FALL 2016 Periodical Postage PAID Philadelphia, PA and Additional Mailing Offices THE MUSIC MAN p16 WITCH TRIAL p12 A NATURAL WOMAN p67 ISSUE 1 500 College Ave. Swarthmore, PA 19081–1306 www.swarthmore.edu VOLUME CXIV SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN Politics, not as usual FALL 2016 E. PLURIBUS UNUM p18 LAURENCE KESTERSON SEND IN THE CLOWNS p30 Facing an audience or a death-defying trapeze drop, aerial artist/clown JOANNA WRIGHT ’08 knows all about fear. But no matter how upside down the world may seem, clowns push through fear to find truth. “So do Swatties,” she says. HANG IN THERE in this issue 40 MOMENT IN TIME Mohammed Lotif, assistant director of the Intercultural Center, and Hanan Ahmed ’19 welcome students to Swarthmore on Move-In Day. VOTES FOR WOMEN! I’m With Her...And Her... And Her...And Her Spotlighting women who ran for office before the 19th Amendment. WENDY CHMIELEWSKI / HER HAT WAS IN THE RING by Elizabeth Slocum 18 26 38 FEATURES E. Pluribus Unum How—and why—Swarthmoreans of all stripes stay politically active. by Jonathan Riggs White House Stagecraft Running for president is our nation’s highest-stakes production. by Josh King ’87 Class Is in Session He’s changing the world, one hip-hop hook at a time. by Gina Myers 2 DIALOGUE Editor’s Column Letters Community Voices Joshua Ellow Rewind Elizabeth Marsh Morrison ’66 Books Global Thinking Thomas Hjelm ’81 9 COMMON GOOD Swarthmore Stories Learning Curve Ron Hurt ’67 Liberal Arts Lives Gabe Hutter ’88 Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara ’08 43 CLASS NOTES 72 SPOKEN WORD T. Shá Duncan Smith WEB EXCLUSIVES BULLETIN.SWARTHMORE.EDU MAESTRA, IF YOU PLEASE Listen to a playlist of women composers who inspire Elizabeth Marsh Morrison ’66. GETTING INVOLVED Watch Tessa Chambers ’19 volunteer for Sean Barney ’98’s congressional campaign. THEIR HATS WERE IN THE RING Explore a wealth of women’s suffrage artifacts from the digital humanities project. SCIENCE! Bookmark these biology mustreads, per L. Michael Romero ’88’s bookshelf. FLORAL NINJAS Follow Scott Arboretum’s horticultural heroines in a video and expanded feature. YOU ART WHAT YOU EAT View a gallery of Sharples trays as students’ art canvases. Alumni News and Events ON THE COVER High-flying portraits of Joanna Wright ’08 by Laurence Kesterson Profiles Blood and Glitter Makeup Barry Yourgrau ’70 Anna Hess ’00 FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 1 dialogue EDITOR’S COLUMN Fellows of Most Excellent Fancy SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN Editor Jonathan Riggs Class Notes Editor Elizabeth Slocum Designer Phillip Stern ’84 Photographer Laurence Kesterson Administrative/Editorial Assistant Michelle Crumsho Editorial Assistant Cody McElhinny ’17 LAURENCE KESTERSON Editor Emerita Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49 bulletin.swarthmore.edu facebook.com/SwarthmoreBulletin instagram.com/SwarthmoreBulletin Email: bulletin@swarthmore.edu Telephone: 610-328-8435 JONATHAN RIGGS Editor IN TIMES LIKE THIS heated, vitriolic election cycle, it’s easy to despair. But look to your right, to your left, and, of course, down at these pages and take heart—we’re all in this together. So, Swarthmoreans, let’s share a laugh as we leap forward as one: unbowed and unbroken, better and braver, red noses and all. Friends Forever Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 The Swarthmore College Bulletin (ISSN 0888-2126), of which this is volume CXIV, number I, is published in October, January, April, and July by Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA 19081-1390. Periodicals postage paid at Philadelphia, PA and additional mailing offices. Permit No. 0530-620. Postmaster: Send address changes to Swarthmore College Bulletin, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA 19081-1390. Printed with agri-based inks. Please recycle after reading. ©2016 Swarthmore College. Printed in USA. I’M HAPPY JUST TO DANCE WITH YOU On a weekend in May 1954, I drove from Connecticut to New York City to visit a high school friend. When I arrived, he told me that his friends were going to an open house at Sarah Lawrence College and I could tag along. There, I met a Japanese student and we went to the Bronxville Inn, where we slow-danced, twisted, and turned to the jukebox. She was fun to dance with. Eventually, we noticed a room where a band was playing. Inside, we saw people sitting at long tables, so we found one with two vacant seats. When we learned we were crashing a junior-college class reunion, that didn’t stop us; we got up and danced. As midnight approached, I walked her back to her dorm. We sat together in the parlor for about a half-hour, then she ran across the room and up the stairs. I never saw her again. Some years later, her name appeared in the news in connection with the Beatles. I went to my little black book and confirmed the name I’d written there: Yoko Ono. —CLARK DEAN ’53, Glencoe, Ill. SAY SWAT? Swarthmoreans before a certain period would never be caught calling the College “Swat” or themselves “Swatties”—not just avoiding the appellation, struggling against it. Quaker roots and such. Never a nickname synonymous with a blow. Sad to see paddleboard hazing become common parlance. Perhaps it’s a different era. :( —CHRIS KING ’68, Sherborn, Mass. OVERHEARD ON OUR WEBSITE Donny Thomas, you are an absolute gift to the Swarthmore community (“Cook, Confidant, Community Leader,” summer 2016). I witness the care, compassion, and service you provide to all students, staff, and faculty at the College, and you truly play a significant role in our experience. —ISAIAH THOMAS, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES Thank you for making everything good, food and community! Donny, you are a treasure. —DIANE ANDERSON, ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS pr inted w i th 2 Send address changes to records@swarthmore.edu nd e + WRITE TO US: bulletin@swarthmore.edu Send letters and story ideas to bulletin@swarthmore.edu e c o-fri It’s always a tragedy when someone dies young, as Dave Myers ’93 did at 46. We were close at Swarthmore but lost touch since graduating, so my memories of him are frozen at college-age. Dave’s passion for music most defined him. He taught himself to play guitar, bass, drums, saxophone, and piano and would sneak down to the Willetts basement at night to record new songs. His music was even what got him admitted—instead of an essay, he submitted an original song with lyrics about never abandoning your ideals. Memories of a smiling, vivacious, and passionately driven Dave have guided me ever since. After all, we still carry our years at Swarthmore and those old versions of the people who shaped us there into our current lives. Those versions still influence us, whether we’re in touch or not. I hope my daughter will share a campus with friends who engage and inspire her. Because those relationships, and the mark they leave on us, will—thankfully—never die. —CAITLIN GUTHEIL ’90, Portland, Maine We welcome letters on subjects covered in the magazine. We reserve the right to edit letters for length, clarity, and style. Views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or the official views or policies of the College. ly H-UV ks by Courage Under Fire LETTERS in Congratulations, Donny! Thank you for making us all feel welcome. Here is a portrait I painted of you when I was a student: bit.ly/DonnyThomas —CYNTHIA BRIANO ’03, HUNTINGTON PARK, CALIF. + YOU’RE WELCOME I am delighted to receive the Bulletin. Thank you. I was a student from 1939–40 and am 102 years old. —HUAI YAN CHIEN, Taipei, Taiwan The Spanish Civil War (“One Gave All,” summer 2016) has interested me since my dad, born in 1920, mentioned that he saw a recruiting poster for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Cleveland about the time Joe Selligman ’37 volunteered. My dad never joined. No war makes sense, but some still say the Spanish Civil War was the last-ever fight between well-defined good and evil. In his memoir Men in Battle, Lincoln brigadier Alvah Bessie says that those Americans who fought in this conflict were later ostracized and persecuted as subversives and Communists after World War II. The Soviets were the only ones willing to support the duly elected Spanish Republic. The Nazis and Mussolini’s fascists openly supplied the right-wing military uprising under Francisco Franco. Despite brigade volunteers from all over the world, established democratic governments refused to act. While I don’t support militarism of any kind, the fact that a Swarthmorean felt strongly enough about the darkening cloud of fascism to give his life impressed me. Thank you for printing his story, well-researched and written by Adam Hochschild. —ROGER KARNY ’76, Denver, Colo. I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S NOT BUTTER(ED) I enjoyed reading about campus pranks (“Gotcha!” summer 2016), and one of them—buttering the railroad tracks, attributed to alumni from the early 1970s—brought back memories. I entered Swarthmore in summer 1944, and at that time there were 55 male civilian freshmen and 45 male civilian upperclassmen. Not all of the upperclassmen were good influences on the impressionable freshmen, and I remember being regaled with stories of campus pranks, including the buttering of the railroad tracks, which had supposedly happened then in the very recent past. Thinking about it now, I suspect that this prank never took place, but people liked to talk about it as a possibility. In the absence of an eyewitness, I think you better file this one under “Campus Mythology.” —IRVING DAYTON ’48, Corvallis, Ore. NATURE’S BEST “Hungry for Change” (summer 2016) says remarkably little about home gardening. Four decades ago when I developed myasthenia gravis, I could walk only about 100 feet until I had to lie down on a neighbor’s lawn to get the energy to walk home. My daughter Lori Kenschaft ’87 convinced me that exercising in my own backyard by gardening would be safer. Fresh, organic food (available only through home gardening) made my health improve dramatically. Soon I was raising almost all of the family’s vegetables year-round 12 miles from Manhattan with no power machinery, no poisons, and no commercial fertilizers. A group of us started the Cornucopia Network of New Jersey to promote local, organic food, and I open my garden to the public six times a year. Anyone who wants to join my gardening/ environmental list may email me at kenschaft@ pegasus.montclair.edu. —PAT CLARK KENSCHAFT ’61, Upper Montclair, N.J. READ more responses at bulletin.swarthmore.edu FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 3 dialogue COMMUNITY VOICES PETER ARKLE STIGMA-FREE SUPPORT T WO-AND-A-HALF influences in popular children’s movyears ago, I began ies and how stress or other mental my journey at health issues intersect with drug use. Swarthmore as the Last fall, with the help of commitCollege’s alcohol and ted resident advisers, I launched eveother-drug (AOD) ning programs in our dorms, where I counselor and educator. But my real present on the specific needs of those journey began in 2005—when I started student communities. Sometimes my recovery from the devastating disthe focus is on party safety, whereas ease of substance abuse. a substance-free floor may prefer I learned the cost of repeated drug self-care strategies. In the past year, I use the hard way. When have met countless stuI sought help, I followed dents through these small by standard advice, but I groups, where they’ve felt quickly learned there’s no comfortable enough to cookie-cutter treatment open up to me and their for addiction. Instead, a peers. customized action plan, I’ve also launched a lecreviewed and altered annually, aided ture series covering the diverse specmy recovery—and inspired my philosotrum of lifestyles, potential influences, phy in supporting students’ health and and cultural relations of drug and alcowellness. hol use. Our most popular lecture My goal at Swarthmore is to fill in event, “AOD & Athletic Performance”— the blanks: Where there’s a gap in subfor which Swarthmore’s athletics stance-abuse information or support, I department has been a great advowant to address it. But I also celebrate cate—explores how even moderate diversity by seeing each student as an alcohol and other-drug use can affect individual and each journey as unique, someone’s progress or recovery time. and I use that approach to develop Another successful session has been campus programming and support “The 420 Experience,” a discussion systems. about the truths of cannabis. The proOne successful offering has been at gram has received a lot of buzz, not new student orientation, where I highleast because we offer “special brownlight topics such as alcohol and drug ies” (made with love, not drugs). JOSHUA ELLOW Counselor “I know firsthand how hard it can be to look in the mirror, ask a question, or reach out for help.” 4 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 Besides these now-annual offerings, I also promote new programs as students’ needs change, and I plan to advocate for additional safe-drinking spaces and substance-free activities. In my road from recovery to discovery, I became increasingly conscious of my values, influences, boundaries, and repetitive lessons of my past. But most important, I maintained an appreciation for those who found serenity in ways that differed from mine. No two paths toward recovery are the same; by offering a range of support services, I hope to guide all students compassionately and carefully. Through these campus programs— and the relationships developed because of them—there’s been a sharp increase in the number of students choosing to meet with me individually: One in three come on their own volition. These confidential spaces offer the opportunity to accept each student for who they are, how they are, and where they are on their journey. Supporting a student’s ability to open up about their concerns or problems is crucial to their success. I never forget that, because I know firsthand how hard it can be to look in the mirror, ask a question, or reach out for help. Ultimately, that’s what I find most inspiring about Swarthmore: that community members are given the agency to journey into a healthy future, however that is defined. With humor and heart, I’m as committed to helping others as I am to my own recovery, and my door is always open. JOSHUA ELLOW is Swarthmore’s alcohol and other-drug counselor and educator. LYDIA DANILLER Educating students about addiction empowers them—and us all REWIND: STRIKING ROCKS Celebrating the power of female creativity SWARTHMORE IN THE mid1960s was still two decades out from its first women’s studies program, and as a cellist in the orchestra, I never encountered music by a woman. But my time there gave inspiration for a chamber music workshop I organized last fall at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., where 120 musicians came together to play music by 21 great female composers. I arrived at by Swarthmore in 1962, excited to study Greek. The classics department was a lively one, with energetic students ’66 and a brilliant chair, Helen North, one of just six tenured female professors. In the spring of 1965 we produced Euripides’s play The Bacchae, in Greek, in the Scott Amphitheater. I was in the chorus, collectively the title character. The bacchae, or bacchants, were women who had followed the god Dionysus to Thebes, joined by Theban women who abandoned their household duties to revel with them in the hills. As we sang and danced outdoors, liberated (for the moment) from papers and seminars, we brought the bacchants to life with our bodies. Euripides says they struck rocks with their sticks, or thyrsi, and honey, milk, and wine flowed forth. With this indelible image of female creativity in mind, I set out into life, thyrsus in hand, planning to strike as many rocks as I could. Today I am a cellist and organizer with Chamber Musicians of Northern California, which holds weekend ELIZABETH MARSH MORRISON workshops where amateur musicians gather to play. We’ve drawn our music mostly from the illustrious male canon; with the exception of an occasional piece by Clara Schumann or Madeleine Dring, we haven’t featured the work of many women. I had become aware of the huge number of mostly overlooked female composers—the Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers lists 875. Recalling the bacchants—and remembering, from the play’s shattering conclusion, what happens when women’s creativity is excluded or dishonored—I resolved that our next workshop would celebrate as many of these artists as it could. We did months of research, and it was fascinating. A surprise was not that there is so much music, or that it is so good, but that many women were once so famous. The English composer Ethel Smyth, for example, is an exact contemporary of Edward Elgar, and they were equally renowned in their day. Now Elgar is well-known, and Smyth is a footnote. Nancy Dalberg was acclaimed as the first Danish woman to write a symphony; heard much Dalberg lately? The fact is, women have been composing amazing music forever. But to live, it must be played. So last October we gathered at Mills to play music by Ethel Smyth, Ann Callaway, Louise Farrenc, Dora Pejačević, Libby Larsen, Emma Lou Diemer, Teresa Carreño, Fanny Mendelssohn, Caroline Shaw, Nancy Dalberg, Marie Dare, Imogen Holst, Elizabeth Maconchy, Harriett Bolz, Claude Arrieu, Gwyneth Walker, Grażyna Bacewicz, Valerie Coleman, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, and of course Clara Schumann and Madeleine Dring—bacchants, every one! As I learned in Scott Amphitheater, we honor female composers most when we recreate their music with our bodies. When we place them at the center of our musical lives, they reward us with their power, beauty, and art. Through the whole marvelous weekend, I felt them all around us, holding their thyrsi—honey and wine flowing from every note. + HER PLAYLIST: bulletin.swarthmore.edu FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 5 dialogue BOOK REVIEW AUTHOR Q&A FOR WOMEN WHO ARE READY TO BE FIRESTORMS UNDER PRESSURE: L. MICHAEL ROMERO ’88 Just how stress-related hormones help wild animals—as opposed to humans and lab specimens—survive is relatively unknown. Tufts University biology professor L. Michael Romero ’88’s Tempests, Poxes, Predators, and People: Stress in Wild Animals and How They Cope (Oxford University Press) represents an exciting leap forward for this field. by Jasmine Rashid ’18 AT THIS MOMENT, women of color in the U.S. remain underrepresented in leadership positions. So when I came across Colorful Leadership: How Women of Color Transform Our World (CoachDiversity Press), I was eager to dive into what I knew would be an insightful, nuanced, and empowering read. What I didn’t anticipate, however, was that I would be doing more than just reading—I would be joining author Gloria Chan ’02 on a journey of sisterhood and self-love. In her book, Chan employs anecdotes, epiphanies, and advice developed over a life spent empowering others to realize their capabilities in their career and beyond. Many of us are inspired by the prospect of bettering our community. However, the challenge comes in critically inspecting your own needs, ideas, anxieties, and hopes—starting with how you define “success.” Colorful Leadership provides questions to ask yourself, ways to practice sorting out thoughts, and tips on how to act on aspirations without making excuses. A truly thoughtful tool, the book is intimate and exhilarating. Although it’s inspiring how Chan’s advice is carefully crafted to women of color’s beautiful, diverse stories and experiences—not to mention challenges and opportunities—there’s something for everyone to learn here. As she puts it, “this book is for women who are ready to be firestorms.” Transformative What inspired you? Essentially, stress in nature is caused by famine, predation, weather, infectious disease, and social competition. Since only the latter impacts most Western humans, I hope understanding stress in wild animals will give us insight into how stress responses evolved. For wild animals, there’s a sixth: humans. I want us to use our understanding of stress physiology in a conservation context. change starts within, and the realness of Colorful Leadership serves as a reminder that the world needs us to step into power: individually, collectively, and in full color. JASMINE RASHID ’18 is a founding board member of the student group Women of Color Kick Ass (WoCKA). Where’d you research? A bunch of us have been in the high Arctic, up in Alaska and Greenland, trying to understand birds’ hormonal response to poor weather conditions. I’ve also spent a number of years studying marine iguanas in the Galapagos and how stress hormones help them survive famine caused by El Niño. Favorite field stories? I got invited by Fish and Wildlife researchers to go out onto the pack ice to count the eider migration—eiders are deepsea-diving ducks that come into Alaska to breed. We turn around and 80 yards away was a polar bear, stalking us. Talk about stress! How did Swarthmore shape you? I was originally a double major in math and philosophy, but I became very good friends with Professor Greg Florant, who studied marmots. He convinced me biology was a wonderful way to go and I followed in his footsteps. We still collaborate. What’s next for you? Developing a better theory of stress and applying it to exploring how human-caused disruption—especially the global climate change— affects the stress responses in animals. + ROMERO’S READING: bulletin.swarthmore. edu HOT TYPE: NEW BOOKS BY SWARTHMOREANS Mary Solberg ’68 A Church Undone Fortress Press 6 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 With the rise of Hitler, a branch of German Protestantism emerged that sought to interpret the role of the church in service to Nazi ideology. By stripping Scripture of Judaic ties and promoting a raft of anti-Semitic propaganda, the Deutsche Christen, or “German Christians,” played a significant—and complicit—role in the Third Reich. For the first time in English, Solberg, a religion professor, presents sobering analysis of this group’s writings “during a period that cried out for ethical and religious courage and found very, very little of it.” Joe McGinniss Jr. ’94 Carousel Court Simon & Schuster Almost a decade after his acclaimed debut novel, The Delivery Man, McGinniss’s newest—“a bold, original, and exhilarating novel of marriage as blood sport”— has drawn comparisons to the cold eyes cast on California by Joan Didion and Bret Easton Ellis. It’s the tale of a young couple who follow the American Dream to Los Angeles, but find themselves drowning in a society as underwater as its real-estate market. “Carousel Court is that alltoo-rare thing,” says its editor, “an ambitious literary novel that’s also a genuine page-turner.” Katie Crawford ’93 mine Deeds Publishing Inspired by her grandmother’s life, Crawford’s debut novel tells the coming-of-age tale of two sisters, steeped in grief and love, regret and hope. Raised in Pennsylvania coal country, their lives diverge in unexpected directions, echoing always the twin loss of their mother and other sister. Beautifully written and deeply felt, mine plays upon the notion of something possessed, something sought after, and something subterranean—the human heart, perhaps, or the ever-changing definition of “home.” Maiah Jaskoski ’99 (co-editor) American Crossings Johns Hopkins University Press This collection of writings from nine scholars explores the 2014 crisis that unfolded when more than 60,000 unaccompanied children arrived in the U.S. from Central America. “The human tragedy of this surge … highlights the complexity of borders, even in a region as peaceful and integrated as the Americas,” Jaskoski writes. The book explores the myriad issues that led to this swell, including violence and terrorist groups, precarious economic factors, and misinformation about changes to U.S. immigration policies. FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 7 common good dialogue SHARING SUCCESS AND STORIES OF SWARTHMORE GLOBAL THINKING REINVENTING RADIO The world listens to his innovations by Michael Agresta 8 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 segment and close local reporting in the next—and connect them to the possibilities of digital media, today and in the future,” he says. In his previous role as chief digital officer of New York Public Radio, Hjelm led a partnership with The New Yorker to create a new weekly podcast, introduced new social tools for sharing audio, and pioneered Discover, a mobile app for NPR member station WNYC to reach a long-untapped radio audience: underground rail commuters. By selecting from a list of general topics and entering the length of their commute, WNYC fans can download personally tailored playlists. From NPR’s national headquarters, Hjelm has plans to develop more innovative digital products like Discover. He also hopes to bring public radio’s pledge drive tradition in line with digital-era fundraising possibilities. “We were the original Kickstarter,” Hjelm says. “It’s part of public radio’s special compact with the public. Asked to take proprietary interest in what we do, our audience responds with amazing, generous support.” Grounding his digital initiatives in cherished NPR values comes naturally to Hjelm, who says the theme music of All Things Considered still reminds him of his family’s kitchen in ON THE WEB THOMAS HJELM ’81 Digital Visionary the small Maine town where he grew up. At Swarthmore, Hjelm even tried his hand at disc jockeying, co-hosting a weekly WSRN radio show with his friend and fellow alumnus Jonathan Franzen ’81. They named it A Clatter of Platters (“and on a clear night you could get it in the dorms,” he jokes). His college radio show might not have reached as many million listeners as NPR does, but Hjelm finds that Swarthmore’s respect for social mission and civil dialogue is echoed in the public-service “we bring you the world” ethos at NPR. And he’s thrilled to have found a home at a major media company that holds itself to standards that recall those of his alma mater. “We have nothing to pander to here except the intelligence of our audience,” he says. OVER OUR HEADS Take a video tour of one of Swarthmore’s highest sustainability offerings: green-roof technology. + WATCH bit.ly/SwatGreenRoof BIRD’S THE WORD Connect with President Valerie Smith on Twitter! @PresValSmith ARTPOP Enjoy a talk given by Tasha Lewis ’12 about her book Illustrating Ulysses, her Butterfly Cascade installation in McCabe Library, and the life of an artist. + LISTEN bit.ly/ArtistTL A DAY IN THE LIFE Experience a not-so-typical College day through the video eyes of four students: Kara Bledsoe ’16, Cal Barnett-Mayotte ’18, Iris Chan ’17, and Grant Torre ’17. + VIEW bit.ly/SwatGoPro “My job is to reinterpret the core values of public radio ... and connect them to the possibilities of digital media.” LAURENCE KESTERSON EARLIER THIS YEAR, Thomas Hjelm ’81 became NPR’s inaugural chief digital officer. It’s not the first time he’s been asked to fill a brand-new position at an established media company. Since the mid-1990s, Hjelm has specialized in working without a map to help lead such companies as NBC, AOL, and New York Public Radio into new eras of digital product, content, and business development to engage a new generation of global audiences. Thirty years into a boundary-pushing career, Hjelm looks back on the birth of the consumer internet with a mixture of nostalgia and hindsight. “What was exciting was that there was no beaten path,” he says of his years spent developing and producing an all-new “online network” of programming for NBC.com in the ’90s. “The industry was unformed, the stakes were low, and we had license to experiment. At the time, my colleagues and I probably felt that digital media would eventually replace so-called legacy media. That hasn’t happened. On the other hand, digital has bred new voices, programs, and forms of connection that recast the relationship between producer and audience.” That hard-earned wisdom shapes Hjelm’s vision for NPR, which boasts a worldwide audience of 32.7 million listeners, and where a popular credo is “Radio isn’t going away. It’s going everywhere.” While traditional radio listening via broadcast is still popular, platforms from the smartphone to the connected car invite new forms of personalized, on-demand listening. “My job is to reinterpret the core values of public radio—things like excellent journalism and inventive audio narrative, the call-and-response of smart conversation, the blending of global and national coverage in one LEARNING LAB Women of Science by Randall Frame BRAINS, BEES, BOWERBIRDS, BACTERIA— these are just a few of the research topics 10 female Swarthmore students explored over the summer via the Panaphil Foundation’s Frances A. Velay Fellowship program. “Thanks to this, I’m excited to pursue a Ph.D. and research career in organic synthesis,” says Sooyun Choi ’17, above with mentor Robert Paley. Swarthmore is one of five Philadelphia-area schools to benefit from this program, whose purpose is to promote women in science. + VELAY VIDEO AND STORY: bulletin.swarthmore.edu FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 9 common good IVY ASHE LAURENCE KESTERSON LANGUAGE ARTS Literary lions Philip Weinstein and Jonathan Franzen ’81. THE COMEDY OF RAGE WHEN PHILIP WEINSTEIN READ Jonathan Franzen ’81’s third and fourth novels, The Corrections (2001) and Freedom (2010), he was stunned. The Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor Emeritus of English Literature wondered why he had not recognized the power in the author’s earlier work and decided to write a book analyzing his reaction. Franzen, whom he had known not as a student but as a fellow teacher and friend, agreed to the book, including Weinstein’s stipulation that he not read it until it was finished. The research for Jonathan Franzen: The Comedy of Rage, “a literary study within a biographical frame,” was conducted primarily through reading, email, and a long interview. Its central premise is that Franzen had to develop a kind of humorous detachment in order to write a truly great novel. “The story of the life and the stories in the work are wonderfully interrelated. The work becomes friendlier as Franzen becomes a more accomplished and mature writer,” Weinstein says. “The comedy really helps him. It makes the novels accessible to a wider range of readers.” —ELIZABETH VOGDES + Q&A with Philip Weinstein: bulletin.swarthmore.edu SERENDIPITY IN BLOOM Ant-Man! When it came to ants, Carl Rettenmeyer ’53— like the insects—more than carried his weight. The late biologist dedicated his career to collecting and photographing more than 100 army ant varieties during trips to the rainforests of Central and South America. Now, the University of Connecticut, through a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, is giving Rettenmeyer’s work a proper ant-thology. The university, where Rettenmeyer taught for many years, will clean and digitally catalog 2 million ant specimens and related organisms collected by Rettenmeyer and his wife, Marian, over 50 years. “There are so many 10 Swarthmore College Bulletin / seemingly banal parts of science that don’t get glory but are fundamental,” says Liz Nichols, Swarthmore assistant professor of conservation biology, who herself digitized more than 18,000 dung beetles for the American Museum of Natural History. “Gluing ants’ feet back on is FALL 2016 important to maintaining the legacy of a man dedicated to collecting a part of the natural world we may never have access to again.” Cataloging began this summer, with the first of two exhibits set to open at UConn early next year.­ —­ELIZABETH SLOCUM STROLLING AROUND Swarthmore’s campus, it is hard not to notice the captivating gardens that embrace it. The work of certain Scott Arboretum volunteers delights, educates, and inspires—one arrangement at a time. Twenty-six years ago, volunteer Barbara St. John made a flower arrangement for a campus event using a repurposed coffee can—innovating in true Swarthmorean fashion—and voila, a new tradition blossomed. Each Monday, nine volunteer flower arrangers take turns bouquet-shopping through the lush arboretum, clipping what they’ll need to make a display for a campus building or event. While displaying the utmost respect for the integrity of the gardens and their plants, each volunteer draws on her unique artistic vision to create her arrangement using nature’s palette. Please visit bulletin.swarthmore. edu for an in-depth story and video showing these craftswomen at work, using our campus as their canvas. “Nothing is planned,” volunteer Helen Lightcap says about their art. “It is serendipity.” —MICHELLE CRUMSHO Veldt Adventure G ARDENING at home in Massachusetts, author and editor Daniel Menaker ’63 says: “I’m almost as good a weed whacker as I am an editor. Weed whacking is like editing the landscape.” Soon to spring up is Menaker’s seventh book, The African Svelte: Ingenious Misspellings That Make Surprising Sense, a clever concoction of run-on chapters, each titled with a “svelte”—the author’s name for misspellings that, despite their inaccuracy, are, in their own way, plausible. “Language is such a miracle,” says Menaker, who graduated with high honors in English literature, art history, and philosophy. His journey to The African Svelte began in fourth grade, when his teacher asked whether anyone knew the names of Christopher Columbus’s ships. A little girl raised her hand and answered confidently, “The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe”—incorrect but with a cadence closely resembling “the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María.” Delighted by the linguistic mix-up, young Menaker wrote a letter to The New Yorker that was published anonymously in “Talk of the Town.” He shared his $50 honorarium with his classmate. Years later, working at The New Yorker, he happened to read the sentence, “The zebras were grazing on the African svelte”; he found the “veldt” error to be so “svelte” itself that he started a list that grew to include “ultraviolent radiation” and “the pillow of his community.” “And so dusk has fallen on the African svelte,” he writes. “Time to end this safari. Our quarry has been caught and is herewith released, back into the endless fields of our wonderful written language.” —CAROL BRÉVART-DEMM Fiction editor of The New Yorker for two decades, Daniel Menaker ’63 is the author of seven books, including a memoir, My Mistake, which includes many pages devoted to his time at Swarthmore. Read an extended version of this piece: bulletin.swarthmore.edu FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 11 common good A HELPING HEART Twinkling eyes and all, Elise Stammelbach Welfling ’33 remained close to Swarthmore her whole life. It’s Au Revoir, Not Goodbye BEFORE DYING in May at 104, Elizabeth “Elise” Stammelbach Welfling ’33 may have been our oldest living graduate. “To attend Swarthmore during the Depression years was a financial challenge, but she was encouraged by her mother’s strong commitment to higher education for women,” says daughter Elizabeth Welfling King ’63. “Swarthmore taught her how to think, and its Quaker values helped make her who she was.” Along with husband Weldon Welfling ’33 (who died in 1978), this French major took pride in her alma mater. “Elise has a twinkle in her eyes that just doesn’t go with lots of studying, yet she is an honors student with a grand record,” wrote the editors of the 1933 Halcyon. “Elise is all contradictions— pleasant, surprising ones—and they make her the best company in the world.” A UNIQUE GIFT People often remember Swarthmore in their estate plans, but donors almost always have some connection to the College. Not so with the late Philip Block: Although he had no formal association, the retired electrical engineer left Swarthmore more than $300,000 in his will. What inspired this commitment? Research Last fall, Pinar Karaca-Mandic ’98 was moved by the heartbreaking photo of 3-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi, who drowned when the rubber raft on which he was being smuggled to Greece flipped over. A native of Turkey who is now an associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health, Karaca-Mandic took action, partnering with the U.S.-based, all-volunteer organization Bridge to Turkiye Fund, which supports the educational and health-care needs of refugee children in Turkey. She’s raised almost $60,000 in grass-roots donations as well as $70,000 more in grants from the crowdfunding community Global Giving, which have allowed refugee children to receive school supplies, scholarships, language lessons, and arts classes. She credits her fellow Swatties for their generosity in opening their hearts and wallets, but also for the myriad ways in which they’re addressing injustice. “Our sense of community and our responsibility to think globally is engraved in our Swarthmore education,” she says. “It’s so sad to see suffering and hard to find that moment to say, ‘I am the solution. I need to change things.’ I am proud to say that I finally found that moment, even though I wish I had done it earlier.”