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WINTER 2019
Periodical Postage
PAID
Philadelphia, PA
and Additional
Mailing Offices
500 College Ave.
Swarthmore, PA 19081–1306
www.swarthmore.edu
LAURENCE KESTERSON
WINTER 2019
Come back for Alumni Weekend 2019,
May 31–June 2, to bask in the beauty of
Swarthmore’s campus and community.
(Thanks to Scott Arboretum gardener
Sheila Doyle Magee ’81, photographed
on campus in the Terry Shane
Teaching Garden.)
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
A GARDEN OF VOICES
HANDMADE
p20
HOT WHEELS
p40
HEART STOPPERS
p44
in this issue
MOTORCYCLE DIARIES
40
Hog Wild
Confessions of a
Swarthmore gearhead.
by Pedro Gregorio ’86
MOMENT IN TIME
On Nov. 30, the College community celebrated the
new Hormel-Nguyen Intercultural Center (formerly
Sproul Hall), made possible by the generosity of
James Hormel ’55, H’09 and Michael Nguyen ’08,
photographed here with their dog, Peanut. The
newly renovated and expanded space deepens
Swarthmore’s commitment to inclusivity
and diversity.
+
READ MORE: bit.ly/Hormel-Nguyen
20
2
49
FEATURES
DIALOGUE
CLASS NOTES
‘Ordinary’
Extraordinary
Editor’s Column
Letters
Community Voices
Alumni News
and Events
Across the decades and in
their own words, alumni who
work with their hands tell
their extraordinary stories.
by Keith Culverhouse ’46
Anne Christian Tedeschi ’56
Ellen Churchill Murray ’67
David Squires ’75
Sheila Doyle Magee ’81
Russell Prigodich
Kevin Hassett ’84
Indigo Sage ’16
Studentwise
Jacob Demree ’19
and Simran Singh ’19
Their Light Lives On
Looking Back
Books
Global Thinking
Chelsea Ferrell ’05
76
SPOKEN WORD
Paul Atwater ’95
and Chastity Hopkins ’15
38
Sanctuary Bound
Weaving the tale of today’s
migration crisis with help
from those living through it.
by Michael Agresta
44
9
COMMON GOOD
Jennifer Marks-Gold
Swarthmore Stories
Quiz’more
Learning Curve
Mohan Ambikaipaker ’95
and Briana Mohan ’95
ON THE COVER
Seattle Fire Department
Battalion Chief Paul Atwater ’95,
photographed by Ashwin Rao ’99.
Liberal Arts Lives
Zoe Whitley ’01
Stan Cope ’76
HUSSAM AL-OBAIDI
Lisa Huang ’02
Profiles
Isn’t It Romantic?
The romance novel evolves,
creating new worlds to keep
love—and lust—alive!
by Kate Campbell
As part of the Friends, Peace, and Sanctuary project (pg. 38), Abdul
Karim holds up Yes to Hope, an anthology participants penned about
family, food, and home. Visit fps.swarthmore.edu to learn more.
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
1
dialogue
LETTERS
EDITOR’S COLUMN
From Our Hands to Yours
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
Editor
Jonathan Riggs
Managing Editor
Kate Campbell
Class Notes Editor
Elizabeth Slocum
Designer
Phillip Stern ’84
Photographer
Laurence Kesterson
Administrative Assistant
Lauren McAloon
LAURENCE KESTERSON
Editorial Assistant
Eishna Ranganathan ’20
Editor Emerita
Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49
JONATHAN
RIGGS
Editor
LETTERS
What sets Professor Allen Kuharski
(fall 2018’s “Ruptures and
Commemorations”) apart is his lifelong
commitment to his students’ work and
their well-being as artists. He uses
Polish theater as a talisman to inspire
wonder and confidence in the past and
future of our embattled form. He knows it
takes patience, missteps, and a material
investment in time and space to grow
new work and minds.
—LARS JAN ’00 via bulletin.swarthmore.edu
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
The Swarthmore College Bulletin (ISSN
0888-2126), of which this is volume
CXVI, number II, is published in October,
January, April, and July by Swarthmore
College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore,
PA 19081-1390. Periodicals postage
paid at Philadelphia, PA and additional
mailing offices. Permit No. 0530-620.
Postmaster: Send address changes
to Alumni Records, 500 College Ave.,
Swarthmore, PA 19081-1390.
Printed with agri-based inks.
Please recycle after reading.
©2019 Swarthmore College.
Printed in USA.
pr inted w
i
th
Swarthmore’s mission focuses on our
diverse, talented students. Please use
the Bulletin to tell alumni far more about
the myriad metrics of the incoming
class, the varied student activities,
and the plans and decisions of the
graduating class. There is so much of
interest to grads of all ages, and you are
not telling it with your current format.
—CHRIS McMURTRIE ’56,
Lancaster, Pa.
Send address changes to
records@swarthmore.edu
nd
e
DEDICATED EDUCATOR
How fascinating: Tying end-of-life issues with humor
(“Dying is Easy; Comedy is Hard,” fall 2018) grabbed me.
Bravo to Sandy ’55 and Ruth Mary Cooper Lamb ’56:
Your approach recalls for me Eugene Farley ’50, the
founder of the family medicine program at the University
of Rochester, where I was on the faculty in 1969–70.
Both Gene and Lindy, his wife, were family physicians
and had spent time on the Navajo reservation. When
Lindy died, Gene went to the township to see if any laws
would prohibit him from burying her on their Verona,
Wis., farm in the Navajo fashion: without embalming and
before sundown the next day. No one could find anything,
so he wrapped her in a blanket and buried her.
Then he established on the farm a site for others to do
the same thing. It exists today. Anyone buried there is in
an unmarked grave, but recorded in the office are GPS
coordinates so family and others can visit the site. When
Gene died, their sons continued on and also turned the
farm into a Quaker conference center for peace activism.
When my wife, Donogh McCutcheon Phillips ’55, died,
she contributed her body to the University of Washington
School of Medicine. When her ashes were returned to us,
the kids and I personally poured them in and filled the
grave; no urn or liner. When I die, the same donation is set
up with similar burial of ashes requested.
Thanks again to Ruth and Sandy and their example.
—TED PHILLIPS ’55, Issaquah, Wash.
MARVELOUS MAESTRO
Send letters and story ideas to
bulletin@swarthmore.edu
e c o-fri
2
SUGGESTION
We welcome letters on subjects covered
in the magazine. We reserve the right to
edit letters for length, clarity, and style.
Views expressed in this magazine do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the
editors or the official views or policies of
the College.
ly
H-UV
ks
SUPERSTAR-SPLASHY or not, every single
Swarthmore story is worth telling.
Here at the Bulletin, we truly take that to heart,
so we hope you enjoy this issue, with its focus
on alumni whose success and satisfaction come
less from international headline-making news or
multimillion-dollar mergers and more from the labor
of their hands.
After all, we’re proud to lend you and the College
the benefit of ours, pictured here (including those of
our fantastic new administrative assistant, Lauren
McAloon, who clicks a mean mouse).
Here’s to all Swarthmorean hands, and the worldchanging potential they hold.
by
bulletin.swarthmore.edu
facebook.com/SwarthmoreBulletin
instagram.com/SwarthmoreBulletin
Email: bulletin@swarthmore.edu
Telephone: 610-328-8533
GRACEFUL EXITS
in
Ken Giles ’71 (“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” fall 2018) is one of
our better angels. He lives his life with the understanding that
he is connected to all others.
—LUCI MURPHY via bulletin.swarthmore.edu
OVERHEARD
ONLINE
Some of us were lucky enough
to hang out with my fellow
Swat Mock Trial Team alum
Gabriel Tajeu ’03, currently
featured in the Bulletin,
during Garnet Weekend!!
#gabetajeu #celebritysighting
#singerandphd #garnetweekend
#swarthmorealumnicouncil #tbt
—BOHEE YOON ’01, via the Swarthmore College Alumni Virtual
Connection on Facebook
HAPPY ENDINGS
Thank you for “Dying Is Easy; Comedy Is Hard” (fall 2018). I teach
a course called “Preparing for Your Own Death” where we cover
topics such as: What would be a good death? What are “green”
alternatives to embalming or cremation? (My favorite is a papiermâché clamshell that opens underwater to release your ashes.) Can
you carry a dead body in your car? What happens in hospice?
At the start of the course, most people say they want to die in
their sleep, but by the end, most would prefer to have a few months’
warning to settle potential regrets. My students find it a relief to talk
openly about death. There are poignant aspects, such as when a
couple read their obituaries to one another, but we also laugh—a lot!
—JAN BURGESS BAYS ’66, Clatskanie, Ore.
In the Weeds
I appreciate the spotlight shone on the newly emerging
cannabis industry (“When the Smoke Clears,” fall 2018),
but I think the piece could have been improved. First,
more research might have identified alumni with deeper
roots in the industry who have a better pulse on where
things are headed. Second, the article missed some of
the biggest issues facing the industry: the Schedule
I status of cannabis, banking restrictions, and dark
money. Finally, there are social justice issues that might
have been raised by the emergence of this newly legal,
giant industry.
I would welcome a conversation the next time there
are plans to write about the industry.
—ANDERS TAYLOR ’07, Gainesville, Fla.
I was pleased to see the Bulletin take notice of the legal
cannabis industry, but surprised it didn’t cover the
industry in a more expansive, inclusive way. Especially
given the history of the drug war and the impact of
prohibition and incarceration on communities of color,
it would have been great to see your coverage include
Swatties who have been involved in social justice,
legalization, and the industry for years.
I’m the managing director of a consulting firm that
has been working with investors and operators in the
legal cannabis industry since 2015, and I also serve
on the National Cannabis Industry Association State
Regulations Committee. It’s an exciting time, but it’s
also incredibly important to be aware of how media
coverage of this newly legal industry can leave behind
those who suffered under prohibition, and the activists
who have been working for decades to make legalization
possible. Please be mindful of this in future coverage.
—TANYA HOKE ’07, Cambridge, Mass.
+ WRITE TO US: bulletin@swarthmore.edu
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
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dialogue
COMMUNITY VOICES
LAURENCE KESTERSON
HANDS-ON LEARNING
I
T IS NOW A YEAR
When you feel the creative urge,
since we opened the
come on in to work on whatever is of
new Swarthmore
interest to you. We have around 40
MakerSpace &
student-monitored hours for both the
Wood Shop on the
woodshop and the digital fabrication
ground floor of
lab when folks can use the facilities.
Beardsley Hall. We’re excited there’s a
Right now, we’re getting a lot of
campus space where the Swarthmore
use from engineering classes, Naomi
College community can gather
Safran-Hon’s sculpture class, and
and make things, whether that’s a
SwatTank students, and many seniors
dinosaur shower head,
from the Art Department
a stylized smartphone
get certified in the shop.
by
case, or myriad other
We’ve even had faculty
fun and interesting
from mathematics,
things. It’s all part of
biology, and physics
the “democratization
using equipment such
of production”: 3-D
as our laser system, 3-D
printing, laser-cutting,
printers, and 3-D scanner.
and computer numerical
One of the unique
control tools put the power of creation
things about this space—and my
into your hands.
role—is that I’m part of Information
This space is for all students, faculty,
Technology Services. Our whole goal is
and staff—it’s open to anyone from any
to be interdisciplinary—to encourage
department, even if the project is not
the exchange of ideas across platforms
for an academic function or purpose.
and get people working together from
Alumni are welcome, too, of course!
different departments.
(However, a class need takes priority.
We’ve had some excellent projects
For example, E90, the engineering
come through here, like that from
class, uses the 3-D printers often.)
the SwatTank team Tricycle, whose
RUSSELL
PRIGODICH
MakerSpace Manager
“I invite everyone to come and
visit Swarthmore’s MakerSpace
to have fun getting creative.”
4
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
automated trash sorter got a lot of
attention from other students; we were
able to help them print caps to go over
the digital elements of their machine.
It’s inspiring to see what everyone’s
doing—there are people creating
things in computer-assisted design for
engineered parts, art models, or just
fun things for daily use.
Successful growth for us would
be getting more departments
coming through the door to reflect
a broader range of the Swarthmore
community. I’d also like to see even
more student-monitored hours, since
it’s so important for Swatties to take
ownership of MakerSpace and shape
its identity. It’s great to see how much
they enjoy working with and learning
from other students and their projects.
If you’re interested in learning
more, come to our Wednesday Night
Workshop series, where we run demos,
teach skills, and answer questions. You
can also see a video of MakerSpace in
action: bit.ly/SMSpace.
I’m a sculptor, and when I was in
graduate school, we had a developing
digital fabrication lab where I took an
active role in promoting it. I’m proud
to do the same thing here, on a much
greater scale.
MakerSpace can have many
applications across disciplines, and the
only limit is your imagination. Come
enjoy MakerSpace for yourself!
+
CREATE: swarthmore.edu/makerspace
LAURENCE KESTERSON
Crafting ideas into reality on campus
STUDENTWISE: MY COLLEGE EXPERIENCE
Inspiring political engagement at Swarthmore and beyond
THIS FALL, we served as student
democracy fellows with Swarthmore’s
Get Out the Vote committee,
collaborating across campus—and
beyond—to facilitate participation in
the electoral process and encourage
lifelong civic engagement.
For me, Jacob, I’ve learned a lot by
being exposed to a new set of political
realities in Pennsylvania while
remaining engaged in
by
those of New Jersey,
where I still vote by
mail. It’s offered me a
new perspective on the
relationships between
local and national
debates and forms of
participation, as well as heightened
my dedication to improving access to
absentee ballots for students who wish
to remain involved in the politics of the
neighborhoods they call home.
For me, Simran, I was especially
grateful to have been able to approach
this through the lens of my work as an
associate for politics and public policy
at the Lang Center for Civic & Social
Responsibility. It means a lot to advise
and assist students in discovering
issues and areas of impact that drive
them to work toward causes greater
than themselves.
Perhaps the most personally exciting
of the initiatives we helped coordinate
with the Swarthmore Political Access
Network (a student
group operating under
the guidance of the Lang
Center and the GOTV
committee) was the
establishment of weekly
“office hours.” Held in
Parrish Hall during
lunchtime, these office hours saw us
assisting our classmates with election
matters, like helping them register
to vote, request and return absentee
ballots, or access political information.
We hope that the regular availability
of resources established partly through
these weekly office hours, as well as
JACOB DEMREE ’19
SIMRAN SINGH ’19
Democracy Fellows
through our overall efforts to build
a coalition of election- and issueoriented organizations, has planted the
seeds for lifelong political action. We
wanted to help pay forward what we’ve
gained by being here, and to empower
all of our classmates. We are proud to
have helped boost Swarthmore’s voting
numbers (see pg. 15), and to experience
firsthand our community’s persistent,
pervasive willingness to work
diligently to uphold our collective
values and commitments.
As graduation looms, we look
forward to seeing which new
initiatives the campus will foster
in future elections, knowing our
classmates will lead the charge.
JACOB DEMREE ’19 is an honors
medical anthropology special major
from Mount Laurel, N.J.
SIMRAN SINGH ’19 is an honors
economics and political science major
from Valley Forge, Pa.
WINTER 2019
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dialogue
AUTHOR Q&A
BEHIND THE BOOK
LIFE LANGUAGE: VIVIAN LING ’65
No Mark Spiral
by Miki Crumsho
by Rainie Oet ’16
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
To capture the pioneering
experiences of her scholarly
generation—and those before—
Vivian Ling ’65 spearheaded
a collective project that
became The Field of Chinese
Language Education in the
U.S.: A Retrospective of the 20th
Century (Routledge, 2018).
“For the contributing authors
who shared their life stories,
the process led them to the
realization that they had not
only made a difference, but had
many moments of joy along
the way,” she says. “Readers
may deduce from the ups and
downs of this field over eight
decades that academia is not
an unsinkable ship. Subject
to volatile forces, it requires
endless nurturing to thrive.”
d4 | d5
Mark and I played our Gameboys \
c4 | dxc4
everyone kept it secret from Baba Galya
e4 | e5
that she was going to die | we weren’t
Bxc4 | Qxd4
supposed to say “cancer” / but she knew anyway
Qxd4 | exd4
and kept that a secret from all of us –
Bxf7+ | Kxf7
as I won the fourth grade state championship
e5 | d3
Papa whispered “three months?” into
e6+ | Kf6
his phone \ she died and I locked Mark in a closet
Kd2 | Bb4+
crying with the lights off | ha ha ha / Papa
Kd1 | d2
assigned us 120 tactics a day and played online
e7 | dxc1Q+
chess until dawn in my bedroom | I was so scared
Ke2 | Qe3+
of seeing Baba Galya’s ghost / I loved Mark
Kd1| Qd2+
so much – ball lightning \
Nxd2 | Ke5
and the space between us grew and
e8Q + | Ne7
grew | and years kept passing
Qxe7+ | Be6 in their orbits / their spirals – I am here \ trying to
Qxe6+ | Kd4
stand in the center but
Nb3+ | Kd3
it keeps pushing me out
Available now, No Mark Spiral (Cutbank Press) is
Rainie Oet ’16’s eighth chapbook.
HOT TYPE: NEW BOOKS BY SWARTHMOREANS
Sheila Murnaghan and
Deborah Roberts ’71
Childhood and the Classics
Oxford University Press
6
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
“What began as a project
on 20th-century women
writers and the classics
gradually evolved into a
study of writing about
antiquity for children,” the
authors share, “and the
lifelong consequences of
childhood encounters with
the Greco-Roman past.”
Focused on British and
American children from
1850 to 1965, they explore
the transformation of myth
into children’s literature,
how ancient history has
been presented to and for
girls, and the intersection
of historical fiction and
national identity.
Ari Larissa Heinrich ’91
Chinese Surplus
Duke University Press
When bodies become art in
the age of biotechnological
reproduction, what exactly
is happening? Investigating
everything from the
Chinese millennial “flesh
artists” to actual human
specimens preserved in
the Body Worlds exhibit,
Heinrich analyzes race,
medicine, and corporeality.
“The plastinated cadavers
will outlive us all—like the
terracotta warriors, alive
to history,” he writes, “and
render in vivid dimension
a detailed record of who we
were, long after our best
historiographies have gone
to dust.”
What did you discover?
Don’t underestimate the power of
language: It embodies a culture as well
as makes it accessible. Language is a
powerful tool, and to wield it successfully,
teachers and students need to acquire a
broad spectrum of knowledge and skills.
What’s your career path been like?
Zigzaggy. I majored in math and still
dream of being an architect, but I enjoyed
the most fulfilling possible career in
Chinese language and literature. In the
past 18 years, I (with husband in tow)
have moved 12 times, lived in six cities,
and had three academic appointments
and numerous other gigs. Confucius said
it well: After 70, follow your heart’s every
desire and you cannot go wrong.
What do you remember about college?
I regret not reaching out to the diverse
and fertile community. One example: I
didn’t realize that Russian Professor Olga
Lang and I had a lot in common, and I
missed an opportunity to become friends
with this legendary scholar who led a
storied life.
Any closing thoughts?
The most valuable thing that I learned
at Swarthmore is that it is far more
important to ask the right questions
than to have the right answers. This
nonconformist approach requires
courage, and I benefited from the safe
environment of Swarthmore to cultivate
that courage. Finally, I would like to
share that one very important part of my
identity today is that I am a passionate
grandmother. That may be the thing that
most connects me with fellow alumni.
Submit your publication for consideration: books@swarthmore.edu
Heather Abel ’94
The Optimistic Decade
Algonquin Books
A tartly smart debut
novel set in 1990, The
Optimistic Decade focuses
on a charismatic counselor,
father/son ranchers eager
to reclaim their land, a truebelieving teenager, and
an aspiring activist who
falls under the spell of the
utopian summer camp that
unites them all. “She felt so
adult, her backpack full of
used books with colons in
their titles that would teach
her everything Ira already
knew,” Abel writes about
that activist. “She felt, even
with her problematic hair,
almost beautiful.”
Kurt Eichenwald ’83
A Mind Unraveled
Ballantine Books
As gripping as a
psychological thriller and
lyrically written as a novel,
Eichenwald’s remarkable
memoir of his battle
with epilepsy begins at
Swarthmore in the winter
of 1982, when he awakens in
a snowdrift after a seizure.
Unsparingly candid about
the physical and emotional
tolls his struggles took on
him and his loved ones, the
future acclaimed journalist
ultimately accepts his fate
and all the pain involved.
“This book is my explanation
why,” he writes.
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
7
dialogue
GLOBAL THINKING
HAPPINESS IN THE HIMALAYAS
She’s opening minds by helping to open Bhutan to visitors
by Leigh Anderson ’96
a study-abroad program for the
nonprofit School for Field Studies
and spent eight months living in the
Bhutanese village of Jakar.
“Very few expats have been able to
travel to or live in Bhutan,” she says,
“and if they have, it’s typically three
days in Thimphu and Paro,” the capital
and a neighboring historic town.
She later was an instructor in
Myanmar with Where There Be
Dragons, the experiential program that
combines cultural immersion with
education in Asia, Africa, and Latin
America. Drawing on her experiences,
Ferrell conceived of a new Dragons
program in Bhutan and built a
partnership with local officials to make
it a reality.
The immersion empowers visitors to
experience the breadth and beauty of
Bhutan—from lush green rice paddies
to mountain villages to valleys of
black-necked cranes.
Ferrell is proud that her work has
made the country more accessible to
explorers … and not just those who can
afford the often-pricey travel-related
expenses.
In fact, Ferrell recently facilitated
an agreement with a Bhutanese
environmental institute to create
Dragons scholarships for high school
and college students who wish to visit
the country.
She’s also helped make possible
“Living abroad creates countless
opportunities for mental paradigm
shifts that would be impossible to
comprehend otherwise.”
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
ON
THE
WEB
CHELSEA FERRELL ’05
Explorer
some of the first truly immersive
experiences in Bhutan: In June, Ferrell
arranged weeklong rural homestays
for Dragons in the central part of the
kingdom, a region nearly untouched
by Western tourism outside of the fall
festival (tsechu) season.
“This program focuses on
Bumthang, in what is often referred
to as the cultural heartland of Bhutan,
where a lot of the historical and
religious sites are,” she says. “It also
allows students to experience village
farming and herding traditions that
reach back for generations. That’s
what makes this experience so
unique—getting to interact with local
families and live as they live, without
the mediation of a guide.”
This is a huge gain for students
interested in truly broadening their
cultural horizons: A Buddhist country,
Bhutan measures the well-being of its
population using the metric of “gross
national happiness.”
“The Bhutanese believe that
fulfillment of duty is happiness. Dayto-day basics are happiness. You don’t
need more than what you already
have,” Ferrell says. “It’s about letting
your mindset slowly shift, that what
you have is more than enough. It’s all
about how you view and share it.”
HIGH DANGER
Peter Andreas ’87
discusses the interactive
relationship between
drugs and war.
+ LISTEN
bit.ly/Andreas87
DYNAMIC WOMEN
President Valerie Smith
shares her leadership
lessons at the 15th
annual Pennsylvania
Conference for Women.
+ LISTEN
bit.ly/PresSmith
VETERANS DAY
Remembering the
Swarthmore experience
during World War I.
GETTY OPEN CONTENT PROGRAM
STUDYING ABROAD might bring to
mind some heavy hitters in Europe:
England’s theaters, France’s cuisine,
Italy’s art history. But according to
Chelsea Ferrell ’05, who works in
global operations for Tufts University,
those in search of a perspective shift
might do well to extend their horizons
farther east, to Bhutan.
Bhutan, a small South Asian
kingdom bordered by India and
Tibet, has historically been closed to
outsiders—citizens had no television
or internet access until 1999, and as
part of their visas, tourists have had to
pay a daily fee of up to $300.
Still, Ferrell, a Swarthmore political
science major who went on to earn a
master’s in social anthropology from
the University of London’s School
of Oriental and African Studies,
was drawn to Bhutan because of her
interest in Tibetan language and
studies.
While living in Nepal and working
with a Tibetan studies program, she
helped run a one-month excursion
through the kingdom in 2012 ... and
immediately wanted to return.
“The high-altitude, cliffside
monasteries set along Himalayan
backdrops were breathtaking,” Ferrell
says. “The cultural and social norms
were completely different from
anything I’d previously seen.”
Inspired, she found a job facilitating
8
common good
SHARING SUCCESS AND STORIES OF SWARTHMORE
+ DISCOVER
bit.ly/SwatWWI
POLITICAL STAKES
Rick Valelly ’75, Patrick
Egan ’92, and Frances
Lee discuss how crucial
midterm elections are.
+ LISTEN
bit.ly/PoliSciSwat
CAMPUS
DEVELOPMENTS
Check in on the progress
of the Biology,
Engineering, and
Psychology project.
+ EXPLORE
bit.ly/SwatBEP
‘BEETLE’ MANIA
Mind Matters
by Carrie Figdor ’81
DO BEETLES make decisions? Do slime molds
solve mazes? Do plants learn?
In my new book, Pieces of Mind, I examine the
possible ways to interpret what psychological
terms mean when biologists use them to describe
nonhuman species … and argue that the best
answer to these and similar questions is “yes.”
Psychology is transitioning toward a nonanthropocentric way of understanding nonhuman
psychological capacities, with important
implications for how we justify the superior moral
status of humans.
+
CONTINUED: bulletin.swarthmore.edu
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
9
RLD I N S
THRILL OF VICTORY
RACES
AR
EN
OUND TH
WO
EV
E
common good
Follow Nick Jesdanun ’91 on his
continental quest.
Sponsored by the Black Cultural Center (BCC) and the Office of the President,
Sybrina Fulton (second from right), the mother of Trayvon Martin, spoke Oct. 22
on campus. “Poignantly, she reminded us of our responsibilities as concerned,
compassionate citizens and human beings,” says BCC Director Dion Lewis (far right).
It began in 2007 as I boarded a boat to
Antarctica for a race through four research
stations and a glacier on King George Island.
To this day, it remains my slowest—at 6:24:11,
or nearly twice as long as my personal best of
3:43:49. I blame the photo stop for a penguin in
my path.
SPORTS SHORTS
SOCCER
The women’s team claimed its third Centennial Conference title in five
years and made the Sweet 16; the Garnet has qualified for the last five
NCAA Tournaments. The men’s team had its best season since 2014.
FIELD HOCKEY
The team had its best conference finish since 2011.
VOLLEYBALL
Sarah Girard ’19—program leader in digs with 1,990—became the
seventh player to earn first-team all-conference honors four times.
CROSS COUNTRY
Both the women’s and men’s teams finished fourth at the conference
championships.
TURKEY TEACHER
Gobble, gobble ... guru?
Watch Barbara West ’90’s
Southern California Poetry
Festival short film:
bit.ly/TurkeyTeacher
10
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
March 6, 2007
USHUAIA,
ARGENTINA
Fin del Mundo
Marathon
The boat from Antarctica got back to
civilization a week later. As we were
already in South America, why not knock
off another continent? Instead of cold
weather and penguins, we were treated
to the beautiful mountains and forests of
Tierra del Fuego at the bottom, or end of
the world—fin del mundo.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
LAURENCE KESTERSON
Feb. 26, 2007
BELLINGSHAUSEN, ANTARCTICA
Antarctica Marathon
Matchbox couple Bill ’53 and Fran Lemke Fitts ’54 today (above) and in 1952 (right).
City Links
A NEW PROGRAM WILL DEEPEN the
engagement of Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr,
and Haverford with Philadelphia, through
nonresidential courses taught in the heart
of Center City.
“The Tri-Co Philly Program will
present students with the opportunity
to better understand the diversity of the
world we inhabit, to directly observe
the links between scholarship and lived
experience, and to appreciate cities as
vital sites of innovation, creativity, and
complexity,” says Program Planning
Director Calista Cleary.
This spring, students will take the class
“Philadelphia: Inventing a City,” and then
either “Narrativity and Hip Hop” or “The
Politics of the Creative Class in American
Cities.” —ROY GREIM ’14
+MORE: bit.ly/TriCoPhilly
TV Titan
He changed how the world watches sports
by Kyle Kondor
A
NY SPORTS FAN
would be agog reading
Bill Fitts ’53’s career
accomplishments, such
as executive producing
eight Super Bowls
(including the first one), creating The
NFL Today, bringing Bryant Gumbel
to New York to host GrandStand, and
commissioning ESPN’s music library
(including the composition of the iconic
SportsCenter theme song).
A five-decade-plus sports television
production pioneer and CBS/NBC/
ESPN legend, Fitts was honored Dec.
11 with induction into the Sports
Broadcasting Hall of Fame alongside
peers such as Bob Costas, Jim Nantz,
and Dick Vitale.
“I feel very lucky to have the
opportunities that I’ve had,” Fitts says.
“You couldn’t do it the way I did it. You
have to really get into this stuff at an
undergraduate level because there’s
heavy competition.”
An English literature major and
football/lacrosse/diving star at
Swarthmore, Fitts had no idea sports
would be his professional calling ... he
was too worried about graduating.
“Swarthmore for me was a huge
challenge,” Fitts says. “I couldn’t even
keep up with the
reading. I met my
future wife, Fran
Lemke Fitts ’54,
after my freshman
year, and we were
able to get through
everything
together.”
Getting into
television production on a fluke, Fitts
rose through the ranks. Not even a
two-year break for military service
slowed his ascent, thanks to his bold
innovations that forever changed the
way athletics were covered, packaged,
and broadcast.
Even since “retiring” in 1997—
when he still helped ESPN cover the
X Games and the annual Bassmaster
Classic tournament—Fitts remains
busy, training his two terriers to
compete in dog agility competitions.
“During my career, I always looked
to hire and work with people who were
smarter than me,” he says. “I think I’m
the proudest of my development of
the ESPN production staff: Especially
when you’re dealing with creative,
disparate personalities, teaching is
truly a rewarding challenge.”
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
11
common good
Game Plan
June 9, 2007
LONGYEARBYEN,
SVALBARD,
NORWAY
Spitsbergen
Marathon
The name of this Arctic town translates to
“Longyear Town,” though “Long Day” would have
been more appropriate: It gets 24-hour daylight
during the summer months. We didn’t spot any
polar bears, though race marshals stood ready—
just in case. In an emergency, I knew I just had to
run faster than the runner next to me.
Bless the Beasts
QUAKERS HAVE a long history of advocating for animal rights—
they became the first denomination to establish such an organization
within their faith group, when the Friends’ Anti-Vivisection
Association (now known as Quaker Concern for Animals) was
founded in 1891. By then, individual Quakers had long been involved
in the secular animal rights movement: Caroline Earle White was
a co-founder of the Pennsylvania Society for Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals in 1867 (the first state SPCA after the ASPCA formed
just a year earlier) and also founded the American Anti-Vivisection
Society.
The Friends Vegetarian Society was founded in 1902, but
individual Quakers chose to live meat-free lifestyles centuries
earlier, including anti-slavery activists Anthony Benezet, Joshua
Evans, and, of course, Benjamin Lay (bit.ly/BenLay).
Many Quaker journals describe formative experiences such
as that of John Woolman, one of America’s most famous Quaker
ministers. Struck with remorse after killing a mother bird as a boy,
he traveled hundreds of miles on foot as an adult rather than ride on
stagecoaches pulled by mistreated horses.
Perhaps the Quaker who had the greatest impact on improving
animal welfare was Anna Sewell, whose 1877 novel Black Beauty—
“The Autobiography of a Horse”—is sometimes referred to as the
Uncle Tom’s Cabin of the animal rights movement. With its frank
depictions of the cruel treatment endured by taxi-pulling horses,
Black Beauty sparked an international movement, directly led to
animal protection legislation, and remains one of the world’s all-time
best-selling books.
