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SUMMER 2019
SEEING HUMANITY
p20
Periodical Postage
PAID
Philadelphia, PA
and Additional
Mailing Offices
FALLING FOR THE CLASSICS
p30
CROWNING GLORY
500 College Ave.
Swarthmore, PA 19081–1306
www.swarthmore.edu
am
—Willi
Shakespeare (from Troilus and Cressid
a)
KIN.”
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
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SUMMER 2019
COME BACK FOR GARNET WEEKEND
OCT. 4–5
Family Weekend
Enjoy open houses, tours, and activities with your student.
Homecoming
All alumni are welcome back for special athletic and affinity programming.
Advancement Volunteer Summit
Alumni and parent volunteers will gather for their annual conference.
All attendees are invited to the pep rally, annual McCabe Lecture,
and closing reception with President Valerie Smith.
Registration opens Sept. 2:
swarthmore.edu/garnetweekend
Rooted in Humanities
p44
in this issue
FAMILY FARMING
40
Field Work
Intergenerational cooperation
guides the Rosenbaums of
Winddrift Farms.
by Michael Agresta
MOMENT IN TIME
Dakota Gibbs ’19, an economics
and philosophy major from Newark, N.J.,
at Commencement on May 26.
+
MORE: bit.ly/WhySwat
2
20
DIALOGUE
CLASS NOTES
Seeing Humanity
Editor’s Column
Letters
Community Voices
Alumni News
and Events
An appreciation for art
and culture, language
and literature connects
medical professionals
to their patients.
Melina Healey ’08
30
Leonard Barkan ’65
Rita Kamani-Renedo ’08
Books
Looking Back
Global Thinking
Their Light Lives On
Pendle Marshall-Hallmark ’14
78
SPOKEN WORD
9
COMMON GOOD
Falling for
the Classics
The love of the text ignites
this close-knit group.
by Amy Stone ’64
34
Swarthmore Stories
Quiz’more
Learning Curve
Professor of
French Studies
Jean-Vincent Blanchard
Julian Randall ’15
Liberal Arts Lives
Marshall Curry ’92
Kimaya Diggs ’15
Question, Challenge,
and Imagine
The humanities inform
our perceptions—and
sometimes reshape them.
JAMES PEYTON JONES
by Ryan Dougherty
ON THE COVER
Photographer Laurence Kesterson
captured the Scott Amphitheater at
dusk. Lamps illuminate the green
tarp covering the stage, providing an
otherworldly glow.
Profiles
Studentwise
Cameron Wiley ’19
by Karen Brooks
JOE ROSENBAUM ’68
47
FEATURES
Professor of English
Literature Betsy Bolton at a
religious festival at Yonphula,
a monastery in eastern Bhutan.
“We were waiting for the
masked dances to start, and
a jester figure (an atsara)
had come to speak with the
chilip (foreigner), much to
the amusement of the women
and children we were sitting
with,” Bolton says about her
Fulbright in Bhutan.
+
READ MORE about the
humanities on pg. 34.
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
1
dialogue
LETTERS
EDITOR’S COLUMN
Shared Stories
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
Interim Editor
Kate Campbell
Class Notes Editor
Elizabeth Slocum
Senior Writer/Editor
Ryan Dougherty
Designer
Phillip Stern ’84
Photographer
Laurence Kesterson
Administrative Assistant
Lauren McAloon
Editorial Assistant
Eishna Ranganathan ’20
MARC CHAGALL, THE FALL OF ICARUS, DETAIL, 1975
Editor Emerita
Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49
bulletin.swarthmore.edu
facebook.com/SwarthmoreBulletin
instagram.com/SwarthmoreBulletin
Email: bulletin@swarthmore.edu
Telephone: 610-328-8533
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.
KATE
CAMPBELL
Interim Editor
Send address changes to
records@swarthmore.edu
The Swarthmore College Bulletin (ISSN
0888-2126), of which this is volume
CXVI, number IV, 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
SUMMER 2019
It’s astonishing to me that an experienced teacher like
Emanuel Jinich ’79 doesn’t know “why math is so difficult
for students to learn” (Spring 2019).
Answer: Because students don’t always function the same
way their teachers do. Some people’s brains are hard-wired
for quantitative thinking and theoretical abstractions, while
other people’s aren’t. My brain is hard-wired for words and
pictures, sounds and tactile distinctions—but not formulas
and symbols as they appear in traditional textbooks.
I got decent grades in high school math and science only
because I have a photographic memory and could “see” the
relevant pages in my mind when I had to take tests. When a
quantitative problem is posed in words or images, or applied
to some practical use, I’m fine. I have no trouble with the
dimensions of something I’m sewing or constructing out
of paper or wood, the ingredients in a recipe, or the cost
of something I’m buying. In college biology, the lectures
went over my head, but I passed because I loved dissecting
specimens in the lab, feeling the different textures under my
hands as I used the scalpel and other tools.
Later, I applied the same skills to filleting fish, deboning
meat, and doing various kinds of household repairs. Just
don’t ask me to calculate anything more complicated than
the arithmetic needed to balance a checkbook or figure out
who owes how much at a restaurant.
—JACQUELINE LAPIDUS ’62, Brighton, Mass.
NASA AT WORK
nd
e
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
Send letters and story ideas to
bulletin@swarthmore.edu
e c o-fri
2
THE HUMANITIES infuse our modern
consciousness. How else could ancient myths remain
so poignant?
Painter Marc Chagall must have somehow felt
the message of Icarus pulsing through his creative
mind and onto the canvas shown above. Icarus,
and Chagall’s reimagining of him, exemplifies the
importance of the humanities—without them, we
float uninformed into the universe and, like Icarus,
into dangerous territory without the benefit of the
right tools.
Jeremy Lefkowitz, associate professor of classics,
explains it this way: “The fall of Icarus is a tragic tale,
of course, but it’s also a story about human genius
and creativity. Unfairly imprisoned, the father-andson team used what they had at hand and invented
flight, escaping captivity and achieving liberation,
even if it meant dying in the process.”
In this issue, Swarthmore poets, farmers, doctors,
teachers, and sages express how their paths have
all been collectively shaped by the power of the
humanities.
Come along on their journeys. Forget the wax and
wings for now.
ly
H-UV
ks
by
HARD-WIRED
in
I really liked the story about Nancy Grace Roman ’46, H’76
(Spring 2019). I was a physics major at Swarthmore and find her
story very relatable. I even have the NASA Legos in my office at
work!
—ALEXANDRA ZELASKI ’09, Cleveland, Ohio
“You often hear
politicians and public
figures say that no
one wants to study
the humanities in
college anymore,
but that doesn’t
match my experience
in the classroom.
My students are
desperately searching
for ways to think
through the incredibly
complex times in
which they live.”
—Krista Thomason,
associate professor of
philosophy
TELL US.
What do you the
humanities mean to you?
bulletin@swarthmore.edu
“A deep engagement
with music helps
us to focus on truly
listening to others,
staying aware of
our own voice while
striving to hear
many other voices
simultaneously. A
musical connection
can then become a
human connection.”
—Andrew Hauze ’04, lecturer
in the Department of Music
“Humanities taught me
quite literally how to
begin understanding
humanity ... how
we can be better
humans.”
—Margaret Cohen ’19
YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN
Thank you for covering international alumni in your article “The
Global Bridge”! As an international student who went back to her
home country to work at a nonprofit after graduation, it was so
great to see many more who had done the same and who were
contributing to their societies. One of the things I’m grateful for
is that Swarthmore gave me the confidence and toolkit to go
back home and build something there. Hope to see more such
coverage.
—SABRINA SINGH ’15, Cambridge Mass.
+ WRITE TO US: bulletin@swarthmore.edu
CONTRIBUTORS
Laura Markowitz ’85 is a writer,
editor, and pubic-radio producer
based in Tucson,
Ariz. She’s co-author
of the forthcoming
book Voices on the
Economy: How OpenMinded Exploration
of Rival Perspectives
Can Spark Solutions to
Economic Problems.
Amy Stone ’64 is a founder and
contributing editor of Lilith,
the Jewish feminist
magazine. She was
lucky enough to have
Professor Helen
North for Latin at
Swarthmore.
Karen Brooks is a Philadelphiabased freelance writer specializing in
higher education and
nonprofit development.
She has an M.A. in
journalism and public
affairs from American
University.
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
3
COMMUNITY VOICES
GET LOST
I cobbled together 8- and
then 12-mile unpaved runs on
interconnected parkland (and through
backyards, over hoppable fences,
and along railroad tracks and river
beds) that looped away from and
returned to campus. Some teammates,
among them my future husband,
gamely accompanied me on these
misadventures. We often arrived back
I GREW UP IN New York City, always
with scars from stinging nettles and
looking for forests to get lost in. There
thorns and bushwacking, or chastened
was nothing more thrilling than
by property owners, well after dark,
losing the horizon of high-rises as I
and after Sharples had closed.
ducked deeper into thick brambles of
In class I found myself enchantingly
off-trail Central Park or, even better,
adrift, as well. I was an English major
the woodsier Van Cortlandt Park. I
with a history minor, and my search
craved solitude and the excitement of
for narrative unity and historical
wandering.
perspective often
by
My first fall at
seemed intentionally
Swarthmore, it took
unmoored. I wandered
me just a few runs
with Leopold Bloom
with the cross country
through his endless
team to learn the
postmodern day,
entirety of the Crum,
or waded through
so I went in search of more exotic and
the strange landscape of William
far-flung woods beyond campus. With
Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County (in
the help of a very early beta version of
Professor Philip Weinstein’s glorious
Google Maps, I could identify streams
courses). I attempted to decode
and green spaces that might be the
American history by immersion in
kinds of wooded land where a person
scholars’ intricate analyses of Black
could remain in semi-wilderness.
communities and kinship networks
Enchantingly adrift,
exploration intensifies
MELINA HEALEY ’08
Attorney
4
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
in exotic cities like Cincinnati and
Buffalo (in Professor Allison Dorsey’s
dynamic seminars). Revelation in
either discipline was only possible
after these baptisms.
My need to explore has only
intensified, and it is not coincidental
that much of my professional work
has been in places far from typical
destinations for liberal arts graduates.
I teach at NYU Law School (pretty
typical destination), but I also still
practice law.
Among my clients are the
Assiniboine and Sioux tribes of the
Fort Peck Indian Reservation in
Montana. The work I do for these
tribes takes place in a town that has
been calculated as the literal “middle
of nowhere” of the United States,
more isolated than any other town in
the nation. I first saw this region of
the country when I graduated from
Swarthmore and my husband and I
drove with a fellow Swattie and his
old textbooks and bike gear back to his
home in Nevada. I was captivated by
the prairie and high plains, wondering
what life was like for teenagers there,
what kids did after school, how the
light filtered into their farmhouses
as the sun set endlessly over the long
horizon.
My work in eastern Montana and in
prisons in rural southern Illinois and
northern New York enable me to take
adventures in places that fascinate
and educate me—and where I also
witness injustice that outrages me. I
bring students with me to these places
so that they, too, can learn from local
wisdom and get lost with me.
We’ve been buried under
hundreds of letters of client mail
from prisons and conducted dozens
of interviews with young people
facing discrimination at rural school
districts, and we are deeply immersed
in myriad stories. Sometimes I feel
as though we are drowning. But we
dig ourselves out with broad policy
reforms and impact litigation informed
by the voices of those we serve and
advocate for, made all the better for
having been lost among them.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
LAURENCE KESTERSON
dialogue
STUDENTWISE: HABITS SHAPE CHARACTER
Humanities and my vision for the future
by Cameron Wiley ’19
T
HIS MAY, I graduated
from Swarthmore
with honors in
philosophy and
history. I did not
expect to focus
my studies on the humanities upon
enrolling at Swarthmore—in fact, I
thought I would be an economics and
history double major. That all changed
my first year when I stumbled upon
philosophy. I’m so thankful I did.
Studying the humanities developed
me in ways that I could not have
anticipated. Philosophy taught me the
importance of empathy. I gained the
ability to understand and share the
feelings of others—the mark of a good
leader. I can identify with increased
sensibility the needs and experiences
of others. As a leader on campus, this
principle dictated the manner in which
I interacted and communicated with
my peers and basketball teammates.
Reading Aristotle’s thoughts on
happiness—how it’s an activity of the
soul in accordance with excellence—
motivated me to redefine my purpose.
It occurred to me that my own success
is an upshot not of what I do, but of
who I am. Now, I strive for excellence
in all my activities, vitalized by the
habits that shape my character.
Now that I’ve graduated, I plan to
open an Allstate insurance agency
in my hometown of Atlanta. I look
forward to the opportunity to begin my
career as an entrepreneur and a leader
of my own organization, after which
I intend to pursue a law and business
degree. Moreover, I plan to establish an
organization in Atlanta that provides
educational and career services to help
young people achieve life milestones—
such as going to college, getting a job,
or growing a business. I hope to foster
a real community around that vision,
inspired by my passions for leadership
and self-development. However, I
doubt my vision for the future would
be the same without the humanities.
Swarthmore was the most enriching
and fulfilling period of my life. I’m
appreciative of the person I have grown
to become over the past four years, and
I attribute much of my intellectual and
personal growth to studying philosophy.
Although my path from Swarthmore
will present many changes, I’m certain
of one thing: I will continue to be
that principled leader who practices
integrity, values relationships, and
demonstrates commitment.
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
5
dialogue
BEHIND THE BOOK
RECASTING THE NATIONAL
NARRATIVE
by Elizabeth Redden ’05
In American Founders: How People of African Descent Established
Freedom in the New World (NewSouth Books), Christina ProenzaColes ’92 calls for recasting the national narrative to recognize the
rightful roles played by people of African descent.
In a book spanning five centuries and the whole of the
Western Hemisphere, Proenza-Coles writes of the roles people
of African descent played in establishing and defending New
World settlements, in fighting for American independence, and
in challenging slavery throughout the Americas by force or in
the courts. She chronicles innumerable contributions made by
people of African descent in the arts, medicine, industry, politics,
and the sciences. And she reminds readers that “if we turn up the
lights on our history, it becomes evident that people of color were
there at every point, and not just as passive observers.”
“The vast number of individuals included here is overwhelming
and deliberate,” writes Proenza-Coles, who holds a dual doctorate
in history and sociology from the New School for Social Research.
“I encourage the reader to let the sheer weight of their number,
and their intricate connections to global currents of history,
compel us to rethink our own history, our national narrative,
and our creation myths. These black men and women are not
exceptions; they are our founders.”
Submit your publication for consideration: books@swarthmore.edu
HOT TYPE: New releases by Swarthmoreans
Robin Smith Chapman ’64
The Only Home We Know
Small Press Distribution
Chapman’s poems in this collection
urge us to pay attention. “In the face of
daily encounters with news, science
news, friends, fellow creatures, a green
world—I wanted to make poems that
could save us from destroying our
home, to celebrate and marvel and
puzzle at what we have, to include the
play of arts and sciences in our daily
lives.”
production of the Tea Party brand. An
assistant professor of journalism and
media studies at Rutgers University,
White argues that “the Tea Party
was less social movement and more
mass-mediated brand—a construct
fashioned, facilitated, managed,
assisted, organized, and maintained by
the national press.”
Sarah St. Vincent ’04
Ways to Hide in Winter
Melville House
In this debut novel, a young widow
named Kathleen in Pennsylvania’s
beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains
befriends a self-described visiting
student from Uzbekistan who ends
up confessing to a terrible crime. O,
The Oprah Magazine describes Ways
to Hide in Winter as an “atmospheric
suspense novel. … Pick it up now.”
Andrew Garner ’89 and Robert A. Saul
Forgotten Fighters
by Elizabeth Redden ’05
In Farthest Field, journalist Raghu Karnad
’05 tells the stories of his grandfather and
two granduncles who died serving the
imperial Indian armed forces during World
War II. It is a war, he argues, that India
has chosen for the most part to forget, an
epic battle fought on behalf of an empire
from which India would separate a mere
two years after its conclusion. Karnad
writes that the fighting in then-Burma and
northeast India constituted the British
Empire’s largest and longest campaign,
but that the soldiers there already called
themselves “the Forgotten Army” in 1944,
even as the fighting was ongoing.
Karnad describes his project as “my
6
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
attempt to draw back the dead”—to not
just tell the story of his ancestors, but
also to keep the common memory of
India’s Second World War alive, “as the
people who lived it take their leave.”