­ —JONATHAN RIGGS Reasons to adopt a greyhound (like Nisus above) from a tongue-incheek list Janet Lockard ’60 loves to quote: “They truly know the meaning of retirement,” “People will stare at your dog instead of at you,” and “They don’t bark, keeping your neighborhood safe for burglars.” Must Love Dogs + DONATE: crowdrise.com/RisingforSyrianRefugeeChildren bridgetoturkiye.org/syrian-refugee-children 12 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 CARA EHLENFELDT ’16 THE WITCH OF CRUM CREEK IN 1684, a Swedish woman who lived on Crum Creek—Swedes settled here before the English—was accused of witchcraft. A court found her guilty of having the reputation of being a witch. Of course, this said nothing about whether she really was one, but witchcraft wasn’t actually illegal. There is a story attached, which might not be true, that William Penn was one of the judges. Legend has it, he asked the woman whether she could fly on a broomstick. The woman said she could, and Penn said that he knew of no laws in Pennsylvania prohibiting flying on broomsticks. So he let her go. —CHRISTOPHER DENSMORE conducted on fuel-cell technology by Alex Bell ’09 and Andres Pacheco ’09 when they were seniors at Swarthmore. After learning about their work on a fuel-cell website, Block wrote them saying he and his wife “were convinced that the school is turning out some very capable engineers” and concluding that leaving a bequest to Swarthmore would be “a wise investment.” —RANDALL FRAME “WHEN I GOT MY first greyhound in 2003, I had been retired for a year, and the Aeneid was fresh in my mind,” says former AP Latin teacher Janet Lockard ’60. “I just had to name the first dog Achates, after Aeneas’s faithful companion, and the second Creusa, after his Trojan wife.” Continuing the trend are her two current dogs, Nisus (Aeneas’s fastest man) and Ilione (a Trojan princess). While their classical namesakes suffered tragic fates, Lockard is determined that these beautiful animals won’t. Racetracks dispose of greyhounds once their careers are over—whether that’s due to injury, inability to compete, or reaching the maximum age of 5—and so Lockard volunteers for a nonprofit, Greyhound Friends for Life (GFFL), which rescues them. Founded in 1991 and completely volunteer-run, GFFL is primarily based in the Northern California/San Francisco Bay area and has placed more than 3,000 greyhounds into forever homes. “The shared experience of living with and loving these amazing creatures creates a tremendous bond, almost as strong as having gone to Swarthmore,” says Lockard. “I’ve lived alone for a long time, and my dogs are my family. Greyhounds stir my soul and it means everything to me to help save them.” —JONATHAN RIGGS + MAKE A TAIL WAG: TRAY BIEN Creating art on Sharples trays (like this dragony palimpsest) is a longstanding Swarthmorean tradition. See a gallery and share your own: bulletin.swarthmore.edu adopt-a-greyhound.org greyhoundfriendsforlife.org FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 13 common good 2016’s Hall of Fame Inductees LEARNING CURVE CARING COMMUNICATOR by Roy Greim ’14 Connecting with others has been a lifelong theme for Ron Hurt ’67 This year’s honorees will enter the Garnet Athletics Hall of Fame Oct. 28 during Garnet Weekend. by Elizabeth Vogdes 1. THE 1996 FIELD HOCKEY TEAM made the program’s only appearance in the NCAA Tournament and finished the season 15-4. 2. GLORIA EVANS DILLENBECK DODD ’47 went undefeated in tennis and badminton and was a multiple Middle States Intercollegiate Champion in tennis. She later became a global ambassador for platform tennis. 2 3. Swimmer JACKIE HEINEMAN GIDAS ’76 was the first female student-athlete in Swarthmore history to earn All-American status. 4. JOKOTADE AGUNLOYE GREENBERG ’01, one of Swarthmore’s most decorated distance runners, earned AllAmerican honors in the 5,000- and 10,000-meter runs her senior year. 3 4 6. ALAN VALENTINE ’21 won a gold medal as a player-coach for U.S. rugby at the 1924 Olympics. He went on to be the youngest president in University of Rochester history and led the Marshall Plan for postwar economic recovery in the Netherlands. 5 14 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 6 UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER DEPARTMENT OF RARE BOOKS, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, AND PRESERVATION 5. In a program that boasts 90 AllAmericans and over a century of competition, men’s lacrosse player JOE VALIS ’83 was Swarthmore’s most prolific goal-scorer. ONE OF RON HURT ’67’s more formative Swarthmore experiences didn’t happen in a College course. Along with many other students in those tumultuous Vietnam War-era days, Hurt took time off to contemplate his future, landing what he called an “extraordinary” job on campus teaching a class of emotionally disturbed high school students not much younger than himself. (A special branch of the Delaware County public school system opened in one of the Mary Lyon buildings.) “I felt such a close connection with the kids,” he says, gratified by his ability to reach his students. The Ohio native eventually returned to his political science studies, the debate team, and the Phoenix before graduating in 1970, giving a few anti-war speeches at local churches along the way. Over the subsequent half-century, Hurt built a career in communications. A reporter for small newspapers in Eugene, Ore., and Media, Pa., then an editor at the University of Pennsylvania’s publications office, Hurt later joined the marketing, advertising, and public relations departments at large corporate offices, including CIGNA, Metlife, and Prudential, where he was also responsible for video production. When Hurt retired in 2012, he didn’t know another communications project was in his future: His wife, Pam, a longtime nursing-home volunteer, proposed creating comforting video programming for “the isolated elderly”—who may be struggling with loneliness as well as health and cognitive issues—as an alternative to commercial television. Ron was eager to help, and the couple founded a nonprofit, ElderReach. Envisioning a kind of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood for the elderly,” they consulted with Ron’s SASHA DALE PHOTOGRAPHY 1 friend Sam Newbury ’67, who produced that show for 30 years. Today, Hurt works with his wife full time on this mission, writing and producing demonstration videos and raising funds to serve this burgeoning, vulnerable, and often low-income population. “I’m delighted to be able to make a contribution to an underserved and generally neglected group of people,” says Hurt. “Who wouldn’t want to do that?” + CONNECT WITH KINDNESS: elderreach.org “I’m delighted to be able to make a contribution to an underserved and generally neglected group.” FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 15 common good LIBERAL ARTS LIVES GABE HUTTER ’88 Children’s Musician “In my performances, everyone finds something that they enjoy,” says “Mr. Gabe” Hutter ’88 with young fan Orin Pribich. “And afterwards the kids all give me high-fives.” LIBERAL ARTS LIVES SING-ALONG SUPERSTAR His career came full circle—to circle time by Elizabeth Slocum Stay-at-home dad Gabe Hutter ’88 was surfing job sites at a café when inspiration struck: From the next room, he overheard a children’s music performance. “It was terrible,” he says with a laugh, “but it also made me think, maybe I should give this a try.” After all, he’d spent years delighting his children, Sarah and Jacob, with his own rocking renditions of kids’ songs, and had performed as a guitarist while a history major at Swarthmore. Armed with a few songs and his witty, easygoing charm, Hutter booked a circle-time slot at the public library in his town in Maryland. When his act proved a hit—praising his “dexterous guitar-playing” and “cheerful arrangements,” the librarian dubbed him “the Pied Piper of Takoma Park”—a (twinkle, twinkle little) star was born. And so, with the support of his wife, Jenny Ruark ’87, Hutter ended his job search to pursue a path as Mr. Gabe, children’s musician. Gigs grew to include D.C.-area festivals, and he added a violinist and bassist to his band, the Circle Time All-Stars. His two CDs—2012’s Play Date and 2015’s Metro Train—each won a Parents’ Choice Award and include sing-along standbys as well as original material like “Brian the Lazy Lion,” “I Wanna Be a Garbage Man,” and “That’s the Way It Goes,” a stirring celebration of family in any form it may take. Mr. Gabe’s catchy songs, many of which draw on his experiences as a stay-athome parent, have been a hit with kids and grown-ups alike, giving his CDs staying power in car stereos and his act standing-room-only sales. His success reflects his service to and respect for his audience, who deserve the very best, he believes. “I’m not the world’s most proficient musician, but I take the songs very seriously,” Hutter says. “You can have fun with kids’ music. Why shouldn’t it be as good as any other kind?” + SING ALONG with Mr. Gabe: mrgabemusic.com 16 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 “I care a lot about social-justice issues and serving community,” says Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara ’08, “so anthropology was just a natural fit.” CONVERSATION STARTER For her, anthropology equals advocacy by Elizabeth Slocum EVERYONE NEEDS an anthropologist, says Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara ’08—a listener, learner, and leader who understands the core of their community. Nfonoyim-Hara does just that in Rochester, Minn. Using skills developed at Swarthmore—and honed through Fulbright research in Spain, international development work, and a master’s at Oxford—Nfonoyim-Hara has become a megaphone for the city’s unheard voices. “I liked the way anthropology focused on the micro-scale of culture and how it impacts people’s political realities,” says the writer, consultant, and community organizer. As a woman of mixed heritage (Nfonoyim-Hara is of Camaroonian, Afro-Costa Rican, and Indian descent), “that was something that spoke very much to my own experiences—and the experiences of my communities.” After a decade without a solid home base, Nfonoyim-Hara eagerly integrated herself into Rochester, where husband Seth ’08 is a biomedical engineer for the Mayo Clinic. She began moderating diversity discussions for the Rochester Civic Theatre; her successful talk on the politics of black hair led to plans for community dialogues on feminism and on racial justice and policing, in light of the Minnesota shooting of Philando Castile. “There are a lot of conversations happening now about race and culture and how people are navigating that in this community,” she says. Those conversations extend to diversity discussions as the Mayo Clinic expands. Nfonoyim-Hara is lending her voice to advocate for social and economic justice, and keeping local interests central to these development initiatives. With every project, her goal remains the same: to shed light on those in the shadows. “Anthropology opened up a lot of doors into my thinking about the world and how I existed in it,” she says, “and how best I could help other communities.” NICOLE NFONOYIMHARA ’08 Anthropologist FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 17 E PLURIBUS UNUM How—and why—Swarthmoreans of all stripes stay politically active LAURENCE KESTERSON by Jonathan Riggs 18 BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 “I believe, as JFK did, that public service is honorable,” says Sean Barney ’98, who never asks his team to tackle any job on the campaign trail he wouldn’t do himself. “You have to be the change you want to see.” FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 19 EAN BARNEY ’98 is running for Congress in Delaware. In a way, so is his 6-year-old daughter, Sophie. In addition to her behind-the-scenes support, she’s sat in on party meetings, attended public debates, and accompanied her parents to the polls. It’s a far cry from his own youth, which Barney admits wasn’t politically engaged or even aware—it wasn’t until a high school teacher challenged him to know and take moral responsibility for the events of elected officials that he had his own awakening. “Once you look around at the world, you see just what’s at stake politically: people’s ability to achieve their potential and flourish,” he says. “Everything starts with being FIGHTING THE POWER In 2011, Occupy Wall Street looked like a movement that was going to change the world. After its collapse, Occupy co-founder Micah White ’04 moved to rural Oregon, where he worked out for himself what went wrong—and what went right—in the book The End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution. “The beautiful thing about Occupy is that it completely woke up a whole new generation of activists and changed the discourse,” he says. “Overall, it was a positive thing, but I think it’s necessary to see it as a constructive failure; otherwise we’re unable to move forward and achieve something greater, especially in this time when political protest is broken.” The problem, White finds, is the prevalence of a riskaverse protest industry, which exploits the good intentions and enthusiasm of activists by funneling their energy and efforts into safe, scripted protests that harmlessly distract rather than actually disrupt. As a result, many protesters today now confuse media attention with success. He points to how the anger and insistence on sweeping change that fueled Occupy—and, more recently, the Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump presidential campaigns—ultimately ended “IT MAKES ME SO PROUD TO SEE MY DAUGHTER PARTICIPATING, ASKING QUESTIONS, AND THINKING ABOUT WHAT AMERICAN POLITICS MEAN.” —SEAN BARNEY ’98 20 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 —MICAH WHITE ’04 LUANA SHANTI RÒ S informed, because then you will be moved to be involved.” When he and his wife, Nikki, made the decision for him to run, they kept that thought in mind and how it applied to Sophie. And now, sharing this experience and seeing it through her eyes has been a powerful reminder that the political process isn’t a far-off soap opera of partisanship and power; instead, it’s a living, breathing system that truly belongs to—and affects—all of us. “It makes me so proud to see my daughter participating, asking questions, and thinking about what American politics mean,” he says. “No matter what happens with my campaign, I hope that this will influence her to be, at the very least, an active, engaged citizen throughout her life.” That’s a goal endemic to the Swarthmore ethos, and it’s no surprise to see the myriad ways in which alumni remain politically involved, informed, and inspired. “THE BEAUTIFUL THING ABOUT OCCUPY IS THAT IT COMPLETELY WOKE UP A WHOLE NEW GENERATION OF ACTIVISTS AND CHANGED THE DISCOURSE ... BUT I THINK IT’S NECESSARY TO SEE IT AS A CONSTRUCTIVE FAILURE.” “My son’s not even a year old, but it’s important to expose him to the idea of activism,” says Micah White ’04. “His perspective will be very different from mine, no doubt—he was born in rural Oregon, for example. I hope he’ll be one of the greatest activists of all time, but it’s up to him.” up defanged in service of the status quo. That really hit home when White was shopping his book. “No American publisher would touch it: It had to be published in Canada and imported into the U.S.! Eerily, they all said the same thing, that there was no market. That’s ridiculous when hundreds of thousands of people protest in America every day,” he says. “So what they’re really saying is that they won’t sell a book like this.” Ultimately, he hopes that the future of protest will benefit from the example of Occupy—taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by a leaderless organization that gains worldwide momentum from social media, but better navigating the challenges of decentralization and the pitfalls of “clicktivism”—while innovating in necessary ways, since protests should never repeat themselves. White’s history of activism dates back to high school—his acceptance letter to the College included a personalized note saying, “Welcome to Swarthmore, where constructive activism is always celebrated.” Experiencing the current political cycle with his wife and their infant son in a town of 280 people has inspired him to dream of a new movement, where activists win election in multiple rural communities across the country to realize the left’s utopian agenda. “Protest may be broken, but we can fix it by looking at history, reading theory, and gathering ourselves,” he says. “I’m absolutely going to be part of the next revolutionary wave, whether that happens now or five years from now.” JUDGING THE DISTANCE Before she spent 25 years as a lawyer—and another 25 as a New York judge—Felice Klau Shea ’43 was a political science major who navigated Swarthmore in just seven semesters. “It was war time and the College was in session all year round,” she says. “I was eager to go to Washington to do my part, so when I realized I had enough credits to graduate by dropping out of the honors program, I did.” After a three-year hiatus, during which she worked for the federal government, got married, and started a family, Shea made it to Columbia Law School, where she was one of 10 women in a class with 235 men. (Serendipitously, one of her classmates was Isabella Horton Grant ’44, who later became a judge in San Francisco.) Although public service was always her goal, Shea knew that she had few other options as a lawyer. “Women weren’t even interviewed for big firms when I graduated from law school. That’s of course very different today,” she says. “Not that I think women have achieved equal status and equal pay—we have not—but we’ve certainly come a long way since 1950.” Shea started her career in academia and continued by representing indigent clients at the Harlem Branch of the Legal Aid Society. In 1975, when Shea was elected to the bench, she shared the honor of being the first Swarthmorean woman to become a judge with Mary Murphy Schroeder ’62. Shea’s rise was rapid: In less than two years as a judge in New York City’s civil and family courts, she was named an acting New York State Supreme Court justice and then, six years later, won her seat on the court in an election. Even after her retirement in 2000, she remained active as a volunteer attorney for children in the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society, as a referee in judicial disciplinary matters, and as a board member of the Correctional Association of New York, an advocacy group for prisoners. FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 21 “NOT THAT I THINK WOMEN HAVE ACHIEVED EQUAL STATUS AND EQUAL PAY—WE HAVE NOT—BUT WE’VE CERTAINLY COME A LONG WAY SINCE 1950.” LAURENCE KESTERSON —FELICE KLAU SHEA ’43 “Being active in politics, community, and taking a role in seeing that we get public officials who are going to make the changes we need are all very important,” says Felice Klau Shea ’43. “Swarthmoreans are among those who are going to be the most active. They’re the people who are going to change the world.” “I sent an awful lot of people to prison, and I was very frustrated on the bench by the mandatory sentencing laws that strip judges of discretion,” she says. “I want to see the law changed and mass incarceration attacked more vigorously.” Another issue of crucial importance to Shea is judicial selection. Although electing judges sounds democratic, she says that lay people are often not informed voters when it comes to judicial choices and that a merit-based system of appointing judges is preferable. Much work lies ahead, but she’s pleased at how much the legal, political, and professional landscapes have changed over the course of her career, especially when talking to her granddaughter, who grew up watching her in court and became a practicing lawyer. “We’re very close and it’s gratifying to me that she has opportunities that were unthinkable when I was a young lawyer,” Shea says. “The fact that women now number among the highest ranks of professionals and leaders of this country is certainly a good feeling. Still, we lag behind many countries in workplace support for combining family and work and in provisions for child care—omissions that disproportionately affect women. Some things haven’t changed.” 22 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 COMPASSION AND COMMUNITY If it weren’t for his addiction to The West Wing during college, Dennis Cheng ’01 might never have ended up the national finance director for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. “In high school and college, my focus had always been more on international relations and foreign policy,” he says. “But that show got me excited about elections and politics.” A co-founder of Swarthmore’s mock trial team and an experienced Alumni Phonathon fundraiser, Cheng changed his plans from law school to public service and became a summer intern for Hillary Clinton in 2000, during the thenfirst lady’s historic Senate run. The experience proved so formative that he took the first semester of his senior year off to work through Election Day. After graduation, Cheng went on to serve as a staffer on a series of campaigns, including current New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s initial run for that office, but got the opportunity to return to then-Sen. Clinton’s camp in 2005. “Her record of public service, commitment, and tenacity is what inspired me to take that first step in getting involved, and the last 16 years have been such an amazing experience,” he says. “For me, this is not just a profession but it’s personal—I want to make sure that we elect the best and most qualified candidate to be our president.” From previous stints as Clinton’s deputy chief of protocol in the State Department to chief development officer of the Clinton Foundation to today, Cheng has earned a reputation for discreet excellence over colorful showmanship, which, as this election has proved, isn’t always the norm. “Politics shouldn’t be about being the loudest person in the room, but about working hard and doing this for the right reasons. Thoughtful, deliberate, and disciplined thinking should pay off,” he says. “It’s not just important for our political leaders to find respectful, productive, and rational common ground—it’s important for all of us, every single day.” Cheng’s commitment to clear-eyed community-building echoes in all he does, and he makes it a point to credit his fellow behind-the-scenes political staffers whose names and contributions may never be as familiar to the general public as those of the candidates whom they support, but without whom our system couldn’t function. All of us have our part to play, and even if the outcome of the election doesn’t go his candidate’s way, Cheng believes that sitting out is never a political option—just an opportunity to work harder and contribute more. But if it does, the busy fundraiser whose phone never stops ringing is willing to make a brief exception. “I’ll be celebrating on a remote tropical island,” he says, “with no cell service.” THE RIGHT TO BE ON THE RIGHT This election cycle, both major parties have been especially vicious in proclaiming the other’s candidate to be not just the worst in history, but ostensibly dangerous. What gives? “Look, both parties are struggling through an identity crisis,” laughs conservative strategist Ford O’Connell ’00. “But what many fail to remember is that these parties are not ideological vessels, but competing enterprises designed to win elections.” Writ large, the rivalry between Republicans and Democrats has been monetized and fetishized, not unlike the way certain pro sports rivalries become shorthand for a person’s identity. Although this “us vs. them” mentality creates camaraderie among voters, O’Connell says it comes at a cost when compromise is swept off the table in favor of blood sport. “Frankly, when you have two even-footed opponents battling for the hearts and minds of voters, the system tends to work better because more points of view are brought into the discussion,” he says. “But with social media and the 24/7 cable networks, each side has created its own echo chamber so it’s hard for some individual voters to get outside of that.” Acknowledging the irony of this statement coming from a longtime political analyst on Fox News—while also pointing out the inherent liberal bias of the media—O’Connell says this isn’t a partisan problem: This presidential campaign has exposed intense anger on both sides that no election result will completely heal. The answer, he believes, is for both sides—third parties being seductive but impractical solutions—to undergo complete makeovers, including embracing split-ticket voting, ending gerrymandering, and revamping the Electoral College. An iconoclast like Donald Trump has the potential to make that happen, he says, pointing to parallels between this election and 1980’s, when another system-bucking celebrity won the White House and changed the face of American politics. For O’Connell to make a Reagan comparison—seeing as the Gipper is one of his lifelong heroes and his grandfather served as one of his advisers—is no small praise. No matter the outcome of this or any election, O’Connell remains energized by the political process, seeing even this bruising presidential campaign not as a harbinger of disaster, but as proof of the remarkable principles and system on which the United States was founded. “For as much grief as modern history departments give the Founding Fathers, they built a lot of checks and balances in our system to make it work,” he says. “Besides, we all have to wake up and move forward together on Nov. 9.” 51 MILLION MORE CRACKS IN THE GLASS CEILING Last year, Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive ’88 spearheaded the creation of a new digital channel, The51Million. com. Named for the number of eligible female voters in 2016 under age 45, the site expands on Glamour’s political coverage at a particularly auspicious moment in time. “I don’t think any of us could have predicted the extent to which sexism in the coverage of the election and on the part of the candidates would play a role,” she says. “The conversation around women, gender, and justice in this campaign is at a fever pitch—and we’re not through yet.” POWER PLAYERS: Their politics, perspectives, and paths may differ, but Dennis Cheng ’01 (Hillary Clinton’s national finance director), Cindi Leive ’88 (Glamour’s editor-in-chief ), and Ford O’Connell ’00 (a conservative analyst who appears on Fox News) pride themselves on what they learned and how they grew at Swarthmore. FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 23 —GILBERT GUERRA ’19 To facilitate this and other political conversations across the spectrum, Leive also partnered with Facebook to launch a series of town-hall discussions around the country to focus on women’s issues while highlighting women’s voices. Throughout, Leive’s seen many nuances play out, particularly when it comes to millennial women who have grown up in a postfeminist world without encountering sexism on the level that previous generations faced. “I don’t want to generalize, but it’s an interesting divide: They may or may not decide to support Hillary Clinton, but they feel completely convinced that there will be a female president—not just within their lifetime, but soon,” she says. “Whereas some older women feel that, as women, we should support Hillary Clinton because we all want to put a woman in the White House now.” Despite the tenor of this year’s campaign—as well as the relative paucity of women in Congress and at the top levels of business—reflecting just how deeply fault lines of sexism and inequality run, Leive sees many opportunities to use her position to even the playing field. After all, women’s magazines have a long history of tackling weighty issues—Glamour was one of the first magazines to not only cover but advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment, for example, and launched the industry’s first nonprofit, The Girl Project, which helps girls in 95 countries gain access to secondary-school education. In fact, Leive can trace her own interest in politics to her mother’s. When she was 3, her family lived in northern Virginia down the road from the Kennedy family. During the height of Watergate—which Leive’s mother followed intently—the Kennedys hosted a community pet fair. “I had this mangy kitten who clearly wasn’t going to win best in show, so my mom dressed her up with a kerchief and a watch for the costume contest,” Leive recalls with a smile. 24 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 “When whichever Kennedy was judging that category asked me to explain my cat’s costume, my mom had me say, ‘She’s crying and counting the seconds until Richard Nixon is impeached.’ She won.” WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL The first-generation American son of Mexican parents in rural Mississippi, Gilbert Guerra ’19 grew up in the only immigrant family in a county named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Ku Klux Klan’s original Grand Wizard. As a high schooler considering the Marines, Guerra never thought college was an option until he was invited to the all-expenses-paid overnight Discover Swarthmore program. “It was my first time on the East Coast, my first time on a college campus, and my first time meeting a Democrat,” he laughs. “It was eye-opening, but I vibed so well with the people that I knew Swarthmore was the place for me.” Advocating as he did for gay marriage and immigration reform, Guerra counted himself liberal-leaning, at least compared with his hometown friends, but by the end of his first semester, he discovered that his beliefs actually lay further right. When he took public stances against two popular liberal causes—using the “Latinx” neologism to make the Spanish language more gender-neutral and Swarthmore’s proposed social-justice academic requirement—Guerra was frequently the lone voice of conservative dissent. “I’m used to it, growing up in places where the deck is stacked against me, and I think every conservative student has horror stories,” he says. “But what really surprised me about Swarthmore is that I can be vocal about what I believe and my friends will stick up for me, even if they don’t agree.” In fact, Guerra made many friends in situations where he respectfully disagreed with the consensus. His co-president of Achieving Black & Latino Leadership & Excellence (ABLLE), Pat Houston ’17, is not only a devoted liberal, but also a treasured friend and teammate. “The best thing about my life here is that I love and cherish people who vehemently disagree with me on many things,” Guerra says, “and that they love and cherish me, too.” A supporter of Republican candidates capable of reaching across the aisle, such as Rand Paul and John Kasich, he thinks it’s important for people all over the political spectrum to condemn Donald Trump for his rhetoric and racism. “I’m probably a lot more sympathetic to his supporters than most here, but Trump makes it hard to convince people that the Republican Party is not a party of hate,” Guerra says. “I liked Marco Rubio a lot because his positions were really well-thought-out, nuanced, and optimistic, but now I’m probably going to go for Gary Johnson.” As demoralizing as many have found this election cycle, Guerra has never lost the optimism instilled in him by his parents, despite—and because of—their sacrifices. “When my parents moved to the U.S., they had no English or money. They faced horrible racism—my dad would go for factory jobs and get told to his face, ‘We don’t hire Mexicans,’” Guerra says. “As discouraged as they would get, they would still sit us down and say, ‘Do you realize how lucky you are to be in this great country?’ LAURENCE KESTERSON “THE BEST THING ABOUT MY LIFE HERE IS THAT I LOVE AND CHERISH PEOPLE WHO VEHEMENTLY DISAGREE WITH ME ON MANY THINGS, AND THAT THEY LOVE AND CHERISH ME, TOO.” “Social-media activism is a lost cause. When’s the last time someone’s angry Facebook argument swayed you?” asks Gilbert Guerra ’19. “I engage people politically by inviting them to dinner or showing up to actual meetings—face to face is more honest and respectful.” “Yes, there are a lot of things we need to reform, but I have an inborn bias to say that our political system is not broken,” he adds. “From what I’ve experienced with how people have treated me here, I have too much faith in humanity not to have hope for us all.” ELECTING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE For Sean Barney to be alive, let alone run for office, is a miracle: After enlisting in the Marines after 9/11, he was shot through the neck by a sniper in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2006. “I’m alive today only because the Marines I served with and the Navy corpsman who was with us that day are heroes,” the Purple Heart recipient says, describing how they got him to a surgical center in only 12 minutes. “That Navy corpsman used his fingers to pinch off the bleeding from my jugular and he refused to let go until surgeons in the operating room gave him the signal that it was OK to do so.” Remembering that moment and that man—not to mention his own journey as a recovering veteran—echoes in every aspect of Barney’s campaign, which has special focuses on gun control, LGBT equality, expanding and protecting Social Security and Medicare, and, of course, veterans’ rights. “It’s not a coincidence that we have fewer veterans in Congress today than at any point in our history,” says Barney, a Democrat. “Veterans have ingrained experience in putting the country first over personal advancement, and we need more of that again in our politics.” That same spirit is what drew him to Swarthmore and its mission statement that invokes the idea of developing individuals to be informed, responsible citizens and humans. Ultimately, it’s his best hope for his daughter, Sophie, too. On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., he bought her a T-shirt that says, “Future President,” but will leave it up to her to decide to run for office one day. His hope is that everything he does as a citizen and—voters willing—an elected official will pave the way for a better future for us all. “I hope my daughter will aspire to make a difference politically in whatever way is meaningful to her,” he says. “Knowing Swarthmore and loving it, I see that’s the hallmark of our community.” + WATCH A VIDEO of Tessa Chambers ’19, a campaign volunteer for Sean Barney ’98: bulletin.swarthmore.edu FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 25 Running for president is our nation’s highest-stakes production by Josh King ’87 26 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 CHRISTOPHER WEYANT WHITE HOUSE STAGECRAFT T HIS FALL, Swatties return to campus—or arrive as freshmen for the first time—against the backdrop of a once-in-a-collegecareer event: a presidential election. When I pulled up to College Lane for my sophomore year in fall 1984, with another election looming, I counted myself a Ronald Reagan supporter, a rare breed on Parrish Beach. Thirty-two years ago, as now, I was fascinated by the American political spectacle and its foremost institution of propaganda, the presidency. My politics evolved during my time at Swarthmore, leading to six years in Bill Clinton’s campaigns and on his White House staff, but my obsession with how our candidates market themselves has never wavered. As a member of Swarthmore’s Peaslee Debate Society, I revered rhetorical skills but, over time, came to appreciate the more operatic elements of politics that trigger emotional response. In some ways, Reagan and his speechwriter, Peggy Noonan, combined forces as the Lin-Manuel Miranda of their time, the impact of Reagan’s words augmented by Michael Deaver, his visual impresario, an unlikely forebear to Andy Blankenbuehler, the Hamilton choreographer. Looking back at that time, I’ve often wrestled with what gave Reagan his power of persuasion over the electorate. 1984, Orwell’s dystopian novel that was required reading back then, gave us Big Brother lording over Oceania through ubiquitous telescreens. In reality, the actual 1984 gave us, instead, a seemingly benevolent Ronald Reagan targeting the heart of America with precision-guided cinematography conveyed through television. It was the dawn of what I call “The Age of Optics” in my new book, Off Script: An Advance Man’s Guide to FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 27 SC/DC CROSSING PATHS BETWEEN THE COLLEGE AND THE WHITE HOUSE Girl Scouts of the USA and vice president of the National Amateur Athletic Federation. 1947 — Harold Stassen, Minnesota’s former “boy governor,” receives a doctor of laws for helping write the U.N. Charter. He would be a serious candidate for president in 1948 and 1952—and less of one in 1964, 1968, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992. BY ROBERT STRAUSS 1960 — Johns 1913 — Less than a year after his election, President Woodrow Wilson speaks on campus to urge “every generation of Swarthmore men and women” to add to the “glory of America.” 1915 — Former Pres- ident William Howard Taft plants an Eastern hemlock on campus for Commencement Day. Hopkins University President Milton Eisenhower—Dwight’s brother and former adviser—receives an honorary doctor of laws. He would appear on the ballot in 1980 as the vice presidential running mate of independent John Anderson, but only in Texas. before being elected president, Herbert Hoover receives an honorary doctor of laws for directing the country’s post-World War I relief effort in Europe. WHITTIER MUSEUM 1967 — Pennsylvania the Wall Street crash, newly minted first lady Lou Henry Hoover receives an honorary doctor of letters for serving as president of the 28 Swarthmore College Bulletin / 1975 — Massachu- setts governor—and future 1988 Democratic presidential nominee— Michael Dukakis ’55 receives an honorary doctor of laws. 1964 — At our Centennial Commencement, President Lyndon B. Johnson receives an honorary doctor of laws and gives the address, filling in for the late John F. Kennedy. 