In honor of animals, we welcome you to stop by Friends Historical
Library to explore our anti-cruelty materials, including a Quaker
Peaceable Kitchen vegetarian cookbook.
—CELIA CAUST-ELLENBOGEN ’09
12
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
THE SWARTHMORE
‘LIT’SERV
Raffaella Luzi Stoutland ’17 and I wanted to
create an email forum where alumni could
share their creative work: poems, fiction,
essays, art, music, code, photos, videos—
anything! Monthly, we email a brief (three
pieces, max) issue. To subscribe and/or
submit, email natanialevy@gmail.com.
—NATANIA LEVY ’17
IT TOOK MICHELLE WALSH ’98 five years
after graduation, but she decided to follow her
passion instead of a career related to her major.
“The joke is,” Walsh says, “that I didn’t wait
for midlife to have a crisis.”
A four-year member of the field hockey,
women’s basketball, and softball teams at
Swarthmore (and College record-holder in
all three, as well as a 2016 inductee into the
Garnet Athletics Hall of Fame), Walsh left her
engineering job to earn a master’s degree in
exercise and sports studies from Smith College.
Working her way up through various higher
ed coaching and coordinator positions, Walsh
landed her dream job in 2015: Vassar College’s
director of athletics and physical education.
“We all start over so many times in life, but
how you approach it determines the outcome,”
she says. “Identifying where I needed to get
better and putting in the work led me to Vassar,
but part of it was my time at Swarthmore. My
experience of being a student-athlete at an
academically rigorous institution was key.”
Walsh recalls the time she showed up to
Professor Faruq Siddiqui’s engineering class for
a five-hour-long pressure-sensor lab wearing
her field hockey uniform. She did as much of the
lab as she could, left in the middle to play her
game, and returned later to finish.
“I understand just how difficult it can be to
balance athletics and academics,” Walsh says.
“That helps me relate to the students at Vassar
and to be a better resource for them.”
SWARTHMORE ATHLETICS
by Kyle Kondor
Michelle Walsh ’98 during her Garnet athletics glory days: field hockey edition.
Spiritual Care
Sept. 18, 2011
SYDNEY,
AUSTRALIA
Sydney Marathon
It’s back to the Southern Hemisphere for a race that
begins on the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge, featured
in Finding Nemo. No sign of him there, though!
WE’RE EXCITED to launch the Chaplaincy
Innovation Lab (chaplaincyinnovation.org) at
Brandeis University: a think tank that supports
research, teaching, and the provision of
spiritual care in a range of settings. We want to
bring together everyone—chaplains, theological
educators, clinical educators, social scientists—
working around chaplaincy to see if we can
together better understand and innovate to
improve lives and engage communities.
—WENDY CADGE ’97 and MICHAEL SKAGGS
+
MORE: bulletin.swarthmore.edu
Sept. 22, 2012
SAULT STE. MARIE, MICH.
AND ONTARIO
Chamber Chase Marathon
This was my first marathon to cover two countries: We crossed
briefly into Canada before turning back as immigration officials stood
guard. I finished second among men ages 40–44. (Never mind that
there were only two of us!) My trophy is a piece of steel cut from the
bridge we crossed. Good thing I didn’t know that beforehand.
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
13
common good
VICTORY LAP
FLOAT ON
+
READ MORE: bulletin.swarthmore.edu
Two alumni won big state victories in November (bit.ly/SwatElection18).
Dr. Josh Green ’92,
Lieutenant Governor, Hawaii
“I intend to be a humanitarian
public servant, in the spirit of
my Swarthmore roots. It feels
like a dream to be able to take
on the challenges of chronic
homelessness, the opioid
epidemic, climate change, ‘health care for all,’
and gun violence as a public health crisis, all as
a politician/physician hybrid. It makes me very
proud to know that Swarthmore grads keep
choosing to change the world for the better.”
LAURENCE KESTERSON
“IN 1981, the same year Dolly Parton’s feminist hit ‘9
to 5’ reached number one on the charts and Sandra
Day O’Connor was sworn in as the first female justice
on the Supreme Court, I became a whore in Tokyo. At
the time, it seemed like the natural thing to do.”
With that firecracker
of a first line, Belle Brett
’69’s masterful debut
novel, Gina in the Floating
World (She Writes
Press), kicks off. It’s the
dizzily fizzy Wizard of
Oz-inspired journey of a
young woman who travels
to Japan for a prestigious
banking internship
but instead becomes a
suburban bar hostess
enmeshed in erotic
adventure.
“At this stage of my life, I’m proud just to have
completed and published a novel,” says Brett, a
retired researcher who also blogs about downsizing.
“Everything else is gravy, although I wouldn’t mind if it
sold well ... or if someone wants the movie rights!”
—LAUREN McALOON
BALLOT BOOSTERS
At Garnet Homecoming and Family Weekend 2018, Dr. Claudia Kawas
’74 delivered the McCabe Lecture, “Age Matters: Lessons from the Oldest
Old.” Watch it and more: swarthmore.edu/garnetweekend
Justice, Then and Now
Dec. 11, 2016
AYUTTHAYA, THAILAND
Ayutthaya Marathon
This race in Thailand’s ancient capital brings me
back to the home of my ancestors. The start and
finish were near a statue my grandpa sculpted. We
started at 4 a.m. to beat the tropical heat and were
treated to the soothing sounds of Buddhist chants
as we ran by temple ruins. I also got to catch up
with my Thai cousins and Jim Wallace ’91.
14
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
THE NEW BOOK Sidebar: Reflections of a Philadelphia Lawyer details
cases and characters M. Kelly Tillery ’76 encountered throughout his
legal career.
“I’m hoping to provoke and inspire others to speak truth to power,”
says the debut author and partner at Pepper Hamilton LLP, “but to do
so with respect for science, history, and compassion.”
Tillery’s personal interest in history—specifically the life of Quaker
revolutionary abolitionist Benjamin Lay (1681–1759)—recently
inspired him to organize efforts to create a memorial marker for
the Abington, Pa., cave in which Lay lived.
“In this era of bullying, when many believe ‘might
makes right,’” Tillery said at the Sept. 22 dedication,
“it is fitting and proper that we erect a memorial to a
man who believed and lived precisely the opposite,
that ‘right makes might.’”
Tillery’s upcoming project is a collection of essays
about Abraham Lincoln, as well as a play about Lincoln,
Ulysses S. Grant, and Frederick Douglass.
—KATE CAMPBELL
In 2014, only 84 Swarthmore students voted in person
on Election Day. For this year’s midterm elections,
thanks to the efforts of Swarthmore’s Get Out the Vote
committee (see pg. 5), that number is estimated to have
approximately tripled.
The College offered rides to the polls, sponsored
a panel discussion with esteemed political scientists
Patrick Egan ’92 and Frances Lee moderated by Professor
Rick Valelly ’75, and launched a successful “voting
buddies” social media campaign, featuring community
members such as President Valerie Smith and Phineas.
The committee also helped encourage participation in
last May’s primaries, registered new students on move-in
day and at orientation in August, and developed a onestop shop of voting resources online at vote.swarthmore.
edu. —EMILY WEISGRAU
KUDOS, KITTENS
We love how creatively named your
pets are, Swarthmore. Seeing cool cats
like Toni Scratchton (Zach Zaitlin ’06)
and Genghis Khat (Kat Athanasiades
’05) pop up in Class Notes keeps us
purring. Meow, please!
Phil Weiser ’90,
Attorney General, Colorado
“At Swarthmore, I learned
the value of lifelong learning,
developed an entrepreneurial
attitude, and deepened my
commitment to public service.
I ran a positive campaign,
focusing on the importance of the rule of law,
fighting for opportunities, and protecting the
rights of all; in doing so, I traveled to every
county in the state and listened and learned.
This campaign was the most challenging,
interesting, and inspiring effort I have made;
I know that it will help me better serve the
people of Colorado.”
July 1, 2018
VICTORIA FALLS,
ZIMBABWE
Victoria Falls
Marathon
I got my second two-country race with a brief stretch
in Zambia. Half-marathoners got to run by a stray
elephant, but the closest I got was some elephant dung,
quite fresh from the smell of it.
My next quest is to run marathons in every European
Union country. I knocked off the U.K. in April (and
visited Jess Hobart ’91 in London) before it would be
too late. Austria, a week later, was my seventh EU
marathon. Just 21 to go!
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
15
common good
QUIZ’MORE
LEARNING CURVE
POWER COUPLE
They’re dedicated to social justice—and one another
?
1891 HALCYON, PG. 16
How well do you know
your alma mater? Give
this the ol’ College try!
“The past year has been one of changes in the College, and following the general spirit of
progress, we have endeavored to make certain improvements in the Annual which will keep
it, we trust, well abreast of the times,” wrote the editors of the 1891 Halcyon, who opened the
volume with this uncredited illustration.
2
1
IN 1993, who was
WHAT ARTIST WENT
FROM teaching
sculpture at
Swarthmore to
becoming a master
sergeant known as the
Army’s first “one-man
medical military arts
unit”?
successfully
nominated by College
carpenter Don Harriz
to be the eponym for
a revitalized campus
service that nearly all
Swarthmore students
since have used?
3
4
FOR WHAT
WHAT HAPPENED FOR
Broadway debut—did
Darko Tresnjak ’88 win
the 2014 Tony Award
for Best Direction of a
Musical?
1891 edition of the
Halcyon?
PRODUCTION—his
THE FIRST TIME in the
5
WHAT WAS THE THEME
of a contest sponsored
by the 1940 Hamburg
Show?
Know any fascinating Swarthmore trivia? Send your question/answer to quiz@swarthmore.edu. If we use it, we’ll send you a prize!
2. ESSIE MAE BURKHALTER, honored with “Essie Mae’s Snack Bar” for
her then-35 years on Swarthmore’s food service staff. Initially considering
her job to be temporary, she worked for the College from 1958 to 1996.
“I don’t know why I stayed,” she laughingly told Jonathan Seitz ’96 in a
Phoenix tribute. “I just love being around people.” Burkhalter died in 2010
at age 78.
1. ANTONIO CORTIZAS, whose groundbreaking application of tattoo art
helped to obscure the facial disfigurements of hundreds of wounded
soldiers as well as victims of leprosy. A native of Cuba who taught at
Swarthmore in the early ’40s, Cortizas also sculpted clay masks to help
guide plastic surgeons’ reconstruction efforts.
5. MUSTACHES. “Prizes for the best-looking, the fuzziest, the waxiest,
the longest, and the most celebrity-like moustaches will be awarded on
the stage during the Hamburg Show,” Andy Logan Lyon ’42 reported in
the Phoenix. “First prize will be an electric razor, or the cash equivalent in
case the winner has become so attached to his little mouthpiece that he
can’t bear to part with it.” (There seems to be no record of what champion
Don Pelz ’42 chose.)
4. PHOTOGRAPHS WERE INCLUDED, appearing on four separate pages
(14 faculty member portraits, a football team photo, and an image of an
athletics trophy). As exciting a development as this was, it can’t compare
to the mention of the Magill Prize-winning oration by Anna Atkinson, Class
of 1894, “Curing Beef as a Fine Art.” If only a transcript of it existed!
to theatrical primetime with honors.” He made his Metropolitan Opera
debut in September, directing Samson Et Dalila.
WINTER 2019
3. A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER, praised by The
Hollywood Reporter for “the inventive direction of Darko Tresnjak, a
seasoned veteran of the Off Broadway and regional trenches, graduating
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
ANSWER KEY
16
BRIANA MOHAN ’95 was the first person Mohan
Ambikaipaker ’95, fresh from Malaysia, met on campus.
“I had this huge suitcase that I had hauled up Magill
Walk,” he remembers. “I’m pouring sweat and struggling
with the big doors to Parrish when I hear this voice ask,
‘Hey, you need some help?’”
Though the pair didn’t start dating until junior year,
they became fast friends. Both English majors with
a passion for social justice, they were active in the
Swarthmore Coalition Against Xenophobia, which
formed to protest California’s Proposition 187 ballot
initiative to deny undocumented immigrants access to
public benefits.
Married since 2002, the two now work at Tulane
University and continue their commitment to social
justice. Briana is a career adviser helping grad students
and postdocs explore and pursue diverse career paths.
“I get to engage with whole, mature people who have
very complex lives and high aspirations,” she says. “I’ve
been given a lot of leeway to respond to the needs of the
students.”
This includes working with the Undocumented
Student Support Group, which aids those who are
undocumented or “DACA-mented” or whose families or
communities are dealing with immigration challenges.
This is work that the couple can relate to personally.
After a brief stint as an assistant dean of admissions at
Swarthmore, Mohan decided to move back to Malaysia
and invited Briana to join him. They spent five years
there, starting a teachers’ union and volunteering with a
socially conscious theater arts group before returning to
the U.S., where Mohan entered grad school in Texas.
“In our life together, we’ve always had to deal with
immigration issues—for Briana in Malaysia, and for
me in the U.S.,” says Mohan. “We know firsthand how
PARKER WATERS
by Amanda Whitbred
stress around immigration and documentation supersedes
everything else.”
An associate professor, social anthropologist, and cultural
studies scholar at Tulane who recently received tenure,
Mohan also had his first book published, Political Blackness
in Multiracial Britain.
“I’m struck by how the stories Mohan tells in the book, and
the conclusions he draws from his research, connect back to
our history,” says Briana. “All of it finds its way into the book
in a really beautiful and powerful way.”
“We don’t think of ourselves as troublemakers,
but maybe we are, agitating for social justice.”
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
17
common good
LIBERAL ARTS LIVES
ZOE WHITLEY ’01
LAURENCE KESTERSON
On Sept. 14, Zoe Whitley ’01 celebrated “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power”
with fellow alumni and President Valerie Smith. The exhibition is at the Brooklyn Museum
through Feb. 3 and at The Broad in Los Angeles, March 23–Sept. 1.
LIBERAL ARTS LIVES
NO SINGLE ANSWER
She’s passionate about sharing
the questions art provokes
by Amanda Whitbred
18
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
The exhibition “Soul of a Nation: Art in the
Age of Black Power” is the culmination
of years of research and relationshipbuilding by Zoe Whitley ’01. Around the
U.S., she met and spent “a huge amount
of time” with artists, researched estates,
and talked with collectors.
“We were very interested in how
artists during 1963 to 1983 were thinking
about the same questions but coming
up with very different answers,” says
Whitley. “Questions like: What does
it mean to make art in this moment of
extreme social and political upheaval?
Is one’s first responsibility to selfexpression as an artist, or do you have a
greater responsibility to your race, your
community, your gender?”
With over 150 works from more than
60 artists, the show embraces the fact
that these artists “gave no single answer.”
Whitley knew from a young age she
wanted to work in the arts, but it wasn’t
until she was nominated for the Mellon
Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program
by Connie Hungerford, the Mari S.
Michener Professor of Art History, and
Associate Professor of French Micheline
Rice-Maximin that she felt it was
possible.
“Getting their nomination letter in my
pigeonhole,” says Whitley, “and learning
that not one—but two—of my professors
believed that I might be able to do
something with an art history degree—
that led me to where I am today: a curator
of international art at the Tate Modern in
the U.K.”
Although the planning for “Soul of a
Nation” was underway before Brexit or
the 2016 election, Whitley has seen how
it’s resonated with audiences who don’t
typically feel connected to art, and hopes
it will attract new visitors and interest.
“So many intelligent, curious, cultured
people can’t name a black artist,” she
says. “Maybe this is a way that we can
help people know more.”
ELIZABETH SLOCUM
Curator
“I always felt like 90 percent of the people who graduated from here did so much more with their lives than I did because of your damn Bulletin,”
laughs Stan Cope ’76. “I’m tickled to death picturing my classmates reading about me. I suspect a few of them thought I wouldn’t amount to much.”
MR. MOSQUITO
His entomology expertise
impacts the world
by Jonathan Riggs
A U.S. NAVY medical entomologist,
Captain Stan Cope ’76 managed all
aspects of mosquito control and pest
management for the U.S. Department
of Defense—much to his surprise.
“Growing up, I never thought bugs
were cool, and I never, ever thought
I would join the military,” he laughs.
“But I studied entomology because I
loved those classes, and I joined the
Navy because I thought I looked good
in the uniform. I owe my career to
serendipity—and I’m not done yet.”
Formerly president of the American
Mosquito Control Association and
director of entomology and regulatory
services for Terminix International,
Cope is now vice president of technical
products and services for the pestcontrol giant AP&G.
It was a long journey from
Swarthmore and concerns that he
wouldn’t live up to his father, Stan
Cope ’42, or brother, Taylor Cope ’69,
a pair of Garnet athletic superstars
turned medical doctors. He needn’t
have worried: His freshman year, Cope
pitched a baseball no-hitter; during his
Ph.D. studies at UCLA, he identified
an unrecognized mosquito species
responsible for a San Diego malaria
outbreak.
“Walking back to the lab with my
bound dissertation, I never felt the
ground under my feet,” he says. “If that
wasn’t the happiest moment of my life,
it was pretty damn close.”
Strolling through the Ville today
near Vicky’s Place—and his filmmaker
daughter Kemmer Cope ’17’s old
apartment—Cope jokes about the
through line of his career: “I’m the guy
who says, ‘We need to improve.’”
It’s still true: Whether he’s actively
recruiting and personally mentoring
a diverse younger generation of pestcontrol professionals or creating
a special program to help military
veterans enter (and succeed in) the
field, Cope sees opportunities to grow.
“I’m starting to educate the entire
private industry that there’s a lot
more to mosquitoes than mosquito
control,” he says. “Soaking backyards
with poison isn’t the best approach,
especially since the threat of
mosquito-borne illness—Zika, West
Nile, Mayaro—is bigger than ever.”
After all, he adds, this minuscule
insect with a massive global impact—
Earth’s deadliest animal!—deserves a
modicum of respect as one of nature’s
great creations.
“I usually spend more time studying
how mosquitoes live than how
they die.” He winks. “Just don’t tell
anybody.”
STAN COPE ’76
Pest Detective
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
19
You don’t have to become a professor or a president to change
the world. Here’s to the compassionate, committed, and
capable Swarthmoreans who live liberal arts lives inspired by
the ethos of “Know-how; know thyself.” Across the decades
and in their own words: Eight so-called ordinary alumni who
work with their hands share how they make an extraordinary
daily difference. (See more at bulletin.swarthmore.edu.)
LAURENCE KESTERSON
‘ORDINARY’
EXTRAORDINARY
Keith Culverhouse ’46
I WENT TO SWARTHMORE during World War II, so it
was a time like no other. The biggest thing I learned was the
questioning and research needed to make a good (you hoped)
decision.
I wasn’t sure that I was gay at the time, and even dropped
out of pledging a fraternity due to my uncertainty. (Even
after my sexual orientation was clear, through the ’50s and
’60s, it seemed not to affect my career.) I took a year off from
Swarthmore to go to the Philadelphia Museum School of
Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts) and had a
summer job in the Saturday Evening Post’s art department.
I realized those were the people I wanted to work with:
great, friendly writers and designers ... plus, I could file all
those original covers by Norman Rockwell. So when my
family moved to New York, I went along and took night
courses at Columbia in promotion and advertising to get a
job at a small agency. That opened a door in the new ABC
network’s presentation department in the late ’40s, and so
began 20 years in the business. (The late Robert Kintner ’31
was ABC’s president when I joined.)
Eventually, I grew tired of the long hours and lack of new
challenges. When my partner, Ed Petty, and I heard about a
colonial-type shopping complex underway in Lahaska, Pa., it
piqued our interest. Ed always was interested in foods—nuts,
fruits, candy-coated popcorn—and I remembered advice
my father had received during the Depression: “Get into the
business of something people will always need.”
That’s how we came up with The Nut Kettle, a unique,
top-quality shopping experience featuring all things nuts,
made fresh in the on-view kitchen. There was a lot to
learn—roasting, purchasing, packaging, tracking sales, store
layouts, interior design, cost-control, etc.—and we opened in
Lahaska’s Peddler’s Village the summer of ’69.
With hard work, The Nut Kettle grew to four stores.
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However, we had purchased a small townhouse in California,
as both Ed’s and my parents lived there. So we sold off or
licensed the originals and added a wholesale component
by moving to Palm Springs, where there was good local and
national potential at lower costs of operation. It was almost
like beginning again, but this time, our unique caramel nut
popcorn was the hit. Retail grew quickly and became the
favorite of many famous folk who wintered in Palm Springs.
Our first Neiman Marcus order was for our chocolate-pecan
popcorn, which resulted in big sales, especially at Christmas.
I then pulled out my presentation skills and sold them five
more flavors.
After about nine years of this growth, our next move
would mean major expansion, money, and stress. With age
65 coming, I decided it was time to sell and retire to Canada.
Looking back, I’m proud to have had a multifaceted career
that encouraged me to get into something new and grow it,
constantly learning and applying what I learned.
Best of all was doing it with my partner, Ed, who died in
2009. We were together for 46 years and never made an overt
issue of being gay, just ran our personal and business lives on
a strict policy of friendliness and honest dealings. Making
money was never the goal of our life—the Quaker ethic was.
Together, with our own hands, we created something
unique, something that gave pleasure, and something that
helped people. (The college student we hired in the Peddler’s
Village store made The Nut Kettle his whole life: He bought
it and then, upon retiring, sold it to his employees and moved
with his wife to Myrtle Beach. Sadly, a 2016 fire destroyed
the Peddler’s Village building and the last remaining Nut
Kettle.)
My advice: In making the big decisions, balance what you
hope with what you have learned, and go for it. If it’s not now,
it never will be.
CHELSEA WARREN
Nut Merchant
Anne “Woody” Christian Tedeschi ’56
BY YOUR 80s, there’s been time for several lives. I’ve had at
least five, but my greatest love has always been painting.
With the encouragement of my mother, Martha Wood
Christian ’31, I painted anything and everywhere. My early
ambition had been to become a commercial artist—my
father, Frank Christian ’31, took me to his ad agency on the
occasional Saturday. Seeing artists at their tables with huge
jars of brushes and pens was the height of glamour to me!
But it was not to be. My parents insisted on a good liberal
arts education first. At that time, Swarthmore had no
practical art classes, but I loved it anyway. I took as many fine
arts courses as possible and graduated as an English major. It
taught me to value the rich life of the mind and to write.
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As a consequence, editorial work has been one of my minicareers: I worked as an editorial assistant and, much later,
translated some dozen volumes from the Italian with my
husband, John, a collaboration that has enriched our 62
years of marriage. I also studied bookbinding, working in
book repair and conservation, before starting another minicareer in library materials preservation.
While our three children were young, I filled our lives
with handmade things: I painted a Monopoly board on the
basement concrete floor so the children could be the pieces;
I made elaborate Halloween costumes; I painted Mary
Poppins, Robin Hood, and Tolkien’s Helm’s Deep on walls.
In the 1960s, we bought a farm in far-western Wisconsin,
where still another life began for me: gardening.
Raising much of our food, today we have been an organic
farm for 50 years. This is hand work on a big scale. Our
grandchildren lovingly call it “the prison farm.”
My husband and I retired in 1996; for the first time, I
had continuous time to devote to painting. Our region, an
unglaciated part of the state, is extraordinarily beautiful,
with deep valleys, heavy woods, and hordes of animals and
birds—lots of inspiration during my serious watercolor
lessons.
I was asked to join a local cooperative art gallery, became
a member of the Wisconsin Regional Art Association, and
earned a few awards at their statewide shows. I taught
children watercolor, exhibited their work, and became an
annual staple at a major fine arts festival. This was great
fulfillment, becoming a “real” artist!
I am old—there is no other word for it—but I still paint,
knit, sew, garden, and repair books. My husband and I are
working on our 11th translation, too, out here where the
creek floods, clouds race west to east, trees sigh in the wind,
and spring mud renews all good things. If there’s a heaven on
Earth, this is it: here, where my hands are always busy.
MIDNIGHT MOONLIGHT BY ANNE “WOODY” CHRISTIAN TEDESCHI ’56
Artist
Ellen Churchill Murray ’67
I STARTED DRIVING with the San Francisco Municipal
Transportation Agency (Muni) as a midlife career change at
age 40. In many ways, it was the intersection of the social,
political, and economic forces that shaped my life, and of my
own development as a revolutionary communist, a member
of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP). Though academic
Swarthmore didn’t set me down this path, the presence of
activists, friends, classmates, and a chapter of Students for a
Democratic Society (SDS) on campus all played a part.
The fall of 1963 was an eye-opener. As I studied for my
freshman exams, fellow students demonstrated in Chester
against racism in schools. By June, I’d joined an SDS summer
project in Chester, which led to assisting in the national
SDS office. Another semester, I traveled to South America
and Mexico, where I came face to face with the ravages of
U.S. imperialism. I began to see capitalism as a devastating
system to people everywhere. This all helped to direct my
choice to be an activist and an organizer in the working class.
Political activism is powerful, but it has consequences.
For participating in a four-month student strike against
institutional racism at San Francisco State, I was denied my
teaching credentials. A fight for better staffing at a medical
center led to the loss of my job as a dialysis technician. With
support from patients and my union, I won it back—but was
later blacklisted after a strike that broke the union.
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In need of a second income to support our three children,
I turned to Muni. This was both political and personal for
me—it paid a living wage with a pension. Since my husband,
John, had worked there for 10 years, I felt I knew my way
around, which gave me the confidence to do the job. PLP
had members there because it was a strategic, powerful
workforce that could—and did—shut the city down.
Driving a bus is hard and stressful. It led to health
consequences—we attended many funerals of co-workers—
but having a family to love and laugh with was a powerful
antidote, although rotating shifts and long hours interfered.
Driving had a social side: We visited, traveled with, and
celebrated with other Muni families. Our daughters attended
school and birthday parties with children of our co-workers.
Having three girls helped me to relate to my passengers:
women negotiating strollers on the bus, young kids going
alone to school, and even squabbling teens. I really felt that
my passengers and I were more alike than different.
Muni had drivers from more than 40 countries. The
workforce was often subject to racist and sexist attacks
from the governing board and political forces to divert the
anger of the passengers and justify budget cuts. Muni’s
chronic budget shortfalls and resulting attacks on working
conditions and passenger service were largely due to
financial capitalists not paying their “fare” share into the
transportation budget.
I and other members of PLP helped develop union
caucuses inside the Transport Workers Union Local 250A; we put out flyers that exposed the divide-and-conquer
schemes of Muni’s management, city politicians, and their
spokespeople. Solidarity developed among diverse workers
as we realized we were all “brown” (the color of the Muni
uniform) and all faced the same problems.
After more than a decade of retirement, my husband
and I don’t miss the nightmare schedules and arbitrary
management discipline, though we do miss the job’s social
life and camaraderie. My experiences helped me to realize
that working-class people will stand together across all
kinds of differences. I learned that people could depend upon
one another. And I found that if you are principled and have
integrity, co-workers will support you—even if they don’t
agree with your goal of communist revolution.
LYDIA DANILLER
Bus Driver
David Squires ’75
WHEN I WAS A BOY, my father owned and used a portable
Royal typewriter. I was fascinated by it, though it was offlimits to me as a child. In 1964, when I was 10, the New York
World’s Fair was happening in Flushing Meadow Park. In the
IBM pavilion, they introduced the IBM Selectric typewriter.
Instead of levers, it used a hard plastic interchangeable ball to
strike the ink ribbon and the paper. You could change fonts!
I was so enchanted by the machine that my father said he
would get me one if I succeeded in getting straight A’s my
senior year in high school. I did not ace my classes, but my
love affair with typing was to last.
I left New York for Swarthmore in 1971. I had the smarts,
but I lacked the discipline to be a very good student. High
school had been too easy for me. I could read well and I had
a strong memory. Both my parents were college graduates.
However, rigorous studying was not in my repertoire. I
flunked out by the end of my first year.
While attending Swarthmore, I joined a political group,
somewhere to the right or the left of the lunatic fringe. Not
much good was to come of that, but I was given access to
teletype machines. I typed and I typed and I typed. To this
day, without being able to tell you offhand where the keys
are, my fingers can move with speed accurately. I parlayed
my skill to get an entry-level job on Wall Street and, after a
year, got a much better one at the United Nations using their
teletype machines.
After two years there, I landed a job at a commercial
typographer. This was just at the time when “cold type” was
replacing “hot type.” We were truly at the dawn of a new age,
working primarily on advertising and promotional material.
I love the printed word. I like bookstores. I like libraries. I
like newspapers and magazines. I learned how to spell at that
typography job. If you have to look up a word more than a
few times, eventually you will learn to spell it. I learned how
to proofread, how by reading someone else’s work, the typos
jump out at you. This was before spell-check.
I worked at that job first in the evenings and then, as the
shop became busier, on the late-night shift. We did well if
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we cleared the shop of work by morning. Most jobs had a
12-hour turnaround time. Sometimes we would be drowning
in work. Other times, not so much.
Along the way, I returned to Swarthmore. I took French
and got an A, but that was about it. I flunked out again. It was
during my second College stint that I met John Seybold ’36,
who was known as the father of computerized typesetting.
Over the years, I was hobbled by mental illness, and I fell
into alcoholism. (Thankfully, though I’ve had my ups and
downs, I have been sober now for more than 25 consecutive
years.) Three years into my sobriety, I had a heart attack.
It scared me. I had always wanted to play the piano, so I
decided if I was going to do it, I’d better do it now.
I bought a small Casio keyboard and hired a piano teacher.
Within a few years, I found a full 88-key electric Yamaha
piano that was in my price range. Twenty years and three
pianos later, I can play adequately for my own amusement,
particularly if I commit the time to practice. My teacher, who
is blind, plays organ and piano in church. I don’t take lessons
anymore, but I help him out—once or twice a week for a few
hours, he has me play notes while he records them on a tape
to learn new pieces.
I don’t really understand “muscle memory,” but I take
great pleasure when my fingers can do the work of typing
or playing the piano. Now retired, I am amazed with the
technology that has become commonplace. Swarthmore,
in part, led me to be excited by this new world of computer
magic, but also to question things. I have some regrets but I
don’t dwell on them.
My pastor recently preached on the parable of the prodigal
son. I like that story because I think of myself as the prodigal
son. However, in many ways, I am more like the older
brother.
My time at Swarthmore and beyond has taught me to be
aware of the worth of every person and the essential dignity
of work. To acknowledge that each of us is made in the image
and likeness of God is to affirm that truth and is an act of
peace. Shalom.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
Typesetter
Sheila Doyle Magee ’81
“WANDERING” BEST DESCRIBES my path back to
Swarthmore. Immediately after finishing my graduation
requirements (I skipped the ceremony), I headed out
on a cross-country road trip and then a plane ride to
Hawaii. During a summer internship at the Manomet Bird
Observatory in Massachusetts, I met some friends who had
done fieldwork censusing native birds. This sounded like
exactly what I wanted to do.
I spent six years in Hawaii doing ornithological fieldwork,
living in the rainforest of Volcano Village and working in
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. I didn’t realize at the
time that it was the best job I would ever have. I did know
that I liked working outside, being physically active, and
doing something different almost every day. It felt good and
worthwhile to contribute to the preservation of natural
beauty and diversity in the world.
I had my first daughter in Hawaii, and then the situation
of being so far from family felt like a drawback. My husband,
daughter, and I returned to the East Coast, and I spent many
years out of the paid workforce raising my (eventually) two
daughters. Unfortunately, when I was ready to return to
paid employment, I discovered that fabulous ornithological
fieldwork was not as easy to find the second time around. I
expanded my interest to plants and gardening, completing
a certificate of merit in ornamental horticulture from
Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pa.
