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SWARTHMORE
College Bulletin
Gilmore
Stott
An Appreciation
March 1998
Gamelan premieres
The inaugural concert of the
College’s new gamelan—an
Indonesian percussion
orchestra—was held in
December, featuring guest
dancer I Wayan Dedik Rahman
in a program of music and
dance from Bali. See page 6 for
more on the gamelan.
SWARTHMORE
COLLEGE BULLETIN
MARCH 1998
Editor: Jeffrey Lott
Associate Editor: Nancy Lehman ’87
News Editor: Kate Downing
Class Notes Editor: Andrea Hammer
Desktop Publishing: Audree Penner
Intern: Jim Harker ’99
Designer: Bob Wood
Editor Emerita:
Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49
Associate Vice President
for External Affairs:
Barbara Haddad Ryan ’59
Cover: Associate Provost Emeritus
and Associate Dean of the College
Gilmore Stott still comes to work in
Parrish Hall. Photograph by George
Widman. Story on page 16.
Changes of Address:
Send address label along with new
address to: Alumni Records,
Swarthmore College, 500 College
Ave., Swarthmore PA 19081-1397.
Phone: (610) 328-8435. Or e-mail
alumnirecords@swarthmore.edu.
Contacting Swarthmore College:
College Operator: (610) 328-8000
http://www.swarthmore.edu
Admissions: (610) 328-8300
admissions@swarthmore.edu
Alumni Relations: (610) 328-8402
alumni@swarthmore.edu
Publications: (610) 328-8568
bulletin@swarthmore.edu
http://www.swarthmore.edu/
Admin/publications/bulletin/
Registrar: (610) 328-8297
registrar@swarthmore.edu
©1998 Swarthmore College
Printed in U.S.A. on recycled paper
The Swarthmore College Bulletin
(ISSN 0888-2126), of which this is volume XCV, number 4, is published in
August, September, December, March,
and June by Swarthmore College, 500
College Avenue, Swarthmore PA
19081-1397. Periodical postage paid
at Swarthmore PA and additional
mailing offices. Permit No. 0530-620.
Postmaster: Send address changes to
Swarthmore College Bulletin, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore PA 190811397.
10 Off the Grid
During January, when many New Englanders found themselves
without power following massive ice storms, Raymond ’70 and
Madelon Toll Kelly ’72 were able to offer neighbors hot showers.
Their salvation? A self-reliant, photovoltaic solar power system.
By Tom Krattenmaker
16 His Feet Are in the Real World
Gil Stott gave the phrase “in loco parentis” a new meaning, says
David Wright ’69. In talking with other alumni, he found that their
stories of Stott’s fundamental decency and quiet spirit all lead back
to his caring home, with its bread, concertos, and conversation.
By David Wright ’69
20 Network News
Learning the ropes at Women Work! Sending out electronic
news. Studying migrant workers’ rights at the U.N. In January
75 students took advantage of the College’s externship program,
with alumni in a variety of professions serving as mentors.
By Barbara Haddad Ryan ’59 and Jeffrey Lott
64 I Can Do It
In the 1950s as well as today, Swarthmore was a place where
women could get an extraordinary start in science. Maxine
Frank Singer ’52 talks about the atmosphere of freedom and
optimism that nurtured her development as a young scientist.
By Maxine Frank Singer ’52
2
4
28
32
37
58
Letters
Collection
Alumni Digest
Class Notes
Deaths
Recent Books by Alumni
L
ast fall when we asked the College’s records office for the
names of alumni who count Gilmore Stott as a “Swarthmore influence,” we got a long list. Despite the fact that
his 48-year career here has been spent largely as an
administrator, the list confirmed that for generations of Swarthmore students, Stott has been a teacher and mentor of the first
order.
Most of us have encountered a teacher who transcended the
ordinary business of schooling. Some taught invaluable skills or
showed us new ways to think. Others took a contrary approach,
challenging us to define ourselves in opposition. Still others—
and these, I think, are the most influential—saw and affirmed in
us qualities we had not yet seen in ourselves.
I’ve been lucky enough to have encountered all three.
More than any other person, Richard Gregory taught me how
to write. In his 10th-grade English class, we diagrammed sentences as though they were
astrophysical equations. We
took daily quizzes (made up of
poor writing culled from our
own sophomoric papers) in
Our most influential mentors see
which we not only had to corand affirm in us qualities
rect the grammar but improve
we have not yet seen in ourselves.
the style as well. “How could
you say this more clearly?” he
would ask, waving The Elements of Style by Strunk and White and
making us rewrite again and again.
On the contrary side, there was Hal Lewis, creative director of
the magazine where I worked before coming to Swarthmore. Hal
was a design genius, a brilliant polymath who was also capricious beyond all reason. He yelled a lot, driving the staff to do its
best work; in a perverse way, he brought us together as a creative team. I was a much better editor (and, I hope, person) after
those two hellish years with Hal.
Finally there was my printmaking teacher, David Bumbeck of
Middlebury College. As a senior art major, I applied to some of
the best graduate schools of the fine arts—and was rejected at
every one. In truth my portfolio was weak. I had good technical
skills but struggled with drawing. But Dave Bumbeck, a great
draughtsman himself, never discouraged me. Instead, he gently
steered me into a master’s in teaching program at the Rhode
Island School of Design, his alma mater. He saw something in me
that I had not yet seen in myself—that I might make a better art
teacher than artist. He was right, and I went on to spend 12
happy years in the classroom.
What about your mentors? Because of his wide following and
his longevity at the College, Gil Stott is a shining example of the
mentoring that happens to almost every student here. I know
that our article about him will prompt Bulletin readers to think of
many other “Swarthmore influences,” and I’d be interested to
hear about them.
—J.L.
PARLOR TALK
2
✍
L
E
T
College promotes “mental
apartheid” with support groups
To the Editor:
In a day when most Americans want
to end barriers based on race and
ethnicity, Swarthmore seems to be
going in the opposite direction.
That’s the message I get from the
piece “Faces Like Mine” (December
1997) and subsequent e-mail correspondence with certain administrators and students.
It makes me sad.
One of the wonderful aspects of
Swarthmore I remember was that
race, place of origin, and the like
didn’t constitute an “identity” giving
rise to specific expectations or entitlements. It would have been outrageous to suggest they did.
The atmosphere encouraged students to develop their own identities, based not only on skin color
and antecedents but, more significantly, on interests, skills, values,
aspirations, and indefinable qualities such as personality.
By contrast today the College
seems preoccupied with putting
labels on students according to
their “cultures.”
The largest division is between
“whites” (essentially students with
European forebears) and “people of
color” (everyone else). Beyond that
the gross cultural subcategories
into which Swarthmore seems to
divide its students include “Asians”
(whose culture comprises more
than a thousand languages, religions, and sects); “Hispanics” (virtually anyone from a family that
speaks or has at some time spoken
Spanish); and “blacks” (who include
not only descendants of American
slaves but also Ethiopian Jews,
Haitian voodoo practitioners, and
West African farmers).
In turn the College sponsors
“exclusive” organizations, also
called “support groups,” for members of the various cultures. These
groups are permitted to bar participation by students who don’t
belong to their race, ethnicity, or
culture. For example, if my daughter who sings well and speaks fluent
Spanish had chosen to attend
Swarthmore, she would have been
prohibited from singing in the
gospel choir or participating in the
Hispanic student group for a single
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
T
E
R
reason—her grandparents came
from Eastern Europe.
In short, enlightened Swarthmore is participating in that most
unenlightened of activities: racial
and ethnic segregation.
I realize that Swarthmore’s
impulse is benign. Its administrators understand, as do most of us,
that despite all of the good will and
progress, there remains in our
country much racial and ethnic
prejudice as well as the residue of
past racism and prejudice.
But the question is: What do we
as Americans of different backgrounds do about it? Specifically,
what should a small, elite, historically Quaker liberal arts college do
about it?
Should the College promote a
mental apartheid in which people of
color are seen as having racially
and linguistically determined identities inherently different from the
rest of us?
Moreover, should the College
sponsor clubs that discriminate
merely because their members or
their ancestors have been (in some
cases, not all) objects of discrimination in the past? Is a new style of
racism and discrimination the proper answer to the old-style racism
and discrimination?
I think the answer is no. On a
moral level, officially sanctioned
racial or ethnic segregation is simply wrong. On a practical level, the
dubious lesson of such practices is
that, for some reason, “minority students” are privileged to engage in
exclusionary, bigoted behavior
barred to everyone else.
Others will disagree with me.
Obviously the Swarthmore administration disagrees.
But so far in the alumni publications and e-mail correspondence,
I’ve read nothing that approaches
even a minimally acceptable level of
moral reasoning concerning the
College’s attitudes. Without a rational, good-faith discussion, the College, the students, and the rest of us
are doomed to be prisoners of our
own inflated senses of grievance or
guilt or both.
PETE BECK ’57
Greenwich, Conn.
More letters on page 30
MARCH 1998
P O S T I N G S
S
I
n January I decided to stop playing
varsity basketball. I love the game,
but I just felt it was time to make a
choice. Perhaps I should explain.
With all of the academic rigors of
Swarthmore, it might seem unlikely
that many would have time to participate in intercollegiate sports. But this
is not the case. Athletics is a major
part of life at Swarthmore College. Last
year more than a third of all students
participated in varsity sports ranging
from field hockey and lacrosse to basketball and baseball. The
College’s intramural and
club sports attract even
more students.
The pleasure of competition is what drives
many of these student
athletes. I’ve always
enjoyed athletic competition, and, over the years,
I have had the good fortune to excel in basketball. For me basketball is
not just a sport but a passion. When I step on the
court, I feel like I’m at
home. The game is mine,
and you are playing my
game. I love the atmosphere in the
gym—the crowd right up near me
yelling in anticipation of a great play.
My high school team was 59-6 during my junior and senior years, and I
thrived on the pressure that went
along with playing for a nationally
ranked school. For a while I had
dreams of playing in the NBA, and I
was recruited by Division I schools,
such as Davidson College, Ohio University, and Manhattan College. But I
turned down their scholarship offers
because, although it has no athletic
scholarships, Swarthmore offered me
the chance to receive the best education in the country—and ultimately the
option of not playing basketball.
Basketball is still a passion of mine,
but playing on Swarthmore’s varsity
took two or three hours a day, hours
that I knew I needed for study. My
future does not lie on the basketball
court but rather in business or politics.
I’ve become fascinated by the courses
I am taking in political science, especially those dealing with how America
interacts with other countries on a
global scale. If I did not have that extra
time to study every day, I know that I
would not be successful in my political
science and economic courses. I just
had to choose.
Although academics played a substantial role in my decision, I suppose
that another factor was also involved.
It’s clear that the level of competition
in Division III basketball is not as high
as what I had become used to in high
school, and even though I am a highly
motivated athlete, I could not maintain
the same level of intensity—and therefore the desire to play—
that I once felt.
Don’t get me wrong.
Division III athletics are
perfect for a school like
Swarthmore, where
sports are viewed primarily as a release from the
stresses of studying. If
Swarthmore aspired to
Division I–style athletics,
it would not enjoy the
broad participation in
sports that it has today.
The commitment necessary to be successful in
Division I requires an
enormous amount of
time that Swarthmore students do not
have because of the College’s high academic standards.
I don’t blame anyone else for my
decision to stop playing varsity basketball. I had no problem with the coaching staff or any of my teammates. Head
coach Brad Hofmann ’93 [longtime
coach Lee Wimberly is on sabbatical
this season] brought energy to practice every day. He relates very well to ,
and is respected by, all of the players.
I hope that athletics will continue to
be a major part of life at Swarthmore.
There will always be students who
think that they will be better off if they
don’t participate in sports, and there
will also be students who enjoy and
excel in athletics. Regardless of
whether or not we choose to participate in sports, all of us came to Swarthmore to get an education that will
make our lives successful.
—J.T. Haskins ’00
“In January
I decided
to stop
playing
varsity
basketball.”
Here’s why.
Haskins, a sophomore from Beaver
Falls, Pa., was the leading scorer on the
men’s basketball team when he made
his decision.
3
COLLECTION
S WA RT H M O R E
TODAY
Whither the Ville?
T
he College is actively working toward a consensus
with the borough of Swarthmore “to identify ways to
sustain or enhance the vitality of the business district
and the quality of life for all of us as residents, and for the
College as an institution,” according to President Alfred H.
Bloom
In remarks to the faculty in February, he spoke of a
process that began several years ago when then-member of
the Board of Managers Christopher Leinberger ’72 warned
his fellow Managers of the pattern of urban decay in
Philadelphia’s inner suburbs that would affect the area
between Swarthmore and the airport and Chester over the
next several decades.
At about the same time, President Bloom said, he and
other College officials began a series of meetings with the
Swarthmore mayor and Borough Council to discuss topics
including parking, traffic, public safety, zoning regulations,
and taxation. “But often,” he said, “we returned to their concern over the economic viability of the business district.”
Motivated by the recognition of a mutual interest on the
part of the College and the borough of Swarthmore, the Borough Council created a Strategic Planning Committee (SPC)
in January to explore means of sustaining or enhancing the
vitality of the business district. One of the first acts of the
SPC was to invite Leinberger, a nationally recognized
expert on urban planning issues, to speak at an open
meeting on Jan. 8.
Leinberger told the audience that “we in
this country have been reinventing our
metropolitan areas. We have been
increasing their size geometrically, and
we have been engaging in what I call the
strategy of the disposable city, and now
the disposable inner suburb. We basi-
cally feel we can run from our problems and strike out for a
new place out on the fringe.”
“Chris outlined his model and his view of its implications
for this area,” President Bloom said, “but he also offered
some specific examples of the kinds of improvements that
would not only sustain but revitalize the business district.
These examples included opening an inn as well as one or
more restaurants, with the assumption that the sale of alcohol be permitted; moving the College bookstore to the Ville;
and extending the cover over the [railroad] underpass to
create a pedestrian mall.”
At the January meeting, Board of Managers Chairman J.
Lawrence Shane ’56 told the audience that the College is
“very dependent on the health of this borough. It’s one of
the things that’s going to influence a student’s decision and
be a part of our competitive advantage.”
The SPC prepared a request for a marketing survey to
learn what kinds of development would or would not be
economically sustainable. Unfortunately, said Bloom, the
request incorporated several of Leinberger’s specific suggestions and “gave rise to the perception that the planning
committee was acting with an agenda already in mind—and
worse, that the College had an agenda that the planning
committee had adopted wholesale. Neither of these was the
case.”
Currently the SPC is clarifying its request and moving
ahead with broad consultation with its various constituencies as to what would and would not enhance
the quality of life of the Ville. President Bloom
stressed that the College has only yet to begin
considering possibilities and has a “very
long way to go, including a good deal of
work together on campus, before arriving
at consensus on any one of them.”
BARBARA SEYMOUR ʼ63
The College and the borough of Swarthmore look to reach consensus on revitalizing the business district.
4
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
Hans Wallach is dead at 93
H
ans Wallach, Centennial Professor
Emeritus of Psychology, died Feb.
5. He was 93.
A major contributor to the field of
visual and auditory perception and
learning, Wallach was elected to the
National Academy of Science in 1986.
His research on perceptual adaptation
advanced the field’s understanding of
the role of learning in the perceptual
process. In addition he was credited
with discovering the basic psychological principle that makes stereophonic
reproduction possible.
President Alfred H. Bloom, who
taught with Wallach in the Psychology
Department in the mid-1970s said: “The
excitement of his intellect and the
promise of his warm support figured
prominently in why I and many young
faculty were drawn to Swarthmore. His
combined dedication to fine teaching
and significant research exemplify the
mission of this community, and his
achievements in uncovering the
dynamics of the human perceptual systems stand among Swarthmore’s most
distinguished contributions to science.”
Wallach came to the College as a
research associate in 1936, a position
he held until 1942, when he became an
instructor. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1944, to associate professor in 1948, and to full professor in
1953. He chaired the Psychology
Department from 1957 to 1966. Wallach
retired from the active faculty in 1975
but continued his work as a research
associate until 1987.
A member of the Institute for
Advanced Study in Princeton from 1954
to 1955, Wallach won numerous awards
and fellowships during his career. He
was a Guggenheim Fellow, a visiting
professor at the New School for Social
Research, and the 1987 winner of the
Howard Cosby Warren Medal of the
Society of Experimental Psychologists.
A memorial gathering will be held on
campus Sunday, May 24, at 3 p.m. in
the Whittier Room of the Swarthmore Friends Meeting. A reception at
President Bloom’s house will follow.