1929 — Months before has it that President Richard Nixon—a lifelong Quaker—is seen driving on campus, but doesn’t actually visit. Whether the description of Swarthmore as “the Kremlin on the Crum” famously—and possibly apocryphally—attributed to Vice President Spiro Agnew played a role is lost to history. FRIENDS HISTORICAL LIBRARY 1920 — Eight years 1969–74 — Legend Gov. William Scranton, who nearly got the Republican presidential nomination in 1964 and 1968, gets a Swarthmore honorary degree instead. FALL 2016 2008 — White House intern Anne Kolker ’08 confirms a rumor about President Barack Obama. “Ah, Swarthmore. Great school. They rejected me,” she reports him saying, noting he held no grudge. 2010 — Stephen Lang ’73, who played President George Washington in the 1997 miniseries Liberty! The American Revolution, receives an honorary doctor of arts. White House Stagecraft, Campaign Spectacle, and Political Suicide. This new visual-dominated era arrived that summer with a 60-second TV spot called “Prouder, Stronger, Better.” The flag-infused montage of a nostalgic utopia reeked of Norman Rockwell, tugging the same heartstrings as Bernie Sanders’s mesmerizing Simon & Garfunkel-scored ads this spring. Reagan’s offering, voiced reassuringly by Hal Riney, leader of his “Tuesday Team” of Madison Avenue ad men, began hypnotically with the famous phrase, “It’s morning again in America.” That theme has been a touchstone in every campaign since ’84 as candidates, Republican and Democrat, mimicked The Master’s playbook as best they could, deploying legions of “advance men” (and “advance women”) to create the scenic tableau that then gets packaged as “news.” The Reagan re-election road show arrived near campus when Air Force One brought the president to a rally on the steps of the Delaware County Courthouse in Media, Pa., eight days before the election, with buses full of the national press corps in tow. Some whispered in Sharples about protesting the event. I just wanted to witness the spectacle. The courthouse backdrop gave Reagan a perfect façade from which to send his message. “It was a very classic setting, plus it dead-ended in front of the street, so you had a good crowd area. I saw the whole thing in a matter of 30 seconds,” Bill Henkel, head of the White House advance office, told the Washington Post at the time. “We spend a lot of time with the cameramen and photographers, asking, ‘What did you think of that, how could we make it better?’” In the same article, Howard Stringer, the future Sony CEO who was then leading CBS News, posed the thesis for my book three decades before I wrote it: “On the daily story with the rush to edit, the pictures dominate, almost despite the narration,” he said. “The White House—and all great politicians—understand that.” My own career in political stagecraft began after graduation in 1987, starting with Illinois Sen. Paul Simon’s quixotic pursuit of the presidency, eventually joining the campaign of Michael Dukakis ’55. Although I wasn’t personally responsible for the visual disaster accompanying Gov. Dukakis’s ride in an M1A1 Abrams tank in Sterling Heights, Mich., I was a close friend of the unlucky fellow who was, Matt Bennett. In 2012, Bennett entrusted me with the quarter-century-old journal he kept from the Dukakis fiasco, which served as the basis for Off Script. In its pages, Bennett recounts his efforts to raise a red flag about the plan. The advance person’s commandment, which many remember simplistically as “Never let a candidate put something on their head”—President Obama later called the lesson “Politics 101”— is really “Don’t let your candidate pretend to be someone they’re not.” Dukakis was an accomplished administrator, but he wasn’t George S. Patton. When he got behind the barrel of the tank, wearing a helmet with his name boldly stenciled across the brow, it backfired spectacularly, providing all the ingredients needed to create the infamous “Tank Ad.” Each cycle since has served up an example of a candidate “getting tanked,” from George H.W. Bush’s being seemingly “amazed” by a supermarket scanner in 1992 to John “WE’RE THE AUDIENCE ... CHARGED WITH [DISCERNING] WHAT LURKS BACKSTAGE IN THE HEAD AND HEART OF OUR NEXT LEADER.” —JOSH KING ’87 Kerry’s windsurfing outing in 2004 to Mitt Romney’s off-key rendition of “America the Beautiful” in 2012. As director of production in Bill Clinton’s White House, I owned a share of stagecraft miscues: In 1995, I allowed Clinton to form “a cross of stones” on Omaha Beach, arousing the ire of Rush Limbaugh and the Republican far right, which never let him forget it. A year later, at the G-7 Summit in Lyon, France, I slathered Clinton’s podium in a thick layer of insecticide to rid a swarm of gnats from the news shot. The move did nothing to the gnats but nearly blinded the president when he rubbed his eyes to wipe beads of sweat forming on his brow. Beyond those occasional nightmares, I emerged from five years of Clinton’s presidency with far more stories of success than failure. But the game has changed dramatically since then, with the current chapter of the Age of Optics being written in real time. The network news correspondent has been supplanted by a legion of embedded road warriors, social-media mavens, and stay-at-home bloggers, all producing mountainous material across a blinding array of digital platforms. The gaffes remain, from Marco Rubio robotically repeating his talking points, to Hillary Clinton struggling with a subway turnstile, to Donald Trump tweeting his taco bowl. For the most part, the worst—and best—of our candidates’ performance has less staying power today, an outcome of our infinite menu of content doing daily battle with our ever-declining attention span. All of these specimens of political suicide spawn a mythology that adheres and calcifies to these politicians over time. Al Gore did not, in fact, claim to have “invented” the internet, but who would believe you if you tried to make that case in a bar? Truth often can’t keep pace with legend. Running for president is our nation’s most brutal sport, with misfortune befalling Democrats and Republicans in roughly equal measure, where only the strong survive. Barack Obama, the cerebral writer who rejected the essential theater of his office so resolutely that I dubbed his two terms “the Vanilla Presidency” in Off Script, may actually have ushered in a new era for the next generation of advance people. He and his team found the right recipe for his brand of leadership when his motorcade arrived at the Los Angeles garage of Marc Maron, host of the popular WTF podcast. For one very meaningful hour, there were no cameras present as the president spoke movingly about the many challenges that arrive at the Oval Office. Both the message and the medium seem to me the best fit for this moment in our history. As Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump fight for political power this fall, the Age of Optics will ride on familiar rails. Barack Obama vanquished John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012 by first sharing his life’s journey in Dreams from My Father and then masterfully deploying the tools of paid media and rapid-response video against his opponents. Clinton, in Hard Choices, and Trump, in The Art of the Deal, are more pilloried for their past than ennobled by it. They’re left to wrestle with the present, and their vision for our future, which they must project through the media’s business-model-driven prism. Clinton drives clicks. Trump drives ratings. Somewhere near Swarthmore this fall, Clinton will likely hold a large rally not unlike Ronald Reagan’s stop at the Delaware County Courthouse, festooning her site with her slogan, “Stronger Together.” Trump will do the same, making sure his “Make America Great Again” tagline is expertly aligned with the TV cameras trailing him from stop to stop. We’re the audience for this new act of political theater, charged with seeing through the chorus of noise to discern what lurks backstage in the head and heart of our next leader. If we can separate substance from stagecraft, and distill journalistic rigor from horse-race reporting, we’ll help our democracy flourish. In choosing our president, we’re wise to heed the final line of Hamilton: “Who lives, who dies—who tells your story?” FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 29 J INFINITE S e T Send in the clowns to show us who we are by Jonathan Riggs photos by Laurence Kesterson 30 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 31 C IRCUS ARTIST Joanna Wright ’08 has a sideways way of speaking that makes you instinctively lean closer: a wow, the really cool camp counselor is taking an interest in me! warmth. “When people say they’re afraid of clowns, I understand. I mean, birthday clowns?” She shrugs her shoulders, eyes a-twinkle. “Birthday party clowns can be scary as shit.” Laughing, she tilts her head, working the thought around as nimbly as she does a crystal sphere through her flowing fingers, David Bowie-in-Labyrinth-style. Her eyes and voice still dance, but there’s a thoughtfulness now that lends shadow to her sparkle. “I get it, but it really annoys me to see this art form removed from anything true,” she adds. “If that’s your only frame of reference and you say you hate clowns or fear them, well, you may not have ever experienced real clowning.” Real clowning, the kind she’s devoted her life to exploring, is something more than perfectly timed pratfalls or pies to the face. Those are fabulous—don’t get her wrong—but the work begins from within. For example, there’s an exercise she calls “the void.” Stripped of everything but your creativity—and, if you wish, a red nose—you must face an audience and be funny. “It’s terrifying,” she admits. “You get to this place of, ‘I don’t know what’s going to make them laugh; I don’t know what I’m doing; I don’t know who I am.’” Who among us can’t relate? Spotlit in front of the world as we perform the best we can, 32 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 vulnerable and alone. It’s an exercise that forces participants to peel away masks we all wear to get to something, someplace, someone real. “Clowning is so honest, I view it more as a way you can live your life than as just a performance tool,” she says. “Ultimately, you’re putting yourself out there: ‘Here I am, screwing up, failing, but laughing at myself without shame.’” The grin in her eyes reaches her lips, which twitch with mischievous delight. “What I’m interested in onstage,” Wright says, at last, “is really getting at the truth of what it means to be human.” THROUGHOUT TIME, clowns have fulfilled a crucial role in all societies, whether it’s a sacred trickster in a ceremony around a Native American campfire, a bell-tipped-hat-wearing jester of a medieval court tweaking the royal family, or a big-screen comedian lightening moviegoers’ weary hearts for a couple of hours. Shakespeare gave some of his wisest insights to his fools and clowns, and returned repeatedly to the idea that we all perform a human comedy: “Lord, what fools these mortals be”; “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players”; “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” To be alive is to be foolish; to be foolish is to be wise. Clowns force us to look at the world— at ourselves—in different and often challenging ways. Both of and outside society, clowns speak truth to power, make us laugh or cry, and blur our very boundaries of imagination and intellect. For all their fantastic might, however, they’re very easy to take for granted. “At Swarthmore and after, I explored dance and literature, art history and women’s studies, movement and Shakespeare, so I never considered clowning,” says Kendall Cornell ’86, a deep thinker/deadpan speaker with the emotive eyes of a silent-movie heroine. “I thought I was going to be a serious actor.” After dipping her toe into comedic waters— including appearing in a live soap opera (“We got a new script every week, so you barely had time to memorize your lines before you were thrust onstage to just go for it”)—Cornell attended a master class in physical comedy taught by the award-winning Cirque du Soleil clown David Shiner, whose ability to distill complex themes and sophisticated comedy into physicality dazzled her. “I remember thinking: I don’t know what this is, but I have to do it,” she says. One life-changing phone call to her sister later—“I had an audition the next day for Saint Joan, and so I called her, crying, ‘No, I want to be a clown!’”—and Cornell began studying the art form, eventually becoming Shiner’s assistant and apprentice. While attending classes and performances, however, she was struck by how male-centric the clowning world could be. Thus, her all-women troupe was born, known today as Clowns Ex Machina: a feminist funhouse and celebration of sisterhood crafting vibrant, inclusive art that inspires audiences— and its participants—to laugh, think, and dream. “For a long time, I asked, ‘Who is the everywoman?’ Culturally, that’s not so easy to find,” says producer/director/writer/performer/den mother Cornell, who encourages her clowns to explore as many characters and personas per piece as they’d like. “I’ve found that fluidity for women lets us cover all kinds of range without being stuck in stereotypes.” She looks back fondly on a piece where her clowns entered as ballerinas, dancing—or trying to—on their tiptoes. Whereas male clowns doing the same would hit familiar comic notes, Cornell’s group left a much different impact. “It was quite revealing in another way,” she says, “this deep dream of being a graceful ballet dancer playing out in so many ways through so many women: It was really vulnerable, beautiful, and funny.” Seeing her troupe members come into their own, in rehearsals and performance, alone and together, makes Cornell proud, although she struggles not to break character onstage when her clowns seize a moment and surprise her. “One show we did, all the clowns were confessing their fabricated misdeeds, such as ‘When I was a candy striper in the hospital, on my lunch break I’d go to the nursery and switch the pink and blue blankets,’” she remembers. “This one woman, a deep-voiced Russian, began improvising these outrageous, completely unexpected things—‘I took my father out in a wheelchair in the street to beg for money’— that “When I send out notices for my workshops, I always include a quote from Lucille Ball, who said, ‘I’m not funny. What I am is brave,’” says Kendall Cornell ’86. “I love to see my students blossom onstage and off in this strange and wonderful art form.” FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 33 “Would I be up for my kids joining the circus after high school? Absolutely not,” jokes John Rieffel ’99, who did just that. “I’m kidding, of course. I would absolutely encourage them to take a gap year to explore whatever they were interested in.” 34 Swarthmore College Bulletin / had us all cracking up.” Clowns, to Cornell, are intrinsically human yet otherworldly: the living embodiment of the absurdity and wonder of our existence, made even more powerful by performances that occur in present time with the audience and without a fourth wall. This exquisite chaos has sparked many Clowns Ex Machina productions, not to mention Cornell’s own creativity. “Clowning is poetry as opposed to prose; it works on deeper, more symbolic levels of FALL 2016 HIS OWN LOVE OF EARNING LAUGHTER sent erudite teen juggler John Rieffel ’99 down an unexpected detour after high school. He’d already been accepted to Swarthmore when, at the urging of a friend, he auditioned for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Clown College. With nothing prepared but a can-do spirit and killer comedic chops—Rieffel sold a wobbly handstand as if it were history’s greatest feat—he got in, becoming one of only 30 people accepted into that year’s class. “Deferring going to Swarthmore was a little hard to explain,” the wryer-than-wry, drierthan-dry Rieffel laughs, “but my parents and the College were supportive, so I took a gap year.” Eight big-top bootcamp weeks later, Rieffel earned his BFA (bachelor of funny arts)—but not one of the circus’s six professional clowning slots. Undaunted, he returned home to work odd jobs until, a few months later, he landed a gig as a clown with the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus and found himself traveling the East Coast, performing for thousands. “It was all so new and foreign, being inside a circus tent, surrounded by tigers and tightrope walkers, that I didn’t even reflect on being nervous,” he says. “Hitting all your cues and making the crowd laugh is addictive; I loved it.” Although his best bits were cheap-but-fun sight gags—a bucket of “Fruit Punch” contained a boxing glove; an oversized book entitled Math Made Easy hid a calculator—Rieffel quickly learned the crucial role circus clowns played in not just getting laughs, but in keeping the peace. “Emergencies happened several times: We had elephant stampedes and bad trapeze accidents,” he says. “So we’d have to run out as quickly as possible with the nearest prop and do whatever we could to distract the audience.” Although he enjoyed his experience, Rieffel, who spent his offstage time reading Ulysses and the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop, never intended to parlay his clown year into a career. After leaving the circus and enrolling at Swarthmore—to “about a week of fame as ‘that clown guy’”—he found doing improv comedy with Vertigo-go even more formative and fun. Today, Rieffel is an associate professor of computer science at Union College who teaches courses in robotics, artificial intelligence, and parallel computing while incorporating pantomime and jokes into his classroom. “All that comedy experience really helps in teaching. I won’t claim to be either charming or funny, but the impression that I get from my students is that I can be,” he says. “It did take me awhile, though, to realize I couldn’t measure my teaching success by the number of punchlines I could fit into an hourlong lecture.” While he harbors no desire to return to clowning, he looks back on his time in floppy shoes fondly—and frequently. “My friend from high school, who persuaded me to audition in the first place, and his wife are the clowning act for the Big Apple Circus,” he says, “so I take my kids to visit them every year. “I look at clowns as this physical manifestation of our imaginations, like cartoon characters made flesh,” he adds. “They allow us to laugh. That’s invaluable, especially since comedy allows us to process things that, otherwise, would be utterly depressing. Look no further than The Daily Show and Donald Trump.” WRIGHT: BLOOD AND GLITTER MAKEUP meaning happening simultaneously,” she says. “I love this work because people have to be brave and bare their unique joy and pain. “A lot of my clowns have been traumatized by this idea that they have to act the idiot in order to be funny,” she adds. “I tell them they don’t have to diminish themselves in any way: just be their best, open selves, dreaming their biggest dreams. This radiance will come off them and we’re going to laugh from a deeper place.” the New England Center for Circus Arts. Today, she’s a studio director, teacher, and performer at Sky Candy, an Austin, Texas-based aerial circus company. Even with all her experience, she’s never lost her sense of excitement for what’s possible in the realm of performance through the lens of clowning. “I’ve delved into burlesque recently, and discovered that it and clowning are exactly the same,” she says. “Burlesque is simply someone getting up in front of an audience and saying, ‘Look at me and how alluring I am. Don’t you agree?’ So when I do burlesque, I look at it as just a clown, who happens to be a sexy clown.” Tapping into the countless characters and “A lot of people have a spiritual relationship with the red clown nose,” says Joanna Wright ’08. “I always carry a couple with me in case of an emergency.” CIRCUS CLOWNS LIKE RIEFFEL are what first hooked Joanna Wright on physical performance: After attending the circus as a child, she created aerial routines on her swing set that caused her mother to panic—and then pack her off to Vermont’s Circus Smirkus summer camp. “It’s a common story among us circus folk: From a very young age it’s in our blood,” she says. “We’re the ones climbing trees, jumping all over things, dancing, joking—we just want to do it all, even if we don’t quite know how yet.” Her ardor intensified at Swarthmore, when she took her first-ever physical theater class, taught by Quinn Bauriedel ’94, co-founder of the Pig Iron Theatre Company. Determined to pursue this work, Wright went on to train at multiple institutions, including the London International School of Performing Arts and FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 35 colors we carry within us isn’t a skill solely restricted to clowning, either, according to Wright. We’re all performers of a sort, who paint on the way we present ourselves to the world, to each other, and to ourselves—even if most of us do it unconsciously. It’s as RuPaul says, “We’re all born naked and the rest is drag.” In the light of our human frailty and mortality, clowns have the courage to stand up and strip away our self-imposed strata and hold them up to the light. What could be a braver or more generous act than to allow us to laugh at them—and, ultimately, at ourselves? Clowning, like life, is a deceptively difficult art, whether you’re plumbing your psyche’s depths or the dizzying heights of a trapeze. Recently, Wright was standing 15 feet above the ground, training a new trick. It involves going from standing on a trapeze on one foot to dropping down to land on your hips—in effect, plunging headfirst toward the ground while maintaining an aura of control and grace. “I looked down and it made me think about being at Swarthmore, and our ridiculous, scary journey of finding the truth as humans, moving past our insecurities, fears, and pettiness to find what’s greater,” she says. “It all comes down to the fundamental human question: Why do this? Why do any of this? I say, sure, it’s terrifying, but why not?” She laughs, and it’s lovely, the laugh only a clown who’s faced her demons and bid them to dance can do. She nailed that trick, by the way. “That’s why we always joke that clowning is like therapy, but cheaper,” she says. “Moments like that are what I live for.” 36 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 CLOWNS GET SERIOUS What political issues are most important to you? KENDALL CORNELL: Peace, equality, respect, fairness, seven-generation stewardship, free to be you and me, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. JOHN RIEFFEL: Access to affordable, high-quality health insurance and education—we’re seriously behind. And, of course, more funding for scientific research! JOANNA WRIGHT: Climate change and how we are going to deal with it, and the fundamental systemic inequality in this country and how it affects everyone who isn’t a well-to-do white man. The former, because it’s the precursor for life on this planet (so just a tiny bit important); the latter, because it’s so deep-rooted, prevalent, and completely effed-up in a way that is invisible to too many. The question of how to educate folks about privilege interests me deeply. Political heroes? KC: Mulan, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, Joan of Arc, Galadriel, Aung San Suu Kyi, Shirley Chisolm, and many inspiringly righteous others. JR: Presuming that Leslie Knope doesn’t count, Al Franken, the senator and former SNL comedian. (Brazilian congressman/professional clown Tiririca is also evidently quite popular.) I was always entranced with the strategies employed by Mayor Antanas Mockus of Bogotá, Colombia, who used mimes and clowns to direct traffic and improve civility in downtown Bogotá. The world could benefit from using mimes in the place of armed police. JW: I’m in awe of folks like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. If we as a species can take the path of peace and rationality in the face of mindless, unquestioning hatred and violence— ahem, Trump, ahem— there may be hope that we can continue to exist on this planet. Advice for our next president? KC: You go, girl! JR: The USSR had a nationalized circus training school. Why don’t we? JW: Don’t settle! I know that politics in our country is a festering cesspool of corruption, stupidity, and prejudice, but please keep fighting for what you know is right and important. (That’s to Hillary. To Trump: For the love of all that is holy, please resign ASAP and let someone qualified take over.) How would a clown fare in the White House? KC: They’d have a great time: lots of rules and pomp and things to poke fun at. Or it might be heartbreaking in exposing institutional ills, like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. JR: Of the many clowns who have been in the White House, some have performed more admirably than others. I imagine all of them would have benefited from professional clown training. JW: Very well! Clowns (and artists in general) tend to live in a near-constant state of existential crisis. That gives you perspective on what’s important and what’s not, which can’t hurt when you’ve got the nuclear codes at your elbow. Add a great sense of humor and an ability to interact honestly and humbly with all people— (cough) Obama—sounds like good president material to me! Anything else? KC: The loosely sewn-up slit in the back of jackets and skirts is supposed to be undone after you get home from the store. Please take that stitching out—life is too short. JR: I’m feeling a bit nostalgic because I just bought a rechargeable seltzer bottle: the old-fashioned kind. I’ve only used it for cocktails, but have been very tempted to squirt someone in the face with it. JW: To copy the illustrious Dumbledore, I would like to say a few additional words: rutabaga, fortuitous, hegemony, kumquat. Thank you. IN A WORLD THAT OFTEN SEEMS DARK AND DISHEARTENING, WHAT KEEPS YOU LAUGHING? KC: A profound sense of irony. People’s tattoo choices. Puppies and kittens. Farts. JR: Slapstick comedians who pursue the impossible despite pies to the face: Buster Keaton, the Three Stooges, and my all-time hero, Wile E. Coyote. There’s a great poem, “Slapstick,” by Wisława Szymborska. JW: As many wiser than me have said, “If you learn to laugh at yourself, you will always be entertained.” The extent of human folly is endless, and sometimes the only sane reaction I can find to the insanity of the world is to laugh, and thereby render it a bit less scary. FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 37 He’s changing the world, one hip-hop hook at a time by Gina Myers A night after the Democratic National Convention came to a close, hip-hop artist SCS took the stage at Showdown in San Francisco to celebrate the release of his debut album, First Day of School. The messages of the preceding weeks weren’t far from the rapper’s mind as he delivered his own political platform through socially conscious rhymes and catchy beats, dropping knowledge on the crowd as he welcomed them to “sit back, marinate / as thoughts elevate.” In “Unity 101,” he spits, “A nation divided against itself can’t stand / Frustrated the situation’s gotten so out of hand / Can’t continue to be conned by duplicitous behavior / While a traitor like Trump touts himself as our savior.” The longtime producer and founder of Richland Records, Scott “SCS” Samels ’99 is taking a risk by stepping to the other side of the recording studio glass. Though he has rapped off-and-on for 20 years, beginning with early freestyle battles with his friends at South High School in Minneapolis, he never felt the need to pursue his own art more seriously until now. 38 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 MUSIC FOR THE GREATER GOOD The urgency Samels feels as an artist comes through on the album, which he wrote and recorded within a three-month span. On it, he takes on major societal issues from the environmental crisis (“Nestlé”) to animal rights (“Man’s Best Friend”), racism (“Unity 101”), banking fraud (“The Federal Reserve, Part 1”), and mass incarceration (“Prisons for Profit”). Inspired by the success Sofia Ashraf had with her song “Kodaikanal Won’t”—which called out Hindustan Unilever for dumping mercury in India and whose viral video resulted in a company response and a landmark settlement for factory workers there—Samels hopes to also effect tangible societal change through his music. “Whether it puts pressure on a local politician and forces them to change their stance on a particular issue or gets a huge multinational to alter policy—minor or major—I still count it as a win,” he says. “It adds fuel to the fire to make more records and videos for the greater good.” Accordingly, the release of First Day of School coincides with Samels’s provocative music video for “Housing Crisis,” a topic that’s dear to his heart. Samels made his way to San Francisco the summer after he graduated from Swarthmore, and credits the bastion for progressives and liberally minded people with making him who he is today. That said, he’s upset with what he sees as the city’s grim future. “HIP-HOP CAN REACH PEOPLE IN WAYS THAT A THOUGHTFULLY COMPOSED PAPER OR NEWS ARTICLE SIMPLY CAN’T.” —SCOTT “SCS” SAMELS ’99 LYDIA DANILLER CLASS IS IN SESSION “I didn’t feel like the hip-hop that we were making and that the music industry in general was making did much to address the major problems of the day,” explains Samels, formerly known as S-Class. “Certain topics—cars, money, clothes, clubs—tend to be recycled from song to song. While it can be fun to talk about these topics, to drone on about them incessantly is ultimately a disservice to the art form and to our collective progress.” Seventeen years ago, Scott Samels ’99 moved from Philadelphia to San Francisco “with a duffel bag, a few dollars, and a burning desire to start a recording studio.” Today, he has a music label, a stable of artists, and a brand-new debut album, First Day of School. “A lot of San Franciscans have been displaced and forced to live elsewhere due to the skyrocketing cost of living,” he says, “which has been detrimental to the heart and soul of our beautiful city.” In “Housing Crisis,” the emcee calls out San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and developers for turning the city into a playground for the rich, where elites feast on $10 cupcakes while the peasantry ends up priced out. “Double, double, toil and trouble, the city burns, technology bubbles,” he raps in the video. “They’re ushering in new firms nonstop; what happens when that bubble goes pop?” THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE Samels, who graduated with honors in French and minored in English literature, has always had a thing for words. “The English language lends its speakers vast amounts of creativity, as a single word can mean many different things, and the way in which one says something can also drastically change its meaning,” he explains. “Combined with the further freedom that poetry affords its writers, one has nearly limitless amounts of creativity at one’s disposal.” Hip-hop became a natural outlet for Samels’s wit and wordplay, while also granting him a space to express every emotion imaginable in service of creating art with an outcome. It also provides an outlet for the values he developed at Swarthmore: his unquenchable thirst to keep learning, his concept of working to serve the greater good, and his respect for community and meaningful friendships. This genre proved a natural medium for his message. “Hip-hop is a global phenomenon,” he says. “It can reach people in ways that a thoughtfully composed white paper or news article simply can’t do, both in terms of reach and engagement.” He’s right: As I write this, I’m listening to First Day of School and find myself bobbing along to “Corporatocracy,” a song about corporate welfare with a surprisingly catchy hook: “Subsidies, tax breaks, loopholes, bailouts / We gotta put a stop to these government handouts / At the end of the day we all got to eat / Not just big corporations and Wall Street.” After all, music has the power to reach people—to stick with us, shape us, maybe even save us. + PUMP UP THE VOLUME at richlandrecords.com or by emailing scott.samels@alum.swarthmore.edu FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 39 I’M WITH HER ...AND HER...AND HER...AND HER Spotlighting women who ran for office before the 19th Amendment HER CAMPAIGN WAS HISTORIC, and not without controversy. A prominent lawyer and internationalist, she identified inequalities, pushed for equal pay, and sought social change. Her supporters saw her as the country’s savior; her detractors saw her as a traitor to society, womanhood, and America itself. To millions, the question she raised was beyond scandalous: Could a woman really run for president? Over a century before Hillary Clinton became the first female major-party presidential nominee—and well before all U.S. women could even vote in an election—Belva Lockwood tore down walls in 1884 as the first woman to run a legitimate presidential campaign. She received just 4,100 votes, but hers were among the first cracks in that “highest, hardest glass ceiling” finally shattered by Clinton. Lockwood’s is one of hundreds of stories lovingly highlighted through Her Hat Was in the Ring, a digital humanities project co-founded by Swarthmore’s Wendy Chmielewski documenting women who ran for political office before 1920, when the 19th Amendment granted all U.S. women the full right to vote. For the time, the concept seems mind-boggling: How could women run for and win office without the universal ability to vote? What men of that era would choose to vote for a female candidate over her male opponent? “We started the project over eight years ago thinking there were about 50 women who ran for office before 1920,” says Chmielewski, the George R. Cooley Curator of the Peace Collection. “Historians assumed that the ratification of the 19th Amendment was the starting point. What 40 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 we discovered: There were probably 5,000 to 6,000 women— many of whom were actually elected to office.” Thousands more women were appointed to office by elected officials, Chmielewski notes, “but we have limited the project to women who went before the voters. Right to election is a significant marker of full citizenship.” Some of these women are widely known and researched: Jeannette Rankin, for example—the first woman elected to Congress (and the only pre-19th Amendment woman to win a federal office). Also Belva Lockwood and fellow presidential pioneer Victoria Woodhull, whom some credit as the first woman to run for the Oval Office, but whose campaign wasn’t technically valid because she was too young … and incarcerated at election time. But others are largely unheard-of: Susanna Salter, the country’s first female mayor (1887, in Argonia, Kan.). Olive Rose, a county register in Maine, and almost certainly the first U.S. woman elected to any office—in 1853. Not to mention hundreds of school board members, county superintendents of schools, and municipal and state officeholders. Even Swarthmore’s own Lucretia Mott received a nomination for U.S. vice president—as well as a handful of voice votes at the 1848 Liberty Party convention—though it’s unlikely our Quaker matriarch had any knowledge of the nomination beforehand or intention of running. “Most people don’t realize that to be elected, you need to be an elector, that is a voter,” says Chmielewski, who started Her Hat Was in the Ring in 2008 with Jill Norgren, a professor emerita of political science at John Jay College and the WENDY CHMIELEWSKI / HER HAT WAS IN THE RING by Elizabeth Slocum True then, true now, true always: “There will never be a new world order until women are a part of it.” —Alice Paul, Class of 1905 FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 41 A TIP OF THE HAT Belva Lockwood (1830–1917) In addition to her presidential run, in 1880, Belva Lockwood became the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court. Lockwood also helped the Eastern Cherokee win $5 million in reparations from the U.S. government. Victoria Woodhull (1838–1927) Technically the first woman to run for president, Victoria Woodhull spent Election Day in jail for running a story in her newspaper attacking the hypocrisy of her critics. Her championing of women’s sexual/marital autonomy earned Woodhull the sobriquet of “Mrs. Satan.” Jeannette Rankin (1880–1973) Two years after being instrumental in Montana’s granting full voting rights to women, Republican Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to the U.S. House. She would also cast the only congressional vote against the U.S. declaring war on Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Susanna Salter (1860–1961) In 1887, the Prohibition Party’s Susanna Salter became the nation’s first female mayor, drawing global attention to tiny Argonia, Kan. Her nomination may have been a joke played by anti-temperance men, but the joke was on them: Salter won and served her one-year term. Graduate Center of the City University of New York. “Some states gave women early partial suffrage—for educational offices or even presidential candidates, in some cases. What we’ve found is as soon as states allowed women to run, they ran.” THE IDEA FOR Her Hat Was in the Ring was sparked when Norgren reached out to Chmielewski at the Peace Collection while researching a biography on Belva Lockwood. Information on Lockwood is hard to come by—“Belva’s grandson sold all of her papers for scrap after she died,” Chmielewski says—but bits and pieces of her life story have made their way to the Peace Collection over the years. Recognizing Lockwood’s significance, and figuring sources on other early candidates would be equally difficult to find, Chmielewski and Norgren set out to create a database honoring all the women who campaigned for office before 1920. Thinking it seemed like a manageable project, the pair pored over women’s suffrage texts, news articles, ballots, state statistical reports—picking up a few names here, a dozen there. 