When I moved back to Swarthmore, I began volunteering
with the wonderful group of assistants at the Scott
Arboretum, and when a gardening job on the College’s
grounds crew became available, I applied. Fifteen years
later, I’m still at the job learning new things about plants,
gardening, and the Swarthmore campus and community.
I still get to work outside and be physically active (that’s
gotten harder) and do something different almost every day.
And it still feels good to be contributing to natural beauty,
natural diversity, and natural resource protection in the
world.
I’m proud my labors contribute to the enjoyment people
experience walking around campus. I like to think that
it helps them—students, especially—relieve some stress.
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The gratifications of beautifying a physical space can be
immediate. Completing a new planting, like the gravel
culture beds that connect south campus to the Inn at
Swarthmore and 101 S. Chester, feels rewarding. We go
pretty quickly from a blank slate to an attractive garden, and
people notice and compliment our work.
One of the most interesting aspects of my long history
with Swarthmore is the intimacy with which I know the
place. I have experienced virtually every nook and cranny
of the outdoor campus under a wide range of conditions.
This has encouraged me to observe details closely, partly to
avoid boredom, but mostly to really notice what is happening
around me. The campus has changed a lot since my time as
a student. There are new buildings with some old ones gone,
new gardens, more students, some people (myself included)
looking old, and some (parents of students even) looking very
young.
I have the pleasure of hiring student workers for the
grounds crew, which enables me to ask them many questions
about their experiences of Swarthmore these days. It feels
engaging and somewhat unusual to have such opportunities
to compare and contrast. I guess you could say I have a long
institutional memory of Swarthmore. Like most things, that
is sometimes good and sometimes not. It has led me to feel
affection for the place.
It’s a cliché to say that Swarthmore teaches you how to
think; it’s also true. At Swarthmore, I learned how to observe
carefully, how to ask questions, how to identify weaknesses
in arguments, how to debate, how to defend my point of
view, and how to listen to and respect other points of view.
Although not always universally appreciated, these are all
very useful life skills, no matter what one ends up doing.
Not to diminish the work of people who do, but I
personally don’t have the capacity to sit in front of a screen
all day. I originated in a time before anyone did that, and I’ve
opted not to update myself too much. It means that I get to
use my body, and my powers of observation and my mind, to
try to improve an already quite beautiful setting. It means
that I get to experience the campus from a literal “outside”
perspective that informs my awareness of it.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
Gardener
Paul Atwater ’95
WITHOUT SWARTHMORE, I would not be a firefighter.
During my sophomore spring break at Reed College in
Portland, Ore., I visited some friends at Swarthmore and
heard their amazing stories of volunteer firefighting for the
borough.
I was intrigued enough to visit the Admissions Office the
next day to see if I could arrange a transfer interview. Dean
of Admissions Bob Barr ’56 was walking past on his way to
lunch. He invited me to join him, we had a great talk, and I
entered Swarthmore as a junior transfer student that fall.
I joined the Swarthmore Fire and Protective Association
shortly after I arrived on campus. After a month of training,
my group was approved to ride on low-risk responses. My
first lights-and-sirens call wasn’t a serious incident—we just
baby-sat some fallen power lines and kept people away—
but I loved it. After graduation, Seattle was the first fire
department to hire me … and the rest is history.
When I graduated from Swarthmore, I felt confident that
I could learn and handle anything. When I overreached and
failed, I kept it all in perspective by reciting the wise words
from Orientation that Dean Bob Gross ’62 had shared with a
room full of overachievers: “No matter what you say or do to
me, I am still a worthwhile person.”
Being at Swarthmore meant being in a demanding
environment surrounded by good people with boundless
curiosity, a tremendous work ethic, a love of teamwork, and
a commitment to making a difference. That’s a good way to
live life, and I sought a workplace where I could further hone
those qualities myself. (I value those qualities so much that I
even married a Swattie, Deb Schaaf ’95, who embodies them
in her job as a middle school band director. Adolescents with
noise-makers! She’s the brave one.)
I love belonging to the fire service in general and the
Seattle Fire Department in particular. When I look around at
the people I work with—their service, compassion, ingenuity,
humor—I’m constantly inspired to make sure I’m carrying
my weight, plus a little more.
As a firefighter, I loved being at the tip of the spear on a
well-led team that overcame the adversities of a physically
demanding, psychologically stressful job. As I was promoted
and assumed greater responsibility for others, I started to
appreciate the role that leadership and culture play in a
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team’s success. Rank has nothing to do with being taught and
mentored. I suspect that I learn more from the people in my
battalion than they learn from me!
One of the things I love most about my fire department
is that it has afforded me the opportunity to work with
my hands, as well as with my critical-thinking skills.
Fifteen years ago, I taught myself how to be an advocate in
arbitration. At the time, I was president of the Seattle Fire
Fighters Union, IAFF Local 27. A female firefighter had been
suspended without pay for reasons rife with gender bias. The
union’s executive board was not inclined to hire her a lawyer
because it was too expensive and they weren’t sure we’d win.
It was a worthy cause, though, so I said I would represent
her. I devoured books, consulted experts, and acted as if I
knew what I was doing. I went up against a city attorney, in
front of an arbitrator who was a retired judge, and won. A
couple of years later, I volunteered to represent a different
female firefighter disciplined for similarly gender-biased
reasons, and prevailed again. Where does one learn the
confidence (or foolishness) to step into an unfamiliar arena
of formal debate against more capable and better prepared
opponents? Why, conferences and seminars at Swarthmore,
of course.
As a battalion chief, my job is to help my team succeed:
getting to know them, drilling, training, talking about
life, laughing. Building trust takes time, but it is the most
important thing I do.
There’s an organizational component, too. Is our training
up to date? Are all the voices of our organization valued?
Do we resolve conflicts equitably? Are our people held
accountable firmly but respectfully?
Building the systems that reinforce a culture with strong
trust is a very different challenge from working my way
down a smoky hallway—and I love all of it. At the end of the
day, I know I’ve done a good job when the men and women
I’ve sent into harm’s way go home safe. On a more practical
level, I know I’ve done a good job when I’ve done my job. As
a firefighter, I was assigned tasks that were part of a larger
plan. When I did those tasks correctly, the plan was more
likely to succeed. As I was promoted, I got further away from
the nozzles and chainsaws, but I’m at the last rank that still
goes inside at a structure fire—no full-time desks for me!
ASHWIN RAO ’99
Firefighter
Lisa Huang ’02
I ALWAYS LOVED COOKING and baking as a child and
would often attempt to make—not always successfully—
elaborate desserts for my family and friends, like a
croquembouche for Christmas or a cake sculpted like a block
of Swiss cheese for my best friend’s birthday party.
For my French major at Swarthmore (a double-major
with Chinese studies), I spent a semester in Paris and was
completely in awe of the gastronomy and culinary traditions
there—the bread and pastries in particular. There was a
bakery around every corner, tempting me daily with the
aroma of freshly baked baguettes or my favorite coffee éclair.
Needless to say, I gained a lot of weight that semester.
Upon graduating, I wrote letters to several pastry chefs
in Philadelphia. Much to my surprise, I was offered a few
interviews and ended up working full time as a pastry cook
at Susanna Foo’s original restaurant on Walnut Street and
part time as a baker for Metropolitan Bakery. After a couple
of years, I had saved up enough to attend a five-month pastry
program for international students at a trade school in Paris
called École Ferrandi. After finishing, I took the national
exam for pastry in France and became certified at the basic
level of pâtissier, then continued working at the hotel where
I had been an intern until my visa expired. Afterward, I
moved home to New York and began working for Jacques
Torres Chocolate as their pastry chef.
I love that I can produce a tangible and visually appealing
product with my hands that also tastes good. I also love the
artistry and creativity involved in creating new desserts
or cake designs, and that techniques and styles are always
evolving. Some of the work in pastry can be highly detailoriented, such as decorating a wedding cake with hand-piped
lace, and I like that I can completely lose myself in the work.
But even just learning to master a single task and repeating
it over and over can be extremely satisfying; for example,
rolling a perfect croissant and then repeating that action
300 times in a row. And I know this might sound corny, but
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dessert is often for celebrating birthdays, weddings, and
other joyous occasions, and being able to contribute to those
milestones by making people happy also makes me happy.
My husband and I had been thinking about moving abroad
for a while, and the stars aligned when he was offered a job
in the Netherlands two years ago. Luckily for me, being in
the culinary industry means that you can find work almost
anywhere. I am currently at Hotel Okura Amsterdam, where
I have a wide range of duties, including preparing restaurant
desserts, making chocolate bonbons, creating amenities
for VIP guests, and setting up dessert buffets for banquets.
Over the course of my career, I’ve become a jack-of-alltrades pastry chef, having worked in fine-dining restaurants,
boutique hotels, catering, bakeries, a chocolate company,
and as a custom cake designer. It has given me a scope of
experience suited for working in a large hotel like the one I
am at now.
Swarthmore definitely taught me how to organize my time
and how to handle stress. Like the average Swattie, I was
juggling a heavy courseload as a student, coupled with a lot
of extracurricular activities and very little downtime. The
culinary field requires similar skills, as the hours can be long
and the environment high-pressure. To sustain a career like
this (much like four years at Swarthmore) requires a lot of
focus, organization, stamina, and drive.
I also did my Swarthmore winter externship with Royer
Smith ’70 who, at the time, was the executive chef for the
Philadelphia Convention Center. His encouragement left a
mark and helped me realize that a post-Swarthmore career
as a chef was not completely out of left field. Similarly, my
fellow Swatties were open-minded people who embraced each
other’s quirks and differences. Whenever I mentioned that
I was thinking of becoming a pastry chef, my classmates, as
well as some of my professors, were always enthusiastic and
supportive. Had I gone to another school, I think I might have
ended up in a more “conventional” post-college career.
RUSLAN GOLENKOV
Pastry Chef
Chastity Hopkins ’15
NURSING IS OFTEN RANKED as the most trusted
profession, which is something that comes to mind often
on every shift. I am a geriatric resource nurse at MedStar
Georgetown University Hospital (MGUH), as well as
part of a nursing residency program and a member of our
Contemporary Primary Nursing Committee.
The unique liberal arts experience I received at
Swarthmore has been invaluable to my work—every day,
I have to look at things critically and with nuance, be
empathetic and open-minded, and analyze beyond numbers
to see people holistically.
Nursing is a very rewarding job. It can be challenging to
wear a dozen hats from educator to advocate, but being able
to help people during some of their toughest times makes it
all worth it.
I got here thanks to Swarthmore: After I graduated, I took
a year to work so that I could save money. Because of my
biology degree, I was able to enroll in an accelerated program
for a bachelor of science in nursing, through which I was
lucky enough to receive an internship at MGUH as a student
nurse tech. After nursing school, I accepted my position as a
nurse here.
There’s never a typical day for me on the job. I work
rotating shifts: days, nights, weekends. My work starts
at 7 (either a.m. or p.m.), but I usually arrive early to give
myself time to prepare. Every day is different but includes
assessments, medication administration, multidisciplinary
rounding, charting, and ensuring the floor runs smoothly.
I work three 12-hour (but always actually longer) shifts a
week, along with additional classes, coursework, contact
hours, and overtime.
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We see a lot of people at their worst and most stressed,
so we nurses often take the brunt of their anger and
frustrations. Getting people to see you as someone who is
only trying to do what’s best for them can be difficult. I try my
hardest to keep it all in perspective and to manage the things
that are within my control—and to recognize what isn’t—
while still providing the best care possible. As someone
relatively new to this work, I am constantly shaped by the
interactions I have at the hospital.
As a nurse, you don’t always know if you’re doing a good
job—it can be really hard to work with people who are having
a tough time or are maybe even at the lowest point of their
lives. Many days, there are very few smiles. I am grateful for
them when they happen, though, and I give it my best each
and every shift.
What drew me to this field is that there is no singular path
in nursing; instead, it offers a wide array of opportunities
to explore, both in and out of a hospital setting. Nurses can
get additional specializations, certifications, and degrees.
There are also many ways to move up the chain, whether as
a nurse practitioner, as a researcher, or in hospital/practice
management.
As a nurse, it is my duty to always be as capable and careful
as possible. Every time I am in the hospital, I am responsible
for every patient I come in contact with, so I do my best to
stay vigilant and to ensure they’re safe.
In the words of Voltaire (or possibly Ben Parker), with
great power comes great responsibility, and I take a lot of
pride in—and feel the full weight of—the fact that I have
chosen to dedicate my life to helping others.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
Nurse
SANCTUARY BOUND
Weaving the tale of
today’s migration
crisis with help
from those
living through it
by Michael Agresta
“Clockwise from top: Accordion book by Hassan Mohtadi of his personal journey, made in Erik Ruin’s workshop;
art from Egyptian-American poet Maryan Captan’s workshop, added to the FPS project after collaborators requested
additional opportunities; custom letterpress from Maureen Cummins’s workshop; Asmaa Diab showing her art in Islam
Aly’s workshop. All photos by Hussam Al-Obaidi except the Captan image, photographed by Nora Elmarzouky.
38
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
I
N THIS unprecedented era of mass
migration, the U.N. counts 25.4 million
international refugees fleeing death,
conscription, and brutalization. If they find
asylum in a country like the U.S., few longterm transition resources await them. Out
of the whirlwind, resettled people often find themselves
marooned in a strange and unfamiliar land.
To explore the current migration moment, Swarthmore
College Libraries and the Lang Center for Civic & Social
Responsibility will unveil a multivenue book arts show
that begins March 29 at McCabe Library. It represents the
culmination of a wide-ranging program: Friends, Peace,
and Sanctuary (FPS), which features the creative voices of
resettled Syrians and Iraqis now living in Philadelphia.
Activating archival materials to connect to contemporary
experiences, sharing displacement narratives that reflect
multiple cultures, and offering interventions to support
refugee resettlement, all of the art embraces the form and
history of the book as a physical object.
FPS is the brainchild of College Librarian Peggy Ann
Seiden, who developed the idea after an encounter with an
archival holding on a Jewish family that fled the Nazis.
“I started thinking about evidence we have about earlier
refugee movements,” she says, “and how that could be
brought into conversation with what’s going on currently.”
Natural partners soon emerged—College Advancement,
specifically David Foreman, director of institutional
relations; as well as the Lang Center, specifically Katie
Price, assistant director for co-curricular programming and
outreach. A Pew Center for Arts and Heritage exhibition
grant enabled project co-directors Seiden and Price to hire
artistic director Suzanne Seesman, project manager Nora
Elmarzouky, and community liaison Yaroub Al-Obaidi. It
also helped them realize their vision: a two-year effort to
connect the arts to historic and contemporary stories of
refuge, involving book-arts workshops for Syrian and Iraqi
families, as well as commissions for five artists to teach the
workshops and develop book-arts works on the theme of
refuge.
After the project launched in 2016, it expanded to
include an engaged-scholarship course; a collaborative
series of undergrad programs, Searching for Sanctuary;
and additional workshops for faculty, staff, students, and
collaborators through a President’s Office Mellon grant.
“This project builds upon Swarthmore’s history as a
Quaker institution founded on a commitment to social
justice,” Price says. “It extends our resources to meet local
community needs, and enriches the student experience by
providing an opportunity to learn from these communities.”
Islam Aly, an Egypt-born artist and professor at the
University of Northern Iowa, is one of the five FPScommissioned teaching artists. Like the others—Erik
Ruin, Maureen Cummins, Mark Strandquist, and Courtney
Bowles—Aly ran a series of multigenerational workshops.
Attended by about 20 Syrians and Iraqis, Aly’s North
Philadelphia workshop involved lectures on the history of
books and hands-on opportunities for participants to create
their own work in the “dos-à-dos” binding style.
“A lot of our participants are experiencing two different
cultures or languages,” Aly says, “so the book itself makes it
possible to have text on one side and images on the other, or
English and Arabic, or a story told by two different people.”
One book created by a cook named Ossama, who affixed
spices to his pages in plastic bags, tells the story and sensory
details of his favorite recipes. Another book, created by
married couple Asmaa and Hassan, uses an avian-decorated
paper sample to tell a story about the birds that surrounded
their home before it was bombed. (These works and others
like them will be included in this spring’s exhibition.)
“More and more people have heard about the project
and wanted to get involved,” Price says. “That’s our biggest
testament to success: These families are not only sticking
with it, but recruiting others.”
Another participant, Mohammed, was a bookseller on the
famous Mutanabbi Street in Iraq before fleeing to the U.S.
“It’s not easy to forget a decade when you drank from
the wellspring of knowledge, surrounded by books from all
different disciplines, and spent your days with intellectuals,”
he says. “I haven’t derived much enjoyment since I was
forced to leave my work and realized that returning is a
dream and not reality. But now, through the FPS project, I
have been able to return to my beloved world of books.”
In addition to participating in the peace & conflict studies
course co-taught by Seiden and Price, Swarthmore students
have helped facilitate the workshops, translate materials,
promote the project on social media, and provide activities
for children during the workshops.
“It was one of the most beautiful, eye-opening experiences
I’ve ever had,” says Nevien Swailmyeen ’20, who took the
course Friends, Peace, and Sanctuary. “We were able to build
relationships, and we were able to build community.”
Aly anticipates that the impact of FPS on these families
will last far beyond this year’s exhibitions, which will carry
their work past the Swarthmore campus to installations
around Philadelphia and in New York City.
Ultimately, books created through FPS will become
archival materials in their own right—kept safe at
Swarthmore, procured by other libraries and museums, and
treasured as personal belongings—preserving stories of the
current moment of upheaval for future generations.
“Books always have this connection with us,” Aly says. “My
hope was for a family to create its own book. They will start
their stories in it, and hopefully these books will continue to
grow and they will keep telling their stories.”
Aly’s contribution to the March exhibition is a beautifully
bound book inspired by The Conference of the Birds by Farid
ud-Din Attar, a 12th-century masterpiece of Persian and
Islamic literature. It concerns a group of birds migrating to a
distant land, where they hope to discover the unfathomable
divine, but where they ultimately discover something new
about themselves.
+ LEARN MORE: fps.swarthmore.edu
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
39
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40
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
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WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
41
I
REMEMBER dreaming
of riding before I
ever actually rode a
bike. It felt so real.
For the entire ’80s, I
subscribed to four or
five monthly motorcycle
magazines and kept them all in boxes
well into the ’90s. I would regularly
visit every dealer in Westchester
County, N.Y., to ogle the shiny metal,
sit on bikes, and imagine myself
riding them. I even bought a beautiful,
burgundy Arai helmet before I ever
had a motorcycle license, let alone
a bike. (My love wasn’t limited to
two-wheeled iron horses. I also
remember making the rounds of all of
the European car dealers just for the
chance to sit in expensive machines.)
I have to give my mom credit. She
had a co-worker named Wilma who
rode. Wilma was kind enough to let
me use her Honda CB650 to learn how
to ride and take the New York cycle
endorsement driving test. So there we
were: me on the motorcycle and my
mom driving our Buick Century, with
Wilma riding shotgun. They would
patiently follow me through the streets
of White Plains while I tried not to kill
myself on Wilma’s bike—I can only
imagine my mom’s reaction to some
of my maneuvers and am eternally
grateful that she didn’t put a stop to it
right there and then.
On the big day, I was so focused that
I forgot to put my feet down as I came
to a stop in front of the examiner. If
YouTube had existed, the video of me
and the Honda plopping over at a stop
would have gone viral. Unfortunately,
dropping your bike is an automatic
fail. The second try was much more
successful—I finally had my license!
In 1982, off I went to Swarthmore
with my precious helmet and license.
I remember asking my dad during my
sophomore year if he would buy me a
bike. His answer was a very clear no.
I do have to thank my dad for giving
me enough of an allowance that I
could take my first Motorcycle Safety
Foundation riding class. (There was no
reason to tell him back then, of course,
but it did get me one step closer.)
I must have channeled my
42
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
two-wheel energy into bicycling,
because I became an avid cyclist,
riding my 12-speed Fuji over the hills
of Delaware County.
I didn’t know any other students
with motorcycles, but I met a fellow
gearhead, Antony Sheriff ’85, another
engineering student living in Wharton.
I remember car drawings all over his
room and his white Saab 900S. For
his senior project, he built a bathtub
go-cart that he let me take for a spin.
Graduating without a job meant
going back to NYC to look for one. I
was living with my parents, feeling
sorry for myself, when my mom asked
me the $64,000 question: “When are
you the happiest?”
“When I’m around cars,” I said. That
turned on the light bulb, and I decided
to take a six-month auto mechanics
course at Apex Tech. After all of the
theory fed to me as an engineering
student, I was ready for a hearty meal
of practicality and hands-on work.
Thankfully, my parents paid for it
since I had no money.
Shortly after graduating from Apex,
I was amazed to find a want ad in The
New York Times for an engineer at an
auto parts company in Long Island
City. So, in 1987, I got not only a
job but also a $500-a-month studio
apartment in Queens. Freedom!
It didn’t take long for me to save
enough money for my first bike, a
red 1983 Kawasaki GPz550 with a
bikini fairing, a tiny windshield, and
a cowl surrounding the headlight.
I was living the dream. Without a
proper place to park it, my only option
was to push the bike through the
building’s narrow service entrance to
the basement, where the super let me
store it. I didn’t mind. I had a bike.
Riding in NYC was the best
survival-of-the-fittest training
I could have had. Jockeying for
position with taxi drivers taught me
valuable lessons about bike control
and situational awareness. Riding to
the tip of Long Island in the middle
of winter taught me about cold and
the importance of proper riding gear.
I have great memories of summernight rides to Jones Beach and
weekend rides to Bear Mountain—I
was taking longer rides and loving it.
In 1989, I moved west to attend the
University of Michigan and, in 1991,
“This is me on my first bike,” says Pedro Gregorio ’86, “and on my latest, 30 years apart.”
rode my bike from NYC to Ann Arbor,
the longest ride I had ever taken. Not
only did I make it unscathed, but that
long ride also made me want more.
Speaking of unscathed, as with any
long-term relationship, there are ups
and downs. In the case of my twowheel love affair, the downs involve
gravity. As the old saying goes, there
are only two kinds of riders: those who
have fallen and those who will fall.
But even after a broken collarbone
and spiral tibia fracture (thankfully,
at different times), I would not change
a single thing over the past 30 years.
Motorcycles have been the one
constant in my life as I navigated jobs,
residences, and marriages.
Riding has given me true moments
of Zen and memories I’ll never forget.
Going road racing with my friend Ed
to experience the thrill of 50 bikes
driving as one. A weekday morning
riding solo on the Cherohala Skyway
in the Smoky Mountains, the best
road I’ve ever ridden, with 50 miles
of perfectly radiused curves: no
intersections, no towns, no tourists.
Cruising through torrential downpours
while wearing enough rain gear to
keep me dry, feeling like an astronaut
in space—surrounded by a hostile
environment yet comfortable.
At the ripe young age of 54, I am
now shifting my love affair from two
wheels to four. My tibia break a few
years ago definitely had an impact (pun
intended). It made me realize that I
am not indestructible. After staying
off the bike for a while, I slowly came
back to it, but never to the level I had
before. I still love to ride, but my trips
are shorter and slower now. My love of
speed is still there, and my latest find,
a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR,
allows me to fully embrace it.
If you’re a car enthusiast and
have never driven an Evo, you really
should. It elicits feelings in me that
are different from, yet similar to, those
I’ve had on two wheels … but with a
reduced risk to my bones. Funny how
age has a tendency to make us wary
about breaking ourselves.
The way I look at it, those 30 years
on bikes were the perfect training
grounds for 30 more in cars.
See you on the road!
CRUISING TOWARD A DREAM
by Cristy De La Cruz ’96
At Swarthmore, I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I was
captivated. It described a feeling I wanted: a freedom and an openness. I
dreamed of having my own motorcycle, but at the same time, I was afraid:
My parents always reinforced how dangerous motorcycles—and the
men who ride them—are. And so I settled for a post-college move to San
Francisco. With student loans and the need to live cheaply, I opted for
public transit.
Four years ago, I finally faced my fears and got on the back of my
boyfriend Clement’s motorcycle, a Honda VTX 1800.
Oh my God, I thought as we glided around our town, and later, many
other places—whole vacations. Why the hell had I been so scared of this
experience! The power! The scent of the air!
Our first rides were in town, short and sweet toward the Cup & Cone
ice cream shop. (You know the principle of intermittent reinforcement,
right?) Last summer, we cycled around Lake Superior. It was an epic trip,
motorcycle camping beside the largest, most beautiful freshwater lake in
the U.S. As much as I enjoyed the experience without the responsibility
of driving, I craved more control and the ability to go where and when I
chose. I realized I still wanted my own cycle.
And so, several months ago, I took an “Introduction to Motorcycling and
Scootering” course. On a Honda Grom 125, I learned that, despite my fear,
I can ride—I just have to put in the practice. It was the reminder I needed,
especially after some major recent life changes: leaving my corporate job,
launching my own consulting practice, starting a blog (meximinnesotana.
com), and marrying that motorcycle man of mine.
Cultivating play and playfulness opens
up our creativity and allows us to enjoy
ourselves and reach our full potential.
I’m learning this firsthand riding a bike:
You must always be totally present
on a motorcycle; you must always be
present in life. Every moment.
“Clement and I clean up OK when
we’re not wild on our cycle,” says Cristy De
La Cruz ’96. Here’s their wedding portrait.
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
43
Isn’t It
Romantic?
Steamy or dreamy, the romance novel evolves,
creating new worlds to keep love—and lust—alive!
by Kate Campbell
art by Alan Ayers
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
L
OVE SURPRISES, arriving brazenly on the sinewy curves of
youth. Or more mysteriously, in the stooped shoulders and
deeply lined face of an old friend.
And sometimes, love stalks in like a snarling wolf.
That’s how it happened for romance writer Maria Simson
’83, anyway. Under the pen name Maria Vale, she’s authored
a trilogy of paranormal romance novels.
“I wanted to create a world that was not human,” says
Simson, “to get away from the trope of shape-shifters as
loners subduing their inner beast and focus more on wolves
as social beings.”
The long-time New Yorker says she likes to address
themes sideways, rather than head on. Her books The Last
Wolf, A Wolf Apart, and Forever Wolf explore not only love,
self-discovery, and survival, but also societal order and the
reception of “the other.” The wolf-meets-human theme is
her own sly way of addressing the power necessary to accept
strangers into the pack. Any tittering aimed at the romance
category annoys Simson, who is married and has two sons.
“So many books use violence—often against women—
to ratchet up emotional intensity,” she says, “but there is
special disdain reserved for the use of consensual pleasure to
the same end, usually from people who don’t read romance.”
As a literary genre, romance fiction is often both
celebrated and maligned.
“For all its millions of readers for hundreds of years, it
has been dismissed as sentimental, sappy, trashy, as well as
mad, bad, and dangerous to read,” says Australian genderstudies expert and romance writer Elizabeth Reid Boyd.
“Yet romance fiction, predominantly written by women,
published by women, and read by women, remains one of the
most popular and powerful genres on the planet.”
As of 2016, romance made up 23 percent of the overall U.S.
fiction market, second only to general fiction at 27 percent,
says Jessie Edwards, marketing and PR manager for Romance
Writers of America. It’s a billion-dollar business that’s no
longer limited to problematic variations of “boy meets girl.”
Today, romances reflect an endless diversity of race and
sexuality while offering commentary on politics, ideology,
and society. Genres have spawned subgenres—Western,
military, vampire, Gothic, time travel, even Quaker. Happily,
the book list on lust is becoming a rich tapestry. The best
romances—however packaged—celebrate love, offer a
temporary escape … a sense of hope … representation … and a
guaranteed “happily ever after” or “happy for now.”
The Last Wolf was chosen as an Amazon Best Book of
the Year So Far, and A Wolf Apart was named one of five
romances in Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2018.
Susan Roth ’04, who specializes in historical romance
known as Regency, has published eight books under the
pen name Rose Lerner, including her Lively St. Lemeston
series—named to Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2014.
Roth, who got engaged to her wife at WrestleMania 2017,
took an interest in romance novels in her youth.
“I had a friend in middle school who read Regency
romances, too,” says Roth. “We used to trade books, spend
hours in the used bookstore together, and write ‘Regency
Romantics Anonymous’ newsletters.”
Once, at a sleepover, she recalls, they practiced writing
each other in-character letters as heroines.
“There’s a strong tradition of banter, comedy of manners,
and bossy heroines in Regency romance that really appeals
to me,” says Roth, who counts celebrated Regency author
Jane Austen among her influences. Plus, writing historical
romance allows her to wade deeply into research. At
Swarthmore, the math major took a favorite childhood folk
song, “The Cruel War Is Raging,” and turned it into an area of
expertise. “I tracked down ballads about women dressing as
men for my show on WSRN,” she says, “then went to McCabe
and checked out half a dozen books on the reality behind the
songs.”
Roth drew on that knowledge while writing the novella
“Promised Land,” included in the collection Hamilton’s
Battalion (inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical). In
the story, a Jewish woman fighting as a male soldier in the
Revolutionary War falls, once again, for her ex, a spy.
Simson has also been a reader of romance novels since
she was a teenager and is committed to extensive research
for her books. A medieval studies major at Swarthmore,
she found inspiration in an Old English class with Craig
Williamson, who holds the Alfred H. and Peggi Bloom
Professorship of English Literature.
“I remember him singing out the rough and beautiful
cadences of Cædmon’s ‘Hymn,’” she says, “and thinking, If
wolves could talk, this is what they would sound like.”
“Maria kept the hidden wolfishness of poems like Beowulf
and Wulf and Eadwacer alive in her dreams until she could
recreate them,” says Williamson. “Her work—full of wolves
who love, live complex shape-changing lives, and move from
one strange world to another—is what the Old English poets
might call a wulf-mathum, a wolf-treasure.”
“There’s a fierce innocence to being wild,” says Simson,
who fell so deeply in love with her subjects that she traveled
to a wolf refuge to study their behavior, movements, and
howling habits. “When they howl, they’re communitybuilding. I find that quite beautiful.”
In her trilogy, Simson wanted her wolves-morphing-intohumans moment to feel like a visceral, believable, lengthy
process during which they are deaf, blind, immobilized, and
utterly vulnerable.
Building bridges between humans and the world of wolves
inevitably leads to sex scenes. Here, the wolves (temporarily
“in skin” but never human) reflect fondly on their primal
animal-mating tactics—all glistening teeth and dominance—
bewildered by the clumsy approach to human coupling they
must adopt in smelly cabs, luxury high-rises, and noisy bars.
Humans don’t know anything!
This methodical approach to creating dual worlds started
with upending the conventional werewolf. Instead of giving
precedence to the human half and denigrating the animal,
Simson created characters who are first and foremost
wolves—who assume a human form to protect their territory,
their pack, and their own sacred wild.
“In truth, they are one of the most social of animals,”
Simson says. “One of the greatest compliments I’ve received
about my books came from a woman who told me she thinks
very differently about wolves now.”
Where Simson went outward, investigating the world of
the wolves, Roth turned inward.
“I often talk about how important overcoming inhibitions
and self-censorship is to good writing,” says Roth, who
enjoys the freedom romance novels allow to explore all
angles of sexuality. As a student board member of the Queer
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
47
Straight Alliance at Swarthmore,
Roth had the opportunity to
participate in honest, open
discussions on sexuality and
gender, internalized misogyny,
femmephobia, love, sex, flirting,
masturbation, and other topics.
“As a young writer, I would
often moderate my characters’
reactions because That’s weird or
That’s not sexy or Readers won’t
like her,” she says. “But you have
to be open to creative flow.”
A commitment to research
helps audiences see that sex
hasn’t changed that much in the
last few hundred years, Roth says.
“Most of us greatly
overestimate how different
things were in the past,” she says.
