­ ruptcy Law Journal, “How a Com­ munity Saved Their Hospitals from Unnecessary Liquidation.” His arti­ cle tells the story of how Cleve­ landers rallied to stop a bankrupt hospital system from selling its neighborhood hospitals to a com­ peting local mega-hospital on con­ dition that the hospitals shut down before the Delaware Bankruptcy Court hearing. {The College -St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } 33 1990 John (“Johno”) Obenauer (A) emails: “I have some news I am extremely relieved to report: after starting graduate school in physics and then working in data analysis and computing jobs, I finally com­ pleted a PhD in, of all things, bio­ chemistry. I just started working as a research scientist at MIT’s Center for Cancer Research this past month (June 2001) and am very excited about it. In my personal life, I married a cutie named Michelle Blackwell (now Obenauer) in 1994 and am surprised to find that I like being married, even after seven years. Michelle is a bio­ chemist too, at a private company in Cambridge, Mass. To all the other Johnnies out there in grad school, hang in there! It feels a lot better when it’s over! ” David Ruy (A) is residing in New York City, where he has been in practice as an architect since receiving his M.Arch from Colum­ bia. He currently splits his time between his practice and teaching duties at Princeton Univ. His e-mail address is david@ruyklein.com. Dahra Latham (A) is still living in Seattle, and has completed her first year of law school at the University ofWashington. “I’m spending the summer as an extern at the Fair Access to Contraception Project,” she says. “I would be delighted to hear from auld acquaintance: my snail-mail and phone are the same, and e-mail is dahra@u.washington.edu. I would also like to hear from any Johnny attorneys out there who might be interested in the project.” 1991 Lena Skadegard (A) is currently working on an MFA at Hunter Col­ lege in painting. Professionally, she works as a clothing designer and buyer. She lives in New York City. �{AlumniProfile} 34 Quiz Show Which Johnnie wants to be a millionaire? By Sus3an Borden, A87 Mattise. Goya. Dali. Jasper Johns. Can you place these artists’ lives in chronological order? How quick­ ly? What if you were competing against 500 other players for speed and accu­ racy? What if the chance to win one million dollars was riding on your answer? These were not hypothetical questions for David Maclaine (SF74). One August day in the summer of 2000 he found himself scanning his memory bank for artists’ bios in an odyssey that took him to ABC Studios in New York to compete on the hit game show “Who Wants To Be a Mil­ lionaire?” To win a spot on the show, would-be contestants call a tollfree number and answer three questions that require them to arrange a group of items (such as people, places, or events) in a given order (such as oldest to youngest, east to west, or earliest to latest). Five hundred of those who get all three questions right are placed in a pool and of those, forty are selected for a further qualifying round of five questions. Maclaine says that the odds of selection for the second round are about r in 300. He’s heard of people winning a spot in the pool one hundred times without being selected. For Maclaine, it took only four times. It was during this second qualifying round that Maclaine was asked about the artists. The question gave him no trouble; Jasper Johns, he explains, had recently been on the “Simpsons.” Other questions involved putting celebrities (Geena Davis, RuPaul, Dr. Ruth, and Winona Ryder) in order of height and putting poets in chronological order. The selection of poets-WiUiam Carlos Williams, Rita Dove, Sir Philip Sidney, and Galway Kinnellwent far beyond the Robert Frosts and Emily Dickinsons that haunt most game shows. Luckily for Maclaine, he had an MA David Maclaine attributes his game show SUCCESS TO LUCK, St. John’s, and “The Simpsons.” in literature and a St. John’s education under his belt. And-current students please take note-Maclaine, who had faith­ fully attended Friday night lectures, was able to answer this question correctly because the poet Galway Kinnell gave a lec­ ture at St. John’s during Maclaine’s fresh­ man year. “I still remember him, wander­ ing up and down on the stage in the Great Hall,” he says. “He had no prepared speech, but spoke impromptu-a discussion of Walt Whitman liberating poetry from the strait jacket Milton had put it into.” Maclaine put the poets in order, hung up the phone, and two hours later received the call-he would be flying to New York to compete on the show. While Maclaine had beaten some very tough odds to get that call, he was not com­ pletely surprised that he’d done so. In high {The College- St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } school, he was part of a champi­ onship quiz team and discovered that he had the poise to compete. “There are plenty of people who know a great deal but freeze up dur­ ing competition,” he says. “Two of the people on my high school team ended up co-valedictorians, but during the games they’d sit with fixed grins on their faces while the rest of us answered the questions.” While Maclaine was not the type to freeze up, his early attempts to get on “Millionaire” were thwarted by a lack of focus brought on by depression. At the time Maclaine started to call into the show, his mental health was suffering. His freelance writing career had taken a downturn. A book he was working on fell apart. A day job ended poor­ ly. When he finally found himself unemployed, he was too paralyzed to look for work. His game show phone-ins reflected his mental state. He called the show while he was in the middle of reading a book on medieval history and got a ques­ tion about the medieval kings of England. “I botched it,” he says. “I was not focused enough to get even a handit-to-me question.” Not long after, Maclaine took part in an experimental program to test a new anti­ depressant. His depression lifted. “It turned on some switch in my brain that remained on after the study was over. I went back to calling the show and it was a lot easier,” he says. There are countless factors that influ­ ence our lives, and even if no one can say what’s causal and what’s coincidental, it certainly seems that Maclaine earned his way on to the nation’s hottest TV show with the help of experimental drug TAK637, the towering height of RuPaul, the appearance of Jasper Johns on the “Simp­ sons,” and a Friday night lecture by Galway Kinnell. Competition on “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire” begins with the Fastest Finger round, where players are asked a question similar to the call-in questions. The con­ testants punch their answers into a keypad �{AlumniProfile} and the one who gets the question right in the shortest time makes it to the Hot Seat, where he has a chance to win up to one mil­ lion dollars. Before taping, contestants are given a Fastest Finger practice session, where Maclaine says he made every kind of blunder possible. When the show started, the contestants were asked to place a series of actresses in order according to age. Maclaine got them right but mistakenly held dovm a button too long, entering one actress for two slots. While the winner of the round was sit­ ting on the Hot Seat, Maclaine had plenty of time to think about his mistake. “Your wrong answer stays locked on the screen in front of you the whole time you’re watching the winner play,” he explains. “1 knew the next round would be my last chance and I was determined not to botch it.” During the next practice session, Maclaine doggedly worked with the keypad, choos­ ing several sequences to enter over and over again. The next question asked the contestants to place four rock songs in order of release. “I didn’t recognize a single one,” Maclaine says. “I just punched in one of the patterns 1 had been practicing. I sat there thinking, ‘OK, that’s it. I’ll be going home soon.’ Then I heard Regis call out the first answer and I though it was amusing I’d gotten it right. Then the second one was also right. I was thinking clearly enough to know I was only a coin flip away from getting them all right and sure enough, I had. Only one other poor schmo got it right, and he had actually spent some time thinking about it.” Maclaine, clueless about the question, had entered his answers faster. He went to the Hot Seat laughing giddily. “If anyone needed a break at that point, I did,” he says. The Hot Seat is what “Millionaire” is all about. It’s where the contestant sits across from host Regis Philbin and is asked rs questions of increasing difficulty, winning increasing amounts of money. After hear­ ing each question, the player can decide to try to answer it (and risk losing much of the money he’s won), or to walk away and keep the money. One difference between “Millionaire” and other game shows is that contestants on the Hot Seat are given no time limit for answering the questions. Although the show is known for how easy its early ques­ tions are, Maclaine ran into trouble on only his third: How many claps did it take to operate the original Clapper? Maclaine couldn’t remember, or perhaps he had never known. “Ever since they invented mutes, I haven’t been listening to commer­ cials,” he admits. Still, he managed to get the question right and answer some harder questions, like what did Michael Jordan announce he was going to cut back on: endorsements, film-making, baseball, or golf? Maclaine had no memory of such an announcement, but he took his time, allowed the nervous energy that clouded his thinking to dissi­ pate, talked through everything his mind could dig up about Jordan, and let his brain do its work. “I didn’t panic at the questions I didn’t have nailed. That’s one way that going to St. John’s really helped me,” Maclaine says. “People who have gone through a more conventional education, where they think in terms of answers that they either do or don’t know, become paralyzed when they don’t have the answer. But when you’ve had the kind of education where there aren’t many fixed answers, where you’re used to sitting down and discussing things, you can sort through your thoughts and work out the answer. The idea of talking your way through it is natural for a St. John’s alumnus.” Maclaine was asked several middle-level questions he considered easy: What kind of art was Frederic Remington famous for? How long ago did dinosaurs became extinct? Whose nickname was the Desert Fox? He had no trouble with these, yet was unsure where the Pentagon was located. “That was before September rr,” he says. “Now it’s a question we all know the answer to.” Eventually, Maclaine reached the $350,000 question: What’s the material inside an etch-a-sketch: carbon, silicon, aluminum, or magnesium? “Somehow, I knew how it worked. A light metallic sub­ stance is attached to the surface by static electricity. The black lines are not set down, they’re cut through the background. That told me it was something metallic, either aluminum or magnesium. If I’d remembered my chemistry, I would have had the answer instantly. Magnesium, after all, would explode.” He decided to take a chance. “I knew that a quarter-million dol­ lars was worth the gamble, that it would change my life significantly more than $125,000” He gave his answer. After learning that aluminum was cor­ rect, there was a pause in the taping. A pro­ duction assistant reminded Maclaine that {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } 35 Millionaire Questions Answered Artists: Goya, Matisse, Dali, Johns Celebrities: RuPaul, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, Dr. Ruth Poets: Sir Philip Sidney, William Car­ los Williams, Galway Kinnell, Rita Dove It took two claps to operate the origi­ nal “Clapper.” Michael Jordan announced he would cut back on endorsements. Frederic Remington was famous for western art. Dinosaurs became extinct around 65 million years ago. Erwin Rommel’s nickname was the Desert Fox. The Pentagon is located in Arlington, Virginia. he needn’t be embarrassed to walk away with $250,000 if he didn’t know the answer to the next question. When filming resumed, Maclaine was asked, for half a million dollars, which type of tree most of the world’s supply of cork comes from: oak, hickory, aspen, or birch. Unsure of the answer and unable to reason it through, Maclaine walked away from the show with $250,000. But not before Regis told him the answer: oak. Since then, the relation of oak and cork seems to pop up everywhere in Maclaine’s life. While watching a golf tournament from Spain (a major supplier of cork), he saw an informational segment that dis­ cussed the country’s oak trees and cork industry. Reading some literature on cork floors, he saw their origins as oak explained. But such reminders of his decision not to answer the cork question never trouble him. “I’ve spent no time regretting my play. I’m so delighted to come away with what I did,” he says. “The day I’m embar­ rassed to walk away with a quarter million dollars is not anywhere on my horizon.” �{AlumniProfile} 36 Object Lesson Samantha Alderson (A86) found a career that mingles art and history—cls an art conservator. By Roberta Gable, A78 he liberal arts were kind of a shift for Samantha Alderson (A86) when she came to St. John’s, because in high school the arts she concerned herself with were the fine ones. She attended the High School of Music and Art in New York City, which gave her equal doses of studio work and art histo­ ry. She figured the college experience ought to be heavy on the academic side, since she wasn’t sure if she wanted to pursue an art career. She chose St. John’s “because I wanted to go to col­ lege for an education, not for a profes­ sion.’’ She kept up with drawing and painting while she was a student, and even helped set up the first visual arts preceptorial. Then, in one of those clearas-a-bell moments, the idea of becoming an art conservator occurred to her. Alderson had traveled in Italy before col­ PUTTING THE PAST BACK TOGETHER: SaMANTHA lege and had seen people doing restoration work. Alderson applies acrylic resin to the EDGES of a ceramic VESSSEL FROM EqUADOR That image had apparently lurked in her subcon­ BEFORE REASSEMBLING IT. scious until its sudden manifestation during her senior year. Since she had no idea what was involved in such work, she had some serious servator, and then she was able to volun­ research to do. teer at the Guggenheim in the painting She went up to NYU (which has one of conservation lab. She worked as a paralegal the three major art conservation programs to pay the bills, and eventually the Guggen­ in the U.S.) and had a talk with the direc­ heim offered her a paying job. Meanwhile tor, who spoke to her of the prerequisites: she took classes, all over the place: at the i) at least four to six courses in art history, Art Students League, working up her port­ anthropology, or archaeology; a) a science folio; and at Hunter and Gity Gollege in art background, including at least one year history, general chemistry, and organic each of undergraduate general chemistry chemistry. In three years she’d acquired and organic chemistry; 3) formal course the brute minimum to apply to the gradu­ work in a wide variety of fine arts media ate programs, so she did, but she didn’t and a portfolio of your own artwork; 4) and expect to get in, because she’d been told some previous conservation experience. that most people had to make a second run Despite being, shall we say, technically before they did, the programs being small unprepared in many ways for this pursuit, and competitive. Alderson resolved to pursue it anyway. In fact, she did get into NYU and And this is where her St. John’s educa­ enrolled in the fall of 1990, beginning a tion kicked in. “St. John’s gave me a sense four-year program (three years of course­ of being up to the challenge, the confi­ work and then an internship) for an MA in dence that I could do anything.” First, she art history and, concurrently, a certificate volunteered (which is in many fields an in conservation. excellent way to get your foot in the door, “Art conservation” is the modern field as many Johnnies have discovered) at the that has evolved from the tradition of “art Morgan Library working with a book conrestoration.” The idea is that with a tripar­ T {The College. 5t. John’s College ■ Fall 200/ } tite background in science, fine art, and art history, the conserva­ tor has both the hand skills to clean, repair, and restore art objects, and the sensitivity to do so in ways that will preserve them for future generations. Gonservators have to understand materials, their strength, how they age, their solubility, etc., and choose the proper tools (even, for example, formulating their own adhesives) to do what’s proper. As a part of that, they often research many aspects of the object including its chemical constitution, its history, and its anthropologic signifi­ cance. And it turned out that for Aiderson that “object” was the right word. The other main areas for conservation are paintings, paper, textiles, photographs, and library materials but early on she decided on objects, which includes sculpture, deco­ rative arts, and architectural, archaeologi­ cal, ethnographic and natural science materials. She spent three summers work­ ing on an archaeological dig on the island of Samothrace in Greece (the island’s high­ est peak Fengari was where, according to the Iliad, Poseidon watched the battles during the Trojan War). There she cleaned, reassembled and stabilized ceramics, glass, stone and metal objects from the classic period. In her last year in graduate school, how­ ever, she concentrated more on objects from less familiar places, what you call your “ethnographic” material. Generally this is not ancient stuff-being anthropology as opposed to archaeology-and often the objects were not created to be art but intended for functional, religious, or cere­ monial use. “You handle these objects very differently. If you have a pot covered with a thick gooey black residue, you don’t neces­ sarily clean it off-you have to ask if that residue is important.” For her internship (the fourth year of the graduate program) she decided to focus on ethnographic objects, and got a spot at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where she worked on a wide �{Alumni Notes} Deirdre Routt (A) and Kevin Graham (A90) are overjoyed to announce the birth of a child, Nora Elizabeth Routt Graham, on April II, aooi. JEANNINE K. Bramwell (SFGI) got her master’s degree in counseling from Adams State College in 1998. She became a national certified counselor in 1999 and retired from public school teaching in aooo. 1992 Cynthia Millington Brandreth (AGI) has a baby boy, Zach, born October 19, 2000. 1993 Miriam Spectre (A) and Akiba Ashley Waring Victor (A) writes: CoviTZ (A) report that their son, Abraham Joseph Spectre-Covitz, was born on May 7. They are also happy to report that they have finally disentangled themselves from the “Ivy League” and moved on to saner and simpler academic groves. Akiba is now professing to know something about constitu­ tional law and civil rights at the University of Richmond (www.richmond.edu/ ' acovitz), where he is also the liberal arts-oriented pre­ law advisor. After years of work and grad school (getting her second master’s degree, in history, in 2000), Miriam has welcomed the opportunity to take time away from being an archivist to explore moth­ erhood. They are enjoying living in Richmond, where they purchased and moved into a house only two weeks before Abe was born! If you see a car with Virginia license plates that read “SJC 91,” stop and say hi. “We are still at Chatham Hall School where Oliver is the Chap­ lain (he was ordained on July 21 at St. Paul’s School in New Hamp­ shire) and I teach Latin part time. Elizabeth and Lucy (ages 3 and 2) love all the horses, fields, and ‘big­ girls’ at Chatham Hall but are thrilled by the busy harbor life of Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, where Oliver is teaching sailing for the summer. Would love to hear from Bryce Heavner and Donald Eubank!” John MacFarlane (SF) is featued in an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. After beginning at Harvard, he switched to St. John’s and then returned to Har­ vard. He earned a PhD in philoso­ phy at the University of Pittsburgh and was hired for the faculty of the philosophy department at Berkeley. In addition to his focus on logic and classical philosophy, he plays the fiddle in a bluegrass band and is known as “The Fiddlosopher.” 37 Eveline Smilack (A) recently received her MFA in film produc­ tion and direction at USC and is beginning at CAA (Creative Artist Agency). Her film Ripen is now starting the festival circuit. William Edelglass (SF) writes: “For any old acquaintance who hap­ pens to be passing through northern India, I have a beautiful house nes­ tled into the Himalaya, with plenty of space, or at least suggestions for good hotels, as well as great climbs and fascinating people. Half the year I am based in Dharmsala, as Assis­ tant Director of Emory’s Tibetan Studies Program, and Visting Facul­ ty at the Institute of Buddhist Dialects. I teach Tibetan philosophy to students from the States, and western philosophy to Tibetan monks making their way through a fourteen-year curriculum in Bud­ dhist philosophy.” variety of objects, “as much as I could get my hands on, as much as possible on things I hadn’t worked on before.” The folks at the museum liked her, and after her gradu­ ation kept her for another year in an advanced internship, and then she was able to stay on there the next year with a Kress Foundation grant (to do a technological study of Zapotec urns, archaeological Beth Martin snapped this photo of her classmates-and assorted friends—FROM THE CLASS OF 1994. ThEY WERE ATTENDING THE CRO­ QUET Match last April. 1994 Ross Vineberg (SF) writes: “I am living in Jerusalem, Israel. I am learning modern Hebrew, involved in fine-art photography, poetry, and learning Torah. It’s intense liv­ ing here, for obvious reasons, but I’ve met many quality people and love living here so it makes it aU worthwhile, all my love to class 1994-Moish.” MattTebo (A) is enjoying living in San Francisco with his wife, Arnie, and playing in a band with Garth Klippert called Suisol. LisaMabli de Jong (SF) reports that she received her PhD in Envi­ ronmental Science, Policy, and Management from Berkeley. Her dissertation subject was forest fire behavior and she is now working as ceramics from ancient Mexico), and then, sure enough, after the grant year was over, they hired her as an Assistant Conservator, and then promoted her to Associate Con­ servator. Alderson continues to work on a wide variety of archaeological, ethnographic, and natural science material from the museum’s collection, researching, docu­ {The College- St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } a research scientist for the USDA Forest Service in Davis, Calif. “I also just got married to a Dutch man named Arend Jan de Jong, so my new name is Lisa de Jong,” she adds. 1995 Jennifer Garmaise nee Berger (SFGI) writes: “I worked in jour­ nalism for five years and now I am teaching world literature and Eng­ lish at an orthodox Jewish High School. My wonderful husband Mark moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in August. Last year, I spent a lot of time learning Torah. I hope everyone I graduated with is doing well. I would love to hear from anyone in the Los Angeles area (or anywhere)! Jgarmaise@yahoo.com.” menting, repairing, cleaning (or deciding not to clean), and establishing the parame­ ters for the display, transport, and storage of objects. A basketry hat from the Pacific Northwest, a featherpiece from the Ama­ zon, a wooden Hindu altarpiece, a Mayan ceramic vessel, you name it. The world has passed through her hands. 4" �{AlumniNotes} 38 Katherine Spencer (SFGI) is teaching art in elementary school and loving it. She can he contacted at klark_kat@hotmail.com. “Con­ tact me, Susanne and Juha,” she writes. a tutor position at St. John’s one day. I wonder if they’ll hire me. My husband is starting a construction business here in Santa Fe so I think I’ll be here for a long time.” Greet­ ings may be sent to AmythestCM@msn.com Marissa Colleen Mkal Misiaszek (A) writes: “I have a wonderful, outgoing, and inquisitive one-yearold son. I was married on the sum­ mer solstice at dawn on the beach. I received a grant to study Anasazi communities in the four-corners region near Santa Fe. I completed my landscape architecture thesis on creating a community in a flood plain. I’m still looking for a job.” Mike Layne (SF) writes: “I am a Counselor III at a youth shelter here in Barrow. This is my second year here in the Arctic. My first year I worked for the state of Alaska as a social worker and I absolutely hated the punitive aspects of the job. I took a summer off and returned as a counselor at the local youth shel­ ter. Been happy ever since. My wife and I have been married two years now and hopefully will have our first child in the spring of 2002.1 would love to hear from alumni and tutors. All visitors to our neck of the woods have a free place to crash. E-mail me at mike_layne@hotmail.com. If any­ one knows how to get hold of Dan Meyers, please give him my contact info.” 1996 Loreen (AGI) and Greg Keller announce the arrival of their third daughter, Alison Marie Keller, who was born May 23, 2001. David Longjohn Stanton (SF) is living in Los Angeles and practic­ ing law. 1997 Paula Ruhin (AGI) and John Swann (AGI) announce their engagement. A spring 2003 wed­ ding is planned. Paula will be pur­ suing a BS in computer science this year and John will be starting a PhD program in the history of technolo­ gy. Paula and John still reside in Annapolis and would love to hear from any Johnnies. John’s e-mail is cygnnus@hotmail.com and Paula’s is psrubin@aol.com. InyaLaskowski (SFGI) reports that she showed her encaustic monotypes in eleven art shows last year. In May she returned to Santa Fe to create new work at the Col­ lege of Santa Fe Printmaking Cen­ ter. At that time she also had a oneperson exhibition at Hand Artes Gallery in Truchas, N.M. In September/October 2001 her newest series, “Songs of Munnin and Hudinn,” will be featured at Gallery Route One in Point Reyes, Calif. She says that the Norse god of old, Odin, had two ravens as advisors, one called Munnin, mem­ ory, the other Hudinn, thought. Her works are abstract deductions about our existential dilemma. She likes to refer to them as “visceral philosophy.” have been teaching at Loyola High School for the past four years. I have decided not to return. I am now ungainfully unemployed. I hope to find a job in foreign policy. Here is my fantasy: Corporation X offers me my Wonderjob but says Wonderjob starts in a few months so I have time to travel and when I get home, know that a paycheck will be waiting for me.” 1998 Nathan Schleifer (SF) got his JD from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis in May 2001. Stephen Conn (SF) spent an inter­ esting year studying lighting design in the New Mexico State University Department of Theatre Arts. He was a cast member of the American Southwest Theatre Company’s pro­ duction of the Lorca play “Blood Wedding,” and on that experience, based his short independent film project titled “Backstage.” As always, he sends his “greetings to the great class of 1998!” 1999 Brent Hinrichs (AGI) recently moved to San Jose where he is Upper School Head at Hillbrook School, a K-8 independent school in Los Gatos, Calif. “While not at work, I enjoy the warmth and sun­ shine of Silicon Valley I ” he writes. Dominic Crapuchettes (A) writes: “Still doing web programming in Flash 5 for an internet math tutori­ al company named BoxerLearning. com. Still living with Amanda Dulin (A) in Charlottesville and having a great time with her. Still {The College. Elaine Spidle Ataha (A) recently bought and is running her own business. One Stop Body Shop. She is a licensed massage therapist and a veterinary technician focusing in anesthesiology in orthopedic sur­ gery. Leslie Norton (AGI) writes: “I Amy Borsick Stanton King (SF) got married on June 21,1999 to Shawn King, and they are “happily living just outside Santa Fe and truly enjoying life.” She writes, “My daughter Allison has a daugh­ ter, so I suppose that makes me a grandmother. Who’da thunk it? And I’m only 36. Presently, I am a balloon twister. I know about 40 different balloon animals and shapes. It’s really nifty. I can make everything from a dog to a guitar. I am considering applying to UNM’s PhD Program in Anthropological Linguistics and hoping to apply for thinking about returning to school for either business or technology. Not playing Magic any more or going fishing in Alaska this sum­ mer.” Rodino Anderson (A) writes: “I’m finally leaving Florida and moving to New York. I will attend Teachers CoUege, Columbia University in the fall, where I am enrolled in a PhD program in philosophy of edu­ cation. I guess the two years I took teaching philosophy and mathe­ matics at a high school have paid off. I’m looking forward to reunit­ ing with close friends in the New York area. My other non-New York living friends can continue to write 5f. John’s College ■ Fall aooi } me at rodino69@yahoo.com until I get settled. God bless you all! ” Hagop Varant Krpanian writes: “Although I only spent one year at SJC during the 1995-1996 school year, it was one of the most memo­ rable experiences of my li fe. The skills I’ve acquired during my short stay have served me well and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. I would love to hear from any of the class of ’99 who remember me. After St. John’s, I spent two years at a local junior college and finished at Berkeley with a BAin political science. I just finished my first year at the Medical College of Wisconsin, which was as difficult as it was rewarding.” Paul Ronco (SF) writes: “Hi, everyone, hope you’re all doing well. I had a great year. If you want to drop me a line, I can be reached at pronco@hotmail.com.” Sara J. Elzerman (SF) will begin her final year of law school this fall at the University of Southern Cahfornia. She looks forward to prac­ ticing in the Los Angeles area. Kristin Jacob and Steve Dumont (both SF) write: “We were married on July 27, 2001. We are currently living in Seattle where Steve is in the second year of his union electri­ cian apprenticeship and Kristin is an office manager at a veterinary hospi­ tal in Federal Way. We still haven’t decided what we’re really going to do with the rest of our lives, but we’re having fun in the meantime, attending as many Seattle Mariners games as we can afford! We’d love to hear from anyone-e-mail Steve at imacurioso@aol.com or Kristin at radinsgirl@aoLcom.” Josh Hendrix (A) writes: “After two years of silence, I suppose an update is overdue. Shortly after graduation I was hired to run the summer camp at a small, private pre-school in Wilmington, Del. After a successful summer I stayed on to teach pre-kindergarten and remain still a pre-K teacher and head of the preschool department. I love my work and I’m ecstaticaUy happy to have the time at night (free from homework and paperwirting) to play in three bands. P.S. I recently spent a lovely week in Jamaica with Kelly O’ Malley (A) �{Alumni Notes} and Rob Holbrook (A). Mr. Hol­ brook is flourishing in the Peace Corps there.” 2000 Christopher Vaughan (A) has received his Associate of Arts degree from the University of Alas­ ka, Anchorage. He will be attend­ ing Flagler College in St. Augus­ tine, Florida, enrolling in the education program. He hopes to teach elementary education to deaf children. V. Leslie Hendrickson (SF) writes: “Class of 2000: Greetings all! I have just moved to New York City and will start work at Colum­ bia University soon. I’d love to hear from friends!” Greetings maybe sent to vlesliehendrickson@hot­ mail.com Michael Baetz (SF) writes: “It looks as if I’ll be spending my sec­ ond winter in Big Sky, Mt. If anyone I know wants to ride a great moun­ tain, come on out! My e-mail is mpbaetz@netscape.net. Hope you are finding your little niches and enjoying life.” John Hunter (AGI) and his wife Lisa live in Chattanooga, Tenn., where he teaches ancient world his­ tory and Latin and coaches basket­ ball and lacrosse. Lisa does technol­ ogywork for a local manufacturing company, S.I. Corporation. James E. Lewis (SFGI) is now a stu­ dent in the psychology department at New School University in Man­ hattan. “This semester,” he writes, “either I will learn to distinguish the various forms of schizophrenia. 39 or I will develop a form of schizo­ phrenia in which I find some meas­ ure of comfort. Otherwise, I have spent more than one hour attempt­ ing to form a connection between Times Square and the desert, which I miss.” Mehmet Can Atacik (A) hoped to finish his master’s degree in gov­ ernment administration at the Uni­ versity of Pennsylvania’s Fels Cen­ ter of Government this past summer. Calling All Alumni 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 pub­ lished in March; copy deadline is February i. In Annapolis: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404; b-goyette@sjca.edu. In Santa Fe: Karina Hean (A) just returned from a Post Bacc year in Florence, Italy, where she spent time draw­ ing. She got a scholarship to spend a semester at the Rietvald Academy (an arts school) in Amsterdam. She is back in Maryland for a while, working at the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in their galleries and funding research. The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Public Relations Office, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; classics@mail.sjcsf.edu. Alumni Notes on the Web: Read Alumni Notes and contact The College on the web at; www.scja.edu - click on “Alumni.” {Alumni Association Awards} Alumni Award of Merit At Homecoming in Santa Fe and Annapolis, three alumni werepresented with the Alumni Award ofMerit by the Alumni Association. A.T. Michael MacDonald (SF76) has devel­ oped his career around a love of music. MacDonald runs AlgoRhythms, a digital mastering studio in New York. He records, masters. and produces jazz, rock, and Broadway; he also restores archived analog master tapes of classic performances on the Ed Sullivan Show-which featured such artists as Louis Armstrong, The Rolling Stones, and The Doors. MacDonald has received several Grammy nominations for his recordings and two Grammy awards for McCoy-Tyner recordings he recorded and mastered. Opera is also on MacDonald’s list: he’s restoring and digitizing historic concert performances made between 1935 and 1985. MacDonald has presented several benefit concerts for St. John’s. Warren Spector (A81), the co-president and CEO of the Wall Street firm Bear, Stearns, was intro­ duced by Brother Robert Smith, who has known Spector since his student days. Brother Robert declined to describe the importance of his position, saying that there are ample reports in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Instead, he told how Spector first went to Princeton and studied mathematics. Becoming disen­ chanted, he left and supported himself for a year as a professional bridge player be­ fore coming to St. John’s. “Princeton just wasn’t the sort of community I was looking for,” said Spector in accepting the award. “After reading the catalogue I was taken by the idea of St. John’s. I found here some­ thing much greater than the catalogue described.” {The College- St. John’s College . Fall 200/ } Tom Williams {A51), a teacher of middle school math for 28 years, was introduced by president Chris Nelson, Williams has lived the philosophic life, said Nelson, because he spent his time leading young people to knowl­ edge. In addition to his many years of teach­ ing, Williams inaugurated the local St. Vin­ cent de Paul Society and helped with the last St. John’s fundraising campaign. “He supports the life of learning and the institu­ tions necessary for learning,” said Nelson. Williams attributed his interest in math to St, John’s; he said that after he finished high school math he celebrated because he didn’t think he would have to take the sub­ ject again. But he fell in love with it at St. John’s and ended up teaching it. �{Alumni Association Awards} 40 At Homecoming this summer andfall, five were named honorary alumni by the Alumni Association. Honorary Alumni Rjchart Lampert is president of the Library and Fine Arts Guild in Santa Fe. Under Lampert’s leadership, the Guild has grown from 123 members in 1996 to more than 250 today. Co-owner of Zaplin-Lampert Galleries, he provides a valuable resource to St. John’s for art history, appraisals, and general art information. He contributes to the college by serving as master of ceremonies at college-communi­ ty functions, providing his gallery for col­ lege dinners and receptions, and donating rare and collectible books and fine artwork for college auctions. Michael Rodriguez, director of financial aid in Santa Fe, has been with St. John’s since 1985. He works hard so that students can afford to attend, balancing the total amount of money available for aid with the strictures governing disbursement of money from St. John’s College grants, as well as from other sources. Sympathetic with the concerns of students, he is respected for his sensitivity and discretion, his spirit of cooperation, and above aU, his desire to help others. John B. Moore, Jr., Beate Ruhm von Oppen, and Nancy Lewis with Annapolis president Chris Nelson (SF70). Nancy Lewis, long-time registrar in Annapolis, was introduced by Sus3an Bor­ den (A87), who spoke about the former registrar’s “grace, elegance, kindness, care, senstivity, and intelligence.” Lewis served as registrar from 1976 until her retirement in 1999. She started the F-i Club for foreign students and is known for her tireless advocacy on behalf of all John­ nies. “When I was a student,” said Borden, “I thought of the campus as her home and her office as her living room. She was the gracious, graceful hostess who did every­ thing she could to make you feel welcome.” retirement in 1987 he has become involved in the cultural community, especially at St. John’s, where he is admired for the care and wit he has exercised in guiding the Mitchell Gallery and the Board of the Friends. John B. Moore, Jr., founding chairman of the Mitchell Gallery Board of Advisors and a past president of the Board of the Friends of St. John’s, was introduced by Jeff Bishop, vice president in Annapolis. After a career in engineering and business, Moore served with the U.S. Commerce Department and then in Maryland state government, where he established the Division of Cultural Affairs. Since his Beate Ruhm von Oppen, a tutor at the col­ lege since i960, was introduced by Elliott Zuckerman. He described her as one of the tutors who “brought to the college some­ thing of a different and wider world” and talked about how she had been moved many times during the first half of her life “by what we take to be the darkest and most dreadful events...” A scholar who doc- {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall aooi } Michael Rodriguez umented the resistance of the German peo­ ple to Nazism, von Oppen continues to “insist upon accuracy, as opposed to the glib generalizations we all encounter.” This and a love of language, added to her love of music (especially that of Bach and Mozart), she conveyed to students at the college over the course of many years. �{Campus Life} What I Did on My Summer Vacation They didn Y scoop ice cream and they didn't wait tables. They weren Y lifeguards or temps or bookstore clerks. Instead, these Johnnies set offon their own kinds ofsummer adventures. By SuS3AN Borden, A87 Musical Interlude spent my summer doing one of the sweetest jobs I can think of,” says senior Mirabai Knight, “I played violin, trumpet, and bas­ soon for the Bigfork Sum­ mer Playhouse in Bigfork, Mon­ tana.” This was Knight’s fourth season with the Playhouse’s pro­ fessional repertory musical the­ ater company; she started right out of high school. It was her first job ever, but one she was well-qualified for: she’s played violin since she was four, trum­ pet since fifth grade and bassoon since sixth. Although she had never intended to play profes­ sionally, her trumpet teacher (who had worked at the Play­ house before) suggested she take the job, one which Knight found to be both fun and easy, at least for the musicians. “They audition actors from all over the country-17 of’em have appeared on Broadway since-and put them through frigging boot camp: 4 musicals and i play up in about a weeks each. But we pit musi­ cians hardly break a sweat,” she says. And for what she considered minimal effort, Knight earned $200 a week plus free lodging at the edge of the biggest natu­ ral lake in Montana. “Bigfork is an hour from Glacier National Park and a spit and a jump from four rivers and two mighty mountain ranges,” she says, explaining that she spent much of her free time swim­ ming and hiking. During performances, when she wasn’t playing, Knight sat in the darkened theater and read by the light of her music stand lamp. Her reading list included War and Peace and she made an attempt to reread the junior lab manual. “It was fun work,” she concludes of the four summers at the Playhouse, “at least during those moments when I didn’t have ‘June is Busting Out All Over’ stuck in my head.” ’***S Erin Hanlon(SFo3) Mirabai Knight (SF02) performing in “Fiddler on the Roof” Easier Than Aristotle Junior Erin Hanlon spent the summer working with scientist Mac Post at the Environmental Science Division of Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee. Hanlon investigated the effects of elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide on soil sam­ ples. Her work will eventually play a role in establishing a scientific understanding of issues addressed by the Kyoto Protocol, a global treaty for environmental protection. Hanlon’s work used soil cores that Post had previously buried in the Oak Ridge PAGE (Free-Air COa Enrichment) Site. The site, a sweetgum plantation, is provid­ ed with controlled amounts of elevated car­ bon dioxide to simulate conditions that are predicted to occur within a few decades. Hanlon and Post retrieved the buried soil cores, took samples, and then returned the cores to their previous positions. Samples were prepared and analyzed. Then it was up to Hanlon to determine what the data meant. “There were some interesting {The College. Sf. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } results,” she says. “The general trend was what we were expecting: a decrease in carbon in the isolated soil cores while the surrounding soil carbon levels remained steady.” Hanlon explains that microbial respiration was most likely taking carbon dioxide out of the soil and releasing it into the air. While this does not happen in all types of soil, it has implications for the Kyoto Protocol’s car­ bon dioxide credit program, where coun­ tries producing excess carbon dioxide can pay other countries whose production falls below maximum levels for their credits. Hanlon’s internship was part of the Global Change Education Program. The program gives undergraduate and graduate students research experience in fields related to global change (commonly referred to as global warming) and intro­ duces them to the work environment of the national labs. What equipped the liberal-arts educated Hanlon to work in an internship for science majors and students already studying sci­ ence on the graduate level? St. John’s lab and seminar. “There were times when I wished I had taken a statistics or a bio-geochemistry course, but that was generally when I wanted to have the knowledge handy in my brain and not have to read another paper to get the information I needed,” she says. “Freshman lab and Aristotle were def­ initely helpful, though. Anything is easier to read than the Metaphysics^ �4^ {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Surveys can be great, but they are always less than half of a conversation. I am hop­ ing that this letter can continue the conver­ sation started by a recent college telephone survey of alumni. The primary purpose of the survey was to find out what alumni wanted to see in the new college web site­ coming sometime in aooa. The data helped give a profile of who our alumni are today and how they think about the college and their relationships to it. One of the most interesting findings was that alumni, like you, wanted to be more involved in the college today. Memories of experiences past are wonderful, and the opportunities to extend and expand connections with the college are even better! The college provides many different ways for alumni to stay in touch with each other, with the Program, and with their friends on both campuses. A new CollegeWide Alumni Strategy has been developed to examine and improve opportunities for alumni to continue their life-long partici­ pation in the college community. It out­ lines the current programs that are avail­ able and suggests new avenues for making the most of our common history and cur­ rent interests. Here are just a few of the ways that you can participate in St. John’s College today. Enjoy a face-to-face meeting with other Johnnies who live in your area. Alumni Association Chapters are available in many large cities. The Chapters meet regularly for a variety of events. Seminar, food, drink, chat, and career networking are a few of the most frequent activities at Chap­ ter meetings. Baseball games, theater, and general revelry also find their ways into Chapter plans. If you live in an area that has a Chapter, check it out. If you are not one of the “geographically privileged,” consider starting a Chapter in your area or take advantage of other opportunities to connect. The on-line presence of Johnnies is expanding quickly. In addition to the web sites and listserves (both those officially sponsored by the college and unofficially run by tech-sawy alumni), alumni around the country are participating in on-line conversations with other Johnnies. If you want to get involved, drop me an e-mail, and I will point you to one of the “electron­ ic coffee shops” that are springing up around cyberspace. The college and the Alumni Association host three homecoming events each year (Croquet Weekend in spring in Annapobs, Homecoming in Santa Fe in summer, and Homecoming in Annapolis in fall.) These are great times to visit the campuses to catch up with old friends and make new ones. You might also enjoy the two weeks of Alumni Summer Programs in Santa Fe. During the weeks before and after Homecoming, alumni gather to read and talk about a topic. The topics are suggested by the Association Board. If you have one that you’d like to have considered, drop me an e-mail. There are also wonderful opportunities for you to support the college with your time and talents. The Alumni Association Board is always looking for Directors to help plan and implement Association activ­ ities, alumni members to serve on the Board of Visitors and Governors, and nom­ inees for Honorary Alumnus or Award of Merit. Philanthropia (the Alumni Develop­ ment Council) offers the opportunity for alumni to be involved in fundraising efforts. The Placement Offices need alum­ ni who will provide information about career opportunities and graduate schools. The Admissions offices need alumni to contact prospectives and provide the “inside look” at the college and its pro­ gram. Both campuses are expanding their summer internship programs to provide current students with chances to explore career opportunities prior to graduation. You may be able to offer such a rich experi­ ence through your own professional con­ nections. If you are interested in any of these opportunities, or if you think of another way that you’d like to participate in the college community, check out the college web site to find out who to contact. {The Colleges?. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } Or, you can drop me an e-mail, and I’ll for­ ward it along to someone who can guide you. As alumni we know the joys and chal­ lenges of the St. John’s approach to learn­ ing. Each of us has integrated those experi­ ences into our lives, and the college provides us many opportunities to contin­ ue our life-long journey of learning in com­ munity. Some of us choose to build on our personal relationships. Some pursue the intellectual challenges. Some focus on financial support. Some find the time and energy to support the college as volun­ teers. If you are among the Johnnies who want to reconnect or maintain your con­ nection with the college, you can choose the ways or combination of ways that suit you at this time in your life. When you do, you benefit, the college benefits, and so do all of your fellow alumni who share your love of books, of conversation, and of the institution that brings the two together in such a unique and powerful way. For the past, the present, and the future, Glenda Eoyang SF 76 Eoyang@chaos-limited.com President St. John's College Alumni Association ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Whether from Annapobs or Santa Fe, under­ graduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, all alumni have automatic membership in the St. John’s Col­ lege Alumni Association. The Alumni Associa­ tion 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 Alumni Association news and events of interest. President - Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary-Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer - Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team ChairTom Geyer, ABB Web site - www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapobs, MD 21404 or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. �{AlumniAssociationNews} First All-Alumni Art Show By Elizabeth Pollard Jenny, SF8o The Santa Fe campus Fine Arts Gallery hosted its first All-Alumni Art Show this July, coinciding with Homecoming. The multi-media show was eclectic and reflected the many artistic viewpoints of the partici­ Billy Lieb, a scupltor from the Annapolis CLASS OF 1957, CAME BACK TO St. JoHn’s FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE HIS GRADUATION TO EXHIBIT HIS ART IN THE ALUMNI SHOW. pating artists who represented both cam­ puses. Twenty-five alumni, spanning class years from 1959 through 2001, were able to connect with the college in a new way. Some alumni who participated are profes­ sional artists, while others are art teachers or enthusiastic dabblers in such media as ceramics, drawing, fiber, glass, mixed media, mosaic, photography, sculpture, and painting. Artistic styles were as varied as the media, and included conceptual, rep­ resentational, abstract, impressionistic, and a multitude of other approaches. As I consider the work in the show, it occurs to me that while we were in school we were encouraged to develop an original­ ity of mind as well as of conviction - that we had a right and a responsibility to develop our opinions. We also were encouraged to cultivate the learning skills that serve to enhance the reservoir of experience neces­ sary for creative inspiration and insight. I think these qualities of mind explain both the diversity and harmony apparent in this year’s show. One observer, tutor Cary Stickney (A75), beheves that art rounds out a liberal educa­ tion. In his opinion, there is a mimetic quality to art that allows one to render a subject without quite knowing how one did it. To him, this is delightful and gratifying. Perhaps this explains, in part, the addition of studio art to the senior year curriculum in Santa Fe. Mr. Stickney also said that the All-Alumni Art Show provided an interest­ ing addition to the college community shows that are held annually on the Santa Fe campus. I hope that a conversa­ tion will emerge among St. John College alumni about how, if at all, the St. John’s educational experi­ ence has influenced their artwork. This year the art­ work spoke for itself. We hope those who partici­ pated this first year will be joined by other under­ graduate and graduate alumni in the All-Alumni Art Show in July 2002 on the Santa Fe campus. Thanks to the following 2001 participants: Karen Andrews SF91 (Mixed Media) Joseph Baratta A69 (Printmaker) MaryBeth Bliss SF76 (Glass) Beatrice Butler SF80 (Painter) Jennifer Chenoweth CI SF95 (Sculptor/Photographer) Steve Conn SF98 (Collage) Donna Contractor SF80 (Tapestry) Rebecca Einsig A86 (Photographer) Beatrice Eleftheriou SF82 (Glass) Elizabeth Faulhauber SF85 (Sculptor) Cinda Graham Kelly A62 (Sculptor) Liza Hyatt SF85 (Printmaker/Mosaics) Margaret Inbody GI SF90 (Printmaker) Elizabeth Ivers SF82 (Painter) Elizabeth Pollard Jenny SF80 (Painter) Billy Lieb A57 (Sculptor) Ebby Malmgren GI A88 (Ceramics/Printmaker) Abbey McAndrew A78 (Painter) Frank McGuire GI SF69 (Sculptor) Kay Maureen Moses GI SF82 (Painter) Christopher Quinn GI SFoi (Photographer) Roberta Razafy SF74 (Painter) Vivian Ronay A65 (Photographer) Ken Vaughn SF87 (Painter) Nancy Westheimer GI SF94 (Painter/Calligrapher) {The College -St John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } 43 CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowfor information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-^^75-9012 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin 410-280-0958 AUSTIN Jennifer Chenoweth 5x2-482-0747 BALTIMORE Roberta Gable 410-626-2531 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 CHICAGO Lorna Anderson 773-338-8651 DENVER Elizabeth Pollard Jenny 303-530-3373 LOS ANGELES Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 NEWYORK Fielding Dupuy 212-974-2922 NORTH CAROLINA Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 PORTLAND Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 SACRAMENTO Helen Hobart 916-452-1082 SAN DIEGO: Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 SAN FRANCISCO, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Jon Hodapp 831-393-9496 SANTA FE: John Pollak 505-983-2144 SEATTLE Amina Stickford 206-269-0182 WASHINGTON DC Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 972-2-6717608 b0azl@cc.hu3i.ac.il A special thank you goes out to the Library and Fine Arts Guild Arts Commit­ tee for its enthusiastic support of the idea for an alumni art show; to Ginger Roherty, Art Gallery Director, and Maggie Magalnick. Art Gallery Assistant Director, and to Glenda Eoyang, president of the Alumni Association, and to the Association for their generosity in helping to make the show a resounding success. All alumni interested in being involved in next summer’s show to be held in July 2002 on the Santa Fe Campus should contact Maggie Magalnick byphone: 5O5-g84-6tgg, or by e-mail: maggie@mail.sjcsf.edu; or by mail c/o St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 8’^5os-45gg. �44 PaulT. Beisser Class ofig42 Paul T. Beisser, a retired produce broker, died in August. Born in Reading, Pennsyl­ vania, Mr. Beisser graduated from St. John’s in 1942. He was a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard and a member of the Knights of Columbus. After working as a produce broker in St. Louis, he retired to Lampe, Missouri. Surviving are his wife, Winnie; three sons; three daughters; 20 grandchil­ dren; and four great-grandchildren. Robert O. Davis Class ofig48 Robert O. Davis, a writer and editor who was a member of the class of r948, died in May. He was Chief Editor of Reports and Publications at the U.S. Steel Research Laboratory in Monroeville, Penn., from 1967 to 1982. Following retirement, he was active as a freelance editor and writer for the Association of Iron & Steel Engineers and other technical societies. He graduated from McKeesport High School in Pennsylvania in 1938. A naviga­ tor in the 8th Air Force in World War II, he received the Air Medal and a Presidential Unit Citation. After service, he attended St. John’s. Active as a sportsman and envi­ ronmentalist, he was a past president of the Fort Pitt Retriever Club and the first chair of the Pittsburgh chapter of Friends of the Earth. He is survived by his wife, June, and by a son and daughter, two granddaugh­ ters, and a sister. Robert Moody McKinney Member ofthe Board Robert McKinney, financier and publisher of the Santa Fe New Mexican, died in July. Born on the dining table of a church par­ sonage in Shattuck, Oklahoma, in rpro, Mr. McKinney went on to become a major play­ er in the financial world, an advisor to pres­ idents and senators, the ambassador to Switzerland, an authority on the uses of atomic energy, and the publisher of the Santa Fe New Mexican. He was instrumen­ tal in bringing St. John’s College to Santa Fe and served on the Board of Visitors and Governors from r953 to 1968. In a tribute to McKinney written shortly after his death, David Boren, U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, said, “The history of Robert’s hfe reads like an adventure story.” From humble beginnings, Mr. McKinney put himself through the University of Okla­ homa. Determined to make his own way, he set out for New York in 1932. His luggage {Obituaries} was stolen, and with the small amount of insurance money he received, he started investing. Within a decade he had attained financial success by purchasing solid assets from bankrupt companies. He served on the boards of many companies including ITT, TWA, Martin-Marietta, and the Rock Island Railroad. He served in the Navy dur­ ing World War II, where he helped develop the Tiny Tim rocket. After the war, he served as ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, ambassador to Switzerland, and in posts in the Treasury Department under Johnson and Nixon. McKinney learned about St. John’s when as a young naval reserve officer he led a suc­ cessful drive to forestall the Naval Acade­ my’s expropriation of the Annapohs cam­ pus for expansion in the mid-i94os. He later served on the Board. He led Richard Weigle to Santa Fe and arranged for him to meet John Gaw Meem, who donated land for the new campus. Lucille Murchison Member ofthe Board Lucille Murchison, who served on the Board of Visitors and Governors from 1988 to 1994, died in July. Born in Dallas, Mrs. Murchison became a passionate advocate for the arts in that city. She married John Murchison in 1947. The John and Lupe Murchison Chair at the Santa Fe campus is the result of a 1979 challenge offered by the couple. Mrs. Murchison also served 18 years on the University of North Texas board of regents and was co-owner of the Dallas Cowboys from 1979 to 1984. Hilyer Shufeldt Class ofig55 Hilyer Gearing Shufeldt, an elementary school teacher in Annapohs for 30 years, died in October. Born in California, she traveled with her Navy family as a child, liv­ ing in many cities before settling in Annapolis. She graduated from Annapolis High School and attended St. John’s for one year. She married and while her hus­ band pursued an academic career, she raised four children. In 1967 she moved back to Annapolis fol­ lowing a divorce and taught at Anne Arun­ del County elementary and middle schools. She completed her BA degree in teaching at Bowie State University and earned a master of arts from the Graduate Institute in 1983. Surviving are her sons, one broth­ er, and five grandchildren. {The College -St John ’5 College • Fall 2001 } Samuel V. Stiles Class ofig54 Samuel V. Stiles, Jr., a longtime supporter of the college, died at the age of 75 on August 3. He served as the president of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Alumni Association from 1993 until his death. A resolution of the Alumni Association says: “The leadership that he provided the group was not only efficient and organized; he was indeed the heart, soul and spine of the chapter. As a discussion leader his pres­ ence was subtle, gentle and profound, encouraging and validating all points of view. He loved books and he loved to understand. Even when his illness made it hard for him, he seemed to thrive in the meeting of the minds around the discus­ sion table. His manner was always gentle and reserved; he set the tone for the group to have thoughtful discussion.” He was a native of Louisville, Ky., and a resident of Rockville, Md. He served in the Navy in the Atlantic during World War IL He graduated cum laude from Emory Uni­ versity before attending St. John’s. He received a master’s degree in political sci­ ence from the University of Indiana and taught that subject at the University of Kentucky before moving to the Washing­ ton area to work at the National Institutes of Health. He also worked in the Peace Corps and was deputy administrator in Togo. He retired in the mid-eighties from the Public Health Service, after working as an administrator of the Volunteers in Ser­ vice to America. His hfe was dedicated to helping others. He is survived by his wife, Sally West­ hofen Stiles, and two sons, David and Steve. Rev. David Streett II Class ofig$o The Rev. David Streett, a retired Episcopal priest, died in August. Born in Baltimore, Father Streett graduated from City Col­ lege. He served in the Navy during World War II in the Pacific. After being dis­ charged, he earned a BA from St. John’s in 1951 and an MA in theology from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1954. He served at churches in Baltimore and Cumberland and founded the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Ruxton. He moved to Georgia in the rpBos and worked with Planned Parenthood and anti­ poverty programs. Later he was the clinical chaplain for the Augusta State Medical Prison. He retired in 1993 from the Missis­ �{Obituaries} sippi State Prison at Parchman. He is sur­ vived by his wife, Betty Lou; three daugh­ ters; two brothers; two grandchildren; two stepdaughters; and two stepgrandchildren. Charles H. Watts II Member ofthe Board Charles H. Watts II, former president of Bucknell University and a member of the St. John’s Board of Visitors and Governors for many years, died in September. Born in Bronxville, New York, he earned a bache­ lor’s degree and doctorate in American lit­ erature from Brown University and a mas­ ter’s from Columbia University. He taught English at Brown from 1953 to 1963. At the age of 37 he became president of Bucknell University. He served for la years, handling a variety of situations including the protests against the Vietnam War. In 1975 Mr. Watts returned to Boston and became general director of Beneficial Finance Corporation, which was founded by his father. He served on the boards of academic, corporate, and civic institutions. He was a member of the Audubon Society and the New Hampshire Forest Society and was devoted to conservation causes. At St. John’s he was known for his straightforward analyses, common-sense questions, and persevering attitude. Most recently, he served on the Search Commit­ tee for the president of the Santa Fe cam­ pus. Mr. Watts was made an honorary alumnus, class of 2000, by the St. John’s Alumni Association. He is survived by his wife, Patricia; two daughters and a son; and six grand­ children. In Memory Of Robert Arne, SFGI83 Last autumn many in the St. John’s College community lost a friend, Robert Arne, SFGI83. Diagnosed with a swiftly acting terminal illness, Robert Arne faced the last few weeks of his life as he had lived much of it - reading Plato in Greek and discussing politics and philosophy with the numerous friends who visited him. Although his last days were painful he took only the mildest doses of medication so as to remain lucid in order to converse with his visitors and, as he said, “to experience as fully as I can this passage.” It may surprise some who knew Robert that his first passion as a young man was art, and he attended art school before studying engineering at Berkeley to honor his father’s wishes; but the emphasis on practicality in engineering left his budding interest in theory unsatisfied, so he switched his major to physics. It was while pursuing a graduate degree in physics that he met philosophy in the person of one of those rare beings-a genuinely philosophi­ cal soul who is also a splendid teacher. It changed his life. He studied and loved clas­ sical Greek, philosophy, and particularly Plato. His life from then on was governed by these loves. Anything that did not serve these ends was jettisoned. He lived austere­ ly; his habits were simple and his dress was plain. Hoping to make his living teaching philosophy he pursued a PhD, but a degen­ erative retina problem diagnosed some years earlier worsened, and he was declared legally blind. With effort he could still read, but only slowly; he was forced to leave the program. He taught at private schools for several years, but his condition required him to seek a community where he could attend to his needs by walking; furthermore it had also to be intellectually stimulating. He learned of Santa Fe and St. John’s College. For the sheer joy of the conversation he earned yet another mas­ ter’s degree through the Graduate Institute and taught Greek privately to any who were interested; for several years he taught Greek to Institute students through the auspices of the college. Always the conver­ sationalist, he was instrumental in forming a weekly reading group which was one part of what became the Santa Fe Chapter of the Alumni Association. Five days before he died Robert put down the dialogue he had been reading for lack of strength to make sense of the text. It was the Parmenides. To the end he was trying to understand. —John Carroll Pollak, SFCI80 In Memory Of Constance Darkey It is a melancholy pleasure to write about Connie Darkey, who died last May at the age of 84. We had known each other for 44 years. Her husband. Bill Darkey, was my co-leader in 1957 when I was a freshman tutor. It was a memorable freshmen semi­ nar-some of its members have been life­ long friends-and to top it off, every Thurs­ day after seminar Bill would take me to his house. There, over a glass of wine with crackers and cheese (I remember the hos­ pitable details vividly over the decades), I was initiated into the college as a living community. Connie took a strong part in these con­ {The College -Sr. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } 45 versations. She had played a role in this world for a dozen years before I came, as bookstore manager and faculty wife. In those early days the bookstore was the veri­ table center of the college, located right next to the coffee shop, and the manager knew a lot of what went on. Connie was very much on the inside of the place. She was passionately interested in the way the program worked on students and in the effect the faculty had on them. It would not be too much to say that her keen observa­ tions, censorious and generous, excited and penetrating, first showed me that I was committed to become part of a quarrel­ somely loyal working family, that the absorbingly intellectual program of the college was carried on by a band of glori­ ously human colleagues. No young tutor could have undergone a more candid and therefore a more engaging induction to this college. When Bill and Connie moved to Santa Fe as part of the founding generation of that campus, I discovered before long that Con­ nie kept an eye on my doings and writings from afar. Eventually part of the pleasure of producing anything was to send it to her. Before too long would come a letter with illuminating questions followed by that most gratifying compliment a reader can give: an appreciative pouncing on the sen­ tences closest to the writer’s heart. Connie was the most empathetic of readers. Of course she was that much the more a discerning reader of great books. It was delightful to talk to her about a novel, or any book. I would have loved to have been in seminar with her as I once was with BiU. We might have had some blazing battles for the benefit of our students as well as moments of perfect concord. I always thought of her as a fellow tutor and the three of us almost always got together for a couple of hours of conversation when I was in Santa Fe; even in the last years, when she wasn’t well, she hadn’t lost her spirited acuteness. I shall miss her, and I think often of Bill’s loss. — Eva Brann Also noted... Alfred Franklin, Class of 1951, died in August. Mary J. Navratil, SFGI71, died in May. Samuel Schenker, Class of 1939, died in September. Dr. Francis Townsend, Jr., Class of 1938, died in August. �46 {Alumni Voices} COURTLY LOVE On the intimate experience ojplayinp basketball. By Jane McManus, A93 M y one regret after my mother died was the archon of the athletic department, took my mother aside. “Your daughter,” he said, that she never saw me play basketball. I choosing his words carefully, “she’s a very player.” She got a big kick out of never played in high school and parents tenacious that, and so did 1.1 liked to think of myself don’t generally travel hundreds of as the Bill Laimbeer of women’s intramural hoops. miles to see their kids play a game of College was my first experience playing basketball, though we fielded no intercolle­ college pick-up. They don’t pack the giate teams. Never formally coached, I like to think of myself as a pure player, which sideline at the YMCA to watch their adult children in knee only means I don’t know many plays. I don’t braces and with taped fingers pretend to be 18anyagain. have memories of suicide sprints or Pulling my basketball shoes out last Janu­ ary, two weeks after she died, lacing them up slowly, I tried to clear my mind of all the thoughts that had kept me inert on the couch all morning. The local Y sets aside two hours a day starting at noon for basketball. I figured it was time I worked on my shot. I had been constantly by my mother’s side in a hospice watching her gradually deterio­ rate. I’d talk to her about local games I’d seen. She seemed to find a pleasant diver­ sion in my words. Maybe she just hked lis­ tening to my voice, and I was desperate to find something to fill the stale air in her room. After all the necessary things have been said and done, there is little left but make vain attempts to give comfort. She took her comfort in the mundane details I supphed. Those days ran together. I stayed up late unable to sleep. Nothing else mattered. And then suddenly, but expectedly, my days were empty in late December. Friends, proverbially well-meaning, dis­ pensed awkward words and half-meant invi­ tations to get out of the house. Their plans took too much energy. I drew in, spending all my time thinking about what was lost, no conversation could alleviate any part of my sadness. My worn leather ball had gone flat in the months I hadn’t played. At St. John’s Col­ lege, the game had been as much a part of school as class. We chmbed on the roof to Jane McManus and her mother break into the gym on summer nights to play pick-up. During the school year there were games every night. We’d play until well after midnight, exhausted and with sweat drip­ ping into our eyes. The gym was built in 1909, and its insides look like one of those courts on old reels of grainy basketball footage. Hot in the sum­ mer, cold in the winter, the gym was filled with outdated equipment; balls bounced funny if at all. The ceiling beams were exposed, ehminating the half-court shot and the cross-court pass. The weekend I graduated, Leo Pickens, {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } dribbhng exercises. The concept of a pick was a revelation. I’ve worked hard on my game, but I’ll take whatever credit I come by. When I tell peo­ ple I played in college, sometimes they assume I mean St. John’s the university and not the college. Admittedly, I don’t always go out of my way to correct them. I figure a couple of permanently jammed fingers justi­ fy any fack of clarification. Basketball has become so much a part of who I am it is hard for me to imagine a time I didn’t play. I bought an official leather ball when I graduated. It seemed a huge expense at the time but it was an investment. Last winter brought the first prolonged period of time I didn’t play. The gravity of trying to finish graduate schoof, look for work and bury my mother so overwhelmed me that I sat still all day, never exactly tired, but unable to get up. My stepfather called to tell me I should come over and go through my mother’s things; jewelry, photographs and clothes still fresh with her scent. Get up. That January day I dragged myself to the Y and started practicing foul shots in another ancient gym. I was trying not to think about anything, just the rim and the ball and the muffled sound of a runner on the overhead track. The ball felt too heavy and my first shot dinked off the front of the rim and landed hard back in my hands. A few other people wandered into the gym and began to warm up. A game of half-court three-on-three was organized and I was the �reluctant sixth. I felt self conscious, but as the game got going the familiar competitive tweak returned. January bled into February, I spent weeks doing httle but going to the Y to play ball. The routine was the only thing that made me even shghtly comfortable again. The rules don’t change once you think you have them down. The structure of the game, things hke clearing the 3-point hne after a change of possession, checking the ball, the sound of four bodies coUiding for a rebound, all of it was ingrained. And unhke other social situa­ tions where people tried to be helpful or consoling, the guys at the Y just wanted to know if 1 was up for another game of 21. ''Built in igog, the gym had exposed ceiling beams, eliminating the half-court shot and the cross-courtpass. 1 usually was. Just on the off chance that, although tired, I might make the open shot or get a rebound against someone with a couple inches on me. Something that made me feel hke everything was working and order had returned. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } There is something immensely soothing about a game of pick-up with a regular group of people you don’t know well. You know their game, who always takes the shot, who always passes, who blows the layup. At the end of two hours, knees aching, 1 would walk out into the grey afternoon without my coat on and, before the sadness returned, 1 felt for a moment that there was nothing but my face and the cool air. And that, more than anything else, was exactly what I needed. Jane McManus is a sportswriter at The Journal News in Westchester County, New York. �48 {St. John’s Forever} uring the Second World training of the intellect that happens in War, students at St. the learning and practice of the manual John’s received some use­ arts as well as the liberal arts. Also, ful education. According Buchanan knew that one learns quite a bit to Winfree Smith’s histo­ of physics if one acquires a full under­ ry of the New Program (A standing of all the transformations of Searchfor the Liberal College, energy 1985), they that take place in the internal com­ were offered a three-hour, oncebustion a weekengine.” course in radio. There was a course in Franz Plunder spent the summer of navigation. And Franz Plunder-a sculp­ 1942 designing and building new desks tor, marine architect, and boat-builderand beds of walnut to outfit dormitory taught a course on the gasoline engine. rooms (he also made the Coffee Shop “No one knew which St. Johnnie might be tables). Said a student in the yearbook: stranded in a tank somewhere on the bat­ “The desks, when swept clear of all intel­ tlefront, where there would be no hard­ lectual material, made excellent bars. The ware store and mechanics for him to turn beds were designed without head or foot to,” explains a student in the 194a Year­ and thus made excellent daybeds; they book. Winfree Smith’s account adds: gave, as it were, a range of two-hundred “Actually the course was in line with and seventy degrees of attack.” [Scott] Buchanan’s view that there is a D {The College - St. John’s College . Fall 2001 } Franz Plunder in the WOODSHOP WITH THE WALNUT BEDS HE MADE FOR DORM ROOMS. St. JoHn’s �■ s {Alumni Events Calendar} a On a prefect southwestern July day, Santa Fe alumni enjoyed their perfect southwest­ ern RELAXED PICNIC. Croquet Match April 37, aooa, i p.m., Annapolis A stunning comeback is predicted for the 15 and 4 Johnnies who unexpectedly lost last year’s match. Will revenge be sweet? 8 T TIC June 30 - July 5, Santa te • Arts and Letters of New Mexico; Alexis de Toqueville, Democracy in. America July 7 - la, Santa Fe Plato, The Republic, The Qur’an and the life of Muhammad i—Santa Friday, July 5 - Smd^, juiy 7 Reunion classes: 1972,1977,198a, 1987, 199a, and 1997 imecoming, aooa-Annapolij Friday, October 4 - Sunday, October 6 Reunion classes: 193a, 1937,194a, 1947, 1952,1957,1963,1957,1962,1967,197a, 1977’ 1982,1987,1993,1997 Secontfl LShi Santa 1iSia The show will take place during Homecoming aooa. If you’re interested in par­ ticipating, please contact Maggie Magalnick (505-984-6199) or Elizabeth Pollard Jenny (303-530-3373). For information on events, contact the Offices of Alumni Activities; Tahmina Shalizi Director of Alumni and Parent Activities Santa Fe-505-984-6103 tshalizi@mail.sjcsf.edu Roberta Gable Director of Alumni Activities Annapolis-4io-6a6-a53i alumni@sjca.edu {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } �STJOHN’S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE Published by the Public Relations Office Box aSoo Annapolis, Maryland 21404 address service requested Periodicals Postage Paid � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 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 The College, Fall 2001 Description An account of the resource Volume 28, Issue 1 of The College Magazine. Published in Fall 2001. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-09 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 28, Issue 1 Fall 2001 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Goyette, Barbara (editor) Borden, Sus3en (assistant editor) Ducker, Susanne (graphic designer) Mulry, Laura J. (Santa Fe editor) Johnson, David Morrison, Marissa Hancock, Evan Randall, Thomson Idema, James Pastille, William Sanfilippo, Mark Gable, Roberta Eoyang, Glenda H. The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/57b157947f831f4d09eab130ae796d52.pdf 194fa35ced5525e3ce56b35e980b9ede PDF Text Text �STJOHN’S College On Eliot ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE " ith his slicked back hair, prissy round glasses, and exact gray W suit, T.S. Eliot looked the part he played as a mid-level worker in Lloyds Bank of London. In his spare time, he wrote The Waste Land, a hallmark that in framed theSt.attitudes of the Thomas Stearns Eliotpoem was born 1888 in Louis. His post-Great WarBrick generation. father was president of the Hydraulic-Press Company, his mother was an amateur poet who volunteered as a social worker. Eliot, the last of seven children, was sickly and his moth­ er and older sisters doted on him. The family’s origins were strongly in Unitarian New Eng­ land, and Eliot, after a prep school upbringing in St. Louis and Boston, followed the family tradition and went to Harvard. Not a stellar student, he nonetheless completed his BA in three years and stayed a fourth to get his master’s. He traveled to Paris, worked on some poems (one of which became “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’’—completed when Eliot was 21), and then returned to Harvard to begin work on a PhD. His circle of friends and mentors included George Santayana, William James, Bertrand Russell, and Josiah Royce. Eliot grew more deeply interested in philosophy, especially the workof F.H. Bradley, and was occupied by questions of the psychology of con­ sciousness. In 1914 he studied in Germany, then moved on to Oxl()rd. In England, he dropped his usual reserve long enough to become infatuated with Vivian Haigh-Wood, beau­ tiful but emotionally disturbed. Much to his parents’ dismay, he married her and they moved into Bertrand Russell’s apartment. Eliot supported himself by catch-as-catch-can teaching gigs and writing assignments with literary magazines. Because he was fluent in several languages, Eliot landed a steady job in the foreign section of Lloyds Bank. He began to produce poetry more prolifically, and to be published and admired. When in his late 30s, Eliot joined the Ghurch of England and also became a British citizen, both iconoclastic decisions that reflected his philosophical and intellectual develop­ ment as “a classicist in literature, royalist in politics, and anglo-catholic in religion.” Although poetry never paid a living wage, Eliot was able to drop the bank job in favor of pub­ lishing once he became better established as an editor and critic. This issue of the magazine contains two brief references to Eliot’s poems; “April is the crudest month,” the beginning of The Waste Land, is cited in a story about how the sea­ son of winter impacts our psychology; and Eva Brann’s review of The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes includes a reference to British workers’ recognition of but slight distaste for modernists like Eliot. T.S. Eliot is an amalgam of traditional and mod­ The College (usps 018-750) is published four times a year by St. John’s College, Annapolis, md and Santa Fe, nm. Known office of publication; Public Relations Office St. John’s College Box 3800 Annapolis, md 31404-3800 Periodicals postage paid at Annapolis, md Send address changes to The College Magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, Box 3800, Annapolis, md 31404-3800. postmaster: Annapolis 410-395-5554 b-goyette@sjca.edu Barbara Goyette, editor Sus3an Borden, managing editor Susanne Ducker, graphic designer Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Kathryn Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 classics@mail.sjcsf.edu ern; his ideas have their basis in mythology, classical thought, established religion; but Laura J. Mulry, Santa Fe editor the expression of those ideas and the rhythms of his poetry are so innovative as to set a Advisory Board style that has come to define modernity. Eliot demonstrates for us the power of poetic language. Somehow, the words and lines and rhythms are inside us, and certain phrases become part of the way we think of things. As he said; “[Poetry] may make us ... a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves, and an evasion of the visible and sensible world.” Alexis Brown Grant Franks David Levine Margaret Odell John Rankin Ginger Roherty Tahmina Shalizi Mark St. John -BG Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �{Contents} PAGE I2l DEPARTMENTS Here Comes the Sun 2 FROM THE BELL TOWERS Alumni discuss how the seasons affect our psychology-and why some are glad to see April while others regret the end of ice and snow. PAGE The Roots of OUR Program PAGE I a Eva Brann reviews a hook about the intellectual life of British workers, who gravitated to the books that eventually found their way onto the St. John’s reading list. PAGE 21 HISTORY About John McDowell, St. John’s first president l8 23 ALUMNI NOTES ALUMNI PROFILES 24 Edith Updike (A86) - Business writer and Japan hand 28 Mark Adler (A60) - Harpsichord maker Santa Fe tutor Linda Weiner spent a summer working with Mexicans who are trying to bring new life to their cultural traditions. 30 Melissa Skilondz (SF78) - A life in improv 32 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS Networking for careers, discussing an Eastern Classic in L.A. 3'4' 36 BIBLIOFILE Questioning History Short reviews of books by alumni An alumna’s quest to understand her parents’ work on the Manhattan Project. PAGE 37 OBITUARIES 3P Myths About Senior Essays 40 ST. JOHN’S FOREVER PAGE 38 IO Why Moby Dick was taken off the reading list, and which alumni tutors wrote the shortest essays. The inauguration of John Balkcom Mellon Hall gets an update Summer Classics slate Running in the Olympic relay Santa Fe astronomy Alumni survey results An Annapolis lynching remembered Philanthropia stages New York event Tutor chess champ Liberty Bell repairs New art for Meem Library IO LETTERS Turning Ideas INTO Action PAGE • • • • • • • • • • • ON THE COVER T.S. Eliot Illustration by DavidJohnson �<2 {From the Bell Towers} Inviting Conversations The inauguration ofJohn E. Balkcom aspresident in Santa Fe. Amid the pomp and ceremony of his inauguration as president of the Santa Fe campus, John Balkcom raised his arm toward the audience and asked for a show of hands from undergrad­ uates and GIs. “Just for the sake of clarity,” he said, point­ ing toward the students, “this is why we’re here. It’s certainly why I’m here for this inaugura­ tion.” That simple gesture symholized the new president’s clarity of focus, his spontane­ ity, his friendly regard, and his seriousness of purpose. More than 500 students, alumni, faculty. Board memhers, Annapolis colleagues, and friends from Santa Fe gathered in the new Student Activities Center on January a6 to wel­ come John E. Balkcom as presi­ dent. Although he had heen on the job since November of aooo, and the more elaborate inauguration scheduled for September 14 of aooi was can­ celled, the ceremony brought a fresh sense of beginnings to the western campus. The theme chosen for the event-which stretched over a weekend-was “Inviting Con­ versations.” The inauguration’s planners wanted it to be an open invitation to all to partici­ pate in the college’s unique form of education. Representa­ tives from the many spheres within which St. John’s oper­ ates came: students, faculty, and staff of the college from both campuses; representatives of the city of Santa Fe; the Alumni Association; the stu­ dent government; and the Board of Visitors and Gover­ nors. Events included seminars for students, alumni, and Board members on “As You Like It” (Friday afternoon); an Inaugur­ al Dinner for students, faculty, staff, and visitors; the inaugu­ ral ceremony on Saturday at 2 p.m.; a reception; and an Inau­ gural Ball Saturday night. For John Balkcom, becoming president of St. John’s is an inauguration into a different life. After graduating from Princeton and earning an MBA from the University of Chicago, he spent 25 years as a manage­ ment consultant, advising organizations on how to grow, measure, reward, and govern talented people. When he visit­ ed St. John’s in Santa Fe with his daughter, who was looking A CROWD OF MORE THAN 5OO WATCHED THE INAUGURATION IN THE NEW Student Activities Center. John Balkcom: From manage­ ment consultant to summer GRADUATE STUDENT TO COLLEGE PRESIDENT. at colleges, he decided he want­ ed to find out more about the college. He spent several vaca­ tions in the Summer Classics program, became a member of the Board of Visitors and Gov­ ernors, then enrolled in the Graduate Institute. He received his MA in liberal arts in 2000. The inaugural ceremony included speeches from repre­ sentatives of all the groups important to the college, and as such served as a source of unity. John Cornell, a tutor at the college, said, “It always makes teachers proud to see one of their students appointed to high office...We are sharing the joy of an old friend who under­ stands the transforming power of a unique institution.” Cor­ {The College- St. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } nell referred to Balkcom as someone whose life was gen­ uinely changed by the college. “[He] combines the speculative powers and easy eloquence of a senior colleague, with the wild energy and uninhibited capaci­ ty for wonder of our most youthful, new freshman,” said Cornell. Annapohs dean Har­ vey Flaumenhaft spoke of Balkcom’s “cordial inter-campus collegiality,” and Graduate Institute student John Larkin praised his ability to convey the essence of the St. John’s experi­ ence to those who were new to it: “I came here with... a cer­ tain romantic and musty notion of reading quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore... But right from the first, Mr. Balk­ com told us it was about some­ thing else...This is where we were going to learn about who we were.” Two of Balkcom’s fellow alumni, Glenda Eoyang (SF76), �{From the Bell Towers} president of the Alumni Associ­ ation, and Chris Nelson (SF70), president of the Annapolis campus, spoke of his ability to bring together disparate ele­ ments. “His is the model of the contemplative-practical life,” said Eoyang, who added, “He bridges the chasm between the Program and the institution.” Nelson recounted a conversa­ tion the two had early in their acquaintance, when Balkcom was a new Board member. They talked about The Aeneid. not about the Board or the college. They discussed the rule of law, the need to be grounded in a community in order to govern effectively, the problem with having a vision of the future in order to make it a reality. “It seemed to me that I had met a man my own age of a similar professional background who cared about the books because they were alive for him-what they had to say mattered because they might influence his life in action.” That the new president has made an impression on the stu­ dents was clear from the com­ ments of Leah Willcox, class of 2003. She described the St. John’s education as a kind of unlearning. “This unlearning is not just for breaking bad high school habits, nor is it simply a reversed process like Pene- Tutor emeritus William Darkey HOLDS THE ChAIN OF OFFICE. Students swing at the Inaugural Ball. lope’s unweaving during the night of all her day’s work. Rather, it is a tool that must be employed within the pro­ gram... It would seem, then, that wherever traditions are broken, wherever innovation occurs, unlearning is somehow present. For this reason it appears that Mr. Balkcom has already taken this paradigm of St. John’s learning to heart. Regardless of where he ever actually learned the job of col­ lege president, he has certainly unlearned its vices. Most importantly, he has unlearned the commonly practiced notion that the head of a college should remain aloof and sev­ ered from its student body.” David Levine (A67), dean in Santa Fe, spoke about “the sense of promise and optimism that comes with new begin­ nings.” Gregory Curtis, chair­ man of the Board, stressed that Balkcom’s presidency made him “the most hopeful for the future of this campus that I’ve ever been.” Victoria Mora, a Santa Fe tutor, seemed to sum up the opinions of all who spoke when she said: “I’m con­ fident that this former student and Board member, and now leader of our fine staff, has not come to us either unprepared or unwilling to learn-and this bodes well for St. John’s, which lives on the funny juxtaposition of knowledge and naivete, experience and experimentalism, in its radical attempt to ground individual perspective through the hard work of coop­ erative insight.” Representatives of the differ­ ent communities of St. John’s participated in an unusual part of the ceremony, the “Chain of the Insignia of the Office of the President.” The chain of office is a cast sterling silver medal­ lion suspended from a silver chain of open books. It was cre­ ated by Annapolis silversmith Judson Martin and first used at the inauguration of Edwin Delattre as president in 1980. In the ceremony, the chain is passed from participant to par­ ticipant, signifying the unifica­ tion of the diverse communities under the new president’s lead­ ership. In his inauguration speech, Balkcom outlined his vision for St. John’s, and asked all those who participated in the day’s ceremonies to “help shape the future of this institution.” He began by offering a view of the program that was couched in terms other than are usually used. Reading a poem called {The College -Sf. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } 3 “The Mouse and the Camel” by the Persian poet Rumi, Balk­ com made the point that “our conversations have as much to do with listening as with speak­ ing.” A mouse holding the lead rope of a camel in imitation of the camel drivers is stumped when he comes to a great river. The camel says, “Maybe you shouldn’t be leading a camel. Stay with those like yourself. A mouse has nothing to say to a camel.” He then lets the mouse ride across the river on his back, and the poem continues, “you are not a prophet, but go humbly on the way of the prophets, and you can arrive where they are.” But Balkcom was not content to dwell on the philosophical underpinnings of the program or on what the college accom­ plishes with students, which can be truly seen by consider­ ing the tremendous variety of career paths in which St. John’s alumni succeed. He also took care to outline some specific areas where improvement is needed: providing more time for faculty to “read, reflect, and to prepare themselves for our program; building faculty hous­ ing near the campus”; offering greater financial support to students (perhaps not to the extent of his alma mater, Princeton, which is attempting to replace all student loans with outright grants); correcting the misimpression that the study of the great books excludes math­ ematics and science; and pro­ viding “a warm welcome to all our constituencies-students, parents, alumni, friends, facul­ ty, staff, and neighbors.” He concluded by thanking all in attendance for “joining to celebrate the relationships, the challenge, and the partnership-both locally and nationally-that is St. John’s College.” For thefall text ofmany of the speeches delivered at the inauguration, see the web site at WWW. sjcsf edu/comcal/ inauguration, htm. �4 {From the Bell Towers} Mellon Updated The vertical steel louvers meant to move with the progress of the sun never worked. There was no air con­ ditioning in the classrooms, while it was suh-arctic in the summer in the auditorium and Conversation Room. The hall­ ways were dreary. The clock in the physics wing hadn’t worked since the early 1970s. The slate workbenches in the biology and chemistry labs had deterio­ rated so much you got brown stains on your hands if you touched them. Recently, the seats in the auditorium had become so worn that their springs were popping out. All these traits characterized Mel­ lon Hall, the behemoth class­ room building opened in 1959. Aside from a 1989 revamp of the Conversation Room and the addition of the Mitchell Gallery and administrative wing, Mel­ lon remained in its virgin state. No one’s sure what to call the glass-enclosed seating area being CONSTRUCTED IN THE MeLLON COURTYARD. With the current $12.9 milhon renovation of Mellon, here’s an update on the above: One set of the louvers is now working-thanks to the efforts of CharUe Berliner (A70), an Annapolis contractor who has been fiddling with them; hopes are that the remainder will be working by the time the con­ struction is complete this August. A new, state-of-the-art air conditioning and ventilation Summer Classics: Books AND Opera in Santa Fe Summer Classics, the program that brings book and opera lovers from across the country to the Santa Fe campus, will be held July 14 through August 2. This year seminars are sched­ uled for both morning and after­ noon sessions, with opera and chamber music in the evenings. The program is appropriate as an introduction to the college and also for alumni and those who have participated in other St. John’s outreach programs like Executive Seminars or community seminars. For more information, check the web site atwww.sjcsf.edu, e-mail classics@mail.sjcsf.edu, or call 505-984-6104. Week I, July 14-19 Morning session: • Aeschylus, Oresteia and Prometheus Bound. Led by Sherry Martin and Judith Adam • Melville, “Bihy Budd” and “Piazza Tales.” Led by Jim Forkin and Tom Scally • Tolstoy, Anna Karenina. Led by Eva Brann and Janet Dougherty Afternoon session: • Leonardo da Vinci the Painter. Led by David Carl and Stephen Houser Virgil, • The Aeneid. Led by Michael Bybee and Gino Thomas • Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations. Led by Claudia Honeywell and CalebThompson SoLARIUM? CaFE? system has been installed; it employs giant ice cube trays through which warm air circu­ lates and gets infused with cool­ ness before being pumped to the far reaches of the building. The hallways are wide, bright, and cheerful, with red linoleum retro-looking floors, light pine doors and trim, and lots of lighting. The clock is gone; either no one could fix it or the architects decided a clock didn’t Week II, July 21-2,6 Morning session: • Opera - Verdi, La Traviata and Mozart, Clemenza di Tito. Led by Wilham Fulton • Shakespeare, Cymbeline and A Winter’s Tale. Led by William Alba and Krishnan Venkatesh • Virginia Woolf, To the Light­ house. Led by Jan Arsenault and Elizabeth Engle Afternoon session: • Euripides'. Five Tragedies. Led by David Carl and Claudia Honeywell • Hans Jonas and the Ethics of Biotechnology. Led by James Forkin and David Neidorf • Locke, Second Treatise of Government and Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. Led by Michael Rawn and Robert Richardson {The College. St. lohn’s College . Winter/Spring 2002 } fit with their concept for the building. All the laboratory and project rooms have been reno­ vated, with new cabinetry, new fixtures, and new workspaces. Seats in the auditorium are being reupholstered. And there’s more...An addi­ tion on the College Creek side contains a meeting/seminar room with teleconferencing equipment and tutor offices. The basement has been opened up by the addition and a new pottery studio and darkroom constructed. The hallway between the lobby and the music library has been bumped out into the courtyard; it will be enclosed with glass and become a light-filled cafe. While opinions on Mellon as an example of architectural sig­ nificance vary, students and tutors seem to like the new look of the renovation. Alumni, parents, and friends of the col­ lege will be invited on tours of Mellon in September and at Homecoming-so they can judge for themselves. Week III, July 28-AuGUST a Morning session: • Opera - Pushkin’s Onegin with Tchaikovsky’s opera. Led by Wilham Fulton and Robert Ghck • Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II and Henry V. Led by Judith Adam and Warren Winiarski • Proust, Swann’s Way. Led by David Carl and Patricia Locke Afternoon session: • Faulkner, Go Down, Moses. Led by Michael Rawn and Robert Richardson • Plato, The Apology, Crito, and Phaedo. Led by William Alba and Krishnan Venkatesh • The Rig Veda. Led by Patricia Greer and Michael Wolfe �{From the Bell Towers} Olympic Inspiration This past January, Julie Francisca (SFGI93) had occasion to learn about the traditions sur­ rounding the Olympic torch. “The Olympic Flame is ignited by three women during a sacred ceremony in Olympia, Greece,” she says. “A single ray of sun­ light is caught in a mirror and the reflection is then magnified to initiate a spark. Following the ceremony, a Guardian of the Flame escorts the flame, safeguarded in a lantern, to the Olympic host country and trav­ els with it throughout the Olympic Torch Relay in case the torch needs to be relit from the original flame. “On December 4, 2001 the Olympic flame arrived in Atlanta. Muhammad Ali was the first in the United States to carry the 2002 Olympic flame. The relay covered 46 states, 250 cities, and 13,500 miles,” says Francisca. “On January 14, the 40th day of the Olympic Torch Relay, the flame had made its way to Galifornia, where I was the first to carry it.” Francisca carried the torch as an Inspiration Partner. She had nominated a friend, Mar­ sha Gilden, to carry the torch and Francisca was given a place in the relay along with her. In her essay nominating Gilden, Francisca wrote that her friend, a teacher, was “dedicated to bridging diversity whether it be found in physical challenges, generation gaps, or ethnic mul­ tiplicity.” The day before her relay leg in Ghula Vista, Calif., Francis­ ca was too excited to get any rest. “I could no longer pretend to sleep and finally threw the covers off at 5 a.m. and began getting ready to ride the Wild Wave for the ride of my life! ” she later wrote. “Even so, I never slacked on my responsi­ 5 bilities and paid very close attention to the ABSOLUTELY NO HAIRSPRAY rule, which was repeated several times in the long list of rules.” When Francisca arrived at the relay site, the Guardian of the Flame was there, ready to coach her on how to light her torch from the flame burning in the 2002 Olympic Cauldron. “I waved at the few spectators sprinkled along the path as I rounded the lake... Just as I approached the last curve lead­ ing to the top of the hill, the sun broke through the gray overcast of the cold morning sky. The crowd caught their first glimpse of me carrying the Olympic Torch and went wild! I had not anticipated how uplift­ ing the wave of emotion would be when I felt the roar of the crowd break over me, but it was awesome,” she says. During the day, Francisca signed scores of autographs and was interviewed by a television reporter. “It was a long, long interview, which was reduced to two sentences when it aired,” she says. “Even so, they were the most important sentences: ‘It is a thrill, an honor and a privilege. The flame reminds us that we are inspirations to one another.’ ” 4" Santa Fe Astronomy equipment, so that the sky­ watch program will not be lim­ ited by the busy schedules and family commitments of faculty. After a year or two of a success­ ful program, the college will be positioned to plan for an obser­ vatory structure. Presently, the on-campus skywatches are held on the west deck of Evans Science Lab, cov­ ered last year with walking pads so that it can be fully used with­ out causing roof leaks. With motivation and leadership, we shall also be able to conduct skywatch sessions at the foot of the Santa Fe Ski Basin as well as other sites, such as the Abiquiu area and the Galisteo area. Our location on campus is imperfect because of two factors, namely campus and city lights that are not dark-sky compliant, and the air currents to be found at the foot of our mountains. As we become more experienced and skilled, these may become sig­ nificant limitations. At present, we are yet beginners, so they don’t matter as much as they might. At the end of November, the Santa Fe campus acquired an eight-inch reflecting telescope with a sophisticated computer drive, paid for by the class of 2001. For its size, this tele­ scope is as good as it gets, and should greatly enhance our nas­ cent skywatch program. We also purchased with the same senior class gift a CCD camera for electronic image capture, to be put into use when we have gained considerable experience with the new telescope. We —BY Hans von Briesen, Director of Laboratories 'Tor its size, this telescope is as p^ood as itgets, and should greatly enhance our nascent sky­ watch program.'' already have an 8-inch reflector with a less refined support structure, and a 3.5-inch Questar telescope augmented by a heavy-duty camera tripod. I hope to recruit two or three highly responsible students to be stewards of the astronomy Santa Fe Johnnies can now look at the phenomena described by Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, thanks to the new TELESCOPE ON THE ROOF OF ESL. {The College -John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �6 {From the Bell Towers} Alumni Opinions Now Knowledge eor SJC One of the earhest lessons freshmen learn at St. John’sheginningwith Plato’s Gorgias-'xs that opinion is dif­ ferent from knowledge. Opin­ ion is not rehahle; knowledge, of course, is; opinion is based on thought that skims the sur­ face of truth. And yet opinions are not without value. They are openings to conversation, prel­ udes to ideas. Still, a philo­ sophical distrust of opinion made the college think long and hard about conducting an opinion survey of alumni. St. John’s did commission an opinion survey of its alumni last spring, and the results show a strong support of the college, and in particular of “The Program”-the idealistic educational mission statement that the college curriculum embodies. The consulting firm Kane, Parsons & Co. conduct­ ed a telephone survey of 600 undergraduate alumni and 150 alumni of the Graduate Insti­ tute. The random group of alumni called represented a cross-section of decades on both campuses and was weight­ ed toward the ig8os and 1990s, since 60% of alumni come from those two decades. The sur­ vey’s aim was to assess alumni attitudes toward the college, find out what features on the web might be of interest to alumni, and assess alumni atti­ tudes toward fundraising. Here are some of the findings: • 66% of undergrad alumni and 91% of GI alumni rated their overall experience at St. John’s as very positive. a8% of under­ grads and 7% of GIs rated their experience as more positive than negative. Overall approval rating: 94% for undergraduates and 98% for GI alumni. • When asked to cite two ways that St. John’s had an impact of their lives, alumni focused on the Program. 61% cited reading and studying the great books, 49% cited “the St. John’s approach to learning” and 37% (52% of GIs) cited their experiences in tutorials and seminars. These results are in contrast to the experiences that alumni from other liberal arts colleges usually emphasize-friendships with fellow The alumni message: The Program brings about TRANSFORMATION. intellectual students and faculty members (38% at SJG). • WTien asked if any of their St. John’s experiences were less than satisfactory, 56% of under­ graduate alumni said yes. (Sur­ prisingly, 42% could find noth­ ing to complain about!) Of those who said something was unsatisfactory, 49% named career preparation, 39% named “developing specific skills such as writing,” and 37% named “helping one’s emotional development.” • 97% of alumni expressed a high degree of support for the college and its aims. • The most requested feature on a proposed new St. John’s web site is an online, update­ able directory of alumni. • 65% of undergraduate alumni say it is very likely they will give a gift to the college in the future. • Alumni support their dona­ tions to the college being used for student financial aid, “preservation of the Program,” and bringing tutor salaries up to par with those at comparable colleges. For a summary ofthe report, interested alumni can contact the Public Relations office in Annapolis at 4io-626-253g oremail b-goyette@sjca.edu. Ugly Moment in History Between 1891 and 1906, ten lynchings occurred in the state of Maryland. The last of those, on December 21,1906, was in Annapolis. A mob of men stormed the jailhouse on Calvert Street and dragged a black prisoner named Henry Davis, who had been accused of raping a white woman, to the banks of College Creek. The mob hung Davis and shot him; one account says that more than 100 rounds were fired. Ninety-five years after the horrific lynching, the details of the crime are coming to light. WTien a group of Annapolitans began to look into the history of lynching in the city, they questioned the role of St. John’s in Davis’ death. The legend in the community was that the lynching had occurred on the college’s back campus. But newspaper accounts from the time show that the mob took Davis further upstream-to the end of what is now Clay Street and was known in the early 1900s as Brick Yard Hill. The Washington Post reported on December 23,1906 that St. John’s students, can­ didates for the Naval Academy, and Annapolis youth were the cul­ prits. But the following day, Thoms Fell, the president of the col­ lege, denied the reports. He noted that almost all the students were gone from the college on the night of the attack, since Christ­ mas break had begun earlier that week. The paper retracted its story. Evidence does suggest that the lynchers-who were never identified-gathered to formulate their plan on the St. John’s cam­ pus, either on the far back campus or in Randall Hall. Nelson Hernandez (A99) is a reporter for the Anne Arundel bureau of the Washington Post. He began investigating the 1906 lynching when community leaders in Annapolis decided that it was time to acknowledge this ugly moment in the city’s past. Hernan­ dez’s article in the Post (December 20, 2001) laid out the history of the event and described current efforts to commemorate the lynching. On the 95th anniversary of the lynching, a group of com­ munity leaders gathered in the Brewer Hill Cemetery to dedicate a plaque in remembrance of Henry Davis. Regardless of Davis’ guilt, his death was racially motivated, said Carl Snowden, who headed up the commemoration effort. “That must never happen again,” said Snowden. “No one believes that is justice.” {The College-5:. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{From the Bell Towers} Philanthropia in New York The music was loud, the food was tasty, and the drinks were flowing, but in the end, it was the conversation that kept New York Johnnies out late on a Thursday night in early Decem­ ber, Over 50 alumni, mainly from the last two decades, gath­ ered at the Tenth Street Lounge in the East Village for a chance to meet fellow Johnnies, recon­ nect with old classmates, and, of course, talk. Elizabeth Powers and Sapna Gandhi met again after Z3 YEARS. The event was sponsored by Philanthropia, the alumni organization dedicated to fundraising for St. John’s. Stefanie Takacs (A89) spearheaded the event. “I thought it might be fun, especially after Septem­ ber II, for people to get togeth­ er, and I thought it was a nice way for Philanthropia and the college to reach out to alumni,” she says. “The invitation had a picture of a seminar chair, to help people remember what St. John’s is all about and how important conversation and community are to the college and its alumni.” Among the alumni attending the event was Annapolis cam­ pus president Christopher Nel­ son (SF70), who had the chance to talk to the group about the relevance of St. John’s in today’s world. He discussed the heartfelt and strongly focussed seminar discussions on the Odyssey, held just after the ter­ rorist attacks. He told of two current students, Maya Alapin (A03) and Kelly O’Donnell (A04), whose letters to The Gadflycited in a story that appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Bal­ timore Sun and the Los Angeles Times. The writers first described the feelings of guilt, uselessness, and selfishness they experienced immediately after the attacks, but then explained their newfound understanding of the impor­ tance of a St. John’s education. Alapin wrote: “It seems to me that now is a better time than any for us to show our commit­ ment to answering that special question about living a good life so that when we are ready, we can give to the world the best thoughts we can muster.” Nelson says that even though the music was wild and the crowd pretty loud, “the quality of the conversation was nonetheless high. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing so many good friends and thought Philan­ thropia provided a wonderful way for alumni to revisit the college. The sense of communi­ ty that exists among such friends is just great.” Sapna Gandhi (A91) describes Nelson’s talk as very warm and said it made her feel connected to the community. She also enjoyed meeting up with Elizabeth Powers (A89), with whom she once shared a short but intense Johnnie friendship. “It was at the end of her senior year; I was a sopho­ more. We had the chance to spend a little time together and we really connected,” Gandhi says. “But I hadn’t seen her since 1989. We spent the evening catching up on each other’s lives.” Takacs also passed most of the night in conversation, which she says was the primary purpose of the gathering. She was pleased to see how plenti­ ful and intense discussions were throughout the room and she attributed the success of the event to these talks: “Unlike some group events that start to dwindle when the free alcohol runs out, this con­ tinued into the late hours.” Several alumni at the Tenth Street Lounge took note of this phenomenon, reporting that, although the gathering was scheduled for 7:00 to 9:30 p.m., the last Johnnies-including Ghris Nelson-left close to midnight. Takacs, now Philanthropia’s Events Ghair, will organize gatherings in other cities. While plans are still prehminary, Denver and Boston are being considered for aooa. The goal of Philanthropia is to educate alumni about the importance of supporting the college financially; their efforts focus on fundraising for the col­ lege’s Annual Fund. Gifts to the Annual Fund support the yearly operation of the college in areas like faculty salaries, financial aid for students, and academic instructional expenses. For more information on Philan­ thropia and Philanthropia events, call Maggie Griffin at 410-626-3534. 4- Chess Champ Jesse Kraai has been keeping busy these days. In addition to the usual round of seminars and tutorials, paper confer­ ences and faculty meetings, he’s been playing a lot of chess. Luckily, he’s found a way to maximize board time during the few spare hours in a tutor’s demanding schedule-he’s been playing many of his games simultaneously. Last October he played 3a opponents at once in a chess exhibition in Santa Fe. All 3a (including Johnnies Andrew Smith and Devin King) lost. In March he played nine of New Mexico’s top youth players simultaneously. Although his age and experience gave him the distinct advantage, he agreed to level the field-by never looking at the boards (he recorded their moves on paper and envisioned the games from his notes). Two of the players earned draws. Kraai won the other seven. Kraai, a graduate of Santa Fe High School, attended Shimer College, which features a great books program similar to St. {The College- 5f. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } Kraai studies the board in a MATCH with multiple OPPONENTS. John’s. He pursued graduate work in Germany, where he received his MA in history and philosophy of science. Kraai achieved the rank of Senior Chess Master in 1994. In 1999, he became the first person from New Mexico to attain the rank of International Chess Master. This past January, he was one of 56 players who qualified to compete in the U.S. Chess Championships in Seattle, where he finished as one of la players tied for i6th place. ->■ �{From the Bell Towers} 8 Announcements Director of Labs Opening The Santa Fe campus has a position open for Director of Laboratories, who supervises and supports the operation of laboratory science at the col­ lege. Hans von Briesen, the current director, plans to retire after academic year 2,002-3. Responsibilities include: • Hiring, training, and supervising undergradu­ ate lab assistants • Advising faculty on exper­ imental work • Maintaining facilities and equipment and procuring supplies • Supporting the on-going development of the labo­ ratory curriculum and manuals. Prior expertise in all parts of the laboratory curriculum is not required; rather, candidates should demonstrate love of lab­ oratory science, interest in expanding beyond prior expert­ ise, and interest in studying sci­ ence through its original his­ torical sources. A master’s degree in a scientific field or a bachelor’s degree and equiva­ lent education and experience are required. Candidates should send a resume and a brief letter explaining their interest in the position to Mr. Jorge Aigla, Chair, Search Committee for Director of Laboratories, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM, 87505-4599- Tuition and Fees Announced Tuition and fees for the aca­ demic year 2002-2003 will total more than $34,000. Tuition will be $27,210 (a 5.5% increase over 2001-2002 rates), room and board will be $6,970 (a 3% increase), and the student activity fee will remain at $200. In the Graduate Insti­ tute, the tuition per semester for the Liberal Arts program will be $5,190 and for the East­ ern Classics program it will be $8,072 (both are 4% increases over the previous year). Tuition rates at the college The St. John’s Search and Rescue Team officers pose in their steel­ iest POSTURES. The team, estaelished in 1971, unites Johnnies with Santa Feans in search and rescue operations for anyone lost or INJURED IN REMOTE AREAS OF NeW MeXICO. LeFT TO RIGHT: DeVIN KeNNEMORE, Treasurer; Cinnamon Blair, Secretary; Chris CoucheronAamot (SF04), President; Brendan O’Neill (SF93), Training Offi­ cer; KoryGoold (SF04), member-at-large; John Laurino (SF02), Equipment Officer; Mary Freitas (SF80), Vice President. are similar to those at compara­ ble liberal arts colleges nation­ wide. More than half of St. John’s undergraduate students receive a financial aid package from the college. And since it costs about $36,000 to educate a student at St. John’s, even those who pay full tuition in effect receive a subsidy. The difference is made up through contributions to the Annual Fund and income generated from the endowment. Flaumenhaft Appointed Dean Harvey Flaumenhaft, a tutor at the Annapolis campus since 1968 and dean since 1997, has been reappointed to a second five-year term as dean. “The work of being dean unfortunately leaves little time for study, writing, and reflec­ tion, which I sorely miss, bit it is very interesting-especiaUy to someone with my scholarly interest in the theory of organi­ zation and administration,” says Flaumenhaft. “I would nonethe­ less regard my five years of it as quite sufficient were there not several projects that I’d like to carry further forward, among which are: the estabhshment of faculty development on a more solid basis; the institution of a more regular and better sup­ ported system for improving our use of supplemental instruction­ al materials; the working out of arrangements for joint accredi­ tation that will include academic review by an organization devot­ ed to hberal education; and the enhancement of cooperation between our two campus com­ munities without undermining local enterprise, commitment, and self-government.” Hodson Grant to Fund Mellon Renovation The Hodson Trust has given St. John’s College $1.1 miUion, to be used as a challenge to other donors for the renovation of Mellon HaU. The Trust will match gifts for the renovation. {The College . St John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } “The Hodson Trust is providing valuable leverage for the college to raise additional money to sup­ port the Mellon Hall renova­ tion,” said President Chris Nel­ son. “The challenge program is both extraordinarily generous in itself and extremely encourag­ ing of further generosity from the college’s other friends and alumni.” The Hodson Trust, estab­ lished in 1920, has given more than $118 million to four Mary­ land colleges: Johns Hopkins, Washington, St. John’s, and Hood. The annual grants fund student scholarships and internships, research, building construction, faculty endow­ ments, and special programs. Jobs for Johnnies Alumni who are in the job mar­ ket can check out www.sjca.edu/ placement/office.phtml, the web site for the Placement (Career Services) office. Many online resources are available, from a listing of current jobs suitable for recent grads and alumni of the college (updated daily) to links to job banks and other resources. Alumni who are looking for employees also send job postings to the site. Karen Krieger, Director of Placement in Annapolis, reports that many alumni land jobs at Johnnie-friendly compa­ nies and schools through net­ working with other alumni they find on the site. The Santa Fe Placement Office site offers a resume-posting service (http://WWW. sjcsf. edu/placement/index.html) as well as additional job listings. Poet Zuckerman Elliott Zuckerman, tutor emer­ itus in Annapolis, has pub­ lished a book of his poetry. The Shape ofan Ear. The 30 poems in the volume were written over a period of more than four decades. Many were published either in their current versions or in earlier versions in The St. John’s Review, or its predeces- �{From the Bell Towers} sor. The College. The volume is available at the college book­ store in Annapolis. Happy too Dr. Thomas “Tommy” Turner, who graduated from St. John’s in igai and went on to become dean of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, celebrated his looth birthday in January. An article in the Baltimore Sun quotes Turner as saying that he originally wanted to be a coun­ try doctor but settled in at Hop­ kins instead. He considers his legacy to include the shift in emphasis in med school admis­ sions from “who you were or what race or religion or sex you were” to “intelligence and brainpower.” Dr. Turner is also a member emeritus of the St. John’s Board of Visitors and Governors. Twenty-Six Characters FOR Meem What more appropriate greet­ ing for a hbrary than a work of art celebrating the possibilities of language? “An Environmen­ tal Study of Twenty-Six Charac­ ters,” a sculpture of the alpha­ bet’s characters by Taos artist Melissa Zink, is now displayed at the entrance to Meem Library in Santa Fe. The piece combines painting, sculpture, and mixed media. A gift to the college from Board member Jeremy Shamos and his wife Susan, the sculpture was dedi­ cated on January a6. At the dedication, Ms. Zink spoke about the work: “In the fall of aooo, I began to understand the alphabet as an infinity and to see the anthropomorphizing of letters as a way to convey the infinite possibihties of our language. As it always is with satisfying 9 Replica Repair In the early 1950s, the Treasury Department presented a replica of the Liberty Bell to each state as part of a campaign to sell defense bonds to support the Korean War. The bell given to Maryland ended up on the campus of St. John’s College, with a base paid for with pennies col­ lected by Maryland school children. The bell has sat on the front campus since then, pointed out to tourists as a minor landmark, and used as a mini-jungle gym for children visiting the cam­ pus. (For the record: The bell is four feet tall, is made of 80 percent copper and ao percent tin, and has no clapper.) On January 10, the bell was removed from campus by the McShane Bell Foundry in nearby Glen Burnie. The foundry will replace the wood­ en yoke that supports it with a new one of white oak, as well as the hardware damaged by the pull of gravity on the a,5oo-pound bell. The work is estimated to take 8 to 10 weeks, so the bell should be back on campus before Croquet Match visitors even notice it’s gone. ideas, the task seemed simple and self-evident. Although it wasn’t quite so simple as I imagined, my beUef that the characters could convey the wealth inherent in our alphabet never wavered. “Since the overarching idea propelhng this work concerned Unhinged: The Liberty Bell’s yoke is lifted from ITS support. The bell was taken to a special bell foundry for repairs. the infinite possibilities of let­ ters and words and thoughts, no particular symbolism applies to each character. The A could be Abraham or Arabian Nights or Aleph. L doesn’t equal dog, but the image could be associated with love and loyalty or laziness and lassitude. Every associa­ “Art that celebrates the elements of our language seems per­ fectly suited to the library,” says Meem director Inga Waite OF THE PIECE BY MeLISSA ZiNK (PICTURED). {The College- St. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } tion leads to another, and with those associations, worlds can be built. What I hope I have made is both a game and a reminder. A game of associa­ tions and journeys into places real or imaginary and a reminder of the extraordinary, ultimately indescribable wealth of thought and image, the benign galaxies of possible com­ binations waiting to express thoughts yet unthought. “John Man, in his book Alpha and Beta, says: ‘To the many millions who use it rou­ tinely, the alphabet seems the essence of simplicity, as easy as ABC. But the sense of simplici­ ty is deceptive, for the alphabet is a surface impression of hid­ den linguistic depths. Its few symbols are nothing compared to the complexity of sounds they represent, while those sounds merely hint at the com­ plexity of language itself.’ “I hope that ‘An Environ­ mental Study of Twenty-Six Characters’ reminds viewers of the extraordinary marvel of lan­ guage and the minds that use it and the worlds we occupy.” �{Letters} More Animal Books Re: Hearts of Animals Yes!!! But how are so many people blinded by the Nietzschean-Darwinian red-intooth-and-claw dogma? Can’t they see we and nostri fratelliti live in a universe of exploration, play, love? May I add to your excellent booklist Christianity & the Rights ofAnimals by Andrew Linzey? —Boyd Kyle, class of 1951 SJC Plaudit I know that St. John’s is not lacking in plaudits but recently I found a special rec­ ommendation. It is in The Cat Who’ll Live Foreveriy Peter Gethers, who was the companion of Norton, the Perfect Cat. This book was preceded by The Cat Who Went to Paris and A Cat Abroad. Peter and Nor­ ton traveled a lot and one place they went was Annapolis, which “has one of the great universities in the country, St. John’s.” I had the good fortune to meet Norton when he came to Berkeley. I wasn’t alone there was a whole roomful of people to meet the famous cat. Norton did not disap­ point. He was wonderful and it was a mem­ orable evening. Norton has since passed on, a beautiful, beneficent cat. Even if you don’t like reading books about cats some­ thing of his persona comes through from his picture on the cover. Thanks for the nice obituary of Bob Arne (Fall issue) written by John Carroll Pollak. I knew Bob in Berkeley, a place he described as “urban but not urbane.” Bob walked his own path, leisurely, gravelyBob was not an employee-and philosophi­ cal, a rare man. —Joseph Barrett, A73 A Question of Accuracy On pages 6 and 40 of the Fall 2001 issue you report the honors showered on me in Washington and Annapolis in one week. May I point out, however, that I did not edit Religion and Resistance to Nazism? I wrote and delivered it as a series of lectures at Princeton (which were followed by very good discussions). The lectures were subse­ quently published as a monograph. It was work on that subject that led me to the Moltke letters. On p. 40, after saying that I “document­ ed the resistance of the German people to Nazism,” you quote Elliott Zuckerman’s mention of my insistence upon “accuracy as opposed to the glib generalities we all encounter.” May I insist on accuracyindeed on the facts of history once more? Once Hitler had come to power, “the Ger­ man people” obeyed him and his apparatus of propaganda and coercion, swooned before his charisma, and patriotically fol­ lowed him into war in Poland, in Scandi­ navia, and Western Europe, in Africa and Soviet Russia-until the Russians, fighting back with tremendous losses, exertions, and fortitude, reached Berlin and he killed himself. Against this background of non-resist­ ance of “the German people” I have over more than half a century, ever since those events happened, taken a passionate inter­ est in the brave individuals and groups of individuals who did resist. I wondered and still wonder about what animated and enabled them to risk and in many cases lose their lives, opposing rather than toler­ ating and supporting that regime. —Beate Ruhm von Oppen Class of 1961 Reunion Update We regret the omission in the Fall issue of The College of any report of the central event of the 40th reunion of the class of rqBi at Homecoming last year. That event was a magnificent and very well-attended luncheon at the home of Nana and John Dealy, organized to honor Eva Brann. Our class’ guests included several members of the college faculty who were tutors during the period 1957-61. Here is the text of our tribute to Eva; The Members ofthe St. John’s College Class ofigbi on the occasion ofour 40th Class Reunion hereby convey to Eva Brann, who shared, as afreshman tutor in 1951, ourfreshman year at the College, our unbounded gratitude, respect, apprecia­ tion, and affectionfor the great gifts she has given to us, enjoyed these 44 years, whose essential nature ispartly reflected in thefollowing texts: “Some things I have said of which I am not altogether confident. But that we shall be better and braver and less helpless if we think that we ought to inquire, than we should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing and no use in seeking to know what we do not know; that is a theme upon which I am ready to fight, in word and deed, to the utmost of my power.” (Socrates in Plato’s Meno) The study of texts...can foster apprecia­ tion for the ingenious wisdom of founding efforts, patience with the slow develop­ ment of depths and complexities, and a reluctance to wield the tool of reason too nonchalantly. Surely these intellectual habits are exactly such as are convertible into the civic virtues most needful...Yet far from being incompatible, they are precisely coincident with the desire to delve into all abysses and to leave no question unasked. A period given to inquiry is therefore indeed an appropriate preparation for republican responsibilities.” (Eva Brann, Paradoxes ofEducation in a Republic) —Cynthia Blesdoe Daley, Nana May Dealy, MarCIA Goldberg Mathog, Linda McConnell, Harri­ son Sheppard, Theodore Stinchecum, The Class OF 1961 Reunion Committee Corrections In the article “First All-Alumni Art Show” in the Fall issue, a name was omit­ ted from the list of participants. Christo­ pher Zerendow (SFga) also exhibited art­ work in the show. In “The Report of the Presidents - 1999aooi” mailed to all alumni in January, the extracurricular activities of Annapolis tutor Andre Barbera were incorrectly reported. Mr. Barbera is president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Mary’s Church. Photo Recollections In the 200a “One and Many” calendar coordinated by Philanthropia mailed to all alumni, we asked for help with the identifi­ cation of people in the photos, since the photos used from the college archives had minimal notations. Thanks to everyone who wrote, e-mailed, or called. Here are some of the responses: The mystery people for November are: sitting on windowsill, Linda Grimes; lying on bed, Sandy Culbertson; sitting in chair, Priscilla Bender Shore; sitting on floor, Emily Martin Kutler. It was dehghtful to find the photo in the calendar. I had never seen it before. —Priscilla Bender-Shore, A55 I recognize several of the people in the November photograph. On the bed is Sandy Culbertson, a tall, statuesque and sweet beauty from California. The picture does not do her justice. She had an incredi­ ble creamy complexion with cheeks that had a slight rose glow to them, especially when she smiled, which was often. Her {The College • St. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } �{Letters} The NOVEMBER WOMEN, NOW IDENTIFIED. eyes were large and, I think, brown. Her hair was a medium-dark brown, and when she walked in the sunshine, there were auburn highlights throughout it. She worked in the dining hall to help pay her expenses, and I remember being horrified that she didn’t make the trip home for Christmas. I would have liked to take her home with me, but it wasn’t possible as I was one of eleven members of my house­ hold. As I was from a very close-knit family, this also astounded me and made me ache for her. She was in the class of ’55. The name of the student sitting on the floor escapes me, but I remember her as very sweet and kind. I read in one of the alumni newsletters that she later married Sammy Kutler, a junior who worked in the mailroom the years I was at St. John’s. He would have been in the class of ’54 and his wife was in the class of ’55. The student at the window I do not rec­ ognize at all. I do recognize the study desk with its lamp and chair, the bedspread and the radiator at the window. Many of the stu­ dents got extra study tables, as weU as an extra mattress and spread. The study table fitted perfectly between the two closets and into the window space. The extra mattress became the pad for the “window seat” with the extra length folded up to provide a cush­ ion for one’s back. And, of course, the spread finished the whole thing off. It was a great arrangement. My room was on the third floor overlooking the quadrangle about midway down the hall. In those days the maid came in, cleaned the room, made the bed and hung up the clothes. I guess that is a thing of the past today. One thing... I would never have recog­ nized Barbara Leonard! But then I don’t look the same as in 195a/53 either. —Mary Alice McWilliams Muir, A56 I am the student in the photograph on the page titled “About the people and the pho­ tographs.” The shirt I’m wearing is from Africa. I can’t be certain, but it is a high probabil­ ity that I am the student in the white T-shirt on the left in the photograph for August. —George Filz, SF76 I enjoyed the SJC 2002 calendar. I can identify a couple of the students who are unidentified in the photos. March 2002: The student beside tutor Barbara Leonard is John Rees, A74. October 2002: The student with the gui­ tar is Linda Stromberg, SF77. She is sitting on a bench in the courtyard of the upper dorms in Santa Fe. I would date the photo­ graph circa 1975, because I remember that she hved in the upper dorms that year. April 2002: The tutor in the photo looks to me like Ray Davis. I think that I can be of some help in identi­ fying people in the photographs in the lat­ est edition of the St. John’s calendar. I think that the identifications of the April and May photographs are switched. Although I don’t remember Eva Brann from my days at St. John’s, I believe that she is the woman in the May photo. ( She looks mighty like that even now.) I am cer­ tain that the man seen in perfect profile behind her is Harvey Poe. I am less certain about the two other people whose faces can be seen. The person sitting next to Eva appears to be Jeremy Tarcher. The person sitting directly behind her seems to be Tom Heineman. If I am correct about either Tarcher or Heineman, this photo could not have been taken later than 1953 when both graduated. The identification of the January photo is probably correct, and it is only coinci­ dental that two of the five men in the photo bear a striking resemblance to men I knew. The man sitting on the table looks like Peter Grimes (the husband of Linda in the November photo). He even has the pipe from which Peter was never separat­ ed. Sitting directly opposite him at the far end of the table is someone who looks very much like my senior year roommate, Frank Polk. —Martin Dyer, Ago The February photograph is of Steve Gold­ man, SF73; the photographer was probably J. R. Thompson, but it could have been Maria Kwong. The tutor in the April photograph is not Tom Slakey; it is Ray Davis. —Michel R. Barnes, SF73 The CollegeviAcwae.^ letters on issues of interest to readers. Letters maybe 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 Gollege, Box 2800, Annapolis MD 21404 or The College Maga­ zine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s Gollege, 1160 Gamino Gruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: b-goyette@sjca.edu, or via the form for letters on the web site atwww.sjca.edu chck on “Alumni,” then on “Gontact The Gollege Magazine.” —Carol High saw, A76 {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{Johnnies on Winter} HERE COMES THE SUN Johnnies across the country bid winter afondfarewell. By SUS3AN Borden, A87 Ithough T.S. Eliot named April the cruelest month, many Johnnies on the Annapolis campus would nominate Fehruary for the title. While the Santa Fe winter offers outdoor sports and a near-daily hlue sky, the Annapolis win­ ter is all about overcast days, slushy streets, and promises of snowstorms that are rarely kept. Alumni across the country are divided in their approach to win­ ter. Some find much that is bitter in the bitter cold. For them, win­ ter is a three-month-long battle with icy roads, itchy sweaters, and a lingering case of SAD (seasonal affective disorder). Others think of December, January, and February as one long winter carnival filled with sledding, skiing, roaring fireplaces, and hot cider. Kersti Tyson (SFga), a native New Mexican who studied in Annapolis and Santa Fe, describes a special approach to winter she discovered when she was a high school exchange student in Norway. Her host family introduced her to koselig (pronounced kooshlie). “It’s a word that I find untranslatable in English. Cozy is the best way to translate it, but it’s more the spirit of being cozy,” she says, “The Norwegians have this way of going around making things cozy for themselves in the wintertime. When you go into a house there are candles lit and good treats on the table. It’s a kosehg atmosphere.” Tyson, now living in Santa Fe, makes her home koselig by lighting candles, curling up on the couch with a blanket and book, drinking hot chocolate, and eating grot, a rice pudding she learned to cook in Norway (see sidebar). Who better than a baker living in a northern climate to recom­ mend some koselig recipes native to America? Juliet Burch (A88), who has worked in bakeries (Miss Nancy’s) and restaurants (Con­ rad’s) since her college days in Annapolis, now works at the Clear Flour Bakery in Brookline, Mass. It turns out that the old saw about the cobbler’s children going shoeless holds true for Burch and her husband, Dave Vermette (A85), “I don’t bake and I don’t cook. I live on carryout food,” she confesses. “For us, cabin fever doesn’t mean warm stews simmering on the stove; it means there’s nothing to eat in the fridge.” A native Annapolitan, Burch says it’s taken her a long time to adjust to Boston winters. Several years ago, she began a non-food tradition to combat cabin fever. When the malady hits, she and her sister-in-law drive north through the snow in search of adven­ ture. “If it’s winter, we might as well embrace it,” she says. “The first time we drove to Quebec. It was just incredible, driving through places with three feet of snow on the ground. People were riding snow mobiles, they were skiing, it was a winter wonder­ land. We drove past a father and son walking together, the father holding a big rifle, the son holding a winter hare. I thought, ‘Wow, these are people for whom winter means something entire­ ly different.’ ” Burch was right about such people, who are to be found every­ where but are in greatest numbers in the coldest regions. Among them is Carl Bostek (SF68), who moved to Alaska in 1993 when he was in the Air Force. “I wanted to be someplace with a low popu­ lation density, with wilderness, mountains, and ocean,” he says. “After I got here, I realized there was not really any ocean, at least around Anchorage, suitable for sailing, but there are mountains and wilderness and lots of outdoor activities.” Bostek rattles off a long list of Alaska’s popular winter sports, then explains that the cold weather and lack of dayhght take their toll even on the snow enthusiasts who choose to hve so close to the Arctic Circle. “A fair number of people move to Alaska thinking it’s going to be just wonderful,” he says. “But most of them first come in the summer and fall in love tvith the land when the sun {The College- St. John's College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �14 {Johnnies on Winter} open a season-appropriate shines ao hours a day. The book like those Fetterer flip side is, come winter, enjoys. Matthew Gildea you’ve got close to ao hours (A8i), associate director in of darkness each day. Sunrise the merchandising depart­ to sunset is not very long.” ment of Borders, explains Still, Bostek says, a lot of that people usually read to people stick it out because escape winter, not celebrate they love the Alaska summer it. “Only in the deep south so much. “But I think every­ will people read books with a body gets somewhat de­ winter theme,” he explains. pressed in the winter,” he For those willing to buck that adds. “There’s a big business trend (or living in the deep in SAD hghts, dayhght simu­ south), Gildea makes some lators. I try to keep very recommendations: In the bright lighting in my house Heart of the Heart of the and office, but the real way Country by William Gass, you fight the winter is to get Moist winter air in Annapolis causes snow and ice to coat the trees. Worst Journey in the World out and be active.” by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Colorado resident Flo­ and Endurance by Alfred rence Fetterer (A8i) is not so Lansing. sure. “While most of my There are some among us friends and colleagues love for whom winter is neither a winter sports, I hunker down season of snow sports nor an by the fire and wait for May,” -Juliet Burch [A88] she says, describing an un­ occasion for koselig. Suffer­ usual approach to the cold for ers of SAD battle depression brought on by winter’s short someone who works at the hours of sunlight. The National Mental Health Association National Snow and Ice Data Center. “It’s pretty ironic that I spend my days thinking about the cryos­ (NMHA) describes SAD’s symptoms as the same as those of phere (‘where the world is frozen’) when I hate the cold so much,” depression: “changes in sleeping and eating habits; persistent sad, anxious or ‘empty’ mood; loss of pleasure in activities once she says. The closest she comes to embracing winter is when she enjoyed.” While the NMHA reports that SAD isn’t totally under­ curls up with a book: “I enjoy reading about the Arctic and Antarc­ stood, it says it is a real illness with sometimes severe symptoms. tic explorers. I recommend The Coldest March by Boulder atmos­ Jennifer Coonce (A97) first discovered her susceptibility to pheric scientist Susan Solomon. It makes the case that Capt. Robert Falcon Scott was done in on his return from his South Pole SAD as a St. John’s student. “I grew up in the south, so I never had expedition in igia not by poor planning, but by the bad luck of a problem with tvinter. When I moved to Annapol is as a freshman, abnormal weather conditions.” I had a lot of trouble in the winter, but it was the first time I was For many Johnnies, curling up with a good book is the very defi­ away from home, so it was an emotional time anyway. I never thought about SAD until my junior or senior year when I realized nition of kosehg. But it turns out to be the rare reader who cracks 'If its winter, we might as well embrace it. {The CoLLEGE-St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring ssoosi } �{Johnnieson Winter} 15 People usually need to escape winter, not celebrate it that I was always extremely recent death of George depressed in February. I’ve Harrison led the perform­ paid more attention to it ers to include a “Sun set,” since then.” featuring “Here Comes Coonce spent all four the Sun” and other sunyears in Annapolis, but it’s themed songs. likely that February would As the group planned have been a happier time the performance and for her in Santa Fe. Mark talked about other songs St. John (SF82), director of they’d play, Seeger says, it athletics and outdoor pro­ became clear that many grams in Santa Fe, says “sun” songs are actually that winter is an exciting depressing. “Like ‘You Are time on the western cam­ My Sunshine.’ It starts bad pus. “We have cross-coun­ and gets worse,” she says. try and downhill skis, snow­ The group decided to sing boards and snow shoes, and it anyway, along with now we have the indoor “We’ll Sing in the Sun­ facility, too. Students are shine,” another suplaying basketball and prisingly depressing num­ using the weight room. ber. Interviewed shortly Some get into Search and before the performance, Rescue, some are out mak­ Seeger described the musi­ ing snow caves and doing cians’ strategy: “I guess winter camping and back­ we’ll just play loud and country skiing. And even hope that people don’t lis­ Average annual snowfall in Santa Fe is 3a inches. when they’re inside, ten to the words.” they’re sipping lattes and doing their reading,” he says. Tutors on the Annapolis campus have for many years noted Gr0T, SCANDINAVIAN COMFORT FOOD the dark mood that hovers over the campus in February. To make Grot, you’re more likely to follow a narrative than a “Begone Dull Care,” a folksong sing-along scheduled yearly to recipe. Here’s Kersti Tyson’s version; lift the February blues, was started ten years ago when tutor Joe “It’s basically rice and milk. You pour a bunch of cooked Sachs (A68) suggested to then-dean Eva Brann that such an rice into a pot and put in a bunch of milk. You add the milk, event was necessary. then cook and stir until you get a creamy oatmeal consistency. This year’s performance was held February 16 and led by Assis­ Then add some butter and sprinkle it with sugar. Some peo­ tant Dean Judy Seeger and her husband Tony; tutors Chester ple put cinnamon on it.” Tyson adds: “It’s always good to Burke, George Doskow, Henry Higuera, and Jon Tuck; and for­ have some fruit juice with it.” mer music librarian Tina Davidson. Judy Seeger says that the {The College - Si. John's College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �i6 {Johnnies on Winter} Winter warfare: A snowball fight erupts on the quad, ca. 1975. Whither Winter? By Florence Fetterer (A81), National Snow and Ice Data Center Snow and ice data sets gained importance when global chmate models predicted that greenhouse gas-induced climate warming would be amplified in polar regions. It makes sense to look at parameters such as the mass of glaciers, permafrost extent, and sea ice extent and thickness as indices of chmate change. Arctic sea ice extent, for example, has decreased by an average 3% per decade since the 1970s, when the satelhte data record began. A study based on data from U.S. Navy submarines suggests that sea ice (which has an average thickness of 3 meters) has thinned in the western Arctic by about 40% since the 1950s. A study based on records of the timing of when lakes freeze over in the fall and melt in the spring shows that the average length of the melt sea­ son in the northern hemisphere has increased by about 18 days in the last 100 years. The lake ice data set upon which the study was based is quite interesting. The oldest continuous record is from Japan and dates to the year 1443. Holy people of the Shinto rehgion kept careful records for Lake Suwa because of the belief that the ice allowed the male and female deities on either side of the lake to get together. While some of the observed changes in the arctic, like melting permafrost and a longer growing season, can be attributed to higher average temperatures (and a shorter winter, if you hke) , the big picture, of course, is much more complicated. Changes in large scale atmospheric circulation appear to be behind the changes in arctic ocean ice cover, and may explain why antarctic sea ice extent has not decreased while ice shelves on the Antarc­ tic Peninsula are melting at a rapid rate. The complex of inter­ related changes in the Arctic have been characterized by some researchers with the Yup’ik word Unaami, meaning tomorrow. The Inuit are immediately affected by these changes, and oral histories from Inuit community elders are another resource for researchers. In one eastern Canadian community, for instance, a new word for “rain in the winter” has appeared in the language to describe this previously rare phenomenon. {The College -St. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } �{TheProgram} ROOTS o/OUR PROGRAM By Eva Brann Review of “ The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes” by Jonathan Rose, 534pp., Yale University Press, 2001. ur ever-alert librarian Lisa Richmond sent me a review of a book she had acquired for us which she thought I might find interesting. I picked it up right away. Interesting! It kept me up half the night. What was so engaging about a book with such a title? I’ve long been, with respect to our program, what you might call a Populist Great Bookster. I mean someone who thinks not only a. that the great books canon is an indispensable tool for (and an inevitable result of) the reading life, but also b. that these are the books that, given a chance, people of all sorts, from leisure-rich college kids to hard-driven working stiffs, will care about most. The book I would like to bring to the notice of our alumni corroborates this faith with a lot of well-attested fact. Moreover I had long heard rumors that the St. John’s Program has among its deep and early roots English workers’ self and mutu­ al improvement efforts. If someone were to trace the precise connections-a project requiring a lot of historical research-7%e Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes would be a great starting point. [Winfree Smith’s A Searchfor the Liberal College: The Beginning ofthe St. John’s Program (St. Johns College Press, 1983) is another. Smith sets out not only the American antecedents of our program but pointers to the English connec­ tion: Scott Buchanan, the intellectual founder of St. John’s, read Plato’s Republic with A. D. Lindsay at Oxford. Lindsay, as it hap­ pens, was the “tutor” for this course in the Workers’ Educational Association which figures largely in Rose’s book. Buchanan him­ self related our reading list to that published in 1895 by Sir John Lubbock and made for the English Workers and Mechanics Insti­ tute.] What comes over as a first impression is an exhilarating sim­ ilarity of spirit. The spirit is that of the “autodidact,” the type of intrepid, inde­ pendent soul who will find out a great book in the most adverse circumstances and absorb it into his-and remarkably often, given the social situation-her soul. The aim is “self-improvement,” but though this term includes a desire to rise in the ranks of class, to better oneself, it is a wonderful fact-almost miraculously wonderful-that these people read most often for the mere excitement, the expansiveness, the elevation of it. In other words, they do on their own what we, also against considerable social pressure, do in concert: they learn for the sake of the object of learning, for the delight of it. Their autodidacticism (self-teaching) and their learn­ ing for its own sake are clearly connected, and it occurred to me while reading Rose’s book (though not for the first time) that this college is a contradiction incarnate: institutionalized autodidacti­ cism. For the sake of a certain kind of learning we each teach our­ selves, but we do it together. The workers too eventually established institutions to learn together, most influential among which in the last century were the Workers Educational Association and Ruskin College based in Oxford. A survey conducted in 1936 showed that the worker stu­ dents raised “a chorus of ‘Noes’” to the introduction of vocation­ al courses: “Knowledge for its own sake is a better principle.” The same working-class readers turn out to be practically impervious to ideological pressures; they are avid readers of Marx and openeared listeners to their socialist tutors, but in a jovial, masterful way they reject what they find unrealistic: a primary motive of the autodidact is intellectual freedom (30a). And it turns out that great fiction-designated by the Communists as an opium of the masses (316)—is a fail-safe inoculant against ideology, meaning prepackaged theory mechanically and universally applied. In fact these workers are realistic dreamers who have experience of a hard world and therefore love the imaginative-not the ideologi­ cal-ideal. They are radicals on their own. They read the classics beginning with the Iliad in inexpensive editions like Everyman’s Library (the practical realization of Great Books lists like Lub­ bock’s). They also drink with the thirst of real readers from that vast and wonderful reservoir called “Middlebrow” by Virginia Woolf. What they don’t like much is Modernists like Virginia Woolf herself, E. M. Forster, and T. S. Eliot-for their snobbery and their exclusionary difficulty. These are just the authors I’ve myself read with mere, largely loveless, admiration. Their reading is as spotty as it is avid. Consequently each work continued onp. 20 {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{Tutor Profile} TURNING IDEAS INTO ACTION Santa Fe tutor Linda Weiner spent last summer working on low-tech solutions for a group ofMayans evolving their own sef-sustaining society By Ed Moreno ixteen years ago, Linda Wiener abandoned a career in academic science to search for greater understanding and meaning as a St. John’s College tutor. Last summer, she tem­ porarily took leave of the abstractions of the great books and became a Zapatista companera, a comrade working alongside mem­ bers of a Mexican community. For her month-long reality check, the Santa Fe tutor worked with the Mayan population in the state of Chia­ pas, helping devise low-tech methods for improving their gardens and farms. The bonus was experiencing an incipient democracy and the evolution of a self-sustaining society in that troubled region. “For all of the abstract stuff we do at the college, this was a real grounded experience-working with real people with real problems in real time,” she says. The Transition from Biologist to Philosopher Wiener grew up with a love of bugs and plants and a feeling that the land was “alive.” Naturally, she pursued a career in entomolo­ gy and, with a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, she became a curator of Harvard University’s entomology collection in the early igBos. But at the pinnacle of a career in hard science, Wiener says she found her colleagues considered insects and ecosystems only as mechanisms, while she developed more philosophical interests such as “what it means for something to be ahve.” Her colleagues were hostile to the inquiries she wanted to pursue and she realized that “hard science was not where I wanted to be.” She responded to an advertisement to teach at St. John’s in Santa Fe in 1985. “I came to St. John’s and it turned out it was a place where I could ask the questions that were taboo for a professional scientist to ask,” she says. She found much of what she was missing in the writings of Bergson, Aristotle, Goethe, and other authors. Wiener also found a way to stay close to the insects she loves. In 1990, she founded The Bug Lady, consulting with gardeners, nurs­ eries, museums, and government agencies about non-toxic pest control, identifying bugs for people, and conducting butterfly sur­ veys. Then last year, Wiener got a letter from a Graduate Institute alumnus she had known from her politics and society preceptorial-Rick van Savage (AGI91)- who had gone to Chiapas to help the Mayan people with development projects. He invited her to spend a month sharing her knowledge with the people of the region. She left in mid-July with her two children, 14-year-old Alex and 12-yearold Vicky. Weiner had seen the drawbacks of American-style aid projects when she worked for a think tank on international development projects. “I saw attitudes that I disliked. For instance, a view of the people as ignorant and helpless. In the aid projects, we were to tell them what to do and what their real interests were, so the projects tended to disempower people. At best, they did some good in the short term and left nothing useful behind when the project ended two or three years later,” she says. But what was happening in Chi­ apas was different. Weiner was attracted by the autonomous, selfcontained approach toward development the Mayans were pursu­ ing. It is known as “solidarity” work, as opposed to typical development or charity work. “With ‘solidarity’ work, the people decide what they need, how they’re going to get it, and what their relationship with the outside experts is going to be. I was very curi­ ous to see how that would work in practice,” says Wiener. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{Tutor Profile} 19 ''For all ofthe abstract stuffwe do at the college, this was a realgrounded experience—working with realpeople with realproblems in real time. Helping a Democracy to Evolve The world learned about Chiapas in 1994 when Mayan insurgents, invoking the memory of agrarian rev­ olutionary hero Emiliano Zapata, took over the capital of Chiapas, San Cristobal de las Casas, to protest Mexican and global policy that affect­ ed indigenous people. “The Mayans in Chiapas have long been marginalized in terms of land, economic opportu­ nity, political influence. They are extremely poor. They want to be able to pre­ serve their native cultures and they want basic services such as potable water, elec­ tricity, health care, and edu­ cation. They also want digni­ ty and respect,” she says. While an uneasy truce with the Mexican govern­ ment has continued, the indigenous people under the Zapatista banner have been organizing themselves into an independent, egalitarian society. They have their own government, which is well-organized and decentrahzed. Because of their relation­ ship with the Mexican gov­ ernment, the Zapatistas are secretive about the details of their activities and do not talk about their work in public. And while the insurgency carries the aura of romance, most of the work is tediously basic, delivering water, electrici­ ty, health care, and educa­ tion to people who have none. Weiner cites the case of women whose daily twohour walks to fetch water were eliminated by the con­ struction of a simple, gravi­ ty-fed water system from a remote mountain spring. Since the rebelhon, women have slowly begun to take on stronger roles in these traditionally patriarchal societies, she says. Wiener’s role as a companera in the ongoing revolution was with the Mayan women, helping them improve their horticultural practices. The indige­ nous people grow corn, beans, and other diet staples, while other plants are used for medicinal teas, salves, and tinctures. “Before I could teach anything, I had to find out what their understanding {The College. Sf. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �2,0 {Tutor Profile} continuedfrom p. stands by itself, a peak of lovely grandeur, closer to other peaks than to any surrounding landscape. When you come to think of it, that’s how we read: contextlessly, book speaking to book. The reading schedule of the WEA is also faintly faimiliar: twentyfour two hour sessions on the books a year, divided into half-lecture, half­ discussion. I’ve heard of tutors who achieved a similar proportion in seminar. Rose could not have written this book had it not been for the fact that these working learners were copious writers of memoirs, which have now been collected and pub­ lished. The fashionable academic the­ ory of reader-response. Rose points out, relied on hypotheses derived from texts; he is dealing with the real readers’ recorded responses. Here is the conclusion, stated in the preface: Rose is commenting on the radical epiphany that struck one Will Crooks, Labour MP (readers of Great Books often became labor leaders) on reading Homer: As for noncanonical literature, by (1 and large it did not perform the same ■ function for proletarian readers. I ...|r]omance novels, school stories I and tough-guy detective fiction ... I had a certain educational value for S common readers. But they usually 4 did not do what the Iliad did. n To say why, he goes on, we would R have to explain why books enter the J canon, “an intimidatingly complicat­ ed question.” Amen to that. There is a sad postscript to all these glories: In recent times the working class has been “bypassed by Britain’s state-supported Bohemia,” squeezed out between the hostile social forces of the intellectual’s obscure postmod­ ernism and the yuppy middle class’s cultural consumerism. There must be more to it; I don’t know. But I do know that this huge product of illu­ minating research gives us our marching orders: to go and read our books as if there were no such things as social forces. Rose could not have written this book had it not beenfor thefact that these working learners were copious writers ofmemoirs, which have now been collected andpublished. Eva Brann is a tutor in Annapolis. continuedfrom p. tg was of plants and insects, and what words and concepts made sense to them,” she says. She ran a workshop on composting, beneficial insects, and the use of simple treatments such as a soap and water solution to keep aphids and other bugs off plants. She created low-tech tools, such as a plastic bottle with holes in the cap, to spray the solution on the plants. The local people would not use, and could not afford, commercial pesticides. “They have no alternative but to do organic gardening,” she says. Beyond agriculture, Wiener found an enthusiastic population eager to discover values Americans have taken for granted. In town-hall style meetings, they make sure that everyone is heard and all resources are equally shared. “It’s exciting to see. They’re inventing democracy for themselves,” says Wiener. “To hear peo­ ple talking about liberty and dignity, and trying to articulate the principles, is really quite moving.” Even though the population has little education or access to books, much less great ones, Wiener found them to be articulate about the principles they were espousing. “In tutorials at St. John’s,” she says, “my Chiapas experience is a reminder that T’m not as smart as I think.’ You think you have all the answers, but you go down there and you don’t. It helps to keep me grounded. In general. I’m in favor of that.” Ed Moreno is the executive director ofNew Mexico Independent Colleges. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �I S T O RY PRESIDENT JOHN McDowell Thefirstpresident ofSt. John spersonified thefrontier spirit and brought to the college basic ideals that are still held dear. By Barbara Goyette, A73 the wings of a senior practitioner. To he Rev. William Smith (who probably under support himself, McDowell ran a school for wrote the 1784 charter for St. John’s Col­ boys. He passed the bar in Maryland and Pennsylvania and soon had a successful lege) was serving as president pro tern of practice in Dorchester County. His many the new college. When the trustees adver­ years of scraping by had taught him to be shrewd in business dealings and he began to tised for “a Stranger or some Gentlemen invest his earnings. When the new college of Great Character from Europe” to serve of St. John’s was looking for professors in 1789, McDowell jumped at the chance to as the first president. Smith suggested instead they might move to Annapolis, which was the center of look for a man who would “suit the Americanpolitical Genius. action”in Maryland. An ardent Fed­ T When no gentleman from Europe showed up interested in the joh, the Board offered the position to John McDowell, who was already heading up mathematics and natu­ ral history studies at the infant college. McDowell was definitely a product of Amer­ ica-born in r75i and raised on the Pennsyl­ vania frontier, he learned his math from surveying the family farm, his economics from the barter system in effect before the time of paper money and banks, his theolo­ gy from the Presbyterian catechism, his empathy with the common man from serv­ ing as a private during the Revolution, his political savvy from working his way through the College of Philadelphia and reading law. When he was a child, his family lived in a stockade as protection from Indian raids that occurred in Cumberland County, Penn­ sylvania, during the French and Indian War. For three years he attended John King’s Latin School, his only formal learning as a youngster. In 1768 he went east to the Col­ lege of Philadelphia (now University of Pennsylvania). He had no money for tuition, so he arranged to attend classes in He had no money for tuition, so he arranged to attend classes in exchange for tutoring other students. exchange for tutoring other students. At commencement he gave an oration entitled “On the Advantages of Studying History.” Commencement exercises in the i8th cen­ tury were not the celebrations for the stu­ dents and family that they are today; instead, students were to demonstrate to the public that they had attained a level of learning by delivering addresses. McDow­ ell’s oration was, in effect, his senior essay. After serving in the Revolution as a pri­ vate (most of his friends were officers, but his lack of means prevented such a posi­ tion), McDowell traveled to Cambridge on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to read law. In 1782, professional training often took place eralist, he found a group of like-minded friends in the town. The Board of the col­ lege, recognizing the elements of “Ameri­ can Genius” in him, appointed him presi­ dent (called principal at the time) in 1790. For the first decade of his presidency, McDowell had a successful run. Students came from across the state and some from Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia to attend St. John’s. In 1791, George Washing­ ton paid a visit to the campus where his two nephews and step-grandson were enrolled. McDowell taught Euclid, algebra, spher­ ical trigonometry, logarithmical arith­ metic (“with its applications to compound interest, annuities, and recessions”), sur­ veying, navigation, conic sections, natural philosophy, and more. The college com­ bined a preparatory school course-Latin, Greek, basic math, etc.-left over from King William’s School with the three-year university course. McDowell lived on the second floor of the school’s one building (later named McDowell Hall in his honor); classes were held on the first floor and stu­ dents lived on the third floor. He was a bachelor and must have devoted most of his waking hours to teaching and shepherding his charges. {The College -Sf. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �2.2. {History} In the early i8oos, debate raged in the state legislature about the best ways to pro­ vide for the citizens. Educa­ tion was a frequent topic as the Federalists and the Democrats argued about whether the college was using money that could be better spent on local schools that would reach out to all economic classes of students. In 1806 the legislature cut funds to St. John’s. McDowell left. If letters he wrote to a business associate, Henry Maynadier, are an indication of his true state, McDowell considered himself to be in John McDowell: teacher, lawyer, college president. ill-health and in need of rest. He accepted a post teaching and as provost of the University of Penn­ not active as president and most college sylvania. When he left Annapolis, he took functions were carried out by the vice prin­ with him a slave, Joseph Williams, because cipal, Henry Davis. In a letter to his friend he knew that slavery was not permitted in Col. Maynadier dated October 17,1816, and Pennsylvania and the young man would be written from Pennsylvania, McDowell says: “I have not yet recovered sufficiently to free after a period of service to him. When St. John’s again received money engage in business, but expect to visit from the state, the Board asked McDowell to Annapolis, probably in the beginning of next return; he didn’t accept their offer right month, with such a stock of health, I hope, away, but did agree in 1815. In his absence, as will enable me to give some assistance, if the college suffered from low enrollment it should be wanted. At present, the business and, of course (since the legislature had cut [operating the college] can be very well con­ funds), lack of resources for improvement. ducted without me.” One consequence of McDowell’s return The Board may have been desperate for McDowell’s leadership, but his letters was an infusion of support from the col­ referred constantly to his ill-health and low lege’s alumni, including Francis Scott Key. spirits, and he seemed unengaged in activi­ The alumni chipped in to keep the college afloat in 1817 and a few years later founded ties that had formerly given him pleasure­ discussions of pohtics and teaching. He was one of the country’s first alumni associa­ tions. Key might have remembered the message of McDowell’s commence­ ment address, dehvered to Key’s class in 1796: “The end of education is to direct the powers of the mind in unfolding them­ selves, and to assist in gaining throughout bent & force, to teach it rather how to think...than what to think...” By April of i8ao, McDowell was living on the Eastern Shore, elderly and frail, but still presi­ dent of St. John’s in name. He wrote: “My time has been fully occupied in teaching and reading, par­ ticularly Greek of which I have become fonder than of any other study.” He died in December of that year in Pennsylvania. McDowell had lived on the cusp of the new world order that was to become the United States, and he brought to the college the skills and sensibilities he had devel­ oped. He did indeed “suit the American Genius.” Sources used in this article are: “John McDowell, Federalist: President of St. John’s College, ” by Charlotte Fletcher, in The St. John’s Review, 1990; The Early His­ tory of St. John’s College in Annapolis, by Tench Francis Tilghman, St. John’s Press, 1984; letters from John McDowell to Col. Henry Maynadier, in the collection of the Greenfield Library. {The College- St. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } �{AlumniNotes} 1948 George Trimble was asked by the Biographies Editor of the “IEEE Annals of the History of Comput­ ing” to write his memoirs for pub­ lication in the Annals. They are in the July-September issue, titled “A Brief History of Computing: Mem­ oirs of Living on the Edge.” Trim­ ble credited St. John’s with con­ tributing to his success in the computing field by teaching him how to think. Trimble was the first St. John’s graduate to enter the computing profession, starting in 1949 on the ENIAC, the first electronic com­ puter. After three years he joined IBM and was involved in the design of virtually every one of their early computers. Three years later he was part of a group that formed the world’s first software company. Computer Usage Com­ pany. Trimble spent the past 30 years as an independent computer con­ sultant at T-Logic, Inc. He writes: “I am still ‘living on the edge’ hav­ ing been involved for the past three years in the development of an advanced inference engine implementing a method of auto­ mated reasoning based on Term Functor Logic. It can be used in automated reasoning, expert sys­ tems, sophisticated network secu­ rity, and in natural language pro­ cessing. There are still leading edge (read bleeding edge) uses of computers to be exploited.” we are coping well with the help of our church and neighbors.” 1950 Ted Hendricks writes that he won a dispute with his cat. Chiggers. “The cat would not eat the 23-cent cat food I bought. If I smoked a cigar while writing, he wheezed and gasped. He groaned when I played the recorder. I finally hit him in the head with a volume of Aristotle and he gained some sense. He ate the cat food.” We had to walk on raised ramps to keep dry. America seems like a ‘baby’ when one sees places stand­ ing since 500 AD or the 1100, laoo, or 1300S, and walk the same streets their people walked. This was different from my previous trips and gave us a better view of us in the world.” Arianne Laidlaw retired last year and spent three weeks in Vietnam in quest of a family she sponsored in 1975. She also saw Thailand and Hong Kong. i960 1955 “People say life is short. The years pass quickly,” tvrites Carolyn Banks-Leecwenburgh. “Well, they are right. It seems only yes­ terday I was a student at St. John’s. Many former students are still in my life for which I thank my asso­ ciation with the College. And-I still recognized them! These are good years. We are still in the trav­ el business but we have more time to travel together. Helge and I remarried in 2,000. Our son, Todd (A85) and his wife held us up. No children yet just grandchildren. I’m still teaching ESL and singing locally. We’ve been in Princeton 30 years now. It’s a neat town. Drop by, any time.” Carolyn adds a P.S.: “I miss my friend and class­ mate, Hilyer Gearing Shufeldt, who just recently died of cancer.” 1949 1957 The Rev. Fred P. Davis writes: “Since our report a year ago, we’ve been engulfed with some problems: Our son David (who has been our handyman, living with us since ’90, fell and broke his left leg below the knee-both bones, cutting main nerve and still mostly confined to a wheelchair. Wife Rita went on 24hour oxygen in March (emphyse­ ma) hooked up to rotating tanks in our house. I’m the outside man, doing all errands for food, etc. But Joan Cole writes: “Just returned from a whirlwind tour of Europe with my sister and a friend. We were there when the tragedy hap­ pened. One can understand how shocked and helpless we felt. I was afraid to fly home. The trip was tiring, one which helps you deter­ mine where you want to stay awhile. If anyone wants to see Venice, go before it floats away. Every day water comes up between the stones and floods the streets. Ed Mini writes: “I came to Con­ necticut in 1970 and got stuck here above the Arctic Circle. Along the way I married a Connecticut lady and (after USNA and St. John’s) finally got a math degree from the University of Hartford. Although I spent many years in the corporate computer jungles I managed to keep tangent to those values and emerged from my latest (and last) takeover war with a nice buyout, three pensions, and (since 1997) a small software development shop in an iio-year-old machete factory on the Farmington River. My older daughter, Angela, lives in Florida and my younger daughter, Kate, graduated in 2000 from Bard; she is actually employed in her odd degree field (Community Resources/Environmental Studies) as Program Coordinator for the New York City Urban Park Rangers. (She even has an affordable apart­ ment in Washington Heights). I very much enjoyed telling Leon Botstein, Bard’s president, on parental visits, how conventional I found Bard compared to St. John’s (Bard prides itself on its out-of-themainstream status). I do not acknowledge New England winters and spend March thru October, when not in front of a computer, on my boat and bicycle. I am gradually convincing my wife, Gretchen, that it is not immoral to be warm from December thru February by taking her to places with no snow or freez­ ing rain (such as Honolulu) at least once each winter. “I’m sure there are a lot of St. John’s students worried about the relevance of the liberal arts in today’s money- and tech-dominat­ ed world. I don’t know if The Idea ofa University is still discussed at St. John’s, but it sure was in my time, and is no less relevant today. If the values of St. John’s are inter­ nalized they are pure gold in the marketplace. Unfortunately for many, internalizing those values is the key-IMHO, those who treat SJC as a sort of cultural smorgas­ bord (as I myself was accused of in my first Don Rag) have wasted four years and a lot of money, and give us unreconstructed liberal artists a bad name. “It occurs to me that, in the interests of full disclosure, I should make it clear that I did not graduate. I was expelled in the spring of my junior year for over­ In Demand: Islamic Studies Lecturer am no longer serving the Stratham Community Church,” writes I J.J. Bodine (Class of 1963). “I am presently (and into the fore­ seeable future) Pastor and Teacher at the United Church of Warner, New Hampshire. I remain bonded to New Hampshire in many ways-not least of which is discovering in Warner a very small Roman Catholic undergraduate school, Magdalen College, whose curriculum and approach to education is extraordinarily like that of St. John’s-their first academic dean was a tutor at the Santa Fe cam­ pus. I discovered all this when they asked me to deliver a Friday evening lecture on Islam (my PhD is in History of Religions: Arabic and Islamic Studies, and I have been in high demand since 9/11, as might be expected). The student body is bright, articulate and several on the faculty are fascinated at my having been a Johnnie. Best to all.” {The College ■ St John's College . Winter/Spring 2002 } �{AlumniNotes} 2.4 cutting, during a particularly rocky stretch of my life, Simon Kaplan’s German tutorial. The ‘unexcused absence’ rule in those years was Draconian but its enforcement was, to put it mildly, flexible. However, my relations with then-Dean Curtis Wilson were not of the best, and I suppose that I didn’t help my case any by responding to his ‘I’m sorry this happened, Mr. Mini’ with ‘I’m never sorry to see justice done, Mr. Wilson. I’m just sorry you picked me to be just to.’ That aside, my St. John’s experience was of profound importance to my life, especially as I am now slowly becoming a free man. kalepa ta kala. My e-mail address is: edmini@inftek.com.” 1964 John Hetland has joined The Art Mob, a small a cappella group that sings shape-note and other unlike­ ly music. Concerts in December and May. See www.artmob.org. peace. The reading and our discus­ sion were unsettling, so we turned to ‘The Optimist’s Daughter’ by Eudora Welty for our next discus­ sion. Our group includes Tom and Marion Slakey, Arianne Laidlaw (A57), and Marjory Beamish (SF78).” 1971 Sarah Sarai’s (SF) story “The Wild Night I Was Born” will be published in the Tampa Review. The journal’s url is Tampa Review. http://tampareview.utampa.edu/ subscribe/. Michael ViCTOROFE (A) writes a regular monthly column on ethics in Managed Care magazine. Dolores A. Strickland (SF) has been taking art classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and had her first art exhibit this past September. 1973 1966 Julia Busser du Prey, en route to a family funeral in Maryland in October, stopped at the campus. “It’s looking more beautiful than ever and bringing back memo­ ries,” she writes. Laurie Franklin Callahan (SF), (formerly Laurie Ellen Franklin) is director of university communica­ tions at Marymount University in Arlington, Va. 1968 Antigone Phalares (SF) writes: “Our alumni seminar group read portions of the Koran searching for the words to back the news reports that Islam promotes Stephen Slusher (SF) is in Albu­ querque practicing intellectual property law at the firm Pencock, Myers, and Adams, PC. He works primarily in biotechnology patent prosecution and litigation. He can be reached at sslusher@pencocklaw.com. Carol Calhoun’s (A) book. The Governmental Plans Answer Book, was published by Aspen Publish­ ing, Inc. in January, 2002. It is the first book to discuss both federal and state laws that apply to retire­ ment systems that governmental agencies run for their employees. Carol appeared on the CBS Evening News on February 4, 2002, discussing employee bene­ fits law aspects of the Enron situa­ tion. 1976 Victoria Hanley (SF) recently won the Colorado Book Award in the Young Adult Category for her book. The Seer and the Sword. 1977 Christian Kip Smith (SF) reports that his work involves the neu­ roimaging of dreams, risk, and trust. Carla Schick (A) had a poem published in The Peralta Press, 2001 and will be published again in 2002. In 2000 she won an honor­ able mention for her poem, “Lost Working Class Heroes,” in the Reuben Rose Memorial Contest. 1974 Carol Highsaw (SF) writes: “I am looking forward to our 25th reunion in July 2002. See you in Santa Fe!” 1967 William Schreitz and his wife Lee became grandparents April 25, 2001. William Clark Gleasner is the son of his eldest daughter who lives with her husband, Steve, and Clark in Appleton, Maine. What goes around comes around. Jena Morris (SF) reports that it was with great pride that she watched her son, Jeremy BrenINGSTALL (AGI01), graduate from the Graduate Institute in Annapolis last May. Itwas truly a deja vu expe­ rience since the keynote speaker was Elhott Zuckerman. One of Jere­ my’s favorite tutors was David Townsend, who was the fourth per­ son to see Jeremy following his birth in Santa Fe in 1975. Jeremy’s father Galen Breningstall (SF 73) was David’s co-intern tutor at the time. 1978 Amy McConnell Franklin (A) writes: “I have moved to Taos from New Orleans with my hus­ band Bob and our children ages 14-3. Glad to be in the west again and grateful for continuing news from the college. I’m a practicing mental health counselor still {The College. St. John’s College . Winter/Spring soos } involved in preventive care and education.” 1979 Kathleen JiRCiK (SF) is a practic­ ing architect and PTA president in Houston, Tex. She and her husband Mark have 2 sons, Daniel and Allen. 1980 Steven Barkhimer (A) and (EC96) has a CD of original music-“Time Was’’-available at www.cdfreedom.com. John J. Byrnes (A) writes: “Credo! ‘Out from a very small beginning-onto undiscovered ends-there is nothing worth the wear of winning-save laughter and the love of friends.’ Slainte!” 1981 Thomas Brintle (A) and his wife, Denise, celebrated twelve happy years of marriage. They have lived most of that time in New Hamp­ shire. Amy Silver (A) writes: “Although I attended St. John’s for only one year (one semester at each campus in 77-78, and my name was Amy Silverman then), I continued to read the books over the years, often in the company of one of the DC-area alumni reading groups. The influence of the college’s approach will be apparent to any Johnnie who comes across my book. Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education with or without School (Wiley, 2001, co-authored with Grace Llewellyn). Grace and I argue in the book that education is largely something that takes place in the context of the family and life as a whole, and is best guided by love and curiosity, and not something that happens primarily in schools, where coercion and political con­ trol are often in the lead. Among the families whose stories we tell �{AlumniProfile} 2,5 Memoirs of a Geisha Business Writer How Edith Updike paid her dues as ajournalist and Japan hand. By Roberta Gable, A78 ometimes the achievement of escape velocity at graduation catapults the freshly minted alum an impressive distance, and thus it was with Edith Updike (A86), who, although she had a positive experience at the col­ lege, was ready to shake the dust of this lit­ tle town off her feet. She decided to go to teach English in Japan-“I couldn’t get any further away! ” After a summer sojourn at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS), where she learned enough Japanese to be “capable of framing ques­ tions but often unable to understand the responses,” it was off to Tokyo. In the mid-eighties, remember, it was more or less reasonable for native English speakers to expatriate themselves to Japan with nothing waiting on the other end, and find a decent job teaching English.Tokyo was boomtown, bigtime. Foreigners were much in demand, even those who didn’t know a word of Japanese. And although Updike had put plenty of distance between herself and Annapolis, she wasn’t far from the college community: her classmates Chuk (pronounced “Chewk”) Besher (a Japanese citizen), Maggie Kinser (A85) and Nathan Walker (A86) were living in Tokyo. Updike touched down, drank her first $6 Coca-Cola, and set to work finding a place to live and a job. Her first home was an $8oo-per-month ten-foot square room (toi­ let and shower down the hall) which she and Walker shared. Her first job was not as an English teacher, but as a hostess. Now there’s a St. John’s education at work! Her job was to hang around in a club every night from seven until midnight, being a (chaste) companion for the men who showed up to drink and sing karaoke. By day she studied Japanese, and by night, she was a modern-day geisha. Her club. Petit Rose, specialized in international (i.e. non-Japanese) hostesses. Meanwhile, she started teaching English on the side. Enter­ taining Japanese “salarimen” got pretty old in a few months, and Updike was glad to land a teaching job, working for a com­ pany that sent her to teach small classes of businessmen and “office ladies” (a gra­ cious version of the western “administra­ tive assistant”). She taught all kinds of folks, from Kentucky Fried Chicken man- Wanderlust led Edith Updike to Japan. agers, who needed English specific to the Colonel’s cookin’, to Formula One race engineers at Honda, who arrived for class with oil often on their fingertips but almost never on their white coveralls. After taking a break for international travel, Updike easily found an ESL job. But she was keen on getting a job in journal­ ism, so when Tokyo Today, an English-lan­ guage arts and entertainment magazine, was looking for “contributors” (read “vol­ unteers”), she presented herself. She start­ ed working round the clock: teaching from seven to nine in the morning, at the maga­ zine all day, then another class at six or seven in the evening. The magazine even­ tually started to pay her a pittance. After six months, she became managing editor. After a few years with Tokyo Today she went for the big money in corporate com­ munications, writing annual reports, cor­ porate magazines, newsletters, and brochures. This was around 1991-92, when the economic bubble of rampant specula­ tion was just about ready to burst. She soon resolved to take the next step toward developing a truly professional journalism career, and she returned to the U.S. to enroll in the Columbia Journalism School, in September 1993. She loved it. She enjoyed her classmates and she had a swell time learning more about New York in the first three months there than she had ever known growing up on Long Island, as she sat in night court, dug through building code archives, and accomplished other journahstic trials. Updike says that the more you put into a country, the more you’ll get out of it-exponentially. A lot of those who want to go abroad figure they’ll just be there a couple of years, and then return to life as we know it, and they don’t become invested in their temporary home. After four years in-country, though, Updike had become some­ thing of a Japan hand, and her work at Tokyo Today had earned her one of two East-Asia Fellowships (which entailed a full scholarship to Columbia), plus a subse­ quent internship. Ayear after graduation she was a full-time Tokyo correspondent for Business Week. Ah, the happy life of she who has paid her dues! She spoke the language, knew the cul­ ture, and had a terrific job that got her into all manner of inner sancta. She covered the auto industry, which was a swell assign­ ment, and whatever else came her way. Her job eventually developed into the trade beat. She interviewed people from the president of Toyota to the Prime Minister of Japan. But our restless heroine was still hanker­ ing to repatriate, and angled for Busines Week to transfer her stateside. Between luck and finagling, she landed a position in New York covering emerging businesses, just at the dawn of the internet boom. After a few years, she got out, and became a free agent. She dabbled in public relations and hated it. She advised some start-ups on business plans. For the past two years she has edited a monthly newslet­ ter on labor force diversity. Last June she had her first child, and is glad to have a skill that enables her to work at home. Writing suits Updike well. “The great thing about being a writer is that you have the flexibility to live wherever you want,” she says. And with that recognition of the opportunity for wandering, she and her husband are planning to move out to the country and settle down-at least for a couple of years. {The College - S?. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } �{AlumniNotes} 2.6 in the book are the Gushues— Susan (A79) and Michael (A78)whose flexible mix of homeschool­ ing, public schooling, and charter schooling for their five children we present as a model. In my other life I’m a singer­ songwriter, gigging occasionally in the region around my Shenan­ doah Valley, Virginia, home and travelling to Nashville periodically to beat my head against the walls of Music Row. I’m also coordina­ tor for the Kid Pan Alley project, an organization that puts song­ writers in schools to write songs with kids and has produced a real­ ly excellent CD that raises funds for music education. My children Carsie (16) and Elijah (9) and 1 would love to hear from any John­ nies who want to canoe the Shenandoah River this summer.” essay in Civil Society and Govern­ ment (Princeton University Press) and he’s got a major essay on James Madison and multicultural­ ism coming out soon. 1982 1984 Path Nogales (A) writes: My son, Alex Ozdemir, and my daughter, Zoe Ozdemir, have both learned how to read. And their favorite responses to the statement of any given fact are ‘How do you know that?’ and ‘Why?’ ” MarkTimoney (A) writes: “1 am married. My wife is named Maria (nicknamed Pachi). We have four kids ages 3, 5, 7, and 9.1 work in finance, mostly with Latin Ameri­ ca. I would welcome hearing from 1986 1983 “After a 33-year residence in New Mexico, 1 recently moved from Santa Fe to Ellicott City, Mary­ land, where 1 live with my daugh­ ter, Julia (SF84), her husband, GregToppo (SF85), and their two children plus assorted ani­ mals,” writes Mary Morris Neidorf (SGI83). “1 always enjoy hearing from former students of mine and of my husband Robert. My address is 10356 Tuscany Road, Ellicott City, MD. 21043.” Tom Palmer (A) just published an Fairy Tales with a Modern Twist omehow, between parenting and teaching at my son’s preschool, renovating our old Victorian, and working as a graphic and web designer, I have surprised myself by writing the libretto for a full-length comic opera,” writes Kristen Baum­ gardner Caven (SF86). ‘Shoes, a Mirror and a Big Pink Rose’ (a.k.a. Trittico delle Principesse) is about three young women and is based on the fairy tales Cinderella, Snow White, and Beauty and the Beast with a modern twist, of course. For example, Cinderella’s fairy godmother is a drag queen, and Snow White takes refuge in a frat house. To create the fraternity, I imagined a small community of Johnnie wannabes: ‘Welcome to the Brotherhood of Greek Geeks! / No one knows exactly who we are! / Legend on the campus for our high I-Q’s / But scorned by gorgeous women near and far! ’ The Upsilon Psi brothers make ter­ rible jokes with the Greek alphabet, and a quote from Ptolemy hangs on the wall. And of course they deduce the chemical reactions that cause her to fall into a coma! “My goal now is to find a composer, an opera company to produce it, and/or a grant or other source of funding. I would deeply appreciate any recommendations or introductions from alumni. My e-mail is kristen@littlepig.com. A synopsis and librettos are available at www.zaftigopera.org if anyone is looking for a fun read (and who isn’t?).” “ any colleagues and friends.” His address is 209 W. 107 St. #iW, NY, NY 10025. Todd Masilon (A), his wife Renee, and children Molly and Ian (due in early May) are finally overcoming their culture shock and getting somewhat settled in Darmstadt, Germany. Todd is the Executive Officer for the Headquarters Com­ pany of the 66th MUitary Intelli­ gence Group. He says he has a very difficult-if somewhat un-glamorous-year ahead. Todd writes: “As public trans­ portation (Molly is quite fond of riding the ‘Strassenbahn’-and does a great job pronouncing it) is a gazillion times better than anything found in the States, the three of us have gotten to know the city pretty well over the past few weeks. As Renee is getting well into her third trimester, extensive travel through­ out Europe will have to wait for some time. We’re still awaiting the bulk of our household goods from Ft. Stewart. The bulk of Molly’s important stuff is here, however, so things are manageable.” The Masilon’s new address is: CMR 431, Box #1947/APO AE 09175. In addition to indexing, L. Pilar Wyman (A) is now also working at the Key School in Annapohs as assis­ tant librarian in the Manse Library (Pre- and Lower School). “It’s fasci­ nating, seeing how kids search and use libraries,” she writes. 1987 Margaret Elizabeth “Betsy” Williams (SF) writes: “I began making pots in 1992 in a small Japanese workshop in Manhattan. In 19941 entered an apprentice­ ship to Mr. Yutaka Ohastu in Karatsu, Japan. I trained under Mr. Ohastu in the Karatsu tradition, known for its spontaneity and grace—especially among tea cere­ monyware, for four and a half years. I came back to New Mexico in 1999, and my home/studio and {The College. Sf. lohn’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } wood-fired kiln were completed in late summer 2001, near Dixon (about an hour north of Santa Fe). I will have my first solo exhibition beginning on April 5, 2002 for onemonth at the Touching Stone Gallery in Santa Fe. The show will he available for viewing on the gallery web site: www.touching­ stone.com. 1988 Rachel Ankeny (SF) writes: “I moved to Sydney, Australia in mid-2000 for a mixture of person­ al and professional reasons, and am the director of the Unit for History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney, where I teach philosophy of science, his­ tory and philosophy of biomedical sciences, and bioethics. Sydney is an amazing place to live (and visit! Friends should contact me if you will be coming through town). My partner and I live near the beach and enjoy cooking for crowds-just warn us if you don’t like kangaroo.” Rachel’s e-mail is r.ankeny@scifac.usyd.edu.au. December saw the publication of two books by Kim Paffenroth (A). He is a coauthor of Beyond SelfInterest: A Personalist Approach to Human Action (Lexington Books), and the author ofJudas: Images of the Lost Disciple (Westminster John Knox Press). He will appear (however briefly) on a documen­ tary on Judas to be aired at the end of March on the History Channel. William E. Gattis (SF) and Stephanie Porter (with their son, Beno) are moving to Matrose, Colo., to start a medical practice. 1989 Sophie Romano-Ehrhardt (SF) writes that she and her husband Mac are still married and their children, Isabel (age 5) and Sam (age 2) have not run away from home yet. Sophie is studying vio­ lin and playing bridge. She says, “Hi to all Johnnies. Give a call.” �{Alumni Notes} 1990 The Rev. Gerard Sparaco (A) writes: “I was married October 4, 1998 to Jessica. Graham Harman (A) was best man. I studied at Con­ cordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind. and was ordained June 3, 2001 in Evansville, Ind. I’m now Pastor at Crown of Life Luther­ an Church in Mt. Laurel, N.J.” 1991 Patrick Cho (A) and his wife, Suzanne, welcomed their daughter to the world June i, 2001! Michael David Sasson (SF), who was recently elected president of his local union in Oakland, Cahf., still harbors an ambition to give an SJC Friday night lecture on Pascal, Genesis, and the Gospel of John dealing with themes of love, faith, and original sin. He can be con­ tacted at simcha3@msn.e0m. Andrew Schwartz (A) has joined the regional defense litigation law firm Marshallo, Dennehey, Warn­ er, Coleman & Goggin as an asso­ ciate in its Philadelphia office. He is a member of the firm’s profes­ sional liability practice group. 1992 Michael Zinanti (SF) writes: “Susan Svetich (SF93) and I got married right before I went to engineering school in 1995.1 grad­ uated from the University of Den­ ver in 1998 with a BS in electrical engineering about a year after the birth of our only child (so far) Anna. I worked at Ball Aerospace designing antennas for low observ­ able military applications for about three years. The work was exciting, but the high security stuff got old. Now I work for a company that makes antennas for wireless LAN and cellular phone applications. In all I have six patent applications being processed, five for antennas and one for a roller skate wheel. The only one I actually own rights to is the roller skate/skateboard wheel and I am developing that right now. I hope to have a working pair of skates by this spring, and if things look right I may get out of antennas altogether and make roller skates. Who knows? I am anxiously awaiting the class reunion this summer. Please go to it if you were in the class of ’92.1 hope that this catches you up a lit­ tle bit on me, and I hope to catch up more this summer.” Christopher Hadley, S. J. (A) writes: “I took my first vows as a Jesuit in August 2001 in Portland, Oregon, and I have moved to the Bronx to study philosophy and the­ ology at Fordham University. I live with 18 other Jesuit scholastics and two priests in a converted apartment building. Being in the city for the terrorist attacks and aftermath has been heart-rending, but the beauty and goodness of this place and its people have been shining through. I would love to hear from anyone, especially New York Johnnies.” Hadley’s e-mail address is chrishadleyi@juno.com; his street address is Ciszek Hall, 2502 Bel­ mont Ave., Bronx, NY 10458. Sean and Deborah Scalley (AGI) have recently moved to 9107 Demery Court, Brentwood, TN 37027. Sean is university counsel and tax attorney for Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Deb is edi­ tor of Bank Director Magazine. 1993 Thornton C. Lockwood, Jr. (AGI) married Karen J Andrade, Esq. on September 22. Kevin (AGI 92) and Amy (Marcetti) Topper (A98) attended the wedding. Jeffrey Natterman (AGI) now has 3 children: Elizabeth (ir), John (7), and Sarah (S). He attends law school at the University of Balti­ a? Studying Songbirds Passing By (A94) writes: “After a forced exodus from New Mexico, I am enrolled in the PhD program in Wildlife Biology at the University of Montana in Missoula-hy-God, Montana. I am attempting to model fitness parameters of Neotropical migrant passerines (songbirds) with remotely-sensed landscape data. Dry material, certainly, but I spend the summers in central Idaho, which remains remarkably wild and pleasing to behold (despite the locals). If any members of the St. John’s community are passing through Missoula, please stop by and see me. A pot of pinto beans is always on the stove, the coffee is the blackest in town, and Tuesday is came adovada night.” ndrew Kroll A more and specializes in constitu­ tional law. Jennifer Rychlik (SF) has received her PhD in Microbiology from Cornell University. She is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Biochem­ istry and Molecular Biology at Oregon Health and Sciences Uni­ versity in Portland, Ore. She can be contacted at rychlikj@ohsu.edu. Claire Darling (SF) is living in Portland, Ore., with her husband Jim Magee. Their daughter Regan (18 months) is talking lots. “What a surprise!” Claire says. 1994 David M. Brooks (SF) writes: I am currently living with my talent­ ed partner of six years here in south-east Florida, and complet­ ing my pre-doctoral internship in clinical psychology at the Universi­ ty of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center in Miami, Fla. Jeffrey Spencer Wright (SFGI) received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship last summer. He spent six weeks in San Diego, Calif, participating in a seminar on “Greek Values in Cri­ sis: Thucydides, Sophocles, and Plato,” and reported it to be a wonderful experience. 1995 Richard Lee (AGI) writes: “I thought it was about time that I sent a note and update. I am living in Atlanta and still working in edu­ cation. This past year I was pro­ moted to Vice-Principal of a small private school located in the heart of the city, Atlanta New Century School. Our school is K - 8th grade program. We would love to hear from graduating Johnnies that are interested in teaching, especially at the middle school level. I am easily reached at Rlee857610@aol.com or RichardL@atlantancs.com.” Justin Maddox (A) writes: “I’ve been working in various defense positions since graduating, begin­ ning with a Special Operations stint in the Army. They sent me to Russian school and gave me a fan­ tastic haircut. After my Army time, I did some policy work at the Pentagon until I moved to Las Vegas in ’99. In Vegas, I worked for a company that does emer­ gency response work. Last year they moved me hack to DC, where I work on security issues for the NNSA (look it up). I began work­ ing part-time on my master’s degree at Georgetown in the fall. It’s been wild. I hope everyone’s doing well.” April Walters (A) writes: “This May I’ll be graduating from Tow­ son University with a Master’s in Professional Writing. I currently continued on p. 31 {The College -5f. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �2,8 {Alumni Profile} Reluctant Johnnie For harpsichord maker Mark Adler, choosing St. John a was definitely not an act ofrebellion. By SuS3AN Borden, A87 electronics; I took cars apart. At St. John’s I ne way I find worked at a record shop on likely sub­ College Avenue, the Hi-Fi jects for pro­ Shop. I ended up repairing files is to ao to 30 hi-fis a week. It thumb was my undoing as a St. through the John’s student.” St. John’s Alumni Register While Adler may have taking note of the unusual devoted more time to jobs included in the entries. stereo repair than to study­ Several years ago, the listing ing, his troubles at St. for Mark Adler (A60), harpsi­ John ’s had more to do with chord maker, caught my eye. I his background than his later placed an asterisk next interest in electronics. to it and finally, this fall, I While it’s easy to imagine decided to write to him and that the son of Mortimer ask if he’d be willing to be Adler would breeze profiled. through St. John’s, this He e-mailed to say he was was not the case, Adler willing, and when I called him faced a number of stum­ to set up an appointment for bling blocks at the college. an interview, he mentioned The first was bred of famil­ that he had not graduated iarity. from St. John’s. “For my classmates, St. “That’s okay,” I said. John’s was a new experi“You’re still an alumnus.” ence, a new way of think­ “You know, I never wanted After a start as an engineer, Adler wanted to do something more ing, ” he recalls. “I was so to go to St. John’s,” he said, CREATIVE. intimately aware of the perhaps to explain why he had­ new program, its novel­ n’t graduated. Suddenly, I knew. ness was not a stimulus for me.” Along “No? Did you have a state scholarship?” “ You ’ re not... ” I said. with overexposure to the program came I remembered that at one point, a Mary­ “ Yes I am, ” he said. the problem of Adler’s parents’ enthusiasm land scholarship came with an assignment “I had no idea.” for the school. He points out that the age of of the institution the recipient would “It’s true,” he said. I started to laugh. 18 is not a good time to follow your parents’ attend. Maybe this assignment was a com­ And so did Mark Adler, the son of the late vision for your future. plete mismatch for him. Mortimer Adler. “ For almost everyone I knew, coming to “I didn’t have a scholarship, although So that’s what he meant. Mark Adler St. John’s was an act of rebellion,” he says. my wife did,” he said. “But I didn’t want to really hadn’t wanted to go to St. John’s-he “They found something new and different go to St. John’s.” wanted to go to engineering school. But and interesting there, something their par­ Unsure of what he meant, I tried to come great books were in the family blood and ents had not been exposed to and perhaps up with an explanation: “You were one of business. His father demanded he get a lib­ did not find valuable. They showed their those students who applied without know­ eral education before specializing. independence by going to St. John’s.” ing what St. John’s was all about?” I “ I was not a very good student, but I was In addition to asserting their independoffered. always good with my hands,” Adler says of ence, Adler’s classmates, like other young “No, no,” he said gently. And then: “You his interest in engineering. “I understood adults, were also constructing their identireally don’t know who I am, do you?” O {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{AlumniProfile} 2,9 Great books were in thefamily blood. Hisfather demanded he get a liberal education before specializing. ties. But in the world of Great Books, Adler’s identity was assumed known. “I was not in the position to forge my own path. The senior members of St. John’s were well known to me-the deans, the president. Throughout high school I more or less knew them all. I was not anonymous as a freshman.” Adler was also keenly aware of being measured against his father. “It’s a problem when you have a father who is very bright academi­ cally,” he says. “It’s hard to follow in that vein. I was not a good stu­ dent, my interests lay elsewhere. I loved the labs and was good in math, but I’m not a great thinker. I was not good in seminars. And St. John’s brought me into an environment where I was going to K HANDBUILT HARPSICHORD MODELED ON AN i8tH CENTURY be measured against my father.” FLEMISH INSTRUMENT. In December of his senior year, Adler left St. John’s. At the time, interestingly enough, tutor Dou­ under contract before setting up shop on glas Allanbrook suggested he work for his own. harpsichord maker William Dowd, but He couldn’t have picked a better time. Adler chose to work for General Electric. “ The great baroque revival was so strong, “I stayed there for eight years before facing the limits of my career,” he says. “I became you couldn’t avoid it,” he says. “Institu­ tions had to have instruments, students disillusioned with what I could do as an had to have them, harpsichord-making was engineer. The individual can do little, he’s booming. ” just one tiny cog in one gear, even in a However, no matter how strong the benevolent corporation.” demand, hand-building fine instruments is A stint at G.E.’s think tank showed him labor-intensive; not the best way to make a what was lacking: “I liked the work, it was living. Married since 1962 to the former new and interesting, but I found I wanted Nancy Clark (A61), the Adlers had their to do something a little more creative,” he first child, Clark, in 1968. When they were says. Fortunately, Adler already had some­ expecting their second child. Winter, in thing creative in the works-a relationship 1972, Adler set aside his harpsichord busi­ with harpsichord maker Frank Hubbard, ness and went into computer programming which began in the late ’60s when Adler to support his family. built a harpsichord from one of Hubbard’s In 1990, after his children were suffi­ kits. Adler ended up working in Hubbard’s ciently launched, Adler returned to mak­ studio, then built 12 instruments for him ing harpsichords. Today his business. Cembaloworks, specializes in three regional instruments: English, French, and Flemish. The harpsichords are reproduc­ tions of instruments found in the Smithsonian. They range from a small bentside spinet costing $12,500 to a fully deco­ rated late 18th-century Flemish double manual instrument, which costs close to $30,000. The late i8th- century Flemish harpsichord he keeps in his workshop is rented out for con­ certs and has seen most every major player, including Pinchas Zuckerman, Andreas Schiff, and Sir Neville Mariner. Although constructing instruments is by far the most satisfying part of his work, Adler explains that most of his business now comes from repairs, tunings, and rentals. Still, he tries to make one instrument a year. “Good instruments tend to last,” he says. “As a result, every institution that wants one already has one. That puts me in a mainte­ nance mode.” Among his current clients for maintenance and tuning are Douglas Allanbrook and St. John’s College. Adler came to Annapolis in 1956, under protest, to study the liberal arts. Today, he visits the campus several times a year to practice his trade. Looking back, he says that his St. John’s education was worth­ while after all. “Some analytic techniques stay with you forever and get more and more valu­ able as you get older,” he says. “Induction and deduction-they’re important-and, by gosh, we did learn them. Now I have to say I do believe in getting a liberal education first. Forty years later, I see it wasn’t a mistake at all. {The College* St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{AlumniProfile} 30 At The Improv By SUS3AN Borden, A87 iscover. Take the unlikely choice. Further the action. These are some of the guidelines of improvi­ sational theater. Melinda Skilondz (SF78), aveteran of improv, has made them part of her everyday life. The guideline “discover” seems to define her life, as she is forever investigat­ ing interests, pursuing those she finds inspirational. She decided to “take the unlikely choice” early, when she chose to leave St. John’s after one year to become a mime. Shortly thereafter, she managed to “further the action” when, working as a waitress down the street from the Second City Theater in Chicago, one of her cus­ tomers (actor Dom DePollo) encouraged her to join the group. Skilondz ran to the theater during her next work break. That very week she started attending workshops with the improvisation-based company. Skilondz spent four years with Second City at a time when the company was regu­ larly furnishing actors for the cast of “Sat­ urday Night Live.” For Skilondz, who worked with the theater’s touring compa­ ny, it was the beginning of a lifetime in improv. Improvisation refers to all forms of act­ ing without a script, where the performers invent both dialogue and action. Today’s most popular example is the TV show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”, where each performance is short and comedy is the focus. Improv, however, can be practiced across the entire range of theater, from the height of slapstick to the depths of tragedy. In 1981, Skilondz auditioned for a proj­ ect with Chicago’s Organic Theater, which was then developing an emergency room drama. She won a part with the company and helped develop the characters and script of “E.R.”-the stage show from which the hit TV series would later be drawn. Skilondz describes the method used for developing the production: “Dr. Ron Berman collected the most common emer­ gency room stories: the overweight teenage girl who doesn’t realize she’s preg­ nant, the bag lady hypochondriac, the doc­ tor who has to fight the hospital to care for patients who have no insurance, the nurse taking a business administration course in Melinda Skilondz: Is life like theater? search of a better job, the guy who signs out against medical advice. The company did scenario improvisations based on each story and the script was written based on the material they came up with. With that script, rehearsals started, but before the opening there was an intense preview peri­ od where the writers would interview the audience after the show, then rewrite the script based on their comments. They brought a lot of hospital workers to the audience to help make it more real, more honest.” As it turned out, the intense preview period was well worth the effort. The show was a huge success. “They’d sell out the house to certain hospitals,” recalls Skilo­ ndz. “We’d have St. Joseph’s night, Evangehcal Deaconess night. The hospital work­ ers would be crying, laughing, screaming. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Skilondz played several roles in the stage show: the shaken child’s mother, the ambulance driver, the float nurse, the pregnant teenager-all young characters. Unfortunately, when it was time to audition for the E.R. television show, she was 25 and too old to play her roles on TV. When “E.R.” finally closed, Skilondz found a job with a children’s theater in Michigan and not long after was able to study in California with Viola Spolin, con­ sidered the mother of improv. Skilondz took in all Spohn had to teach, and was particularly drawn to what are known as Spolin games-improvisational games that have uses beyond the theater, often in education and therapy settings. “The Spolin games are circle games, they keep everyone on an even playing field. The group leader is part of the community, not the boss. This is an important technique in a learning situation, particularly when you’re working with teenagers,” she says. It also proved important when Skilondz was hired to direct a show at a medium security prison. “It was a huge success,” she reports. “There were lots ofVietnam veterans involved. The games open you up; you really can’t hide behind barriers.” WTiile Skilondz has remained fascinated by the world of improv, she has maintained a number of other “dayjobs” and projects that have provided both food for the table and food for thought. Her day jobs have run the gamut from waiting tables and doing data entry to booking comedians and working with film production companies. Today, she works with a mortgage broker at a police academy, helping newly trained police officers buy their first homes. In 1988 Skilondz started “The Melinda Show,” a public access cable interview show that’s gone through several metamor­ phoses. The show’s early successes were video collages based on interviews with musicians. For a time, she featured the work of comedians. Now she uses it as a platform for covering charity benefits. After studying improv for more than a quarter of a century, Skilondz is tempted to live her life by its principles. However, she warns, that’s not always the best choice. “In improv, you get used to playing openly, but when you do it in real life, it’s not that great of a strategy,” she says. “After a while you learn to use it judiciously.” Still, Skilondz sees the principles of improv at play in a number of settings: “The seminar at St. John’s has a lot in com­ mon with improvisation because of the way that everyone is included, everyone’s view­ point is respected. I really appreciate that kind of openness, not learning by rote, but by discovery. You discover the scene as you go along.” On stage and in seminar, she explains, when you take the unlikely choice, it’s going to be more interesting. Skilondz invites any Johnnies with inter­ ests in improv and skills in web design and coding to join her in launching improvgames.com, an interactive web site where visitors can explore improv onhne. Her e-mail is melindyrose@juno.com. ->■ {The College- St. John’s College • Winter/Spring sooa } �{AlumniNotes} continuedfrom p. 21 work at the Maryland Institute College of Art as the Writing Stu­ dio Coordinator. My rarely updat­ ed (in actuality-in my mind it’s quite current) webpage is still at http://www.webptxie.com/ and people can write to me at april @webpixie .com.” Emily Murphy (A) writes: “I’m happily settled in Salem, Mass.“The Witch City” as it proudly caUs itself. I’m in the PhD program in American and New England Studies at Boston University and really enjoying myself. I’d love to hear from any Boston area Johnnies. My e-mail is eamurphy@bu.edu.” 1996 Stella Marie Schindler (AGI) has recently released a debut CD “New Horizon.” She encourages classmates to check it out at amazon.com or contact her at www. stellaschindler.com. “Haven’t quit my dayjob, though,” she writes. “Am still a high school teacher in the Washington, D.C., area.” “After a couple of rainy years drinking beer and going to movies in Portland, Oregon, I’m studying law at Columbia Law School in NYC,” writes Renate Lunn (A). “I spent last summer working for the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania and I’ll spend next semester studying at the Cen­ tral European University in Budapest. If you want to distract me from my homework, e-mail me: KLJ135@columbia.edu.” 1997 Owen Gabriel Hoggard, the sec­ ond child of Lee (A) and Melina Hoggard (Aoo) was born on August 10 in Helsinki where the Hoggards now live. Taffeta Elliott (SF) is a gradu­ ate student in neuroscience at Columbia and spent last summer at the Marine Biological Laborato­ ry at Woods Hole, Mass.” Jessica McAllen (SF) married Lowry McAllen on August 35, 2001 in Corrales, N.M. They now manage a sheep farm in Wisconsin. 1998 The parents of Deirdre O’Shea (A) write in with the latest news: “Deirdre has traveled far since her graduation. For about two years she worked for Walker Digital/Priceline until her divi­ sion evaporated 18 months ago. At that point, she went to Thailand to visit her cousin, and also traveled through Cambodia and Vietnam. She returned to New York in Janu­ ary 3001 to announce that she was going to stay in Cambodia for a few years. Some of you may remember that she worked in a bakery in Annapolis during her last two years of school. Well...Deirdre has opened her own bakery in Sihanoukville in Cambo­ dia. She works with two American physical therapists who are taking care of disabled children and adults. Deirdre’s bakery provides employment and training for some of their clients. They are all part of a larger project called “Starfish” which also helps the “orphaned elderly” who lost their children to the Khmer Rouge. She loves visi­ tors. In fact, her brother Brian, cousin Kevin, high school friend Laurel, and Matt Braithwaite (A97) flew to see her for Christ­ mas. She gets her mail at The Angkor Inn, Sihanoukville, King­ dom of Cambodia.” 1999 Tallie Don Maule Taylor (SF) proposed to Corey Amber RudNICK (SF 00) on October 30th on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The wedding date is still to be determined. Mr. Taylor, a regis­ tered associate at Salomon Smith Barney, is pursuing his MBA at New York University; Ms. Rudnick is in her second year at Fordham Law where she writes for the Intel­ lectual Property Journal and works for ASCAP. The couple lives in Brooklyn with their two house pets, Kippy (the better-fed favorite) and Patrick Martin Nash (SF97). Carisa Armendariz Petrie (SF) writes: “Geoff Petrie (SF or) and I were married on October 13, 2001 in El Paso, Tex. Geoff is the media director at Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, and I am a math teacher at Santa Fe High School. We plan to honeymoon when fife settles down a bit.” Last October I just finished a gru­ eling and exciting Peace Corps service in the Islamic Repubhc of Mauritania,” writes Damian Richard (A).“I lived and worked in a little village among the Pulaar people of the Senegal River. They learned about wells and I about their beautiful traditions and hos­ pitality. I was surprised to run into a Johnnie in Mauritania, our Peace Corps Country Director, Kateri Clement (A87). Now I am off to San Francisco to check out gradu­ ate schools and find work.” 2000 Michael Fisher (A) writes: “Hey Gang! Just a note to all you with inquiring minds: Yes I do have two adopted boys, Enoch Seth (3) and Methuselah Uz Fisher (5)-good kids from the South, I think. We generally take turns reading The Fountainhead aloud or the boys design business cards for me-I’m still unemployed! Write me a note to say when you can visit our shan­ ty and remember to bring your own drinking water. All the best! ” Elisabeth Batchelder (A) writes: “Here I am in Ohio, pretty well settled. The school is huge (800 students) compared to where I taught last year (100 students) and not too many of the kids have a burning desire to learn Latin. But they’re learning, whether they like it or not, and I’m hoping they occasionally enjoy them­ selves.” Elisabeth’s e-mail is erbatchelder@juno.com {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } 31 Sandy Green (A) is in his first year of medical school at Temple University in Philadelphia. “From what I have seen,” he writes, “BA’s do make better MD’s than BS’s, especially gra­ duates from SJC.” 2001 David Jennings (A) is now at Ford­ ham University working on his master’s degree. Talley Scroggs (A) is still in Annapolis working at Chez Amis B&B. She tutors French classes in D.C. at the Alliance Frangaise. She spent the summer in L’Ecole Frangaise at Middlebury College. Gregory Bamford (SFGI) is teaching English and humanities at the Hawken School in Cleve­ land, Ohio. Calling All Alumni 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 July; copy deadline is June i. In Annapolis: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 3800. Annapohs, MD 31404; h-goyette@sjca.edu. In Santa Fe: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Public Relations Office, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; classics@mail.sjcsf.edu. Alumni Notes on the Web: Read Alumni Notes and contact The College on the web at: www.sjca.edu - click on “Alumni.” �32 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President One experience is common to all alumni of St. John’s-the leaving of it. All of us remember stepping off the campus and into what we had come to call the “real world.” Some of us took this step before graduation, and some after. Some of us left eagerly, and others reluctantly. Some of us moved on to well-planned work or further learning, and others followed more wind­ ing paths. Each of us has moved, is moving, or will move through this time of transi­ tion, and all of us approach it with mixed emotions. My own experience of leaving the col­ lege was shaped by economic necessity-I needed a job. I knew I wanted to teach, but I had no idea where or how. In those olden days, before the Placement Offices were established, I depended on the people I knew for help. Burch Ault (HS83), then Vice President of the college and my fresh­ man seminar tutor, gave me sage advice and the names and phone numbers of pri­ vate schools that might be interested in hir­ ing me and teaching me to teach. One offered me a contract, and my first career was launched. A challenging and stable job did not resolve all of my anxieties about separating from the college. I found myself lonely for a good conversation, isolated from the edu­ cational experiences of others, confused about how the ideals of the books could be translated into the reality of life. It took several years, a wonderful non-Johnny hus­ band, and many long-distance phone con­ versations with thoughtful friends to shift my focus from the transitions of the past into the possibilities of the future. Stimu­ lating Homecoming reunions at five-year intervals helped mark my progress. Receiv­ ing the Alumni Register and reading the Reporter helped me keep in touch with the community and to remember that it contin­ ued even when I was not in contact daily. Through the years. I’ve had other transi­ tions of place and work. At each juncture I returned to my friends in the college com­ munity for advice or reassurance, and they always came through. Michael Woolsey (A65) pointed me toward the Association for Women in Computing. Alan McVay (SF76) and Charlie Weber (SF77) checked out some property for me in Santa Fe. Joan Bogucki (A87) tamed the bookkeeping jun­ gle that was my first company. Bill Tilles (A59) shares intriguing insights with me about organizations and the people who make them tick. The list goes on and on. I have come to think of the St. John’s College community as a network of wildly diverse individuals who share a common passion for books and the conversations they engender. I know that this community continues to exist regardless of whether or not I call upon it. I know that it is there to receive support I offer in the form of volun­ teer time, information, or financial resources. I also know that it will be there to respond to my questions, concerns, or need for support. That time of leave-taking from the col­ lege was confusing and difficult for me, but I also realize that it was a time rich with discovery and learning. In many ways the questions of Montaigne, Hume, Kant, and Socrates were clearer to me in the world’s context of action than they had been in the student’s context of reading, talking, and writing. During that time I lived in and with the questions of the books. I thought about my experiences as filters for my learning, and I thought about the learning as filters for experience. In many ways the years of searching and stretching, which are not yet finished, are a continuation of the education that began at the college. My current connections with the St. John’s community and my Johnnie friends contin­ ue to enrich my life of learning and growth. The Alumni Association Board has spent a good bit of time lately talking about this turbulent time for alumni and what, if any­ thing, the Association should do to help younger alumni navigate these rough waters of transition. The Placement Offices at the college do a lot to help today’s graduates-everything from running internship programs, to researching graduate schools, to running forums on various careers. The ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Whether from Annapolis or Santa Fe, under­ graduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, all alumni have automatic membership in the St. John’s Col­ lege Alumni Association. The Alumni Associa­ tion 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 Alumni Association news and events of interest. President - Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary-Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer - Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team ChairLinda Stabler-Talty (SFGI76) Web site - www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404 or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. Placement directors assist not only stu­ dents in Annapolis and Santa Fe, but also alumni (check out their web pages at www.sjca.edu and www.sjcsf for the many job listings and helpful contacts they post). To complement these efforts, the Alumni Association has established a new Action Team called Next Steps. Its goal is to design and implement programs that will help alumni provide support to other alum­ ni as they move out of daily contact with the community and into a life-long rela­ tionship in which the college experience is integrated into the rest of a productive life. We on the Alumni Association Board and on the Next Steps Action Team would like to hear from you. What is the story of your transition? What do you think the Alumni Association or individual alumni could do to help make this turbulent time as fruitful as possible? Please take a moment and share your thoughts with us via -emad. We look forward to strengthening the network in which each of us is able to give and receive the gifts of learning and friendship. For the past, the present, and the future, {The College. 5t. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } Glenda Eoyang SF76 Eoyang@chaos-limited.com President St. John’s College Alumni Association �{Alumni Association News} Eastern Classic FOR THE Far East Southern California alumni gather to readMencius By Melinda Skilondz, SF78 Southern California Johnnies met in Janu­ ary to discuss Mencius, a Chinese disciple of Confucius circa 400 BC. Seminar lead­ ers were Santa Fe president John Balkcom and Graduate Institute director Frank Pagano. We met in Los Angeles with the gracious help of Elizabeth Eastman (SFGI84) and Susan Allen (SFGI89). A bit reminiscent of Machiavelli and Plato, Mencius discusses political ques­ tions such as the qualities of a good king. Frank Pagano, who is GI director and has taught in the Eastern Classics program, posed the opening question: “Is this book an ‘attack on profit’?” The group of approximately 30 alumni f engaged in a spirited discussion that cov­ ered the whole spectrum of viewpoints, including “strategy for strategy’s sake,” a personal favorite of mine. The issue of long term versus short term profit was discussed. Is it justifiable to earn profit with unfair working conditions if a final portion of the profits is used for phil­ anthropic purposes? A discussion of the “goods are good” theory was helpful, but frankly, in the wake of the Enron scandal, it was hard to stom­ ach the thought that mere wealth accumu­ lation had any morality whatsoever. The Arthurian concept of the king’s hap­ piness reflecting the happiness of the land was noted; for people living in a simpler society the king’s life might be a great source of entertainment or a barometer of the society’s well-being. (Or, as Eric Idle says so aptly in “The Life of Brian.” “ow, didn’t know we ‘ad a king! ”) 33 Thankfully, Jesus was brought into the discussion, providing an alternative to the notion that simple profit is the only motive for society. The topics of benevolence and respect for elders were also raised. I found Men­ cius’s theory of profit leading to benevo­ lence suspicious, although the king’s hon­ esty about fondness for money and women was refreshing. Is it possible that someone can be edu­ cated to become compassionate? Does the king embody wealth, and/or the command of the wealth? Is he the dawn of leisure activities? And is leisure not necessarily in the equation for the peasants? I found the idea of the philosopher trolling the king for a “job” enjoyable. I can’t help thinking as I edit this piece while watching the winter Olympics that a good Johnnie seminar is not unlike an Olympics of original thinking. Mencius grabs the gold, and all of us have profited from the Finally, the Thai food was great! CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowfor information about chapter^ reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-^75-9012 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin 410-280-0958 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 PITTSBURGH Robert Hazo 412-648-2653 AUSTIN Jennifer Chenoweth 512-482-0747 PORTLAND Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen 410-472-9158 SACRAMENTO Helen Hobart 916-452-1082 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 SAN FRANCISCO, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Jon Hodapp 831-393-9496 SANTA FE John Pollak 505-983-2144 SEATTLE Amina Stickford 206-269-0182 CHICAGO Lorna Anderson 773-338-8651 DENVER Lee Goldstein 720-283-4659 LOS ANGELES Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-r934 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 Jonathan Zavin (A68)(left) and Keth Harrison (SF77)(right), both alumni members of THE Board of Visitors and Governors, participated in the inauguration ceremony for President John Balkcom in Santa Fe in January. Board members wore academic gowns, WHICH THEY DONNED IN THE NEW WEIGHT ROOM OF THE STUDENT ACTIVITIES CENTER. NEWYORK Fielding Dupuy 212-974-2922 NORTH CAROLINA Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 {The College -Sf. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } WASHINGTON DC Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 972-2-6717608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �{Book Review} 34 QUESTIONING HISTORY Mary Palevsky g^rew up ililukiriy the atomic bomb was a mistake—one that herparents, who worked on the Manhattan Project, helped to create. By Mark Sanfilippo, SFGIoo n Mary Palevsky’s (SF74) book Atomic Frag­ ments: A DaughtePs Questions (University of California Press, 2000), we are witness to (and participant in) her jonrney to come to terms with what Joseph Rotblat in his 1995 Nobel lecture referred to as a “splendid achievement of science and technology turned malign.” I Palevsky’s parents worked on the development of the atomic homh during World War II; fol­ lowing the bombing of Hiroshi­ ma both left the Manhattan Project and never returned to the development of war tech­ nology. Her father expressed deep regret over America’s use of the bomb and Mary grew up believing deeply that deploy­ ment of the bomb was in fact a mistake. She believed along with her parents that the United States should have provided a demonstration to the emperor of Japan of the city-destroying power of the bomb, thus avoid­ ing the deaths of some 150,000 Japanese civihans, not counting those who died after the initial blast from injuries or fallout. Atomic Fragments is, among other things, a fascinating mixture of genres. It is at once a very personal journal writ­ ten by a woman attempting to come to terms with the death of her parents and what their lives may or may not have stood for, and at the same time it exists as an inti­ mate look into the different ways in which ATOMIC FRAGMENTS participants in the Manhattan Project dealt with (and continue to deal with) the development and utilization of a weapon that has the potential to destroy our species. Through the course of these “daughter’s questions,” Palevsky talks with Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, Joseph Rotblat, Herbert York, Philip Morrison, Robert Wilson, and philosopher David Hawkins, each of whom provides insights into various aspects of the project. We gain an insider’s look into themes ranging from fears about the likelihood of the bomb setting the Earth’s atmosphere on fire, to Niels Bohr’s desperate attempt to circumvent what he saw as an inevitable arms race through the establishment of an international committee to control the development of nuclear arms. During the course of the book Palevsky’s questions and focus sharpen. Themes emerge and develop as she pushes the interviewees (albeit politely) to elaborate on their answers and opinions. Of particu­ lar interest is the sharp division that arises between those who chose to leave the proj­ ect and those whose chose to stay. Hans Bethe, for example, explains that he stayed on the project in the hopes that by being privy to developments that were taking place he might have some ability to control them. After the war he served on a Presi­ dential advisory committee and was a leader in the effort to ban nuclear weapons. He says; “Anyway, it would be a totally different matter from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And from the word go, that is, immediately after the Japanese surren­ der, I was completely devoted to arms con­ trol to preventing nuclear war.” On the other hand, Joseph Rotblat, who initially joined the Manhattan Project out of a fear that the Germans were developing a nuclear bomb, left the project in 1944 when it became clear that not only did the Germans not have the bomb, but in fact their entire bomb project was kaput. Palevsky’s search possesses a compelhng {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{Book Review} 35 THE BOOK AS SEMINAR How a book got started, and where its story led By Mark Sanfilippo, SFGIoo O how does one go from Johnnie to grad student to acclaimed author to the subject of a docu­ mentary film directed hy a famous Japanese director? For Mary Palevsky, the story begins at the Field­ ing Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, where she was doing dissertation work for her doctoral degree in Human Develop­ ment. Prepared as a narrative investigation, the dissertation eventually turned into an honest-to-goodness full-length book. “St. John’s gave me the ability to really look at both sides of an argument” (the pro- and Mary Palevsky anti-nuclear bomb factions) and “to be truly curious about how each side arrived at its respective conclusion,” she says. St. John’s tale is unique and presents, in a new and spurred a healthy curiosity about why peo­ fresh way, a story that continues to haunt ple think what they do and she finds this us. She’s literally traveled the country, curiosity at its peak when a person’s opin­ going from major universities to bookstores ions are the opposite of her own. With a and small colleges, talking with people book, of course, Palevsky knew she could about her journey of discovery. She’s had reach a much larger audience and thus get the chance to engage professors, teachers, the arguments circulating in a much larger students, and people from all walks of life in the conversation. “seminar.” While in North Carolina to give a talk, With the help of friends and colleagues Palevsky met another person who was to Palevsky got her dissertation to the Univer­ help her take this series of questions yet fur­ sity of California Press. Stanley Holwitz, the ther. In an elevator she noticed the fabric on assistant director, asked her if she would the suit of a woman who was standing in like him to show the book to some people. front of her. She complimented the woman She thought he just meant some people on her suit just as the latter was noticing (note the subtlety). In reality he was passing Mary carrying a copy of Atomic Fragments. the book to the review committee. Before she even knew that she should be nervous, The woman with the good taste in suit fab­ Palevsky’s book was given the green light ric was professor Kayoko Yoshida, a visiting scholar at Columbia. She teaches English and was on its way to publication. Atomic Fragments was well-received. In and, after talking with Palevsky about the retrospect it seems quite natural that peo­ book, decided to translate Atomic Frag­ ple wanted to hear from her in person; her ments into Japanese. S Yet again this daughter’s search would grow to reach a wider audience and open the discussion to a round table possessing a much larger circumference. As it turned out, Yoshida happened to know acclaimed Japanese film director Yoshihiko Muraki. She told him about the book and he found the story fascinating. Unfortunately he couldn’t read English, so Yoshida then began translating as fast as she could so that Muraki could read the material. Palevsky ended up e-mailing summaries of key chap­ ters to be translated, which were then passed along to Muraki. Muraki soon knew that he wanted to make a film about Mary, her parents, and her narrative exploration of the bomb ques­ tion. After a sufficient amount of negotia­ tion, the film was finally shot in conjunc­ tion with NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai-the equivalent of the BBC in Japan) and released in August in Japan. A stateside release is planned in the near future. They filmed her at her home in Ojai, back east at her childhood home, at the bomb test site in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and also at St. John’s in Santa Fe. One can only imagine what it must have felt like for this daughter of Manhattan Pro­ ject scientists to stand and talk about her unique viewpoint with a Japanese filmmak­ er at the bomb test site in the desert. Palevsky’s childhood questions have grown up and matured along with her, and have stretched and expanded from her mind to those around her, to those directly involved in the Manhattan Project, then to the American public, and now to Japan as well. Questioning History... dynamic. Throughout the course of the book she becomes increasingly open to new ways of comprehending man’s develop­ ment of nuclear arms and the effect they have had on the human race. Her tone is diplomatic, and while we know from the outset what her views are, she still treats each person’s viewpoint fairly and with utmost respect. True to the nature of the questions asked, she walks away without a clear answer, but a real triumph of the book is that she successfully brings to light the seemingly necessary ambiguity in Ameri­ ca’s decision to develop and use the nuclear bomb. Mary Palevsky presents to us, through her personal insights and the thoughts and feelings of those working on the Manhattan Project, a fine addition to the exploration of the historical and moral gravity of this scientific revolution. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{BookReview} 3® BIBLIOFILE A selection ofbooks written by great books readers. t. John’s alumni not only like to the capacity of leaders and facilitators of read books-they seem to have a organization and system change to adapt to deep passion for writing them as the complexity inside and outside of their well, heedless of the sometimes- systems. expressed worry that they won’t What I’d Say: The Atlantic Story attempt to write an extended piece because (class of i(j44) they have for comparison the mostAhmet imporErtegun ­ Welcome Rain Publishers tant and most beautiful books ever written. Here is a sampling of the many works by This coffee-table book by Ertegun, founder Johnnie authors, representing every genre of Atlantic Records, covers six decades of and discipline from memoir to corporate music-making history with anecdotes from Ertegun, recording artists, and music self-help. industry colleagues. Musicians with the Periodically, The College will list or Atlantic label include Ray Charles, John review alumni books. Please send notice of Coltrane, Bobby Darin, the Drifters, Aretha books published, or review copies (which will be donated to the library’s alumni Franklin, Mabel Mercer, Wilson Pickett, author collection) for consideration, to: The and Sarah Vaughan. S College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404. The Insanity Factory: A Psychiatric Memoir By Joshua Berlow (SF81) iUniverse.com Insanity Factory Xi a peekbehind the scenes of ’80s America. It addresses such issues as the implications of “for-profit” healthcare, the connection between school curricula and the behavior of children, and the “war between the sexes.” Strategic Renaissance: New Thinking and Innovative Tools for Creating Great Corporate Strategies...Using Insights FROM History and Science Evan Dudik (A7‘2) AMATOM Dudik’s book proposes to demonstrate why “sustainable competitive advantage” doesn’t work and how it should be replaced with “opportunity creation and exploita­ tion.” By applying his techniques, compa­ nies should be able to create a strategic ren­ aissance as they enter a new era of business. Facilitating Organization Change: Lessons from Complexity Science Edwin E. Olson and Glenda H. Eoyang (SF16) John Wiley & Sons This book presents concepts about complex adaptive systems (CAS) that will increase Somewhere South of Here: A Novel William Kowalski (SF(j4) HarperCollins In this sequel to his highly-praised first novel, Eddie’s Bastard. Kowalski continues the story of Billy Mann as he travels to Santa Fe to find the mother who gave him away as a baby. Postfoundational Phenomenology: Husserlian Reflections on Presence and Embodiment By James R. Mensch (A66) Penn Sate Press This book offers a fresh look at Husserl’s philosophy as a nonfoundational approach to understanding the self as an embodied presence. Radical Visions: Stringfellow Barr, Scott Buchanan, and Their Efforts on Behalf of Education and Politics in the Twentieth Century By Charles A. Nelson (class ofig45) Greenwood Publishing Group This book tells the story of the life-long friendship and collaboration of New Pro­ gram founders Barr and Buchanan. Its three sections, “Partners in Creation,” “Friends in Adversity,” and “Carrying on Apart and Together,” include discussions of Barr’s attack from the McCarthyites, Buchanan’s five-month visit to the kibbutzim of Israel, and their extensive writings. Judas: Images of the Lost Disciple Kim Paffenroth (A88) Westminster John Knox Press Paffenroth’s book traces the development of the stories about the most famous traitor in the history of Western Civihzation. Its purpose is not to find the Judas of history, but to provide readers with a map or family tree that shows the similarities and connec­ tions between generations of Judas’ story. From Calcutta with Love: The World War II Letters of Richard and Reva Beard Edited by Elaine Pinkerton (SFGI88) Texas Tech University Press Elaine Pinkerton has edited a collection of letters sent to her mother by her father, who was serving in Calcutta during World War IL A series of essays by Pinkerton about the letters appear throughout the book. My Father, My Daughter: Pilgrims on the Road to Santiago By Maria Schell and Donald Schell (SF68) Church Publishing Incorporated Donald Schell, rector of Saint Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, and his daughter, writer and journalist Maria Schell, write of their physical trek across Spain and of their spiritual journey of discovery of the self and of the other. They discover the way of the pilgrim: full of unexpected and challenging bumps and detours, humorous turns, and moments of grace. Ptolemy and the Foundations of Ancient Mathematical Optics : A Source Based Guided Study A. Mark Smith (A67) American Philosophical Society Smith traces the development of ancient ray-theory from its earliest systematic artic­ ulation at the very beginning of the third century B.C. to its culmination in the late second century A.D. Built of four cardinal sources: Euclid’s Optics and Catoptrics. Hero of Alexandria’s Catoptrics and Ptole­ my’s Optics, the monograph introduces readers to key issues in ancient mathemati­ cal optics. {The College- St. John’s College • }Vinter/Spring zoos } �{Obituaries} Richard W. Barton Class ofiQ4O Richard W. Barton, an attorney with the Office of the Corporation Counsel for 35 years, died in December. Mr. Barton was born in Asheville, N.C. He was educated at Christ School in Arden, N.C., at St. John’s College, and at the National University Law School, where he received his LLB in I94r and LLM in 1943. During World War II, he worked as an intelli­ gence officer at the British Embassy in Wash­ ington, D.C. He then joined the Office of the Corporation Counsel, where he served in many divisions, including Criminal, Juvenile, and Civil Proceedings. From 1956 until he retired in 1980 he served with the Appellate Division, and for 13 years he was chief of that division. After he retired, Mr. Barton was appointed a magistrate for the 17th Judicial District of Vir­ ginia in Arlington County. He retired in 1988 when he moved to Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Mr. Barton was a lay reader at St. George’s Episcopal Church. He is survived by his wife, Joanna, and by a son, a daughter, two sisters, two brothers, and numerous nieces and nephews. William Nealy Class of1^76 I regret to inform the college community of the death ofWilliam Nealy (SF), a writer, cartoon­ ist, avid outdoorsman, and author of ten books and innumerable illustrations. He died on July 19th, 2001. He was 47 years old. He is survived by his wife, Holland Wallace, who shared his life for more than 30 years. A world-famous cartoonist, William is best known for his groundbreaking book Kayak, which combined, to both hilarious and practi­ cal effect, expert paddling instructions and art­ ful caricatures and parodies of the whitewater enthusiasts themselves. The quality of his work transcends its subject; this book, and the oth­ ers which followed, spawned a host of imita­ tors, and made William a cult living legend in the world of outdoor sports. In an autobiographical introduction to his recently published anthology. The Nealy (Gay ofKnowledge William wrote of his year at St. John’s, which he applied to after dropping out of high school in Birmingham, Alabama, and knocking about England as a countercultural cartoonist: “St. John’s had a great search and rescue team which I immediately joined. It was my first opportunity to do some real climbing and mountaineering. Ironically, I had just suc­ cessfully dodged the Draft and suddenly I found myself jumping out of Huey helicopters onto mountaintops on paramilitary-style ‘missions’! “As members of the S&R team, we learned how to rappel, treat hypothermia, spbnt bro­ ken bones, and, in general, how to deal with wilderness trauma (usually our own!). My expe­ riences in New Mexico were the beginning of what has become a lifelong interest in anatomy, kinetics, and emergency medicine. Paramedic training has made it easier for me to visualize the physiology and body mechanics required to learn and to illustrate the complex physical moves involved in adventure sports. I can also envision the first aid procedures I will need to repair my buddies and myself while learning.” William’s father died after his freshman year and he did not return to the college. William’s diverse interests ranged from fly-fishing to rock climbing, criminology, geology, military history, spelunking, metaphysics, archery and tree surgery. All contributed to his cartooning. As his obituary atwww.williamnealy.com says: He brought a thorough and rigorous intelli­ gence to his interests and avocations, all of which, in his hands, became arts. —NealAllen, SFyfi John E. Robson Member ofthe Board John E. Robson, former chairman and member of the Board of Visitors and Governors, died in Washington, D.G., on March 20 after a sixmonth battle with cancer. He was 71. At the time of his death, Robson was president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank, a posi­ tion he assumed in May 2001 after being appoint­ ed by President Bush. The bank is a government agency that provides loans to U.S. corporations to support their sales to foreign countries. Robson joined the coUege’s Board in 1973, and served with distinction for almost thirty years, including as chairman from 1983 to 1985. He was named an Honorary Alumnus in 1999. Along with his wife, Margaret, he was deeply committed to the college. As a generous con­ tributor to St. John’s, Robson was instrumental in securing scholarships for students on both campuses, as well as funding for the Student Activities Genter in Santa Fe. As a candidate for the presidency on the Santa Fe campus, he credited former Annapolis Dean Robert Goldwin for involving him in St. John’s. He wrote in his application that “what attracted me to St. John’s was the Program and the ferocious dedi­ cation of the college to conferring on its stu­ dents the inestimably valuable capacity to ana­ lyze and think for themselves, orderly and rationally, about any issue.” He consistently maintained that if learning to think is what a college education is about, no program does it as well as St. John’s. Gommitted to continued learning, he participated in many seminars, including those specifically developed for the Board and the Summer Glassies program in Santa Fe, where the Robsons have a home. In his biography distributed to Board mem­ bers, Robson said: “I never set my cap to be one thing. If there is a theme in my life, it is starting something or changing things.” 37 Indeed, his professional endeavors ranged from law, to business, to government service. After graduating from Yale and then Harvard Law School, he was a partner and associate at Liebman, Williams, Bennett, Baird & Minow. He opened the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He joined the just-established Department of Transportation in the Johnson Administration and became its second ranking officer in the late rpbos. From 1975 to 1977, he served as Chairman of the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board, where he initiated airline deregulation. His business endeavors also were successful. In 1978, he joined G.D. Searle & Co. as Execu­ tive Vice President. He served as CEO and President of the Fortune 500 pharmaceutical firm until 1986. He then became Dean and Pro­ fessor of Management at Emory University’s School of Business Administration. In 1989, government service again lured him and he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Trea­ sury in the first Bush administration. From 1993 on, he taught and served as Visiting Fel­ low at a number of institutions, including the Yale School of Organization and Management, the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and The Heritage Foundation. In addition to his work on the St. John’s Board, he was a member of the board of the University of California at San Francisco Foun­ dation. His corporate directorships included Monsanto Company, Northrop Grumman Cor­ poration, Rand McNally & Co., and the Securi­ ty Capital Industrial Trust. Robson pursued his hobbies with an intensity equal to that of his professional life. He loved fly-fishing and tennis, and two years ago he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with his son, Douglas. He is survived by his wife Margaret and by Douglas. Also noted: Kenneth R. Cossaboom, Class of i960, died in 2001. Alexandra Culbertson, Class of 1955, died in January. Edward Daley, Class of 1949, died in August. David F. Gilmore, A72, died in 2001. E. Brian Lewis, Class of 1962, died in 2001. Charles A. Norris, Class of 1957, died in January. Rosemary Petke, A68, died in December. J. Oliver Purvis, Jr., Class of 1934, died in December. James Iglehart Randall, Class of 1938, died in November. Col. C.E. Roache, USAF, Class of 1939, died in January. Penelope Rowe Fabrocini, A71, died in January. Cara Gendel Ryan, A70, died in January. Charles Townshend, Class of 1931, died in January. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{GampusLife} 38 10 MYTHS ABOUT SENIOR ESSAYS Perhaps these stories that have ppown up about the labor ofwriting^ the dreaded Senior Essay are the ^secret teachings ” ofthe Annapolis campus. wi Sus3AN Borden, A87 I. Senior Laura Lyon demonstrates the stages of essay writing. One month is a long time. “One month is not a long time,” says Annapolis dean Harvey Flaumenhaft, “You have to remember that our students write things that they have not done sustained work on before. At other schools they would have already taken courses on the book or the subject and been ready to go at the beginning of the writing peri­ od. Here, their essays come from a question that’s been gnawing at them or a book they want to explore. They have not really sat with it for a long time. They need a musing period and a time for living with an idea. That’s something that can’t be rushed.” a. During essay writing, underclassmen are forbidDEN TO ASK SENIORS HOW THEIR ESSAYS ARE GOING. “I don’t think that’s true,” says senior Katie Cox, who reports that people came up to her all the time to ask about her essay. “They asked about it in the same tone they’d use to ask about someone who’d died.” 3. Ms. PAPER. ReNAUT won the essay PRIZE WITH A FIVE-PAGE Tutor Debbie Renaut (A68) disputes this rumor, although her essay on Aristotle and language was a prize winner. “It was a per­ fectly ordinary-length paper: ai, 35 pages,” she says. In an attempt to dispel a very different rumor about the same paper she adds, “It was also not a 500-page essay.” 4. Moby Dick was taken off the reading list because NEARLY EVERYONE WROTE THEIR SENIOR ESSAY ON IT. Although the exact reasons the Instruction Committee removed Moby Dick from the program are not well remembered, Flaumenhaft says that there is some truth to this rumor. “When a sizable number of seniors are writing their essays on a 594-page book, you’ve got an even larger number of tutors reading that work each spring,” says Flaumenhaft. “The question must be asked: Is this the best use of so much of our community’s time?” When asked to speculate about why so many students chose Moby Dick for their essay topic, Flaumenhaft points out that it, along with Huckleberry Finn, were at the time the only two pro­ gram works of American literature. “It’s a work that seizes the imagination,” he adds. “You get to read a story that gives you a wild ride while you stroke your beard and think deep thoughts.” 5. Mr. Schoener wrote his prize-winning essay in a SINGLE DAY. Schoener (A8a), a tutor on leave studying viticulture in Califor­ nia’s Napa Valley, found this myth particularly interesting. “When I was teaching in Annapolis, the story I had to dispel wasn’t about a one-day essay, but a one-page essay,” he says. “The truth is that I wrote my essay in the same amount of time everyone else does. Maybe the only interesting thing you can say is that I wrote it on a portable manual typewriter.” {The College -John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{Campus LIfe} 39 ""My oral was an interrogation. The committee, which included Jacob Klein, was exhausted by haring to turn all thosepages. Howard Zeiderman (A67) 6. Generous contributions from Kinko’s are what’s 8. A CLEVER TITLE WILL ADD TO YOUR ESSAY’s APPEAL AND KEEPING THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF PAGES AT 20 AND THE NUMBER OF COPIES AT 4. BOOST YOUR GRADE. No record exists of donations from the chain of photocopying stores to either the Annapolis or Santa Fe campus, but there is no disregarding the number of students who show up at the Annapohs branch in the hours before the senior essay party. A recent count revealed that approximately 40% of seniors copy their essays there. The Delegate Council is looking into appointing a special investigator to determine the impact on Kinko’s bottom hne should 15-page essays ever become the norm. 7. Mr. Zeiderman wrote an 8o-page prize-winning essay; since joining the faculty, he has always been ASSIGNED TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE STUDENT WITH THE LONGEST ESSAY. “The number was much higher than 80,” Howard Zeiderman (A67) admits, although he declines to state exactly how much higher: “Let’s just say it was a finite number.” Zeiderman recalls that his oral was much more than an oral: “It was an interrogation. The committee [which included Jacob Klein] was exhausted by having to turn all those pages. I had to do penance for many years.” Zeiderman’s penance was no myth: he was indeed assigned to the committees of long-essay writers. Zeiderman’s essay-a senior thesis in those days-was about how Kant and Hegel could both be correct. “If I had to rewrite it now it would be much less than 80 pages,” he says. “If you can’t say it in 20 pages, you can’t say it.” Flaumenhaft has seen more than a few cute and clever titles in his time as a tutor, and more than a few jokes and puns. He’s not against a clever title as long as it conveys what the essay is about. As for jokes, he says, “Abad joke is worse than no joke at all.” 9. A ONE-HOUR EXTENSION IS ALWAYS GRANTED AT MIDNIGHT. “Not exactly,” says Flaumenhaft. “Shortly before midnight we start asking friends about the people who have not yet shown up. We usually learn they’re part of a back-up at Kinko’s [see myth #6] or wrestling with the printer in the computer room. If they’re not there at midnight, we’ll turn the clock back so they can all make the deadline,” he says. 10. One month is a short time. While Flaumenhaft says that one month is not a long time, he says it’s not a short time either. “One month can seem like a short time, but having it longer than one month means that seniors might become even more frantic about their essays. The essay writing period is already an immense thing, but at least they know it will come to an end soon. With more than a month to work on their papers, some seniors might become paralyzed, delay start­ ing, and feel that the essay writing period has to be the peak of their lives,” he muses. His conclusion: “One month is not a short time. It’s just about right.” ♦ {The College- St. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } �40 {St. John’s Forever} n 1966 Santa Fe tutor Dean Hag­ their animals were charged a $10 monthly gard heard about a string of horses maintenance fee. Don Cook, now a tutor that spent the summer in the Pecos emeritus, rode his stallion up to St. John’s and needed a home for the winter. every day during the 1970s, and built his horse a separate corral. Cook thinks that Haggard thought that taking care of horses would be a wonderful there were very few colleges in the coun­ activity for Johnnies. With the college’s try where students and faculty could bring blessing. Haggard and some students built a horse to campus. He remembers a stu­ a corral for the Pecos herd out of old posts, dent named Kyle Schultz (SF80) who kept up beyond the men’s dormitory. her horse at the college. When she gradu­ Caring for the horses proved much ated, she rode her horse from the Santa Fe more of a challenge than anticipated. campus to Missouri, a distance of 1,000 Shoeing and other maintenance costs miles. were high, so the horses were not brought As the campus grew and other athletic back the next winter. Later, the corral was pursuits became available, student inter­ expanded into stables, and the students est in horses waned. The stables were torn down in 1992 to make room for new dor­ helped board horses in exchange for per­ mission to ride them. Students and tutors mitories. Because the corrals had fallen who owned horses were encouraged to into disuse, there wasn’t any protest from bring them to school. Those who boarded the students when they were demolished. I {The College -St John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } Students in the I97OS FOUND RIDING HORSEBACK A GREAT WAY TO EXPLORE THE HILLSIDES AROUND THE CAMPUS. �Ken Vaughn (SF87) with his paintings at last year’s Alumni Art Show. H H Croquet Reunion St. John’s vs. U.S. Naval Academv H Saturday, April 27,1 p.m., Annapolis The twentieth annual croquet match with the Naval Academy-honor, glory, and revenge for last year’s loss. ^^^ date: April 28) The Republic is not only the mother of all liberal arts curricula, but indeed a reflec­ tion on all kinds of ideal constitutions. It contains rousing critiques of poetry and visual arts, a startling understanding of justice, and trenchant criticism and justifi­ cation of democracy. Summei June 30 - July 5, Santa Session \-Democracy In America Led by Janet Dougherty and Delba Winthrop It is always timely to read de Tocqueville’s work, but perhaps especially so now when we are re-examining the character and foundations of this imperfect and great nation of ours. Session Il-Invisible Crossroads: Readings from New Mexico Led by Julie Reahard and Krishnan Venkatesh We will approach this land of crossroads not through O’Keeffe and Lawrence and modernist cliches, but through a handful of neglected classics: Left Handed, Frank Cushing, and Robert Coles. Session II-The Koran and the Life of Muhammad Led by John Cornell and Michael Wolfe The Koran, a difficult book to read for the first time, rarely follows a steady narrative line. Most Muslims insist that the beauty of the Koran is inseparable from the beauty of the Arabic language. We shall address these challenges. Si^turday, July 6 - Sunday, July 28 in Santa Fe Homec Friday, October 4 ~ Sunday, October 6 Reunion Classes: 37, 42, 47, 52, 57, 62, 67, 72, 77, 82, 87, 92, and 97 For information on events, contact the Offices of Alumni Activities: Reunion classes: 72,77,82,87,92, and 97 Sunday, July 7 - Friday, July 12 wSanta Fe Tahmina Shalizi Director of Alumni and Parent Activities Santa Fe-505-984-6103 tshalizi@maiLsjcsf.edu Session I-The Republic Led by Eva Brann and David Carl Roberta Gable Director of Alumni Activities fwi Illi ' {The College ■ St. John’s College ■ IVinter/Spring 2002 } �SIJOHN’S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE Published by the Public Relations Office Box 2800 Annapolis, Maryland 21404 address service requested Periodicals Postage Paid � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 40 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 The College, Winter/Spring 2002 Description An account of the resource Volume 28, Issue 2 of The College Magazine. Published Winter/Spring of 2002. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 28, Issue 2 Winter/Spring 2002 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Goyette, Barbara (editor) Borden, Sus3en (managing editor) Ducker, Susanne (graphic designer) Mulry, Laura J. (Santa Fe editor) Johnson, David Fetterer, Florence Brann, Eva Moreno, Ed Gable, Roberta Eoyang, Glenda H. Skilondz, Melinda Sanfilippo, Mark The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/107a2859a60bb352dcd9e70f7626062b.pdf 3b0fbf46c49d5777e79fd74606df5b96 PDF Text Text The St. John’s ^EGE • SUMMER Annapolis • Santa Fe Dostoevsky Experiences with Crime and Punishment 2OOa �On Dostoevsky yodor Mikhaylovich Dostoevsky ’s own life had all the elements Fof a complex psychological novel. Born in 1821, Dostoevsky spent his childhood in Moscow. His early years were defined by the opposing personalities of his parents: the gentle mother who bore seven children; the cruel, repressive father-a physi­ Dostoevsky was educated at home and at a private school. After the death of his cian who was likely murdered by his own serfs during a quarrel. parents, undoubtedly following his rational side and the guidance of his elders, Dos­ Both died by Dostoevsky’s i8th birthday. toevsky studied military engineering at a St. Petersburg college. However, by the time he wa.s in his mid-2os, he had resigned his commission to write novels, the first two of which were Poor Folk (a success) and Fhe Double (panned by the critics). In 1846, Dostoevsky joined a secret utopian society. The socialistic tenden­ cies of the secret group were not favored by the government, and Dostoevsky was arrested on April 23,1849 as he read a tract in public. Although Dostoevsky was sentenced to death, the emperor ordered a reprieve of the sentence. Dosto­ evsky wasn’t informed until moments before his scheduled death, after he and two others had been tied to posts in the prison yard. He served four years of hard labor at a prison in Omask, Siberia, before being exiled “into the ranks” as a common soldier. In the solitude of prison, in the suffering of his body and soul, Dostoevsky began the self-examination that led to his spiritual awakening. He still professed unbelief, yet, as he wrote in a letter from prison, “Sometimes God sends me moments in which I am utterly at peace.” After the stint in prison and the army, Dostoevsky returned to St. Petersburg. He wrote The ImuliedandIrijuredXri&et^ on his experiences, but the book was so unpopular he felt compelled to defend his ideas in a public letter. When he was 36, the struggling writer married Maria Isaev. He worked as the editor of a publication called Time which was shut down because of its political reporting. Personal crises culminated with the death of his wife and brother in 1865. In his middle years, Dostoevsky suffered from frequent epileptic seizures and spent most of his time in dire poverty which he made worse through obsessive gam­ bling. He wrote Notesfrom Underground, Crime and Punisliineru, and The Idiot within a five-year period during this turbulent time. With his second wife, the young stenographer Anna Grigorievna, he began to lead a more stable existence, finally settling in a small provincial town after several years of travel. Proceeds from The Possessed enabled them to buy a house. There he worked on his final book. The Brothers Karamozov, and enjoyed a measure of public admiration. Dostoevsky’s later books were serialized, making him something of a cult figure with his deeply spiritual voice and commentaries on the state of Russian society. Dostoevsky’s novels are marked by the dichotomies he himself experienced: gen­ tleness and cruelty, faith and unbelief, sin and redemption, suffering and love. He knew criminals well and had ample opportunity to reflect on their sensibilities. He had strong political opinions (socialist in his youth, much more conservative later in life) and explored the social implications of evil and sin in his novels. In this issue of The College, we look at some views on crime and punishment formed, like Dostoevsky’s, on the anvil of experience. SC STJOHN’S College ANNAPOLIS . SANTA FE The College (usps 018-750) is published four 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 3800 Annapolis, md 21404-2800 Periodicals postage paid at Annapolis, md postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, md 21404-2800. Annapolis 410-295-5554 b-goyette@sjca.edu Barbara Goyette, editor Sus3an Borden, managing editor Susanne Ducker, art director Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Kathryn Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 classics@mail.sjcsf.edu Laura J. Mulry, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board Alexis Brown Grant Franks David Levine Margaret Odell John Rankin Ginger Roherty Tahmina Shalizi Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �{Contents} PAGE ZO DEPARTMENTS Grime and Punishment a FROM THE BELL TOWERS • • • • • • • Five Johnnies-two lawyers, a judge, a probation officer and a prison librariandiscuss the reality behind the drama of criminal justice. PAGE l6 Commencement 2002 24 BIBLIOFILE A review of Charles Nelson’s book on Barr and Buchanan A military historian and a novelist known for literary experimentation sent surprisingly close messages to graduates in Annapolis and Santa Fe. PAGE The New Program seal Ancient philosophy in Seattle SJC as international model News about tutors and students Homecoming in Annapolis Santa Fe’s fundraising triumph Letters 26 THE PROGRAM Alumni in the corporate world debate how math is taught at SJC. 20 29 ALUMNI NOTES Remembrances Pranks Past oe ALUMNI PROFILES 32 Holly Miller (SFGIoi) writes for Laura Bush. A short history of senior prank. PAGE 22 PAGE 16 34 Nathan Wilson (AGIoi) parodies apocalyptic novels. 41 OBITUARIES A Buddhist in THE Bookstore 42 CAMPUS LIFE Johnnies reclaim croquet superiority. Santa Fe bookstore manager Andrea d’Amato brings an awareness of Eastern thought to her job and her life. 44 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS • • Minneapolis/ St. Paul tackles tragedy Election Notices 48 ST. JOHN’S FOREVER PAGE ao ON THE COVER Dostoevsky Illustration by DavidJohnson �2. {From the Bell Towers} On Liberalism and Liberos Stringfellow Barr, one of the New Program founders andpresident of the collegefrom 193'2 to 1947, delivered a series of radio talks on WFBR in Baltimore. Here are excerpts of the talk he delivered on June 20, 1938, in which he tells the story behind the ''books and balance ” seal that had come to symbol­ ize the program. Editor's note: Today we use inclusive language to translate the motto: "I makefree adultsfrom children by means of books and a balance. ” confronted with a worldwide decline of liberalism. ...Since the New Program is an effort to restore liberal arts edu­ cation in American colleges, I should like to speak this evening about liberalism and what it means to those of us who are still will­ ing to fight for it. Like most liberals today, I am disturbed by the rise in many parts of the world of government by violence as a substitute for government by reason and consent. But unlike most liberals I know, I am much less disturbed by the overthrow of free govern­ ment in states that were once democratic than I am by the con­ fusing of the liberal mind in states like ours which are still tech­ nically free. You may argue that confusion in the liberal mind disturbs me because I know that such confusion is normally fol­ lowed by the overthrow of free government. I agree that this is what normally happens; but even if you could assure me that “it can’t happen here,” I should still be disturbed by the present state of liberalism. Because I agree with those who founded our Republic that what they and we have called free institutions cannot alone and of themselves make men truly free. Free insti­ tutions are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. The end is the freedom of individual men and women... Is ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY STILL RELEVANT? The original art for the books and balance seal, used until 1997, WAS HAND DRAWN. ThE LaTIN PUN WAS WRITTEN BY A FRIEND OF BaRR’s. The other day an interesting and curious gift arrived at St. John’s College. It was a design in the form of a circular seal, and it was the work of a Harvard man who admires the educational program which this College has undertaken and who chose to express his admiration by designing this symbolic seal. In the center of the seal is a pair of scales, or balances. Around it in a circle are placed seven open books, representing the seven liber­ al arts. And around the open volumes is lettered the motto, “Facio Liberos ex Liberis Libris Libraque.” I suppose the motto may be fairly translated; “I make free men out of boys by means of books and balances.” The punning on the stem of the Latin word for free is a serviceable pun now that liberal education is {The College. Is ancient philosophy stiU rele­ vant? Such was the theme that faculty professors, students, and guest lecturers were invited to address at Seattle University’s 7th Annual Philosophy Confer­ ence held on May 17. Among the visiting lecturers was St. John’s tutor Joe Sachs (A68). I think most of The College readers would agree, the answer to the theme question is a resounding Yes! The distin­ guished panel at the conference shared this opinion and sup­ ported it with readings from their essays. The readings cov­ ered topics inspired by the works of Hegel, Aristotle, Plato, Husserl, Nietzsche, and Diogenes. In his essay “Wholes and Parts in Human Nature,” Joe Sachs tackled the tough ques­ tions of Who are you? and What are you? Drawing on the tradi­ tion of thought established by 5t. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } Plato, Aristotle, and Hume, Mr. Sachs put forward the thesis that our characters are indeed composed of the parts known as Reason and Passion, but added that there is an equally impor­ tant third part. Spirit, which employs Reason and Passion and creates a whole from the triumvirate. Aristotle gave us the analogy of a syllable in the Nicomachean Ethics to illustrate the notion of a whole composed of inseparable parts. A syllable is visually composed of separate letters but is considered a whole when spoken. Take the first syllable of the word “mem­ ory,” for example. If you sound it out slowly you’ll hear that the continuity of sound requires that each utterance be shaped by the following letter. Sound­ ing out each letter individually does not a syllable make. In this way the syllable is a whole com­ posed of parts that are harmo­ niously united. Mr. Sachs drew on this analo­ gy to talk about the soul as being composed of universal Reason, generic Passions, and distinctive Spirit. In a harmo­ nious unity of parts, the Spirit interacts with the Passions as an impetus to action and uses �{From the Bell Towers} 3 St. John’s Education A Model for Myanmar Seattle University professors Corinne Painter, Bort Hopkins, AND Christian Lotz discuss Ancient Philosophy with Annapolis TUTOR Joe Sachs (center). Reason as a guide for action. The Spirit, then, is the source of practical judgment in our daily affairs. Greatness of soul, brought about by the Spirit’s dialectic movement in which it first attains, then disdains, the rewards of virtue and honor, becomes the distinctive differ­ ence that leads to a correct sense of one’s own self-worth, right action, and a happy life. Readings from other visiting lecturers and Seattle University professors and students were similarly interesting and informative. For instance. Vil­ lanova University professor Walter Brogan examined the kinship between practical and theoretical philosophy as illus­ trated with Aristotle’s notion of friendship. Seattle University was well represented by several professors from its Philosophy department. Licia Carlson pre­ sented a holistic picture of ancient Greek music, and con­ cluded with the discovery that philosophy is a form of music in itself. Christian Lotz, also a professor at Seattle University, simultaneously entertained and informed with his power­ point presentation on the important example of Dio­ genes, who practiced philoso­ phy in a wholly public life (eating, sleeping, and philoso­ phizing in the marketplace) instead of exclusive institutions and academies. With these and other fine expositions, the 7th Annual Philosophy Conference was considered a success by its organizers and attendees. Several St. John’s alumni were in attendance to hear Mr. Sachs speak, including Bill Boon (A80), Diana Klatt (A89), and Nina Tosti (A89). The Philoso­ phy Club at Seattle University organized this annual confer­ ence to give students and pro­ fessors the opportunity to pres­ ent their work to an audience of colleagues, peers, and the general public. —wthMinh. Stickford (SFoi) Educators from Myanmar (for­ merly knovra as Burma) visited the Annapolis campus last spring, attending sophomore seminars on Macbeth and Descartes’s Discourse on Method, freshman lab, junior mathematics tutorials, a senior language tutorial on Flannery O’Connor, and a senior oral. “I was asked to help them understand how we teach and learn together at St. John’s,” says tutor John Verdi, who organized their visit at the col­ lege. “They are especially interested in how tutors help each other to become better teachers of discussion classes, and how students learn to sup­ port their positions with rea­ soned arguments.” The visit was coordinated by Dorothy Guyot, a former tutor who is currently working with Burmese educators through a non-profit organization, the Myanmar Foundation for Ana­ lytic Education. Myanmar became isolated from the outside world in 196a, when its military gov­ ernment shut off most exchange in commerce, the arts, and education. New books are scarce and those that arrive are photocopied; Burmese visitors Khin Maung Win and Khin Ma Ma {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } most academics have not been able to receive journals for a long time. The country has begun to encourage tourism and other types of interaction with the rest of the world. Dr. Khin Maung Win, who earned his PhD at Yale and went on to become professor of philosophy at Yangon Uni­ versity and then Minister of Education and Ambassador to France and India, came to observe St. John’s along with his daughter Dr. Khin Ma Ma, who earned her medical degree at Yangon University and now practices medicine in Mandalay. He hopes that what he learned in his U.S. visit can be used to lay the groundwork for new modes of faculty development in higher educa­ tion and a new program to prepare high school graduates to study in the U.S. “Seminars are very important to train future citizens,” says Dr. Khin Maung Win. “A modern socie­ ty needs people to have dis­ cussions... In Myanmar, tradi­ tionally teachers are very highly respected. There is a saying ‘when the teacher says the sun rises in the west, it must be true.’ Students don’t ask questions.” Introducing the St. John’s pedagogy of student-led learn­ ing in Myanmar will not be easy, according to Matthew Ting, a 200a Annapolis grad­ uate of Burmese descent. As an American, Ting says, “I have a tendency to open my mouth and not shut it. But some of my cousins that were raised in Burma are quiet. And a lot of St. John’s educa­ tion is just getting people to talk.” 4—BY Beth Schulman �{From the Bell Towers} 4 Announcements The students Annapolis rising senior Aaron McLean received Honorable Mention for a paper submitted to the Elie Wiesel Ethics Essay contest, a national competition spon­ sored by the Elie Wiesel Foun­ dation for Humanity. Mr. McLean’s essay is entitled “On the Combing of Hair in Herodotus.” The essay is post­ ed on the Foundation’s web site at WWW. eliewieselfoundation. org. The Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics Essay Contest is an annual competition open to undergraduate juniors and seniors in the U.S. and Cana­ da, designed to challenge col­ lege students to analyze urgent ethical issues con­ fronting them. Students are encouraged to write thought­ provoking, personal essays. All submissions are judged by a committee of scholars, and a jury that includes Nobel laure­ ate Elie Wiesel decides the winners. Andrew Hui, of Garland, Texas, who graduated from Annapolis in May, received a Jack Kent Cooke scholarship for graduate study. The award covers full tuition, expenses, travel, and a stipend, and is renewable for up to six years. A first-generation immi­ grant from Hong Kong, Mr. Hui came with his family to America the summer of the Tienamen Square incident. His parents operate a retail aquarium in Garland, where he has worked over school vacations. Mr. Hui plans to study sacred music and com­ parative literature, probably at Yale. He is interested in the religious influences in Dante, Milton, and Racine and will examine how they manage to encompass Greek mythology in a Christian worldview. Officer and Staff Appointments Under an administrative change in the structure of the college, Jeff Bishop (HA99), formerly vice president for advancement in Annapolis, has been appoint­ ed vice president for college­ wide advancement. He will coordinate fundraising efforts and external relations for St. John’s and will travel between the two campuses. On the west­ ern campus, Michael Franco Grecian has been appointed vice presi­ dent for advancement, Santa Fe. Mr. Franco formerly held advancement positions at Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Rochester, and Boston College. Barbara Goyette (Ay3) has been appointed vice president for advancement, Annapolis. For the past eightyears, she has served as director of public rela­ tions and publications (aka communications) in Annapolis. Jo Ann Mattson (A87) has been appointed director of alumni activities in Annapolis. women, an illustration by the new Alumni Director, Jo Ann Mattson, A87 decorated last year’s Homecoming brochure. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } She replaces Roberta Gable (A78), who is now director of placement. Ms. Mattson is a teacher, musician, and artist. She drew the spoofs of Greek statues that decorated last year’s Homecoming and Cro­ quet weekend brochures. Marline Marquez Scally has been named registrar in Santa Fe. She formerly worked at the Santa Fe Waldorf School, where she played many roles: Spanish language teacher, events coordinator, develop­ ment coordinator, faculty chair, member of several boards, administrative council mem­ ber, admissions director, and college member (comparable to the SJC Instruction Commit­ tee). Ms. Marquez Scally received her BA from College of Notre Dame (Calif.) and pur­ sued an MAT at Trinity College in Washington, D.C. Rosemary Harty has been appointed director of communi­ cations in Annapohs. She held a similar position at the Universi­ ty of Baltimore, and has worked on public relations and publica­ tions at Catholic University (Washington, D.C.) and the University of Dayton. She was a newspaper reporter for to years prior to working in higher edu­ cation. As one of her duties she will become editor of The College magazine, replacing Barbara Goyette. David Pierotti has been appointed Entering Director of Laboratories in Santa Fe. He will work closely with current director Hans von Briesen for the coming year. Mr. Pierotti has been working in the fields of environmental science research and education for the past 35 years and has also been a consultant with a number of governmental and commercial laboratories. Some of the agen­ cies with which he has worked include the EPA, NASA, the Cahfornia Air Resources Board, and the National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council. �{From Stafford loans______________ As reported in the last issue of The College, now is a great time to consolidate student loans. For alumni with loans from sev­ eral different colleges, or from undergraduate and graduate study, this option should be considered, according to Bryan Valentine, treasurer in Santa Fe. When student loans are consolidated, the rate is locked in, rather than the rate being re-set each July as it is in the normal repayment cycle. Rates for Stafford loans went to 4.625% on July I. Information on student loan rates can be found at www.staffordloan.com (click on “consolidation”). Changes on the board________ The St. John’s Board of Visi­ tors and Governors has a new chair, new officers, and several new members. Ray Cave (A48) is serving as chairman of the Board. Cave was the editorial director of Time, Inc., and has been a long-time member of the Board and supporter of the college. He was co-chair of The Campaign for Our Fourth Cen­ tury. Greg Curtis has com­ pleted his tenure as chair; he remains an active member of the Board. Stewart Green­ field (A53) and Jonathan Zavin (A68) are serving as vice chairs. Jeremy Shamos, (SFGI76) is serving as secre­ tary. This marks the first time in memory that all officers of the Board of Visitors and Gov­ ernors are alumni of the col­ lege. New members of the Board are Jaune Evans (with the Lannan Foundation), Richard Hoskins (an attorney with the Chicago firm of Schiff Hardin & Waite), Roger Kimball (with The New Criterion), Mark Middlebrook (A83), and Theodore Rogers (with American Industrial Partners). the Bell Towers} Shared Identities in Physics, Philosophy, andLiteratureyta& published by MIT Press in Feb­ ruary. An article, “Quantum Identity,” appeared in the MayJune 2002 issue oiAmerican Scientist. In the article, he addresses some of the ques­ tions that arise when thinking about quantum mechanicsespecially the unusual conse­ quences of “like particles being completely indistinguishable from one another.” “Bacon’s Proof; The Career and Controversies of Edward Teller” is a review of Teller’s memoirs written by Annapolis tutor Adam Schulman and published in the spring 2002 issue of “The National Inter­ est.” A physicist who worked on the Manhattan project. Teller was one of the European theo­ retical physicists who “laid the foundations of quantum mechanics.” Schulman con­ nects the physics involved in 5 the making of the atomic bomb with Bacon’s notion that scien­ tists “would secure and aug­ ment their prestige in socie­ ty...by the mastery of nature that their practicable science would confer on other men. Bacon predicted that the fruits of the new science would include not only inventions for the relief of human misery but also weapons of immense destructive power.” Annapohs tutor emeritus and former dean CuRTis Wilson was honored in April with a festschrift organized by the Dibner Institute, an international center for advanced research in the history of science and tech­ nology established in 1992 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Held at the Annapolis campus, the festschrift featured talks, demonstrations, and tributes to Mr. Wilson, who was honored for his role as an eminent histo­ rian of science. George Smith, a professor at Tufts, noted that Mr. Wilson “has done far more than anyone else to provide all of us with a deep understand­ ing of the three centuries of orbital astronomy from Kepler through Simon Newcomb.” The weekend also featured a lecture by Noel Swerdlow of the University of Chicago on “Sci­ entific Cosmologies” that focused on our understanding of Ptolemy. Other presenters included Bill Donohue (A67), of the Green Lion Press, who spoke about the section in Kepler’s manuscript where he comes to the realization that orbits are elliptical; James Voelkel of the Dibner Institute; Dana Densmore (A65), of the Green Lion Press; and David DeVorkin of the Smithsonian Institution. A surprise finale to the weekend was a musical presentation by Santa Fe tutor Peter Pesic. The Tutors_________________ Santa Fe tutor Peter Pesic has a new book out. Seeing Double: Spring tradition for GIs: At the Graduate Institute dinner in Santa Fe, WEEK ACTIVITIES, MaRY AnN ClEAN TOASTS HER COLLEAGUES AND TUTORS. {The College. St. John’s College - Summer 2002 } part of Commencement �6 A Congress OF Johnnies Homecoming in Annapolis is setfor October 4-6. JoAnn Mattson {A87), the new Director of Alumni Activities in Annapolis, will kick off the fes­ tivities this fall in a personal way: she’s hosting a Friday evening barhecue (with her hus­ band Walter Mattson, A87) for the fifteenth year reunion class, the redoubtable Class of r987 Annapolis. But then she’ll hus­ tle back to campus to preside over a Homecoming filled with events not only for reunion classes but for all and sundry who return to Annapolis when they hear a party’s going on. Eva Brann (HA89) will deliv­ er the Class of ’94 Homecoming Lecture at 8:15 Friday evening (not that any alumni need to be reminded of the time for lec­ ture), in the newly refurbished FSK Auditorium. After lecture alumni will follow their lights, either to the Question Period, to a reception in the dining hall with the Class of 2003, or to the Boathouse, where a traditional boathouse rock party will evoke The Cave, but in a nice way. Saturday morning brings a cavalcade of seminars, on read­ ings from Plato to Emerson, from Dostoevsky to Wallace Stegner. After the big Homecoming Picnic down by the sycamore trees, all are invited to the Annual Meeting of the Alumni Association, where tutors emeriti John Sarkissian and Robert Williamson, and longtime creator of lab equip­ ment Al Toft, will be made Hon­ orary Alumni. Annapolis Presi­ dent Chris Nelson (SF70), Annapolis Dean Harvey Flaumenhaft, and Alumni Associa­ tion President Glenda H. Eoyang (SF76) will give reports. {From the Bell Towers} and the Alumni Association elections will be held. After the Annual Meeting there’s a wide variety of diver­ sions around campus: a Mitchell Gallery Tour (the exhibition will be “The Sweet Uses of Adversity: Images of the Bibli­ cal Job”), Freshman Chorus Revisited (led by Tom May), a Pick-up Basketball Extravagan­ za sponsored by the Classes of 1987 and 1988, the traditional Soccer Classic (us against them), and a happily crowded Bookstore Autograph Party, where ro faculty and alumni authors will autograph their wares, from Complexity and Analysis (Stewart Umphrey) to The Golden Age: A Romance of the Far Future (John Wright, A84), from Strategic Renais­ sance: New Thinking and Inno­ vative Tools to Create Great Corporate Strategies Using Insightsfrom History and Sci­ ence (Evan Dudik, A72) to The Shape ofan Ear (Elliott Zucker­ man, HA95). All reconvene in McDowell at 6:00 for the cocktail party, which stretches throughout the first two floors of the building, with the core party in the Great Hall, and reunion class gettogethers in classrooms. Thence to Randall Hall for the Homecoming Banquet, where the reunion classes will offer toasts, and two members of the class of 1967, Candace Brightman and Howard Zeiderman, will be given the Alumni Associ­ ation Award of Merit. Those with true virtue and endurance will then repair to McDowell, where two parties will parse them according to their taste: in the coffee shop, yet another cave-like rock party, this one with, more appropri­ ately, no water view; in the Great Hall, a waltz party spon­ sored by the class of 197a, with floral decorations (reminiscent of Rose Cotillions), and Elhott Zuckerman at the piano. (Yes, there will also be swing music for you swingers.) Finally, the traditional Presi­ dent’s Brunch will be held on Sunday, with this innovation: we’re moving the apostrophe and this year calling it the Pres­ idents’ Brunch, since Santa Fe President John Balkcom (SFGIoo) will be in town to join Annapolis President Chris Nelson (SF70) in hosting the brunch at his home in Wardour. Interspersed throughout the SiDDiQ Khan, weekend into all these general events are special shindigs for the reunion classes, all the years ending in seven or two: 1937,1942,1947, etc. through t997- Check the Homecoming brochure (with McDowell on the front cover) for details, reg­ istration form, everything you need to know about Homecom­ ing and some fine photos besides. artist and pottery instructor on the Santa Fe CAMPUS, POSES WITH SOME OF HIS CREATIONS. ThE FACULTY AND StAFF Art Show, held every spring, features paintings, drawings, PHOTOGRAPHY AND TEXTILES AS WELL AS POTTERY. {The C o l l e c, e ■ St. John ’5 College . Summer 2002 } �{From Future Farmer of Annapolis As a sophomore, Justin Naylor (A02) worked in the college archives processing the papers of New Program founder Stringfellow Barr. Among the hundreds of Barr’s documents that Naylor indexed were those that explored world govern­ ment, higher education, for­ eign policy, and rehgion. And gardening. Though it’s not on the pro­ gram, Johnnies might be inter­ ested to know that Barr is the author of The Kitchen Garden Book, written in 1956 when Barr was teaching at the Uni­ versity of Virginia. The book, subtitled “Vegetables from Seed to Table,” is part essay, part instruction manual, and part cookbook. It covers soil preparation and garden plan­ ning in addition to detailed sections devoted to 3a different vegetables, from the humble turnip to the popular tomato. “Barr was a lifelong dedicated gardener,” says Naylor. “His brother James was a farmer. I sense Barr was interested in farming in the Jeffersonian tra­ dition-small scale agriculture, the culture around agriculture, the kind of citizen it pro­ duced.” Around the time that Naylor was reading Barr’s book, Masao Imamura’s (AGI99) wife, Jack­ ie, recommended that Naylor read Ehot Coleman’s The New Organic Grower and several other books that fed his interest in agriculture and environmen­ tal sustainability. Interest led to endeavor. In r999, Naylor took a year off from St. John’s to serve a lo-month apprentice­ ship on a small-scale, six-acre organic farm that raised mixed vegetables in Delaware. When he returned to the col­ lege, he started a gardening the Bell Towers} club. Along with about ten other Johnnies (including Librarian Lisa Richmond), he built seven 25-foot beds and three ro-foot beds on back cam­ pus between the tennis courts and King George Street. Work­ ing mainly on Saturday and Sunday mornings, the club members grow spinach, peas, tomatoes, peppers, melons, cucumbers, lettuce, marigolds, cosmos, and sunflowers. At any given time, between 5 and 10 students are actively involved in the work-a respectable showing on a campus of 450. Naylor likens the appeal of gardening to that of the gym or the woodshop: When you spend so much time thinking, you need to find an outlet for doing. “The gardening club meets a lot of needs,” says Naylor. “Club members are interested in working with plants, work­ ing outside, growing food, and working with their hands.” This spring the gardening club teamed up with the envi­ ronmental club to sponsor a talk by Brian Halweil, a research associate at the World­ watch Institute (a policy research organization that focuses on emerging global problems and the hnks between the world economy and its envi­ ronmental support systems). “Halweil focussed his talk around the two major claims of biotech companies: that biotech crops are necessary to make agriculture sustainable and that they are necessary for feeding the world’s growing population. Both of these claims are highly emotionally charged and are difficult to be against,” explains Naylor. “Brian’s approach was to look at what has actually been pro­ duced by these biotech compa­ nies and to show that there is a disconnect between their claims and actual practices. For exam­ ple, the few biotech crops released so far have, if anything, increased chemical usage and are thus less sustainable. {The College. Sr. Agricultural 7 sustainability interests Justin Naylor, shown HERE WITH THE COLLEGE GARDEN HERBS. “Halweil also made the case for an ecologically-based agri­ culture, and used as a case study a particularly noxious weed in Africa that has not been dealt with adequately using conven­ tional chemical means. He pointed out, however, that this weed is only a problem in depleted, over-farmed soils. In soils that have been properly cared for, this super-weed is simply not a problem.” As Naylor learns about mod­ ern approaches to agricultural sustainability, he says that in some ways, not much has changed since the publication of Barr’s book. “He was a thoughtful advocate of organic agriculture when it was consid­ ered a world of hippies and freaks,” Naylor says, reading a relevant passage: “There is a ferocious war of words on between organic farmers and those who depend on chemicals. The case for organic gardening has made great progress; the proof is that more and more of its opponents have begun to argue that both methods are needed. The case would have pro­ gressed even faster if cranks had not overstated it.” John ’5 College • Summer 2002 } Naylor praises The Kitchen Garden Book and recommends it to anyone working the earth. “Even if it weren’t by Barr,” he says, “it would still be a worthy book on my shelf.” Newly graduated, Naylor continues to pursue his inter­ est in agriculture. With the help of a USDA loan, he is rent­ ing four acres on a property adjacent to the farm he worked on last summer. His first crops should be out next spring. BY SUS3AN Borden (A87) The Garden Bookshelf Naylor recommends these books to all Johnnies with an interest in gardens: The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman 7'he Kitchen Garden Book by Stringfellow Barr Heirloom Vegetable Gardening by William Woys Weaver Botanyfor Gardeners by Brian Capon �{From the Bell Towers} 8 Philanthropia Brings Reality to Advancement How many Johnnies does it take to raise $12, ooo? Fifteen—if they Je juniors volunteering their services to help out Reality Weekend. In the Philanthropia spirit of alumni working on alumni fundraising, the Annapolis Reality archon, Justin Jones (A03) put together a team of pre-alumni (St. John’s juniors) to conduct an advancement office phonathon. In exchange for their help, advancement donated $500 to Reality. The April 23 phonathon proved a resounding success, with 457 calls made in 3 hours raising $12,691 dollars (so farmore checks continue to come in). Maggie Griffin, Director of the Annual Fund in Annapolis, says that the most impressive statistic for the phonathon was the number of gifts made in the weeks following the phonathon when messages the students left on answering machines were returned by enthusiastic alumni. Of 331 messages left. 56 have already sent checks. “That number is absolutely astounding! ” says Griffin. “The students delivered the St. John’s message so effectivelythe alumni really responded to them.” By the end of the night, stu­ dents were asking about vol­ unteering for the next phonathon and seeking stu­ dent aide positions in the advancement office. “And they were good,” says Advancement Officer Mary Simmons. “There were quite a few we would have loved to hire on the spot.” Another positive effect of the phonathon will be felt this coming year as the junior class begins to form the senior class gift committee. Perhaps a repeat of Santa Fe’s senior class triumph (see page 9) is in the making. As PART OF PhILANTHOPIA’s EFFORT TO INSTILL AWARENESS OF ALUMNI FUNDRAISING IN THE STUDENTS AT SaNTA Fe (wHO ARE, AFTER ALL, THE ALUMNI OF THE FUTURE) , THE GROUP BROUGHT 6OO KrISPY KrEME DOUGHNUTS TO CAMPUS THE MORNING BEFORE REALITY. STUDENTS BLEARY-EYED AFTER A NIGHT OF FINISHING UP PAPERS AND FACULTY WHO ARRIVED EARLY FOR THEIR CLASSES AGREED—DOUGHNUTS AND COFFEE MAKE FOR A HAPPY BEGINNING TO ANY DAY, PARTICULARLY THE FIRST DAY OF “REALITY.” Letters Winter Warfare_____________ On page 16 of the Winter/Spring 2002 issue of The College, there is a winter scene of Annapohs. In that photo of “Winter Warfare,” I am off stage left with my friend Matt. Matt had the good arm. The targets are Liz Stuck and Wendy LeWin, both freshmen in 1977-1978, which should date the picture more accurately. Both were from Minnesota, I think, two of three Minnesota girls (Marian Sharpe, from Pine Gity, being #3) that started that year, and therefore impervious to win­ ter. - David Nau, A8i Liberty Bell________________ Students delivering the message about the college’s needs were HEARD LOUD AND CLEAR BY ALUMNI. Kudos to St. John’s for refurbish­ ing the Liberty Bell rephca (Win­ {The College - St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } ter/ Spring issue). This symbol of our democracy has an even greater significance since 9/11. As one of the school children who contributed pennies for the yoke of the beU 50 years ago, I have always had a particular fondness for the beU. I am pleased and proud of the stewardship the col­ lege has provided this great emblem of our freedom. -Ron McGuirk , A6o More Calendar Ids _______ In the Philanthropia Calendar for 2002,1 can identify the gui­ tar players pictured for Octo­ ber. Linda Stromberg was at SJC (Santa Fe) from 1973 to 1975. Later she attended Anti­ och College and earned a degree in biology, I think. With her might be Jim Shea (based on the hair), who began with the same class. -Sheri Anderson, SF78 �{From the Bell Towers} The One Hundred Percent Solution February, Paula Maynes {SF77), a member of Pbilanthropia (the alumni group that encourages financial support for the college), spoke to the seniors about life after St. John’s. The class then dis­ cussed what changes they would like to make at the college-from faculty compensa­ tion to scholarship support-if money were no object. By the end of the event, they zeroed in on the film collection as their gift. On the day of Commence­ ment, the seniors were ready to celebrate their success. Com­ mittee members Emma Wells and Sara Abercrombie stepped forward to present Balkcom with the certificate commemo­ rating the gift, as well as their class’s new record for partici­ pation. “There’s one thing they can be certain of,” says Santa Fe Annual Fund Director Ginger Roherty. “It’s a record that can be equaled, but it will never be broken.” The Santa Fe class of 2002 has set a new standardfor giving. Who J next to meet the challenge? On the wall of President John Balkcom’s Santa Fe office hangs a certificate he received at Commencement: “The Senior Class Gift: on behalf of eighty-seven gradu­ ating seniors, each of whom made a contribution,” it reads. The certificate com­ memorates not just the gift, but the story behind the gift. The class is the first to achieve 100% participation in a St. John’s fundraising effort. Each of the graduates contributed to the nearly $3000 collected so far for the gift-a classic film collection for the Meem Library. Work on the project began early in the year when seven seniors- Sara Abercrombie, Erik Barber, Jessica Godden, Maria Goena, Katherine Greco, Matt Reiter, and Emma Wells-stepped forward to form the Senior Class Gift Commit­ tee. The kickoff event was a party at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, a local hang-out, where committee members explained the annual fund. In December, before the winter ball, seniors were invited to a reception at the president’s house, where the committee provided eggnog and appetizers and repeated the message of the role of alumni in the financial workings of the college. At a Valentine’s Day party in Exciting times in the mailroom: Renzo BrundelRe, Michael Sullivan, and Michael Tereby held COVETED STUDENT AIDE POSITIONS IN THE MAILROOM LAST YEAR AS PART OF THEIR FINANCIAL AlD PACKAGE. Financial Aid Factoids • Financial aid at St. John’s is admissions bhnd and need­ based. Admissions blind means that students are admitted to the college regardless of whether they apply for financial aid or not-their family’s financial status is not a factor in their admission. Need-based means that the college con­ siders only the family’s and student’s income in granti­ ng aid and does not offer aid to various categories of students (trombone-playing triathletes, perhaps?) to fill the class with “desirable” students. • St. John’s attempts to offer an aid package that meets the demonstrated needs of students. But, since the college budget is finite, not every student can receive 100% of the funds they need. Applying early in the cycle helps assure that students receive an optimal pack­ age. Students are some­ times placed on a waiting list if the money available for student aid has already been allocated. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } • Students receive a package with some or all of the following components: St. John’s College grant. Federal work-study posi­ tion (student aide job), and loan. Many students seek scholarships and fellow­ ships independently. • In 2001-2003, the average aid package was $20,762. (Tuition for the year was about $25,000.) • 50 % of students on finan­ cial aid last year had an annual family income of less than $60,000. • About 50% of students on both campuses received financial aid from the college last year. �{Johnnies on Justice} CRIME and PUNISHMENT Five alumni who work in thefield tell the real story behind the drama ofcriminaljustice. Wi Sus3AN Borden, A87 A woman lies in waitfor her husband who has just returnedfrom a long trip; she kills him as he relaxes in the tub. A thief is sentenced to be chained to a mountain; each day an eagle devours his newly regenerated liver. rom the bloodbath of Clytemnestra to Prometheus bound, crime and punishment have long proved inspirational for the imagination of writers. This ancient well­ spring continues to inspire the artists of our modern world. Literature on crime and punishment is a mainstay of bestseller lists. Television-“Homicide,” “Law and Order,” “The People’s Court”-feeds our hunger for the subject. Movies-Ziopc, Twelve Angry Afczz-sometimes offer a more thoughtful examination. A criminal act is the essence of drama: man opposes man in con­ flict’s barest form. The killer stalks his prey. The thief plots against the land owner. Even after the crime is committed, oppo­ sition is at the heart of the system; The defense lawyer fights the prosecuting attorney. The witness defies the judge. The guard beats the prisoner. These are the antitheses through which we’ve learned to view crime and punishment. But are they valid? St. John’s alumni who work in the field of criminal justice sug­ gest they are not. Far removed from the seminar table and discus­ sions of justice, motive, and retribution, alumni who work with criminals confront these issues directly. As the dramatic interplay of crime and punishment come together in the province ofjustice, it is justice’s role to resolve, rather than heighten that drama. Jus­ tice is society’s mechanism for placing an irrational act into a rational context. Once a crime is assigned its proper weight, the scales of justice return to balance and society is able to function. Through punishment, the criminal justice system imposes a rationality on the irrational world of crime. This, for the most part, is too thoughtful a process to allow for much drama. The Criminal Mind A desperate young man plans the perfect crime—the murder of a despicable pawn­ broker, an old woman no one loves and no one will mourn. Is it notjust, he reasons, for a man ofgenius to commit such a crime, to transgress moral law—if it will ultimately benefit humanity? —publisher’s copy {Bantam Classics) Punishment for Dostoevsky’s Crime and The idea of the criminal mind-from Smerdyakov to Hannibal Lechter-both fascinates and repels. What must it be like, we thrill to imagine, to loose ourselves from the bonds of morals, to think the unthinkable, to plan the forbidden, to perform the act that will forever set us apart from our fellow man? {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2002 } �{The College- St. John’s College • Summer 200s ) �T2, {Johnnies on Justice} 'Td hate to live in a country in which 50 % ofthe people who are arrested are innocent. ” -Elizabeth Unger Carlyle(A73) Criminal Elizabeth Unger Carlyle (A73), a criminal defense lawyer who lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, has regular and close associa­ tion with the criminal mind. She is neither repelled by her clients nor fascinated by their misdeeds. “I think there’s a group of peo­ ple, a sad group, who really perceive themselves as powerless and at the mercy of circumstances,” she explains. “They get into bad situations by not thinking more than one step ahead and they end In “You Can’t Get Away with Murder,” Bogie’s defense lawyer “I spend a lot of time reminding people that the people who get into trouble are just like the people who don’t,” says Car­ lyle. “In many ways it’s ‘there but for the grace of God go I.’ If you took my current clientele and dressed them in suits instead of prison clothes and took them to some casual restaurant and interspersed them among the patrons, you couldn’t pick them out. When people say ‘how can you deal with people who character seems irredeemable: he’s a thief, douele-crosser, murderer, and blackmailer. up in the middle of the burglary or the middle of the murder and can’t tell you how they got there. A lot of people come to me say­ ing, ‘I don’t know how this happened. Trouble always finds me.’ They don’t know how not to be found by trouble.” David Johnson (A68), a probation officer for 30 years who now teaches in the criminal justice department at the Universi­ ty of Baltimore, says that addiction is often a factor: “Some criminals are what we call sociopaths, but by and large I’ve worked with people who have exercised bad judgment. A lot of people who commit crimes have problems with substance abuse or gambling. That causes them to have problems with the law because first, their judgment is really poor and second, they have a need for money. They resort to crime-to stealing or dealing drugs.” are guilty?’ I say, ‘don’t you ever make a mistake?’ I’ve got a client now who managed to get himself ten years for selling six grams of marijuana. That’s not a bigger mistake than most people make.” Order in the Court Several young girls, caught in a minor transgression, are unjustly accused of a capital crime. In a trial poisoned by petty suspicions, financial disputes, supersti­ tion, and lovers' revenge, accusations fly {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } �{Johnnies on Justice} 13 and soon eighteen citizens are brought— unjustly—before the court. Eleven of them are put to death. When exculpatory evidence is presented to the judges they reject it, fearing it willplace their earli­ er verdicts in doubt. In the end, seven more innocentpeople go to the gallows. —PLOT SUMMARY, ARTHUR MilLEr’S THE Crucible The scenes are replayed every week on TV: Corrupt police arrest the wrong man. The prosecutor pulls out all the stops in the relentless pursuit of a guilty verdict. The jury fol­ lows the lead of a misguided foreman as the judge wearily shakes her head. However common these scenes of injustice are in fiction and drama, front-line profes­ sionals say they are rare in real life. From arrest through sen­ tencing, those involved in the U.S criminal justice system say that, despite its flaws, it’s a sys­ tem that works. At first it seems strange when Elizabeth Carlyle praises the system hy saying that most of the clients she defends are guilty. But then she explains why this is a good thing: “I’d hate to live in a country in which 50% of the people who are arrested are innocent.” Still, despite the guilt of most of her clients, the system is set up to work in their favor. Suave detective Nick Charles, played by William Powell, FOR BAD GUYS IN “AfTER THE ThIN MaN.” {The College • St. John’s College • Summer 2002 } looks “Somebody said it’s better for a hundred guilty people to go free than for one innocent person to be convicted,” says Carlyle. “That’s the way the system ought to be. But I don’t think that guilty people often sneak through. More than 90% plead guilty. For those who go to trial, there is a question of their guilt. It’s not usually a question that they’ll get off, but that they’ll get off with less than five years.” Maureen Barden (A70), an assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia who works on gun possession cases, says she’s encouraged by what she sees in court: “The jury system works. In my experience of trying cases, only a very small per­ centage of the time do I think jurors reach the wrong result. They’re careful, thorough, they think hard. It’s heartening to be a part of that,” Once the verdict is deter­ mined, the judge steps in for sentencing. Johnson, the crimi­ nal justice professor, outlines the aims of that process: “There are four classic goals of the corrections system: inca­ pacitation, retribution, deter­ rence, and rehabilitation. If possible, the sentence meets all four goals in the appropriate measures for the particular crime and individual. Incapaci­ tation gets considered first. Then, retribution: how much punishment the person deserves in addition to that. Next is deterrence, and finally rehabilitation.” County Court Judge Pattie Swift (SF82), who works in rural Costilla County, Col­ orado, finds that the goals fall in a different order in her court. She often relies on the deter­ rence effect of prison. “There are people who need the shock of jail for a short period of time. �{Johnnies on Justice} 14 ''Judgment has two cups, a cup ofJustice and a cup ofmercy. -David Johnson, A68, probation I send them in for a week. Our local county jail is benign, but still, they’re locked up and it’s frightening. This is useful for some people who have committed DWIs before and didn’t take it seriously.” Swift turns to long-term incapacitation only as a last resort. Her position limits her to passing a two-year sentence. “For people with whom we’ve tried everything, the last ditch thing is Peter Falk is hitman Abe “Kid Twist” Reles in the i960 victim and their families, and gathering information about the accused’s prior record and social history to make an evaluation and recommendation. When he worked in probation, Johnson appreciated this opportunity to influence the judge’s decision. “I always remembered that judgment has two cups: a cup of justice and a cup of mercy. How much of each does the defendant get?” gangland flick long-term jail to get them out of society. If they are unable to change, if they have four DWIs, it’s the only thing you can do to protect the public.” Johnson discusses the problem of disparity in sentencing: “In sentencing there are no rules to speak of and the judge has virtually complete discretion. Somebody who’s convicted of bank robbery in Brooklyn might get probation; for the same crime in Texas he might get ao years. It’s an oddity because everything is rule-driven up to the point of conviction. Once we go to sentencing in criminal matters, the judge is supposed to exercise the wisdom of Solomon.” In today’s world, fortunately, Solomon has a consultant. The probation officer conducts a presentence investigation for the judge, reviewing the crime, interviewing the defendant and chief “Murder, Inc.” Behind Bars A man is sentenced to two years on a southern chain gangfor a minor offense. His rebellious manner is met with psycho­ logical torment andphysical brutality. The guards seem to enjoy their project of breaking his spirit. In the end, they take his life. —PLOT SUMMARY OF THE 1967 MOVIE, CoOL HaND LuKE {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2002 } �{JohnniesonJustice} 15 This is one area where, unfortunately, the movies have it contraction of prisoner rights. With state budgets in the condi­ right. Prison is often a hrutal place and prisoner rights are fre­ tion they’re in, programs for offenders will be on hold or quently disregarded. Even where efforts are made to protect decreased.” the inmates hoth physically and legally, the difficulties of man­ Carlyle, the criminal defense attorney, shares Booker’s pes­ aging a captive population have yet to he satisfactorily simism and is concerned about how current policy will play out addressed. when prisoners return to society: “In my 25 years of practice, Margaret Booker (SFGI94) directed a state prison library for there’s been pretty much a complete turn from ‘incarceratefour years. She says that the system she worked in was set up to punish-rehabilitate’ to ‘let’s show them how mad we are protect the prisoners and their rights, hut it often didn’t work and treat them like we’re mad for 20 years and then have them as planned. live next door to us.’ ” “During my training I was told not to And Justice For All pay attention to the justice or injustice of the offender’s act or sentence. Missouri Criminals go free, justice Cast of Characters tells the same thing to all new offenders as they enter reception and diagnostics: proves to be not-so blind, Maureen Barden (A70) don’t talk about your crime to your peers; and lawyers andjudges the staff doesn’t need to know either. But Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. that rarely works. Very few can keep their make deals... exceptfor one Department of Justice in Philadel­ lives private to a degree that would keep phia. Before becoming a lawyer she young idealistic lawyer who them safe or lessen the risks they face in I worked on the investigation of the prison.” bucks the system while rep­ Attica prison uprising and the Nison In her own sphere of influence, Booker I impeachment. resenting a ruthless judge saw real-life practice reveal the faulty pre­ sumptions of a legal theory intended to Maruaket Booker (SGI94) accused of a brutal rape. safeguard the inmates’ rights. “While most offenders use the library for educa­ —CAPSULE REVIEW OF THE I979 MOVIE, AnD JUSTICE Library services coordinator for the FOR All, from MoviesUnlimited.com tion, entertainment, and enlightenment, Missouri Department of Corrections every offender in Missouri has access to in Jefferson City from 1998 to 2001. Unlike the corrupt cop, the cynical legal materials,” she says. “This is the She is now manager of the Kansas lawyers, and the jaded judges that state’s way of providing ‘access to courts,’ City, Missouri, Public Library, West­ are so popular in today’s crime stories, the requirement that offenders be able to port Branch. Johnnies in justice veer to the idealistic. represent themselves in their appeals. In When Johnson speaks of his career as a Elizabeth Unger Carlyle (A73) other states, access to courts is interpreted probation officer, he says that the friend­ differently,” Booker explains. “Some have ships he’s maintained with people he’s Criminal defense lawyer. She handles attorneys who travel the system or public supervised over the years are priceless everything from speeding tickets to librarians who do research for the inmates. benefits. murder trials, doing most of her work Arizona just sold off a huge amount of legal Swift treasures the times when defen­ < with appeals and post-conviction material and now provides paralegals who dants who have complained bitterly about remedies. She is married to the Rev. travel a circuit across the state to assist a sentence of alcohol treatment come James Carlyle (A72). offenders.” back for review and say “thank you, it Booker has a dim view of Missouri’s David Johnson (A68) really opened my eyes to see what was approach. “I don’t think any sort of justice wrong.” is given through the collection of materi­ Worked in criminal justice for over 30 Barden, who’s worked as a federal pros­ als to those who might be innocent or have years. Retired as chief of federal pro­ ecutor on large scale fraud cases, says her been tried inappropriately or irresponsi­ bation for the state of Maryland, he work gives her the opportunity to serve bly. The information and organization is teaches criminal justice at the Univer­ justice. “In many cases, you’re vindicat­ too complex, as is the court system, for sity of Baltimore. He is married to ing the rights of individuals who’ve been the offender population on the whole to Sally Johnson (A65). defrauded. It’s very good when you can navigate.” get justice for somebody who has been Pattie Swiff (SF82) Booker is pessimistic about the state’s stolen from or in another way injured. It’s inclination to improve the system, given a chance to do the right thing,” she says. County court judge in Costilla County, today’s political and economic climate. “That’s the luxury of being on this side of Colorado, and municipal judge for the “When I started, prisoners were called the courtroom: the interest of the govern­ town of San Luis. prisoners or inmates. Now they’re called ment is to do justice. That’s not always offenders. In the ’80s and ’90s we saw a simple, but it is the goal.” {The College -St John’s College • Summer 2002 } �{Commencement} COMMENCEMENT 2002 (Santa Fe) Barbara Goyette, A73 (Annapolis) BY Marissa Morrison, SFGIoa AND he graduating seniors-ioa in Annapolis and 88 in Santa Fe-chose as their com­ mencement speakers a military historian and a novelist who has produced a series of literary experiments. Rather than pres­ ent opposing viewpoints on life or on the St. John’s experience, the two gave sur­ prisingly close send-offs to the graduates. Their messages contrasted the education a St. John’s graduate receives with the vapidness of many aspects of modern culture, and both saw St. John’s as supplying the back­ ground necessary for a beginning to a life devoted to questioning and thinking. The Importance of “The Human Thing” - Annapolis At the 210th commencement in Annapolis, 102 undergraduates and 36 Graduate Institute students received their degrees. The day was sunny and bright, the grass was green, the air was still and cool as the parents, family members, and friends gathered on the front lawn. Faculty and students processed from the Great Hall to the click and whir of cameras and the ceremonial strains of the Carrollton Brass. President Christopher Nelson and Dean Harvey Flaumenhaft announced the various prizes and awards, including that for best sen­ ior essay, which went to Katherine Gehlberg for her essay “A Nature Within and Without; An Inquiry into the Evolution of the Moral Sense.” Seniors had chosen Victor Davis Hanson, who teaches classics at the University of California at Fresno and has published books and columns on military history, as the commencement speaker. Mr. Hanson stressed universal human truths that are covered in the Program as those that the graduates will draw upon wherever their lives carry them in the future. “Most of you will ...enter the professions,” he said. “Many-I have no doubt of it-shall become rich and powerful. But I am also equally confident that such success will accrue more because you shall be deft and experienced about what Thucydides called ‘the human thing,’ and resigned about the way humans think and act, rather than because you were simply adept at a par­ ticular skill.” In a perhaps unintended allusion to the famous (among John­ nies) admissions proclamation “The following teachers will return to St. John’s next year; Plato, Sophocles, Kant, Tolstoy, etc.,” Mr. Hanson said that St. John’s has given the graduates “a reservoir of learning from great men and women. These are your intellectual mentors, your friends for life. Each hour, each day from now to the end they will be there with you-to remind you, chastise you, and enlighten that what you experience is neither novel nor unique.” And considering the great books authors as mentors, and their words as universal human truths, Mr. Hanson suggested, is helpful in evaluating current situations that citizens need to understand. “When others suggest that educat­ ed citizens should not profess patri­ otism or think of their culture as unique and worth defending, you will remind them of Aeschylus at Marathon and Socrates at Delium. And when you despair that men with money, degrees, status, and fame can be petty rather than noble, and are as likely as the illit­ erate and impoverished to steal and defame, Juvenal, Dante, and Swift will laugh along with you.” A St. John’s education, he suggested, makes those who have undergone it “empirical and inductive, open to truth when it comes from the uncouth and enemies-and resist­ ant to lies when they come from the {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2002 } �{Commencement } ''Open to truth...resistant to lies. Victor Davis Hanson Eva Brann leads the procession to front campus in Annapolis (left), while in Santa Fe, Genevieve Giddings LIGHTS THE PlACITA WITH HER SMILE (ABOVE). {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } 17 �i8 {Commencement} sweet and friends. You will not just pon­ der and equivocate, but decide, judge, and act.” Mr. Hanson used an extended Homer­ ic image to discuss what the future might hold for the graduates, and what dangers. He characterized their journey as like that of Odysseus and referred to “suitors feasting away at our society’s once ample social capital and spiritual reserves” as those the graduates would have to con­ front. He warned against the Charybdis of the Right, which he said “assures that the university and education itself are simply to be utilitarian and commercial­ certifications of dexterity with spread sheets, glibness with the law, or mere master of regulations, tables, charts, and graphs.” And he identified the Scylla of the Left as “the idea, now almost univer­ sal, that the purpose of education is ther­ apeutic, to change what words mean, to deny how people act, to create absolute equality of results, rather than of opportunity in the here and now-or else!” Acknowledging the power of education, Mr. Hanson urged the audience to use wisdom wisely. He likened knowledge’s strength to that of Tolkein’s One Ring, whose great power was so alluring that it ruined lives and threatened races. “Education used foully for a good cause, is nevertheless foul, and thus the cause not so good after all. Remember instead the first and oldest command­ ments of the humble Greeks-know yourself/nothing too much/ grow old learning.” He suggested that some time spent in smaU pursuits-away from the bigness of our present age’s government, corporations, and overriding materialism-is valuable. “Seek out, or perhaps at least protect and enhance-if only for a year or two of your odyssey-those sand bars and reefs that are washed over but not quite, not quite yet submerged-the love of Greek and Latin, the knowledge of the mason and woodworker, the fami­ ly nursery and small farm, the horseman and the shoemaker, the town of 2,000, and the art and music of rural Ameri­ ca...Like your Great Books, these unobtrusive people, things, and memories-forgotten by WalMart and unknown at Blockbuster-also possess wisdom-learning that we need in our present hour of peril against enemies cruel and medieval.” Mr. Hanson closed with a promise. As a farmer, student of Latin and Greek, resi­ dent of a rural community, writer, and “as one who at times has failed at all that and so much more stiU”-he promised to join the graduates to “keep alive the ancient education that we still know to be good and necessary-and can alone keep the melodious, but deadly. Sirens at bay.” Points of Departure, Not the Journey’s End - Santa Fe______________________ By graduation day in Santa Fe on May i8, the fear and sadness that characterized the early part of the academic year after September ii had given way to a feeling of jubilation. The brilliant sun shining above the Meem Library Placita and a lively commencement speech by John Barth added to the bright spirit of the day. Barth is a Johns Hopkins University professor emeritus and a nov­ elist who delights in literary experimentalism while engaging read­ ers with the power of his storytelling abilities. In a speech titled “The Tragic View of Liberal Education,” Mr. Barth praised the St. John’s program for permitting discourse within a shared frame of reference richer and more stable than pop­ ular culture-which is perhaps all the students at some departmen­ talized institutions have in common. He also presented the down­ side to an education based on a hmited selection of Great Books. While attending Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Mr. Barth often heard debates over the liberal arts program at nearby St. John’s College in Annapolis. According to one half-serious opin­ ion, “the problem with the Annapolis curriculum was that it left out not only all the bad books-which, like bad art, may be indis­ pensable to defining and appreciating the good­ hut also aU the arguably great books that happen to disagree with the ones in the canon.” He noted that no four-year under­ graduate survey could include all the books one ought to read. To illustrate how impossible it is for a stu­ dent to actually read everything, Mr. Barth referred to one of his fel­ low undergraduates who was said to have done just that. “To this day,” Mr. Barth joked, “he is scarce­ ly able to complete a sen­ {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } �{Commencement} tence, much less publish a coherent essay, because every word he utters sets off so many synaptic hot-links in his mind that he has difficulty getting from subject to verb to object, astray in the hypertextuality of his splendid erudition.” The tragedy of a liberal education, according to Mr. Barth, lies in the real­ ization that one cannot read-or learneverything. “Since time, attention, ener­ gy, and opportunity are all finite, we must radically exclude and delimit if we are to learn anything at all well; yet in so doing we may very possibly leave out things that, had we discovered them or they us, might have been keys to the treasure that we were scarcely aware we were seeking,” he said. Mr. Barth lamented that only the books he has actually read can make an impres­ Barth the novelist sion on him. As a fiction writer, he wishes that he could read every other written work. Without reading every description of the dawn and the sea that has ever been recorded on paper, how can he know whether his own descriptions are unique and valuable? However, he comforts himself with the fact that the number of possible word combinations, like the number of stars in the galaxy, is “finite but astronomically large.” Mr. Barth noted that the St. John’s program list is a good start­ ing point for one’s education. The real reason for celebrating com­ mencement is not the completion of an education, but rather the start of a lifetime of exploring new ideas. Santa Fe president John Balkcom gave an overview of the chal­ lenges this academic year had brought, with September ii having impacted our lives and the nature of our college community. Citing Virginia Woolf, who wrote, “One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them,” Mr. Balkcom noted that what the faculty and staff observed this year was the emergence of a greater sense of com­ munity among all of our learners. “We come to­ gether to celebrate these graduates for the learning they have shared and the community they have cre­ ated, for their taking a place now among the wider community of this human race.” He made lighthearted references to many sen­ iors and Graduate Insti­ {The College. 19 tute students he had encountered during the year, and talked about community events such as the holiday concert, the presentation of Senior Essays in Febru­ ary, and Reality Weekend-when hun­ dreds of paper flowers decorated trees and bushes throughout campus. The commencement address of Santa Fe Dean David Levine reminded stu­ dents that hberal education is a great gift. The college gives this gift, he said, in the hope that its graduates will devel­ op proportionally in relation to challeng­ ing thinkers; experience inspiration in their own capacities for original thought; develop new capacities to ascend to undiscovered places; become strength­ ened in facing the toughest human ques­ tions; grow their own sense of responsi­ bility; become more self-resourceful; and achieve a heightened fullness of inde­ pendence. “Make us proud,” Mr. Levine urged the graduates. “Honor this education with lives of distinction.” The class of aooa included 88 candidates for the Bachelor of Arts degree and 25 candidates for the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts degree. The graduates hailed from 33 U.S. states, as well as from Israel and Canada. For the first time in the history of the college, the Senior Class Gift Committee achieved 100% participation from all members of the Class of 2002. Neither campus had ever accomplished this feat. Ms. Abercrombie and Ms. Emma Wells presented the senior gift to the president, accompanied by a swell of applause from the audi­ ence, including loud accolades from class members. The class gift will purchase The Classics Film Collection for Meem Library. Graduates honored with awards and prizes included Benjamin Lorch, who received the Medal for Academic Excellence. The medal is offered by the Board of Visitors and Gov­ ernors and was presented by board member Dick Morris. Anna Canning and Marie-Monique Wentzell shared the Richard D. Weigle Prize for the best senior essay. Among the Graduate Institute graduates, Court­ ney Manson was acknowl­ edged for her excellent essay. St. John’s College . Summer 200Z } Thefull text ofboth comencement addresses is on the web: www.sjca.edufor Annapolis and www.sjcsf.edu for Santa Fe. �ao {Campus Life} REMEMBRANCES OF PRANKS PAST BY Sus3AN Borden (A87) t’s a warm night in early spring. Students sit in seminar reading Euripides, Descartes, and Adam Smith. They work their way through the text and follow the conversation closely, hut spirits are running a little high. They’ve heard the rumors, they’ve seen the signs. Their minds occasion­ ally drift. Is tonight the night? As the first hour comes to a close, attention is drawn outside the classroom. A door slams. laughter bounces down the hall. A few minutes later a team of seniors hursts through the door. Books slam shut, tutors are escorted from the room. Senior prank has begun. It wasn’t always like this. Senior prank started as a daytime event; the prank was the seniors’ way of shutting down the col­ lege. Over the years it has blossomed into a a4-hour ritual, begin­ ning with the nighttime break-in, following with a skit and dance party, and continuing the next day with games and a campus-wide picnic for students, faculty, and staff. For the original prank, pulled in 1964 and talked about to this day, seniors removed all the chairs from the classrooms and tutor offices and stored them in the crawl space in the basement of Mel­ lon. Tutor Samuel Kutler (A54) remembers it well: “I walked to my classroom in McDowell with a prospective freshman and her moth­ er, who were scheduled to sit in on our mathematics tutorial. As we entered the room, I told them to please be seated, but when I looked up the students were sitting on the table. All chairs had been removed from the entire building. I told the students that we were behind and I would hold class anyway. Then President Weigle appeared. He was not amused, and he announced that there would be no classes until the chairs were returned. I shrugged my shoul­ ders, turned to the mother and the prospective student, said that there were some good liberal arts schools in Ohio, and went home.” That simple prank unleashed a legacy of mischief that has driven class after class to put time and energy into creating a memorable prank. The class of ’68 distinguished itself with a four-part prank: all classrooms were locked from the inside, the lobby of FSK was transformed into a used car lot, a thirty-foot purple flag reading “Class of ’68” in red letters flew from the flagpole, and-thepiece de resistance—nearly two dozen steel-belted radi­ {The College. St. als were stacked on the flagpole, a technical feat that was as challenging to remove as it was to install. The flagpole-tire stunt, explains Alec Himwich, was the hrain child of David Roberts. “He devised a contraption with two wooden Vs oriented perpendicularly to a long wood pole. One V was at the top of the pole and the other somewhat helow and opposite the first. On this pole were fasteners that corre­ sponded to those on the rope used to raise and lower the flag. The device was attached to the rope and a tire was placed on the upper V. Guide ropes were attached to the lower V. Then the whole thing was raised up by means of the flag rope. During the hoisting, the guide ropes were used for stability. When the tire finally was above the top of the flag pole the guide ropes were used to orient the tire so that when the device was lowered, the flag pole would be inside the tire. “The whole procedure was complicated by a gusty wind,” recalls Himwich. “Also, the operators were not the steadiest since some of them were already imbibing in anticipation of a day of celebration.” The class of ’75 produced an elaborate skit-“West Street Story,” in which Tony sang “Pure Reason” to the tune of “Maria” and Ben Milner (HA97) was portrayed as the campus’ Officer Krupke. They also put bookplates that read “Gift of the class of 1975” in all the books in the King William Room. Jason Walsh (A85) remembers the class of ’8a’s Alice in IForaderland prank: “It was quite remarkable. Amusement rides were set up on lower back campus, seemingly while we were in semi­ nar. Seminars were of course interrupted by the march hare, Alice, and the hatter, who led us to the rabbit hole (in the audito­ rium stage) down into the Wonderland that was set up in the hall­ ways of the basement, through the now-deserted Mellon class­ room hallways and out by the Planetarium to the waiting amusements. It was remarkably choreographed and seemed quite magical.” “Underclassmen were required to dance the lobster quadrille in FSK lobby,” recalls Peter Green (A84) of the Alice prank. “The next day we played croquet using pink flamingoes for mallets.” The 1984 prank took the Canterbury Tales as its theme. Sem­ inars were interrupted by knights, nuns, maidens, monks, a John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } �ai {Campus Life} jester, and a barmaid wench. Dan Knight and Duke Hugh­ es converted the fireplace room of the coffee shop into an English tavern. Grady Harris, as the Pardoner, stood on the steps of the quad presenting students with penances for the seven deadly sins. For the sin of pride, they were told to dance later that evening with everyone who asked; for sloth, they were to dance five dances in a row. Minstrels entertained the wayfarers outside McDowell and lumi­ naries lit the path from the base of the quad to the gym. There John Ertle presided as archbishop and head of the ecclesiastical court, charg­ ing each tutor with a sin (see sidebar). For the class of ’88’s Odyssey prank, class mem­ bers built in secret an i8-foothigh Trojan Horse of wood, chicken wire, and papier mache. John Lavery and Greg Ferguson constructed the horse’s frame and shaped its outlines with chicken wire. Karin Johns supervised the papier mache effort, using 75 pounds of flour and endless reams of newspaper to sculpt the body. Several dozen sen­ iors worked on the project under Johns’ direction. Students led out of Mel­ lon and McDowell for the Annapolis’ class of 1988 built a papier mache Trojan Horse to rule THE QUAD on PRANK DAY. Prank Skits: A Retrospective g by Chris Denny (Ag^) I99IA: “Operation Dorm Storm” Fielding Dupuy’s haunting portrayal of a crazed army officer shocked 90’s audiences with its stark portrayal of a nuclear apoc­ alypse, as well as a campus without Chase-Stone. The special effects of a cam­ eraperson running forward while shooting with a Camcorder in order to simu­ late a smart-bomb brought the cinematography of SJC Senior Pranks into a new era of artistic brilliance. Rated PG13 (language, and lots of it). i99aSF: “Oscar Night” Matthew Kelty stars in a hilarious parody of Hollywood’s wildest night of the year. Rated R (language, sexual situations and potty humor involving large bowel movements). T993A: “It’s a Wonderful Life” Starring Tom Lind as Clarence and Millicent Roberts J as God, this touching story involved Devin Rushing’s horrible nightmare of a world in which SJC was transformed into an “overpriced basketball school.” With Walter Sterling, Sr. reduced to Up-synching “Achy-Breaky Heart” at Mar­ maduke’s and a demonic Andre Barbera (played by the dashing CoUn Meeder) J bent on reducing Western Civilization to rubble, only the fearless James Beall I can rescue SJC, and a terrorized Patricia Locke (Deirdre Crosse), from oblivI ion. Rated SJC (wicked nasty satire and monogrammed female gludii maximi). {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2002 } start of tbat prank were con­ fronted with the enormous beast. Ele Hamburger (A87) remembers its demise: “A storm hit after the horse had been up a few days. I remem­ ber it being blown up so it reared on its hind feet and then collapsed.” However, she adds, “I am not entirely sure this is not a false memo­ ry, since it is so cinematic in my mind’s eye.” The 2002 prank included a return to the mischief­ making aspect of the tradi­ tion. Assistant Dean Judith Seeger says that the seniors sent letters to a number of students saying that the state of Maryland now required random urine testing for drugs. The letters were accompanied by small paper cups and recipients were instructed to bring a sample to the director of Student Services by 3 p.m. on prank day. Seeger reports that no one showed up at the Student Services office, but she heard that several prankees visited the health center that day. Pranksters also ticketed every car in the college park­ ing lots. “After a few calls from disgruntled drivers, I walked around and removed them myself,” says Seeger. “Except for the one on college presi­ dent Chris Nelson’s car.” �1 2,2 {Campus Life} A BUDDHIST IN THE BOOKSTORE Bookstore manager Andrea dAmato brings an awareness ofEetstern thought to Santa he. hat makes a good college ! bookstore? Surely, as with t any other kind of bookstore, ^^k ^^k t a comprehensive selection ^^k ! of books, current as well as ^^k K ^^k ! classic and attractively dis^^k ^^k^ played, ought to be near the top of anyone’s list. HosY Y pitable environment would also seem a must, encouraging the customer-student or teacherto linger and browse. Then there are the less obvious attributes such as efficient management practices ... but wait. Shouldn’t the more relevant question be not what makes a good college book­ store but who? Untold numbers of the St. John’s community in Santa Fe would have only to point to Andrea d’Amato, who has been man­ ager of the bookstore for more than ao years, for the answer. Personal affection and professional admiration for this unusual woman-she is a novice Buddhist priest and mother of an adopted fifteen-year-old girl as well as successful businessperson-comprise their views in more or less equal proportion. “Bookstore people are special people,” says Georgia Knight, who has been a tutor at St. John’s since 1974. “Andrea personi­ fies the best of them. She has been a close friend for many years and unflaggingly helpful to me. She has made books a real adventure. She helps me trip over things I wasn’t necessarily looking for. But what I admire most are her enthusiasm, per­ suasiveness, and generosity of spirit. She radiates friendship.” Ralph Swentzell, who joined the St. John’s faculty 35 years ago, credits Andrea’s management skills for the “exceptional” qualities of the bookstore and also declares that the whole East­ ern Classics program, which he and a colleague, Bruce Perry, launched as an experiment only la years ago, “owes its exis­ tence” to Andrea. He explains: “I was an amateur at first, assigned to Chinese language. Andrea began auditing my class of IO or II students and got very excited. She helped us work out the language as a computer program. Eventually we had a full lexicon in front of us and translated Confucius, Lao-tse, Chi­ nese poetry, and other works. “But it was a very tumultuous affair bringing the Eastern Stud­ ies program into being. The college was ethnocentric in those days. In that environment we kept asking ‘How (in this institu­ tion of great books) can you ignore Eastern studies?’ The book­ store was a not-so-subtle influence on the college’s decision to adopt the program, with Andrea making sure that there were great books on Eastern studies available and prominently dis­ played on the front table.” It would seem natural to assume that her close association with the burgeoning Eastern Classics program directly influ­ enced Andrea’s decision to become a Buddhist, although such was not entirely the case. Working in a bookstore, however, was a serendipitous situation for her at a time of great personal crisis. “It was a case of having ready access to books that bore on my overwhelming need for a way out of my suffering,” she says. “I was seeking spiritual enlightenment for my pain, for my great heartache. My heart, in fact, broke open to Buddhism as soon as I started reading from a list of texts I had encountered through suggested Eastern Classics texts. I began with the “Acts of the Buddha” by a second-century Indian writer named Asvaghosa. It was the first time I had encountered the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism and as soon as I read those I thought Wow! This is what I’ve been looking for. This is my medicine. This addresses exactly what I’m feeling.” Andrea immersed herself in the great primary sources while continuing with her job. “I realized that this was not a way out of suffering but I had to start meditating. If you want to realize it you have to sit. You have to. I read enough Buddhism to know that it cannot just be read about. I learned that in order to bene­ fit from it you need to practice. One of the main practices is Zazen, which is sitting practice. So I sought a meditation teacher.” After many years of sitting. Buddhism became essential to Andrea. In December of 2000, she shaved her head to become a priest, a novice, she explains, in the Zen Buddhist belief, with its strong traditions of meditation and honoring of ancestors. {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2002 } �{CampusLife} 23 A novice priest carries forward the form of the practice. The tra­ three-and-a half months in the making. Andrea made a pilgrimage to the Chinese temples that Dogen dition Andrea practices is Japanese Soto Zen, which is based on the four noble truths. The differences in the forms of Buddhism he in (the founder of the Japanese line of Buddhism) traveled to in the the ritual, the services, the practices. The Tibetan tradition is very 13th century. “I was able to sew on my robe in the very room ded­ rich iconographically, with colorful temples, painted demons on icated to Dogen, originally a 900-room monastery Tien Tong. the walls, and beautiful images. The Japanese tradition is very This is of deep importance to me because Dogen is part of the stark, sparse and beautiful, direct lineage,” says Andrea. “Dogen found the true dhar­ but very simple. “A priest is ma again, and brought that trained in the form-how you tradition to Japan. Every approach the altar, how the morning we put the robe on incense is offered, which way you turn from the altar, how our head, and with our chants we vow to liberate all you hold your hands during human beings.” the service. Since I am a Little in Andrea’s early detailed person the Japanese background, except perhaps tradition suits me well,” says a youthful restlessness, a dis­ Andrea. “It’s all in the details. satisfaction with the way her God is in the details. A priest life was going, would seem to can transmit and carry the augur what appears to be its form to the next generation. I present happy resolution. don’t know if I will arrive at She stopped attending the that level of service, as I am in Catholic Church while in training and will be for many high school and dropped out years, but that is what I am of the University of Massa­ doing-paying close attention chusetts in Amherst (where to details.” she worked part-time in a Andrea has made pilgrim­ bookstore) because, she says, ages to China and Tibet, “I had too much living to do.” where she circumambulated She became active in the the hohest of mountains. Her women’s movement and con­ hope was to manifest the sidered for a while opening dharma more in her life. After up a feminist bookstore that experience, she decided somewhere with a friend. to become a priest as a way to During a visit to Santa Fe, she be more involved in Bud­ answered an ad in The Santa dhism. Fe New Mexican for an assis­ To become a priest in this tant’s position in the St. tradition, Andrea had to cre­ John’s College bookstore. ate her own robe by hand, She became its manager in though she hadn’t done any 1981. sewing since home economics “The bookstore, along in seventh grade. She also with my colleagues and copied by hand sacred texts friends, ” she says, “has been from the 13th century. And, my anchor, the stabilizing she had to shave her head. Every stitch is a prayer: Andrea d’Amato wears the robe she made fact of my life in Santa Fe. If I The robe, an okesa, is com­ WHEN SHE BECAME A BuDDHIST PRIEST. am credited with helping to prised of patches of material make it an important part of that she gathered from family the college life I’m grateful for what it has given back to me.” and friends. With an intricate design, it is a personal project. The She enjoys spending weekends with her daughter Nandita at pattern derives from the Buddha, who, standing with his disciple, home in Taos. With this melding of family, career, and belief, it said he wanted a robe with a pattern after the rice fields. “All the is no wonder that she considers herself, as she says, not just con­ stitching shows on the outside and every stitch is a prayer,” says tent, but a person on the path of awakening as well. Says Andrea, Andrea. “Not something that could be done while watching TV or “At night we say, ‘Let me respectfully remind you...Do not doing anything else. It took a lot of concentration, time, and effort, squander your life.’ ’’-i^ accompanied by a candle, incense, and prayer.” The robe was about {The College. Sf. John’s College Summer 2002 } �{Bibliofile} ^4 BEYOND THE BARR-BUCHANAN MYTH Review by John Van Doren, A47 eloquent, the other, quizzical and complex in all he said. Yet their spirits reflected two old traditions in America, of Virginia and Massachusetts, which had met before. Barr, inclined to history, had graduated from the University of Virginia; Buchanan was a philosopher, educated at Amherst and Harvard, who said he got an under­ standing of his subject not from either school but only afterwards, as assistant director of the People’s Institute, offering adult education, in New York. At Oxford, where they were Rhodes Scholars, they found they had a common interest in speculative thought and the dis­ verybody connected with St. cussion of ideas. Buchanan went on to pur­ John’s, and many ontside it, sue both and discovered their sources in know that Stringfellow Barr the Great Books, which he took up with and Scott Buchanan were the students at the People’s Institute as well as founders, in 1937, of the Pro­ with some of the faculty at Columbia Uni­ gram by which the college has since been versity, among them Mortimer Adler, known. Some are aware that when they left Richard McKeon, and Mark Van Doren. St. John’s, both men worked together on Barr, with whom he kept in touch, went other projects, less well defined, having to back to Virginia, where he was an do with what might be called the state of immensely successful but unrepresentative the world, and that after many wanderings they came to the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in California, where both served for a time and where Buchanan worked until he died in 1968. But who were they? How did they come to think they should do the things they did? What did they seek to accomplish by doing them, nearly always together as friends and colleagues in a relationship which, begin­ ning at Oxford in 1919, lasted till Buchanan’s death? These are matters most people don’t know much about. We are thus indebted to Charles Nelson (class of 1945) for having written this fine book, which provides an account of them that will be instructive, even essential, not only to those who cannot remember those years, but also to those who can. Barr and Buchanan made an unlikely combination: the one, hot tempered and Radical Visions: Stringfel­ low Barr, Scott Buchanan, and Their Efforts on Behalf of Education and Politics in the Twentieth Century by Charles A. Nelson. With an Introduction by William H. McNeill. Bergin & Garvey, Westport, CT, 2001 E {The College- St. John ’5 College - Summer 2002 } teacher who sat on his desk in a green suit and purple shirt and talked basic texts with his students. By the end of the iqaos, both men had come to think that American higher educa­ tion was badly in need of the kind of reading and discussion they were carrying on in dif­ ferent places. To this end, and notwithstand­ ing the failure of an early effort to institute such activities by Buchanan’s friend Alexan­ der Meiklejohn at the University of Wiscon­ sin, the two men joined forces at Virginia in the mid-i93os and formulated a plan for a college within the college there which antic­ ipated the St. John’s Program. But Virginia never adopted this, and it was only when they were approached by the trustees of St. John’s, a school in grave academic and financial difficulties, that they found an opportunity which they accepted, not with­ out qualms, to practice what they preached. What happened there is known to every­ one at this college, or if it isn’t, Mr. Nelson will recall it for us. Within four years, the Program was recognized everywhere in the country as a striking innovation, supported in some quarters, disapproved of in others. The effort seemed to have succeeded. But then came the war and the student body went off to fight, while much of the new fac­ ulty disappeared. Barr and Buchanan kept the college going with inadequate funds and students who had not finished high school, but the effort was exhausting. They were further tried by the attempt of the Navy to acquire the college campus for expansion of the Naval Academy, a struggle that ended only in 1946 when the Navy gave up. By then both men, besides being weary, had soured on the college’s prospects in Annapolis and decided to leave, rejecting funds offered for its continuance there, to the dismay of the trustees. In truth the two had come to think that something more than St. John’s was needed �{Bibliofile} 2,5 '"The two came to think that something more than St. Johns was needed to make sense ofthepost-war world.. to make sense of the post-war world they saw emerging-something perhaps with under­ graduate, adult education, and research facilities combined. Then they realized, or thought they did, that even this was less than what the times required, which was a new politics and a new technological and social order. Their subsequent involvement in the Foundation for World Government, their separate sojourns in Israel and India, and their last brief interval together at the Cali­ fornia Center-years in which they both wrote interesting and important books and pamphlets-can be seen as efforts to suggest ways in which these changes could be real­ ized. Nothing they did was successful in terms of tangible accomplishment, but most of it was prescient in its focus on what we now recognize as world realities. Was there a divide between what the two did for education and what they tried to do in other areas later? Superficially, yes, but in essence, no. From the first, as young men with intellectual interests and capacities, they thought the world was in need of a bet­ ter understanding of itself than its educa­ tion gave it. St. John’s was an attempt to provide this. But the forces of technological change and social upheaval that appeared after the Second World War seemed to require a different kind of examination, though with the same objective. Barr and Buchanan, and the associates they got to work with them, sought to discover for themselves and explain to others what the underlying problems of the world were, looking foolish to those who thought “something should be done at once” about these, but seeming wiser now as we realize most of them are still there. All along, both men maintained that inquiry and discussion were propaedeutic to action. Every enterprise they started or tried to start had something of the seminar about it. Always they found themselves questioning first formulations and digging back to the root of things, so far as they could find it. In that sense they seemed to live the life of this college wherever they went, and partly it was so. But in another sense it was the other way around. That is the lesson of this book. Unique though it is, the college imitates something greater than itself. It is but a station of the active intel­ lect, nurturing in its given way an abiding interest in things brought to it by two who were bound on a common odyssey, a con­ cern that comes only (if I may change my figure) from those on lean horses and fat donkeys whose journey never ends. Short Reviews of Alumni Books ters fits well with Bellamy’s other Cleve­ land crime books: The Corpse in the Cellar, The Maniac in the Bushes, and They Died Crawling. Phaethon, of Radamanthus House, attends a party at his family mansion to celebrate the thousand-year anniversary of the High Transcendence. There he meets an old man who accuses him of being an impostor and then a being from Neptune who claims to be an old friend. The Neptunian tells him that essential parts of his memory were removed and stored by the very government that Phaethon believes to be wholly honorable. Phaethon embarks upon a quest across the solar system to recover his memory and learn what crime he planned that warranted such preemptive punishment. 100 Names oe Mary: Stories and Prayers By the staff of The College A Priest’s Journal_____________________ Victor Lee Austin (SF^S) Church Publishing Incorporated Austin writes about his ministry as a parish priest in a small town in upstate New York, about his work as a theologian, and about the intersection of the ordinary concerns and profound questions that priest and parish share and explore. Anthony F. Chiffolo (AGIg4) St. Anthony Messenger Press Calling upon Scripture, the writings of the early Church, the pronouncements of the saints, papal statements, and recent bibhcal and theological scholarship, this book pro­ vides historical and theological explanations of the origins of one hundred of Mary’s most popular and intriguing names. Each of the names includes both traditional and newlywritten prayers of intercession to Mary. OE Cleveland Woe_____________________ The Golden Age: A Romance oe the Far Future_______________________________ John Stark Bellamy II (Ap) Gray & Company This book of Cleveland murders and disas- John C. Wright (A84) Tor Books In this well-received science fiction novel. Killer in the Attic; And Still More Tales {The College -St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 Periodically, The College will list or review alumni books. Please send notice of books pubhshed or review copies (which will be donated to the library’s alumni author col­ lection) for consideration to: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404. } �{TheProgram} a6 STATISTICS VS. PTOLEMY Has St. John s made the right choicesfor the math tutorial? Alumni in the corporate world discuss theprogram. By Sus3AN Borden, A87 igh up in McDowell Hall, math tuto­ rials work their way through Euclid, Ptolemy, Newton, and Lohachevsky. Meanwhile, in a large corporation in Washington, D.C., three recent St. John’s graduates are doing the work of computer science PhDs. Was it the symmetry of the spheres, the ingenuity of the ecliptic, the lucidity of Newton’s lemmas that prepared them for this demand­ ing work? Their boss, Eric Rosenblatt (A74), says no. Rosenblatt, a vice president at Eannie Mae, began hiring John­ nies in 2000 and currently has a hand in the careers of eight John­ nies who work at Fannie Mae, the secondary market enterprise that makes mortgage money available for lenders. He expects to hire more Johnnies. His original decision to take a chance on the St. John’s grads was in part because of a lingering affection for his alma mater, but mostly because he thought it made good business sense. “Corpo­ rations live and die on good labor. I get paid because people who work for me make good decisions,” Rosenblatt says. “I decided that St. John’s would be a filter for employment. The students are intelligent and motivated. Although Fannie Mae has incredibly high standards, programming is something that, if you’re smart and you really want to do it, you probably can.” Rosenblatt continues to do most of his hiring at the annual meetings of the Allied Social Science Association; the staff he finds there are PhDs, which he says are simple to hire because PhDs tend to meet his criteria. But they’re also expensive and not always willing to do the simple charts and tables that convey the most insights. He points with pride to Jon Lawless (Aoo) and Brian Shea (Aoo), who started working just after they graduated. “Those two are already competitive with PhDs,” he says. “They started at around $50,000, but I’ll tell you something: they were worth more. I’m sending them to grad school and over time their earnings and opportunities will climb.” Although Rosenblatt has developed a win-win arrangement for Fannie Mae and St. John’s, he finds himself frustrated by what he sees as the limitations of the St. John’s math program. He says that the program’s lack of emphasis on mathematical mastery is a significant and unnecessary deficiency in an other­ wise fine education. It cuts many graduates off from entering a {The College number of careers that would be of interest to Johnnies. “Stu­ dents at St. John’s don’t have the typical math background of col­ lege graduates entering the social sciences. Sociology, experi­ mental psychology, economics-these are all fields Johnnies would enjoy,” he says. “The prerequisites are a few years of cal­ culus, statistics, maybe linear algebra. If they don’t have it, it seems like a daunting hill to climb, one more thing to keep them from targeting a career objective they would find satisfying and do well in. And if you want to go into engineering or the hard sci­ ences, you’re just in the hole. You avoid making the decision to undertake the work that graduate school would require and then it gets to be too late.” Recently retired Annapolis placement director Karen Krieger says that a long-term undertaking of her office was to make sure that students-from as early as their prospective visit-know that the St. John’s curriculum must be supplemented by additional courses for students seeking careers in math and science. “Stu­ dents have long known this is the strategy in medicine, and now there’s a growing understanding that this is the case in other fields. Once you get your education at St. John’s, you then go back and pick up your required courses,” says Krieger. “Getting enough math for careers is easy to do,” says Annapolis dean Harvey Flaumenhaft. “A number of students go on to careers in math and science. For example, several recent graduates are now studying astrophysics at George Mason University. “It’s true that we don’t do statistics, but our students can go to the commu­ nity college and take elementary statistics for a semester. If we did statistics, we’d have to give up something else. Now don’t get me wrong. The absence of their treatment does not mean that statis­ tics are not important. There are a lot of important things we don’t study here. Not only things we should do, but things that it’s an outrage not to do. We can’t do everything-we have to make choices.” . Sr. John’s The Math Gap A pack of recent Johnnie graduates working at Fannie Mae go to lunch and-no surprise-a seminar breaks out. They’re dis­ cussing Rosenblatt’s ideas and talk turns to Annapolis’ calculus manual (a brief handbook presenting the rudiments of calculus as done with more contemporary notation and notions). Using the manual is one of the few points of universal agreement, but the concord is not positive. The alumni are frustrated that the manu­ al is neither one thing nor another-not an original text, but not a College • Summer sooa } �{The Program} "Distilled modem math alsoprovides excellent mental training, also integrates and reinforces a variety ofprogram readings and labs. ” Eric Rosenblatt, A74 St. John’s College Fannie Mae Misha Hall, and John Lawless campus: Eric Rosenblatt, are a few of the Johnnies who WORK FOR the SECONDARY MORTGAGE ENTERPRISE. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } a? �aS {The Program} textbook either, offer­ ing just two or three problems to illustrate each concept. John Lawless, now a Fannie Mae economist working toward a mas­ ter’s of finance at George Washington University (paid for by Fannie Mae), suggests pages of additional problems to supplement classroom discus­ sion. “The people with me in graduate school are not that smart,” he says. “The advantage they have is that they’ve seen a lot of this stuff before. They have a broad exposure to basic math.” Lawless illustrates his grad-school handicap by bringing up the simple operation of multiplying exponents as part of an equation. “Of course I know how to do it. It’s simple. But I always have to take a second to remind myself how to do it. This makes high level math that much more difficult, having to translate such small things each time.” Rosenblatt knows exactly what Lawless means. He now has a PhD in finance, which he started working on at the age of 35. “I was always translating,” he says. “Math never became my lan­ guage.” Flaumenhaft (not at the lunch, but commenting later) points out the trade-offs St. John’s makes. “I’m not someone who thinks that the program contains everything that’s important, worth­ while, fundamental and deep, but we can’t do everything at once,” he says. “I took some high-powered math courses early on. I did well, but I wish that before taking them I’d done something like what we do here. It might mean you can’t solve some problems as early in your academic life, but if you’re interested in understand­ ing and not immediate facility, if you’re interested in looking at what makes sense and is simple enough to be seen as harmonious and clear, something that is fundamental and fruitful enough to be important when you’re 18 or 19 years old, then this is far more important than getting what seems to be the most useful item in your tool kit.” Rosenblatt says “I understand that math at St. John’s serves a lot of purposes, including training in a priori thinking and inte­ gration with other readings in the program, but distilled modern math also provides excellent mental training, also integrates and reinforces a variety of program readings and labs. Beyond that, it will concretely help Johnnies with their careers. I worry that St. John’s students are not all finding careers appropriate to their abilities, and I think the math gap is part of the problem. Why is Ptolemy more ele­ gant or better train­ ing for future guardians than gen­ uine calculus?” Some of the lunchers point out that the college is not just for people with strong interests in math, and that the St. John’s approach can show non-mathematicians the wonder of mathemat­ ics, can even turn them into mathematicians. Most determined to make this case was Misha Hall (Aoo), a data analyst who writes requirements for and runs tests on the Fannie Mae database. A Beautiful Paradigm “The way we go about studying Euclid in the first year is great. You have the chance to see the beauty of mathematics,” Hall says. “And Ptolemy is really interesting. By the end of the first semester you have to catch yourself, because you’ll end up saying that the earth is really in the center of the universe. Mathematics proves everything Ptolemy says; this makes you question the things that you assume, it makes you question numbers and statistics.” Others in the group were not so fond of Ptolemy, saying that the amount of time spent studying the Almagest is ridiculous, even describing the first semester of sophomore year as “the long death march through Ptolemy.” Flaumenhaft, however, appreciates Hall’s case for the value of Ptolemy. “Ptolemy is maybe the primary example of having expe­ riences that are puzzling precisely because there’s so much about them that seems simple, clear, orderly, and beautiful, yet there’s just enough to bother and annoy. The activity of trying to make sense of observations given to you, while something within your­ self points to an idea-it’s a beautiful paradigm of scientific enter­ prise. I regard the study of Ptolemy as an important intellectual experience. There’s the interplay of the world we see and the world we think, but it’s also a necessary prerequisite for appreci­ ating the absolutely astounding fact that when you start thinking, you can end up with everything familiar looking altogether differ­ ent.” At lunch’s end, Rosenblatt prompts the Johnnies to repeat a line he’s heard before and obviously enjoys. Lawless obliges; “If you want to learn math, go to MIT; if you want to learn why math is heartbreakingly beautiful, St. John’s is the place for you.” {The College- St. John's College ■ Summer 200Z } �{Alumni Notes} 1932 Senior Status, Growing Caseload 1943 J.L. Bean writes: “I hope to make Peter Kellogg-Smith is still my 70th reunion.” making sculpture, writing on edu­ cation, and working on a fuel effi­ cient internal combustion and steam engine. 1933 John F. Wager, Jr. writes: “Still alive at 91 years.” 1935 Richard S. Woodman writes: “My brother Robert G. Woodman, class of 193a, died June 2001.1 am still working at a leisurely pace and still reside in a small dehghtful vil­ lage in central New York state.” “I’m 88 and still rarin’ to go,” says Melville L. Bisgyer. “My best to the alumni and SJC. You sound wonderful-keep it up.” 1936 Gilbert Crandall writes: “Only one member of the class of ’36 attended the alumni reunionMarttn W. Rausch. I had planned to attend but ill health prevented me from doing so. I have improved and hope to make the ’03 reunion.” 1939 After 59 years, Malcolm Silver, DDS, has retired from the practice of dentistry. 1942 Based on national scores of the PGA Rules test, Ernest J. HeinMULLER has been appointed a PGA referee. “This has been a great experience, following the great players on great courses and rul­ ing on situations as they occur,” he says. 1945 Lawrence Levin writes: “I’m cur­ rently leading discussions of the news at Seniors’ Community Cen­ ters, which I enjoy very much as I do singing tenor with the local chorus.” 1947 Steve Benedict writes: “After 50 years behind too many desks. I’ve repaired to a 1754 farmhouse, with barn and creek, in Spencertown, New York-northern Columbia County. My aim: to sort out and maybe chronicle a whole bunch of not very coherent life themes, helping it all go dotvn with plenty of tennis and piano. If anyone can help-or even if you can’t-give a ring and drop by. It’s 518-392-0487 or Box 16, Spencertowu, NY 12165. E-mail is: stevebenedict@taconic.net. Howell Cobb (Class of 1944) writes: “As of March 2001,1 took senior status as a U.S. District judge. But my caseload is growing as it is throughout the Eastern District of Texas. My replacement has been nominated by President Bush, but the Senate Judiciary Committee has not granted him a hearing. After he is confirmed, I anticipate my case­ load will be about 60% of what it is now. Senior judges remain active, and there are over 200 now with about 650 active judges. About 100 vacancies continue.” Howell and his wife have six children-3 sons and 3 daughters-and a total (as of now) of 18 grandchildren. His grandson, Andrew C. Cook, starts in the Graduate Institute this fall. enjoying worshipping in the con­ gregation in the 49th year in the ministry.” 1951 “The college did an exquisite job in arranging our 50th class oncampus reunion,” writes Dr. Lawrence Myers. “It was both a charming and an educational experience for us. Renewing my friendships with my classmates made me feel very fortunate to be a class member of such a noble, intelUgent, and interesting group of men.” 1953 Robert Hazo reports that he is 1949 The Rev. Frederick P. Davis writes: “We ‘3-D’s’ of the Davis clan (wife Rita, son David, and self) are still hanging loose in sunny southern California. Most of the time we continue to take care of each other: Rita tied to tank-oxygen here at home but doing most of the inside house­ work; David in wheelchair from compound fracture of both bones below left knee but doing all the hot cooking of dinner, and the ‘old man’ doing all outside house and garden work while running all errands for food, etc. Relieved of most church work; I’m at long last finishing up 30 years of teaching St. John’s type seminars at the University of Pittsburgh. He also coordinated a lecture series that featured many prominent speak­ ers, including George W. Bush. He’s now working on a book titled “Minority Rule.” 1954 A profile of Sydney Porter was found by Joe Kaufman (class of 1953) in the winter 2001-2002 issue of Radon Reporter. The pro­ file recounts highlights of Porter’s career: He is a founding member and early president of AARST (American Association of Radon {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer zoos } Scientists and Technologists), a Certified Health Physicist, and a fellow of the Health Physics Soci­ ety, the American Nuclear Society, and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. He was one of the founders of Radiation Man­ agement Corporation. 1955 “Maintain imperturbable equa­ nimity! ” writes John Joanou. Harold Bauer is in mid-season of his 40th year as a conductor of symphony and opera. He wiU con­ tinue as Music Director of New Philharmonic and DuPage Opera Theater, two professional organi­ zations in the Chicago area, through the summer of 2004. He has just concluded conducting Massenet’s “Werther,” which he says “shares a quite remarkable union with Goethe’s novella of 125 years earlier.” In addition to a concert of Brahms, Bartok, and Bauer (the premier of his “Cele­ bration for Orchestra”), he con­ ducted a June production of Lehar’s “Zigeunerliebe” for Light Opera Works in Evanston, and a July production of Floyd’s “Susan­ nah” for DuPage Opera. 1957 Thomas Sigman writes: “Henry Ansell passed away summer 2001. Hank had been a successful restau­ rateur in New York City. He was a �{Alumni Notes} lifelong opera buff. In retirement he volunteered in several impor­ tant positions at the New York Metropolitan Opera. We remem­ ber him also as a fine comedian who could have been a profession­ al. I miss him.” Cornelia Hoffman Reese writes: “In the aftermath of the tragedy of 9/11 when our stunned senses had to recreate a semblance of normal­ ity and daily living habits, we decided to go forward with plans to visit my daughter’s (Angelina Kleneburgess, A83) friends in Brussels. On Christmas day after our celebration with children, we departed from BWI. We included myself, Angelina, Edward Burgess (A79), and my Burgess grandchildren—Genevieve, Louis, and Cynthia. Though unable to visit Mary Sullivan Blomberg in Sweden as hoped, I was able to have a most delightful phone con­ versation with Mary, our first voice contact in roughly 30 years. Mary is living in Stockholm.” 1958 BlakelyLirrLuroN Mechau (also SFGI70) and Michael K. Mechau (class of 1959) write: “Both of us are retired, living on a small farm, reading books, and entertaining friends and family.” few months ago from Bank of America, where I ran all informa­ tion technology engineering activ­ ities. Am doing a bit of consulting, but am basically thoroughly enjoy­ ing life. Marie and I are traveling around, indulging our interest in orientalia. We’re frequenting auc­ tions and estate sales. I’m finding life is wonderful after many years of i8-hour frenzied days! ” 1963 Temple Porter has lived in Raleigh 30 years with Brenda, his wife of 35 years. After graduating from Coach University in 1997, Temple founded Triangle Coach­ ing Services, a professional organ­ ization that provides coaching, counseling, and advisory services to businesses and individuals nationwide. In its infancy now, coaching is gaining great credibil­ ity as it spreads to all facets of our culture. Any St. Johnnies interest­ ed in exploring this growing field may contact Temple for informa­ tion. Empty nesters now. Temple and Brenda have three children-a social worker, a property manag­ er, and a photographer-all in N.C. Their oldest grandchild (of 3) is a teenager now, and is ready to take scuba diving lessons as preparation for a career in marine biology. David Benfield writes: “We i960 Col. (RET) John Lane writes: should all try to make the reunion this year. Remember the old advice from Chase and Phillips: ‘The beautiful is difficult.’ ” “Hi, decided to retire completely from a full-time job and retired a Life’s Continuum Virginia Seegers Harrison (Class of 1964) writes: “I’m continuing to learn from the elders with whom I work. Even though they are ‘declining,’ they are storehouses of memories. (Many are old lefties who recall firsthand WWI and so on.) I try to arrange living situations which preserve or promote quality of life for them. In the meantime, my eldest son and his wife had another child-a girl this time. It’s won­ derful to have a two-year-old grandson and a 6-month-old granddaugh­ ter, and to see the continuum of life. 1965 John Hetland is still (since 1973) directing the Renaissance Street Singers (www.streetsingers.org). 1966 really enjoying the one-on-one therapy.” Charles B. Watson (A) writes: “#i son, Ivan Watson, now report­ ing from Kabul for NPR. Busy life continues unabated now that we’re empty nesters and I still only get to New York City two times a year. Recently experienced 3rd world health care as Masha broke her arm on a boat in BVI.” Christopher Hodgkin (A) is Antigone Phalares (SF) writes: looking forward to retiring this summer and having time for seri­ ous reading for the first time since leaving the college. “Our small but longstanding and dedicated Sacramento SJC semi­ nar group chugs along and enrich­ es our lives, most of all because we are lucky to have Tom (HA94) and Marion Slaeiey who have blessed us with their culture and refine­ ment and warm hearts. I strongly recommend to each alumni semi­ nar that they seek out retired tutors and nudge them to move into your area and participate in your seminars.” She describes the Slakeys’ renewal of their wedding vows this past January and notes that she, Arianne Laidlaw (class of 1957), and Curtis and Becky Wilson (HA83 and 82AGI) were among the Johnnies in attendance. 1967 For Helen Hobart (A), March through June 3002 was a season springing with change. She retired as director (and founder) of the City of Sacramento’s Alzheimer’s day program to launch a new pro­ gram of peer support groups for individuals beginning the journey of memory loss-and in June, unit­ ed in marriage with a beloved friend from her Buddhist Sangha. “We take heart from the beautiful renewal of wedding vows that TOM (HA94) AND Marion Slakey held here in Sacramento this winter!” she says. George Partlow (A) is looking forward to retirement in June. His fifth grandchild, Dakota Aragron Watson, was born on Christmas morning. Rick Wicks (SF) was in Alaska 1968 Joy Avery-Balch (SF) writes: “My email is still joy@tums.org. Let me tell you about my new career. I went back to school for three years and got an associate’s degree in Health Sciences in 1999 and am a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant. However, there were no jobs for C.O.T.A.s nationwide until now. I’ve just been hired by a national rehabilitation company and finally earning enough money to live on (my first non-not-forprofit job) AND still helping peo­ ple cope with the problems caused by strokes, heart attacks, acci­ dents, etc. I’m working in two nursing homes with rehab and {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } last summer for the first time in ten years, where he had a chance to visit Carl Bostek (SF) and his fantastic Alaskan lodge. “We visit­ ed our land and the kids and 1 caught salmon in the ocean-a great time!” he writes. ThomasG. Keens (SF) writes: “I am a professor of pediatrics, physi­ ology, and biophysics at the Keck School of Medicine of the Univer­ sity of Southern California. In February 3002,1 organized a post­ graduate course in Non-Invasive Ventilation of Children with Res­ piratory Failure as part of the 5th International Congress of Pedi­ atric Pulmonology in Nice, France. I also spoke on Transition­ ing CCHS Patients to Non-Invasive Ventilation at the Second �{AlumniNotes} About the Four Cats. .. 1970 31 which will be torn down. We expect to spend winters there once both boys are in college.” Marii ynne (Maury Wills) Scott (SF) writes: “My husband David and I enjoyed to our daughter, Emily’s, May graduation from Sarah Lawrence College. She has been accepted at Yale Divinity School where she will pursue a master’s of Art and Religion to combine her interests in music (trombone) and liturgy. I continue to teach first grade in a suburban school outside Seattle. This year will be my asth in public education. The standards/accountability movement has been discouraging to those of us who prefer to view children as human beings glorious in their uniqueness. They say life begins when the dog dies and the last child has left home-both of which have happened to me. So how did 1 end up with four cats?! ” International Symposium of Con­ genital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome in Paris, France. I coor­ dinate one of the world’s largest home mechanical ventilation pro­ grams for children at the Chil­ dren’s Hospital, Los Angeles. We have sent home 346 children on part-time or full-time mechanical assisted ventilation in 34 years.” Ellin Barret (SF) is a member of the board of California Revels-a non-profit performance organiza­ tion. Revels groups exist in nine cities across the U.S. and present non-rehgious winter solstice pag­ eants and other musical events. It’s a great way to celebrate the winter. The website is www.revels.org. 1969 Jamie Cromartte (SF), Frances Burns, and Mark and Linda Bernstein (all A69) met at the Trenton Thunder Minor League game on August 19. A mini-’69 NJ/Phila. Reunion. Wendy Watson (SF) writes: “I’m alive and well in Detroit, Michi­ gan. I’m running three senior cen­ ters and concerned with aging pol­ icy development. My daughter Amy is 15 and interested in theater and is a good actress. She’s mak­ ing her way through Shakespeare. Peace and justice activities on a local level are important to me. Most of my friends are somehow engaged in these activities too.” Beth Kuper (SF) has left the cor­ porate world and is now working as a feng shui consultant. Margaret Gaefney (SF) writes: “My home is now 30 blocks from Luther Burbank’s Home and Gar­ den. I’m planting roses, tomatoes and chilies in Santa Rosa, Califor­ nia. Ahh! The Sun! Good for baby boomer bone marrow. There is a guest bedroom-St. Johnnies are welcome. I’m doing landscaping, nutritional-RN triage (cradle to grave) and photography. Barhara Mordes Ross (A) writes: “To all the ones who have ever known me, loved me, despised me-I just want you to know that I held each and every one of you in my heart as I lay near death after being broadsided by a truck that went three feet into my driver's seat. I was miraculously saved, first by my good dear little Maxima that I’ve loved and taken care of for 17 years because she talks to me. Second, by the red trauma team that wanted to beat out the blue trauma team to rescue me. I ended up with six broken ribs, a broken clavicle, a collapsed lung, and a new love for old friends. Now, when I say I love you to peo­ ple I haven’t talked to for thirty years, I realize how much I do love them.” Barbara would appreciate phone calls (407-493-4047) or let­ ters (3913 Autumnwood Trail, Apopka, FL 33703) from old friends. Flowers would also be lovely. Susan Swartzherg-Rubenstein (SF) (formerly Susan Wood) is working as a foreign correspon­ dent for public radio while living in France. She can be reached at Ssrub@aol.com, or by post at 6, Impasse Pierre Simon, 93340 Malakoff, Paris, France. She writes: “The St. John’s College alumni living in Paris had a reunion last month in the cafe at the top of the Pompidou Center with a magnificent aerial view of half of Paris, sweeping from Sacre Coeur to the Eiffel Tower around to Notre Dame, and looking over the plan of the city and the Hausmannian mansard rooftops. “It was a delightful, unrushed afternoon of fellowship with some discussion about how we would like to continue meeting. The five of us included Bill Randolph (A75), Nathanael Long (SF90), Jennifer Donnelly (A96), Georges Contos (class of 1953) and yours truly. We have plans to meet again on June 31, this time at someone’s home, to discuss the following list of poems: Pierre de Ronsard - “Recueil: Sonnets pour Helene” Robert Herrick-“To The Virgins, To Make Much of Time” W. B. Yeats-“When You are Old” Jules LaForgue-“Autre Complainte de Lord Pierrot” Thosophile Gautier-“L’hippotame” T.S. Eliot-“The Hippopotamus” Ronald H. Fielding (A) writes: “Now in my seventh year with Oppenheimer Funds, managing four municipal bond funds with over $8.5 billion (yes, that’s a B) and 30 staff. Ron was the subject of a three-page spread in Barron’s April 39 issue. Sons Daniel and Michael are in nth and 9th grades, so college planning has begun, and I showed Dan St. John’s this summer. Also, we’ve just begun architectural design work for a new house on the beach on Kiawah Island, S.C. I bought an older house on the property from Archibald Cox three years ago. {The College . St. John’s College ■ Summer 200Z } 1971 Michael ViCTOROFF (A) has left his job as medical director for Aetna and is writing a book on errors in medicine. John Stark Bellamy II (A) is astonished to announce the publi­ cation of his fourth book devoted to Cleveland murders and disas­ ters, The Killer in the Attic: And Even More Tales ofCleveland Woe, published by Gray & Co. Publish­ ers, Cleveland. 1972 Claude F. Martin (A) writes: “30 years? It seems longer! ” Leslie Starr (A) has played a third season as substitute second oboe with the Baltimore Sympho­ ny and took part in the orchestra’s fall 3001 tour of Europe, which included performances in London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. 1973 Wilfred (Bill) McClay (A) was nominated by President Bush to be a member of the National Council on the Humanities, which is the governing board of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Deborah Achtenberg’s (A) book. Cognition of Value in Aristotle’s Ethics: Promise ofEnrichment, Threat ofDestruction, was pub­ lished by State University of New York Press, May 3003. Stephen A. Slusher (SF) is prac­ ticing intellectual property lawprimarily biotechnology patent prosecution and litigation, as a partner at Peacock, Myers & Adams, P.C. in Albuquerque. �{AlUMNIPrOFILE} 3a White House Wordsmith Two bright September days—onejoyful, one tragic—have set the tonefor Holly Miller's White House work. BY SUS3AN Borden A87 t was a crisp sunny Saturday in early September when Holly Miller (SFGIoi), a new writer on Laura Bush’s staff, brought her visiting parents with her to the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress to hear the First Lady speak at Washington’s National Book Festi­ val. “It was a beautiful day and a great event for the city,” Miller says. “We heard Mrs. Bush’s remarks, strolled around, watched children playing on the lawn, and listened to Stephen Ambrose speak.” Three days later, September ii, was also a beautiful day in Washing­ ton, but instead of celebrating. Miller found herself and her col­ leagues from the Old Executive Holly Miller (right) with hoss Laura Bush. Office Building fleeing their work­ space in confusion and fear as a Boeing 767 struck the Pentagon and the thinking that no matter where you live or safety of downtown D.C. seemed unimagin­ who you are, there is a level at which we can all connect. Even more simply, I was think­ ably flimsy. Despite the somber note that tragic day ing that there are so many good people out brought to the lives of Washington workers, there.” Miller says that the excitement of work­ it did not mark the end of Miller’s honey­ moon with her dream job. “After 9/11 the ing in the White House has not diminished position definitely had new meaning,” says over time and adds that she’s never met Miller. “The attacks gave me a greater anyone, no matter how long they’ve sense for where I worked and why I was in worked there, for whom it had. “Anyone public service. Having the opportunity to with any interest in history can’t help but write for someone who is in a position to be thrilled to work here, to walk through offer comfort to so many people made me these hallways. It’s so humbling, so fasci­ realize that I was to contributing to the larg­ nating. I’m always learning about the his­ tory of this place.” er work of the White House.” Miller is learning about a lot more than Shortly after the attacks, Mrs. Bush’s staff relocated to the East Wing of the the history and lore of 1600 Pennsylvania White House where Miller now works in a Avenue. An ongoing challenge of her job is small office next to the Visitors’ Center. to capture the style and sentiments of Mrs. Over the next few months, a number of fam­ Bush to use in the writing she does on her ily members of the 9/ii victims visited the behalf. “It’s a learning process,” she says. “I White House. “It was inspiring to meet them and an honor to have the chance to trained under my predecessor, who had a express my condolences,” she says. “They good sense of Mrs. Bush’s voice. I’ve read were so brave and gracious. I remember her old speeches. Sometimes I can go back {The College -St John's College • Summer 2002 } and find what I want to write in a speech she delivered months ago. Learning to write for her is a matter of marrying of my style and her style; her style changes and I evolve with her.” Of course in Miller’s potentially sensitive position, getting the style right is only part of the challenge. She discusses policy-related corre­ spondence with Mrs. Bush’s direc­ tor of policy. When she writes thank-you letters to foreign heads of state, she consults the National Security Council. And all her work is checked by the First Lady before she signs it. “My communication with Mrs. Bush comes through the written word, which informs my style,” says Miller. “She’s the best editor. Her changes, whether of a word or a sentence, make everything read just right.” Miller’s a competent editor on her own. She notes that all of her jobs-whether in government, television, or public relations-have been writing jobs. After earning a BA in English and creative writing from Denison University in 1995, she began her career as a writer and legislative aide to Sen­ ator Olympia Snow of Maine and enrolled in the Craduate Institute at St. John’s in 1997. “What a great time to do it,” she says. “I was reading texts about early government and how democracy came about, reading The Prince while working on the Hill.” Now Mrs. Bush’s deputy director of corre­ spondence, Miller’s literary focus is prima­ rily on the words and thoughts of the First Lady, although she does make time to read the words of others. “I just finished reading the David McCullough biography, John Adams, and I’m trying to read more from the great collection of books I got at St. John’s,” she says. First on the list for this White House staffer? Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. �{AlumniNotes} Jon Ferrier (A) writes; “I just fin­ ished an introduction to jazz pro­ gram at our local public library where Kayne, my wife, was branch head.” Laurie Franklin Callahan’s (SF) daughter, Erin Callahan, will be a freshman on the Annapolis cam­ pus in the fall. From Steve and Melissa Sedlis (both A): “Steve is chief of cardiol­ ogy at the Manhattan VA Medical Center. He is an interventional cardiologist and associate profes­ sor at NYU School of Medicine. Melissa is a pediatrician in private practice in Manhattan and on the faculty of Weill Cornell Medical College and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Our oldest daughter, Elizabeth, is graduating from Barnard College with a degree in neurosciences. Our second daugh­ ter, Jennifer, is a sophomore at Scripps College studying political science, and Julia is in high school.” School of Architecture. He is also a painter and is presently design­ ing large screens (oil on wood) and continuing to work in pen and ink. Cynthia Kirschner Swiss (A) writes: “My husband and I are sponsoring a coffeehouse for singer-songwriters at St. John’s Methodist Church on Harford Road in Baltimore the first Satur­ day of every month.” “I’ve largely left newspapering for longer forms,” writes Eric Scigliano (SF). “A new book. Love, War, and Circuses: the AgeOld Relationship Between Ele­ phants and Humans was published by Houghton Mifflin this spring.” 1976 Phyllis P. Goodman (SFGI) became a great-grandmother on March 22. After over ao years as a computer consultant serving the healthcare industry, Jan Lisa Huttner (A) is now devoting herself full time to her web site FILMS FOR TWO: THE ONLINE GUIDE FOR BUSY COUPLES (www.films4a.com <http://www.films4a.com/>) and related speaking and writing proj­ ects. Alumni who logged on this summer had an extra treat-a guest editorial by David Chute (Aya). Landrun Hardy Mason (A) writes: “I’m living happily in the Connecticut countryside with my wife and daughter. Our son is now a freshman at MIT, and I’m in my third career. After 10 years each as a computer scientist and then a corporate manager. I’m now an investment advisor and fund manager-and loving it. Would be thrilled to hear from any of my friends from my abbreviated career at St. John’s.” 1974 1977 Alla and Jeff Victoroff (A) are pleased as punch to announce the birth of their beautiful daughter Maia on February 23, aooi. 1975 In addition to his editorial work at the University of Miami in NorthSouth Center, Jose Grave de Per­ alta (A) is teaching art history at the Art and Art History Depart­ ment and freehand drawing in the WalterT. Featherly (SF) writes: “As of July I, 2001,1 joined the Washington D.C.-based law firm of Patton Boggs, but I continue to reside and work in Anchorage, Alaska.” He’d like to hear from any Johnnies traveling to Alaska. Bob Elliott (A) writes: “I have just started my own investment banking/securities boutique after 18 years at JP Morgan. I am happy to discuss careers on Wall Street with interested students/alumni, especially those in the Chicago area where I live with my wife, Stephanie, and three daughters.” 1978 Victor Lee Austin (SF) writes: “In the spring of 2002, three Austins celebrated graduation. I received my PhD in theology at Fordham; my dissertation title: A Christological Social Vision: The Uses ofChrist in the Social Encycli­ cals ofJohn Paul II. But also in the same season, our son, Michael, received his BA from Thomas Aquinas College; and our daugh­ ter, Emily, graduated from high school. My wife, Susan (Gavahan, SF76), doesn’t quite know what to think, but is enjoying some physi­ cal and mental improvement of late. (In 1993 she had brain sur­ gery. ) A book of my meditations, A Priest’s Journal, was published in late 2001 by Church Publishing in New York. Peter Buck (SF) continues his work to set up a year-long rites of passage workshop in North Caroli­ na and continues his work with Quakers. 1980 Peter Grubb (A) writes: “2002 celebrates 18 years of marriage, the 8th and nth birthdays of our two lovely children (Mariah and Jonah), and 23 years owning my business ROW (River Odysseys West/Remote Odysseys World­ wide). ROW’S Missouri river adventures, paddling 34-foot canoes that replicate those of the early fur traders along the Lewis and Clark trail, are selling like hot cakes. Visit ROW at WWW. rowinc .com.” 1981 Chris Mark (A) bought a house in Laurel, Md. in late 2000. “It’s within earshot of I-95, so any 33 Johnnies passing through the area are welcome to stop by for a refreshing beverage. My email address is cjmark@speakeasy.org.” Matt Hartzell (A) writes: “Amongst other fun and frolic. I’m now on the Board of Directors for a new bank we helped organize and start up. The Right Bank for Texas opened its doors May 13. I’m still waiting for my Director’s fees, but I guess I haven’t drawn the right ‘Chance’ or ‘Community Chest’ card yet!” Marilynn R. Smith (SFGI) writes: “I’m retiring this year from the K12 school district for which I’ve worked for 27 years. I’ll continue to teach, though, for the local community college. Also I’ll have time to spend with my 4 grandchil­ dren!” 1982 Gail Donohue Storey (SFGI), a novelist, and her husband. Dr. Porter Storey, bicycled 2400 miles in seven weeks from Houston, Texas to Camden, Maine on their tandem bicycle, fully self-support­ ed with four panniers. Kathi Sue Nash Wilson (SF) has a daughter, Karina, who graduated in June from the University of Cal­ ifornia at the age of 19. The family, which includes her husband Wayne, and seven-year-old son Kennedy, are relocating this summer. Patty (Sowa) Rubin (A) is living on Maryland’s Eastern Shore with husband Eric and children Anna (16), Madalen (12), and Alden (8). “I’m teaching preschool music (best teaching job I’ve had, for the worst pay), directing church choir, singing as soloist and as member of local choruses. Cur­ rent improbable ambitions: to have my own office and sing Die Wesendonk Lieder.” David HershelWeinstein (A) has lived in Florida since 1985 and is still the director of research for a brokerage firm. He’s recently continued on p-jG {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } �{Alumni Profile} 34 Unmasking the Apocalypse A Johnnie parodies a hest-selling series ofapocalyptic novels. BY Sus3AN Borden (A87) rebuilt and the sacrificial system reestab­ lished as the world prepares for the apoca­ lypse) has ridden one wave of popularity after another since it first showed up in the 19th century. He says that, not only does the dispensationalists’ vision rob Christianity of its depth and meaning, but its promoters often have another agendato rob Christians of their worldly possessions. “Dispensational theolo­ gy has always been a rest­ ing place for thieves. In the 1890s they said the end of the world would be in ten years. They got peo­ ple to sell their homes, give them their money,” Wilson says. “Some peo­ ple will take on massive debt, do short term things like not get married and go off to work in the mis­ sion field for what they think is the world’s last few years. There’s nothing shallower than a Christ culture with end-of-theworld fever, because everything’s short-term thinking.” As Wilson has reflected this shallow thinking in the mirror of parody, he’s caused a stir among a number of readers of the Left Behind series. “I was expecting far more anger,” he says, “but I got a lot of feedback that was positive and thoughtful. I heard from people saying ‘thanks for letting people know that the Left Behind books are not the only is sentences are stilted, his ed to demonstrate that historic Christian­ nouns too often abstract. ity is much bigger than what Left Behind His dialogue is plodding presents.” Wilson says that dispensational theolo­ and his reasoning is circu­ lar. His characters are gy (the theological position that holds stereotypes living in a world of cliches. His that God covenants with people in differ­ plot is far-fetched and his descriptions are ent ways in different periods of history-in this case requiring that the Temple be long and largely irrelevant. You’d think a graduate of St. John’s and a lecturer at New St. Andrews College would know better. And you’d be right. Nathan Wilson (AGloi) is the author of Right Behind, a parody of the best-selling apocalyptic novel Left Behind. In Left Behind, the world is confronted with the sudden disappearance of a significant portion of its population as the true believers are raptured, leav­ ing a confused world of non­ believers behind to discover the truth and live out the Bible’s apocalyptic vision. In Right Behind, Wilson mocks every aspect of the book, from the heavy-hand­ ed character development to the clumsy writing. “I wanted to imitate the writ­ ing style, the thought process, the plot structure. I wanted to imitate into car­ icature every literary aspect of the work and its theolo­ gy,” he says. But his main goal was to reveal the perni­ cious thinking behind Left Behind’s theology-and its success. “[Authors] LaHaye and Jenkins have created a Parodist Nathan Wilson with his son, Rory D. false view of Christ. I want{The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } �{Alumni Profile} option.’ And I heard from people who have awakened and started reading those hooks in light of Right Behind. My goal was not to present a theology, hut to trigger an investigation of LaHaye’s and Jenkins’ ideas.” Readers’ comments on Amazon, com include: “It’s about time a Christ­ ian who is concerned with what the Bihle actually says writes a hook,” and “I laughed my evangelical Christian keister off.” Two self-proclaimed authorities on dispensational theology also weighed in, says Wilson: “Tim LaHaye said my hook was funny hut Jenkins got really, really mad.” Those most critical of Wilson’s book saw him as anti-Christian. “Some people got really fired up and thought I was blaspheming against Christianity and attacking God,” says Wilson. “But I was most certainly not doing that. I was attacking a new and not too long-lived movement in the evangelical world.” Far from being prone to take pot­ shots at Christianity, Wilson comes from a Christian background and takes religion seriously. “My parents came out of the ‘Jesus People’ move­ ment in the ’70s. It was a bunch of hip­ pies who moved on from ‘make love not war’ to somehow find the doc­ trines of Christ. My dad became a pas­ tor in a Jesus People church in an auto­ body shop.” Wilson’s father is still pastor of that church, which has become a Presbyterian church, and Wilson describes his parents now as oldguard historic Protestants. “I’ve lived through most of that process,” he says. “I was born into the body shop church, and am now currently attend- From Right Behind BY Nathan D. Wilson Buff sat by his window in business class and watched the sun come up like a single tooth in a bleeding gum. f He remembered that time in Israel. You know, that J time when he became a deist and began to think that I he led a charmed life because he always was, to coin a phrase, in the right place at the right time. An old woman sat across the aisle from him, a passed out drunk next to him. He turned from his window and looked at the old woman. She had a pair of cotton nylon blend underpants in one hand and dentures in the other. She stared at Buff in shock. “Excuse me mister,” she said. “Yes?” Buff said. “He’s gone. My Harold’s gone. He’s just gone, van­ ished, disappeared. Could you help me find him?” “I’m afraid that there is going to be no finding him Ma’am.” “Why?” “Has he left all material things behind him, clothes, dentures, hairpiece?” “’Ves.” “Then he has finally turned his back on this world of matter and all things evil. He has jumped right out of the corruption that matter entails. He has taken every­ thing essential to his being and left the rest behind. He has reached the enlightened world of Forms where there is no jewelry but spiritual jewels, where dentures cannot go, where everyone is naked. He has been Raptured.” “How do you know?” the woman said. “I write bad apocalyptic fiction. 1 know things. Endtimes are my game.” {The College Sf. John’s College • Summer 2002 } 35 ing that Presbyterian church.” In addition to leading the church, Wilson’s father founded the Logos School, a K-ia classical school, and New St. Andrews College, where Wil­ son got his BA in 1999. “I came out of there looking for a graduate liberal arts program. The only thing that was appealing was St. John’s. I was already addicted to great books, having been boiled in them at an early age. After experiences with courses in other schools, I thought St. John’s was ideal.” Wilson has now returned to New St. Andrews College as a part-time lecturer in literature and will teach Euclid’s geometry and classical rhetoric this fall. He’s also managing editor of Credenda/Agenda, a magazine he describes as “a philosophically and reli­ giously Trinitarian cultural journal.” He’s working on study guides for Par­ adise Lost and Faerie Queen for Veritas Publishing in Pennsylvania and is in the process of editing a collection of arti­ cles comparing Islam and Christianity. Wilson’s Right Behind publisher. Canon Press, is thinking of following up with another parody. Wilson favors a Christian romance novel. As for the theology that served as counter-inspiration for Right Behind, it’s still out there, more popular than ever. The Left Behind series has sold over 50 million books in 2,1 languages. Left Behind products include 10 nov­ els, five graphic novels, a6 children’s books, several audio tapes, a calendar, and a movie. For his part, Wilson does not see its continued influence and success as an impediment to his beliefs. “I think the evangelical church is a mess,” he says, “but I still count myself part of it.” �{AlumniNotes} 36 spent some time studying counter­ bioterrorism and Joseph Camp­ bell. Jim (A84) AND Tish Heysell’s (A) daughter, Maria, who was carried across the graduation stage in 1983 as an infant when Tish grad­ uated from St. John’s, has finished her freshman year. She enjoyed her year and loves the “great con­ versation.” Elizabeth Colmant Estes (A) writes: “After nine years climbing the corporate ladder at AT&T, I found myself pregnant and ready for new life. Joined a creative web firm where I was the oldest employee. Got bought out by a bigger firm in moo. Watched the web business disappear and my colleagues with it. Took home the plants and lo-foot giraffes this week. Setting up my home office as a business consultant. Helping companies like the New York Times and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to go paperless. Working 6o-hour weeks but mostly from home where I can watch two-yearold Olivia play in the garden below. This May I joined my son Michael, 17, in Italy where he spent the year with his sabbaticalized dad.” Ruth Ann Smith Plummer (A) says hello to anyone who might remember her. She asks her old friends to email her if they will be attending the aoth reunion: r.plummer@ntlworld.com. 1983 Lyn DesMarais (A) writes: “Our kids are growing, healthy, and active. We are engaged in a lot of music, mainly bluegrass, and hope to have a barn full of animals by winter.” From Margaret S. Mertz (SF): “Santa Fe Class of’83 alums-where are you? I am in my 3rd year as the Dean of General Studies at the North Carohna School of the Artsfinally a winning combination of my St. John’s years in the context of a performing arts conservatory. Email is always welcome: msmertz@mindspring.com.” 1986 Amy Bianco (SF) is living in Sleepy Hollow, New York, and working as a science editor at large for Princeton University Press. Her email address is amybianco@earthlink.net. Daniel Schoos (A) participated in 1984 Liz Travis (SF) writes: “Leaving my role in higher education was tough, but I originally picked St. John’s with the intention of going on to become a lawyer, and when I found that an annual ski pass was a part of the deal I knew I belonged here in Mammoth. If ever you are wandering in the Eastern Sierras, look me up; the door will be open.” Er. Robert John NicoLETn, M.J. (SF) is living in Ukraine and searching for benefactors for an orphanage for 14 children (soon to be many more) and a soup kitchen (serving over 350 people a day). “Greetings to all my friends from St. John’s,” writes Reth KoolBECK (A). “I keep very busy home­ schooling each of our four school­ age children. (We have two preschoolers, as well.) This sounds a lot harder than it is, since the older kids do much of the chores. The hardest part is getting along with each other, which we do for the most part. It’s never dull, and sometimes we have moments of glory.” Elizabeth and John Rush (SF) and Salem and Loran say hello from the mountains ofVirginia. Chris Rutkowski (A) is thrilled to announce the birth of her daugh­ ter, Rose Adelajda Rutkowski. Russell Titus (A) writes: “It’s an Sarah DeKorne (A) writes: “I am exciting year for me. I have a new job with terrific training facilities and my wife and I are expecting our third child in September. Hmmm...ril be 63 when this child graduates high school.” working as a technical writer for a medical software company. My daughters, Cecelia and Helen, are now 14 and 13.1 am remarrying in the fall, Mark Howe. I hope to see my classmates at our 30th reunion.” the Washington, D.C. AIDS ride in June, a 330-mile bicycle trek from Norfolk to Washington, D.C. Stephanie Rico (A) writes: “Todd (Todd Peterson, A87) was hang­ ing out as ship’s surgeon on the U.S.S. Stennis in the Arabian Gulf while Steph was waiting for their first child to arrive. Todd was sorry to miss the birth, but came home in May. Steph taught high school physics up until the day it all happened. Exciting times for both of us.” Elisabeth Long (A) is currently splitting her time between co­ directing the Digital Library Development Center at the Uni­ versity of Chicago and her latest endeavor-getting an MFA in book and paper arts at Columbia Col­ lege. She had her first piece in a gallery show in January. It was based on the 3 Fates. 1987 Michael David (SF) writes: “Left Sandia Labs in October 3000, tried technology marketing con­ sulting until recession arrived. Been teaching algebra and geome­ try at Sandia High School in Albu­ querque. Students loved Euclid Book I and doing propositions. I47 is still fun. Now looking for business position.” Sallie Fine Lewin (A) writes: “On March 34th I married Michael Lewin in Cleveland, Ohio. While not a Johnnie, Mike did win the approval of many of our fold. We were thrilled that Jerry Abrams (A87), Dave Heimann (A87), SheilaMonen’Virgil (A88), Linda Hamm Grez (A86), Tamara {The College- St. John^s College ■ Summer 2002 } (A87) AND Jerome Downey (A86), Jo Ann (A87) AND Walter Matt­ son (A87), and Joe Miller (A89) could join us as we celebrated the start of our new life together. After a fabulous honeymoon in Australia, we’re adjusting well to our new filing status.” 1988 Sarah Waters (A) writes: “I’m back on Kent Island and loving it. I’m senior designer for Vanguard Communications in Washington, D.C., and doing my art on the side. Would love to hear from my classmates. Come visit.” 1989 George Erhard (SF) writes: “I am currently working as an Inter­ net technical course developer and instructor and have recently re­ discovered philosophy by way of motorcycling” Joe Miller (A) will move from Chicago to Portland, Oregon in late May. He will join the faculty of Lewis & Clark Law School as an assistant professor teaching intel­ lectual property and evidence law courses. Heidi Ann Hoogstra (SF) writes: “I am primarily responsible for getting a new Buddhist Peace Fel­ lowship chapter started for Port­ land, Oregon. I am also the con­ tact person for this new chapter. I would love to hear from folks (you know who you are). My email address is enji@earthlink.net.” Sophie Ehrhardt (Romano) (SF) writes: “Mac and I still find our­ selves in the heartland with (his) family business and (my) growing Montessori school, and enough community involvement to drown in. We know we have the two smartest and most beautiful chil­ dren this side of the Mississippi River. If anyone knows where John Ange (SF88) is, drop me an email: orchards@deskmedia,com.” �{AlumniNotes} Jennifer Rogers Hoheisel (AGI) writes: “Eric, Will, Luke, and I are beginning to put down roots in New Jersey. I just got a tenure track teaching job in philosophy at Camden County College. This fall has been quite a time to contem­ plate and ‘teach’ ethics, especially with a wonderfully diverse group of students. I continue to be an evangelist for St. John’s style semi­ nars. Eric is enjoying his 5th year as a pastor at a local church that is geographically and economically between Camden and Haddon­ field, New Jersey. Will is in third grade, and Luke just started kindergarten. We miss everyone at St. John’s!” Joy Kaplan (SF87) came for a quick trip to Texas, where she vis­ ited with Dixie Davis (A), Jim Tourtelott (A73), and ran into Kevin Heyburn (SF86) at a book signing. Beverly Angel (SFGI) graduated in May from University of Texas School of Law. She was recently selected as one of 16 third year stu­ dents (out of a class of 450) for Peregrinus Consul. Consuls are chosen for recognition based on leadership and service to the law school community. She hopes to practice general civil litigation after graduation. She is currently clerking part-time at Hilgers & Watkins, a mid-size Austin firm. Rick Craven (A) writes: “Rick and his wife Debbie were expecting their first baby in July. They can be reached at 2007 Bent Tree Loop, Round Rock, TX 78681; rpcrfaven@hotmail.com. We’d love to hear your news and visitors are welcome! ” Jeanne Blackmore (nee Duvoisev) (A) writes: “I’ve never written into the alumni magazine; after all these years, I guess it’s time! To start from the beginning, I became a lawyer (ugh, I know, how boring) after college, and wound up practicing tax law/mergers & acquisitions for Ernst & Young’s San Jose office. After too many years of that, I met my husband and we decided to take two years off from real jobs to work for an animal rescue group in beautiful southern Utah, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. We ran their mobile adoption program for dogs, and loved it. My firm never let me quit completely, but for some unknown reason asked me to continue working part time from home in a research and writing capacity. This fall, after we fin­ ished our two year stint in Utah, we returned to the East Coast in Burlington, Vermont. We are enjoying it very much, snow and all. I’m back to work full time for Ernst & Young from my home office-much better than a real office. Somewhere in all of that, we had a baby boy named Benjamin Rex. He’s eight months old now, and we think he’s a blast! But, I guess all parents think that about their babies! Over the years. I’ve kept in touch with Garfield Goodrum (A89); he and his wife Lucy just relocated to Vermont. They have a beautiful spread near Woodstock, with horses, guest houses, and the like. We’re contemplating moving in with them. I’ve also kept in touch with Alexandra Kambouris-Alberstadt (A87), who lives in NYC and just had her sec­ ond baby-a boy. And Sandro Battaglia (A90) got married last year and then narrowly (phew) sur­ vived the WTC disaster. All three are lawyers-egads! I’d love to hear from any John­ nies in the area or from any of my long lost classmates! Feel free to e-mail atjeannevt@adelphia.net.” 1990 Kevin Graham (A) has been granted tenure and promoted to the rank of associate professor of philosophy at Creighton Universi­ ty, the Jesuit University of Omaha. Graham Harman’s (A) book, Tool-Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects, is available from Open Court Publishing. Jonathan Ying (A) earned a mas­ ter of industrial and labor rela­ tions from Cornell University in 37 May, 2001. During his studies at Cornell he was an intern at Amgen and General Mills. Jon is currently a human resources manager at Texas Instruments’ Wireless Ter­ minals business unit. His email address is jyingioo@yahoo.com. Sean P. Scally (AGI) and Debo­ rah S. Scally NEE Lilly (AGI91) have relocated to 9107 Demery Court, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 (615-373-1094). Deborah is the editor of Bank Director Maga­ zine and Board Member Magazine and can be reached at dscally@boardmemmber.com. Sean is University counsel and Tax Attorney for Vanderbilt University and Medical Center and can be reached at sean.scally@vanderbilt.edu. “We have two wonderful children: Case, age 8 and Molly, age 5,” writes Sean. “Both of us miss all our GI classmates and tutors and the special program that is SJC. We’d also like to hear from Johnnies who are near Nashville even if you are just pass­ ing through!” Ken Turnbull (A) recently changed law firms and is now an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe, LLP, a firm that origi­ nated in San Francisco. On May 4 he married Leslie Spiegel, who also is a lawyer in D.C. “I’d love to hear from old friends at my email address: kturnbull@orrick.com.” From the parents of Mickey MeriCLE (AGI91): “In 2001, seeking to cut back to a 10 hour day from the hectic life of a consultant, Mickey took a pay cut and accepted a posi­ tion with Kinko’s. Six months later Kinko’s CEO laid off most of the California workforce and moved their headquarters to Dallas, so Mickey returned to one of her pre­ vious employers, OFDA. The Office of Foreign Disaster Assis­ tance was glad to have her back and posted her to Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Mali. They also gave her a global positioning system to pinpoint possible landing strips for small planes as she traveled around Western Africa. “From beautiful Freetown, high on a hill overlooking the ocean, via satellite phone, Mickey sighs wistfully and says, ‘Someday I’ll find a job where I can stay in one place long enough to have a per­ sonal life and have Murphy and McDuff’ (her two bassets). “The caretakers of M and M sigh and hope for this too. “Mickey’s diplomatic pouch address is 2160 Freetown Place, Dulles, VA 20521-2160. Her per­ sonal email (bassetpal@aol.com) at 9600 baud is available but not answered often.” 1992 1991 Lani Makholm (AGI) writes: “I’m Deirdre Routt (A) has taken a position as a cataloger and refer­ ence librarian at the main branch of the Omaha Public Library. Sally Henderson Keller (SFGI) writes: “I am in my roth year of teaching Honors Philosophy at the high school level. Bruce Grigsby (SGI95) was a great help during the early design stages. I designed the course featuring the seminar method as a key component. It was approved in 1991 and I’ve been teaching it every year since that time. I was honored to be chosen the Teacher of the year 2001 (dis­ {The College. 5t. John ’5 College ■ Summer 2002 trict #60, Pueblo, Go.). Again, a graduate of St. John’s, Lenore Trujillo (SGI95), was one of my strongest supporters.” } currently through my church tak­ ing a six-month certificate course on the Islam faith. Also through the U.S. Dept, of State I have recently completed a two-week course on the Near East and Africa. When I graduated from St. John’s, I was working for the U.S. Information Agency which merged in 1999 with the State Depart­ ment. For the USIA, I worked pri­ marily with educational and cul­ tural exchanges but since the merger, have had to get up to speed on politics and U.S. policies in the countries for which I am responsible. I hope through my �{AlumniNotes} 38 studies on the Near East to be led to short-term mission work in Islamic countries.” Elyette Kirby, formerly Elyette Block (SF), writes: “I’ve moved to Tunbridge Wells, UK, originally for work but am now a stay-athome mom to Benjamin and am expecting another baby this Sep­ tember. I’m always interested in meeting up with old friends who may be in the area.” Victoria Burgess (SF) writes: “I was able to catch up with Nicole Kalman Levy (SF93) this past August when I was in the U.S. which was super. I am still hving in London and would love to get in touch with any Johnnies in the London area.” Greg Francke’s (A) piece, “Israeli actions toward Palestini­ ans a crying shame,” was published in April in The Citizen. sense that I would become a farmer. My ii-year-old mutt, Judas, and I have been working at Organic Herbs Unlimited in Sara­ sota since September. Among the many reasons I moved to Florida, learning to grow food organically is an aromatic challenge. I am also in the process of publishing a memoir and a collection of shorter work, mostly poetry. At 31,1 am a vegan, Quaker, divorcee without an undergraduate degree! Educa­ tion is a luxury for which I am grateful every day, and hope to finish only with a final breath. In the meantime, Johnnies are always welcome.” Michael A. Baldwin (SFGI) is now a Program Manager for the Community Development Block Grant Program for the Local Gov­ ernment Division for the Depart­ ment of Finance and Administra­ tion for the State of New Mexico. Joseph Walter Sterling FV (A) Jim Cachey (SFGI) has recently opened his own real estate broker­ age firm in Chicago. His website is www.jimcachey.com. Dawn Beltz Pollard (AGI98) and Phil Pollard (AGI93) have three daughters-Eleanore, Anna, and Thea. They’re opening a Waldorfinspired school in Knoxville. Phil plays lots of drums and has about 75 music students. writes: “Since June 2000 I have had the privilege of working for Project H.O.M.E., a non-profit organization in Philadelphia dedi­ cated to helping individuals break the cycle of homelessness. Being a part of this community has been the most extraordinary experience and blessing for me. I continue to work (slowly) on my doctoral the­ sis in philosophy at Emory U.” Kevin Johnson (A) writes: “Even 1993 Sharon Fitzpatrick (A) writes: “Despite prestigious ambitions as an adolescent, I had an intuitive though I was never married, I can faithfully report that I am single again. And loving it.” Sarah Louise Horton Stilwell was born March a, aooa to Millicent and McDavid Stilwell (both A). Laura Anne Stuart (A) writes: “I recently started a new job as the health educator for students at MIT. I am also a new member of the board of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, Publish­ ers of Our Bodies, Ourselves. This spring. I’ll wrap up a sexuality education program for 7th and Sth graders that I’ve been teaching since last fall at the Cambridge Unitarian-Universalist Church. I spend most of my days and nights talking about sex, which is great! ” Thomas Hammerman (A) finished his master’s degree in library sci­ ence and is now the Hebrew mono­ graphic cataloger at University of Chicago. The Ellermans write: “Alex (AGI): Much to my amazement and chagrin, the Navy’s promoting me to Lieutenant Commander this year; just in time for my resigna­ tion. We’re planning to move back to the D.C. area, where I’ll look for an airline job. Vanessa (A): I’m coming up on my and year at my law firm here in Corpus Christi and I’m celebrating by taking up triathlon racing. I’m looking for­ ward to finding a good law firm in the D.C. area and settling down for awhile. Ian (SFaa): I can count to four now! ” Kyle Linzer (SF and EC95) is hav­ ing a great time teaching dance and yoga at Rio Rancho High School, and “living world’s rehgions” and philosophy for UNM. He’d love to hear from alumni. His email is Nikosdad@aol.com. Jeffrey Spencer Wright (SFGI) writes: “I received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship last summer and so got to spend last summer in San Diego, California, as part of a sixweek seminar titled “Greek Values in Crisis: Thucydides, Sophocles, and Plato.” Pat Harnett (SGIoi) was also one of the 15 participants from around the United States. Marvelous experience!! Carmel High School’s philosophy class, utilizing a real seminar method, continues to flourish. Motivated high school kids can read and think and conduct real seminars!” Phoebe Merrin Carter (SF) writes: My husband Greg and I had a baby boy in September, named Dylan Guthrie, and we are really enjoying being parents. I am the Youth Services manager for the Weber County Library System in Ogden, Utah. Since I’m out of touch with many of my old friends. I’d like to say hi to everyone. My e-mail address is pcarter@weberpl.hb.ut.us.” Nancy Marcus (A) has been named the Director of the Nation­ al Abortion Federation’s Depart­ ment of State Public Policy. She continues to live in the D.C. area with her cat Nicoless (whose name reflects Nancy’s ongoing struggle to quit smoking). Nancy welcomes email from Johnnies at nmarcus@prochoice.org. AnthonyChiffolo’s (AGI) sixth book, too Names ofMary, has just been published by St. Anthony Messenger Press. 1995 Aaron Fredrickson (SF) writes: A Year in Tuscany 1994 Mosheh Vineberg (SF) writes: “I Anne Schuchman (A) and James Berrettini (AGI93) write: “We spent the past academic year living in a i6th century farmhouse on the outskirts of Florence, Italy. Anne had a Fulbright grant to do dis­ sertation research on a 13th-century woman mystic and Jim quit his job and is currently a full-time dad to Samuel, now 3. We returned to New York (and to reality) in July. Baby #2 is expected in October so it looks Uke we’re going to miss Homecoming (again). Maybe Croquet 2003? Anne can be reached at; ams8050@nyu.edu and Jim at jpb@alum.mit.edu. think an exciting life is accessible to everyone everywhere, wherever you find yourself, provided that you listen to your heart and make a little time each day or each week to cultivate your dream and life­ purpose. My dream/purpose is to live as a Jew in Israel, build a fami­ ly, learn Torah and make art.” {The College. 5t. John’s College . Summer aooa } “I’ve had an eventful fewyears. The condensed version is that my wife and I have returned to my native soil in the San Francisco Bay Area after finishing law school and spending a mostly futile year in Vir­ ginia. I’d very much like to speak with any Johnny lawyers hving in the area, as I’ll be taking the bar this July and am curious about what is, by reputation, the hardest bar exam in the nation. Also, I’d love to speak with any current or former Johnnies contemplating law school; �{AlumniNotes} Sarah Van Deusen Flynn (A) writes: “We are finishing our tour in Guam, which has been wonder­ ful. In September 02, we are head­ ing back to the D.C. area. I am leaving medical school for good to he with my two boys.” Texts for Tots Mike Layne (SF95) writes: “My wife, Rachael, and I have been mar­ ried three years as of June la, 2002, Our daughter, Audrey Rae Layne, was born on February 12, 2002, in Anchorage. I spend at least 30 minutes each day reading her sections of Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin ofInequality and Emile. Marx is next on our reading list. We are still living in Barrow, Alaska, and I am working as a counselor at an emergency shelter for youth. Would love to hear from SJC alumni and tutors. You can email me at mike_layne@hotmail.com.” Faith Echele (SF) writes: “I am it’s not as bad (or good) as you might expect! I can be reached at aefredrickson@rocketmail.com if any of you would like to get in touch. someone who remembers the peo­ ple who shared her St. John’s expe­ rience more fondly than you might imagine is welcome to do that at webmaster@franzworld.de.” Janet Sutherland (SFGl) writes: Sean Stickle (A) writes: “I am in “I finished seminary, moved to Kansas City, and started a church. Go figure. I’m also writing a book. My web site is www.churchofantioch.org/coakc.html or write me at suncliff@planetkc .com.” love with and married to a woman of profound excellence, who is applying to the Graduate Institute to acquire her own SJC-style edu­ cation. On less important fronts, I am employed as the Senior Manag­ er of Information Systems at the Corporation for Enterprise Devel­ opment, a national nonprofit research and economic develop­ ment outfit, where most of my time is taken up with the spectacu­ lar intricacies of XML routing and financial systems integration. I encourage any Johnnies who want to get into the bizarro world of IT/IS to drop me an email at stickle@cfed.org. The field needs more people who have read the Posteri­ or Analytics. Really.” In August, Aaron Benjamin Rutherford (AGI) will begin his fourth year and his internship at Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee. His address is 543 Par Drive/ Apt. 12/ Marion, Arkansas 72364. Angelika Franz (SF) writes: “One among many things St. John’s made me believe in was to follow one’s call-which I already put into practice with my decision to leave the college after my fresh­ man year. The fascination with Greeks and Romans, however, has never left me and led me to a PhD in classical archaeology last sum­ mer. After having done archaeolo­ gy (among other things like waitressing and organizing humanitarian aid transports into Kosovo) for some nine years, the call to follow was something else St. John’s made me believe in: the power of words. So I traded in the ancient stones for current events and am now working as a freelance journalist. I guess what still sums it up for me today, ten years after having left St. John’s, are the four wise words of Mr. Aigla: ‘Trust no one. Trust yourself. Read every­ thing twice. Enjoy life.’ Anyone who cares to spare a few words for Thea Agnew (SF) writes: “I’m self-employed as a consultant to rural communities, mostly work­ ing on planning community proj­ ects and seeking funding. Still liv­ ing between Anchorage and McCarthy. Getting married this fall out in McCarthy. Saw Mike Layne (SF) and Rachael, his wife, and his beautiful new baby Audrey. Will be seeing them again in Bar­ row later this month.” Gil Roth’s (AGI) publishing com­ pany, Voyant Publishing, has recently released two novels: Paul West’s The Place in Flowers Where Pollen Rests and Samuel R. Delany’s The Mad Man. He hopes to reissue Walter Pater’s On Plato and Platonism in 2003. {The College. St. currently teaching lower elemen­ tary, ages 6-9, at Henson Valley Montessori School in Temple Hills, Maryland. I would enjoy connecting with St. John’s alumni in the Maryland/DC area. Also, Henson Valley Montessori is in need of Great Books discussion leaders. We are looking for people willing to volunteer once a week to guide literature discussions with elementary students.” Tucker Braddock (A) writes: Married an Aussi in Sydney in December 1998. Live in Annapo­ lis, work in Washington making money. Daughter born December 2001: Ivy Elizabeth. 7 lbs. 13 oz... In case you’re wondering, still interested in Jesus; haven’t found Hinduism, Ms. Hack.” Rohert A Gammon II (SGIEC) graduated May 19 from the Uni­ versity of Hawaii with a PhD in East Asian Languages and Litera­ tures (Chinese). His dissertation is titled “A common architecture for expressing linguistic theories: With illustrations from Chinese languages, cognitive grammar, and software engineering.” He was selected to participate in a National Science Foundation summer program in Taiwan. Patricia Greer (AGI) received a PhD from the University of Vir­ ginia in May, in history of reli­ gion. Her dissertation is titled “The Net of the Mahabharata.” Ms. Greer is a tutor at St. John’s in Santa Fe. In December 2001 Benjamin Friedman (SF) earned his MFA in film and television production from the University of Southern California. He’s living in L.A. and looking for a job in the entertain­ ment industry. Tracy Whitcomb (A) and Josh SiLBERSTElN (A94) are now John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } 39 engaged. They’re planning a fall 2003 wedding. 1996 Adrien Dawson nee Gehring (A) finished seminary in May and was ordained in June at the Baltimore Episcopal Cathedral. She and her husband, Sean, moved from NYC to the Towson area following grad­ uation. Adrien is now the assistant rector at Trinity Church, Towson, Md. Amy Jane King (SF), formerly Amy Jane Borsick-Stanton, writes: “I am back in NM, studying Spanish and silversmithing, making arts and crafts. I am also a balloon twister, you know, I make balloon animals.” Ezra Nathaniel Hubbard (SF) writes: “After making movies in L.A. and New York, met wife on tropical island of Hawaii and got married June 23, 2001 in St. Louis, Missouri. Now live in Taos, New Mexico, where we are very happy— would love to have any alums come and stay with us.” 1997 Salvatore Scibona (SF) received a Pushcart Prize for one of his short stories. It was published in the Pushcart Book ofShort Stories: the Best Storiesfrom a Quarter-Centu­ ry ofthe Pushcart Prize in January. Salvatore is currently a Fiction Fel­ low at The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Mass. Leslie Norton (AGI) is unem­ ployed at the moment. She is try­ ing to change careers from teach­ ing to working for an international aid organization. If you read this and you can help, feel free to con­ tact her. She’s in the SJC Alumni Directory. Leslie is in touch with Aaron Mannes who spends his days writing serious stuff about the Middle East (he’s looking for a job too) and she also remains in con­ tact with George Strawley-he’s still working for AP in Penna. �{AlumniNotes} 40 Artist Inya Laskowski (SFGI) showed her work at two solo shows in 2,002,: Gallery Route One, Point Reyes, Calif, (encaustic minia­ tures) and Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, Calif, (recent work). She will also exhibit in a two-person show at Pacific Union College, Angwin, Calif, in Septem­ ber as well as several group shows throughout the year. She says her art is moving into a new phase because she now has use of a large press. Larissa N. Parson (A) is still in grad school-slowly working toward her Classics PhD. She’s taken up running marathons. Diane Marie Shires (SFGI) and Christopher Patrick English (SFGI97) were happily married on December 37, 3001 on Santa Catalina Island, Avalon, Calif. They note that this was 135 years to the day Darwin set off aboard the HMS Beagle. Tricia Daigle (SFGI97) was in attendance. Jehanne Dubrow (A) is currently Billy Sothern and Nikki Page at the University of Maryland working on an MFA in poetry. She attended writing workshops at the University of Prague this past summer. (both A) were married in their gar­ den at their home in New Orleans, La. on March 30, 3003. JillNienhiser (SFGI) is now the Director of Writing and Web Development at Mind & Media, Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia. 1998 Stephen Conn (SF) found himself in New York City for most of 30013003, involved in film and art studies, as well as being an intern with the Pulse Theatre. While studying at the New York Film Academy he made three short films, two of which relate to Sep­ tember II, while the third is a little vignette which features Steve as the main character. These films were recently shown at an under­ ground film event in New York City. There is a copy of these three short films on VHS in Meem Library at St. John’s College in Santa Fe. He sends his love to all his old friends at St. John’s. David Turney (AGI) writes: “Wife Stephanie (Bardis) recently gave birth to our first child, Christo­ pher David. I gave up France and goat cheese adventures for a career in scientific publishing with Reed-Elsevier. Contact us: writerscramp@worldnet.att.net.’’ Marjorie Roueche (A) writes: “We are expecting a baby girl, though we’re still working on a befitting Greek name.” Dawn Star Borchelt (A) sends what she calls a silly rhyme: “Though I live not far away/To Annapolis, I rarely stray./Early Autumn, Early Spring/Never work. You see the thing/Is that work requires my presence/Most often at these times ofyear./Alas my fond, fond alma mater-/Many moons shall pass’ere I draw near.” Lorna Anderson (SF) became Lorna Johnson on May 35, when she married Aaron Johnson at the Woman’s Club of Evanston in Evanston, Illinois. Aaron is a clas­ sical pianist who received his mas­ ter’s degree in music performance from Northwestern University in 1993 and has been performing original and classical composi­ tions in the Midwest and east coast. Lorna is pursuing publica­ tion of her poetry in various jour­ nals and has become an active member of RHINO: The Poetry Forum, an annual poetry journal based in Evanston. She welcomes anyone passing through Chicago, and can be reached at velvet_6o636@yahoo.com. 1999 Paul Ronco (SF) writes: “Hi all, hope everything is going well for you out there in the real world. What more should I say? The Army was fun, St. John’s was fun­ ner [sic]. Drop me a line at pronco@hotmail.com anytime.” Cheryl Hut (AGI) writes: “I am living in Scotland with my 3-yearold son, Gabriel, who was born a week after graduation. I am work­ ing on an M. Litt in Shakespeare Studies at the University of St. Andrew’s and love this town by the sea. I would love to hear from any St. John’s alumni in Great Britain.” TracyNecroux (A) graduated from St. Andrews in June. She’s now living in Ilhnois and hopes to begin teaching soon. Greg W. Koehlert (SF) writes: “Moved from Atlanta to New York City in June. Teaching in an LD High School-Enghsh, History, Outdoor Education, and yes, Euclid Book i.” Ruth Busco (SF) writes: “I am currently enrolled at the Tradi­ tional Acupuncture Institute in Columbia, Md., where I am pursu­ ing a master’s degree in acupunc­ ture. I ivill start seeing patients in September-anyone in the area interested in the institute or in acupuncture treatment please feel free to contact me by phone 410313-0991 or email (rmbusko@hotmail.com)!” 2000 Abigail Weinberg (SF) has been accepted into a masters program at the School of Forestry and Environ­ mental Studies at Yale University. Andrew Burgard (SF) is attend­ ing an intensive Czech language program at Indiana University. Anne Berven (SF), Alexis Brown (SF), and RaifeNeuman (SFoi), will not leave the college. Mr. Neu­ man is constantly outside smoking, contemplating which office he will work for. Ms. Brown is attempting to finish the EC program and her last pack of cigarettes. Ms. Berven is communing tvith the young minds of America while she attempts to find her car keys. Eowyn Levene (A) has been work­ ing in an organic, brick-oven bakery (The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } for the pastyear or so and has recently spent a few months travelhng in New Zealand. She is begin­ ning a two-year apprenticeship to get her diploma in biodynamic agri­ culture. She will be doing this at a community for the mentally dis­ abled in Gloucestershire, England. Paul Spradley (A) writes: “Hello ya’ll! I’m still teaching math in the Mississippi Delta and am fixin’ to graduate from the University of Mississippi with a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction. In addition to my teaching duties I have been made head baseball coach. Unfortunately, that sport was not well covered in intramu­ rals in Annapolis.” Anna Marissa Abbott (SF) writes: “I am interested in knotving about job opportunities in Santa Fe. I’m currently working part-time at a Sylvan Learning Center (as I have been for the past year). Hello Kelsey Bennett, wherever you are, I hope you are happy. Jennifer Rogers, Matthew Duffy, and Kathy Pluth-1 send you my regards and God bless...” Karina Noel Hean (A) writes: “I am moving back to New Mexico to start an MFA program in fall 3003 at NMSU in Las Cruces. Feel free to stop by for a visit! Have had a lot of luck getting artist residen­ cies, one in Harper’s Ferry, W.V. and one at VSC, Vt. And a few small shows. (P.S. did not go to Amsterdam, not enough $$.) email: karinahean@hotmail.com” Christopher Vaughan (A) recent­ ly visited Fletcher Cunniff (A) in Catonsville. Christopher writes: “I’m attending and loving every minute of Flagler College. I hope to get my degree in deaf education by 3005. All of my former class­ mates are in my prayers. If anyone is near St. Augustine let me know. I would love to hear from any alums. Best wishes to old friends like Tim Freeman (Aoi), Adella Fay (SF), PaulNino (A), and Claudine Cristoforides (A). At first I was bitter about getting dis­ enabled. Now I am just proud of the time I had with you all at such a wonderful school! ” �{Alumni Notes} Alice Baldwin (SF) writes; “I hope everyone is well!” fall. I thought four alumni in one department was strange enough to be worth noting.” Alan Rubenstein (A) won a Uni­ versity Fellowship to study lin­ guistics at Georgetown University this fall. Lizzie Jump (A) writes: “I just fin­ ished a year of service to Volunteer Maryland (an AmeriCorps pro­ gram) in Baltimore at the Neigh­ borhood Design Center. I’m prob­ ably going to move to North Carolina and start working towards a master’s degree in psy­ chology. Folks should feel free to email me if they’ve questions about AmeriCorps.” Lizzie’s email is iameloise@yahoo.com. Wyatt Dowling (A) writes: “I just finished my first year of graduate school at Boston College in the political science department. Eric Dempsey (Aoo) is here too and two other Johnnies, Steve Ide (SFoi) and Jonathan Culp (Aoi) are starting grad school at BC in the 2001 so that I may really focus on this opportunity. I’ll most likely try to make a move into journalism and catering when I return. If I return.” Ian Mullet (SF) and Ben Judson ing forward to retirement. Big ups and much love coming out of Crimebridge.” (SF) are both teaching in San Antonio, Tex. at Judson Montes­ sori School, which is run by Ben’s parents, James Judson (SFGI95) and Gay Judson. Talley ScROGGS (A) writes: “Upon Basil Bryan Thorpe Cleveland finishing my seven weeks as a “debutante” student at L’Ecole Francaise at Middlebury College my goal was to move to France. Follow­ ing my budding passion for food as an object of study and of course immense pleasure, I found an apprenticeship with a Frenchtrained American chef and teacher named Robert Reynolds. From March to May 2,002, I’ll be living in Montesquieu, France, going to mar­ kets and cooking regional cuisine. I have yet to plan the next move­ leaving my desire to plan behind (A) writes: “I will gladly host any Johnnies passing through the Chicago area-I’ve got a futon and some floor space you can borrow just for the asking.” EbenLasker (SF) writes: “Look­ Joel Hopkins (SF) is working in a program for troubled youth in Santa Fe right now. He took cours­ es in art history at Tulane Univer­ sity and at the College of Santa Fe. He has received a scholarship to pursue an MA in art history and criticism at SUNY Stonybrook starting this fall. Calling All Alumni 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 December; copy deadline is October 15. In Annapolis: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800. Annapolis, MD 21404; s-borden@sjca.edu. In Santa Fe: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Public Relations Office, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; classics@mail.sjcsf.edu. Alumni Notes on the Web: Read Alumni Notes and contact The College on the web at: www.sjca.edu - click on “Alumni.” {Obituaries} Rogers Albritton Rogers Albritton, class of 1945, a professor of phi­ losophy at University of California at Los Angeles and at Harvard, died on May 21. He was 78. Mr. Albritton was born in Columbus, Ohio, to a physiologist and a chemist. He began his stud­ ies at St. John’s but left to serve in the Army Air Forces in World War IL He returned and gradu­ ated in 1948. Mr. Albritton received a master’s and a doctorate in philosophy from Princeton. He taught at Harvard from 1956 until 1970, and was chair of the philosophy department for seven years. He then taught at UCLA until retir­ ing in 1991. Mr. Albritton has been praised for the breadth and depth of his philosophical interests, which included ancient philosophy, philosophy of mind, free will, skepticism, metaphysics, and the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. At St. John’s, his senior thesis defended lyric poetry from log­ ical positivism. Although he did not publish much, he was nevertheless widely known and admired in the academic world. A colleague at UCLA, Gavin Lawrence, wrote in an obituary, “Rogers had the finest philosophical mind I have ever encountered. He never rushed to a facile answer and was a wonderful sounding board.” Mr. Albritton was awarded the Alumni Association Award of Merit in 1995. He is sur­ vived by his sister, Heloise Frame. Paul Krol Paul G. Krol (A76) died in May. He was a loved and respected international businessman. He was fluent in German and Polish and spoke some Spanish, Korean, and Japanese. He was financially responsible for the building of the Southwest CARE Medical Center in Santa Fe. Paul was a computer engineer who published the book ORC AD Capture, a text used to teach the teachers in that industry. He also wrote many poems and short stories. Paul spent half of his hfe volunteering and giv­ ing to others. After being diagnosed with a ter­ minal illness, he requested permission from Catholic schools in New Mexico to talk to stu­ dents about death and dying. His talks were so successful they have been published in a book. Although he was only 47 years of age, he affected so many people in the world in such a positive way, that I have no doubt there is a “new star” in Heaven. —submitted by Ron Moar H. Ralph Lewis H. Ralph Lewis, a former tutor in Santa Fe, died in March in Hanover, N.H. Born in Chicago, he was a physicist who studied at the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, and the Uni­ versity of Heidelberg. In 1963 he joined the staff at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he worked on the controUed thermonuclear fusion project. He taught at St. John’s and then at Dart­ mouth, where he was on the physics faculty. Mr. Lewis is survived by his wife, Renate; two daughters, and a sister. Admiral Robert Long Adm. Robert Long, commander in chief of U.S. military forces in the Pacific and a former mem­ ber of the Board of Visitors and Governors, died June 28 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. He was 82 and lived in Annapolis. Born in Kansas City, Mo., Robert Lyman John Long graduated in 1943 from the U.S. Naval Academy. He served during World War II in the Pacific. In 1972, Adm. Long was named com­ mander of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet Submarine Force and vice chief of naval operations. He saw combat in the Vietnam War. He headed the American military forces in the Pacific from 1979 to 1983, when he retired. Soon after retir­ ing, he was caUed to assist President Ronald Reagan and Defense Secretary Caspar Wein­ berger, who asked him to lead the commission continued on p.43 {The Colleges;. John’s College ■ Summeraooi } �{CampusLife} 4^ THE TWENTY YEARS’ WAR Johnnies reclaim the Annapolis Cup, brinp^ing the croquet series to i6 and4. BY Sus3AN Borden (A87) he opening shots of the St. John’s-Naval After Heyburn returned to campus, he remembered that several students had been Academy croquet series have long been playing croquet and that they were pretty the subject of speculation and rumor. good, so he decided to challenge the acade­ my. “My main aim was to get the two groups Some say the first match was the result of of students together and my hope is that the a barroom bet. Others say it was a last- match is still a way to foster better relations between the two schools,” he says. minute substitute for a barroom brawl. And so it has happened. The spirit of the has remained, The truth, says Kevin Heyburn (SF86), wasmatch much more more or less, one of peaceful camaraderie. The team uniforms simple-and peaceful. (footloose and fanciful for the Johnnies, T campy-casual for the Mids) bespeak a play­ ful rivalry, not war games. The crowd’s attention is on picnicking, not the score­ board. And the goodwill that the opponents display after each match is no clenchedteeth affair, but rather a hearty handshake for a job well done. At this year’s match (in April), however, there was just the hint of a martial edge to the Johnnies’ attitude. The Middies had won last year’s match, breaking a nine-year St. John’s winning streak. An article in the Washington Post quoted senior Louis Kovacs announcing before the match, “I’m out for blood. I’m out to hurt people and humiliate them.” Newly inaugurated Santa Fe president John Balkcom hit out the opening ball. Next the freshman chorus, under the direction of tutor Tom May, in an apparent welcome to our comrades-in-croquet, launched into a stirring rendition of the Navy Hymn: Eternal Father, strong to save. Whose arm hath bound the restless wave. The few, the proud, the victorious: the aooa sjc team. Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep It was 1981 and Heyburn, then a freshman in Annapolis, was curious about the Naval Academy. He and a friend went to the acad­ emy’s pep rally for the Army-Navy game. On the way back to St. John’s, they found themselves walking behind the Comman­ dant of the academy. “Being a bold fresh­ man, I started to talk with him,” Heyburn recalls. “I told him that in the old days, St. John’s had quite an athletic program and would often beat Navy at sports like foot­ ball and lacrosse. The Commandant said that now there was no sport where the St. John’s students could beat Navy.” {The College ■ St. John’s College • Summer 2002 } Its own appointed limits keep: O hear us when we cry to Thee, For those in peril on the sea. As the chorus sang the next two verses (penned by Tanya Hadlock Piltz, A05), their loyalties became clear: �{Campus Life} Oh Johnnies who doplay croquet. 43 greeting, offering its now-traditional menu of cucumber sand­ wiches, college-logo chocolates, and champagne. Tote bags with an image of a Greek-style statue play­ ing croquet on front campus wear­ ing nothing but Birkenstocks and a fig leaf were prized souvenir giveaways. The games ended just before 5:00 and the alumni office packed up its champagne and chocolates at 6:00. But the crowds, enjoying the spirit of croquet and the thrill of victory, lingered on the lawn until dark. Congratulations go to Imperial Wicket Jon Polk, next year’s Wicket Ben Porter, and team members Lucas Ford, Nick Whit­ tier, Mike Maguire, Jon Cooper, Lou Kovacs, Tom Juskevich, Peter Speers, and Terry Duvall. > Protect our honor on this day. Our battle cry: Let Middies kneel! To them theform ofGood reveal. Oh hear us when we boldly say Defeat the Middies at croquet! Oh ye who books do seldom read Your unexamined lives concede Beware each Middy girl and boy; We are the Danaans to your Troy! Oh hear us when we boldly say Defeat the Middies at croquet! The Johnnies on the field pro­ ceeded to answer the pleas of the singers, shutting out the Middies 5-0 before a crowd of over 1000, including more than 300 alumni. Throughout the day the alumni tent was a locus of meeting and {Obituaries} continuedfrom p.41 to investigate the bombing of the marine bar­ racks in Beirut, Lebanon. The commission looked into security lapses in its fact-finding mission on the incident, in which a terrorist drove a truck laden with explosives into the barracks, killing 241 marines. He served on the St. John’s Board from 1986 to 1992. Later, he maintained his ties to the col­ lege by encouraging the croquet rivalry between St. John’s students and the residents of the retirement community of Ginger Cove, where he served as chair of the community associa­ tion. He is survived by his wife, Sara, and his three sons, Charles, William, and Robert. Roberts. Parr Robert E. Parr, a former tutor in Santa Fe, died Sept. II, 2001 in Ada, Oklahoma. He was 77. Mr. Parr taught music at St. John’s and was a life-long musician and active in theater. Born in Norman, Oklahoma, he graduated from the University of Oklahoma. During World War II he served in the military in Europe. After the war, he studied at Yale with German composer Paul Hindemith, then moved to San Francisco, where he received a master’s degree in composi­ tion from the University of California, Berkeley. He taught at Candell Conservatory and at pri­ vate schools in New Mexico and St. Louis, in addition to St. John’s. He also ran a wheat farm in Oklahoma, raised Arabians, and enjoyed his involvement with puppet opera. Mr. Parr is sur­ vived by his lifemate, Dianne Stowers. Charles Wallace Charles “Charlie” Wallace, the superintendent of buildings and grounds for the Annapolis cam­ pus for many years, died in April. Mr. Wallace was born in Baltimore and served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War. He worked as a construction superintendent for Dunton, Inc. for 20 years, building many public schools in Maryland. He retired from his job at St. John’s in 1998. Surviving are his wife, Emily; two sons, Charles and William; one daughter, Lisa Delasko; a sister, and six grandchildren. John Wirth A long-time Board member of St. John’s Col­ lege, John Wirth passed away on June 20. He was 66. Mr. Wirth and his wife, Nancy Meem Wirth, were active members of the college for many years. Beginning with the donation by Nancy’s parents. Faith and John Gaw Meem, of the land for the Santa Fe campus and continuing into the present with their involvement on the faculty housing project, their dedication to the mission of St. John’s has always been exemplary. Mr. {The College- St. John’s College - Summer 2002 } Wirth served as vice chairman of the Board of Visitors and Governors, and worked on the Cali­ fornia property project. Mr. Wirth was born in Dawson, New Mexico in 1936. He graduated from Harvard University in 1958 and received his doctorate in Latin American History in 1967 from Stanford Univer­ sity. He served in the army in 1958-59. He was the recipient of numerous awards, prizes, and fellowships related to his expertise in Latin American history. He commuted weekly to teach undergraduate courses in contemporary Brazilian history, environmental history, and Canadian history at Stanford University where he held the Gildred Chair of History. He retired from Stanford in June. He founded and was president of the North American Institute, based in Santa Fe. The tri­ national organization is dedicated to better rela­ tions between Mexico, Canada, and the United States. A prolific writer, his latest book is Smelter Smoke in North America: The Politics of Transborder Pollution. He recently completed a history of the Los Alamos Ranch School, which wiU be published shortly by the University of New Mexico Press. He is survived by his wife, Nancy Meem Wirth; sons, Peter, Tim and Nicholas; and four grandchildren. �44 {Alumni Association News} Letter from THE Alumni Association Dear Johnnies, What does it mean to “come home?” For most colleges and universities. Homecom­ ing means foothall, old haunts, a few old friends, and lots of people you hardly rememhered the day after graduation. At St. John’s, Homecoming is some of those things, and many more. It might mean coming hack to a place that smells and looks and feels not so different from when you left it. Homecoming might also mean visiting a place you’ve never been. If you spent your college years in Santa Fe, you might just as well enjoy Homecoming on the water and in the midst of colonial red brick in Annapolis. If Annapolis was the locus of your personal memories, you might also come home to the wonderful mountains and desert sun­ sets of Santa Fe. The places, though both beautiful and significant, are not the essence of Homecoming for Johnnies. Yes, you’ll see old friends, especially if you choose a Homecoming for one of your class’s special five-year reunions. But even if you come when other classes are having their reunions, you will still see old friends-tutors, staff, members of classes before and after yours. The community on each campus is surprisingly constant with the familiar names and faces scattered among the new ones. Chances are that you’ll also meet new “old friends,” includ­ ing many who are familiar because they shared the experience of reading and talk­ ing about the same books in the same ways that you did. Everytime I return-whether to Santa Fe or Annapolis-I discover inter­ esting and stimulating people whose his­ tory makes them part of an intellectual and institutional family. The family resemblance is striking, regardless of when or where or for how long they lived in the Program. The Homecoming Dinner last October in Annapolis was an excellent example for me of the cross-generational nature of the Johnnie experience. According to tradi­ tion, after dinner is served and awards are presented, each reunion class gives a toast. Sometimes the toasts are funny and some­ times they are poignant, and last year was no exception on this count. It was an excep­ tion, however, because all of the toasts revolved around a theme very near to each of us on that evening, just three weeks after September ii. Each class toast reflected, as only Johnnies can, on the meaning of the college in the wake of our national trauma. Classes from the ’40s remembered the dis­ ruption of their lives during World War II. Classes of the ’50s talked about what it meant when women entered the campus as fellow students. The ’60s reflected on a rediscovery of patriotism that had not been part of their early engagement with the world. The ’70s talked of Vietnam and the dissention that war introduced to personal and social self-knowledge. Classes of the ’80s and ’90s opened our eyes to a genera­ tion that approaches self and institution with confidence and assumed security. Together, the toasts framed a social history of America from the point of view of thoughtful and admirable individuals. For me, it was a touching and powerful mes­ sage about my self, my community, and my nation But most of all, for me. Homecoming is coming home to the books. There is always a formal time when alumni and guests meet in official seminars to inquire togeth­ er as we did in the old days. Sometimes the books are different, and usually the tutors and students are different, but always the experience is the same. I come to the table with certainties and questions and leave with fewer certainties and more questions. My real measure of a good seminar is whether it inspires me to read the text again. Seldom does a seminar fail to meet this expectation. Just like our student {The Colleges?. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Whether from Annapolis or Santa Fe, under­ graduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, all alumni have automatic membership in the St. John’s Col­ lege Alumni Association. The Alumni Associa­ tion 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 Alumni Association news and events of interest. President - Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary -Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer - Bill Fant, A79 Getting-tke-Word-Out Action Team ChairLinda Stabler-Talty (SFGI76) Web site - www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, Box aSoo, Annapolis, MD 21404 or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. days, however, coming home to the books is not restricted to the time around the table. Informal conversations over food, drink, or dance remind me of the wellgrounded conversations of my student days. Themes emerge and common refer­ ents are invoked. The conversations are decidedly different from those I have dayto-day, and they feed my curiosity and my ever-developing view of the world and myself. Homecoming is an opportunity to revisit whatever lives in your memory of your days at St. John’s. It is also an invitation to reflect on current aspirations and activities in the context of personal, institutional, and intellectual history. I hope that you will plan to join the next Homecoming party, and I hope you find, as I have, that coming home is a richly varied experience that transforms memories of the past into reali­ ty of today and hopes for tomorrow. See you there! For the past, the present, and the future, Glenda Eoyang President St. John’s College Alumni Association �{AlUMNiAsSOCIATIOnNeWS} As will not surprise any Johnnie, our progress could be measured more in the improvement of our questions, or in the introduction of new ones, than in reaching final answers. On one conclusion there did seem to be a consensus: the efforts of Aristotle, Hegel and Nietzsche to capture the essence of tragedy pale in comparison to the real thing. The profundity and variety of the dra­ matic experience exceed their descriptions, and analysis of it is like trying to “catch lightning in a bottle.” ♦ Report From The Hinterlands What the Minneapolis/St. Paul Alumni Chapter Has Been Up To For the Last Few Years The Minneapolis/St. Paul chapter of the Alumni Association has recently completed its second set of readings and seminars organized on a theme. Politics was our first theme. Tragedy our second. Each extended over a year. Prior to that, for over 20 years, we had read books more or less at random; and, although there were some memorable seminars during that period, the theme approach has generally produced more con­ tinuity of thought and depth of discussion. We would recommend the approach to other chapters. Our Tragedy list: • Agammenon, Aeschylus • Oedipus Rex. Sophocles • Poetics, Aristotle • Othello, Shakespeare • The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche • Three Sisters, Chekhov • Bartleby the Scrivner, Melville • Mourning Becomes Electra, O’Neill • The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald • The Tragic Sense ofLife, Unamuno We were somewhat naive in our choice of readings. For example, none of us knew what to expect from Unamuno’s Tragic Sense of Life, and we were divided after­ wards concerning its intrinsic value; but most agreed that it produced some of the best discussions. It helped us discuss Tragedy as Philosophy, not merely as a dra­ matic form. As evidence of the continuity, some of the same questions persisted throughout the year. For example: • What is Tragedy? Is a precise defini­ tion possible? • Are Greek Tragedy and Elizabethan Tragedy essentially the same or diff­ erent? (and the same question when comparing the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides). • The Bacchcie, Euripides • Is Cosmology an essential ingredient of Greek Tragedy? Can we ever fully appreciate Greek Tragedy without sharing its cosmological view? • Poetics, Aristotle • Is Christianity anti-tragic? • The Orestia, Aeschylus • On Poetry, Hegel The list is eccentric and somewhat acciden­ tal. We discussed Agammenon twice, once by itself and once in the context of the Oresteia. We also read and discussed Aristo­ tle’s Poetics twice, once at the beginning (with the help of Santa Fe tutor Matt Davis) and once at the end, when we had a “theme overview” discussion. In the middle, and at their suggestion, we did Bartleby the Scrivener with the help of Santa Fe presi­ dent John Balkcom and then-vice president Robert Glick. 45 • What is the “tragic effect”? Does either Aristotle’s “catharsis of fear and pity” or Hegel’s “resolution of substantive values” adequately describe it? • Why didn’t the Greeks have an inter­ mediate dramatic form, like Tragi­ comedy? • What is the role of Tragedy in Educa­ tion? Is it central? • What is a Tragic Sense of Life? Is it healthy or unhealthy? {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } Regular contributors to the monthly discus­ sions were: Glenda Eoyang (SE76), Judy Kistler-Robinson (SF77, SGfg), Robert Neal (Abo), Walter Burk (SFgo), Nick Colten (Ag?), Garol Freeman (AGIgg), John Hart­ nett (SF8g), Graig Lefevre (Ag2), Kait Schott (SFgi), J. Shipley Newlin (Afi7), Lori Williamson (Agg), Mike Woolsey (Afig) CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowfor information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 5O5-=i75-9ora ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin 410-^80-0958 PITTSBURGH Robert Hazo 412-648-2653 AUSTIN Jennifer Chenoweth 512-483-0747 PORTLAND Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen 410-472-9158 SACRAMENTO Helen Hobart 916-452-1082 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 CHICAGO Lorna Johnson 773-338-8651 SAN FRANCISCO, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Jon Hodapp 831-393-9496 SANTA FE John Pollak 505-983-2144 SEATTLE Amina Stickford 206-269-0182 DENVER Lee Goldstein 720-283-4659 LOS ANGELES Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Garol Freeman 612-822-3216 NEWYORK Joe Boucher 718-223-1957 NORTH CAROLINA Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 WASHINGTON DC Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 972-2-6717608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �46 {AlumniAssociationNews} Election Notices Election ofAlumni Representatives to the St. John's College Board of Visitors and Governors In accordance with Article VIII, Section II of the By-Laws of the St. John’s College Alumni Association, notice is hereby given that the following alumni have been nomi­ nated by the Alumni Association Board of Directors for election to the St. John’s Col­ lege Board of Visitors and Governors. Notice is also given that nominations may be made by petition. The rules governing submission of nomi­ nations bypetition are asfollows: • Petitions must be signed by at least fifty members of the Alumni Associa­ tion in good standing. • Nominations must be accompanied by a biographical sketch of the nominee. • The consent of all persons nominated must be obtained. • The petition must reach the Directors of Alumni Activities NO LATER THAN DECMBER 1, 2002. c/o Alumni Office St. John’s College P.O. Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404 Mr. Bienenfeld has worked for Honda for 21 years in a variety of areas in the U.S. as well as Japan. Mr. Bienenfeld served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors from 1998, and more recently on the Board of Vis­ itors and Governors since July of 2000. He served as the president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Alumni Association in the early eighties. In addition, Mr. Bienenfeld helped organize alumni to support the Cam­ paign for Our Fourth Century. Thomas Stern Sl- '6g Palo Alto, CA Mr. Stern has been involved with motion pic­ ture production since receiving an MA from Stanford University in r97i. In 1981 he began his association with Malpaso Productions at Warner Brothers, Clint Eastwood’s produc­ tion company. Mr. Stern works as a lighting consultant, and has been responsible for the lighting more than 40 feature-length motion pictures including “Risky Business”, “Pale Rider,” “Goonies,” “Bird, The Unforgiven,” “Space Cowboys,” and “True Crime.” Steve Thomas SFJ4 New York, NY Following a few years as a computer opera­ tor, Mr. Thomas spent the academic year 1976-77 in graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, in the Ancient Philoso­ phy program. Remaining in Austin, Texas, but dropping out of graduate school, he worked as a computer operator by day and became active in local and state politics as a gay activist. In r98o, Mr. Thomas was named as an at-large alternate delegate to the National Democratic Convention, which means that he gets hohday cards from the White House whenever it is occupied by a Democrat. He proceeded to attend the Uni­ versity of Texas School of Law, initially to acquire credentials for his political career, when he discovered an actual interest in the law. He served on the Texas Law Review and was a member of Chancellors, which is the highest honor society based on grades at the school. He graduated with honors in 1984. He then moved to New York City, where he has been admitted to the bar since 1985. He worked as an associate at the Wall Street law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton from 1985 through 1991, and since 1991 has been employed by Financial Security Assurance (a monoline bond insur­ ance company), most recently as associate general counsel. Mr. Thomas has also been involved since r989 with HIV Law Project, an organization that provides legal assis­ tance and advocacy to low income people infected with HIV, for most of those years in If nominations by petition are received, there will be an election conducted by mail ballot. If there are no such nominations, the nominees listed above will be considered elected. Terms will begin in July of 2003. Robert Bienenfeld SF’8o Long Beach, CA The Senior Manager of Product Planning for American Honda Motor Co. Inc., Mr. Bienenfeld is responsible for planning the vehicle line ups for Acura and Honda cars and trucks in the U.S. In addition, he is responsible for the sales and marketing of electric, natural gas, hybrid and, believe it or not, fuel cell automobiles. In addition, he serves on Honda’s Environment Committee for the Americas, and operates a small ven­ ture capital operation for American Honda. Great moments in croquet history (circa 1985): St. John’s teammates (l-r) David Kidd (A85), Andrew Bi'.ckman( A87), Steven Werlin(A85) and Bryce Jacobsen (class POSE WITH THE AnNAPOLIS CuP AND MiDDIE RIVALS. {The College. St. Jo hn’s College ■ Summer 2002 } of 1942) �{AlumniAssociationNews} his current capacity as chair of the Board of Directors. Since 2000 he has served on the SJC Alumni Association hoard. Mr. Thomas is a fanatical opera fan, and is devoted to the New York Mets. In his spare time he still, helieve it or not, reads philosophy hooks; and he still doesn’t understand Plato. Election ofDirectors of the St. John A College Alumni Association In accordance with Article VII, Sections I and II of the By-Laws of the St. John’s Col­ lege Alumni Association, notice is hereby given that the following alumni have been nominated to serve as directors on the St. John’s College Alumni Association Board of Directors. Notice is also given that nominations for the positions as officers and directors of the Association may be made by petition. The rules governing submission of nomi­ nations bypetition are asfollows: • Petitions must be signed by at least thirty members of the Alumni Associa­ tion in good standing. • Petitions must be presented to the Secretary of the Alumni Association prior to the Annual Meeting at which the election is to be held. Petitions should be sent to Barbara Lauer, c/o Alumni Office, St. John’s College, P.O. Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404. • The election will be held at the Annual Meeting on Saturday, Oct. 5, at 1:45 p.m. in Annapolis. • The candidates for Directors receiving the highest number of votes for those offices shall be declared elected. Terms will begin on January i, 2002. Mark Middlebrook A ’8g Oakland, CA Mr. Middlebrook currently is testing the truth of the well-worn dictum “in vino veritas,” as well as his hopeful corollary “in vino pecunia.” He has worked in the wine industry in Oakland, California, for a year. As he waits for both truth and money to flow from oenophilic endeavors, he continues his mercenary masquerade as a computer consultant. In addition, he teaches litera­ ture and philosophy seminars at St. Mary’s College of California. When he isn’t too busy juggling three jobs, he enjoys playing flamenco guitar and oud. Jonathan Sackson A ’6g Miami, Florida MBA in Finance, Wharton, 1982. Mr. Sackson worked in various controller and finance positions at Ryder System (1982-1989) and served as Vice President and Controller of the Bekins Corporation (1982-1992). Since 1992, he has been an investment advisor to private and institutional clients in Miami, Florida. He is currently Senior Vice Presi­ dent at UBS PaineWebber. Mr. Sackson has served as an at large member of the Alumni Board since 1999. For many years he has functioned as liaison to South Florida appli­ cants to St. John’s. He was also Class Chair for the Campaign for Our Fourth Century. C. Frank Davis SFGI’gg Santa Fe, NM Mr. Davis has a BA in economics/govern­ ment from the University of Texas (1958), and he completed the Small Company Man­ agement Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Business in 1981. From 1963 to 1969 he was a broker for Bache and Co. in Corpus Christi, Texas and from 1969 to 1998 served as the Chief Executive Officer of Whataburger of El Paso, Inc. and Taco Cabana of El Paso. In El Paso he has served on the boards of Renaissance 400, the Rad­ ford School for Girls, and the Bank of the West, and has also served on the board of the Texas Nature Conservancy. He has trav­ eled extensively in Africa, Europe, and Asia, and has participated in several Earth­ watch projects in Nepal and Thailand, as well as flying his own Cessna 185 for Wings of Hope in Guatemala and Nicaragua, for Lighthawk, and for local Santa Fe conserva­ tion organizations. He volunteers in the Santa Fe public schools, and has been a longtime participant in Summer Classics and Community Seminars at the college. Gary Edwards Sk ’-g Arlington, VA Surgical oncology physician assistant, Washington Cancer Institute, Washington Hospital Center, 1995 to present. Surgical physician assistant, Sibley Memorial Hos­ {The College ■ St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } 47 pital, Washington, D.C. 1990-1995. B.S. Physician Assistant program. The George Washington University 1990. Medical transcriptionist. The Neurology Center, Washington, D.C. 1984-1990. Customer service representative, Tulsa Oklahoma 1981-1984. Reporter KLMN television, Fayetteville, Arkansas 1980-1981. Editorial Assistant, National Review magazine, summer 1979. Participated in class fundraising efforts Campaign for Our Fourth Century. Co-class leader Philanthropia 1999. Appointed interim member SJC Alumni Board member 3/02. Joanne Murray, A ’^o Pittsburgh, PA Ms. Murray took her PhD in solid state physics at the University of Maryland and gradually slid into a profession in metallur­ gy at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (1977-1986) and then Alcoa Technical Center. Although she is a con­ firmed theorist, she also takes great pleas­ ure in donning steel-toed shoes and hard hat and heading out to the plant floor where aluminum is being melted, cast, and rolled. At Alcoa, she is leader of the Alcoa Techni­ cal Center Women’s Network and presi­ dent-elect of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. She maintains ties with the college through local alumni seminars, the summer sessions in Santa Fe, and the online Johnny-list. Proposed Amendments to the St. John’s College Alumni Association By-Laws_____ In accordance with Article XIII Section i of The St. John’s College Alumni Association By-Laws (as amended 9/29/01), notice is hereby given that certain proposed amend­ ments to the by-laws (to Article III, Section III; Article IV, Sections II, II a, II b, II d, II e, II g, II i, VI; Article V; Article VII, Sec­ tion I; Article VIII, Seciton V; Article X; and Aritcle XIV) will be considered by the membership of the Association and brought to a vote at the Annual Meeting, 1:45pm, Saturday, October 5, 2002, in the Conversation Room in Annapolis. These proposed amendments are posted at http://www. sjca. edu/aassoc/main.phtml (see navigation sidebar). Call the Alumni Office in Annapolis (410-626-2531) if you prefer to receive a copy via mail or fax. �48 {St. John’s Forever} ack Landau (top, class of ’44) and picking them up. The ones that stick James Waranch (class of ’43) together, we put in the same room.” Seriously, though, Ranson’s method is undoubtedly had a memorable year rooming together. But not every­ rather more effective. The roommate form one ends up a winner in the room­ asks a series of questions relating to smoking mate lottery. Luckily, the odds are practices, sleeping habits, noise tolerance, and inclination towards neatness or slobbery. good for freshmen arriving this fall. Andrew Ranson, director of Student Services on the Ranson enters the answers into a computer Annapolis campus, puts a great deal of for an initial match-up. Then, he looks at thought into the roommates he matches: answers to a more general question asking if “We have a roommate questionnaire we there’s anything else he should know about send out,” he says. “When they all come the respondent’s ideal roommate. “I get the back we throw them on the floor and start best and easiest matches from that ques­ J {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } tion,” says Ranson. “When two people men­ tion they play instruments, say that they’re rehgious, talk about their interest in travel, or note that they’re vegans, we put them together and it usually works out well.” Some answers to the “anything else” question, he says, are so vague and subjec­ tive as to be unhelpful. Incoming freshmen might say they want a cool roommate or a laid back room-mate, or someone who’s not a moron. “We took the moron question off the questionnaire a couple of years ago,” Ranson says. �{Alumni Events Calendar} Homecoming aooa—Annapolis Friday, October 4—Sunday, October 6 ilieanion Glasses: 193?, 194a, 1947, i 1957,1962,1967,197a, 1977,198a, 1987, 199a, and 1997 ■■ ■: Homecoming Highlights Friday, October 4 by Eva Brann (HA89): “The Empires of the Sun and the West” Career Panel Wine and Cheese with the Class of 2003 in the Dining Hall .Rock Party in the Boathouse ■ • • g' Saturday, October 5 PPaturday Morning Seminars ‘ Homecoming Picnic and Reunion Class Luncheons • Mitchell Gallery Tour;” The Sweet Uses of Adversity: Images of the Bibli­ cal Job” *•--------- • Classes of 87 and 88 Pick-Up Basketball Extravaganza (all alumni are invited) • Freshman Chorus Revisited led by Tom May Philanthropia, the alumni A COCKTAIL PARTY AT THE BrOWN PaLACE HoTEL IN DeNVER IN JUNE. ThIS WAS THE GROUP’s SEC­ OND event; the first took place last (piCTUED above). Events Chair ROLE OF Philanthropia and its porting • Alumni-Student Soccer Classic • Bookstore Autograph Party • Tour of the Renovated Mellon Hall • Cocktail Party in the Great Hall and McDowell Classrooms group that works on fundraising for the college, sponsored pated THE IN the college. for December in New York City. Stef Takacs, A89 Philanthropia, familiarized those gathered with the goal of informing alumni about the importance of sup­ The Denver/Boulder chapter of event, with the Alumni Association partici­ Lee Goldstein, Liz Jenny, and Craig Sirkin choosing the ele- GANT LOCATION. NoT THAT JoHNNIES WOULD NEED THE PERFECT SETTING FOR CONVERSATION TO TAKE PLACE.... John Balkcom (SFGI 00), president of the Santa Fe campus, initiated a lively discus- SION AMONG ALMOST 50 ALUMNI ABOUT THE CURRENT STATE OF THE COLLEGE. “ThIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH St. JoHn’s COLLEGE,” HE SAID. “ENROLLMENT IS STRONG; WE ARE DOING FINE FINANCIALLY—ALTHOUGH WE COULD DO BETTER. ThE QUALITY OF CONVERSATION IN • Homecoming Banquet: Candace Brightman (A67) and Howard Zeiderman (A67) will receive the Alumni Association Award of Merit; John Sarkissian, Robert Williamson, and Al Toft will be recognized as new Hon­ orary Alumni • Waltz Party in the Great Hall THE CLASSROOM IS SUPERB. WHENEVER I LOSE SIGHT OF WHAT WE ARE HERE TO DO I GO SIT IN THE DINING HALL AND A HALF-DOZEN TO TWO DOZEN STUDENTS SIT DOWN WITH ME. I DON’t KNOW WHAT YOUR CONVERSATIONS WERE LIKE WHEN YOU WERE THAT AGE, BUT WHEN I WAS 18 YEARS OLD MINE WERE NOTHING LIKE THESE. ThOSE CONVERSATIONS RENEW MY INSPIRATION AND SENSE OF COMMITMENT TO WHAT WE DO AS AN INSTITUTION.” Topics ranged from what the college is doing to become more involved with the local COMMUNITY IN SaNTA Fe TO HOW THE COLLEGE HAS CHANGED OVER THE YEARS TO THE POSSIBILITY OF INCLUDING MORE WOMEN AUTHORS ON THE READING LIST. For MORE INFORMATION ON PHILANTHROPIA AND UPCOMING PHILANTHROPIA EVENTS CALL OR EMAIL Maggie Griffin TY IN Santa Fe at in Annapolis at 410-626-2534, 505-984-6099, groherty@aol.com. Sunday, October 6 uflch at the President’s ouse {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } m-griffin@sjca.edu or Ginger Roher- �STJOHN’S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE Published by the Communications Office Box aSoo Annapolis, Maryland 21404 DAVID TROZZO ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Periodicals Postage Paid � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 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 The College, Summer 2002 Description An account of the resource Volume 28, Issue 3 of The College Magazine. Published Summer 2002. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 28, Issue 3 Summer 2002 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Goyette, Barbara (editor) Borden, Sus3en (managing editor) Ducker, Susanne (art editor) Mulry, Laura J. (Santa Fe editor) Johnson, David Morrison, Marissa van Doren, John Eoyang, Glenda H. The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/48bc97ee162d9b5a7cda2bab17b7a7bf.pdf 09482996b84077bfe8afc7d84bab5e9c PDF Text Text The College St. John’s College • Annapolis w i n t e r • 2 0 0 3 Santa Fe TheWife of Bath Reflections on C h a u c e r’ s P i l g r i m a n d Moder n Marriage �On the Wife of Bath t’s easy to imagine the Wife of Bath among the guests on the Jerry Springer Show. The screen caption: “I was a lusty oon!” Unapologetic about her appetites and seductive wiles, the oft-wed Wife would acknowledge that she married older men for their money and was on the prowl for a man half her age while burying her fourth husband. And—would Dr. Phil buy this?—she blames her nature on astrology: “I followed my inclinacion/by vertu of my constellacion.” Several of the pilgrims in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales share their observations on the matrimonial state, but none with the candor and outrageous good humor of the Wife of Bath. Her lengthy, spirited prologue suggests the poet himself had great fun with this pilgrim. Using her voice, he delivers wisdom he had acquired from Ptolemy, Seneca, and Ovid, among others. In this edition of The College, managing editor Sus3an Borden revisited the Wife of Bath’s commentary on marriage with five Johnnie couples, covering everything from fighting fair to what becomes of two sets of Program books. From a host of official documents, much is known about Chaucer’s public life, but details on his personal life are sketchy. He was born in London around 1340, the son of a successful wine merchant. He was lucky to survive the bubonic plague as it raged through the city during his youth. He gained a post as a page in the household of the Countess of Ulster. Here Chaucer gained knowledge of Latin, French, and literature, though it’s unclear what formal education he received. He traveled to Spain and France on diplomatic missions and served in the war with France. Chaucer’s wife, Philippa, also served in the royal court. Biographers differ on whether this marriage was a happy one, but there’s nothing to suggest Chaucer suffered at the hands of a shrewish wife. The couple had at least two children. Pensions, various annuities including free wine, and plum positions as a customs official, and later, the king’s clerk of works provided Chaucer with social standing and a comfortable lifestyle—along with the freedom to pursue poetry. Chaucer began writing The Canterbury Tales the year Phillipa died, 1387, and of course, never completed it. He died on October 25, 1400. Because of his service to the crown, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, and later was moved to the east aisle of the south transept, becoming the first tenant of Poet’s Corner. A brief aside: The introduction of a great books character, instead of an author, to our magazine’s cover startled our designer, Claude Skelton, who put Aristotle on the first cover of The College. The selection delighted artist David Johnson, who said he had great fun drawing the Wife of Bath. Alert readers will also notice another change: The College has a new editor. Rest assured that founding editor Barbara Goyette (A73), now vice president for advancement in Annapolis, will continue to offer a guiding hand and good advice in our quest to offer a lively and thoughtful publication. I –RH The College (usps 018-750) is published quarterly 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 postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, md 21404-2800. Annapolis 410-626-2539 reharty@sjca.edu Rosemary Harty, editor Sus3an Borden, managing editor Susanne Ducker, art director Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Barbara Goyette Kathryn Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Jo Ann Mattson Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 tshalizi@mail.sjcsf.edu Laura J. Mulry, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board David Levine Ginger Roherty Tahmina Shalizi Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �The w i n t e r 2 0 0 3 2 9 , i s s u e 1 College V o l u m e The Magazine for Alumni of St. John’s College Annapolis • Santa Fe {Contents} 14 Fruitful Pursuits page d e p a r t m e n t s 2 Alumni involved in various aspects of the wine industry explain why they’re so taken with wine. 20 Johnnies on Marriage page The Wife of Bath had strong opinions on marriage; alumni who married fellow Johnnies reflect on her wit and wisdom. page 14 • Modernist Architecture and Mellon Hall • American Orpheus • Graduate Institute Student Gets Johnnies on Board • Science at St. John’s Makes the Top Ten • Animal Tales from Santa Fe • Studying Conifers in the Mountains • Santa Fe’s New Advancement Chief • Announcements • Philanthropia • Letters alumni voices 27 homecoming 30 bibliofile 24 Engaged in Discovery 12 page Curtis Wilson is still on a quest to learn all he can about early astronomers. • Peter Pesic’s New Book on Physics • Alumni Books 44 Dance of the Muses 32 page Exploring the poetry of Homer and Aeschylus through dance. from the bell towers alumni notes A LU M N I page 20 P RO F I L E S 33 Peter Ellison (A73) finds new challenges as a Harvard dean. 34 Environmental lawyer and tutor Martha Franks (SF78) brings idealism and a practical approach to the water rights issue. 38 Jonathan Aurthur (A68) searches for answers to his son’s suicide in The Angel and the Dragon. 42 Ben Frey (A02) finds art in bookbinding obituaries 46 alumni association news 48 st. john’s forever 40 page 24 on the cover Wife of Bath Illustration by David Johnson �2 {From the Bell Towers} The Neutra Chronicles Austrian-born architect Richard Neutra made his mark in modernist architecture in sunny California with simple structures featuring flat roofs, expansive glass walls, and interiors open to verdant hillsides or colorful desert views. Neutra was particularly known for blurring the lines between the exterior and interior, believing that architects should “place man in Nature…where he developed and where he feels most at home.” How did St. John’s College, its landmark building a 200year-old Georgian mansion, decide on Richard Neutra as architect for its new campus building in the mid-1950’s? A campus plan already called for a quasi-colonial building. Correspondence between the famed architect and then-president Richard Weigle yielded evidence for part of the story of Mellon Hall. Along with hundreds of documents on minutiae such as carpet color and the fabric for the stage curtains in Francis Scott Key Auditorium, the letters show Weigle admired Neutra, and suggest that he hoped to gain distinction for the college by selecting a celebrity architect. Neutra made the cover of the August 15, 1949, Time magazine, the headline asking, “What will the neighbors think?” The story, included with a set of press clippings kept in the files, detailed Neutra’s success and described him as second “only to the lordly Frank Lloyd Wright.” (Wright by this time had distanced himself from Neutra, refusing to allow his designs to be included david trozzo The story behind Mellon Hall in Annapolis Last September, the College unveiled a greatly improved Mellon Hall. the $12.9 million renovation undertaken in April 2001 added new space, upgraded and improved mechanical systems and generally produced a more pleasant and functional building. A new wing of the building houses a pottery studio, a darkroom, and the Hodson Trust Conference Room (shown above). A solarium café honors Neutra’s vision of uniting interior spaces with nature. A red tile floor installed throughout the building brightens long, unbroken corridors. A new environmentally friendly cooling system—geared to operate at off-peak hours—circulates cool air during the day. Francis Scott Key Auditorium has new heating and air-conditioning systems, enhanced theater lighting and sound, refurbished seating, new fire suppression systems, and improved lobby space. Science labs were renovated and upgraded. in an exhibit alongside those of his former protégé.) It’s likely that something in Neutra’s rhetoric resonated with the ideals of the Program, not yet two decades old. A yellowed clipping in one file includes a Neutra quote that must have seemed particularly cogent: “A school,” says Neutra, “is essentially a container out of which organic life can bloom.” Philosophy aside, Neutra’s prominence must have appealed to a college still struggling to boost enrollment from 220 to 300 and still managing limited resources. The architect was at the peak of his popularity when he came to St. John’s to give a lecture at the same time the college was forging ahead with its building plans. Paul Mellon’s Old Dominion Foundation came through with $1.5 million of the estimated $2.1 million project cost. (The phi- lanthropist Mellon was briefly a member of the class of 1944.) Neutra’s fame could only help to shine the light on this small college. The files reflect Neutra’s personal commitments to a relatively small and obscure project; he didn’t just loan his famous name to the design. While Neutra’s partner, Robert Alexander, handled many of the project’s details, Neutra made several trips to Annapolis to oversee construction and corresponded closely with Weigle. His letters—some in his bold, slanting script— reflect that he considered himself as much a philosopher as an architect, and that the New Program at St. John’s intrigued him. Neutra accepted the job for considerably less than his regular fee (though not as low as Weigle had tried to bargain for, one letter shows). The { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } contract was signed on April 15, 1955. The familiarity between the two Richards, and between Weigle’s wife, Mary, and Neutra’s wife, Dionne, grew over the years, as reflected in handwritten notes from Pakistan and postcards from Rio. The letters and notes are all written in the graciously charming rhetoric of a time gone by. Neutra once loaned Weigle his car when the president made a business trip to California in 1959: “I quite fell in love with that little Nash,” he wrote to Neutra. In 1957, Neutra—who at one time offered to raise money for the college’s planned California campus— thanked the Weigles for a Christmas gift: “Smoked tuna is one of my great favorites!” Apparently, Weigle’s public relations goals for the building were successful. President �{From the Bell Towers} American Orpheus 3 I was studying at the Stuttgart Conservatory on the G.I. bill when Mellon Hall first opened in 1958. [Musician and tutor] Victor Zuckerkandl wrote me to say he had been approached by [thenpresident] Dick Weigle, who had told him that Paul Mellon was planning to give the school $30,000 to do something “really grand” for the opening. Weigle asked Vicki if he had any ideas and Vicki said yes, he had a wonderful idea. He had just learned that the first great opera ever written, Monteverdi’s Orfeo, had never had a stage production in the U.S. “How would that be appropriate, Dr. Zukerkandl?” asked Weigle. “Well,” Vicki said, “Wasn’t Francis Scott Key the American Orpheus?” Vicki told me that Weigle looked dubious and said he would think about it. He asked if I had any other ideas for the opening because he feared that Weigle wouldn’t buy the “American Orpheus” connection. I wrote back to say that I did. I had just learned about the following astonishing chain of circumstances: Lorenzo da Ponte was born just outside of Venice in the middle of the 18th century to a Jewish family. His mother died when he was young and his father remarried a Christian woman. The whole family was converted to Catholicism. Da Ponte went to seminary, became a priest, and went on to have a very colorful life. He moved to Vienna where he was the official composer to one of the imperial theaters, writing a number of libretti for operas including Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Cosi fan Tutte. Da Ponte fell in love with an English contralto and married her. They fled the Holy Roman Empire to England where he produced opera for about 20 years, then moved to the U.S. in the early 19th century. Da Ponte first had a grocery store in Philadelphia, then in Elizabeth, N.J., where one of his customers was William Livingston, the son of a prominent American family. William Livingston became fascinated by Da Ponte and had him appointed the first professor of Italian literature in the U.S., at Columbia College. Da Ponte took a house in Manhattan and Nathaniel Sickles, the son of a well-known New York family, moved in with the Da Pontes and was tutored by Lorenzo’s son, a professor at the school that was to become N.Y.U. Sickles became very friendly with Lorenzo and fell in love with his step-granddaughter (who was generally believed to be his real granddaughter). Around 1840, they married. Sickles became a New York state assemblyman and was eventually elected to Congress. Sickles and his wife moved to Washington and his wife began a very public affair with St. John’s alumnus Philip Barton Key (class of 1822), who was the district attorney of the District of Columbia, as his father, Francis Scott Key (SJC class of 1796), had been. Sickles became enraged by the affair, followed Key to Lafayette Square, and shot him dead. “So Vicki,” I said, “any one of the Da Ponte libretti, particularly Cosi fan Tutte, would be appropriate for the opening.” Vicki was delighted by the story, but as it turned out, an alternate plan for a suitable opening production was not necessary. The previous Sunday he and some old friends from Austria had visited Fort McHenry. They spent the day walking all around the battlements. As they were leaving, they passed a large bronze statue of Francis Scott Key. Engraved on the marble plinth were the words: “Francis Scott Key, the American Orpheus.” x Dwight D. Eisenhower attended dedication ceremonies for the building in 1959, attracting a great deal of media attention. The building was also included in a Newsweek feature on distinctive new campus buildings, along with a project at Yale. Before and after the building was occupied, flaws came to light: The roof leaked. Adhesive oozed from between floor tiles. The reflecting pool—such a successful element in so many Neutra projects—couldn’t hold water. The solar louvers designed to save energy trapped pigeons and never worked properly. Walking an architecture critic through the building last September, Ziger/Snead architect Joseph Celucci, who headed up the recent renovation, flaws that might have been avoided had the project been adequately funded from the outset. Nevertheless, St. John’s still possesses an architectural jewel: one of the last remaining Neutra buildings on the East Coast, an ambitious design that tried to strike a balance between the upper and lower campuses, between old and new, simple and ornate. And Mellon Hall, Celucci added, really is a good Neutra building. It exemplified what the architect did best, and for the most part, remained true to his ideals. Stand in the lobby of the Francis Scott Key auditorium, and it’s easy to imagine what Neutra had in mind. In a letter to the editor of Architectural Record, dated July 1959, Neutra wrote of his Monteverdi’s Orfeo was performed on January 31 and February 1, 1959, in celebration of the opening of Francis Scott Key Auditorium and Mellon Hall. As we celebrate the building’s recently completed renovation, ADAM P INSKER (class of 1952) tells the story behind the college’s decision to stage the opera. Richard Neutra explained that a tight construction budget in the 1950s was one factor in the building’s shortcomings; later renovations, including the $12.9 million expansion and renovation completed this fall, corrected { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } goals for the building and compared St. John’s to the great universities of Europe. St. John’s, he said, would endure as they have: “There is a great stimulation—I almost said a thrill—to meet [the] most advanced thinkers of our age in old, long-lived universities and see them teach modern science way beyond the horizon of former centuries, right in halls and buildings which have been built in those now long bygone days. The faculty of St. John’s in Annapolis has this fascinating capacity of Time-binding, and from the start we have among ourselves discussed and tried to grasp and express this faith in values that last beyond historic and modish realities.” x —by Rosemary Harty �4 {From the Bell Towers} Johnnies On board We Do That “Sail like Odysseus, without having to be tied to the mast!” So went the siren call for recruits to the newly formed Johnnie Sailing Club, the inspiration of John Bergquist, a Graduate Institute student with an Alberg 30-foot sailboat and a job as a naval architect in Annapolis. Bergquist placed posters for the new club all over campus, offering students sailing lessons, a chance to join the racing team, or simply the opportunity to get out on the water for those disinclined to join the crew club. So far, about 40 undergraduate and graduate students have signed on. Bergquist is a naval architect with a bachelor’s in naval architecture and master’s in marine technology, and his work has included programming for tanker performance testing, industrial fabrication, and service on commercial vessels. He arrived at the Graduate Institute last fall in search of personal enrichment. “I graduated with a glorified trade school education,” he says. “It was very practical, but I had maybe two classes in the liberal arts.” Bergquist found a way to merge liberal arts and sailing in the Johnnie Sailing Club, begun last spring when he acquired a boat named Calliope (the muse invoked in the Odyssey and the Aeneid). Last July, Bergquist and some fellow students started to take part in Annapolis’ famed sara white wilson A Graduate Institute student brings serious sailing to St. John’s. Wednesday night boat races on his boat, and Bergquist hopes to have some students hardy enough to participate in the Annapolis Yacht Club’s winter frostbite series. In the Johnnie way, it wasn’t enough just to take students racing and cruising; Bergquist also offered a series of Wednesday evening classes on sailing and seamanship, covering topics such as the physics of sailing, racing tactics, and navigation. “He has a wonderful understanding of fluid dynamics, both aero and hydro,” says sophomore Christopher Muscarella. “It adds a component more than mere boat handling and adds a Heeding the siren’s call on College Creek. depth of understanding that many sailors lack.” Bergquist’s yacht is a great addition to the water sports program, says athletic director Leo Pickens. “Our boats aren’t really rigged out with all the bells and whistles for racing,” Pickens says. Ultimately, the new club offers a way to leave Hegel or Heidegger behind for a few hours on the Chesapeake. “Sailing is a form of escapism,” says Muscarella. “In Santa Fe, they have mountains. In Annapolis, we have the water.” x –Beth Schulman { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } Many at St. John’s clipped a full-page article from the September 24 New York Times science section and crowed about it in that self-satisfied tone of people who love to be proven right. That’s because the article on the “10 Most Beautiful Science Experiments of All Time” featured seven that are performed regularly in the college’s laboratory program. State University of New YorkStony Brook Professor Robert P. Crease, also the historian at Brookhaven National Laboratory, asked physicists to nominate the most beautiful experiments of all time and wrote about the results for Physics World. The simple experiments were chosen, according to the Times, on “beauty in the classical sense: the logical simplicity of the apparatus, like the logical simplicity of the analysis, seems as inevitable and pure as the lines of a Greek monument. Confusion and ambiguity are momentarily swept aside, and something new about nature becomes clear.” The experiments on the list that students on both campuses regularly perform are: Galileo’s experiment on falling objects; Young’s light interference experiment; Millikan’s oil-drop experiment; Newton’s decomposition of sunlight with a prism; Galileo’s experiments with rolling balls down inclined planes; Rutherford’s discovery of the nucleus; and Young’s double-slit experiment applied (by Planck and Einstein) to the interference of single neutrons. x �5 {From the Bell Towers} A Duck’s Tale Courage and perseverance in the face of hardship and tragedy pay off. A recent blessed event on the Santa Fe campus proves it. But first some background: In the spring of 1999 some feckless folk gave their kids two baby ducks for Easter and were surprised to see them grow. Not wishing to deal with these messy but harmless critters, they traumatized their children by handing the ducks over to the Santa Fe animal shelter— which does its best to save anything but is not well equipped to deal with waterfowl. Most of the offers to give them “homes” were motivated by visions of duck à l’orange. What were the animal protectors to do? Betsy Starr (née Hamilton, SF88), protector of God’s more innocent creatures, was working for the shelter at the time and brought them home. Mr. The unexpected ducklings and their parents. Starr, tutor and clandestine friend of animals, built them a fenced yard behind the casita on the south corner of lower campus. The ducks proved to be a male and a female (Ambrose—later renamed Utka for theological reasons—and Blossom). That fall, tragedy struck. Their prefab igloo was not secure against predators, and Blossom fell prey to a raccoon out for a midnight snack. Rescued by Mrs. Starr from his wife’s fate, Utka was given a plywood fortress and saved from loneliness by the arrival of the beautiful orange Peach. Thus these ducks began two years of persistent procreative endeavor. The broody Ms. Peach produced nearly an egg a day from April to October in 2000. Realizing that Peach was longing for a full nest, Mr. Starr rearranged the fowl apartment to accommodate egg-sitting, and for the next year and a half Peach produced what is called a “clutch” of eight to twelve eggs every couple of months and sat on them until they started to smell bad. The two nesting ducks had a fertility problem, and the Starrs, partly relieved and partly sorry, resigned themselves to using the unfertile eggs for pisyanki, omelettes, and the like. The relief was short-lived. After another barren summer, while the Starrs were on vacation, Peach valiantly produced another clutch with her attentive partner’s more efficacious help. Upon return the Starrs noted that brooding was again in process. Expecting more reproductive disappointment for the poor ducks, they decided to leave them to their bravely fruitless work. Sunday morning, September 1, 2002, Mrs. Starr went out to feed Utka and Peach, and heard unfamiliar peeping sounds. Investigating the mystery, she found a new-hatched duckling emerging from an egg, and some tiny siblings already moving about the nest. From the first week, during which the four baby ducks could (and did) all swim together in a little water dish, they have in six short weeks grown into very fine, stalwart adolescence. Apricot, Posey, Gwyneth, and Lance (as they are tentatively called) are doing fine, and their proud parents seem very pleased. x —David Starr, tutor, Santa Fe { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } Allanbrook Honored The Cultural Arts Foundation of Anne Arundel County selected Tutor Emeritus Douglas Allanbrook as one of the recipients of an “Annie” award for lifetime achievement. The honor recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the cultural life of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. A renowned composer and harpsichordist, Allanbrook joined St. John’s in 1952. In November, the college celebrated his 50 years at St. John’s with a recital of his works and a reception. Allanbrook continues to teach French at the college. He is an active member of the board at Yaddo, an artists’ residential community in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and a member of the advisory board for the Great Books of Western Civilization program of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Allanbrook is at work on a novel and his sixth string quartet. x �6 {From the Bell Towers} Philanthropia’s New Direction “I started to feel that it would be a good idea to help educate alumni about the needs of the college.” Brett Heavner Not long after graduating from law school at Duke University, Brett Heavner (A89) noticed that something was missing in his life. That something, he says, was a mailbox full of fundraising letters from St. John’s College. “My law school contacted me all the time, so I was surprised that I was not pressured in the same way by St. John’s to give. I started to feel that it would be a good idea to help educate alumni about the needs of the college.” Today, Heavner is in a position to do just that as chair of Philanthropia, the alumni organization dedicated to alumni fund raising. A major part of the group’s efforts is devoted to educating alumni about the needs and financial workings of St. John’s. Heavner’s first involvement with Philanthropia was in 1998, when he was asked to attend a brainstorming session for the relatively new group. (Philanthropia started in 1997.) He quickly signed on as reunion class leader for the class of ’89, then chair of the reunion class leader committee, and now he leads the entire organization. A great deal has changed since that initial brainstorming session, says Heavner. “When Philanthropia was first being developed, the college Advancement Office was not fully staffed. We did much of our own legwork, we had a strategy committee, we had committees that planned different aspects of fund raising.” Now that Philanthropia is up and running and the college has hired more staff to support the group, Heavner says that the volunteers’ role has shifted. “Volunteers can focus more on recruiting fellow alumni and contacting classmates,” he says. “We are also getting more comfortable in our relationship with the Alumni Association.” Early on, he explains, there were questions about possible competition with the Association. “That doesn’t make sense,” he says. “We don’t want to compete. We’re really just a group of volunteers who want to educate fellow alumni about the needs of the college and to foster the habit of regular giving.” As Heavner became involved with Philanthropia, he found one of its educational mes- sages—alumni participation— particularly interesting. “One of the things that struck me is that the percentage of participation by alumni is as important as the dollar amounts they give. When St. John’s goes for corporate or government grants or nonprofit funding, they’re competing with other colleges, and one of the things these organizations look for is the amount of support the college has from its alumni.” When Philanthropia started, St. John’s was toward the bottom: about 22 percent of alumni gave to the college. Other liberal arts colleges, such as Williams, Bowdoin, and Amherst, ranged from 57 to 66 percent. Five years into Philanthropia, St. John’s alumni participation has climbed to 29 percent. “I certainly didn’t understand this as a recently graduated alumnus,” says Heavner. “I think I, like many others, thought, ‘if I’m really strapped for cash in graduate school, I don’t want to send something stupid like five bucks so I’ll just wait until I have more money.’ But now I understand that those five dollars would have gone further, they would have made St. John’s more competitive.” Under Heavner’s leadership, Philanthropia is working on developing special class gifts during reunion years, communicating regularly with all alumni and encouraging them to give to the Annual Fund. They also sponsor social events each year throughout the country. “We’re heading in a new direction now that we’ve had fairly successful reunion class programs,” says Heavner. “We’re trying to keep the momentum going by having class archons who will take responsibility for maintaining addresses, sending out end-ofyear holiday postcards, maintaining and updating class web sites, and keeping in contact between reunion class years.” Heavner’s relationship to the college is not, of course, all about fund raising. He says that his class has always been fairly close and, living in Washington, D.C., he sees a number of alumni regularly. His brother, Bryce (A93), is also an alumnus. In addition, the Annapolis campus holds a special place in his heart. Although he and his high school sweetheart, Christine, had split up during college, the two reunited in 1996 to attend the Lafayette Ball for St. John’s 300th anniversary. The couple married a year later in the Great Hall. Look for them and their two toddlers, Graham and Tess, on the sidelines of this year’s croquet match. x The Freshmen: A Few Facts St. John’s College welcomed 263 freshmen to the college last September: 124 in Annapolis and 139 in Santa Fe. Counter to the trend many liberal arts colleges are seeing, men still outnumber women: (72 to 52 in Annapolis; 80 to 59 in Santa Fe). More than 50 percent of the students at each campus were 18 at the time of enrollment. Santa Fe draws the highest number of students from California (27), Colorado (15), and Texas (12). In Annapolis, Marylanders dominate (17) with Virginians close behind (14). New York and Pennsylvania yielded 10 freshmen apiece. Santa Fe enrolled 34 students who had received National Merit honors, Annapolis, 47. Most students at both campuses attended public secondary schools. x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �7 {From the Bell Towers} Michael Franco: Energizing Advancement in Santa Fe teri thompson randall Here’s a fact about Michael Franco that clearly defines the mettle he is made of: He had the nerve, growing up outside of Boston, to be a diehard Yankees fanatic—“not fan, fanatic,” he says. That takes courage in Red Sox country. Learning from and later working with Jesuits at Boston College, Franco adapted the Jesuit philosophy of “don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness” as he climbed the ranks of college advancement. “I’ve always interpreted that saying as a call to act and to follow through on what you believe,” he says. Franco, who joined St. John’s last summer as the vice president for college advancement in Santa Fe, brings many years of experience in college advancement with institutions including Boston College, Roger Williams University, Michael Franco The Rhode Island School of Design, and the University of Rochester. In a recent Board of Visitors and Governors meeting in Annapolis, Santa Fe President John Balkcom praised Franco for prompting the campus to re-examine entrenched ways of doing things and for bringing new energy and ideas to the advancement efforts and management of the college. A short six months spent on the job, and Franco has discovered the key facts that will shape his approach to the work before him. While other institutions he has worked for have much larger alumni bases from which they can draw financial support (Boston College counts 135,000 alumni, for example), St. John’s has something else—what Franco calls “the power and centrality of the Program.” “Everything we do here begins and ends with the Program,” Franco says. “The real key to our message is the receptivity of our audience. In a short time, I’ve seen what strong emotional ties our alumni have to the college. I’ve seen that in the letters people send, the passion and intensity of their loyalty.” Franco says his most recent position, as advancement vice president at the Rhode Island School of Design, best prepared him for the challenges of St. John’s. “Some of the strategies and programs we were able to start in Rhode Island are good lessons for me as I begin to help define what the advancement role for the Santa Fe campus needs to be,” he says. Although very different institutions, the two schools share in common a loyal alumni base, and fund raising at both share the same dynamics, says Franco. “If you stay true to your mission, your alumni will support you.” Franco grew up in Fall River, Mass., a gritty blue-collar town (home of Lizzie Borden), the youngest of three children of a Portuguese father and Irish mother. His father worked as a galvanizer, which Franco says, “basically involved pouring molten lead into molds.” The economic boom that benefited other towns in the Boston area never reached Fall River. In a town where many of the young people didn’t go beyond high school, Franco went on to earn a bachelor’s at Boston College, a master’s at Boston University and a Ph.D. at the University of Rochester—a source of great pride for his family. “I’m a survivor—I think people who come out of Fall River share that in common,” he says. “I don’t look back; I keep going.” Franco and his wife, Susan, were grateful to trade Rochester winters and muggy Boston summers for sunny Santa Fe. But the transition from a brick house in downtown Providence to an adobe house on a dirt road has taken some getting used to for the city dwellers. “I refer to our house as the wild kingdom,” Franco says. “At any given moment there are raccoons in the chimney, coyotes running through the yard, mice aplenty. My wife even saw a bear the other night.” x “Everything we do here begins and ends with the Program.” Announcements The Santa Fe and Annapolis campuses each welcomed four new tutors this fall. New Tutors at Santa Fe MICHAEL ANDREWS received a bachelor’s degree in history from Montana State University in 1992. He received an M.A. in 1997 from Tulane University, and is expecting to receive a Ph.D. this coming year. His dissertation, “The Endless Republic: Liberty, Tradition, and the Flight from the Past,” is a study of the origins and the subsequent development of the idea of liberty and related concepts such as individualism and personal autonomy. MONIKA CASSEL received an A.B. in comparative literature, magna cum laude, from Princeton University in 1992. She pursued graduate studies in comparative literature at the University of Michigan, where she received her Ph.D. in 2002. The title of her dissertation is “Poetesses at the Grave: Transnational Circulation of Women’s Memorial Verse in Nineteenth-Century England, Germany, and America.” INGO FARIN was born in East Germany and raised in West Germany. He received an M.A. from the Free University of Berlin in 1985, and expects to complete a Ph.D. in philosophy from Indiana University this { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } August. Farin’s dissertation is “Before Being and Time: Heidegger’s Life Philosophy.” His areas of interest have recently included phenomenology, hermeneutics, existentialism, and critical theory, as well as the history of philosophy. A 1994 graduate of St. John’s Santa Fe campus, KENNETH WOLFE received a Ph.D. in classics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002, with a dissertation on “The �8 {From the Bell Towers} Announcements Relation of the Form to the Intellect in Plotinus.” His special interests include ancient philosophy, intellectual history, social history, and Greek and Latin literature. New Tutors in Annapolis SRIRAM NAMBIAR received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the State University of New York, Buffalo. He specialized in the history and philosophy of logic, mathematics, and natural science. He wrote a dissertation on George Boole and he taught in the departments of chemistry, education, and philosophy. He has also been a research assistant in experimental and computational studies of the thermophysical properties of chemical mixtures, and in experimental and theoretical studies of fluid mechanics of soil erosion. LOUIS PETRICH received a bachelor’s degree in English (continued) from Northwestern University, where he began his studies in an integrated science program but shifted majors when his interest turned to poetry. He received a master’s degree from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, where his work emphasized philosophy and literature, especially the plays of Shakespeare. He spent many years in theater activities. As a member of the Peace Corps in Czechoslovakia, he taught English language and American culture and literature. JASON TIPTON received a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology, with a minor in philosophy, from the University of California at San Diego. He then received a master’s degree in philosophy and another one in ecology and evolutionary biology from Tulane University, from which he also received a Ph.D. in philosophy, with a dissertation on Aristotle’s Parts of Animals. He has published articles on Plato’s dialogues and on “This [diversity] initiative allows for a more concentrated effort.” –Lawrence Clendenin Aristotle’s biological writings, and a number of scientific articles on fish, his research specialty. He has worked in the Aegean studying the life histories of marine life that Aristotle discusses. A graduate of St. John’s Graduate Institute in Annapolis, JOANNA TOBIN received a bachelor’s degree in medieval and Renaissance studies from Wellesley College, after which she worked at a classical repertory theater in New York. She then worked at fund raising and producing large events for a Washington foundation. Her rachel martin From Concept to Structure At Santa Fe last fall, freshmen studying Euclid’s ELEMENTS were assigned a project to create a visual representation of interpropositional connections. Given free rein, students pursued a variety of media, from paintings to flow charts. Shown here is Nichole Miller, who drew from her experience constructing three-dimensional installation art to create this elaborate representation of the relationships between propositions in Book 1. Her installation was on exhibit in the lobby of Weigle Hall. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } political experience includes working in the 1992 Clinton/ Gore campaign and working for Vice President Al Gore and Tipper Gore. She will soon complete a doctorate in government from Georgetown University with a dissertation on Emerson’s view of democracy. Diversity in Santa Fe The Santa Fe campus has a new initiative to increase diversity on campus and has begun to reflect on ways to better support minority students. JOAQUIN BACA (SF95) joined the staff in August as assistant director of Admissions. In addition to regular admissions functions, Baca is working with tutor Victoria Mora to attract and support a more diverse population at the Santa Fe campus. Admissions Director Lawrence Clendenin (SF77) explains that hiring a full-time staff member dedicated to looking “wider and harder” within the region for potential Johnnies should yield an increase in minority applicants. Baca’s role will be to increase an awareness of the college for students who might not otherwise consider St. John’s, particularly among Hispanics, who make up 42 percent of New Mexico’s population, and Native Americans, who make up 9.2 percent of the state’s population. “There has always been an effort to find students from the region, but this initiative allows for a more concentrated effort, with some added strategies,” Baca says. “It may also help that I am from the area, am bilingual, and am very familiar with issues minority students face.” Prior to joining the Santa Fe admissions staff, Baca assisted in the start-up of a charter high school, where he served as a teacher, service-learning coordinator, and technology coordinator. x �{From the Bell Towers} 9 Metamorphosis in the Mountains Students in Santa Fe study classification by taking a careful look at conifers. teri thompson randall Jonathan Katzman among the conifers. devise their own systems of classification. First stop for the class is “A large part of this lab is to see things as they really are.” –Karen Powell 7,400 feet, the same elevation as the campus. Working under the guidance of tutors Hans von Briesen, David Pierotti, and Ewen Harrison, the students pair up to examine the piñon pines and junipers that also dot the hillside around campus. “The students should be forewarned to take copious notes because once the specimens are brought back to the class, it is hard to put them on the tree again,” the writ- teri thompson randall Carl Linnaeus advised “attentive and diligent observation” to all who take on the task of classifying plants and animals. Each year, students in freshman laboratory on the Santa Fe campus take that advice to heart as they follow in the footsteps of the “Father of Taxonomy,” trekking 10,000 feet above the high desert floor to a marvelous outdoor classroom: the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Fresh in their minds on this expedition are Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae and Genera Plantarum, Goethe’s Metamorphosis of Plants, and Thoreau’s Faith in a Seed: The Dispersion of Seeds and Other Late Natural History Writings. At three different elevations, the Santa Fe freshmen study the conifers, record as much detail as they can, and bring specimens back to the laboratory, where they will A mountain laboratory. ten assignment reads, echoing Linnaeus’ advice. “Usually, too few questions are asked, not too many!” Chris Lintecum, from Kansas City, Missouri, holds a branch between his fingers and studies it carefully. “See how the needles are contracting into the pine cone? Strange, I’ve looked at these all my life,” he says to his partner. “It looks like it’s contracting, but on the inside it’s expanding, forming new parts. Each tip has the potential to form new pine cones.” Each successive stop provides greater variety of flora. At the third stop, a lofty 10,000 feet, different species thrive: corkbark fir, Engelmann spruce, aspen. The weather is different here, too—cold and damp, more like { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } winter than mid-September. An early morning storm has left white patches of hail on the steep mountain slope. The students work quickly and are eager to return to the vans. On the ride back to campus the conversation shifts to another metamorphosis— their own. They’re aware of the power of asking questions in a new way. “A large part of this lab is to see things as they really are—to get rid of your preconceived notions,” notes Karen Powell, from Fort Pierce, Florida. “I can’t imagine going to school anywhere else,” Lintecum says. “I could be sitting in a lecture right now.” x —By Teri Thomson Randall �10 A Gift of Greek Grammar While other colleges ply freshmen with snack packets and CD cases—often from vendors and credit card companies eager for access to college students—St. John’s in Annapolis this year gave students a truly meaningful and advertisingfree welcome gift: a copy of the Liddell-Scott lexicon of ancient Greek. In his convocation speech to the freshman class, President Christopher Nelson talked about translating ancient Greek in tutorials, and how this part of the St. John’s Program helps lead students to a new way of seeing: “Spend time with your lexicon and consider the many different ways a sentence can be translated and understood,” he told the freshman class. “Your lexicon will be more than an aid to vocabulary and translation. It will also be an aid to philosophy. It will {From the Bell Towers} help you ask and try to answer that big, big question: what is this thing in front of me?” Although the fall convocation marked the first year for the gift, Harvey Flaumenhaft, dean, said the gift so perfectly symbolizes initiation into the world of St. John’s, that it already smacks of tradition. A Delicate Balance “ Spend time with your lexicon and consider the many different ways a sentence can be translated and understood.” –President Christopher Nelson “Within a couple of years, people will think we’ve been doing it for centuries,” Flaumenhaft said. x At the Santa Fe campus, students in freshman laboratory bring their experiments on gravity to the Coffee Shop. Students have grown adept at balancing the venerated St. John’s chairs over the center of gravity. “It creates quite an interesting tableau,” says lab director David Pierotti. {Letters} Crime and Punishment There is little I can disagree with in your article “Crime and Punishment” in the Summer 2002 issue of The College. However, I would like to add an additional perspective derived from my experience as an assistant public defender in the rural Florida county where I live. Everything I have read or heard about the criminal justice system elsewhere in the country suggests that my perspective is in no way unique, and my observations can be extrapolated, although obviously with modifications, to the country as a whole. In rural Florida, a significant percentage of criminal activity is a direct consequence of the extremely unequal distribution of wealth in our society. What I am getting at is not solely the unequal access to parental care, mental health treatment, educational and job opportunities which is, in any case, perhaps more characteristic of poverty in rural areas of this country than elsewhere. Instead, what I wish to suggest is that many crimes (or, more accurately, much of what is prosecuted as crime, since prosecutorial discretion is fundamental to the system) are directly connected to poverty, plain and simple. These are crimes that apply to all strata of the population but which disproportionately affect the poor. More than that, they are crimes of poverty, since those who are not poor are effectively immunized against them. Where I practice law, the crime most emblematic of this situation is known as “DWLSR”: driving with license suspended or revoked (with knowledge), a first-degree misdemeanor in Florida and punishable by { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } up to one year in the county jail. There are numerous reasons why the Department of Motor Vehicles can suspend your driver’s license in this state. Most common is failure to pay traffic fines, fines for previous criminal acts, or child support. During the past year, I have represented several dozen individuals whose only crimes, at the time they were incarcerated and for which they were sentenced to up to 11 months in jail, were one or more counts of driving with a suspended license. In at least one of these cases, the driver was operating a moped; in many of them, the drivers used their vehicles to get back and forth to minimum-wage jobs; for all of them, there is no available public transportation. While it is true that my clients had their licenses suspended originally— and thereupon suffered their draconian �11 {Letters} punishments—because of a history of previous brushes with the law, their criminal history more often than not consisted of offenses intrinsically no more dangerous to the community than driving without a driver’s license. These offenses included possession of illegal drugs, trespass, and earlier charges of driving with a suspended license. Most crimes in this county (and most crimes in this country) are minor ones. Sentences are imposed that serve to keep these minor criminals—economically, socially, and culturally marginal—increasingly more marginal, in a downhill spiral that can last for years or generations. The solutions to this problem are obviously highly complex, and what I have sketched above is necessarily somewhat oversimplified. However, I have tried to make at least this point: that, at bottom, drastically unequal distribution of wealth in this country leads to crime, among other social ills, and efforts toward redistribution will help solve those problems. —Peter Coen (A68) Statistics vs. Ptolemy In response to the article “Statistics vs. Ptolemy” of the Summer 2002 issue of The College, I have a few comments. The main issue of the article seems to be the degree of preparation that the Program at St. John’s is able to provide for the vast array of careers awaiting the interests of liberal artists. The specific qualm raised in the article is that Johnnies are not adequately prepared in the areas of mathematics necessary for continuing studies in the social sciences. I would like to add, from my present experiences, that the mathematics and science studied at St. John’s in no way substitute for the preparation that college undergraduates in the areas of physics and astronomy receive. I completely disagree, however, with the sentiment that this reveals any lack, gap or limit in the scope of the Mathematics Tutorial. I agree with Mr. Eric Rosenblatt when he comments, “students are not all finding careers appropriate to their abilities.” But I disagree quite strongly that any existing “math gap” is the reason that students avoid particular career paths. There are many topics in the fields of social sciences, particularly in economics, which require higher mathematics than the topics that are studied in the Mathematics Tutorial at St. John’s, and of careers in hard sciences there are more required levels of mathematics than I could name when I started my graduate studies. However, from the Mathematics Tutorial, I received a broad and detailed exposure to the evolution of mathematics and the role of mathematics in intellectual and scientific development. This foundation, obtained with considerable effort, gave me the confidence that any traditional study of mathematics was accessible with similar diligence, effort, and practice. In reference to his experience in graduate level classes, Mr. John Lawless comments, “the advantage [of the people in graduate school] is that they’ve seen a lot of this stuff before. They have a broad exposure to basic math.” Thus far, it has been my experience, with physics and mathematics classes, that while most of the students have seen and solved more problems and are more familiar with the tools of mathematics than I am, one rarely finds the student with skills that resemble a mastery (or even a capacity for recollection) of the mathematics he has studied previously. The physics and mathematics textbooks that I now use all provide approximations of the works we read in the Program and in the space saved, the books include examples, problems, and solutions. Yes, I am “behind” in my abilities to solve these problems when compared to the students who have four years of experience studying physics and mathematics to the exclusion of other topics. Rather than bemoan the situation, I consider my disadvantage on this level to be a credit to the traditional system of education… Perhaps it is useful to consider the idea that the Mathematics Tutorial enables us to study mathematics as a language (herein lies the “beauty” to which we frequently refer) while traditional studies treat mathematics as a tool for simplifying analysis. While I share Mr. Lawless’ frustration that certain things should come easily, and do come more easily for students trained to use this tool, I do not look for fault within a program that has provided me with the unflinching interest to master topics of mathematics and science…I chose to take a nontraditional path with the expectation that no doors would be closed when I reached its end, rather I merely supposed that some doors may become heavier with time. …Mr. Rosenblatt is doing a great service to the St. John’s community in his hiring policies…In the effort of making { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } physics/astrophysics more accessible to students at St. John’s, I have organized similar meetings at St. John’s College, bringing professors from George Mason University who offer summer research fellowships to interested students. (The professors there prefer students from St. John’s College to undergraduates of their own school for their untiring efforts and interest in fully comprehending the motivation and goals of their research.) At these meetings I shared my experiences studying physics and astronomy and information about the courses one needs in addition to the Program to have a background that is comparable to a student with a traditional undergraduate physics degree. At the first meeting, three people attended; for the second meeting, more than 20 students were willing to wait while the professors were unavoidably delayed in traffic (God bless cellular phones). From the second meeting, seven students worked as contracted research assistants for the summer (2002), and two of those students are presently enrolled at GMU, pursuing degrees in astrophysics. From this it is clear that an awareness of the available opportunities is far more important than preparedness in the career decisions of St. John’s students. And further, with interest and effort, all skills are acquirable, while a love of knowledge is not. —Jessica K. (Reitz) Gambill (A01) Correction A story in the summer 2002 issue of The College on Andrea D’Amato, manager of the college bookstore on the Santa Fe campus, misspelled her name. We regret the error. 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 or The College Magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: reharty@sjca.edu, or via the form for letters on the web site at www.sjca.edu. Click on “Alumni,” then on “Contact The College Magazine.” �12 { A l u m n i Vo i c e s } THE LEGACY OF D AV I D G R E N E A Tutor Remembers a Teacher and Mentor by Amirthanayagam David (A86) ...the odds is gone And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon. –Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra D avid Grene died September 10 in Chicago. He was a living legend, and his life was legendary. He was already a professor of classics at the University of Chicago when the New Program was first instituted at St. John’s. Over the years he took an interest in the development of this program, which was entirely a creature of his adult life; from his perch in the Committee on Social Thought he taught a number of our tutors and an even more significant number of prominent teachers of our tutors. Among the faculty in Annapolis who studied directly with him are Laurence Berns, Joe Macfarland, Robert Williamson, Paul Ludwig, Louis Petrich and I. In the normal course of things, a teacher like David is only to be met with in books. He was a peerless philologist, from a generation that genuinely knew philology, and it was indeed an important part of the experience of studying with him to encounter his compendious acumen. But David’s philological knowledge was merely one of several paths into the mystery of author, word, and sentence that made a text a living presence in his classroom. He had a queerness to his mind and imagination that made Euclid, for example, incomprehensible to him, and the memorizing of traffic symbols an arduous task. He was a small-built man, but he was athletic—he was a horseman—and in his intellect, movement, and voice he was a commanding presence. Mr. Berns relates how singular an honor it seemed to earn David’s recognition, by saying or writing something insightful. His colleague Wendy Doniger remembers that “he lived on meat—particularly bacon and steak—cheese, butter, eggs and Tanqueray gin... He was a real person. He was bigger than life.” For half the year every year David was a farmer, and a number of us students, including the late Allan Bloom, were at some time initiated by him into the realities of cow and pig, horse and donkey. The stock of his memoirs, from Wicklow to Trinity, from farming in Illinois to Belturbet, County Cavan, from studying in Vienna under Radermacher during Hitler’s rise in the ’30s (Hutchins sent him) to Hutchins’ Chicago and the Committee on Social Thought, is a thing of wonder in itself. Yet David was able to dramatize these realities in the classroom so that somehow they formed an entry point for the dramatization of literature, philosophy, history—the distinction becomes moot—and one began to feel the presence of an author as a protagonist: mortal, historical, and yet ever-present. Even the philology seemed to come alive in a new way. One became self-conscious, about one’s accent as much as one’s ideas; one felt intimidated, and yet challenged to speak. It was a rare critical formulation that could survive this experience. Translation was a private matter with David; in class almost all the translating was done by students. His gift as a translator did not lead to his conducting master classes. Many of us can testify to a common experience, of preparing a text of Aeschy- { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } lus or Pindar or Sophocles painstakingly for hour after hour, coming up with formulations that seemed (at the time, and to us) very clever or even brilliant, but then showing up at his class and having our minds go blank when he called on us to translate. Suddenly the Greek appeared before us as an obstacle course that we had never seen before, and which we were asked to run on a full stomach. He was completely galvanizing that way. Perhaps his power had to do with our own feeling that he was on the “other side” of the line that Greek drew before us, a Poseidon feasting among the Ethiopians; he also seemed somehow on the other side of the author’s mask, a fellow worker with him in the art of turning thought, and the movement of thought, into Greek. There was also a curious knack to his timing, a way he would call on you that simply left you naked. At the heart of the obstacle course was always a tightrope over an abyss. No other teacher I have known was so able to initiate one into the “going across” of translation. If you missed your step, you remained scarred and subdued until the next attempt. But there were also times when it felt like one was dancing on that tightrope, and on those happy occasions in David’s company I have had no more exhilarating an experience as a student or a teacher. David grew very fond of St. John’s graduates. His companion of the last 17 years was Stephanie Nelson (A83), now of Classics in Boston University. She was our pioneer in Chicago. There were also Allen Speight (A84), now in philosophy at BU, David Neidorf (SF80), Cindy Rutz (SF82), Mark Shiffman (A89), Eric Lavoie (A88), Brian Satterfield (A94), and Zena Hitz (A95). �13 { A l u m n i Vo i c e s } “Suddenly the Greek appeared before us as an obstacle course that we had never seen before.” sara white wilson I am particularly grateful for his early study, Man in His Pride: A Study in the Political Philosophy of Thucydides and Plato, later reprinted as Greek Political Theory. David’s treatment is a healthy antivenom to the kind of pseudoanalytic reductionism and juvenile unliterariness that dogs the use and abuse of Plato’s writings in departments of “philosophy” and also to the programmatic approach to Thucydides in “departments” of history. But David’s greatest legacy is his translations, which should continue to bring him students. He was bold enough, hubristic enough, brilliant enough—and, to be sure, there was also his extraordinary feeling for stagecraft—to think that one could translate the Greek tragedians into English verse. His achievements here represent a genuine conduit for the ancient playwrights into a modern world and idiom. The rhythms of Greek are not translatable, not even the iambs, but David, in my view, was particularly good at capturing the rhythmic movement, together with the movement of thought, of whole speeches in Greek drama. His aim was unique in his time: to give “access” to the tragedies to students who were not intending to study Greek. Ms. Nelson writes in an e-mail that “the idea of a great books course is so usual now that we tend to forget that it was David’s David Grene’s greatest legacy: his translations. completely new idea that a translation didn’t need to serve only as a pony for beginning Greek students that made the course possible. He really did issue in a whole new era that way.” David’s passing underscores the nearly complete dependence of our program on translations, and the traditions of scholarship and teaching (that we sometimes misleadingly call “secondary”) that underlie works of translation. But David’s renderings do represent a body of invaluable commentary for students of Greek as well. David knew enough not to translate Homer into English (though I, knowing less, was always pestering him). The long line he found for Hesiod (a translation of Works and Days is included in Ms. Nelson’s God and the Land, Oxford 1998) will always leave me { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } wondering what his Homer might have been. The most remarkable achievement, however, was his Herodotus. There he found an uncanny match in the neverland of a quasi-Hibernian storyteller for the diction and character of Herodotus’ own neverland of antique Ionic. The experience of being “behind the mask” is simply extraordinary; only the achievement of Hobbes with Thucydides is a fit comparison in English prose (although David himself would never have allowed the comparison). Herodotus’ thought in form and rhythm, gesture and posture, lives and breathes in those pages of David’s. And David lives on in them too. He was a man of wonders who faced the challenges of his aging body and the relentless mortality of his friends with a vivid, fiercely loyal and capacious heart. He was a bodhisattva of the Tanqueray vine with an Apolline absolutism of conviction. But his absolutism was always grounded in human feeling, never in abstract principle. The one thing that could not survive in his classroom was pretension or dishonesty. The ingenuity of the genuine was David’s virtue, and academia everywhere is a drearier, less principled place without his animating and enduring spirit. x �14 {Pursuits} A BEAUTIFUL WINE Four Johnnies Pursue Perfection from the Vine. By Rosemary Harty The Winemaker tag’s Leap Wine Cellars is situated in a valley formed by the uplift of two mountain ridges. If you want to know beauty, says the winery’s founder, Warren Winiarski (A52), stand here until the light begins to fade in the evening. “To the east of us is a spectacular outcropping of volcanic rock that forms a palisade—that’s the Stag’s Leap ridge,” he says. “Particularly at sunset, the palisade is illuminated with a very special, very warm, magical glow. “That’s our fire.” In another form, beauty is in the product of these vines before him, of years of planting and harvesting, of choosing and rejecting, of waiting. Not all wine drinkers are prepared to think of a fine wine as beautiful, but a winemaker does, Winiarski says. True, it’s a very subjective beauty— one assigned scores by magazines like the Wine Spectator and awarded prizes by judges in international competitions. If Warren Winiarski needed any proof that he knows how to make a beautiful wine, it came in 1976 when French experts in a blind tasting in Paris gave his 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon top marks over the very best French wines. The competition made headlines across the world and Winiarski’s cabernet put California wines on the map. But how do you make wine beautiful? For Winiarski, it goes back to something he learned from the Greeks. To illustrate, he sketches out a Golden Rectangle on a legal pad. S The golden proportion within the framework of the rectangle makes it pleasing to the eye, he explains. In wine, that perfect, pleasing proportion is also sought. Take the extreme and the means in a geometric structure and you have balance and structure. In viticulture, contrast the products of coarse volcanic soils and gentler alluvial soils in just the right proportion and you have the start of something beautiful. “You have soft elements like the smooth, supple, fruity characteristics, and then you have hard elements like tannin. The challenge is to get astringency and softness related to each other in a certain way.” Balance, understatement, subtlety—these were not the guiding principles of winemaking in California in 1970. That’s when Winiarski left the University of Chicago, where he was a lecturer, and began making wines in the Napa Valley. Californians were then making wines that were “very powerful expressions of the varietal character,” he says. Winiarski left Chicago with an objective: “I couldn’t believe from what I knew about California wine and French wine that we could not do better with the fruit that we had in California and make more expressive, more beautiful wines,” he says. In 1970, Winiarski bought a plot of land on the Silverado Trail. He later acquired land adjoining the vineyards of Nathan Fay, a winemaker whose wine possessed that elusive unity Winiarski had sought. That land became the Stag’s Leap vineyard, and the grapes that grew here gave Winiarski the starting point he was looking for. “At St. John’s, we talked about the four classical virtues” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �15 {Pursuits} “To extend the pleasure of wine... overstatement is an enemy.” Warren Winiarski of truth, beauty, goodness and unity, he explains. “In wine, they’re expressed as understatement. To extend the pleasure of wine, the appreciation of its beauty, overstatement is an enemy.” A great deal goes into the science of winemaking, but the soil Winiarski knew had promise was the beginning of it all: Volcanic soils are coarse particles; alluvium, very fine. “One produces wines that are like fire: concentrated, spirited, intense,” he says. “The other, alluvium soils, are soft, yielding, supple. “Somewhere in the middle of the vineyard, you have these soils that are mixed. So putting this together, you can relate those means and extremes in a way where you have an iron fist surrounded by a velvet glove.” In the quarter-century since Winiarski helped put California wines on the map, his winery has become immensely successful, his wines sought after. The Cellars Cask 23 that won in Paris goes for well over $125 a bottle. These days his role in the winery involves “setting the stylistic goals and objectives for the vintage.” How that’s accomplished is carried out by others. His family, including Kasia (A84) and Julia (SF92), is involved in the business. Recently, Winiarski shared his { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �16 {Pursuits} think carefully about what happened when the sweet pear followed the sharp cheese. “Any time that you’re thinking carefully and precisely about a sensation, you have an opportunity to learn how the mind is truly embodied,” he explains. Schoener’s wine study group became more serious about studying viticulture, comparing domestic and European wines, and learning how to The Quest taste wine. One of the first students to join the group was A little over a decade ago, Abe Zach Rasmuson (A95). OrigiSchoener (A82) tried to explain nally a reluctant participant, his love for wine to beer-drinkRasumuson ended up heading ing friends. This led to a wine to Napa Valley and asking Warstudy group comprising other ren Winiarski for a job at St. John’s tutors, a few students, Stag’s Leap after graduation. college administrators and He started out as a cellar and friends. But the more Schoener lab assistant and within three learned about wine, the more he years was assistant winemaker wanted to know. And pretty at Robert Sinskey Vineyards. soon, Schoener went from careHe’s now making wines at fully choosing the best wine to Warren Winiarski Husch Vineyard in Mendocino accompany special dinners to a County. Napa Valley wine cellar, up to To learn more about wine, Schoener was also willing his elbows in grapes and immersed in an experiment to to start at the bottom. He took a sabbatical from St. see if he could make a pure and beautiful wine. John’s and headed West. His job as a field sampler at All this from the simple question, “what’s so great Stag’s Leap involved monitoring about 100 acres, walkabout wine?” ing the vineyards daily to monitor the ripening of the This devotion to the science of winemaking goes back fruit and bringing samples back to the winemaker. to Schoener’s work as a scholar and a tutor. Tracking his Through Rasmuson, Schoener later became acquainted steps from Annapolis to Napa Valley shows how interrewith John Kongsgaard, vice president and founding lated are the worlds of Johnnies and California wine. winemaker at Luna Vineyards and his wife, Maggy, parSchoener arrived at St. John’s from Toronto with a ents of two St. John’s students: Alex, a sophomore in Ph.D. in Ancient Greek philosophy. He had studied the Santa Fe, and Helen, a junior in Annapolis. When his philosophy of science from Anglo-American and French job at Stag’s Leap ended, Schoener went to Luna to perspectives, put that together with his study of Homer, work a few days over the Christmas break and eventualand started thinking about “how the body was thinkable ly extended his leave to take a paying job and learn and how the mind was embodied.” everything he could about winemaking. Body and mind come together very logically in wine Schoener bought a half-ton of grapes and made wine study, Schoener says, because to really appreciate a parunder Kongsgaard’s direction. The next year, they ticular wine one has to “think in an embodied way.” bought grapes together and Schoener was the winemakSchoener wanted to get his students in sophomore er for three tons of Chardonnay. “It went really well, so music to try this kind of thinking when approaching a the next year, I organized myself to become a small propiece of music. He couldn’t bring wine, so he laid out ducer, made some more contacts and bought some more gorgonzola cheese and pear slices and asked students to grapes”—this time for the Scholium Project, his own expertise with Sante Fe alumni and friends in a winetasting. Beating the French in 1976 was satisfying in a way that transcends business, he adds—the chance to make history. “There’s a bottle of that wine entered in the Paris tasting in the Smithsonian. In your own lifetime when you have something in the national museum, something that you made, that’s pretty satisfying.” “I couldn’t believe that we could not do better.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �{Pursuits} 17 venture in winemaking. He chose the word that refers to The Family Business explanatory notes or commentary in ancient texts, or a At one time, Daniel Speck (A96) had planned to study note amplifying a course of reasoning, to reflect the fact architecture. After spending most of his formative years that he is expanding on others’ work. toiling in his family’s winery, Henry of Pelham, he initially “Scholium is a word that connotes the opposite of preplanned another path for his life. tension and that was a good name for what I was doing,” “I was adamant that I wasn’t working in the winery,” he he explains. “It was always a question of [my] following recalls. “But after graduating from St. John’s, I needed other people, studying them, creating something that some cash, so back I went. Now I can’t imagine doing anywas going to be good.” thing else.” A year ago, Schoener invested about $4,000 in a ton Neither, apparently, can Speck’s brothers: Paul (A89), and a half of high-quality grapes. He fermented most president; and Matthew (A92), vice president and viticulof the crushed grapes in white plastic containers about turist. All three had worked almost every job at the winery three feet high. His approach is to give the microbes their father, Paul, started in 1982. Concord and Niagara enough oxygen to ferment the grapes, but not enough grapes were growing on the farm, but the old vines were to spoil them. Most winemakers add yeast to the ripped out and one-year-old vines crushed g rapes, but Schoener imported from Europe were planted does not. He also minimizes the in 1984. Four years later, the first use of antibacterial and antifungal crop was harvested and a year later, chemicals, in particular sulfur the first batch of wine—2,500 dioxide. The sulfur dioxide procases—was ready for sale. The winduces a “f latter, simpler wine,” ery, located in St. Catherine’s, and what Schoener seeks is comOntario, focuses on vinifera grape plexity. varieties: Chardonnay, Riesling, “The tradition at Napa is to and Cabernet Sauvignon. really control the microbiology, to Daniel Speck, director of sales turn [the wine] into a sterile fluid. Abe Schoener and marketing, remembers the My approach is really just the oppobackbreaking, often tedious work site: don’t start with sterile, start on the 150-acre estate. Summer with something infected with all vacations were spent as indentured servants. But the work kinds of things.” was ultimately satisfying. And when Paul Sr. passed away in Two years ago, his experiment failed and three-quar1993, it was natural for his sons to take over a business in ters of a ton of grapes emerged tasting like vinegar. But which they had already invested so much work and passion. Schoener learned something from that experiment. Henry of Pelham wines, he explains, are more “Old His white wine made with Chardonnay grapes is World” than California—whites are crisp and zesty, reds a called Les Tenebres, translated as “the shadows” or “the little more “austere and structured.” ghosts.” His goal was to produce a white wine that did“California is kind of like the Mediterranean, and our n’t evoke any fruit but the grape. The principle behind wines are more like those from the Burgundy region, Borhis approach is to “start with really good fruit but for deaux and Champagne,” Speck says. “Our reds are not the wine to be not about the fruit, but the fermentaapproachable for five years—they’re meant for aging, and tion.” The red wine, called Babylon, took its name from that’s usually due to the tannin structure.” the ancient Jewish world and is meant to connote someFrom an agricultural viewpoint, soil, weather, and thing “strange and exotic.” canopy management are critically important for the busiNext year, Schoener will have a license to sell his first ness. Canopy management means developing the vineyard batch of The Scholium Project. Last fall, he moved from in a way to “balance the vigor of the vine with the crops you amateur to professional when he became the winemaker leave—choosing where we leave grapes and where we don’t.” at Luna. He incorporates some of his risky techniques in “When you strip it all away, it all comes down to farmhis official work for the winery, but not all of them, ing,” he says. “Wine is 50 percent packaged goods and 50 because “there’s too much at stake” for a commercial percent produce. It’s got more in common with lettuce than venture. Coca-Cola. And if anything is a constant, you have to be “Don’t start with sterile, start with something infected with all kinds of things.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �18 {Pursuits} “You’ve got to have good grapes.” Daniel Speck growing grape varieties that you can produce great wines from. You’ve got to always have good grapes.” In addition to toiling on the land, Speck has also enjoyed making wine. The Pinot Noir, for example, is made entirely by hand: hand-harvested, crushed and fermented in open-top fermenting tanks. “Instead of getting in there with the feet and trodding it, we use a stick with a flat surface on the end. In the past we’ve used canoe paddles. That’s ‘punching down’ the ‘cap,’ the skins that float to the top in fermentation, back into the fermenting wine to keep extracting flavor. The more common method is the ‘pumpover,’ pumping wine from the bottom of the tank up and over to wash the cap down. It’s less desirable because it introduces more oxygen.” Henry of Pelham’s big sellers are Rieslings and Chardon- nays. The winery’s Baco Noir Cabernet (“a weirdo variety like a Shiraz,”explains Speck), and ice wine are also popular. To make ice wine, grapes are left on the vine until they freeze. “When you crush it you only get a few drops, and it’s incredibly intense. It makes a great dessert wine.” Most of the wine is sold in Canada, but the winery is beginning to make inroads in the U.S. market. Speck has new contracts with Red Lobster, a Canadian Italian food chain, Air Canada and British Airways. Speck isn’t sure he’d enjoy the wine business as much if he weren’t in a family business. “There’s a guy nearby who has started up a really nice winery, but just looking at it you can tell there’s some problems. I would think it would be hard trying to figure it out, because it’s only him and he’s surrounded by people new to the business. Our family had more people to pool from, and we know how to talk to each other. That kind of conversation is really critical.” The wine business can be “really brutal,” says Speck. “There’s no easier way to take a large fortune and make it a small one. “But there’s nothing more satisfying than getting together with the family to open a bottle of wine that’s 10 years old. I remember putting those vines in. It’s a personal wine.” The Devotee A beautiful wine “perfectly expresses where it is from,” says Mark Middlebrook (A83). It tells the story of where the grapes were grown and who made it. It opens a window to { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �{Pursuits} 19 and appreciate something that tastes good and adds an history and creates a bridge between different cultures. To increment of pleasure to their lives.” Middlebrook, the wine he tasted in a tiny village in BurIn past months, Middlebrook has put his computer gundy still bears the imprint of the Cistercian monks who skills to work in the shop by launching an e-mail newsletonce made wine in that valley centuries ago. ter and web site for the shop and establishing a database “There is a sense of longevity and of connecting with to track inventory. these monks in some way over all these centuries,” he Initially devoted to Spanish wines, Middlebrook has says. After earning a master’s degree in structural engicome to appreciate Italian wines, especially those of the neering at UC-Berkeley, Middlebrook started his own Piemonte (Piedmont) region in the northwestern corner company, Daedalus Consulting, to provide CAD (comof Italy. Late last fall, Middlebrook spent a week in Italy, puter-assisted drafting) consulting to engineering and learning about the vineyards, meetsoftware companies, developing ing the people, drinking great custom software applications and wine, and eating truffles. writing articles and books. “The Piemontese wines made However, he’s become so enamfrom the Nebbiolo grape, most ored of wine that, like Abe Schoennotably the wines from around the er, he’s made major changes and towns of Barolo and Barbaresco, sacrifices in his life to pursue this Mark Middlebrook are arguably the best in Italy. Nebinterest. He recently chose to scale biolo, like Pinot Noir in Burgundy back his work as a computer consultand Riesling in Germany, makes ant in order to sell wine in a small wines that ‘speak’ in highly specific and selective shop in California. ways about the particular place they His romance with wine, and his come from—the soil, the slope, the particular interest in the “specificiexposure to sun and wind, the vine ty” of a vintage, began when he first configuration, the vintage. drank a glass of wine in Rioja during “Some of this specificity is due to a trip to Spain in 1997. After returnthe grape varietals themselves. ing to California, Middlebrook startNebbiolo, Pinot Noir, and Riesling ed reading and tasting. He took three are said to be “transparent” varimore trips to Spain for research, and etals, because the elements of teron one venture, encountered Bill roir come through the vine, into Randolph (A75), a wine aficionado the grapes, and ultimately into the living in Paris. Randolph later guided glass particularly clearly.” Middlebrook and his wife, Cheryl Middlebrook draws a parallel Koehler, through the Burgundy READING LIST between exploring great books in region. He also joined Middlebrook American Vintage: From Isolation to Interseminar and exploring wine. “We for Northern California alumni chapnational Renown—The Rise of American spend time at St. John’s conter wine tastings at Stag’s Leap Wine Wine, by Paul Lukacs. fronting and discussing objective Cellars. Eventually Middlebrook The World Atlas of Wine (5th Edition), by questions about ethics and truth. came to believe he needed to devote Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson. At one level, wine is simply a matmore time to exploring wine, so he Pocket Wine Book, by Hugh Johnson. ter of taste. It’s also part of the went to the Paul Marcus wine shop, social ritual of a meal.” where he had been a customer, and The Oxford Companion to Wine, by Jancis But on another level, our aesthetasked for a job. Robinson. ic experience—how we come to “It’s been even more rewarding The Wine Bible, by Karen MacNeil. know something, how we come to than I’d imagined it would be. Besides Touring in Wine Country, a series, Mitchell learn—is involved in studying and tasting lots of wine, I get to talk with Beazley publisher. thinking about wine. lots of people who have a great variety Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy, “It’s a really rewarding world to of insight and experience. There is by Joseph Bastianich and David Lynch. be a part of.” x the occasional snooty collector, but — suggested by Mark Middlebrook and Warren most people who work in the trade Winiarski and shop in our store simply love wine “ Good wine tastes like it comes from somewhere specific.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �20 {Johnnies on Marriage} THE WIFE OF BATH’S GUIDE TO MARRIAGE Johnnie Couples Compare Life to Literature by Sus3an Borden, A87 haucer’s much-wed pilgrim, the Wife of Bath, is often considered an authority on marriage. Perhaps she was—in the 14th century. But here in 2002, we have other ideas. The College magazine consulted five happily-married Johnnie couples for their take on the advice and analyses of the Wife of Bath. We publish here a sample of their wit and wisdom. all over my face—I would be horrible at poker. I’m not the type of person to lie about anything.” Jim confirms her story with a sarcastic snort. “The very fact she thinks flirting is a lie is so sad,” he says. “I see it as dramatic license, an entry to a conversation, a story told to arouse interest. It’s a joy, a pleasure, a type of play.” However, when it comes to the particulars of the Wife of Bath’s flirting techniques, Jim is determined to set the record straight: “As for ‘oh, I was dreaming about you last night,’ that happened both ways and we both enjoyed it. She just forgot.” Wiles of Courtship Wife of Bath Says Wife of Bath Says You say that all we wives our vices hide Till we are married, then we show them well; C I made him think he had enchanted me; My mother taught me all that subtlety. And then I said I’d dreamed of him all night, He would have slain me as I lay upright, And all my bed was full of very blood; But yet I hoped that he would do me good, For blood betokens gold, as I was taught. And all was false, I dreamed of him just—naught. Johnnies Say Could Andrea Williams Ham (SF77) have pulled off such a boldly provocative flirtation when she was dating her nowhusband Jim Ham (SF77)? Absolutely not. “I’m not flirtatious, not a game player,” she says. “What I’m thinking is The Newlywed Game Johnnies Say “Hon, do I have any vices?” Kathy Ertle (A84) asks her husband, John Ertle (A84). “Well, you did drink back in college and you didn’t hide that very well and some people consider that a vice,” he cautiously suggests. As for his own vices, John says he was upfront about them from the start: “Marry the man today and change his ways tomorrow—right?” Kathy agrees: “I already knew he wasn’t perfect.” “Really?” John asks, somewhat surprised. Apparently, this is news to him. “Before I married you, absolutely,” Kathy says, sans { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �{Johnnies on Marriage} 21 “Sitting across the seminar table for two years taught us to disagree.” Jim Ham backpedaling. Johnnies Say Jacques Cartier (A58), Kathy Ertle does not hesihusband of Diana Barry tate to acknowledge her Cartier (A56), introduces a familiarity with the Wife of more philosophical spin to Bath’s fighting strategy: the matter: “Both parties, “Oh yeah, going on the not just the woman, try to attack, isn’t that what you’re put their best case forward supposed to do? The best and conceal things they defense is a good offense, don’t want known. They’re that’s what I’ve heard.” usually trying to conceal “Fighting is unavoidable, these things from thembut never fight in front of selves as well, since most your children,” advises of us possess relatively litJacques Cartier. He’s also of tle self-knowledge, espethe “never go to bed angry” cially when we’re young. school. “Whatever erupts Kathy and John Ertle We don’t know what we’re during the day, get it sorted hiding. Time reveals it to out before bedtime. You both of us. It can come as a pleasant or a disagreeable surdon’t want to start the next day with the residue of yesterprise.” day’s fight. And don’t be too stiff-necked to apologize when Lovers’ Quarrel Wife of Bath Says I could complain though mine was all the guilt… Or else, full many a time, I’d lost the tilt. Whoso comes first to mill first gets meal ground; I whimpered first and so did them confound. They were right glad to hasten to excuse Things they had never done, save in my ruse. you’re wrong—and even when you’re right.” Jenna Palmer (SF93), married to Jim Michel (SF92), describes the world of fighting Johnnie couples: “You always hear about how in normal relationships, usually the woman is much more verbal and the man gets angry or even violent when he can’t keep up with his wife’s words. But a Johnnie guy is very verbal. He can really argue well. And Jim is an attorney—we were together when he went to law school. In his first year in particular, he was quite a debater. I found myself at a loss for words. I was the one { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �22 {Johnnies on Marriage} who resorted to slamming the door.” With law school behind them, the couple fights less frequently. “Now he gets most of his arguing out with opposing counsel,” Jenna says. Jim and Andrea Ham rarely fight, and Jim gives St. John’s partial credit for this. “Sitting across the seminar table for two years taught us to disagree,” Jim says. “So many people I know are incapable of having a conversation or discussion or disagreement without it becoming personal. Or without having someone be right. We learned at St. John’s that there may not be a right answer. When we went through the Program, we read the Bible and Darwin simultaneously. In our seminar we had people who later became nuns and a number who ended up at Los Alamos doing DNA research. Both in the books and in our classes, we had the full spectrum of ideas.” What Women Most Desire Wife of Bath Says Some said that women all loved best riches, Some said, fair fame, and some said, prettiness; Some, rich array, some said ‘twas lust abed And often to be widowed and re-wed. Some said that our poor hearts are aye most eased When we have been most flattered and thus pleased And he went near the truth, I will not lie; A man may win us best with flattery; And with attentions and with busyness We’re often limed, the greater and the less. And some say, too, that we do love the best To be quite free to do our own behest, And that no man reprove us for our vice, But saying we are wise, take our advice. Johnnies Say David Kelsey (A61) married Marta Hoekstra Kelsey (A62) in 1962. Their four decades together have seen one adventure after another. Looking back, David says it hasn’t been riches, fame, or flattery that Marta wanted in their marriage. “I think it’s a sense of being a team that’s important,” he says. “There’s also a trust, an ability to depend on the other person without questions. “It’s always been that way for us. We’ve done lots of weird things, and we’ve always done them together. In 1964 a group of people paid us to take them to Alaska. We packed up two four-wheel vehicles with trailers and drove all the way to Alaska— Fairbanks, Anchorage, Denali—with our 16month-old son and an Irish setter. “We once found an old boat half-sunk in a river, dredged it out of the muck, and decided to live on it. We already had a sailboat and we eventually decided we would take both boats down to St. Croix.” This trip (which included a shipwreck on Ambrose Island) David and Marta Kelsey, turned out to have been remarkably illthen and now. advised (“totally stupid” are David’s words). But in spite of it, or because of it, their marriage has flourished. “Our marriage has been very satisfying for 40 years, with love and respect, consideration, communication. We have a sense of taking life as an adventure, doing interesting things and not settling for what everybody thinks you might oughta do.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �{Johnnies on Marriage} 23 “Giving up your set of program books— I think that shows commitment.” Jenna Palmer A Life of Love Partners in Books Wife of Bath Says Wife of Bath Says Praise be to God that I have wedded five! Of whom I did pick out and choose the best Both for their nether purse and for their chest Different schools make divers perfect clerks, Different methods learned in sundry works Make the good workman perfect, certainly. Of full five husbands tutoring am I. By God, he smote me on the ear, one day, Because I tore out of his book a leaf… Johnnies Say It’s a question directed at the heart of Johnnie marriages: What do you do with your two sets of program books? Andrea Ham lets us all in on this little corner of the life of married Johnnies: “Some of our duplicates are in boxes in the garage, some are in the living room, some we had to give back to my sister [India Williams (SF73)], some we passed on to our kids for high school,” reports Andrea. “I’m standing here in the living room looking at the bookcase where most of our great books are. Some are Jim’s, some are mine. It’s a total mishmash.” With graduation a quarter-century behind them, Andrea says that the books still play a role in their marriage. “We’ll periodically have conversations where we run to the bookshelf to pull out the book that supports our point.” Jenna Palmer and Jim Michel have finally narrowed down their collection to a single set. “Jim always sprung for the hard cover and took meticulous care of his books. I had mostly the dogeared paperbacks,” reports Jenna. “I finally sold most of mine, so we can never split up. Giving up your set of program books—I think that shows commitment.” x Johnnies Say “Our marriage has lasted a long time,” says Jacques Cartier of his 44-year (and counting) marriage. “It hasn’t all been easy, we’ve had a number of difficult times. But we’ve learned to accept each other, our strengths and our weaknesses. We live and let live for the most part. “There are those people who really want to be married, who want to be together with someone and because of that they manage to get through the difficult times. I think of the Symposium, of the two halves that want to complete each other. There are others for whom I don’t believe that desire is there, who don’t have a fundamental sense that this is the best way to live life.” Top: Jim Michel and Jenna Palmer Bottom: Andrea and Jim Ham { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �24 {The Program} STARS IN HIS EYES Curtis Wilson Remains Engaged in Discovery By Rosemary Harty I s Newton’s theory of planetary motion exactly right, and is it sufficient to account for everything in the moon’s movement around the earth?” Like a dedicated student in seminar, tutor emeritus Curtis Wilson (HA83) has been doggedly pursuing that question for more than 40 years. Since becoming fascinated with pre-Newtonian theory, Wilson has carefully explored the brilliant theorizing and errant conclusions of scientists drawn to study the stars. He has pondered their ideas and examined their proofs, read their life stories and taken note of their enemies and personal demons. “ They continue to intrigue him a dozen years after his “retirement” from St. John’s. At least once a week he spends the better part of a day conducting research in the rotunda library of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., where oversized portraits of historic figures such as George William Hill, a 19th century astronomer who studied the moon’s orbit, bear witness to his labor. “One feels,” Wilson says, “that one is surrounded by these people.” Indeed, when Wilson describes these historic figures, he talks about them as if they are living, breathing people still engaged in discovery. He becomes as caught up in their biographies as their scientific methods, relaying stories of Laplace’s political savvy with Hill’s reclusiveness. Some of these men he views with great admiration, and he’s grown to dislike some of them intensely. However, each one has played a role in advancing modern astronomy, and Wilson has given none of them short shrift in his study. In graduate school at Columbia, Wil- son studied medieval science, the precursors of Galileo, and, he notes wryly, “I did what I was told.” When he came to St. John’s in 1948, he was, by nature of the Program, required to learn astronomy— “of which I knew a little, but not enough,” he says. He soon fixed on Kepler’s laws of planetary motion as an object of interest. “I kept hearing about the three empirical laws of Kepler, but everything I read never explained in detail how he got to those laws,” Wilson says. He was intrigued by the reasoning that led the 17th century scientist to conclude that planetary motion must be elliptical. So he began researching Kepler, through his first tenure as dean of St. John’s (1958-62) and the two years he spent as one of the first tutors at St. John’s College in Santa Fe (1962-64). Kepler followed him to the department of history at the University of California, San Diego, where Wilson moved with his wife, Rebecca, and two sons. After his father’s death, he made the decision to move to California in order to be near his { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } mother, who lived near San Diego. The dean who hired him at UC-San Diego in 1966 emphasized that Wilson needed to publish scholarly work quickly. At 46, Wilson found himself encountering for the first time the pressure of “publish or perish” if he chose to seek tenure as a member of the university’s history department. “I worked fiercely, to the point of illness,” Wilson says. The result was a paper: “Kepler’s Path to the Ellipse,” published in Isis. “It was,” he says, with a smile, “a very good article.” In the paper, Wilson demonstrated that Kepler was aware that conjecture—rather than empirical data—was involved in his coming to the conclusion that the moon’s path was elliptical. “Kepler’s ellipse was not satisfactorily verifiable as what we would call an empirical law,” Wilson explains. “What Kepler adopted did have some empirical support but it was theory laden; his dynamics was wrong.” Only Kepler’s third law—that the period for a planet to orbit the Sun increases rapidly with the radius of its orbit—is empirical, says Wilson. Wilson became a full professor at UCSan Diego. But when asked to return to St. John’s as dean in 1973, he was ready to go. While he had enjoyed the physical environment in California, he found “academic politics at the university was not pleasing. I just wanted to do my scholarship. And in the classroom, I had students who were very competent, but I couldn’t get them to say a word in class.” Back in Annapolis, Wilson—by now an internationally recognized expert on the history of astronomy—continued pursuing his scholarship around his duties as dean and his return to the St. John’s classroom, publishing papers on Copernicus, Newton, Kepler, and Horrocks among others. Wilson’s initial inquiries into the Keplerian Revolution brought him to Jeremiah Horrocks, whose improvements on �david trozzo Kepler’s theories led him to correctly predict the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. Although he died at 22, Horrocks was, in Wilson’s view, “the greatest astronomer in the 17th century after Kepler as far as lunar and planetary theories are concerned.” Understanding Horrocks prepared the way for Wilson to begin to answer the questions he had fostered about Newton’s theories. Newton led to Euler, and Euler to Laplace. While many topics were covered in the St. John’s laboratories and math tutorials, Wilson’s interest took him ever more deeply into the history of astronomy. Wilson’s deep knowledge of these individual scientists has led him to form some sharp opinions of their approach to science and the times in which they lived. Laplace, for example, made great contri- Curtis Wilson in the college observatory. “I keep discovering things I don’t know.” butions to astronomy in the late 18th century, including his work on the inclination of planetary orbits and the motions of the planets. While admiring his science, Wilson is not terribly fond of Laplace, who tended to adapt his scientific postulations for the sake of political expediency when necessary. (Laplace should be given credit for managing to escape the guillotine in the Reign of Terror.) Lagrange made clear what he thought { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } of Laplace’s style in a letter written in September 1777: “I have always envisaged [mathematics] as an object of amusement rather than of ambition, and I can assure you that I enjoy the works of others much more than my own, with which I am always dissatisfied. Thus, you see that if you are free of jealousy because of your success, I am not less so because of my character.” “There is nothing charming about Laplace,” explains Wilson. “He may have had charisma but he was a very opportunistic politician who got along well with the nobility. Although his mathematics were opportunistic, he discovered a lot of important things.” Wilson’s modern heroes include George William Hill, who worked for the U.S. Nautical Almanac Office, later �26 {The Program} absorbed into the U.S Naval Observatory. Hill, who discovered a way to accurately determine the motion of the lunar perigee, won the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of London in 1887. “That’s the beginning of modern-day lunar theory,” Wilson says. “It took 10 years for him to gain recognition for his discoveries, and when he went to receive the honor at Cambridge, they didn’t know who he was and put him up in a janitor’s closet.” Wilson recently completed a paper on Dutch astronomer Peter Andreas Hansen that is pending publication in the Archive for History of Exact Sciences, to which he has been a faithful contributor. Today, Wilson is up to Ernest William Brown, whose professor at Cambridge— George Howard Darwin—told him Wilson is not terribly fond of Laplace, who tended to adapt his scientific postulations for the sake of political expediency. “somebody ought to develop Hill’s theory on the orbit of the moon.” “Brown went to work,” says Wilson. “He came to the U.S., taught at Harvard and then at Yale, and worked out the details of the theory Hill had outlined.” When he’s not researching and writ- ing, Wilson practices Beethoven’s piano sonatas and t’ai chi, and visits family with his wife, Rebecca, who served for many years as public relations director for the college. Fascinated by his subject matter, Wilson works on. He comes to the St. John’s campus almost every day. His enthusiasm and energy seem boundless. Although he is pleased to continue to publish papers, something more fundamental drives his scholarship these days. “I keep discovering things that I don’t know,” Wilson says. He talks about Kepler—who started it all—with great admiration. “His theory is so wrong,” Wilson says. “But I admire his stick-to-itiveness, his imagination, his courage. He was an utterly charming person.” x Honoring a Scholar, Thanking a Colleague I n academe, a Festchrift is akin to the ultimate birthday party, with tributes serving as the gifts. Last April, the St. John’s community was honored to host such an event for Curtis Wilson, tutor emeritus. The event was organized by George Smith, professor of philosophy at Tufts University and acting director of the Dibner Institute, and Jed Buchwald, editor of the Archive for History of Exact Sciences. And though the event was timed very near to Wilson’s 81st birthday, enduring admiration for a scholar and a colleague, rather than a chronological marker, prompted the event. “[Wilson] has done far more than anyone else to provide all of us with a deep understanding of the three centuries of orbital astronomy from Kepler through Simon Newcomb,” said Smith, later adding, “Curtis, you are universally recognized to be a paragon of your field.” Speakers noted Wilson’s two decades of service on the editorial board of the Archive, his contributions on planetary astronomy to the General History of Astronomy, and his books, monographs, and many papers. The papers contributed in Wilson’s honor will be published by the Dibner Institute in 2003. Among the contributions is this story from I. Bernard Cohen, professor emeritus at Harvard University: “My path first crossed Curtis Wilson’s when I was writing a small book about planetary theory before Newton. My concern was to understand the significance of Newton’s Principia. I had in fact written a number of chapters, and had even arranged that this small book would be published in a new series being edited by Michael Hoskin. One of the features of the book was an analysis of the various approximations that were used by astronomers in place of Kepler’s area law. These approximations made use of the empty focus of the ellipse and postulated a uniform motion with regard to this empty focus. Various forms of correction were then introduced to make this approximation agree more closely with the data of observation. One of the features of this book was to find out how good these approximations were. I had difficulty in comparing these approximations with published tables and so… a student of mine and I tested the accuracy of these approximations by comparing the positions determined by them with the results of solving Kepler’s equation. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } We did this work on one of the new giant mainframe computers, where we were fortunate to be awarded a halfhour of computer time at 1:30 in the morning…While we were studying the results of our computer research, I received my copy of Truesdell’s Archive for History of Exact Sciences containing a long monograph by Curtis Wilson, his study ‘From Kepler’s Laws (So-Called) to Universal Gravitation: Some Empirical Factors.’ This monograph was a detailed study and analysis of the approximations to Kepler’s area law that was used in the decades before Newton. “My first reaction was one of extreme frustration…even though my book dealt with the subject somewhat differently, I was aware that Curtis’ beautiful analysis had taken the subject so far that there was no need of my book on a similar subject. Accordingly, I consigned my book to the graveyard of unpublished works. In discarding my partly finished book, there was one great source of satisfaction in that Curtis had done so masterful a study that it was a real joy to welcome it. In this work Curtis showed himself to be a master of older astronomy, someone who would make a real contribution to our knowledge during the decades.” x �27 {Homecoming} HOMECOMING, E A S T A N D W E S T, In July in Santa Fe, and October in Annapolis, Homecoming celebrations were lively, well attended, and of course, overwhelmingly sentimental. Top: Chris Labonte (SF92) with Anna Zinanti in Santa Fe; Bottom: Taking a break at the picnic in Annapolis. O moe hanson scott caraway verheard at Homecoming: “And you! You look exactly the same!” “No, you look exactly the same!” Whether these observations made by 30-somethings at a wine and cheese party in Annapolis were truthful or not, Homecoming in Santa Fe and Annapolis this year was all about the gleeful rediscovery of old friends. There was much sharing of memories (foodfights, Freshman Chorus, and spectacular senior pranks) and much catching up (new jobs, babies, and adventures abroad). And proving themselves still pursuing the examined life, Homecoming attendees packed lectures and took part in seminars, even after long nights of waltzing, talking, and Napa Valley wine. In July at Santa Fe, the campus enjoyed its largest event ever, with 130 participants. Homecoming opened on Friday night with a barbecue dinner on the Placita, followed by a rock ‘n’ roll party at the coffee shop. On Saturday, alumni could choose from seminars on Chekhov, Borges, Plato, Shakespeare, and Dinesen. They were released from the classroom to an alumni fiesta picnic on the soccer field— where the food was great and a mini-baby boom was in evidence—then lured back inside for a Saturday afternoon lecture on “The China-Burma-India Theater: Untold “And you! You look exactly the same!” “No, you look exactly the same!” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } Stories from 1945,” by Elaine Pinkerton Coleman (SFGI88). A uniquely Santa Fe Homecoming offering, the All-Alumni Art Show drew a large and enthusiastic crowd to the art gallery. And during the annual Homecoming dinner in the Peterson Student Center dining hall, Awards of Merit went to Peggy Jones (SFGI94) and Stephanie Forrest (SF77). A President’s Brunch for alumni at the Hunt House capped the weekend. In Annapolis, Friday afternoon events included an alumni career panel. Aaron Lewis (A96), press secretary for Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, described a job interview with another politician. Prepared to discuss current political issues, Lewis instead was asked who he thought had invented calculus: Leibniz or Newton. After a very enthusiastic welcome from her audience, Eva Brann delivered her lecture, “The Empires of the Sun and West,” to a packed house, with alumni and students spilling out into the corridors of the FSK Auditorium. Her observations about human sacrifices in the Aztec empire prepared lecture-goers for a wine and cheese reception. In spite of reports of very late hours kept at waltz and rock parties Friday night, �28 {Homecoming} scott caraway moe hanson In spite of reports of very late hours kept at waltz and rock parties Friday night, attendance was healthy at Saturday seminars. attendance was good at Saturday seminars; Sam Kutler had 14 alumni ready to plunge into The Demons, a 600-page tome. The class of 1952 had an afternoon picnic enlivened by class member Warren Winiarski’s Stag’s Leap wine. The wine also was served at the evening banquet, perhaps inspiring the enthusiastic participation in class toasts. A member of the class of 1932, Henry Shryock, who had the honor of being the oldest alumnus present, drew a standing ovation with his heartfelt toast that closed the evening: “On behalf of the old program, I’d like to toast the New Program— St. John’s forever!” x moe hanson Clockwise from top: Taking a moment to read in Annapolis; Jules and LeRoy Pagano (A48); Santa Fe President John Balkcom (SFGI00), flanked by Lee Goldstein (SFGI90)and Alice Mangum Perry (SFGI92). { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �29 {Homecoming} At a Glance: Homecoming 2002 37, 42, 47, 52, 57, 62, 67, 72, 77, 82, 87, 92, 97 67, 72, 77, 82, 87, 92, 97 Freebie gifts Travel mugs with McDowell Hall picture Paper cubes with four-season views of the campus Touch of nostalgia The St. John’s Story on continuous replay in the Coffee Shop President John Balkcom’s jaunty straw boater at the Fiesta Picnic Hot seminars Plato’s Phaedo, led by Peter Kalkavage “Sorrow-Acre” by Isak Dinesen, led by Don Cook, tutor emeritus Honorary alumni John Sarkissian, Al Toft, Robert Williamson Daniel T. Kelly Jr., Gregory D. Curtis Awards of Merit Candace Brightman (1967), lighting designer for the Grateful Dead; Howard Zeiderman (1967), tutor and founder of the Touchstones Discussion Project Peggy Jones (Graduate Institute 1994), founding board member of the St. John’s College Library and Fine Arts Guild; Stephanie Forrest (1988), professor of computer science and researcher at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque Uniquely Johnnie Homecoming Feature Great books story hour for kids Alumni Speaking Volumes lecture Top: Susan Zinanti (SF93), Heather Watts (SF00), Taeko Onishi (SF92) at the Santa Fe banquet; Below: Picnickers in Annapolis. moe hanson scott caraway moe hanson Reunion years scott caraway Santa Fe moe hanson Annapolis Lawrence Black, Jenn Coonce, Lori Freeman, and Tafetta Elliott spell out their graduation year. Top: Pauline Shryock enjoys the Annapolis Homecoming banquet; Bottom: Annapolis students Hayden Brockett and Jenny Lowe at the waltz party. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �30 {Bibliofile} The Clash Between Quantum Theory and Human Individuality Seeing Double: Shared Identities in Physics, Philosophy, and Literature Peter Pesic MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2002 P eter Pesic explores fundamental and paradoxical questions about connectedness and separateness, identity and anonymity, in his new book, Seeing Double: Shared Identities in Physics, Philosophy, and Literature. Pesic, tutor and musician-in-residence in Santa Fe, draws from the disciplines of philosophy and literature in shaping his discussion; however, it is physics that ultimately shapes his intriguing point of view. Specifically, modern quantum theory is presented as a tool for formulating and contemplating nontraditional definitions of individuality. Although he has expert knowledge of the subject, the author presents contemporary theoretical physics in a manner accessible to lay readers. The usual interpretation of quantum theory calls for an essential sameness in the elementary building blocks of matter, yet the prevailing cultural understanding of individuality demands that certain aspects of any object be unique unto themselves. A central component of being human, for example, is that each of us feels we are one of a kind, unduplicated across the arc of history. Although this clashing of basic assumptions would seem to pose an inherent contradiction, Pesic suggests that by refining our definitions of individuality and identity, we can make quantum theory more intelligible and less conflictive, while maintaining nonscientific claims of singularity. In the last section of Seeing Double, the author considers the defining property of identicality described by quantum physics, whereby subatomic particles have no individual identity. This notion begs challenging questions about how we are able to observe the movement of (identical) electrons or to define them (accurately) as either waves or particles. Santa Fe Tutor Peter Pesic tackles physics in his latest book. “What would happen if a human is cloned into two identical beings?” In exploring through classic literature a revised perspective on the queries he raises, Pesic recounts illustrative elements that begin with the Greek mythology of Homer’s Odyssey and continue through Janet Lewis’s The Wife of Martin Guerre and Franz Kafka’s The Trial, among others. Philosophical theories also are considered, including those of Gottfried Leibniz, Socrates, Benedict Spinoza, and Immanuel Kant. The author gives concise discussions of their ideas, but also aims to open a conversation with his readers. “We cannot refer our human questions about identity to a physicist, the way we refer our legal problems to a lawyer,” writes Pesic. “This realization is truly a philosophical matter.” Pesic moves next into the implications of the thinking upon which modern science rests, including Newtonian physics, Einstein’s theory of relativity, and the electromagnetic studies of Michael Faraday. The author further expands the question of identity by acknowledging the powerful influences that personality, nature, and God may play in our interpretations of scientific theory. Although Seeing Double does not address such domains directly, it touches ultimately on identity-related aspects of biotechnology and cloning that also are worthy of analysis. Mr. Pesic wonders, for instance, what would happen if a human is cloned into two identical beings: “Which of these, then, is you? Both? Neither? Only one (but which)?” A satisfactory answer remains elusive. In addition to being a concert pianist, Pesic has published a number of papers on science-related topics over the years. His previous book, Labyrinth: A Search for the Hidden Meaning of Science, was published by MIT Press in 2000 and has appeared in Japanese and German trans-lations as well as paperback. x –by Richard Mahler { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �{Bibliofile} 31 Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading THE ODYSSEY and THE ILIAD Eva Brann Paul Dry Books “Reading Homer’s poems is one of the purest, most inexhaustible pleasures life has to offer—a secret sometimes too well kept in our time.” So begins Eva Brann’s “Homeric Moments,” a work inspired by 50 years of reading Homer and 40 years of guiding St. John’s students on their own journeys through the poems. In 48 concise and beautifully written chapters, Brann focuses on the crucial scenes—the moments—that mark the high points of the narrative. Much of her book is structured on the questions that students have posed in seminar over the years. (Editor’s note: The Spring 2003 issue of The College magazine will include a more thorough review of Homeric Moments.) Psychology and the Critical Revolution Anton G. Hardy (A51) James Publications Anton Hardy presents an odyssey of another kind in this work: the question of how knowledge of the human being may be attained. The book criticizes trends in present-day psychology—psychology that Hardy says is suffering in the grip of the philosophy of realism. How the Friday Night Dance Came to Glen Echo Park Owen Kelley (A93) Self-published (okelley@gmu.edu) Kelley’s book discusses the history of the Glen Echo Park dances, which grew from a small gathering of friends to weekly events attracting several hundred people. Kelley has interviewed dozens of dancers, musicians, and callers for his book on this famous dance hall right outside Washington, D.C. Several essays about the dances are also included. Love, War and Circuses Eric Scigliano (SF75) Houghton Mifflin Most children grow up loving elephants— either from the circus and the zoo or from favorite books featuring characters such as Babar, the wise elephant king. Seattlebased writer Eric Scigliano, whose articles have appeared in publications including Outside and The New York Times, first Japanese Cabinetry: The Art and Craft of Tansu David Jackson and Dane Owen (SF98) Gibbs Smith Originating from Japan’s Edo period (16151867), tansu refers mostly to wooden cabinets, boxes, and chests. This book provides a broad representation of cabinetry designs and chronicles the physical characteristics and details of tansu as well as the historical eras and societal factors that influenced the craft. 12 Japanese Masters Maggie Kinser Saiki (A85) Graphis Maggie Kinser Saiki spent 10 years profiling some of the greatest designers in postwar Japan for Graphis magazine. These profiles are collected here in a book that outlines the cultural and historical context in which the designers grew up and matured. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } became fascinated with elephants as a child living in Vietnam. The fascination has lingered into adulthood, prompting this volume examining man’s millennialong relationship with the pachyderm. Scigliano explains how elephants have shaped history, art, religion, and popular culture, how they have been revered, exploited for both labor and entertainment, and hunted to the point of becoming endangered. Periodically, The College will list or feature alumni books. Please send notice of books published or review copies (which will be donated to the library’s alumni author collection) for consideration to: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404. �32 {Alumni Notes} 1944 JOHN DAVIS HILL and Dorothy Murdock Hill celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary on June 15, 2002, in Omaha, Nebraska, with local friends. 1946 “Sued President Bush on June 12 on behalf of 31 members of Congress for terminating the ABOL Treaty without the approval of two-thirds of the Senate or a majority of both houses,” reports PETER WEISS from the Bronx. 1952 DAVID NAPPER writes that he enjoys the mild winters of Ponte Vedra, Fla., but summers are “steamy.” “I’m active in tennis, and we’ve found the Jacksonville Symphony worthwhile.” 1960 The New York Tri-State Speaker’s Association Inc. honored MARY CAMPBELL GALLAGHER with its Alan Cimberg Award for her years of dedicated service to NSA/New York. She has served on the board of directors and in various leadership roles. 1962 “Am busily writing a new paper called ‘Behaving with Shu [care toward one’s subordinates, usually translated as reciprocity] and Zhong’ [care toward one’s superiors, usually translated as loyalty] for, I hope, presentation next year in Sweden,” says DAVID SCHILLER. 1965 CAROL BENJAMIN JEFFERS is “happily single after a long marriage. I live squarely on the line between Maryland and Delaware and work at a job I love. I plan to retire and move back to the Pacific Northwest in about two years.” She would love to hear from classmates. ALLENNA DUNGAN LEONARD was recently elected to a three-year term as president of the American Society for Cybernetics. 1967 LOVEJOY DURYEA is chairman of the New York State Board of Interior Design Office of the Professions. In March, she will receive the Gold Medal at the National Arts Club in New York. 1968 ALEX HIMWICH (A) and Lynn Maguire were married on May 26, 2002. 1969 JOSEPH PRESTON BARATTA (A) writes that his history, The Politics of World Federation, will be published next year by Praeger Press. The book includes a chapter about A Gift of Books everal books from the library of the late PETER RINGLAND (class of 1944) have found their way into the college library. Peter’s widow, Valentina, brought an 18th-century volume of Ovid and two language manuals from his Greek tutorials. The Ovid, she said, came from a market in Rome where Peter was stationed when he worked for the government in the 1980s. The language manuals were for a class taught by John Kieffer, one of only two tutors who remained at the college after the New Program was instituted in 1937. A classics scholar, Kieffer taught Greek and developed early materials for the freshman tutorials. The Ovid will be kept with the library’s rare book collection; the manuals will join other source books, papers, and instructional materials from the early days of the New Program. x S Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan after they left St. John’s. MARK A. MANDEL (A) writes that his daughter Susannah interned last summer at a Paris publishing house midway through MIT’s M.A. program in comparative media studies. “As I write this (hopefully no longer the case as you read it!), I am searching for work as a linguist (the language-scientist kind, not the kind all security agencies want to hire, alas!)” Mam@theworld.com ference was held Oct. 30 to Nov. 4. Last September SARA ABERCROMBIE (SF02) was a houseguest of IRVING WILLIAMS (A72) at Happy House on Cliff Island, Maine. “We compared senior pranks of the ’70s and ’90s, and the true identify of the infamous ‘clapper napper,’ who exchanged the Annapolis Bell Tower clapper for a dog fish, was revealed,” reports Williams. 1974 In New York, N.Y., BENJAMIN TREUHAFT (A) is involved with a group called Send a Piano to Havana that does just that. “Just delivered our 210th piano to Havana last month.” The group’s web site: www.sendapiana.com SAM GOLDBERG (A) has written The Transference in Psychotherapy with William Goldstein, to be published this year by Jason Aronson Inc. 1970 Vancouver-Portland alumni: It’s time for another event, says DALE MORTIMER (A). “The last area alumni event was a reception for President John Balkcom on May 8, 2001.” For those with a suggestion, plus the willingness to organize the proposed event, feel free to contact Dale: 360-882-9058. Last summer, STEVE HANCOFF (A) saw a newspaper article reporting that musicians, especially American artists, were turning down concert dates in Israel, mostly because of a fear of violence, but in some cases, because of disagreement with Israeli policy. His response was to bring a concert tour to Israel. “The two principles I wanted to demonstrate were: There are indeed respected American artists who will not be intimidated by terror. And we wish to stand with the Israeli people.” Hancoff’s trio planned to tour the country during the fall—not just the major cities, he said. At each concert the group expected to be joined an Israeli artist. They also planned to offer master classes. Check his web site for updates: www.stevehancoff.com. 1972 Parental pride: “HANK (A70) and CHRISTINE (A72) CONSTANTINE’S extremely personable, intelligent and handsome son, Alex, is now a sophomore at Annapolis.” Last fall, CHRISTEL STEVENS (A) finally got to Greece. She presented her paper, “Images of Women in Indian Dance Sacred and Profane,” with colleague Lori Clark, at the annual conference of the International Council for Dance. The con- { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } 1975 1976 ED KAITZ (A) is a musician currently performing interactively with children, elders and people with disabilities. Interested parties may contact him at EdsMusicMachine@aol.com. 1977 WILLIAM MALLOY (SF) has plans. “Because I was nine years older than you when we began, I get to retire in 2006! I plan on doing some sort of paralegal work for some left-wing public interest group (but not one as staid as the ACLU).” From PATRICIA MCCULLOUGH (SFGI) in Lanham, Md.: “I have just completed my 30th year as a teacher of English at Alice Deal Jr. High School in Washington, D.C., and I still love it.” Two years ago, MICHAEL (LEVINE) ST. JAMES (A) chose to leave law firm life after two decades to begin a solo practice. Good timing, he says: “I specialize in business bankruptcy!” �33 {Alumni Profile} Preserving the Ph.D. Anthropologist Peter Ellison Leads Harvard Graduate School by Rosemary Harty martha stewart W hen he became dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences two years ago, Peter Ellison (A73) knew he was sacrificing time: precious time that might otherwise be devoted to studying lactation and fertility among the Toba of northern Argentina, or time to produce another book in his field of human reproductive ecology. But in the bargain, Ellison gains a chance to make a long-lasting contribution to science in another way. Concerned that higher education could lose talented students to more lucrative fields, Ellison became increasingly active at Harvard in issues concerning graduate education. He believed that the crisis in secondary education—an inability to attract and retain talented and motivated individuals to the teaching profession—could be replicated in higher education. “As a society, we have so devalued secondary school education as a career that we have made it one that only saints and extremely motivated people of talent would pursue,” says Ellison. “I’m worried that we could do the same thing to the professoriate. The very best and brightest young minds are also capable of many other activities and there are many other professions that beckon to them.” Harvard’s call to action was prompted by alarming statistics. At Harvard in the ’60s and early ’70s, well over half of the summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduates went on to graduate school and careers in higher education; now that number is below 20 percent, says Ellison. Medicine, law, and business school beckon to many talented graduates who might otherwise become college professors. “Pursuing a Ph.D. and going into academia is a very long course with unpredictable rewards,” Ellison says. “Either we’re going to make higher education a career for second-class minds or go to work on that career so that some of these wonderfully intelligent people can still pursue that calling.” Before accepting the dean’s post, Ellison headed a faculty committee examining financial aid. The committee’s work even- Peter Ellison tually led to Harvard’s adoption of a policy to provide full funding for nearly all of its graduate students. That alone is a good start, but Harvard is also looking at ways to shorten the path to the Ph.D., improve the quality of life for graduate students, and make sure that doctoral candidates learn teaching skills along the way. “We’re providing much more self–conscious preparation of our students. In the past they’ve been trained to be wonderful researchers, and they figure out how to teach on their own,” he explains. “Now we integrate teaching into the curriculum, rather than making it just a job on the side, and we’re addressing pedagogy and professional development in general.” Ellison’s own path to research and teaching came—indirectly—through St. John’s. He studied Greek and Latin at an East Coast prep school and believed that St. John’s would prepare him to pursue a career in literature, languages, or philosophy. Science he dismissed as “dry and uninteresting.” That plan continued unaltered until Ellison read Darwin’s Origin of Species in sophomore laboratory. “That stopped me dead in my tracks. I had never encountered an argument that was so powerful and undeniably true,” he says. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } That led to his decision to leave St. John’s after the fall term of his junior year; he transferred to the University of Vermont, where he plunged into remedial science and biology, “loving every minute of this area of knowledge which I had previously spurned.” After earning a degree in anthropology, Ellison chose to study human biology. He went to Harvard, where he earned a doctorate in biological anthropology and joined the faculty in 1983. His research has centered on the biology of human populations, including issues such as fertility, stages of development, and reproduction. Ellison’s research has taken him to some of the most remote spots on Earth, from the Congo to villages in Argentina. He has hopped single-engine mission planes to get to research sites and suffered a bout of malaria. He has studied topics including anxiety and ovarian function, reproductive ecology and reproductive cancers, and agerelated decline in male salivary testosterone. There are sometimes constraints in his research, and not just those that hinder a man investigating female reproductive issues. “Even more than being a male studying reproductive biology, [it is difficult to be] a human biologist and to study human beings where your subjects are people who have lives and identities and struggles of their own, ethically, personally, and socially.” He may have less time to spend in the field, but Ellison’s research is continuing through his Reproductive Ecology Laboratory at Harvard. Ellison and colleagues developed techniques for measuring reproductive hormones in saliva instead of blood, allowing them to take research out of the clinic and into the field. Right now, that field is in Argentina, where Ellison and his co-investigators are studying issues of lactation, energy, and reproduction among the Toba women of Formosa, Argentina. Although he doesn’t plan to stay in administration for the long term, Ellison appreciates the broader perspective his post has afforded him. “I have a chance to get out of my own little niche and see a larger landscape.” x �34 {Alumni Profile} Striking a Balance Lawyer Martha Franks Integrates Idealism with Reality by Marissa Morrison, SFGI02 Santa Fe tutor Martha Franks maintains a private practice in environmental law and is involved in the controversy over water rights in New Mexico. S omewhere between passion and pragmatism, real change happens. Martha Franks (SF78) cites as an example the divergent paths of two historic figures. Abraham Lincoln was diplomatic and realistic. Abolitionist John Brown was radical and passionate. In common, they shared the desire to end slavery. Franks, a lawyer, environmentalist, student of theology, and St. John’s tutor, has been working in New Mexico water law since the mid-’80s. Her approach to the critical issues surrounding water allocation in the West take her somewhere between Lincoln and Brown. “Brown stands as an icon of personal principle, such principle that he was ineffective in what he wanted to do,” Franks says. “And then there’s Lincoln, who is far more equivocal in terms of principled objections to slavery, but he can get things to happen. He can see what needs to be done in order to be effective in the world. Yet you have to be careful, because you don’t want to be so seduced by realpolitik that you lose track of what you do. It is a very difficult line to walk.” Franks balances her environmental concerns with practical realities. “The theme in all my work has been trying to integrate an intellectual and a practical life,” she says, “and trying to understand when it’s appropriate to make deals, and when it’s important to pursue principle.” Water law goes beyond public policy and the law; philosophical and theological issues are also involved. Traditionally, water rights have been allocated among federal, state, city, Indian, and private interests. But how about allocating water to the environment? “There are two sides to the question about how much water is appropriate to allocate to the environment,” Franks explains. “There are people who argue that the answer is none, that species have become extinct since the beginning of time; our species is now ascendant and we’ll take what we want. Others say that the preservation of earth is the primary task of human stewardship and that water should be available first for the natural ecology. Only when that’s satisfied can “The more learning you do in real life, the more you can hear the truth.” human beings build a sustainable lifestyle on what remains. “Both positions can be defended on idealistic grounds, depending on your ideology, but the practical matter is that people try to work out compromises. Huge ideologies stand there and people sort themselves in relation to the one they’re closest to, but in the end, people struggle to find compromises.” Returning to the St. John’s program as a tutor last September offered Franks another opportunity to integrate practicality and intellect. “The more learning you do in real life, the more you can hear the truth,” Franks says. “I loved these books as an undergrad, yet I have to look at them and say, ‘I never could have heard this then.’ I would have missed these truths if I hadn’t been through what I have been through. And of course that makes it obvious that there’s tons of stuff in there that I can’t see { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } now, and maybe won’t see ever.” After working for five years for the federal government and about 10 years for the state of New Mexico, Franks started a new chapter in her legal career in January 2002 when she opened a private firm. But forging ahead in the practical world has not kept her from philosophical contemplation. Drawing on her seminary background (she has a master’s degree in theological studies from the Virginia Theological Seminary), she’s been exploring the connections between Christianity and environmentalism. Franks mentions one environmentalist’s claim that the Judeo-Christian tradition led to human kind’s dominion over—and destruction of—the planet. “I would like to do work addressing the truth or falsity of that and seeing whether there is a ground for an environmental ethic within Christianity,” she says. “It is astonishing that the Hebrew scriptures talk in terms of subduing the earth,” she says. “Instead of thinking of the earth as a giant nature god of mystery and power, it makes more sense in our century, in the wake of so much environmental destruction, to perceive the earth as weak and helpless, like a baby that can’t take care of itself.” x �35 {Alumni Notes} 1978 Update on the Blumes, from MICHAEL DAVID BLUME (A): “In the past year my son has graduated high school, my wife, BETSY BLUME (A75) has become a certified fund-raising executive, certification earned through the American Society of Association Executives. As well as organizing other educational activities, she has now joined the board of directors of the Washington chapter of the AFP; and she and I wrote a ‘how to’ book on an aspect of fund raising, published and promoted by the American Society of Association Executives. She continues to work for the Special Libraries Association, and continues to expand revenues for its projects, working with such companies as Lexis-Nexis, Factive, Standard & Poors, and many others. We have finally moved from Annapolis to Bethesda, Maryland, contiguous with Northwest Washington and intermingled with Chevy Chase. It is a beautiful area.” SUZAN M. PORTER (SF) will be teaching sixth-grade science and seventh-grade pre-algebra at the NOVA School in Olympia, Wash. “NOVA is a middle school which serves academically talented youngsters, and I’m very much looking forward to the challenges.” 1980 ANDREW KLIPPER (A) became a grandfather for the second time on Oct. 24, 2001, when Makayla Marie Anderson was born. “JUSTIN BURKE (A87) and I continue to coordinate an annual fund-raising effort for the Jimmy Fund and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Anyone wishing to participate can e-mail me at Aklip1@aol.com. See you all croquet weekend. I will be running the Bay Bridge 10K.” 1981 From Nashville, Tenn., ROBERT J. MONDLOCK (A) writes of his musical career: “For about the last seven years I’ve been touring with my wife and partner, Carol Elliott, who is also a singer/songwriter (we got married at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas in June of 2000). I’ve got three CDs of my own out and I’ve had the good fortune of having some of my songs recorded by other artists as well (Nanci Griffith, David Wilcox, Joan Baez, Janis Ian, Garth Brooks, Peter Paul and Mary). My latest project is a trio record with Art Garfunkel and Maia Sharp scheduled for release on October 8. The three of us will be touring to support the record this fall on into next spring. I’ve got a website like just about everybody these days. It’s BuddyMondlock.com. Please c’mon by and sign the guestbook and say hi. I’d love to hear from any of my old pals at St. John’s.” 1982 STEVE MULHOLLAND (A) is teaching Latin to middle and high school students at Chatham Public School. He began building a new house last September. “As if going to the 20th reunion wasn’t enough to make me feel old!” says LESLIE SMITH-ROSEN (A) “Eldest child, Marielle, is a college freshman now; Alyssa’s in high school and Sam’s in middle school. I’m still teaching and developing curriculum at a Baltimore Jewish day school and religious high school. My quest for a Ph.D., now spanning two millennia, is on its next leg: working on my language comps, nursing a dissertation topic. Too much stress, too much debt, too little time to read—but somehow very happy.” According to DAVID WEINSTEIN (A), “There is nothing like being the director of research for a national brokerage firm in these interesting times.” 1983 DEANA GLICKSTEIN (AGI) recently relocated to Tarpon Springs, Fla., after electing early retirement as an educational administrator with the school district of Philadelphia and as a graduate school professor. “Though there are many real Greeks here in Tarpon Springs, have not found any St. Johnnie alumni chapters here in Florida. Interested in creating one? please e-mail: deanashere@hotmail.com.” A Year in Congress TEVE HANF (A70) has been spending the past year S working in Congress, thanks to a fellowship from the American Political Science Association. “I’m serving the fellowship on the personal staff of Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) My issues are health and the elderly— totally new subjects for me. (For the past 15 years, I’ve been working on financial regulatory issues.) The congressional staff is young, smart, hard-working—exploding the myth that people who work for Congress don’t know what they’re doing. This is a wonderfully invigorating and educational experience for me. “On the personal side, my wife (Ruth Sievers) and I celebrated our 18th anniversary last March. She has become devoted to the cultivation and arrangement of flowers and wants to retire soon from her writing job at the Library of Congress so she can spend full time on those floral pursuits. Our 14-year-old son just graduated from middle school with a straight-A record for the entire three years. He enters high school next fall.” x 1984 that would outline the cultural and historical context in which these designers grew up and matured.” EDWARD ABSE (A) is completing a doctorate in anthropology this year at the University of Virginia, based on three years of field research with the Mazatec Indians of the Sierra Madre Oriental in Oaxaca, Mexico. ANTHONY N. SIEGEL (SF) married Linda Naclerrio in October 2001; he was promoted to vice president of CitiCorps last February. They live in Chappaqua, N.Y. 1985 1986 Remarried and with a brand new book, MAGGIE KINSER [SAIKI] HOHLE (A) writes: “As I wrote in The Reporter in 2000, I graduated in ’85 from Annapolis as Maggie Kinser. I spent 15 years in Japan. I returned to the U.S. in 2000. The new news is that I have a book coming out: The book is 12 Japanese Masters, and is being published by Graphis. (You can find it at amazon.com.) 12 Japanese Masters is the culmination of 10 years of writing about Japanese design. Because my parents are both designers, because I studied at St. John’s, and because I speak Japanese, I ended up writing for Graphis magazine while in Japan. I was fortunate enough to interview some of the greatest designers in postwar Japan, and through their work and the experiences they related to me, to learn about both Japanese design and the postwar period in Japan. I published more than 20 pieces for Graphis, and then, while home for my father’s funeral in 1999, pitched the publisher with the idea of bringing all these profiles together in a book MARGARET PARISH (A) received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Delphi University in 2000. She is a postdoctoral fellow at the Austen Riggs Center, an open, psychoanalytic, psychiatric hospital dedicated to examined living in Stockbridge, Mass. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } LUCY E. DUNCAN (SF) gave birth to a daughter this spring. 1987 BETH MORRIS (A) has just returned from a year in London (spent with A87 classmate MICHAEL SMITH and his wife, Kristen). She’s working as a project manager for a software company. In September she wrote of her plans to be married—“INS willing!”—in November to Steve Tanner of Basingstoke, U.K. 1988 ERIN M. MILNES (A) has recently taken up whitewater raft guiding. “It’s great fun in a beautiful loca- �36 {Alumni Notes} tion: the south fork of the American River. Just last week I was joined on a rafting trip by JEFF FALERO (A88), who’s now living in the Bay Area. We had a fantastic time catching up and paddling in the sun. Anyone interested in some California whitewater can reach me at erin@milnes.de” Last fall, GRETCHEN JACOBS (A) wrote and directed a play called Brightness Falls: The Tragical History of Christopher Marlowe, at the Greenbelt Arts Center in Greenbelt, Md. 1990 New baby news from CLINTON PITTMAN (SF): “Samuel Shen Pittman born 02/22/02—George Washington’s real birthday and a numerical palindrome of sorts. Pictures available upon request.” 1991 SAPNA GANDHI (A) writes from Jersey City: “I am finally certified to teach yoga to children through a great program (www.yogakids.com). If anyone is interested in learning more, contact me: dreamsapna@ yahoo.com. I don’t know where I’ll go from here but will look into teaching at children’s hospitals and community centers.” She also plans a trip to India to get reacquainted with family and her culture. CYNTHIA GLINES (SFGI) completed her doctorate in psychology last spring. “Currently I work at a maximum security prison as a unit psychologist in the lovely state of Idaho.” 1992 LORIE BENNING (A) has been in Baltimore with her daughter, Sarah, for four years. “Sarah is 11 and is going into sixth grade. She’s a jock (swimming and soccer), but she’s also artistic and she loves to read. I work at Johns Hopkins as a statistical analyst for a women’s HIV study. I’ve published three papers on the impact of HIV on cervical disease, quality control of HIV viral load measurements, and the increasing importance of non- AIDS mortality in the era of potent anti-retroviral therapy.” NONNIE (SCHMITT) CULLIPHER (A) lives in the mountains of North Carolina with her husband, Sid. They have been blessed over the past year with the birth of daughter Greta and the adoption of Brittany, 11. Nonnie and Sid run a nonprofit. AARON GARZA (SF) is moving to Ogden, Utah, in August. He had a great time at the reunion: “Later, I laughingly discovered that I’d busted my shoes from much spirited dancing.” LAURA C. KNIGHT (A) writes from Corinth, Texas: “I recently graduated from DePaul University with a master’s in math education, and I’ve accepted a job with North Central Texas Community College, teaching developmental math. It’s good to be back in Texas. I would love to hear from fellow Johnnies. E-mail is: knightla@ mail1.aaahawk.com.” HANNAH STIRES (A) and JOEL ARD (A95) married at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on April 13, 2002. Johnnies in attendance included the best man, DAVID TRIMMER (A92), NONNIE (SCHMITT) CULLIPHER (A92), AMY ELIZABETH PARTON (A92), SARAH SCHOEDINGER (A92), KURT HECKEL (A93), LORIE BENNING (A93), AMY THURSTON (A95), ALEX LOMVARDIAS (A95), and EMILY MURPHY (A95). Hannah is an attorney at the Department of Justice, and Joel is an attorney at Latham & Watkins, both in Washington, D.C. They recently bought a home in Eastport and would be happy to hear from old friends and acquaintances at j-ard-10@alumni.uchicago.edu. ANNE SCHUCHMAN (started with the Annapolis class of ’91, graduated with class of ’92) and JAMES BERRETTINI (AGI93) are thrilled to announce the birth of their daughter, Stella Rose, on October 7. (Their excuse for missing the class of 1992 reunion.) “Stella joins big brother Samuel, now 3. We’re still living in Manhattan, but searching for larger quarters. We can be reached by e-mail at ams8050@nyu.edu (Anne) and jpb@alum.mit.edu (Jim).” 1993 AMY FLACK (A) is in her fifth year of ministry (Presbyterian Church of the USA) in South Dakota. In July, she wrote, her area was in the midst of a terrible drought. “The cattle don’t have enough grass to eat and people are forced to sell off their whole livelihoods. Keep the small farmer and our Western states in your prayers.” THORNTON LOCKWOOD (AGI) and his wife, Karen, announce the birth of Nicholas Charles, born August 15. JONATHAN PEARL (A) and his wife, Cheryl welcomed the birth of their son, Rembrandt, on April 15, 2002, at 10:46 p.m. 1994 DAVID BROOKS (SF) expects this is the year he’ll graduate with his Ph.D. in clinical psychology: “I have just completed a predoctoral residency at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center and will be building up a private practice as I complete my dissertation on contemporary Kleinian Psychoanalytic technique.” ALEX GAMMON (A) and BETH MARTIN (A) were married in the Great Hall on July 20. 1995 WILLIAM BOLAN (A) and JANICE THOMPSON (A) live in South Bend, Ind., where they recently celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary. Son Mathew James Thompson Bolon is now “a very active twoand-a-half-year-old. We are both nearing completion of our Ph.D.s in theology and hope that at least one of us will have a job soon!” KATE FELD (A) is enrolled in Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. CARTER SNEAD (A) was recently named General Counsel for President Bush’s Council on Bioethics (www.bioethics.gov). LEIGH FITZPATRICK SNEAD (A98) is in her last year of doctoral coursework at the Catholic University of America { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } School of Philosophy. Leigh and Carter are living in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and would love to hear from old friends. The REV. JANET SUNDERLAND (SFGI) has a church in Kansas City and is having a wonderful time. Her web site is www.churchofantioch.org/coakc.html and e-mail is suncliff@planetkc.com. She would love to hear from old friends. 1996 CASEY PATRICK MCFADEN (AGI) graduated from Georgetown University Law Center last May and entered private practice in Washington, D.C. 1997 DOMINIC CRAPUCHETTES (A) moved to the D.C. area with AMANDA DULIN (A) to attend the MBA program at the University of Maryland in the fall. His plan is to start a board game company when he graduates. “I am extremely excited about the whole prospect of returning to school and working on a business plan. Plato must be turning over in his grave!” Samuel Davis Trares was born to ´ RACHEL TRARES, nee Davis, (A) and LUKE TRARES (A) on Wednesday, October 16, 2002, at 4:09 p.m in Fort Worth, Texas. He weighed 8 pounds and 9 ounces at birth and was 20 inches long. Both Rachel and Sammy are doing fine. Adds Luke: “We are both very excited to be given the opportunity to raise such a cute little person.” JUAN GONZALO VILLASEÑOR (A) has moved to New York, where he works for the American Civil Liberties Union as the William J. Brennan First Amendment Fellow. 1998 RUTH BUSKO (A) is completing a master’s degree in acupuncture. She’s an acupuncture intern at the faculty-student clinic of the TAI Sophia Institute for the Healing Arts in Laurel, Md. “Feel free to contact me at 410-312-0991 or at rmbusko@hotmail.com.” �37 {Alumni Notes} Lighting up the Lawns are doing premed or med, or if you are in New York. Please contact me at artemisvela@yahoo.com.” 2001 usca croquet news/Holly Currier BASIL BRYAN CLEVELAND (A) is happy to talk about the University Professors graduate program at Boston University, which he says is “BU’s version of the Committee on Social Thought.” Contact him at basilcleveland@hotmail.com. TEPHANIE PADUANO (A94) graces the cover of the fall 2002 edition of USCA Croquet News, the publication of the United States Croquet Association. Paduano is also featured in “New Faces Light Up the Lawns,” an article about her introduction to the game and her first-place singles and third-place doubles victories in the USCA Mid-Atlantic/New England Regional tournament last summer. Paduano, who works for U.S. Trust in New York, plays croquet in Central Park as a member of the New York Croquet Club. Although her championship qualities emerged after graduation, Paduano credits St. John’s with sparking her initial interest. “Everyone pretty much knew everyone at St. John’s,” Paduano says in the article. “One day a friend of mine was playing croquet and I asked him to show me a few shots. I wasn’t really hooked then, but I thought it was fun.” x S DANE OWEN (SF) has published Japanese Cabinetry: The Art and Craft of Tansu. 1999 JESSICA MORGENSTERN (A) is teaching full time for Arthur Murray Studio in Santa Barbara, Calif. “Sometimes miss the good conversations, would welcome e-mail!” Sprout_1999@yahoo.com. TRACY NECTOUX (AGI) is currently teaching English at Parkland Community College in Champaign, Illinois. “It’s only now that I miss the ‘calm safety’ of being a student!” 2000 PAUL BRITTON SPRADLEY (A) recently earned his master’s degree from Ole Miss. “I am still teaching geometry in the Mississippi Delta and I recently bought a house.” ADRIEN STOLOFF (A) will be heading to Japan to participate in the JET program. Classmates can reach him at elemence@hotmail.com ANNE VELA (A) says, “Hi y’all. I have moved to New York to start studies in the Columbia University postbaccalaureate premedical program. Chris is staying in Savannah until May to finish his master’s degree in architecture. I would love to get in touch with other NYC Johnnies who KAREN COSTA (SF) sends reports for herself and other Santa Fe classmates: “HEATHER DAVIS is going to Haiti with the Peace Corps. EBEN LASKER, JOE BUCKLEY, BRIAN BALLENTINE, JEROME MOROUX, and KARINA GILL are living in New York City. Karina and Joe are both teaching. BEN JUDSON and IAN MULLET are in San Antonio, Texas. I am also living in New York City doing research and editing. But maybe this is all just gossip?” JUSTIN KRAY (SF) spent this past year teaching English in Epinal, France; he toured Eastern Europe before returning to the United States in June. NANCY R. LEWIS (HA) says it was “a pleasure” to pay her 2002 alumni dues—and she really means it. “When I was appointed registrar of the college in 1979, I never imagined that I would become the recipient of two such wonderful gifts. My years spent as registrar and now as an honorary alumna are extraordinary gifts and I am very grateful for both of them. Thank you for the opportunity to continue to share in the life of the college in such a meaningful way.” ANNE NEEDHAM (A) has left her job as a bookseller in Washington, D.C., to enroll in the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building in Port Townsend, Wash. She hopes one day to work in a boatyard and teach others the traditional arts and crafts of the sea. “Having discovered that, contrary to Socrates’ august opinion that ‘souls are not unalloyed,’ I am getting in touch with my ‘iron soul’ and hope to learn a trade as well,” she says. Needham is scheduled to graduate with an associate’s degree in { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } occupational studies in traditional wooden boat building in June 2003. KEE ZUBLIN (SF) reports from Eugene: “Have begun performing on the Winnamucca-Tonopeh circuit as a prestidigitator/family counselor.” 2002 “Life is good,” says CLAIRE DARLING (SF), in Beaverton, Ore. “I’m growing quite fond of our three chickens. Would love to hear from anyone local regarding reading groups, hiking, litter pick-up, whatever.” Bumpkins@aracnet.com. JULIA (GRAHAM) MESNIKOFF (SF) was married June 1 to Nathan Mesnikoff. They were married at the Unitarian-Universalist Church to which they belong, on the lawn and “under a huppah which I batiked with symbols of Nathan’s and my several religious traditions and other things dear to us. BILL AND NATALIE BLAIS (SF04) and CLAIRE DARLING (SF03) and her daughter, Regan, helped hold the huppah, and KRISTIE KESLER (SF03) read a Buddhist benediction. I finished my nurse practitioner training at Boston College; Nathan continues work on his Ph.D. in philosophy of religion at Boston University.” x 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 April; deadline for the alumni notes section is Feb. 15. In Annapolis: The College Magazine St. John’s College, Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404; reharty@sjca.edu In Santa Fe: The College Magazine St. John’s College Public Relations Office 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca Santa Fe, NM 87501-4599; tshalizi@mail.sjcsf.edu Alumni notes on the Web: Read Alumni Notes and contact The College on the web at www.sjca.edu — click on Alumni. �38 {Alumni Profile} The Search for a Bearable Sorrow Jonathan Aurthur (A68) lost his son to suicide. His new book retraces his son’s journey through the world of mental illness and asks: Was there a better way to help him? by Sus3an Borden, A87 onathan Aurthur’s son Charley— an intelligent, well-liked, handsome young man with a philosophical bent and a love for the piano—was 18 years old when he experienced his first psychotic episode and suicide attempt during a camping trip to Yosemite. Five years later, Charley jumped to his death onto the Santa Monica Freeway. The Angel and the Dragon is Aurthur’s account of Charley’s life and death—with most of the book dedicated to describing his son’s illness and the attempts made to treat it. Some of the most interesting—and troubling—parts of the book explore the nature of mental illness. Is the problem medical? social? psychological? spiritual? These passages are interesting because they show the real-life need to unravel philosophical questions about the relation between the mind and the body. They are troubling because they speak to a central failure in medical treatment for mental disorders. J Medical Model When his son returned, fearful and agitated, from Yosemite after his first psychotic break, Aurthur sought help for him from the medical establishment. “Charley’s first psychotic breakdown and suicide attempt appeared to happen so suddenly, literally from one day to the next, that it seemed like it had to be something physical. As a result, I eagerly tried to convince him that he had a simple disease like diabetes, and that just as diabetics need to take insulin, he had to take his antipsychotic medication or his lithium and then everything would be okay,” says Aurthur. “It was very comforting to think that Charley’s problem was relatively straightforward and understandable. Comforting to me, at least.” But as Charley struggled with numerous hospitalizations, doctors, diagnoses, and medications, Aurthur saw that mental illness was far more complicated than diabetes. Not only did the inability of medicine to treat his son lead him to see the shortcomings of the medical model, but In THE ANGEL AND THE DRAGON, Jonathan Aurthur tries to explain why conventional treatment couldn’t save his son Charley’s life. Aurthur’s son, like many with mental disorders, also had quite a different understanding of his problem. “There were times when he tried to believe that he had some simple, treatable physical illness, because I think part of him wanted to live a simple, uncomplicated life,” says Aurthur. “But another part of him knew that he and his life were not simple and uncomplicated no matter what anyone told him. His illness, or as he termed it, his ‘affliction,’ permeated too many parts of his psyche; it was too psychological and spiritual, too much a part of who he was and how he saw himself, to be isolated into some simple physical pigeon hole.” A patient’s complex vision of his illness, coupled with the often serious side effects of medication, can lead to resisting or refusing treatment. The standard medical viewpoint is that this resistance is a symptom of the illness and hinders treatment. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } But Aurthur is able to show readers of The Angel and the Dragon a patient’s view of resistance. When a patient is under medication, his negative symptoms are relieved to some degree, but his life is greatly diminished. No, he won’t kill himself. But to what degree is he living, facing side effects ranging from blackout spells and seizures to headaches, anxiety, and fatigue? The problem is magnified if the patient and doctor disagree about a fundamental issue: Where do symptoms of an illness end and a patient’s individual humanity begin? Is he suffering from delusions of grandeur, or is he particularly gifted? Is he suffering from paranoia, or is the world—locking him in a hospital, monitoring his behavior, forcing medication on him—really out to get him? As Aurthur pieces together the patient’s vantage point, the reader sees resistance for the complicated phenomenon that it is. Aurthur then introduces a more radical view (not one he shares, but one he finds interesting) that attributes resistance not to illness but to a freedom from illness: If you’re treated for behavior that those with more power see as illness, but that you believe simply reflects your differing vision of the world, then it is unwise to comply with treatment, especially when it is harsh or painful. Extreme examples of this situation include regimes that place dissidents in mental wards and societies that condemn left-handed people as tools of the devil. “It makes me think about scapegoating, in the old days in Eastern Europe,” says Aurthur. “There was the village idiot, the village beauty, the village whore, the village drunk. These designated social roles allowed the society to function in an organized way.” Although his family tried to avoid it, they often ended up scapegoating Charley. “Charley became the designated problem and family therapy turned into ‘how can we help Charley,’ not ‘what is going on in our family that has contributed to the problem.’ Of course he became terribly resistant, totally on the �{Alumni Profile} defensive. As loving as we tried to be, we were dumping on him.” As Aurthur explores the psychological reasons for resistance, he also investigates the physical reasons. While an intolerance for the side effects of antipsychotic drugs is a fairly well known cause of resistance, Aurthur points to one simple reason a patient might stop taking medication: It doesn’t work. For Aurthur, a key insight into the problem with antipsychotics came when Charley was in the hospital for a selfinflicted stabbing wound. Although he was on morphine for the pain, Aurthur was disturbed that no one was inclined to return Charley to his antipsychotic medicine. A doctor finally tried to put him at ease about the situation by explaining that morphine would work—it was the first antipsychotic. “That’s when the lightbulb clicked,” writes Aurthur. “So that was it. I’d been dimly aware before that antipsychotics didn’t ‘cure’ mental illness, they ‘treated’ it. Now for the first time I was finally seeing what that meant. Navane and all the rest—‘tranquilizers,’ the dictionary says— were clubs more than straitjackets. Basically they were just heavy, brain-deadening drugs, like morphine. They doped people up to the point where they were too zonked out to be crazy—or in the case of people who were suicidal, too indifferent to life to have the energy to end it.” In addition to their bludgeon-like mechanisms, there’s the possibility that the problems antipsychotics address aren’t the right problems—that hearing voices and self-aggrandizing are not what need to be fixed. All antipsychotics are basically tranquilizers, explains Aurthur. “That may be good for certain times, to calm the person down, to make the voices go away. But it does not address the fundamental problem: What is the person going to do with his life after the voices go away? What is going to take the place of being sick? “There were times when Charley would be in recovery, he’d be compliant, then he’d ask, ‘What am I going to do with my life?’ He was 21 years old, he saw his schoolmates graduating and going on with their lives while he was still a sophomore. The life choices that young people like Charley have must be addressed. They can’t be satisfied with coping therapy, therapy that teaches how to take your Jonathan Aurthur “If only mental illness were less demonized and seen more as a spiritual condition...” medication better. This involves something much more profound.” Psychosocial Rehab Aurthur discovered something more profound in the world of psychosocial rehabilitation, often described as treating the person, not the disease. “Whereas the psychopharmacological model gives the mentally ill person medications to get rid of the so-called “primary symptoms” of the illness—the voices, the visions, the delusions—psychosocial rehab relates first and foremost to the person as a person, not a list of symptoms, and tries to deal first and foremost with the psychological pain or uncertainty or social isolation the person is experiencing,” he says. “The rehab model works from the premise that even very sick people have healthy parts, strengths that can be built on and supported. Psychosocial rehab focuses on the healthy to help deal with the unhealthy.” In his research for The Angel and the Dragon, Aurthur found two promising alternative recovery facilities: The Village Integrated Service Agency in Long Beach, California, and Windhorse Associates in Northampton, Massachusetts. The Village’s approach is to create a community within its treatment center that supports patients as they work to establish a life in the Village, and then build that life beyond the center. They call their approach “a high risk/high support environment that promotes hope and the recovery process.” Patients are supported in social activities in and out of the Vil{ T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } 39 lage, through substance abuse and recovery work, through employment and employment training, with money management systems and guidance, and through participation in the management and governance of the Village. Windhorse, featuring something of a Buddhist orientation, describes its program as working toward integration and balance for the patient and the community. The program calls for “basic attendance” to focus awareness on the immediate needs of the moment; “integrative medicine” to establish habits of good health through exercise, proper nutrition, adequate rest, and stress management; and a “working team” that can include a team leader, psychotherapist, team counselor, housemate, wellness nurse, and psychiatrist. As Arthur learned about psychosocial rehab, he began to develop a picture of what might have been a better course of treatment for his son. “If only we could see mental illness as a problem with many different aspects— social, personal, familial, historical. If only mental illness were less demonized and seen more as a spiritual condition that is much more prevalent than we have been led to believe.” Had that been the case, Aurthur says, he would have found someone “with real insight and understanding to make Charley feel he could communicate and unburden himself and discuss what was wrong. Someone to open up a dialogue where Charley could feel safe, could feel that nobody was leaning on him and telling him what was wrong and what he had to do.” Charley’s journal entries reflect that he was open to compassionate treatment. “Charley hated the condescension,” Aurthur says. “He needed somebody who could spend time with him and try to figure out what had happened at Yosemite. He needed somebody to just be there for him, as a sort of buoy in stormy water.” Aurthur looks back at his own attempts to guide Charley toward the medical hierarchy with some regret. In some ways, by accepting the medical model to a large degree, he was missing out on much of Charley’s experience of his illness. “It’s like we both had our hands on the knob of a radio and were struggling over the dial,” he says. “I thought I was trying to help him tune in to the music, but it was really the static he wanted to listen to.” x �40 {Obituaries} Tommy Turner From a Calvert County Farm to Teaching Generations of Doctors ne of St. John’s most loyal alumni, Thomas Bourne Turner, class of 1921, died at his home in Baltimore on September 22. Dr. Turner enjoyed an extraordinary career as a physician, researcher, and dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His generous support and enduring affection for the college never wavered, even as he saw the strict regimen and braided uniforms of the military school he attended give way to the great books with Buchanan and Barr’s New Program. Turner grew up in rural Calvert County, the son of a farmer and engineer who built steamboat wharves along the Chesapeake Bay. He was only 14 when he came to St. John’s—secondary education opportunities near his home being limited—as a scholarship student. He kept as a treasured memento the saber he won as commander of the best-drilled company in the battalion. He enjoyed other fond memories of his days at St. John’s. In 1999, in a letter accompanying a gift to the college in honor of the Liberty Tree after its loss, Turner wrote of his “vivid recollection” of a graduation ceremony in which Franklin D. Roosevelt was the speaker: “Not yet paralyzed, he was an unusually tall and handsome man who spoke with fervor. Recently Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he made us all proud of the U.S.A. and St. John’s as a small part of it.” Turner’s service to the Board of Visitors and Governors was unprecedented. It spanned four decades, from 1951 to 1985, and he twice served as board chairman, in 1956 and 1973. In 1957, he received the Alumni Association’s Award of Merit for his contributions to the field of medicine. As a young man, Turner leaned toward a career in the law, but his father—noting that two of his great-grandfathers had been physicians—asked him to consider the good he might do as a country doctor. Thus, Turner went to the University of Maryland to study medicine. Although O Thomas Bourne Turner “Affection supports life’s infrastructure, compassion underpins the world.” his medical career took a path divergent from his father’s vision, he gained the opportunity to make major contributions in medicine. After being trained as an internist, Turner joined Johns Hopkins in 1927, first as a postdoctorate fellow, then as an assistant professor and associate physician. He conducted research in infectious diseases as a member of the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1939, he became professor and head of the department of microbiology at Johns Hopkins, where he continued his { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } work in devastating diseases such as polio and syphilis. During World War II, he served as a colonel in the Medical Corps in Washington, North Africa, and Europe. He studied Nazi Germany’s biological warfare capabilities and developed the Army’s venereal disease control program. As the dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 1957 to 1968, Turner guided the school through a period of tremendous expansion as the size of its full-time faculty tripled, new research facilities were built, and new specialties such as biomedical engineering were developed. After stepping down as dean, Turner became the medical school’s first archivist and completed a detailed history of the institution. In the early ’80s, he became the first director of the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation, based at Hopkins. A 1995 Baltimore Sun article described Turner as “engagingly unaffected, unpretentious and egalitarian, qualities perhaps nurtured by his deep roots in Calvert County…He is a courtly man, �41 {Obituaries} easily erect in crisply tailored suits, a genial patrician.” In 1993, Turner composed a list of some of the wisdom he had attained, calling it, “A few things learned during a long life.” They included culinary tips: “Almost all soups can be improved by a dash of sherry” and cautionary advice: “Hold on to banisters going down stairs.” Finally, he shared the guidelines that ruled his own life so well: “Love, affection and compassion are all allied but not the same. Reciprocated love is rare; cherish and guard it well. Affection supports life’s infrastructure; compassion underpins the world.” His favorite toast, a newspaper article reported: “Let’s live it up.” St. John’s extends sympathy to his family: daughters Anne Pope and Pattie Walker, class of 1966; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. x DAVID B. REA David Rea, class of 1949, died in September, just short of his 76th birthday. Dave, as he was called by his fellow classmates and friends, came to St. John’s in January 1946 as a January freshman. At the end of the 1945-1946 academic year he was the only student to pass the Greek reading knowledge examination. In the ensuing years he exhibited a mind that remembered everything that he read and understood it all as well. Dave excelled in all the facets of the New Program. He never dominated a seminar. Rather he clarified the text, kept the discussion from floundering, and kept the seminar on track whenever appropriate. While a student Dave would read some of the seminal works in Greek, Latin, French, or German without a dictionary. “The Saga of Burnt Njal” would have a lasting influence on his life. He developed a love of classical music, especially opera. At the Commencement exercises in 1949 Dave was awarded the St. John’s College Board of Visitors and Governors Gold Medal for the student with the highest standing. He also received “Honorable Mention” for his senior thesis. After graduation Dave went to the Yale School of Law. He was selected among others by Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan to spend the summer of 1950 in Israel to observe the formation of a new state and to work on a kibbutz. En route to and from Israel via Paris, Dave met Jacqueline, whom he subsequently married. It was love at first sight. Upon graduation from law school in 1952, Dave joined the firm of Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher. There he practiced corporate law for almost 40 years until his retirement in 1991. During that time Dave was an active alumnus. Many times college meetings in New York used a Wilkie, Farr conference room. Dave was an active fundraiser for the college and a good contributor himself. He attended the Alumni Association New York Chapter meetings.The Reas hosted the New York St. John’s College prospective student reception in their New York residence many times. In 1974 he and Jacqueline accompanied Stringfellow Barr to Annapolis to celebrate Barr’s being made an honorary alumnus of the class of 1949 on the occasion of the 25th reunion of Dave’s class. After many requests Dave agreed to become a member of the St. John’s College Board of Visitors and Governors. He served two consecutive three-year terms. Dave’s abilities were quickly recognized and he soon became an influential member of the Board serving on the Executive Committee and the Governance Committee. At various times Dave and Wilkie, Farr did pro bono work for the college. Dave and Jacqueline grew fond of the eastern end of Long Island.They spent summer weekends on Shelter Island where Dave sailed, fished, and clammed. Eventually they bought a house in Sag Harbor. Dave was one of the founders of the St. John’s College Alumni Summer Montauk Striped Bass and Bluefish Charter. On the evening of the fishing trip Jacqueline and Dave would host a dinner for the participants and provide rooms for as many as possible. This was done for many years. To be invited on board was considered an honor. In 1991 when Dave’s kidneys failed, he used the time he was on dialysis to read and listen to classical music. He never complained. Over the next 10 years, he suffered a series of health setbacks. Dave Rea will always be among the best of whom St. John’s is capable and an example for all of how to live one’s life. He is survived by his wife Jacqueline Rea, a son David, a daughter Ann, and his brother Dr. Thomas Rea, class of 1951. —submitted by Allan P. Hoffman class of 1949. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } CHARLES PEACE III A retired banker and long-time activist in the Republican Party, Charles F. Peace III, class of 1936, died October 8 at his home in Towson, Md. He was 89. Born in Baltimore and raised in Anne Arundel County, Peace served in the Army Air Forces in World War II. He worked in sales before joining Maryland National Bank as an assistant vice president. He was described in a Baltimore Sun article as a “stalwart” of the Republican Party in Maryland, having served as a member of the Republican State Central Committee. ALSO NOTED ARE: WARREN K. BROWN, class of 1938, died in January. LT. COL. JOHN JOSEPH BYRNES, Annapolis class of 1980, died in 2002. HENRY A. CZLUSNIAK, class of 1937, died in March. EDWARD S. DIGGES, class of 1939, died in September. FRANK. R. GENNER JR., class of 1936, died in May. EDWARD W. GORRELL, class of 1955, died in January. MICHAEL C. KEANE, class of 1945, died in July. ERNEST A. OTTO JR., class of 1941, died in May. MARK P. ROGERS, Santa Fe class of 1972, died in April. JULIUS B. SHERR, class of 1942, died in April. �42 {Alumni Profile} The Bookbinder’s Apprentice An Aspiring Painter Finds Art in an Unlikely Place by Sus3an Borden, A87 christopher huston B en Frey (A02) received two copies of A Degree of Mastery: A Journey Through Book Arts Apprenticeship for Christmas his sophomore year. The book seemed so perfect for Frey, whose campus job was in the library bookbindery, that his mother and his father—unbeknownst to one another—each sent him a copy. In A Degree of Mastery, author Annie Tremmel Wilcox, now an expert bookmaker and conservator, discusses her apprenticeship and the book arts in general, describing the details of working on, making, and preserving beautiful books. While the book became a favorite read for those in the trade, Frey found it discouraging. “I don’t want to do that,” he remembers thinking. “I don’t want to work deep down in the basement of some archive trying to make old books hold together.” Fortunately for Frey, other forces were at work to make his life more interesting. Claire and Pierre Wagner, French expatriates from the Alsace region and longtime friends of St. John’s, had hosted him on their boat during the annual Sail Picnic the previous fall. Frey noticed the Wagners speaking French and spent the rest of the outing talking with them. “I said I was interested in learning French, and Claire said she knew a number of people in France who might be able to help me out. We exchanged a few letters, and in the middle of the summer I got a phone call. She’d found a family in France I could work for as an au pair.” Frey spent the next year living just outside of Paris and devoted a fair amount of time to thinking about what to do with his life. Having spent many years painting, he placed art high on his priority list, but also felt a sense of obligation to finish college. “My French professor in Paris one day asked why I wouldn’t just leave school and do what I wanted to do,” recalls Frey. “I said that I thought my family would be concerned: I have two grandparents who are teachers. He said, ‘yes, but you have to live your life. They’re not always going to When is a book more than a book? Ben Frey learns the art of conceptual bookbinding. “...If I didn’t try making it as a painter, I was going to regret it.” be around. You have to make this decision for yourself.’” The professor’s advice resonated with Frey, who was at the time reading Sartre’s The Age of Reason while continuing to contemplate life as a painter. “I realized that I sounded a lot like Matthew, the main character, except he was 35 and unhappy. At the end of the book he realizes he has to take his life into his own hands and drop all the things he doesn’t want and try to start with what he wants. I thought about that and realized that if I didn’t try making it as a painter I was going to regret it.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } After returning from France, Frey moved to New York with a cache of paintings and managed to sell quite a few. Still, he found himself just shy of his goal of supporting himself through art. With a move to high-rent Manhattan planned, he began to look for a day job. Given the two years of bookbindery experience on his resume, bookbinders seemed an obvious starting point. Among those he wrote to was Richard Minsky, a bookbinder whose name had come up numerous times during Frey’s Internet search for employment. Minsky contacted Frey immediately after receiving his letter, but saw that Frey lacked the skills necessary for working with a master bookbinder. “Minsky’s work is very exacting. He needs things to be done to a 32nd or even a 64th of an inch. In a library bindery, most allowances can be an 8th of an inch or even larger,” explains Frey. In addition, Minsky’s work involves fine carpentry and expert leatherwork. A beginner with a fine piece of leather and a sharp knife can easily make expensive mistakes. Minsky gave Frey the chance to sharpen his skills by working with him part time as a volunteer. To pay his bills, Frey worked �43 {Alumni Profile} Helping Enduring Works Endure I david trozzo as a security guard. This past August, Minsky offered Frey full-time work in his studio. Minsky, it turns out, is no ordinary bookbinder. Frey says that he’s excellent at restoration, as one would expect, but he also works in conceptual art. Minsky’s current conceptual binding project is the Bill of Rights—a set of 10 books, one on each amendment. “He has picked books that deal directly with the topic of the amendment and binds them in a way relevant to the subject, showing the struggle between the rights that are guaranteed and how they are taken away,” explains Frey. “For the First Amendment he has taken a copy of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, burnt the cover and the edges of the pages, and built a reliquary for it. For the Tenth Amendment, he chose the ruling on the Bush v. Gore case as the text. He printed it on nice paper and bound it in a binding that looks like any binding you’d find in a legal library, but all of the boards are a little crooked and the labels on the spine are slightly off-center. He used fake leather for the cover. It looks like goat leather, but it’s actually pigskin.” Frey is now working on his own conceptual binding project. The book he’s working with is Life: A User’s Manual by Georges Perec. “It’s a 400-page work about everything that’s happening in one apartment building in Paris for the duration of one second. It revolves around the theme of a puzzle,” says Frey. “One of the more influential characters in the book has decided that he has so much money he needs a project in life. He learns to paint watercolors, then turns the paintings into puzzles, puts the puzzles together, then separates the watercolor paper from the backing and washes the watercolor off so he has a blank sheet of paper at the end. In my project, the book will slide into a case with a box on it and the puzzle will be in the box. I’m going to make that puzzle.” x n a quiet room in the basement of the Greenfield Library, sophomore Dillon Wright-FitzGerald takes a scalpel to Ptolemy’s Almagest. Alice Kurs (SFGI71), working nearby, barely looks up; she’s seen this kind of thing before. Kurs has watched dozens of students cut hundreds of books in the 15 years she’s run the bookbindery on the Annapolis campus. Wright-FitzGerald has only been on the job since August, but she feels perfectly at home among the musty pages, marbled endpapers, and gold-leaf lettering she works with during her 10-hour a week campus job. “I’ve always been interested in history, preservation, and bookmaking. I’ve always loved books as objects,” says WrightFitzGerald. “My grandparents had a large library and they would tell me to poke around, to take any books I wanted. I remember I had a late 19th-century edition of Les Miserables. It was the greatest thing. It looked old, felt old, smelled old.” Kurs has been binding books for nearly half a century. She can give you the rundown on old glue and new (the new polyvinyl acetate is more flexible; the old hide glue was, with heat and moisture, reversible). She’ll point out the brittle pages of books printed during World War I and II and compare their rapid deterioration with the relatively good condition of books published one and two hundred years earlier. She has a hands-on appreciation for the bindery’s old wooden presses as well as for the trade’s modern materials, such as the plastic-impregnated book cloth that is easily wiped free of errors. And her approach to the history of bookbinding is not academic, but personal. “In my grandfather’s time, you’d buy a book with no cover and take it to your bookbinder and he’d put a cover on it,” says Kurs, reminding you that this now-quaint art was once a corner-store business. “When I started in bookbinding around 1953, it was still possible to get books from the publisher without a cover.” Bookbinding is again changing; today, a primary goal of restoration is to retain as much of the original book as possible. “We view the book in its original form as something having integrity. When you strip away the binding, you strip away a sense of history,” explains Lisa Richmond, library director. “To throw away the original cover and make a new cover for a book, that’s a last-ditch treatment. What we prefer to do { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } Dillon Wright-Fitzgerald (A05) works with a volume in the Greenfield Library. is catch books when the repair is still small so we can keep the original binding. Dillon spends as much time doing things like reattaching loose leaves as she does cutting into books and making new covers.” In the library’s efforts to keep books in good condition, Richmond says she relies on library patrons as much as the bindery workers. “We’d like it so that books don’t even have to go to the bookbindery because they’re being handled more carefully,” she says. “We’re not a public library that buys what people want to read today, knowing that five years later we’ll throw them out. The importance of the books we buy doesn’t change from one century to the next. When you use a library book you want to think, ‘isn’t it wonderful that students for hundreds of years have touched this book and benefited from it and students two hundred years from now will do the same?’ We buy books for the St. John’s community today, but we also have a community that persists through time.” Down in the bindery, Kurs also casts her thoughts toward future readers. “This polyacetate vinyl glue we’re using is not reversible. It will only come off with brute force. I don’t know what they’ll do with the next generation of books that needs to be repaired, but I’ll let the people who come after us worry about that,” she says. “If there are books after us.” —Sus3an Borden, A87 �44 {Campus Life} The Dance of the Muses by Noam Gedalof, A03 resent-day readers of Ancient Greek plays have surely felt the strangeness of what seem to be interruptions or interludes in the midst of the drama, all attributed to a “chorus.” We have been told—and rightly so—that this chorus sang and danced these words, but that the music and dance is now lost, even irrecoverable. But what if we could see what that original and extraordinary form of the poetry was—alive before our eyes—complete in song and dance? Or, better yet, what if we could ourselves breathe life into this poetry, experience it first-hand, renew it, and perform it? We have tried to do this very thing at St. John’s, and we believe that we have succeeded. P Concentration and choreography : Mr. David recites from AGAMMEMNON as students practice for a November performance. In November 1999, I introduced my mother, Miriam Rother, to tutor Amirthanayagam David (A86). My mother is a choreographer interested and experienced in dance and theater. And I had heard a talk Mr. David gave on Ancient Greek mousike, in which he emphasized the connection of poetry to dance in Ancient Greece. In his talk there were recitations that were musical (at the same time melodic and intensely rhythmic). { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } I learned further that he was an innovator in the theory of Greek accentuation. Mr. David had uncovered the single missing component of the pronunciation of classical Greek. What had been known thoroughly were the values of all the vowels, diphthongs, and consonants in the language, as well as the meaning of the melodic, or pitch, accentuation markings. All that remained in the way of an authentic reproduction of the pronunciation was wordlevel stress—which syllables in each word were stressed and which were not—something found in every spoken language. In Greek the union of these three elements makes a kind of music, because the vowel sounds are long and short—the long vowels being twice the duration of the short ones—and so produce a meter. The interplay of the lengths of vowels with the rising and falling of the voice (melodic accentuation) produces stresses. These stresses coupled with the meter form a rhythm. It was on account of this musicality of speech that rhetoric, the art of public speaking or stylized speech, was subsumed under music. Certain ancient writers describe choreia, the art and practice of the chorus, as dance that is dictated by the rhythm and harmony inherent in the spoken word. From their statements, certain principles underlying the art may be inferred: one step for each syllable, and strict correspondence of stressed syllables with the setting down of the foot. This means that the very words and their musical texture prescribe the motion of the body. In this way the text becomes a musical score for the dance, the meter resolves into feet, and all that remains to be uncovered is how the dance looked from the ankles up. Of this, Mr. David dreamed for 13 years. At that first meeting, Mr. David and Mrs. Rother began to consider the possibilities for the renewal of Ancient Greek theater as live performance, with its union of the spoken word, dance, and gesture. Over the next year-and-a-half, Mrs. Rother familiarized herself with Mr. David’s work, its sources, and the Classical Greek language. She also studied the array of extant Greek vases and statuary, because many of the depictions seemed to be of figures in mid- �45 {Campus Life} The dancer becomes the very content of the speech. motion. As she explains it, the postures and gestures bespoke dance. They suggested a particular energy and expression of the desired aesthetic of the time, so that she could imagine the steps that would connect the individual figures. Choreia was ubiquitous in the Ancient Greek world. In religion, it was central. Everyone participated in it; it was a citizen’s rather than an expert’s art—and on this ground we can claim a kind of right to the dance, and to our renewal of it as nonprofessionals. Through participation in this medium, through embodiment—what Plato termed mimesis (imitation)—Greeks encountered the great men of old and their stories, as well as the stories of the gods and of the gods’ interaction with men. This meant that an army general would be depicted on a vase in a manner so stylized and so full of motion that the figure manifests the gesture associated with a general; that is, it suggests movement itself. It was in the context of the dance—in the context of embodied gesture—that a Greek would have had his first, and surely most pointed, encounter with a personage such as Agamemnon. His notion of the personage would be inseparable from a danced gesture. And so it would have come naturally to the vase painter or sculptor to depict him in his characteristic “dance pose,” down to the precise placement of the hands and feet, the twist in his back, and the turn of his head. Mr. David suggests that the nounand-epithet phrases in Homer—phrases generated by a dance rhythm—are verbal correlates for these characteristic poses found throughout ancient visual depictions. So central was the presence of choreia, and its influence so profound in the Greek world, that it may very well have prompted Plato’s notion (in the Laws) that an entire city could be choreographed—that is, gov- sara white wilson 1 3 erned through choreia. In February 2001, Mrs. Rother visited St. John’s to coordinate the first of three workshops based on her choreography and Mr. David’s theory. About a dozen students participated in each of the workshops, which culminated in performances for the community in a packed Great Hall. I participated and performed in all of these workshops. My experience of choreia has been of the extraordinary union of the life of the body and the life of the soul. Meaning, accent, and gesture—already unified in everyday speech—are embodied in the union of the musical word and dance. The dancer becomes the very content of the speech, becomes the personage being imitated, and lives through the story being told. I now understand what Plato had in mind when he spoke about imitation, and how deeply what is imitated resounds in the soul; or how the embodiment of a person, emotion, or idea can take hold of a man, and somehow remove him from himself. In the dance, one feels the body carried by the words, as though it were being moved, and no longer moving itself. This is the power of choreia—the dance of the Muses. x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } 2 4 5 Dancers perform the opening chorus of Aeschylus’ AGAMMEMNON (excerpt below, with numbers indicating corresponding photo). Picture 1 shows the characteristic “dance pose” of an army general. It is mine to declare the omens of victory Given to princely men (1) on the journey. I tell how the princes of the Achaeans, Twin-throned, single-hearted Lords of the youth of Greece, Were sent against the land of Troy With spear in hand to exact vengeance. (2) The furious omen-birds sent them, One black eagle, one white-tail, The king of birds to the king of the ships. (3) So a lord greater than the kings, Zeus god of guest-friends, Sends the sons of Atreus on Alexander; In this quarrel over a woman of many men,(4) He would lay upon Greeks and Trojans alike Many wrestlings(5) where the limbs grow heavy And the knee is pressed into the dust And the spear is shattered in the first rites of engagement. –translation by David Grene �46 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Dear Johnnies, Johnnies are a remarkable lot. You probably know members of your class who are making a difference in their communities and their professions. It is an honor to be a member of a group of such gifted and dedicated individuals. Twice a year, at Homecoming on each campus, the Alumni Association honors members of our community for their extraordinary achievements. Two types of awards are given: Honorary Alumni and Awards of Merit. On the SJC web site, you can view a list of persons who have received these honors in the past, but I would like to briefly describe this year’s awardees. Honorary Alumni status is awarded to members of the St. John’s College community who have contributed to the lives of students or alumni or to the well-being of the college and its program. Honorary Alumni receive all of the benefits of regular membership in the association, so they become permanent members of the college community. This year, five individuals were made honorary alumni. Two were recognized for their loyal support and work with the Board of Visitors and Governors. Bud Kelly supported the Santa Fe campus in its early days and helped set the foundation for the college in New Mexico. Greg Curtis, immediate past chair of the Board of Visitors and Governors, led the college through deliberations resulting in a unified governance structure that will provide a solid foundation for the college as a whole in the future. Two revered tutors were welcomed into the Alumni Association. Mr. John Sarkissian and Mr. Robert Williamson have served the college well and supported generations of alumni in their academic and personal pursuits. The fifth honorary alumnus designation went to Mr. Al Toft. Though most alumni do not know Mr. Toft personally, we all depended on the fruits of his labors. For decades, Mr. Toft has designed and constructed the equipment we use in the St. John’s laboratory program. We are happy to welcome these dear and generous people into the circle of St. John’s alumni. Awards of Merit are bestowed upon alumni who have made significant contributions to the college, to their professions, or to the nation. This year, four Awards of Merit were given to recognize a wide variety of work. Peggy Jones (SFGI77) has helped to build and maintain a bridge between the college and the community in Santa Fe. She has served many roles in support of the college, including a term on the Alumni Association Board. She continues to support the college with enthusiasm and energy. Stephanie Forrest (SF77) is a world-renowned researcher and scholar in applications of computer simulation modeling and nonlinear dynamics. She attributes her love of science and mathematics and her ability to work at the frontiers of science to her St. John’s education. Howard Zeiderman (A67) is a tutor in Annapolis. He received his Award of Merit for his work with Touchstones, a project that brings great books and great conversations to communities outside the college campus. Touchstones has been implemented internationally among disadvantaged groups including prison inmates and inner city youth. Candace Brightman (A67) was recognized for her creative and ingenious work as lighting director for The Grateful Dead and other performers. Soon after she left the college, Ms. Brightman joined the band to develop the visual extravaganzas that shaped the concert-going culture for the last three decades. Congratulations to these four remarkable alumni for their courage and commitment! Every year, as the Nominating Committee considers candidates for these awards, I am struck again by the diversity and excellence of our community. I am proud and honored to be among a collection of individuals who continually redefine what it means to live a life grounded in the liberal arts. I am sure that you know Johnnies, either alumni or beloved members of the non-alumni community, who are doing extraordinary things for their professions, the college, or the nation. Would you like to nominate someone for these awards? If so, please send a brief description and contact information to Bill Tilles, chair of the Nominating Committee, or to Tahmina Shalizi or Jo Ann Mattson, the Alumni Activities directors on the campuses. For the past, present, and future, Glenda H. Eoyang (SF76) President St. John’s College Alumni Association { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Whether from Annapolis or Santa Fe, undergraduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, 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 Alumni Association news and events of interest. President – Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President – Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary –Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer – Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team Chair – Linda Stabler-Talty (SFGI76) Web site – www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml Mailing address – Alumni Association, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404 or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed below for information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-275-9012 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin 410-280-0958 PITTSBURGH Robert Hazo 412-648-2653 AUSTIN Bev Angel 512-926-7808 PORTLAND Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen 410-472-9158 SACRAMENTO Helen Hobart 916-452-1082 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 CHICAGO Lorna Johnson 773-338-8651 SAN FRANCISCO, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Jon Hodapp 831-393-9496 DENVER Lee Goldstein 720-283-4659 LOS ANGELES Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 NEW YORK Joe Boucher 718-222-1957 NORTH CAROLINA Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 SANTA FE John Pollak 505-983-2144 SEATTLE Amina Stickford 206-269-0182 WASHINGTON DC Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 972-2-6717608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �{Alumni Association News} Johnnies Online Whether you’re missing seminar discussions or want to find Johnnies living in Chicago, virtual communities of St. John’s alumni and friends beckon. Recent topics on the Johnny Digest have included “Capitalism vs. Whatever,” “Up Next: Proponents of Flat-Earth Theory Demand Equal Time,” and “Martha Stewart’s Continuing Woes.” To join, e-mail Johnny@charm.net with the message “subscribe johnny-digest” for the digest or “subscribe johnny” if you prefer the list format. This lively group is for alumni only. JohnnyXpress is an unmoderated bulletin board for alumni, friends, faculty and staff: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ johnnyXpress/join or e-mail johnnyXpress-subscribe@egroups.com. Johnny2 promises that “no topic is offtopic, no word is forbidden,” but requires members to treat one another with the “respect suitable for senior seminar.” E-mail join-johnny2@lists.holocausthistory.org with the command “subscribe johnny2 your name.” Alumni interested in homeschooling can network with like minds: Visit the group’s web site at http://groups.yahoo.com/ group/JohnnyEducation-Homeschooling. Note: Neither St. John’s College nor the Alumni Association is involved with or monitors these web communities. x Big Apple Chapter Booming From swing parties to seminars, alumni in the greater New York chapter have no shortage of events to choose from, thanks to creative leadership and a core group of Johnnies ever ready to meet compatriots, sometimes for intellectual pursuits, sometimes just for a night out. When chapter president Joe Boucher (A89) first moved to New York, he was quickly drawn into the chapter. “When I moved here Justin Burke (A87) was president. Justin helped me get one of my first jobs, and I was working with him and saw him all the time. If a seminar was going on and he was worried no one was going to show up, I’d get recruited. “That’s how I ended up being part of the chapter leadership,” he says. Boucher served for three years as chapter secretary and now heads up the chapter, sec- 47 an enthusiastic response Are these Johnnies in Boston: A) volunteering to pick up the dinner check? or B) offering to lead seminars, programs, and other chapter events in a revitalized Alumni Association chapter in the Boston Area? The dinner gathering November 17 at Elephant Walk in downtown Boston drew close to 50 alumni to an event designed to gather steam for a more active chapter. Chapter president Ginger Kenney (A67) helped plan the event, which featured fine Thai food, networking, and brainstorming for seminars and other events in the coming year. ond only to Washington, D.C., in size with a mailing list of about 800 alumni. Some of the chapter’s most popular events draw up to 250 participants. “The good thing about our chapter is that we can have a lot of events that smaller chapters can’t, so we can be more active and take chances,” Boucher says. “Even if we draw 20 people that’s a good-sized event.” Like most alumni chapters, the New York alumni strike a balance between intellectual offerings and purely social events. A swing party in August at the Brooklyn home of Michael Barth (AGI96) drew 60 people. Attendance was also high at a seminar last fall on Job, led by Santa Fe tutor Michael Wolfe. Likely topics for future seminars include Beaudelaire and Pascal, and Santa Fe President John Balkcom is scheduled for a March seminar and reception. The chapter tries to offer a seminar-style event every month or so, because even in a city with so many cultural offerings, “there’s a real hunger” for these opportunities, says Boucher. In addition to seminars oriented toward Program authors, reading groups periodically form around a particular Johnnie’s interest. Even social events often include some food for thought, as was the case with a summer picnic on Long Island at the home of chapter secretary Edith Updike (A86). Seeking a read- { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } ing to celebrate New York, group members included a discussion of selections from Hart Crane’s The Bridge. Building on the success of seminars and parties, the chapter recently launched a mentoring initiative. Poets are meeting poets, those in the legal field share news of job openings, and Johnnies eager to break into the theater are connecting through the chapter, Boucher notes. Networking is also a goal of the chapter’s annual new alumni reception. Fifty Johnnies attended the November event this year. And with new alumni moving to New York all the time, there’s no shortage of new blood. For Boucher, the opportunity to connect with alumni from different generations and hearing about their adventures and interests are the best perks of his chapter involvement. “One of the nicest things about these events is the opportunity to meet people from other eras at St. John’s,” Boucher notes. “I might find it difficult to talk to a lot of 80-year-olds, but since we all more or less studied the same thing, we have that common ground to start with, and then we move on and find other things to talk about.” The chapter has a sharp new web site, frequently updated with chapter events and contacts. Visit www.sjcalums.com/nyc. x �48 T {St. John’s Forever} he St. John’s Story has achieved something of a cult classic status for many of the students and alumni who have seen it. Its stiffly choreographed scenes and somber narration prompt amusement from modern audiences, but when it was produced in 1954 The St. John’s Story was a creative answer to a slump in enrollment: In 1953, enrollment was only 125. Funded by the Old Dominion Foundation, the 28-minute film by Fordel Films of the Bronx, N.Y., was sent to secondary schools across the country, depicting seminars, waltz parties, coffee shop banter, and traditions such as senior orals. The college administration had high expectations for the film. In his 1954 President’s Report, Richard Weigle said, “The entire student procurement program will be built around its use during the coming year.” The film was shown in 435 public schools and 95 prep schools to about 75,000 people; it even had a showing at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1955. Combined with other recruitment efforts, the film was credited with bringing in a freshman class of 90 students in 1955. In this scene replicating senior orals, William H. Barrett, class of 1956, played the role of the defending senior, baking under the hot klieg lights used in the production. Barrett served as the star of the film. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �{Alumni Events Calendar} DATEBOOK April 26, 2003 Croquet Weekend, Annapolis June 29, 2003—July 4, 2003 Week One, Summer Alumni Program, Santa Fe July 4-6, 2003 Homecoming Weekend, Santa Fe July 6-11, 2003 Week Two, Summer Alumni Program, Santa Fe September 12-14, 2003 Homecoming Weekend, Annapolis For information on events, contact the Offices of Alumni Activities: Tahmina Shalizi Director of Alumni and Parent Activities Santa Fe: 505-984-6103 tshalizi@mail.sjcsf.edu Jo Ann Mattson Director of Alumni Activities Annapolis: 410-626-2531 alumni@sjca.edu Santa Fe Art Show More than 50 pieces were entered in the Alumni Art Show at the Santa Fe Campus last July. Artistic alumni are again invited to enter their work in the Third Annual St. John’s College Fine Arts Gallery Alumni Art Show. Timed to coincide with the Summer Alumni Program and Homecoming, the show will run from Saturday, July 5, through Sunday, July 27. All types of media are welcome; artists can also place their work for sale during the show. An opening reception will be held concurrent with the Homecoming reception. For details call Maggie Magalnick at 505-984-6199, or contact her by e-mail: Maggie@mail.sjcsf.edu Top: Inya Laskowski (SFGI97) entered this print, “Equus”; Above right: Betsy William (SF87) crafts clay pots that combine Karatsu training from Japan with New Mexican material and landscape. “Diamond” is shown. A return to traditional form is seen in Jo Basiste’s (SFGI91) Greek gods and heroes. This tempera painting is called “Polyphemus and Galatea.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2003 } �P ERIODICALS P OSTAGE PAID P UBLISHED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE P.O. BOX 2800 A NNAPOLIS , M ARYLAND 21404 ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 pages 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/. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Title A name given to the resource The College, Winter 2003 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Description An account of the resource Volume 29, Issue 1 of <em>The College</em> Magazine. Published in Winter 2003. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The_College_Magazine_Winter_2003 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/dd24ae3bd6c019815f5181b0f1954519.pdf 8c058faee2abd867715f369dea0659bb PDF Text Text The College St. John’s College • Annapolis s p r i n g • 2 0 0 3 Santa Fe Montaigne On the Education of Children �On Montaigne “Good God, how I would hate to be thought a pretty fellow with my pen, but an ass at everything else!” M ichel de Montaigne’s essays provide rich insight into 16th century life in Europe. His reports on the civil wars of France, the terror of the plague, and the wonder of new discoveries are engaging firsthand accounts of life in the Renaissance. His keen observations of daily life—education, child-rearing, marriage, and money management— still ring with good sense. There is also the sheer delight of listening to someone who loves to talk and has interesting things to say. “If you like my essays,” Montaigne told Henri III, “you must like me, for my book and I are one.” Michel Eyquem de Montaigne was born in 1533, the eldest son and heir of Pierre Eyquem. The family money had been made generations before in the trade of herring. A fourth-generation gentleman, Montaigne dropped his original surname and assumed the more elegant name of the family estate. His father, who guided Michel’s education so conscientiously by dictating only Latin be spoken to him in childhood, purchased a magistrate’s seat for his son to assume at the age of 21. With his charm and his connections, Montaigne could have pursued a political career had he more ambition and energy. Instead, when his father’s death left him wealthy enough to leave business and politics behind, Montaigne sold his magistrate’s post, retired to the third-story tower of his country estate, and took up his pen. He was very frank in his assessment of himself and his vices. He was bald and short. He had a “quick and firm” walk, a “loud and strong voice,” and was “slow and late at everything.” He claimed no great talent for anything but the ability to write about what he observed: “I look upon myself as ordinary in every respect, except in the fact that I look upon myself as ordinary.” Montaigne’s retreat was not absolute. He served two terms as the mayor of Bordeaux, traveled extensively, and played a role in negotiations between Henri III and Henri Navarre. He suffered greatly from kidney stones and died of the ailments that plagued his later years on September 15, 1592. Montaigne’s essay on education is a favorite of St. John’s in part because his words resonate with the philosophy of the Program. He defined education as a self-guided process that didn’t involve memorizing facts or repeating the opinions of others. He believed true education allowed a man to choose for himself what is right. The ultimate goal of education, he wrote, was to prepare a man to do some good as a citizen of the world: “This vast world—which some men now think is but one among many of its kind—is the mirror in which we must look in order to know ourselves in our true scale. And this world, in short, is the book my young scholar must study.” —RH The College (usps 018-750) is published quarterly 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 postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, md 21404-2800. Annapolis 410-626-2539 reharty@sjca.edu Rosemary Harty, editor Sus3an Borden, managing editor Phoebe Gilbert, art director Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Barbara Goyette Kathryn Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Jo Ann Mattson Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 tshalizi@mail.sjcsf.edu Laura J. Mulry, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board David Levine Ginger Roherty Tahmina Shalizi Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �The spring 2003 volume 29, issue 2 College • The Magazine for Alumni of St. John’s College Annapolis • Santa Fe {Contents} 12 Brave New World page d e p a r t m e n t s 2 • • • • • • • • 18 Montaigne and Education page Accreditation in Annapolis Santa Fe Copes with Drought Marshall Scholar Heads to Oxford Summer Classics Art Deco in Denmark Philanthropia Meets Aristotle Announcements Letters 28 Medical advances raise intriguing ethical issues for four doctors in very different roles. from the bell towers bibliofile page 12 Annapolis GI Director Bill Pastille discusses intellectual freedom and St. John’s College. • Eva Brann on Homeric delights • Charlotte Fletcher’s life of an early founder of St. John’s College • Alumni Books 20 A Formula for Success page 31 alumni voices St. John’s remembers Douglas Allanbrook. A glimpse into the classrooms of two Johnnie teachers—one in Annapolis and one in Santa Fe. 44 Reading the Signs 32 alumni notes A LU M N I page page 20 Photographer Sara White Wilson (A03) finds Hegel and graffiti have something in common. P RO F I L E S 32 Jacob Keller (SF98) authors a paper for Structure on his way to medical school. 35 An ACLU fellowship puts Juan Villaseñor (A97) on the case for free speech. 40 Logophile Hallie Leighton (SF92) writes a book about unusual words. 43 obituaries Martin Miller, A81 alumni association news 48 st. john’s forever 46 page 44 on the cover Michel de Montaigne Illustration by David Johnson �2 {From the Bell Towers} Annapolis Self-Study: A Probing Look in the Mirror quality general education programs in the liberal arts that meet its stringent educational, administrative, and financial criteria. The AALE is the only accrediting agency that focuses exclusively on the quality of undergraduate liberal arts and general education curricula. “We trust AALE to have good judgment about liberal arts colleges in general and St. John’s in particular,” says Kalkavage. “They have known Tutor Peter Kalkavage chaired the Self-Study Committee. about us for many years and understand our goals and habits.” Bud Billups, and President Membership is small: Christopher Nelson. Dozens of so far only Baylor University, subcommittees met to analyze the James Madison College of and discuss the major areas of Michigan State, the University the self-study. “Accreditation of Dallas, Thomas Aquinas and self-study are labor-intenCollege, and Thomas More sive and time-consuming,” says College of Liberal Arts have Kalkavage. “We have gone into met the standards. it in the spirit of hoping to Middle States accreditation learn from the experience and renders the college eligible by telling the truth about ourfor state and federal grants, selves, come up with a report provides a measure of proof that will be useful both for the that the college meets stanpurposes of formal review and dards of quality education, and for the education of our college gives St. John’s the opportunity community.” to see how outsiders view the Middle States is the regional college. But at the same time, accrediting body for the submitting the college to Annapolis campus. Santa Fe is outside review is fraught with accredited by the North Central difficulties: the college’s Association Commission on unique approach to educaAccreditation and School tion—no grades, no formal Improvement. tests beyond the freshman Middle States reviews the music quiz and algebra college every 10 years. After exam, no electives, no the self-study is complete, the endowed chairs, no report is sent to the accreditaacademic hierarchy—can tion team, which will spend be difficult to explain.“It three days on campus this is very important for the November visiting classes and college to guard its radical interviewing faculty, students, educational mission, its and college officers. devotion to genuine learnThe inclusion of AALE in ing,” explains Kalkavage. accreditation is new this year. “We urge our students to be Based in Washington, AALE responsible for their opinions by is a national association that giving reasons for them and accredits institutions offering being open to critical examina{ T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } tion. The whole—at times, tedious—process of accreditation is an opportunity for the college as a whole to do something similar: to give itself a keen, critical looking over; to take pains in presenting its selfreview in a formal way; and to submit ourselves to the scrutiny of outside reviewers, who, we hope, are able to understand who we are and why we are not like other schools.” In no way does the self-study reflect a perfect institution, he says.“What we aspire to as a community of learning is both stunning and formidable, and the extent to which we succeed in being a community of learners is truly remarkable,” Kalkavage says. Ultimately, accreditation leads to a stronger institution, says Dean Flaumenhaft. The process of self-study “forces us to articulate what it means to be a community of learning: what it requires, the ways in which we need to improve ourselves to live up to our aspirations. We can’t just mutter a few slogans. We have to try to say exactly what we mean.” x jo ann mattson The self-study that preceded the Annapolis 2003 accreditation review by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the American Academy for Liberal Education (AALE) was an exhaustive 18-month process that yielded a report entitled Liberal Education in a Community of Learning. The document embraces questions, observations, and recommendations on everything from Hegel’s place in the senior seminar to how to discourage students from smoking. Completed early in the spring, the report touched on almost every aspect of college life and involved all faculty, many staff members, and nearly every campus office. Students, associates, staff, and board members also were involved. While the joint visit from Middle States and the AALE isn’t scheduled until November, the process that precedes it is perhaps the most valuable—and in some ways painful—aspect of accreditation. It requires the college community to take a probing look in the mirror and acknowledge flaws as well as assets. Middle States defines accreditation as “a means of self-regulation and peer review adopted by the educational community…intended to strengthen and sustain the quality and integrity of higher education, making it worthy of public confidence.” In Annapolis, the responsibilities of accreditation were taken very seriously, says tutor Peter Kalkavage, who has devoted hundreds of hours to accreditation over the past year. Kalkavage chaired the steering committee, whose members are tutors Marilyn Higuera and Joe Macfarland, Assistant Dean Judy Seeger, Graduate Institute Director Bill Pastille, Dean Harvey Flaumenhaft, Treasurer �3 {From the Bell Towers} Community Building in Santa Fe by Michael DiMezza (SF98, EC99) The recently completed greenhouse in Santa Fe is a forceful argument against contemporary building construction. Typically, a few people with powerful tools and foreign materials construct new buildings, an aggressive approach that produces quick results. But consider just one piece of pressure-treated lumber. Not only are carcinogenic agents applied to it to [The greenhouse] radiate[s] like a well-arranged fire that draws deeply, burns brilliantly, and calls people to it. ensure its longevity, but it also represents a significant expense of petroleum in the course of its harvest, transport, milling, delivery, and installation. These steps accelerate production at the cost of future health and energy problems. There is an alternative: community building. The new greenhouse represents three years of cooperation between visionary students, the Buildings and Grounds office, and college The Santa Fe greenhouse team: Josh Paverud (SFGI03), Pat McCue (SFGI82, EC97), Zephyr Renner (SF03)(kneeling), Zusha Elinson (SF03)(standing), Matt Aronoff (SF03)(kneeling), Michael DiMezza (SF98, EC99)(kneeling) administration. Its construction was not a matter of plans or materials, but of people willing to heft 30-pound bricks or tolerate frigid Saturday and Sunday mornings. Community labor and a mere $4,000 produced this thermally intelligent, non-toxic and flat-out beautiful building. Our earthen walls, locally harvested timber, and recycled plate glass and lumber radiate like a well-arranged fire that draws deeply, burns brilliantly, and calls people to it. Without all the Buildings and Grounds work-study students and volunteers who gave their time and effort, this project would have remained a concept. Matt Aronoff, Zephyr Renner, Zusha Elinson, and Josh Paverud, all of this year’s graduating class, deserve special recognition. We laid the foundation with some of these students when they were freshmen; it’s fitting that we have completed it together in their final year. Also, St. John’s has been fortunate to have the talent of Pat McCue, the college’s head gardener, and David Perrigo, our architect and friend. Their architecture and landscaping visions of a living campus are directly responsible for its present beauty. The class of 2000, Student Polity, and the Graduate Student Council generously provided funding for raw materials. The greenhouse went up behind the Fine Arts Building, a perfect site for a building designed to work with the sun’s radiant cycles. Its footprint is a familiar rectangle roughly 14' x 23'. The pitched roof has three large skylights. Seven floor-to-ceiling windows span 19 feet of its façade and allow direct winter sunlight to warm the growing area. The three other sides are adobe brick with doors on the east and west and a window on the north. At spring equinox the sun tracks a higher course in the sky and { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } the eaves partially shade its rays. By summer, only indirect light will enter, leaving the adobe’s thermal mass to keep the building cool. Passive solar structures such as this harvest the sun’s mild, direct radiation for cool-season heat and use thermal inertia for warmseason cooling. We hope this project can offer a fundamental lesson: All ecosystems, especially this desert ecosystem, though rich, are fragile. When our designs function in concert with these ecosystems, buildings like this greenhouse can provide food, shelter, beauty, and community, effortlessly, for years to come. x Michael DiMezza was project manager on the St. John’s College greenhouse construction. He works as a gardener and ecological designer for the college. �4 {From the Bell Towers} High and Dry in Santa Fe by Pat McCue (SFGI83) The drought in and around Santa Fe has been severe for the last few years. Although at various times the surrounding forest has been extremely dry and dangerously vulnerable to wildfires, we have not seen the massive die-off of trees that is plaguing the lowlands. Because we’re closer to the mountains, we’re a little wetter. It has occurred to me that the concept of drought is anthropomorphic. Apparently, dry periods are typical of this region and the last 30 years have been comparatively wet. I have asked some of the residents if they remember the drought of the 1950s. I was told that although it was very dry, there was still plenty of water because there were fewer people in need of it. Also, their need was so much less in comparison with today’s requirements. As for the dying trees, a local permaculturist told me that the forest is being stressed because the many new wells that have been drilled have lowered the water table. So “the drought” would seem to be largely a function of population growth, and therefore we can look forward to a permanent scarcity of water even if the annual rainfall returns to its previous level. I came to St. John’s after having worked for many years for Plants of the Southwest, an organization that specializes in native landscapes and holds a strong sense of mission regarding the fragility of our environment and the importance of conserving water. It was evident that the growing water shortage was inevitable, so from the outset I initiated gardening practices aimed at lessening our dependence on irrigation. The key is encouraging the formation of a deep layer of topsoil that will act like a sponge in holding whatever water does fall. Without this measure, the degraded landscapes of the West simply shed the majority of rainfall from their bare crusts. We have used three main strategies to do this: First, we cover bare ground with organic matter. By composting kitchen garbage, manure, and garden waste, all of which are in large supply, each year we produce an impressive amount of rich organic matter to spread on the grounds. We also mulch whatever branches we come across and this material is also spread. In conjunction with this practice, we have been continuously planting native trees and shrubs that are able to survive more readily in this environment, among them, piñon and ponderosa pine, black locust, Russian olive trees, and Rocky Mountain junipers. These plants’ roots play a critical, subsurface role in the development of healthy soil. Finally, we harvest water by putting basins around the trees and bushes and by building berms where water is running. Obstructing the water gives it time to sink into the ground and nurture the life in the soil. Snow Bound in Annapolis In Annapolis, the Presidents Day storm canceled classes for two days. Buildings and Grounds staff worked long hours to clear two feet of snow from parking lots, walkways, and rooftops. The storm also wreaked havoc with the Senior Oral schedule and ripped new gutters off Iglehart Hall. The good news: water restrictions have been lifted in the state, and the drought declared over. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } These simple procedures have changed the environment of the campus. Pat McCue While we may have little influence over how much rain falls, these simple procedures—the very same processes at work in our forests—have significantly changed the environment of the campus. The diversity of plant and animal life has greatly increased. Much of what we have planted provides food for the birds (robins, house finches, common bush tits, and scrubjays) and the insects, which attract larger animals such as rabbits and squirrels. Rachel Balkcom (SFGI00) donated several birdhouses built by the students in her class at Santa Fe Prep. Since coming here, I have instituted a policy of not mowing many of the areas that were previously cut whenever they became shaggy. This has allowed wildflowers and grasses to mature and spread their seeds throughout the campus, providing for periodic displays of seasonal wildflowers. The result is a landscape that may not please those accustomed to the more traditional landscapes. But the Santa Fe campus is beautiful in the way that untrammeled nature is beautiful and is preeminently sensible where water is so precious. x Pat McCue is head gardener on the Santa Fe Campus. �5 {From the Bell Towers} Oxford Bound The night before his November interview for the Marshall Scholarship, Annapolis senior Aaron MacLean (A03) was calm, mentally ready, and carefully prepped by tutors who conducted several practice interviews with him. At 4 a.m., his tranquility vanished. MacLean woke up terrified. He managed to drive himself through a pouring rain to his interview at the British Embassy in Washington, arrived an hour early, and waited in the car until his interview time. But when he couldn’t find the front door of the embassy, the panic rose again—and he was getting wet. After that, it was easy. MacLean enjoyed the interview and the committee seemed impressed by him. One question MacLean tackled with zeal touched on Theodore Kaczynski, the Unibomber, and his studies at Harvard. The moral principle Kaczynski had come across more than any other was to pursue freedom at all costs, the interviewer explained, adding that some suggested Harvard could be sued for contributing to the Unibomber’s acts. “Do you think Harvard should be brought before the courts for this?” MacLean was asked. In typical Johnnie fashion, MacLean responded that first one would have to define freedom and discussed how hard it is to understand what being d av i d t ro z z o Annapolis Graduate Plans International Career Aaron MacLean heads to Oxford this fall to prepare for a career in international relations. free means. He brought up Plato’s Republic in his thoughtful answer, which ultimately let Harvard off the hook. Along with rich perspective gleaned from reading great books and keen observation of the modern world, MacLean remembered his mock interviewers’ instructions to sit up straight, not talk so fast, and curb his “ums.” Within a few days, he received the phone call he hoped for: He was selected as one of 40 Marshall Scholars, talented young Americans viewed as potential “leaders, opinion-formers and decisionmakers” in the U.S. The scholarship program was established to foster “an understanding and appreciation of British values and the British way of life” and to strengthen ties between the people of both nations. In the fall, MacLean begins studies for a master’s in Medieval Arabic Thought at Oxford University. MacLean was interested in the Arab world, foreign affairs, and dialogue between cultures before the terrorist attacks of September 11. He had studied Arabic in Egypt one summer and at Middlebury College the next. The attacks, coming right after his summer in Cairo, strengthened his resolve to pursue a career in international relations. The knowledge he will pursue in his graduate studies is more urgently needed in the world, he says. “It is my belief that the danger the West now faces from Islamic terrorism is made vastly greater by a deep and abiding ignorance on its part about the civilization of the Middle East,” he wrote in his application. “Further- { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } more, it is clear that these foundations cannot merely be divined by perusal of the newspapers. Studies of the contemporary situation must be supported by thorough knowledge of the thousand-plus years of history that led up to it, knowledge that can only be attained with study of the languages involved, and of the founding texts written in those languages.” MacLean, of Burke, Va., says his parents’ work influenced his choice of public service. His father, Angus, who died in 2001, followed an Army career with many years as chief of the Washington, D.C. Metro Transit Police. His mother, Sally, who worked in civil service in Vietnam and later for the FBI, is an assistant principal in an elementary school in Northern Virginia.x �6 {From the Bell Towers} Great Books Getaway: Summer Classics 2003 Combine a high desert setting, a city rich in cultural offerings including one of the country’s finest operas, and the chance to study great works by Plato, Tolstoy, and Flannery O’Connor (among others), and you get a vacation opportunity unlike any other. Each year, Summer Classics draws several hundred people who prefer to use their leisure time expanding the mind and edifying the soul, engaging in thoughtful conversations of great books, and enjoying Santa Fe. Participants choose one seminar per morning or afternoon each week for one to three weeks. Seminars of up to 17 are led by two members of the St. John’s College faculty, guests from other institutions, and alumni. Call 505-984-6104 or e-mail classics@sjcsf.edu. x Tutor Michael Bybee (right) leads a seminar. This year’s line-up of seminars and tutors: Week 1, July 13-18 Afternoon Session: Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil, Victoria Mora and Kent Taylor Morning Session: Hanna Arendt: The Human Condition, Michael Golluber and Jay Smith Charles Saunders Pierce: Various works, Michael Bybee and David Carl Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays, John Cornell and Richard McCombs Shakespeare’s sonnets, William Alba and Krishnan Venkatesh Physics Before the Footlights—Five Plays, Robert Richardson and Gino Thomas All-participant seminar: Isak Dinesen: “Sorrow-Acre” Afternoon Session: Galileo: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Mark Rollins and Caleb Thompson Flannery O’Connor: short stories, Jan Arsenaul and Elizabeth Engel Tolstoy: short stories, James Carey and David Starr All-participant seminar: Francis Bacon: “Of Truth,” “Of Friendship,” and “Of Studies” Week 2, July 20-25 Week 3, July 27-August 1 Morning Session: Mozart and Offenbach: Opera, William Fulton and Robert Glick Plato: Five short dialogues, James Carey and Frank Pagano Shakespeare: Henry V, Judith Adam and Warren Winiarski (A52) Afternoon Session: Archimedes, James Forkin and Brendon Lasell Morning Session: The Upanishads, Patricia Greer and Claudia Honeywell Strauss: Opera, William Fulton and Timothy Miller George Eliot: Middlemarch, Eva Brann and Janet Dougherty Henry James: The Ambassadors, Victoria Mora and Peter Pesic Selected works of classic French drama, Michael Bybee and David Carr All-participant seminar: Joseph Conrad: The Secret Sharer { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } �{From the Bell Towers} 7 Art Deco in Denmark by Beth Schulman All the members of the court of Denmark wore shades of red, evoking blood and passion. Musical and Dramatic Academy in Manhattan. His roommate, Tom Jacobs, composed a score for piano, which he played backstage during performances. “Tobin and I agreed that American nightlife following the Volstead Act was the embodiment of a glossy exterior covering a rotten interior that Hamlet viewed with such disdain in the Danish court,” says Jacobs, also a sophomore. “Also,” he said, “the women looked great then.” Costume designer Megan Graff (A02), last year’s theater archon, was responsible for outfitting the cast of 19, many of whom had multiple roles. She dressed the audience for the play-within-a-play in evening clothes, creating some herself and borrowing several from the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Va. (where she is currently an intern), and some from the Annapolis Opera. Day clothes were principally composed of 1920s-style suits and trench coats for the men and sleek dresses for the women. All the members of the court of Denmark wore shades of red (the color of the Danish flag), evoking blood and passion. Jacobs incorporated music into the play in several ways. He composed a musical theme for each important character, which played during scene changes and functioned as a subtle soundtrack for the performance. “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern had a A prince with an attitude problem: Joseph Hyde, A03, played a bright ragtime melody, Jazz-age Hamlet in The King William Players spring production. while Ophelia’s was classical and beautiful,” says Graff. While not a musical, the play had part about it, thinking it breakthrough where suddenly other heightened musical he was the creepiest and funni- through.” elements as well. The playIncorporating music into est Polonius I’d ever seen, and within-a-play was set as an the tale was an additional our ghost has this voice that opera, and Ophelia’s songs were challenge, says Jacobs. “Aristotle just took us over.” more songlike than usual. said, ‘melody is the greatest The hardest thing about the Herringshaw and Jacobs of the pleasurable accessories play was “thinking through cast the spring production last of tragedy.’ We put him to fall and spent extra time working Hamlet and respecting the the test.” x on the music and meeting with script and the audience by not giving a simple and uncast members to discuss their thoughtful performance,” says roles. “We had an amazing Herringshaw, who wrote his cast,” says Herringshaw. “I’m sophomore essay on “Reversal really pleased with the freshand Recognition in Hamlet.” men, they showed such strong “But that was also the best leadership. Polonius had a sara white wilson This spring, The King William Players in Annapolis gave a fresh spin to Shakespeare’s Hamlet by setting it during Prohibition, adding a jazzy musical score, crafting an Art Deco set, and outfitting Ophelia and the court to look like characters from the cast of Chicago. The production was directed by sophomore Tobin Herringshaw, a graduate of the American { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } �{From the Bell Towers} 8 Phonathon volunteer Kathleen Campbell Kelley (A03) is all smiles. Philanthropia Meets Aristotle Here are two facts on the minds of Philanthropia volunteers: G Over the past five years, 40 percent of alumni made a gift to the Annual Fund. G The participation rate for any one year is less than 30 percent. The question then becomes: How can all 40 percent of alumni who already support the college be encouraged to make a gift every year? In any one year, St. John’s alumni support the college at a lower rate than alumni of other colleges. The goal for this year is 32 percent—which would put St. John’s in the same range as its peers. “ Moral virtue comes about as a result of habit.” Aristotle “The participation number is not important because we want to compete with Haverford or Colorado College,” says Jeff Bishop, vice president for college-wide advancement. “It’s important because it leverages gifts from foundations and other large donors, for whom alumni support is an indicator.” And the percentage of alumni who make gifts is a good sign of the college’s future financial health—it’s much more likely that someone will give a second, third, or fourth gift once they’ve made the commitment to support St. John’s. So how can Philanthropia volunteers encourage all 40 percent of Johnnies to give to the Annual Fund every year? One strategy is to begin by encouraging people to remember their college connection during their reunion years. “Five years, ten years, twenty-five years... these markers serve as reminders about the place of the college in our growth,” says Barbara Goyette (A73), vice president for advancement who will celebrate her 30-year reunion. “We’re hoping for an extra fund-raising effort during the reunion years that will bring the participation rate up for those classes. ” Reunion Class Leaders, volunteers from each class, work with college staff on special letters, web pages, fundraising challenges, and other ways to boost giving during reunion years. The idea seems to be working. Among Santa Fe alumni, the number of donors has increased by ten percent over last year, about the same as Annapolis. What’s the key to this success? Ginger Roherty, director of annual giving in Santa Fe attributes it to “devoted, dedicated alumni working in concert with reunion class leaders, as well as special events, improved communi- cations, and the efforts of young alumni and the senior classes.” A further step has its inspiration in Aristotle’s Ethics: “Moral virtue comes about as a result of habit.” With that in mind, the Philanthropia volunteers are working to instill the habit of giving in alumni. Gary Edwards (SF79) is working on a Philanthropia program to continue the momentum developed by class leaders in reunion years. “There are many ways we can do this,” he says. “We can send postcards, write letters soliciting alumni notes from our classmates, and continue to build class web pages.” Philanthropia volunteers are banking on Aristotle’s understanding of habit—and their sense of responsibility to the college—to boost the allimportant participation level permanently.x Alumni Help with State Funding Effort St. John’s has a long history of funding support from the state of Maryland, dating back to 1784, when the college was chartered. Although there have been some periods when the college has gone without money from the state, for the most part the relationship has been positive. Since the { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } mid-1970s, Maryland has been allocating a small percentage of the state’s higher education budget to independent colleges—including St. John’s— under the argument that the colleges contribute to the state’s economic and cultural well-being and are worth the investment. In 2002, for example, the college’s portion came to about $750,000, or 3 percent of the Annapolis campus annual operating budget. This year Maryland, like many other states, is going through a budget crisis. In an effort to find the money to balance the state budget, the funding for Maryland’s independent colleges came under scrutiny. Several proposals were floated: tie the funding to the number of in-state students (this would have meant an 85 percent cut for St. John’s); cut the funding by 20 percent; cut the funding by 51 percent. Alumni, faculty, and trustees from schools in Maryland (St. John’s, Loyola, Johns Hopkins, Maryland Institute College of Art, Goucher, and others) wrote letters, e-mails, and faxes to their state representatives stressing the importance of the schools to the state and laying out the consequences of the proposed cuts. St. John’s President Christopher Nelson spoke with legislators daily. The effort, coordinated by the Maryland Independent College and University Association (MICUA), was successful in reaching legislators and educating them about the importance of the funding. However, the final outcome of the lobbying efforts is still in doubt at press time. It is likely that the independent colleges will still take a significant hit in the Maryland budget. x �{From the Bell Towers} Announcements New Endowments Two new endowments have been established at the college. The Nancy Gannon Gearing Student Endowment will support students at the Annapolis campus through loans, prizes, or scholarships. The Victor and Mimi Zuckerkandl Faculty Endowment will benefit faculty at the Annapolis campus with loans, salary, or employment benefits. The college’s endowment funds can honor or memorialize alumni, faculty, and friends of the college and match a donor’s wishes with needs at Career Services the college. For a complete list of all such funds for both campuses, request the Presidents’ Report, 1999-2001 from the Advancement Office, SJC, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404. New Faces In Santa Fe: Susan Patten, director of the National Friends program, based in Santa Fe; Jennifer Sprague, director of the Meem Library; Susan Kaplan, director of Corporate and Foundation Relations. In Annapolis: Andrea Lamb, director of the Greenfield Library. Name change: At St. John’s College, the Placement Office is no more. The Board of Visitors and Governors approved an amendment to the Polity that changes the name of the office to Career Services. Dropping “placement” from the title is intended to better reflect the mission of the office. “We were often confused with the admissions office, or expected to somehow place students in classes,” says Roberta Gable (A78), director in Annapolis. Instead the office helps students prepare applications for graduate school, scholarships, and fellowships; arranges internships and 9 part-time jobs; and provides counseling for students attempting to match their talents and interests with a paying job. In general, Gable says, she’s called upon to “help students achieve escape velocity.” Gable mulled over several potential names: “Exit Strategy office,” “The Ministry of Potentiality,” and “Department of Free Will” were among her favorites. Whatever the name, Gable—who has managed the bookstore, served as athletic director, and headed the alumni office—loves her new job. “I have the best job,” she says. “I get to talk with students and listen to them talk about their dreams and their hopes.” {Letters} Perspective on Ptolemy It has been a long while since I read the “Statistics vs. Ptolemy” article (Summer 2002), but I do want to add to Jessica Gambill’s letter as to whether anything is “lacking” in the mathematics curriculum at St. John’s. A handful of specific observations may be helpful. First of all, those college students who are best at mathematics often do not have a complete background in the pragmatics of the language. My first exposure to many tools used in high school and college algebra came when I was a teaching assistant. Some of those tools turned out to be very useful in my own graduate course in complex analysis. At the same time, I was quickly able to identify the usefulness of the tool within the context of the work I was doing. In the same way, working as a TA for everything from remedial mathe- matics courses to tutoring students in differential equations basically filled a lot of gaps. Like Esther in The Bell Jar discovering that her honors course “failed” to give her the prerequisites needed to major in English at a community college, graduate and the most talented undergraduate students are always discovering that freshman college algebra students have mastered something they themselves had never heard of. This seems in no way to prevent access to the core. There are, for instance, dozens of tricks used for matrix operations linear algebra. Most of them I have never learned (but marvel when I watch an undergraduate engineering student whip through them) and most of the rest I don’t bother to remember. This is really not a problem. In the same way, teaching undergraduates to solve definite integration problems shores up the same skills when the TA is also taking graduate probability theory (as long as you remember that in the undergraduate calculus course, the result of integrating over the entire domain does not have to be 1, as would be expected in the probability course). Sometimes you have to remember which classroom you happen to be in. Before attending St. John’s, I spent a year at a liberal arts college where I took calculus with no “precalculus” preparation. Our calculus course was unlike the “fat” curriculum typically assigned to college students. Those curricula tend to be loaded with specific applications that are later forgotten. “Exercises” are not only repetitive, but they also seem to reflect a compulsion to demonstrate every possible situation to which a theorem might apply. Meaning easily gets lost in calisthenics. The { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } course I had taken was, well, sparse–and got to the point. It was far more useful, ultimately, than those fat calculus courses. The curious thing is that what is taught as “advanced” coursework to college students is often the easiest work to do. “Abstract algebra” is the college student’s first real introduction to mathematics as conceptual language (college algebra courses do some stuff “translating” equations into English, but that is not the same thing). Pragmatically, abstract algebra is easier than the logic puzzle books in drugstore magazine aisles. Yet modern algebra coursework is typically left until senior year for many college mathematics majors. (The effort to introduce a structural, conceptual approach to early math education in the 1960s—what was called “new math”—is ridiculed to this day, but many real live continued on p. 10 �10 mathematicians remember it fondly.) My years at St. John’s prepared me far more than the typical college undergraduate mathematics program to participate in graduate mathematics studies (yes, I did have to take undergraduate coursework away from St. John’s. So do St. John’s graduates who become doctors). In my first year of graduate school, I immediately appreciated the links between probability and algebraic theory—and, later, quickly what is called measure theory. In fact, I felt that graduate mathematics was more “just like St. John’s” than any other environment in the “real world”—sometimes more “just like St. John’s” than was the college itself. If the Program were infinitely expandable (or maybe as a preceptorial suggestion) I would suggest some algebraic theory. Johnnies would like to know the story of Galois. The Axiom of Choice—which becomes practically sacred ground in the graduate mathematics environment—is also prime Johnnie territory: it is terribly important to mathematics over the past century or two, it has a terrific name, and it casts an interesting conceptual light on probability (which has way more eidos than most people realize). Sheri (Anderson) McMahon (SF78) A Flawed Justice System I have just read, with fascination, “Crime and Punishment” (Summer 2002). In light of the article’s undoubtedly factual statement that “Johnnies in justice veer to the idealistic,” I find it surprising that the article also reports, evidently with confident approval, that: “However common...scenes of injustice are in fiction and drama, front-line professionals say they are rare in real life. From arrest through sentencing, those involved in the U.S. {Letters} criminal justice system say that, despite its flaws, it’s a system that works.” My practice is mainly in civil law. My own experiences with the criminal justice system, however, and those of lawyers with much more experience whose integrity and judgment I trust, persuade me that this optimistic assessment greatly minimizes the extent to which our criminal justice system operates without regard for justice....It is a common “Justice in the abstract is the refuge of hypocrites and scoundrels.” William Blake experience of criminal defense lawyers to see policemen lie in court to help prosecutors obtain convictions when they “know” the defendant is guilty, believing that the law affords criminal defendants too much protection; that prosecutorial caseloads are so heavy that prosecutors often have little time or incentive to focus on the justice of the particular case; that bureaucratic D.A.s are often more interested in winning impressive conviction statistics than assuring that justice is done in their cases; and that the “policies” of some D.A.s often preclude a concern for justice....Moreover, it is common knowledge that, throughout the United States, racial and other discriminatory biases are often present at every stage of the criminal process from identification of suspects to sentencing—including administration of the death penalty. All things considered, I share the view that our criminal justice system is among the best in the world. But we blind ourselves to reality if we do not acknowledge that its “flaws” are sufficiently great to warrant deep concern among those of us who still cherish the ideal of law as an instrument of justice. “For real justice to be done,” wrote William Blake, “it must be done in minute particulars. Justice in the abstract is the refuge of hypocrites and scoundrels.” This truth remains, sadly, too commonly ignored by the administrators of our criminal justice system—both prosecution and defense. Harrison Sheppard (A61) In Search of Phil Gold I am interested in the whereabouts of Phil Gold (A51). He, like me, came over to Israel as a volunteer to the Israel Army in our War of Independence. He visited me in the South Negev where we fought the Egyptians and said he was in the unit in the North facing the Iraqis and Syrian Armies. That was the last I saw of him. Raphael ben-Yosef (A48) aravati@netvision.net.il Fax: 972-3-5325581 Phone: 972-3-532554 Calendar Mysteries Revealed Each year, alumni help us identify the faces and circumstances of archival photographs we publish in the Philanthropia calendar. This year was no different. I just received a copy of the SJC 2003 calendar. I really like it— the pictures take me back. The February 2003 photo was taken in 1973 or 1974. The girl on the right wearing knee socks is Judy Paine, of the class of 1976. I am not sure about the others in the photo. The September 2003 photo shows students in the class of 1976 also, from left { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } to right they are: Janet Adams, unknown, Brad Wronski (with elbows on the table), Nancy Garrow, Bridget Houston, David Friedman (with head down), and tutor Sam Brown. This photo was probably taken in 1973. The people I have identified were all classmates of mine in the January freshman class. We were the first January Freshman class in Santa Fe, I think. They were great people. Thanks for the wonderful calendar. Gregg McReynolds (SF76) I can tell you the story of the [Philanthropia] calendar cover. The woman on the left in the August photo is Ms. Monique Wentzel (SF02). The picture was taken in the spring of 2001, not 2002, as noted in the credits, on the Santa Fe campus. In the foreground the students, left to right: Adrian Bowles (SF02), me (SF02), and Brett Esaki (SF02). Over my shoulder, left to right, are Peter Boyce (SF01), Ms. Ashley Scott (SF01), Ms. Laura Vitale (SF01) and Mr. Christopher Howe (SF01). [Photographer Howard] Korn asked to take a picture of Mr. Bowles, Mr. Esaki, and me while we were engaged in a discussion about the Maxwell. In our Junior Lab tutorial with Mr. Cohn, we had some major problems with the conversion from electromagnetic units (EMU) to electrostatic units (ESU). The equation given us by Mr. Cohn was a bit much for my brain to handle, but with Mr. Esaki’s ample quantitative skills and Mr. Bowles’ tendency for mathematical exhibitionism at hand, we headed outside to give it a try on the concrete. Mr. Korn approached some five or ten minutes later when, exhausted, we had decided to give up. But still, we knew we looked pretty cool out there, so Brett said we should give it another shot for the photogra- �11 {Letters} pher. In any case, Mr. Cohn’s lab class was the best thing I ever did at St. John’s. Thanks for publishing the picture. Joey Chernila (SF02) I received the new calendar and was delighted to see two of my classmates pictured for the month of October. The woman is Erin Murphy (SF73) from Malibu, Calif. We were friends and have stayed in touch all these years. She still lives in Malibu and has raised seven children. One of her daughters attends the University of San Francisco with my younger daughter. (Interesting coincidence.) Four members of our family have graduated from St. John’s. My father, John L. Williams, graduated in 1950 from Annapolis. I believe it was the first graduating class for Dr. [Richard] Weigle. Dr. Weigle was still president when I graduated from Santa Fe in 1973. My sister, Andrea, graduated in 1977, and my oldest daughter, India Clarke, in 2001. The tutor in the September picture is dear, dear Sam Brown. How I loved that man. We used to play four-hand piano pieces together for fun. What a stitch that was! He liked to egg students on, and it looks like he was succeeding with the young man in the picture. Thanks for a great calendar. Be Hussander (SF79) Thanks for the calendar— I’m quite sure that the female student in the October 2003 photo is Erin Murphy. She was a classmate of mine, which puts the date at either 1969 or 1970— possibly ’71. Can’t remember the guy’s name. I love this historical detection—but that’s probably because I’m an historian! Margaret Creighton (SF73) Department of History Bates College “On the back cover of the calendar, the students pictured are, left to right: Amanda Mayer (me, now Amanda Mayer Stinchecum), Steve Bernstein, Judy Jones, and Lon Gore. We belonged to the class of ’61, so the photo was certainly taken before then. From the appearance of the seminar room, and the fact that I am sure Lon Gore and I were in the same freshman seminar, I would venture that the photo was taken during the academic year 1957-58.” Amanda Mayer Stinchecum (A61) Given the fact that the February 2003 photo was taken by Marion Warren, who also took the picture of Connie Weigle in the sophomore language tutorial (November), I would date February’s photo as being taken at the same time and probably the same morning. The woman with the long, dark hair, checkered blouse and boots or knee socks is Carol Ryder (SF68). The man she is talking to, with the socks-in-sandals, is David Moss (SF68). The hand-in-pocket stance was also characteristically his. The man to the left with the sharp looking chin— actually a goatee—is Robin who was from Chattanooga, Tenn. I forget his surname, as I also forget the name of the woman with the two bob-tails. My suspicion is that the head between David and Carol belongs to Vida Kazemi (SF68). I just received the calendar and need to correct the attribution of a photo which appeared on the inside back cover. The fine young fellow in the photo is Bob Vincent, my classmate and freshman core group colleague. He looks so young and has so much hair this photo had to have been snapped during our first year at SJC. Thomas G. Smith (A84) Mr. July is Joel Greenberg, class of 1962. Wonderful photographs, as always. Thanks to those who assemble this calendar. Linda McConnell (A61) Correction Anna Canning (SF02) was misidentified in the summer 2002 issue of The College. Kieran D.C. Manjarrez (SF68) { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } 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 or The College Magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: reharty@sjca.edu, or via the form for letters on the web site at www.sjca.edu. Click on “Alumni,” then on “Contact The College Magazine.” �{Bioethics} 12 BIOETHICS I N A B R AV E N E W W O R L D What’s right and wrong in life and death? by Sus3an Borden (A87) Shaping Public Policy A philosopher and a physician, former St. John’s tutor Leon Kass is in a position to shape government policy on critical and controversial issues such as human cloning and stem cell research. In the desire to treat diseases and ease suffering, Kass asks, can we lose sight of the intrinsic value of human life? Leon Kass (tutor, 1972-1976) discovered the hard way just how controversial a seminar can be. As chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics, he opened the group’s first meeting with a discussion of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark,” the story of a scientist who, in an attempt to remove his near-perfect wife’s sole blemish, ends up killing her. The media criticized Kass for his choice of reading. At best, it was called a clumsy approach; at worst, an attack on science. A column in the online magazine Slate saw the story as predictive of Kass’ tenure on the council: “Given the flatness of Hawthorne’s moral universe in ‘The Birthmark’ and his other mad scientist stories, it’s hard not to conclude that Kass will similarly work hard to reduce complex issues to their starkest antinomies.” To the contrary, says Kass. “My real goal is what we in the office call ‘toward a richer bioethics.’ We try to put contemporary discussions and controversies into a larger philosophical, social, and political context. The discussion of ‘The Birthmark’ was widely misunderstood as antiscience and a cautionary tale, but it’s a profound story. The press failed to appreciate that the birthmark, being a mark of birth, is not merely some superficial blemish but stands altogether for what it means to be a perishable being, marked imperfect in terms of being mortal.” The imperfections of mortality—and science’s quest to remedy them—define the council’s purview. Working papers the council has produced include “ ‘Better’ Memories? The Promise and Perils of Pharmacological Interventions”; “Age Retardation: Scientific Possibilities and Moral Challenges”; and “Patenting Human Organisms.” “These are extremely complicated matters,” Kass says of the council’s work. “There are questions of the sufficiency and desirability of the ends we pursue and questions about the appropriateness of the means. There are questions of the proper balance between modesty and humility on one hand and, on the other hand, a vigorous attempt to repair the defects of the world and of our own nature.” When confronting such matters, Kass advises that we think first about human life and then consider the new technologies. Placing an emphasis on technologies distorts the picture. Take, for example, the possibility of paying potential organ donors. “We could treat this as a technological problem to be solved, and work on determining the best incentives and finding ways to avoid placing undue coercion and pressures upon the poor,” Kass explains. “But what we first should do is step back and start with questions about the meaning of embodiment, what it means to shuttle body parts from { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } �{Bioethics} 13 “There are questions of the proper balance between modesty and humility on one hand and, on the other hand, a vigorous attempt to repair the defects of the world and of our own nature.” Leon Kass one person to another, what it means to put the body into commerce. We must make sure that in the desire to improve health by increasing the supply of lifesaving organs, we don’t forget about the dignity of human life.” While the progressive nature of technology means that we tend to look at issues case by case, Kass says that we only begin to see their full ethical dimensions when we look in the aggregate at the various powers now gathering for intervention into the human body and mind. “These can be used not just in ways that heal the sick and succor the suffering, but could in principle make major changes in what up until now was considered the natural way of being human. Part of the difficulty when you ask questions case by case, technique by technique, is that it’s always in isolation and always justified by the last innovation. “Sometimes the slippery slope is the right metaphor for this approach, but sometimes one just jumps off a cliff,” Kass says. “To begin to treat nascent human life as a resource to be mined for the sake of benefits for the living— that’s not a slippery slope, that’s a major leap. This year it will be stem cells from five-day-old blastocycsts and ten years from now it’s going to be organs from two-month-old fetuses. We are agreeing right now that, precisely because human development is a continuum, we are now saying yes to a kind of exploitive human attitude for the sake of the living. It will be hard to stop when more benefits are available because we have already said yes to the claims of the living. Treatments for people with diabetes and Parkinson’s will far outweigh any kind of reverence for nascent human life.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } �14 {Bioethics} Right now, Congress is saying no to the first steps down this path. In February, the House of Representatives voted to ban all human cloning, both for reproductive and research purposes. The vote followed the majority recommendation of the council’s 2002 report, “Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry.” Kass was among the majority. “On some matters I have very definite opinions and will argue for them. I’m opposed to human cloning and I don’t think we should be killing patients in acts of euthanasia or assisted suicide. Still, as chairman of the council, I’ve had to set some of my own views aside and preside over the kind of conversation that will ensure that the best arguments on multiple sides are developed. So many ethical issues are not simply choices between good and evil but choices in which the evil is deeply entangled with the good. “If one is offering counsel to the president, what one owes is a full account of what’s at stake and what’s to be said for doing A rather than B or B rather than A. The report on cloning we wrote was close to 300 pages, but the recommendation on the vote was only two sentences. The report says that, wherever we come out in our thinking, people on the other side have something vital to defend, not for themselves, but for all of us. No one can be cavalier about the need to treat human suffering, no one can be casual about nascent human life, and no one can afford to be indifferent.” Facing Matters of Life and Death I s it ethical to conceive a child to save the life of another, even if that child will be loved and welcomed? In 1991, Dr. Stephen Forman (A70) was at the center of a controversy raised by that question. But as a physician treating cancer patients, he faces difficult ethical questions every day. More than 4,000 people made it to the April 11 reunion in Duarte, Calif. Amid balloons and picnic lunches they laughed with old friends, exchanged tales of triumph, and hugged the people who saved their lives. The reunion, at the City of Hope National Medical Center, was for bone marrow transplant recipients and donors, and their families, doctors, and nurses. Among the guests was Stephen Forman, director of City of Hope’s Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation Program. City of Hope is a leader in the fight against cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and other devastating diseases. At least $2 million is invested in research each week at the center. Approximately 30 to 40 percent of eligible patients participate in clinical trials and studies, compared to the national average of 3 to 4 percent. Hand-in-hand with the center’s cutting-edge science is its commitment to compassionate care. “There is no profit in curing the body, if in the process, we destroy the soul,” wrote a former executive director of the center. City of Hope has adopted these words as its philosophy. In 1988 the Ayala family came to City of Hope in need of this very combination of compassion and science. Their 16-yearold daughter, Anissa, had leukemia, and bone marrow transplantation was her only chance for survival. Unable to find a match after testing family members, searching the National Marrow Donor Program registry, and staging several marrow drives, Anissa’s parents approached Forman and his team about trying to have a baby who might be a match for Anissa. “We sat down and talked with the family quite a bit. We wanted to understand better what they were thinking so we could think about it ourselves,” Forman recalls. The father had had a vasectomy, which would have to be reversed. The mother was in her 40s, an age when conception is difficult. And the baby would have only a one-in-four chance of being a match. “It was pretty clear to us in talking with the family that if the potential baby was not a match they would want the new child anyway. In that context we felt we could help them with the medical, emotional, psychological, and ethical rationale for all of this.” Despite the odds against it, the father’s vasectomy was reversed, a baby was conceived, and when Marissa-Eve Ayala was born, she turned out to be a perfect match for her older sister. Anissa underwent a successful transplantation when Marissa-Eve was 14 months old. While Forman was delighted by the outcome of the case, he wasn’t exactly crazy about the media frenzy that surrounded it. “I had to respond to the media and deal with the selfappointed ethicists who became a cottage industry around that time. I had the best discussions with science writers and the worst with—you know, that big conservative guy on the radio,” he says, unable to recall the name of Rush Limbaugh. Forman received hate mail, death threats, and even a threat to kidnap the Ayala baby. “Newspapers raised questions about breeding children for their parts; one accused us of being a Jewish hospital experimenting on Christian babies.” Time magazine’s June 17, 1991 cover featured the Ayala sisters. The accompanying article presented a balanced discussion of the case, exploring its medical, social, psychological, and ethical dimensions. It included a provocative question from Rudolf Brutoco, the donor’s pediatrician: “Does it make sense,” Brutoco asked, “to conceive a child so that little Johnny can have a sister, while it is not acceptable to conceive the same child so that Johnny can live?” The article concluded that the “family’s act of lifesaving conception was on the side of the angels.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } �{Bioethics} 15 “The ethical issues I face every day have to do with the end of life...” Stephen Forman Although the Ayala case brought him national attention, Forman says that the real ethical dilemmas in his work don’t grab headlines. “The ethical issues I face every day have to do with the end of life, the means of preserving dignity at a time when people find themselves in an undignified setting,” he says. “People seek help with their thoughts and feelings about what they want done or not done as the end may be coming. They need to decide how to manage pain. They need to make decisions about heroic measures to be taken or not, as well as assisted suicide.” In the course of helping his patients, Forman guides them through the most complex issues that human beings must address. “I’ve always felt that oncology is the most philosophical of the specialties,” he says. “It’s concerned with how one lives one’s life, with confronting its meaning and its temporality.” While Forman helps his patients wrestle with the mechanics and meaning of death, he is also at work discovering new ways to prolong and improve their lives. He is the principal investi- gator for a $15.3 million, five-year National Cancer Institute bone marrow transplantation program project grant and co-principal investigator for a Strategic Program for Innovative Research on AIDS Treatment grant to study gene therapy for the treatment of AIDS patients. He is also co-editor of Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, a definitive textbook for scientists and health-care professionals. Being at the forefront of medical research means that Forman is often in the public eye—a situation, he explains, that can have its benefits for the advancement of medicine and the health of many patients. One significant byproduct of the Ayala publicity was a growing understanding of the need for bone marrow donors. Today, Anissa is a healthy 30-year-old who is the assistant director for the Red Cross Bone Marrow Donor Program in Southern California. On the 10-year anniversary of her transplant, City of Hope rechecked the bone marrow donor registry that had yielded no match for her. After a decade of debate and its attendant public awareness, 21 matches were found. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } �16 {Bioethics} Looking Behind the Shadows M ichael Victoroff (A71) has seen medicine from three perspectives: as a physician in private practice, as a medical director of an HMO, and as a university researcher providing toxicology evidence for environmental lawsuits. Each new vista has raised troubling questions about patient care, efficacy, and economics. “Illusion, Plato’s cave, has been the theme, the continuous thread throughout my whole career,” says Michael Victoroff, doctor and medical ethicist. “In almost every subject that’s been fascinating to me, there has been some aspect where the general public does not see what’s really behind the shadows.” The biggest shadow on the cave wall is the lack of science and common sense in health care, says Victoroff. “Today more than ever, with herbal medicine on the Internet and hundreds of fringe healing professions, a lot of people are rightfully nervous about medical practice. They see the critical combination of financial motivation and junk science.” Even practitioners of orthodox medicine are suspect, he adds. “They’re no different, just more subtle. People accept the good will and good intentions of doctors as evidence of good skill.” Victoroff took a yearlong fellowship in bioethics following medical school, and throughout his career he has spent at least a quarter of his time consulting, teaching, writing, and lecturing in bioethics, from prenatal care through geriatrics. In 1997, after 19 years in medical practice, he became a medical director for Aetna. He says that he once thought HMOs could save the medical profession. “The managed care movement was, to those of us who were believers, kind of like the peace movement. Managed care was going to make medicine a scientific and reason-driven social phenomenon rather than simply a cottage industry of independent practitioners improvising treatments from which they derived a living. “I saw that I could not improve health care in America as one private practice doctor in Colorado, but I thought, ‘give me a few million people and maybe from there my lever will be long enough to affect something.’” As medical director of a health plan, Victoroff had the opportunity to look at tens of thousands of medical records. But he wasn’t impressed with what he saw. For one thing, too few doctors keep electronic records of patient care at a time when the computer is a basic and critical tool in an efficient practice. “When you see four specialists and they run a bunch of tests and write several prescriptions, that’s a job for a computer. That’s when you need the integrated health care delivery system that America, and the doctors of America, have vigorously rejected.” Victoroff continues the cave metaphor in a discussion of assisted suicide, which he says is a social, not medical, issue. He’s sympathetic to the most compelling reasons for assisted suicide. “Let’s say we have a person in such pain from cancer that his life is total misery. He’s lying in bed yelling, he’s got no quality of life and is expected to die within a matter of weeks. He’s already getting lethal doses of morphine and he says, ‘this is unbearable, can’t you just give me some cyanide?’ ” Society may decide an individual can make the choice to die, but Victoroff asks why a physician must assist in the act of killing him: “It is a terribly bad idea for physicians to be killing people, even as a gesture of kindness. I think that it permanently contaminates the role of physician. Separating the role of healer and killer is a very smart social practice.” Victoroff has his own candidate for the assistant: judges. “We have a group among us that already puts people to death, has the liberty to do it, has immunity from liability, and the power to order up a dose of hemlock. We can have what amounts to a probate process: a court process as diligent as you like and physicians can testify along with everyone else. If you truly wish to die and we’re satisfied that you’re competent, then we’ll kill you. We don’t need any doctors, just a judge and dispensing pharmacist.” Victoroff left Aetna in 2002 and has been working at the toxicology department of the University of Colorado, where he provides support research for toxic environmental torts, evaluating issues surrounding environmental safety. Because of the sheer number of threats to human health posed by toxicity issues in the air, groundwater and even medical treatment, Victoroff isn’t hopeful he can make an impact on health care in this area. “It’s like the Dark Ages, surrounded by mythology and religious beliefs; there’s almost a complete lack of attention to science. A lot of people are making a lot of money on Bioethics Reading List Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress, Principles of Biomedical Ethics Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Linda T. Kohn, Janet Corrigan, Molla S. Donaldson, and William C. Richardson, eds., To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man; That Hideous Strength Gilbert Meilaender, Body, Soul, and Bioethics Ed Pellegrino, Beneficence in Trust Suggested by Michael Victoroff, Leon Kass, and Nick Capozzoli { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } �17 {Bioethics} something that is based on folklore. That’s not to say that there aren’t some dangerous chemicals out there, but here’s the pattern I see: You have a team of lawyers that goes down to a little town that has a smokestack. They go to the people who have illnesses who live around the smokestack and offer them money to participate in a lawsuit, then they offer to settle with the smokestack’s owners. That’s a particularly malignant pattern.” Although cynical about the tort field, Victoroff concedes half-jokingly that it may contribute to quality control. “Doctors make huge numbers of errors and this has been almost the only social mechanism we’ve used to improve quality in medicine,” he says. Victoroff tells of teaching a course that brought senior law students and senior med students together to discuss bioethics. “I learned that by the time these kids had spent a couple years in their professional schools they had already become accustomed to a mode of argument and proof that was unique “I saw that I could not improve health care in America as one private practice doctor in Colorado.” Michael Victoroff to their professions. When they were confronted with an alternate mode of asking and answering questions, they almost couldn’t follow it. “It’s hard to get people to solve problems constructively without first asking them to step outside of the habits of their own profession. In essence, that’s what Plato was telling us to do when he said you ought to get outside the cave once in a while. What my career has been, in one respect, is me shouting from outside the door of the cave at all the people in there staring at the wall, and I don’t even know that I’m outside the cave. I’m probably in another cave. “I love illusions, but I see that they’re illusions. I don’t know what’s behind them, but I can tell when I don’t see the whole picture. Over a career of fooling with these things, I have found something every day to make me roll my eyes and shake my head. That’s been the main medical risk of my career—from shaking my head in wonder.” x Acting in a Patient’s Best Interest F orget cloning babies. Forget assisted suicide. Neurologist and tutor Nick Capozzoli (AGI81) says that an ethical drama can unfold in his office any time he writes a prescription. “I sometimes have to balance what the patient should know about the medication against what I want the patient to do with the medication,” explains Capozzoli. “There are some patients who say the same thing no matter what I tell them: ‘Whatever you think is best.’ Others live in a world of great anxiety. If they hear about a single side effect, they’re probably not going to take the medicine.” “What, then, is the best approach?” Capozzoli asks. “Do you lay out all the facts the same way for every patient? Do you say different things based on what you know about each patient?” He compares his quandary to that of a legislator: “When a vote comes up, do you take a referendum or vote based on your informed knowledge?” Capozzoli has managed to find a path that draws these alternatives closer together: “I believe there’s something about the nature of what a physician is that says you ought to have an opinion about the right thing to do, and you should say to the patient, ‘this is what you ought to do.’ You should be clear { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } about your own opinion but also be good about understanding the patient’s concerns: Are they due to a different world view or to their being fraught with anxiety?” His approach sounds moderate, reasoned, sensitive—ethical. But Capozzoli (a tutor for 20 years, a doctor for nearly 35) is so finely attuned to the intricacies of ethics that he questions the validity of his questions: “Who is the best custodian of the patient’s best interest?” he asks. “Do I even understand fully what it means to act in a patient’s best interest?” x �18 {Essays} MONTAIGNE A N D T H E E D U C AT I O N O F C H I L D R E N by William Pastille S ince the inception of the New Program, and no doubt before as well, St. John’s College has been devoted to the education of children. The Preamble to the Polity of the college states that the purpose of the institution is to “make adults out of children.” The college’s motto— composed, as Stringfellow Barr tells us, by an admiring professor at Harvard, but instantly adopted by the founders of the New Program because of its aptness—declares that St. John’s “makes free persons out of children.” Both formulations imply that the college’s role is to transform dependent beings into free, independent beings. The kind of freedom that the college wishes for its students is intellectual freedom: the ability to fashion one’s own judgments without the hindrance of unexamined assumptions, inherited prejudices, and cherished pronouncements of alleged authorities. One of the finest descriptions of intellectual freedom is found in Montaigne’s essay “On the Education of Children” where the author discusses the temper that a teacher should try to produce in a student with regard to the influence of authority: Let the principles of Aristotle not be principles of him any more than those of the Stoics or Epicureans. Let this diversity of opinions be set before him; if he can, he will make a choice: if he cannot then he will remain in doubt. Only fools have made up their minds and are certain: Che non men che saper dubbiar m’aggrada. [For doubting pleases me no less than knowing. (Dante, Inferno, XI, 93.)] For if it is by his own reasoning that he adopts the opinions of Xenophon and Plato, they are no longer theirs: they are his. To follow another is to follow nothing: Non sumus sub rege; sibi quisque se vindicet. [We are not under a king; let each preserve himself. (Seneca, Epistulae Morales, XXXIII, 4.)] Let him at least know what he does not know. He should not be learning their precepts but drinking in their humours. If he wants to, let him not be afraid to remember where he got them from, but let him be sure that he knows how to appropriate them. Truth and reason are common to all: they no more belong to the man who first put them into words than to him who last did so. It is no more secundum Platonem than secundum me: Plato and I see and understand it in the same way. Bees ransack flowers here and flowers there: but then they make their own honey, which is entirely theirs and no longer thyme or marjoram. Similarly, [he] will transform his borrowings; he will confound their forms so that the end-product is entirely his: namely, his judgement, the forming of which is the only aim of his toil, his study, and his education. But the college does not want to cultivate intellectual freedom in its students while at the same time weighing down their souls with the burden of hubris. Montaigne’s sage counsel concerning self-reliance in one’s thinking might be a recipe for the most appalling intellectual arrogance if it were not coupled with another bit of advice later in the essay: “Above all let him be taught to throw down his arms and surrender to truth as soon as he perceives it, whether that truth is born at his rival’s doing or within himself from some change in his ideas.” This guidance provides the humility that is necessary to counterbalance the egocentrism of a mind that is always striving to live by its own lights. Subservience to the truth wherever and whenever it appears—even if it contradicts longstanding personal beliefs and preferences—is the earmark of a truly independent intellect that is encumbered neither by external influences nor by inner defects like excessive pride, sentimental attachment, or intellectual possessiveness. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } �{Essays} 19 “Truth and reason are common to all.” h owa r d ko r n Michel de Montaigne One might wonder whether the intellectual freedom of forming one’s own judgments really is the only aim of education, as Montaigne seems to say in the first quotation above. It may be that education can cultivate other sorts of freedom that might be in some sense superior to intellectual freedom. For instance: What if the Self, in which Montaigne encourages us to trust, is inherently unreliable, or illusory, or merely an artifact of a deeper source of being—a source that might be hidden from the Self by the Self, as a person looking at himself in a mirror blocks his own sight of a light source behind him? If this were the case, wouldn’t it mean that we ought to become free from the Self instead of relying upon it as the true guarantor of our freedom? Wouldn’t it mean that we should regard the intellectual autonomy recommended by Montaigne as an obstacle, not an aid, to freedom? Perhaps St. John’s, in so far as it aims to make its students intellectually independent and self-reliant, is actually harming them. But even if the Self is ultimately unreliable and true freedom is not to be found within its ambit, it hardly seems likely that the step of coming to rely upon the Self can be skipped in the progress toward freedom. Since self-reliance helps us to break free of external influences, it clearly removes at least some of the chains that bind us. The resulting intellectual autonomy is at any rate less constrained than the prior state, even if it is not the highest possible freedom. Intellectual freedom may not be the Good, but it is certainly a good worth possessing. x Tutor William Pastille is director of the Graduate Institute in Annapolis. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } �{Johnnies in the Classroom} 20 SEEKING A FORMUL A FOR SUCCESS by Sus3an Borden (A87) and Rosemary Harty T wo math teachers, two cities, two nontraditional paths to the classroom. Steve Travis, a 2002 Annapolis graduate, tutored students at a middle school in Annapolis for three years beginning in his sophomore year. After graduation, he sought provisional certification and a classroom of his own. In Santa Fe, Carisa Armendariz Petrie (SF99) entered a certification program right after graduating in 1999 and now heads the math department at a large high school. With one in five alumni in the teaching profession, The College takes a look at what continues to draw young alumni to teaching. It’s 7:10 on a January morning when math teacher Steve Travis walks through the front door of Bates Middle School. He spends the next hour photocopying sample equations, writing homework and outcome charts on his classroom blackboards, patrolling sixth-graders gathering at the front of the school, welcoming students inside the building, and serving hall duty. The door to his class has a sign above it: “Enter with Pride.” About a dozen students pass beneath it before the bell rings. At 8:11 a voice comes over the public address system, leads the homerooms in the Pledge of Allegiance, announces birthdays, recognizes visitors, and congratulates the school’s current crop of “Shining Stars.” The Stars are asked to drop by the guidance office to pick up certificates of merit. The announcements end with an exhortation to “have a focused and respectful day.” Travis entered the teaching profession in the fall of 2002 with a provisional teaching certificate and what he now sees as a touch of hubris. He had tutored part time during his sophomore, junior, and senior years at St. John’s and, seeing how much progress he had made in fairly short sessions, he was looking forward to the impact he could have in a classroom of his own. He set his sights on the Maryland Functional Math Test, which each student { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } is required to pass before entering ninth grade. The test covers basic arithmetic, problem-solving, fractions, decimals, and using formulas. At Bates, the pass rate is low. The test seemed a worthy goal, something to work toward that would give him clear feedback. His insider’s view of the school led him to believe that improving results would be simple. “There were three teachers who held my job last year. That’s a lot of failure for one position. I thought I could come in and really do things right and make an effective change. There was a lot of room for improvement and I thought I could build on that,” he says. “I am, slowly, but not like I wanted.” *** At 8:17 the bell for first period rings and Travis raises the projection screen that hangs in front of his blackboard to reveal the day’s warm-up equations—four problems involving the multiplication and division of simple integers, both positive and negative. While others set to work, a girl in the third row carefully applies gloss to her lips. At 8:20 Travis closes the door to his classroom and asks the students to be quiet while they work. Three minutes later he welcomes them back from their weekend break. “I’m getting a dog,” a student blurts out. “Sean, don’t you already have a dog?” another responds. Several shout back in unison: “The dog died.” Travis announces that in the previous week’s quiz there were no As and only �{Johnnies in the Classroom} d av i d t ro z z o 21 Steve Travis at Bates Middle School three Bs. A girl who will do no work during the entire period claims a failing grade and sets to guessing who got the Bs. Travis turns out the lights and uses a transparency and overhead projector to review the day’s work. When the room darkens, the noise level immediately diminishes. Travis will review the same 18 equations 5 times this day, to 5 groups of students of varying interests and abilities. “I’ve learned that having a template like this helps them pay attention. It keeps them quiet and involved,” Travis says, somewhat apologetic about this simple approach to teaching. He points to a timeline of world mathematics he’d posted on the back wall of his classroom in August. “I thought I’d be so creative, but you have to manage the class before you can be “It takes real imagination, real perseverance, and hard work to reach an entire classroom.” Steve Travis creative and some of the kids really can’t handle creativity,” he says. “Some of the most successful teachers in this school stand at the front of the class and speak in a calm monotone for the entire period.” Above the classroom clock a handlettered sign reads: “Time is passing. Are you?” Travis isn’t sure. His success with the Maryland Functional Math Test was well below his expectations. Only 40 of his 100 seventh-graders passed. *** Travis has posted a sign to remind students of the order of operations for equation-solving (parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } �22 {Johnnies in the Classroom} d av i d t ro z z o subtraction). But the order of operations is not so clear when teaching students with a wide range of skills. If you don’t have multiplication mastered, does it make sense to move on to fractions? If your grasp of decimals is still fuzzy, is it possible to learn percentages? Travis’ experience tells him that moving ahead only leaves more kids behind. But his obligation to the county’s curriculum requires him to stay on schedule. “At the beginning I thought it would be easier to get these students on track and target areas where they needed help, but I found out that when you’re dealing with so many kids at once you have to teach the curriculum. As the lone teacher in the classroom, it’s hard to address the particular needs of every student. I’m almost Annapolis graduate Steve Travis tutors a student. forced to use generic lesson plans, which might be good but don’t always work for every student.” Fortunately, Travis is not completely alone in the classroom. Three St. John’s students—Bryson Finklea, Elizabeth Laughlin, and Joseph Method— tutor in his class. “Sometimes what a kid needs will be cleared up in 10 or 20 minutes,” he says. “I can see in the class that they’re lost but I don’t have the time to work with them. When they come back after a tutoring session, the difference is obvious. They’re enthusiastic, they pay attention, they raise their hands.” *** Fifth period starts at 11:30 a.m. and from the beginning things are not looking good. The students pass around a moreor-less contraband magazine and when Travis reaches for it, a keep-away game begins. Travis is in a precarious position. He can’t stop his quest for the magazine because he’s already committed to seizing it. Yet he can’t jump in and whole-heartedly try to grab it because a failure will make him look foolish—not a good thing for a first-year teacher. In the end, Travis is successful. He quietly walks toward the moving target “I’m always trying new strategies, new techniques to make it work. Sometimes it feels like I’m rethinking my approach every single day.” Steve Travis and only reaches for it when it is clearly within his grasp. He puts it into a file cabinet and tries to turn the students’ attention to mathematics. The equation of the moment: 3 1/3 x = 4 1/6. A girl solves the problem and then explains how: after converting the numbers to improper fractions, she flipped the fraction on the left and then multiplied. Travis informs the class that her method is called the multiplicative { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } inverse and then demonstrates an alternative method that he learned when he was in school. “What year was that?” a student asks. “1945,” he answers. “No, you’d be like, 63,” she says. “No I wouldn’t. You added wrong,” teases the 23-year-old Travis. And now the class is awake, shouting out how old they think he’d be if he were born in 1945. Later, Travis says he regrets his tendency to joke around: “They tell you not to even smile until after Christmas. The students don’t need you as a friend and they don’t want you as a friend. They need to respect you, they need to know your boundaries. Some of these kids have no boundaries. They live in a world that can be very insecure. Some don’t even have food in the morning—that’s insecurity. “If I could start the year all over again, I would never let anyone speak without raising a hand. At St. John’s, of course, you want discourse, but with a class of 30 you need order.” As the class makes its way through the equations, a student amuses himself by singing the Chia Pet jingle: “ch-ch-chchia.” Travis pretends he doesn’t hear. A sign beneath the classroom clock reads: “It’s time to do our best.” But teaching is complicated and it’s not always clear what’s best. “I’m always trying new strategies, new techniques to make it work. Sometimes it feels like I’m rethinking my approach every single day,” Travis says. It’s 2 p.m. and the anticipation of the final bell is raising the class’ chaos level. The ongoing chatter of two girls grows too loud. Travis asks one of them to move to the front of the class. “I’ll be lonely,” she whines. “I don’t care if you’re lonely,” he answers. “I do,” she says as she picks up her books and heads for her new seat. The class is getting out of hand and Travis makes a final push to assert his authority. “When the bell rings, do not get up. I will dismiss you,” he announces. �23 {Johnnies in the Classroom} A girl in the back pouts. “The bell dismisses me,” she says. But in the end, she waits for Travis to tell her it’s time to go. *** Travis’ daily planning calendar is opened to a quote from B.F. Skinner: “Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” What will survive from Travis’ first year as a teacher? “I now know how difficult it is to reach certain students,” he says. “Coming in, I thought, ‘I know each kid is different and it might take a couple of strategies, but I’ll find a way to reach each one.’ I’ve come to realize that it’s not easy to get through to everyone. It’s like getting an orchestra to play—an orchestra that doesn’t want to play and doesn’t know their instruments very well. It takes real imagination, real perseverance, and hard work to reach an entire classroom.” What will survive for his students? Travis hopes they’ll retain the importance of effort and perseverance. “I’ve always stressed to them that more important than the things I teach is the effort they give. In an introductory letter I sent at the beginning of the year, I wrote that I didn’t care how much they knew, but how much they were willing to learn. I told them I was looking for students who are willing to learn something that’s difficult, students who will do their best.” Travis says that this emphasis comes from his own experience as a student at St. John’s. “I remember how difficult that first year was. I kept telling myself just to try and do my best. When I read the books, I remembered that the ideas in the books were difficult even for the people who wrote them. If it wasn’t difficult, it probably wasn’t worth thinking about.” Now in his first year of teaching, Travis finds himself being offered very similar advice. “When I get frustrated, I talk to a friend of mine, Walter Mattson (A87), who’s also a teacher. He says, ‘Sure it’s difficult. But if it weren’t difficult, it probably wouldn’t be worth doing.’ ” A t 12:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, Carisa Armendariz Petrie emerges from the sanctuary of the math department office into a sea of raging hormones, teenage angst and overall indifference to the uplifting benefits of algebra. She comes bearing the quadratic formula like a rare gift to recipients who will—one day—become convinced of its value. With a student body approaching 2,000, Santa Fe High School seems more like a small community college than a secondary school. Its 100-acre campus comprises some buildings halfway through renovation, older structures slated for demolition, and new buildings going up. When the bell sounds, students drift toward the gleaming new Academic Center where Petrie teaches and fill the hallways and staircases. Her third-floor classroom is decorated with posters of Albert Einstein, for Petrie, “the patron saint of mathematics.” This is the second of Petrie’s three 90minute classes, and the after-lunch crowd can be tough. But Petrie takes control of Algebra III with a warm-up problem that quashes non-math chatter among the 28 students. She turns her attention to the stack of math papers before her. There were, she reports, careless mistakes. Some folks need to read the directions. And if you need help, she urges, sign up for tutoring. “You can gain back 20 of your points if you correct your mistakes on this test,” she says. “But I need you to write a sentence explaining how you made your mistake. And not just, ‘I messed up.’ I need you to know where you went wrong.” She hands out the tests, then moves on briskly to tackle each of the objectives in her carefully planned lesson. Her classroom is orderly, her explanations simple, and her confidence in the students evident. Frustration among the students emerges only once, when a tall girl sitting in the back tries to evade the question { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } Petrie has asked. Pressed again, the student becomes angry. “I told you I don’t know,” she says again. *** As she explains later, Petrie believes her high expectations for her students factor in their success, whether or not students hold such expectations for themselves. Their socioeconomic level, their race, their parents’ education—all are reasons educational experts say that some of her students may be “at risk.” Petrie knows that all students haven’t been prepared equally—there’s a big disparity between her economically disadvantaged and better-off students—but she sees potential in all of them regardless. “My students do what they’re expected to do,” she says. “These students are as bright and competent and hardworking as anyone, anywhere. And if you teach them to be good students, they will be.” She remembers a conversation she had with a parent who was upset about a low grade her daughter earned in Algebra II. “She was afraid her daughter’s confidence would be blown,” Petrie explains. “But if this student doesn’t experience that now, when she goes to college it’s going to be really hard for her.” Petrie remembers what it’s like to struggle. She arrived at St. John’s at age 17, an early high school graduate, and felt overwhelmed almost immediately. She wasn’t used to such rigorous demands, and the intensity of seminar took some getting used to. Supportive tutors and a network of friends— along with lots of encouragement from �24 {Johnnies in the Classroom} home—helped her adjust to the Program and overcome her initial feeling of being out of place. “I remember really struggling that first year,” she says. But among the most valuable aspects of her St. John’s education, she says, is that she was required to take on difficult material in mathematics and physics that she might never have encountered were they not required by the Program. When she sees her freshmen in Algebra 1A frustrated and seemingly overwhelmed by the new material they’re being asked to master, she just gives them more—more practice, more encouragement, more personal and smallgroup tutoring. “At St. John’s, you’re not taking classes just because they’re easy and interesting,” Petrie believes her high expectations for her students factor in their success, whether or not students hold such expectations for themselves. teri thomson randall she says. “They’re hard. But you getthrough them and then you know you really accomplished something.” In her mathematics classroom, Petrie can’t use the Socratic method. But she has taken the simple step of asking students to carefully read the chapter and think about it before she begins demonstrating problems. She frequently asks students to write and talk about mathematical concepts. Seated on her stool next to the overhead projector, she prepares one example after another of problems demonstrating the day’s objectives. She stops frequently to make sure everybody’s still with her. *** Carisa Armendariz Petrie outside Santa Fe High { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } “I’m not a performing teacher, I’m not a dancing-around kind of teacher,” she says. “I like to get stuff done.” �{Johnnies in the Classroom} 25 “Being a first-year teacher, you have to learn everything from the ground up.” Algebra is in good hands with Carisa Armendariz Petrie. But teaching wasn’t her first career choice. She initially considered publishing or journalism, in part because she had seen how hard her mother had to work as a third-grade teacher in one of El Paso’s poorest communities. “She really is a terrific teacher who makes a difference in the lives of her students,” Petrie says. “But I could also see how much it took out of her, how tired she would be at the end of the day. I couldn’t imagine a more stressful job.” Nevertheless, three weeks after graduating from St. John’s, Petrie found herself in an intensive teacher certification program offered through the University of New Mexico/Santa Fe Public Schools Intern Program. The program included two summers of coursework and a year of practice teaching. Petrie had won her place in a competitive selection process that included interviews with 14 people. She knew right away that she wanted to be a math teacher, even though she hadn’t been enthusiastic about math when she first arrived at St. John’s. “I’m not a math genius, but I really like it and I really like the logic—it’s meaningful to me,” she says. She became licensed after a year of teaching math at Capshaw Middle School and passing a comprehensive state exam. “Being a first-year teacher, you have to learn everything from the ground up. And it’s very hard to be a new teacher. I’d get to work at 7 in the morning, leave the school at 6, eat dinner, and fall asleep. I’ve never been so tired.” After completing the UNM program, teri thomson randall Carisa Armendariz Petrie Petrie found her Santa Fe High position at a job fair. Her math and science background at St. John’s—as well as her success in a rigorous undergraduate program— was attractive to recruiters. Measured by indicators such as student achievement, dropout rate, and community involvement, Santa Fe is a good high school—the state Department of Education recently gave it an “exemplary” rating—and Petrie is happy to be there. Petrie has done so well at the high school that she was chosen to be math department chairperson this year. She’s also serving on a state committee developing standards for statewide testing in mathematics. Although she’s not a great fan of standardized testing, “if that’s what we have to do, we’ll do it.” Petrie’s mother is still her role model. The children in her mother’s class have to pass a standardized test to move on; Petrie’s mother teaches school on Saturday mornings to help them prepare. “She wants her kids to be successful,” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } Carisa Armendariz Petrie sets high expectations for her students. Petrie says of her mother. “And because of her, they are.” If teaching isn’t lucrative or prestigious, its rewards transcend those of other careers. Petrie’s husband, Geoffrey Petrie (SF00), is an environmentalist who works for a nonprofit group called Nuclear Watch, an organization that keeps tabs on Los Alamos and Sandia laboratories. “We both feel the same way. If you don’t have a job that’s important, that’s meaningful, then why do it? Sometimes I find myself saying, ‘I’m so lucky I don’t have to work.’ But of course, I work very hard. What I mean is that I get to work at a job I actually care about.” x �26 {Outreach} TECOLOTE GREAT BOOKS FOR GREAT T E AC H E R S Stephen Van Luchene Believes in Inspiring Teachers by Rosemary Harty A fter a week of preparing lesson plans, teaching, grading papers, and dealing with classroom discipline problems, how many teachers would volunteer to spend four Saturdays in a room with other teachers, discussing the Declaration of Independence and other seminal works of America’s political foundation? In New Mexico, at least 66 of them. Give Stephen Van Luchene, Santa Fe tutor, the credit for knowing that teachers—no matter how overworked or undervalued—are hungry for genuine conversation and an opportunity to recharge their intellectual fire at the seminar table. Beginning last fall, teachers in Van Luchene’s Tecolote Group have been reading works related to the theme “Reflections on Democracy in America” and discussing them with their peers. Some of them travel from far corners of the state to attend, and the group comprises teachers of all disciplines and grade levels, public school and private school teachers, and administrators including the superintendent of Santa Fe public schools. Van Luchene envisioned Tecolote as a way to bring to teachers the St. John’s approach of inquiry and dialogue centered on an important text. The name was chosen to reflect the program’s classical roots and also for symbolic effect. Tecolote means owl in colloquial Spanish, and the owl is an emblem of Athena. The “group” in the name suggests that this effort can contribute to a collective force, one united by ideas and imagination, which Van Luchene believes must be tapped to improve K-12 education. A major inspiration for Tecolote was the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, an educational reform initiative that requires states to establish educational standards and mandates testing to make sure schools meet these standards. “A lot of attention goes into determining which schools get rewarded and which schools get punished based on standardized test scores,” he says. “But nobody was looking to the teachers as people we could trust and ask to really help to improve our schools.” Van Luchene, whose wife is a former high school teacher, has a history of asking how public education can be improved and looking for ways to help. In 1982, he { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } helped launch a new teacher cooperative and teacher certification project through the University of New Mexico, the New Mexico State Department of Education, and Santa Fe public schools. Many St. John’s students have been among those who take this accelerated path to state certification. Van Luchene later worked with several National Endowment for the Humanities projects at St. John’s, including the NEH Classics Project, created to bring teachers to attend the Graduate Institute in Santa Fe or Annapolis, and Summer Seminar that gave teachers the opportunity to study Plato’s Republic or Euclid’s Elements. After developing his plan for Tecolote, Van Luchene went looking for funding (although supported in several ways by St. John’s in Santa Fe, Tecolote operates independently). He wrote grant proposals and approached foundations, eventually securing support from the McCune Foundation, the Bay Foundation, the LANL Foundation, and Blaugrund Foundation. Individuals including Tom Krause and Ray Cave, members of the St. John’s Board of Visitors and Governors, and another donor who wishes to remain anonymous also provided funding. Several Santa Fe tutors and GI alumni participate as discussion leaders, and Carol Balkcom, wife of Santa Fe President John Balkcom, signed on as a volunteer project manager. Tecolote brings teachers to campus four times a year for colloquia. The programs start at 8 a.m. with coffee and donuts; tutorials of about eight teachers follow �{Outreach} 27 s c o t t c a r away Christopher Garwood, an elementary school teacher from Albuquerque, makes a point in a Tecolote seminar. Below, Stephen Van Luchene, tutor, Santa Fe from 8:45 to 10:30, then groups of 16 meet for seminars with two discussion leaders. Luncheons include guest speakers who address issues of liberal education in New Mexico. In addition to the U.S. Constitution, readings include Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, The Federalist, and the speeches and papers of Lincoln and Madison. Planning for next year’s theme is under way. In keeping with the St. John’s philosophy, “We aren’t telling teachers what we think they should know,” Van Luchene explains. “We’re giving them an approach.” And teachers—many used to one-way communication in the classroom—thrive on the give and take of dialogue and the thoughtful responses their colleagues offer. They return to their schools with new ideas on how to deliver their curriculum. “It’s also a great opportunity for good teachers to meet other good teachers,” he adds. The programs and books are free, and Tecolote participants are paid an honorarium of $150 for each session. While the amount isn’t luxurious, it does recognize that their time is valuable and helps defray travel or lodging costs. Van Luchene also made sure the luncheons were a cut above ordinary lunchroom fare—complete with tablecloths and service—as a small but important way to let teachers know they’re appreciated, he says. Charles Olivea, a 35-year veteran of the classroom, says teachers need programs like Tecolote to fill “a major gap” in their education—that is, a program geared to nurturing intellectual curiosity instead of delivering pedagogy. Olivea has taught in public and private schools in New York and Connecticut, as well as in New York prisons. He now teaches history at Santa Fe’s Academy for Technology and the Classics, a charter school serving grades 7 to 12. “From my experience, the majority of public school teachers limit, and are expected to limit, their intellectual horizon to so many conventional and mandatory graduate school courses,” he says. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } “The notion of participating in an intelligent discussion grounded on a common set of texts is virtually alien within our public school culture.” In addition to seeing teachers thrive, Van Luchene believes that St. John’s College should share its intellectual resources for the greater good. He hopes to double the number of participants in the program in a year or two and also expects Tecolote to spawn new opportunities, such as a recent seminar for Santa Fe high school students on Plato’s Republic, organized with their philosophy teacher, a participant in Tecolote, and led by St. John’s students. “Tecolote is just the right thing for us to do,” he says. “It’s complementary to the central work of St. John’s.” By returning to their schools with the renewed insight that teachers are lifelong learners, “these teachers will go back and make a real difference in the lives of their schools.” x �28 {Bibliofile} Rediscovering Homer Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading the Odyssey and the Iliad, by Eva Brann. Paul Dry Books, Philadelphia by Barbara Goyette (A73) A fter the six seminars on Homer my freshman year, I was sad because I thought we were finished with the Iliad and the Odyssey. I had read the books, listened intently in the seminars, talked a little, learned a few things. But the kind of understanding I had hoped for from the St. John’s experience was far, far from realized. What I didn’t know then, but soon learned, is that we all have a lifetime with the Iliad and the Odyssey. In the program they serve as reference points—the beginning of the great themes of war, peace, misery, elation, self-awareness, fate, compassion, studied for four years. And beyond St. John’s, for Johnnies and I bet for many others, every war is the Iliad, every difficult journey the Odyssey, every soul-in-progress an Odysseus, every larger-than-life, full-of-feeling person an Achilles. Within the past year I read both books again, for the third time (maybe the fourth for the Odyssey), because I wanted to check out the newish translations by Robert Fagles (very direct and unadorned, not forced into unnatural rhymes or rhythms). Now comes this eminently readable book, Homeric Moments, from tutor Eva Brann. I can’t do an honest review of this book. First of all, I know the author and admire her intellect and imagination; second, I work for the college—so whatever I say is an inside job, lacking in the objectivity necessary for an honest appraisal. But let me just make a few points about the book, from the point of view of someone who’s spent time with Homer and incorporated his poems into consciousness but is certainly no expert. Structure Brann shows a happy disregard for the conventions of literary criticism. She “Every war is the Iliad, every difficult journey the Odyssey, every soul-in-progress an Odysseus...” doesn’t offer a cohesive point of view for examining the epics; she doesn’t hog-tie the poems with the lasso of a single interpretation. Instead, she writes about “moments.” Her moments are akin to epiphanies—a clarity that shines from the text. The analogy Brann draws is to the images on a Greek vase. She cites an amphora image of Ajax preparing his spear by making it fast in a mound of earth just before impaling himself upon it, distraught that he was not awarded the wondrous shield of Achilles after the great { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } warrior’s death. “For just as the flowing Homeric narrative can produce in the attentive reader as a cumulative result a detailed mental image, so, reciprocally, a painted picture can be developed into a tableau vivant, a living image containing the gist of the whole story, a still, fraught, vibrating stasis,” she explains. The ancient potter’s vision of Ajax caught in the intensity of a moment exemplifies what can be found in Homer as well. This book makes us better readers of Homer. The series of moments described— like the images on the amphora—become moments for us, created by Homer. Brann’s interpretations are not barricades between the books and us but rather access points. This is not to say that she does not address the great questions: What are we to make of the gods and their interference in human affairs? Why does the Iliad end with the funeral of Hector (and not, for instance, the fall of Troy)? What is the source of Achilles’ wrath and how is it related to his knowledge of his impending death? What’s the deal with Odysseus and the ten-year return? How much fantasy should we recognize in Odysseus’ tale? There are more, and she takes them all on. The most endearing characteristic of Homeric Moments, to me, is how alive the poems are to Miss Brann. Achilles and Odysseus are somehow known to her— through an imagination that must be cinematic in its clarity. She knows the color of Odysseus’ eyes (brown) and sees into the psychology of Achilles’ wrath (“he expends himself youthfully, lives, even withdrawn from action, the intense, concentrated, single-minded, abbreviated life of the death-bound”). She also offers wonderful pictures of other Homeric characters. There’s Hephaestus, the only god who makes things. His house is “star-decked, bronzebuilt.” And Hector, breaker of horses, is “an altogether solid though very human being. He refuses to drink on duty, stays to save his men, is kind to Helen—and wisely keeps his distance; he is solicitous even of his morally slight brother’s feelings…[H]e has in him a strain of gentle civility.” �{Bibliofile} Brannian Insight Those who like to highlight sections that provide particular insight in books they are reading may find their entire copy of Homeric Moments awash in yellow. Here are two examples of Brannian observations: 1. What about the gods and the way they intervene in human lives for Homer? “…the pretence of an aiding god seems to impinge on the purity of people’s responsibility; every human accomplishment or failure has a divine signature on it. But the converse is also true: Every divine intervention duplicates a human intention and its execution…Such reciprocity…makes the origin of every human deed questionable, and Homer’s moral frame as ambivalent as any modern sensibility could recognize.” Later, commenting on how Athena transforms Odysseus at crucial times, she says the gods “ enhance the scenery of human action by making the looks of people and places adequate to their inner nature…” 2. A long and fruitful discussion of Homeric similes helps illuminate the power of the epics’ poetry. Especially in the gruesome Iliad, the images in the similes are beautiful, creating a double vision. “Similes, it is said, ‘defamiliarize’ the placidly normal world by reflecting it in estranging likenesses. Homeric similes, however, often do the reverse: They project the excruciating enormities of battle onto an integral world of peaceful and homely work as well as onto beautiful and boisterous nature, and so they transfigure the incessant abnormality of man-made war. In a flash they show the isolated siege world of Troy as not so hopelessly disconnected from the sound natural world of work and weather, but bonded to it by sudden visions of similarity.” Although it seems to me that any time is a good time to read Homer, and to take up Homeric Moments, now— when war is as real to us as “real-time” TV coverage and the Internet can make it—is an especially good time. Miss Brann’s insights on this ancient conflict and its aftermath help mitigate the bare impenetrability of the question: why does humankind make war? x 29 Cato’s Mirania: A Life of Provost Smith, by Charlotte Goldsborough Fletcher University of Pennsylvania), and ousted Smith, a founder and provost for 15 years. So long as they behaved themselves, Miss Fletcher writes, Loyalists were safe in Maryland: “The Provost was not a Loyalist, but the perception that he was lingered.” To avoid surveillance, Smith moved to Chestertown, which had been considering establishing a college for some time. Smith was the man to do that. He first opened a school for his two sons, which subsequently was absorbed into the Kent County Free School. Its board elected him chairman. Under his leadership, the trustees petitioned the Maryland Assembly to charter the Kent County Free School as a college. Already with years of fund raising behind him in Pennsylvania, Smith collected pledges worth 5,000 pounds. After the Revolution’s most famous leader’s permission was gained to name the college for him, Washington College was chartered in 1782 with Smith as its principal and chairman of the board of trustees. Not content to stop there, Smith was determined to charter a college on the Western Shore, which together with Washington College would form the first University of Maryland. He believed deeply in the proposals on education he had written for a college for his mythical province of Mirania in America, a plan originally formulated when New York was considering such an institution and a plan that so charmed Franklin he chose Smith as the first provost of the College of Philadelphia. “Liberty will not deign to swell but where her fair companion Knowledge flourishes by her side,” Smith wrote under the pseudonym of Cato. He joined with two other clergymen representing the three most prominent denominations in Maryland in preparing a charter for the future St. John’s. The so-called University Law was drafted by Smith, the Rev. Patrick Alison, representing the Presbyterians or Dissenters, and the Rev. John Carroll, the Roman Catholics. It was adopted in December 29, 1784, two days after the festival day of St. John the Evangelist, patron saint of the Free Masons, of which Smith, like Washington and Franklin, was a member. “The University Law, however, would not go into effect until a board of trustees was elected from the group of subscribers who together had pledged 1,000 pounds,” Miss Fletcher writes. University Press of America, Inc. Charlotte Fletcher served as the librarian of the Annapolis campus for 35 years, presiding over a lively, learned center of civility until her retirement in 1980. However, her lasting contribution to St. John’s College may be in the work she continued after leaving the college. In a series of scholarly articles, only one of which was written before her retirement, Fletcher made a tremendous contribution to the history of the college. Working with a zeal for getting it right, she was the first to authenticate the steps that led to King William’s School becoming St. John’s, a story which heretofore had the ring of legend. She wrote a convincing account of how the college may have been named; an article on the college’s first president, John McDowell, and a piece on King William School and the College of William and Mary, both founded the same year. All were published by the Maryland Historical Magazine and wrapped up in one 1991 issue of The St. John’s Review (regrettably out of print). Now comes a book about the foremost figure in St. John’s founding, William Smith, a remarkable Scotsman from Aberdeen and president pro tem of the college—for one day. A friend of Benjamin Franklin, with whom he had an ever-changing relationship, disagreeing as they did over Pennsylvania’s proprietary form of government, Smith was chosen by the American Philosophical Society to deliver the eulogy at the society’s memorial service for Franklin. Among other accomplishments, this Anglican clergyman wrote the charter for that distinguished society. Although turned down as the first bishop-elect of Maryland (rejected because he had been seen to stumble on a New York street, presumably from strong drink), Smith preached at the consecration of the first Maryland bishop and remained devoted to the church. He wrote the preface of the 1789 Book of Common Prayer, unchanged since then. Without William Smith, St. John’s College would never have been established. Smith arrived in Maryland after the Pennsylvania legislature dissolved the board of the College of Philadelphia (later the { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } continued on p. 30 �30 Rebecca Wilson served for many years as the college’s director of public relations in Annapolis. Calculus: The Elements by Michael Comenetz World Scientific Publishing Inc., 2003 This book by Annapolis tutor Michael Comenetz provides a full and clear account of the essentials of calculus, presented in an engaging style that is both readable and mathematically precise. Concepts and central ideas are emphasized throughout. Physical examples and interpretations play a leading role, and Charles Jones (A79) For Smith, there was much to do. “Smith traveled on horseback over 300 miles in the winter of 1785-86 to convene and supervise elections in the Western Shore counties to validate the St. John’s charter.” One can imagine what hardships were posed by wintry rides on Maryland’s primitive roads. His service was essential. Without his commitment, St. John’s would not have been able to begin classes five years after the University Law was adopted. After Smith returned to Philadelphia, Maryland withdrew its support for the first university, and St. John’s and Washington became, as they are today, independent colleges. “The Provost returned to Maryland in November 1789 to preside as the president pro tem at the opening of St. John’s College in Annapolis,” Miss Fletcher writes. “On that day Smith was president of three colleges: St. John’s College and Washington College in Maryland, and the College of Philadelphia. Miss Fletcher has written a valuable book about a figure of enormous energy, ambition, drive and intelligence. Outspoken, Smith was not a sentimentalist. He landed in jail as the result of his German translation of an article protesting the failure of Pennsylvania Assembly members to support a militia to protect the ScotsIrish from slaughter by Indians on the state’s western frontier. A businessman, he also acquired 70,000 acres of land, something of which St. Paul would have disapproved, a major factor in his not becoming bishop. Part of it became the site for the town of Huntingdon, Pa., which he also founded. Incidentally of interest is that Miss Fletcher is a descendant of Smith through his daughter, Willamina Smith, who married Charles Goldsborough. Her book about her distinguished ancestor has been extensively researched, documented by numerous notes, and tightly written. It beautifully rounds out her earlier impressive accounts of the history of St. John’s. –Rebbeca Wilson (HA83) {Bibliofile} is led to a consideration of the Lysis and Phaedrus. In the prologue to his work, Geier describes a moment of inspiration from the latter work: “One evening, late, after a class on Plato’s Phaedrus, I was sitting at one end of a living room. At the other end, a good distance away, was a fireplace. There was no fire in it at this time. As I gazed there, into that dark fireplace (were there ashes there? I don’t remember. There may have been. There probably were), I kept asking myself: just what is the ‘object’ of Eros. What is it? What can it be? After a while, as I kept gazing there, not a short while but not a very long one, I saw, with great excitement and delight, the ‘object’ of Eros. It was the very thing I was looking at and asking ‘what’ about. The very thing I was looking at and not seeing was the very thing I was looking for. Had the fireplace not been dark I would not have seen this. Then I realized that that ‘object’ was not not known, but that it was known as unknown; and therefore that it was not just something unknown, but that it was the Unknown. I saw in that fire-less fireplace the very thing that was not there. And precisely this was (and is) the ‘object’ of Eros.” Bookbinder’s Finishing Tools Makers 1780-1965 By Tom Conroy (SF77) Oak Knoll Press alternative approaches to fundamental ways of thinking help the student develop the intuitive understanding so important in science and engineering. Many questions and problems, with detailed solutions, encourage active reading and independent thought. Plato’s Erotic Thought: The Tree of the Unknown by Alfred Geier (A54) University of Rochester Press Alfred Geier’s book is presented as an attempt to understand the nature of the object of Eros in Plato’s writings. He considers first the Symposium, where he is led to a deeper understanding of the “nature of Love (Eros).” But then the problem manifests itself as related primarily to the “way in which Love arises,” and he { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } For anyone interested in the history of books, here’s a valuable resource compiled by Tom Conroy. Conroy, an independent book conservator, fine binder, toolmaker, and binding teacher in Berkeley, Calif., has published a directory listing hundreds of tool-cutters from 1780-1965 and their firms. The book includes brief biographies of each craftsman or firm, original trade marks, and advertisements. �{ A l u m n i Vo i c e s } 31 Remembering Douglas Allanbrook forward, can distinguish the two. In “Truth-Telling and The Iliad,” Douglas remarks out of the blue that if Homer ever tried to solve any Problems Zeus would strike him dead with a thunderbolt. Two years later he noted that some in preceptorial had concluded that Thucydides was a wise and perfect cynic. Douglas thought that wrong. “If no solution in human affairs is possible,” he wrote, “it is because nothing of heartfelt concern is a problem that can be solved. If no solution is possible, human excellence calls for courage and shrewdness to walk hand in hand with decency and compassion.” He then concluded with a snapshot of Prime Minister Indira Ghandi and saintly [In 1981] Douglas gave a lecture Mother Teresa, smiling at each other entitled “Truth-Telling and the in deadly fashion on TV, each needing Iliad,” which began: “The terrible something at that moment from the word truth implies a parity between other, struggling to defend something what we see and what we say.” He good against the grind. This, it seems, then suggested that the Iliad and The is as good as it gets. The good soldier Peloponnesian War are the only two Douglas Allanbrook is remembered as a teacher puts down his head and keeps walking. books that “consistently exhibit” this and friend. My first visit to the house on quality, that “reflect in their words Revell Street was to talk about my and accounts, speeches and stories, for reflecting, and for setting things precept paper (which erred on the the real that is in front of our eyes and straight. In both of them one feels the side not of cynicism but naiveté). Douglas that is so difficult to own up to, or ache for, and the absence of, an efficacious happily showed me his piano, recently to talk about.” good, and while Socrates may speak of installed in the renovated attic. The sight The following year Douglas offered a himself as the only true citizen of Athens, of his little workspace, filled with big preceptorial on Thucydides. Douglas Thucydides the Athenian has put into the sheets of music, prompted me to report persistently pointed to the way Pericles mouths of his Athenians words that fix that his recent recording of a Bach prelude encouraged Athenians to fight not for forever in our memory the inexorable and fugue (on the record with McDowell what might be gained by an enemy’s defeat, grind of power, time, and moral decline.” on the cover) had a meditative quality to but out of love for the beauties of Athens, In preceptorial we puzzled. Was Pericles my ears entirely new—something that which (as Pericles described at some length) naive to think love of law and similar beauopened not only Bach but the whole of had to do with law and habits of civilized ties might prevail? We also read speeches what we call baroque music to my soul. behavior. This appeal—to fall in love with of Lincoln, where again, law, government Douglas smiled in a now familiar, put-on Athens for the best of reasons—appealed to of the people, by the people, for the way—like a cartoonish wolf in a fedora—and Douglas’s own sense of patriotism. And that people, and now Equality, are held up as said, “Oh yes, Mr. Ney, nobody plays Bach the love proved inconstant, that the beauties high values, to be loved at highest cost. A the way I do!” It seems truer words were of Athens were neglected and so failed, sign of progress? Or is that naive? Douglas never spoken. On my shelf at home is a Douglas kept in our minds as we worked provoked us with the suggestion that the costly collection of CDs rarely touched, through the book, reading one case history preservation of the American union had representing a failed attempt over two of disaster after another. And a year later, not been worth its cost in blood—a provoca- decades to find someone who plays Bach in his lecture, “The Inefficacy of the Good,” tion rooted, it seems, in his experience as on the piano with anything like Douglas’ he finished his discussion of Pericles’ first a soldier, and his tendency to think that the humanism and perfection... speech by looking forward a few decades to foundations of political life are troubled How far from accidental that a brilliant the demise of democratic Athens: with termites. young composer who had been given the “It would be a shameless naiveté to A simple distinction pops up throughout secret of Logos for Fingers would give a conceive of any of Plato’s political works as his writing—between Problems, which can arising from any ground other than one of good part of his life to teaching in the be Solved, and Troubles, which cannot and the blackest pessimism regarding human Program. What a blessing to have known so must be endured, or perhaps slipped affairs….The war was an occasion, first for him, teacher and friend.x around. Happy the man who, looking Thucydides and then for Plato, for observing, Members of the St. John’s community came together with family and longtime friends of Annapolis Tutor Douglas Allanbrook for a memorial service March 29 in the Great Hall. Mr. Allanbrook, who had spent half a century at St. John’s, died in January of a heart attack at the age of 81. He had continued to perform at the college and to lead language tutorials after his retirement from fulltime teaching. This remembrance by William Ney, Class of 1982, was among the many offered during the memorial service, which also featured Mr. Allanbrook’s music. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } �32 {Alumni Profile} Questioning the Blueprint of Human Life by Jason Bielagus (SF98) hat is the nature of life? Can we distill it into principles? How are humans different from all other forms of life? How do we know we know something?” Five years after leaving St. John’s, says Jacob Keller (SF98), questions like these continue to intrigue him. He carried his habit of questioning into the Ph.D./M.D. program he’s currently enrolled in at Northwestern University. And he found it particularly helpful as a researcher in Columbia University’s Department of Biological Sciences, where he worked in a laboratory under Dr. John Hunt. Keller went to Columbia to gain the prerequisites needed for medical school; he went to Hunt to gain research experience. Along the way he landed a credit as lead author of a paper published in the scientific journal Structure, saw his computer-generated model of a protein featured on the journal’s cover, and gained another notice of his work in the journal Science—notable accomplishments for any established researcher, highly unusual for a liberal arts graduate in a pre-med program. The research Keller conducted at the Hunt lab developed from a larger project involving dozens of labs working to complete the Human Genome Project. Although the human genome has been sequenced, scientists have yet to discover the exact function of every gene. By looking at the structures of proteins our genes make, researchers hope to discover what those proteins and the genes that make them do. Keller’s research centered on MT0146/CbiT, a protein required to synthesize vitamin B12. Previously, it was thought that MT0146/CbiT was a decarboxylase. Keller proved that it was, in fact, a methyltransferase. Nearly every biological function, both in sickness and in health, happens through proteins. Knowing how these proteins work will allow doctors to combat disease with great specificity. “The current method is much more trial-and-error, and therefore requires far more time and W money,” says Keller. “This inflates the cost of drugs and sometimes even prevents them from being developed.” Structural biology has led to new treatments for multiple sclerosis, for example. The disease strikes when a patient’s immune systems mistake the cells sheathing the nerves for foreign cells. The immune system then attacks and kills those cells, wreacking havoc on the patient’s nervous system. Recently, Dr. Jack Strominger of the Harvard Medical School found that a single protein on the membrane of the nerve-sheath cells was triggering the attack by the immune system. He then found a molecule that would bind to that problematic membrane protein, thereby covering it and blocking it from detection by the immune system. After taking this new drug, MS patients no longer have symptoms of the disease. The technique that Keller and others use to determine the structure of proteins is X-ray crystallography. The technique requires taking the DNA sequence that codes for the protein of interest and putting it into bacteria cells. Once inside the bacteria cells, the DNA produces a large quantity of the protein. After being isolated and purified, the protein is treated with a variety of chemicals and conditions to make the protein crystallize. “A good crystal is 1/10 — 1/5 of a millimeter and has about 1015 (a million billion) molecules in it,” Keller said. “Once the protein is crystallized, it is exposed to X-rays. By interpreting the diffraction patterns of the X-rays, the structure of the crystal can be determined. Based on the diffraction patterns, a researcher can create a computer model of the protein.” Examining the structure of the molecule then allows its function to be determined, adds Keller. “Wayne Hendrickson, a crystallographer and colleague at Columbia, described X-ray crystallography as a microscope that uses X-rays for light and a computer for a lens. In St. John’s terms, I would say that it’s like looking at the shadows on the wall of the cave to try to find out what the real forms are.” The technique owes a lot to Young and { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } his light-slit experiment. “That paper’s framework has great explaining power, even in terms of modern macromolecular crystallography. Young’s paper, actually, has given me a sort of reference point, or way of thinking, that shapes my understanding to this day.” Keller isn’t sure he’d be in science if he hadn’t chosen to come to St. John’s. He’s certain that he’ll be a better scientist because of the college. “I feel that I have not had the questioning principle squelched out of me by question-phobic lectures. Many people in science are not even all that excited by their research. Those who are often make the best scientists.” His path to medicine stems from a desire to help people, though he hasn’t settled on a specialty. As a scientist, he gains the opportunity to continue to ask questions and search for the answers. His Ph.D. research may focus on the structure of proteins. “My real dream would be to figure out how some system works from the atomic to the macroscopic scale. Like figuring out how the shape of some protein affects behavior or the macroscopic realm in some way. It has been done before, for example with muscles. They understand muscle contraction from atoms on up. “There are ways to use structural information to cure disease, but the big goal of structural biologists, and this is somehow more compelling to me, is the study of these fantastic forms, trying to understand how they work, and discovering what overall principles guide their behavior. These structures are really incredible, because they are right on the verge of coming to life, yet are made out of simple atoms. Their component atoms are more or less understandable as simple elements, yet the complexity of the relationships between these components is great. The single, isolated protein is only the beginning of the real complexity of life.” x �jim zir Jacob Keller at Northwestern University { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } �{Alumni Notes} 34 REMEMBRANCE OF FRESHMAN YEARS PAST Have a favorite story from your first day, week, or month of Freshman year? Please e-mail it to Sus3an Borden at s-borden@sjca.edu for a nostalgia story we’re working on. 1942 J. HEINMULLER sent this note: “Homecoming was A-1. So glad I made it. Thanks.” 1951 GEORGE WEND recently traveled to Thailand and is “deep into digital photography.” 1955 CAROLYN BANKS AND HELGE LEEUWENBURGH: “We are still in the ‘Travel for Groups’ business and are still creative. If anyone is interested, get in touch. Our last St. John’s tour was in 1985 to Greece. That’s a long time ago, but the fun is still longremembered.” 1960 HILDRETH SMITH BECKER writes from Arizona: “Currently I volunteer at a Swedenborg Church’s library-bookstore. Busy also with my granddaughter, Adela, age 7, whose mother CHRISTINA PAIGE, graduated from St. John’s (Annapolis) in 1988. I continue with studies in philosophy and religion.” 1961 DAVE ROSENFIELD writes: “My truly aimless life continues in reasonably good health; for this I am thankful, although, as an atheist, I do not know to whom or what I am directing this thanks. After being unsuccessful at enabling, I moved on to the University of Pennsylvania and earned a degree (B.S. in economics, major in finance) from the Wharton School in 1965—to whatever end I cannot imagine as I have never worked in the business world. In 1970, I consolidated several questionable enterprises into the WD&R Carpentry Co. (Who, Didditt & Rahn), which became immensely successful in highpriced architectural restoration (not repair) and light commercial construction. Whatever made me imagine I was an academic? My days are just filled! Since retiring from business in 1986, I never get a day off. I have a small business, Sanborn Shooters (www.sanbornshooters.com) that I operate from home. It is a federally licensed machine gun company with a gun range here on the ranch. Other interests include my vintage British Motorcycles, pyrotechnics, (my wife, Mary Ann [Sanborn] & I are both licensed professional display pyrotechnic operators) and reading junky detective novels. Mary Ann intends to sell her businesses soon. After that I will sell the machine gun business and we will devote more time to travel and our pyro work. I still have not decided what I want to do when I About that English Weather EONARD KAHN (SFGI96) spends about half of his time in the UK as a doctoral student in philosophy at the University of Oxford and the other “in Southern California trying to recover from the collective onslaught of English weather and English food (so-called). My wife has decided to forgo the British experience and (quite wisely) only deigns to leave the West Coast of the U.S. for our brief forays to Europe proper. After bumming around Italy in the summer of ’02, we decided that if St. John’s establishes a third campus in Siena we would strongly consider making a repeat performance as senior residents! I would love to hear from old friends as well as from any Johnnies wandering through the city of dreaming spires (or considering study here). Drop me a line at leonard.kahn@magdalen.oxford.ac.uk.” x L grow up—but there is plenty of time for that sort of thing. Mercifully, I have never been jailed, produced issue, or voted Democrat. We welcome visitors on our ranch near Austin, Texas: Davinryder@hotmail.com” 1962 NEIL CHARLES POTASH spent an October day with classmate JOHN FRANKLIN MILLER at the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House. The tour was interesting to Potash, a retired historian, especially since it was conducted by the museum’s curator and president, Miller. After a delicious lunch—including much Johnnie reminiscence, Neil returned to Bowie, Md., where he continues to work on his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland. JOHN FRANKLIN MILLER, president of the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House, has been appointed president of the Library of American Landscape History (LALH). Based in Amherst, Mass., LALH was founded on the belief that clear, informative books and exhibitions about North American landscape design would broaden support for enlightened landscape preservation. In recent years, LALH has produced a number of publications, such as Pioneers of American Landscape Design, The Spirit of the Garden, Landscape Gardening, and Landscape Architecture in the Midwest. According to Miller, the importance of landscape preservation is illustrated in many of the Ford family sites. “Landscape and landscape-garden preservation have come of age in the late 20th century, following upon earlier successes in architectural preservation,” said Miller. “The Ford family has had an important role in this, since their environmental stewardship began when Henry Ford commissioned the visionary designer Jen Jensen to create the landscapes for ‘Fair Lane,’ Greenfield Village, and the Henry Ford Hospital; and Edsel Ford commissioned Jensen to create landscapes for the Ford House in Grosse Pointe, ‘Skylands,’ in Maine and ‘Haven Hill’ near Clarkston.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } 1970 LES MARGULIS (A) sends news from Australia: “I have had an eclectic career. My first job out of school (B.A. in philosophy) was working at a porno movie house. Didn’t make my Jewish mother happy. Went back to school and got a master’s in advertising (had an appropriate background given that ad execs are sometimes called ‘whores’). Eventually, wound up at BBDO where I stayed for 25 years and ran one of their international divisions. Lived abroad for a while and traveled extensively, but was not getting rich. Left BBDO in 1999 to seek my fame and fortune during the Internet go-go years. Nine months and $100 million dollars of investors’ money later, the company went bust. I migrated back to advertising and worked as VP for a Hispanic agency. And now I am on my way to Australia to be president of the largest multicultural agency there. I am looking forward to kicking back and putting another shrimp on the barbie. If any Johnnies pass through Sydney, my e-mail is lesmargulis@hotmail.com.” 1973 MARY TARAIL (SF) is still working full time as a psychiatrist as part of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Her grandchild, Isabella, is 3 years old. She reports that she is finding time to read again and has been in touch with LIZZIE GOLDWIN, who is well. MOZELL LANG (MORRIS) (SFGI) retired from the Michigan Department of Education as a science consultant in October 2002. She now works as a science consultant for the Pontiac Schools. 1974 JON HUNNER (SF) continues to direct the Public History program at New Mexico State University, where he received tenure last year. His book, Inventing Los Alamos, will be published in 2003 by the University of Oklahoma Press. CRUGER JOHNSON PHILLIPS (A) is executive director of a small nonprofit called Hopeworks, which �35 {Alumni Profile} christopher huston Working to Safeguard Fundamental Rights Juan Villaseñor, at ACLU’s headquarters in New York by Rosemary Harty uan Villaseñor (A97) was alarmed by what followed in the wake of the September 11 attacks: expanded domestic spying programs, secret military tribunals, and similar government efforts to gather information and evidence on foreigners and citizens alike. From where he stood, fundamental American rights were under attack. “I saw what the government was doing to our civil liberties and rights in the name of national security, and it really kind of scared me,” he says. His first response was to join the American Civil Liberties Union. Then, while clerking for a federal judge in his first year out of Vanderbilt University’s law school, he applied for and won the ACLU’s prestigious J William J. Brennan First Amendment Fellowship. He began the yearlong fellowship in the organization’s national offices in New York last September and has gained experience working on several high-profile ACLU cases. Many involve free speech and the Internet. Villaseñor has also worked on cases that are part of the organization’s attempts to block antiterrorism measures it believes infringe on basic constitutional rights. In addition to a chance to work for something he believes in, the fellowship has provided an opportunity to work on a broad variety of important cases with skilled and dedicated lawyers. Among his first cases was Melvin v Doe, the first case of its kind to reach a state supreme court, and one expected to shape { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } laws governing free speech on the Internet. In joining the case, the ACLU seeks to protect anonymous speakers in cyberspace who face legal intimidation from public officials whom they criticize. The case involves a Pennsylvania Superior Court judge seeking to unmask the identity of an anonymous web master who criticized her for lobbying the governor to fill a judicial vacancy. The ACLU, in defending the web master, seeks to defend the basic American right to criticize public officials. Although the Internet has changed the delivery of the message, the basic rights are the same as those established in a landmark 1960 case, Talley v California, in which a man was fined for distributing anonymous handbills in violation of a Los Angeles continued on p. 36 �36 {Alumni Profile} municipal code that required such literature include a name and address. The Supreme Court found the code unconstitutional. In a later case, Reno v ACLU, the Supreme Court declared the Internet as a new and powerful democratic forum in which anyone “can become a town crier with a voice that resonates farther than it could from any soapbox.” “If the Pennsylvania Supreme Court finds against our client, then his identity will have to be revealed,” Villaseñor explains. “He will unnecessarily suffer embarrassment, and all because he engaged in political speech—the expression that lies at the very core of the First Amendment. “More broadly, however, other anonymous speakers will experience a chilling effect because they will be unwilling to engage in criticism of political or other public figures for fear that they be sued for defamation” So far on the Melvin case, the ACLU has lost in the lower courts; Villaseñor has been involved in several motions to quash subpoenas filed on behalf of the plaintiff and co-drafted the appeals to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The case should be heard by the state high court this spring. Another First Amendment case Villaseñor is working on involves the American Library Association, a case up for review in the U.S. Supreme Court. A three-judge court in Philadelphia ruled that libraries could not be required to install Internet filters as a condition of federal funding. The ACLU is co-counsel in that case. “Basically at issue is whether Congress could pass the Children Internet Protection Act (CIPA),” Villaseñor explains. “These filters underblock, they don’t catch the sites that they’re supposed to catch, and a lot of sites that have scientific information seeks community solutions for problems families face raising teens. DAVID MACLAINE (SF) had a successful reading at the Lupin Naturist Club of excerpts from his collection of poetic parody/transformation “The Naked Bard” in the summer of 2002. PAUL SZABO (A) recently joined Calfee, Halter & Griswold, LLP in Cleveland, as a senior attorney specializing in intellectual property law. He counsels publicly- and privately-held clients regarding may be blocked from view simply because of anatomical terms you might find within the site.” The ACLU is representing a public library in the case; Villaseñor is involved in researching and preparing briefs. A fascinating case Villaseñor has worked on centers on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and involves a number of historic firsts. Enacted in 1978, “Given our constitutional values, we simply are not a society that wants to block speech.” Juan Villaseñor FISA established a special court, composed of seven federal district court judges, to review the attorney general’s applications for authorization of electronic surveillance aimed at obtaining foreign intelligence information. Last May, this court took the unprecedented step of making public its unanimous decision rejecting the government’s bid to expand spying powers directed at American citizens. The attorney general then appealed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, a body convened for the first time and comprising three Court of Appeals judges selected by Chief Justice William Rehnquist. “The ACLU asked the court for permission to file an amicus brief on behalf of patent, copyright and trademark matters. A registered patent attorney, Szabo renders opinions as to patentability, right to use, patent infringement, and patent validity issues. 1976 BETSY DAVENPORT (SF) lives with her family in Portland, Ore. She has a private practice doing psychotherapy and parenting consultation, and is developing a specialty in adult ADHD and the challenges it presents to families. Her daughter is 10, what we represent. The court allowed us to file a brief, but ultimately rejected our arguments,” says Villaseñor. “The court of review reversed the trial courts and basically has foreclosed—at least on its face— any way that anyone can appeal the decision.” The Supreme Court recently refused an appeal of the decision. These developments are very disturbing to Villaseñor, especially since he believes most Americans aren’t aware of what’s at risk. “Any average, law-abiding citizen must be concerned about the FISA court powers. It circumvents the Fourth Amendment, allowing searches on less than the constitutionally required probable cause, and the target of the search would likely never know that he or she is a target at all. Any ‘evidence’ gathered against him or her may never be used against the person.” Working for the ACLU—which faces occasional attacks from mainstream America as well as conservative critics for some of its battles—is “definitely a conversation piece.” But misconceptions often cloud the ACLU’s image and purpose, Villaseñor believes. “If people think that we (ACLU staff) are for child porn or we are in favor of children viewing material that is harmful, that is completely and patently false. What we are in favor of is that the government cannot tell you what material you should be looking at. You as a parent can install a filter in your own private computer, but that doesn’t mean the government should require it in public libraries. “Given our constitutional values, we simply are not a society that wants to block speech. The answer for free speech is more speech, not less. That includes hateful, racist, and other kinds of controversial speech.” x the “big” kids are 34 and 36, and her grandsons are 2 and 6. Her husband will retire from university teaching in January 2003. After almost 20 years as a trial attorney in both public and private practice, WILLIAM W. NOOTER (A) is now a magistrate judge on the D.C. Superior Court, having been appointed in October 2000. Bill currently presides over cases in Family Court. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Elissa Free, and daughter, Amanda, age 11. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } ANNE NICOLE SCHLESS (SF) writes “I am living on a piece of ‘paradise found’—writing, carving, singing and building a workshop. I run a small company for a living and am really enjoying the people and the challenge—basically loving life, including the ups and downs. Greetings to all!” 1977 WILLIAM MALLOY (SF) writes: “My techno-addresses have changed. On the one hand, the new home phone number is �37 {Alumni Notes} 713-283-9444, and on the other hand, the new email address is ogopogo@sbcglobal.net On the other other hand, the mailing address remains P.O. Box 570822 in Houston, Texas 77257-0822. Let me hear from you, even if we’ve never met, particularly if you don’t recognize the palindrome ‘ogopogo.’ “Open question to anyone: In what ways does the Ethernet resemble phlogiston? In what ways does it not?” 1978 THOMAS WOOD (SF) has taken a new position as coordinator of the core curriculum at St. Mary’s College of Ave Maria University in Orchard Lake, Mich. 1979 JEFF MCELROY (SF) writes, “I have recently left my 14-year career in nonprofit fund-raising and reactivated my law license. I have opened a law office in my Hollywood guest house so that I can better parent my 7-yearold son. My practice is focused on tax-exempt organizations and adoption for lesbian and gay parents.” 1980 GERI GLOVER (SF) closed her private practice in Santa Fe in May 2002. She now splits her time between Santa Fe on the weekends and the Alamo Navajo Reservation near Magdalena, N.M., during the workweek. She is the Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health Services coordinator for Alamo. TOM G. PALMER (A) writes: “I greatly regret having missed the 20th reunion, but I had agreed long ago to participate in the international meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in London, which took place over the same week. I was nominated for membership and the nomination was accepted. (The society was founded in 1947 in Mont Pelerin, Switzerland, at an international meeting of liberal scholars called together by Friedrich A. Hayek to undertake the rehabilitation of classical liberal thought.) I’ve recently taken over editorship of the Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. As a senior fellow of the Cato Institute, I’ve also published a number of essays on the economics of property, constitutional government after 9-11, globalization, and other topics. I’ve been on the road a lot, giving lectures at universities, speaking at conferences of newspaper editors, and speaking before business groups. My position at Cato keeps me busy—it’s pretty much my dream job. I may have the record for SJC alums in long-distance relationships, as it’s now been over seven years that my partner and I have lived in different countries. He’s British, we met at Oxford, and he lives in London. We do manage to see each other four or five times a year, in America or in Europe (we managed to spend nearly two weeks together in France this summer when I was lecturing at the University of Aix-en-Provence). Someday we’re hoping to be able to live together in some country, at least for some time.” 1981 SARA MARCY (SF) writes: “I am very sorry to inform the college community of the death, last April, of LANCE FORSYTHE (SF). After a short illness he passed away and was brought to the mountains in Montana, where, as those who knew him can attest, he will rest happily.” 1982 PETER FISK (SF) has a busy chiropractic office and teaches network spinal analysis. NATASHA (WALTER) FISK (SF84) is doing aura balancing from a perspective of drawing out some wisdom from energy blocks. Their daughter, Gioia, is 6 and is in the first grade at the San Francisco Waldorf School. REBECCA (COURSEY) KING (SF) writes: “During the last five years I have undergone a significant personal transformation, resulting in a divorce from my husband of 16 years and moving from Montana to Santa Cruz, Calif. I am completing my fourth and final year at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, where my senior project is on erotic transfer in the healer-client relationship. I work as a spiritual energy healer as well as a counselor/sex educator specializing in the fascinating field of relationships, intimacy, and sexuality. I’ve begun writing articles based on my field, and have found myself deeply involved with Tantric Buddhism as a base for my spiritual practice and reconnection with the feminine. I have also deeply explored Shadow Work, Jungian Dream Analysis, Depth Psychology, Tantra, a lot of workshops on sexuality, and a lot of truly unique relationship experiences. My daughter, Galen, is 8 1/2 and lives primarily with Dave in Montana. She spends about one week out of every five with me and loves the ocean and the redwoods. So after years of living a very sociably acceptable and financially secure life, with a friend and loving companion, I am finally returning to something which has been calling me, the soul’s longing to live something yet unexplored inside of me, for which I was still hungering when I left St. John’s. I continue to ponder existential questions of reality and devote a great percentage of my time to spiritual practices and meditation and inquiry and energy-healing work. I still love to dance and have trained in various movement therapies. This summer I reread Antigone and Oedipus Rex to regain insight into the underlying mythic level of sexual dysfunction. I read Jungian books for fun and scintillating intellectual intrigue, and wonder just what I will study next. Blessings and radiance to all my fellow Johnnies.” 1983 ARTHUR EDISON (SF) is an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Florida. He studies neurochemicals and spends most of his time at work thinking about worms (nematodes) and NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance). He is happily married to his wife, Katherine (20+ years), and has two great kids, Emily, 17, and Maddy, 15. SUZAN M. PORTER (SF) will be teaching sixth-grade science and seventh-grade pre-algebra at the NOVA School in Olympia, Wash. “NOVA is a middle school which serves academically talented youngsters, and I’m very much looking forward to the challenges.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } 1987 LARRY DAVIS (SFGI) graduated with an M.A. from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas, in 2002, and was the first person to walk across the stage and get a diploma in the seminary’s centennial year. JOEY COXWELL (SFGI) and his wife, PATTI (SFGI92), have been on the move again! They are now in Meridian, Miss. Joey teaches AP chemistry and physics and sometimes astronomy, and Patti teaches elementary music to 1,050 students in grades K-6. Their daughter, Joanna, will be attending school with mom in the fall. She is the only student in her preschool class who knows all the planets, in order! Patty writes: “We are not accomplishing ‘great’ things compared to most of what I read in the alumni section, but we sure are enjoying being fouryear-olds again! We’ve lost touch with most everyone due to moves. Our e-mail address is Falala1701@aol.com. Just put your name in the subject line so I won’t dismiss it as spam.” 1988 JOHN MCLAUGHLIN (SFGI) writes, “After this update I will hold off for a decade or so! February and the first week of March the goal is to add 350-400 miles—somewhere around there—on to 900 miles previously skied in Scandanavia. Health and weather allowing, that will make for a continuous line from Oslo to Knivskjellodden. Living in Telluride, Colo., it will take a few days to get comfortable with the low elevation. Otherwise I am definitely ready to go.” SUKUMAR PERIWAL (A) writes from Canada: “Greetings to friends from St. John’s. Not having been in touch since graduation in 1988, it’s intimidating to catch up. While doing a D.Phil. at Oxford I lived in Prague for a few years doing research on nationalism and teaching at a new international university there, then traveled around, writing columns and a serialized novel for an Italian newspaper. Now I live in Victoria, British Columbia, where I work for �38 {Alumni Notes} the government of British Columbia in international relations. I got married last summer to Eleonora Babejova, ending the longest longdistance relationship in history. I’ve stopped smoking and completely changed personality type but would still love to hear from long-lost friends at:Periwal@gems5.gov.bc.ca. ” ELLEN SCHWINDT (A) writes: “After spending 13 years in Baltimore, mostly in education of one sort or another, I’ve recently moved to South Conway, N.H., and I married a Civil War historian named William Marvel. I’m running a tiny community music school, teaching violin, piano, and music theory, visiting a weekly peace vigil, and supplementing my own two children’s educations with snow experiments, more music, and general dragooning.” 1989 BEVERLY ANGEL (SFGI) graduated from the University of Texas Law School in May 2002 and joined a very small firm in a small town near Austin. “It’s a steep learning curve but I’m enjoying it immensely.” From JENNIE PACKARD (SF): “I’m delighted to report my engagement to Robert McGee. A former Army officer, Robert is now a computer systems engineer here in Santa Fe. We feel very blessed to have found one another, and I’m happier than I’ve ever been.” 1990 KELLY KOEPKE (SF) writes: “My freelance writing business is going well, our fixer-up house is eating all our money, but we love it!” JIM KOLSKY (SF) reports that he and his wife have returned to California after a 10-year absence: “I am now directing the Information Intelligence Department at E&J Gallo Winery in Modesto. Lots of great perks for wine connoisseurs, of which I am not one…yet!” After leaving St. John’s, WILLIAM A. SCOTT (AGI) earned a law degree at the University of Maryland. He was recently appointed assistant commissioner of the Maryland Department of Public Safety, Division of Correction. He serves on the board of the Chesapeake Youth Symphony. 1991 LAKE (JAMES) PERRIGUEY (SF) is a lawyer representing people and small business in state and federal court. His clients include pornographers and churches, war protesters, mothers, fathers, and entrepreneurs. HEATHER NOONE (SF) and her husband, CHRIS LA BONTE (SF92), write that they are enjoying their time in Carbondale, Colo., where they moved after Chris finished school in Austin. Heather is in a master’s of counseling program at Pacifica, Calif., and they are thinking of moving to Southern California. 1992 JOHANN AND ANGELA KLAASSEN (SF), became the proud parents of twin boys, Abram George and Benjamin Thomas, on May 23, 2002. MICHAEL BROWN (SF) is living and working in San Francisco and would be delighted to hear from old friends. He can be reached at M100brown@yahoo.com or 415-734-9500. 1993 TOM LISCO (SFGI) was privileged to attend the 2001 Sino-American Educational Forum (co-sponsored by People to People Ambassadors and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards) in Beijing, China. JENNA PALMER (SF) and JAMES MICHEL (SF92) are happy to announce the birth of their first child, Luise Ruth Michel, born May 17, 2002. For pictures, visit http://photos.yahoo.com/luluruth. Jenna has been teaching English in colleges around the Bay Area, but will be taking time off to help Jim run his law office, which is in its sixth year in San Francisco. They can be reached at jenna_palmer@hotmail.com or jamichel@sbcglobal.net. 1994 THE REV. NATHAN J.A. HUMPHREY (A) has been busy uniting couples in wedlock, and some of them are Johnnies. “In October, I officiated at two Johnnie-related weddings: On the 5th for Jordan Asher Finch’s sister, Allison. Jordan was best man and his fiancée, QUINBY OWEN (A01), was a bridesmaid. On the 19th, I married fellow classmate YVONNE BELANGER (A94) to Jeff Pomerantz, friends of WILL GLUSMAN (A92) and AMY (HOFFMAN) GLUSMAN (A93), who were in attendance.” In February IVY TURKINTON (A) was named director of strategic planning, information technology, and government relations for United Way Services of Cleveland. Previously, she was director of organization development for the Tri-Counties Regional Center in Santa Barbara, Calif. 1995 LYNARRA FEATHERLY (SF) writes: “KATHLEEN EAMON (SF97) and I will celebrate our 10-year anniversary next year. How does she do it? MEGHAN JUDAY (SF) and Eric Savage are expecting their first baby in April 2003. SHARON A. MORRIS (A) now goes by her middle name, Alexa. She is the executive director of the MPLS Forum, an international industry organization driving worldwide deployment of multi-protocol label switching networks, applications, and services. Formed in 2000, the forum serves as a meeting ground for service providers, equipment manufacturers, component vendors, and testing companies to address the needs of the industry. “Hello class of ’95 and those who, like me, never made it to fruition,” writes ANDREW HECK (A). I look back to my short stay at St John’s with humor and awe, and wondered what has happened to those who made my stay so very bizarre and exciting. I’ve been spending my time in the service of fermentation (baking bread) and playing music (nothing like Iron Bladder.) Should anyone from second floor Randall, hippies on parade, those who sledded with the beer fairy, drank with me at the Immaculate Conception and Running of the Snake wish to reach me, my address is 1252 Highland Ave., Chattanooga TN 37405, { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } e-mail born2drinkus@ yahoo.com, phone: 423-266-1879.” 1996 SAM DILLEHAY (SF) and Katie Bradford, both living in Brooklyn, plan to be married in the middle of next year. Send your congratulations to sdillehay@yahoo.com. JOHN WHITFIELD POTTER (AGI) reports: “I’m in my senior year of the Master of Divinity program at Princeton Theological Seminary. I plan to be ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) sometime next year. I’d love to get back in touch with old friends. My address is SBN 314, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ 08543 and my e-mail address is john.potter@ptsem.edu” FRANCK ROARK (A96) and his business partner, Colin Brotherton, have formed a limited liability corporation in New York. Writes Frank: “One part of the company is a retail store in Potsdam, N.Y., called Woodland Gardens. The store (the name of which was inspired by Wordsworth) specializes in three areas of design retail: first, providing fine home accessories that are uncommon to the region and searching out extraordinary pieces that are unique to the region. Next, creation of custom´ designed interiors. Third (and most definitely not last), delivering its highly acclaimed “garden-style” floral designs of superlative quality and style. All Johnnies who happen to find themselves in-or-around the Clarkson University area are welcome to stop in and contemplate beauty.” 1997 MARCELLE HOMER (SF) is doing graduate work in rhetoric and teaching at Idaho State University. DEBORAH T YRRELL (SF) and JEFF HUGGINS (SF) were married on October 13, 2001, and are living in Albuquerque. PIA THADHANI (A): “I suppose an update is long overdue. After graduating from law school last year, I started work at a law firm in New York and I find it is a surprisingly pleasant work environment! If �39 {Alumni Notes} Quiet Neighbors and a Baby Boy (SF86) writes: “My husband, Graham Garner, and I were overjoyed to bring a baby boy, Simon, into the world on March 27, 2002. He is amazingly cheerful and social, and we’re having a wonderful time playing with him in the lovely Quaker burial ground (just outside Philadelphia) where we live and serve as caretakers. Our neighbors are very quiet and seem fairly friendly. Graham and I share a job as managers of QuakerBooks of Friends General Conference, which is ideal for getting plenty of time with Simon. Recently DEBBIE HUMPHRIES (SF86), who started out in our class, stayed here while she and her husband were in Philly at an AFSC board meeting. She and I keep finding Johnnies that also happen to be Friends (Quakers), which is remarkable since there are so few of both in the world, though they do seem to promote compatible ways of approaching life. AMY BIANCO (SF86) has also been to visit with her sharp sweetie, John Whysner, whom she married in September. I’d love to hear from anyone who remembers me and we love to have folks visit. You can contact me at ledgleg@earthlink.net.” x L UCY DUNCAN anyone would like to discuss law school, law firms in New York, or catch up, I can be reached at pia. thadhani@cliffordchance.com” tion. For many years it has been my dream to come back and make a difference here on the beautiful slopes of the Alleghenies. Here I am; now the difference remains to be seen.” CELINE BIANCA BOCCHI (SF) writes, “Hi everyone! Life is beautiful, isn’t it? I am living in Rio de Janeiro, close to the beach, with my cat, Pixel, and my fiance, Roberto. We have a nice little guest room, so feel free, if you just happen to be in the neighborhood, to give me a call (021-2429-5503). Abracos da cicade maravilhosa!” INA WUNDRAM (SFGI) is now retired from Emory University and is a professor emerita. She is also a first-time grandmother of a baby girl, Savannah. JUDITH TOLIVER NEELY (A) has taken on the job of revitalizing her native city, Aliquippa, Pa.: “This is an old industrial city on the Ohio River just 22 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, often called the cradle of the labor union movement. It has been plagued with growing rates of decay, crime, poverty, drug abuse, and a steadily decreasing popula- LORNA JOHNSON (ANDERSON) (SF) has moved with her new husband to a beautiful neighborhood in Chicago and is now working from home as an executive recruiter for her parents’ company. She is also working as an assistant stage manager for a fantastic play at a theater in Evanston, Ill. The play is titled Mad Forest,by Caryl Churchill, and she has been invited to assistant direct several upcoming shows. 1998 HEATHER MACLEAN (SF98) will be moving to Austin, Texas, this winter. While in Austin she plans to pursue a graduate degree in American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. One of her longrange plans is to work in an art library, and earning a second graduate degree will help with this goal, as most art librarianship positions require a master’s in an art-related subject. For the last three-and-ahalf years she has been working as the associate librarian for Cataloging and Computer Services at the Santa Fe campus library. During this time, she also received her master’s in library science from Emporia State University in Kansas in August 2001 by completing their distance education program. muddyhands2@yahoo.com. MICHAEL O’BRIEN (SFGI) writes: “After bouncing back and forth between Alaska, New Mexico, and Vermont for the past few years, I have settled in Fairbanks. I’m still exploring wilderness and running marathons, but I also recently became a lawyer. Go figure. Anyone wanting to get in touch can reach me at: meoem2002@hotmail.com. 1999 Changes for BETHANY MATSUSHITA (SF), formerly Bethany Ann Creswell: “I am one of the many who went on to another place, eventually. However, after two years at St. John’s, I felt that I had found a niche of a sort and now, I suppose, I am trying to get back in contact with old friends and fond memories of yore. As of last March I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in art at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, Oregon, and—not long afterwards—married a man Japanese in origin and 15 years my senior (a sociology major of the same university). Now we are both in Portland, Oregon, slaving away and paying off student loans, and I would love to hear from any of you. You can reach me at bcreswell@ excite.com.” HONOR MOODY (SF) is currently cataloguing audiovisual Judaica at the Harvard College Library. She is also working towards her master’s in library and information sciences at Simons in Boston, MA. You can reach her at moody@fas.harvard.edu. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } MICHAEL HOKENSON (SF) is pursuing an MBA and MS at the University of Michigan. He plans to pursue entrepreneurial work in Asia upon graduation. 2000 PAIGE ELIZABETH FORREST (A) is now a medical student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Following graduation from St. John’s, she completed a Howard Hughes Medical Institute summer research internship at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, then attended James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., for a year of self-designed post-baccalaureate studies to complete the science prerequisites for entrance into medical school. In her spare time at James Madison, she became a certified emergency medical technician with the Harrisonburg Volunteer Rescue Squad. JIM HALL (SF) is in his second year of law school at Seattle University School of Law. He’s doing well and loving the law! CHRIS JONES (SF) writes, “I am now in my last year at Yale Divinity School, and I’m in the process of applying for pastoral counseling programs. I hope one of them takes me back that way–back to those beautiful sunsets!” ANDREA QUINTERO (SF) and SAM MARKHAM (SF) are living together in London and doing post-graduate work. Andrea studies art history at the Courtauld Institute, and Sam studies book history at the School for Advanced Studies, University of London. BRITTA RILEY (SF00) spent some time in Florida, but is now back on the ranch in Brenham, Texas, where she is a construction foreman and carpentry apprentice for a residential remodeling contractor. Britta has founded an organization called the Texas Adult Recreation Initiative that “undermines the immediate association of exercise with lonesome drudgery. We work with advertising firms and public park departments around the state to create existence systems and advertising campaigns for open, noncompetitive, commitment-free, coed, pick-up games in soccer, basketball, volleyball, and softball. We �40 {Alumni Profile} An Anlage for Logophilia A Lover of Language Publishes a Book on Rare Words BY SUS3AN BORDEN, A87 H allie Leighton (SF92) collects words. From the Latinate allicient (attracting) to the Arabic zarf (a cup-shaped device for holding hot coffee cups), she is drawn to unusual words and devoted to learning their backgrounds and meanings. Her new book, Rare Words and Ways to Master their Meanings, includes choice specimens from her word collection. Rare Words, published this year by Levenger Press, was the brainchild of Leighton’s father, Jan, her co-author on the project and a great influence in her passion for hunting fresh and interesting words. “From the time he was a kid, his hobby has been collecting and memorizing words,” Leighton says. “When he was in the army he carried a Webster’s in his barracks bag all through Europe.” Leighton picked up the hobby in high school, fixing on “hussar” and “bivouac” in Tolstoy’s War and Peace at age 13. Every time she ran across an unfamiliar word, she looked it up and noted its definition in her journal. “I was trying to keep up with my dad,” she says. “We played a game where he would have me point to any word in Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. Ninety percent of the time, he knew what the word was.” Despite their shared interest, when her father asked her to help write the book, Leighton hesitated, fearing that such a book could inspire people to use words to distance themselves from others rather than communicate. In her introduction to the book, she writes that she was haunted by this passage from George Orwell’s essay on “Politics and the English Language”: “Bad writers, and especially scientific, political, and sociological writers, are nearly always haunted by the notion that Latin or Greek words are grander than Saxon ones, and unnecessary words like expedite, ameliorate, predict, extraneous, deracinated, clandestine, subaqueous, and hundreds of others constantly gain ground from their Anglo-Saxon numbers.” In the end, Leighton says, she realized that Orwell was not exactly right: “Athough many words have synonyms… no word possesses an exact clone. A synonym is just that: a word with similar—not identical—meaning. There is always a tiny shade of difference in meaning that makes one word the most appropriate in a specific context.” Freed from the judgment of Orwell, Leighton committed to the project. She and her father reviewed her father’s word collection and argued over which 500 words would go into the book. Leighton then looked up each word in 15 different dictionaries to extrapolate her own definitions. While her father insisted that each entry be pithy, Leighton wanted to pack the book with as much interesting information as possible. In the end, her father’s attention span proved an efficient arbiter: “Dad has attention deficit even worse than I have and if the definition wasn’t very brief he would fall asleep,” Leighton says. Among the charms of Rare Words are the mnemonics that accompany many entries. For the word fistulous (tubular and hollow) the book notes: “A fist is fistulous; it creates a hollow.” For invidious (provoking envy or ill will), we remember this: “Did his invidious preference for Sally invoke envy in Dee? Yes!” For chiasmus (a rhetorical inversion { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } Hallie Leighton shares a love of words–and co-author status–with her father, Jan. of the second of two parallel structures): “ ‘I had the Chianti, then the Chianti had me’ is a chiasmus.” And anlage (an inherited disposition to certain traits or a particular character development) is remembered as “the luggage of inherited traits.” Leighton considers her passion for words an anlage from her father, and says that this anlage is not limited to logophilia. Her father is a professional actor specializing in impersonations. He holds the Guinness Book of World Records title for portraying the most historical roles. Following in his footsteps, Leighton majored in drama at the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan. As a Johnnie, she performed at Santa Fe coffee houses, channeling bygone rock stars such as Cyndi Lauper, Edie Brickell, and Sinead O’Connor. After college, she wrote and costarred in “Divas Deconstructed,” impersonating over a dozen divas from �41 {Alumni Profile} also work with sponsoring businesses to cover the costs of field lighting and maintenance in cities where funding is limited. We are always looking for contributions of any variety—funding, contacts, and ideas.” If you want to harass her for not staying in touch, try her at brittariley@hotmail.com. WANDA R. ROBINS (AGI): “I have moved to Austin, Texas, and would love to hear from any St. John’s alumni. And for those GIs at St. Stephen’s School—come join the Austin alumni chapter!” ADELAIDE (Ada) JUNEBUG ROUECHE-BEARD was born May 31, 2002, to MARJORIE ROUECHE (A) and James Beard. Marjorie reports: “I am working as a science editor for a textbook company, a company that LOVES Johnnies (for those of you who may find yourselves in Austin looking for a job).” James and Marjorie married in March, “which is proof positive that we can find nonJohnnies who can stand us too.” JASON (AGI) and SUSAN SALINAS (AGI99) moved to Coronado, Calif. Jason flies helicopters for the Navy and Susie works at the Hotel del Coronado. CHRISTOPHER VAUGHAN (A) had the opportunity to see DERRICK CUNNIFF FLETCHER (A00) when both were volunteer counselors at Boggy Creek Camp in Eustis, Fla., for a week last summer. Christopher is still pursuing a teaching degree in deaf education at Flagler College in St. Augustine. “My years at St. John’s have served me well,” he writes. “Taking Western Civilization last semester helped put a lot of my studies at St. John’s in chronological order.” 2001 From the Windy City, JENNIFER HARRIS (A) reports back: “I cannot believe that it has been over a yearand-a-half since I graduated from St. John’s. In that time I have been quite busy. I spent part of the summer after graduation in Florence, Italy, studying art history and painting conservation. I made the move to Illinois and I received my M.A. in the humanities (why limit myself) from the University of Chicago, focusing on art history and aesthetics. I am now working as the coordinator of Rights and Reproductions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.” DAN O’KEEFE teaches at the St. Thomas Choir School in New York City, a boarding school for the boys choir of Saint Thomas Episcopal Church. Rare Words Meets Great Books: The Quiz Which Program authors do you associate with these words from Leighton’s book? (answers below) 1. Antinomy 2. Delphic 3. Empyrean 4. Entropy 5. Heuristic 6. Incommensurable 7. Maenad 8. Manichean 9. Ontological 10. Peripatetic 11. Sennet 12. Theodicy Answer Key A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. J. K. L. Euripides Aristotle Sophocles Plato Leibniz Kant Anselm Maxwell Dante Euclid Augustine Shakespeare 1-F; 2-C; 3-I; 4-H; 5-D; 6-J; 7-A; 8-K; 9-G; 10-B; 11-L; 12-E Barbra Streisand, Marilyn Monroe, and Maria von Trapp to Oprah Winfrey, Tonya Harding, and Xena, Warrior Princess. “Obviously, my doing a lot of impressions, the channeling, is definitely an anlage. I can’t escape from that,” says Leighton, who adds that her grandfather was a bandleader and her mother is a writer for As The World Turns. Leighton herself worked for two years as a writer’s assistant for the soap opera. She’s now a freelance writer whose clients have included Cotton Inc.; Verizon, and a chain of health food stores. Alumni networking functions in New York have been the source of some of her best jobs. But alumni activities aren’t all business for Leighton. She’s been a faithful participant in alumni seminars, served as treasurer for the New York chapter, was a reunion class leader in 2002, and with Bill Fant, set up the JohnnyXpress, a bulletin board for alumni on Yahoo. Right now, she’s planning another project with her father, this one about George Washington, one of his favorite characters from his acting career. Leighton won’t give away the content of the project, but says she’s interested in exploring what her father’s dug up as an amateur historian. “This is a playful side of George Washington, a fun side, a passionate side,” she says. “This is not your father’s George Washington.” Rare Words is available only through the Levenger Press catalog or web site: www.levenger.com. x TALLEY H. SCROGGS (A) lived in France to learn classical cuisine and then joined LOU KOVACS (A02) to backpack together through Romania. They both moved to Portland, Ore., last summer. Talley has two or three chef jobs, and Lou has been working in a vineyard. Talley thinks she’ll head back to graduate school in the fall. SUZANNAH SIMMONS (SF) has been living in Charleston, S.C., since February 2002. She will be joining the Peace Corps in Thailand beginning June 9, 2003. She sends her best wishes to everyone and can be reached at guneh@hotmail.com. TIMOTHY SPARKMAN (SF) and MARIA (MIA) MCDANIEL (SF00) were married in Santa Fe, N.M., on June 23, 2002. x 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 September; deadline for the alumni notes section is July 15. If you do not want classnotes included on The College web site, e-mail Victoria Smith: v-smith@sjca.edu. LAUREN SWEENEY (SF) moved back to her hometown of San Diego, Calif., and is happily employed at La Jolla Playhouse. She writes that she misses St. John’s and Santa Fe every day! In Annapolis: The College Magazine St. John’s College, Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404; reharty@sjca.edu DAMON CARROLL (SF) was selected to attend the United States Army Officer Candidate School and began his active duty service as an army soldier in January 2003. In Santa Fe: The College Magazine St. John’s College Public Relations Office 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca Santa Fe, NM 87501-4599; tshalizi@mail.sjcsf.edu 2002 JOEY CHERNILA (SF) and ALANA HOLLINGSWORTH (SF) were married. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } Alumni notes on the Web: Read Alumni Notes and contact The College on the web at www.sjca.edu—click on Alumni. �42 {Obituaries} Martin Miller, A81 Annapolis Graduate Inspired Many Martin Miller and his son, Benjamin, at Annapolis Homecoming in 2001 ost of what Martin C. Miller—a Massachusetts engineer, husband, and father—accomplished in life may seem ordinary in the big picture of life; but to those who knew him—especially his friends and classmates in the Annapolis class of 1981—everything he did was extraordinary, and the way he lived his life was exemplary. Born with a congenital heart defect, Miller wasn’t expected to survive beyond infancy. Medical advances in cardiology, combined with his own resiliency, helped him defy the odds for much longer. He died January 11, 2003, at the age of 45. Determined to be treated like a normal child, Martin Miller insisted on a place on the Little League team, found mistakes in his school textbooks, and graduated first in his high school class. Miller left Brown University for St. John’s after a year because he sought a more challenging education with greater M opportunities for independent thinking. After graduation, he earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering from California Institute of Technology. A resident of Framingham, Mass., he worked at Draper Laboratories in Cambridge, Avid Technology Inc., and most recently “To Martin, a problem was a problem to be solved.” Daniel Van Doren Crescent Networks. His wife, Linda, describes him as a man devoted to his family, who greatly enjoyed his four-yearold son, Benjamin, and excelled in his profession. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } Daniel Van Doren (A81), a former roommate and longtime friend of Miller’s, was among the Johnnies who shared remembrances at Miller’s memorial service. He remembered that Miller couldn’t walk the few short blocks into town without stopping frequently to rest, and that being out in the cold was particularly taxing to him. But mostly he remembered Miller’s determination to achieve his goals. “In our senior year, Martin was near the top of the class and had set his sights on a degree in electrical engineering. He applied to the top five graduate programs in the country. When two of them rejected his application, he was flabbergasted. You or I would have been disappointed by the rejections and would have accepted them as fate pre-ordained,” Van Doren said at the service. “To Martin, a problem was a problem to be solved. He composed letters to both schools informing them that they were wrong to reject him because they had not fully appreciated the importance of our �43 {Obituaries} St. John’s education. And wouldn’t you know it? They both agreed. MIT sheepishly admitted that it had already accepted its full class but offered to place Martin at the top of the waiting list in case an opening occurred. Cal Tech, I think it was, the best school in the country at the time, reversed its decision and admitted him into their program, and it was to Cal Tech that he went the following year.” Linda Miller sent along a text of a speech her husband gave at a conference several years ago. He spoke about the physical and psychological effects of congenital heart disease, but focused his remarks on living with hope: “I don’t think of my body as being ME. It is more “Do not live life piling up regrets...” Martin Miller the biological vessel that contains me. In this way, my body does not define me. If it fails, as it occasionally does, at least I don’t fail.” Recounting his choice to start a family with Linda, in spite of his fears of leaving a child without a father, Miller offered advice to others who struggled to overcome heart conditions—good advice for anyone to embrace. “Do not live life piling up regrets.... When I die, I would rather regret that I did not finish everything that I set out to do than regret that I never even tried to do something I wanted to do…” x in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia. During World War II, he drove ambulances in Africa and Italy for the American Field Service. After the war, he earned a master’s degree in engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg. He taught at the Naval Academy from 1958 until his retirement in 1988, and was also a member of the Johns Hopkins University engineering faculty. An expert on auto safety issues, he held six patents on car emergency warning systems and was a consultant for Ford Motor Co. on automobile negligence cases. William Chester Buchanan William Chester Buchanan, class of 1947, and a teacher, translator, and writer, died Jan. 27 in India. Buchanan was born in East Lansing, Mich., in 1923. He received a bachelor’s degree in music from Michigan State University in 1944 and attended St. John’s from 1944 to 1947. In his sophomore year at the college, he won the prize for the best annual essay, and the following year, a prize for the best original sonnet. He spent three years teaching and studying in France, and earned a master’s degree from the Sorbonne. Later, he earned a master’s in theology and literature from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He taught English in France, taught at the Walt Whitman School, at Lenox Academy, and for 17 years taught English, French, and a great books sequence at Olivet College, where he was adviser to the Garfield Review, a literary magazine. His last teaching post was at Olney Friends School, in Barnsville, Ohio. He published numerous book reviews, translations from French, a volume of poetry, and a book of essays and reminiscences. Buchanan spent 17 years living at a monastery and retreat center in Michigan, and traveled extensively in Southeast Asia. B. Meredith Burke William Barr William Barr, a graduate of the class of 1942 and a former Naval Academy engineering professor, died December 15, 2002, in Charlottesville, Va. He was the nephew of Stringfellow Barr, who with Scott Buchanan, founded the New Program at St. John’s. After graduating from the college, Mr. Barr earned an undergraduate degree B. Meredith Burke, class of 1967, a political activist devoted to populationrelated issues such as immigration and birth control, died Dec. 11, 2002. A native of Los Angeles, Burke went on to earn a master’s degree in economics from the University of Southern California, and master’s and doctoral degrees in demographics from the University of Southern California. She worked to defend her controversial stance that the U.S. reconsider { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } immigration policies she believed threatened the environment. She served as chair of the Maternal and Child Health Advisory Board of San Mateo County, California; was a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and fellow of Negative Population Growth. She was also interested in women’s rights and public health issues. She coauthored a book on prenatal testing and founded Lariam Action USA, an information service for users of the anti-malaria drug mefloquine. Jerome Goodman Jerome Goodman of Brookline, Mass., class of 1934, died in January at his home. He was 89 and had continued to work in the private firm he shared with his daughter, Carol, until a few months before his death. An Annapolis native, Goodman earned a degree from Harvard Law School in 1937. During World War II, Goodman left his law career to serve in the office of the judge advocate. After the war, he returned to Boston to practice law. In 1977, he and his daughter formed the law office Goodman & Goodman. Active in Brookline politics, he had served as a town meeting member for many years and had been a member of the town advisory committee and the Republican Town Committee. James Alexander Matthews James Alexander Matthews (HA99) died on March 9 as a result of a long battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease. He worked at St. John’s for over 37 years and was an important presence in the lives of students, staff, and faculty. A remembrance of Mr. Matthews will appear in the next issue of The College. ALSO NOTED ARE: DAVID ABBEY HOOKER, class of 1948, January 2, 2002 NOEL MERIAM, class of 1962, August 12, 2002 CHARLES O. “BUCKY” WINGATE II, class of 1935, June 11, 2002 �44 { S t u d e n t Vo i c e s } reading the signs by Sara White Wilson (A03) F or four years I have been reading books as the St. John’s curriculum requires—frequently and with analytic attention. I’ve come to read public signs and graffiti in the same way. Not only can I never look at a road or a store sign without reading it completely, even if I pass it every day and already know what it says, but I also can’t resist analyzing the subtleties of meaning in the words. Traveling on a small island in the West Indies I saw a road sign in plain lettering, “DEPRESSION.” Naturally, the sign indicated a decline in the road, but imagine such a sign appearing in our psychologically self-conscious America. We might wonder: Where is the rest of the pharmaceutical drug advertisement? Before I came to photograph official public signage, I photographed public words in the form of graffiti. Graffiti can be rendered quite artfully—despite that, or perhaps because, it is indecipherable. My impulse to read and make sense of everything is cleverly tricked. I think I can decipher the shape of a letter or a word but the play of colors and graphic shape will not let me make sense of it. I find it best to focus less on the letters and more on the colors and shape of the graffiti in order to discern a readable word or phrase. A theme has developed in my photography that encourages a similar sort of reconciliation between word, meaning, and composition. I like to photograph signs—legal or illegal—in their environment and capture how the environment enhances the sense of the words in the sign. Sometimes there is not reconciliation of sign and environment but rather a contrast between them. The photograph of artificial graffiti spray paint on an earthy and cracked adobe wall expresses for me the incongruity of seeing loud and commanding graffiti off a dirt road in barren Abique, New Mexico. My impulse to read everything seems to be similarly matched by a basic need to write, no matter what the forum. This photographic project—to frame words and their environment—also informs some of the thinking behind my senior essay. I tried to understand what some translators call “picture-thinking” in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. How can thinking, which seems to be intimately connected with words in speech, writing, and internal dialogue, be connected with pictures in one working of the mind, according to Hegel? How was he suggesting images were co-concurrent to thought? { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } Signs gain their meaning relative to their surroundings. Reading the texts in the St. John’s program is unlike reading signs because the books convey a meaning that is not relative; we value them precisely because we can read them out of context and still learn their universal significance. Reading the texts at St. John’s is like reading signs, however, in that both signs and books are, at their most basic level, written in order to be understood. Furthermore, like a road sign or a political message in graffiti, the books at St. John’s intend to persuade and direct. I hope that my photography frames the relative nature of signs but with an eye that is well-trained by the readings of the past four years—an eye that works to discern the universal through the relative. x Sara White Wilson plans to keep taking pictures and never stop reading. �{ S t u d e n t Vo i c e s } Left, “Graffiti on Cracked Wall; ” Above, “Exodus;” Right, “Philadelphia” “Reading the texts at St. John’s is like reading signs…in that both signs and books are, at their most basic level, written in order to be understood.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } 45 �46 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Dear Johnnies, As you might imagine, communication is the major challenge for the Association. Alumni live in many interesting places, move often, and have a habit of not reading every bit of mail they receive. I know I fall into this category—so many envelopes and so little time! Your Association Board is experimenting with new and more efficient ways to communicate with you. Let us know how they work. The annual dues mailer was sent out in February (and will be mailed again in June for those of you who prefer to pay dues in the summer). We are thinking about ways to make this invitation more appealing and more clearly distinguished from mailings from the college and from Philanthropia. Your Association dues are not donations to the Annual Fund; they go to support Association activities such as Homecoming, reunions, the alumni directory, senior dinners, and activities for chapters. Your dues payment makes you a “member in good standing” of the Alumni Association, so you can vote and run for a seat on the Association Board. Of course, we encourage you to donate to the Annual Fund to support the college, in addition to paying your dues to the Association. The postal service also delivers messages about chapter activities. Postcards are mailed out from each of the campuses to their respective chapters. If you are among the “geographically privileged” who live where chapter meetings are held, you should receive mailings. If you don’t get mailings let one of the Alumni offices know, and you’ll be put on the list. Some chapters also have web sites to support communications among alumni. In the past, we used The College magazine for our announcements about elections and changes in the Association by-laws. Recent changes in the publication schedule of The College make this approach impractical in future. So, we plan to make full use of our web site to distribute information about elections and other items of official business. Lest we leave out those among us who do not have ready access to the Internet, your dues mailer will include information about how to obtain copies of the information by mail. In the future, we will plan to use the web more extensively. Surveys of alumni indicate that the vast majority of us are online and prefer to receive information via e-mail or over a web site. During the last year, Association Board members and Action Teams have used e-mail to stay in touch and complete tasks between our face-to-face meetings. The trend will surely continue as our work expands and our time together becomes more precious. We are also supporting college staff as they improve their communications regarding alumni activities. You should have received your “stick-em-up” announcements about Homecoming in Santa Fe and Annapolis and reunions during 2003, thanks to alumni directors Tahmina Shalizi and Jo Ann Mattson. Finally, the college has a new web site in the works. Expected sometime late this summer or early fall, the web site will offer many features and functions to help us all stay in touch with each other. Most of all, we’re excited about the online, unified, user-maintainable alumni directory. Not only will it let you find friends whom you’ve lost, but it will also let you change your own data so that others don’t lose you. In conjunction with the web site, we are considering making a lifetime e-mail address available to alumni. Details will be worked out over the next few months, but the purpose is clear. The Alumni Association wants to connect more often and more meaningfully with more alumni. This goal shapes all our decisions about communications, events, and services we provide to you, our members. Please be in touch. Let us know what communications messages and methods work best for you. For the past, the present, and the future, Glenda H. Eoyang (SF76) President St. John’s College Alumni Association ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Whether from Annapolis or Santa Fe, undergraduate or Graduate Institute, old program or new, graduated or not, 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 Alumni Association news and events of interest. President–Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President–Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary–Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer–Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team Chair– Linda Stabler-Talty (SFGI76) Web site–www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml Mailing address–Alumni Association, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404 or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599 CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed below for information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-275-9012 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin 410-280-0958 PITTSBURGH Robert Hazo 412-648-2653 AUSTIN Bev Angel 512-926-7808 PORTLAND Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen 410-472-9158 SACRAMENTO Helen Hobart 916-452-1082 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 CHICAGO Lorna Johnson 773-338-8651 SAN FRANCISCO, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Jon Hodapp 831-393-9496 DENVER Lee Goldstein 720-283-4659 LOS ANGELES Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 NEW YORK Joe Boucher 718-222-1957 NORTH CAROLINA Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } SANTA FE John Pollak 505-983-2144 SEATTLE Amina Stickford 206-269-0182 WASHINGTON DC Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 972-2-6717608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �{Alumni Association News} Variety Reels in Denver-Boulder Alumni Undaunted, Jenny set to planning chapter events. “I sometimes resorted to scanning the invitations from other chapers to get ideas for programming,” she recalls. “I even went to the Internet to look up reading selections from the syllabi of philosophy professors from such places as Columbia in order to get ideas for our seminars.” Quickly realizing the “lone wolf” approach wouldn’t work, Jenny called for a planning session. She was gratified to see 15 people turn up with ideas and enthusiasm for the chapter. When Lee Goldstein (SFGI90) traded Miami for the Rocky Mountains a few years ago, she promptly went looking for an Alumni Association chapter. “I really love interacting with people who have gone to St. John’s,” Goldstein says. “With other Johnnies, I always have things to talk about, and I’m always interested in the conversation.” Goldstein, a Denver attorney, has been a member of the vibrant DenverBoulder chapter for three years; in January she assumed the presidency from Elizabeth Pollard Jenny (SF80) of Boulder, who founded the chapter. At an Alumni Association meeting in Santa Fe this January, the chapter won praise for offering some of the most creative and varied chapter events in the country. Consider this year’s slate, planned back in October: A February seminar on Stephen J. Gould’s The Panda’s Thumb. Joseph From left to right: Brian Van Way (SFGI96), Campbell’s The Hero of a Thousand Virginia McConnell (AGI84), Nathan Pollack Faces. Physics with Stephen J. Hawk(A65), Ed Whitney (SF71), John Agresto (AGI89), ing or magic realism with Jorge Luis Beatrice Butler (SF81), Lee Goldstein (SGI90), Borges. Group outings to the Colorado Elizabeth Pollard Jenny (SGI90) Shakespeare Festival and other area theaters, a field trip this summer to the Denver Art Museum, and the popular “And so our general inclination towards holiday potluck, this year, with readings diversity was born,” Jenny says. in Pirandello. Who could resist? Last June, Santa Fe President John Balkcom Good programming pays off in attenvisited Denver for an event co-hosted with dance. About 15 regulars turn up at every Philanthropia at the historic Brown Palace event, and every event draws a new face or two. Alternating meeting sites between Boulder Hotel; more than 50 alumni turned out for the meeting to offer ideas on how the college and Denver makes meetings more accessible can serve alumni, find out what’s happening for Colorado Johnnies, Goldstein notes. with current students, and express a sense of The quest to offer regular and interesting gratitude for their St. John’s education. chapter events has required a broad base of Looking ahead, Goldstein sees no shortage input, and alumni have risen to the chalof good ideas for the chapter. “There’s a lot lenge since the chapter was formed in 1998, says Elizabeth Jenny. As a newcomer to Boulder of energy in the chapter and we keep building on that,” she says. x and hungry for intellectual offerings, Jenny pushed for the formation of a chapter. “Imagine that you could revitalize an intellectual life in the midst of midlife job worries, suburbia, diapers, career-obsessed friends, and ailing parents by starting up a vigorous chapter,” Jenny recalls. But soon after gaining its charter from the Alumni Association, the chapter saw attendance drop off. Former mainstays of the reading group decided they needed a hiatus. Around the Chapters Alumni are active in 18 chartered Alumni Association chapters from New York City to San Diego, from Texas to Chicago and from the Puget Sound area to Israel. More than 100 St. John’s alumni meet every month to discuss books, poetry, art, or music. Chapters { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } 47 organize picnics, potlucks, art gallery visits and swing parties—but showing their true allegiance—still favor the seminar more than any other activity. Every year, from 650 to 800 different alumni attend at least one event sponsored by St. John’s alumni chapters. Here’s a status report from around the country: The Washington, D.C., chapter meets biweekly, except during the summer, when members tackle a long book to discuss together in the fall. The chapter organized a National Gallery visit and seminar, potlucks, and parties. Scoffing at superstition, the Austin, Texas, chapter meets on the 13th of most months. They gathered for 11 seminars last year. The San Diego chapter joined forces with the Del Mar Great Books group in their area in order to have a larger discussion group. The Twin Cities chapter has been organizing its meetings around themes or authors. Most recently, the chapter has taken on a series of Goethe readings and invited Julie Reahard, a Santa Fe tutor specializing in Goethe, to discuss “Elective Affinities.” Albuquerque chapter president Bob Morgan got on the phone two years ago to round up alumni for a more active chapter that draws alumni to seminars and potlucks held six times a year. Annapolis and Boston report newly revived chapters and interesting ideas for events. Additionally, two reading groups in Pittsburgh and Western New England held events to measure alumni interest in forming a chapter in their areas. Alumni in those areas contacted the alumni office close to them and received assistance in getting started. Many chapters were visited during 2002 by Santa Fe President John Balkcom or Annapolis President Chris Nelson or other college staff, who usually lead a seminar or participate in a reception. Several chapters assisted Philanthropia in planning fundraising events. In 2002, 14 of the 18 chapters had a president or other representative attend at least one of the four annual Alumni Association meetings, giving chapters a significant voice within the association. x �48 {St. John’s Forever} alfr ed eisenstaedt, life magazine Tutor James S. Martin delivers a lecture in 1940. This picture from the archives of Greenfield Library was originally published in Life Magazine as part of a major feature on the college. Martin, who joined the college from the University of Chicago, went on to hold a number of positions with the college. I n the 1937 supplement to the Bulletin of St. John’s College, Scott Buchanan set the criteria for formal lectures: “The liberal arts operate in the light of principles which constitute the liberal sciences. These sciences will be progressively expounded in formal lectures by various members of the staff as the course proceeds. They will be expository and critical also of themes that arise in the reading of the books.” Initially, lectures were held twice weekly. J.Winfree Smith wrote in A Search for the Liberal College that a few years after the New Program was adopted, the Friday night lecture and discussion period following it became tradition. Of its place in the Program today, Santa Fe Dean David Levine says: “Lectures are an opportunity for us to discover questions we didn’t have before, to develop new interest in texts that are both new and familiar to us, and to see how others think deeply about other important matters.” x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } �{Alumni Events Calendar} Datebook Summer in Santa Fe June 29—July 4, 2003 Summer Alumni Program Week 1 Homecoming Events Reunion classes: 68, 73, 78, 83, 88, 93, and 98 Friday, July 4 Registration and hospitality—4 to 6 p.m. Grecian Picnic—5:30 p.m. Katy Moffatt (SF73) concert—7:30 p.m. Rock ’n’ Roll Party—9 p.m. Saturday, July 5 Registration—9 to 10 a.m. Alumni seminars, children’s activities —10 a.m. Fiesta Picnic—Noon All-alumni welcome-back gathering —1:30 p.m. Lecture—5 p.m. All-Alumni Art Show opening—6 p.m. Cocktail reception—6 p.m. Homecoming happenings in Santa Fe, July 2002 Alex Gammon (A94), Katherine Nehring (A03), and Bryce Heavner (A93) enjoy sushi and small talk in Annapolis. Sunday, July 6 President’s Brunch—11 a.m. July 4—28, 2003 Alumni Art Show July 6—11, 2003 Summer Alumni Program, Week 2 Fall in Annapolis Homecoming Events Reunion classes: 33, 38, 43, 48, 53, 58, 63, 68, 73, 78, 83, 88, 93, 98 Friday, September 12 Registration and lecture, wine and cheese with seniors Saturday, September 13 Seminars, picnic, Alumni Association Annual Meeting, and Homecoming Banquet Reception for the Class of 2003 More than 100 graduating seniors and alumni came together March 23 for a reception geared to connecting graduating seniors with Annapolis- area alumni. Alumni said they enjoyed meeting graduating seniors and talking about their varied career paths. For their part, the students gained perspective on the job market, law school, and other post-graduation plans. The event was sponsored by the Annapolis Alumni and Placement offices. Sunday, September 14 President’s Brunch { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2003 } �P ERIODICALS P OSTAGE PAID P UBLISHED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE P.O. BOX 2800 A NNAPOLIS , M ARYLAND 21404 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 pages 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/. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Title A name given to the resource The College, Spring 2003 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Description An account of the resource Volume 29, Issue 2 of <em>The College</em> Magazine. Published in Spring 2003. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The_College_Magazine_Spring_2003 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/224088bb518fa8ce7b0936a38db2b71a.pdf c199bdee8c7fc5fe1ed91288e7a2fc14 PDF Text Text The College St. John’s College • Annapolis f a l l • 2 0 0 3 Santa Fe Virgil A n d t h e Pow e r of Language �On Virgil n the introduction to his celebrated verse translation of the Aeneid, Allen Mandlebaum acknowledges he came late to Virgil, having been influenced by other great minds (Mark Van Doren and Samuel Coleridge among them) to think that Virgil was less worthy of serious attention than others in the canon. Mandlebaum, who spoke at Santa Fe’s commencement this May, writes that Virgil often loses out in the Homer-Virgil-Dante triangle, but he makes a case that Virgil’s poetic voice is one worth listening to, something he discovered in the six years he worked on the translation. Virgil “speaks of a time of peace achieved, and no man ever felt more deeply the part of the defeated and the lost,” writes Mandlebaum. Publius Vergilius Maro was born near Mantua in Northern Italy in the year 70 BC. He was the son of a small farmer, but the family lands were confiscated by the Triumvirs, later restored to Virgil, and then lost again. By this time, however, good connections—particularly his friendship with Octavianus, the future Emperor Augustus—gave Virgil status and financial means to pursue the life of the poet. Virgil’s first biographer, Aelius Donatus, writing in the fourth century, described him as “large in person and stature, with a swarthy complexion, a peasant’s brown, and uneven health, for he commonly suffered from pain in his stomach, throat, and head; indeed, he often spat up blood.” Because of his status with Augustus, Virgil had it made, says Donatus: “No matter what he asked of Augustus, he never met with refusal. Every year he supported his parents with gold in abundance.” Like Homer, Virgil didn’t lack for detractors—including those who labeled him as a political opportunist or propagandist for Augustus. Donatus pictures Virgil as a careful critic and editor of his own work: “It is handed down that, while he was composing the Georgics, he usually dictated a great number of verses which he had thought out in the morning, and would, in revising them throughout the day, reduce them to a very small number...” Samuel Johnson recommended Virgil’s method to the writers of his time. Virgil’s Eclogues, or Bucolics, completed in 37 B.C. in Rome, celebrate rural life, a theme he continued in the Georgics, completed in 30 B.C. Virgil next turned to the Aeneid, which consumed the last 10 years of his life. He died in Brindisi in 19 B.C., his plans to revise his work cut short. The story is that on his deathbed, Virgil ordered that the Aeneid be destroyed, but it was saved from the flames and protected by Augustus—giving Romans more than a work of literature—an enduring hero and a national epic of a scale appropriate to their role in history. In this issue of The College, we consider Virgil in the context of language, specifically Latin. The 1949 Bulletin of the college is a good document to consult if you want to understand a little about language and its place in the Program. That was the year Latin, originally part of Barr and Buchanan’s New Program and taught at the College for more than 200 years, was dropped to make way for two years of Greek. Language, according to the Bulletin, is “man’s most intimate external possession. The trained language sense extends man’s imaginative powers. We therefore move on it with an organized strategy. The effects are in sustained powers of imagination and therefore in increased attention and powers of analytic thought.” I —RH The College (usps 018-750) is published quarterly 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 postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, md 21404-2800. Annapolis 410-626-2539 reharty@sjca.edu Rosemary Harty, editor Sus3an Borden, managing editor Jennifer Behrens, art director Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Barbara Goyette Kathryn Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Jo Ann Mattson Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 alumni@sjcsf.edu Laura J. Mulry, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board Michael Franco David Levine Andra Maguran Margaret Odell Ginger Roherty Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �fall 2003 Vo l u m e 2 9 , I s s u e 3 The College The Magazine for Alumni of St. John’s College Annapolis • Santa Fe {Contents} 12 Living Languages d e p a r t m e n t s page 2 • Johnnies in linguistics contribute to human understanding. • • • 16 Johnnies and Latin page • • • Sona si linguam latinam ames. 18 A Moment of Glory 11 page 12 page 27 28 What goes into preparing commencement ceremonies in Santa Fe and Annapolis? Plus, speeches, serious and light-hearted. John Balkcom Steps Down An Extraordinary Gift Tales from the Tour Guides Making Room in Annapolis Rankings, Ratings and Plaudits Increasing Diversity Sharon Bishop Leads Board letters bibliofile alumni P RO F I L E S 29 Lovejoy Duryea (A67) and the eidos of design 30 Tony Miller (class of 1961), Hot Wheels designer 22 Santa Fe Comes Home 37 Geoff Marslett (SF96), animator and page college instructor 40 The pioneering class of 1968 was among those returning to campus in July. from the bell towers Kitty Kinzer (AGI87) Jimmy Matthews (HA99) Vernon Derr (Class of 1948) page 18 24 Hobbes in Prison obituaries page 42 campus life Great books authors provide croquet commentary Alumnus Mark Lindley (A67) takes great books discussions behind prison walls. 