In March, Farthest Field won the
$165,000 Donald Windham–Sandy
M. Campbell Literature Prize at Yale
University in the nonfiction category.
“Farthest Field represents an astonishing
union of imagination and archival
research,” the jurors wrote, “in which the
bitter ironies of family, loss, memory, and
national identity are deeply explored and
exceptionally told.”
Thinking Developmentally: Nurturing
Wellness in Childhood to Promote
Lifelong Health
American Academy of Pediatrics
The authors, both pediatricians,
explore the effects of childhood
experiences on adult health and the
childhood origins of adult-onset
diseases including hypertension, Type
2 diabetes, cancer, and substance
abuse. As they note, recent advances
in developmental science “have
confirmed what astute pediatricians
have known for ages: What happens in
childhood does not necessarily stay in
childhood.”
Khadijah Costley White ’04
The Branding of Right-Wing Activism:
The News Media and the Tea Party
Oxford University Press
White analyzes the way in which
the news media actively aided in the
Keetje Kuipers ’02
All Its Charms
Boa Editions Ltd.
The poems in Kuipers’s third
collection “chronicle Kuipers’s
decision to become a single mother
by choice, her marriage to the woman
she first fell in love with more than
a decade before giving birth to her
daughter, and her family’s struggle to
bring another child into their lives,”
to borrow the summary from the book
blurb. U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K.
Smith describes Kuipers’s poems as
“daring, formally beautiful, and driven
by rich imagery and startling ideas.”
Alexander Robinson ’99
The Spoils of Dust: Reinventing the
Lake that Made Los Angeles
Applied Research and Design
Publishing
Robinson’s subject is the “reinvention”
of Owens Lake. Once the third-largest
lake in California until it was drained
to supply water to Los Angeles, it
has now been partially restored and
re-watered in the name of a $1.5 billion
dust-control project. Robinson, an
associate professor in the Landscape
Architecture & Urbanism program at
the University of Southern California,
writes that the lake “has now been
reinvented as a new, nearly fantastical,
middle ground, where large portions
of its original function and value have
been restored in the face of the ongoing
water extractions that originally
despoiled it.”
Marcelle Martin ’80
Our Life Is Love: The Quaker Spiritual
Journey
Inner Light Books
Martin explores the beginnings of the
Quaker movement during the 17th
century. The Mullen Writing Fellow at
the Earlham School of Religion while
working on this book, Martin writes
that the first Quakers “experienced a
divine Light that was within them and
active in the world. God was not just
an idea or belief but a dynamic power
they felt in their bodies as well as their
minds.”
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
7
common good
dialogue
SHARING SUCCESS AND STORIES OF SWARTHMORE
THE PEACE PRESENCE
Drawing attention to international conflict
PENDLE MARSHALL-HALLMARK
’14 arrived in Colombia two months after
the signing of the 2016 peace accords
that ended the country’s 50-year civil
conflict. She joined the Fellowship of
Reconciliation Peace Presence, working
as an “accompanier.”
“It’s a technique that’s used in
conflicts all over the world,” she says.
“Foreigners are invited by activists
in the country to physically go with
them while they do their activist work.
The idea is that we are harnessing our
passport, racial, and language privilege
to try to draw attention to the conflict,
dissuade violence from happening,
and de-escalate conflict with our
presence.”
Local officials wouldn’t listen to the
campesinos living out in the jungle who
wanted protection from paramilitary
groups that were moving into their
areas. But they couldn’t dismiss a white
woman from Rochester, N.Y., MarshallHallmark says.
One day while living in the northern
part of the country, she and another
accompanier heard gunfire and
bombs in the distance. Early the
next morning, a paramilitary soldier
showed up.
“He was dressed in fatigues and
carrying an AK-47 on his shoulder,”
Marshall-Hallmark says. “We were
two young women, still in our pajamas
because it was 6 in the morning. But
we confronted him and told him he
had to leave.” It was a tense standoff,
she says, but he finally agreed to
be escorted off the property and
disappeared into the jungle.
Raised as a Quaker, MarshallHallmark originally chose Swarthmore
for its peace and conflict studies
program, but she ended up majoring
in sociology and anthropology. A class
with Assistant Professor of Sociology
Nina Johnson on “Race and Place” got
her thinking about nongovernmental
organizations and how they operate,
after she volunteered at a Mexican
cultural center in South Philadelphia
as part of the course. After graduation,
Marshall-Hallmark wanted to do work
that created lasting social change. She
served as a resource coordinator at a
refugee resettlement agency and as
a community organizer at advocacy
nonprofits in Philadelphia before
moving to Bogotá.
But after Marshall-Hallmark had
been in Colombia for 18 months, the
NGO she was working for closed
because of funding problems.
“My last day in Colombia, we had
lunch with campesino activists
who happened to be in Bogotá for a
meeting,” she says. “The waiter turned
on the TV news, and we learned that a
number of human rights activists had
just been killed. It was demoralizing.”
Marshall-Hallmark had come to
believe that the “charity model” for
nonprofits was rife with problems,
“Studying humanities taught me
I could try things that were new ...
before I decided where I wanted to
focus.”
8
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
MAYRA LINARES RODRÍGUEZ
by Laura Markowitz ’85
PENDLE
MARSHALL-HALLMARK ’14
Peacemaker
such as organizations drifting from
their missions just to stay funded.
So she decided to explore for-profit
models to fund social justice work.
As a Fulbright binational internship
recipient, she has been taking business
classes at the Instituto Tecnológico
Autónomo de México in Mexico City
and worked at an entrepreneurship
center, learning how to pitch ideas and
get investors on board.
Next for Marshall-Hallmark will be
a semester back in the U.S., studying
radio journalism at the SALT Institute
for Democracy Studies in Maine; a
natural storyteller, she plans on using
multimedia as a tool for community
organizing. She credits her liberal
arts education with inspiring her to
go outside her field—and her comfort
zone—to forge a path that combines
her passions, values, and beliefs into
a career that will promote long-term,
positive social change. “It sometimes
seemed like I had a disparate path,” she
says, “but now I see a through-line in all
that I’ve done.”
ON
THE
WEB
WHY SWARTHMORE?
Seven members of the
Class of 2019 reflect on
their time at the College.
+ WATCH
bit.ly/WhySwat
SUCCESSFUL S3P
Among 2019’s graduates
is the first cohort from
the Swarthmore Summer
Scholars Program.
+ CELEBRATE
bit.ly/S3Pgrads
DOWN TO A FINE ART
Sixteen senior art majors
showcased their thesis
exhibitions in the
College’s List Gallery.
+ VISUALIZE
bit.ly/FineArtSwat
‘HUNTING VISION’
Associate Professor
Bakirathi Mani
discusses her new book
on South Asian diasporic
visual and exhibition
cultures.
+ LISTEN
DC COMICS
GLOBAL THINKING
bit.ly/BakirathiMani
BOOSTING NUMBERS
An experiment by
Swarthmore economists
Amanda Bayer and
Syon Bhanot aims to
diversify their field.
+ READ
bit.ly/BayerBhanot
LOOK OUT!
Rightful
Recognition
by Maria Aghazarian
AN EXHIBITION at McCabe Library this spring
highlighted the work of Bob Haney ’48 (1926–
2004). Although he co-created iconic characters
for DC Comics, such as the Teen Titans, Doom
Patrol, Metamorpho, and Eclipso, and wrote
memorable team-ups during his tenure on The
Brave and the Bold, Haney is perhaps best known
for not receiving rightful recognition for his work
while he was alive.
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
9
common good
COLLECTIVE REFLECTION
MOTT CHALLENGE SUPPORTS
SWARTHMORE STUDENTS
+ MORE: swarthmore.
edu/mottchallenge
College initiates campus conversations after closure of fraternities
COMPASSIONATE CONNECTION
The first day of a lighthearted Swarthmore alumni “Getaway to
Iceland,” a quick trip in search of the aurora borealis, was the March 15
massacre of Muslims at prayer in Christchurch, New Zealand.
We asked ourselves, what meaningful outreach could a busload of
Swarthmoreans do thousands of miles from home and even farther
away from New Zealand?
In Iceland, a tiny—mostly white and mostly Lutheran—country with
a small Muslim population, I realized a letter to this community in
Reykjavik was one way to express our support and sympathy. All 34
group members signed the letter, which read:
We are far from home and want to reach out to you as all of us feel
linked in this time of unspeakable sadness.
We are here on a trip of alumni, friends and family of Swarthmore
College, a small, nonsectarian Quaker college near Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. With a tradition of Quaker activism for peace and
commitment to working for a better world, we express our hope that
change is possible and hate can be transformed into compassion.
I connected with the executive director of the Islamic Foundation
of Iceland and presented our letter to him at the Grand Mosque of
Iceland. Kasim Askari, from Reykjavik via Italy and Morocco, was truly
touched and grateful.
—AMY STONE ’64
As a result of increased planning and action
around student voter engagement, Swarthmore has
been designated a “Voter Friendly Campus.” The
initiative, led by national nonpartisan organizations
Campus Vote Project and NASPA–Student
Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, held
participating institutions accountable for planning
and implementing practices that encourage their
students to register and vote. Swarthmore was
10
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
evaluated based on a campus plan about how the
College would engage student voters in 2018, how
it facilitated democratic engagement efforts on
campus, and a final analysis of those efforts. The
designation is valid through December 2020.
—EMILY WEISGRAU
+
ENGAGE: vote.swarthmore.edu
IN MAY, President Valerie Smith
announced that fraternities and
sororities would no longer exist at the
College, noting that “exclusive, duespaying social organizations no longer
effectively meet the needs of our
residential liberal arts environment.”
She added that a reflective series
of conversations among students,
staff, and faculty will begin this fall
to discuss the relationship between
academic and cocurricular priorities
and programming at Swarthmore.
Those conversations will be led by Vice
President and Dean of Students Jim
Terhune and Provost and Professor of
Sociology Sarah Willie-LeBreton.
“The struggles we have faced [as
a community] offer an opportunity
for self-reflection and growth, for
movement towards, rather than
away from, each other,” Smith said.
Her decision followed the yearlong
efforts of a task force that examined
student life generally and Greek letter
organizations specifically. Toward the
end of that process, several student
protests took place that were, in
part, a reaction to disturbing and
misogynistic documents from 2012–
16 that were published in student
publications and appear to have
originated from Swarthmore’s Delta
Upsilon and Phi Psi chapters.
“I recognize that serious fissures
in our community remain open,”
Smith wrote May 10 in a community
message that was sent to students,
faculty, staff, alumni, and parents. “As
we move forward, I call for each of
us to examine how we live up to the
aspiration of inclusivity. We must try
to do so together, without giving up on
one another and without giving up on
our community.”
Smith noted that the voluntary
disbanding of Phi Psi and Delta
Upsilon on April 30 reflected “a
broader change in student needs and
desires.” The Swarthmore chapter
of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority will
continue with its current members
through spring 2022 but may no longer
recruit or initiate additional members.
“The big takeaway from the
challenging moments and difficult
conversations we have experienced
over the last year,” said Terhune, “is
that the systems and structures that
shape social life on campus have not
evolved in the ways that are required
to best meet the needs of current
students. It is evident that we need to
engage all students in shaping a rich
and rewarding campus culture that is
truly equitable and inclusive.”
Following her decisions—which
included other measures to bolster
student social life—Smith met with the
campus community at a forum May 13
at Bond Memorial Hall. The forum was
planned as a listening session where
Smith, Terhune, and others could
gather information on some of the
most pressing concerns as a result of
the closures.
Among those issues were the
long-term plans for the two former
“It is evident that we need to engage
all students in shaping a rich and
rewarding campus culture that is
truly equitable and inclusive.”
—Jim Terhune, vice president and dean of students
LAURENCE KESTERSON
LUCRETIA MOTT changed the world
through her tireless work as an abolitionist,
women’s rights activist, and social reformer.
As one of Swarthmore’s founders, she also
changed the College with her philanthropic
and vocal support, ensuring that students
would have access to an education “equal to
that of the best institutions in our country.”
On April 17–18, 2,122 alumni, parents,
students, faculty, staff, and friends honored
Mott’s legacy and supported Swarthmore
students by participating in the Mott
Challenge. Together with the support
of several generous challengers—
including Peter Fritschel ’84
and Pam Nelson ’84, President
Valerie Smith, and Katherine
and David Bradley ’75,
H’11—the Swarthmore
community gave $555,130
in 24 hours.
All gifts counted
toward the Changing
Lives, Changing the
World campaign,
bringing the total
raised (at time of
publication) to more
than $350 million.
—AMANDA
WHITBRED
fraternity houses. As Smith stated at
the forum, the future use of the nowclosed houses is yet to be decided.
“We will begin this summer to
determine how those spaces might
integrate with plans for a re-imagined
Sharples,” Smith wrote in her
community message, noting the
College is at a critical moment as it
envisions new social gathering spaces
as part of the Sharples Dining and
Community Commons project. “We
will then work with students and other
community stakeholders to identify
how we can best support students’
needs, including the future of those
buildings.”
Above all, Smith encouraged the
community to listen to one another.
“Practice the art of deep listening,” she
said. “Do not accept division. Remain
in difficult conversations, especially
with those with whom we disagree.
This work will not be easy, but we will
all be the better for it.”
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
11
common good
Maxine Frank
Singer ’52 Hall
12@25
by Alisa Giardinelli and Emily Weisgrau
Celebrating 25 years of teaching
at Swarthmore College, 12 faculty
members shared their insights on
the evolution of the liberal arts
and on navigating the relationship
between teaching and scholarship,
during the 12@25 symposium April
13 at the Inn at Swarthmore. Faculty
who celebrated the milestone
included:
LAURENCE KESTERSON
Swarthmore’s new building for biology, engineering,
and psychology will be named Maxine Frank Singer
’52 Hall, President Valerie Smith announced at the
Board of Managers meeting May 10. The naming
in honor of the pioneering molecular biologist was
proposed by the family of Eugene Lang ’38, H’81,
who committed $50 million—the largest gift in the
College’s history—to the project prior to his passing
in April 2017.
“My grandfather knew and admired Maxine,”
Manager Lucy Lang ’03 said at the meeting on
behalf of her aunt Jane Lang ’67 and the Lang
family. “But at the heart of our choice is the
belief that Maxine has lived a life in science that
is exemplary in every dimension. By naming the
building for Maxine Singer, we seek to expand
recognition of the women who graduated
from Swarthmore who have made significant
contributions to the sciences in research, writing,
and leadership.”
Singer Hall, an initiative of the Changing Lives,
Changing the World campaign, will be one of only
a few science buildings named for a woman on
an American college campus. In support of the
College’s desire to increase the representation
of under-acknowledged luminaries, 18 managers
MIKE BROWN, Morris L. Clothier
Professor of Physics
TIM BURKE, Professor and Chair
of History
responded to the announcement by pledging a
combined $160,000 in gifts to recognize two
additional Swarthmore women scientists.
In Singer Hall, the Psychology Department
seminar room will honor eminent psychologist,
ethicist, and educator Carol Gilligan ’58, H’85. The
Biology Department’s “front porch” will be named
for Isaac H. Clothier Jr. Professor of Biology Amy
Cheng Vollmer, who has educated generations of
students since joining the College faculty in 1989.
BRUCE DORSEY, Professor of
History
FRANK DURGIN, Elizabeth and
Sumner Hayward Professor of
Psychology
TED FERNALD, Professor of
Linguistics
SIBELAN FORRESTER, Susan W.
Lippincott Professor of Modern
and Classical Languages and
Russian
+ READ MORE: bit.ly/SingerBEP
AIMEE JOHNSON, Professor and
Chair of Mathematics & Statistics
Swarthmore College Peace Collection and the FBI
McCABE LIBRARY accepted approximately 70,000
documents that Washington Post investigative reporter Betty
Medsger used in writing her 2014 book, The Burglary: The
Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI.
The journalist, who was the first to report on files stolen
from a Delaware County FBI office almost 50 years ago,
donated her book research on the topic to the Swarthmore
College Peace Collection.
“These were the documents that convinced Washington
Post editor Ben Bradlee and publisher Katharine Graham to
defy J. Edgar Hoover and Attorney General John Mitchell
and break the story that the FBI was spying on ordinary
Americans who had committed no crimes,” says Wendy
Chmielewski, George Cooley Curator of the Swarthmore
College Peace Collection.