“People in Regency England
had sex before marriage;
separated from their spouses
and formed new relationships;
were queer; told dirty jokes; were
polyamorous or kinky; used birth
control and had abortions.”
They argued about gender
Fairy tales for grownups? Not entirely. The stellar Swattie romance writers Elsie Williams Lee
roles, too.
’33, Maria Simson ’83, and Susan Roth ’04 entrance with a deep dive into very distinct themes, from
“They might have used
paranormal to historical to just a dash of mystery. We know there have to be more of you out there.
different slang, or worried about
(Men who write romance, make yourselves known!) Whether you’re an author or admirer, keep the love
different sexually transmitted
alive by sharing your romance novel stories with us: bulletin@swarthmore.edu.
infections,” says Roth, “but
you’d be hard-pressed to come
up with purely modern sexual or
romantic inventions.”
Elsie Williams Lee ’33 provided her own take on romance
Vellanti—are still capable of turning up the heat today:
in the mid-20th century. A Quaker and member of Mensa
For a moment, Megan rested against him, clung to his lips,
who also published as Elsie Cromwell, Jane Gordon, and
knowing he was good and he was hers.
Lee Sheridan, Lee wrote “fairy tales for grownups, primarily
“We must get to Tessa,” she murmured vaguely. “I would
women,” as she was quoted as saying.
much rather kiss you, but I expect we can do that later?”
“I am better at characterizations than plots,” she noted, “and
“Si mi diletta,” he agreed, straight-faced. “Later—and
best with cats who are unanimously adored by my readers.”
forever, or as long as you like.”
A homemaker and grammatically scrupulous author of
Sex, flirtation, drama, setting, science, history, and
more than 30 romances, Lee supplemented her income by
dialogue all sustain stories—whatever the era. But the
working as a secretary, librarian, and office manager over the
essential role of the romance novel is to uplift the reader, the
years. She also penned nonfiction, including How to Get the
“happily ever after” or “happy for now” validation of passion
Most Out of Your Tape Recording and the not-to-be-missed
in all its buttoned-up or feverish forms.
More Fun with Your Tape Recordings and Stereo.
As the heroine Elizabeth Bennet best advises in Pride
Though perhaps less steamy than more modern affairs,
and Prejudice: “Give a loose to your fancy, indulge your
Lee’s love scenes—like this from 1965’s Clouds Over
imagination in every possible flight ...”
48
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
class notes
A TREASURY OF ALUMNI-RELATED ITEMS
ALUMNI
EVENTS
SWARTHMORE WOMXN’S
LEADERSHIP SUMMIT
March 23
Take part in this empowering
day dedicated to embracing
inclusive leadership,
connecting with other womxn,
and learning to lead and love
with confidence.
womxnsummit@swarthmore.edu
“Flavors of Catalonia”:
Join Professor of Modern
Languages & Literatures
Maria-Luisa Guardiola on
Spain’s colorful coast:
Sept. 28–Oct. 6
LIFELONG LEARNING
AT SWARTHMORE
Enroll in a spring course:
NYC
“Scandale!” taught by
Hansjakob Werlen.
Philly
“How Computers Compute,”
taught by Richard
Wicentowski.
“Do You Have a Gut Feeling?”
taught by Amy Cheng Vollmer.
“Freedom, Democracy,
Equality,” taught by Richard
Schuldenfrei.
bit.ly/LLSmore
LAURENCE KESTERSON
ALUMNI COLLEGE ABROAD
Join fellow Swarthmoreans on
an educational journey.
bit.ly/SwatAbroad
Assistant Professor of Dance Joe Small ’05 (right) leads an interactive Japanese taiko drumming workshop at
Garnet Homecoming and Family Weekend in October. See more of the fun: swarthmore.edu/garnetweekend
1941 1943
Libby Murch Livingston
lizliv33@gmail.com
All is well in the “Big House” here
at Piper Shores in Maine. I love my
mini apartment and the beautiful
garden just outside—there is so
much going on here!—though I
do sometimes miss my cottage
and the privacy it afforded me.
Unfortunately, I haven’t caught up
on much lately from Swarthmore—
so, classmates, please share with
me your news!
Betty Glenn Webber
bettywebber22@yahoo.com
616-245-2687
Our Class Notes editor is interested
in hearing about our adventures
and plans. In the case of all the
plus-90s, I’m afraid we have not
been seeking new Everests to climb
or planning trips to Switzerland for
downhill skiing. If you have been,
let us know, and failing that, we’d
like to hear whatever else goes on
in your life.
Bud Baldwin is one of our few stillworking classmates, occupied full
time at the Accreditation Council
for Graduate Medical Education. At
the moment, he’s busy analyzing
some 220,000 surveys he sent
out last year, “feeling obliged to
hang around and work on them.”
He admits that mobility, travel,
and social life are slowing down.
It would be great to know if other
classmates are still working.
Mary Stewart Trageser may not
be gainfully employed, but she
keeps busy working on the archives
of her 1815 church in Wayland,
Mass. She’s also active in a couple
of book clubs. I, too, read a lot and
was terrified by a listed side effect
of possible vision loss from a med I
had to take for a week!
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
49
class notes
Irene Bany Magaziner died March
11. She was with us for freshman
and sophomore years, before
studying at the Tobé–Coburn
School for Fashion in NYC. After
several years at Macy’s, she
returned to Philly for a B.A. from
Penn. She and husband Richard
lived for many years in Upper
Dublin, Pa., where Irene was active
in community and environmental
causes. Our condolences to her
extended family.
This column is limping along to an
early demise, lacking sustenance
from our remaining ranks. Only you
can alleviate that ailment.
1947
Marshall Schmidt
kinmarshal@aol.com
Bobbie Norfleet writes: “Your
last column had only the sad
news about the deaths of four
classmates. This note is to
encourage others to give us news
about their lives. At 92, I am about
to leave Martha’s Vineyard after
two months of swimming and
walking on the beach with children
and grandchildren—even had an
exhibition. We have been coming
here since 1955, and I still love it
despite the many changes.
“I have moved into Brookhaven
retirement community in
Lexington, Mass., which is filled
with active, interesting people. We
all seem to be politically involved in
trying to make our country one we
can be proud of again.”
Sadly, three more classmates
have died. Howard Sachar, a
trailblazing historian, longtime
George Washington University
professor, and two-time winner of
the National Jewish Book Award,
died April 18 in Kensington, Md.
Survivors include his wife of 53
years, Eliana; children Sharon
Sachar-Porag ’88, Michele Sachar
’90, and Daniel Sachar ’97; a
brother; and eight grandchildren,
including Jordan Rothschild ’22.
Janet Gay Nyholm, who lived in
Paris and Israel before settling in
50
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
Denmark and raising a family, died
March 5. Janet and husband Erik
were married 40 years before his
1990 death; she is survived by five
children.
Graham “Pete” Harrison, who
charted a successful investmentmanagement career for more
than six decades, died June 12.
The president of the U.S. Steel
and Carnegie Pension Fund for
25 years, Pete was also a former
chairman of the Swarthmore
Board of Managers’ investment
committee. He is survived by
wife Joanne, four children, eight
grandchildren, and one greatgrandchild.
Two other alumni with whom I,
Marshall, had close connections
died recently.
William Lee NV, one of the
Haverford students who came to
Swarthmore in the V-12 in 1943,
died July 31 in Prairie Village, Kan.,
where he and wife Rosemary had
moved to be closer to family.
I was a Phi Psi who pledged Bill
and other Fords, and we enjoyed
these friendships for many years.
In 1967, Ed Mahler ’50, Bill, and
I started a baseball pool that Bill
participated in until 2015—48
years of friendly competition.
(Ed died in 2017.) Our pool is still
running with younger recruits, the
51st year ending at the conclusion
of the 2018 World Series.
Highly respected, Bill served
as president of the Bank of
Chester County, executive VP
of the Southeast National Bank,
and Chester County president of
Hamilton Bank.
Rolf Valtin ’48, who was inducted
into Swarthmore’s Garnet Athletics
Hall of Fame for soccer in 2013,
died Aug. 1. As a teenager, Rolf,
his mother, and his two brothers
fled Nazi Germany due to their
Jewish and Quaker heritage and
fled to America. Pennsylvania
Quakers secured his family’s place
in the U.S., providing housing and
scholarships for all three boys at
the George School, where Rolf
graduated in 1942 with my wife,
Kinnie Clarke Schmidt ’46, as well
as Barbara Gawthrop Hallowell ’46
and Virginia Cobb Thibodeaux ’46.
The Quaker connection is what
led Rolf and brother Heinz ’49
to Swarthmore. Robert Gemmill
had been Rolf’s weekly Duplicate
Bridge partner until shortly before
Rolf’s passing.
Rolf was a deeply admired
labor referee—especially in the
sports world. It’s been said that
in any arbitration case involving a
contract dispute between a player
and Flyers GM Bobby Clarke,
upon discovering Rolf was the
arbiter, Bobby would automatically
concede the award to the player.
lived, and learning more about the
religious ideas that prompted their
leaving England. After more than a
week in London visiting museums,
I traveled south to Lewes to visit
Charleston and Monk’s House, the
homes of Vanessa Bell and Virginia
and Leonard Woolf. The end of my
“great month” was spent in Oxford
at a Road Scholar seminar on
the World War I year of 1918. Not
only were the lectures interesting
and stimulating, but so were the
other attendees. There was also
the extra joy of a mini-reunion for
those of us who had attended a
comparable seminar on 1916 in
2016. Now to read more on those
topics and that period!
1949 1950
Marjorie Merwin Daggett
mmdaggett@verizon.net
Bill Hirsch writes that Stevens
Heckscher, a former Swarthmore
math prof, is a co-resident at
his retirement community in
Haverford, Pa. They enjoyed
dinner together and both recalled
Collection at Clothier.
Our sympathy to the family of
Mary Fallin Porter, who died
in June. Mary met husband
William ’50 on a bus on her way
to Swarthmore; they married the
Thanksgiving after she graduated
with degrees in psychology and
astronomy. In 1966, the couple
moved to Mantoloking Shores,
N.J., where they and their four
children enjoyed the beach, sailing,
fishing, and bird-watching. The
family traveled extensively—first
by station wagon, then VW bus,
and later by a small camper. She
and William, who died in 2011,
also cruised the world. She was
remembered by family and friends
as the kindest and most caring
person.
I spent several weeks in England
this summer, including a week
on a Mayflower tour visiting sites
around Nottingham, where many
Plymouth Colony leaders had
Several Garnet Sage classes are in need of secretaries.
Interested? Email classnotes@swarthmore.edu.
Jan Dunn MacKenzie
mjanmack@comcast.net
Tragic news from Joseph Charny:
“I am writing as a survivor of
the horrible slaughter that took
place at Tree of Life Synagogue in
Pittsburgh. I was at the Shabbat
service in the main chapel when
the gunman entered and started
shooting. The rabbi, another
congregant, and I were unable to
protect the others, seven of whom
were shot along with others from
elsewhere in the building, but we
were able to hide in the complex
until the police could develop a
safe exit path. There were 11 deaths
and six injuries, one of whom is
clinging to life.
“Swarthmore was always special
for me and my wife, the late Peggy
Knipp Charny ’52, so I felt I should
let you know about this awful but
historical event.”
I, Jan, hardly started as class
secretary, and now I am bowing
out—the insidious macular
degeneration is proceeding apace,
so writing is hard. But I encourage
you to apply: classnotes@
swarthmore.edu. I connected with
many classmates with whom I had
lost touch.
Best wishes to all in our ninth
decade!
1951
Elisabeth “Liesje”
Boessenkool Ketchel
eketchel@netscape.com
In early September, I emailed
asking whether classmates would
prefer a twice-a-year Class Notes
cycle. Most of my few responses
were in favor, so we’ll plan for
semiannual columns. Please don’t
wait if you have anything to share.
Send it to me, and it will appear in
whatever issue comes next!
About this, Ralph Lee Smith has a
good suggestion: “If you don’t have
any ‘news,’ please tell me about a
book I must read, or a memory from
our long trail through history.” He
also sent this interesting piece:
“My latest and probably last
book is Slave Songs of the United
States: Beautiful Spirituals From
the Earliest Published Book,
1867. The original was compiled
and published by Lucy McKim;
Lucy’s father, James McKim,
was executive director of the
Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society,
with an office in Philadelphia. In
1862, a fleet of Union warships
liberated the South Carolina Sea
Islands. The plantation owners
fled to the Confederate mainland,
leaving some 10,000 slaves to their
fate. The society sent McKim to the
islands to report on ways to assist
the ex-slaves. He took 19-year-old
Lucy with him, and she collected
songs from the liberated slaves.
She published the collection of 136
songs in 1867. It was rediscovered
and reprinted in 1929 and is now
regarded as an American classic.
My music collaborator, Madeline
MacNeil, reset 24 of the songs, and
I provided a historical introduction.
Working with the songs and the
history was a very special and
wonderful experience.”
Dave Wesson shares family news:
“James and Isaac are greatgrandsons, ages 2 and 0, living in
Rochester, N.Y.”
Jim Lincoln writes with sad news:
“In July, Ned Freeman’s son Jim
called to tell me Ned had died in
his sleep about a week before his
89th birthday. Ned and wife Arden
had moved from Rochester to a
retirement home in South Hadley,
Mass., a few years ago to be closer
to their son. Although I hadn’t
seen Ned since their move, he and
I talked by phone several times a
year. Jim said Ned had not had any
serious illnesses, and his death was
unexpected.
“As for Maggie [MacCollum
Lincoln ’56] and me, we still live
in our house in Concord, Mass.,
with occasional trips out of the
country, most recently to Algonquin
Provincial Park in Ontario. Son
Tom is an internist at a community
health center in Springfield, Mass.,
and the medical officer at the
county jail. Daughter Rebecca is a
social worker in Children’s Hospital
of Philadelphia’s emergency
department.”
And this from Jerry Pollack:
“Wife Pat and I just returned
from Colorado, where we drove
to Rocky Mountain National Park
and repeated some of the hikes
that Don Blough and I did on our
graduation trip in 1951. The whole
region of the Rockies was once a
great lake, until the great Pacific
Plate began pushing under the
Atlantic Plate, causing all the land
above to rise. Well, of course, the
Pacific Plate is still pushing, and
the land above is still rising. In fact,
it’s risen a lot since 1951. To our
dismay, we found that the trails
have become much steeper. Oh, for
the days (and years) of yore!”
“Sorry, can’t think about anything
but the election,” writes Robin
Cooley Krivanek. I can certainly
understand that! But maybe it’s a
bit early to let it take over entirely?
Sadly, we lost more classmates.
Margery Davis Romberger of
Richland, Mich., died July 12.
In 1951, Margery married John
Romberger, who died in 2014,
and they lived in State College,
Pa.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Pasadena,
Calif.; Silver Spring, Md.; and
Elizabethville, Pa. They are
survived by two children and three
grandchildren. Barbara Bruce
Rutledge died Aug. 14. Among her
College connections were husband
Joseph Rutledge ’50, who died
in 2016, and daughter Wendy
Rutledge Eck ’77.
1953
Carol Lange Davis
cldavis5@optonline.net
Last April, Margy Morey Zabriskie
wrote, “How we would love to
get to reunion this year, but we
are in the midst of selling our
condo, buying into a life-care
facility, and madly downsizing.
I’m finding it emotionally draining,
as memories in print and items
have to be discarded. Fortunately,
our five children and spouses
will be here to take on some of
the family treasures, but this is
a different era, and things like
silver and linens have become
items gathering dust, though they
bring back wonderful memories.
We have three family graduations
in May and just can’t afford to
do more. We will be moving to
Fairhaven life-care community in
Sykesville, Md., near our son and
his family.”
At the last minute, after receiving
an email from Bill Newitt ’54 (a
fellow Commons bridge junkie),
I decided to accept my daughter
Marian’s offer to drive me to
Swarthmore for the reunion.
Although the weather report was
threatening, the campus was
gorgeous. Our day started over
coffee with President Valerie
Smith. Following the Parade of
Classes, we proudly watched Bob
Fetter receive the 2018 Joseph B.
Shane ’25 Alumni Service Award,
where it was stated that Bob
“organized reunion activities for
the Class of ’53 as chair—a title
he does not embrace. He prefers
to be called ‘reunion volunteer.’ No
matter the title, this is one of many
volunteer roles he’s held over the
years on reunion committees, as
an Alumni Council member, a class
agent, an admissions interviewer,
and serving on the Capital Funds
Committee.”
At our class luncheon, it was
great to see classmates, their
spouses, and friends. I was able to
catch up with Dagmar Strandberg
Hamilton, Katharine “Bunny”
Peterken Tate, Eleanor Hutcheson
Epler, Francis Ashton, Bob
Walkling, George Hastings, Brice
Harris, Paul Kuznets, Tedd Osgood,
Bill Newitt, and last, but never
least, our reunion leader, Bob
Fetter. I believe Roger Youman also
attended the reunion, but because
of some reservation glitch, he and
wife Lily Ann Frank Youman ’57
were unable to join us for lunch.
I am so glad to have visited with
Bill Newitt at the reunion, since
he died Sept. 5. It should be noted
that Bill started out in our class
but graduated with 1954.
Class president Stanley Mills
called me to report that wife
Judy also died Sept. 5. She had
fought lung cancer for 20 years
and recently decided to stop
treatments. I am sure Stanley
would be happy to hear from
Swarthmore friends.
Since my last column, we have
lost 12 more classmates: Elizabeth
Harlow Phillips (Jan. 30, 2017),
Roger Sale (May 11, 2017), Robert
Gumnit (Oct. 15, 2017), Dominic
Cusano (Nov. 20, 2017), Geoffrey
Hazard (Jan. 11, 2018), Maryhelen
“Mel” Hintz Snyder (Jan. 23,
2018), Eve Anne “Rusty” Johnson
Kulberg (March 1, 2018), Michael
Paine (March 1, 2018), Susan
Harvey Houston (May 31, 2018),
Irving Kennedy (June 1, 2018),
Andrew March (July 15, 2018), and
Alan Smith (Aug. 3, 2018). Please
contact me if you would like more
information about any of them.
I really don’t like filling
this column with obituaries.
Please help by sending news,
reminiscences, or simply a quick
update to let us know you are alive
and kicking. Thanks!
1954
Elizabeth Dun Colten
lizcolten@aol.com
Summer flies, winter lingers. Is this
phenomenon more pronounced
as we age? Our children/
grandchildren tend to visit during
the warmer months. Do yours?
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
51
class notes
Margaret and Tom Greene were
in England for three weeks this
summer. From Aug. 4 to 11, the
Bethesda, Md., choir to which
Tom belongs sang services in
St. Mary Redcliffe Church and
Bristol Cathedral. Later travel
included Wales, York, Cambridge,
and London. In York, they visited
David Rubinstein and wife Ann
Holt, a few days after George and
Elsa Bennett Struble ’53 had been
there.
Before knee-replacement surgery
in September, Corinne Lyman
went to Stratford, Ontario, for a
Shakespeare “feast” and then
visited Bruce and Fredericka
Nolde Berger in Niagara-on-theLake. Anne Chandler Fristrom
was sad to miss the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival in Ashland
this year, but still enjoyed theater
closer to home. Son David ’83
and family came west for a
week, and managed to include
visiting relatives, Disneyland, and
Shakespeare on the same trip!
Hannah Thomas Morehouse’s
daughter, Anne, recognized me
at the supermarket in Boothbay,
Maine(!), and confirmed that her
mother is in an assisted-living
facility near her in Leeds, Mass.
Anne’s daughter, Emma, is a
sophomore at Bates College.
Did you note a familiar name
in the summer 2018 Bulletin’s
“New Books by Swarthmoreans”
section? Mary Lloyd Evans’s
The Secret Mission of Nicholas
Trist was featured (bit.ly/
MaryEvans54), a true story
with “an extraordinary cast of
characters.” Sadly, Mimi died
Sept. 12. While in D.C. seeking
a publisher for her Welsh play,
she caught a cold that became
pneumonia.
We recently lost three other
classmates. Lynn Barrera Matzen
suffered a brain injury after a
fall in her assisted-living facility
in Orono, Minn., and died on
Aug. 4. She would have turned
86 on Sept. 12. Lise Ore Orville
remembers her as a special, brave,
and uncomplaining person, adding
that it was a privilege to know
her since their roommate days at
Swarthmore.
William “Woody” Gilleland died
Aug. 21 after a long, courageous
52
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
battle with leukemia. He earned
a B.S. from Wharton, received
an honorable discharge from the
Army, and had a distinguished
career in the financial world.
During retirement, he and wife
Mary visited all the continents
except Antarctica, and arranged
biannual reunions for their four
children and 10 grandchildren.
Bill Newitt, IBM engineer and
executive, Air Force veteran, and
“flying octogenarian,” died Sept.
5. He is survived by his wife of 63
years, Jane Boetcher Newitt ’55,
daughter Katherine, sons David
’80 and Andrew ’86, a brother,
and two grandchildren. Bill was
an active community member and
dedicated many years volunteering
with the Friends of the Hunterdon
County (N.J.) Library. Bill entered
Swarthmore with the Class of ’53,
and son Drew mentioned that
he very much enjoyed their 65th
Reunion last June.
Which leads me to the following.
Sixty-five is not considered in itself
a “Big Deal” reunion year. However,
class president Ed Wallach hopes
that “we at least should have a
presence.” Consider attending,
please.
1955
Sally Schneckenburger Rumbaugh
srumbaugh@san.rr.com
Mike Calingaert writes: “Last fall,
I finally retired from my various
professional activities. My ‘real
career’ was with the Foreign
Service (1956–89), where I
specialized in economic and
commercial affairs, serving in
Mogadishu, Bremen, Colombo,
Tokyo, Rome, and London (in that
order), as well as three times in
the State Department (the latter
two in the Bureau of Economic
and Business Affairs). It was
an interesting, enjoyable, and
satisfying career, of which I carry
happy memories.
“Finding career-advancement
prospects limited after the 1988
presidential election, I took early
retirement to accept a job in
the private sector. My path was
facilitated by having just written
a book on the introduction of
the European Union’s single
market. Publication (by a think
tank) coincided with a surge of
U.S. interest in the about-to-beintroduced single market, and my
book rapidly went through four
printings (the second highest of
any publication of the think tank
since its inception in the 1930s). I
wrote a second book, updating the
same subject, in 1993. Both books
were favorably reviewed, including
in The Economist and Foreign
Affairs.
“My private-sector experience
was opening and running the
Brussels office of the trade
association of the U.S. researchbased pharmaceutical companies
(now called PhRMA), where I
tracked and lobbied on proposed
pharmaceutical legislation and
other relevant developments in
the EU.
“We returned to Washington
in 1996, where felicitous timing
enabled me to join the Council
for the United States and Italy,
a binational nonprofit group of
American and Italian business
leaders. As executive VP, I ran
the U.S. operations, developing
the membership and organizing
meetings and conferences for our
members and—most gratifying—an
annual young-leaders conference
of professionals from the U.S.,
Italy, and about 15 other countries.
(Mike Dukakis was the lead-off
speaker at our 2017 conference in
Boston.) In 2017 I was decorated
by Italy’s president as an officer
in the Order of Merit of the Italian
Republic.
“I am acclimating to retired life.
My withdrawal from the U.S.–Italy
Council was gradual, since I had to
preside over the formal dissolution
of the American branch and helped
select participants for the 2018
leaders conference. However,
I have no desire or plans for
further remunerative professional
activities.
“My wife, Efrem (an Italian I met
in Mogadishu 60 years ago), and
I remain based in D.C. In addition,
Efrem owns a small house near
Siena, Tuscany, where we spend
several weeks in the summer.
Our son Alex (Minneapolis)
is a digital media producer,
wife Suzanne a psychologist;
son Daniel (D.C.) works in
international nonprofits focusing
on democracy and governance;
son Nicholas (Chicago) is a
clinical psychotherapist. Two
granddaughters are in college, and
the third is a high school senior.”
In September 2017, Charlie
Sullivan and his wife attended a
big family reunion celebrating his
daughter’s wedding and his greatgrandson’s birth. Now living in “a
pleasant, somewhat diversified
retirement community in San
Francisco,” they keep busy “with
exercise, bridge lessons, book
discussions, concerts, etc., and
a range of afternoon and evening
programs in-house.” Charlie
serves on the program and library
committees. His chief intellectual
interest is Elizabethan history,
“focusing on the interactions of
some fascinating people—the
queen herself not the least—as
they re-invented and tried to
manage a dynamic, expanding
nation.” He is also interested
in current events and likes to
read close studies of particular
individuals, such as Ulysses
S. Grant. “My four years at
Swarthmore still rank high among
my formative and most enjoyable
experiences.”
Seven members of our class have
died since my last column: Clinton
Fink, John Clark, Jane Stevenson
Heitman, Julien Gendell, Martha
Pierpont Robinson, Ann Fryer Van
Fossen, and John Hutton. We send
our condolences to their families.
1957
Minna Newman Nathanson
jm@nathansons.net
I received a long letter (excerpted
below) from Katherine Applegate
about Natalia Harkaway, in
response to my request for
remembrances of classmates who
had died:
“I thought it would be
easy to write something to
commemorate Natalia. It isn’t.
“Natalia, one of the youngest in
our class, lived with her parents in
Chester, not on campus until senior
year. She never said where they had
lived except that they vacationed
in Soviet Georgia and were many
years in a German concentration
camp. After Swarthmore, Natalia
got a master’s in chemistry and
worked for the EPA, and later
the Patent Office, from which
she retired. Natalia married and
divorced another chemist. When
I was thinking seriously about
divorce, she sent me a tome about
divorce that painted a very bleak
picture of the life of a divorcée and
the prejudice and shunning that
follows. I assumed the aftermath
was not pleasant for her.
“Even though I was nonpolitical
until the 1980s, Natalia sent me
a membership to the Heritage
Foundation and Ayn Rand’s Atlas
Shrugged. When I mentioned that,
if I had no surviving family, I would
leave Swarthmore my estate,
Natalia strongly disapproved
because of the College’s liberal
reputation. Politics became more
urgent for me after 12 years as a
single, divorced mom in Berkeley,
Calif., with a daughter who,
because she lost a kidney as a
child, might not be able to get
health insurance and a son who
is gay. The last time I saw Natalia
was in D.C. in 2001, and Cheney
and Rumsfeld were on my mind. It
was a good day until conversation
got around to politics. Suddenly,
Natalia said, ‘Katherine, I love
my country and I will not hear it
criticized!’ I was stunned. Probably,
I stuttered a few words about the
duties of a citizen.
“I’ll always miss Natalia. I looked
forward to her visits over many
years; her humor was subtle,
bordering mischievous. She was
a good friend, fun to be around,
and above all, interesting. I wish
that I’d tried harder to keep
communications open. Time just
ran out.”
Joan Hall Wise moved three
years ago with her two cats into a
continuing care community, Heron
Point, in Chestertown, Md., where
she and late husband Bill lived. She
delights in being able to look out
her apartment window and almost
see her old home, attend her
same church, use her library, and
participate in social activities with
old and new neighbors. Joan, who
took graduate courses in history
at local Washington College,
participates in alumni activities
there. She’s given up most travel,
except for visits to her brother in
Victoria, British Columbia, and
her daughter in Nashville, Tenn.
She tries to keep in touch—mostly
by phone and snail mail—with
Katherine Applegate, Pat Niles
Middlebrook, and Carolyn Gaiser.
Mary Schenck, now known
as Miriam Elia, sends word
from Israel that she is fighting
Alzheimer’s disease. Miriam first
studied painting restoration in
Belgium on a Fulbright, then
worked for a few months at
Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum before
returning to NYC for restoration
studies with the Keck family. Now
living in Jerusalem, she tries to
keep track of her five children
and almost 50 grandchildren! She
finds “the invasion of technical
know-how in our lives quite
frustrating,” but hopes classmates
who remember her will renew their
connections.
Bill Rosenblum writes in
response to the summer Bulletin’s
In Memoriam notice on Dave
Robinson: “He was a wonderful
pianist. I have great memories of
our playing together at Swarthmore
and then at our 50th Reunion.”
Bill and wife Amy have been back
in NYC for nine years and enjoy
every day. He still plays in string
quartets, with an interesting mix
of musicians. He also participates
in two weekly neuropathology
conferences at Mount Sinai and
does some scientific writing,
with three papers in the past
five years; one resulted in an
invitation to give a plenary lecture
at a neurosurgical conference in
Germany. They had a visit from
Ruth Ellenbogen Flaxman, who
introduced Bill to Amy 61-plus
years ago. He’d love to hear from
any NYC Swatties.
Sadly, we add Carol Edelstein
Weichert, who died of a brain
tumor in October, to the list of
classmates no longer with us.
Carol attended NYU medical
school, completing an internship
at Downstate Medical Center in
Brooklyn, where she met husband
Harold. During her career as a
pediatrician in Syracuse, her
counseling of mothers led to
research on breastfeeding, and
her findings on its psychological
aspects led her to a psychiatric
practice. She enjoyed sunsets from
her deck on Martha’s Vineyard,
opera and classical music, the arts
and fashion, and family and friends.
Preceded in death by Harold and
son William, Carol is survived by
sister Susan, brother Joseph,
daughter Regina, sons Robert and
Cyrus, and 10 grandchildren.
1958
Vera Lundy Jones
549 East Ave.
Bay Head, NJ 08742
verajonesbayhead@comcast.net
Ginnie Paine DeForest remains
active as a life member of the
American Association of University
Women and in the annual STEM
conference she founded 30 years
ago. She and husband Win moved
to a retirement community on
Mercer Island, Wash., where “we
are making new friends and trying
to keep in touch with old ones.”
Marcia Dunn retired as a New
York correctional counselor, having
worked one year at a women’s
prison and more than 20 years as
a rehabilitation counselor at two
state mental hospitals. Marcia
received a master’s in public law
and government at Columbia. She
also has a master’s in psychology.
Marcia married a man from
Barbados, so she and her husband
travel to the Caribbean!
Expat Lee Bigelow enjoyed a
family-oriented trip to the U.S. in
April. There was a get-together of
Bangkok Museum volunteers in
Washington, D.C.; wife Linda was
active at the museum in the 1970s.
“It must have been fun to see
people at the reunion,” Lee writes.
“Sorry to have missed it.”
Linda Zeller Willard died in
September. She received a B.A. in
chemistry from Swarthmore, where
she met husband Daniel. She
later earned a second bachelor’s,
in business administration, and
became a CPA. She worked for the
Defense Contract Audit Agency
for more than 20 years and was
the first woman to reach GS-15.
Linda had two sons and four
grandchildren.
Don Zinn, an attorney whose
entire career was in the Bay Area,
died in March. He started with the
Class of 1957 and graduated with
us. He is survived by wife Edith,
son Carter, daughter Catherine,
and three grandchildren. He is
also survived by brothers Frank
and Karl ’59, and sister Sue Zinn
Eisinger ’64.
Mary Woelfel Poole died on her
birthday in July of complications of
Parkinson’s disease. She had “an
army of home-care visitors” and
“squeezed an amazing 82 years in
which she fell in love with life,” son
Adam reported. A service was held
in Datchworth, England.
Layeh Aronson Bock died in
October. She earned an M.A. from
the University of New Mexico in
1966 and an English Ph.D. from
Stanford in 1980. Two of her three
daughters went to Swarthmore,
Marian ’80 and Deborah ’82.
1959
Miriam Repp Staloff
staloff@verizon.net
Can you believe that our 60th
Reunion is just around the corner?