42 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 Then one obscure article from 1912 referenced 750 elected women from Kansas alone, to the researchers’ shock and delight. About half of the women had run for educational offices, since school suffrage was one of the first voting rights afforded to them by states—it was seen as an extension of women’s roles as mothers. But Chmielewski and Norgren never anticipated just how many female candidates there could be. Even 100 years ago, no one knew how many women were in office. “We still come across articles from this timeframe that say, ‘Look! A woman elected to school board!’” Chmielewski says. “And it’s like, yeah, and there were three-dozen women before her, but you didn’t notice them.” IT TOOK MORE THAN a century for someone to notice. For decades, the data on early candidates had been scattered in state archives, historical societies, hard-to-obtain newspapers, and statistical reports, and the sources only became nationally and globally accessible once they were scanned. As records have made their way online, Her Hat’s candidate count has grown, to more than 3,300 women in over 4,500 campaigns. A couple of years into the project, Chmielewski and Norgren brought on board a third researcher—Kristen Gwinn-Becker—to design and host their database and website, which provides biographical information, photos, and other resources. It’s searchable by a candidate’s name, state, office, or party—plus it can aggregate and combine data among all those categories. Several modest grants have funded some Swarthmore interns, but Her Hat is mostly a passion project for Chmielewski, Norgren, and Gwinn-Becker, who run the site largely on their own time, their own dime. Chmielewski has long been interested in women’s history: She has three degrees in the field. Among the hundreds of memorabilia items in Her Hat’s collection is a needlepoint she created in the ’70s that reads, “A Woman’s Place Is in the House—And in the Senate.” But Chmielewski emphasizes that it’s not her story that’s important; it’s those of the thousands of women who braved laughter, derision, outrage, and worse to throw their hats in the ring. Win or lose, each of them paved the way for Hillary Clinton’s historic run, often without much fanfare or recognition: “There are 3,000 biographies that could be written, and dozens of scholarly monographs,” Chmielewski notes. So what would Belva Lockwood think of Clinton’s candidacy, 132 years after she first ran for president? “She would have been so pleased to see a lawyer, and a woman who had been secretary of state, receiving the nomination,” Chmielewski says. “Belva believed in the efficacy of global communication, and she would’ve seen that as a real positive: someone who had an international outlook. “But she’d think it had taken far too long. Why hadn’t a woman been nominated before this?” + DELVE DEEPER at herhatwasinthering.org, and explore a gallery and women’s suffrage timeline at bulletin.swarthmore.edu class notes THE PLACE TO FIND ALUMNI-RELATED ITEMS ALUMNI EVENTS SPIRITS & RAPPINGS: 19TH-CENTURY SÉANCES Oct. 31 Visit the Friends Historical Library this Halloween to learn about the Spiritualism movement that swept mid-19th- and early 20th-century America. Books and documents from the archives show what some prominent Quakers—some alive at the time, some already deceased and sending messages from the spirit world—had to say about the trend. LAURENCE KESTERSON GARNET HOMECOMING AND FAMILY WEEKEND Oct. 28–30 Save the date for the seventh annual Garnet Weekend. Learn more: swarthmore.edu/ garnetweekend A resident adviser helps with luggage at Wharton as students arrive on Move-In Day. Swarthmore welcomed the Class of 2020 in August with a host of unifying traditions, including Orientation and First Collection. 1937 John Wood Jr. died April 1 in Newtown, Pa. He received a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1940 before joining the American Friends Service Committee in southern France, where he helped refugees escaping Francisco Franco’s regime in Spain. John returned to the U.S. as a conscientious objector during World War II and married the late Jean Brown in 1942. The couple had four children: John Wood ’67, Roger Wood ’69, Elizabeth Wood Fritsch ’73, and Susan Wood. John had a law practice and was active in the Bucks County Bar Association, serving as president in 1967. He was on the boards of Jeanes Hospital and Friends Fiduciary Corp. Besides his children, John is survived by sister Sarah Wood Fell ’49, seven grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. 1939 John Roberts, a former member of the Swarthmore Board of Managers, died June 14. John majored in engineering at Swarthmore, where he met his wife of 70 years, the late Jane Martin Roberts. In 1947, John founded Southern Lightweight Aggregate Corp., a leader in manufacturing lightweight aggregate products. He was chair- man of the company, now called Northeast Solite, until his death. John and Jane’s support of the Science Museum of Virginia helped create its Space and Astronomy Exhibit. An endowment in their name has allowed more than 27,000 underprivileged children and adults with disabilities to visit the museum at little to no cost. In addition to Jane, John was predeceased by a daughter, Nancy. He is survived by two children, Joan and John; four grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren. FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 43 class notes Dorothy Webster VanDenburgh died April 28. Son Charles writes, “She had fond memories of Swarthmore and took great delight in reminiscing about photos she had taken there as a student. I was always amazed at her detailed memory of students’ names and her favorite places on campus. She would point to a window on the top floor of Parrish Hall and exclaim, ‘That’s my room.’ Her education at Swarthmore served her well and, in turn, instilled in me a great love of reading.” 1941 Libby Murch Livingston lizliv33@gmail.com Cheers for Barbara Ferguson Young, the sole classmate to represent us at our 75th Reunion. I had hoped to attend but realized it was hard on my daughter to drive to and from Maine to indulge her mother. We had a busy month with two weddings—in Denver and Massachusetts—within two weeks. She was the one to get me to each. It was time for me to wake up. Sorry, Barbara. My, but weddings these days are interesting. No longer can you count on the proper church-tocountry-club reception, or organ music and chicken salad. And remember your sneakers. Our Massachusetts family wedding 44 Swarthmore College Bulletin / 1942 Eleanore Green Akina, a doctor and ordained Episcopal deacon, died March 29 at home in Kailua, Hawaii. Eleanore received a medical degree from Penn and worked in internal medicine before changing her specialty to child psychiatry. She remained in private practice until her 2000 retirement. In the 1980s, Eleanore FALL 2016 was ordained an Episcopal deacon. She also played piano and organ, and volunteered reading music backstage for the Hawaii Opera Theatre. Eleanore is survived by son Henry, a nephew, two hanai (or adopted) daughters, and many godchildren. Donald Pelz died Feb. 27. Don earned a psychology master’s from the State University of Iowa and a social psychology Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, where he was a professor and researcher for four decades, retiring in 1987. Don married the late Edith Bennett in 1958 and adopted her three children; the pair had a fourth child a year later. In the 1980s, Don became active in the Grey Panthers, working for economic and social justice, and he continued his leadership role in that group until his final illness. Don is survived by children Erica, Stephanie, Jeff, and Jonathan, and six grandchildren. Mary Steeves Shern died April 19. After Swarthmore, Mary performed in radio soap operas, owned several businesses, wrote seven books, and taught and wrote for the Georgia Institute of Real Estate. She worked to improve the quality of life for special-needs children in Wisconsin and Hawaii, volunteered at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and earned the National Association of Realtors Lifetime Real Estate Educator Award. Mary was predeceased by two children, Guy and Katherine, and a sister. She is survived by children Sally, John, Barbara, Susan, and Michael; a brother; 15 grandchildren; and 18 great-grandchildren. 1943 Betty Glenn Webber bettywebber22@yahoo.com 616-245-2687 No grass grows under the feet of Herb Fraser. After a Father’s Day gathering of three generations in Massachusetts, he and son Peter ’68 made their annual trip to Peter’s home in Alexandria, Va. The gallivanters’ itinerary next included 10 days at their New Hampshire family cabin before returning to Herb’s home in Indiana. Ginny Curry Hille writes, “Had a happy Midwest Ramble in May when my Seattle kids flew in to escort me to Minneapolis to see granddaughter Steph, then on to Bloomington, Ind., to see her sister Jess at the university there. It was my first visit to the upper Mississippi—so fun to see—and wonderful as always to be with my farflung family.” Ginny enjoys her retirement community—with lots of bridge and “bad” golf—and, fortunately, is still driving. For a moderate-size city, Grand Rapids, Mich., has an extensive medical community that offers opportunities to be a volunteer subject for training upcoming professionals. I did patient simulations until I aged out. I do, however, have annual visits from beginner med students learning how to relate to elderly patients: speak up and don’t talk so fast; don’t assume a tottery gait equals a tottery mind; we are interested not just in our own lives but also about you and how you see your future. I also have a nursing stu- dent come multiple times a year for a more in-depth longitudinal study of an older patient. My “kids” have all been dynamic and interesting contacts. Our numbers are sadly diminished by the loss of several classmates. Just too late for the spring Bulletin, I received word from his son Benjamin ’78 that David Whipple died Jan. 2. He was active during World War II at home as an engineer and in the Pacific as a Navy radio technician. His advanced degrees from MIT led to a 40-year career as an electrical engineer at Draper Laboratories, marked by awards from NASA and MIT for space-program contributions. He was extensively involved in the Cohasset, Mass., community, from Cub Scout master to blood donor. In addition to running, playing tennis, and swimming, Dave was in a local jazz band—a carry-over from playing jazz clarinet at Swarthmore. In addition to Ben, Dave is survived by Jacqueline, his wife of 71 years; another son; and two daughters. Carrying on the Swarthmore legacy are granddaughters Carolyn ’09 and Elizabeth ’18. Ira Greenhill died Feb. 21 in NYC, his lifelong home. He graduated magna cum laude before entering the Army in World War II, retiring as a major after service in Korea and the Reserves. After Columbia Law School, he practiced in the city for six decades, first with his father and later with his sons. He was a talented woodworker and cabinet maker, as well as a tennis player, self-described “pretend” golfer, and Scotch aficionado. Charles Tachau died May 16. His service in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II earned him a Share your personal and reunion pics: bulletin@swarthmore.edu ALUMNI IN ACTION From left: Gabriel Tajeu ’03, Don Lloyd-Jones ’86, and Henry Feldman ’67 hiked up Barker Peak, above Lake Tahoe, between lectures at the 2016 American Heart Association Seminar on Epidemiology and Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases in Tahoe City, Calif. Brothers Dave ’64 and Peter Jaquette ’74 explored Machu Picchu in Peru in April, the second such visit for Dave, who last journeyed to the archaeological site 50 years ago. Gloria Chan ’02 signed copies of Colorful Leadership at a party celebrating the book’s launch. Seattle alumni and friends saw Raghu Karnad ’05, author of Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War, at the Elliot Bay Book Co. in August. The Seattle Book Club has grown so large and successful that a few alumni, led by Andy Dannenberg ’74, are working to create a separate nonfiction book club. Kristan McKinsey ’80 and husband Bennett Johnson got in the spirit of the Prohibition era during an exhibition at the Peoria Riverfront Museum in Illinois. Tom Mayer ’61 and wife Lois also attended. JIM DWYER/PEORIA RIVERFRONT MUSEUM 1940 was in a girls’ camp in the Berkshires. Swimming, boating, and hiking in the laurel-filled woods. Babies and dogs, deep-beat music till the birds took over in the early morn. On to Denver for our second wedding and who-knowswhat, but the joy of celebration, the gathering of our huge clan will be again the center of it all. Sad news: Caroline Underwood died Feb. 26 at Pennswood Village in Newtown, Pa. Caroline earned an M.S. in library science at Western Reserve University, then was commissioned in the Navy Reserve and worked as a personnel officer and in other capacities at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Va. She retired as a commander. She then worked as a postwar administrative officer in the School of Math at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. Caroline volunteered as a monitor and bookmarker for Recording for the Blind; as librarian and in other positions at First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury, N.J.; and as librarian and a choir member at Rossmoor Solos. + SEND YOUR PHOTOS/BLURBS TO BULLETIN@SWARTHMORE.EDU Bronze Star. A University of Louisville law degree led to a dozen-year practice before he entered Virginia Theological Seminary to begin a 50-plus-year calling as an Episcopal priest in Kentucky. During his tenure in Louisville’s West End, Charlie was active in civil rights, with a few brief stints in jail. After retirement he served in administrative capacities for the Episcopal Diocese in Kentucky and in interim pastorates there and in Montana and Dominica. We’d like to hear from those who have not spoken up lately. Recognize yourself? 1944 Esther Ridpath Delaplaine edelaplaine1@verizon.net Our condolences to Mat Ewell’s wife, Ruth, and sons Peter and Louis upon Mat’s death March 8. Mat graduated from Avon Old Farms School in Connecticut before enrolling at Swarthmore. He left after two years to join the Army Air Corps and earned a Distinguished Flying Cross after completing 99 missions. He continued his education at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md., graduating in 1950. He taught math and science at the Harley School in Rochester, N.Y., and was head of its middle school from 1964 until his 1980 retirement. William Busing died April 14. Bill excelled in math and science at his Scarsdale, N.Y., high school, and graduated from Swarthmore with high honors. In the service, he was a lieutenant junior grade in New London, Conn., and postwar at Pearl Harbor. Studies in physical chemistry at Princeton and two years at Brown preceded his career as a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. His crystallography work brought worldwide recognition and distinguished awards. Away from work, he served the Unitarian Universalist Church in administration and teaching. He was recognized as a pioneer and supporter of equitable health care for mental illness. An enthusiastic hiker of the Appalachian Trail, he was a member of the Trail Club. Bill had family at Swarthmore: daughter Barbara Busing Wachs ’75. I, Esther, have joined Quakers holding “Black Lives Matter” signs in Bethesda, Md., and met with organizations addressing racism to determine appropriate responses. I am also a mem- ber of a support group that comforts bereaved members of our Bethesda Friends Meeting. And always, I beg for any items you care to share, such as weddings, grandkids, great-g’kids, and vacations. FALL 2016 FOLLOW US on Facebook at facebook.com/ SwarthmoreBulletin / Swarthmore College Bulletin 45 class notes 1945 Verdenal Hoag Johnson verdij76@comcast.net It has been busy. Edward ’46 could not get into the car a few months ago, so I got home/health care from three wonderful helpers. They came in the morning to get him up and dressed, and stayed a few hours so I could do my chores. They returned in the evening to put him to bed. Recently, Edward couldn’t get out of bed, so we called our fire department and the men (“We have to stop meeting this way”) took him to the hospital. Daughter Fran and I spent all day with him in the ER, with many negotiations about outpatient and inpatient admissions and Medicare and health insurance. Fortunately, the hospital has wonderful case managers who took care of everything once he was admitted. He was there for a week before moving to a rehab facility, the great place two miles from home where I spent six weeks after I broke my leg eight years ago. Our children have been back and forth from Massachusetts and Long Island, but now things are settling down in a routine. Edward and I have talked about the end of life and what we expect and hope for. At Swarthmore, I was in a play called A Decent Birth, a Happy Funeral. We have had such a wonderful life (right now, we are a week short of our 70th wedding anniversary), so there are no regrets and it will be a happy funeral. When we die, we want our ashes co-mingled 46 Swarthmore College Bulletin / and sown over the ocean waters at Grimes Cove in Maine, where we spent many happy summers. A bench will be erected on the rocks and a plaque installed: “We loved it so much we decided to stay.” Our souls will stick around mentoring those we loved and then will go on to another generation for reincarnation. We lost Janet Stanley Mustin in the spring. She and Frank ’44 had been married for 70 years. Several reunions ago, we had Sunday brunch at the Mustins’ beautiful home. Janet was a renowned artist in her community, submitting her works to exhibits and leading therapeutic art classes. She was also well-known for her volunteer work. In addition to Frank, she leaves three daughters, eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. 1947 Marshall Schmidt kinmarshal@aol.com We mourn the March 24 passing of Don Smith. We send our sincere condolences to Jane Ann Jones Smith ’48 and family. Don earned a master of civil engineering from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1951. Don joined the consulting engineering firm of Andrews & Clark in 1952, retiring as president in 1989. Major design projects during his career included the Long Island Expressway, the Meadowbrook Parkway, Sunken Meadow State Park, and the 1964–65 World’s Fair. Don served on the boards of Friends Academy in FALL 2016 Locust Valley, N.Y., Friends World College, the Village of East Williston, Habitat for Humanity in Nassau County, Peconic Land Trust, and the Brecknock Hall Foundation. He is survived by Jane Ann, his wife of 66 years, three children, and six grandchildren. Kinnie ’46 and I have a new address, as we have moved from a villa to the “big house” in our senior hybrid community, Princeton Windrows. Our new address is 2417 Windrow Drive, Princeton, NJ 08540. We are joining Dick Esrey ’50, Naomi Lichtman Rose ’54, and Ned and Helen “Greenie” Green Neuburg ’48. We celebrated the Swarthmore graduation of Abby Schmidt ’16, marking the temporary end of five consecutive generations of female Swarthmorean Stablers, Clarkes, and Schmidts that started in 1894 (plus three husbands—the Quaker matchbox phenomenon). Swarthmore’s fiscal year ended June 30. As class agent, I thank all classmates who donated to the Alumni Fund last year. 1949 Robert Norman robert.z.norman@dartmouth. edu Marjorie Merwin Daggett mmdaggett@verizon.net At my retirement community in Lebanon, N.H., I, Bob, am sometimes asked what I do at my Dartmouth office (luckily I still have one). Among other things, I occasionally work on a paper for potential publication based on a talk I gave four years ago. As you know, doing anything now takes even longer. So the paper may never get finished, unless it rises on my priority list. It was good to hear from Lise Wertheimer Wallach, who stopped teaching a few years ago and is now a senior research scholar at Duke. “I’ve mostly been at home the last five months due to a broken hip (partially replaced). Slipped on ice in January, but improving. Like you, I’ve had a research paper in progress—with husband Mike ’54—for a couple of years, a follow-up on a book we wrote on different conceptions of mind. “I’m delighted to have brother Mike Wertheimer ’47 (I get attached to Mikes) becoming an honorary member of our class. I have fond memories of the times we spent together in our overlapping years at Swarthmore.” Our class philosopher, Bill Hirsch, plans to visit Maine with wife Roberta for theater and seafood. In return he offers us food for thought: “What is the key senior challenge? I believe it might be ‘adjustment to change.’ What do you think?” I sadly report the passing of four classmates. Joanne Donovan Banta died June 21. Her fascination with the life sciences led to a summer course at the University of Oslo, Norway, a laboratory assistantship at Yale and Woods Hole, and three years at Huntington Laboratories, Harvard University. She met husband Joe during these years, and the pair married in 1954. She joined Joe in working for the CIA in Germany, including maintaining files on suspected double agents. Living in Europe— first in Frankfurt, Germa- ny, and then Milan, Italy— Joanne honed her German and learned Italian, became a proficient skier, and developed a lifelong taste for Northern Italian cuisine and Alfa Romeo cars. After returning to the U.S., she was a committed volunteer, from recordings for the blind to relief for the homeless. A fearless advocate for feminism and a dedicated swimmer, she was also a gifted classical cellist and pianist and took up gouache painting in her final years. Joanne is survived by husband Joe, two sons, and two grandchildren. Kathleen “Kay” Blau Shapiro died Jan. 24. She served as president of the Sisterhood of Congregation Shaarey Zedek and on the board of the Lansing Jewish Welfare Federation. With the American Red Cross, she settled Vietnamese immigrants, believing in the importance of aiding refugees from war-torn nations. Her commitment to civil rights dated back to the 1940s. She also volunteered with Planned Parenthood. She is survived by two sisters, three children, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Lloyd Craighill Jr. passed away March 28, and wife Mary “Maryly” Nute Craighill ’50 died two weeks later. Lloyd’s parents were Episcopal missionaries in China. He and Maryly married on his Swarthmore graduation day. After he studied for the priesthood, they began missionary work in Japan in 1951. Following doctoral studies in Asian art history at Harvard, he studied painting under a Chinese master in Beijing and earned a top prize at a Paris exhibition. After studying under a master luthier, he built and rebuilt cellos, Share your personal and reunion pics: bulletin@swarthmore.edu violins, and violas, giving lectures on acoustics of stringed instruments of the early Renaissance. He is survived by four children, brother Peyton (sister-inlaw Mary Roberts Craighill ’57), and sister Kate. John Kennedy died Jan. 8. Upon turning 18, he enlisted in the Navy. At Swarthmore he received highest honors in philosophy. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1952, and in 1957 he married Barbara Allen. As a lawyer he was known for his integrity and concern for others’ well-being. He was well-known for his eccentric wit and his passionate progressive politics. At our 50th Reunion he wrote, “I feel that capitalism must be abolished in favor of a socialist, cooperative system but have no idea how this can be accomplished.” He is survived by his wife, four children, and 10 grandchildren. 1950 Dot Watt Williams 625 Broad St., Apt 301 Grinnell, IA 50112 dorothy4@illinois.edu Richard Farrar enjoyed San Poncho, Mexico, this winter. It’s gotten crowded, but its beach is still beautiful. He keeps busy with abstract painting and enjoying ballet and chamber music performances. (Bach is his favorite composer; poor Mozart is only second place.) Georgeann “Tommy” Thomas Haykin is “too busy to write,” says husband Dave. Recently diagnosed with diabetes, Tommy no longer rides her motorcycle nor flies their airplane. Dave checks her glucose three times a day, but her diet hasn’t changed much. She and Dave are active in the Unitarian church they founded 50 years ago. Their children are a special-ed teacher in Florida, an engineer in Pittsburgh, and a neurologist in Pittsburgh. They have two granddaughters, 10 and 8. Adrian Kuyper and wife Elaine still travel, despite all-too-frequent doctor visits. A Caribbean cruise in February focused on Mayan ruins in Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico. In September they were to visit Kenya and Tanzania for the fourth time to watch the annual migration of animals between the Serengeti and the Masai Mara. At home they have a busy schedule of concerts and plays, and are helping their church find a new minister. Ruth Merson Neleski notes that classmates probably don’t have much news to report “because we are getting rather old and don’t move and shout as much as we used to. Now we list broken bones (my hip) [me too, Ruth] and sore spines. But I love living in the mountains of Arizona where it’s rarely too hot or too cold and almost never rains except for brief summer showers. No traffic jams, everything within a few minutes, nice people—even kids. I enjoy reading about class achievers and Swarthmore in general.” Jerome Ravetz writes from Oxford, England, how pleased he was to attend President Valerie Smith’s inspiring talk in London: “Very encouraging for the future. Whenever one worries about America one remembers what ‘race relations’ were like when we were students.” Jerry was cited by The Guardian as “one of the U.K.’s foremost philosophers of science for more than 50 years.” He is the author of a thought-provoking article reflecting on the troubles facing contemporary science. Read it at bit.ly/Ravetz. Gertrude “Gee-Gee” Joch Robinson says the very late spring in Guelph, Ontario, and research by her son and grandson give concrete evidence of climate change. Son Beren, a fish biologist at the University of Guelph, has tracked the effect the long winter has had on the survival of stickleback fish born last fall, while grandson Calder, studying ocean science at Dalhousie University in Halifax, investigates the effect of water temperature on them. Gee-Gee believes that groups of fish behave like groups of people. This summer she traveled to Tunkhannock, Pa., where son Markus renovated the Robinsons’ summer cottage. Her extended family gathered in August to celebrate the completion of the renovation. Alan Ward was back in Westwood, Mass., after escaping the summer heat of Hilton Head, S.C. He had a fun trip to Berkeley, Calif., to watch his granddaughter graduate from high school with lots of honors. “My son, a psychology professor at Swarthmore, and daughter came along and helped me navigate airports. My Aussie-mix dog, Leo, was very upset with me for leaving without him and takes me for lots of extra walks to make up for it.” I am sad to report we have lost another classmate. Mary “Maryly” Nute Craighill died April 13, two weeks after the death of husband Lloyd ’49. She was born in California but grew up in Adana and Talas, Turkey, where her missionary parents ran medical clinics. She met Lloyd at Swarthmore where she campaigned to eliminate quotas on Jewish students. Married in 1949, she transferred to George Washington University while Lloyd attended Virginia Theological Seminary. She translated Turkish, French, and German for the CIA, and cataloged Kurdish papers for Harvard’s library. The Craighills were missionaries for the Episcopal Church in Kyoto, Okinawa, Sapporo, and Osaka, Japan. In 1979, the Craighills were appointed professors at Kansai Gaidai University in Hirakata, Japan. In retirement in Amherst, Mass., Maryly led courses in Old English and early British literature. She is survived by four children and a brother. 1951 Elisabeth “Liesje” Boessenkool Ketchel eketchel@netscape.com Anne Thomas Moore was kind enough to write about the reunion for those who couldn’t make it. Thanks, Anne, and thanks also to Andrea Wilcox Palmer for suggesting it. “Six of us showed up at our 65th Reunion. Good to keep crossing paths with Woody Thomas, wife Merrillan Murray Thomas ’53, and daughter Jeananne; Dave and Anita Dabrohua Wesson; and Clarkson and Andy Wilcox Palmer at meals or when riding golf carts. Three classes were ahead of us in the parade as we walked to the amphitheater’s accessible entrance opposite Wharton. The trees were a lot taller than in 1951, but the animated sound of alumni talking before Collection’s opening moment of silence was very familiar. President Valerie Smith’s joyful presence and her talk covering so many facets of College life and administration evidenced a solid beginning in her first year. Dan Singer, Anne Ashbaugh Kamrin, Barbara Bruce Rutledge, Joyce Kimball Burbank, and Miriam Strasburger Moss sent regrets, and certainly there were others who would have liked to have been present.” Joyce “Kim” Burbank writes, “I had planned to join Anne Thomas Moore, but decided it was time to replace my right knee. So, while our small contingent of classmates was reuniting, I was embarking on physical therapy. I did it so I could spend 10 days in Maine in August enjoying the surf, the lobsters, and my daughter. It has been fun living so near Anne—only 45 minutes away. We’ve kept in touch throughout the years, starting with sharing an apartment in Evanston, Ill., then by attending each other’s wedding, visiting while our families were young, and stopping to see each other en route to family gatherings. Swarthmore friendships are very rewarding.” Ralph Lee Smith, who faithfully contributes interesting material for this column, writes, “I am a lifelong lover of old homemade wooden things, including old dulcimers. The house is full of this stuff. Susie and I are cleaning out and downsizing. Today, I unpacked a box that contained: FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 47 class notes 1. A fishhook bender. This excellently carved little item sat next to an Outer Banks fisherman as he hauled in his lines. Shaking fish off the hooks sometimes caused them to bend out of shape. The fisherman fixed the hook with his bender before casting the line again. 2. Two maple sugar taps. These hand-cut little spouts were inserted into maple trees to get the sap, which was boiled to make sugar and syrup. 3. A corn shucker. This piece, carved smooth and thin, looks like a small wooden shoe with a pointed tip. One would insert two fingers and use the tip to shuck corn, thereby saving one’s fingers from becoming raw. “Now, folks, I ask you: How can one bear to get rid of stuff like this?” Winifred Armstrong writes, “The summer Bulletin had a nice article about my archiving (bit.ly/ WinArmstrong). The new editor, Jonathan Riggs, wrote it. I just heard from Robin Cooley Krivanek in response to the earlier piece about the Lemlich award … nice.” Elizabeth Lewis Harker died last year in San Mateo, Calif. She had a wonderful life with late husband Jack Harker ’50. She and Jack met at Swarthmore, which she attended on a Pepsi math scholarship. Married in LA in 1950, they started their lives together in the Bay Area by moving to Berkeley. While Jack attended grad school, Elizabeth supported them by working in San Francisco. He was a Californian, and she wanted to pursue the modern Californian dream: liberal politics, modern design, and Eichler architecture. She found it in Palo Alto, where they lived 48 Swarthmore College Bulletin / for 55 years. According to their son, they were as much in love at the end as when they first came to California. 1952 Barbara Wolff Searle bsearle70@msn.com I’m overflowing with news this quarter. Keep it coming—I love it. Franz Leichter writes, “My retirement activities revolve around grandchildren (four, but not one Swarthmorean, sadly), NYC’s rich cultural life, and traveling. In November last year, I went with much of my family to London for a ceremony at the Israeli Embassy acknowledging the Righteous Among the Nations designation of the FALL 2016 woman who smuggled me out of Austria after the Nazi Anschluss in 1938. When, through serendipity, we reconnected, we worked together for this designation by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. “In December my companion and I traveled to Tokyo, where she had been invited to the opening of a film on the Japanese consul in Lithuania who in 1939 gave thousands of visas to Jews contrary to government instructions. She and her family received one of these precious visas. “In March, again joined by my family, it was off to Vienna for a screening of a documentary about my mother. … It was shown on Austrian public television on International Women’s Day. My mother, a political activist, established the Women’s Section of the Labor Exchange and did pioneering work in showing wage inequality between men and women and in working conditions for women. (Doesn’t that still resonate today?) She had a Ph.D. from Heidelberg, where she studied under Max Weber. She did not survive the Holocaust.” I have two long letters, from Harlan Flint and Roger Feldman. I will quote briefly from each and then return to them next quarter. Harlan writes, “Your notes give us a snapshot of many interesting and successful lives. It’s funny that at our age when things generally slow down, they also seem to speed up. Our children reach middle age too soon, and our grandchildren are way older than they should be. But on our good days, we don’t seem to be much older than we CAPTION THIS YOUR CAPTION HERE! Be creative! Submit a caption by Nov. 11 to bulletin@swarthmore.edu. To see last issue’s cartoon with suggested captions, go to Page 68. should be, as long as we stay away from mirrors. … My passion for skiing was cut short at 82 when my wife’s Alzheimer’s began to require more of my attention. We soldier on as best we can, enjoying our straw-bale cabin on the Rio de Los Pinos in northern New Mexico’s wilderness. The cabin and my lifelong journey to get there is the subject of my new book, Journey to a Straw Bale House: The Long Road to Santa Rita in an Old Hispano Neighborhood on the Northern Edge of New Mexico. If one were to Google my name, it would reveal my earlier book, from 2012, Hispano Homesteaders: The Last New Mexico Pioneers, 1850–1920.” More next time. Roger’s Christmas letter arrived in April. (That’s OK. I’m happy to hear from him whenever.) He writes, “2015 was, in one sense, a year in which I had little fully committed time. My routines were reduced to a weekly one-hour exercise class; a weekly two-hour lip-reading class; for six months, a daily effort of reading and editing Ebola messages for ProMED; and a twice-a-month church-organized foodbank effort, collecting outdated foods from one store and bringing them to a church that housed and fed the homeless. I’ve given up banjo lessons— wish I were better at it, but wishing is ineffective.” There’s lots more news, but it will have to keep. Some time ago, I reported the death of Marguerite “Margie” Ridge Perrone. The Bulletin received a touching note from her husband, Charles: “Last year I scattered Margie’s ashes, as she wished, in Chester County, Pa., in a Share your personal and reunion pics: bulletin@swarthmore.edu small clearing on a wooded hillside near Ludwig’s Corner. The clearing is secret and quiet, dappled by partial sun. Margie’s candid blue eyes favored partial sun. She shunned extremes. The ground cover is sparsely flecked with modest woodland blooms. Down the slope, the lake and its far shore glow through the canopy of leaves. As a girl Margie returned to this valley on horseback again and again. By now her ashes have entered the living earth to emerge in season as modest blooms. She is so easily pleased.” The Bulletin also reported the death of Howard Fussell. He was the retired vice president of Lavino Shipping Co. and in that capacity did much traveling. He won many tennis tournaments and was a master gardener, a frustratingly clever chess and bridge player, a wonderful writer, an ardent reader, a devotee of The New York Times crossword puzzle, and a talented musician. Did you know Howard? Please send remembrances. 