Those interested in attending should
contact the Psychology Department by
e-mail at psychology@swarthmore.edu
or by phone at (610) 328-8431. A memorial fund has been established in Wallach’s name to support a variety of
scholarly pursuits in psychology.
Former Board member Widing dies
T
heodore Widing ’28, a longtime insurance agent
and a member of the College’s Board of Managers, died Jan. 16. He was 92.
Mr. Widing began writing insurance policies
shortly after graduating from Swarthmore. As an
agent specializing in life policies, he was a member
and past president of the Million Dollar Round Table,
the industry’s top producers. He was still working at
the Delaware Valley Financial Group Inc. a month
before his death.
Mr. Widing served on the board from 1940 to 1941
and again from 1950 to 1958. He also served as gift
co-chair for his class’s 50th reunion.
His wife, Esther Wilson Widing ’28, predeceased
him; he is survived by four sons, including Theodore
Widing Jr. ’58.
MARCH 1998
Theodore Widing ’28 was a
top-producing insurance agent
and member of the College’s
Board of Managers.
Still searchin g ... The search continues
for three key administrators at the College: a vice president for alumni, development, and public relations; dean of
the College; and College librarian.
In the vice presidential search, the
executive search firm of Isaacson, Miller
is conducting a nationwide canvass and
working toward an early April presentation of candidates. The targeted date
for interviews with finalists is June.
The dean’s search committee spent
last month interviewing six semifinalists
(one of whom is Robert Gross ’62, currently acting dean). This month three or
four final candidates will return for twoday visits. The committee hopes to
make its recommendation to the president in mid-April.
The librarian’s search became a little
more difficult when two of the four final
candidates withdrew in January. The
committee then brought two new candidates to campus in February and
expected to make a selection by midMarch.
New veeps ... Maurice Eldridge ’61 and
Larry Schall ’75 have been named to
two new vice presidential posts.
Eldridge, a member of the administration since 1989, is now vice president
for college and community relations. He
had been associate vice president and
executive assistant to the president and
he retains the latter part of that title.
Schall is vice president for facilities and
services. He had served as associate
vice president for facilities and services
since joining the staff in 1990.
Up the ladder ... Full professorship has
been awarded to Ann McNamee, music;
Marjorie Murphy, history; Stephen
O’Connell, economics; K. Ann Renninger, education; and Eva Travers, education. Appointments with continuous
tenure and promotion to associate professorships were granted to John
Alston, music; Elizabeth Bolton, English
literature; Sibelan Forrester, modern
languages and literatures; Carl Grossman, physics; Allen Kuharski, theatre
studies; and Tamsin Lorraine, philosophy. Reappointed and promoted to
associate professor was William Marshall, theatre studies.
5
COLLECTION
DENG-JENG LEE
Gamelan inaugural ... Swarthmore
students, faculty and staff members,
and friends joined in presenting the
first concert featuring the College’s
newly commissioned Gamelan Semara
Santi. Gamelan, derived from a
Javanese term for striking a percussion instrument, refers collectively to
a set of musical instruments and to
the people who play them. About 45
instruments make up the College’s col-
lection, and rehearsals are conducted
the way it is done in Indonesia: players listen to one another and play by
ear and by touch, without musical
notation. There is little room for
improvisation in Balinese music. The
gamelan was the of idea Thomas Whitman ’82, assistant professor of music,
who became interested in Indonesian
music while on a Luce grant in the
mid-1980s. Last year he traveled to
Bali, where he commissioned the
gamelan on behalf of the College from
I Wayan Beratha, a composer and a
distinguished instrument maker.
Semara Santi takes its named from
Semar, the god of love, and Santi,
derived from the Sanskrit word for
peace, to honor peace-loving Quaker
traditions. Here (left to right) Sonja
Downing ’98, Michelle Park ’98, and
George Gibbard ’01 play the reyong.
Tuned in ... Michael Jones, director of the Language
Resource Center, checks out the low-noise block converter on the College’s latest high-tech piece of equipment—a satellite dish being used to pick up broadcasts
from countries all over the world. Installed on the roof
of Kohlberg Hall in mid-October, the dish is a steerable
unit capable of addressing more than one satellite.
Jones said most programming picked up will be video,
including news and variety shows. “We’re working on
determining what kind of programs faculty members
will want for their classes as well as what they and their
students might want to watch live.” The dish is part of a
$1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
given jointly to the Modern Languages departments of
Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford to integrate
new approaches to teaching foreign languages. Facilities
are being upgraded at each of the three campuses to
reach a common level of technical capability.
ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS
6
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
Faculty view: Does equality mean treating everyone the same?
T
ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS
to the same things, even if they could not possibly ever be
he civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and
the same. This ethic has been a basic social code in the
the related black power, American Indian, women’s,
United States, leading even the well intentioned to conand gay and lesbian movements, challenged the
clude that difference should not be acknowledged.
assumption that assimilation at any cost should continue
Most Americans have been weaned on the syllogistic
to be an American ideal. Moreover, each movement made
package that difference implies hierarchy; hierarchy
explicit that in the United States, a person’s race, sex, reliimplies exploitation; and exploitation implies oppression;
gion, ethnicity, financial standing, sexual orientation, and
therefore, to avoid oppression, difference should not be
physical ability have always been crucial indicators of edurecognized. The leap in logic occurs early when difference
cational and occupational opportunities and of quality and
itself is understood as the locus of the problem rather than
length of life.
the various hierarchies of privilege and penalty that have
It was as a direct result of these movements that the
shaped the nation.
branches of our federal government were encouraged to
America’s colleges and universities in general—and
codify into law the country’s best ideals of participatory
Swarthmore College in particular—have never been exempt
democracy. As Columbia University historian Manning
from participation in affirming the various hierarchies of
Marable observed when he spoke at Swarthmore in Februprivilege and penalty. Thus, as the free
ary, the pressure exerted from the marexpression of bigotry and harassment
gins of the society brought about tremenrise on American campuses, it is imperadous change at the center.
tive that we avoid retreating into the selfMaking race and sex discrimination illecongratulatory delusion that colleges are
gal—and the explicit expression of bigotry
intellectual safe havens unsullied by conunpopular—were wonderful beginnings of
cerns of difference. College campuses are
the long and difficult process of eradicatcontexts, and, like all contexts, they are
ing oppression in America. Yet many
places where race, sex, and class relaAmericans treated the Civil Rights Act of
tions get worked out over a range of
1965 as an apotheosis, erroneously assumissues from student and faculty composiing that formal equality instantly created
tion to curriculum content.
informal equality as well. The goals of the
The project of inclusion that Swarthmovement, therefore, remained incommore has undertaken, despite its someplete: Hatred, intolerance, stereotypical
times confused rhetoric of providing culthinking, and discrimination—rather than
tural groups for minority students withbeing interrogated, exposed, and chalout the acknowledgment of how much
lenged—were recoded and moved underthese groups and their constituents make
ground, becoming implicit and convoluted.
Sarah Susannah Willie is assistant
the place intellectually stronger and
Thus we find ourselves in a strange hisprofessor of sociology and will
torical moment in which there are as many become director of the Black Studies socially healthier, is the challenging projAmericans who embrace multiculturalism Program in the fall. Her book, When ect of pursuing what Martin Luther King
Jr. called “the double victory.” The Colas there are those uneasy about any celeWe Were Black: College, Race, and
lege’s decision to be color and culture
bration of difference that transcends an
the Performance of Identity, is due
conscious is evidence of maturity,
interest in food and music.
out from Routledge Press next year.
courage, and wisdom.
Opposition to multiculturalism and the
Part of the college experience is learning how to transpolicies that promote it runs the gamut from the blatantly
late: faculty members translate knowledge and the passion
self-serving to the idealistically principled.
for pursuing it; administrators translate leadership on camIn the case of the former, embracing this country’s
pus and enthusiasm about the institution to the wider
diverse present, and acknowledging a national history of
world; students translate their experiences and interpretasystematic oppression and imperialism, exposes the hierartions of what they learn to each other, their professors, and
chies of the past and their continued influence on the presadministrators. And members of the staff, often unsung,
ent. Such exposure means that the privileges that accompatranslate their skills and knowledge, making the College a
ny old hierarchies will be challenged and most likely upset.
hospitable place.
In the case of the latter, opposition on principle to
Swarthmore’s goal must be to encourage in each of its
group-specific programs and consciousness evolves from
participants the drive to become translators and offer them
the belief that attention to difference goes against the core
the tools to do so. For as we become better translators of
beliefs of this society where justice is understood as equaliexperience, of culture, of ideas about justice and compasty, and equality is thought to mean same treatment.
sion, we step outside of our first and most comfortable
This notion of social justice needs to be challenged and
“language.” This is not just a skill of mastery but one of
reinterpreted. It reflects an ethic of assimilation drawn
humility, for as translators we must acknowledge that even
selectively from ideas about equality that dominated the
after listening carefully, we do not always get it right. It is
country from the Civil War through the McCarthy era. It
exhausting work from which we each need occasional
wasn’t just that everyone was supposed to be treated the
respite. But it is the most crucial work of democratic living.
same under the law, but everyone was supposed to aspire
MARCH 1998
7
COLLECTION
Freeman Palmer ’79 joins Board of Managers
F
reeman Palmer ’79, controller of the New York
Theological Seminary and
former vice president of the
Swarthmore Alumni Association, has been elected to the
Board of Managers.
Palmer began his professional career as a financial
analyst at CBS Radio. After
holding a series of other
finance positions in televi-
member of the Black Alumni
Weekend planning committee and is the administrative
coordinator of the Swarthmore College Alumni Gospel
Choir.
Palmer earned an M.B.A.
from the University of Pennsylvania before enrolling as a
master of divinity student at
New York Theological Seminary.
sion and radio, he was a
partner at New Life Event
Productions from 1996 to
1997 before moving to his
current position in the seminary.
Since graduation Palmer
has remained an active alumnus. He served as a member
of the Alumni Council, chairing its nominating committee. He has also served as a
College works to make the campus more friendly for the disabled
S
KEY TO BUILDINGS
3. Beardsley Hall
4. Bond and Lodges
5. Clothier Memorial
7. Cornell Science Library
9. Cunningham House
10. Dana Hall
11. DuPont Science Building
12. Hallowell Hall
14. Hicks Hall
15. Kohlberg Hall
8
17. Lang Music Building
18. Eugene M. and Theresa Lang
Performing Arts Center
19. Martin Building
21. McCabe Library
22. Mertz Hall
23. Old Tarble
25. Papazian Hall
26. Parrish Hall
27. Pearson Hall
31. Scott Map Building
33.
34.
38.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
47.
48.
Sharples Dining Hall
Sproul Observatory
Trotter Hall
Benjamin West House
Wharton Hall
Whittier House
Willets Hall
Wister Greenhouse
Women’s Resource Center
Worth Hall
Worth Health Center
ince 1993 College officials
have been working to
improve access to campus facilities for those with various physical disabilities and to comply
with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Of the 45 public
facilities, access has been
improved to 15. This map of
upper campus indicates generally accessible buildings (green),
partially accessible buildings
(blue), and nonaccessible buildings (red). During the current
year, improvements included
Trotter renovations, which created a fully accessible building;
new accessible Parrish Hall
paths (orange); new entrance
and ramp at the Benjamin West
Visitor Center; a new chair lift
for the Lang Music Building,
improving accessibility to the
Underhill Music Library, lobby,
and Lang Concert Hall; new
accessible paths, sidewalks, and
handicap parking throughout
North Campus, especially
around Trotter, Pearson, and
Beardsley halls and the rose garden. “Our goal in the years to
come,” said Mark Evans, director
of planning and construction, “is
to create full ADA-compliant
accessible facilities for three residence halls, all academic programs, all public support facilities, all athletic programs, and
public administrative programs.”
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
Women’s indoor track repeats as
Centennial Conference champions
T
he women’s indoor track and field squad captured
its second consecutive Centennial Conference championship, compiling a conference-record 123 points.
The Garnet outdistanced second-place Haverford by 30
points. Seniors Danielle Duffy and Catherine Laine and
Desiree Peterkin ’00 led the charge for the Garnet. Duffy
captured the 200-meter dash and the 400-meter run, whereas Peterkin tied the school and conference record in the
triple jump with a leap of 38' 8.25", qualifying her for the
NCAA Championships, and she placed second in the long
jump. Laine compiled 59 points and placed second in the
200-meter dash, the triple jump, the long jump, the 55meter dash, and the 55-meter hurdles. The trio also ran legs
on the winning 4 x 200 relay with Wonda Joseph ’00 and the
4 x 400 relay with Stephanie Herring ’99. In her first meet,
Anne Baumgartner ’01 shattered the school record in the
shot put with a toss of 36' 3". Laine broke the school record
in the 55-meter dash with a time of 7.55 seconds.
The men’s indoor track and field team posted a 7-2
mark for the season and placed fourth at the Centennial
Conference championships. Steve Dawson ’00 was a double
winner at the conference meet, capturing the high jump
and the long jump. Dawson out-jumped his closest competitor by 7", clearing a conference record height of 6' 9". Dawson also captured the long jump with a leap of 21' and took
second in the triple jump with a distance of 42' 10.75".
Mason Tootell ’99 placed second in the 55-meter hurdles.
The men’s swimming team posted a 9-3 overall mark
and went 5-1 in conference duals while swimming to their
third consecutive second-place finish at the Centennial
championships. Fred Gerson ’99 was a double winner, capturing the 100 and 200 breaststroke, eclipsing the school
Swimmer Fred Gerson ’99 set College and Centennial Conference records in both the 100- and 200-meter breast stroke.
and conference records in both events. Gerson set the 100
mark of :58.56 in trials and the 200 time of 2:09.42 in the
final. Andy Robbins ’98 won the 200 backstroke for the third
consecutive year in a provisional qualifying time of 1:55.89
and was a member of the winning 800-yard freestyle relay
team that included Mark Friedberg ’98, Ryan Fruh ’99, and
Carl Sanders ’98.
The women’s swimming team posted an 8-5 mark overall and went 5-2 in conference duals. The Garnet women
placed second at the Centennial championship meet for the
fourth consecutive season. Kris Robertson ’98 captured the
MARCH 1998
P
New head football coach named
eter Alvanos, defensive coordinator at the University of Chicago, has been named head coach of
Swarthmore’s football program. He replaces Karl
Miran, who was asked to resign in December.
A 1988 graduate of Drexel University, Alvanos has
held the positions of lineback and defensive line
coach at the University of Redlands for two seasons
and was outside lineback coach at Lehigh University,
also for two seasons.
In an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer,
Alvanos said, “I felt that everyone I talked to at
Swarthmore—the athletic director, the president, the
provost—is committed to getting football back on
track, to be a positive experience within the academic framework.”
Alvanos will assume his duties at the end of this
month.
200 backstroke for the second straight year while Molly
Marino ’98 had 49 points, placing second in the 200 backstroke and third in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle.
The women’s basketball team capped its 8-16 season
with a 58-38 rout of archrival Haverford. Guard Heather
Marandola ’01 led the Garnet in scoring, averaging 13.4
points per game. Junior captain Jean Quinn led the team in
rebounds, pulling down 10.3 per game to finish second in
the conference. Freshman guard Kristen English averaged
10.5 points a game and set a school record, connecting on
36 three pointers this season, and now ranks second in
career three pointers. Senior captain Michelle Walsh completed her career by playing in all 95 games, which ranks
second on the career list.
The men’s basketball team capped a rebuilding year
with a 66-49 victory over Haverford to snap a 24-game losing streak. Junior captain Tim Schofield led the squad with
a 16.5-points-per-game average and was named to the AllCentennial Conference Second Team. Junior captain J.J.
Purdy was second in scoring, averaging 7.3 points per
game, and led the team in rebounds, pulling down 4.9 per
game. The Garnet finished the season at 1-22.
The wrestling team posted a 9-15-1 mark and placed fifth
at the Centennial Conference championships. Senior 190pound Alec Stall placed sixth at the NCAA East Regionals.
At the Centennial Conference championships, hosted by
Swarthmore, Stall placed second, while classmate Pete Balvanz placed second at 150 pounds, and junior Adrian Wilson finished third at 134 pounds.
The badminton team posted a 4-2 mark and placed second in the PAIAW standings. The team finished in third
place at the Northeast Collegiate Badminton Championships, held at Swarthmore. The team of Tam Doan ’98 and
Wendy Kemp ’99 placed second in the women’s doubles
final, whereas Doan finished third in singles play. At the
PAIAW Tournament, the team of juniors Erika Johansen and
Jen Chen were victorious in the doubles championship,
leading the Garnet to a third-place finish.
In Hood Trophy action, the Garnet narrowed the Fords
lead to 6-5 after capturing three points this winter.