Well, believe it, because it takes
place during our alma mater’s
2019 Alumni Weekend, May 31–
June 2. An ad-hoc committee of
eager, enthusiastic classmates is
planning fun, nostalgia, folk music,
and chatter. It will be a time to
renew acquaintances, talk about
progeny (great-grandchildren?!),
and remember classmates who are
no longer with us.
Plan to attend this once-in-alifetime experience!
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
53
class notes
1960
Jeanette Strasser Pfaff
jfalk2@mac.com
Bill and Linda Rothwell Lee had
a very exciting end of summer.
“All 19 of our family celebrated
our 80th birthdays in a wonderful
house on the dunes of the Outer
Banks, two weeks before Hurricane
Florence. For us, the week included
a parasailing experience. We
learned from our eldest grandson
and his wife that we will welcome
our first great-grandchild in April.
And to top off the month, the
apartment we want at Kendal at
Hanover (N.H.) continuing-care
retirement community is available
for our renovations, with probable
occupancy by Jan. 1. We should
have bought a lottery ticket with
our luck running high … but we did
not.”
Mike Sananman and wife Michelle
spent Labor Day weekend with
Ann and Michael Westgate ’61 at
the Westgates’ home in Chatham,
Mass., on Cape Cod: “We enjoyed
a memorable sail on Michael’s
catboat in Nantucket Sound and
a sumptuous Thai meal prepared
by Michelle. We all look forward
to our reunion in 2020. We enjoy
the thoughtful discussions at our
reunions. Last time it was climate
change; maybe this time the
growing divide in wealth would be
timely. Perhaps we could assemble
a panel of economists, sociologists,
and political scientists and even
engage current students.”
Chuck Miller ’59 responded to an
earlier topic: “The community that
influenced me most in life was the
camp I attended for many summers
in North Carolina beginning in
1948. The director told the Iliad and
the Odyssey in alternating
summers and directed comedies
by Shakespeare and Aristophanes.
I plan a writing project for myself,
‘Reflections of an Almost Quaker.’”
We were saddened by Ann Carter
Bohan’s death. Both her parents
were Swarthmoreans (Class
of 1930) as is her sister, Jean
54
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
Leathem Van Acker ’57.
Our topic: Some time ago, Janet
Lockard wrote: “I remember
watching Yogi Bear on the
television in the lounge in Willets
senior year. As I recall, I trooped
over from Worth for four shows:
College Bowl (at least when S’more
students were on), Maverick,
American Bandstand, and Yogi
Bear. I’ve said ‘picanic’ ever since!”
This made me realize that I don’t
recall ever seeing a TV in my four
years at S’more, although obviously
Willets had a set. I asked for your
comments on what you remember
about media on the campus of our
day.
Bob Heaton: “At the end of our
first month on campus, I watched
the end of the only perfect game
ever recorded in the World Series.
The Yankee pitcher was former
Baltimore Oriole Don Larsen. I was
in a crowd of 20 or 30 standing
in front of a set that had been put
out on the main floor of Somerville,
upstairs from the snack bar. I
don’t recall ever seeing a TV there
again. I wonder where that set
usually resided.” When I asked Bob
if he ever listened to the radio or
played records, he added, “For a
while, I did both. As a high school
graduation gift, my brother Eugene
’55 sent me an Emerson radio/
record player that he bought at the
base exchange in Korea, where
he was stationed after being
drafted following his graduation. I
wound up losing it to a classmate
at blackjack, but by then I had a
transistor radio for the dorm and
access to a good record player in
the Kappa Sigma house … all part
of my misspent youth prior to the
arrival of Ann Harper ’61 in fall
1957.”
John Harbeson: “I had a clock
radio that got me up in the
morning—no other devices of the
kind. I think I watched TV only a
couple of times, late in college. I
remember watching somewhere
on campus when the College had a
team in College Bowl, in the fall of
senior year … if I recall correctly.”
He thinks the TV was in a fraternity
house.
Getta Harrar Denhardt: “I only
remember watching TV once at a
fraternity house. It was November
1956, and we watched the re-
electionof Ike and the defeat of
Adlai Stevenson.”
Will Fairley: “I wouldn’t be
surprised if someone played the
radio, but I don’t remember it.”
Clearly TV and radio were not
a big part of campus life! But,
I, Jeanette, experienced a true
“Aha!” moment. I didn’t have a
radio or a record player. But one
day in my room in Parrish, I heard
an enthralling sound! Like a child
hearing the Pied Piper, I followed
it down the hall. “What is that
music?” I asked. “Why, just a
Brandenburg concerto,” was the
friendly, but somewhat surprised,
reply. That was the start of my
lifelong love of baroque music.
1961
Pat Myers Westine
pat@westinefamily.com
Class secretaries often find that it’s
either feast or famine when they
write their columns. This time I’m
blessed with a “feast” of updates,
but please don’t let that stop
you from sending me more—this
doesn’t happen often. I’m delighted
to hear from you at any time
but, once in a while, must delay
publication until the next issue. I do
try to include items in the order in
which I receive them.
From Nantucket, Mass., Pam
Fezandie Lohmann writes of her
happiness in being active in “such
a lovely place, with cool ocean
and tennis in the summer, and
book clubs and film festivals. But
Nantucket as the ‘go-to’ destination
has a downside of traffic and
a building boom.” Year round,
Pam’s activities include platform
tennis, walking, reading, and
volunteering. She visits “America”
(the mainland) to see friends
and family, and heard from Alex
Shakow ’58, a classmate of late
husband Chris ’58, which brought
back wonderful Swarthmore
memories. In Connecticut, Emily
and Bob Rowley became greatgrandparents on Mother’s Day to
Ruby Grace, who with her mother,
their granddaughter Amanda, came
home two days later to a tornado.
The family evacuated “after a rough
night” and only returned home a
week later.
Memories of Kris Bergstrom
Vessey: Kate Killebrew remembers
meeting Kris in the infirmary,
where they each had a “10-day
unknown Swat disease” and were
each taking organic chemistry.
They studied together, and both
passed the course. “She was lovely,
beautiful, and dating Steve when
we took a later bio course together,
and that beauty still showed in
the photo included in the alumni
obit (bit.ly/TLLOspring18).” Myra
Barrett remembered being Kris’s
roommate in Robinson House
senior year: “What a great time.”
Memories of Mohamed Faisal:
Jerry Schick remembered
Mohamed as “generous with
imagination and a fine sense of
humor, somewhat heavyset and
usually together with his ebullient
sidekick, W. Ruwayha.” Jerry
recounts a prank where he dressed
up as an Arabian aristocrat and
went to Parrish for dinner. Jerry
could speak a few words of Arabic,
thanks to Mohamed’s teaching;
he succeeded in fooling the dining
monitors into quickly seating “the
dignitary” and totally misled his
fellow students. He also remembers
Mohamed returning to the College
briefly the following year with his
new wife and then driving off to
college in California.
Kate Killebrew and husband John
live in Albuquerque, N.M. She visits
Trudy Huntingdon (daughter of late
biology professor Robert Enders)
at Kendal near Swarthmore twice
a year. Kate’s younger daughter, a
Bryn Mawr graduate, and Spanish
son-in-law “produced” a first
granddaughter in April who will
be trilingual, speaking English,
Spanish, and Catalan. Her elder
daughter, a Scripps–Claremont
graduate, is a scientific writer living
in the Bay Area with her India-born
computer engineering husband. An
international family!
Claire Faust Stephens McMurray
was married to the late Kirk
Stephens ’62 until their divorce
in 1994 and then married Clifford
McMurray in 2002, five months
after she retired. Claire’s grandson
is doing graduate studies after
getting an electrical engineering
degree from the University of
Oklahoma; her granddaughter
is a high school junior. In early
2018, Claire became international
chapters coordinator for the
National Space Society (NSS),
and she writes newspaper and
magazine articles for them. She
and Clifford attend NSS’s annual
International Space Development
Conferences, the last two years of
which were in LA and Arlington,
Va. She uses a walker and finds car
and air travel difficult, but with a
supportive husband, feels blessed
in her life.
Harriet and Steve Davidson
moved to Rittenhouse Square in
Philadelphia after 30 years near
Boston. Son Michael ’91 and his
wife, Christy Reardon ’91, live
nearby, and daughter Rachel is in
Delaware.
I’m sorry to report the loss of two
classmates. Peter Euben died in
May. He taught political theory
for 34 years at UC–Santa Cruz,
and then at Duke for a decade
thereafter. He received a Ph.D.
from UC–Berkeley in 1968 and was
known for his “singular teaching
skill, which mixed intellectual
engagement and passionate
commitment to political action with
a mischievous sense of humor and
dramatic flair that made ideas and
their consequences come alive.”
He leaves two daughters and
three grandchildren. In September,
Maurice Eldridge sent news of the
death of James “Jody” Hudson,
who had moved to Connecticut in
the last two years due to failing
health. We send our sympathy to
the families of these classmates.
If you have memories of Peter or
Jody, please send them.
1963
Diana Judd Stevens
djsteven1@verizon.net
Continued from fall’s class notes
… Marke Woodward Talley lives
on 1.5 acres, 1.5 miles west of the
ALUMNI COUNCIL NEWS
Know an amazing Swattie who deserves recognition? Alumni
Council is seeking nominations for the annual Eugene
Lang Impact Award, for an alum who has made an impact
on society through their vocation, and the Arabella Carter
Community Service Award, recognizing an unsung hero
working for peace and justice. The awards will be presented
at Alumni Weekend, May 31–June 2.
Visit bit.ly/SwatAwards for more information, and email
nominations to LShafer1@swarthmore.edu by Feb. 1!
Rio Grande, on land that should
belong to San Ildefonso Village
(Western Indians). She enjoys
testing water for microbiological
contaminants, learning the piano,
and keeping in contact with the
six children she shares with Eric
Peterson, whom she married Feb.
14, 2007, after “running away”
from her first husband of 42 years.
After Swarthmore, Marke joined
the Peace Corps (Peru); earned an
M.A. at Cornell in fishery biology;
returned to the Peace Corps
(Brazil); earned a Ph.D. at the
University of New Mexico; taught
20 years of bacteriology, anatomy,
and physiology; and spent 20
years as director of a small quality
lab. She was forced into retirement
after a bad ankle break.
Cay Hall Roberts reports she and
Dick, now 89, are OK. Cay, back to
her musical activities, community
library work, etc., is doing better
since her fall last winter and hopes
to graduate to a cane soon.
In mid-October, I received Polly
Glennan Watts’s class agent
letter. Please consider supporting
her request for donations
to Swarthmore, just as you
considered the requests from our
most recent class agents, Cay
Hall Roberts, Larry Phillips, and
the late Jack Willis. In the fall,
Polly enjoyed a mother-daughter
trip to Nashville, Tenn., which
featured beautiful weather, great
music, and a lovely Airbnb. I saw
Polly in August when Paul ’65
and I hosted the annual Maine
Swarthmore summer get-together.
Also attending were Nate ’65 and
Geri Kelly Smith ’64, Abbie and
Dave Rowley ’65, Betsy Maxfield
Crofts, Neil and Jeannette Jones
Gallagher, and Polly’s sister Sally
and her husband, Ted.
Kathie Kertesz let me know that
Russ Fernald’s daughter reported
on his CaringBridge page that he
is home from rehab and enjoys
hearing from classmates. In
communicating with Tessa Jordan
before our 55th, Lynne Fleming
Goss learned that Tessa does
research for her local historical
society and is involved in a retired
teachers’ association.
Carl and Elizabeth Northrop
Jockusch ’64 spent July in Europe,
including a visit to Elizabeth’s
sister Lila Towle ’64 in Denmark,
where she has lived for more than
40 years. Carl attended math
meetings in Italy while Elizabeth
went sightseeing. They both toured
Bologna and part of Austria.
Susan Gentleman encourages
us to visit rootsofhealth.org,
the website for the organization
Susan Potter Evangelista and her
daughter Ami run in Palawan,
Philippines, that focuses on
women and their health. Susan
Gentleman retired from NIH 10
years ago and has kept volunteer
status with her lab group doing
computer molecular simulations—
sort of acting as the institutional
memory for the ongoing project.
She and her husband are trying to
successfully age in place.
In October, Abby Pollak and Helen
traveled to Sicily, southern Italy,
and southern France. In between
travels and time spent with their
granddaughters, they cleaned out
their garage, so they wouldn’t leave
all of their fabulous memorabilia
for their families to sort through.
After talking with Paul and me
during our 55th Reunion about
life at Crosslands, Linda and Bill
Steelman decided they wanted
to learn more, so they visited
here in June and September for
preadmission interviews. It was a
real treat to have dinner with them
twice. Soon after their September
visit, Linda and Bill traveled to
Cuba.
Carol and Clyde Prestowitz spent
May in Europe seeing friends and
attending a business meeting.
They arrived home to learn son
Brian was slated for brain surgery
in Reno, Nev., after a fall. They
spent June, July, and part of
August in Reno taking care of
him. The prognosis is good. From
Reno, Carol and Clyde went to
Maui, where Carol’s gardens were
thriving—meaning the workload
for her apprentice gardener
(Clyde) increased. Clyde received
a substantial foundation grant
to work on a paper on U.S. Asia
policy. He took a break from
gardening to take a two-week trip
through Asia, where he spoke with
many leading political, economic,
business, and journalistic leaders.
Clyde said the trip was fascinating
and noted it’s clear we are living
in a world quite different from the
one we have known all our lives.
As most of you know from the
email I sent in September, Helen
Heitmann Ives died Sept. 14.
She was a tenured librarian at
American University from the
late 1980s until her retirement
in 2003. A condolence note was
sent to Helen’s two children, four
grandchildren, and sister on behalf
of our class.
Our class notes are for you and
about you, so keep the news
coming.
1965
Kiki Skagen Munshi
kiki@skagenranch.com
smore65.com
Hard to believe, as I write, that it’s
almost the end of September once
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
55
class notes
56
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
Traffic and Very Few Tall Buildings.
I am living with my son Dan Kresh,
and we have a poetry box in the
front yard, in the style of the little
libraries: ‘Take a poem if you want,
Leave a poem if you can.’ I have
been helping teach and sustain a
homeschool band and orchestra
program for the last 18 years. We
have retired and now, I guess, I
really do have to practice piano.
I have also produced some nice
artworks, to my surprise.
“Grandchildren are amazing. Joe,
16, (Dan) writes and makes movies.
Talia, 8, (Ernest Courant and
Vina Suntonvipart) plays piano,
studies ballet, and is moving with
her parents, dog Pearl, and Pearl’s
puppy, Thor, to Ajijic, Mexico.
Konstantin, 3, and Ivan, 1, (Noah
Courant and Anna Prushinskaya)
beautify my life. I am doing OK but
am providing some health-care
people with salaries.”
Nick Warren enjoys retirement,
although UConn won’t leave him
alone for contracted ergonomic
consulting. Retirement does
give him more time to play in his
woodshop and prepare emotionally
for an impending (step)grandchild.
And Robinwyn Lewis encourages
others to consider teaching English
as a second language. She has
been teaching adults in night
school for almost 10 years and
finds it wonderfully gratifying.
Her students, mostly from Central
America, are highly motivated,
coming after long days at work and
fully engaging in class. “We need
more like them in this country.”
Kathleen Welsh Fox writes
that we lost Suzanne Lorant on
Aug. 15. “She was in treatment
for pulmonary embolism and
open-heart surgery, and had
been struggling for over a year.
We were in daily conversation,
and she strongly felt that quality
of life was as important to her as
longevity, so she died in peace at
Emerson hospital in the Boston
area.” Several of you expressed the
sorrow and sympathy we all feel;
Elly Rosenberg Rumelt wrote: “She
was my freshman-year roommate,
and I enjoyed reconnecting at
the 50th Reunion and finding
out that we had more in common
than I realized when we were 18.
She subsequently visited me in
my daughter’s home in Amherst,
and I was looking forward to a
continuing relationship.”
Bottom line—see people, write,
do all those things you’ve always
meant to! And send me news.
1967
Donald Marritz
dmarritz@gmail.com
swarthmore67.com
Time flies by, now in decades. I
can’t effing believe it’s been 20
years since I took over as class
scribe from Muffin Reid. [n.b.
(Latin remains alive and kicking)
We’re allowed to swear whenever
and wherever we want, now that
we are officially old—Garnet
Sages.] If you are interested in
taking over as class scrivener,
please let me know. On a related
note, people have been using
swarthmore67.com extensively.
Keep it up!
Yale (where she’s taught since
1991) named Ruth Bernard Yeazell
the Sterling Professor of English—
their highest faculty honor. Ruth
has received fellowships from
the Rockefeller Foundation,
National Humanities Center, and
Guggenheim Foundation, and was
elected to the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences in 2009.
“There is a lot of sadness” in
Kim Tingley’s family due to the
premature death of his son Justin
at age 48. He is the middle child
from Kim’s first marriage. “He
was an intelligent, talented, and
loving man. I miss him so much.”
Condolences seem so inadequate,
but we sincerely offer them, Kim.
Steve Yeazell is “happily retired
(sort of) after 43 years at UCLA.
The law school continues to ask
me to teach one course a year,
so I get continued contact with
colleagues, students, and the
wider campus—and the rest of
year to frolic. This year, my longsuffering spouse and I frolicked
twice—a three-week trip to Japan
in May, and another three weeks in
the Maritime provinces of Canada
(think Anne of Green Gables) in
August. Both were lovely, though
the only commonality was fresh
seafood. On the non-frolic front,
after fussing over it far too long,
I’ve published my view from
30,000 feet on my academic field:
Lawsuits in a Market Economy:
The Evolution of Civil Litigation.
Despite taking me a decade, it’s
only 120 pages long and would
make an excellent holiday present.
It was lovely to see many of you
at our 50th, and I wish you all
the best in this latter stage of our
lives.”
It was “not exactly a banner
year” for Frances Racine Munro.
Her husband of 39-plus years,
Gardner Munro, died in February.
Then a “suspicious mammogram”
led to extensive but successful
surgeries. “To round out the
less-pleasant events of my annus
horribilis (as Queen Elizabeth II
would say), my 19-year-old cat,
Menace (very much my domestic
familiar, who nagged me if I went
off schedule), died just after the
estate sale, and my 2001 Camry,
which I had planned to drive for
at least another year, was totaled
in July. Friends, neighbors, and
people I never met before have
been wonderful and supportive.
My sister Kathy Racine Roberti
’65 and her husband, Tony ’68,
help when needed.” Through it all,
Frances has “managed to continue
my practice in family law” in
addition to remaining very active
in church affairs, both locally and
regionally, and moving to a new
home.
For your TV-viewing pleasure,
catch Tasso Feldman, son of Randy
Warner and Barry Feldman ’68,
in the role of Dr. Irving Feldman
on Fox’s The Resident. Bonus:
you can watch with the insider
knowledge that Tasso’s paternal
grandfather was named Irving
Feldman, a fact that might come in
handy on a TV quiz show.
I am sorry to report the death of
Eric Nelson in October. Eric loved
to travel and immerse himself in
adventure, unique foods, wine,
music, and the arts. His work as
a developmental economist took
him and his family to Africa and
Asia before they settled down in
Maryland. Eric’s “passion was to
improve the working and living
conditions of people in postconflict
countries throughout Africa and
Asia.” He is survived by his wife of
44 years, Chony; sons Edward and
Adrian; two grandchildren; and a
sister.
1969
Jeffrey Hart
hartj@indiana.edu
Nancy Bekavac writes: “By now
you will have received the ‘save the
date’ card for our 50th Reunion,
May 30–June 2. Ellen Schall and I
are the co-chairs, and a volunteer
committee is in the making. This
is our ‘Big One,’ so please make
your plans now to be there—the
committee will do its best to
coordinate ride-shares, etc., so
that everyone who wants to can
come. Don’t be shy about getting
in touch with the people you want
to see, to make sure they are
coming!”
Recent and forthcoming
publications: Liz Coleman is
the editor of HERE: Poems for
the Planet, a contemporary
international environmental poetry
anthology to be released on Earth
Day, April 22. Mary Schmidt
Campbell published An American
Odyssey, a biography of the
African-American artist Romare
Bearden. Arisika Razak has
several entries in the forthcoming
Encyclopedia of Women in World
Religions. Belle Brett published
her first novel, Gina in the Floating
World (pg. 14). Her own adventures
as a bar hostess in 1970s Tokyo
inspired the story, but Belle wants
to emphasize that, unlike her
protagonist, she did not become a
prostitute.
Retired from Marquette
University, Linda Lee volunteers
with Ten Chimneys and the AARP
Milwaukee Leadership Council.
Mark Dean is a retired financial
executive, formerly with LNP
Engineering Plastics in Exton, Pa.
Leonard Nakamura is associate
VP and economist at the Federal
Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
David Wright and wife Pam
Bristah moved to South Orange,
N.J., in 2016 to live near family.
David covers the concert scene
for the online New York Classical
Review, contributing about 50
reviews a year. He has supplied
program notes to Lincoln Center
and the Mostly Mozart Festival for
the past 36 years. Mike Schudson
and family are back from six weeks
in Budapest. I posted a picture
of him with baby Noah: bit.ly/
MikeNoah.
Helen Lom enjoys life as an
active retiree in Geneva. She’s
struggling to get back into making
art, is involved with human rights
activities at the U.N.—focused
mainly on women’s right to quality
education—and has been traveling,
with stints in Miami Beach, city
tours in Europe, and visits to her
two London-based daughters, both
working in film and the arts. Amid
that whirlwind, Helen’s trying to
find the time and discipline to keep
her body in shape.
Sarah Barton is painting and
consulting for museums and the
future of salmon. She is chair of
the Providence St. Joseph Health
board in Alaska, and lives on the
side of a mountain overlooking
the Matanuska Glacier. Visitors
welcome.
In April, Ron Thomas completed
his 30th year teaching and
consulting on global management
at the D’Amore-McKim School of
Business, Northeastern University.
Fania Davis retired from
practicing civil rights law and
as founding director of a youth
restorative justice nonprofit that
she launched in 2005. Still in
Oakland, Calif., she writes and
speaks about racial and restorative
justice.
Carolyn Cymbalak Foster had
a wonderful crop of heirloom
tomatoes, cucumbers, beans,
lettuce, eggplant, zucchini,
peppers, raspberries, and all sorts
of flowers this year. Carrots were
not successful. Many days she
and her husband eat right from the
garden.
Mickey Herbert ’67 is president
and CEO of Bridgeport (Conn.)
The Class of ’69 was forged in tumultuous
times. Its members have achieved,
illuminated, and overcome obstacles
beyond measure. Come celebrate our
shared journeys—and one another—
at our 50th Reunion.
Don Fujihira ’69, Christine Grant ’69, and
Randy Larrimore ’69, co-chairs of the 50th
Reunion gift committee, have announced
that our reunion gift goal is $573,500 for
the Class of 1969 Scholarship Fund. This will
bring the fund, endowed in 1994 in honor of
Courtney Smith, to $1 million.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
again—the wheel of the seasons
turns faster each year. I sit looking
out my window at leaves just
beginning to turn on the catalpa,
though beyond it the great old
pear tree is still green. It has to be
a century old; I hate the thought
that it will ever go. Some days, I
feel a century old, but being class
secretary and in touch with all
of you is a good antidote. Write.
Come visit.
Speaking of the passage of time,
Diana Burgin writes: “It’s not so
long from May to September.
Where did the summer go? …
Anyway, before May comes again, I
attach the news of the publication
of my book, Five Hard Pieces:
Translations & Readings of Five
Long Poems by Marina Tsvetaeva.
It was 10 years in the making.
Other than that, I’m still teaching
and commuting from Cambridge to
Housatonic, Mass.”
Ron Hale chairs the group that
puts on the Santa Fe Traditional
Music Festival, held at a beautifully
situated summer camp on the
original route of the Santa Fe Trail.
The second annual festival was
held the last weekend in August,
and it was a great success, with
about 1,000 people enjoying
performances, workshops, and
eclectic jam sessions from the
bluegrass, old-time, Irish, Klezmer,
and other traditions. In another
part of the West, Steve Saslow
and wife Annie Cannon ’64 (a year
ahead of him at S’more when they
were both majoring in Drs. Denison
and Livingston—they married in
1999) were house- and elderly
animals-sitting off the grid until
about mid-October at a small straw
bale house on the high desert of
central Oregon.
Linda Smith Nathanson had a
mini-reunion at her Brookline,
Mass., home in September
for Rosh Hashanah with Don
and Helen Lutton Cohen and
Elly Rosenberg Rumelt, who
came in from her new home
in Northampton. Daughter
Sarah, son-in-law Aaron, and
granddaughters Natalie and Chloe
were also there.
Katherine Johnson writes: “I
have moved from Ann Arbor to
Ypsilanti, Mich., and am relieved
to live in a town with Much Less
Visit gift.swarthmore.edu or call
1-800-525-8622 to support the project.
We hope to see you this May 30–June 2
at our once-in-a-lifetime 50th Reunion!
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
57
class notes
Regional Business Council.
Nancy Horn is director and owner
of Psychological Services of
Southern Connecticut. Randall
Larrimore retired as chairman of
Olin Corp. but remains on its board
of directors, while also serving
on the boards of Campbell Soup
and Nixon Uniform Service and
Medical Wear. He still works with
Chesapeake Conservancy.
Joan Goldhammer Hart lectured
on Kashmiri and European paisley
shawls in October at the annual
meeting of the Textile Society of
America in Vancouver, British
Columbia.
Ron Krall is board chairman of
Pierian Biosciences in Steamboat
Springs, Colo., and an adjunct
professor at the University of
Pittsburgh. He and his wife also
operate Off the Beaten Path, an
independent bookstore.
Judith Lorick writes: “I’m
beginning to think I’ll never retire.
I still work as an executive coach
and love it. I also love living in New
York and have found it surprisingly
easy to be back in the U.S. after 28
years in France. My most exciting
news is that I finished recording
my new album, The Second Time
Around, released Sept. 28.”
Those who received the emailed
class notes will note that I had
to edit them to comply with
the Bulletin’s 800-word limit. I
will continue to provide longer
versions by email. Thanks for your
contributions!
’91 and his wife, Nora, are now
collaborating on that research
project (they’re professors at
Florida State), which means our
granddaughter is also spending
summers at RMBL. If you saw
the BBC show on the Rocky
Mountains this summer on PBS,
you saw some footage of migrating
rufous hummingbirds taken at our
cabin. I banded a few hundred
hummingbirds this summer.”
Guinness World Record holder
Lynn West Salvo is waiting to hear
if she set a second—this one for
being the oldest woman to bike
across Canada, which she did in
August. Keep up with her records,
rides, and life at lifeislikeabike.
wordpress.com and bit.ly/
LynnBikes.
Monica Carsky-Kennedy and
Bill Kennedy ’70 say their news
should be preceded by a bragging
alert: “Our son, Christopher (MIT
’10, B.S. physics, B.S. chemistry),
just defended his thesis for a math
Ph.D. at Ohio State. He hopes to
end up at some tech company in
Boston, where we can visit him and
a number of friends.” Monica and
Bill are in Teaneck, N.J., five miles
from Manhattan, and they love
having visitors.
And how am I? I enjoy living in
LA, particularly my neighborhood.
It’s urban, but not too urban. I was
asked if I was planning to go to the
next reunion. Definitely!
1973
1971
Martha Shirk
swarthmorecollege73@gmail.com
swarthmorecollege73.com
Bob Abrahams
bobabrahams@yahoo.com
swarthmore71.org
Just a few notes, with good news
all around.
David Inouye reports: “Bonnie
[Gregory Inouye ’69] and I spent
the summer again at the Rocky
Mountain Biological Laboratory
(RMBL), where I have now
collected 45 years of data on
how wildflowers are responding
to climate change. Son Brian
58
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
Condolences to family members
and friends of Terrence Hicks,
who died Oct. 18. You can share
memories on the class website or
at bit.ly/2Stchh2.
After working in health policy at
the National Conference of State
Legislatures for 33 years, Martha
King retired. She hopes to return to
Peace Corps service in January to
work on HIV prevention in Zambia.
Gino Bottino left his medical
practice in suburban NYC and
relocated to Tucson, Ariz., where
he joined the Oncology Institute
of Hope and Innovation. He also
serves on the American Cancer
Society’s Regional Southwestern
Board and teaches in the University
of Arizona’s medical college. “After
fighting for doctors in Albany
through the state and county
medical societies for the last 25
years, things just kept getting
progressively worse,” Gino writes.
Maggie Habib Gorse moved five
years ago to Singapore, where
she is managing director of
Verlion, a global consulting and
training company, and a member
of the U.N. ESCAP task forces for
disaster relief and innovation in
Asia-Pacific. “Enjoying the history
and influence of colonialism
and uncovering the remarkable
indigenous cultures” of nearby
countries, she writes. “I am blown
away by the dynamic social
innovation in the region.”
Tom and Carol Efron Peyser live
in Menlo Park, Calif., with their two
grown children and new son-in-law
nearby. “Tom works (way too hard)
on creating an automated glucose
control system for people with
diabetes, a passion for both of us
since our daughter got insulindependent diabetes at age 7,” she
writes. “I have a small, but very
enjoyable, solo psychiatry practice
and cut back my hours to write. I
have nearly finished my first novel,
a story that has been a joy, as well
as a challenge, to tell.”
After retiring from Texas A&M in
2015, Jane Packard cares for her
father, helps with STEM activities
at the local history museum, works
on overdue manuscripts, and
researches the well-being of social
ungulates with collaborators at
Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Texas.
Hugh Roberts spent the past year
doing anti-gerrymandering work
in Pennsylvania, only to have the
Legislature block reform. “So, in
August, I put my plan to rescue
democracy on hold to step back
into full ‘dad’ mode, taking my new
Middlebury grad daughter, Alice,
in a minivan to start her first job in
downtown San Francisco. The SF
adventure was followed by another
road trip up to Lake Sunapee, N.H.,
for eldest son Jack’s wedding.”
Bill Yarrow is in his 26th year of
teaching Shakespeare, intro to
film studies, and creative writing
at Joliet (Ill.) Junior College. He
has a new book of poems, Against
Prompts, and writes that he and
wife Leah are “traveling as often as
we can from Chicago to Brooklyn
and Waltham, Mass., to see our
three grandchildren.”
Ronda Muir has a new home
in Charleston, S.C., and is busy
promoting her book, Beyond
Smart: Lawyering with Emotional
Intelligence, with speaking gigs
in Australia and Rome. Daughter
Elisabeth Sandler married Tom
Bolton in September 2017.
Frank Green practices cardiology
in Indianapolis at the St. Vincent
Heart Center. “We make regular
trips to California to check on
my mother, who turned 100
in February, and are enjoying
life with three dogs and three
grandchildren.”
David and Ginny Mussari Bates
also carve out plenty of time for
their grandchild, “smart and funny
19-month-old Henry,” Ginny writes.
“David does that by retiring last
January, and I work my still-going
travel schedule around every
Friday with Henry. Not a bad gig!”
Last March, Richard W. Wilson
and wife Wendy welcomed their
first grandchildren, Wren and
Finch, born 18 days apart. “It is
wonderful watching them grow
and develop their individual
personalities,” Richard writes.
I, too, have joined the
grandparents’ club! I’m babysitting once a week for William
Owen Woo, born June 8 and
named after my late husband.
Lola Bogyo writes engagingly
about life in “an old (read:
dilapidated!) farmhouse” in
Brooksville, Maine (population
934), where her life revolves
around working 25 hours a week
as a neuropsychologist in nearby
Bangor, plus “serving on the
board of the local library, getting
involved in politics/social justice
issues, kayaking, swimming, and
attending theater and concerts.