12
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
NORA JOHNSON, Professor of
English Literature
“The publication of the stolen records from the Media
[Pa.] FBI office also directly influenced and encouraged
the editor and publisher to go forward with publishing
investigations of the well-known cases of Daniel Ellsberg
and the Pentagon Papers, and in the subsequent two years of
investigations over Watergate.”
Some of the information detailed ways College staff
members informed for the FBI through a program called
COINTELPRO, which operated from 1965 to 1971.
Medsger spoke at an April 3 event at McCabe Library.
Her work is now alongside that of Nobel Prize laureate
Jane Addams, whose donation of books and papers helped
establish the Peace Collection in 1930.
+
READ MORE: bit.ly/CollegePeaceCollection
HAILI KONG, Professor of Chinese
GRACE LEDBETTER, Professor of
Classics and Philosophy, Chair of
Classics, Director of the Honors
Program
LISA MEEDEN, Neil R. Grabois
Professor in Natural Sciences and
Engineering, Computer Science
PATTY WHITE, Eugene Lang
Research Professor and Chair of
Film & Media Studies
+
WATCH: bit.ly/12at25
AT SWARTHMORE’S 147th Commencement
on May 26, President Valerie Smith awarded
honorary degrees to visual artist Njideka Akunyili
Crosby ’04, biochemist Jon Lorsch ’90, and justice
advocate Bryan A. Stevenson; 395 undergraduates
also received degrees at the ceremony.
Doctor of arts recipient Akunyili Crosby is
best known for her art that reflects the cultural
terrain between her adopted home in America
and her native home in Nigeria. Her work—which
combines collage, drawing, painting, printmaking,
and photo transfers—invites a global dialogue
about social and political issues, and can be found
in major museums including Yale University
Art Gallery, San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts, where she earned a Post-Baccalaureate
Certificate. For her accomplishments, Akunyili
Crosby was awarded a MacArthur Foundation
Fellowship in 2017.
Lorsch, recipient of the doctor of sciences,
uses his expertise in biochemistry to make a
difference in medical research for all. Since 2013,
he has been director of the National Institute of
General Medical Sciences, where he oversees
the multibillion-dollar budget that supports
basic research, increases the understanding of
biological processes, and lays the foundation
for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment,
and prevention. He is also known for his own
research, which focuses on RNA and initiation
of translation. Lorsch has authored more than 70
peer-reviewed research articles, book chapters,
and other papers; edited six volumes of Methods
in Enzymology; and received two U.S. patents.
Stevenson, who received the doctor of laws,
is the founder and executive director of the
Equal Justice Initiative, where he has won
national acclaim for his work challenging bias
against the poor and people of color in the
criminal justice system. In 2012, he argued
before the Supreme Court and won a landmark
ruling banning mandatory life without parole
sentences for minors. Last year in Montgomery,
Ala., Stevenson and EJI opened the widely
praised Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to
Mass Incarceration and the National Memorial
for Peace and Justice. His book Just Mercy: A
Story of Justice and Redemption received the
2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in
Nonfiction.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
TO THE HIGHEST DEGREE
From top: Honorees Njideka
Akunyili Crosby ’04, Jon Lorsch
’90, and Bryan A. Stevenson.
NOMINATE A 2020
HONORARY DEGREE
RECIPIENT:
Email Jennifer Piddington at
jpiddin1@swarthmore.edu.
+
EXPERIENCE Commencement and watch
the speeches: bit.ly/SwatCom19
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
13
common good
BRANDON HODNETT
“BRAVE YOU”
A Magical Season
DORCAS TANG ’19
The Swarthmore men’s basketball team made history this season by playing in the NCAA Division III National
Championship game, the furthest any Garnet team had ever advanced in the tournament. The magical season, which
ended in a 96–82 loss to the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, eclipsed the previous high-water mark set by the
program last season, when the Garnet reached the NCAA’s Elite Eight.
SPORTS SHORTS
by Roy Greim ’14
MEN’S TENNIS
The Garnet advanced to the Centennial Conference
championship match for the sixth consecutive season.
BASEBALL
Swarthmore’s .351 team batting average ranked first
in NCAA Division III this season.
WOMEN’S TENNIS
Head coach Jeremy Loomis was honored as the Wilson/
Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Atlantic South region
Coach of the Year after leading the team to a top-25
ranking.
SOFTBALL
The Garnet made their first appearance in the
Centennial Conference playoffs since 2010.
TRACK & FIELD
The men’s and women’s teams each finished second
at the Centennial Conference championship, and head
coach Pete Carroll received conference coach of the year
honors for both teams for the second straight year.
14
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
MEN’S LACROSSE
The team began the 2019 season with a seven-game
winning streak.
WOMEN’S LACROSSE
Despite narrowly missing the conference playoffs this
season, the team has improved in overall wins and
conference wins in each of the past four years.
The summit was a celebration of the successes of women. It included an art show reception
featuring the works of students and alumni and a music performance by Cecily Bumbray ’12.
Women and
Power
A space to be strong
by Brittni Teresi ’19
SWARTHMORE hosted its first
Womxn’s Leadership Summit in
March where more than 60 members
of the College community who identify
with the term “womanhood” came
together to challenge the notion that
success must be male-oriented.
The theme of the conference, “Brave
You,” encouraged participants to be
vulnerable, courageous, strong, and
authentic with one another. Through
a wide range of events, including
workshops, guest speakers, and art
performances, the summit provided
diverse spaces for women to feel
empowered and supported.
The idea for the summit came from
four recent alums: Jasmine Rashid
’18, Meghan Kelly ’18, Niyah Dantzler
’18, and Samira Saunders ’18. While
scrolling through Wikipedia’s page
on notable Swarthmore College
graduates, they noticed that only 22
percent of the listed alumni identified
as women.
After that revelation, a team of seven
current students worked with various
departments to make the summit a
reality.
Organizations involved in
supporting the summit included the
Center for Innovation and Leadership;
the Women’s Resource Center;
the Office of Diversity, Inclusion,
and Community Development; the
Lang Center for Civic and Social
Responsibility; the Hormel-Nguyen
Intercultural Center; the Gender and
Sexuality Studies Program; the Black
Cultural Center; and the Office of the
President.
“The summit was a way to formally
celebrate the Swarthmore women
community,” said Susan Gonzalez
’19, a neuroscience major from
Cambridge, Mass., and one of the
organizers of the event. “It offered a
space for Swarthmore women to come
together and reflect on an individual
and community level about what
womenhood means, and how they can
celebrate their bravery.”
+
READ MORE:
bit.ly/SwatWomxn
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
15
common good
QUIZ’MORE
LEARNING CURVE
INFLUENTIAL AND INDESTRUCTIBLE
He’s moving into the breadth of his powers
LAURENCE KESTERSON
?
How well do you know your
alma mater? Give this the
ol’ College try!
Take time to smell the roses! Fossils of roses discovered in Colorado date
back to 35 million years ago.
1.
How many varieties of
roses are in the Dean
Bond Rose Garden?
2.
How many winning
records did men’s
basketball have prior
to head coach Landry
Kosmalski’s arrival?
3.
4.
What 1873 graduate
known for her work in
the humanities was
the first U.S. woman to
receive a Ph.D.?
What philosophy major
developed a method of
representing the 3-D
structure of proteins,
earning her an
honorary degree?
5.
What art history
professor gave a
keynote address
at the 1999 Youth
Odyssey Series titled
“The Usefulness of
Uselessness”?
Hint: This person
retired the following
academic year.
Know any fascinating Swarthmore trivia? Send your question/answer to quiz@swarthmore.edu. If we use it, we’ll send you a prize!
2. The Garnet had just 23 winning records between 1900 and 2012.
(They’ve had four since Kosmalski took the helm.)
1. 182. The garden was established to memorialize Elizabeth Powell
Bond, Swarthmore’s dean of women from 1890 to 1906.
5.T. Kaori Kitao, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor Emerita of Art
History. You can find her speech in the June 2000 issue of the
Bulletin (bit.ly/Bulletin0600).
4. Jane Richardson ’62, H’86. The creator of the Richardson
diagram, she is now a biochemistry professor at Duke University.
Boston University, where she earned a doctorate in Greek in 1877.
SUMMER 2019
3. Helen Magill White. The daughter of Swarthmore’s second
president, Edward Magill, Helen went on to graduate school at
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
ANSWER KEY
16
ACCORDING TO Julian Randall ’15, “Midwest kids don’t do
a lot of stunting on the same achievement.”
So envisioning just what’s next for this dazzling poet—
his first book, Refuse (University of Pittsburgh Press,
2018), won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize for 2017—tests the
imagination.
“I’m just trying to keep getting better, feel me? That’s all
I’m trying to do with whatever time I have left,” says Randall,
who writes at least 500 words a day. With Refuse out in
the world, Randall is immersed in exploring a new tone.
The 2019 NAACP Image Award nominee for Outstanding
Literary Work–Poetry (alongside the legendary Alice
Walker) says writing his first book was a navigation.
“You don’t quite know what those poems—and by
extension you—are fully capable of,” he says. “I’m just trying
to move more fully into knowing the breadth of my powers.”
Those powers tend to pulse on the page, such as in his
poem “Flex”:
Trees feathered with their hollowed offspring
Here the wind don’t howl just blooms a militia
Starting out, the Chicago native knew he had something to
say, but he wasn’t sure how to be heard. “What surprised me
was learning that I was not alone,” says Randall, who turned to
poetry in college as a means of managing his anxiety. His best
friend Noel Quiñones ’15 invited him to an open mic through
Swarthmore’s slam poetry group, Our Art Spoken in Soul
(OASIS), where “I found what I needed to to give voice to a
hurt I hadn’t known others were feeling at such a huge scale.”
Winning the Cave Canem Prize was a dream realized, says
Randall, but his focus has stayed intact. “I don’t think the
recognitions really separated me from my voice at all,” he
says. “The day I was named an Image Award finalist, I bought
myself a book to celebrate, and went back to work on my
novel.”
Especially supportive in Randall’s early work was Nathalie
Anderson, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of
NICHOLAS NICHOLS
by Kate Campbell
English Literature and director of the creative writing
program, who “helped me learn more about what I actually
wanted to explain in a poem and what I didn’t.”
As a Black studies and literature major, Randall says he
views the humanities as the indestructible moral center.
“I might sound mad corny saying this, but poetry is really a
priceless thing in this world,” he says. “I don’t know how it
could ever be properly valued.”
“Poetry is really a priceless thing in this world.”
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
17
common good
MARSHALL CURRY ’92
LIBERAL ARTS LIVES
by Elizabeth Slocum
+
RICHARD SHOTWELL/INVISION/AP
Curiosity drives this three-time
Oscar-nominated director
Marshall Curry ’92’s night at the Oscars in February
was a joyous affair, full of red-carpet photobombs
and celebrity encounters with the likes of civil rights
icon (and personal idol) U.S. Rep. John Lewis.
It stood in stark contrast to Curry’s A Night at
the Garden, the documentary short that landed
him there. The chilling film, pieced together from
archival clips, highlights a little-talked-about
rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939 where
20,000 Americans gathered to celebrate the rise
of Nazism.
“I thought the footage was a cautionary tale
about the way that demagogues whip up audiences
and take power,” says the Brooklyn-based Curry,
noting the eerie parallels between the political
climates of then and now. “They attack the press,
they scapegoat minorities, they wrap hate in the
icons of patriotism, they cheer casual violence
against protesters, and they use sarcastic,
sneering humor to dehumanize their opponents.
“Seeing the enthusiastic reaction of the
audience—New Yorkers who would be my
neighbors today—was particularly frightening.”
When a screenwriter friend told him about the
event, Curry didn’t believe him—“I figured there
was no way I had gotten through Swarthmore
without learning about that!” he says.
Intrigued, he called upon an archival researcher
for help, finding rally footage at the National
Archives, UCLA, and other institutions. The
resulting 7-minute documentary garnered Curry his
third Academy Award nomination, his first in the
short-subject category. (Period. End of Sentence.
ultimately took home the top prize.)
Though his previous work has largely been
unscripted—including his other Oscar-nominated
films, Street Fight (2005) and If a Tree Falls
(2011)—Curry recently released his first dramatic
short, The Neighbors’ Window, which premiered to
glowing reviews in April at the Tribeca Film Festival.
With every project, Curry is driven by a curiosity
and critical sense that he says Swarthmore helped
to sharpen.
“Some people make films because they have
something they want to say, but I’m usually
attracted to a topic because I have something I
want to understand,” he says. “Making a film gives
you a license to ask people personal questions,
to follow them closely, and to think deeply about
complex things.”
“Studying comparative religion was great preparation for becoming a
documentary filmmaker,” says Marshall Curry ’92, who majored in the subject.
“Religion teaches us to hold contradictory ideas in our heads at the same time—to
accept, for instance, that justice is a virtue, but so is mercy. And a good filmmaker
who is trying to capture human complexity as it really is often has to be able to do
that, too.”
LIBERAL ARTS LIVES
MASTER CRAFTSMAN
18
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
SEE IT: anightatthegarden.com
AWJIN AHN ’15 AND CATHERINE XIANG ’15
Filmmaker
“Having a wide range of interests has allowed me to nurture the different parts of myself to prioritize what I really want to do,” says Kimaya Diggs ’15.
FINDING
HER VOICE
She interprets stories
to process emotions
by Ryan Dougherty
KIMAYA DIGGS ’15 has not yet
recorded her second album, but the
experience has already gone gold.
She underwent surgery to fix her
vocal chords in January, then suffered
through two weeks of complete silence
and torment: Did it work?! Will I ever
really sing again?!
But at last the switch flipped, and
the songs poured out.
“I was reveling in the fact that I
could sing again,” says Diggs, an artist,
teacher, polymath, and more. “These
songs feel like a celebration.”
She wrote the new album in—and
to—her new voice. Diggs deems it more
upbeat and “dancy” than her debut,
Breastfed, on which she struggled to
sing because of her injury, and plans to
record it with a full band. “This one is
feeling really good,” she says. “It’s been
a much more joyful process.”
At Swarthmore, she majored in
English literature and threw herself
into musical performances of Here
in My Garden, South Pacific, and The
Royal Singer. That devotion likely led
to the calluses on her vocal chords.
After performing around the
world with the group Northern
Harmony, Diggs moved to western
Massachusetts to direct a chorus of
more than 100 children. There, she
spoke and sang so much that a callus
hemorrhaged, and she could use her
voice only 20 minutes a day. “I attach
so much of my self-worth to my
performances that I developed a very
diminished sense of myself,” she says.
Helping her through that pain was
a fulfilling music-therapy position,
as well as the private music lessons
and graphic-design gigs, all of which
contributed to supporting her music.
It’s a path Diggs did not foresee
while at Swarthmore. But it was there
that she caught the bug, recording her
first demo (which became “Bus Stop”
on her debut) on a cracked iPhone.
“It was such an incredible moment
to realize I could do this sort of
creative, analytical, storytelling kind
of thing,” Diggs says. “And that’s still
what fuels me today.”
KIMAYA DIGGS ’15
Singer
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
19
SEEING
HUMANITY
by Karen Brooks
20
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
“It is so easy along the very long road to becoming a physician to get sucked into medicine, medicine,
medicine—but most people you meet don’t come from that background,” says Daniel Hodson ’09.
SUMMER 2019
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
21
LAURENCE KESTERSON
In health-focused fields,
an appreciation for art
and culture, language and
literature connects
professionals to their
patients—and one another
“When you study science, you learn about
science. When you study the humanities,
you learn how to communicate, relate to
others, and have a shared experience.”
—Daniel Hodson ’09
22
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
MARCH OF DIMES FOUNDATION
E
IGHT YEARS LATER, Dan Hodson ’09
can still hear the wailing: “A woppii kam.
A woppii kam!”
Hodson hasn’t retained many words
from Fulacounda, the dialect spoken in the district of
southern Senegal where he volunteered with the Peace
Corps from 2011 to 2015—but he will always remember this
phrase, which translates to “You threw me away.” Crumbling
with grief, a woman cried it over and over as she watched
a young girl die at a health post during the region’s rainy
season, when more than 80 percent of malaria cases occur.