9
OFF THE
GRID
Power lines don’t come near Ray and
Madelon Kelly’s home in the Maine
woods—and they like it that way.
By Tom Krattenmaker
W
RAY & MADELON KELLY
hen a historic ice storm
assaulted the Northeast in
January, knocking out electrical power for more than half a million people, Raymond ’70 and Madelon Toll Kelly ’72 were a beacon of
light. Since relocating to the Maine
woods eight years ago, the Kellys
have lived without a connection to the
power grid, relying instead on solar
power to run their computer, television, refrigerator, and the rest of the
usual array of electrical gadgetry. A
solar-powered home in sunshine-challenged Maine? The Kellys’ devotion to
alternative power struck many people
as odd—until the aftermath of the January 8 storm. A week later, while most
people in their region struggled without heat and electricity, the Kellys
January’s ice storms left many Maine
homes without power for days—but not
Ray and Madelon Kelly’s solar-powered
house on 80 acres in the deep woods.
10
were helping out their neighbors with
offers of hot showers and a chance to
watch the pro football play-offs.
“The storm proved to be a great
advertisement for solar-powered systems, which are self-reliant in even the
most trying of conditions,” Ray says.
“As we offered assistance to our
neighbors, I thought we were a bit like
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. Our
solar-powered lives are usually
thought to be eccentric, but on an icy,
foggy night....”
Despite their concern for the environment, Madelon and Raymond Kelly
didn’t think a house off the electricity
grid was a practical idea when they
got ready to relocate from Pennsylvania to the woods outside of Washington, Maine. But the news from Central Maine Power Company got them
to give solar power a second look:
Their dream property was so far off
the beaten track it would have cost
the Kellys an estimated $20,000 to get
hooked up.
“At that point,” Raymond recalls,
“we realized we could develop a pretty good solar-energy system for the
same amount of money. A lot of people doubted that the technology
would be sufficient, but we decided to
take a gamble.”
As the Kellys are happily demonstrating, life off the grid doesn’t have
to be an exercise in deprivation. Ninety feet long and more than 3,000
square feet in area, their home is surrounded by 80 mostly wooded acres,
a large pond with beaver lodges, and a
corral that is home to two horses and
six goats. (In addition, they have four
dogs, 11 cats, and three egg-laying
ducks. Then there’s the local
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
At right, sunlight pours through doubleglazed windows onto the solar-friendly
tile floors on the south side of their
3,000-square-foot home. A network
of warm-water tubes running just below
the tiles and a wood-burning stove
provide additional heat.
MARCH 1998
PHOTOS BY MARC GLASS
To power their dream house in the
Maine woods, Raymond ’70 and
Madelon Toll Kelly ’72 rely on a bank of
photovoltaic cells attached to the roof
of their house. The Kellys, who moved
to their isolated property eight years
ago, found it less costly to develop
a solar-powered system than to be
hooked up to the local power company.
11
RAY & MADELON KELLY
MARC GLASS
An array of 32 solar panels lines the
roof of the Kellys’ home. They say that
they have become more attuned to the
vagaries of the weather. A string of
cloudy days, for example, makes doing
a load of wash out of the question.
“When you know where your electricity
is coming from,” says Madelon, “you
tend to be less wasteful.”
12
wildlife—geese, blue herons, deer,
turkeys, and the occasional bear and
moose.)
One key to their off-the-grid existence is a bank of 32 photovoltaic
cells attached to the roof. Arrayed in
four long rows facing south for optimum exposure, the cells capture sunlight and send the resulting electrons
through a short path of regulators and
converters that transform the energy
into usable—and storable—electricity. To get the Kellys through cloudy
days, 24 large DC batteries store the
excess power generated during periods of abundant sunshine. Their
equipment, in 1989 dollars, totaled
under $17,000—less than what they
would have paid for an umbilical cord
to the electric power system.
The gadgetry, although crucial, is
only part of a larger design for maximum energy efficiency. The north side
of the house—the cold side—is protected by trees and an earthen berm.
The south side, by contrast, is wide
open to the sun. Even in the winter,
the sun’s rays pour in through large
double-glazed windows and settle on
a solar-friendly ceramic tile floor. The
floor draws additional warmth from a
network of warm-water tubes running
just below the tile. To get them
through the long winter nights, the
Kellys keep a wood stove burning.
And to ensure that none of this hardearned heat is squandered, the house
is insulated to the hilt, with fiberglass,
sheet rock, and a reflective insulating
material called “foil ray.”
The same efficiency is built into the
Kellys’ electricity consumption. They
use fluorescent lights, which use less
electricity than bulbs, and a miserly
refrigerator that runs on DC (rather
than the conventional AC) power.
Electricity hogs like hair dryers and
irons—whose heating coils require
lots of energy—are verboten. For
peace of mind, the Kellys have a
propane generator ready to keep the
current flowing in a pinch.
“One of the nice things about this is
that the power company didn’t have
to come in here with poles and wires,
knocking out trees,” Raymond says.
“Our use of solar power has saved
this two-mile stretch from being
superdeveloped.”
Their reliance on the sun has made
the Kellys more subject to the
vagaries of nature. For instance, the
washing machine strains their electricity supply; after a string of cloudy
days, doing the wash is out of the
question. “I get an odd look someSWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
times when I remark to someone at
work, ‘Great. Finally a sunny day. I can
do laundry,’” Raymond says. “When
you know where your electricity is
coming from, you tend to be less
wasteful.”
Being dependent on nature has
made the Kellys more appreciative of
it. The changing of seasons becomes
more relevant to day-to-day life; the
solstice takes on a new significance.
“We have definitely become more
aware of the weather,” Madelon says.
Even before moving to Maine, the
Kellys had no electricity bills. They
lived at the Grier School in Tyrone,
Pa., where Raymond was headmaster
and Madelon headed the Science
Department. The Kellys—who met as
students on a College-sponsored outing to Assateague Island off the coast
of Maryland—had always shared a
love of nature. Midway through their
second decade at the boarding
school, they began to talk more seriously about their longtime dream of
living in the Maine woods. By making
that dream a reality, and a solar one at
that, they still have the remarkable
distinction of going through adulthood without once paying a cent to a
power company.
“We like being independent of electricity and fossil fuels,” Madelon says.
“The beauty of solar power is that it’s
renewable. It’s not contributing to
Energy from water ...
Swarthmore’s “E-Team”
aims for a fuel-cell breakthrough
icks Hall, where a student “ETeam” is working to develop a
new, more efficient way to produce
and store electrical power, is no
ivory tower. Senior engineering
majors Jonathan Francis, Graham
Lucks, and Carl Mas have practical
ends in mind, ends that could even
be profitable. The E stands not for
“engineering” but “entrepreneur.”
“Our goal is not to increase
knowledge for its own sake but to
develop new technology for the
sake of progress,” says engineering
Professor Frederick Orthlieb, the
faculty adviser to Mas, Lucks, and
Francis. “And if money gets made,
so much the better.”
The three seniors are working
under a $14,000 grant from the
National Collegiate Inventors and
Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) to develop a prototype design for a hydrogen fuel-cell energy system that people could use in their off-the-grid
homes. These fuel cells—5-by-5-inch
graphite plates—could eventually
make off-the-grid living cleaner,
more practical, and more affordable.
Unlike power plants, fuel cells
produce energy without any environmentally unfriendly byproducts
like carbon dioxide, sulfates, or
nitrates. They also offer important
advantages over batteries as a key
component of off-the-grid power
systems. (See main story.) Batteries contain lead and acid and can
be only partially recycled when they
MARCH 1998
wear out;
fuel cells’
chief “waste”
product is
water, which
is used again
and again in
the same
power-generating system.
Fuel cells,
once perfected, also
promise
greater effiE-Team members (left to right) Jonathan Francis ’98, Carl Mas ’98,
ciency than
Professor Fred Orthlieb, and Graham Lucks ’98 atop Hicks Hall.
batteries, in
which energy dissipates on the way
design project, which is required of
in and the way out.
all engineering majors. The Vermont
The fuel-cell system being develnative sees cost as the biggest
oped by the Swarthmore E-Team
obstacle to immediate use of fuel
starts with photovoltaic cells that
cells.
transform the energy of the sun into
“Very few manufacturers make
electricity. To “store” the power, the small fuel cells in large quantities, so
system uses the electricity to split a
no economies of scale have been
supply of water into hydrogen and
achieved to make this technology
oxygen. Then, when the user needs
affordable,” he says. “Also, there are
the power for a load of laundry, for
other expensive components to the
example, the hydrogen and oxygen
system that are manufactured in
are recombined, producing water
only small quantities. It could all
and—voilà—energy.
become much more affordable if a
The same technology could also
fuel-cell automobile industry grows
power cars in the near future, a
and an infrastructure for a hydroprospect that Mas finds exciting.
gen-based economy is created.”
“You could use the same fuel-cell
Under the terms of the NCIIA
system that powers your house to,
grant, Francis, Lucks, and Mas
in effect, fill up your gas tank,” he
would keep 75 percent of any profit;
says.
the remaining quarter of the proMas, like his partners, is pursuing ceeds would belong to the College.
the fuel-cell research as his senior
—T.K.
ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS
H
13
PHOTOS BY MARC GLASS
“It’s a relatively simple but good lifestyle,” says Madelon
Kelly. The Kellys produce much of their own food, harvesting
milk from their goats, eggs from their ducks, and vegetables
from their organic garden. To get them through cloudy days,
24 large DC batteries store the excess power generated during periods of abundant sunshine.
14
global warming and acid rain. It’s a
technology that’s here and one that
we need to emphasize more in this
society. The way we see it, if you can
do it in Maine, you can do it anywhere.
“As you can see,” she adds, “I like
to proselytize about this.”
The Kellys, despite their wariness
of fossil-fuel consumption, remain
dependent on it for their livelihoods;
they both commute by car to their
jobs. Raymond coordinates programs
for gifted and talented students at the
high school in Rockland, on the coast.
Madelon drives in the other direction
to her manager’s position at a bookstore in Augusta.
But in most other ways, they have
forged a life of their back-to-nature
dreams. They produce much of their
own food, harvesting milk from their
goats, eggs from their ducks, and
everything from beets to zucchini
from their 2,000-square-foot organic
garden. To hike in the woods, they
need go no farther than out the front
door. And though they were initially
isolated on their wooded property,
which is accessed only by a gravel
lane with the appropriate name Old
Country Road, community has followed them. Since the Kellys moved
into their home eight years ago, four
other families have built solar homes
in the vicinity, creating a virtual Solar
Row in the north woods. The Kellys
have also gotten involved in local politics, and Madelon volunteers as the
acquisitions chief at the public library
in nearby Washington.
The Kellys now have two daughters
at Swarthmore—Morgan ’98 and Portia ’01.
“Our lifestyle and values come in
many ways from spending four years
at Swarthmore,” Madelon Kelly
explains, leading a visitor down one of
the new hiking trails they’ve been
forging on their property. “To us, living responsibly has meant living in a
way that is as nonpolluting as possible. It’s a relatively simple but good
lifestyle.”
Raymond adds: “To me, it’s pretty
well summed up by the road sign you
see when you cross the border into
Maine: ‘Life as it should be.’” ■
Tom Krattenmaker, the College’s director of public relations, is hooked to the
grid in Yardley, Bucks County, Pa.
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
... and from the air.
he residents of Fort Collins, Colo.,
are so committed to clean electricity that they’ve agreed to a 25
percent increase in their bills to buy
the power that William R. Young ’57
is generating from the steady winds
that blow through Medicine Bow,
Wyo., about 120 miles away. “Wind
power,” Young says, “is completely
green. The only pollution is that created in manufacturing the equipment.”
An engineering major at Swarthmore, Young began his career in
hydropower, another nonpolluting
electricity source. Employed by the
federal Bureau of Reclamation, he
worked on hydropower for nearly 30
years before wind power captured
his imagination. “Hydropower was a
mature industry; we weren’t blazing
any new trails,” he says. “When the
Bureau of Reclamation got interested in wind power during the Carter
administration, so did I.”
Young became site manager of a
federal wind project at Medicine
Bow, a remote spot on the southern
Wyoming plains where wind speeds
average around 20 miles per hour.
To test the feasibility of wind power,
the bureau built and operated the
world’s largest wind turbine—a 262foot-high giant with the generating
capacity to power 1,600 homes. But
during the Reagan administration,
federal funding waned, and the turbine broke down just before the
money ran out in 1986.
The federal government may have
been finished with wind power, but
Young—who has been described in
the local press as the Don Quixote of
the sagebrush prairie—was definitely not. When the abandoned federal
project was put to bid, Young, by
now retired from the bureau, bought
it himself for $20,000 and set out to
repair the gigantic turbine. He had it
back up and running from 1992 to
1994, selling millions of kilowatts of
electricity to the local power company, before a more serious breakdown put it out of business for good.
Young still was not finished. Now,
MARCH 1998
in the long shadow of the towering
wreck, he is operating a refurbished,
1980s-era, 75-foot turbine while he
installs two additional Danish-built
models that will help generate the
electricity for Fort Collins. Young
remains sold on wind power.
“I guess ‘kooky’ environmental
people are willing to pay extra for
clean power,” Young says ironically.
“To pay 25 percent more for your
electricity—that’s substantial. Of
course, wind power would be more
competitive if fossil-fueled utilities
had to pay for the externalities—for
the pollution they produce. No one
is paying for that now.”
—T.K.
Wind power would be more
competitive if fossil-fueled utilities
had to pay for the pollution they
produce, says Bill Young ’57. “No
one is paying for that now.”
PHOTOS COURTESY WILLIAM YOUNG
T
Bill Young ’57 is a wind-power pioneer.
Bill Young’s 1928 Ford panel truck, which still runs, stands near two of his turbines. In
the background—and now abandoned—is the largest wind-powered electrical generator ever built. But the whirring blades of the 65-kW turbine still supply electricity to Fort
Collins, Colo. Some Swarthmore alumni will recognize the truck, says Young. It was the
“official” WSRN vehicle from 1947 to 1951.
15
GEORGE WIDMAN
Gilmore Stott,
alive and well—
and well remembered.
His Feet Are
in the Real World
I
By David Wright ’69
Gilmore Stott has served under
six Swarthmore presidents,
most notably his friend Courtney
C. Smith, whose portrait hangs
in the Parrish Hall parlor.
MARCH 1998
t was a delirious Swarthmore spring, full of daffodils and dogwoods. I was missing most of the
scenery because I had a lot to do before the
curtain came down on my senior year: fill out
my graduate school applications, sit for eight
Honors exams, and pursue at least that number of
young women. And to complicate things further, I
had persuaded Professor James Freeman, conductor of the college orchestra, to feature me in the
spring concert as piano soloist in a piece by Schumann.
I made it through the performance—and also
made progress toward other goals, when the most
popular girl in my class gave me a big hug afterward. But still I doubted. Was it all right? Was I a real
pianist, or just faking it? The answer came from an
unexpected place.
A violinist in the orchestra, an administrator at
the College whom I had previously known only as
the third suit from the left on the stage at Collection,
invited me over for dinner with his family. His name
was Gilmore Stott.
Many teachers and deans at the College had given
generously of their time and energy to help me
along on my career there. But this dinner chez Stott
was something else. Not only had I just had the pleasure of making symphonic music with the stringplaying Stotts-—father Gil, mother Mary Roelofs
Stott ’40, and a daughter (Mary Stott Tyler ’71),
17
17
all sawing away in the College orchestra-—but now I
was having the full multisensory experience: Dad’s
homemade wines, Mom’s fragrant breads and cookery,
music on the stereo or played in person, and lively and
affectionate conversation. Before pitching into the delicious food, the whole family lifted their voices in fourpart harmony to thank God for the bounty.
For a college kid far from home, in the lonely and
stressful environment of a high-powered academic program, dinner at the Stotts’ was a glimpse of another
world. It gave the phrase “in loco parentis” a whole
new meaning.
Mr. Stott had been generous with compliments right
after the concert. I think he even hugged me, although
for some reason I don’t remember that hug as clearly
as the one from Ellen. But he said six simple words at
dinner that have stuck with me for these nearly 30
years. Maybe I’d just listened to the tape of the concert
(which I still have and is surely by now a pile of dust in
a box in my closet). To hear yourself on tape, whether
playing music or talking, can be a jarring experience. I
remember wondering aloud whether all the practicing
had been worth it, whether I had anything to say at the
piano, whether there was anything there after all.
Gilmore Stott said quietly, “Yes, there’s something
there, all right.”