There are also church dinners,
community and library events, and,
of course, yard sales.” Daughter
Mia graduated from college with a
degree in art education and works
in Portland.
To read more about Lola’s
dodging falling ceilings and
mice, Hugh Roberts’s musings
on the wedding-industrial
complex, and Maggie Habib
Gorse’s views on living in a
“benevolent dictatorship,”
visit swarthmorecollege73.
com. While you’re there,
update your profile! And start a
conversation at facebook.com/
SwarthmoreClassOf1973.
1975
Sam Agger
sam.agger@gmail.com
After working for HP/Hewlett
Packard for almost 40 years,
Bruce Jenkins retires in May. “I’m
very excited for the adventures for
Julie and me in this next phase of
our lives.”
Tom Casey’s son, Harry, who
attended our 10th Reunion as an
infant, got married this fall. Tom
is working on new Baltimore City
Schools projects, as he has the
past several years, and still plays
violin in a community orchestra.
“My mother is in the nursing unit
of a local retirement community.
It’s referred to as ‘second-floor
Hallowell,’ which is, oddly, where I
lived my second year.”
David Gold welcomed third
grandson Colin in July and was
named to the Best Lawyers in
America, Florida Super Lawyers,
and the Miami Herald Top
Attorneys. Gold & Gold was also
named a U.S. News & World
Report Tier 1 Law Firm.
Valerie Robertson provided a
“September Hurricane Florence
report from me, partner George
Scheibner, and canine Princess
Cocoa Beans in Wilmington, N.C.:
We are home and safe, and our
houses are intact. We’d boarded up
the south-facing windows of our
1920s bungalows and evacuated
20 blocks to George’s offices at
public radio station WHQR, where
we lived from Thursday until
Monday, when power was restored.
Our block doesn’t flood, but three
neighbors lost homes to falling
90-year-old laurel oaks. For us, it’s
nearly over, but with the cleanup
and emotional recovery, for those
who’ve lost their homes, this is
a life-changing event.” Valerie
publishes Cape Fear’s Going Green
environmental magazine, which
Tura Campanella Cook describes
as “the champagne of electronic
communication.” Oh, by the way, if
you were listening to NPR during
the Florence reporting, you may
have heard Valerie’s dog bark!
Ellen Barry founded Legal
Services for Prisoners with
Children (LSPC) after graduating
from NYU Law School. “This
year, LSPC is celebrating 40
years of activism, policy change,
and human rights advancement
for prisoners, their children,
family members, and formerly
incarcerated people. We
pioneered work around pregnant
women being shackled in prison,
alternatives to incarceration,
battered women serving life
sentences for killing their abusers,
parental rights, and challenging
the mass incarceration of people
of color and low-income people.”
One of 25 activists to co-found
the national Critical Resistance
movement, Ellen received a
MacArthur Fellowship in 1998. She
recently became fund development
director for Restorative Justice
for Oakland Youth, working
with schools, prisons, and the
community. She has two children—
Angela, an Ithaca grad, and
Antonio, a senior at UC–Santa
Cruz—and lives in Oakland, Calif.
Visitors welcome!
Larry Schall writes: “Betty and
I hit that magic age of 65 and
continue to believe we are still 22,
despite the aches and pains of
aging creeping in. We will celebrate
our November birthdays hiking in
Portugal’s mountains, but that’s
just training for our planned spring
hike in Nepal.” Larry celebrates his
14th year as Oglethorpe University
president, and “we just bought a
home in Atlanta, so this great city
will remain home for us postOglethorpe.”
Peter Cloutier became “one of
the legions of cancer survivors,
thankfully. Swollen lymph
nodes signaled a problem then
identified as a tumor at the base
of my tongue.” He had surgery
to remove the damaged nodes,
then chemo and radiation for the
tumor. “I lost 70 pounds because
I couldn’t eat or retain food but
was fortunate, in a way, to have
many reserves. My doctors
think my tumor was caused by
HPV—many people carry the
virus dormant, and it occasionally
develops into something nasty.
Here in Switzerland, boys are now
routinely vaccinated against HPV,
as well as girls. I understand that
simple tests are available to detect
whether someone carries the virus,
even dormant—good idea!”
Rob McNeill, a Georgetown
professor, received the 2018 Dr.
A.H. Heineken Prize for History
from the Royal Netherlands
Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Congrats!
Special shout-out of support,
friendship, and respect to Robert
Zoellick in his continuing public
service, as he was named to
Twitter’s Board of Directors!
Sadly, Lucille “Sam” Curry
Frieder died in May. Sam had a
doctorate in clinical psychology
and maintained memberships
in the American Psychological
Association (Neuropsychology)
and the National Head Injury
Foundation. She is survived by
son Jesse and siblings Michele,
Pamela, Susan, and Bruce; peace
to Sam’s loved ones.
1977
Terri-Jean Pyer
tpyer@hartnell.edu
Greetings, everyone!
Robert George and Professor
Cornel West of Harvard were
named joint recipients of the
Heterodox Academy’s inaugural
Leadership Award last June, given
to “the person or group that has
most effectively championed the
principles of viewpoint diversity,
mutual understanding and
constructive disagreement in the
academy and beyond.” In 2017,
the two co-wrote “Truth Seeking,
Democracy, and Freedom of
Thought and Expression,” which
is described as “a clarion call for
those who support constructive
disagreement.”
Also, in May, Robby was honored
with the James Q. Wilson Award
for Distinguished Scholarship
from the Association for the
Study of Free Institutions. He
is the McCormick Professor of
Jurisprudence and director of
the James Madison Program in
American Ideals and Institutions at
Princeton University.
Todd Kennedy writes: “Together
again after 43 years, for one
day in October, Wharton C
roommates David Perkins and Todd
Kennedy in Hampshire County,
Mass.” David is editor and
publisher of Hilltown Life, an
annual magazine in the Berkshires
produced with the Hilltown
Chautauqua, which he also
founded. Todd is an attorney in
private practice in San Francisco.
1979
Laurie Stearns Trescott
sundncr88@comcast.net
Congrats to Diana Furchtgott-Roth,
who accepted a position with the
U.S. Treasury as acting assistant
secretary for economic policy
(and deputy assistant secretary
for macroeconomic policy). She
had two outstanding Swarthmore
interns, Laura Wilcox ’20 and
Gilbert Orbea ’19. Sarah Humphrey
visited, and they found the portrait
of Sarah’s great-uncle George
Humphrey, who was treasury
secretary from 1953 to 1957.
Our condolences to Josh Landis,
whose father, Ken Landis ’48, died
Sept. 13. The College’s first vice
president for fundraising, alumni,
and public relations, Ken was a
proud proponent of performing
arts and a passionate supporter of
the Scott Arboretum.
We have a big reunion coming up
May 31–June 2—will you be there?
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
59
class notes
ALUMNI PROFILE
1981
Karen Oliver
karen.oliver.01@gmail.com
Created by Carol Black and
Neal Marlens ’79, The Wonder
Years—the Emmy-, Golden Globe-,
and Peabody-winning television
series—was re-released on DVD
for its 30th anniversary (bit.ly/
WYDVD).
Carrie Figdor’s book Pieces
of Mind: The Proper Domain of
Psychological Predicates (pg. 9)
was published in the U.K. and U.S.
Send your bad jokes to Ruth
Goldberg: “I still live in Odenton,
Md., halfway between D.C. and
Baltimore, with my husband,
Mark Delaney, and our three
cats—Hank, Bert, and Chip. I’ve
been with the U.S. Department
of Agriculture’s Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service
for 15 years; I am one of two
assistant directors of executive
communications. That’s a
fancy way of saying that I’m an
editor; we answer congressional
inquiries and write speeches
and briefings on science and
regulatory issues. Sounds dry but
it’s really interesting, and I enjoy
the challenge of finding ways to
explain complicated things to a
lay audience—especially issues
that directly affect the public.
It probably goes without saying
that this is a tough time to work
for the federal government, but I
am inspired by the small group of
dedicated, creative public servants
with whom I work every day, and
we laugh a lot. I serve on our staff’s
Civil Rights/EEO Committee, with
particular focus on LGBTQ rights
and issues. I also try to put energy
into little things that enhance
teamwork—removing bureaucratic
obstacles, checking in on how
individual folks are doing, or telling
bad jokes.” (That’s where we come
in.)
The United States of Us, with
book/lyrics by Alan Gordon, had
a staged reading in Orlando in
August as part of the Florida
60
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
Theatrical Association’s third
annual New Musical Discovery
Series.
Condolences to Patricia Leonard
Kampling on the death of husband
Tony on Sept. 4. At Swarthmore
he studied engineering and
economics, and a handful of
you may remember him from the
mysterious 1981 Swarthmore
Gentlemen’s Society.
Darius Rejali tells us: “At Reed
this fall term, I am teaching
Catholic Political Theory and
Bystanders to Violence. Sorry
it has been at least two years
since my last report. I had knee
surgery; was medevaced from
Burning Man; have been pulled
off planes at doctor’s orders; went
to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan with
my family; give master classes in
Copenhagen annually; and migrate
to southern Spain in winters and
summers. I nearly ran the bulls in
Pamplona; I’m hoping to do that
with my bad knee one day—you
watch me, James Michener ’29. In
short, it’s been a boring life.”
Jeremiah Reilly wrote several
charming notes in French and
German, but you don’t have to rely
on my rusty translation skills for
the following update: “Dorothy
Silver Reilly and I immigrated to
Basel, Switzerland, in May. Dorothy
works for Novartis in informatics. I
study German and function as the
Dorothy–Switzerland interface.
Living in Basel is fantastic.
Switzerland has solved the medical
insurance/care problem. We
spent five days in Oslo in July. Off
to London in October. Our son,
Isaac, works for Google in NYC.”
Jeremiah also asked that I include
updates from four folks, two of
whom responded. Can you guess
who?
Sharon Conaway Rutberg has
been in Seattle for 15 years. Five
years ago, she went back to
practicing law, and she now has
a neighborhood estate planning
and probate practice. This fall, she
started classes toward an LLM
in elder law at Seattle University.
Her children are in college—Jamie
started an RN program, and Teddy
studies agroecology. Sharon
and husband Bryan keep busy
operating their own businesses,
a nice distraction as their nest
empties out. They get back East
every couple of years to see
friends, and they welcome visitors
to the beautiful PNW!
From Valerie Thomas: “Our
daughter, Irina Bukharin ’18,
graduated from Swarthmore!
She has a job in D.C. and is back
home living with us. Our son is a
sophomore at Georgia Tech, where
I’m still a professor, commuting
weekly between D.C. and Atlanta.
This year I went twice to Rwanda
to develop collaborations on
energy development. It’s a
beautiful country, very safe, and
great weather all the time.”
1983
John Bowe
john@bowe.us
A big shout-out to reunion chair
Diane Wilder and all who made
Alumni Weekend a success. Dan
Mont gets to the essence: “The
reunion was great. I don’t know if
all the classes at Swarthmore are
as special as ours. The memorial
ceremony, the salon, and just the
fact that we connect on so many
levels—it’s not about swapping
résumés but sharing pieces of
ourselves with people who knew us
during that special time when we
transitioned from kids to adults.”
Last summer, Dan participated
in an alumni panel of a program
Swarthmore runs with Haverford
for incoming students who
want to work on social justice,
where he talked about working
internationally on disability and
inclusion.
Katy Roth and Dreux Patton
’84 had a great time at reunion,
dancing, losing car keys at the
“Kids” concert, and having tears
jerked by John Walsh’s parlor
performance. They then headed
to Williams for eldest son Ryan’s
graduation. Ryan started his first
job with Flatiron Health in NYC,
Megan ’20 is trying to make it
through organic chemistry at
Swat, and Colin is in high school
prepping for SATs.
Martha Reilly and husband Paul
Brown live happily in Eugene, Ore.,
“within walking distance of the
wonderful Shoshana Kerewsky and
her even more wonderful bride,
Nancy Taylor Kemp, as well as the
truly amazing Abby Donovan ’92,
who is of a later Swats vintage but
none the worse for it.” Martha is a
private-practice gynecologist and
volunteers—“rather a lot!”—for
the local Planned Parenthood,
covering all of southern
Oregon, where she is director of
termination services.
Matt Sommer is “gritting his
teeth while beginning his second
year chairing Stanford’s history
department.”
Sue Kost and Dave Gertler are
undergoing job transitions. Their
elder son enjoys married life in
San Diego; their daughter, who
graduated summa cum laude from
Virginia Commonwealth’s School
of the Arts in May, is a digital
communications fellow at the
Institute for Policy Studies in D.C.;
and their younger son is a high
school senior, “looking at many
colleges that aren’t Swarthmore
(sad emoji).”
Martha Swain is going on 18
years as a pre-K teacher at Seattle
Waldorf School. “I love my work!”
Her daughter, 23, is a senior
at Clark University, where she
considers Jen Baily’s house her
home away from home.
Felicia Rosenfeld stepped aside
as executive director of the Dance
Resource Center, the service
organization for Greater LA
dance. Intending to “take her first
summer off in maybe forever,” she
was detoured into taking care of
elderly relatives—all too common
for our age group. Husband David
Linde ’82 was busy overseeing
Participant Media’s summer and
fall films, including RBG, Roma,
Green Book, and On the Basis of
Sex.
Andrea Davis is grateful to have
gotten married June 16 to Steve
Salinda and is blessed with two
beautiful stepdaughters who have
embraced her two adult children
as true friends. She enjoys
directing her psychology center
in Pasadena, Calif., where “life is
good!”
Emily Ingalls’s path intersected
“I am not a critic of President Trump’s, but I understand that not everyone is a supporter,”
says Kevin Hassett ’84. “I’m honored to serve my country, and I hope that even readers who
disagree with the president would feel the same way, too.”
THE ECONOMIST
He’s measuring metrics in the White House
by Jonathan Riggs
ESTABLISHED IN 1946, the
Council of Economic Advisers (CEA)
is an Executive Office agency that
provides the U.S. president with
objective economic policy counsel.
Traditionally, it maintains a staff of
about 50, mostly Ph.D. economists or
professors from around the country
taking one year’s leave to serve in the
White House.
Because of that timing, when Kevin
Hassett ’84 was nominated to become
the CEA’s 29th chair in 2017, only six
staffers were slated to still be around
when he arrived.
“I had a lot of recruiting to do,” he
laughs. “But it was easy, because the
history of the CEA is so storied, with
something like 11 Nobel Prize winners
having worked here.”
Arguably even more impressive,
Hassett hired two additional
Swarthmoreans for the vacant seats:
Joel Zinberg ’77, a cancer surgeon and
legal professor, as general counsel; and
Paige Willey ’16, a political science
alumna, as manager of the executive
office.
Having that connection is
meaningful—not only did Hassett
return to Swarthmore in 2016 for a
good-natured “Debate of the Century”
with his former professor Mark
Kuperberg (bit.ly/HasKupTalk),
but he also credits the College’s
economics faculty for first lighting his
imagination.
“They’re legendary,” he says, “and
dedicated to teaching really hard stuff
to undergrads in a way you can only get
at a place like Swarthmore.”
So much of his actual work reminds
him of College days, especially the
deep research with real-life stakes
Hassett and his team dig into, like that
necessitated by the 2017 flooding in
Houston.
“Because we’re the nerds in the
White House, we got satellite data on
water levels and merged it with Zillow
housing data to create a real estate
damage estimate,” he says. “We were
staying up every night and weekend,
getting this big data job together so
that key decision-makers had the
information they needed to allocate
resources as efficiently as possible.”
Ultimately, his ability to help people
through his work is what makes him
proudest.
A few years ago, he and Jared
Bernstein—Joe Biden’s chief
economist during the Obama
administration—were working
on a tax bill to remedy geographic
inequities. Hassett felt strongly
that the bill should include a policy
proposal to incentivize businesses
to target and revive “opportunity
zones,” like Turners Falls, one of
the most distressed communities in
Massachusetts.
Now that this proposal is part of the
law and investments are beginning to
take off, Hassett is preparing metrics
to see if the policy is working as
intended.
“I grew up just across the river from
Turners Falls,” he says. “Of everything
I’m working on, what I’m most excited
about is the trip I’m planning there to
speak with their city planner.”
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
61
class notes
with that of Susie Lloyd-Jones
Dickinson ’84 (Bob’s wife),
who heads the Association for
Frontotemporal Degeneration
(AFTD). Emily’s wife, Tracey Lind,
was diagnosed with that particular
form of early onset dementia.
Tracey spoke at AFTD’s annual
conference and gala fundraiser
last year. Tracey and Emily travel
all over teaching about dementia in
general and FTD in particular. See
traceylind.com.
Laura Wilson Porter and her
husband celebrated their 35th
wedding anniversary—yes, married
just after graduation. Still in
Scotland, they “moved house” this
year, now in Greenock. Their “new”
home is a 19th-century building
with a turret, a quirky historic
house in a conservation area with
great views over the Clyde where
the big cruise ships come in. She
manages an integrated health
and social care team working with
disabled adults.
Wilfrid Csaplar is sad to have
missed reunion, attending his
mother’s memorial service and a
family reunion the weekend before.
He is an economics professor at
Bethany College in West Virginia.
Barry Datlof is “still trying to get
women pregnant”—which is fine
since he is a fertility doctor.
My (John Bowe’s) daughter is
now employed as a social worker
in her first full-time job. I find it
exciting to move from authoritative
parent to keeping up with what
she talked about academically
to knowing she can do things far
beyond what I could.
1985
Tim Kinnel
kinnel@swarthmore.warpmail.net
Maria Tikoff Vargas
maria@chrisandmaria.com
After a career as an attorney and a
digital-media exec, Gordon Govens
earned divinity and theology
master’s degrees at Princeton
Theological Seminary, then a
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WINTER 2019
history and ecumenics Ph.D. He’s
now a senior fellow and adjunct
professor at Emory’s Center for
the Study of Law and Religion.
He married the Rev. Ruth-Aimée
Belonni-Rosario in August.
Mary Ann Early Nagel is a medical
social worker with Main Line
HealthCare in Newtown Square,
Pa. She reconnected with Bob
Etemad, Main Line’s GI chief. Mary
Ann has been married to Michael
Nagel for 17 years; daughter Taylor
is a 10th-grader planning to study
forensic science in college.
It’s back to D.C. for Maria Cancian
and Chuck Kalish, “a few blocks
from our first apartment.” Chuck
is the Society for Research in
Child Development’s director for
science, and Maria begins as dean
of Georgetown’s McCourt School of
Public Policy in February.
Early 2018 was eventful for Tim
Kinnel: His mom died, his car
was totaled post-snowstorm,
and he bought his first house
in Providence, R.I. (The hour
commute to WGBH in Boston is an
adjustment.)
In Arlington, Mass., Tom Roby
and wife Karen Edwards enjoy folk
music, dancing, and raising son
Mas. Daughter Vielle is a history
major at UConn, where Tom is a
mathematician.
Bill ’83 and Amanda Cheetham
Green have passed 20 years
near Boston. Amanda ensures
that special education services
produce successful adults. In June
2017, she and Chris Sadowski
reconnected and realized their
professions overlap; Chris is a
clinical neuropsychologist serving
adolescents.
Nathan and Ruth Woodliff-Stanley
are well in Denver. Son George ’18
student-teaches at Friends School
Haverford. Son John ’21 spent a
summer at a farm-animal rescue
sanctuary, while Ruthie and George
did a monthlong Spanish-language
immersion in Costa Rica.
Erin Gramling Savinov traveled to
Bali, Iceland, and Prague—“Italy
and Ireland are on the list!” Erin
and husband Victor celebrated
the high school graduation of
child No. 7 in June and 35 years
together in November. Erin is an RN
on a GI floor, “or, as we call it, ‘Butts
and Guts.’”
Melanie Smith O’Brien started
as course manager at Stanford
Medical School. “I love the job,
but I’m adjusting to working full
time—haven’t done that since we
had kids!”
Robert Neff helped organize
Bike Palo Alto. “Also, I am kicking
myself for being too uptight to take
Swarthmore’s student-run human
sexuality class. I’m facilitating
something similar for senior-high
youth, Our Whole Lives.”
Margie Homer received a 25-year
service award at Jet Propulsion
Laboratory and is working on an
air-quality monitor destined for
the International Space Station.
Her boys started middle school in
a Mandarin immersion program.
Margie frequently sees Marc
Luperini, Annie Colwell, Chris
Lansing, and Kate Watkins. Kate
practices psychiatry, researches
behavioral health policy at Rand
Corp., won a Gold Award for impact,
and is learning about they/them
pronouns with her second child,
who identifies as nonbinary. Her
elder son is at Penn State.
Boyd Brown is an Intel employee
benefits tax attorney in Santa
Cruz, Calif., “where time seemed
to stop in the 1970s.” Also in Santa
Cruz is Eddie Greene, who jumped
through hoops to become program
coordinator for the county sheriff’s
office. “They called my momma,
my brother, neighbors, co-workers,
supervisees—it was something
else.”
In Portland, Ore., Sue Levin works
with biotech-materials company
Bolt Threads. She toured East
Coast colleges (sans Swarthmore)
with her son, who was on a ski
team with the son of Tom ’86 and
Becky Henderson Wynne ’86. Sue
still dreams of her daughter playing
Swarthmore soccer.
Julie Brill runs a fruit-fly
research lab at the Hospital for
Sick Children and teaches at the
University of Toronto. Son Paul is a
McGill University sophomore, and
daughter Lia started high school.
Julie and husband John are amid
house renovation No. 3.
Evelthon Iacovides is in Cyprus
with twins Giorgos and Maria,
13, promoting his small-business
consulting method. Jean-Louis
Arcand assures, “I can give you
a minor Russian novella on life in
Geneva.”
Abby Honeywell is a Thames
Homeless Project trustee in
Staines, U.K., and works at Mercer.
“Having turned 55, I realize it’s
impossible to avoid being middleaged.”
Gene Dillman offers a getaway
“boutique accommodation” in
Auckland, New Zealand. “The
street is quiet and the garden is,
well, stunning!”
Finally, Laurie Jamieson and son
Ian, 16, visited Swarthmore this
summer. “I felt like I was 18 again as
I told stories of my youth: sledding
down the hill on trays, running on
the icy bluestone to meals (and
the scar on my hand from when I
slipped), watching Tarble burn from
Parrish’s upper floors. It came back
in a rush.” As they left, Ian googled
the College, “telling me about the
new construction, the engineering
program (his love), and the plant
labels. I saw everything again
through his eyes.”
1987
Sarah Wilson
swarthmore87@gmail.com
As the Class Notes deadline
approached, only one brave soul
had answered the call. But after
a reminder on our very active
“Swarthmore ’87 25th Reunion”
Facebook page, a torrent of
paragraphs came flooding in.
Apologies to classmates whose
entries I’ve edited and to those I’ve
held over until next time!
Keara Connolly is settling into
her split life of moving every three
months between London and Caye
Caulker, Belize. She still works on
the music and literature festival in
London, and after building a house
in Belize, has become a landlord on
Caye Caulker, acquiring an 11-unit
building appropriately named (for
the location) Macaw Apartments.
Allison Hart-Young writes from
Kalamazoo, Mich., where she is
in her 23rd year as a Western
Michigan University professor:
“As a 50th birthday gift to
myself, I have been taking violin
lessons for three years and finally
getting to a point where I might let
others hear me play! I recommend
something to scramble the brain at
this age.”
Nancy Lehman is adjusting
to a rapidly emptying nest.
Ryerson Lehman-Borer ’16 is
a software engineer in NYC;
Thomas graduated from Franklin
& Marshall in May with a physics
and Arabic degree and lives in
Boston; Noah just started at Union
College (“his dad’s alma mater,
so we have one of each!”) with
plans to study engineering; and
Alex is a high school sophomore
who is keeping Nancy busy driving
to play practices and a cappella
rehearsals.
Zahid Maker is looking after his
younger son in Pakistan, while
elder son Rayyan ’20 attends
Swarthmore and “Mama Bear” gets
her master’s in law at Stanford.
Zahid planned to attend Michael
Yu ’88’s December wedding in
Hong Kong. We look forward to a
full report!
From San Francisco, Gary Fuges
says life is good with wife Nikki
and daughters Maya, 8, and
Makayla, 7. He still plays guitar and
drums, and proudly reports that
Makayla is about to begin drum
lessons. “Unlike my dad, I shall
not attempt to bribe my child to
skip practicing. At least, that’s my
current position.”
David Sobel has so far entirely
avoided hard time and is kind of
kickass at going on walks with
his dog. In a significant sign of
personal growth, he has come
to terms with the fact that he
underestimated Zeppelin and Pink
Floyd back in the day.
Chhaya Rao lives in D.C. with
husband Eric Oetjen and their
lab, Callie, and “continues to
love the benefits of this town’s
small-worldishness and its big-city
cultural and social treasures—and
sigh, yes, also our immersion in
national politics. I’ve been working
in large-scale reading assessment
for 17 years and still love my job.
“Eric and I love to travel and
have visited some incredible
places in recent years, including
China, Thailand, the Galapagos
Islands, and soon, Iceland. Life
has challenged me lately, too, with
long-distance caregiving for my
elderly parents; I’m sure many
classmates can relate to that
difficult, emotional journey.“
Rich Dunne dropped off freshman
son Zachery at Trinity University
in San Antonio (only 1,600 miles
from home). Daughter Elizabeth is
a high school freshman who plays
field hockey.
Margaret Huang started as the
senior director of institutional
partnerships at Facing History,
a nonprofit providing middle
and high school teachers with
professional development,
resources, and materials to teach
our real history. “I survived breast
cancer and am now trying not
to die while taking my daughter
driving with her permit. I walked
the catwalk in a fabulous fashion
show for cancer survivors, so I
have also managed to become a
model since I saw you all at the last
reunion.”
Amanda Woodward was named
dean of the University of Chicago’s
Division of Social Sciences, and
Reid Neureiter was named a U.S.
District Court magistrate.
Finally, former Sixteen Feet
member Jonathan Solomon
released an original music
video, “The MBTA Song” (bit.ly/
MBTASong).
Please send your news to
swarthmore87@gmail.com for
inclusion in the next installment.
1989
Martha Easton
measton@elmira.edu
Kathy Stevens
stevkath@gmail.com
Kristin Denham and Martha Easton
provided a nice news roundup from
a Memorial Day weekend gathering
at Betsy Hayes Wilson’s Bostonarea home.
C.J. Malanga—who moved to
Cambridge, Mass., a few years ago
to work for Novartis—was there,
along with locals Gerald and Beth
Taylor Quirk ’90.
Bonnie Galvin flew in from
Switzerland, where she lives
with her family, earning her the
“Longest Distance Traveled
Award.” Second place was a tie
between Derek Scheips, who
recently bought a sweet new house
in Seattle, and Kristin Denham,
who lives in Bellingham, Wash.,
and is a Western Washington
University linguistics professor.
Melissa Wong Aagesen came in
from Idaho Falls, Idaho. Seija Surr
joined from Utah, where she and
her wife recently bought a house in
Heber Valley.
Kirsten Condry and her husband
joined the group on Saturday. They
live in Rochester, N.Y., and Kirsten
teaches at the Rochester Institute
of Technology, on the other end
of the Finger Lakes from Martha
Easton. Val Lieber and wife Leah
Kopperman were there. Katherine
Stubbs came down from Maine;
she is an associate professor of
English at Colby College. Aside
from all the catching up, the
highlight of the weekend was
the spontaneous ’80s-themed
Saturday night dance party in the
kitchen.
Sharon and Dan Bock’s daughter,
Melanie, started at the University
of Kansas and enjoys playing
club soccer. Early last year, Dan
celebrated the fifth anniversary of
his software consulting business,
and in August he won his 13th golf
championship at Lake Quivira
Country Club in Kansas. He looks
forward to the reunion in June.
Congratulations to Patrick
Awuah, president of Ashesi
University, who received a charter
from Ghana’s president, Nana
Akufo-Addo.
Allison Anderson Acevedo, a
former U.S. Labor Department
attorney, was appointed director
of environmental justice for the
Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection. “It
is an honor to work to advance
environmental justice in our state,”
she says.
Brad Skillman, managing editor
at Bloomberg, appeared on a panel
discussing how automation is
changing the media industry. Great
piece to watch—bit.ly/BSkillman.
1991
Nick Jesdanun
me@anick.org
Admit it: You’ve thought about a
career change.
Well, Ben Rothfeld has gone
off and done it. After 25 years in
advertising, Ben decided there was
nothing left in it that he still wanted
to do. So he’s now teaching eighthgrade math in the South Bronx.
“It’s humbling to be surrounded by
people who are much more mature
than I.”
Sue Lorenson got promoted
to vice dean of undergraduate
education at Georgetown, a new
position that’s more focused on
strategic planning than her old job
there. Alas, Sue says the new job
“renders no increased credibility”
with sons Jack, a Grinnell
sophomore, and Adam, a 10thgrader. Husband David Watkins
is staff director with the House
Natural Resources Committee.
Carolann DiPirro was spotted
on a December 2017 episode
of Saturday Night Live, the one
hosted by Saoirse Ronan. She says
it was a lot of fun—but asks herself
how she managed to stay up so
late to perform week after week
in the ’90s. On the East End of
Long Island, Carolann stays active
with theater projects, including a
benefit performance of The Vagina
Monologues for a local domestic
violence shelter.
In Honolulu, physics teacher
Jamey Clarke helped his 35
students build ukuleles to learn
about the physics of sound and
music. The ukuleles were donated
afterward to a nonprofit to use as
music therapy for children.
Another physics (and astronomy)
teacher, Debbie Maraziti Skapik,
gives eye exams and glasses to
the needy in Paraguay as part of a
volunteer project sponsored by her
church in Broomall, Pa. She’s done
this three times already, twice with
kids from her school and a summer
camp she’s involved with. The
next trip is tentatively planned for
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
63
class notes
2020. Though it’s hardly her day
job, Debbie says she now knows
“enough about optics to get by and
just enough Spanish to keep myself
out of trouble.”
One of Debbie’s colleagues at
Friends’ Central and her Mary Lyon
hallmate, Alex McDonnell, is the
homeroom teacher of Debbie’s
ninth-grade daughter. Small world!
Gautam Gowrisankaran and
Rob Biggar started a tradition
when they realized their kids’
schools have the same days off in
February: Their families meet up
for skiing. Gautam, a University
of Arizona professor, has been
working with Michael Greenstone
at the University of Chicago to
study pollution and productivity
in China. One of the project’s
research assistants is Henry Zhang
’17. Gautam writes, “It’s been fun to
work with someone from the next
generation of Swatties.”
Juan Martinez is a cybersecurity
policy adviser in the State
Department’s Office of the
Coordinator for Cyber Issues,
working with JeeYoung Oh ’08.
Juan focuses on a region spanning
from Canada to Argentina, while
JeeYoung focuses on East Asia and
national security issues.
Robert Bronkema completed a
hat trick, with all three daughters
now Swarthmoreans: Rachel ’18,
Naomi ’20, and Bethany ’22. Robert
and wife Stacy have a goal of
completing the Appalachian Trail
in their spare time, one chunk at a
time, and figure they’ll be 90 when
they finish.
Chris Lyford celebrated son
Noah’s 13th birthday by climbing
Mount Washington, part of the
Appalachians in New Hampshire,
and staying in a mountain hut.
Chris also completed his third
Ironman triathlon, in Lake Placid,
N.Y., and stays active in school
politics.
Marcia Landesman and husband
Oren celebrated their 20th wedding
anniversary. Son Ben is a freshman
at Trinity College in Hartford,
Conn., and plans to major in urban
studies. Daughter Abby is a high
school sophomore and aspires to
be a pastry chef.