1953 Carol Lange Davis cldavis5@optonline.net In May I visited Margery “Marky” McCloskey Laws in Madison, Conn. Susie and Bob Fetter joined us for lunch on their way to Vermont to see Bob’s brother, Tom ’56. Shortly thereafter, Bob attended Alumni Weekend, where he saw Francis Ashton and Merrillan Murray Thomas. I also chatted with Stanley Mills, who goes into Manhattan a few times each week to help the new owner of his music business. Did everyone see the Bulletin story online about the late Phoebe Burnett Snetsinger? Phoebe was responsible for sighting 8,398 birds—a record she held well after her death in 1999. On what would have been her 85th birthday June 9, Google honored Phoebe and her immense legacy with a daily doodle. As usual, most of my news is about classmates we have lost. Elizabeth “Betsy” Alden Bowers died peacefully Dec. 15 in Richmond, Va. She is survived by husband Don; children Ken, Cathy, and James; and five grandchildren. After spending time at Swarthmore, Betsy graduated from Cornell with a botany degree in 1954 and received a master’s from the University of Illinois. In the 1960s she taught at an integrated preschool in Charlottesville, Va., and in the early 1970s, she was a founding member of FOCUS Women’s Resource Center. From 1973 to 1978, she served on the Charlottesville school board. She also served on the Charlottesville and Henrico County Democratic committees. Betsy was a longtime member of the NAACP. She was a court reporter for the Charlottesville Observer, and in 1986, she graduated from the University of Virginia law school. In 1988 Betsy and Don moved to Richmond, and she started a private family-law practice. Some of her greatest satisfaction came from court-appointed work representing children and women. She joined the Virginia Women Attorneys Association and took part in lobbying efforts. She had a lifelong appreciation of plants as a gardener and lover of parks and walks in the woods. Ivan Gabel died June 11 in Jenkintown, Pa., after a lengthy illness. Ivan worked for Merit Oil Corp., culminating his career as president and CEO from 1987 to his 2000 retirement. Ivan was trustee and former board chair of Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia, Congregation Rodeph Shalom, and Einstein Healthcare Network. He was also a lifetime honorary trustee of the Jewish Federation and former trustee of Jefferson Health System and the United Way. Ivan is survived by his wife of 61 years, Ruth, and three children: Joanne Hamilton, Bruce Gabel, and Barbara Sklar. George Hastings writes that his wife, Iliana Semmler, died June 17. George and their daughters were by her side. Iliana (I remember her fondly as Jonny) received an M.A. from Penn and a Ph.D. from the University at Albany, SUNY. She taught English at the University at Albany with specialties in American literature and literature and medicine. Iliana was an accomplished pianist and enjoyed classical concerts. She traveled extensively and loved the company of family, friends, and her two Siamese cats. In addition to George, she is survived by children Rada Hastings, Judith Singer, and Geoffrey Hastings. Son Douglas Hastings predeceased her. 1954 Elizabeth Dun Colten lizcolten@aol.com Harriet Donow Cornell, Naomi Lichtman Rose, and I lunched together, and we discussed politics, families, health, and Swarthmore, not necessarily in that order. I mentioned Naomi’s ambitious travels in our last column, and, understandably, Harriet—a county legislator—is especially busy this election year. Summer, for me, means Maine—Ocean Point, to be exact—where our farflung family gathers for a too-short visit. In June, Peter Sielman, a justice of the peace, officiated at the wedding of grandson Daniel Shaiken (son of David Shaiken ’82 and Martha Sielman ’82). Daniel is a graduate of Tufts veterinary school. Also in June, Ruth Durant Seeliger’s granddaughter married in Michigan, and Ruth met a great-grandchild there. Although she has stepped down as chair of the board of the Foundation for Contemporary Theology, she still serves as administrator. Daughter Christine, a cancer survivor, lives with Ruth in Houston. Ruth spent two months last December in Oregon with sister Kathryn Wolfe Roether ’49, and says she is eternally grateful for her Swarthmore education and friends. Barbara Hill Lindsay passed away last fall, but the College received few details on her life and death. Please share any stories or memories you have of Barbara. Phyllis Hall Raymond “says it all” for many of us: “No new address or travel or excitement, but maybe that is OK.” Since her house abuts the College, she attends musical events on campus and is active in the Swarthmore Friends Meeting. Incidentally, I have a recently updated class list, which I will gladly share. I pass on the following: Did you know that the oldest McDonald’s employee is a Singapore fry cook— age 92—according to a May 16 article in Time? And, from Will Rogers: “We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress.” 1955 Sally Schneckenburger Rumbaugh srumbaugh@san.rr.com I am delighted to quote from the June 11 San Francisco Examiner: “The Commonwealth Club gave activist and philanthropist James Hormel its first Champion of Civil Rights and Social Justice honor at its 28th Distinguished Citizen Awards. That is one among seemingly countless honors the human rights pioneer has earned during decades of public work, including serving as the first openly gay U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg (and enduring years of controversy to get the job).” Congratulations, Jim. In contrast to the timeliness of the previous entry comes news from William Shepard’s 2014 Christmas letter, which I recently uncovered. FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 49 class notes You already know that Bill and Elza settled into their new house, having repaired and sold the one damaged by the 2011 New Zealand earthquake, and that the second edition of Bill’s book on Islam was published. Further news is that on the previous Christmas, their son and his family visited, staying in their old house. Their son, a beamline scientist, co-authored a publication that appeared in Nature; his wife is a social judge; and their girls are enthusiastic karate students. The death of Bill’s sister, a paraplegic who advocated for the disabled, brought Bill to the U.S., where he spent time with their son and his family. Bill and Elza’s daughter Christina, who teaches at an all-boys high school, lives near them in Christchurch, so they are closely involved with their grandson, who’s active in swimming, karate, touch rugby, and piano lessons—even, in a school talent competition, playing a piece he composed. Bill and Elza find support and fellowship in their church’s home group. William Dominick had an interesting 2015. It began inauspiciously in February. Attempting to chase a squirrel away from his bird feeder, Bill slipped on black ice, cracking a bone in his right knee. That led to eight weeks of therapy while using a walker and sleeping in a recliner. He has not given up on protecting his bird feeder, but he watches for hazards now. In April, he and wife Phyllis Klock Dominick ’57 joined their five children at one son’s beach home in Nag’s Head, N.C., for an enjoyable “7-D” family reunion. During the summer, Bill and Phyllis watched grandchildren perform, one in ballet and two in 50 Swarthmore College Bulletin / baseball. The older baseball player was selected to join a Little League All-Star team for a trip to Japan to play against a Japanese All-Star team, making his old pitcher grandfather beam with pride. In June, Bill and Phyllis attended our 60th Reunion; then in July, they were in Vermont for the 40th Taft reunion, which included many of Phyllis’s relatives. Another reunion took them to Connecticut, this one with seven of Phyllis’s girlfriends from junior high. Finally, following the family tradition in which all 12 adults and 11 grandchildren meet at an exotic location every five years, they went to Antigua. This was their first experience with an all-inclusive resort, and they thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful beaches, delicious meals, tennis courts, and outstanding Caribbean weather. Plans for 2016 included a trip to Maine and at least one college and one high school graduation. Despite these activities, Bill writes, “With Phyllis’s scoliosis and my various aches and pains, we’ve decided to make the move” to Cedarfield, a Richmond, Va., continuing-care retirement community, whenever a vacancy occurs. Like so many, they are in the “awesome task of downsizing.” We have lost another classmate. Gwilym Owen Jr., of Pittsboro, N.C., died peacefully Feb. 6. Our condolences to his family. FOLLOW US on Facebook at facebook.com/ SwarthmoreBulletin FALL 2016 1956 Caro Luhrs celuhrs@verizon.net We had a wonderful 60th Reunion: no rain and the campus looked spectacular with endless lush, green grass, huge old trees, and beautiful flowers. Fifty classmates were expected back; almost all showed up. Although we are now in our early 80s, those who returned looked amazingly fit and cheerful—enough so to be frequently mistaken for the reunion Class of 1966. A few of us stayed at the Inn at Swarthmore, a delightful place located on campus near the train station. Student-driven golf carts easily whisked us back and forth to events. Saturday morning, President Valerie Smith welcomed all the classes at Alumni Collection in Scott Amphitheater. We were impressed by her joy, warmth, and excellent communication skills. We realized how much more complex and multifaceted the role of college president has become over the past 60 years. We are pleased to have a president with such understanding of and passion for the job. There were many multiclass activities throughout the weekend, but our class spent as much time as possible with one other. Thanks to Gretchen Mann Handwerger’s good planning, we had all our weekend meals together as a class instead of being lumped in with others. Our 2015–16 scholarship recipient, Mohammed Bappe ’19, joined us for lunch Saturday. Carolyn Cotton Cunningham arranged a moving memorial for each of the 18 classmates who had died since our 55th Reunion. Our records now show 70 deaths since 1956. This includes anyone who was ever in our class. Since there has been little tracking of classmates who didn’t graduate, the actual number of deaths is certainly larger than 70. Saturday afternoon, two of our classmates gave interesting talks. Chris Lehmann-Haupt shared material from a book he is writing about working at The New York Times, where he was a book review editor and obituary writer. His theme centers on the distant and competitive relationships among the staffers. France Juliard Pruitt moved us with the story of the four harrowing years she and cousin Chantal “Cathy” Juliard Astore spent hiding from the Nazis in the South of France during World War II. Most classmates knew this and wished they had recognized years ago what the young Juliard girls had gone through. After dinner Saturday, former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin spoke about the presidential election, opening with “Hillary will win.” He said this definitive statement was intended to “keep us awake” during his talk. Sally Pattullo McGarry organized our auction for the Class of 1956 Scholarship Fund, with Jack Finkelstein as auctioneer. We raised several thousand dollars. Auction items included 12 beautiful and very old Swarthmore china plates, copies of France Juliard Pruitt’s book Faith and Courage in a Time of Trouble, and a Walt Kelly drawing of Miz Ma’m’selle donated by Peter Svirsky, who, unfortunately, could not be with us. President Smith, who was very visible and engaged with our class, auctioned herself off as a luncheon guest. Two classmates won separate bids for this. A fine time was had by all. And by the way, our class had the highest participation rate—70 percent—of all the other reunion classes in giving to the Swarthmore Fund. Good work! 1957 Minna Newman Nathanson jm@nathansons.net Ferris Hall, who—like many of us—recently turned 80, “celebrated” by retiring. A radiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston for 45 years and a professor at Harvard Medical School, Ferris loved interpreting musculoskeletal and mammography images, and, most particularly, teaching. However, the related IT became increasingly timeconsuming and difficult. He came to view medical students’, residents’, and fellows’ computer skills as he did those of his children and grandchildren: the payback for parenting. Ferris and wife Nancy, who celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary last year, moved into a Boston-area retirement home known for its in-house courses, lectures, and musical events—some given by the retirees. Although they lost their eldest daughter to cancer, their two remaining children and five grandchildren are healthy. The couple enjoy watching their oldest grand, a Middlebury College sophomore, play lacrosse. Jeremy Stone spoke in April during a Swarthmore Peace and Conflict Studies event on lessons he and late wife B.J. Yannet Stone learned in “catalytic diplomacy.” 1958 Vera Lundy Jones 549 East Ave. Bay Head, NJ 08742 verajonesbayhead@ comcast.net David Porter died in March after a fall during a walk. He is survived by wife Helen and her daughter, Cathrin Lawton; his children David, Everett, Helen, and Hugh, and their spouses and children. David, who received a classics Ph.D. from Princeton, played the harpsichord and piano and taught classics and music. He married the late Laudie Dimmette ’57 in 1958. David was president of Carleton College (1986–87) before joining Skidmore College as president from 1987 to 1999. He then taught at Williams College, Indiana University, and Skidmore, and received honorary degrees from Skidmore in 1998 and Carleton in 2011. Karen Hultzen Belleau died in June. She received a French degree from Swarthmore and a master’s in early childhood education from Wheelock College in Boston. Karen was a teacher for 28 years. She loved visual and performing arts, traveling, reading, writing, and gardening. She sang for many years with the oratorio society. Karen is survived by sons Peter, Michael, and Alan; daughter Susannah Owen; and five grandchildren. She was predeceased by husband Dean Ridlon. The class sends its sympathy to the families of David and Karen. I am sorry to report only sad news. Please let me know what you are doing—your classmates would like to hear! 1959 Miriam Repp Staloff staloff@verizon.net In a note about his contribution in memory of Johanna Mautner Plaut ’58 to the Joseph Conard Fund, Charles Miller sent along a brief “memoir” of his Swarthmore days. I will paraphrase: “I scarcely knew Johanna, but she was the daughter of Franz Mautner, who taught German and was one of the two teachers who most influenced my undergraduate experience. The other: J. Roland Pennock. “Like other alumni, many of my fellow students became lifelong friends, or at least remained acquaintances. Perhaps you can imagine a sociogram composed of these people. Reinhart Wettmann was a Fulbright student from Germany (1956–57). Lee Bigelow ’58, Reinhart, and I were roommates in Mary Lyon. Later, I spent a Fulbright year in Freiburg, Germany, where Reinhart lived. We three have re- mained in touch regularly. “Maurice Eldridge ’61, a longtime Swarthmore administrator, has been a friend since college. His 2009 baccalaureate address (bit.ly/ Maurice09) is one of the finest documents about Swarthmore I have read since graduation. “David Porter ’58 and I met in 1955 through our shared interests in classics and music. He later added an interest that his first wife, the late Laudie Dimmette ’57, introduced him to, the novels of Willa Cather. David was my model humanist from the beginning of our more than 60-year friendship. I am honored to own inscribed books and articles from him on Homer, Greek tragedy, Horace, and David’s distinguished piano teacher, Eduard Steuermann. On David’s death in early 2016, the president of Skidmore, where David himself had once been president, wrote an obituary titled “The Death of a Renaissance Man” (bit. ly/DavidPorter). To mark my retirement from Lake Forest College in 1999, he gave a lecture-performance: ‘The Well-Tampered Clavier: Play—Musical and Otherwise, the Intellectual Playfulness in the Music of Charles Ives, John Cage, Henry Cowell, and Erik Satie.’ David was a sophisticated and unapologetic punster. He was an imaginative and profound thinker about every subject that he touched in his scholarship.” Please share your lives and memories. Just don’t do it in PDF files; they’re beyond my equipment’s capabilities. Read a tribute to David Porter ’58 by Charles Miller ’59 at bulletin.swarthmore.edu 1960 Jeanette Strasser Pfaff jfalk2@mac.com It seems that John Vincent was the sole classmate at Alumni Weekend in June. He reports that he had a positive impression of and interaction with our new president and that he enjoyed Maurice Eldridge ’61’s Collection address. We couldn’t ask for a better representative. Thanks, John. I had asked you to tell us about postretirement careers or occupations. Larry Helm rephrased that as “Aged Life” and describes his post-Navy activities in what I take to be genuine “Navy-speak.” “Drove a Fairfax County school bus part time—a hoot. Then, got kinda bored so did the ticket-punching and taught in Fairfax County high schools before locking in as part-time AP U.S. history teacher at our local magnet—Thomas Jefferson—for about eight years.” Coincidentally, he’s also an AP U.S. reader—“rewarding and fun.” Mimi Siegmeister Koren: “I became a part-time reporter for a very smalltown newspaper in Larchmont, N.Y., from age 65 to 70. It was something I had dreamed of doing and never imagined possible. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I then took up painting with pastels, building on the drawing I had done sporadically all my life. Most recently, I have become an environmental activist as co-founder and co-chair of my synagogue’s Green Committee. It reminds me of my first political activ- ism in the Ban the Bomb movement freshman year.” John Palka retired early and spent the better part of a decade writing My Slovakia, about his family history. He then turned to writing a biweekly blog (naturesdepths. com), which satisfies his fascination with the living world and provides “ongoing stimulus to the mind and the creative impulse.” Martha Merrill Pickrell embarked on music composition for piano at age 67. “I’ve had a wonderful time with it. Last year, I had printed a few copies of two books, Times and Places (second edition—21 pieces) and Late Discoveries (10 pieces). Copies of both are in the Swarthmore library, along with a CD for each. I love most of my pieces like the kids I never had. Most are relatively easy to play. Now I am starting to work on orchestration for a few of them. Let me know if you would like further information.” Janet Lockard: “The main addition to my life since retirement is a passion for greyhounds. I work with a volunteer group that takes greyhounds from the track when they are through racing and finds them forever homes. This group, Greyhound Friends for Life, also brings in Salukis from Dubai and galgos from Spain, as well as greyhounds from Korea and other places. My two raced at the Caliente track in Mexico, part of the U.S. circuit. Tracks in Arizona are closing now (whoopee!) so we are inundated with dogs. Anyone interested in a loving, gentle, beautiful canine couch potato?” (More, pg. 13) Marcia Montin Grant, having retired from founding and directing FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 51 class notes the liberal arts curriculum at Ashesi University in Ghana, continues her adventurous career as interim provost of the American University of Paris for 2016–17. Joan Schuster Faber renamed my request “Retirement (Rewirement)” and says, “I have discovered a modest talent for and a deep, deep pleasure in playing the piano. My teacher insists that her students perform regularly for one another. After overcoming my initial terror, I found that I actually enjoy it. I’ve started playing chamber music as well. I’ve learned something complex that demands both mental and physical dexterity I didn’t know I had.” John Harbeson is in his fourth term on his condo’s association board, which he says should qualify as a second career for all the work it takes. “That course in local government with Professor Gilbert had an influence.” Chris Clague recommends Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul by John Barry, which depicts the 17th-century Quakers as anything but the gentle, reasonable folk that we mostly assume they were. Harriet Shorr died April 9 after a two-year illness. She is survived by husband Jim Long ’71 and daughters Ruth Baguskas ’89 and Sasha Baguskas. Jeremy Dummer died May 31. After a lifetime of strenuous activity including quarterbacking for Swarthmore, skiing, and golf, Jere succumbed to complications of vascular disease in his legs. He was a mechanical engineer, an aircraft accident investigator, and, later in life, a business manager. Vivi-Ann Hall Lowe died 52 Swarthmore College Bulletin / in October 2015. Susan Pickett Worf died in June. We send our warmest condolences to these classmates’ family and friends. Let me know if you have memories to share. Richard, my husband of three months, died July 10. Death did us part too soon. 1961 Pat Myers Westine pat@westinefamily.com As I write, our 55th Reunion is three weeks past. There weren’t many of us, but those who attended enjoyed reminiscing about our Swarthmore days and catching up on the past 55 years. At the Saturday class luncheon, Maurice Eldridge was elected to replace Jon Van Til as class president. Jon, back in Indiana with wife Agnes, “thanks his classmates for their wonderful support and wishes Maurice many joyful years as he assumes the position.” Thanks from all of us, Jon. During Alumni Weekend, we stayed in Mertz and David Kemp halls; visited the new Matchbox and the even-newer Inn at Swarthmore; attended SwatTalks and class discussions; had a Saturday morning conversation with President Valerie Smith; marched in the Parade of Classes to the Scott Amphitheater (it’s amazing how close we’re getting to the front of the lineup); listened to Maurice speak at Alumni Collection; and sang Fauré’s Requiem with the Chester Children’s Chorus. Maurice has had a busy year. He retired from the College in June as vice FALL 2016 president for college and community relations and executive assistant to the president. Two weeks after Alumni Weekend, he married Pat Brooks ’60 at the Swarthmore Meetinghouse with music by the Chester Children’s Chorus. With Pat, he will stay in Swarthmore, continuing as vice president and secretary of the board of trustees for the Chester Charter School for the Arts, which he helped establish, and serving on the Chester Children’s Chorus board of directors. Steve Davidson is “retiring from Boston University after 31 years (and before that UChicago and Northwestern). I’m not sure what I will do in the next phase. A year of milestones: I turned 75, and our two children and their spouses gave Harriet and me a party for our 50th anniversary.” We send our sympathy to Margie Doehlert Barovich, whose husband, Don, died shortly after they moved to Foulkeways, a Quaker retirement community in Gwynedd, Pa. Barbara Price died Feb. 18 in New York City. The College was notified of her death by her estate’s executor. If you have memories to share about Barbara, please let me know. As you can tell, reunion attendees re-elected me as class secretary. I am delighted to serve and ask that you send me your updates, holiday letters, etc., so I can continue to keep our class in touch. 1962 Evelyn Edson 268 Springtree Lane Scottsville, VA 24590 eedson@pvcc.edu As I write, I am aware that, due to the vagaries of the magazine’s publication schedule, you may have sent in notes before receiving my last column. Don’t panic. Those of you who submitted, your notes will be seen. Caroline Hodges Persell, professor emerita of sociology at NYU, chairs a committee that has created a residents’ website for their 250 neighbors at Kendal on Hudson, the senior community where she and husband Charlie have lived happily for 10 years. (Anyone interested can visit kohresweb.org.) Caroline also confirmed that it was indeed her playing in the string quartet pictured in the Kendal ad in the New Yorker. She enjoys participating in Kendal’s music program—one of those things we did not have much time for in our preretirement lives. Robin Ridington completed a video biography of Charlie Yahey, the last Dane-zaa Dreamer, combining the Dreamer’s words and songs recorded in the late 1960s with narrative recorded in 2015 by Charlie’s grandson Randy Yahey. Robin will return to the Doig River First Nation in the spring to translate the material with Billy Attachie. Later, Robin and wife Jillian will cruise along the British Columbia coast in Swanstar, their 32-foot Nordic tug, and attend the Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival. Then it’s back to Maui for the winter. Arlie Russell Hochschild writes with her fond memories of Gordon Wilcox. She and husband Adam live in Berkeley, Calif., across the bay from younger son Gabriel and three blocks from older son David ’93 and their two granddaughters, 10 and 8. David’s wife, Cynthia Li, has a medical office at their house. “We love the connections more than we can say,” Arlie writes. Her latest project is her forthcoming book, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, based on five years of interviews with tea-party enthusiasts in Lake Charles, Sulphur, Longville, and Baton Rouge, La. “Political belief is a new topic for me, and it has been amazing getting to know people with such different views.” After numerous visits to the area, she has invited some right-wing Louisiana friends to visit Berkeley. “We shall see how it looks through their eyes.” I submitted this column a little late, as my husband and I had been traveling through the maritime provinces of Canada; we enjoyed the dramatic scenery and learned a lot about American history from the other side. I now look forward (?) to a knee replacement in August. Write to me. FOLLOW US on Facebook at facebook.com/ SwarthmoreBulletin 1963 Diana Judd Stevens djsteven1@verizon.net Is 1963 the only class to have freshman roommates (or any roommates) receive College honorary degrees? Bob Putnam received his in 1990, and freshman roommate Leo Braudy received his in June. Leo writes that he and wife Dorothy had a wonderful time at Commencement, which included a stay at the new inn. Two videos of Leo’s speech are on YouTube (bit.ly/Braudy). First-year roommates Barbara Seymour and Austine Read Wood Comarow continue to create. Two of Barbara’s Tiffany-style watercolors of the College are in the inn. In addition, the recipient of the College’s Suzanne P. Welsh service award and all nominees received a signed Seymour print. In the main merchandise tent at the 2016 U.S. Open was a custom-made U.S. Golf Association Polage by Austine. Mastering the Mysteries of Light, an exhibit at Las Vegas’s Springs Preserve that opened in July, featured some of Austine’s innovative polarized light works, including early works that illustrated Polage’s evolution since Austine started working with it in 1967. TV alert from David Gelber: Season 2 of Years of Living Dangerously premieres Oct. 26 on the National Geographic Channel. It will focus on the race against time; that is, can climate solutions keep pace with the accelerating consequenc- es of greenhouse-gas emissions? David reports Tom Spock ’78 and Nathan Graf ’16 supported Season 2’s production. He also writes it’s been the most satisfying work he’s done. He looks forward to Season 3. Sympathy is extended to Beth Welfling King on the May 23 death of her 104-year-old mother, Elizabeth Stammelbach Welfling ’33. (More, pg. 12) Updates on previous class notes: Alison Archibald Anderson moved from her 1880s Philadelphia rowhouse to one of the three remaining cooperatives in Center City. Alison will retire in January from the University of Pennsylvania Press, where the workload has increased with no increase in staff. She will spend more time on other activities. Her son’s symphony was performed professionally in May. Alison has had no recent word from Claire Bishop Nyandoro, who lives in Zimbabwe. The renovation of Dan Menaker’s Upper West Side penthouse progresses, dragging along the bank account with it. Wife Katherine Bouton is president of the Hearing Loss Association of America’s NYC chapter. Son Will left publishing to concentrate on Chapo Trap House, an irreverent podcast. The housing issue with which Kathie Kertesz was dealing has been resolved. She found another house-share in Mill Valley, Calif., her hometown of 39 years. Bruce Leimsidor’s teaching experience in Odessa, Ukraine, was positive while his stay in Ukraine was not because of extreme right-wing nationalism. Bruce visited the small town of Velyki Share your personal and reunion pics: bulletin@swarthmore.edu IN MEMORIAM 1933 Elise Stammelbach Welfling May 23, 2016 1938 David Goldsmith May 4, 2016 Emily Lomb Nesmith Oct. 19, 2015 1939 Mary Bowers May 13, 2016 John Roberts June 14, 2016 1940 Dorothy Webster VanDenburgh April 28, 2016 1941 Pearce Rayner May 6, 2010 Keith Whitsit Nov. 9, 2000 1942 Mary Capehart Crutchfield April 11, 2011 Kathryn Gerry Bardwell Feb. 2, 2016 Sampson Rheams June 27, 2008 1943 Dolores Garbeil Daroff Feb. 11, 2010 Charles Tachau May 16, 2016 1944 Allan Hamilton March 14, 2014 Selden Kirby-Smith Ferlinghetti April 28, 2012 Audrey O’Brien Glausser July 21, 1997 John Zerbe July 11, 2016 Alumni death notices received by the College from May 15 through Aug. 6, 2016. 1945 Helen Dodd July 5, 2014 1946 Gale Colton Bushnell June 10, 2016 Walter Kistler Dec. 12, 2008 Karl Weger July 5, 2007 1948 James Caraher March 18, 2015 John MacMillan April 6, 2009 John Saile Nov. 2, 2008 Clarence Sobba Sept. 7, 2013 1950 John Goertner April 7, 2016 Caroline Reynolds Hiester Aug. 16, 2007 1952 Hamilton Carson Jan. 14, 2016 Nicholas Wagner III Howard Fussell Dec. 9, 2013 June 6, 2016 1949 Joanne Donovan Banta June 21, 2016 Ruth Friedenthal Kanter May 11, 2016 Beatrice Prescott Goodman June 5, 2003 Navy William Auer Aug. 14, 2009 Kent Balls June 5, 2011 Robert Condon Nov. 30, 2011 Gerald Dodd Sept. 25, 2015 William Lamdin May 22, 2009 Junetta Kemp Gillespie May 28, 2016 Malcolm Forbes Sept. 22, 2014 Ivan Gabel June 14, 2016 Irving Kennedy Nov. 22, 2006 Gordon Pratt March 28, 2013 Iliana Semmler June 17, 2016 1954 William Jones Jr. June 10, 2006 Mary Ann Smith O’Nan April 21, 2007 Henry Lampe Oct. 28, 2012 Barbara Swarthout May 11, 2016 1958 Karen Hultzen Belleau June 7, 2016 1959 Sergei Retivov July 27, 2015 Robert Lowrie Dearborn March 20, 2014 Jeremy Dummer May 31, 2016 Lucy Eskridge Rockstrom Nov. 6, 2014 Susan Pickett Worf June 22, 2016 1961 Edgar Stephens March 13, 2000 Nan Pecker Tellier Oct. 31, 2014 1966 1953 1955 James Polt Jan. 20, 2014 1960 1951 Robert Binkley Erling Haabestad Jr. March 23, 2012 May 4, 2016 George Lee Jr. Jan. 18, 2012 Dorothy Pennell Lukens Anne Smith Oct. 18, 2013 Weatherford June 7, 2016 Horace Salop Oct. 25, 2013 Howard Stein Oct. 14, 2012 1957 Stephen Burstein Unknown 1977 Roland Ben June 7, 2016 1978 Randall Thomas Dec. 9, 2015 1979 Felice Yeskel M’79 Jan. 11, 2011 1989 Brendan Kelly May 25, 2016 1993 David Myers June 1, 2016 2002 Alice Hershey July 28, 2016 FALL FALL 2016 2016 // Swarthmore Swarthmore College College Bulletin Bulletin 53 53 class notes Mosty, ancestral home of his father’s family. Before World War II, 35 percent of the town’s population was Jewish. Today, not a single Jew is left there, just the ruins of a synagogue where many were burned alive. The current Ukrainian government has established an “institute of national memory” to enforce a revisionist, nationalistic version of Ukrainian history. Bruce notes that Western governments sweep this under the rug since it fits the anti-Russian agenda. Cay Hall Roberts reports that the Robertses’ RV isn’t gone but is going. She and Dick traveled by Amtrak and plane this summer to visit Glacier National Park and family in Washington state and San Diego. Kevin Cornell installed a solar-powered electric fence to keep critters from his raspberries. Last spring, he and wife Pat traveled to Colorado and Arizona. Larry Phillips’s night job is co-founder of a startup developing software to facilitate management of Type 2 diabetes. Working with Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries in Boston, Alice Handsaker Kidder helped teach 27 trainers in the ESPERE curriculum on forgiveness and reconciliation. Ted Nyquist shot videos on tips for growing rhododendrons for the Midwest Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society. Ted earned his pilot’s license while at Swarthmore and has started flying again. He and wife Gidget hope to fly to Philly in a single-engine Cessna for our 55th Reunion. Like father, like son: Author Bob Putnam interviewed son Jonathan about These Honored Dead, Jonathan’s first book. In June, Jim 54 Swarthmore College Bulletin / Patton and Barbara Seymour stopped for a quick visit with Paul ’65 and me in Maine. Sandy McConnell Condry celebrated her 75th birthday with Andy Hoff Knox ’64 and husband Jonathan, seeing Hamilton in New York City, and with Betsy Maxfield Crofts and husband Dan, stargazing in Pennsylvania. Sandy’s celebration also included trips to Baja California, the Galapagos, and the Amazon rainforest. In May, Ricky Strong Batt, Mary Williams Clark, Beth Welfling King, Suzi Merrill Maybee, Connie Kain Milner, Mary Kay Dewees Pietris, Cay Hall Roberts, Jane Jonas Srivastava, Diana Judd Stevens, Atala Perry Toy, and Polly Glennan Watts gathered to celebrate their 74th and 75th birthdays, reminisce, and catch up. Do let me know how you celebrated your 75th and what catching up you’d like to do with your classmates. 1964 Diana Bailey Harris harris.diana@gmail.com swarthmore64.com Marvin “Spike” Lipschutz sends his “first submission since graduation: three sons, all born the same year, all different ages— lawyer, engineer, ice cream entrepreneur. Lisa and I celebrated our first grandchild, born May 17 to our oldest son and wife, married in August 2015 by Judge Jed Rakoff.” Roz Stone Zander notes, “What a difference our reunion made to my sense of connection. Off and on for FALL 2016 seven years (no kidding), I had worked on my second book, Pathways to Possibility, which appeared in bookstores June 21, along with an audiobook. This has been a year of adventure. Hansjorg and I visited national parks in Tanzania and Rwanda to monitor work we’ve supported to end the ivory trade and took a side trip to South Africa, renewing contacts with friends there. Life is expanding despite creaking bones.” Michael Gross reports that he, Elizabeth Morrow Edwards, and her husband David O’Dette “formally attended our 52nd Reunion to show that this class still exists, though we lingered over morning coffee too long to make it to our place in the parade. We met Jerry Blum—the weekend contra-dance master—at the chorus concert, in which Elizabeth and David sang, and I, Michael, regretfully did not play. We encourage everyone to consider these off-year events. With no dear classmates with whom to hang out and no class presentations to attend, we discovered a campus just as full of bright, friendly, and interesting people as it was in 1960–64, and we attended whatever events appealed.” Peter Freedman rooted for Bernie but is “ready to vote for Hillary. My son turns 50 in November, and my oldest grandson starts college this fall in Portland, Ore. I have fond memories of our 50th.” Paul Booth is “busy as ever serving on the Democrats’ Platform Drafting Committee, helping with Clinton’s campaign.” (Watch his Democratic National Convention speech: bit.ly/BoothDNC) Andrea Hoff Knox and husband Jonathan Hodgson “celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary by canoeing on the Brandywine River. Thanks to retirement, we went on a weekday and were nearly alone with breeze, ripples, and birdsong for three hours. This life, too, has great charms.” Ann McNeal “will clerk Mount Toby Friends Meeting in Leverett, Mass., till September 2018. I love this community, and the opportunity to serve such a large and vibrant meeting will challenge me to grow in spirit and strength. I still create abstract paintings.” In August she rafted the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. (“Yes, again!”) The Berkeley Poetry Festival in California recognized John Simon with a Lifetime Achievement Award in May. “Berkeley City Council passed a proclamation for the occasion, which I wrote and suppose will eventually go on the wall in my granddaughter’s study along with all the other swag.” Anne Cochran Sloan’s “third replacement part, a right hip, has joined my collection, which already contained two knees.” Catherine ’66 and Bob Kapp “still love Port Townsend, Wash. Bob decided to relive his youth (anyone else remember the Vespa he drove down U.S. 1 from New York to Swarthmore, sans helmet, gloves, etc.?) and bought a gorgeous 2009 Vespa. In short order, he dumped it twice, hurting himself each time (the more recent incident involved a broken collarbone). The Vespa is now under new ownership.” David Winn’s “daughter Catherine, presumably the last of ’64’s red-diaper babies, finished her freshman year at Wellesley. I’m pretty much free to pursue my twin goals of becoming a rodeo bull rider and making cameos on The Young and the Restless. Meanwhile, I am still laboring in the fruitful vineyards of ISIL at State.” Bernard Beitman lectured about his book Connecting with Coincidence: The New Science for Using Synchronicity and Serendipity in Your Life at the Mid-Manhattan Library Sept. 29. “What’s a Swarthmore football player doing writing about coincidences? Coincidences alert us to the mysterious hiding in plain sight. They’re clues to hidden potentials like the ones that helped me avoid getting tackled.” Meg Hodgkin Lippert and husband Al spent 10 days in May visiting daughter Dawn in Honolulu. Meg returned to Beijing in July to teach storytelling to Chinese teachers of English for two weeks, as she did last year. She traveled to Xian and Chengdu, where her father was born in 1909 to Quaker medical missionaries at a clinic they founded there. 