These few words were not a candidate for anybody’s dictionary of quotations. But Gil Stott spoke
with such transparent sincerity and conviction that
even self-doubting Thomas had to accept it. Would it
be too much to date the beginning of my belief in
myself as a pianist from that moment? Well, yes. But
darn, I still remember it, and I use it. How many 30year-old things do you still use?
In talking with my fellow alumni, I’ve found that
many of them had a similar “Stott moment” during
their time at Swarthmore. Charles Floto ’68, a supporter of Goldwater for president and founder of the Conservative Club (and, therefore, in that liberal era, possibly the loneliest man on campus), took the course in
ethics that Mr. Stott taught in addition to his administrative duties. “I expected that we would disagree all
semester,” recalls Floto, who is now a technician at the
Library of Congress. “But he showed me that two people can agree on principles, while disagreeing on practical consequences.”
Firm in his convictions, Floto faced an unsympathetic panel of examiners at his senior oral comprehensive
exams. It was not a pleasant session, and Floto could
see his “distinction in course” going down the drain.
As he stood outside the room afterward, glumly contemplating his future prospects, a smiling Gil Stott
approached him. “You were very confident in there,”
said Stott.
A few words, perfectly timed. Charles Floto has
never forgotten them.
Gilmore Stott is not always a man of few words. Several of his former students told me about the two
pages of single-spaced typed comments that used to
18
come back with their papers. Nancy Noble Holland ’72,
a flutist, former high school English teacher, and now
choral conductor, remembers that ethics course as
“formative” and its teacher as “the model of a Swarthmore professor—high academic standards and very
caring.” Concepts learned in that class, such as “the
distinction between prescriptive and descriptive acts,”
have stuck with her for life.
But even more alumni mention what Mr. Stott did
W
hen I felt lost ...
I remember him as
an oasis of Quaker kindness
in a desert of intellect.
for them when he was not prescribing anything. “When
I felt lost, steamrolled by demands, destitute in my
psyche,” says Douglas Price ’55, “he would walk with
me for 25 minutes or whatever it took to hear me out. I
remember him as an oasis of Quaker kindness in a
desert of intellect.” Price is now the headmaster of a
Quaker school in Silver Spring, Maryland, that specializes in “bright underachievers, like myself.” He too
teaches one course at his school; the subject is
dreams.
Price cites Gil Stott as “one of the reasons I became
a Quaker.” He was interested to learn, as was I, that Mr.
Stott is a lifelong Episcopalian. Well, you have to take
your Quakers where you find them.
It’s probably no coincidence that many alumni who
were close to Gilmore Stott at Swarthmore have
become school and college administrators themselves.
The most obvious case is Maurice Eldridge ’61, who
until recently held the post at Swarthmore that Stott
once did: assistant to the president. (Eldridge was
recently promoted to vice president.) As one of only a
handful of African American students at the College in
the late 1950s, Eldridge contended with even more
than the usual share of undergraduate questioning and
self-doubt. “Gil was the dean then,” he remembers. “I
knew I could go to him when I was troubled, and he’d
be straight and direct. His feet were in the real world.”
Eldridge recalls wanting to live off campus and
being gently but firmly tugged back by Mr. Stott. “He
just told me that the contribution went both ways
between me and the College. That was enough.”
Decades before “diversity” became a buzzword in
academia, Gilmore Stott was concerned about it at
Swarthmore.
That concern was tested during the traumatic
events of January 1969, when a group of African American students occupied the College’s Admissions Office,
demanding more recognition for their culture and conSWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
cerns. At the height of the crisis, with Gilmore Stott
standing by his side, President Courtney Smith collapsed and died of a heart attack. Many people were
tempted to blame Smith’s death on the student demonstrators; Mr. Stott just went to work on the problem at
hand.
It was just like him to think of music as a bridge
between groups on campus. Like Nancy Holland, Jackie Edmonds Clark ’74 was a flutist who participated in
readings of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos at the
Stotts’ home. With support from Gilmore Stott, Clark
founded the Swarthmore College Gospel Choir, which
still thrives today. Clark is now an administrator for an
adult high school program at a community college in
North Carolina.
For many years Mr. Stott played a role in the
Upward Bound program that brings disadvantaged,
mostly minority high school students to the College
each summer. Twin brothers Keith and Kenneth
Reeves attended four summers of Upward Bound and
then were admitted to Swarthmore, graduating in 1988.
Keith Reeves, now a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy
School of Government (and a visiting professor at
Swarthmore this year), recalls the warm, welcoming
atmosphere in the Stott home. “You could tell he
enjoyed getting to know us kids,” Reeves says, “and we
enjoyed finding out about Plato and Socrates from
him.”
Reeves also remembers Mr. Stott’s love of travel,
which he instilled in others by means of stories and
photos; the Stotts’ Christmas cards always included
poetry by Mrs. Stott and pictures of them in faraway
places. Reeves’ first trip abroad, at age 21, was to
Oxford, and he later became a Rhodes Scholarship
finalist for the state of Pennsylvania. For Gilmore Stott,
a Rhodes Scholar himself and a longtime deputy secretary or board member of Rhodes Scholarships in
America, Reeves was one of countless young scholars
he had shepherded toward Oxford.
Mr. Stott’s nose for young talent has served him well
as administrator of the McCabe Scholarships at
Swarthmore, a Rhodes-like program to select and nurture students with exceptional leadership potential.
Gregory Englund ’69, who lived in the room next to
mine in Wharton, was a shy, soft-spoken young man
from Delaware and (unbeknownst to us) a McCabe
Scholar. Englund, who now practices estate law with
his own small firm in Boston, recalls how “unconditional acceptance and encouragement” from the Stott family bolstered his confidence, and how much he learned
from the “quiet spirit” and “fundamental decency” of
Gil Stott, who “led by deed and example.” Greg
Englund did likewise at Swarthmore, and so he has
been stuck with the job of class agent for 1969 ever
since.
All the Stott stories lead back to that home, with its
bread and concertos and conversation. Although
Gilmore Stott has had all the official positions that
involved punching in daily at Parrish Hall, Mary Stott
MARCH 1998
was every bit as much of a presence on campus until
her death in 1994.
One of their children, William Gilmore Stott ’75, is
now a member of the College’s Board of Managers,
which I guess means that he has become his dad’s
boss. After I interviewed him for this article, Bill Stott
telephoned me back to emphasize that the unique
quality of Gilmore Stott’s relationship to the Swarthmore community had its roots in the love of Gil and
Mary Stott for each other, which shaped the lives of
their five offspring (in addition to Mary and Bill there
are daughters Miriam and Sarah and son John ’78) and
radiated through the lives of their “extended family,”
the hundreds of Swarthmore students who passed
through the Stott home over the decades. That devotion continues to manifest itself in various ways; for
example, throughout her adult life Mary Stott had published volumes of poetry and stories, and Gil Stott is
now preparing more of her writings for publication.
Because this article has been about people’s memories of Gil Stott, there’s one more point we should
remember: Mr. Stott is anything but “a memory” on
campus in 1998. At age 83 he is seen almost daily in the
halls of Parrish, and he devotes much time to the process of interviewing and recommending candidates for
fellowships. His knowledge of the history of the College is an invaluable resource.
His decades at Swarthmore would certainly qualify
him to play the role of the grumpy guy who always
says “things were better when So-and-So was presi-
A
ll the Stott stories lead
back to that home,
with its bread, concertos,
and conversation.
dent.” Maurice Eldridge just laughs at the thought. “He
has such a Protean mind—in no way is Gil Stott the
Old Guard hanging on,” he says. “He’s one of the
youngest and most progressive people around here.”
Asked to remember something in particular about
the Stotts, Jackie Clark says, “I don’t know, it was all so
wonderful with them. You know what I remember?
Fresh-grated nutmeg. You know how a particular smell
can make everything come back? I remember that Mrs.
Stott always grated the nutmeg fresh for her bread.
The whole house smelled like it. I associate all the
good things that we did and said with that smell. And I
always grate my nutmeg fresh now.”
David Wright is a freelance journalist in New York. He
still studies piano and is currently working on Schubert’s
“Impromptu in B Flat Major.”
19
NETWORK NEWS
Swarthmore’s burgeoning externship program puts
students alongside alumni in “real-world” jobs.
By Barbara Haddad Ryan ’59 and Jeffrey Lott
N
obody needs to tell Andrew
Wise ’92 how to network. His
parents, Phyllis Wang Wise and
David Wise, both ’67, are distinguished biologists, but at
Swarthmore he was interested in government. So he studied public policy
and spent a summer in Washington,
D.C., with the General Accounting
Office—which taught him that government wasn’t his calling. Then he asked
Swarthmore’s Career Planning and
Placement Office (CP&P) for a list of
alumni lawyers in Washington. “There
were about 100,” he recalls, “and I
wrote to all of them.”
About 60 wrote back, including
Mary Kennedy ’80 of the Public
Defender Service (PDS) for the District
of Columbia, which handles a quarter
of the district’s indigent cases, including murder. “She sent me a three-page
letter—an amazing letter,” Wise said.
“She described the rewards of working in that office and offered me a volunteer internship. ‘These three
months will change the way you look
at the legal system,’ she wrote. And it
did.”
During his first week, he said, “I got
to see the worst parts of the system.”
He found himself on Washington’s
mean streets, helping investigators
dig up evidence to counter what prosecutors were calling open-and-shut
cases. “It made me recognize the need
for people like Mary,” he said. “No
case was as simple as it appeared.
Before that I wasn’t aware of the cor-
20
ruption in police departments and the
warehousing in the criminal justice
system.”
After Wise graduated, Kennedy
helped him get a job with two former
PDS lawyers. Then he earned a law
degree at the University of Michigan,
and last fall he became a PDS staff
attorney. He praises Kennedy, now
the training director, as “an incredible
teacher and one of the finest trial
lawyers anywhere.”
Both Wise and Kennedy sponsored
Swarthmore externs during winter
break in January, in an ambitious program the Alumni Council organized in
cooperation with CP&P. (Externships
are brief internships.) Building on a
successful Washington pilot project
launched last year by Alumni Association President Jack Riggs ’64, workplace opportunities and housing were
offered in five cities under the leadership of Riggs and B.J. Matzinger Lash
’87, who chairs the Alumni Council’s
working group on student support.
Lash’s group saw this as an excellent
way to enhance vocational mentoring
for students.
Alumni Council organizers were
Roberta Chicos ’77 in Boston; Jim
DiFalco ’82 in New York City; Cynthia
Norris Graae ’62 in Washington and
Baltimore; and Elizabeth Killackey ’86
in Philadelphia. Working with other
Photographs by
Sam Erickson ’88
local alumni, they matched students
with sponsors and enlisted families
for housing. They also organized parties for the participants; Connection
chair Kathy Stevens ’89 was able to
reserve a room at the Capitol through
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin ’56. CP&P Director
Tom Francis attended the New York
party and got firsthand reports about
expanded student horizons.
A total of 75 students participated
in January, and a similar March program was expected to be even larger.
There were a few wrinkles, such as
complaints about too much work to
do or not enough. But most students
were enthusiastic, with extra praise
for the host families that shared their
meals, pets, and in at least one
instance, “a room that looks better
than the one I have at home.”
Andy Wise’s extern, Rohan Hoole
’00, is from Australia, with roots in Sri
Lanka; he’ll major in political science
and Asian studies, with a focus on
race relations. Kennedy’s extern was
Reena Vaidya ’00, who grew up in
Bryn Mawr, Pa., and will major in religion or psychology. Both are considering law school, and now Vaidya is
thinking about a PDS internship.
Her experience there, she said,
“proved to be enlightening. Mary and
Andrew are really dedicated, and
being in the public defender’s office
changed my perspective on the legal
system. It’s important to see the
defense attorney not as the enemy of
justice in league with criminals but as
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
R
ohan Hoole ’00 (left)
and Reena Vaidya ’00
(right) saw the District of
Columbia’s criminal
justice system from the
inside during their weeklong externship with
public defenders Andy
Wise ’92 (center) and
Mary Kennedy ’80 (not
pictured). The externship
program is organized by
the Alumni Council in
cooperation with the
College’s Office of Career
Planning and Placement
(CP&P). To offer an
externship opportunity,
contact CP&P at
(610) 328-8352.
MARCH 1998
21
a person who makes the legal system
a little more humane by allowing the
accused to have a chance at establishing his or her innocence.”
Hoole, who has volunteered in
Chester, said it was “an incredible
week. At Swarthmore we spend so
much time talking about race and public policy—here you see the reality. It
was very hands-on; we really got a feel
for it. We went investigating with
Andy and met a juvenile who’s
messed up his life, and he’s only 14.”
In between visits to the Supreme
Court and District Court, they also
absorbed the atmosphere where Wise
puts in 12-hour days. He and a colleague share a shabby office straight
out of prime-time TV, with a Malcolm
X poster the only relief from peeling
paint. A suit for court appearances
hangs in the corner. “We have 50 or 60
lawyers here,” he said, “and there’s a
lot of collegiality. I guess we have an
‘us against them’ mentality. We commiserate a lot when we lose.” He clearly loves his work, even though—
unlike his externs—he’s still never
been to the Supreme Court. —B.H.R.
S
Examining the nation’s health
I
jeoma (“rhymes with iguana”)
Azonobi ’99 and Shirin (“rhymes
with chagrin”) Ali ’00 have a lot in
common, including a sense of humor
and an interest in biology. But they’d
never met—“we didn’t even know if
the other was a boy or a girl”—until
they were paired as externs with Dr.
Richard Levine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Levine is acting chief of NIH’s epidemiology branch at its organizational
hub in Rockville, Md. He’s also one of
the parents who responded to an
Alumni Council mailing soliciting January externships. (Daughter Nicole ’95
is a lab technician at the Salk Institute
in La Jolla, Calif.) Levine, who lives in
Washington, D.C., served as mentor to
the students and had Azonobi as a
houseguest; Ali stayed with her family
in nearby Silver Spring.
Azonobi, whose parents are from
Nigeria, is a Philadelphia native and a
psychobiology major. Ali’s parents are
from Calcutta; she’s considering a
hirin Ali ’00 (left) and Ijeoma
Azonobi ’99 (right) talk with
Dr. Richard Levine, acting chief
of the epidemiology branch of the
National Institutes of Health.
Levine, father of Nicole ’95, was
one of several Swarthmore parents
who offered externships. “This
experience has had a major impact
on my career ideas,” said Azonobi.
22
biology major with a concentration in
Francophone studies.
“This experience has had a major
impact on my career ideas,” Azonobi
said. “I was able to talk to a woman
with an M.D. and Ph.D., which I’m
thinking about doing, and she encouraged me. Also it was a reality check
over and over about how hard it is to
get jobs, administrative burdens, having private time. Everyone we met was
very candid with us.”
Ali said she appreciated the opportunity to talk to outstanding women
researchers, especially those who are
successfully balancing families and
challenging careers.
Levine organized a full and carefully structured schedule for the students; their first day included seven
information sessions. Through the
week NIH professionals discussed
research projects with them, showed
them the paperwork required for government contracts, explained the difference between a contract and a
grant, and clarified scientific
and technical issues.
Statisticians explained to
them the purpose of the data
center and the importance of
clinical trials—“the closest
thing to an experiment,”
Levine said, “that you can do
on people.” They met experts
on adolescent obesity and
inheritable disorders. They
listened in on a phone conference about political and
financial concerns among
researchers in Memphis, at
the University of Pennsylvania, and at the National Institute of Environmental Health
Science in North Carolina.
And Azonobi joined the
Levines at an evening lecture
by Dr. Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and best-selling
author of Awakenings.
When the women toured
the National Library of
Medicine, a vital center for
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
P
eople who pay for the
Bloomberg Service don’t want
to wait until tomorrow to read The
New York Times,” says Bloomberg
News energy editor George Stein
’67. Aspiring journalist Jennifer
Barager ’99 isn’t so sure that’s for
her: “I’m probably more of a
feature writer myself.”
JEFFREY LOTT
computerizing medical information,
they were amused to learn that two
software programs for searches are
called “Lonesome Doc” and “Grateful
Med.”
Although Levine went to Princeton,
he’s had a Swarthmore-like career
path. A music major, he served with
the Peace Corps in Iran, and at St.
Louis University medical school he
won a grant for research on nutrition
in Thailand and a fellowship to study
tropical medicine in Costa Rica. In the
1970s he worked in impoverished
rural areas of Alabama with the federal Epidemic Intelligence Service,
and—while Nicole was an infant—at a
cholera research lab in Bangladesh.
He earned a master’s in public health
at Harvard and is board certified in
occupational health and preventive
medicine.