This was the first time, but certainly not the last, that
Hodson saw death close up. During his service in West
Africa, the scourge of malaria dominated his attention. He
coordinated mosquito net distributions, created malaria
education programs, trained community care providers,
and lobbied politicians for malaria rapid diagnostic tests
and first-line antimalarials. He relied on his host family,
fellow volunteers, and local health workers for support
and collaboration at every step. Hodson, who earned a
bachelor’s in psychology with a minor in theater, credits his
foundation in the humanities with helping him build strong
connections to these diverse individuals from a wide variety
of backgrounds.
Enrollment in academic humanities programs has waned
as an emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics) professions has swept the nation.
According to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
the number of undergraduate humanities degrees granted in
2015, the last year for which data is available, had dropped
nearly 10 percent from three years prior. But as this trend
has persisted, so have humanities champions who maintain
that exploring literature, history, philosophy, languages,
religion, music, and the arts fosters invaluable traits such
as a plasticity of mind, an ability to view the world from
different perspectives, and an understanding of human
endeavors over time. The resulting skill set particularly
benefits those pursuing careers in health care delivery,
research, and advocacy—as demonstrated by several
Swarthmore alumni, including Hodson.
“One thing that drew me to Swarthmore was its emphasis
not on someone’s opinions or beliefs, but their ability
to think critically and engage in meaningful dialogue.
This concept is so important when you’re working with
people from different backgrounds, and it’s the core of the
humanities,” says the Yale School of Medicine student.
“When you study science, you learn about science. When you
study the humanities, you learn how to communicate, relate
to others, and have a shared experience.”
WRITING ON THE WALL
On another occasion, Hodson watched a man carry his limp,
lethargic son into a rural health clinic, where caregivers
responded by administering a malaria rapid diagnostic test.
The child did not survive.
“In the U.S., if you were at death’s door, you would receive
intensive care unit-level care. This moment was poignant
not only because the boy died but because of the lack of
resources available,” says Hodson, noting that experiences
like this amplified his determination to persuade
government officials in Dakar to allocate more supplies
across southern Senegal. Malaria is easy to diagnose and
treat, but residents in peripheral areas face barriers to
obtaining the necessary test kits and medications.
Hodson developed such a drive to solve the malaria crisis
that he spent the summer after his first year of medical
school conducting malaria research in Cameroon. At the end
of his subsequent semester, he returned for a short follow-up
trip before coming back to the States for the holidays.
The day after Christmas, he was visiting his girlfriend’s
family in a small New Hampshire town when he felt feverish
and tired.
“I was actually carrying malaria rapid diagnostic tests
and a few doses of a first-line antimalarial with me, since
I had just been in Cameroon and knew malaria was always
a possibility,” he says. “The test was positive, so I started
treatment—it was as simple as that. It was a huge irony that
I was sick with malaria in a remote place and happened to
have the medicine on me. If only that could be the case for
everyone.”
Hodson’s time overseas continues to inspire him today.
He writes notes on chalkboard walls in his bedroom—a habit
he formed in Senegal. He ties his bag to the back of his bike
as he was taught there. He wears a neon yellow knitted cap
made by a community health worker who named his son
Mamady Daniel. And he is eager to begin a primary care
clinical rotation this fall in the poorest county of Tennessee,
a low-resource area where he hopes to draw on lessons he
learned in Senegal. He also remains in touch with many
of the people he met during his Peace Corps service and
believes his humanities background has helped nurture that
closeness.
“It is so easy along the very long road to becoming a
physician to get sucked into medicine, medicine, medicine—
but most people you meet don’t come from that background,”
he says. “If all you know is science and medicine, you’re
not going to be able to identify and interact with people.
And what mattered most throughout all of my experiences
is relationships with my host family, friends, and
collaborators.”
Chris Howson ’71, who earned a B.A. in anthropology
and sociology before pursuing a doctorate in epidemiology,
echoes the importance of developing interpersonal
communication skills through the humanities. Now an
independent global health consultant, Howson spent 12
years doing health research with the Institute of Medicine
(now the National Academy of Medicine) and 18 years
Chris Howson ’71, an independent global health
consultant with a doctorate in epidemiology, stresses the
importance of developing interpersonal communication
skills through the humanities.
“My education taught
me to enter into
the minds of other
people—to see their
perspectives and
understand their fears,
hopes, and dreams.”
—Chris Howson ’71
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SOCIAL JUSTICE AS A MOTIVATOR
Kendra McDow ’07, a pediatrician serving an Epidemic
Intelligence Service fellowship with the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, came to Swarthmore planning to
focus on the sciences. To meet College requirements for
coursework in multiple academic divisions, she enrolled in a
religion class on Islam—and fell in love with the readings and
discussions.
“I discovered a breadth of thought I’d never been exposed
to before,” says McDow, who ultimately earned a dual
degree in biology and religion. “Religion involves more
than just theology. It’s people’s histories, philosophies, and
approaches to the world.”
These studies benefited McDow throughout her
medical training and later in her practice at a Marylandbased federally qualified health center that served a large
immigrant population.
“Our patients came from all over: the Middle East, South
America, Africa. My background allowed me to connect to
them with compassion; I understood how culture and belief
systems might impact their health and how I could deliver
care to them respectfully and effectively,” she explains. “For
example, when you’re examining a patient who wears a head
covering, there are certain ways you should touch them, and
I recognized that.”
Like Hodson and Howson, McDow views her work
through a lens of social justice. When an uninsured Nigerian
immigrant came into her office with her 10-year-old son,
whose severe arm pain had been dismissed by emergency
physicians, McDow performed a comprehensive exam and
determined he had sickle cell disease; she then persistently
followed up to make sure he got the care he needed. When a
teenager from a troubled family came in seeking a pregnancy
test, McDow took the time to get to know her; she learned
about the girl’s history of depression, drug use, and suicide
attempts, then spent an entire year working with colleagues
to secure a spot for her in a residential treatment facility.
“The paperwork and coordination needed for this to
happen took so long—families could never do it on their own.
These patients have to overcome so many barriers to obtain
equitable access to health care,” McDow says. “As a black
woman, a physician, and a public health professional, I want
to be a voice for minorities in America.”
Social justice is also a motivator for Noah Metheny ’03,
who studied political science with a minor in history and
a concentration in peace and conflict studies, then earned
a law degree and a master of public health. Metheny has
devoted much of his career to empowering and advocating
for people living with HIV/AIDS and now lives in Geneva,
where he leads community engagement efforts for the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
Metheny pursued public health because it is a unique
approach to addressing broader human rights concerns.
“I work to strengthen advocates’ capacities to tackle
underlying social justice issues that make their communities
vulnerable to these diseases,” he says. “The HIV epidemic, in
particular, starkly illustrates the injustices and incoherence
within societies and health systems. It impacts some of the
most marginalized, disenfranchised, and oppressed, who
often experience compounding discrimination due to gender
identity, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, immigration
status, or socioeconomic status.”
The interdisciplinary nature of peace and conflict studies
helped Metheny carve out his professional path; his courses,
which covered everything from history to religion to politics,
consistently emphasized social context.
“My professors and the other students created spaces
to talk and debate, not only about what is written in every
textbook, but also the real, lived experiences of people who
... might not have had the power or privilege to have their
experiences documented in the same way,” he explains.
“We discussed and analyzed information in a critical way
that allowed me to form my own opinions, then identify and
understand connections to broader issues, often involving
social justice.”
DANIEL NATHAN
with the March of Dimes, which he joined in 1998 to build
the maternal and child health organization’s first global
programs, primarily to support developing countries.
Howson’s work has taken him all over the world, and he
attributes his ability to engage with researchers from widely
varying backgrounds to his study of cultural anthropology,
“a fascinating field that deals with different human societies
and elements of cultural life.”
The competencies he cultivated at Swarthmore have
served him beyond professional interactions. Once, when
traveling in a region that was less than welcoming to
Westerners, he found himself amidst an unfriendly group.
He did the only thing he could think of: grabbing three rocks
off the ground and starting to juggle.
“They all crowded around,” Howson recalls. “I stopped
and held a rock out to the person in front and motioned
asking if he wanted to learn to juggle. Suddenly, he smiled,
and everything was cool. Underneath it all, we really are the
same.
“My education taught me to enter into the minds of other
people—to see their perspectives and understand their
fears, hopes, and dreams,” he continues. “I became more
compassionate, more accepting, and more understanding of
astounding diversity that is all around me.”
For Kendra McDow ’07, a class on Islam—where she fell in love with the readings and discussions—led to a double-major in biology and religion.
“Our patients came from all over. …
I understood how culture and belief systems
might impact their health and how I could
deliver care to them respectfully and
effectively.”
—Kendra McDow ’07
24
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
SUMMER 2019
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25
Noah Metheny ’03 says the interdisciplinary nature of peace and conflict studies helped him carve out a professional path in public health.
“We discussed and analyzed information in a
critical way that allowed me to form my own
opinions, then identify and understand
connections to broader issues, often
involving social justice.”
—Noah Metheny ’03
26
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
“The humanities deal with
emotion, motivation,
psychology, spirituality,
and empathy, and these
things stay with you for a
lifetime. My belief is that
everyone should learn
culture and compassion
in college and then learn
their trade in graduate
school.”
BETH GAGE
ERIC NELSON
THE HEART OF WHAT MATTERS
About five years ago, Jim Forrester ’59, longtime cardiology
chief and the George Burns and Gracie Allen Professor
Emeritus of Cardiovascular Research at Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center in Los Angeles, was reflecting on his career
and how it all began: with one of his first coronary disease
patients, a 39-year-old man named Willie. Forrester called
him “Willie the Phillie,” a nod to the men’s shared love of
Philadelphia baseball.
When Willie died of a heart attack, Forrester was at his
bedside.
“I felt helpless because there was no treatment at that
time, and all I could offer him was morphine for pain relief.
I knew medicine had to be better than that,” says Forrester,
who vowed to find ways to reduce deaths from heart attack.
He succeeded. Over a career spanning more than five
decades, he developed several major advancements,
including the Forrester Classification—a method of
assessing heart function, drug response, and prognosis
in real time as an inpatient is having a heart attack. The
approach, and several others pioneered by Forrester and his
peers, revolutionized heart-failure treatment.
“Today, Willie the Phillie would have survived to live a
long, fulfilling life,” says Forrester, who was inspired by
memories of his friendship with the patient to write The
Heart Healers: The Misfits, Mavericks, and Rebels Who
Cardiologist Jim Forrester ’59, who majored in English literature,
says his education taught him how to express himself effectively—
a skill he has relied on throughout his career.
—Jim Forrester ’59
SUMMER 2019
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LAURENCE KESTERSON
Cardiologist Nazanin Moghbeli ’96 spends at least an hour each morning painting.
“Art education improves observation skills and
empathy. It forces you to figure things out and make
yourself vulnerable by accepting the discomfort in
not having clear-cut answers.”
—Nazanin Moghbeli ’96
28
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
Created the Greatest Medical Breakthrough of Our Lives.
Reading like a novel, the 2015 book traces the evolution
of cardiology while detailing Forrester’s personal and
professional encounters with innovators who transformed
the field.
Forrester, who majored in English literature, says his
education taught him how to express himself effectively—a
skill he has relied on for more than just book-writing. In
fact, he believes he owes his entire career to his humanities
background. Shortly after he completed his training and
joined what was then a small community hospital in
California, the National Institutes of Health announced
its largest-ever clinical research program, which would
establish nine heart attack research units across the country.
Forrester’s supervisor charged him with crafting their
group’s grant, knowing he had writing skills that physicians
with exclusively science backgrounds didn’t.
“With our grant, we challenged conventional wisdom
and thought outside the box, which is what my humanities
education was all about,” Forrester says. “Other institutions
proposed looking at bed-rest treatment, but ours was an
entirely different proposal to catheterize the heart and treat
right in middle of heart attack.”
The creativity paid off: Grant awardees included eight
large, well-known universities “and our little private hospital
with its radical ideas.” Forrester led the newly established
research unit for the next 20 years.
Another cardiologist, Nazanin Moghbeli ’96, also thrives
off creativity. Most mornings, Moghbeli wakes at 5, turns on
the Persian music she’s listened to since her childhood in
Iran, and spends at least an hour painting. The opportunity
to unleash her creative energy leaves her more focused on
Last fall, Swarthmore College and Thomas Jefferson
University announced an early acceptance program
for Swarthmore students interested in becoming
physicians with expertise in health policy, population
health, and community engagement. The program
combines medical education, community engagement,
and policy for the public good. “Swarthmore has long
produced doctors from diverse academic backgrounds
who go on to be leaders in their field,” says President
Valerie Smith. “Doctors trained in the liberal arts are
increasingly vital to the profession for their ability
to treat patients holistically. The fact that medical
schools seek out Swarthmore students demonstrates
that they appreciate the value of an excellent liberal
arts education.”
her work parenting three children and directing the cardiaccare unit at Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia.
Moghbeli earned a dual degree in biology and art, fields
that seem disparate but that she feels complement each
other perfectly, especially when it comes to cardiology.
“The way the heart works is beautiful, and so is the imagery
in the pictures we do—angiograms, echocardiograms,
electrocardiograms. I am constantly looking at visual
interpretations of scientific information that appeal to me
both aesthetically and intellectually.”
Medical practice is intense and draining, notes Moghbeli,
who works two-week blocks in the cardiac intensive care
unit, a stressful environment where patients are very ill
and often dying. Painting rejuvenates her and protects her
from burnout. Her art background also helps her connect
with patients; once, a man asked to delay a surgery until he
finished restoring a car—and instead of rolling her eyes, she
identified with his passion and supported him.
Three years ago, Moghbeli collaborated with the
Philadelphia Museum of Art to introduce an art workshop
for medical residents at the hospital where she worked at
the time. The class was so successful that she has begun
offering it at Einstein and is developing a similar program for
Descartes University in Paris, where she lived for a year.
“Art education improves observation skills and empathy,”
she says. “It forces you to figure things out and make yourself
vulnerable by accepting the discomfort in not having clearcut answers. You learn to think more creatively.”
SYNTHESIZE THIS
Humanities education does not simply prepare people to be
artists, novelists, musicians, historians, and philosophers. It
teaches them to be self-aware, well-rounded problem solvers
who are equipped for a career in any field.
“Programs that only emphasize science and technology
fail to develop students’ emotional IQ, which is a crucial
deficiency,” Forrester says. “The humanities deal with
emotion, motivation, psychology, spirituality, and empathy,
and these things stay with you for a lifetime. My belief is that
everyone should learn culture and compassion in college and
then learn their trade in graduate school.”
Rather than strictly being vocational training, an
undergraduate experience like that at Swarthmore lends
itself to opportunities for learning about subjects that cause
people to think more broadly about the world, as well as their
place in it.
Chris Howson distills it this way: “The most creative
people are synthesizers who can pull in things from different
fields and make them fit. You can’t engage in the humanities
without developing some understanding of and appreciation
for diversity. This brings people closer together—and when
we’re closer together, the world is better for it.
SUMMER 2019
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29
C
FALLING
FOR THE
CLASSICS
The love of the text ignites this
close-knit group in Manhattan
by Amy Stone ’64
30
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
ALL IT LOVE. Call it fervor.
Call it an inner need that could
not be quelled.
If an old-style Swarthmore
honors seminar was reborn
in Manhattan, it could well be
New York City’s Ancient Greek Reading Group.
Often gathering in a SoHo loft, members
come by train from Westchester County and
the Hudson Valley, by subway from Manhattan
and Queens, and, for the group’s first five years,
by car from Swarthmore driven by the original
mentor, Gil Rose.
The small group of readers, who have met
monthly for more than a decade, are drawn
together by their deep respect for the ancient
work and an unquenchable desire to continue
to learn from it.
In the seminar tradition, they discuss text for
four to five hours, with a nontraditional break
for sushi, wine, and, yes, the occasional fig.
The club formed from Rose’s “The Athenian
Golden Age,” a 2006 course offered in New York
through Lifelong Learning at Swarthmore. A
few alumni wanted to read the Greek classics
in the original. Rose, the Lippincott Professor
Emeritus of Modern and Classical Languages,
was game.
Rose had fallen hard for ancient Greek during
his senior year at Berkeley.
“It appealed to something deep inside me,”
he says, noting that he even dreamed in the
language, “and I attacked the first year of Greek
ferociously.”