Tom Cantine reports that life with
three teens is challenging—just
like Swarthmore finals, but every
64
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
day. Tom and wife Miranda Michael
Cantine ’93 “are hanging in there.”
Finally, after 11 years, I finished my
quest of doing a marathon on each
continent (pg. 10). It began with
Antarctica in 2007 and ended with
Africa this July. Oh, and I got to see
elephants, buffaloes, warthogs,
hippos, baboons, giraffes, zebras,
lions, cheetahs, seals, and
penguins. Sadly, no rhino sighting.
1993
Andrés Versage
andres_versage@hotmail.com
Noah Salamon
nbsalamon@gmail.com
In May, many of us gathered to
celebrate our 25th Reunion. It’s
hard to believe, considering how
young and good-looking everyone
still is! Ryan Roderick waxed
nostalgic: “A favorite was the
conversations at the Wharton
Green Bottle Party with people I
remember talking to (possibly in
the same spots) at the event in ’93.
Meeting spouses and offspring
made it even better.”
Delvin and Davirah Timm
Dinkins were especially moved
by our warmth during the treededication ceremony and the
poignant reflections shared about
our late classmates. They are
continuing their “sophomore year
in New Jersey,” though Delvin will
have more opportunities to think
of us while visiting daughter Bria
’21 during Garnet Weekend,
“when the Council of Presidential
Initiatives will meet. Remember:
Our campaign needs your
passionate generosity.” Delvin and
Davirah also “had an amazing time
at the Brooklyn Museum, which
hosted the work of the wickedly
talented Zoe Whitley ’01 (pg. 18).
In attendance were 200 Swatties
and President Valerie Smith, who
offered a few remarks.”
Seth Ovadia writes: “The Reunion
Committee (Kate Lentz Crawford,
Delvin Dinkins, Sarah Joy Simpson
Parks, Ryan Roderick, and I) would
like thank everyone who made
our reunion so successful. And
thanks to everyone who made a
contribution to Swarthmore in
recognition of the Big Two-Five!
We were so proud when it was
announced that our class had
the highest participation rate. For
those who were unable to make
it, we won’t lie: You missed out. It
was spectacular. All you can do
now is mark your calendar—June
2–4, 2023. And if you are back on
campus, please visit the class tree.
It is near Sharples off the path
toward Willets.”
Jen Tucker and her husband
celebrated their 10th wedding
anniversary at the beach during
Alumni Weekend—tough choice,
Jen, but we understand.
Several ’93 scions began their
Swarthmore journey. Jennifer
McLean writes: “Jim Savage ’94
and I moved daughter Chloe ’22
into Willets 2nd South (during
the heatwave, of course!). She is
settling in, joining the rugby team,
lifeguarding, and finding her way.
I’m recovering and may or may
not have burst into tears at the
Container Store. Otherwise, I’m
a clinical psychologist in private
practice, consulting at schools,
and teaching a grad class.”
Sarah Joy Simpson Parks offered
a Canadian entry to the Class of
2022 legacy group. She noted her
“pain (and joy!) as we moved son
Noah ’22 into Hallowell 2nd. (I was
Dana 2nd, hmmm.) He enjoyed
Bicollege Orientation (where he
met Atticus Maloney ’22, son of
Maeghan and Christopher LeRoy
Maloney), is playing Ultimate, and
plans to major in engineering. (As a
sociology/anthropology/education
major, this is so not my area.)
Although he has retained some
Canadianisms, he still corrects me
when I say things like ‘soory.’”
Sarah “took a break from
law practice to work in local
sustainable retail initiatives.
I’m seeking a youth advocacy
position while I live vicariously
through Noah’s early Swat days. I
don’t think I’m ready to admit the
problem and begin recovery for
this new stage of our lives. (‘I’m
not crying, these are seasonal
allergies!’). On a serious, sad note,
on June 18 we lost dear friend
Michelle Kellman. We stayed in
touch over the past 25 years and
traveled together these last few
before she became too ill to leave
California. She is dearly missed.”
Hadley Wilson Horch was unable
to attend reunion. She loves
teaching neuroscience and biology
at Bowdoin College and got an
NSF grant to support her research.
“I’m on sabbatical this year, so I’m
having fun getting back into the
lab. Fred Horch ’91, our two boys,
and I are spending the first half of
2019 in Valparaiso, Chile. Come
visit! Only four of the five Wilson
Horches will move, though, since
we sent our oldest to Occidental
College in LA (right near Andrés!)
The college-visit season allowed
us to catch up with Kate Winkler
Corcoran in Portland, Ore. She and
the family are great!”
As for your class secretaries, we
attended reunion, with Andrés
arriving via red-eye and bravely
jumping right in for a brisk jog
through Crum Creek. Did we
sample Renato? We did. Did we
take in a quiet afternoon at the
Homestretch? Affirmative. Did we
visit McCabe? Of course. Did we
play Wiffle ball on Parrish Beach?
Certainly. But most importantly,
did we love seeing you and winding
along those magical pathways from
Willets to Sharples, from Paces
to Parrish, and through memory
itself? Indeed, we did. And we can’t
wait until we do it again.
1995
Erik Thoen
erik_thoen@alum.swarthmore.edu
Sally Chin
sallypchin@gmail.com
Raj Vedanthan transitioned to the
NYU School of Medicine, becoming
director of the Section for Global
Health in the Department of
Population Health. He moved with
wife Sujatha Srinivasan ’01 and
daughters Leela, 6, and Asha, 2, to
Brooklyn, where he looks forward
to connecting with Swatties and
welcomes visitors.
Also making a shift is Kevin
Sherper Walker, who after
about 15 years left Northcountry
Cooperative Foundation for
the Beacon Interfaith Housing
Collaborative. As an organization
of more than 80 Christian, Jewish,
and Muslim congregations working
to end homelessness in the Twin
Cities, Beacon shelters families,
develops supportive housing, and
advocates for policy change. Wife
Rachel Durkee Walker ’91 is an
environmental engineer at Barr
Engineering, working on solar
energy and other projects.
Kevin and Rachel took kids Leif,
16, and Sanna, 14, to the East
Coast for college tours, rode a
lobster boat off Bar Harbor, and
then joined Aga and Mike Dixon
and their family for hiking in
Maine—including an ascent of
Mount Katahdin, the state’s tallest
peak. (Mike recalls the hike fondly,
perhaps only now that the muscle
pain has faded.)
Liz Perry is at St. Luke’s School
in Connecticut and nurturing
daughters in first and fifth grades.
Following the 2016 presidential
election, she entered politics,
deciding to run for representative
town meeting member in
Greenwich. Liz “ran with a group
of women who had marched in
D.C. the day after the inauguration,
and—to make a long story
short—we won!” She’s learned
all about the inner-workings of
town budgets. “On days when I am
close to despair about the national
political scene, it feels good to
roll up my sleeves and know I’m
casting votes on local issues that
really matter.” It’s great that Liz
and other Swatties nationwide are
having a positive impact in their
communities.
Christina Richards has been
spending time abroad as an
associate professor in the
University of South Florida’s
Department of Integrative Biology.
She was a Fulbright Scholar at
France’s University of Rennes in
2016–2017, and her big news is
she was chosen as a Make Our
Planet Great Again scholar through
the German Research Initiative.
She’ll be moving to the University
of Tübingen (near Stuttgart,
Germany). Keep it global, Christina!
In other academic news, the
Tulane Hullabaloo featured Mohan
Ambikaipaker discussing how
grateful and hopeful he is to work
with students (bit.ly/Mohan95).
He received tenure and published
a book, Political Blackness in
Multiracial Britain—congrats!
(More on Mohan and wife Briana
Shay Mohan, pg. 17.)
Finally, I, Erik, received a picture
via text of Richard Tchen and Karl
Knaub under lighting that was
reminiscent of Sharples (at least
the way it was when we were
there). Karl was visiting Philly and
caught up with Richard over fancy
adult beverages. Last July, Karl
and his family moved from Seattle
to Waunakee, Wis., (near Madison)
to be closer to family and for a
change of pace. Enjoy the beer and
cheese curds!
1997
Lauren Jacobi
laurenjacobi@hotmail.com
It’s a pleasure to take over as class
secretary: Thanks, Joy Oliver, for
six years of service! She and her
“partner in crime, Nate, moved
to Paris in May for a three-year
tour with the State Department.”
Already, they have hosted many
visitors, including Sylvia Weedman
Augusteijn and her family, and look
forward to more.
Johanna Peters-Burton Greeson
was promoted to associate
professor with tenure at Penn’s
School of Social Policy & Practice
in May. Congrats!
Erik Henriksen has a 1-year-old
daughter, Vera. He stayed with
Mike Murphy ’98 in Cambridge,
England, this summer and savored
his personalized tour of pubs and
academic sights.
After 10 years in Madison, Wis.,
Steve ’96 and Nina Santos Laubach
moved to the Garden State. They
live within walking distance of the
Lawrenceville School, where Nina
“teaches mindfulness and yoga and
Steve teaches science and helps
the students grow kale, feed pigs,
and tend beehives.”
Samantha Peltz Straub is in her
seventh year as the upper-school
counselor at Severn School in
Maryland. She recently co-founded
a leadership group for high school
girls, Lead Her Way. She and
husband Patrick enjoy Annapolis
with kids T.J., 14, and Allie, 12. This
summer, the family traveled to
New England to rendezvous with
Chris ’95 and Erin Flather Pearson
and Kirk Daulerio ’95 and wife
Adrienne Shibles (formerly a Swat
women’s basketball coach)—an
almost annual tradition.
Wendy Cadge still teaches at
Brandeis and is doing professional
work around chaplaincy and
hidden sacred spaces (pg. 13). Her
children are in second grade and
preschool.
After six years at Carnegie Mellon,
Ali Momeni joined a Pittsburghand San Diego-based robotics and
AI startup as a senior principal
scientist. He holds an appointment
as a professor of practice at
Brown, with joint homes in the
Data Science Initiative and Arts
Initiative, where he runs a lab on
mixed reality applications and
experience design. Ali and partner
Aparna Wilder also became firsttime parents in September.
Eric Studer is constructing a
“righteous sauna complex” in
his backyard. Libby Tyndale and
her husband just had a baby boy,
making their daughter, 4, an excited
and proud sister.
After two decades in the Midwest,
Jen Shook returned to her home
state for a visiting gig teaching
literature and composition at
Oklahoma State. “Okie Swatties,
get in touch!”
Theresa Williamson and daughter
Kay, 12, spent 10 months living in
D.C. Now back in Rio de Janeiro,
they love hosting Swatties—visit!
Theresa, an urban planner, works
with Catalytic Communities, a
nonprofit she founded. They’re
launching the favela Community
Land Trust project and Sustainable
Favela Network, and helping
organize the 2019 Ecocity World
Summit in Vancouver, British
Columbia.
Jill Rubin and her family love
every season in Vermont—
especially winter. After seven years
of full-time parenting, she works
for the nonprofit Sustainable Food
Lab.
Shulamit Shapiro Babitz
lives outside D.C. and does
communications and public
relations at the National Institutes
of Health. She and husband Kevin
’94 have four children, Rebecca,
16, Madeline, 14, Elizabeth, 11, and
Nathaniel, 6. All love going to Israel,
where they see Aviva Kushner
Yoselis ’96 and Rebecca France
Sorani ’93.
Monica Patterson is directing
a new curatorial studies diploma
program at Carleton University.
She and partner John SaintLoth welcomed Lydia into the
world almost 14 months ago.
They spent much of the summer
in Singapore and China, where
Monica presented a paper at the
Association of Critical Heritage
Studies Conference.
Anne Richards started a two-year
term as vice president of Alumni
Council’s Executive Committee.
She visits Swat routinely to interact
with students and alums, and to
learn about campus happenings.
Contact her to learn more about
Alumni Council!
Anne and Chris Rodger recently
took their annual backcountry trip
in Ontario. John Derderian, still
working for Netflix, moved to Tokyo
with wife Courtney and young son
Jack.
I, Lauren, am in my sixth year in
MIT’s Department of Architecture,
where I am an associate professor
of Renaissance architectural
history. Rick, my massage therapist
husband, and I welcome visitors.
Wishing everyone success in your
personal and professional lives!
1999
Melissa Morrell
melrel99@hotmail.com
Lynne Steuerle Schofield was
named Swarthmore’s associate
provost of faculty diversity and
development. Way to go! Lynne,
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/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
65
class notes
Donna Griffin Milligan, and Sarah
Singleton Turick get together
regularly for girls weekends in NYC
and Philly, and recently attended
a Planned Parenthood Delaware
fundraiser together.
Ila Deshmukh Towery lives in
Jamaica Plain, Boston: “Rohan
turned 4 in June and started pre-K,
so we are adjusting to life with kids
in two different schools. The baby,
Kavi, is no longer a baby! He turned
2 in April and is a firecracker,
always trying to keep up with his
brother. My mom moved in two
years ago, and it’s been great
having multiple generations under
one roof. I’m so happy the kids are
really close to her.” Ila works at
Education First Consulting, with a
focus on social–emotional learning
and new school models. The family
spent the summer gardening
and going to the beach, and had
a blissful week on the Cape. Ila
caught up with Nikyia Rogers on
a Philly work trip this summer and
said goodbye to Marié Abe ’01, who
moved to Japan for a year. “We
also see a lot of Dana Lemelin and
husband Patrick. I look forward to
our 20th Reunion!”
In April, Natalie and Tyler Wigg
Stevenson welcomed Evensong
“Evie” Finisterre. “We are smitten,
as are sisters Georgia and Heloise.
We are very busy with three girls
under age 5, but grateful for the
generous Canadian parental-leave
system. My parish appointment
wraps up in 2018, at which point I’ll
take three months’ parental leave.
I’m then on a two-year hiatus to
write my dissertation and complete
my doctorate.”
With a heavy heart, I share that
Elizabeth Norman’s husband, Shaw
Zeeck, died unexpectedly Dec.
3, 2017. Elizabeth and daughter
Gwyneth miss him very much.
Ashwin Rao (who photographed
this issue’s cover!) was elected to
a second term on the American
Medical Society for Sports
Medicine board of directors,
chairing the education committee,
and is co-editor on a book on
mental health in athletes. He is in
his 10th year with the Seahawks,
and his 12th with the Huskies as
team physician, fifth as fellowship
program director. He also chases
his daughter around the region
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
playing soccer for a club team.
Featured in Focus magazine’s
September issue, Robert Mack
hosts and produces a daily livestreaming talk show, Good Morning
LaLa Land (goodmorninglalaland.
com), which is “focused on
positivity, inclusive spirituality, and
inspiration.” To be considered for
a live interview in LA, write him at
rob@goodmorninglalaland.com.
Sue Andrews practices family
medicine–OB in Lawrence, Mass.,
“but my real news is the birth of my
amazing, beautiful daughter, Leyna
Violet, on the Fourth of July.”
Anna Tischler was promoted to
associate professor with tenure
last summer in the University
of Minnesota’s Department of
Microbiology and Immunology.
“I still travel a lot for work, but
now call Indiana home,” writes
Lurah Hess. “Much volunteer time
is spent as technical director for
Junior Premier Hockey, which
organizes competitive club leagues
throughout the country. I look
forward to an appointment as a
technical official to the Women’s
Hockey Champions Trophy in
Changzhou, China, in November
where six of the world’s top teams
will compete.”
Amy Harrington Corbin had
second child Natalie Corbin on
Sept. 15.
Mary Meiklejohn-Pitney was
named director of operations
for behavioral health at the
Lynn Community Health Center
in Massachusetts. “It’s a huge
challenge, but worth the effort.
My kids are astonishing, as well:
Eleanor is 4.5 and reading up a
storm, and brother William, 2,
worships at her feet. Between them
and new dog Benbow, we don’t own
a single nice thing or go on any
exciting travels, and I wouldn’t have
it any other way.”
Roger Bock was excited to host
Cathy Wirth and Mina Kim and
Carl Wellington and Jenny Briggs
on two back-to-back weekends in
Concord, Mass. He also enjoyed
coaching Ultimate at his sons’
middle school and looks forward to
doing so again next spring.
Sarah Cross is an assistant
professor of obstetrics and
gynecology in the University
of Minnesota’s maternal–fetal
medicine division. “I moved to
Minneapolis two years ago after
having been at Yale for almost 10
years. Daughter Margot is 2.5 and
just started pre-preschool. Son
Zachary is almost 6 months and
trying very hard to sit up and see
the world.” In her “free” time, Sarah
edits poetry for the Journal of
Medical Humanities.
2001
Claudia Zambra
claudiazambra@gmail.com
This short, little update ranges
from New Zealand to Louisiana,
from redwoods to scathing dissent.
Enjoy.
Martin Krafft, his Kiwi wife,
and the two half-Kiwis moved
to Wellington, New Zealand, in
January, where Martin is an angel
investor and Edmund Hillary Fellow,
focusing on social impact and
decentralizing technology.
Having published Resonances of
Chindon-ya (bit.ly/FallHotType),
Marié Abe received tenure and was
promoted to associate professor
of music at Boston University in
May. She moved for sabbatical to
Kyoto, Japan, where she enjoys
being closer to family, surfing, and
working on new projects.
Christine Lattin just started as
an assistant professor of biological
sciences at Louisiana State
University. She’s enjoying the
cuisine and local critters. I, Claudia,
also “enjoyed” a wide array of
critters, traveling much of the year
between D.C and Myanmar, Laos,
Cambodia, and Chad—but I still
can’t sleep on a plane.
After 17 years in the Bay Area,
Jane Ng and her family pulled up
roots and moved to Seattle. She
now works at Valve Corp., where
she does game art on “In the
Valley of Gods,” and does business
outreach and content policy on
Steam, a global entertainment
platform.
CJ Riley was promoted to full
professor and awarded the Rising
Faculty Scholar Award at Oregon
Tech for engineering education and
bridge dynamic evaluation.
Joshua Tropp lives under the
redwoods beside a creek in the
mountains above Santa Cruz, Calif.,
where he teaches science and
coaches the Ethics Bowl team at
a small prep school. Josh and his
wife just celebrated their seventh
anniversary, finally getting an
evening away from Sofía Secoya,
3, and February’s arrival, Raines
Julián—whose initials honor Josh’s
late father, Ron Tropp ’65, and
whose first name honors John
and Bonnie Raines, the couple
who stole FBI documents exposing
illegal abuses of power, including
spying on Swarthmore students.
And finally, Jenny HoedemanEiteljorg’s daughter, Olive, 9,
planned to go as Sonia Sotomayor
for Halloween, giving Jenny some
hope. She was working on the best
way to create a scathing dissent for
her to carry.
2003
Robin Smith Petruzielo
robinleslie@alum.swarthmore.edu
Patty Park started her second year
as assistant professor of creative
writing at American University,
where the literature department
chair is David Pike ’85. Patty
enjoys the bifurcated, commuting
life between D.C. and NYC. She
has a standing lunch date in Union
Station with Lizzy Pike, talking law
and literature.
Cleve and Krista Marshall
Cooke welcomed daughter Sarah
Rose Cooke on June 19; she was
baptized July 15. Sarah is a delight
to siblings Caleb, 6, and Linda
Grace, 3. When not wrangling
children, Cleve works with adults
with intellectual disabilities and
Krista is an inner-city medical
missionary in Pittsburgh.
Paul Wulfsberg is finishing a tour
as U.S. Embassy consular officer in
Jordan. After learning French, he
is headed for Algeria in September
2019 to be Embassy spokesman.
Wife Rana and their two young
children are based in Boston but
join him over breaks.
New schools for Susan
Christensen Henz’s two girls: Their
campus was hit by a tornado in
April. Her family’s standard car
commute has dropped to zero
miles: adult telecommute, school
bus for kindergartner, tandem
bicycle for first-grader. After
nine years removed from bicycle
commuting, Susan welcomes its
return!
Lucy Jane Lang was appointed
executive director of John Jay
College’s Institute for Innovation in
Prosecution, where she leads the
efforts of progressive prosecutors
and academics to implement
criminal justice innovations and
reform. Children Ike, 4, and Tessa,
2.5, are happy and healthy. Lucy
has been spending time with
Ariana Lindermayer, husband Rob,
and their baby, Cosima, born in
May. Teresa “Teca” Pontual and
daughter Beatriz, 2.5, visited from
Brazil.
Alicia Munoz and husband Ben
Hamilton have had quite a journey
since learning that Alicia was
carrying identical twins sharing a
single placenta and amniotic sac
(monochorionic-monoamniotic)—a
1 in 10,000 pregnancy! It required
a five-week hospital stay for close
monitoring, but they made it to
the May 2 target date. Daughters
Araceli and Mireya then spent
four weeks in special care before
coming home. They are doing
awesome: lots of smiles and
charming baby sounds. Son
Vicente turned 3 in June and
enjoys being a big brother.
Todd Gillette lives in San Diego
for an AI rotation at Northrop
Grumman but plans to move back
near D.C. next summer. He and wife
Laura had a Labor Day getaway in
Yosemite.
Hollis Easter and wife Jasmine
welcomed son Finlay on May 4.
He’s lovely, challenging, clever,
sweet, and furious—all the things
babies are meant to be.
Justin Capps, wife Emma, and
their three children live outside
London. Justin recently started
as a grant writer for a charity
supporting people with learning
disabilities and mental health
concerns, and other vulnerable
groups. His musical meandering
has led to the formation of the band
Justin Capps and the Cavaliers.
As for me, Robin, husband Frank
Petruzielo and I moved from
Atlanta to the Philly area with our
two rescue Chihuahuas. We live in
Malvern near where I grew up, and
we both still work for the Boston
Consulting Group.
2005
Jessica Zagory
jazagory@alum.swarthmore.edu
After marrying in November 2017,
Celia Paris and Randall McAuley
’08 welcomed Ilsa Paris-McAuley
on an auspiciously palindromic
date: 8/18/18. Ilsa was delivered
by the amazing Dr. Erin Rhinehart
(wife of Zach Rhinehart ’09), and
she shares her gratitude to Erin
Dwyer-Frazier for her favorite
tummy-time blanket and to Roy
Sriwattanakomen for ensuring
her parents get fed during this
delightfully hectic time. Celia and
Randall look forward to showing
Ilsa Pittsburgh landmarks like the
Cathedral of Learning and getting
her started early on board games.
A warm welcome to Evan, born
to Will and Clarissa RappoportHankins Matthews. Big sister
Julianne adores him.
Maya Schenwar and Ryan
Croken welcomed Kai Jacob Ciery
Schenwar in April. Kai’s interests
include music, ceiling fans,
squawking noises, funny faces,
the book Clap Hands, his giraffe,
and other humans. He is a bright
light in their world bringing many
people—particularly his parents—
so much joy.
On Sept. 15, at 8:11 p.m., when
20-somethings were getting
ready for a wild Saturday night,
Kat Athanasiades and husband
Rajan welcomed Tala Athans
Kapoor. After 15 hours of labor that
reportedly felt like 15 years, Tala
burst onto the scene at 7 pounds
8 ounces and 20 inches long. With
a voracious appetite like Momma
and a yawn just like her dad,
she’s extremely cute, and the new
parents will make you agree with
them when you meet her.
Meaning “bright star,” Tala
is the goddess of the stars in
Tagalog mythology; Athans is
Kat’s nickname from her sports
glory days. The new parents don’t
have high hopes for this kid or
anything. Kat is fine, albeit a wee
bit tired. “I forgot about the cat”
is something said by one of Tala’s
parents when they returned from
the hospital—we won’t say who.
Genghis Khat doesn’t know what
to make of her new human sister,
doesn’t understand the fuss,
dislikes the lack of attention, and
so respectfully declined to sign
this note.
After four years in Tokyo, Shiva
Thiagarajan moved to Shanghai,
where he enjoys the city’s energy
and his new role as a Google
product manager. Lindsay Brin
moved to Toronto and hopes to
connect with Swatties there.
Matt Wallaert is a chief behavioral
officer building out the behavioral
science team at Clover Health. Son
Bear turned 3 and looks forward
to wearing his first Swarthmore
sweatshirt. Matt is wrapping up his
first book, due out from Penguin
in March.
Jesse Young lives in Philly and
works in NYC. Aviva Aron-Dine
and Matt Fiedler ’06 are in D.C.,
working at think tanks. They
recently welcomed son Oren AronFiedler.
Arthur Chalmers is a physician’s
assistant at a California inpatient
psych unit. He bought a condo and
finally got his comic book collection
out of his parents’ attic. He is trying
his hand at interior decorating and
getting stoked for ski season.
Artist Jake Beckman ’04, the
creator of the much-photographed
“Big Chair” outside Parrish Hall,
was interviewed by Title magazine
(bit.ly/JakeBeckman).
Joseph Altuzarra reflected on 10
years in the fashion business (bit.
ly/AltuzarraHaute). Here’s to many
more!
Dan Yue’s startup, Brava,
introduced its debut product, a
“smart oven” (bit.ly/BravaOven).
The end of Wharton kitchen burntpopcorn fire alarms is at hand!
And Tedi Asher, the Peabody
Essex Museum’s neuroscientist-inresidence, combines art, science,
and experience in that very
Swarthmorean interdisciplinary
way (bit.ly/TediAsher).
2007
Kristin Leitzel Hoy
kleitzel@gmail.com
Matt Dering finished a Ph.D. at
Penn State, moved to Philly, and
got married!
Andrew Stobo Sniderman married
Mariella Montplaisir-Bazan
and co-authored a piece on the
displacement of indigenous people
in Canada (bit.ly/AndrewSS).
Sonya Reynolds married Dana
Lawit and expanded her business
helping organizations use data to
advance their civic engagement
programs.
Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham married
Sonia Gilbukh (Haverford ’09) and
started as an assistant professor
at the Yale School of Management,
splitting time between New Haven,
Conn., and NYC.
James and Samantha Graffeo
Gardner welcomed daughter
Ripley Graffeo Gardner in beautiful
Boulder, Colo., where Sam started
her fourth year of dental school.
Ross McCullough welcomed
fourth child Theresa in January
and started as an assistant
professor in George Fox
University’s honors college.
Jonathan Ference-Burke and his
wife had son Thomas Jonathan
(TJ) in June.
Juliet Braslow and Carlos
Villafuerte ’08 welcomed baby
Orion in Santiago, Chile. Juliet
works on sustainable development
with the U.N., and Carlos on his
innovative training company,
Cultum Vita.
Rachel Ackoff and husband Lee
Leviter had baby Oz Rachamim
Levikoff. They moved to Portland,
Maine, where Rachel works at
Maine People’s Alliance in a
campaign-strategy role on ballot
initiatives.
Aaron Hollander completed a
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
67
class notes
doctorate from UChicago Divinity
School and welcomed baby
Isaac. Aaron and his family live
in Chicago, where he teaches
religious studies classes at area
universities.
Bradford Taylor and Nicole
Betenia live in Chicago with kids
Francisco and Guadalupe. Nicole
is in her third year of residency at
the University of Illinois–Chicago.
Bradford opened another wine
shop, Diversey Wine, and is
working on a dissertation on taste
and European modernism.
Caleb Ward lives in Berlin, where
he hangs out with daughter
Bela and is writing a philosophy
dissertation. John Boonstra
completed a history Ph.D. and is
living in Florence, Italy, for the year.
Amber Zuberi completed a master
of public affairs at Princeton and is
now a resident of D.C. She’s excited
to work in education policy.
Stefanie Wong completed a Ph.D.
in educational policy studies and
curriculum & instruction at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison,
and is a visiting assistant professor
of educational studies at Trinity
College in Hartford, Conn.
In August, Sally O’Brien finished
an M.A.Ed. with a concentration
in English at Arcadia University.
She is beginning her fourth year
teaching high school English in
Kensington, Philadelphia, and lives
in West Philly with husband Earl
Wilson and son Adrian, 3.
Veronica Medina returned to her
home state of Florida, where she is
a pediatric neuropsychologist at a
private practice in Bradenton.
Corey Baker is loving his third
year as middle school librarian
at the Keys School in Palo Alto,
Calif., and his second year as a
San Francisco resident. He’s still in
dance class almost every day, and
he volunteers at his local urban
farm during school breaks.
Tanya Gonzales is in her third
(and hopefully last) rotation in
Genentech’s Commercial Rotational
Development Program, and moved
from Cleveland to San Francisco.
Peter Kriss loves his new job
leading behavioral science at
Qventus, a software company using
real-time medical records to nudge
care staff and help hospitals run
better. He, wife Amelia, and their
68
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
daughter, 3, live in San Francisco.
Dan Hammer, Emily Wistar ’06,
and daughter Lily Hammer moved
to Berkeley, Calif. Dan’s nonprofit,
Earthrise Media, delivers satellite
imagery to journalists. Recent
stories include Chinese expansion
on disputed islands, wildfires in
Northern California, and illegal
deforestation in Peru.
Cheryl Nunes and wife Annie run
River Queen Greens, a small New
Orleans vegetable farm.
Joely Merriman is on a one-year
research fellowship at the Bahiana
School of Medicine and Public
Health’s Center for Research and
Innovation in Salvador, Brazil,
investigating potential genetic
predictors of clinical severity of
sickle cell disease.
Brooklyn resident Tracy Kwon is
an ICU nurse at an East Harlem
hospital. She is shop steward and
union delegate for the New York
State Nurses Association and is on
the board of international socialist
website and magazine Left Voice.
2009
Melanie Spaulding
maspauld1@gmail.com
Alex Bell developed a machinelearning algorithm that calculates
how often bike and bus lanes are
blocked by other vehicles, which
was written up in The New York
Times! If you use Google Maps,
be sure to send congrats to Rio
Akasaka for his work in putting
together and rolling out new
accessibility features to share local
user knowledge. Laura Wolk will
clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas
in 2019. She will be the first blind
woman to serve as a Supreme
Court clerk and the first blind
person to clerk for a sitting justice.
Krys Malcolm Belc is the managing
editor of Passages North.
Cara Arcuni received a master’s
from NYU Steinhardt in 2014,
taught in NYC for three years,
and now teaches drama and
English in Oregon. She married
Alexander Steel in June, with
Nikhil Sharma, Dianne Seo,
Allison McCarthy, and Kit Digges
LaTouche ’08 in attendance. Molly
Wilder and partner Logan Dwyer,
after their law-school experience
convinced them not to get legally
married, decided to invent their
own celebration of commitment,
“partnership ratification.”
Attending witnesses included
Elizabeth “Zebi” Brown, Amelia
Sizemore, Mikio Akagi ’08, Ben
Warren ’08, Katie Bates Weir ’08,
and Laura Wang ’10. Marc Engel
married Karol Galarza Babilonia
and had amazing celebrations
in Cartagena, Colombia, and
Cleveland. Three live bands were
involved. Karol is joining Marc
in education by starting the NYC
Teacher Fellows program this fall.
They are in Kensington, Brooklyn,
if you are nearby! Miles Skorpen
married Kathleen McGuirk on
July 7 with Revan Williams,
Meggie Ladlow, and Adam Yie in
attendance. Kevin and Hahna Kane
Latonick celebrated their fifth
wedding anniversary.
Tabatha Sabatino Duffy teaches
public-school English. She has two
kids, ages 4.5 and 1.5.
Maurice B.P.-Weeks sent an
update on behalf of Andrew
Jampol-Petzinger, who
successfully defended a philosophy
dissertation in August; however,
he was unable to defend his house
from raccoons. (Send help!) Annie
Carter finished a math postdoc
at UCSD in August and is starting
another at the University of Hawaii.
Hyunjoo Lee finished a medical
education fellowship at Thomas
Jefferson University and moved
with new husband Kevin Lee to
Long Island. Hyunjoo is now an
emergency medicine attending
physician and clinical assistant
professor at Stony Brook University
Hospital.