1965 Kiki Skagen Munshi kiki@skagenranch.com The reunion inspired several classmates to contribute for the first time. Ursula Bentele Tenny writes, “Having retired a year ago after 34 years of teaching at Brooklyn Law School, I have returned to my roots at the Legal Aid Society.” She also joined the NYC Swarthmore book BENNETT LORBER ’64 SCIENTIFIC STANDARD-BEARER Bennett Lorber ’64 received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Anaerobe Society of the Americas, an international bacteriological organization. Previous honors for Lorber include the Alexander Fleming Lifetime Achievement Award from the Infectious Diseases Society of America and 13 Golden Apple Teaching Awards. He is the Thomas Durant Professor of Medicine at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine and a member of Swarthmore’s Board of Managers. group. Keith MacAdam writes from a Scottish mountain-climbing trip that he is “(mostly) retired.” He and wife Phyllis have been married 47 years. “I’m proud of our two children: Daniel, a graphic artist in Chicago, and Alison, an NPR senior editorial specialist in D.C.” Keith still enjoys teaching at the University of Kentucky, “but only one (physics) course per year.” Gretchen Schwarz Hillard lives in the Bay Area and “retired over 10 years ago from local government, specializing in affordable housing.” She and husband Ed have three children and two grandchildren. “My life is focused on spending time with them, especially in the summer for vacations in Santa Cruz [Calif.], Berlin, and Seattle.” Katherine Johnson teaches piano privately and band, orchestra, and choir to home-school students. Son Noah Courant and his wife have a 1-year-old son, and son Ernest Courant and his wife and their daughter live in Petaluma, Calif. The last Bulletin listed two deceased classmates who didn’t make it into our notes because of glitches. Alan Scott Douglas died unexpectedly Nov. 16, 2015, at home in Pocasset, Mass., and Carol Replogle died Nov. 1, 2015, in Pennsylvania. We’ll miss them. Peter Meyer and wife Kristen returned from a vacation in Spain and conference in Lisbon, then went to New York for a memorial for Ron Tropp, driven by Jon Steinberg. Peter is still “catching cars” as a flagging and communications worker at road races with Sports Car Club of America. Leonard Barkan’s book, Berlin for Jews: A Twenty-First Century Companion, will be published by the University of Chicago Press in October. He describes it as a “Jewish love letter to Berlin.” Grant Miller works as the coordinator of large-scale networking for President Obama’s science adviser. “We are developing the next-generation internet. My husband and I split our time between Northern Virginia and Rehoboth Beach, Del.” Their older son is adopting his sixth kid, their daughter works at a successful startup in San Francisco, and their younger son plans to go to graduate school. Blaine Garvin “will stumble into my 46th year of teaching politics at Gonzaga University, bound and determined to make it to 50.” Share your personal and reunion pics: bulletin@swarthmore.edu Ursula Poole Carter and husband Richard welcomed their ninth grandchild June 2. “I am happily occupied with a host of postretirement pleasures and responsibilities.” Julie Diamond was married and “after a City Hall wedding, we (Herb Ginsburg and I) had a party at our apartment Memorial Day weekend for family and friends. Jon Steinberg and his wife, Gloria Jacobs, attended. My other news is of a Christmas-week trip to Pakistan, with my daughter, her husband, and their two daughters, to visit relatives on her late father’s side.” Tom Kramer travels and runs. “I’m registered to run the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October. If I finish, that will be 40 years in a row.” Ron Hale alleges, “I am finally retiring as director of the New Mexico Alliance of Health Councils.” Jerry Nelson has catching up to do: “My inbox went over 6,000, but I’m working on it.” George Thoma hosted a trio of Swarthmore externs in computer science and engineering in January, and one served as a summer intern. Dick and Gay Sise Grossman celebrated their 50th anniversary with a big party. Daniel Kegan has been drafting a father-of-the-bride toast for daughter Amelia. Dan’s son, Benjamin, finished an MFA in film at Columbia. Finally, Dave Darby wrote about a recent trip to Hungary. “This was a pleasure trip … but I did meet with the Rotary Club Budapest City, where we shared information on a neonatal hospital project they and the Billings [Mont.] Rotary Club are sponsoring in Kotor, Montenegro.” Email or call me to get on the list for a fuller version of the notes. We’d love to hear from everybody. 1966 Jill Robinson Grubb jillgrubb44@gmail.com swarthmore66.com A wood thrush’s song graced our 50th Reunion’s Collection in the amphitheater. Before Maurice Eldridge ’61’s Collection address on “The Fullness of Life,” several classmates received awards: Bill Belanger received the Joseph B. Shane Alumni Service Award for his service to the College; Dare Rust Thompson received the Arabella Carter Community Service Award for her work with the League of Women Voters; and David Clark received the Eugene Lang ’38 Impact Award for his pioneering work on the internet. Our class gift included a fund to pay two Swarthmore summer interns to teach in the STEM program for children of the Chester Children’s Choir. Thanks to John and Paula Lawrence Wehmiller ’67 for pursuing this avenue. About 100 classmates showed up, slung their garnet “If Not Now, When?” packs on, and spent three days smiling, listening, and talking. This festival of friends and discovery included Carl Stieren dancing to music of Daniel “Freebo” Friedberg and Roger North with 20 classmates; Delia Fortune Laitin returning for the first time with an art quilt and a pamphlet on what to feed goats; Janaki Tschannerl Patrik dancing with ankle bells and an infinitely expressive face as she acted out story characters; Sandy Moore Faber explaining the origin of the universe, complete with diagrams, in 20 minutes; Tom Webb leading us in a memorial service for 40 classmates and planting stakes with their names; and Professor Emeritus Chuck Gilbert remembering Jack Nagel as a top student with whom he has enjoyed continuing interactions over the years. There’s more. Brenda Porster read her stirring poem about the Syrian refugees lost in boats. Judy Walenta continues her 25year battle with cancer. Terry and Melissa “Mimi” Carroll Chapin love living in Alaska, playing music, carving ice, hiking, having their two sons as best friends, and being part of a community. Joe Becker left early to welcome his grandchild home from the NICU. Janet Griffin Abbott is taking grandson Liam to the Grand Canyon. Bob Levering recommended Cathy Wilkerson’s book, Flying Close to the Sun. We were treated to a ravishing concert by the Chester Children’s Choir, a show by class artists, and songs from the era. Many classmates were concerned about the environment and divesting the College from fossil fuels. FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 55 class notes John Robinson worried about income inequality. Rich Truitt asked President Valerie Smith, in light of the value placed by many corporations and other organizations on collaboration and teamwork, what her views were on the importance of athletics in the lives of students at Swarthmore. Faculty members are concerned about sustaining the humanities while computer science rockets. They’re trying to agree on what Swarthmore’s nature should be. Cynthia Grant Bowman spoke about sexual assault in her law school. Swarthmore has an advisory team to investigate and adjudicate problems and promote healthy relationships. In keeping with the people we were on June 6, 1966, and those who shaped us over the preceding four years, we continue to fuse social consciousness, academic ardor, and an interest in the world around us. Judy Richardson, Penny Patch, Walter Popper, and Cathy Wilkerson shared their experiences in the civil rights movement. Judy Richardson’s dad worked in a plant where he organized the United Auto Workers local. People left groceries on their porch in support. Judy’s first and only year at Swarthmore came when Chester was segregated. Black female waitresses in the dining hall were not afforded safety precautions until Judy burned herself on a heating pipe while working there. She went on to be extremely active in the Swarthmore Political Action Committee (SPAC) and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). With the women of the Student Nonviolent 56 Swarthmore College Bulletin / Coordinating Committee, Judy wrote Hands on the Freedom Plough. Penny Patch, also on the panel, helped desegregate a roller rink, participated in sit-ins, and registered voters in the South. Walter Popper was hit by a trooper’s car door while on a picket line and thrown in jail. His mom protested with him. Cathy Wilkerson worked for paved sidewalks and trash pickup in Chester’s black neighborhoods while in SPAC. Active in SDS and the Weathermen, Cathy also understood the challenges faced by black NYC students: Schools ran two shifts, often used substitute teachers, and taught only half the curriculum. Students’ buses were egged. Cathy’s gentle explanations showed her profound compassion. We were saddened to hear that Elena Jenny-Williams’s husband, Beat Jenny, died. Her children live close by—son Jonathan across the border in France and daughter Alexandra with her husband and three children in a Geneva suburb. Roy Van Til suggested we start an Airbnb called Route 66. Check it out: swarthmore66.com. Thanks, Tom Webb, for a wonderful reunion. 1968 are on the line, companies turn to Marc J. Sonnenfeld.” Marc, the longest-tenured partner at his firm, lives in Haverford, Pa., with his wife, a lawyer, and the youngest of their five children. He sails and hikes during summers in Maine, where he lives near Dick Gregor. Dick made it to the reunion, wit intact, despite a heart attack and several surgeries this past year. That’s class spirit. But fortune conspired to prevent Maureen “Mickey” Durham from attending. We wish her good health for future reunions. Sue Almy spent 22 years in rural development and agricultural research in Africa and Latin America. For 20 years, she’s been a New Hampshire state representative, six as Ways and Means Committee chair. Sue says, “We struggle to hold together the essential services budget, which our tax system makes so difficult to achieve.” Sue is also active as a state ACLU board member, local conservation commission member, affordable-housing coalition member, and board president of her homeowners’ association. Richard Kast, in his first contribution to class notes, writes that he went from Swarthmore to San Jose, Calif., where he married and had kids, then to Boulder, Colo., and back to California. He joined IBM, which sold its disk-drive division to Hitachi. Hitachi sold it to Western Digital. Katie Bode Darlington katedarlington@gmail.com On the cover of 2016’s Super Lawyers, Pennsylvania and Delaware is Marc Sonnenfeld with the legend, “The securities king of Pennsylvania. When millions of dollars FALL 2016 FOLLOW US on Facebook at facebook.com/ SwarthmoreBulletin During all this, Richard’s job and phone number stayed the same, and his paycheck kept on coming. He recently climbed Cloud’s Rest (9,900 feet) in Yosemite with his youngest child. Afterward, Richard took summiting Mount Everest (29,000 feet) off his bucket list and chose a cruise to Alaska so he could see the Mendenhall Glacier before it shrinks further. Staying at high altitudes, David Thoenen led an American Alpine Club team to Armenia and Georgia in September 2015 to conquer Caucasus summits with partners from the Armenian Alpine Club and the Alpine Club of Iran. Objectives for 2016 included a sprint up Mount Kilimanjaro accompanied by lovely wife and porter Maria. Charles Floto is retiring from the Law Library of Congress, and Diana Royce Smith is retiring as secretary-treasurer of the Boulder, Colo., Rotary Club. Now on Alumni Council, Diana asks that classmates contact her (diana1319smith@ comcast.net) if they have professional clothing to donate to students for job interviews. Donations are due Nov. 1. Bob Bartkus was elected a fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators and is now with McCusker Anselmi Rosen & Carvelli in New Jersey. Not interfering with his obsession with growing tomatoes is the book he is writing for American Law Media on arbitration in New Jersey; or the book he is co-editing on New Jersey federal civil procedure, where he contributed a chapter on federal injunctions; or the editorials he wrote for the New Jersey Law Journal. Bob sponsored a Swarth- more intern at his law firm this year, and is trying to persuade Swarthmore to sponsor a day for lawyer grads to talk to students about being lawyers. Hal Kwalwasser writes, “As everyone knows, there is considerable unhappiness about the amount of testing kids endure these days. I’m working on a project to explore doing away with big standardized tests in favor of using the data generated when students use computerized learning programs for diagnostic and accountability purposes.” Bob Mueller received an award for distinguished service from the Philadelphia Area Independent School Business Officers, recognizing his leadership in building the organization to 180 schools and colleges and $150 million in programs. Bob is executive director of the group’s Health Benefit Trust. Bob and a select squad of Swatties are starting to plan our 50th Reunion. From NASA, John Mather writes that he expects “to be writing science papers when I’m 100.” He plans to attend our 50th and has agreed to speak to us about the James Webb space telescope at the reunion, which is the same year the telescope will launch “through really brilliant work on the part of the engineers and managers.” Homeless? The College provides free dorm rooms for 50th Reunion attendees. Failing memory? A new-and-improved 21st-century Halcyon with before-and-after pictures and bios is planned for distribution. Want to rekindle that youthful sense of infinite possibility? Join us! As secretary, I enjoy connecting with classmates. You will, too. 1970 Margaret Nordstrom hon.margi@comcast.net In my last class notes, I reported that John Benditt’s book, The Boatmaker, had made the long list for the 2016 PEN Literary Awards. I’m delighted to report that it has now received the Goldberg Prize for Debut Fiction from the Jewish Book Council. In June 2015, Meredith “Merry” Hunt and her husband David Lillvis celebrated son John Hunt Lillvis ’03’s graduation from Kresge Eye Institute’s ophthalmology residency. John then moved from Ann Arbor, Mich., to Cleveland with wife Denise Finley Lillvis ’03 and daughter Nora. Denise is finishing a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, and John is doing a fellowship year in pediatric ophthalmology at the Cleveland Clinic. Retired from full-time ministry as Episcopal priests, Merry and David are busier than ever, presiding and preaching occasionally, and visiting and babysitting for their other son, Matthew Hunt Lillvis ’98, wife Vina, and their three children. Merry frequently visits her nearly 101-year-old father, who lives by himself in southern Michigan—encouraging news for us all. She writes, “We live in Interlochen, Mich., where we met up last year with Bruce Bush and wife Rhoda, and connected with their travel-agent daughter, Sarah. Come visit!” Nan Galbraith “retired” from the Woods Hole (Mass.) Oceanographic Institution in September 2015, meaning she now works only about 20 hours a week, except when on research cruises where 18-hour workdays are standard. She is in a climate research group that deploys long-term, open-ocean moorings to measure meteorology, ocean circulation, and chemistry, and does the team’s programming, data management, and web development. She and husband Chris became grandparents, keeping them busy since they live near their granddaughter. They expect at some point to slow down but enjoy this life phase. Arlene Zarembka is also transitioning to retirement. She works at her law office—primarily doing estate planning, probate, and same-sex co-parent adoptions—but is down to a four-day workweek. The Supreme Court’s marriage decision in June 2015 was a big event for her. Arlene and partner Zuleyma married in Canada in 2005, but their marriage was not recognized in their home state until 2014, when the ACLU of Missouri successfully challenged a state amendment prohibiting recognition of same-sex marriages. Arlene and Zuleyma were among 10 plaintiff couples in the lawsuit. Unsurprisingly, in October 2015 Arlene received the Ethics in Action Award from the St. Louis Ethical Society for her work in civil rights, civil liberties, and social justice. The Ethical Society said it was inspired by her “dedication to defending the rights of her fellow human beings.” So should we all be. Sad news. Bonnie Betts Armbruster died March Share your personal and reunion pics: bulletin@swarthmore.edu 1 in Bend, Ore. She attended Swarthmore for two years before joining Volunteers in Service to America, where she met future husband Harry VanderVelde. She received a B.A. from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. She remained at the university as a distinguished professor until her 2009 retirement. Our condolences to Harry, their three children, and their granddaughter. I encourage you to send news. My next deadline is in January, but I’m happy to hear from you whenever the mood strikes. 1972 Nan Waksman Schanbacher nanschanbacher@comcast.net Jonathan Betz-Zall is retiring gradually from two librarian positions but will still teach environmental science. He is heavily involved with socially concerned Quakerism through the American Friends Service Committee. Sincere condolences to Linda Bovard, whose husband died in February. Heidi Frantz-Dale retired as pastor of St. Andrew’sin-the-Valley Episcopal church in Tamworth, N.H. She and husband Duane will move back to Amherst, Mass., where they have “a wonderful group of family and friends.” Bob Griffin is retiring as a software engineer, researcher, consultant, and CTO near Boston, and a guest lecturer at MIT, University College Cork, and other schools. He will still write and compose, and his requiem for chorus and orchestra, Weep with Those Who Weep, premieres this year. Wife Lotta (the lyricist) will sing in the premiere, as will son Garth Griffin ’09 and Deborah Prince Smith ’69. Bob has also published two volumes of children’s stories. Mark Gromko worked at Bowling Green State University for 31 years in biological sciences and then as vice provost for academic affairs. Now in Iowa City, Iowa, Mark’s main amusement since retiring has been landscape photography and travel. Michael Hucles teaches history at Old Dominion University. Mike and wife Janis Sanchez-Hucles ’73, a school psychologist with a part-time private practice, have been married for 42 years. Ron Jones spent 19 years as a principal scientist in the Silicon Valley and retired five years ago. His spare time is devoted to lacrosse, soccer refereeing/coaching, and racing bicycles. Bibi Jordan completed a 500-mile pilgrimage across Spain, hoping “for a revelation to transform [her] life, but it was not what [she] imagined.” Bibi runs an Airbnb on an organic orchard in Malibu, Calif., where guests “stay in a yurt, a safari tent, and a Zen retreat, and enjoy discovering synchronicity over all-organic, homecooked meals at [the] communal table.” Lorna Kohler plays and teaches an impressive number of instruments in a variety of genres and venues. She recently released Wishbone Drum, a collection of songs written over 35 years. Paul Lauenstein’s “passion is amending the Constitution to overturn Citizens United v. FEC [and] … restore government of, by, and for the people.” Paul is concerned about climate change and water quality; he devotes considerable time to testifying on those issues. Sara Moore-Hines specializes in dance/ movement therapy in her private practice and has a separate practice as a Breema bodywork practitioner and instructor. Sara has been active with Pennsylvania mental-health professionals, developing licensing for therapists and strengthening consumer protections. Lee Walker Oxenham is a New Hampshire state rep and climate activist who has spent three years promoting Swarthmore’s divestment from fossil-fuel stocks, “including a night on the floor of Parrish with 100 students after a rally in Clothier.” Bill Prindle and wife Rosalyn bought a small horse farm for their rescue mare and her companions. After years of energy and climate work, Bill will go part time next year to focus on his “four-leggeds” and writing poetry. Bertha Fuchsman Small works in a clinic and hospital, but is cutting back involvement with Doctors Without Borders to occasional training trips in the field. Bertha is thrilled with her granddaughter, whose laughter “is a salve for the world’s ills.” Carola Sullam Shepard’s third year of retirement is her year of travel. “Just returned from three fabulous weeks in Turkey, a country of incredible treasures—cultural, historic, etc.” Future trips include boating the Columbia and Snake rivers and a visit to Central America. FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 57 class notes ALUMNI PROFILE 1974 Randall Grometstein rgrometstein@verizon.net Sad news: The death of Jay Kempe’s brother Reid ’73 reminded Patty Gilles Winpenny of another loss. “My middle son, Reid, passed away unexpectedly March 30, 2013, of a seizure that resulted in a terrible fall; he never came out of the coma. It has taken three years and a 58 Swarthmore College Bulletin / few months to grasp fully this loss. Ned and I named him after Reid Kempe; with Reid Kempe’s passing, I can’t help but hope that he and my son have met in the great spiritual realm beyond.” It is good to hear, therefore, that Patty and sons Patrick and Tristan are well. Our condolences to Patty and Jay. With both children in college, Demetrios Karis and his wife are downsizing from the suburbs back to Cambridge, Mass. Kevin Quigley is expanding Marlboro College’s MBA and M.S. in management degree programs to include concentrations in conscious business, collaborative leadership, social innovation, and sustainable food systems. Davia Temin went on a Swedish study tour in June with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Women’s Leadership Board. She then went to London “for some floating high-powered women’s poker game featuring dealers like Brad Pitt and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (yes, really).” Deb Johnson cut back on work to care for her mother—“a wonderful experience for both of us. She died last December. Partner John Olson and I now are contemplating moving to Oregon where we can have a small farm or large garden. I reassure myself that all these steps are developmentally appropriate.” Tori Haring-Smith says husband Bob retired as an IT support specialist at West Virginia University. Tori “will retire as president of Washington & Jefferson College in June 2017—counting the days. One reason for the retirements is our first grandchild: Saul Philip Haring-Smith, born Feb. FALL 2016 9. Grandparenting is the best.” In September Vaneese Thomas released The Long Journey Home, “a blues album showcasing my original songs and one co-written with Carolyn Mitchell. Please go to iTunes or Amazon and support your class sister.” Joann Bodurtha “had first revival of S’more at Baltimore. Stephanie Lechich ’14 and I live in the same building, had fond memories of playing Swarthmore basketball, and work at Johns Hopkins. About 25 alums across 60 years of graduation gathered for a wonderful happy hour in Fell’s Point. Hope more classmates (and others) will join us next meeting.” Alan Glaseroff writes, “Ann Lindsay ’73 and I still teach at the medical school and see patients at Stanford, where we co-founded a clinic for complex chronic conditions. In our 43rd year of marriage, we find ourselves with two amazing grandchildren. Rob Lippincott and wife Jenifer relocated to the Bay Area. We attended a Grateful Dead reunion concert with them and Gerry Lax and wife Dodie Hamblen around New Year’s, along with Jesse Lax ’18. Nothing’s changed except we are grayer (as is the band).” Pete Jaquette, who still plays in the Narwhals with Tom Sahagian and Dan Gibbon, writes, “Son Jonathan ’11 married Elizabeth Comuzzi ’11 in Sedona, Ariz., with other Swarthmoreans attending, including our daughter Lissie ’07; my brother David ’64; the bride’s mother, Kate Harper ’77; and Tom.” Donata Lewandowski Guerra writes, “Tiz and I took in Old Spanish Days in Santa Barbara, Calif., with daughter Hollis and her British husband, Matt, and Milan Expo 2015. My mixed-media and jewelry business peaks at holiday season (See: facebook. com/bordeauxlanestudio). We will visit son Jules in LA and get back with Hollis for the Santa Barbara Solstice Parade in June.” Pat Heidtmann Disharoon reports, “Husband Russell and I are proud grandparents of six grandchildren [through age 5]. Being a grandmother is amazing— the lovely, cute toddlers you can cuddle and read stories to and treat to ice cream and then send home. Ana, James, Mihai, Aaron, Amelia, and—most recently—Adelina.” Jay Kempe still wins sailing races, most recently as watch leader aboard the Spirit of Bermuda in the 2016 Newport to Bermuda race. He won the Queen’s Certificate and Badge of Honour at the Queen’s Honours List in June. Last word goes to Jean-Marie Clarke: “My life has been the novel I never wrote. One day, turning the page, I saw an illustration showing a scholar who is supposed to be Doctor Faust. A bit of iconographic research revealed it was Johann Fust, Gutenberg’s creditor and successor. The portrait hangs in the Rathaus of my town, Staufen im Breisgau [Germany], where the historical Faust is said to have met his Maker. History seems to be made of layers and folds, like the brain or the earth. This is also the town that gave geothermal drilling a bad name by putting groundwater in contact with anhydrite. The result is an earthquake in extreme slow motion, like living with the effects of a sudden insight.” We look forward to that novel, Jean-Marie. 1976 Fran Brokaw fran.brokaw@gmail.com As I write, memories of our reunion (40 years?! How can that be?) are clear in my mind. What a great time. We welcomed three classmates back to campus for their first reunion ever: Manley Huang, Paul Schofield, and May Zia. Manley lives in Palo Alto, Calif., and is an immunology scientist researching novel cellbased cancer treatments. Paul is a retired nuclear engineer and enjoys the sunshine of San Diego. May is retired and moved from her longtime home of Columbus, Ohio, to Harrisburg, Pa., where she makes music. Roger Karny, who entered with ’74 but graduated with us, was excited to see the bench from Longwood Friends Meeting—now in McCabe Library—where Sojourner Truth and William Lloyd Garrison are reputed to have sat. I was privileged to facilitate a panel discussion, “The Last Mile: Packing for the Big Trip,” with three other classmates. Alan Symonette spoke on the importance of community and resilience while caring for his wife and mother in their final weeks. Derrick Gibbs, who specializes in real estate law, spoke about wills, trusts, and health care directives, as well as a “life care checklist.” May Share your personal and reunion pics: bulletin@swarthmore.edu LAURENCE KESTERSON Laurie Tompkins and husband Larry Yager retired from the National Institutes of Health and moved to Hawaii, where they operate a fused-glass studio and enjoy life in a very small town. Mark Vander Schaaf is retiring as regional planning director for the Metropolitan Council in the Twin Cities. Mark has several postretirement projects lined up and hopes to squeeze in travel. Cigus Vanni is retiring after 41 years in college advising and has opened an LLC (Cigus the College Fairy). In addition to finding a needy school at which to volunteer, Cigus is “determined to visit every thrift store within 500 miles.” Bill Weber and Amy Vedder ’73 “teach two graduate seminars on applied conservation at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. … [They] take 4–5 students to Rwanda each May–June to look at how three national parks are managed and how local communities relate to those parks.” They also enjoy their home in the Adirondacks and traveling. “I can never remember my dreams, so his stories are a pretty good substitute,” says friend David Byrne, the Talking Heads frontman, of writer Barry Yourgrau ’70. MESS AS MUSE Household chaos inspired him to write— and to recover by Peter Baker ’07 IT STARTED, LIKE MANY a literary adventure, with a knock on the door. Barry Yourgrau ’70’s longtime girlfriend was locked out of her apartment, so she stopped by the small Queens one-bedroom he uses as a writing studio. He wouldn’t let her in, but through the barely opened doorway she caught a glimpse of Yourgrau’s secret: There was stuff everywhere—old newspapers and magazines, books inherited from his father, postcards and other travel souvenirs, defunct laptops, “tumbleweeds” of plastic grocery bags—all covered in varying levels of dust and grime. Shocked, she gave him an ultimatum: Fix it. His attempt to comply—and to figure out how things got so bad in the first place—is documented in Mess: One Man’s Struggle to Clean Up His House and His Act, an intertwined comic memoir and wide-ranging study of severe clutter published by W. W. Norton last summer, greeted by rave notices in The New York Times, USA Today, and elsewhere. To write the book, Yourgrau—an author of surrealist short fiction and children’s stories—became an expert on hoarding. He talked with leading researchers of the phenomenon (including psychiatrist Sanjaya Saxena ’85), met with decluttering professionals, and scoured psychology literature for insights into humans’ attachment to their belongings. It’s more common than you might think: Some 6 million or more Americans meet the clinical criteria for hoarding disorder, and many more struggle with extreme clutter. “When I do readings, people come up to me with tears in their eyes,” says Yourgrau. “And that makes me feel good—not that they’re suffering, but that I’ve helped give the subject a little more legitimacy, something a little more dignified than the reality-show gawking.” Yourgrau traces his own “susceptibility to the power of objects” in part to the instability of an itinerant childhood. By the time he and his twin, Tug ’70, arrived at Swarthmore in 1966, they had already lived in South Africa (where they were born), Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Colorado, following their academic father from professorship to professorship. This sense of impermanence didn’t abate at Swarthmore. Politics, he recalls today—primarily anger over the Vietnam War and anxiety over the draft—made the campus something of a “disorienting whirlwind.” It was amid this whirlwind that Yourgrau started writing fiction and helped found the Swarthmore Review, a journal of experimental literature. Eventually, he found his way to his preferred form: extremely short stories, most of them two pages or less, laced heavily with surreal imagery. In one story, a son removes his napping father’s head and wears it as a hat. In another, a man’s friends steal his tongue from his mouth and hide it. (Yourgrau’s fiction was one of the reasons his girlfriend was so shocked to discover his hoarding problem. His stories, she observed, were so relentlessly economical, so trimmed down.) This fall, two of Yourgrau’s fiction collections—Haunted Traveller and Wearing Dad’s Head—return to print from Skyhorse/Arcade, aided by the attention earned by Mess. Looking back over his oeuvre, he’s noticed some striking thematic resonances with his memoir. In one story, “My Ship,” the first-person narrator stashes a gloomy trinket in a storage facility cluttered with items he can’t let go. In another, “Bags,” the narrator hides from police in his childhood bedroom with his stolen loot—more than 200 grocery bags. “I tend to fixate on things one at a time,” says Yourgrau. “In my fiction, that gave me my style. But in my studio, it got me in a little trouble.” FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 59 class notes Thomas, a retired geriatrician with a health-coach business, spoke about healthy aging, and I talked about hospice, palliative care, and advance care planning. We had a great time dining (in the Served Meal room at Sharples) and then dancing under the stars (well, under a tent, actually) to Nathan and the Narwhals, a band that gets better and better. I had the delight of dining with Anne Kapuscinski and husband Wayne Barstad—the first time I had seen Anne in many years, despite living less than five miles apart. We promised it wouldn’t be another five years. I can’t name all who attended, but we had a new mascot at the Parade of Classes: Gunnar, an 8-week-old yellow Lab belonging to Liz Loeb McCane and husband Jim. Check out photos on the reunion website and mark your calendars for our 45th: June 4–6, 2021. Several classmates couldn’t make it because their children had the audacity to schedule weddings during Alumni Weekend. This included Steven and Mora Fisher Mattingly, whose daughter got married. (Rumor has it Steven made the cake.) Barbara “B.J.” McCarthy Green stayed home in Indiana to celebrate son Jonathan’s marriage. Congratulations to all. Others unable to join us included Tom Quinn, who teaches at the University of Washington in Seattle and gets paid to talk about fish, which have fascinated him since before Swarthmore. He conducts field work in western Alaska on salmon, bears, and their ecosystems. He also researches salmon and trout in Washington, studying their behavior, 60 Swarthmore College Bulletin / ecology, evolution, and conservation. I wonder if Tom ever gets to see Cynthia Campbell Kimmey, who has been in Seattle for 34 years. She is a retired rehabilitation physician who uses her skills to care for her mother. Kate Conway spent three years as a program officer with the U.N. Environment Program, assisting 66 developing countries in phasing out inefficient lighting. She is now happily home again, gardening in upstate New York. Kelly Tillery feels like he is playing in a Bachelor Father remake, as all three children and the family cat live with him. He is writing a play about Lincoln, Grant, and Frederick Douglass—“Only Swarthmore folks would understand.” Stan “Po” Cope is a medical entomologist and president of the American Mosquito Control Association, a position that became very busy when the Zika outbreak began. He is director of entomology and regulatory services at Terminix and lives in Lake Bluff, Ill. Arthur Bryant continues his brilliant law career, winning the Clarence Darrow Award from Mass Torts Made Perfect and the Western Trial Lawyers Association Dale Haralson Fallout Award, given in recognition of extraordinary dedication, diligence, and commitment to the pursuit of justice. FOLLOW US on Facebook at facebook.com/ SwarthmoreBulletin FALL 2016 1978 Donna Caliendo Devlin dmcdevlin@aol.com Larry Jarvik, publisher at Penny-a-Page Press, reports that he has published Ken Moskowitz ’76’s “groundbreaking study of Bulgarian productions of American plays, Adaptation in Bulgaria. In April, Ken gave a talk, introduced by Ambassador Elena Poptodorova, at the Bulgarian Embassy in Washington.” The book is on Amazon; view Ken’s talk at bit.ly/Moksowitz. Rob Thomas ’81 shares the sad news of the unexpected death of brother Randy Thomas, who attended Swarthmore for two years. “A colorful individual who lived a nontraditional lifestyle,” Randy was a keyboardist and recording musician who lived with his wife in Philadelphia. Our condolences to Rob and his family. 1980 Martin Fleisher marty@meflaw.com Lots of news—I’ll begin with Lisa Diaz Nash, whose update I inadvertently omitted last time. Lisa’s kids are now in the working world, one in Brooklyn and one headed for LA. Lisa gave a talk, in conjunction with the TEDWomen conference, on the power of clean water to transform the lives of women and girls, and how we can help protect this amazing resource. Debbie Wood Blevins writes about the wonderful time she had at our 2015 reunion. “The campus and our colleagues have changed subtly, but the essence of the experience took me back to a time, place, and people I loved. I am so thankful I went—and I’ll go again.” Steve Schall continues his executive-search business in NYC, recruiting leaders for international nongovernmental organizations and local/national nonprofits. Steve has been in NYC for nearly 35 years, working on community development and social justice. He’s also “a 20year season-ticket holder for the New York Red Bulls (that’s soccer, folks) with Dan Melnick ’81.” Heidi Rosa Lee is a psychiatrist for the Mental Health Association of Westchester and lives in Croton on Hudson, N.Y., with husband John and son Alex, 22, who has autism. Alex is doing really well, she says, and she is very proud of him. Tiela Chalmers has lived in San Francisco for most of her post-Swarthmore life. After law school there, she worked for a firm for 10 years, and then moved into the nonprofit and legal-services sector. Now, she is CEO of the Alameda County Bar Association and its Volunteer Legal Services Corp. (which provides free legal services to low-income communities). “It’s a terrific job with lots of opportunity to be creative and try to make a difference. In the last few years, we have focused on mentoring and training new attorneys.” She has two daughters—one a Cornell grad working in NYC and the other age 15. She and partner Nancy enjoy traveling and look forward to more as the nest empties. Our faithful class agent, Jodie Landes Corngold, was over for dinner along with husband Eric and our friend Nancy Friedman ’82. Jodie ran the Boston Marathon in April and is training for the Philadelphia Marathon this fall. I think the rest of us find even the thought of that exhausting. Doug Perkins, a professor at the Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, is the 2016 recipient of the Society for Community Research and Action’s Award for Distinguished Contribution to Theory and Research in Community Psychology. Speaking of awards, my old roommate Ira Gitlin was named Country Instrumentalist of the Year at the 30th Annual Washington Area Music Awards. Congratulations! Anne Schuchat, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is very involved in dealing with the Zika virus outbreak, including a White House briefing. Dean Baker had a well-received op-ed piece in The New York Times, “A Progressive Way to End Corporate Taxes.” I, Marty, am happy to report that my team won the Spingold Knockout Teams, the main event of the Summer North American Bridge Championships. This is one of the year’s premier bridge events, and most of the world’s top players attended. I hadn’t won it before, and it was a great thrill. And, finally, Melanie Wentz is starting a career as a park ranger. She will work at the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, Calif. Share your personal and reunion pics: bulletin@swarthmore.edu As a change, our 40th Reunion will be held there. Until next time … 1982 David Chapman dchapman29@gmail.com Dan Federman loves his day job on the Yale medical school faculty, “but what I’m excited and passionate about is my volunteer role as medical director of Community Health Partnership–Honduras. We go twice a year to serve 17 indigent communities in rural Honduras. Would love to have Swarthmore alums join us as dentists/ physicians/translators/ supporters.” Beau and Susan Perkins Weston ’81’s daughter Molly ’10 wed Jim Williamson (a Princetonian) in Danville, Ky., in March. Many Swarthmoreans attended, including Beau’s aunt Nancy Sherry Kashap ’57. Bruce Weinstein is “writing a column on ethics, character, and leadership for Fortune magazine online” and travels the world giving ethics keynotes. From the Class of 1982 Facebook page: Lauren Gabor features her fine art online at laurengabor.com. As for me, I have finished two years on the University of Virginia faculty. I serve as the area coordinator (think department chair-lite) for the finance group at the McIntire School of Commerce. I enjoy working with undergraduates, and I am excited about new research projects slowly working their way through the journal review process. My guitar playing is slowly improving—mostly classical and jazz. Wife Kathleen is an editor for the Core Knowledge Foundation helping to develop school curricula, and sings in Charlottesville, Va., and Concord, Mass. Daughter Emma graduated from St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville and is off to Lehigh University. Son Matthew is a game designer in Austin, Texas. Please feel free to share anything that you would care to see posted. 