44 tutors Grant Franks’ (A77) odyssey on Shadowfax 48 page 38 on the cover Virgil Illustration by David Johnson st. john’s forever �2 {From the Bell Towers} Moving On Santa Fe’s President John Balkcom, SFGI00, Steps Down In early June, after much soulsearching, Santa Fe President John Balkcom decided to step down, just short of three years in office. The college community responded to the news with shock, dismay, and questions—chief among them, why would someone who seemed so perfect for a job walk away from it? But for Balkcom, a huge weight was lifted from his shoulders. After months of feeling that he wasn’t doing the job he had hoped to do, his decision was firm, and he had gained a measure of peace. As he met with Annapolis President Christopher Nelson and Sharon Bishop, chair of the Board of Visitors and Governors, Balkcom decided to speak “plainly and truthfully” about his difficult choice. “I simply said, ‘I don’t like this job,’” Balkcom said. “I could not see my way clear to what I would find both excellent and satisfying. I could have gotten by and done enough things to be satisfactory, at least in the minds of many, but I wouldn’t be satisfied with it. And that decision would lack integrity.” On September 1, Balkcom’s term as the third Santa Fe president ended; Annapolis President Christopher Nelson became acting president and will serve both campuses while the board launches a presidential search. To explain the state of mind that led to his decision, Balkcom reaches for the analogy of The Ed Sullivan Show act in which a performer juggles spinning plates. “I felt as if I had plates spinning on a lot of poles and I was dropping too many of them,” he said. “In recent months, I didn’t have a sense of gaining on the job.” A successful management consultant who had risen to partnership in a major Chicago firm, Balkcom was a popular choice, particularly among Santa Fe faculty who found both a scholar and an able businessman in Balkcom. He had earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Princeton and an MBA from the University of Chicago. After accompanying his daughter Rachel (also SFGI00) on a visit to St. John’s in Santa Fe, Balkcom became intrigued with the college. He enrolled first in the college’s Summer Classics program, then the Graduate Institute, and in 1995 joined the college’s board. Balkcom began his duties soon after his November 2000 appointment. He won respect on campus by postponing his inauguration ceremony, initially scheduled for three days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. When the college lost its natural gas because of a pipeline problem, he invited students to his home, Hunt House, to do their laundry. Students were drawn to his friendly manner and sincere interest in them. By 2002, faculty salaries were finally equalized with those of Annapolis and a campus master plan was nearly complete this spring. But Balkcom felt a growing unease and frustration. By way of an example, Balkcom describes a campus meeting that seemed interminable; every possible solution to what Balkcom saw as a black-andwhite issue was being analyzed and debated. “Why can’t we wrap this up?” he was thinking to himself. “I came to see that much greater patience is essential for a president at St. John’s. teri thomson randall by Rosemary Harty Carol and John Balkcom expect to remain involved in the life of the college. Students, faculty, staff—these are not three bodies that automatically agree.” An article in the Santa Fe New Mexican questioned whether the college’s structure, in which the dean is given authority over matters of instruction, rendered Balkcom powerless to make some important decisions. Balkcom firmly dismisses this idea, along with questions about whether the Management Committee structure of the college or domination by Annapolis contributed to his departure. This July, Balkcom was scheduled to take over leadership of the Management Committee from Nelson. Balkcom is pleased that in Santa Fe, the college has enjoyed three straight years of operating surpluses, an accomplishment he quickly shares { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } with Santa Fe Treasurer Bryan Valentine. He’s pleased that the Santa Fe campus has an excellent advancement team, led by Vice President Michael Franco, in place. There’s no question that the presidency is a challenging job. “It’s a hard job, a complex job, a seven-daya-week job, a thrilling job. There’s no question that it can be done here and it can be done well,” he says. The hardest thing Balkcom has to do, he says, is to walk away from the students. He has enjoyed his conversations with them more than any other aspect of his job. “The greatest sense of loss I have is with respect to the students. I’ve loved hanging out with them, going to dinners and waltz parties, I love going down to the continued on p. 3 �{From the Bell Towers} 3 “An Extraordinary Gift” Alumnus Ronald H. Fielding Gives the College $10 Million St. John’s College has received a $10 million gift from investment fund manager Ronald H. Fielding of Rochester, N.Y., a 1970 graduate of the Annapolis campus and member of the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors. It is the largest single gift from an individual in the college’s 300-year history. Fielding, who built a $3 billion mutual fund group by ignoring Wall Street conventions and persisting against the odds, has directed his gift to an endowment for need-based financial aid. “Part of the reason for this gift is to thank the college for having provided me with financial aid at a critical time in my life,” said Fielding. He has also remained grateful that the college’s rigorous program prepared him to succeed in business.“My St. John’s education has been invaluable in meeting my investment career challenges more than a quarter-century after completing business school,” he said. The third of six children raised in a modest home, Fielding began earning money delivering newspapers at the age of 7. He set his sights on a prep-school education and won a nearly full scholarship to the prestigious Putney School in Vermont. He had applied to four colleges, but passed over St. John’s because two older brothers (Richard, A66, and Robert, A68) attended. Though he got into Reed College, his first choice, the financial aid Reed offered fell short. So Fielding applied to St. John’s on his high school graduation day. Already keenly ambitious, he spent a summer riding the train to Boston and working in a menial job at MIT, wondering about his future. He was greatly relieved when his acceptance letter, conveying a full-tuition financial aid package, arrived from St. John’s. Still, Fielding expected to transfer after his freshman year. He applied to Reed again and this time received enough financial aid. But by then, he had fallen in love with the Program. He stayed. “It wasn’t a particular book or tutor. I was hooked on the learning experience,” he explains. Fielding came to St. John’s expecting to pursue a career in science, but reading Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations steered him to the business world. After graduating from St. John’s, he went on to earn a master’s degree in economics and an M.B.A. from the University of Rochester. He worked in financial analysis and portfolio management in banking before launching his own enterprise, Fielding Management Company, in 1982. He built from the ground up a high-performing bond group that caught the attention of OppenheimerFunds Inc., which bought his firm in 1996 for an estimated $80 million. Fielding is now senior vice president and portfolio managRonald Fielding’s $10 million er of OppenheimerFunds’ gift makes a promising start for municipal bond division. the college’s next fund-raising In announcing his gift at campaign. the July board meeting in Santa Fe, Fielding described a conversation he had the previous night with a Johnnie who was thinking about an investment career. “I told him not to worry that he may lack certain practical investment buzz words or operating tips. Ultimately the St. John’s education is perfect in providing students with the mental tools to face new problems and provide logically sound solutions to issues and opportunities which only emerge after business school classes and texts are completed.” Annapolis President Christopher Nelson (SF70) applauded his former classmate’s generosity. Nelson and Fielding both served on student government together, Nelson as president, and Fielding as treasurer. Fielding’s gift is a promising start to the college’s next capital campaign, expected to begin in 2005. “I think Ron has done what so many of us alumni wish we could do: give something meaningful back to the school that changed our lives,” Nelson said. “In his case, this extraordinary gift will in turn change the lives of many, many more to come.” x Balkcom dining hall and just sitting down and joining in their conversations. I think they’re fascinating, engaging, brilliant, and fun.” As of late summer, Balkcom’s next steps were undecided. His wife, Carol, was committed to completing her work as a volunteer coordinator of the Tecolote Group, an independent program for public school teachers created by Tutor Steve Van Luchene and hosted by the Santa Fe campus; for that reason, the couple expected to be in Hunt House through September. Balkcom had already received several job inquiries by late summer, accepting none because he prefers to take time to read, think, and watch some of the baseball movies (he’s been a Cubs fan for decades) that were farewell gifts from Nelson and the board. He and Carol expected to move back to their home in Evanston, Ill. He has also offered to contin- ue to serve the college by coleading weekend seminars— such as the seminar he expected to co-lead with Tutor Michael Rawn in late September with representatives of the Santa Fe Institute and the Boston Consulting Group—and assisting with fund-raising efforts. He and his wife Carol will host a reception for prospective students on Saturday, November 8, in the library she had built for him during his last term in the Graduate Institute. He’s also { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } hoping to return to the G.I. in the summer of 2004 to take the history segment. Even though he has the degree, Balkcom is still curious, still eager to learn something new, looking forward to discussing great ideas with his classmates, and still committed to the board’s vision of assuring “this brilliantly conceived small college” (a phrase he borrows often from Tutor Emeritus William Darkey) has another 300 years in its future. x �4 {From the Bell Towers} Tales from the Tour Guides that there are no electives. You’ll spend the whole tour with them, talking about the Program, and later on they’ll ask ‘what kind of visual arts classes do you offer?’” Jenna Questions that indicate you’ve got a lot of explaining to do: “Some of them just can’t handle the altitude in Santa Fe, so we don’t always make it to the gym. I just point it out.” Jenna “So this is a liberal arts school?” Siobhan “Is this a liberal school?” Roseanna “Is this a Catholic school?” Siobhan “How do you decide what a great book is?” Molly “What do tutors do?” Roseanna “What were your SAT scores? What was your GPA? It’s hard to explain scores and grades and all the things from high school that you leave behind when you come to St. John’s.” Siobhan “Some of them can’t fathom No. 1 parent question, hands down: “What are you going to do when you graduate?” Siobhan, Jenna Brutal honesty: “I tell them the chairs are uncomfortable.” Roseanna “Sometimes they will ask ‘what don’t you like about it here?’ I could cite specific readings, but I also talk about why we can’t do things like study abroad. And it’s too small a community to offer a really diverse experience.” Jenna dave trozzo They don’t always wear sensible shoes. They don’t dress formally, wear t-shirts with the college logo, or pin on a name badge. But they are infinitely patient with questions from prospectives, parents, and sometimes people just passing through town on their way to a college they really plan to apply to. They’re diligent in responding to querulous e-mail questions and always give the honest answer, not necessarily the viewbook line. They smile a lot. This summer, on the Annapolis campus tour guide duties fell to Siobhan Aitchison, a rising junior from San Diego, Calif., and Roseanna White, a rising senior from Wiley Ford, W.Va. In Santa Fe, rising senior Jenna Beck, of Bishop, Calif., and Molly Wright, rising junior of St. Joseph, Mo., led tours. Each gave at least a tour a day, traveling the same pathways and describing the Program for three months in the summer. By August, they sounded a little weary, but still managed enthusiasm for Euclid, Barr and Buchanan, the Great Hall, and the view of Monte Sol. Here are some of their observations: Above, tour guides Siobhan Aitchison and Roseanna White led tours in Annapolis. Molly Wright and Jenna Beck shared the duty in Santa Fe this summer. “They won’t look you in the eye.” Roseanna “The roughest tours are when the student isn’t really interested and no amount of telling them how excited you are about the Program will do any good.” Molly remember Faraday’s name. I think I ended up saying, ‘this guy.’” Siobhan “I had an alumnus take over my tour. He just walked up to the group, started talking to them about various hiking trails, all kinds of things. Then he trailed off and I took the opportunity to end the tour.” Molly “The brochures all make a big deal of there being no tests and there is the music quiz and the algebra quiz.” Roseanna When you know you’ll be seeing them at Convocation: “And ‘no textbooks’—our lab manuals are like poorly bound textbooks.” Siobhan “When they say, ‘I’m applying here and nowhere else.’” Roseanna “I love the fact that I get to talk to people who are excited about the Program.” Molly “When they ask good, hard questions about the Program. Those are the people who will make the best students in seminar.” Molly “One woman gave me a bag of jelly beans.” Roseanna It’s not the heat, it’s the altitude: “When they ask, ‘is it really as good as it sounds?’” Jenna You know you’ve lost them when: Most embarrassing moment: “They don’t ask any questions.” Siobhan “I fell down a flight of stairs during a tour of Santa Fe Hall. I just got up and continued the tour.” Molly “Their parents ask all the questions.” Roseanna “One girl just couldn’t get over the math in the Program. I tried to tell her how I didn’t like math, but how sophomore math was beautiful. It’s not like high school math. But she just couldn’t get over the math. Siobhan “I had a tutor come up to me while I was giving a tour and ask, ‘oh, is this your family?’” Roseanna “I was giving a tour of the labs in Mellon Hall and describing the Faraday experiment where you put your friends in a cage and electrify it. I couldn’t { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } Perks of the job: “The more I give tours, the more I appreciate what I’ve done here. No, I don’t remember everything I did in freshman laboratory. But I realize how [the Program] has affected me and how glad I am that I came here.” Siobhan Strangest e-mails: “I had such fun with one e-mail that asked whether we harbor creative, cutting-edge thinking. My first response was ‘what do you mean by cutting edge?’ The ideas that are popular today or the timeless ideas that are and always will be cutting edge?” Jenna “One person asked, ‘how do you treat people with green hair?’” Siobhan x �5 {From the Bell Towers} Announcements Four new tutors have joined the faculty of the Santa Fe campus: DEBORAH GARFIELD received a B.A. in English from Agnes Scott College and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1990. Her dissertation was titled “Emersonian Eros: Women, Privation and Power in the American Novel,” and she has a work in progress: “Alternative Origins: American Culture, Female Narrative and the Aesthetic of New Beginnings, 1871-1936.” JONATHAN HAND received a B.A. in political philosophy from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. His dissertation was titled “Tocqueville’s ‘New Political Science’ a Critical Assessment of Montesquieu’s Vision of a Liberal Modernity.” ERIC POPPELE is a 1989 graduate of St. John’s College, Santa Fe. Poppele received a master’s in environmental engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and is a Ph.D. candidate in civil engineering at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. His thesis is titled “The Cohesive Strength of Biofilms.” A 1993 graduate of St. John’s in Annapolis, JOSEPH WALTER STERLING pursued graduate studies in the Department of Philosophy at Emory University and expects to receive a Ph.D. from Emory in the fall of 2003. His dissertation is titled “Exigencies of the Political.” For the last four years, he has been working as an adult learning instructor for Project H.O.M.E., designing, implementing, coordinating, and teaching adult learning programs, and integrating educational services with special needs of homeless, mental health, substance abuse, and low-income populations. In addition, Tutor MATTHEW DAVIS has taken the post of assistant dean in Santa Fe. A 1982 graduate of St. John’s College, Annapolis, Davis holds a master’s from Dalhousie University and a Ph.D. in political science from Boston College. x Agresto to Baghdad Former Santa Fe President JOHN AGRESTO has been selected as senior adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. He assumed his post in Baghdad in early September. American occupation authorities named Agresto to the post of senior adviser, an 18-month assignment that could be extended. Iraq’s former Minister of Higher Education, who was No. 43 on a most-wanted list published by the United States, was captured earlier this year. Agresto is also president of Agresto and Associates, an educational consulting firm. He served as president of the Santa Fe campus from 19902000. x New Alumni Director Roxanne Seagraves (SF83) of Tucson, Ariz., has been named director of Alumni Activities for the Santa Fe campus, replacing Tahmina Shalizi, who stepped down last spring to pursue other career avenues. In addition to her St. John’s degree, Seagraves has a master of divinity from the Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, Calif., and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union, also in Berkeley. Most recently she served as a prevention specialist at a Tucson elementary school, providing intervention and counseling support for students and their mary ruffin New Faculty in Santa Fe Aspiring Musician Wins Cooke Scholarship Junior TIMOTHY KILE is one of only 30 undergraduate students nationwide to land a Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship for undergraduate study. Kile attended high school in Amherst, N.H. For three years during and after high school, he played with a band called Arcade Fire and recorded an album of original songs that received radio airplay. Kile also spent a year studying literature at McGill University in Montreal, but after a semester, he began to feel “that there were personal and philosophical questions I needed to confront before beginning my life’s work of music.” Kile felt that only St. John’s College could offer him the continued personal challenge he seeks. He enrolled at St. John’s in Santa Fe, where he spent two years. He transferred to Annapolis this fall. “In Santa Fe it’s outrageously, absurdly beautiful, but I’ve got the East Coast in my bones,” he says. In his essay for the Jack Kent Cooke scholarship, Kile wrote of the modern implications of the burning of the Library of Alexandria, discussing the destruction of the world’s single greatest archive of knowledge in the context of the few remaining works of Plato and Aristotle. Why are the great books so important to someone who plans to make music his life’s work? “The yearning that drove me to St. John’s to confront philosophical and personal questions is indistinguishable from my yearning to create meaningful music,” says Kile. During his first year at St. John’s, Kile received the award for best freshman essay. An essay he wrote his sophomore year, “On Love, Knowledge, and the Shield of Law: Understanding the Book of Job,” netted Kile an acknowledgement of excellence at this year’s commencement exercises in Santa Fe. While holding a work-study job with buildings and grounds, Kile sang with the St. John’s College Chamber Choir, participated in a Hebrew study group, and played guitar and piano. Although writing and playing music are still a part of his daily life, Kile has cut back on performing. “St. John’s is a time commitment, much more than McGill. I often feel that the thing at stake in this education is my own life, as thinkers from Plato to Nietzsche constantly force me to ask myself, what is the life that is worth living?” x families. She has extensive experience in various other community-based and educational organizations, having held key administrative roles in such areas as public relations, fund raising, coalition-build- { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } ing, finance, and event planning and execution. Seagraves also has worked as a professional storyteller, freelance artist, and stand-up comic. She begins her new job Sept. 29. x �6 {From the Bell Towers} Quaint 1BR apt. Walking dist. to City Dock. W/D, window AC, gas heat. Modern int. in 200 yr. old bldg. $895/mo Quaint comes at a high price these days in Annapolis. Soaring property values mean higher rents, apartments in the historic district are dwindling as property owners convert buildings back to single-family dwellings, and even one-bedroom apartments in nearby suburbs command rents approaching $1,000. All this has meant more students in the spring housing lottery each year. About 60 students each year end up on the waiting list for campus housing. And as anyone who’s ever been unlucky enough to share a cramped triple in Humphreys can attest, dorm space is tight on the Annapolis campus. Not only have more doubles been turned into triples, and singles into doubles, but common space also has been sacrificed to make room for beds. The housing crunch prompted the Annapolis Campus Planning Committee to kick new dormitory projects into high gear this year. In July, construction began on the first of two new dormitories on the lower campus. The first will house 48 students; the second 32. After the completion of the first building, the college will be able to house about 75 percent of the student body on campus. The new complex is situated north of the steam plant, parallel to College Creek. Intended to alleviate another chronic campus problem, a parking structure is the third component of the project. The total cost of the project is about $20.3 million, including $2.7 million in renovations and updates to existing dorms on campus. Construction on the second dorm and parking structure will begin when the college has raised enough funds to ziger/snead New Dorms Slated for Annapolis complete the project, says Steve Linhard, assistant treasurer. The dorm project also recognizes that housing more students on campus isn’t just a matter of economics: A community of learning works better if fewer students are heading to their cars after seminar and Friday lectures, says Assistant Dean Judith Seeger. “Our students in this allrequired program are here to talk to each other, and they love to do so,” Seeger says. “Part of our job is to do all we can to support their ongoing conversations.” The new dorm will be the first new residence hall on the Of Rankings and Ratings What’s a Hot College to Do? St. John’s was a top pick for several college guides this year. Yes, we completely ignore those who would rank us. We delete their e-mails, we withhold data, we politely tell them we don’t believe that rankings really serve students making one of the most important decisions of their lives. And yet they persist in saying nice things about us. In its annual college guide, U.S. News & World Report singled out St. John’s to exemplify the intellectual aspects of college life. The three-page article titled “The Life of the Mind” touched on all we at St. John’s hold dear: the value of genuine dialogue, the inte- grated nature of an allrequired program, the power of an opening question. For the better part of a week reporter Dan Gilgoff immersed himself in the culture of the Annapolis campus, visiting seminars, labs, and tutorials. In his article, Gilgoff concluded: “There’s no other place quite like St. John’s (except perhaps its sister campus in Santa Fe, N.M.). Yet its singleminded approach to academics gives a window into the undergrad experience at the dwindling number of colleges where the life of the mind reigns supreme.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } The first new dormitory in 50 years will be ready next fall. campus since Campbell Hall opened in 1954, and the first new building since the Harrison Health Center was completed in 1971. The two-story buildings each feature a spacious common area with communal kitchen, a combination of single and double rooms, and a resident apartment. Baltimore architectural firm Ziger/Snead has designed the brick buildings to reflect both the modern features of Mellon Hall and the colonial buildings on campus. x Newsweek-Kaplan’s How to Get into College guide chose St. John’s as one of its “12 Hottest Schools,” gracing the college with the label “Most Old-School.” (Reed got “most quirky.”) Says the story: “The curriculum, with its focus on classical education, is unique and relentless.” Santa Fe was number 25 in Outside magazine’s “40 Best College Towns,” a feature in the magazine’s September issue. The high-desert location and proximity of the mountains were noted; the great books curriculum made it into the last paragraph. And our vote for most quirky: The Princeton Review, which placed St. John’s atop those academies that encourage classroom discussion. x �7 {From the Bell Towers} Admissions and Diversity, East and West by Rosemary Harty job is to let students know what the Program is like and encourage them to ask the right kind of questions. Baca, of Hispanic origin, was born in Santa Fe and lived outside nearby Espanola for most of his adult years. “I know that I feel very privileged to have been a student here,” says Baca, whose family wasn’t enthusiastic about his seeking a liberal arts degree. Baca’s convictions about the St. John’s Program tend to command attention. Recently, he was able to sit down to a feast with leaders of the Jemez Pueblo and discuss seminars and great books. “One of the Pueblo governors was an assistant dean at Stanford; he really didn’t know much about St. John’s,” Baca recalls. “I guess he’ll still send some students to Stanford, but now I think he’ll be on the lookout for the Native American students who would love St. John’s.” Tutor Victoria Mora has also been engaged in the diversity initiative in Santa Fe. She met with minority upperclassmen to discuss how best to pursue recruiting and retaining minority students. With their input and that of the dean, assistant dean, and Instruction Committee, Mora fashioned an advising program for all incoming freshmen, a version of which is in place for this academic year. Mora has been involved in outreach efforts to prospective students, parents, and New Mexico high school students. She’s traveled as far as Tsalie, Ariz., to involve alumni in spreading the word about the college. And this year she plans to step up outreach efforts to high school teachers, beginning with Albuquerque, Bernalillo, and Santa Fe. “As a native New Mexican who didn’t hear about St. John’s until two years into an undergraduate degree at the University of New Mexico, this initiative is very close to my heart,” says Mora. In Annapolis, where minority enrollment ranges from 6 to 8 percent of the student population each year, the admissions office has pursued many different avenues to present the college to more minority students. Some have been effective, and others have yielded not a single application, says John Christensen. “We’ve attended many fairs for African-American students and joined many partnerships. For several years, we joined in a partnership with the Northern Virginia public school system and hosted groups of students as young as ninth grade to talk about how to afford private college and how to apply to college in general. We never got any response,” he says. A promising avenue Christensen is pursuing is the large, urban high school—particularly magnet schools or preparatory schools with highly motivated students, an emphasis on the liberal arts, and diversity in the student body. He’s found such schools in Louisiana, Philadelphia, and Massachusetts, and has been successful in bringing their graduates to St. John’s. Although no minorities were among them yet, he still believes the audience is primed for the college’s message. “We think those places offer the best forums to meet minority students. And whenever we’re in a city, we’re trying to find out if there are other schools like that: diverse environments where students are interested in the liberal arts and willing to go out of state to college,” he says. x teri thomson randall A new initiative to recruit more minority students to the Santa Fe campus is off to a good start. The percentage of minority students, which has hovered at about 10 percent every year, has risen to 17 percent, the highest in the history of the campus, says Larry Clendenin (SF77), director of admissions in Santa Fe. Of this year’s freshman class of 142, 15 percent are minorities. Clendenin attributes the increase to the Opportunity Initiative, an effort to devote more resources to recruiting from among the state’s minority students. The initiative is funded by a gift to the college from a member of the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors. What the grant has given the college is more time to talk to students on New Mexico’s reservations, in small-town high schools, and at college fairs. Among other expenses, the grant provides salary and travel expenses for Joaquin Baca (SF95), assistant director of admissions. “One of the big challenges in New Mexico is how spread out it is,” Baca says. For example, it’s nearly four hours to Gallup from Santa Fe, but last year, Baca was able to make three trips to Gallup, one of the biggest reservation high schools in the state, and several trips to smaller schools such as Tohatchi and Pine Hill. With a limited recruitment staff, it was more difficult to do focused recruitment and follow-up in New Mexico, says Clendenin. Adding Baca to the staff has meant six more weeks of recruitment time and at least 20 more high school visits. “We see in college fairs that 90 percent of the Hispanic and Native American students go straight to the state university tables,” Clendenin says. “Our A spirited game of Spartan Madball during Reality Week marks the end of the spring semester in Santa Fe. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �8 {From the Bell Towers} “I Just Never Let Go” Sharon Bishop, A65, Leads St. John’s Board For nearly 30 years, Sharon Bishop has been one of the most committed and involved of St. John’s College alumni. But had she been the type of person to hold a grudge, the college might have had to do without her service as a member of the Board of Visitors and Governors, president of the Alumni Association, and now, chair of the BVG. In the late 1960s, Bishop was an underpaid social worker in the city of Philadelphia. She had borrowed her way through St. John’s and was burdened by loans. Her employer paid for graduate school, and Bishop was preparing to apply to Bryn Mawr College. “St. John’s would not release my transcript because I still owed them about $500,” Bishop recalls. “I tried to explain that if I had the master’s degree, I would make more money and be able to afford to pay the college.” The story has a happy ending: St. John’s accepted her repayment plan and sent out the transcript. Bishop thrived in graduate school, went on to a successful professional career, and helped establish an enormously successful consulting firm, of which she is now vicepresident. She has never stopped giving back to the college since her first $1,000 donation, made as soon as her professional salary allowed, in 1974. The following year, she was asked to run for one of six elected alumni positions on the Board of Visitors and Governors by an Alumni Association eager to draft more women for the board. In 1976, she attended her first board meeting. “When I was a student, I remembered thinking that the BVG were mostly old, rich people who would give the college money and it wasn’t clear to me that they knew anything about the college. By the time I got on the board I found other alumni who were, along with non-alumni, deeply committed to the welfare and wellbeing of St. John’s College as an institution.” After earning her master’s, Bishop went to work for consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, where she became a principal. In 1983, she took a chance by leaving a well-established firm to join Gerald Croan in an enterprise he started in his basement in Northern Virginia. Their firm, Caliber Associates, has grown from just the two of them to more than 300 employees, occupying six floors of an office building in Fairfax, Va., and working for government agencies including the Department of Education and the Department of Justice, nonprofits such as AARP, and private firms. “We do work in the child/family/ community studies arena, studies of child welfare systems, evaluations of programs focused on juvenile justice, and operate technical assistance and training centers for victims’ assistance programs,” to name a few, Bishop says. Bishop is a good choice to lead the board at a time of transition; she was involved in choosing three presidents over her many years of service. In her initial term as alumni representative, 1976 to 1982, she served on the search committee that recruited Edwin Delattre to the presidency. In her 1985-90 term as a regular elected member, the board voted for a two-president structure. Bishop was a board member when Michael Riccards was chosen president for Santa Fe and William Dyal Jr. for Annapolis. In 1992, she was elected president of the Alumni Association, a post she held until 1998. She stepped down from the board in 2002 because of commitments at Caliber, then agreed to return to the board as its chair earlier this year. What motivates such commitment? “This absolute belief that what you’re doing is worthwhile and needs to be done. It’s very rewarding to work with really fine people on behalf of something you care about.” One of the helpful attributes Bishop will bring to the board is an ability to “talk people into doing what they don’t want to do,” says Ray Cave (A48), who just finished his term as board chair. “About two years ago, Sharon and I were on the nominating committee and it was time to look for another chair. Sharon said, ‘Ray I think you’d be an ideal chairman.’” Cave firmly rejected the proposal. Bishop persisted, and Cave became board chair. “I found myself saying, ‘all right,’ and it was all her fault,” Cave says. Cave describes his successor as well-organized, skilled in managing people, and able to make difficult decisions. “She came in at a very tough time, just when John Balkcom resigned. And to watch the way she handled that was to see what a good manager she is. She really cares about people.” teri thomson randall by Rosemary Harty Sharon Bishop chairs the Board of Visitors and Governors. Alumni should be pleased with the college’s board, Bishop says, because about 60 percent of its members are alumni. The rich assembly of talent and experience of BVG members has always impressed her. “Ultimately, the board is responsible to ensure the survival of the college,” says Bishop, “and the college is in good hands.” Bishop’s family would have been happy if she’d gone to college to be a teacher, but once she’d heard about St. John’s she saw “this was the only worthwhile thing to do.” “The whole concept of beginning with Euclid and ending with Einstein, beginning with Plato and ending with War and Peace—and it was the way it was done, the small groups, the seminars, the discussions,” Bishop says. “You were to think for yourself. I just glommed on to St. John’s and never let go.” x Presidential Search The Board of Visitors and Governors has appointed a search committee to oversee selection of the next president of the Santa Fe campus. The committee is chaired by Michael E. Uremovich of Santa Fe, board member and Graduate Institute student. The committee comprises the deans of each campus, David Levine in Santa Fe, and Harvey Flaumenhaft in Annapolis; a faculty representative of each campus: Victoria Mora, Santa Fe, and Nancy Buchenauer, Annapolis; and four board members: Thomas R. Krause (SFGI01), Robert Bienenfeld (SF80), Mikael Salovaara, and Julia Wilkinson (HSF94). x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �9 {Philanthropia} Senior Class Gift Learning and community. Wisdom and fun. These are the legacies of the 2003 senior class. In Santa Fe, 65 seniors contributed $3,459 to build an adult swing set near the new Student Activities Center. In Annapolis, 64 seniors contributed $6,100 for the digital re-mastering and transcription of classic lectures that now exist only on audiotape. The Senior Class Gift is one of the ways that Philanthropia, the alumni organization dedicated to alumni fund raising, increases awareness of the college’s needs among younger alumni. Class Gifts introduce students to the opportunity to support St. John’s and seniors carry that sense of philanthropy with them after graduation. Marguerite Pfoutz, a member of the Senior Class Gift Committee in Santa Fe, says that Erin Hanlon (SF03) supplied the idea for the swing set. “She wanted to have a playground that would be suitable for tutors’ children so that we could build stronger bonds as a community,” says Pfoutz. “And it’s also been a longstanding tradition to drive around Santa Fe looking for swingsets in parks to play on. We need to exorcise—and exercise— our demons.” Pfoutz says she wishes the playground had existed during her years at St. John’s, but vows to come back to play on it as an alumna. Right now she’s applying to the Peace Corps and hopes to teach elementary school at the British Educational Institute International in the Sudan while her application is processed. Alexander Wall chaired the Annapolis Senior Class Gift Committee. The idea for the transcriptions came from his experience listening to tapes of old lectures. “I’ve taken them out and some of them are in terrible condition,” he says. “But those that were already transcribed were very useful. It’s nice to hear what someone has to say about a book that isn’t being read in seminar.” Despite How Aristotle Would Explain the Annual Fund College financial reports can be confusing to the uninitiated. There’s tuition—more than $27,000 this year. There’s the endowment. There are wonderful gifts, like the $10 million from Ron Fielding (A70) for financial aid endowment. There are expenses like building projects, tutor salaries, and financial aid. A key component in the total picture is the Annual Fund, the money raised from alumni, friends, and parents that is used to help meet annual expenses in the college’s operating budget. Tuition covers about 70% of what it costs to run the college. The rest of the money comes from interest on the endowment, federal and state programs, and the Annual Fund. During fiscal year 2003 (which ended June 30), even in the face of a tough and uncertain economy, St. John’s alumni, friends, and parents supported the college’s Annual Fund. The college met its Annual Fund goal of $2.148 million—which constitutes about 6% of the operating budget for the campuses. The college received more than 2,700 alumni gifts, meaning that 34% of alumni supported the college this year. That is an all-time high for one year and the most significant indicator of the future health of St. John’s. For the first time, St. John’s is their questionable audio quality, Wall managed to listen to a number of lectures by Leo Strauss as well as several on the Gorgias, the topic of his senior essay. When he told his classmates his idea for the gift, the response was overwhelming. “It was nice to see how excited everyone got about giving something back to St. John’s,” Wall says. “Everyone wanted the gift to be something that would show how St. John’s had helped them in their learn- ing, how they cared about the Program. Most people thought that the library was key to their time at St. John’s and they liked the idea of giving a gift to the library that was a bit more individual than just giving money for books.” The time Wall spent struggling with the poor audio of the tapes seems to have paid off beyond its intrinsic value. He is now enrolled in a Ph.D. program in political philosophy at Harvard University. x Visitors to the Peterson Student Center might think they’ve stumbled across George Plimpton asleep in a wing chair, but this new addition to the Santa Fe campus is actually a sculpture by J. Seward Johnson. Johnson’s remarkably lifelike sculptures of ordinary people doing ordinary things grace many American cities. Johnson’s son, J. Seward Johnson III, is an alumnus of the class of 1993. This piece, “After Lunch,” was donated to the college by Mr. and Mrs. Rick Levin, residents of Santa Fe. approaching the gift levels of other liberal arts colleges like Swarthmore, Oberlin, and Franklin and Marshall, where around 40-60% of alumni make a gift every year. Philanthropia, the group of alumni volunteers who are working to increase financial support for the college among their peers, has emphasized the importance of the alumni participation rate. When the group began in 1997, St. John’s alumni participation rate was 19%. “It was clear that alumni felt strongly about the college, but { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } they weren’t demonstrating that,” says Barbara Goyette (A73), vice president for advancement in Annapolis. “The Philanthropia volunteers have worked hard to make connections with their classmates and to deliver messages about the college. What many people don’t realize is the importance of participation. This could even be explained in Aristotelian terms: When an alum makes a gift to the Annual Fund, it is the actualization of a potential positive force, carrying the college forward.” x �10 {From the Bell Towers} Hans von Briesen: A Tribute When Hans von Briesen Jr. came to St. John’s College, he was already a man with an impressive—if unusual—history. He held a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in physics; had taught at Stanford, the University of Rochester, and Northeastern University; served as treasurer and coordinator of the Lama Foundation (a spiritual community and educational center in Northern New Mexico); and worked as a journeyman plumber and gasfitter. In 1979 he overcame his unease with academe to leave plumbing and accept the position of director of laboratories in Santa Fe. When he retired this spring, he left to us in Santa Fe a legacy of trust, ingenuity, and excitement in the laboratory. Hans realized that if he put responsibility in our hands, we would inevitably meet any challenge. Hans says he didn’t feel it was his place to make any changes to the laboratory program, but it’s widely acknowledged that the program developed significantly during his tenure. He computerized the lab manuals so he could make additions and corrections as soon as the tutors requested them. He tapped his plumbing experience to fix equipment and reinforce the value of “recycling” in the scientific method. “His 24 years as lab supervisor have made my as-many years as a lab tutor purely pleasurable,” says tutor Glenn Freitas. “He has taken constant great care to develop better and better practica [and also] develop experiments and demonstrations that were relevant and powerfully related to the textual arguments of the classes.” Nowhere else on the Program do students, whether assistants or class members, receive this kind of hands-on learning. “He opened up a new world of problems—and I mean that in a good way,” says Devin King (SF03). Perhaps the most significant development that Hans made to the lab program was through relationships with student laboratory assistants. When he came to St. John’s, Hans increased the number of assistants and added to their responsibilities, providing for a richer experience for those of us fortunate to be named laboratory assistants. Under his tutelage, we gained knowledge and experience from those who had come before us; we then passed that knowledge along to the students who followed us in these positions. This tradition calls for an exchange of ideas that is integral to the Program and essential to the laboratory assistantship. On a more practical level, Hans was the man who could help us fix anything. If we had it, he knew how it worked and where to find it. Rumor has it that among tutors his notes are a valuable commodity. But despite being “the man with all the answers,” he put an amazing amount of trust in us, his student workers. He let us work out our own problems, even if that meant a certain amount of frustration and even pain (largely mental pain, if occasionally a bit of physical pain). These are the most valu- able lessons that student enthusiasts of the St. John’s labs will ever learn. Cobalt Blue (SF92, EC97) reminded me that the amount of faith that Hans puts in his workers inspires them to work harder. We want to finish jobs and solve more problems than we ever would if he hadn’t believed in our ingenuity, creativity, and diligence. Hans realized that if he put responsibility in our hands, we would inevitably meet any challenge. As a student, this will always be the way I think of and remember Hans von Briesen. I love the St. John’s Program, and one of the bigger reasons is the opportunity I’ve had to be a laboratory student and work as an assistant under such a director. Hans symbol- teri thomson randall by Megan Sielken, SFo3 Megan Sielken and Hans von Briesen on the Santa Fe campus. izes so much of what the lab program is, from freshman biology to senior genetics, from cat dissections to the blender experiment. I will always remember the crazy white hair, the strict recycling policy for equipment, and the plumber’s ingenuity that defined my own career as student, assistant, and head freshman assistant. x More Santa Fe retirements: GLENN FREITAS joined the college in 1969, bringing with him a background in Biblical studies and a mastery of Greek, Latin, French, and German. An early supporter and participant in the Eastern Classics program, he spent five summers learning classical Chinese. He served as assistant dean for three years and acting dean of the college for one year. His favorite author is Montaigne. A tutor since 1985, ROBERT RICHARDSON earned a doctorate at Yale. After directing and teaching in university programs designed to foster thought about ethics and technology in engineering and science, he left academics and worked as a carpenter and milk tester for many years before coming to St. John’s. He still writes about farming, enjoys writing fiction, and indulges in golf. RALPH SWENTZELL came to the college in 1966. He put together junior mathematics and sophomore music tutorials, and was crucial in forming senior math and laboratory curricula. About 10 years ago, he scanned every character in Mathews’ Chinese Dictionary to prepare a computerized lexicon that even beginners could use. x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �{Letters} Greenhouse Picture Tells A Second Story The College Spring 2003 report, “Community Building in Santa Fe,” has two texts—the article and the photograph. Both merit careful attention to what is said and not said. Without saying whether the greenhouse used pressure treated lumber or might have, the article creates its ideological strawman by asserting without evidence that “one piece of pressure treated lumber…represents a significant expense of petroleum in the course of its harvest, transport, milling, delivery and installation.” “Community building” is the virtuous alternative, the implication being no use of petroleum. Certainly kudos go to the volunteer laborers and the sense of community developed along the way. I assert, equally without specific evidence but with long knowledge of economics and manufacturing, that petroleum expense in timber production, pressure treated or not, is much less than trivial on a per piece basis. Then there are the questions implied by the story and the photograph. Was the local timber harvested and the boards and pillars cut without power tools? Was it taken to the college without using petroleum? My guess is that recycling the glass required heat, efficient production of which typically involves petroleum, natural gas or coal. Or was the heat generated using wood, an inefficient source? Further clues appear in the photo. The roof is metal, produced most likely by a firm organized as a corporation. Skylights typically are plastic of some sort, which means made from petrochemicals, a big company product. More information comes from a quick visit to the greenhouse. The door fixtures look quite conventional, meaning they were made by a corporation (that capitalist word, again) and perhaps purchased from a big box build- ing materials retailer of the sort that provides large selection for low prices. Did the community building team walk or ride a bicycle or horse to the retailer to buy the door fixtures or did they drive? The same questions apply to the screws holding the building together. The bricks on the floor appear manufactured rather than formed by hand. “The greenhouse is a worthy project, perhaps possible only with volunteer labor. A straight tale would have been nice.” My conclusion is that the project used economically efficient high production technology when convenient and trashed technology and economic efficiency when convenient, a situational morality worthy of a seminar. Annoying as are the smug, precious, ideological assertions, a bigger problem lies in the appearance of such a rampantly politically correct tract masquerading as a straight report in a college publication. Through the publication, the college in effect embraces the ideology, something I hope wasn’t on purpose. The greenhouse is a worthy project, perhaps possible only with volunteer labor. A straight tale would have been nice. Harold Morgan (SF68) Praising Brann This letter heartily seconds the praises sung in Barbara Goyette’s review of Eva Brann’s Homeric Moments (“Rediscovering Homer,” Spring 2003). Ms. Goyette qualifies her apt review with two somewhat selfeffacing disclaimers: that she “can’t do an honest review” because she so much admires the author’s intellect and imagination; and, as an “insider” employed by the college, is rendered incapable of giving an “honest appraisal.” She need not have been so diffident about her commendation of the high achievement, and thoroughly charming qualities of Homeric Moments. As an alumnus who was a student of Ms. Brann’s, with more than 40 years of friendship following, I too might disqualify myself as a biased “insider.” I have, however, been privileged to review books of Ms. Brann’s in publications other than those of the college (e.g., What, Then, Is Time?, reviewed in 28 Interpretation 173, Winter 2000-2001) without such trepidation. Having been instructed by Aristotle during my student days that “while both are dear, piety requires us to honor truth above our friends” (Nichomachean Ethics, I, 6), I have not been shy—when I thought it conveyed some truth—to criticize, for example, hardships encountered in some of Ms. Brann’s writing. Homeric Moments, on the other hand, is simply as delicious a work as a lover of Homer might wish. It not only refreshes delights experienced from prior readings of the Iliad and Odyssey, but through recollections stimulated by Ms. Brann’s novel survey, it exquisitely expands those pleasures by its exploration of Homer’s most supernal points of light and dark; passion, pathos, and tragedy; lyricism and drama; comedy; and complex humanity. With Homeric Moments, Eva Brann has given us as much of the poetry of reading Homer, as anyone is ever likely to offer readers in one compact volume. Harrison Sheppard (class of 1961) The Tutors Who Stayed The Winter 2003 issue of The College, page 32, refers to John { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } 11 Kieffer as “one of only two tutors who remained at the college after the New Program was instituted in 1937.” There were more than two: Mr. Kieffer, of course, was one. Two others were my tutors during my freshman year (1941-42): Ford K. Brown (mathematics) and Tench Tilghman (Greek). I am almost positive that Mr. Brown had been on the St. John’s faculty for many years. My recollection about Mr. Tilghman is less clear, but the personal sketch about him on the jacket of his The Early History of St. John’s College in Annapolis says that “from 1934 to 1942 [he] was an Instructor in English and later tutor at St. John’s.” …The following appears on page 28 of J. Winfree Smith’s A Search for the Liberal College: The Beginning of the St. John’s Program: “Some of the faculty left right away, some stayed for a few years, and four continued to the end of their teaching careers: George Bingley, a mathematician; Ford Brown, a former Rhodes Scholar and an authority on the Evangelicals in the Church of England; Richard Scofield, another Rhodes scholar who had previously taught art and English and very quickly proved the breadth of his interest and ability by the excellence of his teaching within the new program; and John Kieffer.” Edward W. Mullinix (class of 1945) 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 or The College Magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: reharty@sjca.edu. �12 {Johnnies on Language} LIVING L ANGUAGES At St. John’s we spend four years talking, reading, and writing. What more can we do with words? Four Johnnies discuss their work with language. By Sus3an Borden, A87 ome 50 years after his family had left Germany, Walter Kissinger was asked why he did not share his famous brother Henry’s heavy German accent. “I,” he replied, “am the Kissinger who listens.” S —from www.anecdotage.com This bit of linguistic legend is well known to Jim Stone (class of 1955). During his 33-year career working with State Department language training for government employees, the linguistic tendencies of Henry Kissinger were often a source of speculation for him and his colleagues. “When we were thinking about how to evaluate language skills, we thought about different odd cases. Kissinger was an extreme case; his brother speaks ordinary American. I think he has chosen to maintain that German-professor style to a great extent,” says Stone. “People do, consciously or unconsciously, choose their styles to fit in where they want to fit in. I know Southerners who have carefully moved away from their Southern accents and others whose accents have gotten stronger and stronger from year to year. It’s a matter of displaying your allegiance.” Linguist Mark Mandel (A69) is personally familiar with this phenomenon: “My daughter, who is in literary criticism and is very languageconscious, asked me a number of years ago, with some apparent annoyance, why I seemed to change my language into a much more guy-style in certain situations like at gas stations. I explained that language does many things; it is not just to convey information. We also use it to express concepts of affiliation: ‘I’m a member of this, not that. I’m better than you, you’re better than me. I’m like you, I’m not like you.’ Those are the uses you hear when I unconsciously or half-consciously change my style when I go into the gas station and ask the attendant to check the oil. “Every native speaker of a language uses many different styles and registers them fluently, but they’re not always aware that they do,” says Mandel. “A lot of what linguistics involves is analyzing, making explicit, understanding, and systematizing the tacit knowledge we have as native users of languages.” Mandel’s current project, biomedical information extraction for the Linguistic Data Consortium, demands such analysis. Mandel and his team are developing a suite of computer programs that will read an abstract or full-text article in electronic form to extract facts that will be placed into databases in a uniform format that researchers can query. The project’s Web site (www.ldc.upenn. edu/myl/ITR) gives this example: We want a program that will read a phrase like Amiodarone weakly inhibited CYP2C9, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4mediated activities with Ki values of 45.1—271.6 ?M and add to a database a set of entries whose ordinary-language presentation is amiodarone inhibits CYP2C9 with Ki=45.1—271.6 amiodarone inhibits CYP2D6 with Ki=45.1—271.6 amiodarone inhibits CYP3A4 with Ki=45.1—271.6 That example manages to both clarify and mislead. While it aptly defines the project’s goal, it hides the complexity of the endeavor. “In order to get the relationships between items in a database, you need to understand sentences, know what words are. You need to { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �howard korn 13 Does the language used at St. John’s change according to the class? In seminar, students tend to convey their points seriously and with conviction. “Linquistic knowledge extends beyond written and spoken language.” Jim Stone, class of 1955 know syntax, shallow semantics, syntactic annotation,” says Mandel. “Native speakers, and I include signers in that category, are constantly applying a zillion kinds of real-world knowledge to speech. This ranges from assuming that my friend knows where I live when I give directions as if starting from my house, to knowing that ‘bush,’ if it is the first word of a sentence, is likely to be a public figure rather than a shrub, although that was not the case 50 years ago.” Stone adds to the complexity that Mandel describes, pointing out that linguistic knowledge extends beyond written and spoken language. He describes elements of communication that aren’t—or shouldn’t be—spoken. Stone recalls, for example, Vienna-born tutor Viktor Zuckerkandl, whose sense of conversational space was so different from his own WASP sense that the esteemed tutor once backed Stone all the way through the coffee shop in the course of a conversation. He recounts a situation he encountered more than once during his numerous visits to India: “I’ve seen Indians really blow up about our thank-yous: ‘These Americans, they keep thanking me! What do they think I am? What’s wrong with them?’ They find our thank-yous really offensive and I’ve never been able to find out why. It’s something so basic in their culture that it’s hard to verbalize, a kind of behavior that’s so offensive they couldn’t mention it. “The gestures that are obscene in one culture are ordinary in another. From the Middle East all through India, you can’t point the sole of your shoe at anybody, that’s filthy, the whole room will begin to squirm.” Stone has encountered cultural taboos on a number of communication practices: making comparisons between people, engaging in role-playing, even smiling. And he’s managed to break some of his own taboos in order to enter other cultures: “When I was in Libya I found I had to hold hands with men. Two men walking down the street in conversation hold hands. I tried putting my hand in my pocket or carrying something, but the Arabs I was with would get very uncomfortable. One day the ambassador saw me crossing the plaza holding hands with the commanding general. He didn’t know what to think about that.” While Stone crossed cultural barriers by following the customs of other countries, Michael Sloper (SF79) seeks to bridge these barriers through language itself. In the summer of 1990, Sloper was about to embark on a career in international teaching. His first stint would be two years in Israel and he planned to follow with a number of two-year stints in countries around the world. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �14 {Johnnies on Language} Esperanto class when he learned that the Esperanto League for “When I was preparing for the job, I decided that two years North America was looking for a director. Sloper put in his applicawould not be enough to learn Hebrew, and then the next two years tion and was chosen for the job. He spent every day of the next would not be enough to learn Japanese. Instead of getting a little seven years speaking and writing in the language. Part of his work taste of this and a little taste of that, I thought, ‘There are Esperanwas encouraging the United Nations to adopt Esperanto as its to speakers in Israel and Japan and Brazil. If I’ve got an internaofficial language. tional job, I should learn the international language.’” The U.N. seems a perfect fit for Esperanto. With six official Sloper took an intensive three-week Esperanto class at San languages and more than 400 interpreters and translators, Francisco State University before he went to Israel. At his first logistics could be greatly simplified and costs reduced if Esperanto meeting with the Esperanto club in Tel Aviv, he found out he were adopted. Sloper cites other benefits. “So much of politics hapcould converse, albeit not deeply or profoundly, about anything pens outside of official chambers where you can’t have interpreters; and everything. you need to have a common language.” “You can learn as much Esperanto in a year as Spanish or French And, Sloper adds, there are advanin four years,” he points out. “What if tages to official conversation in a laneverybody in the world took a semesguage that is native to no one: “When ter or a year of this international lanyou’re speaking a language that doesguage? It makes incredible sense to n’t identify you as a member of a have a common language for diplonation, you treat your fellow man as a mats and tourists, even if you don’t member of the human race. master it.” Michael Sloper, SF79 “The inventor of Esperanto, Sloper’s stint in Israel ended early Ludovic Zamenhof, created a word— when he was sent back to the U.S. at the start of the first Gulf War. Back in homaronismo—which means, basicalSan Francisco, he was taking another In tutorials, the language is often looser, as students ly, member-of-the-human-race-ness. “It makes incredible sense to have a common language...” howard korn focus on understanding. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �{Johnnies on Language} 15 In historical linguistics, David says, texts and spoken words only This word expresses a philosophical concept that says that any pertell part of the story—history also yields some clues. “You need an son’s identity is, most profoundly, as a member of the human race. awareness of who lived next to whom and their interactions over “If people had access to tools to get beyond nationalism, the the years. Who was the conqueror, who was conquered? Who was world would be a much happier place,” Sloper says. “Every utterthe slave and who was the master? These are among the external ance in Esperanto is advocacy for putting aside nationalism, and factors that affect how language changes.” recognizing that internationalism is the path to peace.” These historical changes, David explains, gives the world PidIt is the path of war, however, that linguist Anne David (A86) gins and Creoles: languages that arise when people who don’t sometimes uses to reconstruct the languages she studies. Her field, speak a common language are thrown together and create a new historical linguistics, traces the changes in languages through war language. and peace, conquest and trade, enmity and amity to determine the “Adults in these situations speak just to common roots of related languages. make do,” David says. “They don’t use a lot Historical linguistics, David explains, of vocabulary or form a full-fledged lanbegan at the end of the 18th century when guage. They speak what we call a Pidgin. But the English tried to impose their law on the next generation, their children, speak a parts of the Indian culture. Knowing that full-fledged language, which we call a the best way to impose the law would be to Creole. They can’t make do with the limited meld it with the culture, an English judge, Mark Mandel A69 Pidgin language. It’s not sufficient for their Sir William Jones, learned Sanskrit so he linguistic needs.” could study the laws of Manu, an ancient The natural linguistic needs and abilities of children are the subSanskrit law book that helped form the basis of Hindu law. James jects of both science and legend. “I saw a great slogan: ‘children was also well versed in Greek and Latin, and as he studied, he saw catch languages the way they catch colds,’ ” says Mark Mandel. too many similarities between Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin to believe “When we’re born, we’re language-learning machines. Learning they were coincidental. our native language is not something we learn in the way we’re used A whole field of linguistics sprang from his observations, and to thinking about learning. Any American first grader, with the since then, linguists have attempted to establish a system of correappropriate caveats, knows more English than any adult can learn spondences among certain language families (including Indo-Iranof English in two years, or maybe in six or seven years.” ian, Hellenic, Armenian, Balto-Slavic, Albanian, Celtic, Italic, and As for second languages, Mandel says, “if a second language is Germanic) that connects them to their original form. The hypothelearned through immersion, as in the case of an immigrant family ses of what that original form was is called the Indo-European that speaks its family language at home, the child will grow up comHypothesis, and historical linguists have spent the last 200 years pletely bilingual.” filling in the blanks in that system. Which brings us back to another linguistic legend: David’s work is with the Dravidian languages of South Asia, Shortly after nominating Henry Kissinger as his secretary of which include Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada—about 24 state, President Richard Nixon met with his Israeli counterpart, major languages that go back at least 1,000 years. The Dravidian Golda Meir. Both leaders, Nixon observed, now had Jewish forLanguage Hypothesis, which came out soon after the Indo-Euroeign ministers. “Yes,” Meir replied, contemplating Kissinger’s pean Hypothesis, is way behind in filling in its blanks. David made heavy German accent. “But mine speaks English.” x her contribution to the Hypothesis with her doctoral dissertation on infinitives in Dravidian. “A typically esoteric linguistic dissertation,” she says of the work, which she successfully defended in 1999, earning her a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. READING LIST After four years away from formal academia (she’s raising two The Loom of Language daughters—Guenevere, 8, and Rosalind, 4—with her husband, by Frederick Bodmer and Lancelot Hogben St. John’s tutor Amirthanayagam David, A86), David recently won On Language: Chomsky’s Classic Works Language and a grant from the American Institute of Indian Studies for further Responsibility and Reflections on Language in One Volume work in Old Tamil. She and her daughters are now in Madurai, in by Noam Chomsky, Mitsou Ronat South India, for six months as the first part of a project to study Old Course in General Linguistics Tamil verb forms in poetry. “Poetry tells us more about how the by Ferdinand De Saussure, et al language sounded,” she says. “Shakespeare tells us things about The Story of Language by Mario Pei Elizabethan English that prose wouldn’t tell us.” The Language Instinct by Stephen Pinker There are about 32,000 extant lines of poetry in Old Tamil, as Spoken Soul by John Russell Rickford and well as long commentaries—five lines of poetry might generate two Russell John Rickford pages of commentary. Her time abroad, therefore, will mainly be That’s Not What I Meant: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships by Deborah Tannen spent gathering texts and reference books, and consulting with regional scholars. Her trip will also help her gain a sense for the area’s geography. “When we’re born, we’re natural language machines...” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �16 {The Program} FOR THE LOVE OF L ATIN hristine Kalkavage, visiting tutor, freely acknowledges that as far as languages go, ancient Greek was her first love. “I always loved reading the Odyssey in Greek,” Kalkavage says. Latin came second—an equally thrilling and rewarding relationship—but if she had to choose, Homer wins out over Virgil, hands down. But here is Kalkavage on a summer morning, leading a group of erstwhile students through a kind of Latin boot camp. Eight weeks of Latin, three days a week, four hours a day. A mix of graduate students, recent graduates, and undergraduates, the class is translating sentences about women with torches, lazy sailors, and enraged queens. Their textbook, Moreland and Fleischer’s Latin: An Intensive Course, is aptly named. It features a punishing set of exercises that this group has been working through daily after shifts at restaurants and other summer jobs. “There are a slew of these sailors in these exercises,” Kalkavage acknowledges, but she reminds the class that a great reward awaits them. “We’re going to be reading the Aeneid in six weeks.” Among the students is Hayden Brockett (A04), whose notebook bears the signs of many erasures and corrections. Why is he, after just completing a rigorous junior year, taking on the extra work of studying a language bounced from the Program more than half a century ago? “Well, for it’s own sake of course,” Brockett says quickly, as if dave trozzo C that should have been obvious to anyone. “It’s also a good foundation for going to school in the classics. And it’s easier than Greek. It doesn’t have so many nuances.” Most of the students share similar motivations, with one reason dominant: They want to read works like the Aeneid in its original language, just as sophomores follow Antigone’s angst in ancient Greek, and Eastern Classics students in Santa Fe take on Sanskrit or classical Chinese. For several years now, Kalkavage, who has a Ph.D. in classics from Johns Hopkins and has also taught Greek to G.I.s, has been leading these summer workshops for Latin devotees. The language of Virgil was a fundamental of St. John’s College for much of the college’s 300-year history. The three-year-college program in 1792 began with Livy; Horace, Longinus, Epictetus, and Quintilian were among the subjects for upperclassmen. Barr and Buchanan included Latin in their New Program, along with Greek, French, and German. Latin, studied by sophomores in language tutorial, was the first to go, to make way for a second year of Greek; German hung on until 1962. “With some regret, because of the role of Latin in the genesis of the English language, the decision was made in favor of two years of Greek,” wrote J. Winfree Smith in A Search for the Liberal College. “The reasons for this were the greater ‘flexibility and expressiveness’ of Greek and the more important part that books originally written in Greek have played in human thought.” Christine Kalkavage, visiting tutor, on a summer morning spent with Latin grammar and 10 diligent students. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } dave trozzo by Rosemary Harty �17 {The Program} dave trozzo Between Latin and Greek, middle of the fall readings. the choice was an easy one: Lucretius and Tacitus are on Few of the seminar books are the Program, but Horace Latin, many are Greek says and Ovid are not, though Annapolis Dean Harvey they turn up in an occasional Flaumenhaft, who studied preceptorial or extracurricLatin in high school, and ular study group, Tuck says. French and German in colAs a doctoral student in lege. “Not only are Latin English literature, Tuck took works derivative, but as a an intensive Latin workshop, body of literature, they are then followed it up with the also not as profound as study of Greek. “I started it Greek works,” says Flauto support the work I was menhaft. “The greatest doing in English Renaisworks of literature, science, sance writers and became and mathematics were writmore and more interested in ten in Greek. The Romans’ doing these things for their genius was in law and adminown sake. If I’d stayed at istration. Virgil recognized Berkeley any longer, I probathat Homer was his master,” Matthew Gates (A04) labors on a translation for a summer intensive bly would have become an says Flaumenhaft. “And workshop in Latin. In both Santa Fe and Annapolis, students seek Egyptologist or studied SanHorace wrote that the outside opportunities to learn languages not on the Program. skrit. You always want to find Greeks took their ‘captors the roots of things.” captive.’” It was much the same for As for why French and not German? “It Christine Kalkavage. As an undergraduate was felt that French had a larger, more constudying English literature at Penn State, tinuous tradition,” Flaumenhaft explains. she developed great appreciation and interIt all goes back to the simple fact that we est for epic poems written in Greek and can’t do everything in four short years. Latin. By declaiming short poems in their Nevertheless, Latin has always found a original language, she found “you can hear place on campus. Like an underground more of the poetry.” movement, tutor and student groups have “Horace’s lyrical poetry really taught me sprung up to pursue Horace, Virgil, or Ovid, says Tutor Jonathan how to read English lyrical poetry,” says Kalkavage. Tuck, who has participated in faculty study groups and led workUltimately, why make a choice between Greek and Latin? Anyone shops in Latin grammar at the request of students. Tutors Nancy with enough time on his hands should study both, she says. Both Buchenauer and Eric Sangeng also have led Latin groups. languages share the important trait of preparing their students for While agreeing with the sentiment that Greek poets are superior whatever comes next: law school, graduate school, or a deeper to the Romans, Tuck still believes Latinists are too readily dis- understanding of almost any work. “The mind is trained to undermissed by the Hellenists of St. John’s. He noted that Virgil’s Aeneid stand logic,” Kalkavage says. “It carries over into being attentive in once kicked off sophomore seminar, but is now buried in the other areas of your life.” x Latin was dropped from the curriculum to make room for two years of Greek. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �18 {Commencement} FOR ONE MOMENT O F G L O R Y, A YEAR OF PL ANNING by Rosemary Harty “On the STAGE, give yourself the TIME to revel in the moment. Consider the saunter instead of the lope.” – Instructions for Degree Candidates, Santa Fe. “Mortarboards should be worn parallel to the ground, after the fashion of Euclid.” — Commencement Protocol, Annapolis ich with tradition, guided by protocol, commencement at St. John’s College is no casual affair. Commencement planning at both campuses begins soon after first semester opens, and preparations kick into high gear about the time seniors begin donning their gowns and sitting for their orals. Advance planning? The registrar in Annapolis takes measurements for caps and gowns when freshmen register. Efficiency? In Santa Fe, marshals and the first in line for master’s and bachelor’s degrees are given detailed instruction on how to march and where to go so that they may lead the others, precluding the need for a formal rehearsal. The mace and chain of office are polished. A rubber band oneinch in diameter secures each rolled diploma before black and R orange ribbons are tied artfully together in the “St. John’s knot.” Each diploma—signed by the campus president—is slipped into a compartment of a box made just for this purpose and trucked across campus for the big moment. There’s a job for everyone: garment-bag handlers, hooders for the platform, restroom pointer-outers. On the morning of the ceremony in Annapolis, the names of each tutor, graduating senior, and G.I. graduate are written on masking tape and arranged in the Great Hall, creating the serpentine path that will allow 200 people to line up in a crowded space and emerge in the requisite order. On the second floor of Peterson Student Center, bachelor’s and master’s candidates in Santa Fe consult an alphabetized list of candidates to arrange themselves for a stately march across the Placita. At both campuses, much labor goes into peparing a rain venue, with chairs, microphones, and a large-screen television for remote viewing prepared well in advance. In Annapolis this year, it looked as if this fine effort might have to be crammed indoors, but a decision to take a risk turned out to be the right one. Not a drop of rain fell on the ceremony. In Santa Fe, it was hot (86 degrees in the shade) and bright, but the strawberries and lemonade looked as fresh as always on black-and-white tablecloths. x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �{Commencement} 19 dave trozzo dave trozzo teri thomson randall teri thomson randall Commencement is a labor of love for St. John’s (clockwise from left): Antonio Bacas prepares some 2,500 strawberries for the Santa Fe reception; in Annapolis, fellow graduates William Young and Elizabeth Cummings help Jenny Windstrup don her academic regalia; Sid Phipps, chief of Annapolis Buildings and Grounds, lines up chairs with precision; and Thomas McBee (SF04) carries the New Mexico flag to the podium. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �20 {Commencement} COMMENCEMENT 2003 Annapolis: “The Courage of Thought” Magazine editor Lewis Lapham spoke to Annapolis graduates; below, renowned translator Allen Mandlebaum delivered the commencement address in Santa Fe. On May 21 in Annapolis, 122 undergraduate students—the largest graduating class in the history of the New Program—and 27 graduate students earned degrees. published 14 books on subjects from Manet to Auschwitz, and was planning 20 other projects when he died at age 66 in 1995. He never became wealthy, but Friedrich pursued his quest for knowledge as far as he could take it. “Otto believed that we are all caught up in the telling of stories (some more complicated and more beautiful than others, many of them incoherent, a few of them immortal), and he assumed that no matter how well or how poorly we manage the plot, we are all of us engaged in the same enterprise, all of us seeking evocations or representations of what we can recognize as appropriately human,” Lapham said. Though he has yet to meet “an educated citizen,” Lapham finds great hope in a “self-educating citizen,” one who doesn’t hesitate to proclaim his own ignorance and voice his questions. Santa Fe: “A Perilous Journey” On May 24 in Santa Fe, 81 undergraduate and 24 graduate candidates received their diplomas. ome of the most memorable speechmaking in Santa Fe this year came at dinners: a hilarious tribute to graduating seniors by tutor-turned-soothsayer Michael Rawn, delivered at the senior dinner; and a poignant toast to the Graduate Institute by G.I. Director Frank Pagano, offered at the G.I. Dinner for graduates and their families. Rawn’s stated goal was to open graduates’ eyes “to the perilous journey they must embark upon to reach this realm of philanthropic bliss, a journey through S teri thomson randall I “Idealism rescues cynicism, and the continued comfort of the party of things-as-they-are depends on the doubts placed under their pillows by the party of things-as-they-mightbecome. The future turns out to be something that you make instead of find. It isn’t waiting for your arrival, either with an arrest warrant or a band, nor is it any further away than the next sentence, the next best guess, the next sketch for the painting of a life portrait that might become a masterpiece. The future is an empty canvas or a blank sheet of paper, and if you have the courage of your own thought and your own observation you can make of it what you will.” Note: the full text of Lapham’s speech is available on the St. John’s College Web site: www.sjca.edu dave trozzo n a speech that focused on a central figure in his life—writer, editor, and historian Otto Friedrich—Harper’s Editor Lewis Lapham presented a passionate defense of the humanities in his commencement address, a speech that also touched on the war in Iraq, on tyranny and freedom, and fear and ignorance. The humanities are essential to life, not luxuries, Lapham said. “I can think of no other set of studies more relevant to our present circumstance,” he said. “Our technologists bear comparison to the sorcerer’s apprentice, producing continuously improved means toward increasingly illdefined ends. Unless we look to the humanities to clean up the mess, we stand a better-than-even chance of killing ourselves with our new toys.” Humanism, he continued “is about the passion of thought and the will to understand, about Darwin sailing for the Galapagos or Dostoevsky in trouble with the police, about Condorcet dying in a garret and hunted by agents of the guillotine, writing his outline of human progress so that he might hearten mankind by his vision of its possible perfections.” In describing Friedrich, for whom he worked at the now-defunct Saturday Evening Post, Lapham drew from T.H. White’s The Once and Future King to celebrate the unquenchable intellectual he found in his mentor. Merlin, he explained, proffered this cure for young Arthur’s melancholy. “There is only one thing for it then—to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never dream of regretting.” Lapham described Friedrich, as one who “joined a scholar’s love of learning with a journalist’s boundless curiosity.” Friedrich { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �21 dave trozzo {Commencement} economic destitution, through socio-pathological alienation, a journey through an underworld more terrible than the one encountered by Aeneas and Dante and Odysseus and Mr. Rogers.” He took the liberty of predicting the future for several seniors—futures all heavily influenced by a St. John’s education: “Mr. [Michael] Santillanes will have a bleak economic future selling Sigmund Freud action figures”; “Ms. Alexandra Poole…will develop the next generation of Prozac-based sedatives, called Ephemera, whose only deleterious side effect will be strong unsubstantiated feelings of the unity of science and morality”; “Mr. Austin Hall will return to the college in 20 years, under the pseudonym Johannes de Silencio, having copyrighted a performance piece called the Seminar Moment. It will be a CD that one can play prior to seminar to prepare for epiphany, not unlike the rainforest CDs insomniacs play before bedtime.” Toasting the Graduate Institute, Pagano spoke of youth and age, old and new. “Everyone in the college still calls the undergraduate program the New Program, and I call the Liberal Arts Program the New Program. The New Program is now in its late 60s, and the Graduate Institute in its late 30s. By the standard of a human life, the New Program is old, and the Graduate Institute approaching middle age. And yet when I read Plato in the college he seems to be young. Who gave Plato back his youth? A dean in Annapolis, Jacob Klein. As Plato says of Socrates, the whole purpose of the New Program is to make the best thoughts of the past young and beautiful. We attempt to bring them into the present. “The students in the Graduate Institute are older than most of the undergraduates. And yet they represent the present rather more than the undergraduates. You have seen the world and felt it as it is, and it is already old. To know this is to know what youth is. Youth in the world is the expectation that the good will prevail. Yet this is not the most powerful view in the contem- { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } Meredith Barton, flanked by Christopher Bareford and Amanda Bell, shows her delight on graduation day in Annapolis. porary world. The world has the cynicism of old age that the worst is coming soon. In this respect the undergraduates are not yet young. They do not know the world. You are young. You are because you have returned to us to find the good. You have brought to us the expectation of youth.” During the 2003 Commencement exercises an address to the graduating class was given by the great translator of classic works Allen Mandelbaum, W. R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Humanities at Wake Forest University, and professor of the History of Literary Criticism at the University of Turin. Mandelbaum delivered several readings, along with extensive background material on each piece. Preceding closing remarks, sincere thanks and remembrance was proffered to four retiring faculty members in Santa Fe: Glenn Freitas, Robert Richardson, Ralph Swentzell, and Hans von Briesen. x �22 {Homecoming} CL ASS OF ’68 PIONEERS RETURN by Andra Maguran assie was on the air, Lyndon Johnson was president, and 23,000 troops were positioned in Vietnam. The Beatles made their television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, and the Warren Commission determined that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. It was 1964, and in this transition from Camelot to the turbulent war years, the inaugural freshman class of St. John’s College in Santa Fe—84 in number—arrived at a brand new campus carved out of juniper and piñon at the edge of a quaint and quiet town. L In July, members of the class of 1968 reconvened, along with alumni from years latter and recent, to take part in Homecoming 2003. Ask Vida Kazemi (SF68) to compare today’s St. John’s with life on the Santa Fe campus in 1964 and she likens it to answering “questions about another planet, using the framework of this planet.” “The experience of being at a college with no upperclassmates, about 20 or so faculty and staff, lots of space, in a town where the options for seeing films were the college and the Three Cities of Spain coffee shop on certain weekends, was so different from anything familiar that I can’t put it in another context,” she explains. Kazemi’s parents were in Iran, she was in boarding school in the U.S., and her college choice was up to her. She had seen a promotional film in which an eager prospective named ‘Ernest Groper’ toured the campus, but nevertheless chose St. John’s, in part for its location. She originally planned to transfer to a more established institution such as Wellesley after her freshman year, but the Program took hold and she decided to stay. There was no gym, few diversions and terrible food, she acknowledges, but “we also had opportunities that no other class has had, and buildings that had never been Class of 1968 students process to the dedication of the Santa Fe campus in October 1964. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } used.” There were very few cars on campus, Kazemi adds—a stark contrast to today’s packed parking lots. “Allison Karslake was one of the few students with a car, which she generously loaned to everybody and which was at one point painted decoratively by other students and called ‘the Angel,’” says Kazemi. As the fighting escalated in Vietnam, the turmoil in the country affected the tiny campus, Kazemi says, “It was a strange time to be pondering eternal questions when the temporal seemed so urgent.” “When one of ours went to war, we struggled with our respective moral choices. The influence of those times still informs the lifestyle and choices of most of us.” The faculty of the new campus comprised 10 intrepid tutors, seven of whom came from Annapolis, including Ford K. Brown, who smoked a pipe in seminars. Antigone Phalares remembers Brown laying down protocol right off the bat. “Let’s begin with the Greek alphabet. It begins alpha [pointing to himself], beta [pointing to the students], here [indicating the classroom],” Phalares recalls. �23 teri thomson randall teri thomson randall {Homecoming} The class of 1983 in a playful pose at the Homecoming picnic, and alumni and their families enjoy the President’s Brunch at Hunt House on Sunday morning. teri thomson randall In contrast to today’s coed dorms was the prohibition against men and women visiting one another in their single-sex dorms after curfew. Julie von Erffa (SF68) is still proud of her class’s success in helping to ease the dormitory visitation restrictions. “We had a sleep-in and got the hours extended until midnight. If you were in a boy’s dorm past midnight you had to stay over because the guards might catch you going out.” With her enlightened notions about living arrangements, von Erffa went in 1967 to live among the founding members of the famed New Buffalo Commune, near Taos. But as Cervantes wrote, “time ripens all things.” Now a doctor of Oriental Medicine, von Erffa says that after spending eight years as a farmer, in order to become an acupuncturist she had to get back to her intellectual roots and re-apply what she’d learned at St. John’s—to go fearlessly into unfamiliar territory. Browsing through college materials while on campus, Elsa Blum (SF68) experienced “an intense memory of… the excitement and gratitude I felt at the seriousness of the dialogue this college wanted to have with me. I remember scribbling late into the night to answer the questions I felt were so vital to me.” The class Homecoming seminar, on Wendell Berry’s short story “Pray Without Ceasing,” revived the spirit of those longago seminars for Blum. “It was the best kind of relaxed collective effort, no posturing or heavy-handed stuff that we are subjected to in the ‘real’ world. This experience, along with the pleasure of being together after so many years, seemed to cast a benign glow on our class’s time together this weekend.” The Santa Fe campus may have been new, but the Program was almost 30 years old, and the works they read timeless. “St. John’s was one of the most important things that happened to me, both in terms of personal maturity and spreading intellectual horizons,” says Harold Morgan (SF68). “The college has matured into an important part of Santa Fe and New Mexico. I’m proud to have a connection.” x The pioneers from the class of 1968 at the President’s Brunch during Homecoming. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } HOMECOMING HIGHLIGHTS • Laboratory Director Hans von Briesen, who retired this year, and Kathy Mizrahi, director of Residential Housing, were selected to become honorary alumni by the Alumni Association. • Gloria Page (SF76) delivered a lecture as part of the Meem Library’s Speaking Volumes Lecture Series. Her talk, “Dream On: Creating an Art Business That Works,” was based on her recent book outlining her journey from a home-based creative endeavor to the Smithsonian bookshop. • Alumni Awards of Merit were presented to Alfred Grant (SFGI83) and Eric Springsted (SF73). (More on these awards on page 47). • Homecoming prank: The Class of 1993 staged a “redneck-style” barbeque outside Peterson Student Center, replete with pick-up truck, pirate flag, straw hats, Southern rock music, and beverages. They sported white t-shirts and muscle shirts with the message “I’m with stupid” (written in Greek), and an arrow pointing to each person’s left. �24 {Outreach} HOBBES IN PRISON Mark Lindley (A67) Brings Great Books to Prisoners by Rosemary Harty “Attention all visitors: As a part of the routine search that must be conducted before you are allowed to enter the institution, you will be required to open your mouth. Those who refuse shall be denied entry.” ules and regulations greet every visitor to the Maryland Correctional Institution-Jessup. Don’t move through a moving door until it has stopped moving. No double visits on holiday weekends. If asked, open your mouth for inspection. Mark Lindley (A67) pulls out his driver’s license and a Department of Corrections volunteer I.D. and tries to usher a group of volunteers into the regular Wednesday morning session of Touchstones, an Annapolis-based project based on reading and discussing passages from great books. A few weeks before, Lindley had forgotten his license and was turned away. Today one of his visitors isn’t on “the list” from the principal of the prison school. Speaking patiently and diplomatically to the guard behind the glass, he asks that the principal be called for permission. “Every couple of weeks, there’s a new procedure and an old procedure goes by the wayside,” Lindley comments as his group waits by a row of lockers. Several minutes go by as a guard calls the prison school to check if the unlisted visitor can enter. Several more minutes go by until the guard who called decides to tell the guard behind the glass that the visitor has been approved. Lindley shows only gratitude as he waits for his turn through the metal detector, then leads his group into the prison yard and to the building that houses the prison school. About a dozen chairs have been set in a circle. Dion, a slim, bespectacled R young man in dreadlocks, has placed a copy of the Touchstones text—a selection of short readings culled from many of the books of the St. John’s Program—on each chair. The reading is a two-page passage from Leviathan, rendered into simpler prose and shorter sentences, but keeping Hobbes’ major ideas intact. Participants— initially five inmates and the Touchstones group—are reminded of the rules for discussion and directed to the reading. Dion announces the opening question, a rather broad one: “What is the nature of man?” Discussions cross lines of race and class, education and experience, freedom and imprisonment. In the next 45 minutes, the conversation will face long silences and diversions. More questions are generated as inmates wrestle with the philsopher’s view about law, order, and chaos: Should we live our lives in fear? Is it possible for two people to compete for the same thing and not try to destroy each other? “The nature of man,” offers one of the inmates, “is to seek what makes him happy or content.” In some cases, he says, it’s a big car, a nice house, a good job. Adds another inmate, a quiet man: “You can only find peace when you look at what’s inside yourself, be true to yourself.” Sometimes one or two people dominate the conversation; often the participants struggle to express a thought. Some conversations have been volatile. But nearly every time, says Lindley, the discussions cross lines of race and class, education and { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } experience, freedom and imprisonment, to touch on questions of humanity: Is it possible to obtain peace living in our society today? The Touchstones Discussion Project— created in 1984 by tutors Howard Zeiderman (A67), Geoffrey Comber (HAGI95), and Nick Maistrellis, based in Annapolis and independent of the college—has been in Maryland prisons since 1996. Designed to help individuals of all backgrounds develop skills such as problem solving, questioning, listening, and cooperating, the project was already in schools, nursing homes, corporations, and organizations. The idea to take it to prisons came from a community college teacher in Santa Fe who attended a Touchstones workshop. After a program in the New Mexico State Penitentiary got under way, Zeiderman began working on bringing it into Maryland’s prisons. His initial meeting was with nine men serving life sentences at the Maryland House of Corrections. “They had three reasons they thought Touchstones would be helpful for prisoners: It would humanize the environment; they would take themselves more seriously as individuals; and they appreciated that ideas like justice, integrity, and truth would be helpful to talk about.” The nonprofit organization had to overcome some bureaucratic roadblocks, but it’s now in four prisons in the state. More than 1,000 prisoners have gone through the program, which over the years has gained credibility in the Department of Corrections. The parole board now accepts Touchstones certificates as part of an inmate’s record. And Zeiderman hopes one Mark Lindley finds uncommon wisdom and insight in the conversations he shares with prisoners through the Touchstones Discussion Project. Lindley is one of dozens of Touchstones volunteers in Maryland prisons. �{Outreach} “Seeing people come to life who have been completely shut down— it’s very exciting.” Mark Lindley (A67) { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } 25 �26 day to bring the program to the prison’s guards. When he first began leading discussions in prison, Zeiderman wondered where conversations with a group of men serving life sentences would lead. One week, the group discussed the Bible story of the sacrifice of Isaac. “They’re talking about God and what God is like through the sacrifice of Isaac. It’s really quite breathtaking because they’re all lifers, convicted of committing the crime of murder. The discussion had a kind of intensity and honesty you’re not going to experience anywhere else,” Zeiderman adds. Lindley is one of about 80 volunteers involved in the Touchstones prison project. For the last year, he has invested up to 20 hours a week in leading groups, training inmates, and lately, paving the way for new programs at other correctional institutions. Lindley retired from an executive post at AOL-Time Warner, where he capped a career that started with teaching, led to computers, and involved launching several start-up companies. As his technological abilities grew, he also learned to thrive on challenges. Even when he took a job with General Electric, he found his niche in the company’s cutting-edge projects. When he left to go to AOL, “this crackpot startup,” some of Lindley’s colleagues told him he was derailing his career. “It was geek heaven,” Lindley says of his years with AOL, where he climbed to the post of senior manager of AOL Technologies. He says skills he learned at St. John’s, particularly “fearlessness in the face of total confusion,” helped him succeed in a fast-paced and rapidly changing environment. “It [St. John’s] also influenced my approach to problem solving,” Lindley says. “I was working with a lot of people who had been to engineering school, and I was one of the people who always said, ‘let’s sit down and talk about it.’” Zeiderman recruited his former classmate when Lindley came back to Annapolis for his 25th reunion and joined Zeiderman and his wife, Margaret Winter (A66), for a luncheon. Lindley decided to retire from {Outreach} A group of inmates share their thoughts in this Touchstones session. AOL after the Time-Warner merger. “I could see where things were headed,” he said, and he and his wife, Nancy (A58), moved back to Annapolis. In his corporate life, Lindley enjoyed seeing talented young men and women thrive when given new challenges. His work in the prisons isn’t that different, but he’s very aware that this group of men started out with none of the advantages— stable homes, good educations—that his young workers had. “In my career, I gained a lot of personal satisfaction out of guiding folks into careers and pointing out directions I thought they could go in. But in some sense that was easy, because I was able to pick and choose the talent I was hiring for my department. Here [in the prison], you’re working with people who have been pretty much disadvantaged, largely before they were born.” Touchstones gives prisoners a voice they didn’t know they had, Lindley says. “There was a young man who had started in the More than 1,000 prisoners have participated in Touchstones. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } program maybe nine months or so ago. He was obviously a very bright kid, but out of control, kind of a wild man. He would disrupt the class, speak out, and talk about irrelevant things—not really be active in trying to make the group work.” Within a few weeks, the young man began to participate in a very rational, quiet way. He talked less and listened more. “Nobody clued him in, but at some point he had a breakthrough—he’s responsible for himself. He has a self. He can make a difference in his own life,” Lindley says. Lindley believes that he’s gaining something valuable from his time spent with these imprisoned men. “One of the lovely things about Touchstones is that you’re always discovering things about yourself—gifts that you may have not valued or areas of your personality that you develop—and you get to do that working with people. And in an institution like this, seeing people come to life who have been completely shut down—it’s very exciting. It’s very satisfying.” As of late August, the group had its third discussion leader in as many months. There were the usual rumblings that the program could lose support in the Department of Corrections. Lindley showed up one morning only to be turned away again; the inmate who filled out the paperwork had put the wrong date on the form. Lindley got back in the car without a fuss. But the pat-downs, the bureaucracy, the passage through metal detectors and sharpshooters all gave him impetus to speak up recently when prisoners discussed a short passage from the Iliad. Rendered in simple prose, the passage described Priam begging Achilles for Hector’s body. “The question was, ‘have you ever had to humble yourself?’ And I think they were going to skip right over me, but I had a lot to contribute. You know every time you come into the prison, that the guard with the gun has power over you. That gives you something in common with the inmates. Love, hate, anger, truth, revenge—we’re all human, and ultimately we have the same issues to talk about.” x �27 {Bibliofile} land stories, but he plans to pursue more serious literary ambitions when he retires in a few years. He also wants to work harder on the “rich and famous” goal. “Local crime is fine, and I’ve enjoyed it,” he says, “but what I need to do is write something along the lines of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” Before he does though, he wants to complete a final “legacy to the public”—a 2,000-page index of murders and disasters in the Cleveland area. Tales of Cleveland Woe THE KILLER IN THE ATTIC By John Stark Bellamy II Gray & Co., 2002 By Rosemary Harty J ohn Stark Bellamy II (A71) had a simple goal when he sat down to write the first of his books on murder and mayhem in his native Cleveland. “All I ever wanted to do was to be rich and famous in my own hometown,” Bellamy explains. After penning four books with titles such as The Corpse in the Cellar (“includes 104 spine-chilling photographs”) and They Died Crawling, Bellamy has achieved a modest fortune and certain notoriety. His books have sold briskly in the Northeast Ohio region. Bellamy leads trolley tours through the city, pointing out sites of horrific crimes and tragic fires, shares his collection of tales on radio and television, and brings a slide show detailing the stories in his books to various eager audiences. Bellamy earns his living as the history specialist for the Cuyahoga County Public Library. But his fascination for lurid spectacle and human treachery was nurtured at a young age. “I grew up in a family of journalists where it was considered perfectly appropriate to discuss the latest torso killing around the dinner table,” Bellamy explains. “It was not uncommon to have family meals interrupted by the scream of fire engines. We would just abandon what we were doing and follow the sirens.” In his latest book, The Killer in the Attic, Bellamy confesses to a compulsion to keep churning out the tales: “…I have discovered that I could not stifle my melodramatic tale-telling even if I wanted to—and the frank truth is that I don’t.” After four books, his favorite story remains that of Eve Kaber, who arranged for the murder of her well-to-do husband, Dan. “Long about 1918, her husband suddenly became very sick—she was systematically poisoning him by adding arsenic to his food—but she lost patience after a while and hired two goons to stab the invalid in his bed. “The amazing thing was this woman had the complicity of both her daughter and mother,” Bellamy muses. “She was a formidable woman and she almost got away with CONICS, Book IV Translated and annotated by Michael Fried Green Lion Press, 2002 John Stark Bellamy II chronicles crime and chaos in his native Cleveland. it. It’s shocking to me that no one has made an opera out of this story yet.” As a historian, Bellamy believes his tales contribute to a better understanding of the social history of Cleveland. In stories such as “They Died Crawling,” he describes the 1916 Waterworks Tunnel explosion, in which 70 men—many immigrant Irish and German laborers—lost their lives after being ordered into a gas-filled tunnel. Bellamy writes about the heroes who were never acknowledged and the series of blunders that cost the men their lives. Growing up in a newspaper family gave Bellamy a love for books, and at his mother’s urging he applied to St. John’s. “I was precocious and maladjusted and looking around desperately for some kind of niche I could fit into,” he says. Although he left after a year, Bellamy says, “there is not one aspect of my life that hasn’t been changed by exposure to the program at St. John’s. It gave me an intolerance for sloppy thinking and for the second-rate.” After earning a graduate degree in history and discovering he didn’t want to teach, Bellamy went on to earn a master’s in library science. Working in Cleveland libraries, he began to collect clippings and photographs of sensational stories and shaped them into books, writing between 11 p.m. and 3 in the morning. Each book features the fast-paced, cynical, and melodramatic style of a tabloid newspaper. “They’re tremendous fun to write,” he says. Bellamy is working on a murder tour guide and a calendar featuring his Cleve{ T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } Michael N. Fried (A82) has made important contributions to the study of Apollonius’s Conics. Together with Sabetai Unguru, he wrote Apollonius of Perga’s Conica: Text, Context, Subtext (Brill, 2001). The volume contains primarily an “historically sensitive interpretation” of the Conics—seen through its individual books, and as a whole. Particular attention is placed on the areas of the Conics hitherto—neglected Books V-VII. Fried and Unguru hope to offer a “long overdue” alternative to previous scholarship, which will be of interest not only to historians of mathematics, but also to other historians, philosophers, and linguists, as well as “open-minded mathematicians.” More recently, Fried has published a translation of Book IV of the Conics (Green Lion Press, 2002). Book IV deals with the ways in which conic sections can meet in a plane. It is the last of the Greek books, as well as the last part of what Apollonius called a “course on the elements of conics.” (The remainder of the books after IV survive only in medieval Latin and Arabic translations.) In the introduction, Fried himself sums up what he has done: “In reading and translating book IV, I have tried to give Apollonius a fair chance, to keep modern algebraic ideas about conics at a distance, and to view the text with eyes trained only on the mathematical and philosophical concerns of Apollonius’s contemporaries and on the geometrical character of the previous three books of the Conics.” “…for one like Apollonius, whose work with curves is always governed by a fundamentally geometric outlook, the plural-singular nature of the opposite sections makes them an object of fascination, but it also duly gives rise to a certain uneasiness with them….” x �28 {Alumni Notes} 1940 OSCAR L. LORD writes: “My wife, Patti, and I attended a ceremony recently at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colo., when our son, Gen. Lance W. Lord, assumed command of the first Air Force Space Command. We were pleased to meet the Secretary of the Air Force and his wife who attended the ceremony and were pleased to learn of his past association with St. John’s.” 1941 Last November VERNON PADGETT was elected to a second term as director of the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, which provides water and sewer service to 65,000 homes in several small cities west of Los Angeles. 1944 GEORGE LEVINE is celebrating his 40th year as director of American Telephone Consumer Council. ot a good story from the early days/weeks/ months of freshman year? Send it to sus3an.borden@sjca.edu for an article we’re working on. Santa Fe stories are currently in short supply; if you spent your first year on the Western campus we especially urge you to take a trip down memory lane and send us a travelogue. x G 1962 RICHARD M. FRANK reports, “I’m older. Otherwise nothing new— alas!” JOHN FRANKLIN MILLER was elected president of the board of the Library of American Landscape History, a voluntary position, in 2003. 1953 ROBERT G. HAZO is writing a book ROD WHETSTONE is contacting class of ’44 survivors: “Using the Alumni Register as a base, I would like each of you to verify that (1) you are still around and (2) that your address and phone number are correct in the Register. A phone call or post card will allow me to make my own updated and, hopefully, accurate register for our class. I will then send a copy to all of you and solicit ideas and suggestions for our reunion in the fall of 2004, as well as an indication of your interest in attending. A letter will, of course, be welcome. Though my address and phone number are correct in the Register, I will repeat them here: 3103 S. Park Road, Bethel Park, PA 15102; 412-835-8986. Incidentally, I believe our 55th reunion was quite successful. We had 15 attending out of 34 I was able to reach. The original number was either 90 or 91.” 1945 You Must Remember This 1949 “In my ‘old’ age,” LAWRENCE LEVIN writes, “I’ve become an active tenor singer in the Oratorio Society of Queens; we’re doing the Verdi Requiem in May and I love it.” 1948 GEORGE TRIMBLE was invited to give three lectures on the “Evolution of Electronic Computers” at Princeton University in honor of John von Neumann’s 100th birthday. 1963 titled Minority Rule. CHARLES POWLESKE sends this update from New York: “In late 2001, I helped form InterPlan Consulting Inc., which was incorporated a year ago. My associates are business friends from earlier years at the Business Council for International Understanding, who, like me, are (allegedly) retired. InterPlan’s chairman formerly headed a Fortune 500 engineering company, responsible for building and operating power plants and refineries around the world. Our current projects include refineries, both existing ones in need of expansion and new ones. We are also working on projects that range from solar energy (India and Sri Lanka), a proposed rice plantation in Africa, and an existing hotel complex in Barbados in need of equity for modernization under a new management.” He notes that he spent April in his favorite vacation condo in Puerto Vallarta. 1960 JOHN LANE retired a year ago and is thoroughly enjoying life. 1961 CYNTHIA BLEDSOE-DALEY recently celebrated a return to health on her bicycle, completing a trip of 3,135 miles across the country – eight states, 62 days (21 across Texas), Pacific to Atlantic Ocean. “The trip was immensely satisfying to the eye, as we traveled through small towns in deserts, mountains, and beaches, from San Diego to St. Augustine. A great way to start off the summer!” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } BEVERLY W. BELL is a teacher and tutor of children with learning differences, and her husband, Dr. D. Bruce Bell, is the army’s expert on military families and is currently doing research on desertion and first-tour attrition. Son David, 29, is an opera singer and mathematician in New York City and daughter Toby, 26, is a medical social worker and milliner in Northern Virginia. All are thriving. MARCIA HERMAN-GIDDENS writes, “I am still happily living in rural North Carolina, teaching, consulting, and doing research in pediatric issues and child maltreatment. Imagine my delight and amazement when my daughter married a St. John’s tutor (Jonathan Badger, Annapolis) last year! Life is full of delicious wonders.” 1964 JAN CALDWELL THORPE has a psychotherapy practice in San Francisco and Berkeley, and is at work on a book about clinical work with dreams. “My husband is in law practice in San Francisco, and my eldest son and daughter-in-law are both lawyers in my husband’s practice. My youngest son is in the Navy, and my grandson is busy being six!” 1965 JESSICA HOFFMANN DAVIS is the Patricia Bauman and John Landrum Bryant Senior Lecturer on the Arts in Education and the director of the Arts in Education program at the Harvard Graduate �29 {Alumni Profile} Teaching the EIDOS of Design by Sus3an Borden, A87 ike many alumni who have become teachers, Lovejoy Duryea (A67) uses St. John’sstyle teaching techniques in her classroom. At first, her students are uncomfortable with her approach; they hadn’t signed up for Socratic questioning or Aristotelian causation. That’s not, after all, what they were looking for when they applied to study interior design. But Duryea, who is chair of the interior design department at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, says that St. John’s is the best training a designer can get. “St. John’s is about asking questions, not giving answers. That’s what I’m trying to do—teach students how to think on their own, to solve problems, to be critical thinkers. I ask my classes: ‘What is a chair? Does it have to have legs? Does it have to have a back? What is chairness?’ If you’re going to design something important, you have to get into the eidos of what that something is.” When Duryea graduated from St. John’s, she didn’t know she’d someday put her education to work in the world of construction drawings, textile science, and sustainable environments. Instead, she started out in advertising, writing commercials for products like Ivory soap, Tide, Gleam, Crisco, and Duncan Hines cake mixes. “I was the queen of cake mixes,” she recalls. “They sent me to the test kitchens at Procter & Gamble and taught me to make pie crusts, fry chickens, and bake biscuits. Then they sent me on a radio talk show tour across the southern U.S. People would call in and ask me their cooking questions. That was my first experience after getting out of St. John’s: I was the baking lady.” When her tour ended, Duryea returned to the offices of Compton Advertising where someone dropped a bottle of the newto-market acetaminophen (brand name: Nebs) on her desk and told her to write a commercial for it. At the time, acetaminophen took a back seat to aspirin—its superior qualities were not well known outside of the world of research scientists. Duryea picked up the pills and headed for the library. “I found books on headaches, learned how the pill worked on the body, and drew up a list of questions for the scientists in the lab. No copywriter had ever asked to talk to them before. The average Award-winning designer Lovejoy Duryea uses logic in her work. L copyrighter is not even going to read the label. But I wasn’t intimidated by chemical formulas,” she says. “I discovered that acetaminophen was superior to aspirin and buffered aspirin. It was a great product that was not being well promoted. Even the name—Nebs? Before we were through, acetaminophen became the largest painkiller on the market.” In 1976, Duryea (née Reeves) married William Duryea and stayed at home to raise four children. When her youngest was six, she returned to work, but this time as an interior designer. “I hardly missed a beat going from professional writing to design. I didn’t even consider it a stretch,” she says. “Because of St. John’s, I saw the unity and not the disunity. There’s an underlying logic in design and also a logic in selling. The St. John’s method of trying to find the underlying logic or order of something— that’s really what design is about.” Duryea’s residential design business took off almost immediately. She began with a project for a neighbor and her reputation spread quickly as she built up a Park Avenue practice—glamorous clients with big spaces and budgets to match. In 1987 Duryea was asked to teach at the School of Visual Arts and was offered the chairmanship of the school’s new interior design department in 1990. “I had a definite concept of what students should know when they graduated. I wanted them to have confidence about problem-solving.” As in philosophy, Duryea says that there are no right answers in design. “Some { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } answers are more right than others, and there are criteria you can bring to evaluating answers, but it’s not black and white. There’s a fiery pluralism in design that can be confusing to students. One teacher will say ‘this is a great design,’ another will say something completely different. I can’t tell my student what direction the design world is going, but if I teach them to be good thinkers, they’ll have the tools they need to figure out whatever they’re given to solve.” Last March, the Design Committee of the National Arts Club awarded Duryea a gold medal for her work as a designer and educator. Although she still does some work in design, her current focus is teaching, running the department, serving as chair of the State Board for Interior Design, and improving the certification process for interior designers. “We’re establishing standards for education and for practice, which brings us into more St. John’s kind of questions: What do interior designers do? What do they need to know? What kind of education should they have? Everything gets back to St. John’s,” Duryea says. “It’s the perfect background for a designer.” x EIDOS of Couch “For we should not be content with saying that the couch was made of bronze or wood or whatever it might be, but should try to describe its design or mode of composition in preference to the material; or, if we did deal with the material, it would at any rate be with the concretion of material and form. For a couch is such and such a form embodied in this or that matter, or such and such a matter with this or that form; so that its shape and structure must be included in our description. For the formal nature is of greater importance than the material nature.” —Aristotle, ON THE PARTS OF ANIMALS, Book I �30 {Alumni Notes} School of Education. Husband WILLIAM DAVIS (class of 1964) is a director at Credit Suisse First Boston and just stepped down as chairman of the board of the Berklee College of Music, which gave him an honorary doctorate in music. They send love to all. 1966 IAN HARRIS (A) reports that his daughter, Jessie WashburneHarris, was married to Michael Lieberman last October in Paradise Valley, Ariz. McFarland and Co. published a second edition of Ian’s book, Peace Education, written with Mary Lee Morrison. He is a professor of education policy and community studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 1967 LARRY (A) and HAZEL (A69) SCHLUETER announce the birth of a second grandson, born to CHARLES (A90) and his wife, Kaya, named Kaden Douglas, on January 18, 2003. Larry has retired from U.S. Customs where he was an inspector for over 32 years, and is helping his grandson have fun. Hazel has a new CD out, Jam Session, and is playing with her band Hazel and the Delta Ramblers at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival—her 28th year at the festival. 1968 BRUCE R. BALDWIN (SF) writes that his daughter, Marisa, graduated from Johns Hopkins in May, and son, Ian, graduated from West Point in 1999 and is now a captain in the army, presently serving in Afghanistan. DONALD A. BOOTH (A) sent along this list: “I’ve recently returned from a year in Hong Kong, working as an architect on major projects including the CCTV (Chinese television) competition in Beijing. In 2001 I completed restoration of a historical house on Hanover Street in Annapolis, Md. (I’m a registered architect in Maryland.) Tony Miller (A61): The Big World of Small Cars I “Grandson Lyw Westrick learned to read last year—another one boards the bus!” writes SARAH B. FISHER (A). CHARLES B. WATSON (A), sends a suggestion: “Listen to your local NPR station to hear events of the day and especially Ivan Watson reporting from northern Iraq near Moult, Kerkuk. In fall 2002 and February, March, and April of 2003, he was favorably impressed by the citizen soldiers and the beauty of the Kurdish-held areas of exile protected for 10 years by the Northern No-Fly Zone.” Tony Miller’s design career has run the gamut from action figures to Hot Wheels. By Roberta Gable, A78 n 1945, when he was five years old, Tony Miller’s parents submitted an application to St. John’s on his behalf. Advised that their suit was premature, they bided their time until he was of the age to make such applications for himself, and then they tightened the screws: although he was wild to study automotive design, they insisted that he spend at least a year in Annapolis before they’d endorse any other education. The would-be car designer accepted his lot, and came to St. John’s. No doubt to his parents’ delight, he was sufficiently hooked by the end of his freshman year to return as a sophomore. Push came to shove by second semester time, however, and he decided that perhaps it was time to follow his heart: He returned to his native California and enrolled at the Art Center (now called the Art Center College of Design) in Pasadena, the preeminent institution for training industrial automotive designers. He left there after two years, again without a degree, got married, and went to work as a draftsman and design engineer for Douglas Aircraft. I’m currently based in Cambridge, Mass., working for a landscape architecture firm.” Then destiny tapped him on the shoulder. “Aerospace in general is a place for methodical people who don’t need excitement and stimulation—it’s very slowpaced.” Finding himself to be more of a fun-lover, he was gladly recruited to be a project manager for Mattel. There he worked on a variety of toys, including an action figure called Big Jim. As a project manger he was responsible for each item from the moment it was added to the line: engineering, design, child testing, cost, the whole shootin’ match. After a while on the design side, he moved into marketing, the antithesis of engineering. “At St. John’s I gained a tolerance for finding out about stuff I didn’t think was interesting instead of believing that I already knew what was interesting. The discipline of being at St. John’s showed me that I have more tolerance for checking out things I don’t know anything about.” Although his three-year stint in marketing wasn’t a time of unmitigated pleasure, the experience gained there informed his long career with a variety of toy companies: Zee, Tomy, Aurora, Lakeside Games, Tona, Galoob, and his own design consultancy, Red Racer Studio. In the end, he came back to Mattel, and back to his first love, cars. This year he’ll retire from his position as the vice president for design for Hot Wheels. Hot Wheels. They bill themselves as “The World’s Coolest Car Company,” and the claim goes largely undisputed. Since 1968 they’ve made more than three billion cars—they’re currently selling at a sevencars-per-second clip. You may think of the product chiefly as little 1:64-scale die-cast cars, just the right size for a boy to carry in his pocket, but wait! There’s more. Tracks, devices to hurl the cars through space, computer games, skateboard peripherals, auto show sponsorships: It’s a lifestyle cavalcade of cardom. Miller supervises the group of 30 designers from whose whimsy must come the new toy ideas. “It’s sometimes like watching a basket of puppies.” The Hot Wheels people say that all the Hot Wheels cars produced in the last 35 years would, if placed end to end, circle the earth five times. Says Miller: “That’s the one statistic that I challenged…and I did re-calculate it myself. I probably have Euclid to thank.” x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �31 {Alumni Notes} From Sweden, RICK WICKS (SF) sends this update: “After a long effort to develop the field of social economics at the university here (Goteborg U.) I’ve finally met with some success: the granting of a licentiate degree (which they describe as between a master’s and a doctorate), I continue working toward the Ph.D. and editing on the side as usual.” 1969 ELISABETH A. AIELLO (SFGI) recently participated in the Tecolote Group, Santa Fe Tutor Stephen Van Luchene’s colloquium for K-12 teachers in New Mexico. “Participating…was revitalizing, inspiring and professionally productive. I revised my Great Book Class curriculum for the 2004 session and will redirect my techniques to include more small group discussions.” JOHN D. GOODWIN (SF) recently became chief executive officer of Victory Enterprises Inc. of Las Vegas, N.M., also known as Victory Home Health, Victory Personal Care, and Victory Royal Express, specializing in non-emergency medical transportation. One of their largest employers is in San Miguel Country, and they have offices throughout New Mexico. BYRON E. WALL (A) has been appointed associate lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at York University in Toronto, as of July 2002. His son, ALEX, graduated in May from the Annapolis campus. 1970 RONALD H. FIELDING (A), a member of the college Board of Visitors and Governors, sent his older son off to Hamilton College this August, noting that “after doing a mandatory overnight at SJC, he told my wife he wouldn’t apply but respected his father more, knowing he had gone there. I continue managing the municipal bond fund group for OppenheimerFunds (9 funds, $13 billion ANA NETHERTON (A72) has found an unusual use D for his volume of Liddell & Scott: “I’m using it as I work my way through a photostatic reprint of an introductory book on Greek Orthodox church music (Byzantine Chant), which was published in 1821 by one of the three people who effected a major revision to the genre’s musical notation (and which was written in Greek, of course). I actually have a practical use for this study: I am learning to sing this genre of music in my church. I became a member of the Greek Orthodox Church in March 2002, when I was chrismated on my hospital bed the night before my successful triple bypass heart surgery (following about a month of angina). Now, I climb on my home treadmill several times a week, both for all-weather exercise and also for singing practice (while reading music written in Byzantine-chant characters and listening to (and singing along with) a Greek-American monk who sings the same music on a CD. Singing while walking briskly for a couple of miles works wonders for my breath control during services! My sophomore music tutor, the late Michael Ossorgin, was renowned in the world of Orthodox music (though Russian Orthodox of course, not Greek Orthodox). He was also incredibly patient with my sophomoric impatience in his class. If he is looking in on me, no doubt he is pleased—and quite probably stunned!” x in assets, 20 total staff). My wife and I are working on a design for a beautiful house in Kiawah Island, near Charleston, S.C. That will become our winter home in two to three years. Finally, but not least, I’m chairing the next capital campaign for St. John’s. So put some money aside while you wait for my call.” 1971 HELEN ANASTAPLO SCHARBACH (A) and J. SHIPLEY NEWLIN JR. (A67) were married in a private ceremony on July 25, 2003, in Saint Paul, Minn. THOMAS N. DAY (A) writes, “it’s been an interesting year working at the INS in the aftermath of 9-11. I’ve been busy integrating various databases and developing new ones. LOIS [ECKLER DAY] (A77) is looking forward to getting back to teaching after our youngest is out of college.” PAUL EITNER (SF) is happy to report that his daughter Laura is taking a big step toward her lifelong goal by being accepted for entry into Ohio State University’s veterinary program this fall. VICKY MANCHESTER (SF) was married in November of 2002 to Dr. John Garrison and is now Vicky Garrison. She continues to teach English and drama at the CIVA Charter High School in Military Springs, Co. CYNTHIA HANCOFF LEVY’S (A) latest CD for young children, Proud of You, won a spring 2003 Parents Choice Award. “You can listen to one of the songs on my Web site, www.music-makers.org. After 16 years of teaching music to kids and parents, I still love it!” 1973 LAURIE F. CALLAHAN (SF) reports that ANNALISA EWALD (A) is a classical guitarist with a studio in South Norwalk, Conn. JEAN FITZSIMON and LEE FISCHLER (SF68) are spending much of this year in New York City. Jean has a new job as a corporate compliance consultant. Compliance involves teaching companies to be ethical as well as responsible to an everchanging legal climate. In other words, she’s a “cop for hire.” When Lee is not writing marketing material for Jean, he takes { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } the grandkids to anti-war demonstrations. BARBARA ROGAN (SF) is pleased to report that her seventh novel, Hindsight, was just published by Simon & Schuster. 1974 RENATE LEWIS (SFGI) looks forward to moving back to Santa Fe this summer. JEFF (A) and Alla Victoroff are delighted to report the thrilling birth of Ivan on Dec. 17, 2002. ROBERTA FAULHABER-RAZAFY (SF) sends news from Paris: “Just thought I’d update fellow Johnnies on the latest development in my life. My husband, Jean-Pierre, was recently appointed ambassador of Madagascar (his native country) to France, UK, Spain, the Vatican, Israel, Portugal, and Monaco. I am currently living in an embassy in Paris not far from my former address in the same city, meditating on the authentic Aubusson tapestries and a strange Venetian chandelier that looks like miraculous frozen jellyfish as I type this in the living room. Although I feel something of an alien as a tall, blonde, and blue-eyed American Malagasy ambassadress, the situation’s potential is certainly intriguing. As life changes go, the surreal impact of this one will probably drive my work as a painter into some new configuration. In my new role, I encourage you all to visit Madagascar, with its unique flora and fauna, landscapes, excellent food (still organic!), and last but not least, the people and a culture based on nonviolent solutions to life’s problems and, of course, parties for the dead at the end of the world. You’ll enjoy it. Need info? Just email me at faulhabe@noos.fr and I’ll see what I can do.” 1975 BETSY BLUME (A), former director of the college’s Alumni Activities office, has taken a position as �32 {Alumni Notes} director of development for the Association of Science-Technology Centers, which represents institutions of informal science education worldwide. Among its member organizations are the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the Maryland Science Center, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. ERIC SCIGLIANO (SF) is at work on a new book, on Michelangelo, marble, and the Carrara quarries, that draws inspiration from a junior preceptorial in Santa Fe. 1976 “My second novel, The Healer’s Keep, is now published in the U.S. and U.K. with German and Finnish editions due out soon. My third novel, The Oracle’s Light, will be published in spring 2004,” writes VICTORIA HANLEY (SF). “Greeting to my classmates,” writes NICOLE SCHLESS (SF). “I’m well, living in a beautiful spot in Connecticut, but am out to Santa Fe fairly frequently. I’m writing, carving, and contemplating the mysteries, making a living running a company here in Connecticut. I’ve been building a ‘barn’ for almost two years now and it’s close enough to done for visitors…well, hardy campers, anyway!” PHYLLIS HUFFMAN HERMAN (SFGI) has a private practice using the Feldenkrais method of somatic education, working with movement and awareness. 1977 GENE GLASS (A) and his wife, Susan, continue to live in Carroll, Iowa, where Gene has a private psychology practice. He also travels to Des Moines and Omaha, Neb., for his practice and for paid acting jobs. He’s looking forward to getting back to Annapolis soon during a homecoming and to spend time with good friends from St. John’s. “Our 20-year was a blast!” This is the first year that JIM and ANDREA HAM (both SF77) are without children at home since 1984. “Dylan (18 years) is a freshman at UC-Santa Cruz and Caitlin (16 years) is a Rotary exchange student in Belgium for the year,” reports Andrea. “We are proud of them and we miss them but are enjoying the time alone too. We would love to hear from our classmates!” VICKI PHILLIPS (A) received her Ph.D. in religion from Vanderbilt University in 1997. She teaches at West Virginia Wesleyan College. Her husband, BARRY (A), works as a finish carpenter in historical renovations. 1978 RACHEL BARRETT (SF) has a new Web site, home.earthlink.net/~ rachelbarrett, showing what she has been doing, art-wise, for the last several years. Both her daughters graduated this June, Fiona from University of California Santa Cruz and Vanessa from Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandizing in Los Angeles. ERIC “TITO” COLEMAN (A) is back in Virginia after completing a six-year HIV-AIDS project in the Dominican Republic. Funded by USAID, his project was designed to build local capacity (NGOs and government agencies) to respond to prevention and treatment challenges in HIV through communications and policy initiatives: television, radio and print media development for public awareness; training, policy facilitation, and grants for interventions. “Now I am doing similar things but in the environmental field in Latin America. I’m also a challenged and proud parent of two bodacious daughters. I’m happy to hear from ‘past ghosts’ at tcoleman@ aed.org.” MARTHA MCGINNIS (SF) writes, “After 19 years in corporate life, I was thrilled to be ‘outsourced’ in December. I’m enjoying catching up with my girls, Amelia (12) and A NDREW WHITE (A81) will be in Athens on a Fulbright grant for the next academic year, completing a dissertation on Byzantine theater and ritual—the first of its kind in English. He will be living in the northern suburbs and dividing his time between the University of Athens Theatre Department and the American School for Classical Studies, where he will be an associate student. Andy has been incredibly lucky to find a brilliant wife, Laura Hjerpe, and now enjoys the company of a rowdy, sociable 6-year-old, Ian Richard, who is also looking forward to next year’s Big Fat Greek Adventure! Andy can still be contacted through e-mail at awhite@wam.umd.edu. x Molly (9), through soccer, volleyball, chess club, Brownies, and chairing our charter school council. Once I catch my breath I will begin a new career in freelance graphic recording and facilitation.” TERRY C. SCHULD (A) has been married 20 years this fall to Peg, an animal and wildlife artist. He works as a Web applications specialist for ADI, a division of Honeywell, and lives in the Long Island Pine Barrons. “After eight years in the Navy, I have transferred to the U.S. Public Health Service, working in vaccines and biologies,” writes ANN SCHWARTZ (A). “My two sons, Adam (20), and Caleb (19), are in college at Dickinson College and Gettysburg College, respectively. I am looking forward to a trip to New Zealand next year.” RITA BAHUS SATO (A) is currently director of administrative services for the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is married with a lovely 13-year-old daughter who is into horseback riding and competing and Ozzy Osbourne! The family also includes a crazed Shar-Pei, Cocoa, and a quarterhorse named Polly. (Mom rides her, too!) JAMES WALTON (SF) writes, “We wrapped up another movie this month in Albuquerque. This is the second movie I’ve worked on (since joining IATSE Local 480), an Alejandro Iñárritu production starring Sean Penn. Since the New Mexico legislature passed bills offering financial incentives, New Mexico is once more a very attractive place for movie making.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } 1979 The University Press of Florida recently published a book by CAROL COLATRELLA (A), Literature and Moral Reform: Melville and the Discipline of Readers. DENNIS SHERMAN (A) has been living in France for just over 20 years. He works in “gastronomic tourism” and is a wine broker based in Burgundy. 1980 LISA LASHLEY (SF) is teaching math at St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe, where her two children, Alex (11th grade) and Virginia (8th grade), attend. She is also involved with Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, serving as a Cadette troop leader and an assistant scoutmaster. She is also a docent at local museums and serves on the board of the Santa Fe Archaeological Society. SUSAN REED (SFGI) and her firstgrade son, Harry, have traveled to New Zealand twice, England once, 12 different states, and numerous cities, but otherwise lead a quiet life in the country. DEBRA A. RUTHERFORD (SF) and her husband, Larry, still work at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Their daughter, Michelle, will enter Los Alamos Middle School in the fall. �33 {Alumni Notes} 1981 MONICA CREELMAN (SF) is working in New York City as a clinical psychologist in a private practice. She is also teaching graduate students. She was married three years ago to Karl O’Donoghue, and they have no children. EMI SARA GEIGER (A) has made some changes. “My husband and five children and I moved back to the U.S. one year ago to care for my aging parents. We miss our relatives and friends in Israel, many Johnnies among them, but we are glad to be with my parents. The kids, ages 2-10, provide the joy and the noise, and we clean up the mess. All in all a perfect arrangement for two 80-year-olds in need of a bit of excitement.” 1982 COMFORT DORN (A) writes from Middletown, Md.: “I am no longer married to ED GRANDI (A77), but I continue to live in Middletown and edit a community newspaper. I was pleased to see the topic of my senior essay, Montaigne’s ‘On the Education of Children,’ on the front cover of The College. As I continue to educate my own three children (Rachel, 18; John, 15; and Claire, 10) I am ever reminded that ‘only fools are certain.’” MAREA JENNESS (HIMELGRIN) (SF) writes, “I am living in Catalina, Ariz., on two beautiful acres and teaching high school biology. My amily and friends of MARTIN MILLER (A81), have set up an endowment fund in the memory of Mr. Miller, who died in January at the age of 45. The Martin Conrad Miller Book Fund will help students who could not otherwise afford to buy Program books. To contribute to the fund, contact the college Advancement office in Annapolis at 410-626-2507. x F husband, Doug, and I recently celebrated our second anniversary together with our son, Daniel Minh. We adopted him as a baby in Vietnam. He recently painted us a family portrait that shows a glowing energy ball between two long brush strokes. That just about sums up the joy and passion of our intertwined lives. I’m looking forward to visiting Santa Fe now that I am closer and would welcome visits from old friends. You can reach me at marearose@yahoo. com.” “I have a new position as a founding faculty member of the new (opening September 2003) Shoshana S. Cardin Jewish Community High School in Baltimore,” LESLIE SMITH ROSEN (A) writes. “I’ll be chair of the Humanities Department (thanks, SJC!) working on integrating a multi-disciplinary curriculum. My family (including children Marielle, 19, Alyssa, 16, and Samuel, 12) and I are well. I am looking forward to an Aspen Institute conference on Mortimer Adler at Wye River in June.” GAIL DONOHUE STOREY (SFGI) and her husband, Porter, bicycled on their tandem from Houston to San Diego, covering 1,700 miles in five weeks. It was their second tandem bike trip—the first was from Houston to Camden, Maine (2,400 miles in seven weeks). 1983 GINA CASASCO (SF) has a daughter, Alexandra, who was born on October 2, 2002. She moved to Hudson, N.Y., from New York City in May of 2002. She works as the financial manager for two commercial real estate LLCs, one in Maryland and another in Northern Virginia. DAVID HALSTED (A), having earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature, is working in the computer industry in Ann Arbor, Mich. His wife, Keely, is in the department of history and is director of Jewish studies at Michigan State University. They share a house outside of town with two wonderful children and a recently acquired cat. halstedd@ hotmail.com. love to hear from old classmates. trisha@howellcanyonpress.com. “I am happy and well, living in Portland, Ore. with my family,” writes ANNE MCCLARD (SF). “Zoe is ten and Soren is almost five. They are both flourishing and growing in spite of the lack of sun! Ken Anderson, my husband, and I continue with our struggle as anthropologists in the technical industries, loving and hating it at the same time. I welcome e-mail from Johnnie friends and former classmates. amcclard@ mindspring.com.” TIFFANY KNIGHT-JAN (SF) writes that she still loves living in Madison, that she’s “still doing the eyeball thing alternately with the mom thing.” News from RICHARD MILLER (A)and BARBARA COOPER (A): “We’re finishing up a year’s sabbatical in Paris. Then it’s back to work at Rutgers, where we both teach now—Barbara in the history of Africa, Richard chairing the English department.” KAREN ASTRID TOURIAN (A) and her husband, Rolf, took their second biking trip in Tuscany this past fall. She started bike racing this year, both time trials on the road and cyclocross (“Midlife crisis?” she asks). She’s worked a year at Wyeth and loves the work. touriak@wyeth.com 1985 ELBERT DELANO PORTER (A) announces the birth of Arno Xenophon Porter, born February 17, 2003. 1984 DR. WENDY A BROWN (A), daughter of DR. MICHAEL BROWN (class of 1951), was recently honored with a fellowship in the International College of Dentists and the American College of Dentists. These fellowships are conferred by peers for extraordinary contribution to the profession. JOHN L. BUSH (SF) received his license to practice architecture in Virginia in September 2002. He and his wife, Elizabeth, celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary by traveling to the Pecos Wilderness, Santa Fe, Taos, and Chaco Canyon, and had a wonderful time. He sends a special hello to Dan, Les, Joel, Brad, and “of course, ole’ Joe Tetrault.” After slaving away to write 11 books, TRISHA (FIKE) HOWELL (SF) is pleased that some are finally rolling off the presses. The Princess and the Pekinese (a children’s picture book with a surprise twist) and The Pekinese Who Saved Civilization (a humorous social and political commentary from the viewpoint of a toothless old dog) are making their debut through www.howellcanyonpress.com. Trisha would 1986 MELISSA (FISHER) FRIEND (A) is working and living outside of Geneva, Switzerland, with husband Michael and their children: Leo, 2, and Marina, 6. “We originally came to Switzerland from Washington, D.C., on a two-year posting for Michael’s job, but made the change to local hires about a year ago. So we’re here now for the foreseeable future. Life is good, we’re all healthy and happy.” ELISABETH M. LONG (A) has been busy with a dual life: “By day I codirect the Digital Library Development Center at the University of Chicago Library, and by night I am pursuing an MFA degree in Book and Paper Arts. I recently won first place in the Art of Math and Science show for two pieces of artwork. My SJC background is certainly informing my work. I’d love to hear from anyone who’s passing through Chicago.” LISA N. ROSE (A) is building a semi-underground living structure and a strawbale schoolhouse as part of a spiritual community project in central New Mexico. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �34 {Alumni Notes} Inquiries welcome. shafiyah@ mydroplets.com. MICHAEL RYAN (SF) writes, “I am a partner in an architecture firm in downtown Albuquerque, and am five-ninths of the way through the Architect’s Record Exam, with the goal of being a registered architect by October. I am engaged for the second (and last) time to a wonderful woman with two girls about the same age as my 7-yearold daughter, Chloe.” TAMMY LACHER SCULLY (SFGI) reports that she and her husband, Jack Scully, have started Easterly Wine LLC, distributors of fine wine with an emphasis on offerings from France, Italy, and Portugal. 1987 WARREN KING BUSS (SF) writes: “I am currently enrolled at the Oregon College of Art and Craft, working toward a BFA in Book Arts—after so many years of reading books, I am now learning how to make them. Finally, some relief from all the computer programming I’ve been doing for too many years! My wife Laura and son Matthew are well and thriving.” He can be reached at wakibu@ aol.com. JOE T. COXWELL (SFGI) is now chair of the science department at Northeast Lauderdale High School in Meridian, Miss. He recently received the 2003 Star Teacher Award from the M.B. Swayze Educational Foundation and the Mississippi Economic Council. He also is a part-time instructor of physical science and astronomy at Meridian Community College. CHARLOTTE L. GLOVER (SF) writes, “My St. John’s training has really come in handy while I lead book discussion groups at the library! Montana 1948 by Larry Watson has been the favorite of the group so far.” On May 16th my husband, Michael, and I welcomed Benjamin William Lewin into the world, writes SALLIE FINE LEWIN (A). “We have not yet found language adequate to describe the incredible joy we have discovered through parenthood. Benjamin and I are spending our summer days going to Mommy and Baby yoga classes, taking walks, and hanging out at the pool before I go back to teaching at the end of August.” In January, PEGGY O’SHEA (A) returned to St. John’s Santa Fe to finish her sophomore year, 18 years after leaving St. John’s Annapolis. She expects to graduate in 2005. 1988 ELAINE PINKERTON COLEMAN (SFGI) announces the birth of future Johnnie Emily Clementine Pinkerton, born October 3, 2002. “Grandmotherhood is even more fun than parenting,” Elaine reports. Coleman traveled to eight states promoting From Calcutta With Love and is now finishing a novel, Beast of Bengal. The novel is set in Calcutta during World War II. Chicago three years ago. John’s in practice at Harbor Hospital in Baltimore and I’m home with Lucy (4 1/2) and her little sister Beatrice (8 months). Our e-mail address is lucykate98@aol.com.” KIM PAFFENROTH (A) is the editor of A Reader’s Companion to Augustine’s Confessions (Westminster: John Knox Press, 2003), in which he has gathered 13 Augustine scholars, each writing an essay on one of the 13 books of the Confessions, each presenting his or her case for why that particular book is the most important of the 13. Kim lives in Cornwall on Hudson, N.Y., with his wife, Marlis (A86), and their children, Charles and Sophia. ELIZABETH (A) and ANDREW (A90) PENDERGRASS are pleased to announce the birth of their son, John Alexander, born in January of this year. LAURIE COOPER (A) and Dov Kugelmass gave birth to their son, Cyrus, in October 2002. Their daughter Carrie is three. (SF86) announce the birth of Hayden Martinez Merz in November 2002. Diana is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia University. Ted is the managing editor for the Americas of Bloomberg News. CLAUDIA (PROBST) STACK (A) and Joseph Stack welcomed a second son, Jack Matthew Stack, on January 29, 2003. They would like to hear from classmates visiting the North Carolina area and from those planning to attend the 15th-year reunion in 2003. Stackc@uncw.edu THERESA DONNELLY (SF) writes, “John (Irwin, SFGI89) and I moved back to Baltimore from THERESA SULLIVAN (A) married Daniel Mooney at St. Joseph’s Church in Denver, Colorado, on TED MERZ (A) and DIANA MARTINEZ Johnnie Plates in Maryland t. John’s alumni in Maryland can trade in their old license plates for a new set celebrating their alma mater. The Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles began issuing the St. John’s license plate this fall. The plates, which cost $25, feature the seal of the New Program and a fourdigit number with St. John’s College across the bottom. Sign up soon: We have a long way to go to catch up with all the Navy plates on Annapolis-area roads. The project was spearheaded by JOEL ARD (A98), who hopes it will catch on in other states that offer organizational plates. There’s no financial benefit to the college, Ard notes, “it’s simply an opportunity to celebrate the college everywhere you drive.” The Alumni Office in Annapolis is happy to work with alumni in other states who want Johnnie plates. Call 410-295-6926. x S { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } October 25. BURCH HARPER, KATARINA WONG, BENJAMIN KRAUSS, SHEILA MONEN VIRGIL, and JAMES O’GARA were a credit to St. John’s waltz parties as they danced all night to the Irish band. STEVE VIRGIL (A88) and James’ wife, Ellen, stayed home with the kids and were sorely missed. After nine years as a communications consultant at Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Ameritech in Chicago, Theresa moved to Denver in 2000 to attend cooking school. She went on to study with chefs in Provence and the Piedmont region of Italy, and became certified as a professional sommelier and chef of wine arts. The Mooneys live in Denver, where Dan works for OppenheimerFunds and Theresa is a marketing writer and caterer. The highlight of their Santa Fe honeymoon was a St. John’s Community Seminar with Patricia Greer on Yeats’ “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen.” She always loves to hear from old friends at tresullivan@aol.com or 303-639-1354. 1989 PATRICK CRINNION (SF) is finally looking through a telescope at the Galilean moons of Jupiter—great field experience to go with the readings. KURT REDFIELD (A) recently com- pleted his MBA at Columbia University’s School of Business and is the chief financial officer of the French software company Neartek. Kurt, his wife, Christine, and 4-year-old son Wilson live in Cambridge, Mass. LAEL GOLD (SF) married VANESSA CAMPBELL (SF) on December 14, 2002. Perhaps a bit more precisely, Alex Brown married Vanessa Campbell in a ceremony performed by Lael Gold. (She is also available for bar mitzvahs, baptisms, boat christenings and supermarket grand openings.) The wedding was held near Vanessa and Alex’s organic farm in the mountains outside Asheville, N.C. (St. John’s students interested in farming and prepared to work hard can contact Vanessa at full- �35 {Alumni Notes} sunfarm@earthlink.net concerning summer internship opportunities.) When not officiating at weddings in the North Carolina mountains, Lael teaches film and literature classes at U.C. Berkeley where she is in the Ph.D. homestretch. Vanessa and Lael send their fond regards to former classmates and long-absent friends. How IS everyone? REGINA LANDOR (AGI) served in the Peace Corps in Macedonia and Romania, where she met her future husband, a fellow volunteer. They now live in Peoria, Ill. CHRISTOPHER SULLIVAN (A) is traveling a lot between San Francisco and Heidelberg for his writing and design job for a software company, becoming nearly fluent in German. He continues to stay busy doing voice-overs in the Bay Area for phone systems, radio and TV ads, video games, and even animation—he performed a couple of voices for a short animation called “Metropopular” that showed at Sundance and toured with Spike and Mike’s Animation Festival. He reports, “No spouse, no children, no house, but—considering how disturbed and gaisquantialized the world is—not too terrible a life.” Former classmates can reach by e-mail at christophersullivan @email.com. GEORGE TURNER (A) writes: “Our second child, Lily Sarah, was born April 26, 2003. Everyone is healthy and happy.” The family moved to a new house in Costa Mesa, Calif., about a 15-minute bike ride from the beach. He also started his own law firm, Turner Green Afrasiabi and Arledge LLP, last year. Their Web site, www.turnergreen.com, is “either impressive or funny, depending on how well you know me.” NINDA LETAW (A) reports that she is the proud owner of Charlotte’s Home Cooking, a personal chef service in Raleigh, N.C. She would love to hear from classmates. 1990 1992 DAHRA LATHAM (A) graduated from MICHAEL BROWN (SF) is living in San Francisco and would love to hear from old friends: M1Brown@ aol.com; 415-734-9500. law school on June 16, 2003. GREY VALENTI (A) married Chris D’Amato in June. DEBRA JO WHITCOMB (A) is working full-time as a hospice nurse, doing a little massage therapy on the side and spending the rest of the time doing Tai Chi. She’s also a Tai Chi instructor 1991 STEVEN MCNAMARA (A) and ANGE MLINKO (A) welcomed their new son, Jacob, into the world on March 19, 2003. NATE DOWNEY (SF) finally got the answer to the question “what is hapiness?” after the birth of his son, Liam Nathan Downey, on January 6th, 2003. “I never thought I would be able to teach works studied in the Eastern Classics program,” writes RONALIE MOSS (SFGI, EC95). “But in spite of the Euro-centric nature of the Advanced Placement program, I have been able to teach some Chinese poetry, Noh plays and the Bhagavad Gita. The program is worthwhile for its own sake, of course!” ANDY SCHUCHART (AGI) writes: Charlotte and I became parents on August 1 with the birth of Maximilian Blaise and Veronica Joyce. We are living in Iowa. I am a professor of social science and humanities at our community college, and Charlotte practices internal medicine. LAKE (JAMES) PERRIGUEY (SF) is working as an attorney in Portland, Ore. He recently authored three amicus briefs to the Oregon Supreme Court arguing that the state constitution protects lap dances and sexual expression in live theatrical performances. He’s been a groupie to the British AMP Swan Lake, touring the world in awe of all male corps de ballet. Lake has never seen “Will and Grace.” { The College PATRICIA COXWELL (SFGI) is now teaching elementary and middle school general music for the West Lauderdale School District near Meridian, Miss. She specializes in traditional folk music and this year raised over three thousand dollars to purchase dulcimers for her classes. She is married to JOE COXWELL (SFGI87). They have one daughter, Joanna, age five, who will begin kindergarten this fall. ELYETTE (BLOCK) KIRBY (SF) has been living in England for two years with husband Jonathan, and children Benjamin and Bronwyn. They live an hour away from London and would enjoy hearing from Johnnies in the area. elyette@hotmailcom SIOFRA (RUCKER) NUGENT (SF) writes: “We are expecting our second child this September. I am teaching second and third grade at my daughter’s school, Delphi Academy. Delphi is a network of seven, soon eight, schools around the country. We both love it.” ALBERT REED (SFGI) is currently the dean of business and technology at Santa Fe Community College. 1993 J. CLAIRE DARLING (SF) is busy with environmental actions regarding safe water and nutrition. She is also completing training to become a Music Together teacher. Music Together is a “fabulous, fun-based program to informally teach basic music competence to kids ages 0-5 (and their fun-loving caretakers).” JULIA (GRAHAM) MESNIKOFF (SF) is working as a nurse practicioner with Boston Healthcare for the Homeless, “which is challenging as much because of financial cuts John’s College • Fall 2003 } to Medicaid (severely limiting what we can offer some patients) as because of the huge learning curve of diagnosis and treatment. I like and respect my patients and find that working with them makes me incredibly grateful for my own life and circumstances, warts and all.” GABRIEL PIHAS (A) received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago in June 2003. He accepted a teaching position at the European College of Liberal Arts in Berlin for the fall. This fall, JONATHAN PEARL (A) heads to Brno, Czech Republic, with his wife Cheryl and their son Rembrandt, age 1. “I have received a nine-month Fulbright grant to conduct research on the composer Leos Janacez and on the intonation and rhythm of spoken Czech.” He is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology. 1994 SCOTT ANDREWS (SFGI) married Jennifer Matson, a physical therapist, in June. He finished his seventh year of teaching history at a nearby preparatory school. They live in a small, quiet village on the shores of Cape Cod. “Meaningful work in a beautiful place with the one I love beside me – is life good, or what?” LEAH MULHOLLAND AUCKENTHALER, (A) is married and has a baby boy named Nicholas. She is living in Minneapolis, Minn., and is a stay-at-home-mom. News from BILL KOWALKSI (SF): “My wife, Alexandra Nedergaard, and I are delighted to announce the birth of our daughter, Kasia Alexandra Kowalski, on July 3, 2003, in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. Both Mama and baby are doing well after an arduous labor. I myself have also given birth: to a third novel, called The Adventures of Flash Jackson (HarperCollins, January 2003). I’m pregnant with a fourth, which I am hopeful will be delivered sometime in 2005. �36 {Alumni Notes} Earlier literary progeny continue to do well, including a short film co-written with Markus Griesshammer called Coyote Beach, which won the prize for Best American Short Film at the New York/Avignon Film Festival this past April.” JEFFREY SPENCER WRIGHT (SFGI) will be studying at the National University of Ireland, Galway, this summer. 1995 DINA DINEVA (A) and MILEN DYOULGEROV (AGI96) are happy to announce the birth of their daughter Maia on December 24, 2002. Dina writes, “Having the baby has given me a chance to slow down and reflect—a sort of return to a Johnnie state of being—for which, and for the many other gifts of motherhood, I am very grateful.” CHRIS DAVIS (SF) and CARMEN ELIZABETH HERING (SF) were married May 31. GEOFF GIFFIN (AGI) is now the publisher of a brand new Internet Yellow Pages in Annapolis and the greater Washington/Baltimore area. “Check us out as www. yellowpagecity.com. For the first time the look and feel of the traditional Yellow Pages is available on the Internet.” LAURA GIANNINY JOYNER (A) reports that Caroline Anne, her second child, joined the family on Nov. 1, 2002, and she is “experiencing all the challenges and joys of raising two children under the age of 3 in Hawaii.” BETH SCHAEFER (EC) retired at the end of 2001 after working for 25 years as an attorney for the state Department of Health in New Mexico. “I have been dividing my time since then between ice skating and Zen practice. What fun!” PETER LAMAR (AGI) currently serves as dean of academies at Holy Cross Academy in Miami, Fla. The school has implemented a great books curriculum based on the St. John’s model, beginning with the 2003-2004 school year. www.holycrossacademy.net Still living at the top of the world in Barrow, Alaska, MIKE LAYNE (SF) and his wife, Rachael, celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary in June, and the first birthday of their daughter, Audrey Rae, in February. He is working as a counselor at a local youth shelter, and may become more involved with grant writing. He may make the transition into a program coordinator position for their new Tobacco Prevention Grant program in the near future. JASON MCCREADY (A) writes: “I graduated from Georgetown Law School, realized I hated the large law firm environment, and moved back to my hometown in western Pennsylvania. I am working as a lawyer in a three-lawyer law firm, enjoying it immensely. Friends from St. John’s that I’ve lost contact with can contact me at jasonmccready@yahoo.com.” RONALIE A. MOSS (SFGIEC and SFGI91) reports that, despite the Eurocentric nature of the high school Advanced Placement program, she’s been able to teach Chinese poetry, Noh plays, and the Bhagavad Gita. TOM (A) and Marion SLAKEY report the happy news of three new grandchildren: twins Charlotte and Brendan, to Bill and his wife, Heather, in Placitas, N.M., and Noah Yarrow to Michael and his wife, Victoria, in Brittany, France. APRIL WALTERS (A) graduated from Towson University with a master’s in professional writing in May 2002. She currently works as the writing studio coordinator at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and freelances as a personal coach for writers. www.writingstudio.com 1996 DOUGLIS BECK (AGI) is enjoying mostly staying at home with 2year-old Veronica. He is pursuing { The College n update from DONA CUTSOGEORGE (SFGI96): “After leaving the Graduate Institute in 1996 with M.A. in hand, I was looking for ‘good’ work and, although some may disagree that this fit the bill, joined Amazon.com as a German language customer service rep, first assisting in the establishment of Amazon.de, I later went on to help build their U.S. program for independent authors, musicians, and filmmakers. After several years in the dot-com world, I no longer felt as enthusiastic about this career, and the bubble was on the verge of bursting, to boot. I switched gears and am now employed as a writer with The MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation in Seattle, Wash. I’m fortunate enough to work with a team of very dedicated and caring researchers and clinicians devoted to improving U.S. healthcare for the chronically ill. I’d love to hear from any local Johnnies or former classmates: donajgrl@yahoo.com” x A small projects on his own as Douglis Beck DesignStudio, and will be teaching art history and architecture courses at Webster University beginning this summer with a seminar on the Bauhaus. SCOTT FIELD (SFGI) and his wife, Jessica Field, had another baby boy last spring. Henry, 2, is very happy to have his little brother Oscar. JONATHAN ROWAN (SF) is studying for a Ph.D. in comparative literature at UC Berkeley. His e-mail address is jonathan_rowan@ hotmail.com. LUCILLE AND MARTY WALKER (both AGI) are now the proud parents of two sons, Reeseman Adams Walker (born October 5, 2002) and Ian Archibald Walker (born December 3, 1999). HANAN MIKLASZ (AGI) reports that she and her husband are celebrating the birth of their second son, Zane, on May 27, 2003. FRANCESCO GIUSEFFI (SFGI) has been enjoying teaching, coaching, and performing the duties of athletic director at Missouri Military Academy and has even facilitated a couple of independent study courses in Western philosophy. CHERYL HENEVELD (AGI) writes, “We have begun a community discussion group and vigilia against the war. Why can’t we use words instead of bombs and guns? We are also teaching a course (with my husband Ward Henevald) on Peace and War at Johnson State College—a required course for this state college. I can send the syllabus to others. Ridley’s Origins of Virtue is a required text. HEATHER ELLIOTT (SF) and SAUL LAURELES (SF92) were married in 2001 and bought a house in Houston Heights. They’re both lawyers; Saul practices with Mayer Brown Rowe and Maw, and Heather with Davis, Oretsky and Guilfoyle. John’s College • Fall 2003 } 1997 ELAINE ATABA (A) is starting a master’s program in traditional Oriental medicine in the fall. After completing the four- to fiveyear program, she will be able to sit for a national exam to become an acupuncturist. BENJAMIN BLOOM (A) says all is well. “I am starting my second semester at the University of Maryland. I hope to begin teaching an undergraduate English course next year. Best wishes to all.” “Instead of finding a summer internship with a large corporation, I decided to launch a company of my own,” writes DOMINIC CRAPUCHETTES (A). “It is very exciting and scary. I borrowed $10K and have already raised $15K from other investors, but I still need to raise about $25K more before I can truly begin. At that point I’ll be able to finance the first print/run of a new board game called ‘Cluzzle.’ The game is �37 {Alumni Profile} Part Monkey, Part Robot Animator Geoff Marslett (SF96) bridges art and technology in his films by Sus3an Borden, A87 “Monkeys hit Robots with sticks. Robots shoot Monkeys with lasers. They both love their mothers. Why must they hate each other?” This is the question that Geoffrey Marslett raises in his two-minute animated film, “Monkey vs. Robot, ” a project that met with surprising and satisfying success: The film was screened at 25 film festivals, purchased by “Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation 2000,” included in PBS’ “Egg the Arts Show,” and recognized with awards and prizes at festivals. Marslett made the film for an animation class in his second year of film school at the University of Texas, taking his inspiration from a song of the same name written by his friend James Kochalka. The project took just a week and cost about $20, but Marslett says that’s only one side of the story. “The flip side is, I worked on it nonstop. Because I was a student I had access to computers and time to devote to it. At the worst point during that week, I showed up at the computer lab at 9 a.m., worked all day long and all through the night, then went to T.A. a class from 9 to noon and went right back to work.” Animation, it turns out, is part monkey, part robot. “There’s the low-fi end, writing the script and creating the art,” explains Marslett, “then you spend weeks and months fighting with machines to get it to come out in a format that can be mailed to everybody’s house, sent out on the Internet, or broadcast on television.” Marslett, who now teaches animation at the University of Texas, says that his students often come into class thinking that they will produce a few drawings and the computer will do the rest. “I always tell them that animation is not making drawings move; they’re going to have to draw motion. They have to look at the world and figure out how to draw things that create the illusion of motion. It takes a lot of work just to see the world around you. For the first assignment, I usually have them take still photos of motion, have them break it down frame by frame.” Frame by frame in most animated productions is to the tune of 24 frames per second. But that simple equation is misleading: a single frame usually requires several drawings. Marslett explains why, using as an example a scene where a monkey swings through the jungle: “You make several drawings: one that is the far background, another a couple of trees closer, another of more of the trees that you can use to shift perspective, drawings for the vine that’s swinging, the body, arms, anything in the foreground. If you have a rhinoceros run by, you need one rhinoceros body and ten or twelve drawings of legs for a walk cycle. Any given frame might have 10 or 20 layers to it.” In addition, the animator must add lipsynching. For each character, animators create a library of lips, consisting of 10 or 15 different shapes. After the script is recorded and edited, the animator takes the library and puts the lips in to match up to the sound. “It can get pretty tedious,” says Marslett. “If everything is already drawn so I’m only working with the lips, and the character’s not turning his head while he speaks, I can do one minute of monologue in a day.” Marslett did all the drawings for “Monkey vs. Robot.” But for his thesis project, a 24minute film called “Trip to Roswell,” eight artists worked with him. “Animation is always labor-intensive,” he says. “Even if someone is making drawings quickly, at five or six minutes a drawing, multiply that by 90,000 drawings for a feature film. That’s a lot of minutes.” After “Trip to Roswell” won the Best Animation Award at CinemaTexas Short Film Festival, Marslett was inspired to write a feature-length screenplay based on the film. The price tag? Marslett says $500,000 to $750,000—cheap for an animated feature. As he investigates sources of funding for the movie, Marslett is reworking the Roswell script as a television series. “I get more interest in it that way,” he says. “People can wrap their minds more quickly { The College John’s College • Fall 2003 } Geoff Marslett’s film “Monkey vs. Robot” met with surprising success. Trip to Roswell Deep in the Heart of Texas in the year 2020 AD, the suburbs have spread like weeds across the hill country. Everyone lives in a suburban rancho-style stucco house with a red tiled roof. They all park their Ford Lemmings next to their Toyota Replica, and absolutely everyone surfs the Internet incessantly. Frank is your average kid in this near dark future until his parents get him the latest in elective medical implants, the locotron. This device is supposed to allow him to access URLs just by thinking about the site—but Frank is special. He still practices the forgotten art of reading books, and the extra input transforms his implant into a sort of time machine that pulls him into whatever he’s reading about. The U.S. Senate Chambers in 1856, Pangia during the fall of the dinosaurs, Paris in 1969…eventually stranding a twenty-five-year old “damaged” Frank in Roswell, New Mexico during a 1947 flying saucer crash. around animation for adults as a TV series than as a feature film.” x To wrap your mind around other Marslett productions, check out his Web site: www.swervepictures.com �38 K {Alumni Notes} ATHY PLUTH (SF99) finished her master’s in theology from the Catholic University of America (CUA) in 2001. “Since then I’ve stayed in Washington, and I’ve been working, first as director of religious education in a local parish, now as a research assistant at the Life Cycle Institute at Catholic University. I’ve been able to do some freelance editing of philosophy and theology books for the CUA Press as well, and I have an ongoing part-time job tutoring a seminarian and future Catholic priest. In my spare time I write hymns. Two were recently published in a Catholic devotional magazine called Magnificat. I noticed when I was doing parish work that a lot of devoted Catholics are nonetheless terribly undereducated about their faith, so the hymns are my attempt to teach a little (I borrowed the idea from St. Ephrem the Syrian). This is definitely the most fulfilling work I’ve done since leaving St. John’s. If I had more free time, I would extensively study the works of Henri de Lubac, Yves Congar, and Hans Urs von Balthasa—great 20th century theologians.” x a lot of fun to play! Learn more about it on our Web site, www.cluzzle.com. P.S. Business school is very demanding. I can’t wait for it to end.” CHRIS ENGLISH (SFGI) and his wife, DIANE SHIRES (SFGI98), are expecting their first child, a boy, in June. “We’ve begun saving up for his St. John’s education now– Alumni ’25?” From SARAH JANE FRAUENZIMMER (FREMONT) (A): “After several great years in the Pacific Northwest, Matt, the dog, and I packed up and moved a little farther west to Japan, where Matt is currently stationed. We are enjoying plenty of sushi, feeling unusually tall, and the prospect of cherry blossoms in the spring. I’m teaching a bit of yoga and English, learning Japanese and am contemplating master’s programs. If you find yourself in the Tokyo area, drop us a line at sjfaraway@yahoo.com. JESSICA CAMPBELL MCALLEN (SF) writes, “I am living and working on my husband’s family cattle ranch in south Texas and I would love to hear from anyone in the area (jessielee4242@yahoo.com)! I would also love to hear from JEFF HUGGINS, BRIAN PARKINSON, and JACOB CURTIS who were here with me on spring break 1996.” LESLIE NORTON (AGI) served in the Peace Corps in Mongolia from June 2 through September 2003. Here’s what NATHAN SCHLEIFER (SF) has been up to: “J.D. Washington University School of Law, 2001; married to Brenda Nelson, 2002; B.S./M.S. biomedical engineering (biocomputing focus) expected 2004/2005. Currently, I’m general legal counsel for Automating Peripherals Inc. and an editor for the Biotechnology Review. 1998 News from LEA (A) and BRIAN (SF97) BROCK: “After rectifying our relationship to Santa Fe by means of completing the Eastern Classics program in 2001, we moved to Anchorage to teach in the well-known Atheneum School, which both supplies and utilizes many Johnnies. We currently tend an earthship in Taos while riding horses and playing music. We audit Sanskrit classes with MR. PERRY and various EC folks. Oh, by the way, as you might guess…we got married! We had a seminar on C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves after the wedding—it was great!” { The College JACQUELINE CAMM (A) announces her marriage to Robert Travis (a 1998 graduate of Columbia University) on February 8, 2003 in the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, Fla. The Rt. Rev. John Howe, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida presided. AMY (NORMAN) MORGAN (A96) and her husband, Bill, provided music for the ceremony. “We have moved to Tennessee where we purchased our first home with the help of MILK KLIM (A02) of Columbia National Mortgage. If anyone would like to reach us, or is passing through Tennessee, please send us an e-mail: jacquelinecamm @hotmail.com.” GLENSCOTT THOMAS COPPER (AGI) has been awarded a Fulbright Memorial Fund Fellowship to Japan for next fall. He has finished construction on his own ceramics studio and fired his first pots. He still teaches creative writing, journalism and theater at Milwaukee High School of the Arts. SASHA MUDD (A) finished a master’s degree from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School in June. She will spend a year at Cambridge before starting doctoral work at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought. LUIS ALEJANDRO SALAS (A) has just received a master’s degree in classics from Rutgers University. This fall, he moves to Texas to complete a Ph.D. at the joint program in ancient philosophy at the University of Texas-Austin. 1999 SHELBY BLYTHE (A) relocated to Philadelphia where he is enrolled in the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Group at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s studying the early embryonic development of frogs this summer. He’d be glad to speak with students and alumni who are considering careers in the biomedical sciences regarding his experience so far. sblythe@mail. med.upenn.edu. John’s College • Fall 2003 } RUTH BUSKO (SF) is very excited to be in her final year of training for a master’s degree in acupuncture at the Tai Sophia Institute for the Healing Arts in Laurel, Maryland. She spends most of her time treating patients at the faculty-student clinic at the school and in the Baltimore City Detention Center as well as other drug rehabilitation sites around Baltimore. She can be reached at rmbusko@hotmail. com. GEORGE FINNEY (SF) dropped a line from Dallas: “I’ve just gotten engaged to my longtime girlfriend, AMANDA KENNEDY (SF02). Amanda and I will be married at Grace and Peace Fellowship in St. Louis on November 1 of this year. I have also recently taken a new job at Southern Methodist University as a network engineer. This new position works out great because I hope to begin my pursuit of a legal education there, as opposed to the illegal one I had been pursuing, in the fall of ’04. If you would like to contact me, send e-mail to: diggablelinux@ yahoo.com.” MARK H. JOHNSON (A) is currently pursuing his Master of Divinity at Duke University. PATRICK REED (AGI) moved back to the Annapolis area and is currently teaching at Severn School. His wife, Jana, is an ER doctor stationed at Andrews Air Force Base. 2000 KELSEY BENNETT (SF) will begin courses in the fall toward a master’s degree in English at the University of Denver. She recently completed a novel. TIM CARNEY (A) is currently working in Washington, D.C., as a reporter for columnist and CNN commentator Bob Novak, as well as doing freelance writing. He has been awarded a Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship and will use it after the 2004 elections to write a book reporting on big business and big government. �39 {Alumni Notes} In sunny Las Cruces, N.M, KARINA NÖEL HEAN (A) is working on a Master of Fine Arts degree and is a teaching assistant at the university. In June 2003 she had an artist residency at Vermont Studio Centers. She writes: “Allin-all, I’m just loving life, but miss my friends, though. Hope everyone is well—feel free to drop in. Peace!” She can be reached at karinahean@hotmail.com. BENJAMIN SHOOK (SF) writes, “I now have a successful business building furniture and cabinets. I also now have a great deal less amour-propre.” SAM MARKHAM (SF) is studying at the University of London for a master’s in the History of the Book. experiencing in mainstream academia these past few months makes me appreciate St. John’s even more. I welcome contact from former classmates or from other Johnnies who might want information about grad school and comparative literature at Penn State.” CHRISTOPHER VAUGHAN (A) learned to surf, visited England, and “saw what might have been Spiderman” while living with FLETCHER CUNNIFF (A) and other alums in Baltimore. He traveled to Chicago to visit STEVE PALOPOLI (A01), who is now living and working there. He also reports hearing that ALEX DIEFENBACH (A01) is in the Army, married, and presently living in Germany. Christopher can be reached at cvaughan@ flagier.edu. SARAH SIEMERING (SF) entered the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, Tenn. in August. The Sisters are a teaching order and teach in schools throughout the country. Sarah joins at least two other Johnnies who are already professed Sisters. SARAH MARSH (A) writes from Brooklyn, N.Y., “Hey y’all. Things are going well with me in the big city. I’m finishing up my first year of grad school and can’t believe I will be a midwife in a little over a year! I think of so many of you so often and it always makes me smile. Get in touch. sarahkmarsh @hotmail.com.” N. NICOLE NELSON-JEAN (AGI) lives in Tokyo and serves as the Energy Attaché to the U.S. ambassador to Japan and director of the U.S. Department of Energy Asia office at the American Embassy. She recently celebrated her twoyear wedding anniversary to Patrick. DEBERNIERE J. TORREY (AGI) writes: “Following a year of teaching high school history and literature at Abu Dhabi International School in the UAE (working with SJC alumna JUDITH HUGHES [AGI95]), I’m now enrolled in my first semester of Ph.D. studies in comparative literature at Penn State University. What I’ve been 2001 LANCE BRISBOIS (A) lives in Boston, where he also works as a secretary to the chancellor of Boston University; his e-mail address is brisbois@bu.edu. From DANIEL BRAITHWAITE (A): “I’m in Chicago.” Students interested in Boston University’s University Professors Program are welcome to contact BASIL CLEVELAND (A) at basilcleveland@hotmail.com or visit him in Boston. LANCE KIRMEYER (SF) and JENNIFER JULIANA CORONA (SF02) were married on May 25, 2003, and are living happily in Santa Fe. Lance provides technical support and assistance to customers of Dankoff Solar Products and Juliana will teach math and New Mexico history at Alameda Middle School in the fall. MATTHEW LIPPART (SF) has finished his second year of teaching in Santa Fe and has returned to St. John’s for the Eastern Classics. SUZANNE SIMMONS (SF) writes, “After having my assignment with the Peace Corps cancelled three times, due to a country’s civil unrest and the imminence of war with Iraq, I decided not to join. I did not want to wait another year for a proper assignment. I hope that all my former classmates, tutors, and other friends are doing well, especially those who have any friends, family, or are themselves involved with the U.S. efforts in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I am still keeping track of SF01 addresses, numbers, etc., so please e-mail me with any new information: guneh@ hotmail.com.” 2002 H. CHRISTIAN BLOOD (SF) writes, “How nice it was to see everyone who made it to croquet. Precipitation complications aside, what a fine weekend. This fall I shall begin doctoral studies at the department of literature at University of California Santa Cruz. I think I’ve found a school whose location rivals the beauty and glory of Santa Fe. Anyone who finds himself in the area, contact me at hchristianblood@yahoo. com; looks like I’ll be there for at least six years.” AMANDA KENNEDY (SF) writes, “I’m employed! After attending the 2002 Summer Institute on Philanthropy and Voluntary Services, I went to work temporarily at a nonprofit called Energy Solutions, which provides energy conservation consultations to schools, businesses, etc. Then in January 2003 I started at the Genesis Women’s Shelter in Dallas, Texas, as their fund development writer. We serve women and their children who are victims of domestic violence. Thank you to SJC! I’m liberated!” JONATHAN COOPER (A) has moved to St. Louis to spend a year in Americorps. He already misses Boston very much, but misses his friends even more. Any interested party or area alumnus should feel free to e-mail him at his newly minted { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } account: MisterNojangles @hotmail.com. He is also very excited to see his name in the paper here. JAMES GILMORE (A) began studies in philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. EMMA WELLS (SF) reports that she has her first full-time, salaried position: “Good news! I am so excited. I am working at the Cato Institute in downtown Washington, D.C. This is where I interned this last spring semester. I am really happy. I work for the development department, which is the fundraising department of Cato. I will be here for at least a year, if not two, before going off to law school. So make sure and send me an e-mail and let me know if you’re in the area or if you can visit!” 2003 REBEKAH NEELY GOTTLOB (A) married NATE EAGLE (A) on July 5. x 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 January; deadline for the alumni notes section is October 31. In Annapolis: The College Magazine St. John’s College, P.O. Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404; reharty@sjca.edu In Santa Fe: The College Magazine St. John’s College Public Relations Office 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; alumni@sjcsf.edu Alumni notes on the Web: Read Alumni Notes and contact The College on the web at www.sjca.edu — click on Alumni. �40 {Obituaries} Kathyrn “Kitty” Kinzer, AGI87 Kitty Kinzer (AGI87) was “part mother hen, part vigilant fury.” Former Annapolis librarian Kitty Kinzer died unexpectedly last spring. Annapolis Tutor Mera Flaumenhaft delivered this tribute on the occasion of Mrs. Kinzer’s retirement from the college in 1999. By her own account, Kitty Kinzer knew from the beginning that it wouldn’t be your usual assistant librarian’s position. Charlotte Fletcher, who presided over the library in those days, walked Kitty to the house of Bob Goldwin, where she was to be interviewed. The dean was expecting them; he was lying on the floor. Charlotte, a Southern lady of refined manners, promptly suggested that she and Kitty join him on the floor. There followed a peculiar conversation about how many of the Program books the would-be librarian had already read. Aside from that, all Kitty remembers is thinking wildly (no doubt in her best Virginia accent) “Wha, oh wha, are they doing this to me?” Later Charlotte did mention that Bob Goldwin had back problems. And Kitty, to her surprise, got the job. To this day it’s remained a bit offbeat. But, then, so has Kitty. You see, she was not so conventional an applicant herself. Kitty grew up in a small Virginia town in the days before TV and air conditioning, the kind of place where sultry summers were spent on porches, sipping lemonade, playing board games, and reading…and reading…and reading. Smart kids took Latin, and schools that couldn’t afford new texts continued teaching geometry from the musty old Euclid books the rest of the world had left behind. Kitty studied biology in college and started her career in medical labs. After Valerie and Adriane were born, she took up graduate studies in American history and intended to move on to European history. When her family decided she needed direction, she chose a degree in library science and read books in any field she chose. Once in our midst, she happily continued her education: in community seminars, in the Graduate Institute, and as an auditor for undergraduate seminars, tutorials, and preceptorials. Kitty has had as wide an academic experience of this college as any non-student or non-tutor I know. An old poster declares, “Have a Question? Ask your Librarian.” How literally many of us have learned to take that advice! A botanical passage in Homer? Ask your librarian. A history of London? Ask your librarian. A musty old manual? Ask you librarian. A novel for a vacation? Advice on gardening? A new doctor in Annapolis? Ask your librarian! But this librarian not only answers your questions. She gets interested in them. She reads up on them, continues sending you relevant materials for years to come, and forever forwards her own queries about the purchase of related books for her library. Finally, in the spirit of this college, and as a true associate of the faculty, this librarian has taught us what questions we should ask. Most important, she has urged us to ask: “What is the function of the library in this unusual community of readers?” Which secondary materials best help us to read the books that are the primary teachers in our program? How can the library supplement that program with books on subjects that we don’t all read together? And how can we keep our attention on books at all, while much of the world is turning from printed to electronic words? In short, she has articulated the notion of the library as a carefully selected “collection” in the service of a carefully thoughtout curriculum. Another “collection” that we owe to Kitty is the important archive of photos and documents she has established about the history of St. John’s College and its program. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } For several decades, Kitty has bought our new books and rebound our own, planted flowers at the entrance and kept an eye on the exit, dealt with leaks in the roof and mushrooms in the basement. She personally visited Mortimer Adler’s books in Chicago, and arranged to move them all to Annapolis. She’s moved her own books from one side of campus to the other. She even managed to make it a lot of fun. Over the years, Kitty has trained and kept in touch with dozens of student aides who consider her a trusted friend who knows what they are doing from the inside. She’s made parties for our students, for our children, and for us. And she’s been an important representative of the college to town borrowers and other visitors who know us through our library. Unflappably, she has dealt with converts, and extroverts, introverts, and, like all librarians, even a few perverts. Great readers come in at least two types. Some withdraw into their books and are very silent. Others are great talkers. We all know which type Kitty is. She is articulate in the old-fashioned way that one finds in people who love words, words in books, and words in the talk of friends who love books. For this urban Northerner, the Virginia accent and exclamations like “my word” have always had a special delight. And our Kitty is witty. It was she who declared, in the early seventies, that she wasn’t “laid back, but hunched forward, and proud of it!” Part mother hen and part vigilant fury, Kitty Kinzer has shaped and guarded her– and our–precious “collection” of books for almost thirty years. Many of us simply cannot imagine the library without her. But we probably won’t have to. For, from the day she retires, she’ll probably become one of the heaviest town borrowers the St. John’s library has ever had. Of course, she will no longer be the first person to take home all the books. And, yes, like the rest of us, she will have to drag them all in for her infamous call-ins. Nevertheless, from the day she retires, things will be different around here. And, my word, dear Kitty, how we shall miss you. x �41 {Obituaries} James A. Matthews by Thomas May, Tutor At a dramatic moment in Book IX of the Iliad, Phoenix, lifelong counselor and tutor of Achilles, reminds his pupil of the model by which he has been instructed: “to be both a speaker of words and a doer of deeds.” Longtime St. John’s staff member James Matthews, who died in March, is fondly remembered as just such a man—one whose words and actions simply and eloquently expressed noble character and deep religious faith. Known to his friends and associates on the Annapolis campus as “Jim” or “Jimmy,” he served the college for more than 37 years before retiring in 2000, after becoming incapacitated by ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Born in Shadyside, Md., Jim was raised by his foster parents, Charles and Elizabeth Tyler, in Annapolis, where he attended Wiley Bates High School and sang in the choir of First Baptist Church. He came to St. John’s in 1963 at the age of 18 and was assigned to custodial duties in Mellon Hall. Of his many associates, James “Jake” Hicks remembers him fondly as a true friend who acted as an older brother to him during their 27 years together in Mellon. He recalls that Jim took him under his wing when he joined the college staff, greeted him as a friend and showed him every- thing, from how to run floor-stripping machines to how to keep calm under harsh criticism. Jim was unstinting in his praise of what was right and well done, and equally direct in his criticism of what he saw to be wrong or unfair. He was unafraid of expressing his affection; when the weekend arrived on Friday afternoon, Jim would say, “Stay out of trouble, see you Monday; I love you, man!” Early on in their time together, Jake came in one morning to hear Jim’s deep bass voice emanating from the supply closet beside the FSK lobby, privately reading his Bible and saying his prayers. “Did you pray for me?” Jake asked. “You’re the first one,” was the reply. His keen sense of when a student, a staff member, a co-worker, was troubled or discouraged was inerrant, and he would gently offer to listen, frequently taking the person aside into the Conversation Room, his “office,” for words of support or advice. He was scrupulous about keeping confidences and expected others to do the same. This staunch faith and love of life that informed Jim’s life at the college sustained him through his long struggle with ALS. Throughout this time, and particularly during these last two years, as his life was gradually confined to the sickroom of his home, Jim continued his keen interest in the life of St. John’s and his friends here. When colleagues and I went to visit Jim and his wife, Doris, we would invariably find him in good spirits. “I’m still here,” he would say, greeting us with a smile full of his joy for life, “and I’m obviously meant to be; I am so blessed.” With characteristic generosity, he and his family requested that any memorial contributions be made either to Hospice of the Chesapeake or to the James Matthews Scholarship Fund, established at the college when Jim retired in 1999. x Vernon Derr, ’48 Vernon Ellsworth Derr, class of 1948 and member emeritus of the Board of Visitors and Governors, died of complications of Parkinson’s disease on July 24, 2003, in Boulder, Colorado. He was 81. Born and raised in Baltimore, Derr had planned on a career in engineering until a teacher suggested he consider St. John’s. He enrolled in 1940 but left in 1942 to serve in the 11th Airborne Signal Company during World War II. He returned to St. John’s after the war, living on the back campus in the veterans’ housing with his wife, Mary, and graduated in 1948. In 1959 he earned a Ph.D. in physics from Johns Hopkins University. Derr was chief scientist at Martin Company from 1959 to 1967. He worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 1967 to 1994, serving as director of Environmental Research Laboratories from 1983 to 1988. He taught at St. John’s, Rollins, and the University of Colorado. As a research scientist at the University of Colorado, Derr studied the effect of climate changes on clouds. He developed a forecasting method based on artificial intelligence and data going back 150 years on winds, cloudiness, and air and sea temperatures off the west coast. His computer model could predict weather six months in the future. In 1988 he received the U.S. Presidential Distinguished Rank Award and in 1991 the U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal Award. Derr was always interested in St. John’s and served on the Board of Visitors and Governors for six years. He credits his education at St. John’s for helping him remain open to new ideas, adapt to changes in careers, and respond to the demands of research. Survivors include his wife Mary, of Boulder; a son, Michael E. Derr; two daughters, Louise E. Derr and Carol MacBride; and a grandson. x ALSO NOTED: EDWARD HEISE, class of 1936, July 30, 2003 WILLIAM K. LYNCH, class of 1932, June 3, 2003 WILLIAM D. RENDALL, class of 1942, March 23, 2003 For 36 years, Jimmy Matthews had a smile for everyone on the Annapolis campus. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } WILLIAM J. SEELEY JR., class of 1936, March 17, 2003 �42 {Campus Life} CROQUET 2003 For behold, in the midst of the field there arose a great contest. And mallet strove with ball, and ball with ball, and many balls did thread the postern of a wicket, and great was the tumult thereof. But the people regarded it not, and drank and made merry. And the Lord saw that it was good. Well...OK. Anonymous Alumnus, class of 1978 Les chic-chacs eternelles de ces espheres infinies m'effrayent. Henri “Blaise” Higuera Every tradition grows ever more venerable—the more remote is its origin, the more confused that origin is. The reverence due to it increases from generation to generation. The tradition finally becomes holy and inspires awe. Nietzsche, HUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN nother croquet match, another victory for St. John’s College. Imperial Wicket Ben Porter led the old orange-and-black to its 17th win in the 21-year contest against the Naval Academy on Sunday, April 27. Originator of the croquet tradition, Kevin Heyburn (SF86, shown above with mallet) hit out the first ball. Unable to come up with a new angle on the same old story (I’ve been covering the match for nine years), I will step aside to let more able pens provide the commentary. A Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye, In every gesture dignity and love. --Sus3an Borden (A87) photos by sara white wilson Milton, PARADISE LOST { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �43 {Campus Life} Not at all similar are the race of the immortal gods and the race of men who walk upon the earth. Homer, ILIAD Dance and Provençal song and sunburnt mirth! Oh for a beaker full of the warm South, Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene! With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stainèd mouth. Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale” For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn? Among all men on earth bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the muse has taught them songs and loves the race of bards. Austen, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE Homer, ODYSSEY { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �44 {tutors} Grant Franks: Finding His Inner Wizard on the Road from Santa Fe to Annapolis n July 15, Santa Fe tutor Grant Franks (A77) rolled into Annapolis on his Trice XL recumbent tricycle—completing a five-week journey of more than 2,000 miles from the Santa Fe campus. After triumphantly planting the New Mexico flag in front of McDowell, he set off with family and friends—gathered to witness his arrival—for a crab feast at City Dock. Franks says the unusual design of his three-wheeled cycle makes for an extremely safe and comfortable ride; stable and aerodynamic, it’s “the go-cart of your dreams.” He named it Shadowfax, after Gandalf’s horse of Lord of the Rings fame. “A friend told me that the secret when going through middle age is to find your inner wizard,” Franks explains. “His is Yoda, so he said I could have Gandalf.” Franks spoke to his wife regularly by phone, and Martha Franks (A78) logged his experiences on their Web site under the heading, “From the Bay to the Fe: Cross Country on Shadowfax.” Excerpts from Franks’ travel log describe the highlights (and low points) of the trip. Except for Grant Franks’ initial pre-trip entry, the log was recorded by Martha Franks. O –Beth Schulman June 3: Headed out of town, the headwind seemed daunting until Grant realized he had the parking brake on—doesn’t happen on a regular bike. Then, to make up time, put on Bach’s Symphony and Cantata No. 3 which pushed him up from 10.5 mph to 14.3 mph. Although Grant brought some selections from the Buddhist monk Thich Naht Hahn, he’s worried that “mindfulness” is exactly what you don’t want on a trip like this. June 6: Grant headed up 54 North on a shoulderless four-lane highway… Some people gave him a wide berth; some didn’t, June 9: First, the stats: 99.38 miles, over very bumpy proto-Ozarks; 10 hours and 48 minutes between Lamar and Marshfield. While not the longest, this was certainly the hardest day so far. There were even despairing thoughts of flagging a truck down during the last few hours, but none came by, and Grant was driven by circumstance into accomplishment. June 11: The morning began auspiciously, keeping up a 10 mph average, despite a phenomenon that Grant named to himself “missouris.” These are small valleys cut into the limestone Ozark plateau until it comes to the edge of the “missouri,” where it continues in the same compass heading, but angling downward at an alarming angle of dip. Without making actual measurements, Grant estimates the average angle to be about 88°. Since the citizens of Missouri—could it really be malice?—have made no use of zigzag “switchback” patterns common in the Appalachians for going up steep grades, the road simply careens down the side of the valley where it crosses a one-lane bridge over the small stream that is responsible for the valley in the first place…Grant can measure the severity of such “missouris” by the speed that the Shadowfax attains when it arrives at the bridge: there are 30 mph misBiking from Santa Fe to Annapolis gave Grant Franks a physical challenge he was hungry for. “In my fantasy life, the trip quickly grew into a personal confrontation between me and the highway system of the United States,” says tutor Grant Franks. “In my imagination, I would taunt the road map: ‘You’re not so big! I can take you!’ Bizarre? Maybe. But I was looking for a big challenge, and here it was.” victoria smith May 16: With the trip a week and a half away, I am doing some preparation work on Shadowfax, fixing the headrest and the side pannier supports. I am also working on loading my I-Pod with music and books for listening during the trip. The longest work I have is the Bible, unabridged (77 hours from Genesis to Revelation). Also included are three John Le Carré novels, Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and extended selections from James Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake, plus several dozen hours of music ranging from Sinead O’Connor and Joan Baez to Aaron Copeland, Beethoven, and Bach. Also the Beatles. and Grant realized he had been spoiled by the long ride from Las Vegas on an empty two-lane highway with broad shoulders and no traffic—hot, straight and boring, but reasonably safe. The Song of Songs is wonderful—love stronger than death—although some of the similes are surprising, and there is not the smallest textual suggestion to support the church’s long-time claim that this is a chaste allegory for divine/ecclesiastical relations. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �{Tutors} no desire to be like anyone else; second, in particular, he didn’t want to be like someone who would shout such a question; third, cars were a blot on the landscape which made us dependent on foreign oil; and fourth, maybe if this guy got out of his car sometimes he would be in better shape. souris, 35 mph missouris, etc. The most severe has been a 44 mph missouri; coming to the “Yield” sign at the bottom of that missouri, Grant was screaming, “Yield to me! I can’t stop!” Fortunately, there was no oncoming traffic...And then the rains began. At first it seemed merely an obstacle to be faced with a high heart, and thoughts of “this is not so bad” kept up the energy. The yellow rain jacket seemed to work, although there was no question of keeping dry, really, since rain on the outside met sweat from the inside with only the wall of plastic between them. Sunscreen, it turns out, causes water to bead up, leaving Grant feeling that he had been dipped in wax. June 13: The first leg to Ellington, Mo., was easy enough, and the eidos of a roadside diner was found, with aggressively authentic people—Heidegger would be pleased. Fortified with a Western omelet, hash browns and toast, Grant made the dicey decision to brave the predicted thunderstorms and head for the next dot of civilization some 35 miles away . . . Every hill is a raw, untempered straining straight into the sky. One was five miles long and found Grant geared all the way down to first gear—out of a possible 81—but still hardpressed. The Ten Commandments are a popular lawn ornament in this place. June 14: I remarked that he seemed to think nothing now of 60-mile days which had been hard at first. He scoffed at the 60-mile day—a “nothing, a bagatelle, a luxury.” The first 10 miles whistle by, the second are a little harder; the third seem like the meat and potatoes of the day; the fourth are “droll,” and the fifth are spent thinking that you are practically there, while the sixth pass thinking that you are there and will there be a hotel? June 15: Coming out of Chester, the Cycling Association offered two routes. Grant chose one along the levee, which meant that he rode on absolute flat through haze and watched the water and the coal barges moving along with it. Spectacular. Deer by the side of the road. The miles slipped by. The heavy, thick smell of green and humidity brought home that he has reached the East. June 16: Coming out of Eddieville, in the last few miles of the day, he looked straight ahead through some trees and saw bluegreen hills rolling away into the distance 45 forever—Kentucky, just across the Ohio. He had about a tenth of a second to admire all that loveliness before he was taken by a final, unexpected missouri, and plunged, shouting, down an asphalt incline. You don’t pedal at that pace; you mostly fall, and the winds pulled his helmet back so far that it was acting like a parachute, so that the only way to get it back on the top of his head was to open his jaw widely, in which case the bugs moved in. Quite a moment. Through wind-induced tears he made out that he was going 44.1 mph, peak speed on the trip so far. June 21: The two books he had recently bought, Northrop Frye, some superfluous shorts, and other small items could be spared, so Grant packed them up and mailed them to my mother in Washington, D.C., lightening his load by, says the post office, 4.7 lbs (including some Missouri moisture that had never entirely left the Northrop Frye book). Feeling immensely ahead of the game, he rewarded himself by purchasing Paul Tillich’s The Courage to Be—narrowly preferred to Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo and only upon the discovery that Hegel was not to be had…The madness for books obscures every prudent thought; I know this because, with Grant too far away to exercise oversight, I have been filling up our bookshelves, too. Between us, we will read ourselves out of house and home. June 23: As he was starting up, a black Camaro roared by, and a pudgy head and shoulders leaned out from it to shout “Why don’t you get a car like everybody else?” Some energizing defiance from that experience, as Grant reflected that, first, he had { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } June 25: There was a curious feeling today that, under the table, the trip had been accomplished, even though there is so far to go...Finally, he began to feel a little ragged, 73 miles being a pretty long day over rough country, so he put on the Brandenbergs, which give the feet great tempo. You can switch to the largo movements going uphill, and there is nothing to beat the peppiness that pulls you over those last few miles. Bach was truly a genius. Grant is in Damascus, Va., trying to avoid having portentous thoughts about being blinded on the road there, since he has been listening to all this Paul. June 28: There is a large National Park between Lexington and Charlottesville…Down so close to the ground, not only does he get interested and appreciative toward the flowers, but has begun to notice the smells. A car going by, spouting exhaust, is something of a trial in that regard—he finds himself tempted to shout “Get a tricycle!” at them . . . Several times in the course of the last few days people have asked about the New Mexico flag he flies. Some people’s jaws drop when he says he has cycled from there, which is gratifying of course, but he also muses on the fact that no one recognizes the flag. He feels like Odysseus with the oar. June 29: “Never let it be said,” Grant told me, sternly, “that a guy in a fake wheelchair can’t make it all the way up Blue Ridge.” The Appalachians are harder, although in Virginia they have achieved the switchback …Grant came down through the town of Afton, clinging by his fingernails to the side of the mountain, where the cookie lady lives. This is someone who keeps a perpetual welcome and refreshment for bicyclers coming up this steep way, by way of congratulations on the undertaking. A classy ministry, I think…Charlottesville was unmistakable, with the rotunda of the University of Virginia. This is the symbol for Grant of a life not lived, as he would probably have gone to UVA if he hadn’t found St. John’s instead—an imponderable alternative. x �{Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Dear Johnnies, The January Alumni Association Board meeting sometimes leads us into blizzards and sometimes into beautiful winter sunsets, but it always puts us in the middle of essay writing period for seniors. They take a few hours out of their labors to join alumni hosts for Senior Dinners—conversations between alumni and soon-to-be alumni about the college, self, and the world. April on the Annapolis campus includes lots of fun things—croquet, budding flowers, more senior dinners, and soccer on the green. Passing by Dean Flaumenhaft’s office I was reminded of the completion of the spring essay ritual. Posted there on his door were the schedules for Senior Orals. Before I could have a thought, the feelings rushed back. In an instant I relived it all: the alternating despair and elation of essay writing period, the trembling hands before the opening question, the careful and considered conversation, the unfettered relief when it was over, and the joyous celebration. Looking at the list of essay titles, feeling gave way to thought with a question: How does your senior essay relate to the rest of your life? I know the curiosity that led me to Galileo for my essay was the same curiosity that has driven my work as a high school physics teacher, instructional designer, entrepreneur, and researcher. Though the title is long since lost (and thankfully) in the dusty recesses, I know that the questions that drew me to my topic are the same questions that inspire and engage me today. I am sure my essay, as product, was both arrogant and naïve, but as process it was a precursor to a chain of investigations that continue to build my life as a thinking human being, if not a full-time liberal artist. Is the same true of you? How do you see your current self reflected (or challenged) in the essay you wrote during the spring of your senior year? How have the questions shaped your later inquiries? How did the writing reflect your literary habits? How did the public defense of your work build your strength as a confident conversational companion? Or do you see the experience as disconnected from the rest of your life? I also wondered about the lives that would unfold for these emerging alumni as they take their St. John’s experiences out into the world. What do their essay titles say about them as productive members of their various communities? How will they integrate their Johnnie experiences into fulfilling lives of love, work, and learning? What kind of partners and parents will these people become? How will they practice citizenship in an ever more challenging polity? How will they express themselves through public and private action? What do these essay titles tell you about the newly formed alumni who created them? A Modest Approach to Science through Analogy A Confession of the Confessions The Art of Beauty: A Discussion of Duality in To the Lighthouse Wanted: Guilty for All God’s Thumb: The Political Discourse of The Federalist Desire, the One True Teacher: The Investigation of Love Within Plato’s Symposium Moral Teleology and Practical Proofs Montaigne’s Path to Wisdom; or, How Not to Miss the Point Entirely Experiencing Incommensurability And from Santa Fe... Science as a Poetic Vision: Finding a Home for Orphaned Beauty in Goethe’s Metamorphosis of Plants The Importance of Being Wagner You Ain’t the Boss of Me: Freedom and Social Rebellion in Prometheus Bound Human Instinct: The Mortar of Our Universe Piety and Passivity: Walking the Line in the Book of Job Prelude to the Song: Mathematics, Dialectic, and the Good Mercy, Sin, and the Foundations of Society in The Scarlet Letter Life: A Blend of Dichotomies Theory of the Use of Theory: The Question of the Practical in Modern Science Santa Fe graduates have much to celebrate. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Whether from Annapolis or Santa Fe, undergraduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, 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 Alumni Association news and events of interest. President – Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President – Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary –Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer – Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team Chair – Linda Stabler-Talty (SFGI76) Web site – www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml 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. We welcome all of these authors into the community of the St. John’s College Alumni Association along with their peers who began the journey with them four years ago and who were following other paths as spring came to Santa Fe and Annapolis. It is a privilege and a pleasure to share experiences and remembered experiences with you! For the past, the present, and the future. Glenda Eoyang SF76 Eoyang@chaos-limited.com President St. John’s College Alumni Association teri thomson randall 46 �47 {Alumni Association News} Homecoming Honorees The Alumni Association celebrated the accomplishments of two distinguished St. John’s alumni with Awards of Merit presented at Homecoming in Santa Fe. A native of New York City, Alfred Grant (SFGI83) earned a degree from City College of New York before embarking on a naval career from January 1943 to November 1945. He founded his own company in the 1960s and sold it in 1972. He moved to Santa Fe in 1978 and enrolled in the Graduate Institute. After earning his St. John’s degree, Grant earned a second master’s from the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of two books: Our American Brethren: A History of Letters in the British Press During the American Revolution, 1775-1781 (1995) and The American Civil War and the British Press (2002). Grant served on the Board of Visitors and Governors from 1987 to 1990. Eric Springsted (SF73) went on to study theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he earned a master’s of divinity and a Ph.D. Springsted has served as chaplain and lecturer in philosophy at Princeton Theological Seminary and Illinois College. As founder and president of the American Weil Society, he is recognized as the foremost American author on Weil, having authored and edited books including Christus Mediator; Simone Weil and the Suffering of Love; and Spirit, Nature and Community. Springsted’s involvement in the college has included serving as class of 1973 representative for the Fourth Century fund-raising campaign and as a member of what is now Philanthropia, the Alumni Association’s development arm. He has also been an active member of the association. x Celebrating the Formation of Attention The following is excerpted from remarks from Eric Springsted, A73, at the Homecoming banquet in Santa Fe. Fourteen years ago in April 1989, the American Weil Society held its annual meeting at St. John’s in Santa Fe. The theme of the meeting that year was “Simone Weil and Educa- tion.” With the help of [Santa Fe Tutor] Elliot Skinner, I arranged for a volunteer group of students to have a seminar on Weil’s essay “Reflections on The Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God.” Fifteen to twenty students read the text and showed up on a late Friday afternoon to discuss it as Elliot and I led the seminar, and the Weil experts sat around the outside of the Senior Common Room and watched. That the students were willing to do this was already a testimonial to St. John’s. What was more important is that the students were magnificent. The best of them saw the deeper points of the essay, and even were able to anticipate Weil’s thought in areas where they had not read. But something else struck me about this seminar, something that very much had to do with the reading. “Right Use of School Studies” is about attention, a key notion in Weil’s thinking. She defines attention as “suspending our thought, leaving it detached, empty and ready to be penetrated by the object.” The word “detached” is an unfortunate translation for it renders the French disponible, which does not have the connotation of aloofness that the English “detached” does; it means something more like “ready to be used.” What Weil then means by attention is that it is a way of knowing that does not construct meaning and truth but takes it in as it is, consents to the reality of the other, and then adjusts itself to that reality. Attention is a key notion for her understanding of faith, love of God and neighbor, philosophy (including her astounding readings of Plato), Christ, and her left wing politics. Now what struck me about this seminar is that the students weren’t just talking about attention, they were showing it at an appropriate level just as Weil thought students should. They were paying close attention to a not-so-easy text. But they were also paying attention to each other. Afterwards members of the society remarked with some amazement at how students in the seminar helped each other to understand. They also remarked on the fact that when a junior or senior cited a thinker such as Kant, he or she immediately recognized that the freshmen and sophomores hadn’t read Kant, and so worked to put the point in other terms. At St. John’s discussion has always been fair and requires a common text. Why is all this so important? In a late fragment Weil defined culture this way: “Culture is the formation of attention.” Culture, at least a worthy culture, gives us worthy things to pay attention to, it gives us knowledge and wisdom as a goal; it even shapes our bodily reactions so that we can sit still long enough { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } to pay attention. It gives us what the Germans call Sitzfleisch. That “culturing” in the service of attention above all is what this school is good at, I realized that April afternoon. I don’t know if we always recognize that. I don’t think we did, or even could as students when we were so thoroughly situated within the process. But for those of us here who are no longer students, we ought to recognize it. We ought to recognize it for a reason that Weil argued that we need to respect institutions and collectivities, namely that they are food for the soul. Without them our souls starve. This is something we need to pay close attention to. In a culture that deforms attention, where intellectuals are either busy constructing or deconstructing reality—but never paying attention to it, where differences between the just and the unjust are blurred by those leaders who ought to distinguish them, and where we all are constantly being distracted, this college is a rare place where a mind when it asks for bread doesn’t get a stone or a serpent. It truly deserves our support. x CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed below for information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-275-9012 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin 410-280-0958 PORTLAND Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 AUSTIN Bev Angel 512-926-7808 SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 BALTIMORE David Kidd 410-728-4126 SANTA FE Richard Cowles 505-986-1814 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 SEATTLE Amina Stickford 206-269-0182 CHICAGO Lorna Johnson 773-338-8651 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 DALLAS/FORT WORTH Suzanne Gill Doremus 817-927-2390 DENVER/BOULDER Lee Goldstein 720-283-4659 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 NEW YORK Fielding Dupuy 212-576-7260 NORTHERN CALIF. Jonathon Hodapp 831-393-9496 TRIANGLE CIRCLE (NC) Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 WASHINGTON DC Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 9-722-671-7608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �48 {St. John’s Forever} The birthplace of Charles Carroll, the Barrister, begins its journey up Main Street to the Annapolis campus. Moving Day hat does it take to move a 1723 house through a 1955 town? Five weeks, $20,000, 43 feet of clearance, and some legal acrobatics. On the morning of October 4, 1955, hundreds of Annapolitans watched as the Carroll Barrister House, birthplace of Charles Carroll, the Barrister, an early American patriot, was moved from the corner of Main and Conduit streets to its current location on the King George Street side of the Annapolis W campus. Workers had spent two weeks preparing the house: jacking it up, laying steel beams, and dismantling chimneys. The power company sent 20 workers to install temporary high poles to provide clearance for the house along its journey. The house was split into two parts: a 125-ton section that reached King George Street at 6 p.m. and was placed on the campus the next morning, and a 25-ton section that was moved three weeks later in less than three hours. During the course of the move, the title changed hands three times to establish insurance liability: At the beginning of the day, the house belonged to Joseph G. Greenfield, who had bought it at auction { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } and wanted to develop the site for commercial purposes. During the trip, it belonged to Historic Annapolis, which had raised $20,000 to save the house from demolition and finance the move. As soon as it was placed at its new site, it became the property of St. John’s. Today the building houses the Admissions and Advancement offices. It is the first stop on campus for many Johnnies who visit as prospective students. They meet with Admissions Director John Christensen in his office, which was once the dining room, and often have their interviews in the reception room, once the living room. x �{Alumni Events Calendar} Alumni Event Annapolis-area alumni have the opportunity to take a leap of imagination in considering mathematics in a seminar on Harvard mathematician Barry Mazur’s book Imagining Numbers (Particularly the Square Root of 15.) Tutors Sam Kutler (A54) and Eva Brann will co-lead the seminar, scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, October 12. Mazur, one of the foremost mathematicians in the world, served as the chief “referee” on the panel to check the Andrew Wiles proof of Fermat’s last theorem. Imagining Numbers explores how we grasp and develop ideas both in poetry and in math, from the Renaissance to the present day, and provides a step-by-step guide to how we can begin imagining numbers for ourselves. To register or for more information, call the Annapolis Alumni Office: 410-626-2531. moe hanson The Painting Project For three days in August, a small group from the classes of 1968 and 1969 came to the Santa Fe campus, sacrificing vacation time to tape windows and casings, climb ladders, paint walls, and generally improve the environs for all. The effort was coordinated by Margaret Gaffney (SF69), who was joined by Thompson Clay (SF69), Wendy Watson (SF68), Richard and Shirley Flint (SF68), and Ray Drolet (SF69). The group hopes to see the Alumni Painting Project become an annual event. Homecoming in Annapolis Laura Mangum (A04) and Alex Wall (A03) donned formal clothes and waltzed around the Great Hall as models for the 2003 Homecoming poster in Annapolis. Annapolis artist Moe Hanson photographed the couple, then used the snapshots to paint her watercolor celebrating one of the college’s favorite traditions, the waltz. The painting was used for a Homecoming brochure and poster—this year’s giveaway gift to attendees. Didn’t get one at Homecoming September 12-14 in Annapolis? A limited number are available for sale. Call the Alumni Office at 410-626-2531. Tom Clay works on painting a ceiling as Shirley Flint takes a break. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Fall 2003 } �P ERIODICALS P OSTAGE PAID P UBLISHED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE P.O. BOX 2800 A NNAPOLIS , M ARYLAND 21404 dave trozzo ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 pages 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/. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Title A name given to the resource The College, Fall 2003 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Description An account of the resource Volume 29, Issue 3 of the <em>The College</em> Magazine. Published in Fall 2003. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The_College_Magazine_Fall_2003 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/2af56e11a45b8d3aba5f39661265e33b.pdf 34e7470ef8c8719f57ecabb40f92fa18 PDF Text Text The College St. John’s College • Annapolis w i n t e r • Santa Fe Adam Smith The life of the Marketplace 2 0 0 4 �On Adam Smith verybody wants a piece of Adam Smith. Comb through articles in major newspapers and trade journals, and you’ll find him embraced by the right, “reclaimed” by the left, quoted in Congress, and tapped in propaganda by free trade advocates and anti-globalization groups alike. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a fan: “I am more comfortable with an Adam Smith philosophy than with Keynesian Theory,” said the man hitherto famous for the line “I’ll be back.” Smith has even been tapped as a “witness” in a recent criminal case. After former Sotheby’s Chairman A. Alfred Taubman was convicted of conspiring to fix commission prices with rival Christie’s, Taubman’s attorneys argued that his conviction was tainted by this oft-quoted passage from The Wealth of Nations: “People in the same trade seldom meet together even for merriment or diversion, but the conversation ends in conspiracy against the public and in some contrivance to raise prices.” Taubman’s lawyers claimed that the quote, included in closing arguments by the prosecution, constituted improper use of expert testimony. The appeals court upheld the conviction, but told prosecutors to leave Smith out of it in the future. Born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, Smith lived during a remarkable time, had remarkable friends— David Hume, Voltaire, Samuel Johnson, to name a few—and penned one of the most important treatises written in the English language. He is credited with founding what later would be called the English School of Classical Political Economy. But biographers suggest this major contributor to the Scottish Enlightenment was a fairly quiet, socially awkward, and absentminded individual. He remained a bachelor all his life and lived with his mother. Smith was born in 1723. His father died before he was born. After attending the burgh school and the University of Glasgow, he was sent to Oxford, where he learned Greek, read Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature, and developed a disdain for Oxford’s indolent professors. In 1751, at age 28, Smith became a professor of Logic at Glasgow, and the following year took the Chair of Moral Philosophy. In 1759, he published The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which won him widespread acclaim. In 1764 he gave up the chair in Glasgow for the more lucrative post of tutor to the young Duke of Buccleuch. The job allowed him to tour France, enjoy admiring and attentive audiences in French salons, and advance his study of the French physiocrats and their laissez-faire ideas. That post also left him with a pension that freed him from academic work and allowed him to devote himself to writing. He published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776, won appointment as Commissioner of Customs and of Salt Duties, and became a founding member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In the last years of his life, he hated to be away from his family and his library, a collection of several thousand volumes of Latin and Greek classics, literature and art, science and philosophy. He died on July 17, 1790, leaving a fairly modest estate. He had given away much of his wealth in secret acts of charity. In April 1776, Smith’s good friend Hume wrote his fellow Scotsman to congratulate him on his accomplishment, warning Smith that the public might not embrace it right away. (He was wrong; the book was an instant sensation.) But Hume’s praise, so warmly offered, is similar to the words modern economists use today when describing The Wealth of Nations: “…it has Depth, and Solidity, and Acuteness and is so much illustrated by curious facts, that it must at last take the public Attention.” E — RH The College (usps 018-750) is published quarterly 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 postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, md 21404-2800. Annapolis 410-626-2539 reharty@sjca.edu Rosemary Harty, editor Sus3an Borden, managing editor Jennifer Behrens, art director Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Barbara Goyette Kathryn Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Jo Ann Mattson Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 alumni@sjcsf.edu Laura J. Mulry, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board Michael Franco David Levine Andra Maguran Margaret Odell Ginger Roherty Roxanne Seagraves Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �winter 2004 Vo l u m e 3 0 , I s s u e 1 The College The Magazine for Alumni of St. John’s College Annapolis • Santa Fe {Contents} 12 Money Talks d e p a r t m e n t s page 2 • Johnnies succeed in finance not by breaking the rules, but by figuring them out faster than their competitors. 17 Santa Fe’s Martial Artists • • • • page • • • page 12 Santa Fe tutors find serious practice of the martial arts complements their work at St. John’s. 9 32 35 20 Remembering Freshman Year Christopher Nelson: Double Duty Search Update Meet the Alumni Directors A New Face in the Great Hall Santa Fe Bikes to Work Being Green in Annapolis Thai Summer Philanthropia letters bibliofile alumni notes P RO F I L E S page Annapolis alumni share memories of Jascha Klein, dorm mishaps, Seducers and Corrupters, and fateful first meetings. from the bell towers 34 Francisco Benítez (SF89) finds artistic inspiration in Dionysiac frescoes. 37 Eileen Renno (A82) helps welfare clients find dignity and confidence in work. 38 Wine expert Jake Kosseff (A95) and his brush with reality television. page 26 44 alumni voices Photographer Vivian Ronay (class of 1965) captures Petra, the Lost City of Stone. 26 St. John’s vs. The Naval Academy page 46 48 The stakes in this contest were much higher than a croquet cup. 30 Annapolis Homecoming page page 30 on the cover Adam Smith Illustration by David Johnson alumni association news st. john’s forever �2 {From the Bell Towers} A Conversation with Christopher Nelson Q. Let’s talk first about the sheer physical challenges of running two campuses that are 2,000 miles and a couple of time zones apart. How are you managing this? A. Being in each place half the time means that on each campus, everyone has sandwiched in as many meetings, ceremonial occasions, and social functions as possible. While I’m still doing less than a full-time job on each campus, all this means that I have no evening time, no time for catching up on work, and less time for exercise. It’s just going from one meeting to another meeting. Of course, I expected that I’d be attending to the needs of two campuses instead of one, but I don’t think I realized how much I’d have to squeeze in. While I’ve always done a fair bit of travel for the job, these flights to Santa Fe and back are longer flights than usual. I’ve cut back on other travel as a result of this. I don’t think the travel itself is all that exhausting. It takes a lot of time to get from one city to the other, and that does give me some time to read. We have deliberately designed the presidency here to preserve two separate individual campus communities and to avoid centralization. I think that’s a healthy thing. But it does mean I feel like I’m literal- david trozzo In the past six months, Annapolis President Christopher Nelson (SF70) has become one of Southwest Airlines’ best customers. Serving as interim president in Santa Fe while the board searches for a successor to John Balkcom (SFGI00) has meant frequent travel to the college’s Western campus. At the end of a busy fall semester, Nelson sat down to discuss the challenges and opportunities of serving two campuses. Christopher B. Nelson ly two people. I had an Executive Committee dinner the other day at the board meeting and I counted out 14 places for all the people who were there. There was this empty chair at the end of the table and I could not figure out for the life of me who it was. There were two special guests, four officers of the board, four at-large elected members of the board, and then the two deans and the two presidents. And it didn’t strike me until the salad course that I was the two presidents. Q. How do you establish priorities for your work with two campuses to attend to? A. I tend to concentrate on the needs of the campus when I’m there, but invariably there are needs of the other campus that come up during the course of the day. Both campuses have a very good staff of officers and directors, and a lot can be done without my being present. But a number of surprises that come up during the course of the week require some presidential work, so I am always in touch with the away campus. I schedule the calendar around board meetings, joint instruction committee meetings, Parents’ Weekends, Homecomings, and other major events. Most of the calendar is scheduled a full year in advance here in Annapolis. In Santa Fe, with an interim situation, there aren’t nearly as many activities scheduled, but I need to make as much time as I can to be available to the Santa Fe community. Instead of attending nine faculty meetings a year, I now attend 18. This winter, I’ll be in Santa Fe more than Annapolis, but that’s because this has been a very busy fall in Annapolis. Q. What are you gaining from this experience? Will it change the way you look at the college as a whole, or how things are done in Annapolis? A. I see things in Santa Fe that would be interesting to try here in Annapolis: programs that faculty and staff have done with students, things that have been organized by students that are different in Santa Fe that seem to be very nicely done—a community clean-up day at the beginning of the semester, town hall meetings, and faculty-student social hours, for example. Parents’ Weekend is different on the two campuses. In Santa Fe there is no meeting such as we have in Annapolis with the parents, the dean, and the president getting together to talk about any questions that parents might ask related to the Program. But in Santa Fe, and not in Annapolis, there is a panel of students and alumni who speak to parents about the experience of living on campus and being a Johnnie. Parents seem to really appreci- { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } ate this, especially the parents of freshmen. I thought that this was proof once again that any time we want to see the college shine, we just need to introduce people to our students—they really are amazing. There are differences that go along with the physical setting of the two campuses. We have more centripetal forces at work here in Annapolis, because we have a center to campus and most things look to it physically. In Santa Fe, people are always looking outwards, because you’re surrounded by these beautiful mountains and great big skies. You also don’t have as much of a center of the college. As a result you’ve got more centrifugal forces in Santa Fe, and you have to work a little harder to bring about a strong community. I think that a lot of credit goes to those people who are doing just that in Santa Fe, organizing special projects, social hours, and other functions to bring faculty and students together. Q. The Management Committee is due to become a permanent part of the college structure [by an act of the Board of Visitors and Governors] in 2004. How has this committee contributed to the overall operation of the college? A. The Management Committee is responsible for all advancement activities of the college, including public relations and alumni relations, for preparing the budgets for both campuses, for overseeing finances and information technology, and for approving admissions and financial aid policy. The management committee consists of the two presidents and two deans, and the chair of the management committee will always be one of the two presidents. I’ve been the �3 {From the Bell Towers} Q. Since you’ve had some experience in the job, what advice do you have to share with the search committee that will help find a new leader for Santa Fe? A. I don’t think it needs to be somebody from within our own community, although that would be a very fine thing. I don’t think it has to be someone who’s been a president of another institution or even a dean. But someone who has the qualities and the capacities for leadership— that would be good. The new president has to understand that the Program comes first—that everything at the college is in the service of the Program, that the college is in a certain sense the Program. This means that we’re not looking for a president to make his reputation at this college, to take the college someplace new, or to change what it is. We need to have a president who will help us improve what we do all over the college and particularly in Santa Fe. There are criteria used for selection of tutors that would be useful to apply to the presidential search. The first is a rather elusive qualification, which is excellence of intellect and imagination. I hesitate to bring it up because I haven’t been told that I will be grandfathered in this position with reference to that qualification, but I do think it’s an important one. No college can survive well if the president isn’t up to the quality of the faculty and is unable to get the respect of the faculty. So a president who is out of step with the faculty or board is going to have a hard time at any institution, particularly here because of the Dyal in the Great Hall There’s a new face in the Great Hall in Annapolis. An oil painting of William Dyal Jr. (HA89), who served as president of the Annapolis campus from 1986 to 1990, has joined the portraits of other great figures of St. John’s history: Stringfellow Barr, Thomas Fell, Hector Humphreys, John Kieffer and others. Dyal was an effective president, and his tenure was shorter than the Annapolis campus community would have liked. He stepped down in May 1990 after recovering from surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. In presenting the portrait to Dyal in Annapolis this past October during a meeting of the Board of Visitors and Governors, President Christopher Nelson said his immediate predecessor “made an enormous and lasting impact on the college during his time here.” “He was loved and admired by faculty, and the students looked up to him,” Nelson said. “He was called accepting, wise, kind, friendly, and courageous.” Prior to joining St. John’s, Dyal served as president of American Field Service, was the founding president of the Interamerican Foundation, and served in various capacities for the Peace Corps. primacy of the Program. All in all, however, if I had to use one word for what we are looking for, it would be ‘fit.’ We want a president who belongs at the college and fits well with its ways, its program, its structures and its people. support, both within and outside the college. We have a very strong Board of Visitors and Governors, and an active body of alumni. Friends in the community are helpful. We’re entering into a capital campaign with a set of strategic goals that we think make sense for our community, and we have a high probability of achieving most of those goals through a good campaign. So a new president comes into a very nice situation. He or she will not have to reinvent the wheel. A new president has an opportunity to get to know the place, to listen and learn, to come to join the community rather than worrying about finding a new place to take it. Any president who wants to leave a legacy is probably a president we don’t want or need. The Program will be the legacy of this college; the alumni will be the legacies of this college. We—the presidents, the staff members, and faculty— we’re trustees of the Program. We care for it, and hope that we will leave the college in a little better shape than when we came. x Q. Let’s consider a candidate’s viewpoint of the presidency of St. John’s College in Santa Fe. Is this a desirable position? A. The college is in good shape. It’s hardly a wealthy institution. But considering the state of the world right now and the difficult financial times we’ve been facing in the last three years, St. John’s has fared extremely well. We have a strong student applicant pool, although we’d like to improve the number of applications to the Santa Fe campus. We have filled our freshman class at expected levels every year as far back as I can remember. We’re able to maintain a strict needbased financial aid policy, which most colleges in the country have abandoned. This is a sign of real strength. The faculty is strong. The Program has never had greater William Dyal Jr. joins distinguished ranks in the Great Hall. He was known for his work in civil rights and social justice, and he brought an international perspective to the college, Nelson said. Adept at fund raising, Dyal secured funds for faculty salaries, additions and renovations to campus buildings, and the college endowment. Dyal said he was pleased to have a place in the Great Hall, one of his favorite spots on campus. “I loved my years at St. John’s,” Dyal said. “They were too brief. I loved the faculty, I loved the students, I even learned to love the board.” As for the portrait, “the picture’s not too bad,” Dyal said. The portrait was painted by Anastasia Hoffman Egeli (A92). Dyal and his wife, Edie, now live in Fredericksburg, Va. x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } daniel houck chair since it began but expect that the chair will be moved to Santa Fe sometime after we have a new president permanently in place. I think the management committee has helped us come to know each other a lot better and to bring together policies that help to strengthen the college. We’ve been able to accomplish a few of the big tasks that had been eluding us. We now have common tuition, common admissions policies, and a common financial aid policy for the two campuses. We have equal faculty salaries, class sizes are the same, and we just now are getting to equal faculty development opportunities. �4 {From the Bell Towers} Homecoming Queens: Alumnae Return in New Roles Meet the Alumni directors in Annapolis and Santa Fe. They work with the Alumni Association to plan your Homecomings, they make small talk over wine and cheese at chapter gatherings, they persuade tutors to lead just one more Saturday morning seminar. In short, they work hard to make you—the alumni—happy customers. Both are multi-talented women: a minister, storyteller, stiltwalker, teacher, stand-up comedian in Santa Fe; a potter, artist, teacher, and singer in Annapolis. Both are moms. Both have interesting tales of how they found themselves back in the St. John’s College community. Jo Ann Mattson (A87) Jo Ann (Lautenschlager) Mattson was a freshman at Wellesley College when she came to Annapolis with her then-boyfriend (now husband) Walter Mattson (A87). Walter was visiting St. John’s as a prospective and Jo Ann, happily studying English literature at Wellesley, was merely along for the ride. “I started the visit with a snobby attitude,” she admits. “The buildings all seemed run down. I was thinking: ‘you call this a library?’ Our guide was barefoot and wearing a poncho.” Mattson, who had no serious intention of transferring, was planning to skip seminar; an incident at dinner made her reconsider. “There was a menu board outside the dining hall that said: ‘Philadelphia cheesesteak, penny carrots, French fries.’ ” Mattson recalls. “During dinner, someone stood up on a chair and said, ‘I just want to say that I’m from Philadelphia and these sandwiches in no way resemble Philly cheesesteaks.’ About 30 seconds later someone else stood up on a chair and said, ‘Well, I’m from Chicago and I just want to say that these penny carrots in no way resemble currency.’” Something about that joke, says Mattson, something about the whole atmosphere of the dining hall, made her think that maybe St. John’s was the place she was looking for. With her mind now slightly open, she attended a seminar on Plato’s Republic. “It blew me away,” she says. “The conversation was so intelligent, so passionate. It was hard to be in the room and not be allowed to speak.” She did get her chance to speak later that night, as conversation continued after seminar in the Coffee Shop. “The scene in the Coffee Shop was exactly what I was looking for, exactly what I wanted college to be,” says Mattson. That winter, she and Walter joined the Febbie class of 1987. She threw herself into the Program and loved everything, particularly freshman seminar with Mr. Williamson and Mr. McDonald and sophomore language with david trozzo Annapolis Mr. Lenkowski. She canoed on College Creek, took life-drawing classes with artist-in-residence Burt Blistein and had a campus job in the dishpit. After her sophomore year, Mattson decided to return to Wellesley and finish her degree in English, but her heart never really left St. John’s. Before she left Annapolis, she found her way into one of the most famous St. John’s photographs. Todd Reichart (A84) happened to be taking pictures outside of Walter’s Chase-Stone room during library call-in. The library was then in Woodward Hall (now the Barr-Buchanan Center), and while students and tutors paraded past Walter’s window on the way to return books, Mattson, Ralph Stengren (A86), Chris Reichert-Facilides (A86), and Doug Gentile (A86) sat in the window, clowning around. Reichart seized the opportunity to shoot what is one of the most iconic photos of the college and its students. Although St. John’s and Wellesley have nourished { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } Mattson’s intellect, she also has a strong artistic side. In addition to designing jewelry and hand-made beads and working in ceramic arts, she has had leading roles in community theater productions and singing groups. After Mattson left St. John’s, she married Walter and graduated from Wellesley. In 1991, the Mattsons moved to Connecticut where Walter taught English and geometry at Avon Old Farms School. Early in her marriage, while Mattson stayed home with their three children, she fed her creativity by making polymer clay jewelry, Halloween costumes, and “the most stupendous, over-the-top birthday cupcakes ever brought to an elementary school classroom.” When the family returned to Annapolis eight years later, Mattson started teaching at the Key School (founded by Johnnies) and volunteered in the Alumni Office, creating Jo Ann Mattson is happy to be back at St. John’s. �{From the Bell Towers} Program-inspired drawings and paintings for then-alumnidirector Roberta Gable (A78). Her work illustrated a Homecoming brochure and a croquet match poster, and ultimately led her to apply for the position of alumni director when Gable became the director of Career services. Mattson has been in the position for over a year now and finds that she loves the challenges of working with different personalities and that her diverse background is particularly suited to the everchanging needs of running an office and managing alumni events. At a recent alumni party, Mattson met Chris Denny (A93) and their discussion turned to why they came to St. John’s. Denny told her his story: When he was a high school junior he received the college catalog. Inside was a photo so evocative of the joy and camaraderie of the St. John’s experience that, based on its allure, he decided to apply. The photo, of course, was the famous Reichart Chase-Stone photo. It now hangs in Mattson’s office in the Chancellor Johnson House. —Sus3an Borden Santa Fe Roxanne Seagraves (SF83) When Roxanne Seagraves describes her amazing careers so far, there’s one that never fails to raise eyebrows: standup comedian. Night after night, she took the stage in smoky comedy clubs with a daringly wholesome act, eager for laughs, but ready for the inevitable times when she would bomb. It’s this experience, those in the know believe, that might have best prepared her for her newest job—where you can’t make all people happy all the time. After graduating from St. John’s, Seagraves moved to Chapel Hill, N.C., where she taught kindergarten at Carolina Friends School. She became involved in storytelling and performance art, discovered she was good at it, and started her own business. She took her stories to churches, community groups, and schools all over the eastern Carolinas. She created and wrote more than 300 stories for children, incorporated dance and movement in her performances, and engaged kids in the narrative. To keep herself “sane and in an adult mode,” she developed a standup comedy routine and took it on the road. Some nights, she’d have her audience rolling in the aisles; others, she couldn’t wait to get off the stage. “I sometimes thought, ‘wouldn’t it be nice if they were sober when they listened to my act?’ But I always resisted the temptation to get cheap laughs from sexual tawdriness and self-deprecating humor.” When the recession hit, fewer schools and nonprofit groups had money for stories, and comedy club gigs were drying up. It was time for a new plan, and Seagraves was drawn to the ministry—“it’s kind of like storytelling.” Although she was raised a Quaker, she chose Starr King School for the Ministry, a Unitarian-Universalist seminary in Berkeley, Calif. During her years in graduate school, her St. John’s education helped sustain Seagraves. “In the basement, the seminary had a library of rare Roxanne Seagraves has been a teacher, storyteller, and stand-up comedian. books from the 16th century: religious texts, Bibles, books in Greek and Latin. I’d kept my skills up and got a job reading and writing abstracts of the different books.” While studying for a doctorate in American Religions at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Seagraves took note of the poor state of public schools in nearby Oakland. She raised funds for an after-school tutoring program, found churches to serve as hosts, recruited students, and set up a system to communicate with the students’ teachers. She kept the project going for several years while earning her degree, and she’s pleased to see it’s still thriving today. “I think one of the things St. John’s gives students is the way we’re taught to think. We have the creative resources to engage a problem,” she says. Along the way, Seagraves decided to become a parent on her own, and is raising Thandi, now three, as a single mother. After her daughter was born, Seagraves curtailed working { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } 5 and completed her doctoral dissertation on the annual pilgrimage to Chimayó, a sanctuary in New Mexico believed to be built on sacred earth with miraculous healing powers. “I used to ride my bicycle to Chimayó, and found it a very powerful place,” Seagraves says. After Seagraves finished her doctorate, she took a job as a prevention specialist in the Tucson public school system. She worked to help deter atrisk youngsters from gang involvement, drug and alcohol abuse, and crime. “You have the challenges of poverty and the challenges of second- and third-generation gang and drug culture, and they have to be faced in order for kids to be successful in public education,” Seagraves said. With a daughter to care for, she began to worry about the physical risks of the job. When the position came open at St. John’s in Santa Fe, she was eager for a new opportunity. “I really loved the chance to come back and work with St. John’s and alumni,” she says. “Our alumni are phenomenal people—trained to be thoughtful, caring citizens. There’s a lot of good energy there.” Seagraves, who began her official duties in September, believes that most alumni will continue to gravitate back to the college. “You become so close with your classmates because you work with them so hard during your years at St. John’s. And they shape you in such profound ways,” she says. After settling in to her new job, Seagraves hopes to continue some part-time involvement in the performing arts. She has found the time to design and sew intricate costumes for another hobby almost as risky as stand-up: walking on 12-foot stilts. x —Rosemary Harty �6 {From the Bell Towers} ‘Idealist’ Promotes Alternative Commutes in Santa Fe “I don’t know if I was born an idealist or became one while studying at St. John’s,” says Circulation and Public Services Librarian Laura Cooley (SF92). “But reading books influenced my being an idealist.” Cooley is one of more than a dozen St. John’s College community members who uses alternative transportation to commute to campus. Inspired by an idea of the Santa Fe Chapter of the New Mexico Bicycle Coalition, Cooley coordinated a “Walk or Bike to Work Day” at the college on Wednesday, October 8. She promoted the event through e-mail, flyers, and word-ofmouth on campus. She staffed an information table in Peterson’s hallway outside the Coffee Shop, promoting alternative transportation, with help from students, tutor Linda Wiener, and Mark St. John (SF82), director of Athletics and Outdoor Programs, and students. They handed out cookies and lemonade provided by Aramark Food Service, free safety lights, a lottery for free bikes to those commuting from off-campus, safety tips, and bike maps of Santa Fe. Santa Fe’s Public Relations Director, Laura Mulry (SFGI02), spent two hours walking to and from work that day, surviving aching calves, SUV drivers blind to pedestrians, a steady rain, and a stiff uphill climb in places. But the walk was worth it, Mulry said, because it gave her time to contemplate a master’s essay on The Idiot and the opportunity to really notice her environs. Cooley hopes to make the event an annual happening. x damian taggart Santa Fe Search Laura Cooley’s ride to work has a nifty windshield. Thai Summer Last summer, Santa Fe tutor Linda Wiener and her children traveled to Thailand to live and work at the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden, 30 kilometers outside the city of Chiangmai in the northern mountains. Thailand’s tropical environs are famous for orchids, ferns, lotus, and other exotic plants. Wiener spent the summer helping to start a natural history museum on the grounds of the garden, a challenging task since staff of the fledgling museum had no prior museum experience. She assisted in planning the exhibits, helping to create a prototype exhibit on pollination and flower form, and led a workshop for the staff of the garden on museum philosophy and management. With a Ph.D. in entomology, Wiener devotes her summers to her work as an entomologist and field biologist. When she wasn’t working directly with the museum staff, A specimen from Thailand. With the help of an executive search firm, a committee is beginning to cull through applications coming in from candidates seeking to become the next president of the Santa Fe campus. John Balkcom (SFGI00) resigned from the Santa Fe presidency in June. Created by the Board of Visitors and Governors, the search committee comprises both deans, a faculty member from each campus, and five board members. Last fall, the committee retained the Boston-based firm of Isaacson, Miller to assist in the search. The firm will conduct screening interviews and extensive background checks before recommending candidates to the search committee. The search committee will then interview finalists before presenting a single candidate for the board to consider at its April or July meeting. The search committee is chaired by Michael Uremovich, a Santa Fe board member and current student in the Graduate Institute. x Wiener surveyed the butterflies at the garden, examined spiders, and studied the local flora. She loved being in Thailand during the rainy season, when the rainforest is vibrantly green. Thailand, Wiener notes, benefits from an enlightened monarch. “When the Thais were trying to stop the opium trade, they did not spray defoliants and other poisons, burn fields, and shoot people,” says Wiener. “The king reasoned that they were taking away these peoples’ livelihood and so had to do something for them. He set up the King’s Royal Projects, a series of state-of-the-art organic farms in the former opium-growing regions. They train the indigenous people who traditionally grew opium to run the organic farms, and the king supported the projects until they became self-sufficient.” Visiting Thailand, a Buddhist country, has provided a valuable experience for Wiener’s work at St. John’s, where she has just begun teaching Eastern Classics seminars. “I think that the ideas, rituals, and practice of Buddhism have a very significant effect on the culture, and experiencing that difference from our culture every day and speaking with Thais about their religion and the way it affects their daily life, really enhanced my understanding and appreciation of Buddhism.” x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } —Andra Maguran �7 Annapolis’ ‘Green’ Dormitory The newest dormitory on the Annapolis campus won’t be hooked up to the college’s steam plant. Instead it will use an innovative geothermal heating and cooling system that will save money and conserve energy. Geothermal systems use the earth’s constant subsurface temperature of 51 degrees to 55 degrees to provide more efficient heating and cooling. In winter, the system draws heat from the ground to heat buildings; in summer it extracts heat from buildings and transfers it to the ground. It’s estimated that the system is 40 percent more energyefficient than conventional airto-air heat pumps. Tanks of frozen water in mellon cool the building. During site preparation for the system last fall, the campus playing field looked like the set of the movie Holes. Dozens of narrow holes were drilled 300 feet into the ground. High-density polyethylene pipes were inserted, and a bentonite grout packed around the tubes to protect the groundwater from surface contamination. The closed-circuit piping will carry a biodegradable anti-freeze type solution that will be heated or cooled by the earth. The grid of pipes ultimately will be connected to a main feed that will deliver the solution to a heat exchanger in the new dormitory building. This innovation, says Steve Linhard, assistant treasurer, is environmentally friendly, efficient, and cost-effective. “After a payback period of about five years, we’ll have virtually no energy costs for heating and cooling the building, save for the nominal electricity cost to run the pumps,” he says maryirene ruffin {From the Bell Towers} The 18,000-square-foot dormitory will house 48 students and is expected to open in time for the fall semester. Annapolis’ playing fields also will be back in shape for teams to begin using in the spring. Linhard, who came to St. John’s from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, has earned the reputation of “Mr. Green” around Annapolis. With other campus and community participants in Annapolis, he was involved in a project to restore the marshland around College Creek by planting spartina and Workers install a geothermal system for the new dorm. other natural grasses and shrubs. And as the supervisor of the renovation and expansion of Mellon Hall, Linhard promoted the installation of an environmentally friendly cooling system. That system involves tanks of freezing water in the Mellon basement. The system runs during off-peak hours and releases cool air through the building during the day. x maryirene ruffin Justice O’Connor Speaks in Annapolis Forum On October 11, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor attracted a crowd of more than 500 people to the college’s first “Great Issues” forum in several years. O’Connor spoke on “The Supreme Court and the Shaping of Law,” and community members afterward met in seminars to discuss the groundbreaking decision Marbury v. Madison. “Without Marbury, the rulings of our Supreme Court on questions of discrimination, church-state relations, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press would be less important and less enduring,” O’Connor said. The Great Issues Series, sponsored by the Friends of St. John’s College, was created to engage the Annapolis-area community in thoughtful discussions and debate. x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �A Coffee Shop, Now and Then Marion Warren’s blackand-white photographs are among the most distinctive in the St. John’s archives in Annapolis. Warren handled much of the public relations photography for the college during the 1950s and 1960s. The portraits, publicity stills, and candid photographs he took are set apart by their rich blackand-white tones, an expert sense of composition, and a special talent for capturing a moment in time. “They called me the besteducated photographer around because of all the time I spent at St. John’s,” says Warren, now in his 80s. When Philanthropia volunteers and college staff wanted to replicate an archival photograph for this year’s Annual Fund appeal, Warren’s Coffee Shop photo was an easy choice. Although it was taken in 1954 in Annapolis, the St. John’s Coffee Shop experience of dialogue and community spans generations and speaks to Santa Fe and Annapolis alumni alike. Powerful klieg lights were already set up for the filming of {From the Bell Towers} the St. John’s Story, a promotional movie about the college that was released the following year. Warren stepped in and took his photo quickly, recalls Carolyn Banks-Leeuwenburgh (class of 1955). The first woman to apply to the college, Banks-Leeuwenburgh says the Coffee Shop was her favorite haunt. “It seemed like it was full all the time. We were a small class—there weren’t even 200 students in the whole school—and people would just go to the Coffee Shop and talk about all the hard work,” she recalls. After graduating, BanksLeeuwenburgh became an opera singer in Europe and New York, taught, raised three children, became a therapist, and with her husband, Helge, led travel tours. She served on the board of the Alumni Association. Now enjoying an active retirement, she audits classes at Princeton University. In the photo, BanksLeeuwenburgh is looking across at classmate Emily Martin Kutler, class of 1955. “I don’t remember what we were laughing about, but clearly, we weren’t entertaining the rest of marion warren 8 the group,” Banks-Leeuwenburgh says. “They looked a little bored.” Sitting in Banks-Leeuwenburgh’s spot in the contemporary photograph was freshman Emma Plaut. On campus for less than a week, Plaut was minding her own business in the quad when she was recruited for the photo. Plaut is the daughter of alumni Richard Plaut and Carol Katrina (A77 and A79). Her interest in St. John’s was fueled by her parents’ enthusiasm. “They dragged me on a visit to St. John’s, and I sat in on a seminar,” she recalls. “Then I went to other colleges where I sat in on lectures and what other colleges called seminars. I thought, ‘what is this? No one’s even talking. Nobody even looks like they want to be here.’ At St. John’s, everybody was really interested. They all wanted to be there and they all wanted to be learning.” Another subject in the original photo, Everett Wilson (class of 1956), turned down scholarships to several colleges and instead enrolled at St. John’s. He became only the second black student to graduate from the college (after Martin A. Dyer, class of 1952). “St. John’s was difficult and rigorous, but I’m glad, because it prepared me to go to graduate school, where I got straight-As,” Wilson said. david trozzo top: The Coffee Shop circa 1954. Counter-clockwise from the page-turner at the front table: William H. Barrett (class of 1956), Emily Martin Kutler (class of 1955), Hugh McKay (class of 1955), Caroline Banks Leeuwenburgh (class of 1955), Peter McGhee (class of 1955), Barbara Dvorak Winiarski (class of 1955), Everett Wilson (class of 1956), and tutor Hugh McGrath. The two students on the right at the front table are unidentified, as is the man with his back to the photographer at the back table. At left: 2003. Counter-clockwise, from the front table: Alex Constantine (A05), Deborah Mangum (A06), George Pogiatzis (A07), Emma Plaut (A07), Joshua Suich (A05), Janae Decker (A05), Natalie Rinn (A05), tutor Erik Sageng, Dave Prosper (SF02), Lord Thomas Bainbridge (A06). The student in a white t-shirt at the back table is unidentified. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �{From the Bell Towers} Annual Fund Facts The Annual Fund provides critical support for the college each year and is a key component of the college’s operating budget. Tuition covers 70 percent of the cost of educating current St. John’s students. The remaining 30 percent comes from endowment income, state and federal grants, and gifts from alumni, parents, and friends. • The Annual Fund provides about 6 percent of the operating budget on both campuses: tutor salaries, financial aid, student services, and college offices. • Last year, 34 percent of alumni participated in the Annual Fund, up from 19 percent four years ago. • This year’s Annual Fund goal: $2.25 million. • The Annual Fund year runs from July 1, 2003, through June 30, 2004. The college mails out four appeals in that time, but once an alum makes a gift, no other appeals are sent. • Reunion classes, led by volunteers from Philanthropia, usually increase their participation rate by 10 to 20 percent. “At St. John’s, I really learned how to study, how to read to understand.” After graduation, Wilson went on to earn master’s and doctoral degrees in counseling. He worked in psychiatric social work, became the first director of the Anne Arundel County Economic Opportunity office, then taught at the University of Maryland. Next, he joined the Maryland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration as deputy director, where he remains now in addition to maintaining a part-time counseling practice. Fifty years after his picture was taken in the coffee shop, Wilson remembers it well. He also remembers Hugh McGrath, the tutor he was sitting next to. “Oh, he was my favorite tutor,” Wilson says. “He was my adviser for my senior thesis. Because I came from the Eastern Shore (of Maryland) and had difficulty with reading Shakespeare, he would work with me. He really befriended me. The school was so small that any time you asked for help, you would get it.” Annapolis tutor Erik Sageng cheerfully gave up his Saturday morning to impersonate McGrath in the photograph, bringing a book to pass the time during the lengthy setup for the photo. Sageng joined the college in 1990 after earning his doctorate in the history of mathematics at Princeton University. Taking Wilson’s place at the table was Natalie Rinn, a junior from St. Cloud, Minn. She was passing through the Coffee Shop on her way to pick up her mail when she was buttonholed for the photograph. Rinn spent a semester at Dickinson College before she transferred to St. John’s as a Febbie, following her brother Alex (A03). “I think St. John’s provides the best college education there 9 is, because it really addresses being a good citizen and the best way to live life,” she says. After graduation, Rinn hopes to spend a year studying French or Spanish, then go to law school. David Prosper (SF02) was the primary recruiter for the contemporary photograph. The St. John’s community during Prosper’s more recent years could be a “weird place.” “People were eccentric, but nobody cared if you were eccentric. You could have the most random and interesting conversations at lunch,” he says. From setup to the last shot, the photograph took almost two hours. Soda cans and water bottles took the place of the classic Coca-Cola bottles. Cell phones and PDAs took the place of cigarettes and ashtrays. Annapolis photographer David Trozzo—a steady contributor to The College—had fun replicating a master’s photo, although it was painstaking work. A professional photographer in the Baltimore/ Washington region for 15 years, Trozzo has earned many awards for his work. x {Letters} Latin Revival Diversity Initiative The Fall 2003 issue of The College has some interesting articles about language, mentioning both Esperanto and Latin. Readers may be interested in knowing that Latin as an actual spoken language has experienced something of a revival in recent years. Among other efforts, the Familia Sancti Hieronymi (507 S. Prospect Ave., Clearwater, FL 33756) holds nearly every summer a cenaculum in which Latin is the common language for instruction, socializing, and worship. They also sell tapes and books to aid in acquisition of oral Latin skills. Although Esperanto could do a good job of uniting the world linguistically, spoken Latin could also do that, as well as uniting us culturally to our past. While I applaud The College for its readable and interesting articles about the campuses, alumni, and continuing life of the mind at St. John’s College, I am extremely distressed by the sentiment displayed in… “Admissions and Diversity, East and West” (Fall 2003). I am very disappointed to see that our admissions department is looking “I found that skin color contributed nothing to any conversation I ever had or heard in class.” Erin N.H. Furby, A96 Thomas Storck, SFGI80 at race as a consideration among its applicants. St. John’s College has been the subject of derision by many of the unwise who looked only at the race and sex of the authors on the curriculum without seeing that the ideas presented in the Program are universal and applicable to all thinking people. I have always been proud that St. John’s did not alter the Program to appease the sensibilities of the immoderate fashions of contemporary academia. I prefer to think that this is a poorly chosen and written article rather than think that the admissions offices are truly falling prey to contemporary university politics. “Minority” in this article refers to different groups of people with regard to each campus, discrediting the implication of a unified goal held by St. John’s College continued on next page { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �10 {Letters} or the solidarity of the described applicant pool. In Santa Fe, “minority” refers to Hispanic and American Indian high school students while Ms. Harty only mentions black high school students as the prospective “minority” for Annapolis. Also, “minorities” for Santa Fe are being sought from around New Mexico, while Annapolis is said to be looking for black students from all over the country. I am pleased to learn about the Santa Fe campus’ grant for recruiting more students from around New Mexico, but I find the giver to be rather misguided if the grant requires the college to be on the lookout for only certain skin colors. Having the ability to visit the smaller high schools in New Mexico is a tremendous boon to St. John’s College, but why should admissions officers be pressured to seek out students of one race over another? Meanwhile, I am appalled that the Annapolis campus was mentioned in this article only in terms of having a small number of black students each year. While I was a student at SJCA, there were foreign as well as American students. Among the American citizens, non-white students were of EastAsian, Middle-Eastern, Indian, Latin American, Amerindian, and Hispanic descent as well as black (not to mention students of mixed race). I found that skin color contributed nothing to any conversation I ever had or heard in class. All that ever mattered while I was in class was the individual perspectives each person brought to class and the bond between us created by our struggles with the text. In my experience, students’ perspectives were more influenced by religion, age, home state, and economic background than by complexion. Erin N.H. Furby, A96 Remembering Vernon Derr Having just read the fall issue of The College, I very much appreciated your inclusion of my note regarding the Class of ’44, as well as the excellent obituary for our Vern Derr, in the view of his classmates, one of nature’s noblemen. A minor caveat: we few surviving members of ’44 are a jealous lot and object to his promotion to the Class of ’48! We hope that this true membership in our class may be restored. J. Rodney Whetstone Class of 1944 Moving Day I just received the Fall 2003 issue of your interesting The College. My connection with SJC is two-fold. In addition to four years of attendance, I lived on the campus from 1913 to 1916. My father, John C. Gray, was a member of the SJC faculty for that three-year period as the chemistry professor. He completed his teaching career at the Naval Academy. For most of the time he was on the SJC faculty, we lived in an apartment on campus. As you look at the campus from College Avenue, it was the left-hand building (Paca Carroll House). My brother, Joseph, class of 1936, was born in this building, and he must be the only graduate who was born on campus. I was very interested in the “Moving Day” article. While a student at SJC I lived in the Delta Psi Omega Fraternity House, which was on St. John’s Street right next to the Baptist Church. Unfortunately I do not remember the historic name of the structure. I thought that it was similar to the Carroll Barrister House. That kind of information did not survive my several moves. One time I visited the DPO House in its Conduit Street location. I do enjoy very much receiving and reading the SJC alumni publications. Edward Gray Class of 1934 Education for its Own Sake I have just finished reading, cover to cover, the Fall 2003 edition of The College and I must say that it gets better with every issue! I look forward to each edition to catch up with SJC and all its activities and those of the alumni. It is the one thing that keeps me in touch with the wonderful educational program that is the great books dialogue. As legal counsel most of my professional life to a university in the higher education industry (and make no mistake, higher education has become an “industry” with all the pejorative baggage that word conjures up), I feel uniquely qualified to express an opinion on the position St. John’s College currently occupies as an institution in this peculiar environment. The college stands out because it has courageously decided not to succumb to the trends, fads, or “new direction” other institutions feel they must in order to be “competitive.” A shining example is the college’s refusal to submit to the numbers { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } ranking game amongst other institutions. When I talk with faculty colleagues at my and other institutions across the country about the lack of departments, rigid grading systems, numerical admissions criteria, and the like at the college, many seem befuddled. It’s like the Grinch wondering how it could be Christmas without numerous presents or colorful decorations. And, like the Grinch, it takes some further thought to get the point. The college values education for its own sake; enlightenment must come from within. To be a true free thinker, one must challenge and be challenged; ask and be asked difficult questions; work hard at understanding and either confirm convictions or not be afraid to set aside or modify a way of thinking. This is, of course, easier said than done, but that is precisely why the college exists and why I cherish its existence. “Maybe I’m naive but I can’t imagine an educational philosophy that is more diametrically opposed to the St. John’s approach than this belief in the supremacy of testing.” John Scow, A71 There are some things in the human experience that remain constant. One of those constants is our dialogue: an openminded but frank discussion amongst ourselves to help us further understand the human condition. While we cannot solve all problems or make the world right for all people, those who have the willingness and ability to participate in this human conversation advance the interest of peace and harmony. The college accomplishes this important feat by conducting a conversation with humans in the classroom (with precepts, tutorials, seminars) and with humans from time gone by (the books which become the subject of the discussion). As the last issue of The College points out, such a dialogue can even occur in prison! Just think of the possibilities if this human dialogue were conducted in the Middle East. �11 {Letters} In looking at other schools offering a liberal arts education, I remain firm in my conviction that the new curriculum is the linchpin of the college’s success. However, one should not overlook the importance of keeping the college religion-free. Part of preserving an open mind is the avoidance of any sanctioned belief system; the choice of what and whether to believe must necessarily be left to individual choice. For the foregoing reasons, the college continues to stand out, stronger today than ever, amongst other higher education institutions as the place that offers the truest opportunity for an enlightened education; and from my personal experience, it is an education that will mean more to every student with each passing year. It is a further credit to the college that it has not been distracted from its core mission. Even the Grinch, in that last moment of revelation, understood that all the flashy decorations and bells-and-whistles were merely distractions from what really mattered. Sean P. Scally, AGI89 Small Awakenings I read with interest your article about the two St. Johnnies who are making a stab at the teaching profession. I was surprised to read that one out of five Johnnies go into education. I did not realize I have so much company. On the other hand, maybe it shouldn’t surprise me that so many of us get involved in education. After all, what makes St. John’s so unique is it’s unique concept of what an education is, and how its best [attained]. Assuming that, I would surmise that the St. John’s community must be in some kind of state of shock over what is happening in schools across the country. Of course I am refering to what might be described as the “test driven” approach to education. Maybe I’m naive but I can’t imagine an educational philosophy that is more diametrically opposed to the St. John’s approach than this belief in the supremacy of testing. As I recall, at St. John’s we didn’t even have an official grading system, and any mention of what grades one might have was taboo. I never saw scores of any kind posted on the doors of classrooms, along with corresponding student I.D. numbers. In fact one of the things that attracted me to St. John’s in the first place was my disenchantment with high school… After visiting Annapolis as a prospective student and witnessing a riveting discussion of the Iliad (wanting to blurt some- thing out the whole time), I thought to myself, “Well that’s more like it!” Learning for the sake of learning. Going deep, tackling the big questions...why are we here anyway, and what are we supposed to do with these big brains? And now we are told that running a school is no different from running a factory. It’s all about churning out “good numbers” (sort of an educational body count). And what happens to that question the kid in the back of the class asks that’s not covered by the standards? The other day a student in my sixthgrade grade class of poverty-level minorities came up with such a question. I was introducing some of Picasso’s “one-liners.” I said, “These drawings may seem silly, but the same artist produced paintings that people pay millions for.” A hand went up. “How can a painting cost millions?” I congratulated the young fellow for having an original thought, and told the class that he could only have arrived at that question after self-initiated deliberation, which I said is a good thing (not to mention a prerequisite to democracy). So what is to happen to these small awakenings of consciousness in the future? Are they to be relegated from the classroom? Do we care about the “souls” of our students anymore, or is that just an antiquated concept? Perhaps the modern educational industry has no use for such anachronisms. John Scow, A71 Night Crawlers Just got the Fall ‘03 The College. In regard to the new dorm sites on back campus: I had a student aide job as a chemistry lab assistant in my sophomore year. I was asked to report to campus a few days early, in August 1957, to help with the move from the old lab building, Humphreys, to the new lab building, Mellon. The storeroom for the old chemistry lab was a really scary place. It had all the supplies and groceries for the current inorganic chemistry lab, and also a large collection of old stuff from years earlier when there was also an organic-chemistry lab. It was crammed full and had not been even cleaned, much less culled and organized, for many, many years. I am certain that there was stuff in there from the “old school” St. Johns of the 1920-30s. And I did not have a clue as to what 90 percent of this stuff was. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } So, what to do? The Buildings and Grounds crew dug a big trench down on the back campus. I am remembering it as probably 15-feet long, 10-feet wide, and 6or 8-feet deep. We used a pickup truck to carry load after load of “stuff” down there and threw it into the trench. There was no sorting or choosing—absolutely everything in that old storeroom was carried out, carefully set into the truck (hey, some of this stuff would have eaten the truck right up), driven down to back campus, and thrown into the trench. It seemed a bit gross, but…that’s what we were told to do. By time we got to about the third truckload, it began to get interesting. Strangelooking clouds of smoke and steam began to rise from different areas of the pit. The job took on a new slant: You’d pick up an old, rusty container, with a long-faded label, and try to pick a likely spot in the trench to start up a new chemical reaction. Some stuff smoldered, but nothing ever really exploded, and no one fainted from the gases, but it did look touch-and-go there for a while. The next day, the Buildings & Grounds folks covered it all up again. Still there I suppose...I’d look out for the Night Crawlers back there. Lewis Kreger Class of 1960 Errata: James Cobern is a member of the class of 1994 in Annapolis. He was incorrectly included with the class of 1990 in the Fall 2003 edition of The College. Benjamin Bloom (A97) is studying at the University of Miami, not the University of Maryland. 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 or The College Magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: reharty@sjca.edu. �12 {Johnnies on Finance} M O N E Y TA L K S … A N D J O H N N I E S K NOW H OW T O L I S T E N By Sus3an Borden, A87 he life of the marketplace is often considered antithetical to the life of the mind, the pursuit of money opposed to the pursuit of virtue. So why do a noticeably large number of St. John’s alumni enter the world of finance? And why are they so successful? T In Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game,” celebrated hunter Sanger Rainsford is shipwrecked on an island owned by General Zaroff, a sportsman who hunts the most challenging of prey: man. Zaroff gives Rainsford a six-hour head start, and the two men apply all their “courage, cunning, and…reason” in a contest of kill or be killed. Ron Fielding (A70) says that the thrill Zaroff seeks in matching wits with his peers reminds him of the excitement he finds in working in the financial world. “You can be more competitive and make money by outsmarting or outfiguring other people who are also very bright,” says Fielding, who, as vice president with OppenheimerFunds manages $13 billion in municipal bonds. “Part of the attractiveness of working on Wall Street is that it’s not soft. There’s a measurement of intellect that’s applied to problems, and results are measured. It’s not a place where you can get a promotion by impressing the boss. On Wall Street, your scorecard is quantified and published for the whole world to see. It’s like Zaroff going up against the best and brightest.” A surprising number of graduates, Fielding included, succeed at the highest levels of the financial world. And it’s no fluke. A St. John’s education, Fielding says, provides sound training for the high-stakes world of finance. Graduates can gain an advantage with advanced courses in economics or business, but the skills they develop at St. John’s have enduring value. “Years after you leave business school, there will be new problems to solve that didn’t come up in your classes,” he says. “You’ll have to figure them out faster than other people. St. John’s is valuable because it teaches us to analyze the world for ourselves rather than have someone explain it to us.” The story of Warren Spector’s career has a plot similar to Fielding’s and that of nearly every Johnnie who succeeds in the financial world: A bright mind encounters a { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �{Johnnies on Finance} “A vibrant financial market is truly one of the greatest assets of the United States.” christopher huston Warren Spector, A81 Warren Spector’s ease with the unknown contributed to his success in the field of finance. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } 13 �14 {Johnnies on Finance} david trozzo new market where the rules are not yet established, the textbooks have not yet been written, and the best strategy will reap the greatest rewards. Armed with intellect, imagination, and analytical prowess, the Johnnie explores the opportunity, grasps its principles, and fine-tunes a winning approach. Spector (A81) had not been working long at the banking, securities trading, and brokerage firm Bear Stearns when he had the chance to enter the emerging mortgage-backed securities market, investments backed by a pool of mortgage loans. “It was an exploratory time. It was not all derived and established and written down. Everyone was learning it for the first time. If you could understand the concepts, you could get an advantage over other people,” Spector says. “I had had an education consistent with being in that exploratory world, an education where no one told me the answers because no one knew the answers.” With Spector’s ease with the unknown and the resources of his firm’s research and analytics department, Bear Stearns became one of the leading firms in the market, and Spector became an expert in his field. Later, Spector branched out to other parts of the business and, in June 2001, was promoted to president of the firm, which has $209 billion in assets. Lawyer Steve Thomas’ (SF74) version of the story is roughly similar. Thomas found himself assigned to a project in what was then a new field—structured finance, which includes mortgage-backed securities. Thomas quickly became good at it and was well-rewarded for his understanding. “One reason Johnnies do well is that we’re not afraid to do things on our own,” he says. “A lot of people just say ‘I don’t have the math brain so I can’t think about it.’ Johnnies tend to start thinking about it.” Thomas, who is active on the Johnnie Ron Fielding (A70) welcomes the List, an unofficial listchallenges of Wall Street. serve for St. John’s alumni, says that he recently re-read postings to the list from the days following 9/11. “It was weird reading them,” he says. “It brought back what those days were like. The most interesting things to read were the posts where people started speculating about why the towers collapsed. We had a bunch of non-engineers trying to figure out the structural stuff, and some of them were astonishingly right.” In Thomas’ mind, St. John’s deserves the credit: “There’s a sort of intellectual fearlessness you achieve by going to a place that starts you out reading Homer and Plato.” There’s a nearly universal prejudice, as pervasive in the academic world as elsewhere, that thinks of money-making as a brutish pursuit, that hesitates to call “intellectual” the fearlessness necessary to succeed in the financial world and resists comparing the challenges of the classics to the challenges of the marketplace. Johnnies in the { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �15 {Johnnies on Finance} “Many of the best venture capitalists are not focused on money but on developing an opportunity and creating a successful business.” Stewart Greenfield, Class of 1953 of the people who invested in Enron stock took what Enron published at face value. But there were some smart people who didn’t settle for that, who dug in and started asking the right questions and found answers that, frankly, weren’t very happy answers. But they were able to gain tremendously from a financial standpoint as a result of being a little bit smarter.” The philosopher must ask: what does it mean to profit from the wrongdoing of others? Those already uncomfortable with wealth become suspicious: Perhaps a great crime does lie behind every great fortune. Venture capitalist Stewart Greenfield (class of 1953) is proof to the contrary. Green-field made millions funding and developing many of the hightech start-ups that have revolutionized our working environments, such as Seagate, Compaq, Genzyme, Sandisk, and Polycom. Yet he lives relatively modestly, using his money to preserve tropical rain forests and fund ot her environmental projects. david trozzo financial industry give little thought to this prejudice. They’re more concerned with the intellect of their colleagues, with whom they compete every hour of every day. Look no further than the debacle of Enron’s deceit and collapse for a lesson in the importance of analytical practice. According to Bob Elliott (A77), co-founder, coowner, and managing director of the investment banking firm EHS Securities, Johnnies have the competitive edge because they know how to ask the right questions: “Financial analysts ask questions to get beyond what is shown to them on financial statements,” says Elliot. “There’s a lot of information in t he public domain that can be taken at face value. But there is a gain to be made from digging in and finding out what’s not on the cover of the report.” Elliott says that it doesn’t matter if the information uncovered is good or bad; there’s profit either way. He illustrates this point with an infamous example: “Enron was a public company that published all kinds of information about itself, as it was required to. 99.9 percent { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } Stewart Greenfield found success as a venture capitalist. �16 {Johnnies on Finance} “The life of the mind depends on the commerce of thought.” Harold Hughes, a84 Reading list Classics: An Investor’s Anthology, Charles D. Ellis, ed. the perfect system. In the best scenario it He says that he is not alone in his choice: Money of the Mind, James Grant would have no flaws, but there would be no “Many of the best venture capitalists are Moneyball and Liar’s Poker, Michael Lewis. opportunity for others to say, ‘Hey, there’s not focused on money but on developing a better way to do things.’” When Genius Failed: The Rise and an opportunity and creating a successful Fall of Long-Term Capital ManSpector offers a similar defense of the business.” agement, Roger Lowenstein marketplace: “Financial markets are Where the focus is reversed, Greenfield Extraordinary Popular Delusions among the cornerstones of the success of sees trouble for the financial world. “Many & The Madness of Crowds, the U.S. economy. Do those financial marof the recent problems stem from the fact Charles MacKay kets create the opportunity for greed? Yes, that the emphasis has turned from creating Engines that Move Markets, they do. Do they create the opportunity for a business to creating wealth,” he says. Alasdair Nairn abuse? Yes, they do. But the people who “People who run companies have been Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Joseph A Schumpeter benefit from those abuses ultimately get seduced into producing numbers that are Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith brought down. That’s part of how markets more oriented to satisfying stock analysts work. A vibrant financial market is truly and investors than controlling or one of the great assets of the United States.” understanding what’s happening with the Good for the country, granted. But is financier a worthy business. The drive for earnings growth has become very occupation for a student of virtue, a lover of knowledge, a St. corrupting.” John’s alumnus? Harold Hughes (A84), senior vice president Elliott agrees about the causes, but says that they are a necat the financial services company Legg Mason Wood Walker, essary evil in an imperfect—but worthy—system. “The course says yes, absolutely. “The life of the mind relies on the comof economic conditions and financial markets in the U.S. merce of thought,” he says. “And the Socratic method is a means there will always be the potential for an Enron,” says facilitation of that commerce. The work I do is a natural extenElliott. “But that’s not entirely a bad thing. The alternative is sion of my St. John’s education.” x to have a system that somebody in his great wisdom defines as The Wit and Wisdom of Wealth Money is a singular thing. It ranks with love as man’s greatest source of joy. And with death as his greatest source of anxiety. Money is like muck, not good except it be spread. Francis Bacon John Kenneth Galbraith Money is the worst currency that ever grew among mankind. This sacks cities, this drives men from their homes, this teaches and corrupts the worthiest minds to turn base deeds. Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art. Andy Warhol Sophocles If there’s no money in poetry, neither is there poetry in money. Money’s a horrid thing to follow but a charming thing to meet. Robert Graves Henry James Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons. Money doesn’t mind if we say it’s evil, it goes from strength to strength. It’s a fiction, an addiction, and a tacit conspiracy. Woody Allen Martin Amis { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �{Tutors} 17 THE VIRTUES OF MARTIAL ARTS Santa Fe Tutors Walk Two Paths by Caroline Knapp, SF01 rishnan Venkatesh brushing up on his whip practice is a sight to see. He begins slowly, giving the whip a few preliminary spins and twists. Soon, holding the butt end in one hand, then the other, he is walking slowly, meditatively, the whip whizzing and slicing through the air, its ends cracking rhythmically. The practice makes him think of Euclid. “When the body is lined up correctly, with purity of intention,” explains Ventakesh, a Santa Fe tutor, “very little effort will generate immense force.” The reflection isn’t an idle one. The tips of the whip can travel at a seemingly incredible 900 miles per hour. And it isn’t a reflection Venkatesh can afford to make while practicing: A whip cracker in Australia recently cut off his own ear. Welcome to the wonderful intersection of the martial arts traditions and the Program. For the tutors and students who study a martial art on the Santa Fe campus, and the alumni who continue or undertake a martial practice after graduating, it’s a realm where analogy reigns, experience is everything, and pitfalls lurk for would-be generalizers. Students, tutors, and staff members on the Santa Fe campus currently have the opportunity to enter into the study of one of two disciplines of the bu-do, or martial ways. The college’s karate-do program, which has been run by tutor Jorge Aigla (6th Dan) since 1985, has an average of 12 participants per year, and includes tutor Bill Kerr, a third-degree black teri thomson randall K belt, and Joaquin Baca (SF95), an admissions counselor and firstdegree black belt, as well as Aigla’s son Andrés, who at 13 just joined the ranks of the black belts. Aigla’s students can be discovered slipping out the door early from Friday-night festivities: All three weekly training sessions are mandatory, including Saturday’s 8 a.m. practice. Tutor Claudia Honeywell has been training daily in aikido since her graduate school days, though she asks just two days per week from students in her St. John’s aikido program. The program, which Honeywell began last year, aims to introduce students to the basic principles of aikido; at the end of the school year there were eight participants, all undergraduates. In addition to these more or less “official” martial arts programs, students and tutors in Santa Fe train in a half dozen other assorted martial arts, including judo and tae kwan do. Tutors Michael Bybee, James Carey (A67), and David Starr hold black belts in various forms of karate. Venkatesh practices not only the whip art mentioned above but also a Korean striking art called Ja Shin Do and has studied escrima and Brazilian jujitsu. Tai chi, historically closely related to the martial arts, is practiced on the Placita before Monday and Thursday seminars by a dozen undergrads and graduate students. Taken together, these practices form a substantial undercurrent of martial arts activity and thought on the Santa Fe campus. For the tutors and students who undertake both the study of the great books and the study of one of the bu-do, or martial ways, the relationship between the two is rich with complication, and often with contrast. But it also encompasses elements of analogy and mutual illumination. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �18 {Tutors} “When the body is lined up correctly, with purity of intention, very little effort will generate immense force.” teri thomson randall krishnan Venkatesh Certainly, the martial arts practiced at the college cultivate many of the same virtues as the “practice” of the Program. In particular, campus martial artists focused on how learning to “listen” and respond with their bodies had sharpened their conversational skills. Honeywell, a second-degree black belt in aikido, emphasizes the sincerity required by both studies. In aikido, an art often characterized by its fluidity, students strive to “act without personal intent, preconception, or prejudice.” St. John’s students are familiar with the struggle for sincerity in the classroom. Sometimes, there is nothing more difficult than admitting what one really thinks, or putting aside one’s own opinions long enough to be persuaded by a new argument. On the mat, that sincerity might be expressed by giving one’s partner a “genuine” attack, or by allowing oneself to be moved by such an attack. Like the intellec- Tutor Krishnan Venkatesh practices several martial arts. tual variety, cultivating this spontaneous physical sincerity is the work of a lifetime. Venkatesh explains that even in the physically safe space of the classroom, there are advantages to having a familiarity with the threat of physical violence. The latter encourages a process of “calm, intelligent threat assessment” that on the streets might mean the difference between giving an aggressor an even gaze and giving him a well-aimed punch. Facing a difficult student, “sometimes it is sufficient to redirect the aggression in a politely educative way, but other times you might need to voice a clear opposition to unacceptable behavior.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �{Tutors} All of that said, for Johnnies accustomed to talking their way out of (or around) situations, these “conversations” on the mat can be more challenging than the spoken variety. Jorge Aigla, in his book Karate-do and Zen: An Inquiry, notes that in the dojo, “one constantly deals with facets of students’ lives and personalities that are simply not disclosed or available in the classroom.” Issues like fear, self-control, and anger, which in their more subtle forms sabotage intellectual discussion, arise in the physical conversations between training partners and are addressed physically. As Honeywell says, “problems have to be worked out dynamically.” In her aikido class, she points out, there is no talking. On a structural level, it’s easy to see why students and tutors from St. John’s might feel an affinity with traditional martial arts programs. Barr and Buchanan could have been taking a cue from the Japanese when they recognized that creating a formal structure for study was one way to encourage creativity and even selfexposure. Both disciplines are marked by what can seem to outsiders an absurd degree of formality. While dojo etiquette varies from one martial art to the next, it invariably includes the use of specialized, formal titles, ritual openings and closing for each session, and the wearing of clothes reserved exclusively for the dojo. Dojo observers, like prospective students, are generally allowed to watch classes in session but are not allowed to participate. Just as St. John’s students quickly realize that their study extends far beyond the hours they spend reading, martial artists strive never to completely leave the dojo. As Honeywell puts it, “Being a martial artist is how you live your life. Being a St. John’s tutor is how you live your life. There is no ‘on duty’ and ‘off duty.’” Nor is there a clear distinction between teachers and students. As at St. John’s, the best senseis are those whose teaching is really no more than their ongoing study. In fact, the dojo, frequently criticized in the West as being “too hierarchical,” is in some ways less so than a St. John’s seminar: in the dojo, students of all levels train together. While nearly all of the college’s martial artists can point to skills cultivated in the dojo that pass by osmosis into their study of the great books, all are quick to assert that martial arts, like the Program itself, are not a means to an end. “What we do in the Program is an end in itself,” Aigla says. “The Greeks thought that, and so did the Japanese.” This commitment to process may be the single greatest shared characteristic of the study of 19 martial arts and the study of the St. John’s Program. The freshman who completes the Metaphysics is no more “done” with Aristotle than a senior writing on Hegel has “understood” him, or for that matter, than a faculty member who spends a sabbatical on Proust has “finished with” Remembrance of Things Past. One of the great purposes of the Program would seem to be teaching the simple lesson that our study of great texts is never completed. In the martial arts, this understanding is often associated with the ZZZ ideogram, the one-stroke circle whose end is its beginning. Martial artists with varying degrees’ experience continue to study the same basic moves—not to “perfect” them but to understand them. Accepting study as an endless process seems to hinge in both cases on recognizing that at the heart of the study lies a fertile mystery. Like a Euclid proposition, a karate kata has an internal logic followed by the student; innovation in both situations would be inappropriate. And yet, the beautifully executed kata, like the beautifully presented proposition, is an individual expression of a universal truth. The attentive aikidoka, like the attentive reader, misses no nuance of her partner’s motion, and the technique performed as a result is as much an expression of the one partner as of the other. “Why” this should be is at some point no longer a helpful question, whereas in what way contains a lifetime of absorption. Certainly for many students, each study makes the other more possible. Karim Dajani (SF91), a psychologist and karate-do brown belt who had Aigla both as a sensei and in the classroom, explains that “reading the great books, I realize how infinite and exciting our exploration of the world in and through ideas can be. Studying karate and medicine, I realize how infinite and exciting the exploration of my direct embodied experience can be.” Do the two ways lead up the same mountain? Can virtue be taught? “I don’t know if karate-do makes me a better tutor,” Aigla says. “Perhaps it might make me a better person. After 35 years of practice I would hope that I may do something for the world of karate-do, and not necessarily the other way around.” x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } Caroline Knapp, of Berkeley, Calif., is a freelance editor and a 5th kyu student of aikido. Santa Fe tutor Jorge Aigla runs a karate program for St. John’s students in Santa Fe. �20 {Nostalgia} MEMORY L ANE Meets COLLEGE AV E N U E by Sus3an Borden, A87 request for stories of alumni’s earliest memories from freshman year brought a deluge of responses, spanning five decades, from Annapolis alumni. Not all of them, of course, were fit for publication, as their authors were the first to note. Many claimed faulty memories and boring first semesters: “All I can remember is pretty bland,” wrote Matthew Braithwaite (A97). “Just the usual freaking out over Greek, and upperclassmen trying to electrocute pickles to see if they would glow.” Others were concerned that their stories were not suitable for a college publication: “Would a story that involved skipping seminar, putting on red leather boots and running around campus in nothing but those boots and a twin sheet with two other freshmen maenads similarly clad, be too risqué for your story?” asked Mary Haber (A97). With so many stories to choose from, we were able to let the unpublishable remain unpublished. The rest we’ve collected in this sampling of stories recalling the fun and folly of early freshman year. A Way Back When Allan Hoffman, Class of 1949 My first day at St. John’s was in September 1945, a strange time because that August the atom bombs were dropped and the war ended. Almost all young men were on an accelerated high school program—you went to school during the summer to get as much education under your belt as possible before you were drafted. I was scheduled to graduate from high school in January of ’46, but when the war ended I had already accumulated enough credits for a high school diploma. I learned of St. John’s from my brother, who had gone to Harvard as a pre-med and told me that when he graduated he knew a lot about organic chemistry but little about anything else. We called and spoke to the dean’s office. They said, “come on down and pack a bag. If we like you, you’ll stay and send your things from home.” When I arrived, school had already started—I missed the opening seminar. My first impression of St. John’s was that it reminded me of the prep school I had graduated from: It was kind of Ivy-Leaguey, the buildings were brick, the campus was small. I felt that it was not a big step physically. Little did I realize what a step it was going to be. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �21 {Nostalgia} Bookstore Manager Kitty Lathrop (in the campus bookstore circa 1945) caught Allan Hoffman’s eye. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �22 {Nostalgia} I went to McDowell Hall and entered the dean’s office. There was a desk piled high with papers in neat stacks and it seemed that nobody was there. Then someone sitting behind the desk rose and I could see her head above the papers. She was a very short woman, very plain, bespectacled. She was Miriam Strange, who was both the dean’s secretary and the registrar. She sent me into the dean’s office and there was Scott Buchanan sitting behind a desk, also with papers in various piles, but not neat. He was smoking and during the 20 minutes that we spoke he never stopped smoking. I did not understand 90 to 95 percent of what he was talking about. Next, Scott Buchanan sent me to see the president, Stringfellow Barr, who was very different from Scott Buchanan. He had flaming red hair, was dressed very nattily in a blue blazer, gray flannel slacks, and a vest that did not match his pants or jacket but was complementary. We spoke for about 5 minutes, and I understood 95 percent of what he said. His final words were, “Well, Mr. Hoffman, if you want to be a student here at St. John’s, just tell Miss Strange and she’ll make all the arrangements.” I told Miss Strange I was going to be a student. She said, “You’re going to be in West Pinkney on the second floor and I want you to be in the Coffee Shop tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock to meet Mr. Klein. He’ll be one of your tutors and he’ll explain to you more of what we do here. You’re a couple of days behind— here is the reading list. These are the books you’ll have to purchase.” I found my room in Pinkney, unpacked, and made my way to McDowell. When you entered McDowell, on the left were mailboxes, on the right were bathrooms, and in the middle was the Coffee Shop and that’s all they sold, coffee, which Leroy poured at a nickel a cup. There were individual seminar tables and in the middle was a larger table where students were sitting around talking with one another. This was the ongoing Coffee Shop seminar. When the dean and the president weren’t busy, they were at that table. When they weren’t there, Jascha Klein or Ford K. Brown or Richard Scofield were. If a space was vacated another student took his cup of coffee and sat down and joined the con- versation. If a tutor had to go to class, chances were some other tutor would slip in. This Coffee Shop tradition was a very vital thing, ongoing from morning with a break at lunch and very often continued after lecture. The next room, the fireplace room, was a bookstore with couches, chairs, a long low table, the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, and people milling about looking at books. There was a stockroom near the Humphrey’s exit that was also the office of the bookstore manager. She walked in and, as plain as Miriam Strange (her sister) was, this woman was beautiful: blonde with a beautiful face, shapely, delightful to look at. Her name was Kitty Lathrop, and As in years past, freshmen still struggle with Greek. she told me I’d have to buy Homer, Euclid’s Elements, a Greek grammar, a lab manual, a T-square and a drawing board. I took the equipment, went to my room, and read the first books of Homer’s Iliad. And that was my first day at St. John’s. Soldier, Scholar Dick Cahall (class of 1959) Seth Benardete was a Greek scholar of considerable renown who spent a year on the faculty at St. John’s. I remember being awestruck by his grammatical dissection of a passage from Thucydides...incredible erudition! He went into all the tenses and verb endings and why they were as they were. It permanently changed me from a Marine to a scholar! Words of Wisdom Sharon Bishop (class of 1965) Memory 1: My first or second day on campus (I’m still unpacking), I hear this exchange outside my Campbell window: Student One (male): “Hey, what do you know?” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �{Nostalgia} Student Two (male): “Man is born, he suffers, and he dies.” Memory 2: I am in the Coffee Shop after seminar with Bob Bart, one of the seminar leaders, and he says, “Miss Bishop, the only cause worth losing yourself in is the search for truth.” 23 Grandfather Jascha? Jerry Caplan (A73) maryirene ruffin My excitement at the prospect of my very first St. John’s seminar was dimmed by the news that our senior seminar leader, Dean Innocence Lost and Robert Goldwin, would not be with us for Found some time due to a back ailment that required immobility. Entering the semiHoward Zeiderman (A67) nar room for our first discussion of the Iliad, one saw in the place of the senior Before I came to St. John’s I attended leader a white-haired, pipe-smoking, Dartmouth to study mathematics. I had kind-looking old man, dressed in a dark John Kemeny who was then the chair up suit. Just out of high school, I naturally there and had been Einstein’s math assisassociated a “substitute” teacher with tant when he was 20. We were a class of someone good-natured and incompetent, eight students, and I realized mathematso I had drastically lowered expectations ics was not my destiny. I quit twice and for the first few weeks of seminar, assumeventually came to St. John’s. ing that the quality would depend decidOn my first day in class—Friday—I went edly on the quality of our senior leader. to math tutorial. The tutor, Molly To my surprise however, our guest had Gustin, gave the assignment. Excited, I some remarkably provocative things to rushed back to my dorm room to work on say about the tragedy of the Iliad and it. I heard that we should read the postuAchilles as the tragic hero, thoughts lates and then figure out what the first which both intrigued and confused me. proposition must be. So I read those five Later, during my first after-seminar postulates over and over again and had visit to the Coffee Shop, an upperclassno idea what should come next. I had too man engaged me in conversation, curimuch pride to check. So I was getting ous to know how things went and who more and more depressed as it seemed were my seminar leaders. When I that everyone else was having a relaxed explained to him the circumstance of our and fun weekend. I felt I had stumbled temporarily losing our “real” seminar into a place of the most extraordinary Today’s freshmen, dissecting cow hearts. leader and identifying for him our “subpeople in the world and I was not one of stitute,” his eyes widened, his jaw them. Finally I decided I was not meant dropped, and he exclaimed with awe and to be here and planned to drop out. I envy, “You had Jascha Klein for freshman decided I would go to the picnic at the president’s house, pack up seminar on the Iliad ?!” He proceeded to explain to me just who and leave—one more defeat, the third time I had dropped out of Mr. Klein was, although the significance did not sink in entirely college. There I discovered that the assignment was to read the on that occasion. Still, I left the Coffee Shop that night feeling a postulates and read the first proposition. So I did the assignment bit better about my first seminar experience knowing that our and stayed. However, that weekend always stayed with me. Those “substitute” was not just someone’s grandfather who had been hours must have pointed me in the right direction. gently coaxed to fill in. Sometime later I finally learned to read the postulates more innocently. I was reading the fifth as a parallel postulate. However, it isn’t about parallels but about triangles. It states the condiStrange New World tions under which we would get a triangle. It took me years of St. John’s to learn to read innocently. Had I been that already I Leah Casner (A78) would have at least had a shot at thinking that the first proposition might be the construction of an equilateral triangle. St. John’s was a whole new world to me. I was so giddy my first months...I felt I finally had found a place, slightly off kilter from the rest of the world, where I fit in. When I had been a prospec- { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �24 {Nostalgia} tive student, Tricia Kulp and I were amused in a freshman math tutorial by Sara Anastaplo’s proof of a line being straight; the proof was something like, “well, it has to be or it would be warped, and that’s just wrong.” St. John’s, we felt, was a bit warped and, unlike the line, we felt that made it right. must be removed. Nobody thanked me for preserving the tradition. I dutifully passed it on to incoming freshmen in following years. Not an Ice Breaker I’d Choose Chris Denny (A93) Marion Betor Baumgarten (A82) I spent the night of Seducers and Corrupters walking back and forth from the party in the FSK lobby to the sycamore tree on back campus, sitting down alone under it, and saying to myself, “How can I possibly spend four years with these lunatics?” The answer proved to be simple—I became one of them. My first day at St. John’s: After I spent about 15 minutes in my room crying after my parents left (that door closing was so, well, final), I decided to iron something so I would look nice for my first dinner. I ended up burning my hand on the iron and having to eat dinner with a giant ice pack on my hand. Which did not attract the kind of attention I was hoping for... If You Can’t Beat ’Em… A Match Made in Iglehart Paula Rubin Swann (AGI97) Preserving Tradition Wendell Finner (A82) My freshman-year roommate was a returning student, who hadn’t completed freshman year the year before. He told me that it was “traditional” for someone to ask at the orientation with the Instruction Committee why Eastern classics weren’t in the Program . When nobody else asked the question, I stuck my hand up and asked. Dean Sparrow’s answer was practical rather than philosophical—any addition to the Program means something John [Swann] (AGI97) shows up at the gym for the first time in January as he’s starting in the GI program in the Spring semester. No one knows that John is a decent ball player (or, that he is left-handed). We start playing (Hustlers vs. Green Waves) and I’m stuck guarding 6'4" John (I’m 5'6"). After the fourth or fifth time John gets a rebound from over the top of my head after I have him boxed-out, I get upset that I’m not getting an “over the back” call and decide to take matters into my own hands. The next time he goes up for a rebound and I have good position on him, I under-cut his legs and send him crashing to the floor! While lined up next to each other at the next freethrow, he says to me, “Nice under-cut.” I say back to him, “If you stop coming over my back, I’ll stop under-cutting you.” To that, John apologized which I thought was very sweet of him! After getting to know each other better in class, we started dating and you know the rest! Note: Paula and John married June 7, 2003. Happily Ever After Annemarie Catania (A97) I met my fiancé, Allen Ziegenfus (A96), at a waltz party on my first night at St. John’s. My roommate, Céline Bocchi (now Abramovich), had been asked to dance right away. Except for one waltz with a GI who smelled like wine, I had only been observing Eagerly taking in a tutor’s wisdom after seminar. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �{Nostalgia} until this person I’d identified as a potential dance partner sat down next to me, in conversation with the woman he’d just danced with. He was facing her, so I couldn’t get his attention (I found out later he had a crush on her). It took me half the length of the song that was playing to gather all my freshman courage, lift my hand, and with one finger… tap him on the shoulder! Allen danced with me for three more songs, and spent a while talking to Céline and me. I remember him asking what I thought of “old Homer” (not much, because I’d barely survived the catalogue of ships at that point), and showing us a pocket watch he’d bought in China that summer. He held the door for us as we left the Great Hall, and even got my name right when he said goodnight (instead of calling me Emily or Emory, which often happens when people first hear my name). As Céline and I walked up the stairs to our new home in Randall, she told me that at some point in history, people considered three dances grounds for marriage. She was recently delighted to hear that Allen and I are planning to get married on January 17, 2004. Not in the Stars Jenn Coonce (A97) On the day the dorms opened, my roommate and I and our families were doing the awkward, nice-to-meet you formalities. When everyone left the room but the two of us, she asked me “What’s your sign?” When I told her Gemini, she said, “I knew it! We’ll never work out as roommates. I’m a Virgo.” And we didn’t... Spartan Existence Rudy Hernandez (A99) After I read Plutarch’s “Life of Lycurgus,” I decided that I wanted to be a Spartan. This involved me giving everything I owned away except for my sheets and a Melissa Etheridge CD because Spartans weren’t real big on personal property. x Coming Soon: Freshman Year, Part II It is hoped that Santa Fe graduates are hereby provoked to send along a freshman year memory for a future edition of The College. E-mail stories to: s-borden@sjca.edu, or put them in the mail addressed to Sus3an Borden at The College, 60 College Avenue, Annapolis, MD 21401. In the meantime, here’s a teaser: Of Rainbows and Aristotle Philip Horne (SF85) I’d like to pass along a memory of my first days on the Santa Fe campus in the fall of 1980. Even before the first class had convened, I was sitting at my desk reading and rereading the same sentences from the first assigned lab text—30 or so pages of Aristotle’s Parts of Animals, which, I think, is assigned to sober up (and scare the bejeezus out of) the incoming freshman. I was going to get that first assignment licked, and had allotted the entire afternoon and evening to its study so that by class time the following morning I’d have a sure grasp of Aristotle’s every nuance. Suddenly there was a great, hollering, screeching, whistling, clapping, cheering wave of noise—inappropriate in the lower dorms, where it 25 was supposed to be quiet—which interrupted my profound meditations on Aristotle. I was not amused. Giving up on the nearly memorized yet still inscrutable sentences from the text, I turned around from my desk to look out the window only to witness further horrors. Although we had been warned in our orientation that the tops of the buildings were strictly verboten, they were now crowded with students staring into the west, whooping and hollering. So, leaving Him open on the desk, I went outside to see what all the fuss was about. As the sun set through the clouds, there was a great big double rainbow over the mesa. It was spectacular. Usually in double rainbows, one of the two is bright, and the other is more muted. Here, both of the rainbows were vibrant. The folks up on the roofs said that a few minutes before it had been a triple rainbow! Thus the cheering. I joined in the noise, which then faded to a kind of meditative quiet as the sun set and the rainbows themselves faded away. By then it was dinner and one by one the other students slipped away. After eating and drinking a glass of flat dining hall coffee, I went back to Aristotle. There was enough study time left to read seriously through only the first few pages, so I sort of skimmed the rest. That’s my memory of the first day or so in Santa Fe, capital of the Land of Enchantment. x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �26 {History} “A P R E T T Y P I E C E OF LAND” How ROTC Saved St. John’s College by Ginger M. Doyel In 1945, the U.S. Navy needed more offices and the U.S. Naval Academy needed more space. The Academy looked across King George Street at the tree-lined grounds of a small liberal arts college that was struggling to survive, and pictured a site for a sprawling dormitory and mess hall for midshipmen. Lined up on the Academy’s side were military supporters, civic groups, the Chamber of Commerce, the daily newspaper, and seemingly, most of Annapolis. How St. John’s fended off the attack makes for a classic David vs. Goliath story. bered 800, and its dormitory was designed to house just 2,500. This lack of space prompted the Academy to pursue a $70 million expansion. It planned to annex and build academic buildings on three acres belonging to the city of Annapolis, and acquire land in West Annapolis owned by the Naval Academy Athletic Association. The third phase of its plan called for taking over St. John’s (for a suggested purchase price of $750,000), razing its buildings, and replacing them with a dormitory. While the plan’s first two parts met little opposition, the third created a storm of controversy. The Naval Assault onditions were ripe for a thunderstorm on C July 26, 1945, as nearly 100 women marched to the Maryland State House. Led by Mrs. Morden Rigg, they were coming to protest the Naval Academy’s plan to annex St. John’s College—a plan that pitted the U.S. Naval Academy and its many ardent supporters against a small, financially struggling liberal arts college. Rumors that the Academy had designs on St. John’s had begun in 1940 and resurfaced again during the war. In 1945, the Naval Academy announced its expansion plans and began an aggressive campaign to take over the 32-acre St. John’s campus—a campaign that would take a fight in Congress to settle. Underlying the Academy’s effort was a need to expand. World War II brought sweeping changes to the school, especially an increase in its student body. While about 3,200 midshipmen attended in 1945, postwar estimates predicted that this figure could soar to 7,500. At that point, the Academy could not handle such an influx; most of its facilities were built when the enrollment num- From the mayor to the media, most locals, 80 percent according to the Annapolis newspaper the Evening Capital favored the proposed takeover. First, citizens feared losing the Academy—and the $17.5 million that the Navy injected into the economy each year. In 1945, congressmen from the West Coast, Midwest and South fought to relocate the entire school, or at least part of it, to their areas of the country where space was abundant. Not surprisingly, the Evening Capital, sided with the Academy. Throughout the conflict it ran pro-Navy editorials with headlines such as: “Back the Academy,” “Annapolis Must Act,” and “Academy Expansion Assured.” The paper’s president and publisher, Talbot Speer, also belonged to a booster group called the Citizens’ Committee for the Retention of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. Sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce (another pro-Navy group), the committee consisted of community leaders including Speer; Annapolis Mayor William McCready; Cary Meredith, president of the Farmers’ National Bank; Chris Nelson, president of the Annapolis Yacht Yard; Willis Armbruster, manager of Carvel Hall (the large hotel in Annapolis at the time); and Annapolis insurance broker Joseph Lazenby. Under Lazenby’s { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �maryirene ruffin/archives {History} Had the Naval Academy annexation attempt succeeded, McDowell Hall would have been replaced with a sprawling dormitory. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } 27 �28 {History} the college. Many of its signers were among the women who protested at the State House in July. Yet they, like the others who favored the college, were clearly in the minority. usna special collections and archives, nimitz library leadership, the committee produced a petition with more than 4,000 signatures in support of the annexation. The Maryland General Assembly passed a resolution urging the Academy’s expansion into Annapolis, the Annapolis City Council voted to support the takeover, and civic groups such as the Rotary, Civitan, Kiwanis, and Lions clubs were all willing to give up St. John’s for a bigger, better Naval Academy. But St. John’s also had its champions, especially its alumni. “Save St. John’s” was the theme of the Alumni Association’s annual meeting in June 1945 at which Stringfellow Barr, St. John’s president, addressed a crowd of 150. During the four-and-a-half-hour session Barr labeled the Navy’s plan a “coup to try to grab a pretty piece of land” and urged alumni to voice their opposition. Alumni answered the call. Many wrote letters to the editor. Herbert Fooks, class of 1906, took up his pen and wrote a passionate poetic defense of his alma mater,“O, Hallowed Ground of Old St. Johns.” Appearing in the Evening Capital on July 25 it began, The College Fights Back Several alumni, including returning veteran Andrew Witwer, testified before Congress. “None of us went off to war in order that we might return and find that the place where we had begun to learn about a free society was being moved out from under us,” Witwer declared, as reported in the St. John’s Yearbook, 1945-46. “It is for such institutions that men go to war. It is through the lack of such institutions that men make war.” In addition to the support of its indignant alumni, St. John’s received backing from preservationists, the Severn River Association, and 100 prominent citizens who signed “An Open Letter” urging locals to preserve st. john’s college archives “O, hallowed ground of Old St. Johns! Let no one dare profane thee, Nor greed, nor gold, nor want of soul Seek ever to enchain thee....” Top: Vice Admiral Aubrey W. Fitch, U.S. Naval Academy Superintendent during the climax of the proposed takeover. Bottom: Stringfellow Barr, St. John’s president. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } In late April, St. John’s Board of Visitors and Governors drafted a policy in response to the Navy’s intentions, which at that point were only rumored. The board, chaired by Dr. Thomas Parran, held that St. John’s would only consider the sale if it were given enough money to relocate and if the national interest required it. As Board Secretary Richard Cleveland later proclaimed, the school will “cheerfully accede to genuine national necessity, if such necessity as distinguished from convenience, is formally declared by the Navy,” as reported in the June 20, 1945 edition of the Evening Capital. The board sent their policy to Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal. The Academy could only annex St. John’s if both the House and Senate Naval Affairs Committees approved its plan. Congressional hearings on the proposed takeover began in May 1945. The House Committee tentatively approved the acquisition on June 4, but deferred from taking final action until a subcommittee explored other sites for the Academy’s expansion in Annapolis. Much to St. John’s dismay, the subcommittee concluded that the college should be taken. Other options such as moving the Academy to 850 acres across the Severn River were deemed impractical. Architect John Root, retained by the Navy’s Bureau of Yards and Docks to make an independent study on the subject, Academy Superintendent Vice Admiral Aubrey Fitch, and Chief of the �{History} 29 Reading list For more detailed accounts on the college’s history, recent and distant, the following works are recommended: Bureau of Yards and Docks Vice Admiral 50,000 officers. Since it was impossible Stringfellow Barr: A Centennial AppreciaBen Moreell concurred. for the Academy to produce this figure, tion of His Life and Work, and Scott St. John’s, they argued, would simply Secretary Forrestal and Vice Admiral Buchanan: A Centennial Appreciation of have to relocate. Annapolis real estate men Louis Denfeld created a board to explore His Life and Work, Charles A. Nelson, interviewed by the subcommittee advised other options for officer training. Ed. that Holly Beach Farm and Hillsmere, both Chaired by Rear Admiral James about six miles from the city, would make Holloway Jr., the “Holloway Board” A Search for the Liberal College: The ideal sites. Dorothy Strickland declared presented three solutions for producing Beginning of the St. John’s Program, J. that a 100-acre farm near the South River more naval offices. The first called for conWinfree Smith. “would be perfect.” As she wrote in her letverting the Academy into a postgraduate ter to the editor of the Evening Capital, school and was rejected. So was the secThe Early History of St. John’s College in “The lovely old brick college buildings ond, suggesting an entirely new Academy, Annapolis, Tench Francis Tilghman could be torn down and erected on the perhaps for the West Coast. The last, same plans...” called the Holloway Plan, proposed bringOther locals fond of the town’s quirky liting the Naval Reserve Officers Training tle “Great Books” college tendered suggesCorps (NROTC) to civilian colleges and tions for its survival, according to a somewhat sarcastic recap in the universities in order to produce more officers. 1945-6 St. John’s College Yearbook: “The Annapolis Roads Club While the plan became law in August 1946, Secretary Forrestal offered us their site and bathhouses and suggested we save McDowapproved it in October 1945 as hearings about the Navy’s plan to ell Hall by moving it out there to the beach stone by stone. Innuannex St. John’s persisted in Congress. Experts continued to testimerable 10-room ‘great estates’ were offered to us at only three or fy on behalf of the Academy and St. John’s, including James four times their normal value, and many chambers of commerce, Edmunds, president of the American Institute of Architects. embarrassed by their lack of local culture, invited us to bring our Unlike the majority, Edmunds believed that the Navy could expand ideals to fruitification in their sylvan neighborhoods where, they in Annapolis without annexing the college. assure us, the folk were particularly warm and responsive to new Congress was expected to make a final decision on October 24, ideas...” yet failed to do so until spring. On May 22, 1946, by a vote of 11-7 Initially, the House and Senate Committees planned to wait until the House Committee declared that “the national emergency Congress reconvened in October before making a final decision. neither justifies nor warrants the proposed acquisition of St. John’s However, they surprised the public in late July when both approved campus.” the acquisition. After Forrestal notified Parran that the Navy would no longer try The St. John’s board remained unconvinced that the annexation to annex the college, Parran asked the Senate to “drive the third was a “national necessity.” As Emily Murphy documented in A nail in the coffin of the project,” which it did on June 12. Thanks to Complete and Generous Education: 300 Years of Liberal Arts, its alumni, supporters like Mrs. Morden Rigg and her band of outSt. John’s College, Annapolis, meetings followed among board raged women, and a board that stood up to no less a foe than the members, Navy officials and Committee Chairmen Senator David U.S. Navy, St. John’s was able to celebrate its 250th anniversary Walsh and Representative Carl Vinson. It was in these meetings that later that year—freed from the vision of a Naval Academy dormitoit became clear that the committees had only approved negotiations ry taking the place of McDowell Hall. x between the Navy and the college, not the college’s annexation. When St. John’s refused even to negotiate, additional hearings were postponed until October. Sources for this story include: the 1945-6 St. John’s College Yearbook; Emily A. Murphy’s A Complete and Generous Education: 300 Years of Liberal Arts, St. John’s College; the Showdown in Congress Evening Capital and Jack Sweetman’s The U.S. Naval Academy: In the interim, a plan was gaining support that would reduce the An Illustrated History. Academy’s need to expand and impact Congress’s final choice. Officials predicted that the postwar navy would require about Ginger Doyel is an Annapolis freelance writer and illustrator. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �30 {Homecoming} Annapolis Homecoming: Tropical Theme Brightens Rainy Weekend ith 306 enthusiastic alumni turning out for the party, who could complain if a little rain fell on Homecoming 2003 in Annapolis? A Hawaiian luau planned for the front lawn came off splendidly in Iglehart Hall, with beach balls and inflated palm trees livening up the gym, along with the outlandish Hawaiian shirts and leis alumni donned for the event. Held September 12-14 in Annapolis (a few days before Tropical Storm Isabel left downtown Annapolis underwater and caused widespread power outages), Homecoming this year was marked by lively seminars, a packed awards banquet in the lobby of the Francis Scott Key auditorium, and a strong turnout by Graduate Institute students. W Seminars filled quickly and were well attended. Among the all-alumni offerings this year was a contemporary book by Bernard Lewis on What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response. Reliable standards, including Sam Kutler’s seminar on Plato’s Republic and Brother Robert’s on Pascal’s Pensées, proved equally popular. The class of 1953 celebrated its 50th reunion with a special luncheon for the 13 members who traveled to Annapolis for Homecoming. Mark Middlebrook, a member of the class of 1983 and expert on fine wines, arranged for a selection of vintage 1980s wine for his classmates to enjoy at the banquet. And the class of 1993 wins bragging rights for biggest turnout: 36 members of the class attended their 10th reunion. x Rain moved the luau indoors, but spirits were sunny. Above: Tutor Peter Kalkavage regales alumni. Right: William J. Schweidel (Class of 1963, AGI86) raises a toast to his class as Owen Kelley (A93) looks on. Top right: Mary Pat Justice (SFGI71) enjoys reunion conversation. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �{Homecoming} In addition to the usual picnics and waltz parties, Homecoming this year featured two big to-dos: Saturday luau for lunch and an elegant evening banquet in the Francis Scott Key auditorium lobby. Clockwise from left: Adam Pinsker (class of 1952) and Francis S. Mason Sr. (class of 1943); 1993 alumni enjoying the luau; more luau conversation; Henry Shyrock (class of 1938) and his wife, Pauline Lemarie, with Roland Bailey (class of 1935) and his wife, Helen. photos by gary pierpoint { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } 31 �32 {Bibliofile} MR. PESIC: I think it is, not so much for practical reasons but just to show that numbers aren’t as simple as one might have thought when one thought “well, there are fractions and whole numbers.” The word “imaginary” is probably not the right word, although it is the word that we commonly use, but maybe it’s right in the sense that it shows there is an imagination at work in the realm of numbers so that it’s a realm of poetry or vision of a certain sort. In that sense I think it’s very valuable to know because it opens our minds further and makes us aware that in considering mathematics we are thinking about something that does call for imagination. Proof: A Dialogue Abel’s Proof: An Essay on the Sources and Meaning of Mathematical Unsolvability Peter Pesic The MIT Press, 2003 he story of Norwegian mathematician Neils Henrik Abel is a tragic one. Abel’s brilliant paper, On the algebraic resolution of equations (1824), failed to win acclaim until after Abel died. In Abel’s Proof, Santa Fe tutor Peter Pesic traces Abel’s exploration all the way back to the Greeks in a quest to understand Abel’s problem and his proof. Annapolis tutor Samuel Kutler (A54), a mathematician at heart, sat down to discuss the book with Pesic, a physicist. T MR. KUTLER: Peter, what’s so intriguing about Abel’s proof that you should write a book about it? MR. PESIC: My interest in mathematics and Abel goes back to when I was a student in college. I used to go to the mathematics library and dip into the books. I was amazed that anyone could understand such abstractions. I didn’t understand them myself, but I was fascinated by the thought that they were intelligible to someone. I guess at that point I heard about Abel. Over the years, in the course of my reading about mathematics, I kept hearing the story that he had proved that not every equation has a solution. After I became a tutor at St. John’s College, I learned more about the fact that there were numbers that were not rational. I began to wonder about their relation to Abel’s discovery. Is it possible to understand what he proved when he found that equations that are of the 5th degree or higher in general don’t have solutions, by which he meant a solution that could be expressed in terms of a finite number of multiplications and divisions and square roots or cube roots? I knew that he had found a certain answer, namely that equations don’t have MR. KUTLER: You’re a friend of Barry Mazur, the Harvard mathematician, and you mention him in your book. He’s written a popular book called Imagining Numbers, and he, too, is interested in producing imaginaries and the complex number system. Could you describe the differences between your two books? solutions, but I wondered: What was the real question that lay behind it? MR. KUTLER: I think that is just what I’d like to hear about, because the way you’ve written your book is to provide a wonderful context for Abel’s proof. You went way back to the pre-Greek and then Greek works. Could you say why you started so far back? You could have started with the origin of algebra, but you chose to provide a very rich context. Why is this? MR. PESIC: I suppose it’s a temptation of all St. John’s tutors to go way back before the beginning of something to try to understand where it came from, in this case, algebra. I wanted to write the book in such a way that it would address people who were interested in mathematics, curious about it, but maybe also frightened of it. I thought that beginning way back would put people at ease and allow them to reconsider these elements, these origins. Maybe as a result it would all take a different look for them, as it did for me. MR. KUTLER: I want to ask something a little bit technical. In order to talk about Abel’s proof, one has to use the complex number system. Is it important that all educated people know about the complex numbers—imaginaries and the whole complex number system? { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } MR. PESIC: Barry’s book is really devoted to the question you just asked me: How can one understand imaginary numbers? How did it take so long for us to reach any understanding, and what understanding do we have after all? I was interested in something that also seemed neglected. It seemed to me that Abel had done something very great and important, and I’d never heard a word about it. So I guess my book begins where [Mazur’s] leaves off. I think his really goes as far as Abel; he talks about complex numbers and how they were represented in the 17th and 18th centuries and then stops. He does mention Abel at the very end, and I guess that’s where I thought of mine as beginning, although I wrote mine quite independently of his. The great challenge of my book was to try to give an account of abstract mathematics that would neither on the one hand be completely technical so that it was only addressed to people that already at a certain point understood it, nor so non-technical that it never really touched the living heart of what was going on. I looked at every math book I could find, because I thought that surely somebody had said something helpful in all these books that had been published in the 200 years since Abel did his work, something that would help me understand what was the heart of that proof. And I didn’t discover any such account. �33 {Bibliofile} excerpt: Mathematical symbols may indicate hidden truths that have deep human significance, even as they transcend the human. Abel’s proof contains a prime secret; how can a search for solutions yield the unsolvable? Perhaps if I tried hard enough, I could understand. I studied modern texts, but the key remained elusive. Absorbed in advanced studies, experts may cease to wonder about the elementary. They might not notice the kind of basic insight I was seeking. To find it, I needed to return to the sources, retracing the journey recounted in this book. The story begins in ancient Greece and has climatic scenes in Norway and France in the 1820s. What Abel found is indeed surprising and strangely beautiful. —ABEL’S PROOF Finally, I worked through Abel’s original paper, which is very short, because he lacked money to pay for anything longer, but as a result the paper is telegraphic and hard to understand. But I still didn’t understand. The argument made sense, but I couldn’t see what it was based on or what was behind it. After a long time, and trying to read those who came after Abel, notably Galois, who carried Abel’s ideas much further, I was able to find something that suddenly seemed intelligible. My book tries in a kind of slow, groping way to reach that realization to make Abel’s ideas intelligible, maybe even visual, as best I could. This was an interesting experience, because I was not a mathematician and I was struggling to keep up with the mathematicians I did talk to or read. I asked myself, How is it possible to find a guiding thread in this mathematical labyrinth? The clue was that things may not commute. That is the heart of the story that I tell in the book. MR. KUTLER: You mention that the death of Abel was premature and it certainly was, because he lived, as you mention in the book, to be only 26 years old. Did you have a feeling for Abel and when he lived? And how a mathematician even of great powers could at 26 years old do something that no one before him had ever done? MR. PESIC: For Abel, mathematics was a felt experience. What for us are abstract concepts were for him felt and palpable realities that he experienced with an almost emotional or perhaps even physical directness. My book wonders at that kind of a talent, the kind of sensibility he had, which I certainly don’t have myself. I am certainly not an insider to the level of mathematics as Abel practiced it, yet I hope that it helped me mediate between his extraordinary mind and ours, as we try to understand: What did he really see, and what did he feel? Plato and the Founding of the Academy John Bremer University Press of America, 2003 John Bremer says he has come into possession of a letter purporting to be from Plato himself, and addressed to his great nephew. Bremer, a former St. John’s tutor, describes how the letter came into his possession, presents its text in English, and in 100 pages of footnotes and other tabulations and analyses develops and clarifies the letter’s contents. In the letter, the author elaborates a scheme of the design of the Republic based on a 12-hour reading period, beginning at noon and ending at midnight. The way into duration is the syllable count. The Republic may be divided into 240 three-minute units—each of roughly 750 syllables. (Bremer calls them Bremer Units.) The speed is fast, but not unrealistic. Plato would have composed on wax tablets, most likely of equal size, and in this way he could keep track both of the number of syllables on each tablet, as well as the tablets themselves—by numbering them. He could follow the time frame in which each part of the conversation played out. And he could also—as he surely did—compose each numbered tablet with reference to other tablets, and often with them side by side. What emerges when the Republic is viewed through this lens is an architectural marvel—suffused with symmetries musical, astronomical, geometrical, even choreographic. The famous Divided Line, for example, itself divided in extreme and mean ratio, comes at precisely the Golden Section (the point which divides in extreme and mean ratio) of the duration of the conversation. An elaborate and precise ring composition also reveals itself. Bremer has shown this with a table that places summaries of tablets 1 and 240, 2 and 239, and so on, side by side. The design of the Republic for once finds a concrete exposition in Bremer’s work—a truly new way to read the ancient text. — Noam Gedalof, A03 A Reader’s Companion to Augustine’s Confessions Kim Paffenroth (A88) and Robert P. Kennedy, editors Westminster John Knox Press, 2003 In this book, a tool for teaching and studying the Confessions, 13 scholars look at each of the 13 books and interpret their chapters in light of the whole and in light of the rest of Augustine’s works. In addition to co-editing this collection, Paffenroth, an assistant professor of religious studies at Iona College in New York, contributed an essay on the 9th Book, “The Emotional Heart of the Confessions.” In putting together this collection of interesting essays, the authors in their introduction say they have attempted to offer “a useful and challenging introduction to Augustine’s most famous work, as well as a unique contribution to scholarship on the Confessions.” x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �34 {Alumni Profile} Inspired by the Classics Francisco Benítez, SF89, Pursues the Bacchae by Teri Thomson Randall he Dionysiac frescoes found in the Villa of the Mysteries outside of Pompeii have been a rich source of inspiration to Santa Fe artist Francisco Benítez (SF89). Unearthed in the excavation of the villa outside of Pompeii in 1909, the frescoes were almost perfectly preserved thousands of years after they were buried in the eruption of Vesuvius. The three panels depict a woman undergoing the secret initiation rites—the socalled “mysteries”—of the cult of Dionysus, god of wine, ecstasy, and passion. Profoundly moved by the frescoes, Benítez spent three months in Naples during the summer of 2002, studying each panel in depth and visiting Herculaneum and other archeological sites. His latest series of paintings, called The Bacchae after the play by Euripides, reference the Dionysian frescoes with their intense blood-red backgrounds, faux architectural details, and sensually rendered life-size figures. But their content differs from the mythological imagery of the original work, which includes the god Bacchus, his sidekick Silenus, a winged demon, a faun, and the ritual flagellation of a frightened maiden. Instead, Benítez’s paintings depict beautiful women in quiet moments of reflection. The walls behind the women are painted in the style of the ancient Roman villas, with elaborate faux architectural motifs and painted vistas. Trompe l’oeil cracks and crumbling plaster also reflect elements of the original fresco. In discussing the inspiration for his work, Benítez describes his years at St. John’s as a type of initiation, a lifechanging and “intense” experience. “It made me develop who I was and come to grips with the gifts I had and didn’t have,” he explains. “If I didn’t have that experience, I might have been lost another 10 years. It’s a place that pushes you to your limits.” Benítez took his first formal art class, a life drawing course, at St. John’s. Several of his classmates shared his passion for fine arts, and the group regularly checked teri thomson randall T out art history books from the library and discussed them together. His soul-searching at St. John’s led Benítez to realize that his destiny was to become a painter. He left the college after two years to study at the Art Students League in New York City. He finished his fine arts degree at the University of New Mexico, including a study- { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } Francisco Benítez (SF89), shown here with “Bacchic Trio,” renders his figures life size, a tradition called megalographia that dates back to the classical Greeks. continued on next page �35 {Alumni Notes} abroad experience at Facultad de Bellas Artes in Granada, Spain. Though Benítez is a product of a contemporary art school education, his highest aspiration is to emulate the figurative painters of the Renaissance and the master painters of the ancient Romans and Greeks, who Benítez believes give Michaelangelo and Raphael a run for their money. “The nuances one finds in the Old Master figurative paintings are lost in contemporary painting,” he says, although contemporary painting, with its “rawer” depiction of the figure, “expresses our period best.” Almost from the beginning of Benítez’s formal art education, he was drawn to the works of the Old Masters because of their “sense of atmosphere, and the way the human body is presented that seems so unobtainable technically. I wanted to reach it,” said the artist. “It became an ongoing struggle to get to that place 1932 where one can express certain realities of the human experience.” Benítez soon found that the techniques of the Old Masters were not given much weight in his art school syllabi. “In art school, the past is ignored,” he said. “It is a dictatorship of the contemporary. Not that everyone should be obsessed with history. But there should be room for everybody.” Benítez had to learn from the old masters on his own, by studying the masterpieces in the museums of Europe and through endless trial and error with materials and technique. The seeds for Benítez’s interest in classical figurative painting were probably planted by his parents. The artist is the son of the nationally recognized flamenco dancer and choreographer María Benítez and her husband, Cecilio, a set designer who also sculpts and paints. Benítez credits his parents for influencing his interest in tenebrism, a technique introduced by mainly humanities, literature, and history. 1942 HENRY SHRYOCK and his wife, ERNEST J. HEINMULLER writes: “The Pauline Lemarie, were featured in an article by Angus Phillips in the Washington Post sports section on November 9. The couple was interviewed on a hike with members of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. In the article, Lemarie, now in her 90s, says that she limits her hikes to five miles, no rocks. “My husband still likes rocks. He’ll leap from rock to rock. He’s like a goat—in more ways than one!” she’s quoted as saying. Talbot County Commissioners have recently appointed me to the Talbot County Emergency Services Board. This board coordinates fire department and ambulance services.” 1935 “I am still practicing law in this small upstate New York village,” writes RICHARD S. WOODMAN, from Waterville, N.Y. “I wonder where all of the Class of 1935 are, for I don’t see any information about them in the alumni news.” 1943 MARTIN ANDREWS has begun his sixth year as Commander of the Nassau-Suffolk L.I. Chapter of the American Ex-Prisoners of War. “I have no important news, but I ask that Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way be restored to the fourth-year reading list (seminar or language tutorial),” writes MILTON PERLMAN. 1948 PETER DAVIES and his wife, Phyllis, plan a trip this coming April to visit son Ken and five grandchildren in Uganda, where Ken is the country director of the UN’s World Food Program. Peter writes that he is “still very active in community activities in N.Y.” 1951 “This past May, I had a quadruple bypass operation that has now slowed down my singles tennis game to such a pace that my classmate H.R. Bixby would have a chance beating me,” writes DR. LAWRENCE G. MYERS, from Vermont. 1947 JOHN BRUNN is continuing his education by taking classes at the Fromm Institute in San Francisco, { The College Caravaggio, that involves the use of extreme contrasts of light and dark in figurative compositions. His father exposed him to the masterpieces of Velázquez and Goya. And his mother, he says, “gave me the sensitivity of expressing strong feelings to the viewer. There has to be emotional content in the work. The cerebral has to be balanced with the heart, the emotions. After living with them, I don’t think I could have become anything other than an artist.” Ultimately, Benítez would like to expand his Bacchae paintings to a series of perhaps 20 pieces. In the meantime, his next body of work will explore what he calls “the confrontations between Christian mysticism and ancient paganism.” These works are destined for a group exhibition in Provence next spring that will center on the concept of juxtaposing images and texts. x John’s College • Winter 2004 } 1955 “We are fortunate to live in a town with a large university that allows residents to attend classes (with the permission of the professor),” CAROLYN BANKS-LEEUWENBURGH writes from Princeton, N.J. “There are a few of us who take advantage of this opportunity, after which we swim each day, to keep from falling apart. Our socalled retirement years are full and about the same as before except for our obsession with our grandchildren. Greetings to all of our friends of yesterday and today at St. John’s.” 1959 MIKE and BLAKELY MECHAU, classes of 1959 and 1958 respectively, are alive and well and retired from the judicial system and public school teaching. They’re currently raising fruit in Palisades, Colo. They recently read Eva Brann’s book on time with “much enjoyment.” �36 {Alumni Notes} 1964 2004, he will be teaching at Semester at Sea, a branch of the University of Pittsburgh that takes place during a voyage around the world. LORRAINE A. MARTIN was recently appointed to serve as chair of the Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants’ Federal Income Taxation Committee. Martin, who owns the firm of Lorraine A. Martin, CPA, is also president of the board of directors for Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven and treasurer of the North Haven Opportunity for Affordable Housing Inc. 1968 ANTIGONE PHALARES (SF) writes: “Our 35th reunion was the best one yet. The seminar, the meals, the conversations, the weather, the landscape, the memories recalled, all conspired to welcome us back with open arms. We love being members of the first class. Our reunion numbers will always coincide with the age of the Santa Fe campus. I just discovered that one of my neighbors is a descendent of Francis Scott Key (class of 1796). She showed me a daguerreotype image of Francis Scott Key and another of the man his daughter married!! She was as tickled to show them to a St. Johnnie as I was to see them!” 1969 MICHAEL ANTHONY (A) writes to say that his wife, Dr. Sharon K. Anthony, Ph.D., died on February 3, 2003. She taught English for 30 years. MARIA KAYANAN (A) writes: “After Send a Piana to Havana, a project started by BENJAMIN TREUHAFT (SF) in 1995, opened a school of tuning and instrument repair in Havana in 2001. This year the Cuban Government gave the project a large building in the former Country Club of Havana (an architectural gem) so it can expand, provided the project’s sponsors can raise the money. 1970 BRONWEN BERLINER (A) writes: “My sister, Shirley Stickney, died suddenly and unexpectedly on July 25, 2003, at our parents’ home. I am working as a nurse practitioner in Falls Church, Va. News from HENRY CONSTANTINE (A70) and CHRISTINE CONSTANTINE (A72): “Hank has taken a job as marketing director at Zoll Medical Corp. in Massachusetts. Christine is still with the New York State Appellate Court in Rochester. Living apart and commuting madly— they are still madly in love. Oh, yeah: Son ALEX is a junior at SJC.” E. M. MACIEROWSKI (A), associate professor of philosophy at Benedictine College, was selected as one of 12 participants in a seminar on teaching about Islam and the Middle East to be held in Amman, Jordan, at the American Center for Oriental Research in January 2004. The selection was made by the Council of Independent Colleges; the seminar is being funded by the Department of State. JOSEPH P. BARATTA (A) reports: “My big book, The Politics of World Federation, will finally be published (by Praeger Press) in December 2003. DR. G. DENNIS RAINS (A) has published a textbook, Principles of Human Neuropsychology (McGraw-Hill, 2002). In spring 1974 1972 RICHARD A. RHODES (SFGI) writes to say that his local reading group has met September through May continuously for more than 40 years. { The College 15 years of clerking for Judge James R. Jorgenson on the Third District Court of Appeals in Miami, Fla., I joined the law firm of Podhurst Orseck, P.A., (www.podhurst.com) at the end of July 2003. The firm is recognized as one of the premiere aviation law firms in the country. I am the 13th lawyer in the firm; I focus on trial support and appellate practice. It’s a huge but wonderful change from the quiet and steady inner world of an appellate court. “I’ve been married for 28 years come November to Mike Masinter, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Fla. His areas of expertise are employment discrimination, civil rights law, disability law, and federal jurisdiction. We have two sons: Joe, 25, lives at The Foundation for Independent Living in Coconut Creek, Florida—a private residential community for adults with cognitive impairments. Our younger son Sam, 21, is a senior at Amherst College, majoring in English. We also have two basset hounds and an indeterminate number of cats. “I can be reached at mkayanan@podhurst.com. Hearing from classmates would be lovely.” 1976 After graduation, BRIAN LYNCH (A) went to medical school and now lives in Chicago. He has written a self-help book based on a theory that is more and more being supported by the high-end neuroscience that is advancing rapidly. “I am always interested in advancing the theory through writing and speaking about it and now through the book,” Brian writes. “If there is any interest, please let me know.” Information about the book can be found at http://brianlynchmd.com/whatanother/whata notherdirect.html Black Wine and Outdoor Adventures eter Grubb (A80) writes that life in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, “continues well. We spent the fall of 2002 living in a small village in southwest France, eating well and drinking the black wine of Cahors, elixir of former popes. Our children, then 9 and 11, attended French school while my wife, Betsy, and I took a break from work and life. It was an enriching time. Our adventure travel business (www.rowinc.com) continues to go well with some 3,200 people joining our trips in the northern Rockies, Ecuador, and Europe each year. Guest historians join us on our five-day voyageur canoe trips in the Upper Missouri, along the Lewis and Clark trail. Families with kids as young as five enjoy our five-day trips on Idaho’s Salmon River. Our newest project is developing a five-acre outdoor adventure resort in central Idaho on the Clearwater River. Scheduled to open in May 2004, it will have log cabins and a variety of programs including spiritual retreats and family adventure camps. My passion in the arena of natural and cultural history interpretation continues as I pursue various levels of certification through the National Association of Interpretation. Life is good. Any Johnnies passing through are welcome to call and visit.” x P John’s College • Winter 2004 } �{Alumni Profile} 37 Restoring Self-Respect Eileen Renno (A82) helps unemployed Oregonians get back in the job market. by Sus3an Borden, A87 hen clients first meet Eileen Renno, they’re usually not very happy to see her. The people she counsels in her role as a job coach for Oregon’s Welfare-toWork Program are usually at a low point in their lives: They have been through some kind of crisis, they’re traumatized, and they lack confidence and hope. “Poverty is one of the most traumatic things that can happen to a person,” says Renno. “You forget who you are and what you can do. You focus on your weaknesses and assume an identity of helplessness and hopelessness.” Renno knows this phenomenon well, from both professional and personal experience. When she first moved to Southern Oregon in 1997 she, too, was jobless. She experienced the trauma of unemployment and took almost a year to re-enter the workplace. When she finally did, it was thanks to her sister Catherine’s persistence. Catherine had joined Renno in a number of earlier ventures—from restoring and running a restaurant in Shady Side, Md., to marketing handcrafts from native cooperatives worldwide. “My sister was carrying my memories for me because I had forgotten about my successes. She kept bugging me to write my résumé until I wanted to smack her. When I finally did start writing, I ended up with a six-page résumé—exactly what they say not to do—but it was a good process for me. I needed to remember what I had accomplished and when I remembered, I regained my old esteem and self-confidence.” Shortly thereafter Renno got a clerical job with the National Park Service and a month later applied and was hired for her current position by The Job Council, a primary contractor for Oregon’s Welfare-to-Work program. Renno’s job is to help clients become job-ready by coaching them as they identify and resolve their own barriers to employment. As part of that process, she works with them on the technical aspects of their portfolios. Nearly six years into it, she says there’s been an evolution in her under- W A brush with unemployment helped Renno find her vocation as a job coach. standing of what it takes to re-enter the job market. “When I was first hired, I was pretty much an enabler,” she says. “I wanted to do everything for my clients. I was making their phone calls, navigating through bureaucratic paths, generally helping them in their befuddlement. I learned pretty quickly that this was disempowering to people. The hidden message I was giving by doing so much for them was, ‘I’m capable and you’re not.’ “My whole philosophy has evolved to a more solution-oriented exploratory interviewing. Now I see the process as being a turning around, as helping to create a shift in energy so people can recognize their own competence.” When clients meet Renno, they are told only her name and that she’ll help them with their portfolio. She then sets out to help them develop a résumé — the method that worked so well when she was unemployed. “I use the résumé as a tool to help them remember and explore their successes,” she says. “We work through the technical { The College John’s College • Winter 2004 } aspects: ‘Where did you work last? What skills did you use in your job?’ In the process of remembering dates, they revisit the experience, and sometimes an amazing unfolding occurs. I have had people educate me on so many aspects of employment: packing pickles, laying sidewalks, carpentry, mechanics. They go into the details of their work and they get excited. That’s when I know the magic is happening. They want to explain it all to me and they start talking faster and faster. They remember what it took for them to be able to do the job: self-management, self-initiative, people skills.” When Renno began her job, the Welfareto-Work program was first being implemented. Many of the clients she worked with were people who had been on welfare for so many years that it was a way of life. “They were called ‘drawer people’ by social workers —their files had been stuck in the drawer for so long. They had severe barriers to employment, presenting issues that seemed unsolvable: drug addiction, mental illness, chronic generational welfare use, and lack of transportation.” Renno seems to gravitate toward the difficult cases, both for the challenge they present and the opportunity to watch people turn their lives around. “ Having gone through joblessness myself has given me the insight of how to help people find their own way to get back on their feet, and it seems to work. I’ve witnessed a lot of successes.” Since the Welfare-to-Work mandate came from the Clinton administration in 1996, Oregon’s welfare roles have been reduced by 50 percent. Renno gives special credit for this success to the active partnership among social service agencies in Oregon. “The people we work with are starving in many ways: for support, for encouragement, for recognition. We give them an abundant supply of that, along with whatever professional resources we have to help them, as well as our respect and belief that they are capable. The human spirit is amazing; when you give a starving person a bowl of rice, they feel so wealthy. It renews them much more than a healthy person eating a regular meal. It renews their spirit as well.” x �38 {Alumni Notes} Tricked by Joe Six-Pack Wine Expert Jake Kosseff (A95) Meets Reality T.V. hannel surfers hunting for the latest flavor of reality television might have tuned into Jake Kosseff’s 15 minutes of fame on The Learning Channel’s Faking It show. On the show, a rank beginner is paired with mentors who help him master a new skill in three weeks of intensive coaching. The beginner is then tested to see if he can convince a panel of expert judges that he’s a seasoned professional. Kosseff, a sommelier and the wine and spirits director at Seattle’s Cascadia restaurant, was an expert judge for the “Six-Pack to Chardonnay” episode, in which a beer drinker (the captain of the U.S. Beer Drinking Team) was groomed to impersonate a sommelier. Anyone who was on the Annapolis campus circa 1995 will remember Kosseff’s contribution to Annapolis wine and spirits life, both officially (Reality parties) and unofficially (off-campus, after-waltz-party soirées). Given his college experience, it’s C 1978 This update from ROBERT J. PERRY (A): “I’ve been demoted from professor of physics at Ohio State to associate executive dean of Arts and Sciences, and because I’m as obnoxious now as I was in seminars, I’m also interim senior associate vice president of research, which amazingly enough fits on a business card.” no wonder he loves his job. Koseff buys all the wine and liquor for the restaurant, writes the wine lists, and creates specialty cocktails. His expertise has been well received: Cascadia won Awards of Excellence from Wine Spectator in 2002 and 2003. “This is definitely what I want to do. It draws on all sorts of St. John’s skills: reading and research, communication, and understanding what people want even when they can’t tell you directly,” he says. “And I get to sit around and taste wine for the first twoand-a-half hours of work.” Kosseff says it was a fluke that he appeared on Jake Kosseff: TV star of Educational Technologies in the Masters of Education Program at National University. His wife, AIMEE ROBSON MORRIS (SF80), is an attorney in San Diego and is on the Board of Directors for the San Diego Foster Parent Association. Their daughter, Ilana, is a sophomore at UCSB. Their home, along with their son, Sam (a freshman in high school), and their four foster boys, was recently among the blessed surviving the San Diego fires. Faking It at all. Cascadia, one of Seattle’s highest-rated restaurants, was between public relations companies when the producers called asking for an expert judge. No one at his restaurant had time to vet the show, which had not yet aired, and no one knew what it was really about. The producers only said that they wanted an expert judge. “It sounded like a documentary about a sommelier contest,” says Kosseff. “They didn’t tell me the show’s premise. And they didn’t say that one of the ‘sommeliers’ was the beer-drinking champion of Chicago.” Kosseff flew to San Francisco for filming, which took place during a four-hour lunch. The three expert judges were seated at separate tables with “foodies”—wine writers, restaurateurs—as companions. At each course the table was served by a different sommelier—the faker and two professionals. When lunch ended, the judges were isolated and then interviewed. In the end, Kosseff voted for the fake sommelier. “When they interviewed us I still didn’t know what was going on,” he says. “I tried to say, in a politic way, that no one did a really good job, but that I liked the guy from Chicago. He was the nicest guy in the bunch.” x 1981 ANDY WHITE’S (A) address through 2004 is c/o United States Educational Foundation in Greece/6 Vassilissis Sofias Avenue/10674 Athens/GREECE. 1982 CHARLES REUBEN (SF) writes: “In 1979 JOE MORRIS (SF) is the director of Educational Technologies at the Gillispie School in La Jolla, Calif., one of the first one-to-one laptop elementary schools in Southern California. (Every teacher and third-through-sixth-grade student has a laptop computer). He also moonlights as an adjunct professor ARTHUR PAUL HARTEL III (A) has addition to having recently sold a cruise ship story to the L.A. Times about the adventures my 86-yearold mother and I recently shared on the seven seas, I also dedicated considerable energy advocating the continued survival of Amtrak and ‘long-haul’ passenger train travel, a cause that (like St. John’s) won’t get my tires slashed or my windshield smashed.” spent the years since graduation working as an actor, writer, and editor for film and television. He lives in Los Angeles. { The College WALTER H. KOKERNOT (SFGI82) has been appointed division chair of the English department at Ohio Dominican University, in Columbus. Walter joined ODU in 1998 as assistant professor of English. Prior to joining the faculty of the John’s College • Winter 2004 } Ohio liberal arts college, he was an instructor at Louisiana State University and a postdoctoral lecturer at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. An expert in Victorian literature, he lives in Westerville, Ohio. 1983 STEVEN REYNOLDS (A) is teaching algebra under an emergency credential in Tranquillity (sic), Calif. “Clientele are predominantly offspring of immigrant farmers,” writes Reynolds. “The language barrier is surmountable; I can’t speak to the ambition barrier. E-mail me at strdar@pacbell.net.” PETER ROSSONI (SF) writes: “Healthy and happy living in suburban Maryland; still missing mountains, piñon, and deep discussions! Drop by or drop a line when in the area! �39 {Alumni Notes} 1984 KATHERINE ROWE (SF) writes: “I continue teaching (speech and disabilities), preaching (Episcopal Church), momming (Sutton 10, Ailee 7, Kenny, from Thailand, 16), purring (Appalachia, Trinity, & Raven), wifing (Phil traveling to Brazil, Italy, and Linda, Mexico), and breathing (in Colorado).” 1984 LESLIE JUMP (A) writes: “Ned [Walker] and I were married on September 28. The wedding was beautiful, despite a variety of comic circumstances surrounding the event, and Hurricane Isabel’s best efforts to create havoc. The ceremony was held at a very old church on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Old Trinity. Ned is a career diplomat who served as ambassador to Egypt and Israel, and in various other posts in the Middle East. I’m settling into the role of being a ‘diplomatic spouse,’ learning a bit about the Arab world and Israel, and consulting. Within a week of becoming ‘Mrs. Walker’ I got another title: ‘stepgrandmother.’ Ned’s daughter Katie had a baby girl, Darby Fiona, on October 3. The father is also an alum, Logan Laubach (A02). So there are three generations of Johnnies in our extended family. We’re living in Washington, and would be happy to hear from you if you pass through town. We know all the best kabob joints.” 1985 GINA SORRENTINO (SF) and Bob Shimokaji are thrilled to announce the birth of Kira Michiko and Kenji Yoshiro on June 27, 2003. “Sleep deprivation, diapers for two, and college tuition—parenthood is the ulti- mate challenge. The fun has just started!” 1986 BARBARA ROBERTS (SFGI) writes: “I am a special education teacher for Denver Public Schools and living in Wheat Ridge, Colo. I was privileged to, once again, spend the summer attending talks given by Bhau Kalchuri, a disciple of Avatar Meher Baba.” “My daughter Chloe is now in third grade,” writes MICHAEL RYAN (SF). “I will be a registered architect by the end of this year and remarried to a lovely woman with two girls of her own by next summer.” Berkeley in December 2002. They can be reached at joshua@industriallogic.com or tracy@industriallogic.com KURT REDFIELD (A) recently com- pleted his MBA at Columbia Business School, and is the CFO of the French software company Neartek. Kurt, his wife, Christine, and 4-year-old son, Wilson, live in Cambridge, Mass. 1991 “Charlotte and I became parents on August 1 with the birth of Maximilian Blaise and Veronica Joyce,” writes ANDY SCHUCHART (AGI). “We are living in Iowa. I am a professor of social science and humanities at our community college, and Charlotte practices internal medicine.” 1988 “In April 2002, our third child, Diana Claire Plenefisch, was born,” writes IRENE LAPORTE PLENEFISCH (A). “She is a happy and healthy sister for Adrian, age 5, and Elena, age 7. Tom and I are very busy and enjoying every minute with our family. I am working full time for now but hoping to get back to my part-time schedule soon.” 1989 JOSHUA KERIEVSKY (SF) and TRACY REPPERT KERIEVSKY (SF91) had their second daughter, Sophia, in 1992 This from BOAZ ROTH (AGI): “We welcomed our second daughter, Sela Avital Roth, on July 11, 2003.” CONSUELO SAÑUDO (SF) is having a good life but considers this space too public for news. She would love to hear from long-lost classmates and friends at sanudoc@cybermesa.com. Relatively recent news about this and that at 222.obst-music.com. KATIE (BRUELL) WATSON (SF) writes: “Our second son, Andrew Christopher, was born 6/6/03. He Happy About the Dancing ENRY POVOLNY (A94) married Christine Fisher H at sunset on Tuesday, Nov. 4, at Honeymoon Beach, St. John’s, the U.S. Virgin Islands. On his announcement, Henry wrote: “Chris wants to thank [St. John’s College] for how I turned out.” Chris wrote: “He dances, he fences. It’s like he came pre-loaded with a preferred software package!” They live in Elmore, Ohio. x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } joins Peter Avery, born 7/8/01. I am adjusting to (and enjoying) life as the mother of two boys!” HESSE (GILES) WATTS (SF) and SHAWN WATTS (SF00) welcomed their new daughter, Altheia, into the world on August 12, 2003. They are living in central New Jersey and can be reached at heatherawatts@hotmail.com 1993 BARBARA ARNOLD (SF) married Steven (Collier) in Las Vegas, Nev., in January 2002, and is currently living and writing in the San Francisco Bay area. She would love to hear from former classmates: Arnold@ferae-naturae.com. WES ALWAN (A) is in Savannah, Ga., after a 9-month program in Maine learning traditional wooden boatbuilding. “I suggest Johnnies look into the carpenters’ boatshop,” he writes. “I can be reached at wes@aowanconsulting.com.” 1994 ELI CASTRO (SF) has been firmly planted in Austin since 1998. “TRACY LOCKE (SF95) and I got married, bought a house in the country, had a baby (the fabulous Ella, born 2/22/01), and are generally having a great time. I’m still consulting, and will be finishing the evening MBA program at UT next year. Tracy teaches at the nursing school at UT. Anyone in �40 {Alumni Notes} A Letter from Shizuoka Katherine Greco (SF02) reports in from Japan K ATHERINE GRECO (SF02) has been enjoying her stay in Shizuoka, Japan. “I’ve been working really hard at learning Japanese and have been enjoying teaching in a high school. I’ve made a few good friends—both other teachers from around the world and Japanese people—that I see pretty regularly. In January I made a New Year’s resolution to travel somewhere in Japan each month, and so far I’ve been doing pretty well. I live near Tokyo, about an hour by bullet train, so I’ve been there several times. I’ve also been to the Hokkaido snow festival, some smaller towns (good Japanese practice!), Hiroshima, and Kyoto… Shizuoka is about the size of Albuquerque, maybe a little smaller. It is right on the largest train line in the country, and Shizuoka is big enough for the express train to stop twice an hour. The city is pretty clean, although riding a bike every day has made me a lot more aware of car fumes and factory smoke. I live about three or four miles and across a river from the center of town. My apartment is in the hills, and there are lots of friendly neighbors. Several people have vegetable gardens and one old couple always brings me a few vegetables to try. I’ve made them cookies, but they didn’t turn out so well because I had to cook them Austin or thereabouts, please feel free to drop us a line at eli@tracyandeli.com.” ANTHONY CHIFFOLO (AGI) is now working as managing editor for Praeger Publishers in Westport, Conn. “Great company, great group of folks to work with,” he writes. Chiffolo has two new books out this fall. “The first and most ambitious is called We Thank You, God, for These: Blessings and Prayers for Family Pets. As the publisher, Paulist Press, notes, this is a ‘one-of-a-kind book for pet lovers that is at once a scriptural guide, liturgical resource, and reflection on the joys of living with in a toaster oven (large ovens are not standard kitchen equipment in Japan). There are a lot of things that give me a good dose of culture shock every once in a while, but my neighborhood is not one of them. Compared to neighborhoods at home, mine is really different, but really great as well. Everything is jammed close together— there are no yards or anything like that. However, lots of people decorate the area around the parking space with really nice flowers and other potted plants. Another interesting thing is that there seems to be a much looser set of zoning standards here. Within a two-minute walk from my apartment are a temple, a handful of vending machines, several very nice houses, some really shabby houses, a junior high, a small family-run grocery store, a grove of fruit trees, several very large rusty warehouses, a mechanic’s shop, and a small park! My neighborhood is usually pretty quiet but there are a few interesting exceptions to this rule. First and foremost are the devil children who live across the street and who could probably be heard from Saturn. Also, every six months or so there are elections, and several vans drive very slowly down each street with megaphones shouting slogans... Sometimes there are two or three different campaign vans in the neighborhood at once, which makes for some very interesting noise pollution. Finally, about two or three times a week, someone goes animals as pets.’ My co-author, (The Rev.) Rayner W. Hesse Jr., and I were lucky enough to garner some wonderful endorsements from Bill Keane (creator of ‘The Family Circus’ cartoon), Dr. Marty Becker (co-author of Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul), and Marc Muench (nature photographer), among others. We have high hopes for the book.” Anthony’s second book is called Advent and Christmas with the Saints. This day-by-day book, in which readers encounter the words of the saints as they relate to the season, is available from Liguori Publications. “I have lots of ideas for more books to write,” missing, usually a child who comes home a little too late for comfort, or an elderly person who took a really, really long walk. When this happens, there is an announcement that describes the person and asks everyone to keep an eye out for him or her. This announcement is broadcast at any time from about 7 a.m. or so to 10 p.m. It seems that people often go missing on Saturday and Sunday mornings when I’m still asleep! There are also several more pleasant sounds that I hear every few days. Japan doesn’t have an ice cream man, but it has a tofu man, a soft rice cake man, a grilled sweet potato man, a ramen man, an oden man, a knife-sharpening man, and a few other men. They all drive around in their family trucks with the food in the back. They hang large red lanterns that have the name of the food written on them out the windows and on the sides of the trucks. Each truck also has a megaphone on top and there are all sorts of sounds that they play. One is this kind of eerie bbbrrRRRRAAAaaaaadddDDDAAAaaaa noise while others are homemade recordings of a man or woman singing the name of the food, the price, and some comment like ‘delicious and healthy.’ At first I didn’t like these food salesman noises—they were just as obnoxious as the other sounds, but more frequent. Now though, I’ve gotten used to them.” x he adds, “just not enough time to do it all!” JAMES COBERN (A) writes: “I guess it is about time to fess up to my where and whenabouts before our 10-year reunion. Directly after St. John’s, I spent two years in bucolic upstate New York at the Culinary Institute of America where I graduated with honors. Who would have thought that a classical education could be beneficial in cooking school? While there I met my future wife, Amanda. We married in 1998 and both are working chefs/restaurant managers in the Washington, D.C., area. At this writing, we { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } have almost finalized the adoption of our first child, Robert, who came to us at the tender age of four months from Korea. He is both smart and good looking—a dangerous combination for sure. I’d love to hear from any classmates in or passing through the area via e-mail: jamanda@ bellatlantic.net.” KELLY ROCK (A) is working as a litigation attorney in Washington, D.C. “This October I was married to Stephen Smith on a lovely autumn afternoon in Narragansett, R.I. LARISSA ENGLEMAN (A) and MERRILL POND (A) were among �41 {Alumni Notes} my bridesmaids. I am looking forward to the 2004 reunion.” MATTHEW TEBO (A) is happy to announce the arrival of twins, Nov. 21, 2003. After graduating from law school, AMY E. WUEBBELS (A) was selected to be a Presidential Management Fellow and has spent most of her two-year fellowship working for the Department of State: “So far I have been posted to Portugal, Afghanistan, and now Bulgaria, where I am currently working in the political section in the American Embassy. I have enjoyed all of my postings (scuba diving in Portugal, rug shopping in Afghanistan) but am still angling for a chance to live in Africa.” 1995 CARRIE (SAGER) ANDERSON (A) writes: “I just received the recent issue of The College magazine, which reminded me that I needed to write in to say that I have joined the ranks of motherhood. My son, Matthew Dean, was born on July 23, 2003. He’s wonderful. I can’t believe how much I love being a mother, and how much it has changed me already.” MARINE CORPS CAPT. MICHAEL GAFFNEY (A) departed late last summer on a six-month deployment to Iraq with USS Peleliu Amphibious Ready Group. The unit is an expeditionary intervention force with the ability to rapidly organize for combat operations in virtually any environment. Gaffney is based out of Camp Pendleton. ALICE BROWN and GREG HODGES (both A) have moved back to Canada to raise their daughter (Grace Isabel Hodges, born 10/10/02) right in a country where medical care is free and Schwarzenegger is just the Terminator. Greg is putting the final touches on his dissertation on Lucan’s account of the Roman Civil War and both Alice and Greg are teaching at For the fifth year, Philanthropia, the Alumni Development Council, presents the St. John’s Calendar, featuring historic and contemporary photos of the college. Have interesting photos from your student days that might make good calendar material? Send them to THE COLLEGE, St. John’s College Communications Office, 60 College Ave., Annapolis MD 21401. Photos will be scanned and returned, or if you wish, donated to the college archives. Trinity College School. Best wishes and fond memories. DAN NELSON (A) sends an update: “Howdy, College! Haven’t checked in with you folks for a few years, so here’s the latest: quit my job as newspaper photographer in Connecticut and moved to San Francisco last fall to play drums for GARTH KLIPPERT (SF94). Garth is married and has a 2-year-old daughter who is tha bomb. The band’s now called Top Brown. We’ve been playing shows steadily and we’re putting out an album pretty soon. Things I haven’t done: gotten married, had legitimate children, gone to grad school, become a lawyer, done the Peace Corps, or traveled to Turkey and Hungary. That last item I intend to do. Oh, but I do work for a nonprofit and, indeed, do not profit from it. “The doings of other shadowy alumni in my inner circle are as follows: ALKA KOTHARI (A95) works for the World Bank and travels a lot. She just bought a house in D.C. JON POMERANCE (A97) is in his last year of law school at Catholic U. of America and has diabolical schemes against the tax-evaders and tort-frauds of the world. RAY AMES (A94) e-mailed me a photo from Iraq last December of an Army truck covered with dust. E-mail me if you know anything later/further, people! FORREST NORMAN (A97) was doing journalist stuff in Florida and has moved on to something more interesting (I think). I saw some Santa Fe alums at a party out here and they looked gooooood, girl. One’s named LIZ and one’s DARYL. My e-mail’s zz9zz7zz5@hotmail.com.” 1996 1997 Karen and MICHAEL CHIANTELLA (A) were married on August 2, 2003. Michael graduated from SUNY Buffalo Law School last spring and is currently pursuing an LL.M. in Estate Planning Law at the University of Miami. JENN COONCE (A) writes: “Still liv- ing in NYC (Brooklyn) and working in the Internet biz. My sister RACHEL started St. John’s in the fall—to be joining my little brother, who’s a junior this year. That makes five of us—and that’s it, until we start having kids!” DOMINIC CRAPUCHETTES (A) expects LINDA MAY WACKER (SF) is living in New York City and working at the Museum of Modern Art as manager of the department of photography. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } his new board game company to launch in December. Learn about it at www.cluzzle.com. JEHANNE DUBROW (A) writes: “In May 2003, I completed my MFA in poetry at the University of Mary- �42 {Alumni Notes} land, College Park. Having become very interested in poetic translation, I spent the summer brushing up on my Polish in a language immersion program at the University of Pittsburgh. Now, I’ve moved halfway across the country to begin my Ph.D. in creative writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I’m teaching first-year composition (quite an experience in itself), working as an editorial assistant at Prairie Schooner, and trying to finish up my first poetry manuscript.” JOHN SWANN and PAULA (RUBIN) SWANN (both AGI) were married in the Great Hall on June 7, 2003. “Many Johnnies were in attendance,” they write. “Special thanks to JOHN POTTER (AGI96) for performing an ‘emergency’ ceremony when the original celebrant was two hours late! He did a great job for someone who had just graduated from Princeton Seminary just three weeks prior! Thanks, Potter!” 1998 GLEN COPPER (AGI) received a Ful- perused the Alumni Register and sure enough—a Johnnie was responsible. So, I’m concurrently pursuing my M.Ed. and ‘teaching’ first grade in the South Bronx. Please interrupt my life of eating, sleeping, and planning! Majorie@thecatspants.com.” 1999 ELIZABETH A. BORSHARD (SF) just moved to New Orleans to start medical school at Tulane. “I would love to hear from any classmates in the area. eborshar@tulane.edu.” COLBY COWHERD (A) is working on a J.D. degree at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Va. He can be reached at ccowherd@gmu.edu. JEAN DRAGANZA (SF) writes: “After two years living, working, studying in Paris, France, I’m heading for Bamako, Mali with my future husband, Issa Diallo, to continue living, working, studying…My love and best wishes to the entire St. John’s community! I can be reached at draganzajean @yahoo.fr.” bright to teach in Japan. MIKE and ABBY SOEJOTO (both A) are A report from ANDREW B. HILL (A): “I’m getting married sometime in 2004 to a tremendous woman who did not, sadly, attend St. John’s. I reside in Fort Worth, Texas. I recently completed an unsuccessful bid for the mayorship of my lovely city, for which I was rewarded with a whopping 206 votes, as well as about 60 hours of Digital Beta footage, which I intend to convert into something remotely saleable. Thus, no matter how vague my connection to the school may be, I am following in a tradition of Maverick Johnnie filmmakers, or at least I think I am.” MARJORIE TRUMAN (A) writes from N.Y.: “What joy I had recently when I was assigned a text for grad school and began reading all these references to Kierkegaard, NonEuclidean geometry, and Socrates and Plato as distinct entities. I Albuquerque, N.M., and I plan to marry on December 19, 2003. She, too, is a grad student at Duke Divinity. We plan to make our home in New Mexico upon graduation. I would love to hear from any of my former classmates or tutors including Michael Adams, Jonathon Pezold, and Nathan Zweig.” pleased to announce the birth of their first child, Lucila Adele. Lucy was born on September 30 in Los Angeles, where Mike is beginning his second year as an attorney in the tax department of O’Melveny & Myers. Abby recently finished the post-baccalaureate program in classics at UCLA. They’d love to hear from anyone, especially those in or passing through Southern California (asoejoto@cs.com or 323-572-0343). ERIN JAKOWSKI (A) is pleased to be working at the Maryland Film Festival, now entering her third year as director of operations. She recently became engaged to Tony Tsendeas over the Thanksgiving holiday. MARK H. JOHNSON (A) is pursuing a Master of Divinity at Duke University. “My fiancée, Allison Shirley of 2000 GIDEON BOGAGE (AGI) just completed his fourth year teaching middle school in Massachusetts. “This year I am teaching 8th grade math and English,” he writes. “Thank goodness for a liberal arts education!” BOB DICKSON (A) is in his first year of medical school at Duke University, having completed pre-requisites in the Goucher College Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program. “I’d be happy to talk with Johnnies about the medical school admissions process. Feel free to contact me at robertpickettdickson @yahoo.com.” PAIGE FORREST (A) is still living in Pittsburgh and loving it. She’d love to hear from any of her classmates at forrest.paige@medstudent. pitt.edu. “If any of you are in the area, let me know!” she writes. CHRISTOPHER “CASEY” VAUGHAN (A) is living in St. Augustine, Fla. “Anyone who wants to come surfing feel free to contact me at cvaughan@flagler.edu. 2001 MARSHALL HEVRON (A) writes: “After a six-month, all-expensespaid trip to Iraq (courtesy of USMC), I find myself back in Washington, D.C., working in the Senate. Drop me a line if you’re in town.” mahevron@hotmail.com. DANIEL WEILAND (A) is attending post-baccalaureate school at Ore- { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } gon State University—and thriving: “The rain is refreshing and the air is sweet. I live in a big house, so anyone who knows my name has a dry place to stay here on the West Coast. I’d love to hear from you!” 2002 JOSEPH CHERNILA (SF) and ALANA HOLLINGSWORTH CHERNILA (SF) write: “Joey and I had a daughter on April 10, 2003! Her name is Sadie Pearl Chernila.” AUSTIN HATCH (AGI) and his wife, Elizabeth, announce the birth of their second child, John Austin Hatch, on June 4, 2003. Austin has begun a Ph.D. program in English literature at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. RACHEL SEAY (A) is still enjoying teaching music and studying in San Juan, Puerto Rico. “Mighty fine beaches we’ve got here. Contactable at res_sjc@yahoo.com” x 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 April 2004; deadline for the alumni notes section is February 15. In Annapolis: The College Magazine St. John’s College, P.O. Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404; reharty@sjca.edu In Santa Fe: The College Magazine St. John’s College Public Relations Office 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; alumni@sjcsf.edu Alumni notes on the Web: Read Alumni Notes and contact The College on the web at www.sjca.edu — click on Alumni. Let us know if you do not want a classnote posted to the Web. �43 {Obituaries} Henry Leong Soon By Perry Plummer, SF70 Henry Leong Soon, a member of the class of 1969 in Santa Fe, died on September 23, 2003, in Albuquerque, N.M., at the age of 56. Henry died from cardiac complications resulting from a four-year fight with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an autoimmune disease with no known cause. Henry’s illness forced him to resign from his work as a computer programmer and to chain himself to an oxygen cannula. Even so, he had to restrict his physical activity in order to merely keep his oxygen levels in the poor range. This was hard for Henry because he had been an avid outdoorsman who hunted birds and waterfowl and was a devoted martial artist, with a black belt in Kojasho karate and a brown belt in judo. It was doubly hard because he had to make a transition from being in control to being dependent. Denied any but the most modest activity, Henry took up gourmet cooking again, wrote a few short stories, and renewed his interest in fishing. He was easily stoic and generous, with courage and cheerfulness to the end. He collapsed on a fishing day-trip with his daughter, and died several hours later at the hospital. St. John’s was a significant experience for him and for me. We had continuing discussions about philosophy, virtue, education, politics, and the commonweal, the role of violence, humor, religion, and philosopher-kings. And of course there were the hilarious stories about the people and life at the college: the food service, ties at dinner, dorm life, tutors, smoke so thick at seminars that sometimes someone would crack a window open, March Madness, haircuts by David Moss, the erection of the fortress-like “girls’” dorms meant to lock up the women past curfew until the fire marshal forbade the locked bars, in loco parentis, the evening half the students were suspended for protesting (by breaking) the inane dorm rules, the dialectic comparisons of LSD and marijuana, etc. In one of his last e-mails to me, Henry wrote that he had grown more conservative as he grew older: “But I also got more optimistic and more trusting in the Will of the People, not the will of the philosopherking, even though he be me. The inefficiency of the American system is also one of its greatest strengths and protections, I believe. Lots of people talk about the ‘good old days.’ Me, I think we are living in the best of times right now and I believe that things will continue to get better, thanks to the Constitution, freedom, and capitalism… “I think America offers possibilities instead of promises, choices instead of certainties…I like that. It lets me be a little rebellious. I wouldn’t want any government official telling me what I should think and should do—there’s plenty enough people trying to do that sort of thing as it is.” Henry’s religious views changed as well, as he came to embrace concepts of Zen Buddhism and Taoism. “This is an oversimplification, but I like the way the Tao Te Ching promotes the virtues of the simple and the humble,” he wrote. “I like the way Zen advocates that true knowing is nonintellectual, and I like the way the existentialists emphasize that choices define your being. And I like the Golden Rule, too. “So, I think that what you do defines who you are—what you do is more important than what you believe…And so far, I’m glad that my beliefs have let me handle this illness pretty well, all things considered.” Henry’s wife, Denise, and his children, Maile and Garrett, survive him. x Henry Leong Soon, an avid sportsman, enjoyed an active life. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } William D. Grimes William D. Grimes, class of 1952, a research analyst who became an antiques dealer, died Oct. 23 at his home in Olney, Md. He was 74. A native of Pittsburgh, Grimes served in the Marine Corps before coming to St. John’s. After college, he began his career with the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Silver Spring, and later in White Oak, Md. His work included operations research analysis and missile engagement studies. After his retirement in 1984, he continued working in the antiques business he had founded with his wife, Diane Grimes. An avid participant in local theater, Grimes performed lead roles in plays for children and performed onstage and contributed backstage in Olney Studio of Dance productions. He was a former president of the Friends of Olney Theater. Stan Davis Stan Davis, the founder of Santa Fe’s largest construction firm and an ardent supporter of the Santa Fe campus, died in July at age 80. A partner in Davis and Associates, Davis built the John Gaw Meem Library, dorms, and many other prominent buildings in Santa Fe and throughout the state. The Colorado Springs, Colo., native started working in the construction business in 1946 and came to Santa Fe in 1948. When Davis was the contractor for the Meem Library, he paid to have the beams carved at the library after the college ran out of money and couldn’t afford the work. ALSO NOTED: ROBERT C. BORNFIELD, class of 1951, July 3, 2002 REV. JOHN R. COOPER, class of 1937, Oct. 30, 2003 THE REV. CHRISTIAN A. HOVDE, class of 1945, May 22, 2003 VERNON TSOODLE JR., Santa Fe class of 1981, Nov.12, 2003 WILLIAM R. WHITE, class of 1939, Aug. 6, 2003 �44 { A l u m n i Vo i c e s } Petra: The Lost City of Stone hen Vivian Ronay (class of 1965) first visited Petra in 1986 as a tourist, the city was deserted. She saw it almost as it must have looked to Swiss explorer J.L. Burckhardt, who rediscovered it for the Western world in 1812: an empty, ancient city cut into the high desert cliffs of southern Jordan. The Nabataeans, builders of Petra, were traders, a tribe of pre-Roman Arabs who dominated the region beginning around 300 B.C. Their group extended from northwestern Saudi Arabia to Damascus in Syria. Distinctive facades carved into sandstone cliffs and boulders marked Nabataean cities along the ancient spice route in this region. Petra was one of the major crossroads of the east-to-west route for silk and the primarily north-to-south frankincense route, and its inhabitants lived on tolls and taxes. According to the Old Testament, a battle took place from the heights of the tallest mountain in Petra. Another cliff top, said to be the burial site of Aaron (Haroun in Arabic), the brother of Moses, has been a holy place for Christians and now Moslems. In 1988, Ronay received an assignment from The World and I magazine and spent a month with the Bedul Bedouin of Petra. Bedouin culture is the root and origin of all the countries in the Arabian Peninsula W (with the exception of Israel) and pre-dates Islam. Ronay photographed and took notes regularly as she joined the Bedouin in their daily activities. She returned almost every year between 1988 and 1992; however, other assignments prevented her return until 2001. This past spring, during the Iraqi War, she made another trip to a rather deserted Petra for final images and research for her current show. During the 1988 visit, her friendship with a son of one of the five sheiks of Petra gave her the equivalent of an “all-access pass” to be honored by any Bedouin while hiking on her own. Granted access to every facet of life in Petra, Ronay has photographed Petra during the day and night, in tents, and in the Nabataean caves in which only a few families remain. She’s grown close to many people in the community and fended off many a marriage proposal, some made in jest, some serious. Her evocative photographs provide a sense of the individual lives of the Bedouin, their interesting culture, and a spectacular desert environment. In the mid-1980s, the Bedouins agreed to move out of the caves and into a small village set on the edge of Petra National Park where they live today. In her more Above: Bedouin women herd goats to graze in central Petra. At left: Bedouin travel the traditional way. Opposite top: This picture of Abu Gassim, a sheik of one of the five tribes of the Bedul Bedouin of Petra, is among Ronay’s favorites. Bottom: The Khazneh, or Treasury, the most famous of Petra’s monuments, is carved from red sandstone that shines brilliantly in the light of the sun. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �45 { A l u m n i Vo i c e s } recent trips, Ronay has been dismayed to see the traditional ways of life eroding now that these tribes are living in built structures with modern conveniences. Their old agrarian community has been replaced with a market-based economy thriving on tourism. (Petra is among the most popular tourist destinations in the Middle East.) “Because of tourism, some of the people of Petra have gotten very wealthy, and it’s created disparity and a lack of trust. When I visited in 2001, everyone came to me to talk about these new troubles. Western anxiety just hadn’t existed there before, and now it seems it has seeped into every nook and cranny,” she says. “I was stunned.” Ronay believes that such a resilient culture will adapt to change with the help of the Petra National Trust, created by the Jordanian government to preserve the heritage and way of life of Petra. “They will be able to find a solution,” she says. x Ronay’s exhibit, “The Bedouin Tribes of Petra,” will be on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York through July, in conjunction with the archeological show, “Petra, Lost City of Stone.” The exhibit then travels to five other venues in the United States and Canada. To see more photographs or get details on the exhibit, visit Ronay’s Web site at: www.petraphotos.com. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �46 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Dear Johnnies, Homecoming events on either campus are many and varied. One opportunity, often overlooked but always exciting, is the Gathering of All Alumni. After the picnic and before the games on Saturday, we meet to catch up on news from the college and from the Alumni Association. The program lasts about an hour and provides a year’s worth of news and notes. The President of the Association Board (that’s me) gives a short report on what’s happening in the Alumni Association, including status of old projects, new initiatives, and strategic opportunities. Treasurer of the Association Board (that’s Bill Fant) reports on our financial status as an Association. As they say, “follow the money,” and you’ll see how we meet our commitments to you and to the college. A highlight of the meeting is the campus update. The president and the dean both share information about what’s happening on the campus, with the Program, and with students and tutors. I never know what will be more surprising: the things that change or those that stay the same! Honorary Alumni awards come next. As you know, each year the Association selects members of the community who are not alumni of the college to join the association as Honorary Alumni. Those selected are familiar and beloved tutors, staff, or friends of the college. We invite special friends of the awardees to say a few words in presentation, and the recipients take a turn at the microphone. No one talks better than a Johnnie, and when the topic is a friend and colleague, the speeches are moving and impressive. These presentation and acceptance talks are priceless. They inform or remind us of personal and professional traits that bring people in and make them treasured members of the college community. Elections, by-laws revisions, announce- ments, and so on are the “business” of the meeting, and we move through them quite quickly. As the meeting closes, we honor those alumni who have passed away in the preceding year. We call it In Memoriam. For me, this is one of our most meaningful community rituals. Regardless of whether I know them, whether they are from Annapolis or Santa Fe, whether their time was before or after mine, I am always moved to hear their names and dates of attendance read in the midst of a weekend when we rekindle old friendships and build new ones around the Program and the community that supports it. So, the next time you’re at Homecoming, take a bit of time out of your Saturday afternoon to connect (or reconnect) with the larger community of the college. Attend the All Alumni Gathering to remember the past, and explore the present of the college as an institution and as a community. Sincerely, Glenda H. Eoyang, SF76 Six Honored at Annapolis Homecoming Three Annapolis alumni received Awards of Merit, and the Alumni Association welcomed three new members into the fold by selecting them as honorary alumni of the class of 2003 during homecoming festivities September 12-14 in Annapolis. Arts writer and consultant Adam Pinsker, class of 1952, has enjoyed a long and fruitful career in the arts. After St. John’s and a stint in the Army, he studied at the music conservancy of Stuttgart, Germany. He went on to manage symphony orchestras in New Jersey and Buffalo, managed the Pennsylvania Ballet, served as executive director of the Association of American Dance Companies, and spent more than a decade as executive director of Dance St. Louis. William Warfield Ross, class of 1947, helped to found the Washington law firm of Wald, Harkrader and Ross. He was a founding member and served on the executive committee of the Lawyer’s Alliance for World Security, which is focused on limiting the use of nuclear weapons and minimizing the risk of other weapons of mass { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } destruction. Among many other professional and civic activities, Ross has been involved in the American Bar Association and the ACLU. A member of the class of 1963, David Krimins earned a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and a medical degree from Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. After completing his internship at the Medical College of Virginia, his residency at Abington Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania and his pulmonary fellowship at the University of Rochester and Strong Memorial Hospital, Krimins served as a major in the U.S. Army Medical Command on active duty. He specializes in internal medicine and pulmonary medicine, and has been a member of the medical staff at AAMC since 1979. An Annapolis staff member, Fred H. Billups Jr., and two long-serving tutors, Malcolm Wyatt and George Doskow, became Honorary Alumni during the All Alumni Gathering as part of Homecoming weekend. In his 35 years as a tutor Doskow taught the entire undergraduate program and much of the graduate program. He provided leadership as dean in the early 1980s, and throughout his time as tutor helped the college continue to re-examine its principles, said tutor Geoffrey Comber. “The college has gained immeasurably from George’s 35 years of service,” Comber said. Malcolm Wyatt joined the college in 1958. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Virginia, and held a Fulbright Fellowship for the study of mathematics at the University of Nancy in France. He served as assistant dean and as director of the Graduate Institute. Bud Billups has served as treasurer in Annapolis since 1991. Before then, Billups was executive director of the Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia; he also served for many years as an executive with Exxon. At the time Billups joined the college, President Christopher Nelson said, the college was spending too much of its endowment principal annually, staff turnover and absenteeism were high, and facilities were suffering. But in Billups’ tenure, the college has balanced the budget or had solid surpluses for 12 years, cut endowment spending in half, and has seen its bond rating improve. Billups also supervised 150 construction and renovation projects in Annapolis. x �47 {Alumni Association News} Iron City Alumni Form Newest Chapter CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed below for information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-275-9012 BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen 410-472-9158 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin 410-280-0958 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 AUSTIN Bev Angel 512-926-7808 CHICAGO Lorna Johnson 773-338-8651 gary pierpoint A group of Pittsburgh-area alumni transformed an enthusiastic reading group into an official chapter this fall, receiving their charter at Homecoming festivities last October in Annapolis. Given their creativity in putting together seminars and sharing hosting duties, it’s no wonder the chapter has had little difficulty in attracting new members and getting alumni together. For example, member Carol Brinjak (SGI96), who works for the Pittsburgh Opera, arranged for the chapter to attend a dress rehearsal of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream; participants later gathered for a dinner seminar on the play. For another meeting, John Newell (A86), a classics professor at the University of Pittsburgh, led the group in a discussion of Parmenides’ On Nature. “He brought us his translation and notes, which were very helpful,” says Joanne Murray (A70), who has been leading the chapter until a president is elected. “The poem is pretty—opaque.” Murray had been active in the Washington, D.C., reading group (which also later became a chapter) and had good intentions to form a chapter when she moved to Pittsburgh, where she is a material scientist for Alcoa. She says the chapter owes a great debt to Robert Hazo, class of 1953, who planted the seeds by getting alumni together for seminars at Pitt. “He wanted to expose his honors students (at Pitt) to seminar-style discussions, and a whole bunch of us (alumni) showed up,” Murray says. “After we did the seminars on American founding documents we decided to keep going as a group.” So far, the group has met only for seminars and opera performances, but “we keep threatening to have a social function,” ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Alumni Board member Carol Freeman presents a charter to Joanne Murray. Murray says. Other seminar readings have included Sartre’s “The Wall,” Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener,” Dostoyevesky’s Notes from the Underground, and Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. It takes patience and persistence to get a chapter off the ground, Murray says. Seminars have drawn groups as small as three people, but at the chapter’s most recent seminars, “we had to keep bringing in more chairs,” she says. “It’s always a little bit slow. You start with six people and get everybody’s schedule coordinated,” Murray says. “You have to be sensitive to every single person in the group in order to get a critical mass together.” While the group could have continued as an informal gathering of alumni getting together to read and talk about books, chapter status brings a valuable connection with the Alumni Association. “We benefit from the communications from other chapters. I go to (association) board meetings. Carol Freeman (AGI94) sends around a list of readings and chapter activities. It’s good to know what other chapters are doing and reading and what’s successful,” she says. As a big city with a small-town atmosphere, Pittsburgh has been a great place to start a chapter. “It’s easy to make connections in Pittsburgh,” she explains. “And of DALLAS/FORT WORTH Suzanne Gill Doremus 817-927-2390 DENVER/BOULDER Lee Goldstein 720-283-4659 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 NEW YORK Joe Boucher 718-222-1957 Whether from Annapolis or Santa Fe, undergraduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, 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 Alumni Association news and events of interest. President – Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President – Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary –Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer – Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team Chair – Linda Stabler-Talty (SFGI76) Web site – www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml 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. course, all St. Johnnies are bonded for life. You just have to put one St. Johnnie in a room with others, and it’s instant seminar.” The other founding members of the Pittsburgh chapter are: Bill and Natalie Blais (both SF94); Sylvia Denys, an invited member; Marcus Eubanks (A88); Herb Feinberg (A50); Ed Gelblum (A55); Henry Higman (A48); Ken Joseph (A70); Meghan Hughes (SF00); Judith Toliver Neely (A97); Ken Shen (A86); Christopher Kurfess (A95, EC96); Jeff Palmer (A96); and Clarence Watt (A96). The group’s Web site, which includes its reading list and planned seminars, is www.hellos.com/sjc/ x NORTHERN CALIF. Jonathon Hodapp 831-393-9496 SANTA FE Richard Cowles 505-986-1814 WASHINGTON DC Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 SEATTLE Amina Stickford 206-269-0182 PORTLAND Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 9-722-671-7608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } TRIANGLE CIRCLE (NC) Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 �{St. John’s Forever} robert S. Nugent 48 Santa Fe’s Movie Star mong the guests at the first commencement in Santa Fe was Englishborn actress Greer Garson, framed by these two graduates. Best known for her Academy Award-winning performance in Mrs. Miniver, Garson became a patron of the Western campus of St. John’s College during its early years. A Garson and her husband, Colonel E.E. “Buddy” Fogelson (an oil man, rancher, and lawyer), lived part of the year at their Forked Lightning Ranch, north of Santa Fe. Fogelson served on the Board of Visitors and Governors from 1963-69, and in 1963 hosted a board meeting at the couple’s ranch. Fogelson made a gift toward the preparation of architectural plans while the campus was on the drawing board. Garson took interest in the college’s library and served as a member of the volunteer Library Committee. She created the first library endowment—one that { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } At the first graduation of the Santa Fe campus are, left to right: H. Glenn Ballard (SF68), Greer Garson, and James Liljenwall (SF68). will purchase a book for the college each year, in perpetuity. The koi pond and garden between the student center and academic complex were also funded by Garson, as a memorial to her mother, Nina. Although Garson became involved in farming and breeding race horses, she continued to act on Broadway and in films. She died in 1996 at the age of 91 and is buried in Texas. x �{Alumni Events Calendar} teri thomson randall New Alumni: Michael Givens, Lynsey Rubin, and Tevis Thompson, at last summer’s Graduate Institute commencement in Santa Fe. Santa Fe Annapolis A Call for Entries Last year’s Alumni Art Show in Santa Fe drew entries from award-winning documentary filmmakers, accomplished clay artists, painters, and photographers, many of whom who had shown their work across the country. Participation in the annual show has grown each year, and the reception that takes place as part of Homecoming has become one of the highlights of the weekend in Santa Fe. Entries and inquiries for this year’s show are welcome from both Santa Fe and Annapolis alumni. For details call Maggie Magalnick in Santa Fe, 505984-6199, or e-mail maggie@sjcsf.edu. Annual Croquet Match St. John’s vs. the U.S. Naval Academy April 24, 2004 Homecoming: October 1-3, 2004 Reunion classes are 1934, 1939, 1944, 1949, 1954, 1959, 1964, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999 Summer Alumni Program Week 1: June 27-July 2 Week 2: July 4-July 9 Homecoming : July 2-4, 2004 Reunion Classes: 1969, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999 { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Winter 2004 } �P ERIODICALS P OSTAGE PAID P UBLISHED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE P.O. BOX 2800 A NNAPOLIS , M ARYLAND 21404 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 pages 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/. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Title A name given to the resource The College, Winter 2004 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Description An account of the resource Volume 30, Issue 1 of <em>The College</em> Magazine. Published in Winter 2004. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The_College_Magazine_Winter_2004 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/b6b50290f2bf08b23c0b09a5067e5e85.pdf 74038a96af953c82c5fe4e22a60cafa5 PDF Text Text �On O’Connor “The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time andplace and eternity somehow meet. His problem is tofind that location. ” STJOHN’S College ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE lannery O’Connor’s fiction tends to elicit strong reactions from her F readers. Some object to the mixture of comedy and pathos (country girl wooed for her wooden leg) and the blend of the mundane and shocking (senseless violence emerges from a clear blue day on a lonely country The College (usps 018-750) is published quarterly by St. John’s College, Annapohs, MD and Santa Fe, NM readers was uncomfortable. OthersCeorgia, are entirely devoted toon hertoand will Mary Flannery O’Connor born in Savannah, in 1925, went earn a read and re-read her fiction, prose, and letters, even as they feel the discomfort sociology degree at the Georgia State College for Women, and studied at the Iowa Writer’s Known office of publication: Communications Office St. John’s College Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404-2800 and discordance witnesses to anfirst accident to beLiterary lookingconnections so closely. In the interest Workshop, whereofshe began her novel. ashamed Wise Blood. made in Iowa, of full editors of’sThe Colleger admit to in devotion: wc She havewas been scheming to get who and disclosure, later at the the Yaddo writer colony, helped her her career. a devout Catholic Periodicals postage paid at Annapolis, MD road). The freaks, misfits, and fools who populate her world make many O ’Connor on the cover for now, and here is in her rightful corresponded regularly witha while Thomas Merton, theshe Trappist monk who place. shared her love of writing along with her deep faith. She suffered from lupus, the wasting disease that killed her father when she was 15. (It left her near death in 1950.) She was proud of being a Southerner and loved many aspects of the quiet rural life she was forced to live in Milledgeville because her illness left her dependent on her mother’s care. On the family’s dairy farm, she raised peafowl that dined on her mother’s Herbert Hoover roses. She wrote, she explained, because she had a gift lor it. O’Connor wa.s often amused by those critics who tried to label her. She argued eloquently with those who insisted that something “socially uplifting’’ must come from fiction: “The novelist must be characterized not by his function but by his vision, and we must remember that his vision has to be transmitted and that the limitations and blind spots of his audience will very definitely affect the way he is able to show what he sees” {Mystery and Manners}. The focus of this issue, “Revelation,” was one of her last stories, published a few months before she died on Aug. 3,196/,. We know from her letters that the story was inspired by a visit to the doctor’s office and that she wasn’t making fun of her protagonist or offering her up for scorn: “I like Mrs. Turpin as well as Mary Grace. You got to be a very big woman to shout at the Lord across a hogjten” {The Habit ofBeingY O’Connor made her first appearance on the Read­ ing List of St. John’s College in 1989 with “Everything that Rises Must Converge.” Throughout the years, the standard reading has been “Parker’s Back.” In addition to paying homage to a favorite Program author. The College accomplishes another important goal in this issue by showing off the tutors and the interesting things they have to say when we give them a chance. We posed a question about the short story “Revela­ tion” to a group of tutors from both campuses, and they approached it with zeal. (Advancement vice president Barbara Goyette, A73, wa.s inspired by a church sermon to contribute an essay.) To get the most from this feature, read or revisit “Revelation” before exploring these essays. -RH Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. postmaster: Annapolis 410-626-2539 reharty@sjca.edu Rosemary Harty, editor Sussan Borden, managing editor Jennifer Behrens, art director Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Barbara Goyette Kathryn Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Jo Ann Mattson Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 alumni@sjcsf.edu John Hartnett, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board Michael Franco David Levine Andra Maguran Margaret Odell Roxanne Seagraves Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �"I “I v„. College The ZINE FOR Alumni of t St. John’s College Annapolis • {Contents} PAGE JO DEPARTMENTS Revelations a FROM THE BELL TOWERS A routine visit to a doctor’s office ends in a painful revelation for a self-satisfied farmer’s wife. But what is really being revealed? Pondering Flannery O’Connor’s “Revelation.” • • • • • • Santa Fe Initiative invests in student life. A new Web site debuts. Johnnies and Journalism Mids and Johnnies on Thoreau Middle States affirms accreditation. Wine, art, and conversation PAGE 2izj. 9 LETTERS The Habit oe Writing PAGE la Chris Lynch (A87) on Machiavelli’s Art of War A GI alumna considers the lost art and missed opportunities of letter writing. PAGE 30 BIBLIOFILE 35 ALUMNI NOTES 2i6 PROFILES 31 Tias Little (EC98) brings Eastern classics to yoga. 34 Ben Bloom (A97) finds fame. 38 Owen Kelley (A93) pursues monster hurricanes. The Mind in Winter The challenges of the examined life keep Johnnies young. PAGE Zj.6 41 STUDENT VOICES Summer at Stag’s Leap Is wanting good grades a bad thing for Johnnies? Fine wine, good company, and seminars make a traditional Northern Cahfornia chapter event a popular summer tradition. 44 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS 48 ST. John’s forever PAGE 46 ON THE COVER Flannery O 'Connor Illustration by David Johnson �{From the Bell Towers} The Santa Fe Initiative Concerned by the toll deferred maintenance was beginning to take on the Santa Fe campus, the college’s Management Committee came up with a comprehensive plan: the Santa Fe Initiative, a $4.5 miUion investment in buildings and grounds, improved staffing in the areas of student life, and immediate upgrades to two of the campus’ six laboratories. When he unveiled the commit­ tee’s initiative to the college’s Board of Visitors and Gover­ nors, Annapolis President Christopher Nelson, interim president in Santa Fe, received a standing ovation from the board. The reception from tutors at a Santa Fe faculty meeting was equally enthusiastic. For Nelson, serving as interim president of the Santa Fe campus in addition to his regular duties in Annapolis, the need for an immediate injection of capital to the Western cam­ pus was apparent. Even as the college plans a Capital Cam­ paign to fund a strategic plan of long-needed initiatives such as raising faculty salaries, Santa Fe’s needs couldn’t wait. Nelson had already seen what could happen to a campus during lean years: the Annapolis campus found it expensive and time­ consuming to catch up on main­ tenance deferred when funding for improvements was unavail­ able in the early 1990s. “With the Santa Fe initiative we are jump-starting a program of improving opportunities for students outside the classroom and for the improvement of buildings and grounds,” says Nelson. “This is just the start of what we need to do over an annual or intermittent basis over a period of a decade or more. We’ve invested about $35 million in the Annapolis physi­ cal plant over the last 13 years. We don’t want to see Santa Fe’s physical plant deteriorate to the level that Annapolis was.” The purpose of the plan is to make the kind of improve­ ments that will encourage student retention and enable the admissions office to attract a larger pool of qualified appli­ cants to Santa Fe. Thus the initiative focuses on areas that affect student life, the appear­ ance of the campus, and the operation of the admissions and financial aid offices. At the same time, the college will provide funding for an internship program similar to the Annapolis program funded by The Hodson Trust while the college seeks long-term grant support for internships. Costs for the Santa Fe Initia­ tive will represent a a percent ''This isjust the start ofwhat we need to do over an annual or intermittent basis... ” Christopher Nelson, Annapolis President increase in the operating budg­ et each year. The funds for the initiative will come from unre­ stricted endowment funds and early unrestricted gifts to the college’s Capital Campaign, expected to officially begin in June 2005, Improvements that affect stu­ dent life include funding for additional staff in the Assistant Dean’s office. Career Services office. Security, and Student Activities office. Facilities improvements include renovat­ ing the laborato­ ries; resurfacing all roadways and parking lots, curbs, and cen­ trally located walkways; adding a new parking lot; replacing After 40 years, THE Santa Fe CAMPUS IS SHOW­ ING SIGNS OF AGE. {The College- St. John’s College • Spring 2004 } hardscape between the upper dorms and Peterson Student Center; repairing concrete walls and steps; installing uniform campus lighting; installing patios for outdoor study and social fife; and adding attractive signs and a security kiosk at a more formal campus entrance. Some funding for a director of buildings and grounds and an additional maintenance staff member is also included. While it will mean significant short-term improvements in Santa Fe, Nelson emphasizes that the initiative is just a start­ ing point: “The campus needs an investment of about $30 million over time: new dormi­ tories, a home for the Graduate Institute and a new lecture hall, renovations of the Evans Science Laboratory, plus additional renovations campus-wide. For so many years, we’ve sacrificed every­ thing else to the Program. We’re on a slow, steady plan of improvement that requires investments to make up for deferred maintenance, for poor salaries, and insufficient student services-it’s time to turn our attention to them with­ out taking anything away from the Program.” To oversee the implementa­ tion of the initiative, Annapolis treasurer H. Fred “Bud” Billups (HA03) will assume a new college-wide position as special assistant to the chair of the Management Committee (a position that alternates between the two campus presi­ dents). Billups will split his time between the Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses, providing oversight over the two admis­ sions offices, the two financial aid offices, and the college-wide Information Technology office. He will prepare a college-wide budget that will allocate annual operating funds between the campuses. 4^-Rosemary Harty �{From the Bell Towers} 3 One College, One Web Ifyou can make the time to search all of the 4,285,199,774 Web pages available through the search engine Google, let us know ifyou find another college with a Web site like St. John’swhere the dominant image is of a chair and the valuable center real estate is not a shot of smihng stu­ dents or the beautiful campus, but ofwords: the names of great book authors. On March i, after two years of planning and gathering comments from as wide a sector of the St. John’s community as possible, the college launched the new site: www.stjohnscollege.edu. Previously, the col­ lege’s student-designed site diverged into two separate paths for the Santa Fe and Annapolis campuses right after the home page. This new site was designed from the start to present St. John’s as one college with two campuses. Thus what is emphasized is the common curriculum and the prevailing Johnnie culture. The front-page tour is also a departure. The links in this Web tour introduce Johnnies and their wide range of reasons for attending the college, the unique and lively community of learners, the Santa Fe and Annapolis communities, and the chair thing. Alert visitors will also find surprises-“Easter eggs” in Web lingo-on the front page. The new Web site was designed to introduce the college to prospective students and to better serve alumni, current stu­ dents, parents, faculty and staff, and the communities of Annapo­ lis and Santa Fe. The alumni sec­ tion, developed with extensive input from Alumni Association president Glenda Eoyang and a team of alumni testers, offers something particularly useful: a secure, password-protected online Alumni Register. Previously, the college issued a printed directory of alumni every five years. With support and guidance from the associa­ tion, the college now offers this directory online. The search for­ mat allows alumni to look up classmates, find alumni in a new city, or identify a group of alum­ ni working in a particular field. Like many areas of the Web site, the directory is a work in progress. Information in the Register is drawn from two separate databases, and the program the college uses to “marry” the data often falls short of the ideal. The college’s Information Technology and advancement staffs are working to remedy this. The more alumni who use the database to update their records, the more accurate the register will be. A few caveats: to protect alumni privacy and restrict the directory to alumni, the system currently requires the college to authenticate each user who attempts to log in. Once an alumnus regis­ ters, it will take college staff about two busi­ ness days to pro­ vide a password that will grant access. Similarly, any changes made to an indi­ vidual record will take a few days to appear. Alumni can choose at any time to restrict their information to “name only” or to not appear in the Register. If you encounter any difficulty with the Register or the Alumni section, or have thoughts about how the Web site can better serve alumni, contact either of the alumni directors: in Annapolis, Jo Ann Mattson at 410-626-2531; in Santa Fe, Roxanne Seagraves at 505-984-6103. Diving with Sharks in South Africa OR Wrestling with Plato in Santa Fe? Along with articles about pumping iron and healthy eat­ ing, the April edition of Men’s Health listed Santa Fe’s Sum­ mer Classics among its “25 Greatest Getaways for Men.” “We’ve found the best places you’ve never been,” the article begins-“high-point adventures you can plan right now and brag about for years.” The fea­ ture lists opportunities such as climbing the sand dunes of Namibia, cage-diving with Great White sharks in South Africa, and piloting a subma­ rine in Mexico. Studying the classics at St. John’s sounds pretty cool, too: “Do you really want to check out of this life without having known what Shakespeare, Mozart, and Tol­ stoy were going on about? Take {The College- a crash course in the human experience-and spend a sab­ batical summer to rememberby registering at St. John’s Col­ lege, where laymen are invited to delve into the great works of man in small classes....” This year’s Summer Classics offerings are luxuriously eclec­ tic, combining classics of the East and West with modern fiction and a generous serving of music. The first week, July rr-i6, features Joseph Conrad and Henry James, Xenophon, and Freud in the morning; in the afternoon participants take on the stories and short novels of Dostoevsky and Gregorian Chant, During week two, July 18-23, morning session participants St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } can choose from Mozart or Lao Tzu, or Jane Austen paired with Shakespeare. Afternoon partic­ ipants can take on Copernican meditations, the short stories of Thomas Mann, or the Platonic dialogues Laches, Charminides, otEuthyphro. The third week, July 25-30, features a.m, offerings of Mahler, the Yoga Visitha, and Spinoza. In the afternoon par­ ticipants can study Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenolo­ gy ofPerception, Montaigne essays, or Faulkner’s Absalom! Absalom! The full schedule of seminars and tutors are available on the college Web site: www.sqohnscollege.edu. �{From the Bell Towers} Journalistic Johnnies The Gadfly What Dfcl You Do During the Hurricane? The Moon ^z/z^/The Gadfly/ Politics, Poetry, Punditry Of the four individuals who edited the student newspapers in Annapolis and Santa Fe this past academic year, not one has the shghtest interest in pursuing a journahsm career. Yes, it had crossed their minds at one point or another, hut they have all talked themselves out of it. Cathy Keene, a rising junior in Annapolis who helped edit The Gadfly for two years, admits to being a deadhne junkie and loves being in the know on controversies or breaking news. But one summer spent working at a magazine convinced her she should consider another way to make a living. “Too much stress,” she explains. Ian McCracken, her co-editor this year, is graduating and head­ ing to law school. Santa Fe Moon co-editor Jonathan Morgan, a senior, is more interested in biotechnology; senior Margaret Garry is now leaning toward law school and politics. So, if it’s not a career goal that tethers these individuals to to to 12 hours a week of writing, edit­ ing, and production headacheson top ofwork-study jobs and all the regular rigors of the Program- what is it? “1 have no idea why 1 do it,” Keene admits. “We’re all friends at The Gadfly, and it’s really fun getting it out every week. It gives me a real connec­ tion to the Polity.” “We get to produce this little snapshot of St. John’s,” says Garry. “And it’s really cool seeing the Moon come together, from somebody’s idea to publication.” The two periodicals differ significantly in graphic style, content, and tone. The Gadfly is heavy on politics and Polity issues; fiction and poetry are more hkely to turn up in the Moon (though it doesn’t shy away from hard news either). The Gadfly savors the backand-forth of intellectual argu­ ments between two people j that can span several issues. In the Moon, the “campus moralist” expounds on issues of student conduct; The Gad­ fly has “You Make the Gall,” athletic director Leo Pickens’ regular sports rules quiz. Consider some of the offer­ ings in Volume 8, Issue 4, of the Moon', an opinion piece honor­ ing military veterans; a feature on the Web site bartcop.com, a first-person parody of a seminar on The Runaway Bunny, an explanation of the Student Review Board, a think piece about the value of studying clas­ sical languages, an investigative report on problems concerning a Common Room, and a science­ fiction fantasy offering on “Poster Wars.” And Volume 25, Issue 20, of The Gadfly: of review of tutors’ performance of The Birds', an extensive piece on a cover-up by the liberal media, three-and-ahalf pages of letters to the edi­ tors, a review of Mr. Grenke’s Friday-night lecture on Kant, and “Why 1 Hate George W. Bush, the Final Installment,” including the author’s offer of a cup of coffee for those who would sit down and talk with him about their opposing views. Both publications attracted controversy this year. The Gad­ fly was delayed when assistant dean Judith Seeger and student services director Joy Kaplan decided two stories should not run. One included potentially libelous material, the other con­ fidential college information. Seeger doesn’t see her role as a watchdog; she reviews the publication with an eye to {The College- protecting the college from law­ suits. “We have occasionally seen things that we think are sometimes cruel, and we’ll say ‘do you really want to put that in your paper?’ And some­ times they have listened and reconsidered.” The Gadfly was also blasted for running a sham review submitted by two students on a movie they called “Tough Jew.” “What really got people mad was the photo we ran with it-Leo Strauss. The cutline was: ‘Leo Strauss: tough?’ One tutor wrote in and said, basically, ‘how dare you?’ We were totally blown away by the response. We defended ourselves, and then we learned the movie was a fake-we looked even stupider. It was a learning experience,” Keene says. The Moon editors also had a learning experience in the Santa Fe campus response to the newspaper’s “2003 Dirty Poetry Contest” issue last fall. The issue included photographs of female students that some in the campus community consid­ ered racy; others considered them degrading. “There were several different objections to the issue from faculty members, the administra­ tion, even a couple of students,” Morgan says. “I think the most valid point is that showing certain students in that frame­ work contributed to kind of an uncomfortable classroom environment. I hadn’t really St. John’s College • Spring 2004 } thought it was that immense of a deal. People have bodies.” After Morgan and Garry sent a letter to the faculty apologizing for the issue, and promising to be more responsive in the future, a proposed resolution condemning the Moon turned into a resolution supporting the newspaper. “I regret that we offended some people, but I still think it was a great issue because it got people’s atten­ tion,” he says. While both publications accept advertisements, they’re not self-supporting and, like other student groups, get fund­ ing allocated by the college. McCracken believes the publica­ tions might be better if they were independent and funded by ad revenue. “Given all the guidefines, I sometimes think it would be easier if we weren’t affiliated with the school. I know of people who would write more things if they knew their copy wasn’t going to be reviewed by the administration first,” he says. Morgan hopes future Moon editors work to maintain the publication as a voice for students. “I like that the Moon doesn’t have a strict focus, that we can have poetry and artwork, a commentary on Dante’s Inferno or the Iliad, philosophical pieces and funny pieces,” he says. “I like the creativity. ”4-Rosemary Harty �{From the Bell Towers} 5 A Meeting of Mids: Students Launch Joint Seminars with the Naval Academy The Johnnies wore jeans and t-shirts and lounged comfortably at the seminar table. Bolt upright in their chairs, white caps set neatly in front of them on the table, the midshipmen were clad in their dark uniforms and polished shoes. As they spoke, they looked to the semi­ nar leaders, tutor Louis Miller and Naval Academy Professor Lt. David Bonfili, and resisted the urge to raise their hands. The text before the group of to students was Thoreau’s “On Civil Disobedi­ ence.” Miller’s opening ques­ tion drew from Thoreau’s words: “Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?