Diana “Teddy” Pozo is a visiting
professor of modern culture and
media at Brown, teaching digital
media studies and video game
studies. Teddy looks forward to
getting back in touch with East
Coast alums! Luis Rodriguez
finished a Ph.D. at Vanderbilt and
moved to NYC. He is an assistant
professor of education leadership
at NYU and enjoys reconnecting
with other Big Apple ’09ers,
including Heather Hightower, Toby
Wu, and Jose Aleman.
Sven-David Udekwu is in Abuja,
Nigeria, doing multilateral affairs/
humanitarian diplomacy for the
International Committee of the
Red Cross, covering West Africa’s
humanitarian law policy. As this
humble secretary cannot improve
on Sven’s wording, I will quote from
his email: “While on a four-day
vacation over America Week in
July, I saw Dan Abdul-Malak in New
York, and met my ‘granddaughters’
in Pittsburgh (courtesy of Joslyn
Hunscher-Young ’10 and Gina
Grubb Fisher ’10). At some point
in December or April, I ran into
Colin Aarons on the street in New
York, and that was very pleasant.
If anyone is ever in Nigeria, let me
know—I’m bored.”
Gerrit Straughter is a freelance
business consultant in the Bay
Area specializing in Salesforce,
and is learning to play guitar. Susie
Willis moved to Petaluma, Calif.,
to manage the civil engineering
department at a Santa Rosa
consulting firm. She married Casey
Claborn and had an East Coast
wedding celebration in September
attended by Kara Peterman and
David Burgy ’10. Yuan Liu graduated
from UChicago medical school and
is a psychiatry resident at NYC’s
Mount Sinai Hospital, where she
worked under Linda Wang one day
in outpatient medicine clinic.
Yours truly had a busy summer
visiting friends and family. I caught
up with Kara Peterman and
Kelsey Hatzell in Massachusetts,
where we relived our Willets 2nd
South heyday, and Tally Sharma
Venjohn and I celebrated Labor
Day weekend in Montreal. We
had many entertaining Uber rides,
delicious meals, and a lot of Cold
Duck André!
2013
Paige Grand Pre
jpgrandpre@gmail.com
Another season, another slew of
big news from classmates.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
ALUMNI PROFILE
“Your own ideas about what should and shouldn’t be are one thing,” says Indigo Sage ’16,
“but they don’t necessarily apply in the world.”
ACCIDENTAL SOCIAL WORKER
She’s finding the universal in the personal
by Ryan Dougherty
AS A TEENAGER, Indigo Sage ’16
didn’t need a curfew. She went to
school, took dance class, came home to
do homework, and slept. Ceramics and
writing workshops, not parties. Goody
“toe” shoes.
“That’s just what I thought I needed
to do to get where I wanted to be,”
says Sage, a case manager for Housing
Counseling Services in Washington,
D.C., who supports people living with
HIV and AIDS.
But Swarthmore disrupted her
straight line—and her perspective. It
wasn’t about knowing all the answers,
she realized, but about exploring and
growing.
“I navigated my own self, my race,”
she says, “not just academically, but in
life.”
Before, she wouldn’t have
internalized something like the 2014
Ferguson, Mo., shooting of Michael
Brown. Now, it rattles her.
“Swarthmore challenged me to
thoughtfully consider everything, and
to really think about who I wanted to
be,” says Sage. “That’s what’s made the
biggest impact on the work I’ve done.”
At Housing Counseling Services,
Sage marvels at the stories of her
clients, some of whom have, for
decades, been raising awareness of
HIV/AIDS and fighting societal stigma
while dealing with their own health
issues. The hard part is watching them
get sicker ... or even die. But through it
all, Sage relishes the relationships.
“To have people trusting you with
their lives and their experiences, their
hopes, fears, worries,” she says, “is a
privilege.”
Sage “stumbled” into social work,
she says, after moving to D.C. She
started with an organization that
offered rapid rehousing to families,
which she found rewarding, then took
a similar post that saddened her to the
point of wanting to leave the field.
“But I ended up choosing social work
a third time,” she says.
Asked whether her 18-year-old
self could have predicted this path,
Sage laughs. Her intention to major
in neuroscience lasted one semester.
She knew she was interested in
people, how they view the world
and themselves, so she switched to
psychology—and hated the first class.
She zeroed in on anthropology before
doing an “accidental” sociology thesis
and a minor in black studies.
“I really had no idea what I wanted
to do,” she says.
Sage will eventually pursue a Ph.D.
in psychology and practice therapy.
But until then, she remains eager for
direct experience with people for
whom “just existing and getting out
of the door every morning can be a
traumatic experience.
“I wanted to be on the ground, seeing
that firsthand,” she says. “Not sitting at
the top of a tower, making judgments
and rules, without getting to know the
world that shapes these experiences.”
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
69
class notes
Congrats to Nina Kogekar and
Peter Gross, who were married in
September.
On the West Coast, Joan O’Bryan
began a political science Ph.D. at
Stanford.
After five years of working in
HIV research and prevention, as
well as advocating for healthaccess expansion for queer and
trans immigrants of color in LA
and Detroit, Luis Peñate returned
to California to pursue graduate
studies at UCLA’s Fielding School
of Public Health.
In June, Kyle Krainock married
fiancée Alice in his hometown,
San Diego. Then in August, they
moved back to Philly for Kyle to
attend the Philadelphia College
of Osteopathic Medicine. He’s
thrilled to start his career as a
Navy doctor.
Across the pond, Dan Duncan
finished a linguistics Ph.D. and
moved to England to do research
and teach sociolinguistics at
Newcastle University. He looks
forward to settling in, once he
figures out what the Geordies are
saying to him.
Maria Rogers Evans moved to
Moscow to study at the Pushkin
State Russian Language Institute.
She will remain until June and
invites traveling Swatties to
contact her for sightseeing advice,
or to simply pop by for a cup of tea.
On the East Coast, Allison
Ranshous started as a social
impact communications
manager at Weber Shandwick
in NYC, where she is “helping
companies, brands, and NGOs
form compelling ‘purpose-driven’
communications/PR strategies
around sustainability or social
issues.” She also lives in (and
loves) Brooklyn, where she resides
with Mariam Zakhary and another
non-Swattie roommate.
Also in Brooklyn is Andrew
Greenblatt, who took his second
group to Tibet to participate in
the Tibetan Hoop Exchange, a
10-team basketball tournament he
co-produced featuring Tibetan and
Chinese teams. The startup where
he works, Journey Meditation,
raised its seed round—so no more
sales calls from the bathroom for
him! Andrew sees family often and
plays ball on the regular.
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
Taryn Colonnese moved from San
Francisco to the little town of Athol
in central Massachusetts. She is
taking a year off from classroom
teaching to study sustainable
agriculture and forestry at the
Farm School. She is excited to be
back on the East Coast and enjoy
the snow again.
Also in Massachusetts is Marcus
Mello, who received master’s
degrees in architecture and
urban planning from Harvard’s
Graduate School of Design in
May. He traveled to Italy for his
first time for the Venice Biennale,
and excitedly put his Swarthmore
art history degree to use while
exploring Rome and Florence. He
is an urban designer at the Boston
Planning and Development Agency
in City Hall and resides in East
Boston.
Nearby, Yin Guan is finishing the
last year of a master of theological
studies in Buddhist studies at
Harvard Divinity School, after
which she hopes to make a foray
into the tea industry, particularly
shops and houses specializing
in Chinese tea. Please contact
her with any job offers, tips, or
contacts to share (ms.yinguan@
gmail.com)!
Ariel Finegold is in Boston,
too, starting the second year
of a MBA at Harvard Business
School. After five years in Boston,
Adrian Gonzalez Cerrillo and their
husband moved to Chicago for
Adrian to start law school this fall.
Farther south, Daniela Jaeger
is a fourth-year medical student
at Penn State and submitted her
psychiatry residency application.
Bill King lives in Baltimore, where
he works for Venable LLP. He
was elected to the boards of two
Baltimore nonprofits, the Historic
Charles Street Association and
Community Law Center.
Even farther south, in Texas,
Alejandro Sills works steadily
with Interactions LLC, a virtual
communications company that is
expanding into the ever-lucrative
AI realm. He still maintains time
to play cello in a community
orchestra, and he is training for
February’s Austin Marathon,
hoping to beat his first race’s time.
As always, please feel free to
contact me with any notes!
2015
Alexis Leanza
leanzaalexis@gmail.com
Unfortunately, work life has gotten
busy, so I need to step down as
class secretary. Many thanks to
all who have shared their news!
Interested in taking over? Contact
classnotes@swarthmore.edu.
2017
Isabel Clay
isabelmarieclay@gmail.com
Emily Wu
emilywu1456@gmail.com
A little over a year after graduation,
our class continues to do amazing
things. In the Northeast, Ashley
Hong is an education researcher
at NYU and lives in NYC with
Karanbir Padda ’14. Amelia Estrada
joined the Philly-based, nationally
recognized dance company
JUNK in April. She debuted in the
spring production, Dancing Dead,
and most recently performed in
FIGMAGO, a collaborative project
between JUNK and mural artist
Meg Saligman. Amelia teaches
for BalletX’s outreach program,
Dance Exchange, and also subs in
Swarthmore’s dance department.
Raven Bennett moved up a floor
in her apartment building and
now happily cohabits with Derek
Graves ’18. She transitioned from
her position in Swarthmore’s Title
IX Office to a new role as the civic
engagement project associate at
the Lang Center for Civic & Social
Responsibility.
Peter Daniels is a 1L at Harvard
Law School, in the same section
as John Calia ’18 and the same
class as Amanda Epstein ’15.
Sarah Branch is the new program
coordinator at Opening Act, an
innovative, high-quality (and free)
after-school theater program in
Brooklyn. Amit Schwalb started
teaching science, math, and
agriculture at Philly’s W.B. Saul
High School. Sedinam Worlanyo
and Bolutife Fakoya started a
program/fellowship on advanced
fabrics entrepreneurship at MIT.
In the South, Briana Cox is an
associate with the Tennessee
Playwrights Studio. Adella
Sundmark moved to Atlanta with
Ally Philyaw and happily teaches
fourth grade at a school she loves.
The best part of this chapter is her
and Ally’s giant black lab, Tutka.
She is ridiculous and they love her.
In California, Anna Jensen is
welcoming Charlotte Iwasaki ’18 to
her team at Flipboard after saying
goodbye to Marissa Bredesen ’19,
who interned there last summer.
She is attempting to sample every
food truck in San Jose with Andrew
Conant and Daniel Rovner. Indy
Reid-Shaw and Jonas Oppenheimer
’15 moved from Boston to Santa
Cruz. Go Banana Slugs! They hope
you all follow their slime trail and
come say hi.
Abroad, Natania Levy Stein
and Raffaella Luzi Stoutland
started an informal listserv for
alumni to share creative work
(writing, photographs, art, music,
etc.) and stay connected. They
send an email with 2–3 short
pieces about once a month.
To subscribe or submit, email
natanialevy@gmail.com. Brandon
Conner, who was wrapping up
a Princeton in Africa fellowship
with the Legal Resources Centre
in Johannesburg, South Africa,
accepted the William J. Clinton
Fellowship for Service in India,
sponsored by the American India
Foundation. Madeleine Feldman
received a Fulbright grant for an
English teaching assistantship
in Brazil. Hazlett Henderson was
awarded a MENAR Fellowship to
work in Alexandria, Egypt.
Some of us are just enjoying the
trials of young adulthood. Whether
we’re exploring dating apps like
David Ranshous; binge-watching
Netflix like Shantanu Jain and
Andrew Gilchrist-Scott ’16; trying
new things like Liam Fitzstevens; or
applying to jobs like Hughbo Shim
’18, we’re making our way through
these first years after graduation.
their light lives on
our friends will never be forgotten
expanded tributes at bulletin.swarthmore.edu
Alfred Ash ’38
Alfred, a centenarian who attributed his
longevity to rigorous daily workouts,
died Oct. 2, 2018.
A gifted architect and pillar of
the Farmington Valley Jewish
Congregation in Connecticut, Alfred
also played cello from ages 12 to 96,
specializing in chamber music.
Rose Anderson Akerman ’44
Rose, who received her bachelor’s
degree in elementary education from
the University of Pennsylvania, died
Sept. 12, 2018.
Remembering Swarthmore, she
looked back fondly on her philosophy,
English, and biology classes, as well as
her friendships.
Jane Reppert Jenks Small ’44
Jane, who finished her bachelor’s
degree at Penn State and later spent
time working in Swarthmore’s alumni
office, died Aug. 26, 2018.
A longtime elementary school
teacher, Jane was an active member of
State College (Pa.) Friends Meeting for
more than 50 years and of the League of
Women Voters for 60.
Duncan Chiquoine ’47
Duncan, a biology professor and onehalf of a matchbox marriage with Isabel
Kellers Chiquoine ’48, died May 5, 2016.
A pioneer in the field of electron
microscopy, Duncan enjoyed
chess, HAM radios, computers, and
supporting public libraries in any town
he visited, devouring mysteries and
mathematical theory books.
Isabel Kellers Chiquoine ’48
Isabel, who was devoted to making
the world a better place and was also
one-half of a matchbox marriage with
Duncan Chiquoine ’47, died Sept. 2,
2018.
After earning a master’s in
microbiology from Cornell, Ibby went
Christopher Branda Jr. ’45
Christopher, a respected tax lawyer
in Philadelphia and professor at
Temple University’s School of Law,
died Sept. 24, 2018.
A competitive tennis and bridge
player, Christopher loved sailing
off the southern New Jersey coast,
his daily martini, and limericks.
WINTER 2019
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71
in memoriam
renowned retinal physiology authority
Ken Brown ’47, who died in 2014.
on to raise five children, volunteer
tirelessly, and serve as an equality and
peace activist. “It was never enough
to simply hold a belief,” her loved ones
wrote. “Turning beliefs into action was
her guiding principle.”
Ann Winsor Killough ’49
Ann, an accountant, teacher, and writer,
with master’s degrees from Columbia
and Northeastern, died Aug. 1, 2018.
A founding member of the New
View co-housing community in Acton,
Mass., Ann enjoyed reading, gardening,
crocheting, and—perhaps most of all—
investing.
William Clark ’48
William, a World War II Navy veteran
and devoted golfer, died Aug. 22, 2018.
An engineering major and Kappa
Sigma president at Swarthmore, Bill
went on to build a 35-year career at U.S.
Steel.
William Frederick Jr. ’48
A landscape architect, artist, and
gardening visionary, William died Aug.
15, 2018.
Trained as a lawyer, Bill opted
instead to follow his passion for plants,
founding the award-winning Millcreek
Nursery in Delaware and becoming
an acclaimed author, designer, expert,
and patron. “There are very few who
have done more to further the Scott
Arboretum than Bill,” Director Claire
Sawyers wrote in a tribute.
Simon Goudsmit ’48
Simon, who lived in the Netherlands
and was predeceased by his matchbox
wife, Dona Carrington Goudsmit ’50,
died Sept. 26, 2018.
Featured in a March 2001 Bulletin
story about lifelong Swarthmore
friends, Si was profiled for his enduring
bond with Don Smith ’47 and Phil
Gilbert ’48. “Years and distance are
irrelevant: The friendship will stay
constant,” the father of five was quoted
as saying.
Rolf Valtin ’48
Rolf, who married his matchbox
sweetheart, Nancy Eberle Valtin ’47,
and built a career in labor relations,
died Aug. 1, 2018.
After fleeing to America from Nazi
Germany with his family as children,
Rolf and his brother Heinz ’49 were so
inspired by the kindness they received
from Quakers that they decided to
attend Swarthmore. Rolf’s studies,
however, were interrupted when he was
drafted into the Army. He participated
in the assault on Omaha Beach during
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Dorothy McCloskey Martin ’49
Mary Burnside Mangelsdorf ’48
A devout Quaker who served
17 years as the secretary of the
Swarthmore Friends Meeting,
Mary died Oct. 24, 2018.
Predeceased by her husband,
Paul Mangelsdorf Jr. ’49, the
Morris L. Clothier Professor
Emeritus of Physics, Mary loved
to garden, study history, and work
in the library of her retirement
community.
the Normandy invasion and was
awarded both the Silver and the Bronze
Star. He returned to Swarthmore and
became a three-sport varsity athlete,
ultimately earning a spot on the U.S.
Olympic soccer team and induction
into the Garnet Athletics Hall of Fame.
William Lee NV
William, who ultimately earned his
undergraduate degree from Haverford,
died July 31, 2018.
A World War II veteran who served in
the Pacific Theater, Bill went on to earn
his MBA from Wharton and ultimately
served as either president or senior
vice president for several banks. In
retirement, he volunteered with Meals
on Wheels and taught young children.
Virginia Stern Brown ’49
Virginia, a homemaker devoted to local
political and environmental causes,
died Oct. 7, 2018.
A math major and mother of
two, Ginnie was predeceased by
her matchbox husband, the world-
Dorothy, who majored in history at the
College, died Aug. 20, 2018.
Among her Swarthmore connections
were daughter Jennifer Martin Fallon
’75, sister Margery McCloskey Laws ’53,
nephew Michael Laws Jr. ’78, and late
brother-in-law Michael Laws ’53.
George Reller ’49
George, whose Swarthmore education
was interrupted when he was called to
active duty in 1943, died Aug. 9, 2018.
Decorated with two Bronze Stars
and a Purple Heart, George ended up
earning his bachelor’s degree from
Earlham College. Going on to become a
judge and partner in a law firm, he also
served Earlham for more than 20 years
as its legal counsel and won the award
for outstanding alum in 2005.
Egist Faccioli ’50
A Navy veteran and longtime engineer,
Egist died Oct. 26, 2018.
In retirement an avid landscape
gardener and boater, Eg loved spending
time with his family, singing in his
church choir, and doting on his rescue
dogs, Marni and Marty.
Ruth Merson Neleski ’50
Ruth, who went on to earn a master’s in
Spanish from Columbia, died Aug. 23,
2018.
Whether she was teaching school,
raising her three children, or traveling
around the country with her husband,
Ruth was an ever-optimistic and
adventurous spirit.
Joan Hosking Jensen ’51
Joan, who “exemplified that love and
duty are the primary achievements in
this world,” died Sept. 19, 2018.
The longtime secretary of St. Mark’s
Anglican Church in Portland, Ore., Joan
was loved by countless friends and
community members for her kindness
and consummate professionalism.
Pennsylvania, died Aug. 21, 2018.
After serving in the Army, “Woody”
built an impressive career at Mellon
Bank (now BNY Mellon), where he
retired as a senior vice president.
Barbara Bruce Rutledge ’51
Caroline, who majored in psychology at
Swarthmore, died Aug. 4, 2018.
Becoming a librarian, Caroline served
for 25 years as director of the Kingston
(N.Y.) Area Library.
Barbara, an accomplished private
secretary and homemaker, died Aug. 14,
2018.
Among Barbara’s Swarthmore
connections were husband Joseph
Rutledge ’50, who died in 2016, and
daughter Wendy Rutledge Eck ’77.
Stephen Clark ’52
Stephen, a proud Marine who worked
for the National Security Agency for 33
years, died Aug. 28, 2018.
A lifelong athlete who coached Little
League, excelled in doubles tennis with
his wife, and enjoyed sailing, Steve
was also a history-loving reader, an
intellectual with a great sense of humor,
and a dependable, loving friend.
William Stockton M’53
William, who spent a year at
Swarthmore as a philosophy graduate
student, died Aug. 7, 2018.
A lifelong learner who spoke
French, Farsi, Arabic, Korean, and
Norwegian, Bill built a career in the U.S.
government in intelligence and retired
as a major in the U.S. Army Reserve.
William Gilleland ’54
William, who transferred from
Swarthmore to the University of
Caroline Barrera Matzen ’54
William Newitt ’54
An IBM engineer and executive, Air
Force veteran, active pilot, and “flying
octogenarian,” William died Sept. 5,
2018.
Half of a matchbox marriage with
Jane Boetcher Newitt ’55, Bill was
proud that they raised three children
while both pursuing full-time careers.
Sara Richards Nicolai ’54
An “athletic, fiery, and active” force of
nature, Sara died Oct. 26, 2018.
Beloved by her family and friends,
“Sally” was a master beachcomber, ace
cook, and tireless advocate for animal
welfare.
John Hutton Jr. ’55
John, who drew inspiration from The
New York Times as well as the Vermont
landscape, died Aug. 24, 2018.
In addition to building an impressive
and varied legal career, John was also
an advocate for land-use controls,
an avid concertgoer, and a scholar of
history.
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt ’56
A giant in the field of literary criticism,
Christopher died Nov. 7, 2018.
Famed for his more than 4,000
reviews and essays in The New York
Times, Christopher was eulogized
by the Times thusly: “Readers and
colleagues called him a judicious,
authoritative voice on fiction and a
seemingly boundless array of history,
biography, current events and other
topics, with forays into Persian
archaeology and fly fishing.”
Suzanne Gilbert
Hubbell Sieverts ’56
Suzanne, a former beekeeper
and fearless adventurer who
reinvented herself many times
over, died Oct. 13, 2018.
An acclaimed author who
frequently wrote for the New
Yorker, The New York Times, and
Smithsonian, Sue also penned
many books, including A Country
Year: Living the Questions, A Book
of Bees, and Waiting for Aphrodite.
Martha Pierpont Robinson ’55
“Peggy,” who studied at Swarthmore
before transferring to the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, died Aug.
6, 2018.
Graduating summa cum laude with
a degree in mathematics, Peggy was a
prodigiously gifted needlepoint artist.
After winning first place in a national
competition for designing and creating
a cross-stitch sampler depicting the
tree of liberty, she co-founded The
Needle Tree, a needlework store and
home to classes she taught on knitting,
crocheting, sewing, and related arts.
Ann Fryer Van Fossen ’55
Ann, who traveled so widely as a child
she especially valued time at home with
her family as a wife and mother, died
Aug. 11, 2018.
In addition to pursuing her doctorate,
Ann worked for the University of
Toronto, rising to become assistant to
the president. A private person who
enjoyed deep conversation, she loved
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73
in memoriam
hosting dinner parties and relished
nature, particularly the beautiful
brooks of Vermont.
Terrence Hicks ’73
Terrence, an MBA who built a
successful financial career as well as a
life guided by his strong faith, died Oct.
18, 2018.
Named “Man of the Year” by
his church for his good works and
faithful service, Terry also loved to
build model ships and doll houses, go
crabbing, write movie reviews, listen
to music (gospel or Earth, Wind, and
Fire), and work magic with ribs and
chicken on the grill.
Gordon Follett ’56
Gordon, who transferred to
Swarthmore to follow in the footsteps
of more than a dozen of his alumni
family members, died Aug. 5, 2018.
One half of a matchbox marriage with
Catherine “Jimmie” James Follett ’57,
Gordon followed his impressive career
in steel and construction all the way to
California, where he ultimately formed
his own consulting company. A track
and field star back in his Swarthmore
days, he officiated many meets as an
adult and was one of 150 officials at the
1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Carol Edelstein Weichert ’57
A beloved pediatrician, mother, and
mentor in living a joyful life, Carol died
Oct. 4, 2018.
Inspired by her professional
research into the psychological
aspects of breastfeeding, Carol went
on to complete a residency at Tufts
University and become a psychiatrist
as well, first at the Boston Veteran’s
Administration and then in private
practice.
Layeh Aronson Bock ’58
Layeh, who found joy in Swarthmore’s
classes, “bull sessions,” and playing
Hearts in the social hall, died Oct. 2,
2018.
A poet, teacher, and mother of three
daughters (including Marian Bock ’80
and Deborah Bock ’82), Layeh went on
to earn her Ph.D. degree from Stanford,
writing her dissertation on Imagist
poetry.
Linda Zeller Willard ’58
A strong-minded adventurer with an
amazing memory who hiked much
of the Appalachian Trail, sailed the
Chesapeake, and traveled the world,
Linda died Sept. 12, 2018.
The first woman to achieve certain
pay scales at the Defense Contract
Audit Agency, where she worked
for more than 20 years, Linda also
performed pro bono accounting and
legal services. She loved to play bridge
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
with other mothers she met while her
boys were in nursery school; she played
her last game with them the week
before she died.
John Warner Jr. ’64
James Hudson ’61
Suzanne Lorant ’65
An electrical engineer and selfdescribed “lifetime iconoclast,”
“Jody” died Sept. 6, 2018.
Rosalie Berner Fedoruk ’63
A devout Buddhist and force of nature
who earned two master’s as well as a
Ph.D., Rosalie died July 30, 2017.
“No matter what the subject, she
was an intellectual explorer, dancing
on the edge,” wrote Kathie Kertesz ’63
in tribute. “I used to tell Rosalie that
if she had been a man in our era, her
strong-mindedness and leadership
qualities would have made her head of a
corporation or maybe President.
“Yet her happiest moments were
being with her grandchildren or
working in her garden,” Kertesz added.
“Now, when I feel sad, I imagine her
dancing through some beautiful
landscape with darling Nick [Fedoruk
’62], both of them arguing and smiling
at each other. It gives me solace.”
Helen Heitmann Ives ’63
A globe-trotting librarian with a smile
for everyone, even to her last day, Helen
died Sept. 14, 2018.
Championing the library arts in
Japan, Italy, and the U.S., Helen was
tenured at American University and
beloved for her sense of adventure and
fun.
+
Jack, who went on to earn a master’s
and Ph.D. in economics, died Feb. 10,
2018.
Suzanne, who earned a master’s
degree in economics from New York
University, died Aug. 15, 2018.
After Swarthmore, Suzanne built an
impressive career that included serving
as the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s
economics editor.
Eric Nelson ’67
A developmental economist dedicated
to improving the working and living
conditions of people throughout Africa
and Asia, Eric died Oct. 24, 2018.
Beloved for his “engaging stories,
unique wit, sarcastic humor, and great
intellect,” Eric volunteered for the
Peace Corps and immersed himself and
his family in adventure, unique foods,
and the arts.
Anthony Kampling ’81
Anthony, owner and president of the
Vertical Drop Ski and Patio Store in St.
Charles, Ill., died Sept. 4, 2018.
A loyal, caring person and devoted
friend, Tony earned an MBA from
Wharton and was famous for his love of
golf, dry sense of humor, and passion for
cooking.
Michelle Kellman ’93
Michelle, who majored in English
literature and went on to teach
elementary school, died June 18, 2018.
to report a death notice, email records@swarthmore.edu
looking back
THIS NOSTALGIC MAP
paints a loving picture of
Swarthmore as it was in
1927.
At first glance, the eye
is drawn to still-familiar
elements: the asphalt path
up to Parrish; the tennis
courts in front of Wharton;
the Benjamin West House
with Bond and Worth
beyond. The eye stumbles
over rearranged features:
the Library Entrance, what
we now call Old Tarble, is
too far south; in McCabe’s
place is Somerville, the
women’s gym; athletic
fields huddle at the wrong
end of campus. The eye
squints at mystifying
items: “Pip” Pollard (bit.
ly/Dog1927), Pest House
(a quarantine), and even a
servants’ dormitory (here,
at Swarthmore?).
But while campus
traditions come and go—
from the May Pole Dance
to the Frosh–Soph Poster
Fight (post as many as you
can while tearing down
your opponents’)—anchor
your eye on Alligator
Rock. I don’t have the
geologic knowledge to
date the ancient gneiss
outcropping, but while
buildings change on
campus nearby, it remains
as enduring as the fondest
Swarthmore memories.
—CELIA CAUSTELLENBOGEN ’09
ARTHUR B. SUCHY (THE DU BOIS PRESS: ROCHESTER, N.Y., 1927). COURTESY FRIENDS HISTORICAL LIBRARY (SPA 200/B8/133+)
WINTER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
75
WORLD WISE
HOW DOES Swarthmore ease
international students into campus—
and American—life? Jennifer MarksGold, director of the International
Student Center, says an in-depth
knowledge of the regulations is a must
in her role. But humor (and keeping a
sewing kit in the office) helps, too!
How do you make connections?
Throughout the day, students
will pop into my office. They have
questions about visa expirations, and
we may plan for a work-permission
application. Others will ask me how to
fix their broken glasses. I never know
what a student may need, but I’ve
developed a rapport, relationships, and
trust with them so they can see me for
just about anything. I care about their
cultures and values, and I’m always
looking for ways to support them at
Swarthmore and beyond.
What’s rewarding about your work?
Meeting and advising students from
all over the world. It’s wonderful to see
them arrive on campus: At first, many
are nervous and overwhelmed, but I
watch as they beautifully acclimate.
This is especially true on the last night
of orientation—karaoke night. The
room fills with laughter as they sing
and dance. Soon, they’ve developed a
wonderful support group and discover
that they have made friends for life!
What are your challenges?
Working with international students is
complicated and requires empathy and
patience as well as detailed knowledge
of immigration rules and regulations,
including maintaining accurate records
and interpreting federal regulations.
Being proactive is important in keeping
my students safe and legal in the U.S. I
try to make my immigration workshops
and emails interesting and informative.
I use humor as often as I can.
by Kate Campbell
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2019
What is a “typical” day?
My day begins with a cup of coffee
while reading the International
Student Advising Network Digest.
I also catch up on the news to keep
up with the changes that impact
the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals (DACA)/undocumented
student population whom I advise. I
use the Student and Exchange Visitor
Information System to check alerts
and student records. Once students
are accepted and enrolled, I determine
their eligibility in order to issue
immigration documents necessary
to obtain an F-1 student visa. We use
the Form I-20—hence the name of
Swarthmore’s international club!—
which, along with other documents,
allows them to apply for a student
visa at their nearest embassy. I
also support, advise, and monitor
requirements for alumni who have
been authorized to work in the U.S. for
up to three years after graduation.
What travel experiences have most
enriched you, personally?
One of my fondest memories was
representing Swarthmore on a game
show in China, where an alum was a
consultant. I’ve attended the Fulbright
Fair and visited the United World
College in England and Italy. I also
completed a certificate program in
cultural diplomacy and international
relations in Berlin and participated
in the International Symposium
on Cultural Diplomacy in Africa.
Most recently, I was in Ireland for
the National Academic Advising
Association conference, and next year
I’ll be going to Greece with Alumni
College Abroad. These have been
crucial in helping me be even more
understanding of the students I work
with.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
LAURENCE KESTERSON
spoken word
in this issue
MOTORCYCLE DIARIES
40
Hog Wild
Confessions of a
Swarthmore gearhead.
by Pedro Gregorio ’86
MOMENT IN TIME
On Nov. 30, the College community celebrated the
new Hormel-Nguyen Intercultural Center (formerly
Sproul Hall), made possible by the generosity of
James Hormel ’55, H’09 and Michael Nguyen ’08,
photographed here with their dog, Peanut. The
newly renovated and expanded space deepens
Swarthmore’s commitment to inclusivity
and diversity.
+
READ MORE: bit.ly/Hormel-Nguyen
WINTER 2019
Periodical Postage
PAID
Philadelphia, PA
and Additional
Mailing Offices
500 College Ave.
Swarthmore, PA 19081–1306
www.swarthmore.edu
LAURENCE KESTERSON
WINTER 2019
Come back for Alumni Weekend 2019,
May 31–June 2, to bask in the beauty of
Swarthmore’s campus and community.
(Thanks to Scott Arboretum gardener
Sheila Doyle Magee ’81, photographed
on campus in the Terry Shane
Teaching Garden.)
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
A GARDEN OF VOICES
HANDMADE
p20
HOT WHEELS
p40
HEART STOPPERS
p44
Swarthmore College Alumni Bulletin 2019-01-01
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
2019-01-01
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.