Barbara Probst Morrow ’66 majored in
French at Swarthmore but came to the group
with a master’s in classical Greek from
Columbia. A member of the four-person
editorial staff at The New York Review of
Books in the ’70s and ’80s, Morrow is now on
the board of the Friends of the Hastings-onHudson Public Library in Westchester County,
N.Y., and leads ESL conversation classes at a
center for new immigrants. Her motivation for
taking on ancient Greek was to read the Iliad in
its original language.
“The figure of Achilles deeply attracted me,”
says Morrow. “More than any of the other
heroes, he is able to face—to accept—his own
death. I think ancient Greek language and
literature resemble Achilles.
“I continue to love the clarity I find in ancient
Greek, and to be exhilarated and, at times,
defeated by its complexity.”
Demetri Bonaros ’97, who lives in Astoria,
Queens, is one of two original members still
involved in the group. The initial undertaking
was “the ultimate eccentricity,” he says.
The Fall of Icarus painted by Marc Chagall in 1975.
SUMMER 2019
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31
some people who might be interested in classical studies—
and not the languages—might become motivated to learn the
languages, which is exactly what has happened,” Ledbetter says.
“We still regularly send students to the top Ph.D. programs in
classics, and those students have read a staggering amount of
Greek and Latin in our program—for example, the entire Odyssey
in the Greek Epic honors seminar.”
The new classics offerings have encouraged intellectual
exploration without excluding curious students who haven’t yet
mastered the language, says Provost and Professor of Sociology
Sarah Willie-LeBreton.
“Our extraordinary faculty have not only increased class sizes,
but have reminded all of us that inclusion and accessibility reveal
what a true liberal arts education offers,” she says. “From gods to
ruins, odysseys to mountains, classical studies is a 21st-century
program for students seeking answers to humanity’s most vexing
and timeless questions.”
Other innovations have included offering classical Hebrew and
new courses in Sanskrit; supporting an increasing number of
students to work on archaeological digs over the summer; as well
as lectures and social gatherings to foster a sense of community.
“Although it is not yet a permanent part of our program,
the courses we have been able to offer in Sanskrit during the
2018–2019 year have been a huge success,” says Jeremy
Lefkowitz, associate professor of classics. “Not only is the
Sanskrit language as rich, beautiful, and challenging as any I have
ever encountered—I have been enjoying studying it for over a
year now, too—but offering Sanskrit also shifts in positive ways
the demographics of who studies classics.
“Moving forward, we need to think about becoming a
department invested in the study of the ancient world in all of
its diversity,” he adds. “Classics has
always been concerned with philology
and the unearthing and re-animating
of buried, silenced worlds—there is
no limit to how broad and diverse our
vision of antiquity can become.”
Lefkowitz hopes the next decade
will reveal an even more radical
evolution of the classics, both on
campus and beyond.
“We must continue to broaden the
boundaries and parameters of what
and how we study, and seek ways to
make our field more responsive to,
and representative of, the diverse
society of which it forms such a vital
part,” he says.
To Ledbetter, the addition of
classical studies was a great step
forward. “These changes have
expanded us,” she says. “This is the
wave of the future.”
—KATE CAMPBELL
AGF SRL / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
Even in study of antiquity, there are opportunities to evolve, says
Swarthmore Chair of Classics Grace Ledbetter. A recent review of
how requirements were assessed for the classics major revealed
an out-of-date assumption that students must have already had
a background in Greek or Latin—credits for beginning courses in
those languages didn’t even count toward the major.
Soon, the department was envisioning ways to keep classics
both a rigorous academic discipline and an inclusive, evolving
curriculum. “We wanted those credits to count,” says Ledbetter,
“and to acknowledge that many people don’t necessarily study
Greek or Latin in high school.”
And so, a new option emerged: classical studies. “The classical
studies major allows students to count any language work they
do in Greek or Latin, but does not require them to do work in the
languages,” says Ledbetter.
Faculty added a double-credit classical studies capstone
seminar with all readings in English. Greek, Latin, ancient history,
and classical studies can be studied as majors or minors in either
course or honors. Three of these subjects (Greek, Latin, and
ancient history) require advanced work in one of the original
languages; however, a major or minor in classical studies does
not require, but can include, language study.
The move to offer an option that did not require language
study was bold, says Ledbetter. “The idea of having a major that
didn’t require the languages appeared threatening to what we
consider the center of what we do, which is to teach the ancient
languages, and to teach them really well,” she says.
Initial concern stemmed from the notion that if the department
offered an option that did not require language study, students
might be less likely to major in Greek, Latin, or ancient history.
However, “our idea, which turned out to be accurate, was that
The ancient Greek amphitheater of Segesta in Sicily, Italy.
32
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
LAURENCE KESTERSON
ALL ANCIENT WORLDS
In New York, the Ancient Greek Reading Group has met monthly for more than a decade. The
discussions of text can last for up to five hours—snack breaks included.
Despite having grown up in Athens,
Bonaros insists his knowledge of
ancient Greek was almost nonexistent.
The start of the group “was entirely
unexpected” for the math and theater
major—“one of those serendipitous
and life-changing events.” He’s
gone on to co-run Eclipses Group
Theater New York, a “cultural bridge
between Greece and the USA”
promoting modern and ancient Greek
performance art. The reading group
was in attendance for Hercules: In
Search of a Hero, Bonaros’s translation
of excerpts from Euripides’s plays
Alcestis and Hercules, exploring gender
and heroism.
Classics major Jane Alpert ’67
still recalls her joy at Swarthmore
while “hooked on the mystery and
arcaneness” of ancient Greek— “the
sense of being initiated into another
world that others didn’t have access
to.” A charter member of the reading
group, she encountered some anxiety
before their first session, “with the
very easy assignment, just crying at my
desk because I’d forgotten more than I
remembered.” She persevered, though,
and has been an active participant ever
since.
Though grammar work is no longer
assigned in the group, the session
format remains the same: Members
decide what major work they’d like
to take on, translating 300 to 400
lines for each meeting. They may get
through half that amount together—
translating directly from the text, with
some discussion of interpretive and
grammatical issues.
The current group includes two
Harvard grads and has attracted new
mentors as needed—including two
Rose protégés, Carolyn Jones Dewald
’68 and Rachel Kitzinger ’69. For now,
the group alternates between Dewald
leading them in histories and Kitzinger
doing tragedies.
This spring, they completed
Thucydides’s History of the
Peloponnesian War with Dewald, a
professor emerita of classical studies
at Bard College. With Thucydides’s
primary focus an exploration of
military and political power and
its abuse, Dewald considers his
observations and analysis about
Athens in the 5th century B.C. “all too
depressingly relevant today.”
Dewald was guide as the group
toiled its way through Thucydides’s
complex syntax and vocabulary,
focusing discussions on the central
issues of Greek civic culture and
the way political decisions by
individuals and groups had enormous
consequences for Greek—and even
European—history.
“Our intrepid seminar members
really got it,” Dewald says—finding
especially gripping the work’s
depiction of the complete collapse of
the Athenian democratic state.
Led by Kitzinger, professor emerita
of classics at Vassar, the group is now
tackling the Eumenides, the last play
in Aeschylus’s great Oresteia trilogy.
The works chronicle Clytemnestra’s
murder of her husband, Agamemnon,
for his sacrificial slaughter of their
daughter, Iphigenia; Orestes’s murder
of his mother to avenge the death of his
father; and Orestes’s trial. On a grand
scale, Kitzinger explains the trilogy
as the movement from the justice of
familial vengeance to the justice of the
law court in a democratic state.
For Kitzinger, part of the attraction
of these meetings is finding an
opportunity in retirement to return to
reading Greek literature for pleasure—
“no grading, no papers, just the love of
the text.”
Over the years, members have
become close. They don’t socialize
much outside their meetings, but
they’ve been through major life events
together. What unites the Ancient
Greek Reading Group—and why
members have been drawn to this
group for so long—is the opportunity
for reflection. To quote Plato (who is
believed to be quoting Socrates):
The unexamined life is not to be lived.
“It’s an amazing piece of wisdom
that comes from a small community
in Greece some 2,400 years ago,” says
Rose.
Morrow agrees.
“I obviously come down firmly on the
value of the humanities and classical
language,” she says. “It’s beauty and it’s
truth. If you have the chance to study
Greek or Latin, seize it.”
SUMMER 2019
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33
QUESTION,
CHALLENGE,
AND IMAGINE
The ways in which we are influenced by art, literature, the classics, religion,
philosophy, music, theater, film, and dance are layered by centuries of
storytelling. Together, they build a global meeting place for new and creative
ideas. At Swarthmore, innovation is key in teaching the humanities. Explore a
sample of the vibrant—and critical—fabric of the humanities on campus.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
by Ryan Dougherty
34
“Humanities build
bridges between various
individuals, subcultures,
and cultures,” says
Nadia Malaya ’22.
“There is no making a
just decision without an
understanding of what
justice is; no effectiveness
of communication with
the other side without
understanding its roots and
values; no common ground
without a shared cultural
code.” Malaya was part of a
creative team project that
addressed unconscious
biases on race, gender, and
sexuality. “The viewers coconstruct the exhibit with
us as they contribute to the
space, cooperate with each
other, and engage with the
objects displayed.”
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
The humanities inform
our perceptions—and
sometimes reshape them
PERCEPTION is a mostly subconscious process, says
Nadia Malaya ’22, of Moscow. “It’s important to be more
aware of what affects it—and to, therefore, have a greater
understanding how we perceive the world around us.”
Last October, Percepticon, an interactive, three-room
installation created by students and faculty from the
departments of film & media studies and theater, ran in
Beardsley Hall. Think museum meets escape room—a chance
to explore and engage a patchwork of audiovisuals designed to
rattle your perspective and shatter the status quo.
The creative team offered “an unsettling immersive
experience,” says Amy Kim ’19, an honors English literature
major and film & media studies minor from San Diego.
Sunka Simon, professor of German and film & media studies,
wanted people to see it as a productive challenge. “Not just a
brain spin,” says Simon, “but something they will really have
to troubleshoot and think about.”
Supported by a Mellon Diversity grant and the Office of the
President, the exhibit invited visitors to spend 20 minutes
absorbing each of the interconnected rooms.
The material was not just a visual exercise, says Laila
Swanson, assistant professor of theater. The exhibit traced
back to a fall 2017 workshop on genre and mise-en-scène,
held by Simon and Swanson; Logan Tiberi-Warner ’11,
former administrative assistant for film & media studies;
and Bob Rehak, associate professor of film & media studies.
The workshop connected film & media studies with theater
and “the analytical and hypercritical with the hands-on
application that can often be lacking,” says Simon.
To that framework, Percepticon added the theme of
perception and notions of gender, race, class, and crosscultural thinking. The hope, says Kim, was that each
installation would push participants to question and
interrogate unconscious biases about race, gender, and
sexuality.
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“The cultivation and enactment of music, dance, theater, poetry nurtures our wonderment, our connection to the universe, to nature, and to each
other,” says Professor of Dance Pallabi Chakravorty. “Indian aesthetic theory calls it rasa ( juice, sap, or emotion).” Chakravorty’s company, Courtyard
Dancers, will host its biennial dance festival, Facing East, in October in Philadelphia.
The humanities create
community conversations
LAURENCE KESTERSON
Mensa Latina, or “Latin table,” came about from a
desire among some Swarthmore students to “vivify
our experience of Latin as a living language,” says
Tobias Philip ’20, a Greek major from Brooklyn, N.Y.
The group started in 2016 to create an
opportunity to practice the spoken Latin language,
“engaging with it as did generations before and
eschewing the 19th-century practice of sterile
textbook learning,” says Philip.
“The ideas and discussions of the ancients are,
rather, continuously present and formative to our
world,” he says. “Beyond any mercenary objective
of improving my grades, spoken Latin is one facet
whereby I communicate with the ancient world and
its ever-living reception.”
A number of independent student groups read
Greek outside of class regularly; this spring, for
example, Rebecca Rosenthal ’20 read Euripides’s
Medea with fellow Swatties. But Rosenthal
notes that Mensa Latina meetings are usually
intentionally about less-lofty topics.
“We play board games, talk about pets, or work
on our own translations of easy or colloquial
English texts,” says the Greek and art history major.
“Because the content is lighter fare than reading
for coursework, but still utilizes and drills Latin,
I find it a really useful way to study and improve
without really studying.”
Rosenthal joined to boost her skills and
appreciated the exposure to new grammatical
concepts. “I also got to build friendships with my
fellow classics students who were more advanced
than me in Latin,” she says. “As someone who is
looking for a career in language pedagogy, it has
been great to work with my peers to examine new
routes of learning and teaching the language.”
Studying the humanities today is important for
the same reason it always has been: “for thinking
through your own values, priorities, and what kind
of life you want to live,” says Classics Chair Grace
Ledbetter.
“The ancient Greek philosophers, for example,
thought that the good life—and the happiest life—
was a life of virtue,” says Ledbetter, a professor
of classics and philosophy and the director of the
Honors Program. “They provided us with the tools
to investigate these ideas on our own. We still care
about these debates; we all still care about leading
the best possible life.
“Nothing could more relevant today, or at any
other time in history, for that matter.”
—KATE CAMPBELL
SASHA FORNARI
The humanities reveal
the world through
language
Building language skills and getting comfortable with grammatical concepts
are all part of the Mensa Latina, or “Latin table,” a Swarthmore group formed in
2016 where classics students forge friendships while working on translations.
Above: Tobias Philip ’20 (left) and Nathaniel Stern ’20 put a Latin spin on
Bananagrams.
“As someone who is looking for a career
in language pedagogy, it has been great
to work with my peers to examine new
routes of learning and teaching the
language.”
—Rebecca Rosenthal ’20
SWARTHMORE’S DANCE STUDENTS learn to situate
the performing arts within the larger discourses of culture,
power, and history.
The classes that Professor Pallabi Chakravorty teaches—
such as Dance and Diaspora, Anthropology of Performance,
and Arts in Action—are routinely cross-listed with sociology
& anthropology, religion, gender & sexuality studies, music,
and other departments and programs.
“These classes, among others, create a conversation
between the performing arts and other subjects from
humanities and the social sciences,” she says.
“The liberal arts approach combining practice and
analytical rigor inspires our students to see the performing
arts not merely as abstracted aesthetics, but connected
to identity, politics, democracy, and globalization. It also
teaches them how to write with clarity and develop their own
argument. It teaches close readings and analytical thinking
that is in the tradition of the humanities and social sciences.”
Build and collaborate
Students develop programs in and out of the
classroom, including these Mellon Grant-funded
projects from 2018–19: “Bridging Narrative
Through Art and Humanities,” from Kaitelyn
Pasillas ’20, Sonya Chen ’18, and Josie Hung
’19, offers a space for community members to
engage in meaningful discourses on race and
ethnic studies through the humanities and art.
“Reimagining Black Narratives: Considering the
Dominant Archetype of the African-American
Male,” from Cameron Wiley ’19, Sharples cook
Donny Thomas, and Louis Lainé ’16, challenges
the stereotypes, beliefs, and other limiting
implications that surround what it means to be a
Black male.
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24 hours of theater: Eugène Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano, staged this spring in a marathon manner.
The humanities teach us to see in new ways
The humanities stir our consciousness.
This spring, six Swarthmore students put on an absurdist play
in the most absurd way possible: by staging it 24 consecutive
times over the course of 24 hours. Shelby Billups ’20, Max
Marckel ’19, Arijit Nerurkar ’19, Josie Ross ’21, John Wojciehowski
’19, and Emily Uhlmann ’19 performed Eugène Ionesco’s The Bald
Soprano for the Theater Department’s acting capstone. The
marathon concluded with a community serving of pancakes.
Swarthmore also bolstered its commitment to creativity and
interdisciplinarity with the opening of the MakerSpace & Wood
Shop, which became more widely used this year.
The space is open to anyone, for anything. “There’s almost
no limit to what you can create here,” says manager Russell
Prigodich. With nine student employees trained to monitor both
the wood shop and digital fabrication lab, the space invites all
students, faculty, staff, and alumni for about 60 hours each
week. It provides machines like 3-D printers, a 3-D scanner, and
a laser cutter—making it a big hit with engineering and sculpture
students.
And it’s been a creative hub for the 16 students who presented
their senior art exhibitions this spring, ranging in media from
functional ceramics and light sculptures to paintings, prints,
drawings, architectural studies, and collages.