-in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable?” For two hours, students grappled with the text not as students from a military academy or liberal arts college, but as intelligent, self-directed individuals eager to grasp the heart of an idea. The discussion quickly drew out strong responses, but it didn’t evolve into a debate between students from the two institutions. Thoreau’s stance on not paying taxes and his views about resisting an unjust government were seen by some of the midshipmen as ideological luxuries. One midshipman was distinctly annoyed by what he described as Thoreau’s “arrogant” ideal­ Junior Rachel Hall AND Midshipman David Buck ism. “He’d like to be a martyr, but he’s not,” said a midship­ man who pointed out that Thoreau did not resist when his friends bailed him out of jail. And several studentsJohnnies and mids alikedisagreed with Thoreau’s stance that it was not his “business” to petition the government to remedy what he viewed as unjust laws. Saida Johnnie, “Thoreau believes that we won’t need gov­ ernment if we’re enlightened.” Enlightenment is a fine thing, a midshipman coun­ tered. But who will build the roads? Can we convene a government just when we need one to accomplish some particular goal? Can we call up a military force only when under attack? One of the midshipmen said that governments do make bad decisions and meddle in per­ sonal liberty; citizens should protest when a government’s actions are unjust. “There are people who don’t have any­ thing to do with me making {The College. decisions about how I live my life,” she said. “Not all of us,” said another midshipman, “can be Martin Luther King or Gandhi. If everyone stopped supporting the government, I don’t know where we’d be today.” After the seminar, the group gathered in the Great Hall with the participants of the five other seminars, about 70 in total. Midshipman David Buck attended all three semi­ nars, partly out of interest in the readings, but also because his girlfriend, St. John’s junior Rachel Hall, helped to organ­ ize them. Hall hit on the idea when she began reading Sun Tsu’s The Art of War last year and found she wanted to dis­ cuss it with a group of people. She brought the idea to Navy Professor David Garren, and Garren helped recruit Navy co-leaders and organize the seminars. “He was very enthu­ siastic about it,” said Hall, who found St. John’s tutors were also pleased to partici­ pate. The first seminar, in St. Jo hn’s College ■ Spring 2004 } January 2003, was on Sun Tsu’s The Art of War. Johnnies went to the Naval Academy to discuss Plato’s Crito last fall. Jacob Thomas, a junior, found the Thoreau seminar the best of the three so far, because mid­ shipmen had caught on to the dynamic of seminar. In discus­ sion of Sun Tsu, their superior military knowledge tended to lead them to dominate the conversations, he said. “But this time, they really became involved in the discus­ sion and in Thoreau’s ideas, which was wonderful,” said Thomas. “It’s good for our students to be exposed to each other,” said Lt. Bonfili, a political science professor. “I see the diversity of opinions coming out.” Having encountered John­ nies during waltz parties, croquet, and Reality, Buck has been impressed with the intellectual side of St. John’s. Still, he added, “Johnnies are crazier than mids.” Like croquet, the joint seminars seem to have become another tradition, says junior Mark Ingham, who helped organize the seminars. “The more you talk with the mid­ shipmen, the less intimidated you are by the uniform,” he said. -Rosemary Harty �{From the Bell Towers} 6 News and Announce­ and in Santa Fe from 1989-96 before she came to Annapolis in 1997- ments Steve Linhard, assistant Appointments In the Graduate Institutes, effective June i: Tutor Krishnan Venkatesh becomes director in Santa Fe; tutor Joan Silver the director in Annapolis. Venkatesh has been a tutor since 1989. He earned a bachelor’s in English from Magdalene College, Cambridge. He spent more than three years conducting postdoctoral research in Shakespeare and Renaissance English at the University of Muenster, West Germany, and later taught at Shanxi Universi­ ty, People’s Republic of China, where he helped develop an ESL curriculum. Silver earned her bachelor’s degree from the State Univer­ sity of New York, College at Old Westbury, a master’s from St. John’s, and a doctorate in Theology and the Arts from Graduate Theological Union. She was a tutor in Annapolis from 1974-77, a tutor for several summers beginning in 1985, Middle States Review Annapolis Appointment St. John’s in Annapolis has earned a lo-year reaccreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. The college’s accreditation was reaffirmed at the March meeting of the commission and followed a review of the college’s extensive self-study. A report from the evaluation team affirmed that St. John’s is carrying out its educational objectives. The college community found its opening words most gratifying: “St. John’s College (SJC) deserves its reputation as one of the best and most distinctive institutions in the United States, indeed the world. The College has a long and unswerving history of commitment to a single ideal: the life of the mind as principally represented in the great books of the Western tradition. Everything in the educational program evolves from this ideal and it has worn well over many years. By design, change occurs slowly at SJC and this deliberateness buffers the College from the swings of fad and momentary diversions that often plague other sectors of higher education.” The college this year also sought accreditation from the American Academy for Liberal Education; a decision from the AALE is pending. treasurer in Annapolis, will fill the position of treasurer on the recommendation of St. John’s President Christopher Nelson and the campus faculty. The college’s board approved the appointment. Linhard came to the college in 1997 as con­ troller. Prior, he was the accounting manager/ controller for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. New Staff in Santa Fe Doug Single joins the college as director for college-wide major gifts. He brings extensive fund-raising and management experience to the new position. After earn­ ing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from Stanford University, Single became associate director of athletics and assistant football coach at Stanford; he also served as athletic director at Southern Methodist and Northwestern universities. Single recently served as chief executive officer of the David Douglas Marketing Group in San Francisco. John Hartnett (SF83) has been named communications director. Hartnett attended the Santa Fe campus before going on to earn undergradu­ ate degrees in philosophy and economics from the University of Illinois. He also holds a master’s degree in writing from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn. Most recently, he was the president of his own marketing communica­ tions company. 4" Consider Consolidating Alumni with student loans may want to look into consolidating them into one fixed-rate loan, the college’s Financial Aid offices advise. Student-loan consolidation involves paying off current federal education loans in full and creating a new loan with a new interest rate and repayment term up to 30 years. Federal Stafford and PLUS loans charge variable rates that are set by formulas based on the last auction of 91day U.S. Treasury bills in May. Federal consolidation loans, however, carry fixed rates that are based on the rates of the loans being consolidated. In recent years, the variable student loan rate, determined by the government, has been at record lows (3.4 percent on Stafford loans in May), but interest rates are expected to rise this year. Parents of college students who have taken out PLUS loans may also consoli­ date these loans at current rates. There’s another reason to act quickly, says Caroline Chris­ tensen, financial aid director in Annapolis. Legislation expected {The College -Sf. to come before Congress as part of its renewal of the Higher Education Act this year could turn that low fixed rate into a variable rate in the future. Proponents of the bill say the government is losing millions in subsidies it pays to lenders and want the savings directed to other aid programs for currently-enrolled students. However, new alumni face complications. “Ifyou consoli­ date during your six-month grace period, you lock in at the in-school rate, currently 2.82 percent,” Christensen says. John ’5 College ■ Spring 2004 } “What ifyou lock in at 2.82 per­ cent, then rates drop on June 30? You’ll have a higher rate for the fife of your loan, in addition to losing remaining months of interest-free grace period when you consolidate. So you want to wait until very close to the end of your grace period.” Contact your lender or the Financial Aid office on either campus: in Annapolis, 410-626-2503; in Santa Fe, 505-984-6058. Information on researching and comparing loan programs is available at www.estudent.com. �{From the Bell Towers} Board Approves Polity Amendments Among the many actions it took at its quarterly meeting in April, the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors approved a change to the college Polity, the governing document for St. John’s College. The Management Committee-which oversees non-aca­ demic policy and coordinates administration of the two campuses-was made a permanent part of the St. John’s governing structure. The Management Committee was established in 3000 and included as an addi­ tion to the Polity with a five-year sunset clause. The board voted to delete the sunset clause, thus continuing the committee. This action represents the culmination of a several-year review of the Pohty, which also resulted in a rewording to reflect gender-neutral language and 10 amendments being passed in April 3003. One of these amendments-the addition of sexual orientation to the college’s non-discrimination poUcy-had been controversial a decade ago. During a review of the Polity in r993, the board failed to adopt an amendment that specifically prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Five years later, in 1998, the issue was not even raised. “The first time it came up, it was so bitter, so divisive, that people were afraid to bring it up again,” said Jean FitzSimon (A73), a lawyer who served on the board committee that took up the most recent review of the document. Original resist­ ance to adding to the document was centered on the belief that discrimination based on sexual orientation was covered by other laws, and therefore did not need to be spelled out, FitzSimon said. FitzSimon and other commit­ tee members believed other­ wise: “Even if it [discrimination] isn’t happening at the college, the Pohty is the Polity. We talked about the public nature of this document, and we felt that this was something that had to be speUed out,” FitzSimon said. This time around the Polity Review Committee, led by Greg Curtis, did bring up the issue as it began to work through possi­ ble revisions in 3003. This com­ mittee recommended, and the Board adopted, a revised non-discrimination clause: “There shall be no discrimi­ nation at St. John’s College in appointments, conditions of employment, admissions, educational policy, financial aid programs, athletics, or other activities, on the basis of race, religion, age, sex, national origin, color, disabiUty and/or physical handicap, sexual orien­ tation, or other characteristic protected by any applicable federal, state or local law.” In the Nick of Time A TRAFFIC STOP ON THEIR WAY TO THE PRESIDENT’S HOUSE NEARLY MADE THIS GROUP OF AnNAPOLIS SENIORS MISS THE MIDNIGHT DEADLINE FOR TURNING IN THEIR SENIOR ESSAYS. (ThE POLICE OFFICER WAS UNIMPRESSED WITH THE students’ PLEAS TO LET THEM GO ON THEIR WAY.) FrOM LEFT TO RIGHT ARE DeAN HaRVEY Flaumenhaft, Justin Berrier, Hayden Brockett, Melissa Thomas, and Joseph Method. A rattled Thomas is more than ready to hand over copies of her essay, “Reconciling Faith with Action.” {The College ■ St. Jo hn ’5 College ■ Spring 2004 } 7 Taxing Bachelors As Maryland’s legislators grap­ pled this spring with measures to raise money for the state’s coffers, word of an innovative approach from the past-a tax on bachelors-reached The College, thanks to Richard Israel, retired Maryland assistant attorney general. While browsing through pages of General Assembly proceed­ ings, Israel found that in 1761 legislators issued a series of proposals for funding a college that eventually resulted in St. John’s. The “batchelor’s tax” was expected to have a value of 500 pounds or more, according to a bill aimed at acquiring Bladen’s Folly, now McDowell Hall. Listed also were 600 pounds to be raised through licenses for public ordinaries (pubs), 150 pounds from taxes on wheel carriages, and 90 pounds through fees on card and billiard tables. The idea wasn’t just to raise money, but also to encourage single men to settle down, as Israel found in the Acts of the General Assembly, 1755-56: “Forasmuch as Divine Institu­ tions ought to be strictly observed in every well-regulated Government, and as that in Regard to the entering into the holy Estate of Matrimony may tend to the more orderly Propa­ gation of Mankind, it ought, not only in a rehgious, but pohtical View, to be promoted, and the continuing in a State of Gehbacy discountenanced, especially in every Infant Country.” The measure, however, was never signed into law. After several subsequent attempts, St. John’s was chartered as a college in 1784, soon after the end of the Revolutionary War. The charter provided that the college would be financed by the revenue from several different taxes. — Rebecca Wilson (AGI82) �{From the Bell Towers} 8 Fun-Raising, East and West Art, Wine, and Good Conversation Brighten Winter's Dark Nights Two events in January show that alumni and other college support­ ers won’t pass up a chance for self-improvement along with the opportunity to stay connected to St. John’s. Fine wine and good food can’t hurt, either. In Santa Fe, Larry Turley (SF69) brought the extraordinary wines of Turley Wine Cellars to a benefit hosted by the Philos Society-a group of local patrons of the college. The event had wine-lovers buzzing over Turley’s hard-to-find wines, paired with gourmet food. Philos Society Event Features Turley Wines “Wine is the glass ofthe mind. ’’-Erasmus A wine dinner hosted by the Philos Society of St. John’s College brought too people from the Santa Fe community to the rooftop garden room of La Fonda Hotel in January. While the opportunity to learn more about St. John’s College and fine wines attracted many, it was clear that the main attractions were the Napa Valley wines provided by Larry Turley (SF69). After all, there’s a two-year waiting list for Turley’s coveted wines, such as a aooi bottle of The White Coat. The event was limited to 100, and the tickets, at $125 apiece, sold out well in advance. Now the owner of Turley Wine Cellars, Turley earned a medical degree and became an emergency-room physician after leaving St. John’s. He co-founded the Frog’s Leap Winery in 1981, and then moved on to open Turley Wine In Baltimore, Philanthropia (the Alumni Development Council) and President Christopher Nelson hosted a “Conversa­ tion About the State of the College’’ at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Wintry weather in December cancelled the first attempt at the BMA event, but the rescheduled event was well-attendedencouraging Philanthropia to plan future stimulating occasions to keep Johnnies informed and involved in the college. Cellars with his sister, Helen (A67). The hotel’s wine experts and chefs worked to create the night’s dinner menu. The White Coat was paired with appetizers; langostino and goat cheese empanadas with toasted pinon-green apple slaw. Next came the duck confit on greens tossed with chile cascabel-basil vinai­ grette, served with a aooi Pesenti Vineyard Zinfandel. Paired with the third course (pan-roasted chicken breast with white truffle demi-roasted garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed spaghetti squash) was a aooi Hayne Vineyard Zinfandel. A aooi Library Vineyard Petite Syrah accompanied cheese and fruit. The event raised $6,500 for the college’s Annual Fund. Left: Philos board member Charmay Allred shares her APPRECIATION FOR LaRRY Turley’s wine. Above: Richard Morris, A PAST BOARD MEMBER OF THE COLLEGE, AND JeFF BiSHOP (HA96), VICE PRESIDENT FOR COLLEGEWIDE ADVANCEMENT, PERUSE SILENT AUCTION OFFERINGS. {The College. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } Turley donated some of the wine for the event and provided the rest at cost. In his holo tie and denim shirt, he circulated among the guests, talking about wine and wine-making and graciously accepting compliments from wine lovers grateful for a chance to experi­ ence something extraordinary. The Philos Society of St. John’s College was founded to foster and enhance commu­ nication, understanding, and joint activities between the college and its community. Co-chairs of the board are Donn Duncan, M.D., and Robert Zone, M.D. �{From the Bell Towers} 9 Friday at the BMA WITH Chris Thanks to Philanthropia (the Alumni Development Council) and Annapolis President Christopher Nelson, BaltimoreWashington alumni had an opportunity to enjoy a private viewing of the Baltimore Museum of Art’s Cone Collection. Afterwards, the 82 alumni gathered for conversation, refreshments catered by The Classic Catering People, owned by Harriet Dopkin (A77), and an update on the college by the president. The sights and sounds of the evening echoed the style of the Cone Collection, creating an impressionistic tableau of delights for the eyes, treats for the tongue, fellowship for the soul, and ample food for thought. Thus, as an homage to the Cone Collection, The College offers its report in the style of the impressionists. The Art time in Paris among the expatriates. It was as though he had memo­ rized all the accompanying notes on the walls. It was great fun hstening to him-he completed the experience for me. I’m not sure going through the Cone Collection will ever be the same. “Although I didn’t ask a question of Chris Nelson, I liked hear­ ing what he had to say, and I know that people felt free to ask him anything about the college. I was reminded that I still don’t know very much about the Santa Fe campus and what its financial needs are, or what those needs grow out of.” Matisse, Purple Robe and Anemones, Interior, Flowers, and Parakeets Picasso, Mother and Child Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire Seenfrom theBibemus Quarry Monet, Waterloo Bridge Van Gogh, Landscape With Figures Fete avec Biere et Vin Caprese skewers of pesto-rubbed grape tomatoes, baby mozzarella, and kalamata olives Dried fig, walnut, and goat cheese tapenade Tenderloin roulades with spinach and portobello mushrooms Jumbo lump crab fondue with a hint of dry sherry and old bay Miniature fruit tarts, petite brownies, raspberry almond bars, and fresh strawberries DeGroen’s micro brew. Banrock Station wine, coffee, tea Report of the President Applicant pool up, attrition down. Graduate Institute-healthy. A new dormitory with water view is being built for 48 students. The Santa Fe Initiative invests $4.5 million in the campus and student life. Gratitude for The Hodson Trust’s $10 million grant, which funded the Mellon renovation and new dormitory. Two or three additional major gifts this year: a possibility. The help and support of aU alumni at all levels of giving: priceless. President Christopher Nelson with Mark Lindley (A67). Stacey Andersen (AGI93): “While we were wandering through the Cone Collection, we noticed it was noisy: not normal museum behavior. Yet we were expected to talk. There’s a commonality we’ve run into with people who’ve gone to St. John’s. There’s a shared dialogue. It’s a tone that was set and carried throughout the evening. I think that’s what led to the discussion that contin­ ued after Chris Nelson gave his introductory talk. We thought the venue for an alumni function was fantastic. Is there abetter place to unleash a group of Johnnies than in a museum? Thank you for giving us the text! ” - SUS3AN Borden, A87 The Reviews Sara Stuart (Ago): “Mark Lindley (A67) must have gone through the Cone Collection before Brad (A89) and I arrived. He was able to teU us about all of the paintings and art objects, and about the Cone sisters’ Above: The feast Right: Sara Larson Stuart (Ago), Brad Stuart (A89), and Philanthropia EVENT CHAIR Steph Takacs (A8g) {The College. 5t. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �{Letters} Febbie Question Answered Wendell Finner’s account of his query concerning SJC’s lack of Eastern authors (Winter 2004) brought back a memory of Douglas Allenbrook that 1 cherish more as political correctness continues to elimi­ nate free speech. During convocation for the Febbie 1980 class, one student asked about the lack of Eastern authors. Without hesitation, and with a charming smile, Mr. Alienbrook replied “...the only thing good that has come out of the East was the Sun.” Memo­ ries like these convince me that St. John’s College is more important than ever to liberal education and free thought. Steven D. Brower (A83) The Lost Languages It was a joy and consolation to read the article about the intensive Latin summer classes in the Fall 2003 issue of The College. It made up for the allegation by a recent commencement speaker that the students in front of him were lucky to have the best education: liberal arts, i.e. trivium and quadrivium-or, as my Munich editor explained to colleagues at the Beck publishing house, the “Septem Artes”'we did at this interesting college in America. Yes, the liberal arts, all seven of them, and four foreign languages, the commencement speaker said: Greek and Latin and German and French. The graduates kept a straight face. Latin had already been dropped from the curriculum when I joined St. John’s in i960. German survived another couple of years; then it, too, was gone. I taught one of the last classes. It was a pleasure, and a profitable one. We read bits of the Luther translation of the Bible, the beginning of Genesis and the opening of the Gospel of John, and the juniors recalled some of the Greek New Testament. We read Lessing and a little Kant (with the surprising earthiness of his vocabulary); we read some Goethe; some of the rhymed caution­ ary tales of Heinrich Hoffmann...and stuck to texts that seemed more memorable and discussable. There was a young man in that class, Jim Forrester (A62). He took the very first [translation], six weeks into the first semester. I was amazed at the result, which included a perfect translation of a page from Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy. He translated it into real English, not translaterese, and showed an astonishing feel ''Yes, sing ye and chant id andyou il learn to speak and read it.. ” Beate Ruh m von Oppen for nuances. Next time the class met I asked Mr. Forrester if he had been a begin­ ner when we began six weeks ago. He said: “Yes”-and after a moment’s reflection he added: “I’d sung some Bach.” Bach makes the language, especially the biblical language, Luther’s German, memorable. It sticks in the mind-even as some of Picander’s poetry in the St. Matthew Passion does, or perhaps just first words like “Buss undReuf though the Gospel of Matthew itself is more memorable, e.g., “Der Geist ist willig, aber das Fletsch ist schwach ” quotable and even usable in daily life... That remark by Jim Forrester taught me that singing is the best way to learn a language. Perhaps poetry, anything that scans is the next best. So we now leave German (and Latin) to the freshman chorus and the other, voluntary singing groups. Yes, sing ye and chant it! - and you’ll learn to speak and read it... Beate Ruhm von Oppen Tutor Emerita Thailand’s War on Drugs I wanted to address something that [Tiitor Linda] Weiner said in describing her summer in Thailand (Winter 2004). Ms. Weiner suggested that Thailand benefits from an “enlightened monarch” and described the king’s policy of replac­ ing opium farms with organic farms. While the king may be enlightened, Thai­ land’s Prime Minister and police force are not. In Thailand’s own war on drugs, 2,245 people were killed in an anti-drug cam­ paign from February to April 2003. The police admitted to killing 50 themselves, and many others were killed as they returned from police stations. Thai officials have neglected to investigate or prosecute the killings. In August Prime Minister Thaksin said, in reference to drug smugglers crossing from Myanmar to Thailand, “From now on if their trafficking {The College- St. John’s College • Spring 2004 } caravans enter our soil, we won’t waste our time arresting them, but we will simply kill them.” This and other policy statements of the Prime Minister suggest that more extra­ judicial killings will come. The international community, including the U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudi­ cial, summary or arbitrary executions; Amnesty International; and the Drug Policy Alliance, have expressed outrage over the human rights abuses stemming from Thailand’s war on drugs. I would hate for Johnnies to get the impression that the program described by Ms. Wiener is indicative of Thai drug policy. More information can be found in the Amnesty International report “Thailand-Grave Developments-Killings and Other Abuses” available atwww.amnesty.org Renate Lunn Room for (A96) Gauss Doing year-end cleaning I chanced upon Sheri McMahon’s letter in the Spring 2003 issue of The College. I guess it’s a recurring topic among alumni who reflect upon the mathematics tutorial. I personally have often thought it a pity not to pursue geometry a little further. I always felt a historical approach to Gauss’s Theorema Eregiurn on curved sur­ faces or something like that might be pos­ sible. Michael Spivak does something along these lines in his Comprehensive Introduction to Differential Geometry. I always felt there was no greater figure left out of the program than Gauss, that there was a route to some of his work in geome­ try that would be accessible to seniors, that it was the perfect context for glimpses of non-Euclidean geometry and general relativity that were offered in the tutorial (nearly three decades ago!), that it has a perfect antecedent in the spherical geometry of Ptolemy. Mark Copper (SF76) Words and Deeds Thank you for the article in the Winter 2004 issue on Santa Fe’s martial artists. The Annapolis campus has also enjoyed the Asian martial traditions over the years. In 1977 tutor David Starr persuaded one of his former philosophy students from the University of Rhode Island, a prodigiously talented gentleman named Robert Galeone, to move to Annapolis to teach the Okinawan system of Uechi-ryu karatedo. continued on nextpage �{Letters} I was Mr, Galeone’s first student at the col­ lege club, which met in one of the handball courts in Iglehart Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and Saturday morn­ ings. Mr. Galeone, a 5th-degree black belt, produced quite a few serious students over the seven years that he led the dojo.... Today, Annapolis students interested in aikido may join the U.S. Naval Academy’s Aikido Club, which holds classes on both the Naval Academy campus and in Iglehart Hall. (For more information, see http://www.geocities.com/navyaikido/.) It seems to me that study and practice of the martial arts, whether from Asia or the West, is essential to the development of a free citizen. Whether the pen is mightier than the sword is not the right question. Rather, why should the study of one pre­ clude the study of the other? To paraphrase a Japanese proverb, in the hands of an educated individual, the sword and the pen are one. Unfortunately, it is too easy for a student of the liberal arts to acquire a great and unjustified faith in the power of speech, along with an all-too-ready skepticism concerning action. Words need the support of deeds. As Mr. Galeone once said, “The body remembers what it does, and not what you tell it.” Martial arts training provides the student with the framework to become as proficient in the world of action as he or she is in the world of reason, by teaching balance, grace, and poise, all while facing an adversary. I hope that students on both campuses will take advantage of the opportunities to pursue these disciplines. Jim Sorrentino (A8o) Calendar Mysteries Revealed I was quite amazed to open the 2004 calendar and find a photo of my high school math teacher (February 2004). He is Thomas Yoon (A58), and he taught me trigonometry and led a philosophy seminar at Scarborough School, in Scarborough, N.Y. My guess is that it was 1967. He was an inspiring teacher with a great sense of humor, and was the one who told me about St. John’s College. Pippi Ellison few lists I have. The whole scene was contrived, which is why there is a smirk on the face of the guy front center and guy left. Girl center was trying to look serious and guy rear was told to pose in an awkward position. The people at the end of the table were told to look at each other. No one has the same book. The photos were intended for a catalog redesign, or a flyer for the admissions office. I was the student aide for Marsha Drennon, then admissions director, and helped find the students and arrange the furni­ ture. Notice how there aren’t any empty chairs? We did have a blast doing the series of pictures around the campus. Michael David (SF87) Dumping Concerns While I found the “Night Crawlers” letter (Winter 2004) somewhat amusing as a piece of black humor, I was taken aback that there was no editorial note as to the state of affairs since the dumping occurred. Has all that stuff been leaching into the ground and water and possibly the creek ever since with nothing being done, or was it cleaned up at some later date? If not, I think [the college] is morally, and perhaps legally, bound to address the prob­ lem. Surely, SJC is not so philosophically preoccupied that it doesn’t care what it does to our environment? Natalie Chambliss (class of 1964) Editor’s Note: Steve Linhard, treasurer on the Annapolis campus, says thatfor an undetermined period oftime, a dumping ground was sited on the college’s back campus. When the college investigated severalyears ago, it uncovered bricks, broken china, bottles. (Aya) The May 2004 photo of students at a table on the dining hall balcony was taken in June or July 1985. It was a PR photo from a whole set of photos taken that day all over the campus. The students in the photo are mostly January freshmen, though I can’t remember or find their names in any of the {The College- St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } cans, kitchen utensils, and similar domestic refuse. “'Testpits were dug by an outside survey company three summers ago, and nothing ofany chemical nature was found,” Linhard says. “In addition, core samples were taken by a geological testing firm to examine the soil contentforfeasibil­ ityfor thermal conductivityfor the geother­ mal heating systemfor the new dormitory. These samples were examined and nothing hazardous was discovered. ” Errata An article in the Fall 2003 issue stated that Hans von Briesen attended and taught at Stanford and the University of Rochester. He attended the universities, but did not teach at them. The reading list on St. John’s history that accompanied an article on the attempted Navy takeover of St. John’s (Winter 2003) should have included these works by Charlotte Fletcher (HA69), former librarian at the Annapolis campus: Cato's Mirania: A Life ofProvost Smith, and “St. John’s ‘For Ever’: Five Essays on the History of King William’s School and St. John’s College,” published in the St. John'sReview (1990-91). The College welcomes letters on issues of interest to readers. Letters maybe 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 or The College Magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: rosemary.harty @sjca.edu. �{Revelation} la REVELATION and REDEMPTION hat is the revelation in Flannery O’Connor’s “Revelation”? That was the question The College asked of a group of tutors and others in the St. John’s College community. The short essays that follow are presented as thoughtful responses to a question posed in search of gaining more insight into a puzzling and multi-layered short story. If you have not read “Revelation,” or read it long ago, put this feature aside until you can. W Ripe for Revelation by Joan Silver Lastfall I received a letter from a stu­ dent who said she would be “graciously appreciative” if I would tell her “just what enlightenment” I expected her to getfrom each ofmy stories. Isuspect she had apaper to write. I wrote her back to forget about the enlightenment andjust try to enjoy them. I knew that was the most unsatisfactory answer I could have givenbecause, ofcourse, shedidnt want to enjoy them, shejust wanted to figure them out. In most English classes the short story has become a kind of literary specimen {The College -John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } to be dissected. Every time a story of mine appears in a Ereshman anthology, I have a vision ofit, with its little organs laid open, like afrog in a bottle. I realize that a certain amount ofthis what-is-the-significance has to go on, but I think somethinghas gone wrong in theprocess when, for so many students, the story becomes simply a problem to be solved, something which you evapo­ rate to get Instant Enlightenment. A story isn I really very good unless it successfully resistsparaphrase, unless it hangs on and expands in the mind. Properly, you analyze to enjoy, but ids equally true that to analyze with any discrimination, you have to have enjoyed already.. ..” Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners. I will assume that all who have read Flannery O’Connor’s story, “Revela­ tion,” have enjoyed it. We enjoy the story, and her remarks above, somehow as wholes, and also in their humorous and penetrating details. In the spirit of the above remarks, I would like to notice numerous revelations which spring from �{The Colleges?. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �14 {Revelation} ''In a crucial moment ofthat vision, she finds her own kind bringing up the rear... ’ this story, which calls itself “Revelation” in the singular. I hope that together they may “hang on and expand in the mind.” Perhaps the key revelation in the story is the return to Mrs. Turpin of the enraged question she asks of God, “‘Who do you think you are?’”: “The question carried over the pasture and across the highway and the cotton field and returned to her clearly like an answer from heyond the wood.” This answer is a distillation of the revelation already embedded in her earlier questions: “‘How am I a hog and me both? How am I saved and from hell too?’” At this reply, Mrs. Turpin’s mouth opens (is it in wonder or in understanding?), and she does not speak. But this revelation is not the end of the story. Other revelations follow, mediated by a moment in which she imagines the death of her husband, his truck hit by anoth­ er, his “brains all over the road.” Seeing his truck return, she herself begins to move, “hke a monumental statue coming to life.” Only now do initial events of the story receive their answering revelations. An early revelation in the story is that “living demonstra­ tions” are present in the world. When the story begins Mrs. Turpin (who is “very large”) is entering the “very small” waiting room of a doctor’s office; she is said to be a “living demonstration that the room was inadequate and ridicu­ lous.” As the story goes on, of course, we see that the waiting room is exactly the right size for the events which take place in it. A later echo which replies to this apparent “living demonstration” immediately follows Mrs. Turpin’s “coming to hfe.” The “old sow” and young hogs, above whose “pig parlor” she confronts God, find their places in their “waiting room” with ease: “They had settled all in one corner around the old sow who was grunting softly. A red glow suffused them. They appeared to pant with a secret hfe.” It is the sow and the other pigs who become a real “living demonstra­ tion” for Mrs. Turpin and for the reader. Her earher “glow­ ering down” at the hogs and disdaining of others has become a “gazing down”; she “remained there with her gaze bent to them as if she were absorbing some abysmal life-giving knowledge.” {The College - Two more echoes follow. The first is a revelation and echo for Mrs. Turpin and the reader alike; the second, for the read­ er alone. Early on, Mrs. Turpin’s charac­ ter is revealed by one of her inner “games.” In one, she lies awake at night “naming the classes of people.” She sep­ arates and tries to rank human beings by certain combinations of race and proper­ ty, but the real people of her acquain­ tance will not stay put in the places that she gives them: “Usually by the time she had fallen asleep all the classes of people were moiling and roiling around in her head, and she would dream they were all crammed in together in a box car, being ridden off to be put in a gas oven.” The impulse from which such grading and judging spring leads ultimately to the gas chamber-to spiritual and physical death for all. This dream is echoed and transformed at the end by Mrs. Turpin’s vision of the “vast horde of souls rumbling toward heaven” in which all classes and kinds are present. In a crucial moment of that vision, she finds her own kind bringing up the rear: “she could see by their shocked and altered faces that even their virtues were being burned away.” Not the fire which makes the gas chamber, but the fire of purgatory is needed. Note, too, that hogs are easier to clean than humans; for pigs, only water is needed. The final echo is concerned with seeing (and with size). Mrs. Turpin’s eyes were initially described as “little bright black eyes . . . [that] sized up the seating situation” and all else around her. After the vision just mentioned, O’Connor tells us that her eyes are “small but fixed unbfinkingiy on what lay ahead.” We may need to ask just what is intended by “what lay ahead,” but, in this changed description, we receive the revelation both that a kind of steadfast looking is necessary for us, and that a transfor­ mation of one’s manner of seeing in the world is possible, (and that size-at least relative human size-does not matter). Among the many other revelations in the story, two seem worthy of note in the context of the ones mentioned above. The first concerns the catalyst for revelation, the St. John’s College • Spring 2004 } �{Revelation} second the capacity to receive it. The story shows revelation-or the beginning of it-coming from the strangest source: Mary Grace. The suffering of one human being, her anger and anguish, gives birth to grace for another. And in Ruby Turpin the story shows inquiry, linked with sin, as a potential path to revelation and grace. Mrs. Turpin’s inner “games” embody inquiry in a strange form: who might I have been if not myself; what is my place with­ in all of humanity? They also, of course, reveal pride mas­ querading as gratitude. This picture remains a revelation, if a comic one, of what can make one ripe for revelation. Joan Silver is a tutor and incoming director ofthe Graduate Institute in Annapolis. In the Eye of 15 Judgment Day by Pamela Kraus Ruby Turpin knows what should be and does her part to make it so. She notices every instance of the messy, dirty, unregulated world. She has her faults, she knows that, but she’s a respectable, church-going woman who always tries to make things right. She keeps pigs-just a few of the preemi­ nent unclean animal-but she’s built them a concrete pen, a “pig-parlor,” to keep them from wallowing in mud and slop, and she hoses them down regularly. On the day of this story Ruby accompanies her husband Claud to the doctor and sizes up the waiting room: it’s small and dirty and filled with slovenly, careless people. To counter the disorder she exer­ cises the best force she can, her good disposition generously Since the emergency, a wrathful Mrs. Turpin has been demanding why Mary Grace called her an old wart hog from hell. Mrs. Turpin is convinced that Jesus sent her the mes­ sage and, though she has negotiated with him before, for once, she finds that defense is futile. She has no one to turn to. She doesn’t trust the cotton-pickers, whose comments she finds intolerable and full of flattery. She can’t confide in Claud (whose name sounds like “clod,” and who can’t shore up her failing faith). She shouts defiantly to Jesus, “Who do you think you are?” The sight of the sun setting in the back pasture, “looking over the paling of trees like a farmer inspecting his own hogs,” triggers the collapse of her carefully-tended beliefs. She inspects her own hogs, who are glowing rosy in the cor­ ner of the pig parlor, and takes in the “abysmal life-giving knowledge” from them-sees, I think, that though there is no one out there measuring each person for a future crown, yet we have the present life. There is no doctor behind the waiting-room door, about to call our names. Mrs. Turpin sees the vast parade of people, carried to heaven on the pur­ ple bridge shouting hallelujah. She knows, for the moment at least, that this is nothing but a dream. Heaven by Basia Miller Mrs. Turpin’s revelation is pretty dark. She has experienced the dark before-at the end of her dreams, everyone is crammed in a boxcar and sent off to a gas oven. Today when she and Claud enter their own dirt road on the way back from the doctor’s, she is ready to see her home destroyed, “a burnt wound between two blackened chimneys.” A few moments before the end, she imagines the pickup truck being crushed and her husband’s and the fieldhands’ brains oozing out on the road. Her final revelation seems, too, to be of a world destroyed, a kind of apocalypse that nevertheless offers “life­ giving knowledge.” First, Mrs. Turpin’s vision was affected in the waiting room. When Mary Grace sent the book flying at her head, Mrs. Turpin saw things smaller first, then she saw everything larg­ er. The impact was particularly powerful because Mrs. Turpin sensed that the girl had a deep, timeless knowledge of her, perhaps of her soul. We who have heard Mrs. Turpin talking incessantly, all afternoon, about her own goodness have to ask if much of this talk isn’t inspired by self-doubt. She’s con­ verted everyone’s gestures, everyone’s shoes, green stamps, Basia Miller is a Santa Fe tutor. and traces of snuff into material for affirming her worth in the eye of heaven, like a person feeding an insatiable hunger. {The College- St. John’s College • Spring 2004 } �i6 {Revelation} ''Thepurgatorial vision reveals all manner of sinners lined up ingroups... bestowed, a veneer of nice manners and char­ • itable platitudes barely covering harsh judg­ ments. This is her way of following the com­ mandment Love Thy Neighbor. Both her justice and her mercy are superficial rather than utterly misplaced. They are poor imita­ tions of the divine, not complete aberrations. Yet they are not harmless: they hold her fast in easygoing self-righteousness and could forever blind her to herself. Mary Grace is the only occupant of the wait­ ing room who won’t submit to Ruby’s intru­ sive geniality. An ugly, cranky, even mean young woman, Mary Grace sees a deeper dis­ order than Ruby sees, and her penetrating eye is right on Ruby Thrpin. Mary Grace waits in the waiting room but is sickened by the world that surrounds her, as if she has taken in its ugliness. She is most revolted at Ruby, its banal and self-satisfied leading citi­ zen. Seemingly lost to charity, or too bur­ dened for it, she freely offers this world her scorn. Each of these judges is drawn to the other from the first as to a perfect enemy. Mary Grace rebuffs Ruby’s attempts at cordial small talk, even when not directed to her, by making grotesque faces. The affronts enliven Ruby’s insistence on the virtue of good-naturedness. The garrulous, prettied-up world of Ruby’s waiting room advances upon the stark, friendless one defended by Mary Grace. When Ruby’s enthu­ siasm reaches its peak, she bursts out in praise: “Thank you, Jesus, for making everything the way it is! ” Mary Grace retal­ iates. She launches her book at Ruby and goes for her throat. Both fall in this battle. Mary Grace inflicts the blows, yet she is the one sedated and removed to a hospital. The purple swelling above Ruby’s eye and the marks on her throat are on the surface; deeper is a more grievous wound. Not the book, not the hands clenched around her throat, but the words Mary Grace whispers as the two lock eyes hit home: “Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog.” These words “brooked no repudiation.” They strike Ruby’s center of grav­ ity, confusing her sight and toppling her confidence. Ruby is turned, readied for revelation; Mary Grace, an inadvertent {The College- cause of grace, goes to a fate we do not know. The vision of an ugly wart hog besets Ruby all afternoon. Driven by anger, confusion, and need, she spills her story almost in spite of herself to the Black cotton workers in her employ. This veiled plea for compassion is met with highly spirited but superficial concern-the kind of concern Ruby has been so proud of and good at herself, especially with the Blacks-and it angers her to receive it from those she has considered so far beneath her. She goes to her pig-parlor seething as intensely as Mary Grace in the waiting room, turns the hose on the pigs, and, like a comic Job, thrusts question after question at God. The questions begin in a forceful whisper, “How am 1 a hog and me both?”, and reach a summit of fury: “Who do you think you are?”, the fundamental question to which a vision is the mysterious answer. The purgatorial vision reveals all manner of sinners hned up in groups, each rejoicing in its distinctive way, and puts Ruby in her place. Ahead in line are the leapers and rollickers; she, Claud, and the other respectable people are last in the procession, their virtues the sins being burned away. The vision is a reminder of our essential unfitness to understand and follow the commandment to love even when we desire to and a reve­ lation of God’s inscrutable, comic ways. As Ruby stands gaz­ ing upon “what lay ahead” and hearing at the crickets’ chirps hallelujahs of praise, we wonder in what world Ruby now is and whether it may embrace the edge that Mary Grace inhabits. 99 Pamela Kraus, a tutor in Annapolis, also serves as editor of the St. John’s Review. The Private Hell of Ruby Turpin by Cary Stickney Without rereading the story, 1 want to say that the primary revelation is what the girl in the doctor’s office says that St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �{Revelation} wounds Mrs. Turpin so: “You are a warthog from Hell!” Ruby Turpin cannot forget it, and it brings on a kind of crisis of faith, I presume because on some level Mrs. Turpin acknowledges its truth. It is at least in part-the warthog part-an inevitable consequence of existing as a creature in the same cosmos with an infinitely good Creator. In this sense I suppose even archangels are warthogs, compared to the beauty of God. That the warthog is from Hell seems to me to say that we have each taken the finite beauty and goodness we might have had and thrown it away. That is, we are sin­ ners, and we make a kind of hell for ourselves. Looking back at the story I see that the girl in the waiting room says, “Go back to Hell where you came from, you old warthog!” Mrs. Thrpin had been revealing by her conversa­ tion with the girl’s mother that she lives in a world of careful­ ly maintained distinctions, and that she compensates herself for the efforts she makes to be good by looking down on all those who seem not to try as hard. She would not describe her own world as a hell. But I see something hellish in the dream we are told she sometimes has, in which her struggles to 17 maintain the picture of a well-ordered hierarchy of human virtue and vice correlated with property ownership and worth ancestry, to say nothing of skin color, give way to a vision of a cattle-car crowded with every kind of human on the way to a gas oven. In her waking hours, she sees a world in which good people are the exception and things are get­ tingworse. To be “saved,” as she believes she is, requires that she think better of things than that, at least in an ultimate sense, but it looks as if she has reduced God to a scorekeeper and that her gratitude to have been created as the one we see is dependent at least on her fear of and contempt for others. The Wellesley girl, Mary Grace, may see that, and may mean that she is far from heaven and fairly close to hell, so that it would be easy to just go back. Of course being an effective messenger may not require that the aptly named Mary Grace fully understand the message she delivers. Both the aspects of the revelation, that she is a warthog and that she came from Hell, carry with them a redeeming and mysterious grace: namely that in spite of our vanishingly small claim to significance or beauty or even to being at all. {The College -St John’s College • Spring 2004 } �i8 {Revelation} we somehow do exist in the same cosmos with infinite beauty and heing-God has made room for us and wants us to be. That turns out to involve, in the Christian understanding, that He has moreover forgiven us the waste of our time and gifts, the pettiness and cruelty we might have avoided, and that He offers us His love. What Mrs. Turpin demands to know, namely how she can be herself and a hog too, or saved and at the same time from hell, is the mystery that requires a further revelation, or a deeper view of the one she has been given. In the story, Mrs. Turpin is hosing out the hog pen and shaking her fist at God when the shape of the stream of water momentarily comes to resemble a snake. She is at that moment complaining to God that she might as well have never tried to lead a good life at all, if she can be so insulted and feel it so deeply; if, in a word, she is still just a warthog: in spite of all her efforts still essentially no better than the worst of sinners, the most lazy and wicked. This is a form of the temptation to think that she should. Godlike, be able to make herself, to accomphsh her own goodness and merit by her unaided efforts, and thus, implicitly, to know good and evil: to have the right to judge and condemn others presumably less industrious or tasteful than herself. For if it does not ulti­ mately matter what she does, and all saving power remains with God, why has she troubled herself all these years? “Why should we not sin the more, that Grace may abound?” asks Paul, before repudiating the question. The mystery and the final aspect of the revelation, granted in her sunset vision, is that it does and does not matter. It does: before she sees the highway into heaven she has seen the setting sun like a farmer looking over the fence of the treetops at his hogs, and she has seen her own hogs, clean now and gathered around the old sow, the source of their hves, and one kind of image of herself. She gazes “as if through the very heart ofmystery,” and again, “as if she were absorbing some abysmal, life-giving knowledge.” It is a knowledge set off both by the previous sight of her husband’s truck going down the road no bigger than a toy, liable at any moment to be smashed, and by the fact of sunset itself. Even without accident we are not here long. From the abyss, the depths at greatest distance from God, she absorbs the knowl­ edge that life-finite, particular, hog-ugly hfe-precisely in its finitude, is beautiful, is full of God, its secret source. If those hogs are beautiful, then so is she; it is right that she is who she {The College- is. But then it is equally right that others are who they are. Her struggles to do right have not made her superior. When she sees the horde of ascending souls, led by the crazy, lazy, crippled, and off-key, she sees she had to make the efforts she made to be who she is, not because God would not love her otherwise, but because there must be all kinds of saved sin­ ners, and it is a divine gift to be whatever kind you are. It does not matter: the very virtues of the decent and upright like herself are being burned away in the purging fires of the ascent; that is, even their virtues are small and small-minded in the hght of God’s love. That God’s love is not hmited by human wickedness and yet does not annihilate the significance of an individual life is part of the same revelation as that an infinite being should make room for finitude to begin with. Greation and redemption are revealed to be at one. Carey Stickney (A75) is a tutor in Santa Fe. The Presence of Evil by George Russell Flannery O’Gonnor did not write about the lives of the great, but the lives of the ordinary and the lowly. By conse­ quence, the situations and actions of her characters are most often the stuff of comic and not tragic report. One finds himself laughing spontaneously at the human beings in her stories. Nevertheless, she is not condescending to her characters. She takes them seriously, holding them accountable for their weaknesses and transgressions. They may be ridiculous in the smallness of their views and desires, but they suffer nonetheless for their sins, and one is brought to feel for them in their sufferings and in the realizations that their sufferings allow. “Revelation” is a story about a day in the life of Ruby Turpin, a farming woman who, as far as she knows, is “saved” (“And wona these days I know I’ll we-era a crown.”) and who, in her own words is “a respectable, hard­ working, church-going woman.” From the first we are told that Ruby Turpin is a woman, big in size (“I wish I could reduce...”), blessed with a “good disposition” and “a little of everything,” with the emphasis on “everything.” In the story, we see her settled conclusions about the world St. John’s College • Spring 2004 } �{Revelation} around her and her place and identity in that world and in the divine plan come under an unexpected and jarring attack during a visit with her husband to the doctor’s office; and we witness a recovery which is as remarkable as the fall. A story with two distinct parts, “Revelation” in its first part takes place in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. The waiting room is emblematic of the shared human condition. Human beings are susceptible to injury and sickness. And their susceptibility is real; they get injured; they get sick. However that maybe the case, the story is less about bodily injury and illness than it is about another abo­ riginal susceptibility, the proneness to sin and especially to pride. It reminds one of the passage in the Bible from On the Road to Damascus by Michael Dink The revelation that comes to Ruby, in the form of a book thrown by Mary Grace that knocks her off her chair in the doctor’s office, is in essence identical to that which came to Saul, in the form of a flash of light that knocked him to the ground on the road to Damascus. Prior to the revela­ tion, Ruby and Saul shared a sense of their superiority to certain other human beings, a superiority achieved by reg­ ulating their conduct according to certain precepts and recognized in the eyes of God. In Ruby this sense takes the form of a self-congratulating condescension, in which she sees herself as kind and tolerant to those inferiors, while in Saul it took the more aggressive form of trying to pun­ ish or reform those who had strayed from the right path. When Ruby is called “a wart hog from hell” and Saul is asked, “Why do you persecute me?” they are confronted with the claim that they are sinners, certainly no better than those they had despised, and perhaps even worse, precisely because of the claim to righteousness implicit in their despising, a claim that Saul, reborn as Paul, denies that any human being can truthfully make. Ruby struggles valiantly to deny this message, “But the denial had no force.” She resents its being directed to her, “a respectable, hard-working, church-going woman,” 19 Proverbs, “Pride goeth before destruction, and haughty spirit before a fall.” The central dramatic incident that takes place in the first part of the story occurs in the con­ text of a conversation between three women, Mrs. Turpin, a poor white woman, and the mother of a college student named Mary Grace. The conversation of the women, taken together with the reports of the narrator, reveals the pride of the three women and of Mary Grace, but especially that of Ruby Turpin. About Mrs. Turpin we learn early on, that when she is restless and unable to sleep, she has two nocturnal occupa­ tions. In one, she seems to be acutely aware of the contin­ gent character of her present life. Like Eve, who is tempted by an alternative vision of the world, Mrs. Turpin’s imagi- “though there was trash in the room to whom it might justly have been applied.” A kiss from her husband and flattery from the black womenfolk of their hired help fail to assuage her resentment. When she goes to the pig parlor and tries to cleanse the pigs, she speaks out her resentment, evidently to God, indicating that she does recognize the source of the reve­ lation, despite her resistance to it. She continues to justify herself, to defend her innocence, her charity, her superi­ ority to lower orders of people. Her fury bursts forth in a defiant challenge, “Gall me a hog again. From hell. Gall me a wart hog from hell. Put that bottom rail on top. There’ll still be a top and bottom.” After seeing her husband’s truck in the distance as tiny and vulnerable, she gazes at the hogs for a long time, “as if she were absorbing some abysmal life-giving knowledge.” Then she has a vision of a procession of souls marching toward heaven. Leading the way are “the bottom rail,” all the kinds of people she despised, “shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs.” Behind them, with “great dignity” but with “shocked and altered faces,” come people like herself and Glaude, and she sees that “even their virtues are being burned away.” In this final vision, she at last sees how she is “saved and from hell too.” Michael Dink fAyjJ is an Annapolis tutor. {The College -5f. John ’5 College ■ Spring 2004 } �ao {Revelation} Priestess and Visionary by Elizabeth Engel Mrs. Turpin’s revelation builds from the first face the girl makes at her through Mrs. Turpin’s wonderful defiant questions to God as she stands at the pig parlor; “What do you send me a message like that for?” “How am I a hog and me both? How am I saved and from hell too?” The set­ ting sun, now far more mysterious than when Mrs. Turpin saw it, hke her, “looking over the paling of trees like a farmer inspecting his own hogs,” transforms everything. Mrs. Turpin, ignoring the transformation, dares God again and ends with roaring “who do you think you are?” An echo comes back at her “like an answer from beyond the wood.” God answers her by questioning her and her pride, with far more right than she had to question him. Mrs. Turpin begins to see who she really is as she sees the fragility of human life in Claud’s tiny truck, which from her position looks like a child’s toy: “At any moment a bigger truck might smash into it and scatter Claud’s and the nig­ gers’ brains all over the road.” When she has seen the truck home safe, she turns to the pig parlor: “Then, hke a monu­ mental statue coming to life, she bent her head slowly and gazed as if through the very heart of mystery, down into the pig parlor at the hogs. They had settled all in one corner nation brings her to envision the world other than it is. She wonders how things would have gone “If Jesus had said to her before he made her...You can either be a nigger or white-trash.” Her preference, she decides, is for Jesus to have made her “a neat clean respectable Negro woman, herself but black,” changed but still saved, sidestepping the lowly. In her other nocturnal activity, Mrs. Turpin is said to have “occupied herself at night naming the classes of peo­ ple.” She lies awake at night trying to sort out the people in her world into classes, in accordance with their material and social standing in the world. She assumes blindly that she possesses the standard and judgment for the task of sav­ ing and condemning. However, the fluctuations in the for­ tunes of the human beings that she would rank make such a jumble of her very attempts to rank them, that she finally falls off to sleep, imagining them all condemned, (“she would dream they were all crammed together in a box car, being ridden off to be put in a gas oven.”). Her virtues notwithstanding, Mrs. Turpin remains prey to these temp­ tations, and we see her assailed by them too in the light of {The College. around the old sow who was grunting softly. A red glow suf­ fused them. They appeared to pant with a secret life.” The hogs have become beautiful gathered around the maternal and musical old sow, a vision of animal life filled by grace. This is how we can be both hogs and ourselves too. Mrs. Turpin is herself transformed by gazing at the hogs; she becomes a sort of priestess, raising her hands “in a ges­ ture hieratic and profound.” Her transformation allows her final vision, the bridge over which souls are marching towards Paradise. The most respectable, the group she thinks she belongs to, come last, and “even their virtues were beings burned away.” In relation to salvation, virtue doesn’t matter, nor does top and bottom, dignity and luna­ cy, white and black. This, I think, completes Mrs. Turpin’s revelation. O’Connor says, “she lowered her hands and gripped the rail of the hog pen, her eyes small but fixed unbhnkingly on what lay ahead.” We see what she sees, and we see her seeing it, pig-like, with her small eyes, and still as priestess and visionary. Is this our revelation? Our judg­ ment of her has become irrelevant, just as have her judg­ ments of other people. We turn with Mrs. Ihrpin back onto the darkening path-surely O’Connor intends us to think of Dante-and with her we hear “the voices of the souls climb­ ing upward into the starry field and shouting hallelujah.” Elizabeth (Litzi) Engel is a tutor in Santa Fe. day. Mrs. Turpin feeds her false pride by imagining the infe­ rior world or worlds that might have been. Those imagina­ tions of worlds inferior to her world feature the lowly ones of the here and now whom she judges so severely. As Mrs. Turpin’s prideful attitudes leak out in the waiting room conversation, they become contagious. In the chief exchange in the waiting room, an exchange about the Turpin farm, Mrs. Turpin and Mary Grace’s mother silent­ ly join together against the opinions of the “white-trash woman.” The two women form an alliance inasmuch as “...both understood that you had to have certain things before you could know certain things.” An antagonism erupts between the poor white woman and Mrs. Turpin regarding their differing opinions about the possessions and associations that Mrs. Turpin has; Mrs. Turpin raises pigs and associates with black people. According to Mrs. Turpin, the Turpins have “a couple acres of cotton and a few hogs and chickens and just enough white-face that Gland can look after them himself.” That report elicits a retort from the white-trash woman that she doesn’t want St. John ’5 College ■ Spring 2004 } �{Revelation} ''The corruptive power ofpride takes its toll once more.'' anything to do with hogs: “Hogs. Nasty stinking things, a-gruntin and a-rootin all over the place.” It does not matter to her that the Turpins have a “pig-parlor” a con­ crete-floored pen where the pigs are raised and where “Claud scoots them down with the hose every afternoon and washes off the floor.” The poor woman wouldn’t stoop to “scoot down no hog with no hose.” And as to the black people that the Turpins hire (“butter up”) to pick their cotton, the “white-trash woman” is equally as adamant: “Two thangs I ain’t going to do: love no niggers or scoot down no hog with no hose.” As far above the “white-trash woman” as Mrs. Turpin seems to place herself, the “white-trash woman” places herself above hogs and “niggers.” The corruptive power of pride takes its toll once more. In the doctor’s office, then, we witness Mrs. Turpin’s awareness of the contingent character of her life (“When I think who all I could have been besides myself and what all I got...It could have been different!”) and how that awareness contributes to her false pride and a lack of understanding both of who she is and of the true character of her world. Behind her “good disposition,” we see her judgment on the world as it is given to her. Despite the fact that her virtue has no positive ground, she imagines that her goodness is sufficient both to judge and re-order the world and to do that without any assistance: “It’s no use in having more than you can handle yourself with help like it is.” Hers is not a position where she needs help, and she doesn’t ask for any. She divides her world into those like herself and Mary Grace’s mother, who don’t need help, and those like the poor white woman. Of the latter, she thinks, “Help them you must, but help them you couldn’t,” even though, “To help anybody out that needed it was her philos­ ophy of life.” Mrs. Turpin is saved and she is a would-be sav­ ior. From that vantage point of self-sufficiency, hers is a posi­ tion of gratitude. (“Oh, thank you, Jesus, Jesus, thank you!”) But she is more grateful for what she is not than for what she is, perhaps grateful even that she is child­ less. What she does not seem to acknowl­ edge is that bad things and evil itself can­ not be relegated to what is not or to absence, and for that reason in part, no one is completely “saved” in this world, cer­ tainly not by dint of one’s own efforts alone, from the power of temptation and malevolence. It is in the context of her ignorance of the forces of evil in the world that Mrs. Turpin comes to consider Mary Grace (“Why, girl, I don’t even know you...”), who gives up her reading and bears wit­ ness to the display of pride. She takes up her station, staring relentlessly at Mrs. Turpin and making ugly faces at her until she feels the need to defend herself. But most importantly, at the point where Mrs. Turpin claims not to know Mary Grace, she thinks that Mary Grace, “was looking at her as if she had known and disliked her all her life-all of Mrs. Turpin’s hfe, it seemed too, not just the girl’s life.” What there was to be known all of her hfe is nothing but the susceptibility to temptation and the depredations of evil which are coeval with the garden and human existence. Mary Grace, possessed of money, family, education, is a real puzzle for Mrs. Turpin. So obviously lacking in grace, she is loaded with the worldly goods by which Mrs. Turpin partially takes her bearings. It does not make sense to her that Mary Grace with all of her books could be possessed of a false pride dwarfing that of her and the others. (“The girl looked as if she would like to hurl them all through the plate glass window.”) It does not make sense to her that Mary Grace as Mary Grace could be a source of evil. Mary Grace would open her eyes though, and so she throws the book at her. The incongruity of first being silently intimidated, and then being assaulted with a book by someone such as Mary Grace, convinces Mrs. Turpin that there is more to the situa­ tion than meets the eye. And so she seeks out Mary Grace, “What you got to say to me?” And she receives the retorted command, “Go back to hell where you came from, you old {The Colleges?. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �aa {Revelation} wart hog.” When Mary Grace tells Mrs. Turpin to go to heU, Mrs. Turpin does not understand what she means, does not accept the evil that confronts her. She thinks that God is telhng her that she is not saved. The second part of the story addresses that mistake and achieves in a way a resolution to the story. The shift in the story from the doctor’s office to the farm marks a shift from pride to humility, the doctor’s office hav­ ing pride of place. Mrs. Turpin is so convinced that God has abandoned her, that when she and Claud drive home, and she looks for their house, “She would not have been startled to see a burnt wound between two blackened chimneys.” She and Claud he down, but she cannot escape what had hap­ pened or the image of her that had been deposited in her soul. “She had been singled out for the message.” In her feel­ ing of sohtude, she cries, but when her tears dry, “Her eyes began to burn with wrath”: she is “a respectable, hard-work­ ing, church-going woman.” When her self-pity turns to anger, Mrs. Turpin turns to the farm community, which she rules for affirmation and assurance of who she is. In a sense, she wants the message to be overruled by her loved ones, her husband, her black field hands, and her hogs. But the fact of her rule presents a problem for her, because now she needs help. She turns to Claud for solace-(“‘Listen here,’ she said.” ‘“What?”’ “‘Kiss me.’”)-and Claud obliges her, as he does through­ out the story, “as if he was accustomed to doing what she told him to,” but nothing happens. She turns to the black workers, but the workers think that Mrs. Turpin is beyond anything bad happening to her, as if “she were protected in some special way by Divine Providence.” When Mrs. Turpin leaves the black workers, she goes down to the pig parlor and takes the hose from Claud; on the farm, she is “the right size woman to command the arena before her.” When he goes off, Mrs. Turpin begins speaking to God, raising her questions, wanting to know how she is herself and a hog both and how she is “saved and from hell too.” In a final display of pride, hosing down her hogs, she rants and raves at God until she comes to the more general form of her question, “Who do you think you are?” the question echoing back to her. The humihty on the farm appears to be the antidote to the diseased pride infesting the doctor’s office. There Mrs. Turpin comes face to face with someone “above” her, who is {The College. not thankful to Jesus, who does not “read from the same book” as she does and who takes her bearings from what Mrs. Turpin ostensibly is, a fat, indulgent, prideful woman, who, just like Mary Grace, “complains and criticizes all day long.” The evil in Mary Grace would claim Mrs. Turpin for itself; hence, the condemnation. But because Mrs. Turpin thinks that she is saved, she thinks that evil is somehow warded off, existing in some imaginary alternative world; and so, she mistakenly interprets what Mary Grace says. Mrs. Turpin mistakenly thinks that God is turning away from her because evil makes its presence known to her and even as having a root in her; she thinks that she is no longer one of the saved. But to say that God is not turning away from Mrs. Turpin is not to say that God was not working through the force of evil. O’Connor clearly beheves that God does work through evil, and that He is able to do such work just because of the inroads that evil has made in the souls of human beings. God was not turning away from her, but turning her so that she might face the reality of her continual need for salvation. On the farm, in her rant, Mrs. Turpin would fight God with her pride-until she hears herself. Then it is that the day’s lesson begins to come clear to her, the lesson about the world and the serpent and the lesson of Job and God and the Adver­ sary. Then she sees Claud’s truck, looking “like a toy,” and sees the downside of that technological marvel, that it could be smashed by a bigger truck and everyone in it destroyed. Then Ruby turns to her hogs gathered around the sow, where “A red glow suffused them;” they were God’s crea­ tures, panting “with a secret life.” Her acknowledgement of the presence of evil in this world and of the goodness of God’s creation even in the lowly allows her to have a vision of a new order marching to salvation; in that order the lowly are entering first. It is hardly accidental that the setting of the first part of the story is in a doctor’s office, that there is even a black den­ tist in town, or that the book that Mary Grace throws at Mrs. Turpin was titled Human Development. Today, many people have a difficult time talking about good and evil, preferring instead to talking about health and sickness. But O’Connor’s character, Mrs. Turpin, when she is in need of help, does not want the doctor’s help. What is aihng her is a matter of the spirit. Of course, the terms in which she understands the “classes of people” and herself belong to the contemporary John’s College • Spring 2004 } �{Revelation} ^3 revelation is not a quiet Inull... • United States South, where the old notions of rank based on land owner­ ship and breeding issue in such cate­ gories as “good blood” and “white trash” and “niggers.” She is a stock character in O’Connor’s repertoire of stories, each one having its place as in a series of echoes originating in and echoing from a single homeland, O’Connor’s powerful imaginative intellect. O’Connor is a Catholic writer from the South, for her, the land of the humble and the humbled. Persisting in her faith and her South­ ern roots and in allusions to the Holo­ caust and the dark sides of technolog­ ical life, O’Connor helps us navigate our own darkness and locate the beau­ tiful in lowly and humble lives. On that account, in the aist century, she is a writer whose meanings are not only important but urgently needed. George Russell is a tutor in Annapolis. The Message-Bearers by Barbara Goyette Perhaps this story is not only about a revelation but about revelation itself, the nature of a mysterious occurrence that serves as a link between our everyday world (or the somewhat off-kilter but nevertheless recognizably every­ day world of Flannery O’Connor’s South) and some deeper reality. Revelation involves drama and it involves some kind of truth or disclosure about something that wasn’t realized or known before. In a theological sense, revelation involves a manifestation of the divine will. A revelation is not a quiet truth: Mary Grace hurls a textbook at Mrs. Turpin and then pronounces her verdict, “You are a wart hog from Hell.” The black field-hand ladies also tell her the truth: “ ‘Ain’t nothing bad happen to you! ’ the old woman said. She said it as if they all knew that Mrs. Turpin was protected in some {The College. 7 99 special way by Divine Providence.” This truth infuriates Mrs. Turpin; she fervently hopes that it is as false as Mary Grace’s revelation. And then there’s the wild and wooly vision of the souls marching up to heaven, violent in its intensity and in its absolute nega­ tion of all that Mrs. Turpin thinks she believes to be right and just. Revelation does not need proof. It can’t be arrived at by logic, and one can’t be persuaded to it. Revelation suggests someone or something as the medium of higher truth or another level of reality. In this story, the irony of the message-bearers-a disaffected, angry, acne-scarred intellectual; a troop of respectable, sycophantic field workers; and the pigs, hosed off to spot­ lessness from their naturally filthy state-reinforces the disjunction that is at the root of Mrs. Turpin’s sinful view. Her sin is that of not seeing, not understanding the most fundamental fact of grace-that it applies to everyone at all times, no matter what their level of receptiveness or worthi­ ness. Mrs. Turpin fails just as we aU fail, by virtue of being human. The last shall be first and the first shall be last. In the beatitudes, the unhappy are blessed and the happy are cursed (this complementary “woe to...” set of pronounce­ ments is often ignored in our recollection of the beatitudes— it’s not only that the downtrodden have a special place in God’s consideration, it’s that those who are successful do not, at least not insofar as they are successful). Our measures of success, those that Mrs. Turpin admires and with which she measures the worthiness of others, are worse than mean­ ingless. They get in the way of our understanding that we are all in need of grace. Revelation is a gift, presented to Mrs. Turpin and to us. It’s there every day for all of us, and everyone around us is a messenger. Barbara Goyette (A’^g) is vice presidentfor advancement in Annapolis. John’s College • Spring 2004 } �24 {Alumni Voices} THE HABIT OF WRITING BY Brigid K. Byrne, AGI03 hen I open my mailbox to find an ingly [reflects] the object, the being, which [specifies] it.” envelope addressed in a bold, careful Studying O’Connor’s letters, I decided that Fitzgerald had script and bearing an Iowa City post­ given the collection the perfect name. O’Connor offered mark, mixed in among bills and cata­ her correspondents thoughts about everything: her pet logs, I feel a small thrill, an excite­ peacocks, her writing habits, and her peculiar interpreta­ ment that there is something meant especially It tion offor theme. Catholic faith. Her letters to friends, fans, pub­ seems strange that finding a personal letterlishers, in my mailbox and fellow writers reveal a woman who wrote them gives me so much joy. Yet, how often do we get a letter from not only to maintain her connection to those she loved, but someone we know and love? How often do we take the time also to explore and reveal the parts of herself which the to write to others? Most of the written communication we intended recipient had the power to bring out. send and receive are hasty e-mails, typed quickly, in lan­ I was most struck by O’Connor’s correspondence with guage created to speed up the time spent composing mes­ Cecil Dawkins, a college professor who introduced herself sages. While e-mail has perhaps kept us closer to those we to O’Connor in a letter. Dawkins challenged O’Connor by may otherwise have drifted apart from, our brief electron­ asking her advice in matters concerning her career, her ic conversations lack the richness and intimacy that are desire to write, and her faith. In a response to a question vital parts of human relationships. We compose our mes­ Dawkins raised about the effectiveness of the Catholic sages so quickly that we forfeit the benefits of self-reflec­ Church, O’Connor wrote, “You don’t serve God by saying: tion and personal growth that we can gain when we write the Church is ineffective. I’ll have none of it. Your pain at letters to others. The flow of thoughts seems better suited its lack of effectiveness is a sign of your nearness to God. to the flow of ink from the pen than to the pecking of We help overcome this lack of effectiveness simply by suf­ fingers on a plastic keyboard, and the act of sealing an enve­ fering on account of it.” Reading this unusually lengthy lope much more satisfying than hitting the “send” button. response, I realized that Dawkins had asked a question that I felt the loss of the art of letter writing poignantly as I O’Connor herself struggled with and wondered if O’Con­ recently revisited The Habit ofBeing, Sally Fitzgerald’s col­ nor was speaking more to Dawkins or to herself. lection of Flannery O’Connor’s letters. Fitzgerald titled In her introduction to the book, Fitzgerald notes that “on her collection The Habit ofBeing because she saw that the the whole, [O’Connor’s] correspondence was an enrichment writer’s correspondence reflected the attainment of that of her life, to say nothing of the lives of her correspondents” habit, which she defines as “an excellence not only of and that “almost all of her close friendships were sustained action but of interior disposition and activity that increas­ through the post.” W {The College- St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �{Alumni Voices} As I reread O’Connor’s let­ ters, I realized that my own habit of letter writing has enriched my life. 1 was not much of a letter writer until about five years ago when I began corre­ sponding with Sandra, an honors student from Iowa, whom I met while interning at the U.S. Department of Education. After rais­ ing her children, Sandra enrolled in a community college near her home and was so successful in her studies that she gained an internship through Phi Theta Kappa. Over that summer, Sandra and I had many conversations, and I learned much from her about courage and faith. When our internships ended, Sandra and I exchanged addresses in the way parting people do, intending to keep in touch, but doubtful whether such a brief acquaintance would with­ stand time and distance. I returned to college that fall, but I could not forget San­ dra. I pulled out the scrap of paper on which she had care­ fully printed her address and wrote her a letter. Thus began years of correspondence that have led me to question and contemplate many of my ideas, choices, and beliefs. When I first began writing to Sandra, I was feeling uncertain about my faith. Having been raised Catholic and force-marched to Mass, I purposefully spent each Sunday of my first few years away at college lingering over breakfast in the dining hall, ignoring the bells chiming at St. Paul’s, just a few hundred yards away. I was torn between rebelling against my parents and discovering my own sense of faith. In writing to Sandra, I found that I could wrestle with my doubts and hesitations. Through my letters to her, I came to recognize my struggle was not between me and God, but one of becoming an adult. {The College- 25 learning to make choices for my­ self. Sandra’s res­ ponses, resonat­ ing with her faith in God, even in the face of hard­ ship and sorrow, gave me the strength to travel my own spiritual road. Without Sandra as my audience, I am not sure that I would have found that part of myself. While my relationship with Sandra has led me to a deeper sense of faith, having a variety of correspondents challenges me to look at many sides of myself. One of my favorite audi­ ences is my friend Sally, who lives in Atlanta. Although Sally and I talk on the phone frequently and see each other occa­ sionally, letter writing is still an important part of our friendship. We enjoy what Shakespeare might term “a mar­ riage of true minds,” as our thoughts, interests, and experi­ ences run uncannily parallel. Writing to Sally is almost like writing to myself, except that I wait in anticipation for her honest replies, replies that demand that I look into myself more alertly. In my day-to-day habit of living, running from job to job, eating in my car, I have little time for reflection and clarity. I have come to see this habit of living, which requires me to direct so much energy away from myself, as distinctly differ­ ent from the habit of being, which allows me to spend time inside, listening only to myself. Like O’Connor, I have found that I can practice my habit of being most effectively as I sit down to write. So I will find time today to retreat from the habit of living and write to my friend and fellow St. John’s alumna, Sarah. I can’t wait to see what my letter will reveal. St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �{Johnnies 2,6 on Aging} THE MIND IN WINTER Living an ExaminedLife in Later Years wi Sus3AN Borden, A87 would lose meaning and she knew that there have even been suicides [among older people]. To provide meaning to their lives, she endowed the institute, which provides high-quality, exciting courses for seniors. The faculty, illiam Butler Yeats Institute, where he explores the world -W from a classroom. from neighborhood universities and the U.C. Medical “Hannah Fromm was worried that the life of retired people Center, are also mostly seniors,” explains Brunn, who has ohn Brunn (class of 1947) is no Magellan, no studied history, literature, science, and music at the insti­ Columbus, no Ernest Shackleford or Neil tute since his retirement. Armstrong, but in an important way, he has Brunn’s explorations are important to an aging mind, remained true to his childhood ambition to says Helen Hobart (class of 1964). Hobart works with become an explorer. “I thought of it then as older people who are experiencing dementia, and she’s a physical exploration,” he says of the ambition true believer in the adage “use it or lose it.” “The more that has become increasingly intellectual as he we exercise our minds, the more protection we have from has aged. “When I first came to California, the effects of dementia,” says Hobart. “People who com­ I fell in love with the Sierra and have spent plete loth grade have five more years of protection from vacations exploring the mountains, at first with friends theand effects of Alzheimer’s than those who don’t. You may later with my wife. With increasing age-I have turned be 77showing signs of the disease neurologically, but symp­ that has become difficult. Most of my learning istomatically, now you’ve got enough other brain connections indoors, but I am still curious about the world.” that function because you’ve stimulated their growth, so the assault of Alzheimer’s won’t show up.” While keeping the mind active slows the effects of aging, Hobart encourages us to recognize that, with the loss of cognitive ability, other strengths can come into Life moves out ofa redflare ofdreams Into a common light ofcommon hours. Brunn is fortunate to live in San Francisco, not just for Until old age and brings the but redflare the mountains the city, also foragain. the Hannah Fromm J {The College -Sr. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �27 {Johnnies on Aging} play. “Roughly half of people over 85 have Alzheimer’s and we’re aU hving longer,” she says. “So it behooves us to consider what it means to be human in addi­ tion to our cogni­ tive functions. I’ve seen a lot of suffer­ ing because people feel they’re no longer worthwhile because their memoryis failing or they can’t figure out how to do something that they used to do. But there are so many wonderful ways of being in relationship with the world and other people. The epidemic of dementia as we grow older really invites us to consider our humanity, our affections, our spirituality, our art, our love of music. All these things can thrive, even flourish, if our cognitive functioning {The College -St Playing the piano is JUST ONE RETIREMENT PURSUIT FOR Carolyn Banks Leeuwenburgh . gets out of our way a little.” Carolyn Banks Leeuwenburgh (class of 1955) has yet to notice a drop in her cognitive abilities. She’s an avid reader, an insightful conversationalist, and a freelance teacher of English as a foreign language. She also pursues a number of interests that will serve her well if cognition begins to fail. A retired opera singer, she is still involved with the arts, maintaining subscriptions at the McCarter Theater in Princeton in drama, dance, and music. She’s also an avid movie-goer and a fairly active practitioner of several John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �2,8 {JohnniesonAging} experiences mostly loss. Although arts: “I paint, very poorly, but I only 46, Nick Giacona (SFGI98) is paint,” she says. “I play the piano now facing the physical effects of poorly. I still can sing and I still sing 'Tve always believed age as he cares for his 8i-year-old publicly.” Leeuwenburg performs in a thatpeople older than mother, Betty, who moved in with small cafe just outside of Princeton, him and his family last spring. “My singing mainly popular music, blues, mepossessed some mom is a retired schoolteacher with and torch songs. wisdom. Pre always an alert mind and a body that’s fail­ Music has been the saving grace for ing. She has very bad arthritis and is many older people, even those whose felt they were worth pretty much confined to an electric other faculties are deteriorating, says working with and wheelchair. Yet her mind is still very Hobart. “It’s fantastic to watch people active. She goes on the computer, start playing the piano again. The learninp^from, worth does e-mail. She’s a voracious read­ parts of the brain formed when we’re sharing with. er and we have great theological, younger last the longest, so the capac­ spiritual, and political discus­ ity to play the piano can come back,” sions,” he says. she says. There may be no ability to Philip Valley (SFGI75) Giacona sees first-hand the trials make a coherent sentence, but the of life in an aging body. “I’m learn­ reward and beauty of making music ing day by day with her and I really can persist for a long time.” admire how she’s handling it,” he says. “It’s hard and There are other compensations to counter deteriorat­ frustrating for her to do the little things we take for grant­ ing cognitive ability, according to Virginia Seegers Harri­ ed, even something as simple as making herself a meal. son (class of 1964), a geriatric case manager. “Over time Yet she’s handling that with grace and courage.” you learn to tune out nonsense more quickly,” she says. A discussion on aging that former Santa Fe campus “The experience you’ve had in life makes it easier to say, president John Agresto gave years ago left an impression ‘uh-huh, right.’ From observation and personal experi­ on Giacona. “He said that our culture doesn’t really pre­ ence, I would consider that a real advantage.” pare us for aging and death. I thought he was so wise. He She describes the benefits that come in later years as we said that death and aging should be the culmination of a grow to accept our lives. “You can bring your mind to well-lived life, an examined life,” recalls Giacona. “While bear more easily on what is actually accessible, doable. my mom didn’t have a St. John’s education, I’ve turned You learn to pick your battles. You learn to pare down and her on to the Apology and the Crito and the Tibetan Book be satisfied. There’s a feeling in youth and middle age, of the Dead." ‘this world is out there-where do I start?’ When some Giacona says that his mother seems prepared for her options have closed behind you, there can be a sense of own death: “We’ve already discussed the whole memorial liberation. That may be what makes working with elders service. She wants to be cremated and have her ashes so sweet, so affirming, for people in middle age who are scattered where my father’s ashes were scattered. She’s still struggling to be greater than they ever will be. When even decided what songs we’re going to sing. If she died people accept themselves and their lives, that in a sense is tomorrow, she would feel that she had a good life.” where life really begins.” When his mother’s life does end, Giacona will consider Harrison underscores her point with a joke: “A retired himself lucky for the time that he and his family spent woman is listening to several young mothers talking with her. “My wife, Keiko, is so great and supportive. She about when life begins. One says at conception. Another helped convince my mom to stay with us. My mom had says, no, it begins when the fetus quickens. A third says, concerns about moving in and invading the family, but ‘I think life begins at birth.’ Finally, the retired woman Keiko told her that when she was a kid her grandfather leans over and says, ‘Listen, I’ll tell you when life begins. lived with her family and she appreciated the time she Life begins when the kids leave home and the dog dies.’” spent with him.” While it’s comforting to know that the mind enjoys gains to offset its losses, a sad fact of aging is that the body {The College -Sf. John’s College - Spring 2004 } �{JohnniesonAging} ag Although she’s a young Giacona’s own chil7a, Leeuwenburg knows dren-Sarah, 13, and Kyle, ii-respond to his she has some tough times mother in different ahead. “Many years ago I ways. “My son is outgo­ heard Bette Davis say that getting older is not ing and loves to hug her and sit and talk to for sissies,” she says. “As her. My daughter’s really you get older you aren’t shy, so it’s harder for really aware of getting her. She appreciates hav­ older, but you are aware ing her there, but she that you don’t do the shows it in a different same things you used to way. It’s so rewarding to do physically. There are have three generations times when I get out of in one house.” bed in the morning and I don’t think I can move Philip Valley (SFGI75) runs day programs in and other times I’m New Hampshire for fine.” Leeuwenburg swims adults over 55 with nearly every day, but a developmental disabili­ recent cancer scare ties. He says that sharing revealed her true attitude time across the genera­ Nick Giacona and his mother, Betty, are tions is rewarding even for people LEARNING TOGETHER ABOUT AGING. about exercise. “I was thinking, ‘hell, who are not related. “Maggie Kuhn, if I’m going to die. I’m certainly not going to swim,”’ she says. “This is head of the Gray Panthers, once not something I’m doing for the gave a talk where she told the audi­ 'She s a voracious reader sheer pleasure of it. At my age your ence, ‘We are not wrinkled babies, metabolism gets so slow that, even if we are elders of the tribe.’ I’ve and we have great you do all your cleaning, all your gar­ always believed that people older theological, spiritual, dening, you still have to exercise.” than me possessed some wisdom. Leeuwenburgh has not reached I’ve always felt they were worth andpolitical working with and learning from, the point where she feels encum­ worth sharing with.” bered by aging, but she has begun to discussions. ponder her own mortality. “I don’t Harrison, the case manager, has NickGiacona (SFGI98) think anyone ever really comes to nothing but scorn for those who grips with the reality of their own subscribe to the “wrinkled babies” death. When we view ourselves, we view of seniors. “Many people who work in nursing facilities call the elderly ‘baby.’ That’s view a disembodied creature. Chronologically, I’m 7a absolutely not right,” she says. But she’s also disturbed by years old. I’m at the point where I know I’m not going to a subtler form of infantilizing. “Even older people who be here in 20 years. Yet there’s a part of me that you could are quite cogent are pretty much treated like they have to stand up and say, ‘Caroline, you’re getting old,’ and I be fed, clothed, and then amused. I really have trouble would say, ‘I am?’” with that. Yes, it takes time to go at the slower pace and hear someone tell his story, but it’s usually extremely worthwhile. I would encourage anybody to start to talk to people over 75. Ask them about their lives. Ask them what they remember.” {The College* St. John ’5 College ■ Spring 2004 } �30 {Bibliofile} Approaching Machiavelli’s Art OF War Art of War Niccolo Machiavelli, translated, edited, and with a commentary by Christopher Lynch University of Chicago Press, 2004 hris Lynch (A87) traces the origins of his newlypubhshed translation of Machiavelli’s Art of War to the questions posed hy what is known in the academic throats. As I studied him more, I realized that world as the ancient/modern split. Lynch says Machiavelli ’s emphasis on the bellicose that Johnnies have a more intimate relation ­ aspect of human beings, an aspect acknowl­ ship with the split, and rephrases its essence edged but not emphasized by the ancient for the SJC crowd: “Why was everything so philsophers, was part of his overall goal to much fun sophomore year and why did transform the terms in which human life is everyone get so depressed junior year?” generally understood.” Lynch arrived at the University of Fortunately for Lynch, his academic inter­ Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought in ests dovetailed with a hole in Machiavelli the fall of 1988 with this question (in its grad­ scholarship. Of Machiavelli’s four major school expression) very much on his mind: vtorks—Prince, Discourses on Livy, Florentine What is the end of human hfe? Is man natu­ Histories, and Art q/' UAr-almost no one had rally social or essentially alone? What is the seriously studied Art of War. Lynch threw purpose of philosophy? As he pursued these himself into that text and, seven years (and a questions, Lynch came to see Machiavelli as Ph.D.) later, emerged with an impressive the pivotal writer in the transformation between the ancient and modern worlds. “The most sahent aspects of the transfor­ mation that Machiavelli tried to affect were, first, to change the general climate of opinion “Controversy abounds as to what caused and discourse such that human hfe would no the dizzying military changes during longer be understood in terms of its ultimate Machiavelli’s day. Also debated is goal or purpose but instead in terms of its whether these changes constituted a origins and roots,” says Lynch. “The second full-blown military revolution or instead is the attempt to bring about in this world the represented a particular moment in a best regime human beings can come up with, long-term evolution. In considering the best way of living together, instead of these questions, it is important to leaving it to chance hke Plato. And the third remember that the sense at the time was is really a corollary of the first, to get subse­ that tumultuous change was indeed quent thinkers to be primarily concerned afoot, but not rapid change in a single with human freedom and independence as direction driven by gunpowder technol­ opposed to virtue as understood as obhgation ogy. On the tactical level especially, and duty to something higher.” each of the battles that occurred on the These issues gave Lynch a clear direction Italian peninsula, from the battle of for his graduate work. “The more I saw Fornovo in 1495 to that of Pavia in 1525, Machiavelli as the key figure in the seemed to offer a new lesson to be ancient/modern spht, the more I wanted to learned, a new innovation that trans­ figure out what was on his mind,” Lynch says. formed the ways armies ought to be “I started to see war as central to his thought, armed, ordered, led and used.” to understand that for Machiavelli, humans - Christopher Lynch are not social beings, but at each others’ C Excerpt: {The College -Sf. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } pubheation to his credit: a translation of the text with an introduction, interpretive essay, and (he points out with the pride of a Johnnie who’s successfully negotiated secondary sources) more than 600 notes. Lynch originally wrote the translation for himself, “blasting through it” in just a few months, he says. “I wrote the initial transla­ tion as a way to study it carefully. I translated it as literally as I could so I could think about it the way we do with readings in language class, as a tool for closer reading,” he says. Over several years. Lynch returned to the translation, making changes after improving his Italian by translating works by Machiavelh’s predecessors, including Dante and Boccaccio. Later, when he decided to submit a proposal to the University of Chicago Press to turn his translation into a book, he first reworked a portion of the text to see if he could make it valuable to other readers. Once the proposal was accepted. Lynch had to rewrite the entire translation several times. In the process, he discovered a practi­ cal approach to translation that satisfactorily answered for him the issues that arise in discussions about translation in St. John’s language tutorials: “You start off as literal and as consistent as you can, then you puU the translation back toward understandabihty, readability and accuracy,” he says, “In the next phase, you forget about the Italian and ask what the passages mean in Enghsh and how they sound. If it’s not in readable English, you pull the Itahan out again and start thinking about changes.” Lynch notes that this is not the process for most non-Johnnie or non-Strauss-influenced translators. “They think about how it sounds right away,” he explains. “But I think that puts too much emphasis on the translator and makes him think he is a sort of god mediating between two languages with full omniscience of what the author intended. I think it’s better to approach it humbly, to cleave to the hteral andonlybepushed toward readabi 1 i ty when it’s clearly necessary.” With the time and energy Lynch lavished on Art of War, you’d think he’d be a fierce Machiavellian, but that’s hardly the case. “Machiavelli presents himself as the ultimate antagonist to the basic understand­ ings that I’m inclined to-ancient, philosoph­ ic, and religious,” Lynch says. “However, I think he’s also the most trenchant critic of ancient thought, both philosophic and rehgious, and therefore I see him as the person to understand if I’m going to understand the truth about the big questions at stake in the quarrel between ancients and moderns.” -SUS3AN Borden �{Alumni Profile} 31 Tias Little, EC98 Santa Fe Yogi Combines Wisdom with Practice BY Andra Maguran such as the Upanishads, the Yoga Sutra and he word “yoga” once con­ Bhagavad-Gita, along with studying San­ jured images of health nuts skrit or ancient Chinese in order to read contorting their bodies in works in their original language. impossible, seemingly Reared in Amherst, Mass., Little attend­ painful positions. Now ed Amherst College, where he earned a women, men, even children bachelor are flocking in droves to yoga. An estimat’­s degree in English. Inspired by mother, who also taught yoga. Little ed 15 million Americans say theyhis have a began his studies in the Iyengar system in regular practice; more than double that the early 1980s, and continued his study in number say they expect to try yoga in the Mysore, India. Frequent trips to visit his next year, according to a Harris poll. The grandfather, a Presbyterian minister who reasons for yoga’s newfound popularity are served on the board of directors at many: stress reduction, improved strength Abiquiu’s Ghost Ranch, fed Little’s love for and flexibility, and heightened concentra­ New Mexico. He moved to Santa Fe in 1991 tion are among the many benefits linked to to teach yoga, and in January aooo, he this 5,ooo-year-old practice. opened Yoga Source with his wife, Surya. Inside Yoga Source, a small studio Little began hearing about the Eastern tucked into a Santa Fe shopping center, Classics program at Santa Fe, established studio founder Tias Little {EC98) walks in 1994, from others in the Santa Fe yoga among the students after his morning community. Friend and fellow yoga teacher class, preternaturally serene, his voice as Nicolai Bachman (EC96) persuaded him soft as a temple bell. Like yoga teachers that the fledgling program was worth everywhere. Little is benefiting from the pursuing. “I was very enthusiastic [about wave of yoga popularity-his studio sched­ Eastern Classics] from the first day,” says ules more than 40 classes every week, Bachman, who now leads workshops across many of them packed. The Santa Fe the country in Sanskrit, Ayurveda (healing New Mexican recently described Little as “one of the emerging stars of the yoga phenomenon.” He leads classes for yoga teachers, writes articles and serves as an expert for a leading yoga magazine, holds clinics all over the country, and offers yoga retreats in venues such as Costa Rica. But even if the craze wanes and the numbers drop. Little believes that people will con­ tinue to seek out something beyond yoga’s physical benefits. His own devotion to the practice, he says, was informed and deepened by intense study of the works in the St. John’s Eastern Classics program, a yearlong program in which students read works T Tias Little’s yoga practice is INFORMED BY HIS STUDY OF Eastern classics. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } arts), and the Yoga Sutra. “I knew it would be a great chance for Tias to deepen his understanding of the Indian, as well as Chinese and Japanese, traditions.” Little began by auditing a seminar on the Upanishads, after which he applied to the program in full. After 15 years of practice. Little hoped to find a solid foundation in the original texts for his own philosophy toward yoga, the Mahayana Buddhist “middle way” teachings that are pertinent to living in the world today. He had previ­ ously read the Bhagavad-Gita and Yoga Sutra on his own, but the formalism and structure of a discussion-based graduate program offered a key to deeper learning, he says. “The texts are complex and philosophi­ cal,” Little says. “It would have required an intense practice and austerity to have read the works on my own and gained as much insight and understanding of them. The dialogue that the classroom setting encourages is far superior to simply reading alone.” For Little, the Eastern Classics program afforded a marriage oiprajna (wisdom) andsadhana (practice). Wisdom training comes through study of scriptures that are the historical backdrop of the practice. “Just as scholarship feeds the practice of yoga, so the practice feeds the scholarship. To me, just reading can become very eso­ teric if one tries to cognitively grasp the teachings one needs to embody, or engage through psycho-spiritual discipline. The two modes of understand­ ing are cooperative, but not interchangeable. ” Little encourages yoga teachers-in-training to enroll in Eastern Classics; already, two Yoga Source instructors, Wendelin Scott (EC03) and Lynsey Rubin (ECoa), have completed the graduate program. �{AlumniNotes} 3^ 1935 and dance to a caUer. Will any of the class of 1944 be at our 60th anniversary?” “I’m in my goth year,” writes Melville L. Bisgyer. “My beloved wife, Pauline, passed away a few years ago. I now make my home comfortably in a retirement home named Signature Pointe. Many of my children, including the normal, the grand, and the great, live near­ by. I shall never forget St. John’s. I spent four very happy years there. I wish good luck and much happi­ ness to all my fellow Johnnies.” 1937 “Just a word from the Class of’37Bob Snibbe alive and well-will be 91 in April. Still playing golf and still publishing small shirt-pocket handbooks. One on ‘Our Flag,’ the story of Old Glory... sold in large quantities to big companies for sales promotion purposes. I call Harry Fahrig (Class of ’37) from time to time. He is very sick and in a nursing assisted living facility. His wife, Frannie, was a former model for Ponds-‘she’s lovely, she uses Ponds’- ads in the ’30s and ’40s. They live in Jupiter, Fla. Also call Alan Pike (’37 too). He’s also in an assisted living facility with his wife in Deland, Fla. And my brother Dick, class of’39, lives in Arlington, Mass. He’s also in an assisted living facility recuperating from a stroke. Have fond memories of days in Crabtown. Football and lacrosse. B.C. great books.” 1944 John Davis Hill writes that he and his wife, Dorothy Murdock Hill, spent the winter in Southern California attending four Elder­ hostel programs sponsored by the University of Judaism at Camp Ramah in Ojai and at their Bel Air campus. “We like to sing folk songs 1947 Changes for Stephen Benedict: “Three years ago, I pulled up stakes in New York City after 40 years and moved 125 miles north to the hamlet of Spencertown in Columbia County. After prowling the area, I bought an old farmhouse-type structure, whose earli­ est segment dates to about 1750. It’s said to be the second- or thirdoldest house in the area. The transition from city life turned out to be seamless. Time, of which there’s never enough, is variously allocated to work on family and personal archives, the nearby cul­ tural center, the local Democratic Party, and play—the piano, tennis, and cats. Then there’s always fixery to be done on my ancient structure. I do maintain one interest in NYC, the Theatre Development Fund, which I helped found 37 years ago. Watch for the new half-price booth in Times Square. Drop by if you’re up this way: 518-392-0487; stevebenedict@taconic.net.” 1949 Frederick P. Davis sends news from California: “Since last report­ ing from this always sunny and warm southwest corner of the ‘lower 48,’ we ‘3-Ds’ (Fred, Rita, and son David) are still holding the line as ‘Mr. Outside’ and ‘Mrs. Inside’ (the house). David recovers from infections of both legs and feet resulting from badly broken legs of late aooo. But things are looking up. David, after over a year at a Riverside City Con­ valescent home, should soon come home. He is now equipped with a motorized wheelchair, enabling him to be on his own to go out to see docs.” David B. Weinstein has retired from the practice of medicine and is living with his wife, Stella, in Atlanta to be near his daughter and her family. “Attending senior class­ es at Mercer University and learn­ ing to play the recorder to keep the gray cells and fingers limber.” do’s top was the thrill of a lifetime, along with riding through a city rainforest to get there. Anticipat­ ing my trip to Alaska in July.” i960 Peter J. Ruel sends in a book 1955 With a July production of La Traviata, Harold Bauer will conclude a 27-year tenure as music director of New Philharmonic and DuPage Opera in Chicago’s west suburban region. His 42 years as a conductor include the music directorship of six orchestras in the U.S. and numerous guest concerts in this country, Canada, and Europe. What’s next? More reading, traveling, painting (oil and watercolor), golf, composing, and, of course, some guest con­ ducting. He looks forward to the 50th reunion of his class in 2005. 1957 News from Joan Cole: “I am continuing to enjoy my retirement. With friends, I attend the Metro­ politan Opera and work with the New York Black Librarians Cau­ cus, raising funds for scholarships. Am also enjoying my vacations-in September 2003,1 went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Viewing the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcova­ recommendation: “Thomas Cahill has written an insightful history of the ancient Greeks, printed 11/03: Sailing the Wine Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter.” 1961 Harrison Sheppard has been a regular columnist for San Francisco Attorney Magazine. the quarterly journal of the Bar Association of San Francisco. “The regular title of the column is ‘Law and Justice,’ with a subtitle relating to the particular column subject. For the most recent col­ umn (Winter 2004), the subtitle is ‘Law and Privacy: The Right To Be Let Alone.’” 1962 JusTiNA Davis Hayden sends in good news: Justina and Luci, her partner of ig years, were married in San Francisco on February 19. A magical day! They are living in San Diego now, having sold their Startup to Success (class of 1956) is now general manager of Word Web Vocabulary, a new curriculum for grades 5-10. “From a startup last year we are now in 55 school districts in 16 states plus Barbados. Word Web is a paperworkbook system based on root words, prefixes, and suffixes, all of which are Greek and Latin in origin. Grant Wiggins {A72) thinks it’s an excellent way to approach vocabulary.” ASQUALE L. POLILLO P {The College -St John’s College • Spring 2004 } �{Alumni Notes} 33 Mark Bernstein (A) writes; “Linda (Bernstein, nee Torcaso, A69) and I are looking forward to our last child graduating high school and going off to college. I’m a judge in Philadelphia court doing class actions and about to finish a book on Pennsylvania evidence. Linda is also a judge of the Social Security Administration.” Courtesy of The Moon, Santa Fe students and hobbes house in Berkeley. Luci is an artist whose work from recycled materi­ als may be seen at CorrugatedArt. com. Justina designed and main­ tains the web site. She is enrolled in a certificate program in Finan­ cial Planning and is having fun with investing. practicing law in Washington, D.C., and is writing for the local newspaper in her spare time. “Am looking forward to the next reunion of the Class of’65.” “Niece Megan Drolet, daughter of Melissa Kaplan (SF72) and Ray Drolet (SF69) will be coming to Annapolis this fall, continuing the Kaplan/Drolet tradition,” writes 1963 Bart L. Kaplan. Charles B. Watson (A) writes that Madeline Rui Koster writes: “I was very much looking forward to attending the 2003 40th class reunion, since as a Californian I have not been back to Annapolis in 40 years. A sudden change in my teaching assignment (high school) from all algebra to algebra and ceramics, in September, led me to change my plans. I was a potter and ceramic sculptor for 20 years before becoming a full-time teacher in the Bos. I look forward to another Homecoming. As time goes on, I value the St. John’s edu­ cation more than ever, and greatly enjoy reading The College.'" Michael Trusty attended Homecoming 2003 in Annapolis and had a great time: “I’m married, living in New Mexico, and ride horses with my 12-year-olddaughter.” 1965 Grace Logerfo Bateman is married, is the mother of four chil­ dren (mostly out of college), is Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Fran­ cisco, the inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award for “unique and distinguished ministry in the church and especially pioneering contributions to liturgical practice.” The church’s Web site, www.saintgregorys.org, docu­ ments this practice (and theory) with extensive photos and articles. Rev. Schell is a 1971 graduate of General Seminary; his co-rector, a 1970 graduate. 1968 “Finally finished my B.A. in 1999only 30 years late-at Thomas Edison State College,” writes Megan Beaumont (A, formerly Anne Beaumont Reid). “Received an M.A. in Spiritual Psychology 2001. Nowadays I am an ordained non-denominational clergy person and spend my time leading person­ al growth workshops, teaching manifestation and self-forgiveness, and officiating at marriages, memorial services, and most recently at an un-handfasting-a spiritual ceremony to honor and complete the severing of ties after a civil divorce. My husband has retired, and we are enjoying the blessings of good health and happy travel.” “I’m somehow still in Britian!” writes Deborah Rodman Lawther (SF). The General Theological Seminary Alumni Association awarded Donald Schell (SF) and Richard Fabian, co-rectors of St. Gregory of {The College. he was sorry to miss the 35th reunion of the Class of 1968 last year, but he enjoyed e-mail and pictures. “Spring has finally come and our family looks forward to visiting our Martha’s Vineyard home again. Happy to say that we are all well and enjoying diverse pursuits. Would come to SJC more often but we are far away...” News from Bob Wycoff (A) and Maya Hasegawa (A), first from Bob: “Bob’s computer system support job is going to India and Bob has enrolled in Berklee College of Music as a full-time undergradu­ ate to pursue a B.A. in music, starting in September. Four grandchildren and still counting; number five is due in August. See you in October! ” And from Maya: “Maya is now working as compliance manager for the City of Boston’s Department of Neighbor­ hood Development. DND builds affordable housing, finances rehabs, and helps small businesses. The satisfaction comes from seeing formerly vacant lots with houses on them. Spare time is spent practic­ ing tai chi and researching a Methodist deaconess named Hattie B. Cooper.” 1970 Isaac Block (SFGI) writes: 1969 High praise for tutor Steve Van Luchene’s second Tecolote colloquium for K-12 teachers from Elizabeth Aiello (SFGI), who found it “even more gratifying and professionally stimulating than the first one. It inspired me to expand my Great Books class by offering two more sections. Each section has 12 students, all enthusiastically participating in meaningful dialogue related to meaningful text. I have been honored as a ‘Los Alamos Living Treasure’ in recog­ nition of my 14 continuous years as ‘the Great Books Instructor.’” St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } “My wife, Mamerza Delos Reyes Block, has published her book. The Price ofFreedom: The Story of a Courageous Manila JournaHst." Last fall, Theda Braddock Fowler (A) published her second book. Wetland Regulation: Case Law, Interpretation, and Commentary. After an illustrious career with the Postal Service and World Bank (over 30 years and 83 foreign coun­ tries), Juan Ianni (A) has decided that it’s time to hang up his spurs. classnotes continued on page 36 �{Alumni Profile} 34 Rich and Famous Ben Bloom, Aq7, Finds Fame, Fortune—and Something Even More Important. vi Sus3Aw Borden, A87 embers of the Annapolis class of 1997 may not be surprised to learn that classmate Ben Bloom (A97) has achieved a degree of celebrity. He was certainly well known as a student, and his jump-head-hrst approach to life revealed a boom-or-bust attitude that leads those who meet him to believe that he is not destined for an ordinary life. Indeed, he is not. Today, seven years after graduation, he has won a measure of fame in three categories: Scrabble, poetry, and table tennis. Bloom was already a skilled Scrabble player when he arrived at St. John’s, but since graduating, he has played in tourna­ ments in Italy, Israel (his home for much of his life), Turkey, Norway, Reno, San Diego, Tennessee, and Florida. Although his cur­ rent rating is 1428, at the height of his play in March 2003, he was rated 1649 (a rating over 1600 is considered expert). Bloom learned of his Scrabble-world celebrity in 2003 when he was flying to Reno for the National Scrabble Champi­ onships. “I had to fly via O’Hare airport in Chicago. There were several players there, wearing their typical Scrabble t-shirts,” he recalls. “In the airport lounge, I saw a bald guy in his early 4os-black pants, white t-shirt, and two red braces with which he was continually fiddling. I recognized him as Joel Sherman, the 2002 National Cham­ pion and one of the top three players in the world. I got up the courage to ask him if I was correct in identifying him. He said, ‘Yes, and you are Ben Bloom.’” Stefan Fatsis, a Wall Street Journal reporter and author of Word Freak, a New York Times bestseller about Scrabble, also knew who Bloom was before the two were paired in an expert match in the 2002 he read from his thesis at Books & Books, a finals in San Diego. Bloom beat him and prominent Miami bookstore. walked away from the match with a signed As for table tennis. Bloom has been prac­ copy of his book. In the world of poetry. Bloom is complet­ ticing for years. He was an aggressive play­ er at St. John’s and shared the Annapolis ing his final semester at the University of campus titles in men’s doubles and mixed Miami, where he received his master’s doubles in 1996. When he lived in Israel, degree in poetry in May. His 15 minutes of he played in the National League for the poetry fame took place on March 31, when M {The College -St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } For the poet in Ben Bloom, words have GREAT MEANING. FoR THE SCRABBLE PLAYER, they’re just part of the game. �{Alumni profile} suggestion: “During my late teens I was disabled (he has cerebral palsy). After graduation, he took his game on the road, still in denial with regards to my CP. I wanted to fit in with other students and coming in third at the European Disabled was ashamed of being different. This feel­ Championships in Budapest in 1998 and winning the silver medal at the World ing turned into anger and resentment. I Games for CP athletes in 2001. wanted nothing to do with other people Thus accounts for the fame. The fortune with CP as I felt this would be letting go of my aspirations, a stupid concept which I is a different matter. It stems from the con­ look back on and thank God I have come so ditions of Bloom’s birth, which are both far in the last decade.” tragic and miraculous. The short version is Bloom has indeed come far. He is calm this: Ben was born brain dead. The attend­ ing nurses thought he and relaxed, accepting was stillborn. His par­ and tolerant. He has grown into a man with a ents asked the hospital strong, healthy sense of staff to do all they himself. It would be could so they put him in an incubator. After impossible to recount all that went into that 72 hours, he came to growth, but Bloom cites life. The staff said that a particularly transfor­ if he survived a week it mative experience he would be a miracle. had during the World The price of that Games for CP athletes. miracle is cerebral “While there I felt palsy, the condition like never before,” he that Bloom has lived says. “I made friends with-and struggled with other CP athletes against-his entire life. from Russia and France. In 1999, after a nineI speak French well, so year legal battle. -Ben Bloom it was easy to break the Bloom settled out of ice with them. Many court with the hospi­ athletes had more tal. A profile of Bloom severe CP than me, and were very hard to by Sam Orbaum, Web-published in 2000, understand. We communicated through sums up his situation: “He is now, in the other means; the bond that we shared, of most grotesquely literal sense, a self-made being equal, made for a wonderful feeling. millionaire.” At the end of the Games, we had a party Bloom’s cerebral palsy makes him hard to understand, contorts his face, and gives with Karaoke. All of us moved the same him a peculiar, dragging walk. But it’s not way. All of us had the same unclear voice. just his speech, gait, and appearance that There was an intense feeling of cama­ raderie and equality.” CP has disfigured. His condition has also Bloom is now finishing his thesis-a col­ affected his sense of self. lection of 50 poems that reveal much about Bloom has a history of buoying up his him and the way his world is shaped by challenged sense of self with humor. The cerebral palsy. His poem, “Jane Fonda’s Orbaum article quoted some of his witti­ (pain in the) Neck Workout” describes the cisms: “Hey, you know what happens when mechanics of dealing with a stranger’s I have a few beers?” Bloom asks. “I talk insults. “Special Olympics” describes a clear and walk straight.” He describes giv­ night out for eight people with CP. In the ing his own brand of speech therapy to a crowd: “I make them repeat the alphabet poem, the group tries to order drinks: “Two Heinekens, two Carlsbergs, two after me, with all 26 letters sounding Guinness and two Everclears./Five min­ exactly the same.” utes trying to communicate, then we settle Humor, of course, does not heal all for eight domestic beers.” wounds, and Bloom has not always known In “The Extremities Of A Line Are how to salve them. When he first arrived at Points,” Bloom describes the obstacles, St. John’s, several people unwittingly both interior and exterior, of everyday found themselves on his bad side by sug­ events. The poem reveals Bloom’s writing gesting he get to know Santa Fe tutor for all it is: story, insight, therapy, balm, Robert Sacks, who also has CP. An older and wiser Bloom recalls why he hated that ''All ofus moved the same way. All ofus had the same unclear voice. There was an intensefeeling of camaraderie and equality. {The College -St John’s College • Spring 2004 } 35 The Extremities Oe A Line Are Points -Euclid, Elements., Book i. Definition 3 Standing in line Motionless Passing glances from strangers Maybe three-quarters of a second longer than normal Nothing to get upset about. “Next!” Four steps to reach the desk One-two-three-four People have other things on their minds They’re here for a reason They’re all adults They’re not going to stare. “Next!” They want to rush me No, it’s not me Don’t be oversensitive Do other people have these inner dialogs? Am I Socrates or his interlocutor? “Hi. I'm here to... ” Said too much She’s been working all day No patience for me No patience for my voice Fuck it Can’t stop now. “For my appointment. ” Confusion. Disappointment. Disgust. Pity. The myriad of facial expressions tell a familiar story The patented neck strain won’t be too far away Yup, here it comes In answer to your next question, “I’m here alone.” “Is anyone responsiblefor this... guy?” Should I look around? Should I glare at the people behind me? No point. One day they’ll read about it. In a poem. They can wait. “Next!” �{AlumniNotes} 36 et al.), ‘What constitutes scientific proof?’ Very fun.” 1971 In April, pediatrician Linda Belgrade Friehling (SF71) embarked on a trek to Everest Base Camp to raise funds for Himalayan Health Care, serving the people of rural Nepal. In a fund-raising letter she sent along, she described the trek and its mission: “We will cover lao miles on foot and attain an elevation of 18,500 feet. The funds raised will support the completion of a project sponsored by Himalayan Health Care. Himalayan Health Care is a small non-govern­ mental organization founded approximately a decade ago by a Nepalese and an American to promote better health and life in remote rural areas of Nepal. With a dedicated group of volunteers, including physicians, dentists, nurses, and other professionals, this small organization has facilitat­ ed impressive improvements in pre­ natal care, infant mortality, dental hygiene, and overall health for over 40,000 people. Learn more by visiting the Web site: (Himalayanhealthcare.org)...One of the things that has impressed me most about Himalayan Health Care, is the forward-looking approach that emphasizes educating the Nepalese team to carry out on a day-to-day basis vastly improved health prac­ tices. In a country that currently has one doctor to 32,000 people, I feel this is the only way to make a substantive difference.” For more information, e-mail her at: tlofftrax@aol.com. From Colorado, Michael ViCTOROFF (A) writes: “After nearly five years as medical director for Aetna, I left to work as an investigator for the Depart­ ment of Toxicology at the Universi­ ty of Colorado Medical School. Officially, I’m a private detective. Our group has M.D.s and Ph.D. toxicologists. We investigate medical claims of inquiry from environmental chemicals. Sort of like Erin Brockovich-only we use science. Much of the most difficult work is philosophical (Karl Popper 1972 Wesley Sasaki-Uemura (A) writes, “On December i, 2003, we finalized the adoption of Melina Mei (Xin Yi) Sasaki-Uemura. She was born October of 2002 in Jiangxi province, China. She has ‘smiling eyes.’” IleneLee (A) reports: “McKee (A72) and Ilene’s daughter, Mollie, now 25, is completing her first year at Yale Law School after a summer South American tour that ended with sailing from Galapagos to Tahiti on a 37-foot catamaran. Ilene has a busy play therapy practice in the San Francisco area, specializing in autism and consulting with schools.” 1973 Jose F. Grave de Peralta (A) is taking a group of art and architec­ ture students from the University of Miami to Florence, Italy, for six weeks to learn fresco painting and restoration. Side trips include Assisi, Rome, and Pompeii to view fresco sites in those places as well. 1976 Jonathan Mark (A) was a recent William Malloy (SF) writes that he took early retirement in Decem­ ber 2003 for health reasons. “Now I have the opportunity to work four mornings a week holding prema­ ture babies and to concentrate on improving my health. Additionally, I am a volunteer reporter for KPFT (Keep People Free, Thinking), the local Pacifica station in Houston. Not only can I put up a couple of alumni who may be passing through Houston, I am also accept­ ing invitations to visit alumni. Particular consideration will he given to those invitations that are accompanied by a prepaid airhne ticket. Kidding? No, really, I mean it!” David Pex (SF) is “working hard as contributor to Popular Science magazine and built an off-road course for Toyota in San Antonio. From Steven and Melissa Sedlis (both A): “Our daughter Elizabeth is a first-year medical student at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. Our daughter Jennifer will graduate in May from Scripps College, Claremont, Calif.” 1974 From California, Gerard (A) and Daphne Kapolka write: “Daphne (nee Greene, A76) retired from the Navy in July. She is now a senior lecturer in physics at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. Gerry continues to teach English at Santa Catalina School in Monterey. Basia Kapolka (Aoi) is studying acting in New York City.” John Rees (A) is working hard as a tele-neuroradiologist: “I live for my work and my family. I greatly enjoy participating in a small seminar group of old SJC friends!” {The College. 1975 is not yet completely comfortable with the “Transgender Club” and similar organizations constituting student life today-but he’s trying. He is feehng very old these days. A career change for Idell KesselMAN (AGI): “After more than 20 years of teaching college composi­ tion, literature, and other related courses, followed by two years as a vocational rehabilitation counselor, I am working as a psychotherapist at a nonprofit agency in Phoenix operating under a managed care system. In July I begin a one-year residency in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, a cognitive approach to helping individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder. My daughter Bisa, nearly 25, is completing her master’s in education this June, with several years of elementary teaching already completed. We live in our separate apartments in Phoenix, with our own cats and habits. It helps us to keep our friendship strong. I’d enjoy hearing from old friends and tutors: ideleyz@earthlink.net.” 1977 Brad Davidson (A) still lives in Annapolis with his wife, Lynne, and children Teddy and Lucy. He’s been taking Teddy on college visits and St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } the finance director at Ecos Con­ sulting, which implements energy­ efficiency programs for electric and gas utility companies. Write me at dpcx@qwest.net.” Carla S. Schick (A) won an honorable mention in the Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award. The poem, “The End of the Words,” can be found at www. wagingpeace.org. Marlene Strong (A) has news: “After a year of being a lady of leisure, which I spent fixing up my new house and garden in Boise, I’m starting work at a therapy center, so I’ll finally get to use my hardearned MET (Marriage and Family Therapist) license. Life in Idaho is calmer; Boise is small enough that you know your neighbors, but large enough to have plenty of culture, and the mountains are beautiful. Any classmates are invited to stop by if you’re in the neighborhood-if not, see you for our 30th reunion.” �{Alumni Notes} 1978 Robert McMahan (SFGI) reports that he is now full professor at The College of New Jersey and has given many recent concerts both as per­ former and composer. His wife, Anne, continues to teach at the Pennington School, working with West African drumming. Renais­ sance recorder, and Native American music. An invitation from Lawrence Ostrovsky (A); “I see a lot of gray­ haired people in the summer who come up here to visit Alaska. So I’m sure there must be someone from the class of ’78. If you find yourself up this way, please give me a ring.” 1980 Leanne J. Pembvrn (A) writes: “After five years of planning and hard work, Mark and I have com­ pleted phase I of home building in our woods. Next phase will be straw bale-all help is very welcome for the bale raising. Contact me via e-mail: leanne@pemburn.com.” Tom G. Palmer (A) sends a quick update: “I was in Iraq in February under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and the American Federation of Teachers for a conference for educators on civic education and have been working to get a lot of important books translated into Arabic and pub­ lished. In addition. I’m helping Iraqi libertarian friends to set up a think tank there, for the purposes of educating people in the princi­ ples of classical liberalism and producing policy studies for the new Iraqi government on how to reform the judiciary to secure the rule of law and the protection of the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, how to priva­ tize state-owned industries, and so forth. I’m leaving this Wednesday for the European meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in Hamburg (Free Trade from the Hanseatic League to the EU) and from there to Moscow to give a paper, ‘The Role of Law and Institutions in Economic Development’ at a conference, ‘A Liberal Agenda for the New Century: A Global Perspective.’ I hope to be back in Iraq in May and July to set up a series of seminars for students, some of which will involve SJC-like seminars and discussions, as well as lectures. I’ve recently published a few items, including a monograph, ‘Globalization and Culture: Homogeneity, Diversity, Identity, Liberty’ (published by the Liberales Institut in Berlin for worldwide distribution through the many offices of the Friedrich-Naumann Stiftung) and a paper, ‘Globaliza­ tion, Cosmopolitanism, and Personal Identity in the Italian journal Etica e Politica. ’ I’ve got a few other items in the works, as well. All in all. I’m keeping busy and off the streets.” 37 Susan Read (SFGI) writes that her 1986 “Greetings, SJC,” writes Clayton DeKorne (A). “I live now half time in Burlington, Vermont, with my daughters, Cecilia (16) and Helen (14), and halftime in Brooklyn, N.Y., with my new wife, Robin Michals. I work as a full-time free­ lance writer with regular assign­ ments at The New York Times Learning Network and a steady stream of multi-media production work from a handful of education media companies. I would love to hear from old friends and any John­ nies interested in the brave new world of online learning: cdekorne@verizon.net. ” son, Harry, is a thriving 8-year-old. “We have just bought the house of our dreams. I continue to enjoy teaching English at Wooster School.” 1988 Juliet Burch (A) writes from Boston: “David (Vermette, A85) and I are still happily impoverished in Boston. I am apprenticing to be a film projectionist and he is researching Franco-American and Quebec history alongside an edito­ rial job. We continue to use our St. John’s education for good instead of evil, vigilantly keeping cocktail party conversations away from portfolio talk and on track with suitable topics like ‘what is color, anyway?’” About the Tattoos 1982 Geoffrey Henebry (SF) writes: “Ana and I and our brood of seven (Patrick, Claudia, Gus, Thomas, Isabel, Maria, and Tessie) continue to enjoy the Good Life here in Lincoln, Neb. My research over the past five years has been diverse: from modeling the ranges of native vertebrate species in Nebraska to analyzing the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union on the annual cycle of greenness in Kazakhstan.” 1983 Theodore Zenzinger (A) just had a daughter: Sophia Anne Zenzinger, born in April. {The College- to have passed in a flash. Sophia is a fearless, joyful, lively child, and she infinitely enriches our lives. She doesn’t have any tattoos yet, but I was able to locate some black clothing in her size. Our families and friends helped us adjust to parent­ hood, but we are especially grateful to my classmate Ken Hom (A80). Ken has logged thousands of hours in Babylon with us. If Sophia develops a taste for good music and a knack for pool, she will owe it all to him. I continue to practice the Japanese martial art of aikido, in which I currently hold the rank of 4thdegree black belt. Since 1999,1 have been the chief instructor at Aikido of Northern Virginia. I have about 75 students, any 30 of whom may show up for a given class. You may visit the dojo’s website at http://www.aikido-nova.org. I’m still a bureaucrat in the Department of Housing and Urban Develop­ ment. For the past two years. I’ve been working as a housing program policy specialist in the Office of Lender Activities and Program Compliance. We spank mortgage lenders when they’ve been bad. People may reach me at Jim_Sorrentino@hud.gov.” St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �38 {Alumni Profile} Looking for the “Monster” Owen Kelley, Agg, Finds a Clue to Why Hurricanes Intensify BY Rosemary Harty Before investigating hurri­ omputer models can often canes, Kelley had entered a make accurate predictions doctoral program in compu­ of where a hurricane will tational science immediately wander. But no one has yet found an accurate method to after graduating from predict how intense a hurri­ St. John’s. He ended up cashing out his credits for a cane’s damaging winds win hecome. Grapmaster(A93) ’s degree in physics pling with this question, Owen Kelley because he worried that he asks, “Why does one hurricane become a “wasn’t smart enough to be a monster and another one doesn’t?” As a scientist with George Mason Univer­ Ph.D. scientist.” After honing sity, Kelley is part of a team that works at his skills at NASA for six years NASA’s Goddard Space Fhght Center to and feeling a growing desire to study satellite data gathered by the Tropical “ask the big questions,” he Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The decided last year to continue TRMM satelhte is a joint effort between where he left off with his NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration doctoral studies. Agency, and its data are being analyzed by When Kelley began his scientists around the world. For most of the hurricane research last year, past six years, Kelley created graphics and he did not immediately think software for other researchers. Through this to look for hot towers. “Erich Stocker, my work, Kelley met Joanne Simpson and project manager at NASA, came in my learned of her pioneering hurricane office one day and saw me poring over my research. Back in the 1950s, Simpson hurricanes pictures, getting nowhere. He proposed that short-hved “hot towers” told me to pick one thing to study, and that sustain a tropical cyclone, allowing it to made all the difference. I had in the back of travel a thousand miles in a week. But with­ my mind how Joanne Simpson would talk out computers or satellites, Simpson’s hot passionately about hot towers, so I looked tower hypothesis was difficult to prove. up one of her articles and then taught my Hot towers are rain clouds that reach at computer how to find towers. It turns out least to the top of the troposphere, which is that the only instrument in space that can nine miles above the earth and four miles clearly see hot towers is the radar that’s higher than the rest of a hurricane. The tow­ onboard the TRMM satellite. This radar ers are called “hot” because heat released by gives us ‘x-ray’ vision. It doesn’t look at just water condensing allows these towers to rise the upper surface of a hurricane-it sees into higher. the heart of the storm.” Once Kelley began pondering the myster­ ies of hot towers, his training at St. John’sparticularly his fondness for a question that begins with “what is?”-began to pay off. “Freshman year, I was horrified when we started Euchd and my class argued for an hour about the definition of a point. By the time I graduated, I appreciated the power of simple questions. Instead of becoming lost in the data, I repeatedly asked the simple question, ‘What is a hot tower?’ Every paper I found seemed to use a slightly different definition of hot tower. Eventually, I settled on a precise definition and my persistence C Kelley’s computer models show hot towers RISING FROM HURRICANES. {The Colleges;, John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } As A SCIENTIST, Owen Kelley appreciates THE POWER OF SIMPLE QUESTIONS. led me to patterns that other scientists failed to notice in this same dataset. “It took my breath away when I first examined my statistical summary and I saw that hot towers appear often in the intensify­ ing hurricanes, but rarely in the ones that are not intensifying,” says Kelley. A good example of an intensifying hurricane with a hot tower is Hurricane Bonnie in August 1998, as the storm intensified a few days before striking North Carohna. Kelley cautions, “We still can’t predict which hurricanes will become monsters, but perhaps we are now one step closer to an answer.” Kelley’s results suggest that seeing a hot tower near the hurricane’s eye is a clue that the hurricane is twice as likely to intensify than it would be otherwise. In January, Kelley flew to Seattle to present his findings at the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society. He was not prepared for the media atten­ tion that resulted when NASA issued a press release about his findings on the day that he presented them. While answering journal­ ists’ questions, he had to learn how to describe his research in a few words. In the end, more than 80 Web sites, newspapers, continued on nextpage �{Alumni Notes} Shannon May Lavery (A) and her husband, JOHN (A87), celebrated the eight-month birthday of daugh­ ter Aurora (A2025) in Healdsburg, Calif., where they recently relocat­ ed with their first-born dog, (Vizla) Lucius. All are well and peaceful. “Fellow Oenophiles and Tahoebound schussers and ski rats pass­ ing through should get in touch. We are local and down to the ground. Hookenzababy!” Kim Paffenroth (A) has published another book. In Praise of Wisdom: Literary and Theological Reflec­ tions on Faith and Reason (New York and London: Continuum International Publishing, 2004). In it he traces the Biblical image of wisdom as it unfolds in Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Augustine, Goethe, Pascal, and Melville. 1990 Rebecca Ashe (SF) writes: “I’m turning 40 this year and going back to the UK for my high school class reunion in June. Still happily married to Steve Simmer with three gorgeous and interesting daughters (10, 8, and 4-all avid readers). My beloved Faraday died at age 13. Lee Whiting (SF89) and I got him in Santa Fe. I still run daily and am training for a half-marathon in May. Also starting a private practice in West Springfield. Would love to hear from classmates again: Rebecca.ashe@the-spa.com.” “Greetings to all. I hope you are well. Zip bang,” writes William Culley (SF). James Clinton Pittman (SF) writes 1989 After a year in Thailand, Elizabeth Powers (A) and her husband returned to Brooklyn in late 2002. They gave birth to a daughter, Madehne Josephine Wagner, in October of 2003. that younger son Sam just turned two. “Hope everyone is well. I need to write a book-anyone know how to get political commentary published when you hate Democ­ rats and Republicans alike?” 1991 Brad Stuart (A) and Sara Larson (Ago) are delighted to announce the birth of their second daughter, Phoebe. Brad is a software engineer for General Dynamics in Westminster, Md. RonalieMoss (SFGI, EC95) is still a teacher at Los Alamos High School, but she looks forward to retiring soon. “I have had a reward­ ing career, but now I am looking forward to reading great books again instead of student papers.” News from Megan Smith (A): My husband, David Dougherty (AGI98), and I welcomed our baby television stations, and radio stations picked up the story. His hurricane results appeared in the media from Texas to Canada, Switzer­ land, Colombia, Australia, and Japan. A European Web site has even posted an Italian translation of the story. Perhaps the most gratifying attention came from Simpson, who sent Kelley an girl. Harper Claret, into our world on September 2, 2003. She is a bright and smiling baby with a full head of spiky hair, just like her mother’s. We are still living in Annapolis, and I am working part time as an optician and trying to start a career in freelance ad design for small businesses. David is a Java programmer with Anne Arundel County government. We’d love to hear from any of our old friends. My e-mail is peanutmom® comcast.net and David’s is dsmithdi@comcast.net.” 1992 From London, Victoria Burgess (SF) writes: “I wish to thank every­ one for their kind wishes following the death of my father. They mean a great deal to me. I would love to see any Johnnies passing through the London area.” “After almost eightyears at the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE), I will start a new job in April with the Office of Education and Sustainable Development at NOAA’s headquarters in DC,” writes Sarah ScHOEDiNGER (A). “While this job won’t shorten my commute from Annapolis, I am looking forward to the new professional opportunities it presents.” Michael Zinanti (SF) tells us: “I am an antenna design engineer for Centurion Wireless Technologies and have contributed to three anten­ na patents with one more pending. Susan (formerly Switich, SF93) and I are raising and home-schooling one e-mail that pointed out weaknesses in his research, but closed with the statement: “An old person feels that his/her life has not been in vain when we see young people grabbing the ball and running with it.” This year, Kelley plans to revise the material he presented at the conference and submit it to a scholarly journal. Once (The College. 39 daughter, Anna. We would love to hear from any Johnnies passing through the Denver area.” 1993 “Hello, all!”AMYFlack (A) writes. “Things in South Dakota are going well. Ministry is an adventure, harrowing, wonderful, blissful, wacky, and so many other adjectives both good and bad.” E-mail: thiers55@yahoo.com . 1994 Natalie Arnold and William Blais (both SF) were married in July 2001 and celebrated with a 30-day cross­ country train trip. Currently, they “five in Pittsburgh and are the proud owners of a happy house in need of a little TLC. We are happy to provide bed and breakfast, good conversa­ tion, and a warm welcome to any Johnnie traveling through Pitts­ burgh. We are best reached through e-mail at bill.blais@pobox.eom.” Larissa Engelman (A) is currently living in New York after moving from Washington, D.C., in 2002. “Working as marketing manager of the New York office of Covington & Burhng. As a side project, am look­ ing to raise money for an independ­ ent film project and would love to be connected to others who have expe­ rience or contacts in that world. My hellos to the class. Hope to see you at our lo-year reunion.” he finishes his doctoral studies, Kelley is not sure what the future holds. “The ultimate goal is supposed to be teaching at a research university and doing ground­ breaking research between classes. I just want to look at data and see things other people haven’t seen before. I’m not sure how to make that happen.” -*■ St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �{Alumni Notes} 40 1995 Joel Ard (A) and his wife Hannah (A92), announce the birth of their son, David Frederick Ard, on September 4, 2003. David made his first appearance at St. John’s at Homecoming a week after his birth. “Remember kids,” writes Chris Davis (SF), “funk is its own reward.” Benjamin “Alex” Ruschell (SF) has a new baby. George Alexis Ruschell (8 lbs., 20 in.) was born in Schweinfurt, Germany, in December 2003. Jessica VanDriesen (A) is about to complete a master’s in education as part of the New York City Teaching Fellows. “I have been teaching math at Wadleigh Secondary School since 2002. It is a far cry from explorations of the conic sections or Minkowskian space-time, but there are moments. I plan to travel abroad next year, teaching in an interna­ tional school or possibly switching to ESL. Anyone with suggestions, please contact me via e-mail: jvandriesen@hotmail.com.” Tracy Whitcomb (A) is still in Vermont and now back in school for a second bachelor’s degree: in nurs­ ing. “I hope everyone else is well! ” An invitation to adventure from KiraK. Zielinski (SF). “Anyone in or passing through Las Vegas, Nev., I’m now flying the Dam Helicopter Tours out of a Bell 206 at the Hoover Dam-the tours are quick, but a ton of fun, so drop by and fly with me! I just bought a house and I’ll be here for a year. Because it’s Vegas, I think I need to consider modifying my uniform to sparkly midriff-baring nomex with rhinestones! My callsign is Dam Helicopter...too cool... I’m obviously having a blast with my new life. Also need to design more bookshelves to go in the helicopter...” business journalism, I moved on to Moscow. As of March, I have been here for two years and I’m now writ­ ing for a Dutch AIDS charity. I got aggie Roberts Arnold (A95) writes: married last summer to Elena “Late as usual, I am announcing the Rudykh, a Siberian intellectual arrival of our son Augustus Bullock beauty queen. We see ourselves Roberts (Gus), born on September 16, moving back to the homeland 2002. Parenthood is a blast! Thanks to Gus eventually, but in the meantime, we are frequent visitors to the San Antonio I hope to see the day when one of Zoo. (I am expecting the bears to wave to us out of therecognition many Marx readings on the any day now.) We are also frequent visitors to theProgram McNay isArt replaced by Bulgakov’s Museum. As parents we love this enthusiastic rediscovery of ‘Heart of a Dog’ for a modest the basics: the naming of and conversational focus on ani­ injection of reality.” Rediscovering the Basics M mals, shapes, colors, vehicles, body parts, foods, nature (you name it). I think fondly and frequently of the time I spent on each campus and wish my contemporaries great happiness and fulfillment! (And the courage to send in a note!)” 1996 1997 Maya Brennan (SF), formerly J. Maya Johnson, is in New Jersey: “I’ve recently moved from Baltimore to central New Jersey where my husband. Grandpa of evihobots .com, found a paying job after his election-induced unemployment. I’m working at Princeton University, compiling and coding data for the Cultural Policy and the Arts National Data Archive (CPANDA). Anyone interested in the cultural pohcy field will want to check out our free online data archive atwww.cpanda.org. I’d love to hear from former classmates, especially anyone passing through the central New Jersey to New York City area. My e-mail address is mahimsab@yahoo.com. Snail-mail: 501 Raritan Ave., D6, Highland Park, NJ 08904 Erin N.H. Furby (A) is working as a massage therapist in Anchorage. “My husband and I are enjoying our attempts at balancing middle-class American fife with the fife of the mind, and we still love Alaska, even if it snows five days before April.” {The College. Michael Chiantella (A) married Karen Burgess in Buffalo, N.Y., on August 2, 2003. “Taffeta Elliott (SF) gave a reading at the wedding. Currently almost completed an LL.M, in Trust and Estate law at the University of Miami.” 1998 In September 2003, Julie Bayon (AGI) graduated from Claremont Graduate University with a Ph.D. in education. The title of her disserta­ tion is “The Neo-Classical Ideal: Liberal Arts Education for the Twenty-First Century.” She is currently assistant professor of English and chair of General Education at Washington Bible College in Lanham, Md. Jacqueline Camm (A) announces Shannon Stirman (SF) writes: “We’re moving from Philadelphia, where I’ve been studying at Penn, to San Francisco, where Kelly will begin working for a new software company. Henry turned 2 in August and we’re trying to keep up with him. I’m finishing up my disserta­ tion in psychology and will plan to start an internship in the fall. As soon as we figure out exactly where we’ll be hving, visitors wifi be welcome!” “I think the last time I appeared here, just after graduation, I was rather optimistic about saving the world through economics,” writes David Veazey (A). “Well, since then, I got my M.A. at Fordham but stopped just before I had to start on my dissertation. Over the years I had become disenchanted with the inherent inabihty of economics to solve any meaningful problems. Then later, after becoming an expert in maximizing my unemployment checks and dabbhng in health and St. John’s College . Spring 2004 } her marriage to Robert Travis (a 1998 graduate of Columbia University) on February 8, 2003, in the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, Fla. The Rt. Rev. John Howe, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida, presided. Amy (Norman) Morgan (A96) and her husband Bill provided music for the ceremony. Writes Jacquehne: “We moved to Tennessee in August for Rob to attend seminary. We also purchased our first home with the help of Milk Klim (A02) of Columbia National Mortgage. If anyone would like to reach us, or is passing through Tennessee, please send us an e-mail: jacquelinecamm@ hotmail.com.” Method-acting studies for Stephen Conn (SF) finally hit Hollywood gold! Look for him this summer in Troy, he plays the third spear from the left in that big battle scene towards the middle. “Brad was a dream to work with,” Steve adds. �{Alumni Notes} Christopher Pagan Nelson (SF) Grateful for Phlogiston reports: “Right now. I’m living in Texas and concentrating on my turbo-gangster country band. The drian Lucia (SFoo) writes: “After living in Foggy Mountain Cop Killin’ Boys. Philadelphia and Chicago for three years. I’m College didn’t really prepare me for pursuing a master’s degree in library and infor­ the scads of fame and money I’m mation science at the University of Illinois, receiving, but it was cool anyway. I Familiarity with the theory of phlogiston has would love to hear what other John­ never been so helpful. I plan to flee the Mid­ nies are doing, so please e-mail me west in basically any direction when I finish this program. Any at donkeytown@hotmail.com . A Johnnie librarians out there?” James Petcoff (SFGI) is teaching: a college administrator for the University of Chicago’s economics department, serves as president of the Chicago chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, and is a member of Chicago’s Caxton Club (for bibliofiles): “I collect 16thcentury Aristotle texts.” “I recently left my job as a mental health counselor in Hyannis, Mass., and now work for The May Center for Child Development at The May School in Chatham, Mass., teach­ ing children with developmental disabilities. I recently moved to Wellfleet, Cape Cod, from Yarmouthport. When I am not involved in the above, I play with my jazz, folk, blues rocka-billy band: Skeeter and the Buz­ ztones. I would love to communi­ cate with fellow Johnnies in the area.” 1999 Benjamin Closs (A) is serving at the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, Calif. “I may go overseas for a while this fall, but Pacific Beach isn’t bad until then.” from Philadelphia to Frederick, Md., a year and a half ago to live with Vince Baker (AgsJ-yes, that Vince Baker. We’re now engaged, we’ve just bought a house and are planning an October wedding. I’m working for a biotech company, while Vince is an editor. We have a bit of a menagerie with the cats Apollo & Artemis, and our recently acquired blue-fronted Amazon par­ rot, Pancho, the Bird of Mass Destruction. We’d love to hear from anyone in the D.G. metro area: cinderlou@peoplepc.com and oldmarley@hotmail.com.” announce the birth of their son. Mason, on February 14, 2003. “We’d love to hear from our former classmates at ShannonandKerry@ earthlink.net.” Mike and Abby Soejoto (both A) are pleased to announce the birth of their first child, Lucila Adele. Lucy was born on September 30 in Los Angeles, where Mike is begin­ ning his second year as an attorney in the tax department of O’Melveny & Myers. Abby recently finished the post-baccalaureate program in classics at UCLA. They’d love to hear from anyone, especially those in or passing through Southern California (asoejoto@cs.com or 323-572-0343). Nevin Young (A) writes: “I am now Mauricio Rojas in August. “Also I am currently teaching in Prince George’s County. I got my certifica­ tion through their Resident Teacher Program and would be happy to talk to any seniors or graduates who are looking into doing the same.” “Hey all,” writes Jessica Sprout Morgenstern (A). “Still busy out here, loving my job, loving the weather-sunny Santa Barbara. Feel free to e-mail anytime...anyone looking for a fun way to get paid to learn (and teach) dance (ballroom and social) give me a call!” {The College. Christopher “Casey” Vaughan (A) is living in St. Augustine, Fla. “Anyone who wants to come surfing feel free to contact me at cvaughan@flagler.edu. 2001 Katharine Christopher (SF) and Billy Davis (SF) were married on December 20, 2003, in a beautiful traditional ceremony at the Church of the Holy Faith in Santa Fe. Katharine reports: “We were attended by our five sisters as bridesmaids, and Jackson FrishMAN (SFoi) and Chris Carlisle (SFoi) as groomsmen. Nikki Mazzia (SFoi) sang two lovely solos, and Juliana Corona Kirmeyer (SF02) read a Scripture passage. A number of other John­ nies also came to celebrate with us, as well as family and friends from all over. It was a wonderful day, as well as the beginning, God willing, of a long and joyful marriage.” 2000 Lori Beth Kurtyka (AGI) married Cindy Lutz (A) writes: “I moved married in Rocky Mount, N.C., and now live in Indianola, Miss., which has been my home since gradua­ tion. I will be ordained in May and we are expecting our first child in November.” Shannon Rohde and Kerry O’Boyle (Both AGI) would like to Robert Herbst (SF) is employed as A report from Andrew B. Hill (A): “I’m getting married sometime in 2004 to a tremendous woman who did not, sadly, attend St. John’s. I reside in Fort Worth, Texas. I recently completed an unsuccess­ ful bid for the mayorship of my lovely city, for which I was reward­ ed with a whopping 206 votes, as well as about 60 hours of Digital Beta footage, which I intend to convert into something remotely saleable. Thus, no matter how vague my connection to the school may be, I am following in a tradition of Maverick Johnnie filmmakers, or at least I think I am.” 41 finishing my third year in the evening division at the George Washington University Law School, and am working for a lawyer in the District of Columbia. (I cannot understand why anyone would not want to be a lawyer.) I would be happy to answer any questions from Johnnies who want to know about law school in general, or GW.” “Greetings from the Mississippi Delta!” writes Paul Spradley (A). “This past January 1 got married to Caroline Taylor of Rocky Mount, N.C. In the wedding party were Derek Alexander (A99), David Bohannon (A99), Adam Dawson (A03), Alan Hudson (A03), and George O’Keefe (A03). We were John ’5 College . Spring 2004 } 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 September; deadline for the alumni notes section is July 15. 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 Public Relations Office 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; alumni@sjcsf.edu �4a Katrina Costedio (SF) has finally decided to use her powers for good and is heading for law school, although she isn’t sure which one. “Also shaping the young minds of California in various volunteer positions and as a sub. And on the weekends I work with an adult who is learning to read. I’m struggling with the demands of being a good citizen. Most of the time I still feel like I’m pretending, but what’s the difference really?” Terence Duvall (A) writes: “I just returned from my first major trip since graduating college so I decided it was about time to send an update. My lomo and I spent six stupendous weeks in Slovenia taking pictures of castles by lakes for my upcoming art exhibit ‘Reflected Castles.’ In Ljubljana I met a producer who has offered to put out a split seven-inch of my {Alumni Notes} band. Big Brother, and the Sloven­ ian underground rock quartet Sister City. I think I finally under­ stand why you can’t spell Slovenia without the word ‘love.’ And so in the immortal words of the poet Jerry Garcia, ‘What a long strange trip it’s been.’” Talley Scroggs (A) moved to Bennington, Vt., after a half year in Agen, France, where she assisted in running The French Kitchen at Gamont, a 1720s inn. Her friend Louis Kovacs (A), is in the post­ baccalaureate program at Bennington College. Talley works at North Shire Booksellers and plans to start an MBA program next fall. An intriguing “heads up” from Peter Speer (A): “You’re the king of hearts for four years and then you come out into the real world and you’re the two of spades. And there’s no don rags in your new office, and no one wants to read your senior essay. But that girl by the water cooler is awfully cute, and she blushes when I quote Dante, and though she’s never heard of Virgil she swears it sounds familiar. So all’s well and I’m going to Vegas. Feel free to contact me with lucky numbers.” 2002 Margaret Tobias (A) will be attending graduate school this fall at the University of Chicago, enrolling in the Master of Arts in Humanities program. 2003 “I am enjoying Eastern Classics and highly recommend the pro­ gram,” writes Allison Webster (SF).4- Alek Chance (A) and Iva Ziza (Aoi) had a daughter, Emma Katherine Chance. Emma was born on August 10, 2003, in St. Johnsburry, Vermont. {Obituaries} Diana “Danny” Bell Herbert Brent Stallings Diana “Danny” Bell, the wife of Santa Fe tutor emeritus Charles Bell, died March 24 of pancreatic cancer. She was 80. She was born and raised in Darlington, Md., trained as a teacher, and after marry­ ing Charles Bell in 1949, lived with her family in Chicago and Annapolis. She taught first grade in Annapolis until mov­ ing to Santa Fe in 1967. Along with her husband, she was named one of the city’s “Living Treasures” in 1996 for contribu­ tions to the Santa Fe community. “Everything she did was in proportion and infused with order, kindness, and delight,” her family wrote in her newspa­ per obituary. “Whether it was a picnic, or the peaceful sharing of tea, Danny filled all with joy and the sense of her unconditional acceptance of our human foibles.” The family has arranged for two ways for friends to remember her: contributions can be made for the publication of Charles Bell’s poems through the non-profit Lumen Books (40 Camino Cielo, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87506) and also to one of Danny’s charities. La Luz de Santa Fe Fam­ ily Shelter, (2325 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, NM 87505). Herbert Brent Stallings, class of 1941, died January 8, 2004, in Cary, N.C. He was 84. A native of Baltimore, Stallings played on the college’s football team (nicknamed the “gallopinggoose-eggs”) before intercolle­ giate sports were dropped. His pastor, the Rev. William Green, remembers Stallings bringing his family back to the St. John’s campus several years ago, videotaping his old dormitory room, and fondly revisiting his days at St. John’s. When the college adopted the New Program in r937, Stallings had the option of sticking with the old pro­ gram or starting in the new and spending an extra year at the college; he chose the New Program, Green said. “He has always said that St. John’s really formed who he was,” said Rev. Green. “He really loved talking about the college.” Stallings went on to serve as a lieutenant in the Navy during World War IL After the war, he launched a 30-year career in adver­ tising with the Baltimore News-American. He met his wife, Ruth, on a Chesapeake Bay Cruise. Married for nearly 60 years, the couple had two children who live in North Carolina. {The College- St. John ’5 College ■ Spring 2004 } “He was a wonderful man who loved books,” Green said. Medora Cockey Medora Cockey (A03) died January 3, 2003, after a brief illness. She was 23. Miss Cockey was born in Baltimore and moved to Salisbury with her family in 1983. She attended St. John’s College for two years, then transferred to Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C., to finish her studies. She was to have graduated with a fine arts degree in May. Miss Cockey was a talented artist. She loved hard physical farm work, and her favorite summer job in recent years was working on organic farms in Virginia and Georgia. Her sister, Mary, is a member of the Annapolis class of 2004. Also noted: Clayton Davis, class of r938, died Feb. 9, 2004. John Falencki, (A68), died Dec. 30, 2003. Merrill Turner (SF79) died March 16, 2004. Charles T. Westcott, class of 1936, died in July 2002. �{Student Voices} 43 On Grades: How Can Genuine Learning be Measured at St. John’s? BY loHN Peterson, A05 grades? Do any students complain about y grades were never their grades? One can respond to a tutor in something I worried a don rag because he is stating observations too much about. In and offering suggestions, but how does one middle school I earned respond to a B on a piece of paper? As, but in high schoolThe college’s recent self-study, “Liberal where I didn’t always Education in a Community of Learners,” do homework or attend class-I maintained states that the college wants students to a consistent B+, or 90 percent average. “work for understanding and not for These grades were meaningless, I thought, grades,” but acknowledges that students because the work that the A-kids were need transcripts, and therefore grades, for doing to get their grades was out of propor­ life after St. John’s. Grades interfere with tion to a grade’s value. I scoffed at the arti­ the college’s goals of fostering genuine ficial scale of greatness that accompanied learning and cultivating freedom, they the grades: “High Honor Roll,” “Honor distract students, encourage competition, Roll,” etc. I beheved that I was wiser than and are “inadequate as means of evaluating these students, because while they were working hard to slave for top grades at their a student’s success in liberal learning,” the report states. Nevertheless, it says, tutors college choices, I was heading to a place take the “fair determination of grades very where grades didn’t matter and where what seriously.” would really be measured after four years The “Grades and Grading Poficies” sec­ would be the true worth of an individual. tion of the student handbook says that the When I came to St. John’s College, I college “does require all tutors to award let­ found classes to be radically different from ter grades to their students at the end of high school, the teachers much more alive, each semester...and authorizes them to the students more interested and interest­ decide what elements they will take into ing. There were no tests and no homeconsideration and in what proportion.” work-at least not in the high school sense As opposed to the pre-determined system of busywork from a textbook. Why, then, of my high school days, this process is mys­ were there still grades? terious and vague, perhaps even arbitrary. St. John’s is an egalitarian institution What are these “elements” that a tutor may that loves truth and rewards hard work not or may not take into consideration? Class­ with good grades, but with understanding, room participation, attendance, attitude, good conversation, and good judgment. papers, and demonstrations all seem like Could it possibly be true that with all these candidates. However, different tutors may riches around them, students here would be more interested in different things, and be worried about their grades, look them this is something that a proportional grad­ up every semester, and work for them, even ing pohcy, in which various assignments to the detriment of learning itself? are given certain weight in a total grade, During my first semester, I don’t think is designed to alleviate. grades ever crossed my mind-I was having It is unhkely that St. John’s will implement too much fun. I was worried that I did not any pohcy such as this in the near future. talk as much as some of my classmates and One reason is that the more specific we get that maybe I did not study enough. In my about grades, the more it will appear that we don rag, my tutors were nice to me and care about them, and as a result, we will care said some helpful things. This was enough about them more. If tutors needed to discuss for me. grades, they would have to think more about This year, however, I began to think grade-giving and less about teaching. about life after St. John’s and checked my Students would consequently worry more grades. This raised a series of troubling about grade-getting than about learning. questions about grades and the learning Competition would inevitably result. environment at St. John’s: How many other “It’s a weird situation,” acknowledges students check their grades? Students dis­ Dean Harvey Flaumenhaft. “On the one cuss don rags all the time-what about M {The College. St. John’s College Spring 2004 } John Peterson hand we give [grades], and we don’t want them to be some kind of secret document that a student can’t look at, but on the other hand we don’t report them to the student, and we try to play it down. I don’t think it’s hypocritical...It’s trying to foster a commu­ nity where people are really concerned about the depth of each individual student’s self-education-and it really works.” With all the debate about how much to talk about grades, by which standards they are given, and how much they matter to students as opposed to how much consider­ ation tutors have in giving them, my inclination is to revert to my old high school attitude. I begin to suspect that the behavior of the students around me is geared toward getting better grades. I wonder if this or that student has better grades than I, and if so, why. I become taken with the feeling that we are all here to go somewhere else, to get our tickets to graduate school. I begin to resent my fellow students and to think only of myself. Worst of all, I stop all learning and introspection, adopt an air of superiority, and start to think about my future. Only at this point do I realize that the school knows what it is doing: it has foreseen these problems, and in its grading pohcy has tried to circumvent them. It recognizes that grades can be a potential threat to learning, but that they are necessary. If a Johnnie is still worried about the arbitrariness of grades, he only needs to ask himself, “Do my grades reflect anything real?” and he will answer, “More than they did in high school.” That should be enough, and he should go back to his studies. �44 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Greetings! Your Alumni Association and the staff of SJC have heen hard at work supporting the network of Johnnies. I wish I could share in one letter all the projects and possibilities that are emerging from our shared work, but we only have room for three this time. Watch this space for more in the coming issues. Part 1 - Reconnect What ever happened to that interesting woman in my freshman seminar? WTio are the Johnnies living in my state? Is there someone from St. John’s practicing law in my city? How many people were in my class? What is Glenda Holladay’s last name now? Does my favorite waltz partner have an e-mail address? How can I be sure the college has my correct address and phone number? Soon you can answer these and many other questions about alumni around the world. The Alumni Association and the college joined forces to put the St. John’s College Alumni Register online. It will be a great new tool for you to stay in touch with the rest of the college community. To use the Register1. Go towww.stjohnscollege.edu. 2. Select alumni. 3. Select Online Register. 4. Apply for access to the Register. 5. Within a week, you will receive an e-mail with your username and password that will give you access. Then you’ll be searching to your heart’s content. As you use the new Register, we strongly urge you to: • Send your feedback about the Register and the rest of the Web site to Jo Ann Mattson (A87) joanne.mattson@sjca.edu or Roxanne Seagraves (SF83) roxanne.seagraves@mail.sjcsf.edu. • Update and/or complete your own information. The Register is only as good as the information it holds. Please make it most useful by keeping your own data up to date! • Let the college know if you prefer not to have your information appear in the Register. You should have received a postcard asking if you wanted to opt out. There are also places online that you can choose not to have your information appear. • Use the Register as a tool to stay in touch with Johnnies from your era, your campus, your profession, or your locale. Part 2 - Come Home Are you going to Homecoming this year? Please consider making the trip to Santa Fe in the summer or Annapolis in the fall. You will have many reasons to be glad you did. • Seeing old friends and making new ones. • Thanking that tutor who opened your mind to the books (or the books to your mind). • Seeing a rejuvenated campus whether you’re in the East or the West. • Watching a Santa Fe sunset over the mountain or an Annapolis sunset over the creek. • Sharing the unique conversational experience of seminar. • Dancing as if you were ao again. • Munching on burritos or crab cakes. • Welcoming new honorary alumni. • Gongratulating fellow alumni with Awards of Merit for their remarkable lives and work. • Learning about the current state of student hfe and the Program. • Exhibiting and/or observing work of creative and industrious Johnnies who have books to sign (Annapolis) or art to show (Santa Fe). You will be receiving information and invitations from classmates, the Alumni Association, and the college. We look forward to seeing you! Partg - Reach Out The Next Steps Action Team of the Alumni Association and the Career Services offices on both campuses support new alumni as {The College . St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } they venture out into the world. If you’re interested in providing support or in get­ ting a boost yourself, consider reaching out. Among the many opportunities and services: Virgil Initiative: Juniors who volunteer are matched with an alumnus mentor. The two meet periodically and stay in touch through senior year and beyond. The purpose of the relationship is to share experiences and insights about the transi­ tions after St. John’s. Career counseling is not part of the plan, but mentors may have helpful suggestions and resources for the job or educational market as well. (Thanks to Lee Zlotoff (A74) and Tom Krause (SFGIoo) for conceiving and launching this program!) Networking receptions: Several Alumni Association chapters host receptions that bring new alumni and older ones together to share career and grad school informa­ tion. As you might imagine, many other topics come up for conversation and a lively time is had by all. Communities of Interest: Clusters of alumni have shared interests such as psychology, dance, quilting, art, academic research in various fields, law, or educa­ tion. Often these Johnnies don’t have ways to be in touch with each other even when they know they’re not alone. The Next Steps Action Team is planning to launch a network across time and space to get like-minded alumni connected. Internships: A generous grant from the Hodson Trust inspired summer internships for students on the Annapolis campus. Recipients have pursued a variety of activities from arts to sciences to services to professions. The project has been very successful, and plans are afoot to begin a similar program in Santa Fe. We all have transitions to make as we leave the college. These programs and others help make the transition a time for extended learning about how the great ideas are the foundation for happy and productive lives. If you’re interested in participating in any of these programs, either as supporter or supported, please be in touch with Jo Ann or Roxanne. They’ll help you make the connections. For the past, present, and future, Glenda Holladay Eoyang, SF76 �{Alumni Association News} Chapter Update With i8 active chapters meeting on a regu­ lar basis throughout the country, including a new chapter in Pittsburgh, St. John’s alumni have plenty of opportunities for seminars, social events, and cultural out­ ings with other Johnnies. Efforts are also under way in six new areas to develop chapters from reading groups or nurture budding interest in the formation of new chapters and alumni groups. In her annual report on chapter activity to the association board, Carol Freeman (AGI94), reported on an encouraging year marked by active chapters planning innova­ tive events and emerging interest in areas yet to establish chapters. Here are some highlights: • The Santa Fe chapter is now meeting bimonthly, and has formed a steering committee to select topics and plan meetings. • The Boston chapter is thrilled to have read Marcel Proust’s In Search ofLost Time. This inspiring endeavor (5,000 pages) was a project embraced enthusias­ tically by chapter members. • The Annapolis chapter has decided to develop a reading list for several months in a row to attract more of the 500 alumni in the area to seminars. • Inquiries about starting a chapter or reading group are being pursued in Ithaca, N.Y., and the Greater Miami area. In Miami, Johnnies traveled up to three hours to attend recent alumni gettogethers in Miami and West Palm Beach, hosted by Annapolis staff members Barbara Goyette (A73), vice president for advancement, and Jo Ann Mattson (A87), director of alumni activities. • Russ Dibble (SF97) and Kira Heater organized the first seminar, on February II, for alumni in the Missoula, Montana, area. In addition to seminars, Johnnies are demonstrating their interest in socializing with other alumni by turning out in large numbers for crab feasts (Baltimore), picnics (New York), and an annual alumni dinner (Greater Puget Sound), Check the Web FOR Election News The Alumni Association nominations for alumni representatives to the St. John’s Board of Visitors and Governors and for directors-at-large for the Alumni Associa­ tion Board for 2005 will be posted on the college Web site atwww.stjohnscollege.edu. Select “Alumni” from the left-hand menu (under the SJC seal), then click on the Alumni Association homepage. A special nominations page will appear among the left-hand menu options that are now highlighted in red. Names, photos (when available) and biographical information about the nominees, as well as infor­ mation on the election process, will be available online on or before August I, 2004. 45 ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Whether from Annapolis or Santa Fe, under­ graduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, 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 pro­ grams and coordinate the affairs of the Associ­ ation. This newsletter within The College mag­ azine is sponsored by the Alumni Association and communicates Alumni Association news and events of interest. President - Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary -Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer - Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-OutAction Team Chair Linda Stabler-Talty, SFGI76 Web site - www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml 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. Brett Heavner (A89) and Nancy Lindley (A58) at an Annapolis networking reception for students and ALUMNI. CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowfor information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-275-9012 BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen 410-472-9158 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin Gammon 410-280-0958 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 AUSTIN Jennifer Chenoweth 512-482-0747 Bev Angel 512-926-7808 CHICAGO Amanda Richards 847-705-1143 DALLAS/FORT WORTH Suzanne Gill Doremus 817-927-2390 DENVER/BOULDER Lee Goldstein 720-746-1496 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 NEW YORK Daniel Van Doren 914-949-6811 {The College- NORTHERN CALIF. Suzanne Vito 510-527-4309 SANTA FE Richard Cowles 505-986-1814 WASHINGTON DC Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 SEATTLE Amina Brandt 206-465-7781 PITTSBURGH Joanne Murray 724-325-4151 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 WESTERN NEW ENGLAND Julia Ward 413-648-0064 PORTLAND Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 St. John’s College • Spring 2004 } TRIANGLE CIRCLE (NO Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 9-722-671-7608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �{AlumniAssociationNews} 46 “A LOAF OF BREAD, A GLASS OF WINE, AND ... I AND ThOU.” Sn^ng, Swirling, and Seminar at Stags Leap Wine Cellars BY Mark Middlebrook, A83 Here with a LoafofBread beneath the Bough, A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness And Wilderness is Paradise enow. - FROM Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat^ c. iioo. Nine centuries later, the sentiments expressed in Khayyam’s verse echo each summer in a vine-rich valley watched over by a rocky palisade known as Stag’s Leap. Alumni from around Northern Californiaand perhaps an eagerly welcomed visitor from Santa Fe or Annapolis-rise early on a sunny Sunday morning to prepare our pic­ nic lunches and finish our seminar reading. And then we’re off to the annual Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars picnic and seminars, where we’ll once again be the blessed beneficiaries of St. John’s alumni Warren (A52) and Barbara (A55) Winiarski’s hospitality. The drive from the San Francisco Bay area takes about an hour, and many of us carpool-if only for the pleasure of packing in extra hours of conversation with fellow alumni whom we may not have seen since last year’s pilgrimage. As we head north, fog often lingers on the Bay and even in the lower reaches of Napa Valley, but its cool­ ness provides a lovely contrast to the intense valley heat that will come in the afternoon. We pass through the town of Napa and head north on the Silverado Trail, a road threading up the eastern side of Napa Valley that’s traveled mostly by winery­ hopping tourists and bicyclists. Vines appear-lots of them-as we speed past the now-familiar litany of wineries: Luna (where former tutor Abe Schoener, A82, is now winemaker), Altamura, White Rock, Clos du Vai, Chimney Rock. After a few miles, we see the distinctive notch in the craggy ridge to the east. That’s the Stag’s Leap. Just before the road begins to climb out of the Stags Leap District and the bicyclists start to down-shift, we pull into the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars driveway. To keep track of all the stags in these parts, you need a scorecard-or maybe a punctuation handbook. The “Stags Leap District” (multiple stags) is the name of the small wine-growing region that sits just below the notch in the ridge called Above: Alex Poulsen (SF74) and Daniel Cohen(SF90) Left: Former Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars events coordinator Gabriele Ondine and PICNIC GUEST {The College- St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } “Stag’s Leap” (singular possessive stag). “Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars” (ditto) is the Winiarskis’ winery and home of our annual picnic and seminars. “Stags’ Leap Winery” (plural possessive stags) is an unrelated winery in the district. We bypass the tasting room parking lot and instead take the road that skirts below the white wine fermentation building and around a wooded hill to the small lake tucked behind. There we unload our picnic baskets and coolers, carry them up to the lake’s grassy banks, and spread a blanket on a spot to our Uking-full sun, full shade, or dappled with some of each. It’s a little more civilized than Khayyam’s Wilderness, but with boughs, wine, and books-not to mention a refreshing lake to jump into-it will be Paradise enow for us. Despite the claims of some that our palates are most discerning in the morn­ ing, we defer to the scruples of those who might find earnest wine tasting at 10 a.m. a bit unusual, and instead we sally forth on a vineyard walk and winery tour. We stroll past FAY-a storied vineyard where Stags Leap District pioneer Nathan Fay planted the region’s first Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in 1961-and then into S.L.V. (Stag’s Leap Vineyard), whose grapes catapulted Warren Winiarski to fame when his 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon won the 1976 Paris tasting. We taste some of the grapes and wonder at the winemaker’s techne that �{AlumniAssociationNews} reveals supple, prize-winning wines from these juicy but still tart berries. From the luxuriant but care­ fully-coifed wilderness of grapevine tendrils, we return to paved road and make our way to the civilization of a modern winery: crusher-destemmer machines, fermentation tanks, oak barrels, and bottling lines. Our tour culminates in the spectacular caves, which are home to hundreds of barrels of aging wine, a bronze bear and cub nestled among several of those barrels, a Foucault pen­ dulum, a dramatically lit, chapel-like room designed by Catalan architect Javier Barba. An hour of walking, plus the heady, deep aromas of ferment­ ing wine, have eliminated any remaining scruples, so we make a beeline for the lake. At a table nearby, our host begins pulling corks and pouring tastes. The diligent among us work methodically through the full lineup, sniffing, swirling, and then either swallowing or spit­ ting-depending on one’s lunchtime drinking plans and desired degree of lucidity during the afternoon seminars. We start with Sauvignon Blanc, several Chardonnays, and a pair of Merlots. The simpler wines bear the Hawk Crest name-Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ second label-while the grander ones display the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars name and distinctive “standing stag and tree” logo. We finish with an impressive phalanx of Cabernet Sauvignons, including the FAY Estate, S.L.V. Estate, and occasionally, if we’ve been very, very good, a precious taste of the CASK 33 (a blend of particularly excellent lots from FAY and S.L.V.). Tasting wine is all well and good, but drinking wine is better, so we pour a glass of our favorite and bear it gingerly back to our chosen picnic spot. There we fling open picnic baskets, unwrap deli sand­ wiches or flip open cardboard carry-out containers, and begin to enjoy the happy union of good food, good wine, and good company. Congenial swapping ensues-of victuals, opinions about the wines, opin­ ions about the seminar readings, stories of Liz Travis (SF83) our lives during the preceding year (many of them true), stories of our times at St. John’s (some of them true). All of this eating, bibbing, and creative embroidery under the hot summer sun is arduous work, and some of us reinvigorate with a jump into the lake. At the stentorian bellow of the ceremonial conk shell, we commence the annual chapter meeting. This short but raucous affair typically com­ prises effusive thanks to the Winiarskis and the hard-working winery staff, announcements of upcoming events, a desperate plea by the current chapter president for a successor, and directions to the various seminar rooms scattered about the winery. Despite the unquestioned zeal of St. John’s alumni for seminars, the next {The College. 5£. John’s College Spring 2004 } 47 half hour offers irrefutable proof of the validity of Newton’s first law. Every body assembled there, in its tranquil, well-fed state of rest, does indeed continue in that state of rest unless com­ pelled to change its state by powerful forces impressed upon it. Several of us cajole, plead, and eventually threaten in order to get these bodies rolling towards their seminar rooms. We typically run five simultane­ ous seminars on readings ranging from Plato to the Lotus Sutra to Wallace Stevens to a contemporary political essay, plus one film. An hour and a half later, the seminars disband and we regroup at the Arcade outside the caves for a reception with scrumptious desserts and cheeses, perhaps a sip of dessert wine, and coffee. “How was your seminar?” mingles with other typical post-seminar chat. There is more catching up on the previous year, expressions of wonder that we’re able to enjoy a day like this each year, and the wistful sense that this year’s day is almost done. One more slice of cake or piece of cheese, another round of grateful thanks to our hosts, perhaps a stop in the tasting room to buy a few bottles, and then we’re heading south on the Silverado Trail, back towards the Bay Area. The day’s heat is starting to wane, and sun slanting off the vines makes the early evening sky glow. 1 roll down the window, and the air rushing by seems to sing. This year’s Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars picnic and seminars have not yet been scheduled at the time of this writing. Please note that reserva­ tions are required, and that we some­ times must limit attendance in order not to exceed the winery’s capacity. See the St. John’s College Alumni Association of Northern California’s Web page for more information and reservations instructions: http://teamrioja.org/sjcaanc/ �48 {St. John’s Forever} Initiating the Young into the Tribe ‘!i4s well you know there is only one com­ mencementspeech. It has been delivered many times and it has many superficial variations, but it always says the same thing. An old man ofthe tribe tells the young men that they are beautiful and strong, that the world isfull ofevils, and that they must go out into the world tofight its evils and keep the vision ofits highest good. ” —Scott Buchanan, Commencement 1952, he commencement rite calls for a memorable speech filled with sage advice on how to go on with the business of life. Scott Buchanan called commencement “the great rite of initiation of the young into the tribe.” Some speech­ es are memorable; some are not. Some focus on history, some on urgent current events. But at St. John’s College the selec­ tion of the commencement speaker always falls to those to whom it is primarily directed, and throughout the years tutors have been heavy favorites in the selection process. Scofield said in his 1950 speech that a Tutors Richard Scofield and the Rev. possible interpretation of the custom of J. Winfree Smith became commencement choosing a speaker from within the traditions themselves. Scofield delivered the commencement speech four times; college is that students “think of the Smith was selected by the graduating class occasion, in spite of its name, as not only looking forward. Since the life that lies five times. Tutor Nancy Buchenauer was ahead of you. . .is more complicated, more selected by the students in Santa Fe in serious, and more precarious than the life 1997, and after transferring to the you are leaving, you could hardly go Annapolis faculty, was asked to deliver the without a backward glance.” dtp 2000 address. T {The College. St. John’s College . Spring 2004 } Tutor Richard Scofield, shown here in 1950, DELIVERED THE COMMENCEMENT SPEECH FOUR TIMES. �{Alumni Events Calendar} Santa Fe Homecoming: July a-4,2004 classes are: ’69, ’74, ’79, ’84, ’89, ’94, ’99. Childcare is available. Friday, July 2 Picnic on the Placita, 5 p.m. Reunion class parties Movie: The Tao ofSteve Saturday, July 3 Homecoming Seminars, 10 a.m. to noon Barbecue, 12-2 p.m. Alumni Art Show opening, 5 p.m. Banquet, 7 p.m. Members of the Denver-Boulder chapter Sunday, July 4 Annapolis GATHERED FOR A SEMINAR LAST WINTER. President’s Brunch, 10:30 a.m Homecoming: October 1-3, 2004 L2I2EEZ1liunni ____ Week i; June 28-July a, 0004 Kierkegaard’s Meditation on Abraham and Isaac Led by David Starr Hegel, Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, and excerpts from the book of Genesis. Painting & Reflection Led by Phil Le Cuyer & Elizabeth Pollard Jenny (SF80) On-campus and off-site painting experi­ ences, gallery tours, seminars. Week2: July 5-9, 2004 Plato’s Republic Led by Eva Brann & David Carl Revisit one of the seminal texts of Western political theory. Don Giovanni & the Operas of Mozart Led by Peter Pesic & George Stamos Once again, Don Giovanni is dragged alive through the gates of Hell. Call the Office of Alumni and Parent Activities, 505-984-6103 Registration, 4 to 8 Career Panel, 6:30 p.m. Homecoming Lecture, 8:15 p.m. After lecture: Wine and Cheese with the class of 2005, Rock Party in the Boathouse Saturday, October a Seminars, 10 a.m. Homecoming Picnic, noon Class Luncheons, 11:45 P ®Afternoon: Autograph Party, Soccer, Gathering of All Alumni, Dance performance in memory of Harry Golding Hors d’oeuvres & wine, 6 p.m. Homecoming Banquet, 7:30 p.m. Waltz/Swing Party, to p.m. Sunday, October 3 President’s Brunch, ii a.m. * Tentative schedule. All alumni are welcome. Reunion classes: ’39, ’44, ’49, ’54, ’59, ’64, ’69, ’74, ’79, ’84, ’89, ’94, ’99. Contact Planit Meetings for special rates at Annapolis hotels. Space is limited for dis­ counted rates; mention St. John’s College when you call for reservations. Phone: 301-261-8284; fax: 919-642-0062. E-mail: kelder@planitmeetings.com. For more information, call the Alumni office: 410-626-2531. {The College -St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } Back cover: Reality observers in Annapolis �STJOHN’S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE Published by the Communications Office P.O. Box aSoo Annapolis, Maryland 21404 D A N IE L H O U C K ( ao 6) ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Periodicals Postage Paid � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 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 The College, Spring 2004 Description An account of the resource Volume 30, Issue 2 of The College Magazine. Published in Spring 2004. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Harty, Rosemary (editor) Borden, Sus3an (managing editor) Behrens, Jennifer (art director) Hartnett, John (Santa Fe editor) Wilson, Rebecca Silver, Joan Kraus, Pamela Miller, Basia Stickney, Carey Russell, George Dink, Michael Engel, Elizabeth Goyette, Barbara Byrne, Brigid K. Maguran, Andra Peterson, John Eoyang, Glenda H. Middlebrook, Mark Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 30. Issue 2 Spring 2004 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/4457368e8d103fe8926dc781d1ae996c.pdf 453ce634ebc110b01782c6281ec19770 PDF Text Text The College St. John’s College • Annapolis F a l l • Santa Fe Jonathan Swift T h e A d v e n t u r e s o f T r av e l 2 0 0 4 �On Swift W hat does it mean to be human? is one of the questions often discussed in St. John’s seminars. In a seminar on Gulliver’s Travels, the question could be expressed in this way: Are human beings good and rational creatures, or just a step above wild beasts? Gulliver’s odyssey begins among the tiny Lilliputians who fight with their neighbors over whether an egg should be broken on the small end or the big end. Finding himself a tiny being among giants in Brobdingnag, he suffers the indignity of being carried away by a monkey. Among the ridiculous scholars of the Academy in Lagado, he learns of a scientist’s eight-year attempt to draw sunlight from cucumbers. By his final stop in a land where horses are gentle, rational beings, and men are vile, greedy brutes, he has seen enough to conclude bitterly that man falls far short of the ideal. Swift was born of English parents in Dublin on November 30, 1667. His father died shortly before Swift was born, leaving him dependent on the generosity of uncles. (He feared poverty throughout his life and was quite a penny-pincher.) Swift studied at Kilkenny Grammar School and at Trinity College in Dublin, and later received an M.A. from Oxford. At the age of 22, he went to live at Moor Park in Surrey, where he served as a secretary to Sir William Temple. There he began a very close friendship with Esther Johnson, the daughter of Temple’s housekeeper, that lasted until her death. (Swift had another long relationship with a woman, Esther Vanhomrigh, but he never married.) In 1695, Swift was ordained in the Church of Ireland in Dublin. During the reign of Queen Anne, Swift was a celebrated figure in the literary and political life of London, becoming editor of the Tory journal The Examiner in 1710. He harbored great aspirations for a political career, but when Anne died in 1714, and George I came to power, the Tories lost their influence and Swift found himself outside the political power structure. He reluctantly returned to Ireland, where he was dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Though he felt like an exile in Ireland, Swift identified with the poverty and misery of the Irish people. Few anthologies of satirical literature fail to include Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” written in 1729, which sets forth a logical argument for ending Ireland’s poverty by breeding infants for food. Swift suffered from Ménière’s disease, which left him dizzy—a “giddiness” as he described it— that he feared was madness. He was declared senile in his last years, and died on October 19, 1745. In many ways, Gulliver is a model traveler. He endeavors to understand the local customs and the native language of his captors and companions, and he is patient and diplomatic. In describing his culture to others, he gains insights into his own. Because he recognizes that Yahoo qualities persist in supposedly civilized men, Gulliver returns from his last voyage with a profound disgust for humanity. He can no longer tolerate the sight of his fellow man—even his own wife and children: “[M]y memory and imagination were perpetually filled with the virtues and ideas of those exalted Houyhnhnms. And when I began to consider that by copulating with one of the Yahoo species I had become a parent of more, it struck me with the utmost shame, confusion, and horror.” In this issue of The College magazine, intrepid Johnnie travelers share their perceptions about living in a new and unfamiliar culture. Their observations of interesting sights and sounds and experiences are made richer by the questions they pursue about themselves in other cultures. —RH The College (usps 018-750) is published quarterly 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 postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. Annapolis 410-626-2539 reharty@sjca.edu Rosemary Harty, editor Sus3an Borden, managing editor Jennifer Behrens, art director Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Barbara Goyette Kathryn Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Jo Ann Mattson Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 alumni@sjcsf.edu John Hartnett, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board David Levine Andra Maguran Margaret Odell Roxanne Seagraves Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �Fa l l 2 0 0 4 Vo l u m e 3 0 , I s s u e 3 The College The Magazine for Alumni of St. John’s College Annapolis • Santa Fe {Contents} 8 Eastern Classics d e p a r t m e n t s page 2 • Santa Fe’s once-controversial graduate program is going strong after a decade. • • • 10 Johnnies Abroad page From China to Colombia, wandering Johnnies relish new experiences amid different cultures. • • 7 page 10 28 18 The Story-tellers • page • Alumni who work as curators and in other interpretive roles make history tangible. 32 from the bell towers The long-lost California campus. Annapolis dedicates Gilliam Hall. Our man in Iraq. New tutors in Annapolis and Santa Fe. Summer interns are satisfied customers. An honorary alumnus makes a generous gift. letters bibliofile Writer Natalie Goldberg (SFGI74) on the great books, Zen, and writing. Annapolis alumnus pens children’s poetry. alumni notes P RO F I L E S 30 Finding a pattern in conjunctions told 22 Commencement page Tutor Chester Burke (A74) and University of Chicago Professor Danielle Allen gave graduates more questions to ponder. page 18 Carole Chaski (A77) that police had a killer on their hands. 36 Sara Roahen (SF94) carves out a niche as a restaurant critic in the Big Easy. 42 alumni voices Santa Fe alumni Paul and Laura Cooley on life without a car. 26 Homecoming in Santa Fe page 46 48 Parties, picnics, and piñons. page 26 on the cover Jonathan Swift Illustration by David Johnson alumni association news st. john’s forever �2 {From the Bell Towers} The California Property: A Happy Ending at Last Standing on a hill high atop what used to be the Marks Ranch, it’s hard not to feel a twinge of regret at what might have been—a cluster of picturesque dormitories here, an academic building there, a playing field bordering the state park. The view from these golden hills is of a scenic valley, and beyond that the city of Monterey and the Pacific Ocean. More than 30 years ago, the Marks family, enamored of the St. John’s program, donated this spectacular 850-acre property to the college for possible development for a California campus. The ensuing decades saw extensive studies—topographical, geographical, seismographical, political— followed by a decision by the college that the property was less than an ideal site for a campus. Most of the property was too steep to build on, and infrastructure would be too expensive. A report issued in 1990 by the Monterey Campus Feasibility Committee of the Board of Visitors and Governors, chaired by Warren Winiarski (class of 1952), concluded that a Califor- nia campus was not in the picture. That led the college to investigate selling the property to a developer—a decision unfortunately timed to a groundswell of opposition to growth in Monterey County. For years, several Annapolis and Santa Fe presidents and other college officers, assisted by members of the board, weighed the need to make the best business decision for St. John’s with protecting the college’s good name in the face of opposition from wellorganized conservation and citizens’ groups. The resolution came last summer, when St. John’s sold the property to the Big Sur Land Trust, a nonprofit organization that conserves the lands and waters of California’s central coast. The agreement also included California State University, which claimed a 22 percent interest in the property through one of the many legal actions and settlements that evolved over the years. (CSU was to get the land if St. John’s didn’t build a college.) The Big Sur Land Trust—which is paying off the $4.5-million purchase price of the property in install- ments over the next three years—will draw from neighboring communities to seek a vision for the property as well as the financial means for carrying the vision out. Susanna Danner, conservation project manager for the Big Sur Land Trust, took time last summer to offer a tour of “It was an excellent resolution.” Robley Levy, class of 1956 what used to be one of the most productive chicken ranches in the county—a family business led by matriarch Nisene Marks, whose children deeded the property to St. John’s. The land is still leased for cattle grazing, and a geologist initially hired by St. John’s, and now employed by the Trust, runs his business out of the Marks Hacienda and helps keep intruders away. Over the years, the ranch has attracted illegal campers and lots of debris: an abandoned bus, old appliances, barrels of some unidentified fluid. Up on higher ground, Danner points out the boundaries of Toro County Park and the hiking trails that extend into the canyon and the back country. Dotted with coastal live oak and chamise chaparral trees, the area offers a habitat for wildlife including mountain lions, bobcats, foxes, and many different species of birds, including golden eagles. Part of the Marks property may be eventually joined to the park. “On three-day weekends, the park routinely turns away visitors, and there’s no money for new park development in the The rolling hills of the Marks Ranch were too steep for a campus. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } county,” Danner says. On one border of the property is a visible sign of why the college faced fierce opposition to selling the land for development: luxury houses in the Las Palmas subdivision that are wedged into the hillside. St. John’s had a contract with the subdivision’s developer, the Fletcher Company, that gave the company a 20-year option to develop the property. A combination of forces emerging at the same time would have made development difficult, says Robley Levy (class of 1956), a former Santa Cruz County commissioner who served on the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors until recently. But the cut-and-fill development near the Marks Ranch was probably the biggest reason the issue became an emotional one. “People were happy with the first phase of the (Las Palmas) development,” Levy says. “But the cut-and-fill development of phase two, that’s what drove the neighbors nuts. It’s classical for Southern California, but for people in this area, it’s not the accepted way to develop property.” A conservation group called Land Watch made the Marks Ranch one of its major issues. The group capitalized on ideals of the St. John’s Program— truth, justice, integrity—in its campaign rhetoric. Levy says the board anticipated some resistance, but never such a vituperative attack. Alumni were among those who wrote letters and signed petitions in opposition to development. “It might have been possible before all of the bad news got out to have a compromise where a portion of the lower part of the property could have been developed—if St. John’s had been willing to wait,” Levy says. “But I don’t think the college is really suited to be a developer.” Levy was co-chair of the continued on p. 3 �{From the Bell Towers} 3 Gilliam Hall: A New Dorm Opens in Annapolis david trozzo On November 11, when the college officially dedicates its newest dormitory, some special guests will join the St. John’s campus community in celebrating this milestone. Among them will be the family of James H. Gilliam Jr., for whom the building is named. Mr. Gilliam was a member of the Board of Trustees of The Hodson Trust from 2000 until his sudden death last summer at the age of 58. Generous funding from the Hodson Trust helped the College build the dormitory, which houses 48 students. A second group includes the entire board of The Hodson Trust, particularly its chairman, Finn Caspersen, who will speak at the dedication. A third group comes to honor Mr. Gilliam as an AfricanAmerican businessman and civic leader, a man who was devoted to public service and to improving higher education A glass-enclosed common room in Gilliam Hall offers splendid views opportunities for minority students. They are the first seven African-American graduates of the college: Martin Dyer (class of College Creek. of 1952), Leo L. Simms (class of 1956), Everett Wilson (class of An attorney and private investor, Mr. Gilliam served on a num1956), Joan Cole (class of 1957), Carolyn Baker Brown (class of ber of nationally recognized boards, namely, Household Interna1958), Jerry Hynson (class of 1959), and Charlotte King (class of tional Inc., T. Rowe Price Group Inc., Howard Hughes Medical 1959). All seven are expected to attend the dedication ceremony. Institute, and National Geographic Society. A longtime resident of Mr. Gilliam’s widow, Dr. Linda G. J. Gilliam, and his father, Delaware, he also served as chairman of the Governor’s Judicial James H. Gilliam Sr., will be present for the dedication ceremony. Nominating Commission of the State of Delaware, chair of the James H. Gilliam Jr. graduated from Morgan State University in Administrative Enhancement Committee of the Delaware 1967 and earned a law degree in 1970 from Columbia University’s Supreme Court, and as a member of the executive committee and School of Law. After board of the Medical Center of Delaware. practicing law in New York, “Jim Gilliam was a particularly good friend to the College, and he joined a law firm in Wilmwe are pleased that in this way he will become a permanent part of ington, Del. He joined the our community,” says Christopher B. Nelson, president. “Having Beneficial Corporation in 1979 as vice president-legal, rising to the College’s first seven African-American graduates present for the ceremony honors both Mr. Gilliam’s memory and the College’s executive vice president and decision to open its doors to them at a time when segregation was general counsel. He was the rule rather than the exception in Maryland. They have appointed to Beneficial’s Board remained devoted to the college and its ideals,” he adds. of Directors in 1984 and to its The addition of Gilliam Hall allows the college to house 350 executive committee in 1987. students on campus. In addition, the College reduced the number of triple dorm rooms from 18 to 13 and created a new common room with a kitchen in Humphreys. Construction begins this fall James Gilliam was a on a second dormitory, which will house 32 students and should be philanthropist, businessman, ready for students by December 2005. x and friend of the college. (continued) California property committee with another former board member, Stephen Feinberg (HSF96), and their time and expertise were instrumental in getting St. John’s out of the Fletcher contract and into negotiations with Big Sur. Board members Thomas Stern (SF68) and Robert Bienenfeld (SF80) were also involved at one point. “It was an excellent resolution,” says Levy. Annapolis President Christopher Nelson (SF70), whose many years as a lawyer were an asset in negotiations, was relieved to see the college’s days as a California property owner coming to a close. Proceeds from the sale will go to the Santa Fe Initiative, a project to address some of the critical needs—from new science laboratories to funding for student internships—of the college’s Western campus. Just days before the agreement was announced, Nelson was still getting e-mails from Californians urging him to “Save the Marks Ranch.” He was clearly pleased to be able to write back with the news of the { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } Big Sur agreement. “Some 13 years ago, our board determined that the property be put to its highest and best use. That’s just exactly what we see this to be,” Nelson said. x — Rosemary Harty �4 {From the Bell Towers} News and Announcements New Tutors CHRISTIAN HOLLAND (A84) joined the faculty in Annapolis. After graduating from St. John’s, Holland went to Rome, where he earned a degree in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian Institute and a degree in biblical studies from the Pontifical Biblical Institute. He has taught at the Monastery of Chevetogne in Belgium, at the Greek College in Rome, and at Emory University, where he earned his Ph.D. in comparative literature. In his research and teaching, he has specialized in biblical and patristic studies, postwar French philosophy, and theology. In Santa Fe, TRAVIS COOK joined the faculty. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from the University of Maine and Boston College. He is currently completing a doctorate in political science at Loyola University in Chicago. His dissertation is titled, “Shaftesbury and the Ancients: the Enduring Concern for the Noble and the Just.” Before joining the St. John’s community, he was the assistant director of the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University. AALE Accreditation St. John’s College in June joined a select group of colleges to receive accreditation by the American Academy for Liberal Education, a national organization dedicated to strengthening and promoting undergraduate liberal education through accreditation of liberal arts insti- In Memorium The college lost three members of the Annapolis campus community late in the summer. (The College will publish complete obituaries in the Winter 2005 issue.) • On August 17, former assistant dean and tutor emerita BARBARA LEONARD died. Leonard—an honorary member of the class of 1955—came to St. John’s in 1951 with the first class of female students. She had the important role of counseling, guiding, and supporting students throughout the years. She retired in 1987 after serving the college for 36 years. • Tutor emerita BEATE RUHM VON OPPEN (HA01), who was a tutor at the college from 1960 to 2003, died at her home in Annapolis on August 10. Born in Switzerland, she was raised in Germany and left the country at the age of 16 as the Nazis were rising to power. She earned her degree at the University of Birmingham and during World War II worked for the British Foreign Office. She moved to the United States in the late 1950s. Her book Letters to Freya, which captures the story of Nazi resister Helmuth James von Moltke, won the Scholl Prize, a prestigious literary award in Germany. • Former tutor ALFRED MOLLIN died at his home in Philadelphia on August 22. Mollin taught at St. John’s in the 1970s, but many more Johnnies know him from the Greek manual he co-wrote with tutor emeritus ROBERT WILLIAMSON (HA02). After leaving the college, Mollin earned a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law. From 1978 until his retirement in 2001 he was an appellate lawyer with the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. x tutions and programs. The AALE joined the Middle States Association in a review of the college’s self-study, and the two accrediting bodies made a visit to the college together last fall. At its June meeting, the academy granted the college in Annapolis full institutional accreditation. The AALE’s standards for accreditation center on “a program’s demonstrated ability to instill and develop in its students the characteristics of liberally educated persons,” characteristics that include “an ability to reason clearly and effectively about important questions and issues, the acquisition of a rich fund of meaningful knowledge, and an inclination for seeking out and acquiring knowledge and skills.” Agresto and Iraq “We’ve been bombed two nights in a row, and I expect more of the same tonight,” JOHN AGRESTO wrote from Iraq last November. The former president of the Santa Fe campus was just a few months into his post as senior adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education, and in the e-mail to his colleagues back in the states, he wrote about how the war affected his daily life. “To go to the Ministry or to a university I have to travel in a secure car with at least one shooter—usually my driver has a pistol in his lap. I’m both preceded and followed by two { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } John Agresto (right) needed flak jackets and armored body guards for his work in Iraq. armored humvees with two gunners in each and a soldier with a machine gun on the roof.” Once the most modern in the Middle East, Iraq’s institutions of higher learning withered under Saddam Hussein, and after his regime fell, they were further weakened by looting and vandalism. Agresto determined that the universities needed $1.2 billion to become viable again, but the reconstruction package approved by Congress last year allocated only $8 million for higher education, which Agresto directed to the construction of new science labs. He attempted to raise the remainder himself from the international community without success. Nevertheless, when he left Iraq in June, Agresto could report that some goals were achieved. These included reopening the universities; decentralizing the ministry and empowering the academic community through an academic bill of rights; removing admissions restrictions on female students; reestablishing Fulbright and other scholarship opportunities; and establishing three “American universities” in the Kurdish region of Iraq. x — Beth Schulman �{From the Bell Towers} Satisfied Customers ELIHU DIETZ (A06) and CHELSIA WHEELER (SF03) are among the true believers in the value of the Career Services offices on both campuses. Dietz spent the summer at a castle in Italy after spotting an advertisement for an internship in the Annapolis Career Services newsletter. Wheeler gained a lead on a graduate fellowship program, including a Capitol Hill internship, through the Santa Fe office. Here are their reports: Reading Retreat I found “Reading Retreats in Rural Italy,” a utopia for the socially awkward and artistically driven, last March through the Career Services newsletter Praxis. The notice was a laconic plea for anyone interested in performing remedial tasks for the upkeep of a 14th-century castle in exchange for cheap room and board and good conversation with international artists, book lovers, and travelers of all ilk. Believing it was too good to be true, I was determined to get in touch with the owner, Clark Lawrence. Five days later, I received a request for my resumé from Clark; six weeks later, I was on my way to Italy, to the Castle of Galeazza, where I lived for the next three months. There were four guest rooms and up to ten guests staying at the castle at a time. The first few days, my chores of watering and weeding the gardens, making up the rooms for the new arrivals, and feeding the cat were accompanied by the echoes of the two pianists practicing their program for the upcoming concert on the following Saturday. About every two weeks, the castle hosted a classical music concert (sometimes followed by tractor rides through the woods) and an open gallery displaying the works of six or seven painters from Moscow, Berlin, and Athens. On my two to three days off a week, I was just as likely to sit with a book or talk with guests as I was to take an overnight trip to Venice or Ravenna. While the daytime was usually spent awing over the Alexandria Quartet or Cide Hamete Benengeli’s masterpiece, dinners were always time for all the guests to come together and to tell stories or listen to Clark’s amusing antics. People listened to each other, drank with each other, and lived art (in all kinds of mediums) with one another. Every guest who came, like every student who comes to St. John’s, was a member of a community by the simple fact that they came willing to share their own thoughts and humor. All Johnnies love a great book but along with that they value a community of people willing to learn from others. It was lovely to experience a place where people took time out to enjoy life and simply live. Early this fall, yet another Johnnie will be there, Anna Schall (A07), who will take my place as an intern for three months. —Elihu Dietz Serving the People “Well you see,” said the woman on the other end of the line, “I am 64 years old, and I don’t have a lot of money. I fly my plane down to the Virgin Islands a few times a year to stay in my house there. But I have some business to conduct with the timeshare company, and I can’t afford to call them. Could you please call from your office and represent me?” It was a typical day in the office of the Hon. Donna M. Christensen, U.S. Virgin Islands delegate to Congress. But, as a St. John’s College graduate, I have excellent skills in diplomatically avoiding the direct request. After hearing a long, unsolicited medical history of my caller, I agreed that if she sent information to our office, we would write a letter. She never sent the information. Margaret Odell of the Santa Fe Career Services office 5 pointed me toward this wonderful opportunity last winter. I was teaching English in Korea as a break from academia after graduation. The Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellowship Program provides an expenses-paid Summer Enrichment Program for six weeks at Howard University, then an internship for six weeks on Capitol Hill; then tuition, room, and board for two years of graduate study; then a summer internship at a U.S. embassy abroad; and finally, a five-year contract as a Foreign Service officer in the State Department. It fit perfectly my passion for traveling and learning. I can never thank Margaret enough for pointing me in the right direction. The congresswoman’s office contained a colorful mix of people, mostly from the Virgin Islands. One man argued on the phone with his girlfriend for hours on end. Another smoked out of the window of the federal building. And another spoke passionately of his readings of Kant and his search for the greater Good. (A Johnnie at heart.) I was amazed that I could find such a wonderful mix of people even in a congressional office, not to mention the constituents who called and wrote with strange requests every day. Now I am off on another adventure. I have just started graduate studies at American University to earn a master’s degree in International Affairs. The experience should prove another interesting new endeavor for a Johnnie. x —Chelsia C. Wheeler At left, Elihu Dietz’s summer castle. At right, Chelsia Wheeler meets Colin Powell. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �6 {Philanthropia} A $4 Million Vote of Confidence Texas businessman Stephen Feinberg (HSF96) was spending a lot of time in Santa Fe and Albuquerque in 1977, when a good friend told him about a small liberal arts college in Santa Fe that deserved his attention. Richard Weigle, president of both campuses at the time, and vice president J. Burchenal Ault (HSF83) were successful in persuading Feinberg to serve on the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors. Feinberg joined the board at a time when the young campus was still experiencing growing pains. “I was somewhat concerned when I attended my first board meeting, and the president said he didn’t know if the college had enough funds to make the payroll,” recalls Feinberg. “I wondered if I’d gotten myself into a situation that I really didn’t want to be in.” Feinberg’s concerns about the campus turned out to be short-lived, and in July he expressed his unqualified confidence in the management of St. John’s College by announcing a $4 million gift to david trozzo Something to Celebrate Making the college’s Annual Fund goal is no small feat, but thanks to more alumni participating, and more generous gifts from alumni, the college reached its $2.3 million goal for the 2003-04 fiscal year. This year, 35 percent of the college’s alumni made a gift. Tuition pays only 70 percent of the cost of a student’s education. Draw from endowment, federal and state grants, and the Annual Fund make up the rest. Students in particular have something to celebrate: the largest portions of funds collected through the Annual Fund go to support instruction and financial aid. the endowment. “I have seen the college evolve into a very wellmanaged organization, a strong and stable organization,” he says. He hopes that his gift will spur additional investments in the college. “We, as community members, have a great responsibility to this college,” says Feinberg, who lives part of the year in Santa Fe and part in El Paso, Texas. He finished his fourth term on the board earlier this year. It took him several years to get “fully engaged” on the board, Stephen Feinberg’s gift to the says Feinberg. When college expresses his confidence in the board began to tap the Santa Fe campus. his expertise in real estate and finance—with tremendous results—his interim president in Santa Fe, involvement grew. In turn, he said Feinberg’s gift is particubecame more aware of imporlarly welcome during this time tant issues facing faculty, staff, of rebuilding in Santa Fe. and students at St. John’s. The college is still seeking a He became more involved in president to replace John the intellectual life of the Balkcom (SFGI00), with the college as well, attending goal of bringing a candidate Executive Seminars, community before the board at its meeting seminars in Santa Fe, and rarely in November. In the meantime, missing a session of Summer it’s important that the college Classics. His admiration for continue to draw the the tutors helped inspire his confidence and support of gift, which he would like to its Santa Fe community. see help support improved “Steve’s gift shows that the faculty salaries. community understands our work “The college’s mission is here, and that the 40-year bond more important than ever,” between Santa Fe and St. John’s Feinberg says. “With a global College will continue long into economy and all the conflicts the future,” says Nelson. and the terrorism, the ability Mr. Feinberg is the third board to be open, honest, to question, member to publicly announce a to search, and to think about gift to the college in advance of important issues—this is the official start of the next especially important to capital campaign, expected to mankind right now. St. John’s begin in the fall of 2005. stands out in the world of Alumni Ronald Fielding (A70) academia because this type and Sharon Bishop (A67), board of searching is the college’s chair, have also announced core mission.” generous gifts to the college. x Christopher B. Nelson (SF70), -Rosemary Harty president in Annapolis and { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �7 {Letters} Free Thought and Reason I was left scratching my head over Steven Brower’s letter (Spring 2004) in which he recalls Douglas Allanbrook responding to the absence of Eastern authors with the claim, “the only good thing that has come out of the East was the Sun.” Brower takes Allenbrook’s statement as evidence that free thought thrives at St. John’s. In fact, it shows the opposite. Not only is Allenbrook’s statement laughably false, but it also helps confirm the worst stereotypes about St. John’s: namely, that the college is provincial, self-important, and dismissive toward ideas that do not fall within a particular conception of the Western canon. I tend not to agree with this stereotype since I also believe that St. John’s teaches the importance, above all, of giving reasons for what one believes to be true. Evidence of free thought requires more than saying something controversial or unpopular: it also requires the capacity to give reasons. Perhaps Allanbrook had reasons for his view. If so, it is regrettable that he chose to respond with a fatuous quip. Likewise, perhaps Brower has reasons for lauding Allenbrook’s expression of “free thought” —but he, too, has given no reason to support his choice of words. Fortunately, Santa Fe now has a program in Eastern Classics. I always enjoy reading The College, but I am not sure what you hoped to accomplish by printing Brower’s letter. John Capps (A91) Mistaken Notions I am writing to correct some mistaken notions expressed in the letter from Erin N.H. Furby (A96), in The College Winter 2004). She was commenting on an article, “Admissions and Diversity, East and West,” published in the previous issue. Her response suggested that she misunderstands the “diversity initiative” under way on both campuses and the importance of diversity for the life of the college community. I agree that the word “minority” is ambiguous, and its meaning often must be clarified. The “diversity initiative,” which we refer to as the Opportunity Initiative,addresses different minority groups on the two campuses. In Annapolis, it is directed primarily toward black students; in Santa Fe, Native Americans and Hispanics are the primary focus. Why? As easily might be guessed, it is because the recruitment problem differs on the two campuses. That is largely a product of differences in the demographics of the areas from which the campuses recruit students. Hispanics and Native Americans, although the largest minority groups in the area from which Santa Fe draws most of its students, have applied in small numbers. On the East Coast and in the large urban areas from which the Annapolis campus draws most of its students, blacks, although the largest minority, have applied in even fewer numbers. This does not mean, of course, that both campuses are not seeking or would not welcome students from other minority groups. Why should St. John’s make this determined effort to recruit more minority students? Because seminars and classes “In attempting to diversify the applicant pool, [admissions officers] hope to recruit a student body that reflects the racial and ethnic diversity of this country.” Martin Dyer, Class of 1952 achieve greater profundity and richness when students of different races, ethnicities, and backgrounds bring their life experiences and individual perspectives into the conversation. Students benefit. As fellow learners, tutors benefit. The entire community benefits. I agree also that skin color means nothing— in itself. Blacks, like whites, are a rainbow of colors. Variations of hue, however, are not the concern of this initiative. The cutting edge is racial difference, however defined, which creates for most blacks in American society unique life experiences and social and economic status quite different from other groups. In some situations, a different culture has evolved. Ms. Furby acknowledges that “ religion, age, home state, and economic background influence the perspective of students.” Why is she reluctant to acknowledge that race and ethnicity are equally important parts of an individual’s conditioning and development? Being of one race, however, does not make blacks a monolithic group. Like whites and others, they are of different religions, from varying states, cities, and neighborhoods, { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } and of diverse economic backgrounds. These differences, plus the common conditioning their race provides, produce the “individual perspectives that [individual blacks bring] to the class.” As appalled as Ms. Furby may be that “the Annapolis campus was mentioned ... only in terms of having a small number of black students each year,” that is the unfortunate fact. Last year, three of the approximately 450 students were black. Admissions officers are not being “pressured” into seeking “students of one race over another.” They seek black students, Native Americans, and Hispanics not as an alternative but an addition to white students. In attempting to diversify the applicant pool, they hope to recruit a student body that reflects the racial and ethnic diversity of this country. They do this also because they believe that it is the “right thing” to do for parts of our society subjugated for more than 300 years and which, even now, still suffer from it. Just as the college is richer for having voluntarily added blacks and women to its student body many years ago, the reading list is enhanced by the inclusion of black and female authors. If the college is derided for this, it is because some erroneously believe that these authors cannot express ideas that are “universal and applicable to all thinking people.” As to “the unwise who looked only at the race and sex of [these] authors,” I respectfully defer to the collective wisdom and integrity of the college deans and faculty who serve on the Instruction Committee. Martin A. Dyer, Class of 1952 Editor’s Note: Mr. Dyer was the first African-American student admitted to St. John’s. 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, or The College magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: rosemary.harty@sjca.edu. �8 {Eastern Classics} Eastern Classics at Ten Enrollment Grows in Santa Fe Program by Rosemary Harty n 1968, Scott Buchanan explained in an interview with author Harris Wofford why he and Stringfellow Barr excluded Eastern works when they selected the great books of the New Program. “I think in ’37 reading Oriental books when then we had so slender a grasp on our own tradition would have led to the kind of phoney stuff that has happened often when Westerners have become intoxicated with Zen Buddhism or something,” Buchanan said. However, in a later interview Buchanan added, “We ought to have gone at the oriental books simply and hard and we’d have cracked them.” “Cracking” the great texts of the Eastern tradition—simply and hard—is exactly what students and tutors do together in the Eastern Classics program in Santa Fe. It is an intense, full-time program leading to a master of arts degree. Each student studies Sanskrit or Ancient Chinese to read original texts in those languages. Two of the five preceptorials taken by each student are mandatory and involve two weighty books, books worthy of a lifetime of study: the Mahabharata and the Tale of Genji. When a group of Santa Fe tutors proposed a program geared to the study of Eastern works, the idea met with strong disapproval from some in Annapolis and Santa Fe. Tutor Krishnan Venkatesh, now director of the Graduate Institute and a long time tutor in the program, was among those who weren’t sure the college should take on such a program. “I didn’t know if we would be able to teach it, and teach it well,” says Venkatesh. “But my fears were allayed rather quickly. I’ve seen how successful the program is. And I should have had faith all along that the books can teach us how to read them.” The texts may be different, Venkatesh says, but students in Eastern Classics ultimately embrace the same questions as undergraduates do: “What is it possible to know? What is a human being? What is ultimately real? What is the relation of pleasure to happiness? What is a good person? What does it mean to be free?” The Eastern Classics program is more similar to the undergraduate program than the college’s graduate program in liberal arts, says tutor Frank Pagano, who was GI director in Santa Fe from john hartnett I 2001 to June 2004. “Everybody starts at the beginning and everybody ends at the end. It’s a full-time program and it really has the sense of commitment, the structure, and the continuity of the undergraduate program.” After a yearlong pilot program funded by the Bradley Foundation, the Eastern Classics program began formally in the fall of 1994 with an enrollment of 23 full-time students. It struggled to build enrollment during its first years, but interest continued to grow over the years. This fall, 33 full-time students, including 15 alumni, enrolled in the program—enough for two full seminars. Students read and discuss the books of China, India and Japan—the classics of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism—in chronological order. In choosing books for the program, tutors initially consulted a comprehensive list assembled by Columbia University’s, but ultimately, the same standards for works selected in the undergraduate program guided the list. “You ask yourself what books work in seminar, what books are absolutely necessary even if they don’t work in seminar, and which books talk to each other,” Pagano says. Tutors like Pagano Santa Fe GI Director Krishnan gradually migrated to the Venkatesh was initially doubtful program when the time was that a program in Eastern Classics right for them, he explains. could succeed. He began by leading a preceptorial on the Grand Historian, Sima Qian. “That was my entryway to China. I started doing more Chinese works, then audited the Chinese language tutorial,” says Pagano, who by now has taught everything but languages in the program. “Jim Carey, who loves language, taught Sanskrit. Other people began teaching because they were interested.” In marketing the program, the college takes out ads in Yoga Journal, some of which have featured testimonials from Tias Little (EC98), one of the country’s leading yoga instructors. “Each year we have people interested in yoga who want to know more about the books behind the practice, people interested in Buddhism, { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �{Eastern Classics} 9 half of the program’s students were Johnnies; more recently, that’s and people interested in religion,” Pagano says, adding that most dropped to about a quarter. “During their undergraduate years, students simply seek to broaden their knowledge. many develop a pent-up desire to take on the Eastern Classics Ronalie Moss (SFGI91, EC95), a recently retired teacher from program,” he says. Los Alamos, N.M., was among the students in the pilot program. Alexis Brown (SF00, EC03) took a year off after graduating She enrolled right after completing the liberal arts graduate before she enrolled in the program. It’s intense and difficult, but program because she was still eager for intellectual challenges. well worth the hard work, she says. “The whole time I was an “I fell in love twice at St. John’s—you know how you read undergraduate, I’d see the reading list for something and you just discover a mind that Eastern Classics and knew that I wanted to you fall in love with? It happened for me in do it,” she says. “I knew I would gain a the liberal arts program with Aristotle and much fuller picture of human thought. the Nichomachean Ethics. And again in Some of the best seminars I’ve had at Eastern Classics with the Analects of St. John’s were in Eastern Classics.” Confucius,” she says. Brown didn’t struggle as much with Because the program was noncredit when studying and translating poetry in ancient she took part in it (those who completed it Chinese; plunging into the unfamiliar were awarded certificates), Moss wrote her imagery and new concepts of Hindu texts, papers and took an oral examination to particularly the Upanishads, gave her complete requirements for the degree. Over Krishnan Venkatesh trouble. She saw a few students drop out the years, she integrated both sides of her because the St. John’s graduate program into the approach of analyzing and high school Advanced discussing texts did not fit Placement and World Claswith their personal beliefs. sics courses she taught. “I met a few students who “Of course we should study couldn’t understand that the Eastern classics,” Moss this was not a spiritual says, “how could we ignore endeavor,” she says. half the world?” In nurturing the One of the program’s program during his years strengths is that it’s the as the GI director, Pagano only program of its kind. has come to better underNowhere else can a student stand the college’s mission interested in the Eastern as a whole. “I can imagine texts find a comprehensive, people arguing that we discussion-based program, really don’t do Eastern Venkatesh says. Many Classics well—that the colleges offer programs program really is a diletwith majors such as Asian tantish affair. But if this studies, but these generally program is dilettantish, emphasize contemporary I’d say the [undergraduate] culture. Other programs program is. We’re after focus on traditions and liberal education at practices instead of St. John’s, we’re out to original texts. Students in seminars in Eastern discover things.” Among the biggest objections to overcome were those voiced works wrestle the same universal Annapolis tutor Eva by tutors who believed the program would weaken the college by questions that undergraduates Brann is an admirer of the overburdening tutors, or disturb the unity of St. John’s by creating tackle, says Venkatesh. Eastern Classics program a “department” within the college. But during the last three and is satisfied that it has years, more than half of the members of Santa Fe’s Instruction added to the mission of the college. “This has done us no end of Committee have taught in Eastern Classics, Venkatesh points out. good,” she says. “It adds a new dimension to what we do here. He argues that the program has less of a “department feel” than And it shows that our way of doing things is universal.” sophomore music or senior lab. However, Harvey Flaumenhaft, dean in Annapolis, told a group The fear that tutors would be overwhelmed was a reasonable of the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors reviewing the one, Venkatesh acknowledges—the Program already requires so program last summer that he would continue to oppose introducmuch of tutors. “Instead, tutors who have taught in Eastern ing it in Annapolis. “We already spread ourselves too thin,” Classics have been invigorated by the experience,” Venkatesh Flaumenhaft said. “I don’t think that we can do all good things for says. “It’s given them new ways to enter the conversation,” as practical reasons. And there are a lot of good things we don’t do in well as “clearer focus and commitment, and a richer sense of our undergraduate program. It’s unthinkable, for example, not to what the questions are.” Pagano wasn’t surprised that alumni would be among the first study Maimonides. The danger of taking on more is not that we to apply for the program. In the first years of the program, up to don’t go broad enough, but that we don’t go deep enough.” x john hartnett “I should have had faith all along that the books can teach us how to read them.” { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �10 {Johnnies Abroad} A DV E N T U R E S A B ROA D “My hours of leisure I spent in reading the best authors, ancient and modern, being always provided with a good number of books; and when I was ashore, in observing the manners and dispositions of the people, as well as learning their language, wherein I had a great facility by the strength of my memory.” Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels. ohnnies are the kind of travelers who approach a new culture like an unfamiliar text, ready to have their prejudices challenged and their horizons broadened. In these short essays, alumni who have spent an extended time in other countries write about the discoveries, disappointments, surprises, and delights found in the manners and dispositions of different cultures. Several went abroad to teach English: Mike Crawford in Colombia, Paul Obrecht in the Czech Republic, and Meredith Smith in Spain. Ryan Rylee spent a year in China and India during a break from the college to pursue his interest in the East. John Hartnett traveled to India and Lauren Sherman to Africa, both on volunteer medical missions. Recent dispatches or distant reminiscences, these aren’t typical travelogues. J A Woman Who Danced with Fans by Ryan Rylee (A04) Beijing is hidden under a cloud, but it’s not the mystical kind. The cloud comes partly from the taxis and buses, of which there are more every year. As more Chinese get rich while auto import tariffs come down, those taxis are joined by private cars. One still sees, in outlying Beijing, modified tractors, smoking and jittering along the road. And it becomes less and less rare to see a coal-laden cart being pushed alongside a Mercedes Benz. The cloud over the city also comes partly from the coalburning stoves some people still use for warmth and cooking, and a little from the industrial plants. A lot of sand blows in from north of the city, where for hundreds of miles farmers are causing desertification with unsustainable grazing and farming practices, cultivating every inch of remaining land around the city. It has gotten so bad that some of them are now being paid by the state not to work. The cloud over the city is, more than anything else, the dust raised by development at what is certainly one of the largest construction sites in the world. Stand at the window of a Beijing skyscraper and try to make out the number of construction cranes across the city. Nimble giants stand stock straight in flocks that stretch out much farther than the eye can see, vanish into the smog, and seem beyond counting. The city—and a lot of the country—are trying, fast as they can, to be as modern and Western and capitalist and techno- { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �“The city—and a lot of the country—are trying, fast as they can, to be as modern and Western and capitalist and technological as possible.” Ryan Rylee, A04 Modern life is crowding out the traditional in China, with Starbucks, McDonalds, and other American franchises moving in. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �12 {Johnnies Abroad} The woman was in labor.“I immediately understood her pain and terror without comprehending the words.” Lauren Sherman, A05 logical as possible. There is a Starbucks now inside the Forbidden City. McDonald’s and KFC abound in Beijing, along with unlicensed imitations of everything American, from Levi’s to DVDs. And with Hollywood movies come the imitations of them, in appearance and behavior, the cars and bravado, the high heels and discotheques. Where is the Chinese soul? The blue suits and caps of the Cultural Revolution are still worn by a lot of the 60-and-older people. They amble slowly about the streets and gawk at the thousands of foreigners who have invaded the capital. A woman told me about growing up in her family’s Chinese-style, four-sided garden home: parents, grandparents, and children all eating together in the central courtyard, in the shade of trees and trellises, grape vines growing overhead. She showed me, with a mix of words and gestures, how her brother would reach up, pick the ripening grapes on the sly, and put them into her mouth. They taught her, in that kind of place and time, how to dance with a fan held in each hand, and she still remembers, even performed it for us, rhythmically folding and unfolding the fans, ephemeral butterflies hiding her face. That house, like so many old ones, has been demolished, and different generations packed off to apartments high above the city. Some of the old folks speak fondly of the days of yore, the lousy plumbing, leaky roofs, coalburning stoves, and drafty rooms of their charming, crumbling traditional-style slums. Some of them also, in a frustrated moment, will speak fondly of the days of Mao, but no one wants to go back to those days. And anyway, Chinese have become used to making way for progress, used to sacrifice. Mao campaigned to destroy anything ancient or traditional. I even heard one Chinese student reference, in a casual aside, “Mao’s mission to destroy China.” Was the mission successful? Tai Chi is still practiced in the public parks. Peking Opera goes on, now performing a mix of Mao-era and pre-Mao songs. And kung fu soaps, set in the days of emperors, are the most popular kind of show on television. The magical ancient China we sometimes see in movies is only available to most Chinese in just the same kind of medium, usually minus the effort and expense of making flying through the air and breathing fire look real. Chinese mystique, as we know it, is something only perfected in the movie studios and new-age bookstores of California. Perhaps the real mystery is how “China”—if such a thing persists—continues to be reflected through the industrial smoke and mirrored high-rises. As the opening lines of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching read, “Dao ke dao, fei chang dao.” The way is a becoming way, not a fixed way. Death in the Night by Lauren Sherman (A05) In the summer of 2003 I went to Africa with Operation Crossroads Africa, a nonprofit organization that sends young people to various countries on the continent to work on different projects. There were six of us, and our assignment was medical-related. I was there for two months in a rural section of western Kenya. We lived about a mile and a half from the hospital at the family compound of our group leader, Josephine, a Kenyan nurse who has been working in the U.S. for the past couple of years and wanted to bring a group of young people back to her home to help in the community. The houses were no frills, just concrete floors and walls, and the bathroom was an outhouse about 20 feet from the house. There was no toilet, just a hole in the floor, and showers were taken with a bucket of water and a cup. During one week of our stay we traveled to Mfangano Island on Lake Victoria to operate a free clinic for the islanders. This clinic was much needed because the closest hospital is three hours away by motorboat and very expensive. On the second day I was to be working in the pharmacy, but by chance I stumbled into an empty room where a woman, maybe in her late twenties, was in labor. As she called out to me in her native language, Luo, I immediately { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �{Johnnies Abroad} The Czech people are slowly rebuilding traditions, such as this wine festival procession, lost in the communist era. helped me far more than any remedies or medicines I could have given to her. She helped me to realize the power of the human heart. paul obrecht understood her pain and terror without comprehending the words. I approached to comfort her, and placed my hand on her swollen belly as she moaned in pain. I looked into her eyes and felt utterly helpless. How was I, a 20year-old student of the “great books,” going to stop her pain? For over an hour I stood with her, rubbing her belly in silence. The doctor reported that her condition was stable and that she had hours before she would give birth. He then left to see other patients. After some time, I followed suit and returned to the pharmacy, but throughout the day I frequented her room. More than once I again demanded the doctor’s attention, but he always reported the same. Her pain may have been steady, but was it normal? Without a better foundation for concern than my feelings, I trusted the doctor’s judgment and left for the evening. Soon I was overtaken by hunger and fatigue, and the woman’s suffering was pushed to the background of my thoughts. The next morning when we arrived at the clinic, the doctor told us that this young woman had experienced complications and was rushed to the mainland during the night. She and the baby both died. For a time I allowed the suffering and inequality that I experienced in Kenya to saturate me with helplessness. Then finally, a few days before our departure, I realized that this woman knew that somebody cared about her and wanted to ease her pain, however inexperienced and unable I may have been. Even though we didn’t know each other’s name, I felt a searing love for her. I realized that the world is filled with nameless individuals, and it was my responsibility to show them this love. In a way, this nameless woman 13 Marching to the River by Paul Obrecht (SF02) In the middle of March, having been in the Czech Republic for nine months, I was invited to participate in a traditional springtime procession in a tiny village in southern Moravia. A straw man was to be carried from the village square down to the river, set on fire, and then tossed into the water; newly green branches would be gathered, decorated with ribbons, and returned to the square. All of this was in the name of dismissing winter and welcoming the return of spring. When we arrived in the middle of the cold, gray afternoon, we joined a small group of parents and children and began marching to the river, singing Czech folk songs all the while. But I was misled about this being a traditional procession: At some point it was admitted that Czechs haven’t enacted this ceremony for a hundred years or more. I was part of a re-creation, an attempt to resurrect an old tradition that had died out generations ago. I discovered later that the people marching down to the river were Waldorf School moms and dads, and that this was a Waldorf event. (Waldorf schools were imported from the West in 1995 or so.) I was tremendously disappointed, but I couldn’t quite say why. Was it just the tourist in me, disappointed by the lack { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �14 {Johnnies Abroad} paul obrecht of quaint costumes? I recalled a wine festival I had stumbled upon the previous autumn in the village where I live, when the participants had been dressed in the traditional Moravian lace-and-embroidery-embellished garb. They started performing traditional songs and dances, parading through the streets of the village joined by a small marching band and a group of men pulling a red wagon that held a big decanter of burcak, an enticingly sweet midpoint on the journey from grape juice to wine. They poured glasses for the folks watching along the sidewalk or from their lacecurtained windows. I noticed that I was the only foreigner there, in fact, probably the only person not from the village itself, and this produced a wonderful feeling of satisfaction at the authenticity of it all. So why the disappointment at those real Czech folks marching down to the river, trying to resurrect some bit of their heritage, even if many could not remember all the words to the songs? The urge to resurrect old traditions is here, as everywhere, a reaction to the ever-accelerating pace of life and the fear that one’s own way of life is being consumed by the global behemoth of instant glitz, pop culture, and convenience. In a country that just 15 years ago was dominated by secret police, closed borders, and banana lines, things are changing quickly and people are in a hurry to make up for lost time. My disappointment, it turns out, was at being confronted with my own naivete. I had moved to the Czech Republic in hopes that I could learn something from a people who had had no choice for so long but to define themselves by other means than what they could afford to buy. Instead I found Glitz, pop culture, and convenience threaten authentic Czech culture. many of them eager to acquire as many as possible of the vices of the West. The march down to the river was a response to that, the unglamorous act of real people trying to do something real for themselves, trying to create meaning where meaning is in danger of slipping away. On my cynical days, the growing Czech hunger for the consumer lifestyle suggests to me that human nature longs for little more than cool stuff to buy; real and meaningful traditions seem only to survive as long as people are prohibited, whether by circumstance or design, from having enough shopping opportunities. On other days, however, I catch glimpses of an entire nation rallying to redefine itself after centuries of being ripped apart and re-sewn by the hands of various would-be empire builders. They are hard at work rebuilding their social institutions and public infrastructure, trying to purge the last whiff of totalitarianism from their souls. In effect, they are redesigning their society from the bottom up, and a necessary part of that is to resurrect old traditions. How else to remember who they have been? The enthusiasm and success of their effort suggest far more convincingly that the fabric of human nature is truly resilient and durable stuff. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �{Johnnies Abroad} 15 “The guerillas put a price on his head and would kill him and his family if they could find him.” Michael Crawford (A87) The Guerilla’s Warning by Michael Crawford (A87) Graduation called, but South America beckoned. In the spring of 1988, my knowledge of the city of Cartagena consisted of exactly two items: it was 80 degrees year-round and it was full of cool Spanish colonial-era architectural remnants. My knowledge of Colombia in general was a bit more extensive, having followed the New York Times stories of Marxist guerilla fighting or drug-related massacres that took out three or four dozen people at a time. (In one story, the blood was literally running out the front door of the tavern afterwards.) Almost no U.S. citizens wanted to live there. This fact, plus the thought of the anxiety I would cause my parents if I went, appealed to me in a way that such things can only appeal to a 21-year-old. I went. The first few weeks did nothing to dampen the sense of the exotic. Yes, those are wild monkeys in the trees alongside the river. Yes, that is the beautiful but deadly blackand-yellow viper (no known antidote for the venom) slithering across the schoolyard while we are trying to play pick-up basketball. Yes, the discos throb with salsa and merengue until six in the morning. Yes, she likes you because she thinks you have American dollars. The height of this giddy new-ness came during a retreat the school organized for my 12th-graders. We were at a ranch in the middle of nowhere. The school’s forwardlooking rector wanted the students to talk about democracy and violence, and I was asked to lead a seminar on the Bill of Rights. The talk went well—back then it was not ludicrous for other countries to look toward America’s government as a model with real moral authority. My efforts in rudimentary Spanish were appreciated. But as the sun went down and the oil lamps were lit, I realized that I had only been the warm-up band for the evening’s main act: two hours with a real, live South American ex-guerilla. As we sat in a circle around the table, he was brought in flanked by two military guards. He told us to call him Alberto. The bandana covering his face only added to the mystique. For 12 years, he had been a foot soldier in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the oldest and most hard-line of Colombia’s five armed Marxist insurgent groups. He joined because he believed in social justice, but after only one day he realized it would not be found among his guerilla comrades. Daily life consisted of endless making and breaking camp, or sitting through Marxism indoctrination classes in the middle of the jungle. Stray from the straight and narrow, and they would shoot you. In 12 years he had walked every sparsely inhabited inch of Colombia, shaking down farmers for the “tax” on coca and skimming profits on drugs that got shipped north to undermine bourgeois society. Fundraising, it seems, is a big part of every job, even if you are a South American revolutionary. They made him a bookkeeper, and then wanted to eliminate him because he knew that the leadership was partying at Bogota’s best hotels while the rank and file were swatting mosquitoes in the Amazon. When he got sick they sent him to a sympathetic doctor in the city, and there he defected to the Colombian army. We were mesmerized as we listened. The guerillas put a price on his head and would kill him and his family if they could find him. Later I recognized him as the night watchman at our school. As he was picking up his paycheck, our eyes met, but he was unflustered. He knew his secret would go no further. I would see and do many other fascinating things while in Cartagena, but none left the same impression as hearing Alberto’s story. Hyped by Clash lyrics, I had come to South America dreaming glitzy, shallow dreams about the glamorous revolutionaries. Now I was getting the real story. “If you want adventure,” he warned the 12thgraders, “sign up for the merchant marine. Do not join the guerillas.” { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �16 {Johnnies Abroad} The Piercing Festival Young men pierce their cheeks and dance for rupees in Keralla. by John Hartnett (SF83) john hartnett From the moment you step out of the airport you are confronted by mass —a writhing, noisy, stinking mass of crumbling concrete pillars and gritty floors; tangled electrical wires; flailing arms and legs; voices of every conceivable pitch, tone, and key—all asking for something. It is at that moment that most Americans make up their mind about India. You either see nothing but the grit, nothing but the three-year-old living on the highway median begging for change, or you see past it. If you’re lucky, something helps you past your prejudices, some glimpse of the majesty of India. It might be the beaming smile of a man threshing rice by hand or a wrinkled old woman in a bright purple sari stooping to sweep the streets. By rights, my moment should have come at the clinic. I spent three weeks working in a clinic in Andra Pradesh next to all that mass: the hustle of the street vendors, the cacophony of honking horns, and the belching fumes of the three-wheeled moto-rickshaws that we called “tripods.” Working in the city, I was nearly blinded by the poverty and the grinding crush of everyday life. Toward the end of my trip, I had a chance to visit a distant state called Keralla. Almost every Indian I told about my plan called it “God’s Own Country.” On my first day in Keralla, I hired a driver to take me to Kumarakoum to visit the canals and waterways where people lived. As we turned a corner of the highway, I noticed a throng of people gathered by a side road. I stepped out, camera in hand. A festival was in full force, with young men and boys dancing to a capti- vating beat. Older men waved peacock feathers and circulated amongst the crowd, prodding the onlookers to notice the young men. It was then I noticed the piercings. These young men had pierced their cheeks with long skewers. The skewers were held in place by balls of fruit. As they danced, someone would approach and slide a rupee onto the skewer. The more these boys danced, the more hypnotic the effect as the drums thundered, their skin glistened, and the rupees collected on their skewer. For the rest of my time in India, I asked about this festival, but no one had ever heard of it. No Hindu or Buddhist, Jain or Muslim, Sikh or Christian I encountered had ever heard of anything like it. It was a completely local custom, this painful, intense festival. This devotion would not have found me had I not found it. Someone else might have seen only the rupees or the old men sidling for donations. But they would have missed the bright peacock feathers, the concentrated look on the boys’ faces, the intense focus on the divine in their bodies. Everyone is Beautiful in Madrid Meredith Smith (AGI03) The streets have been washed in daylight for hours when the waking sounds of the neighborhood begin to pass over the balcony and into my room in the heart of the Madrid shopping district. Below my window, the cherry vendor { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �{Johnnies Abroad} bellows invitations to sample fruits that are so delicious she can’t believe it herself. Driving her calls louder are the building traffic and the accordion player’s rendition of “Besame Mucho.” Each morning this city melody mingles with the metallic, salty aromas from the seafood stalls to awaken me to another day in Madrid. In obedience to the Spanish morning ritual, I mix a strong espresso off the stove with hot milk and sugar. A staple of café life and social invitations, the café con leche has become an indispensable part of my mornings. Without it, I can’t imagine how I would brace myself for a day composed of exhausting attempts at communication. The robust, bittersweet brew seems perfectly fitted to the air of the people who lay their claim to it. If I am to have any prayer of matching their inexhaustible gift for gab, my first cup will not be the last. Properly caffeinated, I can embark upon the day. While it is easy to get lost in the graceful architecture of curling garlands and wrought-iron balconies overhead, it must be cautioned against. The Spanish pedestrian is considerably more focused on a conversation or a shoe in a storefront window than on the other people on the sidewalk. As a result, a certain nimbleness is required on the part of those who don’t want to be the victims of collisions and scowling faces. Perhaps the most abundant and treacherous obstacle is the ceaseless flow of little old ladies pulling their grocery carts. Prone to sudden stops and nonlinear trajectories, they served as my first introduction to the importance of staying alert. To tangle with one of these seemingly harmless teetering forms can mean bending under the force of one of the sharpest and quickest tongues in the country. In Spain everyone is beautiful. At the neighborhood market, undiscriminating greetings from the men behind the rows of hanging hams and pyramids of vegetables are bestowed upon their patrons in praise of their beauty. “Hello, beautiful,” is reciprocated with, “How’s it going, handsome?” And perhaps this familiarity is part of the shadowed Spanish tradition. For in the new super- 17 markets, frequented more by the youth than the traditional markets, the reserved dryness typical of modern business has replaced the intimacy that is prevalent in neighborhood shops and cafés. But it is this intimacy that allows one to experience a sense of belonging in a culture that is built upon secrets and mysteries inaccessible to foreigners. Work takes a back seat in this country, where recovery from and preparations for the next social engagement are the priorities. Leisure and pleasure are held in the highest regard, and the evidence is apparent each afternoon. Between two and three o’clock, the shops lower their metal gates and they will not raise them again until the late afternoon, giving everyone an opportunity to eat and nap. I am actually somewhat suspicious if the lunch hour ever ends, or if it just blends into the evening. For when I return from teaching a few English classes, it seems as if nothing has changed. All public spaces remain occupied, from badly lit fluorescent cafeterias displaying wide arrays of mayonnaise-drenched salads on stainless-steel counters, to park benches, and elegant umbrella-topped tables attended by uniformed waiters. In the evening, groups of friends that have gathered for after-work cocktails spill out of the bars, restaurants, and cafés and occupy the table-lined avenues. As the streets buzz with chatter and activity, the sunlight that has blazed throughout the day is replaced by a bluish haze from the cigarette smoke in the air. And when dinners come to a close right before the morning hours, and those who will continue their visits have moved indoors, the city begins its resistant farewell to the day. Everyone’s cheeks are kissed, everyone’s backs are patted, and we return to our homes to gather the energy to make it to lunch tomorrow. x { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �18 {Culture and Context} T H E S T O RY-T E L L E R S Johnnies in Museums Make History Tangible by Sus3an Borden (A87) t the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., a pair of shoes with sparkling red sequins and snazzy bows—the “ruby slippers” worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz—draws visitors from all over the world. Although not “real” items of history, like Mr. Rogers’ cardigan or Indiana Jones’ hat these artifacts of popular culture mean a great deal to the people who came to know them through movies and television, says Smithsonian curator David Allison (A73). Just a few blocks away, different shoes tell a different story: a heap of 3,000 shoes—dress shoes, tennis shoes, children’s shoes— turned gray by time and tragedy. Left behind by Holocaust victims at a concentration camp in Majdanek, Poland, the shoes are part of the permanent exhibition at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., where Steven Vitto (A85) works as both a researcher and a public reference librarian answering questions for visitors. What man creates, museums preserve. Shoes, documents, furniture, tools, art, weapons—all can be found in museums around the world. If these artifacts tell the stories of our past, the curators are the authors of those stories. What artifacts a curator selects, how he or she arranges them, and the context in which they are presented all combine to make the experience mean- A ingful and evoke a sense of connection to history—even when we can’t understand it or would prefer to look away. Alumni who work in museums, historical societies, and other interpretive venues come to their work with specialized training, but also with a sense of how to draw disparate things—a Vietnam-era helicopter and a Civil War chair, for example—together to create a whole. Allison, a curator at the Smithsonian’s American History museum since 1986, is at work on a new permanent exhibit for the Smithsonian titled, “The Price of Freedom: Americans at War,” scheduled to open in November. There’s more to an exhibition than just the idea or the narrative, Allison explains. “It’s also about putting people in touch with original objects and helping them see history through these objects. How do you get people to feel that they are in a different place and at a different time?” he asks. The answer requires a thoughtful balance of design, content, and artifactual considerations, he says. At the Smithsonian, exhibition planning for major exhibits usually begins three years before the opening with a design charrette, several intense days where experts in the three-dimensional presentation of ideas meet with the people who have a story to tell. During the charrette, the rough outline of the exhibit’s content is mapped to the space allotted. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } Amateur genealogists and professional historians alike can find rich resources about American life from Lori Williamson (A94) at the Minnesota Historical Society. �19 {Culture and Context} dave lachapelle From the charrette, says Allison, all else follows. Although each exhibit is designed with a logical structure (large labels, secondary labels, then object labels), the visitor is not expected to follow that structure, Allison explains. “Usually there is a personal connection that draws you into the particular and you go to the general from there. If you see an object that interests you, that evokes nostalgia, curiosity, anger, love, you go and say what is that? Why is it here? Then you read the object label and if you want to know more you go backwards up the hierarchy. Museum behavior is much more like being in a shopping mall than reading a history book. In a museum it is the visceral connection with objects that people come to seek out and that serves as a guide for how they work their way through an exhibition.” In his upcoming exhibit, for instance, the logical structure is the chronological presentation of 16 major U.S. conflicts. The largest single object in the floor plan is a Huey Helicopter, an icon of the Vietnam War. “Helicopters were used in the Korean War,” notes Allison, “but in Vietnam it was the first time they were used to provide mobility and remove wounded, as well as perform other missions. [Vietnam] was the first helicopter war.” Another significant group of artifacts is the chairs that Robert E. Lee and U.S. Grant sat on at the surrender at Appomattox and the table on which Lee signed the surrender document. These articles of furniture have been in the Smithsonian’s collection for a long time, and are often exhibited against a painting of the surender. But for the new exhibit, Allison will place them in a context of discord rather than harmony. “This was, in some respects, our country’s most divisive war. But these two men knew each other, they had fought together in Mexico. When you show the meeting of the two men sitting in a room signing the surrender document, you capture their familiarity and the simple nature of the surrender. But you have not captured the meaning of the war.” To remedy this, Allison will exhibit the furniture against a collage of battle scenes to give visitors a greater sense of the cost of war. living history: Emily Murphy made an 1840s-style dress to wear for the Nathaniel Hawthorne bicentennial celebration in Salem, Mass. Allison’s bold departure exemplifies the power of the curator as storyteller: no illustration, no captioned photograph, no chapter in a book could convey both the violence of the war and the brother vs. brother intimacy of its context with such visceral immediacy. That powerful connection isn’t as strong in other media, says Emily Murphy (A95), a longtime student of the elegant use of artifacts. Murphy is a Ph.D. candidate in American studies and a park ranger at the Salem (Mass.) Maritime National Historic Site, who recently completed an internship with the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. Many people are content with surfing the Web to learn about history or art, says Murphy—a “terrible loss” in her view. “Seeing something in real life is a very personal interaction that I just don’t think you get with an image on a computer screen,” she says. “Being able to go to the National Gallery and see the Leonardo da Vinci portrait there, to see the depth of color, the brushstrokes, and the slight three-dimensionality of the layers of the oil paint—no matter how well-photographed something is, you don’t really get that.” In addition to the level of detail a real-life museum visit grants its visitors, there is another advantage to beholding the real thing. “The actual piece creates a connection,” Murphy explains. “All of us in our own lives have artifacts that we consider valuable. To be able to say, ‘this was my great-grandmother’s’ is very important to an individual. Museums are doing that on a larger scale. Instead of saying ‘this was my great grandmother’s,’ they’re saying ‘this was a part of history.’” Original artifacts are most valuable in creating a connection, but Murphy also works as a living history interpreter, and she is quick to acknowledge that reproductions also have their place. “Reproductions are valuable because they allow people to handle artifacts. Clothing is a great example of this. You do not want to wear antique { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �20 {Culture and Context} textiles, they’re simply too fragile. But when you put on a reproduction dress, it suddenly changes your whole idea of how people functioned in that period.” Murphy recently made an 1840s-style dress for the Nathaniel Hawthorne bicentennial in Salem. “This dress has four layers of petticoats, it’s got almost 500 feet of clothesline in the petticoats to give them stiffening. The corset is very long so that you really cannot bend at the waist, and the shoulders are dropped so you can’t raise your arms very far. “When you see the actual 1840s dress you can look and think it must have taken that woman weeks to sew something like that by hand. When you put on the reproduction you realize that once she spent six weeks making the dress, she couldn’t move very much in it.” The reproduction, it can be said, helps bring the artifact to life. For Lori Williamson (A94), acquisitions coordinator at the Minnesota Historical Society, sometimes “my great-grandmother’s” and “part of history” refer to the very same thing. “They greatly inform each other,” says Williamson, who works mainly with books, manuscripts, and photographs in the Society’s library. “When people begin work on a family genealogy, they often start out with a list of who bore whom. It sounds kind of biblical and it’s not helpful to them or to us; they need to add a narrative and a context.” To help them do so, Williamson directs David Allison (A73), standing before a shrouded Huey helicopter, recently prepared a Smithsonian exhibit that explores the meaning of war. them to the Society’s collections, rich in local and national history, to provide the large-scale backdrop against which the family history was played out. When a researcher is successful in thoughtfully filling out the family genealogy within this larger context, the resulting narrative can be added to the Society’s collections, and will be, in turn, used by other history writers to give detail and texture to their broader focus. While Williamson helps amateur and professional historians to integrate the personal and historical, Murphy says that, for many Americans, a museum’s collections in some way stand in for a family’s personal history. “Unlike people in other parts of the world, there are comparatively few of us who can say ‘my family has lived in this house for 10 generations.’ So we honor generally the pieces that belonged to our ancestors, real or imagined,” she says. “My family is Irish and showed up here in the 1860s and 70s, so I personally have very little connection with the aristocratic merchants of Salem, but the things they surrounded themselves with are beautiful and it would be a huge loss if we didn’t have these pieces to give all of us a physical connection with the past.” To Vitto, the very design of the Holocaust Museum demands a reflection on the relationship between artifact and reproduction. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �21 {Culture and Context} “The Nazis tried to wipe them out. The registry brings them back.” Stephen Vitto, A85 developed a reading knowledge of Hebrew, Yiddish, German, and all Slavic languages. As the librarians learned to find their way around ghetto lists, transports, and work details, they began to focus their work on building a survivors’ registry, using as their foundation a registry started in 1981 as a project of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. Today, the registry database contains information on approximately 180,000 Holocaust survivors and their family members worldwide and handles 34,000 requests annually. Vitto’s work at the museum is what he describes as a perfect mix of researching documents for the registry and working with survivors and their families. He talks about the registry’s relationship to one of the museum’s most poignant exhibits, the Tower of Faces. This three-story tall exhibition shows 1,500 photographs taken over a 50-year period in Ejszyszki, a shtetl in Lithuania. The photographs capture the everyday lives of Ejszyszki’s 4,000 Jews before the Holocaust, with pictures from weddings and family reunions, school and the beach, graduations and bar mitzvahs. On two days in September 1941, all but 29 of the 4,000 Ejszyszki Jews were killed by German death squads. For Vitto, the photographs run seamlessly into his work with the registry and explain why he finds his work so fulfilling. “This is completely what my work is about,” he says. “The Nazis tried to wipe them out. The registry brings them back.” x gary pierpoint “The building itself is an artifact,” he says. “It’s made of the brick and steel of industrialization, with jagged lines of lights. There’s a lot of gray and black and an emphasis on poignant photographs. There are false doors, some parts are dark, some are cramped. Its layout is meant to be confusing, to give you some sense for the experience of the Holocaust: once the knock on the door came, people didn’t know what was going to happen to them.” The Holocaust Museum is an exemplary work of museum craft, says Murphy. “You hate to say it’s your favorite museum, because of the subject matter, but in terms of a museum that gets its point across, the Holocaust Museum is the finest museum that I’ve ever been to. It tells the story without devolving into mere voyeurism. It involves you from the minute you walk into the door. The skill of the people who put that together is unbelievable.” Vitto considers himself fortunate to have witnessed that skill first-hand. He began working at the Holocaust Museum three years before there was a Holocaust Museum, after answering an ad at George Washington University (where he was working on a master’s degree in history) for entry-level library work. At the beginning, he did a lot of cataloguing and answered reference questions. Early on, he says, the library staff was uncertain of how the collections would be used: by historians? scholars? for personal research? As library use grew, they learned that about 90 percent of visitors were survivors and their families, a group that often formed lines of 20 to 30 people at the reference desk looking for personal information. By the time the library opened in April 1993, Vitto and a colleague had developed an expertise in finding historical information particular to the needs of survivors. Vitto, for instance, { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } At the Holocaust Museum, Steven Vitto has a daily reminder of the importance of his work: the faces of Jews from a shtetl in Lithuania where all but 29 of the 4,000 Jews were killed by German death squads in 1941. �22 {Commencement} COMMENCEMENT 2004 nspired teachers always leave their students with something intriguing to dwell on. The two commencement speakers at St. John’s last spring shared that quality. Annapolis tutor Chester Burke (A74) spoke of the value of genuine conversation, and Danielle Allen of the University of Chicago spoke to Santa Fe graduates of the lasting gift of wonder that a liberal education can impart. Both left students with an assignment: Burke asked students to ponder Pascal, and Allen asked students to think deeply about a Greek poem. teri thomson randall I “Men and Women of the World” Celebrating in Santa Fe. Annapolis, May 16 As a student, Chester Burke thrived on conversations in the classroom, the Coffee Shop, and the gym; as a musician studying in Paris, he found how much he missed those conversations; and as a tutor for the past two decades, he has seen students discover themselves in those conversations. In life outside the college, real listening is rare, and “conversations too often consist of isolated outbursts of speech which rarely meet up with one another, and even more rarely build upon one another,” he told the Class of 2004. “Such speeches are lonely endeavors which end when the participants have run out of words,” Burke said, adding that what happens at St. John’s is very different. “Your words, responding first to ours and now your own questions, have grown from tentative but honest beginnings, nourished by the active listening of your classmates, into vessels through which the world may be displayed in its fullness. During the past few months, I have been watching not only your faces, but your entire bodies come alive while you strained to respond both to texts and to { T h e C o l l e g e • John’s College • Fall 2004 } one another.” Some of the college’s veteran tutors, Burke said, including himself, may sometimes expect a conversation to take a certain shape in seminar, but students at their best will refuse to conform to it. “Our words rebound from your stubborn surfaces, and leave no indentations. You punish us with your silence and your glazed looks when we deliver beautiful speeches, continually reminding us that speech is not a rehearsed performance, �23 {Commencement} Real conversation can be hard to find outside St. John’s, tutor Chester Burke said. david trozzo but a way of responding to a genuine question. When you are at your best of bests, you slowly build an account with one another, which though it may have the fragility of a sandcastle, resonates as an image of the soul itself— not some abstract soul, but your particular souls.” This development can be witnessed in class, and also in senior orals, said Burke. “All of us have something to say and we become who we are by attempting to articulate it,” Burke said. “It’s overwhelming to be in the presence of someone telling this story, whether it be Odysseus or a stranger on a long bus ride. It’s tremendously difficult to say what dwells most deeply in us, and we are rarely satisfied by our utterances. Sometimes we are embarrassed by these moments. Dostoevski was painfully aware of this. the world. We must be in a position to say, not: this person is a mathematician, a preacher, or eloquent, but that he is a man of the world. This universal quality is the only one that appeals to me. It’s a bad sign if, on seeing a man, we remember his book; I should prefer not to be aware of any quality until we actually meet it, and the moment comes to make use of it (nothing in excess), for fear that one quality might be preponderant and give a man a label; we do not want to feel that he is a good speaker except when it is the right moment for good speech; but let us be sure to recognize it then.” Burke challenged the graduates to consider the meaning of honnête homme, which he translated as “man of the world.” “In Pascal’s century, an honnête homme referred to a cultivated man of the world, graceful and distinguished by his comportment, his spirit, and his knowledge,” he explained. “All of this, though interesting, is not essential to my intention, nor is the fact that Pascal indicates in another Pensée that one cannot learn to be an honnête homme. “I want you to supply your own translation, as I believe that all of you are men and women of the world, abundantly endowed with diverse qualities, but fundamentally human beings, respectful and in awe of the world, and overflowing with the desire to engage the world. You are able to listen, not without judgment, but with passion and fairness, with an openness that will encourage others to seek you out.” david trozzo “You are able to listen, not without judgment, but with passion and fairness, with an openness that will encourage others to seek you out.” Tutor Chester Burke, A74 His characters expose themselves in the most outrageous situations, expressing themselves in ways which often appear ridiculous and even monstrous. It’s very difficult to say the things which need to be said.” This fall, tutors will greet a new group of students, and the voices of students who have moved on will be somewhat lost. Students will also forget many details of their time at St. John’s, but Burke is certain, he told them, that “all of your lives will be spent remembering and nourishing the words that you have spoken with us and with one another… As he closed his address, Burke read a passage from Pascal’s Pensees: “Man of Christopher Nelson congratulates Bryson Finklea, who won a prize in mathematics. President Nelson presided at ceremonies in Santa Fe and Annapolis. { T h e C o l l e g e • John’s College • Fall 2004 } �“Use and Wonder” Santa Fe, May 22 University of Chicago classicist Danielle Allen told graduates and their families in Santa Fe that her address would not touch on the usual commencement topics: a tally of where graduates are headed, a celebration of future careers, and laudatory remarks on how well-prepared graduates are for success. “Such details are supposed to answer the twin questions: what has college made of this particular group of students; what does the future hold for these particular young people?” Allen said. Instead, Allen offered to share with graduates a gift “of real value” in the form of two poems by Simonides of Ceos (c. 556-468). The first, Allen said, was a gift with no strings attached, Simonides 567: Countless birds, all his in a way, fly above his head and from dark water up fish leap true, sounding the song. Allen told graduates she would ask for something in return for her second gift, Simonides 521: don’t try to read his life line, for swifter than a dragonfly, pfft a change. “You have all studied Greek, here, so perhaps you recognize the argument in the poem,” Allen said. “Simonides repeats what the Athenian legislator Solon, one of the Seven Sages of antiquity, had already said ‘Call no man happy before his death.’ “Herodotus treated us to that bit of Solonic wisdom as part of the story of the travels that Solon undertook after completing the heroic work of resolving class struggle in Athens and establishing institutions that had in them the seeds of democracy. He left Athens in order that his personal authority would not interfere with the working of the new legal system and stopped in his voyages in Lydia (modern-day Turkey) where he visited the great king Croesus, a wealthy and powerful man entirely confident of his life’s success….Croesus put to Solon the question, ‘Who is the happiest man you have ever seen?’ Solon answered, ‘Tellus the Athenian.’ Flabbergasted, Croesus asked who was the second happiest man. He was expecting to hear his name at least this time. But Solon said, ‘Cleobis and Biton.’ Angry, Croesus demanded an teri thomson randall Since you are mortal, don’t prophesy the quality of tomorrow’s dawn, and when you meet the man of the year, {Commencement} teri thomson randall 24 At its best, liberal education endows a graduate with the ability to wonder, Danielle Allen said. explanation for why he didn’t rate. Solon answered: “‘My lord, I know god is envious of human prosperity and likes to trouble us; and you question me about the lot of man. Listen then: as the years lengthen out, there is much both to see and to suffer which one would wish otherwise. Take 70 years as the span of a man’s life: those 70 years contain 26,250 days [on the Greek way of counting], and not a single one of them is like the next in what it brings. You can see from that, Croesus, what a chance thing life is. You are very rich, and you rule a numerous people; but the question you asked me I will not answer, until I know that you have died happily.… Often enough, god gives man a glimpse of happiness and then utterly ruins him.’ And indeed, Croesus eventually lost his empire and his children. He couldn’t in the end be called happy.” After the ceremony, a family celebrates. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �25 david trozzo {Commencement} No college can ensure the future happiness or success of its graduates, but it can endow them with something of immeasurable value: the ability to wonder, Allen said. To illustrate her point, she told about inviting a colleague, a biologist, to a meeting of a Chicago parks and recreation advisory board on which she serves—a group often rent by contentious arguments. The biologist’s presentation on birds and other wildlife in the park gave the group “an opportunity to pursue knowledge for its own sake,” along with a chance to discuss something that didn’t require a vote or a stance. “The pleasure of knowledge is as real as the pleasures of the body,” she explained. “I saw it there in that room, in a group of argumentative people joined in a variety of expressions of pleasure from wonder satisfied. This pleasure was much easier to identify in that meeting than in a college classroom, because of the palpable difference from what we council members were accustomed to in our exchanges.” Practical matters such as food, clothing, and shelter can overwhelm us, but the “cause of wonder” has a restorative effect that will see us through crises and lead us to new sources of strength, she said. “Wonder sets us back on our heels and helps us turn in a new direction.” At the conclusion of her address, Allen returned to Simonides 521 and read the poem to her audience again. It is not a poem of despair, she noted. “In the midst of reflecting on the alarmingly unpredictable nature of change, the speaker of the poem marvels at the speed and beauty of dragonflies,” Allen said. “The poem is itself an example of what it means to draw on the resources of wonder to sustain oneself even as one confronts necessity.” x Above, Annapolis graduates Jackson O’Brien, Kelly O’Donnell, John Okrent, and Erin Page. At left, Annapolis graduate Sarah Stickney and her father, Santa Fe tutor Cary Stickney (A75), celebrate. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �26 {Homecoming} PL ANTING MEMORIES Alumni Make Time “For the Trees” by John Hartnett, SF83 teri thomson randall M campus has lost over a thousand trees to drought and devastation from the pine bark beetle. In the immediate campus vicinity, the college has lost over 150 trees. Replanting lost trees and tending to healthy ones is an urgent project for reasons other than preserving the beauty of the campus—the college is keenly aware of the need to head off future fire hazards and to work to prevent soil erosion. About 15 alumni and five current students spent a day tending to healthy trees that had been reseeded in the spring. Marni Hamilton (SF05) was one of the students working outdoors with alumni. “Interacting with the alumni made me think about my class and where all of us are going,” she says. “It made me think about life after St. John’s.” teri thomson randall ost college reunions are for trading snapshots, bragging about children’s accomplishments, and comparing hairlines and waistlines, but for the nearly 200 Johnnies who came to Santa Fe for Homecoming July 1-3, this gathering was for the trees—the fragrant and elegant piñon trees that help define the Santa Fe landscape. The weekend theme was “For the Trees.” In addition to the usual luncheons, parties, and award ceremonies, the weekend provided alumni with an opportunity to cultivate new memories while re-planting piñon trees. The trees nearest the classroom buildings were planted when the campus was built in 1964; however, many of the trees on the surrounding college land are over 150 years old. Since 2002, the Santa Fe Roxanne Seagraves (SF83), director of alumni relations and parent activities, said that working together helped the alumni interact in the present as well as the past. “At a reunion, sitting in seminar with the same people you sat in seminar with years ago affirms the past,” she says. “But this weekend was also about creating beauty in the present. When you replace a 300-year-old tree, you are replacing a legacy and making a tangible commitment to the future of the college.” Besides planting trees and digging up memories, reunion classes also enjoyed a full weekend of fun including a Saturday waltz party, alumni dinner and fiesta picnic, awards from the Alumni Association, dance lessons, a President’s brunch, and, of course, reunion seminars with retired tutors William Darkey, Don Cook, and Robert Sacks. x More on Homecoming can be found in the Alumni Association report, pages 46-47. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �{Homecoming} Opposite top: Future Johnnies join in the festivities. Opposite left: Members of the class of 1984 shares memories at the Fiesta Picnic Saturday afternoon. At right, Kevin (SF90) and Khin Khin Guyot-Brock (SF88) find a shady spot between activities. Below, clockwise, members of the class of 1979 blur the lines of time and space. Glenda Eoyang (SF76), Steve Thomas (SF74), and Joseph Tooley (SF69)enjoy the picnic. Members of the class of 1969 and 1979 join Alumni Association board members at Sunday brunch. photos by teri thomson randall { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } 27 �28 {Bibliofile} The Writer in Natalie Goldberg uthor Natalie Goldberg (SFGI74) found immediate success with her first book, Writing Down the Bones, Freeing the Writer Within (Shambala, 1986). Now in its 33rd printing, the book has sold more than a million copies in 10 languages. Goldberg’s other books include Wild Mind, Thunder and Lighting, Long Quiet Highway, Banana Rose, and Living Color. This fall, she published her newest book, The Great Failure: A Bartender, a Monk, and My Unlikely Path to Truth (Harper San Francisco). A poet, teacher, writer, and painter, Goldberg has studied Zen Buddhism for 24 years. She teaches writing workshops based on the clear-mind, clear-heart methods presented in Writing Down the Bones. Goldberg recently made time to sit down and discuss her books, her studies at the Graduate Institute, and the writing life with The College contributor Andra Maguran. A I’m curious about why you chose to attend St. John’s College. I had gone to undergraduate school at George Washington University....I majored in English lit. And I had had wonderful high school English teachers, but George Washington was very disappointing.…I had heard about St. John’s in Annapolis, Maryland, and it had always intrigued me. I was very interested in philosophy and literature. So when I heard about the graduate program in Santa Fe, and that it met in the summer, I decided to come [right after graduating from GWU]. That’s how hungry I was and how disappointed. And it was very scary for me to come to Santa Fe—I’d never been farther than Ann Arbor, Michigan! I had no idea what the West was like, and I probably would never have come if I hadn’t gone to St. John’s. But was it the Program itself, the great books program? Yes, it was definitely the great books Program. I’d heard about it when I was in Washington. And it’s amazing to me, I don’t really know where it came from, but I just took a leap and said that I’m going. It wasn’t very much like me. But I think I had heard about it all during my undergraduate years, and it intrigued me, so when I heard about the graduate program I was ripe. It strikes me as interesting that you, being such a creative person, would come to a graduate program that focuses very heavily on critical or analytical thinking. I didn’t know I was a creative person then. I was just like a St. John’s person in that I was very analytical. I was actually an atheist, and I was sort of an intellectual. I loved books, and I think I didn’t know it, but I was terribly intrigued by ideas and thoughts. So it was only after I graduated from St. John’s that I took a huge leap into another arena of my life. At that time, the college had only been here for a few years. Did you have a sort of pioneering sense? It felt very fresh…I just loved it. It was really exciting to sit and just talk about a book directly, without reading any other sources, to have a conversation. And I loved the teachers; the tutors were wonderful. It was so intriguing that you could have a Ph.D. in physics, but you had to teach Greek. You couldn’t just be frozen any place. It was just a wonderful concept that you called them tutors and that the classes were so small. The tutors were so alive. And during that time, Rockefeller had given a grant to St. John’s for high school English teachers from the inner city. So there were a lot of African-Americans. My class was at least half African-Americans, people who had really lived their lives. They didn’t just read Socrates and just mouth it. They kept referring to their own life experience. It was very vital, very exciting. So you spent time studying Western philosophy—Western culture—and then you made this headlong leap into Eastern leanings? Yes. I have a new book coming out called The Great Failure, and I write about St. John’s in it—the fact that I studied Descartes: “I think therefore I am.” Later the man who ended up being my Zen teacher, a Japanese Zen master…said, “I’ve been reading your { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } dissatisfaction with her undergraduate degree led Natalie Goldberg to St. John’s. Descartes, ‘I think therefore I am.’” And I perked right up. I thought, “He’s reading Descartes?” And he said, “Descartes probably remembered, but forgot to mention: ‘I don’t think, therefore I’m not.’” And in all those hours in the seminar on Descartes, no one thought of that angle. So it was sort of like Western civilization dropped off a cliff at that moment. But what I realized in writing this new book was that St. John’s prepared me for that. Because the other friends and students who practice with [Zen Teacher Katagiri] Roshi don’t remember that lecture. But for me, it was totally a lecture, because I’d been studying Descartes at St. John’s so I really paid attention. So, I went into the Eastern world, but I think I got my foundation in the Western world that let me lead into the Eastern world. Do you think that the Program influenced your writing life? Yes, I think it did, because it taught me to trust my own mind and to believe in what I think, saw, and felt. You didn’t go to secondary sources, you met something directly and that’s what writing is. That’s also what Zen practice is. And now that I’m living right near the St. John’s campus, it’s really fun for continued on p. 29 �29 {Bibliofile} The Man in the MoonFixer’s Mask by JonArno Lawson (A91) Toronto: Pedlar Press, 2004. n part, his diverse interests explain JonArno Lawson’s two most recent accomplishments in the publishing world. Not long after his chapters on Chechen literature and proverbs appeared in Chechens: A Handbook, Lawson’s third volume of poetry, The Man in the Moon-Fixer’s Mask, was published by a Canadian press. The other explanation is a relatively new audience for his work: his son, Asher, and daughter, Sophie. “We had our first child, Sophie, about three years ago and were reading a lot more children’s poetry,” explains Lawson (A91), who lives in Toronto. Asher joined the family in January 2004. Lawson and his wife, Amy Freedman, were reading books such as Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends to their daughter, and Lawson found the musical style of children’s poetry infectious. Writing for children, Lawson adds, is distinctly different and a little more difficult than writing poetry for adults. “In adult poetry now in English, most of the time you don’t worry about rhyme, and I (continued) me to walk around. The other thing for me was, when I came here I was blown away by the architecture of St. John’s. Like, wherever you are you know people take it for granted, there’s all this glass and light. We all know about the doors being painted different colors, but in 1970 that just blew me away. One wall would be blue and another pink. Some people think writing can’t be taught. How do you feel about that? A lot of those people who think that writing can’t be taught are people who can’t write themselves and have given up. Writing can be taught, just like anything else. When Writing Down the Bones came out, across the culture, people wrote me letters: Quarry workers in Missouri. Blue- meter isn’t as important. When you’re writing for children, all those things become very important again—word play, timing. I guess it’s the same with an adult poem in that you want the images to be surprising.” Children are a tough audience to write for, he adds. “Children are very honest when they don’t like something. We tried out all the poems on Sophie first— she was my first editor for this project.” Lawson began writing poetry as a teenager, and by the time he got to St. John’s, he was taking his craft seriously. He published his first book of poems and aphorisms, Love is An Observant Traveller, tackling themes such as families and relationships, in 1997. “One of the first poems I wrote was when I was at St. John’s,” he says. “It was based on the Odyssey. It hasn’t made it into a book yet, but it has promise.” Since poetry doesn’t pay well, Lawson also does freelance editing and teaches poetry workshops in schools as part of Ontario’s Artists in Education program. He continues to explore other types of writing, such as the chapters on Chechen literature. “It all ties together because it’s all language, and how people use language collar workers in Nebraska. Vice-presidents of insurance agencies in Florida. Everybody has a deep desire to write. And that doesn’t mean they’re all going to become Faulkner, but people have a need to express themselves. How did you make the transition to being a full-time writer? I just made enough money and I could just make a living as a writer, so I quit doing other things. Before that I was teaching. My last full-time job was teaching fifth and sixth grade, at Rio Grande. Writing Down the Bones came out. It still sells, and is taught in colleges and high schools, and so I was able to just leave. After Writing Down the Bones, I started a novel, Banana Rose, and then I wrote Wild Mind. This book, The Great Failure, is a memoir about my { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } Horses in Cities Good and iniquitous, they were ubiquitous: Horses were everywhere anyone looked. But with cars, numbers dwindled, and sightings diminished, and then one day horses in cities were finished. I Spun I spun where I was told to spin and while I spun grabbed hold of him who told me where I had to spin. I could tell it startled him. as a tool to say things in different ways and as clearly as possible,” he explains, adding, “I probably am a better writer than a talker.” Lawson has two volumes—one of children’s poems and one for adults— nearly complete and ready for a publisher. “Children’s poetry is the most fun of anything I’ve done,” he says. “It’s the most fun, I guess, because there’s a better chance people will read it.” x father, who was a Jewish bartender, and my Japanese Zen Master Katagiri Roshi, the two most important men in my life… looking at the wonderful things about them, and also their darkness. I think it’s the best book I’ve ever written. I’m very excited about it. Do you still have dark periods where you hate everything you write or can’t write? What do you do when that happens? Yes. And you just keep your hand moving. Writing is a practice, and you do it whether you like to or not, whether you feel good about it or not. You’re in a good mood, you go write. You lost all your money, you go write. You just won the Nobel Prize, you start a new book the next day. x �30 {Alumni Profile} “From Homer to Homicide” A Love for Language Led Carole Chaski (A77) to Forensic Linguistics by Rosemary Harty arole Chaski had worked long and hard to earn her doctorate in computational linguistics and by 1992, was nicely settled in an academic career. She was conducting research on reading, setting up literacy programs for factory workers, and teaching at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. One day she took a call from a homicide detective investigating a suspicious suicide, and her life took a completely different turn— for the better. Chaski went on to help solve a crime in which the prime suspect might have otherwise gotten off scot-free. Today she is a leading expert in forensic linguistics. It turned out to be a lot more exciting than teaching the History of English to glassyeyed engineering majors. Between her teaching days and her 15-minutes of fame as the expert who cracked the case on a recent episode of Court TV’s Forensic Files, there were years of research and study of the structures of language, beginning with a deep fascination with the puzzles of ancient Greek. “If I ever wrote the story of my life, I could call it, ‘From Homer to Homicide,’” Chaski quips. Chaski’s work today involves analyzing language, finding patterns in syntax, and determining when a piece of writing departs from a pattern. Her ability for this work stems from the study of languages, especially ancient Greek, in reading and linguistics. Chaski left St. John’s after her freshman year to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Greek and English at Bryn Mawr College. After graduating, she spent a year teaching in an impoverished school district on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The dismally high illiteracy rate there fed an interest in scott suchman C how children learn to read, and Chaski went on to earn a master’s degree in the psychology of reading at the University of Delaware. While working on her degree, she assisted two computational linguists in their research. That subject took hold of her imagination, and she went on to Brown University for master’s and doctoral degrees in linguistics, with an emphasis on syntax, computational linguistics, and how languages change over time. At Brown she returned to ancient Greek grammar for her dissertation topic and settled on the historic changes in the syntax of Greek. “The verbal infinitive had been very prevalent in classical Greek and started to be less prevalent in Hellenistic Greek until finally by early modern or medieval Greek, it was essentially gone,” she says. “My question was, what caused Greek to lose the infinitive?” Examining long-distance anaphors (a word or phrase that takes its reference from another word, most often within the same clause) gave her a lead. “When you look at classical Greek you see two things: long-distance anaphors and case mismatches—case agreement mismatches in that you expect the case to be genitive but it comes out accusative, you expect dative and it comes out accusative. Both of these phenomena that were attached to the infinitive were odd because they went back past the boundary of a clause for their antecedents.” She cites an example of a long-distance anaphor from Thucydides: “Oerestes persuaded the Athenians to restore himself.” Expected to refers to the Athenians, himself refers instead to Oerestes. Chaski went through hundreds of lines of Greek works from ancient times to modern, assigning the terms “marked” and “unmarked” to phrases. Unmarked followed the usual patterns; marked were in some way remarkable. Examining those patterns allowed Chaski to study one narrow aspect of how a language changes over time. “When the condition that allowed these phrases to go outside the boundary—that is, the infinitive—disappeared, these oddities instantly died out,” she said. From criminal cases to civil lawsuits, Carole Chaski’s expertise is in demand. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �{Alumni Profile} This painstaking research was what Chaski went back to when a homicide detective named W. Allison Blackman brought her a computer disk with suicide notes allegedly written by Michael Hunter, a young man found dead of a lethal combination of drugs injected into his arm. Blackman didn’t have much to go on when he came to Chaski and asked if she could examine the note and other writing samples from Hunter to determine if he had really written the suicide note. “I know how to analyze syntax and I know how to find patterns,” she told Blackman. “I’ll try it and we’ll see.” Chaski looked at writing samples for Hunter and his two roommates, including a young medical student named Joseph Mannino, who had easy access to the drugs in Hunter’s system. Chaski found that patterns in the suicide note—particularly the use of conjunctions—were strikingly similar to those of Mannino, who was involved in a three-way affair with Hunter and a third roommate. The suicide notes were marked by conjunctions between sentences. Samples of Hunter’s authentic writing included more conjunctions between non-sentence phrases. Police eventually arrested Mannino. After a three-week trial, he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in prison. After consulting with the local district attorney’s office on another case (identifying the author of an anonymous threatening letter), Chaski knew she had found something more satisfying and more challenging than an academic career. “At St. John’s, we talk a lot about the examined life. I just wasn’t happy as an academic. It seemed that the primary role of professors was to get away from the students,” she says. She secured a fellowship at the National Institute of Justice (the research arm of the U.S. Justice Department) and set about finetuning a method to distinguish one author from another based on syntactic patterns. “I was the only one doing any research independent of litigation,” Chaski says. As part of her research, Chaski set about examining every method already employed in language identification. She demonstrated that analyzing language based on the spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors was not good enough to determine individuality in writing. “I’m really against the prescriptive, stylistics method because what pops out to people as odd is not a pattern, it’s just what’s popping out,” she explains. “It’s like Plato’s cave—you can’t know the light until you know the shadow, and you have to have them both. In DNA analysis, if you’re looking for a chromosomal anomaly, you have to have the whole pattern. That’s where you start in syntactic analysis. Every document is analyzed for every syntactic pattern and nothing is left out. That way you can find out if something that seems unusual in a piece of writing really is unusual.” Similarly, the type of analysis scholars undertake in trying to determine the authorship of something like a Shakespeare play or a Biblical text (content analysis, vocabulary “It’s like Plato’s cave— you can’t know the light until you know the shadow, and you have to have them both.” Carole Chaski, A77 richness, the complexity of sentences) is not suited to forensic linguistics, where documents conveying death threats or ransom demands are usually short and to the point. Chaski has spent the last decade or so refining and applying a scientific method for syntactic analysis that is rooted in linguistic theory and validated by statistical testing. Each analysis begins with taking texts apart and labeling each word for its part of speech, then taking phrases within the sentences and parsing those. “Once the phrases are all determined, I categorize them into two types: marked and unmarked. Unmarked are phases that are so common, they don’t stand out—‘it’s in the car.’ Marked are those that are more infrequent or more remarkable— ‘it’s in the car, in the garage, attached to the house.’’’ Next, Chaski determines the frequency of marked and unmarked phrases in the writing samples. Those numbers are fed into computer programs that yield three different statistical analyses. The first two methods, discriminate function analysis and logistic regression, seek a clear division between the questioned document and the other known writing samples in her pool. The third test, hierarchical cluster analysis, seeks similarities by “clustering” similar samples into the same pool. “Everybody starts out in a pool of potential authors. If the statistical procedures show there’s a significant difference, people { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } 31 are excluded. If I can’t find any difference between a suspect’s writing sample and the evidence document, that’s what my report will say,” Chaski says, adding, “I never claim that only one person in the world could have written something.” Several years ago, Chaski left Washington for Georgetown, Del., where she founded the Institute for Linguistic Evidence, of which she is executive director. Along with continuing research, lecturing, and writing about her methods, Chaski has served as a consultant in a number of intriguing cases where her research influenced the outcomes. In one Annapolis case, the founder of a firm that developed environmental technology was sued by a former employee who wanted a significant share of the profits reaped from the company’s product. However, the company’s owner suspected the man had written damaging letters to potential customers. “The lawyers for the defendant came to me and they were already convinced that it was this engineer. In this case, the pool was limited to those who worked for the company—only they had the technical knowledge to write the letters, ” Chaski explains. Her analysis proved the defendant correct, and on that basis, the judge overruled the jury verdict to give the fired engineer the small sum the jury had agreed upon. In another recent civil case, Chaski determined that a woman claiming sexual harassment in her workplace was the author of e-mails that indicated the relationship between her and her supervisor was consensual. Chaski also showed that a federal employee who was fired for writing racist e-mails was very probably the author of those missives. In other cases, Chaski’s work has taken her into state and federal courts, where her testimony has passed successfully through the scrutiny of evidence hearings. Chaski believes it’s possible for someone to succeed in imitating another’s writing to a degree, but that it’s impossible to suppress one’s own style completely. “Language is meant to be meaning-centered, not syntax-centered. Syntax is fundamental, it’s what makes language efficient. But it’s very abstract, very automated. If we thought about it, we’d go nuts—‘how many prepositional phrases did I just write?’—and not actually be able to communicate.” Given her St. John’s education, it’s not really odd that Chaski was drawn to forensic linguistics. “That’s because Johnnies learn to think about, and talk about, language as language,” says Chaski. x �32 {Alumni Notes} 1937 HAROLD L. BROOKS just celebrated his 90th birthday with a big party in Sebastian, Fla. 1941 HENRY M. ROBERT III, who lives in Annapolis and has been a regular at Annapolis campus homecomings, is co-author of the seventh, eighth, and ninth edition of his father’s wellknown parliamentary manual, published in 1970, 1981, 1990, and 2000 respectively, all under the title of Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised. And now in response to widespread demand by those who feel daunted by that book’s complete treatment of the subject, he and the same authorship team have now produced a brief introductory work published last May entitled, Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised in Brief (Da Capo Press). “And,oh yes,” Henry writes, “nowadays you have to make is something called ‘user-friendly.’ We hope we’ve passed muster on that score.” 1944 ARTHUR HYMAN serves as Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University in New York. 1945 LAWRENCE L. LEVIN writes, “Just had my first grandchild—a boy!” 1950 T YLDEN STREETT is still completing sculpture commissions and teaching an advanced figurative class once a week at the Maryland Institute College of Art. “I am enjoying one of many slack periods and am able to return to work on my presentational busts of Barr and Buchanan that were begun in ’02,” he writes. “Barr is approaching a casting date but Buchanan is more difficult. I have received some critical help from John Van Doren and may have both cast by year’s end.” 1951 L. DONALD KOONTZ points out that members of the class of 1951 are featured on the cover of this year’s Philanthropia calendar. The students peering into their microscopes were members of his freshman lab class, working diligently in the spring of 1948. GEORGE WEND is still active with the book discussion group of the Alumni Association’s Baltimore chapter. He took a trip last summer to Peru to visit Machu Picchu, the Andes, and the Amazon; this summer he embarked on a two-week river cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Homeric Geography (1992). The reader may visit his Web site at www.homer.com.mx. 1962 JOSEPH J. BRENNIG retired from the Foreign Service in 1997, but was called back to serve in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1998. Currently, he is working in the Department of State on the Pakistan Desk. 1964 JUDI WOOD writes: “No new news— except to say that we are traveling in May 2004 by car to East Lansing, Mich., to visit grandchildren while their dad, our son John, is working on his master’s degree in business. We will be in Fort Smith, Ark., and Nashville, Tenn., on our way.” 1954 To mark the 50th anniversary of his graduation from St. John’s this year, RICHARD BURNETT CARTER sent The College two poems celebrating former dean Jacob Klein and one of his most memorable tutors, Simon Kaplan. Kaplan still influences Carter after these many decades. He wrote: “That man’s teachings,/Spoken quietly as dawn breezes sighing through pine forests;/They sing in my heart after 50 years,/Still forbidding any meanness to enter there.” Of Klein, he wrote: “That falcon sought eternity in Nimrod’s dense thicket,/But once there, he found poems bleeding on the thorns of Mind’s mindless veiling./So, he sheathed his dream-rending talons,/ And nursed those verses back to their long-hidden splendor.” 1965 A busy summer and second-career plans for CAROL JEFFERS: “I will be participating in a build with Habitat for Humanity in Durban, South Africa, in July and traveling with friends to Capetown after that. In August I return to the U.S. and retire from my federal job. In September I enter Lancaster Theological Seminary, pursuing a Master of Divinity degree. My long-term goal is to be a community minister in my Unitarian Universalist faith.” 1966 “After spending 17 years rehabbing a shell in South Philadelphia, we finally finished last December, at least enough to move in,” writes JUDY (MILLSPAUGH) ANDERSON. “I am sure we will be upgrading and improving for the next 10 years. I am still doing house calls exclusively, in the greater Philadelphia area. The practice is thriving. I have two parttime physicians, a full-time nurse Bluegrass on the Bayou S ome retirement careers are more fun than others. That’s LARRY SCHLUETER (A67) in the back of the boat in this promo picture for his band, New Orleans-based Hazel and the Delta Ramblers. Schlueter recently retired from the U.S. Customs Service after “32-plus” years and spends much of his time recording and performing in and around The Big Easy. The band’s latest CD, Pickin’ on the Bayou, features 16 cuts of bluegrass tunes and original compositions. That’s Larry’s wife, HAZEL (A69), standing in the front of the canoe, holding her mandolin. x 1959 ROBERTO SALINAS-PRICE has been an avid Homeric scholar for the past 30 years. He has published Homer’s Blind Audience (1984) and Atlas of { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �33 {Alumni Notes} practitioner, an office manager, a business manager, and two office workers to share the work (and the money). None of us will ever get rich doing this, but it is certainly more fun than punching a time clock with the Commonwealth of PA. “Step-kids are doing fine; all out of the nest for a while now, and I have a multitude of grandchildren, ranging in age from 3 months to 15 years. My dad passed away last year; I don’t know if there was a notice in the Annapolis paper. There was one in the Baltimore Sun, and a few people wrote that they had seen it. He went the way I want to go when my time comes: peacefully and painlessly in his sleep, after a pleasant evening spent reminiscing with family and friends. “My sisters are doing well. Both had surgery last year, one for breast cancer, the other for a thyroid nodule. Both recovered and are currently in good health, as am I. Well, except for arthritis, but nobody ever died of that. “My husband Joe is also doing OK. He closed his business a couple of years ago and is back among the salaried masses, and hates it with a passion. His inner entrepreneur is itching to be in business for himself again.” 1967 THE REV. CLARK LOBENSTINE will be part of the Assembly of Religious and Spiritual Leaders meeting and then participating in the much larger Parliament of the World’s Religions in Barcelona. He will be one of just 350 leaders selected worldwide to be at the assembly. He was thrilled and humbled to be one of just 51 people internationally nominated for the first Paul Carus Award to be given at the Parliament. It is the most prestigious award in inter-religious work. The nomination was based on his 25 years as executive director of the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington. MARK LINDLEY (A67) is active with the InterFaith Conference. Three Boys in College HEILA BOBBS ARMSTRONG (SF70, SFGI95) writes: “My son Ian will be a sophomore at the Annapolis campus this fall. He loves St. John’s, having spent three years at the University of New Mexico. Eamon, #2 son, is at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Quinn, #3, is at Idylwild Arts Academy in California. I am still with Mike and splitting time between Santa Fe and Perth, and traveling. Love to all.” x S 1968 A story that ends well from JONATHAN AURTHUR (A): “I was a member of a group of 70 bicyclists (and one skateboarder) who were arrested at the Democratic National Convention in August 2000 for participating in a Critical Mass bike ride that was part of a week of protests against globalization and related matters. (Critical Mass is an informal international movement that advocates for more bicycles and fewer cars.) We were held in county jail for a day and a half, and the female members of our group were illegally stripsearched. A couple of weeks after our release, all charges against us (most having to do with ‘reckless driving’) were dropped. In late 2000 we sued both the County and City of Los Angeles for unlawful arrest and stripsearches. Last year we settled the County case (strip-searches and related matters) for $2.75 million, and this past March we settled the City suit (unlawful arrest) for $875,000.” MARY HOWARD CALLAWAY (A) writes that her daughter, Hannah Boone, will be graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Carleton College and traveling to France on a Fulbright teaching award next year. “She was grateful that when she was growing up, ‘dinner was always a seminar, where I learned to hold my own in heated discussions.’ Ah, the St. John’s legacy runs deep!” Some recognition for BART LEE (A): “Not a Nobel Prize, but an academy award in History of Technology: I received the Houck Award for Documentation in Radio History from the Antique Wireless Association largely for the papers “Radio Spies” 2002; and “Marconi’s Transatlantic Leap” (1999). The Antique Wireless Association is an organization of some 4,000 members linked by a common interest in the history of electrical and electronic communications. CHARLES B. WATSON (A) is still at work as an anesthesiologist and parttime physician administrator of a 50+person department that provides care for more than 18,000 people a year: “Rising elderly population and shrinking health care dollars create problems most alumni have or will experience, sad to say. Happy to report Ivan Watson, of NPR, is back from Iraq and going elsewhere until August. Masha, my wife of about 30 years, is abroad with a high school group and recently managed costumes for 125 youngsters at a superb high school production of Les Miserables. Anya, age 20, is at Connecticut College (no basketball), pursuing Marine Science, while Misha, now 26, builds things on Martha’s Vineyard. Y’all call or stop by: 203-372-9586; CBWMDCT@aol.com or optonline.net.” 1969 DAVID E. RIGGS (A) sent his regrets about missing Homecoming this year, but it’s too far to come from Kyoto, Japan, where he is a research fellow at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies. Here’s his news: “I received my Ph.D. from UCLA in 2002, writing about the reform of Soto Zen Buddhism in 18th-century Japan, and after a teaching stint at the University of Illinois and UC Santa Barbara, I am now halfway through a post-doc at this research institute. My wife, Diane, is doing her dissertation research on a different aspect of Japanese Buddhism, and we are living in a house on the edge of { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } Kyoto, where I still can indulge my passion for cycling. My best wishes to you all.” “I decided it was time to bring you folks up to date,” writes RACHEL HALLFORD TREIMAN (A). “I divorced in 2001, and after my son entered college, sold the house in New York and returned to Lewistown, Mont., where my brother lives, last December. My new address is 19 W. Brassey Street, Lewistown, Montana 59457. I am now coordinator for the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program covering Fergus County and Judith Basin County. Since that is only 30 hours a week with no benefits, I also work online 20 hours for benefits. My oldest, Grace, is now 21 and a senior at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in history. My son Andrew is 19, a sophomore at the University of North Dakota majoring in Air Traffic Control and is on an Air Force ROTC scholarship, planning to go career Air Force. I love being back in Montana. I was born in Lewistown (left when I was six) and therefore, for many of the older folks I identify myself by my grandfather, mother, and her siblings. That slots me in the scheme of things. I’m fortunate my family was liked back then—people have long memories out here!” 1971 What has THOMAS DAY (A) been reading? “I recently read Churchill’s The Story of the Malakand Field Force. Very topical and readable. I’m currently going through his The River Won. If the situation in the Sudan doesn’t stabilize, it may turn out to be equally topical.” 1972 “We lost our first-born son, Ari Cody Sherr, June 7, 2003, in a bicyclingracing event to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society,” writes LAURIE SUSCO-SHERR (SF). “He’s now with his dad, Doug Sherr, who died June 7, at the same age. Twins: Jesse Doug Sherr graduated from UNM’s architecture school, and Dante Gabriel Sherr is to graduate in �34 {Alumni Notes} Thirty Years Go Fast E LLEN (USNER) LEITNER (SF73) left the college to study music after being inspired during concerts of the Moscow Trio, Czech Chamber Orchestra, and Natalia Gutman at St. John’s: “I studied violin with Renata Skoberne, then went to Austria, where I played with several orchestras in Vienna, The Innsbruck Symphony, and the Graz Philharmonic. After that I moved back to New Mexico (my native land) with my Austrian husband, Johann (Hans), and together we raised six children in Chimayó. All of the children were home-schooled for the greater part of their education, and two girls are now studying guitar and voice at North Carolina School of the Arts, our son is studying architecture at UNM, one daughter has a degree in psychology and is married, one daughter is married with two children and one on the way, and the youngest is still at home. Whew! That’s it in a nutshell! Thirty years go by so fast! “As a stay-at-home mother I started doing art, and since 1988 my children and I have participated in the annual Spanish Market on the Santa Fe Plaza with our retablos. I have also been in the St. John’s College Spanish Market since its inception. I enjoy donating a piece of my work for the auction, checking out the book sale, and spending a little time at the college. “I have always been active performing in northern New Mexico and Colorado in symphony orchestras, chamber groups and as a soloist. Recently I have been working with classical guitarist Roberto Capocchi, with whom I have made a CD, Duo Guadalupe, Music for Violin and Guitar. You can hear samples from it at www.cdbaby.com/cd/guadalupe.” x religious sciences and computers next year. Proud Mom and Dad. Much love to all my fellow students, teachers, and compatriots.” 1973 DAVID ALLISON (A) is busy as curator of a new exhibit on military history at the National Museum of American History, which will open on Nov. 11, 2004. His wife, YMELDA MARTINEZALLISON (A74), is teaching art to children in Alexandria, Va., as well as serving as teaching director of community Bible study in Alexandria. They have two children: Camilla, 22, and Gabriel, 20. Many people love collecting, but ROBIN CHALEK TZANNES (A) has taken it to another level: “I am delighted to announce the online appearance of my little Greek museum— now known as the Kythera Museum of Natural History. Since 1977, my husband, George, and I have lived part-time on the beautiful and remote Greek island of Kythera. There, with the help of my sons, JOHN (SF00) and PETER (SF04), I’ve made an extensive collection of seashells, rocks, fossils, pressed flowers, feathers, and skulls. Last summer, Peter and another photographer documented my collection, which can now be viewed at www.kythera-family.net (scroll down the left-hand menu and click Kythera Museum of Natural History).” 1974 TOM BYRNES (SF) graduated from the University of Kentucky School of Library and Information Science with an MLS on May 8. He is now library manager of the Lexmark Information Center, a unit of the University of Kentucky Libraries. “Lexmark may be the only corporation that outsources its Library/Information Center to a university,” he writes. “At least we know of no others. In June, UK picked me to run it for a while.” ROBERTA (RAZAFY) FAULHABER (SF) has been living in Paris, France, practically since graduation. She is married to a man from Madagascar and is the mother of two girls, one a painter and the other an ambassadress. RANDY O. and MARTHA (MACKEY) PENDLETON (both SF) celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary this year, Martha writes: “We have two children, one of whom (unlike his parents) graduated from St. John’s College and is also attending his class reunion this year. At various times we’ve written short stories (R), drawn portraits (M), folk danced, swing danced, and sung in a choir (both of us). Randy has mostly been working in pharmaceutical manufacturing (Syntex, Genetech). I was lucky enough to have been able to stay home and raise our two children. Currently we are following Voltaire and cultivating our garden.” 1975 DENNIS J. JOHNSON (A) writes: “Ann and I moved back to Newnan, Georgia, two years ago, after a 15-month stretch of employment in Charlotte, N.C. I wear a number of different hats at work here, including those of training coordinator, ‘machine vision’ system guru, and product trouble-shooter. Our grandchildren are now five in number, ranging from seven months old to ten and a half. We had planned to make a trip to Virginia and Maryland to see them this spring, but Annie cannot travel right now due to health problems. We were hoping to be able to visit with some of my Johnnie friends in that area as well, but for now we will have to make do with e-mail and phone calls. The online alumni register contains all of my updated info, so please feel free to use it and contact me here in the Sunny South!” “I’m half Jack-of-all-Trades and half Jack-in-the-Box, living in Madison, N.J., and trying to come out of retirement as an artist’s model or as a psychiatric caseworker,” says SUZY { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } LARRISON (A). “I have the best resumé for those jobs, but what I really need is a seminar. The opening question is G. KAY BISHOP’S (A75) impression of John Wayne ‘Ta be or not ta be.’ “I was baptized on January 11, full immersion, but don’t want to see sports banned on Sunday, so I have trouble with my latest church. My fiancé is a trustee of a Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. We met in the park in front of the White House (he was taking a nap). He stopped at Freud—but I’m a Jungian. Figuring things out—didn’t know until recently that logos translates to tao in Chinese. The tao, the truth, and the light are making ME lightheaded. “Missing CAROLYN WADE LORING (A77) and GRETCHEN BERG SAVAGE (A75) with pains that would frighten a midwife. Also TEMPLE WRIGHT (A75), TINA SADDY BELL (A75), and KAREN BENT SALEM (A76). Trying to remember my additions to the Seminar Songbag and the Seminar Jokebook, as life can be pretty grim, as in the Brothers G. (Bruno Bettleheim). “Doing pretty well with my stage fright—but I still probably would be a SILENT student. Fondest regards to all.” 1976 MARIE CLARK AVERY (SF) has been nominated to the Wall of Tolerance for her work as a founding member in the National Campaign for Tolerance. Marie teaches Special Education in Espanola and is working on her master’s degree. She also raises four sons, Justin, David, Josh, and Tyrel. VICKY HANLEY (SF) published her third novel, The Light of the Oracle, in the U.K. in August; the book will be published in May 2005 in the U.S. “You can visit me at www.victoriahanley.com.” PHYLLIS HUFFMAN HERMAN (SFGI) writes: “I have been involved in the study of the work of two great thinkers: Moshe Feldenkrais and Virginia Satir. I am a Feldenkrais practitioner (i.e., I work with people exploring thinking/sensing/ feeling/moving in order to bring �35 {Alumni Notes} more efficiency, congruence, grace, ease, and satisfaction to their lives). I am currently training in the Human Validation Process Model, based on Virginia Satir’s work, which I find complementary to the Feldenkrais method of somatic education. I live in Arlington, Va., with my husband, Michael, and our younger daughter, Amy. Our older two children are in college. The nest is emptying.” As a postscript, she offers these lines from Adrienne Rich: “Anger and tenderness: my selves./And now I can believe they breathe in me/ as angels, not polarities./ Anger and tenderness: the spider’s genius/ to spin and weave in the same action/from her own body, anywhere—/even from a broken web.” 1977 BILL MALLOY (SF) retired in December 2003 and spends his time writing and working on photography, in addition to volunteering four mornings a week holding babies in the (NICU) at Texas Children’s Hospital. He plans to get ESL training soon in order to teach English as a Second Language. “Other than that, I am blessed to have both of my parents, ages 88 and 83, who’ve been married an amazing 63? years (so far),” he writes. JUDY KISTLER-ROBINSON (SF) recently visited classmate ELIZABETH (COCHRAN) BOWDEN (SF) at her home in Marblehead, Mass. The two celebrated their birthdays and being friends for more than half their lifetimes at the Kripalu Yoga Center in the Berkshires. Judy also watched the cows changing pastures while visiting LYNNE GATELY (A) in Randolph Center, Vt., where Lynne is a librarian. Lynne and her husband, David, run a dairy farm and a maple sugar business. Judy also visited KEITH HARRISON (SF) at his home in New Hampshire. Keith teaches law at Franklin Peirce Law School. Judy has been enduring Minnesota weather for more than six years now and is longing for a temperate climate with mountains. Anyone with job leads in New Mexico, please contact Judy! 1979 Poetic entry no. 3 for this issue of Alumni Notes, from QUINN CUSHING (SF), an ode from Brooklyn: “Winter’s cold blues chase/ The summer’s heat/through the city’s sewers./They meet and rise,/ Coiling about my feet—Steam rising from the street/after the promised thunderstorms/have passed.” 1980 LISA LASHLEY (SF) writes: “I’m married to Santa Fe attorney Ron Van Amberg. We have two children, Alex, who will be attending CU Boulder in the fall, and Virginia, who is a sophomore at St. Michael’s High School. I am teaching algebra at St. Mike’s where I am head of the Math Department and advisor to the National Junior Honors Society. I’m still involved in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and plan to accompany my son on a two-week back-packing trip to Philmont this summer!” BOB NESLUND (SFGI) was named “Latin Teacher of the Year” by the Classical Association of Minnesota in November 2003. 1981 JIM PRESTON (A) and ELLEN MINERVA (A80) “are happily raising their girls in Silver Spring, Md. Call anytime: 301-585-8554.” 1982 MARIAN BETOR BAUMGARTEN (A) writes: “My husband, JONATHAN BAUMGARTEN (also A82), was ordained a Deacon in the Episcopal Church in February 2004. Jon continues to work as a systems analyst in Chicago, and I continue to work in human resources administration. Martha will be a sophomore in high school this fall, and Peter will be entering 7th grade.” 1983 JOHN HARTNETT (SF) has been named communications director on the Santa Fe campus of St. John’s. ANN WALTON SIEBER (A) is currently living in her hometown of Houston, where she’s working as a “bohemian freelance journalist.” She recently coordinated all the media for Houston’s Art Car Parade. On a more serious side, she’s involved in starting a halfway house for men released from prison. 1984 PETER GREEN (A) has finally left Prague and finished a year at Columbia Business School as a Knight-Bagehot Fellow. He expected a return to journalism this summer. “I’m in New York now and reachable at petergreen@pobox.com. See you all at the reunion!” Peter is compiling the virtual yearbook for his class reunion. Pictures and updates can be mailed to: sjc84reunion@ hotmail.com or to Peter personally. TRISHA (FIKE) HOWELL (SF) is pleased to announce the publication of her fifth book, The Adventures of Melon and Turnip, a children’s picture book. Trisha would love to hear from former classmates and can be reached at Trish@HowellCanyonPress.com NATASHA WALTER-FISK (SF) writes, “I’m going to the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, studying for a degree in counseling, planning on being licensed in 2008. Getting divorced from Peter. Gioia, 8 years old, is a joy. When a plant moves to a bigger pot, breaking the roots hurts, but then it flourishes. Sending kindest regards to all.” JOHN C. WRIGHT (A) sends an update on his literary career: “My fourth novel, Last Guardian of Everness, came out in August. The second two volumes of the previous trilogy—a work of science fiction— made the N.Y. Times Recommended { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } Reading List for 2003. The titles of that series are: The Golden Age, Phoenix Exaltant, and The Golden Transcendence.” 1985 MARY WALLACE (SF) and Eileen Lynx were married in April in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Their marriage “is recognized by the civilized nations of the world,” writes Mary. 1986 ELIZABETH BARNET (SF) writes: “Spring of 2004 finds me 14 years married to Rufus Blunk, whom I met working on a building project in Nicaragua in 1987. We have lived as land stewards in Marin County on Tomales Bay with a big garden, wood sculpture, and sustainable living projects. I have taught yoga here for 12 years and home-school my children: son Jasper, nearly 11, off to performing arts camp on a piano scholarship; son Silas, now 8; and daughter, Savilia, just 5. I am reading Catherine Clinton’s biography of Harriet Tubman and collecting signatures for a petition to make Marin County GMO-free. Hello there to old friends. E-mail me at lizbar@svn.net, or P.O. Box 636, Inverness, CA 94937.” STEPHANIE RICO (A) and TODD PETERSON (A87) welcomed their second daughter, Sasha Gabriele, to their family this past November. “She joins her sister, Tia Linda Rico Peterson, who is 2 years old and loves her new baby sister. You can reach us at srico@mail.sandi.net or boredout@concentric.net.” 1987 News from BOB HOWELL (AGI) and his wife, Lynn: Bob is the head of the English Department at the O’Neal School, and Lynn is the director of the Southern Pines Public Library. Their daughter Emma graduated as the valedictorian of O’Neal’s class of �36 {Alumni Profile} A Taste of New Orleans Sara Roahen’s Restaurant Reviews Capture all the Flavor of The Big Easy by Sus3an Borden, a87 W hen is smoked meat not just smoked meat? When it’s barbecue, the emblem of Southern food culture and the subject of a cover story for the New Orleans Gambit Weekly by SARA ROAHEN (SF94). Still, despite barbecue’s stronghold on Southern appetites, the story was not a natural match for the Gambit. New Orleans, although rich in food culture, is not much of a barbecue town. As Roahen points out in her article, an informal study published in the spring/summer edition of South at the Center puts New Orleans dead last among Southern towns in barbecue-restaurantsper-person. Nevertheless, Roahen managed to turn this low-priority topic into a vibrant story, weaving history, statistics, sociology, oral history, regionalism, race, and politics into its 4,000 words. “Writing about food isn’t just about writing about food,” Roahen says. “It’s also tapping into something everybody can relate to. There’s a lot of room for social commentary. Discussions of race, wage issues, values—those came up a lot while I was researching the story.” Roahen’s articles capture all the flavor— historical and social as well as gustatory—of New Orleans’ food culture. She has won a number of awards for her work, most recently first place in the critical review category for the New Orleans Press Club Awards 2004 and first place in the food writing category for the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies 2003. In addition to the food news, restaurant reviews, and feature stories she writes for the Gambit, she is also a contributor to Wine and Spirits magazine and Tin House (a literary magazine), and has been published in Gourmet. Her essays can be found in 2003 Best Food Writing and an upcoming anthology, Cornbread Nation II. Roahen brings a solid background of restaurant work to her job. As a Johnnie in Santa Fe, she was a cocktail waitress at La Posada and worked after graduation at Cloud Cliff as a waitress and assistant manager. She was a line cook at restaurants in Wisconsin, San Francisco, and Wyoming. In 1999, she moved to New Orleans where her then-boyfriend, now husband, MATHIEU DE SCHUTTER (SF94) began medical school. Burnt out from cooking, she decided to resuscitate an old love, writing. “I knew I wanted to make the move to writing, but I didn’t know how to do it,” she says. “I feel like luck was on my side, because the weekly paper ran an ad for a restaurant critic, and Mathieu pushed me to apply.” The ad asked applicants to submit published clips but Roahen had none. Undeterred, she wrote a restaurant review, a recipe feature, and an autobiographical essay and sent them in. Three months later she was offered her first in a series of assign- “I can count the number of truly mind-bending meals I’ve eaten on two hands.” Sara Roahen, SF94 ments that lasted six months before she was officially offered the position. “I found out that I got the job in part because I went to the trouble to make up clips and in part because the editor of the paper, Michael Tisserand, went to St. John’s for one semester and wanted to see what a Johnnie looks like,” Roahen says. “I certainly never anticipated that St. John’s was going to help me get a writing job, but it did.” Roahen’s work as a food writer gives her an unusual relationship with food. For her weekly column she eats at the restaurant she’s reviewing at least three times. Research to find new places adds a few more restaurant meals, and occasionally she eats out for pleasure. “I love dining out. Sometimes I get physically tired of it, but there are a lot of great moments to be had in dining out even if you do it for a living. I’ve given up looking for the end-all-be-all meals, those are always rare. I can count the number of truly mindbending meals I’ve eaten on two hands. But I‘ve gained an appreciation for certain piv{ T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } otal moments or dishes or mouthfuls. I can find something exciting in more than you would think.” On her list of mind-bending meals is a dinner she ate at a cider house in the Spanish town of Astigarraga near San Sebastian. Cider houses can be found throughout the Spanish countryside, each serving the same traditional menu. Meals are eaten standing up around tables and the food is brought in courses: first, a tortilla de bacalao (a sort of omelet made with salt cod); then, bacalao (salt cod) smothered in roasted peppers; next, rare ox grilled over an open fire; and for dessert, Idiazabal (a slightly smoky sheep’s milk cheese) with quince paste and walnuts. “Throughout the meal everyone at your table walks up to big casks of cider and fills their glasses with just an inch of cider, drinking it quickly before it oxidizes.” As the meal continues, Roahen says, the fun escalates. “You’re standing up digging into hunks of meat, getting tipsy, and everyone around you is doing the same thing. You start talking to people at other tables. Then, every 15 minutes or so, the owner walks to a secret door in the back and unlocks it. That’s where the really good cider is. Everyone leaves their table and stands in line to get a spot of cider. They toast each other, slam down the cider and go back to their tables.” Roahen, who was eating with her husband, his father, and his father’s wife, says that the meal had all the elements of a great restaurant experience: great food, great ambiance, and people you love. As for great moments and mouthfuls, Roahen says they often come during meals in New Orleans’ many neighborhood restaurants. “In New Orleans, neighborhood restaurants generally serve the same menu,” she explains. “There’s always going to be a gumbo, very likely there will be raw oysters, always red beans, especially on Mondays. They serve po boys, smothered pork chops, spaghetti, fried chicken, and probably a shrimp remoulade. In these restaurants they’ll do a couple of dishes really well and the rest will be mediocre. You end up going to these places just for those couple of things they do well.” x �37 {Alumni Notes} 2004 and will be attending Rice University in the fall. 1988 ELAINE PINKERTON COLEMAN (SFGI) sold her World War II suspense novel, Beast of Bengal, to Polocl Press. Publication date is spring 2005. She completed a children’s book, A Hat for Emily, written for her granddaughter Emily Clementine Pinkerton, age 20 months. Visit her Web site: www.booksbyelaine.com LAURIE COOPER (A) lives in rural Chaplin, Conn., with her husband, Dov Kugelmass, and their two children: Carrie, 4, and Cyrus, 2. She is a clinical social worker in a community mental health center. DIANA SHAW-MCCARTHY (A) has graduated from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and is working as a data coordinator for Project Renewal, a nonprofit organization in New York City that works with chronically addicted homeless individuals. 1989 News from JEANNE BLACKMORE (DUVOISIN) (A): “We welcomed baby Samantha on September 12, 2003. She was born two years to the day after her brother Benjamin. Ben and Sam often get together with (A89 classmates) GARFIELD GOODRUM’S daughter Cecily, and ERIKA GAFFNEY’S daughter Cara.” EDWARD P. EAGAN (AGI) lives in Ipswich, Mass., with his wife, Camilla, and three children: Grace, 8; Eloise, 5; and Charlie, 2. He is a practicing clinical psychologist in Newburyport, Mass. BRAD STUARt (A), SARA LARSON STUART (A90), and Eleanor welcome Phoebe Sophia Stuart, born November 4, 2003, at 1:42 p.m. EST. “Brown of hair and blue of eye, Phoebe has a crooked smile and a ready laugh. What a girl!” 1990 1992 “After spending last year living in San Francisco attending Circus School (I fly on the trapeze), I have found my home in sunny Los Angeles and couldn’t be happier,” writes DAVID JOHNSON (SF). “No plans for the big top—just enjoying the ride.” From CATHERINE BARRIER (A) and JIM DUGAN (A93): “We’d like to announce the birth of Lucy Eleanor Dugan on December 10, 2004, in Los Angeles. We are, of course, convinced she is the most beautiful and smartest baby in the world. We just hope we can keep up. If anyone is rash enough to ask for pictures, they can contact us at ceb@mnemonides.net!” “Martin and I are moving to Phoenix,” writes ELAINE (REISS) PEREA (SF). “I am finally going to grad school. I start a Ph.D. program in evolutionary psychology in August. I’d love to hear from classmates and other area alum. My e-mail is meperea@hotmail.com” ELIZABETH SPAETH STOLTZ (SFGI) reports that her daughter, MEG SPAETH (A01), married TIM FREEMAN (A01) on September 20, 2003. ELYETTE KIRBY-BLOCK (SF) has just moved near Paris with her husband, Jonathan, and children: Benjamin, 3, and Elyse, 18 months. “I’m home with the kids and expecting again in September,” she writes. “I’ll be visiting family this summer in Minnesota and Nova Scotia but will be back in France the rest of the time and, as always, would welcome visitors! E-mail elyette@hotmail.com.” LISA HOLLIS-BROWN and DAVID BROWN (both SF) have moved to Colorado Springs. “David is a shiny new math professor at that other wacky liberal arts college in the mountain time zone, Colorado College. Lisa is finishing off her dissertation, and making plans for lots of long weekends in Santa Fe. Drop us a line at dbrown@coloradocollege.edu.” PHIL HOPKINS (SFGI) just received the award for teaching excellence as a philosophy professor at Southwestern University. LISA (KALLMAN) HOPKINS (SF89) begins graduate studies in library science at Texas Women’s University this fall. PRAXADES RIVERA (SFGI) has lived in Venezuela for the last eight years and is now embarking on a year sabbatical, using her summer home in New York as “headquarters.” She intends to study, read, and travel. 1991 PATRICK CHO (A) writes to announce the arrival of his son, Nicholas, on New Year’s Eve, 2002. Nicholas gets along well with his big sister, Samantha, he adds. MAGGIE FARLEy (SF) reports: “I married a Peruvian mathematician named Renzo last December and received a master’s in statistics from UNM in May. I am currently in the doctorate program in education psychology at UNM, where I am interested in studying ways to teach abstract reasoning so as to improve mathematical ability. I have been teaching undergraduate math at UNM for the last three years and before that taught high school math for two years at Santa Fe High. I value my time at St. John’s for how it encouraged me to believe in my own ability to inquire into the meaning of things as well as for all the times I got to dance thoughout the night.” LAKE (JAMES) PERRIGUEY (SF) hosted Nancy Buchenauer for an alumni seminar in Portland, Ore., on Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion. Lake is a litigator, civil rights lawyer, and community-based legal counselor in Portland. A Community in Cotati hat is it like to live in a co-housing community? “Wonderful,” writes ANNE LEONARD (A89): “Last November, after several years of planning and many meetings and work, my family (me, husband Adam Hill, son Benjamin Leonard-Hill, 2 cats) finally moved into our co-housing community in Cotati (Calif.). We live in an intentional community, legally a condominium, with shared common space, community meals several times a week, lots of kid-friendly play areas, private houses that were designed with ‘green building’ principles, and of course fabulous, intelligent, interesting people. All our [Homeowner’s Association] decisions are made on a consensus system, rather than voting. I can hang out with people and have either a frivolous or an intellectual conversation without going farther than next door. At its best, it’s like post-seminar hanging out in the Coffee Shop, with a short trek to your house when you get tired. “A couple of weeks ago, a dozen of us were hanging out in the ‘gathering node’ by the swale, when the talk turned as it often does with this group to wordplay, language games, and mnemonics. A new resident, who had only moved in a few weeks before, said that she still remembered her Greek conjugations and conjugated “luw.” I joined in, and asked her why we both knew the same thing. It turns out she was SUSAN WELCH (SF89). We’re still trying to figure out who we know in common. “I’d love to hear from any other Johnnies who live in cohousing, or from anyone who’s interested and wants to know more.” x W { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �38 {Alumni Notes} 1993 “Yes!” writes JAMES DIPROPERZIO (A), aka James Propis. “My short story, ‘After the Fall,’ was published in a new anthology called Toddler: Real-Life Stories of Those Fickle, Irrational, Urgent, Tiny People We Love, edited by Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D. The book just won an award for #1 Best Parenting Book of the Year from the Independent Publisher’s Book Association.” NANCY MARCUS (A) writes, “After serving as the National Abortion Federation’s State Public Policy Director since 2002 (See pages 139143 of Molly Ivin’s Bushwhacked for some of my recent work), I am leaving the D.C. activist world to rejoin the academic world in true Johnnie style. For the next two years, I will be in Madison earning my LL.M. at the University of Wisconsin’s Law School.” PENNY SINONE (SFGI) is currently working on “Leftovers,” part II of a project called “The Dump Chronicles,” a collaboration with Sonoma artist David Povilaites. “In August 2003, I left Philly and my work at Project HOME (the best experience of my life!) to move to Santa Fe and begin teaching here,” writes J. WALTER STERLING (A). “So far, so good.” “Hi! I am living in Dumfries, Va., with my parents. I hope everyone is good,” writes ERIKA SUSKI (A). She can be reached at P.O. Box 1133, Dumfries, VA 22026. 1994 WILLIAM J. KOWALSKI (SF) and his wife, Alexandra, welcomed a daughter, Kasia, into the world on July 3, 2003. SARAH (LIVERSIDGE) and MIKE AFFLERBACH (both A) are still enjoying life in New Bern, N.C. Writes Sarah, “We’ve been doing a lot of sailboat racing and some cruising to the Outer Banks. Mike’s radio business is growing, and I should have my architecture license this year.” JULIE MEADOWS (A) writes: “I am finally ABD in the Ethics and Society program in the Religion Department at Emory. My dissertation director, MARK JORDAN (SF73), is also a Johnnie! I row on weekends on the Chattahoochee River with the Atlanta Rowing Club, while my sweetie Steve, a veterinarianturned-epidemiologist, goes kayaking. Best wishes!” 1995 GEORGE ERVING (SFGI) is enjoying a tenure-track position as assistant professor of Humanities, Honors and English Lit at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., where he has been since the fall of 2003. “It’s a great fit for me and my courses are substantially influenced by my time at St. John’s,” he writes. ZENA HITZ (A) is finishing her dissertation on the critique of democracy in Plato and Aristotle. This fall she will have a temporary teaching appointment in the philosophy department at McGill University in Montreal, and in January, she will take up a tenure-track position at Auburn University in Alabama. “Greetings from the greater Boston area!” EMILY MURPHY (A) writes. “Still in grad school—still working part-time for the National Park Service and helping with the 200th anniversary of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s birth here in Salem.” 1996 ELIZABETH BUCHEN (SF96), daughter of JERRY (GERALD) BUCHEN (SF72), just earned her medical degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and starts her residency in Ob/Gyn (“another four years!”) also at UNM: “I live in Albuquerque with my husband, Chris Lopez, and our four dogs and two cats. Anyone wishing to contact me can do so by e-mail at elizsb@unm.edu.” SONIAH KAMAL (A) will have her first novel, An Isolated Incident, published by Penguin in the fall of 2005. “A short synopsis is ‘East is East meets Osama Bin Laden,’” she reports. Kamal has had a lot of short stories published, writes a column for a periodical in Pakistan, and is working on a movie script. She lives in San Francisco. DANIEL SILVERMINTZ (AGI) has accepted a position as assistant professor of Humanities at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. He can be reached at silvermintz@cl.uh.edu. SHANNON STIRMAN (SF) writes: “KELLY (SF97), Henry (who is now almost 3), and I have moved to Menlo Park, Calif., where he’s working for a software company, and I’ll be doing an internship in clinical psychology. I defended my dissertation in February, so this is the last step before I finish school. We’d love to hear from other Johnnies who are in the area!” 1997 DOMINIC CRAPUCHETTES (A) recently graduated with an MBA from the University of Maryland. Happy news from LORI FREEMAN (A): “I’m too excited not to write The College and let everyone know that I’ve gotten engaged! Wes Smedley and I will be married in Philadelphia this October. This is the funny part—he’s an Episcopal priest, which is actual proof that God has a sense of humor. Anyway, we’re being married at Christ Church in Philadelphia on Sunday, October 17, during the regular 11 a.m. church service. If you’re around, come and join us! My e-mail address is lorifreeman25@hotmail.com; Johnnies and friends are always welcome at the house I share with KEVIN GARDNER (also A97), who, in addition to being my Maid of Honor, just completed his second year at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } and is working on a huge, beautiful mural project this summer. I’m still working for a women’s literacy program in the Kensington area of Philadelphia.” KIRA HEATER (SF) and her husband, RUSSELL DIBBLE (A92, EC97) are living in Missoula, Mont. Kira is finishing a master’s degree in mathematics, and “Russ is on a BLM hotshot wildland fire crew based out of Salt Lake City. If you’re in Missoula, look us up. Johnnies are always welcome.” BRENT HINRICHS (AGI) is now working as the Upper School Head at Hillbrook School in Los Gatos, Calif. In addition, he and Evie Schneider got married last August and purchased their first home in San Jose. “We would love to hear from GIs from ’94-’98! Where are you, BILL BUYSSE (AGI96) and PATRICK WAGER (AGI96)?” ANNE KNIGGENDORF (SF) reports: “TONY LAGOURANIS (also SF97) is serving in the Army and is currently stationed in Iraq. I think he will be there until early 2005. If you would like to send Tony something, I have his address and would be glad to give it to anyone interested. Please contact me at annekknigs@cs.com. My family is well—still in Georgia. Stephen and I have TWO little boys now!” INYA LASKOWSKI (SFGI) has been invited to be art educator in residence at the Museum of Contemporary Art at the Luther Burbank Center in Santa Rosa, Calif. She has shown her monotypes in nine exhibitions in the last two years. Her work can be seen at Hand Artes Gallery, Truchas, N.M. KIT LINTON (A) and SONYA SCHIFF LINTON (A00) are happy to announce the birth of their daughter, Viola Mae Linton, on June 3, 2004. Kit heads up the New York City office for a small consulting firm, and Sonya just finished her first year at law school. They would love to hear from friends at Kitandsonya@hotmail.com. �39 {Alumni Notes} After graduating from Yale Law School in May, RICHARD SCHMECHEL (A) plans to move to Washington, D.C., in the fall. He will be working at the Public Defender Service on a two-year project funded by the Open Society Institute. DNA, memory reliability, and other forensic issues are the subject of the project. He would love to hear from Johnnies, “indicted or not,” at richardschmechel@aya.yale.edu. 1998 An announcement from DAWN BORCHELT (A): “Wolfgang Guy Borchelt was born at home Feb. 24, 2004.” He was 6 lbs., 11 oz., and 19 inches long. JESSICA COVITZ and ALAN PICHANICK (both A) are excited to announce the births of their second and third daughters, Katherine and Elisheva, this past January. Along with their 5-year-old daughter, Sophia, they are living in Philadelphia. They would love to hear from old friends and can be reached via e-mail: jcovitz@uchicago.edu or adpichan@uchicago.edu. After finishing a master’s degree in Divinity at the University of Chicago, ALEXANDRA MUDD (A) moved to Cambridge to work on a Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science. “Any A98 Johnnies in England should look me up!” she writes. “I am living in that Johnnie haven, Brooklyn,” writes FELIX S. LESLIE (A), “practicing law across the river in Manhattan and enjoying life. I can be reached at felixleslie@hotmail.com.” Santa Fe alumni looking for long-lost alumnus MICHAEL OLSON (A99) can find his classnote among entries for 1999. TIM POMAROLE (A) has graduated from Duke University School of Law and will be working for the Appellate Division of the Suffolk County DA’s Office in Boston. Last summer, Tim worked at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. 1999 MICHAEL BAAS (SF) married Megan Bello on January 2, 2004, in Galisteo, NM. RUTH BUSKO (SF) graduated from the Tai Sophia Institute for the Healing Arts in March 2004 with a Master of Acupuncture degree. She is living in Baltimore, Md., and practicing acupuncture in Ellicott City, Md. GREG KOEHLERT (SFGI) married Merrie Schlein in August 2003; t heir first child is due at the end of November. “Of course, we’re still in NYC,” Greg writes. MICHAEL OLSEN (A) checks in after a long absence: “Almost immediately upon graduating five years ago, I lost my way on the path to law school and never arrived. Instead, this fall I begin my fourth year of teaching English and Social Studies in grades six through eight at a private middle school in Chicago. Although this career began unexpectedly, I’m having a great time teaching and cannot think of anything else I’d rather be doing right now. I will probably continue with it well into the future, although it is likely I will leave Chicago again once I complete the masters degree I’m starting to work on. Not a day goes by when I do not miss the college. I occasionally attend Chicago-area alumni events but regret that I have kept in touch with only a few classmates. I am fortunate to be doing a fair amount of traveling and generally living the life of leisure during my summer vacations. All are welcome to write, e-mail, or telephone: 1354 W. Argyle Street, Chicago, IL 60640; michaelolsen123@hotmail.com; 773.989.8491. I am interested in hearing from anyone I knew, whether in Santa Fe or Annapolis.” “It’s funny to think that it’s been eight years since I last saw most of you, writes BEN THORNBER (A). “I have just gotten an M. Div. degree from Earlham School of Religion, a Quaker seminary located in Richmond, Indiana. I am now looking for work as a pastoral minister at a Quaker church, having become a Quaker two years ago. I’m largely looking at Quaker churches in the Midwest but I am also talking to a Quaker church in Tennessee. I value the time that I spent at St. John’s and the friendships I developed there. I hope to hear from you. My snail-mail address is: 824 SW A Street, Richmond, IN 47374, and my e-mail address is thornberbenjamin@ hotmail.com. I hope things go well with each of you.” New Ventures for John Balkcom ormer Santa Fe President JOHN BALKCOM (SFGI00) joined the board of directors of IMCO Recycling, Inc., in December 2003 and became the chairman of the board in April 2004. He participated in the announcement of a merger with Commonwealth Industries in mid-June. “Carol and I are pleased to be back in Evanston and looking forward to hosting our second reception for prospective students in June,” he writes. “I’m also excited about co-leading a seminar in Summer Classics with tutor Michael Rawn on Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! We send our gratitude to the Santa Fe class of 2004 for their warm welcome at commencement.” x F { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } 2000 JOHN HUNTER (AGI) and his wife, Lisa, would like to announce the birth of a son, James Elias Brinton (“Jeb”) on Oct. 3, 2003. ANNE MCSHANE (A) expects to begin studies at New York University’s School of Law this fall, and offers to coach others thinking about a similar path. “I have taught and am teaching Kaplan’s LSAT course and am happy to advise on the law school application process. I can be reached at annecarolmcshane@yahoo.com.” NICOLE NELSON-JEAN (AGI) is enjoying her time in Tokyo. “Last year I accepted a position as the director of the Department of Energy Asia office and also became the Energy Attache to the U.S. Ambassador of Japan. I have had a fabulous time here. The food is wonderful and the art, historical sites, and people are even better.” DEBERNIERE TORREY (AGI) was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Korea. Torrey is pursuing a Ph.D. in comparative literature at Penn State University. A Korean instructor at Penn State, she’s also active with the university’s International Languages and Literature Student Organization, the Conversation Partners Program, and the Ballroom Dance club. The fellowship will allow Torrey to spend a year in Korea studying 19th-century Korean literature in preparation for her thesis proposal and further research. The topic of her research is the effect of modern/western thought imported from China. 2001 LANCE BRISBOIS (A) recently joined the editorial staff of Hackett Publishing. He works and lives in Cambridge, Mass. PAIGE POSTLEWAIT (A) and MICHAEL MAGUIRE (A02) were married in 2001, “and have a beautiful son, Daschel Auden,” �40 Paige writes. “Michael is currently serving our country in the Army, and we will all be relocating as a family in the fall to Berlin, Germany. I will teach English and attend school while we are there. I have recently started a Web site for Johnnies from the Annapolis campus to use. It is located at www.youthriot.co.uk/sjc, and includes photo galleries and message boards. We are also looking for links to Johnnie homepages. I’d encourage anyone who wants to get in touch with me to help with the site or suggest links! It is a work in progress but we’re very excited. Feel free to contact Mike and me at sizeofthoughts@hotmail.com.” SUZANNAH SIMMONS (SF) expects to be in law school this fall. “Hi, everybody!” writes ERIK STADNIK (A). “I’m one of the growing number of Johnnies who has settled in the DC area for the time being. I’ve lived in the Alexandria, Va., area for the past two years or so, and I just started a new job at the Library of Congress Law Library. So, if anyone is in the area and would like a tour, get in touch! Sjcaustenite@yahoo.com. {Alumni Notes} 2002 LUCAS FORD (A) is pining for certain aspects of the Johnnie life: “I miss vacations, breaks, and long weekends and all that sweetness.” SHELLEY ROSE WALKER (SFGI, EC03) is enjoying life in the East: “Since graduation, Doug Saxon and I have been teaching English at a university in South Korea. We live about an hour from Seoul, which allows us a primarily relaxed, quiet lifestyle within a short jaunt from the cultural and culinary advantages of the capital city. We spent two months last winter traveling in India and we can’t wait to go back. This summer our adventures will lead us through China, into Tibet, and then boating down the Yangtze River before we head back to our East Asian abode come September. Our tentative plan is to hold down the fort here for two to four more years. One of the great perks of our jobs is the enormous amount of free time we’re given, during which you can usually find us gleefully occupied with reading and continuing our conversations. We’d love to hear from you: swalker_@hotmail.com or dougsaxon@hotmail.com.” RACHEL AVIVA POLLACK (A) spent the summer studying at the American Academy of Rome. 2003 2004 SEAN MADDEN (AGI) will embark on the Eastern Classics program in Santa Fe in August. x What’s Up? KATHY CHRISTIE and JOHN ANDERS (both SF) were married in Houston, Texas, in August 2004. LAURA DABNEY (SF) writes that JUSTIN “GUS” HURWITZ (SF) has made it into the Chicago School of Law. “Go him!” Another new law student: SEAN MCLAIN (A) will be beginning studies at the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., this fall. 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 January; deadline for the alumni notes section is November 1. 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 Public Relations Office 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; alumni@sjcsf.edu {Obituaries} EDWIN LEROY LOTZ, CLASS OF 1931 Edwin Lotz, whose skill as a lacrosse player at St. John’s during the days of intercollegiate athletics won him a place in the Lacrosse Hall of Fame, died May 25, 2004, at the age of 93. Born in Ellicott City, Md., Lotz earned his degree from St. John’s in 1931. He received the college’s Allgernon Sidney Sullivan Award for Outstanding Leadership. In 1934, Lotz earned a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, where he conducted research on the effects of electrical shock to the heart. His basic discoveries later led to the development of the defibrillator. He received his doctorate in electrical engineering from Hopkins in 1938, and went on to a career in research. He retired in 1975 as vice president of research and development for the Glass Fabrics Company, a division of Burlington Industries. He held numerous patents on the treatment of glass fabrics. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow in the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. With his brother Phil, a member of the class of 1932 who also is in the Hall of Fame, Lotz was among the most accomplished athletes in the college’s history. He played football, boxed, and played baseball. When the baseball team was disbanded, Ed Lotz and his brother picked up lacrosse sticks. Lotz played on three national championship lacrosse teams (1929, 1930, and 1931) that beat much bigger schools, including Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, and Maryland. He was Edwin Lotz { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } named to the All-American Lacrosse Team in 1930 and in 1931. In 1966 he was inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame, as “one of Lacrosse’s all-time great defensemen.” The December 1999 issue of Sports Illustrated named Edwin Lotz one of the top 50 greatest sports figures from the state of Maryland in the 20th century. In a letter he wrote to The Reporter in 1998, Lotz said that he once believed that his participation on the St. John’s championship teams and being named to the Hall of Fame would stand as his life’s greatest achievements. “However, something happened to me shortly after my 86th birthday that changed all that,” he wrote. Lotz described how in the midst of the Great Depression, unable to find a job, he decided to attend graduate school at Hopkins: “During the research work on my thesis… I discovered the basic principle of electric countershock as a means to stop the fibrilla- �41 {Obituaries} tion of the heart. Using dogs as subjects, I found that a very small electrical shock of 1 milliampere would cause the heart to go into fibrillation and a countershock 100 times stronger would stop the fibrillation. “This basic discovery in 1934 led to the development of the defibrillator that is now used worldwide in all hospitals and doctors’ offices to stop fibrillation of the heart, saving many lives every day. About the size of a portable typewriter, the defibrillator sits over in the corner of the room awaiting its turn to save another life.” It was his life, Lotz noted, that was saved by a defibrillator when his heart stopped during the implantation of a pacemaker. “This remarkable story illustrates the importance of basic research, because you never know where the discovery of new facts or information will lead.” Lotz and his wife, Kay, had four children. After his wife died in 1991, Lotz lived with his daughter and her family in Charlottesville, Va., until his death. CALVIN BAUMGARTNER, CLASS OF 1944 Calvin Baumgartner, a member of the class of 1944 who survived the sinking of the Merchant Marine ship on which he served during World War II, died in May at the age of 90. Baumgartner was born in Baltimore County, Maryland, and received his first education in a two-room schoolhouse. During high school at Baltimore’s City College, he delivered telegrams for Western Union. He attended St. John’s before the war interrupted his studies. After the U.S. entered World War II, he joined the Merchant Marine Army Transport Service. In April 1945, he was assigned to the S.S. Black Point, which on May 5, 1945, was off the coast of Rhode Island, carrying coal to Boston. A lookout at Point Judith heard an explosion and saw the ship come to a stop: a German U-Boat torpedoed the Black Point just eight hours after the U-Boat command was ordered to stop attacks on Allied ships. The torpedo blew off the last 50 feet of the nearly 400-foot ship. Minutes after the last survivor was rescued, the Black Point rolled over. Twelve men lost their lives in the attack; 34 men were saved. Baumgartner was the last crew member to be rescued. A program assembled by his family for a celebration of his life spoke to Baumgartner’s enduring pride in his military service. “He felt that World War II was America’s finest hour and the most outstanding event of his lifetime. He was so proud of how the Calvin Baumgartner country came together and the troops rallied.” After the war, Baumgartner went on to several different enterprises: managing an apartment complex, converting coal furnaces to natural gas, and operating a grain hauling company on the Chesapeake Bay. With a partner, he hauled grain from Norfolk to Baltimore until his barge, the B.S. Ford, sank in 1960. Baumgartner retired in 1980 from a job as stationary engineer for the Maryland Training School for Boys. Baumgartner and his first wife, Dorothea, had four children. After her death, he married Violetta S. Bateman, who died in 1996. His goal, his family said, was to live to be 90. He celebrated that milestone on April 22, 2004. RICHARD “WOODY” WEST, CLASS OF 1961 Richard W. West, a long-time Washington journalist, died in May at his home in Hagerstown, Md. He was 70. A high school football star, West was recruited to play for the University of Missouri, said Annapolis attorney Darrell Henry, also a member of the class of 1961. West served in the Marines in Thailand and Japan for three years before enrolling in St. John’s in 1957. “We used to kiddingly call him the ‘Old Marine,’” Henry recalls. “He had both feet firmly on the ground, he was very bright, an excellent manager. He was a good athlete, and a very intelligent guy.” John Pekkanen, class of 1961, shared all his classes with West for two years. “He was five years older than me, and he was very much a big brother to me,” he says. “He showed me the ropes of life.” History, especially the great battles and heroes of the Civil War, and literature were West’s great interest, and he left St. John’s to complete Richard West { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } a bachelor’s degree in history at American University. His first newspaper jobs were in Nebraska, at the Lincoln Star and the Omaha World-Herald. After moving to Washington in the early 1960s, West worked first as a reporter and later as an editorial writer for the Washington Star. When the Star folded in 1981, he moved on to the newly founded Washington Times as an editorial writer and quickly climbed the ranks, becoming managing editor in 1983 and later executive editor, the newspaper’s chief editorial position, from 1985 to 1986. West decided to step down from that stressful position because it consumed all of his time. “Now I’m going to sit on the porch and read, go out and scare a few geese in the winter,” he told the Washington Post in 1986. Since 1986, West worked part time as the associate editor for the Times. He edited the weekly Civil War page and served on the committee overseeing the Sunday book pages, choosing books for review and matching them with reviewers. He was also a frequent reviewer himself for the Times, Insight, and the Weekly Standard. “Woody saw life a little off-center, and I mean that as a compliment,” says Pekkanen, adding that West encouraged and helped him when he was starting out in journalism. “He was a skilled and perceptive writer and a great thinker. He was a newspaper man.” West is survived by his wife of 43 years, JoAnn Wochos West, of Hagerstown. x ALSO NOTED: GEORGE BONIFANT, class of 1939, died in March. CHARLES HYSON, class of 1937, died in March. JOHN LOGUE, class of 1950, died in June. ALEXANDER MORSE, class of 1945 and SFGI73, died in September 2003. LESTER H. PALMER, class of 1930, died in February 2004. ROBERT SNIBBE, CLASS OF 1937, died in June 2004. WILLIAM JOHN RICHARD THOMAS JR., class of 1935, died in June 2004. �42 {Croquet} Cruising to Another Croquet Victory Santa Fe Seniors Join the Party by Rosemary Harty ith The College’s veteran croquet correspondent Sus3an Borden (A87) taking on new duties in the Advancement office this year, this editor planned to capture the action at the 22nd annual croquet match against the Naval Academy, held on the customary date of the last Saturday of April. But I was recruited for champagnepouring duty in the Alumni tent, where in an attempt to weed out impostors, would-be imbibers were quizzed on senior essay topics. (“Um, something about…Homer,” was a typical response.) The sound of cheering reached the alumni tent, but we had a hard time following the action, like most of the estimated 1,200 spectators who crowded onto the campus for a great party on a spectacularly sunny April day. Good thing the press was there. The match brought out the local papers, the Associated Press correspondent, and a shamefully biased correspondent from The Trident, the Naval Academy’s newspaper, who again blamed the loss on the allegedly rigorous Naval Academy schedule. The most interesting development this year was the participation of 28 Santa Fe students who came to Annapolis on their own dime to see for themselves what croquet fever is all about. Most caught a red-eye flight from Santa Fe after seminar Thursday W night, but a couple of determined Johnnies of the West drove all the way to Annapolis and back. “Most of us had never been to Annapolis, so we wanted to see the campus,” explained Chris Coucheron-Ammot (SF04), who organized the outing. Being an honest fellow, Coucheron-Aamot readily acknowl- edged that the contingent came first “for a fabulous party” and second for a show of solidarity. “The senior class in Santa Fe really believed in the ‘one college-two campuses’ ideal of St. John’s,” he said. “We don’t feel like there’s a big difference between Johnnies in Santa Fe and Johnnies in Annapolis.” The visitors understood “parts of the game,” and were particularly taken by the contrast in traditions between the rivals, he said. “We liked the way the Mids had Plebes in white jackets carrying around water bottles for them, and Johnnies had their girlfriends carrying around bottles of Colt 45.” Johnnies put their Western classmates up on couches and floors in their apartments around town. Sarah Stickney (A04) and John Okrent (A04) organized barbecues to feed them. The campus community out West would welcome an Annapolis contingent out for one of its best parties, Oktoberfest. “We usually bring snow down from the mountains because it hasn’t snowed on the campus yet, and we have a snowball fight,” he explained. Why not include a croquet match in Oktoberfest festivities? “Have you seen our soccer field?” Coucheron-Aamot asked in reply. x Imperial Wicket Sam Spalding lines up a shot. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �43 {Croquet} Clockwise: Johnnies adopted an Army look to intimidate Navy this year. A group of Santa Fe Johnnies enjoy the party; Ronald Fielding (A70) strikes the first ball. photos by david trozzo Highlights: Score: Johnnies 4, Mids 1. Record: 18-4. Team: Sam Spalding (A04), imperial wicket; Nicholas Whittier (A05), vice wicket; Ian Morochnick (A04); Kabe Erkenbrack (A04); Justin Berrier (A04); Aurora Cassells (A04); Jackson O’Brien (A04); Nick Garklavs (A04); Riley Ossorgin (A05); John Gerard (A05); Shunji Matsuzawa (A06); and Matt Mangold (A06). Dramatic moment: Dressed in camouflage outfits, faces smeared with grease paint, Johnnies emerge from Woodward Hall to the Top Gun theme. Ceremonial first ball: Struck by Ron Fielding (A70), a member of the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors. Press highlights: The Capital: “Tim Kile, a St. John’s junior, wore a straw hat, a sleeveless orange T-shirt and suspenders and held an acoustic guitar—the ‘wandering cowboy minstrel look.’ ‘I don’t know anything about croquet, but my roommate made ice cream—that’s the best part so far,’ he said.” The Baltimore Sun: “Before the 1 p.m. start of the 22nd Annapolis Cup, Naval { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } Academy player Brock Zimmerman got in some last-minute practice shots. The first-year mid hoped to make a dent in St. John’s series advantage of 17 victories to the academy’s 4. ‘I think we have the best chance to bring one back to Navy in a long time,’ he said.” The Associated Press: “Special attire— much of it harkening back to the days when croquet was played on grandma’s lawn while everyone sipped lemonade on sultry days—is popular at the annual croquet game. “Elizabeth Durham, a St. John’s junior, was a little more inventive, wearing shimmering gossamer wings and a saarilike cloth draped over her long white dress. ‘Honestly, I just threw it together in 10 minutes,’ she said.” x �44 { A l u m n i Vo i c e s } One Less Car on the Block Santa Fe Graduates Go Car-Free aul Cooley (SF90, EC98) and Laura Hunt Cooley (SF92) were married in 1996 and live in Santa Fe. Paul is a writer and an athome dad to Sadie, 4, and Zebediah, 2. Laura is a librarian at the Meem Library on the Santa Fe campus. The two have been dedicated bicyclists for many years, but last spring they reached a point of no return: On May 5, 2005, they sold their only car and committed themselves to getting around by bicycle, bus, and other means. Here’s how they coped with the first few days of the transition. P May 6 Laura: We are now officially car-free! We’d been thinking about it for a while, but only got serious whenever the car needed an expensive repair. Usually this was in the fall or winter, when it’s harder to get motivated to use the bike and bus to get around. I’m extremely sensitive to the cold and have to bundle up in crazy ways to stay warm in the winter on my bike. Once we had made the decision to sell the car we had to figure out an asking price for it. To us, it was no longer valuable–we were through with it. In fact, it felt stupid to sell it because we weren’t stopping it from contributing to the sick automobile culture in this country. We ended up selling it to a girl who didn’t already have another car, which was a relief. The kids have started using the driveway for their chalk art. We all started writing each other little messages that we could see john hartnett Paul: The Saab sold yesterday. We priced it at $4,200 based on its book value, but knew a few things were not working well. The prospective buyer took the car to the dealer, and the cash value of the repairs came to over $2,000. We settled on $3,600, which seemed fair. Getting rid of the car is not all about the money, but the money is certainly one of the things I focus on. Gas is almost $2 a gallon and seems to be going up. The repairs and constant maintenance are irritating. There was a time when I felt extra responsible, changing the oil, rebuilding the engine. But now it doesn’t seem to be that important to me—the cost and the waste of oil and time are not repaid by enjoyment of the vehicle. The cost of insurance every six months threw our financial balance off kilter. I cancelled the insurance this morning. The company is sending back $140, and we will not get billed again. The empty driveway stirs up a variety of emotions. There is something strange about it, in spite of the fact we haven’t used the car for over a month. I feel as if I am waiting for someone to come home. The fact the driveway was built specifically for cars, and now there is no car there, makes it seem like an unneeded appendage. I plan to go out there later in the morning and do some chalk drawings or something. I fantasize about building a deck out there or putting out some lawn furniture. when we swung into the driveway on our bikes. Today, Paul proudly wrote, “One Less Car!” May 7 Paul: Today there is a complicated situation with Sadie’s nursery: everyone is going over to the big Waldorf school for their Maypole and carnival. Laura has an acupuncture appointment in the morning, and I am supposed to help with a commuting workshop at the Runnels Building at noon. One of the changes that we have noticed now that the car is gone is a growing impatience with other people imposing “running around” on us. It is certainly possible to make it out to the school, but we are irritated that we are expected to do so. There are several possibilities: I can bike Sadie and Zeb over, and Laura can come join them after her appointment; we can keep Sadie out and do something fun with her; or we can take her car seat over to the nursery and hope someone will give Sadie a ride there and back. The first two options are what we are considering. With the children doing so well with the bicycles, I am not as worried about feeling trapped anymore. I don’t know if there will come a time when they are too big for the trailer and will not want to bicycle as far on the tandems and triples. We will deal with that when we come to it. Perhaps we will use the bus more often. Of course there are always rentals, and I suspect that we will rent a car a couple of times a year. We will probably need to in order to get to the airport for our trip to the beach, or maybe we can use the Park and Ride and spend the night in Albuquerque. I hope we can begin to use the train more often. The airplane is the only transportation Not having a car means keeping the driveway free for playing. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �45 { A l u m n i Vo i c e s } method less fuel-efficient than the private automobile. I hope that we never have to resort to buying another car. May 9 Paul: Yesterday, I ordered the Bike Friday Family Triple bike. I think it is going to be a good bike, but it is costing us quite a bit of money, almost $700 over what we received for the car. We are getting the May 18 john hartnett Laura: At first I felt a bit nervous about not having a car. I didn’t really have any good reasons—it was just unsettling. We had heard, and answered, many of the arguments against getting rid of the car altogether. What if there’s a medical emergency? Call an ambulance. What if you’re in a hurry? It can’t be helped, even with a car. What if you want to haul something big and heavy? Get a heavy-duty bike trailer or rent a car for a day. What if you want to go on a trip? Rent a car, or take public transportation, trains, or planes. I think what was behind most of my unsettled feelings was the big step we had just taken outside of mainstream culture. We’re already a little outside mainstream culture. We don’t own a television, dishwasher, clothes dryer, or microwave, and we went to St. John’s College. But something about the car seemed so essential to the American identity. And we were abandoning it. Now we have to think through each trip to see if it is worth the effort. I like having to be creative about how we’re going to get places. I like the freedom of traveling outside the main stream of traffic. I like providing a respectable role model for my kids. I’ve even stopped impulse-shopping at thrift stores and yard sales. Now I wait until there’s something I really need before I go on a shopping trip. The other day, Paul expressed exactly how I felt about the car. He said he changes his behavior when he catches himself doing something that makes him feel like an idiot. Like using the plastic produce bags at the market, rather than some of the hundreds of bags we have stuffed in a drawer at home. Once he reaches the idiot point, he changes his behavior. I realized that the car enabled me to do idiotic things—things for which I could not summon any self-respect. I was adding to pollution, road rage, the economy of cheap plastic crap, and I was getting no benefit from it. The Cooleys found a better use for their garage. suitcases and trailer kit, so we will be able to bike to the train station when we get to that point in our lives. In the afternoon, we bicycled out to Eldorado for a baby shower. I wanted to mention that we sold the car, but I was somewhat uncomfortable, almost apologetic about it. Getting rid of the car is a bold move, but if it works out, it is, in a way, an indictment of others’ behavior. And people are apologetic about their own car use when I talk about getting rid of ours. I suppose that’s a good thing, but I wouldn’t want to lose any friends over our decision. Laura: Yesterday, Paul ordered us a triple bike. We already own a tandem bike. Paul rides on front and Sadie rides on back. Together they haul Zeb in a bike trailer that we refer to as “the Chariot.” We now have nine bikes and one on order. I have a backup in case mine needs repair. We own three tandem bikes, two of which we ride a lot. The first one we bought has sentimental value (we got it for each other as an anniversary present). Paul has three bikes. He’s a collector at heart, but he tries to ride all three. And we have a kid trailer and a bike trailer for stuff (not people). Everyone seems to think Santa Fe is not a safe town to bike in, mostly because there isn’t a good trail system. Personally, I feel safer on the roads. As long as I follow the traffic rules and act predictably, I get to flow easily with the traffic. I think Santa Fe is a very bikeable town, only seven miles across, and most rides within city limits can easily be done in less than an hour. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } Paul: It’s been almost two weeks since we sold the car. I am working on a book on being car-free, focusing more on the difficult-to-describe social impacts of the reliance on automobiles. Ivan Illich’s Energy and Equity contains many of the ideas I would like to focus on and which I am still struggling to understand. He speaks of the growth of time and space scarcity as vehicles begin to pass 15 miles per hour. He also points out that our freedom to travel is restricted by industry once we begin to rely on motor vehicles and transportation engineers for our means to get from one place to another. We make a fundamental shift from travelers to consumers of transportation. Has the ability of our intellect to wander over vast and shifting fields of imagination been influenced by the restriction of our physical wandering to well-laid roads and clear destinations? Behrman’s The Man Who Loved Bicycles captures some of the spirit of what I would like to say. How can I express the freedom I feel at not being restricted to driving when so many people would look at the same thing as a deprivation? We do have more friends taking to their bicycles, if only for short rides. Laura: We just got back from an overnight camping trip to Hyde Park. I never thought I’d spend three hours riding up, hauling kids and camping gear. It’s amazing to see how my perspective is changing. It’s very empowering to know that we can take our family on a self-supported bike tour–even one that includes mountains. Lately, we’ve found ourselves drawn to bike activist meetings, trying to get more rights for bicyclists in our city. If we don’t do it, who will? Paul’s wondering again what to do with the driveway. He’s mentioned digging up the concrete and putting in a garden. He’s talked about putting in a bike shed for storage, or a bike rack to encourage visitors to bike over. But for now, I’m enjoying the new open space and the satisfaction of one less car on the block. x �46 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Dear Alumni, Exciting things are happening with the Alumni Association and for alumni around the world! Here is a quick update on what’s happening in your Association these days. It was great to spend time with friends old and new at Homecoming in Santa Fe the beginning of July. It is always intriguing to make connections with others who share the passion for books and talk and to see where their paths have led them since they left the college. Consider joining us next year to enjoy seminar, sun, and Association Honors Three at Homecoming A New Mexico educator who brought the Socratic method of teaching to many schools was honored with an Award of Merit, and a retired faculty member and staff member in Santa Fe joined the ranks of Honorary Alumni during Homecoming 2004. Michael Strong (SF84) received his merit award during the Homecoming banquet July 3. Strong is the author of The Habit of Thought: From Socratic Seminars to Socratic Practice, the definitive account of how to implement Paedeia, a teaching approach emphasizing Socratic questioning, academic coaching,and interactive learning. Strong is the former director of Moreno Valley High School in Angel Fire, N.M., a charter school. Over the years, he has worked as a Paideia/Socratic Seminar consultant for dozens of schools and organizations. He has worked with the Alaska sunsets that grace the campus! Though I wasn’t able to attend the Summer Alumni Programs this year, I understand that they were stimulating and satisfying. Art, music, philosophy, and fun—what more can one ask? The annual Alumni Art Fair was a raging success thanks to Santa Fe staff member Maggie Magalnick and Liz Jenny (SF80). The range and quality of the work were amazing. As a bonus for alumni, the college hosted a special breakfast for the artists with a presentation by an art consultant about how to build and maintain their passion for art as a business. We are planning again this year to host a picnic and reception for incoming freshmen in Santa Fe in August. We introduced this event last year. It welcomes new students into the SJC community, gives local alumni an opportunity to meet new alumni-to-be, and begins the bond-building process that is part of every Johnnie’s experience. Another new event was added to the alumni calendar last year when seniors on the Santa Fe campus invited alumni to join them for Fasching Ball. For you Easterners, this is a celebration that takes place in February. Istvan Fehevary, long-time friend and director of the Student Activities office in Santa Fe, brought this tradition to the college from his native Hungary. The party gave another opportunity for students and alumni to get to know each other, practice their dancing prowess, and raise a glass in farewell to the long days of February. Of course the Alumni Association Board continues to pursue the more serious and business-like aspects of our work. We’re updating our operating resolutions to reflect changes in technology, policy, and practice. We recognize members of the community with prizes and awards. We select members for work on the Board of Visitors and Governors, and we explore new and interesting ways to help alumni stay connected to each other and to the college. If you have suggestions, questions, or requests, please feel free to give me a call or drop me an email. Until then . . . see you at seminar! Paideia Project, and served as the director for the Center for Socratic Practice at the Judson Montessori School in San Antonio, Texas, as the founding headmaster of The Winston Academy in Fort Lauderdale, and as the founding director of Middle School Programs for the Early Learning Institute in Palo Alto, Calif. He attended Harvard University in addition to St. John’s College and earned his master’s degree in Social Thought from the University of Chicago. Glenn Freitas, who retired in 2003, touched the lives of many members of the St. John’s College community in his 34 years of service to the college. Freitas attended St. Mary’s College in California and received his undergraduate degree in classical languages, a Th.L. in theology from Laval Universite in Quebec, and another licentiate in sacred scripture from The French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem. Ginger Roherty, who recently retired as director of the Annual Fund in Santa Fe, was a devoted member of the St. John’s College community from 1989-2004, one noted for her warmth, energy, and skill. She shepherded the Library and Fine Arts Guild into a healthy membership, with more than 400 participants. She also nurtured the growth of the Philos Society and its seminar program, “Inviting Conversations.” x Merit award recipient Michael Strong (SF84) has devoted his career to bringing the Socratic method to education. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } Glenda Eoyang �47 {Alumni Association News} Passion for Proust by Kevin R. Johnson (A93) At a bookstore, I saw a posting for a reading group. This gave me a romantic idea. If I put up a posting to read all of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, perhaps I could find a mate. I never carried out this absurd plan, but it would sometimes haunt me. And so, when Jason Bielagus (SF98) proposed that our local alumni should create a group to read the magnum opus, it seemed fate was knocking at my door. I was more than eager to answer. Little did I know that one of Proust’s central objectives was a comprehensive critique of the romantic imagination. The pace that Jason set for the readings was harrowing. He wisely considered the importance of finishing before we had forgotten the beginning, and relentlessly held us to our schedule. We had to find time to read several hundred pages of dense prose every three weeks. Casualties were heavy for even the second and third seminars. By the end of the second volume (of six, in my edition), we were left with a hardy band whose passion for Proust alone could have given the stamina to withstand the pace of our schedule. None of them were single contemporaries, and Proust was delivering devastating blows to my romantic sensibility. My hopes had been dashed completely. Or had they? On the train one morning, I looked across to see an attractive woman who was also reading Proust. It turned out that she was leading a discussion of the first volume at the Boston Athenaeum, a private library of which I am a member. Unfortunately, none of these synchronicities could outweigh her sour personality, which became apparent all too quickly. Now, even my resurrected hope had been dashed to the ground. CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed below for information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-275-9012 BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen 410-472-9158 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin Gammon 410-280-0958 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 AUSTIN John Strange 210-392-5506 Bev Angel 512-926-7808 CHICAGO Amanda Richards 847-705-1143 I attended the Athenaeum discussion, but it only served to give me greater gratitude for the company of my fellow alums on my journey through Proust. These were people who knew how to talk about books. The fellowship of these companions proved to be just as enriching as the book itself. Through our dialogue about Proust, we came to know each other well, and I think dearly. And, of course, we came to know Proust very well and very dearly. We emerged from the seminars as different people. We had absorbed to some extent the world that a great genius had created and lived. New images and themes had woven themselves into the tapestry of our inner lives. My own romantic life would never be as innocent as before; I would suffer less as a consequence. The time had been well spent, but it was lost. Writing this has won back some of the experience from the shady realm of oblivion. If I ever read Proust again, these 10 months of my life will be evoked and live again. Proust’s memories had become mine, and a time in my life will forever be linked with In Search of Lost Time. x The intrepid members of the Proust Reading Group began their journey on February 17 2003, and, meeting once or twice a month, completed their discussions of the work on December 14, 2003. They met in January 2004 to view and discuss Time Regained, a film based on the final installment of Proust’s masterpiece. “Johnnies are attracted to Proust not only because of what he talks about, his choice of themes and books, but also because of the way he talks,” says Jason Bielagus(SF98). “Proust states the Johnnie appetite for articulating ideas. Proust’s language is superlatively articulate and DALLAS/FORT WORTH Suzanne Lexy Bartlette 817-721-9112 DENVER/BOULDER Lee Goldstein 720-746-1496 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 NEW YORK Daniel Van Doren 914-949-6811 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 Alumni Association news and events of interest. President – Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President – Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary –Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer – Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team Chair – Linda Stabler-Talty, SFGI76 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. precise. There is little that is vague and ambiguous. A common seminar question is something along the lines of, ‘Could you clarify that?’ or ‘What do you mean by that?’ Proust obviates those questions; he anticipates them and addresses them without needing to be asked.” Bielagus had tried to read the work on his own, but “there was too much to keep up with. In the group, each person naturally gravitated to one theme, so when we met, each could share his observations on the theme he tended to follow. Our discussions were like culling the fruit of several reads of the text.” NORTHERN CALIF. Suzanne Vito 510-527-4309 SANTA FE Richard Cowles 505-986-1814 WASHINGTON, D.C. Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 SEATTLE Amina Brandt 206-465-7781 PITTSBURGH Joanne Murray 724-325-4151 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 WESTERN NEW ENGLAND Julia Ward 413-648-0064 PORTLAND Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } TRIANGLE CIRCLE (NC) Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 9-722-671-7608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �{St. John’s Forever} st. john’s college archives/greenfield library 48 An Accidental Architect O ne of the most important men in the modern history of St. John’s College was also one of the preeminent figure of 20th-century architecture. John Gaw Meem was born to missionary parents in Brazil, earned an engineering degree at Virginia Military Institute, then went to New York to work for his uncle’s construction company. After World War I, during which he served as an army captain, Meem choose a career in international banking. He had just begun a new job when he developed tuberculosis, and to regain his health, went to the Sunmount Sanatorium in Santa Fe. His interest in architecture and the culture of the Southwest was kindled during the five years he spent at the sanatorium, and after he recovered, he took a job with the Denver architecture firm of Fisher & Fisher. From 1924—when he designed a home for a fellow patient at the sanatorium—until his retirement in 1959, Meem was one of the most influential architects of the West. He was credited with creating the Territorial Revival style of architecture. In addition to his professional accomplishments, he was a civic leader in Santa Fe and a major figure in the preservation of the city’s historic architecture. The idea for an expansion campus of St. John’s initially came from a citizens’ group in Monterey, Calif., but though the interest was there, the funding was not. In 1960, then-president Richard Weigle was corresponding with California backers when a group of Santa Fe citizens came forward to make their bid for the college. Meem and his wife, Faith, donated { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } John Gaw Meem (left), shown with thenpresident Richard Weigle and shaking hands with former assistant to the president William Hooton, was a founding benefactor of the Santa Fe campus. His gift of 225 acres of land made the founding of the campus possible. 225 acres northeast of their home for the college. Meem later assisted with his successor firm, Holien & Buckley, on the design of the college. In Facing Southwest: The Life and Houses of John Gaw Meem, the architect is described as someone that any Johnnie would welcome at the seminar table: “Meem knew how to ask questions and then be quiet and listen, how to identify common interests, and how to allow imaginations and enthusiasms to mingle.” In 1990, the college named its newly completed library in Santa Fe for Faith and John Gaw Meem. x �{Alumni Events Calendar} Clockwise top: PARALLEL UNIVERSE, by Betsy Williams, SF87; REDUCTION, by Donna Loraine Contractor, SF82; SILVER BARK BROOCH, by Nancy Kahn DeMulder, SF80. Santa Fe Alumni Art Show A Success Whitewater Rafting Trip June (details on date and location pending) This year’s Alumni Art Show featured paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture, jewelry, video, textiles, and glasswork from 22 Santa Fe and Annapolis alumni. Opening over Homecoming Weekend July 3, the show was on display in the college’s Fine Arts Gallery through August 30. In addition this year, the Alumni Association Board’s Events Action Team sponsored a breakfast and meeting for alumni artists seeking some guidance in Homecoming 2005 Friday July 1-Sunday July 3, 2005 Join the classes of: 1970, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, and 2000, celebrating their reunions, at Santa Fe this summer. Summer Alumni Program July 4-8 A special Eastern Classics Alumni Seminar week will be offered with two additional seminars. turning their art into a business. Geoffrey Gorman, from Advisory Services for Artists, offered a presentation on how to put together a professional portfolio and how to approach commercial galleries. Interested in including your work in next year’s show? Contact Maggie Magalnick in Santa Fe: Maggie.magalnick@sjcsf.edu Annapolis Third Annual Alumni/Student Networking Reception Sunday, November 21, 4-7 pm. Check the Alumni section of the Web site for updated calendar information. Back cover: Photo by Peter Howard, 1998 { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2004 } �P ERIODICALS P OSTAGE PAID P UBLISHED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE P.O. BOX 2800 A NNAPOLIS , M ARYLAND 21404 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 pages 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/. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Title A name given to the resource The College, Fall 2004 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Description An account of the resource Volume 30, Issue 3 of <em>The College</em> Magazine. Published in Fall 2004. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The_College_Magazine_Fall_2004 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/df34baf445a146e2b019b7b9c3037f5b.pdf d7a24960df46feebd3854d0372f40fa7 PDF Text Text �ON EINSTEIN t isn't always easy to get alumni out for a chapter event in the dead of winter, particularly right after the holidays. So imagine tutor Sam Kuder's delight when the Annapolis chapter drew about 25 participants to a Saturday morning seminar he was leading on Einstein a week after New Year's. Annapolis Johnnies aren't the only ones eager to talk about Einstein and his special theory of relativity during the centennial of Einstein's anna mirabilis. Several chapters have seminars planned. In this issue of The College, tutors and alumni describe working through the paper as one of the most remarkable experiences they've had at the college-one that stays with them long after they've moved on to other pursuits. Who isn't familiar with Einstein's struggles in his early education? Born in 1879 to middle-class German parents Hermann and Pauline Einstein, young Albert frustrated his parents and teachers. His penchant for daydreaming and dislike of rote memorization are well known, but popular lore mistakenly brands him as a poor student. At the Institute ofTechnologyin Zurich, he preferred independent research to the lecture hall. When he couldn't find an academic job after graduation, he landed at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. His undemanding day job gave him the freedom to think. And his 1905 paper gave him instant fame-something Einstein accepted graciously, but would gladly have done without. He was more fond of his violin, his sailboat, and his work. His unhappy first marriage to fellow physics student Mil eva Marie ended in divorce. Einstein later married his cousin Elsa, who proved the cheerful hostess and efficient helpmate Einstein failed to find in his first marriage. He had two sons by Marie and a daughter born before their marriage who may have been given up for adoption. He was fond of Elsa's two daughters, who provided great companionship in his later years. A life long pacifist, Einstein nevertheless decried the Nazis' rise to power and the world's failure to stop Hitler earlier. His famous letter to Roosevelt warning that Germany was likely building a bomb urged that the U.S. move quickly to develop atomic weapons. He later regretted this and became a proponent of nuclear disarmament. He died in Princeton, N.J., in 1955, after insisting that his office at the Institute for Advanced Studies not be preserved, but made available for someone else. In his essay "The World as I See It," published in 1931, Einstein described himself as a "lone traveler." "The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me," he wrote. - Rll ' WINTER THE e 0 S!JOHN'S College 2005 VoLUME 3I, IssuE I THE MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI OF ST. JoHN's CoLLEGE ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE ANNAPOLIS • SANTA P'B (usPs oi8-75o) is published quarterly by St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, and Santa Fe, NM THE CoLLEGE Known office of publication: Communications Office St. John's College Box28oo Annapolis, MD 2I404-28oo Periodicals postage paid at Annapolis, MD POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John's College, Box 28oo, Annapolis, MD 2I404-28oo. Rosemary Harty, editor John Hartnett (SF8g), Santa Fe editor Jennifer Behrens, art director Annapolis 410-626-2539 Santa Fe 505-984-6104 Contributors Sus san Borden (A87) August Deimel (SFo4) Barbara Goyette (A73) Erin Hughey-Comers (Aos) Carolyn Knapp (SFOI) Andra Maguran Jo Ann Mattson (A87) Natalie Rinn (Aos) Roxanna Seagraves (SF83) Christopher Utter (Ao6) Robin Weiss (SFGI82) Roseanna White (Ao4) ··· ·· ·· ············· ·· ···· ·· ·· ······ ···· {CONTENTS} PAGE 12 D E P A R T M E N T S 2 THE CHAIR A visit to the Clore factory reveals just what goes into the famous St. John's chair. PAGE 14 EINSTEIN AND THE PROGRAM 8 PAGE I2 Alumni and tutors say that studying the I go 5 paper is an exceptional experience at St. John's. PAGE FROM THE BELL TOWERS A New President in Santa Fe The Magnificent Seven MacGyver Meets the Johnnies Mellon Grant Supports Tutors Ringing a Bell for the Annual Fund Reunion Class Leaders LETTERS 28 THE FACULTY 29 BIBLIOFILE A co-editor of a new commentary on Milton, William Moeck (A8o) once thought Paradise Lost would be too boring. 20 ATOMIC JoHNNIES 3I ALUMNI NOTES Los Alamos National Laboratory has provided some interesting professional and educational opportunities for these Johnnies. PROFILES 30 Linnea Back Klee (A67) works for quality child care in San Francisco. 33 Documentary filmmaker Alex Shear HoMECOMING (SFoo) encounters baseball fever in Japan. 36 Ross Mackenzie (AGio3) demystifies the . Naval Academy. It was all for Homer in Annapolis. 46 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS PAGE 26 PAGE I4 48 ST. JOHN ' S FOREVER PAGE 26 Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design ON THE COVER Albert Einstein Illustration by David]olznson �{F R 0 M THE BE L ,L T 0 wE R s} A NEW PRESIDENT IN SANTA FE St. fohns Finds a Leader at the Council on Foreign Relations BY JOHN HARTNETT At first glance, it wouldn't Along with experience in appear that St. John's College administration and international (goo students on two campuses) affairs, Peters brings to his new and the United States Military position a deep appreciation for Academy (4 ,000 cadets) have a the ancient world, rooted in his great deal in common. But early life as the son of a military Michael Peters, a West Point officeT. His father was stationed graduate and the new president in Ankara, Turkey, giving the of the Santa Fe campus, sees cmious teen the perfect home striking similarities ben-vccn base to explore the great sites the two institutions. of the ancient world. Both colleges are founded on "My first two years in high principles and missions, and both school, I traveled all over have a clear sense of their own Turkey,Cyprus,andthe unique identities. Most imporMediterranean," he says. "It tant, says Peters, St. John's and really solidified my interest in West Point are among the few history. So many of the classics colleges still concerned with we read at St. John's are set in developing the moral character places vivid in my memories. of their students. I've been to Ephesues, Izmir, "St. John's and West Point Iskenderun, Athens, and both believe you can define what Cyprus. I remember walking a virtuous life is and what a through the Cilician Gate where person of honor is. Both colleges Alexander marched his army to believe that through exploration meet the Persians. As a teen, it and thought and interchange a was an incredible experience." student can come to understand Retracing Alexander's route what it means to be virtuous, kindled a passion for history honorable, and a person of that led Peters to follow in his integrity," he explains. own father's footsteps. After Both approach that goal the high school, he entered the U.S. same way: "The instructors at Military Academy at West Point. West Point give the cadets a In 1968, he graduated and was ALONG WITH MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE, MICHAEL PETERS BRINGS AN model of what it means to be a commissioned an officer in the INTERNATIONAL VIEW TO ST. JoHN ' S COLLEGE. good officer. Similarly, the Army, taking command of a tutors at St. John's give stutank platoon in Vietnam. After his tour ended, Peters earned a master's in economics dents a model for learning what it means to be a virtuous person and a good citizen," Peters says. from the University ofWashington, then returned to West Point On November II, 2004, the college's Board ofVisitors and to teach economics. "At that time every junior had to take the Governors chose Peters to serve as the sixth president of the economics course. I had IS instructors including the head of my college's Santa Fe campus , bringing to a close a 16-month search department working for me. I was a captain at the time and had a to replace former president John Balkcom (SFGioo). Peters took full colonel teaching for me," says Peters. office January 17, just in time to preside over the January freshAfter teaching at \Vest Point, Peters studied Russian then man convocation. Prior to joining the college, the retired Army served as a Soviet military attache at the American embassy in colonel had served as executive vice president of the Council on Moscow. Living and working in that city at the height of the Cold Foreign Relations in New York. A nonpartisan, foreign policyWar was "a true adventure in every sense oftheword," he oriented membership organization, research center, and publishrecalls. Ronald Reagan had just begun his first term as president, and U.S. -Soviet relations were rocky. er, the Council provides programs (over 300 a year) and services to ;},ooo members around the world and the general public. It also publishes Foreign Affairs magazine and books on internacontinued on p. 3 tional affairs and foreign policy. { THE CoL L EGE. St. fohn 's College . Winter 2005 } {FRoM THE BELL TowERS} 3 entailed managing the research arm of the Council. His experience supervising scholars and researchers at the council will "You could never leave the apartment make him feel "right at home with the without coming back with a story," says faculty and students of St. John's," he says. Peters. "There was the time I coasted into Peters had been aware of St. John's the gas station running on fumes. Even College for many years . After the executive getting gas was always an adventure in search firm contacted him to gauge his Moscow. There were very few gas interest in the position, he took a trip to stations. The ones they did have were almost Annapolis to visit classes. He was impressed hidden-impossible to find. Once you found a by what he saw and heard. station, you couldn't pay cash-you had to buy "I sat in on a seminar on Aristotle, then coupons from the state, give yom coupons to MICHAEL PE'I'ERS, SANTA FE PRESIDENT Ptolemy in math tutorial, and a Greek class the attendant, then wait for the person to set translating the Meno. The experience really the pump for the amount of gas you were convinced me that St. John's was a place I allowed to buy. In one instance I went to the window, my car on empty, and one of the coupons I had was torn on would like to be part of. The interaction between students and tutors, the commitment and enthusiasm of the students, and the the corner. The woman refused to take it. I kept telling her how respect that students have for one another, the tutors, and the badly I needed the gas. I even had the torn corner and offeTed to books were all incredibly powerful. It convinced me to look tape it back on, but no matter how I pleaded, she still refused. seriously at the college and to find a way I could be part of the Finally I crossed my fingers and coasted off to another station St. John's community," he says. that did accept my coupon-even with the tear." It didn't hurt that in all their travels, Peters and his wife, PeteTs left Moscow for Berlin, wheTe he wmked as liaison Eleanor, found Santa Fe and the Southwest to be among the most officer to the Soviet Army in East Germany, to work as a beautiful places they have visited. They are particularly keen to conventional aTms negotiatm in Berlin. Later, during the attend the acclaimed Santa Fe opera-one of their new homebuildup to the 1991 GulfWar, he led an elite Civil Mfairs town's many cultural treasures-this summer. "Wherever Eleanor Battalion in Saudi Arabia. He finished his militaTy career by and I would go in the world, we tried to take advantage of the returning to West Point- this time as an administrator. local operas . In Moscow, for example, we quickly found out it After retiring from the military with the rank of colonel, was best to go only to Russian operas. Once you've seen Madame Peters went to work for the Council on Foreign Relations. Butteiflyin Russian, you'll never see h again," he says.~ During his nine years at the Council, Peters served as senior vice pTesident, chief operating of:ficeT, and director of studies, which (continued) "The experience really convinced me that St. Johns was a place I would lzke to bepart if." MICHAEL P. PETERS At a Glance Education: B.S., engineering, United States Military Academy at West Point; M.A., economics, University ofWas~ington. Recent Experience: As executive vice pTesident, Council on Foreign Relations (2002-2004), seTved as the principal deputy for the council's president in all areas of operations. Directed the research arm of the council, supervising a staff of IOO, including 70 research fellows. For seven years (1995-2002), directed day-to-day operations of the council, including managing a budget of almost $30 million and a staff of over 200. At West Point: As chief of staff from1992-1995, directed day-today operations of the academy and led a community of over ro,ooo. Managed a $350 million operating budget. Directed a strategic review of the academy defining the mission and purpose of the institution for the 21st century. { THE Co L LEGE . Military Career: (Ig68-gs) Chief, Conventional Arms Negotiations: Principal adviser to the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff, Army, on negotiation and implementation of treaties to reduce conventional arms in Europe. Commander, g6th Civil Mfairs Battalion (Airborne): led an elite, 200-person, special unit responsible fm working with local officials and populace in support of U.S. military . operations. Deployed to Saudi Arabia in the first month of Operation Desert Shield; coordinated Saudi support for the lo!-,ristical infrastructure required for the U.S. forces. Coordinated the initial restoration of government services in Panama following the removal of Manuel Noriega. Executive assistant, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Soviet Foreign Area Officer. Assistant professor, United States Military Academy. Platoon leader, executive officer and Armored Cavalry Troop commander. Recent reading: Snow, by Orhan Pamuk, a novel set in Turkey. St. fohn's College . W in t er 20 0 5 } �4 GILLIAM HALL DEDICATION {FRoM THE BELL TowERS} THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN G 1 l The newest dormitory on the Annapolis campus, Gilliam Hall was formally dedicated in a ceremony November rr. Family members ofJames H. Gilliam Jr., for whom the building is named, and trustees of The Hodson Trust, which provided most of the funding for the dormitory, attended the ceremony and toured Gilliam Hall afterward. Gilliam was a trustee of The Hodson Trust and vice president ofthe Beneficial Corporation in Wilmington, Del., until his unexpected death in the summer of 2003. An Mrican-American lawyer and business executive, he was also a respected civic leader and philanthropist who believed in advancing opportunities for others, particularly in higher education. To honor Gilliam's memory, the first seven Mrican-American graduates of the college attended the ceremony. Long before he became a Hodson trustee, Gilliam came to know St. John's through his service as a director of the Beneficial Corporation. He was chairman of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute when the foundation gave St. John's its first grant, for $r million. "He was proud that we received it, and it showed," said Christopher Nelson, president of the Annapolis campus . The college is honored that the new dormitory will bear Gilliam's name, he added. "I came to admire Jim as someone who reflected the ideals of our community: he had a talent for {FRoM THE BELL TowERs} thinking through problems and LINDA GILLIAM (RIGHT) WITH CHRISTOPHER NELSON, AND HER presenting solutions. He was DAUGHTERS ALEXIS AND LESLIE humble and generous; he was someone who had achieved success in life and felt compelled to share his blessings with others," Nelson said. Finn M. W. Caspersen, chairman of The Hodson Trust, described Gilliam as an individual with attributes that Johnnies would particularly value. "He embodied good judgment. Even in difficult situations, he always had the right answers." Daniel Russell (Aos) had two reasons to thank the Hodson Trust for its generous support of the college: He lives in Gilliam Hall and has benefited from a Hodson-funded internship that allowed him to experience life in a public defender's office last summer. Russell praised the dorm's spacious common rooms, the full-size kitchen, and the views of College Creek and the lower playing field. But he also noted that the addition of the new dormitory has enhanced the character of the campus. "What used to be a dark and foreboding back campus has now become a much more lively area," he said. "Gilliam Hall has truly been a wonderful addition to the already wonderful St. John's College." Gilliam' s widow, Linda Gilliam, also thanked The Hodson Trust and the St. John's College community for "this marvelous tribute to Jim." "With Gilliam Hall, his legacy lives on," she said. Work is already well under way on the second dormitory, to be built next to Gilliam Hall and available to students in January 2006. With eight dormitories, the college will be able to house about 8o percent of its students on campus . .... FINN CASPERSEN, CHAIRMAN OF THE HoDsoN TRusT, PAID Gathered together for the happy occasion of dedicating Gilliam Hall, the first seven Mrican-American graduates of St. John's College had a lot of catching up to do. Many are retired now; some complained of slovving down just a little. Some are single, some married with children and grandchildren. Perhaps, since they were already vvilling to attend a college in a segregated city and suffer the indignities associated with such injustice, they were remarkable people when they arrived here. Whether the college made a difference or not, one thing is clear: they are certainly remarkable people now. All went on to earn advanced degrees. In long and productive careers, they worked to improve the lives of others through education, advocacy, and education. Groundbrcaker Martin Dyer (class ohg52) capped a 30-year career in public service with another decade as a fairhousipg advocate. He's still active as a consultant to the Greater Baltimore Community Housing Resource Board, and serves on the college's Board of Visitors and Governors. Mtcr earning his master's in clinical social work, Everett Wilson (class ofrgs6) also went into public service: 33 years helping youth in the state of Maryland's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration. Now, he counsels kids struggling with Attention Deficit Disorder. Leo L. Simms (class of rgs6)has retired from the business career he launched after earning his MBA from Boston College, but he stays active in his church in Chelmsford, Mass. Mter graduation , he served in the Air Force, studied to become a Russian translator, and worked for the National Security Administration during the height of the Cold War. It's the retired life, too, for Joan Cole (class ofr957), the first African-American woman community services and mediation for many years; she's currently a trainer for the city's Children's Services Administration and involved in community service in Queens, N.Y. Jerry Hynson (class ofrgsg) has more time for genealogy and research now that he's retired from a long career in Baltimore schools, where he THE PIONEERS : FROM LEFT TO RIGHT (BOTTOM): JOAN COLE, MARTIN DYER, CAROLYN BAKER BRoWN. TOP: EvERETT WILsoN, LEo L. ':After the jirJt semeste~; I knew this was theplacefor me. " }ERRY HYNSON (CLASS OF I959) to attend the college. She takes the trips she has dreamed of during a long and successful career in the New York Public Library system, where as a regional manager, she supervised 20 branch libraries. ''I'm so glad I can read during the daytime," she says. Carolyn Baker Brown (class ofrgs8) , another New Yorker, earned her master's in social work and has worked in was a teacher, then assistant principal. His published works on Mrican-American history in Maryland have covered topics including runaway slaves and freed African-Americans before the Civil War. Charlotte King (class ofrgsg) was another graduate to spend her life in public service as a clinical therapist, social worker, and social services administrator. It wasn't easy to be pioneers in Annapolis before Brown V. Board ofEducation made segregated schools illegal. Martin Dyer came to Annapolis in rg48 and found the college much more welcoming than the greater Annapolis community. The Little Campus Inn on Maryland Avenue may have been an off-campus haven for a TRIBUTE TO JAMES H. GILLIAM JR. { THE CoLL E G F.. St. John 's College . W inter 2005 } SIMMs, CHARLOTTE KING, JERRY HYNSON. { TH E CoLL E GE. St. John 's College. Winter 2005 } 5 generations ofJohnnies, but Dyer was never able to venture inside. Wilson remembers he couldn't try on a suit in a downtown clothing store. And King was turned away from a church in downtown Annapolis , told that she would find a more welcoming congregation in another part of town. "At St. John's, I was just another student," Dyer says. "Mter the first semester," says Hynson, "I knew this was the place for me." Joan Cole, the librarian, never regretted her decision to attend the college-even though she remembers her name was left out of the program of a King Williams Players production for which she had made costumes. Her life-long love affair ·with books was nurtured here, and she enjoyed the poetry group in which she participated. "I found the education I was expecting here," Cole says. Each of the graduates has remained keenly interested in St. John's after some five decades away from Annapolis. Their attachment was demonstrated by their eagerness to attend the ceremony and their ongoing support of the college's efforts to recruit Mrican-American students, helping the college find new ways to tell minority students about St. John' s. As Wilson says, many Johnnies find out about the college through word-of-mouth, often from a relative or friend who attended the college. "Our job as alumni is to get the word out-through churches, sororities, communities, anywaywe can-that St. John's provides an education for a lifetime," he says. There may be no better evidence of that than these seven alumni ..... - RosEMARY HARTY �6 {FROM THE BELL {FRoM TowERS} THE MAcGYVER MEETS ''I'M READY FOR MY THE JOHNNIES BELL CLOSE-UP' MR. ZLOTOFF'' The St. John~ Story, Quick CUTS of 4-5 students & 2 tutors as they open books and begin reading in various locations: dorm rooms, library, etc. Possible FLASH CUTS of author's names, Hegel, Plato, etc. CUT to villainous East German spies racing up McDowell Hall stairs. CUT to MacGyver hastily assembling rocket out ofseminar chair, shoestrings, and Coffee Shop French fry grease. He shoots up stairs to Bell Tower, rappels to safety FADE OUT It's fun to imagine what the St. fohn's Story- the campy student recruitment film made more than 50 years ago-could become in the hands of Lee David Zlotoff (A74), the creator of the popular TV hero Angus MacGyver. Zlotoff, who has enjoyed a career as a screenwriter and director since graduation, volunteered his time and expertise to write and direct a promotional video for the college- the first since a second movie was produced in the early Ig6os . After serving Redux Natalie Rinn (A05) was enlistedfor a starring role in Lee Zloto.ff's movie. Here's her account oflife behind the camera. for many years on the college's Board ofVisitors and Governors, Zlotoffknewwell how the college struggles to explain itself to its various audiences . Last year, he proposed a new movie proj ect to the board. Shooting took place in Santa Fe and Annapolis last fall. Now, Zlotoff is supervising the editing of more than 70 hours of videotape into a series of short videos that the college can show at college fairs, use as presentations to potential donors, and post to the college's Web site. Unlike past films that have tried to re-create seminar discussions, Zlotoff's project starts with tutors and students "Now throw down your book like you just can't make sense of it," directed Lee Zlotoff from behind the camera. So I did. And such was myweek, the week that the St. John's promotional film crew became extended-stay guests on campus and I became a movie star. It all happened by chance. I sat in the Mellon courtyard on a warm Sunday early in September. I was puzzling over a paper in the senior lab manual. A young man approached me as I was crinkling my brow looking over the reading. "Would you like to do a screen test?" he asked in a tone that lacked expectation. Happy to set aside my confusion for a moment and intrigued by the words ''screen test," I accepted his offer. I was sat down in front of a camera and answered questions posed by Lee. After spurting answers in response to his questions about "what is it like to be a Johnnie?" I was told I would be contacted within a week and was sent on my way. A week later, the call came. It was the young man, Jared Krause, the producer of the St. John's promotional film. He wanted to know ifl would be willing to be the subject of some scripted material for the film . Apparently the look of confusion I wore when Krause first spotted me was the type of authentic St. John's experience they wanted to be sure to include in the film . He told me that they needed images that would create a visual "I thought this was something that needed doing." LEE DAVID ZLOTOFF (A?4) LEE ZLOTOFF CHECKS OUT THE VIEW FROM BEHIND THE CAMERA. preparing for seminar. The bells ring, and students walk into the classroom. It ends · when the opening question is posed. Interspersed in the basic narrative structure are interviews with students, tutors, and alumni; scenes of campus life and student activities; and environmental shots showing off the beauty of Santa Fe and Annapolis. All told, Zlotoffhas already spent months on the project, which he describes as a labor oflove. He ate in the dining halls and coffee shops on both campuses, hung out with students in downtown Santa Fe or Annapolis, and talked with tutors. He enjoyed reliving his own student days through the eyes of a younger generation. "It was great fun to do and a remarkably insightful process," he says. "At St. John's, everybody does the same thing and in certain ways gets the same sort of thing; in another way it's TUTOR NICK MAISTRELLIS LED A MOCK TUTORIAL FOR THE NEW totally individual. If I had to title the experience it would have been 'Chasing the Paradox.' We tell students what to study but we don't tell them what to think. It's a small school, but in many ways, there is this amazing diversity of opinions and suppositions and life experiences that people bring to them." The college has remained basically the same since his student days, but Zlotoff has noticed some changesparticularly in the students. "When I was at the college, there were students who were at St. John's because they didn't fit in anywhere else . On both campuses today, I see a great deal of awareness on the part of the students about what the college is about and what they're looking for," he says. What took Zlotoff away from Hollywood to document life at St. John's? "The college could go out and hire someone to produce a video, but they wouldn't have had a clue how to do a film about St. John's," he explains. "I thought this was something that needed doing."-$- ST. JoHN's VIDEO. - RosEMARY HARTY { THE CoLLEGE . St. John's College. Winter 2 005 } ST. JoHN's IN THE NEWS For those involved in the three days of shooting on the Annapolis campus, the Today Show segment on St. John's that aired December 30 might have seemed disappointingafter all there was no mention of great books, tutors, or seminars. A quick glimpse of tutor Peter Kalkavage leading a chorus, a seminar, a Waltz Party in the Great Hall, shots of crew on College Creek, and the story of a "tiny college next to the Nav~Academy"was over. But brief as it was, the story couldn't help but be good press for the college, and about 6 million viewers watch this most popular of morning news programs. Roger Martin, president of Randolph-Macon College,hadspentasabbatic~ from his college in Ashland, Va., to find out what life is like for freshmen at St. John's. For the f~l semester, he attended seminars, rowed with the crew team, and got to know Johnnies. A Washington Post story on Martin's experiences caught the eye of an NBC producer, and a crew came to campus in mid-December. { THE CoLLEGE. TowERS} 7 story of a student's preparation for seminar: sitting in various places on campus reading, conversing with fellow students, looking generally confused while paging through a reading. They thought I was a good candidate. Because they would capture these images without sound bites, the pressure to perform would be minimal. I agreed to his request and we arranged a date to do our first filming. The day arrived. I sat in a bath of synthetic light and rested on the quad while the production assistant applied makeup to my face. I felt I was experiencing the clashing of two worlds: The world of St. John's and the outside world that was straining to look in. Providing a vvindow of exposure into the Johnnie world felt unnatural at first. Could we, as props arranged to tell the Johnnie story, really communicate the essence of the Johnny experience? I was told to assume my look of confusion as I sat in the quad and affectedly discussed a seminar reading with classmates. The lights glared, the camera rolled, and then, a funny thing happened. Under a tent of surveillance and heat, I embodied all too easily the confusion with which I was so well acquainted. Though the scenario was staged, my two classmates and I had so often been genuinely confused throughout our time at St. John's that to reproduce the appearance of confusion, even in a feigned discussion, was second nature. I then realized very little acting would be required in order for the film to communicate even a taste of true Johnnie life. Throughout the next week I spent several hours with Lee and his crew performing several takes of"seminar preparation." While the repetition of takes at times grew tedious, I was confident the finished product would convey to the world outside something true about our microcosmic haven. And I, for one, was more than happy to reproduce that truth under the lights. -$- NATALIE RINN: Two observations on the experience: Students can summon a mid-week Waltz Party on about a hour's notice. And students and tutors assembled for a mock seminar will have a serious discussion on Thucydides that will go on long after the crew packs up ru1d leaves. NPR's WeekendEdition ~so carried a short story on Martin's experiences at the college, as did more than 6o newspapers. (An. essay by Martin will run in a later edition of The College.) The college continues to attract attention from a perplexing assortment of media. In September, St. John 's College. Winter 2005 } A STAR IS BORN. Cosmo GIRL! magazine included St. John's on its "first-ever guide to the so Best Colleges for CosmoGirls." Sometimes national press attention is just a passing mention, but in the right context, it's enough to make Johnnies swell with pride. An Atlantic Monthly article entitled "Who Needs Harvard?" an~yzed the competition to get into top schools and mentioned St. John's-in the company of colleges such as Bryn Mawr, Notre Dame, and Oberlin- as "schools [that ru:e] not in the top twentyfive, yet may be only slightly less good than the elites." Now that's good press.-$- �8 {FRoM THE BELL }OHNNIES-R-Us A New Online Community for S]C Alumni Awaits Members The college is pleased to unveil a new online community created to enable alumni to stay better connected to each other and to the college. The address is: http://alunmi.stjohnscollege.edu. The page can also be reached by clicking Alumni on the college's home page: www.stjohnscollege.edu and following the link published there. Shortly after launching a new Web site last year, the college also rolled out an online alumni register, but after a rough start never improved, the application was scrapped. The college chose YourAlumni. com to provide a broader range of services to alumni. The site does require registration to take full advantage of its features, but alumni can still choose to hide all or some of their personal information from public view. Register as a member, and you can view the personal listings of all alumni who have also registered. Alumni can add much more information than has been provided in the paper directory, last published in 200I. There is space to add occupation, employer, graduate school, birthday, and other information such as career changes, moves , books read or written, and births of children. Johnnies can post their own photos and create a gallery of their children, new home, pets, or vacation to Greece. {FRoM TowERs} Other options: • Take part in online forums. • Submit alumni notes online. • Find out about college news, chapter events, and college-wide events. • Search for members by multiple criteria: e.g., campus, class year, location, occupation. (Please note that results will be limited until more alumni become members.) • View class homepages and photo galleries. Another improvement of the new sile is ease of registration: in most cases, alumni will not need to wait for approval from the Alumni offices in Santa Fe or Annapolis- it's automatic. Even when staff intervention is needed, action can usually be tal(en in one business day. Users can also select their own passwords. The college chose a membership-based application in order to restrict personal information to the alumni community and protect privacy. However, alumni can still access a slatic directmy-which the college will update periodically-that lists alumni, class year, city, and slate. While this information is oflimited use, it's the member directory that should be genuinely useful in creating a community. All it needs is members. Contact the Alumni offices with any concerns or questions about the site: in Santa Fe, Roxanne Seagraves at 505-984-6Io3 or alumni@sjcsf.edu; in Annappolis, JoAnn Mattson at 4m-626-253I, or alumni@sjca.edu. -t- THE BELL TowERs} 9 TRAINING DAY EARLY LAST FALL, 2I NEW RECRUITS-MOST OF THEM FRESHMENCOMPLETED THEIR FIELD CERTIFICATION FOR THE ST. JoHN'S COLLEGE SEARCH AND RESCUE TEAM WITH A SIMULATED SEARCH MISSION ON DECEPTION PEAK IN THE SANTA FE SKI BASIN. THE NEWBIES MADE THE CLIMB TO I2,000 FEET AND COMPLETED FIELD NAVIGATION , BACKCOUNTRY SKILLS, AND SEARCH TECHNIQUE TRAINING TO BECOME FIELD CERTIFIED AND EARN THE NICKNAME "GROUND-POUNDER." WITH MORE R E CRUITS THIS YEAR THAN EVER, THE COLLEGE TEAM CAN NOW FIELD MULTIPLE TEAMS OF VOLUNTEERS. LEFT, ANABELLAASPIRAS (SF08) OF WASHINGTON D.C., CAN NOW USE A TRIANGULATION MAP AND COMPASS TO FIND HER WAY IN THE MOUNTAINS. ABOVE, NATE OESCH AND RYAN GREENDYK (BOTH SF08) DO PUSH-UPS AT THE TRAILHEAD. {LETTERS} MISTAKEN NoTIONS The story of Martin A. Dyer's being recruited as the first Mrican-American student to attend St. John's College, ofhis graduating in I952, and of his now joining the Board ofVisitors and Governors, is inspiring. Mter all, Brown v. Board ofEducation was not decided until I954· When I arrived in Annapolis as a freshman in I956, African-An1ericans were still second-class citizens in Maryland. The story of Martin A. Dyer reflects well on St. John's College, on the students who persuaded the college to agmit [him], and on Mr. Dyer himself. The college's "diversity initiative," by contrast, is consistent neither with the mission of St. John's College nm·with the achievements ofMr. Dyer. Defending the "diversity initiative," nonetheless , Mr. Dyer asserts in his recent letter (Fall2004) that the college should make a determined effort to recruit more minority students, "because seminars and classes achieve greater profundity and richness when students of different races, ethnicities, and backgrounds bring their life experiences and individual perspectives into the conversation." I must disagTee. To remain politely silent would show respect neither for the college nor for Mr. Dyer. To remain silent would trivi- thing profound that any Asian or Irish-American or Je,vish or African-American student has said in a St. John' s College seminar that flowed from his or her "race, ethnicity, or background." My own fellow-students advanced our conversations by giving evidence of close reading and good logic. My fellow-students' racial and ethnic characteristics made no discernible contribution to their being able to read and think well ... Mr. Dyer is a remaTkable man, and I am like other Johnnies in respecting his achievements and in tiling pride in him and in his story ... .All men and women are educable "l.vithout regard to the peculiarities of their ethnic and racial backgrounds. It is not our fellow-students' peculiarities that are the teachers at St. John's College . It is the great books that are our teachers. alize the great books program, and it would patronize Mr. Dyer. St. John's College exists because, as its motto suggests, boys of all sorts are equally capable ofbecoming men by a single device, namely, by means of books and balances. The Program Telles on books, not on the alleged broadening effects of a multi-cultural mi'< of students. Nor was Mr. Dyer himself recruited to St. John's College in order to provide his fellow-students with his race-peculiar contributions. Such a suggestion is repellant. Mr. Dyer was recruited because the students at St. John's at that time found the then-prevalent rules of racial discrimination offensive. This was precisely because they believed that all men are fundamentally the same, not that they are different ... Mr. Dyer cannot and does not appeal now to what all men have in common, however. In departing from that premise, he departs from the foundation on which St. John's College stands. Mr. DyeT relies, instead, on the premise that different "life experiences" will somehow enrich the college's seminaTs. Is this an empirical claim or is it a tautology? I assume that Mr. Dyer means it to be an empirical claim. If so, he must present proof. Unfortunately, no proof is possible. Neither Mr. Dyer nor anyone else can present evidence of any- { THE CoLLEGE . St. John's College. Winte r 2005 MARY CAMPBELL GALLAGHER, CLASS OF Ig6o The College welcomes letters. Letters may be edited for clarity and/ or length. Please address letters to: The College Magazine, St. John's College, Box 28oo, Annapolis MD 2I4o4. Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: rosemary.harty@sjca.edu. } MELLON GR.ANT SuPPORTS FACULTY A $soo,ooo grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will allow St. John's College to raise faculty salaTies and provide funds for faculty study groups on both the Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses. One of the college's most important strategic goals is to bring its faculty salaries closer to the mid-range of comparable liberal arts colleges. Attracting and retaining exceptional faculty, and compensating them fairly in cities with a high cost ofliving, are key to preserving the college's discussion-based education program and small classes. Almost important as improved compensation is the need to provide faculty { T HE C o L L E G E . with continuing opportunities to deepen their own knowledge ofthe subjects they are teaching. Funds for study groups mll support faculty members who plan and organize the material for the sessions, and compensate faculty for the additional time they spend in such groups . In the past, study groups at St. John's have included topics such as Apollonius' classical geometry, advanced reading in ancient Greek, and the poems ofWallace Stevens. St. f ohn 's College. Winter 2005 } "This generous funding from the Mellon Foundation for faculty salaries and faculty development mll allow the college to demonstrate to our tutors and our students, as well as to the college community as a whole, the value we place on our faculty and the commitment we have made to them for the future," said Christopher Nelson, president of the Annapolis campus. -t- �. ' ,--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------. IO {PHILANTHROPIA} RINGING A BELL FOR II {PHILANTHROPIA} ST. JOHN~ s REUNION CLASs LEADERS Increasing Alumni Involvement ell-ringers were all over town in Santa Fe last 317 phone calls, and there was a lot of ringing: they raised $2,245 December, but bell ringers of a different kindin gifts and pledges . without the Santa Claus suits and red kettles-were Tiffany Simons (SFo6), a phonathon veteran, gave an also making appeals from Weigle Hall at St. John's enthusiastic kickoff speech to first-timers . "Make sure alumni College. Telephones rung in homes across the understand that gifts of any amount are greatly appreciated," she country as students participated in a phonathon said. "If everyone on this list gave only five dollars, we'd be way for the college's Annual Fund. above where we were last year in terms of alumni participation." The Annual Fund helps pay for tutors' salaries, health and Students say they get a great sense of pride in volunteering for counseling services, admissions, athletics, and campus phonathons. Some start out reluctantly, afraid to make a phone maintenance and, perhaps most vital to the group making the call to a stranger and reluctant to disturb a quiet evening to ask phone calls, student financial aid. Thition meets just 70 percent for money. But when they secure their first gift, they beam . of the cost of educating students, and about 6o percent of the Melinda Miller-Klopfer (SFo7) has worked several phonathons, college's students receive financial aid. A gift of $roo to the and each time she riffles through the list of potential donors to Annual Fund has the same effect as $2ooo in the endowment, find alumni in California. She, too, is from California and taps since the college draws a s% from the endowthe \Vest Coast connection to establish a personal ment every year for operating expenses. Gifts to association with the alumni she calls. Some she '~ the Annual Fund can be put to immediate use . has talked to several times, and even though they Phonathons take place on both campuses have never met, they catch up like old friends toward the end ofthe calendar year, and again in over the phone. Helping the college raise money, the spring, as the college' s fiscal year comes to a Miller-Klopfer says, strengthens her appreciation close June 30. Alumni, students, and staff take for St. John's. parents~ tutor~ part in the calling. To heighten the fun and "After all," Miller-Klopfer says, "my St. John's foster a little gentle competition at the Santa Fe education is a gift-from my parents, my tutors, phonation, held on a blustery December the financial aid office. An education of any evening, students had bells next to their phones variety is a gift, but a St. John's education is a • -11: " 0J~ce that they could ring each time a call yielded a blessing as well." "'$gift. The group of eight students together made MELINDA MILLER-KLOPFER ( SF07) -ANDRA MAGURAN .. my St. ]ohn:S education is a g!ft-from my my thefinancial azd ... RINGING THE BELL: ZAcK BoRING ( sFo8) AND MELINDA MILLERKLOPFER ( SF07) HIT THEIR BELLS TO SIGNAL A "'YES" IN RESPONSE TO THEIR ANNUAL FUND CALLS . { THE C o L LEGE . St. John 's College . Winter 2005 } ohnnies like talking with other Johnnies. They get a chance to exchange ideas particular to the college, and they understand what a genuine conversation is. That's one reason many alumni accept an invitation from the Advancement offices in Annapolis and Santa Fe to serve as "reunion class leaders," joining Philanthropia volunteers in making alumni aware of their role in supporting the college. When your job is to reconnect with members of your class to strengthen their ties to the college, it's more fun than work . Tapping everything from { nostalgia to technology, J reunion class leaders work at bringing the St. John's experience back to alumni who have gone on to other pursuits five to fifty years after leaving their campuses. "It's so easy to keep in touch with old Johnnie friends - which is why it's weird that a lot of them don't realize how important it is to give back to the school," says a new reunion class leader, Anna Christenbury (SFoo). One of the major goals of the volunteer effort is to increase awareness of the importance of the Annual Fund to the college and increase the number of alumni who make contributions. Gifts to the Annual Fund are vital to supporting the college's day-to-day operations . Often, serving as a class leader is the first time some alumni have had an opportunity to volunteer for the college. "We're fortunate to have reunion class leaders who are exceptionally enthusiastic and energetic," says Suzanne Thornton, advancement officer in Santa Fe. "Many of them find it extremely rewarding to be able to do something for the college." A FAMILY AFFAIR: CAROL PLAUT RICK (A79) (A77) AND HAVE BOTH VOLUNTEERED AS REUNION CLASS LEADERS. Is EMMA PLAUT (Ao7) NEXT? and aware of what's happening at the college today. "I owe St. John's a debt of gratitude," says Preston, an architect in Washington, D.C. "It opened me up to appreciating the eloquence of an idea, of a well-reasoned argument. I may have felt oppressed by it all while I was there, but now it's a kind of heaven in my mind-a golden, shimmering memory." Christenbury, who has been composing music since graduating, has more than a few ideas on how to get members of her class back to the college. Assisted by other class members, she's assembling digital photo albums and organizing regional get-togethers. The most important part of her job, she says, is taking the time to explain to alumni why it's important for them to help support the college. Preston says that the most successful outreach in the past has been making and selling home videos from college days. Other reunion class leaders have sent handwritten thank-you notes to alumni who have made a gift, contributed material for class Web pages, sent out postcards with senior class photos, and arranged class gatherings for Homecoming. Putting one Johnnie in touch with another invokes the sense of community shared at the college, and that's what reunion class leaders strive to do: encourage their friends and classmates to keep giving to ensure that more students can learn what it is to be a Johnnie . --$- "I owe St. ]ohn:S a debt qfgratitude. It opened me up to appreciating the eloquence qf an zdea~ qfa wellr~asoned argument. " BRUCE PRESTON, CLASS OF Ig6s From Annapolis, volunteers are recruited for ro reunion classes; eight classes in Santa Fe have reunion leaders this year. The college offers training at Homecoming each year to inform volunteers about the needs of the college and to provide an opportunity for new recruits to talk with past RCLs about the program. Bruce Preston, class of rg6s, said he took on the job because he wanted not only to reconnect with the college, but also to become more directly involved { THE CoLLEGE. St. John 's College. Winter 2005 - RosEANNA WHITE } (Ao4) �{T I2 H E C H .A I {THE CHAIR} R } ABOUT A CHAIR "The chair looksfine everywhere. " A Visit to the Home ofa St. Johns Icon BILLY COPPAGE It's a family business, and has been since Moses Clore started the company in I83o. Mter a fire in I930 nearly put the Clorcs out of business, Mrs. Herbert Hoover-a summer resident-came through with a loan. Since then, the operation's been a strong one, aided by a small college that's been one of its best customers. This is the home of the St. John's chairor, to be precise, the three chairs that have populated the Annapolis campus since the Igsos and the Santa Fe campus since its opening in I964. The seminar chair is actually the Plain Master Chair. Dorm rooms are furnished with the armless Plain Side Chair, and the dining halls in Santa Fe and Annapolis are filled with the Ladder Back Dining Side Chair. While the factory makes tables and desks and other furniture, chairs outsell everything else, says Troy Coppage, a great-grandson of E.A. Clore and the vice president for personnel. "You just won't find a more durable chair," he says, hefting one up and showing off the construction. Production is labor-intensive. It starts in the lumber room, where wood is boiled for about three hours, then placed in form s that forc e the wood for the back frame, arms, and slats into graceful curves. The slats are fitted into the grooved holes of the frame, as are the six rungs for the bottom of the chair, which connect to the front legs. No nails are needed, except for one on each arm of the Master Chair. Mter the chairs are stained, they're sent out to local residents who weave the fiber-rush seats with which Johnnies become so intimately familiar. Newcomers to this work sometimes surrender in a few days. "It's hard on the hands," says Coppage. ''I'd starve ifl had to do it." The graceful arms of the Master Chair go on last. Then the chairs are shipped, most often to individual customers, but also to big users like boarding schools, seminaries, and inns. BY RosEMARY HARTY fit weren't for the signs leading the way, it would be easy to miss the E.A. Clore Sons Furniture Factory in Madison, Va. The view to the west is of Old Rag Mountain, the most spectacular peak in the Blue Ridge'- Mountains. Turn off the main business thoroughfare of this town, follow a driveway to the bottom of a little hollow, and you'll find a very small factory where furniture is made the old-fashioned way. { T H E C o L L E G E . St. fohn 's College . Winter 2005 } OPPOSITE: "You CAN USE IT EVERY DAY, AND IT'LL LAST IOO YEARS," SAYS TRoY CoPPAGE OF THE ST. JoHN's CHAIR. AT RIGHT AND BELOW: CHAIRS ARE MADE THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY IN THIS FAMILYOWNED BUSINESS IN RURAL VIRGINIA, JUST EAST oF THE BLuE RIDGE MouNTAINS. ABOUT THREE HOURS OF HAND WORK GO INTO EACH CLORE CHAIR. Coppage doesn't know a lot about the St. John's Program ("It's not a normal college'?") but he likes seeing the Master Chair featured on the college's Web site. That was partly the doing of Mark Neustadt, a marketing expert who's been handling the college's recruitment publications. "It's a perfect symbol of how the school differs from others," he says. "You learn by sitting and discussing the books. You learn for yourself." But is the chair really comfortable? "Wonderfully comfortable," says tutor Eva Brann, who should know as well as anyone. "You sit in them for hours at a time, so it's good that they have a comfortable'bottom. And of course, they are very elegant to look at." And is it really sturdy? Yes, says Bryan Valentine, the treasurer in Santa Fe, who is in charge of buying new ones when the stock of more than I,Ioo out West needs replenishing. "The rungs sometimes break out because students always rest their feet on them, and the backs have been broken out when they've tipped over." Billy Coppage, vice president of the company, has made several trips to Annapolis to deliver new or repaired chairs. On a visit to Colorado a few years back, he made a detour to Santa Fe just to see the campus-and his chairs. { THE CoLLEGE. St. fohn 's College . Winter 2005 So where does the Clore chair look better, he's asked? In Santa Fe's sun-drenched seminar rooms? In historic McDowell Hall? He smiles broadly and says in a voice dripping with Virginia honey, "That chair looks fine everywhere."-* For more on Clore, visit the company's Web site: www. eaclore. com } �{THE {THE PROGRAM} PROGRAM} EINSTEIN COMES TO ST. JOHN'S BY RosEMARY HARTY URTIS WILSON (HA83) BROUGHT Einstein to St. John's College. That is, during Wilson's tenure as dean of the college in the late Igsos, he decided that Einstein's theory on special relativity deserved a place in the Program. "The idea of tackling difficult things was not foreign to the Program," Wilson recalls. "All sorts of things could be attempted, but what was important was learning to do them in a way that students feel some accomplishmen\ in them. We didn't want to bamboozle them by talking over their heads." Working with tutor L. Harvey Poe (A52), Wilson wrote a manual designed to lead students through the math and the major concepts of the I90S paper. The manual was introduced in I959 and used at least until I964, when Wilson joined the faculty in Santa Fe and later, the University of { T H E C o L L E G E . California. When he returned to Annapolis in I973, seniors in math tutorial were reading the paper. "That was an important shift, and I was really glad to see it. It motivates students- 'this is really the paper that Einstein wrote? And I'm reading it?' " Beautiful, simple, mind-boggling-the words St. John' s tutors and students use t o describe Einstein's paper-help explain why so many Johnnies find reading the paper a capstone of their years at the college. But it was once thought ''too modern, too difficult, too complex" for students, recalls Santa Fe tutor Peter Pesic, who has taught the paper about half a dozen times. As a physicist, of course he was familiar with Einstein's theory, but he had never read the I90S paper before coming to the college. ''It was one of the discoveries I made at St. John's, to encounter Einstein in his own thoughts, his own words," he says. S t. fohn's College . ·w inter 2005 } { T H E CoL LE G E. St. Jo hn 's College . Winter 20 05 } IS �I6 {THE PROGRAM} {THE "Special theory is a little gem. " patience, even more so than intelligence (though that does not hurt, of course) . Patience is needed for both running experiments and figuring out what to make of the end results. SEEING A PROBLEM Erin Hanlon (SFo3) Studying Einstein's paper did not influence my decision to become a scientist but it has had an impact on how I think about research questions. I had been accustomed to reading scientific papers a couple of times over and thereby getting a general sense of the theory and any equations. But with the Einstein paper I had to carefully go over each word to make sure I understood what he was saying-so much of it was counterintuitive to my mind. I remember staring hard at the board and frequently interrupting whoever was presenting in order to ask questions so that I could better shape the mental illustration I was trying to form. The properties of electrodynamics addressed in the special theory of relativity do not have a direct effect on my research as a plant eco-physiologist. But it is the process, the process of seeing a problem, coming up with possible solutions and working through them all until one that holds up is found, that turned out to be my most important gleaning from this paper. The most important thing that you need to bring to science is CHALLENGING AssuMPTIONS Richard Green (SF87) Probably the most radical thought that comes from the rgos paper on special relativity is that it forces one to rethink the concept of simultaneity. Assumptions about simultaneity seem so basic that it is difficult to be aware that one is making assumptions. How interesting that one can be unaware of basic assumptions that are fundamentallyWI·ong. Richard Green is a chemist workingfor the US. government on issues related to difenses against chemical warfare agents. "Ones learning how to make another small step_, then maybe another step ifierthat." C oLLEG E . S AM KuTLER ( AS4 ) Erin Hanlon is a Ph.D. student in biology at the University of Utah. In Annapolis, Dean Harvey Flaumenhaft "We didn't assume that our students knew has led the senior math tutorial on Einstein algebra back then," he explains, ''and the many times. Although Flaumenhaft's speworst thing we did was waiting until senior cialized field of study has been political phiyear to teach calculus-too late to use in losophy, a framed copy of the Einstein-on-asenior laboratory." bicycle photo hangs prominently in his To Kutler, Einstein's theory is simply office, and Flaumenhaft holds this particubeautiful. ''It has two postulates. One is that lar Program author in high esteem- not just if light is emitted it doesn't matter if the for what he thought, but how he thought. light is coming right at you, going away Einstein characterized himself as a "slow from you, or standing still with respect to thinker" who pondered his theories long you: it's still going to come at a single speed. and hard for many years before something The constancy of the velocity of light is one emerged. Approaching Einstein in the classprinciple, and the other one is the relativity HARVEY FLAUMEN HAFT, DEAN room also requires patience and time. principle, which is that the laws of physics "One's learning how to make another small have to be the same; there's no special frame step, then maybe another step after that. If of reference." we can take just a couple of really good steps Long b efore he worked out his theory on toward beginning to understand those fundamentals, one paper, "Einstein didn't think that Newtonian physics made starts to think in a way that's much deeper." any sense," says Kuder. Poincare, Lorentz, and Fitzgerald "Special theory is a little gem," says Annapolis tutor Sam were all thinking along the same lines, and Poincare might Kuder (class of 1954) , because seniors can study it for a well have beaten Einstein to the punch. But Einstein was term- one truncated by the writing period and perhaps the first one to determine that "since we can't find the aether, there's no need for it." tainted by the post-essay letdown -and emerge with a fairly good understanding of the basics. Adding the paper to the " This is a great blow to empiricists like Francis Bacon Program was a change that was enabled by the college's who believe you keep experimenting and experimenting, earlier decision to stop extensive instruction in algebra. and you're very slow to theorize. Einstein didn't obey those { THE PROGRAM} St. John 's College · Winter 2005 } rules. He theorized first and the experimentation came later. He loved his theories, and he believed in them." Santa Fe tutor Ralph Swentzell guided seniors in math tutorial many times in his 38 years with the college, and led one exceptional preceptorial for Graduate Institute students taking the math and science segment. "Some of them were accountants, and some were English teachers, and they would all get up to the board and work through the equations . It was very exciting-I still get letters from those students," he says. Over the years, Swentzell has assembled a collection of notes that he uses to supplement the paper; they're enormously popular with Santa Fe students. One of his favorite examples is helping students make sen se of Einstein by getting them to figure how fast they would have to drive a car to get it to shrink and fall into one of the cracks on the road. "They get a big kick out of that," he says. Even after all his years of working through the paper 'vith students, Swentzell finds there are some concepts Einstein presents that just "hit you in the stomach sometimes." "You can see how it's all derived, but then to imagine walking around this world of ours and as you're walking down Two THINGS Laine Conway (SFot) I was, while reading Einstein, fairly obsessed with the work of Kurt Go del, and so my memories are doubtless somewhat tainted. Still, two things in particular stand out for me from reading Einstein: r. The equation "e=mc 2 " is far from being mysterious and arcane. Instead, it falls neatly, elegantly, and almost unobtrusively out of the preceding equations. 2. Einstein later (re) did his calculations for relativity using only algebra; the original equations use calculus because Einstein was, at the time he wrote the paper, studying calculus! The other thing I recall is how much I liked Einstein. I'm thinking, here, of a line from The Catcher in the Rye: "What really kno cks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours, and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. Laine Conway; having completed an MFA in Dramatic Writing, has returned to math (and Marx) and is studyingfor a Ph.D. in economics. PROVING THE ABSURD David] Macdonald (SFg3) Einstein's 1995 paper on special relativity was certainly one of the highlights of my time at St. John's, and not just because it seemed to prove the absurdthat our notion of absolute space and time was an illusion. What I found most exciting was the simplicity of the reasoning behind it. The step-by-step proof, from the premise (Michaelson and Morley's observation that the speed oflight is constant) to the conclusion (that the length of an object varies according to its speed relative to the observer) , was accessible even to a college student like me with no more than a basic knowledge of calculus. I felt like we were proving the absurd with very simple , rational tools. David Macdonald is a composer who also teaches music theory at the Manhattan School ofMusic. . { T HE C oLL EGE . St. John 's College. Wi nter 2005 } the hall, to suddenly think that what you're calling 'now' means a different set of events in the universe than for somebody who's sitting down in their office. Everything changes. That's the part," h e says, and stops to chuckle, " that's just too weird. That's when you have to go home and sleep on it and get the equations out to guide you." The Nike adage "just do it" fits with Peter Pesic's approach to teaching the paper to Santa Fe seniors. " Some tutors try to go backwards, but it's hard to do that without spending a long time on review. So we plunge into it and then take extended digressions in electricity and magnetism. We can drag out magnets and coils and try to bring to life where Einstein was starting from with his questions." The paper may have seemed a risky proposition to introduce four decades ago , but it's well within the grasp of today's students, says Pesic. "The heart of his deduction can be done with nothing except algebra, " he says, adding that each time he's taught it, even those students without great skills in math have risen to the occasion. A leisurely pace is needed for Einstein; up to 30 class sessions in Santa Fe are invested in the rgos paper. "That's quite a long time, and a lot of time is needed �{THE PROGRAM} {THE "JYe can understand a lot about geniuses and we can participate in their thinking. It;wt talces some zvork. " GREAT IDEAS Alciba Covitz (Ag1) My senior year math tutorial was led by Winfree Smith. Although I very much liked and respected Mr. Smith, it was not a very good tutorial. One student in particular refused to accept any aspect of non-Euclidean geometry. Mr. Smith was patient at first, but he was clearly not in the best spirits and, as the semester progressed, the clash between the two of them became quite pointed. We came to Einstein with that as our rather contested and cantankerous foundation. At that stage in my college career, I was still on the fence about what I would do, in terms of what field to pursue i.n graduate school, try law school, do a post-bac and try med school, pursue my interest in journalism, etc. I remember that Einstein's language seemed to be as much tied to metaphysics as to physics. His ideas about the actual workings of the universe and his semi-hidden, semi-mystical cosmology seemed all jumbled together. I tried to dis aggregate them, but with little luck. This, as I recall (together with the mind-breaking steps he assumed between the lines of his proof), helped to convince me t11at it was best to pursue what I took to be the foundations of all pursuits: the manifold origins of the theoretical underpinnings of great ideas. I chose to pursue this with the idea of a constitution in the fully-contested world of politics. for students to express their perconclusions on electromagnetic plexity," continues Pesic. "The radiation led Einstein to wonder problem that emerges requires what would happen if a source having to reconsider the evidence of electromagnetic radiation-a of your senses in a very deep way. light bulb, for example-wereWith Einstein, you don't so much moving and he stood still. "And understand it as you get used to it. of course, you discover it doesn't It flatly contradicts everything matter," says Flaumenhaft. that seems to make common Einstein wasn't such a good sense." mathematician says FlaumenWatching students struggle haft. "He was imaginative, he with Einstein, Pesic sees the took simple notions and mulled best characteristics of Johnnies over them, and he revolutionized revealed in their discussions with what we know about the world," each other. "They are not v-.rilling he says. to take some expert's word for it, There's a strong correlation instead, they want to see whether between studying Einstein and it's really true," he says. "They're approaching nearly everything An assistantprofessor ofpolitical science at the intelligent and open-minded, and else in the Program, from basic University ofRichmond, Alciba Covitz teaches courses they want to understand deeply." assumptions about human freein constitutional law, civil rights, and ci'villiberties. The types of questions tutors dom to the laws of the physical and students ponder in class can world. "And that is that you just be both wondrous and perplexing, agrees can't'take it for granted-you have to think Harvey Flaumenhaft. "What does it really about; you have to examine whether it's mean to say it's 5 o'clock in two different really true," Flaumenhaft says. Einstein~ places? \XThat does a law of nature have to Curtis Wilson, who as tutor emeritus look like to be reasonable?" continues his life-long study of the history of science, says Einstein's revelations were as Students have the time to be patient and shocking to the world as those of Coperniplod through the interesting questions cus, Newton and Galileo. "There is a Einstein's paper raises. " One ofthe delights c relativity, usually called Galilean relativity, of senior math is that Einstein's paper is that says that whether the solar system is short, and we spend a lot of time reading moving or sitting in one place in absolute through it line by line. It's so concentrated space you can't tell, because everything that what you're doing is unpacking the goes on exactly the same way whether it's significance of very simply stated assumpmoving or not. Here was a large branch of tions that turn everything you've been science that said you can't locate anything thinking about the framework of the world in absolute space, you can only say that upside down," he says. PETER PESIC, TUTOR bodies move relative to one another and if Senior math tutorial should start with one body is accelerating instead of moving a so-minute "quick-and-dirty review" of uniformly, you can say that it's accelerating Maxwell's Equations because Nla,"'CWell's "Wzth you don't so much understand zt as you get used to it. Itflatly contradicts everything that seemJ· to rnake common sense. " { THE CoLLEGE . St. John 's College. W inter 2005 } PROGRAM} CuRTIS WILSON (HA83) with respect to absolute space- in Newtonian physics , acceleration is real, the forces are real. "That was kind of astonishing to people because they thought the earth was not moving: 'I walk on this ground, it's perfectly stable, towers are not toppling, and so forth. That seemed like firm common sense. That's why Luther spoke of Copernicus as 'that fool.' The earth moves!-how ridiculous can you get? But of course Galileo and then Newton show that everything works exactly the same way, mechanically, whether we're moving or not." By the time Einstein started questioning things, most physicists "were as firmly convinced that there was an aether as back in Luther's day people were convinced that the earth stood still." Einstein was able to think about light moving through the aether in a different, imaginative way, and that made all the EINSTEIN IN PoETRY Anna Perle berg (SFo2) The most amazing thing about the rgos paper is that it's all algebra. Einstein could have worked the whole thing in calculus, but instead he makes it simple-once, that is,,you get the dozen or so steps he leaves out between equations. And Mr. [Ralph] Swentzell brought a wide-eyed fascination to the subject (as all the best teachers do) that made it matter. He was wonderful at coming up with "real" examples applying these obscure theories-swimmers, twins in spaceships, trains in tunnels. One of the things Mr. Swentzell said that stuck with me was that Einstein needed to be poetized in order to be brought to a larger audience . Here's my attempt: II. Relativity T = cp(w)~(T-w~hc2)-Lorentz transformation for time "*' Yet it's all predictable, and so smooth a ride in the end; time-dilated by a few tokes I faced the following: A train (of course a train) pushing c, trapped or not trapped in a pre-Freudian tunnel, depending on passenger or spectator. And they're both right. They're both right, goddammit. The sober mind boggles. But as I spmwled on the floor after two hours of work and saw the clock's fingers tap out fifteen minuteswell, it's synchronicity, that's what it is. Everything's happening the same everywhere, just not at the same time. And not at the same where, either. How-much-not-the-same-time, how-far-from-the-same-where, . though, is only algebra. And for mankind it all goes to zero. Fm electrons or stars, a different story, haiku or epic; but here on Pascal's fulcrum, balanced between infinite and infinitesimal, one feels less wretched than weighting. It's all about trains, though their timetables must be thrown out · thewindow. "Hurryhome," I say to an absent lover, "or at least start traveling at three-quarters c away from me." I stand on the platform and watch you go by getting smaller and smaller, more and more part of my past. { TH E difference. "He tried to think about sitting on the hump of a wave. Just sitting there at 30o,ooo kilometers-persecond, what would it be like?" Thought experiments like those led Einstein to new questions. "He gets rid of the aether and says space and time are what we're talking about." Even with his many years of studying science as his foundation, Wilson says he can still be "befuddled" by the subtleties of the paper when he stops to think about them. But it's not a bad state to be in, he concedes, adding a rationale that seems in a broad sense to cover the whole point of choosing a college '"rith a program like St. John's in the first place. "We can understand a lot about geniuses," Wilson says. "And we can participate in their thinking. It just takes some work." Anna Perle berg is at work on an MFA in poetry at Wichita State Universi~y. Co LLEGE . St. John 's College . Winter 2 0 05 } �20 {ATOMIC }OHNNIES} {ATOMIC JoHNNIES} 2I THE NEGOTIATOR From the Seminar Table to International Relations BY RosEMARY HARTY ~-- HESE DAYS NICOLE NELSON-JEAN (AGIOO) LIVES in Tokyo, where she directs the Department of Energy office and serves as Energy Attache to the U.S. Ambassador to Japan. In September, she received a Service to America Medal honoring her for her success-at the age of 28-in negotiating bilateral agreements with Russia that led to stronger security measures for that country's nuclear material and weapons stockpile. She's the mother of an n-year-old daughter, newly wed to a Marine, and ambitious enough to follow her career in public service as far as it will take her. But it all started very modestly with an internship at Los Alamos National Laboratory. As a college student, she was assigned to a project tracking and cleaning up so-called "legacy waste" from the lab where the atomic bomb was developed in the I940S. In the lab's early days, materials like cobalt or cesium were dumped into nearby canyons and carried by rainwater into surrounding areas, she explains. "My primary job was to get people to sign access agreements for the government to come on their property, do a site survey, and if necessary, clean it up and restore it," she explains. With her clipboard and her I.D. badge, Nelson-Jean was like a young Erin Brockovich, traveling through the Los Alamos area, visiting homes, mnches, and Indian reservations. One man, in his gos, lived in a mobile home on a large tract ofland. "He was extremely paranoid and wouldn't let anyone on his property," she recalls. Nelson-Jean visited with him, listened to his stories, and, after about a month of visits, left with a signed access agreement. "He used to be the locksmith at Los Alamos during the time of Oppenheimer-he knew it all," she says. Nelson-Jean had a family connection to Los Alamos. Raised by her father, who had a military career, she was born in Morocco and had lived in Spain and Italy. Mter retiring from the military, her father went to work in nuclear engineering and was at Los Alamos when Nelson-Jean was in college. Nelson-Jean landed summer internships, founded the lab 's first student organization, and was soon recruited by the lab's nuclear nonproliferation area. Here, her language skills were a plus: She had learned Arabic as a child and continued studying the language in college. She began { THE CoLLEGE . translating documents from Arabic to English-and, since some of the information was determined as classified, earned a security. clearance before she had a bachelor's degree. Mter graduating from Grambling State University with her degree in political science, she went to work full time at the laboratory for one of the defense contractors installed at LANL. While she was working at the lab, Nelson-Jean applied to the St. John's Graduate Institute in Santa Fe. "I really wanted to hone my critical thinking and writing skills," she says. She had just applied to the GI in Santa Fe when she was asked to take a temporary job working at the Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C. As a short-term contractor on loan from the lab , she helped coordinate a nonproliferation exposition on Capitol Hill. She met then-Secretary of Energy Federico Pefia. "He asked me if there was anything I ever needed to come and talk to him about it." Nelson-Jean said she'd love to work for the DOE, and shortly after returning to New Mexico, she was called for a job interview in Washington. Mter she joined the EneTgy Department (still as a contractual employee), she put her graduate degree plans back on the front burner. "Once I found out there was a St. John's in Annapolis, it made it a lot easier to move to Washington. I was really sold on the GI," she says. Status as a full-fledged federal employee came the month before she graduated from the GI. Nelson-Jean was hired as a project manager in the DOE's Materials Protection, Control and Accounting Program. She was assigned to projects geared to helping Russia protect its nuclear facilities-and an estimated 6oo metric tons of weapons-attractive materials in the country. Later, her work came under the jurisdiction of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The two nations continue to work cooperatively to secure Russian materials, but certain agreements had not been signed when Nelson-Jean joined the effort. She believed that only face-toface meetings would facilitate negotiations, and she soon found herself leading a delegation of U.S. security specialists and scientists to the Arctic Circle. "I flew on Russian airlines, on planes with bald tires. It's worse when you have 30-degree-belowzero temperatures, and the runway is a sheet of ice. The guest houses were livable, but when you turned the water on, lots of brown gunk came out," she recalls. St. John's College. Winter 2005 } In the negotiations, Nelprograms, technical center son-Jean was at a disadvandesigns, and construction tage-not because she lacked schedules for the facility. a science degree and not Her award was a nice plus, because she is an Mricanbut Nelson-Jean modestly American woman. Instead, says the real reward lies in her youth worked against the work itself. In her new her. "In Russia," she says, role in Japan , nuclear ener"they respect expeTience gy is just one of the issues moTe than anything, and she handles. Her n-year-old when you're young, how daughter, Rachelle, attends much experience can you an American school in have?" Tokyo and may have inherIt was in overcoming that ited her mother's skills. barrier that heT Graduate "When it comes to negotiatInstitute experiences proved ing, she has it down pat," most helpful. She was able to says Nelson-Jean. Her husCrOSS the boundaries of age and ethnicity How DO YOU BREAK THE ICE IN A ROOM band, Patrick, is stationed about IO hours because she knew that genuine conversation FULL OF RussiAN SciENTISTS? NICOLE away at a U.S. military base in Iwakuni. cultivates trust and respect. "The ability to NELSON-JEANWOULDTALKBOOKS. Nelson-Jean has been adapting to a new learn about different cultures, to really hear culture again, by watching, listening, and different perspectives without judging, to respecting differences. "When dealing communicate and talk with other people-all with Russians, you can slam your books were developed sitting around the seminar and throw your papers-in Japan it's very table at St. John's," she says. civilized and very quiet. The Russians, She had also read Tolstoy at the college they're tough, and they're very good at negoand was able to convey true interest and tiating. With the Japanese, they deal with appreciation for Russian history and culture. things by not dealing with them so directly." NICOLE NELSON-JEAN (AGIOO) Her knowledge of other classics in the WestWhen pressed, Nelson-Jean acknowledges ern canon gave her the chance to talk with that the world is perhaps a little bit safer for the Russians about something other than weapons-grade plutothe work she has done. When she made her first trip to Russia, nium. "Many of the people you deal with who have reached high "September I I hadn't happened yet." What the NNSA seeks to levels with scientific backgrounds are also very well read in the prevent-unsecured nuclear material falling into the hands of a classics," she explains. terrorist group-seemed a more distant threat than it does today. One of the best outcomes of the negotiations was a new cooperThe terrorist attacks sharpened her focus and have helped shape ative agreement with the Russian Ministry of Defense. Another her career. "I feel better that our cooperation is stronger with was the establishment of the Kola Technical Center, the first Russia today," she says. "It's made my work even more satisfying. multimillion-dollar service and training center for securing I feel like I'm making a difference. I hope I am."-$nuclear material and weapons in Russia. Nelson-Jean worked with the Russian navy and Russian contractors to develop training "In Russia they respect experience more than anything. " { THE CoLLEGE . St. John's College. Winter 2005 } �22 {ATOMIC JoHNNIES} {ATOMIC JoHNNIES} BEYOND THE BOMB Johnnies Pursue Research Questions at Los Alamos DY ANDRA MAGURAN INCE J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER LED A TEAM of scientists in developing the atomic bomb at a laboratory created on the site of a former boarding school in I943, it's been difficult for the sprawling Los Alamos National Laboratory to promote an image of being anything other than a secretive place where nuclear weapons are developed. Santa Fe senior Chris Horne witnessed this view firsthand last summer when he went to work at Los Alamos as an intern and encountered a gathering of anti-war protesters. It was a bit ironic, he thought, considering he was assigned to the lab's project focused on efforts to find a cure for HN. About 40 miles northwest of Santa Fe, Los Alamos National Laboratory is the nation's leading science research facility, currently operated by the University of California for the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration. Together with Sandia National Laboratories, the laboratory is the state's largest employer, and many Johnnies work there as scientists, researchers, project managers, and in various support roles. Many more Johnnies have taken advantage ofthe laboratory's student internship program, which employs about 2,ooo students every year. { TH E CoLLEGE . The development of nuclear weapons is, of course, still a major part of the laboratory's work, and some Johnnies are part of that. But Horne says that the public is generally unaware of the scope of research conducted at Los Alamos. Horne worked as a bioinformatician on a project devoted to using LANL's worldwide database ofHN virus information to better understand the strain responsible for the AIDS pandemic. In the summer internship, Horne used mathematical models and computer programs to annotate a viral genome. He organized raw genetic data-namely, the basic nucleotide series constituting the DNA of his assigned virus-into charts, graphics, and text to create a resource for medical and pharmaceutical researchers. Since he recognized certain repeated portions of the series in the viral genome he was annotating, he was given liberty to name them as he wished. Inspired by the Iliad, he gave the sequences names such as Agamemnon, Leitos, and Euryalos. Along with gaining experience in a scientific setting, Horne enjoyed adapting his seminar skills to the professional environment of the lab. He gave two presentations, one for the Annual Summer Student Symposium, a showcase for work done by summer interns. Since he'd been annotating a viral genome, Horne created a poster displaying the sample gene record for one of the 77 genes he'd St. John's College . Winter 20 0 5 } examined. His other presentation-on SciENTIST EDWARD TELLER (CENTER) AT ers can speak, to understand the FuLLER LoDGE IN Los ALAMOS IN I946. open reading frames, a type of gene mechanics of this speech, and to alter found in DNA-was part of a series of T ELLER WOULD LATER BECOME KNOWN AS these mechanics to develop more THE "FATHER OF THE HYDROGEN BOMB." meetings that were held to update efficient [computer] languages," says members of his immediate group on Hurwitz. contemporary issues in genetics and In his two years interning at the lab , virology. Mter his 45-minute talk, he Hurwitz published six papers and was ably defended his work in the question the primary author for four of them. (A period-even though he felt a bit intimsample title: "End-to-End Performance idated facing a room full of scientists. of Io-Gigabit Ethernet on Commodity An internship in computational Systems" published last year in IEEE science was an equally rewarding expeMicro.) He was also part of a team that Gus HuRWITZ (sFog) rience for Justin "Gus" Hurwitz set a new record in the Guinness Book of (SFo3), who completed two internships before going on to World Records for the fastest transmission of data over the work full time at the lab. During his junior and senior years, Internet (2.38 billion bits per second). "The lab is a serious and for a year after graduation, Hurwitz worked at the lab place to work," Hurwitz says, and a place where even Johnconducting experimental and theoretical research in areas nies without a graduate-level scientific background can of high-performance computer networking and protocol contribute a great deal. "If you show your mentor that you design in the Advanced Computing Laboratory, or ACL, are capable of contributing to the work, the only limits will part of the Computer and Computational Science Division. be those you place on yourself." Hurwitz's work in high-performance computer networking In the working environment of Los Alamos, Hurwitz was designed to improve the performance of the supercomfound similarities to the intellectual environment puters used in nuclear science simulation. fostered at St. John's. "The laboratory is a place where "In more Johnnie-centric terms, I was a computational people embrace inquiry and challenging questions," he philologist, working to increase the rate at which computsays. He never encountered anyone who thought that the "The laboratory is a place wherepeople embrace inquiry and challenging questions. " { TH E C oLLEGE . St. John's College. Winter 2 005 } �,-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-- ----- {ATOMIC {ATOMIC }OHNNIES} DEBRA RuTHERFORD HAS SPENT MOST OF HER PROFESSIONAL LIFE AT Los ALAMos. liberal arts were useless; to the conweapons play in the lab-like me in my trary, many of his co-workers with scifirst few months; you \vill meet moral entific and technical backgrounds 'vish delusionists , and those who work \vith they had had the opportunity to read the deadliest materials mankind has ever the classics. "One of my co-workers known and don't care, for whatever always had a book \vith him. We had a reason, to ask these questions. You \vill number of good talks about Austen's DEBRA RuTHERFORD ( sF8o) meet idealists, who believe that they are Emma, Descartes, and Locke." helping to prevent more weapons from c Now that he's left the laboratory, being built by maintaining the ones that Hur\vitzhas turned his thoughts more we already have," he says. frequently to the difficult ethical questions he has previ"In short, the lab is a place on the edge of the greatest ously avoided. A Johnnie who works at ~os Alamos \vill moral dilemmas that I have ever encountered. Those meet people whose views run a \vide gamut. "You \vill meet questions are rarely asked or discussed, but they are always people who have been at the lab since the Cold War for there under the surface. And, if you scrape down below the whom nuclear weapons were a necessary reality that could surface, you \vill find as many understandings, acceptances, justifications, avoidances, and explanations of these not be questioned. You \vill meet skeptics who question the role that nuclear weapons played during the Cold War and questions as there are employees at the lab. But, the most the logic behind the arms races; you will meet common response that you \vill find, nowadays, is, "I don't people who do not understand the role that nuclear know.' "The intellectual rigor. .. is astounding. " { THE CoLLEGE . St. fohn's College. Winter 2005 } JoHNNIES} 'Yyworkis tangential to kzlling people and deJ'troying the world" ''My work is tangential to killing peoin the area of nonproliferation. The reasoning and diplomatic skills she learned ple and destroying the world. It is not Gus HuRWITZ at St. John's have proven as useful to her the clean morality of a book, the ponas her scientific and technical training. derous morality of Augustine, or the technical morality of Kant; and it is far "I participate and lead international and domestic advisory panels and working groups, which scarier than even the worst of that which Nietzsche could require the skills one learns in seminar," she says. conceive .... Students of philosophy in general \villlikely be Rutherford feels the lab's most famous work, the Mansurprised by just how introspective most scientists are about their work." hattan Project, was a significant contribution to the end of In addition to continuing as a consultant for the computWWII. But she is also impressed that the spirit of inquiry er science company he founded while still in high school, and the level of scientific excellence fostered in the Hur\vitz is now making plans to attend law school with an lab's early days have continued into the fields of physics, eye to one day working at the intersection of science and chemistry, biology, engineering, and mathematics. The people she works \vith and leads at Los Alamos are proud of law. Unlike Hur\vitz and Horne, Debra Rutherford (SF8o) their work and believe they are contributing to America's freedom, she adds. can provide few details about her work at Los Alamos, where she took a short-term job after graduation "The intellectual rigor \vith which national and internabefore going on to earn a master's degree in chemical and tional scientific endeavors are pursued is astounding," nuclear engineering from the University of New Mexico. Rutherford says.-$-She has worked full time at the laboratory since rg8g in areas of nuclear technology and nuclear material management-in short, helping to safeguard the nation's nuclear stockpile. A clue to why she can't say much about her work may be found in the title she holds now: Project Leader and Nonproliferation and International Security Analyst in the International Research, Analysis, and Development Group at the lab. What Rutherford can say about her job is that she leads a I2nation working group on the need for critical experiments AT Los ALAMos, Gus HuRWITZ CONDUCTED 'RESEARCH, WROTE PAPERS, AND HELPED SET A NEW WORLD RECORD FOR INTERNET SPEED. { THE CoLLEGE. St. fohn's College. Winter 2005} I I �{HOMECOMING} {HOMECOMING} HoMECOMING NOTEs: ODYSSEY Merit Award winners: William A. Carter, class of 1940; Charlotte King, class of 1959 Honorary alumnus: Glenn Housley, class of 2004 (For more on awards, see the Alumni Association section, p. 47·) IN OCTOBER Homer Attracts a Crowdfor Annapolis Homecoming ou couldn't say that Homecoming 2004 in Annapolis lacked drama. Not with a dozen or so costumed students acting out the homecoming scene of the Odyssey in Iglehart Hall. Alumni happily played the role of hungry suitors, noshing on Greek appetizers offeta cheese, hummus, and olives while they awaited the banquet. You couldn't say it lacked pizzazz-not with a flock of plastic pink flamingos leading the way to the picnic tent ("Kalypso's Isle"), where ceramic pigs graced the table and calypso music played on a steel drum had revelers dancing in the buffet line . · And you certainly couldn't say it lacked a good story, not with a dozen members Y of the class ofi954 , the last all-male class to graduate at St. John' s, back on campus. Rallied to attend by reunion class leader and Annapolis tutor Sam Kutler, the boisterous group matched much younger Johnnies in their enthusiasm for the weekend's festivities. On Saturday afternoon, they lingered in the private dining room of Randall Hall telling stories and drinking wine until they could be coaxed outside for a group photo. Arnold Markowitz stopped to comment on changes in the main dining hall, where bow-tied waiters did the serving in his day. "Chairs," he observed. "We didn't have chairs. We sat on benches." The group disagreed on a few things. One remembered milk cartons being lobbed at the students by the servers; another was Homecoming lecture: "Human Rights from Antigone to Rosa Parks," Peter Weiss, class ofr949 certain pitchers of milk were set on the table. Other members of the class were pleased to see that the Chinese paintings of a royal couple installed during President Dick Weigle's era were still hanging in the dining room. The portraits were among the few things that haven't changed a great deal since these class members attended the college . When they were on campus, Campbell Hall was brand new, Mellon Hall wasn't even a blueprint, and students directed their energy toward thwarting attempted restrictions on their social lives that today's students wouldn't believe. With 450 students-compared to about 125 in 1954-the student body today seems very large. "We were a small class," says Bernie Jacobs, of New York City. "Only I7 of us graduated. It was a brief ceremony." Several of the alumni remembered the turmoil when women joined the student body in their sophomore year. Eric Crooke was one of several members of the class to marry one ofthe first female Johnnies. He and his wife, Sarah (class of 1955), live in Silver Spring, Md., and he's been back to campus frequently since graduation. A nephew of tutor John Kieffer (HA7o), Crooke learned of the college through his uncle, but he came to St. John's ofhis own choosing. "I've never regretted it," he said, though he heard many, many times, "you look like John Kieffer" when he got to Annapolis. Biggest turnout: Class of rg84, with 39 members registered. Annastasia Kezar, assisted by Lenore Parens, mustered the good showing, in part by compiling for class members a CD of '8os hits including "Rock the Casbah" and "Rock Lobster." A close second was the class of rgg4, with 25 registrants. Gerald Geddiman came all the way from California for the reunion. He hadn't visited the campus since the day he received his diploma under the Liberty Tree. " I like what's happened," he said, looking around. "I do like the Greenfield Library. Next, I want to go over and see Woodward Hall-what's it called now?" Santa Fe tutor emeritus Robert Sacks-with Kutler one of two members of the class to become a tutor-was swept up in the nostalgia of the afternoon. "Fifty years-it doesn't seem that long," he said. The 1954 class members were among the most honored guests at what turned out to be the biggest Homecoming yet in Annapolis . More than 400 Johnnies attended all or part of the weekend. At Saturday evening's banquet, the gymnasium was transformed (via cardboard columns) into a palace, where an energetic group of students led by Julie Janicki (Ao6) reunited Odysseus and Penelope once more. Inspired by the performance, one alumnus giving his class toast raised his glass to a true honorary Johnnie. "Let's hear it for Homer!" he said, starting the alumni chanting: "Homer! Homer! Homer!"._ Theme tchotchke: handy St. John's backpack-good for any odyssey TOP TO BOTTOM: STUDENTS GREET GUESTS TO THE PICNIC TENT; MEMBERS OF THE CLASS OF I954; -ROSEMARY HARTY PENELOPE AND ODYSSEUS, TOGETHER AGAIN; AND MINGLING AT THE SATURDAY COCKTAIL PARTY. I945, AND I949o PONDER A CHARLES NELSON, CLASS OF JIM CONRAD, CLASS OF PHOTOS BY G ARY PIERPOINT SEMINAR QUESTION. { THE CoLLEGE . St. John's College. Winter 2005 } { THE C o L LEGE . St. John's College. W inter 2005 } �~-------------·--------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------~ {THE FACULTY} {BIBLIOFILE} IN ARisTOTLE~s FooTSTEPS pARADISE LOST: REGAINED A Healthy Marsh Enhances Freshman Laboratory PARADISE LosT, r668-rg68 : THREE CENTURIES oF CoMMENTARY BY RoBINWErss (sFGI87) On an autumn day in Annapolis, at the foot of the Boathouse, marsh grasses wave along College Creek, a testament to the health of this six-year-old wetlands restoration site. Cattails, pinecones, and fist-size mushrooms grow vigorously along the banks. On their own initiative, students often use the marsh for projects such as reseeding oysters, Environmental Club activities, marsh cleanup , and independent research. Since efforts to restore the grasslands have taken hold, "we have more fish, crabs, heron ...everything," says tutor Kathy Blits. Trekking through a muddy marsh into a murky creek isn't for everyone. But a few weeks before the season turned, some students in freshman lab and a couple of tutors-enriching the practica side of their biology curriculum- took the plunge. "Some ofmystudentswentin up to their necks," says freshman lab tutor Margaret Kirby. Using a huge net supplied by tutor Jason Tipton, they emerged from the creek with four- to eight-inchlong fish . "We were just lucky that we got really cool ones," Kirby says. Thtor Christian Holland (A84) recalls a handful of students "leaping into the water to catch a bunch of fish for the laboratory tanks" after Holland showed them Tipton's techniques. His students continue to observe these 40-some fish, well past the fish sequence oflab. This method of shallow fishing with nets, called seining, isn't new to the college, nor is the aquarium in Mellon Hall, which has been augmented over the years by lab director Mark "Small ugly; insign!ficantfoh consumed [Aristotle :S} thinking. " TUTOR JASON TIPTON Daly. In 1999, the college undertook a pilot project to restore a portion of the College Creek shoreline, with funding from several sources including the city of Annapolis and Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The project proved successful in increasing the number and variety of wildlife habitats along the creek and filtering stormwater runoff. When Tipton started teaching three years ago, he was thrilled with the pocket marsh on campus, specifically its possibilities for, what he calls, "the pursuit of slippery prey." The ubiquitous minnows aside, Tipton names sunfish, silversides, croaker, yellow perch and "FISH ARE A WORLD I KNOW," SAYS ANNAPOLIS TUTOR JASON TIPTON pipefish as some of the fresh water and marine life plentiful in this estuary. "Fish are a world I know," Tipton says. An ichthyologist, with a master's in evolutionary biology and a Ph.D. in philosophy, Tipton wrote his dissertation on Aristotle's On the Parts ofAnimals. Before coming to St. John's, he spent a year in Greece as a Fulbright fellow tracking down, and finding, Aristotle's fish. " One doesn't have to be an ichthyologist," Tipton says, to stumble around in the marsh. ''I'm paraphrasing, but Aristotle says: 'Don't be afraid to root around in the organic world; there are gods here too.' I love that idea. There 's something about getting your hands dirty; Aristotle suggests something rhetorically powerful about that." More than 2,300 years ago, Aristotle paid careful attention { THE CoLLEGE. St. John 's College . Winter 2005 } to the eating, mating, and breeding habits of fish in their habitats. "Small, ugly, insignificant fish consumed his thinking," he says. Jars of alcoholpreserved goby and blenny-Aristotle's one fish, found to be two through Mr. Tipton's research- line a windowsill in Mellon. On one jar, crowded with sturdy grayish-brown fish , each about two fingers long, the label reads: " Bay of Kallori, Lesvos, 4 km. N. ofPyrrah, 75 m below s altmarsh." Nearby, tanks of marsh fish from College Creek, some wiggly, some mellow, inspire ongoing student examination. Atop one tank, a note warns observers not to touch or "you might get a case of nasty microbes." Freshman lab assistant Allison Hennigan (Ao6) explains the truth behind the joke: "Little white crustaceans, about the size of a dime," had attached themselves to the gills and eyes of certain fish. Eventually, the arthropod parasites would have worked their way into the blood vessels on the gills or, after sucking eye fluid, entered the bloodstream through the eyes. Biocalm, an anesthetic, seemed to get the fish drunk, recalls Hennigan: "The fish were doing backllips. The parasites seemed drunk, too ." The drug worked, and the fish are healthy. Students don't dissect these specimens. Instead, Daly goes to a local seafood store to get " kitchen fish " such as rockfish, flounder, and bluefish, for students to dissect in lab. -t- Edited by Earl Miner, co-edited by William Moeck (A80), corresponding editor Steven Jablonski Bucknell University Press, 2004 BY G. A u GusT DErMEL, SF2004 ---·--hen William Moeck graduated from St. John's in 1980, he could not have envisioned one day co-editing a massive volume of commentary on Paradise Lost. First, like many Johnnies, Moeck had developed "a healthy contempt for secondary sources." Second, he had skipped the Milton reading and seminars. "I r em ember fearing that Milton would be a boring or difficult author," Moeck says. "Samuel Johnson once said that while everyone could recognize the greatness of Paradise Lost, no man ever wished it longer." When Moeck moved to New York after graduation, he kept his Shawcross edition of the poem along with his other Program books. Fe eling guilty that he had never gotten around to it, Moeck toted the book along on vacation many years later and discovered that he had missed a truly great book. "I recall with vividness that on vacation in 1988 I found clever and Paradise Lost 1668-1968 ,.HREE CENTURIES OF COMMENTARY " tdttor Enrl M1ner Co·Edttor Wtlham Moec.k Corresponding £d1tor Steven Jablonski admirable the speeches of Satan. I r ecall how moving the domestic tragedy of Adam and Eve to be, when Adam practically insults her for wanting to go off to the garden alone. If we are able to read Genesis as literature nowadays , Milton must be given partial credit for that change, fm he has told a better story than the Bible itself," he says. Reading Milton inspired Moeck to look into graduate school, and he later entered a doctoral progTam in English literature at City University of New York. As he wrote his dissertation, he began to examine how passages from other works influenced Milton. His dissertation adviser connected him with Princeton University professor Earl Miner on the project that would eventually become Paradise Lost 1668-tg68: Three Centuries of Commentary. When he first conceived of the book more than a decade ago, Miner (who died last April) envisioned a reference book of allusions on the Milton epic. Miner and an early collaborator on the project, Steven Jablonski, had begun collating representative work from scholars of Milton. When Moeck joined the pToject in 1997, "a different sort of problem emerged in terms of defining what an allusion is." "Imitation, echo, copy, allusion-even parody and farce-all form a network of words with related meanings . They imply some sort of relationship between one text and another that can be studied and qualified. But how rigorously can one establish how they differ from each other? Is an unconscious borrowing also to be considered as related to allusion?" Moeck provided an example in the oft-quoted passage where Satan says, "The mind ... Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." "Has Milton here borrowed unwittingly from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's. Dream, where one character says 'I'll follow thee , and make a heaven of h ell' (2.1.243)? The character in question , Helena, is merely the frustrated lover of Demetrius, and not the diabolic perverter of humankind. Would Milton in his lines thus more likely be responding to the { T HE C oL L EGE. S t. John 's College . Win ter 2 005 } IT TOOK HIM IO YEARS TO GET TO THE READING, BUT PARADISE L OST EVENTUALLY CAPTIVATED WILLIAM MOECK. metaphysically-oriented Hamlet instead, who also says ' There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so' (2.2.24849)? Or do we have to look elsewhere for Milton's sources, in Thomas Browne, for example, or in the writing of the stoics?" Together Miner and Moeck combed through the available work on Milton and chose commentary on each of the 12 books ofMilton's poem. A research library unto itself, the book includes the best commentary from Patrick Hume (r6gs) to Alastair Fowler in rg68. Now a pTofessor at Nassau Community College in Garden City, N.Y., Moeckis reading Augustine , Freud, Darwin, and Marx with students in an interdisciplinary program. The contempt he once held for secondary sources has diminished considerably, but he still believes in the value oheading original texts before the commentary of others. "I think the very idea of such a reading of the classics is embattled nowadays , and probably the strongest line of defense against the pre-professional training vaunted by most undergraduate schools would be to invoke the shibboleth ' critical thinking,' " h e says. ~ �,-----------~-------·~- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- {ALUMNI {ALUMNI PROFILE} I've just completed r6 weeks of training in getting certified as a volunteer hospital chaplain." CoMMITTED TO HELPING FAMILIES AND CHILDREN Linnea Back Klee, A67, Balances I deals and Details BY CAROLINE KNAPP, SFoi rom her fourth-floor office in San Francisco's Mission District, Linnea Back Klee (A67) has sweeping views of the city, from Nob Hill across the bay to the shipyards of Oakland. Seagulls and ragged palm trees flap in the foggy air; down below, high school students straggle down the sidewalk, swinging their backpacks. Construction cranes sway up over the traffic lights of Van Ness. Inside, order reigns . Klee's deskfrom which she directs one of the city's largest nonprofits, administers an annual budget of$ so million, and manages a staff ofr3o-has perhaps three stacks of paper on it, each corralled in its own tray. There are no aging Post-its, no toppling files, no stray paperclips. Even her awards, bronze plaques from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and various nonprofit groups, are neatly aligned on the bookcase. The Children's Council of San Francisco, Klee's professional home since 1993, strives to make sure that San Francisco's working families can meet one of the most basic needs of daily life : affordable , high-quality child care. The council's referral programs put parents in touch with child-care providers, its education programs train caregivers, and, perhaps most crucially, its subsidy programs administer the monthly payments that put child care within the financial reach of low-income mothers and fathers. But, not to lose sight of the social environment in which all these individual choices are made, the Children's Council is also a major advocacy force in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Washington. Through public policy lobbying and grassroots organizing, Children's Council employees and volunteers do their best to bring the needs of working parents, child-care providers, and children before lawmakers and voters. A "QUIET" JoHNNIE, LINNEA BAcK KLEE FOUND HER VOICE IN ADVOCACY. her sophomore year, Klee wrote a letter to tutor Barbara Leonard (HAss) about the difficulties of being a quiet Johnnie, packed her bags, and went on to earn a degree at George Washington University. Klee's journey from the ether to the grassroots can be traced in part through her higher degrees: after GWU, she earned a master's in cultural anthropology from Catholic University, then a Ph.D. in medical anthropology from the University of California, San Francisco. Klee had considered following her husband, Earl Klee, into teaching. But her thesis project, on cultural perceptions of illness in history, refused to be contained in the classroom: by1983, the AIDS epidemicwas exploding like a shell over San Francisco, and suddenly the most interesting sources weren't in the library. They were in the hospitals and in the streets. Thus began Klee's decade of ~eldwork in medical anthropology. An introvert no more, she interviewed women about their attitudes toward childbirth, former GM workers about their alcohol abuse, children of alcoholics about their parents. In 1985 she joined a colleague at the newly founded Center for the Vulnerable Child at Oakland's Children's Hospital, where she continued her work as a researcher with the center's target population: children in foster care. "I loved going and meeting all those people and talking to them," she says. But her work at the Center for the Vulnerable Child was leading her toward another emerging talent: As program coordinator of an innovative and perpetually underfunded nonprofit, Klee began writing grants. By the time she left in 1993 to become the executive director of the Children's Council, she had become very "People arefinally starting to get it. " LINNEA BACK KLEE (A67) At the helm of all this, Klee, a gracious, attentive woman with a generous smile, is the first to admit that her work is not for everyone. "It goes from the sublime to the ridiculous," she says. "I've got employee parking problems .in front of me one minute, then major public funding questions." But Klee's background has made her comfortable in balancing ideals and details . Although she attended St. John's 40 years ago, she still remembers loving Euclid and the freshman-year program. "I really loved the curriculum," she says a little wistfully. "But I just couldn't talk. I was an introvert in an extrovert's college." Klee followed her brother, Eric Back (A6s), to Annapolis in I963. But midway through { THE CoLLEGE . St. John 's College. Winter 2005 continued } HEl\'RY SHRYOCK JR. was recently awarded "The President's Call to Service Award" by the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. 1 935 "I'm still working- practicing law for the past 66 years and I hope to get it right soon!" writes RICHARD WOODMAN. Milestones: GIL CRANDALL writes that he celebrated his 8gth birthday on July r, 2004, and classmate MARTIN RAuscH celebrated his goth birthday on July 8, 2004. ERNEST HEINMULLER writes to say that the " 'keep reading, keep learning' credo ofWinkie [Stringfellow Barr] is still alive: 1943 At 85, MILTON PERLMAN is still reading many hours a day: "The most important benefit of the Program is a love of reading. I am still hoping that at least the first part of Proust's novel will be restored to the fourth-year list." GEORGE R. TRIMBEL JR. hecame a great-grandfather with two great-grandsons born one week apart in October 2004. NoTES} eager for the homecoming: "We have not seen him for three years , given our own driving limitations-twenty minutes to and from church each Sunday is the longest, with Rita on 24-hour oxygen, etc." GEORGE WEND continues to participate in the Baltimore Alumni Association chapter's book discussion group. The summer before last, he took a trip to Peru to visit Machu Picchu, the Andes, and the Amazon. This past summer, he took a two-week river cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg. THE REV. FREDERICK P. DAVIS writes from California that his son, David, is expected back home from a convalescent center early this spring after suffering several health problems, including a broken leg and infections that settled in both legs. The Rev. Davis and his wife, Rita, are continuedJr:om page 30 good indeed at nonprofit management and her grant writing was paying the salaries of the entire staff. In her I I years with the Children's Council, Klee has supervised its expansion from a neighborhood organization with 35 employees to its current status as a statewide player with 130 employees and its own building. She's been gratified to see public opinion shift on child care ("people are finally starting to get it"). Today Klee's work continues to walk the line between the big picture and the individual story. These days, she's the one who Enjoying the retired life, JOAN CoLE just returned from an Alaskan cruise. "The glaciers, mountains, lakes, and wild life are too impressive for words . Residents spoke about their state with the enthusiasm and pride of staunch St. Johnnies," she writes. gets int~rviewed for articles, and at work she goes weeks without seeing a child. She writes the position papers for the council's public policy committee and sits on the policy boards of sister nonprofits. But she is acutely aware that the 30o,ooo children on the waiting lists for public assistance in California represent not only budget dollars but also individual families with complex, often pressing needs. What more, she's aware that the work she strives so hard to keep organized, there in her office with the city laid out all around her, is work that truly can- in the most simple ways- help many of those people. Nonprofit management is a good field, { TH E CoL L EGE . St. John's College. Winter 2005 HILDRErH BECKER (HILDY SMITH) writes: ''I'm a happy grandmother again: grandson Alexander Paige, son of rg88 [Annapolis] alumnus CHRISTINA MYER PAIGE. He joins his sister Adela, who is now nine. Christina is working full time as a high school math teacher. What have I been doing since attending the college? I pursue my studies in philosophy and other esoteric pursuits." 1962 JOHN FRANKLIN MILLER is president of the board of the Library of American Landscape History. 1957 1 949 rg6o rg68 PETER CoEN (A) is currently employed as an assistant public defender in Bradenton, Manatee County, Florida. ANTIGONE PHALARES (SF) spent a week in Santa Fe in July staying with ALLISON KARSLAKE LEMONS (SF68), DoN (SFGigr), and two she says, "if you're interested in pursuing the Good. That's what we do." As for less practical pursuits of the Good, Klee still hasn't given up on the idea of St. John's. She and her husband, a professor at UC Berkeley, visited Santa Fe last summer and are already thinking that perhaps, when they retire, getting a few more degrees might not be amiss . "I wouldn't have any problem talking in seminar now," Klee says, laughing. --$- Caroline Knapp lives in Berkeley, California, and is an editorial assistant at the University of California Press. } �{ALUMNI sons Micha 1md Than, and a St. Johnnie , JAKE, a junior at the Santa Fe campus. "We gathered around the television listening to the speeches of the Democratic convention . It was delightful to be amongst politically like-minded friends. Allison and I enjoyed a three-night, do-it-yourself retreat at the Holy Archangels skete near Canones in northern New Mexico. We had lunch with Claudia and Sam Lancombe and reminisced and sputtered over the political mess-o-potamia our government has gotten us embroiled in. Both Allison and I fac e the empty nest; this fall her sons leave for Italy and Hungary. My daughter, Heather, is already in Paris." 1969 LINDA M. BERNSTEIN (A) writes: "Our first grandchild was born in August. We are fortunate our son and his wife and their new son live in Philadelphia so we can enjoy their company and watch him grow. Meanwhile, our third son has left home to become a freshman at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C . We would be 'empty-nesters' but our middle son has moved back home until he gets established after graduating from Boston University last May." JoHN GOODWIN (SF) is now marketing director at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, N.M. "I am also the president of Habitat for Humanity in Las Vegas llJ.ld with any luck will be single soon! " RACHEL HALLFORD 'I'REIMAN (A) decided it was time to bring The College up to date: "I divorced in 2001, and after my son entered college, sold the house in New York and returned to Lewistown, Montana, where my brother lives, last December. I am now coordinator for the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program covering Fergus County and Judith Basin County. Since that is only 30 hours a week with no benefits, I also work online 20 hours for benefits . My oldest, Grace , is now 21 and a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in history. My son Andrew is 19, a sophomore at the University of North Dakota, majoring in Air Traffic Control and on an Air Force ROTC scholarship, planning to go career Air Force. I love being back in Montana. I was born in Lewistown (left when I was six) and therefore , for many of the older folks I identify myself by my grandfather, mother, and her siblings. That slots me in the scheme of things. I'm fortun ate my family was liked back thenpeople have long memories out here!" If you've lost track of BRAD ARMs (A), it's because he and his family have been on the move: "2004 was the year of moving for us ... three times! After living in various parts of the country based mainly on the job ... we finally had a chance to pick where we wanted to live . We had always liked Oregon for its beauty and friendliness .. .so in early 2004, we sold our house in Simsbury. Since the house sold quicker than we expected, we moved into a 1930 Colonial, which we had fixed up as an investment property. We were there for two months while we made arrangements to move West. And then it was on to Lake Oswego, Ore., where we rented a house while we decided exactly where we wanted to live and what to buy. Finally, on November 30 , we closed on our new house in West Linn, which is about ro miles south of Portland. The house is comparable in size to the one in { TH E CoLLE GE . {ALUMNI NoTES} Simsbury. It is built on the hill, which gives it a view of Mt. Hood in back. Jen & Chris have started classes here locally. Their interests are in computer animation and web site design. Meanwhile, we are settling into the new house and learning about all that Oregon has to offer." ROBIN KOWALCHUK BURK (A) is at West Point: "I have been teaching at the U.S . Military Academy for the last 3 years, first in the computer science and information technology programs and now in the systems engineering department, where I currently advise groups of seniors applying Multiple Objective Decision Analysis and simulation techniques to projects for real-world clients. I've also begun doctoral studies at SUNY Albany in the Information Science program, with a focus on intelligent software agents and their application to group decision making. Best regards to the staff at St. John's and to all the alumni that ROGER (A74) and I missed seeing this past weekend at Homecoming." · .. .... · · · · · · · · · · · · · · .. .. · · · · · · · · · · · .. · 1973 DONNEL (A) andJANET O' FLYNN (A74) moved to Hamilton, N.Y., home of Colgate University, on Oct. r6 , 2004. Donnel will be rector of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church . Janet will work as a therapist, probably in the public schools. AIDAN O'FLYNN (Aos) graduates in May. Kathleen O'Flynn is now an EMT and looking forward to joining a New York ambulance crew. 1 974 MARIE CLARK AVERY (SF) has four sons : Justin, 20; David, 18; Josh, 14; and Tyrel, rr. She taught for the Jicarilla Department of Education, Apache Government. A founding member of the National Campaign for Tolerance, she also received the National Nomination to the Wall of Tolerance in February 2oor. The wall, she notes, was designed by Maya Lin and is similar to the Vietnam Wall. She started her master's degree program in rggg and most recently has been a special education teacher in Espanola. 1 977 CLIFF ADAMS (A) is divorced and has three children: " I live in Germany, I'm traveling a lot, and loving life." JUDY KISTLER-ROBINSON (SF) recently visited classmate ELIZABETH (COCHRAN) BOWDEN (SF) at her home in Marblehead, Mass. The two celebrated their birthdays and being friends for more than half their lifetimes at the Kripalu Yoga Center in the Berkshires. Judy also watched the continued AGGIE JACOBS (SF71) has been engaged in the type of work that reaps real rewards: "Mter three years of composing music for Hebrew prayers , I am about to release a CD of my work. I don't expect to make any money from it, but I'm hoping that my music will find an audience." -*'" S t. John 's College . Winter 2005 } 33 FRoM HINDU FESTIVAL To HIGH ScHooL BASEBALL Alex Shear, SFoo, Explores Lffe Through Documentaries BY R o s E MARY HARTY LABoR oF l~ovE M NoTES} lex Shear (SFoo) has had front-row seats to two very different phenomena united by the fanatic zeal of their participants. The first is the Maha Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival believed to be the largest gathering of individuals in the wOTld; 27 million people made the pilgrimage to wash away their sins at the Sangam at Allahabad in January 2oor. The second is the National High School Baseball tournament in Japan, a two-week contest which draws the rapt attention of the whole baseballcrazed country every August. In India, where he recorded digital sound for the film Take Me to the River in 2001, Shear worried about being crushed in the crowds, never quite managed to get enough to eat, and met a famous yogi who had been holding his right arm up in the air for 30 years. "His fingernails were six inches long," says Shear. Working on the baseball film, Kokoyakyu, in Japan last summer, Shear ate sushi, worked long hours, and met Takashima Kantoku, the most successful high school baseball coach of all time. "Many Japanese consider him a living samurai," says Shear. This time Shear was producer of the project, with responsibilities in fund-raising, accounting, research, interviewing, and when it was his turn, getting everyone lunch. AB different as the two proj ects and cultures are, Shear found a common thread in the power of devotion to bring people together: "There were some similarities in that both were types of national fe stivals. In India we had millions of people from every possible state, and all these different cultures were represented. The high school tournament in Japan is the only national event like this. It's on TV all day, 24 hours a day and 20 million people tuned in to watch opening ceremonies. Only recently has Shear been able to devote himself full time to documentary filmmaking. After graduating from St. John's in 2000, h e landed a job at a dot. com company in his hometown of Boston. But company Projectile Arts . He helped secure $roo,ooo in grants from foundations and sponsorship from United Air Lines. " I like the creative aspect, working out the content of the film ," he says. "And I like the entrepreneurial aspect, starting something from scratch, and against all odds, making it happen." Shear has always been a big baseball fan . "I felt there was ver y little known in the U.S. about Japanese baseball and it could be a great way to learn about a very mysterious culture. It's a filmmaker' s dream: passion, history, culture, youth, sports- it really has it all," he says The crew interviewed players, coaches, cheerleaders , and fans, and filmed some of the most intensely played baseball Shear has ever seen. The work could be grueling; the t emperature in the stands reached rr7 degrees one day. One of the highlights for Shear was meeting Hidcki Matsui, who earned the nickname " Godzilla" in Japan before going on to become a N.Y. Yankees star. Immersion in such fanatical national fervor gave Shear a lot to think about. "As an American, I don't think I would want my son to play ro hours ofbaseball a day. It's kind of like milit ru:y sch ool." Shear isn't sure he's found his career. Low-budget documentary filmmaking, he says, has its pros and cons. "Pros: it's creatively and intellectually stimulating, you are your ovm boss, and you get to travel and meet fascinating people. Cons: no money, job security, or vacation time; it takes forever, and it's a nerve-wracking rollercoaster ride . "To me the satisfaction comes from having an idea, which a whole bunch of people tell you can't be done , and going out and proving them ·wrong." Take Me to the River is showing at film festivals; Shear hopes it will soon be distributed nationally. AB for the baseball film , he and director Ken Eng hope PBS will pick it up for broadcast after production is completed this spring. _.. ALEX SHEAR, SECOND FROM RIGHT, SUITED UP FOR A PRACTIC E GAME. ': .. it:S a nerve-wracking roller-coaster rzde. " ALEX SHEAR ( SFOO) when two of his good friends told him they were headed to India to make a film , Shear was desperate to go along. " I took a month off, paid half my airfare and volunteered to work for free doing sound," Shear says. " It was ll1l incredible experience." A few days after Shear got back to his promising job in Boston, the company folded and laid everyone off. He moved to New York to be involved in post-production on Take Me to the River, and took a few temp jobs. After September rr, Shear went back to Boston to sell ads for a tabloid. "The stories are short, you can read it on the train , and the ads get a lot of results, which h elp ed us all make money." But the next time his filmaker friend Kenneth Eng called, Shear was ready to commit to the project on Japanese baseball. This time he quit his job and devoted his sales skills to raising grant money for the proj ect through the nonprofit production { T HE C o L LEGE . St. John 's College . W inter 2005 } �34 {ALUMNI KARL STUKENBERG (SF) is director of Psychological Services at Xavier University's Psychology Department in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is also a tenured faculty member in analytic psychology. As CRAZY AS IT SoUNDS W ILLIAM (BRAD) HODGE (SFg2) is working for the Department of State, managing security issues for U.S. embassies in almost a dozen countries. "It's fun, challenging, gets me traveling all over the world, and reminds me of one thing I remember from the St. John's program, 'That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger,'" he writes. ""When that is not challenging enough, I volunteer as a police officer with the Washington, D.C., police department. Yeah, it's as crazy as it sounds."+ cows changing pastures while visiting LYNNE GATELY (A) in Randolph Center, Vt., where Lynne is a librarian. Lynne and her husband, David, run a dairy farm and a maple sugar business. Judy also visited KEITH HARRISON (SF) at his home in New Hampshire. Keith teaches law at Franklin Peirce Law School. Judy has been enduring Minnesota weather for more than six years now and is longing for a temperate climate '-vith mountains. Anyone with job leads in New Mexico, please contact Judy! ELIZABETH KOCSIS (A) has retired to a "hobby farm in north central West Virginia (my husband, Mike Kingston's, idea) where we home-school our two boys Steven (13) and Frank (g). I'm active in the inclusive state,..vide home-schooling organization (wvhea.org), which recently (2003) celebrated a political victory in the state legislatureelimination of a rule requiring home-schooling parents to have a college degree to home-school high-school-age children. }ULIA PERKINS (A) writes: "My daughter, MARGARET HENNESSEY, joined the class of ' o8 in Annapolis this year, adding to a bunch of alumni children in Annapolis now: Emma Plaut, Ao7, daughter of Richard Plaut (A77) and Carol Katrina (A7g); and Bekah Ross, daughter of Steve (A78); and Jessie Perry, 1982 PATTI NOGALES (A) recently started her second year as an assistant professor of philosophy at California State University in Sacramento. "The kids and I are finding that Northern California has some advantages. I would love to hear from classmates." Ao8, daughter of Steve Perry (A78). Maybe there are others?" 1979 GERALDINE M. KLINE (SF) was recently elected to a six-year term of provincial leadership for the Sinsinawa Dominicans in San Antonio, Texas. DANTE BERETTA (A) is teaching biblical Greek at St. Mary's Seminary and has been teaching Latin at Garrison Forest School since 1985. ELIZABETH JENNY (SF) says: "Greetings to fellow alumni! I am getting a lot of enjoyment from my alumni chapter. My family and I are doing well in Colorado. I invite you to see my work at http:/ /artist.bldr.net." 1981 ROBBYN JACKSON (A) has a "great new job as chief of Cultural Resources and Museum Management at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park (check out the park at www.nps.govI safr)." CoLLEGE. STANLEY SCHIFf (SF) has retired after 14 years teaching at Sierra Vista Junior High. DAVID WEITZEL (A) married Allison Hornvag in the fall of ~woo, after Dave had finished his law degree at Catholic University that spring. They welcomed William Kenneth's arrival in October 2002. 1980 { TH E {ALUMNI NoTEs} DAMON ELLINGSTON (A) is getting a Ph.D . in physics at the University of Maryland College Park. MARY (PUTNICK) GARNER (A) is in her second year at Episcopal Divinity School and a postulant for the priesthood. Spouse GEOFF (A86) is the academic dean at the Naval Justice School in Newport, R.I. CHRISTINE GOWDY-}AEHNIG (A) and her husband, Mark, recently moved to Decorah, Iowa, and are looking forward to living in a St. fohn 's College. Winter 2005 } college town of over 8,ooo (six times larger than Preston!). Their eldest child, Alexandra, recently left for Hamline University in St. Paul. "It's been a year of changes for us," she writes. TRISHAA. HoWELL (SF) is pleased to announce the publication of her newest book, a personal growth/self-help title, The Journeying Workbook: Unleash Your Inner Power. Trisha would love to hear from former classmates and can be reached at Trisha@HowellCanyonPress.com. 1989 }ACK EGGLESTON (A) and EMMA MORTON EGGLESTON (SFgo) write: "We have moved back to our home state ofVirginia after many years of studying and working elsewhere. I am working as a hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Richmond, Va. Emma is doing a fellowship in endocrinology at the University ofVirginia Medical Center. We have three children ages 3-9 and are living in an old farmhouse near the mountains. "Hello friends!" writes KYRA LYNN ESBORG (SF). "I live in San Francisco and share intuitive healing practices and stress management as my business. My St. John's experience enhances every day. I am a wave diver in the ocean waters near my home, and enjoying life." LINDA HAMM GREZ (A) is thrilled to announce the birth of her first baby, Anna Helene Grez, born on Sept. 30, 2004-the week Mt. St. Helens erupted (hence Anna's middle name). NINDA LETAW (A) reports that she is the proud owner of Charlotte's Home Cooking, a personal chef service in Raleigh, N.C. She would love to hear from classmates. 1990 REV. GERARD THOMAS SPARACO (A) is living in Little Valley, N.Y. "It would be nice to hear from people," he says. }ONATHANYING (A) is a Ph.D. student in the School oflndustrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. 1991 FATHERKEvlNLIXEYL.C. (SF), a priest of the Congregation of Legionaries of Christ, is involved in establishing the new Church and Sports department within the Pontifical Council of Lay people as announced by the Vatican in August 2004. From CATHERINE BARRIER (A) and}IMDUGAN (Ag3): "We'd like to announce the birth of Lucy Eleanor Dugan on December 10, 2004, in Los Angeles. We are, of course, convinced she is the most beautiful and smartest baby in the world. We just hope we can keep up. If anyone is rash enough to ask for pictures, they can contact us at ccb@ mnemonides.net! " BONNIE FORBIS (AGI) recently graduated as a certified nurse midwife from the Yale School of Nursing. She lives in Chicago with her daughter, Meaghan, age g. 1995 1993 CHRIS GRAM (A) has just started in practice as a vascular surgeon in Decatur, Ill. "We bought a great house on a lake and our daughter is two-and-a-half and doing very well." "I'm keeping very busy," writes JANE McMANUs (A). "Not only will I b e an adjunct professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism this semester, but Steve and I had our second little girl, Charlotte Mason, on August 28. Big sister Jean just calls her 'New Baby.' I can be reached at janesports@hotmail.com. Any Johnnies wanting to know more about J-school should drop me a note." 1994 LEAH MuLHOLLAND AucKENTHALER (A) writes, "My husband, Ben, and I welcomed a son on June 10. Jonathan Titus Auckenthaler completes our family, '"lith Nicholas Alan, 2, and Reggie Pit-Shephard, 8. I always wanted three boys. We moved from Brooklyn to Minneapolis three weeks after I delivered Nicholas. Ben got a job in financ e here working for American Express. Not bad for a jazz drummer. "Anyone interested in catching up (Eddie, Matthew, Chad, Johnnie, Janice , et. al.), please e-mail me at leaha@ earthlink.net. And any of you Minn./St. Paul peeps (Paul, Amie, Muneet), let's have a thing!" { THE CoLLEGE. 35 NoTES} " I am living the good life in sunny Phoenix, Ariz .," writes ALEX GOLDSTEIN (SF). "I own a real estate business, and way more wine and cigars than any human should possess. Any Johnnies in the area who want to drink, smoke, or talk smack, call me (602-405-9961). Best wishes to all my friends with whom I've lost touch ages ago ... " Greetings from VERONICA GVENTSADZE (AGI): "After some four years of teaching the humanities at a university, I am back to being a student, this time in veterinary medicine. I have no regrets and am enjoying this new experience immensely, and while I have no doubt that I have made the right choice , my liberal arts background will always be there to help me along. So four years down the road I will be the 'philosopher-vet,' for what that's worth . I would love to hear from my classmates and from any of those who remember me or who, like me, are in the midst of switching careers. But most of all I want to thank Mr. John Verdi for starting me on this great American adventure some I I years ago, and I have a question for him about Nietzsche. It's a long one, so I won't take up any more space here. " }ULIA}. KELLY (A) sends in her first update since leaving Annapolis: "After graduation, I attended the Maine Photo Workshops for six months , contributing to my decision to attend the Savannah College of Art and Design in order to get an MFA in photography. After completing that program, I worked for three years with a commercial photographer in Savannah. Convinced I could make a better living selling real es tate for my mother's large firm, I did that for several years St. fohn 's College. Winter 2 005 } before meeting my fiance, and now am planning a wedding in early 2005, along with a move to Pensacola, Fla. I hope to get back into photography when I settle in, though I may end up shooting more images on the road than of weddings, as he is a musician and travels across the country. I'll keep you posted! If a band called the CodeTalkers ever plays in yow· town, please come out! My fiance is the banjo player!" MIKE LAYNE (SF) and family are still in Barrow, Alaska. "Our daughter, Audrey Rae, will turn three in February. And we are expecting a second child, a boy, in March. Feel free to e-mail me at michael.layne@northslope.org." 1996 HEATHER POOL (SF) is a firstyear graduate student at the University ofWashington in the political science department. She's currently a teaching assistant for Intra to Political Theory. " I will likely be doing political theory as my first field,'' she writes. 1997 Major news from }EHANNE DUBROW(A): "}EREMYSCHAUB (A) and I are engaged to be married. The big day is set for the end ofJuly 2005, in Washington. Jeremy is currently stationed out of Norfolk, Va. I'm in my second year of a Ph.D. program in creative WJ.'iting at the University ofNebraska-Lincoln, where I'm also teaching and working on the editorial staff of Prairie Schooner. This past summer, I spent two months in Oswiecim (Auschwitz), Poland, where I codesigned and created an exhibit �. -, , -- - - -- ---------------------------- -- - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - -- - - - - - - -- - - - - -- -- --- - -- -- -- -- -- -- - - -- -- -- - - -- -- - - - g6 {ALUMNI THE OTHER. SIDE OF THE WALL Navy PilotandAuthor Ross Mackenzie, AGio2 BY RosEMARY HARTY ssigned to teach English at the Naval Academy five years ago, Ross Mackenzie (AGio2) crossed the street to see what the little college on the other side of the wall had to offer. AN avy pilot and 1994 graduate of the academy, he had been invited back to teach at his alma mater. "I went to visit a seminar at St. John's and literally ran into a good friend of mine from the academy [Mason New, AGIOI] who I hadn't seen in years," he says. "He told me, 'man, you're going to love it.' " An English major at the academy, Mackenzie's passion for language and literature has always had a rival in his passion for flying. Mter seeing Top Gun as a teen-ager, he went on to earn a private pilot's license and set his sights on one day flying the Navy's fastest jets. "Take a dark and stormy night and land a jet on the back of a ship that's pitching and rolling- that really appealed to me." Mackenzie followed his older brother, Alec, into the Naval Academy. He did well enough to secure a coveted aviation billet, but had to wait to begin flight school and spent a semester as an English instructor at the academy. When he was called to flight school, Mackenzie still expected to fly jets-until a helicopter ride changed his mind. "I was sold on just that one flight." Flying helicopters has its own challenges, he adds . "You know where it is and what you have to do to get the aircraft on the ground before a catastrophic failure," he explains. Mter earning his wings, Mackenzie was stationed in San Diego and deployed twice to the Persian Gulf. When he was asked to come back to teach English at the Naval Academy, he needed to begin a graduate degree program, and St. John's was the logical choice. He was a] so eager to fill in gaps in his education. ''I'm proud of myNaval Academy degree, but as an English major, I was frustrated that I didn't end up reading some of the things I thought were important." The texts Mackenzie read at St. John's quickly found their way onto his syllabus at the academy; midshipmen in his first-year English class were assigned the Odyssey and the Canterbury Tales. "I probably had only a handful of English majors in my classes, but I was determined to get those guys excited about the literature," he says. At St. John's, Mackenzie was invigorated by the lively discussions in his classes. "The thing about the Graduate Insthute that J Ross MACKENZIE'S LOVE FOR BOOKS COMPETES WITH A LOVE FOR F LYING. find so remarkable is that it brings people from such vastly different backgrounds to share the same great works. Everyone brings their own life experiences with them to the table." Mackenzie was enrolled in the literature segment and discussing the Iliad when the terrorist attacks took place on September n; he was one of two students with military experience in his seminar. "You can read in these great books when and why it's appropriate to put people in harm's way. I've been there and I was able to say 'this is what I believe in.' " { THE CoLL E GE. {ALUMNI PROFILE} St. John's College . Winter 200.5} Now stationed in Jacksonville, Fla., where he is a full-time pilot in a reserve squadron, Mackenzie flies Seahawk helicopters, often on counter-drug missions off the Florida coast. He's married to his high-school sweetheart, Elizabeth, and they have two boys: Stuart, 3, and Cameron, I. Last year, he put his liberal arts and Navy backgrounds together to take over a project his father, Ross Mackenzie, launched shortly after Mackenzie's brother · graduated from the academy. "My father's a newspaper writer who was frustrated by having two sons in the Naval Academy and listening to them talk-he always wanted to know what was going on-and he decided he could tell other parents about it." BriefPoints (Naval Institute Press, 2004) was originally published in 1993 and revised n Igg6. Much information in the book was dated, and g/n had brought changes to the academy. A major revision was needed, and the publisher gave Mackenzie the job. "I did interviews with everyone from midshipmen to academic deans to athletic department personnel to find out what really makes the Naval Academy tick." Mackenzie observes that family members of middies are proud and excited about their children entering the Naval Academy, but they can be perplexed by the military culture. A glossm·y of terms that quickly become part of every plebe's vocabulary-Mackenzie calls it "Midspeak"-is an important part of the book. Parents aren't always aware of what their midshipmen endure in terms of academic and physical challenges. In his introduction, Mackenzie tells parents that the academy-like St. John's-isn't for every student. "As important as their advice is, their support and understanding are even more important," he says.~ of art and poetry, 'The Lost Shabbos: the Jews ofOswiecim.' Two ofmypoemswere recently published in The Hudson Review. And, staying true to my St. John's roots, I'm still translating poetry, at the moment, sections from the 19th-century Polish epic, Pan Tadeusz, by Adam Mickiewicz, which is nothing if not obscure." 1998 CINDY LUTZ (A) and VINCENT BAKER (Ags) were married on October 10, 2004, in Frederick, Md., nearly IO years after they first met by the mailboxes in the Coffee Shop. Johnnies in attendance included PAMELA BERGSON (Agg), JosH EMMONS (Agg)and the also newly-married MARISA Jo and BILL ERSKINE (A97). "We'd love to hear from any friends in the D.C. Metro Area: cinderlou@peoplepc.com." 1999 MELISSA "MISSY" PHIFER (SF) writes: "After completing my service in the Peace Corps in Haiti in 2002, I worked in various odd jobs until I began graduate school at Temple University in Philadelphia. Currently I am working at John Bartram High School teaching biology and working on my Master's ofEducation to be completed soon! I would love to hear from any of my former classmates- send me an e-mail at mphifeno@aol.com and let me know what you're up to. I hope all ofyou are well!" 2000 KARINA I-lEAN (A) will receive her master of fine arts in drawing from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, N.M. , this May. For the time being, she's keeping busy with exhibitions and teaching. "Will be relocating to southern Colorado soon-I'll be hiding in the mountains, making artwork, and protesting the Bush dynasty if anyone would like to join meyou're always welcome: karinahean@hotmail.com." "It was a long road similar to the one described at the beginning of the Inferno, but after nine years I have reached the end of a long road," writes CHRISTOPHER VAUGHAN (A). "A journcy that took me from the University of Alaska and the wilds of the great Northwest to the warmth of Florida at Flagler College is now history. I have graduated from college at last!" NoTEs} 37 certification training. She was recently in London and Hawaii, and is heading to France and Mexico shortly! She would love to hear from recent graduates and alumni in the New York area. Mter traveling to the far reaches of Thailand and New Zealand together, ANDREW RANSON and MARTHA ROGERS (both AGI) were married June 26, 2004, in Annapolis . Martha is continuing her studies in holistic healing while Andrew is teaching high school social studies and English in Baltimore County. They have found marriage to be greater than they ever expected and are looking forward to their next trip abroad as husband and wife. 2002 JAMES GILMORE (A) is studying phifosophy at Johns Hopkins University. "My e-mail is jamesfgilmore@gmail.com, and it would be great to hear from any Johnnies, especially members of the class of 2.002.." CHARLES GREEN (AGI) writes: "After completing my coursework as an English literature Ph.D. candidate at Drew University, fhave moved back to Annapolis to prepare for my comprehensive exams. I look forward to getting to know the city and the college again, as well as seeing alumni old and new." "As of August 2004, I am living in San Jose, Calif. , passing on the love ofliberal arts by teaching general curriculum to eager fifth-graders," writes MEGAN MAxwELL-SMiTH (A). "My experience is, so far, quite rewarding. I am at a very well-run school peopled by bright students and dedicated staff. I would love to hear from anyone inclined to get in touch: megan.maxwellsmith@sbc.global.net." }USTINNAYLOR (A) and DILLON WRIGHT-FITZGERALD (Aos) were married on June :12, 2004, in 2001 }OSHUA VAN DONGE (SF) is still "slogging away" at the University ofWashington's graduate program in architecture. "I've spent this year in St. Michael's, Md., serving an apprenticeship in wooden boat building," ANNE NEEDHAM (A) wrote last summer. "I'm now off to Naguabo, Puerto Rico, for a few months to do some house repair and child care for my brother and his family. After that, if you know anyone who has a wooden boat that needs work (i.e., anyone who has a wooden boat), please let me know." SYLVAINE RAMECKERS (A) is still working for Dateline NBC and currently completing diver {T H E Co L L E GE . A STRONG FouNDATION orne things just seem meant to be, as AURORA CASSELLS (Ao4) writes: "My sister, boyfriend, and I, all of the most recently graduated class from Annapolis, are moving into a cute little house in the beautiful town of Shepherdstown, W.V., which my sister, PROSE, is buying. This itself is exciting news, since buying a house is considered a big step in establishing oneself, but the real reason for writing in about it is of course much more personal and familiar and Johnnie-based. "Mter our offer on the house had already been accepted and Prose was touring the outside of the house another time, she found a remarkable, unbelievable sign that this was the right house: It seems that someone had taken a finger to the concrete foundation for the newer part of the house at the back while it was still wet and written in 4-inch-high letters, underlined: The Program. So, three recent graduates are all moving into a house built on the foundation of the Program! "We also discovered that it was obviously meant for Johnnies from the Annapolis campus, since on the newly built back deck there was an old lawn croquet stake! Already in love with the little house and its great location, it was truly welcoming to find such friendly reminders of St. John's. " ~ St. John 's College . W in ter 2005 } �{ALUMNI JoHNNIE VOICES} B. ATHENS Athletic~ Aeschyl~ ABOUT THE CATS and Spzderman BY STEPHEN CoNN (SFg8) first came to Athens I I years ago, a post-high school gift from and with my parents. Mom wanted to give me an introduction to classical culture before I headed to St.John's. Several years and jobs later, armed with only my Spiderman 2 backpack and a whole lot of can-d?, I returned to Athens for the Olymp1cs. I checked in at my hostel, the Hotel Zorba on Victoria Square. Yannis the bellboy was pleasant enough, the bunk area only had one unidentifiable odor, and the toilets flushed as long as you didn't put toilet paper in them. I learned .to j?urney on the Piraeus-Kifissia metro hne m order to get to the different stadiums. Fierybrowed Greek men pondered my Spidey backpack, while old ladies crossed themselves every time we passed a church. Many events took place at the aptly named Olympic Stadium to the north, where people walked under va~t white archways while Greeks sat on lifeguard chairs and announced on bullhorns, "Parakalo [please] we are welcoming you to the Olympic Games. Water polo is on the right." gymnasts happened to take an extra step when I shoot-coincidence! The Acropolis! Don't think I passed up the ancient stuff, folks. The next day I began the hike to that fount of democracy, The Temple ofNike . To the east of~he main structure, slightly down the ndge, are the remains of the Theater of Dionysus, where Sophocles and Aeschylus received their first performances. In honor of the occasion, I pulled out my copy of Lattimore's Aeschylus, and recited a bit of The Persians. A few cats living among the pillars gathere.d in . audience, and I felt the Apolloman veil had been suitably rent. And the women! Many a time I would approach a sellers' booth and say, "excuse me, would you have a ticketfor. .. good God!, I considered asking one of these Hellenic beauties for a night on the town, but reflecting on the Medea-like anger of most of my past dates, I opted for another evening of Amstel Lights at t~e Zorba. After sessions of table tenms and boxing between various breakaway republics, it was time to head home. I brought an American flag with me on the flight. Not a huge hit in Athens, but the bu~z - ct~t customs officer in Atlanta notlced lt as he stamped my passport. "You bring that to the Games?' he smiled. "Yessir." "You must have waved that quite a bit," he said with a grin . "Well, if we can put a chimp in the White House then we should certainly be able to wave CHd Glory once and a while." Okay, I didn't exactly say this. ~ut ifye Johnnies old and new want to get m t~uch with the Mediterranean source, then JUSt put those terrorist fears away ~nd tell the ticket agent, "I want two t1ckets to paradise."-'$- But it was gymnastics I was after, my old sport, many beers ago. I sat down among sad-eyed Eastern-block:r~ to watch one of the women's prehmmary sessions. "GO KA-TY!" cried an anguished Englishman into my left eardrum. The Chinese girls tended to fall off the beam and stumble a lot. "No flash photos, sir," the usher chided me. So the (SF or) writes, "For the most part, my life is quiet and full of cats. If they keep multiplying I might make crazy cat woman status at the early age of 35· I live with ANDRE\V SMITH and ISLA PINELO (both SFo3) . CAROLINE KN~P (SF or) recently moved from our house to a qu~et neighborhood and lives in a beautiful garden. I'm su~·e she m.lsses h . g her bedroom windows rattle when the cars dnve bywlth t : : ;bass all the way up . If anyone is in or passing through the Berkeley area, give me a holler." -$-EBEKKA SHUGARS Millvi1le, Penn. The Naylors now live in Wilmington, Del., where Justin teaches at Nativity Preparatory School. 2003 Thorn Barry and MEG EISENHAUER (A) were married at St. John's College in Annapolis on July 31 , 20o4. " Many thanks to everyone at the Annapolis campus who helped us to make this possible ," Meg writes. (A) is moving to Italy to study gastronomy at the new Universita di Scienze Gastronomiche (www.unisg.it/eng). He received a full scholarship. "Drop me a line at aaron .foster @gmail.com. I will be in Pollenzo, a small town outside of Bra, in Cuneo, Piedmont." AARON FOSTER biology.utah.edu or bugle song@ juno. com." RACHEL (ROCCIA) SULLIVAN (A) Wl·ites with an update on what she and husband MICHAEL SULLIVAi~ (Ao2) have been up to since graduation. "As many already know, we were married a week after graduating from St. John's. We then moved to Washington, D.C., so that I could take pre-med classes at the University of Maryland, and so that Michael could pursue his Ph.D. in Philosophy (particularly in medieval scholastics, which should come as no surprise!) at Catholic University. He is now in his third year. In May of this year I gave birth to a daughter, Clare Veritas Sullivan, who is now a fat and happy little five-month-old. We bought a house in Silver Spring, Md., and I've begun studying medicine at the Uniformed Services University, which is located right . ' across the street from NIH in Bethesda. I'm a commissioned ofii.cer in the U.S. Army and learning to be an "Army Doc." I go to school with several ex-midshipmen from the Naval Academy who think it's bizarre that a Johnnie would choose to join the military, but the idea of practicing "Good Medicine In Bad Places," as our motto goes, is really exciting and led me to choose this school over a few more prestigious ones that offered me slots. I found that medical schools were surprisingly receptive to me as a St. John's student, and would love to talk to and encourage anyone interested in applying: I can be reached at rmrsullivan@hotmail.com. I'm also happy to report that Michael's brother RANDALL (Ao4) has joined the Dominican order of priests, and has started his novitiate . He's enjoying himself immensely and has taken the new name of Ezra. In closing I'd like to say hello to all my old pals, to offer my spare room to anyone who has a reason to be in D.C., and to take this opportunity to encourage BEN FREY (A02,) and GABRIELA HURWITZ (Ao2) to call me back!" CoLLE G E . St. fohn's College . Winter 2005 } 2004 LAURAA:NNEMANGUM (A) married Michael Moore on June 5, 2004·. PAUL McLAIN (SFGI) was awarded a scholarship to attend Yale University Divinity School in New Haven, Conn. He completed an intensive Koine Greek class this summer and is settling into his first of three years' work toward a Master of Divinity degree. Ruthie, his wife , is office manager ofHistoRX, a medical research firm affiliated with Yale. She now serves her patented Thursday Night GI Gathering Homemade Goodies to "Divvies" instead ofJohnnies. They have been blessed with a rent-free four-bedroom parsonage provided by St. Andrew's United Methodist Church, where they work part time. Johnnies are welcome to stay when making New England pilgrimages. Contact pkmclain@comcast.net if you are headed their way or if you would just like to keep in touch. -$- NATASHA VERl\iAAK (A) writes: "I just survived my first quarter of graduate school in the materials science and engineering department at the University of California, Santa Barbara ...woah! Visitors welcome." ERIN HANLON (SF) Wl·ites: "I entered the University of Utah this fall as a Ph.D. student in the biology department. I am studying plant ecology with an emphasis on the impacts of the drought and climate change. I would be interested in hearing from any Johnnies in the Salt Lake area, whether they live here or are just passing through. I can be reached al either hanlon@ WHAT's UP? The College wants to hear from you. Call ns, write us, e-mail us. Let your classmates know what you're doing. The next issue will be published in May; deadline for the alumni notes section is March IS. IN ANNAPOLIS: Tlz e College Magazine St. John's College, P.O. Box 28oo Annapolis, MD 2I404; rosemary.harty@sjca. edu IN SANTA FE: The College Magazine St. John's College Communications Office n6o Camino Cruz Blanca Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; alumni@sjcsf.edu STEPHEN CONN WAVED THE FLAG AND RECITED THE PERSIA NS IN GREECE. { TH E 39 {OBITUARIES} CLARE SULLIVAN IS GOING PLACES. { THE CoLLEG E . St. John 's College. Winter 20 0 5} �4I {OBITUARIES} {OBITUARIES} REMEMBERING MISS LEONARD At a memorial service in October, former St. John's tutor and Assistant Dean Barbara Leonard (HAss) was remembered as a star athlete with a zeal for competition, a scientist with an inquisitive mind, and an able administrator with a skill for strongly-worded memos. Mostly, she was remembered as a good friend. Miss Leonard died last August in Oberlin, Ohio. Her health had been failing for several years. She had retired from the college in rg87 after serving as assistant dean and tutor for 36 years, but continued to serve the college as a member of its Board of Visitors and Governors for several more years. In the midst of Homecoming festivities, alumni, tutors, and former colleagues of Miss Leonard's gathered in Francis Scott Key Auditorium to share their memories of a strongwilled woman with a great sense ofhumor. And although she was dean of women for just one year before her title became assistant dean, Miss Leonard remained a role model, confidante, and friend to generations of women at the college. Among them was Anita Kronsberg (A7g), who read from an account of Miss Leonard's life. Born and reared in Oberlin in what she described as something of an "idyllic childhood," Miss Leonard earned a bachelor's degree at Oberlin College and master's and doctoral degrees in zoology at the University of Rochester. She conducted research in histology at Yale Medical School before becoming a visiting lecturer at Oberlin. Before coming to St.John's, she taught zoology at Smith College. Her willingness to work with men and to compete in a maledominated field had roots in her love for "She came with us_, J'he read the bookJ' with us_, and J'he learned at our rate. " from my colleagues, male students resented my presence when I arrived on campus," she later recalled. "In fact, prior to my appointment, it was a mass protest of the then all-male student body against the admission of women students that convinced the college leadership they needed to hire a female tutor and assistant dean. These students would constantly try to catch me off guard, so I pretended nothing fazed me." The following year, when the assistant dean for men took a sabbatical, Miss Leonard worked with both male and female students. From that point on, she said, "I never weaned those boys from me." In the early rg6os, Miss Leonard was a Fulbright lecturer in India. She was named an honorary faculty member of Lady Doak College and The American College, both in Madurai, India. When she retired in rg87, the students dedicated the yearbook to her: "Though gruff in manner, she has an eye for the humorous and is quick with a quip, delighting in repartee," theywrote. "She is also judicious in her advice and careful to keep a confidence . In her position she has heard many." Tutor emeritus Ben Milner (HAg7) recalled that after their first meeting, he thought Miss Leonard to be a "retiring motherly sort. That was a Jirst impression -and one I would discover in need of correction," he said. When Mr. Miln er began his new post, Edward Sparrow (HAg3), dean at the time, advised Mr. Milner about the "importance of cooperating with Barbara Leonard." "And to reinforce the point smilingly, he asked if I was familiar with her habit of firing off sharply critical BARBARA BRUNNER KiEBLER (ASS) Mrss LEONARD PREFERRED THE CoFFEE SHOP To HER McDowELL HALL OFFICE. sports: As a third-grader she was the catcher on a boys' softball team. Through colleagues in Oberlin, President Richard Weigle (HJ4g) found Miss Leonard and brought her to St. John's to shepherd the first 25 women to attend the college. Miss Leonard had to win over the male students. "Although I encountered no resistance { 'I' HE CoLLEGE . St. fohn's College. Winter 2005 } memoranda and letters to various colleagues including the dean and president of the college," Mr. Milner added. In her time at the college, Miss Leonard became "the first among equals," and "her voice was always respected and often decisive," he said. "I think that it was universally acknowledged that she had a love affair with the students," Mr. Milner said. "It was mutual and it was fun. Barbara enjoyed nothing more than a good joke, a hardy laugh, and she had a lot of company in this with students and staff as well. " Tutor emeritus Malcolm Wyatt (HAo3) shared McDowell 13 with Miss Leonard in the mid-rg8os. "She was very fond of the students," Mr. Wyatt said. "She maintained close friendships with successive generations characterized by sympathy, warmth, acrostic humor. And the source of that acrostic humor had a certain skepticism about it that sharpened her judgment but didn't keep her from being attached to the student body and hence, [she had] a very accurate perception of what life was like at the college from day to day." A member of the first class of women to graduate, Barbara Brunner Kiebler (class of 1955), said Miss Leonard was a genuine member of that class even before the Alumni Association made her an honorary alumna. "She came with us, she read the books with us, and she learned at our rate," Mrs. Kiebler said. With all the new rules the college adopted to keep men and women separate-and with the inevitable bending and breaking of those rules-Miss Leonard was "good-natured and flexible" even as the president and dean fretted over such matters. "She was sanguine about the relationship of the sexes-after all she was BARBARA LEONARD BECAME AN HONORARY MEMBER OF THE CLASS OF I955 UPON HER RETIREMENT, BUT LONG BEFORE, THE FIRST CLASS OF WOMEN CONSIDERED HER ONE OF THEIR OWN. a biologist by training, she knew the inevitability of the relationship," she said. Miss Leonard could usually be found in the Coffee Shop , but she spent a great deal of time on the playing fields as well, Mrs. Kiebler noted. "Barbara broke the sports barrier for women at the college. There were no sports here for women except badminton and Ping-Pong. Barbara h erself integrated the softball team ... she was a whale of a softball pitcher and she won her St. John's blazer for softball. Whenever I came back to the college at Homecoming, I would see her in the blue blazer and a pleated skirt, her school uniform. She wore it proudly." When Mrs. Kiebler brought her daughter, Amy Oosterhout (A82) to the { T HE CoLLEGE. college, she was pleased to leave her in the capable hands of Barbara Leonard. "Barbara told me how pleased she was to have at St. John's the children of her girls. I never heard her call us that before, but I guess that's what we were. She promised us she'd look after Amy, and she did." Two members of the Annapolis class ofrg8o, Didrik Schanche and Ann Schanche Ferro came to the college as Febbies, leaving their parents in Cairo, Egypt, for a college halfway around the world. In Miss Leonard, the sisters found " landfall and a very solid one in a sea of words and great books." Like many students, they forged a life long friendship with Miss Leonard. "Ann and I, being homeless, were often around campus or at least Annapolis during the holiday because Egypt was a little too far for a three-day weekend," Miss Schanche said. '"Miss Leonard would periodically invite us up to her apartment over the infirmary for a glass of wine and some conversation and just to help us feel that we did have a bit of home away from home." Ms. Leonard also was a stickler for certain thing, Ms. Schanche noted. One in particular was the correct pronunciation of the word' dissect.' "Most people, me included, pronounced it 'dye-sect,'" she said. "The correct pronunciation according to Ms. Leonard is ' dis-sect' and she drilled that one in. I am now an editor and every time I try to correct someone's pronunciation of that, I think of Ms. Leonard." "She was there for us," Mrs. Ferro added. "And so in death she stays with us, too. She is locked in our psyches, in her flat-soled sneakers, her blue skirtconsistent, calm, humorous, solid, and generous to a fault with her support and guidance for us students. These are lifelong gifts that Barb am gave us and that she expects us to share with others."*' St. fohn's College. Winter 2005} �{OBITUARIES} BEATE RuHM voN {OBITUARIES} 0PPEN Beate Ruhm von Oppen (HAor), St. John's tutor emerita, died in August at her home in Annapolis. Miss von Oppen left Germany as a teenager to complete her secondary education in Holland, moved to England and earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Birmingham. She worked in political intelligence for the British Foreign Office. Mter the war, she took a job with the American Historical Association in Alexandria, Va., when she learned from a co-worker about an opening at St. John's. She taught at the college for nearly 43 years, with an occasional break to write books, conduct research, and serve as a visiting professor at other colleges. Her interest in the role of religion in the German resistance led her to work before starting college in England: Letters to Freya, a collection ofletters written by Helmuth James von Moltke, a legal adviser to the Third Reich, to his wife, Freya. Von Moltke worked within the regime to undermine the Nazis before he was captured and executed. In 1989, the German edition of the book won the Scholl Prize, a prestigious literary award in Germany. At a memorial service last September, Miss von Oppen was remembered as a careful and diligent scholar, a lover of music (particularly Bach) and books, and a beloved sister, sister-in-law, and aunt. Several who spoke at the service referred to an essay called "The Tuning Fork," Miss von Oppen's account of the bewildering change in the Germany of her youth. The following is excerpted from the essay, originally publishedinHumanitas, the journal of the George Bell Institute. Miss von Oppen wrote of her attempt to go to Holland, where she hoped to work before starting college in England. crisis at the very tim e when the Hitler regime created large numbers of refugees or would-be refugees- trying to keep such aliens out. To admit my status as a worker, albeit unpaid, would have meant being sent back to the fatherland, with the additional black mark of having tried to flee it. So I denied it. The denial was an automatic reflex. Unfortunately, my response to the question about my religion was equally automatic. I said 'Protestant,' having been baptized at birth according to the Zwinglian rite and having attended Prates- · tant religious instruction at my German schools, with even a spell of Lutheran Sunday school thrown in for good measure. It was a mistake. I did have the presence of mind and necessary minutes and pennies to send a cheery postcard about my 'good trip' to my Jewish grandmother in Frankfurt from the Dutch side. I wanted to reassure her; she had a heart ailment, of which she died before the year was out. Now I was put on the next train to Emmerich, where I was received-not to say taken into custody- by the Evangelische Balznlzoftmission ... .It felt like a halfway house on the way to more serious, more purely political confinement. Theywere stern and forbidding and there was nothing evangelical about them. There was even a touch of Nazism. As I was sitting, somewhat disconsolately, in a dark reception room, a boy of about eight came in and sang one of those Nazi songs-1 don't know why; perhaps it was just youthful exuberance. It grated enough to make me decide to accept no food from this establishment or run the risk of having to sit at the table with these professional Protestants. My grandmother had given me enough provender for the day. What I did not have was money, beyond the ten Marks one was allowed to take out of the country. When the woman in "THE TUNING FORK" It was spring 1936. They took me off the train after it had crossed the border from Germany. They asked me for my religionfor while they wanted to protect the Dutch unemployed from the competition offoreigners, they also wanted to protect the virtue of young women. I was 17. They accused me of coming to work in Holland. I denied it, though they were right. They had no proof, but I had the burden of proof. The fact was that I had in the prcvious December passed the examination given by Oxford for entrance to British universities. Being penniless and not wanting to be a burden on the American uncle who had paid my school fees for the year that it had taken me to prepare for that exam, I had gladly accepted the school's invitation to stay on as unpaid general dog's body until it was time to go to England to study, the following October. So I was earning my keep as matron's assistant, occasional coach or tutor, babysitter, and so on. But these services .. .were work prohibited by the law or regulations of the land that was , like most European countries-struggling with an economic ALTHOUGH SHE WORKED IN BRITISH INTELLIGENCE DURING WoRLD WAR II, Miss voN 0PPEN RESISTED BEING CALLED A SPY. { THE CoLLEGE . St. John 's College. Winter 2005 } charge of this Internal Mission house allowed me to go for a short walk in town, I could not resist a tuning fork in the window of a small music shop. I went in and bought it. My instrument at the time was the violin, which I played as badly as I had played the piano and would later play the oboe. I may have justified the rash purchase to myself as useful: a violin has to be tuned and there isn't always a piano or other instrument present to give the pitch. It was a modest tuning fork and cheap, but it depleted my minimal resources. I probably realized this, yet probably felt, too, that there was not only practical but also symbolic value in a gadget that gave you the true pitch. Before I went for the walk in the strange town I had telephoned my school and told my friends there what had befallen me . They said they would certify me as a bona fide pupil- I was taking lessons with the music master-and get the local police to put an official endorsement on the 43 '-/1s I was sittin~ somewhat disconsolately; in a dark reception room~ a boy ofabout eight came in and sang one ofthose Nazi songs... " This meant crossing the Rhine. I boarded the ferry, paid my last Pfennige to the nice conductor, and asked him how far from the landing place on the other side the railway was. It was a fal.r step, especially with luggage. He found me a free ride to the station. This turned out to be a local butcher, who gave me the seat beside him in the van, with the carcasses behind us. He wasn't an anti-Nazi. He sounded like a Nazi or at least a loyal citizen to the Third Reich. In the absence of money I gave him my last German postage stamps and signed a document acknowledging my debt to him for the additional small amount it cost to connect my old rail ticket with the new stretch from Cleve to Nijmegen. So offl went, crossed the frontier without further incident, and reached the school safely. The tuning fork came in handy when we played Haydn quartets. I still have it. Tuning forks don't take up much space._. BEATE RuHM VON 0PPEN, THE T UNING FORK document that would suitably impress the Dutch border officials. The document duly arrived by Express mail the next day, but also a message that the police station had closed by the time that my friends had got there and that they had made their statement sound as persuasive as possible without the police back-up. They advised me not to try the same border crossing again, from Emmerich to Zevenaar, where I was now known, but to take another, from Cleve to Nijmegen, where I wasn't. JOliN AINSWORTH economy called Socialism in the Soviet Union. He is survived by a daughter, Jenny. JONATHAN AURTHUR John Edgar Ainsworth, class of1942, died Sept. 30 following complications from a stroke. He was a resident of Silver Spring, Md. Until his retirement in 1984, Mr. Ainsworth was an atmospheric physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, where he was primary designer of the Pioneer Venus probe. Mr. Ainsworth pursued many hobbies including ice skating, sailing, skiing, camping, windsurfing, hang-gliding, flying small aircraft, ballroom dancing, and jazz. He became one of the first students in the college's New Program when he enrolled at St. John's in 1938, but he left the college shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor to enlist in the Army-Air Force. As the Washington Post reported, Mr. Ainsworth was sent to the Pacific, and "took with him two books, both on calculus, and taught himself the discipline while in the military." Mter returning from the service in 1946, he earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics at Harvard University. He is survived by his wife, Anne, and three children. Jonathan Aurthur (A68), who wrote a book about his son Charley's struggles with mental illness in The Angel and the Dragon, took his own life in November. He was 56 and had lived in Santa Monica, Calif. An account published in the Los Angeles Times said Mr. Aurthur leaped to his death from a soo-foot cliff in the Angeles National Forest in Arcadia, Calif. His body was found Nov. 29. According to the article, friends said that he was despondent over several issues. Mr. Aurthur was profiled in the Winter 2003 issue of The College. The article described his attempts to understand his son's illness and to determine if someone could have found a better way to help Charley, who committed suicide by jumping from a freeway overpass. Mter leaving St. John's, Mr. Aurthur attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he majored in motion pictures. In the late 1g6os through the early 198os, he worked as a community organizer and documentary filmmaker. He was also the editor of a journal of political theory called Appeal to Reason and the author of a book on political { THE CoLLEGE . St. .John's College . Winter 2005 ALSO NOTED: STEPHEN BRAUN (SF84), July 2004 }OliN-DAVID HINDLE HAIIDT (AGI96), Sept. 9, 2004 CHARLES HYSON (class ofr937), March 8, 2004 PERCY KEITH Ill (class ofi949), Jan. 17, 2004 JoHN LOGUE (class of1950), June r, 2004 }oHNMAGIDRE (class ofr946), March 13, 2003 ALAN PIKE (class of1937), Oct. 22, 2004 MR. WILLIAMT. ROBERTS III (class of1951) ANDREW CAMERON SHERRARD }R. (class of 1941), Nov. 7, 2003 A. ROBERT SMITH (class of1937), June 2, 2004 ROBEitl' SNIBBE (class ofr937), June 8, 2004 }OliN STERRETT (class ofr950), Aug. 14, 2004 RICHARD B. TAYLOR, class of1936 THOMASUSILTON (class of1943), Oct. 15, 2004 VALYS ZILIUS (class of1958), Nov. 14, 2004 } �~------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------, 44 ALFRED MOLLIN Alfred M ollin, who died last August in Philadelphia, was a tutor for seven years in Annapolis. He later lift the college and embarked on a career at the Department ofJustice, where he rose to the position of senior appellate counsel. Some alumni may remember him.from his days at the college, but many more know ofhim.from the Greek manual used at St. John :S. Tutor emeritus Robert Williamson (HAo2), who co-authored the manual, offered this remembrance at Mr. M ollin 's memorial service at the college last September: I first met Alfred Mollin when he visited this campus in order to sit in on classes and he interviewed for a position on the faculty. Fellow graduate students of his at Penn State whom I had known as students at St. John's suggested that he stay over at Marilyn's and my home .. .On the night before he returned to Penn State, he and I talked long into the night about St. John's College, about our common friends, about philosophy and the writings of philosophers, about politics and military history. By the time we arrived at the subject of our favorite movies, it was clear-I think to both of us-that our conversation, if allowed to continue into the coming academic year, would develop into a friendship. Since I first read his Ethics, Aristotle's account of friendship has seemed to me the truest and most helpful guide to understanding what can generally be understood of an afiection so intimately bound up with the particularities of those who share in it. It is an abiding disposition or readiness to take pleasure in another's company and to wish for and work for that other's good. And it is reciprocal. But, as always with Aristotle, that readiness comes fully into being when it is set to work. The highest manifestation of friendship is shared activity which, in itself or in its goals, is good. Activity, unlike readiness, depends upon opportunity, has its starts and stops. There are high moments in friendship. And aside from the activity of raising children which husband and wife share, I have never enjoyed a more intense and sustained experience of friendship than in the two years Alfred and I collaborated in the production ofAnlntroduction to Ancient Greek. The idea was first his. We had both come to agree that the textbooks available at the time did little to encourage serious reflection on the forms and artful use of language. I had been content to supple- {OBITUARIES} {ArJUMNI AssociATION NEws} ment and occasionally correct the treatment given by Chase and Phillips' textbook, then in use. It was Alfred who, after giving two informal lectures on Greek and English grammar, proposed that together we produce a textbook with the aim of serving the principal aims of the St. John's language tutorial. At first I was skeptical. I'm glad he overcame my doubts . We decided that each of the major themes which would be recurrently addressed and developed in the course of the textbook should be passed back and forth between us. We knew that in what we speaking. The striking triangular diagram which he placed at the end of the introductory chapter on the verb is the visible image of his unifying insight. In the years since, I have marveled at this unifying power in his thinking on the most various of subjects, a unification which respects and illuminates the differences of its units by revealing their togetherness. There was a third sharer in that activity: Chris Dill, later Chris Mullin, who was at that time secretary to the dean and then registrar at the college. In addition to those responsibilities, she undertook the final stages of preparation of the text for distribution to the freshman classes. This required the exercise of taste and judgment . as well as the transcription of Greek. Our goal was to distribute each lesson at least a week before it would be used by the freshman classes. She saw to it that we did, not only by doing her part but often by making up for time lost in our last-minute submissions ofrough drafts to her ... If I tried to describe Alfred throughout the time I knew him, the word with which I would begin and end is one with which Homer often describes his heroes: megathymos. In English: "great-hearted," though in Homer's use the meaning can range from "generous" (or "big-hearted" ) to "high-spirited." I have already mentioned one instance of Alfred's gcneTOsity. I wish to mention another, lest it be forgotten sooner than it should. Early in the fall semester which was to prove his last, John Kieffer (HA7o) fell ill and Alfred was asked temporarily to substitute for him in his feshman language tutorial. At that time a substitute was asked to serve on a pro bono b asis for a couple of weeks and then would begin receiving a stipend in addition to his regular compensation. After a longer period ... the class would cease to be assigned to the incapacitated tutor and be reassigned to some other tutor, with proportional compensation. Alfred knew how strongly John Kieffer hoped to be able to return to his class, a hope which, as Alfred knew, would probably never be realized. When the treasurer, Chuck Elzey, objected that under the Polity the college could no longer pay for a substitute, Alfred responded, "I insist on continuing as a substitute, and I refuse to be paid." Alfred continued as a substitute during John Kieffer's remaining months and never told John what he had done for him ... "What we learned in the e:x:ecution was that same-mindedness can be generative: as we passed a theme back andforth~ each ones anticipated contribution was deepened and enlarged by the others prevzous one. " RoBERT WILLIAMsoN (HAo2) were setting out to do there was what Aristotle calls homonoia, same-mindedness, on all that really mattered. What we learned in the execution was that samemindedness can be generative: as we passed a theme back and forth, each one's anticipated contribution was deepened and enlarged by the other's previous one. It was truly a combined effort. But sequential combined efforts must have beginnings. Early on we had agreed that we would unfailingly present the textbook as an equal effort. He held me to the agreement on several occasions. That was an act of generosity on his part. Now that he is gone, I feel free to speak the truth. 'I'he two most important and original insights .which gave rise to our project and which most pervasively shaped it were his. I mean the distinction between formal and material verb-complements and, especially, the unification of the six aspects of the Greek verb under the three elements of subject, predicate, and act of { THE CoLLEG E . St. fohn 's College. Winte r 2005 + } FRoM THE ALuMNI AssOCIATION PRESIDENT Dear Johnnies, As alumni, we are always happy towelcome new members into our community. This fall we've had the occasion to open our doors to new students and a new leader. Welcome to incoming students-alumni of the future! Do you remember your first encounter with the idea of St. John's? Your first visit to a campus? First seminar? I certainly do, and those memories rushed back when; in late September, we hosted a prospective student reception in my home. "We" is the Twin Cities Chapter of -the Alumni Association and my husband, John. Together we welcomed a group of CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed below.for information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan SOS-275-90I2 BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen 4I0-47 2-9IS8 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin Gammon 4I0-28o-0958 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 6r7-964-4794 AUSTIN John Strange 2I0-392-SSo6 Bev Angel 5I2-926-7808 CHICAGO Rick Lightburn lightburn@ earthlink.net ': .. thefoture ifthe college seemJ' stronger and brighter this year than ever_ ifore." b young and enthusiastic would-be Johnnies and their parents . It was a remarkable gathering in many ways in addition to the personal time travel it afforded. One of the prospectives appeared with her mother in tow-an alumna herself, Annapolis class of 70-something. Another brought a sibling who began the afternoon clearly bored beyond belief and ended it rather curious about this strange place and the education it ofiered. Another parent had read the great books in her youth without benefit of conversation. She was thrilled to find out (via the "The Following Teachers Will Return ... " mailing) that such a place as St. John's existed. Her son was excited, too. Next fall he'll be off to Annapolis while she joins us for chapter seminars and contemplates the possibilities of the Graduate Institute. The story is that prospectives who attend such receptions are much more likely to come to the college than those who have no personal contact. It was a delightful party, and the Santa Fe Admissions office made it quite easy! If you are interested in hosting such an event, contact the Admissions office nearest you. Not onlyvvill you be doing the College and the prospectives a favor, but you'll also find an occasion to revisit memorable moments from your youth. Welcome to President Peters! As alumni from the East and West, we are pleased to welcome Mr. PeteTs as the new president of the Santa Fe campus. Mr. PeteTs' experiences have prepared him well for a role of productive leadership in the college community. He has dedicated DALLAS/,FORT WORTH Suzanne Lexy Bartlette 8I7-72I-9II2 DENVER/BOULDER Lee Katherine Goldstein 720-746-I496 GLENDA H. EoYANG, PRESIDENT ST.JOHN's CoLLEGE ALuMNI AssociATION himself to learning and supporting the environments of learning; he has managed administTative functions that are similar in size and structure to the College; and he engages with a kind of seriousness and attention that we like to think is characteristic of our community. We are pleased that MT. Peters and his lovely wife, Eleanor, will be joining us in January. The Alumni Association Board of Directors will be looking for ways to support him and the College under his leadership, and we encourage our fellow alumni to do the same. With a constant supply of eager students and a promising new leader in Santa Fe, the future of the college seems stronger and brighter this year than ever before. Thanks to all who continue to make the idea of the college a reality: members of the Board ofVisitors and GovernOTs, administration, faculty, current students, alumni, and friends. For yesterday, today, and tomorrow, Glenda H. Eoyang President St. John's College Alumni Association NORTHERN CALIF. Deborah Farrell 4I5-'{3I-8804 SANTA FE Richard Cowles 505-986-I8I4 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 2I.5-465-0244 SEATTLE Amina Brandt 206-465-778I PITTSBURGH Joanne Murray 724-325-4I5I SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Elizabeth Eastman S62-426-I934 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freen1an 6I2-822-32I6 PORTLAND Lake Perriguey lake@law-works. com NEW YORK Daniel Van Doren 9I4-949-68II SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 6rg-423-4972 { THE CoLLEGE . St. fohn 's College . Winte r 2005 45 TRIANGLE CIRCLE (NC) Susan Eversole 9 I 9 -9 68-4856 . WASHINGTON, D.C . Jean Dickason gor-6gg-6207 } WESTERN NEW ENGLAND Julia Ward 4I3-648-oo64 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau IS Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 9-722-67I-7608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �~-------------------------------------------~----~--------------------------------------------~ {ALUMNI AssociATION NEws} HoMECOMING CHARLOTTE KiNG (CLASS OF I959) FOUND AN OASIS FROM RACISM AT ST. JoHN'S. ARouND THE CHAPTERs: TwiN CITIES DISCOVERING HoNoRs The Alumni Association extended its highest honor, the Award of Merit, to two Annapolis alumni at Homecoming in October. William Carter, class ofig1~o, was recognized for his contributions in the field of technical education; Charlotte King, class of rgsg, was honored for her contributions to the field of social service. The association named Glenn HousleyAnnapolitan, sailmaker, and Johnnie supporter-an honorary member of the Class of 2004 in recognition of his contributions to the life of the college, specially its students and alumni. Dr. Carter was nominated for his award by Bill Reynolds, also of the class ofig4o, with whom he also attended Charlotte Hall Military Academy. Dr. Carter enlisted and served in the Navy after graduating from St. John's. He went on to a career as an executive with the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, but it was in the field of education that he made his real mark. He was a founding father of Delaware Technical and Community College in Georgetown, Del., and served on its board of trustees for more than I3 years. The \Villiam A. Carter Partnership Center on the Delaware Tech campus is named in his honor. After earning his doctoral degree from Berne University in rgg8, Dr. Carter turned his attention to the use of computers in public school classrooms. The Teacher Assistance Program he founded is now being used in schools with great success. Dr. Carter has served on numerous state, regional and national boards and {ALUMNI AssociATION NEws} Maryland's Social Services Administration, where she was responsible for a $300 million budget and the operation of all family services and child welfare prograrn:s in the state. Miss King has served on the Anne Arundel Commission for Women, the Anne Arundel County Ethics Commission, and the YMCA Board of Directors. In addition, she has volunteered time to more than a dozen coalitions and commissions devoted to helping women, chHdren, and families. In accepting her award, Miss King said that although it was difficult to endure the racism she encountered in the city of Annapolis in the rgsos, she found in St. John's an "oasis." "St. John's is one of my longest and most profound relationships," she said. "It has all the characteristics of a good friend; it has taught me, guided me, challenged me, and supported me .. .St. John's enabled me to be a better person by giving me an expanded vision oflife and its infinite opportunities for learning, discovery, and actualization. " When Miss King returned to work and live at St. John's more than a decade later, with her 7-year-old daughter Rachel in tow, Annapolis had become a "hotbed of civil rights activity." Here, Miss King found her new challenges in the area of public service. "I am so thankful to the college and the Alumni Association for reminding me that my life had meaning and that I should take pride in some of my achievements," Miss King said. At the All-Alumni meeting, Glenn Housley joined the class of 2004, receiving a college cap and gown along with his honor. For IS years, Mr. Housley has hosted St. John's students on the college's Annual Sail Picnic and has introduced other students to the art of sail making. In his tribute to Mr. Housley, Chris Denny (Ag3) said: "Glenn and his wife, Sus3an Borden (A87) , the college's director offoundation relations}, have opened the doors of their home to students and faculty with gracious hospitality through the years. Students who know Glenn in his many roles-sailor, craftsman intramural competitor, and friend-are grateful for his participation in the life of the college."_. commissions, including the Delaware Higher Education Commission and the National Commission for the Support of Public Schools. In 2000, he received the Order of the First State from the governor of Delaware, an award the recognized his contributions to improving the quality of life for residents of the state. "It is gratifying to have one's efforts recognized, but it is especially so that this award comes from all of you," Dr. Carter said at the Homecoming banquet. "I have a special place for it right here," he added, tapping his chest, "and I'll keep it there for always." Dr. Carter acknowledged the support and assistance of his "capable and longsuffering wife, Ann," and introduced his grandson, Matt Carter, (Ao8). "I have been lucky enough to be in the right places, at the right times, to be able to help make good things happen," he said. A native of New York, Charlotte King became one of the first African-American students to graduate from St. John's. After graduation, she went on to a career in social services and today is a senior human services executive and clinical therapist. In rg7o, she returned to St. John's to help establish the college's first counseling program. She entered public service, becoming assistant director of the Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services, and later directed social services in Charles County. She served as the executive director of Associated Catholic Charities in Washington, D.C. In rggo, she was appointed executive director of WILLIAM CARTER (CLASS OF I940) WAS HONORED FOR HIS COWfRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION. { THE CoLLEGE. St. fohn 's College. Winter 2005 } AMERICA BY }UDY KISTLER-ROBINSON (SF77, SFG179) For several years the Twin Cities alumni chapter has engaged in reading books according to a theme. Mter a year-long theme on tragedy, we read what was for some of us an arduous list of Goethe's literature and scientific writings for a ydr. With that ambitious undertaking completed, we had no theme in mind when one member suggested reading The Confidence Man by Herman Melville. None of the group had yet read it, but the keywords "travel" and "Mississippi" spurred us to read TWain's Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn first, followed by The Confidence Man. At that time, we weren't sure whether our theme should be travelogues or river tales. Our theme evolved into "Who are we as Americans?" when we chose to read Tocqueville 's Democracy in America next (over three months). Since the time period of our readings started in the early rgth century, we attempted to move gradually into the 2oth century and get a range of different perspectives. Our readings encompassed W.E.B. DuBois' Souls of Black Folk, Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop, Henry James's Washington Square, Sinclair Lewis's The Jungle, Jack Kerouac's On the Road, and Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Girl, Her American Doctor, and the Clash oJTwo Cultures. Although our members all agreed we could have stayed on this theme for years without even scratching the surface, we ended our investigation into the American psyche with an American Western film. Which one to watch caused more debate than any reading selection, but we selected The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, directed by John Ford, because we'd heard that Eva Brann once led a seminar on it. Many exciting and relevant questions came up in the course of our readings and discussions. Some of the recurring ones: What would Tocqueville say about 2-oth-century America? This surfaced in discussions on immigrant experience and cultural/ class clashes . Questions of culture, as seen through the immigrant experience. How does a group (or individuals within a group) both keep a former culture and found a new one? Is assimilation inevitable, or does this very process end up changing the dominant culture too? How do time and experience change Western archetypal ideas, such as democracy? What do we value? How do we deal with the precarious and important balance of individualism versus the common good? What are the different ways to approach building a society? What is the American myth? What are the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and is there a basis for these? Participants seemed to enjoy this theme greatly, both due to the variety of readings available within it as well as the timeliness of the topic in this election year. Next up for our chapter: epic adventures and journeys, starting with the Odyssey.-$- 47 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 n ewsletter within The College magazine is sponsored by the Alumni Association and communicates Alumni Association news and events of interest. President- Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President-Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary- Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer - Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team ChairLinda Stabler-Talty, SFGI76 Mailing address- Alumni Association, St. John's College, P.O Box 28oo, Annapolis, MD 2r404, or u6o Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. Awards of Merit go to alumni who have made outstanding contributions to the college, their professions, or the nation. Honorary Alumni awards go to individuals who have made significant differences in the lives of students or the college without having been enrolled as students. At-Large Directors of the Alumni Association Board are elected by members of the Association to represent them in the decision-making processes. Alumni-elected members of the Board ofVisitors and Governors provide unique alumni perspectives to inform the decisions that set policy for the college. Officers of the Alumni Association are elected to provide support and leadership to the Alumni Association Board of Directors. Do you know anyone-alumnus or not-who should be recognized as an outstanding member of our community? If so, please contact our Nominations Committee chair Steve Thomas at sthomas@fsa.com. Please provide your name, class year, contact information for you and the nominee, and a brief explanation of your nomination._. CALL FOR NoMINATIONS The St. John's College Alumni Association recognizes members ofthe community in a variety of ways. . MEMBERS OF THE TWIN CITIES CHAPTER TOOK A LITERARY JOURNEY THROUGH I9TH- AND 20THCENTURY AMERICA. { TH E CoLLEGE . St. f ohn's College. Winter 2005 } �- -- - - - -- - --·--- · {ST. }oHN~s FoREVER} Experience the beauty of early summer along the San Juan, Colorado, or Green rivers in an outdoor adventure led by Mark St. John, director of student activities in Santa Fe. This adults-only trip is open to all alumni and their spouses/partners, but is limited to r6 participants. Participants are invited to camp on the launch site on Thursday, June r6.The cost is $300. Contact the Alumni Office at sos-984-6103, or e-mail Roxanne Seagraves at rseagraves@sjcsf.edu for more details. By April I, the office will know which river has been chosen for the trip. THEigo8FOOTBALLTEAM, AT A TIME INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS THRIVED AT ST. JoHN's. GLORY DAYS n October ro, 1936, The Black and Orange of St. John's College entered the field before s,ooo fans in Ashland, Va., to face the Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets. The Johnnies were clearly outmatched by the Jackets, who were expecting to add an 18th game to their winning streak. But the Johnnies, well prepared by new head coach Valentine "Dutch" Lentz, held back Randolph-Macon's star quarterback. Neither team scored until Johnnie Lambros (class ofrg38) passed the ball to Bill Stallings (class of 1939), who crossed the goal line. The game ended in a 7-0 victory for the Johnnies, the second in a six-game winning streak. But the glory days for the college's athletic teams were waning. In earlier years, even as the college's academic program struggled, the athletic program thrived. Championship lacrosse and football teams regularly humbled rivals including Johns Hopkins and the new state college, Maryland Agricultural, now the University participate in intercollegiate sports. In the account given in J. Winfree Smith's A Search for a Liberal Education, Barr cited difficulties in scheduling games, adding that intercollegiate athletics "involves substituting a spectator psychosis for student participation." Lentz left St. John's and later became head basketball coach at West Point. Seniors from the class ofr939 voiced their disappointment with Barr's decision in thatyear'sRat-Tat, the college yearbook. "With the graduation of our class, intercollegiate sports pass out of the picture. And while it is no more our purpose to bring up that question than to re-fight the Civil War .. .looking at the list of our activities, we find that half of the class played [a sport] at one time or another during our stay here." The yearbook writers couldn't have anticipated how many Johnnies still play sports. More than roo of the students in Annapolis and about J20 in Santa Fe take part in intramurals. of Maryland. The Johnnies' 62-0 victory against MaJ:yland in r8gg recently made the front page of the Washington Post as one of Maryland's 13 worst losses in football, a sidebar to a story on a Virginia Tech-Maryland game. The brilliant rg36 season was attributed to some outstanding players and the coaching prowess of Lentz, a rgr8 alumnus who became athletic director later that season. A professional sports star in football and baseball, Lentz had played with the Orioles basketball team in the Eastern League and was a high school coach until he returned to his alma mater in 1926. The 1937 season, with only two wins and one tie in a ro-game season, was attributed to a tough schedule and several injuries. The great triumph of the final season, rg38, was a o-o tie with Johns Hopkins, with whom the Johnnies had the third-oldest sports rivalry in intercollegiate sports. Failing to win a single point that year, the team earned the nickname "the galloping goose-eggs." In 1939, President Stringfellow Barr announced the college would no longer { THE Co LL EGE. St. fohn 's College. Winter 2005 -CHRISTOPHER UTTER } (Ao6) Reunion classes are '70, '75, 'So, '85, 'go, '95, 'oo. This year, a special roth anniversary reunion is planned for Eastern Classics participants. Events include reunion class parties and seminars, the annual Alumni Art Show, Homecoming Dinner Dance, Friday Night Lecture (relating to Eastern Classics), and a Saturday night Midsummer's Night Ball. Meet the new president of the campus, Michael Peters, over Sunday Brunch. Join Annapolis president Christopher B. Nelson and Santa Fe president Michael P. Peters for an "Evening of Conversation" about the state of the college and plans for securing its future. The venue is the Fogg Museum of Art at Harvard University, and guests will have the opportunity to tour the museum's galleries before and after the program. Beer, wine, and light fare will be served, and there's plenty of time set aside to allow Johnnies to catch up with each other and to hear about what's happening in Annapolis and Santa Fe. This year's summer program is a week full of intellectual stimulation, fun events on and off campus, and a special participatory theater event. Alumni can choose from three seminars: Chushingura, or The Treasury ofLoyal Retainers, led by Claudia Honeywell Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, led by Kenneth Wolfe and Jay Smith Milton, Paradise Lost, led by Eva Brann and David Carl Participants can also explore A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest by joining a Shakespeare Reader's Theatre production of the comedy. Reader's Theatre is minimalist theatre in which the script is used openly, staging is simple, and no full sets or costumes are involved. Special outings include a picnic and winery tour along the Rio Grande and Puccini's Turandot at the Santa Fe Opera. For information on fees, housing information, and hotel discounts, visit the college's Web site (click on "Alumni" and choose activities in Santa Fe) or call the Alumni Office at sos-984-6!03. A QUIET MOMENT BY THE POND DURING SANTA FE's HoMECOMING LAST suMMER. September 30-0ctober 2 Reunion class years are ' 45, 'so, 'ss. '6o, '6s., , , Alla11 Ce "An Evening of Conversation" 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, March rs. Fogg Museum of Art · 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge RSVP by March r: 410-295-sssr, or alexandra.fotos@sjca.edu This event is the first of four planned for 2005; similar gatherings for alumni, parents and friends will take place in San Francisco, Albuquerque/Santa Fe, and Philadelphia later in the year. :~~ DATE DUE I Back cover: Photo by David Trozzo {T H E CoLL E G E . St. fohn 's College . Winter 2005 } �• STJOHN'S COLLE~GE PERIODICALS · POSTAGE PAID ANNAPOLIS · SANTA FE PUBLISHED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE P.O. Box 28oo ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 2I404 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED ~I � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 pages 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 The College, Winter 2005 Description An account of the resource Volume 31, Issue 1 of The College Magazine. Published in Winter 2005. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Winter 2005 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Harty, Rosemary (editor) Hartnett, John (Santa Fe editor) Behrens, Jennifer (art director) Borden, Sus3an Deimel, August Goyette, Barbara Hughey-Comers, Erin Knapp, Carolyn Maguran, Andra Mattson, Jo Ann Rinn, Natalie Seagraves, Roxanna Utter, Christopher Weiss, Robin White, Roseanna Johnson, David Eoyang, Glenda H. The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/6b8d06ce38e6a21ddf56bf9ce5c6de77.pdf 10f3c0274f819bdc99f5ccb9601c60c5 PDF Text Text SPRING . 2- 0 ANNAPOLIS -.. 0 5 �SPRING THE VOLUME 31, 0 THE MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI OF ST. JOHN 'S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS • SANTA 2,005 I SSUE FE {CONTE NTS } PACE IO DEPARTMENTS 2 BOATHOUSE REPUBLIC Spending a sabbatical at St. John's gives the president of Randolph-Macon College a glimpse of sports and the Program. PACE 14 BROTHER ROBERT He came as a visitor to learn more about the great books program; he ended up becoming a treasured member of the St. John's community. PACE 8 PAGE 14 18 PROFILES 30 On "Marketplace" David Brown (AGI95) talks business. 34 Newspaper editor Julia Goldberg (SFgr) Annapolis tutor John Verdi points to the writers who most influenced Nietzsche, including Emerson, Plato, and Pascal. likes to make waves. 38 Nathan Wilson (AGio1) unveils shroud mysteries. PAGE 18 44 STUDENT VOICES A Johnnic ponders what it means to be a member of a community oflcarners. NIETZSCHE HAUS In Sils-Maria, a Johnnie revisits the ideas of her senior essay. PACE 28 BIBLIOFILE 21 ALUMNI NOTES WRITERS 23 LETTERS Annapolis tutor Eva Brann shares aphorisms in Open Secrets/Inward Prospects. NIETZSCHE'S FAVORITE PACE FROM THE BELL TOWERS Michael Peters settles in. A new dean in Annapolis. A conversation across generations. Grappling ideas-and more-in Santa Fe. Warren Spector (A81) funds Annapolis dorm. 46 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS ' FOREVER 48 ST. JOHNS 26 CROQUET There's always next year. PAGE 26 ON THE COVER Nietzsche Illustration by David Johnson 2 �{FROM THE {FROM THE BEL L BELL TOWERS} A NEW DEAN IN ANNAPOLIS MICHAEL P ETERS On the Job in Santa Fe It's been a busy six months for Michael Peters, president of the Santa Fe campus. On January 17, he arrived in his office in Weigle Hall, and a few hours later, donned academic robes to deliver his first Convocation address to January freshmen. Then the college's Board of Visitors and Governors arrived on campus for four days of meetings, and the pace has hardly slacked ofT since. In spite of a busy schedule, Mr. Peters has made it a priority to set aside time to get to know students and the Program by sitting in on seminar with the January freshmen. Although he is juggling a great deal of out-oftown travel, he's been able to make at least one seminar a week and hopes to continue with the JFs through most of the summer. He does the reading, sits in the side chairs-as prospectives and other guests do-and takes in the conversation. As a West Point graduate, former career Army officer, and most recently, former executive vice president of the Council on Foreign Relations, he particularly enjoyed the discussions on Thucydides. "There is so much in Thucydides that directly paraUels the world today," he says. " Right now on the global stage we are dealing with many of the same issues and facing many of the same challenges." He also was a member of a senior essay committee on LIBERAL ARTS AND CITIZENSHIP From Mr. Peters' Convocation speech, January 17, 2005 " ....You and I will be participating actively in this intellectual community-a community which believes chat a liberal education is good for its own sake, but is also crucial for citizens of our country and our world if, as former Dean Scott Buchanan wrote in the college catalog from the late '30s, we are to: 'Distinguish fact from fiction, between principle and case, between opinion and insight, between propaganda and instruction, and between truth and falsity.' "These attributes of citizenship are as important now as they were in the dark days prior to World War II. Today, our nation honors the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, who demonstrated that the ideas and character of one man can have a profoundly positive effect on many. "It has become almost a cliche to say we are part of an interconnected and complex world-a world that faces profound issues of war and peace, poverty and plenty, disasters, plagues and pestilence both natural and man-made, to name a few. These issues require thoughtful and informed public debate if we are to come up with imaginative and workable solutions. Dealing with these problems makes a liberal education not a luxury, but a necessity. In the individual and collective choices we must all make, bumper stickers won't do and you won't find bumper stickers at St. John's." ♦ {T THE Co LL B . The Brothers Karamazov-one of the highlights of his St. John's experience to this point. Observing January freshmen take their first tentative steps in the Program and participating in a senior's culminating experience gave him appreciation for the growth a student experiences in four years at St. John's. There's also a great deal of work to be clone in cultivating relationships with the community and the state of New Mexico. A step in that direction was hosting the state's Summit on 21st Century Competitiveness on campus. The event attracted state leaders including Gov. Bill Richardson and U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman to the St. John's campus. The schedule for Mr. Peters and his wife, Eleanor, won't slow down much this summer. He'll be busy greeting visitors to the campus who come for Summer Classics, hosting his first Homecoming in July, and getting ready for his October z8 inauguration. At his request, the inauguration ceremony will be simple and without much fanfare. St. John's College . Spring 2005 ) ELEANOR AND MIKE PETERS HAVE BEEN ON THE ROAD, MEETING ALUMNI AND FRIENDS. "There isso much in Thucydides that directly parallels the world today. " MICHAEL PETERS, SANTA FE PRESIDENT St. John's students continue to surprise him with their diverse talents and extraordinary thirst for learning. " I often reflect on these young men and women and what their contributions will be to our world. They're learning, through the Program and the method, to address the most important questions life asks of us-helping them learn not what to think, but how to think." ♦ -ANDRA MAGURAN Shortly after President Christopher Nelson announced that tutor Michael Oink (A75) was selected dean of the Annapolis campus, Dink received both "congratulations and condolences" from his colleagues. The congratulations referred to the great honor it is to be selected by one's peers for such an important position. The condolences-most meant in jest-spoke to the burdens of the job: long hours spent in committee meetings, hiring and tenure decisions, meting out justice in disciplinary issues, and making other difficult decisions that affect the lives of students. It's also not easy to take a long breakfive ye ars-from the classroom. "It's true that tutors regard ourselves as model learners," says Dink. "And there's always the sacrifice of giving up our primary activity for a while. It's probably love for the community as a whole that motivates any tutor to want to be dean. You have the chance to see that St. John's is the best that it can be." Dink looks forward to moving into the dean's position July 1, succeeding Harvey Flaumcnhaft, who served for eight years. " It's an opportunity for a more thorough and deeper involvement with the college," he says. "It's a challenge." He feels fortunate that his predecessor made great strides in his years as dean: in faculty development, support for students, and forging bonds with Santa Fe. "I'm very grateful to Harvey- he's left things in great shape," he says. After spending a year-ancl-ahalf at Harvard, Dink entered St. John's as a Febbie. A high school English teacher had suggested the great books program at St. John's, but at the time Dink believed, "I could get the same thing at any good school." However, in his philosophy classes, Oink found his professors lecturing from notes or teaching their own books. He wasn't reading the books he wanted to read and wasn't encountering many students who were serious about their studies. He returned to Harvard after an unsatisfying first year, but by the middle of sophomore year, his thoughts returned to St. John's. "J spent the reading period for my exams at Harvard filling out the Febbie application," he says. After St. John's, Oink went on to graduate study in philosophy at Catholic University. Five short years after graduating from the St. John's, he had { T THECo . TOWERS} completed the coursework for his doctorate and was back at St. John's as a tutor in Santa Fe. "I knew I would like to be a teacher, and the idea of coming back as a tutor had been in the back of my mind through grad school," says Dink. In the summer of 1980,Dink received a call from Robert Bart, then dean in Santa Fe, who needed to fill a last-minute appointment. Dink flew o ut for an interview and joined the faculty. WHILE MICHAEL DINK (A75) WILL MISS THE CLASSROOM, HE IS LOOK· ING FORWARD TO THE CHALLENGES OF BEING DEAN. In 1984,he transferred to Annapolis where he also served as co-director of athletics, first with tutor Bryce Jacobsen (class of 1942), and later with Roberta Gable (A78). He was then and remains a big fan of St. John's College . Spring 2005 } 3 the college's intramural program. " Intramm·als allowed me to play sports, and I became a pretty active athlete," he says. Dink received a grant from the National Endowment for Humanities that allowed him to spend a year pursuing questions in the works of Plato and a second year leading a faculty study group and delivering a lecture. Dink's three-year term as director of the Graduate Institute in Annapolis from 1998 to 2001 was good preparation for the dean's office, he believes. "I t's on a much smaller scale, but the responsibilities are similar-you're involved with other segments of the college community, publications, financial aid, transcripts, being responsible for students. It does give you some sense of what's required in the dean's office." Dink looks forward to working with "all segments of the community, including Santa Fe, supporting younger faculty, and just hoping to find ways to keep things running smoothly." Among the changes scheduled to occur in his deanship is the discontinuation of the Febbie program in Annapolis, with the last class entering in January 2006. (The program will continue in Santa Fe.) Does he have mixed feelings, since the Febbie program allowed him to enter St. John's when he was ready? While it's hard to see traditions go, Dink says, the decision was in the best interest of the students. "Febbies get a truncated version of the Program, and it puts a lot of stress on the students," he says. "In recent years most Febbies have been students who would have come in the fall ifwe had let them." ♦ -ROSEMARY HARTY �4 THE {FROM THE so-YEAR CONVERSATION When women from the first coed graduating class at St. John's returned to the college for a day with women of the current graduating class, we did what we always do at St. John's: have conversations. From a leisurely lunch to a seminar on John KeaLs' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and Virginia Woolf's "On Not Knowing Greek" to a dinner at the Boathouse, a steady flow of conversation continued, tying 1955 to 2005 as solidly as the conversation in a freshman seminar ties new Johnnies to Socrates and Agamemnon. Toward the end of the evening, Missy Skoog (Ao5), who helped organize the day's events, spoke of the inspiration the women of 1955provide for women of the current class. It was an inspiration of which I was not much aware before meeting the women from 1955. In my own experience at the college, I have only recently thought of my presence as a woman in addition to my presence as a student. The struggles I have experienced and the ways I have questioned the Program and myself have felt very personal. It is only recently that I have seen the ways I share those struggles with others. Over meals with Barbara Brunner Kiebler (A55), Cornelia Hoffman Reese (A57) and Emily Martin Kutler (A55) , J saw that the uncertainty I'm going through as I'm about to graduate is perhaps a natural result of having a Johnnie's philosophical bent and widespread interests. At lunch, Kiebler told Samantha Buker (Ao5) and me a life story that included four children, graduate courses in mathematics, and a law degree she earned in her 40s. It put my own varied plans in perspective. I'm someone interested in questioning and experiencing, like Johnnies have always been. This interest is clearly what brought the first women to the BELL TOWER S } {FROM college. Everyone I asked said t hey were not aware of making history when they decided to come to St. John's. Though Kiebler said she felt "on display" once she arrived at the college, the decision co attend was based on a love oflearning rather than a conscious effort to change the status quo. Reese said she fell in love with St. John's as soon as she saw that questions and answers were "part of the learning process ... for both the students and the faculty." She said she had often been told in high school, "That's a very good question, Miss Hoffman, and I'm sure you realize why we don't have time to answer it." At St. John's, she encountered a very different attitude toward asking questions. "I felt like I blossomed," she said. "I felt like all my eagerness to learn had a place to go, and a way to get there." Talking to the first women at St. John's was fun and comfortable. We shared the common ground of the St. John's Program, and therefore had a base from which Lo compare and consider our life experiences. Carolyn Banks-Leeuwcnburgh (A55), who couldn't make the event, but shared her memories in a phone conversation, said she believes the Program produces this ease of connection by being "so different and unique, it's timeless." Though much of what I realized that day had to do with the similarity of all women and of all Johnnies, I was also deeply impressed by the courage the first women showed in coming to such a deeply intellectual school at a time when there were doubts on all sides as to a woman's ability to handle such a thing. Women were alJowed to apply to St. John's in 1951 because of several issues, according to Barbara Goyette (A73, vice president for advancement in Annapolis). These included then-president Richard Weigle's commitment to co-education, low enrollment at the college, and a strong interest among women in attending St. John's. When the women did enroJJ in 1951, they came in spile of resistance from some tutors and students. Goyette said, " The men were unsure socially about how it would change the campus, and they were unsure that the women could do the work.AJ1ofthatchanged very quickly once the women came." The women did encounter some prejudice. Leeuwenburgh remembers being Lold in a don rag, in response to the character of her opinions, that she should "go make babies." Reese continued on p. 5 LONGTIME ST. JOHN'S LIBRARIAN CHARLOTTE FLETCHER (HA69, CENTER TH E B E L L hornbcams, loblolly pines, sycamores, dogwoods, red oaks, and maple trees. N EWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS In late March, the Santa Fe can1pus hosted the New Mexico State Summit on 21st Century Competitiveness. The summit brought together senior New Mexico business and community leaders with national economists, industry and policy experts, and federal policymakers to discuss the state's higher education and workforce challenges in the new economy. President Mike Peters gave the welcoming remarks and introduced Gov. Bill Richardson and U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman. The summit addressed one of the state's thorniest problemsthe continuing drain of the state's educated young people to other states. After graduation, the majority of college students in New Mexico tend to leave the state for better-paying jobs elsewhere. In his opening remarks, Peters pointed out that St. John's College actually helps reverse this trend by attracting and keeping college-educated people in the stale. The college recruits students from nearly every state and several foreign countries, yet approximately 25 percent of St. John's graduates remain in New Mexico after finishing their studies. Currently almost 1,000 alumni live in New Mexico. Approximately 31 percent serve as teachers in public and private high schools, as professors at the state's colleges and universities, and in the state's Department of Education. 5 TO WE R S } AP POI NTMENT S In Annapolis: RUTHANDERSON COGGESHALL has been appoint- development field. Arasteh replaces RoBERTA G ABLE (A78), who has moved from the Career Services office co Admissions, where she is associate director. In Santa Fe: P ENELOPE B ENEKOS (SF99) has been named advancement officer. Prior to her return to the Southwest, she taught English in France, traveled throughout the Mediterranean, and worked in development at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. St. John's in Annapolis received a Plant Award (People Loving and Nurturing Trees) from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for undertaking an urban forestry program several years ago. The inventory counted 118trees on the campus at the time. Since then, another 90 or so have been added, says Blythe ed director of major gifts. Previously she was chief development officer for the National Gallery of Art, where she completed the museum's New Century Fund campaign and redirected the gallery's development efforts to solicit major gifts nationally and locally. She also held leadership positions at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. SrEFANlE TAKACS (A89) joins the college as director of annual giving from Abraham House in the South Bronx, where she was assistant director of operations and development director. Takacs had been a volunteer fundraiser in Philanthropia since 1998 and served as the events committee chair for Woods, the college's horticultur- several years. cation, "Girl Scout/STUDIO ist. The college carefully tracks the health of its trees, she adds. Although the college and community still miss the magnificent Liberty Tree, the campus is rich in American is the new Career Services director in Annapolis. She brings to the college more than six years of experience in a variety of private and p ublic settings in the career 2B Advisor Self-Study Guide." The program was created for older girls age II-r7, a group that often loses interest in ANNAPOLIS ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD SlWtRZAD ARAsTE:11 STUDENTS ELIZABETI-1 V EGA (SFo6) received an Excellence Award from the Girl Scouts for a guide she wrote to help orient leaders of a new national program aimed at keeping teenage girls in valved in scouting. The award is given annually co individuals whose innovative contributions significantly advance the work of the council. Vega wrote a 68-page publi- scouting ♦ continuedfrom p. 4 remembers that some of her male classmates would make a point of challenging women when they demonstrated propositions in math class. Both women chalked this up to a lack of maturity on the part of some of their classmaLes. Reese said that she felt "just a little" hostility that seemed to come mostly from younger men who didn't know how to handle the presence of women. The women, regardless of these difficulties, acquitted themselves admirably. Goyette said, "They surprised everyone. I think they surprised themselves." They returned to St. John's 50 years laLer, confident in the abilities St. John's had given them, ready to encounter another seminar. I hope to carry myself with that sort of grace and ease someday. I hope I am as available to share questions and conversation as all these women did that day. I hope I am ready to aim for the heart of any conversation, as Emily Kutler did when she pursued the true intent of Woolf'sessay. I hope I will walk, as Barbara Kiebler did when she accompanied me to a class on Einstein and Minkowski, unhesitatingly toward any chance to keep learning. ♦ TOP) JOINED 2005 AND 1955 CLASS MEMBERS FOR A SAMANTHA BUKER (AOS) ANO SARAH CROOKE (A55) HAVE MUCH TO TALK CELEBRATION OVER CROQUET ABOUT DESPITE A SO-YEAR DIFFERENCE. WEEKEND. { THE C o COLLEGE . St. John's College . Spring 2005 ) { THE Co LL E c E. St. John's College. Spring 2005 } �6 {FROM THE JOHNNIES GRAPPLE WITH MORE THAN IDEAS Jiu-Jitsu Takes H old in Santa Fe Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a new addition to the martial arts offerings on the Santa Fe campus, but it's become enormously popular in just a few short months. C.J. McCue, who joined the Santa Fe staff as student activities coordinator eight months ago, is an accomplished martial artist whose Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes have attracted more than 30 students and inspired several Johnnies to enterand win-national competitions. During spring break, McCue and seven ofher students o·aveled to Las Vegas. Nevada. to compete in a submission wrestling tournament for no-gi grappling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. 1\vo ofMcCue's students, Alex Kongsgaard (SF05) and Quinn Mulhern (SF07), both blue belts, took first place in their divisions. McCue took second place in the women's advanced ~ division and third place ; in the open-weight ! women's division. z~ ]\1:,::Cue teaches • Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the Gracie style, which was created for self- defense. This martial art relies upon body mechanics and leverage rather than strength, so a small person can win against a bigger or heavier competitor. That's one reason the sport is popular with women, says McCue. There are two types of Jiu-Jitsu: Brazilian, or modern, was developed after 1900, while Japanese Jiu-Jitsu is considered traditional and dates to pre-1900. Like many martial arts, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu requires a technical knowledge of specific positions, development of physical and mental strength, and the use of strategy. However, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is unique in that most of the techniques involve grappling on the ground. "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners learn how to defend themselves on the ground," says McCuc. " Of course this has enormous real-world benefit as a selfdefense method for both me n and women." The clothing (gt) looks like a traditional martial arts uniform ofloose white pants and jacketstyle wrap shirt secured with a belt. "The gi is a very instrumental part ofBrazilian Jiu-Jitsu," says McCue. "Thegi can be used as a way to control one's opponent." Most of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu techniques involve specific positions. There are takedowns, { THE COLLEGE, {FROM BEL L TOW ERS} self-defense techniques, and striking, but the core of the art involves mental so·ategy. That's part of the appeal to Johnnies. Competitors strive to improve, maintain, or defend their ground positions, along with mastering submissions such as chokes and armlocks. Both Kongsgaard and Mulhern apply themselves with vigor to the martial art, as they have with other endeavors. After Kongsgaard graduated from high school, he walked 500 miles from the CaliforniaOregon border to San Francisco, averaging 2,2, miles a day. In addition to continuing his wrestling training, Kongsgaard ALEX KoNcscAARD (SF05) 1s WRESTLED TO THE GROUND BY QUINN MULHERN (SF07). is an avid cyclist, a rock climber, and a member of the St. John's Search & Rescue team. Mulhern aJso brings intensity and dedication to his training, says McCue. Mulhern's older brother practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and persuaded him to take up serious study. "We would wrestle, and I saw that my brother's submission St. John's Collese. Sprins 2005 } movements were not angry, but graceful and re laxed," he says. He credits McCue, "a great teacher," with helping him win in Las Vegas. "She is able to demonstrate something physical in a way people really respond to," he explains. The psychological aspect of competing is the most difficult, says Mulhern, who practiced breathing and visualization techniques to enhance his performance. "Adrenaline can be one of your biggest enemies because it can cause you to use your energy right away," he says. He credits his winning to feeling calmer. "It's one thing wrestling in class or wrestling with your friends, but another competing in a tournament where you have only four minutes and you can easily forget everything you know. It's a lot of pressure." McCue looks forward to getting more students involved in sports at St. John's. "While some Sc. John's students are not very physically active when they first arrive at the college, they find themselves in a community of like-minded individuals and feel more confident when they discover the benefits of physical activity," she says. "You see students make a connection to something physical-whether it is a martial art, climbing, Search & Rescue, hiking, skiing, winter camping, or intramural activities. They run with it because they've become inspired by all this at a later time in their life. For some it's just the beginning." ♦ -ANDRA MAGURAN TH E B ELL TO WERS} 7 NEw DORMITORY Is A GIFT FROM ST. JoHN's ALUMNUS Spector Hall to Open in January Warren Spector (A81) has given the coJJege a generous gift to fund, in his father's memory, the building of a new dormitory on the Annapolis campus. Spector Hall, as the dorm now under construction will be named, together with Gilliam Hall, which opened last fall, will allow the college to house 80 percent of its students on campus. Mr. Spector, President and Co-Chief Operating Officer of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., a leading Wall Street investment banking and securities trading and brokerage firm, says his gift was motivated by his appreciation for the education he received at St. John's. "St. John's provides a unique educational experience," said Mr. Spector, a member of the college's Board of Visitors and Governors. " Building this dorm will help preserve the intimate learning environment that sets St. John's apart from other liberal arts schools." The college needs new dormitories for two reasons. Overcrowding in existing dorms required the college to convert some double rooms into triples and appropriate a few common rooms for housing. The college also wants to better nurture a community of learners by ensuring that students who want to live on campus can do so. I mpressed by the recent renovation of Mellon Hall's classrooms and laboratories, Mr. Spector was pleased to provide a gift to further improve student life. "The St. John's educational experience is not limited to the classroom. The ability for students to learn from each other is greatly enhanced by living together on campus." Mr. Spector continued, " For me the dialogue with my fellow students was a crucial part of my education. I could not be more pleased to further the education offuture generations by funding the creation of a place for that dialogue to take place." Spector Hall wilJ house 40 students when it opens in January 2.006. The dormitory includes spacious common areas, suite-style rooms, and a tutor's apartment. The building will be named Spector Hall in memory of Warren Spcctor's father, who died in 1990. Philip Spector had forged over his lifetime a AN APPRECIATION FOR HIS ST. J OHN'S EDUCATION PROMPTED WARREN SPECTOR TO FUND A NEW DORMITORY ON THE ST. JOHN'S CAMPUS. "One cfthe most valuable tools I gainedfrom my St. John s education was the abtfity lo think critically. " WARREN SPECTOR, A8I { THE COLLEGE· St. John's Collese · Sprins 2005 } successful career as a contractor who was responsible for numerous residential, commercial, and industrial projects in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. "I very much wanted to find a way to honor my father. It seems fitting considering his long and successful career as a builder that a structure is named for him. It is my hope that he would have been extremely pleased with the results," Mr. Spector said. Ironically, both of Mr. Spector's parents were initially concerned when he announced his plans to transfer from Princeton and start again as a freshman at Sc. John's. " It did not take long for my parents to see that I thrived in the environment of St. John's College," commented Mr. Spector. "By the time I graduated, they were big fans of the St. John's education and were pleased that I did not go to college anywhere else." One of several St. John's alumni working at the top of the investment field, Mr. Spector credits the college with providing him with skills that have helped him succeed in the fastpaced and ever-changing world ofWall Street. " One of the most valuable tools I gained from my St. John's education was the ability to think cri tically," said Mr. Spector. "In the highly analytical and technologically sophisticated world in which we live, the ability to think on one's own and make sense of the seemingly endless data that exists should not be underestimated." ♦ �8 {LETTERS} {LETTER S } VARIED VIEWPOINTS I must respond to Mary Campbell Gallagher's rejection of Martin A. Dyer' s diversity initiative. Ms. Campbell's principal objection is that Mr. Dyer relies on the premise that different "life experiences" will somehow enrich the college's seminars. She insists that he "present proof." Well, I can-and so, I believe, can any St. John's alum. ....Anyone who has gone through four years of the Program knows that people bring their "life experiences" into the seminar room. Male, female, veteran, gay, married, black, Mormon, elderly, handicapped, Orthodox Jewish-can anyone be so naive as to believe that such factors don't influence how we approach a text? This doesn't mean surrendering to subjectivity. But it does mean expanding the Annapolis campus beyond affluent suburbs of Washington-Baltimore and New York City, the base for the student body when I was a student. No one is advocating affirmative actionthat is, preferential treatment to someone because of his or her background. But the college effectively makes decisions all the time about the makeup of the student body by the way it recruits and where. If the college makes a concentrated effort to increase diversity, it can only result in livelier class discussion by including more and varied viewpoints. STEVE WEINSTEIN, A95 ON DIVERSITY I agree with three statements in the letter from Mary Campbell Gallagher (A6o) published in the winter 2005 issue of The College: (1) "all men are fundamentally the same ...."; (2) "All men are educable without regard to the peculiarities of their ethnic and racial backgrounds;" and (3) " ... students' racial and ethnic characteristics [make] no discernible contribution to their being able to read and think well." I disagree, however, \.vith other assertions. I do not believe that the Opportunity Initiative is inconsistent with the college's mission of providing a liberal education. Although the college makes its unique program equally available to, and welcomes everyone, its recruitment efforts have not been equally successful in attracting all segments of the population. A major purpose of the initiative is to determine the reasons for this failure and to work with the Admissions office in devising corrective measures. Our goal is to broaden the college's appeal to people who do not now seem to understand learn to function well in both, to speak and act according to the expectations of each. They can competently participate in and contribute to ongoing St. John's dialogue seen through the lens of upper middle-class people of European heritage. But to feel safe enough to share the particular lessons life has taught them and to relate their own unique backgrounds to the topics and readings being considered in seminar would require the safety of numbers and the college community's appreciation of the richness to be gleaned from different heritages. I know college recruiters, with the support of alumni of color, are making good-faith attempts at increasing the diversity of students and faculty. I hope they arc successful for the sake of all students. that its program is also intended for them, not change either the program or admission policies. The great books are indeed teachers, and close reading of them and good logic arc the principal means by which conversation is advanced. Other factors also play an important role. "[P]eculiarities [borne] of...race and ethnic backgrounds" are among them, as are differences in economic status, religion, nationality and personal life experiences...My views of freedom and justice, for example, are affected by the fact that I am black, am two generations removed from slavery, and grew up in Baltimore in the 1930s and 40s and attended college in Annapolis when racial discrimination and segregation were still the way of life. Blacks were denied basic opportunities.... I suggest that interactions among students both in class and in their day-to-day social lives are a vital part of teaching and learning. In other words, the encounter of individuals, separately and in concert, \vith the great books is indispensable to St. John's unique education. MARTIN PATIENCE GARRETSON SCHENCK, POETIC PLANCK I enjoyed Anna Perleberg's poem "Relativity" in the Winter 2005 issue of The College. As " Relativity" did mention haiku in the last stanza, Joffer one ofmy own in response: Late autumn Reading Planck In the cold room ... A. OYER, AS2 SHARING LIFE LESSONS LUCIA STAIANO-DANIELS, SF04 A recent letter suggested that diversity has nothing to do with learning at St. John's; that, on the contrary, it is the books that are our teachers. I disagree. If we learned only from the books, students could sit in their rooms and read them by themselves. Rather, it is the exchange of ideas that leads us to enlarge our understanding of what the books can teach us. An African-An1erican student who has been stopped by the police for "driving while black" understands the relationship between justice and power differently than the daughter of a judge who sits beside him in seminar. Someone who grew up in a working-class church with a ministry to the poor understands the parables ofJesus differently than someone from a place of worship attended by the privileged. A Muslim reads Genesis differently than either a Christian or a Jew. These differing backgrounds and perspectives can greatly enrich the exchange that takes place around the seminar table. The challenge for the college is to attract sufficiently large numbers of students and faculty from diverse backgrounds to affect the culture of the college. Members of minority groups have learned to live in two cultures, that of their ethnicity and that of the dominant group they have encountered in school and other public venues. They { 1' n ll Co LL E c E . St. John's College . Spring 2005 Cuss OF l'.959 WEIRD SCIENCE ... .Infatuation, it seems, is frequently the outcome of a close encounter with Dr. Einstein's work, but I think we would aJJ agree that St. John's College strives not only to expose its students to the works of great thinkers, and to impress upon its students the importance of giving those thinkers their due, but also it strives to equip its students to be critical of what those thinkers have to say. Education, Plato reminds us, involves entrusting the cultivation of your soul to another, so it is only prudent to exercise some caution (Protagoras 312c-313b). As a theory ofrelativity, Dr. Einstein's work should be properly understood as one of reciprocity. ...A strict interpretation of relativity, however, is no longer tenable. Relatively well-known experiments with muons and atomic clocks have demonstrated tha t "clocks" moving at high speed do slow down. Here is where things get peculiar. A strict interpretation of relativity would require that people riding on high-speed airplanes see the clocks down on Earth slow down. When the travelers return to their earthbound comrades, there should be a grand argument as each group asserts that ) the other group's clocks were rwming slow. Instead, there is agreement: the travelers are younger than they would be if they had stayed at home, and the difference is more or less what Dr. Einstein's equations predict. It is, then, a matter of fact, that relativity effects are not reciprocal. Oddly, then, experiments of this kind demonstrate that there actually is such a thing as absolute space, for we obviously can decide who was moving and who was standing still by seeing whose clocks were slowed and whose were not. Further, until someone can find a place where clocks run faster than they do here on Earth, relativity actually supports the claim that the earth is absolutely at rest. But wait! It gets stranger: if the Earth is at rest, then, since we see the sun , moon, stars, and planets moving across the sky, the evidence suggests that everything revolves around the Earth. And jL1st to top it off, if everything revolves around the Earth, then, since the universe is now regarded as infinite, there is no reason not to regard the Earth as the center of the universe. Oh! The progress we've made! At this point, the door stands "vide open to supplement Dr. Einstein's theorywhich indeed, provides nothing beyond what Aris to Ile would label a formal causeby reintroducing the aether as the material cause, and so take a step towards developing an account on the level of the efficient cause (which is what any of the natural sciences, as studies of how the material world works, should strive to achieve). It would be most mysterious , however, to use the very theory that killed the aether to resurrect it. Weird science? You'd better believe it. But, at some point somebody will feel emboldened to declare it to be nonsense, and, at that time, there will be some need for clear heads who can distinguish the baby from the bath water. We all, I think, not only hope, but expect that St. John's will be the institution o f higher learning where those heads get clarified ... }OHN NEWELL, A86 __________ -'-'-.;;.;.;. EINSTEIN OMISSION Your capsule biography of Albert Einstein on the inside cover of the [Winter 2005) issue omitted two critical facts. The first is that Einstein was a Jew. Although this omission can be excused because it is a matter of general knowledge, it is widely assumed that because Einstein was never a "religious" Jew his Jewish heritage was of merely accidental significance until the Nazis decreed otherwise. 9 l CAN IDENTIFY ONE OF THE STUDENTS IN THE OCTOBER CALENDAR PICTURE.. .JANE D'AGNESE (A74) IS STRIDING UP TO THE QUAD AFTER LAB. LOOKING AT THE PICTURE, AND JUDGING FROM HER ENTHUSIASM, l CAN STILL HEAR HER SAYING, "CHESTAH, CHESTAH, ARE YOU GOING TO THE PAHTY?" (YouR CAPTION ABOUT SEMINAR AWAITING IS WELL-INTENTIONED, BUT I LIKE MY STORY BETTER.) BEHIND HER IS POSSIBLY ME, THOUGH THE DRESS DOESN'T RING A BELL SO l WILL GLADLY CEDE TO SOMEONE ELSE'S BETTER MEMORY AND IDENTIFICATION. SrrTING IN THE FOREGROUND IS, I'M PRETTY SURE, PATRICK D'ADDARIO (A7x), OTHERWISE KNOWN ASP-DAD. -DEB Ross, A74 I do not think so. The Bavaria of Einstein's youth was hardly a hotbed of tolerance. Not only was the young Einstein exposed to anti-Semitism; even ifhe and his family were not "believing" Jews, he grew up surrounded by believing Christians receiving mandatory religious education . .. .It is fair to suppose that this experience as an intellectual as well as ethnic outsider contributed to Einstein's ability to "think outside the box," his ,villingness to explore counter-intuitive models of the universe. Second, the biographical sketch totally omits the fact that Einstein was a committed Zionist. Despite his principled disapproval of ethnic nationalism, Einstein recognized that Jews could not be fully accepted citizens of European ethnic states, and needed their own hom eland where they would not be merely tolerated guests in an alien culture. Well before Hitler came to power, Einstein helped raise funds to buy land for Jewish settlement and to support the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. After the war he pleaded for the creation of a Jewish state, and in his old age was offered (and declined) the largely-ceremonial presidency of the State oflsrael. It is important to remember that even such a universalist and hlLmanist as Albert { 1' H E Co L LE c E . St. John's College . Spring 2005 Einstein insisted on the importance of a Jewish state for the preservation of the Jewish people and their unique contribution to human culture. KEVIN SNAPP, SF72 CALENDAR MYSTERIES REVEALED The May photo in the 2005 Philanthropia calendar was taken in '72 or '73. That's me, third from the left with the scraggly hair and beard, with my leg up on the bench. Kit (Kathleen) Callender (SF73) is to my left, and Bill Blount (SF73) is seated to her left. Beyond that, I'm guessing-it's embarrassing not to remember everyone's names. My sons will get a real kick out of seeing their papa "back in the day." PtTER MEADOW, SF73 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 z8oo, Annapolis, MD 21404, or by e-mail to rosemary.harty@sjca.edu. ) �IO {ATHLETIC S } {ATHLETICS} ''Bein.g out on the Severn River at dawn . .. is about as close to heaven as you wtll ever get. " BOATHOUSE REPUBLIC BY ROGER H. MARTIN Roger Martin, president of Randolph-Macon College in the team. Everyone." Leo seems to be looking directly at me, Ashland, Va., spent a semester at St. John :S lastfall. His goal perhaps because I stick out in this crowd of youngsters. I am not an was to experiencefreshman year at the college, in part to gain ordinary freshman, but a college president on sabbatical. I decide to go out for crew. Since I cannot live in a freshman some insight that might be helpful in shaping the residence haJJ, crew will provide the chance for me to have contact freshman-year experience at his college. Martin sat in on with students outside of the classroom and give me an opportunity freshman seminar andjoined the crew team. In November, he to explore the unique connection here between academics and joined competitors 40 years younger at the annual Head of athletics. the Occoquan Regatta. His experience broadened his views On September 7, about 60 students turn up at six in the morning about college sports. for the first crew practice. I recognize some of chem: Julie, Justin, reshman orientation ends at Iglehart Hall, the college's ancient gymnasium. One hundred of us are greeted on this withering August afternoon by athletic director Leo Pickens (A78). We sit on the floor in a wide semicircle as this man of modest build and piercing eyes looks over us in silence. I sense that we arc in the presence of a sage. We are not seated in a gymnasium, but rather in a sacred building- a temple, Leo explains. He talks about how athletics was as much a part of Greek culture and society as political discourse and debate and tells us chat athletics must therefore be taken seriously and with reverence. After describing the intramural sports and activities at the college, Leo says something you would not expect to hear from an athletic director: "Skill and previous experience are not required here at St. John's, just tlzumos. Passion." As he says "tlzumos," he pounds his chest. He concludes: "Everyone who shows up will be on { T u E Co LL Ec E . Victoria-all members of my freshman seminar. No one is saying anythi ng, and the eyes of many are glazed over, probably from latenight reading. Leo, also the crew coach, wears blue thermal overalls, a red sweatshirt that says "Johnnies" in white letters across the front, and a well-worn baseball cap. I suspect he knows what is going through our minds at this very moment. We are all wondering why any sane person would get up at five in the morning to spend two hours engaged in punishing physical exercise, often in foul weather. "I can promise you," he says, "that being out on the Severn River at dawn on a crisp fall morning, watching the sun rising from the east and the geese flying to the south as eight oars move together in perfect unison over the glistening water is about as close to heaven as you will ever get in this life." We don't have Jong to wait. Next morning we all march down to the dock. The sunrise over the Severn is spectacular. The novices, including me, climb into an 18-person training barge. As we row up and down College Creek the poetry of Homer's Odyssey, the book we are now reading in seminar, provides a balm for the pain I begin to feel in my lower back. St. John's College . Spring 2005 ) THU/IfOS- PASSION- IS WHAT L EO P ICKENS DEMANDS FROM HIS ATHLETES. { THE Co LL E c E . St. John's College. Spring 2005 ) �I2 {ATHLETICS} {ATHLETICS} The images and voices cfthe great books are everywhere~ in the Boathouse as we!f as on the Severn River. ROCER MARTIN When young Dawn with her rose-red fingers shone once more we hauled the vessels down to the sunlit breakers first .... The crews swung aboard, they sat to the oars in ranks And in rhythm churned the water with stroke on stroke. And churn the water we do in a boat vaguely similar to the Pentekontor that brought Odysseus and his crew to the ends of the world. I am in first position in the barge and directly in front of me sits a limber 17-year-old freshman. Mike, the assistant coach, who is standing in the stern at the tiller, yells out, "Everyone in the catch position, oars square and buried." Not knowing what the catch position is, I lean back as far as I can-which is not very far-and my oar immediately fouls the oar of my rowing companion who is leaning very far forward. The result is a loud noise and a huge splash as we start rowing. The novices practice in this way on College Creek until we become proficient enough to row in a proper eight. Over the next several weeks, my rowing improves and as it does, I blend in with the young men in my boat. I am no longer a college president, I an1 just another novice learning how to row. I keep my mouth shut, I observe, and I listen. Most student-athletes leave their studies behind when they go to practice. Not at St. John's. The images and voices of the great books are everywhere, in the Boathouse as well as on the Severn River. It is now 6:30 in the morning and it's pitch dark. We are rowing up the river to the start of our race, past the Naval Academy bridge, past the Route 50 bridge. A month from now, we will race against other colleges on the Occoquan Reservoir in Northern Virginia, and our practice races have taken on a new intensity. The sky is studded with stars, still bright enough to be seen above the dark purple hew of the Chesapeake's eastern sky, and there isn't a cloud to be seen. Bobbing sailboat masts look like black sticks in the distance, { TH E and I can imagine the port of Argos, and Agamemnon and Menelaus leaving for Troy with the Greek armada to win back Helen. Our own armada of two eights, two fours, and a single quad docs a river turn just beyond the Route 50 bridge and at Leo's command we race back to the end of the Naval Academy seawall, a distance of some 5,000 meters. A gray-blue storm cloud suddenly appears and empties its moisture into our low-lying shells, requiring the coxes to bail madly as they call out their commands. At the finish, in complete exhaustion, I notice the geese Leo Pickens promised several weeks ago, eight of them (like the number rowing in our boat), flying directly overhead toward Virginia, honking loudly as they wing their way south. The vision suggests to me that we will do well at Occoquan. October is upon us. My seminar is reading Plutarch's Lives of lite Noble Grecians and Romans, and my boat continues to improve. Today, us our four racing shells approach the Naval Academy bridge, rowing at a rather hectic pace over the usual 5,000-meter course, we see an armada of yellow Naval Academy shells, approaching us from downriver. Laughter comes from one of them as it passes to our starboard. The midshipmen are getting a kick out of seeing this rather motley collection of}ohnnics. And who can blame them? There they are, in their clean white t-shirts with "NAVY" emblazoned on the chest, and dark blue shorts, all looking extremely fit and athletic. Here we are, some of us in multi-colored t-shirts, some obviously overweight, others rather skinny, some men wearing earrings, others sporting tattoos, and one very tired 61-ycarold guy with a red beard rowing in the numbertwo position. This scene causes me to ponder Plutarch's biographies of Lycurgus and Solon. As the leader of Sparta, Lycurgus is architect of laws which are austere and unyielding. In Athens, where Co LL E c E . St. John's College. Spring 2005 EVEN IN THE SHELLS , CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE BOOKS PERSIST. } Solon is the lawmaker, individualism is honored. Sitting in my shell and watching our two very different crews passing each other on the Severn River, I see how two philosophies of society exist side-by-side in Annapolis: St. John's, devoted to diversity and pluralism, as Athens; the Naval Academy, with its focus on loyalty to the corps, uniformity, and order, as Sparta. Our training continues as November and the Head of the Occoquan approach. I am amazed not only at how hard my teammates practice, but also how the great books arc ever part of their chatter. Before launching our shells, I often hear students talking about seminars, tutorials, or the Friday lecture. Even in the boats, where crew is not supposed to talk, the great books cannot be denied. Our extremely capable cox is out of commission for a few weeks, so a loquacious sophomore replaces her. While our regular cox is all business and hardly ever talks except to give commands, her substitute offers a running commentary on everything from his favorite movies to college gossip to the current topics in sophomore seminar. "Do you know what my tutor told us last night at seminar?" he asks crew as we row out of College Creek towards the Severn. His seminar is reading the Gospel of John. "He said that because he first read the Bible in Greek he thought that the first words of John were, 'The origin was the principle' rather than, 'In the beginning was the Word.' " As we round the seawall and head toward the Route 50 bridge, now rov,ing at a fairly fast pace, his commentary regresses. He is now talking about the Phoenicians. "Do you know why the Phoenicians were the fastest rowers?" We are stumped. "Because they had nubile Phoenician women to row home to." I find this piece of information intriguing until, off to my port, I hear Leo Pickens yelling at me from the skiff, "You're not focused Roger. Snap those legs back. Square the oar. Drop the blade." On November 6, the morning of the regatta. Leo assembles the team in the back of the Boathouse. "Are you all ready for the Festival of St. Occoquan?" he asks the assembled group. "OK, now listen up. I have something important to say. First, I want to commend all of you for the time and devotion you have given to this sport. No matter how well you perform this afternoon, you should all feel a great sense of accomplishment." He continues by providing some interesting statistics. "Those { TH E ON THE SEVERN AND IN ~ -........... SEMINAR, RocER MARTIN ( CENTER) SAW DEDICATION. of you who are the grizzled veterans have put in 90 hours of practice, the novices 80. And you've done this while being students in an incredibly demanding academic program. Few athletes competing at Occoquan this afternoon have had to contend with the incredible academic load all of you carry. You should feel extremely proud. You have achieved perfection. I pronounce this boathouse a republic." In just six words, Leo says that we have come together as a team, each doing his or her part, but each contributing to the good of our community. Unity, one of the ideals of Plato's Republic, has earned Leo's highest praise.We are not only rowing much better, but we also care about each other. And there is a spirit-a team spirit-that is very special. Clearly, we are far from perfect in our rowing ability. But we really are, figuratively if not in reality, a republic, and everyone understands exactly what our coach has just said. The race itself is a blur. My boat does reasonably well, losing to the University of Maryland by only six seconds but beating three other universities. However, before the day is out, J witness C\vo contrasting scenes that speak to intercollegiate athletics both in America and at my adopted college. As my wife and I walk down the hill toward the launching docks just before my race, I overhear a coach lecturing the women on a large university team who are preparing to race. "You didn't get a medal last year, girls. It was a real embarrassment to me personally and to the university. So are you going to screw up again this year or win something?" I don't hear the rest of this speech as I continue walking down the path, but I see discouragement in the faces of the crew. As I return to the parking area, I witness a more pleasing scene. Seated on the ground and leaning on a boat trailer, one of our team captains is reading an essay by Thomas Mann for preceptorial. Nothing, not even Occoquan, is more important than Thomas Mann. This is the way intercollegiate athletics ought to be. ♦ Co LL E c E. St. John's College . Spring 2005 } �{THE {TH E TUTORS} T U TOR S } FAITH, FRIENDSHIP, AND TEACHING Brother Robert Smith u sail devoted to SL John:SBY ROBIN WEISS (SFG186) rother Robert Smith (HA90) traces his personal history-spanning 90 years-from his childhood near the Golden Gate Bridge, through adolescence in wine country, to adulthood when, as a Christian Brother, be stoked the fires of his passion for educational reform: first at St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif., then at St. John's in Annapolis. "I just learned from a woman we both knew that Jacob Klein told her that once I came here I would never leave. This has turned out to be true," he says, reflecting on his appointment to St. John's in 1972. For Brother Robert, the Program is perpetually new. "Each person is asking their own questions; that is the heart of education," he contends. "There's a new conversation every time. You see the repeated miracle, each year, of how students develop, with a renewal of life each time." To generations of Johnnies, Brother Robert has served "as practical advisor, career counselor, spiritual guide, almost Any mentor-like role," says tutor emeritus Elliott Zuckerman (HA95) . No one has been so unswervingly devoted to the college, to the seminar in particular, and, personally, to [former Annapolis dean] Jacob Klein." During his graduate school years in D.C., tutor Michael Dink (A75) enjoyed Brother Robert's standing offer of a guest room in his Market Street apartment. "At breakfast," Dink recalls, " I did my best to keep up my end of the conversation, regardless of what kind of night I had.. ..These talks helped me to keep a sane perspective on the sometimes trying world of graduate school." { THE Devotion to faith, friendship, and the practice of teaching underlie Brother Rober t's story, which began in a "very interesting part of Oakland," home to a flood of German refugees fleeing the persecution of Catholics under Otto von Bismarck, chancellor of the German Empire. "At the beginning of the Prussian takeover, Bismarck made life very difficult in Germany. A lot of these people, specifically Franciscans, were aware of California because that order had missions there." Brother Robert explains how these "highly educated people started a parish in what was then the edge of Oakland. Now it's deep in Oakland but the parish is still there." He remembers orchards near his grammar school, where German nuns taught using methods "in advance of Catholic schools anywhere." "I benefited from that. I grew up in that parish and that sch ool, and I'm very grateful. It was far-seeing, a wider outlook," he says. At a Christian Brothers high school in Berkeley, he met the brothers and liked them. "I wanted to do what they were doing-so I joined them." In the fall of 1930, while a novice, he picked grapes and was p art of the group who moved the Christian Brothers Winery to their 400 acres in Napa Valley. During Prohibition, because it was legal to sell alcohol for religious pur poses, the ,v:inerywas allowed to stay open. "As recently as 15 years ago, over half the brandy in this country was our brandy," he recalls. Today, with their winery closed, the Brothers keep a small hospital on this land high in the hills above Napa, but rent the remaining acres to Stone Winery. Founded in France in 1680, the Christian Brothers (an order of teachers who are not priests) spoke to the needs Co LL EGE. St. John's College. Spring 2005 ) FOR 33 YEARS, BROTHER ROBERT HAS REMAINED "UNSWERVINGLY DEVOTED" TO ST. J OH N'S. { TH E Co LL E GI!. St. John's College . Spring 2005 ) �I6 I7 {THE TUTORS} {THE T UTORS} "THE BROTHER" BROTHER ROBERT SMITH, SAY of the working poor as these HIS FORMER STUDENTS, "MADE people made the transition HIMSELF THE BEST OF FRIENDS." from rural to city life. According to Brother we were at war and various Robert, the founder saw "a people said: 'You'll eventucrying need to provide free ally get into this war, and it education," which allowed won't be a good thing for for "the very beginning of you.' " Instead, in 1943 he the possibility oflower-class went to Laval University, in people rising." In this time Quebec, where he studied of Louis the XIV, with finanphilosophy. cial support from nobility, He doesn't regret that choice. " It the Brothers initiated radically new turns out they were right." He schools, which were French rather remembers studying with people than Latin-based. These schools who had started at Louvain and were for shoemakers, shipbuilders, had to leave. " Laval was extremely and other working people who deslively. There were refugees from perately needed the basics of math, BROTHER ROBERT SMITH , TUTOR other European countries," creatreading, and writing to survive in ing an exciting mix of teachers and the cities. The movement started in students. Rheims and quickly spread to Paris, After returning to St. Mary's as a teacher, Brother Robert Avignon, and Rome. continued work on his dissertation: liberal arts from the Almost two centuries later, when Pope Pius IX asked point of view of St. Thomas Aquinas, completed and pubBrothers from France to serve in California, they were lished in 1947. A grant allowed him to spend the following reluctant to go. " In effect, the Pope gave a polite order to summer at Edinburgh University. "I studied, amongst get us there, and we've been there ever since," Brother other things, Hume," he admits, laughing. " He's not my Robert says. "We had to do things we didn't do in France," favorite philosopher, but he came from that university. So I such as teaching Latin and Greek to a more affluent populahad a good taste of him there." tion, that oflawyers, doctors, and priests. "We had to scrape In 1953, after a year in Rome, he was back at St. Mary's around and find teachers who were competent," he says. teaching large lecture classes. "We already had seminars, Thus arose St. Mary's College in 1863, which the but these lecture classes were the usual ones. At St. Mary's, Brothers took over in 1869 and run to this day. After attendwe always had our eye on new needs and new ways of doing ing St. Mary's as an undergraduate, Brother Robert taught things, and that connects ,vith St. John's." in a Sacramento high school for a number of years, a Innovation at St. Mary's had much to do with a layman requirement of his order. teaching there, James L. Haggerty, who was acquainted He recounts that, when he joined the order, there with the original committee who went to the University were ten thousand French Brothers as opposed to three of Chicago in pursuit of "the ideal form of education." thousand non-French. He'd grown to love French and, for Brother Robert tells how the partial successes at Chicago, graduate work, wanted to attend Louvain, in Belgium, "but "You see the repeated miracle., each yea0 cfhow students develop. . " { THE Co LL E c E . St. John's College. Spring 2005 } Annapolis tutor Howard Zeiderman worked with Brother Robert in many environments. "The most memorable ti me I spent with Robert was when he accompanied me to participate in a Touchstones program we had in prison. He and I and six others joined 12 inmates for a go-minute seminar. That day the men had selected a text in Touchstones, a selection by St. Theresa of Avila, on prayer." Brother Robert didn't wear his collar and was quicl for the beginning part of the conversation. But after about five minuLes, Zciderman recalls, Brother Robert began to talk about forgiveness. "The men were transfixed. None moved when the warning bells sounded, and Lhe guards finally came LO move them along to their lunch," Zeiderman says. "As we left, they referred to him as brother-a title of friendship. However as the months passed, each time I came into prison, they asked about Robert and referred to him as Brother Smith. Finally they simply began to ask after 'the Brother,' a phrase no one had ever heard them use before. Ile simply, even when looking like the resl of us, became BroLher Robert." ♦ such as changing the undergraduate structure but preserving departments, didn't satisfy Scott Buchanan and others working with him. So, at St. John's in Annapolis, "We started anew here, eradicating traditional departments and transforming the lecture system to education through conversation. At St. Mary's, Haggerty introduced changes, as far as he could, such as reading original sources and implementing the seminar. " He talked to all of us about the wonderful thing that was going on at St. John's. We sent people to St. John's to look at it," Brother Robert remembers. "We became closer to St. John's." In the fall ofx956, St. Mary's received a grant to explore possibilities for educational reform. Haggerty, initially responsible, became ill. "Somebody had to run it, so I was put in charge all the sudden," says Brother Robert. "All I knew was St. John's. By that time, I had visited a number of times." Visits were sweeter due to Raymond Wilburn, a former St. John's dean, who befriended Brother Robert while Wilburn was stationed at a naval pre-flight school, located on the campus at St. Mary's during the war. Wilburn wrote letters for Brother Robert "to be nicely treated" during his visits. He recalls one trip in particular, when he attended a seminar taught by Jacob Klein. " I was overwhelmed by it, so I made a point of getting to know him. We became friends and we remained friends until he died." While in charge of the new project at St. Mary's, Brother Robert called on Klein, Richard Scofield, and others for help. He describes "bold projects," such as bringing in people from outside St. Mary's to examine each senior on his essay. " I would not do that again. I was matching important {T H E Co L L E people, sometimes, with very ordinary students. I thought every student should have the same chance." He spent his sabbatical year of 1964 in Venice studying Rabelais. "Rabelais despised the system under which he was educated and decided to get free of it. I've read him, cover to cover, many times." After Brother Robert returned to the states, Klein invited him to give a lecture. " I enjoyed it," he says. "I think the students did, too. I was more rambunctious than I would be now." He admits to quoting Rabelais "in all kinds of unseemly ways that I wouldn't do now... " But after lecture, " Klein told me I would probably be invited to teach here." And he was. Students of his first class, a junior seminar in 1966-67, made him an honorary member. He corresponds with some of them to this day. " By committing himself as a teacher to thinking together with his students about what matters to them, Brother Robert has made himself the best of friends," says Steve Werlin (A85). " It has also led him to surprising places. He can speak well of Aristotle, Montaigne, and Baudelaire, but also about the Talking Heads." Now a teacher himself, Werlin relies on Brother Robert's advice: "Start where the students are." For the remainder of the 1960s, Brother Robert returned to his duties at St. Mary's. " I had to put the new project in good enough shape" before getting permission to transfer. But when the time was ripe for Klein's prediction to come true, Brother Robert telephoned Klein, asking, " Does it make any difference to St. John's if I come this year or next?" " It makes a difference to me," Klein replied. ♦ c E . St. John's College . Spring 2005 } �I8 {ON {ON NIETZSCHE} Ig N I ETZSCHE} "Ourfavorite author.s are .simply those we cannot escape. " JOHN VERDI, TUTOR NIETZSCHE 'S FAVORITE WRIT ERS BY JOHN VERDI t is probably true that all of us ought to read more books by those authors with whom we deeply disagree , because only they have the power to force us to rethink our comfortable ideas. Most of us, however, do not do so, but instead gravitate to those authors in whose books we recognize our own thoughts expressed more fully and convincingly, or so we would like to think. In any event Nietzsche cautions us against reading any author "of whom it is apparent that he wanted to produce a book," but urges us to read " only those whose thoughts unintentionally became a book." (The Wanderer and His Shadow , I2I) Perhaps we should trust no idea at all {T n E that comes to us while we are reading; as Nietzsche says, "only ideas won by walking have anyvalue." (Twilight ofthe Idols, I, 34) Still, Nietzsche himself read widely, and while we may not always find his interpretations of his predecessors accurate or fair, he certainly did h ave his favorite writers, those in whom he heard echoes of his own insights and struggles, or who represented to him types of their age, distillations of the thought around them, or who entered the great conversation with a destructive impulse, in an attempt to refashion thought after their own image. Our favorite authors are simply those we cannot escape, because they are too close to us, for better or worse. Our favorites Co LL E c E. St. John's College. Spring 2005 } READING NIETZSCHE'S FAVORITES GIVES US MORE INSIGHT INTO A PUZZLING AUTHOR, SAYS TUTOR JOHN VERDI. {T tt s Co LL s c £.St.John's College. Spring 2005 } �{O N NIE T ZSC H E } {ON N I ETZSCHE} 2.0 reveal aspects of ourselves that might otherwise remain undetected, and so it can be valuable to reflect on them. For a similar reason we might better understand what Nietzsche means to us-what Nietzsche ought to mean to us-by asking who the writers were that he could not leave behind. Nietzsche's pantheon of favorites is large, and I have chosen only a few and not necessarily those who exerted the most influence on him. In making this selection I am, to be sure, revealing a favoritism of my own. HERACLITUS In the fragments of Heraclitus Nietzsche found a man who was willing to live without the metaphysical comfort given by belief in things that persistently endure. 0wqmjJuLorraorcavra peL, ouoev µevu: Everything changes, nothing remains steadfast. Nietzsche says that around Heraclitus he culture that after Socrates, Plato, and Jesus, becomes "pale and ungraspable," even "immoral." (Daybreak, 103) Nietzsche's praise ofThucydidcs makes me wonder if, in the famous dialogue between the Melians and the Athenians over the fate ofMclos, the historian even means for us to ask whether it is the one or the other who are right. Might the moral question be exactly the one Thucydides wants not to raise? As if to suggest this, Nietzsche asks a rhetorical question: " Does one reproach Thucydides for the words he put into the mouths of the Athenian ambassadors when they negotiated with the Melians on the question of destruction or submission?" (Will to Power, 42.9) The Athenians argue from power, yet don't we find their words compelling, if not decisive? P LATO felt "altogether warm and better than anywhere else. The Nietzsche could never escape Plato. His relationship with affirmation of passing away and destroying, which is the decisive feature of a Dionysian philosophy; saying "Yes" to opposition and war; becoming, along with a radical repudiation of the very concept of being-all this is clearly more closely related to me than anything else to date." (Ecce Homo, IV, 3) Throughout his life Nietzsche considered himself a disciple of Heraclitus. While St. John's does not try to inculcate this reverence in its freshmen, we do ask them to translate many of his fragments in the language tutorial. Their depth and power, contained in such brief, aphoristic compass, invariably proves a remarkable springboard for reflection on the depth and power of all language. him and with Socrates often reads like a rocky love affair. On the one hand he praises, saying: " One can conceive philosophers as those who make the most extreme efforts to test how far man could elevate himself-Plato especially" ( Will to Power, 973) and "What is needed above all is an absolute skepticism toward all inherited concepts (of the kind that one philosopher perhaps possessed-Plato, of course-for he taught the reverse)." ( Will to Power, 409) On the other hand he considers what has derived from Plato to be a sickness. "My cure from all Platonism has always been Thucydides. Thucydides, and perhaps the Principe of Machiavelli, are related to me closely by their unconditional will not to deceive themselves and not to see reason in reality." (Twilight of the Idols, V, 2.) Nietzsche praises Plato as "the most beautiful growth of antiquity," but one who invented "the worst, most durable, and most dangerous of all errors so far... the pure spirit and the good as such." (Beyond Good and Evil, 2) Nietzsche also complains that "since Plato philosophy has been dominated by morality." {Will to Power, 412.) Philosophy has lost the ability to blur the boundary between good and evil, in the way that Nietzsche believes Thucydides could do naturally, to the extent even of denying that morality has any role to play in our understanding of human actions. Plato and Socrates represent for Nietzsche the triumph ofreason and dialectic over intuition and instinct. Nietzsche, however, struggles to make clear that "one does not make men better when one represents to them that virtue is demonstrable and asks for reasons." T HUCYD IDES T hucydides is another program author Nietzsche considered a favorite, because Thucydides "takes the most comprehensive and impartial delight in all that is typical in men and events and believes that to each type there pertains a quantum of good sense: this he seeks to discover." (Daybreak, 168) While this reason for his love of Thucydides might seem at odds with his praise for individuality and transcendence, and his beckoning to the " Overman," themes that pervade his later work, still Nietzsche often wonders "what might yet be made of man" as a species (Beyond Good and Evil, n8), andhow"the type 'man'" can be enhanced. (Beyond Good and Evil, 2.57) He believes that in Thucydides we see the "last glorious flower" of " that culture of the most impartial knowledge of the world," a { TH E Co LL e c; E . St. John 's College . Spring 2005 ) (Will to Power, 441), which is what he thinks Plato and Socrates do. If our favorite writers ought to be the ones that do us the most good, then perhaps we ought to include Plato in our list of Nietzsche's favorites, though Plato did not give him the sort of comfort we often seek in our favorite authors. But Nietzsche rarely sought comfort. 2.I NIETZSCHE RARELY SOUGHT COMFORT IN THE WORKS HE READ. Nietzsche thought that honesty was the one virtue left to "free spirits," among whom he counted himself. "So few writers are honest that one ought really to mistrust anyone who writes." (Schopenhauer as Educator, 2,) In Montaigne, however, he found the most ~ honest of writers. Mon- 8 taigne's willingness to explore his own character and the prejudices with which he himself reads and writes is what impresses and stimulates Nietzsche most. "Since getting to know this freest and mightiest of souls, I at least have come to feel what he felt about Plutarch: 'as soon as I glance at him I grow a leg or a wing.' " (Ibid.) Montaigne's honesty also infuses what Nietzsche considers his other admirable quality: "a cheerfulness that really cheers ...with certainty and simplicity, courage and strength ... as a victor...for there is cheerfulness only when there is victory." (Ibid.) Montaigne hides nothing and because he is deeply interested in the world as it is and as it has been reflected in great books, he serves for Nietzsche as a kind of Thucydides of the soul. them both, and for this Nietzsche loves him. " He has taught me such an infinite amount-the only logical Christian." (Letter to Georg Brandes) At the age of 16 Pascal wrnte a treatise on conic sections, a text that marks the beginning of his very fruitful work in science and mathematics, and which students at St. John's read as sophomores. T hen at the age of 31 he experienced a conversion and devoted the rest of his short life to religious matters and to introspection . Nietzsche consider s him "the most instructive victim of Christianity." (Ecce Homo, II, 3) According to Nietzsche, Pascal carries Christianity to its logical conclusion, "selfcontempt and self-abuse" ( Will to Power, #2,52,), a condition in which "everything is sin, even our virtues." ( Will to Power, #786) In such a condition reason, too, is corrupt and faith is needed for every kind of kno,ving. Furthermore, in his writing Pascal seems to share some of the honesty that for Nietzsche characterizes Montaigne. "One should not conceal ...how our thoughts have come to us. The profoundest and least exhausted books will probably always have something of the aphoristic and unexpected character of Pascal's Pensees." (Will to Power, #42.4) Both writers tell us not only what they think, but how they came to think so, which can be enormously supportive for those of us who struggle simply to try to think a few good thoughts. PASCAL H EIN RI CH H EINE Nietzsche sees personified in Pascal the conflict between science and faith. While Nietzsche attacks both, Pascal.felt Heinrich H eine was a German poet, cnuc, and writer of Jewish heritage who converted to Protestanti sm for MONTAIGNE { TH B Co LL E c B. St. John's College. Spring 2005 } �{O N NIET ZS CHE} 2,2, { A LU M NI VOIC E S} BEYOND THE BOOKS practical reasons. Nietzsche admired his work immensely throughout his life, and wrote of him: " T he highest conception of the lyric poet was given me by Heinrich Heine . ... He possesses that divine malice without which I cannot imagine perfection ....And how he employs German! It will one day be said that Heine and I have been by far the first artists of the German language." (Ecce Homo, III, 4) In Heine can perhaps be found the seeds of two of Nietzsche's most famous pronouncements, the death of God and the eternal return of the same. In The History ofReligion and Philosophy in Germany, H eine writes: "Do you hear the little bell ring? Kneel down. They are bringing the sacraments to a dying god." (Book II) And in his Last Poems and Thoughts, we find this: " However long a time may pass, according to the eternal laws governing the combinations of this eternal play of repetition, all meet, attract, repulse, kiss, and corrupt each other again." (We also find the eternal return suggested by another poet Nietzsche admired, Friedrich Holderlin, in his unfinished play, The Death ofEmpedocles. Empedocles speaks: "Go, and fear nothing. Everything recurs./ And what's to come already is complete.") R ALPH WALD O E MERSON Perhaps the writer Nietzsche held dearest from early in life to late, and the one he returned to again and again, is an American, Ralph Waldo Emerson . Nietzsche read Emerson (in German translation) while a student at Schulpforta, and after he lost his much-annotated copy of Emerson's Essays some years later, he soon replaced it. While in the end the differences between the two men may be greater than their similarities, there is no question that Nietzsche found much to admire in Emerson's views of nature and history, of the role of genius in human culture, and of the paradoxical character of good and evil. The first edition of The Gay Science quotes Emerson's essay " History" in an epigraph. "To the poet and sage, all things are friendly and hallowed, all experiences profitable, all days holy, all men divine." What Nietzsche finds in Emerson is a thinker who, like Heraclitus, sees the natural world as shot through with impermanence. "There are no fixtures in nature. The universe is fluid and volatile. Permanence is but a word of degrees." (Circles) He finds a man who recognizes that "man .. .is that middle point, whereof every thing may be affirmed and denied with equal reason." (Spiritual Laws) H e finds a writer who acknowledges that "we do not see { TH E directly, but mediately, and that we have no means of correcting these colored and distorting lenses which we are, or of computing the amount of their errors." (Experience) Nietzsche also discovered in Emerson someone who was willing to say: " I would gladly be moral ... but I have set my heart on honesty." (Experience) In general Emerson's skeptical attitude toward custom and conventionality is thoroughly Nietzschean. Of both thinkers one might say (as Nietzsche does say of Schopenhauer by citing Emerson): " Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all things are at risk. It is as when a conflagration has broken out in a great city, and no man knows what is safe, or where it will end. There is not a piece of science but its flank may be turned tomorrow; there is not any literary reputation, not the so-called eternal names of fame, that may not be revised and condemned." (Nietzsche, Schopenhauer as Educator; Emerson, Circles) A N EC L ECTI C LI ST While I promised only to give my favorites of Nietzsche's favorites, I ought also to mention some of the other writers Nietzsche admired, though his attitude toward most was ambivalent. The list is eclectic. There are the great aphorists: La Rochefoucauld, Lichtenberg, Chamfort, Leopardi. There are the German giants: Kant, Goethe, Hegel, Schopenhauer. There is Spinoza, the "purest sage," who because he denied free will, teleology, and the moral world order, also stands "beyond good and evil." There are the Eastern influences, especially Buddhism, which Nietzsche came to know largely through his reading of Schopenhauer, and Zoroastrianism, founded by the Persian, Zoroaster, or Zarathustra. (Could Emerson's description of Zarathustra in Character have influenced Nietzsche's development of his version of the character?) And then there is Dostoevsky. Nietzsche considered his discovery of Dostoevsky in 1887 to have been "one of the most beautiful strokes of fortune in [his] life." (Twilight of the Idols, IX, 45) I wonder what twentieth-century writers Nietzsche would have esteemed, but then I realize that hardly one has not been affected by him to some degree. Would not the literature of the last century be to Nietzsche a mirror in which the reflected image, while perhaps distorted, would nonetheless be a familiar one? ♦ John Verdi is a tutor in Annapolis. Co LL E c E . St. John's College . Spring 2005 ) Revisiting Nietzsche in Sils-Maria BY JENNIFER A. DONNELLY, A96 - - - • he rituals of opening questions, seminar and don rags vanish after graduation from St. John's. But the night the bells of McDowell Hall tolled my class's submission of our senior essays, an aphorism by Nietzsche, on whom I had written my essay, seemed co ring out like an opening question to the rest of our lives. " What good is a book," he asks in The Gay Science, "that does not even carry us beyond all books?" As is often the case with Nietzsche, the formulation is enigmatic: we know that the man who articulated it was an avid reader, a prolific writer and a professional philologist, and we notice that the format used to question the value of books is, well, a book. But for us, students of the "great books" program, the teasing becomes almost a taunt. What good are these books to which we devote ourselves for four years? And what does it mean to be carried beyond them? After seven years of being nagged by these questions, I made a journey to what could be considered their source: the Nietzsche Haus in Sils-Maria, the remote village in southeastern Switzerland's Engadine valley where the philosopher spent several summers and produced some of his most notorious works. Despite having poured my heart into my senior essay on Beyond Good and Evil, I had not pursued further studies on Nietzsche or in philosophy. On that first visit, however, I lovingly toted my careworn copy of that book, its marginalia ranging from smiley faces to question marks to "Yes!" The house in which Nietzsche used to board now shelters a small museum, library, and archive that present elements of his life and ideas, as well as some aspects of the remarkably rich literary and artistic history of the region (which drew authors {T II E Co LL E c E. THE VIEW FROM JENNIFER DONNELLY'S ROOM IN THE NIETZSCHE HAUS, WHERE THE PHILOSOPHER STAYED REGULARLY IN THE I88os. from Rainer Maria Rilke and Hermann Hesse to Anne Frank and Pablo Neruda). When co-curator Mirella Carbone mentioned that a few rooms are allocated to artists, scholars, and writers, I wondered whether the Engacline's reputed "champagne air" had gone to my head. The prospect of unbroken space and time for reflection stretched out wide and inviting like the glacier-topped pea.ks, temperamental skies, and glassy lakes that inspired Nietzsche's idea of"eternal return." So return I did. One year later, the toy-like RhiitischeBahn train was carrying me up an unending succession of misty switchbacks, steep terrain that Nietzsche somehow covered in a horse-drawn carriage. This stay in Sils-Maria was to last a month. Although I St. John's College. Spring 2005 } �{ALUMNI VOICE S } {A LUMNI VOICES} was eager to reread Nietzsche in the environment that had so powerfully inspired him, it wasn't my intention to make a pilgrimage to his ghost. Rather, having recently completed a master's thesis on art museums in Paris, which for five years had been home, I was mainly seeking distance from everyday life in order to WTite and think about something else, such as where my next steps might lead. My room in the Nietzsche Haus turned out to share one wall with that of its more famous resident. It also bore the type of Spartan furnishings upon which he had insisted-little more tha n a single bed and a WTiting desk-although I had the benefit of electric lamps and a sink instead of gas lanterns and a washstand. I soon determined that my ends were best achieved not by sitting at that desk, but by setting out into the mountains framed by the window above it. As I climbed the trails, one panorama wouJd unfold into the next and high-altitude valleys would come into view; peaks previously hidden would rise up, compelling me to continue moving, often over snow fields and glacier streams, in hopes of glimpsing whatever Jay beyond. Just so, fresh perspectives on my life down in the "flatlands" (to borrow Thomas Mann's phrase from The Magic Mountain , set in nearby Davos) suggested themselves. The insights sometimes evaporated, but other times they REVISTING N I ETZSCHE SENT DONNELLY BACK TO P ARIS WITH NEW APPRECIATION FOR THE PROGRAM IN GENERAL. l evolved into realizations about how I had wound up where I was and resolutions about how to proceed forward. The sound of the German verb for "to hike," wandern, aptly captured this dual motion of rambling across slopes and " .. the texu on the Program create a sort ofmental landscape through which we Johnnies-and all those who reai debat~ and write aboutthegreatbookshave earned thepassport to wander. " J ENNIFER A. DONNELLY, A96 {THE Co LL E c E . John's College. Spring2005} meandering through thoughts. Furthermore, so resounding is the echo between Nietzsche's writings and the Engadine landscape that the hiking paths-wanderwege-turned out to give as direct an access to his ideas as did the wellstocked shelves of the Nietzsche Haus library and the Biblioteca Engiadinaisa. Trail guidebooks quote the philosopher on the scenery (he described a lake as " milkgreen ") and designate his favorite trails (rarely too steep, because of his fragile health). At the tip of the Chaste peninsula jutting into the serene lake of Sils, where he dreamed of living in "a sort of ideal dog-kennel," a boulder is engraved with a passage from Zaratlwstra: "AJl joy longs for eternity...." On one hike, the words fit the scenery with an exactitude that was downright eerie. Takjng a break, listening to cowbells ringing through the valley, I opened On the Advantages and Disadvantages of History for Life. "Consider the herd before you," the book begins, t I launching a discourse on the dangers of historical memory by describing a herd of grazing cattle. Off the trails, the magnetic gcist of the Nietzsche Haus and its centrality in the Engadinc's cultural and intellectual life encouraged the conversations that, as all Johnnies know, round out reading and reflection. I met a Scottish professor from the University of Hawaii writing the preface to his translation of Zarathustra, a Ziirich screenwriter, and a Swiss-German novelist. Even the library seemed to hum with the whispers of the absent authors of weighty dissertations sent from all corners of the globe like travelogues from the territory of Nietzsche's thought. The image of those heavily footnoted theses loomed in my mind when co-curator Joachim Jung asked me to explain my link to the house's namesake. As I rendered into clumsy German a 20-year-old's interpretation of Nietzsche's "philosophy of the future," I wondered whether my unmediated reading of that book was merely a straying into a thick forest, and my senior essay for St. John's a valiant but inexpert attempt to plot my haphazard steps back through it. I reread that essay, after descending to the flatlands of Paris, for the first time since handing it in that cold January night in Annapolis. Since my focus had been morality, religion, and dogmatism, the ending surprised me: "Art," I had concluded, "is beyond good and evil. ..." Though I would no longer dare to defend this proclamation as earnestly as I might have at my senior oral, I like to consider it a portend to my later experiences of studying and working in the field of the visual arts. This perspective on my study of Nietzsche at St John's leads me back to my opening question: what is the value of studying the program books? Writing a senior essay on Nietzsche certainly did { THE not make me an authority on his philosophy. But reading his work in the Engadine years later reminded me that the texts on the program create a sort of mental landscape through which we Johnnies-and all those who read, debate, and write about the great books- have earned the passport to wander. The books (as well as the musical scores, the scientific papers, and the mathematical texts) can inform our decisions, spark new ideas, and color our experiences long after our formal studies end. And we need not become experts on a book or its author in order to be instructcd, entertained or even annoyed, any more than we need be Alpinists to hike up a mountain. As for defining my next steps, walking through Nietzsche's mountains convinced THE MOUNTAINS T HAT I NSPIR ED NI ETZSCH E me that reorienting GAVE DONNELLY N EW INSIGHTS INTO THE oneself is a process PHILOSOPHER'S IDEAS. that never ends. "Der Weg ist das Ziel, " ran an ad in a paper I read over morning coffee at the Nietzsche Haus: the path is the goal. The real challenge is not to stick to a narrow trail but to keep climbing with all the strength in our limbs and hearts in search of the most breathtakjng views. ♦ Notes: Nietzsche's description ofthe lake as "milk-green" isfound in Eugen E. Hiisler's Engadin, Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 2001. His favorite trails are described in Paul Raabe 's Spaziergange <lurch Nietzsches Sils-Maria, Arche Verlag AC, Zurich-Hamburg, 1994. Nietzsche's description of his retreat as a "sort ofideal dogkennel" is mentioned in a letter to Carl von Gersdorff, 28 June 1883, cited in The Nietzsche Haus in Sils-Maria, by Peter Andre Bloch, Calanda Verlag, Eng. trans. Albi &Julia Rosenthal. Co LL E c E. John's College. Spring 2005 l �26 {C R OQ UE T} {CROQUET} NAVY PREVAILS! Cold and Rain Fatl to Dampen Spirits at the 23rdAnnual Croquet Match BY ROSEMARY HARTY eforc the match started, the only thing to grumble about was the weather: unseasonably cold, windy, patches of rainthe kind of weather that calls for abandoning the picture hat and sun dress in favor of a down coat and jeans. Nevertheless, the crowd of alumni, students, and townies approached 500. They enjoyed the party under umbrellas, tents, and blankets. But then, the unthinkable! With the score tied 2-z, a Navy team edged past Chris Mules (Ao6) and Tristan Evans-Wilcnt (Ao7) after the Johnnies tried a risk)' move and ended up "staked out" by their opponents. In hockey, it was the equivalent of sitting in a penalty box while the winning team scores on a power play. Jn basketball, it was like watching a three-pointer swish through the net with your best player on the bench after fouling out. It was a well-played, competitive, exciting croquet match-just what the two teams who took the field were hoping for. The Mids emerged from Woodward Hall to Queen's "Under Pressure." The theme from The A-Team played as the Johnnies came out dressed like characters from the movie Napoleon Dynamite, in badly stenciled white t-shirts that said "Vote for Pedro," short-shorts, and geeky headbands. The two teams were tied for most of the afternoon, with St. John's clinching one of the final games when senior Cara Lammey hit a winning stroke. "I knew it was now or never ifl was going to play a match-I also know they needed a token girl," she explained. Imperial Wicket Nick Whittier (Ao5) had nothing but praise for the Navy team. Having beaten Navy in an intercollegiate competition a few short weeks before, Whittier wasn't expecting an upset. " Some of their best players had an ei,.traordinary game, and some of ours had one or two off shots-and that's all it takes," he says. "I think the Navy team is excellent." Overall, St John's has won r8 matches co Navy's five wins. The last time Navy upset the Johnnies was in zoor. Navy's captain, Adam Todd, declared himself "stoked" over the win. { T H E Co LL£ c £ • St. John's College . Spring 2005 MIDSHIPMEN ADAM TODD (LEFT) AND ALEX PLUMER GREET NICK WHITTIER (Ao5, RIGHT) AND JOHN GERARD (Aos) FOR A FIERCE BATTLE. "It was a great match," he said. "The Johnnies came out and played an excelJent game." The Navy team of Dustin Wood (next year's captain) and Eric Watt succeeded in "staking out" the Johnnies by hitting a rover ball, a move the Johnnies had just tried unsuccessfully. That forced the Johnnies to sit out two rounds, allowing Navy the win. Navy fans rushed the field in triumph. Did the Navy team put in extra practice this year? "We practiced less because of the bad weather," he said. A few days after the match, Todd was unable to say where the Mids planned to display the Annapolis Cup, the thrift-store trophy awarded the winners of the match. " I didn't even know there was a 'cup,'" he said. "I had always thought it was just a myth." ♦ } SANTA FE CHILI SAVES THE DAY Alumni traveled from as far away as California to attend the an nual Croquet match against the Naval Academy, and their spirits were only slightly wilted by gloomy weather and ignominious defeat. The weather didn't stop a group of Santa Fe alumni from pulling off a pre-Homecoming reunion, or deter a grou p of young Annapolis alumni from pitching a te nt and enjoying a banquet of potato-leek soup, vichyssoise, and salmon. Tanya Hadlock-Piltz (Ao5) flew in from Los Angeles to see her friends- all of whom were dressed to the nines. "This is homecoming for us," said Hadlock-Piltz. The Santa Fe reunion class of zooo used the annual party to stage a preHomecoming gathering in Annapolis. Many alumni live on the Ease Coast, so croquet gave them an impetus to get together in case they can't make it back to Santa Fe this summer. T he group consisted ofr4 alumni from the class. and even though their plans were somewhat compromised by uncooperative weather, they had a great time catching up, said Alex.is Brown (SFoo, EC03). The group rented lodgings in the historic district and had Horseman's Haven green chili, "a much-loved and missed commodity from Santa Fe," shipped to the Annapolis alumni office before the event. Their plan was to invite any Santa Fe alumni and current students (a group of about 20 made the trip) whom they met during the croquet match to a Saturday-evening barbeque. When the match was postponed to Sunday because of threatening weather, they partied amongst themselves, ate more salsa, and joined the Waltz party later that night. All alumni got to sample the hoc stuff on Sunday at the alumni tent. "Evcr)one was very happy to have had this opportunity to get back together," says Brown. "Some ofus hadn't seen each other in six years.'' Amina Khattak (SFGI95) flew in from Norther 1 California, bringing Annika, 3, and CyT,1s, r4 months, to introduce them to John me croquet. "I try to come out every year, but this is their first match," she said. ♦ CLOCICWISE: ANNAPOLIS '04 GRADS IN THEIR FINERY; MEGHAN HUGHES (SFoo) AND HER BEAU, PATRICK; LAURENT MERCERON (Ao8); (Ao7). AND JUDITH TORGERSON, MOM OF ERIC PHOTOS BY MATTHEW BARRICK { TH£ Co LL£ c E. St. John 's College. Spring !1,005 } �28 OPEN SECRETS/I NWARD P ROSPECTS: REFLECTIONS ON WORLD AND SOUL By Eva Brann Paul Dry Books, 2.004 n her latest book, Annapolis tutor Eva Brann has collected observations and aphorisms written over more than 30 years. Open Secrets/ Inward Prospects divides into two sorts: observations about our external world well known to all but not always openly told, and sightings of internal vistas and omens, wherein Miss Brann looks at herself as a sample soul. In the preface to this beautiful volume that fits perfectly in one hand, Miss Brann describes her manner of composition: "I wrote these thoughts down on about two thousand sheets, two to three thoughts per paper, and I kept them in some used manila envelopes, the earliest of which bore a postmark ofI972." Most of the sheets lacked a notation of when and where they were written, she added. "Whether about 5,000 articulated notion per person per lifetime is about average or over or below I cannot tell; they certainly stacked up high." Miss Braun's instructions for approaching the book are these: "Open anywhere and if it irks you, try another page. This book can be long or short-As You Like It." Any Johnnie who has been lucky enough to enjoy a conversation ,vith Miss Brannin seminar or outside of it-will understand why this little book is a gem. For those who haven't had the pleasure, these interesting thoughts-a sample of which are provided below-wiJJ offer a glimpse of the experience. Some people's chatter, God bless them, is actually self-expression, but for others it's self-sacrifice on the altar of sociability to join in, and betokens not so much interest in what is being said as interest in the mere expression of interest, that is, the desire to show civility-and to look each other over. Sometimes it gets screamingly boring, and then you catch a glimpse of one of these others feeling likewise-and start a real conversation. {BIBLIOF I LE} {BIBLI OF ILE } maunder on for a long, long time. When the last judgment is ready to be made we'll be Jong gone. To love your country is to love it openeyedly, sometimes for its flaws, sometimes with its flaws, and most often in spite of its flaws. It's not so different from personal love. The heroism of maintenance is severely underrated. It is the resistance to human and natural eno·opy- that cosmic downward trend (which Lucretius symbolized in the fundamental fall of his atoms), that tendency toward deterioration and featureless homogeneity that will obtain if the world is left alone. (In Washington State I Ltscd to see a dentists' billboard saying "Ifyou ignore your teeth they' ll go away.") But it isn't only nattue and humanity in its natural course that needs to be kept going against time's grain; we also need a counterinsurgency against mindless novelty. Between entropy and innovation-that's where my heroes a.re at work. "Vacation" is a sad word, the vacancy of time after the press of business. "Leisure" is a lovely word, the freedom of time for longbreathed projects. No one has sufficiently said what a feeling is. I tis pathos, something passably suffered, affect. Yet it is also motion, being moved out of oneself, emotion. No more do we know what pleasure is, especially psychic pleasure: It seems to be the aboriginal accompaniment, not so much reaction as concurrent commentbut every analytic description covertly involves the word "pleasant." All the definitions I've read of feeling or pleasure are either diversionary or circular: Even my trusty Heritage Dictionary can do no better than to lead me from feeling to affect and from affect to feeling. And the definitions given in books circumvent saying what passions are by telling how they arise and what they're good for-as if origin and effect were what is wanted. Miss BRANN's OPEN SECRETS COVERS TOPICS INCLUDING MUSIC , INTIMACY, MEMORY, AND IMAGINATION. Many of us feel ourselves to be living on the cusp of time: Great questions are about to be settled: Is nature infinitely transformable, or does she collapse if her own Jaws are used too intrusively against her? Is human nature indefinitely malleable or does it ttrrn monso·ous when pushed too far? How much virtuality can the human imagination absorb before it loses its own actuality?, etc. I don't think anything wi II be concluded in the short run: Both nature and humans will accommodate to more impositions than anyone imagined and rebel at less provocation than one would have thought, and that way things will { THE Co LL E c E . St. John 's College. Spring 2005 "Questioning" this or that is an act of covert aggression. Question-asking is an act of persistent love. ) P ROFILES IN TERROR: T HE GUIDE TO M IDDLE EAST TERRORIST O RGANIZATIONS By Aaron Mannes (AGI97) Rowman & Littlefield, 2004 incc global terrorism emerged in the 2.ISt century, it has spawned dozens of shadowy groups with elusive leaders. Aaron Mannes (AGI97) sheds light on 20 terrorist organizations in the Middle East and the regional groups that are affiliated ·with them in his book Pro.files in Terror: The Guide to Middle East Terrorist Organizations. Mannes, who wrote his handbook for journalists, researchers, and those who work in counterterrorism, describes aspects of each terrorist group, including leadership, ideology, financial support, targets and tactics, and areas of operation. "The modern terrorist phenomenon really started when the age of media began. It is political theater," says Mannes, who is careful to distinguish modern terrorism from other insurgencies throughout history. "Terrorists play off the nature of our modern, wired society and use mass media to spread fear and their agendas. Terrorists legitimize violence. They say the society is so awful that violence as a whole is appropriate." When beginning his research, Mannes was fascinated by what he calls "asymmetrical warfare," and says, "First-world countries such as the United States are unbeatable, but terrorism has emerged as part of a vast equalizing process." Looking to the future , Mannes predicts more terrorism. "There are different evolutions - the terrorism that achieves a goal, such as the Madrid train bombings that effectively got Spain to pull out of Iraq. And there arc the catastrophes that wreak major havoc, violence as a goal in and of itself." Mannes was inspired by his tutors at St. John's to pursue his interest in public policy and writing. "All my tutors were terrific," says Mannes, "but Leo Raditsa (now deceased) helped me even after my graduation from St. John's. He taught me about the importance of freedom, liberty, and governments that protect and preserve that. Governments that undermine this are viscious." Mannes served as director ofresearch at the Middle East Media Institute in Washington, D.C., from r998 until 200I. He currently works at the University of Maryland's "Mind Lab," where he models terrorist networks. ♦ During times of public stress, like war, certain mental illnesses and suicides are said to decrease. That's surely not an argument for the redemptive power of war but an illumination of the human condition in peace: Normalcy is the most stringent tester of sou.ls. A PUBLICATION OF JINSA PRESS AARON MANNES' HANDBOOK DETAILS 20 TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST. "Open anywhere and ifit irks you~ try another page. " Contrary motions: The young at their best are intensely introspective but all their dreams are for the world. The old a.re in fact rooted in that world but their meditations turn inward. -Like passing ships, they send tenders across and board briefly, bringing news and victuals. Less fancifully, coming and going, we've got things to tell each other. EvA BRANN, TUTOR Childlike and childish: the ever-young at heart and the willfully infantile. The first are quirky but lovable, the second just irritating. Some looking into themselves come to the limit and say, "I am the ground." Others see no end and say, "It hath no bottom." But perhaps you shouldn't search in the soul but through the soul. "A friend is another self." If so, why bother? One ofmc is enough. No, it's just because souls are never transparent to each other v-.rithout remainder that they see each other at all. Mutual opacity keeps us two, together but unmerged. We humans a.re temporally rooted in the world, atemporally in the soul. Good communities mediate these two realms of the secular and the transcendent: Their members live their daily life mindful of something beyond. { THE Co LL E c E. St. John 's College. Spring 2005 Do my colleagues see themselves, mutatis mutandis, as I see my sclf?-a being of dubious gravity, urgently perfectionist about small things and dilatory about great ones, an everlasting amateur frivolously suspicious of expertise, kept callow by the luck of life that has preserved me from chronic tragedy, extensively introspective in leisure rested from responsibility-an old woman with an unconscionably young soul? ♦ ) �{ALUMNI {ALUMNI PROFILE} PROFILE} THE HosT OF "MARKETPLACE" TUNES IN David Brown (AGJ95) takes a liberal arts approach to business news BY PATRICIA DEMPSEY mid Brown (AGl95) says the long oral tradition in radio is still vibrant and vital. "There's more time on radio to engage in the art of this tradition, and there's more room for nuance." Brown is speaking from the Frank Stanton Studios in Los Angeles, Calif., just a few hours before he goes on the air to engage millions oflistcncrs with his agile conversation as host of "Marketplace," public radio's national series about business and life. There's a rustle of paper as an assistant slips an urgent message under Brown's nose, but right now his focus is elsewhere. His meandering Southern speech downshifts, and Brown, who once customized and sold Harley-Davidson motorcycles, relaxes into a conversation about road trips. "When I think of favorite road trips, one that stands out was the road trip of the summer of '95, from Boston to Annapolis to attend the Graduate Institute," says Brown. "I was working in Boston for Monitor Radio at the time; Monitor is the public radio broadcast produced by the Christian Science Monitor newspaper. They offered me this gig to host and I said, 'Hey, I'm happy to do this hosting gig but this program at St. John's is important to me.' "Brown asked for the summer off to finish his Graduate Institute studies. " I t is so vivid in my mind, when I was finally crossing the border into Maryland and feeling so happy to be heading south of the MasonDixon again. And Annapolis as a place has such resonance for me." A native of Georgia, Brown lived in Annapolis in the early 1990s when he worked as Washington, D.C., bureau chief and chief national correspondent for Monitor Radio and Monitor Television. In one of those happy I expand your perspective, you can see that each point of view in fact is true." "I also think quite often of Tocqueville's Democracy in America," says Brown, who owns three copies of Tocqueville's book and keeps one on his bedside table. "When I look at the domestic scene, so many of his observations hold true today, such as the religiosity of Americans, the role race plays in the American consciousness, the tension between rugged individualism and civic duty, so many of the things that made Americans peculiar creatures in Tocqueville's time continue to define us on the world stage today." Of his three editions of the book, Brown says "one is a precious, dog-eared volume with my class notes, another is an inexpensive paperback I can pack up and take along as a casual read, and the third is a library edition.' " Brown offers another insight that he culled from reading the great books. "I think about art and science, how radio brings these together and how at St. John's, the concept of art versus science, and the melding of the two, was part of the curriculum discussion ," says Brown. "Here in radio, you have storytelling-the art of telling-a-story-part of radio-and then you also engage in the science, the journalism, getting the facts right. This is what we do here at 'Marketplace.' I t's a liberal arts approach to looking at business," says Brown. "At 'Marketplace' we have what we call 'front-yard stories' that touch a deep chord, such as an issue of democracy and justice. What's at stake when there's a courthouse shooting in Atlanta? We look at the social phenomena, the context shaping the backdrop for the events that are shaping the business news. Then there are 'backyard stories' on topics like bond prices that are not big on curb appeal, but need to be included. Then we mix it up-this is what makes us unique." ''.[fyoufree your.se!f expandyourper.spective~ you can .see that each pointefview in/act is true. " DAVID BROWN (AC195) accidents that make a journey memorable, when Brown was living in Annapolis he stumbled upon St. John's, a perfect match for his appetite for intellectual discovery. " I was searching for something to keep me mentally charged and stimulated," says Brown. At a political function in Annapolis, Brown met a recent GI grad. "He was enthusiastic, incandescent even, about his experience at St. John's. So I met with [graduate admissions coordinator] Miriam Callahan-Hean. At that time the Graduate Institute was housed in Mellon Hall and we walked around and I remember thinking, 'This is extraordinary-there are conversations about conversations going on here.' " The ideas Brown encountered in his conversations at St. John's find a forum in his distinctive radio show today. "I ate it up. I loved it. The reading, the being exposed to ideas I wouldn't have exposed myself to if left to my own devices," says Brown. "I'm not a math person, but not a week goes by that I don't think about Lobachevsk.--y and Euclid and parallels. You can see it, visualize it-the parallel lines into infinity. I remember thinking, 'This is not possible. How can these mutually exclusive ideas-Euclid's classic definition of parallels and Lobachevsky's vision oflines infinitely approaching each other-both be true?' "says Brown. "This opened a way of seeing things for me in journalism. If you free yourself, { THE Co LL EC & •Sc.John's College, Spring 2005 } Brown recalls the skepticism surrounding "Marketplace," when it was a new show. "In 1989 there was this cheeky upstart business program that everyone said would fail," says Brown. By 2000 Brov-m, who had just graduated from Washington and Lee Law School, was recruited to be senior producer of American Public Media's "Marketplace," and du ring his tenure the show garnered several awards, including the prestigious Peabody Award for excellence in journalism. By 2003, Brown was host, a challenge he relishes. "There is something that happens every day between 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. when we go on the air. I'm no CPA, so I have to synthesize this, present it in an interesting, engaging way co tell it to our listeners. There's a pressure, but it's a good pressure, and you spin out the story. It's exciting, challenging, thrilling," says Brown. "When I go home, I get calls from friends and they say, 'That made so much sense. I'm so glad you put it that way.' That makes it meaningful for me-that I got through, communicated. St. John's prepared me; all the underlying conversations prepared me." Brown is another hour closer to going on the air, but he has one more story about the GI. " Of the four GI segments, I put off math until the last semester. Lobachevsky, the logic, I wrestled with it. One day I was having coffee with [tutor ': ..he [Mr. Kutler) knew I was .straining. He told m~ 'You 'fl.see this. You 'fl get it. Give it time. ' " DAVID BROWN (Ac195) { THE Co LL E c E. St. John's College. Spring 2005) DAVID BROWN WORKED BRIEFLY IN TELEVISION, BUT PREFERS RADIO. "IT'S BEEN SAID 'THE PICTURES ARE BETTER IN RADIO' ANO IT'S TRUE." emeritus] Mr. Kutler. I think he knew I was straining. He told me, 'You'll see this. You'll get it. Give it time.' He was right. It was a loving, reassuring gesture. He could see I was looking for an intellectually challenging experience. 'You might really love law school,' he said to me.'' He knew I was interested in talking about ideas. He knew I was wondering, 'Where do I go from here?'" Fortunately Brown ended up at "Marketplace," adding intellectual spice and artful conversation to evening commutes. ♦ �{ALUMNI 1935 "1 'm very proud to have been a II graduate ofSJC," writes MELVILLE L. B1SGY£R. "I'm a very old man now (91+) and as I look back, those four years are among the highlights. The memories of my fellow students, the wonderful profs, the staff, the old buildings, my dorm-Pinkney Hall-the bell rope running through a classroom atop McDowelJ, the library, the gym, the proms. Is the Sugar Bowl still in town? The connict with Hopkins in '35, the front campus, the old Liberty Tree, which I know is now gone. The All-American lacrosse teams-all part of a wonderful memory. A biologyzoology class of four students and two profs-wow-other memories we won't discuss, but think about with many a chuck.le. All the best." s. WOODMAN is "still practicing law here in upstate New York and traveling quite a bit to Jtaly and Australia in my spare time. Would like to hear from any classmates who are still around." R ICJWlD Ii I { A LU M N I NOTES} Q UITE IMMERSED (class of1955) received the "Conductor of the Year, 2004" award from the Illinois Council ofOrchcstras. He is now conductor laureate of the New Philharmonic and Du Page Opera. He has accepted the _ ~ _ ~ artistic directorship of the opera program at North Park University in Chicago and is quite immersed in composilion and painting. ♦ - - - - AROLD B AUER - 1950 1943 has been thinking about the college, particularly about the reading list, and especially about Proust. " It seems to me," he writes, "that since my time, the Program has improved with the two years of Greek and French, the greater emphasis on writing and laboratories without Humphreys' sha1..-y floors. The one disimprovcmcnt has been the dropping of Proust from the fourth year. Swann's Way, although a part of a larger whole, is a complete work in itself. The author of a recent article in The Atlantic Monthly found it incredible that one can graduate from Harvard without reading Shakespeare or Proust. How can a 'great books' program not include Proust? It is time to include him again." M ILTON P ERLMAN "My wifeof 56 years, Phyllis, (we were married two weeks after graduation under the Liberty Tree) and I will be moving to a Quaker-sponsored continuing-care retirement community, Kendal on Hudson, on July first," wTites P ETER D AVIES. "It is close to New York and Riverdale, so we will continue to enjoy theater, concerts, dining, and city life, and friends in Riverdale. We stayed with that Republican, GERRY H OXBY (class of1947); argued into the night last August while in Ohio campaigning for John Kerry! I'm still representing the United Nations at Safer World (a British think tank) and working on a conference in July on preventing armed conllict." : The eldest son of O SCAR L OUIS L ORD, Lance W. Lord, an Air Force four-star general, has been made Commander of Air Force Space Command. 1944 LINDSAY CLENDANIEL writes, "I am happy to represent other alumni who, like myself, didn't graduate from St. John's but from other institutions, yet consider St. John's my alma mater!" { TH E Co LL£ c E. A tribute from Eo LYNCH: "My belief is that St. John's is one of the finest educational houses in the country. I did not graduate-I completed two full years and did not return. I came to St. John's from high school. My classmates were men who had attended other colleges, gone to the war and returned to St. John's to be enlightened and truly free. I was intimidated by their vast knowledge of the world and the things in it. Anyway, I guess I wasn't the brightest bulb in the lamp, nor the most energetic. I love St. John's, and I always will. I will never regret my time there." R OBERT G. HAZO FREDERICK P. D AVIS: "We 3-Ds in the low desert of Southern California (son David, wife Rita, and self) still plug along respectively at a Riverside Nursing Home (broken, infected legs), Rita on full-time oi,..-ygen, and I without a driver's license-revoked! But church volunteers have supplied us with food and rides to church, etc., since this cruel blow of the OMV on November 2.4, 2.004. St. John's College. Spring 2005 } is the most reliable and strongest expression of real love." JAMES and AMY (class of1959) JOBES are both retired. An1y serves as an occasional supply priest in Massachusetts. They have three grandchildren now, in Massachusetts: Amanda, 4; in Georgia: Elijah, 2., and Sophia, 1 month. is still writing political books entitled Minorily Rufe. "It goes slowly but well. Publishing articles in the metropolitan newspaper here and in the Washington Report on the Middle East on doings in the Middle East, especially Iraq and Lebanon. Gave my annual lecture on "Love" on Valentine's Day to undergraduates. Attendance was good. Women outnumbered men by 2, or 3 to 1, surpTising since maternal love our regular lives and welcoming friends in these more spacious quarters." M ARYFRANCES McCtrrCHAN is retired from the National Park Service. She lives in Annapolis, is learning to play the flute, and has three grandchildren. She's also looking forward to her class reunion in 2.008. "I have finally found the Great Hall ofSJC here in Santa Fe and attended a wonderful concert by Joan Zucker last week. Now that I know where it is, my wife and I will attend more concerts," writes MICHAEL TRUSTY. 1 959 H ARVEY and MARY (class of 1958) GOLDSTEIN are planning ahead. "Members of the class ofr959 are already starting to plan for our 50th reunion-log on to the class of '59 Web page on the alumni site for the continuing story." 1960 USAF, is enjoying retirement. "Marie and I are thoroughly enjoying life in the slow lane. After many years of high-stress/high-travel jobs, having time to read, soak in the spa, shoot pool, frequent auction and estate sales, and generally do whatever I want, whenever I want, is wonderful! The only downside is the great blue heron that eat our fish, and the deer that eat our shrubbery. COL. JOHN J. LANE, 1953 1949 I Lately "Seniors Helping Seniors" (for a price) have taken Rita and me to see doctors, get haircuts, etc., throughout this valley. But at 60 miles, Riverside is out of their range. It's over three years since we've seen David. Rita and I shall never forget SJC, where we met at St. Anne's Church. I obtained a classic liberal education." CECILY SHARP-WHITEHILL writes: "Along with the seminars my colleagues and I conduct several times a year for senior executives of professional service firms on the topic of management of PSFS (this is a five-day course and qualifies as education, not just training), I continue to consult for firms on the topic of business communications, both spoken and written. Having wearied of relatively long, gray winters and snow shoveling, I moved permanently to Osprey, Fla., immediately south of Sarasota. It's delightful here." 1966 "On December 10, we moved into our new house designed by us and our architect," reports J ULIA B USSER OU PREY. "It has been an exciting, but all-consuming project, and we now look forward to resuming { THE 33 N O TES } 1968 ELIZABETH A. D OBBS (A) writes: "I have an article coming out in the Chaucer Review on an allusion to Ovid's Narcissus and Echo story in The Franklin's Tale. It's called 'Re-sounding Echo.'" G. K EENS (SF) is a professor of Pediatrics, Physiology, and Biophysics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and a member of the Division of Pediatric Pulmonology at Children's Hospital, Los Ange les. "I was recently appointed Director of Pediatric Subspccialty Fellowship Education at Children's Hospital," he writes. "I have crested a year-long course in scholarship skills (research methodology and proficiency in teaching), which emphasizes small-group interaction rather than reliance on lectures. I conduct research in pediatric respiratory disorders and am investigating an innovative hypothesis that the cerebellum has a majoT role in control of breathing." THOMAS CllARL£S B . WATSON (A) writes: "Anya Watson graduates from Connecticut College this year and has been awarded the Rolex North American Our World Undergraduate Scholarship for 2.005, presented at the Explorers Club in New York City in April 2.005. It provides a year's funding for undersea research (and a Rolcx watch). Her undergraduate major was marine biology with a minor in Russian and European studies (age 2.1). Ivan most recently reports from Kyrgyzstan for NPR after recent travel to Iraq, Beirut, Turkey, Iran, and other newsworthy locations (age 28). Michael, an avid scuba and windsurfing enthusiast, is working on Martha's Vineyard. Other alumni are encouraged to look us up in Connecticut and Martha's Vineyard." "Hello to H ENRY CONSTANflNE (A) and his beautiful wife, Christine," writes STEVE H ANFr (A). "Thanks for the iospirational message-see you at the reunion." LIVING HISTORY - (SF74) continues to direct the Public H istoTy program at New Mexico State University. His book ,_ ON H UNNER Inventing Los Alamos: The Growth ofan Alomic Communily came out last fall from the University of Oklahoma Press. His program at NMSU has published :_ • books on Santa Fe and Las Cruces and conducts living ._. history events from the Spanish Colonial and Great Depression era. Mary Ellen, his wife, is finishing a graduate degree in nursing, and t heir son Harley is a first-year student at Seattle University. ♦ Co LL E c £.St.John's College. Spring ~005 } i �34 {ALUMNI NOTES} {ALUMNI SUSHEILA H ORWITZ (SF) writes: "I'm still alive and still a member of Madonna House. I spent the last seven years in a small city in eastern Russia. I loved the people there and would love to retllrn." LIFE AT THE ALTERNATIVE Julia Goldberg (SF91) and the Santa Fe Reporter keep an eye on the city BY ROSEMARY HARTY here's a great deal of hard work, long hours, and modest compensation attached to the work Julia Goldberg (SF91) docs as editor of The Reporter, Santa Fe's alternative weekly newspaper. So on a recent winter's night, she was at peace with relaxing her journalistic ethics just a little to accept a free ticket to a sold-out lecture by linguist Noam Chomsky. Goldberg has always loved language, and there's no better outlet for someone in Jove with words than the satisfying grind of putting out a weekly newspaper, especially one as feisty and in-your-face as The Reporter. A life-size stand-up ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer, adorned with Goldberg's press pusses, overlooks the piles of newspapers, files, and other materials stacked all around Goldberg's office. After five years as editor, she's had time to get comfortable in her job. Her path to The Reporter was a simple choice. " I wanted to WTite, and I didn't want to leave Santa Fe," she explains. Like many Johnnies, the Philadelphiaarea native was guided to St. John's by a high school teacher who recognized Goldberg's love of books. She loved the language in the Program, especially ancient Greek; however, " junior math almost killed me," she says, shuddering at the memory. She became a music assistant and delved into journalism by editing The Moon, the student newspaper, during her junior and senior years. Established in 1974, The Reporter is one of the oldest independent weeklies in the country. Given away free in boxes all over town, it has a circulation of 21,000 and a core of dedicated readers. "We have a great relationship with Santa Fe, and we're really considered a part of the city," she says. On the other hand, Goldberg adds, "we're always struggling to break even." As editor Goldberg oversees two reporters, a full-time art director, a part-time assistant director, and a dozen or so freelancers. 'Iwo other Johnnies currently work for the paper: Andy Dudzik (SFGI92) is the publisher; Jonanna Widner (SFGloo) is assistant editor. Many Johnnies have been on staff or freelanced for the paper. Even when Goldberg's reporters are young and green, they share a passion for breaking news stories and digging imo complicated issues. "I'm working with really smart people," she says. "We've broken a lot of stories in the last year and a half." "The Short Life of Jimmy Villanueva" revealed that the county jail violated the --- constitutional rights of prisoners by failing to treat their health problems. "Soldier's Heart" probed the psychological problems soldiers faced on their return from Iraq. And a shocking lack of services for autistic children in New Mexico was exposed in "The Lost Ones." Goldberg has won numerous awards from the New Mexico Press Association and the National Federation of Press Women. She created and directed the Hip-Hop Voter Project, designed co inspire young Hispanic residents in New Mexico to vote. The R eporter provides an importanL alternative to the local daily, the Santa Fe continued on p. 3 5 organic garlic farming. Visitors are welcome at s Dodge Corner, New Vineyard, Maine." (SF) has a short story in the online journal VerbSap: http://verbsap.com/2oo5mar/sarai.html. "Just got home from a threeweek wine and nature trip to New Zealand," says LELIA STRAW (A). "Love the Kiwis and their homeland. We were there over the U.S. election though, and they're all mystified by the outcome." 35 WORK AND PLAY ARCO ACOSTA (A82) sends a hello to all his 1 973 (SF) reports: "My daughter INDIA C L ARK (SF01) and Challem Clark are now living in Budapest, Hungary, in a beautiful apartment right over Vaci Utaca, the main pedestrian street. They are having a blast and perhaps will stay longer than the original six-month plan." INDIA WILL IAMS SARAH (GANCIIER) SARAI NOTE S } 1 974 and R ANDY P ENDLETON (both SF) have news: "We are delighted to announce the marriage of our son, W ALKER (A99), to R.Ac n EL V EDAA (SF99) in April." M AllTHA "unique and talented" classmates: "I have many great memories of our college years and hope the best for you all and your families. I continue to examine my life daily. Work is: legal, filmmaking, public school teaching K-12; Play/other: WTiting, guitar, music, recording, chess, basketball. Personal: divorced. Peace and Prosperity to you allplease call when you're on the West Coast."♦ (A) directs, supervises, and interprets MRI examinations of the brain and body at 30 sites in 12 states. "I teach and lecture on brain development, brain imaging, and brain pathology at Georgetown University and elsewhere. My four wonderful children never cease to amaze, amuse, confound, and inspire me as they display the intricacies of brain development to me, up close and personal." JOIIN REES 1 975 C YNTIIIA Swiss (A) has been elected to president of the Maryland/DC Chapter of the American String Teachers Association. "I have organized statewide certification exams for young string players," she writes. "I also schedule workshops on Suzuki String Teaching Technique. Our chapter published a newsletter called Stringendo, and I have contributed several articles." I RVINC WILLIAMS (A) is "moving to the country estateroom for a pony-in July to start continuedfromp. 34 New Mexican, says Goldberg. "They cover what's happening; we try to be progressive," she explains. Part of the paper's job is to provide a guide to enjoying Santa Fe, with special sections on restaurants, art galleries, recreation, and just living in the city. The process of putting out a weekly paper starts each Wednesday morning, with a critique of the current paper. Goldberg and her staff brainstorm new story ideas, identify a cover story, and plan what they need to report on in the coming weeks. On Thursday, they start working on a preliminary layout, Sunday Goldberg spends editing the cover story, and Monday and Tuesday are "slam days," as the final stories come in for editing, headlines, and fact-checking. Tuesday THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN HER COMMUNITY KEEPS J ULIA GOLDBERG AT THE REPORTER. {THE Co LL E c E. St. John 's College. Spring2005} night is the press run, and on Wednesday it starts all over again. The Johnnies and other reporters who work for Goldberg tend to get good training at The Reporter. But they soon head off to New York or other cities where their editorial skills can earn them a better salary. After interning at the Phi/,adelphia City Paper, the New Mexican and The Reporter, Goldberg earned her master's degree at the University of New Mexico. "J:re 've broken a lot of .stories in the last year andaha!f" JULIA GoLOBERC (SF9:r) { THE Co LL E c E. St. John 's College. Spring 2005 } She acquired valuable experience at one of her first jobs, the Rio Grande Sun, where she covered county government, politics, and schools. It gave her a sense that an aggressive local paper is an important tool of democracy. "You need to ask questions, and you need to listen carefully-a lot like what we do at St. John's." In between deadlines, Goldberg manages to get time off to enjoy the beautiful city she's living i n. She enjoyed a recent Community Seminar at St. John's and vows to get up the hill more often to enjoy campus events. But even with the long hours, it's hard for her to imagine giving up the work she does at The Reporter. There's always another story to tell. " I can't say the perfect opportunity isn't out there, but right now, I can't imagine a better job." ♦ �{AL U M NI NOTE S } {ALUMN I 37 NOT ES } I Beginning April I, MICHAEL will be serving as the regional minister for Northwest Connecticut, responsible for oversight of about 50 United Cht1rch of Christ congregations. C IBA (A) MAUYELLEN LAWRENCE (SF) has finished her subspecialty training in infectious diseases at the University of New Mexico and is practicing medicine in Santa Fe. She writes, "It may be that, at last, 1 have completed my formal medical training!" " I've been eagerly scanning the class notes for 21 years now, so thought it was about time I made a contribution," writes } ACK A RMSTRONG (SF). I live in West Chester, Penn., of all places, with my wife, Ca1·men, and kids Michael (16) and Emily (8). I am happier than I ever expected or deserved. I'm printing ballots for a living, and writing stories for my soul. I also have a theatre with Carmen, the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, which is the 800-pound gorilla of hobbies. l miss you all." ANNE M CCLARD (SF) reports 1980 " I am delighted to let everyone know that I am now the proud mother of Emily Sierra," writes Gmu GLOVEU (SF). "She came to live with me from Memphis, Tenn., and I will be ever grateful to her birth mom for helping me create a family. Can't wait for you all to meet her at our next reunion." that NOAH MCC LARD LEDBETTER (SF02) and DAGNY CHICOINE-STANGL (SF01) were married in July 2004. STEVEN T. R EYNOLDS (A) writes: "Landry Tait Anders Reynolds joined the gaggle August II, 2004. The family and the garden continue to thrive." medical staff on January r, 2005. He will serve as president for two years. He was previously the medica 1staff vice president for two years and has been the laboratory medical director for four years. Thia is currently working with President William Harvey to build a proton therapy radiation oncology center at Hampton University. She has also recently been invited to serve on the Board of Directors for the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, the American Physical Society Division of Nuclear Physics Program Committee, and the Combined Theory and Experimental Collaboration for Quantum Thermodynamics. Nothing but good news from KATII EIUNE RowE (SF): "I am still a preacher in the Episcopal Church and still in a Denver suburb. I'm still a speech and language pathologist, and still in love with my husband, Phil, and my two ch ildren. I'm also still glad that I went to St. John's." 1985 writes, "I continue to practice law in Baltimore and am pleased to announce that I have recently set out on my own. Having my own practice has allowed me to do the cases I want to do, spend ANNA L. D AVIS (A) ERIN MCVADON ALBRlGHT (A) welcomed his first grandson, Patrick Alexander, into the world one year ago. News from BARRY H ELLMAN and CYNT111A " TwA" KEPPEL (both A): Barry became president of Mary Immaculate Hospital GoozILLA PHASE STEVEN CRAMER (A) is an attorney in private practice in New York City. He lives in Maplewood, N.J., with his wife and two daughters, the youngest adopted from China in December 2004. - - ife is "good and busy" for A LEX (AGI93) and ELLERMANN. Alex works in the national security field, flies C-13os in the Navy Reserve, and is working toward his second master's with the Naval War College's Distance - - - - • Education Program. Vanessa practices Jaw with a Georgetown firm that specializes in class actions. Son Alex, 5, is going through a Godzilla phase at the moment, "which is pretty fun," they write. ♦ V ANESSA (A93) .J { THE 1: Co LL E c E. S1. John's College. Spring 2005 ) more time on volunteering and pro bono cases, and most importantly, better balance the demands of work and family. My husband, Richard Gordon, and children, Aaron (IO) and Rachel (6), and l are all well and would love to hear from any and all Johnnies passing through Baltimore." TE1uu K. LUCKE'IT (SF) worked for GE for a long time but left for Honeywell in 2002. "I lived in L.A. for one year, but moved to N.J. a year ago to become vice president of Business Planning for HON. I'm hoping to move out ofN.J. back to points west as soon as possible, but time will tell. Beautiful Carolyn is 12, now and a true joy, was diagnosed with diabetes in 2001, but we manage. We grew weary of corporate nomadic life and bought a piece of Santa Fe to call our 'home away from home.' Ping us if you are either here or there: terri.luckett@ honeywell.com." is vice president of operations at a mid-size software company in Maine. " It's quite exciting and very busy," he writes. " I am happily married to a woman from Maine who makes me laugh a great deal. For those of you who remember my interest in music, I wrote an orchestral piece around 1995-96 and went to the Czech Republic and had it performed at a workshop for orchestral composers. It was really fun. Haven't written a note since!" K ENNETH MARTIN (A) 1986 MELISSANETfLESHI P Br-.J',EDICT (SF) writes: "Since July of 2000 I have been director of finance at Santa Fe Preparatory School, released her thu-d album, Live at Blues Alley. Her Web site is: www.mclaniemason.com JOHNNIE FRENCH TESTED - ATRICE MCSHANE (SF02) was on her way to Africa earlier this spring: " I spent the two-and-a-ha lf years after graduation in Portland, Ore., working at a Montessori preschool. I got ants in my pants, shifted direction, and applied to volunteer for the United .... States Peace Corps. I was accepted and leave for Burkina Faso, Africa , on March 17' An unusual way to spend St. Patty's Day, don't you think? I'll be there for over two years, teaching secondary math to Bw·kinahe high school students. Let's hope my SJC French rises to the occasion! I am mighty excited and would be more than willing to discuss the Peace Corps application process/experience with any prospective vo lunteers. Or just write to say "hey, you!" patsymcshane@ hotmail.com." ♦ just down the hill on Camino Cruz Blanca from the Santa Fe campus." 1989 "After many years in San Francisco, I've been in Denver for a year, spending much of my time practicing Tibetan Buddhism," writes LARRY SEIDL (A). "I've been remiss in my alumni activities, though I saw many shining faces at reunion number ro in '96. Twenty is just around the bend. A warm general hello to the community in general, and the class ofr986 and my tutors in particular." BURKE GURNEY (SFGI ) is married with two children: Kyra and Elise, ages 15 and 13. "I am an assistant professor at the University ofNcw Mexico in the Department of Orthopedics, Rehabilitation, and Physical Therapy. I teach physiology, orthopaedic evaluation and treatment, professional ethics, and gerontology. I am an avid traveler, reader, skier, and parent." JAN UNDERWOOD (SF) is working as a Spanish instructor. AL1ZA S HAPIRO (SF) was recently engaged to David Mandel. 1990 JOHN SELLERS (A) is "married to Becky Woods and teaching grades 8-12 math and science, including chemistry and physics-challenging." THE RFV. M'N SLAKEY (SF) is now priest-in-charge at St. Matthew's Episcopal Parish in Ontario, Ore. is a fuUtime blues artist, writing and performing original blues-rock material as lead electric guitarist and vocalist for the Melanie Mason Band. She also performs and records traditional acoustic blues as a solo artist. She recently KEN TuRNBULL (A) writes: "My wife, Leslie, and Tare both lawyers in Washington and are enjoying our seven-month-old daughter, Fiona." Co LLB c E. ' (SF) and her husband arc pleased to announce the birth of their first child, Emma Lee Ward, born on January 4, 2005. J ENNIFER R YCIILI K 1991 is a 2004 winner of the National Poetry Series award, and her second book, Starred Wire, will be published by Coffee House Press. ANGIE MLINKO (A) N ICOLE l<ALMANOR LEVY (SF) writes, " l n August 2004, I gave birth to our first daughter, Eve Simone Levy. She's the apple of our eye! My husband, Rob, and I moved to the North Shore of Boston last year, to Swampscott, which is a small town next to Salem-the Witch Capital, and Marblehead-a sailing capital. A fon destination with some cultural treats! 1 am working on a master's in Jewish studies. Got through Jewish mysticism, now working on a translation of portions of the Book of Exodus. I wish I could go to more alumni events, it's been great connecting!" MELANIE M ASON (A) { TH E Alrnapolis to sec his wife, SARA ScnROEOlNGER (A92), he is logging lots of frequent-flyer miles on bt1siness trips to China, Thailand, and Malaysia. 1993 The commute to work for K u1n HECKEL (A) got a lot longer in early September 2004, when he took a position ,vith Border Concepts in Charlotte, N.C. When he is not traveling back to St. John's College. Spring 2005 } 1994 JANIE BOSWORTH (SFGI) and GEORGE F. BING HAM (SF66) were married July 3, 2004, at the Audubon Center in Santa Fe. Between them, they proudly share six children and seven grandchildren-with another one on the way. finished writing his dissertation in May 2004 and spent the summer backpacking in Montana. " T hiked across the Bob Marshall Wilderness once, enjoyed the experience, and went back for a second passage," wTites Kroll. "Walking through the long eveni ng light of summer in the northern Rockies is not to be missed. The bears keep things interesting, too. Talso spent numerous days floating the Bitterroot and Clark Fork Rivers, drinking beer and formulating a master plan. I completed my Ph.D. in Wildlifo Biology from the University of Montana in December 2004 and accepted a position as a research scientist with Wcycrhaettser Corporation in Federal Way, Wash. I am responsible for habitat plann ing for the company's Wester n timberlands, as well as general wildlife research and operational support. I would enjoy hearing from anyone, and I am anxious to jump-start ANDREW }. K ROLL (A) I I I I �{ALUMNI NATHAN WILSON {ALUMNI PROFILE} (AGl01) UNVEILS SHROUD MYSTERIES BY PATRICL\ DEMPSEY ike many Johnnies, Nathan Wilson (AGlor) is unwilling to walk away from an ino·iguing question. Five years ago, Wilson became fascinated with the origins of the mysterious Shroud of Turin and began to wonder how the images ofJesus on the cloth-believed by some to be authentic-could have been faked. Ultimately, with a few simple tools Wilson demonstrated how a medieval might have forged the images on the shroud. His simple experiment showing that glass, paint, and sunlight could have been used to create a "reversed" photonegative image sparked a media frenzy, with Wilson appearing on shows including ABC's World News Tonight. Wilson (profiled in the Summer 2.002 edition of The College for his parodies of apocalyptic novels) ruminated over two questions: how do we know the dark image was imposed on light linen at all? Further, how could a forger in the Middle Ages lighten linen without chemicals, paints, or dyes? "A negative image can be easily produced using only large pieces of painted NATHAN WILSON THEORIZES THAT C H RIS D AVI S and CARMEN (both SF) write: "CHARLIE B REW and P AT BOHAN, it's high time you stopped reading so much Kafka!" H ERIJIIG SUNLIGHT TRAVELING IN AN ARC OVER PAINTED CLASS CREATED THE 3-D IMAGE ON THE SHROUD OF TURIN. glass," explains Wilson. "In the Middle Ages, glass was commonly made in large sizes: six-by-eight feet or even nine-by-five. It was made in a long cylinder and unrolled into a sheet as early as the noos, a technique perfected in the 12.oos and r3oos. As the Shroud is roughly 14 feet in length, two pieces of glass would be necessary, both at least six feet long. The image of the front of alumni activities in the Puget Sound area. I can be reached at ajkroll64@hotmail.com." English, Italian, and Latin, and where Greek and Sanskrit are offered as electives. PATRICK SCANLON (SFGI) will be resident clirector of School Year Abroad's Italy campus in Viterbo, Italy. SYA Viterbo offers a one-year classics curriculum for American juniors and seniors in homestays. He and his wife, Linda, and their four children return to the central Italian town (population 60,000) where Pat had taught English for two years previously. Now he'll oversee a program that requires GREG WATSON (SF) writes, "l live in Washington State on a beautiful island with my dog, Rusty, and wife, Karen. During the week I am employed as assistant harbormaster at a local marina, and on weekends I teach sailing in Seattle. So I am still using my captain's license. Also, I am getting ready to embark on a trip to Costa Rica with Solar Energy International, where we will work with locals installing renewable energy power systems." { TH E Co LL E c E. the man would be produced beneath one and the back of the man beneath the other." How would the forger create the three-dimensional shading? "By painting an image on the top side of the glass," says Wilson. "This leaves a gap where the sunlight traveling in a 180degrec arc could penetrate at angles that produce the 3-D shading." Wilson used white oil paint to create images on eight different window panes and placed them over coarse linen in the sun. The paint blocked the sunlight from bleaching the darker cloth, but everything around it was bleached white. The results, Wilson believes, point to one possibility for how the shroud was faked. He detailed his experiments in an article published in the journal Books and Culture: "What I have done is crudely demonstrate that such an image could easily be produced in a matter of weeks by wicked men with no scruples, a little imagination, and a little more skill." ♦ 1 995 JEROME DuFFY (SFGI) is working as an elementary school teacher at the Chinese American International School in San Francisco. ALICE BROWN and GREG HODGES (A) are happy to announce the birth of their second child, Silas Wister Hodges. "We are also pleased to announce the completion of Greg's doctoral thesis, "An Ethnography Study of Lucan's Bellum Civife," which has St. John's College. Spring 2005} arrived after a gestation of many years and has earned him a Ph.D. in classics from Ohio State University. We arc teaching and in the thralls of Babydom in the Great White North, and loving it. Fond thoughts of all!" CAMERON GRAHAM (SF) has moved from South Carolina tO the Defense Languages School in Monterey, Calif. "I am a specialist, and I will most Iikely be there for a couple of years;• he writes. "In the army, I received an award for top physical program at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, and now I am studying Arabic." D AVID MALLEY (A) writes: "T didn't graduate from St. John's, but my short time there is a treasured memory. For that, I am always grateful." H EATHER (AGI) my new company and will serve as my launching pad for my next year of helicopter flying," reports KI RA K. ZIELINSKI (SF). "Happily, no more tourists. I'll be flying as a utility pilot, which means construction and firefighting all over the western U.S., just as Pericles would have done had he not been occupied with a higher calling. Same e-mail: Hcrme5@juno.com." and C HRIS NOR.DLOII (AGI96) welcomed Nicholas Nordloh into the world on Dec. 24, 2004. (A) and AolUENNE (JAK0WSKI) RUIJENSTElN (A96) have lived in the Washington, D.C., area for five years, the last three in Frederick, Md. Adrienne teaches at the Maryland School for the Deaf, and Peter commutes to an In tern et networking job in Northern Virginia. Their big news is the appearance on the scene of Jonah Chester, by far the littlest Rubenstein currently extant. Born just shy of Halloween 2004, Jonah has made a splash among his admirers. Blue-eyed and dark of hair, he is considered by his father to be "quite handsome." Two-year-old beagle "Elway" is said to be " adjusting well" to the newcomer despite occasional lapses in respect for the property rights of others. P ETER "Did I mention I'm engaged?" writes APRIL I0AWALTERS (A). "Getting married October r, 2005, to Travis Hopkins and J'm keeping my name. Also, I've been working at MICA as the writing studio coordinator almost as long as I attended SJC!"' 1996 }ILL C111U!,'flNE NIENIIISER (AGI ) writes: " T was recci:itly promoted to director of strategy at Mind and Media, Inc. in Alexandria, Va. Last Friday I had my first piano lesson since 1984. Upon leaving the music store, I slammed my finger in the car door. So far there is no appreciable difference in my playing ability, despite the swelling! Hah ! " 1997 DAVID CANNELL (EC) dropped a note from Japan: "Hidcko, the three boys, and I are in Tokyo for the next year or two on a Japan Foundation fellowship, praying it's enough to see us thr9ugh the remainder of my doctoral program (UC Irvine). My thesis is on Matsuo Basho and haikai poetry in late seventeenth-century Japan. Meantime, we're just enjoying being here. The cherry blossoms have come and gone-in a matter of days! Can't wait for the next sumo tournament. Would love to hear from fellow EC grads and know what's going on in their worlds." "I'm proud to say that I've used up Las Vegas and am now off co Tucson, which is the home of { THE Co LL E c E. NOTES } 39 "My company, North Star Games, is starting to pick up momentum," writes DOMINI C C1tAPUCHETrF.S (A): "Cluzzle has won several prestigious awards as a great family game and our next game, Trivia Casino, was picked up by a larger game company. It looks likely that both games will be available at national outlets for the 2.005 holiday season! If so, I will finally get a paycheck after 12 months of working for nothing except a dream. WES DONEHOWER bought an apartment in DuPont Circle so we have been hanging out a bit recently. Give us a call if you're in the area and we'll get together: 202-2536070." 1998 News from ALEXANDRA D .E. BOOZER (A): "Jam happy to announce that I was ma rried to Daniel Giguere ofWindham, Maine, on September I9, 2.004. Last year I received my doctorate in clinical psychology from George Washington Univers ity, with a specialization in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. We are currently living in Holmes Beach, Fla., where I am working towards obtaining Florida psychology licensure. I would love to hear from any old friends or to link with other students/alumni with an interest in practicing psychology. I can be reached by e-mail at: alexandra_FL@ hotmail.com." (SF) is teaching fifth-grade math. He and his wife, Sara, are pleased to be homeschooling their four ch ildren. "This summer we will be flying to England, where we will be learning to build wooden boats." D AVID BRADEN St. John's College. Spring 2005 } MA'ITH£\V C. JOHNSTON (SF) sends greetings to his long-lost classmates. "After stints as a teacher, a college admissions counselor (at SJC of course), and a theology student, I'm pleased to report that I'm back at St. John's in Santa Fe, working alongside the assistant dean to improve student activities and services. My wife, A.NNE"ITE P RA.PASI RI (SF04), and I are expecting a baby in mid-April and, ifwe can negotiate home prices here, plan to stay in SF forever. Drop me a line if you're in town or needing the inside scoop on SJC developments. I can be reached at 505-424-3292 or mjohnston@sjcsf.edu." 1999 RACHEL VE0AA (SF) and WALKER P ENOLEOON (A) were married April 16, 2005, at St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif. 2000 ANNE MCSHANE (A) is finishing her first year at law school at NYU. 'Tm spending the summer at Nebraska's ACLU. If anybody wants to chat about going to law school, feel free to write me at annecarolmcshane@ yahoo.com." BENJAMIN SHOOK (SF) writes: " I'm making beautiful furniture with a hint of Danish and Asian influence. Visit www.bcnshook.com to see my work." DE8EllNJERE } A.NET T 01Ul£Y (AGI) is in Seoul on a Fulbright fellowship, studying premodern Korean literature in �40 {OBITUARIES} {ALUMNI NOTES} "A GIFT FOR FRIENDSHIP": REMEMBERING STUART BOYD preparation for her dissertation research in the Department of Comparative literature at Penn State University. BY LYNDA MYERS TuTOR, SANTA Fe DAVE P ROSPER (SF) moved LO Oakland and bas a new job. "I also have a stack ofblack-andwhite Eexlebots comic books; if anyone wants one. let me know. Life is pretty sweet." 2002 ALANA and JOEY CHERNTLA (both SF) had their second little girl, Rose Isabella, on Feb. 25. "Our first, Sadie Pearl, will be 2 in a few weeks. Besides enjoying our intense domesticity, Joey runs a daycare, and I work in publishing and tutor homeschoolers in Euclid." 2003 NATE and REBEKA H (NEE Go·rrtOB) EAGLE (both A) are serving as Peace Corps volunteers in Cameroon, West Africa. They arrived at the end of September for training in agroforestry and moved to their pose, the town of Poli, in December. Their service will end in December 2006. You can view photos and a blog and find out how to get in touch at monadology.net. KYLIE LIEBERMAN and ZEPJ-!Yll (both SF) planned to be married April 30, 2005, in Las Vegas, Nev. See their Web site, zheartk.com for pictures and contact information. R ENNER 2004 ENJOLI COOKE (A) is beginning her second year as a postbaccalaureate fellow at the National Institutes of Health. "I'm beginning the graduate school application process and am planning to attend a Ph.D. program in molecular biology." RHO DA FRANKLIN (A) and }All.ED 0 1mz (AGI05) were married December 18, 2004, in Annapolis. LAURA MANION (A) was featured as a "profile of the month" on the Web site of the Mississippi Teacher Corps. The corps is a two-year program that recruits recent college graduates to teach in critical-shortage areas in the Mississippi Delta, in exchange for a full scholarship for a master's in curriculum and instruction from the University of Mississippi. Manion teaches ANNAPOLIS SENIORS COMBINED ENTREPRENEURIAL SP! RIT WITH ALTRUISM BY CREATING A"WOMEN OF !l.005" CALENDAR TO HELP RAISE MONEY FOR THEIR CLASS GIFT. THE STUDENTS PLEDGED MONEY TOWARD PURCHASING LOBACHEVSKY MANUALS POI\ ALL SENIORS NEXT YEAR. THEY HOPE THEIR GESTURE WILL INSPIRE OTHER CLASSES TO DO SOME· THING SIMILAR, WITH THE COAL THAT ALL LAB MANUALS CAN BE GIVEN TO STUDENTS. THESE TASTEFUL CALENDARS (MAY zoo5-MAY 2006) CAN BE PURCHASED FOR $10 THROUGH THE ADVANCEMENT OFFICE IN ANNAPOLIS: SEND ACHECK TO ALEXANDRA FOTOS, ADVANCEMENT, P.O. Box 2800, ANNAPOLIS, MD 21404. seventh- and eighth-grade English at a middle school in Arcola, Miss. TATIANA HAIUUSON (A) was married to Rob Harrison on June 28, 2004. RYAN R.lSING (A.GI) is attending the University of Kansas School of Law, where he hopes to graduate on their fast track in two years, rather than three. He is at work on a novel that he hopes to be the first in a ninevolume series. ♦ { TH E C o LL E c E . St. John's College. Spring 2005 } 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 October; deadline for the alumni notes sect.ion is August 15. Cla;;snotes posted to the college's online community will also be included in The College. IN ANNAPOLIS: The College Magazine St. John's College, P.O. Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 2r404; roscmary.harty@sjca.edu IN SANTA FE: The College .Magazine St. John's College u6o Camino Cruz Blanca Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; alumni@sjcsf.edu When Stuart Boyd retired from the college in 1988, he was presented with a scroll that read: To Stuart Boyd, Artist, writer, healer ofsouls, lover ofknowledge, and teacher ofthe Books: A testimony to lzis contribution ofover 22 years to the intellectual and convivial delights ofthe College. "He was a man... we shall not look upon his like again. " His humanity, wit, common sense, and love of life were celebrated again at a memorial held on the Santa Fe campus at the end of January, a week after he died of a heart attack at his home near Can1busavie, Scotland. Mr. Boyd joined the faculty of St. John's in 1966, when the Santa Fe campus was still in its infancy. In the words of his wife, Nan, "At St. John's Stuart found his spiritual home." Before coming to the college Mr. Boyd had already led a rich and varied life. He was born on January 3, 1922, in Aberdeen, Scotland. In his memoir, The Wind.swept Child, he describes his childhood in Scotland between the two world wars as a precious, fragile, and fleeting time. When World War II interrupted his graduate work at Aberdeen University, he volunteered for the Parachute Regiment and saw active service in Sicily and North Africa before being wounded and captured at Arnhem in the Netherlands in September 1944. (The story of that disastrous mission is recounted in the book The Bridge Too Far.) He spent the remainder of the war in prison camps near the Polish-German border. After the war, Mr. Boyd completed his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in clinical psychology, taught at several universities in the UK and the United States, and eventually joined the faculty of New Mexico Highlands University, where he became chairman of the Psychology Department. At Highlands he met Robert Bunker (then chairman of the Highlands' English and philosophy deparonents and now tutor emeritus of St. John's). Ralph Swentzell (now also tutor emeritus) was a student of both and what the Confucianists would callJen or benevolence for his fellow man." Mr. Boyd's intellectual interests spread quickly as he taught through the Program and he became a loved and respected tutor. Mara Robinson (SFGI83), a former member of the college's Board ofVisitors and Governors, first met him in a Community Seminar, later studied with him in the Graduate Institute, and became a close friend. "Stuart was a brilliant, inspiring teacher and a charismatic man whose classes always overfilled with students cager to 'sit at his feet' and learn," she recalls. " His knowledgeable and entertaining leadership won over, not only many students through the years, but an enormous number of townspeople as well." Faculty colleagues remember Mr. Boyd as something of an iconoclast, as the faculty meeting min Lites he wrote as faculty secretary in :r974 show. According to Mr. Swentzell, " Stuart, although loving the formal, was always strongly sensitive about tendencies toward pompous elitism or hypocrisy. He valued straight, honest talk-preferably accompanied by wit and eloquence, both of which he had in abundance." Tutor Jorge Aigla remembers the way Mr. Boyd welcomed him to the faculty: "Twenty years ago it was my good fortune to be paired with Stuart Boyd for my first freshman seminar-a wonderful way to be initiated into our educational venture. I soo n learned with Stuart to read honestly, carefully, sensitively; to respect the authors, to laugh with them (I never managed to laugh at them, as Stuart occasionally did), and to appreciate the insights and awakening of our students. His common sense, wisdom, advice, courage, and sense of honor were a great h elp to me." In the early days of the Santa Fe campus Mr. Boyd's gift for friendship and his capacity for fun were cohesive forces among the faculty. recalls a seminar co-led by "these Lwo most philosophically exciting professors. I think it had to do with science and religion, or maybe it was existentialism. Students talked about Stuart's frequent exclamations in class whenever Bunker would hint at the possibility of God's existence, something to the effect that he 'didn't see any need for Easter Bunnies running across his systematic reasoning.' " In 1966, Mr. Boyd and Mr. Swentzell, encouraged by Bob Bwlker (who had come to St. John's the year before), joined the fledgling Santa Fe faculty. Mr. Boyd served both as a tutor and as campus psychologist. As Nan Boyd observes, "Stuart always managed to find time, and the right words, when someone was in distress or in need of wisdom. I know there are students without number who have cause to be grateful to him, not only for his role as a tutor, but also for getting them through emotional problems to graduation in one piece." Ralph Swentzell adds, "What I most admired in Stuart was his blunt honesty and genuine humani ty. He had a great capacity for sympathetic compassion, continued on nextpage STUART BOYD WITH FANG IN DoRNACH, SCOTLAND. { THE Co LL E c B. St. John's College. Spring 2005 } �{OB I T UA RI ES} continuedfromp. 41 According to Torn Harris, tutor emeritus, "Stuart helped us form such strong bonds.. .we all resonated with his warmth and care for us. Did we not dance beautifully and wildJy then! With uncontained energy we danced on into the night! He always had a wonderful laugh. I hear it now." Nan Boyd adds, 'Tm perfectly sure everyone of you remembers occasions when the room was almost lit-up by his laugh and general merriment-there was nothing, absolutely nothing, he enjoyed more than a gathering of good friends exchanging stories and making each other laugh." Mr. Boyd had a distinctive, very Scottish presence on campus. Many remember his military bearing-not quite a swagger-when he arrived at waltz parties in full regimentals. Even after 2.0 years, he found the bright sun of New Mexico oppressive and lamented the chill and clamp of home. Rumor has it that his favorite philosopher remained fellow Scot FACULTY M EETING MINUTES, SANTA FE: AN EXCERPT Nov. 21, 1974 Stuart Boyd, Faculty Secretary Dean Ncidorf, presiding, judging a quorum to be present, asking for and receiving, approval of the minutes of the previous faculty meeting (noting the objection by Mr. Jones, whose presence and words had been reported but whose absence and silence were the facts, ru1d the correction by Mr. Venable who suggested that something had been "evoked" from Mr. Sacks, not "invoked" as reported nor "provoked" as intended) invited Mr. Steadman to justify his request that a special faculty meeting be called for Saturday, November 2.3, a request to which Mr. Steadman responded with zest. Mr. Ncidorf then linked this specific event with a request for Faculty discussion of the suggestion that Facul ty Meetings not be held at the time which had been agreed on and which had become the tradition, i.e. Thursday Afternoon, but that we tinker with this arrangement, to find extra time so that discussions could last even longer. Drew wondered out loud if time could not be saved by streamlining our procedures. Robinson reminded the Faculty that the AT 72, MR. B OYD DONNED HIS PARATROOPER'S SUIT FOR A JUMP IN THE NETHERLANDS. David Hume. When Mr. Boyd retired from the college, he and his wife returned to raison d'etre for establishing the Thursday Afternoon Faculty Meeting was to protect Saturdays, and that to meet on Saturday morning would see the remorseless, insidious, and irrevocable engulfment of all the hours of daylight and sunshine, in accordance with Parkinson's Law. Dean Neidorf finally pronounced that the thought of rescheduling anything seemed to involve great difficulty and pain, that tradition must be respected, that he would call Thursday afternoon Faculty Meetings at l p.m. instead of1:30 p.m., and that he would do what he could to streamline the meeting procedures. The Dean then asked for comments on the recent All-College Seminar. There were enthusiastic responses from some who felt that it brought together those who would otherwise not be so brought, with consequent excitements....Robinson, noting the excitements that some had experienced, wondered if all seminars could not be of this nature. The Dean paused, then remaiked that of course such a suggestion could be countenanced, but that he was sure in his experience of the Faculty that even in the event that a majority approved such an idea, that that same majority would reject taking any action. There was some further conversation about seminars and books, in which was heard the {T H E Co LL E c E . St. John's College. Spring 2005 ) 43 {OBITU AR I ES } Scotland and settled in a small village near the northern coast, cold and rainy enough to satisfy even him. There he read, gardened, worked on his memoirs, and painted in acrylics, something he had begun doing while at St. John's. In addition to enjoying quiet activities near their home, the Boyds traveled extensively and returned several times to Santa Fe, where he gave lectures on topics ranging from Shakespeare to T.E. Lawrence. In 1994, at the age of 72., Mr. Boyd together with several other survivors of the Arnhem mission repeated their parachute jump over the Netherlands to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Arnhem and to raise money for the Airborne Forces Charities of his regiment. Mr. Boyd voice lingers on for many friends like Jorge Aigla: "When Stuart retired in 1989, he asked me to take over his office. In that space, I still sometimes hear him laughing, telling me (and us): 'ALL is well, my boy, andallSHALLbewcll! '" ♦ predictable, conditioned suggestion that Pavlov be expunged from the senior reading list. Dean Neidorf reported that the Annapolis Faculty, in response to student sentiment, was considering whether or not to abaJ1don the practice of awarding honors. After a lengthy silence, Harris and Jones asked qu estions of Dean Neidorf, wondering ifhe meant the Annapolis campus of St. John's, and ifhe meant there was consideration of whether or not to award honors at graduation, and received solemn assurances that all was as he had said. The Dean went on to say that the graduating class on the other campus had registered the complaint that the system of awaiding honors was oppressive and offensive. Mr. Sacks remarked, somewhat cryptically, that the oppressed should not feel oppressed.... The discussion about honors continued, with considerable time spent on Descartes aJ1d "warm, effusive feelings" and other comments which flew too fast for this reporter to catch either their significance or their relevance, terminating in a masterly synthesis of Greek ru1d Christian worlds by Mr. Long, who urged us to think of honors as like some Olympic Garnes to which many were called but few chosen ... ♦ MICH AEL C. S LAKEY, C LASS OF 1985 Michael C. Slakey, Annapolis class ofI985, died of cancer on January 30, 2.005, in Lannion, Brittany, a region of western France. He was 42.. Michael met his wife, Victoire Devaud Slakcy, a French citizen, in Washington, D.C., and they spent most of their married life in France. Michael had a full life as a painter and musician, and as an organic farmer especially devoted to the care of his land. He leaves behind his wife and three children, Theo, Fay, and Yarrow. H e is the son of Marion and Thomas Slakey, a tutor emeritus and former dean of St. John's, and the brother of Tom, Jr. (SF81); Bill (SF88); and the Rev. Anne Slakcy (SF88). "Michael had an exceptional capacity to take pleasure in what he was doing at the moment, whether it was in the hard work of cutting his own trees with an axe and smoothing planks with an adze, weeding and planting his garden, sitting and playing his guitar or his Irish flute, or painting," his father wrote. M UNTt;F. 8U UIIJAJLY, JK., CLA:>i> ot· 1947 Monte Ferris Bourjaily, Jr., who had been the publisher and editor of Globe Syndicate since 1977, died Jan. 4 at his home in Front Royal, Va., after a heart attack. Mr. Bourjaily was born in ClevelaJ1d, Ohio, and raised across the country as he accompanied his journalist parents on their assignments. He served in the Army Signal Corps in Europe during World War II. Early in his career, he was a reporter for a newspaper in Floyd County, Va., and worked in the U.S. House of Representatives radio gallery. From 1952 to 1966, he worked for Army Times as an associate editor and author of the " Kibitzer's Corner" column. He then was an executive assistant in Washington for the Oklai1orna-based architectural, engineering, and planning furn of Hudgins, Thompson, Ball and Associates. Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Marietta Dake Bourjaily of Front Royal, Va., and six children. MARGARET NEUSTADT RANooL Maigaret Neustadt RaJ1dol of Baltimore, who was married to former St. John's Dean John 0. Neustadt, died at her home in Baltimore in December 2.004. She was 83, and had been a longtime civil-rights activist in the city. She was well known for her work with Baltimore Neighborhoods Inc., the Maryland Commission on Human Relations, and American Civil Liberties Union. MI CHAEL TOBCN, FORMER BVGMEMBER Michael E. Tobin died April 2.1, at the age of 79, at his home in Tesuque, New Mexico. He served as a member of the college's Board ofVisitors and Governors from 1994-2000. Mr. Tobin was born in Philadelphia. He lettered in fencing and soccer at Central High School. He attended the University of Pennsylvania until he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served in Europe. After the war, he remained in France to study classical piano. Although mus ic remained one of his passions throughout his life, Mr. Tobin returned to complete his studies at Penn's "Wharton School of Business. He inoved to New York to launch a career in finance, later joining the firm of Arthur Young and Company. There he worked in bank and securities consulting and became partner in charge of the Chicago and Western offices. As president of the Midwest Stock Exchange, he pioneered automation for the exchange, making it the second-largest market in the U.S. by dollar volume. He later became chairman and CEO of the American Bank and Trust Company of Chicago. That bank became the sponsor of a program that sent teachers in Chicago's Paideia program (which introduced Socratic seminars to public-school classrooms) to the Graduate Institute in Santa Fe. Throughout his life, Mr. Tobin was actively committed to the arts, and when he moved to Santa Fe, he became an ardent supporter of the Santa Fe Symphony. He also continued to cultivate a lifelong interest in world history and Western literature at St. John's, where he took part in comm unity seminars. Mr. Tobin is survived by his wife, Judith Brown Tobin; his children Michael, Jr., Allegra Love, and Corey; a stepson, Brett Sylvestri and wife Virginia; and four grandchildren. EMIL MAsSA, FlUEND OF T HE MEEM LIBRARY Dr. Emil J. Massa, who died in October 2.004, took an interest in St. John's College as early as the mid-197os. Perhaps he fust visited on one of his regular trips to Santa Fe to attend the city's world-famous opera. By 1992., Dr. Massa had included the Meern Library in his estate plan. Now, his bequest {T H E C o LL E c E . St. John's College . Spring 2005 will fund an endovm1ent for maintenance of the library's collections. Dr. Massa settled in Denver, Colo., as an orthopedic surgeon in 1960. Born into a first-generation immigrant family in the Cleveland, Ohio, area, he attended Dennison College in connection with his military service, followed by medical school at Northwestern University. Dr. Massa was keenly aware of the value of a good education-not only professionally, but spiritually as well. Following his formal schooling, he became an avid reader and bibliophile of broad and formidable intellect, drawn especially to the humanities ru1d liberal arts and sciences. Dr. Massa was always questioning, confronting his ideas with those of others and trying to discern the best way to live. He found it in his appreciation of fine workmanship of all kinds-books and the craft of bookbinding, art, music, fine automobiles, and wine-but most of all in his ongoing personal search for truth. No great idea, he believed, can flourish without serious conversation, one of the highest activities in which humans can engage. To enter the conversation in earnest, we must know what has been said already. For this, as Dr. Massa knew, the best education is a study of the greatest books ever written. A LSO NOTED: FRED ALEXANDER (class ofi937) , December 2.2., 2.004 LurH ER BLACKJSTON (A68), January 18, 2.005 MICHAEL B LUME (A78) , February 7, 2.005 } A.MPS H. C 1moERS (SFGI70), October 9, 2.004 WJLLL\M C. H ALL (class of1946), December 18, 2.004 ROWLAND ALFRED JONES (class ofx949), February 2.1, 2.005 GEORGE L YON, JR. (class ofx940), January 14, 2.005 D UNCAN M CDONALD, former An napolis tutor, January 2.4, 2.005 ERICH NUSSBAUM ( class of 1945), March 18, 2.005 HAROL D OAV1 0 Runm (Ao4), December 2.004 DEBORAH MICAEL TIIIELKER (A79), April 17, 2.005 J AMES TINDALL (class ofi949), March 2.4, 2.005 ) �44 COMMUNITY F OR T H E S AKE O F Miss HucHEY-COMMERS LEAVES ST. JOHN'S WITH A PASSION FOR COMMUNITY EDUCATION. LEARNI N G , LEARNING FOR T H E SAKE OF COMM UNI TY sv Ea,,. Hucttsv-COMMEas, A05 hroughout.high school my image of college was a place where people came together to explore the knowable world with gusto; I envisioned lively discussions and a feeling of fulfilJment when I turned in each assignment. I was interested in a kind oflearning that would involve my whole being- that would inform not only which answer I put dovm on the test but also teach me how to live in a more thoughuul way once I stepped outside the classroom. And I was interested in sharing this kind of learning with other people who were engaged in the same activity. I was fortunate to find St. John's. As an underclassman what I loved most about the Program was the discussion. How well I remember staying up until one in the morning after my first seminar talking with my hallrnates about the character of Odysseus in Homer's Iliad, or, much later, my euphoria after reading Plotinus, who, in his way of speaking about God without personification, gave me just the insight I needed to begin to talk about the word of God in the Book ofJohn for my oral examination. I learned what an amazing thing it is to have a really good seminar, in which the conversation takes its own course, free of any student attempting to determine its direction, and in which something completely new and unexpected is clarified out of the chaos of my own reading. Long after the newness of St. John's wore off, I continued to find myself in unexpectedly thoughtful conversations, often in the lunchroom with someone I didn' t know, or with the girls on my hall while brushing teeth after seminar. Many of the books we read deal with the question of what it means to live a good and virtuous life. Reading and discussing these T books changed, among other things, the way I thought about my future. When I came to St. John's, J knew that I wanted to be a teacher. In my previous teaching experiences, I had enjoyed helping students discover the fun of learning, and showing them that they were capable of more than they had believed. After coming to St. John's and reading so many books that applied directly to my life, I became interested in finding a way of teaching that would provide students with the opportunity to make the clear connection between what they were learning in class and their lives outside of school. Before, it had seemed enough for me to help students bring themselves as whole people to their learning, and what I had hoped to accomplish as a teacher had rested in empowering individuals by helping them enter the world oflearning; now I saw it was equally important that they turn back to their daily lives as snidentsthat they thus learn how to live thoughtfully as well as learn vibrantly. Teaching enlarged its scope then; I came to see it as the work of strengthening a society. As a resuJt, I became interested in the Waldorf School, which is based on the writings of Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner. The summer following my sophomore year, I was fortunate to get a Hodson internship to work in a Waldorf School for the remainder of their school year. In the process of giving its students a balanced education, including art, music, and handwork, the Waldorf School also seeks to awaken in students an awareness of themselves as a part of a social and natural whole-and to prepare them to make thoughuul decisions about the way that they act as citizens of this whole. In addition the Waldorf School is an example of the way that philosophical ideas can be implemented in the world. It turned out that it { THE Co LL E c E. St. John 's College. Spring aoo5 ) provides an education much like the one that Socrates describes in the Republic, the education of the future philosopherk.ings: certain kinds of music arc played and stories told based on the students' level of development. The summer after my junior year, I received another Hodson grant to intern with the Nelson County Museum of Rural History in central Virgina, where I learned about the work of educating an entire community. Dttring the internship, J helped lead an oral-history workshop for fourthand fifth-graders, in which we invited senior citizens to be interviewed on tape. Everyone benefited from this experience: the older people were happy to share their stories and spend time with the students, and the snidents showed surprise and pleasure at what the seniors told them about life during the Depression. History became real for these students through conversations with their elders, once again demonstrating the importance of dialogue to meaningful learning. I believe that such dialogue is not only important for education but also essential for seeing oneself as part of a larger whole- as a citizen of a locality where one's actions have a direct and tangible effect on the community. Since becoming a student at St. John's, I have been impressed by how much learning depends upon interaction with other people. One night in seminar, toward the end of the semester, I felt weighed down and found myself participating little in the discussion. I was stopped after class by another student who asked me my thoughts on the conversation. I expressed my frustration, and we shared anecdotes about the tension we felt while sitting in seminar, often caught between interrupting the flow of conversation and wanting to clarify a particular point for ourselves. It was so 45 { ST U D ENT V OI CES} {STUDENT VOIC E S} refreshing to talk to a classmate like this that I began to speak more vigorously and to feel more impassioned about our seminar. When I returned to my room that night I had gotten my energy back for the Program. There is something amazing about the power of conversation. Not only do we uncover ideas and get co ask ourselves questions we would never have thought about on our ovm, but we are also able to discuss the learning process itself, to realize what is standing in the way, and above all to become connected once again with our passion for learning. When we learn through dialogue, our relationship to learning is not distinguishable from our relationship to ocher people. Through that human relationship, we are able to pursue truth and knowledge as whole beings. In the Republic Socrates divides the soul into three parts: the highest is the intellect, the lowest, the desiring part, and that which connects these is the spirited part, or thumos. When I said at the beginning of my talk that I wanted to bring my whole self to learning, I meant that I wanted the spirited part of me to be just as involved in the conversation in its own way as the intellectual part. Spiritedness not only asks but embodies the question, "Why is this important to me?" Even in the most abstract discussion, something must be at stake for the conversation to live and breathe, for us to find ourselves in it. That's the thing about St. John's- through our interaction with the people around us and, by means of the texts, with the great thinkers of our culture, we enter into learning with all parts of the soul and we discover that there is little chat does not interest us. At St. John's we call ourselves a community of learning. My time here, as well as my summer internships, has driven home for { THE CoLLBCE,St.John'sCollege,Spring2005} me the truth that in order for either to be ftilly what it is, community and education must not be separate. Thinking along these lines, during my fall and winter breaks this year I have worked with teachers, students, and community leaders in Nelson County to design a program for high school students in which they will learn about the workings oflocal government by conducting research, attending meetings, discussing issues, and writing articles for the newspaper about what they are learning. Starling this fall, I will coorclinate the program for a year; beyond that, I am excited about making community education the focus in my career. Indeed, I am indebted co St. John's for helping me find such a strong focus for my career as a teacher. When my parents told me they would be unable to help me pay tuition at St. John's, I began to fill out application forms for as many local and national scholarships as I had time to apply for. I knew that St. John's was the right school for me, and I believed that somehow it would be possible for me to go. I was extremely fortunate in chat a Ruritan club, a local church, and a private foundation assisted me at different times. At first it seemed awkward co be receiving money from others; however, after the first time that I went to the Episcopal church service to thank the parish for its help, the experience of being a scholarship recipient changed. When I stood up to telJ the congregation about my work at St. John's and saw so many smiling faces looking back at me, I realized I was not alone in my endeavor, financial or academic. It is easy for us to consider our education as something we obtain ourselves, for ourselves. What I've realized in the course of talking with my sponsors is that this is not true. An education is brought about through the efforts of many people and if all goes weJJ, many people will be the beneficiaries of that education. To put it more strongly, an education is a gift from a community to a community. I've come to the place of being able to accept help with deep gratitude, joyfuIJy looking forward to the time when I can give back, and aJJowing the boundary between myself and my community to become less distinct. ♦ �{ALUMNI AssocrATION NEws} FROM THE ALUMNI AssoCIATION PRESIDENT • • • Dear Alumni, • Even at St. John's College, technology changes quickly. Last year, the college and the Alumni Association instituted an online register, which provided little more than contact information for alumni from both campuses and all programs. Thanks to all of you who registered for your commitment and patience during a bumpy implementation process. This year, the online register is being replaced with an Online Alumni Community, a user-friendly, flexible, and powerful tool to help you connect with fellow alumni in many different ways. This new virtual community offers: • Powerful search features to help you find and connect with other alumni. The site is designed to allow alumni to conduct a search for special networking-for example, look for alumni working in the Jcgal field in New York City. As more alumni become • • • • • • Phoco galleries from special alumni events, such as chapter picnics, outings, and Homecoming, can be posted here. It is a wonderful and flexible tool for staying connected with others and with the college, and we' ve only begun to use just a fraction of the features available. One area ripe for development is a Career Services section that allows Johnnies to learn of job openings, post resumes, and advertise positions that are just right for Johnnies. If you're concerned that the list could be used for "spamming," don't worry: the system has safeguards built in to avoid alumni or unauthorized users from creating lists from the system. Your friends can only reach you through the Online Community if you have registered as a member. As of May, close to r,600 alumni have joined the community, with our younger alumni really taking the lead. It only talccs a few minutes, and approval is most often automatic-so do it today. You should also encourage your friends to register, so you can reach them through this virtual "Johnnie homecoming." members, this search feature will be more helpful. Announcements for alumni and other college events around the country. Member forums where you can start a conversation or enter one in progress. Information about Alumni Association chapters' contact information and activity schedules. Faculty listings from both campuses with e-mai l addresses. " Meeting space" for special groups of alumni. One current group is Military Family Alumni, for alumni who are either serving in or associated with the military. Mary Ruffin (Ao4) started the group after marrying a Naval officer. "Personal space" where you can share information about yourself with ocher alumni, including your personal page, buddy list, web log, photo album, and resume. Class home pages, class notes, and e-mail lists to help you stay in touch with members of your class. Alumni notes from The College magazine will be posted here, and classnotes you submit through the online community will also be printed in the next edition of the magazine. Instant messaging. A process that allows you to easily upload your photos of special events (a wedding) or special people (the new baby) to share with your classmates. It was a busy year for Alumni Association chapters across the country, with the usual mix ofhmchcons and receptions, potlucks, picnics, and seminars. (With or without a potluck, Johnnies still turn out for a seminar.) Here's a look at what's happening: • Albuquerque had six seminar/ potlucks; Austin had IO seminars, Baltimore enjoyed five seminars and hosted a networking seminar for juniors and seniors with the Annapolis and Washington, D.C., chapters. • The revival continues for the Boston chapter, which reported an "excel{T tt & Co LL E c e . St. John's College. Spring 2005 GRANT PRESERVES GYM PLAQUES le talces 2.0 laps around the suspended wooden track in Iglehart Hall to complete a mile. That gives determined joggers and walkers ample opportunity co read the plaques lining the wall of the gymnasium in Annapolis, reminders from past generations of}ohnnie athletes that every sport requires the best effort every time. Thanks to a grant from the Alumni Association, the plaques look better than they have in years: 23 of 38 plaques in the collection, commemorating the alumni of the years 1871-192.8, have been cleaned and restored. The association provided a grant for the work, which cost $3,800. These plaques are of both nostalgic and historic value to alumni, being among the very few publicly displayed relics of the college's postCivil War through post-World War I period. A ss O C I A TI ON N EWS } The class of 1889 left behind the motto Respice Finem- "look to the encl." The class ofr916 was a bit more Spartan in its athletic philosophy: Aul Vince,-e Aut Mori- "co conquer or die, death or victory." The Latin phrases embodied by those athletic teams of years past represent a time when St. John's competed with the likes of Navy and Johns Hopkins in football and lacrosse, and usually won. Lofty values that transcended athletics were also emblazoned on the plaques: Omnia Vinci, Veritas, "truth conquers all things," declared the class ofr927. The plaques were cleaned and oxidized to a dark statuary finish, with an architectural coating applied. "Now you can really sec chem- even read the names-and from the court floor no less," says Athletic Director Leo Pickens. "Until the cleaning they were just like dark holes on the wall. The details on many of them are almost architectural and quite lovely." ♦ 47 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 eve ms of interest. President - Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary-Barbara Lauer, SF76 'freasurer- Bill Fant, A79 Cetting•tlze-Word•OutAction Team ChairLinda Stabler-Talty, SFGI76 Mai/i,,gaddress-Alumni Association, St. John's College, P.O Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404, or n6o Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. To register, go to: www.stjohnscollege.cdu; click on "alumni" and follow the directions from there. For the past, present, and future, Glenda H. Eoyang President St. John's College Alumni Association lent" year with 13 well-attended seminars, many of which attracted new faces. Boulder enjoyed a poetry/ reading potluck along with 10 seminars; Chicago had seven seminars, and there were six seminars-one with dinner-for the Greater Puget Sound chapter. • As one of the largest chapters, New York is very busy: five seminars, seven movie nights, a reception picnic, and a holiday party. The chapter expanded its Web site significantly this year. • In Northern California, eight seminars and a seminar/picnic at Stag's Leap; one seminar and one outing to the Philadelphia Sha.Jcespeare Festival for Philly, and 12 seminars for Pittsburgh. • In Portland, alumni have been meeting regularly since October and have had AROUND THE CHAPTERS {AL U M N I four seminars since July. A tea party and six seminars took place in Santa Fe, six in Southern California, r2 in the Twin Cities, where the chapter completed a yearlong plunge into the theme of ""Who are we as Americans?·' • A highlight for the Washington, D.C., chapter was "A Day in the Country," hosted by Sharon Bishop (A65), with Eva Brann leading a seminar. The chapter will return this spring to Bishop's country place for another day in the country with a great book. • In seven other areas, reading groups are considering organizing chapters, or the association is reaching out to alumni to gauge the interest in getting a group of Johnnies together. ♦ - COMPILED BY CAROL FREEMAN, AGl94 } PLAQUES LINING THE WALLS OF IGLEHART H ALL ARE GLEAMING ONCE AGAIN, THANKS TO AN ALUMNI AsSOCIATION GRANT. CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed below for information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni actfrities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE BALTIMORE Bob & Vicki Morgan Deborah Cohen 505-275-9012 410-472'-9158 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin Gammon 410-280-0958 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 AUSTIN John Strange 210-39 2-5506 Bev Angel 512,-926-7808 CHICAGO Rick Ligh tburn lightburn@ earthlink.net DALLAS/FORT WORTH Suzanne Lexy Bartlette 817-i21-9rx2 DENVER/BOULDER Lee Katherine Goldstein 72~46-1496 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST.PAUL Carol Freeman 612,-822-3216 { THE Co LL E c E. NEWYORK Daniel Van Doren 914-g49-68rr PORTLAND Lake Perriguey lake@law-works.com NORTHERN CALIF. Deborah Farrell 415-i31-8804 SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 619•423-4972 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 SANTA FE Richard Cowles 505-986-1814 PITTSBURGH Joanne Murray 724-325-4151 St. John 's College. Spring ,ioo5 } SEATTLE Amina Brandt 206-465"'7781 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Elizabeth Eastman 562,-426-1934 TRIANGLE CIRCLE (NC) Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 WASHINGTON, D.C. Jean Dickason 301-699•6207 WESTERN NEW ENGLAND Julia Ward 413-648-0064 �{ST. JOHN'S FOREVER} "COEDS INVADE ST. JottN's" n the fall of 1950, the faculty of St. John's College voted to admit women the following year. As Richal'd Weigle later recounted in his book Recollections ofa St. Johns President, the vote was to be kept secret until the college's Board ofVisitors and Governors t0ok up the matter. One eal'ly plan suggested the possibility of establishing a women's college with the St. John's PI"ogram. The enrollment of women was in pal't a response tO the college's difficulty in building enrollment and achieving financial stability. But the overriding reason, Weigle said, was that women wanted to be here. When the news leaked out shortly after the boal'd's approval of the matter, he wrote, "students were in an uproar. A protest meeting was held in the Great Hall of McDowell ...just before students left for Christmas vacation .... Students believed that discussions in serninal's and tutorials would suffer and that women were not up to the rigors of the St. John's Program," Weigle wrote. The banner headline in the Evening Capital was set in type just a bit smaJ ler than the news of a big development in the Korean Wal'. It read: "Local College to Offer Program to Limited Number of Girls." A yeal' later, the Washington Post greeted the arrival of women with a photo spread and the headline, "Girl Students First to Enter Old College." The article quoted some male students as saying, "we were afraid... that they were going to be a bunch of giggly girls, only interested in the Naval Academy." The men, the article concluded, were pleasantly surprised to note that the women took the rigors of the Program as seriously as they did. This fall mal'ks the 50th anniversary of the 1955 graduation of those pioneering women. Several members of the class are expected back for Homecoming in Annapolis this fall, where their role in forever changing the face of St. John's will be celebrated. ♦ { TH E Co LL E c &• St. John's College . Spring 2005 FEMALE STUDENTS LEAVE CLASS IN MCDOWELL HALL WITH TUTORS AND CLASSMATES, DATE DUE I } I �S!JOHN'S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS• SANTA. f'& PUBLISHED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE P. 0. Box z8oo ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND z1404 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED PERIODICALS POSTACE PAID � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 pages 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 The College, Spring 2005 Description An account of the resource Volume 31, Issue 2 of The College Magazine. Published in Spring 2005. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Harty, Rosemary (editor) Dempsey, Patricia (managing editor) Hartnet, John (Santa Fe editor) Behrens, Jennifer (art director) Borden, Sus3an Goyette, Barbara Hughey-Commers, Erin Maguran, Andra Mattson, Jo Ann Naone, Erica Weiss, Robin Martin, Roger H. Verdi, John Donnelly, Jennifer A. Myers, Linda Hughey-Commers, Erin The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/46ec33268c4dacd9a8300dc8b9655bf8.pdf 8d39ce9603c29f99dab973a4f153b4b3 PDF Text Text �On St. Augustine ugustine’s life and works reflect intellectual rigor, curiosity, STJOHN’S and a desire to see beyond the surface of things to find real understanding. Driven by a restlessness that at times turned College to self-loathing, he engaged in a relentless quest with many a SANTA wrong turn and dead end. He was determined to distinguish “the charm of words from the truth of things,” as he writes in the The College (usps 018-750) Augustine was born in Tagaste He (modern dayabout Soukdifficult Ahras) in North Africa in 354. in Confessions. thought questions we confront is published quarterly by As a schoolboy he hated Greek, Latin, and faced was idle many worksloved we read at St. John ’s, beatings from the when Bible he to War andin Peace-. What is sin? St. John’s CoUege, Annapolis, MD, his studies. At times,Why his education waspleasure interrupted because of the family do men take in doing the wrong thing?’sIsfinances, free will real-or an illusion?and Santa Fe, NM but Augustine What is love? was clever, had an excellent memory, and excelled at the art of Known office of publication: rhetoric. He went to Rome and then Milan to teach rhetoric, and did well in his Communications Office St. John’s College public life, seeking out applause and recognition for his talents. He saw rhetoric as a Box a8oo way to “conquer” others, but ultimately, his success as a great orator gave him no Annapolis, MD 21404-2800 real satisfaction. Periodicals postage paid His search for wisdom led him to the Manichaean religion, which ultimately at Annapolis, MD disappointed him with empty answers to his questions. “Nearly nine years passed in postmaster: Send address which I wallowed in the mud of that deep pit and in the darkness of falsehood, striving changes to The College often to rise, but being all the more heavily dashed down,” he writes in Book Three. Magazine, Communications His restlessness and dissatisfaction led him to the works of Plato and Plotinus. Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD He found a harmony between Christian belief and neoplatonism that paved the way 21404-2800. for his eventual conversion. In 387, at the age of 33, and on Holy Saturday, Augustine Rosemary Harty, editor was baptized. His mother, St. Monica, never gave up on him. Patricia Dempsey, Soon afterward he returned to Tagaste, where he lived a monastic life. In 391, while managing editor he was visiting in Hippo, he became a priest. For the rest of his life he remained in John Hartnett (SF83), Santa Fe editor Hippo, where he became auxiliary bishop in 395 and bishop soon after. He died in Jennifer Behrens, art director 430, as the Vandals lay siege to Hippo, and he spent his last days reading in his library. Annapolis 410-626-2539 His Confessions (written in his 40s) is considered a classic of Christian autobiogra­ phy, as well as a compelling account of one man’s intellectual and spiritual journey. Santa Fe He spent 13 years writing The City of God, which he finished in 426. 505-984-6104 Sophomores at St. John’s read from the Hebrew scriptures and from classical Contributors Roman poetry and history before moving on to Augustine, Aquinas, and Anselm. Jason Bielagus (SF98) In the reading list today, Aristotle’s On the Soul serves as a bridge between the great Barbara Goyette (A73) shifts of thought occurring between Roman and medieval times. “Augustine was a Andra Maguran man caught between two worlds: that of paganism and Christianity, of being a Jo Ann Mattson (A87) believer and a nonbeliever,” says Brother Robert Smith, Annapolis tutor. “In the Erica Naone (A05) Libby Vega (SF06) Confessions, he works that all out, and all the moral problems that are connected with Roseanna White (A05) that. Besides that, he’s a very good writer.” A ANNAPOLIS • FE Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �{Contents} PAGE IO DEPARTMENTS St. Augustine a FROM THE BELL TOWERS How should we think about the concept of sin? Does the average person really have the capacity for evil? Augustine scholar Kim Paffenroth (A88) offers perspective on the Confessions. • • • • • • • Faculty study groups Making Johnnies out of GIs A new vice president in Santa Fe Opportunity Initiative Enterprising Greek scholars A garden grows in Annapolis New tutors 9 LETTERS PAGE l8 Commencement 2005 16 ALUMNI VOICES In Annapolis, one speaker imagines Callicles as the perfect commencement speaker; in Santa Fe, another tells graduates that great riches lie beyond the land of the Phaiacians. PAGE A Johnnie way of life-only different. a8 STUDENT VOICES Through photography, Donald Stone (A06) helps teens find their own paths. 30 BIBLIOFILE 2121 A Long A new two-volume history by Joseph Baratta (A69) explores the world federalism movement. Time Coming In her years away from St. John’s, Peggy O’Shea (SF87) sold BMWs. Nick Colten (A97) worked as a baker. Ultimately, their paths brought them full circle. PAGE 3a ALUMNI NOTES PROFILES 32 Antiques Roadshow’s Peter Fairbanks (A73) knows the real McCoy. 36 An island of her own: Sarah Mara (A61) and life on Lone Pine. 38 Kira Zielinski (SF95) takes to the skies. 42 Chris P. Nelson (SF99)-blogging his way to fame and fortune. 2Zj. Homecoming A birthday party for Eastern Classics, Shakespeare in action, and a new president in Santa Fe make for a lively Homecoming. 46 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS 48 ST. John’s forever PAGE a4 ON THE COVER Augustine ofHippo Illustration by DavidJohnson �2. {From the Bell Towers} Faculty Study Groups Sustaining the Life ofthe Mind Molly Bloom’s soliloquy at the end of James Joyce’s Ulysses is one of the most famous passages of modern literature, with the final few lines punctuated by the repetition of the word “yes”: . Iput my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he couldfeel my breasts allperfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. ” As he prepared for a faculty study group meeting on the novel last July, Santa Fe tutor David Carl planned to play a recording of an actress reading part of the soliloquy. “My opening question will be, ‘what is Molly saying yes to?’” Carl explained. “The book is about the Blooms’ marital problems, her infidelity, the death of their child, and there are a lot of things that have been said no to. But she’s affirming something at the end of book, and I’d like to hear thoughts from the group.” Carl was actually a bit surprised to find him­ self leading an eight-week faculty study group on Ulysses. He had proposed War and Peace, but the Instruction Committee had settled on Joyce, and he gamely accepted. “It’s a very difficult book,” he says of Ulysses. “But it’s been fun, because talking about it out loud helps sort out the meaning.” Faculty study groups have been a part of sustaining the intellectual life of St. John’s tutors since the New Program was established in 1937. Groups of 4-12 tutors meet under a variety of circumstances, reading and working through a variety of texts, both Program and non-Program. This kind of study is important to tutors: it enables them to think in-depth about a certain subject or book, when their normal teaching schedule calls them to cover material more quickly; it helps them consider proposed changes to the Program; and it helps them prepare to teach in areas of the curriculum where they may not have much experience. This past summer, about 25 faculty members in Santa Fe took part in five funded study groups. In Annapolis, 43 fac­ ulty members took part in six funded groups. (On both campuses, several tutors took part in more than one group.) Because it is such an essential part of keeping St. John’s a true community of learners, faculty development-as it is often called in the academic world-is among the college’s most important strategic goals. To allow more tutors to take part, the college has been seeking-and finding, from entities such as the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, the A.W. Mellon Foundation, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-outside funding for study groups. A grant supported the Ulysses study group, and Carl was gratified to be paid for the time and effort he put into leading the group. “In the Nichomacean Ethics, we read that a life of study and contemplation is the happiest life a human being can lead,” he says. “Tutors really believe that, and if that’s what you believe, surely someone doesn’t have to offer you money. On the other hand, leading a group is time consuming, and it turns out the compensation is pretty gener­ ous. That helped because of all the things that turn out not to be a part of the life of the mind, but still matter-like rent and insurance.” Spontaneous and informal study groups spring up frequently at St. John’s, says Santa Fe Dean David Levine (A67). However, on a practical level, funded study groups allow tutors to be released from their teaching schedule. “Now that we have the financial support, it means that tutors can concentrate on a study group in ways they haven’t been able to before,” he says. “We’re working Supportingfaculty development is one ofthe colleges most important strategic goals. Thursday afternoon with Joyce: Santa Fe faculty MEMBERS (l. to R. ) BoB Richardson, David Carl, AND Peter Pesic took on Ulysses in a summer study GROUP. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } J �{From the Bell Towers} 3 toward giving tutors more release time to pursue their his most satisfying experiences has been holding the NEH Chair, own inquiry.” which gave him a year off from teaching to study Plato’s Philebus, Study groups solidify the faculty community and feed tutors then lead a faculty study group and deliver a lecture on thumos in with energy and ideas. “At other colleges, faculty study groups The Republic. are the icing on the cake, whereas here, they’re a necessity-they Providing compensation for study groups ensures more oppor­ are part of the cake,” says Levine. Because tutors teach across tunities for all tutors, Dink says. “It levels the playing field to the curriculum, the college asks “everyone to extend themselves allow anyone-regardless of financial need-to engage in the study beyond their area of comfort.” group,” he says. “Tutors will always want to keep learning. Their Last summer, Ingo Farin, a Santa Fe tutor since 2002, took part appetites are not exhausted by the Program.” in a srx-week mathematics study group led by John Cornell and a Tutor Erik Sagengwas asked to lead a faculty study group on two-day session on Einstein’s 1905 paper on Brownian motion, probability and statistics, funded by the Howard Hughes Medical led by Peter Pesic. They were both exciting, says Farin, whose Institute. He spent a year planning, originally expecting to focus doctoral work was in philosophy. “It’s good to offer study groups on techniques of statistical analysis, but the study group eventu­ for those who are not experts, so they can catch up with what ally took a more philosophical look at the topic. “I had no idea more experienced tutors say about the matter,” he says. “But the that there were so many different and actively debated systems of primary focus of study groups should be the intellectual focus of foundations for probability and statistics,” he says. “I found that tutors. That means that [the groups] go outside the canon of really interesting and exciting.” things we teach here. If we don’t do that, there’s a danger we The group had three two-hour meetings each week for eight could become experts in the Program.” weeks. Four members of the group had fund­ For that reason, he was pleased to lead a ing, but one took part without any compensa­ study group on “ Todesfuge” (“Death Fugue”) tion. They read works by Richard von Mises, by Paul Celan, a Romanian-born poet whose Karl Popper, F.P. Ramsey, Bruno de Finetti, parents were killed in the Holocaust and and John Maynard Keynes. “This particular who escaped death by working in a Nazi topic was especially valuable, because it can labor camp. bear on how we learn and how we change our Claudia Honeywell has been on the faculty opinions in the face of evidence,” Sageng says. for 12 years and has yet to teach senior labora­ WTiile some study groups meet for just one tory. After completing a study group on the summer, one Annapolis group has been meet­ Michael Dink, Annapolis dean first half of senior lab, led by Howard Fisher, ing for 21 years, two hours each week, for eight she feels that she can approach Faraday, weeks, to read works in phenomenology. Millikan, and Rutherford with They’ve spent years on each more ease. It was enjoyable to work, just completing a fiveconduct the experiments with year exploration of Hans-Georg her colleagues and talk about Gadamer’s Truth and Method the results. “This has really last summer. The works they opened up something for me. Or, don’t. A/oZ>y-7)ZcA:-considered by some to be the great read may not be on the Pro­ When I go into laboratory. American novel-hasn’t been on the seminar reading list in gram, but they help us under­ I’ll have more confidence, Annapolis since 1974. It hung on in Santa Fe several years stand the Program, says tutor and I’ll feel I can engage the longer before vanishing. Relegated to preceptorials, the Jon Lenkowsi, who also took students,” she says, adding novel has been replaced in seminar by Benito Cereno. part in a Donne study group. with a laugh, “I’m still afraid Here’s your chance, readers of The College. What should be “What we do in our classes can to teach music.” on the official Reading List of St. John’s that is not there now? be traced back to some kind of Annapolis Dean Michael Joyce’s Ulysses, instead of The Dead? Proust’s Remembrance phenomenology. We’re always Dink (A75) still remembers the of Things Pastl Should we bring back Gibbon’s The Decline reflecting on our own experi­ and Fall ofthe Roman Empire I study group he participated in ences and on our own lives,” Make your case in a few hundred words or less why a par­ during his first year as a tutor he says. ticular work should be added to the Reading List. Note that in Annapolis in 1984. “Curtis Lenkowski is one of the The College has no sway with the Instruction Committee, Wilson led a group on the idea original members of the group, which decides such things. We invite your suggestions in the of universal gravitation in which also comprised John interest of sparking lively conversation. Newton’s thought. It made a White (A65), Sam Kutler Those whose suggestions end up printed in the Winter big impression on me.” (A54), and Debbie Renaut 2006 issue will be rewarded with either an Albert Einstein Over the years, he’s partici­ {A68). The composition of or Jane Austen action figure (retail value: $8.95). Please pated in many groups, some the group has changed from mail submissions to: Editor, The College, P.O. Box 2800, with funding, most without. year to year. “The excitement Annapolis, MD 2T404-2800. The current reading lists for Last year, he formed a twocomes in having the leisure the Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses can be found on person study group with tutor to do this with like-minded the college Web site: www.stjohnscollege.edu; click on Nathan Dugan. The two met people.” Academic Program. once a week to translate —Rosemary Harty Genesis from Hebrew. One of ''Tutors will always want to keep learning. “Call Me Ishmael” {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } �4 {From the Bell Towers} Making Johnnies Out of GIs At St. John’s new undergradu­ ates forge bonds in shared classes, meals, intramural sports, and parties. At the Graduate Institute in Annapolis, students’ ages range from 22 to 72, they are in different life stages and careers, and they can live an hour or more from campus. But none of that has stopped Annapolis GI Director Joan Silver (A76) from launch­ ing new initiatives to make graduate students feel that they’re part of a wider community. “Creating more community for the GI students both within the GI itself and within the college as a whole remains a challenge,” says Silver, now in her second year as director. Energetic, creative, and familiar with what it’s like to be an older student in a young population. Silver has been determined to make GIs feel like full-fledged Johnnies. When she came to St. John’s as a student. Silver already had a bachelor’s degree. She ended up becoming a parttime tutor while she finished the Program, eventually earning a master of arts from the college. After earning a doctorate in the­ ology, she became a full-time tutor in Santa Fe in 1989 and returned to Annapolis in 1996. There are obstacles to build­ ing a community for a diverse group of students, many of whom are juggling their studies with full-time jobs and family obligations. Silver acknowl­ edges. Some attend part time, and not all can linger late for regular after-seminar gather­ ings on Monday nights. This fall Silver began inviting each of the 93 Annapolis GI students to join her and other students for lunch or dinner. Recently, President Chris Nelson began hosting recep­ Broadening the Search Crystal Watkins grew up in Annapolis and attended The Key School, founded by St. John’s tutors. However, except for attending an occa­ sional event on the campus, she didn’t know much about the college. When it came time to apply to colleges, St. John’s was not on her list. “It was totally based on a stereotype,” she says. “I just didn’t think I’d fit in.” Since July, it has been Watkins’ job to dispel stereo­ types about St. John’s. As part of the college’s Opportunity Initiative, Watkins joined the college as admissions counselor for diversity, sharing regular admissions duties along with taking on special initiatives to introduce St. John’s to minority students. She will attend col­ lege fairs, visit high schools, and establish relationships with community groups. for In Santa Fe, the college has a similar initiative, with a special emphasis on introducing the college to Hispanic and NativeAmerican students. The goal for both campuses is to broaden the college’s recruitment efforts to ensure that qualified high tions for graduate stu­ dents. Silver is helping several GIs who are reviving the Graduate Council as a way to foster academic and social events, while connecting with the undergraduate Student Committee on Instruc­ tion. “As a result, we now have undergradu­ ates participating in our orientation seminars on the Meno at the beginning of each semester,” she says. Krishnan Venkatesh, director of the GI in Santa Fe, says the campus has done much to make graduate students feel like part of the community. In Santa Fe, GIs are invited to attend under­ graduate preceptorials, bring­ ing the two populations together in the classroom. This year, the GI has 71 students in Joan Silver hopes to STRENGTHEN THE GI COMMUNITY. the liberal arts program and 31 in Eastern Classics. “The GIs usually live and work about 15 minutes from campus, so they are able to be here during the day for some­ thing as informal as lunch with fellow students and extracurric­ ular activities,” he says. — Patricia Dempsey Prospectives school students from a wide variety of ethnic, racial, and economic backgrounds have a chance to hear about St. John’s. Watkins majored in English and African-American studies at the University of Virginia, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts. She became interested in issues of access to higher education and began volunteering in the undergraduate admissions office and as a peer adviser in UVA’s Office of African American Affairs. She later earned a master’s degree in Education, Policy, and Leadership from the University of Maryland. Crystal Watkins hopes to DISPEL STEREOTYPES ABOUT St. John’s. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } Watkins recognizes that many things keep a student from applying to the college, among them, the availability of merit and athletic scholarships at other colleges, the small size of St. John’s, and more than any other factor, the college’s academic program. It’s hard to find students who are right for St. John’s, and Watkins’ work is just one part of a highly developed admissions strategy geared to identifying those students. Watkins’ role is to make sure that unspoken fears about “not fitting in” do not deter prospectives. “I think it’s a valid concern that if you visit a college, and you don’t see many minority students, you wonder, ‘well, why aren’t they here?’ My job is to show that although St. John’s isn’t right for every student, we are a welcoming community. �{From the Bell Towers} 5 Linking a College with a Community Jim Oslerholt Leads Development Efforts in Santa Fe James W. Osterholt heard his calling in 1971, when he was attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City on a Rockefeller Fellowship. Although he soon decided that the ministry wasn’t for him, Osterholt discovered a new vocation while working in Union’s development office. “I decided then that I wanted a job where I could be a part of the sub­ stance of the academic environment but also a part of the world outside the university-to be a bridge between the institution and the society it serves,” he says. In a similar way, fate played a hand in bringing Osterholt to St. John’s College. Santa Fe President Michael Peters and Osterholt had a mutual friend at Pepperdine University. When the friend heard that Peters had accepted the job as president and that the vice president’s position was open, the friend thought Osterholt and Peters would work well together and “played matchmaker,” explains Osterholt. In July, Peters welcomed Osterholt to Santa Fe as the college’s vice president of advancement, successfully concluding a national search for a key position on the college’s management team. The Santa Fe campus and the college are fortunate to have someone with Osterholt’s background and experience, says Peters. “He will be a strong and effective partner, not only for advancement, but also in the broader management of the campus and the college,” he says. Osterholt finds his new position challenging and rewarding. In addition to directing plans for the president’s inauguration in October, Osterholt’s priorities include planning for the college’s upcoming capital campaign, scheduled to launch in spring aoo6. He has begun working to strengthen relationships between the college, the community of Santa Fe, and St. John’s alumni. He also intends to increase the breadth and depth of the college’s friends and supporters. How will he do it? “By working my tail off,” he says. “But I’m fortunate to have a marvelous group of faculty, colleagues, and staff to support these efforts.” Osterholt is a self-described collaborator who most enjoys being part of a successful team of professionals. His ai-year tenure at UCLA culminated in serving as the associate vice chancellor of development. There Osterholt planned a $i billion campaign. Most recently Osterholt worked as vice president of external relations at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, where he managed an array of external programs including development, trustee relations, public information, government relations, and marketing and communications. At the Milken Institute, he served as vice president for development. He also was executive Advancement is all about building RELATIONSHIPS, SAYS JaMES OstERHOLT, Santa Fe’s new VP. director of development at the RAND Corporation, and director of develop­ ment and alumni affairs, director of annual giving, and assistant director of development at Union Theological Seminary. Osterholt attended Stanford University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in American history in 1970. After his year as a Rockefeller Fellow at Union, Oster­ holt went on to earn a master’s degree from Columbia University in 1974. His greatest pleasure so far has been learning to convey the essence of the Program to existing and potential friends of the college. Explaining what St. John’s is all about gives more people the oppor­ tunity to become involved in the life of the college. “There are a number of special attrac­ tions that contribute to the quality of life at St. John’s in Santa Fe, such as really getting to know members of a smaller community. It’s all about building relationships,” he says. “When you have a real relationship, you are sincerely helping friends of the college express something they are already interested in accomplishing. In a way we are working on the same objective­ furthering St. John’s.” Osterholt’s wife of 30 years, Debbie, has been a part of every institution her husband has served. She works as an executive recruiter for development officers, but has never found her husband a job. “She has, however, steered me away from a few,” he says. Throughout his many years in advancement, Osterholt has acquired a collection of interesting anecdotes. One involved a gift request that occurred over lunch with a prospective donor in a uni­ versity dining hall. Osterholt recalls, “There had been a lot of prior discussion about how large a request we should make. When the conversation finally turned to the point where he was asked for his gift, the gentleman passed out, literally. I guess he was asked for too much.” In fund raising, however, no gift is ever too small or insignificant, and even the most modest gifts are appreciated. Osterholt saw this firsthand when his daughter’s school had a financial emergency and he was drafted to do the fund raising. “One of the smallest gifts in that drive was a gift of $5, paid at $i per month for five months,” he recalls. “It was from my daughter, who was in first grade.” The Osterholts’ daughter, Katie, has since graduated from the University of Arizona and is studying to become a paralegal. {The College. St John’s College • Fall 2005 } —Andra Maguran �6 {Bell Towers} Paradigm Shift Initially, self-interest inspired Erikk Geannikis (Ao6) to try to assemble a Greek paradigm handbook designed to “take the heartache out of Ancient Greek.” During his junior year, he had planned to apply to graduate school for study in the classics and was advised that completing an independent project-such as compiling a didactic tool for Greek-would look good on grad school applications. Although he’s now more interested in neuroscience, Geannikis decided to pursue the project anyway. He recruited Andrew Romiti and Paul Wilfordpartners in his Greek study group and both juniors planning to study the classics-to help. Working independently in three different cities and meeting in an Internet chat room to compare notes and exchange their sections, they completed the project over the summer and sent it out for review by the faculty and Dean Michael Dink. Romiti took care of the copying and binding at Kinkos. By the time the fall semester started, loo copies of their “Greek Paradigm Handbook: Reference Guide and Memorization Tool” were sold out. Pocket-sized and spiral bound to lie flat when opened, the little booklets include paradigms for nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, and participles and go for $9.95. The three charged just enough to cover their costs, and may pursue finding a publisher and marketing their project beyond the college. But they weren’t in it for entrepreneurial reasons. They just love Greek, explains Geannikis. They had all been making quick-reference charts they carried in spiral­ bound notebooks, and these served as the genesis of the handbook. Giving up a large portion of their summer vacation to the project wasn’t easy, says Wilford. “But when we saw the copies, it was all worth it.” Dink was impressed with the trio’s final product. “I suspect students-and tutors-will find it useful both for learning paradigms and as a reference tool. It does for Greek morphol­ ogy something analogous to what Green Lion’s The Bones does for Euclid’s Elements^ he says. “People told us it was some­ thing that should have been done long ago, so it’s been very gratifying,” says Romiti. Even though they no longer have Greek in tutorial, the three will use their own refer­ ence guides as they pursue their next independent project together. Last year, they worked on Philoctetes and the Sympo­ sium, meeting every week for most of the year. They’re also compiling notes and preparing an index for the next volume of their handbook. If they ever make a profit on their book, Geannikis, Romiti, and Wilford don’t want to make it from John­ nies. They consider the project a gift to the commu­ nity-even a type of offering-to the Program, to Greek, and to St. John’s. —Rosemary Harty Ancient Greek meets the Internet: (l. to r.) Erikk Geannikis, Andrew Romiti, AND Paul Wilford used a CHAT room to compile THEIR PARADIGM HANDBOOK. Ariel Program Emily Meyer (SF06) pictures herself as a psychologist, helping children with developmental disorders. Her interest in clinical psychology stemmed from a conversation with the mother of a classmate who works with autistic children. Thanks to her Ariel Internship at the University of New Mexico’s Genter for Development and Disability, Meyer has a better picture of what it would be like to work in the field, along with practical experience for a resume and grad school applications. Born out of the Santa Fe Initiative-a college-funded program to improve student services and the physical environment on the college’s Western campus-the Ariel Internship Program provides up to $3,600 to support a student in an internship. In 2005, approximately 30 students applied; Meyer was one of nine whose internships were funded. She administered tests, assisted with research, and visited rural communities in New Mexico, where she helped with consultations. “I got experience in all areas that I could,” she says. “I worked with other profes­ sionals in the field, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists.” The Ariel Program is similar to the Hodson Internship in Annapolis, a program funded by money from an endowment established with a grant from The Hodson Trust. Both programs are coordinated through the Career Services offices on campus. As with the Hodson program, Santa Fe students can use the funding for income while working in an existing unpaid internship or develop their own internships. Her St. John’s studies prepared her well for the internship expe­ rience, says Meyer. “Other interns I met were just not as flexible as I was in the way I could learn. The people I worked with were all surprised that I didn’t come from a psychological educational background and that I could work at a graduate level.” {The College- St. John's College • Fall 2005 } — Andra Maguran �{Bell Towers} 7 A Garden Grows in Annapolis To anyone who has sat in the courtyard of Mellon Hall in years past, the small reserve of green space must have seemed a pleasant enough place to pass an afternoon. A lawn, a few magnolia trees, and concrete benches under a spectacular willow oak gave the courtyard some charm. But now, thanks to a gift from one of the col­ lege’s board memhers, the courtyard has a true formal garden with graceful rows of perennials and annuals, flower­ ing trees, teak benches, and a birdhath in the center of a lawn rich, green, and thick enough for croquet. The courtyard wasn’t an original part of Mellon’s design; originally, the long classroom wing faced an open field. Adding an administrative wing to the building created the courtyard in the late 1980s. For many years, college plan­ ners have hoped to improve the space, but other buildings and grounds projects took priority. The transformation began last year when the college received a gift from Frederika Saxon, a memher of the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors, to fund a formal garden. Saxon is a builder and developer in Baltimore, and she has frequently shared her expertise with the college. Other gifts helped the college complete the project. Both Ted Wolff (A74) a landscape architect and partner of Wolff Clements and Associates, and Cathy Umphrey, a garden designer and wife of tutor Stuart Umphrey, worked on the project for substantially reduced professional rates. Wolff provided the design for the plan, while Umphrey worked closely with Wolff and the campus planning committee to choose the native plants and arrange them in beds. Cathy Umphrey, the director of horticulture at Historic London Town and Gardens, said the magnolias gave her a starting point for planning a garden that will be beautiful year-round. “The magnolias have this wonderful brown fuzz on the underside of the leaves, and we took that color as one to pick up again in perennials and deciduous trees. The crepe myrtles in time will develop this really pretty brown bark structure. The flower heads of the Annabelle hydrangea along the back of the garden will turn brown in the winter,” she says. Local Annapolis firm Eden Contracting did much of the work last fall, returning to add new plants in the spring. Together with the glassenclosed Mellon Cafe, the inviting garden offers the Annapolis community another pleasant refuge for reading, discussion, or just sitting in the sun. “It’s a beautiful natural sanctuary, a private reflective space that students, especially, seem to enjoy,” says Don Jackson, director of operations. {The College - St. John’s College • Fall 2005 } Above: A lush lawn, teak BENCHES, AND A VARIETY OF NEW TREES AND PERENNIALS HAVE CREATED A WELCOME NEW REFUGE IN Annapolis. Left: Board member Freddie Saxon’s generous gift made the garden a reality. Saxon visited the garden last spring when the fall plantings were in and the first annuals were in bloom. “She thought it was wonderful,” Jackson says. In addition to three different planting beds, new sod was laid and an irrigation system was installed. Tutor Nick Maistrellis, who has been on campus long enough to remember when the courtyard was part of an open field, is pleased with the way the garden enhances the natural environment on campus. “The garden looks good no matter where you’re sitting,” he says. “It’s another welcom­ ing place on campus.” —Rosemary Harty �{Bell Towers} 8 News and Announcements New Tutors_______________________ Eleven new tutorsjoined the Santa Fefaculty: Keri Ames received a B.A. from the University of Chicago, where she did her graduate work with the Committee on Social Thought, earning master’s and doctoral degrees. Her disserta­ tion was entitled “The Conver­ gence of Homer’s Odyssey and Joyce’s UlyssesF Lauren Brubaker received his B.A. from Swarthmore Col­ lege, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Political Philosophy from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. His dissertation was titled “Religious Zeal, Political Faction, and the Corruption of Morals: Adam Smith and the Limits of Enlightenment.” He has been a visiting instructor at the University of Notre Dame and at the Air Force Academy. Kenneth Davis (SFGIoa) received his B.A. in Music Edu­ cation from Georgia State University. He holds a Mas­ ter of Divinity from South­ western Baptist Theological Seminary, a Master of Music from the University of Tennessee, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, where his dissertation was entitled “A Performance Analysis of Mendelssohn’s Five Psalm Cantatas.” Jessica Jerome received her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where her dissertation was titled “A Politics of Health: Medicine and Marginality in Northeastern Brazil.” She recently completed a research fellowship at the Pritzker School of Medicine. T. Andrew Kingston received his B.A. in English Lit­ erature from Kenyon College. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Aesthetics, History of Music from Boston University, where the title of his dissertation was “Rhythm in the Aesthetics of Western Music.” He has taught and lectured in humanities, phi­ losophy of the arts, and music at B.U. and Kenyon College. David McDonald (SF95) comes to St. John’s from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he was a senior techni­ cian for the Influenza Sequence Database, Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Group. Frederick Monsma (A82) holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston College, where his dissertation was titled “Descartes and the Gods of Piety and Science.” Before com­ ing to St. John’s, Monsma worked in computer program­ ming, Web design, academic journalism, and education. Laurence Nee received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois. He holds master’s and doctoral degrees in politics from the University of Dallas, and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law. His dissertation was entitled “Lockean Rhetoric and Toleration: Language in the Thought of John Locke.” Previ­ ously, he was on the faculty at John Cabot University and the American University of Rome. Gregory Schneider joins the college from the Gallatin Community Clinic in Bozeman, Mont. He received his B.A. from the University of Dallas and his medical degree from the Moving In With a light to read by and a refrigerator for goodies, sophomores Josephine Drolet and Haley Thompson have the essentials covered for a NEW YEAR. In Annapolis, 149 students became Johnnies; Santa Fe welcomed Z19 One new tutorjoined the Annapolisfaculty thisfall: Matthew Caswell (A96) received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University with a disserta­ tion entitled “Kant’s Conception of the Highest Good.” He has been the recipient of a Presidential Fellowship and a Disserta­ tion Fellowship at B.U. He spent 2002-03 at Philipps-Unitersitat in Marburg supported by a DAAD research grant. Awards___________________ Michael Ehrmantraut received his B.A. in Political Theory and International Relations from Michigan State University and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston College. His dissertation was titled, “Heidegger’s Philosophic Pedagogy.” He received a Bradley Foundation post­ doctoral fellowship at Boston College, where he was visiting scholar for a year. University of MissouriColumbia. Alan Zeitlin received his B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of California, Davis. He received a J.D. from the Boalt Hall School of Law, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Classics from the University of California, Berkeley. His dissertation was titled “Terence’s Dark Comedy.” He has taught at Bard College and Emory University. William Donahue (A67) will serve as Director of Laborato­ ries. Donahue received his Ph.D in the History of Science, from the University of Cambridge. A former St. John’s tutor, he is the publisher of Green Lion Press. He has also worked as supervisor for the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge and as a laboratory technician for the National Bureau of Standards. freshmen. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } _ The builder of Gilliam and Spector halls on the Annapolis campus has been recognized with an Excellence in Construction award from the Washing­ ton, D.C. chapter ofthe Associated Builders and Contractors. Bovis Lend/Lease completed Gilliam Hall late last sum­ mer. Spector Hall, the second new dormitory, will open in January, �{Letters} Fine Memories___________________________ The article on Brother Robert brought back some fine memories for me, and I would hke to share an anecdote to show how Brother Robert influenced other people in addition to his St. John’s students. A year and a half ago, I had occasion to have dinner with the poet Robert Hass, when he came to give a lecture at our school in Monterey, California. His wife told us that she worked at St. Mary’s in Moraga, California, and that gave me occa­ sion to mention Brother Robert. It turned out that Hass had Brother Robert as a teacher and had always considered him one of the most influential people in his life. He also felt that he had betrayed Brother Robert when he was a student, because it was a time when St. Mary’s was deciding whether to remain true to the eternal ideals or to become more contemporary and polit­ ical. Hass sided with the contemporary, while Brother Robert decided to leave St. Mary’s and come to St. John’s. Hass told me that he had always wanted to get back in touch with Brother Robert, but he was reluctant. I urged him to do so. I hope that he has. Gerry Kapolka, A74 Piercing Festival 9 City. Yet, at journey’s end, they found that one of them used more gas. The only dif­ ference was that one of the twins went by way of St. Louis, the other by way of Miami Beach. Voila-the Gasoline Paradox! Wigner’s point was that many things are path-dependent. The only weirdness is that time happens to be one of those things. It is a loss, I believe, that the Program excludes textbooks. Some of the great books were textbooks (the Summa for example). The Program has wonderful benefits. It excludes rote learning, which many an inferior text promotes. And yet, when Johnnies face the original literature without pedagogical support, something else is at risk, and that something is the substance, James H. Cooke BROTHER ROBERT, IN HIS St. MaRy’s DAYS. Welcoming Women This was the inspiration for a career in psychology which has been most satisfying. I think Stuart would be proud to know he has been instrumental in creating another generation of therapy helping families, marriages, children, and above all, teen­ agers. Thanks Stuart, you were right. I was myself, and I did just fine. Joe Tooley, SF69 The College featured articles on Johnnies’ experiences abroad. John Hartnett (SF83) A Clear Account wrote a piece about the piercing festival he I’m sure many Johnnies could respond to witnessed near Kumarakom, Kerala, India. Mr. Newell’s comments on “Weird Sci­ He tried to find out the origin of this pierc­ ence” (Letters, Spring 2005), but as a for­ ing festival during the rest of his trip in mer tutor (Santa Fe, 1999-2001), please India, but to no avail. My husband, Stephen allow me. Neither the “Electrodynamics...” Joseph, is from that area of Kerala, and nor the Minkowski readings state or resolve when I asked him about the festival, he told the twin “paradox.” A clear account is me that it was a Shiite Muslim festival cele­ given in Spacetime Physics, by John A. brating Muharram, the first month of the Wheeler and Edwin F. Taylor, particularly Islamic calendar. Shiites also mark the mar­ in Ex. 49 in the first edition. Briefly, the tyrdom of H az rat Imam Hussain, the grand­ rocketing twin does not remain in an iner­ son of the Prophet Muhammad, during this tial frame, while the earthbound twin does, time. The observances can range from at least approximately, because the surface wearing black to the more unusual practice of the earth is almost free of acceleration. of self-injury witnessed by Mr. Hartnett. The rocketing twin must decelerate and Laura O’Keefe, SFga then accelerate back. The situation is not at all symmetrical, and both the earthling and Remembering Mr. Boyd the rocketeer agree that the earthling’s Stuart Boyd changed my life. As a young, world line is nearly straight, while the confused student at St. John’s, I went to rocketeer’s world line is bent. Stuart for counseling and guidance. After a Eugene Wigner made it a practice to few meetings he asked me to help him lead present “The Gasoline Paradox” to each a therapy group of students. I was a little class he taught on relativity: Two identical taken aback and said I wouldn’t know what twins drove two identical Volkswagens to do. Stuart said, “Don’t worry, just be (with consecutive serial numbers from yourself. You will do fine.” Wolfsburg!) from Los Angeles to New York {The College. St, John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } A small comment on “Coeds Invade St. John’s.” At the time, the 1950-51 academic year, I managed the labs, taught a sopho­ more lab section, edited the Collegian and served as president of the Student Polity. When the subject was broached, Dick pVeigle, president] asked me to convene a meeting of the Polity to assess the student body’s reaction to the notion of co-educa­ tion. The college’s financial problems were well known. We met in McDowell. Members of the Baltimore, Annapolis, and Washing­ ton press were welcome, but as observers only. When the meeting was adjourned, I would answer any questions they might have. All but one [reporter] understood this. He was ignored. There were a few loonies in the group, it was after all, St. John’s. A couple of Roman Catholics objected to the presence of women on traditional grounds. Most of the concerns expressed were practical. The sense of the meeting was that co-ed dorms would be impractical, but women would be welcome. Stuart Washburn, Class of 1951 The College welcomes letters on issues of interest to readers. Letters maybe 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, or by e-mail to rosemary.harty@sjca.edu. �IO {On Augustine} AUGUSTINE Seeing Our Lives in the Confessions BY Kim Paffenroth, A88 his fall marks the 20-year anniversary of my first having read Augustine’s Confessions. Ironically, the huge role it would play in my professional life was not apparent on that first reading. Although the Confessions are central to the sophomore seminar readings that would lead me in the direction of studying Christianity in graduate school, I was much more moved hy some of the other readings that year: the Bible, Dante, Luther, and Shakespeare. Like many other first-time readers, my initial reaction to Augustine was mostly negative: he was, by turns, too gloomy and pessimistic, and then too triumphalistic, judgmental, and arrogant. I don’t think I ever could have gone all the way down the interpretive roads that I have since found out are so popular in the academic study of Augustine-“Augustine as neurotic” and “Augustine as miner of Western civilization’’-but I did not immediately connect with his life and ideas. But I also did not completely forget or ignore Augustine and his idiosyncracies, mostly because he had one quality that most other theologians lack: he had a story, full of fascinating characters, compelling conflicts, and messy emo­ tions. The often overwrought and melodramatic quality of his story is exactly what puts off many readers, but it is also what makes him undeniably memorable. Such a preference for narration, rather than exposition, is what would lead me to go on to study the Bible, a book almost entirely composed of stories, whose theology usually has to be inferred and is not necessarily completely consistent. It would also lead me not to reread that other giant of sophomore seminar, Aquinas, for whom theology seems to be a series of problems to be solved, not a collection of problematic stories to be lived and told and retold. But appreciating Augustine for his narrative power and his greater sense of ambiguity and drama puts him at a distinct disadvantage in the long run, for it puts him in competition with authors of much greater artistry and beauty. In short, compared to Aquinas, Augustine may sound like a Shakespeare, but compared to Shakespeare, on aesthetic grounds, Augustine is a complete dud, a theologian who rather {The College. St. John’s College Fall 2005 } �{On Augustine} Painting of St. Augustin by Simon Marmion {The College- St. John’s College - Fall 2005 } n �Ta, {On Augustine} “ . .Our sinfulness is almost alwayspathetic and meager and childish, just like Augustine s. ” heavy-handedly uses some episodes from his own life to make his theological points. This is one case, however, where the dialogue begun in seminar decades ago has continued most fruit­ fully for me, because over the years 1 have found many dia­ logue partners for Augustine in the books 1 have read. Although many of those partners-Dante, Pascal, Goethe, Dostoevsky, Melville, Flannery O’Connor-are much more talented artists than Augustine, they engage him in an ongoing dialogue that is enriching to our understand­ ing both of Augustine and of their works. They all draw on Augustine, especially his Confessions, as a source, a source that helps illuminate their work, even as they elab­ orate and complicate Augustine’s ideas. And, of course, the ultimate goal of such a dialogue is not just to put Augustine in conversation with other “Augustinian” texts, but to put all of them in conversation with the intel­ lectual and spiritual problems and questions of living human beings in the present. 1 have had the pleasure of participating in such conversations first as a student at St. John’s, and now continuing as a student and teacher in many classrooms in the years since. In a different, more sustained but more static form, it is also the kind of conversation 1 try to create and encourage in the books I write on Augustine and others. Scholarly work on Augustine strives obsessively to place him in his time period, to understand all the religious, historical, social, political, philosophical, and literary influences of the late Roman Empire, and fit Augustine into them. When this is done, we will presumably “under­ stand” him, the way we would understand some fossil by knowing its geological strata and the other dead objects that surround it. Earlier scholarship tended to put a judg­ mental tone on this process, usually leading up to some statement that maybe crudely given as, “Poor Augustine (or Jesus or Buddha or Mohammed), he was smart, but he was just a man of his times! He thought the sun went around the earth, he thought women were inferior to men, and he thought slavery was okay. Aren’t we lucky we’re not like that?” Postmodern thought may be thanked for being less arrogant (at least on this one point) and acknowledging that we are equally as determined and limited as the poor, benighted people of the past, but the effect on study and an ongoing conversation is just as chilling: the ancient text and person are still utterly irrelevant, because each and every person lives isolated in his or her historical context, a cubby-hole whose walls are transpar­ ent to the enlightened historian, but which are never permeable to anyone. What I propose here instead is a very naive, but constructive, objectivity: of course Augus­ tine and we have our different historical contexts, but I regard them not so much as prisons, but as the unique baggage each of us carries, and 1 assume that baggage is being carried by women and men who are essentially very similar, people who can even discuss and analyze either their baggage or their fundamental human similarity, and who can therefore learn from one another. I offer here three of the striking scenes from the Confessions, three vignettes which, it must be confessed, form the basis of almost all my work on Augustine. I hope this does not only show the narrowness of my own intel­ lect, but the power of Augustine to make his story ours, and to compel us to see our lives in his. Sin Confessions, Book Two Augustine begins his Confessions famously with a scandalous analysis of sin. Having alienated many readers by asserting-not proving, I think, but asserting-that all babies are just bad (Book One), he goes on to analyze a youthful, though not infant, sin of his own (Book Two). Augustine tells us how when he was i6, he and some other naughty boys stole pears from a neighbor’s tree. What focuses Augustine’s attention on this incident is that the boys did not need or even want the pears: “I stole that of which I had plenty, even of much better quality” (Conf a.4.9, my translation, as are all subsequent); they do not even eat them, but throw them away. Augustine, try as he might, cannot come up with a reason for this sin, and this {The College- St. John’s College • Fall 2005 } �{On Augustine} is what bothers him, and what he thinks should bother us. Plato-who, according to Augustine, is correct on many, perhaps even most, theological points {Conf. 7.9.13-15)had taught that sin was always a mistake, an incorrect assessment of the situation, and could never be a deliber­ ate, knowing choice of something evil. But that is exactly what Augustine thinks was going on with the pear tree: “It was foul, but I loved it. I loved to perish; I loved my own ruin, not that for which I ruined myself, but rather I loved my very ruin itself’(Co/^ 2.4.9). Augustine claims here that doing something for no reason does not defuse or diminish the wickedness of that act, but instead increases it beyond all previous estimations and beyond any previous ethicist’s ability to explain or cure it. Even that exemplar of senseless cruelty, Catiline, was suppos­ edly analyzable under the assumption that sin is the 13 In Augustine’s thought, sinfulness is linked to the “fragile, UNPREDICTABLE STATE IN WHICH WE ULTIMATELY LIVE,” WRITES Kim Paffenroth. pursuit of a mistaken good {Conf. 2.5.ii), while Augustine claims that at the other extreme of human behavior-not in the outrageous, powerful violence of an emperor, but in the paltry prank of a teenager-there lies an unexplain­ able mystery of self-destructive evil. Augustine goes on to suppose that this self-destructive urge comes from pride, from the desire to be God, rather than to love and serve God, “a dismal imitation of omnipotence” {Conf. 2.6.14). I think the profundity and longevity of Augustine’s story lie in our ability to tease out its implications and bring it around full circle, as it were. Starting with what is a pretty laughable scene, one can delve into the theological profundities behind it, but then see once {The College. St. John's College ■ Fall 2005 } �14 {On Augustine} 'Augustine bequeathed to Christianity a much stronger divine grace than others had imagined... more both the humor and profun­ dity in it, when one tries to put one­ self in the story. Perhaps more than other episodes in the Confessions^ this is easy to do, for the scene of teenage idiocy is surely universal: I and another dissipated youth ignit­ ed about a half-gallon of gasoline in a dumpster when we were i6, and could offer no better explanation than boredom and laziness, the sense of “ennui” and the need for “diversion” that Pascal would seize on so powerfully in his analysis. In exactly the same way, I remember a student in my first semester teaching at Villanova University also agree­ ing to the plausibility of Augustine’s story, admitting in seminar that he and some friends had stolen watermelons from a store and then gleefully but painfully gorged themselves to the point of physical illness. When another student asked when they had done this, expecting an answer that it had happened in fifth or sixth grade, the first student replied, “The beginning of August.” The whole class laughed, quite appropriately. Laughing at ourselves has an important educational value here, I think: it is not that we are discounting our sins, but that our sinfulness is almost always pathetic and meager and childish, just like Augustine’s. If honest with ourselves, we would realize that we don’t have it in us to be a Milton­ ian Satan, or a Hitler or a Khan: about the most any of us could pull off would be to become a petty thief, liar, or lecher, with little to show for our misdeeds, except the pain we cause others, and the complete buffoons we make of ourselves. And what of Augustine’s assertion of the universality of such pathetic sinfulness? Perhaps my student and I and a few other immature rakes can identify with Augustine, but is it good or accurate for everyone do so? I will only relate another anecdote that suggests that admitting sin, dwelling on it seriously as well as laughing at it, is anoth­ er important and useful lesson that Augustine has taught us in this story. Also at Villanova, I remember one student who didn’t say much in class, often seemed bothered if I said something irreverent about the Bible, and always wore a cross necklace. She literally came undone in the first class on Confessions, however, berating Augustine for hating babies and me for defending him. At first I appreciated her vigor and umbrage, and did not see the harm in someone believing in the innate goodness of babies, or of people in general, even if I didn’t share her estimation. Then I caught her flagrantly plagiarizing later in the semester. She didn’t seem the least bit apologetic or remorseful, only angry at me for catching her, and a little angry at her­ self for not being more adept at cheating. While this is no proof that optimism and hypocrisy go hand-in-hand, it at least suggests that introspection, analysis, and admission of guilt may play some role in moral formation and improvement. As I said above, however, most of us aren’t that sinful, if “sin” means really bad things that we do to hurt other people. Most of us will probably outgrow high school pranks and college cheating, and settle down to a middle age of mediocre virtue, rather than move on to bigger and worse sins. But there is another aspect of sin in Augustine’s Confessions, to which we now turn. Life and Death in Sinfulness Books Four and Nine In Confessions Book Four, Augustine gives one of the most beautiful descriptions of the joys and rewards of real friendship: There were other things done with them that captivated my mind more: talking together and laughing together, and happily taking turns at giving in to each others’ wishes; reading well-phrased books together, joking together, and showing each other respect; disagreeing sometimes, but without anger, as a person disagrees with him-or herself, the infrequency of our disagreements making our many agreements all the more enjoyable; teaching and learning from one another, sadly longing for those who were absent, and joyfully welcoming those who joined us. Such signs, coming from hearts that loved and were loved in return, were shown in our faces, voices, eyes, and a thousand pleasant gestures, and were like {The College. St. John’s College • Fall 2005 } �{OnAugustine} kindling to inflame our minds and make the many of us into one. [Conf. 4.8.13) But the conflict and drama of Book Four stem from the fact that one of these friends has died, leaving Augustine devastated and in despair. In Book Nine, Augustine gives an equally beautiful, if rather more succinct, description of his love for his mother, “A single life had been made out of hers and mine” (Conf. 9.12.30), and then she too dies, leaving him with another conflict over his painful emo­ tions. These two stories together form a profound work­ ing through of the implications of sin: not a dissection of the actual act of sinning, as in Book Two, but a long look at the facts and limitations of human life lived in a sinful world. In these two episodes, Augustine shows vividly the main and unavoidable symptom of original sinfulness: not that we inevitably sin, but that we inevitably die. And dealing with others’ deaths is even more difficult for us than our own mortality, for the sadness in which we live after they’re gone can last indefinitely. This past year has brought this unavoidable and uncomfortable truth home to me more than in previous years, and with Augustine’s help it has become both more meaningful and (a little) less terrifying. In the months leading up to and then fol­ lowing my 20-year high school reunion, I was constantly reminded of Greg, a friend who died right after high school. Never mind the sins that I and others commit every day: I can think of no clearer proof that the world is “fallen,” “broken,” or just plain “wrong,” than to observe that in it a person of such obvious virtue as Greg would die a slow, lingering death from cancer, at such a young age, leaving no progeny, while a lazy, impatient, short-tempered, sinful person like me gets the chance to raise kids, surely with much less success than Greg would have enjoyed. And shortly after the reunion, my father died, after 24 years in which he never successfully mourned or got past the death of my mother: his loneliness and bitterness festered that whole time, till the only emotions he could feel were hate and rage. Again, one needn’t judge him an awful sinner to think that what he did was “bad”-for it contributed to his misery, not diminished it. In both these cases, as in the mysteriously 15 painful deaths that Augustine recounts, the world’s sinfulness is shown most clearly not in the sinful things we do, but in the faulty, sickened, fragile, unpredictable state in which we inevitably live. Augustine offers us not just a diagnosis of the diseases of sin and death, however, but also the hope of a treat­ ment. Though Book Two and the gravity of sin are the most memorable parts of Augustine’s Confessions, they are not the final word-just as hideous punishments are the most memorable parts of Dante’s Divine Comedy, but not his ultimate point. Augustine bequeathed to Chris­ tianity the idea of a much stronger divine grace than oth­ ers had imagined, stronger precisely because only it could cure the horribly enlarged idea of sin that Augustine had developed. And one of the simplest and most frequent graces that Augustine saw in the world was the blessed­ ness that comes from loving, human relationships: “Blessed is the one who loves you [God], and his friend in you, and his enemy for your sake” (Conf 4.9.14). The very relationships that cause us pain, because the people we love must inevitably suffer and die, can bring us joy when God is a part of the relationship, for we acknowledge that every moment spent with the beloved person is a gracious gift of God, a gift meant to lead us back to the giver. As in Plato, but with a far greater appreciation for how difficult the ascent is, Augustine believes this urge to love our creator is built into us from the very beginning: “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is troubled, until it rests in you” (Conf, i.i.i). Frequently titled a “Doctor of the Church,” Augustine-like Socrates, who also claimed to offer therapy for wayward souls-would probably prefer the image of nurse or midwife for himself, for according to him, only God can ultimately heal human hearts that are broken by sin and mortality, but which still retain the unique imprint of their creator and their only physician (Conf. 10.3.3-4). Kim Paffenroth (A88) is associateprofessor ofReligious Studies and chairperson ofthe Religious Studies Department at Iona College in New York. {The College. St John’s College • Fall 2005 } �{Alumni Voices} A JOHNNIE WAY OF LIFE The ExaminedLife Guides a New Journey BY Brother Ezra Sullivan, O.P. (A04) Shortly after he graduated from St. John’s in 2004, Randall Sullivan entered a formation program of the Order ofPreachers, also known as the Dominicans. He moved to Cincinnati to live at the order’s friary, bringing to his small and austere cell few personal belongings beyond his favorite Program books (Plato, Aristotle, Dante). He traded hisjeans and t-shirtsfor a white robe and a black cloak. He took the vows ofpoverty, chastity, and obe­ dience, and a new name, choosing Ezra because Scripture por­ trays Ezra, a priest and scribe, as a man who saw study as a means to holiness. Several months into his new life, Brother Ezra noticed the similarities between a Johnnie’s life ofthe mind and the spiritual and intellectual life ofhisfriary. nyone can tell what a college thinks of itself hy looking at the glossy promo­ tional pamphlets they use to recruit stu­ dents. In one photograph, foothall play­ ers and cheerleaders are prominent; in another, students and professors in lah coats. In the promotional material St. John’s College sent me, one image is predominant: hooks. Stacks of hooks, students reading books, tutors and students discussing books. Books and conversation capture the essence of the college. In a similar way, if you were to leaf through a book of Catholic saints, you would find that they are often pictured with a symbol representing their characteristic quality. St. Peter is shown with keys, reflecting his spiritual power over heaven and hell; St. Augustine is shown with a pen in hand because he wrote exten­ sively. There is one saint that many people do not know about, perhaps because his symbol is so ordinary. It is St. Dominic, and his symbol is a book. Since August of 2,004, I have been a Dominican friar, a follower of St. Dominic, and that means a book-lover. Almost 800 years ago, Dominic started the Order of Preachers, based on the monastic Rule of St. Augustine, known to be a great reader and writer of books. Since then, men and women have been a part of Dominic’s Order, which was founded, like St. John’s, on the insight that good books can do much good for the individual and the community. The order’s mission-ropass on to others the fruits of our contemplation-vs, strikingly similar to the college’s goal to endow young men and women with critical thinking skills in order to take their place as responsible citizens. The Dominicans were founded on the insight that reading should lead a person to contemplate, and contemplation should lead him to share his insights. Though friars preach and Johnnies do not, they are similar in that they read, contemplate and share insight as a community of learners and for a community of learners, with the goal of enriching community life and the world. Consider first the main paragraph on the St. John’s Web site, which describes the aims of the college: “Through sustained engagement with the works of great thinkers and through gen­ uine discussion with peers, students at St. John’s College culti­ vate habits of mind that will last a lifetime: a deepened capacity for reflective thought, an appreciation of the persisting questions of human existence, an abiding love of serious conversation, and a lasting love of inquiry.” Notice its similarities with this passage Ifom the Dominican Constitution: “[A brother’s] intellectual formation consists principally in the development of judgment. Therefore, a critical knowledge of sources, an understanding of principles, and an ability to reason properly must be carefully cultivated, so that the brothers may be fitted to study by themselves and to take part in serious dialogue.” I saw clear parallels between St. John’s and the Order of Preachers during a Dominican studies class earlier this year. The class was structured like a seminar: the novice master (in charge of first-year Dominicans) opened class with a question about a reading we had done the night before. Seated at a square table, we would discuss the reading for a couple of hours. The novice master would guide the conversation, but he certainly did not dominate it. Everything you would expect from a good conversa­ tion arose: opinions, arguments, questions, clarifications, and the occasional dogmatic claim. These conversations, which often cropped up again at dinner or recreation, illustrate a Dominican saying about intellectual disputes: “Never deny, rarely affirm, and always distinguish.” One incident around Lent showed me that friars are like {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 200s } �{AlumniVoices} Johnnies in their desire to be free from the ephemeral in order to think on things that are more lasting. Every morning we had newspapers in our eating area; these papers distracted some friars, who tried to fix the problem by throwing them away. This caused some controversy, which the commu­ nity addressed by keeping papers out of the eating area during Lent. This is remarkably like the controversy at St. John’s about put­ ting a Washington Post\)<yti in the Annapolis coffee shop. (The box prevailed.) At St. John’s, the routine was very much the same for four years: many hours spent alone reading, writing essays, working out proofs, or translating alone in our rooms. Then the bells of McDowell would summon our mandatory attendance to laboratories, tutorials, and seminars. In the friary, I awake at 6:15 each morning to start the day with prayer, read until 7:30, then join the community for common meditation in the silence of a dark chapel. After breakfast, there is usually a lecture or seminar discus­ sion, followed by lectio divina—^xvi2i\i& study of the Scripture in our cells. Midday prayer and lunch are followed by an apostolate in the afternoon; it might mean a speaking engagement or shelving books (I was the librarian this year). A free afternoon can mean time for a walk in the woods or personal reading. We have Mass and vespers at 5:15, followed by community recreation. Dinner is sometime spent in silence (during Lent, for example); when we can speak, theology is almost always a topic. After dinner, it’s time for sacred study, followed by night prayer. Some in the community go to bed afterward, but I stay up to read for a few more hours. Like St. John’s, such a seemingly rigid regimen actually allows for great freedom. It’s like the freedom of writing a fugue or a musical piece: inside those rules that give something its form, there are infinite possibilities. At St. John’s, I could choose what to doubt and what to accept as truth. In the friary, I can choose what to read, I can choose who to speak with and what to speak about-and those are the most important things. I have the free­ dom to develop my own talents or hobbies, like playing the penny whistle in our small Irish band. At St. John’s we had Don Rags each fall and spring. At the friary, I meet privately with my novice master once each month and give him an account of my institutional life: my thoughts about the readings, my performance in class, my relation to brothers here, and what that means about my character. It is like a self-led Don Rag. Once or twice a year I receive an analysis by the senior friars who live with me to determine whether I should continue being here. This June, as I stood in line with other friars 17 In service to his order. Brother Ezra, formerly Randall Sullivan (A04), finds freedom. for our “examinations,” I had very little anxiety. Three years of Don Rags had prepared me for this type of evaluation. While there are many similarities in the life I led for four years at St. John’s and the life I have entered into now, there are of course many fundamental differences. A friar is devoted to a life of prayer, and our order is devoted to preaching the word of God. In addition, a friar is permanently in a Catholic religious institution; a Johnnie may be changed forever by his St. John’s experience, but he will typically go on to many different endeavors in the outside world. Given the special place of St. John’s in American higher education, some might bristle at their secular college being compared to a band of medieval preachers-a perfectly reasonable objection. It is a little like comparing the philosopher Plato with the theologian Thomas Aquinas, men vastly separated by creed and culture. For some, such a comparison will only produce difficulties. For others though, for that rare breed of people intrigued by difficult questions-what is the meaning of life? What is truth? What is virtue?-the comparison might produce a worthwhile conversation. Brother Ezra Sullivan can be reached by e-mail at rg_sullivan @hotmail. com {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 200s } �i8 {Commencement} PARTING WORDS “GREATER EXPERIENCE, MEASURED PASSIONS” Alumni Send Grads on a Magn^centJourney The Perma-Johnnie In this excerptfrom his commencement speech, tutor Joe Macfarland referenced the Gorgias as he explored the idea ofthe ''Perma-Johnnie in one sense, the graduate who hangs around the Annapolis campus as long aspossible; in another, more profound sense, the individual who is never willing to abandon a lifelong questfor a deeper understanding ofimportant ideas: .. .In past ceremonies, when I have sat to the side of the stage, I have wondered. .. .What could I say to persuade you to rejoice, all at once, at your accomplishments here as well as at your departure? At that moment, in a darker, cynical turn of thought, I imagined that the perfect commencement speaker would be Callicles. A strange choice, you’re thinking, given that this Platonic character seems wicked, or at least deeply troubled, since he argues that the rule of the stronger is by nature just. But a few sentences from his speech will explain my thought: For philosophy, to be sure, Socrates, is a delightful thing, if someone engages in it in due measure at the proper age; but if he fritters his time away in it further than is needed, it is the cor­ ruption of human beings. For even if he is of an altogether good nature and philosophizes far along in age, he must of necessity become inexperienced in all those things that one... must have experience of.. .It is fine to partake of philosophy to the extent that it is for the sake of education, and it is not shameful to phi­ losophize when one is a lad. But when a human being who is already rather older still philosophizes, the thing becomes ridiculous.. .For seeing philosophy in a young lad, I admire it, and it seems to me fitting, and I consider this human being to be a free man, whereas one who does not philosophize I consider illiberal, someone who will never deem himself worthy of any fine and noble affair. But whenever I see an older man still phi­ losophizing and not released from it, this man, Socrates, surely seems to me to need a beating. . .It falls to this man. . .never to give voice to anything free or great or vigorous... .(Gorgias, 484c, ff.) Callicles has a low reputation among us admirers of Socrates, and the seniors would, I suspect, never invite him to speak; nevertheless, I find it hard to avoid hearing at least a faint Calliclean echo in many commencement addresses. He does not A “PERMA-JOHNNIE,” SAYS JoE MaCFARLAND (A87), IS ONE WHO NEVER STOPS SEEKING WISDOM. say, after all, that you should not philosophize; he says you should philosophize when you are young so that you may become a free human being, well-educated, and capable of good and noble deeds. So rather than giving you a Calliclean echo. I’ve given you the outrageous original. I’ve even made it partly my own, because whatever the faults of the man, there might be just enough truth in {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } continued �{Commencement} ''What are the sources of this excellence within us?'' Joseph Macfarland (A87) In Santa Fe, Sarah Holmes and Christopher Horne are PLEASED TO HAVE DIPLOMAS IN HAND. { TheCollege.5?. John’s College • Fall 2005 } 19 �ao {Commencement} Annapolis GRADUATES ( L. TO R.) Sandeep Das, Janae Decker, and Marshall Derks. continued this speech for me to adapt it to my own purposes and to send you on your way. I have, how­ ever, two thoughts on how to reconcile his harsh words with the things we admire. . . My first thought is his association of philosophy and youth rings true to me, not because philosophy is child­ ish, as he implies, but because youth seems somehow more philosophical; there’s less of wisdom in it, and more yearning for wisdom. Among these seniors it seems fitting to recall Alyosha and Ivan Karamazov, ig and 33 years old, having tea and cherry pre­ serves at the Metropolis, while they pursue the eternal questionsthe existence of God and the immortality of the soul-and while they weigh the strenuous demands of justice and freedom against a faint hope of forgiveness and love. I find the conversation intoxicating at least in part because it is the conversation of young people: earnest, impassioned, open-ended, revealing a hunger for rebellion that is at odds with a simultaneous longing for solidarity. Wise and foolish in confused ways, their words reach further than they themselves ini­ tially understand because of the way in which their youth blends naivete and audacity. When I go to seminar I count on all these qualities being present. In the afternoon I mull over questions distilled from what I have learned since I was an undergraduate, but in the evening I wait patiently until you no longer feel obliged to discuss my question, when it is safe to shift the conversation to your own, a question arising from your own convictions and doubts; it is often a question I didn’t think of, yet still a question for me, and thus a question I did­ n’t recognize as my own. Thus, I believe that philosophy is rightly associated with youth, but I’ll draw a somewhat different conclusion from this: however much our adult life is occupied with seemingly more serious and urgent pursuits, we must not feel compelled at all times to act our age; we must not be ashamed, in the company of a good friend and prompted by a good book, to recover the intoxicat­ ing audacity and naivete of youth, so that we do not fail to reopen the eternal questions now and again, in the light, we may even hope, of greater experience and more measured passions. The second point I want to touch on is Callicles’ emphatic elevation of an active public life over a private life of conversation and inquiry. It is this emphatic assertion that makes his words seem so fitting to commencement as well as so jarring to us. Recoiling from the shock of the assertion, I am made aware of a tension between the openness of our spirit of inquiry and the customs that bind us together in it. Prompted by the various opinions of our authors, we wonder how to weigh the active life against the theoretical. We wonder: does human excellence take multiples forms, or one above aU? What are the sources of this excellence within us? If the virtues are disparate, how are we to weave them together into a single life? For years we have come together on Monday and Thursday evenings to pursue these and related questions; everything else in our schedule has been organized around this fact. The force of this immutable custom tacitly implies a specific answer to such questions, the answer that lured us here in the first place. After you have crossed the stage, and said your good-byes, when your Monday and Thursday evenings are uncannily free even well into autumn, when you are free from the customs that bound us in practice to a certain kind of a theoretical life, those questions may seem more open-ended to you than they ever did before, and what you then do in your freedom will consti­ tute much more of an answer to such questions than anything you have said here. In the Land of the Phaiacians____________________________________________ After earning an engineering degreefrom Princeton University, water rights attorney John Draper studied consumer law in Swe­ den, then earned a law degreefrom the University ofNew Mexico. He completed the college's Graduate Instituteprogram and earned his degree in ujgr. He spoke, in this excerpt, ofHomer: One of the things that I have found personally rewarding over the years has been a focus on the stories of Homer, both through the Program here, and through weekly meetings over many years of [a] group .. .of about six people who get together for an hour and a half every Sunday afternoon to translate from the original Greek for discussion by the rest of the group. Our progress might look outrageously slow to those outside the group, like my wife, but I think of it as being like sipping a fine wine. {The College. Sf. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } �{Commencement} For me, one who has never formally studied ancient Greek, this weekly exercise of many years stemmed originally from a desire to get as close as possible to the people and gods of Homer’s world. As a result, many of the Homeric episodes have stuck with me. For instance, I imagine you remember, from the Odyssey, how the Phaiacians, after entertaining Odysseus on their island, listening to his stories and showering him with gifts, brought him to a beach in a well-protected cove on Ithaka. He didn’t at first recognize that he was in his own home country. He wondered whether the people in that seemingly strange land were “savage and violent, and without justice,” and whether they were “hospitable to strangers.” Athena arrived and showed him a cave near the beach in which to store his gifts from the Phaiacians. Homer described the cave as having the sea-purple weavings of the nymphs on stone looms and, strangely, as having two entrances-one for mortals-and one for the immortals. Homer left unexplained what he meant by an “entrance for the immortals.” I’m pretty sure I’ve been in that cove and in that cave. Our family had the opportunity a few years back to sail to Ithaka. It’s in a fairly remote part of Western Greece, far from Athens. About 300 yards behind the beach of the cove that is so well protected, as Homer says, that you don’t even have to anchor or pull your boat up on the beach, is a cave. Its entrance is very narrow, so narrow that it was difficult for us to slip through it-but then it opened up into a large room with a high arching ceiling and with the purple weavings of the nymphs on the walls, the work of water seeping down the cave walls since time immemorial. And there was the entrance for the immortals-a shaft of sunlight coming down at an angle through a hole high in the ceiling of the cave-not a place for mortals to try to enter! Those treasures of Odysseus were stored for safekeeping in the cave, while Odysseus and Athena went out and “took care of business.” He had arrived on Ithaka after a dream voyage, and now he had to go out and take care of some practical issues, hke ridding his kingdom of the insolent suitors, rescuing his wife and son, and re-establishing law and order before he could retrieve his gifts. John Draper (SFGI97) likened commencement to leaving a “lovely island of a campus.” Treasures await, he said. Below, Santa Fe grads process to the Placita. This sequence of events in the life of Odysseus may have some similarity to the sequence of events in your lives at right now. You, too, have been in the land of the Phaiacians, sharing stories and lessons on this lovely island of a campus. Today, you are being deposited on what may look like a foreign shore at first, but it, too, is really your home. You, like Odysseus, may be wondering whether the inhabitants of the seemingly foreign world outside this campus are savage and violent, and without justice and whether they are hospitable to strangers. Like Odysseus, you will find, I think, that this new world is not so foreign after all, that it has a place for you in which you can make a home. While there will be battles you will need to fight, just as there were for Odysseus, you are likely to be successful because you are well-equipped from the lessons you have learned here and, like Odysseus, you will have Athena at your right hand whenever it is necessary for you to fight against savagery and injustice.” The complete commencement addresses are available on the St. John ’j Web site: www.stjohnscollege. edu {The Colleges?. John’s College • Fall 2005 } �{Commencement} aa A LONG TIME COMING Graduates Savor Completion after Many Years Away BY Rosemary Harty Santa Fe: Peggy O’Shea In high school, everything came easily to Peggy O’Shea (SF87)*. So it was with shock that she quickly felt overwhelmed after joining the freshman class of St. John’s College in 1983. “Bottom line, I really wasn’t prepared for the kind of personal challenge I found at the college,” she says. O’Shea grew up in Wilbraham, Mass. She chose St. John’s because she was eager for an education that didn’t involve memorizing and repeating back answers. But when she arrived at the college, she found it hard to shift to what her fellow Johnnies seemed to be doing so easily. “I think what I had the most trouble with was that I didn’t know how to read the material analytically and ask the right questions,” she says. “I was still reading the material to spit it back. I didn’t have the skills to challenge the books. When I would go to class, it was very difficult to participate in the discussions. I was intimidated in class, and everyone else seemed to be doing so much better.” After three semesters, O’Shea left the college and took a job in health insurance. She began as a claims processor, but her super­ visors noted her ability to pick up new things and promoted her frequently. “Even though I was only at St. John’s for three semesters, it made a huge difference in my analytical skills and reasoning-I think freshman math helped a lot with that,” she says. “I found myself in the information systems department, even though I didn’t have a computer or a degree. I could look at the software, figure out where the logic was breaking down, and give evaluations to the programmers on how to fix it.” O’Shea prospered in the field for 12, years. “Then managed care came along and took the fun out of everything,” she says. She moved into sales, where she also did well, particularly in a favorite job: sell­ ing BMWs in the Baltimore area. She was making a nice income, she was having fun, and fife was good-until February 16, aoot. “I was driving home from work and was hit head-on in an intersection a mile from my house,” O’Shea recalls. Her car was totaled and she suffered a serious neck injury. Taking customers for test drives seemed less appealing, and after she was rear-ended in 2002 and the lingering injuries from the accident worsened, O’Shea knew it was time for a change. She began job hunting. “For the first time in my life, I found they weren’t even interviewing me because I didn’t have a degree,” she says. O’Shea had attended college part time, off and on, and consid­ ered applying her credits to a program in which she could earn a degree after about a year of full-time study. One program she looked into would grant credit for her work experience. Good grades would probably come more easily than at St. John’s. It was tempting. But instead, O’Shea sat down and filled out an application for readmission to St. John’s. “I really wanted that accomplishment of challenging myself,” she explains. “I chose St. John’s because to me, it’s more about who I’m going to be as a person.” Returning to the college in Santa Fe would allow her to make a fresh start. With Buddy, her chocolate Labrador in tow, O’Shea drove west and settled into an apartment. Being about 20 years older than most of her classmates made her feel a little self-con­ scious, especially when a bookstore clerk tried to give her a tutor’s discount. Overall, O’Shea felt warmly welcomed by the campus community. Through the Career Services offices, she learned of an internship in the Gover­ nor’s Office, applied, and got it. Since it was unpaid, she held down a second job, working on a FedEx loading dock from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. each morning. “It was really hard getting up for work after seminar nights,” she says. Through her internship O’Shea discov­ ered a passion for public service. In Gov. Bill Richardson’s Constituent Services office, she was doing interesting work that she felt was important. At the end of her junior year, she was hired as a contract employee. {The College -Si. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } Celebration: Peggy O’Shea’s parents, Patrick and Mary Ann O’Shea, were on HAND FOR COMMENCEMENT IN SaNTA Fe. �{Commencement} In the classroom, the Program was just as difficult as O’Shea remembered it, and there were times during junior and senior years when the workload became oppres­ sive. After struggling with her sopho­ more essay she took advantage of writing assistance and improved her papers. Her tutors were encouraging. “I worked as hard as I possibly could and just stuck it out,” says O’Shea. “There was no way after so many years away and giving up so much to go back that I would drop out.” “When Peggy O’Shea joined my sopho­ more seminar, after ao years away from SJC, I wondered if this quiet woman would be able to hold her own among her far younger classmates,” says Santa Fe tutor Patricia Greer. “ Well, not only did she hold her own, she shone! With tremendous determination and dedica­ tion, Ms. O’Shea found her voice at the table and her stance on the books. She struggled to remember how to write a seminar paperand then began to produce fine work! During the two and a half years she was with us in Santa Fe, she became such a solid and important member of our community.” On May 21, O’Shea’s parents, brother, and great-nephew; her girlfriend, Susan; and Susan’s parents were all in the audience when she received her diploma. “It was a great celebration,” she says. Within weeks, she had packed up again, this time starting a new phase of her life as a student in the LB J School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. She will take the LSAT this fall, and if accepted into the program, hopes to shift to a four-year joint degree program in which she would earn a J.D. and a Master of Public Affairs. Ultimately she’d like to work as a policy adviser at the federal level. O’Shea can’t help but wonder how her life might have been dif­ ferent if fate hadn’t set her on a course back to St. John’s. Some­ times she misses that thrill of closing the deal. But the same skills she used to put customers in a slick new 3 Series will come in handy when she’s ready for Washington. “In politics, you have to sell your ideas,” she says. “I really think I’ll be good at that.” Annapolis: Nick Golten For many years, Nick Colten (A97) was a baker. Day after day, he’d rise in the dark for his 4 a.m. shift at a neighborhood cafe in St. Paul, Minn., his hometown. Bundled up against the icy winters, he’d walk to work and spend the day baking bread, rolls, muffins, and cakes. Most of the time, he hated it-but he was stuck in a hold­ ing pattern after leaving St. John’s in the spring of 1994. “I just couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do next,” Colten says. Several things had prompted him to drop out. Perhaps he wasn’t quite ready for the full scope of the Program. He loved to read, and he thought St. John’s was the place for him. “Academically, I did all 23 Nick Colten joined clues and made CONNECTIONS WITH OTHER JoHNNIES WHEN HE RETURNED TO CAMPUS. right,” Colten recalls. “And I liked the give-and-take of discussions.” Yet he didn’t feel connected to the community, so after his freshman year, he went home. Colten first found a restaurant job as a line cook, and that led to baking. Baking may seem a pleasant way to earn a living, Colten says, but he found it hard, tedious work. “For one thing, I was chronically sleep-deprived. And managing so many different tasks at the same time-that’s the difficult part. Mix up the dough, knead the bread, get that batch in the oven, start a second batch, check on the bread in the oven.” After work, he’d take a nap, later heading out to the Oak Street Cinema, an art house where he volunteered in exchange for free admission. He loved Buster Keaton and Francois Truffaut films. Citizen Kane and Casablanca. His other intellectual refuge was the Minneapo­ lis-St. Paul chapter of the St. John’s Alumni Association. “The chapter seminars sustained me for a long time and ulti­ mately got me interested in going back to school,” says Colten. Friends and family nagged him. Eva Brann, whom he had visited often while she was dean and he was a freshman, encouraged him. After about eight years with his arms elbow-deep in bread dough, Colten was ready to come back. He started in the fall of 2002. “I was nervous about the Greek-I had my old manual and tried to prepare,” he recalls. After a seminar on Genesis went “especially well,” Colten found himself excited about his studies in a way he hadn’t experienced the first time around. “I also felt a great desire to be connected to the community,” he says. “I joined the fencing club, study groups, EnergeiaC He joined the waltz committee and learned to dance. He became a reg­ ular contributor to the Gadfly, where he found an outlet for his passion for politics and public affairs. Colten worked on campus, in the mailroom and at other jobs he could pick up. Supporting himself and keeping up with the Pro­ gram was exhausting, but it was all so much better the second time around. “I didn’t want junior year to end,” Colten says. Every year, for his birthday, he’d bake a big birthday cake and leave it in the Coffee Shop for others to eat. On May 15,12 years after first coming to Annapolis, he graduat­ ed. His plan is to attend law school and eventually work in public interest law. “Holding public office-I don’t think that would be good. But helping to get the right people elected, get the right things done, that’s something I’m interested in,” he says. *College tradition assigns alumni status based on the originalyear ofmatriculation, for graduates and nongraduates alike. {The College - St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } �{Homecoming} 24 -- ........ JOHNNIES JOURNEY HOME By Libby Vega (SF06) anta Fe Homecoming 2005 welcomed seven nnderHomecoming seminars. “I cherish the seminar,” noted Khin graduate reunion class years back to campus July i BLhin Guyot Brock (SF88), and many agreed. Elaine Pinkerton Goleman (SFGI88) made time for homecoming “for the chance to 3, and also brought together more than 20 to really converse about great literature, and the mental Graduate Institute alumni to commemorate the loth anniversary of the Eastern Classics program. challenges.” Reunions this year included class years 1970, ’75, The Eastern Classics ’80, ’85, ’90, ’95, and 2000. Seminar topics ranged from graduates celebrated a decade of inquiry into the foundational texts Nietzsche to Chekhov to Joyce. of India, China, and Japan with a Alumni this year were also treated special reunion at the Hunt House to Shakespeare Reader’s Theater, a on Friday, hosted by President seminar and minimalist theater Michael Peters, enjoying his first performance in which there are no homecoming. The EC party was full sets or costumes. The script is followed by a lecture and concert used openly, as the emphasis is on by renowned sitar player Allyn the text itself. Both Reader’s Theater Miner, a senior lecturer in the performances, of The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, were Department of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, student-led under the direction of where she is a teacher and scholar Marnelli Hamilton (SF05), assistant of Sanskrit, Hindi, and Urdu director of alumni and parent music. Drawing on her extensive activities. musical and historical knowledge. “When I first learned how Reader’s •r.u- Annval Homm-omim; Miner spoke on the cultural Theater works, I thought it would be background and compositional a unique and original way to examine structure of sitar music, demon­ texts many of us have read but few of strating on the instrument. us have performed,” Hamilton said. “In classical Indian music,” Later in the afternoon attendees she explained, “a rag or raga is were treated to a “Speaking Volumes” the melody, whereas a ras or rasa lecture entitled “Euclid Made Me is the emotion of a rag.” What I Am Today,” by William « fc»»> . After the concert, the music Kowalski (SF94), author of the novels played on with a rock ‘n’ roll party X Eddie Bastard and The Guardian. in the coffee shop. Many alumni In his talk, Kowalski discussed why said the spark of memory was his lifelong ambition to be a writer led ignited the minute they caught a him away from creative writing pro­ glimpse of old friends. “I came to grams and toward St. John’s College: reconnect with my classmates, most of whom I hadn’t seen for 10 a desire to study more than just the craft of writing, and to years,” said Ben Friedman (SF95). become a more well-rounded and interesting person. On Saturday morning, alumni gathered for what might be con­ continued onpg. 26 sidered the most familiar and popular offering of the weekend; {The College - John’s College Fall zoos 1 �{Homecoming} Homecoming in July in Santa Fe FEATURED MANY HAPPY ENCOUNTERS: (clockwise from top: Sharing Homecoming yfith a future Johnnie; Danilo Marrone (SF90) catches up with a classmate; Elaine Pinkerton Coleman (SFGI88, left) and Dianne Cowan (SFgzjpERFORM A Shakespeare play; Santa Fe tutor Robert Sacks (A54) engages an alumna in conversation. {The College. John's College ■ Fall 2005 } 35 �a6 {Homecoming} ALEXIS Brown (SFoo, EC03) RAISES HER GLASS IN CELERRATION. continued Continuing the celebration of authors and artists, the doors swung open to the All-Alumni Art Show immediately after the lecture. The show featured works in an array of media, including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, jewelry, video, textile, and glasswork. With children ushered to special games and a pizza party, alumni took part in a Homecoming banquet on the Placita. Each class offered its own group toast, and toasts were made for new honorary alumni Bonn Duncan and Elliot Skinner. Elliot Skinner joined the Santa Fe campus a year after its founding, having studied the classics and philosophy at Princeton University and the University of Colorado. Alumni Association President Glenda Eoyang remembered Skinner as an outstanding tutor and a “gentle spirit” from her student days in Santa Fe. “We know that then, as now, each tutor and each student engaged with others to make discoveries about themselves and each other, the part and the whole, knowledge and opinion,” Eoyang said. “Mr. Skinner was a master at such engagement. One alumnus, a particularly snotty one, reports that in sopho­ more language Mr. Skinner taught him to see that he was a snot and how not to be one-a good lesson that we could all teach and learn more often!” Skinner, she noted, had a talent for drawing out reticent students in seminar. “Though there are many examples of his generosity and insight, one that distinguishes him in this com­ munity is the support he has given to help quiet students find their voices in seminar,” she said. Duncan, Eoyang said, has been a true friend to the collegeone of the many people in the Santa Fe community who donate their time and talents to support the college. As chair of the Philos Society, Duncan leads an organization of Santa Fe residents who support the col­ lege and its program of study through fundraising and other activities. Duncan earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas and his medical degree from the University of Missouri School of Medicine. He completed his residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and specialized in head and neck surgery. After a visual injury ended his surgery career, he became the chairman of Health Systems International, a computer company which he brought from Yale University to the private sector. “Not only is Dr. Duncan, himself, a friend of the college, but as the chair of the Philos Society, he is also a leader of friends and a friend of leaders,” Eoyang said. “Those ofyou who are my vintage may be surprised that the college has committed and active friends in the Santa Fe community-they were a rare breed in my day. Because of Dr. Duncan and his friends, there is a different story to tell today. Under his stewardship, the Philos Society has demonstrated friendship to the college in many different ways, including initiating the ‘Inviting Conversations’ program and hosting events such as Summer Classics and wine tastings.” With hunger then abated and the night sky resplendent, the Midsummer Ball commenced with a swing band. As the weekend drew to a close, the final event was a Sunday brunch at Hunt House, home to President Peters, and his wife, Eleanor. Always well-attended, this year’s brunch gave many alumni their first opportunity to meet President Peters and the new vice president for advancement, Jim Osterhoft, and his wife, Debbie. Glenda eoyang welcomes Elliot Skinner to the ranks OF ALUMNI. {The College -St. John’s College • Fall 2005 } �{Homecoming} a? Artwork Unites Johnnies over the Years t is said that art transcends the hounds of time, and so does the fellowship that unites St. John’s College alumni. The college’s annual All-Alumni Art Show has always been a stimulating venue for alumni of all ages and backgrounds to celebrate the spirit of art and creativity that the Program inspires, but it is not often that the artist and patron are separated by more than 6o years of age, especially when the purchaser is only 21. At the 2005 alumni art show, one piece of artwork stood out for Mia Posner, (SF07). It was a small wooden sculpture entitled Flash Dancer, created by Billy Lieb (A45). Despite the fact that Ms. Posner is an undergraduate student on a tight budget, she knew she had to have it. What com­ pelled her was not only the charm of the piece, but also the fact that it is the craft­ work of an alumnus so much her senior. “It’s so important for Johnnies to support each other, even if we’re separated by generations. There is no formal art The annual Alumni Art Show continues to be a FAVORITE PART OF Homecoming WEEKEND in Santa Fe. Above, Santa Fe SENIOR Mia Posner with Flash-Dancer, by Billy Lieb (A45). Below, I GALLERY VISITORS ARE TAKEN WITH THE ARRAY OF ARTWORK ON DISPLAY. program here, so I appreciate Johnnies who can explore their artistic side as well as the academics,” she says. She wanted to buy the piece before the art show even opened. The sculpture had caught her eye one afternoon while she helped Maggie Magalnick, the gallery curator, set up the exhibit. The artist attended St. John’s College in Annapolis for two years during and just after World War IL He then went on to get his degree in film from UCLA in 1952. He spent 25 years working in film before retiring to become a peace activist and attend art school. Since then, he has studied with Jill Geigerich, Laddie Dill, Georg Herms, and Betty and Allison Saar, and shown his work at the University of California, Riverside. The sculpture is also significant to Ms. Posner because she, too, is very inter­ ested in film and art. She sees the piece as inspiration. “It serves to remind me that St. John’s alumni are a community. We may be separated by years and miles, but nonetheless, we are a family.” —Andra Maguran {The College -St. John's College ■ Fall 2005 } �a8 {Student Voices} “I AM A DISTANT SON 99 Annapolis Senior Joins Youth in a Questfor the Self BY Donald Stone (Ao6) “The whole ofthis doctrine leads as to a conclusion, which is ofgreat importance in the present affair, viz. that all the nice and subtle questions concerningpersonal identity can neverpossibly be decided, and [because ofthis, they] are to be regarded rather as grammatical than asphilosophical difficulties. David Hume. ‘Tam a distant son, a man, a convict and a cousin. lam charitable, smart, strong and talented. lam happiest when I’m on the good side ofpeople and they think lam a good person. ’’-Will P., 17. " ill wrote these simple, poetic words while par­ ticipating in Insights: Identity Project, a Vision Workshops program. Will’s words seem to echo Hume’s conclusion that one’s personal identity is not so simple as to be articulated. According to Hume it is possible for Will to be a convict and everything else he lists. However, it is not possible for one to ozt^be a convict, for Hume would say that is our imagina­ tion creating simplicity in a perception of a person’s identity for the sake of articulation. In Treatise ofHuman Nature, Hume explains that we are inclined to ascribe identity to objects because of our incapacity to always appreciate the great variety of parts that compose these objects. For instance, because of our imagination “a ship ofwhich a consider­ able part has been changed by frequent reparations, is still considered the Justin E., a self-portrait. same” and “an oak that grows from the small plant to a large tree, is still [consid­ ered] the same oak,” although in each case them. More specifically, participants in the not even one part of the whole may be program learn to use the tools of a photothe same. journalist-writing and photography-to As a photography instructor for Vision explore and express aspects of their Workshops, I am introduced to students identities. who have grown and experienced frequent Based in Annapolis, the nonprofit reparations. It is my job and my pleasure to organization Vision Workshops partners learn from the participants what else there is with the Juvenile Drug Court of Anne besides “juvenile delinquency” in their iden­ Arundel County and National Geographic to tities, and then I assist them in identifying cultivate alternative means of expression in parts of their lives, environments, and per­ underserved youth. With the guidance of sonalities that are particularly important to writing and photography instructors and W {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } dedicated volunteers, students are given the opportunity to learn collaboratively with their peers, gaining new perspective on their self-image and controlling which parts are shared with the world. On the first day of the program, held at Maryland Hall, a cul­ tural center not far from campus, each stu­ dent is put in charge of a camera. Over the next month, he or she will be responsible for its safety and will use it to complete home assignments. Some have never used a camera before; others are sur­ prised to be entrusted with it. In the first two hours of the workshop they shoot their first roll of self-portraits, and later print their own photographsalways a highlight of their experience. By the end of the program each stu­ dent creates and polishes a short poem or essay and a self-portrait photograph. A great strength of the program is the gratification the students feel in having success in learning a unique skill, and the pride associated with sharing the final product they create. An effort is made to have the students’ work widely displayed in exhibits at the District Courthouse on Church Circle and at the Chaney Gallery in Maryland Hall. I became involved with Vision Work­ shops at the end of my sophomore year, when photographer Kirsten Elstner, the director of the program, accepted my request to volunteer in the fall of 2004. The exceptional group of people I worked with, coupled with the capabil­ ity of exploring my interests in photog­ raphy and in working with teenagers, made my time volunteering a lot of fun and helped balance out all the time I spend with the “old dead guys’ on the reading list. Along with the support of volunteers. Vision Workshops succeeds through the energy and direction of Kirsten Elstner and freelance writer Cindy Edwards, and with the support of the Anne Arundel County Juvenile Drug Court, Maryland Hall, National Geographic, Nikon, and the Target Corporation. �{Student Voices} Donald Stone (Ao6) volunteered last year with Visions Workshops, helping youth who have heen involved with the court system to express their feelings in words and images. He also drew Chester Martin (Ao6) and Freya Thompson (A07) into the program as volunteers. “I’ve heen grateful for its influence in informing my post-St. John’s thoughts and aspirations,” Stone says of the pro­ gram, to which he returned for anoth­ er year this fall. Self-portraits by (clockwise, top right) Raymond H., Henry M., and Paula T. {The College.Si. John’s College . Fall 2005 } 29 �30 {Bibliofile} World Federalism: Idealism Meets the Cold War The Politics of World Federa­ tion: Vol. i: United Nations, U.N. Reform, Atomic Control. Vol. 2: From World Federalism to Global Governance.______________________ by Joseph Preston Baratta (Praeger, 2004) By Rosemary Harty n his thorough two-volume history of world federalism, Joseph Baratta (A69) shows that the political climate of the 20th century could have heen vastly different, if after World War II the idealists and intellectuals had heen effective in drafting a world constitution to unite governments across the globe, if national leaders had seen the necessity of founding a much stronger United Nations to keep the peace, and if millions of people had been prepared to follow wiser leadership. The Politics of World governments must seek newways to World Federation is a comprehensive UNITE FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL HUMANITY, SAYS history of a movement supported by a wide Joseph Baratta. range of people of differing backgrounds and political ideologies. Instead of world federal government, Baratta shows, the on to establish a new program at world got the Cold War-complete with the SUNY, Old Westbury, inspired in part by Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and St. John’s. decades of arms production that consumed Baratta, who teaches history and resources that could have been directed to international relations at Worcester State more beneficial uses. College, labored for 25 years on the The world federalist movement included project. His interest was first piqued by atomic scientists, such as Albert Einstein encountering the “Preliminary Draft of a and J. Robert Oppenheimer; intellectuals, World Constitution” of 1948, republished including Robert Hutchins and E.B. by Robert Hutchins in 1965. Baratta White; lawyers once connected to U.S. admired the ideals of the movement for government, such as Grenville Clark; many reasons, first, after serving in the energetic and passionate young students, Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, such as Harris Wofford; and seasoned and second, studying works such as the politicians, like Brooks Hays and Henry Federalist Papers and Plato’s Republic at Wallace. World federalists were men St. John’s. “In the Marine Corps, we were and women who reacted to the use of the told that the purpose of a battle is to reach atomic bomb with horror and with the a decision,” said Baratta. “I wondered if deep conviction that nations must join there were not a more rational way to reach together or face an inevitable third a decision. At St. John’s I saw that the world war. reason why wars continue is that the world The movement also attracted the has no working rule of law.” attention of Stringfellow Barr and Scott Baratta began reading volumes of Com­ Buchanan, founders of the New Program at mon Cause, the journal of The Committee St. John’s, and many others intimately to Frame a World Constitution, written by involved with the college, including Mark Hutchins, G.A. Borgese, and Adler. Van Doren, Mortimer Adler, and Wofford, “These people explored the anarchy of the a close friend of Buchanan, who would go national state system in the spirit of the I {The College- St. John’s College • Fall 2005 } conversation of the great books,” Baratta says. He combed through thousands of documents and conducted dozens of inter­ views. He wrote his doctoral thesis at Boston University on world federalism and continued his research for what would become The Politics of World Federation. “I discovered a movement that hadn’t made it into the history books,” he says. His final product is not only an outstand­ ing scholarly achievement, but also a personal testament for his own strong views that today’s governments must seek out new ways to bring the world together for the benefit of humanity. Baratta concentrates on the period after the failure of the League of Nations. In 1939, a journalist named Clarence Streit, alarmed by Hitler and the portents of another world war, published a book called Union Now, which proposed a federal union of democracies against the Axis powers. “If ever a book made a movement. Union Now was such a book,” writes Baratta. Publication of the book led to organizations including Federal Union in the U.S. and Great Britain and World Federalists in the U.S. The most active years for the movement were those immediately following the bombing of Hiroshima. Internal dissent, a lack of adequate funding, and McCarthyism weakened the movement, and by 1954, Baratta writes, it was largely defunct. A pivotal issue in the failure of the move­ ment was the rejection of the Baruch Plan for the international control of atomic energy, presented to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, June 14, 1946. The plan proposed the creation of an International Atomic Development Authority that would manage “control or ownership of all atomic-energy activities potentially dangerous to world security,” ultimately placing America’s nuclear weapons in the hands of an international body, which would have had many attributes of a world government. If the world federalists had the power and numbers to back the Baruch plan, the story might have been different, but “they didn’t unite themselves until 1947,” says Baratta. “Then President Truman announced the Truman Doctrine, which inaugurated the Cold War. Federalists got organized too late.” �{Bibliofile} In his second volume, Baratta devotes a chapter to another pivotal time: the events surrounding the Pocono Conference of T948, when Stringfellow Barr was most actively involved in world federalism. Barr and Buchanan had left St. John’s in 1946, following a successful but bitter fight against a Naval Academy takeover of the campus. They attempted to start a new college in western Massachusetts, but could not attract adequate funding for their vision. Barr took a year off, Baratta writes, but he quickly became very involved in the most revolutionary wing of the world federalist movement. While others worked gradually by U.N. reform, Barr and others felt that the atomic bomb required recourse to a “people’s convention a grassroots approach to working outside of national governments by selecting international delegates who would draft a world constitution. McCormick reaper heiress Anita McCormick Blaine gave $T million to the cause. Barr became chair­ man of a planning committee, aiming at election of 143 American delegates to a constitutional convention in Geneva in 1950. Britain had a similar movement, led by MP Henry Usborne, to elect 2,8 popular representatives to the convention. Scott Buchanan, who later worked with Barr, opposed the people’s convention. He believed the place to start was with the U.N. and with national governments: “World government is a revolutionary idea. It would touch every last item of our political life. Most people who believe in it do not realize this. They also don’t realize Michelangelo’s Mountain: The Quest for Perfection in the Marble Quarries of Carrara by Eric Scigliano (SF75) Free Press, 2005 Eric Scigliano has roots in Carrara, a village in the Apuan Alps in northwestern Italy, that run as deep as the veins of prized marble that have been quarried there for more than 2,000 years. Scigliano’s great-grandfather and his relatives were quarrymen and stone carvers in the quarries of Carrara, the same quarries that Michelangelo frequented to select the finest marble for his sculptures. In Michaelangelo’sMountain, Scigliano offers a historical perspective on Carrara and its famous how much opposition there will be to it. For this reason the PC horrifies me.” Barr, however, continued the approach. The money was used to establish the Foundation for World Government, but it all came to naught in all the difficulties of the time for forming a more perfect union ''Contrary to so many ofmy experiences in life, I continue to have faith in human reason. Worldfederation offers apositive vision ofpeace. Joseph Preston Baratta with adherents of the Communist party. Mrs. Blaine wanted Henry Wallace, the Progressive party candidate for president, to be a board member. Leaders among the United World Federalists feared the Com­ munist strains of Wallace’s challenge to Truman in 1948 and would not take any money. Barr, writes Baratta, “found himself in possession of a million dollar foundation for world government, whose support the American movement would not accept, at a moment when money was marble-pietra viva, “living stone”-as evoked in the gospels, Plotinus, Michelan­ gelo, and folktales. Scigliano unearths surprising Carrara connections, such as how Dante’s wanderings in the marble country influenced The Divine Comedy. Long interested in the Italian Renais­ sance, Scigliano wrote his sophomore essay on Giovanni Bellini’s painting, St. Francis in Ecstasy and Boticelli’s St. Augustine, and drew insight and inspiration from a preceptorial on Michelangelo. “I’m sure I would have gone to Italy anyway, but this preceptorial sharpened my eye and laid the groundwork for this project,” says Scigliano. In recent years, he has made several trips to Italy, where he reconnected with his rela­ tives who still work in the marble business. {The College • St. John’s College • Fall 2005 } 31 never more urgently needed to build up a popular movement for an East-West settle­ ment and permanent peace through world government! ” Nevertheless, the world federalist movement had major achievements. It brought about resolutions favoring U.S. participation in a world government in aa state legislatures, and some 16 bills were introduced in Congress. Hearings were held on the topic in the House in 1948 and ’49 and in the Senate in 1950. Senators Hubert Humphrey, Wayne Morse, Claude Pepper, and J. William Fulbright supported these bills. A large literature from over 70 nations on fundamental U.N. reform has been produced, including the Chicago draft constitution and Grenville Clark and Louis B. Sohn’s World Peace through World Law. Even Barr and Buchanan’s foundation pioneered new international fields like functional eco­ nomic and social cooperation, Gandhian nonviolence, and individual educational field work anticipatory of the future Peace Corps. Most federalists, like international­ ists, have today mended their differences in favor of universal membership, repre­ sentation of democracies, maximal powers affecting both peace and justice, and U.N. reform for the transition. “I’m an idealist,” Baratta says. “Con­ trary to so many of my experiences in life, I continue to have faith in human reason. World federation offers a positive vision of peace. Its history exhibits a new kind of world political wisdom.” The narrative traces Michelangelo’s passion for his art and his grueling journeys into the mountains of Carrara to find mar­ ble that had never before been extracted. He weaves Michelangelo’s life story with the story of Carrara itself-a region of intrigue and rivalries, including Medici conspiracies to overturn the Carrarese marble monopoly. It was also a region of conflicts, such as those that took place between Roman legions and Liguri tribes, Napoleonic and Austrian invaders, and in modern times. Fascists and resistance fighters. Scigliano also considers Michelan­ gelo’s legacy in today’s international sculpture community, —Patricia Dempsey �{AlumniProfile} 3^ Peter Fairbanks, A73, Values the Authentic BY Patricia Dempsey t the Montgomery Gallery in San Francisco, founding director Peter Maynard Fairbanks (A73) cuts a tall figure, wearing his trade­ mark bowtie and sipping tea from a china cup as he confers with clients at a round, inlaid igaB Saarinen table. Trained at Sotheby’s, London, as an art connoisseur, appraiser, and auction­ eer, Fairbanks is also an art dealer and a consultant appraiser to Antiques Road­ show, the popular PBS series now in its ninth season. Fairbanks’s work requires expertise developed over 30 years in the art world: the ability to distinguish the authentic from the false. One afternoon, Fairbanks received a call from a man who had just purchased on eBay two watercolors allegedly by Picasso and Miro; the caller wanted to know if the works were genuine and asked for an esti­ mate of their value. “I told him, T can’t tell you anything from a phone conversa­ tion; I need to see them,’ ” says Fairbanks. “He brought the two paintings to me and besides it being immediately apparent to me that they were fakes, I also recognized the hand of the forger. After 3a years in the auction and art business. I’ve learned to distinguish the authentic from the false-both with objects and the people I meet.” Fairbanks glides easily between describ­ ing the billion-dollar fine arts fairs at which he exhibits in London, New York, Paris, and Maastricht, the Netherlands, to nature. I enjoy the physicality of handling his stint as an instructor at the Hurricane objects, the discovery, the research, the Island Outward Bound School in Maine. He authentication. I needed to see the front often draws upon his roots as a pragmatic, and back of a painting, see what stretchers flinty New Englander for the perseverance and canvas it’s on, not just look at photo­ to succeed in the art world. He combines graphs or slides and learn from footnotes.” his flair for business, nurtured during boy­ Fairbanks’s desire to examine all aspects hood summers when he “farmed” no lob­ of a subject drew him to St. John’s. Fair­ ster pots off the Massachusetts coast, with banks came to St. John’s in his aos, having his love of art. Growing up in Gambridge, first attended Bard College for a year, Fairbanks developed a deep appreciation followed by three years of conscientious for fine art, especially from his mother, objector’s alternative service during the who studied art history in the graduate Vietnam War. “Given my way of learning, program at Harvard’s Fogg Museum. “I thought I would be a professor as well, but I the structure at St. John’s suited me-the regular regime of small classes, daily read­ found that academia was too dry for my A {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 200s } Is IT REAL, OR A VERY EXPENSIVE FRAUD? Peter Fairbanks knows the difference. ings, dialogues, and theorems on the black­ board, and most difficult for me, the fixing of one’s thoughts in the written word. It was a terrific education. It’s impossible to compare St. John’s to any other higher education institution-there is no place like it. It’s like being in a monastery for four years, where the students are speaking their own language, so deeply immersed in the ‘life of the mind.’ ” There’s a connection, Fairbanks says, to the type of careful analysis done in the �{Alumni Profile} Program and the work he does today, “I think it was at St. John’s that I learned the process of how to examine, and that has been invaluable throughout my life, both personally and professionally,” says Fairbanks. “At St. John’s I learned to question accepted postulates.” After graduating from St. John’s, Fairbanks took on a yearlong executive program at Sotheby’s, London. The course was directed by the late Derek Shrub. “His approach to the history of art and antiques was as unique as the education at St. John’s,” Fairbanks says. “I was trained to identify the style, date, nationality, and perhaps author of an object with the idea being that every object is a part of its culture, a part of the spirit of that time. I was expected to examine a leg of a chair, a part of a candlestick, passage of a painting and determine: Is it Southern German, Eastern French Baroque, or Northern Italian Baroque? While wildly annoying at the time, this approach allowed me to look at that Miro watercolor dated 194a and the Picasso dated 1934 and determine they were both most likely executed in the 1960s.” Following his training at Sotheby’s, Fair­ banks worked in the auction business for 15 years as an appraiser, executive adminis­ trator, and auctioneer in New York, London, and San Francisco. He went to San Francisco to “grow” the then-small regional Butterfield Auctioneers, making it the 1949 third-largest auction house in the United States. By 1984, Fairbanks was “consumed” by administrative tasks. “I realized my work was far from the fine art objects that origi­ nally inspired me to enter this profession. So I founded the Montgomery Gallery with two former employees.” Even when he delivers the news that a Picasso purchased on eBay is a forgery, Fairbanks wants people to understand how he arrives at that conclusion. He wants them to be at ease with art. “A large part of this profession,” he says, “is educating your clients about the art they are attracted to, assisting them in understanding that their own-often unexplored-visual vocabulary is valid. I try to help them feel comfortable and show them they already have taste. But many feel a tremendous imbalance between the knowledge I have and their lack of it.” Through his work for the past decade as an appraiser for Antiques Roadshow, Fairbanks has helped make knowledge of fine art accessible to the wider public. “I never thought of myself as a good student, yet at St. John’s the great books were accessible to me. It’s the same in the art world-knowledge is accessible to every­ one,” says Fairbanks. "Antiques Roadshow has helped to demystify the world of fine art. It has also been a lot of fun.’ 1950 The Rev. Fredemck P. Davis John R. Garland is continuing writes: “Let me report to the alumni of the early to middle years of the ‘new’ program that Rachel (Hinman) Hovde, widow of Chris (class of 1945), died at 91 years on May i, 3005. Long­ time organist and choir director at St. Anne’s Church, she became a clergy wife when Chris took orders in Chicago.” in an informal seminar group started years ago by Tom Williams (class of 1951). “After 55 years I’ve finally learned how to finish reading before the discussion,” he writes. 33 Good News, Bad News Fans of the popular PBS series Antiques Roadshow tune in to see some guests discovering a valuable find among their attic treasures, oth­ ers learning that their item is nothing but yard-sale fodder. In a February 2004 episode, appraiser Peter Fairbanks-who has been with the show since its debut-had good news for a California man who brought in a por­ trait of his ancestor. Commodore Thomas Tingey, painted in the early 19th century by John Trumbull. Along with a framed copy of Tingey’s commission (signed by President John Adams) and his uniform, the portrait represented “a great collec­ tion of American history.” History, swell-but the cash value? Fairbanks estimated the well-preserved and dis­ tinctive portrait as worth $30,000 to $30,000. Too bad the painting wasn’t in its original frame though, Fair­ banks noted; that might have brought the value as high as $50,000. 4" attend Homecoming for my 50th reunion, hut I felt poorly and soon was told I had to undergo open heart surgery on October 38.1 am only just now really pretty much back in living trim. I am writing this to assure those of my class­ mates I missed seeing this 50th Homecoming that I hope to see them at the next 50th.” 1964 1954 Richard B. Carter hated to miss Homecoming last year in Annapolis; “I fully expected to William C. Triplett, II, and Eleanor Noon Triplett are pleased to announce the birth of their first grandchild, Evelyn Berwanger Triplett, born July 3. {The College -St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } 1967 Ginger Kenney (Gay Singer) writes with professional and family news: “Along with Sasaki Associates’ principals Daniel Kenney and Ricardo Dumont, I have completed a book on campus design for the ACE/Praeger Series on higher education. Written for institu­ tions leaders and the planners and designers who work for them. Mission and Place: Strengthening Learning and Community through Campus Design shows how institutions can leverage one of the most �{AlumniNotes} 34 powerful resources they have for overcoming today’s challenges: the campus and its environs, providing a foundation for making decisions about the physical campus that are grounded in the institutional mission. Mission and Place is available from Greenwood Publishing Group (www.greenwood.com) andAmazon.com. In other news, my son Adam, 23, graduated last year from Brown University and is now working in software develop­ ment for Microsoft in Seattle. My daughter Margot, 18, has just started her freshman year at the University of San Francisco and is planning to major in Spanish and Latin American studies. Alas, neither one of them a Johnnie, but both happy in their choices, which is, after all, what counts. Now empty-nesters, Dan and I are hoping to travel a little more in our ‘spare’ time. Can you tell we’ll be heading west from time to time? I am now working in strategic academic planning and in edito­ rial consulting, as I progress toward a certificate in financial planning. I’ve also been active in the Boston chapter for a number of years. The chapter welcomes visitors to the Boston area to join in its activities.” 1969 Beth A. Kupe (SF) writes, “I’ve moved to Longmont, Colo., about 12 miles from Boulder and 40 miles from Denver. I love it here-there is so much commu­ nity spirit! I’m just a day’s drive north from Santa Fe, and I wel­ come visitors: 3800 Pike Road #30-203, Longmont, CO 80503, 303-682-0169, bethkuper@ yahoo.com.” 1970 Jeffrey D. Friedman (A) writes: “We are up to eight kids and eight grandchildren. I am now using the analytical and listening skills from St. John’s in Talmud study, teaching, and life coaching. Anyone in Israel, e-mail, or call and come visit! Friedyo7@netvisi0n.net.il.” 1972 David Carey (A) is a philosophy professor at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, “tackling Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas annually. Thanks to SJC for the wonderful preparation.” 1973 Jeff Angus (SF) has publishing news: “In what seems a relatively trivial note, my newest book came out at the beginning of baseball season. Management by Baseball: A Pocket Reader (Occam & Dihigo, $12.95) is a management how-to book predicated on the Truth that almost everything you need to know about management you can learn from baseball. Using lessons and stories from the national pastime, it presents practical tools to teach managers and aspiring managers how to be more effective at the work in any kind of organization. A bit like a Stephen Covey book, but less Mormon. Anaximander, Heraclitus and Lucretius (still The One), are all small but essential ingredients in the mix. The book can be purchased through independent book­ New Beginnings NDREW PiETRUS and ZoE Beatty (both A91) have three news items: Sofia was born April 23; she joins Marcel, a, and Matthias, 4. Zoe finishes OB residency in Jnly and enters private practice back in Raleigh (they planned to move in July from Pennsylvania). Andy wraps up four years of being a stay-at-home dad and will return to teaching middle-school students at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Raleigh. sellers or directly online from the Management by Baseball Web site: http://cmdr-scott. blogspot.com “I’m still doing management consulting, still a contributing editor at Info World, writing product reviews and an occa­ sional feature. I’m now writing opinion columns for the online version of the magazine CIO Insight, and sabermetric analysis for The Seattle Times. “I’m about to become a grandfather for the first time. My step-daughter, Alexandra, who lives in Paris with her French husband, will have given birth to a baby in July.” Joan Heller (A) reports: “David Humphreys (A69) and I, for better or worse, are no longer together, and I have reverted to Joan Heller. Our four sons, dialectically educated at home, are: Justin Heller Humphreys, 20-year-old classics major at Reed College in Portland, Ore.; Samuel Barnes Humphreys, 17year-old aspiring ballet dancer in NYC; Nathaniel Harding Humphreys, 14-year-old student of the Emerald Ozma Home School in Ashville, N.C.; and Nicholas Menzel Humphreys, g-years-old with Down syndrome, arguably our most avid reader to date.” {The College. St. lohn’s College ■ Fall 2005 } 1975 Four exhibitions of artwork by Howard Meister (A) began in August and continue through the winter. “Stilled Lives”-lifesize digital scans of dead things exhibited at the Contemporary Artists Center in North Adams, Mass., in late summer. Other recent life-size scans of food and eroticism were on exhibit at the Last Minute Gallery in Northampton, Mass., December 30-January 29. A selection of Meister’s studio “Art Furniture” from the 1980s and 1990S will be on exhibit at The Modernism Show at The Armory (NYC) in November and at Art Basel Miami in December. Howard can be reached at HMMeister@aol.com. 1977 Judy Kistler-Robinson (SF) moved from Minnesota in Febru­ ary and has enjoyed the long spring in Plano, Texas. She is working as a usability specialist, improving voice user-interface designs for banking, communi­ cations, and other automatic voice response systems. Judy heard recently from Katya Shirokow (SF76) inquir­ ing about next year’s 30-year reunion. Katya shared this news: �{Alumni Notes} 35 Barrelhouse: Pulp, Pop, Prose " hy must so-called “literature” and “pulp” always remain at odds? Why, asks Aaron Pease (A98), can’t there be a bridge between modern and clas­ sic, something that will appeal to both those who already love literature and those who don’t know what they’re missing? Barrelhouse is meant to be just that. A literary journal featuring everything from poems to short stories to essays, inter­ views, and comics. Barrelhouse was created by Pease and a few of his friends who meet regularly to critique each other’s writing. Pease has a day job as a proposal writer; by night, he’s simply a writer, one with a love for both classical literature and modern writing. “We toyed with the idea for a while, and it started making sense,” Pease says. “We thought there was a niche for this kind of thing-something not just functional, but site, where they receive writing submis­ appealing on multiple levels. Something sions from around the country in all differ­ that looks good, has solid writing, but still ent genres. From these, they selected a few manages to reflect our culture without a to put into their first print edition oiBar­ jaundiced eye.” relhouse, published late last fall. The goals Barrelhouse was designed to appeal to for the magazine remain fluid: for now, both those who are already avid readers they’re content to remain mostly Web­ and those who are “interested in ideas and based, while getting the print version out brightly colored things.” in the D.C. metro area. Pease and colleagues started with a Web W “My son, Alexander, is now 10 years old. I am producing nature and wildlife films for television and still live in California. We recently produced two films for PBS called Kalahari: The Great Thirstland and Kalahari: The Flooded Desert. I’ve been spending over 10 years traveling frequently to Africa-mostly to Botswana-bits that are still very wild and very empty of people and very, very far from the troubled parts of that huge con­ tinent.” Katya’s next project will be in Latin America. Asks Judy: “Any other class­ mates thinking ahead to this reunion?” Gene Glass (A) writes: “I have become a grandfather much more quickly than I was pre­ pared for! It’s all good, though, as the son of my stepdaughter is now almost five months old. I’m looking forward to seeing friends at our 30th reunion in 2007.” 1979 A LITERARY JOURNAL WITH AN ATTITUDE: Aaron Pease (aSq) hopes to bring culture TO THE MASSES. “Putting together something like this requires critiquing ourselves and our choices, trying to figure out why we like the stories we like,” he says. In selecting material for the journal, the editors try not to dismiss something because it falls into a “type,” while not publishing a submission just because it fills a “type” they haven’t addressed. Eventually, they want to solicit stories and essays from established authors, take out ads in writers’ magazines to target emerging writers, and assign their poetry section to a full-time poet. They’re off to a good start. The first printed edition A Barrelhouse featured stories from a combination of new and recognized writers as well as an interview with country/folk legend Emmylou Harris. When asked how they managed to get to talk with the legendary singer. Pease con­ fessed that they had an “in”-one of their good friends is a relative. “But,” he says, “we’ve found that people are more willing to talk than you might think. It’s publicity for them, and they’re still just people.” teacher, interpreter/translator, and business owner in Japan; 1993-96, law school at Indiana University in Bloomington; 1998 to present, lawyer. “Married to Carmen, and loving it! Contact me at leslie_westmoreland@ yahoo.com. I would love to hear from you!” 1980 Leslie W. Westmoreland (SF) is a deputy attorney general in Fresno, Calif., and here’s how he got there: 1980-82, Peace Corps (Zaire); 1983-84, ESL teacher in Saudi Arabia; 1985-93, ESL —Roseanna White (A04) 1983 This fall Desiree Zamorano (SF) will be a new member of Occidental College’s Education Department faculty, as well as the director of their Community Literacy Center. 1986 Bob Neslund (SFGI) will teach Latin half-time the next two years and write a history of Shattuck-St. Mary’s School for its 2008 sesquicentennial. {The College. St. John ’5 College ■ Fall 2005 } Susan Read (SFGI) writes that she’s “still enjoying my life in Connecticut, teaching. �36 {AlumniProfile} An Island Refuge Sarah Mara, A6i, Has Deep Roots on Lone Pine Island. ot everyone can experience life on a tiny island in the St. Lawrence River, suffer the thrill of plunging into icy water on a summer’s day, or watch the lights of pass­ ing freighters dance on the water at night. Wanting to share some of the most vivid memories of her childhood, Sarah Robin­ son Mara (A6i) joined with her sister, artist Nancy Rohinson Hammond, in creating A Snug Little Island, a children’s hook that presents the joys of life on Lone Pine Island through the eyes of two children. Sarah and her husband, John, spend five months each year on Lone Pine Island, a quarter-acre granite outcrop where they built a cottage. Lone Pine is one of the Thousand Islands, a group of more than 1,700 small islands in the St. Lawrence River just east of Lake Ontario. Farther east of Lone Pine is the slightly bigger Long Rock Island, where Nancy Hammond and her husband, Robert R. Price, Jr., rent a converted skiffhouse. In joining together on their book project, the two sisters recaptured favorite memories from their childhoods in the Thousand Islands. “I’ve been returning to the river every summer for 65 years-missing only a fewsince I was six months old,” says Mara. “The islands, the river, are my roots, where family gathers. I understand the dangers: hidden rocks in the water, navigating at night, watching out for the looming hulls of freighters in the total darkness. I love the color of the blue water, how it sparkles on a clear day when the wind is from the north. Children who grow up here never forget it.” After graduating from St. John’s and marrying plastic and reconstructive surgeon John Mara in 1972, Mara pursued various career ventures. “You come out of St. John’s a true liberal artist,” she said. She worked in London at IBM, United Kingdom, and for Eastman Kodak in Rochester. She adored her stint as manag­ ing editor of a weekly newspaper in New York, writing the editorials and a regular column, managing stringers, laying out the paper, and taking the photos. When John retired in 1992, Mara became the family bread-winner, for several years commuting by boat to her job as administrator of the Antique and Classic Boat Society. Abandoning the mainstream for a quiet life with time for reading, organic garden­ ing, and watching sunsets was a careful choice the Maras made, one Sarah links to her Johnnie days. “Without St. John’s in my background, I doubt we would have had the courage to make such a dramatic decision, or even have known about the pleasure of such a life.” Along the way, the Maras built their cot­ tage on Lone Pine, which Sarah’s parents had owned, and where she and her family camped out in tents during the summer. On the island, self-reliance is key. “Lifting­ all the time lifting! Bringing over filled water jugs, groceries, boxes of books, and taking away garbage. Slippery docks in the autumn, slippery rocks after rain. No septic system, no public sewer system.” {The College- St. John’s College • Fall 2005 } Sisters Nancy Hammond (r.) and Sarah Mara (A61) brought talents and CHILDHOOD MEMORIES TOGETHER IN A SNUG Little Island. Fog can trap the Maras on their island or keep them from returning from the mainland. They stock up on drinking water, canned tuna, and dried fruit to sustain them through bad weather. Once the couple awoke to a violent storm that shook the house. “Trees were cracking in half all around us,” Mara recalls. “Waves slammed against the shore. The storm cut a swath through the islands, uprooting trees and swamping boats. We lost electricity for five days.” Ultimately, the benefits far outweigh the difficulties. “The island is a refuge,” Mara says. “We can be boisterous, we can be quiet. We can be idle or industrious. It’s snug in the cottage, especially with a fire in the woodstove when it’s cold or rainy.” continued on pg. �{Alumni Notes} 37 Policy. He previously served as executive director of The Philan­ thropy Roundtable. Prior to that, O’Gara was a drug policy analyst for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Earlier in his career, he served as a foreign policy specialist, advising the adminis­ trator of the Drug Enforcement Administration at the Department of Justice. Jennifer Lee (SF) has career news: “My family and I have been back in the states four years now. I am currently teaching third- and fourth-graders at a small progressive school where the money is poor but the teaching is good.” 1990 1989 Matthew Shane Heimann was born to Dave (A87) and Jeannie Heimann on July 4, 2005. He weighed 7LBS. 14 oz and was 19 3/4" LONG. He joins his brothers Jake, 4 z/2, and Noah, 2. parenting, mountaineering, and skiing. I’ve come to appreciate the many natural attractions and cultural events in New England. Best to all.” 1988 James F. X. O’Gara (A) was nominated by President George W. Bush to be deputy director for Supply Reduction at the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He currently serves as special assistant to the Director of the Office of National Drug Control continued Each October, when the days grow colder and the river becomes dark and foreboding, the Maras move to a home in Kingston, Ontario. When they return to Lone Pine each summer, they must reclaim the island from a boisterous gaggle of geese. Though she had never written fiction before, Hammond’s encouragement-and her offer to illustrate the project-were all Mara needed to take on the project. Summer on the St. Lawrence River was translated into words and images, and two children, Richard and Kate, were nudged into life, complete with cheerful curiosity, thin limbs, and blowing flaxen hair. In the story, the two children are placed with their duffle bags aboard Captain Harry’s water taxi to be ferried over to Lone Pine Island for a vacation visit with their aunt and uncle. Kilian Garvey (SF) recently Nathaniel Herz (A) writes: “Alexander Shulman Herz was born on Feb. 27, 2004, and he’s a beautiful baby! He joins Charlotte Shulman Herz, born on May 7, 2002-the apple of her Daddy’s eye. Contact Nathaniel at NH237@columbia.edu Refactoring to Patterns, a soft­ ware industry bestseller by Josh Kerievsky (SF) is now in its third printing and has been translated into eight languages. The adventures and mishaps of Richard and Kate spring not only from memories of Sarah and Nancy, but also from those of the real-life Richard, Nancy’s son, now 33, who loved the island life throughout his child­ hood. (Mara named the young heroine of her book after Richard’s wife, Kate.) Along with illustrating the book, her sister provided editorial advice and encour­ agement, says Mara. “Nancy was my editor, my sounding board, my critic. She insisted on the ‘real’ thing-forcing me to dig deeper into my memory. We exchanged memories. I would ask her, ‘do you remember, did Captain Harry wear a hat? What sound do katydids make? How do waves sound hitting the rocks?’ ” From this partnership grew a handsome book in which the children’s activities are wholly familiar: learning to sleep in a tent, operate a boat, shop for provisions, and outrace a storm. The book captures a {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } finished his dissertation (“Cerebral Laterality of False Memories”) and received a Ph.D. in cognitive neuropsychology from the University of Toledo. “I now do research in social neuroscience and evolutionary psychology at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine.” Alexandra Edelglass Stockwell (A) writes, “Gabriel Thomas joined our family June 9, 2005. He was born at home, weighing ii lbs., 8 oz. Eight-yearold sister Josephine, 6-year-old brother Christopher, and his continued on pg. gg timeless child’s world, an endless summer vacation. Hammond’s bright drawings of rock-strewn islands, herons, and barefoot children bring the island world to life. A longtime friend of the college, Hammond is well known for her artwork, which for years she sold in a shop near the campus. Sarah Mara and Nancy Hammond return to St. John’s in November to speak at the the Caritas Society’s Meet the Authors pro­ gram, an annual fund-raiser in Annapolis that also features journalists Steve and Cokie Roberts. A Snug Little Island can be ordered from Pink Granite Press, PO Box 231, Thousand Island Park, N.Y. 136920231; or on Nancy Hammond’s Web site: www.nancyhammondeditions.com. —Nancy Zimmerman and Rosemary Harty �38 {Alumni Profile} High-Flying Ideals Kira Zielinski, SFgs, Finds Fuljillment in the Skies BY Erica Naone (A05) helicopter, to Kira Zielins­ ki, is “a bionic extension of your body.” The energy of the machine, which can stay still in the air or make tiny motions there, “courses through you and you have to feel it.” Accidents happen, she says, “when it starts flying you; when it is a machine.” Zielinski learned to fly helicop­ ters during a seven-year stint in the Marine Corps, which she joined the day after graduating from St. John’s in Santa Fe in 1995. Now a civilian, she pilots Chopper 4 over the streets of Washington, D.C., toting a WRC news crew covering traffic, weather, and breaking news. Her passage from the academic life at St. John’s to the technical and physical training she received to become a pilot makes sense in light of what matters most to her in the Great Conversation. A ques­ tion she keeps at the forefront of her thoughts and actions is, “What is life?” At St. John’s, Zielinski says, “it was a training in think­ ing-in honing your being to the maximum extent, in living consciously and not as an animal.” In the search for a conscious life, Zielinski has tested herself mind and body. She loved St. John’s for its academic intensity, and she chose the Marines in part for the rigorous physical training. She has bicycled through the Pyrenees. She has immersed herself in the history of the Crusades, fascinated by “the sheer corporeal nature of it all.” What becomes clear about Zielinski after an hour of conversation is that when she says she is “not a cubicle girl,” she means that down to her core. She is not satisfied with being told the answer, with hearing about how something works, or with anything besides going out and trying it for herself. It was this that led her to St. John’s in the first place. Zielinski had always been interested in classics. When a guidance counselor at her Massachusetts boarding school told her about St. John’s, she was attracted to an educational philosophy that required students to “read the books themselves, to go out and chart the sun with the Ptolemy stone, not just sit in the classroom.” Not A CUBICLE girl; Kira Zielinski (SF95) ONE DAY HOPES TO FLY FOR HUMANITARIAN AID MISSIONS ACROSS THE GLOBE. Her decision to join the Marines shocked some of her classmates, but Zielinski was driven by a need to get out from behind a desk and explore “the other side of the Greek ideal.” The transition was a bit of a jolt. After four years of discussing honor and virtue in seminar, she was handed a book on her first day in the Marines that had definitions for both. She respected the definitions she found there, but the contrast in her environment was clear. Zielinski looks back on her time in the military with respect and gratitude, but she is also relieved to have returned to {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } civilian life. The only female in a squad of 13 men, Zielinski felt a pressure far differ­ ent from what she had felt as the only female lab assistant in Santa Fe. In the military, she found herself in a situation where “anyone with a sensitive soul was picked on extra hard.” It was emotionally difficult to be the image of a Marine at all times, to be always reserving a private place in herself apart from her identity as a marine. As a marine, however, her peers trusted her to act with a high level of honor and integrity. She enjoyed the respect she was able to earn as an officer and misses the understanding that “your word is your honor.” Sharp analysis of great historical battles appealed to her, as did getting out from behind a desk and learning to fly. After her discharge, and some time off to travel, Zielinksi wound up in Tucson, Ariz. The military taught her how to fly, but she lacked the flying time most civilian employers require and had a hard time finding a job in aviation. “I was flipping through the Yellow Pages, looking up ‘H’ for helicopter and making phone calls,” she says. Her persistence paid off. She embarked on a series of helicopter odd jobs, such as firefighting and flying short sightseeing tours over the Hoover Dam and the Grand Ganyon. Along the way, she gained the flight hours she needed and made connections in the aviation community. Earlier this year, Zielinski began studying for a master’s degree in aviation. Within a few years, she’d like to volunteer for an organization like Doctors Without Borders. As someone who has always sought to be like Tomb Raider’s Lara Groft, she wants to apply her technical skill, sense of adventure, and passion for languages and learning-always keeping in mind both sides of the Greek Ideal. �{AlumniNotes} father, Rodd, and I are happy and grateful. Our holistic medi­ cine practice is growing, although I will be at home work­ ing on the domestic arts as best I can for an undetermined (long) time.” bi-gay, reproductive, and other civil rights and liberties, Nancy will be going on the market next year as a constitutional law professor. 1994 1991 Akiba Covitz and Miriam Spectre (both A) announce the birth of their daughter, Lilah Spectre-Covitz, born in May 2004. She joins her brother, Abe, who turned four in May 2005. Look for us in Virginia cars with the plates “SJC91” and “FERRIES.” 1992 Brad Hodge (SF) was married in November 2003. “My wife and I are in the process of adopting a child from Guatemala. We are very excited! I see Luke Warren (SF) often, since he also lives in the D.C. area.” 1993 Nancy Marcus (A) has received her LL.M, (second law degree) from the LFniversity of Wisconsin Law School and is now pursuing her SJD (third law degree) as a dissertator at UW. Her thesis article, entitled “Reyond Romer and Lawrence: The Right to Privacy Comes out of the Closet,” is due to be published by the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law in the Winter 2005/2006 issue. Aboard member of the National Lesbian and Gay Law Foundation and an activist and lecturer on lesbian- 39 1996 Marybeth Guerrieri (A) Brian and Lea Brock (Brian, completed her master’s degree in Transpersonal Studies at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, Calif. SF, ECoi, and Lea, A98, ECoi) write: “We are conducting an experiment. Can one exist in the world with his notions of the Good, True, and Beautiful? We are renting a farm near Madison, where Brian is starting Sawhorse Recording Studio and playing with a band called Goodbye Kitty. Lea is training her new horse and exploring equestrian and Socratic summer possibilities. The fact that she received a teaching license­ having admitted to exclusively engaging in Socratic Seminar with students and to never teaching to the standards-is a bit of evidence suggesting an affirmative answer to the aforementioned question. David M. Brooks (SF) has Hanan Mikuasz (AGI) writes of relocated to Florida and has successfully opened his own private practice specializing in adult mental health. He is looking forward to start training to become a psychoanalyst in the next year. a recent homecoming: “I took my live-year-old son in July to see the Pyramids and the land where I grew up. The Pyramids haven’t changed much, but just about everything else did. Congestion, people, and noise are every­ where. Still, I was comforted by the defiance of some aspects of Egyptian culture to change and by my son’s smiles.” “I just wanted to share the news of my second baby boy, Owen Louis, born April 29, 2005,” writes Phoebe Merrin Carter (SF). “Brother Dylan has just turned 4.1 am (still) the Youth Services Manager for the Weber County Library System in Ogden, Utah. My husband is an adjunct professor of history at the university here, and we have this great old house, 86 years old! Greetings to everyone with whom I have lost touch! ” 1995 1997 J. Stephen Pearson (A) recently completed required coursework for a Ph.D. in comparative literature: “My main foci are American minority literature and the history of Christian devotional literature,” he writes. “For my dissertation, I plan to explore the similarities between minority experiences and religious experiences.” Cameron T. Graham (SF) is a specialist with Army Intelligence at the Defense Language Institute, Monterey, Calif. While stationed at Fort Jackson, S.C., earlier, he won the award for a perfect score in the physical program. He’s been serving with the Army for about 15 months. Nice to Reminisce Jennifer Swaim (A) is pleased to announce the receipt of her doc­ toral degree in psychology. She specializes in health psychology and is currently a research fellow at a private hospital in north­ eastern Ohio. She would enjoy hearing from old friends at jcswaim@gmail.com. ara Giles (SF95) writes: “My husband, John, and I are enjoying Nebraska’s good life and all it has to offer. He continues to be a biology professor and conduct research in parasitology at one of the colleges, while I am finishing up a master’s degree at the university in anthropol­ ogy, specifically on Mexican immigration and cultural divers I work with numerous people with connections to St. John’s all have wonderful things to say about SJC, so it is nice to reminisce with them. In other news, our daughter, Sofia, turned 10 this year and won top honors at the Nebraska Summer Music Olympics in piano, and her fourth-grade standardized testing demonstrated that her academic and scholastic skills are at an advanced high school level. We have a lot to be proud of in her, but mostly that she is a wonderful person. If anyone is in Nebraska and wants to meet at the Coffee House in Lincoln, drop me a line atyehkatah@yahoo.com.” M {The College. 5t. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } �{Alumni Notes} 40 Heidi Jacot (A) is starting Yale Divinity’s School’s Master of Arts in Religion program this fall. 1998 Alexandra D.E. Boozer (A) married Daniel Giguere of Windham, Maine, on September 19, 2004. She has even more news: “Last year I received my doctorate in clinical psychology from George Washington University, with a specialization in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. We are currently living in Holmes Beach, Fla., where I am working toward obtaining Florida psychology licensure. I would love to hear from any old friends or to link with other students/alumni with an interest in practicing psychology. I can be reached by email at: alexandra _FL@hotmail.com” writes Brendan Bullock (A). “Currently I’m putting work together for my first solo show at Santa Fe’s Price Dewey Gallery ATHY GarcIa (SF03) was pleased to be accepted in November. I’ve also launched to the Graduate School of Education and Infor­ my own Web site, which I hope mation Sciences at UCLA. This program will, people will visit: www.brendanat the end of two years, award her a master’s in bullock.com. I would love to education and full credentialing so that she will hear from any and all by e-mail. I be able to teach mathematics to high-schoolers can be contacted through my in L.A.’s inner city. (“In the city, city of Compton.”) If anyone Webtosite or at brendanbullock@ is strolling through Southern California, please feel free hotmail.com.” contact her at PHI_PI_E@hotmail.com. Straight Into Compton C her husband, Rob, are excited to announce the arrival of their hrst child, Evangeline Jane, on November 16 at 5:33 a.m. “At birth she weighed 7 pounds, 3.5 ounces, and was 19 inches long. Her name means ‘Good news, God is gracious,’ and that’s exactly how we feel about her; she is good news and God was so gracious to give us this precious baby. She really is the perfect baby. She has always slept for at least four hours straight at night, and she hardly ever fusses.” Lorna Johnson (SF) has recently started her own business in executive IT recruitment. She has also been accepted as an associate director at The Artistic Home, an equity theater in Chicago, and as a faculty member at the Artistic Home’s training studio, which teaches Meisner method acting to professional actors. She also recently became a member of the Board of Directors. Her husband, Aaron Johnson, continues to play piano and organ professionally. Nathan August Scheifer (SF) reports: “Computer engineering degree completed in December 2004; new house closed in April 3005; my son was born on June 3, 3005; and I passed the Patent Bar Exam on July 18, 3005.” Justin Kray (SF) writes: Jackie (Cavim) Travis (A) and 1999 HonorMoody (SF) writes, “I finally graduated from library school and am currently cataloging 17th-, i8th- and 19thcentury culinary works at the Schlesinger Library and looking for an archival processing gig.” 2000 John M Hunter (AGI) and his wife, Lisa, announce the birth of George Brooks Hunter on March 30, 3005. Baby Brooks joins his brother, Jeb, 18 months. Andre Rodriguez (SFGI) earned his law degree in May 3004. He became a licensed attorney in Texas in November 3004. He is currently teaching nth-grade U.S. history and coaching soccer while working part time as a lawyer. Flame Schoeder (SF) and Jeremiah Roper are intensely proud to announce the birth of their daughter, Sasha Ryan Roper. She was born on May 38, 3005, at 11:59 a ™., after 58 hours of labor. She weighed in at 6 pounds, 7.7 ounces, and was 30 inches long. Writes Flame, “She brings new meaning to the word ‘wonderful.’ ” “Shortly after arriving in Brooklyn, N.Y., it came to my attention that Mike DiMezza (SFGI98) was living in the neighborhood. Although reminiscing about books is great fun, the new bond between our lives has been restoring his beautiful brownstone and discussing urban planning. Thom Barry (SF03), a mutual friend of ours, is also an integral part of our new bond. Tom and I worked together doing carpentry in Marblehead, Mass,, and in exchange he introduced me to some great urban thinkers and new wave music. Now, I am in graduate school at the Pratt Institute for urban design while he has become a foreman in Northampton, Mass. Synergies abound!” Suzannah Simmons (SF) is entering her second year of law school at Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, Fla., with an eye toward practicing real estate and animal law. “My best to SJC!” she writes. Patrick B. Reed (AGI) celebrated the birth of his first child, daughter Lucille (Lucy), on his 36th birthday in June. 2001 “Though I never attended the campus here, I ended up finding my way out to Santa Fe, where I’ve been working in the art world and pursuing my photog­ raphy for the past three years,” {The Colleges?. John's College ■ Fall 2005 } Floye Heather Wells (A) writes, “Just finished my master’s degree in ecology at Colorado State University in Fort Collins and got a job teach­ ing middle-school and high­ school science out on the plains of Colorado at the Prairie School. Drop me a line if you ever find yourself out this way: floyewells@yahoo.com �{Alumni Notes} What’s Keeping You? T here’s an online community waiting for you to join. About 2,300 alumni have registered to join the St. John’s College Online Community since the college launched the site last year. That leaves a lot of Johnnies out there who have yet to register and update their information (name, address. occupation, e-mail). Your information can only be viewed by other registered alumni, registration is fast and easy, and you can choose which information you want available for other alumni to view. To register, go to vww.stjohnscollege.edu and click on Alumni. Beyond the usual directory information, the site offers you a place to show off pictures, set up buddy lists for friends you frequently e-mail, and do some online networking. Later this fall, the college’s Career Services offices plan to begin building an online resource for career net­ working, connecting men­ tors, and posting resumes. Registered or not, alumni can use the site to learn about chapter happenings, college events, and St. John’s news. Questions or suggestions? Contact the Web master in Annapolis: victoria. smith@ sjca.edu. Classics in Santa Fe. It was Oedipal, except I wanted to kill my brothers and they wanted to sleep with the tutor. One brother, as well as Martha and Ray Wallace, asked about the lovely Ms. Schoux. Where are you Ms. Schoux? I spend my time between live/work offices in NYC’s Gramercy Park (where I lead a Johnnie-style great books group) and L.A.’s Hancock Park (where I lead a great films group-you have to go slow with Angelenos). I can be reached at Jim@Monk.com.” 2003 Meg Eisenhauer Barry and Thom Barry (both SF) are thrilled to welcome a daughter. Aviva Thomas Barry was born at home June 4 in Northampton, Mass. “We can be reached at m_eisenhauer@mac.com in case you find yourself in western Massachusetts!” infantry platoon leader,” writes Robert Morris (SF). “As an infantry officer, I am being afforded the opportunity to attend some additional schooling before I report to my unit. Right now I am in Ranger School. It is very challenging and extremely arduous. I am about to begin my third attempt to pass. The army has taught me a lot. The army’s lessons are not always fun, but they are lessons that I never would have learned from reading and reflection. Later this year I go to 2nd Brigade of the loth Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y. I have a lot of difficult work ahead of me, but it ought to be rewarding in propor­ tion to the challenge.” Last summer Justine Stewart (SF) finished up a year in St. Cloud, Minn., where she has been working as an EKG technician. She was next off to California for a two-month stint as an outdoor instructor“leading groups of students on camping trips and living out of my car and a tent. I am nervous and very excited.” Rebecca A. Dwyer (SF) kept it Jim Crotty (SFGI), is still 2002 Amelia Adams (A) writes, “After returning from a year in Zambia working with an NGO on HIV prevention and treatment, I have started at the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.” John Cottrell (A) completed law school at the University of Richmond in December 2004 and passed the bar exam in April 2005. He is practicing law in Alexandria, Va. co-president of MONK, “the company I co-founded several kalpas ago with fellow “Monk,” Michael Lane, as the publishing arm of our travel quarterly Monk: The Mobile Magazine, www.Monk.com. MONK has since birthed several offspring, including seven-year-old Monk Media, www.MonkMedia.net, a cute and bubbly web and graphic design firm; four-year-old Monk Host, www.MonkHost.net, a hitech tomboy; and recent addition Monk TV, which produces and distributes the inflammatory Crotty Farm Report, www.crottyfarmreport.com, among other channels. This past July I attended a Freud seminar with my two older brothers at St. John’s Summer short: “I’m in China!” What’s Up? Michael Kopp (EC) and Jana Phillips (SFGI) were married May 22, 2005, in Sedona, Ariz. After teaching in France for a year, they are now living in Denver, where Michael edits children’s textbooks, and Jana is a prison librarian. Michael has also been accepted for graduate study in an English Ph.D. program to begin fall 2006. 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 January; deadline for the alumni notes section is November 30. Classnotes posted to the col­ lege’s online community will also be included in The College. In Annapolis: The College Magazine St. John’s College, P.O. Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404; rosemary.harty@sjca.edu 2004 “Since graduation, I have been commissioned in the Army as a 2nd lieutenant and trained as an {The College -Sf. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } In Santa Fe: The College Magazine St. John’s College 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; alumni@sjcsf.edu �{AlumniProfile} Just a Good Ol’ Boy Chris Nelson, SFgg, Gives Dukes Fans the Scoop Wi Jason A. Bielagus, SF98 t sounds like a prank, but it’s the God-honest truth: Chris Nelson (SF99), entered a competition to become the vice president of the CMT Dukes of Hazzard Institute. To get the job, he had to demonstrate fanatical devotion to the 1980s televi­ sion series and draw up a marketing plan. (One idea: sponsor a General Lee dog sled in the Iditarod). He beat out 1,900 other applicants, debuting as the new VP at the DukesFest in Bristol, Tenn., last June. And-this is the part that really sounds made-up-he will earn $100,000 for a year of watching Dukes ofHazzard re-runs, writing a daily blog about the episodes, and making periodic public appearances in his official Dukes of Hazzard Institute orange blazer. The “Institute” is funded by CMT, a country-music cable television channel that airs reruns of the Dukes ofHazzard. For those who missed it the first time around, the show featured cousins Bo and Luke Duke driving down the dirt roads of Hazzard County in an orange ’69 Dodge Charger, the General Lee. Their fetching cousin, Daisy Duke, inspired a new fashion trend in her cutoff jeans, and bumbling sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane-firmly under the wing of corrupt Boss Hog-was regularly foiled by the clever Dukes. To promote the series and the network, CMT announced a nationwide search for a vice president. Nelson, an aspiring singer/songwriter who was then working as a part-time temp, caught an ad for the job on CMT and went after it wholeheart­ edly, creating a Web site outlining his campaign platform, sending telegrams to the network’s executives, and writing reams of Duke-inspired musings. In his application. Nelson wrote: “The Dukes ofHazzard is a wonderful program because it delivers comedy, action, and a Chris Nelson (SFgg) meets THE FAMOUS GENERAL LeE. I positive message wrapped up in lovable characters in a mythical place. It brings joy to people’s lives one hour at a time. It is my thought that the Dukes of Hazzard Institute should mirror the series in this way and strive to bring fun and enjoyment to the legions of fans all over the world and make some new ones in the process.” Nelson was one of three people chosen to be flown down to Nashville for intensive interviews, round-table discussions, oncamera interviews, and a photo shoot with the General Lee. As VP of the Dukes of Hazzard Institute, Nelson is tasked with watching the Dukes ofHazzard on CMT and summarizing each episode in his blog. In addition to publishing a blog. Nelson also makes media appearances promoting the institute. For one such appearance. Nelson appeared on the nationally broadcast Fox and Friends in the Morning. Nelson came on just after Ken Mehlman, chairman for the Republican National Committee, and just before singer Harry Connick, Jr. “That gives you an idea of where my celebrity is in the pecking order,” Nelson says. On a day free from media appearances. Nelson awakes in his Manhattan apartment sometime before noon. After having some {The College- St. John's College ■ Fall 2005 } Nescafe while reading the papers. Nelson does his calisthenics, then settles down to work on his blog. Next, he might give a few phone interviews and write treatments extolling the virtue of the Dukes. Evenings are free for socializing. Asked about the contribu­ tion that the Dukes have made to Western thought. Nelson offers, “Part of the reason why the show’s so popular, why it’s so great, is that you have muscle cars driving around on dirt roads crashing into each other, foxy ladies in skimpy outfits, lots of explosions, good fighting, great slapstick comedy, and justice delivered in just under an hour. That’s good, old-fashioned American escapism.” A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Nelson was “pretty directionless” after graduating from St. John’s. “I had heard some people were making money in this thing called ‘the Internet.’ So I moved to Austin, Texas, began selling bandwidth for an Internet company, and eventually ended up in investor relations.” After the tech bubble burst. Nelson spent many lost months in Mexico, Cuba, South America, and Colorado. The next few years found him working a string of jobs including hotel clerk, graphic designer, and food writer. Although his contract with CMT is only for a year. Nelson hopes his experience will open doors for him. “I’ve been talking a little bit about being the president of the My Two Dads Institute or the chief financial officer of the Starsky & Hutch Foundation,” he says, Lookfor Nelson’s blog at WWW. cmtdukesinstitute. com �{Obituaries} Santa Fe tutor Ralph SwENTZEL, CIRCA 1969. Rai,I’ll SwEMZELL, HA95 Santa Fe Tutor Retired Santa Fe tutor Ralph Swentzell died on June 16, 3005, following a lengthy strug­ gle with prostate cancer. Mr. Swentzell was born in East Paterson, N.J., and attended Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M., where he earned his degree in psychology in 1963. He joined the faculty in Santa Fe in 1966 and retired in 3003. He was one of the most innovative members of the faculty, having a profound impact on the laboratory and music tutorials, and contributing to an ongoing dialogue concerning the language tutorials. His extensive handwritten notes on all subjects of the laboratory, mathematics, and music tutorials were his means of making the subjects completely his own, including, for instance, a resolution of the rod-and-slot paradox of special relativity. He created a computer-based Chinese language lexicon for the college’s Eastern Classics program, and his computer modeling of non-Euclidean geometry yielded fascinating insights. He was also adept in class discussions. Above all, his persistent curiosity, spirit of inquiry, and good-willed enthusiasm inspired colleagues and students alike. A memorial service for Mr. Swentzell is planned for early fall in Santa Fe. The College will publish selections from the memorial service in an upcoming edition. John Sarkissian, HA03 Annapolis Tutor by Gerald Bunker John Ludwig Sarkissian, a long-time tutor at St. John’s College, died July ii, 3005, at his home in Annapolis. He was born in Chicago, eldest son of Eleisha and Araxie, both natives of Istanbul who fled the TurkishArmenian troubles. In 1939, he began his studies in biology at the University of Chicago, hut left the uni­ versity in 1943 to enlist in the Army. For the rest of his life he delighted in regaling his friends and family with war stories, which may have improved in the retelling. Some facts are that he initially trained at Princeton as a military administrator in Italy. After the fall of Italy, he shipped out to the Pacific as an intelligence operative, was stationed in New Guinea, and was part of the retaking of Manila. Resuming his academic career, he received his B.S. from the University of Illinois in 1946 and his M.A. in 1948, He was an instructor in biological and physical sciences at the University of Chicago, the Pestalozzi-Froebel Teachers College, the University of Indiana, and the University of Illinois. The high point of his career as a research biologist came when he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the Institute of Human Heredity at the University of Bologna, Italy. In 1963, he came to St. John’s, where he established a sophomore program that taught biological evolution through dissection. Mr. Sarkissian was an ardent traveler and naturalist. To the end of his life he remained a voracious reader. After his retirement in 1984 he kept active in all his favorite activi­ ties, becoming a docent at the Smithsonian Institution and a lifelong student of world history, Russian, French, Greek, and Latin. He is survived by a daughter, Julia Oaten; his former wife, Flor Bunker; and a brother, Vincent. Jerome LaPides, HA91 Board of Visitors and Governors Jerome LaPides, who served on the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors for nearly two decades, died on May ii, 3005, at his home in Santa Fe. As a board member from 1973-1991, LaPides was a generous supporter of the college, having {The College. St. /oZira’5 College ■ Fall 2005 } 43 established with his father, Joseph, the LaPides Scholarship Fund in 1979. He also played a key role in overseeing construction of Santa Fe’s Meem Library. Born in Baltimore, Mr. LaPides graduated from the Naval Academy in 1951 and later served as an Air Force captain stationed in Japan. In 1956 he entered the corporate world, joining the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company in Baltimore and opening the company’s Annapolis location. His extensive community service included serving on the board of the Anne Arundel Medical Center, and as a trustee of Key School and Severn School. He was president of the LaPides Foundation, which has supported many different causes over the years, including animal welfare, community development, environment and conservation, fine arts, higher education, women’s issues, and child welfare. In 1988, Mr. LaPides retired as the president and owner of Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company in Annapolis. After moving to New Mexico, he and his wife. Allene, opened the LaPides Gallery. In addition to his wife, his survivors include his son, John M. LaPides; his daughters Ann L. Misenheimer and Jane R. LaPides; and five grandchildren. Admiral James Stockdale Board of Visitors and Governors Retired Vice Admiral James Stockdale, who died in July at his home in California, served on the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors from 1981 to 1987. Admiral Stockdale, a Navy pilot who endured seven years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, became one of the most highly decorated officers in the history of the Navy. He received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest tribute for valor in action. Admiral Stockdale was born in Illinois and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1947. The Navy sent him to Stanford University for a master’s degree, and there he became enamored of the Greek stoic philosophers. Admiral Stockdale served on the USS Oriskany and flew 301 missions before he was shot down in September 1965. Shackled in leg irons for two years, and in solitary confinement for four, he endured torture and degradation at the Hoa Lo Prison, but would not give in to his captors. continued on nextpage �44 continuedfromp. 40 Admiral Stockdale and his fellow prisoners were freed in 1973. He served as president of the Naval War College, where he also taught philosophy and developed an ethics course, and later was president of The Citadel in South Carolina. In 1981, he joined the Hoover Institution, where he was a senior research fellow. Erik S. Kristensen, AGI99 Navy Seal by Andrew Ranson, AGIoo Erik Kristensen, 33, a lieutenant command­ er in the Navy SEALs, died June 18, 2005, in Afghanistan. He was leading a rescue mission when his Chinook helicopter was shot down by Afghan insurgents. Erik and I were fast friends the minute we met as classmates in the Graduate Institute in January 2000.1 had just moved to Annapolis from San Diego; Erik, a 1995 graduate of the Naval Academy, had lived there off and on for years and was teaching English at the academy. We spent hours upon hours talking about everything we could think of that winter, and during the spring, our conversations continued as we played Frisbee on front campus. Erik lived the examined life that Socrates spoke of; he was the best example of self-reflection I’ve known. Now that he’s gone, those of us who were close to him have been examining our own lives, noting how he influenced us. He had many gifts; he was a terrific writer and had a fantastic sense of humor. Always the life of the party, Erik stuffed a centerpiece into his shirt pocket and then hammed it up for the camera at my wedding. He was smart and creative, laid-back and intense, curious and fearless. Since he had grown up a Navy brat and lived all over the world, he was great at staying in touch with people over great distances and long stretches of time. He had a keen appreciation for the little things in Ufe: the perfect fish taco, good music from all genres, a well-made movie. He was a wonderful listener, making you feel that what you said really mattered. Erik rarely complained about anything; he seemed to see the bright side of life at every moment. One of his most endearing qualities was that he was such a dependable and supportive friend. His generosity, selflessness, and compassion for others were unparalleled. {Obituaries} Erik was sent to SEAL training midway through his studies and had planned to return in a few years, when his Navy commitment was finished. He loved the contemplative life and discussing the Program so much, I had difficulty under­ standing how he could join a Special Forces team where action and danger dominated over contemplation. I realized only after he died that he truly believed that his duty was ''Those who delivered his eulogies spoke ofhis insatiable thirstfor life, his compassion, and his desire to connect with those he loved. Andrew Ranson (AGIoo) to make sure that in potentially volatile situations, there was someone in a position to make decisions who had contemplated the larger truths in life. He knew that others depended on him for just this. At his funeral, more than 2,000 friends and family members filled the Naval Academy Chapel. Those who delivered his eulogies spoke of his insatiable thirst for life, his compassion, and his desire to connect with those he loved. He was laid to rest with full honors on Hospital Point at the Naval Academy. Since Socrates often came up in our conversations, I thought it fitting that this passage from The Republic leapt off the page at me recently. I picked the book up, think­ ing of Erik and how our friendship was cemented over discussions of it. Erik would blush at being compared to Socrates’ description of a philosopher, but I think those who knew Erik will find it quite appro­ priate. Socrates asks Glaucon, “But the one who is willing to taste every kind of learning with gusto, and who approaches learning with delight, and is insatiable, we shall justly assert to be a philosopher, won’t we?” (475d). Farewell to a great man, a true Johnnie, and a wonderful friend. {The College. 5f. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } John David Hindle-Hardt AGI96 A generous nature and giving spirit is reflected in an essay John David HindleHardt (AGI96) wrote on hospitality: “The Greek word Philoxenia means love of strangers. We are apt to forget in our culture that hospitality is not something we extend to friends or neighbors, but rather to the stranger, the outcast.. .The Latin word (hospes, hospitis) specifies the particular shape this love takes: the offering of a place to those who have none. . .” Mr. Hindle-Hardt, who was killed in an automobile accident on September 9, 2004, in Portland, Maine, had dedicated much of his life to helping those who might be considered outcasts of society. He believed that all people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and this shone through in his life’s work and in his friendships. At the time of his death, he was employed by Creative Work Systems, an organization that sought to enable persons with cogni­ tive, physical, and psychiatric handicaps to gain self-sufficiency. Prior to working in Maine, Mr. Hindle-Hardt had worked as a volunteer for a residential community for the handicapped in Toronto. For three years, he was residential director of a men’s home in Richmond, Va. In addition to working as a teacher for several years, he also tutored Asian immigrants at a refugee and resettlement center and taught adults how to read in Annapolis. In these settings, “his compassion and kindness and giving nature found true expression,” according to his friend Joel Werkema. Those who knew him describe Mr. HindleHardt as someone with a great sense of humor and a serious purpose in fife. “When you were with him, he made you feel as though you were the center of attention,” said Paula Swann (AGI97). “And if he wasn’t making you laugh, he would involve you in deep and meaningful conversations about academics, friendship, and life.” “It was common knowledge that amidst all of J.D.’s hilarious stories and jokes there would be these sensitive and supportive words of encouragement right when someone needed them most,” said Jennifer Stanbro (AGI96). Hardt is survived by his mother, Martha Hindle-Hardt Rice; his stepfather, Donald N. Rice; and his sister, Meg Hardt. �{Obituaries} Tevtna Benedict, SF73 Tevina Benedict, 54, was killed in a fall on May 7, aoof), while hiking on the Oregon coast. Born Decemher a, 1950, in Chicago, Ill., she became a passionate advocate for social justice after graduating from St. John’s. She worked on the New Mexico Review and participated in the founding of La Clinica de la Gente. After moving to Portland in 1980, Ms. Benedict served on the staff of the Governor’s Commission of the Uninsured, on the board of Neighborcare Health Clinic, and for Oregon Health Decisions. She staffed the group that created the first Oregon Advance Directive/living will. After moving to Eugene in 1989 she worked at the Oregon Department of Health Policy and with the Oregon Health Action Campaign to support and expand the found­ ing of what is now the Oregon Health Plan. She later earned a master’s degree in public health policy from the University of Oregon. Her survivors include her husband, Dave Barta, and daughter. Erica Benedict-Barta. 45 Ellen Becker, SFGI87 Ellen “Ellie” Becker died at her home in Santa Fe on June ii, 2005, at age 54, from cancer. She leaves behind her husband, Ron Hale, former director of Career Planning and part-time tutor on the Santa Fe cam­ pus; sons Jesse, 27, and Luke, 24; and two grandchildren. Ms. Becker worked as an editor, journalist, and writer, including stints at Mothering Magazine, the Museum of New Mexico, and at newspapers in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. In addition to her master’s degree from St. John’s, she had received a bachelor’s degree from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt. internship and residency in internal medicine at Union Memorial Hospital. From 1966 to 1968, he served in the Navy. He joined Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis in 1970 and maintained a private practice. “He was one of the most eminent cardiol­ ogists in the area, a Vietnam war veteran, and a wonderful person all around,” said Annapolis tutor Tom May. Dr. Brimhall is survived by his wife, two children, and two grandchildren. Also noted: Robert Gamble, AGI97, April 2005 Rodney Brimhall, AGI89 William C. Hill, class of 1946, December Dr. Rodney Lee Brimhall, an internist and director of a cardiac rehabilitation program at, died July 30 in Annapolis. He was 69. In the midst of his successful medical career. Dr. Brimhall enrolled in the Graduate Institute program at St. John’s. Dr. Brimhall was born and raised in Jacksonville, Fla. He earned his medical degree from the University of Florida College of Medicine and completed an 2004 George Lyon, Jr. class of 1940, January 2005 Robert Scott Massey, SF70, July 2004 Henry Clay Smith, class of 1934, July 15, 2005 John B. Traci y III, A83, May 2005 A Poem for Michael Slakey An obituary for Michael Slakey (A85), who died of cancer earlier this year in France, ran in the Spring 2005 edition of The College magazine. We add this remembrance of Mr. Slakey, taken from the many tributes from the classmates who spoke at a memorial service for him earlier this year. It was written by Eric Vesper (A86). The Old Rooms — For Fred and Lesley Israel When Slakey and I correspond in the high language, I address him as S. Croft and he calls me Leopold. Shut off from one another like rooms, passing letters as if through cracks under doors - we take them like wafers, transubstantiate tokens of the land near St. Michael’s where we learned to laugh at ourselves. Once I found Slakey in town Michael Slakey with his CHILDREN slowly rising to meet the swift tide. Perhaps the fabric of old novels weaves into the present in ways we don’t see yet, asleep in a graveyard on the long stone of S. Croft Register. We know a priest who hunts. He curses us for driving in the fields because geese won’t land when they see signs of humans. It is easier to ignore the clergy, for geese and humans, when they don’t have guns. the turn of the binding opening a place where we see ourselves folded into the page. We no longer have need of prophecy. We have given names to the friends in our story, poured late libations on still embers and watched the sun rise through the shelves By day, we plug our ears with electric guitars. At night we open them to the music in the fire, the slow burn a symphony {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } of old rooms where we rest, where even dust, floating in the light, or pulled into corners, proves forces are at work against us. �46 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Dear Alumni, As a student, I didn’t want to be bothered with the administrative life of the college. I cared whether tutors were focused on their work, facili­ ties were clean and safe, lab equipment maintained, and food and mail were delivered on time. Like most adolescents, I missed the connections between these concerns and the focus on truth and beauty that filled my time with friends and books in conversation. My mother’s checkbook and the college’s income statement seemed irrelevant then. Today I understand-for myself and my clients-how administrative decisions directly affect real experience every day. Today, alumni are engaged in all facets of the administrative life of the college. Chris Nelson (SF70) is president of the Annapolis campus. Both deans are alumni: Michael Dink (A75) in Annapolis and David Levine (A67) in Santa Fe. Each of these alumni and many other faculty and staff have committed their professional lives to the college’s academic and institu­ tional well-being. CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowforinformation about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-275-9012 BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen 410-472-9158 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin Gammon 410-280-0958 BOSTON Diane Cowan 617-666-4381 dianecowan@rcn.com AUSTIN John Strange 210-392-5506 Bev Angel 512-926-7808 CHICAGO Rick Lightburn lightburn@ earthlink.net Others integrate concerns for the col­ lege with their diverse professional and personal lives as volunteers in a variety of college programs. Philanthropia is an all­ alumni organization that supports the fund-raising activities of the college. The Alumni Association Board of Directors, though an independently chartered organi­ zation, works with the college to connect more alumni, more often, and more richly. Local Alumni Association chapters, hosts for prospective receptions, active network­ ers, and class leaders for homecomings and special events-all make significant contri­ butions of time and attention to be sure the college is well cared for and healthy. Another important role for alumni in the college is on the Board of Visitors and Governors (BVG). This body is responsible for governance and oversight of all aspects of the college. As you can imagine, alumni are engaged in many ways in leadership of this body. The chair of the board is an alumna, Sharon Bishop (A65). Of the total 60 members of the BVG, currently 36 are alumni of the graduate or undergraduate programs, and seven are honorary alumni who have been recognized by the Alumni Association for their contributions to the St. John’s community. Nine of these BVG members are nominated and elected by the Alumni Association to serve as contributing participants in decisions that affect the good of the college and its broader community of alumni. In July, three new Alumni Association members joined the board. Michael MacDonald (SF76) has a professional life in the record production DALLAS/FORT WORTH Suzanne Lexy Bartlette 817-721-9112 DENVER/BOULDER Lee Katherine Goldstein 720-746-1496 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 business. He lives in New York City. Sanjay Poovadan (SF83) lives in El Prado, N. M., where he farms and maintains a business consulting practice. Joel Ard (Ag5) is an attorney in Washington, D.C. These three join Susan Allen (SFGI89), Robert Bienenfeld (SF80), Evan Dudik (A72), Bill Fant (A7g), Thomas Stern (SF68), and Steve Thomas (SF74) as Alumni Association representatives to the Board of Visitors and Governors. Our thanks to each of them and thanks to all alumni who commit portions of their busy lives to build and maintain the institutional strength of St. John’s College. If you are interested in exploring ways you can be more involved, please contact me (geoyang@hsdinstitute.org or 763-7837206) or Annapolis alumni director Jo Ann Mattson (jamattson@sjca.edu, or 410-2956ga6). Don’t forget the wonderful online com­ munity that keeps you in touch with the college and with alumni around the globe. As of today, 2,295 alumni have joined the community. That is almost a third of our goal-the 9,000 alumni of St. John’s College. To register, to encourage others, or to use the community to contact your friends, go to; www.stjohnscollege.edu and click on Alumni. I look forward to seeing you online or at our next homecoming celebration! Sincerely, Glenda H. Eoyang (SF76) President St. John’s College Alumni Association NEW YORK Daniel Van Doren 914-949-6811 SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 NORTHERN CALIF. Deborah Farrell 415-731-8804 SANTA FE Richard Cowles 505-986-1814 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 5^15-465-0^44 SEATTLE Amina Brandt 206-465^781 PITTSBURGH Joanne Murray 724-325-4151 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 PORTLAND Lake Perriguey lake@law-works .com {The College -Sf. John’s College ■ Fall aooj } TRIANGLE CIRCLE (NC) Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 WASHINGTON, D.C. Deborah Papier 202-387-4520 drpapier® starpower.net WESTERN NEW ENGLAND Julia Ward 413-648-0064 �{Alumni Association News} In South Florida, a Multicultural Group Savors Conversation A certain half-truth makes it easy for Pedro J. Mar­ tinez-Fraga (A84) to get a table at a favorite Miami restaurant. “If I call and use the name Pedro Mar­ tinez, they think it’s the pro baseball player, and I always get a table,’” he says. But a thirst for deep­ er truths inspired Mar­ tinez-Fraga, a partner with an international law firm, to form the South Florida alumni group last year. The South Florida group is one of several informal groups around the country bringing Johnnies together for sem­ inars and social gather­ ings. Some just want to keep the conversations going; others hope to eventually form an official Alumni Association chapter. A little more than a year ago, Pittsburgh Johnnies gained their charter as an official chapter. In Miami, the group has been united by its “collective love of conversation,” says Martinez-Fraga. Jon Sackson (A69) co­ founded the group and helps coordinate events, which so far have focused on revisit­ ing Program books. At one of their meetings last spring, Annapolis tutor Nick Maistrellis and his wife, Judy (A71), joined the chapter for a seminar on the last four books of Plato’s Republic. “We savor the process of getting together, talking, laughing, and sharing a time and space where our only concerns are limited to questioning and discussing those issues that have long fascinated the authors of the great and greatest books written in our Western tradition,” says Martinez-Fraga. He describes the group as a “vivid multi­ cultural, professional tapestry” including lawyers, bankers, teachers, an architect, and a self-employed information processor. Some travel from as far as 50 miles away to attend gatherings. The group votes on what to read, when to meet, which tutors to invite to visit.“That the books can bring us together despite the assaults of everyday life, domestic demands, professional 47 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 elect­ ed 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 - Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary -Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer - Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team Chair- Linda Stabler-Talty, SFGI76 Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, P.O Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404, or tt6o Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. The Miami alumni reading Group stemmed FROM Pedro Martinez-Fraga’s Dedication TO St. John’s. exigencies, and personal preferences, in itself is a source of marvelous wonder,” says Martinez-Fraga. These Johnnies’ devotion to the college extends to the famous St. John’s seminar chair. At their initiative, the bookstore in Annapolis worked with the chair’s manufac­ turer, E.A. Clore and Sons, to make a chair with the St. John’s logo available for pur­ chase. “Like the Johnnies themselves, these chairs are so similar, yet so individual and unique,” Martinez-Fraga says. Here’s a look at two other alumni reading groups and what brings them together: Western New England Peter Weis (SF84), a librarian at Northfield Mount Hermon School, hosts conversations at a seminar-style table in his home in Montague, Mass.: “We’re low key, yet serious at the same time. We meet on Sunday afternoons every two months. There has always been convivi­ ality and food but we focus on the discus­ sion. Speaking for myself, it’s nice to get together for a serious conversation about what on the surface is a neutral topic, not {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall aooj } politics, not current events. When we dis­ cussed the Constitution it was amazing how long the conversations stayed away from current events-it was really about the document. We don’t stick exclusively to Program readings. The first seminar, about two years ago, was on Flannery O’Connor.” Salt Lake City Erin Hanlon (SF03), a graduate student in biology at the University of Utah, launched the Salt Lake City alumni group last year: “I formed the alumni group because I really missed St. John’s and my fellow John­ nies. It was a year since I had graduated and I had just started graduate school at a large research university. The difference between the university and St. John’s was so great that I felt a great deal of culture shock. I missed being more active about my educa­ tion. . .Our first seminar was on Martin Luther Kings Jr.’s birthday, and so we read King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Some­ thing in that made us think of the funeral oration of Pericles. From there we went to Job, then the Myth ofSisyphus by Camus. Our next seminar is going to be on The Dream ofa Ridiculous Man by Dostoevski. Occasionally the readings and seminars are more social. Robert Sacks led our last seminar and his visit inspired a bit more socializing. �48 {St. John’sForever} Room for Improvement he college issues no formal grade report today (students can ask the Registrar for their grades), but in 1873, the parents of prep students at St. John’s received a bi-monthly grade report. This featured a “Scale of Merit as applied to Conduct and Studies” that started with “excellent” (5) and went to “blameworthy” (o). On the back was this printed exhortation from James M. Gar­ nett, principal; “I beg leave to call attention to the accompany­ ing Tabular Statement, in which you will find a Report of the sev­ eral studies pursued by your Son (or Ward) during the last two months in this institution and also of his proficiency and stand­ ing in each separate study. The Scale of Merit explains the nota­ tion employed. All marks falling below 21/2 are meant to signify that his deficiency is so serious as to call for animadversion, deserving to be more or less emphatic in proportion as his grade approximates more or less nearly to o.” Grades were earned through a student’s “daily recitations” along with written examinations held at the end of the term. A student whose recitations and examinations “evince an inca­ pacity on his part” to pursue the studies of his class could face being knocked back a grade. This report issued to Hopewell H. Bar­ roll of the second prep class on April 26, 1873, shows good grades for arithmetic, history, English grammar, and modern geography. Garnett added a personal remark: “Doing well, but room for improvement in Latin.” It’s possible that T Barroll-later to become a prominent Chestertown, M<L, lawyer-received a similar report for his son, L. Wethered Barroll, a member of the class of 1907. Garnett was president of St. John’s from 1870-1880; he later went on to become a professor at the University of Virginia. {The College- St. John’s College . Fall 2005 } H.H. Barroll’s report card shows no “Blameworthy” grade. �{Alumni Events Calendar} Windy City Shindig umni in Philadelphia, Boston, and San Francisco have had the opportunity to attend a special alumni gathering featuring Christopher Nelson, president of the Annapolis campus, and Michael Peters, president in Santa Fe. Now it’s Chicago’s turn. Chicago-area alumni are invited to the “Evening of Conversation” on Tuesday, Nov. 15, at the Standard Cluh, 320 South Plymouth Court. The event has a simple format: socializing begins at 6 p.m. with beer, wine, and hors d’oeuvres. At 7:15, i the presidents provide an overview of the 9 college’s academic and financial status, talk about plans for the future Capital Campaign at the college, answer questions, and visit with alumni. The event ends at about 9 p.m., but Johnnies have been known to gather in small groups and keep the conversation going. The event is free of charge. For more information, or to RSVP, call Gina Lee in the Annapolis Advancement office at 410-295-5557 or e-mail gina.lee@sjca.edu. More events are planned in other for 2006. Matthew Reiter (sFoa) and Katherine Greco (sFoa) were among THE ALUMNI WHO TURNED OUT FOR A GATHERING IN PHILADELPHIA. Santa Fe Summer Alumni Week July aoo6 Santa Fe Homecoming Julya8-3O, aoo6 nd Homecoming in Santa Fe. This year, a special dinner for all alumni, part of the college’s upcoming Capital Campaign, launches the weekend, with picnics, seminars, and parties continuing through the weekend. Annapolis Homecoming Sept. 29-Oct.i, 2006. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } For information on events, contact: Jo Ann Mattson Office of Alumni Activities, Annapolis 410-626-2531 alumni@sjca.edu Marnelli Hamilton Office of Alumni and Parent Activities, Santa Fe 505-984-6103 alumni@sicsf.edu �Periodicals SIJOHN’S COLLEGE Postage Paid ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE Published by the Communications Office P.O. Box 2800 Annapolis, Maryland 21404 address service requested »»«»«*»»»«»» DI GIT Q7529 S2SO Pl 15976 ANNl MS. AMV MCCOHHELL FBftHKLlH HC 74 BOX 24512 BL PBftBO HM 87529-9540 � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 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 The College, Fall 2005 Description An account of the resource Volume 31, Issue 3 of The College Magazine. Published in Fall 2005. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-09 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 31, Issue Fall 2005 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Harty, Rosemary (editor) Dempsey, Patricia Hartnett, John Behrens, Jennifer Bielagus, Jason Goyette, Barbara Maguran, Andra Mattson, Jo Ann Naone, Erica Vega, Libby White, Roseanna Johnson, David Pattenroth, Kim Marmion, Simon Sullivan, Ezra Stone, Donald Eoyang, Glenda H. The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/6ac89f193dc04cd89da823b16684ac8f.pdf e56e5e9f4f2310153182d7cf8b4adf85 PDF Text Text �On Melville n an acclaimed new biography of Herman Melville ^Melville: His World and Work), Andrew Delbanco writes of how Melville drew on his experiences as a seafarer to create his masterwork, Moby-Dick. However, Melville was at a point in his literary career where he was ready to go beyond the adventure stories of his popular earlier novels, Typee, Omoo, and White-Jacket. During a picnic on Monument Mountain, not far from Melville’s country home, the Melville had been engaged in extensive reading, and a fateful meeting-with author took cover during a rainstorm with Nathaniel Hawthorne, then 46 and much another author in 1850 had such a powerful influence on him that he admired by the younger writer. The two hours the men spent in conversation, according approached his work-in-progress with an entirely new vision. to Delbanco, left Melville filled with new aspirations. After that meeting, he revised his novel with perspective gained from all the great works he had immersed himself in: the Bible, Paradise Lost, Wc. Aeneid, Frankenstein, and Shakespeare’s tragedies. He accomplished a “stylistic breakthrough,” Delbanco tells us, but the transformation went much deeper: “In his fever of creation, Melville became Emerson’s proverbial poet, whose ‘imperial muse tosses the creation like a bauble from hand to hand, and uses it to embody any caprice of thought that is uppermost in his mind.’ His book opened out into the panorama of history and myth to which he had been exposed in his reading, from the Western scriptures to Eastern tales of dervishes and devil worshippers.” The publication of Moby-Dick in September 1851 came during a remarkable period for American literature, when Americans were struggling with soul-wrenching issues such as slavery which would determine the character of our nation. Between 1850 and 1855, seven important books were published: Emerson’s Representative Men-, Thoreau’s Walden, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and The House ofSeven Gables, Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, and Melville’s Moby-Dick and Pierre. Moby-Dick a great commercial disappointment, selling only 2,300 copies in its first months. The reviews were mixed. “The intense Captain Ahab is too long drawn out; something more of him might, we think, be left to the reader’s imagination,” wrote the reviewer for Literary World. The London Morning Post-was more insightful, if not exactly prophetic: “There is much that is incredible and a little that is incomprehensible in this latest effort of Mr. Melville’s wayward and romantic pen; but despite its occasional extravagancies, it is a book of extraordinary merit, and one which will do great things for the literary reputation of its author.” His next novel, Pierre, drew on Melville’s life story, growing up in a family of distinction but greatly reduced circumstances. His hopes of surviving on his literary efforts crushed, Melville took a menial job as a customs inspector. He died in debt and obscurity in 1891. Billy-Budd, a book that alternates with Benito Cereno on the reading list for senior seminar today, was greeted with critical acclaim when published in 1924. Johnnies who enjoy making literary excursions can visit Arrowhead, the 1780 farm­ house in Pittsfield, Mass., where Melville wrote his great novel. Those whose devotion to the novel goes even further may want to take part in one of several annual marathon readings Moby-Dick, such as one held aboard the Charles W. Morgan, the last surviving wooden whaling vessel, or another held at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, not far from where Melville shipped out on the Achushnet in 1841. -RII I STJOHN’S College ANNAPOLIS . SANTA FE The College (usps 018-750) is published quarterly by St. John’s College, Annapohs, 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 postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. Rosemary Harty, editor Patricia Dempsey, managing editor John Hartnett (SF83), Santa Fe editor Jennifer Behrens, art director Annapolis 410-626-2539 Santa Fe 505-984-6104 Contributors Sus3an Borden (A87) Barbara Goyette (A73) Caroline Knapp (SF99) Andra Maguran Jo Ann Mattson (A87) Erica Naone (A05) Chris Utter (A06) Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �"I "I College Vol The ZINE FOR Alumni of St. John’s College y Annapolis • {Contents} PAGE IO DEPARTMENTS Santa Fe Welcomes a President At his Inauguration in October, President Michael Peters received a warm welcome and pledges of support from both the St. John’s and Santa Fe communities. PAGE Iz| Lives in their Hands 8 LETTERS 9 HISTORY Bibliofile Peter Pesic takes up a standard childhood question. Linda Weiner considers the limitations of science. Losing Moby PAGE Miss Brann Honored by the NEH Santa Fe GI Program Supports Teachers Intellectual Fisticuffs in Annapolis Fishpond Renovations Johnnies on the Water Helping New Orleans Grant Aids in Shoreline Restoration 30 20 How Moby-Dick has submerged and resurfaced over the years offers a bit of insight into decisions about the college’s reading list. FROM THE BELL TOWERS • • • • • • • Gil Crandall (class 011936) shares memories of being a “rat.” Working with wood, metal, and glass, four Johnnies make beautiful and enduring objects. PAGE a 3a ALUMNI NOTES PAGE 18 PROFILES 3a Joseph Houseal (A84) follows his love of 26 dance to the Himalayas. 36 Fighting fear with reason; David Veazey O, Pioneers! (A97) fights a deadly disease. 39 Shana Hack (A95) follows a dream. Homecoming in Annapolis features a tribute to the women of the Class of 1955. 41 Entrepreneur Paul Laur (SFGI95) keeps family at the heart of his business. 48 OBITUARIES Remembering Santa Fe Tiitor Ralph Swentzell. 48 STUDENT VOICES PAGE 26 After Katrina: Writer Sara Roahen (SF94) describes a visit home. 50 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS ON THE COVER Herman Melville Illustration by DavidJohnson 5a ST. John’s FOREVER �{From the Bell Towers} Miss Brann GJoes to the White House Annapolis Tutor is one of Twelve NEH Medalists November lo and ii were whirlwind days for long-time Annapolis tutor Eva Brann: feted at an award dinner hosted by the National Endow­ ment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C., meeting George W. and Laura Bush in the Oval Office, and being one of the guests of honor at a State Dinner with lumi­ naries including Judith Martin (Miss Manners) and actor Robert Duval. But what is one of the first things she mentions when asked to recount the experience? The books she was given. One was a novel, Henry and Clara, written by NEH’s acting deputy chairman, Tom Mallon, who sat at her table during the awards dinner. “It is about Henry Rathbone, who was in the box with Lincoln when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre. He later goes stark raving mad and kills his wife. Thebookwas very well done,” Miss Brann says. The second was Thieves ofBaghdad, a new work published by a fellow honoree, Col. Matthew Bogdanos, who wrote about the efforts he led to save Iraq’s antiquities. “It is a thriller,” Miss Brann says. “The work he did required courage and ingenuity.” In addition to bringing home a couple of very good books, there was another tremendously gratifying aspect to the events. Miss Brann says. Both President Bush and NEH Chairman Bruce Cole referred to St. John’s as a “national treasure,” something that caused her to glow with pride. “It is nice to know that the college has a reputation in Washington and with the NEH that is real and serious,” she says. Miss Brann learned at the end of October that she was selected to receive the National Humanities Medal, given in recognition of outstanding scholarship. The honor is awarded to those “whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities, broadened citizens’ engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand America’s access to important humanities resources.” The news came from Mr. Cole, who phoned her personally. “I was dumbstruck,” Miss Brann recalls. Soon after, she received a call from the White House social secretary, who filled her in on the protocol for the White House ceremony with the President and the State Dinner. Miss Brann, who gets by with the most basic of wardrobes, was forced to go on a shopping spree, buying three outfits. She added costume jewelry that has been in her family for decades. “My father was a doctor in Brooklyn, and when patients had no money to pay, they would bring him their jewelry,” she explains. Miss Brann could choose three guests to accompany her; she invited her pubUsher and good friend Paul Dry and his wife. Cede, of Philadelphia. The third invitation went to Annapolis President Christopher Nelson (SF70). The three attended a reception and dinner at the Madison Hotel, where Miss Brann was pleased to meet one of her personal heroines, Judith Martin. “I told her, ‘you’re the ruler of my life! ’ She was very nice.” The next morning. Miss Brann, her guests, Meeting President George W. Bush AND First Lady Laura Bush was and other honorees were EXCITING, BUT THE BEST PART, ACCORDING picked up by bus and TO Christopher Nelson and Eva brought to the White Brann, was hearing St. John’s praised House. One by one, the AS A “national treasure.” honorees were led into the Oval Office. “I went in and Mrs. Bush and the President greeted me very kindly,” she says. “We had our picture taken, and the President said, ‘you have a nice smile! ’ He was very fit and very friendly.” The President hung her medal around her neck, and soon all the medalists and their guests were gathered in the Oval Office. “After talking with Miss Manners, the President said, ‘I think now that I’ll send you over to the Congress.’ ” The President told his guests about some of the famous items in the Oval Office, including the Resolute desk, made from the timbers of the H.M.S. Resolute, a gift from Queen Victoria to President Hayes. “Then he said he had to go-’I’m going to meet the president of Yemen,’ he said, ‘to talk to him very seriously about terrorism.’ ” Many speeches followed at the NEH ceremony at the Metropol­ itan Club. “Again, the college was very much to the fore,” Miss Brann said. Next, the honorees were brought to the NEH Building for a panel discussion. “I was asked whom I would most like to meet among the dead-I said Lincoln.” St. John’s student Mark McClay (A09), whose father. Bill McClay (A73), is a member of the National Humanities Council, attended the discussion. “It was very nice to have a student there,” Miss Brann says. “I made him absent from lab.” {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } continued on nextpage �{From the Bell Towers} Supporting Teachers A Generous Gift Will Provide Santa Fe GI Scholarships Robert Warren (SFGI93) and his wife, Carol, signed a planned giving agreement that establishes a scholarship for working teachers pursuing master’s degrees in the Graduate Institute in Santa Fe. The agreement, signed in December, will provide financial assistance to students attending either the Liberal Arts or the Eastern Classics programs who are full-time primary or secondary school teachers and living and working in New Mexico. The need-based scholar­ ship may be granted to either full-time or part-time students in the graduate program. The scholarship, tentatively valued at between $325,000 and $475,000, will be funded by a percentage of the Warrens’ residuary estate. The Warrens believe in the value of a St. John’s education and are particularly interested in supporting the Graduate Insti­ tute. Moreover, they want their gift to recognize the value of the GI to individual teachers living and working in New Mexico because they believe the program enhances teachers’ effectiveness in the classroom. When he attended the Grad­ uate Institute from 1991 to 1993, Bob Warren saw educators who were committed to teaching and to learning but who did not have the resources to complete their graduate studies in the same timeframe as other students. “I was with a number of teachers who were doing the GI one-third of a segment at a time. The reason was money,” he says. Warren is glad to be able to help teachers who must take out loans. “If we can help free someone to get out from under that rock of graduate school debt, then it’s undeniably a worthwhile undertaking,” he says. Krishnan Venkatesh, director of the Graduate Institute, says that teachers need this kind of assistance. In New Mexico, the average starting salary for teachers is approximately $27,500. The Warren Family Scholar­ ship at St. John’s College is the Warren’s fourth endowment to a college. They have established and funded scholarships at his and Carol’s alma maters, Hobart and William Smith College in Geneva, New York, at Cathohc University’s Columbus School of Law, where Bob earned his J.D., and a single funded scholarship to enable an underprivileged Seneca Indian girl to attend a private elementary and secondary school in Bob’s hometown of Buffalo, N.Y. For Bob Warren, creating the Graduate Institute scholarship is something he has wanted to do for a long time. He hopes that Carol Warren, Santa Fe President Mike Peters, Robert Warren (SFGI93), and Santa Fe GI Director Krishnan Venkatesh celebrate a new SCHOLARSHIP THE WaRRENS HAVE Others will follow in his foot­ steps; in particular, he would like to see more support for the Graduate Institute in Santa Fe. “Education is everything,” he says. “What’s happened to the idea that anyone who could do well academically could receive a higher education in this country? It’s become reprehensibly expensive, curtailing that opportunity for many who deserve better.” Santa Fe president Mike Peters was delighted with the Warrens’ support of the Graduate Institute. “This is the kind of continuing commitment to the college that is really vital,” he says. While the Warrens’ scholar­ ship agreement will help Graduate Institute teachers in Santa Fe at some time in the future, the college’s own National Educator’s Grant is available now to support teachers in the GI on both campuses. For full-time public or private school teachers with at least three years of teaching experience, the college will grant a scholarship to pursue either of the college’s graduate programs. The grant provides one-third of either program’s tuition. Administrators, curriculum developers, and other educational professionals are also eligible for this new grant. —AndraMaguran ENDOWED. continued After resting and changing into her formal wear, it was back to the White House for the State Dinner. “It was very elegant, without being overpowering,” Miss Brann says of the event. “There were endless, beautiful corridors, a quartet playing Mozart.” She and President Nelson took their places in the receiving line, “and this was really the high point,” Miss Brann says, “President Bush said, ‘Good evening, Eva. You have a wonderful college.’ ” Miss Brann was seated at a table with Mrs. Bush. “We sat down to a wonderful dinner,” followed by a performance by Allen Toussaint, a jazz musician and composer who had lost his New Orleans home in Hurricane Katrina. Miss Brann tried with no success to find out who nominated her for the award. After the story hit the national news, she received warm letters from alumni all over the country. She is pleased, she allows, but still a bit perplexed. “I think the college has more to do with this than I,” she insists. Her only disappointment in the whole affair was that DoUy Parton, a Medal of Arts winner, was not able to attend. “I am a great admirer,” says Miss Brann. Seeing the White House, chatting with Robert Duval about his films, and hearing accolades for his college also made the event memorable for President Nelson, who had never been to the White House before. He found it remarkable that the President knew several former and current St. John’s students. One especially enjoyable moment for Mr. Nelson was walking up to President Bush in the receiving line and hearing the greeting, “and here’s the other president.” {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } —Rosemary Harty �4 {From the Bell Towers} Fite Club Tuesday-Nite Fites Allow Johnnies to Take the Gloves Off BY Chris Utter { Ao6) One of the most idiosyn­ cratic parts of life on the Annapolis campus in recent years has been the proliferation of clubs with names like “Mabel the Swimming Wonder Monkey,” which meets to watch and comment on campy movies, and “Hoi Strategoi,” organized with the sole purpose of playing the board game “Diplomacy.” One of these odd clubs, though, the “Tuesday Nite Fites,” has outstripped them all in popularity. On a good night, more than 40 students partici- S pate in the “fite,” a kind » of sophistry contest. It all began two years ago with a series of lectures given by Annapolis tutor Michael Comenetz. Comenetz sent out a note to the Polity that ended with the statement, “there will be some etymology and prostitution.” Erikk Geannikis (A06) thought this was such a strange juxtaposition of subjects that he wrote the two words on a chalkboard in the King William Room of the Barr Buchanan Center. Throughout the day students drifted in and out of the room, some deciding to vote on which concept was superior by putting a mark under one of them. Geannikis saw this and thought it was so funny that he decided to pit two new concepts,''Puliteia vs. Caramella,” against each other, for people to debate about and then vote on. Shortly thereafter Geannikis institutionalized the process by securing a charter for the club from the student council. The kind of debate that goes on at a fite is, in part, something we are used to at St. John’s. It is an exercise in comparing two concepts in the abstract, even though we may not have related the two ideas before. “That’s the benefit of Tuesday Nite Fites,” says Brian Jones (Ao6)-gaining a clear idea of concepts we use every day.” But the TNF format gives students the chance to indulge in something we can’t do in seminar: debate, compete, and argue. “It’s a kind of catharsis,” says Jones. “I think that’s why so many students show up.” Nevertheless, as in seminar, the merit of an argument depends on its ability to get to the heart of the matter. “It’s not a candy shop,” says Schuyler Sturm (A08), quoting one of the club’s mottos. In other words, the outcome does not depend on which concept people like more, but which one is demonstrated to be superior. For example, in the debate “Pants vs. Dance,” at first the debaters were at a loss even to compare the ideas, let alone decide {The College Beyond Sophistry: The TOPICS MAY BE BIZARRE, BUT THESE JOHNNIES TAKE DEBATE SERIOUSLY. LeFT TO RIGHT ARE AnNAPOLIS STUDENTS Max Kronberg, Meghan Lockard, Brian Jones, Genna Hinkle, AND Christopher Stuart. which one was better. Diagrams of pants were drawn on the chalkboard, and liters vehemently tried to persuade the other side that they were right. Eventually, though, the thought struck someone that “pants” could also be the plural for “pant,” as in panting for breath. And since “pants,” as breaths, are necessary in order to “dance,” pants ended up winning because of its priority. Often, if something can be shown to be a priori, that concept will win the fite. There is always a “Title Fite,” which is the main fight of the evening, and which is usually a little more serious, for example, “Ways vs. Curves”; this is followed by the “Two Hole,” which some have called “earthier” than the rest; the “Brian Jones Fite,” and the “Seminar Fite,” which pits two, usually senior, seminar topics against each other. At the end of the nite, each fiter votes for a winner. A memorable recent Title Fite was “Furniture vs. Friction.” Most people sided with friction following the priority argument. But then one of the combatants, struck by the blindness of his peers, walked up to the blackboard and wrote, “Friction: too subtle to be serious?” And after a fierce debate, furniture won. ‘‘It won,” says Sturm, “because superiority is based on a stronger concept, what affects the human mind more. For this reason, I often discourage people from using the priority argument. Many of the debates can be reduced simply to Nature vs. Art.” Geannikis is graduating this year, but he has passed on the archonship of the Tuesday Nite Fites to Sturm. Sturm was the only freshman to show up for the first fite of his freshman year. Sturm sees a bright future for TNF, which he views as more than just a weekly sophistry contest. “It’s useful as exercise for seminar in that we can think of concepts purely in the abstract. I don’t know that this could exist at another school; it would probably seem strange to outsiders. But people here are used to strange oppositions between subjects,” he says. - St John’s College • Winter 2006 } �{From the Bell Towers} Fish on the Run Students read by it. Faculty fiddle by it. Children peer over its edge. With the exception of the bell tower of Weigle Hall, no physical feature is more emblematic of the Santa Fe campus than the fishpond on the Upper Placita, in front of Peterson Student Center. The pond and surrounding garden were gifts from film actress Greer Garson, who donated funds for the project in 1964 in memory of her mother, Nina S. Garson. Garson’s husband. Buddy Fogelson, was a member of the Board of Visitors and Governors, and the two were supporters of the college. Designed as a two-foot deep reflecting pool, the pond was not originally intended to accommodate fish, says Pat McCue (SFGI83, EC97), land­ scape and grounds supervisor. It’s not quite deep enough for healthy and happy fish, but that didn’t stop local residents from releasing overgrown goldfish into the pool. It quickly became a refuge for Santa Fe’s rejected fish. (Several “legitimate” koi, an ornamental variety of the common carp, were donated by former president John Balkcom, SFGIoo.) Later this spring, the fishpond and its residents will benefit from a much-needed renovation project. The pool will be made deeper, the water­ fall will be repaired, and a water line that runs beneath the pond will be replaced. During construction, he says, all of the fish except the koi will be up for adoption. Fish that are not adopted will be distributed to the pond in Schepp’s Garden, to the president’s home, and to a fish tank. Most of the pond’s fish are goldfish; a few catfish and minnows have also taken up residence with the elegant koi, and every once in a while some­ Johnnies on the Water Annapolis Athletic Director Leo Pickens (A78) has been seeing more and more students turning out for crew and sailing. An analytical sort, he crunched some numbers. “With 61 students involved-45 in crew, 16 in sailing-that’s 13 percent of the St. John’s under­ graduate students spending time in boats on the water,” he says. Also a competitive sort, Pickens did some comparing: Washington College, on the Chestertown River, and St. Mary’s College, a sailing powerhouse regularly atop the collegiate rankings, each have just 7 percent of their student bodies involved in boat racing sports. “Then I thought, ‘what about the Naval Academy? They have all those boats,’” Pickens says. The academy has just 9 percent of its midshipmen in thing exotic-a rainbow trout, for example-turns up. When he has time, McCue feeds the fish, though they could easily survive on the pond’s algae and larvae. For the most part, pond maintenance is minimal, that is until McCue has to repot all 18 of the water lilies. Among the fish pond flora there is one special variety, a lotus flower symbolic of Eastern philosophy that McCue donated in honor of the Eastern Classics program. Johnnies seem to develop a special affection for the crew or sailing. That’s 360 individuals, Pickens allows, but percentage-wise, St. John’s wins. In part, the new interest in sailing is due to a fleet with nine good boats. The program also has a dedicated coach in Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Pat McCue sits on THE EROZEN FISH POND, DUE FOR A MAJOR OVERHAUL THIS SPRING. ichthyoid residents of the pond. Several years ago, “Stan,” a very large koi, ruled the pond for four years. When Stan died, some students paid to have him stuffed and mounted in the dining hall, where he hung for a few years until he mysteriously disappeared. —Andra Maguran Skip Kovacs, also the college’s boathouse manager, “a world­ class sailor,” Pickens says. “Sailboat racing is just plain fun,” Pickens says. “They prac­ tice as a team on Tuesdays and Fridays, and on Wednesdays, members are invited to go and scrimmage with Navy.” This spring, the team will take part in a competition hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association. “We’re taking advantage of the great natural resource of the Chesapeake Bay, to get students out and involved in water sports. It’s a great fit for us-not like foot­ ball,” says Pickens. Johnnies churn up the Severn River during crew practice LAST FALL. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �6 {From the Bell Towers} News and Announcements Award for President Nelson Last November, the Rosenbach Museum & Library of Philadel­ phia honored Annapolis President Christopher B. Nelson for “his passion for liter­ ature and teaching.” The award was presented at the museum’s annual fund-raising event. One of the cultural treasures of Philadelphia, the Rosenbach seeks to inspire curiosity, inquiry, and creativity through its exhibitions and programs. A quick review of the museum’s collections indicates why the Rosenbach’s board of directors would appreciate President Nelson and St. John’s College. Among the museum’s collec­ tions are the finest known copy of the first edition oiDon Quixote, original drawings and books by William Blake, manuscripts by Joseph Conrad, and a manuscript of James Joyce’s Ulysses. and Santa Fe community together. Eakes is currently principal of The Holly Company, a consulting firm. The society sponsors special seminars, called Inviting Conversations, which are modeled after 18th-century salon conversations, are led by a St. John’s College tutor, and take place in the home of a Philos member. The society’s newest initiative, the Xenos Program, seeks to involve St. John’s students in their community by arranging informal gatherings at the homes of local residents, who provide students with career advice, local networking contacts, or just a homecooked meal. Off-Broadway Hit New Tutors Gabriel Pihas (A93) joined the Annapolis faculty in January. After graduating from St. John’s, Pihas went on to earn an M.A. and M. Phil in Medieval Studies at Yale University. He studied at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, where he earned master’s and doctoral degrees in Social Thought. His academic honors include an Evelyn S. Nef Fellowship, the Marian and Andrew Heiskell Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize, and a Dissertation Teaching and Research Fellow­ ship at Chicago. SF Chooses Philos Society Chairman Thomas G. Eakes, a busi­ nessman and civic leader in Santa Fe, has been elected to serve as chairman of the Philos Society, a steering group of St. John’s College supporters that works to bring the college Santa Fe sophomore Laura Sook made her directorial debut with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, produced last FALL BY Santa Fe students. It was met with critical acclaim from both the campus community and locals who turned out for an EVENING of musical THEATER FEATURING “MISTAKEN IDENTITIES, PIRATES, AND OF COURSE, A LOVE STORY,” SoOK SAYS. FrOM LEFT TO RIGHT, THE THESPIANS ARE: SOPHOMORES AbBY PetRY AND E. ElNOWSKI, AND SENIOR Jeanne Bustamante. {The College- St. John’s College • Winter 2006 } Search & Rescue Honors Volunteer Winter usually sends the St. John’s College Search and Rescue out into the snow, looking for lost skiers. But this past November, the team found one of their own to honor, dedi­ cating the team’s emergency operations center to Dr. Jerry Allen in honor of his years of service. AUen, a Santa Fe family practice physician, joined the team in 1973. About 40 current and former team members came together to honor Allen. During the ceremony, the center-located in the basement of the Evans Science Laboratory-was officially renamed the Jerry Allen Emergency Operations Center, with a bronze plaque installed. The center is the team’s command post, where radios are tuned to state police and civil air patrol frequencies and mission boards track teams in the field. In his remarks, Allen shrugged off the attention. “I would have to say that for all the years I was on this team, I got far more from the team than the team got from me,” he said. Team President Mike Ongstad (SF06) recounted his first meeting with Allen. “I showed up for my first mission with my pack full of gear. It was about a a.m. And here was this old guy who was going to lead our team into the wilderness, and I thought, ‘oh great, this is going to be so slow.’ After the first hour on the trail the students had to ask him to slow down so we could catch up,” said Ongstad. Team founder Herb Kincey said that over the past 3a years, Allen invested “tremendous” effort into the volunteer organi­ zation. “He’s worked with generations of St. John’s students and has always been there for them,” he added. 4—John Haktnett (SF83) �{From the Bell Towers} Johnnies Help in New Orleans A few hours after their last seminar in December, five Annapolis Johnnies piled into a car and headed south to New Orleans to work in the city’s devastated Ninth Ward. They had volunteered for a group called Common Ground, a New York-based nonprofit housing and community development organization. Caleb Nolen (Ao8) had been looking for a way to help, and his Web search led him to the group. Nolen and Jessie Seiler (Ao8) organized the trip, which also included Joshua Becker (Ao8), Micah Gates (Aog), and Rebecca Harrison (Aog). Some of the students stayed for the whole winter break, sacrificing hoUday celebrations with their families to go to New Orleans. The students spent their nights sleeping on cots in the commu­ nity center of a church and their days gutting homes that were badly damaged by flooding and rendered uninhabitable by mold. The experience was unsetthng, the work was exhausting and even dangerous, and at times, the students felt overcome by a tragedy of such proportion. “The night we drove in, we saw these mountains of trash piled everywhere,” Seiler says. “It was eerie, apocalyptic.” At the same time, the dedicated volunteers the students encountered, especially those working for Common Ground, gave them some hope for the city. “There are a lot of really good people doing really good things,” Nolen said. Each person in the group was assigned work suited to his or her skills. Gates did technical work; Becker worked in the kitchen feeding volunteers. Nolen, Seiler, and Harrison gutted flood-damaged homes in the lower Ninth Ward. As they worked in damaged homes, the students wore respirators and suits to protect them from mold and asbestos. ''The night we drove in, we saw these mountairts oftrashpiled everywhere. It was eerie, apocalyptie. ” Jessie Seiler (Ao8) Back to Nature Annapolis campus Johnnies have long used College Creek as a source of recreation. Today’s Johnnies also use it as a source of study, ever since a iggg project turned a portion of the shoreline back to its original marsh. Now, a $200,000 chal­ lenge grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations will help return the entire shoreline to marsh. College Creek, a Chesapeake Bay tidal tributary, has for a long time been considered a prime candidate for shoreline restoration. Stabihzing the shoreline will create natural filters for stormwater runoff Using sledgehammers and crowbars, they gutted the walls of homes right down to the twoby-fours, tearing out insulation, paneling, ceilings, and drywall. Both Seiler and Nolen got very sick, and Seiler had to move to another assignment: assisting the Common Ground legal team. One project she worked on included trying to get FEMA trailers to the city’s homeless. Thousands of the trailers sat unoccupied while political and practical obstacles kept them from being used. In addition to the stench of rotting refuse, the acrid smell of bleach-used to eradicate mold and to disinfect tools, boots, and protective clothing-wiU stay with the volunteers for a long time. So will the things they threw out: a notebook in which someone had copied half of the and keep nutrients from the creek, creating healthy habitats for vegetation and wildlife. The iggg restoration returned approximately onefifth (170 linear feet) of the shoreline to marsh. The marsh has been used as a laboratory field site and has been inte­ grated into the laboratory curriculum. It also provides opportunities for independent student and faculty study. Annapolis tutor Nicholas Maistrellis describes some of the work done with the marsh: “We collect and identify estu­ arine organisms, particularly fish, and marine invertebrates. {The College. We identify the plants indige­ nous to the marsh and think about their distributions over the marsh. This allows us to raise the question of whether the plants are restricted prima­ rily by physical factors or by competition with others. This, in turn, leads to the study of the changing distribution patterns of different types of Spartina alterniflora. The latter problem, whose study requires the use of molecular biological tech­ niques, has so far been done only by students working inde­ pendently. However, I would hke to see it included in the senior lab curriculum.” St. John’s is now in the plan­ ning stages to remove the remaining 680 feet of structural John’s College • Winter 2006 } 7 psalms from the Bible, a man’s photo album with pictures of his daughter, all of a child’s doUs and other toys. Walking through the city, Nolen and another volunteer marveled at surreal scenes such as an abandoned March Gras float and homes spray-painted with bright red numbers indi­ cating how many dead were found inside. They spotted a dead dog that had been rotting on the street for several months. To Nolen, it seemed hke a small but important thing to do something about that dog. “Jessie and I went back the next day and put it in a plastic garbage bag,” says Nolen. “I was afraid it was going to fall apart when we picked it up.” “That was a long day,” Seiler adds. Nolen is taking the spring semester off to continue working in the lower Ninth. It would be difficult for him to study right now. “Here is a chance to do some good,” he says. Seiler plans to go back over spring break and hopes to spend next summer volunteering in the city. She is certain there will still be plenty of work to do. —Rosemary Harty bulkhead and restore this area to its natural wetland and shrub buffer. Current funders, in addi­ tion to the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, include the Vernal W. and Florence H. Bates Foun­ dation and the Chesapeake Bay Trust. Maistrellis fists the ways the fully restored marsh will benefit St. John’s: “As an outdoor site for scientific investigation of living things; as a resource that can be shared with the larger Annapolis community; as a way to decrease the amount of sedi­ ment entering the creek. This improves water quality, and thus the fruitfulness of the creek in fife forms.” And, he says, “it is beautiful.” —SUS3AN Borden (A87) �{Letters} World Government World Federalism was indeed an interesting movement, but what if the world government turns out to be a tyranny? This would seem to be an obvious possibility, but Mr. Baratta [author of The Politics of World Federation, reviewed in the Fall 2005 College} and other proponents of “global governance” hardly ever seem to consider it. Today we have, so to speak, a free market in governments: if you don’t like the government you live under, you can move somewhere else. True, the price is high, and some people are unable or unwilling to pay it, but many do. Under a world government, there would be no escape. Moreover, the hope that the world government would be a federal system and therefore would not meddle in the internal affairs of its member states is a feeble one. In the United States, we have a “federal” government that has in effect become a monolithic national govern­ ment, spends more money every year, and is never reined in by the states that created it. A world government, alas, would do the same. Geoffrey Rommel, SF81 Mr. Sarkissian’s Stories It was with great sadness that I learned of John Sarkissian’s death from a recent issue of The College. John was both a legend and a good friend to our generation of students at the college. He could discuss Darwin or Leadbelly with equal facility, as could the other members (Barbara Leonard, HA86, Bob Spaeth, Nick Maistrellis and a few wannabees) of what we then called “The Biology Department.” What truly set John apart was his ability to convey the reassuring thought that life existed beyond four years of intense reading and discussion in the sometimes claustro­ phobic Town and Gown atmosphere in 1960s Annapolis. John was an endless source of information on travel and suggestions for books that while maybe not “great” were certainly very, very good. In the days before formal graduate school counseling was available, he also served as a savvy guide to what these schools had to offer and how to put together a successful application. A lot of this knowledge was built up through his ongoing contact with alumni, and it never failed to impress me that when former students returned for a visit, John was usually the first tutor they sought out. But it was the stories, both those he told and those told about him that really were a source of endless enjoyment and such a gift to us; I can honestly say that I never heard him tell the same story twice. There was the one about the five jockeys who jumped into his cab in Chicago, and who insisted on climbing back and forth between front seat and back as they loudly demanded to be taken “where they could have a good time.” And there was his fellow tutor who wheeled a typewriter rather than his newborn around Annapolis in a pram. Or there was the time, while serving as a radioman on a World War II PT boat in the Pacific (“because I knew how to use a Japanese dictionary”), when a torpedo was shot through the wooden hull of the ancient craft. The inevitable Sarkissian punch line was that the water was so shallow that they only sank a few feet and were soon rescued.. . My favorite was the tale of Boa Vista. .. John and colleagues had been traveling up the Amazon for days looking for this legendary beauty of a town with paved {The College streets and running water. “ ‘Beautiful Sight’ my foot,” he snorted, “nothing but dirt roads, scrawny chickens, and flies. But wait, wait,” this last delivered with leaping eyebrows and an ash now longer than its cigarette, “a Chinese restaurant with the best Peking Duck I’ve ever had, no, seriously, better than in Beijing.” John and I met up occasionally, but far too infrequently, over the past 35 years. One evening at the old Salaam Supper Club in D.C. stands out, John in a fez, banging on some borrowed bongo drums in time to the combo’s accompaniment of the belly dancer. . . I last saw John a few years back at an alumni reunion. He was leading a seminar on Coriolanus. .. It was one of those crisp, timeless, October afternoons when nostalgia is invigorating and old friends are new joys. .. We exchanged reading suggestions. I think at the time he was devouring John Buchan’s work or George MacDonald Frazier’s Flashman series, or something by Graham Greene, or, who knows, maybe all three at once. I don’t remember what I was reading but I had been trav­ eling overseas and tried to muster up one or two pale imitations of a Sarkissian-level adventure to share with him. John was one of the most approachable and delightful people I have ever known. I will miss his stories and tips for good reading, but what I will miss even more is always looking forward to hearing them in person. Juan B. Ianni, A70 Euclid with Mr. Swentzell I haven’t had a lot of contact with St. John’s in these nearly 20 years since I graduated. But I have lots of fond memories, and I know that St. John’s - St John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } contributes to my sense of coming from somewhere in spite of having moved around a lot in my life. When I tell people about St. John’s, I always mention the books. But of course, it isn’t really, or mainly even, the books. It is the conversations and the relationships they engendered. Upon hearing the sad and surprising news of the death of Ralph Swentzell, what is brought home to me, in my sadness, is not the immortality of books, but us mortals and the relationships we share. It was a joy to study Euclid and be in seminar with Ralph Swentzell. I hadn’t spoken to Mr. Swentzell in all these years, but I sure carried a sense of wonder and admira­ tion for him. He loved so much but never played favorites. He was a big man with a big voice and a grand enthusiasm. I am not sure whom to thank for the gift of Ralph Swentzell, but for anyone listening, let it be known that it is one I cherish. Liz Barnet, SF86 The CoZZege 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, or The College magazine. Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, rr6o Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: rosemary.harty@ sjca.edu. �{History} 9 The St. John’s Trombone Blues BY Gil Crandall, class of 1936 It has been 73 years since I enrolled at St. John’s. That previous June I had graduated from Annapolis High School and turned 17 a month later. Like most teenagers, I was filled with confidence. Yet I felt a bit intimi­ dated as I walked up to McDowell Hall knowing that I was just a “Rat,” a holdover term for freshman from the era when St. John’s had a military program. Being an Annapolis native, I was a day student, but never­ theless subject to the same “Rat rules” as other freshmen. We were required to wear rinkydink black-peaked caps, with the number 36 in orange on the front, ill-fitting cover that had a tendency to fall off easily. (I still have mine, but it is a bit motheaten.) There were other Rat rules enforced by the student council, and transgressions resulted in various punish­ ments, including corporal, but nothing really harmful except to one’s ego. It had been my intention to participate in some extracurric­ ular activities. However, I had a part-time job at Gilbert’s Pharmacy and Soda Fountain on State Circle, a business owned by my family. I also played the guitar, an instrument slowly gaining popularity in dance bands. The Swing era was just then on the rise. One day, not long after the semester started, I received a circular advising that the college marching band would welcome new members. I filled in the accompanying application answering the question, “What instrument would you like to play?” with “trombone.” Guitar was not then a marching band instrument, and to my knowledge, it still isn’t. The director of the college musical activities was Professor Adolph Trovosky, a longtime Annapolitan who had emigrated years earlier from Poland or Germany and had never shed a thick accent. He was regarded as a fine musician and a kind man with a cheerful disposition. On the first day of band practice the good professor must have been somewhat agitated, as he busily distributed instruments and scores. He handed me a nickel-plated trombone and several musical scores. Never before had I ever touched a trombone and I could not read a note of the music. When the time came for the band to play the first selection, “St. John’s Forever,” I simply sat with the trombone on my lap. Professor Trovosky, observing that I was not participating, stopped the band and asked me why I was not playing. Somewhat Gil Crandall in 1936; a gig with OTHER Johnnies helped him buy a NEW GUITAR. embarrassed I responded, “Sir, I can’t play trombone.” With a look of total astonishment, he said, “Veil, Mr. Grandall, vy in de vorld dit you zign up to play der trombone?” I meekly responded, “Sir on the application form I answered the question, ‘What instrument would you like to play?’ I would like to play trombone.’ ” Visibly confounded. Professor Trovosky glared at me while the band members roared with laughter. Placing the trombone and sheet music on the gym bench, I quickly departed as the band resumed playing. Fortunately that experience did not adversely affect my college career, nor my inauspi­ cious future as a guitarist. The college did not sponsor a dance band, so I formed a small off-campus combo dubbed “The Collegians.” The roster included myself, two local musicians, and three other Johnnies: highly talented Bill Quimby on sax, clar­ inet, and flute; robust Bob Murphy on stringbass (both of the class of 1936); and Bill Herson, class 011935, a mad-man drummer. The Collegians, sans trombone, gained popularity in the Annapolis area, playing gigs at various venues with slim financial reward. The country was enduring the Great Depression. Our biggest success came when an RKO movie team arrived in Annapolis to shoot a scene for Shipmates Forever, featuring Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler. The storyline centered on the Naval Academy, with Powell as a midshipman and Ruby his sweetheart. I was lucky to book the Collegians and a few extra musicians to play “sideline music” for a scene replicating the academy’s Graduation Ball, shot in Dahlgren Hall. All the band had to do was to play a few bars of a foxtrot as 50 couples, attired in formal dress, started dancing. The camera rolled, a dialogue between the two stars was recorded, and we stopped playing on the director’s cue. Later in Hollywood, the studio orchestra provided the real music. That gig was a financial windfall for the Collegians. It paid for my then-costly ($184.50) Epiphone guitar, with enough left over to buy a six-dollar derby hat de rigueur for hip musicians. Professor Trovosky now plays a heavenly harp, as do all the Collegians, except for me. I strum guitar rather poorly and still yearn to play the trombone, {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �{Inauguration} “SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY HAPPENS HERE” Santa Fe Welcomes a President ore than 700 students, alumni, and friends of St. John’s College filled the gymnasium of the Student Activities Center for the October 28 Inauguration ceremony for Michael Peters, the sixth turned president the into Santaa Fe campus. Creative decorating theofgym venue fitting for an occasion of such importance, with faculty in academic robes joining military officers (friends and former colleagues of Mr. Peters, a West Point graduate and retired Army colonel) in their dress uniforms. With music performed by faculty and students, the ceremony was short on pomp and rich with substance­ reflecting the nature of the individual chosen to lead the college. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson set the tone for the evening with his enthusiastic pledge to support St. John’s College. In a state where “tradition rests right next to high-paced modernity,” the governor said, “... it is only fitting that such a place is also home to a unique institution of higher learning like St. John’s.” Gov. Richardson expressed admiration for St. John’s College and particular admiration for Mr. Peters, a retired Army officer who served in the Vietnam War, former chief of staff at West Point, and most recently, executive vice president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Peters, he said, is a “forward-looking, visionary. . . committed to developing and strengthening the bonds that make St. John’s such a special place.” “Mike Peters is a man who has served his state, his country, and his community with honor and courage-from soldier, to diplomat, to statesman. And he has spent the better part of his career working with young people as an educator-helping to bring positive influence to the next generation of soldiers, scholars, innovators, and leaders.” M In just a short few months, the governor said, Mr. Peters has come to know “the unique nature of New Mexico, as well as the critical importance of higher education here in this state.” As a college that prepares students to take their place in “an increas­ ingly dynamic world,” St. John’s is important to the future of New Mexico. And under Mr. Peter’s leadership, Gov. Richardson predicted, the college will thrive. “The intellectual heft, the diplomatic savvy, and the disci­ plined personality he brings to the table will only lead to bigger and better things for both St. John’s College and New Mexico,” Gov. Richardson said. “His thirst for learning and his appetite for aiming higher is contagious-and sure to help motivate and inspire the students, the faculty, and the family of St. John’s College to do great things, well into the future.” Santa Fe Dean David Levine recalled the beginning of the New Program in Annapolis in 1937 as he considered the future of St. John’s with Mr. Peters at the helm. The St. John’s Program was founded at a time when the world was in crisis, he said, when “we were all to be tested, not only our physical strength, but our moral fiber.” A second beginning came in 1964 with the founding of a second campus, when “a great experiment was undertaken, to see whether the same college, the same living curriculum, could exist in two different places.” Today, though “the look and esprit are quite different” at the two campuses, “what is not different is the generous spirit of learning, the openness, originality, profundity, and common purpose.” Formally installing Mr. Peters as the president of St. John’s Santa Fe campus another new beginning, one of great promise. Dean Levine said. The college took on an extended national {The College- St. John's College ■ Winter 2006 } �{Inauguration} u Passing the torch: President Michael Peters AND Former Santa Fe President John Balkcom (SFGIoo). made a point of thanking his family for their support and encouragement: his wife, Eleanor, and their children, Mike and Rebecca; and his parents. Max and Peg Peters, “who have been my models since I was a child.” He also thanked Moravian College President Ervin Rokke, a mentor and friend, and the person who encouraged him to consider life as a college president-to the good fortune of St. John’s College. Inauguration Address BY Michael Peters search for a president and “along came a tall, unassuming, articu­ late, generous man of the world, who, too, recognized that some­ thing extraordinary happens here.” “And so it is that today we now call Michael Peters to this great venture of liberal education as its guardian and spokes-man,” he continued. “We welcome him to our midst and ask him to join us in our effort to find a place in our complex world for such a bold vision of education, at once enabling, encouraging, and ennobling.” Speaking for the students, senior Shane Gassaway, Polity presi­ dent, admired the way Mr. Peters has devoted time to getting to know students and the Program by taking part in an international affairs study group, attending dormitory meetings, and becoming a genuine advocate for students. “But if there were only one way to win the heart of a Johnnie it would be to read the books that we read with the same care and reverence that we show them,” noted Mr. Gassaway. “And this Mr. Peters has undertaken to accomplish. Beginning with the January Freshmen last winter, Mr. Peters has attended seminar every Monday and Thursday night. And now he does the same with the sophomore class.. . We’ve known him so far as a prospy, as a January freshman, and now as a sophomore. It is sometimes said of the January freshmen that those who don’t leave right away turn out to be the best Johnnies. With such a valuable addition to our community. I’m hopeful we can say the same thing about January presidents some day.” Acknowledging each of the guests and speakers at the cere­ mony, particularly students and alumni of the college, Mr. Peters Eighteen months ago, as I was comfortably ensconced at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, I could not have imagined that I would be at the podium in the St. John’s College Student Activities Center in Santa Fe addressing you as the president. But as a reformed New Yorker, I recall the insight of that renowned contemporary Western philosopher, someone who is not included in our curriculum: Yogi Berra. Yogi is purported to have said, “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” I can certainly attest to the wisdom of Yogi’s remark. However, when I walked into a classroom on the Annapolis campus in July last year and observed the engagement and commitment of the students and faculty to our distinctive program, I knew this was the place for me. Everything that has happened since then-a quick trip to interview in Santa Fe while trying to adjust to mountain time and 7,000 feet; a mid-winter move; and getting to know the incredible students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the college-have reinforced my first impres­ sion and love for the college. St. John’s is a community of learners centered on what we call “the Program,” an all-required curriculum in math, science, language, social science and philosophy based on study of the great works in Western thought. This community is enhanced by our Graduate Institute, which offers two master’s programs, including one in Eastern Glassies, where students study the key texts in the Chinese, Japanese, and Indian traditions. As I said, the students and faculty are a very talented group who share a commitment to the Program. At St. John’s we don’t put much credence in reviews and rankings like those of U.S. News and World Report, but there is one I’d like to share with you that speaks to the excellence of our faculty and their dedication to teaching: The Princeton Review. In the most recent edition, the {The College- St. John ’5 College • Winter 2006 } �12. {Inauguration} liberal education is ourpurpose. A purpose that is important in and of itself but abo important four Republic b to be up to the challenpps improve our classrooms, create a it willface in the years ahead. home for the Graduate Institute, Santa Fe faculty was rated number one in the country. What is most and build a modern auditorium gratifying about this ranking is President Michael Peters that would benefit both the that it is based not on abstract, campus and the community. external criteria but on the opin­ Second, connection with the community. St. John’s is a vital ions of the students themselves. My congratulations and thanks to part of Santa Fe and New Mexico. Each year we bring more than the faculty for their great work. loo of the best students from around the United States and the The central idea behind the St. John’s program is to help all of usworld to New Mexico. Many of these students remain in the state students and faculty-learn not what to think, but how to think and after they leave St. John’s and contribute to New Mexico’s think deeply. In other words, we are seeking a truly liberal educa­ tion. Why are we so single-mindedly dedicated to studying the economy and welfare. Of our 8,000 alumni, almost i,ooo are residents of New hberal arts? In part because, as Vartan Gregorian, the president Mexico, and of this number more than 30 percent are involved in of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and former president of education. Also, more than 50 New Mexico teachers and adminis­ Brown University, said, “. . . When people do not know how to trators have attended our Graduate Institute in the past four question deeply, to separate fact from fiction, and to give coherence and meaning to hfe, they can feel a[n] . . . unsettling emptiness in years, and with programs like Tecolote, we have hosted hundreds their lives.” more New Mexico educators on campus. Through our lectures, art exhibits, musical performances, With this clear sense of who we are and what we are about, allow community seminars, and summer programs we bring the me to highlight the three areas I will focus on in the days ahead. community to St. John’s and the St. John’s experience “off the They are: support for learning, connection with the community, hill.” In addition, our students and staff volunteer their time to a and heightened visibility. number of deserving enterprises in Santa Fe. First, support for learning. With fundamentals as solid as ours, But we want to do more, and we’ll be looking for ways to my foremost priority is, as one of my predecessors put it, “to facil­ strengthen the connections between St. John’s and our friends itate the work of the faculty . . . [and] ... to create appropriate and neighbors in Santa Fe and New Mexico. Part of this effort is a conditions for learning.” I’m not going to list every aspect this greater emphasis on attracting qualified New Mexico students to might entail, but it includes continuing to attract and retain the highest-quality students, faculty and staff; to provide the need­ the college, especially those from traditionally underrepresented based financial aid necessary to support deserving students; to groups. Our Opportunity Initiative is designed specifically to address this issue. We are also hopeful that with the Governor’s ensure a vibrant campus life, where students can exercise and develop their mind, body, and spirit. And, of course, it also entails strong support we can convince the legislature to extend the lottery scholarships to New building and main­ Mexico residents who taining first-class facili­ attend private colleges in ties and grounds. In this the state, hke St. John’s. regard, I apologize that My final priority is to you may have to navigate heighten the visibility of around some construc­ tion on your way to the the college and the reception at the Peterson campus. For too long we Student Center. This is a have been content, as sign of progress for me. the New Testament says. We are also in the initial planning stages for a new dorm, so we can house a larger Mr. Peters thanked MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY percentage of our under­ FORTHEIR SUPPORT (LEFT graduates on campus, TO right): his wife, and we are looking for Evelyn; son, Mike; ways to expand and DAUGHTER, ReBECCA; AND FATHER, MaX. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �{Inauguration} to “keep our light under a bushel basket.” We cannot continue to do so. Prospective students, friends, the higher education community-and if it is not too presumptuous, the nation-need to know about us. Who we are, what we do and how we do it. In part­ nership with our sister campus in Annapolis, we need to tell our story and to be what some have called “a beacon of liberal educa­ tion.” Once again to quote Vartan Gregorian, “[HJigher educa­ tion . . . must focus on a revival of the liberal arts. Yet, paradoxi­ cally, liberal education is in decline just when we need it most.... Liberal education is needed to integrate learning and provide balance-otherwise students will graduate into a world in which dependence on experts of every kind will be even more common than it is today.” A liberal education is our purpose. A purpose that is important in and of itself, but also important if our Republic is to be up to the challenges it will face in the years ahead. For example, as David Brooks of The New York Times said regarding reform of the intelligence community, “I’ll believe the intelligence community has really changed when I see analysts being sent to training academies where they study Thucydides [and] Tolstoy ... to get a broad understanding of the full range of human behavior.” Well, at St. John’s we do study Thucydides and Tolstoy. Not because we are trying to develop intelligence analysts, but because we believe that a responsible citizen needs a number of attributes that come from a liberal education including a “broad understanding of human behavior.” To tell the St. John’s story we need the help of everyone herealumni, parents, friends, students, faculty and staff. It deserves to 13 be told-I’m certainly going to do it and I hope you will join me. As I conclude, you’ll forgive me, but sometimes I just can’t get beyond my old military training. One aspect of that training was in a presentation, you should always tell’em what you’re going to tell them, tell them and tell’em what you told them. So again, my priorities are: First and foremost, support for learning; second, connection with the community and last, but certainly not least, heighten visibihty for the college and the campus. Blessed with a very sohd foundation, a clear sense of who we are and what we wish to accomphsh, and the talent and commitment of the entire college community, I am confident that St. John’s best days are ahead. I am pleased to play a part in fulfiUing this very promising future. Thank you for demon­ strating your support for St. John’s by being with us today, Above: Gov. Richardson CONGRATULATES PRESIDENT PeTERS. Left: The after-Inauguration party at THE Peterson Student Center was an all-inclusive and festive affair that FILLED BOTH THE DiNING HaLL AND THE Coffee Shop. Tutor Carey Stickney (A75) JOINED STUDENTS IN PROVIDING THE Coffee Shop music. {The College. St. John’s College • Winter 2006 } �{Johnnies at Work} LIVES IN THEIR HANDS Johnnies Workfor Lasting Beauty wi Caroline Knapp, SF99 Wiener’s character is with his craft. The patience, elegance, and hese Johnnies make different deliberation that characterize boatbuilding are just as evident in things: timher-frame homes, his words as in the boat frames all around him. jewelry, wooden boats, furniture. He came to the work, Wiener explains, “theoretically.” While he attended St. John’s, Wiener’s developing interest in the What they share is the desire to manual arts was encouraged by tutor William Darkey (class of build something enduring and 194a), who built his own harpsichord. But it wasn’t until gradu­ beautiful and to improve in their ating that Wiener set himself to training his body “in as rigorous a I had trained my mind at St. John’s.” craft with each new project they take on.fashion Theyasare The desire for rigor led him to boatbuilding. It was, in his way of idealistic and practical, enterprising and imagi­ thinking, the “most uncompromising” of the woodcrafts, the one native, and when they finish a day’s work, they with the lowest margin for error. “Furniture,” he says, “has to hold up to the demands of the human body, but ships have to hold have the pleasure of standing back and regarding up to the full force of nature out on the water.” the fruits of their labor. However, learning to build wooden boats in the United States in T Michael Wiener, SF69 Boatbuilder Carrying on a conversation with Michael Wiener at the Spaulding Center for Wooden Boats isn’t for the easily discouraged. Although the boatyard in Sausalito, Calif, is just big enough for a half dozen wooden boats in various stages of reconstruction, it’s humming with activity. Two young men are carting planks from one neat stack to another, an older man in a straw hat is cranking a hand-operated crane, and from inside the wood-beamed ware­ house comes the hiss of welding equipment. In the middle of the yard a group of adult students peers up at the partially de­ constructed hull of a loo-year-old pleasure boat, Freda. The atmosphere is of steady, unhurried industry. As head of the yard, Wiener can’t go more than two minutes-even on his lunch hourwithout being called over to consult on one of the dozens of tasks at hand. Wiener answers each question with the same measured, precise attention. Under his soft cloth cap his expression is affable; his eyes, while alert to the yard’s activity, are relaxed. When he tells the story of his journey to this boatyard, it’s clear how consonant the early 1970s was no easy task. After an unsuccessful search for a boatyard in Maine, Wiener returned for a time to his native San Francisco Bay. There he found one yard whose boatbuilders were “taken aback and flattered” that he would request an apprentice­ ship in a dying art. But after he’d put in a year learning the rudiments of the trade, he recalls the yard’s Irish foreman taking him aside and asking, “Do you know what you’re doing?” When he answered in the affirmative, the man said, “Well, my lad, you’re doing it in the wrong place.” That recommendation sent Wiener on an international hunt for a traditional boatyard willing to take on an American apprentice during the height of the Vietnam War. He found it eventually in Denmark, where he spent four years as an unpaid apprentice, studying from master boat builders. When he returned to the United States, Wiener was well qualified to build wooden boats, but uncertain whether he wanted to. Instead, hoping to integrate his academic and practical training, he went to work for Charles and Ray Eames in their famous San Francisco design office. The Eames brothers, intrigued by Wiener’s combination of intellectual and hands-on experience, soon put him to work on one of their most ambitious projects, the feature-length science movie Powers of Ten. Wiener {The College- St. John ’5 College ■ Winter 2006 } �{JohnniesatWork} Michael Wiener (SF69) 15 sought rigor in his life and FOUND IT IN BOATBUILDING. {The College -Sf. John’s College • Winter 2006 } �{JohnniesatWork} i6 ''Given the choice between moreperfect and more quick, I always choose moreperfect. Kait Schott, designed an innovative camera stand and shot the film, which has since become something of a cult classic. Though his work with the Eames brothers brought him closer to the fusion of knowledge he’d envisioned in Mr. Darkey’s freshman math class. (“Lining up a 2o-foot animation stand, I used plenty of Euclid,” he explains.) Wiener wasn’t quite satisfied with that compromise either. Wiener worked instead as a jack-of-all-trades builder in the tiny Tomales Bay town of Marshall, co-founded the first organic dairy west of the Mississippi, and taught himself to build furniture. Slowly though, the boatyard began to pull him back. “I thought that when you learn something rigorous like boatbuilding, you can apply it to anything,” he says. “That’s not true.” Wiener moved back to Sausalito with his wife and two daugh­ ters, joined the Spaulding yard in 1978, and took over yard opera­ tions in 2000. In 2002, following the death of its founder, the yard became a nonprofit, the Spaulding Center for Wooden Boats. Wiener is on the board of directors. It would be a pleasure to talk more, find out what he’s reading, if he finds time to sail, and how he thinks St. John’s has changed. But the lunch break is over, and Wiener’s eyes are already darting back to the corner of the yard, where his expertise is needed. For more information on wooden boat restoration classes at the Spaulding Centerfor Wooden Boats, call Kait Schott, SF91___________________________ Jewelry maker, metal and glass worker Kait Schott may have spent the years since her graduation learning fine craftsmanship of the most demanding sort, but for Johnnies her most impressive achievement is one seemingly unre­ lated to her professional life: Schott completed freshman lab five times, once as a freshman and four times as a lab assistant. After graduation, rather than taking up a career as a profes­ sional baros specialist, Schott returned to her native Minnesota. There, after spending nearly five years employed as a goldsmith, she now crafts her own jewelry out of metal and glass. But all those years in freshman lab helped lead Schott to her work. Her lab experiences contributed to her interest in working with actual, not metaphoric, materials. In freshman lab, she explains, “there’s a struggle with a physical object, with the tension between you and the physical stuff.” In freshman lab, the stuff in question is likely to be clay weights, simple chemical solutions, or cat innards. Eor gold­ smiths, the stakes are somewhat higher. But Schott maintains SF91 that both are expressions of the same contest, “over whether or not you are going to achieve the eidos of the thing that’s in your head.” Having grown up in a family where her mother and grandmotherwere “always making something,” she was inspired by the wealth of materials available in Santa Ee. While still a student at St. John’s, she began visiting the bead dealers at the city’s flea market. Soon she was making simple jewelry for friends and giving it away. Later, she began selling her work “just to support the habit.” Though she had had no professional training at this point, Schott had already identified one of the key principles drawing her to work with jewelry. “Jewelry is so personal,” she says. “It’s expressing a really primitive urge. You find a little trinket that just has something about it, and you want to take it with you. So you put it on a string.” She also realized early that she wasn’t interested in making jewelry that looked like everyone else’s: “Jewelry is also very personal in the sense that it’s expressive. The pieces I make are not particularly narrative, but the person who wears them makes a decision about what they want to portray.” Schott’s own decision, after graduating from St. John’s, was to continue the experiment she had begun as a student, “to really engage the physical stuff of the world.” Her first steps took her to the San Francisco area, where she took metalsmithing classes at the Richmond Art Center. Armed with new technical skill, she moved back to Minneapolis, found a glass workshop, and eventu­ ally attended trade school for metalworking. There, she learned to cast, polish, solder, and set stones in an atmosphere that encouraged neither creativity nor discussion. Though, she muses, “it was like St. John’s in that everything was laid out for you.” After graduating from trade school, she worked for four-and-ahalf years as a hired “pair of hands” in a large jewelry shop specializing in complex and expensive gold wedding bands. The work was challenging, but not creative, and it demanded speed and skill. “As a goldsmith, there was a constant battle of will between me, the stuff, and the clock,” she says. While the first two elements of that equation were familiar, the third posed more difficulty: “Given a choice between more perfect and more quick, I always chose more perfect. I do have an appreciation of having some efficiency and speed. But I also know that there are limits to how fast I’m ever going to do something and still enjoy it.” In 2003, Schott quit work as a goldsmith, moved to an artists’ co-operative, and decided to concentrate on her own work. “I want to sit back and think for a while again about what I really wanted to make,” she explains. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �{Johnnies at Work} Lately, that has led her to work extensively with glass; she’s fascinated hy the way that glass responds to heat. “I think most people can anticipate what metal will he hke when it’s heated. But glass becomes really fluid when you work with it. It’s just magic. The material itself is a seduction.” The new work pattern has also given her time to return to her roots. With a local alumni chapter, she recently revisited Goethe’s “On the Metamorphosis of Plants.” At this distance from freshman year, she sees in the essay a meditation on the artist’s struggle. “It’s a great metaphor for feeding yourself creatively, for developing into something new and different,” she says. “The sense of striving that Goethe seems to ascribe to the plant is hke the struggle to take the world and try to making something out of it.” Kait Schott’s work, including a recent series ofplantforms in glass inspired by Goethe, can be viewed at www. kaitschott. com. Ben Shook, SFoo Carpenter Ben Shook explains his decision to become a craftsman as though it were composed, like a wooden joint from one of the chairs he builds, of two separate pieces which fit together perfectly; “St. John’s left me with student loans and some inextricable idealism. I probably already had the idealism. So I had to make a living.” Shook’s tone is self-mocking, but he’s perfectly serious about In her work, Kait Schott (SF91) struggles with “the eidos of the thing that’s in your head.” 17 materials and the idealism. It kept him up nights as he was beginning his apprenticeship, practicing in his own shop the skills he’d observed during the day. And today it’s the driving force behind the thriving small business he runs out of his Portland home. Shook felt the first stirrings of interest in fine woodworking while visiting a museum. He spent the year after his graduation traveling and working in France. One day, he visited the Musee des Arts et Metiers, the Paris museum devoted to the finest prod­ ucts of French craftsmanship and engineering from the Middle Ages to the present. The masterworks in wood, stone, and metal that he saw there convinced him that “the depths to which one could take this craft are unfathomable.” Shook returned to Dayton, Wash., found a job as a bartender, and bought some tools. Working from books and studying furni­ ture, he began to build what he now calls “rustic things,” roughhewn desks and bookcases made using wood salvaged from old barns. He still had no formal training, but the results were compelling. “One day, this woman who owned a gallery came by,” he recalls. “And she bought everything, about ao pieces. She just said, T’ll take all of it for my shop.’” Encouraged by the sudden success. Shook decided to get serious. In aooa he apprenticed with a French master carpenter in Washington, working for low wages and “asking him questions every second there wasn’t a machine on.” By the end of the year. Shook had learned the basics of timber-frame construction and {The College • St. John's College ■ Winter 2006 } �i8 {Johnnies at Work} felt ready to strike out on his own. Today, Shook em­ ploys two assistant woodworkers in a large shop attached to his Portland home. His business has grown rapidly in the last few years, mostly through word of mouth. Working by hand and with power tools, he and his assis­ tants spend at least one month on each major furniture piece. The shop spent nearly half of last year furnishing a whole house for just one client. Slowness is one of the qualities Shook appreciates in his work, one of the principles he’s distilled from his beginnings in the craft. “Working with wood requires a different orientation to time,” he says. “The time is so great with some projects. You just have to let go of the male perception of working at something from beginning to end. You have to think in days and weeks. You have to have a real patience for letting glues set up, for just learning to let something sit.” Shook’s latest passion is building chairs. “I’m getting really into them,” he confesses. “Chairs are the most human kind of furniture, the thing that you put your body in rather than on.” The chair design he’s working on now has no metal parts; the seat is hand-shaped. Its secret. Shook says, is a special central joint orig­ inally designed by master builder Sam Malouf: “It’s such a beau­ tiful and simple joint, and it’s so strong.” Joints are, of course, the heart of the furniture maker’s craft, and Shook has spent some time considering them. At the moment, it seems to him to be a question of creating union. “The marriage of two pieces of wood in a joint is such a delicate and precise thing,” he says. “And when it’s done right, it’s a forever marriage.” If Shook sounds as though he’s been considering words closely as well, that’s no accident either. When he isn’t working in the shop, one of his interests is writing poetry, which he says is “sort of like making furniture.” Visit WWW. benshook. com. Ben Shook(SFoo) WORKS ON A CHAIR, “the most human KIND OF FURNITURE,” IN HIS Portland shop. Jordan Finch (SFoo) Builder Jordan Finch’s career as a builder of beau­ tiful homes has its roots in his junior year at St. John’s, when he experienced a revelation. Having enjoyed woodworking as a hobby, he knew he wanted to build things-big things, beautiful things-after gradu­ ating from the college. “I had this idea that I wanted to build cathedrals,” he says. “I went on this long search to learn about them, but it never quite panned out-there just weren’t many cathedrals being built.” However, Finch has found something nearly as satisfying in building timber-frame homes, characterized by soaring ceilings, heavy exposed beams, craftsmanship, and durability. He is rapidly becoming a master of the same post-and-beam construc­ tion methods that contributed to the majesty of Europe’s great cathedrals. Timber framing has been practiced for centuries, but in modern times, stick-built construction-faster and cheaper-has prevailed, “until the 1960s, when hippies began reviving the craft,” says Finch. Picture an old-fashioned Amish barn raising and you’ll get a sense of the work Finch does. Without a few dozen men to raise the frame that serves as the skeleton of the house. Finch relies on the modern crane. But in every other way-the precise fitting of tenon into mortise, securing joined timbers with pegs of solid wood-Finch uses time-honored and traditional methods to build homes. “There’s a great geometry to it all. When you’re building these homes, you have to hold this visual image in your head. It’s like doing Euclid in 3-D,” he says. Finch took up carpentry as a teenager, and he has been perfecting his craft since graduating from St. John’s in 2000. While spending junior year in Annapolis, he stole time from his studies to build a boat. That summer, the college’s Placement {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �{Johnnies at Work} office (now Career Services) helped Finch find a job with Steve Whalen (SF83), who had a carpentry business in Southwest Harbor, Maine. “I told him I was attending St. John’s and knew how to use a hammer and he said, ‘come on up.’ ” After gradua­ tion, Finch served a two-year apprenticeship with Vicco von Voss, a custom furniture maker in Chestertown, Md. “It’s probably been the highpoint of life in craftsmanship so far,” he says. Von Voss began designing his own timber-frame home, and Finch contributed his construction expertise to the project. Along the way, he recognized that he had found a solid substitute for cathedrals. When his apprenticeship ended. Finch found a job with Lancaster County Timber Frames in Pennsylvania. “I had the basic skills, but I wanted to get faster,” he explains. “There are shops like these throughout the country and a lot of them do beautiful work, but it really is high tempo.” Finch’s “meditative” methods weren’t a good fit with highpressure shops, so he took his tools and went out on his own as an itinerant joiner, subcontracting for other timber framers on proj­ ects in Georgia, Florida, Virginia, and Massachusetts. After a year and a half of honing his craft on the road. Finch moved to Virginia to marry Quinby Owen (Aoa) and settle down in the Shenandoah Valley town of Mount Jackson. 19 When Quinby’s parents needed to find a builder for their home, their new son-in-law talked them into hiring him. It was his first opportunity to design a home and to build it from start to finish. Never mind the r6-hour days; it’s been well worth it, he says. “We raised the frame on Oct. 33, 2004. I’ve been involved in quite a few raisings, and there’s always a sense of expectation and eagerness in the air, but this time, it was really satisfying,” he says. There is a wholeness to the work that appeals to Finch each time he takes up his tools. “I’ve gone from milling the tree to sanding something to a mirror polish. Sometimes you smell like a chainsaw, other days you need a surgeon’s touch just to take a sliver of wood away,” he says. “That really gives me a sense of fulfillment-it feels natural and complete.” People are surprised to hear that timber framing is a green building method, he says. “Timber framing does take larger, mature trees,” he acknowledges. “But if a building will stand for 300 years or more, that’s a responsible use of materials.” Happy to create anything out of a beautiful piece of wood. Finch still makes furniture and recently accepted a commission for a dining room table. With Quinby expecting a baby when he started his business. Finch named his shop Finch and Sons Fine Woodworking. Since the arrival of daughter Aurelia, now almost one, he’s had to reconsider the name. “How does Finch Family Woodworkers sound?” For questions on timber-frame construc­ tion, contact Finch at Jordanafinch® yahoo.com or at 540-333-0034. —Rosemary Harty Quinby (Aoa), Jordan (Aoo), and Aurelia Finch, in the home Jordan is building in Virginia. {The College -St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �ao {The Program} SMALL WAVES IN A TRANQUIL SEA” Melville, Literature, and the St. Johns Reading List wi Rosemary Harty ow many Johnnies have read-or even heard oi-The History of Henry Esmond?. Thackeray’s novel, the story of Henry and his love for Beatrix, was on the list of hooks that Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan assembled for the New Program, first published in The Bulletin ofSt. John’s College. It was the Bulletin that in 1937 set out the specifics of the Program for prospective students and the rest of the world, and here, the college’s criteria for choosing a classic was defined. The first two involve magnitude: “A great book must have been read by the largest number of persons”; for clarity, works by Plato and the Bible are mentioned in this regard. The work also must offer the possibility of many different interpretations. It must “raise the persistent unanswer­ able questions about the great themes in European thought.” And the final two criteria: it must be “a work of fine art” and a “masterpiece of the liberal arts.” These criteria have guided choices for the college’s reading list for nearly 70 years. A self-study conducted by Annapolis faculty for reaccredidation two years ago acknowledged that, “although there is broad agreement about our reading list, certain authors, texts, and text selections regularly come up for discussion. The Senior Seminar list, which contains the most recently written books, is always the most controversial. Even here, however, upon annual review of the Program by the Instruction {The College. Committee, there is far more stability than change, and our concerns amount to small waves in a largely tranquil sea.” Changes-major and minor-to the list come slowly and with careful deliberation. This is not done to preserve a canon, but rather, a continuum, as the self-study report states: “Year after year, for at least two hours on Monday and Thursday nights, students and tutors discuss the same books in the same way with the sense that here, in the thinking, speaking, and listening that go on in the Seminar, the College is most alive and most itself.” A number of books read for seminar have dropped off that first list included in the Bulletin, including Goethe’s Faust, Fielding’s Tom Jones, and Corneille’s Le Cid. Moby-Dick-'wXdCti many faculty and alumni would consider a perfect match with that 1937 definition of a great book-has been out of the list for some time. It hasn’t been read in seminar in Annapolis for 3r years and has made sporadic appearances on the Santa Fe seminar list. In recent years Flannery O’Conner and William Faulkner have joined the senior seminar list at the urging of some tutors and over the objections of others. Considering suggestions and objections from tutors and students is the work of the Instruction Committee, comprising 13 tutors (six from each campus), the deans of both campuses, and the two presidents as ex-officio members. The IC is respon­ sible for the program of instruction, and with it, has the power to add or remove a book from the reading list. Changes are made by consensus, not by majority rule, and also are governed by transferability. St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �{ThePrOGRAM} {The College -St John’s College • Winter 2006 } ai �aa {TheProgram} ''Chiefamong these motives was the overwhelming idea ofthe great whale hitnself Such aportentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity ” Ishmael Annapolis tutor Anita Kronsberg (A79) says the committee considers factors such as “whether a book has the kind of weight and substance” worthy of study and discussion, and whether it connects in interesting ways to other books on the reading list. Each year, the committee reviews reports submitted by the tutors who served as the recorders for their seminars. These reports help the committee decide if a certain reading is working well in seminar, and along with specific requests, factor in decisions to change the list. When a book comes off the reading list, it’s usually to make room for another. There are sacrifices and sometimes compro­ mises, because in the harsh light of reality, “we can’t read all great books,” Kronsberg says. The nature of the college’s Program (roughly chronological) means that fewer changes will be made when Ancient Greek and medieval works are concerned. A few years ago, the committee made an earnest attempt to find room for The Sound and the Fury, “but we couldn’t put it any­ where in the seminar where the students could read it,” she says. “It’s a very beautiful book, some of Faulkner’s finest writing,” Kronsberg says, almost wistfully. “The approach he takes is not like anything else we read.” Don Quixote is one of a handful ofvery long novels Johnnies are asked to read in the Program, most timed for summer or winter breaks to allow time to read and ponder before seminar meets. But discussion is still condensed to two meetings on books like War and Peace and Middlemarch. It’s not entirely satisfying, but that’s another reality of the Program: “We acknowledge that St. John’s is a place where some books get a first reading,” says Kronsberg. Whether it’s a long novel, a complex poem, or a passage from Kant, returning to the work provides a fuller view. Santa Fe tutor Frank Pagano says the IC on his campus usually concentrates on two years of the Program at a time: freshman and junior years, or sophomore and senior. When the committee makes changes to the list, it’s often in the interest of choosing books that “work well in seminar.” “We want books to be great,” says Pagano, a tutor of aa years. “That’s easy to experience, but hard to nail down.” To illustrate his point, Pagano points to difficulties in reading Supreme Court decisions for seminar. While important, they don’t quite work as Program books, in his opinion. “Inevitably they require historical background-that’s a sign that something isn’t great,” he says. In Santa Fe about five years ago, the IC decided to add Maimonides (Guidefor the Perplexed} to the sophomore reading list. “It’s a great book in itself. But the second reason it works in seminar is that you have two traditions that the Bible represents, and we had no theology that was Jewish.” Maimonides also speaks to other Program authors, says Pagano: “He’s picked up on in junior year by Spinoza, especially.” Although changes to the reading list have not been monu­ mental ones, the Instruction Committee could vote by consensus to remove Plato’s Republic-Mt^My unlikely, but by the rules governing the committee, not impossible. “The thought is we could change anything,” Pagano notes. However, substantial changes to philosophy are pretty rare. “They’re all part of a tradition, and it’s very hard to take one out and put one in,” he says. “If you’re going to do Hegel and not do Kant, you’re not going to be able to see who Hegel is responding to.” Pagano would like to see Johnnies read Absalom, Absalom—“a book that encapsulates the American tradition better, as well as the Southern problem.” He’d choose Faulkner over Moby-Dick, which he finds interesting, but not as compelling. “I delivered a speech on Moby-Dick in high school,” he adds as a side-note, “and that speech was a bit of a bomb.” Moby-Dick first appeared on the college reading list for seniors in 1952-53. It was read for many years in the 1950s and made brief reappearances in Annapolis and Santa Fe, most recently in 2003. It lives on in preceptorials, yet some tutors think it’s a shame not all students read the work because it is the type of work-like so many books that remain on the Program-that needs to be discussed to be understood. How did Melville’s novel first get the boot? The prevailing legend in Annapolis is that too many students were writing essays on the book. With only a list of prize-winning essays available to check, the memory of veteran tutors was consulted. “Oh, it’s absolutely not apocryphal,” says Eva Brann (HA89). “I distinctly remember one year there were at least 10 essays written on the book.” Tutor Malcolm Wyatt (HA03), who joined the college in 1958, recalls that too many bad essays were being written about MobyDick. “The temptation of allegory was too much for students-the white whale, why is he white, the peg leg-itwas away to grind out a senior essay without much serious thought,” he says. In Santa Fe, the book was last read in senior seminar in the spring of 2003, but it wasn’t a success in the eyes of tutor Howard Fisher. That may be because it was read while seniors were writing their senior essay. (In Annapolis, seminar is suspended with all {The College- St. John's College • Winter 2006 } �{TheProgram} as “ .. ril chase him round GoodHope, and round the horn, and round the norway maelstrom, and roundperditions flames before Igive him up. Ahab Other classes for the writing period, while Santa Fe students meet for seminar for part of the time.) “As wonderful as the book is, the seminars were not a success,” Fisher says. “I had been in a senior seminar or two in Annapohs where we read it as part of the Program, and it seemed to me that we had as good a discussion as any other book. It is episodic, and that makes it difficult to sustain a unified conversation, but I wouldn’t say it’s impossible.” Most years, on one campus or the other, Moby-Dick is offered in preceptorial, and it’s a popular offering. Annapolis tutor Jonathan Tuck tried to lead a precept on the novel a few times, only to find other tutors got there first. “In some ways, having frequent preceptorials honors Moby-Dick more, because it gets the reading it needs,” Tuck offers. Santa Fe Thtor Claudia Honeywell loved the preceptorial she led on the book. “Oh, would that it could be on the Program,” she says. “At the time I chose it for precept, I was really interested in it. I felt like it was my discovery-T’ve found this great book, let’s read it together.’ ” For Honeywell, Moby-Dick more than meets the college’s criteria for a great book: “It’s endlessly fascinating. You’re never done reading it, and there’s no way to be done reading it. Even as you’re formulating the line of interpretation, you’re left in an uncomfortable place-just as Ishmael is. The book has no apparent resolutions.” It was “a bummer” that the novel came off the reading list, Honeywell says, because “we don’t have it as an element of our common discourse. It’s a book that can really accompany us through the moral uncertainty of life. There’s the famous passage where Ahab talks about how human life is lived, that men hide behind a pasteboard mask if they’re there at all. I think about that now and then, I see situations that trigger memories of it.” As one of their rewards for finishing the novel, Annapolis tutor Nathan Dugan invited his students a few years ago to a party, complete with clam chowder. Dugan had read it for the first time just a year before and was eager to read Moby-Dick with students. The preceptorial was productive, but it took hard work to make such a vast book the subject of coherent discussions, he notes. “The good thing is that you can go through very slowly and spend a lot more time on the parts,” he says. “The difficult thing is that you can’t require everyone to read 1,000 pages before you start. But with the right of questions, a glimpse of the whole can come out.” What the novel would add to the program as a whole is a portrait of human beings as seekers and interpreters of symbols {The College. and meaning, Dugan adds, something that relates well to Platonic dialogues Johnnies read as freshmen. “In the end it’s telling us something about why we need to be self-aware,” he says. Dugan sees no compelling reason Melville’s tale must be on the reading list. And yet, he allows, “fife would be more full” if he could teach Moby-Dick and Joyce’s Ulysses. Having taught two preceptorials on the book, Annapolis tutor David Townsend acknowledges the impracticality of Moby-Dick as a seminar reading. Yet in his view, the novel is “one of the dozen great novels ever written.” The book confronts themes of man and nature, hierarchy and obedience, freedom and equality. “It addresses the struggle to build a community and how essential that is,” he says. “It points out that you don’t have an individual self outside of the community. It’s eclectic and diverse in the cultures that it depicts. And it’s also contemporary in that it’s one of the first books to address a global economy and the psychological and moral effects of commerce.” In addition to the length, one problematic issue in Melville’s tale is an absence of women, something that can’t be said about Middlemarch. Townsend would not want to see Eliot’s novel sacrificed for another fictional work. “It’s a very rich and coherent story, more manageable in two seminar discussions” than Moby-Dick. St. John’s is not trying to establish a canon, even if it seems that way to outsiders, says Townsend. And yet the college gets letters and e-mails from those who look to “the great books college” to decide what “great” books they should read. A few years ago, a group of Canadian doctors asked for the reading list. Most recently, an Iowa man wrote to ask for a copy of the list; he planned to ask his local library to post it for patrons. “Because we don’t have time to read everything, it often seems that if someone’s not on our reading list, it’s because we’ve found that the work is not as important,” says Townsend. That’s not the case, he adds. “These books at this moment in time are the ones that work well in conversation for our community.” Honeywell expresses a similar sentiment. “There are so many friends out there, and we can only invite so many to the party, yet you still think about your friends. We form our own relationships with books, and they are like friends.” To find out what Johnnies are reading today, visit the St. John's Website: www.stjohnscollege.edu. Sf. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �{TheProgram} 2.4 PLATO, ARISTOTLE, BALDWIN? The College magazine asked readers to suggest books they would like to see on the St. John’s reading list. The question drew an interesting variety ofresponses, with essays, novels, and works of philosophy suggested. Here are some ofthe offerings: Notes ofa Native Son would be a happy addition to the senior seminar list, perhaps following close upon the Lincoln and Faulkner readings. —Kevin Schnadig, SF98 Death in Venice Notes ofa Native Son The playwright August Strindberg once wrote about his experience of reading the complete works of Balzac, something over 50 volumes. When he had finished he felt, as he tells us, that he had lived an entire life condensed into the space of a couple of seasons. And that his own life now, whatever remained of it, took on the quality of a kind of second life, a strange addition to the life he had lived vicariously through the great author. There are other kinds of works, however, not oeuvres but single volumes, that leave their readers with a much different impression. They do not make us feel that we have passed through the entirety of a life but rather, and this is their particular strength, convey to us a sense, both tortuous and exhilarating, of the essential incomplete­ ness of life, of time fraught with interruptions, cut into so many fragments of unclear and mutilated histories, and interwoven with a dizzying variety of fictions and hes. The book 1 have in mind is James Baldwin’s Notes ofa Native Son, a collection of essays first published in 1955. These essays, brilliantly incorporating original insights into the works of Shakespeare, Dante, Milton, Faulkner, Kafka, and so many others, deal primarily with two themes, both literary and philosophical in scope: the encounter between human beings with different cultures, different ways of thinking and different superficial appearances; and the experience, individual as well as collective, of being an exile, geographically as well as psychologically. Notes ofa Native Son is, but is also much more than, a book about the experience of black Americans in the aoth century. Speaking of this experience, Baldwin writes that “the depthless alienation from oneself and one’s people is, in sum, the American experience.” But it is also, one comes to realize while reading these essays, an essentially philo­ sophical experience. For there is a certain kind of understanding that arises only from the point of view of an exile. St. John’s students and tutors will immediately call to mind the cases of Socrates, Christ, Dante, Spinoza, and Frederick Douglass, to name a few. It is the moment when all that is familiar becomes violently and threat­ eningly unfamihar, and one is compelled, if one has a penchant for intellectual honesty, to re-evaluate those most fundamental notions of self and other, truth and lies. As I believe St. John’s is at bottom an attempt to cultivate these moments of understanding by passionate discussion of ideas, I think I first encountered this book during my freshman year at Kenyon College, an experience which instantly changed my life. I have re-read it several times since... and after each reading, as in all the works on the reading fist, I understand more, both about the book and about the experience of being human, particularly that of falling in love. It would be wonderful if all St. John’s students had the oppor­ tunity to read and discuss Death in Venice. I suggest this book for three reasons. First, the reading list contains very little 20th-century fiction, and Mann’s tale is certainly one of the best examples, written before the First World War and the emergence of Modernism, yet the style and tone appear to signal the approach of the movement. Second, Death in Venice is short enough to be discussed in one seminar class, while containing enough chal­ lenging material to provoke a thoughtful, lively conversation. Third, and most importantly, the subject matter, the elderly von Aschenbach’s erotic longing for the teenaged Tadzio, is guaranteed to spark debate, especially in light of current events. At the same time, however, it will require students to revisit their discus­ sions of ancient Greek notions of eros, especially as expressed in Plato’s Lysis, Symposium, and Phaedrus. Indeed, Death in Venice maybe viewed as a 20th-century commentary on the Platonic idea of love, even incorporating sections of the relevant dialogues into the novella. This work serves as a transition of sorts, from the values and beliefs of ancient Greece to those of the modern world, and for all these reasons, it would make an excellent addition to the reading fist. —Charles Green, AGIoa The Decameron It’s absolutely imperative that we add Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century masterpiece. The Decameron, to the sophomore curriculum. Boccaccio’s tales of true love and high adventure (and depraved monks, which are what everyone who reads The Decameron seems to remember best) will provide a wonderful relief to sophomores recently completing their study of St. Anselm and Aquinas. Rather than depicting how people ought to behave in an ideal world-a “city of God” so to speak- The Decameron depicts how they behave in the real world, wherein people are more apt to pursue love, and sex, and wealth than divine absolution. As such we shall be reassured that not everyone in the Middle Ages spent all {The College. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �{TheProgram} their time woefully recounting their sins and attempting to understand God’s power and majesty. But of course, perhaps the greatest case for adding The Decameron to the curriculum is Brother B,obert, who has long feared the deduction of his beloved Rabelais from the Program list. Obviously, as The Decameron is about IO times dirtier than anything that can be found in Pantagruel and Gargantua it would be wholly illogical to deduct Rabelais from the curriculum and leave Boccacio on. Thus, the fears of one of our oldest and most respected tutors will at long last be assuaged, and sophomores will have gotten a delectable new read which provides a different, lighthearted, and secular perspective on the Middle Ages. —Jennifer Wright, ao8 The Rule of St. Benedict, The Philosophy ofFreedom I have always thought that the jump from Augustine to Aquinas is too large, a thousand years, and that The Rule of Saint Benedict would fit nicely, as it was much read and often observed in between, so preserving literature from one era for the next. The aoth century is the serious question.. . Which Western writers of the aoth century will be studied through the aist? How many thinkers have given new direction to painting, sculpture, dance, speech, music, drama, agriculture, finance, medicine, religion, and education? There is only one whose insights into embryology, physiology, astronomy, geology, botany, and zoology wfil guide fruitful research for generations. Rudolf Steiner has put before us in a new light so many subjectsepistemology, moral technique, meditative practice, evolution of consciousness, social life-that the prospect of rethinking every thought we hold may keep us from approaching his books. Yet the faculty of St. John’s is under pressure to study anthroposophy from at least two directions. Advances in physics are rapidly overwhelming Cartesian dualism. Philosophy cannot disregard science. New generations of students will expect their college professors to understand the foundations of their experience... Die Philosophic der Freiheit (1894) is the best introduction. There are at least three English translations... Rudolf Steiner’s contribution to Western thought is placed in the same rank as the work of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. In The Philosophy of as Author James Baldwin belongs on THE READING LIST, SAYS AN ALUMNUS. Freedom, Steiner leads the reader, by means of pure thinking, to the source of his knowledge. Having made that effort, one is competent to eval­ uate his statements, which the faculty of St. John’s will shortly be obliged to do. —Lisa S. Turner, parent (Douglas Turner, A04) Atlas Shrugged____________________________________________ While scorned by many academic philosophers, the book has had a tremendous impact on popular perceptions of philosophy, including among many highly educated people. In addition, the book has gained at least some ground in academia. There are a handful of colleges where some philosophers embrace Ayn Rand, and many others where at least short selections from her books are included in survey courses on ethics and political philosophy. I recently re-read the book after more than ao years. My perceptions have evolved and changed, and I was dismayed to discover how flawed much of the writing is. In particular, Rand’s “bad guys” are drawn as comic-book characters. Even so, there is much that is compelling in her writing, and the philosophical heroes of the novel give some very thought-provoking speeches. The ideas in the novel span the entire range of philosophical issues, from metaphysics and epistemology to ethics, politics, art, and even the role of sexuality in human relations. Possibly the best reason: With the lone exception of Aristotle, whose metaphysics and logic she embraces, Rand attacks virtually the entire canon of Western philosophical thought, from Plato to Descartes to Hume and Kant, right up to the present day post­ structuralists and post-modernists. One of the best lines in the whole novel, found in the long Galt speech, is: “The choice is still open to be a human being, but the price is to start from scratch, to stand naked in the face of reality and, reversing a costly historical error, to declare: T am; therefore I will think.’” The purpose of reading a book at St. John’s is to provoke lively discussion. And particularly for seniors in the undergraduate program, I can’t imagine a better book to challenge the entire body of work they have read in earlier years of the Program. . . {The College. John's College ■ Winter 2006 } —Steve Oppenheimer, AGIoa �^6 {Homecoming} O, PIONEERS! The Class ofigss Returns BY Rosemary Harty oyce Kittel Wilson (class of 1955) had a lot to learn from men like Jacob Klein, J. Winfree Smith, and Curtis Wilson. She also remem­ St. John’s-particularly her classmate, bers some of the things she learned Anita (Jane) Gerber Denison. from women-the first to attend “Jane taught me how to smoke,” Wilson recalls. “I just don’t remember that,” Denison says. Cigarettes were an ever-present prop for students and tutors alike. “We could smoke in class, and most of the students and tutors did,” Wilson recalls, Denison and Wilson were catching up in the home of Sam (class of 1954) and Emily (class of 1955) Kutler, who hosted a Saturday-afternoon luncheon at their home during Homecoming Weekend. As with most of the conversations around the room, the subjects alternated between “what are you doing now?” and “do you remember this?” Homecoming is always festive, lively, and full of memories, but this year it was especially nostalgic, as members of the Class of 1955-the first to include women-returned for their 50th anniversary. The class had 48 members, nine of whom have passed away. Sixteen members of the class attended their reunion, traveling from far and wide. They smiled at imitations of Jacob Klein’s accent or memories of President Richard Weigle’s attempts to keep the female citizens of St. John’s safe from bad influences. They were pioneers, and they had pioneers’ stories, such as the “open door” rule required for men and women to be in the same dorm room at the same time. They also talked about getting their tutors and male classmates used to having women in class and on campus. As Wilson puts it, the men of St. John’s did not accept the inva­ sion of women quietly. “They went kicking and screaming into the fray,” she says. Denison graduated from Towson High School, north of Balti- J {The College They encountered many challenges, but Joyce Wilson and Jane Gerber Denison ( both class of 1955) share fond memories of BEING the first WOMEN TO ATTEND St. JoHn’s CoLLEGE. more, and she won a scholarship to attend St. John’s. She made it through three years at the college and found it rigorous, chal­ lenging, and sometimes overwhelming. “The college was so much smaller then. You had 15 in a seminar, and there was no way you could hide. If you weren’t prepared, everyone knew it,” she says. “The oral exams, and the don rags-I dreaded those like poison.” She left close to the end of junior year and returned to Baltimore to find work. But she was summoned back to Annapolis by Jacob Klein, then dean of the college. “I went to his house. He was a very persuasive man. He wanted me to come back, and I did, but I was very confused, and I left again.” - St John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �{Homecoming} A Toast to Toasts women cloy/ The appetites they feed: but she-this college­ makes hungry/ where most she satisfies.’” It’s a fine tradition: at the end of the Saturday-night Homecoming banquet, alumni raise a glass in honor of their classmates and in gratitude to the college. More recent classes go first, paving the way for the Johnnies who studied in the old program. Here are a few of the sentiments offered this year in Annapolis: Graduate Institute, all years, Linda Stabler-Talty (SFGI76): “We’ve always heard it said that the Graduate Insti­ 27 tute is a refined version of the program. And we do admit that we are an amorphous group, we don’t have [typical] reunions. We dare say our wise perspective has helped us understand what St. John’s means to all of us together.. .. We raise our glasses to this collective enterprise of St. John’s College.” Class of 1995, Zena Hitz : “At reunions, we tend to think a lot about the past, partly because we’re St. John’s alumni, and we’re sentimental. . . . What I’ve enjoyed about Homecoming is seeing what people are doing now, what their lives are like, meeting the people they love, hearing about their work, finding out what they’re thinking about-so I would like to raise a toast to the class of 1995: Our lives, our love, our work.” Class of 1980, Ken Ross: “I know some of my classmates knew me as a very shy person in r98o and so they elected me anyway. I really enjoyed meeting my old friends and making new friends here. And to this very special college-here’s to the class of 1980!” Class of 1975, Jim Jarvis: “One of the most delightful things about being at a 30th reunion is to realize that we’re now the reunion where most of the people have gray hair-which is great. And to see that so many of these people are so amazingly accomplished, and have not lost their love for books and ideas. All of us I think would say about St. John’s College, what [Domitius Enobarbus] says in Antony and Cleopatra'. ‘Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale/Her infinite variety: other Denison went on to a marriage, a rich family fife that included five step-children, and a satisfying career as a professional editor. But she can still see Klein, who died in 1978, as if it were yesterday. “He always had this little twinkle in his eye.” Yet Denison left St. John’s feeling well prepared for the future, and she treasures the memories she took with her. “At that time, it was a very small community, and all of us women were new to it. We were close, and that was nice,” she says. If Denison left because she was young and unsure of her path in fife, Wilson left for another reason many college-age women encountered: marriage. She married Gerald Wilson (class of 1956) and became pregnant with her first child in her third year. “There was a saying at St. John’s, ‘ifyou’re unable to enable, have a baby,”’ she recalls, Wilson enabled, but left when classwork became too much for her. “I remember I had trouble keeping up with my fruit fly exper­ iment-! had let some get loose,” she recalls. She went on to have four children, and was one of the first women on the East Coast trained in the computer language COBOL. “I liked the logic in programming, and I was good at it,” she says. Later, after moving to California for her husband’s career, she earned a paralegal certificate and worked for law firms. {The College. Class of 1970, Steve Forman: “When people ask me if I went to St. John’s for the books I say no, I actually came here for the sports. Upon reflection I realized who I studied Euclid with, I know who I studied the Bible, Plato, and Aristotle with. I also remember who played for the Druids and how we hated the Hustlers. Because of what I realize is important about that other side of the Program that provided the balance in our fives with the studying and the thinking and the conversations, I think I’d like to [toast the late] Bryce Jacobsen [class of 1942, former athletic director].” Class of 1935, Roland Bailey: “. .. A toast to all of us who have lived in accordance with the philosophy of Rabelais: ‘To five: in general and tolerant fellowship with man and nature; in grateful appreciation of the good things of fife; and in cheerful expectation of all of fife’s inescapable vicissitudes.’ ” (A poetic toastfrom Priscilla Husted Griscom, class ofiggs, can befound on the inside back cover q/The College./ The women who entered St. John’s in r95r paved the way for those who would come later; several women from later classes-all the way up to 2004-joined the Kutler luncheon to hear the stories and help the pioneers celebrate. Steered to St. John’s by a teacher in her Cleveland High School who spotted her engrossed in Moby-Dick, Josephine Jaster Poe (class of 1957) thought St. John’s was still for men only when she first heard about it. “Then I learned they had opened it up to women, but my father said I couldn’t go,” she recalls. “I did anyway. And when I got here, I had no sense that women were ever a problem. I was just one of the boys.” Her husband, Harvey Poe (class of 1952), later a tutor and dean of St. John’s, recalls that the college embraced the idea that “women could do anything the men could do.” The college’s history also was a focal point of the weekend. Tylden Streett (class of 1950) unveiled two plaster busts of New Program founders Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan (see page 5r). Class of T955 member Priscilla Bender-Shore brought her series of oil paintings inspired by the Muses to share with the college community and alumni during the weekend. Charles Nelson (class of r945) set the tone for the weekend with the Friday-night Homecoming lecture, “In the Beginning... The St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �2,8 {Homecoming} ''Thefreedom to choose the St. John spath is essential to its success. ” Charles Nelson (class of 1945) Genesis of the St. John’s Program, 1937.” Nelson, who worked closely with hoth men while he was a student, talked about Barr and Buchanan separately-what type of childhoods and early education they had-and what brought them together to launch the New Program in 1937. He also talked about the decisions they made, such as requiring faculty to teach across the curriculum, and explained the rationale for such choices. He talked about their struggles, such as a draining battle to ward off annexation by the Naval Academy, and their triumphs. Even as the college gained international attention for its “radical” methods, Barr and Buchanan did not want the St. John’s Program “universally copied,” Nelson said. “That would have left the entering freshman without a significant choice, and the ThemUSES to freedom to choose the St. John’s path is essential to its success,” Nelson said. “The discipline and commitment required in order to gain the rewards of the Program presupposes that the path is freely chosen. In fact, I believe that most alumni would assert that it must be not only freely chosen, but also pleasurable; otherwise, it isn’t worth the pain.” —Rosemary Harty Homecoming Seminars, book-signings, and parties are standard fare for Homecoming in Annapolis. This year, thanks to artist Priscilla Bender-Shore, class of 1955, there were The Muses, gracing the Hodson Atrium (home to the Pendulum Pit) in Mellon Hall for the full weekend. It was an appropriate visual tribute to the women who in 1951 arrived in Annapolis to end the college’s days as an all-male institution. During a Saturday afternoon reception, Bender-Shore provided insight into The Muses: Dancing at the Edge ofthe World, which she graciously shared with the Annapolis campus community. The series comprises several large paintings depicting classically robed women engaged in graceful dances. In her presentation, Bender-Shore said she was pleased that this, her first visit back to St. John’s since graduation, gave her a chance to share her work. For Bender-Shore, the human figure, especially the female form, is a muse. She studied at the Yale School of Art and Cooper Union before attending St. John’s and earned her M.F. A. from the University of California-Santa Barbara. She currently lives and teaches in Santa Barbara. “Priscilla won the Reader’s Digest award to study in Giverny, France, and that was when she began to develop the ideas for the Muse drawings,” notes Emily Kutler, class of 1955, also an artist. “At a time when everyone was going modern, she stayed with what she was doing: human figures. Everyone was glad to hear her speak; she is so articulate and thoughtful.” Bender-Shore showed through slides of her work how her time as an artist-in-residence at Monet’s home in Giverny laid a foundation for the series. 4- For just a weekend, the Hodson Atrium became an art gallery. On display was a series of paintings by Priscilla Bender-Shore (class of Z955). {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } C �{Homecoming} Clockwise: At the afternoon picnic. Class OF 1965 MEMBERS GeRALD ZoLLARS, MiKE Woolsey, and Vivian Ronay trade stories; Henry Shyrock (class of 193a) and Roland Bailey (class of 1935) represented the “old” program at the Saturday banquet; Members of the class of 1955 and friends AT the Kutler home; Two future Johnnies enjoy Homecoming. {The College- St. John s College ■ Winter 2006 } �30 New Books from Santa Fe Faculty {Bibliofile} skv ,/in a bottle Sky in a Bottle___________________ by Peter Pesic MIT Press 2005 t starts with the simplest questionone every parent has heard, and few have answered satisfactorily: why is the sky blue? For Santa Fe tutor Peter Pesic, the question is the first step in a scientific journey that starts with Plato and Aristotle and ends, if it does in fact end, with Pesic. Sky in a Bottle, the latest in Pesic’s remarkable list of scientific and philosophic books, chroni­ cles the search for an answer to a question confronted by scientists and philosophers for centuries. Plato, Leonardo, and Newton all wrestled with the problem, as did the understand the first two questions, the ancient Chinese and Middle Eastern scien­ third question becomes “Can we recreate tists. The color of the sky is intimately the color of the sky here on Earth? Can we, connected with one’s view of the structure in effect, put the sky in a bottle?” Pesic of the heavens, the properties of fight, the traces the various attempts to answer the functioning of the eye, the composition of first two questions, taking the reader on a elements, the nature of air, and man’s rela­ tour through the central ideas of chem­ tionship to the cosmos. As late as i86a. Sir istry, optics, and atomic physics. John Herschel claimed that the color and In true seminar fashion, rather than polarization of skylight was one of “the two show how each thinker improved upon great standing enigmas of meteorology.” previous work, the book attempts to eval­ The book begins by dissecting the uate each of the proposed solutions on its central question into three related ques­ own merits, uncovering the scientific and tions. The first question is “Why does the cultural assumptions behind each thinker’s sky have color?” The second is “If the sky work. “One of the things that struck me does have color, why is it blue rather than was how long the question remained totally some other color?” Once we think we unresolved. Until almost 1900 people really didn’t know why the sky was blue. Many great physicists really barked up the wrong trees trying to answer the question,” said Pesic. Pesic first encountered the question in another scientist’s work. “I read a few years ago about a physicist named Smoluchowski who was working on the problem of trying to duplicate the color of the sky in a bottle. The more I learned of his work, the more I began to wonder if it was possible. Could it be done?” Although the inspiration for the book started with Smoluchowski, Pesic says the question at the heart of the book has its roots in his experience at the college. Z A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT LED SaNTA Fe TUTOR Peter Pesic to ponder blue skies. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter aoo6 } “When I first came to St. John’s the first class I taught was freshman lab. We were studying the atomic theory and the question “Do atoms exist?” Here I was a physicist and I had never really asked myself this. How could you prove atoms exist? I had a Ph.D. in physics, but the question never came alive for me until freshman lab. It occurred to me that many of the things we take for granted, like the color of the sky, are, in fact, deep and interesting questions worthy of reconsidering,” he says. Sky in a Bottle explores Rayleigh’s scat­ tering law and the connections between the appearance of the sky and Avogodro’s number. Pesic also discusses the depictions of the sky in art, the secrets of matter and light, and even what the sky’s brightness might tell us about the size and density of the universe. For those who prefer to take a more active role in tracing the conversation about the sky, the book contains an appendix of 11 important experiments related to light and color. “Some of the experiments in the book are simplified versions of the experiments we do in junior and senior lab. I included them to see if it was possible to demonstrate that light is a wave without using elaborate equipment,” says Pesic. —John Hartnett, SF83 Excerpt: Giotto was among the earhest artists to paint the sky blue, as in his fresco of the raising of Lazarus in the Arena Chapel in Padua (1305-1306). Blue pigments became much more available through the use of the mineral azurite. Yet even in the early part of the fifteenth century, the secret of mixing blue pigment was still closely guarded. Ultramarine was the preferred hue, made by grinding up lapis lazuli into a powder, which then could be used as pigment. It was ruinously expensive, so rare that it was said to come “from beyond the seas,” the literal meaning of ultramarine. This extraordinary blue long continued to be used for the most special passages in paintings by Giotto and later artists, usually reserved for the robes of the Savior or the Mother of God. Its expense also meant that only the master artists would dare use it. -Peter Pesic, Sky in a Bottle �{Bibliofile} Leaving Us to Wonder: An Essay on THE Questions Science Can’t Ask by Linda Wiener and Ramsey Eric Ramsey SUNY Press, 2005 t might seem strange for a St. John’s tutor to suggest in the title of her new book that there are some questions that can’t be asked. In Leaving Us to Wonder, Santa Fe tutor Linda Wiener and her collaborator propose that he who poses a question just might have already limited the answer. Consequently, many of today’s most important questions, when posed by scientists, are doomed from the start to limited or inadequate answers. The book is an interesting collaboration between a biologist and a philosopher. Wiener is the biologist; Ramsey is a philosopher and associate dean of the Barrett Honors College at Arizona University West. The two met at a conference 10 years ago and struck up a conversation on some of the issues that had bothered Wiener in graduate school. Their work explores the meaning of the scientific worldview and how it plays out in our everyday lives. Their book investigates alternatives to what they call “scientism,” the view that science is the proper and exclusive realm for thinking about and answering every question. One might expect that the impetus for such a book would come from the biologist’s critique of the philosopher’s methods and the philosopher’s objections to those of the scientist. For Wiener, the book really began when she was in graduate school as a scientist and began to question her own methods. She says, “I wanted to be a biologist because I wanted to be out with plants and animals and living things. But in graduate school, we treated animals and plants as if they were purely mechanical and mathematical. To the extent that science can study them they are, but I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to question that view. My colleagues thought that science was the way to understand everything. It seemed to me to be too narrow.” Although the book warns us about the dangers of a scientific worldview in general, Wiener uses a specific examplethe conclusions of evolutionary biologists-to help illustrate the case. Wiener shows how researchers working in evolutionary biology have stretched their Z conclusions to cover answers to questions about dating and divorce, relationships, childrearing, and the complex relations between the sexes-questions that cannot be answered from a scientific view alone. But the blame for this worldview is not limited to the scientists. At stake is the commonly held idea that a question is not properly answered until it has been answered by scientists. Our modern Leaving Us to Wonder “My colleagues thought that science was the way to understand everything. ” Linda Weiner popular worldview includes the erroneous assumption that the only real and true knowledge is the knowledge gained using the scientific method. The book challenges this worldview by asking probing questions about modern inquiry. Do the facts procured by technoscientific systems render inconsequential our lived experiences, the wisdom of ancient and contemporary philosophic insight, and the promise offered by time-honored religious beliefs? Drawing on authors from the Program, including Socrates, Darwin, Nietzsche, {The College. 5t. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } 31 Kant, Heidegger, and others, Wiener and Ramsey demonstrate how many of the claims and conclusions of technoscience can and should be challenged. They offer ways of thinking about science in a larger context that respect scientific practice, while taking seriously alternative philosophies whose aims are freedom, the good life, or living well. For Wiener, many of these ways of thinking were first suggested by her experience at the college. “Being a tutor here allowed me to see how others have thought about the facts of biology in different ways. In the Program we see how Aristotle and Goethe and Nietzsche are looking at some of the same things as scientists, but with a different approach. Those approaches allow you to see new things that the modern scientific paradigm doesn’t reveal,” she says. As one might expect from a collabora­ tion between a philosopher and a biologist, the book is respectful of the power of scientific thinking. Wiener is not proposing that purely meditative thinking, to borrow a term from Heidegger, should supplant and replace the calculative thinking of the scientific method. Instead, she carefully presents the idea that both kinds of thinking have a role to play in getting at the truth-neither has a monopoly on metaphysical reality or objective truth. Calculative thinking might propose that humans are fundamentally collections of DNA and should be viewed as such. Meditative thinking might propose that humans are fundamentally rational creatures who exercise their will. Neither answer has a monopoly on the truth, but each ignores the conclusions of the other at its peril. The book concentrates on the limits of scientific thinking only because of its prevalence in the modern world. Wiener points out, “If you seek solutions in a strictly scientific way you don’t tend to get good solutions. First you have to figure out what the problem really is. Once you hnd a solution is needed, then you bring in more technical knowledge at the end. You don’t start with science. You end with it.” —John Hartnett, SF83 �3a {Alumni Profile} A Quest to Preserve Ancient Dance Joseph Houseal, A84 BY Patricia Dempsey raveling off-road in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan means leaving behind modern modes of transportation-even wheels. “Off-road means traveling on yak, horse, or foot” through windswept mountain passes and isolated valleys, says Joseph Houseal (A84). A gifted athlete who once held the half-mile track record in Michigan and was a profes­ sional dancer, Houseal says that even he gets weary traveling this rugged terrain on his quest to find sacred rituals and dance festivals. He travels in Bhutan for up to seven months at a time as part of a five-year project to document Bhutan’s ancient dance forms before they are lost to modern culture. When Houseal is in Bhutan-some 7,600 miles from his home in Chicago-he is closer than ever to the rural roots of his youth in St. Joseph, Michigan, where his father is a blue­ funded by the Core of Culture and the berry farmer. The Bhutanese, a majority Honolulu Academy of the Arts, will become ofwhom practice Tantric Buddhism, part of a traveling exhibition, “The Arts recognize in Houseal a fellow farmer, a man of Bhutan,” which will appear in several on “a divine mission,” says Houseal. U.S. cities, and in Europe and Asia before “Everything in my life has come together finding a permanent home in the New York into this work of dancers preserving dance,” PubUc Library’s Performing Arts Dance he says. “I am alive because I have this Collection. purpose.” Landlocked in the eastern Himalayas, Over the decades that he has devoted between China and India, the Kingdom of himself to dance, Houseal has attained the Bhutan is an isolated sanctuary of nature Eastern ideal of integrating body, mind, and and ancient culture, where dance is spirit. He trained rigorously for his first integrated into every aspect of life. The career in professional ballet companies such Bhutanese practice monastic dances, lay as the Washington Ballet, made his choreo­ religious dances, masked dances, and other graphic debut on the Quad at St. John’s with sacred dance rituals. Dance is a form of Aeschylus’ Choephori. He later moved to meditation, communication, and informa­ Kyoto to study the ancient Japanese Noh tion. “Dance in Bhutan is not the same Theater and there formed a dance company thing as it is here in the states. We have one that attracted critical acclaim. Today, as word for dance. In Bhutan, they have over executive director of the Chicago-based 20 words for dance,” says Houseal. Dance in Core of Culture, Houseal leads a project to Bhutan is also endangered, as centuries-old videotape and preserve the dances of forms of feudalism meet the 21st century. Bhutan, In 2008 this ethnographic record. “Today the Bhutanese are on the brink of T {The College Sf. John's College ■ IVinter 2006 } Joseph Houseal, posed for a Nihon Buyo portrait. NihonBuyo is an ANCIENT form of TRADITIONAL Japanese dance. creating a generation that will have young people who cannot dance,” says Houseal. In Bhutan, Houseal travels ancient mountain paths with his British associate, Gerard Houghton, and Bhutanese film director Karma Tshering, who speaks 14 of the 22 Bhutanese languages. Last spring, for instance, they had three months to shoot 125 hours of film, but it took up to five days each way trekking off­ road to reach each of the six festivals they recorded. A festival can last up to five days, and dances last all day. “It can take a lifetime for a deep spir­ itual transformation, linked closely to Tantric Buddhism, to take place,” says Houseal. Houseal’s journeys often lead him to encounters with the mysterious and mystical. In one such encounter he saw exactly what is endangered in Bhutan. “We met a monk named Lopon Sangay. He has been a monk since he was eightyears old. When we met him, he had been awake for 16 days, dancing five-and-a-half hours a day in an elaborate three-week ritual. He couldn’t understand why we thought that was amazing. In his mind he was simply acting out the Dharma, his practice as a monk-this is a way of life in Bhutan, dancing as a practice. And it is these internal teachings that are endangered,” says Houseal. “Movement can be preserved and taped, but the internal teachings­ training the body and the mind, the organs, using visualization, projectory movement, and energy awareness-cannot. When Lopon dances, his body, mind, and spirit are transformed.” The audience or observer is also trans­ formed. “It is a fusion of mind, body, and spirit that leaves a karmic, compassionate �{Alumni Profile} imprint on the audience,” says Houseal, “In Bhutan, you don’t applaud after a dance is performed; you absorb the energy-so you can’t help but be transformed and take something away from it with you.” The ambitious scope of Houseal’s work in Bhutan is characteristic of someone with his perseverance, passion-and, he admits, luck. Growing up in rural Michigan, with eight siblings, Houseal had little time or money for dance. As karma would have it, a 92-year-old ballet teacher, classically trained by Russian immigrants, lived within driving distance. “She taught me the total art of ballet: character, music, plot, costumes,” says Houseal. After high school, he success­ fully auditioned for the School of the Wash­ ington Ballet and began as a scholarship student. Then in the late 1970s, the touring New York City Ballet needed performers to dance as extras in Coppelia. with Barysh­ nikov in the lead; Houseal was chosen from among hundreds who auditioned. “I saw how Baryshnikov lived and worked-in the dressing room, with the press, dancing the ballet-but I didn’t see myself living his life.” Houseal, the valedictorian of his high school class, wanted intellectual fulfillment, so he left the world of dance for St. John’swhere he also learned to take himself seri­ ously as a dancer. “I was trained as a performer, but my tutors, especially Chaninah Maschler, got me to explore the profundity of being a dancer,” Houseal recalls. “This was my first serious probe for four years into the question: ‘What is the nature of dance?’ ” Houseal also discovered what has become a lifelong love of ancient dance. He took 600 lines of ancient Greek and choreographed a dance to be performed on the Quad. “The Greek plays were meant to be spectacles, meant to have a civic purpose, a theatrical purpose. Where else can you recreate such a spectacle but at St. John’s?” In Annapolis Houseal was also influenced by Barry Talley, then musical director at the Naval Academy, for whom he worked as a choreographer. Houseal learned how to reconstruct baroque operas, ballets, colonial dances, and ballad operas. And it was Houseal’s friend at St. John’s, Grady Harris (A84), who introduced Houseal to ancient theater forms and gave Houseal translated Noh plays to read. Houseal was also influenced by Francis Mason, Jr. (A43), editor of The Ballet Review, who encour­ aged him to “go to the source and find out what dancers are teaching.” Inspired by ancient dance of Greece and drawn to an Eastern sensibility, Houseal moved to Kyoto after graduation to study Noh Theater under Master Matsui Akira. Houseal later formed the Parnassus Dancetheatre, which showcased dancers from all over the world performing Houseal’s avante garde choreography. During the seven years he lived in Kyoto, Houseal watched the city evolve into a cultural Mecca. But by the early ’90s, the cultural renaissance in Kyoto was devastated by the city’s economic downturn and AIDS. Houseal, a fortunate survivor of the disease, pursued his life’s work with renewed passion and studied for a graduate degree at the Laban Center for Movement and Dance in London. He returned to Chicago, where he says he 33 found the “bald eagerness for money offputting,” While meditating one day in his lakefront apartment, Houseal spotted a monk walking by on the beach and invited him in for tea. The monk told him to go to Ladakh, a region in the Himalayas. Soon Houseal found himself at a monastery in Ladakh, where he was “transformed to accept Fate’s call and recognized the need to preserve ancient dance.” As Houseal considers the transformations in his life-from a farming youth to professional dancer, from a college student to choreographer, and now as a dance preservationist, he observes that it can take 30 years of meditation and practice in Bhutan to become a monk. “I look at myself and see how it took only four years at St. John’s to cultivate what has become a deep part of my being,” he says. “At St. John’s I developed my mind after I had already trained my body. And look where it took me-to the source, the Himalayaswhere I can reach my life’s purpose.” For more information on the Core of Culture’s dancepreservation project in Bhutan, visit: www.coreofculture.org. Top: Houseal in Kumasaka, a Japanese Noh PERFORMANCE, AT KlI TeMPLE. HoUSEAL SAYS HE WAS THE ONLY FOREIGNER IN 8OO YEARS TO BE ALLOWED TO PERFORM NoH AT THE TEMPLE. Left: Bhutanese farmers, who are also lay MONKS, REHEARSE A TRADITIONAL DANCE IN THE VILLAGE OF UrA. {The College. 5t. John’s College . Winter 2006 } �34 {Alumni Notes} 1942 Ernest J. Heinmuller writes, “Having moved from St. Michaels, Md., I am now in Easton, Md., recently appointed to the Emergency Medical Treatment Committee.” Adventures in the Orient -OAN E. Cole (class of 1957) has been seeing the world since her retirement from the New York Public Library System and just returned from a trip to Japan and China. “Seeing the evidence of their long pasts puts our past in greater perspective. The U.S. is just a baby that can and should learn from the ‘elders.’ Museum visits, temples, and a performance of acrobats made it a most memorable trip.” J Lee Mace is enjoying retirement life at Leisure World in Silver Spring, Md. “Indulging myself with travel-mostly cruises! ” 1948 “I became a great-grandfather, doubly, with George Klimov born October 5, aoo4, and Shawn Trimble, born October 13,2004,” writes George R. Trimhle, Jr. 1964 Attention, any Johnnies living in England: Patricia Carney would be glad to organize a seminar for college alumni living in the U.K. “I am in Cambridge. Suggested reading: Omerus by Derek Walcott.” 1969 Andrew Garrison (A) writes: 1962 “Our son Jesse is in his third year at Oberlin, studying metaphysics and documentary filmmaking.” Michael Elias is set to direct his adaptation of the Anthony Burgess novel A Dead Man in Deptford on the life of Christopher Marlowe. Michael is living in West Los Angeles with his 13-year-old son, Fred, 1970 Les Margulies (A) has been living in Kiev, Ukraine, for almost a year. “I am Chief Operating Officer of a group of companies in the advertising area (The Atlantic Groupwww.agl-media.com). “Kiev is nothing like you would think. It is not grey, Soviet, and depressing. It looks like a combination of Vienna, Paris, and Prague. There are not too many ex-patriots over here (excluding government, probably less than 1,000, so that makes me a bit of a big fish in a small pond). I love living in Europe and can’t imagine why I had not moved years before when various opportunities presented themselves. I do miss certain foods, such as peanut butter. Wheat Thins, and corn muffins. But on the other hand, excellent vodka is $3.5o/liter and that more than makes up for the other bits lacking. “Living is much more expen­ sive than you would think. With the exception of vice products (local beer, wine, vodka, and cigarettes (50 cents a pack), everything is the same price or more as in the States. Decent wine at a bar is $io/glass. “Intellectually the work is very challenging and fun. Even though most of my friends and I am sure my fellow classmates are retired to warm climates somewhere, I am still going strong. I may not remember the details of Plato’s Republic, but I sure remember my first mixer at Chase Hall.” {The College -5f. John’s College - Winter 2006 } 1972 Ilene Lee (A) celebrated her birthday this year with an early-morning ascent to the top of Mount Tam in Marin County, Calif. She writes: “Wow-what a view!” 1973 Sheila Bobbs Armstrong (SF, SFGI95, EC93), had an intellectually stimulating summer. “I just did the Summer Classics: Nietzsche, three comedies, and Sri Aurobindo. I needed to kick­ start my brain. My eldest son, Ian, is a junior at St. John’s, and my son Gamon is a senior at Occidental College in L.A. My third son, Quinn, is a high school senior at Idyllwild Arts Academy in L.A. Mike and I are still in Santa Fe, Perth, and traveling. I still teach occasionally.” Dr. Mary Batteen (A) was made a full professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in July. She is the chair of the Oceanography Department there and regularly teaches graduate courses in physical oceanography and advises M.S. and Ph.D. students. She was recently interviewed for a book. Careers in Focus, which was published in 2004. She has two children: Matthew, 13, and Elizabeth, 8. Her husband, Tim Stanton, is a field oceanographer who has traveled to the North Pole, Antarctica, and Brazil, all this year. �{AlumniNotes} Bursting with parental pride, Jon T. Ferrier (A) writes, “Our daughter, Valerie, is halfway through law school at St. John’s University in New York, and Kayne and I are on the L.S.D.-the Law School Diet-for the next couple of years-just in time for our 35th class reunion! Pride abounds, and our hearts soar, like the eagle.” 1976 Richard Bradley Bonds (SF) is a nursing student. “Things have heen a little quiet since St. John’s and law school,” writes William W. Campbell (A). “In 3004,1 got the Honorary Young Farmer Award from Pennsylvania Young Farmers for ‘support of adult farmer education in Pennsylvania.’ Now that is excitement!” 1979 Susan Herder (SF) loves living in San Francisco and working as a self-employed neuro-muscular therapist: “I have more free time now, as I completed a pre-med program at San Francisco State University last year. (What a trip, to have come t8o degrees from shunning the sciences!) I do a lot of sports-I’ll run my first marathon (in the wine country in France!) in September, and regularly swim in the bay. I think about my classmates often and send you all the best.” 1981 Marilynn Smith (SFGI) reports that her move from California to Texas went smoothly last summer. “Living near my daughter and her family (including three grandchildren) is priceless,” she adds. Edelman, born on May 36. I can be contacted at edelman3@stanf0rd.edu.” Margaret Graham (SF) is still living in Boulder, Go., with her husband, three kids, one dog, two budgies, and ii chickens. She recently began taking prerequisites for nursing school, but notes there is a three-year waiting list to get in. 1984 Peter Green (A) just started a new job as deputy business editor at The New York Post. He often runs into Robert George (A85), who writes editorials for the Post. Catch up with him on his work e-mail: pgreen@nypost.com News from Barry and Cynthia Hellman (A): Thia Keppel Hellman is one of the Hampton University leaders organizing the effort to build a state-ofthe-art proton radiation therapy center in Hampton, 35 Va. The project will cost approximately $180 million and take several years to complete. The certificate of public need (COPN) was awarded recently. Fr. Robert Nicoletti (SF) was apologetic about not sending in his Alumni Association dues this year, but he has good reason, he notes: “As a missionary with two orphanages and a soup kitchen (300 people a day), I need to find funds.” He asked St. John’s alumni to consider supporting “these very human­ itarian activities in the Ukraine. Many thanks and prayers.” 1987 John Sellers (A) is “married to Becky Woods, teaching grades 8-r3 math and science, including chemistry and physics. Challenging!” continued onp. 1977 David Pex (SF) got married August 14, 3005. “Complete with instant family! Ages 4, 6, and 8!” 1983 Jonathan ANroNio Edelman Carla Schick (A) is still writing. “I will he published in a small independent journal called Defect Cult. Other poems have been published in the Peralta Press and Word is Bond.^" (A) returned to graduate school after 30 years in the film industry. “I am working towards a master’s degree at Stanford University in the Joint Program in Design (mechanical engineering and art). My wife, Annie, and I are very happy parents of a new baby boy, Liam Elijah Talbot Honoring Excellence “IM Sawatzki (AGI91) a teacher at Bethel High School in Spanaway, Wash., has been named Washington History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of The History Teacher of the Year Award honors one excep­ American History and Preserve America. He received a tional K-13 teacher of American history from each state and U.S. $1,000 honorarium, and a core archive of history books territory; is was based on criteria including experience in andselection materials donated to his school library. teaching American history for at least three years; a deep career commitment to teaching American history; evidence of creativity and imagination in the classroom; and close attention to documents, artifacts, historic sites, and the other primary materials of history. J {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �36 {Alumni Profile} Logos in Action David Veazey, Ayr BY Rosemary Harty man who uses the power HIV hysteria must first be eradicated.” of rational speech The writing he does now is much unjustly can do great different from the approach he took when harm, Aristotle writes in he sat down to pen his senior essay on Rhetoric. David Veazey Plato’s Sophist. “St. John’s requires a (A97) does just the different sort of writing that I never use in opposite; he employs carefullythe chosen outside world-that is, asking a lot of words, solid evidence, and a well-crafted questions and not necessarily coming to argument to save lives by helping to fight any conclusion compared to thesis­ the spread of HIV/AIDS in Russia, where argument-conclusion that the rest of the the government has downplayed the risk world is used to,” he explains. while new cases rise at an alarming rate. Veazey developed persuasive writing Veazey lives in Moscow, where he works skills on his own, noting that four years as a grant proposal writer for AIDS of the Socratic method prepared him well Foundation East-West (AFEW), a Dutch for the work he does today. “When I am non-governmental humanitarian public working on grant proposals I try to act as health organization that seeks to reduce sort of a Socratic midwife. I’m not an the impact of HIV/AIDS in Eastern expert on any particular AIDS issue, Europe and Central Asia. The job taps two but I try to ask the experts questions that of his best attributes: he’s passionate will help them come up with a good about making a difference in the world project that will be interesting to a donor. and skilled at drawing together informa­ This approach has St. John’s written all tion from many sources and assembling a over it.” persuasive argument. Consider Veazey’s editorial in the Kiev Post, which sought to meet the “rising hysteria” about HIV/AIDS in the Ukraine tvith clear and dispassionate logic. He pointed out that the stigma associated with the disease discourages people from being tested, tackled prevailing myths about how HIV is spread, and asked ordinary citizens to educate themselves and get involved in the fight against the disease. “In order to seriously address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ukraine,” he concluded, “the epidemic of fear and A Veazey’s route to Russia began at Fordham University in New York, where he was attending graduate school in economics and working part time and during summer breaks for Doctors Without Borders. He worked as a grant writer, then as a researcher for the international humanitarian organization’s access-to-medicines campaign. Ulti­ mately, the work steered him away from economics. “I became very interested in how the pharmaceutical industry worked and how it affected drug development for tropical diseases,” Veazey says. “I wanted to tie it to my economics studies in industrial organization somehow. I came up with several good thesis topics but the problem was finding the data to work with. All of my classmates were working on very esoteric topics with little relevance to people’s lives. This was mainly because the availability of data largely determines the topic. So I became more convinced that economics is inherently unable to answer any meaningful ques­ tions. . . I couldn’t see myself doing it as a career because of that.” When the September ii terrorist attacks sent the city of {The College. St. John's College ■ Winter 2006 } continued onp. gr Life in Russia is ALWAYS INTER­ ESTING, SAYS David Veazey, here with HIS WIFE, Elena Rudych, in Voloko­ lamsk, A SMALL TOWN TWO hours from Moscow. �{Alumni Profile} continued New York into an economic downturn, Veazey’s position at Doctors Without Borders came to an end, and he couldn’t find work anywhere-even part time. Veazey decided that the time was right to visit a friend in Moscow, where he could explore the job market. It was a risky move, primarily because English is not widely spoken in the city, and Veazey spoke no Russian. At first he patched together freelance work writing for magazines and newspapers for the U.S. expatriate community. That led to a job working for the Russian news agency Prime-Tass. Veazey’s language skills improved and he learned to edit “really, really fast,” but the job paid very little. Then he spotted an advertisement for a position with Aids Foundation East-West, “jumped on it, and got it.” His title is senior adviser on proposal development; in other words, bringing in money. He’s been at it for three years now, and his work is driven by urgency. The AIDS epidemic is still new to the former Soviet Union, he says. According to UNAIDS, 860,000 people in Russia have HIV/AIDS, the majority of whom are drug users who contracted the virus from contaminated needles. The outbreak may be much higher than reported by the government, says Veazey. Many more people may not be aware they have HIV. “The estimates vary widely because there isn’t any good data available. Some estimates are higher than a million. In the highest HIV-prevalence areas like Irkutsk and Samara, more than i percent of the population is estimated to be HIV­ positive. Once it goes beyond i percent, the epidemic can easily become selfsustaining,” he says. East-West sponsors projects supporting local organizations that work with injecting drug users, a method called “harm reduction,” says Veazey. “The ultimate goal is to get them not to use drugs, but in the meantime, they can use clean needles.” Another foundation project seeks to prevent the spread of HIV in prisons; inmates have been trained as outreach workers, medical professionals and psychologists were trained on preand post-HIV test counseling, and disciplinary and custodial staff received training on reducing risk in the work place. Until about five years ago, the Russian government was not aggressively involved with the spread of AIDS, Veazey says. “Politicians had been talking about increasing border security because they think the disease comes from abroad,” Veazey says. The government became more active after Veazey’s organization and four others attracted grant funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, an international fund with $7.a billion in pledges to fight three deadly epidemics. The Russian govern­ ment donated $20 million to the fund, ''When lam working on grantproposals I try to act as sort ofa Socratic midwife. ” David Veazey, A97 but did not apply for any grants itself. “In 2003 AFEW and the four other organizations applied for and won $89 million in grants over five year for HIV prevention,” says Veazey, who was the lead writer. “This caused some embarrassment among proud Russian officials. There were a lot of behind-thescenes discussions about whether they were going to allow us to go forward or not. One faction of the government even put together its own proposal at the last minute to try to sabotage ours. But in the end, we prevailed.” The following year, the government submitted its own successful proposal to the Global Fund for a similar amount, but focusing on HIV treatment, Veazey adds. “Now things are starting to change. President Putin announced in a speech recently that he was ordering the government to increase its budget for AIDS by 20 times. Of course, we have to see what they actually do with this money, but the environment is sharply different from a few years ago,” he says. A favorite aspect of his job is writing editorials and getting them published in {The College .Sf. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } 37 newspapers such as the Kiev Post. Once, he criticized the European Union for not taking a big enough role in prevention; another time he admonished the U.S. government for advocating abstinence-only programs. The U.S. “essentially enforces abstinence because they offer a lot of money and people normally don’t refuse.” Life in Moscow can be hectic. A native of Chattanooga, Tenn., Veazey has never grown used to living among so many people: “At 12 million people, Moscow is much bigger than New York. There are a lot of high rises, and the city has a kind of a grim exterior. There are a lot of reasons to be grim, because there’s so much poverty here. Then there are the challenges of everyday life in a city where some modern conveniences have not quite caught on. Says Veazey, “the most annoying thing for a Westerner are small food shops called producty. You walk in and there are about four different counters for different kinds of goods and you have to ask each person for what you want, they weigh it and tell you how much it costs, you go back to the cashier and pay for it, you bring your receipt back, and you can get whatever you bought. Then, you have to do it over again at the other counters.” Life in Moscow improved dramatically for Veazey in 2003, when he married Elena Rudykh, who works as an assistant network administrator. Elena’s family lives in Novosibirsk, in Siberia, and Veazey loves visiting the region. “Once you get outside the city, the countryside is beautiful, especially in winter, with birch trees and snow,” he says. His favorite thing about Russia is the character of the people: good-natured in spite of a hard life, resilient, friendly-and devoted readers of great literature. “Everyone here has read Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. It’s pretty amazing,” he says. Veazey and his wife are starting to think about moving back to the U.S., where Veazey would like to attend law school. He’s still interested in advocacy. “I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not going to save the world,” Veazey says. “It just feels good doing this kind of work, and I want to continue doing it.” �{AlumniNotes} 38 Josephine Lucia DiggsGalligan on July 20, 2005, in Washington, D.C. Big sister Sophia Emmanuelle is enjoying her new status immensely.” Senegal Bound (SFoi) has been busy: “After leaving Santa Fe, I went back to school at the University of Maryland, where I completed a B.S. in Soil Science. I then worked for two years Anne Schuchman (A) and Jim as a carpenter’s apprentice/site manager for Berrettini (AGI93) joyfully Blakketter Craftsmen (whose newest employee is Anne Neadham, Aoi.) I also took time off to volunteerannounce with Red the birth of Augus­ Feather Development Group, building strawbale homes onJames, August 22, 2005. tine Indian Reservations (Hopi and Chippewa). I’m now on my way Gus joins Samuel (6) and Stella to Senegal as a Sustainable Agriculture Extension Agent with (3). Jim is a manager at Time, the Peace Corps. If anyone will be traveling through, they Inc. Anne received her Ph.D. in should see me (for the next two years).” Italian Studies from New York University in 2004 and is an adjunct professor at NYU and a research affiliate with the University of Michigan. “We’re living in Rutherford, N.J., have started homeschooling, and would love to get in touch with Laurie Cooper (A) and Don Graham Harman (A) reports other Johnny homeschoolers Kugelmass were waiting the that his book Guerilla (ams8050@nyu.edu or arrival of their third child, Metaphysics was published in jpb@alum.mit.edu).” expected this January. Laurie August by Open Court. He is continues to practice still teaching at the American psychotherapy in a community University in Cairo, Egypt. mental health clinic. llison Anne Arnold A 1988 1990 Clinton Pittner (SF) “got 1989 Beverly J. Angel (SFGI) is now practicing intellectual property law with the firm D. McDaniel LLP. divorced, but took a cross­ country motorcycle trip from Alabama to California (6,500 miles round trip), which was nice. Found out there’s a K-ia school that has a program [similar to St. John’s], and even has two Johnnies as teachers!” Ken Turnbull (A) writes, Lee Carpenter (A) is busy completing a law degree at the University of Maryland School of Law; he expects to graduate in May aoo6. “My wife, Leslie, and I continue to be astounded and delighted by our i6-month-old daughter, Fiona.” 1991 Teddi Ann Galligan and David Alan Diggs (both AGI) “announce with great joy the birth of their second daughter. 1992 Elyette Block Kirby (SF) writes, “I am living half an hour south of Paris with my husband and three children, Benjamin, 4; Bronwyn, 3; and Luca, I. I’m always looking to meet other Johnnies living in the area...or traveling through.” 1993 Valerie Dufe-Strautmann (SF) gave birth last August to Northanna Mildred Strautmann. She and her husband, Jake Strautmann, live in Watertown, Mass. You can {The College -St John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } drop her a note by e-mail: vsd_str@yahoo. com 1994 Bill Kowalski (SF) and his wife, Alexandra Nedergaard, are proud to announce the birth of their second child, Chloe Sophia Kowalski, on December 6. “On the very same day, the paperhack edition of my fourth novel. The Good-Neighbor (Harper­ Collins), arrived on my doorstep, reminding me that December i was the official release date. This edition includes a P.S. section, comprised of an essay, an inter­ view, and a recommended reading list, all by yours truly. The essay is about St. John’s. It’s written for people who have never heard of us, and it gives a very general overview of the Program, so it won’t contain anything particularly new or enlightening for John­ nies. But I hope it helps bring SJC some more of the national exposure it so richly deserves (and international as well-the hook will be translated into German and Swedish).” Colin and Emily Ray (both A) have big news: “Our daughter, Marina Claire, was horn on December 2, 2004. We just moved into our new house in Tokyo. We’d enjoy having a Johnnie visit us!” �{Alumni Notes} 39 Fair Play Shana Hack (Ag^) Loves Toys wi Rosemary Harty ince graduating from St. John’s College, Shana Hack (A95) has heen selling toys for a living, primarily in various stores around Santa Fe. When the time came to make some deci­ sions about her future. Hack decided that she was happy selling toys. “I just realized I wanted my own toys,” she says. Hack was sorry to miss what would have been her loth reunion last September, but she had just opened Moon Rabbit Toys, a block from the Plaza on Guadalupe Street in Santa Fe. It’s a family enterprise. Hack’s husband, Scott Cox, a carpenter, built shelves for the store. Her mother, Karen, became her first employee. From the beginning. Hack was out to create an extraordinary toy store, one that reflected her own values. Only two toys in her store require batteries. Most toys are made from natural wood, and Hack scours catalogs and Web sites to find toys produced under fair labor conditions. “I found some amazing companies in Thailand that make toys of renewable wood and that follow European Union labor stan­ dards. I buy a lot of toys made in the U.S., and some wonderful board games made in Germany. If I buy something from China, it’s because it’s a really decent toy. Where else are you going to get rubber chickens and Ruble’s Cubes?” Shana Hack, with Rabbit Toys. S Don’t look for an Xbox or Game Boy in Hack’s store. “I love simple toys,” she says. “Take out a yo-yo and learn a trick. Who doesn’t love a Slinky? And Frisbeesthey’re just brilliantly designed.” Parents who remember how much fun it was to play with a Jiberwheel-a hand-held toy with a gyroscope-are buying them for their kids, but playing with them instead. Another popular toy is the goofy drinking bird, which provides a physics lesson every time he leans over to drink. 1995 M. Louise Heydt (SFGI) writes that her first book. Divine Rainbow, Nature as a Spiritual Teacher, was published in July 3005. It is for sale at the St. John’s bookstore in Santa Fe. 1996 “Hello Johnnies,” writes Gwendolynne Barr (SFGI). “What do you think-evolution and/or intelligent design? Experiment today by stirring up the gene pool of the Northern California Alumni Association: www.teamrioja.org/ sjcaanc/index.html. We hold {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter H006 } Moon Hack’s stock of board games has already attracted Johnnies who enjoy strategic games. “There’s the ‘Settlers of Catan,’ all about trading and developing cities; ‘Carcasonne,’ which involves building a map; and ‘Hector and Achilles’-how could I resist that?” When she’s a little better estab­ lished, Hack would like to start a game night for Johnnies. Bringing students into the store would give her someone with whom she can discuss her favorite books: Herodotus’ HistorfcA-which she keeps in her store to peruse at leisure-and Moby-Dick. With just a little advertising and a good location. Moon Rabbit Toys has already attracted a good base of parents, tourists, and children of all ages. The downside is that she’s been known to work a month without a day offa small price to pay for the rewards of running her own show and being able to play with toys. “I’ve been dreaming about this for four years, planning it for two, and now I get to wake up every day and say, ‘I own my own toy shop-how cool is that?’ ” ♦ Tracy Christine Whitcomh (A) writes, “One more year of nursing coursework and I’ll be an RN-BSN! I spent a semester in Perth, Australia, and enjoyed riding camels as well as removing staple stitches. I’m still in Vermont. Anyone coming up to Burlington, feel free to look me up at tracywhitcomb1973@hotmail.com. Cheers!” friends, at seminars throughout the year, as well as an annual symposium at Stag’s Leap winery in Napa. Good times, great (and other­ wise) books.” �{AlumniNotes} 40 1997 Jenn Coonce (A) works for WcightWatchers.com and is getting an M.A. in modern psychoanalysis at the Boston Graduate School for Psychoanalysis in New York. Casey McFaden (AGI) recently accepted a position at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Haver, and Feld, LLP in Washington D.C., with a focus on the federal regulation of electric utilities. he writes. “I have asked David Reber (AGI) to be a consultant with our math curriculum, and if possible, to teach part time. The other six members of our development team are not Johnnies; however, they are aware of and support our great books approach. Most of them have attended at least one Touchstones workshop, and we expect to be asking for additional help from the Touchstones program as well as the great books program once we have a contract and start hiring additional personnel. We are constantly running into problems with our Milwaukee Public Schools administrators who don’t understand why we don’t want to operate the same as all the other schools.” 1999 Mike and Arby Soejoto (both A) are proud to announce the birth of their son, John Anthony, on July 10. Their daughter, Lucy, turned 2 last fall. The Soejotos live in Los Angeles, where Mike is an attorney, and Abby is a stay-athome mom. They’d love to hear from any friends at msoejoto@pircher.com or asoejoto@sbcglobaLnet. John Cowherd (A) writes, “I took a month off and now I’m back working at the same place and waiting to get my Virginia bar exam results in a few weeks.” 2000 Paul E. Tanner (AGI) recently William Conway (A) is living accepted the Erickson Research Fellowship in Educational Policy at Michigan State University. in Philadelphia, working at Saint Joseph’s University in administration. “I’m studying towards an MBA and am available to talk to students and alums about business school and working in higher ed administration: wconway@sju.edu.” Out of the Loop? 1998 Chris Jones (SF) writes that Stephen Conn (SF) is happy to all is “well in Tennessee. I’m practicing pastoral counseling, art, and Isha yoga. I miss St. John’s and friends there, so I hope to hear from some at kierkegaardvark@yahoo.com.” announce that one of his comic-strip series, “The Radioactive Rahbi,” has heen picked up hy the Newport, R.L, free weekly, the Mercury (WWW. newportmercury. com). He would also like to shamelessly plug his Sgt. Pepper/Great Books Authors T-shirt, available in both campus bookstores. He writes, “Best to all the ’97/’98ers!” Glen Scott Cooper (AGI) is involved with an exciting new endeavor. “We are opening a new public charter school Aug. I, aoo6-Downtown Institute of Arts and Letters, a great books high school that is part of the small schools initiative of Milwaukee Public Schools,” Catch up on all the latest news. Join the St. John’s College Alumni Online Community. Here, you can let friends know where TO find you, discover what former classmates are up to, share “For the next eight months, I will be sailing as the director of Resource Development on the Voyage of Makulu,” writes Todd Wilson (SFGI). “We will sail from Australia to Italy, teaching New York City public school students world geography along the way. You can track the voyage at the organization’s Web site: www.reachtheworld.org.” PHOTO galleries AND BLOGS, KEEP UP WITH ALUMNI EVENTS AND COLLEGE NEWS, AND CONNECT WITH OTHER ALUMNI WORKING IN YOUR FIELD. From the St. John’s home page (www.stjohnscollege.edu), CLICK ON ‘‘For Alumni” and follow the directions from there. continued on pg. 42 {The College- St. John's College ■ Winter 2006 } �{Alumni Profile} A Sweet Deal PaulLaur (SFGIg^) Pursues a Values-CenteredEnterprise BY Erica Naone (A05) " hen he drove up to Denver recently to pour cider samples at a new chain grocery story, Paul Laur (SFGI95) took his 7-year-old son Gavin along. As president of Santa Fe Cider Company, Laur manages his business with Gavin and Nathaniel (4) in mind-involving them in the world of work while enjoying the time he spends with them. “My sons go with me to pick the apples or to drive the truck to the press,” he says, “and that’s part of what makes the job fun.” The manager of the grocery store had other ideas and told Laur it was unprofessional to have his son with him on the job. True to the marketplace and with the community in philosophical tendencies that brought him which we live.” to St. John’s, Laur went home and thought Laur’s background, in fact, is it over. What emerged was a clear view on adventurous and far ranging. He began the role of business in a person’s life, his college career as a physics major at the particularly his own. University of California-Irvine, hoping to “The manager was talking about become a theoretical physicist. Sidetracked corporate ethics-not professionalism at into a sailor’s life, he found himself, in the all,” Laur says. “I have a family-run late 197OS, sailing a boat to Australia with business. It makes total sense to me to bring three undergraduates from St. John’s in my family along for the ride. It’s a shame Annapolis: Steve Scott (A78), Preston Kelly that corporations have to be so faceless.” (A8a), and John Fleming (A78). Laur had Laur has worked hard to bring the already heard about the college and had personal into the professional. When he considered applying to St. John’s. Another started his business in Santa Fe, he looked old friend, Nick Kennedy (A81), had gone to for a way to fit himself into his chosen St. John’s and introduced Laur to the three community. He wanted to attach his men in his Annapolis crew. The experience business to an existing story, and he found on the boat, Laur says, “elevated St. John’s that story in the orchards of New Mexico. to the short list of things I wanted to do in Planted by Spanish settlers 400 years ago my life.” with rootstock from Asturias in northwest “I suppose the main point about sailing Spain, the orchards risked losing their with these guys,” Laur adds, “was that water rights to fast-growing urban during the 10 weeks or so that it took us communities nearby. Laur wanted to help to reach Australia, we had one or two keep water in rural communities and began conversations about life and our condition. working to create a market for apples from We didn’t spend much time in port-three local orchards. days in Panama and three days in Tahiti-so The way he approached being an most of the time we were logging miles at entrepreneur came out of his liberal arts sea and under sail, only running the engine sensibilities. “My background has not been an hour a day to charge the batteries.” a business degree from Harvard,” he says. After finishing his undergraduate degree “It’s been about creating synergies with the at the California Maritime Academy, Laur W {The College - St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } Paul Laur went from sailing the seas IN A MERCHANT MARINE CAREER TO SELLING CIDER MADE FROM NeW MeXICO APPLES. found a career in the Merchant Marine that allowed him to attend the graduate program at St. John’s in Santa Fe between trips to sea. He met his wife, Ruth, just as he was finishing up at St. John’s. It was then that Martin Crowley, who had hired Laur years before to deliver a sailboat, invited Laur to manage a rum factory for him in the Caribbean. This experience with Pyrat Rum introduced Laur to the art and science of taste. “I became really good at picking up subtle differences and could identify which component was causing what, yet I still had a lot of stuff that fed my scientific geekism,” Laur says. “I love the scientific process, but without the tasting that goes along with it, it makes you a plumber at best, rather than a composer.” When Laur and his wife had their first son, they returned to Santa Fe rather than raise him in the Caribbean, “where it would be a battle to get him to wear shoes.” They founded the Santa Fe Cider Company in 1999Being in Santa Fe allowed Laur to participate in community seminars at St. John’s that have fed his intellectual and entrepreneurial interests. At a community seminar on Flannery O’Connor, Laur met Owen Lopez, executive director of the McCune Foundation, which supports small business and community development in Santa Fe. Lopez became a great supporter of Laur’s company. Laur also enjoyed a seminar led by tutor Krishnan Venkatesh, Graduate Institute director, on food, taste, and the culture of connoisseurs. Laur aims constantly for connection: education to business, science to art, living to livelihood. “Having a liberal arts education,” he says, “means thatyou’re liberated from being ultra-conservative and having to have all the hghts green before you go forward.” �4a {Alumni Notes} 2001 Matthew Lippart (SF) writes, “After four years of crashing up against the system, my school is getting its own building! Yay! In addition, I would like to teach overseas next year (China or India, preferably) so any advice, suggestions, or connections would be appreciated. (Online at mlippart@hotmaiLcom.)” Talley Scroggs (A) and Louis Kovacs (Aoa) are living in Baltimore, Md. Lots in the works, Talley writes: Lou’s in medical school, Talley is working three jobs and applying to JD/MB A programs, and they’re getting “hitched” next June. They’d be happy to hear from anyone in town. Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, this August. She will be joining her husband, George Finney (SF99), who is starting his second year in the same program. Erin Krasniewicz and Randy Pennell (both A) are living in Philadelphia and would love to hear from other Johnnies in the area. Randy works for the Associated Press, and Erin works for the Pew Charitable Trusts. “If you are going to visit Philadelphia and want to know where to find the best cheesesteaks, drop us a line first! (Hint: It’s not Pat’s or Gino’s.)” nothing special.” He lives in Philadelphia and is studying to be a counseling psychologist. Please contact him at woollyrubric@yahoo.com if you have any leads regarding the whereabouts of a video copy of Philoctetes: the Musical, the class of 2002’s notorious RealPlay. Also, he writes, please contact him if you can offer him a job in the Philadelphia area. 2004 from chiropractic school this April and will be spending the summer in Brussels, Belgium, learning French. She writes: “I would love to hear from anyone from St. John’s: Drlauren@gmail.com.” John C. Gorczynski (SF) writes: “I have enjoyed working for the mayor’s Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security in Houston, Texas. I am very excited to be moving to the San Francisco Bay area this fall with Katie de Mahy (SF03). See all you alumni out there.” Mark Ingham (SF) is living the contemplative life: “I drive a vacuum in the North Canadian Oilfield while listening to my own audio recordings of Nietzsche.” 2003 In June, Ann Carruthers (SF) finished her master’s degree in philosophy at the University of California, Irvine. She is now living in Austin, Texas, with Steven Orsinger (SF03) and beginning a Ph.D. program in political philosophy in the Government department at the University of Texas. Mary Duffy (A) has signed on for a lo-month stint with AmeriCorps at the South Whidbey Community Engagement Center in Washington State. “Whidbey Island is in the Puget Sound, about an hour north of Seattle, including the ferry ride,” writes Mary. “I’ll be living on the island, sharing a house with two other volunteers on a stretch of Sunlight Beach, which sits on Useless Bay. I am still writing poetry and I hope to finish a novel in verse by next summer. I would love to hear from Johnnies in the Pacific Northwest, and can be e-mailed at hisgirlfriday@gmail.com.” 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 May; dead­ line for the alumni notes section is March 15. Alumni notes posted to the college’s online community will also be included in The College. Visit www.stjohnscollege.edu; click on Alumni. In Annapolis: The College Magazine St. John’s College, P.O. Box 3800 Annapolis, MD 31404; rosemary.harty@sjca.edu In Santa Fe: Rebecca Anne Dwyer (SF) Amanda Kennedy Finney (SF) will begin her first year in the evening law program at 2005 Lauren Shofer (A) graduates 2002 Evan Draper (A) is “doing Applied Linguistics beginning in fall 3006: “I am very excited about this, having spent the last two years teaching English as a second language in Taiwan and China (which, according to the Chinese, are the same),” she writes. “I am glad that the St. John’s education has prepared me for graduate study and that the good people in Scotland realize it. The program is 13 months long. Edinburgh was my first choice because of the vast linguistic resources they have.” has been accepted to study at the University of Edinburgh’s Master of Science program in {The College -St John^s College ■ Winter 2006 } The College Magazine St. John’s College 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; alumni@sjcsf.edu �{Tributes} 43 Remembering Ralph Swentzell Santa Fe tutor Ralph Swentzell, a faculty member from 1966 until his retirement in 2003, died of cancer last summer. At a memorial service September 25, he was remembered as a lifelong learner, as a man with many diverse interests, and as a devoted husband and father. In the words of Dean David Levine, Mr. Swentzell represented for many of his colleagues “the paradigm of the St. John’s tutor: An insatiable desire for learning joined to a generous spirit, he mentored and inspired generations of students and tutors alike.” Similarly, Mr. Swentzell’s ability to balance the demands of being a St. John’s tutor, while raising a family and pursuing many diverse interests, inspired colleagues such as Tim Miller, who joined the faculty shortly after Mr. Swentzell. “Because of the hours of study needed by a tutor teaching parts of the Program for the first time, the strain on the tutor’s home life is enormous. . . I think Ralph found a balance between the two obligations as well as any tutor I have known. The collaboration of Rina and Ralph in designing and building their beautiful solar home remains an inspiration for me and I’m sure for many others.” The following are some additional remembrances from Mr. Swentzell’s colleagues and friends: "'He liked to play with ideas, not because he took them lightly, but because hefound them so beautiful and fascinating. Tom Simpson met his wife and life companion, Rina. After Mr. Bunker and Mr. Boyd were recruited to St. John’s College, Mr. Swentzell followed, and he joined our faculty in 1966, retiring in 2003 after 37 years of active and exceptional teaching (and learning). Jorge AiGLA,Tutor Ralph Swentzell was born in East Patterson, N.J., on July 13,1938, attended the local public high school, and joined the U.S. Air Force Band at the age of 17 in 1956, where he remained for four years playing clarinet. In his free time he read widely and was much affected by the writings of Freud. He went to study psychology at Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M., where he came under the tutelage of Robert Bunker and Stuart Boyd, and where he also Ralph Swentzell made significant contributions to our Program: he was instrumental in introducing original papers to our music and junior mathematics tutorials, and his helpful handwritten notes for the junior and senior laboratories and senior mathematics are legendary in their clarity and true liberal approach. Ralph was an early incentive in the planning and formulation of the Eastern Classics program, and was responsible for the firstever computer-based Chinese lexicon. Several of us had the privilege to be in his “Computers and the Mind” Schmidt Study Group the first year this fellowship was awarded. If there ever was a man who learned from learning, it was Ralph Swentzell. For him, teaching was an excuse for touching­ students and colleagues. To co-lead a seminar with him or to be in a tutors’ meeting with him, were transforming experiences. Every conversation (about anything) was a conversion. One could feel oneself learning from him and being changed by his authentic human presence. Ralph illuminated the texts, never disposing of them; he opened the books while he allowed himself to be intimately and personally opened by them. One could often hear him in the hallway or Quad. .. saying to his interlocutor: “Yeah, yeah that sounds right, and from what you are saying it is as if.. .” and then he went on clarifying and amplifying whatever was centrally at stake in the conversation. His personal interests were deep and broad: neural networks, consciousness, quantum mechanics, computer modeling, relativity, emergence, Chu Hsi and Neo-Confucianism, Bodhid­ harma, thermodynamics, biochemistry. Ralph was an intrepid wind surfer, a house A MAN WITH MANY INTERESTS, TUTOR Ralph Swentzell left his mark on St. John’s College. {The College - St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �44 builder (he and his family built their lovely home in Santa Fe and their weekend home in Madrid), a jogger, and a lover of sweets and used bookstores, and since his retirement, he was engaged in learning how to play the guitar. As an individual he was kind, gentle, acute, compas­ sionate, without a tinge of pride in his polymathy or intelligence. Through him many of us were granted a glimpse into the mystery of friendship. Ralph was a devoted husband for 45 years and a loving father of three wonderful daughters, grandfather of twelve, and great-grandfather of three children. He made time to be with his family, and to make a family. Tom Simpson Tutor Emeritus In thinking about Ralph Swentzell, the word that comes first to my mind is “hearty.” I think of his hearty laugh, his zest for ideas, his love for people and for the world-his total dedication to the pursuit of truth, and an almost diffident modesty about any claim to having arrived at it! For many years, Ralph and I have been good companions in adventures of all sorts, including, most of all, adventures of the mind. Whatever crazy idea I came up with, I could always count on him to give a hearing to, and find some possibilities in it, but when I came up with a seemingly safe and innocuous idea, he would say gently that he’d been wondering about that-and I would find that the idea I had thought so simple and secure in fact had a very different side, and opened up in ways I had never imagined. He liked to play with ideas, not because he took them lightly, but because he found them so beautiful and fascinating. The more seriously he took them, the more he delighted in that play. I think it’s fair to say that however far afield his personal inter­ ests took him, the college was always in some way close to the center of his life-not {Tributes} in its institutional aspect, certainly, but because those books and those questions were always so vivid and vital to him. They were part of his lifeblood, and that is why it was always so exciting to share them with him. He suffered immensely-more than most of us, I suspect-when institutional constraints seemed to cramp and distort that open chase for truth. He did indeed voyage far from the known shores of our Western learning! Armed with that computer program he had devised to open Chinese works to our tutorial way of starting out by reading fascinating texts -he took off for the far shores of Eastern thought. He went to the core of the question of what language is, and how it serves thought. He knows, as Scott Buchanan had before him, that it is only by getting far outside the confines of our presuppositions, that we might be able to see ourselves in our true proportions-not as Western, or Eastern, but as fully human. With the Eastern Studies, he threw a challenge to the college, one which I always felt we had really failed to hear. It is not too late for that! When Ralph got hold of a good idea, he would not let go of it. Many years ago, when he and I were thinking about possible spaces and other worlds, we began wondering about the strange structure of the Lobachevskian geometry. What would {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } it mean, we wondered, to be living in a world like that? We tended to conclude, as everyone does, I guess, that depending on the scale, things might not seem so different. The closer you got, the less you would know where you were! There seemed to be a moral in that. We had that conversation long ago. But just a few weeks ago I had a chance to visit with Ralph one more time, catching him, as it happened, at a moment when he was briefly filled again with his old exuberance. He went up the little stairs to his computer room to make me a copy of the latest version of the Chinese dictionary-and then called down, “Hey! Come on up! I want to show you something! ” Thinking back to that old conversation, he had worked up a computer program which was ready to take you anywhere you wanted to go in the Lobachevskian world. You could go to any farthest corner, and there look around to see what the cosmos looked like. Sure enough-our old speculation was verified: the deeper you got into that cosmos, the more it looked like home! Ralph had achieved a special stance, at some far corner of the cosmos best known to him-from which he could see all his worlds at once-the Western one, with the music, the mathematics, the quantum perplexities he loved so much-the Pueblo one, in its deep peace with the cosmos-and the Chinese one, with its special power to see truth as at once aesthetic and whole. He hasn’t solved every­ thing, or maybe anything, but he had seen so much! He was ready to take it all on, with that hearty laugh and an undying sense of wonder and amazement. It was very typical of Ralph that at the end of our last few minutes together, he said he wanted to lend me a book. It was the philosophy of Hua-Yen, and he thought it might be just what I was looking for. I don’t yet know just what he meant, but I still have the book. I have my assignment, and I’ll see what I can do with it! ♦ (Read by Hans von Briesen) �{Tributes} 45 A Homecoming Tribute to Bill O’Grady William O 'Grady was a tutor at St. John's Collegefrom nj7o until his death in tgS6. In a relatively short time at the college, Mr. O 'Grady made a lasting impression on many students and tutors, and his absence is stillfelt. Mr. O’Grady now has a permanent memorial: aframed collage ofpictures taken on his wedding day, unveiled during Homecoming in the Coffee Shop. Several former tutors, friends, and colleagues of Mr. O ’Grady gathered to share their memo­ ries. Santa Fe tutor Cary Stickney, A’25, offered this tribute: When we call to mind the dead that we love we sometimes make them better than they were. Especially if they diedyonng or untimely we try to balance our sense of what was taken from them with the most generous account of what they took: unahle to see why they should he gone while we remain, we conclude that it should he vice versa. So a certain kind of eulogizing is distantly akin to what Priam does when he calls his remaining sons worthless after the death of Hector, or even heaping dirt and ashes on his own head. There may also he a kind of suspicious ease in praising the dead: let their virtues he what they will, we feel we cannot he properly compared to them until our lives, too, are over. I mention these dangers not supposing that hy naming them I can be sure of entirely escaping them, hut as an invocation of the spirit of truth. It should he possible to praise someone, even extravagantly, while speaking truly. I hope you will take what I say with less than a grain of salt. I knew Bill O’Grady first as my sophomore math tutor, then through his Friday night lectures, then as a colleague when I became a tutor in Santa Fe and he spent several years on that campus. I do not remember much of that math tutorial 33 years later; I was not working at it with real devotion or deep interest. I may not have been atypical: what I remember is Bill reading aloud to us sometimes-an essay or maybe a story­ in what I now recognize were attempts to kindle a fire in our unseasoned, soggy souls. He did not try to blame or intimidate the class into more serious learning, nor did he lecture on what he himself had learned or was learning. He kept presenting us with opportunities. Of the things he read, I remember only one. It was about a Mexican bullfighter whose nickname was “El Loco,” perhaps because on his bad days an unprejudiced observer might decide that he had just as good of a reason to be in the bullring as a lunatic escaped from an asylum. On those days it seemed a miracle he was not killed. But on his good days every move he made seemed a miracle of grace and skill. You left the stadium proud of the whole human race. El Loco had an enormous following, whether in spite of or because of one’s never knowing if a particular performance would be his best or his last. What, asked the writer, would it be like for us to judge one another and ourselves not on the basis of our everyday fumblings but according to what we are at our very best? That question continues to resonate for me, occasioned not only by my students or colleagues but also by my own mysterious inertia and capacity to disappoint myself. But it was as an interpreter of texts in Friday night lectures and question periods that Bill O’Grady seemed to me to fully manifest his own gifts. He was the most penetrating reader I have ever known. He read not only with his mind but also with his heart. Under the light of his attention books revealed themselves to be more beautifully put together than I could have imagined possible, and to be more directly addressing my own heart and soul than I could have dared to hope, and these were not separate. . . He never talked down to students. I think this was because he had read and thought, to paraphrase Pascal, not like a professional scholar, but like a human being. He once proposed as an example of what Socrates meant by finding his corroborating witness within the very one he sought to persuade the story of Nathan the prophet rebuking King David for his murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah. Nathan tells David of a rich man who has taken his poor neighbor’s one ewe lamb, his beloved pet, and slaughtered it to feast a visitor, though he had many flocks of his own. David exclaims, “That man deserves to die!” and Nathan replies, “Thou art the man.” It is the vividness of David’s realization that the story is about him that I find in all of Bill’s encounters with texts. He is not present as a specialist, an impartial expert who has built an airtight case that will be most interesting only to fellow experts, but as a fellow doer and sufferer with the author, with the characters, whose own fate is tied to the questions of issue. We are all prone to imagine that it might after all be best and most admirable to be some kind of expert about some­ thing. Even El Loco on his good days looked as if he knew everything about bullfighting. And whether best or not, all kinds of expertise are necessary, if life is to be more than just survival. But whether all things in the world are as they are merely by necessity or because it is somehow for the best is not a question to be decided by expertise. And those for whom that question can be a matter of their own happiness or misery, of life or death, could do worse than to take Bill O’Grady as an exemplar, to read what he wrote and remember what he said and did, and to find his spirit alive in all that is best about St. John’s College. Tutor William O’Grady {The College- St. John’s College • Winter 2006 } �{Obituaries} Thomas McDonald, Class of 1948 Former Tutor Thomas McDonald, a tutor for three decades on both the Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses, died after a long illness from complications of Parkinson’s Disease on December 27, 2005, in Baltimore, Md. Mr. McDonald was born in Atwood, Kansas, and lived in Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois before arriving in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1941 at the age of 13. He enrolled in St. John’s at the age of 16. The following summer at age 17, when informed that at 6'5" he was too tall to be a Marine, he requested and received a Senate Naval Affairs Committee waiver to enlist in July 1945Discharged in late 1946, Mr. McDonald attended the University of Virginia briefly and then entered the New School for Social Research in New York. There he studied philosophy under Karl Lowith and Hans Jonas. In 1958, after serving as a lecturer at the New School, he taught for three years in the University of Chicago’s Basic Program of Liberal Education. Following a year in Europe, he joined the St. John’s faculty in 1963. He taught for several years in the 1970s and 1980s at the college’s campus in Santa Fe, NM. He also served as a visiting professor at East Texas State University and as a visiting fellow at the Kennedy Center for Bioethics at Georgetown University. An authority on Kant, he spent his 1976-1977 sabbatical year in Germany. He retired in 1991, but continued to teach part-time. Santa Fe tutor Jim Carey (class of 1967) had Mr. McDonald for his freshman math tutorial in 1963, and felt very fortunate to have known him as a tutor and a colleague. “He was in, my opinion, the finest tutor who ever taught at St. John’s,” Mr. Carey said. Howell Cobb, Class of 1944 FederalJudge Howell Cobb, class of 1944, who had a distinguished career as a jurist, died Sept. 16. 2005. Judge Cobb was born in 1922 to lawyer and state circuit Judge Howell Cobb and his wife, Dorothy Hart Cobb, in Atlanta, GA. He was reared in Georgia and Washington, D.C. From 1940 to 1943, he attended St. John’s, but World War H interrupted his studies. He served as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps, where he saw action as a John Mack, class of 1945 fighter/bomber pilot in the South Pacific. After the war. Judge Cobb earned an LL.B, from the University of Virginia 1948. He attended the University of Texas Law School to prepare for the Texas Bar Examination and in 1954 was hired by the firm of Orgain, Bell, & Tucker in Beaumont. He became a partner in 1956. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed Cobb a U.S. District Judge. He served for 20 years, assuming senior status as a sitting judge in March 2001. Judge Cobb is survived by his wife, Amelie; six children; and 21 grandchildren. John Mack, Class of 1945 Former BVG Member John Duncan Mack, class of 1945, of Concord and Chatham, Mass., died Sept. 27, 2005. Mr. Mack was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1924 to Josephine and John George Mack. He served two tours as a sergeant in the U.S. Army Infantry in World War II in the South Pacific and was awarded a Silver Star and a Purple Heart. Mr. Mack’s studies at Annapolis were interrupted by the war. He began at St. John’s as part of the class of 1945, but received his diploma in 1948. He became a very active supporter of the college, serving as a member of the Board of Visitors and Governors and as national fund-raising chairman. He graduated from Harvard Business School in 1950. Mr. Mack began a long career as a marketing executive at Welch’s Grape Juice, followed by Procter & Gamble, Clairol, Bristol-Myers, and Gillette. From 1976-1992 he was president of Carter-Products, CarterWallace, in New York City. During his career, he was president of the Wave Hill Environmental Center in Riverdale, N.Y., and was elected to the Township Committee of East Amwell, N.J., {The College St John’s College ■ IVinter 2006 } where he served as Deputy Mayor. While living in Concord, he was a trustee of the Thoreau Society, trustee of the Thoreau Farm Trust, and a member of the Historic District Commission. Mr. Mack is survived by his wife, Lorna Carey Mack; by his sisters, Anne Dean and Mary Hurst; by his four daughters, Pamela Mack, Sheila Mack, Carey Weber, and Lorna Sheridan; and by seven grandchildren. Theodore X. Barber, class of 1947 Psychologist Theodore X. Barber, 78, whose pioneering research and writings explored hypnosis and the nature of consciousness, died of a ruptured aorta Sept. 10, 2005, in Boston. Hailed as one of the most prolific and revolutionary authors on hypnotism. Dr. Barber, a psychologist, developed the Barber Suggestibility Scale to examine scientifically the experience of individuals under hypnosis. He conducted his work for more than 35 years at the Medfield Foundation and Cushing State Hospital in Massachusetts. Doing post-graduate work at Harvard, Dr. Barber read a paper in a British medical journal describing how hypnosis had improved an “incurable” skin condition of a teenage boy. The case, he later wrote, “indicated that the royal road �{Obituaries} to solving the mind-body problem” was hypnosis. Dr. Barber served as president of the Massachusetts Psychological Association and of the Hypnosis Division of the American Psychological Association. He received numerous awards, including the Presidential Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Field of Hypnosis, by the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (aooa). Two of his most widely read books are still in print; Hypnosis: A Scientific Approach (1969), and Advances in Altered States of Consciousness and Human Potentialities (1976). In his work The Human Nature ofBirds: A Scientific Discovery with Startling Implications (1993), he showed how birds have intelligence equal and sometimes superior to that of humans. Born in 1927 to Greek immigrant parents in Martins Ferry, Ohio, Barber graduated from high school at age 15 then enrolled at St. John’s. He earned his doctorate in psychology at American University in Washington, D.C., and then moved to Boston to do post-graduate work at Harvard. Henry Clay Smith, Class of 1934 Psychology Professor Henry Clay Smith, a member of the class of r934, died in West Tisbury, Mass., at the age of 92. Dr. Smith was born in T913 in Catonsville, Md., was raised by maiden aunts after the death of his mother, and attended St. John’s on a scholarship. After graduation, he went on to earn a doctorate of psychology at Johns Hopkins University. For 38 years, he was a professor of psychology at Michigan State University. He taught, conducted research, and puhhshed books on industrial psychology, personality development, and sensitivity to people. His early work on the effects of music on productivity of assembly line workers helped make music part of the background of daily work hfe. Among his publications were three major textbooks and numerous articles. Dr. Smith strove to achieve a rich, balanced life in the manner of his idol, Thomas Jefferson. He designed and built a house based around a three-story tower, which was his home for the past 30 years. His self­ improvement projects ranged from yoga to developing a legacy blueberry patch and reading rpth-century novels. He was an avid player of tennis, golf, and croquet. The last of his writing projects, a biography of Thomas Jefferson, was in progress as his illness progressed. Dr. Smith is survived by his wife, Nancy, three children, eight grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. Tania Forte, Anthropologist by Michael N. Fried (A8a) Tania Forte (A85) died from a cerebral aneurysm on November 17, 2005. She was 46. At the time of her death she was a visiting scholar at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., on leave from the anthropology department at Ben Gurion University of the The goodness ofher friendship was in its being both pleasing and elevating Michael N. Fried (A82), on Tania Forte Negev in Israel. She was highly regarded by her professional colleagues and she was loved by all those who had the good fortune of knowing her. After leaving St. John’s, Tania studied anthropology at the University of Chicago and completed a Ph.D. there in aooo. Her doctoral work concerned transactions, land, and histories in a small Arab village in the Galilee. Her research during the last few years centered on the production and use of images of the Palestinian-Israeli conllict-the conflict through the lens of the television camera, one might say. She was also working on a book on the everyday practices of three generations of Palestinian women in the Galilee. In all this work, she saw people producing stories and images, and she was fascinated with how these verbal and visual accounts served both to represent the world and to define the identities of those producing them, in short, how people create themselves by the histories they teU. Tania’s own history was itself an extraordi­ nary tale. Her grandparents came from Gaza, Turkey, Iraq, and Italy; her parents. Clement and Daisy, were born in Egypt, were exiled by Nasser after the 1956 Suez war, and even­ 47 tually immigrated to France. Tania grew up in France, but she was born in London and kept a British passport-her only passportall of her life. Tania would probably have allowed her British passport to quietly expire, were it not necessary to have some passport: such things were of little impor­ tance to her. Thus she wrote in a little piece called “Weedlings”: “Since I’m not very good at nationalities I have not changed it [her passport] through years of living in four other countries, where the last thing anyone would suspect about me is that I am a subject of Her Majesty.” She was one of those people who seem to belong nowhere and everywhere. Tania entered St. John’s in Annapolis as a Febbie in 1982.1 graduated that year and hardly knew Tania in the few months we were both at the college. But when she came to Ben Gurion University, we spoke about the college constantly. Like most of us, she felt a great sense of loyalty and debt towards St. John’s and believed it to be a central locus for her intellectual formation. Indeed, I can remember a conversation shortly before she left for Minnesota in which she said that it was becoming increasingly clear to her how genuinely different we are from our respective colleagues because of those four years in Annapolis. I hope I will be forgiven for speaking just now in the first person, but Tania was a very good friend. And here I must say that Tania’s intellectual gifts were equaled by her capacity for friendship. As a friend she was warm and generous, she knew how to laughshe had a wonderful laugh-but she also knew how to demand. She would not allow her friends to fall into easy self-pity, moral or intellectual laziness. The goodness of her friendship was in its being both pleasing and elevating. Also Noted: Winston Gilbert Gott, class of 1931, May 3005 W. Morris Shannon, Class of 1937, July 39,3005 Thomas Spence Smith, class of 1938, February 3005 {The College -St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �48 {Alumni Voices} GOING HOME Life in Katrinas Wake BY Sara Roahen, SF94 n the last Tuesday in October, I flew home to New Orleans for the second time since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita lashed and inundated the city. On the approach, the plane sailed above Lake Pontchartrain, whose calm waters appeared impossibly untouched by the storms, and it cut across the Sara Roahen, SF94 Mississippi River’s bends, around which barges pushed and containers waited in tidy rows to he emptied or filled, just like they always had. The pilot took a wide on a triumvirate of New Orleans institu­ right turn and noted over the intercom, tions: Angelo Brocato’s, an Italian ice “Ladies and gentlemen: there’s downtovwi cream parlor and bakery founded in 1905; New Orleans to your left.” It didn’t occur Venezia, an Italian restaurant where to me until later that he would have said almost nothing comes without red sauce; the same thing to a cabin of tourists; at the and Pho Tau Bay, a local Vietnamese chain time it made sense for him to point out a that marked a refugee community’s hopeful, unflooded area to those of us breakthrough into New Orleans’ popular whose stomachs wrenched at the thought food culture when it opened along the of returning to our devastated city. But as high-profile strip last year. The flood’s my seat was on the right side of the plane, unforgiving waters had marked the three I saw what he didn’t mention; thousands of businesses with brown, waist-high stripes. downed cypress trees turning fragile Brocato’s and Venezia’s vintage neon signs swampland into a game of pick-up sticks; had smashed to the ground; we found Pho aqua-blue FEMA tarps reflecting like Tau Bay’s two blocks away. It was a full swimming pools in the sun from nearly month after Katrina, but no one had begun every rooftop of suburban Kenner; dump cleaning yet. I have never heard a sound so upon dump of maggot-clogged refrigerators, startling as the silence that crashed down some hurled willy-nilly into heaps, others in when we shut off the car motor. No kids, formation. This didn’t look like our city. no streetcar, no electrical buzz, no birds. We were a cabin of tourists after all. We couldn’t even hear the flies that dark­ My husband, Mathieu de Schutter ened the ice cream parlor’s windows from {SF94), and I took our first post-Katrina the inside. trip home exactly a month earlier, before When people ask us about New Orleans, we technically were allowed back into the which happens less and less, the first city. Matt is a resident at Children’s question is always about our house. We’ve Hospital, and a flash of his ID was lived in New Orleans since 1999, when convincing enough for the two peachMatt entered medical school at Tulane fuzzed National Guardsmen securing University, and we committed to the city Earhart Boulevard. Before heading toward last April by purchasing a house two blocks our house, which we had heard was dry and from where we had rented for six years. We standing, we drove to one of my favorite wanted to stay in the neighborhood, blocks, in an area called Mid-City, to check mostly because it’s at the start of the Mardi O . though our house is intact, our lives, and those ofourfellow New Orleanians, are not. {The College- St. John’s College • SVinter 2006 } Gras parade route. The area turns into one big, feel-good, family-oriented block party for the two weeks preceding Mardi Gras; even when we don’t feel like watching the parades, we enjoy hearing the marching bands warm up, feeling the bass drums boom, watching families tromp along with empty bags they hope to fill with beads, doubloons, and penny toys. Our new house, by the way, endured the storms like a champ. We’ve had to replace some roofing tiles, and a whole wall of siding, and the ceiling in the living room, which sagged precariously when the house settled weeks afterward. A pecan tree fell in the backyard, crushing our fence (but thankfully not Matt’s skateboarding ramp), and the house’s foundation cracked in several places. All that can be fixed, though, especially given that we have a multi-talented neighbor whose six-pack lunches we abide when no professional bosses will. Hearing the positive news about our house, most people stop asking questions and move onto the news of the day-that sickening earthquake in Pakistan, White House indictments, winter-which means we rarely get to mention anymore that, though our house is intact, our lives, and those of our fellow New Orleanians, are not. To begin with, we are moving to Philadelphia. Matt got a second residency position in anesthesia at the University of Pennsylvania once it looked certain that the program we had been banking on, at Tulane, had lost its appeal (the program, in fact, moved to Houston). We are the best­ case scenario: we are alive, we have insurance and savings, and we had our cat with us when Katrina bore down. But that doesn’t help our friends, who are damaged, or the city we’re leaving behind, which needs us. You see old people, as old as my grand­ parents, at The Home Depot buying new �{Alumni Voices} toilets and carrying two-by-fours. You talk to a co-worker who didn’t have insurance, and you know that no one will ever buy her another house. You read obituaries-too many of them-for people who died of heart attacks and strokes during their evacuations, deaths that don’t factor into the official hurricane death toll. You see homes that used to contain lives gone silent, smudged from the black waters, and spray-painted by inspectors warning “NO ENTRY.” The owners of one of them wrote back: “Mom Is Okay. We’ll Miss Everyone. God Bless.” Four other Johnnies took a bigger hit than we did and are staying. Sarah Todd and David Olivier (both A94), and their two girls, Louise, 4, and June, a, are renting a friend’s guest house while their own home is gutted and rebuilt. Billy Sothern and Nikki Page (both A98) are soggy but surviving. Billy’s father, a specialist in mold remediation, has become a local celebrity. Fortunately there are light moments, every day. When I finally got in touch with our exterminator, we had a love-in over the 49 Sara Roahen and Mathieu de SCHUTTER, IN FRONT OF THE HOME THEY BOUGHT LAST APRIL. Even though the HOME WEATHERED THE storm, the couple HAD TO MOVE TO Philadelphia. phone, exchanging evacuation stories and well-wishes. Natural disasters remind you that people matter more than anything, and that’s entirely good. We have room­ mates now, friends whose apartment is too moldy to inhabit, and another friend stops by to take warm showers because his neighborhood doesn’t have natural gas yet. Our busy little household embraces us with the sweet illusion that the city is bustling again rather than barren. On top of that, they say the oysters are safe to eat. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } our water is potable even if it smells like a Jacuzzi, and restaurants in our neighborhood are busier than ever with people who would have killed for a proper bowl of gumbo during their evacuations. The other day, my friend Cynthia and I took the walk we used to take once a week before the storms: through Uptown, across the levee, down the streetcar line, past Audubon Park, and back home. Neither of us mentioned the bundles of branches we had to hurdle, the smelly refrigerators we passed, how empty the park seemed, or how quiet it was on the streetcar tracks. Like in our past lives in New Orleans, we just felt lucky to be there. �50 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Dear Alumni, I’ve been thinking about Montaigne lately. He seemed mundane and irrele­ vant to me in sopho­ more year, but he has informed my life in ways that other teachers have not. I’m not sure why, but I think it has something to do with practicality. Every day I bump into challenges-some more mundane than others. Each one asks me to think carefully about myself and others, about thought and action, about perception and possibility. These situations also demand that I act, hopefully in accord with my insights and commitments. In the Essays, Montaigne does the same thing, but he does it better. He thinks about the dilemmas of a normal life, makes sense of them in ways that are moving and profound, and takes courageous action. A practical integration of the true and the useful did not come easily to me. Even with a pragmatic bent and the push of economic necessity, it took me several years to begin to braid thought and action CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowfor information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. into a graceful whole. In midlife, the task is still far from complete. I think of this as my personal version of a community-wide challenge. How do we commit ourselves to the highest values while living in a demanding and mundane world? Montaigne can be a guide, but we must work to live up to the challenge as individuals and as the college. These days, St. John’s is doing much more to help alumni bridge this gap between real and ideal than the college did in earlier decades. For example: Both campuses offer internships (the Hodson Internship in Annapolis and the Ariel Internship in Santa Fe) to help students and recent alumni experience professional lives that may interest them. The Career Services offices on both campuses are well stocked with informa­ tion, and the directors and staff are quite knowledgeable about options for work or further education. The Virgil Initiative matches alumni with current students to help them under­ stand the issues of transition and find resources to help them thrive. Association chapters welcome current students and alumni into their seminars and social events to help smooth the way. As an institution, the college is also making strides to integrate practicalities, performance, and accountability into the life of the mind. For example; Our new president in Santa Fe, Michael Peters, is attending to the practical issues of the aging physical plant and other matters that shape the health of the DALLAS/FORT WORTH Paula Fulks 817-654-2986 ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-375-901!^ BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen 410-472-9158 DENVER/BOULDER Lee Katherine Goldstein 720^46-1496 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin Gammon 410-280-0958 BOSTON Diane Cowan 617-666-4381 dianecowan@rcn.com MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 CHICAGO Rick Lightburn rlightburn@gmaiLnet NEWYORK Daniel Van Doren 914-949-6811 AUSTIN Charles Claunch 512-446-0222 college. A new college-wide chief information officer, Cathy Smith, has joined the community to build and implement infor­ mation management solutions. Christopher Nelson (SF70) continues to shape a productive community in Annapolis. Under the leadership of Jeff BishopfHAqb), the college-wide advance­ ment effort continues to thrive, and alumni support those efforts in a variety of ways. Friends and foundations recognize the quality of management and administration for the college as well as the excellence of the Program. Both campuses reach out to prospective students who represent the diversity of the larger community. The growing strength of the college paves the way for new and ambitious goals for tutor salaries, new facilities, and excel­ lent services to support students and alumni. The college is healthy, and alumni are thriving because we all recognize that the practical and the theoretical are mutually dependent, not mutually exclusive. Even if I didn’t understand that as a sophomore, I certainly understand it now. And Montaigne showed me the way. For the past, present, and the future, Glenda H. Eoyang (SF76) President St. John’s College Alumni Association NORTHERN CALIF. Deborah Farrell 415-731-8804 SALT LAKE CITY Erin Hanlon 801-364-1097 PHILADELPHIA Helen Zartarian 215-482-5697 SANTA FE Richard Cowles 505-986-1814 PITTSBURGH Joanne Murray 724-325-415Z SEATTLE Jon Bever 425-778-6372 PORTLAND Lake Perriguey lake ©law-works .com SOUTH FLORIDA Jonathan Sackson 305-682-4634 SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 805-684-6793 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 {The College- St. John’s College - Winter 2006 } TRIANGLE CIRCLE (NC) Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 WASHINGTON, D.C. Deborah Papier 202-387-4520 drpapier@verizon.net WESTERN NEW ENGLAND Peter Weiss 413-367-3174 �{Alumni Association News} Barrand Buchanan IN Bronze BY Patricia Dempsey When Tylden Streett, class of 1950, unveiled the busts he created of Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan at Homecoming in Annapolis, there was a sigh of delight from alumni gathered in the Conversation Room for the All-Alumni meeting. Though works-in-progress in plaster, the life-size busts capture the spirit of the two visionaries. Streett created the busts as a personal tribute to the two men, but also as a way to keep Barr and Buchanan’s legacy at the forefront. “At St. John’s, we are indebted to Barr and Buchanan,” says Streett. “I think some of the young students today are not as aware of the fact that the college’s program exists today because of them. They were, to me, the most important thing about St. John’s. I was very fond of them and the memory of them, because St. John’s changed my way of thinking and the direction of my life.” A few years ago during a slow period with commissioned works, Streett began to work on the busts. “My years at St. John’s had an enormous influence on me-so these portraits were appropriate,” says Streett, who attended St. John’s after a military career as a fighter pilot in World War II. “I looked into a lot of colleges, but at St. John’s I was impressed with how Barr and Buchanan were educating students by having them read the original works of great thinkers.” Streett worked from memory and photos to sculpt the busts. Ideally when he sculpts a subject, Streett poses the person once and takes photos from many angles. “For these portraits I didn’t have this luxury,” says Streett, “but I knew them both. Buchanan interviewed me before I attended St. John’s, but I didn’t remember his appearance; I knew Barr when I was a student. Also Barr has a memorable kind of face, an actor’s face-the features are put together in such a way that one easily remembers it.” Streett, who graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1955 after attending St. John’s for two years, was invited to pursue graduate studies at mica’s Rinehart School of Sculpture, where he earned his master’s degree in 1957. A former director of the Rinehart School who still teaches at MICA, Streett has received numerous awards and grants. In addition to his privately commissioned work, he has created public works such as a limestone gargoyle for the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Streett starts with a life-size head shaped in clay, “an ordinary head with no distin­ guishing features,” then sculpts it to look like the subject.” When it came to Barr and Buchanan, Streett sent those who were familiar with Barr and Buchanan photos of the clay sculptures and asked for suggestions. “Many, such as John Van Doren (class of r947), were very helpful. I’m still getting comments. Some felt that Buchanan is younger-looking in relation to Barr.” Once Streett feels the clay stage is complete, he moves on to the molds and castings. “The mold is chipped off and I end up with a plaster replica of the clay bust.” Then comes a mold over the plaster replica and a wax cast of the sculpture is ready. Streett shapes and shades the wax cast, and when he’s satisfied with it, a ceramic mold goes over the wax cast. At the foundry, the wax is melted out and molten bronze is poured in. When this mold is broken off it reveals the bronze bust, but there is more work to be done. “There are certain imperfections created by the process and the hightemperature furnace which can cause the mold to crack, and wax may flood out. So I do what’s called a ‘chaste’ and go over the whole surface with a hammer and a chisel tool. I might polish the nose, a cheek bone-surfaces where I want to bring up 51 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. Glenda Eoyang, SF76 A85 Secretary - Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer - Bill Fant, A79 President - Vice President - Jason Walsh, Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team Chair- Linda Stabler-Talty, SFGI76 Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, P.O Box 3800, Annapolis, MD 31404, or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. light.” In the final stage, Streett creates a patina using chemicals to change the coloration. Once the busts are completed-currently they are at a Baltimore foundry being cast in bronze thanks to the generous donations of several alumni-they will be displayed on campus, perhaps in the Barr Buchanan Center. If their presence inspires future and current Johnnies to learn more about the two men who brought a “radical” new concept of education to a small and struggling college, that would be a good thing, says Streett. In any case, he feels that he has done something to honor two men who changed his life. “I did it for me,” he adds. “They seemed awfully important to me.” Tylden Streett UNVEILED HIS TRIBUTE­ IN PROGRESS—TO THE New Program FOUNDERS DURING THE All-Alumni {The College- St. John’s College • Winter 2006 } meeting. �5a {St. John’s Forever} A Changing Campus A comparison of these two aerial shots (top, 1939; bottom, 2004) shows the changes that have come to the Annapolis campus and its environs over the past sts decades. Still to be built, as the historic photo shows, were Campbell Hall, a dormitory, and Mellon Hall, also home to the Francis Scott Key Auditorium. The Carroll Barrister House had not yet been moved from down­ town to the campus. The turrets still graced Pinkney Hall. The ungraceful stack looming high above the trees was part of the college’s heating plant, torn down in 1950Shortly after the older photograph was taken, major changes were made along College Creek; trees were cut down and the shoreline was filled in. The college’s neighbors have also changed. State office buildings and housing now flank the campus on the west, and the rail lines are long gone, replaced by Rowe Boulevard. And of course, the Liberty Tree-aligned with the south face of Pinkney in the older photo-is missing from the contemporary shot. Yet even this more contemporary aerial photograph is now outdated: Spector Hall, nearly identical to Gilliam Hall (shown here on back campus) and just south of the building, is now complete and occupied. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter 2006 } �T Priscilla Husted Griscom , class of 1955, ^955by Priscilla Hustei DELIVERS HER TOAST DURING THE rnscom. Homecoming banquet; Alumni Association President Glenda Eoyang looks on. Class of 1955 Fifty years later the names have all fled Aristophanes, Euclid old white men are dead what did we study? why did we so? to all be forgotten from a half century ago we studied for pleasure we studied for fun we studied to talk our ideas to let run we studied to hear what others did say of nature, of gods, of death, in their way we studied to show those unwelcoming men how women could do it better than them we studied for power we studied for pride no study for grades were then ever made we studied for Wi n free and Curtis and Bart we studied our life to live fuller and smart we studied to argue and studied to laugh and studied to see what women we’d be we studied for love for St. Johnnies we were true to ourselves we studied for HER —Ki Alumni Calendar Opening Celebration, “With a Clear and Single Purpose,” 7 p.m. Friday, April 21,2006 ; Croquet Sunday, April 23,2006 - i p.m. Summer Alumni Seminars gathering. The evening begins with coffee 5 in Santa Fe, July 24-28, 2006 and desserts, moves into FSK auditorium for a program which features an overview Homecoming, Santa Fe: July 28-30 of plans for the college’s future, and end^^ , with a champagne reception. Homecoming, Annapolis: Sept. 29-Oct. I, 2006 Homecoming in Annapolis, 3005 Left: Rachel Bartgis (A09) and beau Joseph Pereira enjoy the Waltz Party; Annapolis Dean Michael Dink (class of 1975) ENJOYING HIS 30TH REUNION. Above: Admiring a future Johnnie. PHOTOS BY ALEX LORMAN {The College -Sf, John’s College • Winter 2006 } �Periodicals Postage Paid STJOHN’S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS ■ SANTA FE Published by the Communications Oefice P.O. Box 2800 Annapolis, Maryland 21404 ADDRESS service REQUESTED *****************5-DIGIT 87529 S292 P1 15817 ANN1 MS. AMY MCCONNELL FRANKLIN HC 74 BOX 24512 EL PRADO NM 87529-9546 � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 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 A name given to the resource The College, Winter 2006 Description An account of the resource Volume 32, Issue 1 of The College Magazine. Published in Winter 2006. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006-01 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 32, Issue 1 Winter 2006 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Harty, Rosemary (editor) Dempsey, Patricia (managing editor) Hartnett, John (Santa Fe editor) Behrens, Jennifer (art director) Borden, Sus3an Goyette, Barbara Knapp, Caroline Maguran, Andra Mattson, Jo Ann Naone, Erica Utter, Chris Johnson, David The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/adcc1470ad38ef61f7b78f3b1facaed1.pdf 56aaeb1113d04427dcfe1a75686489f3 PDF Text Text The College S p r i n g St. John’s College • Annapolis • Santa Fe Newton And Motion 2 0 0 6 �On Newton arlier this spring, the BBC launched an international poll to find the world’s favorite quotation. Lao Tzu’s “A journey of a thousand miles . . .” came in first, but a contender was this famous line by Sir Isaac Newton: “If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of Giants.” The quote can be found in a 1675 letter by Newton to Robert Hooke, a talented physicist and one of the original fellows in the Royal Society. Interpreted by many as a modest acknowledgment of the contributions of others (Kepler and Galileo among them), Newton’s comment might also have been a sarcastic barb aimed at Hooke—a short man—who took issue with many of Newton’s findings. Several biographers suggest Hooke and Newton peppered their correspondence with subtle insults. Hooke would later accuse Newton of plagiarizing his ideas when the latter published the first volume of Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1686. Newton was so incensed by Hooke’s charges that he threatened to withhold publication of the two remaining books. The astronomer Edmund Halley, a man of great means, eventually funded the printing and distribution of the Principia. The Royal Society claimed to be low on funds, though some say Hooke had something to do with that. The father of modern science was the son of an illiterate farmer who died three months before Isaac was born in Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire in 1643 (on Christmas Day according to the Julian calendar). Born premature and not expected to live, Isaac suffered a difficult childhood. He was taken from school and set to farming and, being unable to put his books away to watch the sheep, he failed miserably. He was released from farming to attend Cambridge, where he helped pay his way by cleaning the rooms of professors and fellow students. His brilliance noted, Newton later won a fellowship that provided financial support. But when the plague struck the city in 1665, the university was closed. Newton went back to the farm, where he immersed himself in mathematics and contemplation. Not long after his return to the university, he was named Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a professorship currently held by Stephen Hawking. Newton was said to get so caught up in his work that he would neglect practical matters such as grooming and eating. He never married and had few friends. His personal behavior was so odd that in recent years two British researchers proposed that Newton (along with Einstein) may have had Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism characterized by obsessive dedication to a particular task. Newton left Cambridge in 1696 to take up a position, first as Warden and later as Master, of the Royal Mint. Although these duties interfered with his scientific research, they made him a wealthy man. In 1704, Newton published the Opticks. He was knighted in 1705 by Queen Anne, becoming the first scientist so honored. He died in March 1727 in London. Johnnies interested in revisiting Newton and his great discoveries in mathematics, optics, and motion in the solar system might enjoy Let Newton Be! A New Perspective on His Life and Works, published in 1988 by Oxford University Press. E —RH The College (usps 018-750) is published quarterly 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 postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. Rosemary Harty, editor Patricia Dempsey, managing editor John Hartnett (SF83), Santa Fe editor Jennifer Behrens, art director Annapolis 410-626-2539 Santa Fe 505-984-6104 Contributors Jason Bielagus (SF98) Barbara Goyette (A73) Caroline Knapp (SF99) Andrea Lamb Andra Maguran Jo Ann Mattson (A87) Erica Naone (A05) Chris Utter (A06) Robin Weiss (SFGI86) Kelly Wilson (SF09) Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �Spring 2006 Vo l u m e 3 2 , I s s u e 2 The College The Magazine for Alumni of St. John’s College Annapolis • Santa Fe {Contents} 10 “With a Clear and Single Purpose” d e p a r t m e n t s page 2 • • • A $125 million capital campaign seeks to address the most important priorities of St. John’s College by building the endowment and strengthening the Program for many years to come. 14 Newton and Aristotle page • • • • • • page 14 Victoria Mora is Santa Fe’s new dean Annapolis dedicates Spector Hall Mike Peters among the sophomores A spring break to remember Tutors study Proust, Upanishads Retirements and appointments The $10,000 short story Experimenting in Santa Fe Senior gifts: a lasting legacy letters 20 history 9 A conversation on the Principia and the Physics, between two tutors of starkly different backgrounds, provides a rich vein of inquiry. An 1811 alumnus was at the center of some of the most important issues in 19th-century American political life. 30 16 “Ever the Teacher” page Tutor William Darkey (class of 1942) recounts memories of more than six decades at St. John’s College, from being a student in Annapolis to serving as dean of a fledgling campus in Santa Fe. from the bell towers Bibliofile Randolph Runyon (A71) decodes Montesquieu’s Persian Letters. Santa Fe tutor Jorge Aigla publishes a new volume of poetry. page 16 30 alumni notes P RO F I L E S 28 Journalist Lydia Polgreen (A97) tells the world about Africa’s suffering and hope. 40 Croquet: 32 Aman Cholas (SF98) saves Western forests. 36 Fiddler crabs fascinate Denise Pope (SF89). page 37 It was the Cold War all over again. 46 tributes alumni voices Aboard the Makulu, Todd Wilson (AGI00) connected inner-city students with the wider world. page 40 42 48 on the cover Isaac Newton Illustration by David Johnson alumni association news st. john’s forever �2 {From the Bell Towers} A Love of the Program Victoria Mora is Santa Fe’s Next Dean Tutor Victoria Mora has been selected by her fellow tutors to serve as the next dean of the Santa Fe campus, effective July 1, succeeding David Levine (A67) in the post. The first woman and the first native New Mexican to become dean in Santa Fe, Ms. Mora joined the St. John’s College faculty in 1992. Her appointment as dean became official with approval by the Board of Visitors and Governors on April 24, 2006. For any tutor, the decision to leave the classroom for five years is a difficult one to make. “I love teaching, and not teaching is going to be a huge sacrifice,” she says. To keep in contact with students, books, and ideas, Ms. Mora is planning a Dean’s Seminar Series to be offered periodically, and will set aside time each day for a Dean’s walk to maintain daily contact with students. Balancing the responsibilities of the dean’s office with her priorities at home may also be a difficult adjustment. But Mora takes on the job with a great deal of support from her husband, Tomas Fernández, a retired educator. They have two young children, Marisol Fernández y Mora, 10, and Alejandro Fernández y Mora, 6. The family also includes Tomas’ sons, Antonio, Miguel, and Luis Fernández, all “twenty-somethings finished with college and on to wonderful families and careers,” Ms. Mora says. “I know I will have to figure out how to balance the enormous demands of the college with what I take to be extremely important—family. If not for my husband, who will be holding down the fort at home, it would have been nearly impossible for me to consider” accepting the appointment, she says. “Administering our rich academic program will be challenging enough, and we are facing tremendous opportunities with our new president, Michael Peters, in place.” President Peters says Ms. Mora brings, “great energy, intelligence, and charm to the position,” he says. “I enthusiastically look forward to completed her dissertation, “Gender, Expression, and Analogy: A Reapproach to the Problem of the Other.” “It had its roots in phenomenology, with the primary focus on an original phenomenological analysis of gender as a feature of the expressive body,” Ms. Mora says. “It was in response to an argument made by Ortega y Gasset against Husserl’s claim that we know the Other through our experience of the Other’s body A number of firsts mark Victoria Mora’s appointment as dean of the Santa Fe campus: she’s the first woman, first mother, and first native New Mexican to hold the post on that campus. working with her to pursue the aims of the Santa Fe campus and the college.” Ms. Mora grew up just 70 miles from Santa Fe and was the first member of her family to attend college. She visited St. John’s during her sophomore year at the University of New Mexico and was fascinated by the Program, but felt obligated to remain at the less expensive state college. After completing her bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy at UNM, she went to Yale University, where she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in philosophy. She taught for a year at a community college in Albuquerque while she as analogous to our own— a semaphore signaling consciousness. I end up siding with Husserl.” When she was ready to look for an academic home, Ms. Mora recalled the small liberal arts college in Santa Fe that had captured her heart. “I remembered what a great experience I had visiting as an undergraduate and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t that be a wonderful place to be able to continue my education and have a job?’ ” After more than a decade on the job, Ms. Mora is still shaping her education at the college, not to mention shaping the community around her. She has served on the faculty of the undergraduate program as well { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } as in the Graduate Institute. She has devoted a great deal of time to the college’s outreach programs: leading the faculty component of the Opportunity Initiative, contributing to the Tecolote colloquia which provide continuing education to New Mexico teachers, and leading Summer Classics seminars. She has served on the Instruction Committee and on the presidential search committee that selected Mr. Peters. “Victoria brings a solid background in the Program, experience working with administration, and an ability to work well with a wide range of people,” says tutor Linda Weiner, who served on the dean’s search committee. “Her thoughtfulness and energy will be an asset to our community, and we truly appreciate her willingness to serve the college as our dean for the next five years.” With such wide-ranging interests and qualifications, Ms. Mora’s appointment promises a tenure that extends far beyond the bounds of Weigle Hall. But like her predecessor, Dean Levine, Ms. Mora’s goals are firmly in the St. John’s Program. “If you think about all of the constituencies at the college, what is it that holds all of those people together?” Ms. Mora asks. “It’s a love of the St. John’s Program, and the dean is charged with both supervising the program of instruction and seeing to the well-being of the students so that they can pursue it in the best and deepest way possible. Given that the dean is right there working with the heart of the Program, it seems to me that it’s a role through which these various constituencies can come together. I’m honored to assume this role.” x —Kelly Wilson (SF09) �{From the Bell Towers} Spector Hall Dedicated in Annapolis alain jonamillo On January 28, students, faculty and members of the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors gathered for the dedication of Spector Hall, the newest dormitory on the Annapolis campus. The ceremony held special meaning for Warren Spector (A81), whose gift to the college made the dorm’s construction possible, and his family. They had come to St. John’s to dedicate the new building in the memory of a husband and father, Philip Spector. A successful contractor who had built many residential, commercial, and industrial buildings in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, Philip Spector died in 1990. The new dormitory is a fitting tribute to a man who was “a builder in trade and a builder in spirit,” said Mr. Spector. “I know that he would have tremendous pride seeing this hall erected in his memory,” Mr. Spector said. The President and Co-chief Operating Officer of the Wall Street firm Bear, Stearns & Co., and a member of the college’s board, Mr. Spector has made several generous gifts to the college over the years in appreciation for the education he received at St. John’s. Along with Gilliam Hall, which opened in fall 2005, Spector Hall extends community life to the lower campus. Opened at the start of the spring semester, the new dorm houses 40 students and features spacious common areas, suite-style rooms, and a faculty apartment. Mr. Spector had attended Princeton, but the Ivy League college wasn’t right for him, he said. After a brother suggested St. John’s, Mr. Spector read the catalog and knew this was the college for him. “I had been at one of the richest campuses in the entire country, a [university] with tremendous resources,” he said. “I have nothing negative to say about Princeton, but I found that those were not the things that mattered to me as a student. It was something special that was here in the community— the Program, the people, the dedication, everything about it was what attracted me to St. John’s, and I was quite right in my judgment that this was the place to be.” After joining the St. John’s board, Mr. Spector saw that while the college didn’t require “superficial” resources, the need for more campus housing was evident. “When I lived off campus you could walk to historic Annapolis and live in a reasonable apartment, but it has become impossible to do that. I’m really happy that we have 80 percent of the students living on campus now, because it keeps people close, and I think that’s vitally important.” Mr. Spector’s mother, Barbara, and other family members and friends came to campus for the ceremony, a tour of the dormitory, and a reception. “This means a lot to me and a lot to my family,” Mr. Spector said. “It is the first thing we have dedicated in memory of my father.” Representing the student body, Mary Davenport (A06) spoke about how Spector Hall helped her make another home at the college. She thanked the Spector family for their gift. “This college—the things we learn, the alex lorman A Fitting Tribute 3 people we meet, and the experiences we share—this has become a place that I am comfortable calling my home,” she said. President Christopher Nelson (SF70) also expressed his thanks. “We are grateful to you, Warren, for choosing St. John’s College as the home for your memorial dedication and the object of your philanthropy and extraordinary generosity,” he said. Rather than just providing dorm space, Mr. Spector’s gift helps foster a close-knit community of learners. “We know that Warren’s participation in community life on campus was a transformative experience for him, as he has given us the means to erect this building with the conviction that a St. John’s education is most completely achieved by having students fully engaged in the community of learning, where the classroom experience spills out into the quad throughout all the activities of student life and into the common spaces and quiet hours of the night in the college’s dormitories,” Mr. Nelson said. x —Rosemary Harty Top: In January, Spector Hall was dedicated to the memory of Philip Spector, husband to Barbara and father to Warren Spector (A81), whose gift made construction of the dormitory possible. Left: Spector Hall common rooms are spacious and inviting. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �4 {From the Bell Towers} The Quiet Man When you walk into a St. John’s seminar, it’s rare to find anything unexpected: several different translations of a Platonic dialogue, a group of students in varying degrees of sleep deprivation, and of course, the omnipresent St. John’s chair. But for students on the Santa Fe campus, there has been an exciting addition to the seminar: a college president. For Michael Peters, who became president in Santa Fe in 2005, learning about the Program firsthand was a top priority, so he joined the January freshman class as a seminar auditor. By the time Mr. Peters was officially installed as president during his inauguration ceremony last October, many Johnnies were already accustomed to seeing him in the classroom, bent over a copy of the Iliad. Mr. Peters believes that learning alongside students is an integral part of achieving the priorities that he outlined at his inauguration: support for learning, connection with the community, and heightened visibility. It soon became clear to Mr. Peters that he needed to be a part of the academic program. “Because I didn’t graduate from St. John’s, I knew that I really needed to try to find a way to get familiar with the college through its crux, the Program. I felt I needed to gain the experiences that the students have of how the classroom works,” he says. Balancing the hectic schedule of the president’s office with 200 pages of weekly reading isn’t easy; nevertheless, as his January freshman classmates began to tackle the concepts of Aristotle, Mr. Peters made time for the readings. After his long days in Weigle Hall, he stayed late to listen to the conversation and the ideas spilling forth. The St. John’s seminar was a different environment for the West Point graduate, former Army colonel, and long-time foreign policy specialist. “Sitting in on the first seminars reinforced what I’d seen during the interview process and is very much the reason that I thought St. John’s College was the right place for me,” he explains. “The level of engagement and the commitment of everyone in the classroom, the interaction between the students and the material, the students with one another, the students and the tutors, it’s all something that’s completely unique to St. John’s.” By the end of their second semester, the JFs were used to the tall, quiet man sitting in the side chair. When they returned for their sophomore year, many were surprised and impressed to see him back in seminar. As he began visiting each of the seven sophomore seminars, students became curious and asked if he could join the conversation. “On several occasions students said to me, ‘Gee, we wish you’d speak up and offer your views on this,’” “I had read Machiavelli’s The Prince many times, but this time I think I saw it in a much different light.” Mike Peters, St. John’s President, Santa Fe christopher huston Mike Peters Enjoys Seminars To better understand Johnnies and the Program, Santa Fe President Mike Peters began sitting in on January Freshman seminars soon after taking office in January 2005. he says. “But I feel that I’m really there just as a way to see the students, to get a sense of what’s going on, to be able to observe the approaches of the different tutors.” Mr. Peters is enjoying the fresh perspectives the great books provide. Even though he has read many of the books on the Program, the seminar still offers new insights into texts, some of which he thought he knew very well. “I had read Machiavelli’s The Prince many times, but this time I think I saw it in a much different light,” he says. “Not the stereotypical Machiavelli, the ultimate politician who’s always trying to figure out ways to maneuver, but the kind of moral underpinnings of the text which I hadn’t really thought about or appreciated before.” The seminars have afforded him “an understanding of the language of St. John’s, which revolves so much around the books.” It’s an insight that will { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } surely prove essential as he takes on a position that is vital to communicating the unique nature of St. John’s to the greater world. Mr. Peters said he’s looking forward to continuing into junior year. Sometime in the future, he may consider enrolling in the Graduate Institute. “If I do the graduate program, I would probably do the Eastern Classics program,” he says. “That would be a new area for me and something I would find fascinating.” In the meantime, his efforts have not gone unnoticed by Brandon Winston (SF08), who last year was a JF. “You know how Machiavelli says that the prince sometimes needs to come down from the mountain and get a different perspective of who he is from below, from the perspective of the citizens? That’s what Mr. Peters was like, and that’s the quality of the true prince.” x —Kelly Wilson (Sf09) �5 {From the Bell Towers} A Community of Hope Santa Fe Students Join Katrina Relief Efforts Before she boarded a van to New Orleans with 14 other St. John’s students, Ilana Kirschbaum (SF07) visited Web sites that showed the widespread devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. “I sort of assumed that they were only showing the extreme cases,” she says. “But as we first drove into the parish, there were piles and piles of debris everywhere, abandoned cars, trees in the middle of the road, everything was totally destroyed and completely abandoned. I wanted to cry.” On March 11, the Santa Fe students piled into two vans (provided by a local dealership) and set out to Louisiana’s St. Bernard Parish, hit hard by the storm. They set up camp in a volunteer tent city run by the Emergency Communities organization and went right to work. Half of the students stayed at the campsite, where they served free meals at the organization’s Made with Love Café and provided local residents with needs ranging from toiletries to child care. The others, joining up with the nonprofit Common Ground Collective, took sledgehammers and buckets into devastated homes and businesses to strip away damaged sheetrock and insulation, haul away debris and ruined belongings, and clear homes of toxic mud. “Sure, we were providing food to people, but it was more about the community we helped to create, where people could just come in and talk.” Ilana Kirschbaum (SF07) The volunteers also spent time with the homeowners they were helping. Jeff Stott (SF06) listened as one woman relived her ordeal with him. “She experienced absolutely traumatic things,” he says. “During the storm, she was trapped on her roof and watched dead bodies floating past her house. Some of her neighbors were killed.” While a tragedy of such magnitude can “make you feel pretty helpless,” Kirschbaum says, the experience went beyond providing food and manual labor for two short weeks. “Sure, we were providing food to people, but it was more about the community we helped to create, where people could just come in and talk,” she explains. “There was never really a distance between people. There was music, there was dancing. It was a glimpse of what is possible.” On April 26, the students gave a multimedia presentation of their trip for the college community. Members of the Santa Fe community were also invited as a thank-you for donations they made to support the effort. The presentation featured photographs of the devastation, video, and audio interviews. More encouraging images were of the community Kirschbaum described among volunteers in the tent city. “This was something that just happened spontaneously,” says Rachel Davison (SF08), the trip leader. Friendships developed quickly out of an atmosphere of goodwill. “We here at St. John’s have our own sense of community that is built naturally out of the Program. This was different. We bonded with each other, but we also bonded with so many others.” —Kelly Wilson (SF09) photos by chris quinn Top: Ben Gaddes (SF08) prepares to feed Katrina volunteers. Left: Ezra Johnson (SF09, far right) and Nicola Podboy (SF06) at the tent city that housed volunteers in St. Bernard Parish. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �6 {From the Bell Towers} News and Announcements Tutor News photos by alex lorman In Annapolis two tutors are beginning study projects on interesting non-Program works and will later lead faculty groups on their topics. PATRICIA LOCKE will hold the Adolph W. Schmidt tutorship, gaining partial release time from classes to pursue her project. The tutorship was established in 1985 through a fund endowed by Mr. Schmidt, a former St. John’s board member and ambassador, and it alternates between the Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses. Ms. Locke will study Marcel Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time. “Issues of memory, both voluntary and involuntary, are most obvious, but Proust deals thematically with bodily processes such as perception, speech, and sleep as well. Proust considers stages of mental and moral development before ‘teenage’ began to separate childhood from adult life. He also is concerned with intersubjectivity, sexuality, and the boundaries of language. My own questions are primarily: what makes a coherent self? How does one’s perception of one’s body, on the one hand, and language that takes others into account, on the other, shape a self?” Ms. Locke is also interested in how living in a city affects one’s perception of self and world. “The familiar urban setting, the unpredictable joy in truly recognizing others through the masks age wears, the desire and futility in trying to stop time—Proust sees it all, and he gives the reader access to possible meanings of the most delicate events.” As holder of the National Endowment for the Humanities chair, ROBERT DRUECKER will be studying the Upanishads, a project he became interested in after Annapolis faculty discussed a report on the Santa Fe Eastern Classics program. He thought it would benefit both campuses to become more acquainted with what has become a significant part of the intellectual life on the Western campus, he says. The Upanishads “considered by many to be the supreme work of Indian wisdom,” seemed the best starting point, Mr. Druecker says. “They are at once records of spiritual experience, formulations of intellectual insight, and expressions of poetic imagination. They aim to bring about both an illumination of the mind and a transformation of the reader’s experience so that it manifests the inner realization that the divine source of all is one with the self within each person,” he says As the holder of the chair, supported by endowment funds, a tutor gains two-thirds released time to study a topic for a year. In the second year, he or she leads a faculty study group in the fall and gives a lecture. Annapolis tutor GEORGE RUSSELL is in his second year of a study project on the speeches of Abraham Lincoln. Retirements A tutor since 1967, GISELA BERNS (HA00) has retired from the Annapolis faculty. Mrs. Berns grew up in the Black Forest of Germany and studied at Heidelberg University, where she earned a doctorate in classics and philosophy, and where she also met her husband, LAURENCE BERNS (HA00, tutor emeritus in Annapolis), in a class on Plato’s Phaedo. During a reception in the Great Hall near the end of the spring semester, tutor David Stephenson talked about Mrs. Bern’s many fine qualities, including her passion for music. “Gisela has sustained a violin section of the orchestra all by herself on more than one occasion,” said Mr. Stephenson. “Without her enthusiasm and hard work I doubt we could ever have attempted such ambitious orchestral works. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart are meat and drink to her. In her music tutorial she has discovered innumerable newness in the verbal and musical interplay of the operas and passions we study.” During the same Annapolis gathering, members of the community turned out to thank long-time Annapolis Registrar REENIE CRAVEN for her hard work and dedication to the community. Mrs. Craven worked for nearly 17 years for St. John’s, and has been Mr. Druecker delves into the Upanishads; Ms. Locke takes on Proust. Both benefit from endowments set aside for faculty study, and both will lead study groups and give lectures on their topics. { The College St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �7 {From the Bell Towers} The documentary captures baseball as a national obsession in Japan; it follows two high school teams and their coaches as they try to win the national championship. “It’s really unlike anything in the United States, and the way Japanese kids approach this rite is also quite a contrast to youth culture—especially sports culture—in America,” he says. For details, visit the production company’s Web site: www.projectilearts.org/ kokoyakyu. registrar since September 2000. In retirement, she plans to make time for “grandmothering, reading, gardening, walking, and volunteering.” She’ll stay involved with St. John’s through the Caritas Society, a volunteer group that supports the college. Appointments CATHY SMITH is the new director of Information Technology Services, based in Santa Fe, but serving both campuses and overseeing improvements to IT infrastructure. Ms. Smith earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from the University of California-Irvine, and has spent her IT career in higher education with institutions including UC, Stanford University, Indiana University, and the University of Kansas. At Carleton College, Ms. Smith partnered with faculty to develop a model of faculty technology support widely adopted in higher education; she has also partnered with administration at several institutions to implement innovative approaches to automating business processes. BRONTÉ JONES has been appointed treasurer for the Annapolis campus. Ms. Jones earned her doctorate in higher education from the University of Texas after obtaining a bachelor’s degree and an M.B.A. in finance from American University. In addition, she is a graduate of the Harvard Institute for Higher Education. Ms. Jones joins St. John’s from HustonTillotson University in Austin, Texas, where she has been vice president for administration and finance since 2004. Previously she held the posts of assistant dean of financial services, dean of enrollment management, and adjunct instructor in finance at the university. She has worked for Bronté Jones: New treasurer in Annapolis the Texas State Auditor’s Office, auditing statewide financial aid programs at institutions of higher education. Santa Fe Student Wins Fiction Award KELLY MARIE WILSON (SF09) won a $10,000 Gold Award for fiction writing from The National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, a Miami-based non-profit group founded in 1981 that fosters artistic talents of high school seniors. Miss Wilson titled her winning story “Driving in a Hail Storm on the First Night She’s Been Alone in Eleven Years, Wendy Recalls her Four Great Loves.” Besides the $10,000 prize, Miss Wilson received a free trip to take part in the NFAA awards ceremony in the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City. Jackhammer Time Visitors to the Western campus this summer will see more than a few barriers and quite a few construction crews, as improvements in Santa Fe continue. More than $1.3 million in renovation projects are under way. Workers have already completed a project in the Weigle Hall lobby that renders the entrance friendlier to prospective students. A new gazebo and walkway are in place near “France,” the parking lot on lower campus. This summer, crews are breaking up concrete sidewalks throughout the central area of the campus. Students will return in the fall to brick pathways, teak tables, additional lighting, increased accessibility for people with disabilities, and a much-improved koi pond. x A Farewell to Febbies Johnnie Documentary to air on PBS A Johnnie’s documentary on high school baseball in Japan will debut at the Brooklyn International Film Festival, June 2-11. Kokoyakyu also airs July 4, 2006, on public broadcasting’s P.O.V., says ALEX SHEAR (SF00), senior producer. (Check local listings.) Sara McClayton (A09) signs the college register during January 2006 convocation in Annapolis. Eighteen students matriculated in January; they are expected to be the last of the Febbies, as the Annapolis campus has ended the practice of enrolling freshmen in January. The Santa Fe campus will continue to offer a January Freshman class. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �8 {From the Bell Towers} Leaving a Legacy Nothing Says “Thank You” Like the Senior Gift For more than a decade, graduating seniors have honored the college with a gift that class members select together and fund with their personal donations to St. John’s. It’s a tradition that started with the class of 1992, when a large percentage of the students in that class turned over their “caution fees” (dormitory security deposits) to the college to endow a Class of 1992 scholarship. Caution fees seed many of the gifts today, but seniors often make additional gifts and continue to contribute money to some funds long after they’ve graduated. This year’s gifts, from seniors in Santa Fe and Annapolis, are eminently practical and stem from needs students perceived during their years at St. John’s. Santa Fe students chose to purchase DVDs and CDs of their choice for the Meem Library. Members of the Annapolis class of 2006 may also be remembered with gratitude for many years in the future for their gift: a spiral binding machine for the campus print shop, intended to save future seniors from late-night lines at Kinkos when essays are due and also to upgrade Program materials from comb-bindings to spiral bindings. The machine is already in place in Chris Colby’s print shop—a much more convenient place for harried students to queue up to copy and bind their essays. “More than 71 percent of the senior classes on each campus participated in raising funds for their respective gifts, with excellent leadership from the senior class gift committees,” says Annual Fund director Stefanie Takacs (A89). “We expect the DVDs to be in place for fall 2006 in Santa Fe, and the first use for the new spiral binder will be to make address books for the recent Annapolis graduates, so they can stay in touch with each other after graduation.” Seniors in the class of 2005 in Santa Fe donated $4,300 toward restoration of the fishpond, a project due to begin this coming summer. In Annapolis, the class of 2005 created an endowment to buy Lobachevski’s Theory of Parallels as a gift to each incoming senior. The Santa Fe Class of 2004 has in mind a most ambitious project, and they’re seeking long-term involvement in the project from members of their class and any other alumni who are taken with the idea. Graduates chose to commission a stainless steel operational replica of 16th-century astronomer Tycho Brahe’s armillary sphere. The class has already raised $6,000 toward the $100,000 cost. Class leaders have selected an artist and hope to install the sphere on campus in the next decade or so, Brenna McMahon (SF04) said. The sculpture relates directly to the Program because the sphere can be used to replicate the data that Kepler used and that Newton then relied upon, McMahon says. “It’s also our hope to install a beautiful sculpture that will reflect the unity of the arts and sciences in the Program. To the best of our knowledge, there are only two armillary spheres in the world (including one at the Smithsonian), and this would be the only operational sphere in the world. We hope that it will show the St. John’s community how invested our class is in the college,” says McMahon. x David Harber’s sketch of the armillary sphere that Santa Fe’s Class of 2004 hopes to one day install on campus. Senior Class Gifts Over the Years 1905: The bell in the McDowell Hall tower was a gift from this class. Annapolis Class of 1997: Funded a portrait of Eva Brann by noted artist Cedric Egeli. The painting graces Room 12 of McDowell. Santa Fe Classes of 1998, 99: Contributed gifts to the endowment in support of faculty salaries. Annapolis Class of 1999: Made a gift to the Music Library Fund and acquisition of an apple seed from the tree that inspired Sir Isaac Newton. The apple yielded two seedlings, but sadly the trees did not survive. Santa Fe Class of 2001: Raised money for an observatory in honor of then-laboratory director Hans Von Briesen (HSF03). Annapolis Class of 2003: Funded digital re-mastering and transcription of lectures that existed only on tape. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �9 {Letters} Remembering Ralph Swentzell I wept hard when I learned of Ralph Swentzell’s death. He was one of my seminar tutors during my sophomore year over 20 years ago. What I appreciated most about him was his gentle, steady, and unpretentious spirit. He was the only tutor courageous and caring enough to reach out to comfort and support me when I was disenabled at the devastating end of my St. John’s career. This, to me, was the true actualization of any lofty philosophies examined or perpetuated by this school: to bring it home, where it really does count. Having found such a Great Soul, if only briefly, I cannot begin to imagine the loss that his friends and loved ones must be enduring. I can only hope that they know that he will be truly treasured in our finest of memories. I now wish for them the comfort and support that he so genuinely extended to me. I strive to be as present for my students as he was for us. Be free, Sir Ralph, and many thanks. Bea Butler (SF80) World Federalism I read with great interest your article about Joseph Baratta’s scholarship on world federalism, and was especially pleased to see mention of Clarence Streit’s work Union Now, which was so influential in its day but is now sometimes overlooked. Actually, the organization which he founded (Federal Union) lives on. For a while it was called the Association to Unite the Democracies (AUD), and it has now morphed into the Streit Council for a Union of Democracies (www.streitcouncil.org). I worked for AUD in Washington in 1986-87 before starting World Democracy News, a newsletter spanning the international federalist movement (we lasted only through six editions over three years before ceasing for lack of funding). I then served briefly as president of the Coalition for Democratic World Government. And I’ve been on the Board of AUD and now the Streit Council since about 1990. Our focus is on creating a nucleus for world government from the existing established democracies—for example, creating real common decision-making structures for NATO and/or the OECD—to which other democracies could Books are the Teachers Your article “Small Waves in a Tranquil Sea: Melville, Literature, and the St. John’s Reading List” (Winter 2006) was a very enjoyable read on all accounts. I was interested to receive some insight into the workings of the Instruction Committee. However, I was disconcerted by your use of the verb “to teach” when writing about tutors and books. For instance: “Dugan sees no more compelling reason “I do not recall what many of my tutors thought that the books were really about, precisely because the tutors themselves didn’t teach me anything about the books. The books did.” Christian Blood (SF02) be invited to join. Just as the EU exerts a strong democratizing pull on surrounding countries in Europe (and even North Africa), we would expect to have a similar but more global effect (maybe even restraining the U.S. in the process). The EU hasn’t yet been able to make the break to real constitutional government, otherwise it would be a model of what we want. For a long time, the main split in the international federalist movement was between those (including the world federalists) who wanted immediate world government including all nations, and those who insisted on democracy. But the American world federalists have essentially become UN-reform advocates, and I noticed recently that some of those who want more direct movement toward a federal solution are starting a new “World Democracy Movement-USA.” So Streit’s ideas, as well as Barr’s and Buchanan’s, are still in play. Rick Wicks (SF68) Melville’s tale must be on the reading list. And yet, he allows, ‘life would be more full’ if he could teach Moby-Dick and Joyce’s Ulysses.” And from the subsequent paragraph: “Having taught two preceptorials on the book, Annapolis tutor David Townsend acknowledges the impracticality of Moby-Dick as a seminar reading.” A St. John’s tutor teaching a preceptorial? A St. John’s tutor teaching a book? At St. John’s, books are the only teachers. I bristle because I have come to believe, in my time since leaving St. John’s, that we observe at St. John’s a very important distinction. I do not recall what many of my tutors thought that the books were really about, precisely because the tutors themselves didn’t teach me anything about the books. The books did. I am currently a graduate student and a teaching assistant in literature at a major research university where the professors teach all kinds of things all the time: books, courses, eras, specialties. What the professors teach is generally in line with { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } their most recent publications and to me seems to be more like indoctrination rather than teaching. But none of the students seem to learn much about what they read. Instead, they learn what the professor taught them. They are indoctrinated. Sometimes this is fine, but often I cringe and a bit of me dies as I think of how their education compares to the one I was lucky to receive from St. John’s. I hesitate to liken the activities of a St. John’s tutor to the sorts of things that happen at educational institutions elsewhere. Christian Blood (SF02) Not Brothers By now you have probably heard from others that Charles and Ray Eames were not brothers, but husband and wife. According to eamesoffice.com they were married in 1941. Nevertheless, I am delighted to learn that a Johnnie was instrumental in producing Powers of Ten. When my son was a child, we often visited the Air and Space Museum and enjoyed that short movie many times. Thanks as always for an interesting issue of The College. Christina Lauth Connell (Class of 1967) Editor’s note: Ms. Connell was one of many Johnnies who graciously alerted The College to this error in the Winter 2006 issue. 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 also be sent via e-mail to: rosemary.harty@ sjca.edu. �10 {Capital Campaign} “WITH A CLEAR AND SINGLE PURPOSE” St. John’s Seeks to Preserve the Program with an Ambitious Capital Campaign by Rosemary Harty S t. John’s College has launched a $125 million capital campaign to build endowment for the future and address immediate priorities. “With a Clear and Single Purpose”: The Campaign for St. John’s College will seek to add significantly to the resources of the college. “Our objective is to have all aspects of the college reflect the excellence of our Program,” says Annapolis President Christopher Nelson. “For many years, the college has made many sacrifices for the sake of the Program. We must seize the opportunity now to strengthen the college for the future.” The last time the college launched a campaign, the goal was $30 million; $36 million was raised by the time the campaign ended in 1996. This much larger goal is within reach, Mr. Nelson says, in part because $71 million has already been pledged or received from individual donors and foundations. “Before we publicly announced the campaign we had already received gifts double the total raised in our previous campaign. Now, we need to take our case for support to all of the college’s alumni, friends, and parents, with the strong belief that we have their support for this important undertaking,” he says. An opening celebration for the campaign was held in Annapolis in April, and another special celebration will be held in Santa Fe July 28. The campaign’s theme was intended to underscore the vision that led Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan to begin the New Program at St. John’s in 1937. The phrase “With a Clear and Single Purpose” can be found in Barr’s 1939 president’s report to the board. Even as the college struggled financially in the early years of the Program, Barr stated that the college must always hold firm to the ideals of liberal education. In its infancy, the Program was viewed by outside observers as a radical experiment. Today the academic program is seen as a standard for liberal education. “Although the notion of a liberal arts education is often challenged today by those who see higher education as a type of job training program, St. John’s remains committed to its ideals,” says Santa Fe President Michael Peters. “An education should be about the search for truth and learning for life.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �11 {Capital Campaign} The quiet phase of the campaign, begun in 2002, was well under way when Mr. Peters accepted the presidency in Santa Fe. He was eager to take part in an endeavor that will benefit the Santa Fe campus and strengthen St. John’s collegewide. “I believe that this campaign is important for St. John’s College, and I believe that it can be successful. When I joined the college in January 2005, I could see how far St. John’s has come in recent years, how much the college has improved while never losing sight of its mission. “Part of my own vision for St. John’s is that the college gains the recognition it deserves as a leader in American higher education,” Mr. Peter adds. “Indeed, education at all levels should take a close look at what we do. But to remain true to our mission and to serve as an example to others, we need the support of every alumnus, parent, and friend. I hope that all who know the college will find a way to contribute to this effort.” The college’s capital campaign seeks to address priorities that will sustain the Program and strengthen the college. Funding these priorities will require $125 million. FINANCIAL AID: $33 million for need-based aid. FACULTY AND ACADEMIC SUPPORT: $34 million to increase faculty salaries to the median of peer institutions; provide faculty development opportunities; develop program-related student instructional material Goals of Campaign the “Like a Euclid proposition, this is a campaign characterized by clarity and simplicity,” says Sharon Bishop (Class of 1965), chair of the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors. “Everything that we are seeking to do is in direct support of the Program.” Funds raised through the campaign will be directed to priorities in three areas: • Students: Among the top priorities of the college is the need to sustain the needbased financial aid program that ensures that students accepted to the college can attend regardless of their financial circumstances. • Faculty: St. John’s is committed to bringing tutor salaries to the median of those at comparable liberal arts colleges, while providing more opportunities for more tutors to engage in faculty study. • Facilities: In order to house more students on campus, the college seeks to build new dormitories and renovate existing dorms. Academic buildings, especially laboratory classrooms (manuals and workbooks); and ensure small class sizes and 1:8 tutor-to-student ratio. STUDENT SERVICES: $3.5 million to improve services to students, fund internship opportunities, and provide grants so that elementary and secondary teachers can attend the Graduate Institute. ST. JOHN’S IMPROVEMENT FUND: $5 million for library collections and laboratory equipment; improving Information Technology infrastructure; { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } staff professional development and compensation. BUILDING PROJECTS ON THE TWO CAMPUSES: $49.5 million for building projects, including a Santa Fe dormitory, a Graduate Institute center in Santa Fe, and the addition to and renovation of Evans Science Laboratory. The renovation of Mellon Hall and the addition of two new dormitories in Annapolis are completed and fully funded. �12 {Capital Campaign} Endowment per student in Santa Fe, require renovation and upgrading. And the college seeks to build a new Graduate Institute center in Santa Fe that would provide the campus with a much-needed auditorium for lectures, concerts, and other programs. Grinnell Pomona Swarthmore Bowdoin Claremont McKenna Haverford Carleton Reed Colorado Oberlin St. John’s “The board, the Alumni Association, and the college’s administration are all in agreement about what needs to be done,” says Ronald A. Fielding (A70), a board member and chairman of the Capital Campaign. “We must remain accessible to all qualified students. We need to continue to attract talented and dedicated faculty members and give them opportunities that will help them continue to serve as model learners for our students. We also need a physical environment in which a community of learners can flourish.” The college hasn’t waited in addressing the most urgent needs of the strategic plan, says Ms. Bishop. Early fruits of the campaign have been directed to the projects that most directly affect student life and learning. Two new dormitories, paid for by gifts to the campaign, have opened in the last two years in Annapolis, enabling the college to house 80 percent of its students on campus. The college committed $4.5 million to the Santa Fe Initiative, and as a result, students benefit from renovated laboratories in the Evans Science Laboratory, paid summer internships, and overall improvements to the buildings and grounds on the Santa Fe campus. Building Endowment The St. John’s endowment, a carefully managed investment fund, is larger than it has ever been, at just over $100 million. The endowment’s primary purpose is to grow and to provide an ever-increasing source of revenue for the college. Compared to other small liberal arts colleges, St. John’s remains seriously under-endowed, a situation that keeps the college too dependent on tuition revenue for its yearly operations. With the current endowment, the college has $5,000 per student to spend annually, while Grinnell College, with about 1,500 students, has $43,000 per student to spend annually because of a substantially larger endowment. “This is a time of opp-ortunity for St. John’s,” says Mr. Fielding, senior vice president and portfolio manager of OppenheimerFunds’ municipal bond division. “By growing the endowment, we can support the Program for many years to come.” Mr. Fielding’s $10 million gift to the endowment, given in 2003 to support financial aid, was also intended to underscore his support for the campaign and encourage others to join the effort. “Everything else about St. John’s is strong. The college is in $862,337 $750,470 $724,850 $313,181 $303,626 $300,709 $265,283 $258,294 $217,326 $208,039 $101,590 capable hands, with a solid administration and a dedicated faculty. We have attracted excellent students, and our applicant pool is better than it has ever been. But the largest missing link in terms of the quality of St. John’s is—and always has been—related to money,” he says. Since its early days, when the Revolutionary War founders of St. John’s had to send out bailiffs to collect pledges from financial supporters of the new college, raising funds and keeping the college financially healthy has not come easily. Mr. Fielding points out that Barr and Buchanan were able to bring the New Program to St. John’s in the 1930s in part because the college was facing bankruptcy, and the board was willing to take a chance to keep the college open. “We’ve never had a John Harvard, a Johns Hopkins—a single benefactor whose gift established the institution on strong footing,” he says. “Even in the 1940s and ’50s, when philanthropist Paul Mellon was making very generous gifts to the college, those gifts helped the college survive during some very lean years, but they didn’t build the endowment.” Mr. Fielding chose to direct his gift to financial aid in part because a comprehensive aid package allowed him to attend St. John’s. The need-based financial aid program at St. John’s is one of the few in the country that devotes every dollar to students who would not otherwise be able to attend the college. About 70 percent of students receive some form of financial aid, and the average St. John’s grant is $15,000. Today, the amount the college needs to spend on financial aid is growing faster than the rate of tuition increase, with more than $11 million annually devoted to financial aid. The Johnnie Giving Culture During the campaign, alumni, parents, and friends will be asked to make five-year pledges to the effort. Those capable of large gifts may choose to support an endowment or building project. Most supporters, however, will make their contribution to the campaign through their gift to the Annual Fund. The goal for the campaign is $29 million in Annual Fund gifts and pledges by 2008. In order for the campaign to be successful, the Annual Fund will need to grow in both the amount of individual gifts and in the number of alumni who give (now at about 36 percent). Alumni can also join the ranks of volunteers helping with the campaign. Ray Cave (class of 1948) agreed to co-chair the current campaign with Fielding, contributing the expertise gleaned from chairing the Campaign for Our Fourth Century (which ended in 1996). “The $125 million is going to be a stretch to reach,” he acknowledges. “But thanks to the hard work of a lot of { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �{Capital Campaign} 13 Campaign Progress The college has already raised $71 million in gifts and pledges toward the campaign. Those gifts include: $10 million, Ronald A. Fielding (A70), for financial aid; $12 million, anonymous alumnus, for support of the endowment; $10 million from The Hodson Trust for the renovation of Mellon Hall and the construction of Gilliam Hall; a gift (amount undisclosed) Warren Spector (A81), toward construction of Spector Hall; $4 million from board member Stephen L. Feinberg (HSF96); and $1 million from BVG Chair Sharon Bishop (Class of 1965). The college has obtained 100 percent participation in the campaign by the Board of Visitors of Governors and the Alumni Association board. A group of alumni and supporters of the college have pledged $2 million gift to the campaign in honor of Eva Brann. The college will create in Miss Brann’s name a tutorship endowment fund. people, the alumni have really been brought back to the community, and they’re responsive to the needs of the college. They want to be involved, and when we ask them, I think they’ll be ready to give. They will look upon themselves as supporters of an institution that they admire and that remains on their mind.” Mr. Cave never thought of himself as a fund-raiser; he started out as a newspaper reporter in Baltimore and worked his way up to become editor of Time magazine. “When I was asked to be chairman of the previous capital campaign, I said, ‘I’m a journalist. I’ve never asked anyone for a nickel, and I don’t know how to do that.’ ” But Mr. Cave knew how to tell a story, and the college’s story in the mid-1990s was one of unmet needs that could not be ignored without peril to the Program. For example, tutors at St. John’s were at the very bottom of the salary scale for faculty members at comparable institutions. “I think it’s important to understand that in historical terms, this college basically lived from hand to mouth. You can’t run a successful college or a business that way, but that’s what St. John’s had been doing. It’s as if we were embarrassed to ask for money. But of course alumni should support their alma mater—if you don’t want to give, it says you don’t feel you got anything beneficial when you attended.” When the Campaign for Our Fourth Century was launched, “everyone agreed that we had to give tutors a pay raise, but the endowment couldn’t support it,” Mr. Cave recalls. “Enough money was raised in the campaign to give tutors a pay raise, and now we’ve got them pretty darn near the middle.” In the past 15 years, the college has cultivated a strong donor base and has established good relationships with foundations and trusts. “Today, St. John’s is well managed in all respects. The college is going out now to raise $125 million to do two things: support the institution as it exists and strengthen the financial base so that St. John’s can keep pace with what students expect and what parents expect, while remaining true to its mission.” As he did in the last campaign, Mr. Cave will meet with donors to ask for a gift to the campaign. He knows he’ll hear a lot of good things about the college. “St. John’s is the kind of institution that does create passion in those who support it,” he says. “There are many alumni who support the college because it did consequential things for them, whether they graduated or not. And there are many people who support the college because they know St. John’s matters for America.” Steve Thomas (SF74) chairs the Alumni Committee of the campaign. “I loved every one of the four years I spent at the college,” he says. “And I believe most alumni feel that way.” Only many years after graduation did Mr. Thomas gain an appreciation for how the college works. He became involved in the Alumni Association Board and is now a member of the Board of Visitors and Governors. He sees some challenges in the job for which he has volunteered. “Alumni love the college, and they’re proud of being Johnnies,” says Mr. Thomas, a New York lawyer. “But for a long time, we were trained not to like the administration—there was this suspicion of that side of the college. We need to convince alumni that the money they give is going to go directly to supporting students and the institution.” As a member of the BVG’s Visiting Committee, Mr. Thomas has the opportunity to sit in on classes and meet students on both campuses. “I’m pleased that the college is providing substantively the same education as when I was a student,” he says. “I don’t think I realized until recently how much work goes into preserving the most important aspects of St. John’s.” Along with alumni, parents will be asked to make a gift to the campaign. Linda Schaefer, a BVG member and former Santa Fe Parent Association member, has volunteered to serve as one of the chairs of the Parent Committee of the campaign. Her son Eric graduated from St. John’s in Santa Fe in 2004, and during his student years she volunteered to assist the college with the Annual Fund. Mrs. Schaefer believes parents will respond to the needs of the capital campaign. “When you look back at your own sons and daughters, you can see the incredible changes that take place between freshman and senior years, and you know the difference the college had made in their lives,” she says. “They leave the college with a lifelong love of learning and the ability to think for themselves.” Mrs. Schaefer and her husband, Mark, are also supporting the capital campaign with a gift because they admire what St. John’s represents. “We believe that St. John’s is the kind of institution that really needs to be here. Just look at those students who have been to traditional liberal arts colleges and found it didn’t work for them. We really need to support and preserve the Program because so many people have benefited from it.” x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �14 {The Program} POETRY in MOTION Mr. Sinnett and Mr. Braithwaite, Newton and Aristotle by Rosemary Harty nnapolis students and tutors gathering for a Friday night lecture in January found an unusual setup on the stage of Key Auditorium. A pair of tutors sat facing each other at a coffee shop table, with books and papers spread out before them, and a blackboard positioned nearby. Instead of introducing the lecturer, Dean Michael Dink (A75) stood briefly to quiet the audience. The tutors, Mark Sinnett and William Braithwaite, began talking to each other about the nature of motion in the works of Newton and Aristotle. They were continuing a conversation—now for the benefit of an audience—that had been taking place nearly every week for almost three years. The role of a St. John’s tutor is often described as that of a model learner engaging with students on the lifelong journey of seeking knowledge. During the academic year and summer breaks, tutors work in formal study groups to pursue topics of interest together. In Annapolis this summer, tutors will study Kepler, for example. In Santa Fe, the summer topics include Mann’s Dr. Faustus. But the alex lorman A endeavor pursued by Mr. Braithwaite and Mr. Sinnett demonstrates another interesting aspect of life at St. John’s: many more tutors take part in informal groups that arise from a particular interest or a question. Their engagement in such pursuits lasts as long as they still have something they want to talk about. The Braithwaite-Sinnett collaboration on Aristotle’s Physics and Newton’s Principia also demonstrates how tutors with different experiences and abilities offer each other a deeper understanding of a work—the same thing that happens with students in an allrequired curriculum. Of the many things unique to St. John’s, the requirement that tutors teach across the curriculum may seem most puzzling to outsiders. At most colleges and universities, an English department decides it needs an expert in rhetoric; a history department seeks a Civil War expert. At St. John’s, the dean and instruction committee interviewing prospective tutors looks not for a particular expertise, but an agile, imaginative mind. As the two men described their collaboration a few weeks after their lecture (presented as a public conversation), they also captured what makes conversation at St. John’s such a fruitful and satisfying activity. Mr. Braithwaite came to St. John’s in 1995 from a law school faculty; Mr. Sinnett came from the pulpit of a Presbyterian church. “We were both teaching junior mathematics and were in the same archon group,” explained Mr. Sinnett. “I have a master’s degree in mathematics and I had been pursuing doctoral studies in mathematics when I shifted to theology. But being at St. John’s has brought mathematics back to life for me. Mathematics is done here for all the right reasons, because of the way, as Ptolemy says, it orders the soul; it’s a way of ordering the mind.” “I’m a former corporate trial lawyer whose mathematics experience before St. John’s was limited to Instead of delivering a lecture, tutors Mark Sinnett (l.) and William Braithwaite continued their conversation on Newton and Aristotle, this time for the benefit of an audience. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �{The Program} reading balance sheets,” Mr. Braithwaite said. “I had been out of college and done no other math but basic arithmetic for 40 years. If you look at our backgrounds, it wouldn’t appear that we’d have a great deal to say to one another. And that’s still something of a delightful mystery for me. We never planned to talk for 30 months. We were just going to study junior math together.” “We found that we were coming at the text in different ways, and it was fruitful,” added Mr. Sinnett. “We had a common interest, and we pursued it. That’s what happens at this college.” Junior mathematics at St. John’s centers on Newton and calculus. Students begin by reading Zeno, Aristotle, and Galileo. They consider Zeno’s famous paradox: how is continuous motion possible if, at each instant, the moving object fills the space it occupies, equal to its own size? The arrow is not moving there, Zeno posited, it’s at rest there, and it can’t be moving anywhere else, therefore motion is illusory. Continuing on to Newton’s Principia, and armed with a calculus manual, juniors explore the mechanical motions of the universe. The tutors’ joint inquiry started with Newton’s calculus, but kept returning to questions raised in the Physics. Eventually, the two settled on pursuing one central question: How does the mathematical account of motions of bodies in Newton differ from Aristotle’s nonmathematical account of nature and change in general? “Aristotle has a very limited view of what mathematics can do in relation to nature,” explained Mr. Braithwaite. “In the Physics he devotes a chapter to talking about how the mathematician’s study of nature differs from that of the physicist, what he would regard as the nonmathematical student of nature. He says that although the mathematician abstracts from nature, he doesn’t falsify the things that he studies. It looks as if Aristotle was making room for a mathematical inquiry into nature.” In their public conversation, the tutors started with Zeno’s paradoxes, which are carried through the Physics. “Something that intrigued us early on is: how did Newton think about Zeno’s paradoxes? Had he thought about them at all?” Mr. Braithwaite said. “Was Zeno a problem for Newton, or had he worked out a way of dealing with the problems the paradoxes raise that was different from Aristotle’s, or in some sense the same? We talked a lot about that over a long period of time, then we discovered that it looked to us as if Newton had found a way around the paradoxes.” According to Newton’s understanding, one divides up space and the corresponding times in the same way, resulting in a finite sum of time corresponding to the given finite expanse of space, explained Mr. Sinnett. Thus, an unbounded time is no longer necessary in order to traverse a bounded space. Similarly, he adds, Aristotle divides both space and time in a consistent manner. Both become countably infinite collections in exact correspondence of each other, with the result, as with Newton, that the paradox disappears. “Aristotle’s whole inquiry into motion, of course, is much broader. He’s concerned with change, which includes the plant over there growing, your writing on that piece of paper, the table decomposing. Newton’s got a very small portion of this: the motion of ballistic objects,” Mr. Sinnett said. 15 “I think it’s right that nothing in Newton’s calculus tells you about growing plants or the motions of animals,” agreed Mr. Braithwaite. “It’s about moving bodies from place A to place B, so it has a narrow but extremely powerful focus because of his development of the calculus. Newton is asking a different set of questions, but in the background was always this concession by Aristotle that the mathematical account isn’t false—in other words, it could tell you real, true things—it’s just not the whole horizon that Aristotle set for himself.” Newton’s ultimate ratio is not going to be visible to anyone who doesn’t proceed to it in a regular way, said Mr. Sinnett: “He’s just as dependent upon his reader’s personal insight—seeing into what is not visible to the eye—as Aristotle is, and Aristotle’s language is just perfect for describing what the student of his book has to let happen in his mind to grasp what is important. It’s startling to me to have been teaching calculus on and off for 25 years to find some of the best language for describing what I was doing in Aristotle’s Physics.” “Together we came to see that the Physics was extraordinarily helpful in understanding Newton,” Mr. Braithwaite said. “Our effort, when our imagination is not working properly, is to nail something down and hold it still so we can walk all around it and think that’s going to get us to an understanding of it. And the problem is you can’t do that with motion. Zeno’s paradoxes all appeal in some way to this natural reaction of trying to stop something in order to understand it. If you stop motion in order to understand it you’re not going to understand it as motion, you’re going to understand it as rest. That’s the difficulty.” Mr. Braithwaite had first heard of St. John’s in 1956, when he saw a movie about the college. He applied and was accepted, but for financial reasons, chose Virginia Military Institute. The college came back into his life in the early ’90s, when his two oldest sons Matthew (A96), and David (A97); matriculated here, and when Christopher Nelson (SF70), then fairly new as Annapolis president, asked him to join a President’s Advisory Council. (A third son, Daniel (01) followed, and a fourth, Jonathan, will matriculate with the class of 2010.) In 1993, at age 56, Mr. Braithwaite applied to join the faculty and was astounded to receive an offer. Similarly, Mr. Sinnett’s path to St. John’s stemmed from his wide-ranging intellectual interests. After earning his Ph.D. in systematic theology at Cambridge University, he was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church. He served a congregation in Texas for five years, but he wasn’t a good fit for the second congregation that called him. “One day I preached a sermon in which part of the message—from Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians— was that we shouldn’t turn ourselves down. The world tries hard enough to do that. I was talking with my wife about what to do next and said what I’d really like to do is teach at St. John’s. She said, ‘Well, don’t turn yourself down.’ So I wrote a letter to St. John’s.” The two are not planning another joint endeavor for some time. But given a moment to think about it, Mr. Braithwaite suggested to Mr. Sinnett, “Maybe we should take a look at the Metaphysics? You have a background in theology, after all, and I don’t, so we’d ask different questions—it could be interesting.” x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �16 {The Tutors} “EVER THE TEAC HER” Santa Fe Tutor William Darkey by Robin Weiss, SFGI86 s William A. Darkey prepared to become one of the first graduates of the New Program in 1942, he received a startling offer from Scott Buchanan and Stringfellow Barr, founders of the Program. Mr. Darkey recounts the story—and his own bewilderment—with a grin, recalling the details 63 years later. “Buchanan called me in and he said, ‘You know, Winkie [Barr] and I have been talking . . . we ought to have a student or two on the faculty because none of us have actually been through the curriculum.’ I said, ‘You must be kidding!’ But after the initial shock wore off, I asked, ‘Gosh, you really think I could do that?’ ” “If I didn’t think you could, I wouldn’t have asked you,” Buchanan replied. Barr and Buchanan are often described as visionaries, but it’s hard to imagine that they could have foreseen how much Mr. Darkey, now tutor emeritus, would contribute to the life of St. John’s College: as a long-serving and dedicated tutor, willing to take on various duties including admissions director and librarian in Annapolis; as one of the first faculty members and a dean of the Santa Fe campus; and as a mentor and friend to colleagues and students for more than six decades. Mr. Darkey’s teaching contract, dated May 29, 1942, honored him with a $500 salary and free board at the college. But his appointment came at a tenuous time for a A struggling college. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, students and faculty began leaving St. John’s for military service. In his book A Search for the Liberal College, J. Winfree Smith describes a student body torn between “good thinking about war and peace” and the actual demands of war. Between 1942-43, enrollment plummeted from 178 to 100. Mr. Darkey himself tried several times to enlist, but poor eyesight stood in his way. “I went through the peculiar initiation of going to Baltimore every six months and going through the routine—and guess what? They discovered I was nearsighted,” he recalls, chuckling. “And then they’d say, ‘No, you won’t do at all.’ This happened quite regularly.” In November 1943, Mr. Darkey was one of five tutors who served on the committee drafting the first Polity, which (according to Smith) became official by Barr’s fiat in 1945, over the faculty’s objections. Peter Hamill, class of 1949, met Mr. Darkey in January 1946 when Mr. Darkey was serving as a “third leader” in his seminar, comprising veterans from the war. Hamill attended the college for a year before being recalled by the Navy, and he remembers Mr. Darkey as a quiet presence in the classroom. “Mr. Darkey seldom spoke up. He mostly sat back and observed. Ford K. Brown [as senior leader] was handling things.” Dr. Hamill remembers how the two men “made it easy to drop any military swagger and become a human being in the group.” At the end of that year, Mr. Darkey finally succeeded in enlisting in the Army. Asked about his background, he told { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �{The Tutors} 17 Tutor Emeritus William Darkey at Santa Fe commencement, 2003. his commanding officer he was a teacher. “Ah, a school marm!” the officer replied. “We can use you.” Mr. Darkey was assigned to training methods. “This was teaching people useful things like how to throw a hand grenade.” Mr. Darkey worked for a colonel who thought him “a very good training methods man,” and asked if he intended to make a career out of the military. No, Mr. Darkey said, he had marriage and graduate school in mind. Although he was up for a transfer to Japan, he was allowed to stay stateside to await his honorable discharge. With his wife, Connie, he went to New York to embark on a graduate degree in English literature at Columbia University. One of his teachers was noted poet and professor Mark Van Doren, an early supporter of the Program. “The very first lecture I went to at St. John’s was by Mark. I remember thinking: My God, this is an honest-to-God poet.” At Columbia the two men became good friends, and Mr. Van Doren counseled him through difficulties such as writer’s block. After earning his degree in 1949, Mr. Darkey returned to teach at St. John’s. Barr and Buchanan had moved on, and “the center of it all was [Jacob] Klein . . . a great reader of books” and in a sense “the soul of the college.” “He knew about good and evil, Greek mathematics, Hebrew, French, English. Europe gave us a great gift in all of these people,” Mr. Darkey says of Mr. Klein, Simon Kaplan, Eva Brann, and other intellectuals who were refugees from Europe and helped build the college’s reputation. Also at the college were gifted musicians and composers who inspired students with their love for music: Nicholas Nabokov, Elliot Carter, and Victor Zuckerkandl. “Music was very much alive,” recalls Mr. Darkey. “Scott Buchanan had the notion, deep inside him, that music was a liberal art and that it ought to be cultivated as such.” Mr. Darkey was Miss Brann’s seminar co-leader in her first year at the college, 1957-58. “He took me into the community and showed me the ins and outs,” she says. As a “member of the old guard,” he was the model of a good { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �18 {The Tutors} “He had the ability to make the material his own, then lend it to you; he could get inside the material and take you by the hand. He did it with great gentility.” Bob Warren (SFGI93) Alfred Eisenstaedt/L IFE Magazine seminar leader. “He’s a gentle man and a gentleman both,” Miss Brann says. Mr. Darkey’s devotion to teaching extended beyond St. John’s. He was one of several tutors to found The Key School in 1958, and when the independent school based on the St. John’s model outgrew a rented facility in Annapolis, Mr. Darkey was appointed acting headmaster. He took a year’s leave from St. John’s to help relocate Key to a permanent home. Max Ochs (AGI91) grew up in Annapolis and has known Mr. Darkey for more than four decades. His best friend was Peter Nabokov, Connie’s son from her first marriage to Nicholas Nabokov. One day near Christmas in 1959, when Ochs was elementary-school age, he visited the Darkey home to discover Mr. Darkey cutting out pieces of colored construction paper. “He was trying to teach me and Peter how to make tree ornaments—tetrahedrons and dodecahedrons . . . Just learning the word was wonderful,” says Ochs. “He was ever the teacher. And he did it in a very non-threatening way, always.” Another memory, from Ochs’ teenage years, is of the time Mr. Darkey decided to offer seminars to neighborhood kids. The first assignment was Don Quixote. “When he asked how many people actually read the book, fewer than half of us raised our hands . . . I’ve hardly ever seen his face get dark and cloudy like that,” Ochs says. If disappointed, Mr. Darkey persevered with his seminars. “He has this great, intense love of the truth.” In the early 1960s, former president Richard Weigle (HA49) spearheaded the move to open a Western campus of St. John’s. When Santa Fe was chosen, Mr. Darkey was selected to be one of the founding faculty members at the new campus. Mr. Darkey describes “the proselytizing aspect” of the endeavor. “Dick Weigle . . . wanted to bring the liberal arts to the West. We had very gifted people working on it.” William Darkey grew up in western Maryland, earned a scholarship to St. John’s, and before graduating in 1942 was offered a faculty position by thendean Scott Buchanan. His wife, Connie, he adds, “thought that the notion of founding a new campus in the West was a great idea. She was full of enthusiasm” for the adventure. A member of Santa Fe’s first class, Marilynne Scott (Maurie Wills Schell, SF68), remembers Mr. Darkey well. He led her tutorial and co-led seminar in her freshman year, and he “listened to us with such intensity,” she recalls. “Out of our ramblings he zeroed [in] on the germ of the idea we were trying to put forth. His eyes looked at the speaker as he asked us to explain, elaborate, give examples. He helped us formulate thoughts we hardly knew we had.” He also gave Ms. Scott rides to and from church. “Here was a person who dissected the Bible, Augustine, Aquinas and Calvin, yet had a deep and public faith. In the freshman don rag, Mr. Darkey asked me what wisdom was. I can now say a wise person is one who sees with his heart and acts on his convictions. Such a man is Bill Darkey.” From 1968-72, Mr. Darkey served as the second dean of the Santa Fe campus, bringing to the post “imagination, diligence, and perceptiveness,” Weigle later wrote in one of his memoirs. Mr. Darkey was a tutor to David Levine (A67) in Annapolis, and when Mr. Levine returned as a faculty member in Santa Fe, he was pleased to have Mr. Darkey as a colleague. “His sense of the mission of the college is wellcentered,” says Mr. Levine, now outgoing dean in Santa Fe. “He’s a partisan of a smaller college, someone who has expressed, many times, his concern that the college will become too large to be a community of learners . . . People have looked up to him as a way of keeping our balance.” In 1998, Mr. Levine suggested renovating the former bookstore in Peterson Hall into a much-needed common { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �19 marion warren {The Tutors} room. Bob Warren (SFGI93), a strong supporter of the college, agreed to underwrite the project if the room was named in honor of Mr. Darkey. Not surprisingly, the humble Mr. Darkey was reluctant to see a room named for him, notes Mr. Warren. He and his wife, Carol, have taken several community seminars with Mr. Darkey and have always been impressed by his gentle manner and his intellect. “He never raised his voice, or an eyebrow. He had the ability to make the material his own, then lend it to you; he could get inside the material and take you by the hand. He did it with great gentility.” Mr. Darkey was on the Instruction Committee that hired Santa Fe tutor Jorge Aigla in 1985. In terms of the Program, Mr. Darkey is “never complacent, but always reexamining what we do and why,” says Mr. Aigla. And as his friend for the past 21 years, Mr. Darkey has taught him what friendship may mean: “he’s committed, kind, amiable . . . [and] has a fantastic ability to listen.” “He’s the best of a St. John’s tutor; he allows differing points of view while inspiring the conversation to continue,” says Laura Mulry (SFGI02), who developed a friendship with Mr. Darkey in her years in the GI and on the college staff. “He’s broadened my intellect and opened my spirit by always asking: ‘What’s the discovery for you? What’s the pleasure and joy you obtain?’ ” Former President John Balkcom (SFGI00) has also enjoyed many long talks with Mr. Darkey, about the His students have always found tutor Bill Darkey (shown here in a 1961 math tutorial) to be a gentle, but vital, presence in the classroom. Program, students, and faculty. He was always eager for the visits, held every six weeks. “I would basically sit and listen to him just as long as he wanted to talk,” says Mr. Balkcom. “He’s the soul of the college in my book.” Mr. Balkcom remembers a lecture Mr. Darkey gave in 2002. The Great Hall was packed, people spilled into the Senior Common Room, and Mr. Darkey gave a wonderful lecture on the poems of Mark Van Doren. The next day, Mr. Balkcom learned that Mr. Darkey had left the text at home. “He did it extemporaneously. You would not have known.” Last summer, with his dog Beau close at hand, Mr. Darkey reflected on what the college has meant to him. In a little more than an hour, sitting outside the Peterson Student Center, he had tried to summarize a journey that began in Annapolis and brought him to this beautiful campus built at the foot of the mountains. “It’s the life, in all these things we do,” he said. “It’s a rare thing to understand—you have to live it.” x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �20 {History} THE Re m a rk a b l e R E V E R DY J O H N S O N An American Statesman by Andrea Lamb everdy Johnson, Esq., class of 1811, was bold and concise in his defense of Mary E. Surratt, one of the accused coconspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson’s fame rested on his reputation as a constitutional lawyer and senator. He based his defense of Surratt on the argument that the military commission created after the assasination of Lincoln was unconstitutional. “If a military commission, created by the mere authority of the President, can deprive a citizen of the benefit of the guaranties secured by the 5th amendment, it can deprive him of those secured by the 6th. It may deny him the right to a speedy and public trial, information ‘of the nature and cause of the accusation,’ of the right ‘to be confronted with the witnesses against him,’ of ‘compulsory process for his witnesses,’ and of ‘the assistance of counsel for his defense’ . . . If then, it was true that the creation of a military commission like the present is incidental to the war power, it must be authorized by the department to which that power belongs, and not by the Executive, to whom no portion of it belongs.” Unfortunately for Surratt, Johnson’s defense was unsuccessful, and on July 7, 1865, she was hanged—the first woman to be executed by the federal government. According to the 19th-century newspaper, The North American Review, intrigue may have interfered with justice even with so R eminent a counsel as Reverdy Johnson. On the third day of the session, a member of the military commission, General T.M. Harris, questioned the integrity of Johnson as counsel on the grounds that he had earlier refused to recognize the moral obligation of an oath required of voters in the state of Maryland. Johnson’s reason was based on his belief that the state Convention had exceeded its authority in attempting to exact an oath as a condition for citizens to exercise the vote. In a strange turn of events, Johnson was forced to defend himself. General Harris’ attempt to have Johnson dismissed on grounds of integrity failed, due to Johnson’s eloquence and comportment in the court room. Unfortunately, such an affront to his character was intolerable, and the dignified Johnson declined to appear in person again, submitting written arguments to the court instead. Although it failed in Surratt’s case, Johnson’s legal argument was later proven sound. In 1866, one year after Surratt’s execution, the landmark Supreme Court decision Ex Parte Milligan was issued. It stated that while civilians may be imprisoned by the military during times of war, it was unconstitutional to subject civilians to military courts as long as the civilian courts were operating. His defense of the doomed Surratt was only one of Johnson’s many controversial undertakings. He was co-counsel for the slave owner in the 1857 Dred Scott case. Chief Justice Roger Taney, earlier of the Baltimore Bar and a close friend of Johnson’s, rendered the opinion that slaves were not citizens of the United States, and could not sue in federal courts. The decision also { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �library of congress { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �22 {History} declared that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, and that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories. Later, during the Lincoln-Douglas presidential campaign, Johnson spoke at Faneuil Hall in Boston. According to his biographer Steiner, he delivered an eloquent and moving address expressing his view that slavery was a local institution, with which Congress should not interfere. Although he personally opposed slavery, Johnson’s respect for the Constitution prevailed over all. It is not at all unusual to think of many successful St. John’s alumni much in the same vein as Johnson—brilliant, extraordi- nary, but perhaps an irregular fit in a regular world. Some of the intense controversy he attracted can be explained in part by the historical setting of his life. He served in the Senate during a turbulent time: slavery, the Civil War, Lincoln’s assassination, war reparations, the Mexican War, and the first impeachment of an American president, in 1868, were issues for men like Johnson and benchmarks in American history. In all of his legal and political pursuits, Johnson met the challenges while maintaining his personal integrity. In addition to his St. John’s education, Johnson had many resources, including influential family connections. His father From One Johnnie’s Library to Another Some coincidences are almost too remarkable to believe. Take, for example, how a volume of The Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, by Brevet Captain J. C. Fremont, came to be included in the rare books collection of the Greenfield Library. Stewart H. Greenfield (Class of 1953), a member of the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors, has always enjoyed visiting used bookstores and adding to his personal library. (About a decade ago, he demonstrated his love for books by providing the gift that allowed the college to renovate the former Maryland State Archives building for a new library—named, accordingly, for Mr. Greenfield.) Many years ago Mr. Greenfield came across a copy of Fremont’s journals. In 1841 Congress commissioned a survey of the Oregon Trail and named Lt. John C. Fremont to head the expedition. Upon his return, Fremont prepared the official report to Congress. It was so wellreceived that an extra 1,000 copies were printed. “I have a couple of books about exploration and expeditions, and I saw the Fremont volume and leafed through it,” Mr. Greenfield recalls. Mr. Greenfield read the book, put it back on a shelf, and forgot about it—until he picked up the New York Times Book Review one day and saw an advertisement from a rare book dealer. “It was from Bauman’s Rare Books. Bauman’s had a copy of Fremont’s journals, and the ad mentioned that it was a senatorial copy, one of the first editions prepared for the report to the Congress. The copy they were selling had a rare map in the pocket of the back cover, and as I recall, the price tag on theirs was $6,000. “This gave me incentive to go and see if my copy included the map and was a senatorial edition.” Not only did it have a map, not only was it a senatorial edition, but it was the copy presented to Reverdy Johnson, St. John’s Class of 1811. “This was the first time I’d looked closely at the inscription. It was signed by Reverdy Johnson, whose name I knew well from my days as a student at St. John’s. I looked up his history, and indeed on the day he signed the volume, he was a member of the Congress.” Indeed, a remarkable coincidence. Since then, Bauman’s has continued to seek buyers for other Fremont volumes; the last one had an asking price of $7,800. But Mr. Greenfield’s volume became a gift to the St. John’s library, where, he says, it belongs. x { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } In November 2005, Stewart Greenfield donated his copy of FREMONT’S REPORT to the Greenfield Library, where it is on display in the Nutt Room. The inscription inside reads “From Reverdy Johnson to his friend Wm Price Dec. 30, 1845.” �{History} had been a lawyer and appeals court judge in Maryland. After graduating from St. John’s at age 15, Reverdy Johnson read law with his father, joined the Baltimore Bar and practiced law in Maryland. After having served as a state senator, he was elected in 1845 to the U.S. Senate as a Whig. In 1849, he was appointed by Zachary Taylor to be attorney general of the United States. He later served as a representative in the Maryland Assembly, and returned to the U.S. Senate, this time as a democrat. During the Civil War, he was a strenuous supporter of keeping Maryland in the Union. At age 50, Johnson accepted the appointment of minister to Britain’s Court of St. James’s, launching his international career. Lord Clarendon, at the time of Johnson’s appointment, wrote to a friend in America that “Mr. Johnson was the only diplomatic representative that had ever brought out the true friendly feeling of the British people for those in the United States.” Some Americans thought him too friendly to England. Johnson faced the emerging controversies of his day with expansive intellect and largeness of spirit. However, some observers, noting the pattern of shifting alliances and political positions, did not hesitate to charge him with being a “trimmer,” one who changes his political opinions to suit popular views. Other accounts cast him in more favorable light. The Hon. J. Upshur Dennis, in writing his recollections, stated that Johnson was “cursed with neither nerves nor liver, but was the robust embodiment of mens sana in corpore sano,” a healthy mind in a healthy body. (2). Even Johnson’s physical attributes attracted attention. Dennis recalls in his account that Johnson was of “medium height, round bodied, solidly almost sturdily built, just such a physical mould as indicated perfect health, capacity for work, and endurance, without risk of breakdown, of all the oils and strains of the most active life at the trial table . . . his features were strong; his forehead of great height, fullness and breadth; while the back of his head was shaped like a barrel, and seemed to bulge out all around, as if holding capacity. But the dome of his head was its most striking feature—so lofty, so symmetrically rounded, that it seemed to tower above all others, as the dome of St. Peter’s minimizes all other designs (2-3).” Apparently, possessing a measured temperament did not keep Johnson out of a gentlemen’s duel, which ended with grave physical consequences before it could even take place. According 23 to Dennis, the duel resulted from an altercation at a horse race attended by congressmen. The owners of the two horses competing, Rep. Henry Wise of Virginia and Rep. Edward Stanley of North Carolina, were also the marshals. The men got into a fight, and the challenge to a duel was issued. As Wise’s second, Johnson went out to practice his shooting. He took aim at a small hickory tree and fired. But the ball failed to penetrate the tree, boomeranged, and struck Johnson in one eye. From that moment on, he needed assistance in crossing streets and rooms, and relied on voices to identify people. He died in 1876 in Annapolis. Johnson was a persuasive speaker with his own style. He apparently made few references to literary or other authorities, in contrast to other learned men of his day, but rather built his arguments on principles and logic. He attracted many controversies in his life, most often triggered by shifting his political alliances and revising his opinions. And yet, one may view those shifts as characteristic of open-mindedness manifested in an educated man. His character traits demonstrated, according to John Grene Proud, class of 1834, “the liberality of his mind and his habit of bringing every subject to the test of calm reasoning and cool judgment . . .” which prevented Johnson from becoming “a bigoted partisan.” Such was the legacy of a St. John’s education then, and now. x It is not at all unusual to think of many successful St. John’s alumni much in the same vein as Johnson— brilliant, extraordinary, but perhaps an irregular fit in a regular world. Andrea Lamb is librarian in Annapolis. Sources: Personal Recollections of a Quartet of the Baltimore Bar (1905), by J. Upshur Dennis, in the Reverdy Johnson Special Collection, Maryland State Archives; Argument on the Jurisdiction of the Military Commission, by Reverdy Johnson, found in Surratt House Museum Archives at www.surratt.org/documents/ Bplact14.pdf.; The North American Review, 131 and 147 (1888) (http:memory.loc.gov.ammem.ammemhome.html); Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Maryland, Baltimore (1879); Ex parte Milligan, 71 US2 (1866). (www.abanet.org/publiced/criticism.html); Life of Reverdy Johnson, by Bernard Steiner (1941); Memoirs of Deceased Alumni of St. John’s College, Annapolis, by John G. Proud, Baltimore (1879); Tercentenary History of Maryland, by Matthew P. Andrews, Chicago, Clarke (1925). { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �24 { S t u d e n t Vo i c e s } T W E N T Y- S I X DA Y S A Senior Essay Diary Tuesday, January 10 Beard growing and essay writing progressed slowly and with varied success for seniors (l. to r.) Benjamin Cromartie, Christopher Utter, Geremy Coy, and Andrew MacKinlay. beard” is a tradition for the brave few who attempt it each year. I’m curious to see how much of a beard I can actually grow. alex lorman Christopher Utter, a former editor of the Gadfly and a prolific contributor to college publications, took breaks from essay writing to keep a journal on the process. He overcame a slow start, Seinfeld episodes on DVD, and much angst to complete a fine essay on Plato’s Republic. He defended it in April—the morning after Prank. Tuesday, January 17 It was good to be at home over break, but toward the end I began to feel the weight of my essay pressing on my conscience. My plane landed at BWI last night at about 8 p.m. My girlfriend, Shoshana Goldstein, and my friend Alex Claxton met me at the baggage claim, and we drove to campus without saying much. We are pretending not to be concerned about our essays, although I’m sure most seniors are slightly panicked. We have four weeks (26 days), which sounds like a long time. I had wanted to re-read the Republic and write at least an outline for my essay, but neither of these things happened. Writing, but mostly in the form of notes, and not very cohesive notes at that. I met with Mr. Kalkavage yesterday, and as a result I have narrowed my focus to imitation in Book X. It’s very strange being here without having to go to class. It’s not that I don’t feel like I am a part of the school, it’s more that I don’t feel like I’m going to school at all. It’s always the weekend, or it’s never the weekend, depending on how you look at it. The only difference between one day and the next is that each day I am closer to the deadline. Beard progress: still stubble, but at least it’s evenly distributed. Friday, January 13 I hope Friday the thirteenth is lucky for me. Yesterday, I met with my adviser, Mr. Kalkavage, and told him I wanted to change my topic. I was originally going to write on freedom in the Republic, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that I had no idea how I would write such an essay. So after discussing the matter for a while with Mr. Kalkavage, I remembered how interested and perplexed I was at Socrates’ discussion of images and imagery. I finally settled on an examination of Socrates’ two treatments of poetry, in Books II-III and X, as the focus of my essay. As I said, I will need a bit of luck to come up with an interesting way to approach this topic so late in the game. Earlier this evening I went for pizza with Shoshana and Andrew (MacKinlay), Geremy (Coy), and Ben (Cromartie). They (except Shoshana) have decided not to shave until they turn in their essays February 4, and so I decided to join them. I’m told the “essay { The College Saturday, January 22 Go to the library and work there until it closes? Or just stay here at my desk in Gilliam Hall? I have about 20 pages of notes. One major development is that I came up with an outline yesterday covering everything I think I need to talk about, though I have still not written much. Everyone seems to have dozens of pages already! I have to write something substantial to give to Mr. Kalkavage before our meeting Tuesday. Last night I saw Match Point with Shoshana and the other usual people. The only thing about it that was typical of Woody Allen’s style was the plot’s nihilistic tinge. Because of this it ended up reminding me of my essay and the danger poetry of all kinds can pose to an audience’s thought. Geremy, perhaps influenced by the movie, is making a film of the writing process. To illustrate what we do with our free time he John’s College • Spring 2006 } �{ S t u d e n t Vo i c e s } 25 Tutors Patricia Locke and William Braithwaite walk out with Mr. Utter after the examination. filmed Alex and Ben bouncing a tennis ball across the floor to each other in silence for about a minute and a half. Writing. After my last entry I went to the library and wrote until closing, then I went back to my room and wrote for several hours more. I went through about a third of Book X and wrote 15 pages. Mr. Kalkavage thinks they’re well written and need almost no revision, so I’m relieved. Now I just have to write the rest of the essay. My beard is coming along, although I’m not sure how well I like it. It’s strange being able to feel the wind through it when I’m standing outside. Also, it itches. alex lorman Tuesday, January 25 Friday, March 31 Friday, January 27 The more time I spend on the essay the more time I need to spend doing something else. I’ve been watching Seinfeld episodes on DVD. It’s actually very interesting how much Seinfeld bears on the subject of my essay. Then again everything bears on the subject of everyone’s essay. I have discussed this phenomenon many times with my friends; whenever we read a book or watch a movie or television program, we have to be careful not to say, “You know, this reminds me of something I just said in my essay.” I suppose it means our minds are invested in the work. Tuesday, January 31 Finished a draft of the central part of the essay and sent it to Mr. Kalkavage, but I still have to write a conclusion. A problem: this central section is 50 pages long. I’ll see what Mr. Kalkavage thinks tomorrow. Surprisingly, I’m not sick of the Republic—just the opposite. Sunday, February 5 It’s done. I spent the remainder of last week cutting my essay and managed to get it down to 37 pages. Mr. Kalkavage thinks it’s very good, and so does Shoshana. I am not sure that I can tell whether it is good anymore; I’ve spent too much time with it. Andrew, Geremy, and I went to Kinko’s to get our essays bound on Saturday evening, and managed to get there just before everyone else—in and out in 20 minutes, not the two-hour wait we feared. At about 10 p.m., a group of us piled into the Polity van and headed to the president’s house to turn in our essays. Then we drove back to campus to ring the bell, a tradition we are graciously allowed to continue despite the fact that it violates the city noise ordinance. I guess 100 people ringing the bell at 1 a.m. must be annoying. Oh, and I shaved this morning. { The College I just went to the Registrar’s office to pick up my commencement invitations. They come with a little slip of paper marked “etiquette instructions” detailing how the invitations should be assembled: “The invitation and calling card go into the small, un-gummed envelope with a tissue placed over the face of the invitation and the card inserted inside the invitation . . . ” etc. For some perverse reason I enjoy little exercises like this. Wednesday, April 5 I found out two weeks ago that my oral would fall the day after Senior Prank. I was disappointed at first, of course, because this meant that I couldn’t participate in the parties. But it worked out for the best because it gave me more time to prepare yesterday morning. I was nervous beforehand, but once I sat down at 11:45 a.m. and started reading my précis, I was fine. In the robing room Mr. Umphrey, Ms. Locke, and Mr. Braithwaite explained the procedures—entering and leaving the room, how I should wear my mortar board, etc. My friends sat in the chairs around the table, but I hardly noticed them. I was so entrenched in the conversation that it didn’t matter what was going on outside of it. This is true of conversations in general at St. John’s; they’re deathly boring if you are merely watching them and are not invested in them, but when you are a part of the conversation it so envelops you that you barely notice other things. The oral was over much more quickly than I thought it would be, and before I knew it I was shaking people’s hands and being congratulated from all sides. Shoshana and I had lunch to celebrate. Then there’s a seminar reading waiting. x John’s College • Spring 2006 } �26 {Bibliofile} The Art of the PERSIAN LETTERS: Unlocking Montesquieu’s Secret Chain by Randolph Paul Runyon (A71) University of Delaware Press (2005) Randolph Runyon, a professor of French literature at Miami University in Ohio, loves a good puzzle. He’s also good at finding hidden connections and uncovering secrets—one reason Montesquieu’s Persian Letters held such interest for him. Best known for The Spirit of the Laws, written in 1738, Montesquieu first achieved literary success with the Persian Letters, which tells the story of Usbek and Rica and their journey from Persia into the Western World. The two travelers correspond with the seraglio back home and receive letters of news from Usbek’s harem. What develops is an enjoyable and interesting exposition of the differences between East and West. Thirty years after Montesquieu published his epistolary novel, he hinted that the seemingly disconnected letters held a “secret, and somehow unnoticed, chain” that tied the letters together. No scholars have been quite successful in finding that chain, Runyon posits, because they concentrated instead on finding a unifying theme. While he greatly admires the research of scholar Pauline Kra, Runyon ultimately concluded that her work concentrated on identifying a theme rather than uncovering a structural link. Instead, Runyon proposes that a chain of linguistic echoes, situational parallels, and reversals carry the reader from each letter to the next. He had already invested months in his labor—a careful textual analysis of the 161 letters—before he was sure his approach would actually work. “I became familiar with the Persian Letters because I teach French literature, and it’s often anthologized, at least in fragments,” he says. “My first response to the work was that it’s a whole world on its own. But once you enter it on its own terms, you start to see how it’s put together.” For example, Runyon finds a connection in linguistic echoes between Letters 24-25 and 26. The first two letters capture Rica’s reports of “Louis XIV searching in vain for hidden Jansenists . . . ” Runyon writes. Rica uses the words “a cherchés” and “le chagrin” in reference to the king’s fruitless searches. In Letter 26, when writing to his elusive love Roxanne, Rica refers to his own “chagrin” when his searches (“recherches”) for his love are unsuccessful. Runyon also enjoyed Montesquieu’s political satire: “So here we have Louis XIV beating the bushes for Jansenists and Usbek doing the same for the object of his desire,” writes Runyon. “It’s a hidden parallel, but it’s a pretty funny one. The { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } absolutist Sun King in his persecuting mania is likened, in the hidden chain, to a husband who can’t even make love to the wife over whom he supposedly has absolute power (19).” After leaving St. John’s at the completion of his sophomore year, Runyon earned a doctorate in French from Johns Hopkins University. He joined the Miami University faculty in 1977. Runyon’s research covers a wide range of English and French literature (The Art of the Persian Letters is one of eight books he has published), but lately he’s been fascinated by uncovering links within an individual work. He may take on Montaigne next to show how the first essay relates to the last essay in each of his three books. He’s found the writer “intentionally self-contradictory” in many of his essays. “At one point he says we have too many commentators on poetry and not enough poets, but at another he says we have too many poets,” says Runyon. “He says civil war is terrible at one point; in another, he says such wars serve a purpose.” His studies of the poetry of Fontaine and Baudelaire have also uncovered hidden chains. La Fontaine, for example, seems to employ a rhyme scheme that many readers believe “disintegrates into chaos.” Instead, what Runyon has found is that different syllable counts in individual poems often correspond with sudden shifts in action or mood. “And each fable is connected to its neighbors by the same kind of linguistic and situational parallels found in the Persian Letters.” While he appreciates the enduring ideas behind great books, Runyon is more fascinated by the manipulation of language, more interested in how the parts form an esthetic whole. His love of language was nurtured at St. John’s, where he enjoyed studying Greek and working through Euclid’s propositions. He credits the college with helping him develop his ability to find disparities, and therefore, identify similarities. In studying the Persian Letters, he could see when one letter contradicted the one preceding or following it because he could also pick out the underlying sameness. “I had Ford K. Brown as my tutor for Greek, and he used to say, ‘The closest you can be to being right is to be exactly wrong.’ I was greatly influenced by this, and it influenced my approach to all these writers.” �27 {Bibliofile} His love of French was also discovered at St. John’s, not in the classroom, but in the library in Woodward Hall. “I worked there in the evenings, and they had these lovely 19th-century editions of Racine and Diderot. I had never liked reading literature in English, but I fell in love with French literature. It’s now extended to English.” Runyon has always found the Persian Letters to be amusing and interesting, and he recommends the book as good reading for Johnnies. Although today Montesquieu’s approach to Arabic culture seems somewhat misinformed and patronizing, “at least he was writing about another culture in a serious way, long before anyone else,” he notes. x —Rosemary Harty The Cycle of Learning/ El ciclo de aprendizaje by Jorge Aigla Bilingual Press (2005) It is understandable for a poet to write about his own friends and family, but perhaps only a poet who is also a St. John’s College tutor could so deftly speak to such a broad range of topics as family, martial arts, and classical works, extending from the streets of Mexico City to the three sons of Socrates, “or the waif/ adopted by an aging Epictetus.” Santa Fe tutor, poet, and head karatedo instructor Jorge Aigla has released a third volume of poetry entitled The Cycle of Learning, his first book that includes Spanish and English versions of each poem. Haunting and evocative, the poems explore the mysterious ways in which we apprehend the world, and the dichotomy between internalizing our awareness and using language to express ideas and forms that come to us independent of language. On the book’s left-hand pages, poems are printed in the language—Spanish or English—in which they were first composed; the right-hand page offers the translation. “Poetry comes to our imagination and its linguistic representation differently,” writes Aigla in the book’s preface. “Perhaps this work could serve as an invitation to a case study on the psycholinguistics of bilingualism.” Influences of the Program abound in The Cycle of Learning. In “Ruminations of a Monk,” Aigla writes: “Why do we not realize/ that we do not learn,/ that we must always/ start again in love from the beginning/ as Kierkegaard suggested.” There is a poem called “Miguel de Cervantes” and another called “Don Quixote’s Mill.” Socrates, Goethe, Baudelaire, Plato, Confucius, Augustine, Mencius (Meng Tzu), Milton, and Shakespeare also gain mention. Each poem opens onto wider worlds of imagination, family, discovery, and the passage of time. Drawing inspiration from his family members, his martial arts practice, and his boyhood in Mexico, the poems sketch moving images of his loved ones in such gentle ways as to honor their place on the mantel of his life. Aigla creates imagery as vivid and colorful as portraiture, as moving as breath, as in “One Morning”: That cement wasteland on an early Mexico City morning, as I waited for the bus to take me to the high school gym, revealed to me a man: the same thin and dirty and dark manual laborer carrying a hemp sack, his face a bible of sorrows, condemned to ride for perhaps two hours to the factory whose stoves and chimneys devour men. Learning, the poetic counterpart to William Carlos Williams’s collection of prose essays The Embodiment of Knowledge.” One of the most sensory-rich poems is entitled “A Flower for My Mother.” Crossing borders and decades, Aigla reflects on his mother while sitting in a garden spot on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. He writes, “The garden is full this year/ after so much rain, of all/ the colors you enjoyed, and especially the deep magenta/ of that low and shy flower/ you once so tenderly straightened/ as we walked carefully on the path/ between the two large horse chestnut trees/ trees like the ones you used to help me/ climb as a boy in Cuernavaca.” Aigla was born in Mexico City. He earned a degree in medicine from the University of California, San Francisco, in 1979. Prior to coming to St. John’s, he was a medical examiner in San Francisco and taught at both the City College of San Francisco and at St. Mary’s College. His first volume of poetry, Sublunary (Pennywhistle Press), was published in 1989. His previous book of poetry, Aztec Shell (Bilingual Press, 1995), in which some poems are in Spanish, is set in both Mexico and the United States.x —Andra Maguran Charles Bell, Santa Fe tutor emeritus, wrote in his forward to the volume: “Let me promise the reader this mature and powerful experience of this Cycle of The Cycle of Learning El ciclo de aprendizaje I closed the senses and allowed the dark to envelop me, I dreamt. A wind visited me: People had loved me; I had been sick for a long time, almost unconscious, and had been taken care of, fed, and watched. I had not realized what this implied; I stared at the enormity of some of my actions and of my secret inertias. Awaking, alone, I opened once more the cycle of learning. Cerré los sentidos y permití que la oscuridad me envolviese. Sõné. Visitóme un viento: Gente me había amado; Había estado enfermo por largo tiempo, casi inconsciente, y me habían cuidado, alimentado y vigilado. No me había dado cuenta de lo que esto significaba; Miré la enormidad de algunos de mis actos y de mis inercias secretas. Despertando solo, abrí de nuevo el cilco de aprendizaje —Jorge Aigla { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �28 {Alumni Profile} Out of Africa Journalist Lydia Polgreen (A97) by Patricia Dempsey s the New York Times foreign correspondent for West Africa, Lydia Polgreen (A97) is accustomed to danger. Last winter, she boarded a flight to Nigeria to meet with militants in the oil-producing delta region who were holding nine foreigners as hostages. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta invited journalists to interview them, as Polgreen wrote later, “to show their strength and outline their demands.” But before the meeting could take place, Polgreen found herself sitting in a small boat, her hands in the air, looking at the barrel of an AK-47 assault rifle. “We were navigating the creeks and rivers of the Niger Delta, and the Nigerian military were looking for the hostages the militants were holding, so there was a strong possibility that we could get caught in the crossfire,” she recalls. “A boat with a group of men wearing hoods over their faces, aiming AK-47s and a grenade launcher, came speeding up to us. There had been a misunderstanding with our guide. We talked to them, convinced them that we meant no harm. Finally they gave us permission to proceed to meet with the militants.” Polgreen covers two dozen countries, including the war-ravaged areas of eastern Chad and western Sudan, politically volatile Liberia, and regions such as the Niger Delta. She travels for two to three weeks at a time, returning to the Times’ West African bureau, her home in the suburbs of Dakar, Senegal, that she shares with her partner, Candice Feit (A96), a freelance photographer. Any down time is used preparing for the next assignment: haggling with embassy employees to get visas and permits, or arranging for translators and drivers. Reporting on the oil pipeline in Chad, for instance, required two weeks of planning complex logistics and six days driving around the dusty A desert. “The biggest part of this job—being a foreign correspondent—is showing up,” she says. “How can you know for sure you will be safe? You cannot. So you gauge the risks.” Polgreen’s willingness to take these risks is rooted in a childhood spent in Africa. She grew up in Kenya and Ghana. Her mother, Pamela, is from Ethiopia, and her father, John (SF71), once worked as an agricultural engineer involved in sustainable development. “For me, covering the war or events in Iraq is not compelling, but covering Africa is,” she explains. “Africa has always been a part of my life. I love Africa. I want to communicate about it to the rest of the world. The situation in Africa is not hopeless. Even if it is not going to be easily remedied, my job is to tell the world about it with style, intelligence, and humanity.” To this end, Polgreen brings an insider’s sensibility to African culture, a gift for crafting succinct, vivid prose, and an outsider’s perspective on what is newsworthy. Polgreen moved from Ghana to the United States when she attended “This is true everywhere you go in Africa: despite the poverty and misery, the human spirit is powerful.” Lydia Polgreen (A97) { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } St. John’s. (Her brother, David, is also a 1997 graduate of St. John’s.) After an internship in Washington, D.C., she went to Columbia University to earn a master’s in journalism—a natural career choice for her and for many Johnnies. “It’s the critical thinking skills, being able to question, to think independently,” she says. “You are coming to things with an open mind. In journalism, you go to the primary source so you can get information—a Johnnie would be drawn to that.” The headlines of Polgreen’s Times stories convey the breadth of her coverage: “Why So Starry Eyed? Misery Loves Optimism in Africa”; “Chad’s Oil Riches, Meant for Poor, Are Diverted”; and “Why Hope in Africa is Not a Paradox.” Africa’s startling contrasts fascinate Polgreen. “Particularly in Africa, one of the world’s poorest continents, there is a paradox that I love. There is great suffering, abject misery, yet there is dignity, joy, and an optimism in life that sustains people. I find this compelling. We as Westerners, we arrive and we say, ‘Oh the horror, the horror.’ Yet in fact these people have an incredible spirit full of hope.” Polgreen describes encounters with seemingly poor people who are rich in kindness and generosity. “When I was in Chad reporting a story on the civil war, one of the town officials let me camp in his compound. Here I was sleeping under the stars, eating mush and stew from a communal bowl. Yet it was all done with the most gracious, kind hospitality. He said, ‘I wish you had been here when my children were here.’ He sent them to another town for safekeeping. This is a village that is under constant attack from Arab militia from the Sudan. You see how terribly they suffer. Yet here is this man, so gracious, his capacity for joy, spirituality, and survival is so great. This is true everywhere you go in Africa: despite the poverty and misery, the human spirit is powerful.” �29 george esiri {Alumni Profile} Given the misery she encounters, it’s no surprise that Polgreen sometimes questions the impartiality journalism demands. “You try not to get personally involved, but it is difficult. For example, when I was reporting in Haiti during the 2004 rebellion and working with a photographer, a young man had been shot. He was going from one public hospital to the next. I don’t know how many were injured in the protests we were covering, but he was turned away. He had a bullet in his gut and private hospitals were not going to treat him without money. You as a human being, you make a choice.” Polgreen and her colleague decided that since they were not going to report on the young man, it was not a breach of professional ethics to give him $100-$200 to save his life. “But usually you can’t intervene. You see so much on a daily basis—sick babies, hungry families. There is always some form of human misery. I don’t believe the pie-in-the-sky nonsense that just because journalism is a public service—it gets information out there—it will change these things. Yet it is important that the world knows. I am not foolhardy, but still I write hoping to have an impact.” To have an impact Polgreen needs to interview a wide range of individuals, many of whom do not see the importance of sharing their stories with a New York Times reporter. “You want, as a journalist, to believe in truth, in openness. So you make arguments as to why it is in someone’s best interest to let you interview them. I say, ‘You should talk to me. We do not want to support your cause, but we want to tell the world about it.’ ” Polgreen says the difficulty in getting someone to talk “increases exponentially” with their level of sophistication—unless they have something to gain from it. The media-savvy militants holding nine foreign oil workers hostage in Nigeria sought out news coverage. “They wanted to talk, to show the world that they were a serious military force, a powerful force that operates brazenly on the major waterways,” Polgreen says. “They understood ‘the media increases our power.’ ” Polgreen may never know the impact of the stories she files with the Times, many { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } Lydia Polgreen, interviewing members of a militant group in the Niger Delta last winter, encounters danger, disease, tragedy, and hope in Africa. of them from dangerous places where, “my phone is on the fritz and satellites are down.” She can’t be sure if her February 25 story, “Armed Group Shuts Down Part of Nigeria’s Oil Output,” contributed to the militants’ freeing six of the nine hostages. But within days of visiting the Niger Delta Polgreen hopped back on a plane—this time to cover the violence in Darfur pushing across the border into Chad. Her work is never finished, she says, because there is always more to discover, one more question to ask. “You learn so much with every story,” she says. “I’m always wishing and wanting one more day for more reporting.” x �30 {Alumni Notes} 1935 RICHARD WOODMAN is still practicing law in a small town in central New York and enjoying long trips abroad with his daughters and their husbands. “I’m just back from a trip around South America, and it was pretty interesting,” he writes. 1943 MARTIN ANDREWS has begun his 10th year as commander of the Nassau-Suffolk L.I. Chapter of the American Ex-Prisoners of War and has passed his 6,000th hour of volunteer service at the Northport V.A. Medical Center. 1944 A note from PETER C. WOLFF: “I suffer from an irreversible condition: getting older.” lively group of residents, numerous activities, current affairs discussions—even a five-session course on Greek mythology! Our apartment overlooks the Hudson with spectacular views, sunsets, and barges going up and down the river. Yes, we are politically engaged, and I am vice-chair of our resident council. And, we are in good health.” 1956 “Phyllis and I have moved to Kendal-on-Hudson, a Quaker-sponsored community in Washington Irving country, Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.,” writes PETER J. DAVIES. “Enjoying the 1974 1959 A note from sunny Florida, from GAY HALL: “My husband, Mortimer, died June 30, 2005. I am retired and will continue to live in the Keys. It’s warm here!” “My son, Will, graduates with a B.S. in Business from the University of Southern California in May,” writes GEORGE ANTHONY (A). “My daughter, Beth, graduates with a B.S. in Human Physiology from the University of Oregon in June.” Honored for Service AIELLO (SFGI69) has been honored by AARP New Mexico for her ability to enhance the lives of others, improve the community around them, and inspire others to volunteer. Among other volunteer efforts, Aiello served as secretary of the Los Alamos AARP Chapter, where she helped to build membership, ran a group for retired local teachers, served the Los Alamos Retired Senior Organization, worked on the senior center’s advisory council, and ran a great books discussion group for more than 15 years. In recognition of her accomplishments, AARP nominated her for a 2005 Andrus Award. x E “After having my own optical shop in Georgetown for the last 17 years and receiving the highest rating in the Washington Consumer Checkbook, I have cut back to being open only four days a week,” reports VIRGINIA HINDS BURTON (A). “My customers have been wonderfully supportive and business has even improved. I’ll never retire. This job is way too much fun. But a three-day weekend every week feels so civilized!” “I wonder—what would Tocqueville make of us now?” writes DORIK MECHAU. 