“Both of the students seem very
capable,” Levine said of Azonobi and
Ali. As for his own Swarthmorean, he
said she “never liked the sight of
blood,” but added with a smile that
“she’s applying to schools of public
health.”
—B.H.R.
MARCH 1998
News at the speed of light
I
t’s a little overwhelming at times,”
says Jennifer Barager ’99 of her week
in the information trenches with
George Stein ’67. We’re wolfing lunch
in Stein’s 6-by-6-foot cubicle in the
vast newsroom of the Bloomberg
News Service near Princeton, N.J.
Meals from the 24-hour cafeteria are
free, but there are no dining tables.
Most of the 1,375 workers eat lunch—
and often dinner—at their desks.
Stein grips his sandwich and chats
amiably, his attention darting between
his guests and the three computer
screens to his left. As energy news editor for the world’s fastest-growing
financial and business information
source, he can’t afford to miss the
next e-mail.
“There’s a continued urgency
here,” says Barager, “but George can
balance a couple of things at once.”
She balances a plate of cheese ravioli
while Stein gives us the nut on his job.
“Getting a story three minutes
before another service is what we
want,” he says. The energy news Stein
edits is sent electronically—along
with a flood of other news and financial data—to nearly 90,000 Bloomberg
subscribers worldwide, each of whom
pays up to $20,000 a year for the privilege of having a two-screen Bloomberg terminal on their desks.
In addition to feeding the relentless
demands of the news wire, Stein edits
Bloomberg’s Oil Buyers Guide and
Natural Gas Report, two weekly
newsletters marketed to the energy
industry; runs the energy news Web
site; and organizes Bloomberg energy
conferences.
In October he ran a New York conference on developing technology to
convert natural gas to diesel, drawing
a standing-room crowd of Wall
Streeters and energy executives. As
part of her externship, Barager helped
Stein prepare the conference presentations for publication in a forthcoming book.
English major Barager wants a job
23
in publishing or journalism. She says
the externship has given her a sense
of “what the different agendas are in
different kinds of journalism.” But
after a week with George Stein, she’s
not sure she wants to work quite so
close to the speed of light: “No one
here cares about yesterday. It’s all
happening right now. I picture myself
in something a little slower paced. I’m
probably more of a feature writer
myself.”
Math major Stein completed all but
his dissertation in pursuit of a Ph.D. at
Columbia, but academic mathematics
ultimately failed to satisfy him. “I
needed to be more at the center of
things,” he says. He veered into journalism in the 1970s, starting at a small
paper in North Carolina, reporting at
The Miami Herald and the Los Angeles
Times, then serving as a correspondent for Radio Free Europe in Munich.
He joined Bloomberg in late 1996.
“This really suits my personality,” he
says of his electronic energy beat. “It
touches on finance, commerce, science, logistics, geopolitics—so much
of our lives that it’s fascinating.
“The idea is to provide instant analysis and perspective. People who pay
for the Bloomberg Service don’t want
to wait until tomorrow to read The
New York Times. They have to make
decisions in real time.”
I’m curious about “real time.” It
seems the news is becoming less
something that has happened and
more something that is happening.
How does Stein keep up? “You learn
to write very quickly what you know,”
he says, tossing his empty plate into
the wastebasket. “Then you update it
with perspective, knowledge, and
depth. You have to do your homework and have the background.” He
says Swarthmore taught him “how to
bring all of my efforts and intelligence
and judgment to bear on a problem.
That’s been very important to me.”
Jennifer Barager nods when she
hears this. She says Swarthmore is a
place with extremely high standards
that has also allowed her to experiment and take risks—like her week
with George Stein.
—J.L.
24
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
Peace through Friendly dialogue
B
orn in Colombia, South America,
Rafael Luna ’00 came to the United
States at age 10, settling with his
family in Brooklyn. Ten years after
first seeing the United Nations across
the East River, he got a chance to
work there as a Swarthmore extern in
the Quaker U.N. Office.
Luna says that the externship
taught him about the United
Nations—and about the values of the
Society of Friends. He listed a few:
“Human rights, peace, understanding,
and meaningful discussion among
people who make decisions that affect
people around the world.”
The Quaker U.N. Office is a veritable nest of Swarthmoreans. In addition to Luna’s externship sponsor,
administrative assistant Judith Leeds
Inskeep ’60, two members of the Class
of 1997—Nazima Kadir and Anna
Rich—are in the midst of one-year
internships there.
Quakers at the United Nations do
what Friends are known for everywhere, says Rich. “We are committed
to the use of dialogue and understanding in resolving conflict.” The office
arranges informal, off-the-record conversations among diplomats, eschewing the issue-oriented advocacy of
many nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) in favor of direct, person-toperson contact away from press and
political pressure.
“What we do really reflects our
belief that there is God in every person,” says Inskeep, a birthright Quaker who joined the office in 1994. “Soci-
J
udith Leeds Inskeep ’60 (right)
has enjoyed the company of
three young Swarthmoreans at the
Quaker U.N. Office. Yearlong interns
Anna Rich ’97 (left) and Nazima
Kadir ’97 (next to Inskeep),
welcomed Rafael Luna ’00, who
investigated U.N. conventions on
the rights of migrant workers.
MARCH 1998
ety is into quick fixes, but we see the
U.N. as a long-term effort to build
peace through mutual respect and
understanding.”
U.N. conventions, treaties that have
the force of international law when
ratified by enough member states, are
a particular focus of the Quaker office.
Nazima Kadir has been concentrating
on the Convention on the Protection
of Migrants and Their Families.
Though it was passed by the General
Assembly in 1990, it has since been
adopted by fewer than the 20 nations
needed to bring it into force.
As an immigrant himself, Rafael
Luna is naturally interested in the
issue. He spent a good part of his
externship studying international
agreements and U.N. resolutions concerning migrant rights. He says it has
“made me more aware of what has
already been done in international
forums concerning the rights of
migrants. It has also given me a
chance to see what NGOs are about
and how they work.”
Kadir and Rich will be ready to
move on after their year at the United
Nations. Kadir would like to stay in
international relations, mixing “grassroots and U.N.-type work—something
more practical.” Rich says she has
focused a lot on theory and policy,
both at Swarthmore and at the United
Nations, and is seeking “a more direct
experience,” perhaps in community
organizing or conflict resolution.
Rafael Luna returned to the College
to continue his sophomore year,
intending to major in sociology/
anthropology, with a minor in Latin
American Studies. After a week at the
United Nations, he is concerned about
the lack of support for its work—especially financial support from the United States. He says he’d like to do
something about that someday, and
perhaps he will.
—J.L.
25
Magic in the air—
and hard work below
T
here’s a scene in the Broadway
version of Disney’s The Lion King
when the entire theater fills with
birds. Members of the audience lean
back in their seats, mouths agape and
smiling at the flock of winged kites
that spirals on high—colorful creatures tethered to poles and flown by
members of the show’s chorus, who
stand in every aisle, balcony, and box
of the majestic New Amsterdam Theater. The birds swoop and soar, driven into flight by the rhythm of African
drums and held there by a harmonic
updraft from the orchestra pit, where
Joseph Church ’78 stands and waves
his arms at the air show.
Church isn’t shooing away the
birds. He’s actually conducting the
music, and with him in the crowded
orchestra pit is extern Sarah Archer
’00, adding to the meter of the
moment by playing a “lemon shaker.”
“Now I can say I played in a Broadway orchestra,” she jokes later.
Church replies that the musicians’
union will be dunning her for dues
after her short stint in the pit: “Cough
it up, lady,” he intones. “We know you
played those lemons.”
There’s an easy camaraderie
between Church and Archer. Both are
born New Yorkers, and both are
Swarthmoreans. And if Archer is a little wide-eyed in the New Amsterdam,
rubbing elbows with the cast and
crew of the year’s biggest hit show,
it’s not as if Joe Church hasn’t been
there too.
Being music director for a hit like
The Lion King is “a plum,” says
Church, because it offers job security—a rarity in musical theater. He
says he became hooked on conducting during a student production of
West Side Story in Clothier Hall, and he
has worked since then on shows ranging from The Little Shop of Horrors, to
The Who’s Tommy, to a production of
Faust by rock star Randy Newman.
Though classically trained (music
26
major at Swarthmore, master’s in
choral conducting from the University
of Illinois, and a doctorate in music
from NYU, where he now teaches
composition and co-directs the music
theater program), he struck out on his
own as a pianist, composer, and conductor who “just enjoys making all
kinds of music.” He feels that he got
the Lion King job because of the wide
range of styles and genres of music in
the show—everything from African
chants to rock anthems, from Broadway ballads to rhythmic, almost cinematic, underscoring. “The producers
wanted a liberally educated generalist—and a Swarthmore grad was perfect.”
Sarah Archer is trying to get just
such an education herself, not just at
the College, where she plans a special
major in English and film studies, but
through a variety of opportunities off
campus. She’s worked on documentary film projects at ABC News and
has interned at the International Center for Photography. The week with
Church has been an “eye-opener,”
says Archer. “It’s incredible to see
what is involved—how busy, hectic,
and complicated it is to put on a show
like this. It’s an all-consuming project.
“I’m trying to see what feels right
for me, what kinds of interests I can
combine into a paying job in the real
world.”
On the stage as we talk, members
of the Lion King cast work with a physical therapist, trying to loosen some of
the kinks that come from wearing the
show’s heavy costumes and operating
its many animal puppets. It seems like
play—athletic young performers moving and stretching and massaging
each other’s necks—but as Joe
Church (and now Sarah Archer)
knows, the world, even the Disney
world, is full of hard work.
—J.L.
I
t’s incredible to see what
is involved—how busy,
hectic, and complicated it
is to put on a show like
this,” says Sarah Archer
’00. She worked with
Joseph Church ’78, music
director of the Broadway
hit The Lion King.
“I wanted work that
reflected my values.”
W
M
ichaela De Soucey ’00
(right) had worked in
small jobs at big companies.
She found the atmosphere
completely different at
Women Work!, a national
network for women’s
employment in Washington,
where there are just 10
people on the staff. Extern
sponsor Carol Hamilton ’87
(left) was “so impressed
that she’s doing this as a
sophomore.”
hat a difference a decade can
make. Carol Hamilton ’87 recalls
that at Swarthmore she was
blissfully unfocused about her professional future—“I didn’t even know
where the career counseling office
was.”
Fast-forward to 1998: Michaela De
Soucey ’00 of Massapequa Park on
Long Island, N.Y., spent part of winter
break in Washington, D.C., as an
extern in Carol’s office.
“I’m so impressed that she’s doing
this as a sophomore,” Hamilton said.
“I didn’t start thinking about career
goals until it was almost too late.”
Hamilton is manager of membership and affiliate services at Women
Work! The National Network for
Women’s Employment (formerly the
National Displaced Homemakers Network). It helps women gain economic
self-sufficiency through 1,300 education, training, and employment programs across the nation. The organization reports that in Pennsylvania
alone, those programs save taxpayers
$2.3 million annually in welfare and
other government aid.
Women Work! (www.womenwork.org) has headquarters on K
Street, near the turf of big-time lobbyists, but there are no Gucci loafers in
sight. The offices suggest frugal efficiency—although a grace note is provided by a framed letter from President Clinton, thanking Women Work!
for honoring his mother.
De Soucey said she’s “had small
summer jobs in big companies. It’s
very different in a small office, and it’s
interesting to follow the head people
around—there are only 10 people on
the whole staff.”
An intern from Duke was already
there when De Soucey arrived, so
some tasks were spoken for. But she
was able to work on such projects as
writing a newsletter article and helping to update data on earned income
tax credit for service providers. She
attended a program for college students on federal agencies and nonprofits at the State Department and a
forum on the minimum wage law at
the Dirksen Building.
De Soucey, who plans to major in
sociology/anthropology and women’s
studies, described Washington as “a
very fast-paced city. Everyone seems
so very serious and intent on what
they’re doing.”
That sounds like the Swarthmore
that Hamilton knew. The daughter of a
foreign service officer who grew up
mostly in Europe, she was always an
intense student, even in kindergarten.
Hamilton chose Swarthmore “because
I was attracted to its left-leaning reputation, and I wanted a city nearby.”
Hamilton found Swarthmore “so
focused on academics—and everyone
there is so good at working in that system. I was surprised at my class
reunion at all the professors. Professors and lawyers!”
She took a different path. When she
moved to Washington, “I wanted work
that reflected my values. I have a
knack for marketing and promotion,
and I’m interested in politics and
advocacy work.” This led her to the
Coalition on Human Needs, which
includes such influential groups as the
Children’s Defense Fund. After two
years she moved to Women Work!
and its focus on single parents, economic equity, and displaced homemakers.
When weather permits, Hamilton
commutes 10 miles by bike from the
Maryland suburbs. Until recently she
hadn’t been active in Swarthmore’s
busy Metro DC/Baltimore Connection.
Now, in addition to sponsoring an
extern, she signed up for the popular
new Connection book groups that are
meeting this spring. The intensity continues. ■
—B.H.R.
27
A L U M N I
Recent Events
House Counsel Chuck Ruff ’60,
Michigan Senator Carl Levin ’56,
and Heidi Hartmann ’67, director
of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research as well as a tour of
the Sackler-Freer galleries, led by
Associate Curator Jenny So ’71.
Gretchen Gayle Ellsworth ’61 and
Dan Singer ’51 will address the
group.
Boston: New Connection chairs
Sanda Balaban ’94, David
Hochschild ’93, and Jeremy Weinstein ’97 kicked off their threeway leadership with a Jazz
Potluck Brunch, then headed to
Boston Common for ice-skating
and hot chocolate.
Chapel Hill, N.C.: Timothy Riggs
’64, assistant director of the Ackland Art Museum, led a tour of an
exhibit of works by early 20thcentury painter Marsden Hartley,
followed by a reception, all coordinated by Priscilla Coit Murphy
’67.
Ann Arbor, Mich.: The Michigan
League will be the site for a gathering hosted by President and
Mrs. Bloom on Tuesday, April 14.
Rebeccah Bennett ’96 will help
coordinate this event.
Things are looking up ... Admiring every nook and
cranny of 30th Street Station in Philadelphia—one of
the city’s largest landmarks—Swarthmore alumni and
their families took the grand tour in January.
JAMES KU / SAN GABRIEL VALLEY NEWSPAPER GROUP
Chicago: Marilee Roberg ’73 hosted an evening of browsing and
book talk at Something Wicked, a
mystery bookstore. Mystery writer Mary Alzina Stone Dale ’52
signed copies of her books.
Los Angeles: President and Mrs.
Alfred H. Bloom saluted new Caltech President David Baltimore
’60 at a reception in Pasadena.
The gathering was organized by
John Crowley ’41, George Bond
’42, and Walt Cochran-Bond ’70.
Boston: President and Mrs.
Bloom will visit with area alumni
and parents at a reception on
Thursday, April 16.
Chicago: David Porter ’58, president of Skidmore College, will
present a lecture piano recital in
honor of Charles Miller ’59, retiring professor of politics and
American studies at Lake Forest
College on Wednesday, April 8.
Philadelphia: The next young
alumni happy hour will be at Cutters on Wednesday, April 15.
New York City: President and
Mrs. Bloom met area alumni,
San Francisco: Board of ManThree presidents ... Nancy Bekavac ’69, president of
parents, and friends for hors
agers member Sameer Ashar ’91
Scripps College, Swarthmore President Alfred H. Bloom, and Associate Dean of Admisd’oeuvres and conversation at
and David Baltimore ’60, president of Caltech, met at a
the Players Club in Gramercy
sions Jenny Rickard ’86 will team
Park, thanks to Stephen Lang ’73. reception in Baltimore’s honor in Pasadena, Calif.
up to welcome accepted stuAlso this spring, Ike Schambelan
dents at a gathering with alumni
’61 invited Swarthmoreans to
accommodate all who signed up.
in April.
press night at Theater by the Blind,
Washington, D.C.: Kathy Stevens ’89,
Seattle: The Connection will present a
and David Wright ’69 hosted the 12th
the new Metro DC/Baltimore Connecprogram in May featuring a panel disannual wine symposium.
tion chair, welcomed President and
cussion on the Seattle educational
Mrs. Alfred Bloom, alumni, and parPhiladelphia: Chris Edley Jr. ’73 dissystem.
ents
at
a
reception
at
the
Cosmos
cussed his book Not All Black and
Club,
with
the
assistance
of
Gretchen
White: Affirmative Action and AmeriWashington, D.C.: Alumni Association
Mann Handwerger ’56.
can Values in February at a book-signPresident Jack Riggs ’64 and Ralph
ing arranged by Scheryl Williams GlanTryon ’71 have invited alumni to parUpcoming Events
ton ’74 and The Links, Inc. Many famiticipate in the annual Christmas in
You can get the latest information on
lies attended a tour of 30th Street StaApril project Saturday, April 25. In
tion, coordinated by Martha Salzmann upcoming alumni events and activities
May, book group coordinator Sue
around the country on the alumni home Willis Ruff ’60 will bring the six groups
Gay ’79 and Colette Collins Mull ’84,
and an Indian dinner at Palace of Asia. page: www.swarthmore.edu/Home/
together for a lecture by Philip WeinAlumni.
stein, the Alexander Griswold CumSeattle: A tour of the University of
mins Professor of English Literature,
Garnet Sages: The Sages’ visit to
Washington seismology lab was so
who
designed the curriculum.