The humanities build empathy
As Professor of English Literature Betsy
Bolton listened to her students discuss
Jane Austen’s work, she observed an
increased skill in reasoning, inference,
and critical analysis. The students
noted, too, when a character, such
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as Austen’s Emma, fell short in their
capacity for empathy, says Bolton.
It’s important to see such practices
evolving. “The humanities specialize
in questioning, challenging, and
articulating human values, as well as
imagining new possibilities,” she says.
“In a world of soaring atmospheric
carbon, economic inequality,
and social injustice, we need the
humanities more than ever before.”
Exploring Religion
“The study of religion is vital to the
humanities, and the arts and humanities
are vital to the historical mission of the
College,” says Professor and Chair of
Religion Yvonne Chireau.
In one collective project and learning
experience, students in Chireau’s African
Religions in the Old and New Worlds and
Religion and Food courses and Professor
James Padilioni’s Decolonizing Religion
course co-created traditional altars
in multiple campus spaces, including
McCabe Library, the Black Cultural
Center, and the Intercultural Center.
“More so than any other field, the
study of religion allows us to explore
the greatest questions of the human
experience in its many forms, through
languages, histories, and cultures,” says
Chireau. “It centers on how humans have
made moral, spiritual, and intellectual
sense of the world. It teaches profound
empathy and fosters human flourishing,
creativity, and equality among all beings.”
Understanding Art
In the Department of Art and Art History,
students learn many ways of thinking
about making art and about what art
might be, says Logan Grider, associate
professor of art and art coordinator. “As
the level of understanding progresses, I
move the focus away from observational
painting and toward the student,” he says.
“I see my job as a teacher as one where
I must first open eyes; second, get out
of their way; and then help them get
out of their own way in order to make
the work they are meant to create,”
Grider adds. “They learn to accept their
personal artistic nature at this point, and
typically this is also the stage where art
happens. Art comes in many forms and
can mean many things, but ultimately
all art addresses a larger bond that links
humanity.”
LAURENCE KESTERSON
SIMONA DWASS ’19
To appreciate
one another
“I wanted to explore lesser-known diaspora narratives and question what it means
to belong,” says Dorcas Tang ’19.
The humanities foster belonging
DORCAS TANG ’19, a studio art major and Spanish and educational
studies double minor from Malaysia, in April presented the photography
exhibition Los Paisanos del Puerto: Living Narratives of the Chinese
Diaspora Community in Puntarenas, Costa Rica.
While interning in Costa Rica, Tang realized she knew little about
the Chinese diaspora in Latin America. A third-generation Chinese
Malaysian, Tang felt strongly connected to the descendants of Chinese
immigrants residing in Puntarenas. She embarked on a seven-week
research trip, interviewing and photographing residents for what became
the photography exhibition.
“Through my lens, I wanted to explore lesser-known diaspora
narratives and question what it means to belong,” says Tang. “For the
community I documented, it was important to them that their stories
be visibilized. It was a way that the beauty of their stories, previously
unheard, were finally being validated.” —LAUREN McALOON
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N
OT LONG AGO, David ’70 and Janice
Archer Rosenbaum ’70 set out on a drive to
northwest Iowa to buy some refurbished
hog feeders. They traveled through a
thousand miles of farm country, past
operations cultivating many of the same
products—hogs, corn, soybeans, barley, chickens—as their
own Olathe, Colorado-based Winddrift Farms. No strangers to
industrialized agribusiness, the Rosenbaums have competed
with grocery-store pork for more than three decades.
Still, the sterile, rural landscapes they observed from the
road unsettled them.
“When I was a kid, farms would have a pen for a few cows,
some pigs, and a chicken house,” says Jan, who grew up in
Ohio and northeastern Connecticut. “Now, you still see the
old house sitting up on the hill, but all the outbuildings are
gone, and in some places it’s just a 3-acre lawn with a huge
machine shop. That’s it, for acres and acres.”
It can be tempting to conclude that the economics of
family farming don’t add up these days. Markets tend to favor
bigger operations that use industrial, extractive methods,
like feeding antibiotics to pigs in indoor confinement pens,
or spraying crops with soil-harming anhydrous ammonia to
maximize yields when the market price is high.
But the Rosenbaums believe there is a better way
of assigning value when it comes to food production.
For decades, they have demonstrated that sustainable
approaches and alternative economic models can pay
off. Those values put into practice over the past 30 years
reflect the family’s Quaker leanings and deep roots in the
Swarthmore intellectual tradition.
“I guess we’re the ‘small is beautiful’ kind of idea: Know
your producer, and know your customer,” Jan says. “It’s an
encouraging sign that we can make a living doing that.”
Intergenerational cooperation guides the Rosenbaums of Winddrift Farms
by Michael Agresta
photography by Joe Rosenbaum ’68
A CRASH COURSE IN FARM ECONOMICS
The Rosenbaums’ first foray into farming, in the late 1970s,
ended in financial distress.
Young, freewheeling, and just a few years removed from
Swarthmore, the couple moved to Colorado after the birth of
their first two children, Nancy ’96 and Betsy ’98.
One day while out driving, they met Mrs. Grett, a dairy
farmer’s wife who was looking for some help because her
father-in-law was slowing down, Jan says. They started
working for the family, milking cows.
After gaining a few years of invaluable—and unexpected—
farm experience, the Rosenbaums were able to buy their own
farm in 1977, opting for hog farming because it was cheaper
than dairy. (Though their time around cows was short, their
relationship with the Gretts was for the long haul: Jan and
Dave bought additional farmland from the family just a few
years ago, calling it “JOG” for “Jewel of Grettdom.”)
The pair put together an operation of about 110 sows in
Olathe. But after a few years, much of the U.S. agricultural
industry entered a crisis of skyrocketing interest rates and
debt, while commodity prices and land values fell. Soon,
the Rosenbaums found themselves on the wrong end of a
variable-rate mortgage and washed out of farming.
“It took them 10 years or so to pay everything back from
that venture,” says son George ’01, who grew up under the
shadow of that debt. “So now, the impetus on Winddrift
Farms is much more of a locally sourced, locally consumed
business model.”
A CASE STUDY IN SUSTAINABILITY
Even more than his sisters, Nancy and Betsy, who arrived
in Colorado as small children, George Rosenbaum was born
into farming. As kids, he and his siblings brought home from
a friend’s house the incredible sow Agnes, who delivered 12
litters—inspiring the elder Rosenbaums to seriously pursue
farming again.
These days, Winddrift Farms produces about 500 pigs
per year for markets in local Montrose County, Durango,
and Grand Junction. They also keep a few cows and raise
about 100 chickens per year. All are raised with access to
the outdoors, and antibiotics are used only sparingly. At an
industrial confinement farm, pig waste might be washed
into an anaerobic lagoon with the potential to pollute local
watersheds; at Winddrift, it’s instead incorporated into the
agricultural cycle, stored in dry piles, and spread onto fields
once a year as compost.
Since George joined his parents as a partner in the farm in
2012, Winddrift has also focused on vertical integration.
“If we’re growing our own feed, we have a constant market
for the grain that we produce, and we have fixed feed costs,”
George explains. “That allows us to then fix our costs to our
“We’re the ‘small is
beautiful’ kind of idea:
Know your producer,
and know your
customer.”
—Jan Archer Rosenbaum ’70
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FARMING IS CONSTANT LEARNING
Each of us—Jan, Dave, and George—was
interested in agriculture prior to our college
experiences.
Farming is a constant learning experience.
Particularly in a vertically integrated farm,
the number of variables is great: soil health,
genetics, herd health, feeds and feeding, product
quality, marketing, and sales.
A large part of our success is in creating
successful situations for others, from suppliers
to buyers. Having a broader background helps
us live with others’ political views with mutual
respect. Dave has used the biology of animal
communities idea that the bee colony is the
individual in his approach to herd health; Jan
started re-reading M.I. Finley’s The World of
Odysseus on our first farm with kids when it
seemed all the neighbors wanted to talk about
was the Denver Broncos.
—JANICE ARCHER ROSENBAUM ’70, an art
history major at Swarthmore
customers—if we’re selling a pig a year to a family, they can
budget.”
George didn’t originally intend to pursue farming full time,
but after studying biology at Swarthmore and then spending
several years in Hawaii’s construction industry, he decided
to return to his rural roots.
“What I’m doing now at the farm,” he says, “is much more
satisfying.”
With the assurance that Winddrift will persist into the
next generation, Jan and David have reinvested in the
farm, particularly in the feed-growing operation, where
George brought a passion for soil health as a new frontier
of sustainability. He introduced a crop rotation system that
minimizes tillage, which can harm soil microbial activity,
and presented on his experience at the Western Colorado
Soil Health Conference, encouraging other farmers in their
community to give the system a try.
“Every decision that we make,” George says, “our most
important priority is: Is this going to benefit our soil health?”
MORE THAN JUST PRODUCTION
Community is key for the Rosenbaums and Winddrift. Jan
and George both credit David with developing a marketing
strategy that allows their product to reach the sorts of
customers who are interested in healthy, sustainable, local
food—it’s one of the trickiest factors to master for idealistic
farmers.
“Hogs grow so fast that your marketing window is maybe
“The humanities at Swarthmore enhanced
our abilities to learn and confidently apply
and communicate that knowledge.”
three weeks,” Jan says. “So it takes a lot of arranging to get
everybody satisfied.”
Though they have earned a “natural” affidavit for their
pork, the Rosenbaums haven’t pursued an “organic”
designation for their products.
“With that label, there’s a lot of abuse,” Jan says. “The idea
of ‘organic’ produce in plastic bags shipped 1,600 miles is not
something we’re looking to do.”
Instead, they’re focused on developing and maintaining
relationships with customers nearby. George’s next big
idea that he hopes will catch on regionally is the “just
price” model. In this centuries-old, ethics-based theory of
economic relations, values are set not by a commodities
exchange, but by reasonable agreements between customer
and producer, neighbor and neighbor.
To the Rosenbaums, the validity of just pricing is obvious.
After all, they were nearly ruined financially decades ago by
volatility in the national commodities market, and they’ve
seen neighbors damage their soil for years to come, trying to
make the most of a single harvest.
The model also fits neatly with the tradition handed
down from David’s Quaker mother, and from the College
experience that the whole family shares.
“We try to see that of God in everyone,” says Jan. “We’re
not meeting-attenders; we just try to value and do right by
everyone.”
“I would say, ‘Do all the good you can to all the people you
can in all the ways you can as long as you can,’ pretty much
sums up my religious beliefs,” George says.
That shared ethical compass is at the heart of what makes
the family farm successful.
“Even though there might be some differences in terms
of how we’re getting there, we’re all pushing in the same
direction,” George says. “It takes work, but Swarthmore’s
definitely helped in our ability to communicate openly and
honestly.”
George Rosenbaum ’01 showed his grandfather, the late Robert A. Rosenbaum (visiting professor of mathematics at Swarthmore, 1950–1951), how
the combine harvests corn. At right, soybeans are watered at Winddrift Farms.
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CROWNING GLORY
Ancient May Day tradition once thrived at Swarthmore
S
IXTEEN CROWDED
trains pulled into
Swarthmore station
on what felt like
the first real day of
spring in 1926. The
excited passengers swept up the wide
walk toward Parrish’s steps to ask
sunbathing students for directions to
the gala.
At 2 o’clock, the revelers gathered
near the Rose Garden. Thirty women
in white danced to violin and flute,
nimbly weaving their red and white
streamers around the maypole.
“For the first time in history,” the
Phoenix humorously proclaimed, “the
maypole was successfully wound and
unwound.”
Later that day, a musical Italian
carnival was held in the original
wooden amphitheater. The Queen of
May and her court were entertained
by “men” in breeches and bright
waistcoats who led picture-hatted
maidens in a French dance. Peasants
and flower girls all took part in the
revelry before the Queen departed.
First officially celebrated at
Swarthmore in 1904, May Day traces
its roots to ancient Greek and Roman
festivals. The College’s first festivities
began in the early morning, with
female freshmen delivering newly
assembled baskets of campus flora
to the dorm doors of senior women.
Later, a procession led by the basket-
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SUMMER 2019
carrying, capped-and-gowned seniors
wound its way to a maypole—or
sometimes to four, one for each class.
The maypole dance was performed in
good humor, perfection not required.
The Queen, announced one year by “a
scarlet-cloaked herald mounted on a
white charger,” was then crowned in
all her glory. On alternate years, the
women staged an elaborate pageant
of dances, many with international
themes, viewed by hundreds of College
members, families, friends, and
neighbors.
Swarthmore’s fete also included
a “step ceremony.” Senior women
advanced slowly down Parrish’s steps
with the juniors close behind, all
singing the alma mater as the older
class symbolically bequeathed its
privileges to the younger.
Even as women students were
protesting their lack of national
suffrage, they alone voted for the
May Queen, prompting mock outrage
from some men. “Frustrated Male”
protested in a 1939 Phoenix that
“those who are most capable of
judging beauty, the men, are given no
opportunity to express their opinions
on the delicate subject of a Queen. … In
the name of 350 male students of this
College … I demand that May Day be
abolished.”
Male May Day spoofs were a regular
occurrence in the 1920s and ’30s. A
1936 Phoenix, for example, described
FRIENDS HISTORICAL LIBRARY
by Elizabeth Vogdes
Sue Turner ’60, surrounded by her court, is crowned May Queen during Parents’ Day ceremonies in 1960.
SUMMER 2019
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45
class notes
A TREASURY OF ALUMNI-RELATED ITEMS
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
ALUMNI
EVENTS
Top: All around the maypole, May Day 1905. Bottom: Junior attendants and their
queen, May Day 1924.
woman of color was May Queen that
year.”
“On second thought,” she added,
“maybe it was a statement.”
Kathy Felmey ’71 was Swarthmore’s
last official May Queen. She gladly
shared her throne with the duly
elected, quite-surprised first (and
last) May King, Alex “Tony” Cilento
’71. The Phoenix weighed in: “Another
great step towards the equality of the
sexes was taken as Tony Cilento was
elected May Queen. Through some
bureaucratic mechanism, Tony was
deprived of his crown and had to settle
for May King. His supporters claimed a
moral victory, nonetheless.”
Even without the coronation
ceremonies, the May Day tradition
continued.
The Lang Music Building was
the site of the Queen-less maypole
dance at both its groundbreaking and
dedication in the early ’70s. Dana
Mackenzie ’79 described his fond
memories of coed Morris dancing,
including the maypole dance on
Sharples patio, a tradition that
continued into the 1980s.
The Swarthmore Folk Dancing Club
still includes a maypole dance teaching
workshop in early May every year.
Reflecting the times, this is very
informal, set up outdoors in varying
campus locations. Any passersby may
join in. And, to keep things practical,
the regular club members still get P.E.
credit.
CELEBRATING
BLACK EXCELLENCE
AT SWARTHMORE:
HONORING OUR PAST,
IMAGINING OUR FUTURES
2019–2020
This academic year will mark
significant milestones in the
history of the College, including
the 50th anniversary of the
Black Cultural Center, the 50th
anniversary of Black Studies,
and the 25th anniversary of the
Chester Children’s Chorus.
swarthmore.edu/
black-excellence
GARNET WEEKEND
Oct. 4–5
Join us for Homecoming, Family Weekend, and the Advancement Volunteer Summit.
swarthmore.edu/garnetweekend
LIBERAL ARTS LIVES:
SWARTHMORE IN FASHION
Oct. 22
Save the date for this special
event in New York City.
lifechanging.swarthmore.edu/
events
SWATTALKS
Fall 2019
These live, online seminars
feature professors, students,
and alumni sharing knowledge
and experience in their fields.
swarthmore.edu/alumni-resources-events/swattalks
ROBERT O. WILLIAMS
FRIENDS HISTORICAL LIBRARY
a “249-pound Queen of the May in
flowing robes and a few burlap sacks...
who smoked his pipe, complacently
awaiting the crowning.”
Swarthmore’s May Day celebration
was regarded as not only a lark but also
a serious athletic event, sponsored
by the Women’s Physical Education
Department. Participating students
received P.E. credit, fulfilling the
College founders’ belief that care of
the body and the mind were equally
important. The 1925 Halcyon lists May
Day as an activity on par with baseball,
hockey, basketball, swimming, and
tennis.