1984 Karen Linnea Searle linnea.searle@gmail.com Lots of news—Ruth Sergel happily shares that her first book has been published—See You in the Streets: Art, Action, and Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Jocelyn Roberts Davis is excited about her second book, The Greats on Leadership: Classic Wisdom for Modern Managers. It’s a look at leadership through the eyes of great authors—from Plato to Pericles, Shakespeare to Churchill. Success magazine called it “a book of substance that is a joy to read.” Congrats! Pepe Dugal runs a building consultancy business in New Delhi, India. “My wife, Janti, runs the kitchens of three successful restaurant chains, one of which will go international this year. Elder daughter Simrat received a B.A. in history with a minor in studio arts from Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. She works with a world-famous photographer in Delhi as a historical archiver. Younger JOHN BARTLE ’79 HONORARY DOCTORATE John Bartle ’79, a dean at the University of Nebraska Omaha, received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he previously taught. Bartle, grandson of Binghamton’s first president, was honored for his teaching, research, and public service. Bartle earned a master’s from the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. from Ohio State. daughter Gurbani will soon graduate with a B.S. in international hospitality management from École Hôtelière de Lausanne, Switzerland, and will join the international team of her mother’s business in Dubai.” Ken Kozlowski is chief investment officer for the AXA Equitable Funds Management Group in New York, where he and his team manage $100 billion of AXA’s mutual funds. Last year, he hired Jennifer Walsh ’15. Ken is an empty nester—son Joseph starts at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., this fall and will join the golf team. Daughter Jen graduated from the College of New Jersey in 2014 and works in pharmaceuticals. Ken and wife Colette (who is from Swarthmore borough—they met Ken’s junior year) live in Wayne, N.J., and will celebrate their 30th anniversary in October. This spring, Brad Roth served briefly as a visiting law professor at National Taiwan University, teaching public international law. Brad, who for two decades has taught political science and law at Wayne State University in Detroit, devotes much of his scholarship to sovereignty, self-determination, and secession; over the years, he has addressed legal aspects of cross-Strait relations in journal articles and conference talks. Mike Radiloff sends his regards from LA, where he’s worked in the movie industry for 27 years. “After stints at Disney, Warner Bros., and the Weinstein Co., I co-founded an independent film distribution company, XLrator Media, five years ago. We’ve since released 75 films (notably, Jimi: All Is by My Side and CBGB) and are now producing films for the global marketplace. My business partner and I were producers on five such films this year—400 Days, The Last Heist, The Curse of Sleeping Beauty, Wrecker, and Paradox—and we start production on our first TV series next year. On a personal note, my partner Luis and I celebrated our 13th anniversary and are the proud papas of an adorable puppy, Zoe.” Jorge Munoz became manager two years ago of a World Bank unit overseeing the portfolio of land-governance projects worldwide. He’s traveled extensively to countries he never thought he would visit, including Azerbaijan. Jorge is the happy father of two ballerinas (Sofia, 15, and Renata, 13). Wife Natalia works at a child care center near their home. The family travels a lot, last year to Bolivia and this year to South Africa. Jorge looks forward to our 35th Reunion. In more international news, Brad Beevers and his family “have finally bought a house (after nearly 20 years in Europe)—in a suburb of Köln, Germany, where I train lay members and pastors in counseling. Most of our students are Russian–Germans, which is a very interesting German subculture—a lot more like Americans in many ways. Two of our children study at a theological college in Bonn; the third should begin studies this fall in some scientific field (he’s not sure which yet—how unusual).” Adrianne Pierce and wife Laura are proud parents of two young thespians, Hannah, a high school junior, and Cate, an eighth-grader. Adrianne oversees the classical world and global education at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, N.Y. The family moved last summer from Columbia County to Greene County and enjoyed their first full summer in their new house. Salem Shuchman writes, “Our daughter Michaela ’16 graduated from Swarthmore in May and received highest honors. I continue to serve on FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 61 class notes the Board of Managers and will miss seeing my daughter when I come to campus for meetings. Perhaps our twin sons will also attend Swarthmore, but they are only in sixth grade so that is some years away.” Keep sending news! 1986 Jessica Russo Perez-Mesa jessicaperezmesa@yahoo. com Karen Leidy Gerstel kgerstel@msn.com Our 30th Reunion did not disappoint. Fifty-five intrepid classmates marched in the Alumni Parade, took in the beautiful campus, and reminisced with old (sorry, middle-aged) friends. It was all a blur, but we learned the following. Dave Allgeier is a veterinarian living near Penn State. Hilary Damaser and Jessica Russo Perez-Mesa bonded over starting families late in life. Bettina Lauf Forbes lost her house to Superstorm Sandy but still thrives in New Jersey. Don Lloyd-Jones is a cardiologist in Chicago. Peter Walsh is a child and adolescent psychiatrist in New York City and commutes from his horse farm in North Jersey. Shep Davidson is a Boston-area lawyer. Janie Chang lives in Taipei, Taiwan; her oldest daughter graduated from Swarthmore, and her second daughter is Class of ’17. Ed Gooding lives in Princeton, N.J. Rafael Richards is an anesthesiologist who tango dances and lives in Baltimore. David Sobel works at 62 Swarthmore College Bulletin / Harvard in IT. Gregg Orsag is a lawyer at a Pittsburgh bank. Don McMinn is married with two young kids. David Schutte and partner Orlando live in NYC. Matt and Jane Mitchell Eppley have two children at Swarthmore, and Jane is a “cook and driver” for her 10-year-old son. Karen Ohl’s oldest daughter is a junior at Swarthmore and worked Alumni Weekend; Karen works at Nokia. In other news, Common Application named Jenny Rickard, University of Puget Sound vice president for enrollment, as its executive director. Congratulations, Jenny. Fellow class secretary Karen Leidy Gerstel writes for her and husband Jeff, “Our son Dylan is Class of ’17 and loves Swarthmore; our youngest is off to the University of Kentucky to pursue her horse passion. We now have a place in NYC, and our casa is Class of ’86’s casa—come visit, no matter the reason.” I, Jessica Russo Perez-Mesa, live in Hawaii with husband Carlos and our two young children. I am a pharmaceutical rep who sings in the church choir and attempts to do CrossFit with my class’s young punks. I also had a reunion on campus in April with members of the Grapevine a cappella group. Merantine Hens and Joanne Wood Dexter were there. Karen and I had such a good time that in a weak, nostalgic moment we agreed to take over as coclass secretaries. Please send communications to us from now on. Thanks to Rikki Abzug and Ramona O’Halloran Swenson for years of great work! FALL 2016 1988 1990 Mallory Easter Polk malbsure@yahoo.com Jim Sailer jim.sailer@gmail.com Occasionally, I’ll stumble upon news of a classmate and my heart nearly bursts with pride. Lately, that’s happened often. Biomedical engineering pioneer Cori Lathan, a lifelong advocate for women and minorities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and current chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, was interviewed by TheDisruptory.com on a mobile medical software application called DANA that is used as diagnostic support to evaluate cognitive function. Cindi Leive, editor of Glamour, has teamed up with Facebook for townhall events preceding the election that focus on issues important to women (more, pg. 23). David Barnes had dinner in July with Steve Coxe and Nick Morse. David writes, “Nick is starting as head of a pelvic surgery department in China, so this will likely be our last dinner together for a while. Steve and I still make music together (do you remember our band, Metrognome, at Swarthmore?) and released our second album as the duo Minus 103.” As always, I love hearing from you. Email me! Great updates. Thanks, everyone, for writing. Congrats to David Ruby, who wed Devora Eisenberg July 10 in Seattle. Harold and Melissa Layman-Guadalupe are sending “kid No. 2”—son Adam—to Miami University of Ohio to study music education. Their eldest, Jason ’19, loved his first year at Swarthmore, and Melissa and Harold love hearing about everything that has changed (meal swipes and food points!) and things that are around from our time there (traying!). Son Benjamin heads to 10th grade. Harold still enjoys the ER’s hustle and bustle, and Melissa still teaches at the University of Dayton, with one day a week at her child-psychology practice. Scott Field is opening a comedy club in Nashville, Tenn. An experienced improv comedian, Scott and his partners are building out the Third Coast Comedy Club, which aims to be the home for local comics. It will feature stand-up, sketch, improv, plays, variety shows, live podcasts, and video content. Ellen McClure is now an ordained lay dharma teacher in the Buddhist Society for Compassionate Wisdom. Ellen teaches meditation classes, officiates holidays and services, and helps run the Chicago temple. Next year she will be acting associate director of the School for Literature, Cultural Studies, and Linguistics at the Univer- sity of Illinois at Chicago, where she has worked for 19 years. “Any familiarity with the state of the humanities in public higher education or the state of Illinois will lead the reader to conclude, correctly, that the two developments are not unrelated.” Jessica Hines Turner and husband Matthew celebrated their 23rd anniversary July 10. They live in Atlanta, where Jessica is a psychology and neuroscience professor at Georgia State. Jessica researches neuroimaging, genetics, and psychosis, and she was awarded tenure this spring. Greg Smirin has a new job and a puppy. Greg is president and board member at Premise Corp., a Silicon Valley startup focusing on innovative data collection and analysis techniques to deliver real-time insights to public managers and corporations. They track everything from food prices in Ghana to health outcomes in India. Now to what you really want to know: Greg, wife Sara, and kids Zach and Eli added Mowgli, a Bernese mountain dog puppy, to their family, joining incumbent dog Leo. The dogs get along well, and the puppy makes the Smirin home one of the most popular in Northern California. Rebecca Parker is “in Evanston, Ill., with husband Joel, who teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and kids George (seventh grade) and Maggie (fifth grade). At the start of 2016, I moved from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern—where I had done stints as registrar, head of institutional research, and a crazy-fun job in ‘change management and operational Share your personal and reunion pics: bulletin@swarthmore.edu integration’ in degree operations—to be the director of student accounts for the university. We are the department that charges and collects tuition and fees, which is more fun than it sounds. I am also not quite halfway through a master’s program in learning and organizational change at Northwestern. … The kids and I have been attending Evanston Friends Meeting, and I’ve even done some First Day School teaching.” Aaron Smith started a job with Red Hat in Westford, Mass., and had a great visit from Kevin and Rachael Henriques Porter. Tanya Boudreau moved from Istanbul to western Ohio with her husband and children. Her daughter and son made a smooth transition, and they all enjoy U.S. life. Andy Fortune and wife San celebrated their 14th anniversary. Son Liam, 9, keeps them busy. Andy started in the Corning Museum of Glass’s photography department in 1996 and is now the Collections Photography Department manager. “The museum has an incredibly diverse collection, and I continue to be inspired, energized, and humbled by working with such challenging material. On any given day we may be working with contemporary sculpture in the studio alongside objects made up to 4,000 years ago.” Andy writes and plays music and recently formed a band. Phil Weiser is taking a sabbatical, starting with five months in Sydney after two years in the Obama administration (the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and the White House’s National Economic Council) and five years as dean of the University of Colorado Law School. Wife Heidi Wald (a University of Colorado medical school faculty member) is also taking a sabbatical, and their kids (seventh and third grade) take it on faith that it will be an experience of a lifetime. Come January, they will return to Colorado, where Phil will go back to being a law professor and directing the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship he founded there. and wife Bea launched a travel photo website, pixeliciousplanet.com, with the tagline “Travel the world without leaving the sofa.” Sign me up. Speaking of signing up, mark your calendars for Alumni Weekend, May 26–28 (yes, Memorial Day weekend). While the math may seem wrong, we’ll be celebrating a quarter-century since we welcomed President Al Bloom at Commencement. I look forward to seeing you then. Libby Starling libbystarling@comcast.net Joanna Vondrasek joanna.vondrasek@gmail.com Congratulations to John Crosby, who married Cole Wolford, a physician turned artist (see more: colewolford.com), on the fifth anniversary of the day they met in Buenos Aires, Argentina (where Cole was learning Spanish and John was on R&R from his embassy assignment in Kabul, Afghanistan). Kristin Hovis and Karen Pence attended the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., wedding, as did John’s cousin Reid Neureiter ’87. John writes, “We’re based in D.C. now for my work, but I’m wrapping up my assignment as deputy director of the State Department’s Office of Global Criminal Justice in a couple of months, and then Cole and I will start language training for my next assignment, as head of the political and economic section at the U.S. Consulate in Milan, Italy.” After 13 years, Eric Stollnitz left Microsoft for the Adobe Research Creative Technologies Lab. Eric I notice emerging themes in these notes. East to West: Zaneb Khan Beams traveled in February from Maryland to attend the opening for Alexandra Grant’s art book Shadows, a collaboration with Keanu Reeves, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. According to the Los Angeles Times, Alex, a painter, “turned to photography to create this series of 54 images based on the movements of Reeves, her longtime friend.” While in LA, Zaneb also visited Noah Salamon ’93, Andres Versage ’93, and their families, and hiked in Griffith Park with Alex, her old roomie. Paul Chi has lived in Philly since 2000, when he returned for graduate school. Paul and wife Jenna McNeill’s sons—Alex, 9, and Ryan, 6—keep them busy. Paul routinely sees multiple Swatties and met up with Jude O’Reilley and wife Leslee; Loren Passmore and wife 1992 1994 Kusia Hreshchyshyn ’93; and their families for a Yosemite vacation. West to East: Michael Cholbi, a philosophy professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, returned to Swarthmore this spring to deliver the talk “Achieving Self-Knowledge” (listen: bit.ly/Cholbi). Jon Varese relocated to Kinderhook, N.Y., after nearly 20 years in California: “It was time to come home and be closer to family.” By sheer coincidence (if there is such a thing for Swatties), Jon is only a few houses away from Stephen Lang ’73 and daughter Lucy Lang ’03, as well as Bonnie Yochelson ’74 and husband Paul Shechtman ’71. “It’s a regular Swat fest here,” says Jon, who works remotely as lead technical writer for Salesforce.org and as director of digital initiatives for the Dickens Project in California. East to West (international version): Kathy Sturm-Ramirez said goodbye to Bangladesh after almost six years and relocated this summer to Dakar, Senegal, where she is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s resident adviser for the President’s Malaria Initiative. Husband Leyfou Dabo is from Senegal, and the family was excited to spend a few years in Dakar. The move gives daughters Aicha, 9, and Mariama, 7, an opportunity to cement their French and pick up surfing. Oops! North to South: Tom Samuel and his family moved to South Florida and enjoy the lovely weather all year round. Tom is interim director of the Cleveland Clinic Florida’s cancer center and still sees patients as a breast medical oncologist. Son Jake, 12, competed in the national spelling bee for Christian schools. Daughter Alayna, 7, and son Mark, 4, “keep our household very busy. We are blessed and happy.” Center: Jennifer Besanceney Latham has a young-adult novel coming out in January, Dreamland Burning, about the 1921 Tulsa race riot/massacre, while husband Sean Latham runs the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities at the University of Tulsa. Mostly, though, Jen says, “We’re trying to cope with the fact that our oldest kid is doing college tours this summer.” Congratulations to Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre and founders Dan Rothenberg ’95, Dito van Reigersberg, and Quinn Bauriedel on the theater company’s 20th anniversary this spring. Our alumni Facebook page has been unusually active lately, with classmates trying to decipher the identity of Twitter user @NinetiesSwattie, who may or may not be a member of our class. 1996 Melissa Clark melissa.a.clark@gmail.com It was wonderful to see many of you at our 20th Reunion. As Dom Sagolla notes, “The Class of 1996 won Alumni Weekend. We partied and laughed the hardest, sang the loudest, danced the longest, and stayed up the latest.” We thought fondly of those unable to join us and hope to see you at our 25th. In the meantime, join our class Facebook group, where you’ll find photos, FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 63 class notes videos, complaints about the much-maligned food truck, and other reminiscences. Matt Robison sadly missed the reunion, but he had a good excuse: He and wife Emily had Aaron Emlen in March. Siblings Ruth, 5, and Daniel, 3, are very satisfied with the new addition. Matt has also been working up a storm, consulting for ICF International on integrating distributed energy into the electric grid. Kathleen Lawton-Trask, her husband, and their children—Alex, 4, and Will, 2—moved this summer from England to Los Angeles. Kathleen was finishing her doctorate and saying goodbye to Oxford while we celebrated on Parrish Beach. She hopes to catch up with LA Swatties this fall and attend our 25th. Jack and Sara Fox Schecter moved from Boston to Portland, Ore., last summer. Sara writes, “It has been an incredible adventure, and we love the opportunity to explore a new part of the country.” Jack works for Nike in global intellectual property litigation, and Sara is a broker for the Hasson Co. Children Max, 13; Rachel, 11; and Sam, 8, have adjusted to their new home. They all looked forward to a trip to Alaska in August. In the past few years, Japhet Koteen got married (to Kori Blitstein), started a family (Bayla Koteen, Class of 2037), and joined the founding team of FarmRaiser.com, which raises money for schools and nonprofits while supporting local farms and small businesses. Japhet hopes to someday sleep again, but doesn’t plan on it. He dabbles in real estate development and planning. 64 Swarthmore College Bulletin / Emily Bobrow, a senior research officer at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, is finishing a four-year study of a program in Rwanda that gives HIV-positive pregnant women anti­ retroviral medications and nutritional counseling to prevent their infants from becoming infected. “We documented a transmission rate of 1.1 percent at 24 months follow-up—an amazing achievement. This study helps document how we can create a generation free from HIV.” Emily’s work has taken her all over the world, including stretches in Malawi, Mozambique, Mali, and Pakistan. She lives in Chapel Hill, N.C., with husband Harsha Thirumurthy, a health economist, and children Reuben, 4, and Mira, 1 1/2. Joel Johnson is chief marketing officer of Trout Unlimited, the nation’s largest cold-water conservation organization. He’s become a rabid fly fisherman, and lives near D.C. with daughter Yunah, 3, and wife Kyong, an architect. Stacy Nakell lives with partner Doug in Austin, Texas, and is a psychotherapist specializing in body-focused repetitive behaviors like hair-pulling and skin-picking. She published her first peer-reviewed article in 2013 in the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, exploring the effectiveness of psychodynamic group work, and is writing a book. Jacqueline Morais Easley bought a house in Fulton, Md., for herself and her kids (15, 13, and 8). She works part time at Michael Kors and is pursuing a master’s in creative writing at Johns Hopkins. Dom Sagolla lives in San FALL 2016 Francisco, lecturing on innovation and working on a book that he hopes to publish this year. Stay tuned to @Dom on Twitter for updates. Andy Feldman finished three years in the Obama administration and is at the Brookings Institution, helping public agencies through evidence-based policy and innovation. Kate Ellsworth is in Boston, working as an acupuncturist and chasing after her child and dog. Kaori Emery and husband Joel also live in Boston with their three girls. Brian Wong is based in Hangzhou, China, where he had been vice president and special assistant to the chairman for international affairs for the Alibaba Group and leads globalization initiatives. Sean Wright was elected to the Riddle HealthCare Foundation’s board of directors and was among Philadelphia magazine’s 2016 Top Docs for plastic surgery. Rowan Phillips received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his poetry collection Heaven, and his poem “Vall de Núria” was published in The New York Times in May. Marcela Escobari was named head of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, where she will lead initiatives on poverty, inequality, citizen security, corruption, and climate change. I, Melissa, still work at Mathematica Policy Research and live in Princeton, N.J., with my husband and two kids, ages 6 and 8. As always, thanks for sending your updates. 1998 Rani Shankar rani_shankar@yahoo.com Amita Sudhir amitasudhir@gmail.com This is the year many of us turn 40, and Rachel Breitman is going to Miami with Cat Laine, Shirley Salmeron, Jen Weiss Handler, Cathlin Tully, Tamala Montgomery, and Maurisa Thompson to celebrate. In perhaps the most apt description of life with a newborn ever composed, Justin Hall writes that he and partner Ilyse Magy “are delighted to announce the birth of daughter Delia Joy Orion Maghally on Saturday, June 4, at 3:42 p.m., the first baby to be born at the new San Francisco Birth Center. With mother and baby healthy, and father weepy with gratitude, they’ve settled into a new lie ruled by the primal diktats of an enchanting preverbal roommate.” Anna FernadezBuerhrens and wife Mary live in Dorchester, Mass., with son Simon, 4. Anna writes, “Simon is finishing his first year of K-0 in the same Boston public school where Mary works. I am still a program manager of an adult basic education center in South Boston. I’m also helping start a nonprofit, Hour House Boston (in Mattapan), a re-entry house and program for formerly incarcerated men. We hope that this program, whose executive director is also formerly incarcerated, will help these men reconnect with their families and communities in positive ways. I also play the violin with chamber music groups and in the Quincy Symphony Orchestra.” Sonja Downing earned tenure as an ethnomusicology professor at Lawrence University. She and husband Dewa Ketut Alit Adnyana have a daughter, 4, who occasionally agrees to play gamelan music with them. Emily Willits is beginning a job at the Iowa attorney general’s office as director of the Administrative Law and Licensing Division. She and husband Craig and their boys (3 and 5) live in Des Moines and are getting a puppy. Also dealing with a puppy is Katie Auld Aron, who lives in Acton, Mass., with husband Zach and children Maddie, 4 1/2, and Max, 1. She works at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she brings breakthrough immuno-oncology therapies to patients. Allison Marsh was tenured and promoted to associate professor at the University of South Carolina. She challenged the process by making her case solely on public history (museum stuff rather than the traditional monograph), although she now has a book contract and needs to start writing. She celebrated by traveling through Southeast Asia over the summer. Daniel Gallant is partway through an Eisenhower Fellowship trip studying how arts organizations in Japan and Spain address funding, outreach, and education activities. He has been to seven cities in Spain and three in Japan. Noah Daniels starts a tenure-track position in the University of Rhode Island’s computer science and statistics department this fall and will move with wife Rachel to North Kingstown, R.I. Rob McGreevey writes, “Oldest son Theo turned 11 and starts middle school in the fall while our youngest, Jacob, turned 3 this summer. Though our guys are eight years apart, they’ve developed a brotherly bond around a shared love of music, soccer, and ice cream trucks. I’ve been on sabbatical, which gave me time to (finally) finish my book and spend more time with my kids. I’ve joined the Shade Tree Commission in Narberth, Pa. Wife Miriam Shakow ’97 is on the Narberth Planning Commission, and we’ve found politics in our small town involve a surprising degree of drama and intrigue. We feel like we’re on the set of Parks and Recreation.” In New York, Rani Shankar co-hosted a fundraiser for Sean Barney, a Democrat running for Congress in Delaware (more, pg. 18). I, Amita, had a busy summer of travel and gardening, battling long airport lines and Japanese beetles alike. Please write in with your news, to me or Rani, and happy 40th to all those who complete four decades this year. 2000 Michaela DeSoucey mdesoucey@gmail.com Emily Shu emily.n.shu@gmail.com As always, we enjoy hearing from you and sharing your news. We are working from a new contact list; please let us know if you are not receiving emails from us twice a year and would like to be. First, a wedding and babies to report: Rhiana Swartz married Meg Holzer in May in Sullivan County, N.Y. Swatties in attendance were Tracy McNeil ’01, Michael Viola, Sarah Cross ’99, Meredith Hegg, Rhiana’s cousin Mariah Peelle Sotelino ’99, Daniel Sotelino ’01, and uncles Howard “Hap” Peelle ’65, Robert “RB” Peelle ’67, and Paul Peelle ’69. Also there in spirit were Rhiana’s late grandparents Bob and Gemmy Peelle ’39. Will Untereker and wife Wakana had daughter Noa in April. They are thrilled at the new addition; son Billy, 4, no longer an only child, is somewhat less so (for now). They live near Tokyo. John Loeser, wife Kari, and daughter Sydney welcomed daughter Madison in May. John is entering his sixth year as head of school at Redwood Day School, a K–8 independent school in Oakland, Calif., where he’s closing in on a $4 million capital campaign and finished construction on a 10,000-square-foot facility for the students. Alex Shaw brought Consciência Negra to Swarthmore (See: bit.ly/ AlexShaw00). Juan Mejia directed Death by a Thousand Cuts, which made its U.S. debut at the Seattle International Film Festival (See: bit.ly/DeathCuts). Jo-Anne Suriel is in NYC and started a job at American Securities, a private equity fund where she reports on the firm’s investments. Slava Lukin lives near D.C. and works at the National Science Foundation. He and wife Valentina “recently completed a wonderful train trip from Albuquerque, N.M., to Whitefish, Mont. I highly recommend taking the LA-to-Seattle Share your personal and reunion pics: bulletin@swarthmore.edu day-and-a-half sleeper car train trip to help disconnect from the wireless world and watch some gorgeous scenery roll by.” Brian ’99 and Desiree Peterkin Bell live in Center City Philadelphia and just celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. Desiree’s boutique public-affairs firm has taken on some amazing clients, including the Democratic National Convention Committee, and served as then-Mayor Michael Nutter’s chief negotiator to secure the convention bid. She has given speeches on gender equity around the country. Their daughter is 8 and does advanced gymnastics. Marissa Colston is the first director of diversity and inclusion at the Westtown School, outside Philadelphia, “still shaking things up and working for social justice.” She moved to Media with wife Danie Jackson and has seen Ansa ’01 and Kelly Hines Yiadom ’01 and their family, who also live there. Alecia Magnifico and husband Chris Cutler live in Durham, N.H., where she is an English education professor at the University of New Hampshire. Chris train-and-bike commutes to AppNeta in Boston. Chris spent several days with Chuck Groom, Wayne Miller, and Electra Kaczorowski ’01 on a Seattle trip. Alecia excitedly shares that her book Conducting Qualitative Research of Learning in Online Spaces was published this spring. Sarah Archer’s book Midcentury Christmas is out this fall. If you’re keen to learn more about aluminum Christmas trees, or know someone who is, procure a copy from your friendly neighborhood bookseller. My (Michaela DeSoucey) book Contested Tastes: Foie Gras and the Politics of Food was published in June by Princeton University Press, after more than a decade of researching and writing. I am an assistant professor of sociology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Karen Lloyd is a microbiology professor at the University of Tennessee, researching ocean microbes. She has two daughters, 2 and 6. Becca Stites Derrick lives in Harwood, Md., with husband Lee and their three children. She coaches her daughter’s field hockey and lacrosse teams and owns BeeSweet! Cookies. She enjoyed seeing Swatties at the beachside wedding of Sari Altschuler ’01 in March. On the West Coast, Adrienne Aiona moved back to Oregon with her wife and toddler to take a job with the city of Portland. She looks forward to spending more time with Mike Arellano and his family. Eva Allan and her family moved from Connecticut to Berkeley, Calif., last summer, taking a few weeks to drive across the country. Husband Dan was recruited by UC Berkeley’s physics department, and she is a postdoc in art history, although she took last year off. She wrote that it was great luck to run into Massey Burke outside the Cheese Board and rekindle an old Swarthmore friendship. FOLLOW US on Facebook at facebook.com/ SwarthmoreBulletin 2002 Tanyaporn Wansom swarthmore2002@gmail.com I am heartbroken to share the news of Alice Hershey’s death July 28. However, I know many of us smiled when we saw the pictures (with Alice’s huge, infectious smile), memories, and tributes that friends and family posted on social media. Her sister, Elizabeth, writes that Alice passed away in the company of her family and surrounded by love. She had been in a bicycle accident in Philadelphia in 2009 and never recovered. Alice cherished her time at Swarthmore, the many friends she made there, and the reunions she attended. A memorial gathering will be held this fall in Philadelphia. Imo Akpan married Jeffrey Bingham in June with Kaysha Corinealdi, Bubu Banini, and Folasade Jones attending. Imo enjoyed a track mini-reunion in Chicago—where she lives—with Jokotade Agunloye ’01, Claire Hoverman ’03, and Jessica Zagory ’05, and also met up with Jessica Rickabaugh when she was in town for a meeting. Imo starts a hematology/oncology research fellowship this year. Olga Rostapshova, husband Ivar, and daughter Aurora welcomed baby Adrian in March. Olga splits her time among three jobs: technical director at international development consultancy Social Impact; adviser for startup nonprofit Precision Agri- FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 65 class notes ALUMNI PROFILE NJIDEKA AKUNYILI CROSBY ’04 HONORED ARTIST Njideka Akunyili Crosby ’04 received the 2016 Prix Canson award, which honors international emerging artists who work primarily in paper. The Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based artist combines drawing, painting, and collage to explore themes of literature, identity, and race. She previously won the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s 2014 James Dicke Contemporary Art Prize, the Studio Museum in Harlem’s 2015 Wein Prize, and recognition as a 2016 leading global thinker by Foreign Policy. culture for Development; and directing the Weiss Family Program Fund for research in development economics at Harvard. Julia Bouwsma won the 2015 Cider Press Review Book Award for her manuscript Work by Bloodlight. Keetje Kuipers, wife Sarah Fritsch Kuipers ’04, and daughter Nela moved to Seattle from Auburn, Ala. Keetje left her associate professor position at Auburn to write poetry and prose full time, and Sarah left Morris, Manning, & Martin in Atlanta for Foster Pepper. After working as a sound mixer for reality TV shows for a decade, Taina Guarda is switching careers and pursuing a master’s in environmental policy and sustainable management from the New School, creating designs for equipment that skims water for plastics. Arcadia Falcone is back in the Bay Area with a job as metadata coordinator at Stanford University Libraries. In January, Jon Stancato launched Sing a Secret (singasecret. com), a free twice-monthly introduction to singing techniques, and welcomed Sonya Reynolds ’07 and Katie Surrence ’01 to the class. He hopes more NYC-area Swatties join. Steve Salter and wife Lisa Dragoset moved to Austin, Texas, in summer 2015 and had daughter 66 Swarthmore College Bulletin / Isabel Renee Salter in January. Also in January, David ’03 and Lisa Ladewski Whitehead and daughters Abby and Olivia welcomed Jacob Anthony. Cris and Danielle Ortiz and children Dominic, 3, and Alaina, 5, welcomed daughter Briseis in April. Hilary Jensen Rice had Lydia Jensen Rice at 3:14 p.m. March 14—a double Pi Day baby. Loring Pfeiffer and Gil Jones ’01 had Elizabeth “Bess” Wheeler Jones in November. Loring, Gil, Bess, and big sister Cleo, and Hilary and Lydia enjoyed Alumni Weekend and hope to visit more often. Correction: In previous class notes announcing son Sam’s birth, Becki Cikoski Carter’s name was misspelled. I, Tanya, am well in Bangkok and was visited by my brother Derrick ’05 and Woot Lervisit ’04. If you’d like to receive calls for class notes, please email swarthmore2002@gmail. com. Many of the addresses I have are outdated; I would love to update and hear from all of you. FOLLOW US on Facebook at facebook.com/ SwarthmoreBulletin FALL 2016 2004 Njideka Akunyili nji130@yahoo.com Adrienne Mackey’s theater company, Swim Pony Performing Arts, received two big grants (for $50,000 and $55,000) to begin a project combining theater and game design in an original performance, The End, which will premiere in May in Philadelphia. Alex Edleson breeds organic and biodynamic vegetables in Germany. Amy Robinson and husband Erik Oost, who live in Brooklyn, had their first child, Fritz Robinson Oost, June 18. He is a delight. Audrey Dorelien married Jason Kerwin June 26 in Minneapolis. Jason and Audrey are assistant professors at the University of Minnesota. Audrey was happy that Jayanti Owens ’06, Dale Jennings, Justene Hill, and Nef Francis celebrated the fantastic wedding week with her. Catherine Gaffney moved to Tucson, Ariz., in 2011 to volunteer with No More Deaths/No Más Muertes, a humanitarian group working on the U.S.