Washington, D.C., April 21–22, will
popular that Connection Chair Deb
Read ’87 scheduled a second visit to
28
include stops at the offices of White
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
D I G E S T
First since 1989
New alumni directory coming this fall
T
he long-awaited new Swarthmore
alumni directory will be published
later this year, with the same convenient sections as in the past: alphabetical listings and listings by class and
geographical area.
The directory will be free to all
alumni whose current mailing
addresses are on file at the College. It
also will be offered on CD, formatted
for Macintosh or Windows systems, at
a nominal cost.
The publication also will be available on the College’s secure Web site
within a few months after publication
of the printed version. The online edition will be available to only Swarthmore alumni, and it will be designed
for individual use. Both the online and
the CD versions of the directory will
include career information that can be
searched, helping alumni make con-
nections within areas of interest.
Alumni will receive surveys in the
mail this spring with the information
about them that is currently on file in
Alumni Records. They will be asked to
approve or correct the data, which
will be the basis for the directory
listings.
Those who choose not to be included may indicate this on the survey.
Alumni News Briefs
Class presidents are a shoo-in
as only incumbents are nominated
Pop culture authority
Leo Braudy ’63 will be
Collection speaker
L
eo Braudy ’63, a widely acclaimed
authority on film, fame, and American popular culture, will be the Collection speaker on Saturday, June 6, at
Alumni Weekend.
Braudy, who graduated from
Swarthmore with highest honors in
English literature, is the Bing Professor of English at the University of
Southern California. He earned a master’s and a doctorate at Yale, and he
has taught at Yale, Johns Hopkins,
and Columbia, where he was one of
the youngest scholars to be named a
full professor.
Among his books are The Frenzy of
Renown: Fame and Its History, The
World in a Frame: What We See in
Film, and Native Informant: Essays on
Film, Fiction, and Popular Culture. His
next book will explore masculinity
and war.
MARCH 1998
In response to a request last year for
guidance on electing new class presidents, a nominating form appeared in
December issues of the Bulletin that
were mailed to members of classes
with reunions this June. Ballots were
to be included in the March issues
going to those alumni.
There are no ballots in this issue
because all the nominations sent to
the College were of incumbent presidents.
The Alumni Association bylaws
state that class presidents “shall serve
until their next reunion, or until their
successors shall have been elected
and qualified.” The Alumni Council’s
Executive Committee and the College’s associate vice president for
external affairs are responsible for
helping the classes with the process
when needed. They will decide this
spring whether reunion classes
should continue to receive nomination forms.
Sager Symposium to examine gay,
lesbian, and bisexual experience
“Future Shock,” the 10th annual Sager
Symposium in Gay, Lesbian, and
Bisexual Studies, will be presented on
campus April 3–4. This anniversary
program will be interdisciplinary, featuring Swarthmore alumni as speakers
and performers. The first part will
look back at the experiences of les-
bian, gay, and bisexual students at
Swarthmore since the 1940s. The
other part will look forward, celebrating the contributions that those alumni have made in politics, community
building, education, business, and the
arts.
Penn Club opens to Swarthmoreans
The University of Pennsylvania’s Penn
Club of New York City welcomes
Swarthmore alumni as affiliate members. Located on “clubhouse row” at
30 West 44th Street in Manhattan, the
handsomely restored 1901 clubhouse
has guest rooms, formal dining rooms,
a grill room, meeting and conference
rooms, a library, and a two-story banquet room.
A reciprocal program gives all Penn
Club members access to more than 40
other clubs in this country and
abroad.
The club schedules a variety of
activities for members and their
guests, some with other university
clubs in New York. Initiation fees and
annual dues are determined by age.
Members may reserve overnight
accommodations for their guests; a
surcharge is added to the nightly rate.
Privileges in the club’s Palestra Fitness Center are available for an additional fee.
Details are available from Joy Dargent, director of membership, by
phone (212) 403-6627, or by e-mail at
joy@penn.-club.com.
29
✍ Letters
Support groups strengthen ability
of minorities to engage wider world
To the Editor:
My wife, Linda, and I enjoyed the article
“Faces Like Mine.” It pleases us that
Swarthmore is working on an issue that
much of society seems to want to
ignore, wish away, deny, or call
resolved. America has come a long way
in the last 30 years in the way it deals
with discrimination relating to race and
sex. It still has a long way to go in these
areas, particularly as increasingly
sophisticated language and theory is
being used to reverse some of the protections for those who could not benefit
from our long (350-plus years) of affirmative action for white men, particularly those of Western European origin.
One of the most exciting qualities
about our country is that Americans, as
a people, come from every continent
and every tribe around the world. This
is our past, present, and future reality—
it is our strength. We are all typical
Americans, just as we are all typical
human inhabitants of this planet. The
task before all of us, which requires
constant work, is to build on and give
full meaning to this reality so that those
who want to “divide and conquer,” and
risk the Balkanization of our society for
political gain, cannot do so.
From what you describe, Swarthmore College and its students understand the necessity for the development of support and service groups
that provide a safe environment for
those who have faced a lifetime of various degrees and types of prejudice and
discrimination—an environment where
they can share and strengthen their
own senses of value and pride so they
can function better in our larger society.
Some say such groups reinforce discrimination, isolation, and prejudice
and do little if anything to bring people
from diverse backgrounds together. I
believe we all require a safe place of
support, where we can share our concerns and hopes, refresh ourselves, and
gain strength so we can venture forth
with others from similar support systems to work together for better, more
inclusive communities. Groups that recognize that their members are part and
parcel of the greater society, and that
share responsibility for helping develop
a greater inclusive community, are very
different conceptually, morally, ethical30
Continued from page 3
ly, and religiously than groups that
have developed to claim superiority,
denigrate others, and deny the real
diversity of Americans as a people—
and America as a nation.
Thanks for reporting the good work
being done at Swarthmore.
EUGENE S. FARLEY JR. ’50
Madison, Wis.
efarley@fammed.wisc.edu
large to collectively strive toward a
more diverse, understanding, and safe
campus.
STUDENT COUNCIL
Swarthmore College
The above statement was submitted as a
letter to the editor by the Student Council.
It was adopted by a vote of the Student
Council.
Quakers empowered women
through separation from men
Support groups “justified,”
says Student Council
To the Editor:
Swarthmore College is a community
devoted to excellence through diversity. As a result of the rapid rate at which
we are becoming more diverse, it is
necessary to provide a support system
in which minority students can feel
comfortable. The climate that a Swarthmore education demands is one in
which every community member feels
safe and secure. Support groups foster
an understanding that allows minorities
to participate in the larger arena of
campus life. Although at times support
groups can create an exclusive atmosphere in that they are affiliated with
specific ethnicities, religions, or sexual
orientations, they are more than justified through their various outreach
activities and the opportunities for dialogue that they create. Student Council
fully reaffirms its commitment to support groups and diversity on campus. In
addition Student Council will work with
support groups and the student body at
To the Editor:
Although the idea of support groups for
minority students can feel uncomfortably exclusive and reminiscent of segregation, it may be helpful to think of the
formation of support groups as one
step in an evolutionary process. A good
example of such evolution comes from
the early history of the Religious Society of Friends.
In some of the older Quaker meetinghouses in the Philadelphia area, one
can still find large wooden partitions
hanging from the ceiling, which, when
pulled down, divide the worship room
neatly in half. In earlier days, Meeting
for Worship was held with shutters up,
but when time came for Meeting for
Business, the divider was pulled down
so that men could have their business
discussion on one side and women on
the other. Each sex had its own clerk
and its own proceedings, and there was
a door through which notes could be
passed to keep one group informed of
the progress of the other.
This practice of separation by gender was established as a way of empowering women to speak their minds and
develop their own leadership. It was the
Friends’ way of responding to the fact
that no group—even one with the highest of ideals—is exempt from the influence of the surrounding culture. The
cultural reality at that time was that
women had no legal rights, whereas
men exerted power and control in secular matters. Although from its inception
the Religious Society of Friends
believed that spiritual authority was
given in like manner to women and men
(there have always been both men and
women who ministered in worship), the
practice of separate Meetings for Business helped women extend this spiritual authority to other areas of shared
life. As a happy consequence, Friends
doubled their leadership, perhaps
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
resulting in the likes of Lucretia Mott,
who became a powerful influence in the
founding of Swarthmore College.
We no longer pull down the wooden
dividers in our historic meetinghouses,
but they served an important purpose
in the evolution of the Religious Society
of Friends and in the rights of women.
They might serve yet today as symbolic
reminders that fostering group identity
can still help the powerless find their
voice.
PAULINE ALLEN
Wallingford, Pa.
Pauline Allen is a member of the Religious Society of Friends and serves as the
Protestant religious adviser at the College.
America’s diversity is
a pleasure after visiting Japan
To the Editor:
Regarding “Faces Like Mine,” some time
ago, my wife, Merrillan Murray ’53, and
I spent nine weeks in Japan shooting
our film, A Journey in Japan. We were,
naturally, struck by what seemed to us
as the remarkable uniformity of the
faces in Japan. But the real surprise
was the pleasure we experienced on
returning to the great and wonderful
diversity of our American population.
We had not been aware how much we
had missed the variety of our citizens.
WOODY THOMAS ’51
Spencerport, N.Y.
merriwood@aol.com
Western culture is not “white”
To the Editor:
As an alumnus and a member of the
College faculty, I feel obliged to respond
to the claim in the introduction to
“Faces Like Mine” that “the faculty is
recognizing that to educate leaders for
the next century, Swarthmore needs to
help its students redefine and renegotiate the relationship of white, Western
culture to the new international ... landscape.”
“White” Western culture? With all
due respect to the author of the phrase,
and to anyone else who thinks so, Western culture is not white.
Somewhere in his vast oeuvre,
W.E.B. Du Bois pointed out that though
white people might shun him, neither
Shakespeare nor Tennyson did when
he curled up next to them late at night.
Equally important, Du Bois’ masterpiece, Black Reconstruction in America,
is not white, nor his commissioned
study, The Philadelphia Negro, the first
true empirical community study in
MARCH 1998
American social science. Negro spirituals and American jazz are not white.
Many of the most fundamental and
best-known opinions of the Supreme
Court, for good or for ill, were brought,
won, or lost by black and Asian American plaintiffs and lawyers. The literature of Gabriel Garcia Marquez is not
white. On the other side of the Atlantic,
the art of Paul Gauguin is not white.
Saint Augustine was not white, and neither was his theology. And so on. Western culture—its appreciation and production—aren’t defined by skin color
and genes.
There is more to this matter than
getting facts straight. There was a time
when it was widely believed—among
whites—that Western culture is fundamentally white and defined by skin
color and genes. Here in the United
States, that meant a belief in the biological natural superiority of white people.
When the Alabama Constitutional Convention of 1901 disenfranchised black
Alabamians, the delegates spent days
proclaiming the racial purity of Western
civilization. During World War II, American black citizens were placed in one
set of railroad cars, and Nazi military
prisoners were placed in another, nicer
set of cars when they were traveling
through the South.
In short, it would be profoundly illiberal of this College if it were to be in the
business of recycling a concept that is
as barbaric as it is false.
I was struck, as well, by what the
cover story did not say as well as by
what it did say. Does the phrase “race,
ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation” quite exhaust the subject of identity and diversity? Income inequality in
the United States has grown sharply
and rapidly since the 1980s. For many
Americans real wages have grown only
slightly since 1973, despite two of the
most vigorous and prolonged economic
booms of the post–World War II period.
Perhaps, then, some future issue of the
Swarthmore College Bulletin will treat
how “the faculty is recognizing that to
educate leaders for the next century,
Swarthmore needs to help its students”
understand class divisions and their
connections to the new national and
global political economies.
RICK VALELLY ’75
Swarthmore, Pa.
rvalell1@swarthmore.edu
Valelly is associate professor of political
science. For another faculty member’s
perspective, see p. 7.
Thanks for Ehrhart
To the Editor:
Profound thanks to author W.D.
Ehrhart ’73 and the Swarthmore College
Bulletin for the admirable article “Military Intelligence” (December 1997).
May Ehrhart’s words continue to travel
far.
With that in mind, please send me a
copy of his 1971 poem “To Swarthmore,” which you mentioned in your
editor’s note.
VIRGINIA STERN BROWN ’49
San Francisco
More copies of “To Swarthmore” are
available by writing to the editor.
United States was ignorant
of Vietnam in 1940s
To the Editor:
I read with interest and empathy W.D.
Ehrhart’s excellent piece, “Military
Intelligence” (December 1997).
Ehrhart writes that the United States
had “only one choice,” which was to
recognize Ho Chi Minh’s government
when it proclaimed Vietnam’s independence in September 1945.
To me this expectation is not reasonable. The United States had been
unable to visualize quarantining aggressors in the late 1930s, nor an attack on
Pearl Harbor, nor the presence of a
Japanese fighter plane superior to any
American aircraft. If this was so, what
did the United States know about Ho, or
even Vietnam? In 1946 the United States
had just two academicians (both historians) who had written dissertations
dealing with French Indochina.
If Ehrhart is willing to move his date
up a bit, may I suggest 1955, after the
Geneva Accords had been signed and
“free elections” had been called for in
both North and South Vietnam?
PAUL W. VAN DER VEUR ’49
Toccoa, Ga.
Letters to the Bulletin
The Bulletin welcomes letters
concerning the contents of the
magazine or issues relating to
the College. All letters must be
signed and may be edited for
clarity and space. Address
your letters to: Editor, Swarthmore College Bulletin, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore PA
19081-1397, or send by e-mail
to bulletin@swarthmore.edu.
31
Class
Notes
Jammin’ ... Sing-alongs were
part of every Swarthmore Folk
Festival from the 1940s to the
1960s. Folk music fans are
invited to to campus in June for
a Folk Fest reunion during
Alumni Weekend 1998.
KARL IHRIG ʼ51 & WOODY THOMAS ʼ51
32
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
Guilty by reason of ...
A former lawyer and psychiatric adminstrator disputes the insanity defense.
T
he murder trial of John E. du Pont,
according to Jim Ottenberg ’39,
“deals a crippling blow to the insanity
defense.” Decided in February 1997 in
Media, Pa., the case concerned the
heavily publicized murder of Olympic
wrestler David Schultz by eccentric millionaire du Pont. du Pont’s lawyers
argued that he was mentally ill and
brought in two high-profile psychiatrists
to testify; the defense countered with
four psychiatrists to say that du Pont
was sane. After seven days of deliberation, the jury returned with a “compromise” verdict of guilty of third-degree
murder but mentally ill.
For Ottenberg, the verdict was a step
in the right direction and an indication
of change in public opinion about the
insanity defense. A harsh critic of the
insanity defense, Ottenberg sees the
consistent guilty verdicts in highly publicized 1996 cases, such as the Menendez brothers (parent murderers in California), John Salvi (abortion clinic murderer), and Edward Leary (New York
City subway bomber), as “a welcome
and long-overdue revolt of ordinary
people against two groups of ‘experts’—
defense lawyers and forensic psychiatrists who testify for defendants.”
Ottenberg’s unusual career history
gives him insight into the intersection of
law and psychiatry. After graduating
from Swarthmore and Harvard Law
School, he married Margaret Davies
Ottenberg ’42 and returned to his native
New York to practice law. In 1953 he
became involved with the Lexington
Democratic Club, which started his
transition from law to politics. The
group supported Democratic candidates for local positions in a time when
38
At age 79 James Ottenberg ’39 is beginning his fourth “minicareer”—writing
about law, psychiatry, and ethics.
campaigning meant ringing doorbells in
the apartment buildings of uptown Manhattan.
“I became the best doorbell ringer in
the club,” recalls Ottenberg, “and I
found out I could supervise other doorbell ringers.” Interest in politics and
administration led Ottenberg to an unpaid managerial position in the 1956
Stevenson presidential campaign and
then a paid position in 1960 with John F.