1969 1948 1970 “After 19 years at Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H., I am pleased to return to Santa Fe and am looking forward to being closer to St. John’s College again,” writes RENATE LEWIS (SFGI). STEPHEN A. SLUSHER (SF) moved to the East Coast. 1975 “I’m finally having surgery on the knee I injured in 1972 while borrowing stage lights from the Naval Academy for SJC’s production of The Taming of the Shrew,” says CHRIS HOVING (A). “I tried to turn on the ladder while holding the big lights and my knee popped—and after a few steps, collapsed.” LIZABETH 1976 BETSY DAVENPORT (SF) has been living in Portland since 1978. She has married and has had one child. She also has three stepchildren and three grandchildren. She has been running a { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } private psychotherapy practice. Lately she has been evaluating and treating adults with AD/HD. The first of several writing projects on the subjects is ready to publish. 1983 JOYCE HOWELL (AGI) recently began an SAT tutoring business, Haddontutors@aol.com. “There seems to be a great demand!” she writes. 1985 “I’m teaching a spring 2006 semester course at Anne Arundel Community College on ‘Emergence of Ancient Israel,’ ” writes PAUL SCHATZBERG (AGI). “This course presents the latest scholarly knowledge on how and why desert-roaming pastoral nomads settled in the Canaan highlands beginning in 1300 B.C.E. and later identified themselves as a distinct ethnic group called Israelites. Sources of information are the Hebrew Bible, hi-tech archeology, Egyptian records, philology, epigraphy, Mesopotamian sources and others.” 1986 JAY POWERS (SF) is in Chicago: “In January, I joined McDougal Littell as a senior editor. First project: an economics textbook (gasp!) for high school seniors. I moved to McDougal from The World Book Encyclopedia, where I had been in charge of the articles on Europe and Russia since 1999.When the weather turns warm here in Chicago, I still like to bike and skateboard. Haven’t played table tennis in a while, though. I started with the �31 {Alumni Notes} SF class of 1986, and I am curious to learn what happened to everybody. I would welcome an update from the reunion this summer.” ROBERT F. RICHARDS (A) is a professor of engineering at Washington State University. “I live in Pullman with my wife (also a professor here) and two children, Dimitry (10) and Alexander (7). Although I left St. John’s after two years to finish up at the University of Chicago, I have fond memories of my times there. I recently bought a St. John’s sweatshirt and I wear it around town here, but sadly I have yet to run into anyone who is familiar with the Program. Are there any other Johnnies in the inland Northwest?” 1987 CHRISTOPHER BAILEY (A) recently published The Grail Code: Revelation of an Ancient Mystery, published by Loyola Press, according to one of his fans. “Christopher Bailey has worked as a writer, editor, translator, and researcher for more than 15 years. His articles have appeared in Touchstone, Columbia, New Covenant, the New Catholic Encyclopedia (second edition), and elsewhere. Schooled in the great-books tradition, he has spent many years in close study and translation of the Arthurian Texts. I know this because I am his proud wife, TERESA FULLINWIDER BAILEY (A).” SCOTT CUTHBERT (SF) was made chairman of the Research Board for the International College of Applied Kinesiology, 2005-06, and his research literature can be seen online by going to www.sotousa.com, where his CV and online research papers can also be found. “Living with diabetes since the age of 4 and going to the john without a blood-testing instrument to control my diabetes has made my calling as a functional medical physician a perfect fit,” he writes. “Such a study as I am upon may continue for a lifetime and keeps me learning and learning. It is a wonderful thing to discover a professional activity, a calling, that has no horizon or limits on it, one that can continually romance, glorify, and excite your daily work. I am also going to India in March 2006!” A Big Surprise OHN C. WRIGHT (A84) received a Nebula nomination for his book, Orphans of Chaos. Along with the Hugo, the Nebula is one of the most prestigious awards in science fiction publishing. “This was a big surprise to us because he was not on the preliminary ballot, but apparently the judges have the discretion to add a book of their choice to each category,” wrote John’s wife, L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright. Though the book was a dark horse, she says, “it is still very exciting to be nominated and this will get his name out in front of new readers.” x J 1988 ELAINE PINKERTON COLEMAN (SFGI) has completed the screenplay for the film adaptation of her WWII suspense novel, Beast of Bengal. The Gage Group Inc. has selected Elaine’s book for development as a feature movie. THEODORE (TED) MERZ (A) and DIANA MARTINEZ (SF86) recently celebrated the third birthday of their son, Hayden. KIM PAFFENROTH (A) is the co-author, with Tom Bertonneau, of a new book, The Truth Is Out There: Christian Faith and the Classics of TV Science Fiction (Brazos Press, 2006). The book looks at the religious relevance of Dr. Who, Star Trek, The Prisoner, The Twilight Zone, The X Files, and Babylon 5. Kim is associate professor and chairman of the Department Religious Studies at Iona College, New Rochelle, NY. 1990 MARK KREIDER (A) and SARAH WETHERSON (A89) announce the birth of their child, Isaac Levi Bechtel, on Thursday, February 23. Isaac weighed in at 9 lb., 8 oz., and is “chubby- cheeked and beautiful.” His parents love to hear from other Johnnies: e-mail them at wimmin@teleport.com. 1991 ANNE MARLOW-GETER and KEN GETER (both SF91) completed their first half-marathon in September 2006. 2006 also brought Anne a promotion to planning supervisor at the Colorado Department of STD/HIV Public Health and Environment and the completion of a fellowship with the Regional Institute of Health and Environmental Leadership. Ken continues the work to save us from mad cows and bird flu at the USDA. 1992 ELYETTE BLOCK KIRBY (SF) lives in the Paris area (near Versailles) with her husband, Jonathan, and three children, Benjy (5 years), Bronwyn Elyse (3 years) ,and { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } Luca (1 year): “We plan to be here at least one more year, and I’d love to hear from other Johnnies in the area, to know if there is an alumni group meeting already. My e-mail remains: elyette@hotmail.com. 1993 A DWI program manager for the local government division of the Department of Finance and Administration for New Mexico, MICHAEL A. BALDWIN (SF) encourages everyone not to drink and drive. MARIA PUMILIA (SF) and Brian Bolding are the proud parents of Annika Marie Bolding, born March 9, at 7:25 a.m., weight 7 lbs., 4 oz. Annika was born in her room at home, right smack into the waiting hands of her dad. continued on page 33 �32 {Alumni Profile} Where There’s Smoke Aman Cholas (SF98) Finds Purpose in the West’s Endangered Forests by Jason Bielagus (SF98) I t’s still dark when the siren sounds at the Redmond Air Center. The ready room at the jump base becomes a whirl of activity. A lightning storm moved across Northeastern Oregon earlier in the night, and multiple ‘smokes’ have been sighted by lookouts in the Wallawa-Whitman National Forest, about 200 miles away. Spirits are high as Aman Cholas and his fellow smokejumpers don their gear-padded Kevlar jumpsuit, harness and parachute, reserve chute, personal gear bag, and a helmet with a steel mesh face guard. In a minute they have added 60 pounds to their body weight. They waddle out to the tarmac, where they load the twin-prop Sherpa. As the plane makes its way to the runway, carrying ten smokejumpers, two spotters, the pilot and co-pilot, a veteran jumper shouts above the engines’ drone, “Another early commute to the office!” In the cabin, smiles flash in the early dawn light. Once they’ve reached their destination, the crew members spot smoke rising from a steep, heavily wooded ridgeline. It appears to be a relatively small fire, maybe an acre in size, enough work for four smokejumpers. The spotter confers with the pilot on the best jump spot, a small opening in the trees a few hundred yards further down the ridge. It’s a narrow target and missing it would mean drifting down off the ridge into a thick mat of 150-foot ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. After a few wide passes to drop wind-indicating streamers, the spotter signals for the first set of two jumpers to come to the rear of the plane and clip in their parachute rip cords. Cholas will be first. After confirming that Cholas has seen the jump site and the streamers, the spotter calls out, “Turning final, 1500 feet, get in the door!” Cholas positions his body with his hands on the frame of the doorway opening to the vast It was dangerous, exhausting, and dirty—but being a smokejumper was also exhilarating, says Aman Cholas. forest below, the slipstream of air just brushing his face. With the spotter’s shout— “Get ready!”—Cholas rears back like a spring, the sudden slap on the back of his calf initiating the lunge that propels him into the void. Without hesitation the second jumper follows. In a few seconds, the parachute canopy fills with air. Cholas checks his position in relation to the jump spot as well as to his jump partner, then feels a moment of peace. The noise of the plane and the burden of his gear are replaced by a quiet weightlessness, a beautiful suspension over green wilderness. “It’s the last couple hundred feet that are scary,” Cholas explains. “The ground suddenly begins to show its true roughness, a broken snag here, a boulder there, and it’s all rushing towards you.” In this case, the opening in the trees is a dense patch of oak brush, a soft enough landing area, but it takes some effort to get untangled and out of the jump gear. Cholas’ jump partner doesn’t quite make the spot and is left dangling 40 feet in the air from his parachute, caught in a tree. However, within minutes, he rappels to safety. A big danger, Cholas explains, is not properly “bagging” a tree. If only the edge of the parachute catches a limb, it could collapse the canopy. If the limb breaks or the parachute comes loose, there is little to break the fall the rest of the way down. Once the jumpers are safely on the ground, the Sherpa makes another pass for the paracargo drop—boxes of tools, food, water and other gear for fighting the fire. Cholas makes one last call on his handheld radio to the plane, confirming that the crew has everything it needs, and the Sherpa heads for the next fire. The smokejumpers make their way to the fire, determine its behavior, identify hazards, and make a plan of attack. The fire is fought by creating a “fire line,” a break in the fuel around the fire’s edges. This particular fire is not moving very fast yet. One of the jumpers uses a chainsaw to cut trees and heavier logs on the ground. The others use hand tools, shovels and Pulaskis (tools with an ax on one end, a hoe on the other), to dig and scrape a line down to mineral soil. By late afternoon, the fire is “contained,” and the jumpers gather for a break. Everyone pitches in to make camp comfortable and prepare a meal. They eat, joke, and enjoy the rest before it is time for “mop-up,” moving through the “black” to extinguish anything still burning by digging and mixing it in with the soil. A small fire could take a day or two; a larger one could take weeks. Their work completed, the smokejumpers load everything into enormous backpacks { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �33 {Alumni Notes} that often weigh over 100 pounds and hike to the nearest trailhead to be picked up. Only occasionally are they lucky enough to get a mule train to come for the gear or get a helicopter pick-up. “Often the pack-out can be the most grueling challenge of a fire,” says Cholas, remembering the exhaustion—and excitement—of eight years spent fighting fires. It was a career born from a love of the mountains, discovered in Santa Fe. And it’s led him to another side of preserving forests, by preventing fires. Cholas grew up in Vieques, Puerto Rico, and Corozal, Belize, with his parents, four sisters, and a brother. After graduating from high school, he spent several years working and traveling in Europe and Israel. He was working as a gardener at the Bahaí World Center in Haifa, Israel, when he visited a friend who owned the Britannica Great Books of the Western World series. He remembers thinking, “I wish that I could just sit here and read all these books.” That set him on the path to St. John’s. In Santa Fe, Cholas discovered his enchantment with mountains and forests when his freshman lab class made an outing to the Sangre de Cristos to examine coniferous trees. He often took long walks on Monte Sol to do his seminar readings and spent many weekends hiking around the Santa Fe National Forest. His firefighting career began with a summer job with a ground crew in Isleta, N.M., where his mother’s family lives. Every “Never thought I was the home birth type, but the right midwife and doula can make a world of difference,” writes Maria. Maria ditched software development for real-estate last year—get in touch with her if you’re in the market. 1994 SARAH and MICHAEL AFFLERBACH (both A) have been having a great year watching twins Max and Evie grow into little people. “They are so fun to have around and each day brings something new to enjoy,” writes Sarah. “I received my architectural license last year and work for a wonderful firm summer, he continued firefighting, moving to a Forest Service helicopter rappel crew, Sandia Helitack, based in Tijeras, N.M. “Fire fighting complemented St. John’s well,” Cholas says. “By the end of spring semester, all I wanted to do was be out in the woods. And by the end of a fire season, all I wanted to do was hang out in the library and read. So it was a good balance.” After graduating from St. John’s, he went to work for the Forest Service full time, becoming the crew leader for Sandia Helitack. Later he spent his summers in Redmond, Ore., working as a smokejumper. After nine seasons of fighting fires, Cholas became disillusioned with the Forest Service’s fire suppression policy. In keeping with its original mandate “to furnish a continuous supply of timber” (Organic Act of 1897, 16 U.S.C. § 475), the Forest Service maintains a policy of stopping all forest fires. Many of the fires he helped put out needed to burn, Cholas realized. “After almost a century of stopping fires so aggressively, we have hindered the natural process that fires perform in the forest ecosystem,” he explains. “As a result, most of our forests in the Western United States are unhealthy and overgrown, clogged with dead and fallen timber, and are prone to disease and catastrophic wildfires.” Low-intensity fires in a healthy forest can rid the forest of dead and sickly trees, while leaving stronger trees to thrive, as well as reintroducing nutrients to the soil, he adds. On the other hand, though fire is part of a here in New Bern, N.C. Mike’s radio business continues to grow and they are building a new station which will be on the air in February. We had a great time traveling to Columbia, South America, to witness JON ARCHER’S (A94) wedding to his lovely wife, Monica.” “I finally finished my philosophy doctorate in December of 2005, specializing in 18th- and 19thcentury German philosophy, history of modern philosophy, and logic,” writes PETER BEZANSON (A). “The title of my dissertation is ‘Idealism: A Brief History, Taxonomy, and Nietzschean Evaluation.’ I continue to teach calculus forest’s natural cycle, fires of recent years have grown so intense that they “kill everything in their path” and “leave moonscapes of sterilized soil and cause unnatural erosion and other problems,” he says. Two years ago, Cholas and fellow firefighter Jeremy Hanlon left the Forest Service to start their own company, Forest Fitness, based in Tijeras. They work primarily to protect properties from fire danger by thinning forested areas of overgrowth and dead material. Forest Fitness has been very successful at promoting thinning as a way to prevent the danger of fires around homes and properties. “Like a fire, we remove the unhealthiest trees and leave a mosaic of the strongest healthiest trees with room to grow,” Cholas says. “We also try to achieve a mix of tree types and age classes that is indicative of the natural vegetation. Even people who are against the cutting of trees are often very happy with the results of our work. The beauty and balance that is achieved, as well as the reduced fire danger, is very appealing to people.” As satisfying as he finds his current work, Cholas looks back fondly on his smokejumping days. “It was the most incredible job I have ever had.” x Author’s note: For more about smokejumping, see Norman Maclean’s Young Men and Fire (an account of the Mann Gulch fire); the Forest Service documentary The Greatest Good, or the NOVA documentary Fire Wars. classes and a philosophy seminar at a great books liberal arts school in Tempe, Ariz., (Tempe Preparatory Academy). In addition, I serve as the mathematics curriculum consultant to Great Hearts Academies (www.greatheartsaz.org) helping them realize their mission to create a network of academically rigorous, liberal arts middle and high schools in the Phoenix metropolitan area. My wife, Alison, and I have one son, Noah, who was born nearly two years ago.” { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } 1995 JOEL ARD (A) and HANNAH (STIRES) ARD (A92) welcomed Ruth Anne Ard into the world on April 4, 2005. Ruth joins big brother David (2 years old). TED NAFF (A92) is Ruth’s godfather. The Ards sadly left their Annapolis abode and moved closer to D.C. in June. They are now in University Park, Md. Hannah is working part time for a law firm in D.C. and Joel is working at the Department of Justice. They would love to hear from old friends and can be reached at joelandhannahard@ hotmail.com. �34 {Alumni Notes} Prefers Sleeping B ETH MARTIN and ALEX GAMMON (both A94) are pleased to announce the arrival of their son, Theodore Jasper Gammon. Theodore made his appearance on January 29, 2006, at 8:27 a.m., weighing in at 8 lbs 9.4 oz. All are doing well, and Theodore prefers to spend his time eating, sleeping, and making his parents smile. x fellow Annapolis alums RICH (A96) and KARA (A99) LUNA. Hannah’s law practice focuses on estate planning and adoptions. She’d love to hear from anyone in the area—her e-mail is hannah@ dcadoptionlaw.com. 1997 MICHAEL CHIANTELLA (SF) has been practicing law for three years. “Started my own firm in 2004 in the lovely seaside town of Venice, Florida. In October of 2005, my wife and I attended the wedding of TAFFETA ELLIOTT (SF97) in New York City. ZENA HITZ (A) has accepted a job teaching philosophy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, starting this fall. MIKE LAYNE (A) writes: “My family moved from Barrow to Anchorage last summer. We live next door to DANNY MYERS (SF93). I am happy to report he still has long hair and has stopped wearing high-heels to Halloween parties. THEA AGNEW (SF95) is also living in Anchorage and expecting her first baby in February or March. Audrey Rae will turn 4 in February, and Jackson will celebrate his first birthday in March. And I still have a full head of hair –thank goodness. My work e-mail has changed to: MikeL@ EAtribes.net—I’d love to hear from SJC alumni. I am a grant administrator and grant writer for a non-profit tribal organization. This spring I am running for one of the seats on the Anchorage School Board. Feel free to visit the campaign Web site at: www.MikeLayne.info.” 1996 ANNE and MARK CORMIER (both SFGI) write: “We’ve recently moved to a new house to accommodate our newest addition, Sarah Clare, who was born September 29, 2005. Her older sisters Anna (5) and Eliza (3) continue to astonish us with their limitless energy and fresh perspective on our (their?) world. Mark is still teaching English literature at Longmeadow High School, and Anne is home attempting to impart something that might lead to virtue to the three girls.” ALLISON and JOHN EDDYBLOUIN (SF) are enjoying life in mid-coast Maine: wooden boat building, home schooling, etc . . . HANNAH GOLDSTEIN (NÉE GILLELAN, A) joyfully announces both her November 2005 marriage to Stephen Goldstein and the opening of her own law practice. Hannah and Stephen live on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., just blocks from DOMINIC CRAPUCHETTES (A) is enjoying the life of an entrepreneur: “North Star Games is now putting on corporate team-building events and monthly trivia nights at several local bars. These events are a blast! Come join us. You can learn about them at www.NorthStarGames.com.” Sales of “Wits and Wagers,” he notes, have picked up dramatically since the game was featured in Time, Games Magazine, Knucklebones, and other media. ARAND PIERCE (SF98) graduated from the University of New Mexico Medical School May 12. He also was presented with an award for academic, research and service excellence May 11 at a public ceremony at the UNM Health Sciences Center. 1998 RICK FIELD (SF) recently published a children’s book, Momma, Momma Brown Toes. The book is a collection of poems and pictures inspired by his eight-year-old daughter, Amanda. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } 1999 GREG KOEHLERT (SFGI) wants all his old friends to know that he and Merrie have bought an apartment in Park Slope in Brooklyn. Also, Greg and Merrie’s daughter is turning one around Thanksgiving. PATRICK BARRINGTON REED (AGI) writes: “Our first baby, Lucille Lahja Reed, was born June 17, 2005. Now, we move in April to Bitburg, Germany—thanks to the Air Force. We expect to be on hand at the World Cup this summer and at the Tour de France in July. May God bless St. John’s College!” “It’s been 10 years since I last saw most of you, and I hope life is treating you well,” writes BENJAMIN THORNBER (A). “After leaving St. John’s in ’96, I transferred to Guilford College, a Quaker school in North Carolina. While there, I met my fiancée, Eva, whom I’m marrying this July. I graduated from seminary in 2004 and I’m now the pastor of a Quaker church. While my time at St. John’s was quite brief, I really value the friendships that I made there. Let’s get back in touch!” 2000 ZACHARY WARZEL and ERIKA CARLSON (both SF) were married in August 2005 in Colorado, their new home after a move from New York City in May 2005. Erika received a master’s degree in historic preservation from Columbia University in May 2005 and is working as a preservation specialist at Humphries Poli Architects in Denver. Zach received a law degree from Brooklyn Law School in May 2005 and is currently working as a litigation associate at Roberts �35 {Alumni Notes} No Mail? 2001 DANIEL FRAM (SF) reports that he is “living cheap in Boston; playing the now smoke-free Irish pubs and sneaking into classes on ethics.” JESSICA K. REITZ (A) and Christopher Wallace proudly announce the birth of their first son, William Alexander Wallace, born March 21, 2006. 2002 Have your fellow Johnnies lost track of you? Reconnect with your classmates by joining the online alumni community at www.stjohnscollege.edu; click on For Alumni and follow the links from there. More than 3,000 alumni have registered for the community. Johnnies can also sign up to receive a free St. John’s e-mail address for life, post resumes or job openings through the Career Services section, find out what’s happening in their local chapters, and register for events online. Levin & Patterson in Denver, a plaintiffs’ litigation firm. CHRISTOPHER VAUGHAN (A) continues to work with his older brother, renovating old houses. He is engaged to ASHLEY BROOK T YLER (A07) and is taking classes at a local college to prepare for grad school. “I have been accepted into the University of Tennessee’s College of Veterinary Medicine and will be starting that program in the fall,” writes BEN YOUNG (A). “My wife and our dogs still have not tired of my stories from St. John’s.” ALANA and JOEY CHERNILLA (both SF) had their second little girl, Rose Isabella, in February. Sadie Pearl recently turned two. “Besides enjoying our intense domesticity, Joey runs a daycare, and I work in publishing and tutor home-schoolers in Euclid,” Alana writes. MEGAN GRAFF (A) writes: “After a few years spent working in what is laughably known as ‘the real world,’ I will begin attending the North Carolina School of the Arts this fall as an MFA candidate in Performing Arts Management.” ERIN KRASNIEWICZ (A) is living in Philadelphia with RANDY PENNELL (also A02) and working as a library research assistant for the Pew Charitable Trusts. “This is really the time to be in Philadelphia, which is undergoing a renaissance of sorts,” she writes. “Drop us a line if you’d like to see the sights, we love to show off our city.” GEORGE NELSON and MONICA ANATALIO (both A) are getting married this August in downtown Washington, D.C., and will be honeymooning in Rome and Athens. George is in his first year at American University’s Washington College of Law and will be pursuing the litigation track. Monica is graduating from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law and will be an attorney for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigatory arm of Congress. Coldwell Banker in Annapolis, and Douglas works as a court reporter for a firm in Washington, D.C. x 2005 2003 CORINNE HUTCHINSON (SF) and PAUL OBRECHT (SF02) are getting married in Santa Fe this coming spring. KATE REDDING (A) is enrolled at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, where she is studying for a certification in piano technology. CYNTHIA BARRY (AGI) has recently completed text-editing the National Geographic Collegiate Atlas of the World, to be published in fall 2006. She and ANDREW ROMITI (A06) are currently conducting Touchstones discussions with middle-schoolers at St. Martin’sin-the-Field Day School in Severna Park, Md., where Ms. Barry is the librarian. x ISAAC SMITH (A) is going to the University of Maryland this fall to begin studies toward a master’s degree in public policy. He writes, “Johnnies in the D.C. area interested in politics, policy, the old days, or anything else should drop me a line at ikesmith@gmail.com.” 2004 After her retirement from St. John’s a few years ago, GINGER ROHERTY (HSF) is now director of development for the Santa Fe Children’s Museum. DOUGLAS C. TURNER (A, aka Rex Nerdorum, Archon of Melee) married DARLENE B. ROGERS (A05) on September 3, 2005, in Alford, Mass., Rev. David Rogers, father of the bride, presiding. Several Johnnies were in attendance, women in various green costumes and men in tuxedos, armed with broadswords for the ceremonial arch. The honeymoon in London included Phantom of the Opera and two plays at the Globe, Pericles and The Tempest. The newlyweds live in Annapolis. Darlene works for { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } 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 October; deadline for the alumni notes section is August 1. 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 �36 {Alumni Profile} The Secret Lives of Crabs Biologist Denise Pope (SF89) Finds the Charisma in Animals by Erica Naone (A05) Studying individual fiddler crabs is interesting to biologist Denise Pope (SF89). But what she really likes to do is get them in a group, stand back, and see what develops. In her research on fiddler crabs, Pope focuses less on the brain and body of a single crab and more on how many crabs interact and communicate. For her, the arthropod’s life is as much about its environment and society as it is about its breath, blood, and neural signals. “I enjoy being able to make inferences by watching whole organisms and what they do and how they interact,” she explains. “I want to manipulate them just enough to ask questions.” An assistant professor in the biology department at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, Pope spends the academic year communicating her enthusiasm for the life of animals to students. Her summers are spent going to where the crabs are—Panama and Portugal—for example. Days in the field are spent observing animals and recording her observations in the summer sun; during the evenings she enjoys local cuisine and good conversation. In her classes, Pope teaches students to ask scientific questions and discover answers in the lab. Her research into animal behavior gives her students plenty of opportunity to see science as an undiscovered country. When Pope began studying fiddler crabs, enough was known about the animals to give her a basis for her research, but enough was unknown that Pope had to learn for herself the advantages and disadvantages of studying crabs in captivity. Pope knew she wanted to study animal behavior since high school. “I was a shy kid,” she says, “and gravitated toward animals. Lots of people would say, ‘Oh, you must want to be a vet.’ ” Through a high-school assignment, Pope found that a person with an interest in animals did not have to become a veterinarian. She discovered the work of When she’s not doing field work, Denise Pope shares the St. John’s method of inquiry with her students at Trinity University: ask questions and talk it through. Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz, two key researchers of animal behavior. “My reasons for studying animal behavior come from a fascination, appreciation, and love for the natural world for its own sake, not for what it teaches me about myself or my species,” Pope says. Though she recognizes commonalities between humans and animals, Pope also notes, “Our culture, society, and our obsessive and intense internal life that enables us to analyze and question our own actions set us apart in some ways from other animals.” Because of this, she is careful about comparing human behavior to that of animals. The breadth of Pope’s interests brought her to St. John’s for her undergraduate degree. Her teaching philosophy is heavily influenced by her experience at the college, and by seeing the process of discovery rather than only the discovery itself. She wrote her essay on Kant and quantum theory. “I couldn’t get over how much everything is overturned,” Pope says, “seeing what a huge shift there was. Quantum mechanics blew me away, but it wasn’t just that. I read Joyce for preceptorial, and then we read Nietzsche and Freud. It was the accumulation of it all. There was the building up of this realization that the physical world isn’t at all what I thought it was. It epitomizes the sense of science as natural philosophy.” Soon after graduation, Pope worked for the GenBank Project in Los Alamos National Laboratory, which paid for biology { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } classes that allowed her to prepare for the Graduate Record Exam. She enrolled in Duke University, where she earned her Ph.D. in zoology in 1998. At Duke, Pope discovered her love of fiddler crabs. Having begun with the study of birdsong, the typical focus of scientists with her type of interest, she found herself feeling discouraged. “It seemed as if everyone else had perfect pitch and an excellent sense of acoustics,” Pope says. “. . . I decided I was more visual and wanted to look at visual signaling.” A friend pointed her toward fiddler crabs because the males have an enlarged claw that they wave in a visual display, “which is presumed to attract females for mating.” “They’re surprisingly entertaining and charismatic animals,” she says. This experience of science as hands-on, a work-in-progress, full of unknowns and the need for ingenuity, is an experience she tries to re-create in her classes. She gives her students a great deal of autonomy in the lab, autonomy she knows can be daunting before becoming liberating. She is also helping to redesign introductory biology courses at Trinity, reshaping them to emphasize the questioning and searching of real science. With such an intense and busy working life, Pope pursues a more relaxing schedule outside academe. She read Gregory Maguire’s Wicked during breaks from a symposium she recently attended in Japan. She has three cats at home and loves to cook. Though she learned to cook red and green chili and posole after the time she spent in Santa Fe, Pope has given up cooking New Mexican dishes for friends, offering Tex-Mex instead. “They can’t take the heat,” she says. x �37 {Tributes} Remembering Tom McDonald Thomas McDonald, who was a tutor for 33 years in Annapolis and Santa Fe, died in December 2005. His former student and good friend John White (class of 1964) prepared this remembrance of Mr. McDonald for a memorial service that was held in Baltimore earlier this year: Tom was the best teacher I had. He was the most intelligent man I’ve ever known, and he was the best educated. His memory was extraordinary, but it never seemed to be just a scholar’s memory. It was part of his living and thinking, a “human” memory; he was never showy or pedantic. His personality was compelling. His classes were intense, but relieved by bursts of laughter. Whatever you studied with him was worth your best effort, but being serious is not the same as being grim. His classes were long and often exhausting because of the nervous stimulation of concentration. I felt I was asked to give all I could and felt “used up” and elated. I learned more, and more quickly, than from any other academic experience. Tom somehow elicited his fierce attention and urgency without using anything that might lead to argument rather than thought. My contact with him as a teacher had a beginning and end. Although I never stopped learning from him (and [his wife] Julia), he became a friend as well. In the fall of 1964, Tom’s second year at St. John’s, Ed Weinberger (class of 1965), a classmate, gathered a group of students to read a Kant essay with Tom. I didn’t know Tom at the time . . . We met in Tom’s apartment at 214 Prince George Street. The day was cold and the room was very hot. Tom’s voice was soft and monotonous. The building was old and the windows had the old glass, the glass of uneven thickness and bubbles. I stared outside, slowly moving my head back and forth, watching the trees the cars ripple and wobble. Then a word or an intonation caught my attention. By chance I actually heard two or three sentences. At first they were strange sounding, difficult, then Johnnies admired Tom McDonald (class of 1948, shown here with his dog Belle) for his brilliance, his sense of humor, and his humility. “He helped you to see things clearly from all sides, to keep the difficulties in mind while not being overpowered by them.” John White they became clear, then they became thrilling. I had a moment where I lost my orientation, even got a little dizzy: This man was saying wonderful things in an unemphatic way. Why wasn’t he shouting and gesturing? Strange man. In the next years he gave many of these extra classes on diverse subjects such as poetry, mathematics, Latin, and German. All faculty members were generous with { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } their time, but no faculty member had done so much teaching “just because people wanted to learn.” He did all of this and advised 6-10 senior essays each year, until his health gave out. After that first Kant class, a group of us asked Tom to give a preceptorial on Hegel. Hegel was a daring choice (in a teeny-tiny way): for some reason, without exception, the faculty was against German philosophy and Hegel. They made fun of Hegel. Not only was there no serious effort to understand Hegel, there was pride in claiming not to understand him. The Philosophy of History was read in senior seminar at that time. The book encouraged students to produce grandiose historical statements, the kind of statements that their freshman seminar leaders had convinced them not to make. The preceptorial meetings always ran longer than the scheduled time—partly because at the beginning of class Tom always came 10-15 minutes late, partly because at the end of class Tom took 5-10 minutes to decide on the next reading, but mostly because we never looked at the clock. We never stopped in the middle of a conversation. After the preceptorial was over, we gathered around Tom to ask more questions. Tom loved to think; he couldn’t stop. He had patience and concentration beyond anything I’d ever experienced. Once when I was on my way to a one o’clock class, I saw him and a student standing on the corner of College Avenue and Prince George Street, deep in conversation despite the falling snow. And when I left two hours later, they were still there, still talking, brushing snow off their sleeves. �38 In class Tom spoke more directly than my other teachers. But he was not gathering disciples, even though he was much admired. He always made one feel that the material was important and subtle, and it needed and deserved serious effort. Usually his students did not know what Tom’s opinion was. He helped you to see things clearly from all sides, to keep the difficulties in mind while not being overpowered by them. After the Hegel preceptorial, I asked Tom to advise my senior essay. We talked at length and he came up with a suggestion that allowed me to pursue several of the things I was interested in. We had to consider passages from four or five Platonic dialogues and some Hegel. The plan was exciting. Up until that time at St. John’s I had had only three or four paper conferences. But now I met with Tom two or three times a week, and the meetings lasted two to four hours. Sometimes I went there in the afternoon, worked on revisions, was invited to dinner, then started to work again. (Julia also helped me.) {Tributes} I had never worked so long or so hard on one thing; new standards and habits began to take hold. We worked on my essay beyond the deadline—one week, then two weeks, all the time the dean giving me looks. But I couldn’t actually get the essay from Tom, who saw new paths, better ways of interpreting and explaining. I sort of tricked him to get the paper back and hand it in. (I think he was not a fan of finishing things.) Between the end of essay writing and the end of the year, I saw another side of Tom. One Friday afternoon, I was in lab, in the midst of a long discussion. Ed Weinberger opened the door and interrupted the class. “Excuse me, is John White in this class?” I raised my hand. Ed said, “You have an important call at the switchboard. Could you come with me?” As we walked down the hall, Ed told me not to worry; “McDonald and I wanted to play Monopoly and we need you.” We played a lot of Monopoly at that time (driving Julia crazy). I learned from Tom that the best properties on the board were Tennessee, New York, and St. James. I also learned that Tom had a dark side. He said that during a game his motives were greed and spite, no more, no less: he bought every property he landed on—even pathetic Waterworks—because 1) he wanted it for himself and 2) he didn’t want anyone else to get it. At graduation several of his students got together and gave Tom a present to thank him for a wonderful year: an 8" x 11" card for Boardwalk . . . . I think of Tom as liberal, generous in his actions and judgments. He was free with his time and his mind to those who sought him out. He didn’t care for foolish, shallow people. He liked people who worked intensely and liked to laugh. To be serious is not to be grim. He was side-splittingly funny at times. He was intelligent, well-educated, serious, witty, good company—also unusual, different, and even eccentric. But whenever you talked to him, after five minutes, you felt, “This is what sanity is, this is the way a human mind was meant to work.” x {Obituaries} CHARLOTTE FLETCHER, HA69 Charlotte Goldsborough Fletcher (HA69), former librarian of St. John’s College in Annapolis, died of pneumonia March 29, 2006, at the age of 90. After her retirement in 1981, she pursued a scholarly interest in the early history of the college and published several works, including St. John’s Forever: Five Essays on the History of St. John’s College and Cato’s Mirania: A Life of Provost Smith. In one of her essays, Miss Fletcher made the most solid case yet for explaining how St. John’s got its name. Many hours spent poring through the Maryland and St. John’s archives led her to conclude that St. John’s was likely named by Masons involved in the founding of the college for St. John the Evangelist—perhaps to honor George Washington. “It is hard to understand why a cloud of mystery has ever since enveloped the circumstances of the naming,” Miss Fletcher wrote. “But if Masons were responsible, one could expect secrecy about their role. Discretion . . . is the first of the Masonic virtues.” Miss Fletcher was born in Cambridge, Md., in 1915. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Hollins College and a bachelor’s in library science from Columbia University, both in 1939. Miss Fletcher was conferred with a Master of Arts, honoris causa, from St. John’s when Woodward Hall was rededicated on October 18, 1969. After several years at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, she became librarian of the Talbot County Free Library. In July 1944 she began 37 years of service to St. John’s College. She retired in 1981, but as she lived close to the college, was a frequent visitor to campus. Miss Fletcher was a favorite of students and faculty. During the years before the Naval Academy-St. John’s croquet matches, Miss Fletcher kept her own croquet set at the library and was always willing to lend it to students—often with the stipulation that she be invited to join them. Although normally a gentle, soft-spoken person, on the croquet court she took no prisoners. In addition to croquet, she Longtime St. John’s librarian Charlotte Fletcher displays a book from the St. John’s “cage” in the Maryland State Archives building, later to become the Greenfield Library, in 1974. Miss Fletcher pursued a special interest in the college’s history. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �39 {Obituaries} instructed generations of students in the esoteric art of bookbinding. Miss Fletcher traveled widely with her sister, Mary Henry Fletcher, who died earlier this year. At the time of her death she was planning another trip to Europe and in the midst of writing a second book, a collection of short stories. The college plans a memorial service for Miss Fletcher in the fall. —Rose Wynn ARCHER JONES, CLASS OF 1947 Archer Jones, Class of 1947, died in Richmond, Va., on January 23, 2006. Mr. Jones enrolled in St. John’s in July of 1943. After three years at the college he was drafted into the Army in 1946. After his discharge in 1947, Mr. Jones, apprehensive about taking the enabling examinations after such a long break, transferred to HampdenSydney College, graduating in 1949. He then enrolled in the University of Virginia’s law school, but later decided to pursue his deep attachment to history. He received a doctorate in history from UVA in 1958 and launched a career as a teacher, academic administrator, and author. He taught at the University of Virginia, Hampden-Sydney, Randolph-Macon Women’s College, and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The capstone of his teaching career was his service as Morrison Professor of History at the U.S. Army’s Command and Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Mr. Jones held a number of key academic posts: dean of Clinch Valley College of the University of Virginia; founder of the Department of History and Political Science at Virginia Tech; associate dean of the University of South Carolina; and for many years, dean of the College of Humanities, Social Sciences, Business Administration, and Education at North Dakota State University. He was a prolific and prize-winning writer in the field of military history. He was the co-author of: Politics of Command; How the North Won; and Why the South Lost. His magnum opus was The Art of War in the Western World. Mr. Jones is survived by his wife, Joanne Leach Jones, a son, and two grandchildren. Ever a loyal St. John’s alumnus, Mr. Jones felt that whatever success and recognition he may have achieved were the direct result of his undergraduate studies in the New Program. He always expressed great affection for the college and his fellow Johnnies, and was a frequent attendee of homecomings and a generous contributor to various St. John’s fundraising efforts. —George M. Van Sant, Class of 1947 EDWARD LATHROP, CLASS OF 1938 Edward Flint “Ned” Lathrop died April 8, 2006, in Annapolis. He was a decorated Naval officer and a St. John’s tutor who also taught mathematics. As director of athletics, he organized the intramural program at St. John’s. Capt. Lathrop spent two years at the Coast Guard Academy before transferring to St. John’s. He joined the St. John’s faculty and taught until 1941 before enlisting in the Navy. During World War II he served aboard submarines in the Pacific and was awarded the Bronze Star and Silver Star medals. After the war he rejoined the St. John’s faculty in 1945, where he remained until 1950 before returning to active duty in the Navy. At the time of his retirement in 1965, he was commanding officer of the Naval Reserve Training Center in Baltimore. In 1965 Capt. Lathrop began teaching mathematics at the Landon School in Bethesda, Md. He created Landon’s first varsity lacrosse team and served as head coach until 1974, when he returned to Annapolis. MERLE SHORE, CLASS OF 1954 A gathering in honor of Merle Shore, a member of the class of 1954 who became a noted artist and art director, will be held at the home of tutor Sam Kutler and his wife, Emily (classes of 1954 and ’55), during Homecoming Weekend 2006 in Annapolis. Mr. Shore died January 28, 2006, in Santa Barbara, Calif., at the age of 86. After serving in the Navy for five years during World War II, Mr. Shore started his own graphic and commercial art studio in Hollywood, Calif. In 1950, at age 31, he fulfilled a lifelong ambition to attend St. John’s and put his art career on hold while he immersed himself in the Program. After graduating from St. John’s, Mr. Shore resumed his professional art career in Santa Barbara. Mr. Shore served as art director for Frank Sinatra’s Reprise label, as well as art director for Verve and Warner Brothers, where he also illustrated album covers. He illustrated for magazines including Esquire, Playboy, Saturday Evening Post, and { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } Atlantic Monthly. He did book illustrations and commercial advertising. His artistic talents extended to the cinema as well; he designed graphics for the films Manchurian Candidate and Spartacus. He was also a serious painter. Mr. Shore is survived by his wife, Priscilla Bender-Shore (class of 1955), whom he married in 1951 and who attended St. John’s with him, a daughter, son, son-in-law, three grandchildren and two brothers. For details on the luncheon gathering, contact Mr. Kutler at: 410-263-2261, or by e-mail at: reltuk@comcast.nrt. ALEX MAGOSCI , SF89 Alex Magosci, SF89, died Friday, March 24, 2006, in Santa Fe. Born in New York and raised in Dallas, Mr. Magosci was an accomplished writer and musician who made many friends, especially in the music scene in Santa Fe. After graduating from St. John’s in 1989, he became music editor for The Dallas Observer. He moved back to Santa Fe in 1990 and later became an editor and columnist for the Santa Fe New Mexican. He was a drummer for a number of rock groups both in Dallas and Santa Fe. ALSO NOTED: JOHN BRUNN (class of 1947), Jan. 17, 2006 D. MASON CHEEZUM (class of 1933), Feb. 2, 2006 BRUCE COLLIER (class of 1965), March 26, 2006 THE REV. FREDERICK P. DAVIS (class of 1949), Jan. 7, 2006 THOMAS G. FROMME (class of 1950), March 31, 2006 MICHAEL F. GRAY (SGI84), Jan. 29, 2005 MARK HABREL (SF75), March 10, 2006 THOMAS JUSKEVICH (A03), March 15, 2006 LAWRENCE KANTOR (class of 1935), Feb. 20, 2006 HAROLD MILSTEAD (class of 1937), March 23, 2006 RALPH RACE (class of 1930), died February 20, 2006 STEWART A. WASHBURN (class of 1951), Feb. 17, 2006 INA WUNDRAM (SFGI97), Jan. 18, 2006 �40 {Croquet} S WEET VICTORY alex lorman G other stake. That happened; Navy staked me out. So, on my first turn after sitting out, I took a shot to go to the other end of the court, and that turned out nicely. Navy set themselves right in front of the wickets that they needed to go through next, and they were halfway back to the finishing stake.They could have won. “The closest ball to me was blue. But it was probably about 20- to 30-feet away—the Hail Mary shot of croquet. On my turn—what actually turned out to be the actual last turn—I took probably an eight-foot shot to hit the stake. Because I hit the stake, I got an extra shot. The first plan that presented itself was to rocket my ball to the other end of the court so I could be close to that stake. But Navy was guarding that stake, so there was a chance of being staked Above: Mac Ward and Geremy Coy (both A06) ponder out again. their strategy; at left: Coy celebrates victory. Opposite page, clockwise: the Dobbyn family, decked “As I was setting myself up to out in seersucker suits: Jack (A02), Joe (A05), take that shot, suddenly Plan B Mike (A06), and Dick (A06), with future Johnnie arose, and I saw blue, lodged in Alex Dobbyn; Tutor Cordell Yee and his daughter, his wicket. That was the long before the skies cleared; a natty group of Johnnies shot. I struck the ball—it was a enjoy a beautiful afternoon; Navy’s minions await leap of faith shot. I worried I their duties; Peter Kalkavage leads the freshman hadn’t put enough on it, but it chorus. took the perfect little curve and hit blue—the crowd erupted, this was huge! hit the ball. But my ball ended much farther “So, I had a second shot on them, and now I had to get to black, all the way over on from the stake. All I had to do was hit the stake and win the game. I bent down on one the other side of the court. I reared back, knee. I could hear people on the sidelines. put as much as I could into it, somehow it I reared back, hit the ball, hit the stake, Mac bounced off a nearby wicket, and struck rushed at me, people were swarming, and black! Now I had two more shots, and this my glasses were lost.” serene calm. Since Navy had been sticklers Final score: St. John’s 5, Navy 0. x about the quiver rule [when two balls are in contact, the striking player must make the opponent’s ball quiver], I was careful when I dimitri fotos eremy Coy (A06) never dreamed he’d get to be “the man.” He had never been hoisted atop the shoulders of a little league team after hitting the winning homerun, never doused with Gatorade after scoring the winning touchdown. But thanks to croquet, Coy got to be a sports hero. Three-and-a-half hours into the annual contest with Navy, the Johnnies had won two matches, and a tense match was unfolding between Coy and Mac Ward (A06) and their Navy opponents. The Mids were determined to try to take the Annapolis Cup for the second straight year. Coy was in position to make the winning shot. With Zen-like concentration, he took the mallet into his hands . . . and had ESPN been there, this is what he would have told the interviewer: “I had gone through all my wickets, so all I had to do was finish. There’s a rule that if the other team knocks your ball into the stake, then you lose two turns, and you have to go to the other end of the court, hit that stake and then go back down and hit the { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �41 dimitri fotos dimitri fotos alex lorman {Croquet} As part of the croquet tradition, the Imperial Wicket went to the Naval Academy the Friday before the match to speak to the Corps of Midshipman at lunch in the mess hall following their noontime formation. In keeping with the Soviet theme the Johnnies adopted, Matt Mangold read two pages of excerpts from the Communist Manifesto. But not a word could be heard above the din of the Middies, hooting, hollering, and banging their silverware against their plates and on the tables. (It is another good-natured part of the tradition for the Corps to shout down the Johnnie.) “It was hard to pass up the chance—so rich with irony—to read Karl Marx to this room of some 4,000 screaming midshipmen,” said Mangold. x The Team Imperial Wicket Matt Mangold (A06); Rob Hurst (A07); Tommy Dyer (A06); Micah Beck (A09); Ian Hanover (A08); Charlie Fleming (A08); Mac Ward (A06); Geremy Coy (A06); Paul Patrone (A06); Andrew MacKinlay (A06); Will Kelly (A07); and Dan Houck (A06). gary pierpoint The Touch of Irony Soviet Domination. The team uniforms this year were red t-shirts with the hammer and sickle (croquet mallets taking the place of the hammer). The team emerged from the BarrBuchanan Center to the Beatles’ “Back in the USSR.” gary pierpoint The Theme { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �42 { A l u m n i tA ses o c il lt i oo w N r s }s } {From h Be a T n e ew From the Alumni Association President I recently made my pledge to the college’s Capital Campaign, and I am hoping you will, too! As my non-Johnnie husband and I talked about our gift, I had a chance to articulate for him the several reasons that I wanted to give the largest gift we could afford. First, I hope that generations of eager readers and talkers can immerse themselves in the St. John’s Program long into the future. I want to help ensure that others have the same opportunity I had when I went to college to engage with the books and fellow students as we learned about ourselves, each other, and the most profound questions. I feel honor-bound to help others share this experience. Second, I see my gift as an acknowledgement of the people at the college who taught me so much. Tutors, administrators, and fellow students all shared their questions and emerging answers with me. I want to say “thank you” to one particular tutor who read my Kant essay, gave me a copy of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, and sent me home to rewrite and rethink it. I can name the people who influenced me, just as I’m CHAPTER CONTACTS ALBUQUERQUE Robert Morgan, SF76 505-275-9012 rim2u@comcast.net ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin Gammon, A94 410-951-7359 emartin@crs.org AUSTIN Charles Claunch, SFGI05 512-446-0222 cclaunch.sjcalum@ earthlink.net BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen, A77 410-472-9158 deborahcohen@ comcast.net BOSTON Dianne Cowan, A91 617-666-4381 dianecowan@rcn.com CHICAGO Rick Lightburn, SF76 847-922-3862 rlightburn@gmail.com DALLAS/FORT WORTH Paula Fulks, SF76 817-654-2986 puffjd@swbell.net sure you can name those who were important in your time at St. John’s. Conversations with these people were most intense while I was on campus, but they have continued through the years and (I expect) will carry on through my lifetime. Third, I wish to help make an investment in the physical and fiscal infrastructure that supports the college. As a student I had little appreciation for the practical side of the college community. I didn’t know (or care) what it cost to house and feed us, to maintain a committed faculty, and to take care of the myriad challenges of daily life. Today I appreciate the institutional needs and monetary necessities of sustaining a community like St. John’s, and I want to do what I can so those on the campuses can focus on the work that really matters—reading and talking about the books. Finally, my gift is, in part, a thank-you to those alumni and friends of St. John’s who have made leadership gifts to the campaign. We have received some remarkable gifts from individuals with much greater giving capacity than mine. My gift is one way I can thank them for their commitment to the college’s community, institution, and Program. They have invested in our college because they believe in our principles and want to help perpetuate this special way of learning and teaching. With my gift, I want to thank everyone who invests in St. John’s. There are many other reasons for me and probably for you, too: • Foundations are impressed and give more when a high percentage of alumni participate in giving to the college. • Government support for private colleges is dwindling or being redirected. • Many students who want and would benefit from a St. John’s education struggle to make ends meet. • Giving to the college keeps me connected with a community of people I admire and enjoy. • I see a new level of strength and stability in college staff and leadership. • I am concerned about the state of the public discourse across the country, and I think the college offers a good alternative to dogma and demagoguery. • I want to be sure that when I come back for my 40th, 50th, and 60th reunions the college is there to greet me—stronger than ever. The Alumni Association is independent of the college, and as an organization we focus on serving the constituency of the alumni (as opposed to being organizationally focused on fundraising). We provide opportunities for alumni to engage in many ways that do not involve financial support. On the other hand, the Alumni Association board recognizes the significance of this campaign and is committed to supporting the “clear and single purpose.” The board has approved a campaign gift of $75,000 to support the college’s new online alumni community (click on “For Alumni” on the college’s Web site) and endowment for scholarships. We also expect that every one of the 47 members of the Alumni Association board will make a personal pledge to support the campaign. Please join us. Whatever your reasons, I’m sure they are compelling. Thank you for all the ways you support the college! PHILADELPHIA Helen Zartarian, AGI86 215-482-5697 helenstevezartarian@ mac.com SOUTHERN CALIF. SALT LAKE CITY Elizabeth Eastman, Erin Hanlon, AF03 SFGI84 801-364-1097 erin_hanlon@juno.com 562-426-1934 e.eastman@verizon.net SANTA FE TRIANGLE CIRCLE, Richard Cowles, NORTH CAROLINA SFGI95 Susan Eversole, SF79 505-986-1814 rcowles2@comcast.net 919-968-4856 sfevers@yahoo.com SEATTLE James Doherty, AFGI76 WASHINGTON, DC Deborah Papier, A72 206-542-3441 202-387-4520 jdoherty@mrsc.org dpapier@verizon.net SOUTH FLORIDA WESTERN NEW Jon Sackson, A69 ENGLAND 305-682-4634 Peter Weiss, SF84 jonathan.sackson@ 413-367-2174 ubs.com peter_weis@ nmhschool.org DENVER/BOULDER Lee Katherine Goldstein, SGI90 720-746-1496 LGoldstein@ Lindquist.com MINN./ST. PAUL Carol Freeman, AGI94 612-822-3216 Freem013@umn.edu NEW YORK CITY Daniel Van Doren, A81 914-949-6811 president@ sjcalums.com PITTSBURGH Joanne Murray, A70 724-325-4151 Joanne.Murray@ alcoa.com PORTLAND Lake Perriguey, SF91 503-803-5184 lake@law-works.com SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico, A86 NORTHERN CALIF. Reynaldo Miranda, A99 805-684-6793 srico@sandi.net 415-333-4452 reynaldo.miranda@ gmail.com { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } Glenda Eoyang (SF76) �43 { o u ni e B c t T w ws s { F rA lm m t h A s s o e ilal i o no N ee r } } Eva in Israel Annapolis tutor Eva Brann was asked to lecture at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in January. She spoke on Plato’s Republic and the next day took part in a seminar with members of the Philosophy Department of the Hebrew University. “It began wonderfully when a professor said, ‘I will tell you the difference between a Socratic conversation and a Talmudic discussion. In the first, Socrates and his partners all come knowing nothing and they leaving knowing nothing, friends as before. In the second, the rabbis come each with his opinion and they leave each with that opinion, friends as before.’ ” The college knows of 23 alumni living in Israel. Miss Brann had an opportunity to meet about half of them at a lively dinner in Jerusalem. “One, Jed Arkin (A85), made himself my special host, and we did something marvelous,” Miss Brann says. “We— he and his lovable two sons and his army pal and I—went to the Negev, the beautiful desert in southern Israel. We went in two jeeps, intercom, mini-Uzi, water and all, but the land was empty and grand.” x West Coast Johnnies Dedicated volunteers have always been the hallmark of strong alumni chapters, and Elizabeth Eastman (SFGI84), president of the Southern California Chapter for the past six years, is no exception. “I’ve always been looking for ways to extend the mission of St. John’s outside the boundaries of the Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses,” says Eastman, “Alumni chapters can play a critical role in extending the college’s reach.” Six years ago, Eastman, with the help of Susan Allen (SGI89), a member of the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors, reinvigorated the Southern California chapter, drawing members from a wide geographic area that was once served by three chapters. “There is an enormous challenge here because of the distances people have to travel and the traffic. To make this viable we had to select a central location, the Westwood area of Los Angeles, and the time we picked, Sunday afternoon, is also dictated by the 43 but prior to Hitler’s rise to power,” says Eastman. The person who chooses the reading typically leads the seminar, says Eastman. About half of the readings are from the St. John’s curriculum, including the Eastern Classics program. “We talk about life experiences,” says Eastman. “It is not uncommon to have someone from every decade, back to the 1940s. This makes for a fabulous discussion with different perspectives from different generaA desert wanderer: Tutor Eva Brann with Tal and Matin tions, and yet age is Arkin, sons of Jed Arkin (A85), in the Negev last winter. transcended.” Benjamin Friedman, traffic,” says Eastman. Members, who who grew up in Santa Fe, where his include Benjamin Friedman (SF95), mother worked at the college and both his Dierdre Lenihan (A67), and Amy Cooper parents attended the Graduate Institute, (SF75), come from Los Angeles as well as agrees, “It’s very interesting having areas such as Claremont, 40 miles east, seminars with a more diverse group than I Santa Barbara, 90 miles north, and had as an undergrad; the maturity of the Orange, about 32 miles southeast. participants make for some fascinating The geographic spread of the chapter’s and surprising discussions. I run into area also dictates the kinds of events the people at the seminars who babysat me chapter can hold. “We don’t have signature when they were students, or were the events like wine tastings and cultural parents of children I played with during activities. We are solely a reading group,” the summer GI sessions oh so many years says Eastman. “It can take some members ago. I always wonder who I’ll encounter longer to travel here than they’re here for from my past when I walk into a seminar.” the seminar, so we have a potluck following Over the years the chapter members it to make it worthwhile. It is a contrast to have invited tutors to lead their discusNew York chapter, for instance, where they sions, among them Eva Brann, Frank have ease of access to the downtown area.” Pagano, John Balkcom (SFGI00), and Eastman mails postcard reminders one Sam Kutler (class of 1954). “We also had month prior to each gathering, inviting Danielle Allen, (Susan Allen’s daughter alumni, friends of the college, and also and a professor of classics at the University participants in the Summer Classics of Chicago) lead a seminar on her book program offered at Santa Fe. Alumni— Talking to Strangers. I actually went to the about half are from Annapolis and half St. John’s summer day camp in Santa Fe from Santa Fe—bring along significant with Danielle when we were both kids and others, spouses, and friends for the her mom was in the GI,” says Freidman. monthly two-hour seminar which focuses Eastman, a busy mother of two who has on a reading chosen the month before. a master’s degree in political science, will This spring, the Southern California step down this spring as president of the chapter discussed Shakespeare’s Troilus Southern California chapter. But she’ll and Cressida in March, and in April always make time for seminars with other they will discuss “The Concept of the Johnnies. “The opportunity to have a Political.” “It’s a short political tract that conversation is so welcome, it brings Carl Schmitt wrote during the Weimar balance to my life,” she says. x period in Germany after World War I, { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �44 44 { F { Ao mm n ihA s sB c il t i o n oN e e r}s } r lu t e o e al T w ws Summer in Santa Fe: Great Books, Great Friends discussion, the practicum brings participants to paint outside at some of the most compelling sites in Santa Fe. Guided gallery tours will provide an opportunity to revel in contemporary and classic Western art. No painting experience is required. This year’s other offerings are: Descartes’ Discourse on Method, led by tutor Sam Kutler (class of 1954) and the Book of Job and Karl Jung’s “Answer to Job,” led by tutors Keri Ames and Jessica Jerome. Through the Summer Alumni Program in Santa Fe, alumni from both campuses can spend a week revisiting a favorite Program work, discussing something they’ve never read before with other Johnnies, painting, listening to opera, and enjoying the company of others who love books and ideas. The program this year starts Sunday, July 23, and runs through Friday, July 29, when Homecoming begins. To find out more about the program, visit the college Web site: www.stjohnscollege.edu; click on “Alumni” and follow the link to the “Summer Alumni Program.” More information is available by calling the Santa Fe Alumni office at 505-984-6103. Two avid participants of the Summer Alumni Program shared their thoughts on what makes the week worthwhile. “Revelling in Art” Elizabeth Pollard Jenny (SF80), an artist who lives in Boulder, Co., brings art to participants in the Summer Alumni Program. In 1995, I noticed that St. John’s was offering alumni the chance to return to Santa Fe for a week with fellow alumni from all different years and from both campuses to study together. This seemed to me like a way to really keep the conversation going. St. John’s alumni leave the college with the message that we are the enduring community of the college. I have always construed being a Johnnie to mean being a life-long learner who keeps the conversation going, in our world and in our college community. I responded to the mailer because, along with giving me an opportunity to check in with my fellow alumni, it offered me the chance to study art in one of the art capitals of the United States.That summer, I was fortunate to take the seminar, practicum, and lecture with tutors Charles Bell and Steve Houser, and with Steve’s wife, Michelle Bender. Steve and Michelle designed the art tutorial in Santa Fe. In addition, John Agresto, then president of the Santa Fe campus, took Alumni Program and Summer Classics participants on a tour of Hispanic religious folk art in Chimayo, Taos, and Truchas. “There’s a Special Conversation” Mary Fisher (AGI92) of Ontario, N.Y., will attend the Summer Alumni Program for her fifth straight year. Catch up with friends this July in Santa Fe. Register by June 30 for the Summer Alumni Program. In addition to sharing his knowledge about the artwork, John showed us a great restaurant along the Rio Grande, where we stopped and had fresh trout for lunch. During another summer, I took the course offerings that focused on issues relating to consciousness, artificial intelligence, and optics, with one of my former tutors, Phil Chandler (A68), and his son. The Alumni Program has been a wonderful way to revisit familiar friends and places, but it has also been a way to meet new people and explore new paths in this Johnnie enterprise of learning together. That brings me to my role as offering an art practicum to alumni through the Summer Alumni Program. To me, painting in and around Santa Fe with fellow alumni is like a dream come true. Add to this that you are in Santa Fe, you can see contemporary art shown in local galleries, and you can meet artistic alumni during the AllAlumni Art Show. With tutor Phil LeCuyer, this year I will be leading the practicum side of “Plein-Air Painting as Practice and Reflection.” The program includes seminar discussions of the nature of perception and the role of visual art in the formation of our language of perception. Complementing seminar After I graduated from the Graduate Institute in 1992, I received information about the Summer Alumni Program. I thought it would be a dream come true to reconnect with the college and have enriching conversations with Johnnies. There’s a special kind of conversation that we develop among ourselves, and it’s a wonderful way to encounter other human beings. In 2002, I thought, “If I don’t start doing it, when will I do it?” It’s not easy to make these treks, but since my oldest son and his family live in Colorado, I can get to Santa Fe on my trips to visit them. As I considered signing up for the first year, the thing that really clinched it for me was that Eva Brann and David Carl were leading a discussion on the Republic and I had the never had the opportunity take a seminar with Miss Brann. And there was Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte, with Peter Pesic. I’m a musician, so that was a joy. One of the wonderful things about the Summer Alumni Program is that we have access to Santa Fe Opera tickets at a reduced rate. One summer, as part of the seminar that included plein-air painting with Liz Jenny, we made trips to artists’ studios. We were also reading Heidegger and listening to Don Giovanni. I really have a special appreciation for the seminars on the arts. In painting and in sculpture—in all the arts—we find different aspects of the { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �45 { o u ni e B c t T w ws s { F rA lm m t h A s s o e ilal i o no N ee r } } human community. Last year, I had another seminar with Miss Brann and Mr. Carl, this time on Milton. What I find really remarkable is that we alumni can encounter each other in conversation about so many different aspects of what life is about, not just in the philosophy and the sciences, but also in the various arts—which in my world is a huge part of what I consider the riches of being on this earth. In a seminar, we don’t just look at the structure of the music, we also talk about human themes. That brings me to one of the real riches I find in this kind of alumni encounter. We’ve gone out into the world, done a multitude of things, and lived all kinds of different lives. That enriches our conversation, but it also gives us an added opportunity to reflect on what our ongoing lives are about. When we revisit a book such as The Republic, we have a wonderful opportunity Are you Reading? From Portland, Oregon to Putney, Vermont alumni chapters and groups all over the country continue to “read the books.” Eighteen chapters and three reading groups held events during 2005. In the last four years, several new groups worked with the alumni offices to organize seminars and other events. As one alumna wrote, “Anyone wish to start a reading group? I’m starving for some intellectual discourse.” Here’s a look at some newer locations creating SJC alumni groups: • The Pittsburgh group became a chapter in 2003 after more than a year of regular activities as a reading group. Though there are fewer than 70 St. John’s alumni in their area, they have 6 to 10 people at their monthly events. • The Western New England reading group has been holding seminars since 2002. In 2005, they had a regular bi-monthly schedule of events for their nearly 130 alumni. • The Miami/South Florida reading group, drawing from over 200 alumni in their area, has held regular seminars during both 2004 and 2005 and will be petitioning to become a chapter this coming year. • The Salt Lake City reading group has held seminars since November 2004. to look at larger issues and gain more insight into the work. These books don’t stand alone; it’s the tutors and the other participants who help lead us to a greater understanding of these ideas. St. John’s is not just a four-year experience. It’s the kind of ground on which we build our lives. There’s always more to be learned, and there’s always something interesting to talk about. We are works in progress. Any of us can become a little harassed by things so that we get hog-tied, like Gulliver being tied down by the Lilliputians. Every summer, we have the opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with all the college can offer us. The college arranges this special time just for us alumni. 45 It’s something much richer, and sustaining and balancing, and it stays with us when we leave. It is nutrition for our mind’s eye. We really are privileged to have this opportunity. x Alumni from both campuses choose a thinking vacation with the Summer Alumni Program. There are only 45 alumni in the area, but they have had 6 to 14 people attending each event. • In Atlanta, alumni stay connected with informal groups and at gatherings sponsored by the Alumni office. • A meeting is planned in Phoenix to organize area alumni this spring. • Interest is brewing to start a local chapter in the Indianapolis area. Though the number of alumni in the area is small, the desire to read and talk to other Johnnies remains strong. Though not every attempt to start a reading group has been successful, there does not seem to be a minimal number of alumni needed to have sufficient interest Christopher Nelson (SF70), president of the Annapolis campus, and President Michael Peters, president in Santa Fe, regularly visit chapters and reading groups. Tutors from Annapolis and Santa Fe are interested and available to travel to chapters and groups throughout the country. The Alumni Office funds their trips and provides an average of two tutor visits per year to chapters. Alumni interested in assessing interest in holding seminars and other activities in a new area should contact Jo Ann Mattson, Alumni Director, at JoAnn.Mattson@ sjca.edu or 410-626-2531. The alumni office staff provides support in setting up an initial event, answering questions, giving advice on how to get started, and { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } 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 – Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President – Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary – Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer – Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team Chair – Linda Stabler-Talty, SFGI76 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. mailing notices to all alumni within the geographic area identified. The new Online Community is also an excellent way to keep in touch with alumni in your area and to stay involved. You can find a listing of your chapter or group’s events at www.stjohnscollege.edu. Click on “alumni” and then “chapters.” x �46 { A l u m n i Vo i c e s } T WO MONTHS BEFORE THE MAST by Todd Wilson (AGI00) Todd Wilson combines yoga with duties at the helm. Wilson never quite got his sea legs during his Reach the World voyage. Todd Wilson spent two months aboard the Makulu a 43-foot sailboat, documenting his experiences for Reach the World, an educational organization that seeks to give inner-city students in grades three through six a wider view of their world. B ased in New York City, Reach the World is a nonprofit organization founded by Heather Halstead. Sailor-educators circumnavigate the world and document their journey using digital cameras, laptops, and the Reach the World Web site. They post answers to eight essential questions for each geographic region on the site, which teachers use as part of their curriculum. Before the voyage, we met the students and toured their schools in the Bronx, Queens, and Harlem, talking to them about the itinerary. The goal is to open their minds to the idea that they belong to a global community. Since graduating from the GI, I have sought eclectic positions in education, such as teaching English on the Texas/Mexico border with Teach for America and managing an environmental education campus in Yosemite National Park. When RTW offered me a job, I thought: How can I pass on this opportunity? I have always been interested in documentary films, photography, and journalism. The great books, being the ancient documents of societies and human thought, seemed the perfect foundation. Thus, I went to learn about modern human life from observing how people live and the environment living around them, documenting it all for students. As part of a five-person crew, I sailed from Cairns, Australia, to Bali, Indonesia. Jim, the captain, and Hannah, the first mate, taught the fundamentals of sailing to Amie, Tonia and me: steering a course, reading charts, and navigating open waters in daylight and darkness. Each day at sea was spent rotating through a watch and { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } cooking schedule, meeting about the program, writing, and for me, finding time to practice yoga on the aft deck—usually in three- to six-foot waves. We all worked to keep a tidy, safe ship. And the weather was consistently helpful with more wind and sunshine than galls and high seas. As the days turned like pages from a great, blue mind, I found the open ocean to be a true wilderness. From my first glimpse of the Great Barrier Reef to dolphins racing to and fro off the bow, sparkling with phosphorescence in midnight waters, I realized that the ocean is untamed and amazing. We bring a floating shell of humanity, yet our coming is one precarious rise and fall upon the waves after another. I embraced the austere vastness of being at sea with respect and humility. Three days out of Australia in the Timor Sea, we stopped Makulu for an afternoon swim. After 20 minutes, Hannah called us aboard quietly. Once atop, she pointed to the five tiger sharks that joined us from the depths. “Just visiting,” I whispered. Komodo Island was truly enigmatic, a land rare and sculpted by time into timelessness. The land befits the dragon that exists only there, the largest lizard in the world. When I first saw two dragons below the kitchen, they were flattened out like �{ A l u m n i Vo i c e s } 47 todd wilson Left: A hut on Komodo Island frames the MAKULU. Below: Schoolchildren on Balo-Baloang stop to pose for Wilson. attaining balance than enjoying the ocean’s grandeur. It was not seasickness (though I did lose my crackers coming into Bali after 10 hours enduring 10-foot seas); I can only describe it using the Ayurvedic term ahamkara, which translates as the todd wilson dogs: content and lacking ferocity. Two hours later we tracked a female with a radio collar to her nest. Again, the sight of her brought a fearless awe. She, like all things rare, lived through the myths and labels in the simplicity of being. Two weeks later, we visited a school on Balo-Baloang Atoll. The tiny island (twohour circumambulation) is the home of shipbuilders. These men have honed their craft for a thousand years, and like the dragons, only these Indonesian seas are home to their designs. In their presence, Makulu looked extravagant and awkward in her modernity. We felt the slowness of time here when we signed the school’s register, the sixth visitors in five years! In a classroom without electricity, we interviewed the students about their unique and simple lives, their teacher translating our words. Afterwards, we enjoyed lunch at the teacher’s stilt house: sweets, tea, black-sugar coffee, rice, and vegetable broth eaten on the floor of the kitchen, with our fingers, the women and children waiting for the guests to eat first. I had signed on for a two-year journey. But my new environment rattled my equilibrium, and days were more about { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } integral feeling of self despite the commingling of the numerous physical elements of which we are composed. My ahamkara was tilted, and this feeling combined with the understanding that my overall health was the foundation of any position. Even though I loved the work on land, the days at sea took my legs from me. After an amazing two months before the mast, I chose to leave and offer the rare opportunity to someone who is an educator and a sailor. I am sure there are a few Johnnies who fit this description. x Wilson’s articles on Australia and Bali can be found at www.reachtheworld.com �48 {St. John’s Forever} Books, Balance and a Bell Tower A crane sets in place the iron finial in the bell tower of Weigle Hall in Santa Fe, circa 1972. The finial was designed by John Gaw Meem, the noted architect who also donated the land for St. John’s Western campus. Meem’s finial was meant to represent a “stand-up” version of the college seal, according to an article in the Santa Fe New Mexican. First called the Tower Building and later renamed for former St. John’s President Richard Weigle (HA49), the campus’ main academic building was dedicated in 1971, while work on the finial was still under way. Design of the finial was one of the few commissions that Meem took after he { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } retired in 1960, according to John Gaw Meem: Southwestern Architect, by Bainbridge Bunting: “. . . Meem accepted only a few commissions from close friends or produced occasional designs for a public cause or for historical preservation. Among these . . . the delightful bell tower on the administration building of St. John’s College . . .” x �{Alumni Events Calendar} Alumni Calendar Come home to Santa Fe this summer! This year’s festivities including a special Opening Celebration for “With a Clear and Single Purpose”: The Campaign for St. John’s College, along with the traditional Homecoming Banquet, art show, and varied parties. Catch up with your old friends, make new ones, and learn about the college’s plans for the future. Friday, July 28 2 - 5 p.m. Registration 5:30 p.m. “With a Clear and Single Purpose,” Opening Celebration for the Capital Campaign 9 p.m. Rock Party in the Coffee Shop Saturday, July 29 10 a.m. Seminars Noon – 2 p.m. Picnic 2 – 3 p.m. All-Alumni gathering 4 p.m. Alumni and tutor book signing 5 – 6 p.m. “Speaking Volumes” lecture: Louise Heydt (EC97), author of Divine Rainbow: Nature as Spiritual Teacher 5:30 – 7 p.m. All-Alumni art show 5: 30 p.m. Combined art show and “Speaking Volumes” reception 7 – 9 p.m. Homecoming banquet 9 p.m. Cantina San Juan: margaritas and mariachi at the Homecoming ball 9: 30 p.m. Movie: Singing in the Rain Annapolis Mark your calendars for Annapolis Homecoming, Sept. 29 – Oct. 1, 2006. The theme: Oktoberfest. Look for a brochure to be mailed this summer, or watch the St. John’s Web site, www.stjohnscollege.edu, for more details. Sunday, July 30 8 – 11 a.m. Early Riser – light breakfast fare in the Fireside Lounge 11 a.m. Brunch, hosted by Mike and Eleanor Peters Mountain in Santa Fe by Virginia Strong Newlin, SFGI74 One August night three of us tried to scale a small peak above the college. We took the rock face, sneakers slipping, gripping whatever felt firm to grasping hands. hauling ourselves to the top, we sat upon stones spoke softly, looking over St. John’s in silver sleep amongst its great books. bill denison In the sky great constellations spread near enough to finger in the midnight air. I thought of being East again, the session over, minus this evening’s mountain walk and the highs of a seminar’s lively talk on Aristotle and Aquinas, Aeschylus and Socrates, handholds for people scaling peaks. { T h e C o l l e g e St. John’s College • Spring 2006 } �P ERIODICALS P OSTAGE PAID P UBLISHED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE P.O. BOX 2800 A NNAPOLIS , M ARYLAND 21404 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 pages 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/. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Title A name given to the resource The College, Spring 2006 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Description An account of the resource Volume 32, Issue 2 of <em>The College</em> Magazine. Published in Spring 2006. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The_College_Magazine_Spring_2006 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/62b863c17dfe852b5ecd8eb375e34fb4.pdf f81d63b189fc72af20b996c83b16a20f PDF Text Text The College St. John’s College • Annapolis • Santa Fe Jane Austen a n d t h e L i v e s o f Wo m e n F a l l 2 0 0 6 �On Jane Austen J ane Austen’s novels offer a glimpse into a world that seems tremendously appealing to those of us vexed with modern society. No one seems to have time to talk today, unless it’s into a cell phone, and that’s only when the iPod or Blackberry aren’t in use. Long, aimless walks through the countryside and afternoons spent sitting in a sunny parlor, catching up on the village gossip, can’t compete with high-definition television and HBO. In Jane Austen’s world, there was always time for writing letters, playing music, lingering over a lavish midday meal, and reading (assuming one’s family could afford to maintain a library). Of course, there was a serious downside to this gentle lifestyle: young, unmarried women without fortune or connections could find themselves—as Jane Austen did— entirely dependent on the generosity of family. Like Marianne and Elinor in Sense and Sensibility, she knew what it was like to leave a beloved home to make way for a male relative. She was whisked away to Bath, just as Anne Elliot in Persuasion, and like Anne, she learned to make the family budget stretch. As the Bennet girls did, she knew well what it meant to have dim prospects for a good marriage. But unlike her poorer heroines, Jane Austen had a marketable skill. She began writing fiction as a teenager and stopped only when her final illness forced her to put down her pen. A shrewd observer of human nature, she wrote both from a burning desire to tell stories and from economic necessity. She never made a fortune from the novels published in her lifetime—Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility together brought in only £250—but she was pleased and proud to have made her own money. Most of what we know about Austen comes from her letters, though only 160 survive from the thousands she wrote. Her sister, Cassandra, censored everything that spoke to illness, unhappiness, and misfortune. The seventh of eight children, Jane was born in 1775 to the Rev. George Austen and Cassandra Leigh. George had a modest living as rector of the church at Steventon, and Jane’s early childhood was happy and stimulating. With only a few years of formal schooling, she read books in her father’s library—everything from Samuel Johnson to gothic novels and burlesque plays. Austen’s life was not without trial: a cousin’s husband went to the guillotine, a sister-in-law died young, an aunt was tried on shoplifting charges. Her life was also not without romance and suitors; she greatly enjoyed flirting and dancing at balls. She was even engaged for one night, but apparently thought better of it in the morning. She became a doting aunt to her many nieces and nephews, and spent the latter part of her life living quietly in a cottage at Chawton, the estate of her brother, Edward Austen Knight. She died in 1817, attended to by her beloved sister, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Readers respond to Jane Austen because her characters are so richly drawn, her plots so satisfying, and her language so elegant, witty, and precise. We get a glimpse into a long-ago society but we know people like Mrs. Bennet and Lady Catherine de Bourgh; we can laugh at Austen’s silly and misguided characters because we see our own flaws reflected in them. In this issue of The College, our contributors consider Austen’s women, from spinster Anne to orphan Fanny, examining what these enduring characters say about human nature, society, and the life of women. —RH The College (usps 018-750) is published quarterly 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 postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. Rosemary Harty, editor Patricia Dempsey, managing editor Emily DeBusk, assistant editor Jennifer Behrens, art director Annapolis 410-626-2539 Santa Fe 505-984-6104 Contributors Eva Brann (HA57) Roberta Gable (A78) Barbara Goyette (A73) Ruth Johnston (A85) Tilar Mazzeo (SF93) Rhonda Ortiz (A05) Namara Smith (SF07) Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �Fa l l 2 0 0 6 Vo l u m e 3 2 , I s s u e 3 The College The Magazine for Alumni of St. John’s College Annapolis • Santa Fe {Contents} 8 Philosophy and War d e p a r t m e n t s page 2 from the bell towers • Febbies: The End of an Era Annapolis Cannon Set Straight A Living Shoreline The Kindness of a Stranger Santa Fe’s Extreme Makeover A Home for the GI in Santa Fe News, Announcements, Honors Commencement speakers Judith Seeger and David Levine (A67) talked of ties that bind Johnnies. 28 letters Bibliofile 12 For the Students 37 Sustaining the college’s need-based financial aid program is a top priority of the college’s $125 million capital campaign. 36 Kevin Ross (AGI97) leads • Santa Fe Tutor James Carey (class of 1967) shares great books and great ideas with future Air Force officers. 10 A Celebration of Community • • • • page • page 10 From the Bible to baseball: a compendium of alumni books. alumni notes page P RO F I L E S 32 Marcus Eubanks (A88) thrives in emergency medicine. 18 The Lives of Women Lynn University. 39 Richard Field (SFGI98) gets high school students hooked on classics. page 12 41 Game show success for page Celeste DiNucci (A87) 43 The women of Jane Austen’s world speak to human qualities we can all relate to, particularly the need to find love and happiness. Remembering Brother Robert Smith 46 48 29 Homecoming page Were members of the Santa Fe Class of 1976 the last of the rebels? Obituaries page 18 on the cover Jane Austen Illustration by David Johnson alumni association news st. john’s forever �2 {From the Bell Towers} A Farewell to Febbies Special Bonds, Lasting Memories hardships that Febbies encounter, particularly in the abbreviated summer session; and the camaraderie and conflicts that develop when a small group of students spend a lot of time together, in the same dormitory, at the same Dining Hall table, and in the same classes. In September, the Febbies who stayed at St. John’s melted into the sophomore class, getting to know more students and likely seeing less of each other. But they will be distinguished as Febbies until the day they receive their diplomas, and then at Homecoming gatherings in Annapolis for years to come. Elizabeth Burlington, a student aide in the St. John’s College communications office, interviewed each member of the Class of 2009 Febbies, slated to be the last class enrolled in January on the Annapolis campus. The college first began enrolling freshmen in the middle of the academic year in the 1960s. The January Freshman program will continue in Santa Fe. Several weeks into their “Febbie Summer,” the final 17 students to enroll in January in Annapolis as freshmen were busy writing freshman essays. But in the heat of a June afternoon, the entire Febbie class— the campus virtually their own, since summer Graduate Institute students had not yet arrived—congregated around one small table on the Quad. “After seminar I feel good,” said Michael Cooney, who, at 21, is a bit older than his fellow Febbies. “I feel like the Yin and the Yang.” Sitting next to him, Patrick Jones, who skipped his last two years of high school and attended the University of Maryland for a semester to ease into college, laughed at his friend’s remark. “That’s absolutely right, Mr. Cooney.” Febbies from years gone by cherish the closeness that Febbie summer promotes. What appears to be a period of isolation to outsiders translates into an unusual bonding experience to those who participate in it. Among other things, the students talked about experiences spent at other colleges; “I really like great books, but Columbia University’s great books program was really disappointing. All the teachers were grad students. That wasn’t my type of environment, so I just packed it up and came here.” Wynn Hedlesky On difficulties of the Febbie year: “Finding time to sleep.” Kelvin Chung “Having to do 16 weeks’ worth of work in 10.” Mallory Gill “Not getting time off to write our freshman essays.” Timothy Brisnehan On seminars: “After seminar, usually people are mad or they are very happy. Usually the ones that are happy are the ones that everyone else is mad at.” Sara Luell “After seminar I feel like we have exercised our intellects in the class, and that we are still feeling the burn.” Patrick Jones “We are actually more energetic after seminar, even compared to the seminars in the first semester. We seem to be a lot more interested in the things we’re reading, and of course, there’s a lot that we don’t get to say during seminar that needs expounding afterward. With the tutors coming to our Febbie Snack afterward, there are a lot of fruitful discussions.” Kelvin Chung alex lorman Annapolis’ Febbies cut loose in Spector Hall after seminar last summer. The practice of enrolling January freshmen has ended in Annapolis, but will continue in Santa Fe. On choosing St. John’s: “Once I knew what the Program was all about I didn’t want to go any where else.” Rian Thune “I wanted to read every book on the reading list, and I knew that they were too difficult to understand on my own. Before this, I graduated from community college in Georgia.” Jesse Shearer { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } “I have difficulty doing my Greek and sleeping.” Sara Luell “Socially, I feel like we were isolated from the other freshmen.” Jody Whelan On being a Febbie: “I feel like being a Febbie has made me a different student than I would have been if I would have come here in the fall. I feel special.” Sara Luell “We absolutely do share a bond with each other, more than the regular August freshman.” Kelvin Chung “I was glad I was a Febbie. I like the peace and quiet here in the summer time.” Steffanie Peterson x �{From the Bell Towers} 3 victoria smith Henry Robert, class of 1941, nodded with satisfaction as two welders from the McShane Bell Foundry set to the task of righting a wrong. For 40-odd years, the cannon mounted between Pinkney and McDowell halls has been a source of irritation to Mr. Robert, who spent a year in the old program before becoming one of the few St. John’s students to start again in the new. This cannon “of the type used in the defense of Baltimore in the War of 1812,” according to a plaque attached to the barrel, was presented to St. John’s College by the local chapter of the D.A.R. and the National Star-Spangled Banner Centennial Commission on September 14, 1914. The plaque celebrated the college as alma mater to Francis Scott Key and suggested that it may have been fired in the war that was the subject of his celebrated anthem, “The StarSpangled Banner.” When Mr. Robert was a student, the cannon sat as it should: level, pointing straight ahead to College Avenue. Over time, St. John’s students wiggled the cannon in its mounting, and it eventually rusted into a position about 45 degrees from horizontal— historically inaccurate, and, to Mr. Robert’s eye, ridiculously impractical. “If a shot were fired in that direction, it would fall helplessly before ever reaching its target,” Mr. Robert remarked. Last year, Mr. Robert gave a donation to the college to remount the cannon and to spruce it up. In September, a much improved, shinier cannon was returned to the college by conservators of the alfred eisenstaedt The Cannon: Battle-Ready at Last Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum. The cannon’s original exterior was lost long ago, to time and the salt water of Baltimore Harbor, where it was submerged for untold years before a dredging project uncovered it. The inner surface is heavily pitted and had rusted over the years. Conservator Donna Smith air-abraded the surface, applied a corrosive inhibitor, painted it with black Rustoleum paint, and covered it with a liberal coat of Bowling Alley Butcher’s Wax. McShane workers re-aligned the brackets and re-tapped the bolt holes in the journals in order for the new trunnion collars to fit securely into the mount, then they spot-welded it in place. This should keep future Johnnies from developing “the devilish notion” to try to Henry Robert, class of 1941, was on hand in September to see the cannon remounted. Mr. Robert underwrote the cost for the restoration and remounting of the cannon. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } The cannon, as it was in Henry Robert’s days as a Johnnie. This famous St. John’s photo, by Alfred Eisenstaedt, was taken for LIFE magazine in the 1940s. wiggle the cannon, says Mr. Robert. As for the cannon’s role in the War of 1812, that’s doubtful, says Howard Wellman, lead conservator for the Maryland Historical Trust. It’s too small to have been used on a battleship or in a fort, and was more likely mounted on a merchant ship for defense against pirates. It could even have been mounted on a British ship. Mr. Robert has fond memories of the cannon, even though he recalls taking part in the hazing ritual that employed the artifact. “Shooting from the cannon” required “rats” (freshmen) to run from the cannon to College Avenue through a gauntlet of beltwielding upperclassmen who would try to strike the men as they ran by. “I ran fast,” Mr. Robert recalls with a smile. “It wasn’t so bad.” x �4 {From the Bell Towers} alex lorman This fall, St. John’s students returned to a dramatically transformed shoreline along College Creek, one intended to nurture a healthier and more diverse variety of plant and animal life. Along the shoreline, which was once a bulkheaded seawall, there is now a sloping, ecologically restored wetland protected from erosion with bio-logs and native species of marsh grass. The 885-foot shoreline restoration, completed this summer, is one of the largest projects of its kind along the Chesapeake Bay. It also showcases St. John’s role as environmental citizen, educator, and partner with regional environmental organizations. A volunteer corps including students and local residents (many of them Chesapeake Bay Foundation members) provided several work days to help restore the area to a more natural state, thanks to support from several foundations. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is alex lorman A Living Shoreline Last summer, thanks to student and community volunteers, the hardened bulkhead along College Creek was removed and the shoreline was restored to a natural marsh. pleased that the college is “leading by example,” says Ron Schnabel, one of the CBF staff members who have donated time and expertise to the project. The College Creek shoreline is an ideal site for ecological restoration because of minimal boat traffic, currents, wind, and wave action, according to Don Jackson, St. John’s director of operations. The creek has long been a resource for Johnnies in Tutor Nick Maistrellis donned waders to help plant natural grasses along the shoreline. freshman lab. “We’ve known since the late 1960s how valuable the marsh is,” says Jackson, who worked in environmental conservation before joining the college. “However, support and funding for the project were bolstered by development of new techniques for successfully restoring them.” The bulkhead was installed on College Creek about 50 years ago to keep harmful sediment from reaching the Chesapeake Bay. “Up until the late 1960s, the ecological value of marshes and wetlands were not well understood, and they were often thought of as insect breeding grounds,” explains Jackson. “As a result, bulkheading was often installed along the shoreline and back-filled with earth to create more useable land.” In the past 10 years there has been an environmental movement to curb erosion and look for ways to stabilize the shoreline without using bulkhead and rip-rap. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } Seven years ago the shoreline restoration was begun as a pilot project to restore 125 feet between the Hodson Boathouse and King George Street. The project involved grading the shoreline to a natural slope and planting native species, such as spartina, bayberry, and bulrush on a prepared planting terrace constructed on sand and dirt fill imported to the site. Planning and design for the second phase of the project began two years ago, thanks to a $200,000 challenge grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. This past spring the college received the funding to match it, and in June began restoring the remaining 760 feet of structural bulkhead. Contributors and partners include the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Chesapeake Bay Trust, the Maryland Department of the Environment, FishAmerica Foundation, and the Vernal W. and Florence H. Bates Foundation. x �{From the Bell Towers} The Kindness of a Stranger offer. Cooper, after an injuryshortened career in the Army and a disappointing experience at American University in Washington, D.C., had found St. John’s again, many years after a high school teacher recommended the college. She visited the Santa Fe campus. “After sitting in on a seminar on Aristotle, I was sold,” she says. Cooper arranged a time to pick up the books; just as welcome as the gift was the chance to visit with a Johnnie and talk about the Program. “Christine told me junior year was the hardest, and said to take advantage to learn things Lauren Cooper, a freshman from the Denver area, had fewer Program books to buy this year, thanks to Christine Robinson (A90) of San Francisco. Robinson is quick to point out that her act of generosity was inspired by a Johnnie who came before her. In Robinson’s case, the inspiration was Mike Van Beuren (A75), a former housemate in Annapolis who gave all his books to the St. John’s library when Robinson was a student. Since she graduated from the college, Robinson has embraced many careers: tourism, advertising sales, and working for a labor union trust fund. She finished her MBA, immersed herself in the study of foreign languages, lived in Paris for a year, and became a student of the tango. She was expecting to spend a few years traveling in South America, but her mother’s failing health meant a detour to Denver to clean out her mother’s home in preparation for a move to an assisted living facility. “I thought I could ship all these books back to California and put them in a storage unit, but that didn’t really make sense,” she says. “I wanted to get them back in circulation.” Robinson contacted the college, and Roberta Gable (A78), associate director of admissions, alerted Denverarea freshmen to Robinson’s Lauren Cooper (A10) chelsea stiegman Above, Christine Robinson of San Francisco decided a new Johnnie should have her Program books; right, Annapolis freshman Lauren Cooper makes room on her dorm room bookshelf. “After sitting in on a seminar on Aristotle, I was sold.” outside the curriculum.” Robinson’s fondness for the Program just made Cooper more eager for the start of the semester. Her new books— almost two-thirds of the Program works— were in very good shape. She took away two Iliads, one in English and one in Greek, and some books that seem brand new. She enjoys the notes written in some of the margins. “Her giving the books was representative of a generation of ideas and thoughts. I was so pleased that an alum cared enough to do this,” Cooper says. Robinson couldn’t part with Fear and Trembling, Euclid’s Elements, or her volumes of French poetry. But she knows most of the other books she’d { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } 5 like to revisit are online. And she likes the idea of her books making another trip to Annapolis. “They’re going to be there, in seminar,” she says. “It gives me a connection to the college now.” x �6 {From the Bell Towers} “I Just Kept Coming Back” Gratitude Prompts a $5 Million Gift for a Santa Fe GI Center An alumnus of the Graduate Institute in Santa Fe has made a $5 million gift to fund construction of a center for the college’s two graduate programs on the campus. Dr. Norman Levan (SFGI74) of Bakersfield, Calif., made his gift in gratitude for the intellectual enrichment he gained through the graduate program. “The Graduate Institute changed my life,” Dr. Levan said when the gift was announced July 28 as part of the opening celebration for “With a Clear and Single Purpose”: The Campaign for St. John’s College. “It was an amazing experience for me, and I’m grateful that this program exists.” The Norman and Betty Levan Hall will be home to the college’s two graduate programs: the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and the Master of Arts in Eastern Classics. The building will house classrooms, faculty offices, and common space for graduate students, and will be situated between Weigle Hall and the Fine Arts Building. The building will also be dedicated to the memory of Dr. Levan’s late wife, Betty, who enjoyed visiting Santa Fe each summer while Dr. Levan was a student. Building a home for the GI, established in 1967 in Santa Fe, is among the top priorities of the campaign for the college’s western campus, says Santa Fe President Michael Peters. Design for the building is underway and the college hopes to break Extreme Makeover For several months last summer, members of the Santa Fe campus community were detouring around work crews and barricades while the Campus Core Renovation project was under way. The inconvenience proved well worth it when the project was completed in mid-September. More than 105,000 bricks were laid from Peterson Student Center to Santa Fe Hall, replacing the concrete pavement. The koi pond was given a new waterfall and additional lighting. New teak benches, tables, and trash cans have been installed throughout the area, along with an additional 14 light fixtures and two ramps installed to provide additional accessibility for the disabled. The improvements were part of the $2 million Santa Fe Initiative. Santa Fe President Michael Peters and Dr. Norman Levan (SFGI74). ground for the project in the next few months, he says. “We are exceptionally pleased that an alumnus had such a good experience in the Graduate Institute that he wants to help the college build a permanent home for the institute,” he says. Dr. Levan is professor emeritus and former chief of dermatology at his alma mater, the University of Southern California School of Medicine (class of 1939). He has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in medicine. He established the Hansen’s Disease Clinic at the Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center in 1962 at the request of state and federal health officials. At age 90, he still spends one day a week seeing patients in his dermatology practice. He came to the GI in the middle of his thriving medical career at the suggestion of a colleague who had found the experience intellectually invigorating. In Santa Fe, Dr. Levan found a learning community united by a common love of books and ideas, one that welcomed students of all ages. In those days, he said, most of the GI students were classroom teachers who were passionate about improving education. His favorite reading included Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War and de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. “I thought I would come for just one summer,” he says. “Then I just kept coming back. It was a turning point in my life: being able to read the original texts, being part of a community, experiencing a faculty so different from ours at USC.” Santa Fe GI Director Krishnan Venkatesh said students, faculty, and alumni have been touched by Dr. Levan’s gift. “This is a magnificent expression of generosity,” Mr. Venkatesh says. “This building will give the Graduate Institute a respected central place on campus, a permanent home.” x { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �7 {From the Bell Towers} News and Announcements Annapolis tutor EVA BRANN has been selected to receive the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal of the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association. Miss Brann was scheduled to be feted at an October 12 gala dinner and awards ceremony in New Haven. The Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal is an honor presented each year by the Graduate School Alumni Association to a small number of outstanding alumni. The medal recognizes distinguished achievements in scholarship, teaching, academic administration, and public service. Appointments JON ENRIQUEZ has been named Registrar in Annapolis. Mr. Enriquez holds a Ph.D. in History and an A.B. in American Studies from Georgetown University, and an M.A. in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania. Most recently, he has served as Registrar and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Director of Institutional Research at Hanover College in Indiana. Still Changing Lives St. John’s College is included as one of only 40 distinct colleges in the United States that “excel at developing potential, values, initiative and risk-taking in a wide range of students,” according to a new edition of a college guidebook. St. John's “is a school that inspires self confidence, that makes its students believe they can do anything,” writes author Loren Pope in a new version of Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College. Pope refers to St. John’s as one of the “four most intellectual (and indispensable) colleges in the country.” Scholarship Winner ERICA NAONE (A05) was one of only 77 students chosen nationwide to receive a scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Program. The scholarship supports students who “have a strong appreciation for the arts, financial need, strong academic skills, leadership, and a desire to contribute to society.” Erica Naone (A05), Jack Kent Cooke scholarship winner Combining her love for math and science and her talent for writing, Naone is currently enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s graduate program in science writing. x {Letters} Greatness in a Twilight World There is a small error of fact in your obituary for tutor Thomas McDonald [Winter 2006], the correcting of which will allow me to add my own minor tribute to that great tutor. The obituary stated that Mr. McDonald had a sabbatical year in Germany, 1976-77. However, that was the first year I knew him at St. John’s in Santa Fe. He arrived in the fall of 1976 with his wife and his painful ailment, medication for which made it impossible for him to teach in the mornings. Our section of junior French was scheduled to meet twice a week at 2:30 p.m., with the third meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 9 a.m. He told us at our first class that he couldn’t meet so early on Wednesday, and asked if we could find an alternate time agreeable to everyone. When this proved impossible, we got our first glimpse of his characteristic humor: “How about 2 a.m.? I’m not doing anything then!” It was a romp of a French class. A wrong answer would be met by a swift hand reaching under the table to push a buzzer, sending an imaginary electrical current to the erring student. From time to time he would rise, slowly, painfully, to put something on the blackboard. We wondered if he would make it. Passing him on the Placita, we might ask that question seldom meant seriously: “How are you?” His answer once was, “50-50,” as he bent down, turning his hand from side to side, “comme ci, comme ça.” He was smiling. It was in that French class that we memorized poems. Two of them, to be precise. “Mr. Austin,” he began class one day, “tell us about your youth.” Ma jeunesse ne fut qu’un ténébreux orage, I butchered on, vowels, consonants falling dead all around me. While he was serious about the work of language, he also had a light hand with the serious things. I remember the joy of listening to him read to us Borges’ story about the Minotaur. My recollection is that Mr. McDonald did not participate in academic processions, on account of—I was told—his never having completed an academic degree. I asked him about that once, and he said something about obtaining a degree being an impediment to his education. Again, a smile. Some nine members of the class of 1978 were present at our tenth reunion. There we were, at a picnic table, wondering what it was that we had in common. The answer came: we were all in that junior French tutorial with Mr. McDonald. As we began sharing his jokes and mannerisms, we recalled how he bore his burdens lightly and showed us the joy of touching { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } greatness even in a twilight world. —Victor Austin, SF78 Correction: In the article, “Out of Africa: Journalist Lydia Polgreen (A97)” (Spring 2006 issue), Lydia Polgreen’s mother is incorrectly listed as Pamela. Rahel Polgreen is Lydia’s mother; Pamela Polgreen is the second wife of Lydia’s father, John Polgreen (SF71). 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 also be sent via e-mail to: rosemary.harty@ sjca.edu. �8 {The Tutors} Philosophy, Justice, and War Tutor James Carey Among the Cadets things like that. So even in the core philosophy course there’s been a lot of liberty. The other class I taught was a semester-long course on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, a seminar that I co-led with a colleague in the department. We had eight cadets and we worked our way through the book, reading about 90 to 95 percent of the whole work. I also taught a class called Great Philosophers— we devoted that class to What authors are you Xenophon and Plato. teaching here right now? We just read some dialogues, and that went Well, right now the quite well. And then finally semester’s just begun, so I taught a class on applied maybe I’ll tell you a little bit logic. We spent some time about what I did last on symbolic logic because semester. All of us in the I’m interested in that, but philosophy department we also read a Platonic teach a class called dialogue, the Euthydemus, rather slowly, and we read Philosophy 310. It’s really a a good chunk of Aristotle’s philosophical ethics course. Organon. It’s a nicely designed course, This semester I’m and it meets for 41 sessions teaching the core course in 42 days. One of the again. I’ve also got a 42 days is devoted to a seminar that I’m again formal lecture. We are co-leading. It’s a large one, required to do four sessions about 20 students, and it’s on issues of military on Nietzsche and Dostoprofessionalism—such things evsky. We’ll read a work of as obedience and civilianNietzsche’s, but the better military relations. And then Air Force Academy cadets are not that different from Johnnies, part of our meetings will six of those 41 meetings are Santa Fe tutor James Carey (class of 1967) has discovered as a visiting be on The Brothers devoted to just-war theory, professor at the academy. Karamazov, which is what the conditions for going to we’ve just launched war, what just grounds there ourselves into. might be for engaging in hostilities to begin with, and then how to conduct oneself What are those classes like? Is there a feeling among the cadets according to a certain standard of justice once hostilities have that they need to get something more pragmatic out of each begun. That’s 10 of the classes. For the remaining classes we meeting? Is there an application they’re looking for when they have a number of required meetings on Plato’s Republic, Arisread these authors? totle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Hobbes’ Leviathan, Kant’s Foundation for the Metaphysics of Morals, and Mill’s Utilitarianism. What that means—since this is a core class—is that St. John’s is In the Philosophy 310 class we talk a lot about just war. There is, not the only college in the country you can’t graduate from then, at least a component of the class that has an immediate without having read some of Plato’s Republic. Who would have bearing on their work as officers. So it does have practical consequences. What the cadets take from the class varies from guessed that the Air Force Academy was another one! For the remaining classes the instructor has a lot of discretion. individual to individual. Some people really love reading and discussing great books; other people prefer a Powerpoint We’ve read Thomas Aquinas and Machiavelli in my classes, Eddie Kovsky (SF03) spent two years as a staff writer for the base newspaper at the United States Air Force Academy. The summer he began, Santa Fe tutor James Carey (class of 1967) joined the faculty as the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Philosophy. In January 2006, Kovsky met with him to discuss his experience teaching at the academy and the role the classics play in preparing cadets to become officers. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �{Tutors} presentation. I will say that the most conspicuous difference between the cadets and the St. John’s students is not ability or even ultimately interest, at least if I think about the ones I’ve had in the seminars, but it’s reading habits [outside of class] . . . St. John’s students tend to be people who love books, really love them, whereas a lot of cadets are not particularly in love with books. Still, I would say that the cadets that I’ve had in my elective courses have been, in terms of their interests, very similar to St. John’s students. I’ve had cadets in my core class who would have done quite well at St. John’s, but I’ve also had cadets in my core class who would not have been very happy at St. John’s. Some of them seem disconcerted by questions that can’t be answered by crunching numbers. Since you just have them for that short period of time, what philosophy do you think is important to get across to them? What, from your background, are you trying to bring to them? 9 the educational process we can’t gauge everything that we do here by asking, “Does that have an application in a combat situation?” In a sense it probably does, because human beings are in combat situations. But if you’re reading a Platonic dialogue on the nature of knowledge or a Shakespeare comedy, it’s not immediately clear that that’s going have a concrete application in Iraq. But it will make you a broader person. If we’re going to have a military academy then both the educational and the training sides of the enterprise have to be distinguished and they both have to be supported. At least some of education—and this is the classical view of a liberal education— is for its own sake, but it has consequences too: a broader human being is a better human being, maybe a better pilot too, but almost certainly a better human being. Now, it looks as though a lot of what’s on the horizon for the military is peace keeping and nation building. That by itself suggests that the development of breadth of mind in military officers has to be a prime concern. And that’s something that a liberal education can help with. The [USAFA] dean wants the academy to become more learning focused, and that seems to me a very important step in the right direction. I think it’s vital that those of us who teach here think deeply about what learning is. That will help us distinguish between training and education, because a person can be well trained without really learning anything. That’s true of a dog too. Learning requires a kind of initiative and engagement on the part of the learner that does not lend itself to metric assessment but is the very center of the learning experience. Well, it depends on the class. Regarding Philosophy 310, the core class, I’d put it like this: I think a lot of discussions of just war, of just grounds for going to war and just ways of conducting yourself in war, presuppose a certain clarity about what justice itself is. But what justice is is not a clear notion. Reading the Republic, the Nicomachean Ethics, and similar classical texts helps provide us with a foundation, with reflection about what justice is, before we go into the particular theme of just war itself. I regard an encounter with the classics as indispensable for getting clarity about a number of concepts that get bandied around rather loosely today. What do we mean by a moral You had said that you wanted to try to law? And what is justice? What do we mean change the relationship between St. John’s by fundamental rights and basic human James Carey (A67) and the military, because there’s not a equality? The great philosophers thought lot of overlap there. Is there anything seriously about such questions, and reading that you’re trying to do here that you their books forces us to think seriously want to bring back to Santa Fe, or the about them as well. Annapolis campus for that matter? How do you try to remedy that, to teach without compromising the sense of duty to their long-term mission, which comes first for I would like to see cadets have an opportunity to participate at the cadets? least in the Summer Classics in Santa Fe. I’ve been very faithfully impressed with the cadets and I really like them. They’re intelligent, they’re capable of wonder, they can get In a sense, the interesting question is “Why do we have military excited over important things. Moreover, the cadets know that academies?” There are other models. One is officer candidate they may have to make sacrifices, that they’re in the military. school, and there are a lot of good officers that come out of OCS What does it mean for a young person, a high school junior, male and ROTC too. And then there’s the British model, as I underor female, to decide to go for a career in the military? That’s also stand it. People get a college degree in whatever they’re doing, a kind of eccentric decision. I would say that the young people classics, chemistry, what have you, and then those who want a who choose to go to St. John’s and the young people who choose military career go to Sandhurst for an exclusively military to go to the military academies have this much in common: graduate education. they’re not marching to the same drummer most young people The Air Force Academy, like the Naval Academy and the march to. x Military Academy, tries to provide both an undergraduate education and a military experience. So one might wonder, “What do you expect to get out of that?” And that’s a very interesting and complicated question. I’ll revert to my earlier formulation that education is first of all about educating human beings. If we’re going to be involved in “. . .a broader human being is a better human being, maybe a better pilot too. . .” { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �10 {Commencement} CELEBRATING COMMUNITY Commencement 2006 udith Seeger, completing her term as assistant dean of the Annapolis campus, and outgoing Santa Fe Dean David Levine (A67), were chosen by the seniors on their campuses to deliver the commencement addresses in May. Seeger and Levine each celebrated the St. John’s College community, both as a tangible collection of rituals and rules that allow a group of individuals to live together and as an abstract circle of the authors who help shape the college’s model of liberal education. At the commencement ceremony in Annapolis on May 15, 100 Annapolis seniors and 34 Graduate Institute students received their degrees. Seeger opened her speech by describing her experiences among indigenous groups in Brazil. To conduct research for her doctoral dissertation, Seeger spent months at a coastal fishing village recording ballads and stories passed orally for generations, experiences that shaped her ideas about community: “In the jungle I learned how to live in peace and companionship with people whose way of life was very different from mine.” In her speech she shared “the four cardinal rules by which we aspire to live together at this joe picard J college: responsibility, civility, honesty, and citizenship.” Seeger concluded by celebrating the graduates’ passage to a new community. “Soon you will make that momentous walk across the platform and with that walk this community in the form it has existed for you during the past few years will disband and you will pass into another community—that of graduates. . .So we should celebrate our last precious moments in this particular community with a song.” She sang a traditional ballad, “The Water is Wide,” chosen to emphasize how one can help another overcome difficulty to reach a goal. On May 21, 83 undergraduates and 33 master’s degree candidates received their diplomas in Santa Fe. Levine considered the question: Who is the class of 2006? “One can’t ever answer that question fully,” Levine said. “We might, however, make a beginning and say something about who you are, or rather who you have become over the past years of growth at the college under the transformative magic of the Program. We say { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } Above: among the 33 GI graduates in Santa Fe last May were (l. to r.) Jacquelyn Poplawski, Samantha Johnson, and Laura Leigh Birdwell. Opposite (clockwise, from top right): David Levine, shown with wife, Jacqueline, told graduates their work is far from over; Santa Fe President Michael Peters in the recessional; Annapolis graduates Cameron Healy (l.) and Aaron Brager look to the future; Judith Seeger serenaded Annapolis graduates. �{Commencement} The commencement speeches are available on the college’s Web site, www.stjohnscollege.edu. joe picard thought that threatened to undermine this very potential. He saw an isolating individualism at work where ‘the bonds that unite generations are relaxed or broken, and that put society at risk of losing its centering customs . . .’ ” Graduates leave the college with two gifts, but their work is far from over, he concluded: “You have seen greatness. You have known community. However, a gift is only as beneficial as our capacity to use it well. Your education is thus not over. And so, in the spirit of commencement, that is beginnings, we ask you today to pledge yourselves anew to the unfinished work that these authors so nobly began.” x joe picard alex lorman alex lorman years of growth, because this college is a place where one grows.” He elegantly traced some of the ways several authors in the Program shape students’ experiences at the college. “Throughout our tradition, from Plato through Nietzsche, it was generally recognized that education—the manner in which one learns and not just the content of what one learns—in shaping your mind, also shapes your person, your character, indeed your community.” Among the authors he cited, Levine described Alexis de Tocqueville’s observations on community and the individual: “In America he found people with a wondrous capacity for community and working together and yet an intellectual inheritance of Cartesian egocentricism and abstraction of { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } 11 �12 {Capital Campaign} “WITH A CLEAR AND SINGLE PURPOSE” The Campaign for St. John’s College Plans for Student Needs by Rosemary Harty onsider what financial aid means to students, their desire for the Program, and their hopes to do vital and satisfying work after earning their degree. Andrew Hsui (A02), pursuing a Ph.D. in comparative literature at Princeton University, says St. John’s would have been out of his reach without “a very generous financial aid package.” Drawn to the college by the books, the Program, and the community, Hsui was determined to attend St. John’s, even though his parents were anxious about the cost. C Now finished with his graduate coursework and ready to tackle his dissertation (perhaps Dante, perhaps Spencer), Hsui is more grateful than ever to have attended the college. “At St. John’s you gain this sort of intellectual courage to tackle different texts no matter whether it’s Sophocles’ Antigone or Hegel’s Phenomenology,” he says. “The fundamental questions we pursue in graduate school are the same problems that occur in freshman seminar.” As is the case with more than half of the students who attend St. John’s, Hsui received a St. John’s grant for each of the four years he attended. Thanks to a federal work-study award, he earned money working on campus. He entered graduate school with manageable debt. “Could I have attended St. John’s without financial aid? Absolutely not,” Hsui said. Building the college’s $100 million endowment to meet the financial aid needs of future Johnnies is one of the top priorities of “With a Clear and Single Purpose”: The Campaign for St. John’s College. Of the $125 million campaign goal, $46.5 million has been earmarked for building the endowment, with $33 million designated to ensure a robust financial aid program. In addition, the college seeks to raise $29 million in Annual Fund contributions through 2012 to help support more immediate financial aid needs. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �13 {Capital Campaign} A few central facts help to frame a discussion on the college’s approach to financial aid: • The college remains committed to a needbased financial aid policy that ensures that qualified students can attend the college regardless of their family’s economic resources. • During the 2005-06 academic year, 63 percent of students on the Santa Fe campus received aid directly from the college; in Annapolis, 53 percent of students were aid recipients. College-wide, St. John’s provided $9.4 million in institutional aid funded by tuition revenue, Annual Fund gifts, grants, and draw from endowment. • Meeting the gap between what families can afford and the cost of tuition will become increasingly more expensive for the college. • The college’s endowment is not sufficient to meet the anticipated need for financial aid in the coming decade. The college’s capital campaign seeks to address priorities that will sustain the Program and strengthen the college. Funding these priorities will require $125 million. FINANCIAL AID: $33 million for need-based aid. FACULTY AND ACADEMIC SUPPORT: $34 million to increase faculty salaries to the median of peer institutions; provide faculty development opportunities; develop program-related student instructional material The college’s strategic plan, which shaped the goals of the campaign, takes into account that the college will be spending more to meet the demand for financial aid in the next few years. “The American economy is not giving back to the poor and those in middle-income families, where the need is growing the fastest,” says Christopher B. Nelson (SF70), president of the Annapolis campus. “So far, we’ve been able to keep pace with our institutional aid. But the situation is not going to improve.” If the college enrolled only those students who could afford to attend, “we’d be a college of 200 students,” he says. The first question that parents, alumni, and supporters of the college want answered in a serious discussion of financial aid, Nelson acknowledges, is why the college is getting more expensive. He points out that the college’s annual tuition increases of about continued on p. 15 (manuals and workbooks); and ensure small class sizes and 1:8 tutor-to-student ratio. STUDENT SERVICES: $3.5 million to improve services to students, fund internship opportunities, and provide grants so that elementary and secondary teachers can attend the Graduate Institute. ST. JOHN’S IMPROVEMENT FUND: $5 million for library collections and laboratory equipment; improving Information Technology infrastructure; { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } staff professional development and compensation. BUILDING PROJECTS ON THE TWO CAMPUSES: $49.5 million for building projects, including a Santa Fe dormitory, a Graduate Institute center in Santa Fe funded, and the addition to and renovation of Evans Science Laboratory. The renovation of Mellon Hall and the addition of two new dormitories in Annapolis are completed and fully funded. �14 {Capital Campaign} GI Educator’s Grant: Bringing the Program to the Classroom teachers can benefit our polarized nation by teaching kids how to Annika McKinney is pursuing a Ph.D. in education at the talk to one another about important issues.” University of Maryland. Her dissertation research explores how Also, because they’re devoted to education, GI teachers make reading original texts and discussing them—similar to the Junior excellent students. “They know how to take responsibility for a Great Books program she encountered as a teacher—could be class as well as their own learning,” Venkatesh says. Many become applied to arts education. good recruiters of prospective students. “I thought I might interview some tutors and research the However, it was evident early on that the GI was losing teachers St. John’s approach a bit,” she says. “I wrote away for some because they often did not have the resources for tuition. information, and the Graduate Institute sent me a DVD and a “Teachers are usually the poorest of our students and always need catalogue. Then I decided that I had to do the program for financial assistance to be able to do this. For them, doing either of myself.” our MA programs is a serious commitment, and this is even more McKinney persuaded her doctoral advisers at the University of Maryland to approve independent credit for her work at St. John’s. true of those teachers who have to relocate families and homes to “I’m loving it,” McKinney says. “I know about Aristotle and Plato, come to distant Santa Fe,” he says. Classroom teachers aren’t the only educators benefiting from but I’ve never been able to read these texts, not in this way.” the grant program: Jennifer Kinkaid, a student in the Santa Fe In a summer course she presented to graduate students and Graduate Institute, is a college counselor at Loomis Chaffee aspiring teachers at the university, McKinney demonstrated a School in Windsor, Conn., who has been devoting her summers to St. John’s approach to reading A Raisin in the Sun with secondary the GI. In addition to the ideas she gains from the books, she has students. Her professor was so impressed with the quality of the also honed a valuable skill. discussion, he asked her to share the lesson plan with a language “I think listening has been one of the most important skills arts class in the fall. “I told my advisers that what takes place at I’ve developed through the GI seminars. Not only are we learning St. John’s is something all teachers should experience. to clarify our own ideas, but we learn to listen carefully, ask The Program can benefit every teacher, no matter what subject questions, and help others clarify their thoughts,” she says. he or she teaches,” McKinney says. Christopher Kaufmann, a public school teacher in Loudon Teachers like McKinney—innovators in the classroom who have County, Va., left his full-time position and signed on as a a strong desire to enrich their own intellectual lives—represent substitute in order to enroll full-time in the Graduate Institute the principle behind the National Educator’s Grants, offered by and complete the program in two years. The the Graduate Institute in Annapolis and grant relieved a bit of the economic hardship Santa Fe. The college offers a grant of oneinvolved in quitting his job. third tuition to teachers and administrators “I can see how much this will help in the interested in pursuing a Master of Arts in classroom,” he says. “I can better formulate Liberal Arts. Providing funding for the good questions for discussion. I can better educators’ grants by establishing an encourage students to develop their own endowment is one of the goals of the campaign. opinions on something they read and feel Teachers were among the first students in comfortable sharing their ideas with others.” the GI when it was established in Santa Fe in Vashti Pearson (AGI06) completed two 1967 (Annapolis followed a decade later), and segments over summer breaks from her job the college still believes that teachers can Annika McKinney in Birmingham, Ala. “I came benefit greatly from a to St. John’s frustrated and program that nurtures exhausted from the classcritical thinking, careful room. I hadn’t read a book reading, and discussion outside my prep for class the skills—on top of all the matewhole year. Coming here was rial covered in the classroom. like summer camp—I went “By educating teachers, we back refreshed and excited,” are trying to affect national she says. x education by supporting the notion of educating the whole human being, instead Annika McKinney (l.), a of just teaching for tests,” current GI student also says Krishnan Venkatesh, working on a doctorate in director of the GI in Santa education, and Vashti Fe. “Moreover, in learning Pearson (AGI06), brought from us how to make real new ideas and approaches conversations about big from their graduate studies back to the classroom. questions happen, our victoria smith “The Program can benefit every teacher, no matter what subject he or she teaches.” { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �{Capital Campaign} 15 For the Students “With a Clear and Single Purpose”: The Campaign for St. John's College seeks to raise $36.5 million for priorities relating to students and student life on both campuses: And without institutional grants, lowincome students could not consider a 5.5 to 6 percent have been in line with those college such as St. John’s. The federal • $33 million in endowment and Annual of other private, independent colleges in maximum Pell Grant award is $4,050; Fund for need-based financial aid, to the U.S. some students also qualify for a Suppleensure access for all students If tuition rises at rates higher than mental Educational Opportunity Grant admitted to the college. annual inflation, it is largely because a (SEOG), but the college matches 25 college such as St. John’s can’t take advan• $3.5 million in endowment and Annual percent of the SEOG awards. “The buying tage of the standard business cost-cutting Fund to improve services to students, power of a federal grant is much less,” measures, such as automation. “Education fund internship opportunities, and Rodriguez says. is expensive because it requires the sharing provide grants for teachers to attend After 21 years at the college, Rodriguez of the life of one well-educated human the Graduate Institute. is still impressed by the sacrifices made by being with another, a devotion of time that parents who want to see their children cannot be compromised without being attend St. John’s. “They do what they have cheapened,” he says. to because they recognize that this is the school for their child, that Nelson also emphasizes that no student pays the true cost of a this is where he or she will flourish,” he says. St. John’s education. This year, tuition is $34,306; without Paula Abernethy, financial aid director in Annapolis, has the college’s subsidy, it would be $44,555. “Alumni who attended observed that the college’s need-based financial aid is viewed as fair the college during my era may not view it this way, but the educaand equitable by most families, but the college does tion at St. John’s College is a veritable bargain,” he says. “It costs occasionally lose a student to another college because St. John’s substantially more to educate our students than what we’re makes awards based strictly on need, not merit. “Sometimes charging in tuition.” parents will come in with a package from another college, and say, And unless they have college-age children, alumni may not be ‘can you match it?’ All we can do is offer the best package, and then aware of how the changes in federal financial aid programs are students and their families have to make a decision,” she says. affecting lower- and middle-income families who want to send a More than half of St. John’s students receive grant aid, and son or daughter to St. John’s. Programs such as Pell Grants and barring a change in financial circumstances, each student can Supplementary Educational Opportunity Grants, made available to count on that assistance to remain consistent through their four the neediest students, would not come close to meeting the cost of years at St. John’s, Abernethy explains. “We have a strong tuition at any private liberal arts college. Funding for federal grant institutional commitment to aid,” she says. “If you look at that ratio programs has not increased in the past four years, and most student in other schools, we’re actually quite high. We really do care about loan programs now have higher interest rates. the students and we want to give them the best aid package we can.” At St. John’s, financial aid is guided by policies and principles The St. John’s grants are paid for by tuition, draw from endowrevisited often by the collegewide Management Committee and ment, and gifts to the college’s Annual Fund; federal grant aid administered on an individualized basis on each campus. Policy is is only a small part of the overall budget. Of the $19.2 million reviewed annually by financial aid committees composed of the packaged in undergraduate financial aid awards last year, less than president, dean, treasurer, assistant dean, financial aid director, $900,000 in grant aid came from federal programs. In addition, and admissions director. The committees meet before each fall the college gets $287,000 in federal aid for work-study, allowing recruitment season to assess the previous year’s results, anticipate a limited number of students to earn $2,800 a year from ondifficulties in the upcoming year, and adjust policy in light of the campus jobs. budget. Federally subsidized loans, PLUS loans for parents, and increasThe financial aid directors carry out policy and approach each ingly, private loans help students meet tuition and expenses, but prospective application with the goal of putting the best package interest rates are on the rise for these programs, and small private together to meet an individual family’s needs. In Santa Fe, about loans are now turning up in some financial aid packages. “We don’t 65 to 70 percent of students demonstrate some form of need, says have enough of the favorable loan money to cover our needs so we Michael Rodriguez, director of financial aid for the campus. “It’s a have begun to include a private loan in the aid package,” says Aberlarge portion of our population, but the financial aid program nethy. provides the opportunity for us to attract and matriculate students When he first joined the college in 1985, Rodriguez said from a wide economic spectrum. Without that diversity, we’d be a student loans usually topped out at $10,000 over four years. The very different college,” he says. average debt for the Santa Fe class of 2005 is $21,700— continued { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �16 {Capital Campaign} “We really do care about the students and we want to give them the best aid package we can.” Paula Abernethy, Annapolis financial aid director far less than the cost of one year’s tuition, but a burden he’d like to see fewer students saddled with. “It’s worrisome, particularly when so many of our students go on to graduate programs,” he says. At least once a year, Rodriguez has revisited a financial aid award to help a struggling student. “When there are extenuating circumstances, we go back to the financial aid committee to see what can be done,” he says. “But we’re always up front with the students that we’re hampered by limited dollars.” Another concern, along with loan debt, is the knowledge that some students are working at several jobs to help pay their expenses. Abernethy knows that a few students are working a campus job and nights or weekends at retail or restaurant jobs; some work 20 hours a week. “The Program isn’t meant for that, and these students are struggling,” she says. “Sometimes they come in, and we try to help them in some way.” Thanks to the Caritas Society, a group of Annapolis-area residents who raise money to help students with unexpected financial needs, Abernethy has a rainy-day fund to offer students at critical moments: she can give students up to $3,000 a year to help in emergencies. Each year, several students receive Caritas book grants of $400; several endowment funds also generate money to help students purchase books. At the financial aid conferences she attends, Abernethy hears the prevailing concern that middle-income families are those who struggle the most in this new financial aid climate. This year, she worked extensively with several families to make sure their dream of sending a child to St. John’s could happen. “It’s really nice when you go to Convocation, and you see those kids up on the stage,” she says. This May, Rodriguez will have the pleasure of seeing one of his award recipients graduate after an unusually long pursuit of a bachelor’s degree. Nick Cabbiness, in his 40s and an independent student, never found a program that suited him—until he heard of St. John’s. “I tried college a few other times, and I would { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �17 {Capital Campaign} end up triple-majoring, because I always had a desire to know many different things,” he says. While he has worked in several campus jobs his first three years, served as a resident assistant, and contributed what he could from savings, Cabbiness was most grateful for the grant aid he received from the college. After graduation, he plans to pursue a teaching career. From time to time over the years, he’s struggled greatly with the demands of the Program, but he didn’t have to worry about paying tuition. “I’m so thankful to the college in many ways, but I’m most grateful to have the freedom to pursue work that I want to do, and not just for monetary reasons,” he says. x Internships Offer Johnnies Experience and Insight influenced his approach in the classroom. “Inquiry is important in every situation,” he says. When Coker-Dukowitz applied for his internship, he wasn’t certain that education was the field he wanted to pursue. His internship solidified his ambition, honed his talents, and presented him with a specific direction. Catherine Pisha (A06) had a similar experience during her internship at the Women’s Rape Crisis Center in Burlington, Vt., made possible by a grant from The Hodson Trust Internship Program. She entered the summer with vague ideas about what she wanted to do, but not how to do it. “For a long time I have known that I enjoy work involving close interpersonal contact and emotional healing through conversation, but I have not had a clear idea as to how that might translate into a job,” she wrote in her post-internship report. By the end of the summer, she says, her career goals were “strengthened and honed. . .Being an intern at the Womens’ Rape Crisis Center allowed me to see that there is a wider range of jobs that might meet these needs and interests of mine than I had previously thought.” Not only did her experience at the WRCC give her confidence about pursuing this field, it also prepared her for similar employment. She now works for the Winooski Family Center, a nonprofit which provides various services to low-income families. For Pisha, the internship was more than a financial grant. It provided the clarity she needed to pursue a meaningful path after graduation. x teri nolan Somewhere in the midst of junior and senior years, students turn their thoughts to life outside of St. John’s. The transition can be daunting, especially to those students who don’t have a clear grasp on a career path. To assist students as they consider various careers, Annapolis has the Hodson Internship and Santa Fe the Ariel Internship. Funded on a temporary basis, the Ariel program awarded its first internship in 2005. To date $75,600 has been distributed, including six awards for fine arts internships funded by the Thaw Charitable Trust. Last year 38 applications were submitted and 15 stipends (ranging from $1,800 to $3,600) were granted. This summer the campus expects to fund 18 internships, awarded competitively to students who present a clear plan for where they want to work and what they hope to discover through the experience. A campaign goal is to establish an endowment that will provide permanent funding for the Ariel Internships. The Hodson Internship Program was established in 2000, with a generous endowment from The Hodson Trust. Each year, the program funds up to 25 internships with stipends of up to $3600 each. Zacc Coker-Dukowitz (SF05) received an Ariel Internship the summer after his senior year. His experience at an educational organization served as a catalyst for his first professional job, as assistant director of Breakthrough Santa Fe at Santa Fe Prep. Coker-Dukowitz’s Ariel stipend allowed him to work as an intern at the Breakthrough Collaborative, based in San Francisco, and dedicated to helping underprivileged kids gain a better chance at higher education. Coker-Dukowitz taught English classes to seventh- and eighth-graders, and his St. John’s experience { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } An Ariel Internship set Zacc Coker-Dukowitz (SF05) on the path to a job with Breakthrough Santa Fe, an educational organization. �18 {Jane Austen} JANE’S HEROINES Elizabeth’s Comeuppance ometimes they are hampered by pride or foolishness. In other novels, their lack of social status or fortune creates the drama. But the heroines of Jane Austen’s novels are always memorable: for their foibles, their dignity, their intelligence, their quick wit, and their sheer persistence. In these short essays, St. John’s alumni, students, and tutors celebrate the women of Jane Austen’s world. S By Roberta Gable (A78) Tiresome Elizabeth Bennet. How nice for her that she gets the happily-ever-after treatment. To recap the familiar plot of Pride and Prejudice: Mr. Bennet (he used to be disgusted, now he’s just amused) and Mrs. Bennet (more fatuous than which shall not be conceived, if you’re not counting the Collins branch of the family) have five daughters: Jane (the saint), Elizabeth (the smarty-pants), Mary (the book-reading twerp), Lydia (the trollop-in-training) and Kitty (the trollop-in-training’s trollop-in-waiting). Jane and Elizabeth, the two eldest, usurped all virtues available to the five girls, with the exceptions, perhaps, of seriousness (Mary) and malleability (Kitty). Virtuous or no, they all must marry, and in fact there are five offers tendered during the Opposite: Witty Elizabeth Bennett brightens the pages of PRIDE Knightly in the 2006 film.) AND PREJUDICE. (Keira { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �{ T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �20 {Austen} Love triumphs. Money soothes all concern for the morrow. course of the action, but again, not doled out evenly: Lydia gets one, of the shotgun variety; Jane gets one, from the oh-sodesirable Mr. Bingley; and Elizabeth gets three, one from her ridiculous cousin Mr. Collins, and two from the detestable Mr. Darcy, the second of which she accepts, and we’re made to feel glad for her, because it turns out that Mr. Darcy is not so detestable after all. And most of the time we forget to dislike Elizabeth, too. She’s witty, she’s a fun read, and her behavior is regulated by genuine feeling, not conventional manners. Hurrah for our side, we think—the snooty rich women (Miss Bingley, Mrs. Hurst, and the tyrannical Lady Catherine de Bourgh) get what’s coming to them, at least in some small degree, and our Elizabeth, heroine, not of the working class, but of the genteel aspirers, is rewarded with the hand of a good-looking rich guy. (So is Jane, for that matter, but she’s insufficiently dimensional for us really to care about her.) The main obstacles to the Elizabeth/Darcy match—his horror of marrying beneath himself, her profound disgust for him—are gradually surmounted, and happiness abounds. Love triumphs. Money soothes all concern for the morrow. She who prides herself, however, on her independent mind, her ability to discern character, and her subtlety (especially in comparison with Ma and Pa) must first dine on crow. For the first 200 pages or so she judges, she gossips, she caricatures, she deplores, she assumes, she exults in her superiority, and she trusts Wickham, the one true rascal in the story. Then she must repent having been an ass. She who always has something to say is made to shut up and listen: two letters, the first from Darcy, defending himself, and the second from her aunt, revealing Darcy’s virtually superhuman goodness, effect the necessary comeuppance. “Oh! how heartily did she grieve over every ungracious sensation she had ever encouraged, every saucy speech she had ever directed towards him.” While her self-flagellation is only verbal, words are what drive reality in this comedy of character. Everyone is who people say he is, until they start saying something different, and then he’s that; what happens hasn’t much happened until it is discussed. Finally Elizabeth finds she must re-create not only others but herself in words, no mean feat for a woman rightly accused of sometimes saying things precisely because she doesn’t mean them. Lest we too become twerpy in our book-reading, and moralize like dear sister Mary, let’s be easy on Miss Elizabeth, with her lovely feet of clay. She herself gets over it, and lets the happy ending befall her. Roberta Gable is associate director of Admissions in Annapolis. Fanny Reconsidered by Rhonda Ortiz (A05) To my teenage self on first reading Mansfield Park: My dear Miss F——, Thank you for your last. Yes, I do remember receiving the St. John’s College pamphlet: small, brown, with all those obscure authors listed ceremoniously on the cover. I’m not surprised that you noticed Jane Austen’s name. Pride and Prejudice was the first work of literature that captivated you both as an amusing story and intellectual food for thought. This singular delight in Austen was one of the primary reasons you decided to attend St. John’s College. But right now you say you’re bewildered by Mansfield Park. How, you ask, could Austen, who created the brilliant, charming Elizabeth Bennet, also pen this repressed, uninspiring, prudish Fanny Price, and call her a heroine? Where is her wit? Why is she so timid, so nervous? Why has Austen left the brilliant repartee, the intrigue, even all the action, to the other characters? And what’s all the moral fuss about? I know that you are bound and determined to like everything Austen has written, and, don’t worry, you will. Mansfield Park and Fanny Price will surprise you yet. It will probably take you multiple readings and, perhaps, a large essay to realize that Fanny Price is more than likable. The problem now is your disposition. In life and novels you prefer confident, agreeable, humorous, open characters. But like many 16-year-olds, you are willing but unpracticed in slowing down to notice—really notice—other people. It is easy to appreciate Elizabeth Bennet’s brilliance, but patience and sympathy are required to see through Fanny’s awkwardness to her subtle beauty. At nine, Fanny is sent by her struggling Portsmouth family to live with her wealthy uncle and aunt. Shy, awkward, overlooked, and homesick, Fanny is miserable at Mansfield Park until her cousin, Edmund, notices her unhappiness and befriends her. Edmund discovers Fanny “to be clever, to have a quick apprehension as well as good sense, and a fondness for { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �{Austen} reading.” He attempts to bring Fanny “forward” but is thwarted by the behavior of the rest of the family, who, unwittingly or not, in their turn treat her as a sponger, a personal servant, a child to tease, a dimwit, or simply someone to ignore. Not the kindest family. Furthermore, Fanny is hopelessly eclipsed by her cousins, quintessential small-town beauties, and, later in the narrative, by the cosmopolitan Mary Crawford. Given her life at Mansfield Park, it is easy to understand Fanny’s awkwardness. Her sensitive nature feels suffering acutely, and, habituated to lowliness, she becomes easily flustered by attention or praise. Edmund, sensitive to Fanny’s situation, sees past her awkwardness to her good qualities. You should try to do the same. It will give you a way into her character. As to Fanny’s being so morally fussy, well, this is purposeful. Fanny’s character is meant to push some buttons. The story of Mansfield Park is driven primarily by the tension caused between traditional, Christian morality and skeptical, 21 Patience and sympathy reveal the true heroism of MANSFIELD PARK’s Fanny Price. (Frances O’Connor as Fanny in the 1999 film.) modern, metropolitan mores. Consequently, the story gives rise to the same tension already in the soul of most modern Western readers, including you. Mary Crawford, the story’s antagonist, stands for the pragmatic and cynical modern woman who regards society, marriage, tradition, and the church with an unbelieving eye. Fanny, on the other hand, can see the moral good at stake in both small events (like the gift of a necklace) and large ones (like marriage proposals). Mary is immediately attractive and Fanny is not, yet it is Fanny who Austen wants us to admire. Remember that Edmund observes in Fanny an intuitive, intelligent mind, and a great amount of ‘sense.’ With Edmund’s encouragement, Fanny grows to be not only sensitive and moral but also poetic and philosophic. “If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the continued on p. 23 { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �22 {Austen} Anne’s Second Chance by Eva Brann (HA57) Anne Elliot would seem to be the heroine of Persuasion, Jane Austen’s last complete novel. Persuasion is my favorite of the six— that is to say in between the others, since whichever I’m actually reading is my favorite at the time. I love Persuasion best, but I’m not so sure I love its heroine most. There’s a sure-fire test for such preferences: Imagine by whom you’d like to be asked to tea. That would be, for me, Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice or Emma Woodhouse of Emma, the former because of the delightfully sparkling way she crosses wickedness with propriety, the latter, because this young person, in her delicious self-confidence, gets everything so cleverly wrong. Anne of Persuasion, on the other hand, has had her spirits damped by disappointment and her demeanor shaped by too often having “scolded back her senses.” She is kind, competent, and useful—universal usefulness being the spinster’s default position— and her nature has been more molded by self-control than by selfexpression. I think she could not help depressing even a sympathetic guest from a later century by her air of grief bravely and silently borne—at least when we first meet her. “When we first meet her:” The year is the summer of 1814; just about the time Jane Austen must have been writing Persuasion. We are told on the first page that Anne was born on August 9, 1787. So she is 27 when the story begins, the oldest by at least seven years of all the heroines and the only one who lives in real time, alongside Jane Austen. Moreover she has a past fitted into real history. In the summer of 1806, just 200 years before my writing this little piece, a young naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, had come into the neighborhood as a result of his promotion after “the action off San Domingo.” Anne had been “an extremely pretty girl,” with gentleness, modesty, taste, and feeling. “She had hardly anybody to love,” for she is afflicted with a pretty awful father and two very unlovable sisters, and her mother had died in 1800 (or 1801). So she falls “rapidly and deeply in love.” No other heroine does that; they take their time, and it isn’t clear that they “fall in love” at all. I think I can prove, and will one day, that Elizabeth, who surely loves Darcy, is not at all in love with him, though he, the proud and inhibited owner of a fine estate, is the most attractive of that gallery, mostly of young clergymen stiff with propriety and rectitude while waffling as lovers, with whom Jane Austen’s girls elect to make their happiness. “A short period of exquisite happiness follows,” but then Anne sends him away, persuaded by the opposition of the well-intentioned but essentially obtuse Lady Russell who had taken a mother’s place in Anne’s esteem. “Lady Russell had little taste for wit,” while Captain Wentworth was brilliant, headstrong, and—“had no fortune.” Lady Russell’s persuasion “was more than gentle Anne could combat,” for it dwelt on duty. Now he is back in Somersetshire, rich with prize money and rising in his profession. We are sure he’ll be an admiral, as two of Jane Austen’s brothers were to be. This Frederick Wentworth is the only active fighting man, the only suitor in the six novels, who is both spirited and reliably a gentleman; usually the brilliant ones, like Henry Crawford of Mansfield Park, are sadly corruptible. What makes Anne attractive is partly that she can love and be loved by such a man. But there has been a hiatus of eight years, of pique, anger, and successful action for him, of confused, patient, lonely grief for her. Her inconsiderate sister repeats to her that Captain Wentworth, who has himself lost none of his attractiveness, had observed her to be “so altered he should not have known her again.” So begins her second ordeal, in which Wentworth is kept from approaching her, at first by the misconstruals of disappointed pride and eventually by jealousy, as Anne is courted by the heir to the family estate. So too, Anne’s shrinking spirit prevents her from bringing about any mutual clarification until the very end. Of course, were she bolder, she wouldn’t be Anne Elliot, and Persuasion wouldn’t be a fulllength novel, the slow unraveling of the adversities that have kept them apart. But finally all the grief is dissolved and perfect felicity ensues: “It was but a card-party, it was but a mixture of those who had never met before, and those who met too often.” The two having that afternoon declared themselves to each other but not yet to the world, Anne moves through that evening of bliss: “some moments of communication continually occurring, and always the hope of more, and always the knowledge of his being there.” It is, as far as my reading goes, the most perfectly captured moment of the inward bliss of yet unpublished love in literature. There is a coda to this tale which throws light on what Jane Austen meant by it. Her nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh, reports in A Memoir of Jane Austen that perhaps because of ill-health (she was to die on July 18, 1817, exactly a year from the night he tells of) “she retired to rest in very low spirits.” She thought the chapter of resolution tame and flat. “But such depression was little within her nature,” and the next day, revived in spirits, she canceled the offending chapter and wrote two new ones. If you read both the canceled and the substituted climactic chapters you might at first find them equally lovable in different ways, but then it dawns on you. The new chapter recounts a confidential conversation between Anne and one of Wentworth’s fellow officers which is accidentally overheard by him, and this conversation reveals the deep theme of the novel: women’s and men’s constancy in love, differently constituted, but equally strong in both. For Wentworth, Anne’s gentle insistence on women’s faithfulness is the signal he needs to declare himself. Everyone agrees that Persuasion is somehow deeper and darker than the earlier five. “Darker” doesn’t seem quite right to me— “more feeling-fraught” is better. But this feeling isn’t Anne’s or Frederick’s feeling only; it is—again “somehow”—Jane Austen’s. Not that Persuasion is autobiographical; there is no evidence at all that she nourished an undying love for anyone, and gentleness hardly describes the loving malice of her temper. Nonetheless, she is, somehow, ever-present in Persuasion, her spirit is more palpable in this than in any other of the perfect six, and on second thought, it’s her presence for which I love that book; she’s its heroine. Eva Brann will begin her 50th year at St. John’s next fall. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �{Austen} continued from p. 21 With Edmund’s encouragement, Fanny grows to be not only sensitive and moral but also poetic and philosophic. rest, I do think it is memory,” she exclaims, inspired during a daily walk. “There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any of our intelligences. . . .We are to be sure a miracle every way.” Fanny, among many things, thinks about thinking. She is attentive to the wonders both in nature and in herself. The point is, be sensitive to Fanny. I don’t think Austen intends for us to immediately like her. If she did she wouldn’t have penned as delectable an antagonist as Mary Crawford. Mansfield Park is called her most philosophic novel; perhaps Austen wants to engage us in a philosophic challenge—to learn to see Fanny, and then see what Fanny sees. See what happens if you reconsider Fanny. I remain yours, etc. etc. R.O. Rhonda (Franklin) Ortiz wrote her senior essay on Mansfield Park; she teaches elementary school in Washington, D.C. Emma, Enlightened by Namara Smith (SF07) The real evils indeed of Emma’s situation were the power of having rather too much her own way and a disposition to think a little too well of herself; these were the disadvantages which threatened alloy to her many enjoyments. —Emma Emma Woodhouse’s “disposition to think a little too well of herself” does not manifest itself in the obvious way, through pride in her beauty. Emma’s delighted initiation of her fickle “projects,” both her artistic endeavors and her matchmaking, reveals that her vanity is satisfied by gazing, not at her physical reflection, but at a world that reflects her wishes. Because her actions are unchecked by her father and her governess, she has almost no outside judgment to make her doubt her own perfection; the only criticism she receives is from Mr. Knightley, “one of the few people who could see faults in Emma Woodhouse, and the only one who ever told her of them.” Mr. Knightley’s moderate rebukes alone are not enough to make Emma see the dangers of her position. Emma’s vanity in her mental image of herself, not her physical image, shows her partially correct self- 23 awareness. Emma is not stubbornly or perversely defying her reason and experience—she is, in fact, uncommonly clever. This half-truth, without the balance of sufficient candor from others is, in part, why she remains unaware of the danger she faces. Perhaps the most disturbing character to Emma is the new bride of Mr. Elton, a woman who is vain, meddlesome, socially manipulative and ridiculous. From the first mention of Augusta Hawkins, some connection between Emma and the future Mrs. Elton is implied. Mr. Elton proposes to Emma, is refused, runs off to Bath, and almost immediately proposes to Miss Hawkins. To Mr. Elton, at least, Emma and Mrs. Elton both possess the qualities that he seeks in a wife: money and social class. Mr. Elton’s airy assumption of their relative equality is Emma’s first worrisome indication that the world does not necessarily share her own rose-colored vision of herself. As a result, Emma feels she must, on some level, criticize his new bride and distinguish herself from her in order to correct his lack of judgment. As readers, we realize that her character and dialogue has been deliberately constructed to echo Emma’s earlier manners. Mrs. Elton’s unblushing assertion that “blessed with so many resources within [herself], the world was not necessary. . .” parodies Emma’s statement: “If I know myself, Harriet, mine is an active, busy mind with a great many independent resources.” Emma’s reaction to Mrs. Elton is the catalyst that forces Emma from her passive self-satisfaction into actively defining her position in the world. When the new Mrs. Elton makes her first appearance in Highbury, Emma almost instantly recognizes in Mrs. Elton the same “evils” that are ascribed to her at the beginning of the novel: “[a] quarter of an hour quite convinced her that Mrs. Elton was a vain woman, extremely well satisfied with herself, and thinking much of her own importance. . .she meant to shine and be very superior . . .Miss Hawkins, it might be fairly supposed, from her easy conceit, had been the best of her own set.” Emma can see the source of Mrs. Elton’s shortcomings although she is blind to the dangers of her own vanity, and she perceives that Mrs. Elton’s “easy conceit” comes from her limited experience of the world. Mrs. Elton uses her social status as the foundation for her extravagant claims to aesthetic taste. The most noticeable { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �24 {Austen} Emma is not stubbornly or perversely defying her reason and experience—she is, in fact, uncommonly clever. example of her role as a self-appointed aesthetic judge is her treatment of Jane Fairfax. When Mrs. Elton thrusts herself into the role of Jane Fairfax’s custodian, she presents herself as the only person with the sensibility to recognize and cultivate Jane’s talents in the aesthetic wasteland of Highbury. Speaking to Emma of her resolution to “bring Jane forward,” Mrs. Elton quotes a poetic couplet: “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its fragrance on the desert air.” In terms of Jane Fairfax, this attitude is patently false. From Jane’s first appearance, everyone acknowledges her artistic accomplishment and skill. Mrs. Elton uses her association with Jane to enhance her own appearance of aesthetic superiority. These incidents seem insignificant, but they foreshadow Mrs. Elton’s most contemptible action towards Jane—her constant pressure to trap her into the inferior position of a governess. Mrs. Elton’s actions toward Jane show no real appreciation or respect of her artistic excellence. She uses Jane to further her own social status, while attempting to limit Jane from having real social power. Mrs. Elton’s treatment of Jane Fairfax highlights the hypocrisy of Emma’s mentoring of Harriet Smith. Emma does not cultivate Harriet as a social lever, however, but more as a kind of game or project, an example of Emma’s playful disposition leading her astray. Although Emma’s intentions are different from Mrs. Elton’s, the effect is the same. They both harm and improperly influence Harriet and Jane. Emma’s social neglect of Jane is just as damning as her careless influence over Harriet. Jane is left with no arena to develop her talents, no peers, no one to really appreciate her socially. In part, this neglect leaves her vulnerable to Frank’s illicit offer of a secret engagement. Mrs. Elton’s actions lead Emma to realize and regret how she has mistreated Harriet and neglected Jane. Emma’s first interactions with Mrs. Elton represent an important turning point in her character. For the first time, her social position and its related aesthetic values are not enough to distinguish her from someone she feels is her inferior. Emma’s new awareness of the deficiency of social forms is revealed in a disturbing incident right after her first interview with Mrs. Elton—Emma’s only argument with her father. Superficially, this disagreement is about whether Mr. Woodhouse needs to visit Mrs. Elton and pay his respects. However, Emma’s frustration with her father’s inability to see beyond Mrs. Elton’s social status as a bride reveals her new dissatisfaction with purely social definitions. Correspondingly, she realizes that the near-universal approval and even praise of her that contributed to her vanity is not a complete reflection of her character. She begins to feel the need to move beyond her home and establish an independent position in the world. Mrs. Elton pushes Emma out of passive immersion in her immediate society by reflecting Emma back to herself in an unsettling manner. Emma must now choose between ironic detachment from the world or fully aware, moral participation in society. Miss Smith wrote about Emma for her junior essay in Santa Fe. Sensible Elinor by Barbara Goyette (A73) What is so striking about Elinor Dashwood, the heroine of Sense and Sensibility, is the way she bears heartsickness. She falls in love with and believes she is loved by an amiable, educated, handsome young man of some prospects, only to discover that he is engaged to another. Upon the death of her father, she and her mother and sisters must leave the small estate of Norland, where they have lived happily for many years. Her beloved sister Marianne falls for the perfidious but charming Willoughby, who not only leaves Marianne without a word of explanation but turns out to have an unsavory past. When Marianne becomes extremely ill, Elinor must nurse her back to health in mind as well as body. Not only does Elinor suffer these misfortunes silently, but she also endures the remonstrances of her mother and sister when they tell her she appears to be unfeeling about everyday trials. The depth of her disappointments and struggles is never revealed. Elinor shows herself to be strong, emotionally sound, capable of excellent judgment, and able to appear to recover her spirits quickly even in the midst of devastating events. She is neither dashing nor exciting, and is pretty in an unremarkable way, except to those who see her true character. Extremely sensitive to the inner lives of those around her, she at times appears to hide from her own goodness. { T h e C o l l e g e • John’s College • Fall 2006 } �{Austen} Her infatuation with Edward Ferrars can seem baffling—is she imagining his charms? Is she expecting less for herself in love because she thinks this is all she deserves? Her highly developed sense of irony almost leads her down dangerous paths a number of times, as she treats her mother, sister, and acquaintances with less than genuine attention because, we may infer, they lack the seriousness of her own concerns. She knows she is superior— morally and in both sense and sensibility—and yet she lives out her life in the background. The work of the novel is to fill in the picture of Elinor’s true character—to herself and to us as readers—her nature as a human being living with a particular set of people in a particular place, at a particular time. Although it might seem that who she is and who she becomes could be the result of the constraints of her 25 The Dashwood sisters are drawn as opposing personalities. (Emma Thompson as Elinor, Kate Winslet as Marianne in Ang Lee’s 1995 film.) situation (which is drawn in great detail), Austen shows us instead that Elinor determines her own character—outside of, although influenced by, the situations that we are used to thinking of as those that make women like Elinor who they are: birth, rank or status, social connections, education, role in society, income. Early in the novel we are presented with a scene that lays out the various connections between the characters. Mrs. Dashwood, Elinor, Marianne and their younger sister Margaret are newly arrived at Barton Cottage, having been displaced from their home following the unexpected death of Mr. Dashwood. Sir John { T h e C o l l e g e • John’s College • Fall 2006 } �26 {Austen} While Elinor is reserved and sensible, Marianne believes the heart must always show the way. Middleton, a cousin of Mrs. Dashwood, has offered them the cottage for a very reasonable rent. The women are reconciled to their reduced circumstances, although it is clear that only Elinor understands the kinds of changes they will have to make in their way of life. The charms of the new countryside, as well as the possibility of new acquaintances, have made them fairly cheerful. The Dashwoods have been invited to Barton Park, the home of Sir John and Lady Middleton. Also in attendance are Mrs. Jennings, mother to Lady Middleton, and Colonel Brandon, a neighbor and friend of Sir John. In the scene when all these characters convene for the first time, Austen shows clearly that character is independent of both nature and nurture. There is a kind of merry chaos in which each person contradicts our expectations of what they will be like based on their situation. Sir John Middleton, a member of the traditional gentry, should be stuffy and proud. Instead, he is warm, kindly, generous, and outgoing. His wife Lady Middleton, through her marriage a social equal of her husband, is reserved, cold, and possesses a “common mind.” Her mother, Mrs. Jennings, is decidedly bourgeois, wealthy enough, effusive, more than slightly vulgar. Where does Sir John’s generous nature come from, and why is his wife so affectedly elegant? Neither their situation nor their background accounts for the differences in their characters. Colonel Brandon, situated similarly to Sir John, offers a further contrast—he is moody, intelligent, and concise, more like a member of the clergy than a military man with property. Elinor and Marianne are drawn as opposing personalities as well. While Elinor is reserved and sensible, Marianne believes the heart must always show the way. Both are in a precarious state socially and financially and we might think the accepted route to their happiness and security would lie in good marriages for both. And yet through Elinor, Austen suggests that character development determines happiness. Elinor forms herself rather than allowing her circumstances to make her. Barbara Goyette is vice president of Advancement in Annapolis. Artless Catherine by Tilar J. Mazzeo (SF93) As Jane Austen warns her readers at the beginning of Northanger Abbey, Catherine Moreland is an unlikely heroine, and, when it comes to tributes to Austen’s women, Catherine can be a bit of a hard sell. She lacks the wit and charm of Elizabeth Bennet. She can’t boast the self-possession of Elinor Dashwood. Even the meddlesome Emma Woodhouse has the advantage of being genuinely clever. Perhaps most fundamentally, Catherine falls in love with a man who is primarily attracted to her intellectual limitations and to her good-natured eagerness to be guided by the superior knowledge of others without developing any of her own. Henry Tilney is an enthusiastic lecturer of young women, and Austen reminds her readers that nothing is more flattering to the vanity than the wide-eyed wonder of one’s interlocutor, writing that “Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant.” Ironically, however, the nature of Catherine’s ignorance is what makes her such an interesting and ultimately likeable character— not, I hope, because she flatters my vanity as a reader, but because it seems to me that the exploration of her ignorance over the course of the novel is part and parcel of Austen’s larger themes about artlessness and the art of the novel in Northanger Abbey. Of course, Northanger Abbey is a novel about the status of the genre, part satire on the excesses of the gothic variety so popular in the early 19th century and part defense of the novel as a “work in which the greatest powers of the human mind are displayed.” The satire on the gothic is what most readers remember about Northanger Abbey, and Catherine’s introduction to the genre, coinciding with her introduction into fashionable society, is a comic misadventure in which she learns to over-interpret the incidents of domestic life, imagining melodrama where it does not exist. In fact, it seems that an education in the aesthetics of the gothic novel is simultaneously a process of learning to read for figurative and double meanings. Catherine’s interpretive zeal, however, ends unhappily when she comes to a mistaken conclusion. Embarrassed and conscious of her own error, she ends by rejecting the genre and recognizing the unfortunate “influence of that sort of reading.” { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �{Austen} If Catherine’s newfound understanding of gothic novels and the dangers of interpretation were simply part of her education as an increasingly sophisticated reader, then we might say that she was a slow study but on her way. Instead, she returns to what appears to be her natural state of ignorance, a state in which she demonstrates an inability to recognize irony or to negotiate the ways in which language creates duplicity. Perhaps the most telling moment occurs late in the novel, when it is precisely Catherine’s inability to understand this duplicity that most endears her to Eleanor and Henry Tilney. Faced with the prospect of his brother’s marriage to the deceitful Isabella Thorpe, Henry sarcastically advises Eleanor, “Prepare for. . .such a sister-in-law as you must delight in!—Open, candid, artless, guileless. . .forming no pretensions, and knowing no disguise.” Eleanor immediately grasps the irony, assuring Henry that such a sister-in-law as that she would welcome—for the characterization describes Catherine precisely. Only Catherine fails to understand the wit or to recognize herself as the half-subject of the exchange. Catherine’s interpretive simplicity and literal-mindedness, if those phrases work to describe her ignorance and intellectual limitations more precisely, lend some of the humor to this passage, of course. But what I find most curious is the description of Catherine, here and throughout the novel, as artless. From the earliest moments of the novel, readers are assured of her limited accomplishments: “she could not write sonnets. . .there seemed no chance of her Wit and Wisdom from Jane Austen On Good Company Anne smiled and said, “My idea of good company, Mr Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.” “You are mistaken,” said he gently, “that is not good company; that is the best.”—Persuasion On Candor Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken.—Emma On One’s Self “We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.”—Fanny Price, Mansfield Park 27 throwing a whole party into raptures by a prelude on the pianoforte. . . .she had no notion of drawing”. Her interest in fashion is remarkably lackluster, and her tastes in reading are limited to the gothic novel, with which she shortly becomes disenchanted. At the same time, she remains singularly innocent of irony. Catherine is, in other words, artless in at least two respects—she is both ignorant of aesthetics and inexperienced at manipulating representation. She is incapable of either engaging in or understanding duplicity. Yet, understanding duplicity is essential both to irony and to the sort of fiction that Northanger Abbey—this novel about novels— celebrates. Early in Northanger, in fact, “effusions of wit” are identified as a central to the genre. What we have here is a witless and artless heroine, and the choice is perhaps one of Austen’s most striking experiments in and, ultimately, satires on realism. After all, Catherine is precisely the sort of girl most likely to appeal to a slightly vain and entirely ordinary country clergyman. In the context of a romance, she might just pass as a heroine, for, if she is unlikely, she is not unlikable. But, while not understanding duplicity might be an admirable thing in a 19th-century heroine, the art of the novel and the art of the reader demand something more. Tilar Mazzeo is assistant professor of English at Colby College. On Men and Books “Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove any thing.”—Anne Elliot, Persuasion On Women and Marriage Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.—Pride and Prejudice On Youth “. . .there is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind, that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions.”—Colonel Brandon, Sense and Sensibility { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �28 The past few months have brought a wide variety of alumni books to The College mailbox, on topics from religion to baseball. The Grail Code: Quest for the Real Presence by Mike Aquilina and Christopher Bailey (A87) Loyola Press The authors trace Holy Grail stories and legends throughout time with the aim of showing how these accounts have radically skewed the Eucharistic meaning of the Grail. “Powerful forces tend to pull the story of the Grail toward heresy,” Aquilina and Bailey write in this study that includes consideration of the King Arthur legends, Marie de France’s stories of love and magic written in the Middle Ages, and even Hollywood’s take on Christian symbolism and the Grail in films such as Indiana Jones. They dismiss many Grail stories, particularly modern ones such as Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, as written by members “of the wacky fringe.” In the authors’ opinions, the search for the Grail becomes a quest for adventure and entertainment in these stories instead of an experience fueled by the purpose of changing the seeker’s life in a deep, spiritual sense. The Truth is Out There: Christian Faith and the Classics of TV Science Fiction by Thomas Bertonneau and Kim Paffenroth (A88) Brazos Press Star Trek fans out there will enjoy seeing how some of their favorite episodes of the 1960s science fiction classic relate to Plato, the Bible, and St. Augustine. Professors Thomas Bertonneau and Kim Paffenroth look to science fiction as a lens that shows how religion and science can be integrated. They cite Plato’s dialogue Timaeus as possibly the “first science fiction story” that discusses the idea that the world was created by a god who is rational and moral. {Bibliofile} The authors then analyze science fiction television shows such as Star Trek, Dr. Who, The Prisoner, and The Twilight Zone. Star Trek, the authors propose, can be considered a showcase for Christian virtues such as humility and moderation. The trio of Kirk, Spock, and the crotchety McCoy function as a whole being, drawing analogies to Plato’s views of the triumvirate soul. “Star Trek’s consistent vision seems to be about morality,” they write. The authors also show how The Twilight Zone illustrates the impact of original sin. The more recent series, The X Files, is cast in a darker religious light—that of the apocalypse. Cooking with the Bible: Biblical Food, Feasts, and Lore Anthony F. Chiffolo (AGI94) and Rayner W. Hesse, Jr. Greenwood Press Food, history, and religion simmer together in this cookbook by Chiffolo, an editorial director and Hesse, a minister. The authors spent more than three years researching and testing recipes for what they describe as an interfaith cookbook that is as much a study of etymology as it is a collection of recipes. Each recipe is based on a food found in the Bible, but presented in its modern day “translation.” For instance, the apple in the Garden of Eden is probably more like an apricot since the Middle Eastern climate wasn’t conducive to growing apples. Each chapter begins with the menu for a biblical feast. More intellectual than the average cookbook, Cooking with the Bible offers short essays describing the theological, historical, and cultural significance of particular feasts. “The King James Bible says that St. John the Baptist survived on locusts and honey,” Chiffolo recently told The Journal News of New York. “Current scholars say that this is a mistranslation—‘locust’ really refers to karib, which grows on trees in the Middle East. In the Middle East, karib is referred to as St. John’s Bread.” Among the meals Johnnies might recog{ T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } nize from sophomore seminar: The Wedding Feast at Cana from the Gospel of John, the meal that Abraham feeds the three angel visitors in Genesis, and the meal that Jacob feeds Esau to steal the birthright. Management by Baseball: The Official Rules for Winning Management in Any Field Jeff Angus (SF73) HarperCollins Publishers What can the manager of a struggling business learn from Yankees manager Joe Torres? When does a player in a slump (an underachieving employee) need extra coaching, and when should he be sent back to the minors or cut from the team? Jeff Angus describes the complexity of the organization in baseball, using America’s favorite past-time as an analogy for managers in other fields. “It’s a pragmatic, how-to book that aims to teach management practice through examples from the most open, accountable, and documented competitive system in the U.S.: baseball,” says Angus. “Baseball managers are ideal role models for mangers in other professions who are required to handle many different tasks under high-pressure situations,” writes Angus. He quotes the famous Ty Cobb, “A fellow bossing a big league ballclub is busier than a one-armed paperhanger with hives.” Angus, who is a management consultant and baseball writer with a passion for the game, shows how baseball can help managers “explode out of the batter’s box” and learn how “the New York Mets confront the diseconomies of scale.” Angus pitches advice on how to establish a reputation in the style of Dick Williams (former manager of the Oakland A’s) and describes the management style of several other top managers of the game. x �{Homecoming} HOMECOMING 2006 Santa Fe Alumni Remember Nixon, the Draft, and a Growing Campus I t was an interesting but unsettled time in America when members of the St. John’s College Class of 1976 arrived in Santa Fe. Most college campuses were still in an uproar over the Vietnam War. The draft would be in effect for another year. The Paris Peace Accords had just been signed. And in each freshman mailbox was a letter from President Richard Nixon, congratulating the students for matriculating as members of the Class of 1976, America’s bicentennial year. “We thought it was kind of sappy,” recalls Rick Lightburn. “It was the 1970s, a kind of a turbulent time, and I think we thought of ourselves as kind of renegades,” says Chuck Gunter of the class of 1976. “Watergate happened, the Vietnam War ended during our years here, and Nixon resigned.” Clouds and the threat of rain in mostly sunny Santa Fe couldn’t dampen the high spirits of the 15 members of the class of 1976 who returned to campus the last weekend of July. About 100 other alumni, many with children in tow, came back to share memories and news with classmates. At the Friday night coffee shop party, the D.J. It was a turbulent time in America when the Class of 1976 first arrived on the Santa Fe campus. The threat of storms moved the picnic inside, but didn’t dampen spirits at Homecoming 2006. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } 29 �30 played the Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar,” Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” and several Doors songs as a tribute to the 1970s. In 1972, Richard Weigle was president; William Darkey was dean. And tutor Bob Neidorf allowed his hair to grow longer in a personal protest against the state of the country, recalled Gunter. “Santa Fe was a really different city,” added Gunter, who lives in Albuquerque now. “It was much smaller, and it had become this really interesting hippie arts community.” The campus was still new, with buildings going up around them. There was no Meem Library, no Student Activities Center. The main administration building became Weigle Hall and the tower and bell were added. Lightburn recalled that members of his class were impressed by an attempt the year before by upperclassmen to bug the faculty enabling meeting. “We put fake TV cameras in for our enabling, but the faculty found them,” he says. Paula Fulks, Judy Kistler-Robinson, and Miriam Marcus Smith were trying to drum up interest in reviving a favorite pastime during their years at the college: a game of “Murder,” played on Friday and Saturday nights in Evans Science Laboratory. “We’d scatter out through the whole building,” Fulks recalls. “When you ran across a ‘victim,’ you’d have to figure out who killed them and get back to the safe room before the murderer got you. I almost won a couple of times.” During the weekend, alumni were part of a gala opening celebration Friday night for The Campaign for St. John’s College. They were pleased to see the developments on campus, even if it meant skirting {Homecoming} barriers and taking detours while a project to replace the concrete pavement with bricks was underway. “It’s really nice to see all the improvements,” Gunter said. During the All-Alumni Meeting, President Mike Peters gave an update on news at the college. Alumni stood and clapped to acknowledge a gift by Dr. Norman Levan (SFGI74), given for construction of a new Graduate Institute Center. And Katharine (Kay) Harper became an honorary member { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } Santa Fe associate director of alumni activities Michael Bales (SF06) gets hints on chair balancing from Rick Lightburn (SF76). “It’s really tough on the Coffee Shop floor,” Lightburn says. of the Class of 2006, by virtue of her dedication to the college’s Community Seminar program. Ms. Harper has spent more than 25 years attending seminars at the college (more on page 46). x �31 {Homecoming} Clockwise from top left: Alumni visit in the coffee shop after the Saturday picnic; Rebekka Shugars (SF) and friends; Bill Malloy (SF77) admires future Johnnie Clare West, with parents Alison Bentley West (SF91) and Ben West. Gina Ironside and Charles Harrison (SF81) catch up on news; Johnnie kids strike a pose on the Meem Library Placita: Alice Acciani, Ben Goldstein, Teodore Davison, John Stukenberg, Caleb Gartner-Colon, and Nicholas Miller. photos by teri thomson randall { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �32 {Alumni Profile} Broad Thinking in the ER Marcus Eubanks (A88) Solves a Medical Mystery by Ruth Johnston (A85) patients with acute mental n average day for illness, both children and adults, Marcus Eubanks as well as dealing with all levels (A88), always of injury and disease. Some intersects with patients come in too readily, unusual days for while others wait too long. other people. “There’s always the guy who In the emergency department at waits till the football game is over Beaver Medical Center, in before coming in. His heart Beaver, Penn., Eubanks sees attack started with the pre-game everything from mosquito bites show, but he had to watch the to acute infections to accident game.” He sees women in labor, trauma. But October 28, 2003, premature babies, and people in was an unusual day even for this the last stages of death from experienced ER doctor. long-term metastatic cancer. A man with very severe flu One thing he loves about symptoms had elevated liver emergency medicine is the need enzymes, and Eubanks realized to think broadly, to avoid that he was dealing with the sixth formulaic thinking. “Medicine in Hepatitis A victim in one week. general requires you to integrate He had treated several in the past a lot of different things. You need days, and a colleague had treated to be okay with people in another. One Hepatitis A case general, you need to understand would not be news, but even two the hard empirical science of or three were odd. Six seemed what’s going on, but you need to beyond coincidence, and this Emergency Room physician Marcus Eubanks identified a deadly be able to think broadly so that hunch was confirmed when the hepatitis outbreak in suburban Pittsburgh. when something out of the wife of one of the patients, a ordinary crops up, you can think nurse, said that they had all eaten “how does this work?” together at the same restaurant. and he has served on several public-health That’s one similarity he sees between his Could it be food poisoning? That might panels to discuss his experience. field and St. John’s. “By going through the mean that the source of the poisoning was Eubanks likes “high-acuity medicine,” St. John’s Program, you see how several still out there, or that more patients were and always knew he wanted to be on the different fields or disciplines of study can be unaware of the danger, and thought they just front lines, where fast action mattered. High brought to bear on a question. But, of had the flu. Eubanks didn’t want to set off a acuity medicine means facing “a dynamic course, a lot of ER medicine is simple, public panic, but this was too urgent to condition where aggressive and intensive empirical stuff. You have a sore throat: how ignore or allow to idle longer. intervention on the part of the clinical team am I going to treat you? What Pascal has to A quick call to public health officials set in is called for, and without which the patient say about it isn’t going to be as important.” motion a sweeping investigation into what will continue to deteriorate and probably Not taking himself too seriously is an turned out to be one of the largest hepatitis either die or suffer some kind of catastrophic important part of Eubanks’ personal outbreaks in recent times. Federal insult from which they can’t recover.” philosophy, as well as medical practice. anti-terrorism officials had to evaluate the As a student at St. John’s, he began taking On a recent day, a woman came in with pain possibility that it might be bioterrorism, summer courses to prepare for medical in her side. She thought she had appenwhile the medical team had to find other school, first at Johns Hopkins, then at Bryn dicitis, but it looked like diverticulitis to possible victims for pre-emptive treatment. Mawr College. When he first began studies him. “I thought, ‘okay, let’s see who’s Three Beaver County patients died, while at Temple University Medical School, he right,’ ” he jokes. “Guess what? I was hundreds were infected and required thought he might like to go into trauma wrong.” In acute medicine, that’s always a treatment. The victims had all eaten at a surgery. Instead, he chose emergency possibility to keep in mind. local Chi-Chi’s, and the search for the exact medicine because it combined the urgency As a medical student, Eubanks used contaminant eventually led investigators to of trauma surgery with the need to be creative writing to deal with his adjustment four Mexican farms to examine their prepared for a wide variety of problems. to a world where personal tragedy and an methods of washing green onions. In an average week in his emergency ordinary work day could routinely intersect. The outbreak put Eubanks in the spotlight, department, Eubanks evaluates several A { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �33 {Alumni Notes} 1940 1944 OSCAR LORD’S eldest son, Gen. Lance Welty Lord, retired from active duty as commander of the Air Force Space Command on March 31, 2006. Happy news from JOHN DAVIS HILL: “I have been married to Dorothy Murdock for 60 years. Recently Dorothy was recognized at the Annual Meeting of the Nebraska Congregational United Church of Christ for 65 years in the ministry. She received her degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School and the Chicago Theological Seminary, where she was ordained in June 1941.” 1943 MILTON PERLMAN writes, “I am delighted that Ms. Patricia Locke is doing a study of Proust and that Swann’s Way is again being studied in language tutorials the senior year.” 1951 College for helping us to discover, and recognize, the worth of liberal education. Although most of us would probably hesitate to call ourselves liberal artists, my guess is that most of us attempted to be something like liberal artisans—in our further education, personal lives, and professional pursuits, tacitly taking the measure of things by standards we learned from our tutors and one another. In a culture in which, all too often, education is conflated with training, philosophy is confused with ideology, and religion is confounded with idolatry, liberal artisanship is surely, indeed, sorely, needed. I am grateful for the libris libraque.” 1952 WALTER SCHATZBERG has retired from his position as Professor of German at Clark continued on p. 34 Enchanted by China A. NADOL (class of 1957) writes that he and Polly just returned from a three-week tour of China and Japan. “It was great to experience the ancient Great Wall, Forbidden City, temples, tombs, palaces, and the modern China with all its free enterprises, business, and construction boom,” he writes. He was also impressed that all high school students and above speak English. x J ACK A love letter of sorts from ERNIE HANKAMER: “To my fellow classmates: On the eve of the 55th return of our graduation in 1951, I think we are all aware of being indebted to St. John’s After the death of a patient in a particularly gruesome accident, he wrote an e-mail to his parents that detailed both the event and his viewpoint as one of the doctors who had to remain business-like and detached. His father encouraged him to publish it, so, on a lark, he submitted it to Jason Snell, editor of InterText, one of the first professionally edited online fiction venues. Snell published Eubanks’ e-mail, now titled “Mr. McKenna is Dying,” and wanted to see more. InterText eventually published five short stories, giving Marcus his fifteen minutes of fame in cyberspace, as well as motivation to create his own site for unpublished writing, www.riotcentral.com. But continuing to use his sharp, witty voice to explore the world of medicine might now clash with his career. As a student, he didn’t feel he had much at stake, but as a responsible doctor in a small community, Eubanks would need to take careful, perhaps even extravagantly careful, steps to remain anonymous. “The really tragic, funny patients aren’t likely to read the stories,” but he would have to try to protect their privacy, as well as his. Although he grew up in the rural outskirts of Pittsburgh, Eubanks prefers to live in the city neighborhood of Oakland. He and his wife, Rochelle, a critical care nurse, bought a “bombed-out frat house” that required extensive reconstruction. It’s close to friends and activities, and it’s not far from Seton Hill University, where daughter Laurin, 19, attends. Thierry, a baby girl born in July, joins Robert, 10, in the family that remains at home. Eubanks’ 40-mile commute takes him right past the well-known teaching hospitals, but he’s not seriously tempted. Beaver Medical Center is a typical small-town hospital, but its emergency department sees fifty thousands patients a year, and Eubanks loves the work environment. He sees some patients frequently enough to get to know them, and finds he has to use all his people skills to view them simultaneously as individuals and as medical cases. A patient with a mysterious problem might need to hear a doctor admit that in spite of all the tests he can run, “I just don’t know what’s wrong with you.” A worried mother who brings a child with an ordinary cold probably just needs reassurance. Eubanks gladly tells her what a great job she’s doing, and to keep up the good work. He sees a lot of children, like a little boy who ran into a pole at the playground and came in with a large cut above his eye. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } Emergency room abuses, such as patients showing up just to get prescription Tylenol that is covered by insurance, rather than buying it over the counter, can leave many doctors with a cynical attitude. “Sure, we get cynical, even sarcastic at times,” says Eubanks. “But in the emergency room, each individual presentation, taken by itself, is actually very interesting. Take the little kid with the eyebrow laceration: I was looking at the exposed bone, nerve, bridging vessels that I had to preserve. I needed some deep sutures to take tension off the wound. . . .I can make it sound very complicated but it’s actually not. I love what I do. Most of the time, it’s a lot of fun.” The new focus on privacy laws hasn’t changed much in the emergency room, and Eubanks comments that recent attention to virulent strains of bacteria isn’t news in his field, either. But there’s another trend he likes. “Increasingly, in emergency medicine, there’s a push toward making people leave happy.” Eubanks’ cheerful personality validates this approach, though some doctors worry that it means catering to patients too much. “Across a large population, leaving happy means quality of care. It probably means better medical practices, too.” x �34 {Alumni Notes} continued University (Worcester, Mass.) after 40 years of service. He earned his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University in 1966. At Clark he chaired the Department of Foreign Languages for 10 years and was director of Clark’s Program in Luxembourg for 12 years. He is the author of several books and articles in the field of German Studies including the relations of literature and science in the German Enlightenment, the Jewish response to German culture, and films in the Weimar Republic. 1953 FRANK ATWELL and TOM HEINEMAN are regulars at Miami’s seminars (Kierkegaard was the latest book; next year, Einstein), and they invite other Class of 1953 veterans in South Florida to join them. 1955 HAROLD BAUER’S Songs of War and Death for tenor, mezzo, and orchestra were performed by the Norfolk University Symphony Orchestra in March. Harold directs the opera program at Norfolk. He conducted a concert during Northwestern University’s Harmonic Convergence festival. And he’s painting like crazy. “Nothing like a calm retirement,” he writes. “Our class had its 50th reunion in September,” writes CAROLYN BANKS LEEUWENBURGH. “It was the nicest reunion I’ve been to in 50 years. Those who lent their talents were really at their best. The food and camaraderie were memorable for the next 50 years. Thanks!” 1956 GEORGE E. SAUER has been elected treasurer of the Republican Central Committee of Montgomery County, Maryland. 1959 JOHN E. MCDEVITT III is a great-grandfather. “My grandson’s wife gave birth to Richard in April. And I continue to fill in at the junior college; taught meteorology when the full-time instructor was ill for six weeks and then astronomy when an adjunct quit with no notice.” MICHAEL K. and BLAKELY L. MECHAU (class of 1958) are looking forward to visits from Pretty Much Retired I am pretty much retired and doing some traveling,” writes JOHN POUNDSTONE, class of 1962. “My oldest daughter is in Beijing, China, working for the World Health Organization as an AIDS epidemiologist. We hope to visit her this fall. My youngest daughter lives in New York City and is an artist/designer, having graduated from the Parsons School of Design. I am remodeling the house I grew up in here in Lexington, Ky., and hope to move in some time this fall. Meanwhile, we’ve got a trip to Lisbon, Athens, and Santorini to participate in a paleopathology conference.” x “ SAM and EMILY KUTLER (class of 1954 and 1955), EVA BRANN (HA89), MIKE (class of 1961) and RENE GOLD, HERMINA LITTLETON, widow of the late MICHAEL LITTLETON (A95), and DAN (A93) and LIZ LITTLETON this summer—“all connected by strong ties to St. John’s.” 1962 DAVID W. BENFIELD is enjoying teaching philosophy at Mountain State University in New Jersey. “To 1962 classmates: I say the 45th reunion in 2007 is a big one! Let’s all try to make it!” 1967 LOVEJOY DURYEA was selected as the honoree for the International Interior Design Association National Leadership Breakfast in New York in April. In May, she served on a panel for NIDA, and she led the New York St. John’s seminar on Rembrandt’s self-portrait with KATARINA WONG (A88). She was also elected as the Gold Medalist for Design from the National Arts Club in 2003. HELEN HOBART has a “new direction, which amplifies the essential habit of curiosity and listening deeply begun at SJC. I’m now an interfaith/Buddhist chaplain resident at a large hospital and acute psychiatric center in Sacramento—every day is a blessing.” 1968 TOM KEENS (SF), a professor of Pediatrics, Physiology, and Biophysics at the Keck School of { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } Medicine at the University of Southern California, has been elected chair of the Pediatric Pulmonology Subboard of the American Board of Pediatrics, 2007-08. GEORGE W. PARTLOW (A) is back in Alaska for the summer after wintering in Yuma, Ariz. “I took part in a seminar on Plato’s Apology sponsored by the new Phoenix alumni chapter in early April. Enjoyed seeing MARIAN (CUNNINGHAM) COHEN (A69) again, and meeting tutor Louis Kurs’ daughter Jean. Our oldest daughter Erika, currently a student at Western Oregon University, will be moving back to Alaska with our five grandkids in August. Daughter Hilary has just returned after seven months in South America (including the obligatory trek to Machu Picchu). Michael is a senior at the University of Oregon in Eugene. I am busy doing Tai Chi, reading Don Quixote, and being a householder . . . and glad to be home with my Steinway again!” 1969 MARIELLE HAMMETT KRONBERG (A) writes: “Our son MAX KRONBERG (‘our’ being mine and Ken’s and Ken being KENNETH KRONBERG, SF68) graduated from St. John’s in Annapolis on May 14, 2006— loving the college as much as Ken and I did and do. We had a wonderful time at Commencement, seeing SAM and EMILY KUTLER, ELLIOTT ZUCKERMAN (HA95), and EVA BRANN—whom Max had the great good fortune to have as his freshman seminar leader. Best of all was seeing Max in cap and gown and bachelor’s hood!” �35 {Alumni Notes} a new job in the same field with El Paso Corp. He and his family still live near Houston. Taking a Break W ENDY MCDONALD FLORENCE (SF89) is now living in Tucson, Ariz., with her husband, two daughters—Kennedy who is 3 years old and Addison who is 5 months old—and a dog, Marley. “I’ve taken a hiatus from my practice of internal medicine to enjoy the girls in these early years,” she says. “I will return to medicine someday but I appreciate each day now for what they bring through giggles, discovery, and occasional tears. I’d love to hear from other alumni in the area. x BETH KUPER (SF) has just opened an online digital d ownload music store at: www.burnlounge.com/ goodmojomusic and invites Johnnies to take a look for their favorite tunes. Hazel & the Delta Ramblers, the New Orleans band that includes Larry and HAZEL SCHLUETER (A) and grandsons Grey and Kaden performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. It marked Hazel’s 30th time performing at the festival, and Grey’s seventh. Hazel writes: “We stayed in our home in New Orleans during Katrina. At the height of the storm our phone rang constantly. Among all the offers of help was a call from St. John’s College, offering a place to stay. Thank you. Everyone I tell this story to is amazed at our college. Thank you. We are home repairing, repainting, and playing bluegrass around our city and state with Hazel and the Delta Ramblers.” eight books since I graduated from St. John’s, so many, and so few, years ago. This summer I had the opportunity to put in quality research time as a visiting scholar at the Hagley Museum in Wilmington, Del., deepening a long-term project on industrial and managerial development in the first half of America’s 20th century. Wherever I go, everything I learned at St. John’s—the environment, the gifted tutors, and fellow students I acquired it from—follows me and nourishes me. Sounds idealistic, I guess, but it’s meant as altogether realistic. As Milton wrote: “But let my due feet never fail, /To walk the studious Cloysters pale, /And love the high embowed Roof, /With antick Pillars massy proof.” STEVE HANFT (SF) writes that his son will be headed to Pomona College in the fall. “Couldn’t interest him in St. John’s,” he writes. “My wife, Ruth, gardens, arranges flowers, paints, volunteers for community service. I’m sitting on the sofa, reading.” 1970 JOHN DEAN (A) sends news and poetry: “Life goes well. Following my years at the University of Strasbourg, I’m now at the University of Versailles—tenured professor in Cultural History. I’ve written 1973 WILLIAM M. BLOUNT (SF) took retirement from ExxonMobil after 21 years of service as a petroleum geologist and started Another alum in the Callahan family: LAURIE FRANKLIN CALLAHAN (SF) writes that her daughter, ERIN CALLAHAN (A06), graduated from St. John’s in Annapolis in May and began law school at The George Washington University in the fall. “I know her Johnnie background will serve her well!” she writes. Chicago film critic JAN LISA HUTTNER (A) recently earned her second consecutive Silver Feather Award from the Illinois Woman’s Press Association, for writing the most award-winning articles in IWPA’s annual Mate E. Palmer Communications Contest. Seven of Huttner’s nine awards were for articles dealing with Jewish themes, and her two first-prize winners were both about Israel: “Israeli Films: Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You!” analyzed which Israeli films get picked up by American distributors; and “ ‘Israel Rocks!’ Celebrates Diversity” reviewed a documentary thatwhich explores ethnic and political conflicts in the context of Israel’s music scene. Although the second intifada crushed the fragile hopes nourished by Oslo, Israeli filmmakers were energized,” says Huttner. “They’ve been catapulted to a whole new level of artistic accomplishment.” 1974 MARY GEOGHEGAN JOLLES (SF) is completing her ninth year as principal of Colebrook Elementary School (K-8). Recently she visited her older son Phil (29) in Carbondale, Colo. He and his wife have an eight-month-old, my grandson Owen David Wolf Jolles. “Last fall my husband and I decided to { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } become foster parents to a 15year-old boy, Todd, who was in desperate need of a home,” she writes. “Our other two children, Diana (26) and Karl (24) are busy—Diana is in a doctoral program in biology at Ohio State University, and Karl is a roofer in southern New Hampshire.” ERIC (SF) and LISA (GINSBERG) ROSENBLUM (A80) have professional and family news: In November 2005 Lisa started a job as library director for the City of Hayward, Calif. Eric and Lisa’s daughter, Anna, will graduate in June from Harvard College with a degree in Classical Archaeology, while son Sam will enter the University of California-Santa Barbara as a freshman in the fall. PAUL SZABO (A) has been recognized as one of the top intellectual property lawyers in the country in the 2006 Chambers USA Guide, a legal resource used by general counsel and other purchasers of legal services. A partner in the Cleveland firm of Calfee, Halter & Griswold, Paul counsels publicly and privatelyheld clients regarding issues such as patents and copyrights . 1976 CHRISTIAN BURKS (SF) has been in Toronto for four-and-a-half years. His wife, Janet Moody, is now working at Creative Niche, recruiting creative/design staff. One of their daughters starts a new job teaching sixth graders in San Diego in August, while the other starts law school at the University of Washington in Seattle. “After 20 years of teaching college composition, literature, and related liberal arts classes, I continued on p. 37 �36 {Alumni Profile} Following in Familiar Footsteps Kevin Ross (AGI97), President of Lynn University by Patricia Dempsey K evin Ross (AGI97), who grew up on campus at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., thrived on the lively conversations of his parents, academic leaders, and intellectuals, as well as “more college food than anyone I know.” On July 1, he became the fifth president of Lynn University, and at age 40, one of the youngest college presidents in the country. Ross follows the footsteps of his father Donald Ross, the former president of Lynn. Over his 35-year tenure, the elder Ross piloted the gradual transformation of Lynn University into a four-year liberal arts institution with an accredited master’s and doctoral programs. In 1971 as president of Wilmington College in Delaware, the elder Ross visited Marymount College and convinced Wilmington trustees to aid the struggling junior college; this institution evolved into the College of Boca Raton and finally Lynn University. Kevin Ross (AGI97) hopes to lead Lynn University Before taking the helm at Lynn, to great things. Ross says he wanted to get his “feet wet in education without any help from my family.” After earning his make-it-happen type of leader,” says Ross. bachelor’s degree in English at Colgate “I’m more pragmatic.” Ross uses this University, Ross embarked on a career in approach to build on his father’s accomeducation administration. He gained experience in admissions and development plishments as president. He seeks to foster the strong sense of community at Lynn, as at the Hill School in Pottstown, Penn. He much an asset to the university as its returned to Lynn in 1999 as dean of Lynn’s programs in music, aeronautics, and communications school and later became international studies. “Lynn has this family chief operating officer. Along the way, he enrolled at St. John’s, at the suggestion of a feel, and it is something that was very Hill School colleague who had attended the purposeful from the outset,” says Ross. “This is something that my father strongly GI and knew of Ross’ interest in the liberal valued, and I do too. We want to be one of arts. Later, Ross earned a doctoral degree the most innovative, international, and in education from Peabody College of individualized small universities in Vanderbilt University. America.” Though they are both passionate about Ross is a consensus builder. While Lynn University, Ross and his father share developing the university’s strategic plan, different leadership styles. “He is he sent a draft and a red pen to staff, absolutely a visionary, damn-thefaculty, and students, asking for feedback. torpedoes, kick-the-doors open, let’s { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } “As the president I throw ideas out there, and we have a conversation. In fact, the educational approach of St. John’s has informed much of what I do. Consensus doesn’t mean that we’re all going to agree, but I would prefer to have an argument in the right sense, to see if an idea will stand the test of time. It should be able to be beat up a little bit, and critically picked apart.” Ross says his studies in the GI represent “the most profound educational experience of my life.” He’s even considering how Lynn University’s distance learning programs—seemingly incompatible with a discussion-based approach— could benefit from the St. John’s model. “What led me to my interest in instructional technology were the fundamentals that came from St. John’s—the liberal arts curriculum and the idea of continuing a conversation. In the past, it always struck me that you’d walk into a classroom, flick the lights on, say, ‘Okay, its time to learn,’ then you’d turn the lights off and say, ‘Okay, go read on your own and come back later.’ It made me think about the conversations we had here at St. John’s. I didn’t want seminar to end at 10 p.m. when I was at the Graduate Institute.” Ross hopes to reach the goals of his strategic plan in 10 years, instead of the planned 15. One of his priorities is to travel the country to garner support of alumni to increase the university’s endowment. “None of our challenges are insurmountable,” he says. “Sometimes a large endowment can be an excuse for poor management because you can rest on your laurels. There is a scrappiness about Lynn and this real nimbleness, which is one of our great strengths.” Amidst all the pressures of his new position Ross says he hopes to make time for St. John’s. “If I have a sabbatical the first thing I’ll do is go to Santa Fe and do the master’s in Eastern Classics. I’d go in a heartbeat.” x �37 {Alumni Notes} am working as a psychotherapist in Phoenix,” writes IDELL KESSELMAN (SFGI) “Here, I can keep an eye on my parents—and my 27-year-old daughter. Active in my synagogue, I look forward to nurturing my own continuing love of giving.” start-up company making clip art. So far, the sites include faithclipart.com, christmastimeclipart.com, babytidings.com, and weddingclipart.com. She writes, “In my spare time I’m singing with the Siskiyou Singers, a community chorus of 100+ people. Lots of fun!” 1977 1979 EDWARD F. GRANDI (A) is completing a second year as executive director of the American Sleep Apnea Association. He’s active again with the D.C. Alumni Association chapter after a long hiatus and “generally loves life!” MICHAEL LEVINE ST. JAMES (A) enjoys Santa Fe’s Summer Classics. “Last summer, I took the Don Quixote seminar, led by tutors ERIC SALEM (A77, my sophomore roommate) and CAREY STICKNEY (A75, my Paca-Carroll dorm-mate), and had a fantastic time,” he says. “This summer I return for Aristotle’s Ethics, led by the same tutors. I can’t recommend Summer Classics enough!” “Life in Boise has settled into a routine,” writes MARLENE F. STRONG (A). “I just completed my second year of working at a nonprofit mental health center, where I do therapy with children and adults. I am enjoying four distinct seasons, and I love my 100-year-old house and big garden. I do miss the ocean! Looking forward to seeing my classmates next year for our 30th.” SUSAN HERDER (SF) is living very happily in San Francisco, where she has a thriving practice as a bodyworker. “For fun, I’m into athletics, swimming in the bay often with my friends at the South End Rowing Club, running, biking, and doing triathlons. A big event in my life presently is buying my first home, and it’s in Santa Fe! I’m not moving though, will just spend more time there, and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone as our paths cross.” After several years of consulting for reproductive rights organizations, MARJORIE HUTTER (A) has what she describes as her “dream job” as Director of Development for the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts: “My “nonJohnnie” husband and I have been together for 20 years and are enjoying raising our two daughters—Simone “Mo,” 13 years old, and Gracie, 10 years old. I send my best wishes to all of my classmates.” 1980 1982 JOSHUA KATES (A) last fall published Essential History: Jacques Derrida and the Development of Deconstruction. He has left his position at Santa Fe, and he and his wife are currently associate professors of English at Indiana University (Bloomington) and have a six-month-old son, Zeke. KELLY GENOVA (SF) was married June 27 to James Rowley. Her former husband, STEPHEN LEACH (SF), was expected to attend with his fiancée, Sally Buxt. Writes Kelly: “I still practice law; Stephen is an associate professor in the philosophy department at the University of Texas-Pan American, where his mother graduated many years ago. James is a lawyer as well, in Albuquerque, concentrating on personal injury matters and the representation of workers’ compensation claims. I defend such claims. It should make for an interesting marriage.” GERI GLOVER (SF) has joined the Education Department at the College of Santa Fe. 1981 ANNE O’MALLEY CULOTTA (A) encourages friends and classmates to try their best to make the 25th reunion of her class. “I promise you won’t want to miss the fun and the flashbacks,” she writes. “Sometimes the sequel is even better than the original! Let’s get the party started.” THOMAS J. SLAKEY, JR. (SF) is working as a technical writing consultant at companies all over Silicon Valley. He’s married to the lovely Susan Slakey, and his two stepsons are turning 18 and 21 this year. He welcomes contact at tslakey@comcast.net Puppies and Girls RYAN (SF86) reports that his family and business are both growing: “We have added a boxer puppy to our three girls and boxer-mix dog. There is plenty of happiness and chaos to go around. My architecture firm in Albuquerque has grown to 11 people and we are taking on some large projects in four states. I look forward to seeing everyone this summer.” x M ICHAEL 1978 RACHEL BARRETT (SF) has moved to Ashland, Ore., where she works for an Internet { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } LESLIE SMITH ROSEN (A) writes that her eldest daughter, Marielle, is engaged to be married, with the wedding to take place in May 2007, after Marielle completes her master’s degree at Johns Hopkins. “My younger daughter is finishing her first year at the University of Chicago (SJC a little too intense) and my youngest, Sam, is in high school,” she writes. “Time flies and tuitions soar. Best wishes to all, and looking forward to our 25th!” 1983 “I just launched a series of three satellites to study the Earth’s magnetosphere and got a little closer to the eidos of engineering,” writes PETER ROSSONI (SF). “Send me your news! Peter.rossoni@gsfc.nasa.gov. I would love to hear from any classmates.” TED ZENZINGER (A) is a professor of philosophy at Regis University in Denver, Co. He and �38 {Alumni Notes} his wife just celebrated the first birthday of their second daughter, Olivia. Ted writes, “She and her sister, Sophia (2), keep us busy!” 1984 JOHN (SF) and Elizabeth BUSH’s oldest son, Salem, who was born in Santa Fe, graduated from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., this past spring. FATHER ROBERT NICOLETTI, M.J., (SF) is a missionary in Ukraine: “Does anyone want to help a Ukrainian orphanage? I’ll send you more info. Many thanks.” 1985 ANNA LOUISE DAVIS (A) was sorry to have missed her 20th reunion last fall, but she looks forward to catching up with everyone in a few short years at the 25th. In the meantime she is headed back to school for a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. LIZA HYATT (SF) is “happily divorced” and a mother to Maggie, who turned nine in August. “I am self-employed doing a variety of things: I am a mosaic artist and work with communities (such as local schools, Indiana University’s cancer hospital, a women’s shelter) to create mosaic murals for their buildings; I am an art therapist in private practice; I am a storyteller and perform at libraries, schools, and festivals; and I am adjunct faculty for two graduate programs at St. Mary of the Woods College. And, after 40 some years of believing I can’t sing, I joined a choir and am loving it. I would love to hear from other Johnnies! E-mail me at liza@lizahyatt.com.” Art in Ensenada LASKOWSKI (SFGI97) is Mexico bound: “My partner, a painter, and I are invited to Ensenada, Mexico, for a 10day artist residency. The participants will come from around the globe and will create their art at the site, which will then be exhibited at the local museum. Also, Andrei and I had a well-received exhibition at Gallery Route One, Point Reyes, Calif. Look at our work at www.galleryrouteone.org.” x I NYA JOHN SCHILLO (SF) and his partner, David Maltin, recently purchased several apartment buildings in Albuquerque and a home in east Sandias, where they will be relocating toward the end of this year. John looks forward to seeing old friends who still live in New Mexico or will be visiting there, as well as making new acquaintances at alumni events. He can be reached on his home e-mail: jwschillo@comcast.net or at his work e-mail: john.schillo@ ge.com. 1986 SUSAN READ (SFGI) writes that her son, Harry, will be in fifth grade this fall. “I am still teaching high school, still skiing, still talking.” context of severe mental illness, and is based in my first 11 years’ work as an acute care psychiatric chaplain.” GEORGE ALBERT ERHARD (SF) has moved from Northern California to Irving, Texas, where he is now a Network Fault Management Engineer for AT&T. Also, George would like to announce his marriage to Claire Alyce Johnson, who has shared his life for the past 10 years. REGINA LANDOR (A) writes that she and her husband, Bill Woodward, welcomed their second son, Gabriel, in December. Their first son, Ethan, is now 2. 1987 CHARLOTTE GLOVER (SF) joined with some friends in Ketchikan, Alaska, to start a chapter of “First Book,” which helps lowincome children build home libraries. “The national organization has been awesome to work with,” she writes. “See you next summer in Santa Fe!” 1989 “I am nearing the end of my Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary,” writes DAVID DILLARD (A). My research has been focused around finding hope in a 1990 TATIANA N. MASTERS (SF) finished the second year of her doctoral program with her usual aplomb. She is finishing the page proofs for her first paper in Psychology of Women Quarterly. She is still three years from completing her studies just like last year. Her partner Jason Spainhower is proud of her accomplishments. They live in Seattle and have listed numbers and unusual names. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } 1991 DIANNE JANETTE COWAN (A) writes, “2005 was a busy year for me, with three big events. In August, I finally left my miserable job for a better one in educational publishing. In November, I got elected the Alumni Association president of the Boston chapter, and two days later the Red-Haired Boy of my dreams asked me to marry him. Sadly, I won’t be able to make it to the Class of ’91 reunion, since it is, inconveniently, the weekend before my wedding. But I’m consoled by the fact that all Johnnie weddings are minireunions. And with any luck, I’ll be around for the Class of ’92 bash in ’07. Please drop a line to diannecowan@alumni.stjohnscollege.edu. BEN FOLEY (SF) is living in Oakland, Calif., teaching 7thgrade humanities and doing a lot of hiking in the Sierra. TEDDI ANN GALLIGAN and DAVID ALAN DIGGS (both A), announce with great joy the birth of their second daughter, Josephine Lucia Diggs-Galligan on July 20, 2005, in Washington, D.C. Writes Teddi, “Big sister Sophia Emmanuelle is enjoying her new status immensely.” continued on p. 40 �39 {Alumni Notes} Hooked on Classics Richard Field (SFGI98) Nurtures Book Lovers by Rosemary Harty S tudying in the St. John’s Graduate Institute “lit a fire in my mind,” says Richard Field (SFGI98), a senior humanities teacher at Albuquerque Academy, a private college preparatory school. Now he’s trying to do the same thing for his students through his weekend Classics Club, a group he started to give students another place to discuss books and ideas. Field enrolled in the GI in Santa Fe after completing a doctoral program in history and philosophy. He had heard of the undergraduate program, admired it, and started to read Program books on his own. Then he heard about the graduate program in Liberal Arts. “From my very first class with Mr. LeCuyer and Ms. Honeywell, I absolutely loved it,” he says. “St. John’s opened a new way of thinking for me, and I can’t go back. I became this insatiable reader of the classics and I haven’t stopped since.” Even after finishing the GI program, he went back to campus to take the History segment. Field began his teaching career in the school’s physical education department, but he soon talked his way into the humanities program, where he’s been happy ever since, teaching seminar classes The Nietzsche Rap Gonna teach ya Nietzsche caus’ I can’t reach ya’ man must first go under so he doesn’t blunderTry to teach you overman because man is a rope, a dope, between a man and hopeover an abyss. Ubermensch, ubermensch God is dead Antichrist, Will to Power have you readZARATHUSTRA...! based on St. John’s. “I love the material so much that kids have written to me to tell me my excitement and enthusiasm spread to them,” he says. “The people who inspired me were two Johnnies who were working here. They were the catalyst.” Inspired by the movie Dead Poet’s Society, in which a teacher cultivates a love for literature in his students, Field decided to start an extracurricular club for students who want to read ancient and modern classics that regular classes would never have time for. Over the years, the club has read works including The Sorrows of Young Werther, The Communist Manifesto, Beowulf, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the Symposium, and Pride and Prejudice. The group meets once a month, usually in a local coffee shop, and recently, Albuquerque Academy alumni have begun to attend. “It’s very rewarding,” he says. “I start with an opening question, though given the nature and age of the kids, one question is usually not enough to keep them going.” Club members had an assignment over the summer. Read Democracy in America and come back ready to discuss it. Meetings are usually an hour, but the group went almost 90 minutes and decided to schedule an extra meeting to finish their { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } Albuquerque teacher Richard Field knows how to get the attention of his high school students. discussion on the book. “They saw quite a few parallels with what’s going on today and what de Tocqueville talked about,” Field says. “But they think his views about the ‘middling state of American education’ are no longer true.” Next up: The Picture of Dorian Gray. Every year Field works in some Russian literature. “I read The Brothers Karamazov in a tutorial with Victoria Mora, and now I’m a Dostoevsky nut,” he confesses. He rewards club members every semester with a party, during which everyone plays games like Trivial Pursuit’s Book Lover’s edition. He also brings a playful attitude to his regular humanities classes; once a year, when seniors are scheduled to read Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Field dresses up “gansta” style (complete with St. John’s cap pulled low over his face) to perform his “Nietzsche Rap.” “I originally wrote it in 1996,” he explains. “It’s a way to relate some of Nietzsche’s ideas to students in a modern, fun, and hip way.” x �40 {Alumni Notes} Officially a Doctor ELIZABETH FORREST, A00, received the degree of Doctor of Medicine during graduation ceremonies at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine on May 22, 2006. She was also the recipient of two faculty awards: the Florence L. Marcus, M.D. Prize in Family Medicine and the F. Lorraine Bruni Prize in Geriatric Medicine. On graduating from St. John’s, she received a Howard Hughes Foundation summer research internship at the University of Virginia Medical School. Following the internship she attended James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., for two semesters of postbaccalaureate studies to satisfy the science prerequisites for medical school. While in Harrisonburg, she was also an emergency medical technician with the Harrisonburg Volunteer Rescue Squad. Paige began a three-year residency in family medicine on June 23 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-St. Margaret Hospital, in Pittsburgh. x P AIGE 1992 Rebecca Paige Brandreth was born April 26, 2006, announces CYNTHIA BRANDRETH (AGI). J. ELIZABETH (HUEBERT) SCHOEMAKER (SF) and Jeremy Schoemaker welcomed their first daughter, Juliet J. Schoemaker on June 23, 2006. Juliet weighed 7 lbs. Her mother continues to practice anesthesiology in Lincoln, Neb. 1993 “I’ve been going through the devastating effects of late-stage Lyme disease since February 2004 and am interested in getting in touch with people going through similar experiences from this underrecognized ailment,” writes BARBARA ARNOLD (SF). “I’d appreciate hearing from any Johnnies out there who have friends, family, or who are themselves dealing with the illness: Arnold@ferae.naturae.com.” SALLIE (SFGI) and GEORGE BINGHAM (SF66) celebrated their second wedding anniversary this past July. George has enjoyed rejoining the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors. CHRISTOPHER GRAM (A) welcomed the birth of his second daughter, Celeste Penelope Gram, on March 25, 2006. VALERIE DUFF-STRAUTMANN (SF) has poems appearing in Zoland Poetry (Steerforth Press), an annual anthology of contemporary poetry from around the globe. THOMAS E. SCHNEIDER (AGI) has a new book out: Lincoln’s Defense of Politics: The Public Man and His Opponents in the Crisis Over Slavery (University of Missouri Press, 2006), based on his dissertation in political science from Boston College. CHERYL S. HENEVELD (AGI) is still taking part in vigils at 5 p.m. every Saturday against the war in Iraq, as well as writing and working for the end of wars. 1997 1994 NATHAN HUMPHREY (A) is curate at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, K St., in Washington, D.C. “My former junior lab tutor, ANN MARTIN, is a parishioner, and my former Febbie Lab tutor, ROBERT DRUECKER, lives behind the church. Several Johnnies and parents of Johnnies are members or regular visitors.” 1996 ANGELA BILLICK (SF) was promoted to vice president and joined BNP-Paribas, a French bank. She is based in a New York office. She’s been accepted to the Executive MBA program at NYU’s Stern School of Business and is “looking forward to flexing the gray matter once again!” Drop a line at angela_billick@hotmail.com “As of this Easter, I have celebrated my first year as a Roman Catholic,” writes ERIN N. (HEARN) FURBY (A). “I have enjoyed the supportive and intellectually vibrant Catholic community here in Anchorage, Alaska (many of whom are close cousins, being St. Thomas Aquinas College alumni).” MARYBETH GUERRIERI (A) graduated in June from the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, from which she received a Professional Skills diploma in Brennan Healing Science. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } KATHLEEN EAMON (SF) writes to report that she has just accepted a teaching position at Evergreen State College, where she was hired in philosophy. “But, as anyone who knows the place knows, I’m slated to teach more broadly than that. LYNARRA (Featherly, SF94) and I have spent the last six years in Nashville, where I am now winding up work on my dissertation at Vanderbilt University. Neither of us made it big on the country scene, but Lynarra has become a widely-sought (if reluctant) interior designer, hounded by friends and real estate agents alike. She has also acquired mad-carpenter skills, after having renovated two historic homes from top to bottom.” DAMON KOVELSKY (A) is back in Brooklyn, with a new job in journalism, a wife, and a cat. “Bloomberg, LLP hired me in their newsroom, Meg married me a couple of years ago, and Max makes three. If there are any Johnnies within the city limits, please shout out an e-mail dkovelsky@yahoo.com.” JESSICA CAMPBELL MCALLEN (SF) shares baby news: “Isaac Orion McAllen was born on April 11, 2006! Lowry and I are so excited to have a little boy around the house. He was 8 pounds, 20 inches. A little blessing!” “Currently, I am teaching English in China with my wife, Emily Kaplan Murbarger, the daughter of BART KAPLAN (A65) and cousin of MEGAN DROLET (A08),” writes JOSHUA �41 {Alumni Notes} “Great Books for $1,000, Alex…” A Johnnie Wins Big on Jeopardy! by Rosemary Harty S endure great embarrassment on that ome contestants of Jeopone, since her dissertation research is ardy! are so nervous on the on Shakespeare and performance set of the popular game theory. “I still get grief from my show that they freeze up, colleagues,” she says. hand clutching the buzzer Several times in her six appearances, in a death grip, face set in a DiNucci didn’t know the Final Jeopardy grimace of anxiety. Jeopardy! watchers who tuned in last July and caught answer and other contestants did. But Celeste DiNucci (A87) on her five-day she had built up a big enough lead and winning streak saw a contestant who wagered wisely to prevail over her laughed vigorously and often, joked competitors—until the last day, when with Alex Trebeck, and clearly enjoyed the category was American women the whole experience, right until the authors. The answer quoted Henry James describing the mystery author as Final Jeopardy question that ended a “the novelist of children. . . the Thackglorious run. eray, the Trollope of the nursery and “I approached the whole thing as, the schoolroom.” DiNucci came up ‘this is just a game,’ ” says DiNucci, a Her Jeopardy winnings allowed Celeste DiNucci to with Beatrix Potter; the answer was doctoral student at the University of take a leave of absence to finish her dissertation. Louisa May Alcott. “I feel like I really Pennsylvania and a grant writer for a should have won that one.” Half the nonprofit organization. “I wasn’t people gave her the TV treatment, and she battle, of course, is being quick. “The real nervous at all.” was wired for sound. test is in the buzzer. There were plenty of DiNucci tried out in June 2005 in “After the game show scandals, they’re questions I knew the answer to and I just Philadelphia, where she lives. She did well really careful about sequestering contestwasn’t fast enough.” on the written test, then took part in a mock ants, so you don’t see Alex much. I had a DiNucci ultimately left Los Angeles game that was videotaped. After the months great time meeting the other contestants.” exhausted, but with $85,000 in winnings. went by, she figured her chances at game She was later to defeat all but one of them. The money has allowed her to take a leave show stardom were slim. “Then in April, At times, DiNucci was surprised by how from her job to finish her dissertation, and they called me at work and suggested some much she knew. Where did she learn, for she’s planning to splurge on a trip to Italy. taping days,” she says. Since taping example, that what is also called heavy water She has no regrets about her performance— conflicted with her job at the American is deuterium? There were also a few uncomexcept maybe one. Philosophical Association, she asked if she fortable moments. A $200 question on “I didn’t get around to talking about St. could pick other dates. “They said these are Shakespeare asked for the play in which John’s” in the meet-the-contestant part of the last two taping days of the season, and Mercutio and Balthasar are characters. the show, she says. But should she be called you come now or you don’t come at all.” “I rang in immediately, but then I thought, back for the Tournament of Champions, she DiNucci went. After just a few hours of ‘hey, there’s no Balthasar in Romeo and promises a nod to the college that helped sleep in her hotel room, she waited, blearyJuliet’ so I said something else. But he has a contribute to all that valuable knowledge. x eyed, in the lobby for the Jeopardy! shuttle little part in the last act.” DiNucci had to to transport her to the set. The make-up MURBARGER (A). “We started in Jinzhou (for six months) in the northeast of China and will soon move to Qingdao. We have a great blog: www.peer-see.com. Follow our adventures and great fun.” This news comes to The College via Bart and Betty Kaplan. 1998 JULIANA (MARTONFFY) LAUMAKIS (A) and her husband, John, are very happy to report the birth of their daughter, Amanda Adeo, this past January. MARJORIE ROUECHE (A) is a freelance science writer and editor in Berkeley, Calif. “I am also doing what I can to help the next groundswell of feminism. If anyone is interested in helping, e-mail me, or visit me at www. insubordinatewomen.com.” 1999 STEVE and KRISTIN DUMONT (both SF) are proud to announce the birth of their daughter, Quinn Alessandra—born healthy and screaming February 14, 2006. She has brought wonders and joy to their lives every day since. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } ANNAMARIA CARDINALLIPADILLA (SFGI), who completed her Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2004, was recently named a laureate for the 2006 Mother Teresa Awards for her work as an American classical musician. For updates on her career since St. John’s, visit www.annamaria.ws and www.elduoduende.com, or www.sonicbids.com/AnnaMaria2 and www.sonicbids.com/ ElDuoDuende. �42 {Alumni Notes} 2000 Catch Up With Friends This fall BUCK COOPER (A) starts a Ph.D. program in education at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. “Can’t seem to shake the allure of the Tarheel State,” he says. ALAN (A) and Heidi RUBENSTEIN celebrated their two-year wedding anniversary in June 2006 and are very happy in their “treehouse” in Takoma Park, outside of D.C. “The same month, I had my first poetry reading, which went well, and began my new job,” writes Alan. “I am now working for the staff of the President’s Council on Bioethics as a researcher and writer. This is a serious challenge—one that I am enjoying very much.” CHRISTOPHER VAUGHAN (A) is living in Annapolis and working for Realistic Builders. “Nice to see the college on a regular basis,” he writes. “It is really a beautiful place to watch the seasons change. Having lived in four states in the last 10 years, Annapolis really stands out as the best walking city. My free time is spent walking puppies or riding horses. Hope all my classmates are doing well and find time to reflect on where their life is going. Looking forward to reunion 2010!” After a year as an account executive for a Dallas advertising agency, LARIN MCPEAK (EC) is now teaching Business English and American Culture at the ISL Sprachschule in Koblenz, Germany. She uses her weekends and free time traveling throughout Europe, playing soccer with a local team, and reading some of the Eastern studies books she managed to haul to Germany. You can e-mail her at Dangerousfireball@ yahoo.com It’s not the same as the Coffee Shop, but the online alumni community may be the next best thing—a place to catch up with friends, start a conversation, find a new lead on a job, and keep track of what’s happening on the Santa Fe and Annapolis campuses. Share your news, share your pictures, sign up for a St. John’s e-mail address. More than 4,000 alumni have joined to date. Get back in the conversation! 2001 “Just wanted to announce to all and sundry that I have taken a teaching position in Burma (middle school math) for the next two years!” writes MATTHEW LIPPART (SF). “Come visit! I’ll buy you a beer or five! My new e-mail is: mlippart@mail2world.com. Please e-mail or I’ll be lonely.” KATHERINE J. PETERS (SF) is living in Charlottesville, Va., working as a criminal defense attorney for a private law firm. Her fiancé, Bill Finn, a New York City native and artist, is Another Book Lover MCGINTY JAMES (SF05) and her husband, Mike, welcomed a small but august presence on June 2, 2006. August Michael James arrived early but healthy, weighing 5 lbs and measuring 17 inches. “He has already fallen in love with his first book,” his mother says. x E 2003 employed by SNL Financial. “We are currently in the throes of planning our November 4, 2006, wedding.” We love Charlottesville and would relish the chance to show visitors around, so feel free to look us up if you’re planning a visit,” Katherine writes. SUZANNAH SIMMONS (SF) will be in Washington, D.C., this summer, living near DuPont Circle. “If there are any Johnnies who would like to get together, please e-mail me (guneh@ hotmail.com). I am greatly looking forward to the Santa Fe Class of 2001 five-year reunion in July.” In June 2006, JOSH VAN DONGE (SF) received his Master of Architecture from the University of Washington and is currently living and working in Seattle. RIN { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } 2004 MICHAEL LOOFT (AGI) will be studying at Harvard Divinity School this fall to become a Unitarian minister—“just like Emerson.” 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 Feburary; deadline for the alumni notes section is December 7. 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 �43 {Tribute} Brother Robert Smith, F.S.C. (HA90), a much loved and respected member of the St. John’s College community for nearly half a century, died September 12, 2006, in Napa, California, at the age of 92. He first joined the faculty of St. John’s College as a visiting tutor in 1966 and became a permanent member of the faculty in 1972, seeking and gaining special permission from his order, the De La Salle Christian Brothers, to leave Saint Mary’s College to teach at St. John’s. Brother Robert bonded in a special way with the college; he served as a mentor to tutors and students alike, and inspired all with his deep faith, distinguished intellect, generosity, and friendship. Robert Smith was born in Roundup, Mont., and was raised in Oakland, Calif. He attended a Christian Brothers high school in Berkeley, where he discovered his vocation. As a novice, he picked grapes and helped move the Christian Brothers Winery to Mont La Salle in 1932. After earning his bachelor’s degree at Saint Mary’s College in 1935, Brother Robert taught at the Christian Brothers’ high school in Sacramento. He earned his Ph.D. degree from the University of Laval in Quebec, Canada, and wrote his dissertation on the liberal arts from the point of view of St. Thomas Aquinas. He returned to Saint Mary’s as a professor in 1941, and, being familiar with the St. John’s Program, soon instituted a seminar based on the St. John’s reading list. Those efforts blossomed into a project that is an important part of the California liberal arts college today. In 1956, Brother Robert founded Saint Mary’s Integrated Liberal Arts Program, described as a “college within a college,” and shaped in part by the program at St. John’s. Students in the Saint Mary’s program explore the great works of the liberal arts tradition through seminar discussions, tutorials, and scientific laboratories. In the course of helping to develop the program, Brother Robert made several visits to St. John’s to study the academic gary pierpoint Brother Robert Smith, F.S.C. Tutor A much loved member of the St. John’s community, Brother Robert Smith will be remembered for his intellect, generosity, and friendship. program here. He came to know the faculty very well, particularly Dean Jacob Klein, whom he had first met in the forties. In 1966-67, he spent a year as a visiting tutor at St. John’s. He then returned to Saint Mary’s to continue his work as { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } Director of the Integrated Liberal Arts program. In 1972, he joined the St. John’s faculty and taught full time from 1972 until his retirement in 1985. At St. John’s, other faculty members recognized his skills as a seminar leader. Former Dean Curtis Wilson described him as �{Tribute} 44 “enormously generous and careers of his countless in his willingness to let friends among the students entertain and alumni.” examine the widest When he was made an variety of points of honorary member of the view.” Brother Robert Class of 1990, the citation remained an active noted “his exemplary member of the devotion to the liberal arts, community—teaching, over a long career as a lecturing, taking part in teacher”; “his life of study groups and faculty service in faith”; and Brother Donald Mansir, Chair of the Bishop John S. Cummins Institute meetings—through the especially “the friendship and teacher in the Saint Mary’s Integral Program end of the past that he has bestowed upon academic year. Early numerous colleagues and this summer, poor students.” concerned to preserve and propagate health required him to move from his “Brother Robert was one of the most Klein’s understanding of a liberal arts Historic District home in Annapolis to education, in which the intellect holds the influential of the Brothers in the the community of retired Christian central place,” says Michael Dink, dean of curriculum at Saint Mary’s College,” Brothers at Mont La Salle in Napa, Calisaid Brother Donald Mansir, Chair of the the Annapolis campus. “Nonetheless fornia He kept in close touch with scores (I can hear his protest at this adversative!) Bishop John S. Cummins Institute and of his former students, who considered teacher in the Saint Mary’s Integral Brother Robert was an affectionate and him a valuable friend as well as a tutor. Program. “A true son of Saint La Salle, thoughtful connoisseur of all things In addition to his intellectual pursuits, a friend to hundreds of students, and an human: the earthy humor of Rabelais, the Brother Robert enjoyed gourmet inspiration to many of the greatest minds elegant French of Madame de Sévigné’s French cooking and wines, music, and of the last century, Brother Robert will be gossip, fine wine and gourmet cooking, conversation with his wide circle of terribly missed.” x the meticulously thought through ascetifriends. “A friend of Jacob Klein’s since cism of the desert fathers, world politics, the 1940s, Brother Robert was deeply French and English poetry, and the lives “A true son of Saint La Salle, a friend to hundreds of students, and an inspiration to many of the greatest minds of the last century, Brother Robert will be terribly missed.” {Obituaries} GILBERT CRANDALL Gilbert Crandall, a member of the class of 1932, died August 24, 2006, in Annapolis at the age of 91. He was born and reared just a few blocks from the St. John’s campus. After graduating from the college, Mr. Crandall taught English and history at Glen Burnie High School. In 1941, he joined the staff of the American Red Cross, and during World War II served in Puerto Rico, Italy and Norway while attached to the armed forces. For his work, he was awarded the Italian Red Cross Bronze Star for humanitarian services rendered during wartime. After the war, he worked for the State Department as director of the Paraguayan-American Cultural Center in Asuncion, and later in public affairs with the Foreign Service in Bolivia and Argentina. In 1961, he became the first tourism director of the State of Maryland, and later served as head of the public affairs office at for the state Department of Agriculture. After retiring in 1977, he continued writing, publishing articles in publications including Bon Appetit, Motor Boating and Reader’s Digest. The spring 2006 issue of The College included a charming essay Mr. Crandall wrote about his experiences at St. John’s before the New Program. property he donated to the city of Annapolis, bears his name. He was also a shrewd investor in real estate in Annapolis and developed a shopping center in Parole that he owned until the time of his death. CECIL KNIGHTON Cecil Claggett Knighton, class of 1940, a successful entrepreneur in Annapolis, died July 13, 2006. Over the span of his career, Mr. Knighton owned several successful businesses and many different commercial properties in Annapolis. After leaving St. John’s, Mr. Knighton borrowed money from an aunt to buy a small general store in Davidsonville, Md. He sold the store when joined the Army in World War II, serving as a paratrooper in the European theater. He built the Acme Supermarket at the foot of City Dock in 1951. He also opened an auto supply company and a movie house. During the 1950s, he was a successful automobile dealer, known by many as the “car czar.” A parking garage on West Street, built on ROBERT HAZO { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } Robert G. Hazo, Class of 1953, died Jan. 6, 2006, in Pittsburg, Penn. A dedicated alumnus of St. John’s with a great interest in preserving the college’s Program and history, he rarely missed a fall Homecoming, and he was a passionate recruiter of potential Johnnies. A brilliant political analyst, Mr. Hazo founded the University of Pittsburg’s American Experience program, inspired in part by his experience studying the liberal arts at St. John’s. After graduating from the college, he received a senior fellowship to Princeton, a Fulbright scholarship for study at the Sorbonne, and a Rockefeller fellowship to study at the American University of Beirut. �45 {Obituaries} Robert Hazo, class of 1953, rarely missed a Homecoming in Annapolis. In 2005, he brought a prospective student. was passionately devoted to the task of bringing down the many barriers to pain relief faced by millions of other afflicted Americans. He and his wife founded the Pain Relief Network in 2003 to challenge the U.S. government’s legislation on pain medications. ALSO NOTED ERIC GUNNAR BACK (CLASS OF 1964), DECEMBER 5, 2005 ILEANA BASIL (CLASS OF 1973), AUG. 24, 2006 IRENE DORTCH (CLASS OF 1966), AUG. 12, 2006 WILLIAM HABERLAND (CLASS OF 1933), APRIL 22, 2006 Following graduate studies, Mr. Hazo was named associate director of the Institute for Philosophical Research in San Francisco. He then was appointed senior editor for political, legal, social and economic articles at Encyclopedia Britannica. He joined the University of Pittsburgh in 1970. As director of the American Experience Program, he led a program that offered Pittsburgh’s mid- to high-level managers insight into political and economic thought, with the goal of improving the quality of political discourse. In the toast Mr. Hazo gave in honor of his class at Homecoming 2003, Mr. Hazo described his enduring love for the College. “When a group as complex as this comes together for a purpose, the ideal that unites them is perforce a simple one. I know an ideal that is simple and familiar yet mysterious and profound. It is a love affair.” TORIN B. OWENS Torin Bernard Owens, class of 1985, died August 11, 2006, of complications related to pneumonia. Mr. Owens was reared in Fernandina Beach, Fla., and displayed his academic gifts at an early age. By age 14 he was the champion of nine Florida spelling bees. In high school he was awarded numerous honors and scholarships, including the National Achievement Scholarship, National Merit Commended Scholar, and Society of Distinguished American High School Students. By the time he was 17, Mr. Owens had two life objectives: to be a Florida state senator and to graduate from St. John’s College. On May 28, 1985, he reached the latter goal, having written his senior essay on “The Legitimate Powers of Government.” However, a serious car accident in Annapolis in November 1985 changed Mr. Owens’ life and plans. He sustained a traumatic brain injury and spent many years in rehabilitation. Six years after his accident, he began speaking again. A remembrance prepared by his family emphasized that Mr. Owens’ strong faith persisted even in the face of such a devastating blow: “Torin lived in the complete will of God until his demise. He leaves to his relatives, friends, and acquaintances his unbiased love, his open-mindedness, his perseverance, his love of music and the spoken word, his trust and obedience to God, his parents and authorities, his patience, his willingness to explore un-chartered territories. He accepted his lot in life with unfeigned joy.” SEAN GREENWOOD Sean Edward Greenwood (SF86) died on August 23, 2006, of complications from untreated pain. He was the loving husband of Siobhan Reynolds and father of a 14-year-old son, Ronan. Mr. Greenwood worked as a legal assistant at law firm. He was a victim of chronic and debilitating pain, for which he and his family moved to New York in search of progressive pain care. Mr. Greenwood { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } EDWARD C. HUDSON (CLASS OF 1937), JULY 1, 2006 EUGENE F. MARTIN (CLASS OF 1951), FEB. 24, 2006 WILLIAM C. OWENS (CLASS OF 1938), JUNE 20, 2006 WILLIAM WARFIELD ROSS (CLASS OF 1947), JULY 4, 2006 EDWARD SENSENEY (CLASS OF 1952), SEPTEMBER 9, 2006 �46 46 { A F u m m i t A s s o c i a t To n e r sw s } {l ro n he Bell i ow Ne } From the Alumni Association President Homecoming is always a time of remembering and reflection for me. Back on the campus with friends and colleagues and in conversation inside and outside the classroom, I pause and take stock of my Johnnie experience in the context of my life. I also consider my life in the context of the college—both her community and her program of instruction. This homecoming was particularly moving for two reasons. This was our 30th reunion. Many came for the celebration in Santa Fe, and they brought news of others. We huddled in small groups sharing bits of past and hopes for An Official Johnnie by Emily DeBusk (A06) Sixty years ago, Kay Harper earned her first degree, in fine arts, from Goucher College in Baltimore. At that time, Goucher didn’t offer a degree in physics, her original field of interest, and the dean talked her out of her second choice, philosophy. Looking back today on her educational path, Harper believes her time spent in unofficial selfeducation—including 25 years of attending community seminars at St. John’s College in Santa Fe—has been the most fruitful part of her life. This summer, the Alumni Association recognized Harper’s dedication to St. John’s by making her an Honorary Alumna, honoring her as one who possesses all the qualities of a true Johnnie: insatiable curiosity, a love for reading and discussion, and a fierce dedication to lifelong learning. Though she spent one summer at the Graduate Institute, Harper’s experience with St. John’s has been centered on the college’s noncredit offerings, the weekend or evening Community Seminars that draw future. I remembered why some had been especially dear to me in those long-ago days. I discovered that others might have been, too, if circumstances (or I) had been different. The weekend was planned to give us plenty of time to chat over food and drink, dance to the old tunes, listen to Mariachi, laugh and cry with Singin’ in the Rain, meet families, and soak up Santa Fe sunshine. Thanks to all who came back for the fun! The other reason why this homecoming was significant for me is that it was my last homecoming in Santa Fe as president of the Alumni Association. In late September, I’ll celebrate another “last” homecoming when we meet together in Annapolis, and Jason Walsh (A97) will be elected to take my place. These six years have been wonderful. It has been a pleasure to work with the Alumni Association Board as we helped “more alumni connect more often and more richly” to each other and to the college. Throughout my tenure, an image has inspired me. It came from a lecture delivered by Sally Dunn when she was a tutor in Santa Fe. Her subject was friendship, and her source was Aristotle. She explored the various kinds of friendship that Aristotle describes in the Ethics. When she got to the final one—friendship for the Good—she turned to reflections on the college and its program of instruction. Friendship for the Good, you will remember, is when a friend serves as your mirror. He or she is similar enough to you that you see both your strengths and weaknesses reflected in the other. Each interaction opens opportunities to learn and to improve yourself as you are reflected in your friend. Ms. Dunn further extended the image by proposing that our relationship to the program books is also a friendship for the Good. In their pages we see ourselves reflected and, consequently, open opportunities for increased growth toward the Good. As I reflect on my 30th reunion and the closing days in my role as president of the Alumni Association, I want to express my thanks. Thank you for this opportunity to serve you, our community of alumni, and the college that continues to bring us together. Thank you for sharing these friendships for the Good. residents to the campus. After graduating from Goucher, she worked at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in various positions: librarian, editor, sometime fetcher of coffee for professors. While there, she attended lectures and read scientific and medical papers floating around the department. In one paper, she read that the last place in the country to get telephone access was a place called Hidalgo County, New Mexico. She drove her Studebaker across the country and made New Mexico her permanent home. In 1949, she enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of New Mexico, from which she graduated in 1951 with a major in anthropology and minor in geology. After that, she was able to return to her first love, physics, when she was hired at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Year after year she returns to the community seminars, “reading everything from the Greeks to the Russians,” because she believes that learning is something that will never be finished. Without hesitation, she says that her favorite seminar, led by Barry Goldfarb, was on Plato’s Republic. She was also deeply impressed by seminars on Tolstoy and Dostoevsky led by Steve Van Luchene. Reflecting on her experience at St. John’s, Mrs. Harper noticed that, “College-age students are at the steepest point of their learning curve. They learn fast and well.” She encourages current students to be confident in their education. And although she laughingly implies that she is beyond the peak of the learning curve, her record of unceasing learning testifies to the contrary, and makes her a confirmed Johnnie, official or not. x Glenda Eoyang SF76 Kay Harper has attended Santa Fe community seminars for 25 years. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �47 { o u ni e B c t T w ws s { F rA lm m t h A s s o e ilal i o no N ee r } } Tar Heel Chapter Thrives Akira Kurosawa’s epic film Seven Samurai, Georgioni’s painting The Tempest, and most recently Emmanuel Levinas’ essay “Is Ontology Fundamental?” were among the eclectic works North Carolina chapter members selected for their seminar discussions. “With films, we arrange for a viewing a few days prior to the seminar when we discuss it; paintings can be viewed online,” says Susan Friedman Eversole (SF79), who has been the North Carolina chapter president for the past 11 years. “The person who suggests the work asks the opening question, but we especially welcome visiting tutors to lead our seminars.” Phil LeCuyer, a beloved tutor from Santa Fe, led the group’s June seminar on Levinas’ essay. Eversole, who has lived in Chapel Hill for the past 22 years, says that in the early days she and a few Johnnies met in a local used bookstore for an informal reading group. Then in 1990, she helped spearhead the process to formally charter the chapter. She helped organize regular monthly seminars and social gatherings, drawing members from nearby towns of Durham, Raleigh, and Greensboro, and as far west as Asheville. “There are a lot of retirees in this area,” says Eversole, “as well as young alums who are starting their careers.” According to Eversole, the younger alums are especially interested in the chapter’s social events—such as a recent dinner at La Residence in Chapel Hill—to network and develop career contacts. In addition to attracting retirees, graduate students and young professionals, the Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle region is also a magnet for computer professionals. Two of Eversole’s colleagues, Lucy Adams (A78) and G. Kay Bishop (A75) are, like Eversole, employed on long-term contracts with the Environmental Protection Agency, either as software developers or working on computer systems with environmental data. “Given all the universities in the area, we also have several graduate students, even some in medical school, who make time for the seminars,” she says. Alan Brinkley, Barb Smalley, and Rachel Darrow, Chapter Networking Chair. ALBUQUERQUE Robert Morgan, SF76 505-275-9012 rim2u@comcast.net BOSTON Dianne Cowan, A91 617-666-4381 dianecowan@rcn.com MINN./ST. PAUL Carol Freeman, AGI94 612-822-3216 Freem013@umn.edu ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin Gammon, A94 410-951-7359 emartin@crs.org CHICAGO Rick Lightburn, SF76 847-922-3862 rlightburn@gmail.com NEW YORK CITY Daniel Van Doren, A81 914-949-6811 president@ sjcalums.com AUSTIN Joe Reynolds, SF69 jpreynolds@ austinrr.com BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen, A77 410-472-9158 deborahcohen@ comcast.net DALLAS/FORT WORTH Paula Fulks, SF76 817-654-2986 puffjd@swbell.net DENVER/BOULDER Lee Katherine Goldstein, SGI90 720-746-1496 LGoldstein@ Lindquist.com NORTHERN CALIF. Reynaldo Miranda, A99 415-333-4452 reynaldo.miranda@ gmail.com 47 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 – Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President – Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary – Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer – Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team Chair – Linda Stabler-Talty, SFGI76 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. About eight to ten Johnnies attend each seminar, previously held in an office in the Research Triangle Park, and lately at Eversole’s home in Chapel Hill. In the future, the seminars will meet at the University of North Carolina’s Chapel of the Cross. Eversole, who is retiring as president, passes the helm of the North Carolina chapter to Richard Ross (A82) and Elizabeth Pyle Ross (A92), but she plans to stay active in the chapter. “All of us want to be tutors in our souls, to retire as tutors, to keep our minds working.” x PITTSBURGH Joanne Murray, A70 724-325-4151 Joanne.Murray@ alcoa.com SANTA FE Richard Cowles, SFGI95 505-986-1814 rcowles2@comcast.net TRIANGLE CIRCLE, NORTH CAROLINA Susan Eversole, SF79 919-968-4856 sfevers@yahoo.com PORTLAND Jennifer Rychlik, SF93 jlr43@coho.net SEATTLE James Doherty, AFGI76 206-542-3441 jdoherty@mrsc.org WASHINGTON, DC Deborah Papier, A72 202-387-4520 dpapier@verizon.net SOUTH FLORIDA Jon Sackson, A69 305-682-4634 jonathan.sackson@ ubs.com WESTERN NEW ENGLAND Peter Weiss, SF84 413-367-2174 peter_weis@ nmhschool.org SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico, A86 805-684-6793 srico@sandi.net SALT LAKE CITY Erin Hanlon, AF03 801-364-1097 SOUTHERN CALIF. PHILADELPHIA Helen Zartarian, AGI86 erin_hanlon@juno.com Elizabeth Eastman, SFGI84 215-482-5697 562-426-1934 helenstevezartarian@ e.eastman@verizon.net mac.com { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �48 marion warren {St. John’s Forever} An Eye for Beauty F ormer St. John’s College president Richard Weigle was skilled in public relations, and one of the smartest things he did for the college was to hire Annapolis photographer Marion E. Warren. Warren took yearbook photos in 1949, and the following year, began shooting promotional shots of the campus. Weigle also arranged for Warren to photograph the emerging Santa Fe campus. Born in 1920 in Billings, Mont., Warren had a lifelong dream of becoming a photographer. After freelancing and briefly working for the Associated Press, he was drafted into the Navy and became a special photographer to the Secretary of the Navy. After the war, he moved to Annapolis and opened a studio. His photos captured city { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } life, watermen on the Chesapeake Bay, and Maryland’s rural communities. He died September 8, 2006. Warren photographed St. John’s people and events up to 1987 when he retired from commercial photography. The Greenfield Library’s photo archive includes more than 400 of Warren’s prints—distinct and remarkable photographs capturing life at the college. x �{Alumni Events Calendar} The Campaign on the Road Tuesday, December 12, 2006 Alumni, parents, and friends of the college in the greater Houston area are invited to join Presidents Christopher Nelson and Michael Peters at The Coronado Club in celebration of “With a Clear and Single Purpose”: The Campaign for St. John’s College. Wine, beer, and light fare will be served. The reception will begin at 6 p.m., with a program beginning at 7 p.m. Contact Penelope Bielagus in the college’s advancement office at 505-984-6113 or pbielagus@sjcsf.edu. The college is planning several additional events across the country in the coming year that are designed to keep alumni informed about how the college is planning for its future; to invite dialogue between the college and its alumni, parents, and supporters; and to build momentum for the campaign. Details on events will be posted on the college Web site: www.stjohnscollege.edu. April 21, 2007 Croquet Match with the Naval Academy. Rain date: April 22 Homecoming scenes from Santa Fe: Above, visiting in Schep’s Garden; Annapolis tutor Sam Kutler (class of 1954), Liz Jenny (SF80) and Lee Goldstein (SFGI90), at Saturday’s picnic; Allan Hoffman (class of 1949) and Steve Thomas (SF74). Photos by teri thomson randall back cover photo by teri nolan { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2006 } �P ERIODICALS P OSTAGE PAID P UBLISHED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE P.O. BOX 2800 A NNAPOLIS , MARYLAND 21404 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 pages 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/. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Title A name given to the resource The College, Fall 2006 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Description An account of the resource Volume 32, Issue 3 of <em>The College</em> Magazine. Published in Fall 2006. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The_College_Magazine_Fall_2006 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/68190bebffa74bd866b58d77fb647b47.pdf 751fce1e57d573efed8dd69e6f4f4549 PDF Text Text The St. John’s College • Winter a o o 7 Annap W.E.B. Du Bois In Annapolis �“We claimfor ourselves every single right that belongs to afree-born American, political, civil and social; and until we get these rights we will never cease to protest and assail the ears ofAmerica. The battle we wage is notfor ourselves alone butfor all true Americans. ” -W.E.B. Du Bois, 1906 On W.E.B. Du Bois SIJOHN’S College ANNAPOLIS . SANTA FE Imost five decades after publishing his landmark work, The Souls ofBlack Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois stepped off a train a few blocks from the Annapolis campus. There to greet him was Martin Dyer, the first African-American to attend St. John’s College. Dyer had already been accepted to a historically black institution. Coppin State in Baltimore, but he changed his plans when St. John’s admitted him. Dyer walked next to Du Bois with a sense of awe. amazed at how a man with such small stature could convey such a sense of greatness, and that a man in his Bos who had already been through many trials could be so vigorous and lively. This issue of The College recounts Du Bois’ visit to Annapolis to deliver a lecture. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois earned a bachelor’s degree at Fisk University and then a second BA at Harvard, where he later earned a PhD. He taught at Wilberforce University in Ohio, then at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta). I’l 1905’ Du Bois helped to found the Niagara Movement and later was instrumental in the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1910, he left his teaching post at Atlanta University to work as publications director at the NAACP full time. He wrote weekly columns for newspapers and was editor-in-chief of The Crisis, the NAACP’s magazine, in which he decried lynchings, Jim Crow laws, and sexual as well as racial inequality. Du Bois’ most famous idea was that a “talented tenth” of the black population would lead his race to advancement and equality. To that end, he was a fierce advocate of education and self-determination. In addition to his work for racial equality in his own country, he was very much a citizen of the world, fighting against colonialism and imperialism in Africa, and traveling the globe, speaking and writing, well into his 90s. Persecuted for his political activity and disillusioned with America, he moved to Ghana, where he died in 1963, on the eve of the historic March on Washington. Du Bois was a marvelous writer, and The Souls ofBlack Folk includes some of his most powerful prose. He described Lincoln as “the long-headed man with carechiselled face who sat in the White House. ...” In the poignant essay he wrote on the death of his infant son, haunting imagery can be found: “He died at eventide, when the sun lay like a brooding sorrow above the western hills, veiling its face; when the winds spoke not, and the trees, the great green trees he loved, stood motionless. I saw his breath beat quicker and quicker, pause, and then his little soul leapt like a star that travels in the night and left a world of darkness in its train.” There’s no record of what Du Bois thought of St. John’s, though Dyer remembers him congratulating St. John’s for voluntarily accepting black students. But in accord with the St. John’s way, he thought that education should go beyond preparing men and women for work; black and white, one must have “ideals, broad, pure, and inspiring ends of living.” —RH The Gollege (usps 018-750) is published quarterly 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 postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. Rosemary Harty, editor Patricia Dempsey, Emily DeBusk, assistant editors Jennifer Behrens, art director Annapolis 410-626-2539 Santa Fe 505-984-6104 Contributors Sally Benson (SF03) Eva Brann (HA57) Elizabeth Burlington (A08) Jon Enriquez Oliver Lemke (SFio) Gabriel Pihas (A92) Thomas Scally Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �{Contents} PAGE IO DEPARTMENTS Endowing St. John’s Why building the college’s endowment is the most important goal of the ongoing capital campaign. PAGE l6 The Day Job Five ambitious Johnnies brave cattle-call auditions, rejection letters, and uncer­ tain incomes in pursuit of their dreams. PAGE PAGE z6 2 FROM THE BELL TOWERS • • • • • • • New Endeavors for Former Deans Christopher Nelson’s Fiction Group Celebrating Fish Twenty Years of Karate-Do The Man Behind the Covers The Music of Homer Challenging Alumni 36 Bibliofile • A new translation of Plato’s Republic by Joe Sachs. Harrison Sheppard (A61) considers consumerism in America. Joshua Kates (A80) deconstructs Derrida. • 2121 Race and Human Nature ’ A Graduate Institute preceptorial explores race through autobiography, literature, and Supreme Court cases. 38 ALUMNI PROFILES 38 For architect David Schwarz (A72), a good PAGE 2'Y opening question makes all the difference. 42 Portfolio manager Steve Bohlin (SF81) Du Bois IN Annapouis finds integrity and success go together. 44 At a time when most are enjoying Alumni remember a quiet, dignified man who came to campus. retirement, Martha Jordan (SFGI83) makes a leap of faith. 47 Jon Ferrier (A73) is still pursuing justice. PAGE Chaninah Maschler 48 Obituaries A respected tutor emerita looks back on an interesting life. • • A Tribute to Brother Robert Alumnus Ahmet Ertegun (class 011944), founder of Atlantic Records PAGE Homecoming 50 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS PAGE 38 The memories of six alumni from six eras reflect an evolving St. John’s. ON THE COVER W.E.B. Du Bois Illustration by DavidJohnson 52 ST. John’s forever �{From the Bell Towers} Life After the Dean’s Office While Michael Dink (A75) in Annapolis and Victoria Mora in Santa Fe have settled into the role of dean on their campuses, their predecessors have been industriously using that time to enter into new ones. Harvey Flaumenhaft and David Levine expound on their new lives. The Amphibious Mr. Flaumenhaft The St. John’s community will be pleased to learn that, after his unusually long eight-year term as dean (second only to Jacob Klein’s nine-year stint), Harvey Flaumenhaft says he is “staying off the streets and out of trouble.” What a relief. Although he doesn’t regret the time he spent as dean (1997-2,005), Flaumenhaft relishes his new freedom, which has allowed him to pursue his many intellectual interests. “I’m glad I did it, but I’m glad I’m done,” he says. “We have a large operation here so the dean has a wide variety of functions, the kinds of things that other institutions have many people to do. You don’t get much time to read, study, and think. There’s a lot of putting out fires and preparing for the future by talking with many people.. .It’s interesting work, especially to me because I’m very interested in what kind of thing adminis­ tration is. But prior to being dean, I had never been a manager, let alone had this kind of responsibility.” The difficulties of being a dean were not limited to new administra­ tive duties, he says, but also included the things he couldn’t do. “I had a number of writing projects I had to put on the back burner; that was a hard part. I also didn’t teach because of the demands of the job. It is very nice to get back to the days of writing and reading without somebody needing me at any moment,” he says. Flaumenhaft, who has been with the college for nearly 40 years, points out that St. John’s has a unique approach to the role of dean, which is effec­ tively a safeguard of the official relationship between the faculty and the administrators. “One of the particularities of this college is that the deanship is not a career track. The faculty recommends someone from their ranks to be dean temporarily-you do it for a finite stretch of time then go back to being a tutor. In a lot of places, to be dean is the end of being a teacher and student. This is a way of making sure that people who make adminis­ trative decisions remember the work and needs of the faculty. We keep the dean amateur, in the best sense. It’s good for the faculty and good for the full-time professional administrators to have someone who is an ‘amphibian.’ ” After finishing his term as dean. Harvey Flaumen­ haft: Captivated BY Geometry. Flaumenhaft took his long-overdue year of sabbatical, followed by a year of unpaid leave of absence. So what exactly has been keeping him off the streets and out of trouble? Geometry. He spent his sabbat­ ical and this year revising, format­ ting, and editing his forthcoming book in two volumes entitled “Insights and Manipulations: David Levine: Exploring phronesis. What Classical Geometry Was Like at Its Peak and How It Was Transformed.” break from professional duties before returning to teaching. Flaumenhaft describes the book as “a close reading of When describing the dean’s major mathematical texts, office, Levine calls it a “work trying to understand the room” where members of the contrast and transition from faculty, board. Instruction classical to modern mathe­ Committee, and student body matics.” Students can look are able to come together to forward to benefiting from meet. “Here, you’re trying to Flaumenhaft’s “amphibious” make it possible for people to flexibility; after to years of grow into and with the administrative and intellectual Program,” Levine explains. exercise, he will be resuming “And that requires a lot of the role of tutor in the fall. conversations and working with the faculty, trying to make —Emily DeBusk (Ao6) it as effective as possible.” During Levine’s tenure as David Levinedean, approximately one-third Back in the Swing of the current faculty was These days, an average week appointed. “These are people for David Levine (A67) who will continue to shape and includes not one, not two, but influence the school for years three games of racquetball, to come, so those decisions are something Levine claims he momentous.” could not have done prior to In addition to working with taking his sabbatical after his the faculty to support the five-year stint as dean. And, Program, Levine placed according to his playing part­ priority on improving the ners, his game is stronger than quality of student life, lowering ever. the rate of attrition, and Levine, who first came to expanding the assistant dean teach at St. John’s in 1986, and position into a full-time job. whose tenure as dean of the During the Santa Fe campus’ Santa Fe campus was 2001presidential transition and aoo6, is enjoying a year-long search, however, he absorbed {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } �{From the Bell Towers} Story Time with Christopher Nelson In the spring of 2005, after spending more than a year splitting his time hetween the two campuses while the Santa Fe presidential search was underway, Annapolis President Christopher Nelson (SF70) was eager to reconnect to the Annapolis community. He decided to do it the St. John’s way-talking about hooks-and began a study group on short American fiction, co-led by tutor Deborah Renaut (A68). Open to all in the campus community, the group has attracted students, staff, tutors and tutors’ spouses. To choose his material. Nelson spent the summer of 2005 reading more than too short stories to select the reading list for the study group. He read works by authors such as Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe and sought advice from faculty members. Three stories were at the top of his list: Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” Poe’s “William Wilson,” and Wright’s “Fire and Cloud.” “They have open, endless ques­ tions and are deep, difficult, complicated stories,” he says. Nelson had another reason for pursuing American fiction in the seminar: as an exchange student he spent his senior year in high school in Amsterdam and missed out on 20thcentury literature and history classes. Also, he acknowledges, “fiction didn’t speak to me when I was younger the way it does now.” Every other week. Nelson is joined by about six to ten “regulars” who attend most of the study groups. Among them is Jeff Peters (AGI06), who plans to pursue a doctorate in 18th-century British literature. Although he was an English major at St. Mary’s College, Peters says the seminars connect him to fiction without considering secondary sources. He also finds it fasci­ nating to look at the short stories of authors who are well known for greater works. “These are works I never would have read.” Another regular, Eileen McFarren, additional responsibility while Annapolis president Christopher Nelson commuted between campuses and was not always available. “I used to joke during difficult times that I couldn’t get paid enough to do this job, but other times, I wanted to say ‘you’re paying me far too much.’ When you know how much people are learning and you hear people playing the piano and the conversations in the coffee shop-all of these things that wiU lead to one’s personal growth-then it’s well worth our efforts.” Relinquishing some adminis­ trative responsibility and returning to his life as a tutor is a transition that agrees with Levine. “I’m happy to read and write and talk. Our primary role is to teach. Will I be happy to be back in the classroom? Absolutely.” For the moment, however, Levine is enjoying his time off. He and his wife, Jackie, have traveled to visit their children and eight grandchildren as well Short lunch: attends the study group not just for the readings and discussion, but also to feel more a part of the college community. McFarren and her husband, tutor Louis Petrich, moved to Annapolis five years ago. “When we lived overseas we both taught American fiction. I was automatically part of a group since the ex-pats hung out together,” she says. “Here I know a lot of other tutors and their spouses, but not in the St. John’s way-through a seminar. 3 So this group gives me that chance.” McFarren finds that the discussions she likes the most are about the stories she likes the least. “I’m forced to see the story in a completely different way,” she explains. Nelson and Renaut plan to lead the fiction study group next year, though Nelson hints that there may be a shift away from short American works to collec­ tions by a single author. “ ‘The Dead’ may be the greatest story in the English language,” he says of Joyce’s story. —Patricia Dempsey stories and Frank Rowsome, Jeff Peters (AGI06) and Chris Nelson (SF70). as made a trip to Greece. Several intellectual projects are also in the works. Levine is finishing the last two chapters of a book he began some years ago, which is about one of Plato’s smaller dialogues, the Charmides. “a dialogue about ‘moderation’ featuring two of Athens’ most politically notorious figures.” In the spring, Levine plans to follow up on his fourth dean’s lecture on Aristotle and Plutarch, which explores the question ofphronesis, or {The College - St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } practical sense. He believes that this project will hkely result in a book, but for now, he simply wants to find out what’s next. “What is the next question, and where does it lead?” Levine asks. “Which authors might help me under­ stand the questions better?” Is there a relationship between these two projects, practical sense and modera­ tion? “That’s a longer story,” says Levine, smiling. —Sally Benson (SF03) �4 On Fish More than 100 students, tutors, staff, andparents turned out in Octoberfor a ceremony to welcome back the denizens of the Santa Fefishpond, housed temporarily in Schepp’s Garden and at President Michael Peters’house while thepond was repaired and improved last year. A giftfrom the Class of 2005 helpedfund theproject. Among the speakers was tutor Ewen Harrison, who asserted thatfish are the true center of the St. John’s Program: As some of you may know, I spent many years studying the evolution and behavior of fish, before I saw the light and came to teach and study at St. John’s. I thought that when I came to St. John’s I would put my fishy ways behind me. How wrong could I have been! Over the past few years I have come to understand that contemplation of fishes is the true heart of the St. John’s Program. I offer you rr brief observations to help you see the truth of this radical claim. i) Homer: Since we begin our freshman seminar with Homer, I shall do the same. Who is the true hero of the lliadJ Achilles, you may say? Think again. I quote from Book 21: “Achilles let Asteropaeus lie where he was on the sand, with the dark water flowing over him and the eels and fishes busy nibbling and gnawing the fat that was about his kidneys.” Fish are the true heroes of the Iliad, the subtle, behind-the-scenes players. They Uterally incorporate the products of the absurd activities of men at war. 3) Heraclitus famously said that we can’t step into the same river twice, which of course is inspired by the deeper observa­ tion from the fish’s perspective that you can’t swim in the same pond twice (especially after it has been renovated). {From the Bell Towers} 3) Plato: Who can forget the comparison in the Meno between the greatest philosopher of antiquity, Socrates, and the torpedo fish; or the metaphor of fishing in Plato’s Sophist: fishing as a means of acquiring truth no less. Elsewhere Plato would have us look for the form or eidos of the fish, which has more reality than the fish we think we see in front of us. men?” In Job, some think that the Leviathan is a crocodile, but of course we now know that it is in fact an enormous fish. I leave it to the reader to inves­ tigate the significance of the fish that swallowed Jonah. 6) Shakespeare: Hamlet, Act IV: “A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.” This is clearly a reference back to the It’s all about the fish, says Santa Fe tutor Ewen Harrison. 4) Aristotle used fish as prime examples of how to think about motion. Is it a stretch of logic to claim that his prime mover is in fact the great cosmic fish, whose tail produces all other motions in the cosmos? I think not. 5) The Bible is of course replete with fish references, too many to quote here: What does Jesus mean when he tells Peter and Andrew to “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of wisdom of Homer: consump­ tion by fish as the means to becoming one with nature. 7) We don’t like to provide contextual information about our program authors, but here it is warranted. Immanuel Kant was in fact a failed fisherman. This failure to catch fish was the origin of his argument that we can’t know things in them­ selves. Fish are the symbolic precursors to the concept of Noumena. {The College- St. John’s College • Winter zoo^ } 8) It is not widely known that Georg Hegel during one of his more meditative moments was sitting along a pond (much like this one) watching fish, when he fell in; at that moment conceiving of the notion of the unification of subject and object, in this case becoming one with the fish. 9) In the post-Darwinian world, we see that we are all descendants of fish about 390 million years ago (a group of lobe-finned fishes known as Rhipidistians or Osteolipimorphans that are the most likely ancestors of all tetrapods), and therefore these very individuals that we see before us are our distant cousins. 10) The Graduate Institute has fish prominently located on their promotional material. A coincidence? I think not! 11) Geography: it is surely no accident that the fish pond occupies the physical center of the Santa Fe campus. We already appreciate the wisdom of the founders of the New Program. It is time that we also appreciate the wisdom of the first landscape architects of the Santa Fe campus. I hope it is now clear to you that contemplating fish is the forgotten eighth liberal art, in need of restoration to its former glory. I urge you all therefore to read fewer books and spend more time watching and thinking about fish, as all of the great thinkers have done. I offer you a summary of the four undergraduate years at St. John’s as seen from the perspective of a fish contemplator: Freshmen: There are no fish. Sophomores: God created fish. Juniors: You are better than fish. Seniors: You are fish. �{From Karate-Do BY Olfver Lemke (SFzo) In the gymnasium at St. John’s GoUege (Santa Fe), there hangs a plaque commemorating 20 years of Karate-Dd. A Ddjd has existed at the college since 1986, run by tutor Jorge Aigla, M.D., 6th Dan, Kyoshi, and is composed of students, tutors, alumni, and staff members. A Ddjd, as Mr. Aigla says, is not a spa group or a fitness center, nor is it a club. The Japanese word means “hall of enlightenment.” In the true study of Karate-Dd, students must confront themselves, learning to understand and control their fears and anger. Commitment is the primary requirement. Yet Karate-Dd has no prescribed result. “It is not a means to anything,” Mr. Aigla says. “I do it because I must do it.” And although some students come to him expecting to get in shape or to learn to fight, the ones who stay are inevitably those who come to value Karate-Dd as an end in itself. Mr. Aigla’s own story in some ways exemplifies this principle. As a teenager, he conceived a keen interest in the martial arts; his mother saved 200 pesos the Bell Towers} (about $i6) to allow him to begin to practice Tae Kwon Do at a Dojo in Mexico City in 1970. He earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do before proceeding to its Japanese counterpart, Karate-Do. Mr. Aigla began practicing Karate-Do in 1974, at the San Francisco Karate-Dd Dojo headed by Sensei Johnny Pereira (and assisted by Sensei Greg Barron). This, he says, was a pivotal experience in his hfe. “It’s very rare,” says Mr. Aigla, “to come across a real Sensei.” Most Karate instructors resemble coaches or trainers, competitive and motivated by the prospect of gain and recogni­ tion. A Sensei is something else entirely. “If life brings you to one,” Mr. Aigla says, “you drop everything and follow him.” Mr. Aigla found his Sensei in Johnny Pereira, and studied with him for many years until Sensei Pereira’s untimely death in 1993. Mr. Aigla has remained associ­ ated with this style of Japanese Karate-Do: Wa Do Ki Kai, now headed by Sensei Ferol Arce in Oakland, Cahfornia. Some of us have seen adver­ tisements offering a black belt in one year, but this is misleading, on par with the one-year degree programs found at onhne universities. When Mr. Aigla was asked to teach Karate-Do at St. John’s, he did what he felt was necessary to counter this shortcut mentality and accepted the offer by then Student Activi­ ties Director, Istvan Fehervary in 1986. “I said, ‘only if I’m not paid,”’ he recalls. While practice sessions were a significant commitment on top of his academic duties, a lack of pay came with a high degree of autonomy. “Since I don’t get remuner­ ated, I have very high stan­ dards,” Mr. Aigla says. “I require that students always be there and give a hundred percent spirit.” Thus, there is no selling of belts. The only true way to progress in the Dojd-as in the study of Karate-Dd itself-is to appreciate the art for its own sake. “I am simply passing on what I was given: a Zen Way.” For many years, students practiced thrice-weekly (Basics, Form/A'ara, Sparring) in the Great Hall. Mr. Aigla himself arrived early to move chairs and tidy up, making sure that the sessions would start on time. In 2000, the college gymnasium opened, and the Ddjd has met there ever since. Mr. Aigla comments that this is more convenient, hut not necessarily any better, than previous arrangements. “Ifyouwantto workout, you can work out anywhere,” he says. The Ddjd holds to a prin­ ciple which seems important in the college as a whole: where there is interest, commit­ ment and disci­ pline, material requirements are small. The resem­ blance between the Ddjd and the college seems. 5 indeed, hardly accidental. The Zen Way of Karate-Dd, fike the teaching of the Program, is deeply traditional and not inclined to change. It attracts a small but dedicated group of students, and it is in a sense inimical to the fast-moving and result-oriented culture of modern America. Membership in the Ddjd has declined since the eighties; students have more obligations and fewer unfilled hours. Many are uneasy about the commitment the Ddjd requires. But, as Mr. Aigla says, a Ddjd is not strong in proportion to the number of students it has, but in proportion to its spirit. Since 1986, Mr. Aigla has awarded four black belts, including one to his son, Andres; three Second degree blackbelts, one Third degree, and one Fourth degree blackbelt (to fellow tutor Bill Kerr). Other tutors have been involved, and the number of students has varied between eight and 20. Some have not stayed long; others have continued for many years, and several have come hack years after graduating. “If you want to hit people,” says Mr. Aigla to prospective students, “this is not the place for you.” Karate-Dd is about self-control and etiquette, and in some ways about communion. The word kumite, commonly translated as “sparring,” in fact means something closer to “an exchange in trust.” Students spar as partners, not opponents. “Kumite is nothing but an intense conversation,” Mr. Aigla says. “It is a way of learning to acknowledge the other as a human being.” In light of this, it is no wonder the Ddjd has flourished at St. John’s, and it seems likely that the past 20 years are only the beginning. The Santa Fe Ddjd celebrates ao years. {The College. 5f. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } �6 The Man Behind THE Covers Most compliments on The College usually come with a follow-up question: “Who does those illustrations on the covers?” That’s David Johnson, a fond reader of great hooks and an award-winning illustrator who lives in New Canaan, Connecticut. Johnson began drawing in high school and began selling his work at age 19. His pen-and-ink draw­ ings appeared regularly in the New York Times Book Review, which led the magazine’s designer, Claude Skelton, to suggest him for the magazine. Do you have afavorite author ofall you have drawn sofar? I’m not sure I have a favorite, hut I am a reader. My grandfa­ ther was a publisher; he ran an export trade magazine. He was a Harvard man, so he had a library with the classics. I didn’t go to college and was living at home-my father died when I was young-so we went to live with my grandfather and that became our permanent home. I read my way through his library. My grandfather had some pretty obscure things like Bulwer-Lytton’s The Last Days ofPompeii. He had these really nice sets of books and I opened them up and realized they hadn’t been cut yet. They were apparently part of my grand­ mother’s dowry. In hindsight, I felt fortunate to be around so many books. I think people don’t read if they can get away with it. I know so many people who Idled up their life with reading in college and that’s the last they ever read. {From the Bell Towers} How didyou become an artist? I went to high school in New Canaan and I had one of those teachers that some people are fortunate to have-the synergy was great and he encouraged me. I didn’t go to college, I was supposed to go to Cooper Union-hut the concept of New York-I guess I was too young. So I took a year off, and then I started selling work. My style is a palimpsest of a lot of artists. I grew up looking at cartoonists like those in The New Yorker, a bunch of English line artists, and George Price, slNcw Yorker-type cartoonist. I like the way that by just using a line he made volume. I’m lucky because I discovered something that interests me, and I’m lucky because I get to do something I love. I started working for the New York Times Book Review, and it really changed my career from being a not very good conceptual artist to being an illustrator. My work is very dependent on the design, and it can look really awful. I’ve done a lot of “whatever comes over the transom” as they used to say, and it’s become more and more portraits. The [College} covers are the highest quality work I do of the black-and-white portrait style. I know it will look good, because the design is good. How do you create these portraits? I use watercolor paper and an old-fashioned drafting pencilit’s sort of like a sports car. I can make sharp turns, and then start and stop. I use little ball­ point pens, called Uniballs, while my fiancee uses an expensive loo-pinpoint. I use the cheap $1.95 pens. Then I fill it in with markers, because I’m really messy. A really scary thing to me isn’t a chainsaw massacre; it’s an open bottle of ink on a drawing table. Self-portrait by David Johnson How do you do the researchfor The College covers? I’ve done much of my research on the Internet, but I also use the library. New Canaan is a very literate community and we all do fund-raising for the library, which is very small. We’re near Storrs, where the University of Connecticut is, and the town library there is good. Sometimes I find two conflicting pieces of reference. In one way I love to try to guess the way they looked. The illus­ tration of Virgil is a good example. I don’t like trying to draw wigs-Adam Smith wore a wig. I’m not really sure how wigs are supposed to look. Which author are you really lookingforward to drawing? I haven’t drawn Dickens yet. Dickens is just fun, though a lot of people only know him through A Christmas Carol. {The College- St. John’s College • Winter 2007 } Our cat is named Pip. My sister and I both like Dickens, and if nothing else, we have lots of good names for pets. Well, we don’t read Dickens on the Program. What? How can that be? lU/zrzZ are you reading now? Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain. We don’t read that on the Program either right now. Holy cow! I really like Mann, especially his early books, because I’m interested in my own family and my own person­ ality. I can trace my nose back at least four generations. �{Philanthropia} The Fielding Challenge A Generous Alumnus Raises the Stakes Ronald H. Fielding (A70) gave a promising start to “With a Clear and Single Purpose”: The Campaign for St. John’s College with an unprece­ dented gift of $10 million in August aoo3. In January, he decided to offer the college another $2.5 million-provided that alumni join him in Ronald Fielding (A70), shown with Santa Fe seniors John Carpenter and Melinda Miller-Klopfer, challenges alumni to SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN. making the $125 million capital campaign a success. Fielding will match new and increased alumni gifts, and multi-year pledges dollar for dollar up to $2.5 million. The Campaign for St. John’s College has raised more than $100 million in gifts and pledges. Fielding’s first gift was directed to the college endowment for continuing support of financial aid. His new gift has heen pledged specihcally toward the construction of a new dormi­ tory complex in Santa Fe, though alumni matching gifts can he unrestricted or directed to any goal of the campaign. Through his challenge. Fielding hopes to inspire alumni to support the campaign through the Annual Fund. “The dormitories are impor­ tant for the Santa Fe campus,” Fielding says, explaining one motivation for his gift. However, by issuing this challenge, he is also seeking to stimulate a burgeoning “culture of giving” among Johnnies from both campuses. “To a great extent, this capital campaign is about positioning the college for the future,” he says. “We can’t be a strong institution without the support of alumni.” Sharon Bishop (class of 1965), chair of the board. An Argos for Annapolis Arcadia, a spirited Jack Russell mix, joined the Annapolis campus community last summer. She spends much of her time in the office of Assistant Dean Anita Kronsberg (A79), where she greets visitors with enthusiasm and the hope of getting a treat. She’s also been known to hang out on the Quad, watch croquet practice, and chase a tennis ball through the corridors of Mellon Hall. Warren Spector (A81), whose gift to the college made the construction of Spector Hall, a new dormitory, possible, requested the college consider a campus dog. Cadie-a rescue dog-got the job. Student Services Director Taylor Waters (AGI96) is Cadie’s one of many admirers. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } hopes the challenge creates “new levels of alumni giving.” “Ron’s first gift was remark­ able in itself,” Bishop says. “His leadership has set a standard that we hope others will follow.” Fielding’s gift, combined with an anonymous pledge from another donor, brings the college much closer to adding dormitory rooms to the campus. At 30,000 square feet, and with 60 beds, the new dorm will mean the college can house about 80 percent of Santa Fe undergraduates on campus. In addition to student rooms and common rooms, the dormitory complex will add four new seminar rooms and ten faculty offices, greatly alleviating a space crunch on campus. Santa Fe President Michael Peters said the progress on dormitory fundraising, combined with a $5 million gift from Graduate Institute alumnus Dr. Norman Levan for the construction of a GI center, has allowed the college to move construction planning to the front burner. “These gifts help us achieve one of our most important goals-strengthening our campus as a cohesive community of learners,” Peters says. �8 {From the Bell Towers} News & Announcements Green Johnnies Win MTV Award Students for a Sustainable Future, a group formed last fall in Annapolis by freshmen David Bronstein, Jean Hogan, and Malcolm CecU-Cockwell, is one of five college groups-the only one from a small coUege-to win a national competition for a $1,000 eco-challenge grant from MTV; Music Television. MTV sponsors Break the Addiction Challenge, a nationwide eco-competition that challenges students to demonstrate environ­ mental changes in their lives and schools. MTV chose five school groups that had received print or broadcast attention and awarded each a $i,ooo grant. Last fall. Students for a Sustainable Future created media buzz with an article that appeared in the local paper. Besides getting the word out through the media. Students for a Sustainable Future seeks to educate St. John’s students about global warming, ways to improve recycling on campus, and reducing energy use. The group’s overall goal is to develop strategies to move St. John’s towards getting too percent of its energy from renewable sources, such as the geothermal system that heats and cools the new dormitories. “Global warming will directly affect our future. We want to use the campus as a model for a greater society,” says Bronstein, who as a high school student in Maryland’s Montgomery County lobbied the County Council to pass a bill requiring more use of clean energy, such as wind and solar power. Santa Fe HONORED Students Fourteen St. John’s students, along with one alumnus and one staff member, set out in March aoo6 to St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana. They put in 2,248 hours of assistance with the Emergency Communities, providing food and supplies at the Made with Love Cafe, and joining the nonprofit Common Ground Collective, gutting homes and businesses in prepa­ ration for renovation. Their trip was one of hard labor and a labor of love. The students strength­ ened existing relationships and built new ones; they heard stories of loss and pain while creating memories of laughter and good will; and they learned up front about the devastation of mother-nature and bureaucracy. Their philanthropic deed did not go unnoticed. President Bush’s Higher Education Community Service Corporation recognized the college, with distinction, on the Honor Roll for Hurricane Rehef Service. New Staff Gail Griffith joins St. John’s College as director of communi­ cations in Santa Fe. Griffith has a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and an advanced degree from Georgetown University. At Georgetown, she ran executive training programs for international leaders for the university’s School of Foreign Service. She later joined the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation where, throughout the 1990S, she worked on the foundation’s campaign to ban landmines. She is the author of Will’s Choice, a memoir based on her teenage son’s battle with depression. She serves on the board of directors of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and was this year’s recipient of the Tipper Gore “Remember the Children” Award, from the National Mental Health Association. Ironman Tutor On June 25 Santa Fe tutor J. Walter Sterling Jr. (A93) completed his first Ironman triathlon: a 2.4-mile swim, 112.5-mile bike, and 26.2-mile run, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. He took on the grueling enterprise not just to challenge himself physically: “I ran for Team Ironman, raising money for local charities, and in memory of several deceased dear friends from the community in which I used to work: Project H.O.M.E., Philadelphia. “Though I am a long-time runner, this was only my second triathlon,” says Sterling. “I trained as well as my schedule allowed (with much help from friends and many runs up Atalaya), and, eventually, I was able to finish. Up at 4:30 a.m., on the beach at 5:30, in the water at 7. After roughly two hours of swim­ ming, eight hours of biking, and five hours of running later. Santa Fe tutor J. Walter Sterling Jr. (A93) rides for A CAUSE. {The College* St. John’s College ■ Winter 2001 } I crossed the finish line at 10:17 P-m. The mid-day temper­ ature had reached the mid-pos. Quite a day!” Sterling describes the experience as “a wonderful catharsis” for both body and soul. “Physical training has proven to be the one great source of balance in my life as a tutor, and Santa Fe is a glorious place for it,” he says. “But it is not just a counterweight. For some of us, physical discipline and duress of this sort is an intrinsic part of liberal educa­ tion, but that is a longer story. In any case, it is probably one of the best ways to cleanse ‘the doors of perception.’ ” Sterling is scheduled to compete in his next Ironman this April in Arizona. “I hope to raise money for Project H.O.M.E. in its effort to combat homelessness,” he says. His goal is to finish in 12 hours. �{From the Bell Towers} There’s No Place Like Homer Club While they are not the first ones at St. John’s to explore the musical qualities of Ancient Greek, the Homer Club might be the most technologically savvy. These Johnnies, who endeavor to build enough of a vocabulary to sing passages of Homer out loud, tape record themselves and then listen to the playback to critique their tonal chanting. “We plan to present a performance that emphasizes the scansion, the musical qualities of Homer,” says Ben Hoffman, a junior from Stanford, Connecticut. “Mr. [Amirthinayagam] David (A86), a former tutor came up with the idea of exploring the musical qualities of Homer. But we want to become aware of the whole experience of Homer’s story.” Hoffman is joined once a week by core members Bradley Van Uden, a freshman from Thousand Oaks, California; Schuyler Sturm, a junior from Lyndonville, Vermont; and Alexandra Walling, a freshman from Portsmouth, Rhode Island. The Homer Club practices two types of singing: chanting and rhapsody. “With the chanting you have the circle dancing,” says Hoffman. “The physical experience is a huge part of the circle dancing. It’s almost a conjuring. If you are in the circle, you are being swept away by the sounds of the words. It’s so powerful you don’t even need to know what the story is saying. But with the rhapsody there’s more drama, you vary the timing, there are subtler voice qualities, and you need to have an audience.” Hoffman says that rhapsody is easier to perform than a dance because it takes just one person. “You vary the rhythm, no one is dancing to it, so the aesthetic value comes from the dramatic aspects,” he says. The musicality of the Greek language derives from the fact that the Greek accents are pitch accents, tonal. Hoffman demon­ strates by chanting a passage from the Iliad. “One of the prettiest passages in Homer is 9 the ‘catalog of ships’ when the ships are sailing off to Troy,” he says. “It’s probably not the most dynamic from a plot stand­ point.” Normally there would be a circle of dancers moving around the singer, with no other sound or accompaniment. “But there is the stomping of the feet,” says Van Uden. “You stomp hard so the pattern of the dance comes through the rhythm.” Hoffman is preparing to perform a rhapsody from the first book of the Iliad, in which Chryses asks Agamemnon to accept ransom for his daughter. “Schuyler and I plan to perform this rhapsody for Gollegium as one of our goals at the end of the spring semester. Rhapsody is usually performed by one person-so it may be somewhat inauthentic with two but, hey, it will be fun,” he says. —Patricia Dempsey The Homer Club is captivated BY THE MUSIC OF AnCIENT GrEEK. Shown here (l. to r.) Alexandra Walling are and Bradley Van Uden (both Aio), AND Ben Hoffman (Ao8). {Letters} Grateful for Brother Robert I had the grace of having Brother Robert as my tutor for seminar my freshman year in Annapolis (1987-88). Those benignant eyes were consoling during my first don rag. I remember him having a group of students over to his house for dinner (great chef) to discuss some aspects of the Iliad and some psalms in Greek. At present I am working in the Vatican, heading up the “Church and Sport” Section within the Pontifical Council for the Laity-a new office dedicated to the Church’s pastoral care of the world of sport. Everything from the Gregorian chant with the then Dean James Carey in Santa Fe to the seminars on Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas (et alia) were a great start for my future priestly vocation. (I was ordained a to the priesthood in the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ January 2, 2001. It may seem ironic that a former Johnnie would be involved in an office for sport, but I can boast of playing inter­ collegiate sports at St. John’s: crew in Annapolis, soccer and basketball against the College of Santa Fe in Santa Fe! Above all, I am indebted to both Brother Smith and St. John’s for helping me to find my vocation in life. I continue the pursuit of the great books as I am working toward a doctorate in dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Ateneo Regina Apostolorum in Rome. —The Rev. Kevin Lixey, LC (SF91) Correction: In the previous issue’s Alumni Notes, alumna Janie (Bosworth) Bingham was incorrectly listed as Sallie Bingham. Also, Janie graduated from the Santa Fe {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } Graduate Institute in 1994, not 1993- 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 also be sent via e-mail to; rosemary.harty(^ sjca.edu. �{Capital Campaign} “WITH A CLEAR AND SINGLE PURPOSE” Endowing a Future, Supporting Students wi Rosemary Harty s a student, Sharon involved in the Alumni Association and Bishop (class of 1965) later joined the college’s Board of Visitors always worried about her and Governors, she could see firsthand St. John’s tuition bills. the disparity between the college’s But immersed in the renowned academic program and the Program, she and her financial resources available to support it. fellow students gave little thought the times when we had to go to “Theretowere financial state of the college.the “When we a loan to make payroll,” she bank for were students, money was thought of as a says. While the college is on firmer necessary evil or filthy lucre,” she says. financial ground than it has ever been “We were above that.” (with 15 straight years of balanced After graduation. Bishop began a career budgets), at the root of the problem is a as a social worker and later helped estab­ college endowment that is still inadequate lish and build a successful consulting firm. for the college’s needs. Caliber Associates, Inc. When she became A {The College -St John’s College • Winter 2002 } �{Capital Campaign} “The endowment is an essential foundation for accomplishing our goals,” says Bishop, now chair of the Board of Visitors and Governors. “Yes, we’re much better off than we used to be. But being a more solid college financially means every­ thing to our future. One, we can attract more students, and two, higher quality students. Three, we can attract more support from alumni, friends, and foundations when we demonstrate that this is a good place in which to invest their dollars. It’s a question of confidence.” Increasing the college’s endowment is one of three primary goals of “With a Clear and Single Purpose”: The Campaign for St. John’s College. The campaign goal of $125 million includes $46.5 million for endowment. Along with tuition revenue, gifts to the annual fund, and state and federal support, endowment constitutes an impor­ tant source of revenue for the college. Drawing about 5 percent from the endowment each year provides II percent of the college’s budget. A larger endowment ITie college’s capital campaign seeks to address priorities that will sustain the Program and strengthen the college. Funding these priorities will require $125 million. To date, $101 million has been raised. THE campaign FOR STJOHN’S College “WITH A CLEAR & SINGLE PURPOSE" $33 million for need-based aid. iB $34 million to incrcdsfe faculty salaries to the median of peer instilii tions; provide fatuity development opportunities. means more growth and more revenue. The endowment-intended to grow in perpetuity-is more critical to the life of the college than any other goal of the capital campaign. “The endowment is not just to cushion the blows, to protect the college in lean times,” says Bishop. “It helps relieve the pressure on annual fundraising and makes us less dependent on tuition income. It means we can do more to support faculty, student life, and every aspect of the academic program.” A Reversal of Fortunes An inadequate endow­ ment has hampered St. John’s since its founding in 1784. While Johns Hopkins University is named for the millionaire who left $7 million in his estate to endow the university and hospital, and a Puritan clergyman named John Harvard left half his estate to a college in Cambridge, no wealthy philanthropist stepped forth to support St. John’s at its beginning. Many prominent Annapolis citizens pledged $3.5 million to improve services Io students, fund internship opportunities. and provide grants so that elementary and secondary teachers can attend the Graduate Institute. $5 million for library collec­ tions and laboratory equip­ ment; improving Information Technology infrastructure. {The College -St. John’s College ■ Winter 200^ } ELDING S49.5 million for building projects, including a Santa Fe dormitory, a Graduate Institute Center in Santa Fe, and the addition to and renova­ tion of Evans Science Labora­ tory. The renovation of Mellon Hall and the addition of two new dormitories in Annapolis are completed and fully funded. �12 {GapitalCampaign} ''St. John s had no business surviving. But it did. Bud Billups (HA03) money to help found the college, hut the largest share in its early years was to come from the coffers of the state of Maryland, whose lawmakers chartered St. John’s and Washington College to serve as the state’s institutions of higher learning. Unfortunately for St. John’s, the Maryland General Assembly in 1805 withdrew funds promised to the college. The college’s supporters were as vexed by the Assembly’s decision as were faculty and students. In a letter to the Rev. William Duke, Rev. Joseph G.J. Bend of Baltimore wrote: “I have read in the public prints that our sapient Senate have passed the bill of our more sapient delegates for depriving the colleges of the whole funds by the promise of which their predecessors induced a great number of persons to subscribe very handsomely to their establish­ ment. The more I see of democracy the more I detest its principles, if its votaries act upon them. The reign of the Goths and Vandals was not more destructive than the ascendancy of these men has been.” Goths and Vandals aside. Bend captured the outrage and dismay that followed in the wake of the General Assembly’s decision. The bright promise of St. John’s beginnings was dimmed by this reversal, and the college would continue to experience periods of serious financial struggles, interrupted by brief periods of prosperity and stability, until quite recently. The advent of the New Program in 1937 garnered the college respect and admiration, along with international attention in the media. But barely having survived bank­ ruptcy, St. John’s had little opportunity to build an endowment, especially during the lean war years. A dogged fund-raiser. President Richard Weigle (HA49) worked hard to attract gifts to the college. In his final report to the college in 1980, he reported a $10 million endowment for Annapolis and slightly over $2 million in Santa Fe. Even as recently as 10 years ago, the collegewide endowment hovered at only $30 million-far below what was needed to sustain the college. Bud Billups (HA03), recently retired as Annapolis treasurer and now a consultant to the college’s Management Committee, studied the college’s financial history prior to joining St. John’s in 1991. “St. John’s had no business surviving,” he says with a smile. “But it did.” One factor in the college’s survival was the support of philanthropist Paul Mellon, a student at the college for a year in 1940. Mellon made regular and substantial gifts to the college that could have been directed to endowment but instead went to cover deficits and to build Mellon Hall. “He kept the doors open,” Billups says. Another reason the endowment could not grow was the college’s practice of drawing too much out of the fund. In the years before Billups joined the Annapolis campus, the college had been drawing up to 10 percent of its endowment to balance the operating budget. That was a practice that had to end, Billups says. The college’s board endorsed a plan to reduce draw from endowment by r percent each year over five years. (Today, the college’s spending policy restricts draw from endowment to 4.5 to 5.5 percent of the endowment, according to a formula that factors in the rate of return, as well as an educational price factor.) Reducing the draw meant several years of severe budgets for the college. All available resources were devoted to the academic program and financial aid, which meant that improvements and repairs to buildings were deferred, as was routine maintenance. In Annapolis, eight positions (most vacant) were cut from the college staff. Salaries for faculty and staff were frozen, and sabbaticals were eliminated. Among the most difficult decisions was going to one-tutor senior seminars for a time. “We started cutting, but we saw that we could still operate. A lot of things we did, we did for one year, and then we put them back. When the community could see that these cuts weren’t permanent, it made it easier to endure,” Billups says. Managing the budget in Santa Fe during the leanest years was similarly difficult, says Bryan Valentine, Santa Fe treasurer. “For years we put together what we needed and then began the gruesome task of cutting everything {The College- St. John'’s College ■ Winter 2007 } �{Capital Campaign} 13 but the bare bones,” he recalls. member investment committee. Building Meem Library was Why Endowment Matters “These are individuals who are delayed while the college strug­ leaders in the investment The chart below illustrates how St. John’s meas­ gled to assemble financing for the industry,” says Billups. “And ures up compared to peer institutions. As of June project. 30, 2005 (the most recent year for which audited each one brings a different area data is available), the St. John’s endowment Positions to improve the quality of expertise.” Gregory Curtis stands at about $102 million, which means the of life on campus-for example, a (HSF02), a long-serving member college has available a little more than $101,000 student activities coordinatorof the college’s board and current per student. were created and then later cut. • Grinnell chair of the board’s investment $862,337 • Tutors went beyond their Pomona committee, is chairman of Grey­ $750,470 • Swarthmore $724,850 teaching duties to run student court & Co, which provides • Bowdoin $313,181 clubs or counsel students. “It may financial advisory services to • Haverford $300,709 be one reason Search & Rescue wealthy families and select • Reed $258,292 was so successful,” Valentine endowments. • Oberlin $208,039 • St. John’s suggests. “For years, there was In 1994, the investment $101,599 little else for students to do.” committee recommended shifting Though a bit draconian, the the bulk of the college’s assets to cuts of the 1990S ushered in a new era for the college: the Commonfund, a nonprofit investment management sustained financial stability. The college went from deficit firm that invests money in a common pool, improving the budgets to small surpluses, which were directed to college’s rate of return. “There was no way, with our overdue capital projects. The college successfully limited amount of money, to get good managers for the completed the collegewide Campaign for a Fourth college’s endowment,” says Billups. “The Commonfund, Century in 1996, raising $35 million. “You could feel with about $18 billion or so in investments, could help us things turning around,” says Billups. “Projects that were achieve the diversification we were looking for. And they put off for years were finally completed and the campus had a very good track record.” started looking better. We had really turned a corner.” The remainder of the endowment is invested in other funds chosen by the college with support from the Managing the Money investment committee, which approaches the college’s endowment in the same manner that a prudent individual The college maintains three separate endowment funds, manages a retirement portfolio, Curtis says: seeking the which totaled $102 million as of June 30, 2006, the end of best rate of return while minimizing risk. “You see in the the last fiscal year. Each campus has its own endowment, college’s portfolio very broad kinds of index holdings, comprising gifts earmarked for a specific campus. A third some hedge funds and private equity. The portfolio is now was established because individual donors and founda­ large enough that we need to have exposure to more tions wanted to make a gift to both campuses. Under the cutting-edge kinds of product. We can gain access and we purview of the Management Committee, the college have the expertise on the investment committee and the develops budgets. The two campuses each have a separate board to do it,” he says. operating budget, drawing from their own endowments As the St. John’s endowment continues to grow, the and sharing the draw in the college fund. The college’s college may engage an outside expert to advise the board board reviews and approves the budgets. and the college management committee. But it doesn’t All three endowment funds are now invested according take an expert to point out how well the college would be to a college-wide strategy under the guidance of a five{The College -St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } �{Capital Campaign} 14 ''We re at thepoint where we re lookingfive years ahead. Bronte Jones, Annapolis treasurer served if it reaches its capital campaign goal, maintains conservative spending, and grows the endowment through prudent investing. “Every­ thing gets a lot better,” Curtis says. Looking Future Income from endowment SUPPORTS THE INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM AT St. John’s. to the The new treasurer in Annapolis, Bronte Jones, has a different perspective on endowment. She joined St. John’s last July from Huston-Tillotson Univer­ sity in Austin, Texas, where she managed chron­ ically limited resources. With an endowment of $io million, the university is enduring the kind of crises St. John’s managed 2,0 years ago, and it affects every facet of their opera­ tion. “They would love to be able to offer the kind of financial aid St. John’s can,” says Jones. “Without our endowment, that couldn’t be done. And through the capital campaign, we are protecting that capability.” Although she has just recently joined the college, Jones agrees with Billups’ assessment that the college is beyond the days of living fiscal year to fiscal year. “We’re at the point where we’re looking five years ahead and consid­ ering the financial implications of our plan. We have a wish list of things we want to do, such as creating additional common rooms or refurbishing our existing ones. Where St. John’s used to be, those would be luxuries.” The college’s financial policies today aim for “financial stability over the next 50 to 100 years,” Jones says. “You can’t ever relax. It’s a nice place to be, but there are still plenty of serious issues.” Sharon Bishop attrib­ utes the college’s financial health in part to good management, but also to the extraordinary gifts the college has received from alumni, friends, and foun­ dations. Bishop herself has pledged $i million to the campaign, directed to the endowment in support of financial aid. As in her student days, the cost of tuition remains an ongoing concern for Bishop. But as long as the endowment is well-managed and continues to grow to ensure access for all qualified students, she’ll support tuition increases that keep the college on solid ground. “I had more concerns about raising tuition in the past, because I felt that we’re sending the wrong signal. Now I know we have the right approach, as long as we support students who don’t have the resources to pay tuition.” {The College- St. John’s College - Winter 2001 } �{Capital Campaign} Every Dollar Tells a Story BY Emily DeBusk (A06) The college’s endowment fund comprises a host of individual funds-many established to honor the memory or contributions of a tutor, classmate, or long-serving staff member. Some endow a special purpose, while others are unrestricted. All funds are at work in the daily life of the college. A Sacrifice Remembered__________________________ After his graduation from St. John’s in 1965, James McClintock was just settling into his first job as a teacher in Connecticut when he was drafted into the Army. Two years later, he was in Vietnam, serving with the Army’s 69th engineer battalion. As the now infamous Tet Offensive seeped toward the borders of South Vietnam, McClintock, along with only five other soldiers, was given the impossible task of defending the perimeter of an airfield at Can Tho. He was killed in action on January 31,1968, at age 25. After his death classmates and friends began making gifts to St. John’s in his name. With the additional aid of his family, the fund became established as the James R. McClintock Memorial Fund, used exclusively for the annual mathematics prize in Annapolis. In correspondence with President Richard Weigle, McClintock’s mother wrote, “St. John’s has had a special meaning to us-and now more than ever-it represents true America.” Philosophy, Football, and Floorboards According to the citation for his Alumni Association Award of Merit, given in 1978, Bryce Jacobsen (class of 1942) “consistently demonstrated that Socrates and softball, philosophy and football, and Ptolemy and tennis are by no means incom­ mensurate.” Jacobsen came to St. John’s as a tutor in 1958, and although he was a favorite mathematics tutor, he is best remem­ bered as a champion of the college’s intramural athletics program. The class of 1986 set up an endowment fund to be Bryce Jacobsen, in his famous used for one of the two barber’s chair. mathematics prizes awarded at graduation, which thereafter became known as the Bryce Jacobsen Mathematics Prize. As a creative fund-raiser for the endowment, members of the class of 1986 sold plaques made from the maple wood that used to be the floorboards of Iglehart Gym. Jacobsen retired in 1988 and died a decade later. A Fitting Tribute________________________________ Twice a year students, faculty, and Annapolis community members attend the Steiner lectures, which are known for their diverse subjects and distinguished speakers. This lectureship was specially designed to be as intellectually versatile as alumnus Andrew Steiner (class of 1963), who was killed in a car accident in 1991. In addition to being the president of NHP Corporation for 20 years, Steiner was known to the St. John’s community as a loyal and generous friend who was deeply concerned with the welfare of the Program. Established by gifts from the Advanta Corporation, Dennis and Gisela Alter, and Steiner’s family and friends, the Andrew Steiner Visiting Lecture Scholars Fund brings two visiting personalities from a wide range of studies each year to spend time on campus with students and faculty and to preside over one of St. John’s most honored traditions-the Friday night lecture. Steiner’s widow, Lenore, remains an active and invaluable friend of the college by serving on the Board of Visitors and Governors. Two Maryland Institutions In 1699, a Welsh immigrant named Thomas Linthicum acquired part of a tobacco farm in what is now Crofton, Maryland. The home built there by his grandson Thomas Linthicum III, “Linthicum Walks,” is thought to have housed George Washington on his journeys. Throughout the genera­ tions, eight Linthicums have passed through St. John’s, from Matthias (1844), to Cadwallader (187g) who went on to become a famous mathematician, to William (1913) who was the last Linthicum to graduate. In 1997, St. John’s received a $50,000 bequest from a magnanimous descendent, local attorney Sweetser Linthicum, in addition to the generous gifts he made throughout his life. Celebrating a Courageous Precedent_____________ In 1952, Martin Dyer of Baltimore was the first AfricanAmerican to graduate from St. John’s College. St. John’s was in turn the first college south of the Mason-Dixon Line to voluntarily end the practice of segregation. Dyer later congratulated the college for taking the important first step of not only allowing, but recruiting, black students in a time when segregation was still common. The Martin Dyer Book Fund was founded in 1997 to enable students who could not otherwise afford to buy Program books to do so. Dyer-who makes an annual gift to the fund himself-continues to encourage his classmates to give. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } 15 �{The Day Job} THE DAY JOB Ambitious Johnnies Pursue their Dreams BY Rosemary Harty Archer arrived in New York in August 2004 and has held a series ometimes dreams change, of day jobs that range from wretched to pleasant while she audi­ get put on hold, or replaced tioned for roles. “I’ve held a string of negligible jobs,” she says. “The first tele-marketing job was for a company that helped sell by new dreams. Sometimes tickets for theater organizations, so I didn’t feel too bad about they just grow more urgent. that, though people were still pretty annoyed to be bothered. Another was tele-marketing those vacation time-shares; that was a The College talked with five total disgrace.” Johnnies who over the past The stereotypical job for aspiring actresses is waitressing, but didn ’t have enough experience to land a restaurant job. “I year were trying to break into theArcher fields of did some catering, but that was an appalling failure,” she says. acting, opera singing, fiction writing and “Part of my problem is that I refuse to get a job that doesn’t allow S filmmaking. Callbacks and Tele-marketing Larissa Archer (SFot) A few years ago, Larissa Archer auditioned for a top Broadway agent. She performed one of her favorite pieces, from Strind­ berg’s Miss Julie. When she finished her monologue. Archer knew the agent was impressed. “He said, T love your work, I love your style. But as tall as you are, I don’t think I can get you work,’ ” she says. Archer stands 6'2" in her stocking feet. Her height is one of the things working against her in her aspirations to break into acting.“It can get discouraging, but it’s just how it is,” Archer says. “If someone doesn’t think they can make money off you, they’re not going to take a gamble.” me to skip out when I need to for an audition; I need jobs that just give me that kind of freedom.” Archer’s acting ambition developed in high school in San Fran­ cisco. “I studied acting when I was home from college in Santa Fe, and after I graduated I studied more. I was part of a theater company called the Actor’s Theater. I performed, did some dramaturgy, and even swept the stage.” As a performance artist. Archer worked up a slam poetry monologue that stole the show every night. She played the title role in Sr. Mary Ignatius Explains It Allfor You. On the same day Archer quit her theater job-‘T badly needed a change,” she says-her mother, a jewelry designer, returned home from a trunk show in New York. With a few phone calls to friends, she had found Larissa a cheap room to rent in New York. Later, since her mother visited the city so often, she bought a “semi-affordable” condo in the Bronx to give her daughter a base. {The College ■ St John's College • Winter 2007 } �{The Day Job} Commuting to Manhattan by subway can be tiresome, “but not having a roommate is great.” Archer made a practice of signing up for Equity Principle Auditions. “You get up at 6 a.m. to stand in line at the Equity Center, sign up at 8 and around 10 a.m. they tell you whether you’re going to be seen. I’ve been seen by Second Stage and Yale Repertory, and I’ve done off-off-Broadway auditions. I’ve done more audition in theaters that are less likely to cast me, but I figured I’d aim high.” This fall. Archer took her dreams a step further by moving to London to enroll in a master’s degree program in classical acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She played Hamlet for her first-term assessment. Cast in two shows, she had to turn the roles down because of her class schedule. Archer is glad she went to St. John’s before pursuing drama training-it will help keep her on the right path to virtue and excel­ lence in a field that can challenge such notions. Imagine if Marlon Brando had studied Aristotle? she wonders. “I’m glad that I’ll always have something worthwhile to occupy my mind,” she says. 17 Larissa Archer (SFoi) poses by Central Park’s Delacorte Theater. She hopes a master’s degree will help her career. Opera and the Office Aaron Silverman (Agd) By night, you’re Papageno, Balthasar, or a peasant in the chorus. By day, you’re an administrator, answering e-mails and scheduling appointments. That was Aaron Silverman’s life for three years in New York City, as he tried to break into the opera scene. Silverman balanced auditions, performances, and singing lessons with his office job, never losing sight of his passion for the opera. Those who aren’t drawn to perform may not grasp the lure of it all: the stage, the audience-the applause. But opera is satisfying on a deeper level, says Silverman. “It really is fantastic to be up there and singing over an orchestra, being able to connect with people who were writing 300 years ago. It really is exciting to be able to bring their art to life,” he says. {The C o l l e g e . St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } �i8 {TheDayJob} Silverman has always loved to sing; in high school he took part in musical theater with roles in plays such as Guys and Dolls. During his sopho­ more year, spent in Santa Fe, he took voice lessons with Mary Neidorf, the widow of former Santa Fe dean Boh Neidorf (HA83). As his voice matured, he developed a strong hass baritone, and at the college he studied the St. Matthew Passion and Don Giovanni. “I wrote my junior essay on Don Giovanni and my senior essay on Otello. I did have a little trouble defending it. One tutor asked about the role of God and the role of good and evil as Verdi saw it. I wanted to show that Verdi did have religious ideas in mind, but one of the tutors on the committee said, ‘it’s just an opera. How can it mean anything more than that?’” At commencement, Silverman was vindicated when his paper won an essay prize. After graduation, Silverman won a full scholarship to study at Catholic University’s Rome School of Music. The program was demanding, including two years of French, German, Italian, and classes in music theory and performance. He also had the oppor­ tunity to sing, with the school’s chorus, for the pope. Most opera singers choose music conservatories for their undergraduate degree, but Silverman believes his liberal arts studies will be advantageous in the long run. “I feel like St. John’s was the ideal education for an opera singer,” he says. “Being able to analyze a text, having the background in literature and philosophy, you can see how these composers were working.” At this stage in his career, Silverman still considers himself a semi-professional opera singer. He auditions all the time, even for small parts or a slot in the chorus. “You make the best of the jobs you get and try to turn them into jobs for the future,” he says. Among the highlights so far: he played Jose Castro, a bit part in Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West for City Opera. Friends and family from all over came to see him during the six-week run of the opera. Aaron Silverman (A96) PRACTICES and AUDITIONS, WAITING FOR HIS BREAK IN OPERA. Like many in the arts in New York, Silverman took temporary jobs while he auditioned and performed. One job led to a permanent position as assistant to the chair of psychiatry at Cornell University’s Weill Medical College. Affordable housing was elusive; he moved seven times. Recently, Silverman’s life changed dramatically. He and his girlfriend are having a baby, so he’s moving back to the D.C. area, where he’ll find a day job conducive to supporting a family. He’s planning to audition with the Baltimore Opera and perhaps some smaller companies. A recent audition with the opera at Wolftrap went poorly when Silverman tried to audition even though he was sick. “I would have loved that job,” he says. Silverman is realistic, but not discouraged. “I don’t think I’m going to be doing opera as a primary thing for at least two years. But I’m going to keep practicing.” Shopping Scripts and Teaching English Benjamin Friedman (SFg§) After the civilized courtesy of St. John’s seminars, Benjamin Friedman was ill-prepared for film school at the University of Southern California. Lecture classes, cutthroat competition, and savage criticism from professors were something of a shock to him. After graduation, Friedman took a video production class at the College of Santa Fe and liked it so much he decided to apply to use. He had been warned about the competitive nature of the business, but it didn’t seem too bad-until the students started scrambling for funding. “There are only so many films that they allow to be made, and you start submitting scripts and past work {The College - St John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } �{The Day Job} 19 ''Temping can bepretty­ depressing although I was at apoint that I was so relieved to have a steady income. to try to show the faculty that films. While completing his MFA, you’re the right person to get the he worked on others’ films, resources,” he says. “After the first recording sound, managing equip­ year, people start feeling a little ment or handling other technical pinched.” matters. He’s made two short films Benjamin Friedman {SF95) Friedman had to get used to blunt with autobiographical elements: criticism. A particularly bad Aimless told the story of a young moment came when he pitched a film idea about a crazy man who man who graduates from college without any idea of what to do cages a woman like a bird. Where he saw metaphors of free will next. Hopeless picks up the same story, with a “lonely, neurotic and human destiny, his professor saw a bondage film. Another man” who meets a “lonely neurotic woman” and then keeps idea, for a film about a man who discovers another woman was blowing his chance at love. “It’s a talky romantic comedy-far given his dead wife’s heart, was similarly shot down. “I though it from Woody Allen, but I like it.” The main character, he says, “is was touching and upbeat,” recalls Friedman. “I showed the script a schmucky Jewish guy, just like me.” to three faculty members, and one actually said that it disgusted With his screenwriting partner, Camille Landau, Friedman him. Those USC guys-they don’t mince words.” recently finished a full-length script of one of his shorter films. Nevertheless, Friedman still enjoyed his studies, putting his “Our script has attracted the interest of an independent produc­ creativity to work in writing scripts and turning them into short tion company,” he says. “Everything is extremely preliminary at the moment, but it’s exciting to be talking to people.” Friedman has pursued a number of day jobs including teaching and temping. He helped out in the script depart­ ment for a television special and did filing at an art gallery. “Temping can be pretty depressing, although I was at a point that I was so relieved to have a steady income,” he recalls. “Rather than working harder or getting more day jobs, I made my living expenses more and more slender.” Fortunately for Friedman, a more interesting day job came along. He began teaching English as a second language to adults. “This is a day job I like very much,” he says. “The students are wonderful, they’re highly motivated, they’re very gracious and grateful, and there’s that feeling you get of doing something to contribute to society.” Friedman has applied to law school and may pursue a career in public interest law. “I hope to continue writing scripts, but in the short term I don’t expect filmmaking to be a major part of my life. I’ve had great experiences working in entertainment. It’s exciting, it’s full of surprises, and you meet a lot of interesting people,” he says. Though if a Johnnie asked him for advice, Friedman isn’t sure he’d recommend film school. “Better, perhaps, to start working in the business as a gofer or production assistant, learn the ropes and work your way up,” he says. Benjamin Friedman (SF95) teaches ESL while shopping SCRIPTS TO PRODUCERS AND CONTEMPLATING LAW SCHOOL. {The College- St. John’s College • Winter 2oot } �20 {TheDayJob} Arthur Allen (Ao6) pursues Shakespeare and Curious George ACTING GIGS AND TEACHES SPANISH. Arthur Allen (Ao6) Arthur Allen had just auditioned for an anti-littering commercial. “I was supposed to glare at somebody who was throwing a cigarette on the ground. In the next take, I was the one throwing the cigarette. It was kind of fun.” It was a bit basic for Allen, but it could mean a paying gig-some­ thing that would help him pay the rent and buy food while he performed without pay as Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night for a new fringe theatre company in Seattle. Since he returned to the Seattle area last fall, Allen has been lucky to have many auditions and several paid acting jobs in his hometown. In late January, he was gearing up for his last performance as Curious George for a repertory company called “Book-It,” which adapts works of literature for the stage. The traveling company performs at schools in the Seattle area, and Allen was looking forward to performing at his old high school, where he first got the acting bug. “To be on the other end this time is exciting,” he says. After his gig as a monkey ended, Allen was to take on the role of a villain in a production based on Isabel Allende’s House ofSpirits. “I go from playing a lovable monkey to molesting a woman and chopping off her fingers,” he says. Allen knew he didn’t want to study acting as an undergraduate. “I felt I would gain more in terms of my art by understanding the human condition,” he explains. “I asked myself, what was the point of knowing how to tell a story if I didn’t have a story to tell? There was never a doubt in my mind that St. John’s was the place for me.” After graduation, Allen moved back home and lived briefly with his parents in Mukilteo, about an hour outside Seattle. When commuting interfered with auditions and performances, he found a room with family friends in Seattle. To support himself, Allen tutors and teaches Spanish to kindergartners, first-graders, and second-graders in a parochial school. Allen worked briefly in the men’s department of Nordstrom, selling neckties and other accessories. He gave it up shortly after having to turn down an audition for the part of a terrorist on the hit TV show 24. The script was intriguing. “I had to smash some­ one’s face against a desk while my superior interrogated him,” he says. But Allen couldn’t find someone to cover his shift at the department store and was too conscientious to call in sick. “I guess it’s St. John’s-all those read­ ings in ethics,” he says. He has an agent who calls him often for auditions; everything from modeling gigs, which can pay $150 an hour, to commercials and televi­ sion shows. “It’s very important to detach yourself from the outcome. Actors encounter rejection all the time, so you can’t get discouraged. Most of the time, they’re not looking at what you can do as an actor. They’re out for a particular look. For now. I’m pretty content.” Allen doesn’t see himself heading for LA or New York to look for the big break. “It’s more satisfying to be part of the arts culture here,” he says. Recently Allen has combined great books, acting, and entrepreneurism by launching his own one-man theater company, specializing in bringing great books to life. He called it Voices Verbatim, and only uses works written or translated before 1930, “to avoid paying royalties,” he adds. More is available on his Web site: VoicesVerbatim.com. Writing and Waitressing Sally Benson (SFog) One of the things that’s sustained Sally Benson (SF03) is enjoying the journey, not focusing too much on the destination-though she sometimes wishes the journey came with better pay and health insurance. Benson studied dance briefly in college, but aban­ doned that path and found herself in Washington, working for the National Endowment for the Humanities in an administrative support position. A rejected St. John’s grant application, with a Program Statement attached, made it to her desk one day for {The College- St. John’s College ■ W^inter 2001 } �ai {The Day Job} recycling. She pitched the application, Critique sessions in which she read her hut kept the statement and eventually work aloud gave her the incentive to visited the Santa Fe campus. “I sat it on write seriously and the courage to find a discussion of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, her voice. “Writing short stories is Sally Benson {SF03) and it was the most wonderful thing,” hard-you’re really got to hook the she says. reader and have a strong plot, so I’m After graduation, Benson stayed in working on that. Now I’m wondering Santa Fe for as long as she could afford to, ultimately deciding to about flash fiction or prose writing and I’m curious about writing poetry.” move to New York. She hoped to find a good job to support herself while pursuing an interest in writing. “I’ve always had a love for The workshop leader, a literary magazine editor, was blunt in language,” she says. “I had taken fiction writing classes before I his critiques, though not unkind. “I didn’t take it personally. He went to St. John’s, and I found that some of my papers at St. John’s was treating us as if we’re published writers.” Benson is ready to pushed the envelope in terms of creative writing. In junior year, start sending her fiction pieces out to literary journals, but she’s a one of my essays was a dialogue with David Hume. I had him come little wary of rejection. “I understand if you get a note back over to tea, arguing with him about the idea that we don’t have with the rejection, that’s a really great thing. It must be pretty personal identity.” discouraging when it’s a form letter,” she says. Studying poetry in language tutorial was also a joy. “Words to By the end of last spring, Benson’s enchantment with New York had worn off. She took a me are like brush strokes on summer job working at a paper. How we refine our vineyard in Southern Mary­ words, our phrases, our para­ land to clear her head. Finan­ graphs, it’s fascinating to me cial realities-rent, car insur­ what you can do with language. ance, food-often intrude on I definitely know that writing is her vision of a writer’s life. important to me.” “It’s important to make room But there was the small to imagine doing something matter of supporting herself in different than just struggling one of the costliest cities in the to pay my rent,” she says. world. And while plenty of Last summer, Benson administrative jobs were avail­ headed back to Santa Fe, able, Benson knew she where she landed part-time couldn’t sit behind a desk work at the Meem Library again. Instead she talked while pondering her next herself onto the wait staff of a move. Should she pursue the high-end French restaurant. practical realm-perhaps law “It was really a professional school? Or follow her French kitchen. It was six days passion? “I miss writing very a week, all day long.” Though much these days,” she says. she was making $40,000 a “But at least here in the year, it was overall a tough job. library, I can enjoy more It did give her great material reading.” for three short stories, called “Small Bites,” which examine fife at a restaurant. Soon after hitting the city, Benson began taking classes at the Gotham Writer’s Work­ shop. She took part in several Sally Benson (SF03) had to FLEE EXPENSIVE NeW YoRK, classes, including some all-day BUT SHE LEFT WITH GOOD sessions with other writers. '' Words to me are like brush strokes on paper. STORY IDEAS. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter 3001 } �2,2, {Race and Human Nature} UNDERSTANDING THE “OTHER” A Graduate PreceptorialExplores Race and lliitnan Nature wi Rosemary Harty hat does it mean to be the “other”? Why do human beings make distinctions based on skin color or supposed racial heritage? Is racism a type of ignorance that can be remedied with education and integration? What are its sources in the human soul? Joan Silver (MA76), director of the Graduate Institute, has been thinking about the first question for much of her adult life. The other questions evolved from the readings Silver chose for the preceptorial she offered last spring, on Race and Human Nature. “The distinction between ‘black’ and ‘white’ is deeply embedded in American society and carries the additional weight of the history of slavery,” explains Silver. “We often act as if we can avoid issues of race, but in fact they are with us every day as is the general human tendency to make some group into the ‘other.’ ” When she began planning her preceptorial. Silver says, the topic of race and racism had been “brewing” in her psyche for some time. In the undergraduate program, she had led students in discussions of stories such as Faulkner’s “The Bear” and O’Conner’s “The Artificial Nigger,” rich, complex stories that look at the difficult question of racial distinction, slavery, and at what underlies these matters in the human soul. Tutor George Russell helped her plan the course by making some suggestions based on a course in African-American literature that he had taught at a private secondary school many years ago. Over the 16 weeks of the preceptorial, students read and discussed works including the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Huckleberry Finn, Supreme Court cases, and poetry by Langston Hughes. Silver knew her own experiences and attitudes influenced her desire to work on these texts. She grew up in a predominantly white community in California in the 1950S and early 1960s with little exposure to AfricanAmericans, but acutely aware of the importance of the first efforts to bring about integration. Minority students and faculty were also an important element of the community at a college she attended as an undergraduate. State University of New York College at Old Westbury, started as an “experimental school” in 1968. Contact with these individuals-and with their differing relationships to their racial heritage-had an enduring impact on her thinking about race. It was also at Old Westbury that she learned of St. John’s, where she came to do the undergraduate program and ended up as a tutor. Silver later joined the Santa Fe faculty in 1989. When she returned to the Annapolis campus in 1997, she and her partner, April Gifford, settled in Cheverly, Maryland, an integrated community within {The College - John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } �{Race and Human Nature} the predominantly AfricanAmerican Prince George’s County outside of D.C. Their new community offered their children an opportunity to grow up in a setting rich with diversity. Yet Silver was startled hy her reaction to their first weeks in Cheverly. “It was very interesting to me to he a minority in the grocery store,” Silver says. “I think for anyone to he in a minority anywhere, one feels certain things-that feeling of being ‘other.’ I love living in this community-it’s so sane to live in such a setting.” That experience of being “other” was valuable. It helped to foster in her a desire to lead a sustained look at issues she had touched on in these seminar readings with undergraduates. Many more graduate students than could be accommo­ dated listed the preceptorial as one of their choices. Those who got in-Wesley Scott Brown (AGI07) among themconsidered themselves fortunate to be sitting at the table with students of different races and different backgroundsall equally enthusiastic about the readings and drawn to the topic. “There were readings in that class that I’ll go hack to for the rest of my life,” says Brown. Brown grew up in the South and has a compelling interest in race relations. He hopes to work for a nonprofit community development group, preferably in an inner city such as Washington, D.C. “Growing up in Georgia, you still feel the vestiges of what the institution of slavery did to that region. I think that experience, combined with my Christian beliefs, developed in me an under- as GI Director Joan Silver found PERSISTING QUESTIONS ABOUT HUMAN NATURE IN WORKS THAT EXAMINE RACE AND DISCRIMINATION. standing of race relations and a desire to work toward reconciliation and equality,” he says. No passage in the readings was more thought-provoking for Brown than this section from Frederick Douglass’ autobiography, where Douglass stands watching the ships on the Chesapeake Bay and yearns for freedom: “ ‘You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swiftwined angels, that fly round the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O that I were free! ’ ” “Perhaps it’s because this is happening on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, not too far from Annapolis, that made it so moving to me,” Brown says. “I thought it was such a compelling example of the human desire for freedom, about the brutality of slavery.” Douglass’ narrative should be required reading for high school students. Brown says. “It forces the reader into the shoes of the one being oppressed. That’s what’s so powerful about all the books we read in the course. Any time you can put yourself in the shoes of another, that’s a way to empha­ size the equality of all mankind,” he says. A high school teacher in Severna Park, Maryland, Kelly Nash (AGI07) teaches a diverse group of students and knew the literature and autobiographies in the preceptorial could inspire insights she could share with her own {The College - John’s College ■ Winter 2001 } �2,4 {Race and Human Nature} Dream Variation by Langston Hughes To fling my arms wide In some place of the sun. To whirl and to dance Till the white day is done. Then rest at cool evening Beneath a tall tree While night comes on gently. Dark like meThat is my dream! students. “It looked like an interesting way On the first day of class. Silver asked to look at a modern problem,” she says. students why they had chosen this precepto­ Just as Silver had an eye-opening experi­ rial. “I looked around the table and said, To fling my arms wide ence in the grocery store near her home, ‘ isn ’ t it obvious’?” Sawyer says, laughing. In the face of the sun. Nash experienced what it was like to be a Dance! Whirl! Whirl! She wanted to dispel the kind of tension Till the quick day is done. minority when she was a Peace Corps that can arise when white people talk about Rest at pale evening... volunteer overseas. Particularly in China, race and racism in a group that includes A tall, slim tree... where she taught in a small farming village, African-Americans. Night coming tenderly she felt like an outsider as a Caucasian “We had really good conversations, Black like me. and as an American. She stood out really open conversations,” says Sawyer, among others and sometimes felt hostility who said hearing the perspective of because of it. students from the South opened new The readings were thought-provoking, and at times, avenues of thought for her as well. difficult-but they’re important for Americans to read about At St. John’s, she was part of a campus that is predomi­ and understand racism, both historically and in a modern nantly white. But because of the nature of the Program and context. “The narrative by Frederick Douglass really the respect of her classmates and tutors, she never felt that stands out,” Nash recalls. “It was so honest. You could see race mattered: “I was having a discussion with another the point where he broke, he had put up with so much. He’s African-American student in the GI program, and I asked being whipped and he reaches this point where he’s not her what she thought about it-she said she felt ‘colorless’ at going to be whipped any more. You see how arbitrary, how St. John’s, that the books and ideas mattered. And I had to cruel, the treatment of slaves was.” agree I felt the same way.” Stepheca Sawyer (AGI06) had read all the works in the In her preceptorial paper on Richard Wright’s autobiog­ preceptorial with the exception of Flannery O’Conner’s raphy, Black Boy, Sawyer considered how human beings “The Artificial Nigger.” Yet talking about them around a wear “masks of pride” that camouflage their fear. “A table with students of different races and different common thread in our discussion was the fear of the backgrounds was new to Sawyer, as she had earned under­ unknown. We may be saying one thing in public, but we graduate and graduate degrees at historically black believe something else. A lot of things we shouldn’t do are colleges. She is currently a professor of business leadership done in the name of pride. and the business retention coordinator at Morgan State “Every week, I would ask, “what are people afraid of?’ University in Baltimore. Whether you want to admit it in front of everyone in class or Sawyer had planned to attend divinity school but chose to not, we are afraid of things. I know we dealt with that ques­ attend the Graduate Institute because she wanted to better tion in every single book. What are we still afraid of in our understand the foundations of Western thought. Initially, society today? I don’t know if we can answer that but I guess she wasn’t a big talker in class. But by the time she took that goes with the St. John’s way-you don’t focus on the Silver’s preceptorial, she had found her voice. “This time, I answer, you just think about it. And maybe, you get closer to approached these texts more from the human nature side, the truth.” instead of the political view. Because I was looking at them Perhaps the hardest thing for her was reading and with a St. John’s eye, I saw things I had never seen in them hearing the racial slurs, particularly the word “nigger,” before,” she says. found in many of the readings. “The first 20 times it came {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter zooi } �{RaceandHumanNature} 25 ''We may be saying one thing in public, but we believe something else. A lot ofthings we shouldn i do are done in the name ofpride. Stepheca Sawyer (AGI06) up, it almost felt like somebody was jabbing me,” she says. “It’s a painful word, aword full of hate, and I had to kind of numb myself to it. Some of my classmates came up after­ ward and apologized when they had to read a passage.” Another African-American participant in the class was Crystal Watkins, who until recently was the admissions counselor for diversity at St. John’s. Watkins grew up in Annapolis and attended the Key School, where she recently returned as alumni director. She attended the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland, where she was active in groups for African-Americans. Although she audited the class to learn more about the St. John’s Program for her job, Watkins sat at the table and took part in the discussions. Talking about race comes easily to Watkins, she says. Often problems fester when views go unsaid. “Race and ethnicity and culture had been such a part of my world for the previous six years, I want to hear what other people have to say about it. If tension enters the room, I want to work through that and come out the other side,” she says. Watkins had read many of the works in African-Amer­ ican studies classes, where they were always discussed within the context of history, politics, or soci­ ology. Reading and discussing O’Conner’s “The Artificial Nigger” was a particularly memorable part of the class for her. Focusing just on the characters and the action in the story- instead on the social context of racism in the Southallowed her to reflect on what the story said about humanity. “It was a short story, but so very powerful, with inter­ esting characters in just about every paragraph. We found deeper meanings talking about it together-black vs. white, city vs. country, the differences between the generations.” Several participants in the class, including Watkins, were intrigued by one question a student raised. “He asked whether that people may be happier being in the wrong than finding out the truth,” Watkins says. “They want their truth, their justice. They would rather live with their own constructed truth than with what is morally right. I think the class did settle on something like that-something a little disturbing.” Leah Lavin, who gradu­ ates from the GI this spring, was also intrigued by what the question raised about human nature. “The ques­ tion was, ‘isn’t it interesting that we humans are more afraid of being proven wrong than continuing to live out the wrong that we do?’ We were talking about Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses.'''' Lavin grew up in Signal Mountain, Tennessee, where the schools, and perhaps the community, were “quietly segregated and maybe even quietly racist.” She was amazed that most of her friends chose to attend the In class and in her paper, Stepheca Sawyer (AGI06) EXPLORED THE FEAR FACTOR, {The College* St. John’s College • Winter 2001 } �a6 {RaceandHumanNature} Cotton Ball, held for debutantes of “Confederate descent.” “I thought that was so obvious that it was ridiculous,” she says. In every class of the precepto­ rial, Lavin felt she was delving into the kind of issues and : discussion that drew her to 5 St. John’s in the first place. “The books in this class were important, but the mix of students was so strong that we really looked forward to hearing one another talk-this class had almost a friendship sort of atmosphere to it,” she says. “We talked about fear. We talked about this tendency we have to define the ‘other.’ There’s pain in some of these readings, especially the Faulkner and Frederick Douglass. You feel you have to approach it with care.” Courtney Lawrence, who completed the graduate program last December, wrote in an e-mail that one reason she took the class was curiosity about “how a predominately white campus with a predominately white staff would tackle the issue of race as it relates to human interactions.” “Actually, I thought the scope [of the class] was a little narrow to gain a great deal of insight into human nature-at least not any more than I’d struggled with before,” she wrote. “The course and readings alone spoke volumes. Though as the only race we focused on was the black American race, I wonder how the course would have played out had we tackled the treatment of Native Americans, Asian Americans, or Hispanic Americans. All of these groups shape the culture in which we live, yet most courses dealing with race exclude the minorities of minorities. I worry sometimes that as white people we think if we talk openly about the pains blacks have endured, we can erase some of that pain or some of the hate that still exists.” For Silver, reading and discussing O’Conner’s “The Artificial Nigger” always raises the most interesting ideas. There’s an analogy to he found in trying to see beyond an Teacher Kelly Nash (AGI07) EXPERIENCED DISCRIMINATION WORKING OVERSEAS. offensive title to seeing beyond the ignorance and petty-mindedness of the protagonist, a weak and frightened man. In the story, Mr. Head and his grandson. Nelson, take the train to the big city so that Mr. Head can show him what a dangerous and unsavory place the city is, Mr. Head believes, in part because of the blacks who live there. Some saw Mr. Head as incapable of redemption and believed the story showed how a legacy of hatred and fear is passed down through generations. “There was a fair amount of disagreement on that story, about whether Mr. Head’s transformation is real, or whether there was any hope for poor Nelson,” Silver recalls. Silver confesses she argued her point rather forcefully. She believes Mr. Head gives us a chance to see a little bit of the human condition, a small piece of redemption. Through encountering a plaster statue of a black man, one depicting human suffering and degradation, Mr. Head may experience a revelation of sorts. He certainly knows the depths of his own sin and weakness; perhaps that. Silver suggests, is a start. “The story presents to us something that’s very hard to accept,” she explains. “It’s really interesting that what the main character has kept hidden is sinfulness and pride. What I saw in that story is that you need to give yourself permission to be flawed-what’s key is understanding that the ‘other’ can be a part of one’s self.” Silver says the preceptorial confirmed for her that the works chosen for the class were “great books” in everyway St. John’s defines them. “You don’t ever really get to the end. They will keep revealing things as you keep working with them. {The College- St. John's College ■ Winter zoo? } �{W.E.B. Du Bois} a? W.E.B. DuBois Comes to St. Johns Many dignitaries visited St. John’s in the 1950s: Dwight Eisen­ hower came to dedicate Mellon Hall and Eleanor Roosevelt dehvered a lecture. But the visit W.E.B. Du Bois made to the college in April 195a is remarkable in that an author who would one day be read on the Program came to the college to lecture to its students. The invitation came from Martin Dyer (class of 1952), the first African-American student admitted to the college. Recruited by a group of St. John’s students. Dyer had attended the segregated Dunbar High School in Baltimore. His loth-grade history teacher was Yolande Du Bois Wilhams, Du Bois’ only child. Dyer greatly admired Du Bois: “In my view, Du Bois was in every way the equal of the famous and not-so-famous people who came to the college to deliver lectures in those days, and I resolved sometime in my junior year to do all that I could to get him to the college,” says Dyer. In January 1952, Dyer wrote Du Bois’ daughter to ask if she thought her father would accept a lecture invitation. Williams wrote back to say she thought her father would be pleased. “We’ve been hearing about your fine program there,” she added, “and you know Dunbar is proud of you.” That same month, Du Bois wrote a short response to Dyer’s inquiry: “If requested by the authorities of St. John’s College, I think I can arrange to come for one Sunday evening lecture some time during the spring.” Dyer next approached President Richard Weigle (HA49) with his request, concerned that Weigle would object to Du Bois’ left­ leaning politics. But Weigle issued the invitation, dated February 14,1952. In his letter, he wrote that St. John’s had a custom of inviting “outstanding men and women to speak to students, faculty and interested members of the community on some contemporary topic of a political, economic or sociological nature.” More informal than Friday lectures, these talks were held in the King William Room on Sunday evenings. “The topic could be one of your own choosing, although we would prefer to have you deal with the general racial problem in the United States,” he wrote. St. John’s, Weigle continued, “is one of a relatively small number of southern colleges to have opened its doors to Negro students. The community here is there­ fore conscious of this great national issue and feels rather strongly on it.” Dyer was assigned to meet Du Bois at the train station in Annapolis and escort him to campus. “Du Bois and I walked the relatively short distance from the station to [the college guest house]. I accompanied Du Bois to Weigle’s office and did not see him again until lecture time that evening,” Dyer recalls. The lecture was well attended by students and faculty. Dyer says. “Although he did take time to congratulate the college on the fine example it set in admitting me to the college, Du Bois was true to form in condemning the treat­ ment of blacks in the United States during the preceding three centuries,” he says. “Probably correctly, he saw little significant progress in civil rights gains even after World War II when the country demanded no lesser sacrifice from black soldiers than it did from white. Having been so intimately involved in the fight to improve the pfight of American blacks, Du Bois seemed genuinely depressed by how little progress had been made. He, of course, had no way of knowing what dramatic changes would begin just two years later with Brown v. Board ofEducation and reach a boiling point in the early 1960s.” After the lecture, Du Bois joined students at the home of Priscilla Bender-Shore (class of 1955) and Mel Shore (class of 1954), students who lived in the converted barracks installed on back campus to house married students and their families. Mel Shore died in 2006; PrisciUa has vivid memories of Du Bois. She recalls that Jacob Klein, then dean, objected to the visiting lecturer’s politics. Klein was a Jewish refugee from Eastern Europe; Du Bois an active supporter of the communist party. “There was a funda­ mental difference in ideology,” she says. Yet the Shores felt strongly about hosting a post-lecture question period. “We could see that he wasn’t going to be honored and we thought he was a really important person,” Bender-Shore recalls. “He was famous even then for his ideas and his works and activities in the black community.” The Shores’ house was filled with students who were eager to question Du Bois about civil rights and politics. Bender-Shore remembers little of the lecture topic or the discussion at her home, but Du Bois left a lasting impression. “He was a small man, very firm and confident, genteel,” says Bender-Shore. “We felt very honored to have him among us.” The morning after the lecture. Dyer walked Du Bois back to the train station alone. “There was no fanfare that I can recall,” he says. The contact between St. John’s and one of its future seminar authors, though unceremonious, was indicative of the important changes in store for the college. Six more African-American students enrolled in St. John’s just a few years after Dyer. The Program at St. John’s later included works by Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. {The College- St. Jo hn’s College ■ Winter 2007 } W.E.B. Du Bois St. John’s congratulated on opening its doors to STUDENTS OF ALL RACES, BUT REMAINED DISCOURAGED ABOUT CIVIL RIGHTS WHEN HE SPOKE ON CAMPUS IN I952. �2,8 {The Tutors} Chaninah Maschler A LIFE BY Chaninah Maschler (HA98) INTERVIEW BY Robin Weiss (SFGI86) was born in Berlin, Germany, two years before I hid together, at the house of our former cleaning lady. But Hitler became Chancellor. The Nazi epoch soon we had to split up. After staying with many different profoundly affected my family’s life. My mother, families (some communist, some Gatholic, some Calvinist; having been a teacher (especially of “classical some rich, some poor) I landed in Utrecht, with the family gymnastics”) at some rather la-di-da finishing Mook. Mr. Mook was an upholsterer and paper hanger; schools for German upper- class young women, was Mrs. Mook had been a maid; when I arrived she was mothering prepared to take Hitler’s anti-Jewish rage seriously. seven children, ranging in age from to less than one year. I was She left Germany for the Netherlands in the midthe oldest, being it at this time. I was very fond of the Mook 1930S and there became a leader of a hachsharah (a children, except for the eldest, a girl, who felt displaced by me school preparing Jewish youth to be farmers in what was then and, not unnaturally, gave me a hard time. She and 1 had to Palestine). My parents had settledin Palestine two or three years share a bed. During the roughly three years that 1 spent with the after the conclusion of World War I (long before my birth). Mook family the children thought of me as a non-Jewish orphan My brother was born there. They had joined Martin Buber and girl from Rotterdam. (Everyone knew that Rotterdam had been Judah Magnes in hoping a bi-national and expressed bombed to bits by the Luftwaffe). Hitler ’s Blitzkrieg was for totally effective state in conquering the this hope when they chose a European, and Hebrew About half a year after liberation my mother returned from Netherlands: Between May 1940 and May Arabic, 1945 Germany ruled name-Peter Achmedits Yehuda-for myracial brother. Owing, part, to Bergen-Belsen, where my brother had died. By Dutch standards, there and enforced Nuremberg laws with in gradually my brother ’s suffering severely from asthma, my parents neither of them looked particularly Jewish, so they had been increasing strictness. I believe it was in 1942 that Jewish young returned 1925.kidnapped Not long from after the my streets birth my working in the underground associated with the Quakers. But men weretoforGermany the firstintime of parents wereand divorced. owing to the treachery of a woman double agent, both of them, Aunsterdam sent to “labor camps” such as Mauthausen. separately, were turned in and sent to a concentration camp. News of the death in Mauthausen of one of my brother’s friends My mother and I went back to Amsterdam. There I enrolled at convinced us to go into hiding. At first my mother, brother, and a classical gymnasium. I had not attended school for three years and was so ignorant as to be quoted in the school newspaper for my laughably uninformed remarks. The return to school was a source of great joy to me. I did not want to go to America. But I went, after just a year and a half of gymnasium. That meant that I’d learned a little French, Latin, and the Greek alphabet. I {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } �{TheTutors} “ .. Where ebe couldIhaveflourbhed as Ihave at St. Johns?'' Chaninah Maschler (HA98) Chaninah Maschler (HA98), tutor emerita {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } 2,9 �30 {TheTutors} After a stint at two New York high schools, I enrolled at Queens College, one of the four free colleges in New York City. Paul Klapper had been presi­ dent of Queens College and the program of studies instituted under him was first rate, as were many of the faculty, especially the music, mathematics, and chemistry departments. But under a new president, John J. Theobald, McCarthy machina­ tions took hold. Many members of the faculty, unwilling to sign the required loyalty oath, left for teaching positions in California. When the City College of New York (CCNY) opened its doors to women, I transferred to City College and switched majors from chem­ istry to philosophy. The teacher I most admired at the time was Felix Cohen. He had a law office in D.C. but also taught philos­ ophy of law-meeting with the rich kids at Yale law school one day a week, and with the poor kids at CCNY on another day. Unlike his famous father, Morris Raphael, Felix was very gentle in class. Together with his father he brought out a book of read­ ings in jurisprudence and legal philosophy, which is still in print. To this day I find its preface’s use of Deuteronomy 30:11 profoundly moving. After finishing college in New York I moved to New Haven to do graduate work in philosophy at Yale, where I had been given a fellowship. Curiously, I was oblivious of the fact that in a group of, say, 25 grad students, only four were women and that women faculty at the University were limited to “native inform­ ants,” that is, female speakers of such languages as Chinese or languages spoken on the Indian subcontinent. I arrived at Yale too untutored to use the university’s riches wisely. There were no advisors. My fellow graduate students in philosophy were vastly better educated than I and much more sophisticated and worldly. I profited from associating with the linguist-historian of philosophy, Rulon S. Wells, and from the friendships I formed. Also, of course, from the wonderful Chaninah on her way to school, 1939, Amsterdam. library and the free time I was granted. But I did not, otherwise, use my years well there. Today, when Johnnies come to talk to me about doing graduate work in philosophy, I always urge themmake sure there is something else you become semi-expert at, where you can make progress, where you find out what it is like to have a skill. Philosophy is no such enterprise. My first experience of teaching came at Bryn Mawr College, where I was given an assistant­ ship and sometimes filled in for absent faculty. Next, Penn State University hired me. I remember being frightened as I traversed a meadow and encountered young men of horrific, formidable build and registered that any one or more of these immensities might, the next day, turn up in my Introduction to Philosophy or my Logic classes. Only later did I learn that these young men were wearing shoulder pads. They were on the football team. In 196a Henry Maschler (HA98) and I were married. My alma mater, CCNY, hired me to teach evening logic classes. I enor­ mously enjoyed these. Old and young, men and women, black and yellow. . .everyone was there. We worked our way through an elementary symbolic logic text. Also, we analyzed arguments in Platonic dialogues, and Sherlock Holmes’ reasoning as he dealt with this or that case. Next, Barnard College invited me to teach history of philosophy. I did not much enjoy my classes at Barnard. My experience there confirmed what I had felt at Bryn Mawr, that I much preferred classes in which both men and women participated. It seemed to me that Barnard women were too anxious to please. John Kennedy’s assassination shook me. I interrupted teaching. While waiting for the birth of our twin girls, I served at the Hunt’s Point Library in the Bronx. There, for the first time, I had a female African-American boss. Even at the time I was aware that this was an important experience for me. {The College. 5t. John’s College ■ IVinterzooi > �{TheTutors} The willingness to start over and be^in at the beginning is goodfor all ofus—no one is shutout. ” 31 While at Yale I made the acquain­ fact that mathematics and labora­ tance of Eva Brann. After receiving tory classes are part of the required her degree from Yale she taught at liberal arts curriculum. I am deeply Stanford hut left its classics depart­ grateful to the college for requiring Chaninah Maschler (HA98) ment after just a year to join the of me that I learn some of the St. John’s faculty. Her letters showed elements of ancient and post­ that she was profoundly happy there. When I visited her in Galilean astronomy; that I learn enough to appreciate how Annapolis to attend a Friday night lecture I’d bring a suitcase mathematics and the physical sciences grew up in tandem. And full of bagels. The bread situation in Annapolis was dreary in there I understood in freshman lab about there not having been those days. Like so many other repeat-visitors at the college, I a Moses who brought us the chemical periodic table. St. John’s experienced the wonderful hospitality of Dean Jacob Klein and is also quite singular in so accustoming us to the absence of his wife. I found out that Mrs. Klein had briefly attended one of jargon that when unexplained technical or pseudo-technical the boarding schools in Germany where my mother had taught vocabulary is used it has a slightly comical effect. The willing­ (though not during the years when my mother was there). Later, ness to start over and begin at the beginning is good for all of when I had come to join the Annapolis faculty and my mother us-no one is shut out, if they are willing to concentrate; and the came for a visit, I introduced the two women to each other. more competent are obliged to check on whether they At the time, when I came visiting, I felt the St. John’s faculty adequately understand and whether it is true. was too self-absorbed, too smug. I had reservations. On the In some respects it seems to me that the college has changed other hand, the students were strikingly courteous, friendly, for the better over the years of my association with it. For and helpful to strangers; eager to share thoughts. example, whereas in former years the career counseling office When our twin girls were about five it was suggested to me was hardly spoken of, work is today recognized to be central to a that I apply for a summer teaching position at the then recently good life. Even mentioning money has become legitimate ever established St. John’s Graduate Institute in Santa Fe. I took the since then President Bill Dyal toasted the seniors at the senior children with me. Their memories of the beautiful Santa Fe dinner in Spanish, wishing them Love and Money. It is probably landscape are vivid to this day. Having participated in the also a good thing that more faculty today have spouses and writing of a book about the Joseph story in Genesis, I selected children, and that there are more women tutors. Genesis and the opening chapters of Exodus as texts for my first In the years since my retirement I have spent time reading 19th-century authors-William James, George Eliot, Darwin, St. John’s preceptorial. Dewey. Previously I had been on a more intimate footing only That first appointment at the Graduate Institute led to my becoming a faculty member of the Queens College Liberal Arts with Charles Peirce. It now seems to me a little odd that a school so profoundly American as St. John’s should exclude the Institute, a mini-St. John’s program within the confines of a standard undergraduate education. I taught there for some pragmatist tradition. It is true that St. John’s does well by years and have exceedingly happy memories of the students in students and faculty and the nation in demanding that all my classes at Queens. But when the city of New York was on the acquaint themselves with some of the Supreme Court cases, verge of bankruptcy, I (along with many other non-tenured with Lincoln’s speeches, with the Constitution and the Federalist Papers. But why favor continental philosophy to the faculty of the city university) was fired. As it happens, my exclusion of American authors that are studied and valued all husband too lost his job at that time, so I applied for a full-time teaching position at St. John’s and was accepted. over the rest of the world? Given the fact that undergraduate philosophy classes across I do not want to end on such a chiding note. Given my the nation tend to be taught by way of discussion rather than intellectual and pedagogic ways, where else could I have flourished as I have at St. John’s? I am hugely in the college’s lecture, there is a sense in which my manner of teaching has never been very different from what goes on at St. John’s. But at debt. other schools the students’ other classes take the form of lectures, and that made a difference also for the classes I was in. One of the things I have always greatly valued at St. John’s is the {The College -Sf. John's College ■ Winter 2oot } �{Homecoming} SIX JOHNNIES, SIX DECADES BY Emily DeBusk (Ao6) and Rosemary Harty ome remember Jacob Klein, Barbara Leonard and the Liberty Tree; others knew Christopher Nelson and Tom May. Some saw wars end, some saw wars begin. Many have raised families and some have sent their own children to St. John’s. Visiting with six alumni who returned in October for Home­ coming-one from each decade-yielded a rich trove of memories and glimpses of lives lived after St. John’s. Among the Veterans John Wallace (Class ofig4g) Then: John Wallace entered St. John’s during World War II, saw veterans on the GI Bill invade the campus at the war’s end, knew Barr and Buchanan, and loved the parties and general rowdiness that marked campus life during his years. “I know the folks at the church nearby used to complain about the noise. They’d be going to church, and we’d be going to bed. The girls at the Naval Academy dances would come over here after their dates had to go in for the night. We wore coats and ties to every meal and lecture. I’m pretty sure the food was good,” he recalls. There were about 30 students in Wallace’s class. Many had won state schol­ arships to attend St. John’s, as he did. “Four years free-you can’t beat that with a stick,” he says, grinning. He saw many students drop out. “Some decided they wanted to go elsewhere. Some couldn’t get through don rags. And some just stuck it out,” he says. A historic change came to the campus during Wallace’s time. The college admitted its first African-American student, Martin Dyer (class of rg5a). Wallace still feels proud about the campus community’s response. “He fit in fine, he was accepted, and it all happened with absolutely no objection,” he said. Now: Wallace’s career as a civil engineer grew out of his first job after graduation: working on construction of the Bay Bridge. For Wallace’s first few days, the foreman training Wallace led him on perilous walks over narrow beams hundreds of feet above the Chesapeake Bay. “Every day, he’d ask, ‘you coming back tomorrow?’ After three days, he stopped asking.” When the bridge was completed, Wallace went to work on building the Garden State Parkway, then helped build a bridge over the Ohio Turnpike. He took night classes to earn his master’s degree in engineering at Johns Hopkins University. And in 1985, he {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } became partner of an engineering firm, Wallace, Montgomery and Associates, in Towson, Md. Today, he’s semi-retired, and he and his wife, Pamela, have three children. Money and Women George Wend (Class oftg^t) Then: Times were simpler when George Wend was a student in the early r95os. Between classes Wend fenced, designed boats, and worked in the wood shop. Semi­ nars lingered late into the night, and dance parties into the early mornings. Two issues complicated the scene: money and women. Money was tight and the Naval Academy wanted to take over the campus: “The college was small enough that we would have meet­ ings about it in the Great Hall. Jacob Klein, who had just retired, was called in.” Wend distinctly remembers Klein’s calming, avun­ cular manner. After one collegewide meeting, he simply said, “Gentlemen, get a good night’s sleep.” In 1951, the college admitted women. The change was “anticipated with mixed feel­ ings,” says Wend. “Jacob Klein was highly in favor of the idea. In the rgsi variety show, I remember, someone made a joke, ‘You don’t have to go to Europe to study a broad.’ But I remember someone stopping me on Main Street to ask what I thought about women coming to St. John’s. I said ‘I don’t see why not.’ They definitely brought something new to the college.” �{Homecoming} 33 Now: Wend enjoyed a long career in physics and engineering at the Westinghouse Elec­ tric Corporation. He is now retired and lives in Pennsylvania. “I moved to this particular community for the small liberal arts college in my town. I can take classes there and keep up my learning,” he says. Wend was pleased to reunite with six other classmates for their 55th homecoming. All Dressed Up Vicki Davis Cone (A68) Then: The jean-clad students of today might look askance at having to dress up for dinner, seminar, and lecture, but Vicki Davis Cone treasured the tradition. “We would wear skirts or dresses and stockings or heels, and the men wore jackets and ties,” she says. “I think most people were perfectly content to dress up.” There was one time when a male student donned jacket and tie and nothing else, she notes. Men and women lived in separate dorms, with the opportunity to visit each other in common rooms informally dubbed “sin bins.” “Women were locked in at midnight, but the men were free all night,” she says. During Cone’s time, the college began allowing men and women to visit in each others’ dorms during visiting hours. Cone enjoyed the way dinners were served family-style in the dining hall by white-jacketed student waiters. She met her husband. Bill (A67), in the dining hall. “He was the most handsome waiter,” Cone says. Simon Kaplan, Richard Scofield, Jacob Klein, and John Kieffer dominated the intellectual life on campus. “They seemed so wise and knowledgeable, sophisticated and cultured,” says Cone. The mood of the campus changed as the Vietnam War intensified, but the campus itself seemed removed from the war, at least in Cone’s memory: “Most of the students took that time to get away from the world and figure out who they were, reading the books and getting lost in the ideas.” Now: Cone started working in the library soon after graduation and her marriage. She spent most of her library career at St. John’s. Cone worked as a cataloguer for many years until she took a decade’s hiatus to raise the couple’s two children. She Henry Robert (class of 1941), Jack Ladd Carr (class of 1950) and Christopher Nelson at a REDEDICATION CEREMONY FOR THE CAMPUS CANNON. Mr. RobERT FUNDED THE RESTORATION AND PROPER INSTALLATION OF THE igTH-CENTURY CANNON, DREDGED FROM THE BALTIMORE HARBOR. returned to the college in 1980 and worked for two decades, earning her Master of Library Science degree at the University of Maryland. In aooo. Cone joined Anne Arundel Community college, where she is informa­ tion resources management librarian. She was recently promoted to tenured associate professor. A War Ends Paula DavidoffiArii) Then: Single-sex dorms were still the norm when Paula Davidoff entered the college in 197a. “Although boyfriends and girlfriends slept in each others’ rooms,” she notes wrly. “The difference was you just had to be careful about it.” The Vietnam War ended during Davidoff’s years at the college. She vividly remembers the impact it had on campus. “I remember coming out of a seminar and hearing that Johnson had just said it was over. If the bell in McDowell Hall wasn’t ringing, in my memory it seems that it was.” Davidoff also remembers an easy mingling of students and tutors. “I got to be friends in a tutor-student way with Robert Bart, and he was an extraordinary person. Students and tutors had get-togethers at the Little Campus, and in tutors’ homes, and {The College ■ Si. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } the conversation was real St. John’s. There was gossip, there was laughing-even if we weren’t talking about books or ideas from seminars, the ideas in our readings carried over into fife. Robert had this wonderful way of making you feel smart even when you were doing just the dumbest things.” For two wonderful years, Davidoff enjoyed the best digs on campus: with three other girls, she lived in the Reverdy Johnson house. “We used to have cocktail parties on the lawn for the tutors in the spring,” she recalls. Now: Davidoff met her husband, Bernie (A69), when he returned to campus to study with Leon Kass, then a tutor. She married Bernie a week before she graduated and settled in New Jersey. There she studied classics for a while, then turned her atten­ tion to raising five children, now ages 17 to 29. Two (Ada and Esther, both seniors) are current Johnnies; Sam graduated in 1999; and Davidoff’s youngest is a prospie. For the past 15 years, Davidoff has been a professional storyteller, a career that evolved from her years as a teacher. “I’m hired to come to a school for a residency, and what I’m teaching is literacy skills, often to very young children: listening, speaking, writing, teaching kids to think about story beyond the surface. I tell myths and folktales. They’re the foundation for all �{Homecoming} 34 the other literature we have; they’re the dreams of a community or a civilization.” A Different Downtown Stephanie Rico (A86) Then: Students who enjoy dance and yoga classes in the dance studio of Iglehart can thank the lobbying efforts of Stephanie Rico. “The gym has really improved,” she says. “I started the first aerobics class in 1985, and we had to meet backstage [of FSK Auditorium] because there was no room in the gym.” Rico and her family returned to Annapolis for her aoth reunion in October. There are some obvious changes, such as the two new dorms on College Creek, but Rico was most struck by the “vast changes” in downtown Annapolis. “I lived on Fleet Street which was, back then, pretty run down. Now every­ thing has been built up and gentrified. On campus it was even more remarkable to see what was pretty much the same. We saw students talking on the quad, selling Reality t-shirts. They could have been us.” Now: Rico holds a PhD in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education from Stan­ ford University. She splits her time between a San Diego high school, where she teaches science, and co-directing the California Science Project, a professional development network for science teachers. “My driving interest in education started at St. John’s,” she says. “The way we learned was so different from the way I had to learn in high school. So a lot of my work is dealing with restrictions, but there is a lot of school reform going on. I’m pretty unusual in that I teach all three sciences: physics, chemistry, and biology. I didn’t even like science before I went to St. John’s. The fact that I’m a science teacher is directly due to St. John’s.” Waiting for the Hall Phone this new industry, so I just jumped right in, without having to go to graduate school. And I know a lot of my classmates have gone into Web design as well.” Although he wasn’t on campus when the college had to cut down the Liberty Tree, Sirkin says the “front campus just doesn’t look the same to me without it.” Cell Phones and Hurricanes Craig Sirkin (Agg) Lizzie Jump (Aoi) Then: Craig Sirkin witnessed several mile­ stones. “I went to the last lecture delivered by Mortimer Adler,” he recalls. “The audito­ rium was packed, because he was such a celebrity here. I also remember that when I was a sophomore, the school really pushed to cut down on underage drinking. That’s when ID checking became strict.” St. John’s also saw enrollment rise. “By the end of my freshman year, the school was running out of housing and the administra­ tion was encouraging people to move off campus,” he recalls. The college was also stepping gingerly into cyberspace; during Sirkin’s senior year, the computer lab was wired for the Internet. “It was a big deal because when I was a student, we didn’t even have phones in the rooms, which meant that if you had someone on your floor who was a talker, you could never use the hall phone.” Now: Sirkin enjoys a career that reflects the information revolution that hit the campus during his college years. He now sells hard­ ware for a telecommunications company in Denver. “I got out of school and there was Then: “I remember, when I was a senior, being shocked to see so many lower classmen with cell phones,” recalls Lizzie Jump. “We were closet cell phone users, but these kids were just using them on the quad. It was like a cell phone revolution.” Now, not a semester goes by without the occasional renegade phone call interrupting a seminar. “Campus was pretty much walloped by Hurricane Floyd in ’99, especially the Liberty Tree. I lived in 201 Pinkney and I was one of about eight who had to be temporarily evicted because the Liberty Tree was so close to our rooms. For a while I had to live in the prospie room in Campbell. I was pretty mad about that, since lower classmen were getting singles. Then they had to take the Liberty Tree down; that was very sad.” Despite these changes. Jump reckons that two things will never change about St. John’s: the Program, and the general spirit of mischief that inspires bizarre pranks and campus-wide jokes. “I think it was my junior year when some people stole the seal from the bricks on the Quad steps. They hid it in the trunk of a car, and for about a month the administration kept getting postcards from the seal from all over the world.” Now: After graduation. Jump spent two years in Americorps, followed by some time as an adoptions counselor for the ASPCA. She currently works as a receptionist for a social services organization. “It’s seriously like the movie Ojfice Spaced she says. “I think I’m going to ask for a red stapler for Christmas. Saturday’s banquet featured an Oktoberfest {The College -5f. John’s College . Winter soo^ } theme. �{Homecoming} 35 A Family Affair Homecoming in Annapolis this year included a spate of family­ friendly activities: a story-teller regaled children with the tale of Rumpelstiltskin; a carnival on the lawn gave kids a chance to play games and win prizes; and pony rides and face-painting kept the young ones entertained while classmates caught up with each other. Adults enjoyed seminars in the mornings and a banquet with an Oktoberfest theme in the evening. (It was the best of times, it was the wurst of times.) There’s no telling whether the beer or the kids’ activities brought alumni home, but another new record for attendance was set: 320 alumni attended Homecoming, bringing no family members or guests with them. The children’s activi­ ties were a big draw, says Stephanie Rico (A86). “We had a great seminar with all of us smashed together around one table-it was awesome,” she says. “But Homecoming was definitely more kid-friendly this year; it just gives more people more freedom to enjoy Homecoming.” Clockwise, from top left: Sandy Israel (A85), with Katie AND Jake. Everett Wilson (class of 1956) received the Alumni Association’s Award of Merit. Shown with Everett, (second from left) are his son DAUGHTER Elsie. Johnnie kids Anton, wife Mia, and enjoy picnic games. students perform for homecoming. 1986. Don Hitt (AGI06) raises his GRADUATES EVERYWHERE. {The Colleges:, John’s College ■ Winter 2007} Members Current of the class of glass on behalf of GI �36 Plato’s Republic Translation, glossary, and introductory essay by Joe Sachs. (Afterword “Imita­ tion,” by John White, class of 1964, Focus Publishing Company, 2006 BY Gabriel Pihas {A92), tutor Sometimes the original cannot be heard until a new translator comes along to liberate us from a habitual dependence on older translations. If we are not always reading in the original, it feels to us as if the author had to wait for the translator’s response in order to fully voice its appeal. The Republic is a case in point: most of us have become habituated to the fine 1968 translation by Alan Bloom, which, despite its many virtues, may have blocked up our ears to certain elements in the dialogue. Joe Sachs’ new translation of the Republic helps make it young and beautiful. Together with the translation come two pieces worth reading to anyone interested in the Republic. Mr. Sach’s introduction is written to be readable for first-time readers, but is full with insights into the text. John White has provided the after­ word, “Imitation,” a developed version of a truly excellent piece that appeared in the 1989-90 St. John’s Review double issue on the Republic (Vol. XXXIX, Nos. I and a). For those familiar with Mr. Sachs’ series of translations of Aristotle, his translation of Plato’s Republic, may come as a surprise. His translations of Aristotle are so helpful exactly insofar as they are distant from ordinary speech, and un­ Platonic in style. Phrases like “being-atwork-staying-itself’ or the somewhat menacing sounding “thinghood,” could never be taken straightforwardly in a Platonic dialogue. What is surprising in the new translation of the Republic is not that Mr. Sachs avoided such language, for how could he not? Rather, it is that his translation of the Republic so convinc­ ingly brings the real conversation of the original to life, without even a trace of the Aristotle translator we may have thought we had come to know. Although dialectic takes place in conversation, it aims at a pure vision of what is that is beyond speech. A conversa­ tion about a vision that goes beyond it, and that cannot be put into words, is neither a tragic loss of that vision, nor {Bibliofile} does it perfectly recollect it. Exactly because it is neither the one nor the other, it is quite similar to the translation of a Platonic dialogue. An ordinary conversation is difficult to translate because it takes place in a community, and hence an adequate translation would have to include an account of the inter­ locutors themselves. In order to include this, one would have to capture the nuances of their interactions, and so, presumably, a literal translation would not be an adequate one. But a Platonic dialogue, because it aims beyond words, is at the same time extremely translatable for someone attentive to who the speakers are and to where the conversation points. A good translator can at least point us in that direction by putting the reader inside the talk Socrates had with good-natured Glaucon and Adeimantus, wolfish Thrasymachus, Polemarchus and his hypocrite father Cephalus. Mr. Sachs has done an outstanding job of this. Where Mr. Bloom was sometimes old-fashioned in his language, this new translation tries to be much more conversational. Also, where Bloom never varies the translation of a term at the expense of the feel of a passage, Sachs will take liberties with a word for the sake of the passage. The result is an extremely readable Republic, which is at the same time, very accurate. Once one reads it, it comes as a surprise {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } ''[Sachs] genuinely encourages the reader to mull over multiple interpretations, and he gives the reader an even picture ofboth sides in the various debates. He alwayspushes the reader to decidefor him or herself by asking the dialogue (and not the commentator)for the last word. ” that we have had to wait such a long time for a translation like this. Of course, there will be disagreement about the translations that will largely be based around the commentaries of the translators. Those who see the Republic as mainly a work of political theory will find Bloom’s interpretive essay and notes more helpful, while those who are interested in the dramatic character of the dialogue will prefer Mr. Sachs’ introduction and notes. But there is something more important than either set of preoccupations. I have learned from both translations, but I would wish to point out that the humility with which Mr. Sachs makes his claims in his commentary is not just a question of politeness. He genuinely encourages the reader to mull over multiple interpre­ tations, and he gives the reader an even picture of both sides in the various debates. He always pushes the reader to decide for him or herself, by asking the dialogue (and not the commentator) for the last word. Leaving the reader open is more important for a translator of Plato than any set of preoccupations, since it lets the dialogues be just that, dialogues. Jfr �{Bibliofile} Too The Much for Our Own Good: Consumeritis Epidemic________ Harrison Sheppard (Class of 1961) and Alex Aris Aristotle and Alexander Press, 3006 BY Eva Brann (HA57), tutor affluence and its by-prod­ ucts, on the roots of Amer­ ican materialism, on the social, political, and economic costs of, and finally the cure for, consumeritis. The book ends with a set of graphs and tables. All the graphs go dramatically up or down: up for spending, personal and public; down for savings and voter participation. A final table displays remedies, among which self-awareness is number one (surely a Johnnie-mark: “Know Thyself’ is what we try for). There follow policy proposals that should raise debate, such as a consumption tax. Indeed, the whole book should cause reflection. I’ll give an example of my own: “Nothing in excess,” said the Temple at Delphi, and we should surely let Harrison Sheppard’s alarm at our excesses infect us. Yet here’s a question: Suppose we were morally and legally inhibited in our buying from and selling to one another-what other things might we then be doing to each other? It is a real question for me: Can people being able to get so freely what they want be such a bad thing? Harrison Sheppard and I were freshman together in seminar, back in 1957, he as student, I as tutor. St. John’s is mentioned at the beginning and the end of the book, and is silently there all the time. For a semi-explicit thesis is that we should be less addicted to buyable stuff and more involved in reading great books-and watching good movies. This is a readable, spirited, double-track work. On one track it is in the tradition of a type of popular “how-to” book, the “howto-save-our-souls” track. What we need to save ourselves from is a social ill, “consumeritis,” a termed coined on the model of “conjunctivitis” and the like. I’ll say a little in a moment of how the diagnostic signs of the illness are framed and what remedies are proposed here. The other track puts good movies, particularly some golden oldies of the thirties through fifties, in the service of remembering a more non-acquisitive ethos. To me that sweeter descant to a book dealing with a psychic corruption rings true; these movies overlooked much we Essential History: Jacques now deplore, but there was a good-heartedDerrida and the Development ness-call it innocence-and, within the OF Deconstruction_______________ framework of their times, a social rightby Joshua Kates (A80) mindedness about them that still makes Northwestern U. Press, 3005 them somehow salubrious. On the main track, we run across a lot of interesting and disconcerting information BY Thomas Scally, tutor about the “consumer At St. John’s College, our epidemic,” which is inquiry is driven by defined as buying in excess Joshua Kates thoughts, ideas, and ques­ of the satisfaction of our tions that are immortal needs. The introduction and transcend particular contains seven bold-face times and places. Our paragraphs that collect conversation becomes these unwanted intruders i Jacques Derrida deep rather than decora­ on consciousness, the I and the Development tive because we read our come-ons, imperatives, f of Deconstruction texts in a manner that and promises of adver­ frees them from mere tising, from “You Could temporal and historical Instantly Win” (ifyou’re determinations. However the one in three million) to noble and rewarding this “Bankruptcy Sale!” (ifyou maybe, we have, at don’t mind feeling slightly present, a curricular like a vulture). There problem that cannot be follow chapters on 1 Essential & History {The College- St. John ’5 College • Winter 200’^ } 37 resolved entirely apart fiom such determinations. A crass statement of this problem might be put thus: How do the great books in that lump of time called the last half of the 30th century converse with the books we have found to be speaking to each other across the preceding centuries? In his Essential History., Josh Kates shows us important ways in which such a clumsy question can be rethought and reformulated. Although I could rehearse the praises this work has received from professional philosophers and theorists, what I would like to highlight instead is the way it can enhance our understanding of what we do in our reading of texts at St. John’s. Let me start on the inside and work out. In chapter 7 of Speech and Phenomena Jacques Derrida writes: “Going through the First Investigation (Husserl’s), we must try to ascertain how far these concepts respect the relations between signs in general.. .and presence in general. When we say through Husserl’s text, we mean a reading that can be neither simple commentary nor simple interpretation.” Kates’ book shows us how Derrida goes through Husserl’s text by itself going through Derrida’s text. By “going through” both Kates and Derrida mean that what they each come to think is inex­ pressible and unthinkable without such a passage. At St. John’s, we may not readily formu­ late our own work in this way, but a little reflection will show that this “going through” is what we have always tried to do. Of many possible examples, an obvious one is how our going through Newton and Maxwell makes Einstein possible and thinkable. So we have in a sense gone through what makes the thought of the second half of the 3oth century possible. Kates’ reading of Derrida’s reading of Husserl shows us how to make such going through explicit and how to connect our own reading with other powerful readings of the same books. Kates’ Essential History is, not only a remarkable scholarly accomplishment, but also a significant contribution to the maturing of intellec­ tual life at St. John’s. �{AlumniProfile} 3^ Good Design Starts With Good Questions Architect David Schwarz (A’^2) BY Rosemary Harty n 1991, when Washington architect David Schwarz (A7a) was competing with larger, more established firms to design the Ballpark in Arlington, the stadium for the Texas Rangers, he approached the project from a sound business perspective. He analyzed the revenue streams a baseball team relies onfrom ticket sales to broadcasting rights-and ensured that his design maximized income potential. That was one winning approach, but Schwarz went deeper in seeking a design that would reflect the unarticulated visions of those building the park: he asked Rangers President Thomas Schieffer what color he associated with the sport of baseball. “When he answered ‘sepia,’ I knew that our building needed to be nostalgic,” Schwarz says. “For an architect, success is rooted in asking the right question. It’s very rare that a direct question will give you the information you need and want. If I had asked him if he thought of baseball as nostalgic, he would have said no.” Schwarz’s Washington-based firm had The desire for a rigorous education led already made its mark in Texas, with the David Schwarz to St. John’s. design of the Cook-Fort Worth Children’s Medical Center, and Sundance, a mixed-use project in Forth Worth. But landing the Ball­ park in Arlington (later rechristened says some of the fundamental principles Ameriquest Field), a $165 million project, instrumental in his success, such as the was a triumph. Schwarz beat out 16 other ability to formulate a penetrating question, firms. His architects worked nights and were developed at St. John’s College. weekends on a proposed design for the Schwarz as a child decided to pursue a competition, on top of the firm’s existing career in architecture. He enrolled in a work. “I told everyone they’d have great job program in St. Louis but quickly grew security if we won and no job security if we dissastified. “I got a 3.9 on a 4.0 scale lost,” Schwarz said. without going to half my classes or ever But Schwarz did win, by proposing a cracking a book. I decided if I truly wanted design with arched arcades, red brick and pink Texas granite, and a pedestrian-friendly to be educated, I would have to go some­ where where I really had no choice, and site plan that made the stadium seem more that’s the nice thing about the Program at hke an urban center than a suburban desti­ St. John’s: you really do have no choice.” nation surrounded by a vast parking lot. Schwarz is frank in his assessment of Today, Schwarz directs a 40-person firm in St. John’s, to which he admits something of a Washington, D.C., and Fort Worth that has love-hate relationship. He did gain a valu­ carved out an international reputation, able education at the college, but was winning scores of awards for its work. He studied in one of the finest graduate rankled by what he describes as the “holierthan-thou” attitude of some tutors. He programs in the country, Yale University, where Vincent Scully was one of his mentors. butted heads with President Richard Weigle (HA49), whose support for LBJ during the While he owes a great deal to Yale, Schwarz I {The College • St. John’s College ■ Winter 200^ } Vietnam War infuriated some students, Schwarz among them. He also believes he was too much of an independent thinker for some aspects of the college, and he sometimes went out of his way to make fun of the Program. He wrote a sophomore paper he titled “The Unification of the God Concept in Plato, Aristotle, St. Anselm, and Aquinas” in which he main­ tained that the concept was the same for all. “It was obviously ludicrous, but my reasoning was impeccable,” Schwarz recalls. “My view was that you can use much of what St. John’s does in ways that are heretical or sophistic.” When his proposed senior essay on the Laocoon was rejected (“because art wasn’t something you could talk about because there was no truth in it,” he says he was told), Schwarz was hvid. He wrote instead on Jonathan Swift, borrowing his title from a Nietzsche quote: “Behold the asses who are bold and most beautiful.” “It was a very articulate work making fun of St. John’s. I don’t think the college quite knew what to do with my senior thesis.” In spite of his mixed views, Schwarz values his education and recommends St. John’s to anyone, as long as they plan to go to grad­ uate school. “It is wonderful training for the mind,” says Schwarz. “It gives you three things, and only three things: it teaches how to think, how to read, and how to speak. If you’re lucky, it will also teach you how to write, but you have no choice in those other things-you have to learn to express yourself in a clear manner.” At St. John’s Schwarz developed an approach to problem solving that could have helped him in any career. “The tools I learned at St. John’s are very applicable to my architecture practice and very applicable to what I do as a businessman,” he says. “I think the other thing that St. John’s teaches subliminally, but not intentionally, is to recognize the biases of other individualsvery important to being an architect.” Asking insightful questions helps him design buildings that suit the owners’ needs-even when they can’t teU him what they are. “For example, in designing a house for a married couple, an obvious question is: ‘Do you like brushing your teeth with your �{AlumniProfile} spouse or not?’ It’s an extremely important question because it tells you a lot about their relationship. They’re perfectly happy to answer that question, but they’re not happy to answer all the things that question imphes. Getting to a client’s personal truth in architecture is trying to understand people’s actual hopes and goals, aspirations and desires. There are overarching princi­ ples that form everyone’s views of them­ selves and those are really what you have to design to.” Beyond designing beautiful houses that contribute to marital harmony, an architect has an opportunity to contribute to how people live, making communities more vibrant, and, ideally, conserving resources. “If our society wants people to give up their cars, for example, it needs to give people places worth walking to and walking in,” says Schwarz. That’s the principle behind projects such as Frisco Square, north of Dallas, which will be one of the largest mixed-use developments in the country, mixing retail/restaurant space, offices, residences, and public offices, including a library and city haU. “Our view is that you don’t change the world by trying to change human behavior, you change the world by understanding human behavior and causing human behavior to work in a way that’s better for the world,” says Schwarz. “The kinds of communities we’re trying to create are extraordinarily successful but they take longer, they require more thought and more work, and some developers just aren’t going to do it.” Schwarz is on the naional council of the World Wildlife Fund, and he’s disturbed by the way Americans use up resources such as farmland without careful thought. That’s one reason he’s eager to do redevelopment projects. One of his firm’s current commis­ sions is a major redevelopment project in Houston, a mixed-used development near the city’s center. “We’re very interested in how you take existing places and make them more viable in a changing world. We want to create places where people are comfortable, but the goal is to force people to intermix in a way 39 that does’t seem forced. When [President] George W. Bush was our client for the Ballpark in Arlington, one of the things he said that has really stuck with me is that baseball is one of the few things that the chairman of the board and the person on the assembly line can talk about together. And he’s right-in most of the work we do there is something that works that way, a great equalizer. It causes greater commonality.” The diversity of the work his firm takes on-from concert halls and hotels to luxurious private homes and offices-is driven in part by Schwarz’s personality. He hates to be bored or trapped in a niche. “One of the things that has probably been most important to my practice came right out of St. John’s, and that is the belief that an educated man can think anything. The philosophy of this firm is that a good designer can design anything,” he says. “We’re constantly looking at the things that cause us to have new ideas and to think differently, readjust our world view.” When he won the commission for the children’s hospital in Fort Worth in 1985, Schwarz knew he wanted to design some­ thing that would elevate the spirits of sick children and their families, without resorting to bright colors and cartoon figures . The hospital’s most striking feature is its majestic central atrium. “It gives patients, we hope, a larger view than spending their whole lives in the hospital,” he says. “It really does function as the public space of a small town.” The hospital remains the project of which he is most proud. “There isn’t a time when I go to Fort Worth when someone doesn’t come up and thank me,” he says. “It is an extremely humane kind of place to have a sick child and it’s very comforting to parents to be there. It’s done a huge amount to change the experience of tragedy in parents’ lives.” Keeping the firm small, while accepting many commissions, means Schwarz has little time to pursue his passions outside of work. He enjoys gourmet cooking and loves to read and listen to music. But everything is subject to the demands on his time. “I have a very hard time saying no to great opportunities,” he admits. * David Schwarz’s design for the Cook Children’s Medical Center sought to raise the spirits of sick children and THEIR FAMILIES. A SEVEN-STORY CENTRAL ATRIUM EMPLOYS A MIRRORED CURTAINWALL TO EMPHASIZE SPACE AND LIGHT. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } �{Alumni Notes} 1942 1948 1965 Ernest Heinmuller reports: George R. Trim hi e, Jr. Bart Lee Kaplan became a “After TOO weeks of study I have been ‘commissioned’ as a St. Stephen’s minister for St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Easton, Md.” proudly announces the birth of his third great-grandson, Aiden Gabrieli Dodge, born on August 26, aoo6. grandfather for the first time on December 8, 2007. Grand­ daughter Kathryn Rose Jirousek was born in Cleveland to daughter Molly and son-in-law Bill Jirousek. 1946 “I will retire from the remunera­ tive practice of law at the end of this year,” says Peter Weiss, “and devote the rest of my days to quixotic efforts to abolish war, rid the world of nuclear weapons, and get social and economic rights taken seriously.” 1956 Joe Wase describes himself as “an attorney married to an attorney. In my dotage, at the age of 73,1 am struggling to learn to play the guitar and banjo.” 1959 1966 1969 In January 2007, Peggy Escher (A) was awarded a PhD in Comparative Literature from New York University. In August, she defended her dissertation on “Configurations of Trickery in Boccaccio’s Decameron, Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron, Masuccio’s II Novellino, and Shakespeare’s OiheUo". Judy (Millspaugh) Anderson (A) reports: “1 survived radia­ tion, chemotherapy, and a major surgical rearrangement of my innards, and am doing really well.” Constance (Bell) Lindgreen (A) marvels at the minds of her classmates as she surfs the Web: Patience (Pat) Schenck “Mel Kline (A) e-mailed that writes: “The class of 1959 is he’d been in contact with looking forward to our 50th in Pheme Perkins (A) at one 2009. Please plan to attend. point. . .got me thinking. . .Mel’s Register online, and send your a well-known Jewish scholar e-mail address to Pat Schenck at (www.chaver.com/), Pheme pscenck@toadmail.com” is a well-known Catholic Biblical scholar (www.bc.edu/ schools/cas/theology/faculty/ pperkins/), and William McKeachie (A) is The Very Reverend, Dean of the Anglican Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul in Charleston ee Fischler (SF68) writes: “Jean K. Fitzsimon (A73) and I moved to Philadelphia after Jean was (www.stlukeandstpaul.org/ appointed a federal judge. The investiture was very content/view/16/35/). What moving. Under the great seal of the United States, can that mean? Was there some­ in a WPA 1930s, all cherry-wood courtroom with thing in the water? And of 30-foot ceilings, attorneys from all over the country course we have our share of lauded Jean’s accomplishments. Attending the event as representa ­ minds, including famous legal tives of the college were Barbara Gdyette (A73) and Jeff Bishop Larry Silverman (A) and (HA96). Other St. Johnnies appeared as well including Larry Peggy Winter (A), and doubt­ Feinberg (class of 1964), Harvey Goldstein (class of 1959), less many others. And a brain Mary Bittner-Wiseman (class of 1958), Paul Heylman (A74) and surgeon. Really. It’s amazing Roger Greene (A73). Jean and I both are having trouble adjusting what Google can find. Even to having a permanent home after years on the corporate trail. (maybe) Ethan Pavlo (A) I, who was born and grew up in Philadelphia and vowed after I left ( www.sinehead.com/ never to return, am reflecting on predestination and free will ‘in alhyg.html). Internet vivat.” wandering mazes lost’ about the peculiarities of my fate. I really thought I had had my last Philly cheesesteak in 1970. And lemon pie Tastykakes? Fuggeddabout it.” Of Free Will and Cheesesteaks L {The College - St. John’s College • Winter zoo'^ } 1971 Barbara Sherman Simpson (A) is a veterinary behaviorist. She is clinical associate professor at the North Carolina State University, College of Veterinary Medicine, and president-elect of the American College of Veterinary Behavior­ ists. She fives in Southern Pines, N.C., with her 15-year-old daughter Diana, three horses, and one dog. David Gleicher (SF), a professor at Adelphi University, recently published a book. Rescue ofthe Third Class on the Titanic. 1972 Kevin Snapp (SF) writes: “My fife has been adrift following an unexpected divorce and the resulting loss of my job. Although I still need a job, there is fight in the darkness, coming, appropriately (with a twist) from the Gospel of John. After a chance incident led me to revisit the prologue, I discovered that John’s narratives conceal an esoteric, highly heterodox �{Alumni Notes} Seven Deadly Sins 1979 OANNE Charbonneau (SF72) sends news from Montana: Carol Colatrella (A) was “I’ve recently taken early retirement from academia and awarded a Fulbright New live happily in the Bitterroot Valley with my husband, Century Scholars grant in Richard Rice. I spent many years in English departments fall 2005. In 2006 she and (from Freshman English director to chair) but found my her family enjoyed three months niche in hberal studies and humanities programs. I coordi­ in Denmark as part of her nated the Arts and Humanities core curriculum program for her Fulbright for four years at James Madison University and recently finished research a two-volume study guide for Prentice-Hall’s new text Exploring project on the university in the Humanities. This past summer I spent five weeks in Cambridge, age of globalization. England, as a participant in the NEH summer program on the Seven Deadly Sins. I’m going to try my hand at distance learning Marilyn L. Schaefer (SFGI) is while continuing research on Middle English romances.” 4" enjoying her retirement from teaching at the City University of New York. She spends a lot of account of who Jesus really was. Her responsibilities include time reading, enjoying the It makes sense of a number of overseeing the foundation’s pleasures of New York and an things in the other Gospels and support for public radio and occasional St. John’s alumni is specifically corroborated by independently-produced event. “I love the St. John’s similar clues in Luke. It is documentary film and video, magazine and read every word,” strange that I should be the first designing and implementing she reports. “In the summers, to see these things, which only special initiatives, making I sometimes go to France or to require some Jewish back­ grants in response to special the University of Chicago’s ground and careful reading to opportunities, and imple­ alumni program in Oxford. I’d pick up, but apparently I am. menting the foundation’s love to hear from other alumni.” I am grateful to tutor Bob program of large institutional Sacks (class of T954) who intro­ grants. duced me to the concept of esoteric writing and techniques of careful reading to uncover it. Whether or not this account of Professional adventurer Peter Jesus is true, it puts John, Herman Grubb (A) has been first-century Christianity, and R. Spencer Porter (SF) has married 22 years to the lovely the writing of the Gospels in an embarked on a new endeavor. “I Betsy Bowen, with two kids, ages entirely new light. I have have a 7-year-old daughter in the 12 and 15. “Our newest adven­ considerable work ahead of me second grade and am training to ture is the hrst-ever Galapagos to put these findings in context be a Jungian psychotherapist.” Islands sea kayaking trip with and present them persuasively. camping on beaches. Read about Does anyone know of a source it at www.rowinternational.com of funding for someone who or see the January 8, 2006 neither has a doctorate nor is feature story in the New York pursuing one?” Times travel section. Our Idaho log cabin resort is doing as well After four years of teaching in a as our whitewater rafting trips.” Cincinnati public high school, J 1980 41 give, as generously as they can, to the Ralph Swentzell Memo­ rial Fund. He touched so many of our lives so deeply, it’s the least we can do.” 1983 From Jack Armstrong (SF): “Greetings from West Chester, Pennsyltucky (as Bob used to call it). All is well, kids growing, nobody sick. Michael is a senior now, and applying to college. His primary concern is choosing a school with a rowing team. Emily is nine and very interested in dragons and the electric guitar. Carmen and I are doing Othello and The Taming ofthe Shrew in the spring at the Shakespeare Festival, come see if you can. Peace.” Desiree Zamorano’s (SF) short story “Mercy” was recently published in the Los Angeles Times Sunday magazine. West. 1977 1978 1973 Last September, Elspeth Revere (A) was promoted to Vice President, General Program, at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. Michael Berger (A) is now teaching composition and coordinating writing across the curriculum at The Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences in Cincinnati. 1982 C. Randal (Randy) Linder (SF) writes: “I would like to challenge all of my classmates to {The College. 5f. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } 1985 Norman Ewart (A) joined Rosetta Resources Inc. as associate general counsel. Rosetta Resources is engaged in the exploration and production of natural gas. Norman also has been: studying and making sculptures at the Glassell School for Art, attending his son Thomas’ baseball games, encouraging Thomas’ guitar playing and artistic talents, dancing, traveling the world, and working out rvith his wife, Charlotte, general counsel of ICO Polymers Inc. Alumni interested in the arts or life in continued onp. 43 �4^ {AlumniProfile} Conservative Contrarian Steve Bohlin (SF8i) BY Patricia Dempsey able assets-landfills. I asked myself: ” hen faced with a how many new landfills are going to tough invest­ open up?” ment decision, Bohlin made the choice to invest. His Steve Bohlin clients hated this decision, but it turned (SF8i) heads for out to be a shrewd one. “I think the the Rio Grande basis of my success is that I have not and Rio Chama to go fly fishing. been wrong very often,” he says. “You “I study the water all around me and cannot be too cocky, but you have to be focus,” he says. “It’s like meditation. decisive. Either way you are relying on I empty the mind and think only of one thing: Am I dumber or smarter than the your own judgment. The rules are constantly changing.” fish?” Bohlin brings this single-minded The insights gained at St. John’s help focus back to the office where, as a port­ folio manager and managing director guide Bohlin today. “One of my epipha­ for Thornburg Investment Management nies at St. John’s came from the opening question for a Leibniz reading. in Santa Fe, he is responsible for managing billions of dollars for institu­ Tutor Paul Mannick asked ‘What’s at tional clients. stake?’ At first the question seemed as A FLY FISHING investor: Steve Bohlin, with his wife, inane as the reading about monads, but “There are parallels between fly Rachel O’Keefe (SF8i), and daughter Audrey. fishing and the investment work that I the point of the question is essential for do, one of which is this ability to focus,” all the works we read. There are truths Bohlin explains. “With fly fishing you in these books, but they may not jump take a little piece of yarn and maybe a out and bite you at first look. It is very with less risk in the market whether the steel rod and you act like a bug on a river. important-in philosophy, in life-to deter­ interest rates are up or down. “The It takes enormous concentration, minding mine what’s at stake.” economy is on a knife’s edge: Is it strong, is the line.” Bohlin, who considered pursuing it weak? Everything is overpriced so there is mathematics or law after graduating from As a portfolio manager, Bohlin regularly very little value in the marketplace,” says questions whether he is “dumber or St. John’s, cultivated his business acumen as Bohlin. “I do not know where the interest smarter” than the prevailing economic a matter of survival growing up outside rates are going-no one does. Seventy predictions. “There are no right answers in Chicago. He worked a graveyard shift in a percent of economists are wrong all the time this business,” says Bohlin, who reads factory that made decals for products like with their predictions, so you look for a hundreds of pages of economic data, Buster Brown Shoes and Corning Ware. strategy that works anyway.” research, and legal documents every day as He discovered St. John’s when he took his Bohlin questions accepted assumptions he manages portfolios for funds such as sister Denise (SF81) to visit the college. “I about the market and searches out less Thornburg’s Limited Term Income Fund. was hooked when I found St. John’s. Every desirable companies that investors often To safeguard his investment decisions, bit of it-the readings, the discussions as overlook. “I am a contrarian in the aspect Bohlin, a self-professed “conservative opposed to being lectured-seemed like the that I like to find those companies that are contrarian,” says he believes in the return of best thing since sliced bread,” he says. beaten up by the marketplace and find out principal first, then a return on principal. At St. John’s Bohlin met his wife, Rachel why,” he says. “It might be a whim, there He uses a philosophy for bond investments O’Keefe (SF81); the couple now has a might be a good reason as to why. The called fixed-income laddering. Laddering, daughter, Audrey, age 4. market is not always right. The data is not which allows Bohlin to build a portfolio of One of Rohlin’s jobs after graduating always right.” Bohlin allows three to five bonds with staggered maturities, demands from St. John’s was as a “paralegal of sorts” years minimum to study a company to see if the same careful observation and patience for one of his tutors, Tom Simpson, who was it shows signs that it will turn around and as fly fishing. For example, Bohlin might involved with a large anti-trust lawsuit. Two grow. “In 1998 for example, waste manage­ spread the maturities over a lo-year period, months later, the lawsuit was settled and ment companies were beaten down. This with the average maturity being five years; Bohlin, out of a job, gave Garrett Thornburg one company had done a merger but they when each bond matures he strategically a call. Thornburg initially hired Bohlin to had wreaked havoc with their accounting reinvests the profits into bonds with higher analyze private placement investments and systems. They had $8 billion in debt. yields. This conservative, cantilevered reams of legal documents. “I enjoyed it and However, they had $74 billion in irreplace­ approach allows him to participate well and it surprised me. I barely knew what a stock W {The Colleges:. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } �{Alumni Notes} continued the Houston area would be well- advised to contact Norman or fellow alumnus Dimitri Seletzky (A92), who is senior counsel at Chevron. Contact information: norman.ewart @rosettaresources.com, 713-335-4041. David Kidd (A) is alive and well and living in Baltimore. You can visit him online at www.kiddstudios.com or in person “like the good old days.” Sally Shaw (A) is working for peace and clean, renewable energy every day. “No nukes,” she writes. Silitch, UIAGM Mountain and Ski Guide, 370 Chemin de la Deviaz; 74400 Chamonix, France, tel. +33 6 89 48 4118, michael @high-alpine. com, www.high-alpine.com.” 1987 Paul Anderson (A) finished his PhD in Comparative Literary Studies at Northwestern University in June 3006. He currently works as an academic adviser in The College at the University of Chicago. Michael Silitch (SF) lives in Chamonix, France, with his wife, Nina (Dartmouth ’90), and their two sons, Birken-3 in January 3007, and Anders-2 in February 3007. “I work as a mountain and ski guide here. My wife recently stopped teaching with the arrival of Anders. Chamonix is a great place to come climb, hike, ski, and cycle. Contact me: Michael Dr. Kim Paefenroth (A) is associate professor of Religious Studies at Iona College in New York: “My new book is Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions ofHell on Earth (Baylor University Press, 3006), in which I show how Romero’s zombie movies use images from Dante’s Inferno, as well as his own ruminations on the excesses of modern American culture, to create new visions of evil and damnation.” 1989 Aaron Rosenbaum (A) writes: 1988 1986 43 John F. Gibson (SF) writes: “Smita and I have a little girl: Uma Patricia Lahiri Gibson, born May 7, 3006. She’s absolutely adorable. See www.cns.gatetech.ed/gibson/ photos. I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Nonlinear Science at Georgia Tech, working on turbulence, dynamical systems, and chaos.” or bond was when I was at St. John’s, and I didn’t know anything about mutual funds. But I developed a confidence at St. John’s that I can learn and research anything.” He was especially influenced by tutor Bob Neidorf. “He taught me that the St. John’s experience is not about knowing things, but about the pursuit of knowledge,” says Bohlin. “Learning how to learn from every experience has held me in good stead all my adult life. I believe I finally ‘got’ that lesson from him.” Since he joined Thornburg Investment Management in 1984, the company has grown from five employees to 135. Bohlin is also an equity holder in a second company. “My daughter just started kindergarten, my son turned three, and my wife, Jessica, is expecting our third in January. My audio visual contracting business is now three years old. We just finished the second THX-certified screening room in a residence in the world (George Lucas has the first) and won an award for the best residential system design for 3006 at our industry’s big conference. Any Johnnies looking for a job in AV? Or just passing through the Bay Area? E-mail me: arosenbaum@al.net.” 1990 “Greetings and best wishes to all former classmates, tutors, and acquaintances from Annapolis,” writes Andrew Ghiz (A). “My wife, Christi, and I have been in Houston since September 3000. We are happy to report that our son Nicholas was born February 17, 3006.1 can be reached by e-mail at ahghiz@yahoo.com.” 1991 Andrew M. Schwartz (A) works in Philadelphia as a member of a regional defense litigation firm called Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman, and Goggin. In December he was named a shareholder of the firm by the president and CEO. continued on p. 45 Thornburg Mortgage Corporation, a mort­ gage real estate investment trust. When judging his own performance over the course of his career, Bohlin considers not only a successful track record but also the integrity he brings to his job. “There is a deteriorating financial trend, particularly in the area of trust, with all the corporate scandals,” he says. “The confidence in corporate America and in financial managers has been rocked by these. I sign a document, it says, ‘I am fiduciary for this company’ so I cheer when I see corporate wrongdoers brought down.” In spite of recent financial management scandals in corporate America, Bohlin is {The C o l l e g e ■ St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } optimistic about the future. “Yes there has been an erosion in financial confidence but this is still the most viable capital market in the world. But one cannot be too cocky. Like the fish, the economic data keeps me questioning.” Bohlin has another reason to be opti­ mistic: he is retiring. “I have been approached by some not-for-profit boards and will probably join one or two of them and I will continue my work on the over­ sight committee of the New Mexico State Treasurer’s office.” Bohlin also plans to spend more time with his family-and fly fishing on the Rio Grande. �44 {Alumni Profile} Answering a Cali. Martha Black Jordan (SFGI86) BY Rosemary Harty inging in the choir of for part of the year, and Martha Christ Church enrolled in the Graduate Institute. Anglican Episcopal in Her first segment in the GI was Mexico City helped Philosophy and Theology, in which nurture the Reverend she studied the Bible and other Martha Black Jordan’s works and discussed her ideas call to the priesthood. “It was with others. “It was a heady more of a process, over many years, experience,” she recalls, and one rather than something that came she savored, “especially in the on suddenly,” Martha (SFGI86) seminar (led by Mr. Darkey and says of her vocation. “Music is an Mrs. Knight) when we almost unmediated thing. Hearing, and proved the existence of God.” singing, those heautiful words Martha has expressed her every week, as a member of the gratitude to St. John’s in several choir, opens you up to God.” ways: she has served as a member Martha committed herself to a of the college’s Board of Visitors long but fulfilling journey when and Governors since 2003. And in she decided to pursue ordination in July aoo6, she and her husband, the Episcopal Church of Mexico. Purdy, made a generous gift to the She enrolled in a graduate pastoral ongoing capital campaign to estab­ theology program at St. Mary-oflish a tutorship in their name. the-Woods College in Indiana, Purdy’s encouragement and traveling to the campus four times support were instrumental in a year for residencies lasting from Martha’s decision to enroll in the three to seven days. Between GI, 35 years after graduating from sessions, she studied, wrote Sweet Briar College, and to later papers, and corresponded with her study for the priesthood. Both professors by e-mail. In addition to Jordans grew up in Mexico her assigned courses, she read (Martha was born there), and they other works of theology and philos­ met at a party one summer after ophy to prepare for her canonical college. “He thinks I can do exams. Last winter in Mexico City, anything,” Martha says of her she sat through three days of husband, who owns a Coca-Cola rigorous examinations, and having bottling franchise in Mexico. passed them, was ordained to the Reading great literature and deaconate in the spring. writing have been lifelong passions On November i8, Martha was for Martha. In Mexico City, she ordained a priest at Christ Church, Martha Jordan (SFGI86) says all her past pursuits were joined six other women to form a ALWAYS LEADING HER TO SERVE HER CHURCH. the same church in which she was group called Tramontane, baptized and where she married “beyond the mountain,” which her husband, Purdy. Family and initially offered a forum for friends from all parts attended the sharing and critiquing each others’ “My granddaughter Cecilia, who is ii, ceremony. When her bishop, the Most personal writing. “We decided that we Reverend Carlos Touche-Porter, Primate of was the crucifer at the head of the proces­ wanted to do something to make Spanish sion,” Martha says. “And the three grand­ Mexico, finished reading the Prayer of language poets better known in the United sons were there, in various stages of Consecration, the Rev. Martha Black States,” she explained. The group trans­ somnolence.” Jordan became, at 74, the oldest woman lated a collection of Mexican poetry with St. John’s deserves much credit for ordained to the priesthood in Latin the poems printed in English and Spanish fostering her natural spirit of inquiry and America. “Eve either ruined my old age,” entitled Ruido de Suenos (Noise of she quips, “or I’ve begun what I was always preparing her for the disciplined and Dreams). It was published in 1994 with meant to do.” lengthy study required for ordination, great success. Martha is also the author of Martha says. The Jordans live in Santa Fe S {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter zoo^ } �{Alumni Notes} 1992 Patricia Dougherty (A) offers this “aoo6 Review in Haiku:” One dress code, whose socks? Grammy’s condo yields date night Dear dog departed live in Watertown, Mass. Valerie can he contacted at vsd_str@yahoo.com. Francie Roberts (A) is going abroad to continue her graduate studies: “I finished my MA and 45 all the coursework for my PhD in Medieval Studies here at the Catholic University of America in D.C. and have now received a fellowship to go the Catholic University of Leuven (about la kilometers from Brussels) where Where Have You Been? Aaron Garza (SF) just finished a semester of law school at the University of Utah. Christopher Hadley, S.J. (A) writes: “I am in Cambridge, Mass., now, starting the MDiv program at Weston Jesuit School of Theology, I will be here and maybe at Boston College soon, for a few years. New England Johnnies and anyone else too, feel free to drop me a line, chrishadleysj @yahoo. com ” All 3975 MEMBERS OF THE BURGEONING AlUMNI OnLINE COMMUNITY HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU. NEARLY HALF THE COLLEGE’S ALUMNI HAVE REGISTERED WITH THE SITE. DURING A MONTH’S TIME, THE SITE HAS MORE THAN 8,000 LOG-INS FROM THE COLLEGE’S FAR-FLUNG ALUMNI. 