–Mexico border to end death and suffering of those crossing the desert. They give food, water, and medical care to people in distress; search for missing persons; and report U.S. Border Patrol abuses. Catherine invites all to volunteer. She is also a freelance grant writer. Erik Elwood and Ann Marie Lam are well—son James is 3 1/2 and son John was born in May. They put roots down in Pennsylvania and moved into their first home. After more than eight years together, Evan Moses married Susanne Cooper April 2 in San Francisco. Aaron Cantor ’06 was best man. They had a fantastic time partying with guests, including Art Yelsey ’73. Grace Appiah married Mike Townsend in Atlanta. Sister Stephanie ’10, Hernease Davis, Esther Zeledon, Tamika Songster, Khadijah White, and Emily Alvarez attended. Jake Schneider moved from New York to Philly for an in-house counsel job. He is slowly settling into Philly but misses Brooklyn and its faster pace where he lived a short walk from Andy Scarborough and Katherine Murnen, who just had baby Neva. Aaron Rubin moved to an adjacent neighborhood. Joel Blecher is moving to D.C. to become a history professor at George Washington University. His research and teaching focuses on early and medieval Islam. Wife and partner-in-crime Summer Renault-Steele will join him next year after completing an appointment as a visiting philosophy professor at LeMoyne College in New York. They look forward to reconnecting with East Coast Swatties and those passing through. Mark Hanis joined Sam Bell ’05 and wife Kate Kelly in welcoming Asher Bell in May. Mark hiked and camped the Grand Canyon with Andrew “Stobo” Sniderman ’07 in February. Mark also caught up with Morgan Simon, Gerrit Hall, and Autumn Quinn in San Francisco. We send love to Mark as he mourns his father, who died in an accident in Ecuador. Morgan Simon’s first book, Real Impact: How Money will Help or Destroy the World, will be published early next year. Morgan is an active impact investor, supporting worker-owned co-ops, renewable energy, and other fun stuff with her firm, Pi Investments. Nick Martin is expanding TechChange, which has built online courses for more than 100 organizations in fields like public health, climate change, human rights, and disaster response. Four Swatties were on staff this summer—Matthew Heck ’13, Isabel Knight ’16, Tahmid Rahman ’17, and John Sun ’17—and they’re always looking for more. Rebecca Ennen sent updates for the residents of Apartment 3S, the Barn, 2001–02, most of whom expanded their families in 2016: Ross Hoffman and Elsa Waldman had Beatrice Clementine; Ester Bloom and Benjamin Galynker ’03 had Jules (joining Lara, 4); Rebecca Ennen and Ari Weisbard had Misha; and Nori Heikkinen ’03 and Jack Hebert had Francis. Many of them meet up in D.C. for visits with Matt Rubin Blumin ’03, Jessie Blumin, and Amira, 2. Everyone is well, and all send love to the other classmates who had babies in 2016 (as well as everyone else). Rebecca Rogers and Danny Loss live in Somerville, Share your personal and reunion pics: bulletin@swarthmore.edu “Modern homesteaders want to provide their families with a better life than they could afford if they had to pay cash for the trappings,” says Anna Hess ’00. “Most of all, they want to be healthy, happy, and cheerfully self-sufficient.” HOME SWEET HOMESTEAD Back-to-the-land living looks good on her by Heather Shumaker ’91 IF YOU’D ASKED Anna Hess ’00 during her Swarthmore days if she’d ever live in a 500-square-foot metal box, the answer would have been a definite no. After all, she’s a homesteading gal, a biology type who likes to muck about in wetlands and lovingly spread chicken poo in her organic gardens. Three years after graduating from Swarthmore—age 24 and close to broke—Hess searched out the cheapest land she could buy (58 acres of wetland and swamp in Scott County, Va.) and began dismantling the decrepit house that came with it. Hess envisioned straightening every nail, saving every board, and transforming the wreck into a snug, sweet homesteading cabin. Ten years later she’s actively homesteading, although the cozy cabin is nowhere to be seen. “We’re ‘trailersteading,’” Hess says, a word she coined as well as the title of her new book. It’s also a growing trend among folks searching for simple housing so they can have the freedom to pursue more fulfilling goals, whether it’s back-tothe-land living, early retirement, or more time for travel and family. Hess and husband Mark Hamilton work only 30 hours a week, split between farm chores like tending the goats, chickens, orchards, and gardens, and income-producers like Anna’s writing or Mark’s nifty automatic chicken-waterer invention, the Avian Aqua Miser. This leaves them plenty of time to observe frogs as they lay eggs in the pond, to pursue their creative itches, and to watch their honeybees gather hazel pollen. It’s the homesteading life Hess always dreamed of, even if it looks very different from what she—or anyone else—originally dreamed. “To be honest,” Hess says, “I embarked on Trailersteading: How to Find, Buy, Retrofit, and Live Large in a Mobile Home as a bit of a joke.” She was startled when her how-to e-book found worldwide fans, then a New York publisher. It’s billed as a more satisfying alternative to the materialistic mansion-and-mortgage lifestyle—“Anyone can really achieve self-sufficiency,” says Hess. Hess’s homesteading roots go back to her childhood. She was born into a back-to-the-land family who espoused “voluntary poverty” and a life she remembers as paradise. “There were strawberries to eat, cows to name (and then cry over when they went to the slaughterhouse), and hillsides to climb with book in hand,” she says. Hess now homesteads to the hilt, harvesting everything from crookneck squash, cabbage, okra, and sorghum (for the goats) to Egyptian onions, gooseberries, and raspberries along with 40 other types of edible plants. She hunts deer, raises chickens for meat and eggs, and milks two friendly goats named Abigail and Artemesia. She’s also a cheerleader for what she calls “the gentler, modern version of homesteading.” This includes suburban families with chicken coops in their backyards and city dwellers with vegetable gardens. In fact, her first book, The Weekend Homesteader, offers simple projects like using logs to grow mushrooms, installing rain barrels, or building an under-the-sink worm bin. Today, Hess is where she wants to be, home at the trailerstead: sipping soup made from her own chicken stock, splitting firewood, or embarking on new experiments, such as tapping black birches for their sap to make a new type of syrup. “It’s one of the greatest gifts,” she says, “knowing that life at the poverty line is not only possible, but full of joy.” + GET TO KNOW ANNA at waldeneffect.org FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 67 class notes Mass. A trip took them through Seattle, where they visited Emily Ford and Jon Ehrenfeld, and introduced son Gabriel to Emily and John’s daughter Lila (both 2). Highlights for the budding Swatties included toy trains, pretzels, and a bath. Thanks for the updates. If you do not receive the update request, make sure that records@swarthmore.edu has your email address. Big thanks to Rebecca and Danny for volunteering to take over class notes. It has been an honor to compile your updates—it is always exciting and inspiring to learn of the incredible things you are up to. 2006 International and Public Affairs and Sociology at Brown University. Mischa Stephens plays the lead in the rock musical Chess Sept. 15– Oct. 15 in San Francisco. “The music is all original, wonderfully ’80s, and oh-so-wonderfully ABBA,” with lyrics by Tim Rice (“who wrote the lyrics for all the Disney movies—seriously, all of them”). Visit and Mischa will get you discounted tickets. After a great time at Alumni Weekend, Elyse Betances returned to her “NYC-adjacent” apartment in North Jersey with her boyfriend. Elyse is an analyst for the Office of Enrollment in NYC’s Department of Education. It felt like she had two reunions, since Jaky Joseph and Ja’Dell Davis’s wedding was the weekend before. She had a blast and was excited to see everyone doing so well. Lauren Ullrich is now a program analyst at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, working to increase the diversity of the neuroscience workforce. Reena Nadler and Jacob Ross ’05 married in May on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. They happily live in D.C., where Jacob is a systems engineer and Reena works for the U.S. Agency for International Development. CAPTIONED! Wee-Jhong Chua wchua1@gmail.com As our first postcollege decade ends, I want to thank everyone for the opportunity to serve as class secretary. I had an amazing time at the 10th Reunion and look forward to the years to come. Jon Greenberg is busy in the Bay Area—remodeling his apartment in Alameda, kayaking in the bay, and playing ultimate Frisbee for the San Jose Spiders (the local pro team). Caroline Carlson and Zach Pezzementi ’05 had daughter Nora June 11. Alex Glick finished an academic general pediatrics fellowship at NYU in June. He will stay at NYU as a hospitalist and assistant professor of pediatrics. Jayanti Owens was named the Mary Tefft and John Hazen White Sr. Assistant Professor of 68 Swarthmore College Bulletin / “Before I ate him, the admissions officer said that there is a visit day for pterodactyls on campus each fall semester.” —Alex Gavis ’86 After finishing a Ph.D., Charlie Taylor accepted a visiting political science assistant professorship at Denison University. Any Swatties near Columbus, Ohio, are encouraged to get in touch. Paul Thibodeau, a psychology professor at Oberlin College, was featured in The New York Times for his research, which includes my favorite “M” word, moist. Katia Lom’s film Double Note was selected for the Bay Area International Children’s Film Festival. Joey Roth continues his excellent design-entrepreneur work, where he steeps elegant cups of tea. Amelia Templeton is a multimedia reporter and producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting, covering city hall, justice, and local news. Sonia Vallabh and husband Eric Minikel race the clock to find a treatment for a rare genetic disease. They have received many accolades for their groundbreaking research. Charles Coes shares “sound design” credit with Darron West for the off-Broadway revival of The Robber Bridegroom. The Roundabout Theatre Company musical played at the Laura Pels Theatre. Tim Cronin will join the faculty at MIT to continue his research as an atmospheric scientist. Thanks for the updates and on to 2017! “Sorry, Mom, I thought I could wing it at Swarthmore.” —Bill Steelman ’63 “But the commute to class is only two minutes and I’ll get the whole Crum dorm to myself!” —Jim Pasterczyk ’81 FALL 2016 “If we don’t encourage enrollment, the College may become extinct, too!” —Judith Leeds Inskeep ’60 + See more captions: bulletin.swarthmore.edu FOLLOW US on Facebook at facebook.com/ SwarthmoreBulletin 2008 Mark Dlugash mark.dlugash@gmail.com Jordan, India, Hogwarts: Rory Sykes continues to prolong the writing of her dissertation and con more money out of institutions. She will remain in Amman, Jordan, through October before hopping among Beirut, Jerusalem, Ramallah, and briefly NYC for 12 months under the auspices of SSRC and CLIR (acronym soup is delicious). She would love to see anyone in the region: Ahlan wa sahlan, fam. After three years in Tokyo, Rahul D’Silva is spending a year in India with his grandmother. He is writing a novel and consulting for startups and individuals on content and business strategy. He doesn’t know where he’ll move next or when he’ll get a dog. He was excited this summer to visit (after three-plus years) Tristan and Alyssa Van Thoen Lawson in Boston and Rachel Corballis ’07 in D.C., and to host Omar Ramadan Santiago in October to see the Taj Mahal and elephants. While Seth Nfonoyim-Hara was preparing his defense in a biomedical engineering Ph.D. program at the University of Southern California, wife Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara skipped across the pond and made quick work of a migration studies master’s at Oxford University. Since Nicole was still in England after Seth successfully defended, good buddy Sung Choi joined him on an epic road trip in May 2015 from Los Angeles to Roches- ter, Minn., where Seth researches at the Neural Engineering Laboratories at the Mayo Clinic. After Nicole earned her wand (degree) from Hogwarts (Oxford), she joined Seth in Rochester, where she constantly reminds him of how cold it is, but is nonetheless crushing it as a grant writer and consultant for nonprofits by day and the author of the next great American novel by night (more, pg. 17). Ninjas and acrobats: James Mendez Hodes’s plan to expand NinjaGram to St. John’s Graduate Institute in Santa Fe, N.M., ran into unexpected opposition—for some reason they object to ninjas interrupting classes. Nevertheless, he escaped with a master’s in Eastern classics. James now lives in Harlem, N.Y. He finally got his (non-Valentine-related) black belt in ninjutsu, and he writes tabletop role-playing games for a living. On the side, he runs those games for children and then makes fun of them online (bit. ly/DungeonElementary). He’s also still rap-translating Homer’s Iliad (bit.ly/ HomerRap). Cover girl Joanna Wright took the best kind of beating in an intensive one-year program at the New England Center for Circus Arts. Her trapeze callouses are pretty gnarly, and she can hold a handstand away from the wall for almost a minute. She graduated in June and returned to Austin, Texas, to continue life as a circus freak. (more, pg. 30). In the news: Steph Hsu founded a classical music program that helps underserved students. The group was featured by PBS NewsHour (bit.ly/ StephHsu). Dominic Lowell is director of LGBT outreach for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. He was featured in March in the Los Angeles Times for his role in the rapid response to a Clinton campaign gaffe in the lead-up to Nancy Reagan’s funeral. Patrick Christmas, Gwen Snyder, Lillian Dunn ’07, and Dan Symonds ’11 were featured in Billy Penn’s Who’s Next series highlighting young professionals making an impact in Philadelphia. Pat is senior policy analyst at the Committee of Seventy, a nonpartisan good-government group, and is on the boards of Philly Coalition of Rising Education Leaders and Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition, which serves refugee and immigrant families. Gwen has been executive director at Philadelphia Jobs with Justice for six years and is a committee woman for the city’s 27th Ward. New professors: Mary Wootters is finishing a postdoc at Carnegie Mellon University. After an epic job search, she and husband Isaac Sorkin ’07 successfully solved their academic two-body problem—they are both assistant professors at Stanford this fall. They look forward to sunshine, biking, and hanging out with Bay Area Swatties. Mikio Akagi successfully defended his philosophy Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Pittsburgh. After a grueling year on the academic job market, he accepted an offer from Texas Christian University to be assistant professor of the history and philosophy of science in the John V. Roach Honors College. Working life: Jonathan Estey teaches math and manages students with disabilities at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. Rasa Petrauskaite lives in the Bay Area, where she promotes compassion for animals. She works in investment, helping poor people become middle class and middle-class people become rich. Alex Hahn graduated from Temple medical school in May and began an orthopedic surgical residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. Yusha Hu is two years into her venture-backed farm-to-table company, Local Bushel, which was featured in Edible Manhattan magazine. Celebrations: Dan Peterson and Lucy McNamara had Talia Simone Dec. 10. Stephanie Charpentier Muñoz and her husband had Mateo David April 5 and are adjusting to life together in Nashville, Tenn. David Stifler completed his third year of Ph.D. study in classics at Duke University. In December he married Elizabeth Clendinning, who is brilliant and wonderful— despite not having gone to Swarthmore. Stephan Hoyer married Elena Viboch ’09 in a beautiful ceremony at Olympia’s Valley Estate in Petaluma, Calif. Swatties there included officiant Mark Dlugash, Eric Christiansen, Stephanie Duncan Karp, Bizzy Hemphill, Catalina Martinez, Meredith Leich, Lydia Thé, Evan Trager, Cole Armstrong ’10, Emma Ferguson ’10, Bevan Gerber-Siff ’10, Erin Ronhovde ’10, and Colin Schimmelfing ’10. Stephan is a software engineer at Google in Mountain View, Calif., where he uses machine learning to solve scientific research problems. Elena moved back to San Francisco and in July became director of business development and operations at Carmot Therapeutics, a startup that develops drugs for diabetes and metabolic illnesses. Ashley Werner was honored as a Democratic Trailblazer by the Fresno County (Calif.) Democratic Women’s Club for her legal advocacy. And finally, Joe Grimm transitioned to Alice Grimm and survived her first year teaching at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. Over the summer she hoped to make substantial progress editing her dissertation on the well-posedness of free-boundary magnetohydrodynamic for a math Ph.D. at UC Davis. 2010 Brendan Work theworkzone@gmail.com Peer into the celestial orb, dear reader, and observe the fortunes of the Class of 20X as it enters the sixth house. During this moon’s birth phase, all signs are in the ascendant and, therefore, it is very auspicious to observe the divine symbols. Please have your star chart at hand as you read this. As you have certainly beheld, there is a luminous spiritual atmosphere emanating from Julia Luongo, who finished a mechanical engineering Ph.D. at the University of Colorado and began working at an environmental consulting firm in San Francisco. She shares her engineering aura with nearby Rachel Cohen, who decides if buildings should fall or not as a structural engineer in Oakland, Calif., and recently traversed the heavenly domains on a road trip to Montana. Others whose material incarnations walk the astral plane near the Bay Area include Jennifer Spindel, a new postdoctoral researcher at the Joint Genome Institute; Caitlin O’Neil, who earned a master’s in public policy and will transfer her quantum energies to the California Legislative Analyst’s Office in Sacramento as a fiscal policy analyst; and Yingjia Wang, who works for Dropbox in San Francisco. The emergence of Jupiter’s ecliptic nodes augurs powerful events in Brooklyn, which we have duly observed in the news of producer Matt Thurm’s latest movie, Untitled Colin Warner Project, in post-Sundance postproduction. His first feature, Rover, is available on Amazon and iTunes; his second, H., was featured in the Museum of Modern Art’s “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You” series; and his third, 11:55 (“a present-day urban Western parable”), is wowing festivalgoers. The harmonic quincunx of nebulae near New York indubitably points to the empyrean apex of Sam Goodman, a teacher who recently acquired an MFA from Columbia University and works with Suzanne Winter at Prep for Prep and Robert Louis Stevenson High School, where she tutors in bicorporeal epicycles. Graduating with a Columbia law degree in May was cosmic wanderer Lena Wong, whose planetary course is fated to collide with the California Bar exam quite soon. Another FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 69 class notes such collision was reported in New York, where Zach Sinemus joined the esteemed barristers of the city, setting off a chain of supernovae in the waning ocean of Pisces, while any further celestial disturbances are most certainly the result of Romane Paul being featured on Hillary Clinton’s Stories website (bit.ly/RomaneP). Nearer to the ancient perigee of our birth stars, that is to say Swarthmore, we can report that Ashley Miniet graduated from Temple medical school and started a pediatrics residency at Emory. If you have noticed Saturn in a state of exaltation, that’s because Melissa Cruz got married (keeping her name) and started a job as the behavioral health consultant to North Philadelphia primary-care providers. Similarly, Neptune evinces a fiery character due to the efforts of Jean Strout, whose work with the Juvenile Law Center on the U.S. Supreme Court case Montgomery v. Louisiana put juvenile mandatory sentencing under review. Gary Herzberg completed his first year of an MBA program at Wharton, which you have no doubt scried using karmic geomancy, and Jimmy Gill works in athletic communications at Rutgers. Outside the traditional loci of Swarthmorean spiritual chakras, Benjamin Mazer completed medical school at the University of Rochester and will become FOLLOW US on Facebook at facebook.com/ SwarthmoreBulletin 70 Swarthmore College Bulletin / a resident physician in pathology at Yale New Haven Hospital. Under a waxing balsamic moon, Helen Hougen graduated from the University of Virginia medical school and began her urology residency at the Oregon Health and Science University Hospital in Portland, down the road from Seattle-based Jānis Lībeks, a Facebook software engineer for three years and new member of the Washington Ensemble Theatre. Jamie Hansen-Lewis spoke at a Swarthmore economics roundtable about informal economies in West Africa; Travis Rothbloom inexplicably sent in a picture of his cat; and the music of the spheres swelled joyously at the wedding of Lisa Sambat to Tri Duong. Lisa’s zodiacal zenith is enthroned in a tropical cycle, which means she lives near D.C., works at the Fairfax County Public Schools, and hangs out with Cathy Ng as much as possible. In the fall skies, expect to see the spiritual essence of Joel Swanson hovering over Chicago, where he’ll pursue philosophy of religion studies at the University of Chicago and return “finally to an environment where people won’t have to ask if Swarthmore is a town on the moors of England.” Saturn rejoices at Maria Khim’s move to Jakarta, Indonesia, where she works at startup Go-Jek; G Patrick’s amazing Medical Mission to Haiti; and Nancy Chu’s upcoming Princeton in Asia fellowship in Yunnan, China, where she promises to send hospitable cosmic signals and “would love to host any Swatties.” While we record these transcendent pulses with great gladness, it is an inescapable galactic reality FALL 2016 that the class as a whole is in deep retrograde due to a dearth of emails. Remember to pay homage to the Earth Mother and send your updates. 2012 Maia Gerlinger maiagerlinger@gmail.com I am writing from a balcony in Mexico overlooking the ocean, so you could say my life is pretty good right now. It seems as though this year’s been one of real change/commitment—people either starting new chapters after postcollege “years of adventure,” or seeing the efforts of grad school or careers finally come to fruition (med students entering residency, career people becoming managers, etc.). But if this is not you—and, honestly, it’s not me—don’t feel as though you are “doing adulthood wrong.” It’s not a competition; it’s a series of unique and worthwhile paths that you get to choose to follow (or not). Which means you are automatically doing it right. Upstate New York and NYC: Elissa Wong works in toxicology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She won a fellowship from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which, honestly, I should have won for Senior Week. Manuk Garg “completed the sale of his soul with a swift transfer to McKinsey and Co.’s New York office.” Sahiba Gill is in her second year of law school. William Campbell finished his first year of an MBA at Columbia; this summer, he interned and did “sci-fi business stuff” at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Boston: Natalia CoteMuñoz was sad her four years in Beijing came to a close but is excited to start a public policy master’s at the Harvard Kennedy School. Gabriela Morales passed the bar and is a corporate lawyer at Goodwin Procter in Boston. Xingyu “Alex” Zhang is working on an applied physics Ph.D. at Harvard. Philly and Pennsylvania: Katherine Ernst is working on a clinical psychology Ph.D. at Widener University with a focus on children, adolescents, and families, as well as a certification in school psychology. Taylor Wuerker is a Comcast software engineer and volunteered at the Olympics this summer. John “Wes” Willison and wife Hana Lehmann ’13 live in Northeast Philly; Hana works at the Lang Center, and Wes is pursuing a master of divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary. They have a dog named Lincoln. Alex Burka finished a robotics master’s at Penn and is working on a Ph.D. in electrical and systems engineering there. Margret Lenfest researched this summer at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center in Kennett Square; this fall she starts her second year of vet school. Kristen Allen is starting a doctoral program at Carnegie Mellon University in engineering and public policy. Baltimore and D.C.: David D’Annunzio sent an update that contained the word “still” three times. He lives in Baltimore and works for ZeroFOX, a social-media cybersecurity company. Sara Blanco trains young women to run for office at Running Start while pursuing a master of public policy at George Washington. She will soon co-chair the university’s Women’s Leadership Fellows Program at the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. Holly Kinnamont is a kindergarten teacher and librarian at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School outside D.C. Midwest: Hannah “Alex” Younger is a program coordinator/classroom assistant for the Art Institute of Chicago’s summer camps. She will get an MFA in fibers and material studies this fall, as part of which she will be a teaching assistant “helping college kids when they accidentally tie themselves into their looms.” Francesca Bolfo is pursuing a second art history master’s with a focus on postcolonial theory at UChicago. She still competitively show jumps (“i.e., jumping horses over big sticks,” she explains patiently). Tiffany Lee started a general surgery residency at the University of Cincinnati this summer. South: This fall marks Dante Fuoco’s fifth year of teaching children with severe behavioral disorders. To provide that nice yinyang effect, he also wrote and performed a one-man show that parodies white New Orleans transplants like himself. Joseph Willens teaches in New Orleans and owns a house. Jennifer Yi is starting her third year of a clinical psychology program at the University of North Carolina. She fosters dogs for Independent Animal Rescue in Durham. Stephen Youngblood graduated from Duke law school and lives in New Bern, N.C., where he is doing a twoyear clerkship with Judge Louise Flanagan in the Share your personal and reunion pics: bulletin@swarthmore.edu JONATHAN COHEN ’15 PAIN REDUCER Jonathan Cohen ’15, an M.D./Ph.D. student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine/Carnegie Mellon University, was named the youngest-ever board member of the American Chronic Pain Association. As a student, Cohen works with faculty to promote pain-management education, and recent projects include developing a student-run pain clinic for underserved community members in Pittsburgh. U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. West Coast: Miyuki Baker is in graduate school (where she researches “how we cultivate hope and resilience in a precarious and neoliberal society through space, architecture, and environment”) and gets to profit from the best part of being a student: summer vacation. This summer she traveled to Chile for a weeklong performance-studies conference. Halleh Balch is working on a Ph.D. in molecular and optical physics (in which she uses lasers). She also teaches violin and plays ultimate Frisbee. Eleanor Glewwe is working on a linguistics Ph.D. at UCLA. Her second middle-grade fantasy novel, Wildings, comes out Nov. 1. International: Andrew Stromme will spend three months in China and Taiwan to practice Mandarin. Arsean Maqami is a senior project manager at WeWork. He moved to Mexico City to launch the company’s Latin American division. Everything/Nothing/ Transcending Time and Space Through Art: Cecily Bumbray, Tayarisha Poe, and Vaneese Thomas ’74 collaborated on a music video. Find it at cecilymusic.com. Hanna Kozlowska and Jon Emont wrote pieces for grownup publications. Anastasia “Tasha” Lewis presented her illustrated Ulysses at McCabe (bit.ly/ TLewis12). Tayarisha Poe is a Sundance Institute 2016 Knight Foundation Fellow. And Michael Xu gave a talk in Paris on “Growth Hacking for Early Stage Startups” (bit.ly/ MichaelXu). 2014 Brone Lobichusky blobichusky@gmail.com Welcome to another round of rousing updates. In New England, Cally Deppen began a Ph.D. in physical therapy at Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Health Professions. This fall, Danny Hirschel-Burns started a political science Ph.D. at Yale. He intends to delve into comparative politics on violence, governance, and state building. This summer, Danny also officiated the wedding of Mallory Pitser and Zac Wunrow. The two married in Vermont with many Swatties attending. Zac spent the rest of the summer working at a Ugandan hospital and is in his second year of medical school at the University of Vermont. Congrats to the happy couple. Harrison Tasoff and Cici Zhang began a master’s in science journalism at NYU. Aarthi Reddy tutors high schoolers through A Better Chance Strath Haven while doing clinical research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. This fall, she moved to D.C. to begin medical school at George Washington. Sarah Timreck completed her commitment with Teach for America in Alabama, and moved to D.C. this fall to begin a master’s in Middle East studies at George Washington. Patrick Walsh lives in D.C. and finished his first year as a Federal Reserve research assistant. In his spare time, he tries to convince himself that signing up for a 26-mile run was not a completely terrible idea. Cody Ruben started this fall at the University of Florida as an electrical engineering Ph.D. candidate. After completing a Centennial Conference internship, Katie Lytle began an MBA/master of sports administration program at Ohio University. Congrats, Emma Saarel, who was named an outstanding grad of the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. Politico Paloma Perez was promoted to deputy communications director and legislative aide for a Texas congressman. Nick Borkowski will return to sunny California to study law at UC Irvine and surf at Orange County beaches. Sounds like the best way to do law school. Since graduation, Sinan Kazaklar has lived in London, working in finance and traveling Europe. In September, Maggie Regan was set to swim the English Channel as part of a five-person relay. Stayed tuned for more on Maggie’s continuation of her Swat swim career. Your secretary, Brone Lobichusky, was promoted to her second year of medical school at Temple and is holed up studying for the first of many national board certification tests. This summer, she worked on a research project regarding hip arthroscopy outcomes and spent the weekends at the Jersey Shore. STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION Title: Swarthmore College Bulletin Publication Number: 0530-620 Date of Filing: 8/30/16 No. of Issues Annually: 4 Mailing Address of Known Office of Publications and Headquarters Office: 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, Delaware County, PA 19081-1397 Publisher: Swarthmore College Editor: Jonathan Riggs Average No. of Copies of Each Issue Published During Preceding 12 Months: A. Total No. Copies 25,893 B. Paid and/or Requested Circulation 1. Sales through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors and Counter Sales None 2. Mail Subscription 22,826 C. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation 22,826 D. Free Distribution Outside the Mail, Carrier or Other Means, Samples, Complimentary and other Free Copies 1,589 E. Total Distribution 24,415 F. Copies Not Distributed 1,539 G. Total 25,954 H. Percent Paid 93% Average No. of Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date: A. Total No. Copies 25,860 B. Paid and/or Requested Circulation 1. Sales through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors and Counter Sales None 2. Mail Subscription 22,807 C. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation 22,807 D. Free Distribution Outside the Mail, Carrier or Other Means, Samples, Complimentary and other Free Copies 1,665 E. Total Distribution 24,472 F. Copies Not Distributed 1,615 G. Total 26,087 H. Percent Paid 93% FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 71 spoken word What are your key responsibilities? Well, beyond my 3-mile-long title, [laughs] it’s really bringing the community together around diversity, inclusion, and equity issues. It’s identifying the gaps or blind spots we’re missing as an institution, and moving forward thoughtfully to address them. But the biggest thing is really getting people to engage in discourse and dialogue, even if it’s agreeing to disagree. Has that gotten more difficult in recent years? At higher education institutions in general, we’ve gotten away from it. We don’t talk to each other anymore. If we don’t hear what we want to hear, we shut it down. But it can’t be that way. With today’s political and civil rights climate and the increase in social justice movements, we need to have those difficult conversations. And where better than Swarthmore? UNITED SHE STANDS by Ryan Dougherty T. SHÁ DUNCAN SMITH wasn’t looking to move. She had been with the University of Michigan for more than 20 years, most recently as director of inclusion at its Ross School of Business, earning accolades for her proactive approach to building community and encouraging dialogue. But as soon as she set foot on Swarthmore’s campus, she felt “perfectly at peace,” at home, and among kindred spirits. The College’s new associate dean of diversity, inclusion, and community development, Smith explains why. What drew you here? The sense of ownership from students, faculty, and staff, even on what some might consider the most mundane of topics. Everyone was eager to share their experiences and why they consider Swarthmore special. But it wasn’t a rose-colored glasses “Miss America” speech—it seemed very organic and authentic. There’s a real commitment here to building true collaborations on campus and in the greater community. 72 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 Why is your work rewarding? If I can get up every day knowing I’m empowered to make change, I’m happy. Even growing up, I was like the playground defense attorney, the social and civil rights activist. It’s just a piece of my identity. This work isn’t easy—it’s usually off the grid, tackling stuff others don’t want to. But the reward comes when you can get people to engage and work closely together in the spirit of curiosity. How was adjusting to the area? Well, I brought a whole crew with me. My partner, Tony, and I have a 14-year-old, a 9-year-old, a 7-year-old, and a baby on board. But our transition has actually been really easy. We’re surprised by how much we already feel at home, thanks to how welcoming everyone has been. Plus, State Street in Media reminds me of Ann Arbor, with a variety of shops and restaurants we’re enjoying. What do you do for fun? I love to dance. I used to compete in international-style tango. That was a pro-am, and I was the “am.” I also really enjoy writing poetry. LAURENCE KESTERSON LAURENCE KESTERSON What does diversity mean to you? A lot of times, people just think race, but I define it in the broadest sense: identity in general, everything from sexual orientation, religious views, and political affiliation to occupational status, and the ways in which those identities intersect and engage. And once you move past the makeup of all of those identities, you can focus on how to be inclusive and equitable. in this issue 40 MOMENT IN TIME Mohammed Lotif, assistant director of the Intercultural Center, and Hanan Ahmed ’19 welcome students to Swarthmore on Move-In Day. VOTES FOR WOMEN! I’m With Her...And Her... And Her...And Her Spotlighting women who ran for office before the 19th Amendment. WENDY CHMIELEWSKI / HER HAT WAS IN THE RING by Elizabeth Slocum FALL 2016 Periodical Postage PAID Philadelphia, PA and Additional Mailing Offices THE MUSIC MAN p16 WITCH TRIAL p12 A NATURAL WOMAN p67 ISSUE 1 500 College Ave. Swarthmore, PA 19081–1306 www.swarthmore.edu VOLUME CXIV SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN Politics, not as usual FALL 2016 E. PLURIBUS UNUM p18 LAURENCE KESTERSON SEND IN THE CLOWNS p30 Facing an audience or a death-defying trapeze drop, aerial artist/clown JOANNA WRIGHT ’08 knows all about fear. But no matter how upside down the world may seem, clowns push through fear to find truth. “So do Swatties,” she says. HANG IN THERE