Kennedy’s campaign. Ottenberg’s help
with Robert Wagner’s successful New
York City mayoral campaign two years
later landed him a new job as deputy
commissioner of mental health. The
field of mental health was completely
foreign to Ottenberg, but he learned on
the job. “Half of my friends were psychiatrists—I don’t know why,” says Ottenberg, “but I felt comfortable in the
milieu.”
The 1965 New York City mayoral
election of Republican John Lindsay
meant the loss of his job in the Mental
Health Department and the end of
Ottenberg’s career as a political
appointee.
Starting a third career in the private
sector, Ottenberg moved to administration of nonprofit organizations. Eventually, he returned to the administrative
end of mental health, this time as
administrator for psychiatry and medical administration at Bronx-Lebanon
Hospital.
The attempted murder of President
Reagan in 1981—and the subsequent
ruling that found John Hinckley not
guilty by reason of insanity—disturbed
Ottenberg and interested him in what
he saw as the uses and abuses of the
insanity defense. The recent round of
sensational cases involving the insanity
defense and the prompting of colleagues inspired Ottenberg to begin
writing about his longtime interest in
the use of the insanity defense—from
his perspective as both a former lawyer
and a psychiatric administrator. Only
weeks before the du Pont verdict, Ottenberg spoke at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital
about the insanity defense in its waning
believability.
Ottenberg retired from BronxLebanon in September. But, at 79, he is
looking forward to a long “fourth minicareer” writing about the intersection of
law, psychiatry, and ethics.
—Jim Harker ’99
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
Island Magic
Nell Lee Kruger ’64 finds a home and happiness between heather and hard work.
W
hen Nell Lee Kruger ’64 and
her husband, Chuck, first
saw Clear Island on a ferryboat
ride in 1986, they felt themselves
pulled there emotionally by a
powerful and invisible force.
Although the Krugers had not
come to the island searching for a
final resting place, here—both
thought simultaneously—they
could lay down their bones and
die. Yet the idea went unspoken
between them for months; the
island had overwhelmed them
with its beauty and serenity.
Clear Island, in County Cork, is
the southernmost inhabited land
off the Irish coast, an eight-mile
ferry ride from the mainland. Now
60 acres of its three square miles
is home to the Krugers, who
moved there permanently in 1992.
“It sounds like a small place, but
with all the cliffs, canyons, and fingers into the ocean, it feels much
bigger,” Nell says.
The Krugers’ home is an
The Krugers’ home on Cape Clear (circled) peeks out from the edge
approximately 300-year-old fisherof the pastures. Nell and Chuck Kruger (inset) also operate a rental
man’s cottage. There is also a forproperty for vacationers on their 60 acres.
mer ruin of a barn on the land that
bush. It’s so
Nell says she can go three or four
now serves as a holiday home that they
incredibly sweet,
months without leaving the island.
rent to vacationers. Since purchasing
and the thorns prick like hell.”
For a population of about 130, there
the property, they have made many renThe thorns refer to the toll nature
are three pubs (there were five), two
ovations, including the addition of
can take on the land and people. Galesmall grocery stores, a nurse who can
indoor plumbing and electricity.
make house calls, and a weekend priest. force or even hurricane winds are comThe island’s history and the Krugers’
mon and can destroy property. Self“The island used to have its own priest.
life there have been published in Chuck
reliance and handyperson know-how
But there’s a shortage of priests in the
Kruger’s book, Cape Clear: Island Magic
are important character traits for those
country,” Nell says.
(The Collins Press, 1994). The Krugers
who choose to live there.
Island life does have its drawbacks.
also have a homepage at http://indigo.
“Living on the Cape is like an old
ie/~ckstory/ with photographs and infor- On a personal level, Nell misses her chilcomfortable sock that keeps you warm
dren, two of whom live in the United
mation on their land and Clear Island.
but has a hole in the toe,” she says. “It
States and one of whom is in SwitzerClear Island, Nell says, “is a place
reminds you that comfort requires work.”
where going to get eggs from a neighbor land, and the rest of her family. But she
Nell says the island is a good destinasays, “I can’t live my life for them, nor
may take six hours during the slow seation for people who enjoy nature—takthey for us.” She also mentions learning
son. You stop for the eggs and are inviting long walks; watching for whales, dolhow politicized a small island communied in for a cup of tea. Then you’re asked
phins, and seals in the sea; or visiting
ty can become but is quick to point out
to stay for sandwiches that just seem to
historic sites, including a burial rites
the community spirit that thrives here.
appear, and all the time you’re talking.”
passage tomb dating from 3,000 B.C.
“If somebody needs help right away,
After 26 years working as teachers in
and 13th- and 14th-century castle ruins.
Switzerland (Nell spent her last 10 years people will drop what they’re doing and
“It’s a great place to work on a dissertago to that person,” she says.
there teaching at the Zurich School of
tion,” she adds.
Nell says she likes the pace of the
Translation and Interpretation), the
“I fell in love with the land,” Nell
island. It’s also a place where she can be
Krugers moved to Clear Island. Chuck
says. “The sea is wide open. The proxherself.
Kruger describes the island in his book
imity to nature is quite amazing. We had
“Here I can get on with being me or
as a place where a half-dozen rainbows
always rented property before. Even in
learning more about who I am,” says
can appear on an April afternoon. Nell
Switzerland for a quarter century we
Nell, who makes papier-mâché crafts
speaks of the heather, blackberries, and
were renters. Now we are owners,
and pressed-flower pictures and sells
gorse that grow wild on the property.
though I suspect it’s the land that owns
them in a craft store she rents on the
They farm a small portion of their land
us. We feel we belong here.”
island. “I’m not distracted by trying to
for vegetables and lend another section
—Audree Penner
fit into molds. Cape is like a blackberry
to friends who raise cattle and ponies.
MARCH 1998
49
A tale of three cities
Swarthmore’s orchestra in residence tours Russia and Denmark.
W
hen you go to a
ers and audience was
concert, it’s for
clearly evident. That
the music, but when
spiritual union—joyful
you go on an internaand sublime—uniting
tional tour with an
the musicians and the
orchestra, a world of
audience, reigned in
associations opens. As
the Glinka Hall througha member of its board
out the evening.”
of directors, I had the
David Finko was born
opportunity to spend
and raised in what was
the Thanksgiving seathen Leningrad. Fearson in Russia and Dening for their safety in
mark with Swarththe former Soviet Union,
more’s ensemble-in-resiDavid, his wife, and son
dence, Orchestra 2001.
emigrated to the UnitTraveling with James
ed States in 1979. DurFreeman, artistic direcing this emotional
tor and Professor of
return to St. Petersburg
Music, and 13 musi18 years later, the
cians were composers
Finkos invited some of
George Crumb, Hon. ’89,
us to join them on a
and David Finko, their
visit to the family plot
wives, stage manager
in the city’s one
Ali Momeni ’97, board
ancient Jewish cememembers Kenneth Hiebtery. I was walking by
ert and Kendall Landis
myself among the
’48 and their wives, and
grave sites’ overgrown
a three-person camera
trees and lurching
crew. The entire trip
fences when a woman
was funded by the Four
stopped
me. “Bist a
Professor of Music James Freeman conducts Orchestra 2001 in
Oaks Foundation of
yid?”
(“Are
you JewLeningrad. The orchestra also visited Moscow and Denmark during
Walter Scheuer ’44, who the November 1997 international tour. The soloist is Barbara Ann Martin. ish?”) she asked in Yidis producing a docudish. Her family lived in
mentary film about it
St. Petersburg; it was
and distinguished composers was
for PBS.
difficult, she said, sometimes, “nit tu
palpable, not from the profundity of
The first concert, at beautiful
kain shtihkl broit” (“not even a piece
what
he said—Crumb has no such
Glinka Hall in St. Petersburg (said to
of bread”). Now she’s the only one
be Russia’s most prestigious venue), pretentions—but simply by his
left—the rest are “here.” She turned
presence.
was the final event of “Sound
away with, “a solchen vei” (“such a
Michael Byalyk, Russia’s foreWaves,” the weeklong International
sorrow”). I understood; I had heard
most music critic, covered the perNew Music Festival of St. Petersthe same words, said the same way,
formance. His review glowed with
burg. Alexander Radvilovich, the
from my grandparents who left Rusartistic director, founded the festival praise for the orchestra and vividly
sia a century ago.
reflected the passionate enthusiasm
in 1989 to provide a venue for the
of
the Glinka Hall’s capacity crowd:
ecause there had been “inciperformance of new music.
dents” on the six-hour night
Orchestra 2001 played two pieces “It was an evening of contemporary
American classical music performed train from St. Petersburg to
by Crumb, “Music for a Summer
by the superb ensemble Orchestra
Moscow, we took an earlier evening
Evening” and “Ancient Voices of
2001 under the direction of James
run, arriving safely at the dark
Children,” and one by Finko,
Freeman.... An extraordinary sense
Moscow station by 10 o’clock. At
“Fromm Septet.” Crumb has an
of serenity was expressed both in
our hotel the desk clerk shook her
almost reverential following in St.
head and shrugged her shoulders.
Petersburg. On the afternoon before the music and by the performers’
Something was improper. She wantthe orchestra’s performance, he was playing of that music, and a feeling
ed to keep our passports, visas, and
given two hours for a seminar at the of spiritual union between performcredit cards overnight. It wasn’t a
Composers Society. The admiration
By Arnold Gessel ’54
welcome proposition, but after a
of the room full of Russian students
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SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
half-hour of shuffling and whispering, back came our documents,
room keys, and a big smile. We had
heard it was like that in Russia.
The Moscow concerts, at Rachmaninoff Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, were arranged by Conservatory Professor Svetlana Sigida and
solo clarinetist of the Bolshoi Rafael
Bagdasarian, who two years ago had
played at Swarthmore and would be
our clarinetist on this tour. Joining
us, too, were the Bolshoi’s principal
bass and principal second violin.
The performance in Moscow was
excellent, though we were surprised
the crowd was only half the
size of our St. Petersburg audience. Only later did we learn
that three other concerts were
taking place in different halls of
the Conservatory at the same
time as ours.
tries for the education and appreciation of the student body and their
families. The schools’ 1,000-seat
auditoriums had a nightclub atmosphere, with round tables and elegant meals and snacks in the breaks
between performances that, in addition to Orchestra 2001, included an
a capella choir from Minsk, a Polish
symphony orchestra, solo percussionist Gert Mortensen, the blind
sitar virtuoso Baluji Shrivastav guiding the audience through a musical
meditation, and Barbara Ann Martin
accompanied by Orchestra 2001
pianist Marcantonio Barone in a
Laena and I were hosts for an
orchestra from the USA called 2001.
They were nice and enormously
friendly. They played new and very
good music, which certainly made
an impression on me, and in one
way or another, on the whole audience.
“Their music was the kind that if
you heard it without seeing them
and their instruments, you’d think
that a group of nonmusical people
were tuning instruments. Seeing
them perform made a world of difference and gave sense to the chaos.
The more we heard their music, the
I
n Denmark we had no “incidents” or bothersome desk
clerks. Sleek modern trains and
buses whisper precisely
through their schedules, and
the hospitality was warm.
The orchestra was to perform at the Teacher Training
Colleges at Tvind and Nebbegaard, which are part of a Danish private school system that
takes pride in its un-orthodox
curriculum, including sixmonth stints of “solidarity
work” in places like Mozambique, and the annual Yule concerts.
During a festival of George
Crumb’s music in Ljubljana,
Slovenia, last summer, James Freeman and Orchestra 2001 soprano
Barbara Ann Martin met June Jørgensen and Grete Andersen, two
Danish teachers. They talked about
doing Crumb’s music, and the decision was made to include Orchestra
2001 and “Ancient Voices of Children” in the Yule concerts for this
year.
The all-day (10 a.m. to 10 p.m.)
concerts are designed to provide a
variety of music from different counMARCH 1998
Composer George Crumb, Hon. ’89, and members of Orchestra 2001 pose with a
bust of Rachmaninoff in the Rachmaninoff Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.
series of operatic numbers and
show tunes.
Between performances we were
housed, fed, and pampered by our
own private caretakers, one of
whom was 16-year-old second-year
student Penelope Hansen, who later
wrote her impressions in the Nebbegaard News under the title: “Were
They Crazy or Musically Gifted?”
“This year’s Christmas concerts
were very special because there
were loads of new music and artists.
more we liked it.
“We were sad to say good-bye
when they left, but they said we must
come over and visit them. They’d
arrange accommodation and everything. So next year, we’ll definitely
go over and visit our new friends.”
We shall greet them with open
arms!
Arnold Gessel ’54 is retired from the
practice of psychiatry. He lives in Rose
Valley, Pa.
51
Recent Books by Alumni
We welcome review copies of
books by alumni. The books
are donated to the Swarthmoreana section of McCabe
Library after they have been
noted for this column.
■ Jean (Seiler) Baldwin ’44,
George, Audenreed Press,
1997. When Benji and his
family adopt a little brown
dog they name George, little
do they know what he would
do for them, from leading
them to safety when the
house catches fire to helping
thwart the abduction of a
neighbor’s dalmation.
■ John A. Byers ’70, American Pronghorn: Social
Adaptations & the Ghosts of
Predators Past, The University of Chicago Press, 1997.
Based on 14 years of
research, this book is an
account of the social behavior and life history of North
America’s only antelope,
which continue to behave as
though their long-extinct
predators are still present.
■ Bruce Cratsley ’66, White
Light, Silent Shadows, Arena
Editions, 1998. This retrospective of photographer
Cratsley’s work, from 1972
through 1997, includes
images from every genre he
has pursued. Included are
143 duotone prints exploring
the mysteries of light and
shadow.
■ Randy J. Holland ’69 (ed.),
The Delaware Constitution of
58
1897: The First One Hundred
Years, The Delaware State
Bar Association, 1997. Written by a group of legal writers, historians, editors, and
leaders of the bench and bar,
this book explores the evolution of complex legal issues
in the state of Delaware’s
constitution while honoring
its strengths and balance.
■ Patricia Clark Kenschaft
’61, Math Power: How to Help
Your Child Love Math, Even If
You Don’t, Addison-Wesley,
1997. Written to inspire children mathematically by giving them tools they need for
success, this book—through
games, questions, and conversations—presents strategies for helping parents overcome mediocre math teaching in school and parental
math anxiety at home.
the visitor with information
on transportation, Olympic
venues, accommodations,
dining, entertainment, and
other helpful tips.
cimer’s origins on the early
Appalachian frontier and
describes the major design
traditions, each centered in
its own geographical area.
■ Lewis Pyenson ’69 (ed.),
Disciplines and Interdisciplinarity in the New Century,
The Center for Louisiana
Studies, 1997. This collection
addresses the nature of disciplines and interdisciplinarity
in higher education: Have we
reached a turning point
where students will be urged
to acquire breadth rather
than depth of knowledge?
■ Peggy (Bebié) Thomson
’43, The Nine-Ton Cat: Behind
the Scenes at an Art Museum,
Houghton Mifflin, 1997. Written for readers of all ages,
this book explores the workrooms at the National Gallery
of Art, where guards, curators, carpenters, and more
than 90,000 works of art
await the events of the day.
■ Peter Pyle ’79, Identification Guide to North American
Birds, Part I, Slate Creek
Press, 1997. This guide contains information on the
molts, aging, and sexing of
395 species and 857 currently recognized subspecies
that regularly breed or have
bred at least once in North
America.
■ Richard Martin ’67,
Dorothy Gillespie, Radford
University Foundation Press,
1998. This monograph of the
life and art of Dorothy Gillespie offers more than 50 largescale color plates devoted to
her work of the past 20
years, along with 35 text illustrations and seven essays
covering all aspects of her
long career.
■ Anne Sheldon ’67, Lancastrian Letters, Mica Press,
1997. This book of poetry is a
fictional account of 15th-century England’s Henry V, from
birth to death, told in the
voices of those who knew
him.
■ Michael O’Connell ’89 and
William Kennedy, Discover
Nagano: Japan’s Olympic City
& Land of Apples, EC Inc.,
1998. Produced to coincide
with the 1998 Olympic winter
games, this guide provides
■ Ralph Lee Smith ’51,
Appalachian Dulcimer Traditions, Scarecrow Press, 1997.
After reviewing the dulcimer’s special musical features, this book reveals littleknown facts about the dul-
■ Elizabeth R. Varon ’85, We
Mean to Be Counted: White
Women and Politics in Antebellum Virginia, University of
North Carolina Press, 1998.
With this book Varon challenges the historical assumption that women of the antebellum South were largely
excluded from public life and
demonstrates that white
women of the slaveholding
class were important actors
in the drama of politics.