1993 Valerie Duee-Strautmann (SF) and her husband, Jake Strautmann welcomed their daughter Northanna Mildred Strautmann on August 8. They The NUMBERS GROW DAILY. Job hunting? Check out the latest postings to the job bank. Jobs from all over the You nation are listed. can post your opening here too. Hiring a fellow Johnnie? The site hosts 70 networking GROUPS covering A vast RANGE OF PROFESSIONS. PoST TO YOUR OWN GROUP OR EXPLORE ANOTHER IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING A CAREER CHANGE. Find a long-lost classmate or hook up with your local alumni CHAPTER. So PULL UP A CHAIR AND CATCH UP WITH YOUR CLASSMATES. They’re waiting for you. Visit the college Web site at WWW.STJOHNSCOLLEGE.EDU; CLICK ON AlUMNI. two books of bilingual poetry, Manos en Agua/Hands in Water and Espacio entre Palabras/Spaces Between Words. A few years later, Martha turned her attention to a seed planted back in her days at St. John’s: her deep interest in serving the church. “It all seemed so inevitable,” she says. “Even from the beginning, almost every choice I made, whether consciously or not, was leading to this state of serenity and fulfillment. And happiness! ” As an unpaid member of the church staff, Martha preaches at least once a month, provides pastoral care and counseling to members of the church community, and officiates at services. “There is one rector and two women priests, so we take turns preaching and conducting the services,” she said. She conducts study groups on theolog­ ical topics and is helping the church build its membership by reaching out to the community. “One of the things we’re trying to do is make the Anglican Church accessible to Spanish-speaking people who have left the Roman Catholic Church for one reason or another, or who are looking for a church home. We’re not trying to convert anyone, but we are accessible to those who are looking for a community that is a via media between Rome and GenevaCatholic and Protestant.” Martha will continue with her studies; she has two more courses to complete and {The College -St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } I have been rather generously funded as part of a project on “Concepts and Concept Formation from 1350-1350.” 1 leave in January and will be in Belgium for four years, where 1 will earn my keep by writing a dissertation on the development of late medieval doctrines of mental language. This means at the end I will wind up with “Leuven” on my diploma, rather than “America.” It also means there’s a space on my floor for anyone who wants a place to sleep in Belgium. My e-mail is suavoluntade@yahoo,com and I’ll post my new address on the alumni website once I have one. If you’re in Europe (and even if not), feel free to send me a note.” 1994 Marilyn Medlock Roper (AGI) and her husband, Dan, have moved into their newly built house at Hilton Head, S.C. After three moves in two years while tearing down one house and building another on the same lot, they’re ready to stay put for a while and hear from friends in Annapolis and all over. two major papers to write to fulfill the requirements for her master’s degree in theology from St. Mary’s. She juggles her academic writing with preparing her Sunday sermons, sometimes struggling with deadlines and writer’s block. “I am resigned to living in a state of terminal Paper Anxiety-now Sermon Anxiety,” she says, “always an assignment pending.” And she adds, “In the end, if it is a good sermon, or paper, God is present.” �{Alumni Notes} 46 They can be reached by mail at 13 Marsh Wren Rd., Hilton Head Island, SC aggaS, or by telephone (843) 4ag-i6ag. grandchildren across the country and now the globe, Janie and George are challenged to keep up with them. Janie (Bosworth) Bingham (SFGI) is stepping down as Chair of the Board of the Santa Fe Conservation Trnst. She has also served as the SFCT Executive Director. Janie will continue as an active member of the SFCT board. Janie and her husband, George (Kramer) Bingham (SF66) spent several weeks during the fall in Italy, principally Rome, where Janie’s daughter and family are enjoying a well-earned sabbat­ ical year. In early October, George’s daughter Tanmaya married her Aussie lawyer beau; they are living in Canberra, with plans to move to Melbourne. With five children and eight 1995 In May 2006, Rosemary Ingham (AGI) received the United States Institute of Tech­ nology award for Distinguished Achievement in Costume Design aoo6. A move for Mike Layne (SF) and family: “I finally moved the family out of Alaska this past November. I am the new grant administrator for the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in Highland, Calif. We are moving into a home in Redlands, which is about one In the Aloha Spirit mile from the University of Redlands campus. I’m still married (eight years as of June 2007). Audrey Rae will turn five in February 2007, and Thaddeus Jackson will be two in March 2007. My new e-mail is: mlayne@sanmanuel-nsn.gov. I miss Alaska, but the weather down here is much warmer. And we are now much closer to family and friends. Tell Dan Myers (SFg3) I said HOOT! He was in Italy when I moved, and I’m dying to know the details of his trip.” 1996 Loreen (Lori) Keller (AGI) is in her second semester of teaching at McHenry County College in Northwest Illinois. She teaches Introduction to Philosophy and owes all her inspiration and motivation to the great days she spent at the GI. loha! From MaryIrene Corrigan Ruffin (A04): “The last two and a half years have been a total Having defended her disserta­ whirlwind! On January i, 2005,1 married Devin tion in philosophy at Penn State Corrigan (USNA 2003) and moved to Pensacola, University, Kirsten Jacobson Fla., to join him while he went through flight (SF) is now an assistant school. In March of 2005, we moved to Corpus professor Christi, Texas, and in the following August, Devin got winged asof philosophy at the University of Maine. a Naval Aviator in Fixed-Wing Aircraft. Last September, we moved to Jacksonville, Fla., where he learned to fly the P-3 Orion. Recently, we have finally settled into our first actual duty station: Kaneohe, Hawaii! Jacob Curtis (SF) and Dayna There aren’t any words to describe how beautiful the Sims Curtis (SFg8) would like islands are and how awesome it to announce the birth of their is to get a chance to live in baby girl, Clio, born August 8. Hawaii, but I do miss simple “She is our precious muse! We things like Maryland crabs, EST, enjoy reading about what and seasons. But, the experience everyone is up to, so say more.” is worth it, and there is still much exploring to do! Through all the moves, I have had the luxury of sampling a variety of jobs. I’ve been a bartender, receptionist, an associate at a dog park, and most recently, have found my niche as a Customer Service Repre­ sentative for Marine Corps Community Services, which definitely allows me to use all devices of sophistry I can muster.” 4" A 1997 {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } 1999 Patrick B. Reed (AGI) and his family are living in Bithus, Germany, where his wife, Jana, is serving with the Air Force. They have enjoyed traveling and teaching German to their oneyear-old year old, Lucy. 200^ Sarah Seitz (SF) is pursuing her interest in green building. She was recently at work on a passive-solar design tire house near Bancroft, Ontario (about four hours from Toronto and Ottawa by car). “The house will be approximately 500 square­ feet and I expect it will take at least the next six weekends to get it built and closed in. If anyone is interested in learning more about this building tech­ nique and participating in the construction, feel free to send me a message.” Her contact information can be found on the alumni online directory. After living and working in Washington, D.C., and Boston, Emma Wells (SF) has relocated and is in her first year of law school at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz. “Law school has been a completely new experience for me and while I am used to receiving large reading assign­ ments, it was the first time I had to take long and stressful final exams. I would love to hear from old friends, Johnnies in the Tucson/Phoenix area and any others who have any advice for surviving law school sanely. Please feel free to contact me at ewells@email.arizona.edu” �{Alumni Profile} 47 A Champion of Justice on Ferrier (A73) credits St. John’s for posing a question that has formed the shape of his entire life. What isjustice? “I rememher being blown away by my seminar on the Nicomachean Ethics. At St. John’s we spent a lot of time talking about justice, and now I work in a busi­ ness where that’s what we peddle, but you don’t hear people asking what it is.. .1 was tainted into thinking about the nature of justice a lot.” As a Circuit Court Referee in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Ferrier takes his passion from the theoret­ Jon Ferrier (A73) was honored as “champion of the ical to the practical as he strives to underdog” by the Michigan Bar Association. uphold justice as best he can. He hears the family cases of the circuit court, sorting through cases of of people-rich, poor, smart, dumb-you divorce, juvenile delinquency, and hope that the judge has some standard of domestic violence daily. As a referee, he justice and doesn’t just cater to some. St. hears and judges cases, but his decisions John’s is where I began to understand that are subject to the revision of a judge if an justice is the never-ending pursuit of appeal is made. “I’ve worked with all strata itself.” J 2003 “I am very excited to have advanced to candidacy this December,” writes Natasha Vermaak (SF), from California. “Now to walk the path I have defined.” Robert Morris (A) is in Afghanistan. “I am leading an unmanned aerial vehicle platoon that flies pilot-less reconnaissance drones,” he writes. “I am very excited about going. I think being away will be the worst part of the whole deployment.” After almost 30 years in the legal profession, Ferrier’s conscientious approach to his job has earned him the recognition of the State Bar of Michigan, which named him a “Champion of Justice” in September 2006. The “Champion of Justice Award” is given to practicing lawyers and judges with exceptional integrity and compe­ tence, whose extraordinary professional accomplishment benefits the community. “This career-capping honor was a truly humbling experience and at the same time, the proudest moment since I started practicing law” Ferrier says. At the awards cere­ mony, Ferrier traced his career path back to his childhood fascina­ tion with Raymond Burr’s portrayal of Perry Mason on TV, as well as his experience at St. John’s, where, he says, “I got the equipment to turn myself into the only thing I’ve ever wanted to be: a free human being.” —Emily DeBusk (Ao6) In December, Greg Green (SF) married Anne Deger, soon to be a Johnnie herself. Greg is the evening and weekend supervisor at the Meem Library. What’s Up? 3006 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 3004 Rebekah Coleman and Patrick Evans (both A) were married on October 2r, 2006. Rebekah is in the neuroscience PhD program at George Mason University. 3005 Charles Claunch (SFGI) began the MA program in pohtics at the University of Dallas in August 2006. “I’m happy to discuss the program with anyone interested in studying in the UD pohtics department.” Classmates can contact him at cclaunch@ alumni. stj ohnscollege. edu. NIC Zakheim (A), soon to be will be published in May; dead­ Nic Strahl (as she is changing her name), has taken the posi­ tion of Circulation Coordinator (a wonderful title that does not actually describe what she does, she tells The College} at Scientijic American magazine in New York, N.Y. line for the alumni notes (The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } section is March 15. 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 �48 {Tribute} “An Abiding Presence” Brother Robert Smith (HAgo) BY Steve J. Werlin (A85) Brother Robert liked to climb trees. This is probably not true about the decades in which most of us knew him. But he once told me that, as a hoy, he had been fond of climbing. Climbing anything, really. He said that a favorite place for him to read was on the roof of his parents’ house, sitting outside his bedroom window. I can add this: As recently as the mid-8os, when he was already much closer to go than to ig he hopped nimbly out the window of a Paris hotel room to have a rooftop picnic with a friend and me. As a child, he also liked a candy bar named “Oh Henry! ” I had beheved that the candy was named for Henry Aaron, the baseball player, who was featured in its commercials when I was a kid. Learning of Brother Robert’s fondness for it, 50 years before, cleared up my misconception. I’ve known people who were older than Brother Robert was, and I’m sure some people, though perhaps not many, are active and capable into their 90s, or even beyond. But it’s worth thinking about how long Brother Robert lived and, even more so, about how long he worked. Last year was something like his 70th as a teacher, with only graduate school and assorted short adventures intervening. In the late iggos, he visited my home institution, Shimer College. On the day of the visit, one of my very senior colleagues remarked in the course of a meeting that the question we were discussing seemed to come up about every five years. Most of us present were impressed by that colleague’s long sense of history. Later that evening, in a seminar he led for us on one of Plato’s dialogues. Brother Robert said something about a certain student attitude and mentioned that it seemed to come into vogue about every ao years. But it would not always have been easy to tell that he had been teaching for that long. Watching him prepare for a seminar on the Bible or the Summa Theologica, books that he knew more-or-less by heart, was a lesson. He would spend hours doing his reading, looking for all the world as though he was studying those pages for the very first time. I think one piece of Brother Robert’s greatness as a teacher was how often he was able to find so very many things new. It’s not that he never developed clear positions. Lots of us know aU too well that he had very, very strong opinions on a surprisingly wide range of subjects: from Stalin to Clinton, from William of Ockham to the Talking Heads. But he was able to find the books he read with us continu­ ally new because of the way he understood the classes he was reading them for. Brother Robert knew that conversations, whether in seminars or other­ wise, are neither about books nor about authors’ opinions. They are about what we, and especially about what our students, think. He expressed that clearly in one of the two guiding principles for teachers that he shared with me, “Start where the students are.” The enduring friendships he developed over his many years of teaching, friendships with the widest variety of students, are nothing if not a testimony to one simple fact: Brother Robert, through his know-how and his character, through the livehness of his curiosity and the generosity of his heart, was able to help us all think seriously, deeply, and openly about ourselves and about our world. And so our conversations with him could become decisive moments in our lives. I don’t miss Brother Robert. I don’t see how I could. He is so very much a part of me. Brother Robert Smith (HAgo) will be He’s with me in so REMEMBERED FOR HIS DEEP FAITH, ECLECTIC much of what I do: INTERESTS, AND JOIE DE VIVRE. from my teaching, to my cooking, to my you to get up on the table and reading and writing. He’s with dance upside-down, then you get mewhen I chat with colleagues, up on the table and dance students, and friends. I don’t upside-down.” The perhapsknow how I could ever feel him never-realized image of Brother as absent. Robert dancing upside-down on The first time I left Annapolis, a seminar table is an emblem of in the summer of ig85, he his devotion to teaching that embraced me with one arm, put ought to endure. his hand on my head, and said, “May you be blessed in all you Editor's note: Mr. Werlin's do.” The gift of his abiding pres­ remembrance was one ofmany ence, for over ao years, has gone shared at Brother Robert's a long way towards making that memorial service last November. prayer come true. A collection ofall the tributes I’d like to close by passing is available; contact the along the other guiding prin­ Communications office, ciple that Brother Robert shared Annapolis, for a copy: with me. It’s not as rhetorically reharty@sjca.edu; 443-716-4011. sharp as the first, but it’s memo­ rable. “If what it takes to make a class work,” he told me, “is for { The College . St. John’s College • Winter 2002 } �{Obituaries} Ahmet Munir Ertegun, Annapolis class of 1944 BY Jon Enriquez Ahmet Munir Ertegun, Annapolis class of 1944, died in New York City on December 14, 2006. He was the founder and chairman of Atlantic Records, one of the most successful record companies of the 30th century. Mr. Ertegun was born in Istanbul in 1923. His father, Mehmet Munir Ertegun, was a diplomat and advisor to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey. During his boyhood years in London and Washington, D.C. Ahmet Ertegun developed an interest in jazz under the tutelage of his older brother, Nesuhi, especially after their father became ambas­ sador to the United States in 1934. Mr. Ertegun also credited his brother for ensuring his study of Western thought, including his studies at St. John’s. In 1947, Mr. Ertegun and a partner. Herb Abramson, founded Atlantic Records in New York City, with financial backing from Mr. Ertegun’s dentist. Working with Abramson and others, Mr. Ertegun built Atlantic into a formidable record company. Atlantic focused on African-American music, a genre largely ignored at the time by the major record labels. Atlantic developed a strong jazz catalogue, but the label’s principal strength lay in rhythm and blues, especially after Atlantic entered a partnership with the Memphis-based label Stax Records. In 1967, Atlantic was acquired by Warner-Seven Arts Commu­ nications, although Mr. Ertegun continued to oversee the label. While Mr. Ertegun no longer worked closely on every record, his passion for music and his business acumen ensured Atlantic’s continued growth. Atlantic’s most successful acts included Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, The Drifters, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Bobby Darin, Otis Redding, and Roberta Flack. Mr. Ertegun was widely regarded as one of the best executives in the record industry. Observers cited his passion for music, his commit­ ment to paying royalties to performers, his sophistication and style, his love for philos­ ophy, and his ability to move easily among people of different ethnicities, classes, and aesthetics. He enjoyed juxtaposing interesting people, introducing Wilson Pickett to Henry Kissinger, for example, or Kid Rock to Eva Brann. Mr. Ertegun was a co-founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Hall in 1987. Mr. Ertegun was also instrumental in founding the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, a charitable organization to support destitute artists. Among his many honors are an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music, the Trustees Award and the President’s Merit Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, and recognition as a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress. “One of the best decisions I ever made in my life was to apply to go to St. John’s College, rather than a conven­ tional university,” Mr. Ertegun said in 2005. “St. John’s, then and now, offers a true educa­ tion in everything. It is meant for the student who wishes to be able to become a truly educated person-one who has been exposed to the various types of thought since the beginnings of the Western civilization, and therefore will begin to understand where one stands at this time in the history of the world. . . .[And] It seems to have prepared me to help create rock and roll out of the African American legacy of gospel and blues music.” 49 In 1991, he told the graduates of Berklee College of Music how his thought and life were shaped by philosophy. “In the dialogues of Plato,” he said, “a main thesis was that a human being’s greatest goal is happiness. And that happiness is many things. Its highest state is when a person gains under­ standing of truth, that is, the discovery of knowledge. It is also attained when one can create an object of beauty that is an imitation or interpreta­ tion of nature-an object of fine art, whether it be a painting, a literary work, or fine piece of music. The state of happiness is also attained by leading a morally and ethically good life. That is by developing a set of habits which makes you choose right instead of wrong almost automatically. That is what makes you a good person, which is even more important than being a successful one.. .” Enriquez is registrar in Annapolis. Also Noted Irene Dortch (class of 1966), August 12, 2006 Frances Hotelling (AGI77), October 8, 2006 BrewerNewton (class of 1947), January 5, 2007 John O’Donnell (class of 1935), September 8, 2006 Edward Senseney (class of 1952), September 9, 2006 Thomas Sigman (class of 1957), January 5, 2007 Horace Witman (class of 1934), October 24, 2006 CarlYannuzzi (SFGI69), April IO, 2006 Ahmet Ertegun (shown here THE 1944 St. John’s in yearbook) WAS A MAJOR INFLUENCE IN American music. He served on THE college’s BOARD IN THE I97OS AND RECEIVED THE AlUMNI Association’s Award of Merit. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } �50 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President More than Just Memories I feel very honored and excited to begin serving as president of the Alumni Association. The Association has a solid history of working in concert with the college to enhance the opportunities for Johnnies to stay connected with each other and maintain a vibrant link with St. John’s as an institution and with its program of learning long after they leave the campuses. Over the years, the Association’s work has included: • Building strong regional chapters. • Developing lively homecomings on each campus. • Supporting the production of alumni directories, first printed and now online. • Helping seniors and recent graduates network in the alumni community. Today, we have 23 chapters across the U.S. The Annapolis homecoming this year and last had more attendees than the undergraduate enrollment, the online directory is approaching 50 percent participation (sign up today if you haven’t already!) and we host annual “senior dinners.” In some chapters we have offered recent graduate receptions to help new alumni learn about career options and build connections in the new cities and towns to which they move. The Alumni Association wants to keep the experience we had of the college and the Program available to alumni throughout their lives, as more than just memories of a time we spent in an “idyllic” campus setting: as an accessible range of programs and services. This year our plans include: • Increased on-campus alumni programs. The college, with the Association’s support, will begin offering the “Piraeus” program of alumni seminars in April 2007 and January 2008 in Santa Fe, and in June 2007 in Annapolis’ new dormitories. (Recall that Socrates went down to the Piraeus at the beginning of the Republic']. • A stronger Santa Fe homecoming program. While the Annapolis homecoming historically has been held during the school year, Santa Fe’s homecoming has been in July. At that time of year, the travel costs are at their high-season peak and the campus is empty of students. These factors appear to have diminished participation in Santa Fe’s homecoming. To make the Santa Fe event more vibrant and rewarding, Santa Fe homecoming has been moved to the fall. • Continued growth ofchapter activities. We continue to have interested alumni stepping forward to start new chapters where they live. Existing chapters are organizing a broad array of activities, ranging from formal seminars to casual movie and beer nights. The Association will continue to support these expanded activities. graduates, about 50 percent of our alumni graduated in the last 20 years due to the increase in class sizes on both campuses. In addition, the Alumni Association continues its ongoing responsibilities in support of the community: selecting nine alumni trustees to serve on the Board of Visitors and Governors; recognizing outstanding contributions by our alumni to the nation or community, their profession, or to the college through Awards of Merit; and welcoming as permanent members of the community those beloved and long­ standing friends, faculty, and staff of St. John’s by making them Honorary Alumni of the college. We accomplish this by providing directed funding for various alumni-related programs organized by the college or our Chapters, by providing volunteer efforts by our members, and by advocating on behalf of alumni and the college. I look forward to serving the St. John’s community by helping foster opportunities for more alumni to connect more often and more richly. Jason Walsh (A85) Alumni Association President 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 • Moreprograms directed to recent grad­ uates. We have a new committee of young alumni working to develop activities and services of high interest to the growing number of recent To make the Santa Fe event more vibrant and rewarding, Santa Fe homecoming has been moved to thefall. 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. The Alumni Association's Mission: Tofoster opportunitiesfor more alumni to connect more often and more richly President - Jason Walsh (A85) Vice President - Steve Thomas (SF74) Secretary - Joanne Murray (SFGI95) Treasurer - Richard Cowles (A70) Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, P.O Box 2800, Annapohs, MD 21404, or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. {The College- St. John’s College • Winter 200'^ } �{Alumni Association News} Glenda Eoyang (SF76) Mission Accomplished On the surface, two accomplishments of Glenda Eoyang’s six years as president of the Alumni Association seem paradoxical: the association has strengthened its autonomy, and the association has forged a more productive working relationship with the institutional body that is St. John’s College. Rather than clashing, these two goals benefit the association and the college equally, Eoyang says: “The goal of my presidency was to strengthen the partnership between the Alumni Association and the college. It was clear that alumni wanted to support the college community and get us all working together.” This needed to be done without compro­ mising the independence of the association. As the only permanent members of the college community, alumni are protective of the Program. The danger is that can turn into “conservative and close-minded views about the college,” Eoyang acknowledges. “Stability, consistency, and coherence over time are important to alumni,” says Eoyang. “We can do our best if we are aligned with the college, yet independent.” For example, one of the things alumni want to do is assist Johnnies and new graduates as they consider careers and graduate schools. “While the college is more focused on the Program instead of the working world, alumni can provide the CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowfor information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Robert Morgan, SF76 505-^75-901^ rim2u@c0mcast.net ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin Gammon, A94 410-332-1816 emartin@crs.org AUSTIN Joe Reynolds, SF69 512-280-5928 jpreynolds@ austin.rr.com BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen, A77 410-472-9158 deborahwcohen@ comcast.net Alumni Association MINN./ST. PAUL Carol Freeman, AGI94 612-822-3216 Freem013@umn.edu worked to bring the and college closer TOGETHER. career networking and the advice that are important to Johnnies when they graduate. Great strides have been made, Eoyang says, particularly with the onhne community. Launched two years ago, the online directory and networking site was created with support and suggestions from the association. About 4,000 alumni are part of the community. “It has great possibilities to keep alumni connected with each other and the college,” she says. Building membership and keeping alumni involved with the college remain the association’s top priorities. Chapters have grown, more alumni are taking part in chapter activities, and more alumni are participating in the Annual Fund-all encouraging signs. Eoyang beheves alumni become involved with St. John’s when the time is right for them. Her involvement started when Barbara Lauer, then on the NEWYORKCITY Daniel Van Doren, A81 914-949-6811 dvandoren@ optonline.net NORTHERN CALIF. BOSTON Reynaldo Miranda, A99 Dianne Cowan, A91 415-333-4452 617-666-4381 aldo.miranda@ diannecowan@rcn.com reyn gmail.com CHICAGO PHILADELPHIA Rick Lightburn, SF76 Helen Zartarian, AGI86 847-922-3862 215-482-5697 rlightburn@gmail.com helenstevezartarian@ mac.com DALLAS/FORT WORTH PHOENIX Paula Fulks, SF76 Donna Kurgan, AGI96 817-654-2986 623-444-6642 puffjd@swbell.net dakurgie@yahoo.com DENVER/BOULDER Tom Byrnes, SF74 720-344-6947 tbyr@pair.com 51 PITTSBURGH Joanne Murray, A70 724-325-4151 Joanne.Murray@ basicisp.net PORTLAND Jennifer Rychlik, SF93 503-547-0241 jlr43@coho.net SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico, A86 619-429-1565 srico@sandi.net SALT LAKE CITY Erin Hanlon, SF03 91^67-2194 erin_hanlon@juno.com SANTA FE Richard Cowles, SFGI95 505-986-1814 rcowles2@comcast.net SEATTLE James Doherty, SFGI76 206-542-3441 jdoherty@mrsc.org SOUTH FLORIDA Peter Lamar, AGI95 305-666-9277 cplamar@yahoo.com {The College- St. John’s College • Winter 2007 } association board, encouraged her to start a chapter in the Twin Cities. “I think for many alumni, the college is important in their lives, but they’re just busy. What brings them back is friendships: personal relationships with people who are currently engaged with or at the college,” she says. While she will continue serving the college as a member of its Board of Visitors and Governors, Eoyang says stepping down from the association gives her more time to devote to her business, the Human Systems Dynamics Institute, which offers consulting, training, and research. Eoyang applies concepts and lessons from nonlinear dynamics chaos theory and complexity theory in building interventions for human interaction. The goal is to help managers and employees know how to deal with change and conflict “There are three large-scale issues,” she explains, “sustainability, and not just of ecological systems but of equity systems and economic systems; conflict, everything from individuals to youth gangs; and evaluationif you can’t predict, how do you evaluate whether things are better or worse?” Eoyang is also looking forward to more free time to spend at home with her husband, John, a psychologist. “He’s a Johnnie at heart,” she says. “Our first argument was over Pascal.” SOUTHERN CALIF. Elizabeth Eastman, SFGI84 562-426-1934 e.eastman@verizon.net TRIANGLE CIRCLE, NORTH CAROLINA Elizabeth (A92) & Rick Ross (A82) 919-319-1881 Elizabeth@ activated.com WASHINGTON, DC Deborah Papier, A72 202-387-4520 dpapier@verizon.net WESTERN NEW ENGLAND Peter Weis, SF84 413-367-2174 peter_weis@ nmhschool.org Providing OPPORTUNITIES FOR MORE ALUMNI TO CONNECT MORE OFTEN AND MORE RICHLY �5a {St. John’s Forever} A Wandering Library n the summer of 1969, Santa Fe’s to another institution. Without a perma­ library was located in what is now nent home, the library collection of 15,000 the bookstore in Peterson Student books, phonograph recordings, and tapes Center while fundraising for a new continued meandering about campus, library was underway. In 1968 the stopping in various rooms in Peterson, in college came close to receiving the basement of Weigle Hall, on the first funding from the New Mexico State floor of Calliope House in the lower dormi­ Commission’s Higher Education Facilities tories, and on the first level of the Fine Act, but was unable to raise the necessary Arts Building. match of $622,000. This meant Richard Not until November 1990, under the Weigle (HA49), at the time president of tenure of President John Agresto, did both campuses, had to relinquish the funds Meem Library open its doors. At that point Z {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter 2007 } the college’s collection (now with more than 67,000 books) found a permanent home. One of the aims of the college’s capital campaign, “With a Clear and Single Purpose,” is to increase library acquisitions on both campuses. The college hopes to add to the collections and to restore and replace outdated, damaged, and missing volumes. —Alexis Brown �{Alumni Events Calendar} Alumni Calendar Introducing Piraeus, a new program Don Quixote for St. John’s alumni. Join your fellow Johnnies for a weekend of revisiting a favorite Program work or read something new. More details are online: www.stjohnscollege.edu led by Victoria Mora and Peter Pesic January 18-20, 2008 Santa Fe Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas on the Unity of the Intellect led by James Carey April 14-15, 2007 Santa Fe The seminar will meet in the morning and afternoon on both Friday and Saturday, concluding with a final seminar and brunch Sunday morning. Participants can also look forward to the Friday night lecture and dinner together on Saturday evening. $250 per person, includes seminars, receptions, and brunch. Saturday night dinner courtesy of the Alumoi Association. This weekend program includes morning and afternoon seminars on Saturday, dinner together with Mr. Carey at a fine restaurant in Santa Fe, morning seminar on Sunday and a concluding brunch. BAnnual CBBlnetMal $200 per person, includes seminars, Johnnies vs. the Naval Academy Saturday lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, and April 21, 2007 Sunday brunch. Dinner courtesy of the Annapolis Alumni Association. Rain date: April 22, 2007 Homer’s Odyssey led by Eva Brann (HA57) and David Carl June 14-17, 2007 Annapolis September 28-30 Participants may choose to stay on campus in Gilliam Hall. Saturday afternoon is reserved for exploring the metro area, downtown Annapolis, or the Eastern Shore, followed by a crab feast in the Boathouse. $350 per person, includes seminars, receptions, and brunch; an addi­ tional $200 per person for three nights of room and board. Saturday night dinner courtesy of the Alumni Association. {The College- St. John’s College • Winter 200"^ } Dan Caldwell (A86), Johnnie. wife Li, and a future �STJOHN’S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS ■ SANTA FE Published by the Communications Office P.O. Box aSoo Annapolis, Maryland 21404 address service requested Periodicals Postage Paid � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 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 A name given to the resource The College, Winter 2007 Description An account of the resource Volume 33, Issue 1 of The College Magazine. Published in Winter 2007. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-01 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 33 Issue 1 Winter 2007 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Harty, Rosemary (editor) Dempsey, Patricia (assistant editor) DeBusk, Emily (assistant editor) Behrens, Jennifer (art director) Benson, Sally Brann, Eva Burlington, Elizabeth Enriques, Jon Lemke, Oliver Pihas, Gabriel Scally, Thomas Johnson, David The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/3a19509323264357be8eaac0921b176e.pdf 48f0e90eaa58fdcecec216a701015db5 PDF Text Text The College St. John’s College • Annapolis • Santa Fe J.S. Bach Music and Culture S p r i n g 2 0 0 7 �On Bach The College (usps 018-750) tudying Bach’s St. Matthew Passion is one of the great moments in four years of St. John’s. Indeed, if the college ever required a theme song, the Passion would do quite well. What makes it a great work worthy of the Program? To Eric Stoltzfus, music librarian in Annapolis,“it’s the combination of a very powerful story, and a sense that there’s a brilliant mind interpreting that story and adding things to it.” Peter Kalkavage, who led the Annapolis Community Chorus in its performance of the opening and closing choruses of the work, says the Passion is an immensely satisfying culmination of two years of the study of music, a work that holds special meaning for many alumni years after they leave the college. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685, a year that saw the birth of two other great musicians: Georg Friedrich Handel and Domenic Scarlatti. By the time he was 10, both of Bach’s parents were dead, and Bach came under the wing of his eldest brother, Johann Christoph, who helped guide his musical education. Bach sang in a boys’ choir, and later turned to the organ, pursuing his musical education independently. At age 18, he was appointed organist of the New Church in Arnstadt, where he kept getting into trouble. (In 1705, he brawled with a student and called him a “nanny-goat bassoonist”; the following year was reprimanded for staying away too long from his post after he traveled to another city to hear a great organist.) In 1707, Bach became organist in Mühlhausen, where he married his cousin, Maria Barbara Bach, with whom he had seven children. Other posts followed: court organist and chamber musician, later concert master at Weimar; musical director at Köthen for Prince Leopold of Anhalt; music director and cantor of the church of St. Thomas, Leipzig. He was the third choice for the post at St. Thomas, which he took up in 1723, and he so disliked one of his duties—teaching Latin to the schoolboys—that he paid someone else to do it. In a span of about five years in Leipzig, Bach gave the first performance of the St. John Passion and produced the Magnificat and the St. Matthew Passion. After Maria Barbara’s death, Bach married Anna MagdalenaWülken, a gifted musician, who bore him 13 children. Bach died in 1750, but four of his sons continued his legacy: Carl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Christian, Wilhelm Friedemann, and Johann Christoph Friedrich. C.P.E. Bach co-wrote his father’s obituary, which praised his moral character, piety, and devotion to his art: “If ever a composer showed polyphony in its greatest strength, it was certainly our late lamented Bach. If ever a musician employed the most hidden secrets of harmony with the most skilled artistry, it was certainly our Bach.” This issue of the magazine considers music’s place in the Program. Not only is it important in the classroom, but music in all its forms also enlivens the communities on both campuses, with groups such as Primum Mobile singing sacred music in the Pendulum Pit in Annapolis, and tutors such as Cary Stickney in Santa Fe sharing their talents and love for music with all of us. S —RH is published quarterly 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 postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. Rosemary Harty, editor Patricia Dempsey, managing editor Gail Griffith, Santa Fe editor Emily DeBusk, assistant editor Jennifer Behrens, art director Annapolis 410-626-2539 Santa Fe 505-984-6104 Contributors Elizabeth Burlington (A08) Caroline Caldwell (SF08) Nelson Hernandez (A99) Andrea Lamb Oliver Lemke (SF08) Peter Pesic Jennifer Sprague Jennifer Wright (A08) Elliott Zuckerman (HA95) Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �Spring 2007 Vo l u m e 3 3 , I s s u e 2 The College The Magazine for Alumni of St. John’s College Annapolis • Santa Fe {Contents} 10 “With a Clear and Single Purpose” d e p a r t m e n t s page 2 • • • What the $125 million campaign for St. John’s College means to the Santa Fe campus. • • 16 “Sing, Goddess” • page • page 10 As part of the quadrivium, music belongs in the Program, but where and how? 34 Annapolis treasurer Bronté Jones A year in Iraq Green energy for Annapolis Annapolis student establishes leadership retreat Johnnies from foreign lands Restoring Key’s will An Annapolis-born novelist had ties to St. John’s bibliofile “How-to” books for people who think they know how to read. 22 Pop Johnnies page 39 Can YouTube and American Idol coexist with the form of the good? 26 Visual Thinkers from the bell towers alumni P RO F I L E S 38 Christian Acemah (SF05) travels, page page 16 Three artists working in different media share their distinctive works and philosophies. 36 Happy Birthday, Croquet page researches, and writes for African development. 41 Coming of age in tumultuous times, the class of 1966 has a distinct character. 42 Manhattan dealmaker Munir Hussein (A90) discovers cultural understanding in Maine. 48 50 52 Over 25 years, the St. John’s croquet tradition has evolved into a mini-Homecoming. page 26 on the cover Johann Sebastian Bach Illustration by David Johnson obituaries alumni association news st. john’s forever �2 {From the Bell Towers} Beyond the Bottom Line Annapolis Treasurer Bronté Jones the man in the photo–her grandfather, Asbury Jones. “Last fall I drove over to my grandparents’ home on the Eastern Shore for my grandfather’s 85th birthday. My grandfather is my absolute favorite person in the whole world. He’s a blue-collar worker and when he retired, he made $16,000 dollars, but he put seven of his kids through college,” says Jones. gary pierpoint A brass-framed photo on Bronté Jones’ desk tells the story of how she has become, at 37, one of the youngest college treasurers in the country, and one of the few African-American women in this male-dominated profession. Jones, who joined St. John’s last summer as treasurer, says she credits her parents for what she has accomplished, but especially “He walked to work until he was 45 to save money. He had a plan–it was about fiscal management and about the differences that could make. I went to college and majored in finance simply because I understood the difference that having strong financial acumen could make in one’s life.” Growing up on the Eastern Shore in a tight-knit family filled with educators (her mother is a retired teacher and three of her mother’s siblings are also educators), Jones saw her grandfather daily and later took his inspiration, along with his photo, on her academic and professional journey. As treasurer of the Annapolis campus, Jones’ position includes fiscal responsibility for the college’s operations and she is a member of the management committee that oversees all aspects of the college’s administration and strategic planning. Jones brings more to her new position at St. John’s than her solid credentials, which include a summer at the Harvard Institute for Educational Leadership, and a master’s in business administration from American University, in addition to her doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin. She brings a passionate sense of purpose and the exuberance and desire to help people that mark a leader. Besides her grandfather, her role models for leadership are trailblazers such as Thurgood Marshall, Nelson Mandela, and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. “I’m drawn to the people who feel like their lives are a mission and there is something they’re supposed to accomplish with it.” Jones cites Johnetta Cole, president of Bennett College, as the kind of female leader she admires. “Her book Conversations: Straight Talk with America’s Sister President inspired me— she’s a role model for me. I like people who made a difference and understood their lives’ work to be about enhancing the lives of others,” says Jones, who aspires to be a college president one day. Jones discovered her passion for higher education 10 years ago while she was Bronté Jones discovered her calling in higher education. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �{From the Bell Towers} working at the state auditor’s office in Austin, Texas. “Originally I thought I’d be a financial planner, then I wanted to be a finance professor and teach, but when I found myself auditing federal financial aid programs on college campuses I discovered the world of higher education administration. When I went onto college campuses I came alive; I loved getting to know the students. It was and still is about more than making sure the institution’s bills are paid and books are balanced, it’s about relationships and being a bridge for students who need advice.” Jones changed her doctoral focus from finance to higher education administration and was accepted at the University of Texas, Austin. “After completing my doctoral studies in Austin in 2005, it was my dream to return to Maryland. This dream has been fulfilled by having the opportunity to serve as “The true sign of intelligence, per my grandfather, is that you can explain anything to anybody.” Bronté Jones, Annapolis treasurer an officer for a premier institution such as St. John’s,” says Jones. Jones brings her sense of purpose to everything from troubleshooting with custodial staff about new equipment, to offering astute advice on financial strategy at investment meetings with other officers of the college. Yet, dedicated to a leadership style that centers on sharing Rankings Revolt Christopher Nelson (SF70) and Santa Fe President Michael Peters are among 12 college presidents leading a revolt against U.S. News and World Report’s college rankings system. Along with their colleagues, they signed a letter sent to college presidents throughout the nation, asking them to refuse to fill out the magazine’s reputational survey and to refuse to use the rankings in any promotional efforts. The letter asks colleges to give the magazine data collected according to shared professional standards. For almost a decade, St. John’s has declined to take part in the U.S. News and World Report survey, maintaining that rankings don’t help students choose a college that is right for them. Both presidents have been quoted in the national press on the college’s opposition to rankings of any kind. Throughout the spring, college presidents continued to sign on to the effort, coordinated through the Education Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that seeks to decommercialize the college selection process. However, U.S. News Editor Brian Kelly dismissed the presidents leading the effort as a small group of “the usual suspects.” “These are the folks making these complaints for years,” he told the Washington Post. x knowledge, she remains accessible, even humble. “The true sign of intelligence, per my grandfather, is that you can explain anything to anybody. Finance isn’t rocket science. I want to explain terms like amortize, life annuity, and alternate investment, and what’s in our endowment. I want everyone to really understand the goals of the institution, how we operate and know that the college and its business office isn’t a mysterious place.” Like many of Jones’ colleagues, President Christopher Nelson is eager to learn from the college’s new treasurer. “We seek Bronté’s advice on everything from policy initiatives to administrative matters. Bronté brings a certain sophistication to the business operations and financial controls that is new to the college,” says Nelson. “The role of a treasurer in a small college is not just a financial manager. Bronté has a higher education background so she can serve us across the whole institution— admissions, financial aid, enrollment management, business, operations, financial management. She brings a level of managerial skill to help all of us to do our work better.” Given the $125 million capital campaign, Jones’ expertise is needed now more than ever. Not only does she help the college manage the funds that are raised through the campaign, she also works with staff to develop a strategic plan that secures the college’s future. Jones says the challenges she faces at St. John’s are unique as compared, for instance, to Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas, where she was vice president for administration and finance from 2004 to 2006. “The interesting thing { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } 3 about St. John’s, unlike anywhere else in America, is that we’re actually having discussions about reducing the size of the student enrollment to preserve the rich educational experience of the seminars; this runs contrary to most institutions,” she says. One of Jones’ challenges, she says, is to figure out “how to thrive with 450 instead of 500 students and still provide the small classroom experience that we do.” For Jones this translates into questions such as: Where and how does the college streamline? To what degree does the endowment need to grow in order to sustain the college at 450 students? “There are several questions that we will need to answer. It’s not going to be a tomorrow fix; it’s going to be a multi-year plan.” As Jones moves forward in her new position as treasurer there is one other person besides her grandfather to whom she is especially grateful: her predecessor, Bud Billups (HA03), who was treasurer at the college for more than a decade. “I have such respect and admiration for Bud,” she says. “This is the most ideal situation. It is like running a race and somebody passes you the baton and they want you to run as quickly as you can because you’re all in the race together. That’s how I feel with Bud–he passed me the baton and he wants me to finish the race well.” Jones says her extended family has grown since she met Billups and his wife Bea, an Episcopal minister. “I’ve adopted them as family.” x —Patricia Dempsey �4 {From the Bell Towers} ties and meet students, give lectures, and offer various social events at universities.” Unfortunately, classwork has been severely limited at most of the country’s universities, and the state department deems most universities unsafe to travel to, though Bayer says the situation in the north is better. He plans to travel to universities in Erbil and Fulyamaniyah later this year. The war has disrupted everything in the country, so managing the program presents daily challenges. Bayer sent out e-mails to about 70 trailer, his office, and the “DFACS” where he gets his meals. Little else besides work occupies his time except for reading (Thomas Pynchon’s newest novel, Against the Day; Santa Fe tutor Greg Bayer the third-largest in the world in Nietzsche’s Zarathustra), and arrived in Baghdad last terms of the number of writing (a book project on ArisChristmas to take up a yearmasters’ programs,” Bayer totle). Traveling to and from long assignment as director of says. “It’s not a true exchange the city—as he did earlier this the Fulbright program in Iraq. program: obviously, there spring to make a trip to D.C.— After a grueling flight he aren’t too many students from is a tense ordeal that starts with checked out his new home: a other countries wanting to donning a helmet and a heavy small metal trailer with one bed study in Iraq right now. We will Kevlar vest. “You go out under and some lockers. Jet-lagged, probably have 35 to 40 students the cover of night in a Rhino, a he sat outside by a pool going over to American univerhuge vehicle that’s something formerly owned by Saddam sities this summer and fall. All like a super-armored Hussein, listening to the thud fields are represented: public Winnebago, and travel in a of explosions and watching a health, public affairs, English, convoy,” he explains. thick plume of black Bayer tries not to smoke rise from dwell on the risk outside the walls involved in his job. surrounding the “There are rockets Green Zone. “There’s that come in and a surreal quality of mortars every once in life here in Baghdad,” a while, and someBayer says. times you have to Former Santa Fe duck into these little President John pillboxes,” he says. Agresto, who for nine “You’re on your way months served as the to work in a suit and senior adviser to the tie, you’re thinking Iraqi Higher Educaabout a visa interview tion Ministry, alerted or an ad you have to Bayer to the Fulbright get in the newspaper, opportunity. Bayer and you hear the applied for the posithuds of car bombs tion and for a year’s going off not too far leave from the away.” college. “John talked The Fulbright a few times at the program, he says, college about his provides an oasis of work in Iraq, and he normalcy among the got me interested in Santa Fe tutor Greg Bayer was fitted for his Kevlar vest and helmet—requisite chaos; in desperate the whole situation,” equipment in Baghdad—on his first day in the Green Zone last December. times, it offers hope says Bayer. “I had for a bright future for served on our some talented young Fulbright committee Iraqis. “So much is made, and university contacts and various forms of linguistics, in Santa Fe, and I thought I rightfully so, of all the terrible received just a handful of journalism.” might be able to do some good things that are happening in replies. After they’re awarded This spring, Bayer has been during my sabbatical.” Baghdad,” he says. “It’s dirty, the Fulbright, Iraqi students working to promote the Bayer has an office in the it’s rundown, it’s falling apart, must then get the “right” Iraqi program and solicit applicants Chancery. He works six to but it is still a pretty lively city. passport, go through the visa for fall 2008. He’s organized seven days a week and puts in People are going about their process, and undergo a backnews conferences, given radio 10-hour days, processing applidaily lives, despite everything. ground check by Homeland and television interviews, and cations, interviewing appliThe Iraqis are amazingly Security. Bayer helps usher placed advertising in media cants, helping students negoresilient people.” x them through the process. throughout the country. “The tiate the visa process, and Bayer would enjoy hearing Bayer spends most of his normal way to publicize somepromoting the program thing like the Fulbright,” Bayer time in the Green Zone, and his from members of the St. John’s throughout the country. “Our community: gbayer@sjcsf.edu. daily life restricts him to his explains, “is to go to universiFulbright program in Iraq is Finding Fulbright Scholars in a War Zone { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �{From the Bell Towers} Green Power While it can’t install wind turbines on back campus to power the college, St. John’s in Annapolis is nevertheless doing its part for green energy. The college has purchased renewable energy credits (RECs) to cover 100 percent of its energy consumption. Renewable energy credits are created for every 1,000 kilo-watt hours produced by a renewable energy generator. Power plants that use alternative sources, such as the sun, wind, methane from a landfill or wastewater treatment, geothermal energy, and the ocean, garner additional revenue from the sale of RECs so that they become increasingly economical to build and maintain. “We can’t buy wind directly, because there are no turbines in our region or in our grid,” explains Don Jackson, director of operations in Annapolis. “So the energy industry sells credits for electricity produced by wind or photovoltaic sources that say we’ve paid a premium for its product at another location.” By purchasing the credits, the college supports the production of energy through renewable resources. The state requires that about 3.5 percent of all energy purchases be covered by renewable energy credits. Currently, 100 percent of St. John’s energy is covered by renewable energy credits. St. John’s purchased enough to cover 10 mega-watt hours; the college uses 6 megawatt hours per year. “St. John’s will be the first college in Maryland to engage in a green energy commitment beyond current state requirements,” says Skip Trimble, an energy consultant who helped the college evaluate energy options. Green energy, Trimble says, is more than helping the environment. “It establishes alternative energy sources that also make a more secure nation by limiting our reliance on oil and provides a more reliable energy grid by introducing prudent energy diversity,” he says. Although green energy is more expensive than traditional energy sources, Jackson says the college made the purchase of energy credits a spending priority. “It was the right thing to do,” he says. x Inspiring Future Leaders For one week in August, the pristine Limberlost Forest in northern Ontario will be a rendezvous for 12 student activists from around the world. The students will meet under the auspices of International Partnerships through Education and Collaboration (IPEC), a youth conference founded by St. John’s sophomore Malcolm Cecil-Cockwell. Malcolm CecilCockwell (A10), cleaning the shoreline of College Creek, wants IPEC to encourage others to be activists in their community. Cecil-Cockwell was recently awarded a $10,000 grant by the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Foundation to put his proposal for a youth-oriented leadership and education retreat into practice. His idea is to support “personal development through conversation and study, for the sake of leading social change.” Before they meet in Canada, the students, traveling from Canada, India, Mexico, Tanzania, and the U.S., will research their own locality and develop a project to improve their environment and society. While in the Limberlost, “The students will spend time reading and discussing issues related to their projects, as well as participating in workshops led by qualified guest-mentors,” he explains. Cecil-Cockwell has recruited professional volunteers, government lobbyists, and experts on social thought to lead workshops on topics ranging from current news stories to how to collaborate with the media. The big picture, Cecil-Cockwell writes in his proposal, is to make efficient use of youthful motivation by giving it support, direction, and practical skills through dialogue. “In that way, it is very like St. John’s,” he says. Long after the participants leave Canada, Cecil-Cockwell hopes IPEC will be a source of mutual support as these potential leaders return to their countries with new ideas and plans for the future. x From Sanskrit to Skype The Eastern Classics program in Santa Fe immerses graduate students in ancient languages— Sanskrit or Classical Chinese— and texts such as the Tao Te Ching, written by Lao Tzu in about 600 BCE. Jason Litton, who will finish the program this August, took a detour from his { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } 5 study of ancient works to consider how 21st-century technology is playing a role in shaping societies and creating conversations across cultural and geographical barriers. Last March, Litton presented a paper, “On the Potential for Communications Technology to Cause a Fundamental Shift in the Way People Form Societies,” at the New Directions in Critical Theory Conference, an interdisciplinary graduate student forum. Graduate students from all disciplines were invited to present papers on “negotiating and constructing identities” at the University of Arizona conference, and Litton chose to explore how technology facilitates crosscultural communication and the formation of entirely new social groups drawn together by common interests and ideas. Litton taught English for several years in Seoul, South Korea, and used Voice Over Internet Protocol, which allows for phone-like conversations via the Internet, to stay in touch with friends and family. He observed how “in Korea, the most wired country in the world,” virtual communication created a shift from “parlor” conversations to virtual dialogues open to many participants. Advances in translation technology offer the promise of creating communities by overcoming linguistic barriers, he adds. There is a potential downside to virtual interaction, Litton acknowledges: those who replace person-to-person encounters with strictly online interaction can experience isolation, rather than the sense of community. Yet Litton still see great potential for the use of communications technology in education. “You don’t need to be physically present for a conversation,” he says. “Online seminar discussions, conducted across cultural boundaries, could be richly diverse.” x —Oliver Lemke (SF08) �6 {From the Bell Towers} Worlds Away Each year, at least half a dozen foreign students enroll in St. John’s. The College visited with two “F-1” students, an Annapolis Johnnie halfway through the Program and another in Santa Fe, just graduating from St. John’s. Interviews are by Elizabeth Burlington (A08) and Caroline Caldwell (SF08). Yuhai Zhou (A09) Lanzhou, China Distance from Annapolis: 6,258 miles Legendary City “Lanzhou is my birthplace, and I lived there for 15 years until my family moved to Guangzhou in 2002, one of the three biggest cities in China (Beijing and Shanghai are the other two). The other name for Guangzhou is “The City of Five Goats.” It is said when there was famine, five gods on five goats came, each with wheat in its mouth. People accepted the wheat and they finally got a big harvest. Then Guangzhou became the wealthy city in the south. The interesting thing is, before I came to St. John’s, I met four alumni of St. John’s who were teaching in the same college in Guangzhou.” On Dante “So far my favorite book is Dante’s Divine Comedy. Originally, I wanted to write on the Divine Comedy for my sophomore essay, but, because I feel that it is so beautiful, I am afraid of destroying the beauty in that book by writing about it. So I decided to destroy the beauty in another book. I ended up writing on Job.” Alarming Moment “I really like cooking and I have become very famous around campus for my cooking. One day [in Gilliam Hall], the fire engines came and all the alarms went off. Chinese people are famous for their cooking-oil smoke. My father, was living in England in 1995, and he was cooking in the apartment and he caused a lot of oil smoke. So finally he was kicked out by the landlord.” Plans after St. John’s “My plan after St. John’s is to continue to study. When I first left China, I thought that I would like to be a teacher in the countryside. The countryside of China is 70 percent of the population. My father says that if you do not understand the countryside then you don’t understand the whole condition of China. So I decided to go teach in the countryside, but I am not sure if that plan will change after a couple years here. Both of my parents are teaching at the University of China. My mother teaches economy, my father teaches geography.” Felicitas Steinhoff (SF07) Stanhope, Germany Distance from Santa Fe: 4,613 miles Cultural Highlight “Well, in the town I grew up in mostly, in the north, there was this old monastery and there was a rose bush that apparently was over 1,000 years old. That was it. That was the cultural highlight. So basically there was nothing special; lots of towns in Germany have these odd little cultural artifacts that are famous. Usually they will build a church around it. I’ve noticed in America that people will proudly put up signs for a street that’s like 250 years old or a settlement that’s been there since the Founding Fathers. The little town close to where I lived, where my mother lives now in Stuttgart, is originally from 1250 or left: A cooking oil incident made Miss Zhou briefly famous in Annapolis. Right: Even with years of English practice, Miss Steinhoff struggles with idioms. something like the Middle Ages, but there’s no sign or anything proclaiming that loudly.” Biggest Headache “I had been speaking English in school and lived with international students for three years in boarding school. We would basically mix and match English and German phrases all the time. It was still odd to come [to Santa Fe] and all of a sudden there was no German, and not the slightest possibility to speak German, so for the first three days I had the biggest headache ever. I think in English now. I dream in English. The only thing that is still a bit problematic are little idioms and figures of speech that I usually butcher in hilarious ways. I had big issues with the word ‘pneumonia.’ ” On Kant “Kant made up a lot of his own words to describe the things he was talking about. It was easier to read [an English] translation of that because in order to translate you have to interpret { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } it in a certain way that makes sense to you. So the translation itself is almost already an interpretation in itself, which helps, whereas the original is stranger in German. I started reading it in German then I picked up the English one along the way and I thought the English one made much more sense.” Plans after St. John’s “I am right now waiting to get my work permit approved. I don’t really want to go back to Germany yet. I was planning to go to grad school but my senior essay got a little bit in the way of my application process. So I’m going to stay in Santa Fe simply because I have no relatives in the states, but a couple of my friends will be staying too. We’ll all be working full time, saving up money, and then I will apply to grad school in October. I want to get my master’s in counseling psychology.” x �7 {From the Bell Towers} Good Will Preservation The last will and testament of Francis Scott Key, class of 1796, came to the college in 1993 when a descendant of Key thought the college was the rightful place for a document of such historic importance. The author of the “Star-Spangled Banner” was also founder of the college’s Alumni Association and is considered its most famous alumnus. Earlier this spring, the will was transported to the Conservation Center for Arts and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia for an overhaul. The Conservation Center will clean and flatten the document (it was folded in thirds for many years), and will repair a slight tear to one of the pages. The document will be returned to the college next spring in a special box that will preserve it for another two centuries or so. The center will also provide a facsimile of the will that St. John’s will enclose in a glass case and make available for public display. James M. Cain Was Here roy hoopes, roy hoopes collections The words film noir evoke images of a fedora-wearing, wise-cracking private eye, a curvaceous and ultimately treacherous femme fatale, and stark, smoky cinematography. Who would have thought that such scenes, deeply engrained in the American pop consciousness, were straight from the novels of an author who spent his childhood on the sunny campus of St. John’s College? Born in 1892, the son of a St. John’s professor, James Mallahan Cain grew up in the Paca-Carroll dormitory, which was then faculty housing. His father eventually became the vice president of St. John’s before moving the family to Chestertown, Maryland, to become the president of Washington College, from which Cain graduated in 1910. After some time in the army, Grants from the Anne Arundel County Trust for Preservation; Four Rivers: the Heritage Area of Annapolis, London Town and South County; the Maryland Bar Association Foundation; and the Nielsen Bainbridge Company provided funding for the project. Distinguished by bold, elegant script that may or may not be Key’s, the will was first penned in 1837 and amended several times. It arranges for the distribution of Key’s assets to various relatives. Alas, no bequest was made to the college. x Cain became a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, where he met and was influenced by the famous journalist and satirist H.L. Mencken. In 1923, he returned to St. John’s as a professor of journalism. He stayed in Annapolis for just a year before moving to New York to become an editor and writer for various publications, including The New Yorker. With the onset of the Depression, Cain moved to Hollywood where the pay for screenwriters was generous, although his best-known works are novels that became screenplays. As Cain’s novels hit the silver screen during the 1940s, some of the brightest movie stars in Hollywood brought his stories to life: Double Indemnity starred Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck; Joan Crawford was Mildred Pierce; and The Postman Always Rings Twice featured Lana Turner. “Hardboiled” is a term that is James M. Cain penned 19 novels in addition to his short stories and screenplays. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } Key’s will will be preserved for future generations. often applied to Cain’s writing style and, consequently, to the entire genre of classic cinema. (As an example of hard-boiledness, the protagonist in The Postman Always Rings Twice says, “Then I saw her…she really wasn’t a raving beauty, but she had a sulky look to her, and her lips stuck out in a way that made me want to mash them in for her.”) Cain’s works were important contributions to what later became known as the hard-boiled school of American detective and crime fiction, a genre that included another Maryland-born author, Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon), and Raymond Chandler, who wrote the screenplay for Double Indemnity. Though some may dismiss Cain’s work as pulp fiction, he claimed a loyalty to what he called in the preface of Double Indemnity, “the logos of the American countryside,” saying that “the average man, from the fields, the streets, the bars, the offices, and even the gutters of this country, has acquired a vividness of speech that goes beyond anything I could invent.” x —Emily DeBusk (A06) �8 {From the Bell Towers} Guggenheim Winner Santa Fe tutor and musician-inresidence Peter Pesic has been awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship Award for his investigations into the connections between music and natural philosophy. Guggenheim Fellowships recognize “distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.” Pesic plans to examine music in relation to parallel developments in science, philosophy, politics, and art. In Pesic’s view, music and natural philosophy have long and deep connections. “With this award, I hope to explore the dialogue between ‘ancient’ music, or music modeled on the dispassionate beauty of the ‘music of spheres,’ and ‘modern’ music–music devoted to moving human passions,” he says. In February, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Glitch Silences Bell on Essay Night It’s a wonderful tradition at St. John’s for seniors to ring the bell, signifying the completion of their senior essay. But this February in Annapolis, about 50 seniors were robbed of their celebratory peal when the button that students press in the McDowell Hall bell tower stopped working. “The switch got stuck because it’s not made to ring a 100 times in a row,” suggested Sid Phipps, director of buildings and grounds in Annapolis. The college applied to the city of Annapolis for a second exemption to the noise ordinance, and arranged for the seniors who missed the chance in February to have their moment of glory on March 31. chelsea stiegman News & Announcements Board of Visitors and Governors Anna Greenberg (HA96) with Chris Nelson (SF70), left, and Michael Peters, right, has served the Annapolis community well for more than 40 years. Anna E. Greenberg (HA96) and M. Brownell “Brownie” Anderson (HSF98) have been named honorary members of the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors. The designation recognizes individuals who are stepping down from the college’s governing board for their commitment and contributions to St. John’s. An Annapolis native, Mrs. Greenberg has served for more than four decades as a volunteer leader with civic, educational, social service and religious groups in the community. Ms. Anderson is Senior Associate Vice President of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Division of Medical Education, where she also serves as the division’s deputy director and executive secretary for the association’s Group on Educational Affairs. The college’s board also welcomes several new members: Sheila Bobbs Armstrong (SF70, EC92, SFGI95) has been involved with the college for more than 40 years. Brad Davidson (A77) is president of SPARDATA. He is a captain in the United States Army Reserve and served on the Annapolis City Council. Until he retired last year, Austin Ligon was the first president and chief executive officer of CarMax, Inc., the nation’s largest retailer of used cars. Mark Lindley (A67) is a retired America Online executive and volunteers for Touchstones, Inc. Ford Rowan (AGI06), a former NBC correspondent, is now a national security consultant. Dolores E. Wolf of Washington, D.C., served for 18 years as vice president of Personnel Resources for American Airlines. Roxanna Zirakzadeh (SFGI04, EC05) owns a bookstore, Symposium, in San Francisco. Staff Earlier this spring, the Santa Fe community said farewell to a long-time and much-valued staff member. Lawrence Martinez, head custodian, retired in March after 31 years of service. Emily Mawhinney (AGI07) joins the Advancement office in Annapolis, where she will manage the Fielding Challenge, part of the college’s $125 million capital campaign. x {Letters} Natural Consequences I am writing to thank you for, and to comment upon, the article entitled “Good Design Starts with Good Questions” (Winter 2007), which features architect David Schwarz (A72). The article’s title is an apt summary of a fascinating conversation. On the other hand, Mr. Schwarz says that “[St. John’s] gives you three things, and only three things: it teaches you how to think, how to read, and how to speak. If you’re lucky, it will also teach you how to write…” I beg to differ on two counts, although I stand in The Great Outside, as a mere Johnnie-parent. My first difference with Mr. Schwarz’s statement is that the word “all” implicitly denigrates skills—thinking, reading and speaking—that are both crucial to our ability to function socially, and so rare as to be remarkable, based on my experience of nearly a quartercentury of teaching graduate students. Even if these comprised the “all” that St. John’s College offered its students, they would be an “all” difficult to improve upon; schools, employers, and organizations—including, I am { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } sure, Mr. Schwarz’s firm—would be ecstatic if they could find a sure source of students, teachers, employees, and workers who could in fact think, read, and speak well. . . My second objection to Mr. Schwarz’s statement, however, is more substantive— it concerns his omission of the natural consequence of the pedagogy of St. John’s College. �9 {Letters} The pedagogy fosters in students the skill of listening—of hearing what is being said by someone else, whether that someone is an ancient Greek philosopher, medieval Christian theologian, or the person sitting across the table. The ability to hear another does not mean merely to keep one’s mouth shut, but to actively listen to what they are trying to say—to seek clarity, or (in a word), understanding. The ability to hear is rare. . .in part because hearing (understanding) requires patience: waiting to hear everything that the other person has to say, waiting a bit more to be sure that they have finished and to consider what they have said, and then responding in such a way that our reply implicitly reverberates with their question, suggestion, insight, or concern. . . I write this letter because I am very happy to say that I have seen this ability to listen develop in my daughter (A08) during her time at St. John’s, and in other Johnnies whom I know. . . I have been struck repeatedly by their attitude—a kind of quiet intensity— that focuses their attention on the speaker’s words and ideas, so that their comments and questions in turn further our conversation. I also write because this ability to hear, to understand (a text, another person, or ourselves) underlies our ability to be and increasingly to become fully human, to allow our lives to be examined by others, living and dead, and ourselves. It is a great gift offered by the pedagogy of St. John’s, and one that ought not to be overlooked or assumed. Frederic Clarke Putnam Admiring Jane I am writing belatedly to thank you for the excellent Fall 2006 issue of The College. Life is busy and sometimes we don’t get all our assigned readings done, but I held onto this magazine through the winter. Being a descendant of Jane Austen’s mother’s family (the Leighs of Stoneleigh Abbey), I knew I wanted to give this issue more than a cursory reading. I was delighted to find appreciations of Grand-Aunt Jane’s work in so many different voices. I really do think that women of today appreciate Jane Austen much more than earlier generations. These articles demonstrate that her social analysis was deep, insightful, and abiding in value, yet always tender and sympathetic. Sometimes I myself feel that I am just now catching up to her in my understanding of the war between the sexes (as another favorite author, James Thurber, used to call it). Congratulations on a wonderful issue that I will save on my bookshelf alongside my own favorite Austen work, Sense and Sensibility. Christel Stevens (A72) Constructive Criticism Reading Mrs. Maschler’s “A Life” in the Winter 2007 issue, I was reminded of a stillvivid comment that she wrote on an assignment submission of mine during our freshman science [laboratory], 1986-1987. The assignment, allowing now for my failures of memory, consisted of observing for a time an animal, any animal, and reporting in writing on its actions. I picked a turtle, because there was already at least one in captivity at the college. I observed this turtle, which to my knowledge was unnamed, for approximately one hour. Using the notes I compiled, I prepared a more formal essay for submission. My only concrete recall of my submission was that I likely anthropomorphosized the turtle’s actions to a degree (e.g., its banging its body into the glass walls of its tank indicated a desire to exit the tank, etc.). While I didn’t quite “get” the assignment, I thought that my submission was well-written and satisfied the assignment’s objectives. When the assignments were returned to the class, the following, solitary comment was written on my submission, verbatim: “Nothing much came of this.” I’m relatively sure that whatever measure of success I’ve achieved since that day has been due, in some small part, to overcoming that pithy dismissal. Sandro Battaglia (A90) Du Bois and McCarthy I can’t help (1) congratulating you on that wonderful story about Martin Dyer and “Web” Du Bois and (2) telling you my own story . . . It happened the same year, 1952. I was a senior at Yale Law School and chairman of the Yale Student Guild Chapter. We had invited Dr. Du Bois to give a lecture at the law school. The day before the event there was a knock at my dormitory door which, when opened, revealed—I am not making this up—two gentlemen in trench coats and Fedoras, flashing FBI badges at me. “Oh boy,” I said to myself, “there goes my legal career.” (The McCarthy witchhunt was in full swing in those days, which entitles President Weigle to a posthumous commendation for inviting Dr. Du Bois to the college). As it turned out, my two visitors wanted to interview me about Peter Davies (class of 1948), who had applied for conscientious objector status in the draft. I waxed as eloquent as I could about Peter’s patriotism, high moral standards and sterling character and the fact that, since he was doing God’s work on earth, he must, according to St. Thomas, believe in God even though he refused to admit to such belief. (To merit CO status at the time you had to have a credible belief in some kind of divinity.) I also mentioned in passing that Peter and I had spent the previous summer in Israel on a project sponsored by the Foundation for World Government, headed by Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan, to wit, several weeks of research on whether the kibbutz was a workable { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } model for use in underdeveloped countries. The two gentlemen … listened attentively and took copious notes. At the end, one of them asked if he could read his notes back to me for verification. When he got to the part of the previous summer, said, “In 1951, subject and interviewee went to Israel to study underdeveloped Jews.” The fact that I was able to make the appropriate correction without cracking up was one of the proudest achievements of my senior year . The St. Thomas gambit did not get Peter out of the draft, but it may have helped him get into the Merchant Marines as alternate service. We have remained good friends ever since. The Du Bois lecture the next day was a great success. Peter Weiss, class of 1946 Corrections: An article on W.E.B. Du Bois in the winter 2007 edition misidentified the late husband of Priscilla BenderShore; his name was Merle Shore. A profile of Richard Field (SFGI98) in the fall 2006 issue of The College incorrectly reported his doctoral degree; he holds a PhD in exercise physiology. Santa Fe tutor James Carey was misquoted in the same issue; instead of being “faithfully impressed with the cadets,” during his time as a visiting professor at the Air Force Academy, Mr. Carey was actually “favorably impressed.” 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, or e-mail to: rosemary.harty@ sjca.edu. �10 {Capital Campaign} “WITH A CLEAR AND SINGLE PURPOSE” How the Campaign for St. John’s College is Making a Difference in Santa Fe by Gail Griffith t. John’s College Santa Fe President Michael Peters had been on the job barely a month when one of the first major events of the Capital Campaign was held in Boston. “The Board of Visitors and Governors made a decision to launch the campaign at the same time they made the decision to launch me,” he says. The magnitude of a campaign to raise $125 million—more than triple the amount raised by the previous campaign— might have been daunting to a new college president. But because so much of the S groundwork had been well-established, Mr. Peters says he “just stepped into the job.” Although his presidency began at one of the most critical times in the college’s history and required him to get up to speed quickly, it also gave him an opportunity to get to know the community. Working with Annapolis president Chris Nelson, he has met board members, alumni, parents, and other college supporters at campaign events across the country. He discovered how strongly Johnnies feel about their alma mater, and saw that non-alumni share the same fierce loyalty to St. John’s. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �11 {Capital Campaign} anthony russo Much has transpired on the Santa Fe campus since Mr. Peters’ inauguration in October 2005, and the success of the campaign thus far gives him reason to feel confident that some of the goals he articulated early on are coming to fruition and others are within reach. “I believe it is important to establish and maintain a campus community that is worthy of the program of instruction,” Mr. Peters says. “That means having the resources to make classrooms as productive as possible and to provide the kinds of services and resources both inside and outside the classroom that enhance the learning experience for our students. It is critical that we have not just adequate, but modern, facilities that provide the infrastructure to make this possible.” Of the $125 million campaign goal, $49.5 million has been earmarked for capital projects on the two campuses. The building projects included the renovation of Mellon Hall and the construction of two new dormitories in Annapolis; these have been funded and completed, thanks to gifts of $23.5 million from alumni, parents, friends, and foundations. In Santa Fe, campaign priorities include a new Graduate Institute building, a new residential center, a set of campus improvement projects, and renovations and an addition to Evans Science Laboratory. Fundraising for the Santa Fe projects is progressing nicely, says Mr. Peters. Last summer, Dr. Norman Levan (SFGI74), gave the college a $5 million gift for construction of a Graduate Institute center. An architect has been hired, and the college has engaged a local firm to help negotiate the complicated process of securing required permits from the city of Santa Fe. The building, to be situated between Weigle Hall and the Fine Arts Building, will offer graduate students “a welcoming place to congregate in the center of campus,” says Mr. Peters. The college’s capital campaign seeks to address priorities that will sustain the Program and student instructional material (manuals and workbooks); and ensure small class sizes and strengthen the college. Funding these priorities will require $125 million. To date, 1:8 tutor-to-student ratio. $107 million has been raised. FINANCIAL AID: $33 million for need-based aid. FACULTY AND ACADEMIC SUPPORT: $34 million to increase faculty salaries to the median of peer institutions; provide faculty development opportunities; develop Program-related Technology infrastructure; staff professional development and compensation. BUILDING PROJECTS ON THE STUDENT SERVICES: $3.5 million TWO CAMPUSES: $49.5 million for to improve services to students, fund internship opportunities, and provide grants so that elementary and secondary teachers can attend the Graduate Institute. building projects, including a Santa Fe dormitory, a Graduate Institute Center in Santa Fe (funded), and the addition to and renovation of Evans Science Laboratory. The renovation of Mellon Hall and the addition of two new dormitories in Annapolis are completed and fully funded. ST. JOHN’S IMPROVEMENT FUND: $5 million for library collections and laboratory equipment; improving Information { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �12 {Capital Campaign} “It is critical that we have not just adequate, but modern, facilities.” Michael Peters, Santa Fe President and with the launch of the Eastern Classics program in 1994, it was clear that the original footprint mapped out for the Santa Fe campus was inadequate. “Having a structure dedicated to the Graduate Institute programs on campus physically demonstrates the importance and centrality of these programs,” says Mr. Peters. The new center, Levan Hall, will hold classrooms, offices, and common rooms for graduate students. The building is being designed so that in the future, it will be possible to add an auditorium that can accommodate the entire campus community. The Evans Science Laboratory renovation and addition is the most pressing unfunded capital need for the campus, says Mr. Peters. The current Ronald Fielding (A70) has pledged $2.5 million in a labs are 30 years old, and there challenge grant for Santa Fe’s new residence hall. are not enough of them to An Evolving Campus accommodate the number of The bold move to establish a second campus of St. John’s laboratory classes that need to be scheduled. Expansion of College in 1964 presented challenges that the founders of the laboratory building calls for the addition of four new the Santa Fe campus could not have imagined. The state-of-the-art labs with adjoining prep areas and four program of instruction remained constant, but the seminar rooms. Renovations will include installation of demands of adapting to both the distinctive physical new multi-purpose workstations, safety equipment, surroundings and the needs of the growing student popuchemical storage facilities, and improvements and repairs lation have meant ongoing challenges. When, in 1967, the to the laboratory ventilation systems. Graduate Institute was established in Santa Fe, the size and scope of the college’s educational mission expanded, The Santa Fe Initiative, a group of smaller-scale campus improvement projects, has been completed. The purpose of the initiative was to make the kind of improvements that would affect the first impression appearance of the campus. The Campus Core Renovation project, for example, transformed the upper campus by replacing chipped and patched concrete with 105,000 bricks and renovating the koi pond. In addition, the college now has pledges in hand to build a new residence hall, allowing the campus to house 80 percent of its students on campus. Campaign Chairman Ronald Fielding (A70) has pledged $2.5 million toward the construction of the dormitories, and the college received pledges and gifts of $7 million from several other donors. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �{Capital Campaign} A Community of Learners At 30,000 square feet, and with 60 beds, the new residential complex in Santa Fe will allow the college to house about 80 percent of its undergraduate students on campus. The new project will provide a more affordable and convenient housing option for students and support the college’s student recruitment efforts while providing more opportunities for learning outside the classroom. As is the case in Annapolis, some students will still choose to live off campus, even with additional housing. For Will Hollingsworth (SF08), moving off campus for his sophomore and junior years had some advantages, such as the convenience of a kitchen. But it also removed him from the community in more than a physical way. “Moving off campus really severed my ties with a lot of friends—the dynamic shifts so much from year to year,” he says. Because she found herself in a double room in a “gregarious dorm” for her first year, Betsy Hardin (SF08) sometimes found it hard to go about her work without 13 The Santa Fe Initiative, paid for in part by gifts to the capital campaign, included the transformation of the central campus area. Still to come: The Norman and Betty Levan Hall, a center for the Graduate Institute; major renovations in Evans Science Laboratory; and a new residence hall for Santa Fe. being distracted. On the other hand, being in a friendly environment eased the social pressure of making friends and adjusting to the campus and the Program. “I made great friends from that dorm,” she says. Living off campus during her sophomore year was more challenging than Hardin expected. But a Johnnie life doesn’t leave a lot of time for chores like grocery shopping. Ensconced in a suite on campus this past year, Hardin found a happy medium. She enjoyed the conveniences of the dorm without the distractions of a double, along with the conveniences of a kitchen. “I often make breakfast for myself and it’s a nice way to start the day,” she says. When the new dorm is open and ready for students, more Johnnies will find that balance of community and independence. x { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �14 {Capital Campaign} New Program, New Collection by Jennifer Sprague Meem Library Director “Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know men.” Confucian Analects, 20:3.iii W hen a pilot program of the Institute for the Study of Eastern Classics began in the fall of 1992, Meem Library accordingly started to develop a collection to support these studies. At that time the library had just a few copies of the primary texts. The librarians thus had the joy of building essentially a brand new collection. Thankfully, the Lounsbery Foundation and the Bradley Foundation provided generous grants to fund the institute that also provided for enhancing the library’s collection. The tutors involved with the pilot program gave Inga Waite, then library director, lists of book recommendations, and the library staff went to work ordering and processing the texts. The initial inventory of texts included just one copy each of 130 recommended readings. In 1994, the college enrolled its first students in the Eastern Classics master’s program. The library now needed to support a new curriculum—without an adequate budget increase. Book donations and gifts made the growth of the collection possible. In 1998 the William H. & Mattie Wattis Harris Foundation gave the college a $10,000 grant for Eastern Classics acquisitions, allowing the college to purchase multiple copies of program readings and alleviating some financial burden for students. The library also acquired translation tools such as grammars and dictionaries as well as significant secondary materials. The library continues to depend on gifts to fund Eastern Classics collection development. The Harris Foundation gave the library two more grants in 2004 and 2006. Eastern Classics alumni have been generous donors, too. Recently, one alumnus who wishes to remain anonymous gave the library a gift of $20,000. A tutor committee identified authors and texts to focus development efforts on, including Chuang Tzu, Confucius, Dogen, Nagarjuna, Shankara, Sima Qian, The Mahabharata, The Pali Sutras, The Tale of Genji, and the Upanishads. The goal is to create a broad, more comprehensive collection to support the study of these primary readings. Increasing the depth of the collection will provide tutors with resources for their own inquiry, says Graduate Institute Director Krishnan Venkatesh. “The library collection is essential for faculty development,” he says. Having effective language learning tools is important as well because both students and tutors depend on library resources to enhance their study of either Sanskrit or classical Chinese. The language requirement for the Eastern Classics degree sets St. John’s apart from other Eastern studies programs, and Meem Library has specialized tools such as the Sanskrit Atlas, Ralph Swentzell’s classical Chinese program, and other language software. In addition to focusing on program-related materials, Meem Library plans to supplement its book collection with movies and music that can offer a historical setting to the readings. Mr. Venkatesh suggests that such materials “can provide a cultural context for places that can be quite foreign for some of our students.” These resources will likewise serve as another avenue for introducing the Eastern Classics program to undergraduates and Santa Fe residents who use the library. As Meem Library expands its collection, it continues to face the challenge of maintaining the physical condition of its print materials. Most of the books that come from India have poor bindings and acidic paper. The library often sends these books to a professional bindery to be rebound. Many classic Indian texts are now available in beautiful editions as part of the Clay Sanskrit Library, a bilingual series co-published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation. Another challenge in maintaining the collection is the regular wear on books in circulation, requiring the frequent purchase of replacement copies. Collection development is truly a dynamic process, and the library is deeply grateful for those donors who have supported this ongoing endeavor. x { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } The Meem Library’s collection expanded with the launch of the Eastern Classics master’s program in 1994. �{Capital Campaign} 15 Great Books, Rare Books by Andrea Lamb Greenfield Library Director A victoria smith reputable Dragon in St.Paul’s Church-yard. academic library, Its publication history reveals regardless of its that there are three Leviathan editions bearing this same size or age, must imprint. These editions are convey upon generally known as the “head,” scrutiny an “bear,” and “ornament,” named informed and knowledgeable for the ornaments that appear on oversight of its collection. The the title pages. The “head” is the legacy of the college librarians on first edition, and this is our copy. the Annapolis campus reveal an Our copy of the Leviathan is informed, thoughtful pattern of extremely valuable from a decisions over time that have printing history perspective; it is shaped the collection of today’s also in disrepair. Its ailments Greenfield Library. include a previously leather The selection, care, and reback of only modest quality, preservation of a unique pervasive red rot, and damage collection depends on adequate from rodents. The frontispiece is funding and a sustainable, detached, along with several long-range acquisitions budget. leaves. The paper is soiled. It is Every year 75 to 150 titles are lost an excellent candidate for or damaged irreparably. Book restoration by a professional replacement costs are absorbed conservator. into a general books budget, and Acquiring such funds for this most years we exhaust the book, and for the 100 or so library’s funds in acquiring notable other titles in our rare multiple copies for replacements. book collection is a worthy goal Our paper-based periodicals for additional library funds. increase in price 7 to 20 percent The restoration of these titles, every year. Yet our needs extend estimated at up to $10,000 per beyond the quid pro quo replacement of books that circulate, or book, should be a priority for the the acquisition of the periodicals library over the next decade. that our community loves to read A 17th-century copy of LEVIATHAN is among the Greenfield These rare books are directly library’s treasures. in the library’s hidden nooks. related to the circulating collecThe age of the Annapolis tion in that they represent the campus’ collection mandates that we acquire conservation funds first appearance of a Program work, the first in the line of for the rarer books that represent a real treasure for our campus continuity. The Leviathan’s imprint history includes the modern editions by Oakeshott, Lindsay, Waller, and Curley. and our college. We need to turn our attention to the urgent care We have these editions in our circulating collection. and feeding of the older collection. Another book that is a prime candidate for conservation The library’s primary collection remains, of course, the treatment is an incubula title of St. Augustine, a 1486 Venice Program title works. We also acquire other works written by imprint of De Civitate Dei. Only three other identical works are Program authors. We carefully select the original texts of contemporary authors of the canon authors. This historical known to exist in the world. continuity in our collection development contributes to the At St. John’s College, “the books are the teachers,” and the intrinsic value of our collection overall and defines the unique heart of the Greenfield Library’s collection will always be the character of the library. Another of our legacies is a small but circulating collection. Books are the constant companions of impressive collection of rare books, many of which have direct our students and tutors, the friends of all friends. We who ties to Program readings. advocate for the library appreciate the continuing and valuable For example, we are fortunate to have in our rare books investment that alumni and friends of the college continue to collection a first edition of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, printed make to the Greenfield Library. x in 1651 in London by the Printer for Andrew Crooke at the Green { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �16 {The Program} “SING, GODDESS” Music and the Program by Rosemary Harty s they have for many years on the Annapolis campus, the freshman class gathered in the Great Hall for its spring choral performance. The last notes of Sicut locutus est from Bach’s Magnificat hung in the air as the upperclassmen and tutors in the balcony sounded their approval. This year’s performance—by an unusually large freshman class crowded into the hall—was outstanding, many told tutor Peter Kalkavage as he gathered up his scores. “They were very good, weren’t they?” he agreed. J.P. Snyder (A10), who doesn’t enjoy singing, was just relieved it was over. “I’m very flat, I’m just good at hiding it,” he confessed. Freshman chorus and sophomore music are parts of the Program he’ll have to endure; laboratory and math have his passion. “Honestly? If I could avoid music, I would,” he confesses. Music wasn’t part of Barr and Buchanan’s original plan when they came to St. John’s in 1937; it first appeared in the 1949-50 academic year. Dynamic personalities such as Victor Zuckerkandl and tutor Douglas Allanbrook shaped the development of music in the early years in Annapolis, and the college’s approach to music has been fine-tuned many times on both campuses. Music is an integral part of the Program, an essential liberal art, says Santa Fe Dean Victoria Mora. “Music is part of our humanity,” she says. “Our reason and our passions come together in the study of music. Fundamental questions about A this relationship between reason and the passions arise and are addressed.” Both campuses are focusing their efforts on the music program this coming year. In the fall, Santa Fe will make changes in its approach to teaching music in freshman year. This summer, Santa Fe faculty will meet in a study group to refine and develop materials for sophomore music, with a goal of making them more broadly accessible and less reliant on individuals’ expertise. “I don’t think there is a big debate here in Santa Fe about trying to get more tutors to teach the music program,” says tutor John Cornell. “Our purpose is going to be to improve the access even further.” In Annapolis, where there are no changes planned to freshman chorus, faculty will meet in a study group designed to better prepare tutors for teaching sophomore music for the first time. Proposed by Dean Michael Dink (A75) to address his concern that more faculty need to be involved in sophomore music, the study groups will be paired with released time to allow faculty to audit the second half of sophomore music. Plans call for an inter-campus exchange of faculty to learn from the innovations in place on each campus, and the college’s joint Instruction Committee will review the results. A New Approach in Santa Fe Cornell and tutor Ned Walpin in Santa Fe will lead the campus’ revamped freshman music program, carrying out an idea developed by Peter Pesic, tutor and musician-in-residence. “We were at an impasse over what to do,” says Santa Fe tutor John Cornell { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �17 {The Program} “Other tutors have said that chorus is often the place where the freshman class becomes a class.” peter howard Tom May, tutor says. “We could see our management of 110 freshman in chorus was not worthy of St. John’s students. Peter had the brainstorm. It’s somewhat daring, but at the same time, it’s totally in keeping with the St. John’s program of instruction: to sit at that common table.” Freshman music (its provisional name) will depart from the exclusively choral approach and will be organized as tutorials focusing on Gregorian chant and ancient music theory. The material in the first five weeks of sophomore music will move into the freshman year, but students will still sing, and often in combined groups. “Those five weeks are focused on the Gregorian chant, and a significant portion of the time is spent singing,” says Walpin. “We’ll have about six sections of freshman music and each tutorial will meet as the same time as another, so that there will be two tutorials meeting at the same time. Those tutorials will get together regularly to sing so that at least 30 people will be singing together at all times. Then, there will be all-college events where all freshmen will get together to sing as a whole chorus, and they will be singing the pieces that they have been studying and singing in their tutorials.” Music is included on the St. John’s Program because the ancients accorded music a place among the liberal arts; they understood it as one of the essential functions of the mind, associated with the power to grasp number and measure. Walpin expects that the tutorial approach will give students the fundamentals they need to get more out of singing, paving the way for an even more productive sophomore music tutorial. “With this new structure, we are giving them reasons to sing because they’ve been learning how to interpret a melody, what makes a piece have a beginning, middle, and end. When they understand what they’re hearing, the singing will become crucially fulfilling for them.” A required freshman chorus, Pesic believes, is antithetical to the ideals of the Program. “Students come to St. John’s to talk to each other,” he says. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } continued on p. 19 �18 {The Program} On the Double Origin of the Music Tutorial By Elliott Zuckerman (HA95) tutor emeritus T he three musical works that have been perennial in our seminar list are a passion, an opera, and a music-drama. They are all settings of narratives that can sustain a discussion apart from the music. But in the late 1950s the seminar list included quite a few works of music that were wordless, such as the Goldberg Variations, the Rite of Spring, and (along with the Ninth, that does blossom into verse) the Fifth and Eighth Symphonies of Beethoven. These works of socalled “pure” music were among the losses when (in the early ’60s) the list was decimated in order to make room for the preceptorials. As with some of the scientific readings, and the plays of Molière and Racine, we had the excuse that the works were already being discussed at length in the tutorials. But the lost music seminars were scarcely regretted, for it was widely thought that it required a particular talent to lead a seminar on a musical work that had no plot or poem to fall back on. Yet Victor Zuckerkandl, who designed the music tutorial, said to me more than once that if we eliminated the music seminars from the program, the music tutorial should go, too. It was well known that Zuckerkandl himself could get any group of people to talk about music, as well as about almost anything else. But I gathered that for him the chief aim of the tutorial was to provide the students with the wherewithal for talking about music in the seminar, even when they didn’t have an inspiring conductor. Zuckerkandl’s successor as leader of the music tutorial was Douglas Allanbrook, who disliked music seminars, and did nothing to defend them. At the same time, despite his fondness for Zuckerkandl and their friendship, he had an aversion to Zuckerkandl’s view of music, which Allanbrook characterized as Ton-Wille—the tones somehow had a will of their own–and attributed it to windy philosophical music-lovers such as Schopenhauer. Zuckerkandl’s notion of music as a message from another world was as remote as possible from Allanbrook’s down-to-earth New England view that composers put tones together to delight us, and possibly move us, with imitations of our own motions. The music tutorial had to be justified as worth doing apart from music seminars. From the beginning, the most venerable justification lay easily at hand. Music, after all, had been part of the traditional liberal arts, and the music tutorial rounded out our study of the quadrivium. As in the laboratory and the mathematics tutorial (and, less systematically, in the language tutorial) we are invited to learn and think about the elements of a subject. The compounding of intervals gives us an audible example of the compounding of ratios in Book Five of Euclid. And there is a unique correspondence between the two-to-one ratio of pitches in the physical world, and the universal human response to that simplicity when we recognize the sameness as an octave. Annapolis photographer Dimitri Fotos captures this portrait of Elliot Zuckerman (HA95) for Fotos’ “Facing the Music” series. It is worth studying the first chapter of Zuckerkandl’s textbook—let alone his remarkable theoretical works—with a view to how little he accounts for the power of music by adducing the arithmetic correspondences that elated the Pythagoreans. I think I can safely assert that for him the Miracle of the Octave is something other than our response to the simple ratio. We are fortunate to have a music tutorial with this double origin. We ought to become more aware of what it means to hold the Grand View or the Practical View, and embrace the argument between them as our domestic dialectic. x { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �{The Program} “You were either daring enough to jump into music or your weren’t.” 19 However, the music tutorial needs true amateurs, Pastille says. “When I’m teaching He believes the changes help make music a something I’m not an expert in—say freshman more integral part of freshman year. “This will lab–I can enter into class discussions on a level happen just when students are discovering much closer to the students. It’s almost imposPeter Kalkavage, Tutor ancient mathematics and ancient philosophy, sible for me to do that in music,” he says. which I think is ideal in that way,” he says. “It “When you’re too inclined to see things that the also allows the students to learn the elements of students probably can’t see, you can let a lot of music as they’re discussing what the elements really mean, as fundamental questions go unasked.” they do with Euclid and everything else.” Beginning this summer, Annapolis will have in place a system Mora likes Pesic’s approach and suggests that it more fully for bringing more faculty into the tutorial. Seven tutors have integrate music into the rest of the Program, particularly in signed up for an eight-week study group to be led by tutor Peter freshman year. “Just as students come to understand the Kalkavage. In each of the 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years, elements of mathematics by discussing them as well as by two tutors who have participated in the study group and who are demonstrating them on the board, so too will they learn the teaching the tutorial in the first semester will gain a station of elements of music by discussing them as well as practicing them released time in the second semester in order to audit another by singing,” she says. music tutorial. “The college hasn’t had something like this in place before,” he says. “You were either daring enough to A Study Group for Sophomore Music jump in to music, or you weren’t,” he says, acknowledging that While Annapolis plans to continue freshman chorus as it is, this “it can be scary. If you haven’t had music training or you feel you summer it will take the first step toward making more tutors don’t have a taste for it, it can look like the most difficult part of comfortable leading sophomore music. Dink understands why the Program.” some tutors on his campus are intimidated. In his 26 years at Chorus Goes On St. John’s, he has yet to lead sophomore music, although he audited it during one of his sabbaticals. As do many tutors, Dink Freshman chorus will continue as before in Annapolis; indeed, worries his lack of musical training will hamper his effectiveness Tom May can’t imagine the college without the freshman in class. “I may be at the extreme end of the spectrum in terms chorus. “I find it absolutely exhilarating,” he says. May has of lack of preparation, but there are people who have played spent much of his life immersed in music; as a seminarian, he an instrument who still feel sophomore music would be a chalwas a choir director, and he later found a job singing sacred lenge,” he says. music in an Episcopal church. He has always been impressed by Throughout the years in Annapolis, musical tutors have the place music held in the Program, and he believes that it is applied their expertise to reshaping sophomore music to make especially important now, at a time when public and private it more accessible for their nonmusical colleagues. When Bill schools invest fewer resources in music. Pastille came to St. John’s in 1986 (with a PhD in music from Preparing students with different backgrounds to tackle Cornell), only about a dozen tutors were willing to teach music. sophomore music together remains the prime focus of freshman When he revamped the curriculum in Annapolis in 1989, music. Some students are experienced musicians; others can’t Pastille built the tutorial around Zuckerkandl’s The Sense of read a note of music when they come to St. John’s. “How are Music and created a supplementary series of tapes for tutors and people with that wide a range going to be able to talk to each students. “We made the tutorial more accessible, and we did other? We have students who’ve had a great deal of technical manage to sign up a whole bunch of new people,” he says. training but they’ve never sung. Freshman chorus performs a That curriculum lasted a decade in Annapolis, before it was similar role in the music program to that of the practica in changed again. Today, in addition to Zuckerkandl’s text, the the laboratory program, in giving a class a common experience campus uses a manual called “Materials for Sophomore Music,” of the phenomena—it’s for this reason as much as any other that an ordered sequence of readings and musical examples. I believechorus is such a vital part of the way we learn here,” Although it was designed to make the tutorial more accessible to May says. more tutors, many are still reluctant to volunteer. continued { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �20 {The Program} A Dialogue between Ancients and Moderns by Peter Pesic A of beauty and cosmic order. Only a mong the diverse few fragments remain of ancient projects underGreek music, but Gregorian chant taken at St. John’s represents this first practice. College, none is Chant is essentially monophonic, more remarkable a single beautiful melodic line than our music that generally does not aim for program. Beside music conservaemotional expressivity. For tories, I know very few other example, the same chant melody colleges where all students study could be used to set “sad” as well music. Moreover, our study of as “happy” texts. music is unique in its approach Our sophomores begin with a and scope, not simply “music month of singing various chants appreciation,” music history, or and reading Boethius (who transtheory. I would like to describe mitted ancient musical theory how this approach has developed to the West), each student here in Santa Fe, where I have composing a chant to a given text, had the privilege of being which the class then sings and involved with this program over discusses. Beginning with a kind the past 25 years. of music unfamiliar to almost Before then, our music everyone (whether musically program had been led by such trained or not) allows fresh considdistinguished and talented tutors eration of the elements of music. as the late Michael Ossorgin and We then consider the momentous Sam Brown, accomplished and mysterious transition to musicians who emphasized polyphony, the interweaving of certain masterworks that remain several independent voices so fixtures of our music tutorials: characteristic of Western musical Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, art, so strikingly absent from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde—that Music is an integral part of the “great adventure” that ancient practice (or from world unique trilogy about passion. music in general). This leads to a is St. John’s, says Tutor Peter Pesic. About 1980, Dean Robert Bart month devoted to the polyphonic asked Ralph Swentzell to rethink art as developed by such masters as the music tutorial so that it would Palestrina and taught by Fux’s be more open to tutors who did not feel they had a specialized celebrated dialogue Gradus ad Parnassum, which taught Bach, background in music. In his unforgettable way, Ralph took Mozart, and Beethoven the art of counterpoint and whose this project to heart and produced an amazing historical exercises we also do. Our touchstone is Palestrina’s motet “Sicut compendium of music and theoretical writings, the basis of the cervus,” a theme-song on both campuses, its haunting beauty a program we still do in Santa Fe, which remains indebted to fitting epitome of music’s first practice. Ralph’s foundational vision, even as it has been shaped and The crucial transition between ancient and modern music refined by many colleagues since then. may have begun even before the parallel, momentous In my view, the heart of our music program is a dialogue transitions in mathematics, philosophy, and natural science that between ancients and moderns. For music is not simply the we study in other parts of our Program. Their seminal works expressive art it became over the past centuries, but needs date from around 1600; our music tutorials treat Claudio to be understood in reference to two parallel traditions, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (1607) as the pivotal work. In it, La both extending back to antiquity. For clarity, let me use the Musica herself steps forward and announces that she can terminology introduced by a crucial figure in the story, inflame the iciest heart, “now with noble anger, now with love.” Vincenzo Galilei, Galileo’s father, who distinguished two Monteverdi here puts into action the aspirations of Vincenzo “practices” in ancient and modern music. His “first practice” Galilei and others who wanted to revive the Greek drama and its (prima prattica) is exemplified by the ancient “music of the incomparable emotional power, which they thought the first spheres,” which is essentially passionless and eternal, a paragon practice had wrongly ignored. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �{The Program} 21 “Our reason and our passions come together in the study of music.” There’s another benefit as well, one important being in the presence of music in a way that is to the shaping of community. “It’s amazing that ultimately unforgettable. At the end, they know we ask all of our students to sing together,” he if it’s going to work, we have to work hard—and says. “Other tutors have said that chorus is often they do, year after year.” the place where the freshman class becomes a Kalkavage, who has shared chorus duties with class.” During spring performances of the May for many years, believes freshman chorus is Victoria Mora, Santa Fe Dean chorus, upperclassmen on the balcony will often not only a tradition in Annapolis, but an excellent chime in on some of the songs. During the Senior way to introduce students to “making music.” Dinner each spring, students join their tutors in singing Certainly some students never take to music, yet he observed favorite selections from freshman chorus, and alumni at that year after year, many Johnnies develop confidence in their Homecoming speak fondly of their freshman chorus memories, singing and discover a great love for great music. “It’s a thrill to he says. get students together and watch them discover their musicality,” Students of lesser ability would be unlikely to have this expehe says. x rience to stretch themselves, he says. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” says May. “Students get a sense of Their “second practice” (secunda prattica) was explicitly designed to seize power over human passions, as La Musica had proclaimed, as Orfeo fatefully enacts. This new Orpheus is the master of a reborn art—opera— that can move mute stones and even infernal powers, but in the end Orfeo is mastered by his own passions, loosing Eurydice to a second death after having won her back from her first. Thus Monteverdi, crafting the first masterwork of the second practice, also foresaw its tragic dilemma, incarnate in Orfeo himself; near the same time, Francis Bacon’s mythical retellings also foresaw the powers and tragic possibilities of the new science he envisioned. Thus emerged a deep dialogue between beauty (the ideal of the first practice) and power (the goal of the second), a dialogue that continues to this day and had in fact already begun in ancient times, for Plato described both the music of the spheres and earthly modes capable of ruining the soul through sensuous indulgence or firing it to courage. Our music tutorials explore the harmonic art that Monteverdi pioneered, an art that went on to empower the great masterworks of Bach, Mozart, and Wagner mentioned above. For them, the controlled use of ever-stronger and more unstable dissonances is crucial, reminding us of the transition from the fixed Aristotelian earth to the mysteriously movable condition of Newtonian planets or from unalterable chemical elements to radioactive instability. As we explore these works of musical and scientific imagination, we draw close to the sources of their immense powers and also confront the attendant questions those powers imply. In the story of Orpheus, the project of power reacts on itself; our music program concludes by considering modern masterworks that turn from ever-intensified expressivity to reconsider the first practice and its austere ecstasies, works by Debussy, Stravinsky, Webern, Messiaen, Arvo Pärt. Thus the opening question posed by the two practices—by beauty and power—resounds from past to future. Throughout, we aspire to a complete musical experience, encompassing listening, singing, reading, discussing, composing, analyzing, playing. Next year, we will experiment in Santa Fe with a new format for freshman music as normal tutorials, rather than a single large chorus, so as to encourage the discussions that are the lifeblood of St. John’s classes. As with so much of St. John’s Program, our study of music is rightly a work in progress, always trying to improve, grow, and deepen. This great adventure, artistic and philosophical, has opened new vistas for me, in my own education, as I hope it will continue to do for many others, now and in the future. x “Throughout, we aspire to a complete musical experience, encompassing listening, singing, reading, discussing, composing, analyzing, playing.” { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �22 {Pop Culture} POP JOHNNIES In the examined life, is there room for Shakespeare and Shakira? by Emily DeBusk (A06) op culture is easy, fun, prevalent, comforting, and of-the-moment. The great books are dense, rigorous, distant, provocative, and old. Can they coexist without mocking each other? The question has implications beyond the movies Johnnies choose to see or music they download to their iPods. It touches on some deeply felt beliefs about a St. John’s education and Johnnies in the wider world. Is it odd to finish up a seminar reading on, say, the gospel of John, and then settle down for a good listen to the new wave of Swedish death metal? Is it snobbish to think one shouldn’t spend time on fleeting fads with so much rich material in the canon? Consider the (apparent) tension between pop culture and the St. John’s culture. In one corner, there is a peculiar St. John’s culture where, according to the college’s creeds, dialogue is king. The campus is characterized by the reading of great books, earnest conversations, tweedy traditions involving waltzing and pipesmoking, and all-around bookishness. In the other corner, there is pop culture. A broad definition begins with media—music, TV shows, movies, and the pervasive buzz that the Internet and advertising emit—and its fundamental connection with certain key ingredients: mass appeal, commercialism, consumerism, and transience. In short, the St. John’s culture is anchored where pop floats; limited, where pop is universal; and for the inner, where pop concerns itself with the outward. Nothing about what is done at St. John’s is “quick!,” “e-z!,” or “for a limited time only!” Pop culture is entertainment, not education. So why make the comparison? In 1937 Scott Buchanan, the first dean of St. John’s under the new Program, wrote in the Bulletin of St. John’s College: “Ultimately the ends of liberal education are the intellectual P virtues, the development of the capacities from which they come, and the integration of the characters to which they contribute.” That is, the intellectual virtues should not be left at the door as students exit the classroom. Stringfellow Barr (who published a novel and a cookbook along with academic works) said that while immersion in the Program will foster a taste for higher things, the St. John’s alumnus can still find riches in the culture of his times: “From his constant association with the first-rate, he will have acquired a distaste for the second-rate, the intellectually cheap and tawdry; but he will have learned to discover meaning in things that most people write off as vulgar,” he wrote in a 1939 report. The St. John’s education seems to have the power to elevate higher pursuits over popular ones, but should it? Three Views As pop culture and the St. John’s culture contend for attention, some tension arises. In a college-wide survey asking current students for their opinion about the relationship of pop culture and the St. John’s culture, at least three differing viewpoints surfaced. Many students saw no connection at all between what they do as students and what they do as pop culture consumers. These students turn to pop simply for relaxation and entertainment. “Pop culture functions like Reality,” says Kayla Gamin (A08). “It provides emotional release, social lubrication, and a way to group people into social sets distinguished by their tastes in music and entertainment.” There are many college-wide symptoms of pop culture, such as film clubs, video games, and dance parties. The relatively few TVs on campus (rapidly becoming obsolete thanks to laptops with streaming video and DVD players) have some faithful watchers. One group of students gathered every Tuesday night to follow the sensational life of the misanthropic House of the { T h e C o l l e g e • John’s College • Spring 2007 } �{Pop Culture} “Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist’s metaphysical value judgments. An artist recreates those aspects of reality which represent his fundamental view of man’s nature.” raphael’s SCHOOL OF ATHENS digitally adapted by lord thomas burbridge Marcel Proust “I want to be an artist that everyone can relate to, that’s young, happy and fun.” Britney Spears, singer { T h e C o l l e g e • John’s College • Spring 2007 } 23 �24 {Pop Culture} “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” Albert Einstein “For me, just being on the cover of a magazine wasn’t enough. I began to think, what value is there in doing something in which you have no creative input?” Elle Macpherson, model eponymous Fox TV show. (Again, the intertwining of pop and the Program was startling; one Johnnie read his lab manual during commercial breaks.) Pop culture is also used as a source of information about what’s going “out there.” Cloistered by size, geography (Santa Fe), and a relatively closed curriculum, St. John’s can seem to be a world of its own, and it is a constant struggle to be engaged in the present as well as the past. “The world is so large,” says Annapolis tutor Eva Brann, an unapologetic fan of monster truck rallies, Louis L’Amour novels and Law and Order. “I don’t want to be totally out of it. Whatever it is they like, I want to know about it. Our students don’t want to cut themselves off.” Another group of students views pop culture as a distraction. “I think the most disturbing part of [pop culture] is how reason just isn’t there,” says Liz Curry (A07). “There are things about it that should bother us. Everything is so emotionally driven, and it’s the very excess of emotion that is praised. I don’t think it should be studied, but engaged. We won’t always be reading and talking about these books, so there’s got to be a way for the things we do here to resonate with people in general. I think Johnnies in particular have the power to give another perspective from pop culture that’s not necessarily elitist or bookish. There’s a way that these books live for us as much as pop culture lives for others.” Tristan Chambers (SF08) goes beyond wariness to outright disdain. He sees a connection between the nature of pop culture and the rhetorician Socrates warns about in his dialogues. “Most of pop media is morally debasing and it obfuscates the truth on all levels,” Chambers says. “I feel like pop culture panders to our vices as Socrates says the rhetorician panders to our vices and more animalistic urges. Pop media wants your attention, and its main means is to appeal to basic urges, which are harder to endure or manage. I think it’s bad for our souls. These media generators are unconcerned with what’s true or false, but are more interested in manipulating for effect. Pop reflects that rhetorical attitude in its sound bytes, one-sided stories, and advertising.” Still others are simply not attracted to pop. This group chooses instead to be entertained and inspired by media that is too eclectic, old-fashioned, or avant-garde to rightly be called pop. Zack Hay (A08), for example, listens to records of Moondog, a blind musician who busked on the streets of New York City and made his own instruments—a far cry from Billboard’s Top 100. “I’ve just always had an inclination to look for things in obscurity, not things that are readily available,” Hay explains, “because there is a tendency, I think, in all cultures, to overlook a lot of things, which do not deserve to be—if something is just a little bit weird, it just gets thrown by the wayside. I always take delight in knowing that there’s always a little pocket of these alternatively-minded people scattered about the world, now, and historically.” Fleeting Fads vs. Great Works In trying to pinpoint the tension between pop culture and the St. John’s culture, it is tempting to think it is simply a matter of aesthetic quality. Just compare the newest American Idol’s hit single to Mozart and voila! the one withers in the shadow of the other. The music and literature of the Program is mainly “high” culture (Mozart, Milton) with a bit of counter culture (Marx, Baudelaire), and nothing that could be classified as modern pop. Yet it is too simplistic to take the omission as an a priori condemnation by St. John’s of pop culture. “There are obvious quality distinctions between the best and the worst forms of hip-hop, and this is true of classical music as well,” says Santa Fe tutor David Carl, who is routinely described as a “cool” tutor by students. “The best hip hop is better than the worst classical music, so aesthetic value cannot be determined simply based on what part of culture (popular or ‘high’) something participates in.” Hollywood produces a few good films each year, the recording industry manages to produce work by good artists, and some television shows “are not simply a waste of time,” says Carl. “How to distinguish between what I would call ‘good’ and ‘bad’ culture (pop or otherwise) is the challenge,” he maintains. Annapolis tutor Mera Flaumenhaft posits that the real danger of pop culture in the St. John’s community is more of a how than a what. “Everything goes so fast, everything is loud, and many things happen at once,” she says. “One of the best things we do at St. John’s is develop the habit of slowing down. This is a place where people look carefully at something: a tree, a sentence, a math demonstration, a difficult argument. We look for a long time and with other people. We ask questions, converse, and look again. This way of life makes our encounters with everything, including popular culture, more thoughtful and more interesting.” Brann submits that these habits are the means to meet the challenge Carl speaks of: “Going through the Program is the shaping of taste,” she says. “If you have thought about really good works, it gives you the tools to think about the difference about the { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �{Pop Culture} 25 “At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.” Plato “We all feel love, and that might sound kind of corny, but I really feel that’s what joins musicians together around the world.” Enrique Iglesias, singer faith—that Johnnies bring to the seminar table. Carl points out that Shakespeare and Aristophanes might be considered the pop Pop and the Johnnies culture of their day. Someday, Pervading the general attitudes of St. John’s students might be St. John’s students towards pop on reading the lyrics of 21st-century campus, there was a reluctance to pop songs or movie screenplays, treat pop culture as a single but by then these works will have whole, to be entirely accepted or outgrown the pop label. Could rejected. Perhaps this is because students in some future tutorial for those who tune into pop be examining the film Fight Club culture with their minds as well as for truths about the human their headphones (and some condition in the same way we now deliberately choose not to engage consider Fleurs de Mal? their minds) the movies, TV St. John’s treasures the old shows, and commercials born of because it endures, but it doesn’t pop are raw source of information reject all in current times. about the human condition. “Pop culture is something like Kim Paffenroth (A88), an the Blob in that old Steve associate professor of Religious McQueen movie,” observes Carl. Studies at Iona College, devotee “It consumes everything in its of heavy metal and classic TV path that it thinks it can get somescience fiction, and author of thing from, and this means that (most recently) Gospel of the a few truly good things (maybe Living Dead: George Romero’s even great things) will get Vision of Hell on Earth, has found consumed along with all the plenty of material in pop culture Elizabeth Burlington (A08) takes a break from Hobbes to worthless trash.” catch up on Slash. to engage him. “I think St. John’s The real struggle between pop teaches you to take ideas and texts culture and the St. John’s culture seriously, analyzing them with seems one of dominance; “The habits of curiosity and interrogation,” he says. “I apply that to St. John’s way” has ambitions to be an integral part of a Johnnie’s current pop culture. There is writing out there that tries to fit pop life. So does pop culture. The consumer is meant to buy what he into some post-modern analysis, but I try not to bring any theoretsees, think what she listens to, and not worry about time for ical baggage. I just give it a close reading. I don’t think all of pop dialogue or “unplugged” reflection. “Life is too short to listen to deserves this approach, but some does.” In Paffenroth’s opinion, bad music and read bad books and watch bad movies,” says Carl. to reject pop culture “guarantees that you are regarded as irrele“Pop culture offers to do all the choosing for us, but I think we are vant and disconnected from the larger world that we live in. [At better off getting out in the world and discovering for ourselves St. John’s] what one strives for is not so much to refine your taste, which music, books, television, and movies are worthy of our but to refine your analytical skills and to analyze what is valuable.” time.” This is where free people, living examined lives, politely In other words, within the morass of pop lie shreds of the very decline pop’s offer. x same kinds of questions—of philosophy, art, political science, emily debusk good and the bad. You ask yourself ‘What about this will pass away?’ What revives?’ ” { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �26 {Visual Think er s} VISUAL THINKERS uestioning is at the heart of discovery for these artists who move beyond words to shape clay, carve wood, and paint. Q Smart Hands In 2005, Betsy Williams (SF87) and her partner Mark Saxe, a stone sculptor, opened Rift Gallery in Rinconada, N.M. Functional pieces designed for daily use are the foundation of her work, complemented by objects for contemplation and display. When I graduated from St. John’s, truth be told, I had no idea what to do in this world for the next several years. Not that I wasn’t trying to figure it out. Circumstances eventually had me employed at a small Japanese regional bank with a branch in New York City, working as a trader on the money market. Then a co-worker invited me to an exhibit of 17th-century Korean ceramics at the Metropolitan Museum. Standing in front of a slightly asymmetrical celadon vase, I had what is perhaps best described simply as a profound moment, and my life took the direction that it has today. I scrimped and saved so that I could make a move to Japan and study pottery seriously. I wanted to learn about traditional methods, digging clay, making glazes from natural materials and firing with wood. In 1994, I did make that leap, and managed to find a teacher, Mr. Yutaka Ohashi, in Karatsu, Japan, with whom I apprenticed over the next four years. I learned through observation, imitation, and lots of repetition. In working at the wheel a surprising kind of knowledge was revealed to me gradually about just how smart my hands are. I made thousands and thousands of the same cylindrical cup, over and over, until after a couple of years I knew all about that cup, everything that could go wrong, every millimeter of the anatomy of that cup. With practice, one’s hands and eyes can detect differences of less than a millimeter without conscious discrimination. Awareness of this physical sensibility helps hold conscious discrimination and corporeal knowledge in balance, and I believe the act of creating as a whole can also be described as this kind of balancing on a larger scale. In 1999, I “graduated” from my apprenticeship, with the pronouncement, “Now you have the skills to teach yourself anything else that you may need to learn.” So I returned to New Mexico, bought land in a remote mountainous region about an { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �bob eckert {Visual Think er s} hour north of Santa Fe, built a house and studio, and then my own wood-fired kiln. I’ve been working away ever since, trying to bring my well-trained self and my creative self into a kind of balance, while making a living doing it. My work relies heavily, even now, on repetition, but in a new way: drawing on the visual impact that multiples carry. My wallhung cup grids, which range in size from three cups to 180 cups, emphasize sameness and difference of their components at once. The cup becomes visible in its relationship with others in a way that one cup alone cannot. Currently I am working on a grouping of 52 teapots, one for every week of the year, for a show entitled “Imagine” that will open at our gallery in May. (www.riftgallery.com) St. John’s continues to have a positive influence on my career. Over the past summer, St. John’s student Carolyn Lobeck (SF07) was an apprentice in my studio through the Ariel Internship Program. She was introduced to many of the basics that are essential to a career in clay, in accordance with what I learned during my own apprenticeship. This opportunity to pass on to another young woman some of what I have worked so hard to learn is really important to me. St. John’s also presents one of my handmade cups to each of the graduates of the Eastern Classics program every year. That the college recognizes the importance of the handmade object in today’s society, its importance as a symbol and as a way of life, is huge. At left, MATTER AND TIME, wall-mounted cubes. Above, Betsy Williams apprenticed in Japan for four years before opening her studio in New Mexico. At right, a 4-inch tea caddy. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } 27 �28 {Visual Think er s} Natural Proofs Karina Noel Hean (A00) is a painter and teaches drawing, painting, and design as visiting instructor of art at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows. In fall 2008, she will complete a twomonth artist fellowship at the Ballinglen Arts Center in Ballycastle, Ireland. Hean grew up near the Annapolis campus, where her mother, Miriam Callahan-Hean (AGI87), is graduate admissions officer for the college. I am a planner. From eighth grade on, I took art-making seriously. As much as public school and free time allowed, that is what I did, taking every art class I could at my public school, earning scholarships to classes at the local art center, and, though it clearly has not improved my social skills, I spent most of my teen and pre-teen years alone in my room painting or drawing. While I was very concerned about what would happen to my “art career” if I did not attend an art school, I knew that St. John’s would provide me with the intellectual exposure, critical thinking, and verbal skills I would need to be an artist who was not only technically proficient but thoughtful as well. When the conditions are right, I work 14-hour days in the studio. The rhythm of these days is paradise. The places my mind and hands may take me and the work fluctuate: unpre- { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �{Visual Think er s} “When the conditions are right, I work 14-hour days in the studio. The rhythm of these days is paradise.” Karina Noel Hean (A00) dictable, exciting, reassuringly familiar, ridiculous, calm, transcendent. For several years my work was concerned with communicating a sense of reverence for nature and understanding nature as a source of spirituality. My Pendular Motion Series monotypes and Emotional Proof Series explore the aesthetic and intellectual capacity of geometric and dynamics diagrams and theorems. Studying the history of Western mathematics and physical sciences at St. John’s exposed me to Euclid’s Elements and Huygens’ On the Motion of Bodies from Impact amongst other heavily diagrammed attempts to explain the nature of our world and how it functions. What initially strikes me about these proofs is the clear beauty of their lines and shapes. As a visual communicator, I am intrigued by the quantity and quality of information these images can convey. In addition to this is a skeptic’s pondering of the kind of knowing they claim to present. The Emotional Proof Series are improvisations that riff off of the Euclidian proofs that I studied at St. John’s. These proofs are logical and predictable. My version of the proofs is a humorous comment on the contemporary desire to categorize and comprehend human emotions. They ask questions such as: How far can we take the relationship between word and image? How much distance exists between these two supposedly distinct forms of communication? “Learn by doing and making mistakes” has become one of my pedagogical mottoes that stems from my own experience as an art student and artist. If you are not frustrated, you are probably not learning anything or challenging yourself. Karina Noel Hean is drawn to the beauty of mathematical proofs, as shown in these untitled works. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } 29 �30 {Visual Think er s} Daja Music Billy Lieb (class of 1945) attended film school at UCLA after his graduation from St. John’s. Following graduate school and teaching film making, Lieb worked in Los Angeles as a motion picture cameraman and film editor until his retirement in 1984, when he began his career as a sculptor. His artwork includes two different media: assemblage (making things out of found objects) and abstract wood sculpture. I have enjoyed collecting things since I was a kid. First it was postage stamps, then shells, rocks and minerals. As an adult I started to go to flea markets and swap meets where you could buy interesting things cheap. Gradually, I learned to put some of these things together to make constructions of assemblages. After I retired from the film industry in 1984, I moved to the Ocean Park district—right on the Santa Monica beach. That summer there were storms that brought piles of driftwood onto the beach. I soon discovered that some of it was very heavy and was carvable. A surfer classmate of mine (from grad- A surfer told Billy Lieb (class of 1945) where to find the manzanita burl—prized by sculptors—that washes up on Malibu beach. (UNTITLED) uate school, UCLA) suggested I drive 20 miles north to the Malibu beaches. He was right. For the next 10 years, my I started exhibiting at the factory and local galleries. Meanbest wood came from Malibu, mostly manzanita burls. while, Sony Music was building its West Coast headquarters on I had also started collecting art posers. I found out about the our block. When it was finished, the president of Sony Music Picture Framers Guild, which would help you learn how to invited our college, the Santa Monica College of Design, Art, frame art posters. The next year, I started The Magic Picture and Architecture, to decorate their new building. They wanted Gallery, my own framing operation in Malibu. us to submit art “with a musical theme.” As I started making Soon I started taking drawing and art history classes at Santa Silent Musical Instruments they finally accepted 14 of my assemMonica College. There I learned about a new art school being blages including The Daja Music Machine and The Daja Guitar. founded at Santa Monica College, using an empty furniture The word “Daja” became my brand name for my style of assemfactory for its classrooms. All of the faculty were professional blage, being a sum of “Dada” and “Jazz.” I have entered several artists, including Laddie Dill and George Herms, who became wood sculptures and assemblages in the alumni art show at my favorite teacher. St. John’s in Santa Fe. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �{Visual Think er s} 31 Playing in the Mud by Eleanor Peters ven as a small child I loved playing in the mud. My mother is an artist so there were always opportunities to try out new things at home. When Mike was in grad school in Seattle and our children were young there was a great recreation center program that included pottery classes—a place where adults were encouraged to play in the mud! Perfect. I was hooked in no time. Long before Santa Fe was in the picture for us, I discovered the work of legendary San Ildefonso potter Maria Martinez and was intrigued by her work. I haven’t adopted her Native American techniques but the respect and awe remain. I never dreamt that one day we would be practically in her neighborhood, surrounded by her legacy. Imagine my delight when we arrived at St. John’s to find a wonderful pottery right in the Fine Arts Building. Not only could one throw pots, but be variously serenaded by sophomore music, jazz groups, piano, bass, drums or horn playing. There is a very knowledgeable instructor in the person of local artist Sadiq Kahn. Our pottery assistant is Carolyn Lobeck (SF07), who spent last summer as apprentice to Betsy Williams. A small but dedicated group of students find their way to the studio. Some become regulars; others come for a season as their class schedules allow. Some bring considerable pottery experience, and some are beginners. All bring enthusiasm. What I really enjoy is that our intersection in the Pottery Studio gives me an opportunity to get to know students in a non-academic setting. But, being Johnnies, it also means there are conversations about what they’re E Eleanor Peters, wife of Santa Fe President Michael Peters, is a regular at the campus pottery studio. She entered these works in the Santa Fe Community Art Show. reading in seminar or the topic of their current paper, as well as how to throw a tall cylinder or make a plate. x In August 2006, I bought a home in a senior mobile home park in Poway, California. I did this to be near my daughter Joy and my two great grandsons Danny and Alex. When my dear friend Jonnie Zheutlin learned of my move, she sent me funds to build an art studio as part of my new home. Few artists are lucky enough to be able to open their front door and enter their art studio! x For color images of art by Betsy Dixon, Billy Lieb, and Karina Hean, visit the St. John’s Web site; click on Publications and on The College magazine. An avid collector, Billy Lieb sculpts driftwood and makes eclectic sculptures from items lost and found. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �32 { S t u d e n t Vo i c e s } I F J O H N N I E S RU L E D T H E WO R L D by Jennifer Wright (A08) chelsea stiegman W ith global events whirling around us, recently I have been putting thought into what the world would be like if run by Johnnies. Initially euphoria overwhelmed me. The notion of a place run by “philosopher kings” most obviously points toward The Republic. I can’t imagine we would strictly follow Plato’s notions if only because we might prove woefully disinclined toward the whole martial aspect of Socrates’ utopia. But we could surely expect a society in which everyone at least knew of Plato and, when one exclaims that she loves him in the course of conversation no one would reply, “Yeah, I loved Play-doh too, but I kind of grew out of it.” When I mentioned this notion of a world run by Johnnies to other students, almost everyone responded with wild enthusiasm. “Can you imagine?” asked one boy. “Everyone everywhere would be really well read. Also, undeniably sexy in that way that Johnnies are.” A freshman remarked, “Think about it— it would be amazing. We’d just go up to people in the streets, and instead of saying, ‘How are you?’ we’d say, ‘And how do you feel about the Cartesian Dichotomy?’ ” Then I queried one of my best friends who may have been feeling a tiny bit bitter about writing her sophomore enabling essay that day. “Well,” she said, “I think we’d still be sitting around in caves. I think that if someone tried to free us from the cave, we wouldn’t notice, let alone kill him, After three years’ acquaintance with Program authors, Jennifer Wright (A08) has a few ideas on how Johnnies would run things. because we’d end up debating the definition of light, and whether or not it was a form. Then we’d debate the definition of, say, the rocks in front of us. We’d make some tepid attempt to figure out whether or not rocks were edible, using research gleaned from Harvey, which { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } would be totally irrelevant. The rocks wouldn’t be edible, but we’d end up talking about what it means to be ‘edible.’ Eventually, we’d all starve to death.” She sighed, and resumed writing about Dante’s depiction of God’s divine love. �33 { S t u d e n t Vo i c e s } She may well have had a point. But then can it really be the case that Johnnies are as wholly impractical as the cloud-dwelling Laputans of Gulliver’s Travels? Would we be doomed to perish if left to our own erudite devices? We might not starve to death, but in a world governed by the ideals of the Program we might have to deal with some substandard food, if the case of Glaucon or Cato is anything to go by. Relishes, we remember, are for the epicurean and indulgent. So we are going to have to begin frequenting cafés that make their food entirely without relishes, which, as ketchup-wielding modern Americans, might prove pretty difficult. However, if we pay attention to the Program sophomore year, we will happily realize that wine will be everywhere. Wine abounds in Shakespeare, it abounds in The Canterbury Tales, and it abounds especially in the Bible. To the relief, I’m certain, of our Reality archons, at no point in the Program do we come upon characters who don’t love wine; even Socrates, our paragon of moderation, is particularly in his element at drinking parties. The abundance of alcohol in our brave new world may make us considerably less concerned—indeed indifferent to—the lack of relishes in our food. When Johnnies are in charge: The Johnnie Beauty Salon: No one who has ever seen a picture of Immanuel Kant can possibly think that beauticians would be frequently patronized by those who emulate the Program authors. Ultimately, beauticians will fade into obscurity, patronized only by those followers of Socrates who believe that beautiful people offer us insight into the good–and those people will mostly be regarded as drunken degenerates by anyone following the ideals of later Program authors. Hairdressers will become obsolete in favor of brain-dressers who will be capable of straightening the mess under the head of hair. They will be known (to those in the know) as ‘tutors.’ Of course, this may lead to a slightly less beautiful world. The Johnnie Department Store: Despite the proponents of Karl Marx standing outside the store and adamantly A nation comprised of very hungry alcoholics might not seem like the best setting for, well, anything, but it would have certain redeeming features. The food of love, at least, would abound with all its relishes intact. Music would be everywhere, provided that the philosopher kings in charge were not paying overly close attention to St. Augustine. If they were, music lacking polyphony would be ubiquitous (but surely Palestrina put an end to that argument). Of course, it might not be the music that the vast majority of the nation listens to. We would relish our Mozart, our Brahms, our Shostakovich but whenever “Louie, Louie” came on the radio people would (and I find this truly tragic, as I love “Louie, Louie”) sniff dismissively and remark upon the simplistic 1-3-5 pattern. “Surely,” people would exclaim, “this piece is lacking in the dynamic qualities Zuckerkandl describes in The Sense of Music!” Classical stations would quickly become the most popular in the nation, and listening to “Louie, Louie” would prove one to be a harmless but quirky eccentric. Other forms of entertainment would undergo drastic alterations as well. Reality shows and dating games would become passé in favor of PBS and the BBC, which would re-create our favorite literary pieces in loving, eight-hour miniseries. Buddy protesting that the items within it shouldn’t exist (and those reading Kant and Hume declaring that that’s fine, because they don’t) everything would probably function as usual until people realize that mathematics tutorials have left Johnnie cashiers with an inability to do simple mathematics. Instead, they will be left trying to explain to patrons— eagerly awaiting change from the $20 dollars they gave for a $3 dollar purchase—what the nature of infinity and the ultimate actually are. The Johnnie Music Store: These would be located in very close proximity to religious institutions, as sophomore year has taught us that the two are closely intertwined. Far from being a carefree environment, Johnnies would stand listening to bars of music playing over the intercom in such stores, and would nervously call out “1-3-5! 1-3-5!” Then they { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } comedies would feature a wily, irascible bloke named Socrates, and his timid pal Plato. Young women everywhere would stand in line for hours to see new interpretations of Jane Austen. (Johnnies must find it nice to note that many young women already do this, given the success of Pride and Prejudice, a selection featured proudly on the Program list, which is to say, we knew it was cool before the rest of America did.) And as for sports? People would sigh and dismiss the rare sorts who wanted to toss a football around, but in the croquet players would reside the hopes and dreams of a dapperly dressed, hat-wearing nation. For every Johnnie knows that nothing says “athletic prowess” and also “hand-eye coordination” like croquet. While I will save my notions on Johnnies in the boardroom and our diplomatic prowess, at least in the basics of life our rule will pursue the form of the good. We might wish that we did not have to spend another day eating Cato-approved portions of gruel. But then, we would realize that we could wear wonderful outfits and go to our local stadium or park to watch a rousing game of croquet, with Haydn blasting in our iPods. And whatever, the fact would remain that we would stay sexy in that undeniable way that Johnnies are sexy. x would engage in fervent discussion about whether or not they had gleaned greater insight into the nature of the divine. The Johnnie Grocery Store: The Johnnie grocery store would feature a fairly ordinary assortment of items save the fact that no apples would be sold, nor a variety of other “unclean” items. Johnnies, after all, have not spent an entire semester reading the Bible only to make the same mistake twice. The enormous supply of wines, however, would compensate for it. The Johnnie Bookstore: Bookstores would immediately establish themselves as the social hub of the Johnnie society. The philosophy section in each of them would expand magnificently, and trashy paperbacks would be relegated to back corners, near the restroom. In a tribute to great writers past, everything would be categorized by the Greek alphabet. x �34 Back to Basics A Summer Crash Course for Readers How to Read a Book Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, Simon and Schuster, 1940, revised 1976 How to Read a Page I. A. Richards, W. W. Norton, 1942 How to Read Two Books Erasmus G. Addlepate, Frederick Stokes Company, 1940 (out of print) by Emily DeBusk (A06) s long as St. John’s is in the business of asking gadfly-ish questions, here is one to ponder: do you know how to read? Paradoxically, you must read to learn how to read. It is no coincidence that the philosopher Mortimer Adler (HA86), a selfdescribed “educational evangelist” and co-author of How to Read a Book, was instrumental to the shaping of the Great Books movement in the late 1930s. An underlying premise of Adler’s book is A {Bibliofile} also the lifeblood of St. John’s; as Einstein put it, “Information is not knowledge.” Newspapers, encyclopedias, and textbooks, while valuable in a particular way, do not add up to the kind of knowledge valuable to a Johnnie. Nor will a single one of our great books magically radiate knowledge to the reader as soon as the first page is turned (with the possible exception of Lucretius). Ultimately, what is read is secondary to how it is read. For Adler and co-author Charles Van Doren (class of 1946), reading well is something of a superpower. “With nothing but the power of your own mind, you operate on the symbols before you in such a way that you gradually lift yourself from a state of understanding less to one of understanding more.” Skilled reading, the authors write, is our only defense against a pre-packaged opinion. How to Read a Book is an exhaustive presentation of the four levels of reading: elementary, inspectional, analytical, and syntopical. Elementary reading is what a kindergartener does, or a freshman just learning to piece together the Greek alphabet. Inspectional reading, or “timebound, systematic skimming,” is familiar to the student who procrastinates on a seminar reading and must try to piece it together in an impossible amount of time. (When not forced to take the place of analytical reading, inspectional reading is a valuable skill to have.) Analytical reading is the fount of a good seminar. This is reading for understanding, applied to material that is perhaps slightly out of the reader’s grasp so that it takes analysis, first to get through the book and secondly, to talk about it. Finally, syntopical reading is analytical reading of multiple books, synthesizing ideas from various sources, which ideally leads the reader to a unique idea from the many. “The art of reading, in short, includes all of the same skills that are involved in the art of unaided discovery: keenness of observation, readily available memory, range of imagination, and, of course, an intellect trained in analysis and reflection,” the authors write. What is at stake in the quality of your reading? If you are reading for more than just information, the authors posit that it is { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } What is at stake in the quality of your reading? If you are reading for more than just information, the authors posit that it is the life of your mind. the life of your mind. If you ask a challenging book a question, “it answers you only to the extent that you do the work of thinking and analysis yourself.” It is almost necessary to read How to Read a Book in order to read How to Read a Page: A Course in Efficient Reading with an Introduction to 100 Great Words, written by British literary critic and semanticist I.A. Richards in 1942. Like Adler and Van Doren, Richards offers his book as a remedy to poor reading, poor thinking, and the consequent downfall of civilization. “What is the point of toiling through thousands of pages, if the chief outcome is an accumulation of misunderstandings?” he asks. How to Read a Page delves deeply into the theory of language, uncovering the “systematic ambiguity �35 {Bibliofile} (or ‘resourcefulness’) of all our most important words” in order to read and think afresh. The book combines reading exercises with the gradual development of a doctrine of the fundamentals of reading. Nevertheless, Richards does not aim to strictly codify the art of reading. For Richards, as for Adler and Van Doren, reading is an almost sacred act of communion, not with authors, but with ideas. “There is no such thing as merely reading words; always through the words we are trafficking or trying to traffic with things—things gone by, present, to come, or eternal. So a person who sets up to teach reading should recognize that he may be more ambitious than he seems…” Once the reading of a page and a book have been mastered, we may now move on to Erasmus G. Addlepate’s tongue-incheek parody, How to Read Two Books, published in 1940. The book aims to show non-thinkers “how to become near-thinkers, part-time thinkers, and for those who wish to follow the Rules, how to become mental giants.” Although the author pokes fun at the idea of a “How To” book that aspires to true education (and although he would call I.A. Richards a practitioner of that “technique of thought What Tutors are Reading We asked tutors from Santa Fe and Annapolis what non-Program books they were making time for: a few novels, many nonfiction works, and a book about a teddy bear made the list. Basia Miller: “Céline’s Mort à Crédit is a long term project.” Also, W. Somerset Maugham’s The Painted Veil. “After seeing the movie version, I found the plot-lines simpler and more delicately woven [in the book].” Emily Langston: Obasan, by Joy Kogawa, about Japanese Canadians interned during WWII. Also, The Custom of the Country, by Edith Wharton. Jon Tuck: Plowing the Dark, by Richard Powers, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Pillar of Fire by Taylor Branch, The Last Samaurai by Helen DeWitt, and Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem. Henry Higuera: The Wild Ass’s Skin, by Honoré de Balzac and The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth. “As to why I read them: both were just to keep sane.” Sherry Martin: Winkie, by Clifford Chase, “in which Meletus testifies at a trial of a teddy bear. Yes, really. On a recent road trip, I listened to the new Le Carré novel, The Mission Song. I like to read novels during the holidays to decompress.” Joseph Macfarland (A87): Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World and The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe, both by Patrick J. Geary. Jacques Duvoisin: The Ancient City, by Fustel de Coulanges, “a classic study of the religious foundations of Ancient Greek and Roman cities. It is a real eyeopener. I heartily recommend it.” Susan Stickney: One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw, by Witold Rybczynski; The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan; and Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, by David Hockney. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } Greg Schneider: “Since I took a small group of Santa Fe campus folks on an alternative spring break experience in Haiti, I have been reading about the country. In particular, I recently read Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat, is a Haitian-American, and Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder, a nonfiction book about improving health care in Haiti.” David Starr: is doing some syntopical reading: Eusebius, The Ecclesiastical History; Margaret Barker, The Great High Priest; Robin Fox, Pagans and Christians; and Jean Danielou, The Christian Centuries, vol. I: The First Six Hundred Years. “I am reading most of them because I am interested in the question, why the early Christians were willing to risk their lives for their faith. This, of course, presupposes the question, what was their faith (or Gospel)? I do not think it is very well understood by most modern and post-modern scholars—Christian or not.” �36 {Croquet} H A P P Y B I RT H DAY, C RO Q U E T by Emily DeBusk (A06) N eed there be more reasons for merry-making on croquet day? In addition to the muchanticipated victory of the Johnnies over the Mids (5-0), the reunion of dear friends, delectable picnic spreads, flowing champagne, and springtime on the Annapolis campus, Johnnies had five more reasons to be of good cheer. The first is that it has been a quarter of a century since the fateful wager between St. John’s student Kevin Heyburn (A86) and a Naval Academy officer that sparked the good-natured rivalry. Both Heyburn and the first Imperial Wicket for St. John’s, John Ertle (A84) attended the 25th croquet match, along with Ertle’s wife, Kathy, who goes by “First Lady Wicket.” That first year, the Mids were clearly outmatched, Imperial Wicket Ertle recalls with pride. “I did a chop shot and the Mid turned to his buddy and said, ‘I think we’re in trouble.’” Ertle points to a snapshot of the 1982 mallet-wielding teams on the steps on Barr Buchanan, which is eerily similar to the present day, complete with boater hats and the trophy securely held in a Johnnie’s hands. Instead of trophies and mallets, this year Ertle and Heyburn held champagne flutes. The commemorative glasses were a gift to St. John’s alumni in honor of croquet’s 25th birthday. Old Roots, New Tree The Liberty Tree that once stood on the front campus of St. John’s was a piece of American history in our midst; each of the 13 colonies had a Liberty Tree, which patriots used as a meeting place as well as a symbol of their revolutionary ideals. The 400-year-old Annapolis Liberty Tree, the last surviving tree, had to be taken down after it was critically damaged by Hurricane Floyd. This year croquet spectators celebrated the dedication of a new Liberty Tree, a gift from the 2007 senior class. The senior class voted to purchase the tulip poplar, located between the Barr Buchanan Center and McDowell Hall, as a perennial gift to both St. John’s and the Annapolis community. Before the start of the croquet match George Zahringer (A07), president of the Senior Class Gift Committee, spoke briefly on the seniors’ choice. “Of all places, no ground is more receptive to this symbol of liberty; here, where the ideal of liberty in thought is so strong,” he said. “It makes me proud as an American and as a member of this Polity to offer this tree on behalf of my class, to reinforce the ideal of liberty.” President Nelson accepted the gift on behalf of the college, and the ceremony was made complete when an ensemble of Johnnies offered their rendition of “Liberty Tree,” a poem by the famous revolutionary Thomas Paine. gary pierpoint A Gift from the Croquet Gods In 2005, the unthinkable happened: the St. John’s croquet team lost the Annapolis Cup to the Mids. The match was two for two on that drizzly day, and victory in the fifth game depended on partners Christopher Mules and Tristan Evans-Wilent, both juniors at the time. They lost. “We were so distraught when we lost, we took a year off from school,” Evans-Wilent says. Two years later, Mules and Evans-Wilent were back on the team, sporting Springsteen-inspired “Born in the USA” attire, determined to make this match a victory for St. John’s. The croquet gods smiled upon them. “I went rover, then Tristan played a great turn,” an ecstatic Mules says after their triumph. Christopher Mules (A07) demonstrates the “whack-n-watch” pose adopted by many players after a tense shot. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �{Croquet} “We [lost] the decisive game five two years ago, so this is retribution. I feel amazing!” Love is in the Air While the croquet teams might have had the jitters about the day’s competition, no one was as nervous as G. August Deimel (A04). Deimel had been planning for weeks to propose to his girlfriend of two years, Sara Wagner (A08). He and some friends tricked her into looking for stereo speakers in Barr Buchanan while Deimel and Wagner’s families, both from Pittsburgh, were brought out from hiding. When she emerged from the building, Wagner was puzzled to see her family. “Then August got on one knee and asked me and I said yes, of course,” she recounts. After a champagne toast, the couple—planning to marry next summer—danced in front of Barr Buchanan. People Watching, Balzac Style Nostalgia, the Annapolis Cup, champagne glasses, Liberty Trees, divine justice and romance—what more? Croquet 2007 also had its usual fantastic parade of characters. “I love the endless variety of people,” said Bryan Smith (A08) as he surveyed the teeming assembly of Johnnies, Mids, alumni from both institutions, and Annapolitans. “It’s like entering a Balzac novel; you get a whole social scene with all their foibles and eccentricities, ” he said. x Clockwise: Souvenir glasses celebrate a silver anniversary; The original Imperial Wicket John Ertle (A84); George Zaringer (A07), Eric Honor (A10), Sara Luell (A09), Lindsay Wyett, Rachel Bartgis (A09); Lining up the shot; The prized cup; Young boy; A Springsteeninspired team; the original 1982 croquet team. photos by gary pierpoint { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } 37 �38 {Alumni Profile} A Humanitarian Calling Christian Acemah (SF05) by Rosemary Harty united nations/mark gasten T hat he would pursue a career in the field of international development was essentially a foregone conclusion for Christian Acemah (SF05), a native of Uganda. His father was a deputy ambassador for his country; his mother had worked as an attaché to the U.N. Security Council. That he was able to land his first professional job based in Geneva, Switzerland, with an international nonprofit was beyond expectation. His studies at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service played a role in that good fortune, he says. But as a foreign student who suffered several personal tragedies, he wouldn’t have gotten to Georgetown or Geneva without the support and encouragement he found at St. John’s. Acemah won two merit-based scholarships to attend Georgetown University’s highly regarded Walsh School of Foreign Service. Being at Georgetown was a wonderful experience, if a little intimidating, he says. His fellow students were serious, ambitious, and already quite accomplished. “I was the youngest one there,” he says. “I entered my first class and the professor started to talk about Thucydides—everyone else in the class had no idea what she was talking about. I could at least relate to what she was saying, and that was great.” As a graduate student, Acemah conducted research and worked as a teaching assistant in the African Studies Program. In the summer of 2006, he served an internship with the Lutheran World Federation in the Uganda/Sudan Country Office. He analyzed the federation’s health policy in the context of Uganda’s national policy and helped provide health workshops. Through Georgetown, he heard about a job with a division within UNICEF that worked to get vaccines and immunizations to children in developing countries. After he put in his application, he heard nothing for months, and he braced himself for disappointment. Finally, a call came for an interview, and Acemah eventually landed the job, which was based in Geneva and would start in a matter of weeks. Because it Christian Acemah (SF01) greets former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan during an event Acemah organized at Georgetown. The event celebrated Annan’s lasting legacy to Africa. would mean interrupting his studies, he consulted his graduate adviser, who urged him to accept the job. “It would have taken me eight years to get to this level, and even to get into the UN system is so difficult. Most people give up along the way,” he says. Acemah’s official title is Executive Officer, Policy and Research, for the GAVI Alliance Secretariat. The GAVI alliance is a public-private partnership focused on increasing children’s access to vaccines in poor countries. GAVI unites UNICEF, the World Bank, and major international foundations in setting mutual goals, sharing strategies, and coordinating efforts. “We bring principles from the private sector and apply them to the public sector,” he says. One of the agency’s goals is to improve the mechanisms involved with getting new vaccines out on the market as soon as they are ready. It also seeks to create sustainable, long-term financing for immunization programs in the countries in which it works. “Being in such an intense environment is { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } quite interesting for me. We work from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on almost any given working day,” he says. “There are constant briefings and writing pieces to compose. Travel is also a huge part of this office. I cannot believe the amount of responsibility I have been given.” Most recently, Acemah is working on HPV vaccine advocacy and leads GAVI’s relationships with African initiatives. Though he grew up with privileges, Acemah was raised to be aware of responsibilities and obligations to others. He undertook his education with those goals in mind. In Uganda, aptitude tests identified him as gifted in science and mathematics, but Acemah wanted to study literature and was stubborn about it. “My mother came to the school and told them, ‘he knows what he wants to do, and it’s going to be difficult to change his mind,’ ” Acemah recalls. The school wouldn’t budge, so Acemah found himself at Olney Friends School in Ohio, where he learned about St. John’s. He had already accepted a full scholarship �39 {Alumni Notes} 1944 CARL S. HAMMEN, a Maryland scholarship student at St. John’s College, married Deborah Reinhold-Kazor on March 31, 2007, in St. Petersburg, Fla. Since retirement from the University of Rhode Island, he has served as a tax-return preparer, census enumerator, and adjunct professor at several Florida colleges. Carl likes to run, and in 2006 was ranked second in the state, in the men’s 80 age division in the 10K and third in the 15K. Deborah won the 1500-m run in December 2004 at the state senior games, where they met. She is an equestrienne, and her quadrille team was second in the nation in 2001. Surrounded by Mountains A fter 15 years as head of school at Friends School of Minnesota, MARK NIEDERMIER (A84) has moved on. He is now head of school at Pacific Northern Academy in Anchorage, Alaska. His 8-year-old daughter, Sophie, is a second-grader at the school, and his 3-year-old son, Caleb, will soon enroll as well. Mark’s wife, Karen, is a nurse practitioner at Anchorage Midwifery and Women’s Health, and they all enjoy an active lifestyle, surrounded by mountains and wildlife. x Carl is the father of five children, four living, all highly successful, and the grandfather of seven, all of whom he dearly loves. Deborah and Carl, when he completes his duties as teacher of “creative geometry” at Ringling School of Art & Design in Sarasota, will travel to Portugal, Spain, France, and England. to Earlham College, but St. John’s intrigued him. He called the Santa Fe Admissions office, rushed to get his material in, and was offered admission. Acemah says he was drawn to St. John’s primarily because he could pursue all his varied interests. “The place spoke to me from the first moment I learned of it,” says Acemah, though it took some time for him to feel confident in the Program. “I was very scared at first, reading Euclid. David Carl was my math tutor, and by the time he called on me to do a proposition, I did it my own way, and it worked. From that moment, I just enjoyed everything.” Acemah experienced two great losses during his St. John’s years. His mother, Monique Kwagala, died when he was a sophomore. As a foreign services officer in Uganda, she had helped people escape the regime of Idi Amin. “She had always been the anchor of my life,” he explains. “The day she died, I got up and went to class, and I got called to do a very long proposition of Apollonius. Continuing at St. John’s was important to me. I think that strength came from her, saying I have to go on.” A year later, Acemah lost his grandfather, Nicholas Magoola. Acemah had spent several years living and working with his grandfather on his farm, and he learned how to observe and respect the natural world through him. “He was one of those people 1960 MARY CAMPBELL GALLAGHER presented “Easier than IRAC: The Under-Here-Therefore Legal Writing System” at the Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference at the University of Nevada Las Vegas on March 10. Mary first who can just see right through you, see the things you can do, and try to encourage you to look fear in the face,” says Acemah. “Now, my second anchor was gone.” His tutors and friends saw through his stoic demeanor, Acemah says. “They would always check in with me, and that was a good thing,” he says. When it seemed finances would force him to drop out, his tutors went to the administration on his behalf, and then-president John Balkcom (SFGI00) found money for Acemah to continue. Career Services Director Margaret O’Dell watched Acemah evolve from a “quiet, polite freshman into a mischievous, determined, self-assured senior who would not let any obstacles stand in his path to Georgetown University and graduate school. He needed to take two economics classes as prerequisites before entering Georgetown,” she explains. “Most students would have taken a year off and finished those classes in a leisurely fashion, but not Christian. He found the classes he needed at the University of New Mexico, figured out how to manage the tuition, found a way to commute to Albuquerque, convinced the professors to let him enroll for the summer session, and passed both classes with flying colors in the space of eight weeks.” Odell is not surprised Acemah is already serving a humanitarian cause; she has { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } described her writing system, which is based on Aristotelian logic, in the first edition of her book Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays, published by ARCO in 1991. BarWrite Press brought out the third edition in 2006. 1967 LARRY (A) and HAZEL SCHLUETER (A69) report from New Orleans: “Hazel has an oldtime country and bluegrass music show every Sunday morning, 10 a.m. to noon at www.wwoz.org on the Web for her style of what is happening in New Orleans postKatrina. We are restoring the house and enjoying having all the family here.” always felt that Acemah’s drive stemmed from his desire to return to Uganda and work to improve the lives of others. “This inner drive could have made him dour or overly intense but in reality the intensity you felt from Christian was his love for learning and for his friends,” she says. At St. John’s, Acemah met his fiancée, Marie Craig (SF05), who now teaches at Olney Friends School and will begin graduate studies at Columbia University in the fall. They will marry this July at a lodge on Murchison Falls in northwest Uganda. Many of his classmates and tutors are planning to attend, he says. In the meantime, Acemah is adjusting to life in Geneva, where finding affordable housing is a challenge. “The city is very beautiful, very clean, so many gardens, and it has a multicultural feel to it because the UN is here. I can eat the food that I would eat in Uganda! My favorite is green bananas with chicken—I can buy it at the grocery store, go home and prepare it for myself.” Living closer to his father, Harold Acemah, ambassador to the European Union in Brussels, is another plus to his location. In the long run, Acemah wants to find a happy medium between conducting field work and policymaking. “I don’t know yet what that blend will look like,” he says. “I hope it will be exciting and challenging.” x �40 {Alumni Notes} on. Daughter HANNA (A96, Georgetown Law ’01) had a beautiful wedding on Tilghman Island to Stephen Goldstein in November 2005, in which I participated in Highland dress plus yarmulke; they live on Capitol Hill, and it’s great to be nearby. Catch us at the New Orleans Jazzfest!” 1968 A good long classnote from JOSHUA GILLELAN (A) covers a lot of ground: “I finally made my escape from the Office of the Solicitor of Labor in June 2004, to start my own practice, the grandiosely entitled Longshore Claimants’ National Law Center, practicing primarily before the federal courts of appeals and the Supreme Court. I can’t imagine why I waited so long (except, of course, that the new practice, though busy from the start, produced almost no cash flow for the first two years). My wife, writer Allison Blake (be sure to get the current edition of her widely available Chesapeake Bay Book: A Complete Guide before your next trip to the area), and I have a second home in New Orleans (bought four months before Katrina—great timing—but in the ‘sliver by the river’ that didn’t flood, though it was an anxious two and a half weeks before we could make sure it was still there and not pancaked by the water oak in the back yard or the live oak in the neighbor yard), and intend to spend half the year there (appellate practice is wonderfully portable) from now 1975 Publishing news from ERIC SCIGLIANO (SF): “Been grounded in Seattle, helping start a magazine (Seattle Metropolitan, nominal position ‘news editor’). Article “The Mind of an Octopus” picked for Best American Science Writing anthology. Last book, Michaelangelo’s Mountain, was finalist for Washington State Book Award. Lost to Tim Egan’s The Worst Hard Time, which went on to win the National Book Award.” C (SANDERS) SOKOLOV (SF02) and her husband, Christopher, welcomed their second son, Gregory, on November 22, 2006. He joins his brother, Nicholas, in contemplating the two greatest inventions of the Western world: fire trucks and helicopters. x RYSTAL Institute of St. Louis (www.kabbalahmadeeasy.com), along with publishing poetry: “In 2005, my poem was featured alongside Maya Angelou’s in a poetry anthology called, Cosmic Brownies—Poems about Lessons Learned in Life. In 2006, I was the original winner of the only scholarship (based solely on merit) given by the Washington University Summer Writer’s Institute, which I turned down because it wasn’t a full scholarship and due to health reasons at the time. I also help one of my friends with her matchmaking business.” 1976 ALICE JOY BROWN (A) works as an office assistant while doing promotions for the Kabbalah Another Croquet Fan alex fotos T heodore Gammon (A28 or A30 if he is slow like his father; SF28 if contrary like his mother) reports that his parents, ALEX and BETH (both A94), are doing well in Baltimore. Other places, too. He is trying to teach them that as long as you sit under the maple once a day, get dirty once a day, eat some currants and dance a little, you should smile more than frown. x Fire trucks and Helicopters 1988 For the last year and a half, JULIET BURCH (A) has been working at the National Center for Jewish Film, an archive located at Brandeis University and dedicated to the preservation and restoration of Jewish-themed films. “I feel as though I’ve really found my niche in this interesting and quirky collection,” she writes. “It’s great to have a job I love!” ERIN MILNES (A) writes that she was married in June 2006 to Chuck Guest, a writer and musician, in Oakland, Calif.: “We had more fun than anyone should all weekend, with family and great friends, including half a dozen Johnnies from the infamous class of A88.” In March, KIM PAFFENROTH (A) was named a recipient of the Bram Stoker Award for his nonfiction work, Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth (Baylor, 2006). His book tied with Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die, by Michael Largo. The award is bestowed in recognition of “superior achievement” by the Horror Writers Association. Winning the award puts Paffenroth in the company of writer Stephen King, and he takes home an award that is an eight-inch replica of a haunted house with a door that opens to reveal a brass plaque engraved with the name of the winning work and its author. Gospel of the Living Dead is a non-fiction book connecting social and religious views with the classic American zombie and horror genre; it has attracted much critical acclaim. 1991 JONARNO LAWSON (A) has received the 2007 The Lion and the Unicorn Award for excellence in North American poetry for his book Black Stars in a White Night Sky. continued on p. 43 { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �41 {Alumni Profile} What was so special about the Class of ’66? by Emily DeBusk (A06) e came to St. John’s from having marched with Martin Luther King on a hot day, holding hands, singing ‘We Shall Overcome.’ Kennedy was President. Bras were to be burned. We had come to St. John’s as prospectives, gone to seminar, become converts. We came to the college, the Program, with something resembling religious reverence. I can’t speak for my classmates, but my guess is that it was more the rule than the exception. We read seminar with Jacob Klein, complete with pipe and joyous love of Plato; sang in freshman chorus for/with Victor Zuckerkandl, who had but to lift his hand for us all to feel held by angels; studied the Bible in small groups with Mr. Kaplan, whose humanity almost eclipsed his brilliance; read Greek with John Kieffer, whose cadence still echoes. Elliott Zuckerman, Joe Cohen, and John Sarkissian were the ‘young ones.’ Al Main was in charge of the laboratory. Bob Bart, Charles Bell, Paul Scofield, were our guides, with Winfree Smith, and Sam Kutler, Beate Ruhm van Oppen, Douglas Allanbrook, Tom MacDonald. Life with them was totally engrossing. We were obsessed with books, dialogue, discovery. Annapolis was tacky and rundown, not at all its up-market today self. McDonald’s was new and had just sold a million burgers. The night the Cuban missile crisis threatened, there was silence around the seminar table until Mr. Klein broke in with the opening question and we were off, again, in the traditional search. Afterwards, we sat in a dormitory room, listening to the radio. The Russian fleet turned back. And later, W Kennedy was shot. The only television on campus was turned on, day and night. I didn’t watch, but that was a choice I’m not sure I don’t regret. Anyway, in 1963, or maybe it was 1964, we heard the first Beatles recording wafting out from Humphrey. We sat and watched the sunsets over College Creek, and fell asleep reading Aristotle or Kant or Cervantes or Tolstoy (all four just the right size for a pillow), drank coffee in the eponymous shop, and partied as soon as lecture—or sometimes the question period—was over, making good use of the Sin Bins in Campbell, and walked down to the shabby dock dubbed ‘Piraeus.’ I guess sometime in there, we grew up–sort of–and then, of course, we left. Where did the class of 1966 go and what did they do? Like every graduating class, the diverse career paths taken by alumni reflect the versatility of their education: a news executive, several clergy members, an internationally acclaimed playwright, doctors, lawyers, artists, and even a lighting technician for Grateful Dead concerts. bruce preston (A65) Constance (Bell) Lindgreen (A66) and her classmates came of age during an extraordinary time of metamorphosis in America. Growing up in tumultuous times, and immersed in the great books as they were, they were bound for great things. Connie retired as a vice president in IBM’s European operation and took on the role of “class leader” for her reunion last year. Collecting news of her classmates inspired her to reflect. She writes: For Lindgreen’s classmate Mel Kline, it was sophomore seminar on the Bible that was an especially formative experience. “Sophomore seminar, when you face the Bible and religious questions, had a strong effect on me and my Jewish roots,” Kline says. Soon after graduation, he moved to Israel, where he lives today. “St. John’s really helped me find my life’s work. About 25 years ago I began a research project dealing with Jewish texts without commentaries, which is unheard of in Jewish studies. I made a number of discoveries utilizing the tools of inquiry I developed at St. John’s.” Theodora Carlile echoes Lindgreen’s memories of cultural change: “When I entered in 1962, Beatnik folk was the cutting edge of music. By the time I left, it was The Stones, Dylan, The Beatles. As far as the Program goes, it was a charmed experience for me. I was thrilled with the conversations.” So much so that Carlile went on to become a professor in the liberal arts program at Saint Mary’s College in { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } Irene (Lindermayer) Dortch and Connie (Bell) Lindgreen, both class of 1966. California, a position recommended to her by Brother Robert Smith. “I get to go through the Program over and over again,” she says. “I never really left in a way. I also remember that my class was known as “the Matriarchy” because of the many wonderful and strong-minded women in the class.” Margaret Winter was one of them. “In late ’66 there was beginning to be a lot of political ferment,” Winter recalls. “I wanted to work for social justice. I decided the best thing to do after St. John’s was to go to law school and use that as a tool for political activism.” Today, as the associate director of the National Prison Project of the ACLU, she works to protect the constitutional rights of prisoners. x To exchange memories, post pictures, and help tell the story of your class, visit and join the online community of alumni. http://alumni.stjohnscollege.edu /?AlumniAssociation �42 {Alumni Profile} Planting Seeds of Peace Munir Hussein (A90) by Patricia Dempsey D and expose young people to their ‘enemies’ at a time in their life when they’re forming their opinions and perceptions. Hopefully this will help create a new generation of leaders who will be wiser and perhaps less judgmental of someone’s looks or beliefs.” He discovered the organization while studying for his MBA at Columbia University, through a Jewish colleague who was serving on the Seeds of Peace board. “He came to me and said, ‘I think you will really appreciate what this organization is doing,’ ” Hussein says. Observing the camp in action inspired Hussein to offer his considerable management skills to Seeds of Peace. He volunteered on the Young Leadership Committee, managing fundraisers in Manhattan and mentors former “Seeds” with career advice. Last year, Hussein joined the organization’s board of directors and is currently its only Palestinian American member. As a board member, Hussein hopes to provide a leadership model for teenagers who come from Palestine. “I want to set a good example and use my Palestinian heritage as a positive thing,” he says. “There are many occasions—business meetings, parties—when I’ll hear comments christopher huston ressed in khaki shorts and sneakers, he could easily have passed as one of the camp counselors. But Munir Hussein (A90) a real estate dealmaker, had come to this peaceful spread of tall pines and clear lakes near Lewiston, Maine, to observe. As a guest of Seeds of Peace summer camp, he quietly listened to a tense dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian teenagers. “The professional facilitator opened with a question: ‘What do you think about the wall between Israel and the West Bank?’ There were 14 teenagers from Israel and about 10 from Palestine,” recalls Hussein, a Palestinian American. “They were probably on their best behavior because there were visitors in the room, but it was a very open, candid dialogue. They bunk together, sail, do the ropes course, and have discussions that remind me in some ways of a St. John’s seminar-starting off with a question.” As a managing director in real estate acquisition and development for a private equity firm in Manhattan, Hussein skillfully arranges financing and structures lucrative real estate deals. Yet for all the delicate negotiations he has managed, nothing prepared him for this first visit to Seeds of Peace in 2003. The camp brings together teenagers from both sides of a conflict area, such as Palestine and Israel, India and Pakistan, the United States and Iraq, and the Balkans, in order to foster mutual understanding.“I was dazzled,” Hussein says. “Here’s an organization that is really doing something about the problems in the world. They’re seeking to educate or someone will ask ‘where are you from?’ I say, ‘Rye, New York’ and they say, ‘No, where are you really from?’ It depends how diplomatic people are, but in this climate of fear the tiniest little difference stands out. I want people to see that I’m not just like an American, I am an American.” Last summer Seeds of Peace touched Hussein personally when his then 13-year old cousin Dana attended the camp in Maine. “She lives in a small village in Palestine, Zeita, near Nablus, of about 2,100 people,” says Hussein who has numerous relatives on his father’s side who live on the West Bank. Hussein has visited Palestine several times, and when he traveled there in 2000 with his parents he spent time with Dana, whom he describes as “exceptionally bright.” Yet the opportunities for a young woman like Dana in her village were, and still are, limited. “The tiny village where Dana was growing up has dirt roads, stone houses, olive trees, and chicken farmers,” Hussein says. “The women are raised in a totally traditional Middle Eastern culture and handle the children and household chores. Although they are given the opportunity to go to college, they typically do not have the same choices that men do.” Hussein’s father, a Palestinian immigrant who spent his career with large consumer product companies, and his mother, a classics professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey and an advocate for woman’s rights, later returned to Palestine to convince Dana’s parents to let her attend the program. “Her father was cautious,” says his corporate life is about deal making, but with Seeds of Peace, Hussein builds bridges. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �43 {Alumni Notes} continued from p. 40 1993 RACHEL BLISTEIN (A) is in Michigan: “I completed my master’s degree in Landscape Architecture at Morgan State University in Baltimore, graduating in 2003. After working in Baltimore for several years, I met my future husband, Paul Alexander, and decided to re-locate to Ann Arbor, Mich., where he was completing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering. We were married in October of 2004 and, one and a half years later, bought our first house in nearby Ypsilanti. My husband works for General Motors as a research engineer and I recently began my own residential design firm, Veris Landscape Design, L.L.C. We love Michigan, despite the cold winters and troubled economy. The surroundings are beautiful, the people are friendly, there’s a funky local music scene and lots of great food (it goes with the cold winters). Anyone who wants to get in touch is welcome to reach me at rblistein@yahoo.com.” OMAR S. MANEJWALA, M.D., (A) writes: “Over the last six years (since finishing up as Chief Resident in psychiatry at Duke) I’ve become very interested in the treatment of addicted healthcare professionals. In July 2006, I moved to Virginia to become the Associate Medical Director of the William J. Farley center, a program for chemically dependent professionals. I also spend a few days a month lecturing across the country on various topics in addiction medicine. This is exciting and rewarding work, as about half of my patients are addicted medical professionals including physicians, pharmacists, veterinarians, dentists, etc. It’s really been an honor and a privilege to participate in their recovery. When I’m not working I’m still traveling like crazy. Last year I climbed Kilimanjaro and hiked the overland track in Tasmania. Last month I returned from my fourth trip to India, this time to attend my brother’s marriage at the Taj Mahal.” 1998 1997 DOMINIC CRAPUCHETTES (A) has been encountering great success in the board game business: “Our latest party game, “Wits & Getting the Word Out K EVIN BROCK (SF96) and KHIN KHIN GUYOT BROCK (SF88) hope to add a new member to their family soon: “We married in 2004, after meeting in a summer alumni seminar on Jane Austen in 2000 and in several more over the following years. For our honeymoon we did the Coast-to-Coast walk in England, a 200-mile hike from the North Sea to the Irish Sea through Yorkshire and the Lake Country. We live in Mountain View, Calif.” Kevin is a software engineer with a networking start-up in Santa Cruz and Khin Khin teaches first grade in a local public school. “We are currently trying to adopt an infant through domestic open adoption,” he adds. “Open adoption is very different from international adoption, because the birth mother and the adoptive parents know more about each other, and there is usually some degree of continuing contact after the baby is born. The birth mother chooses the adoptive parents who she wants to raise her child, so there’s a lot of uncertainty involved while waiting for a match. The biggest challenge is getting the word out, so if you know someone who is pregnant and considering adoption, please feel free to give them our contact information: 408-806-9190; brock@kevin.com.” x Hussein. “She’d never been out of the village and it’s a big leap to go from this tiny village in the Palestinian countryside— not only to go to the United States, but to a camp where she would be bunking with roommates from Israel.” By June 2006 Dana joined fellow Palestinian “Seeds” at an orientation session before they took a plane from Tel Aviv to the United States with the teenage Israeli “Seeds.” Hussein, his parents, and his uncle from Boston visited Dana on her second day of camp in Maine in part to reassure her parents that she was thriving. “She was wearing her headscarf and she was a little nervous, but she got out and was playing soccer with the kids. She’d never been swimming before; she played all kinds of sports and went boating and did crafts, and of course they do a ropes course, where you’re learning to spot one another and build trust.” Hussein says Dana’s English, along with her confidence and world outlook, reached new heights. “Now she’s back in her village and she’s started a Seeds of Peace type { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } Wages,” won 11 industry awards last year including Games magazine’s ‘Party Game of the Year,’ ” he writes. “It will be carried nationwide at Target starting in August! I am very excited.” JEAN (TULLY) FLAHERTY (A) and her husband, Seamus, joyfully announce the births of their three children, Aoife Marie, born December 1, 2003; George Anthony, born March 26, 2005; and Saoirse Anne, born October 7, 2006. They live in Plantation, Fla., and will move to South Bend, Ind., this autumn. DAWN (SHUMAN) BORCHELT (A), Matthew, and Wolfgang welcomed their new son and brother, Robin Wylde Borchelt to the world in their new home on May 2, 2006. He was 7 lbs. 9 ounces and 20 inches long. 2000 ALEXIS BROWN (SF, EC03) recently joined the Board of Directors of Creative Santa Fe. She has added this to her list of other volunteer efforts at the Santa Fe Rape Crisis and Trauma Treatment Center, Santa Fe Cares and AIDS Walk, and High program there,” he says. “It’s had a tremendous impact on her life and broadening her horizons.” “It’s funny,” Hussein adds, “back when I was at St. John’s, I was never aware of being that different in college. People were just people. This is the way I was brought up, a face is a face, a mind is a mind, an idea is an idea, you don’t look at a person’s culture or ethnicity–you look at who they are as a human being.” x �44 {Alumni Notes} A Journey to China B TURNER (EC03) has been accepted to CIEE’s Teach in China program. He will teach Oral English and American Literature classes at Jiaxing University in the city of Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. “Beginning this August, this appointment will last an entire academic year (10 months), and I couldn’t be more excited,” he writes. “I took classical Chinese courses under the eminent Mike Bybee at the Santa Fe campus, and his classes were the initial impetus for this journey of mine. Apart from my teaching load, I intend to diligently study Mandarin with a private tutor, thereby returning to the States slightly more fluent than I am now. “Not only did I want to share my good fortune with the Johnnie community, but I also wanted to invite others to offer their advice and suggestions. If any others have embarked on similar experiences, I would love to glean some sage advice with regard to living conditions, textbook choices, etc.: bennett.turner@gmail.com.” x ENNETT Mayhem Emerging Arts Studio. She is excited to work on promoting the prosperity of Santa Fe’s creative industries and their economic potential. If you want more information on Creative Santa Fe, please feel free to contact Alexis at: alexis_i_brown@yahoo.com. 2001 “I’d like to give an update on my whereabouts to my fellow alumni,” writes WILL BONNER (SF). “In February 2007 my wife and I moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina. We keep a daily blog about the experience at www.willbonner.com.” “This is just a shameless note to let you all in on some personal news,” writes NATHAN WILSON (AGI). “I recently signed a fourbook deal with Random House for young adult novels, the first of which (Leepike Ridge) will release May 22. I shamelessly rip-off some of the greats in service of my plot (Twain and Homer mainly). In a very different market, I also have a piece of short fiction in the February issue of Esquire. It’s sort of mixed- media, I guess—typed on pieces of a cocktail napkin (their idea, not mine). Another short story was just nominated for the Pushcart Prize. I feel a bit cheesy telling you all, but is the phrase alma mater meaningless? Can’t I brag to my mater?” 2002 STEVE ROSE (AGI) sent in a note for himself and MAILI SHAFFER (AGI), who look forward to traveling together in Europe this summer: “Ms. Shaffer, after teaching first grade since graduation in May 2000 is about to finish her first year of law school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Her firstyear summer law position will be in Baltimore, and she is looking forward to beautiful evenings in Annapolis. Maili would be delighted to hear from classmates or Johnnies interested in UM Law School. For myself, I have been teaching in Annapolis since May 2000, with two lengthy interruptions for visits to Iraq with B Company, 4th Light Armored Recon Battalion. Our most recent vacation was to keep the rivers and lakes safe for fishermen and farmers, and we received many thanks from the Iraqis for providing some small measure of security. I’m delighted to be home and look forward not only to hearing from former classmates, but most of all to backpacking through Europe with Maili in August.” SHELLEY (WALKER) SAXEN (SFGI, EC03) writes: “Doug Saxen and I are now married and enjoying all the skiing and hiking we can get while in Montana for another year. While I finish up my doctorate in Natural Resources Management, Doug is in the throes of writing a children’s book series. There’s always room for SFGI alumni at our place if you happen to be in western Montana and we would love to hear from you.” Since last spring MICHAEL SULLIVAN (A) has been trying to teach Plato, Aristotle, Boethius, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Nietzsche to semi-grateful freshmen at Marymount University in Arlington, Va., and and The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He is also working on his doctoral dissertation, on the debate over universal hylomorphism in 13th-century metaphysics, for Catholic University. RACHEL ROCCIA SULLIVAN (A) is nearing the end of her third year of medical school at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Md. Options for specialization remain open, but she is strongly considering a future in psychiatry. Their younger daughter, Grace, has had two eye surgeries and a heart surgery since her birth last July, but she’s doing very well; their older daughter, Clare, is, hopefully, coming out of her terrible twos as her third birthday approaches. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } 2004 GIDEON CULMAN (SFGI, EC05) is living in the District of Columbia and organizing alumni gatherings every week; alumni in the D.C. area should look him up to get on his e-mail list. The group provides networking opportunities, camaraderie, and fun get-togethers with other Johnnies. 2005 CHARLES CLAUNCH (SFGI), now in the master’s program in politics at the University of Dallas, has been accepted to that school’s PhD program for the fall term in 2007. If anyone has any interest in this program, please direct questions to him at cclaunch@alumni.stjohnscollege.edu. JOHN PETERSON (A) and CAROLYN ANN STRIPLING (SF07) were married in July 2006. x 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 October; deadline for the alumni notes section is August 10. 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 �{Alumni Notes} 45 A Greek Adventure Runs Aground ack Ladd Carr, class of 1950, and his wife, Lois, had been looking forward to a stimulating trip to the “Greek Islands and Beyond,” as the tour operator billed it. But on the day that their cruise ship, the Sea Diamond, was scheduled to make an afternoon trip to Santorini, the excursion provided a bit more excitement than they had bargained for. Just a few days into their twoweek trip, the couple had already visited several Aegean islands and made stops in Patmos and Crete. “We were to sail into the harbor at Santorini,” Carr recalls. “The island is spectacularly beautiful; there are these very unusual cliffs, and they go straight down into this deep caldera. We were preparing to disembark for a brief run to the island when for some reason the ship struck a rock ledge.” While the crew prepared to evacuate passengers, the ship began listing to starboard. “Everybody was calm,” he says. “The crew managed to calm every one down. There were some youngsters, teenagers from a school in North Carolina, and they were in good spirits, clowning around, snapping each other’s pictures.” Carr and his wife are both in their 80s, and another passenger, a young French woman took notice of them, got them life jackets, and made sure the couple were safe. “She made certain that in the crush of people that we were not pushed down, and J she took her own life jacket off and put it on Lois,” Carr says. “She spoke no English, and we speak no French, but we managed to communicate our gratitude to her.” While many passengers climbed down ropes to rescue vessels, the Carrs were evacuated to a waiting ferry by means of a makeshift chute, assembled of mattresses, which linked the automobile ramps of both ships. Jack and Lois Carr on dry ground after the disaster, and below, “Thank God I Lois, after sliding to safety. didn’t have to climb down a ladder,” says Carr. woman named Rea, and Rea arranged for “The last time I climbed down a ladder into our group to go to a very nice, new hotel in the boat was during the second World War the village,” says Carr. when I climbed down cargo nets into “We got there by going up the cliff in a landing boats, which I did several times. sort of funicular, and after a short walk It was scary when I was 19, and it would be a through the village, caught a bus that took lot scarier at 82.” us to the hotel. They gave us dinner, a Carr has read many reports room, and breakfast the next morning. And that people panicked, that at breakfast, I found out the ship had sunk. there was chaos, and that the That was the only time we sensed any fear.” crew wasn’t helpful, but their Carr had a shoulder bag with some euros, experience was much better. credit cards, and glasses. The couple’s They saw no panic and clothing and everything else in their thought the crew acted professuitcase, including souvenirs, were lost. sionally. “We decided to keep The group’s passports were also safe and calm and observed everything returned to them on the next leg of their with great interest,” he recalls. trip. Each passenger was provided with “We were separated—they did 200 euros to pick up some clothing and the women-and-children other items in Athens. Then they continued thing. That’s when I began to their trip for another 11 days. “We lost only feel that I was on the Titanic. one day of the tour,” Carr says. By this time, the ship was The accident won’t stop the Carrs listing at 15 degrees.” from traveling, says Carr. “I’m not Lois was rescued first; Jack a superstitious,” he says. “But I could do little while later, and their tour with less adventure.” x group of 39 was brought —rosemary harty ashore together. “Our tour guide was a wonderful Greek { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �46 {Obituaries} LILLIAN VANOUS NUTT FRIEND OF THE COLLEGE “Of course, Lillian also loved to paint, and exhibited in juried shows all over the area. I Lillian Vanous Nutt, who died earlier this spring at imagine that I have seen thousands of her waterage 99, was a generous and dedicated supporter of colors, mostly on note cards, pieces of paper St. John’s College in Annapolis. Her gifts not-to-be-thrown-away. And in the last 10 years, supported scholarships for St. John’s students, I’ve been pleased to gaze upon hundreds of painted helped establish the Mitchell Gallery, and under“jolins”, flowers designed by Lillian as a gift in wrote the renovation of a room in the Greenfield honor of my wife, Joyce Olin . . . four years ago, we Library to serve as the Nutt Room, a second added to our personal collection of framed “jolins” exhibition space for art on the Annapolis campus and other “still-lifes,” a bell pull, hand-painted by which also serves as an elegant reading room. Lillian with beautiful roses. I still pull on the darn The following excerpt, from a eulogy given at thing, but nobody comes a-running. I suspect her memorial service by Annapolis President Lillian knew that too. ‘Each of us was meant to Christopher Nelson, celebrates Mrs. Nutt’s attend to his own needs,’ I can hear her say. many contributions: “I have loved Lillian’s colorful and vivid “Lillian was born four weeks shy of 100 years ago imagination . . . In 1964, Lillian wrote a brief poem in a small wooden house on the corner of Taylor about herself. I think it captured her rather well. Lillian Vanous Nutt Avenue and Annapolis Street. She grew up in a It was titled, “Me” and opened as follows: ‘If I am home her parents soon thereafter built on Revell anything/ I certainly am prolific/ No matter what Street. Lillian remembered it for its central heating the merit/ My output is terrific!’ with gold radiators and two bathrooms, but also for its large fishpond “Indeed, it was. How many of us in this room have received with a fountain in the middle. She recalls the parties at the outdoor envelopes stuffed with hand-painted note cards (on recycled paper) fireplace, and the use of red-checked tablecloths and cloth napkins, to be used for friendly “thank yous” or just to lift the spirit. She was not the paper products of today which she shuddered to call “throwgenerous but tough and always faced down the advance of age. . . aways.” No one who knew Lillian could forget her abhorrence of She befriended St. John’s College many years ago and generously throwaways: Everything to its purpose, at least twice over . . . provided student scholarships for those with need. She also “Lillian remained at home until 1943 when she was married to Hi, underwrote the renovation of the Lillian Vanous Nutt Room in a marriage that lasted for her remaining 64 years. She attended the the Greenfield Library, where regular shows of local artists are Peabody Institute for her music lessons, traveling back and forth to exhibited through the year. Her gifts are put to use over and over Baltimore on the old B&A Railway. She even remembered giving a and for multiple purposes . . . recital at age 13 in McDowell Hall at St. John’s College. She also “A small group of us gathered in Lillian’s and Hi’s home last May remembered her youthful parties at St. John’s and the Naval for her 99th birthday. Anna Greenberg (HA96) asked her what she Academy. By the time she was 20, she had her own car and began considered was the most important thing she had accomplished in teaching piano, something she did for three generations of her lifetime. She answered quickly, ‘without a doubt, it was my Annapolitans . . . teaching children to play the piano and appreciate art!’ ” DR. PETER HAMILL CLASS OF 1949 Dr. Peter VanVechten Hamill, class of 1949, died on March 10, 2007, at the age of 80. He had forged a remarkable life and career as a scholar and scientist, an avid sportsman, accomplished sailor, and collector of fine wines. Dr. Hamill was born in Baltimore in 1926, and grew up in Detroit. He earned a bachelor’s in philosophy from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and medical degrees from Michigan and Johns Hopkins University. He served in the Navy during World War II and had a career as a commissioned officer in the United States Dr. Peter Hamill Public Health Service. He was the scientific director of the Surgeon General’s Study on Smoking and Health and also designed the Growth and Development charts for use in charting the growth of juveniles. Eva Brann, who spoke at Dr. Hamill’s memorial service, described him as “first and last” a Johnnie, with an “acute, detailed and wickedly judgmental memory.” In 2002, Dr. Hamill sent Miss Brann an oral history of his role in the 1962-64 study on smoking, which is now in the JFK Library in Boston. The study was the first declaration from the government that smoking causes cancer, as the Senior Surgeon in the Commissioned Officer Corps of { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } the Public Health Service, Dr. Hamill played a key role in establishing the criteria for the study and assembling the staff and professional personnel for the committee, but the oral history also demonstrates qualities far beyond professional ability: “He was passionately engaged as Peter the man and desperately objective as Peter the scientist. He was impatiently temperamental as a man with a mission and generously understanding as a man with an administrative charge. He was naively forthright and dutifully cunning, fascinated and repelled by personal and bureaucratic obstructionism. . . �47 {Obituaries} “But besides personalities there was Peter’s main principle, which, I imagine, made everything work. He was a believer in dialogue. ‘When I say dialogue,’ he told his recorder, ‘remember I’m a St. Johnnie and the dialectic process of antithesis and eventually synthesis is part of my whole being.’ And this was a true self description: Peter was passion tempered by appreciation, prejudgment mitigated by receptivity, spiritedness leavened by self-doubt.” Dr. Hamill is survived by his wife of 54 years, Margot Henry Hamill; four children, and 11 grandchildren. successive “most powerful” computers in their time. He was also the first corporate technical director at Computer Usage Company, the world’s first software company. He was system engineer on the first large electronic publishing system. His experience spanned the full spectrum of systems software and support packages and included a tremendous variety of disciplines, including system programming, data communications, publishing, command and control systems, scientific/engineering applications, statistics, and operations research. GEORGE TRIMBLE CLASS OF 1948 KENNETH KRONBERG (SF68) George R. Trimble, a pioneer in computer development, died March 13, 2007, at the age of 77. He made many original contributions to both the design and application of data processing equipment in a career that spanned the computer industry from ENIAC in 1949 to the most advanced large-scale computer systems. After graduating from St. John’s he studied numerical methods at the University of Delaware and in 1951 earned a master’s degree in mathematics. Mr. Trimble developed mathematical analyses and machine applications for a variety of the earliest electronic computers, including ENIAC, EDVAC, and ORDVAC, to minimize data reduction errors in rocket trajectory calculations for captured German V-2 rockets. As a senior staff member in IBM’s Applied Science Division, 1952-1956, Mr. Trimble was involved in the logical design and application requirements of virtually every computer made by IBM in the early 1950s. Between 1955 and 1966, he was involved in the development of numerous Kenneth Kronberg, a member of the first graduating class of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, died April 11, 2007, at the age of 58. He was the husband of Marielle (Molly) Hammett Kronberg (A70) of Leesburg and the father of Max Kronberg, a 2006 Annapolis graduate. After graduating from St. John’s, Mr. Kronberg spent a year as a junior fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, Calif., and later did graduate work at the New School for Social Research in New York. He was an editor for the American Institute of Physics and for John Wiley & Sons before founding WorldComp in 1978. He had been a member of the National Caucus of Labor Committees since 1974. He directed amateur theater, and taught poetry and drama classes to children and adults for many years. He edited The Campaigner, a cultural magazine, for a number of years. In 1992 he co-founded Fidelio, a quarterly journal of poetry, science and statecraft, which he edited until 2006. Kenneth Kronberg At his memorial service on April 19, his wife, Molly, described him as “a man of character, honor, and integrity—old-fashioned virtues. He was a man of his word. “He weighed words carefully, always trying to say precisely what he meant, because he understood the connection between morality and right use of language, and on the other hand, the enormous damage done to truth and therefore people by perversion of language. His love of language reached back to his earliest childhood—for example, his discovery at the age of eight of the poems of Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti. By the time that, barely 16, he went off to college, he was a practicing poet himself, a calling he followed for many years thereafter. “Ken’s poetic instinct could be found in everything he did: his efforts to make every publication on which he worked a harmonious composition; his efforts to bring beauty in visual form to the printed page; in written form to the articles he wrote or edited; in aural form to the audiences of the dramas he directed. “The same beauty could be found in his gentleness, his abhorrence of brutality, his kindness to all who encountered him (kindness { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } mixed with the sardonic brusqueness he deployed as an educational device), and his truthfulness. His enthusiasm for learning and teaching, for new ideas and for the more precise expression and rigorous examination of venerable ones, was the content of the Socratic art of midwifery he practiced in directing plays or in editing. He was like the Clerk of Oxford of whom Chaucer writes, ‘And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche.’ ALSO NOTED REV. DUNCAN BROCKWAY (CLASS OF 1953), JANUARY 23, 2007 JEREMY DAWES (SF01), JANUARY 15, 2007 NANCY FARIDANY (CLASS OF 1962), SEPTEMBER 23, 2005 ROBERT GOLDBERG (CLASS OF 1950), SEPTEMBER 3, 2006 JOHN GORECKI (CLASS OF 1960), DECEMBER 12, 2006 JOSEPH HOFMANN (CLASS OF 1942), APRIL 2, 2007 MARION JENKINS (SFGI89), JANUARY 13, 2007 ANDREW KLIPPER (A80), JANUARY 22, 2007 JOSEPH LEGUM (CLASS OF 1933), JULY 26, 2006 SUSAN LEUBUSCHER (A68), FEBRUARY 28, 2007 DOROTHY LUTTRELL (CLASS OF 1960), MARCH 26, 2007 VICTOR PERRETTA (CLASS OF 1932), APRIL 13, 2007 ALBERT POPPITI (CLASS OF 1942), FEBRUARY 9, 2007 RAY SMITH (A94), MARCH 1, 2003 DOLORES STRICKLAND (SF71), MARCH 16, 2007 �48 { A l u m n i Vo i c e s } Even the Dead Know No End of War A Reporter in Iraq Nelson Hernandez (A99), a reporter on the Washington Post’s Metro desk, covered the war in Iraq from late December 2005 to February 2006, and again from mid-April to mid-June 2006. The Post has assigned some Metro reporters to two-month rotations in Iraq; Hernandez was the first to volunteer. He agreed to a second rotation because his younger brother, Thomas, a Marine reservist, would be serving at the same time. “I wanted to relate to him when he got back,” Hernandez says. Hernandez interned for the newspaper while at St. John’s and joined the Post staff after graduation; he took a year of leave in 2004-05 to earn a master’s degree in history at Yale. He now covers education in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The events described in his essay took place on May 9-10, 2006. inutes after leaving the port of Umm Qasr at the southeastern tip of Iraq, the land turned to desert. The convoy sped north to Baghdad. Outside the window of a pickup truck, the earth, flat and pale and lifeless, met a dull gray-blue sky. It could be Mars. In this wasteland the road was like a river. Food and money flowed up and down it, allowing life to cling to its edges. Sometimes this took the form of thin, yellow grass that grew like peach fuzz, or mud huts with thatched roofs. Weathered men in red-checked kaffiyehs tended sheep and camels; they were as hungry and filthy as their animals. Barefoot boys ran out to the side of the road as we flew past, waving. The guards riding in the beds of the trucks, helmeted men cradling machine guns, flung ration packs to them without slowing down. That was the closest connection they had with the people of Iraq. For the private security contractor in the front passenger seat, a Welshman named Mark, every sign of life by the road was a potential threat. The mujaheddin stalk these lands. Every parked car could be a M Nelson Hernandez volunteered to cover the war in Iraq. bomb, every highway overpass an ambush and every man, woman and child a killer. The insurgents have sometimes hidden bombs in the carcasses of animals lying by the roadside. In Iraq, even the dead do not know the end of war. They made a brief stop. I walked a few yards off the road, out into a desert barren as far as the eye could see. Mark urinated on the tire of his pickup truck. “Don’t get too far away,” he warned. “We don’t know what’s out there.” The convoy was on a mission of peace. Mark and his group of British and Iraqi contractors were escorting a convoy of { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } about a dozen water trucks. The trucks were made in Texas and cost over $120,000 apiece. They were a gift from you, the American taxpayer, to the people of Iraq. Such convoys are not shepherded on their way by the military, but by an invisible army of private contractors: drivers, engineers, logistics specialists, stevedores and security men, usually former soldiers. This convoy had a journalist attached. That was me. As the sun set, we arrived at an oasis called Camp Scania. It is the major refueling stop in southern Iraq, a massive gas station run by the U.S. military. Here, �{ A l u m n i Vo i c e s } in the middle of the desert, are parked hundreds of trucks that carry supplies of every kind up and down the road. The cost of creating and maintaining this piece of America on a patch of sand across the globe is stupefying. Sophocles had a point: Many are the wonders, but none is more wondrous than man. The Iraqi drivers and guards, who made up the majority of the convoy’s crew, slept outside the base. They settled down to meals of rice and chicken, sleeping in the cabs of their trucks. The four British security men, all ex-soldiers, went inside the base and ate what was, by Iraqi standards, a delicious repast: Cornish hen, potatoes, fruit smoothies, ice cream— the base’s cafeteria was well stocked. Mark ran into another team returning from a delivery. On their way home a bomb exploded in the road, destroying one of the heavily armored pickups. The bomb was four artillery shells tied together, enough to obliterate the front half of the truck. Everyone in the truck survived unhurt—a miracle—and they showed off a picture of a man standing in the waist-deep crater left by the bomb. Hours passed in a large tent filled with cheap bunk beds. Mark watched a movie, Big Momma’s House, while another man in his team, Leon, played a video game. In the back of the tent, the other team was still talking about their close call. “You used up one of your nine lives today, lads,” one of the men said quietly. For the first time I felt a quiver of fear. I imagined what it would be like to be driving along the road one moment, and in an instant be torn apart by flying shards of jagged steel. Would it hurt? Would I have time to give a noble soliloquy or expire with an undignified groan? The feeling was fleeting. I wish I could say for you that having read the Great Books gave me some preternatural calm. It would make for a better story. War is full of such concessions to romantic imagination. But in war, the physical trumps the philosophical. So it was with me: I was too dirty and tired by that point to care about something so totally beyond my control, and so I went to sleep. At midnight, the tent began flapping madly. The air tasted like dust. Then water began flying in horizontally. Outside, a massive storm was bearing down on the camp. The tent shook savagely as the desert tried to scrub itself clean of us. Half-awake men grunted at the tent entrance, trying to seal it shut. Outside, sentries scurried for cover. Eventually they gave up and moved beds farther away from the entrance. And in half an hour, the storm blew itself out. In the morning we rode for Baghdad. The country was no longer desert. The convoy had entered the verdant valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers— the cradle of civilization, and a place more dangerous for being more habitable. The journey was tense but uneventful. When the convoy rolled into the water directorate, a large, walled compound “I imagined what it would be like to be driving along the road one moment, and in an instant be torn apart by flying shards of jagged steel. Would it hurt? Would I have time to give a noble soliloquy or expire with an undignified groan?” Nelson Hernandez (A99) with a heavy iron gate, Mark arranged the trucks in a defensive perimeter. The gate was closed, the better to protect against car bombers, and the Iraqis began slowly unloading the trucks. Mark gave the director an envelope carrying the keys to the trucks. The unsmiling director, a corpulent man with an arm in a sling, counted the keys twice, seemingly suspicious of being cheated. He refused to say anything to me. A boy walking by greeted my wave with a blank stare. We soon discovered the reason for the chilly reception. Our hosts were planning to kill us. Some time later, a rocket-propelled grenade exploded nearby. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } 49 “Get in the truck!” Leon screamed. The contractors fired back at unseen enemies as the civilians scattered, running for cover. I crawled over a pile of lunches and body armor in the truck’s back seat, lunging at the doors to close them. By the time I turned on my video camera, the shooting had reached a crescendo of long machine gun bursts and cracking rifle shots. An Iraqi guard standing in front of my truck fired his rifle wildly, clearly terrified and having no idea what to do. After this spasm of violence, the firing died down. Only the frenzied gunner atop our truck kept shooting, ripping chunks of concrete out of a nearby building. “Tell him to stop firing!” Leon yelled at the Iraqi driver. Mark ran at our car, raised his hand, and cried “Stop!” The gunner stopped shooting. Leon shouted at the frightened Iraqi contractor. “You!” He hit the truck’s horn twice to get his attention. “Get in here!” The young man did, breathing heavily and shaking as he sat next to me. As he slammed the door shut, the shooting started again. The next few minutes were a babble of urgent commands, shouting in Arabic, scratchy radio chatter, gunfire, confusion, confusion. Why were the guards shooting it out with them? Why weren’t we moving? What was going on? “Mark, are we gonna get out of here or what?” a voice over the radio pleaded. They were trapped because the gate to the complex was closed, though I did not understand that until later. Under fire, one of the British guards ran out to the gate to open it. This act of heroism allowed them to escape. The gunfire continued on the way out and down the highway. The whole engagement had lasted about five minutes. “Is everybody okay?” Mark asked over the radio. Yes. They raced past election posters and checkpoints to safety. Behind us they left two dead insurgents. Behind us they left the Iraqi truck drivers they were escorting; three or four did not make it back. Behind us they left the water trucks. All we were left with was our lives, and this memory I have related to you. Every day, as it reels past in my mind, I give thanks that the desert was so generous. x �{Alumni Association News} CHAPTER CONTACTS ALBUQUERQUE alumni@sjca.edu BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen, A77 410-472-9158 deborahwcohen@ comcast.net DALLAS/FORT WORTH Paula Fulks, SF76 817-654-2986 puffjd@swbell.net DENVER/BOULDER Tom Byrnes, SF74 720-344-6947 tbyr@pair.com MINN./ST. PAUL Carol Freeman, AGI94 612-822-3216 Freem013@umn.edu SALT LAKE CITY Erin Hanlon, SF03 916-967-2194 PHILADELPHIA Helen Zartarian, AGI86 erin_hanlon@juno.com 215-482-5697 SANTA FE helenstevezartarian@ Richard Cowles, mac.com SFGI95 505-986-1814 PHOENIX rcowles2@comcast.net Donna Kurgan, AGI96 623-444-6642 SEATTLE dakurgie@yahoo.com James Doherty, SFGI76 206-542-3441 PITTSBURGH jdoherty@mrsc.org Joanne Murray, A70 724-325-4151 SOUTH FLORIDA Joanne.Murray@ Peter Lamar, AGI95 basicisp.net 305-666-9277 cplamar@yahoo.com { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } Jason Walsh (A85) Alumni Association President SOUTHERN CALIF. Elizabeth Eastman, SFGI84 562-426-1934 e.eastman@verizon.net TRIANGLE CIRCLE, NORTH CAROLINA Elizabeth (A92) & Rick Ross (A82) 919-319-1881 Elizabeth@ activated.com ’s C ohn olle .J mn u AUSTIN Joe Reynolds, SF69 512-280-5928 jpreynolds@ austin.rr.com CHICAGO Rick Lightburn, SF76 847-922-3862 rlightburn@gmail.com SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico, A86 619-429-1565 srico@sandi.net two-thirds of the funds are from alumni, and the percentage of alumni giving has grown remarkably. These funds will support the institution through capital improvement projects (including new dormitories, a Graduate Institute center, and much-needed enhancements to buildings and grounds, especially in Santa Fe); increased endowment to support financial aid, and additional support for increases to faculty salaries. With the conclusion of the campaign approaching, the college has embarked on a broad strategic planning process. The Alumni Association, along with the Alumni Relations committee of the Board of Visitors and Governors, will be actively involved in this process to articulate the specific programs that can better support our alumni throughout their lives. These are all part of the Alumni Association’s mission to foster opportunities for more Alumni to connect more often and more richly. x Al ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin Gammon, A94 410-332-1816 emartin@crs.org NORTHERN CALIF. BOSTON Reynaldo Miranda, A99 Dianne Cowan, A91 415-333-4452 617-666-4381 reynaldo.miranda@ diannecowan@rcn.com gmail.com PORTLAND Jennifer Rychlik, SF93 503-547-0241 jlr43@coho.net Jason Walsh (A85) ge Call the alumni listed below for information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. NEW YORK CITY Daniel Van Doren, A81 914-949-6811 dvandoren@ optonline.net “We are working to expand our outreach to recent graduates...” n I n January in Santa Fe and April in Annapolis, the Alumni Association hosted our annual senior dinners with the senior class. These events offer a chance for 15-25 alumni to toast and celebrate the upcoming graduations, when students become “permanent members” of the college as alumni. We also now provide the students with brief bios of the hosting alumni. In Annapolis, a senior I spoke with was thrilled to find that she was not alone in her interest in neuroscience; she had an opportunity to meet an alumna and speak at length about her career path. This is a key first step the Association takes to help Johnnies in the transition from the warm confines of the campuses to the seemingly daunting world. We are working to expand our outreach to recent graduates (more than 50 percent of our alumni have graduated in the last two decades), through programs tailored to appeal to Johnnies beginning their lives and careers, and who often want to take a break from seminar readings. In New York for many years we’ve had a recent graduates’ reception each fall, where newly arrived alumni can reconnect with classmates and meet alumni established in the region. This year in Portland, Oregon, and New York City, we’ve begun chapter “bar nights,” open to all but sponsored by the Recent Graduates group leaders and at very casual locations that help build a community of younger alums in these cities. On the campuses, we’ve been working to enhance the events welcoming alumni back, for both intellectual and social pursuits. This spring we introduced the “Piraeus” program, several long-weekends of alumni seminars. Within two months after announcing the program, the first April weekend was a terrific success and the June and January 2008 weekends had filled to capacity. A waitlist has begun with the possibility of opening a second set of seminars to satisfy alumni demand for those weekends. In addition, we are working as advocates for the alumni community as the college develops its strategic plan. In 2008, the college will conclude its most successful capital campaign in St. John’s history. The tremendous success is overwhelmingly due to the contributions of alumni. About WASHINGTON, DC Deborah Papier, A72 202-387-4520 dpapier@verizon.net WESTERN NEW ENGLAND Peter Weis, SF84 413-367-2174 peter_weis@ nmhschool.org io From the Alumni Association President St 50 i A s s o cia t Providing opportunities for more alumni to connect more often and more richly �{Alumni Association News} Celebrating Chicago In a Cultural Mecca, a Chapter Thrives by Patricia Dempsey In his rare free time when he isn’t providing video and editorial content from the Midwest for ABC news, including shows such as “Good Morning America” and “World News,” television producer Kevin Kraus (A82) reads reams of newspapers, periodicals, and online reports. Yet Kraus, one of five Chicago chapter officers, says, “It’s a different experience to read Plato or Thomas Mann. The news-related material isn’t truly thought-provoking.” Kraus, who moved to Chicago six years ago from southern Florida, where at that time there was no alumni chapter, says he was “starved for substantial reading and conversation.” The long-established (since 1982) Chicago chapter offered him both – and a chance to share his love of architecture with fellow Johnnies who live in this urban cultural Mecca. In 2005 Kraus helped organize a well-attended chapter visit to his “favorite building in America,” the Farnsworth House by architect Mies van der Rohe. For another event, the group visited the late 19th-century Auditorium Building, which houses a National Historic Landmark, the Auditorium Theater. While the chapter members do not usually have a formal seminar on the architectural sites they visit, they do typically “duck into a restaurant afterwards to talk about it,” says Kraus. “We’re all architecture junkies,” says Rick Lightburn (SF76), current Chicago chapter president and a self-employed marketing strategist for consumer groups. “In August, we have an annual potluck picnic and business meeting. We have it with the Grant Park Music Festival held downtown in Millennium Park, beneath a fabulous trellis designed by Frank Gehry.” These architectural jaunts complement the traditional seminars that focus on readings as diverse as the city itself. “This fall we’re hoping to start the year with a children’s literature piece. We also try to relate to events in this fabulous city,” says Lightburn. “For instance we had a science reading on Mendel’s paper and tied this to a visit to an exhibit on Mendel’s research at the Field Museum.” Along with Kraus and Lightburn, readings are suggested by chapter officers Elizabeth Long (A86), a University of Chicago librarian and an artist; Barbara Schmittel (A76), a librarian for the city of Chicago; and Paul Frank (SF82), an editor at the American Medical Association. The chapter hosts most of its monthly seminars on Sunday afternoons at The Great Books Foundation, where Don Whitfield (SF68, SFGI84) is the director of college programs. “Don was one of the rugged pioneers who attended Santa Fe in the early years and he very kindly allows us to use rooms at the foundation,” says Lightburn. Typically, about a dozen Johnnies attend the seminars. “We always have more, of course, when Class of 2007 members, now alumni: from left, Eric Torgerson, a tutor is here to lead Christopher Bea, Andrew Romiti, John Dodge, Lee Branner. it,” says Lightburn. Senior Dinners { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } 51 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 (SFGI95) 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. In April the chapter hosted a seminar on Plato’s Phaedo, led by Annapolis tutor Robert Druecker. Lightburn says Druecker first led the chapter in a seminar two years ago in a reading from Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, and they were delighted to have him back. The seminar on Plato’s Phaedo used the translation by Eva Brann, Peter Kalkavage, and Eric Salem. Among those who attended are younger members including Stassia Sullivan (SF06), Grae Drake (SF05) and Tom Hammerman (A93). The Chicago chapter officers seek to attract more young members, but they realize young alumni don’t have the time to commit; they’re busy establishing careers and raising families. Lightburn, who is self-employed and has a more flexible schedule than his fellow officers, serves as the chapter’s de facto president. “We have a revolving group of officers,” he explains. “We shared the responsibility of president except for Paul [Frank], who was doing such a good job as treasurer it made sense for him to continue. None of us really wanted to be chapter president because we didn’t have the time. I became de facto president, but how would we like our future president to be chosen? That’s been established in our bylaws. Those are online on the Alumni Web site, for everyone to see and use for other chapters.” x �52 greenfield library {St. John’s Forever} Seventy Years of Genuine Conversation I n the summer of 1937, Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan arrived in Annapolis, preparing to launch a “radical” new academic program at a small college that had lost its accreditation and teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Neither of the two men, according to various reports, wished to be president. However, Barr proved very good at it: telling the St. John’s story to outside audiences and to the media, wooing prospective donors and foundation executives, and working with Maryland’s legislature and the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors to set the college on firm ground. Far from a figurehead, Barr always made time to be part of the community of learners, as Charles Nelson (class of 1944) writes in Stringfellow Barr: A Centennial Appreciation of His Life and Work: “…Barr, despite the heavy travel and speaking schedule, regularly led seminars, tutored in Greek and French, and could often be found in the coffee shop to converse with students and tutors about the coming war, the relevance to the European crisis of the Melian Conference in Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War, or perhaps the meaning of the allegory of the cave in Plato’s Republic.” { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } After leaving St. John’s in 1946, following a successful fight to protect the college from annexation by the Navy, Barr joined Buchanan in attempting to establish another college based on the St. John’s model; however, their efforts did not come to fruition. Barr later served as president of the Foundation for World Government, taught at the University of Virginia and at Rutgers, and later was a fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in California. He died 25 years ago, in Alexandria, Virginia. x �{Alumni Events Calendar} Alumni Calendar Santa Fe Homecoming 2007 September 14-16 Annapolis Homecoming 2007 September 28-October 1 Friday, September 14 9 a.m. Dixon Studio and Winery tour Friday, September 28 1 to 6 p.m. Water activities (sailing, boating) 3 p.m. Registration 12 p.m.Lunch 12 p.m. Classes of the ’30s and ’40s luncheon 1 to 5 p.m. Activities for children 2 p.m. Freshman chorus, Revisited Wine and cheese reception for alumni, tutors, GIs, and undergraduate upperclassmen to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Graduate Institute 4 to 8 p.m. Registration 3 p.m. Mitchell Gallery tour 5 p.m.Barbecue for the Class of 1982 4 p.m. Alumni booksigning 5 p.m. Dinner for the classes of the ’30s and ’40s 4 p.m. Soccer Classic 5:30 p.m. 40th Anniversary Celebration for the Graduate Institute 5:45 p.m. Fiftieth Reunion Dinner for the Class of 1957 8 p.m. Homecoming lecture 6 p.m. Welcome reception for Graduate Institute 7:30 p.m. Alumni Association Banquet Evening Waltz/Swing Party and Rock Party 10 p.m. Coffee Cabaret & open mic 8:15 p.m. Homecoming Lecture Saturday, September 15 8 a.m. Yoga 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Registration 6 p.m. Cocktail party Sunday, October 1 11 a.m. President’s brunch Rock Party 1 to 5 p.m. Water activities 10:30 a.m. Seminars Saturday, September 29 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Registration 12 p.m. Fiesta Picnic 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Water activities 1 p.m. Search and Rescue Team open house 9:30 to 10:15 a.m. Breakfast and AllAlumni Meeting 1:30 p.m. Family nature hike around Monte Sol or a hike to Atalaya Mountain Peak 10:30 a.m. Seminars Questions For more information about Homecoming logistics, details, and events, contact the alumni office at 410-626-2531 or alumni@sjca.edu. 2 p.m. Family Fun afternoon 5 p.m. “Speaking Volumes” lecture 6 p.m. Seventh Annual All-Alumni Art Show and Reception 7 p.m. Homecoming dinner dance Sunday, September 16 8 a.m. Yoga 11 a.m. President’s Brunch Joanna Stone (A07), her husband Donald Stone (A06), and Travis Price (A71) at the Washington, D.C., campaign event in April. Back cover photo by Chelsea Stiegman { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } �P ERIODICALS P OSTAGE PAID P UBLISHED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE P.O. BOX 2800 A NNAPOLIS , MARYLAND 21404 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED � 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 52 pages 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/. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Title A name given to the resource The College, Spring 2007 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Description An account of the resource Volume 33, Issue 2 of <em>The College</em> Magazine. Published in Spring 2007. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The_College_Magazine_Spring_2007 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/bdfc052da98e9e97ae9ae80e313a568f.pdf 58f0edd59f72f9003d7f369d586479b6 PDF Text Text The College St. John’s College • Annapolis • Santa Fe Tocqueville and Modern America F a l l 2 0 0 7 �On Tocqueville The College (usps 018-750) “I confess that in America I saw more than America; I sought there an image of democracy itself, of its penchants, its character, its prejudices, its passions; I wanted to become acquainted with it only to know at least what we ought to hope or fear from it.” A lexis de Tocqueville’s detailed observations raise such interesting questions for seminar discussions: Do Americans value equality over freedom? Are laws unstable unless they are rooted in the customs and traditions of a society? Is the tyranny of the majority a threat to democracy? Although Tocqueville began his travels in America 176 years ago, so many of his ideas seem relevant today. They prompt us to consider what has changed, what remains constant, and how we think about the American character. Born into an aristocratic family (his father narrowly escaped execution during the Terror), Tocqueville was serving as a magistrate in Versailles when he and his good friend, Gustave de Beaumont, developed the idea to visit America to investigate its penal system. Not long after he landed on American shores in 1831, Tocqueville knew he had found much more to write about in the vast, wild, and complex young country he explored. His letters home were full of his adventures with Beaumont: getting the celebrity treatment in New York, witnessing Chocktaw Indians being driven off their land in the South, nearly perishing in a riverboat accident, and visiting Andrew Jackson in the White House. Tocqueville wrote about prisons when he returned to France, but it was his great work Democracy in America that endures. Tocqueville was critical of America in many ways. He perceived that the country had no great writers, had “good workers and few inventors,” ambitious men but “so few great ambitions,” and bombastic orators. Critics of modern society might agree the Americans are too concerned with material worth, as Tocqueville noted with great disdain in the early 19th century: “The inhabitant of the United States attaches himself to the goods of this world as if he were assured of not dying, and he rushes so precipitately to grasp those that pass within his reach that one would say he fears at each instant he will cease to live before he has enjoyed them.” After publishing Democracy in America, Tocqueville went on to a political career. He married Mary Mottley, a middle-class Englishwoman. He suffered through long bouts of illness in his later years and succumbed to tuberculosis on April 16, 1859. In this issue of The College, Johnnies in many walks of life consider his ideas in light of their own work. A young foreign service officer on her way to Burma, where recent demonstrations for freedom were brutally squashed, offers her views. It’s also interesting to hear from a county councilman who, like the New England township leaders who Tocqueville observed in action, believes that local government can make a difference in the everyday lives of its citizens. is published quarterly 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 postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. Rosemary Harty, editor Patricia Dempsey, managing editor Gail Griffith, Jenny Hannifin Santa Fe editors Jennifer Behrens, art director Annapolis 410-626-2539 Santa Fe 505-984-6104 Contributors Caroline Caldwell (SF08) Barbara Goyette (A73) Deborah Spiegelman Susan Swier (AGI06) Krishnan Venkatesh Kea Wilson (A09) —RH Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �Fa l l 2 0 0 7 Vo l u m e 3 3 , I s s u e 3 The College The Magazine for Alumni of St. John’s College Annapolis • Santa Fe {Contents} 8 Commencement, East and West d e p a r t m e n t s page 2 • Remembering Jeffrey Bishop Ariel and Hodson intern adventures Research at 40,000 feet Probing the mysteries of space A groundbreaking ceremony in Santa Fe Celebrating a year for the record books News and announcements 7 letters 32 bibliofile • • • In Santa Fe, celebrating the oral tradition; in Annapolis, pondering a brave new world. • • • 10 “With a Clear and Single Purpose” from the bell towers page page 10 Like Virgil leading Dante, tutors serve as able guides of the Program. A look at how the college views the needs of its faculty. Travis Price (A71) explores the “ethnosphere” in The Archaeology of Tomorrow: Architecture and the Spirit of Place. 16 Saving New Orleans page It will take more than rebuilding homes to put this damaged city back together, says writer and death penalty lawyer Billy Sothern (A98). 36 P RO F I L E S 36 Dr. James Jarvis (A75) is discovering links page 16 24 Tocqueville Revisited page How does Tocqueville’s account of America hold up in the 21st century? Johnnies ponder his observations through the lens of their careers. 34 Homecoming alumni between the environment and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. 40 Myra Kien (SF88) established a nonprofit program that gets young women dancing, talking about their lives, and thinking about their future. 45 Doctoral student Andy Mead (SF04) took to the road last summer to bring attention to juvenile diabetes. 46 49 page page 24 50 52 They came, they gossiped, they ate crabs, and they brought the kids. on the cover Alexis de Tocqueville Illustration by David Johnson alumni voices return to shanxi alumni association news st. john’s forever �2 {From the Bell Towers} A Man Who Made a Difference Jeffrey Bishop (1947-2007) It was an extremely fortunate occurrence for St. John’s College—always greatly admired, always struggling financially—that Jeffrey Bishop (HA87) and the college found each other. As a Philadelphiabased fundraising consultant, Mr. Bishop came to Annapolis to analyze the college’s development efforts. Bill Dyal, then president, was so impressed that he invited him to come to Annapolis to carry out the development plan he proposed. Mr. Bishop served St. John’s for two decades, putting the college on more solid financial footing than ever before. Mr. Bishop lost an 11-year battle with kidney cancer on Saturday, July 7, 2007. At the He savored everything that life had to offer. time of his death, he was vice president for collegewide advancement, a position he held for five years. Before that, he served for 15 years as vice president for advancement in Annapolis. In his collegewide post, he coordinated development for the two campuses and focused his efforts on the most ambitious fundraising project in the college’s history. Mr. Bishop’s first major undertaking was “The Campaign for our Fourth Century,” at the time, the college’s most successful fundraising campaign ever, raising $35 million by 1996. Along with other key goals, it allowed the college to create the Greenfield Library out of the building that once housed Maryland’s Hall of Records. He was the architect of the current $125 million capital campaign which has provided funding for the renovation of Mellon Hall, the construction of Gilliam and Spector halls, and substantial increases in funding for student financial aid, faculty development, and tutor salaries. One of his goals was to get the college endowment to $100 million. The endowment reached that mark in 2006, almost a ten-fold increase from when he started at the college in 1987. Mr. Bishop welcomed challenges—the bigger the better. In 1993, he convinced friends and colleagues including Annapolis President Christopher Nelson (SF70), college athletic director Leo Pickens (A78), and former Santa Fe vice president Jeff Morgan to bike from Santa Fe to Annapolis. At the trip’s end, they were given a hero’s welcome on campus and crowned with laurel leaves. In his 20 years with St. John’s, Jeffrey Bishop never passed up a challenge, including a 2,000-mile bicycle trek from the Santa Fe campus to Annapolis in 1993 with colleagues including Annapolis President Christopher Nelson (left). { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } Two years later, Mr. Bishop completed the grueling ParisBrest-Paris bicycle race. He savored everything that life had to offer, especially spending time with friends. In 2004 he fulfilled a personal dream by purchasing a vineyard in southwestern France. He traveled to the vineyard numerous times to help with the harvest and production of his wine, Sanglier Volant. With a charming smile and a genuine interest in others, Mr. Bishop rallied people behind his causes. He loved the college and its people. His degree was from the prestigious Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, but he was most proud of being an honorary alumnus of St. John’s. At Homecoming in September, the Alumni Association honored him posthumously with its Alumni Award of Merit. Mr. Bishop is survived by his wife, Susan McDonough Bishop (AGI99); his daughter Lauren (A99) and son-in-law Michael Campuzano; his daughter March; his sister, Cindi Macomber; and three nieces and nephews. x �{From the Bell Towers} Beyond the Program Last summer, Remy Maelen (left) explored the publishing world; Jon Kara Sylvester-Johnson established a life review program at a Virginia hospice. Through Ariel Internships in Santa Fe and Hodson Internships in Annapolis, Johnnies devote a summer to exploring future careers and broadening their experiences. victoria smith Devoting Attention to Detail Each morning last summer, Remy Maelen (SF09) entered the sanctuary of Green Lion Press in Santa Fe and considered how to approach the day: work on diagrams, set type, edit, research. Whatever she decided, she knew the task ahead would require painstaking attention to detail. The press, located in the home of press co-directors Dana Densmore and William Donahue, is especially conducive to quiet, focused work. Green Lion specializes in publishing classic texts in the history of science and mathematics. Johnnies are familiar with their editions of Program works, Euclid’s Elements and Aristotle’s Metaphysics among them. Maelen spent much of her summer working with Donahue on a new edition of his English translation of Kepler’s Astronomia Nova, originally published by Cambridge University Press in 1992 but now out of print. “Kepler was very meticulous,” Maelen says. For example, “when he used italics he was writing as a mathematician,” she explains, whereas non-italicized text signals Kepler the philosopher. She started delving into data files from the first edition in order to convert Cambridge’s typesetting codes into those conforming to Green Lion’s typesetting program. She was involved in nearly every aspect of preparing this second 3 edition, from replicating Kepler’s diagrams using professional computer drawing programs to suggesting improvements in the text. “I didn’t realize what an important job I’d be doing, actually having an impact on the words in the book,” she says. “I’ve come to learn the philosophy of the press, getting the text across as it was intended.” Presentation—the layout of each page of a book—is essential to communicating words and ideas, Maelen says. She predicts that her own creative writing will benefit from this understanding. “I’ve learned so many things about myself that I wouldn’t have had access to,” she says. — Deborah Spiegelman Listening to Life Stories One of the best skills that St. John’s students develop is the ability to truly listen to other points of view. But few students are given the opportunity to apply that skill in so meaningful a way as Jon Kara Sylvester-Johnson (A08), who spent last summer recording the stories of terminally ill patients in the care of Good Samaritan Hospice in Virginia. After observing the care her grandmother received in a hospice program several years ago, Sylvester-Johnson was moved by the alternative model of treatment offered by palliative medicine and challenged by the question of how hospice centers could offer patients comparable spiritual care. “I really came to terms with the idea of not using extreme lifesaving measures and the kind of sensitivity it takes to be in a situation where [one has to make] those kinds of choices,” she says. It was that sensitivity to the spiritual life of hospice patients that drew Sylvester-Johnson to the Pastoral Services department at Good Samaritan Hospice in her hometown of Roanoke, Va. But it was only by chance that the hospice had recently received a donation to create Memory Catchers, a “life review” program that allows patients to reflect on their lives and record their stories. With funding from the Hodson Internship Program, Sylvester-Johnson was hired to develop the project. After researching life review programs around the country and reviewing psychological studies that underlie the practice, Sylvester-Johnson and her mentor, the hospice’s Spiritual Director Marvin Barbre, introduced Memory Catchers. During the next two months, { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } she acquired audio equipment, wrote the program’s guidelines, trained volunteers, informed nurses and social workers, and began a comprehensive archive of patient testimonials. But the most challenging part of her internship, she says, was conducting the interviews. Rather than beginning with a list of questions, SylvesterJohnson tailored each visit to the individual’s needs. “Sometimes if a patient has a small child, you can have a message recorded for that child for when they’re older,” she says. “We had one patient we wanted to record singing. Some of them just want to have a conversation with you.” As she returns to the seminar table for her senior year, Sylvester-Johnson is engaging in different types of conversations. But listening to the final testimonials of hospice patients has reminded her that at St. John’s, “there has to be an element of self-exploration about what we do, as opposed to just what we think. If not, she adds, “our education is no more valuable than [that of] any other liberal arts college in the country.” — Kea Wilson (A09) �4 {From the Bell Towers} Flying High Santa Fe Student Conducts Research in the Stratosphere On July 27, Michael Curry (SF09) became the first undergraduate college student to fly on the National Science Foundation’s HIAPER Gulfstream-V research aircraft. HIAPER, which stands for Highperformance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research, is a new “flying laboratory.” Curry’s task was to help test a new laser-based moisture instrument during a nine-hour flight from Colorado to the central Gulf of Mexico and back. Scientists sampled conditions ranging from the marine atmosphere over the Gulf of Mexico to stratospheric conditions near 47,000 feet. In contrast, most commercial aircraft fly around 35,000 feet, on rare occasions climbing to 40,000 feet. The purpose of the research is to develop better moisture measurements for weather and climate prediction. Curry was part of a team of about a dozen scientists testing new instruments for the aircraft. The opportunity to join the expedition came about because Curry was working as a National Science Foundation REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) intern under the supervision of Mark Zondlo, a senior research scientist at Southwest Sciences, Inc. Curry was the second Johnnie to spend a fruitful summer at Tracking Gamma-Rays Annapolis Tutor Part of NASA Project Sometime next spring, when NASA launches a powerful new space telescope, Annapolis tutor Jim Beall can claim a piece of this effort to illuminate some of the most persistent mysteries of the universe. An astrophysicist, Beall spends part of his time away from St. John’s at the E.O. Hulburt Center for Space Research at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where his own curiosity about space is directed toward long-running research projects. The Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is quite different from the telescopes at the college observatory. This instrument will measure gamma-rays, the highest energy form of electromagnetic radiation, in an effort to understand more about pheonomena such as quasars, pulsars, and black holes. As part of a team of scientists working at universities and research centers all over the country, Beall has been helping to develop computers that can determine the direction of gamma-rays and convert data into a map in gamma-ray light. In the 1990s, Beall worked on ARGOS, a satellite data collection system with computers that were the forerunners to those on GLAST. The challenge of this project, Beall says, is developing fast computers that can operate in the radiation of space. Scientists can then convert data collected from the computers into an image of gamma-rays in the night sky. Active galaxies and quasars emit other frequencies as well, such as radio and optical light. Southwest Sciences, which is based in Santa Fe. Last year, Kate Brubaker (SF07) conducted similar studies with Zondlo.x Michael Curry’s summer internship included a research project aboard a flying laboratory for atmospheric science. Scientists can determine the physical parameters of the sources by combining radio and optical light with the detected gamma-rays in order to “see” the energy distribution over the entire electromagnetic spectrum. “The actual sources of the gamma-rays can change in brightness,” he says. “This means that the image changes as a function of time, so we have to construct a time history as well as a complete spectrum from the data. This is then used to determine the source parameters, and ultimately to tell what causes the emission from black holes and quasars.” As part of the GLAST project, Beall has also been conducting research on jets— columns of material sent out from the cores of active galaxies or quasars, much like a jet of water from a fire hose. Over the past 25 years, astrophysicists have learned that much of the radiation detected from quasars comes from bi-directional jets emitted from black holes. For much of those 25 years, Beall has been conducting research to understand the nature of these jets and how they affect the region near the quasars. “If we understand how these jets affect the regions near the cores of quasars, we can perhaps tell what the jets are made of,” says Beall. “This can ultimately allow us to speculate on how these jets are produced, a problem (among many others) that we have not solved to anyone’s satisfaction.” At St. John’s, Beall mentors students interested in astronomy and astrophysics, and has helped them to secure internships and apply to graduate schools. Erin Bonning (A97), who worked at the Naval Research Laboratory for two years before going off to earn a doctorate in general relativity, is now an astronomer at the Observatory of Paris at Meudon. x { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �{From the Bell Towers} jane phillips Last July, Dr. Norman Levan (SFGI74), a physician in Sacramento, Calif., gave the college a $5 million gift, announced during the Santa Fe kickoff of the college’s $125 million capital campaign. Exactly a year later, Dr. Levan joined members of the college community in a ceremonial groundbreaking for the center for the Graduate Institute that will bear his name. The Norman and Betty Levan Hall will house classrooms, offices and common rooms for the institute. Dr. Levan is a professor emeritus and former chief of dermatology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, where he earned his medical degree. He took time off to spend a summer at the institute, just to investigate the program, and found it so gratifying that he kept coming back.“The Graduate Institute changed my life,” he said in announcing his gift. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on the building site, located between Weigle Hall and the Fine Arts Building. More than a hundred people attended the ceremony. “We are honored by Dr. Levan’s affiliation with us and our unique brand of education,” said Michael Peters, president of the Santa Fe campus. Campaign Chairman Ron Fielding (A70) spoke to how Dr. Levan’s gift will serve the campus and future generations jane phillips Breaking Ground in Santa Fe A Remarkable Year Perhaps two great myths about St. John’s College and fundraising can be put to rest forever: St. John’s doesn’t like to ask alumni for money, and alumni don’t like to be asked for money. The evidence suggests otherwise: • In 2006-07, the college recorded its most successful fundraising year ever, raising $19,404,889 in gifts to the college’s $125 million capital campaign by the close of the fiscal year on June 30, 2007. 5 Fifty-four percent of the gifts came from alumni. • As part of the campaign, alumni gave more to the Annual Fund than ever before, exceeding the $2.89 million goal by about two percent. • The total number of alumni gifts to the college has climbed significantly over the past seven years. In the last fiscal year, alumni made 3,004 gifts to the college, compared to about 2,000 gifts in the year 2000. of Graduate Institute students. “One of the major priorities of the capital campaign is to fund building projects, and in that regard, the new Norman and Betty Levan Hall is a jewel in the campaign crown.” Dr. Levan joined Board of Visitors and Governors Chairman Sharon Bishop (Class of 1965), Annapolis President Christopher Nelson (SF70), Santa Fe Dean Victoria Mora, Mr. Peters, and Mr. Fielding in the ground-breaking ceremony. Under tents on Meem Placita, accompanied by a monsoon • In the summer of 2008, the college expects to announce a successful conclusion to the capital campaign, with a total of $119.2 million in gifts and pledges raised as of October 1, 2007. • Not only do the college’s 8,300 alumni believe in supporting the college financially, but alumni themselves are also doing more to support the college’s advancement efforts. Philanthropia, the alumni development council, has spearheaded a number of successful peerto-peer efforts to inform { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } Dr. Norman Levan (third from right and below) helped break ground for the new Graduate Institute center in Santa Fe. rain, speeches and toasts were offered to Dr. Levan. His own words were brief, as he explained that at the Graduate Institute he found a place to nurture his desire to be a lifelong learner. —Jenny Hannifin alumni about the college’s financial needs and to boost support for the Annual Fund. With Philanthropia’s help, the college hopes to reach a new set of goals for the 2007-08 fiscal year, guaranteeing a successful end to the campaign. This year the mark is set at 40 percent giving and at least 3,400 gifts made. For more information about Philanthropia and how you can help, visit the college Web site: www.stjohnscollege.edu.x �6 {From the Bell Towers} News & Announcements Connecting Fine Arts and Liberal Arts Jut a few days after commencement in May, Luke Kirkland (SF07) and Chelsea Batten (A07) found themselves transported from the halls of St. John’s to the studio of sculptor Greg Wyatt in the former crypt of St. John the Divine in New York City. It was only their first stop on the National Endowment for the Arts’ inaugural Visual Arts/Liberal Arts workshop, which would take the two graduates from New York to Europe for a month-long program. Santa Fe tutor Grant Franks (A77) and Annapolis tutor Patricia Locke were among the scholars and artists who designed the workshop, created to deepen the connections between the liberal arts and the fine arts. The experience centered on in-depth study of European writers and artists, with a special focus on the works of Shakespeare and Rembrandt. Participants were flown to Europe to sculpt alongside the works of Monet in the gardens of Giverny, study Rembrandt in Amsterdam, and discuss King Lear in the theaters of Stratford-on-Avon. Six liberal arts students were selected to participate in the program, as well as six students studying visual arts or theatre. Regardless of their artistic inclinations, all students were required to pick up a paintbrush and attempt to replicate Rembrandt’s colors. Similarly, the young artists were required to sit at a seminar table to discuss Macbeth with liberal arts students. For Kirkland, the workshop was much more than a jaunt to Europe. “Exposure to and engagement with the tangible, with the explicit and physical reality of Rembrandt’s work was a great exercise after the intellectual work of St. John’s,” he says. Franks observed that the fine arts students also benefited by discussing texts in seminars. Through modeling “hands-on, interdisciplinary, discussionbased and self-motivated learning in the presence of classics, St. John’s certainly made its mark,” he said. Brooklyn College Honors Eva Brann At commencement ceremonies last May, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York honored tutor Eva Brann (HA86) with its Distinguished Alumna Service Medal. In accepting her award, Miss Brann noted a memorable teacher at Brooklyn College, Alice Kober, her professor for Classics 101. The course had a bad beginning when Miss Brann flunked her first exam, on Homer. “It took me down some and then sat me down to my assigned reading,” she said. “And so I discovered Homer and began to attend to the unflamboyant fire of her classroom talk. I had no idea that she was a world-famous pioneer in the decipherment of the writing of Homer’s heroes. But I became a classics major, eventually an archeologist.” New Tutors, Annapolis The Annapolis campus welcomed two new tutors this fall: Amanda Printz has a BA from Guilford College and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Southern California. She was a teaching assistant at USC from 20002005. Gregory Recco has a BA from SUNY at Stony Brook and a PhD in Philosophy from Pennsylvania State University. He was a graduate instructor at Penn State from 1996-2003 and an assistant professor of Philosophy at Skidmore College from 2003-07. New Staff Maggie Melson has joined the Annapolis staff as special assistant to President Christopher Nelson (SF70). She joins the college from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., where she was director of external relations. Melson will act as a liaison to staff, faculty, students, and the wider community. Luke Kirkland (SF07) presents his work during an NEAsponsored workshop last summer. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } Faculty News Tutor emeritus Curtis Wilson of the Annapolis campus took part in an August workshop marking the 300th anniversary of the work of Leonhard Euler, the l8th-century, Swiss-born mathematician. Held at the Mathematical Research Institute at Oberwolfach in Germany’s Black Forest, the five-day gathering brought scholars from around the world. Wilson spoke on Euler’s influence in the development of celestial mechanics. Wilson also contributed to a collection of essays titled Leonhard Euler: Life, Work, and Legacy, written by Euler scholars from seven countries and published earlier this year by the Elsevier Press. Wilson’s chapter is entitled “Euler and the Application of Analytical Mathematics in Astronomy.” Class Gift Update The Santa Fe Class of 2004 has made progress in its ambitious plan to present the Santa Fe campus with an operational replica of 16th-century astronomer Tycho Brahe’s armillary sphere. The class began with $6,000 at the end of May 2004, and the collegemanaged account now totals $26,800. The class needs to raise at least $100,000. The committee plans to work with artist David Harber to design and construct the 1.5-meter equatorial armillary sphere. As both a scientific instrument and a sculpture, the sphere will serve as a symbol and as a reminder of the unity of the sciences and the humanities. To find out more about the project, please visit the SF04 Armillary Sphere Project homepage on SJC Alumni website (http://alumni.stjohnscollege. edu) or contact the committee at armillarysphere@alumni. stjohnscollege.edu. x �7 {Letters} Music in the 1940s This is a slight quibble over your article “Sing Goddess” on music and the Program (Spring 2007). It leaves the impression that prior to 1949, thanks to their indifference to music, the founders of the Program had created a barren, music-less wasteland. While it is certainly true that music did not become “a formal part” of the Program in those early years, it was present in a number of ways. First, because music is one of the quadrivium, in several of the most quixotic of the early laboratory classes there was a study of sound, music and their relationship to astronomy. Second, tutor Nicholas Nabokov recruited, conducted, and gave concerts with a student chorus throughout the war. He had been recruited by Buchanan especially for his musical abilities. Finally, Buchanan scheduled several concerts as formal lectures during the year. As students during the forties, we were privileged to hear several topnotch chamber groups. . . . I don’t want to detract an iota from the magnificent contributions of Victor Zuckerkandl and Douglas Allanbrook in making music an integral part of the program. It is just that the forties were not quite a musical wasteland, and our esteemed founders did, indeed, have an appreciation for music. George M. Van Sant (Class of 1947) Musical Dimensions I read with interest The College articles on the music curriculum [Spring 2007], mulling over the tutors’ struggles with that part of the Program, and reflecting on my student experience and on my subsequent work as a scholar librarian of music. I have three observations. One is that many tutors who are passionate about music are also inarticulate according the conventions of Program study and discussion. The result often is they make the subject of music seem mystifying to their colleagues and students. . . . Peter Pesic’s contribution, “A Dialogue Between Ancients and Moderns,” is beautiful, but I doubt it is understandable to half of the college faculty. A second observation is that there seems to be an assumption, shared by many faculty, that one has to sing or perform music well in order to discuss music. According to that logic, one has to draw well in order to discuss geometry and its visual figures. To be sure, good drawing skills and singing practice may increase a student’s disposition for learning geometry and music. But in math tutorial practice, plane lines are rarely drawn straight on the chalkboard; nonetheless, the demonstrations are executed well enough to proceed from one proof to the next. Everyone should have the same confidence for learning in the music tutorial, even if their performing abilities are as bad as their drawing skills. The third is the trepidation that many of the quoted faculty feel, using words like “worry,” “scary,” the need to feel “more comfortable” . . . leading tutorials on music. All faculty should feel the same trepidation for every seminar and tutorial they supervise, not just for music. This is the very trepidation for the immeasurable task of education that Jacob Klein expressed before delivering several of his Friday night lectures. In my thoughts, I begin with music as a perceptible if intangible entity. Then the first question that I ask is, “What are the dimensions of music?” From my research, I have to come to think there are three: melody (including time, rhythm, and words [that may be likened in notation to linear length]); harmony (that may be likened in notation to spatial width); and tone (including timbre and volume [that may be likened to depth, which is very difficult to render in notation]). There may be another dynamic, perhaps unnamed dimension of music suggested by the phenomenon of harmonic overtones. As an audio-time art, music is too imperfect to demonstrate its properties through demonstrative propositions in the manner of Euclid. But . . . the identification of dimensions may enable some elements, postulates, axioms, and quantitative measures that could serve towards a foundation of reasoned, indeed “musical” study and discussion, as tools with which to examine examples of music of varying kinds and origins, and as bases of assessment of the various writings of music theory and performance practice, including the kind of dialogue between Grand View and Practical View that Elliot Zuckerman well describes in his article. Perhaps one may use the conventions acquired in freshman math of discussing planes and solids in order to discuss music according to its dimensional characteristics and properties. I conclude from last issue’s articles that sober, reasoned work has yet to be done on the music tutorial. . . . Edward Komara (A88) Remembering Music Your article “ ‘Sing, Goddess’: Music and the Program” suggests further research is needed in the teaching of music at St. John’s College before 1949. Certainly there were experts in music then. The composer Elliott Carter was a tutor, 1939-41, and Nicolas Nabokov 1941-44. Carter, whom I’ve had the great pleasure of meeting, told me--or maybe it was Victor Zuckerkandl—that music was studied somehow by looking at scores. Meanwhile, it’s good to learn that Zuckerkandl’s writing is now part of the prescribed canon. Carter’s exciting and distinguished music should also be. Eyvind Ronquist (Class of 1961) { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Spring 2007 } Preparing Tutors The Spring 2007 article on the music program managed to convey much of its richness and complexity, as well as the challenge it poses to our commitment to teach and to learn across the full range of the liberal arts. I would like to offer one small clarification. Since the most recent revision of the Annapolis music tutorial by Elizabeth Blettner, with help from Michael Littleton, Peter Kalkavage, Bill Pastille, Tom May and others, more tutors have taught the tutorial for the first time than during any previous comparable period. Nonetheless, many tutors still find the challenge formidable and feel the need of assistance and encouragement to undertake it. Michael Dink (A75) Dean, Annapolis Not the First Lady I enjoyed your coverage of the 25th St. John’s-Navy croquet match, but I did want to correct a couple of details. First of all, I do not go (nor have I ever gone) by the title of “First Lady Wicket.” And while John Ertle was the Imperial Wicket in the first intercollegiate match, he was not the first Imperial Wicket for St. John’s. He inherited the title from Johnny Schiavo (A81), and there were others before him. John prefers the title of Imperial Wicket Emeritus, bestowed upon him by the Delegate Council in 1984. Finally, the unidentified “young boy” in your picture is our younger son David. Kathy Oggins Ertle (A84) Correction: In the article “Pop Johnnies,” (Spring 2007) a quote by Ayn Rand on art as a “selective re-creation of reality according to an artist’s metaphysical value judgments” was mistakenly attributed to Marcel Proust. Send letters to The College at reharty.sjca.edu, or mail to 60 College Ave., Annapolis, MD 21401. �{Commencement} 8 COMMENCEMENT “When Dogs Could Talk” photos by teri thomson randall N. Scott Momaday, author, poet, playwright, painter, and storyteller, gave the commencement address in Santa Fe on May 19. One hundred six undergraduates and 25 Graduate Institute students received their degrees. A member of the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors, Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969 for his first novel, House Made of Dawn. In his 1976 book, The Way to Rainy Mountain, Momaday combines stories of Kiowa Indian myth and history with his own personal reminiscences. Momaday’s address, “When Dogs Could Talk: Among Words in a State of Grace,” described the history and characteristics of words in the oral tradition. Drawing his title from an expression used by Kiowa elders to refer to an event that happened long ago, Momaday explored the mystery inherent in one of mankind’s oldest art forms, the oral tradition. Although modern literature has come to comfortably inhabit the world of the written word, Momaday argued that the oral tradition has not died, suggesting instead that “to the extent that the deepest belief in the efficacy of language survives, it survives in the oral tradition.” In contemporary Western civilization, however, it is a dimension of language that is frequently neglected. He reminded the audience that “more than half the population of the world does without writing at this moment in time.” The oral tradition is present even within written works themselves, or wherever else language is invoked in all its power, creativity, and magic, he said. He cited Hamlet and the Gettysburg Address as two significant and timeless written works whose vitality stems from their power in speech. “In Beowulf, or in the Book of Job, or in the Navajo Prayer from the Night Chant, the language of story is the Above, M. Scott Momaday speaks to Santa Fe graduates about the beauty of the oral tradition. Above right, Santa Fe President Michael Peters congratulates Elise Hanrahan, while at left, Camilo Alba Navarro and Renee Albrecht-Mallinger await their degrees. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } language of poetry, plain, exalted, and oral,” he said. “It is the language of surfaces rather than symbols, faceted like the bright prisms of the dragon’s hoard.” Exploring the language of surfaces rather than the language of symbols, Momaday found an enchanting dimension of words, which he suggests are as old as language itself. He feels that the oral tradition returns him to a time when language is just being born, “a time when dogs could talk,” and he likens himself to dwelling “among words in a state of grace.” —Caroline Caldwell (SF08) �9 {Commencement} “How Brave a New World?” Above, Joshua Saks and Karen Tobin-Ippolito, newly minted GI graduates; below left, Leon Kass gave the commencement speech; below right, Blair Thompson, left, and Chelsea Stiegman (both A07) await their degrees. becomes our spur to love and transcendence.” In our time, Kass said, “honest reflection” on the human experience isn’t enough to counter the dehumanizing effects of technology; Johnnies, however, have a foundation for reflection. “The great books education offered by this College is second to none in furnishing minds and hearts with the wherewithal for living . . . a thoughtful and richly human life, in defiance of the temptation to settle photos by gary pierpoint In his commencement address in Annapolis on May 13, bioethicist, scholar, and former St. John’s tutor Leon Kass drew from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World to explore how scientific progress bears upon the question of what it means to be human. He suggested to the 103 undergraduates and 40 Graduate Institute students that their education prepared them to think carefully about what may be sacrificed in the name of scientific progress. Kass is now Addie Clark Harding Professor in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and Hertog Fellow in Social Thought at the American Enterprise Institute. He was chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics from 2002 to 2005 and still serves on the council. For more than 30 years, he has been engaged with ethical and philosophical issues raised by biomedical advances, and, more recently, with broader moral and cultural issues. Huxley’s novel remains an important cautionary tale, said Kass. The author depicts a world in which man has become so dehumanized by technological achievements that while seemingly content, “he does not even realize what he has lost.” The similarities “between Huxley’s fictional world and ours are increasingly disquieting, especially since our technologies of bio-psychoengineering are still in their infancy, yet vividly reveal what they might look like in their full maturity,” Kass said. “Moreover, the cultural changes technology has already wrought among us should make us worry even more than Huxley would have had us do.” In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Kass pointed out, Prospero’s magic is no match for his innocent daughter’s view of humanity. “Not her father’s magical control of nature, but limited humankind’s reaching for understanding and association, precisely in response to our natural limitations, is—for Miranda and for us—the truly wondrous human achievement,” he said. “Recognition of our finitude becomes the source of aspiration, and mindfulness of mortality { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } for the degrading satisfactions of biotechnological happiness,” Kass said. “Only at this college do students and faculty still talk wholeheartedly and without embarrassment about the human soul.” —Emily DeBusk (A07) Editor’s note: The complete commencement addresses are available on the college Web site: www.stjohnscollege.edu. �10 {Capital Campaign} “WITH A CLEAR AND SINGLE PURPOSE” The Tutors and the Program by Barbara Goyette (A73) and Rosemary Harty W ith the vision of Virgil, the persistence of Socrates, the rigor of Euclid, and the insight of Shakespeare, St. John’s tutors bring the program of instruction to life. Every era at St. John’s since the 1937 inception of the New Program has had its memorable tutors, whom alumni remember long after they have graduated. Today, experienced and new tutors from many fields of studies lead students through the Program. It is hard to describe the essence of what a tutor does in the classroom. Indeed, their “methods” in seminars, laboratories, and tutorials vary from intense engagement in class discussions to provocative silence on the issues at hand. Tutors guide, direct, nudge, inspire, and otherwise enable students to become full participants in the dialogue. Tutor Eva Brann, after five decades at St. John’s, describes the life of a tutor as “an alternation of exhilaration and despair, as classes go well or ill, as we ourselves feel a sense of having gotten something or being confounded. That teacher’s wave train is amplified by our . . . sense of responsibility without the power to compel by grades, or by lectures,” she wrote in her essay “Unique and Universal.” Preparing for classes each week is only one of a tutor’s tasks. Tutors participate in constant evaluation of the Program through weekly archon meetings and the Instruction Committee; they meet with students for paper conferences, advising, and guidance about graduate school or other opportunities; they participate in informal study groups, both with { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �{Capital Campaign} their colleagues and with students. They spend Saturday mornings of Homecoming leading seminars for reunion classes and travel to other cities to lead Executive Seminars for business leaders seeking to learn from the great books. In short, he tutors at St. John’s College devote themselves to the Program. A Spirit of Inquiry anthony russo During his tenure as dean in Annapolis (1986-90), tutor emeritus Thomas Slakey (HA86) read hundreds of letters from applicants for the handful of tutor openings each year at St. John’s. More than two decades later, he still remembers a letter from a scholar who had written her dissertation on Portuguese literature and had been living among indigenous tribes in Brazil. “In terms of her background, she really didn’t have any of the preparation you might expect, but she seemed like an interesting person,” Slakey recalls. “We appointed her, and she was an immediate success.” Hiring Judy Seeger to join the faculty in 1990 is something Slakey is still proud of years later. Why was she so perfect for St. John’s? “She has an inquiring mind,” he says. Slakey joined the college in 1959 and in 1964 went out to Santa Fe to become one of the founding faculty members there. He took a few “breaks” from the college over the years, becoming chief academic officer at St. Mary’s College from 1971-76. He later spent three years in the early 1980s starting a program modeled on St. John’s at a Kentucky university, then returned to Annapolis. “I was in and out of the college quite a bit, and I was always glad to get back,” he says. “The thing that St. John’s really does, and does well, is help people learn to read well, to pay attention to what a text says, one book at a time. That’s the thing that makes teaching there so pleasant, reading and learning from the students.” However, colleagues at other institutions and other academics Slakey met over the years were puzzled by how tutors at St. John’s teach across the curriculum. “Most academics think it’s crazy,” he says. “I was involved in a discus- 11 sion with a very great scholar on Dante, and when he discovered I was teaching Dante, and I couldn’t read Italian, he thought I was a disgrace. Specialists don’t understand someone like me teaching math and biology when I knew nothing about it when I came to St. John’s.” Supporting tutors as they branch out beyond their discipline and keeping tutors’ minds ripe for inquiry should be important goals for the college, Slakey says. “For me, a major difficulty was the variety of material and the difficulty of getting as much mastery as I would have liked. I know that I worked very hard and I struggled at times,” he says. To continue to attract the best tutors, the college must work harder to offer competitive salaries. “We have to keep salaries competitive with similar institutions,” he says. “No one is going to come to St. John’s to try to get rich, but particularly when tutors are raising families in expensive cities, salaries have to be a priority.” Aiming for the Median For the sake of the students and the continued integrity of the Program, St. John’s must be able to recruit and retain excellent tutors. Compensation is a major factor in drawing good teachers and keeping them at the college. The college has always lagged behind its peer institutions in the salary it has been able to pay tutors, primarily because endowment has been insufficient to meet this need. At the time Annapolis President Christopher Nelson joined the college in 1991, St. John’s occupied last place in the salaries it paid among a group of about 45 national liberal arts schools including Pomona, Amherst, Colby, Davidson, and Bucknell. Ten years ago, Santa Fe and Annapolis together averaged 26 percent below the median level of compensation. Through gradual and steady increases, by 2007 the college had reached six percent below the median of 44 peer colleges. “We never quite reached the median, but we’ve been climbing up the ranks,” Nelson says. “When and if we hit that target { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �12 {Capital Campaign} demetrios fotos will depend on the growth of the endowment relative to these other colleges.” Each one percent increase in tutor com-pensation (including salary and benefits) costs the college $130,000 for the entire teaching faculty on both campuses. To close the six percent gap, the college would have to find another $780,000 each year or a $15.6 million increase in endowment, which can be spent at the rate of five percent annually in perpetuity. The college’s service-based salary system sets a minimum of $52,500 for new tutors. It’s a concern for Nelson that tutors on both campuses are struggling to meet housing costs and raise families in the expensive communities of Santa Fe and Annapolis. “We want our tutors to be able to live decent lives without taking second jobs, to buy a home in our communities, to be able to afford a babysitter so they can come to Friday lecture or enjoy a dinner out occasionally,” he says. Until he became president of the Annapolis campus, Nelson says, he hadn’t realized how much the college asks of its tutors. “As a student, I had no idea how deep, how well read, how interesting the tutors are at St. John’s,” Nelson said. “I sat in on Instruction Committee interviews of prospective tutors, and I came to realize how engaged they are in learning both within and outside the Program.” At St. John’s, tutors spend more time in the classroom than their peers at liberal arts colleges, and although freed from publishing and research requirements, “they spend a lot of time outside the classroom working to help the students and improve the college,” he says. Annapolis Tutor Tom May shares his views on the ODYSSEY with Nicole Miller (AGI08) Since its beginnings, the Program was structured to make tutors available to students as part of a learning community—much different from the relationship between faculty and students at most institutions, he says. “There’s no substitute for conversation with young people who are eager to learn, and that’s what our tutors do so well,” he says. “They listen, they question, and they guide.” Faculty Development Approaching 2,000-year-old texts afresh each semester is a challenge tutors meet with enthusiasm and energy. And yet, for their own development as learners in the Program and as scholars dedicated to venturing beyond the bounds of a single department of academic endeavor, they must continually renew their minds. One way the college supports this effort is through faculty development, mainly in the form of study groups for which the leaders and participants receive compensation or release-time from a portion of their teaching. By meeting together with colleagues and working through an unfamiliar text, tutors expand their ability to address questions and to see connections between various parts of the program. Study groups can prepare tutors to teach in areas where they have little or no experience, such as a 2005 summer study group led by tutor Howard Fisher in Santa Fe. For eight weeks the tutors worked through most of the experiments conducted { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �13 in the first semester of senior laboratory, a part of the Program that can be daunting for faculty who lack scientific backgrounds. “It’s sometimes the case that tutors who feel confident participating in a study of the papers read in senior year don’t feel very comfortable with the practical aspects,” explains Fisher. “The only way really to participate in the laboratory activity is practice; it’s the same for tutors as for students.” As they conducted experiments such as the photoelectric effect, tutors could see the connections their students would be making in the classroom as they worked through modern atomic theories. “From a theoretical point of view, it’s quite wonderful that we find ourselves returning to questions that were central in the freshman year, the whole idea of the constitution of the atom, and what kind of explanation physical science should strive for. The very questions we began with, bill denison {Capital Campaign} Gifts to the capital campaign support faculty development, such as this study group on senior laboratory in Santa Fe. From left to right are: tutors Janet Dougherty. Stephen Van Luchene, Howard Fisher, and Lynda Myers. we return to in a very different context. It’s an ongoing demonstration that questioning doesn’t stop,” says Mr. Fisher. The college is equally committed to providing these opportunities for formal study groups by granting tutors release time to plan and lead the groups, or compensating tutors for the additional time they spend in formal study during the summer. Through the capital campaign, the college hopes to raise $8 million in endowment and Annual Fund gifts to support faculty development in the future. “We don’t appoint tutors because they have a specialty in a certain area,” Mr. Fisher notes. “We appoint tutors because they are interested in the kind of broad study that our students want. They want to study things and read books for the sake of wisdom. They need the opportunity to become fruitful students and fruitful leaders of classes.” Campaign Update As of September 30, 2007, the Campaign for St. John’s College has raised $119.2 million in gifts and pledges toward the $125 million goal. The campaign seeks to raise funds for three major priorities: to support students with need-based financial aid and improved services; to increase faculty salaries to the median of peer institutions and provide more faculty development opportunities; and to fund building projects, including renovations and additions, on the two campuses. Money raised through the campaign has already made a significant difference to the college, through growth in the Annual Fund (which provides operating expenses for instruction and financial aid), growth in the endowment, and new buildings. These leadership gifts have contributed to the campaign’s success: • Ronald Fielding (A70) made a $10 million gift to fund scholarships. He has also pledged to give another $2.5 million to the campaign if St. John’s alumni match that amount through first-time or increased gifts as well as pledges to the college. • Warren Spector (A81) provided funding for a new dormitory in Annapolis. • A single anonymous donor contributed $12 million, earmarked for the college’s annual spending needs and for endowment. • The Hodson Trust has given $11 million for the construction of Gilliam Hall and for Mellon Hall renovations, for student internships, for IT development, and for teacher fellowships to the Graduate Institute. • Dr. Norman Levan (SFGI74) made a gift of $5 million for the construction of a Graduate Institute center in Santa Fe. • Alumni, friends of the college, and foundations have pledged $26.5 million to help support faculty salaries and development, through the Eva Brann Tutorship and various grants for faculty study groups. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �14 {Tutor Profile} In the Presence of Great Things Eric Salem (A77), Annapolis bill denison He was much more eager to teach across the curriculum than to The best thing about being a tutor at St. John’s, says Eric Salem be “the political theory guy” in a political science department, (A77), “is that you’re always in the presence of things that are Salem says. But on the other hand, he gave up the ability to devote really great.” The worst thing about being a tutor? Exactly the focused and prolonged attention to a book or idea. “That’s what’s same thing, he says. so nice about these summer study groups,” he says. “This is a way “You’re in the presence of things that are great, but there’s to do really concentrated work with your colleagues so that you always a strain,” Salem says, “You never feel as if you can stop can develop your own understanding of some of the books and and say, ‘Ah, I’m ready for this class.’ There’s always more to texts that are central to the program. They really do help your think about.” thinking.” If alumni remember how overwhelmed they sometimes felt Over the years, Salem has taken part in groups on Chekhov, on trying to prepare for class, they understand the challenges tutors face. “You always have to try not just to get hold of what’s going on Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses, on Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, on Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, and on Leibniz’s mathein the book, but also to be open to what everyone else is saying, to matical papers. Salem earned a stipend to take part in some of the respond to the best things in what people are saying—it’s hard opportunities, but the group with whom he studied Aristotle for work,” he says. 10 years engaged in their endeavor just for the joy of it. After graduating from St. John’s, Salem went to the University Most of Salem’s outside of Dallas for doctoral studies in pursuits center on reading. politics and literature. SpecialHe also plays jazz and classical izing in political theory was an guitar, and runs regularly in his “accident,” Salem says. “What I Annapolis neighborhood. He really wanted to do was study a unwinds by reading novels in subset of the books I had been other languages and reads Plato, reading at St. John’s, slow down Aristotle, and Heidegger for and read carefully,” he says. At enjoyment. “Right now, Peter the college, he developed a Kalkavage, Eva Brann, and I are special interest in ideas raised by translating (and discussing books including the Nicoendlessly) Plato’s Statesman, an machean Ethics (the relationship activity that combines pure fun between thinking and acting) and and seriousness in just the right War and Peace (families as part proportions,” he says. of a political community). Asked to reflect on a single “Reading that novel made me quality that makes a tutor right think that political questions for St. John’s, Salem proposes were something I really needed to that it’s the “willingness to start think hard about,” he says. all over again, again and again.” Former St. John’s tutor “I’m eager to do it,” Salem Thomas Slakey (HA94) recruited says. “But I rely on the students Salem to join him at Whitney to help me remember that I don’t Young College at Kentucky State really know much. I prize above University, where he was leading all those moments—and they efforts to create a program come in almost every class or similar to the St. John’s program. study group meeting or conversaSlakey stayed just a few years, tion—when the bottom falls out of but Salem spent seven years my understanding and when my there before he became too students and colleagues force me frustrated by standard university to look at books and the world as bureaucracy. if I were seeing them for the first “Then I had the opportunity to time.” x come to St. John’s,” Salem says. At St. John’s tutors such as Eric Salem (A77) enjoy learning “I wanted to come back to this —rosemary Harty together with students such as Emmanuel Thomas (A09). way of teaching and learning.” { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �{Tutor Profile} 15 Exploring the Unknown Jessica Jerome, Santa Fe christopher quinn MacLean Center for Bioethics. Her interest in international L ast summer, under the auspices of a National Science health care matched the MacLean Center’s endeavors, and there Foundation grant, St. John’s tutor Jessica Jerome spent nine she trained as a medical ethics consultant to hospital staff and weeks in the poorest neighborhoods of Fortaleza, Brazil, patients at the University of Chicago. conducting fieldwork among HIV-positive mothers. The work “Working at MacLean was different from my previous was intellectually challenging and physically exhausting, made training,” she explains. “Most of the other people in the fellowmore so because Jerome was in the second trimester of her own ship program were medical doctors, and I was thrown into the first pregnancy. material with them. I think that prepared me for the experience The summer of 2007 was the first of two that Jerome will of St. John’s in terms of working closely with people of very devote to the Brazil project, exploring the psychological, social, different backgrounds and disciplines, and working with material and economic motivations for reproductive and medical decision that I wasn’t already familiar with.” making among mothers with HIV. She conducted extensive St. John’s offered similar challenges for Jerome as a first-year interviews of women who have borne one or more children after tutor, when she taught freshman math, freshman seminar, and learning of a positive HIV diagnosis. By providing qualitative freshman laboratory. “I just assumed that I wouldn’t be put data about these women’s motivations to bear children and directly in the math and science classes,” she said. “When David receive medical treatment in Fortaleza, the study will contribute Levine [then the dean] told me that St. John’s threw tutors into greatly to the growing body of literature on reproductive and the Program, that they wanted us to be learning with the medical decision-making in the context of HIV. students, I didn’t realize how seriously they took that!” Jerome is excited about the opportunity to connect what she’s The college takes seriously its learned from the program at mission to educate students in all St. John’s to her research. fields, including math and “I believe that we should really science, for four years, observes think about our experience and Jerome. “There’s something our activity in the world, to be really generous, and something reflective about it,” she says. to be respected, in this belief that “Lectures are more about what we teach here is knowledge transmitting facts, or a kind of that anyone can learn,” she says. knowledge that has already been “Anybody who puts her mind to produced. The interesting thing it, and works with herself and about the pedagogy at St. John’s others, should be able to get is that it assumes that the knowlthrough this program. That is edge is not preexisting, and that really encouraging.” you are creating it as you’re Opportunities to acquire a talking. When that works, it’s a broad liberal arts education in beautiful thing.” this country are narrowing, says Jerome plans to involve Jerome. That’s one of the things Johnnies in her research. She that drew her to the college. hopes to support students who “St. John’s offers students a are interested in careers in social valuable opportunity to take four science and public health policy years not just to learn about ideas, and to widen opportunities for but also to gain confidence that summer internships, such as they can learn, and to prepare those available under Santa Fe’s themselves to face the world and Ariel Program. She currently move forward, no matter what serves on the committee that they do,” she says. x reviews applications for the program, which provides —Jenny Hannifin stipends for internships. Between her graduate work on medical decision making and Santa Fe tutor Jessica Jerome enjoys the opportunity to tutoring at St. John’s, Jerome learn along with her students. did a postdoctoral stint at the { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �16 {After the Storm} AFTER THE STORM Rebuilding Alone Can’t Fix the City Billy Sothern (A98) Loves by Rosemary Harty long with Plantation Tours, Voodoo Tours and Ghost Tours, the Katrina bus tour remains a popular sightseeing option for visitors to New Orleans these days. Buses take tourists from the fine hotels in the French Quarter and the Garden District to the sites of one of America’s most incomprehensible catastrophes, showing the devastation and the rebuilding underway in the worst-hit neighborhoods. But take a tour with Billy Sothern (A98) in his Subaru station wagon, Zydeco music on the radio, and although you’ll see many of the same places—the FEMA trailer parks, the Lower Ninth Ward, the places where the levees failed— you’ll hear very different views. Commercial tour guides are unlikely to tell you that people are rebuilding in subdivisions that never should have been developed in the first place. They probably won’t suggest that bringing residents home to devastated suburbs weakens a central city reeling from the loss of 40 percent of its population and a good chunk of its tax base. As much as Sothern loves the city that he and his wife made their home six years ago, he is sharply critical of the way the federal, state, and local governments are handling the recovery. “I think there’s a way we can redevelop the city so that everyone who wants to can return,” Sothern says. A “My argument is that New Orleans should go back to its historic footprint, where people can live safely without massive and largely unsuccessful efforts to build bigger levies. The idea that we can beat back nature is flawed and hubristic. We’ve had people who tried that for a long time, and that dynamic always seems to end the same way—as it will again in New Orleans.” Since graduating from New York University Law School, Sothern has worked in New Orleans as a staff attorney at the Capital Appeals Project, a nonprofit organization that provides legal services to individuals facing capital punishment. Since Katrina slammed into the city on August 29, 2005, he’s been sharing his views on New Orleans in The Nation and The New York Times, and on the online journal Salon.com. This summer, the University of California Press published his first book, Down in New Orleans: Reflections From a Drowned City. He begins with an account of his evacuation from New Orleans with his wife, Nikki Page (A98), describing how their lives changed after Katrina, and analyzes long-standing social problems that pose a more serious threat to the city than any force of nature. In the book, Sothern celebrates all that he loves about the city, but he’s cynical about why Louisiana has captured the nation’s attention. “Part of the interest of the rest of the country in what happened is that New Orleans is this place with this interesting culture, music, food, Mardi Gras,” he says. “But is New Orleans worthy of the country’s attention because we make good food? We merit the assistance of the { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �{After the Storm} “The idea that we can beat back nature is flawed and hubristic.” nikki page Billy Sothern (A98) Billy Sothern (A98), in front of a shuttered New Orleans housing project, says the city can’t recover until poverty and inequality are remedied. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } 17 �18 {After the Storm} rest of the country not merely by virtue of the fact that we’re Americans, but merely because we’re interesting? To me that would seem like a fairly poor reflection on American culture.” “Welcome to the Twilight Zone” nikki page On a steamy day in early June, with thunderstorms threatening and gray skies adding to the bleakness, Sothern drives into the Mid-City District, just a few miles from his downtown office. When the levees designed to protect the city failed, 80 percent of New Orleans was flooded, including this middle-class neighborhood. Watermarks, once brown from roiling muddy water, faded now to a sickly yellow, mark the facades at various levels. “Look how high the water got on that ranch house,” he says, “right to the top of the window. It’s almost to the roofline on that white house.” Many homes here are still boarded up, and “for sale” signs are plentiful, as are the spray-painted marks left on the houses by search teams who swept through flooded neighborhoods after the disaster. They marked how many people were found, dead and alive, and sometimes added other information—“dog on roof,” for example. From Mid-City, Sothern drives over ruined roads to Lakeview and the site of the 17th Street Canal, where the first levee breach took place. Unlike other levees, which were overtopped, the 17th Street Canal failed at its foundation. A U.S. Senate committee cited design flaws and a lack of regular inspections as contributory factors. For the most part, the neighborhoods here were underwater, and residents who tried to ride out the storm in their homes had to be rescued from their rooftops, Sothern says. “This was a high-density suburban community,” Sothern says. “All these empty lots are the sites of cleared homes.” Most of the street signs in Lakeview are gone, though some residents have posted handmade signs for people to find them. The abandoned homes, bad roads and absent street signs are remnants of the storm, but even before Katrina, Sothern says, New Orleans lacked many of the services other well-governed cities take for granted. The schools were in disrepair, the parks were neglected, and weeds overran the highway medians—all thanks to “laissez-faire government,” says Sothern. “Down here, there’s a different relationship between the government and the citizenry and a different bent of what people are entitled to in their daily lives,” he says. “People get all excited about libertarianism, but is this guy supposed to come out and fix this road?” he asks, pointing to a man working on his home. “Are these people supposed to pool their resources and rebuild the levies themselves? It’s an absurdity.” Next, Sothern turns into a more affluent neighborhood along Lake Ponchartrain, where the hurricane damaged homes but no flooding occurred because the subdivision was built on high ground. In this pleasant cul-de-sac, all the front yards are landscaped and carefully groomed, and cars are in every driveway. The normalcy is in sharp contrast to neighboring Gentilly, where many homes still sit empty. Flooding was extensive here, and along with the Ninth Ward, Gentilly saw the highest number of deaths. A sign on one lawn proclaims “The Road Home is a Dead End,” reflecting a common opinion of the federally funded homeowner’s compensation plan. “This neighborhood is really struggling,” Sothern observes. “You may have one or two families back on each block. It has to be scary here at night, scary to not get government services, scary to invest so much of your life and your future in a place where the prospects are genuinely unclear.” The ruts in the road get deeper near the London Avenue Canal, where two { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } Hurricane Katrina destroyed this warehouse for Mardi Gras floats. �19 {After the Storm} “Huge portions of the city are no safer from catastrophic flooding than they were before.” Billy Sothern (A98) nikki page A survivor attends a ceremony marking the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Aug. 29, 2006. breaches of the levee allowed water from the industrial canal to flood the neighborhoods here. “Welcome to the Twilight Zone” is scrawled in spray paint across the front of one abandoned house. A resident watches warily as Sothern drives slowly down his street, perhaps tired of curiosityseekers and tourists. It’s natural for Americans to admire the resiliency of those determined to rebuild, Sothern says. “The gut reaction any person would have would be to root for these people and see them return to their homes but those choices have to be tempered with reason, and I think they haven’t been,” he says. “People are investing their entire futures and the safety of their families, and it’s all predicated on very poor information. Huge portions of the city are no safer from catastrophic flooding than they were before the storm.” That includes New Orleans East, a sprawling development built on cypress wetlands that were drained by the Army Corps of Engineers. In the 1970s, the developer of this area attracted buyers from deteriorating and dangerous inner city neighborhoods with the promise of offering a safe place to raise families. “This was supposed to be the American dream,” Sothern says. The land was virtually worthless until the federal government spent millions draining the wetlands. Within a few years, the folly of building in a swamp was evident in sinking driveways and cracked foundations. Flooding after Katrina was extensive here, and now more government resources are reviving an area that in Sothern’s view never should have been built. If a struggling city wants to grow stronger, its policies should bring residents back to the urban core of New Orleans, to viable neighborhoods built on high ground. Yet nothing is being done at any level of government to encourage that, he says. That’s what frustrates him the most—government and citizens together clinging to a cycle of disaster. “When these people go back to their homes, they need water, they need garbage pick-up, they need police out here, and it’s all going to put a strain on New Orleans,” { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �{After the Storm} nikki page 20 Sothern says. “Yet there’s nothing vaguely resembling a tax base that would support this, and it’s hard to imagine that after two years, any more people are going to come back.” From Gentilly, Sothern heads outside the city limits to St. Bernard Parish. With a staggering loss of population (76 percent, according to census data) and diminished revenues, the government here is struggling to provide basic services. “I read that 95 percent of the homes here flooded,” Sothern says. The government complex has not been rebuilt, so the parish council meets in a trailer, and each of the council members lost his or her home. Sothern crosses the parish line back into the city, into the famous Lower Ninth Ward. Here, entire blocks are reverting to nature, with only remnants of driveways, concrete steps, and the pilings of foundations poking through the weeds. “No neighborhood bears the scars of Katrina as vividly,” says Sothern. “The force of the water was pretty strong here, that’s why there’s nothing. When Nikki and I first came down A scene typical of the destruction in the Lower Ninth Ward. “No neighborhood bears the scars of Katrina more vividly,” Sothern says. here, houses were on top of cars, cars were on top of houses— it was outrageous. It looks better now, empty.” Through the national media, the Lower Ninth became emblematic of the misery that followed Katrina, but Sothern believes Americans should focus more on the problems this neighborhood struggled with before, poverty in particular. Because this land was prone to flooding, it was one of the few places where the city’s poorest residents, many of them elderly, could afford to live. According to 2000 U.S. census data, half of the neighborhood’s residents lived on incomes of less than $20,000 a year. After Katrina, residents feared a land grab in the Ninth Ward. Rumors circulated that developers would buy up the land for casinos. “That didn’t happen,” Sothern says. “No one wants this land.” { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �{After the Storm} Providing Context 21 coming down here I could see I wanted to do death penalty work,” he explains. “Looking back, it’s something I would Whether he’s writing about the Ninth Ward for The Nation, be attracted to fighting against—it’s the most severe, the or preparing a brief in a death penalty case for the Louisiana most heinous type of punishment.” Supreme Court, Sothern seeks to look deeply at issues to try In Louisiana in 2007, 88 inmates were on Death Row, to get at the basic truths behind events and opinions. including Sothern’s client Shon Miller. In March 1999, after “I view this as the core value of my St. John’s education,” he shooting his mother-in-law at her home, Miller walked into says. “The harder you look at things, the more complicated a church in Gonzales, La., and shot his two-year-old son, his they become. Everything I write is always about providing estranged wife, and a church deacon. After he was found context. It’s a consequence of reading books with other guilty of four counts of first-degree murder, Miller was people, for days and weeks and months, where we never sentenced to death by lethal injection. arrived at something that was unambiguously true.” During his apprehension, Miller was shot in the back, and In the seven years he’s worked with Death Row inmates his injuries left him a paraplegic. Held in an isolation cell of and defendants in capital cases, Sothern has come to know the hospital wing at Angola, he developed osteomyelitis, a their families and their communities. He has seen how painful condition attacking his bones. Sothern met Miller crime, poverty, and substandard schools factor in their when he was assigned to try to work with the prison to get stories, and it’s made him reflect on his own path in life. better health care and living conditions for Miller. “When I As a teenager, Sothern was caught selling drugs. Instead of went to meet him, I was outraged by the conditions he was going to jail, he ended up reading the great books at St. living in, and that they were only because he was disabled,” John’s. he said. “He’s in very bad After his legal issues were physical and psychological resolved, Sothern was living shape.” in New York’s Little Italy, a After Sothern filed suit high school dropout trying In August 2005, Mathieu de Schutter (SF94) was a resiunder the American Disabilto educate himself by dent at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, while his wife, ities Act, the prison made reading everything he could Sara Roahen (SF94), worked as a food and restaurant some concessions, including find, books like Augustine’s writer for the weekly Gambit, an alternative newspaper. allowing Miller some Confessions. A friend who They had moved to New Orleans so that he could attend time outdoors. Now life is had attended the college medical school at Tulane. They evacuated during the “marginally better” for his steered him to St. John’s, storm and plans to have Mathieu do his residency in New client, Sothern says. A year where Sothern thrived. Orleans changed when the program there was disconago Sothern filed a brief with tinued. Now they are living in Philadelphia, where he is in “Attending St. John’s was the Louisiana Supreme his second year of an anesthesia residency at the University the single best decision I Court, seeking a new trial of Pennsylvania. “He has two to three years of training ever made,” he says. “I went for Miller. He argued that left, depending on whether he chooses to do a fellowship,” from being a street kid to the Miller was denied a fair reports Roahen. “We still own our house in New Orleans person I am today.” and miss it every day. We hope to live there again, but trial for two reasons: he After graduation, Sothern after what Katrina did to our long-terms plans, we are a was not permitted to enter earned his law degree at little gun shy about making other plans at the moment.” a plea of not guilty by NYU, where one summer he Roahen visits Louisiana often and still writes about reason of insanity, in spite of interned with the Capital food and culture. Currently, she is at work on an oral a long history of mental Appeals Project. In 2001, he history initiative with gumbo and boudain makers there. illness, and the court refused joined the project as a staff Her book, Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New to allow a nationally known attorney, a job he loves Orleans Table, will be published at Mardi Gras time in criminal defense attorney to despite the long hours and February 2008. “You may pre-order it on Amazon represent Miller. low pay. “I knew I wanted to “We Miss It Every Day” already!” she says. x do criminal work, and after { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �22 {After the Storm} nikki page “It was an objectively horrifying crime,” Sothern acknowledges, “but it’s in situations like this when the Constitution and rights afforded to the defendant become most important because there’s the greatest chance of passion and prejudice.” In working for his clients, Sothern draws on “the complexities of their lives” and the context in which their acts should be considered. Both of Miller’s parents were dead by the time Miller was three. He was raised by a foster family, spent time in mental institutions, and never received good mental health care. Last May, Sothern argued his case before the Louisiana Supreme Court. “I started the story with how police found Shon in a shed, talking and hearing voices that weren’t there, because the issues that were were important most related to his mental illness on the night of the crime,” he says. “The state comes into court and says, ‘This is a cold-blooded killer, he deserves to die.’ It’s my job to reframe that issue so that we view this event, this crime, in context.” On June 29, the Supreme Court reversed Miller’s conviction, ruling that the trial court judge’s refusal to allow Miller to plead not guilty by reason of insanity led to a “constitutionally flawed jury trial.” The state plans to retry Miller later this year. If the case does get to court, Sothern hopes his client will escape the death penalty this time, but Nikki Page and Billy Sothern, in the lush garden of their Irish Channel home. the reality is that Miller is more likely to die from his illness in prison. Sothern often gives books to his clients—Shakespeare or Thucydides, for example. Miller isn’t a reader, but Sothern gave him a recording of The Chronicles of Narnia, believing that its Christian themes would resonate with his client. “I love talking about books with prisoners, about the Bible, about anything. Death Row is a lonely place, and it’s amazing to see such remarkable thoughts and ideas coming from such a dark place. I find it consistently impressive—not just about my clients, but about humanity—how people are able to transcend their circumstances.” Trying to Move On Like many who love New Orleans, Billy Sothern and Nikki Page are staying in the city, looking ahead, and making plans for the future. Their house on Carondelet Street, a few blocks from the Superdome, was damaged by Katrina’s winds, but their neighborhood stayed dry. They were able to come back to the city within a few weeks after the storm, though some of their good friends have left the city for good. Page spotted their new home in the historic Irish Channel neighborhood while she was driving through the city, looking at houses for a friend. The building needed a lot of work, but she could see the former glory in the 1850s Ital- { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �{After the Storm} ianate “double-gallery” with high ceilings, elegant parlors, and a second-story porch that looks out on a Hazel (A69) and Larry Schlueter (A67) stayed in their lively street. The backyard is Uptown home during Katrina with Hazel’s mother, who a gardener’s paradise, with was 91 at the time. Hazel is a musician; Larry is retired from the U.S. Customs Service, and they lead a bluegrass banana trees, bearded band called “Hazel and the Delta Ramblers.” The hurripalms, Japanese magnolia, cane damaged their roof, windows blew out, and Larry and swamp lilies, spray roses, Hazel patched up and mopped up as water poured in. and bird of paradise plants. Two days after the storm, with water cut off and power The barbed wire around the still out, they left the city. Hazel recalls driving across the backyard fence, Sothern Greater New Orleans Bridge, watching people trying to says, will soon come down. walk out of the flooded city. “It was heartbreaking,” she They rent out their other says. “There were people on crutches. A woman was draghome because the market is ging her babies across in a cardboard box. It didn’t feel like too bad to try to sell it right this was America.” now. They settled temporarily in Dallas with their son, If Sothern coped with his Charles (A90), and his family. They moved back to the city anger over the storm and its almost as soon as they were allowed back in. Their small aftermath by writing, Page, insurance settlement wasn’t even enough to pay for the an artist, tried to make sense new roof, so Larry has done most of the work himself. of the disaster through her “Where we live, the area is in comparatively good shape, camera lens. When the but right on my square there are five houses where the couple drove back to the city roofs have not been repaired and the houses are just sitting at nighttime in mid-October, there, empty,” says Hazel. “There was a fire in our neighshe was shocked by what borhood and the water pressure was low. There’s hardly greeted her. “The first thing anybody employed by the city. Much of the work and I noticed was the smell, and progress is by personal citizens spending their own then the lack of light, the money.” trash piles,” she says. “The Because many families have left the city for good, she has city was really eerie, preglost all her music students and her income from private lessons. But Hazel and the Delta Ramblers are still in nant with that sense of demand, playing at clubs, festivals, and farmer’s markets death.” around town. For a while, a musician’s fund subsidized their Originally from Maine, gigs. “I think we’ll stay, but it’s almost like every day there’s Page attended a state universomething different to consider,” Hazel says, a little wearily. sity before finding her way to “You’d think there’d be more progress by now. It just wears St. John’s, where she spotted you down.” x her future husband from across the room at a party in Annapolis. She taught in New York and New Orleans, but now devotes herself full time to an art career. She takes classes at the New Orleans Academy of Art and gives private lessons in the studio she created in their new home. “That was the first room we finished,” she says. Hoping for Progress { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } 23 When Down in New Orleans came out, Sothern gave interviews on NPR and other radio stations, and signed his book at local bookstores. While he spent the first anniversary of Katrina attending a commemoration, he spent the second anniversary painting his dining room. “It’s been such an awful couple of years,” he says, that he decided to mark the anniversary “by trying to move on.” Things have to change in New Orleans, and in spite of it all, Sothern believes they can. In his book, he points to the 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company as an example of a tragedy that shook people into action— though it took 20 years for the New Deal to seriously address poverty and improve working conditions in America. Sothern hopes it won’t take that long for New Orleans. “I continue to have this hope that the city could be a focal point, where it could change our country for the better,” he says. “Because if it doesn’t, then all this suffering will have been in vain.” x �24 {Tocqueville} CONSIDERING TOCQUEVILLE by Patricia Dempsey H ow many of Alexis de Tocqueville’s keen observations of America’s spirited, burgeoning democracy hold true today? These six Johnnies—who work in human rights law, government, public service, the ministry, and the military—reflect on passages from Democracy in America. The Manner in which American Democracy Conducts Foreign Affairs “Foreign policy demands the use of scarcely any of the qualities and characteristics of a democracy. . . .” Raised by a Korean mother and an American father (Santa Fe tutor Michael Bybee), Foreign Service Officer Chelsia Wheeler (SF03) observed cultural misunderstandings in her household “on a daily basis,” she says. Today she seeks to build understanding among different cultures. Before joining the Foreign Service, Wheeler interned with the U.S. Embassy in Singapore and taught English in Korea. In September, Wheeler went on assignment to Burma where she will travel the country “to engage the locals in conversations about democracy.” (The views expressed in this article do not reflect the official policy of the U.S. government.) Tocqueville is talking about the aristocracy when he describes a continuity of power. The aristocracy has continuity of memory—an institutional memory. You don’t have a change every four years; you don’t have ever-changing leadership. In this regard the Foreign Service is like an aristocracy because there is a continuity of institutional memory; we’re not political appointees, so we provide that continuity that in Tocqueville’s day the aristocracy would provide. In the U.S., there is some continuity in government institutions—what Tocqueville describes as aristocratic institutions—I hate to use the word “aristocratic” and I certainly don’t feel like one, but I do think that in some sense that’s what our Foreign Service jobs are. We provide the continuity. When I worked in Singapore, there was an amazing institutional memory. You don’t always see this in a country that is not a pure democracy. The institutional continuity of the government has been good for Singapore. In our country our government policies swing back and forth as public perceptions change. When Tocqueville talks about the need for secrecy and patience in foreign affairs, I think he is right. It’s hard for { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �{Tocqueville} 25 gary pierpoint Chelsia Wheeler (SF03) will see how her views on foreign policy play out in her current assignment, in Burma. me to accept on some levels, but it is true that if you put everything out there for people to vote on, including very sensitive issues of foreign policy, you would not get anything done. Even policies in Congress go through so slowly. So foreign policy needs to be streamlined. In the case of the Iraq War, for instance, there are many non-sexy topics that do not go through Congress quickly. Iraq waits around for Congress to vote on the budget to increase our aid. There are many, many countries who must wait on budget decisions, and they’re waiting on the U.S. timetable to find out if they are getting any aid. These countries are often not in the press. Tocqueville was very much a product of his time. Tocqueville is not always completely accurate, but what he has gotten right is very important. It’s interesting what he takes out of foreign policy. It was largely true at the time he was writing that Americans were isolationists. It was for our own survival. And I think that it is in some ways true today. Yes, we do get involved and we give help and we have alliances, but we do value our independence. It wasn’t until after World War II, when we were economically dominant and secure, that our isolationism changed. Tocqueville talks about isolation as a way for the United States not to bend to other countries. We are still trying to keep ourselves independent in many ways. However, [to be neutral] is not possible for a country such as the United States because we are politically and economically important. Other countries look to us for leadership. In the early 1800s Americans sent huge numbers of missionaries abroad, and that’s the first time that we appeared to be less isolated. Another example, besides the missionaries, is relief to other countries. In World War I, the Red Cross went abroad. Private Americans citizens are always at the forefront of giving aid and relief. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �26 {Tocqueville} “We still may not be able, even as a majority, to stop certain things from happening. The majority, for instance, may want to stop the war in Iraq, but yet they can’t.” Peter Weiss (Class of 1946) Tyranny of the Ma jority “I place the origin of all powers in the will of the majority. . . .One universal law has been made . . . that is the law of justice.” [Tocqueville] says that the tyranny of the majority is absolute, and that if it were checked somehow we could have a working democracy that is just. What I find missing in this discussion is the fact that in the United States this check is supposed to come from the Constitution. The Constitution enshrines with the force of law a set of values that were created during enlightened times in the history of this country. While history proceeds in one direction, the norms and values may christopher huston Peter Weiss (class of 1946), a retired intellectual property attorney, now devotes himself to human rights and nuclear disarmament issues from his New York City home. When Weiss was 21, tutor James Martin, who had worked with the Bureau of Economic Warfare during World War II and later headed the office created to break up the cartels that financed Hitler, brought Weiss to Berlin to work as a translator. “This brought me face-toface with what had happened in Nazi Germany,” says Weiss. “I lost part of my family to the Holocaust, and of course there was the later era, the McCarthy period, here in the United States, and my reaction to it—all these shaped my work as a human rights activist.” move in another direction; so we still may not be able, even as a majority, to stop certain things from happening. The majority, for instance, may want to stop the war in Iraq, but yet they can’t. And this is because today there is too much power in the executive office. Tocqueville was writing about 30 years after Marbury v. Madison, which establishes that the Constitution overrides the will of the majority and of the executive. There are not many countries where this is the case and it may not even be the case in this country at this particular time. This is the great thing about the American system. Yet the majority is guided by an aggressive executive. I’m talking about the state of things in the United States today. Arthur Schlesinger called it “the imperial presidency.” The American Constitution was written with checks and balances, yet it fails so often, particularly in the case of a strong executive. Tocqueville is correct when he describes a general, universal law, the law of justice. Antigone is an example of this when she says to Creon that she does not have to obey his law because there is a law from the gods that trumps that. In the case of human rights, I don’t care where this more just law comes from; whether from the gods, the Constitution, or a treaty. It needs to be respected. Since the Nuremberg trials, there’s been progress, there’s In retirement, lawyer Peter Weiss (class of 1946) devotes even more time to human rights advocacy. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �27 gary pierpoint {Tocqueville} been the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So now there are certain things that are universally accepted as human rights violations: for example torture, slavery or rape, just like piracy 200 years ago. Tocqueville is right in this regard. There is a universal law of mankind. The watchwords of tyranny are “by any means necessary.” This implies extreme actions, such as those going on in Guantanamo Bay. Yet I have not given up hope. So many attorneys have come forward to help defend these [detained] individuals, and that is when I can’t help but be proud of the American system, the American legal establishment. And I hope that the next 10 years will be a period of enlightenment. How Religion in the United States Makes Full Use of Democratic Tendencies “The first object . . . of religions is to provide for each of these essential questions a tidy solution.” The Rev. Adrien Dawson (A96), who is rector of St. Mark’s on the Hill in Pikesville, Md., was surprised at her career The Rev. Adrien Dawson (A96) encourages theological questioning as a way of deepening one’s relationship with God. choice. “Being an Episcopal priest is the last thing I would have expected I’d be. Both of my parents were hippie refugees from religion, and by the time they got married they had sworn off church,” she says. At St. John’s, Dawson was converted by the Old Testament. “The human condition pieces in the Old Testament are powerful—the way in which God keeps saying, ‘I’m still with you, I’m not going to abandon you.’ A central question for me has always been: Why is it that some people have faith and some don’t?” When I read about how the first object of religion is to furnish a solution, I laughed out loud. I thought, “Wow. If only.” Tocqueville’s premise is that religion’s job is to have tidy answers for these existential, philosophical, firstmover kind of questions. Where I differ from Tocqueville is that I see religion much more as a framework in which all of your doubts and uncertainties can exist and be chal- { T h e C o l l e g e • John’s College • Fall 2007 } �28 {Tocqueville} “For Tocqueville religion is the schoolmarm of people’s passions.” The Rev. Adrien Dawson (A96) lenged; it gives you a safe place to wrestle with all of that. There are religions of practice and religions of answers. I say, “We don’t have all the answers. Come join us in this practice.” Tocqueville is looking at all religions as religions that have answers. The world view that Tocqueville describes is one in which religious and social/political spheres don’t meet. The priests stay in their realm and don’t ever venture into the political; they don’t leave the steps of the church. While the Koran gets political, the Gospels [do not]. [Yet] so much of what gets described in the Gospels is Jesus challenging the social and political norms of the day. He’s killed as a rebel against Rome, not because he has some sort of faith practice—it’s his political power that gets him crucified. In restricting the realm of religion, Tocqueville makes a safe religion that keeps everybody in check. You don’t get too extreme in your love of worldly possessions because we have religion here that’s going to reign you in, teach you about charity. For Tocqueville religion is the schoolmarm of people’s passions. And then, get out of the way—because the rest of the political sphere belongs to a purely secular world. I don’t agree with Tocqueville’s read on what the Gospel offers. There are plenty of times when people of faith have stood up and said, “I can do no other, because my faith, the Scripture, tells me this is wrong. I have to challenge what’s going on.” So there are all different ways in which the Gospel has come out to challenge the authority of the social/political context. In our own context today of watching democracy unfold, religion gets bandied about a lot. Today the politicians choose hot-button issues such as abortion, gay marriage, the death penalty—and cite religious reasons for their political positions. What Makes Democratic Armies Weaker Than Other Armies at the Outset of a Campaign and more Dangerous in Prolonged Warfare “Equality allows all to be ambitious while death makes sure that there are continuing opportunities to satisfy that ambition.” Lieutenant Colonel (Hon.) Frank Giuseffi (SFGI96), keeps issues of The College on a coffee table in his office at the Missouri Military Academy, where he is academic dean. “I want visitors to know how important the liberal arts are to the intellectual formation of our students,” he says. Giuseffi, whose father is a retired Marine, chose a slightly different path— military education. Along with his duties as dean, Giuseffi teaches history and uses readings such as Democracy in America to help the cadets grapple with fundamental questions. “These cadets are facing life-and-death issues,” he says. “They sense that the age of heroism may be waning, yet they want their service in the military, and their lives, to have meaning.” Lt. Col. (Hon.) Frank Giuseffi (SFGI96), left, shares Tocqueville’s ideas with cadets at the Missouri Military Academy. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �{Tocqueville} 29 “I find this point particularly ironic: Equality can open the door to greatness. It is this very equality that fosters some to lead and some to follow. That’s part of the military culture in a democracy.” Lt. Col. (Hon.) Frank Giuseffi (SFGI96) It is true that during war soldiers and officers have an opportunity to prove their military greatness more. There are certain accolades that one receives during war depending on how well one performs. So there may be some ambition there. I would say Tocqueville in some ways is correct. But I cannot be inside the mind of a general or a colonel. I would say it depends a lot on the individual. It depends a lot on how the public sees this war. In many ways, soldiers are affected by the level of cynicism towards a war. Perhaps then ambition becomes more important than honor. By the same token, there were many who were known [in Vietnam] to be great military heroes no matter what the public feeling was about the war. I have to question if ambition is really what is behind what motivates someone to serve. I have seen this with many cadets; I think they want to test themselves. They want to test their mettle and courage. A student here a couple years ago was incredibly eager to go to war. He’s done two tours in Iraq and he’s back and he said he has had enough. He doesn’t necessarily articulate why that is and why it was that he went to begin with. But he and many of his fellow cadets are willing to face the fact that they are going to be putting their lives on the line. This is not about ambition and this is not about the debates in the media or among politicians. It’s about fighting and finding out for yourself that you are going to be able to do this. Tocqueville makes a point about the principle of equality of conditions in a democracy in the military. What’s interesting is that in an aristocracy, your rank in the military is based on birth. In a democracy, your career is built out of a base of equality. You are part of a group that started on equal footing, [which] opens the door of ambition to all. I find this point particularly ironic: Equality can open the door to greatness. It is this very equality that fosters some to lead and some to follow. That’s part of the military culture in a democracy. You see the extraordinary leaders come forth. They have to take their orders as a subordinate, but they become heroes and do extraordinary things and break out of the ranks, so to speak, in ways they deem necessary. So the military gives one the opportunity to become courageous, to be a leader, to be altruistic, to save lives, to heal the wounded, to help someone out. It gives one an opportunity to wrestle with the things that make us all more human. Public Spirit in the United States “There is nothing more irksome . . . than the irritable patriotism Americans have.” Noah Kroloff (SF95), deputy chief of staff for Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona, found his way into public service through teaching. His first job after St. John’s was with Teach for America in the South Bronx. “I got eaten alive by the kids, but it was rewarding,” he says. Kroloff then worked for the speaker of the New York State Assembly on public policy issues and campaigns. In 2000 Kroloff, who has a law degree from Arizona State University College of Law, joined Governor Napolitano’s staff. Tocqueville suggests it is in one’s self-interest to work for one’s government. I don’t understand what Tocqueville means in that regard. Is there anything anyone does that is not in some way in one’s self-interest? Everything comes through the governor’s office: issues of public education, natural resources, transportation, health care, economic development. It helps my family, my children, our community, and the wider community if for instance we work to create more education. It is in everyone’s self-interest to contribute to the success of government—this is the backbone of a free society. Tocqueville has amazing observations on society, but they are hard to apply at a practical level. The theoretical is just that. It offers a framework for values, a moral compass. But it is not a good manual on how to get done the day-to-day business of the people. In some ways Tocqueville places the patriotism of citizens in opposition with those who govern. Yet so often, the alignment between public zeal and the elected official—such as the { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �30 {Tocqueville} governor of Arizona—must exist The Use Americans since that official was elected by Make of Public the public. In this case, Associations in governing and enforcing laws is Civil Life not difficult because of the “Americans of all ages, condipublic’s zeal and patriotism. tions, and all dispositions conIf the public is for education, stantly unite together.” then is the governor going to decimate it? A thoughtful public As a freshman in Santa Fe, Josh official will have a dialogue. Cohen (SF94) campaigned for the I am very patriotic, but patristudent government by going otism is not one’s duty. It is not from table to table in the cafeteria one’s responsibility to be saying, “I’m running for governinvolved with government. ment to get government off our Patriotism takes many forms; backs.” It worked. Back in this is the great thing about our Annapolis, after serving on a country. One has a right to be or neighborhood board, Cohen was not to be involved if one wishes. Noah Kroloff (SF95) puts his patriotism into action in hooked on grassroots politics. We should encourage patri- Arizona’s state government. “It was a revelation,” he says. otism, but there are different “I thought, ‘Wow, people actually spend their lives devoted notions of what patriotism is. Sometimes it means to take to the issues that affect communities and jobs.’” Cohen, action. Yet what one thinks is a patriotic act might infringe who grew up in Annapolis (his father, Joseph, is a tutor), on the rights of others. Sometimes it means a great or served two terms on the Annapolis City Council and in heroic act. But the great thing is the way our laws and judi2006 was elected to the Anne Arundel County Council. cial systems work to balance actions that may or may not infringe on the liberties of others. Unlike our American democracy 200 years ago, other I have never felt in any way constrained to speak countries had aristocracies where a small number of very out on any issue. Social constraints exist but there influential people were able to issue edicts to direct money are no legal constraints on voting on every issue, which I and resources toward causes. But in America, with the think Tocqueville celebrated. However since Tocqueville’s absence of this nobility, the only way people could get day, the boundaries of our post-9/11 world are more things done in the same way was to form groups. America defined; now there are instances where free speech in the needs these associations because we lack the administraUnited States is limited. Yet we still live in a society whose tive structure that an aristocracy has to get things done. government allows people to say and speak and think what This has a lot to do with the big-government, smallthey choose. government debate that is around today, maybe in a different form. But it’s the debate of “Should government be doing this or should we let the private sector handle this?” This issue that Tocqueville points out is still an issue today. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �{Tocqueville} 31 “Special interests really are just collections of people advocating for a specific cause or issue; people are more effective that way. I couldn’t imagine our local government without associations.” Josh Cohen (SF94) As an Anne Arundel County Council member, Josh Cohen (SF94) seeks to make local government work for its citizens. interest in civic life because they’re just starting to own their own homes and they’re just starting to have kids who go to public schools. Those are the two biggest selfinterest motivators: your child’s education and your home. So I don’t really see that people are apathetic. There are always going to be people who say, “Oh, it doesn’t matter,” but to me that says that by and large our system works really well. Even though we have problems to address, in time we come to address them. It’s really at the local level that people see their actions having the most direct impact. As Tocqueville says they form a common goal. x dimitri fotos In our society, we talk a lot about special interests and how politics need to be separate from special interests. But special interests really are just collections of people advocating for a specific cause or issue; people are more effective that way. I couldn’t imagine our local government without associations. It’s the whole notion of having a representative democracy where elected officials are representatives. But within the constituency that these elected officials represent, there are all these different stakeholder groups that sometimes overlap and offer ways that issues can be debated. People can work to find common ground. [Yet] I think sometimes individual acts are necessary, like Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat. You need individual actions sometimes to spur movements, and groups need leaders who can negotiate and compromise on behalf of the group. Tocqueville talks mainly about commercial and business enterprises, which 200 years ago were the main reasons why people got together to advocate. In today’s culture, people form groups to advocate for a wide variety of issues. The traditional definition of civic groups are those like the Kiwanis and Lions [clubs], these are benevolent groups, just like the Elks, where they form for goodwill purposes. But I think the commercial and industrial associations have more widespread appeal. In every homeowners’ meeting that you attend the subject of property values is going to come up, so in a lot of ways it is an economic association. I think a lot of people my age—I’m 33— are only just now starting to take an { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �32 {Bibliofile} The Archaeology of Tomorrow: Architecture and the Spirit of Place kenneth m. wyner When you step inside architect Travis Price’s home in Washington, D.C., you can’t see the tree forts Price built and played in as a kid growing up in Georgia, but you can feel their presence. As he puts it, “the building tells a story.” Walls of smooth plywood and glass stretch to a leafy canopy of oak trees along Rock Creek Park. The dappled light and elegantly simple amalgam of sustainable materials—there is no sheetrock or paint—makes one feel “wrapped in a tree,” Price writes in his new book, The Archaeology of Tomorrow: Architecture and the Spirit of Place. His four-story, copper-clad residence is almost suspended in the air, tethered by weighted steel cables to a steep slope. “It is floating silence,” says Price. “The design means I can fly, both in the Western sense and in a more Asian, spiritual sense.” A pioneering green architect who designed one of the world’s largest solar buildings, the office complex for the Tennessee Valley Authority in Chattanooga, Tenn., Price is also a cultural steward. He is adjunct professor and kenneth m. wyner by Travis Price (SF71) Earth Aware Editions (2006) director of the Cultural Studies/Sacred Spaces program at Catholic University’s School of Architecture and Planning. Price treks with his students to sacred sites around the globe to create designs that speak to indigenous cultural stories. In The Archaeology of Tomorrow, Price describes the delicate balance it takes to create a space that is environmentally and culturally sustainable, that radiates mystery, emotion, a spirit of place. “You move through it like a dance. It triggers all kinds of perceptions.” The book features stunning architectural photographs interspersed with phrases that describe each space’s poetry. There is of course Price’s residence (“Floating steel soul”); the light-filled atrium of the Greenfield Library on the Annapolis campus (“Guardian of the light of Plato’s cave”); National Geographic Explorers Hall in Washington, D.C. (“Earth’s flagship of stewardAbove, Travis Price’s Washington, D.C., residence. Left, the Mackenzie House, an explorer’s retreat on Vargas Island, British Columbia. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } ship”); and private residences, including one with a traditional street-side facade that opens to a modern glass-walled addition in the back (“Unseen trees made visible”). But Price’s book is more than a coffee-table compendium of poetry, photography, and design. It is a passionate argument for a future that includes the “mythic modern,” a design that interprets sacred stories and myths in a way that is meaningful, vibrant, and relevant. “I have spent the last 30 years on the ecosphere. The next 30 I want to dedicate to the ‘ethnosphere,’” he says. By “ethnosphere,” a word coined by Price, Wade Davis and tutor Eva Brann, he means all the beliefs, myths, archetypes, and stories spawned since the dawn of civilization. “It’s the geography of human imagination,” says Price. “Great architecture always has stories behind it. Chichen Itza, Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat—they are all replete with sacred but still metaphysical and metaphorical tales. The job of an architect is to grab the cultural voice of his time and try to make it architecture, spatially carve that experience from big, bold ideas about shapes, right down to textures and materials. You have to search every culture, every locale. Even in cities such as Rome and Washington, you have to look at the layers and crusts of the stories. You will find things that describe that culture if you question enough.” In a chapter titled “Assault on the Spirit: Sprawl, Mall and Tall,” Price traces the development of architecture that is devoid of story and meaning, characterized by ubiquitous shopping malls decorated with faux Greco columns and other remnants of “old stories” that in Price’s view are disconnected from our culture’s heart and soul. “During the Industrial Revolution, the metaphor was the machine,” he says. “I’m not criticizing technology; like nuclear power it was a glorious moment, but there was a down side: the machine as metaphor is sterile and empty. There was no poetry left in architecture.” Price presents a new vision that honors an authentic sense of place. “Let’s revisit the myths, the sacred,” he says. “How do I get day-to-day architecture to have this kind of storytelling?” To find the answer, Price looks at architecture through three lenses: the Stillness of Metaphor and Myth (universal truths); the Time-fullness of Movement (technology); and the �33 chris ranier {Bibliofile} kenneth m. wyner Timelessness of Nature (the physical world). “Time-fullness is about pushing the limits of technology,” he explains. “In my residence, for example, you’re hanging on a bare thread of steel. That alone is dynamic change. The Stillness of Metaphor and Myth is apparent because there is a tranquility that overcomes you. The technology feeds the metaphor but is not overdone.” The design of his home embraces the third lens, Nature, through its use of sustainable insulating techniques and also in more subtle, lyrical ways. Windows are placed so that one can observe the moon in all its phases. Steel scuppers shaped like leaves catch rainwater from the roof and send it tumbling like a waterfall savored from the warm, dry interior. As Price describes it, “You are in the waterfall.” To illustrate architectural design that uses these three lenses, Price takes the reader to places that are familiar, even iconic, such as the Vatican, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, and the Church of the Light in Osaka, Japan. Price devotes much of his book to sacred places that “permeate mind, heart, and matter.” Among them are the Naga Shrine in Nepal, Lake Ealue in British Columbia, and the mystical “thin places” in Ireland. The early Celts believed in sacred “thin places” where past, present, and future are one. Today on Ireland’s west coast, the locals still revere the “thin places” and visitors like Price are compelled to wander the rain-soaked land near the smashing sea to find them. In The Archaeology of Tomorrow, Price describes several { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } On a “Spirit of Place” expedition in Nepal, Price and his students designed this meditation platform, cantilevered over a 100-foot drop. Below left, Price’s living room features a soaring glass wall. expeditions he has led to these mystical sites to look for cultural metaphors in the landscapes. Price and his students, in concert with the local owners, design and build sculptural structures that are in essence shrines. One, in Doonamoe, is a stone path that leads above a blowhole in the ground, where the sea spews forth 110 feet from the coast. Another landscape sculpture, completed this summer, is called “Temples of the Tides of Time.” Like the “thin places” themselves, it connects one with past, present, and future time. “When you actually walk through it you feel a certain reverence,” says Price. “I want to spend the rest of my life doing this—opening the door to the sacred.” —Patricia Dempsey �34 {Homecoming} COMING HOME Fall Fiesta in Santa Fe, Crab Feast in Annapolis F teri thomson randall amy raab photography or Lee Perlman (A73), the logic is irrefutable: He has been attending Homecoming every year since 2003. He is still alive. Therefore, Homecoming keeps him alive. He’s unwilling to test what he calls the “Perlman Principle” by staying home one year, but he’s also had such a good time that he doesn’t mind being bound by superstition. Perlman drives down to Annapolis every year from Boston, where he teaches philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, picking up his friend, Peter Squitieri (A73), in Connecticut along the way. “It’s a little like Groundhog Day,” Perlman said. “I come back every year, so every year a few more people know me.” The college works hard to plan a Homecoming that will appeal to all alumni as well as those who come back during a reunion year to see their classmates. This year, the event in Santa Fe sprang forward into fall, to September 14-16, so that alumni and students could again share the campus. Not without some controversy, the move from July didn’t seem to deter attendance: about 150 participants (alumni and families) came back to enjoy offerings such as the Fiesta Left, Annapolis alumni connect at the Saturday crab feast; below, Kimberly Herb (SF98) and Bob Nash (Schroeder, SF97) at the Fiesta Picnic in Santa Fe. Picnic on the soccer field, the All-Alumni Art Show (the Fibonacci Sequence was the theme this year), children’s activities, and a Homecoming Dinner Dance. On Saturday, photographer Craig Varjabedian and writer Robin Jones (SF84) shared photographs of Southwest landscapes and the stories behind them. Santa Fe artist Eli Levin (SFGI91) reminisced in his Speaking Volumes Lecture, titled “A Townie Interacts with the College on the Hill.” In Annapolis September 28-30, the college hosted 400 alumni and guests. Alumni devoured hundreds of Chesapeake Bay crabs after their morning seminars. Children roamed from face-painting and games to pony rides and a petting zoo. And in the Great Hall, tutors, alumni, and current students marked tutor Eva Brann’s 50th year at the college during the presentation of a Festschrift in her honor. Brann seemed both pleased and abashed by the tribute: “I have spent fifty/seventy-eighth of my life here, roughly 18,250 days,” she said. “To tell the truth, they seem as one day, the earthly counterpart of the nunc stans of eternity, the ‘standing now’ of heaven. People ask me when some event took place. I’ve taken to saying “about 25 years ago,” figuring that the mean can stand for any year. But ask me “who” and “where” and usually a bright image will arise—students, alumni, seminar partners are all in place, my year with them coalesced in one fixed image.” Both campuses welcomed returning Graduate Institute alumni with special celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of the founding of the G.I. in Santa Fe and the 30th anniversary in Annapolis. On both campuses, former alumni, current students and faculty toasted the longevity and vitality of the college’s graduate program. Patricia Sollars attended both Homecomings and greatly prefers seeing students and alumni enjoy the weekend together. Alumni enjoy talking with current students about their tutors, their classes, and their future careers, she said. “An enormous benefit of returning to St. John’s is to see that the Program is alive and well, and still thriving in ever-renewing populations of youthful minds and spirits,” she said. x { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �35 {Homecoming} AT A GLANCE: HOMECOMING 2007 Santa Fe In-Demand Seminars Nietzsche’s “On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense,” led by Eva Brann (HA89) Exodus 24-40 and Euripides’ Bacchae, led by Robert Sacks (A84) The Lecture “Knowledge, Ignorance and Imitation in Book Ten of Plato’s Republic,” David McNeill (A89) “Jihad: the Muslim Concept of Holy War,” tutor Ken Wolfe (SF94) The Schwag Snappy orange lunch tote Snappy orange lunch tote Honorary Alumni Robert Hunt and Alton (“Red”) Waldron, who have attended the college’s community seminars for more than five decades Tutor emerita Georgia “Susu” Knight, who devoted 33 years to the college Substitute for a Football Game Alumni vs. students soccer game Family nature hike up Monte Sol amy raab photography Annapolis { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } teri thomson randall amy raab photography teri thomson randall amy raab photography Above, top: tutor emerita Georgia S. Knight became an honorary alumna. Bottom, Susan Bishop (AGI99) received the Award of Merit on behalf of her late husband, Jeffrey Bishop, who died in July; Award of Merit winner Lovejoy Duryea (A67) also received an Award of Merit. Left: a storyteller delights children in Annapolis; Bottom, left to right, Lee Munson (SF97) greets a friend in Santa Fe; Annapolis crabs; Peggy Jones (SFGI94) and Consuelo Sañudo (SFGI00) toast the Graduate Institute. �36 {Alumni Profile} Questioning Established Beliefs Jim Jarvis (A75) Researches Juvenile Diseases by Patricia Dempsey mong Dr. Jim Jarvis’ prized possessions is a postcard from Paris sent to him by a former patient. “The first time I met her she was 16, sitting on a hospital bed crying; she had systemic lupus and was worried she would not be able to go on a class trip to France the following year. We made a partnership and set a goal— her trip,” says Jarvis. As a consulting pediatric rheumatologist at the W.W. Hastings Indian Hospital in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and the Children’s Hospital of Oklahoma, Jarvis builds close relationships with children who have chronic diseases and has insight into the challenges they face and treatments they need. As a professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Jarvis mentors medical students and conducts groundbreaking research to advance the understanding of juvenile chronic diseases. Jarvis, who became a pediatric rheumatologist in the early 1980s when there were fewer than a dozen such practitioners in the country, is proud of the fact that he’s seen as an iconoclast, especially for his work with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. “This is a good place to be in science, questioning established beliefs,” says Jarvis. “My career has come full circle. I began at St. John’s with bigpicture questions like, ‘What is the meaning of health?’ Then as a medical student I asked, ‘What is the meaning of wellness?’ ” Today, Jarvis has zeroed in on an urgent A question: Why is the rate of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis higher in certain American Indian tribes? His interest stems in part from his own heritage, as his greatgreat-grandmother, a Mohawk Indian, was born on the Akwesasne Reservation in upstate New York. To discover the answers, Jarvis has introduced a systemic, generational perspective to the treatment of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis through research that uses systems biology. “I observe how things are connected. Aristotle suggests in Book I, Chapter 1 of the Parts of Animals that biology is connectedness, a study of form and function,” he says. Jarvis believes that one of the reasons Native American populations have such a high rate of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis has to do with generational trauma. “Rheumatoid arthritis runs in families and groups, but it is not genetic, and not contagious,” he explains. “Data has emerged that shows that when a people has been marginalized, abused, and humiliated as some Native American populations have, this may set up a reaction in utero. The infant in utero responds to the stress, which jazzes up the fetal immune system and hits triggers that can increase the risk for rheumatoid arthritis.” While Jarvis’ generational approach is significant to the prevention of rheumatoid arthritis, he is also working to help children already afflicted with the disease by targeting individual treatments. This research is funded in part by a grant from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. By using systems biology tools—computer models show every gene that a cell is expressing— Jarvis hopes to predict which drugs will be most effective on certain patients. “Right now it is a trial-and-error process. It’s expensive, and several months go by before it becomes clear whether a drug is working. I would like to develop an assay to optimize therapy and treatment from the moment of diagnosis,” says Jarvis. With juvenile patients, the need to conserve time is crucial. “Several months, even several weeks have a much larger impact on an adolescent’s life than on an adult’s. This is time from school and important developmental milestones are missed, even special class trips.” x James Jarvis (A75), second from right, shown here in his lab with students and research colleagues, explores links between the environment and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �37 {Alumni Notes} 1935 RICHARD S. WOODMAN enjoys keeping in touch with the college, particularly with the St. John’s/Naval Academy croquet rivalry. “I’m still active practicing law in this small, beautiful village [Waterville, N.Y.] and traveling to foreign countries with one or more of my two children,” he writes. “They’re both Middlebury College graduates, and one has two grandchildren, which makes me a great-grandfather.” 1942 “My classmates will not believe first place—at the age of 86,” ERNEST J. HEINMULLER writes of his first-place showing in the adult category of a poetry-writing contest last spring. “See what St. John’s does for you!” The contest was sponsored by the Friends of the St. Michael’s Library in partnership with the county historical society. new college task force that is to collaborate with the University of Denver’s Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System on a program to recommend changes in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to reduce the burdens and expense of pretrial discovery.” 1946 JAMES W. SHARP writes: “During almost five decades of employment in the human resources departments of three businesses, 53 years of marriage, and helping to raise two daughters and four grandchildren, I was a ‘prodigal’ Johnnie. Eight years ago I again became interested in theology and philosophy. Since December 2005 I have been working my way through Bertrand Russell’s A History of Philosophy. For those who have lost touch with their St. John’s College heritage, it provides a delightful ‘Remembrance of Things Past.’” 1945 1947 Writes EDWARD W. MULLINIX: “Although I retired as an active partner in Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP of Philadelphia on January 1, 1993, I continue being active professionally as senior counsel to the firm, doing some things for the firm, participating in case-management programs in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County and the federal district court for Eastern Pennsylvania (where I serve as a member of its Civil Justice Advisory Group), and taking an occasional engagement to mediate complex commercial disputes. Most recently, the president of the American College of Trial Lawyers has appointed me to a “My wife, Elizabeth, and I took a two-week trip to France in April and drove through Burgundy and Normandy,” writes H. GERALD HOXBY. “We visited our son Bair and his wife, Caroline, in Vezelay where they had rented a house for a year while on sabbatical from Harvard. They are each writing a book while there. We all had a lot of fun and had some great meals besides seeing more than enough chateaus and churches.” 1948 PETER J. DAVIES and his wife, Phyllis, took a trip in May to Mozambique via Lisbon to attend the high school graduation of The Art of Saying No C lass of 1955 alumnus HAROLD BAUER’s “next life” as a painter has landed him as president of the Board of Trustees at the prestigious Evanston Art Center. “St. John’s did not sufficiently instruct in the art of saying no,” he writes. This fall, he will conduct Princess Ida by Gilbert and Sullivan for the Evanston Savoyaires and will stage Amahl and the Night Visitors for Chicago’s Ars Viva. x their second-eldest grandson and to celebrate Peter’s 80th birthday with his son, daughter-in-law, and five grandchildren. Also in May, he attended the funeral of PETER WEISS’ mother, Paula, who died at age 104. 1954 DAVID KAPLAN is still in business management investments. 1955 1950 JOHN R. GARLAND borrowed some lines from G.K. Chesterton for his note to the College: “. . . for there’s good news yet to be heard and fine things to be seen,/ Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.” 1953 Two years ago, CHARLES POWLESKE officially “retired” from the Business Council for International Understanding, where he has worked since 1960. “A few years passed, mostly in Mexico, before I found myself once again active in those familiar offices as ‘senior advisory and past president.’ I then teamed up with a longtime business friend, who also continues to be very involved in BCIU, and we incorporated InterPlan Consulting, Inc. At any given time, we find ourselves working on various interesting projects including a major solar energy enterprise that is about to contract for its first commercial installation.” { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } CAROLYN E. BANKS-LEEUWENBURGH writes: “Over these many years, I’ve known many St. Johnnies, from my class, from the tours we take together, from many summers in Santa Fe and social events. I often think of those people with good feelings. I want to say hello to all and wish them all the best of everything.” 1956 Last year, GEORGE SAUER was elected to his sixth term on the Republican Central Committee of Montgomery County, Maryland. 1957 It was a busy May and June for CORNELIA HOFFMAN REESE: One grandchild graduated from college, one is entering her senior year at Miami, one grandson graduated from high school and has been accepted at college, one granddaughter is entering her sophomore year of college, and another granddaughter is serving in the Peace Corps in Senegal. “Since I’m from a large family, �38 {Alumni Notes} we also had graduations of nieces and nephews—busy, busy time, but very rewarding and a delight to see education carried on,” she writes. “Looking forward to the 50th reunion at St. John’s and seeing Mary Sullivan Blomberg and her husband, Peter, again.” 1960 “I recently completed the fouryear basic program at the University of Chicago,” says PETER RUEL. “Discussing the great books brings back fond memories of nearly 50 years ago. The St. John’s imprint never leaves us. This year we are completing all of Plato’s dialogues with our instructor emeritus, George Anastaplo, who is known by some of the St. John’s tutors. Our 50th reunion will be in 2010. See you all then.” 1961 CYNTHIA BLEDSOE DALEY has retired to a small working horse farm in Greer, S.C., where she races Arabian horses. “I happily invite any Johnnies in the area to visit,” she writes. 1962 MICHAEL ELIAS writes, “My play The Catskill Sonata—about a Catskill hotel during the blacklisting period in the 1950s—had a successful run in L.A. It was directed by Paul Mazursky and will open in New York next spring. “ JOHN POUNDSTONE is back from a trip: “We have just returned from a visit to China to visit our daughter, who works in Beijing for the World Health Organization as an AIDs epidemiologist. It was an amazing visit.” He wonders if China is “ready for the Great Books.” alumni. Why does it not? Is it ashamed of the tutors’ credentials?” 1964 1966 CHRISTINE KUBACKI GRIECO is deputy director at Philadelphia’s history museum, the Atwater Kent Museum, following a long career in educational advocacy. She was happily remarried six years ago. IAN HARRIS has retired from being a professor of Educational Policy and Community Studies at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee after 32 years. In January he taught a class in Peace Education at the University of Jaume Primero in Castelló de la Plana, Spain. He plans to remain in Milwaukee with his wife, Sara, in spite of having grandchildren on both coasts. He will continue to be president of the International Peace Research Association Foundation. His latest publication is Global Directory of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution Programs (with Amy Shuster), San Francisco: Peace and Justice Studies Association, 2006. JUDITH WOOD writes: “I’m still working for Tulane County Library in the San Joaquin Valley of California. I am a reference librarian. I am just putting the finishing touches on a three-year project, getting over 100 oral histories about life in this county from 1941 to 1946. This will probably be the highlight of my entire career, first as an accountant, then as a librarian!” DAVID RANDOLPH JORDAN writes: “A few years ago, I was the guest organizer of a conference held at the Norwegian Institute at Athens, its works published in The World of Ancient Magic (Borger 1999). From March through August of 2006, I was a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as part of a group thinking about “Occult Power in Near Eastern Culture.” I am a little disappointed that St. John’s no longer sends the annual college catalogue to 1968 MARILYNNE (MAURIE WILLS SCHELL) SCOTT (SF) writes that her younger daughter, Emily Scott, graduated from Yale Divinity School in May 2006 with a Master of Divinity degree. “She now works as a liturgical coordinator for Yale Divinity School and Yale University, planning worship services. For the past two summers she has worked on the “New Music Project” under the direction of the REV. DONALD Breathing Deeply hanges for ANNETTE TULLIER STAUBS (A75): “After seven years of managing my husband’s solo family practice office, I am leaving the stress of the medical business to breathe deeply and have fun. Charles has joined Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin, where he will continue to practice family medicine and teach. I will be free to pursue my avocations among the rolling hills and dairy farms of central Wisconsin. I also plan to do volunteer work.” x C { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } SCHELL (SF68), rector of St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. My husband, David, and I are planning a trip to Alaska this summer where (if all goes well), we’ll meet RICK WICKS (SF68) and his family in Anchorage—a prereunion reunion.” CHARLES B. WATSON (A) writes: “#1 son, Ivan, continues to report on world affairs for NPR from Istanbul and places like Bulgaria, Northern Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, etc. #2 son, Misha, recently rebuilt a house and re-roofed, floored, shingled, windowed, etc., our second home on Martha’s Vineyard. Our daughter, Anya, starts graduate work in marine biology at Avery Point on Long Island Sound, with the University of Connecticut. She has spent a year in Boston, as MIT junior faculty, diving instructor, etc. Now living in Mystic, medical practice, teaching hospital, affairs are almost all-absorbing. We long for a sabbatical. Look us up and propose one?” 1969 JOSEPH P. BARATTA (A) gave an address, “World Government or Global Governance? The United Nations Project in Historical Perspective,” at a conference on U.N. reform in June in Turin, Italy. In 2006, he spent the month of July in Siena studying Italian: “Estata un ezperienze molto utilo,” he writes. MEREDITH (ARTIS) ANTHONY (A) has published a thriller, Ladykiller (Oceanview Publishing, 2007), co-authored with her husband, Lawrence Light. “It is a dark tale of a serial killer investigation set in New York City in 1991,” she writes. For more information, you can visit her Web site at www.meredithanthony.com. �39 {Alumni Notes} 1970 1973 SHEILA BOBBS ARMSTRONG (SF, EC95) is now on the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors. “My oldest son, Ian, just graduated from the Santa Fe campus,” she writes, and the two were headed on a trip to Bhutan and West Bengal late last spring. “Still living in Bobbsville with my Aussie husband, Mike, still traveling, still forgetting what I just read. Younger two sons doing fine—all’s well,” she writes. MARY L. BATTEEN (A) has been professor and chair of the Oceanography Department at the Naval Postgraduate School since 2001. She joined the department in 1984 and has enjoyed advising many Naval Academy graduates. She publishes papers on ocean currents off west coasts including North America, South America, Australia, and Europe. This year, Alfred Knopf published NORA GALLAGHER’s (SF) first novel, Changing Light, which is set in Santa Fe and Los Alamos during the making of the bomb. SUSHEILA HORWITZ (SF) is still a member of the Madonna House, a Catholic lay apostolate. “I was seven years in the far east of Russia in a small city created to serve the needs of the Gulag. The people there were wonderful. I’m moving now to our house in Edmonton, Alberta.” 1971 GEORGE ELIAS (A) reports on the family: “My 26-year-old daughter is working as an apprentice farmer in Northern California. My 15-year-old daughter attends a Jesuit high school in San Francisco, where her 12-year-old sister hopes to join her next year.” 1972 “Hope to make it to Homecoming this year. Number 35—wow!” writes CLAUDE MARTIN (A). 1974 ROGER BURK (A) is a visiting professor this year at the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education at Princeton University, where he is developing a course on space flight for nonengineering students. ROBIN KOWALCHUK BURK (A72) has started work on her dissertation on robotic information processing at SUNY-Albany. JEFF VICTOROFF (A) writes with news of children. “Maia is just finishing kindergarten and very excited about pony camp. Ivan tore a memorable swath through preschool and is very excited about Hot Wheels demolition.” 1977 LAURIE ALEXANDER (A) earned her PhD in entomology from the University of Maryland, College Park. LORIN CUOCO (SFGI) produced her first audiobook, The Tunnel, as read by the author, William Gass: “Dalkey Archive Press brought it out in 2006. Forty-five hours long, on three MP3 CDs. Historical, man,” she writes. “My work with the American Sleep Apnea Association is going well,” writes EDWARD GRANDI (A). “More active with the D.C. alumni seminar—great books, great people, good times.” JIMMIE COLSON JACKSON (SFGI) was inducted into the District of Columbia Teachers Hall of Fame in May 2007. 1978 “I completed my first triathlon, the Lake Placid Ironman, in July 2006, and my second, the Arizona Ironman, in April 2007,” writes ROBERT PERRY (A). 1982 1975 CYNTHIA SWISS (A) is making a career change: “After 30 years of teaching music, I decided it was time for a change. I am taking courses to become a dietician. I have always loved cooking and I want to help people make healthy food choices. On June 16 I will start my new job at Northwest Hospital in Reisterstown, Md. I will continue my freelance work as a violinist and give private lessons at home.” PETER B. GRIGGS (A) has published his first novel, No Pink Concept, available at xlibris.com. “James Rowley and I married on June 27, 2006,” writes KELLY GENOVA (SF). “We are very happy. STEPHEN LOACH (SF) and his fiancée, Sally Blixt, joined us to celebrate. I still practice law in Albuquerque, as does James. Stephen teaches at UT-Pan Am.” 1984 FATHER ROBERT NICOLETTI (SF) writes, “Many thanks for your correspondence. Alumni have been very generous with my mission in Ukraine and I would like to thank them. If anyone can still help these orphanages, please consider it.” DAVID WALWORTH (A) writes that he and his wife, Michelle, are still living in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. She recently received “tenure-in-waiting” as there are not any tenure slots open at the university. “My naval architecture business is going well. The most recent project will be launched in July this year in Bristol, R.I. It is a two-foot ownerdesigned yawl. The owner designed the lines and look of the boat; I did the structural engineering. We are in the early stages of designing a house to build farther up the hill from where we currently live. It will be totally off the grid. The land faces dead into the trade winds for wind power and at 17 degrees 44 min N, there is plenty of sun for solar panels. Basically a West Indies Danish cottage is the design inspiration.” 1985 ANNA L. DAVIS (A) writes: “2007 was a great year! My son, Aaron Gordon, celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in May, and I graduated from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with a Master of Public Health.” MAGGIE KINSER (A), writing as Maggie Kinser Hohle (www.maggietext.com), moved to California in July. Her husband, Brad, took a position in digital cinema at the headquarters of Dolby Laboratories in San continued on p. 41 { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �40 {Alumni Profile} A Metaphor for Life Myra Krien (SF88) Helps Young Women Gain Confidence by Deborah Spiegelman T o be in the presence of Myra Krien (SF88) is to step into a warm, confident embrace, a rare gift in this frantic world. It is a gift that she shares with every person who steps through the doors of Pomegranate Studios in Santa Fe, founded by Krien in 1996. Here, women of all ages learn the art of belly dancing. “Dance is a metaphor for living life,” says Krien, who began belly dancing at the age of three. In the style of dance she teaches, the emphasis is not on one’s physical form, but rather on the creation of line and beauty achieved by focusing and disciplining the body. Krien is an acclaimed international performer, a sought-after dance instructor and choreographer, and founder of four dance companies. However, she is most proud of the nonprofit youth development organization that she established in 2001. SEEDS (Self-esteem, Empowerment and Education through Dance) demonstrates the power of dance to bring about positive change. Each academic year, up to 25 young women between the ages of 15 and 18 participate in Krien’s three-times-a-week afterschool program. Teaching these women American Tribal Style dance, which embraces the musical, cultural, and artistic influences of India, the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain, is simply Krien’s starting point. In designing her program, Krien shaped it to the needs of the teenage girls who gravitated to her studio, many of whom couldn’t afford classes. Recognizing a need beyond dance instruction, Krien launched the program to help young women develop selfconfidence, be ready to manage their personal finances, and work toward their goals. Students credit Krien’s program with changing their lives. “The studio is their sanctuary,” she says. Similarly, Krien’s four years at St. John’s were “totally life changing.” Born in San Francisco into a bohemian family (her maternal grandfather was the philosopher and writer Alan Watts), Krien saw her life change after her parents divorced. To help her family, she worked a variety of jobs, including pecan picking and performing. She graduated early from high school and found herself out on her own at the age of 15, supporting herself by acting and singing. She grew curious about the college that many of her high school friends were attending. “I didn’t realize a school like St. John’s existed,” she says. With the college’s emphasis on education through dialogue, “this was my family all over.” On the day she received her acceptance letter, she also received an offer to pursue a singing career in California. Two doors opened to her, and she chose the one leading to St. John’s. Krien sold her exquisite belly-dancing costumes to help finance { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } Dance is a gateway to self-exploration for the young women who participate in Myra Krien’s SEEDS program. her freshman year; scholarships and several part-time jobs saw her through the college. Upon graduation, she rededicated herself to her professional goals with an “absolute focus and discipline” that she attributes to her college experience. St. John’s helped her discover she could tackle difficult things, such as running a business. She also found that the college teaches tolerance and helps each student discover his or her “authentic voice.” Krien continued on p. 41 �41 {Alumni Notes} continued from p. 39 Francisco, after 16 years in film sound in the company’s New York office, so the whole family (six in all) is moving to Petaluma, in Sonoma County. Maggie is happy to finally be leaving the winters of the Northeast behind, and to be moving closer to most of her extended family, originally Californians, though she’ll miss “the city” (NYC), an environment she really loves. Maggie will continue to write nonfiction pieces for magazines on design and architecture, as well as books, and may well finally be able to put into words her 15-year adventure in Japan, too. Any Johnnies in the Bay Area would be thanked immensely for contacting Maggie with any pointers on living and writing there. Keep in touch with her: 973-668-9446; or maggietext@comcast.net. 1986 KRISTEN CAVEN (SF) is “still passionately in love with books,” though she is now writing more than reading. “I expect two books and a musical to reach the world in 2008,” she writes. “I even lectured this year on antique cookbooks! Johnnies are welcome to visit my Web site at www.kristencaven.com.” GWENDOLYN J. CHEATHAM (SFGI) has written a book titled Give Your Teacher This Note: Parents Say the Funniest Things, which can be found on Amazon.com. She recently completed a seminar on Greek and Latin lyric at Harvard University. BARBARA ROBERTS (SFGI) writes: “In the summers of 2005 and 2006, I completed pilgrimages to the tomb-shrine, pilgrim center and disciples of Avatar Meher Baba, located in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra State, India. I continue to live in Denver, Colo., where I work as an elementary special education teacher.” 1988 THOMAS JEFFERSON BARLOW (SF) is living in downtown Detroit, working as creative director for Ford. This summer, William Heinemann is publishing Sharp Teeth, Barlow’s epic poem about lycanthropes living in Los Angeles (it will be released in the U.S. by HarperCollins in early 2008). “But the most exciting news,” he writes, “is that Nora Barlow is enrolling at the Annapolis campus this fall.” “Montana is beautiful! Hope to complete dissertation this year. Looking at use of ‘Math Dialogues’ with high school students,” writes SUSANN BRADFORD (SF). ELAINE PINKERTON COLEMAN (SFGI) has been writing and speaking. Along with other local women writers, Elaine was part of a reading titled “Dear Diary” in September at the Santa Fe Film Center. She later gave a Missing Classmates presentation of “A Journey on the Royal Road into Mexico” at the Travel Bug in Santa Fe. “My wife, Klara, and I celebrated the birth of our son, Dimitry, on April 29, 2007,” says SPYROS RITSINIAS (A). 1990 VIRGINIA BEHRENDS (AGI) d id some traveling to take in two grandsons’ high school graduations last spring, one in Seoul, South Korea, and another in San Diego, Calif. “Son #1 teaches for DOD, thus three trips to Korea, a gem of a spot. Now he is in transit to Ramstein, Germany, so we are looking forward to exploring Germany.” KEN TURNBULL (A) is living in Washington, D.C., and now has a second daughter, Zoe Turnbull, born on March 29, 2007, in addition to older sister Fiona. “My wife, Leslie, and I are doing well,” he writes. ABINE (SCHWEIDT) CRANMER (SF80) sends an update: S “I am still living in Pennsylvania near Philadelphia with my husband, Charlie, and now 11-year-old daughter, Lucy. Lucy will begin middle school at a nearby Quaker school in the fall. We’ve been working on landscaping projects, restoring a meadow and trying to grow vegetables. I work with a community-based open-space organization and tutor an Adult Basic Education student in reading, which I find very interesting. I finally gave in to my daughter’s pleas for a dog, and we are now raising a puppy for the Seeing Eye. In June we are hosting a picnic seminar for the Philadelphia Chapter of the Alumni Association. I wonder if I’ll see many people from other periods of my connection to SJC? I miss my former classmates and wish you all well, wherever you are.” x continued from p. 40 adopted these benefits of the Program as key elements of SEEDS. “I want these girls to learn to take care of themselves, to esteem themselves, to make good decisions,” Krien says. Krien sees young girls dealing with exploding emotional energy as well as personal crises. Not only does dance help channel this energy, but it also helps one learn to respond thoughtfully, rather than simply react to the apparent lack of control in one’s life, she believes. Based on group effort, American Tribal Style dance is noncompetitive. Girls alternately lead a particular series of movements, thereby creating a dance based on their contributions meshing together. “Everyone shines,” Krien says, and in this way, the dancers solidify their sense of self and community. This sense of community is reinforced through the supporting elements of the { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } 1991 DEIRDRE ROUTT (A) represented the Omaha Public Library on the Precision Book Cart Drill Team in the Cinco de Mayo Parade on May 5, 2007, in Omaha, Neb. ANNE SCHUCHMAN (A) and JAMES BERRETTINI (AGI93) are delighted to announce the birth SEEDS program. After dance instruction the girls take part in talking circles, very much like the seminars at St. John’s, Krien says. Issues—whether personal or practical— are brought up in this setting as well as in one-on-one discussions with Krien. Over time, the girls become comfortable revealing their hopes and fears. “We talk about what dignity means, what integrity means, what community means,” Krien says. x �42 {Alumni Notes} their literature classes. I find that my education at St. John’s was a valuable experience for the work I now do at the academy. My e-mail is fgiu@mma.mexico.mo.us.” of Veronica Mary on February 21, 2007. She joins Sam (8), Stella (4) and Gus (2). 1992 CHERYL HENEVELD (AGI) welcomes visitors to Vermont. “We have tons of books,” she writes. “Would love to have a great books discussion group nearby.” “I have recently moved from the Paris area to Bucharest, Romania, where my husband has taken a job in his brother’s business,” writes ELYETTE (BLOCK) KIRBY (SF). “My children are now ages six, four, and two, and for once they have cousins in the same city. We love living here and traveling in the local area. If any Johnnies live nearby, we’d love to meet you.” TAEKO ONISHI (SF) is setting up shop in New York: “I’m working with a team of educators and opening a new school in September. Lyons Community School will be a 6-12 school in East Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Check out our Web site at www.brooklynhistory.org/ education/lyonscs. Come visit!” 1993 KWAKU ACHEAMPONG (A) spent three weeks back home in Ghana last June. “I am very astonished by my observations,” he writes. “While many things and ways remain the same, some developments have been haphazard. Private housing and commercial structures are being erected anyhow and anywhere. Land can be found without proper planning. Affordability has allowed the operation of substantially more motor vehicles on the existing, inadequate number of roads. Unemployment and housing shortages destroy people’s dreams of the increasing accessibility to modern technology and lifestyles. Peace and stability, though, is assured.” KATIE (THORN) HIGSON (A) and Ted Higson welcomed a baby daughter, Ruby Thorn Higson, last year: “At 1, Ruby loves reading and talking. Eating dirt also ranks. To get in touch, e-mail Khigson@highland-hcg.com.” Santa Fe classmates trekked to Ugdanda to join friends and family for the wedding of Marie Craig (SF05, shown enjoying a traditional dance) and Christian Acemeh (SF05) this past July. J. CLAIRE DARLING (SF) writes, “Life is good. No big news. I love being self-employed as a massage therapist. Preparing to take 4th kyu test at my Aikido Dojo. Finally learning to play guitar.” KEVIN JOHNSON (A) reports from Massachusetts: “After a long search, I’ve finally found a career direction that is both personally meaningful and practically sustainable. I begin a certificate of advanced graduate study in organizational development this fall. The past year has been very good to me, bringing a better job and a new girlfriend. We’ll be shacking up shortly; who knows, maybe eventually she’ll make an honest man out of me.” 1994 JEFFREY LANE EDWARDS (AGI), now working in international relations, married Jennifer Dudley Keech on June 10, 2007, in Norfolk, Neb. They live in Annapolis. COLIN RAY (A) and Emiko Ray write from Tokyo: “Our son, Thomas Michael Ray, was born on January 8, 2007. Our daughter, Marina (24 months old), loves taking care of him. She is mastering her English and Japanese language skills.” 1996 “I am in my second year as the Director of Studies at the Missouri Military Academy,” writes FRANCESCO GIUSEFFI (SFGI). “I recently earned a master’s in education and continue to find enjoyment in teaching an honors American history class. I keep the speeches of Lincoln and Alexis de Tocqueville on the minds of my students. Our cadets now study the Latin language and can expect a heavy dose of Shakespeare in { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } MARTY AND LUCILLE WALKER (AGI) are living in Upper Marlboro, Md., with their sons Ian and Reese, ages 7 and 4. Marty is teaching at the Summit School in Edgewater, Md., and Lucille is an independent consultant currently assisting local farmers. 1997 KATE (GLASSMAN) BENNETT (A) lives in Las Vegas, where she is a freelance writer, specializing in popular culture, fashion, entertainment, and celebrity for a number of magazines. She is also editor-in-chief of the new City Center Magazine, a luxury magazine devoted to MGM Mirages’ massive $7 billion urban resort complex, currently the largest privately funded construction project in the world. She’s still not sure how she feels about actually living in Las Vegas, but after eight years, it’s now become home. She and her husband, Cub, have a very inquisitive 2-year-old daughter, Tess. Visitors welcome! Kate8vegas@aol.com. STEPHEN CONN (SF) is happy to announce that his Sgt.Pepper/ Great Books Authors shirt, as �43 {Alumni Notes} A New Direction BARKER (A98) writes, “A few months ago I was relaxing at my father’s farm and realized I wanted my life to go in a new direction. So from New York—where I’ve been working in theatre for the past three years— I’m moving to Washington, D.C., where I hope to use my strengths and abilities to promote a more peaceful world. Just recently, I accepted a position as the Communications & Development Coordinator at the Women’s Foreign Policy Group in Washington. WFPG (www.wfpg.org) is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, educational membership organization that promotes global engagement and the leadership, visibility and participation of women in international affairs. I’d love to hear from other Johnnies working in or interested in foreign policy: mail@sarabarker.com.” x S ARA well as Rolling Stones’ Great Books shirt “Some Books,” are now both available for sale online, on his Web site www.radioactiverabbi.com. “My wife, Evie, and I had our second child, a girl, born on April 22, named Caroline Elizabeth,” writes BRENTON HINRICHS (AGI). “We reside in San Jose, Calif., where I am head of an independent school in Los Gatos, called Hillbrook School. My wife is a second-grade teacher at Hillbrook. I would love to hear from other AGIs from ’97. Patrick Wager? Pat Knight? Bill Buysse?” 1998 GLENNSCOTT COOPER (AGI) retired from teaching with Milwaukee Public Schools in June. He is working full time writing a novel and finished a short screenplay for Avant Guardian films. TIM WINSLOW (A) and Celia Messing married in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 6, 2007. Celia is a graduate of The Catholic University of America and the cousin of BEATRICE ROBBINS (A98). Tim is a millionaire and owns 15 helicopters but still welcomes your wedding gifts. You may congratulate him via tim@winslowdc.info. 1999 LORI KURTYKA (AGI) and her husband, Mauricio Rojas, welcomed their baby boy, Matteo Nicholas, into the world on February 20. PATRICK REED (AGI) and his family are living in Germany where his wife is stationed with the Air Force. They are expecting a second daughter this summer and welcome visitors. 2000 ANDRÉ RODRIGUEZ (SFGI) is currently the staff attorney at YMCA International Services and teaches Introduction to Mexican American Studies at the University of Houston’s main campus. 2001 PHILIP BOLDUC (SF) is serving his second tour of duty in Iraq in the U.S. Army. He is stationed in Baghdad. “After briefly working for Fannie Mae in Washington, D.C., after graduation, I moved to my hometown of Chicago,” writes DANIEL BRAITHWAITE (A). “I’ve had a flexible part-time job with a dot-com for several years which has allowed me to travel and try out different things, including keeping up with aikido, farming, tutoring kids, and managing a small commercial kitchen. I’d be glad to know who’s near me in the Chicago area. I also visit Annapolis regularly.” JESSICA K. REITZ (A) is delighted to announce her marriage to Christopher R. Wallace on July 21, 2007. Jessica and Chris live in Centreville, Va., with their son, William, now walking everywhere, and their two dogs, Bruce and Molly. Jessica was named Teacher of the Year for 2006-7 at James Madison High School in Vienna, Va., and this fall, she will continue teaching mathematics and coaching crew for her third consecutive year. 2002 CHELSIA WHEELER (SF) joined the United States Foreign Service and spent the summer in training for her first post, in Rangoon, Burma. She was studying Burmese and planned a departure in late August or early September. 2004 TATIANA HARRISON (A) was published in Newsweek’s “My Turn” online column in January. “I’m happily legally disabled because it gives me all the time to write. I’m getting hand surgery done over the summer, which hopefully will result in less pain and increased function. I’m also proud to be a member of Third Haven Monthly Meeting, a Quaker Meetinghouse in Easton, Md. My grandfather, Dr. David Yesair, passed away on April 20. He’s a great loss for my family, as he was a great man.” A short note from CHRIS HENDERSON (A) and GENEVA HINKLE (A06), from Saratoga Springs: “We’re poor, but happy.” CHRISTIAN BLOOD (SF) is writing his dissertation: “Oh! The secondary sources! Woe!” LORI LYNN RUBELING (AGI) was just promoted to full professor of Art at Villa Julie College in Stevenson, Md. 2003 ALAIN ANTOINE (SFGI) is enrolled in the Eastern Classics program in Santa Fe. SCOTT MCCARLEY (AGI) is teaching science, math, and Greek at a private school. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } 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 December 20. 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 �44 {Alumni Notes} Justice and the Human Comedy ASON BIELAGUS (SF98) recently graduated from law school, J was admitted to the New Mexico Bar, and began working as an assistant district attorney in First Judicial District in New Mexico. “In some ways it is a return to freshman year and Plato,” Jason writes. “The Supreme Court has said a prosecutor’s job is not necessarily to win cases, but to see that justice is done. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what justice is and how it applies to a given situation. It’s an opportunity to try to apply practically a lot of what we talked about in freshman year. There’s a lot of Mills in it, too, in that the purpose of the system is to keep people from harming other people. It’s good trial experience, and prosecuting cases in Santa Fe and Española has given me some insights into the human experience, the human comedy. A lot of the Española cases are funny and sad at the same time.” x PAUL MCLAIN (SFGI) was awarded the Master of Divinity degree by Yale University on May 28, 2007. He was named one of the four student marshals who led the procession of Divinity School graduates during the commencement exercises. Paul is now a Postulant for Holy Orders in the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas. As part of his preparation and journey toward possible ordination as a priest, he is working as a hospital chaplain resident for one year at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita. Ruthie McLain, Paul’s wife, is coordinator of volunteers at Faith Home Health and Hospice in Wichita. the Helicon/You should read Anacreon/Ovid’s Metamorphoses,/Likewise Aristophanes/And the works of Juvenal./These are worth attention, all;/But, if you will be advised,/You will get them Bowdlerized!” 2005 CHRISTOPHER BENSON (AGI) is joining the inaugural team of a new Christian preparatory academy in Santa Barbara, Calif., called Providence Hall. “I will help in the design of an interdisciplinary curriculum based on the great books and teach both literature and philosophy,” he writes. x CYNTHIA TOBIAS (AGI) played Lady Psyche, Professor of Humanities, in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Princess Ida. She donned her G.I. cap and hood for the part. “I also designed the set,” she writes. “Psyche’s opening lines are: ‘If you’d climb 2006 {Obituaries} WILLIAM C. OWENS, M.D. DOROTHY ROUDEBUSH Class of 1938 Former Member, BVG William C. Owens, an ophthalmologist whose work helped prevent blindness in infants, died on June 20, 2006, in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Owens graduated from St. John’s in 1938. He earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1942, where he served on the medical faculty until 1953. While at Hopkins, he and his wife, Ella, also an ophthalmologist, made an important discovery about retinal blindness in premature infants that led to methods of prevention. Dr. Owens spent two years in the army as assistant chief of ophthalmology at Walter Reed. In 1955 he opened a private practice in Easton, Penn., retiring to San Antonio in 1971. He is survived by his son, William C. Owens, Jr. Dorothy Roudebush, a women’s rights activist and journalist, died on July 4, 2007, in Chesterfield, Mo., at the age of 95. Mrs. Roudebush served St. John’s College as a member of the Board of Visitors and Governors from 1969-1982. A native of St. Louis, Mrs. Roudebush earned a bachelor’s degree in English and theater from Vassar College in 1932. She earned a journalism degree from the University of Missouri and joined the St. Louis Post Dispatch as a feature writer. After her marriage to George S. Roudebush in 1936, she became an educator. She taught English and directed publicity for the John Burroughs School. Later, she earned a master’s degree in counseling and became a student counselor at Lindenwood College. Her many accomplishments included working to repeal Missouri’s law that prohibited married women from teaching in public schools. An ardent champion of equal rights for women, Mrs. Roudebush worked to improve women’s access to family planning services and served on the board of directors for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis region. Planned Parenthood honored her by naming its headquarters in Maplewood, Missouri, the Dorothy Roudebush Education Center and Administration Office. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } ALSO NOTED GARNETT CLARK (Class of 1936), June 20, 2007 JEREMY DAWE (SF01), January 15, 2007 AARON FOGARTY (SF94), May 20, 2007 OSCAR LORD (Class of 1940), July 17, 2007 EDWARD LEGUM (Class of 1938), August 17, 2007 ELIZABETH JEAN MEISS (SF75), June 13, 2007 WILLIAM OGDEN (Class of 1946), July, 26, 2006 CHERYL RAMSEY (A68), January 2007 GUSTAVE RATHE (SF81), May, 23, 2007 PAUL SCHEMEL (Class of 1944), May 2007 H.A. STAFFORD (Class of 1957), December 28, 2003 DONALD TAUBE (Class of 1965), July 9, 2007 RICHARD YOUNG (Class of 1949), March 21, 2007 �45 {Alumni Profile} A Race Across America Andy Mead (SF04) Rides for a Cause by Rosemary Harty T here were more than a few moments last summer when Andy Mead (SF04) wondered whether entering the Race Across America was such a good idea. Mead had joined with the seven other riders of “Team Type I” to compete in one of the toughest bicycle endurance competitions in the world. The team set out not only to win the relay race from Oceanside, Calif., to Atlantic City, N.J., but also to draw attention to Type I diabetes, a disease Mead was diagnosed with at age 16. Taking his three-hour stints on the bike, Mead endured the desert heat of Southern California and the thin air and cold temperatures at 10,000 feet in the Colorado mountains. Mead sprinted ferociously on very little sleep—perhaps getting 15 hours in five days. “I didn’t see how we could keep going,” he says. When the team crossed the finish line in first place for their division, Mead was too exhausted to enjoy the celebration. “I went right from the finishing line to the hotel and slept for eight hours straight,” he said. All told, Mead put in about 500 miles on his bike. Mead is now in his third year of a doctoral program in physiology/molecular biology at the University of Pennsylvania. Throughout the winter, he rose at 5 each morning to get in at least four hours of training before his classes or work in the laboratory. His commitment to the race was a strong one, inspired by his own experience with the disease. “When I was 16, I got very sick, and they couldn’t figure out what was going on,” says Mead. “Fortunately, I lived in a town with a very good hospital. Since then, I’ve had to keep a good eye on what The Race Across America was grueling, but the opportunity to give back to those who helped him cope with Type I diabetes made the sacrifice worthwhile for Andy Mead (SF04). “We’ve learned that people with Type 1 can basically do anything.” Andy Mead (SF04) I eat and how I treat my body, but it’s not that hard to live with.” Treatment with insulin meant immediate improvement, but Mead had been a hockey player and very active as a youth, and he was initially concerned he’d have to scale back. “We’ve learned that people with Type 1 can basically do anything,” Mead says. “There are people who are afraid of taking risks with their bodies, afraid of participating in sports and exercising because of the fear of having low blood sugar. It’s a real balancing act { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } between food and insulin and but it’s manageable.” Mead’s 13-year-old brother, Charlie, also has the disease, and Mead raced in part to inspire his brother to feel that he can take on any challenges in his life. “A feeling of being handicapped and a fear of low blood sugar can keep kids with the condition from participating in activities and developing habits that would actually help them live healthier lives,” Mead says. “Providing a positive example is the team’s most important purpose.” Halfway through his doctoral program, Mead is considering a career in research or teaching. At Penn, he has been impressed with “all the brilliant minds” of the university, but he’s glad he attended St. John’s instead of a traditional biology or pre-med program. “The interesting thing to me is there aren’t that many conversations going on in the biomedical research world about the kinds of questions we ask about science and what kind of thinking we’re doing,” he says. Mead hoped to raise $4,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation with his own 100-mile ride in September. Being part of Team Type 1 and raising money on his own—even when it comes with sore muscles and sleep-deprivation— is immensely satisfying, Mead says: “It’s really the first time I’ve given back for all the excellent care I’ve had, all the lessons I’ve learned dealing with my own situation as an athlete and student. I’m really grateful.” x �46 { A l u m n i Vo i c e s } Letters from China A Graduate’s Adventures Teaching in the East by Susan Swier (AGI06) October 19, 2006 susan swier Beijing is fascinating. Parts of the city are modern and Westernized, and parts of it look like something from a century ago. It is amazing how many bicycles there are in the city. I considered getting one, but the drivers here are crazy. I saw an entire family of four riding on one little motor scooter! The first few weeks, I went to all the tourist places: the Forbidden City, Beihai Park, the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square. On one really interesting street, vendors sell bizarre snacks on sticks. I ate three scorpions and a centipede; the scorpions weren’t bad, but the centipede was disgusting. The private primary school where I was supposed to teach first and third-graders was terrible. They have a set curriculum, which I thought would be good since I don’t have experience. I could tell from the training that it was going to be bad, and when I started teaching it was even worse. It’s rote memorization, and the kids don’t learn anything except pronunciation. They push the students to get through so many pages of reading and don’t care if the kids really comprehend what they’re reading. My third-grade class read five sentences about a snail. When I asked if they knew what a snail was, one girl pointed to a nail in the blackboard. The first-graders were smart, could speak English on their own, and were able to think for themselves. The third-graders couldn’t say anything except what they were told to repeat. When I told the school I was quitting, they threatened to fine me and keep me from working anywhere else in China. Even after they found a replacement, they wanted me to pay the fine, but I was on my way to another job, at a university in Harbin. The Foreign Affairs officer met me at the train station and said they would talk about a contract the next day. However, he sent his assistant to tell me that they didn’t want me after all—I was too young. Then I met a high school recruiter from Sui Fen He, on the Russian border. She said I could take the overnight train with her assistant, look at the school and then come back the next night and think about it. I figured I had nothing to lose, and it would be a chance to see another city. But they had no intention of letting me go back and think things over! They left me at an apartment that had no kitchen, no real shower, and running water less than half of the time. I decided to find my own way out and took a train out the next day without telling anyone. Fortunately the agency that found me that job sent me an e-mail telling me that they had jobs in Beijing. I had three interviews and three offers, and decided to take { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } Susan Swier (AGI06) used her breaks from teaching to sightsee. She photographed this temple in Quanzhou. a job teaching writing and oral English at China Youth University for Political Sciences, the university of the Communist party. It doesn’t seem very “communist,” except that “youth leaders” from various countries come here all the time. I teach three days a week, just 10 classes, with two groups of freshmen for the oral English class and two groups of sophomores for writing. I really don’t know what I am doing yet. October 28, 2006 Last weekend, I went hiking with two students in Xiang Shan, the Fragrant Hills. The view was amazing. There were people all over the place and vendors selling laminated red leaves, even at the top of the mountain. �47 { A l u m n i Vo i c e s } Since I teach just three mornings a week, I began tutoring: a group of four businessmen and a seven-year-old boy— quite an experience since neither the boy nor his mother speaks English at all. They come to my apartment and the boy runs wild most of the time, though his mother seems happy enough. Every other weekend, I read stories to children at the Bookworm, an English bookstore and café. Books are amazingly cheap here, at least those printed in China, and most are classics. The library on campus has a fair selection of English books, but until yesterday I hadn’t been in because of the guard at the door. (There are guards everywhere here, even at McDonald’s.) One week, important party officials came to inspect the school and the whole campus was worried. Students weren’t allowed to leave and there was a meeting for all the teachers that sounded quite serious. We foreign teachers had to go, and the dean later summed up the meeting in just five minutes. Supposedly the inspection went well. December 24, 2006 It doesn’t feel much like Christmas here, though some stores put up tinsel and decorations. My freshmen threw a party that was fun, but a bit strange. We ate sunflower seeds, peanuts, and oranges, and played games: guess-the-Chinese pop song, musical chairs, and the three-legged race. There was a gift exchange at the end. The freshmen are a lot of fun, and I’ll miss them. I tried to make Christmas cookies yesterday only to find that the oven in my apartment doesn’t work. On Christmas day, another English teacher and I are going to watch It’s a Wonderful Life on DVD. And we bought real wine, which we haven’t had in months. (Chinese wine tastes like Kool-Aid.) China is strange but fascinating, an incongruous mix of ancient and modern things so close together. The people are fascinating too, though many are hard to trust. I’m reading Alice in Wonderland right now, and there are definite parallels December 10, 2006 The university just informed me that I don’t have an agreement with them to teach until July, but only until the end of the term. The dean said the writing students had complained about my class. (No writing teacher has lasted more than a term here.) My oral English class was fine; the students were participating and seemed to like me. Unfortunately the writing class went downhill. Though they have improved quite a bit since the beginning of the semester, they want to write perfectly. Since they don’t, they blame me. They’re under a lot of pressure because they have to memorize an entire dictionary to prepare for an exam next semester. The Chinese education system is so focused on memorization. For writing, I think they would like to have a list of rules to memorize and set phrases to use that would somehow make them write perfectly. Would I have done better if I could have been more authoritative? I lined up another job at a public primary school in Quanzhou, Fujian Province. The English program is run by Australians, seems to be well run, and I gain a chance to see southern China. to China: The cards painting the roses red so the queen won’t notice and chop off their heads is like the way people hide things and help each other get away with things. The Cheshire Cat says to Alice, “we’re all mad here. They’re mad, I’m mad, you’re mad. . .if you weren’t mad, you wouldn’t have come.” December 31, 2006 My freshmen had a going-away party for me in my apartment and gave me an umbrella because it rains so much in Fujian. The train trip to Xiamen (Quanzhou is so small that it has no train station) took 36 hours because the train had to go through so many mountains. As we traveled further south, the winter countryside gave way to spring. In the north, the cows have thick coats, but in the south, they have sagging necks and hairless gray skin. I took a bus from Xiamen to Quanzhou, and arrived in the evening of my second day of traveling. Quanzhou is a quaint city. Marco Polo visited the city, and it used to be a major international trading port until the emperor forbid foreign visitors in about the late 14th century. There is a wide variety in the architecture, and temples for nearly every religion, even one of the last surviving Manichean temples. It is possible to walk anywhere within an hour and a half, and there are cheap motorcycle taxis everywhere. They keep an extra helmet on their handlebars, and you flag them down, haggle over the price, and jump on the back. I’m teaching in a private afterschool program run by an Australian at a public school. Each class has 30-35 students, and I am teaching kids from first through sixth grades. Many of the students board at the school even if their parents live nearby because the parents work so much. Here the kids have no shower, just sinks with cold water. Perhaps because the kids don’t get enough attention, they are extremely rowdy in class. March 5, 2007 Happy Chinese New Year! During our three-week spring break I traveled all Swier enjoys a night out in Beijing. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �48 { A l u m n i Vo i c e s } Her freshman English students made Swier feel at home with a Christmas party in December 2006. April 27, 2007 over China. I started in Guilin, Guangxi, where I visited Seven Stars Cave Park, which has an amazing cavern and wild monkeys running everywhere. Though a sign said “these lovely monkeys are very bad tempered and sometimes attack tourists,” I saw a small child feeding a monkey a banana right out of his hand. The next day I took a train to Nanning, near Vietnam, and another to Kunming, the “City of Eternal Spring,” in Yunnan Province, a city famous for its flowers and fruit. I bought a half-pineapple on a stick for just 50 cents. That evening, I left on a bus for Lijiang, which has a beautiful Old Town that dates back to the Song Dynasty, almost 800 years ago. Most of the inhabitants are from the Naxi minority group, and many wear traditional costumes. Every few hours they performed traditional dances in the square near my inn, and musical groups performed in the evenings. Next I took a bus to the famous ShangriLa, which didn’t look exciting after all. Instead I tagged along with a Korean family and went to Meili Snow Mountain near Dequin, on the border of Yunnan and Tibet. That was the most exciting bus ride I ever had—six hours, up and around the mountains on narrow, unpaved roads, most of which had no guard rails. The Koreans, two Chinese girls, and I decided to go together to the mountain. We met a Tibetan taxi driver who said she would drive us there and back the next day, and offered lodging in her family’s farmhouse. Nearly a dozen half-drunk neighbors were gathered in the house’s main hall to greet us. The girl’s father offered us some of their local alcohol in a brass kettle, we drank several toasts, and they put white shawls on us to show we were honored guests. After dinner, we danced to traditional music. It was raining the next day as we went up the mountain on horseback, so we rented raincoats and pants for the excursion. As we climbed higher, the rain changed to snow. We went as far as the horses could go and continued further up on foot before turning back. At the farmhouse, they had just killed a pig that day, so the meat was quite fresh. A trip to China wouldn’t be complete without seeing pandas, so I went to Chengdu, to the panda research and breeding center there. In a setting close to their natural habitat, there were red pandas, which look almost like foxes, and giant pandas. I took the train home to Quanzhou the next morning: a 44-hour trip, and though I missed the New Year’s festivities, I could see fireworks from the window. With just a few months left here in China, I need to decide what to do next. I just finished applying to a literature PhD program at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } Well, I got fired. I can’t control 35 kids at once; the little ones run wild, and the older ones are bored and talk amongst themselves. Since the classes are so large, and I have more than 200 students, it’s hard to remember the children as individuals. Even first-graders spend the whole class talking amongst themselves, and I can’t shout over them. I made one kid stand in the back and he started doing cartwheels back there. Almost every month, I’ve had to give tests, and I can see the students are doing worse than when I started. I know now that I do not want to teach such large classes of small kids ever again! I have a month’s notice, but after that, I don’t know what to do. I don’t think it’s a good idea to get another English teaching job, but at least the whole thing has been an adventure. June 27, 2007 It didn’t really hit me that I was leaving China until I was at the airport. After stops in Bangkok and Seoul, I flew to Las Vegas, where my aunt lives. It was strange to hear people speaking English again and to see so many Caucasians. I haven’t received scholarship funding to St. Andrews, so I’m not sure I can make it this fall. I miss China, and I would consider going back again. I certainly don’t want to be fired again, though. x Postscript: Susan Swier was accepted to the doctoral program at St. Andrews, but without scholarship funding, couldn’t attend. She flew to Scotland to try to work something out, but when she had visa trouble, she headed back to China. “I’ve accepted a job at a private school teaching small classes of adults,” she wrote in September. She hasn’t given up on studying at St. Andrews, where she hopes to concentrate on Thomas Hardy. �49 {The Tutors} Return to Shanxi by Krishnan Venkatesh Graduate Institute Director, Santa Fe I 100 undergraduates stayed late to hear me explain Shakespeare’s meter. The American teachers who pass through Chinese universities apparently do only language instruction and are usually not interested in books. Consequently, these students are hungry to learn how to think about big things, to examine their own ideals, and to discover new worlds through reading. Their intense curiosity about life outside China was very moving. In visiting Taiyuan, Beijing, and some “smaller” cities, even on this short trip I could see the bustle and energy of a huge krishnan venk atesh n March 2007, I returned to northern China after an absence of 18 years. From 1986-89, I had taught English literature and Western philosophy at Shanxi University, Taiyuan City, and forged strong, intimate bonds with about 100 inquisitive and idealistic young people. It turned out that none of those bonds had weakened through time and distance. All these people remain my close friends, and we picked up exactly where we left off, with discussions of life and books, and always over great food and drink. Now of course my former students are all in their 40s, with kids in high school or college, and they include university professors, teachers, managers, entrepreneurs, and translators. One of the wonderful things about China is the inviolable strength of the student-teacher relationship; I know that when I am 80 and my former students are 73, our bond will be unchanged and even deeper. On this trip I had been invited to give a series of lectures on liberal education and great books, to upper-class undergraduates, graduates, and university instructors. They were eager to hear about Plato, Aristotle, and Thucydides, and more than country engaged in seizing the economic leadership of the world: hard-working people everywhere, roads bursting with aggressive cars and trucks (no longer the peaceful tides of bicycles), deals made on cell-phones as people walked the streets, buildings going up everywhere, many crowded restaurants. Service workers in restaurants, hotels, banks and airports were uniformly well-trained, efficient and friendly; you could see in their eyes that they knew they were going somewhere. China is no longer a sleeping giant; indeed, the sheer life-force of this toiling, wide-awake giant is all too evident and somewhat overwhelming. By the time I returned to the United States, it was America that seemed sleepily complacent and in decline. Spend some time in China, and you will wake up. And to all of you recent St. John’s graduates who already long for the college and miss the conversations you are used to: The world out there is an interesting and exciting place; go be part of it! x Above, The garden pavilion of a private mansion in Shanxi. Left, Krishnan Venkatesh’s former students from Shanxi University reunite with their teacher 18 years later. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } �{Alumni Association News} CHAPTER CONTACTS ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin Gammon, A94 410-332-1816 emartin@crs.org DALLAS/FORT WORTH Paula Fulks, SF76 817-654-2986 puffjd@swbell.net AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO Toni Wilkinson, SGI87 512-278-1697 wilkinson_toni @hotmail.com Paul Martin, SF80 paul@martincapital. com DENVER/BOULDER Tom Byrnes, SF74 720-344-6947 tbyr@pair.com BOSTON Dianne Cowan, A91 617-666-4381 diannecowan@rcn.com HOUSTON Norman Ewart A85 713-303-3025 norman.ewart@rosetta resources.com MINN./ST. PAUL Carol Freeman, AGI94 612-822-3216 Freem013@umn.edu PORTLAND Jennifer Rychlik, SF93 503-547-0241 jlr43@coho.net NEW YORK CITY Daniel Van Doren, A81 914-949-6811 dvandoren@ optonline.net SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico, A86 619-429-1565 srico@sandi.net SOUTHERN CALIF. Jan Conlin, SF85 310-490-2749 conlinjan1@yahoo.com TRIANGLE CIRCLE, NORTH CAROLINA Elizabeth, A92 & Rick Ross, A82 919-319-1881 Elizabeth@ activated.com SALT LAKE CITY Erin Hanlon, SF03 WASHINGTON, DC 916-967-2194 erin_hanlon@juno.com Deborah Papier, A72 202-387-4520 deborah.papier@ SANTA FE verizon.net Richard Cowles, SFGI95 PHILADELPHIA WESTERN NEW Helen Zartarian, AGI86 505-986-1814 ENGLAND rcowles2@comcast.net 215-482-5697 Peter Weis, SF84 helenstevezartarian@ 413-367-2174 SEATTLE mac.com James Doherty, SFGI76 peter_weis@ nmhschool.org 206-542-3441 PHOENIX jdoherty@mrsc.org Donna Kurgan, AGI96 623-444-6642 dakurgie@yahoo.com NORTHERN CALIF. Reynaldo Miranda, A99 415-333-4452 reynaldo.miranda@ gmail.com { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } ’s C ohn olle .J mn u CHICAGO Rick Lightburn, SF76 847-922-3862 rlightburn@gmail.com SOUTH FLORIDA Peter Lamar, AGI95 305-666-9277 cplamar@yahoo.com Al ALBUQUERQUE Robert Morgan, SF76 505-275-9012 rim2u@comcast.net PITTSBURGH Joanne Murray, A70 724-325-4151 Joanne.Murray@ basicisp.net Jason Walsh (A85) Alumni Association President ge Call the alumni listed below for information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. MADISON, WI Consuelo Sañudo, SGI00 608-251-6565 sanudoc@tds.net Annapolis also had a very fine Homecoming, with more than 400 attendees, and a full range of events. On both campuses, the programming for children done by select students under the direction of the alumni office, including games, babysitting, and “Future Johnnie Seminars,” encouraged more alumni to bring their families. We’ve heard from many parents who love this relatively new addition to the homecomings. One of the key lessons from this year’s schedule was that many alumni felt early September was too soon in the beginning of academic years. Next year, Annapolis Homecoming will take place September 26-28 and Santa Fe is scheduled for mid-October. As the college did this year, it will take advantage of the more attractive pricing of Santa Fe hotels in the fall to negotiate block rates. There have been many other great alumni programs this year, both around the country at our chapters and on campus through the Piraeus program. As the representative organization for alumni, we are driven by our mission to provide opportunities for more alumni to connect more often and more richly. We will continue to strive to make engagement with the college and our community a vital part of the lives of our alumni. n T he homecomings this year have just concluded, and the energy at both was revitalizing. I attended Santa Fe’s, where there was a wide array of activities for returning alums. You could start the weekend with an art studio and winery tour, attend the lecture Friday night, choose from a range of seminars Saturday morning, toast your classmates and the college at the banquet, and dance the night away in the Great Hall. This year’s Santa Fe Homecoming benefited from the active presence of our community of learning—current students and faculty, joined by returning alumni— sharing the energeia of the Santa Fe campus, made possible by shifting the event from summer to a time when the campus is in full session. The college staff, consulting with the Alumni Association, considered this change at great length over several years and announced this change in 2006. Like most changes, there were serious pros and cons to consider both as to changing the schedule and as to keeping things the same; unfortunately there was no single option that was ideal. In the end, after carefully weighing those pros and cons, we thought the benefits of having the full community present was of great importance to the essential nature of a homecoming for the St. John’s community. To paraphrase Dean Mora’s welcome to us: for the first time we were coming home to the Santa Fe campus when the college was fully there, rather than finding a key under the mat. More than 150 people signed up for Homecoming, one of the highest attendance rates in years. On Friday night, alumni were able to attend (or to skip) Friday night lecture and the time-honored Question Period. On Saturday night, more than 100 alumni and guests enjoyed a fine dinner on the Meem Placita. When we moved indoors to the Great Hall for the dance, the enthusiasm of the many students attending enlivened the event for all. Tutors also were present throughout the weekend, at cocktail parties, the picnic, and brunch. Students were excited to see alumni who were not tutors: such strange beasts had been rumored before but never observed in the wild. io From the Alumni Association President St 50 i A s s o cia t Providing opportunities for more alumni to connect more often and more richly �{Alumni Association News} Down to Piraeus—in Annapolis Last January, the Alumni Association joined with the college in offering a new continuing education program, Piraeus. In June, the association’s secretary, Joanne Murray (A70), spent a long weekend revisiting the Odyssey with 17 other alumni in seminars led by Annapolis tutor Eva Brann (HA90) and Santa Fe tutor David Carl. Here’s her commentary on Piraeus. The ODYSSEY I was being pretty diligent in getting the reading done, but I was still finishing the last book right up to the last seminar. I still have the Fitzgerald translation that was very popular when I was a student. This was the first time re-reading it since freshman year with Elliott Zuckerman. (It really is awful to have to see the underlining and comments one made as a freshman, isn’t it?) Best Metaphor in the ODYSSEY The night before Odysseus is going to take out the suitors, he could not sleep. He rocked, “rolling from side to side, as a cook turns a sausage, big with blood and fat, at a scorching blaze, without a pause, to broil it quick: So he rolled left and right, casting 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. Life in the Dorms Jo Ann (Mattson A87, alumni director) is the best hostess ever. In our dorm rooms she left flowerpots filled with wine, cheese, chocolate, grapes, treats. Settling into a dorm room is like having a clean slate for the weekend, a real break from daily responsibilities. Part of the fun of the whole weekend was living in the dorm and being around people that you’re going to run into when you’re brushing your teeth in the morning. 51 about to see how he, alone, against the false outrageous crowd of suitors could press the fight.” The Seminars We met in the Barr-Buchanan Center—the library when I was a student—in the beautiful reading room. Of course, I knew Eva from way back, but David Carl was a new acquaintance who turned out to be an excellent tutor. He and Eva played back and forth across the table with evident pleasure. It wasn’t the same kind of discussion we had as freshmen. The conversations about Penelope were memorable: What were the difficulties of her position? Why did she have to outdo Odysseus himself in ruses? Even after he and Telemachus had killed the suitors, she had to test him one more time about moving the bed that he had built for their marriage. Only when he reacts to her saying that the bed had been moved (“what do mean you moved the bed?”) can she resume the marriage. How do you resume a marriage after so many years of separation? That’s something 18-year-olds don’t really know much about, but at our age, now, we think we know at least a few things about marriage. The Feasting We had the campus to ourselves, and the chef made it a show-off occasion for the kitchen. He took out the crystal and the linens, and there were flowers on the table. How was the food? It was not just better than regular dining hall food, it was really, really good food. It was food worth photographing. Saturday evening we made a pause in the seminar routine to feast on crabs down in Left, treats in the dorm. Top, elbow deep in crabs. Right, Miss Brann and the author. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } 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 boathouse. A few people said they’d had better crabs, but they said it elbow-deep in crab shells. They kept piling them up on their plates. Jo Ann and her husband Walter (A87), Chris Nelson, and the tutors joined us for the party. We sat up talking in the common room, over a supply of wine and cheese that was magically replenished every evening. We talked about: what we’d been up to for the last 30 years, jobs, life, politics, the economy, the country, intellectual passions, and favorite amusements. For me it was a particular pleasure to see so many people from my class, and from classes a few years before and after us—people I really got to know for the first time. The seminar is central for many of us, but that feeling of welcome—that’s what the college does so well. And that’s what made the weekend so memorable. x �{St. John’s Forever} marion warren 52 Seventy Years of Genuine Conversation I n 1957, a would-be archaeologist from Stanford University joined the faculty of St. John’s College. Though she loved Greek archaeology and had been a member of the American Agora expedition in Athens, the young scholar decided she would rather spend her life “learning about the nature of things, instead of describing objects.” This year, when she sat down with her seminar partner to lead another group of freshmen through the Iliad, tutor Eva Brann marked her 50th year of teaching at St. John’s. Miss Brann studied history at Brooklyn College, going on to earn a master’s in classics and a doctorate in archaeology from Yale University. When she came to St. John’s for her first visit, Miss Brann recalls, “It was love at first sight.” Over the years she has served as the college’s first female dean, has written several books and articles, and has been honored many times over. When she received the National Humanities Medal in 2005, presented by President George Bush in a White House ceremony, she characteristically turned attention away from herself and to St. John’s. “I think the college had more do with this than me,” she said at the time. { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } At Homecoming this fall in Annapolis, Miss Brann was presented with a Festschrift, edited by tutors Peter Kalkavage and Eric Salem (A77). The Envisioned Life: Essays in Honor of Eva Brann comprises 23 essays from faculty from both campuses, friends, alumni, and Annapolis President Christopher Nelson (SF70). The books is available from Paul Dry Books in Philadelphia: www.pauldrybooks.com The college has changed, and grown, and modernized somewhat since this photo was taken in the Coffee Shop in the late 1950s, but St. John’s still concerns itself with the nature of things. x �{Alumni Events Calendar} Alumni Calendar Piraeus St. John’s College, in cooperation with the Alumni Association, is pleased to offer Piraeus, a continuing education program that alternates between the two campuses and combines seminars with social activities. As the first modern novel, Don Quixote had a great influence over later authors, from Dostoevsky to Mann to Nabokov. The program includes five seminars over three days. Seminars will meet in the morning and afternoon on both Friday and Saturday, concluding with a final seminar and brunch Sunday morning. teri thomson randall January 18-20, 2008 Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote* January 18-20, 2008 Santa Fe Led by Henry Higuera and Cary Stickney (A75) * The seminar led by Victoria Mora and Peter Pesic has been filled. teri thomson randall Cost: $250 per person, includes all seminars, receptions, and brunch Saturday night dinner compliments of the Alumni Association. Registration and payment deadline: December 21, 2007 Homecoming, Annapolis September 26-28, 2008 Homecoming, Santa Fe October 10-12, 2008 amy raab photography Croquet St. John’s vs. The Naval Academy, Annapolis April 19, 2008 { T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Fall 2007 } Clockwise: children in Santa Fe join in the Homecoming games; alumni in Santa Fe relive the glory days through old yearbooks and photographs; Joel Ard (A95) and son David enjoy a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Annapolis. �P UBLISHED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE P.O. BOX 2800 A NNAPOLIS , MARYLAND 21404 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED NON -P ROFIT ORG . U.S. POSTAGE PAID A NNAPOLIS , MD P ERMIT 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 An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 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. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 52 pages 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/. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Title A name given to the resource The College, Fall 2007 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Description An account of the resource Volume 33, Issue 3 of <em>The College</em> Magazine. Published in Fall 2007. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The_College_Magazine_Fall_2007 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. The College