Publicity was extensive. The
Phoenix reported in 1927 that that
year’s May Queen photo appeared
in more than 100 North American
newspapers. The 1933 Halcyon
boasted that “Swarthmore once more
reaches the front pages of the nation’s
newspapers.” In 1971, the College still
prepared a news release of the event.
Notably, at the height of World
War II, 1944’s May Day celebration
featured a folk festival with a powerful
peaceful Quaker sentiment: Folk
dancing from 25 countries was
“an expression of the underlying
similarities among the peoples of the
world,” the Phoenix reported.
Postwar queens have stated
that though the honor didn’t
have life-altering significance, it
was nonetheless a very pleasant
experience. The fact that the war was
over, for example, had much more of
an impact on Cornelia “Kinnie” Clarke
Schmidt ’46 than the celebration itself,
which was “just a fleeting weekend of
fun.”
In the 1960s, the festivities
continued despite the decade’s
social and political turbulence.
Mimi Feingold Real ’63 was an
activist who had spent over a month
in a Mississippi jail (see bit.ly/
SwatFreedom).
She regarded her election, sponsored
by the Swarthmore Political Action
Committee, as a kind of coup that was
“great fun.”
Says Judith Lorick ’69,
Swarthmore’s first African American
May Queen: “It didn’t even strike me
what an amazing thing it was that a
The Class of 1969 had plenty to celebrate at its 50th Reunion. More photos: alumniweekend.swarthmore.edu
1943
Betty Glenn Webber
bettywebber22@yahoo.com
616-245-2687
After submitting this column, I received word of Jack Dugan’s death
on April 17. His obituary covers his
active and reserve Navy service
and his career, divided between
business and nonprofit leadership.
The “extracurriculars” included
the Buck Hill Conservation Foundation, his church, and community
affairs. I have chosen to leave his
final class note as he wrote it, a
wonderful reflection of his lively
interests, openheartedness, and
commitment to Swarthmore.
A faithful correspondent, Jack
reminisced about Freshman Week,
when he was intrigued by “so
many pretty and sociable women,
and boys who all looked as if they
were preparing for the Olympics.”
Noting how Pearl Harbor changed
our trajectory, Jack said he and
nine other engineers/football players accepted a recruiter’s offer of
commissions delayed until graduation. He was sad to be the only
survivor, especially missing Bob
Trudel and Bob Hecht, his tennis
doubles partner. Fast-forwarding
to recollections of our 50th: He
spoke of chair Connie Spink Fleming, and Tuck Taylor’s fundraising
that garnered almost $4 million,
more than any preceding class.
Jack will be missed.
Also thinking of first days on
campus, Mary Stewart Trageser
recalls feeling “a bit guilty that
I had been accepted at Swarthmore, thinking everyone else was
more qualified. But what an ‘open
sesame’ it has been for the rest of
my life—OSS, the State Department, the Marshall Plan.” Today,
she seeks out books on World War
II and remembers the brand-new
tanks that rolled past Worth Hall
senior year on their way to being
loaded on ships. She relishes the
“miracle of computer
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class notes
pictures” as the means by which
her West Coast great-grands can
be part of her life.
A kind note from Connie Spink
Fleming assures us that she is “up
and about … enjoying each day,
and appreciating fellow residents,
the Kennett Square (Pa.) area,
and extracurricular activities,
like plays at the University of
Delaware and a weekend visit to
The Greenbrier in White Sulphur
Springs, W.Va.” She included her
Christmas letter, which mentioned
daughter Connie Fleming
Strickland ’71 and granddaughter
Barbara Strickland ’99.
Connie referred to the loss of
friend, classmate, and fellow
Crosslands resident Cindy White
Lohr on Nov. 5. Cindy accelerated
her senior year to marry Freeman
Lohr. Their thoroughly Swarthmore
family included children John
’69, Robert ’70, and Virginia ’73.
Their life included residency in
Mexico and Nicaragua in addition
to several East Coast states. The
interests that engaged Cindy were
many and varied: opera at the
Met (and Placido Domingo!), the
Nonviolent Peaceforce, American
Friends Service Committee, League
of Women Voters, and Citizens’
Climate Education.
Another loss came with the death
of Hilda Findley-Knier on Dec.
6. She “made beautiful gardens
wherever she lived, from childhood
to Florida Avenue Friends
Meeting in D.C. to her retirement
community at Kennett Square. She
was a strong, generous woman, a
feminist by example, as a teacher
[into her 70s] and a working
mother.” She is survived by three
children, Thomas, Rachel, and
Rosemary Findley Muller ’66.
Jane Hand Bonthron died Dec.
15. At graduation, she applied to
the Naval Officers Training School,
and when asked if she’d serve as a
seaman if she were not accepted,
Jane told them clearly that it would
be a waste of her education! As
a Wave she was assigned to the
supply depot in Mechanicsburg,
Pa., where she met future husband
Bill Bonthron. (My husband and I,
Betty, also worked there, and saw
Jane and Bill frequently during
’45 and ’46.) The Bonthrons’ long
residence in Princeton, N.J., was
48
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
the scene of Jane’s activities as
mother of four and homemaker,
eager golf and bridge player,
volunteer for Meals on Wheels,
and 50 years with the Princeton
Hospital Aid Society. She was an
ardent supporter of the College
and proud when daughter Susan
Bonthron ’70 chose Swarthmore.
We certainly miss those friends
from our undergrad days, but isn’t
it heartwarming to hear of the
richness and variety of their lives
since then? Our condolences go to
the families for those losses that
we share.
1947
Marshall Schmidt
kinmarshal@aol.com
We mourn the passing of several
friends, including Cal Kaiser, Sue
Bradley Bush-Wilcox, and Whit
Stearns ’48.
Our daughter, Peggy Schmidt
Clark ’71, and her husband, Bob
’71, live in Farmington, Conn.,
where Cal worked, golfed, and
was an important school board
member. Peg is a college adviser
at Kingswood Oxford, a West
Hartford private school, and had
interfaced with Cal on numerous
educational occasions. He was a
positive voice in the community.
Sue Bradley Bush-Wilcox was a
very popular classmate—always
smiling and in the company of a
large group of friends. My journey
to the Pacific arena eliminated
any chance of seeing Sue past
sophomore year.
Whit Stearns was Class of
’48 but was an important part
of the large contingent coming
to Swarthmore from George
School in the 1942 timeframe. My
recollection of the group starting
that year, besides Kinnie Clarke
Schmidt ’46, included Margaret
Meeker Bushnell ’45, Ginnie Cobb
Thibodeaux ’46, Conard Porter
Mercer ’45, Barbara Gawthrop
Hallowell ’46, Rolf Valtin ’48, Bob
Wilson ’45, Brad Bodine ’49, and
John Pratt ’49, to name just a few.
SUMMER 2019
I welcome personal notes from
those remaining ’47ers. These
informal notes are much more fun
than obits.
1949
Marjorie Merwin Daggett
mmdaggett@verizon.net
Bob Norman writes: “Early in 2019,
Nita and I flew to California, near
San Diego, where son Jeff and
family and friends hosted two
great birthday dinners for Nita
as she turned 95, complete with
a cake containing 95 candles. It
took several tries to blow them
all out, and the smoke almost set
off the fire alarm. Last year, I took
an Osher course on Wikipedia.
It is fascinating how complex
the system is for entries in the
encyclopedia; it is all run by
volunteers. As I write, my mind is
not packing for a trip to Morocco
with my son, Richard, who is giving
a major address at a conference on
consolidate photovoltaics. At the
end we plan to visit a photovoltaic
display in Ouarzazate, said to be
the largest in the world. I hope
to see many of you at our 70th
Reunion!”
I am taking a course at the
Brandeis Osher center on the
1950s, in which we will read
several plays written in that
decade, starting with The Crucible.
The first day, our leader asked
each of us to tell about ourselves
and where we were in 1952.
Several classmates had not yet
been born, and I was the only one
in the class who was an adult at
that time; many recalled family
discussions of the critical topics
of that decade. It’s interesting to
dig deeper into those events and
to hear the current comments on
them.
Sadly, two classmates have
died. Sarah “Sally” Wood Fell
died in January at her home in
Doylestown, Pa. Sally attended
George School before Swarthmore
and later did postgraduate work at
Drexel School of Library Science.
Following graduation, she was a
clerical librarian at the U.N., then
worked as a librarian back in
Bucks County. Sally was an active
member of the Doylestown Friends
Meeting and a Red Cross Blood
Division volunteer for 40 years.
She was an avid traveler. Our
sympathy to her daughter and two
grandchildren.
Richard Longaker died in
September in Pacific Palisades,
Calif., where he had lived for more
than 45 years. He grew up near
Philly and was 18 when the U.S.
entered World War II. He was a
skilled mountain climber and skier
and joined the 10th Mountain
Division, which trained him for
alpine fighting. In December 1944,
he landed in Naples as part of
the 86th infantry. After the war,
Richard enrolled at Swarthmore,
where he met his first wife,
Dorothy Seiler ’48. He earned an
M.A. at Wisconsin and a Ph.D. at
Cornell, then taught at Kenyon,
UC–Riverside, and UCLA, where
he was later political science chair.
In 1963, he met and married his
second wife, Mollie Katz. Richard
became provost and vice president
of academic affairs at Johns
Hopkins in 1976, and a decade
later returned to California to open
Hopkins’s West Coast Regional
Office for Development. He and
Mollie traveled extensively in
retirement. Richard was known
for his keen wit, bike riding, and
passion for politics, the English
language, and literature, plus his
love of the ocean, mountains,
wildlife, and night sky. Our
condolences to his family.
1951
Elisabeth “Liesje”
Boessenkool Ketchel
eketchel@netscape.com
Kathy Adams sounds active!
“Home from skiing blue slopes
at Winter Park, Colo. I arranged
for an off-duty instructor to ski
behind me to ward off drinkers,
pot smokers, and out-of-control
was my very first upper-division
course, in 1963 (of course, not
literally the same yellowing
handwritten notes!).”
And finally, from Paul Shoup:
“Mrs. Shoup and I are still
hunkered down in Charlottesville,
Va. Thanks so much for keeping us
in touch.”
You are so welcome, Paul, and
thanks to all of you for helping me
do just that!
Sadly, we have lost two
classmates, John Yntema
and Anne Thomas Moore. Our
condolences to their loved ones.
LIFELONG LEARNING AT SWARTHMORE
CENTER CITY PHILADELPHIA
“The American Civil War”
Taught by Professor of History Bruce Dorsey
Meets Mondays, Sept. 16–Nov. 18, 2019
(excluding Oct. 14 and 21)
SWARTHMORE
“What Do We Really Know About People?”
Taught by Professor of Psychology Andrew Ward
Meets Thursdays, Sept. 19–Nov. 14, 2019
(excluding Oct. 17)
NEW YORK CITY
“Opera”
Taught by Professor of Music Thomas Whitman
Meets Thursdays, Sept. 26–Nov. 14, 2019
BOSTON
“All in the Family”
Taught by Philip Weinstein, Cummins Professor
Emeritus of Literature
Meets Tuesdays, Sept. 17–Nov. 19, 2019
(excluding Oct. 8 and 15)
bit.ly/LLSmore
beginners. I got hit only once. Two
years ago, my son skied off with
a friend for just one run through
the trees. I got knocked down
from behind after he left and had
a concussion, even with wearing
a helmet.
“Back home in Ohio, I find that
Trump’s great aid package to help
corn farmers subsidized us with
about 1 cent per bushel. (Corn
sells for just under $4/bushel.)
Ohio Farmer says farmer income
is only 57% of normal over the
past two years. We hope to sell
wheat straw to horse owners,
and hay from pastures where our
dairy herd grazed. The registered
dairy Holsteins were sold with
the low milk prices and two dairy
barns rented out for equipment
and straw storage. It’s a time to be
flexible.”
Dan and Maxine Frank Singer ’52
(pg. 12) live independently, “same
address since 1960, but it’s a tad
lonely since our kids are grown and
living elsewhere: two in the U.K.,
one in Portland, Ore., and another
in the Bay Area,” Dan writes.
“We’re sufficiently optimistic
to have purchased tickets for a
March trip to the Bay Area for
youngest grandchild’s bat mitzvah.
Wish I could be as upbeat about
the public scene.”
Diane Duke Amussen had a stroke
in 2015 and is in assisted living.
“But I keep up with the news and
am on the board of Friends of the
Merced County (Calif.) Library.
My contribution is mostly in terms
of writing—for the newsletter and
for fundraising—since I’m not
very mobile. The Friends run a
bookstore (great bargains!), have
made a bookmobile possible, and
are working on funding another
one. We are also working on
getting a small portion of a local
tax earmarked for the library. We
have a long way to go, but inch by
inch … ”
Ralph Lee Smith writes: “In
my last posting, I suggested
that we share info on what we
are reading. I am re-reading
The Tale of Genji, the amazing,
long (54 chapters) 11th-century
novel by Murasaki Shikibu, a
lady of the Heian Japanese
court. It is generally regarded
as the world’s first real novel,
and some critics think it remains
the greatest. It was unknown
in Western literary circles until
Arthur Waley published his
six-volume translation beginning
in the 1920s. The West was
astounded, especially by the
novel’s physiological depth. A
more recent translation is that
of Edward Seidensticker, more
accurate and literal but perhaps
less poetic. If you haven’t read this,
an experience awaits you!”
Dick Frost and wife Barbara
divide their year between Santa
Fe, N.M., where elder daughter
Caitlyn lives, and Hamilton, N.Y.,
their summer and fall home in
retirement from Colgate University.
“I have spent time this winter as a
self-appointed adviser to Elizabeth
Warren in her Democratic
presidential nomination campaign.
Her strong, liberal policy issues,
realistic feminism, and attractive
presentations make her an ideal
candidate for massive reform. The
field is so crowded that it takes
a reckless pundit to predict the
outcome, which evidently keeps
many conscientious but very busy
Democrats on the sidelines. By
phenomenal coincidence, John
McIntyre, whom I have not talked
with in months, just called me in
the last sentence to talk about
Elizabeth Warren. I hope some of
you may get involved.”
Ellen Lovell Evans loves her
retirement community, though
her activity range is limited by
her increasing dependence on a
walker. “I no longer travel, unless
it is in a car with family member. I
am somewhat fanatical about my
water aerobics classes. I am active
on the library committee—we have
over 8,000 books and need to cull
the collection regularly because of
many donations and lack of shelf
space. I read poetry every other
month to people with dementia. I
no longer teach Osher courses in
Charlottesville, Va., but residents
organized courses on campus,
and I recently finished one on the
French Revolution. That subject
1953
Carol Lange Davis
cldavis5@optonline.net
I am thrilled to have so much good
news for you all!
Congrats to Bill Fitts, who
was inducted into the Sports
Broadcasting Hall of Fame at a
Dec. 11 ceremony in NYC. It was
quite an honor. We are all proud
of him!
John and Joyce Bok Ambruster
’55 moved to an assisted living
facility in Flagstaff, Ariz. This
puts them close to family—a
10-minute drive as opposed to six
hours from Tucson. “It was time
for such a move, but hard work
for old folks,” says John. “Lots of
help from family, which was much
appreciated. Snow on the ground
and on the mountains around us
… makes a change from Tucson,
and we’re enjoying it. Our health is
good, but we have slowed down.
Maybe it’s the altitude. Then again,
maybe it’s just our age. So it goes.”
John and Joyce’s new address
is: 3150 N. Winding Brook Road,
Apt. 315, Flagstaff, AZ 86001. Their
phone number is 928-440-3608.
Hanni Fey Sherman writes: “My
husband, Dick, died of Parkinson’s
last September. I kept him at
home with the help of certified
nursing assistants and was his
caregiver for four years. I still live
at WindsorMeade of Williamsburg,
Va., a continuing care retirement
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
49
class notes
community. We lived for 9.5 years
in one of the villas, but a year
ago, we moved to an apartment
due to my macular degeneration,
which caused me to lose my
driver’s license. Last July, I had
a heart attack, but I am fully
recovered from it. I swim in our
indoor pool every day and work
out on the machines in the gym. I
also volunteer at the local clothes
closet for needy people, where I
mend donated garments to make
them serviceable again. We have
five grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren. Now that I can
travel again, I hope to see them
more often.”