■ Cécile Whiting ’80, A Taste
for Pop: Pop Art, Gender and
Consumer Culture, Cambridge
University Press, 1997.
Focusing on four artists—
Tom Wesselmann, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and
Marisol Escobar—Whiting
analyzes the gendered overtones of their cultural
maneuverings and how they
repositioned cultural frontiers and reformulated the
relations between sexes.
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
The knights- errant of Chester, Pa.
Rob Henderson ’92 seeks to help juveniles on probation earn a sense of self-esteem.
s men of honor, we live our lives
with integrity. Pride is a justifiable
sense of our worth and is instilled
through positive accomplishments.
Without respect, honor, pride, and loyalty, we are nothing.” Noble words, worthy of a knight of the Round Table—the
stuff of medieval courtly literature. But
this quote is extracted not from a Middle Ages code of chivalry but from a
creed recited daily by a group of juveniles gathered around a rather less
splendid table than King Arthur’s at the
Chester (Pa.) Regional Probation Office.
The creed is a part of the day-to-day
routine at an eight-week-long boot camp
organized by Chester probation officers
as an alternative to placing young felons
in more isolated rehabilitation facilities
outside their own community. The boot
camp is the brainchild of Rob Henderson ’92, a probation officer in the
Chester office since 1994.
Leaving Swarthmore with a major in
sociology/anthropology and a black
studies concentration, Henderson
entered a managerial program with
Acme supermarkets. Despite the chance
for quick promotion and its accompanying financial security, Henderson
aspired to a more satisfying career. “I
came upon probation,” he says, “submitted my resume, and here I am.”
Thanks to an innovative supervisor in
his first year, Henderson and his colleagues were encouraged to create their
own programs for dealing with juvenile
delinquents; in particular they wished
to find ways of steering young people
away from the streets. In 1994 and 1995,
the officers offered summer classes on
topics like sex education, black history,
or conflict resolution to young people
on probation; attendance was low, and
Henderson thought that the youngsters
were not being reached effectively.
From his suggestion to combine classroom exercises with a strenuous physical regimen within a structured, almost
militaristic framework, the boot camp
was born. Ten participants were selected from felons aged 14 to 18 who were
not thriving on probation and were on
the verge of being placed in correctional
facilities; boot camp was their last
chance to avoid placement.
The camp’s first session in 1996 was
not as successful as the officers had
hoped; the close relations that they
established with the youngsters created
problems with authority. “There was no
MARCH 1998
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Rob Henderson (far left) leads the group on their early-morning run.
strict line they knew not to cross,” said
Henderson. So the 1997 camp was “a
much more disciplined, in-your-face
kind of thing.” Rules and regulations
were drawn up and studied along with
the consequences for breaking them;
the creed postulating respect, honor,
loyalty, and hope had to be memorized
within the first week and recited daily.
Participants were only allowed out of
their homes to attend camp, their
whereabouts being monitored around
the clock by electronic devices
strapped around their ankles.
They were awoken daily at 7 a.m.
and were expected to be at the probation office 45 minutes later. For 90 minutes they did calisthenics and jogged
three to eight miles. The staff of three
men and two women accompanied
them throughout their drills. Teambuilding exercises followed. Returning
to the classroom, they discussed newspaper articles—preferably on topics
they could identify with and relate to—
read aloud by group members. They
were instructed in grammar and writing,
black history, sex education, drug and
alcohol education, and life skills. Each
Friday they performed community service, either at the Senior Community
Center in Chester, where they prepared
and served meals and cleaned, or out in
the streets of the town picking up trash
or cleaning the municipal buildings.
Points were assigned daily for positive
or negative behavior; at the end of each
week, the points were added up, and
armbands of various colors were dis-
tributed. Red, black, and green designated various levels of achievement, and
one of each was required to graduate.
The campers were serious about earning their armbands; when on one occasion two of them lost their bands
because of bad behavior, Henderson
says, “It was like the end of the world
for them. They had earned something,
and we took it away. They saw it as
something worthwhile.” At boot camp’s
end, eight graduated; two were placed
in rehab facilities after repeatedly breaking the rules. Some are in school, others
are working, and three of the original
group reoffended.
As an after-care officer who supervizes the young felons when they come
out of placement, Henderson has seen
juveniles come out of an intensely structured environment only to be thrown
back into a living situation that has very
little structure. And as a probation officer seeing the youngsters three times a
week for a few minutes at a time, he
knows that this is by no means sufficient for him to effect a change or reinforce what has been instilled during the
period of placement. He believes that
the boot camp gives the juveniles an
opportunity to change for the better
within their community and so is more
likely to have a lasting effect on their
behavior. “With placement,” he says,
“they feel the only place they can
change is outside the community; this
[the camp experience] gives them energy when they see that change can occur
on their own turf.”
—Carol Brévart
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“I can do it.”
By Maxine Frank Singer ’52
I
was the first person in my family
to go to college. My father went to
law school at night at a time when
a college degree was not a necessary prerequisite. My mother was a
brilliant woman, but she was frustrated all her life because lack of education kept her from doing things she
knew she could do. They raised my
sister and me in Brooklyn, where I
learned a lot from excellent public
schools and more on the street. Our
high school was one of those legendary huge New York public schools
where they computed student averages to the fourth decimal place.
I came out pretty well, and though I
knew little about the differences
between colleges, I did know some
fancy names. So, in the spring of 1948,
I applied to and was accepted at Radcliffe and Swarthmore. During a reconnaissance trip to Cambridge, I noted
the heady atmosphere and saw that
Radcliffe was not Harvard and that the
Cambridge city streets seemed, after
all, just more city streets. Then I came
here. I got off the train at the bottom
of the hill, and by the time I reached
the Parrish steps, I had made up my
mind. Before that walk, I had no idea
that you could actually live in such a
beautiful and peaceful place. That was
enough for me.
But it wasn’t enough for the principal of my high school. Only a few others from our school had ever gotten
into Harvard or Radcliffe. Not too
many had gotten into Swarthmore
either, but that didn’t seem to worry
him. Harvard, even Radcliffe, was a
feather in his cap. It wasn’t just that
schools like Radcliffe favored private
school graduates. They also discriminated against Jews. As the principal
explained at length to me and to my
bewildered parents, I had no choice—
I had to go to Radcliffe. If I was accepted and didn’t go, Harvard or Radcliffe
might, in the future, take even fewer
Jews or applicants from our school.
He seemed quite sure that his admonitions would be accepted. He didn’t
know me well—or, more pertinent, my
father. When we left the principal’s
64
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office, my father said, for the first of
many times to come, “Do what you
think is best.” My mother, for the first
and only time, held her tongue.
And so I came.
Like Radcliffe and other schools in
those days, Swarthmore had its own
reservations about Jews. The quota
for Jews was, I recall, 10 percent (others remember 14 percent). Actually, in
1948 the discriminatory practices of
the College seemed a small transgression compared with the fate of Jewish
I
n our class the
core group of
serious and gifted
science students was
overwhelmingly
made up of women.
(We would have
said “girls.”) We
borrowed sweaters—
and ideas—
from one another.
children of my age in Europe. That my
grandparents had emigrated from
Eastern Europe early in the century
was the accident that saved me from
the Holocaust.
We Jewish freshman were all clustered in the same halls, and all our
“big sisters” were also Jewish. When
Dean Susan Cobbs was asked about
this some years later, she said it was
because she thought we would all be
happier that way. It took me many
years to admit it, but she was probably at least partly right.
Nowadays, diversity in the Swarthmore student body is considered to
be an essential component of a good
education, and Jews are simply
included in the general category of
Caucasians. As far as I know, no one is
counting us anymore. Maybe someday colleges can give up such counting altogether. We’re not there yet,
but we can hope it won’t be too long.
G
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The truly interesting point is that
Swarthmore, in our years, was amazingly diverse. You wouldn’t know it
looking at our yearbook photos, but
the range of talents, interests, and outlooks was enormous.
Diversity is, in a very real sense, my
business. I evolved from a chemist to
a geneticist of the molecular variety.
The study of genetics deals with
genes, chromosomes, and DNA
molecules, the sources of biological
diversity. At Swarthmore, I inherited
values and inclinations that complemented the biological inheritance and
other cultural foundations that I had
brought with me to the College. The
Swarthmore experience prepared me
to join the scientific community and
sustained me in it through these long,
and never easy, years.
How was it that in the 1950 Swarthmore environment—with its American
middle-class roots, its deep ties to a
religious tradition, and its commitment to a liberal education, in the
classical meaning of that term—a
young person could acquire the culture of modern science? How could
this civil place impart the iconoclastic
skepticism, the will and skill to challenge received wisdom, that are
essential to the scientific enterprise?
More to the point, how could this happen to a young woman at a time when
the scientific community was itself
hardly congenial to female participants?
The answers to these questions are
partly general and partly specific.
For the general, two aspects of life
here were important in nurturing a
young scientist: freedom and optimism. For most of us, Swarthmore
meant our first freedom from family,
from the communities of our childhoods. It also meant the first real intellectual freedom to think on our own.
And we all quickly learned that to
share thoughts meant subjecting
them to criticism.
Optimism can follow on freedom,
but it also requires a level of self-confidence. It is not enough to think, “It can
be done”; it is also necessary to
believe, “I can do it.” The path, even at
Swarthmore, was not smooth. Eventually, it dawned on me that to go from
the “I think I can” stage to the more
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STEVEN GOLDBLATT ʼ67
optimistic “I can do it” stage requires
ently was for so many young women
nationwide; 32 went to women; five of
a certain level of arrogance. I began to of our era, any reason not to take ourthose women were members of
recognize that arrogance can play a
selves and each other seriously. No
Swarthmore’s Class of 1952; a sixth
constructive role in scholarship. Com- one told us that we couldn’t do what
was Rada Demerec Dyson-Hudson ’51.
petition presents related quandaries.
we all dreamed of doing. The invisible
Some of us were fortunate enough
It’s only a small slide from “I can do it” walls around this place shielded us
to find ourselves in graduate departto “I can do it sooner and better than
from a fact that most people knew
ments that were hospitable. Others
anyone else.” Competitiveness, like
and we were to learn: that there was
encountered more typical troubles
arrogance, is not always attractive,
little space in the outside world for
from their male professors. One way
but both often motivate good science. women as scientists. It was this core
or another, we prevailed. We did all
When my generation of women
the things we weren’t supposed
left Swarthmore, most of us were
to do as well as those we were:
neither fully free nor completely
We got degrees, we worked, we
optimistic. Now, 45 years later,
broke new ground, we published,
most of us have still not achieved
we married, and we had children.
the level of freedom and optiJoan Berkowitz, an inorganic
mism typical of the best male scichemist, heads her own successentists. It is likely that my mostful company in the field of hazaccomplished male scientific colardous waste removal. Laura
leagues had no need of being
Maurer Roth became a professor
taught about freedom and optiof physics. Vivianne Thimann
mism. Unlike women, they grew
Nachmias is a professor of cell
up with these attributes as part of
biology. Barbara Wolff Searle
their internal environments. The
went back to mathematics and
social science research of Carol
wound up working on education
Friedman Gilligan ’58 [see p. 47]
for the World Bank.
documents this difference beSwarthmore has been and
tween American boys and girls.
remains a place where young
Perhaps this is beginning to
women can get an extraordinary
change, but that is another story.
start in science. Swarthmore
In our class the core group of
graduates older and younger
serious and gifted science stuthan we have made important
dents was overwhelmingly made
contributions to the modern
up of women. (We would have
understanding of the natural
said “girls.”) Six of us in particular
world. It is a marvelous surprise
were friends. We were colleagues.
each time I encounter one of
In 1952 there were 600 National Science Foundation
We were competitors. We talked. graduate fellowships, remembers Maxine Frank Singer them—astronomers like Nancy
We fought. We borrowed ’52—and just 32 of them went to women. Five of those Grace Roman ’46 and Sandy
women were members of her Swarthmore class.
sweaters—and ideas—from one
Moore Faber ’66, biologists like
another. We lived together in
Jane Kellock Setlow ’40 and Carshifting combinations as roommates
of students that really educated me.
olyn Walch Slayman ’58, professor of
in the same dormitories. In the preThanks to the group, the rest of the
linguistics Barbara Hall Partee ’61,
ceding and following classes, there
world began to seem manageable.
and seismologist Ines Cifuentes ’75.
were other scientifically inclined
Was our confidence simply a conAll of these women have been able
women who figured importantly in
struction of ambitious young women? to contribute to the incredible scienour seminars, discussions, and lives— The first evidence came our senior
tific discoveries of the past decades.
people like Ursula Victor Santer ’53
year. Sue Carver Buchanan, who
Swarthmore made it possible. And in
and Lisa Steiner ’54.
became a successful cardiologist, was doing that, it has played a critical role
The men in our science and math
accepted into a great medical school
in advancing freedom and optimism
classes were themselves wonderfully
even though she ruined her chances
for all. It is a role to celebrate! ■
talented, but there was never any rea- at another by telling her interviewer
Maxine Frank Singer ’52 is president
son to assume that they were more
that his questions about her plans for
of the Carnegie Institution in Washingimportant to the highly interactive
marriage and family were out of
ton, D.C. This essay was adapted by
student group, or to the professors,
order. That took guts in the spring of
than were the women. And as the four 1952. The other five went on to gradu- Roger Youman ’53 from Singer’s
address to the Alumni Collection duryears progressed and the classes and
ate school, with National Science
ing Alumni Weekend 1997. Youman is
seminars became smaller and more
Foundation fellowships. That was the
married to Singer’s sister, Lillian
advanced, the women predominated.
first year such fellowships were availFrank Youman ’57.
There was not for us, as there apparable. Six hundred were awarded
Take time to smell the roses
’98
ALUMNI
WEEKEND
J U N E
N
5 – 7
o matter when you graduated from
Swarthmore, at class reunions it often seems
like only yesterday. New buildings, new faces, and
new landscaping don’t obscure the College’s timeless essentials, from favorite vistas to compelling
discussions to your own special reminders that
there’s no place quite like this one.
Promise yourself this opportunity to take
advantage—at last—of the subtler pleasures
around the campus. Remember wishing as a student that you could hike around the Crum, or settle into an Adirondack chair with a good novel, or
stroll through the rose garden? Somehow there
was never enough time to stop and smell the
roses or even to enjoy a book that wasn’t
required reading.
Alumni Weekend ’98 offers something for every
mood. Play a brisk game of tennis. Attend a faculty
lecture—and don’t worry about taking notes. Sing
along at this year’s special Folk Festival reunion. Sit
in on the Alumni Council meeting, and meet the
representatives from your region. Find out if you
recognize any of the shops in the Ville. Participate
in a class reunion panel. Or enjoy the bliss of doing
nothing at all. Some of the best parts of the
Swarthmore experience can happen at a reunion!
Look for your Alumni Weekend brochure in the
mail soon. More information is available from the
Alumni Office at (610) 328-8401 or on the Internet
at alumni@swarthmore.edu.
ARE YOU RECEIVING DUPLICATE COPIES OF THE BULLETIN? PLEASE SEND BOTH LABELS TO:
ALUMNI RECORDS, SWARTHMORE COLLEGE, 500 COLLEGE AVE., SWARTHMORE PA 19081
Swarthmore College Alumni Bulletin 1998-03-01
The Swarthmore College Bulletin is the official alumni magazine of the college. It evolved from the Garnet Letter, a newsletter published by the Alumni Association beginning in 1935. After World War II, college staff assumed responsibility for the periodical, and in 1952 it was renamed the Swarthmore College Bulletin. (The renaming apparently had more to do with postal regulations than an editorial decision. Since 1902, the College had been calling all of its mailed periodicals the Swarthmore College Bulletin, with each volume spanning an academic year and typically including a course catalog issue and an annual report issue, with a varying number of other special issues.)
The first editor of the Swarthmore College Bulletin alumni issue was Kathryn “Kay” Bassett ’35. After a few years, Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49 was appointed editor and held the position for 36 years, during which she reshaped the mission of the magazine from focusing narrowly on Swarthmore College to reporting broadly on the college's impact on the world at large. Gillespie currently appears on the masthead as Editor Emerita.
Today, the quarterly Swarthmore College Bulletin is an award-winning alumni magazine sent to all alumni, parents, faculty, staff, friends of the College, and members of the senior class. This searchable collection spans every issue from 1935 to the present.
Swarthmore College
1998-03-01
43 pages
reformatted digital
The class notes section of The Bulletin has been extracted in this collection to protect the privacy of alumni. To view the complete version of The Bulletin, contact Friends Historical Library.