Clark Dean writes: “When I was
thinking of applying to colleges,
my uncle suggested Swarthmore;
it had an engineering program,
and my cousin Charlotte [Dean
Appleton ’39] was a graduate. He
also told me his grandmother Eliza
Jane Fick had bragged that she’d
taught school in NYC when she
was 16. While I was at Swarthmore,
he was a member of the NYC Board
of Education, and someone there
found an old directory (1848) that
she was listed in at PS 6. Later,
I learned her grandmother Polly
Brelsford was from Bucks County
and had Quaker ancestry back
to the 17th century: John Palmer
arrived in Bucks County in 1683
from Yorkshire, and John Headley
arrived 1698 from Isle of Wight.
So choosing a Quaker college was
serendipity for me.”
At the end of March, Stanley Mills
expected to visit his son in Florida
and take in some of the New York
Mets spring training games. Stan
likes hearing from classmates and
wishes more would contact him. It
would be best to phone as he does
not use email, and because of poor
eyesight, he has difficulty with
written correspondence. He can
be reached at 347-408-4525, but
don’t call too early in the day!
Bob Fetter was looking forward
to Alumni Weekend again this year
and hoped to have Saturday lunch
in Sharples with any classmates
who made the trip. “Whether just
there for a few hours or more
of the weekend, it is always a
stimulating ‘nostalgia fix.’ Francis
Ashton is a regular returnee to
our campus each year, too …
50
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
we exercise our Garnet Sage
prerogatives and walk together
in the Parade of Classes. During
my ‘quiet time on campus,’ I also
try to visit the two memorial
benches for our classmates—one
for Nina Williams Leichter near
Clothier Tower, the other for
Buck Jones, close to one of the
steam tunnel entrances—and
the memorial tree planted by the
Class of 1982 for Jonathan Randall
’82, son of Charlie ’51 and Hedi
Schmid Randall, who was the one
Swarthmorean who died in the
Twin Towers on 9/11.”
Carol MacIntyre, who left
Swarthmore after two years
to follow her former husband,
the late Judson Chrisney ’51, to
NYC, caught us up on her life.
“I entered Barnard for my junior
year, but never found another
college to match Swarthmore, so
chose motherhood as my career.
After 11 years, I became a single
parent in need of a job. I found
myself working for the NEA as a
lobbyist, then for the University
of Maryland as a fundraiser,
and, finally, for 21 years as
administrator of the D.C. Institute
of Mental Hygiene, which provided
outpatient treatment for those
who could not afford private care.
“Today, I live with my partner of
25 years, Edward Ericson, whose
ministerial career began with
the Unitarian Universalists and
culminated as senior leader of the
New York Ethical Culture Society.
We divide our time between my
home in Bethesda, Md., and his
in Dunedin, Fla.” A music lover,
Carol co-founded the Summer
Music Festival in Glen Cove, N.Y.,
which continues to this day, as
well as a chamber music series
in Tarpon Spring, Fla. She has
six grandchildren and enjoys
volunteering.
Please keep the good news
coming.
SUMMER 2019
JOIN THE
LEGACY CHALLENGE
Learn more on
pg. 56 or at
swarthmore.edu/
legacychallenge
1954
Elizabeth Dun Colten
36 Hampshire Hill Road
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
lizcolten@aol.com
My updated College address list
shows 142 members in our class.
So—where are you? Check in,
please!
An email from Bruce Gould lists
his extensive travels—28 countries
and four continents last year, and
two months in South Africa this
coming year.
Judy Kahlenberg Hestoft
notes that the 2020 Democratic
Convention will be held in
Milwaukee. Although she does
not plan to be an active volunteer
(12,000 will be needed), Judy
says this is a great opportunity
to discover an attractive area of
the USA.
Fredericka Nolde Berger is on
the steering committee for the
Prince George (Md.) day center
for the homeless. Twice a week,
it provides lunch and a place to
take showers and wash clothes at
a local church. She is organizing
“Faces from the Street,” a show
of portraits of some guests,
each done by a different artist.
Hopefully, this will be an enriching
experience for all concerned.
Peter Bart laments that he
could not persuade any of his
10 grandchildren to apply to
Swarthmore and wonders whether
other classmates have fared better.
(Matthew Dreier ’18, grandson of
the late Sue Marx March, comes to
mind. Are there others?) Over the
years, Peter has happily paid the
tuition for six students selected by
the College.
Gabriel Hearn-Desautels ’20 is
the recipient of the Class of 1954
Scholarship. An honors history
major with an honors political
science minor, he is involved
in dance and the Swarthmore
International Relations Journal,
and notes that his favorite part of
Swarthmore is the people.
I recently learned that Al Metcalf
suffered from Parkinson’s disease
and died March 15, 2016. Except
for his time in college and the
Army, Al spent his life in Natchez,
Miss., and was named the Natchez
Democrat’s 2015 Citizen of the
Year for his dedication to local
charities and Rotary International.
He and wife Gay lived in a
certified antebellum mansion,
the “Parsonage,” and welcomed
visitors from around the world.
Jay Ochroch mentioned that his
family had visited and that he had
traveled to Natchez twice in the
1990s to buy a car from Jordan
Auto, the business Al ran with his
father. Survivors include three
children and six grandchildren.
Sadly, I also note that David
Dennison died March 10 at his
home in Hanover, N.H. After
receiving a biology Ph.D. from
Caltech, David joined the faculty
at Dartmouth and spent the
remainder of his career there. A
clockmaker, photographer, and
family man, he is survived by two
sons and four grandchildren.
Wife Mary Eckler Dennison ’53
predeceased him.
Marka Meckes Conrow wrote to
say that husband Ken died March
18. One of our class couples, she
and Ken were always grateful
to Swarthmore for giving them
a good beginning. They both
taught at Kansas State University
before retiring in ’98 and ’99,
respectively: Ken in chemistry and
then computer science, Marka in
English. The Conrows enjoyed life
in Kansas.
Ken became a devoted sailor,
bicyclist, and ice skater, and, after
retirement, enjoyed exploring
prime numbers and the Collatz
conjecture on the computer. They
have three daughters and eight
grandchildren, and “are sorry that
none went to Swarthmore”!
Peter Van Pelt sent word that
wife Patricia Bryson Van Pelt died
April 14. An art history major at
Swarthmore, Pat then attended
the Harvard Graduate School of
Education; these two pursuits
formed the basis for her many
achievements. She and Peter
lived in many places domestically
and internationally. Most notably,
Patricia was the art education
officer for the Arts Council of
Great Britain in the 1980s and ran
a thriving independent bookstore
in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
in the 1990s. A gracious host
and fabulous cook with a talent
for maintaining longstanding
friendships, Pat is survived
by Peter, three children, five
grandchildren, and four greats.
1957
Minna Newman Nathanson
jm@nathansons.net
Arthur Karlin writes: “Carol
Edelstein Weichert’s death comes
as a sad shock. Why at age 83, and
having seen Carol maybe five times
since we graduated, I should be so
affected, I am not sure—possibly
because she was warm, smart,
and funny. I loved being in her
company.”
Joan Hall Wise reported that Pat
Niles Middlebrook’s husband,
Steve, called to tell her that Pat,
who had been ill with respiratory
disease, had died peacefully
at their Virginia Beach, Va.,
home. Pat received M.S. and Ph.D.
degrees from Yale, taught as an
associate professor at Central
Connecticut State University,
and published two widely used
social psychology textbooks. She
enjoyed golf (nine-hole champion
at the Country Club of Farmington,
Conn.) and horseback riding until
a mounting accident severely
injured her right leg. In the more
hospitable retirement climate
of Virginia Beach, Pat loved the
beauty of the ocean and her
oceanfront condominium, and
photographed the local landscape,
eschewing digital photography
for a Leica for which she received
special training in Germany.
Cora Diamond was the Humboldt
Visiting Professor of Philosophy
at the University of Leipzig in
Germany for winter 2018; she and
James Conant co-taught a seminar
on Wittgenstein that was followed
by an October conference,
“Cora Diamond: Logic and
Ethics.” Cora also participated with
Conant in a three-day intensive
philosophy seminar at the Centre
for Ethics at the University of
Pardubice in the Czech Republic.
She had a planned Dewey Lecture,
“Reflections of a Dinosaur,”
at the American Philosophical
Association’s Eastern Division
meeting. Dewey Lectures are
given in each of the association’s
annual divisional meetings by older
philosophers invited to discuss
their career and the state of the
profession.
1959
Miriam Repp Staloff
mrstaloff@gmail.com
Retired from MIT’s economics
department, Peter Temin still
writes about a variety of subjects.
His most recent book is The
Vanishing Middle Class (2017), “a
valuable guide to current
events.” The Temins “are getting
older—along with the rest of the
Class of ’59—but doing well. We
attend the Harvard Institute for
Learning in Retirement, where
we both teach and take classes.”
Peter’s two daughters and
grandsons live nearby.
Given my deadline, Alumni
Weekend has not yet taken place.
Watch for news in the next edition.
1960
Jeanette Strasser Pfaff
jfalk2@mac.com
In July 1959, the summer before
our senior year, the Class of 1900
started planning its 60th Reunion.
That class entered Swarthmore in
1896! Now it’s 2019, and it’s our
turn to plan. Send John Harbeson
your ideas for the June 2020
event: jwharbeson@aol.com. But,
most important, plan to attend!
I asked you to comment on
turning 80, a reality for most
of us and soon-to-be for a few
youngsters in our class.
Susan Washburn reflects on
what she calls her “big eight-oh
experience”: “Last September, I
sold my home in Taos and moved
to an interim rental in Durango,
Colo., to be near my daughter
and her family. I knew this would
be a dramatic change—leaving
great friends, moving from semicountry to town, from an open,
contemporary house to a turn-ofthe-century cottage—but I was
doing OK with it until I turned 80
in February. For some reason, the
psychological impact of becoming
an octogenarian caused a horrible
shift in my outlook on life. Or
maybe it was the torn meniscus in
my right knee and a surprisingly
bad bone-density test, tangible
proof that my heretofore healthy
body was not immortal. At any
rate, I could no longer envision a
positive future. Images of death,
degeneration, and loss invaded
my consciousness. After several
weeks of this mental festering,
I had an epiphany: I could
consciously change my attitude.
I could focus on the positive
aspects of my still-satisfying and
active life. (Big “duh!” here.) So
I’m getting the meniscus trimmed,
ingesting a bunch of fancy bonebuilding supplements, and going
back to skiing moguls. I now think
of my physical self as an old but
high-quality car, a Mercedes
perhaps, requiring more frequent
maintenance and possibly some
replacement parts, but still capable
of a few good road trips.”
John Palka reports that the
move from Whidbey Island outside
Seattle to the bustling Twin
Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul
has drawn him into a whole suite
of unexpected activities. “Chief
among them are organizations and
events that relate to my Slovak
origins. There are three major
Czech–Slovak organizations here,
so I get to read books for a book
club, sing in a folk-song group,
give talks, write for a newsletter,
and more. During 2018, I wrote so
many pieces and gave so many
talks that I have decided to convert
them into a whole new book. In
2019, I have represented Slovakia
in an international studies class at
Macalester College, and am among
the organizers of an upcoming
event commemorating the 75th
anniversary of the Slovak National
Uprising against the Nazis. I also
plan to travel to Slovakia in June.
My blog, naturesdepths.com,
continues, but quarterly rather
than monthly. And that’s not all—
not by any means!”
John Harbeson’s main news “is
our terrific two-week cruise to the
Amazon River. Highlights included
a walk through the pristine
rainforest outside Santarém,
the famed Boi Bumba folklore
performance in Parintins, and
a tour of the elegant buildings
of Manaus. So far, year 80 has
seemed less like a milestone than
a return to normalcy after last
year’s bout with a now-fullyvanquished lymphoma. I’ve
resumed singing in my two
choirs and my active involvement
with an organization of foreignaffairs professionals here in D.C.”
Sara Bolyard Chase had occasion
to visit a big, old church in
Harvard Square for which she
had analyzed and color-matched
mortar for the first time. “The
light-colored granite was trimmed
with local brownstone. All the
mortar matched the brownstone; it
actually took three different
masonry pigments to achieve that.
The contractor at the time tried to
convince the church board not to
use it, said it would be weak and
fade. That was in 1978, and it still
looks perfect. Ah! Turning 80 has
found me with just enough work to
keep me awake and alert, but not
enough to halt what I am feeling,
so far, as a glide into having
less energy, less ambition, less
cantankerousness … I think!”
I, Jeanette, found turning 80
to be a surprisingly fraught
event. On the one hand, I feel
what I could almost describe as
triumph at having navigated eight
decades. On the other, I vividly
see the much-closer horizon: the
inevitability of impending frailty
and extinction. But, hey … the
sun is shining, I’m composing this
column, and a glass of wine is
not far in the future. I savor the
moment.
Will Fairley wrote, “Growing old is
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
51
class notes
not for wimps!” When, concerned
by this gloomy message, I asked
whether he was suffering, he
reassured me: “Nothing more than
the inescapable existential angst.”
A perfect ending to this column!
1961
Pat Myers Westine
pat@westinefamily.com
Class president Maurice Eldridge
and the College both sent me a
report on the state of our Class of
1961 Fund for the Arts and Social
Change. The College endowment
has grown significantly over
the past year, and the current
market value of the 1961 Class
Fund is $317,177.87. The estimated
distribution (according to the
College) is $14,584.84. As you
will remember, the fund supports
internships enabling students
to spend a summer “engaging
meaningfully with nonprofit
organizations, grassroots advocacy
groups or public service agencies.”
As Maurice says, “These
organizations cannot provide
much direct support to students
who need summer earnings,
thus making our gift a welcome
source.” I have previously included
parts of thank-you letters written
by students who were awarded
our grants and hope that class
members have found their
experiences as interesting and
varied as I have.
As I write, Jon Van Til is on his
way to Istanbul for a six-week
stint as a Fulbright Specialist at
Marmara University. He will give
four public lectures, interspersed
with a four-day trip to Budapest
for his wife’s book launch, then
to return to Istanbul for the final
weeks of his time there.
I asked in the last column for
memories of classmates who have
recently died. John Wright ’62
remembered Jody Hudson “as a
valued member of the Crum Creek
Valley Boys and Girl and a dear
friend.” John has very precious
memories of swapping banjo
52
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
discoveries with Jody.
Dorothy Smith Pam in Amherst,
Mass., has been a great
correspondent through the years,
sending me her annual newsletter.
Last summer, she and Bob
celebrated their 50th wedding
anniversary with a party in the
Berkshires, atop Mount Greylock
in Adams, Mass. The dense fog
did not dampen the joyous mood
of the celebrants, which included
the entire family on both sides.
On the actual anniversary date,
they celebrated with dinner and
theater in NYC. Dorothy still
teaches at Holyoke Community
College and has added courses in
public speaking, communications,
acting, and theater history to her
English teaching schedule. She
campaigned and, in November,
won election as one of the 13 new
town councilors, and will help set
up the new government mandated
by Amherst’s new charter.
This column is shorter than usual
as I had my left knee replaced
in February and have spent
the past month rehabbing and
getting back mobility. This spring,
granddaughter Kira Emmons ’20
was the oboe (the duck) soloist in
the College Lab Orchestra’s Peter
and the Wolf (a Saturday-morning
concert with area children invited)
and was part of the College taiko
(Japanese drumming) group that
played at a Cornell symposium.
Please continue sending your
yearly newsletters and/or updates
to be shared with classmates.
1963
Diana Judd Stevens
djsteven1@verizon.net
Latest news from ’63: The class
extends sympathy to Ben Cooper
whose mother, Elizabeth Stubbs
Cooper ’38, died at age 102. Joan
and Glenn Coven retired again and
moved to Santa Fe, N.M., where
they hike a lot. John Cratsley
teaches, mediates, and does pro
bono work in a veterans’ legal
clinic, while wife Holly is a member
SUMMER 2019
of the Massachusetts Board of
Registration of Architects. Anne
Howells sold her Seattle house
and lives at Chobo-Ji, the Zen
center where she practices and is
a novice priest. Anne also spends
time at an apartment she bought
at Horizon House, a Seattle
retirement residence, where Gail
MacColl lives.
Dave ’62 and Alice Handsaker
Kidder’s son-in-law Robert Wolff
’88 was appointed dean of Central
Connecticut State University’s
school of arts and science. Let
Alice or Dave know if you want to
volunteer on refurbishing homes
in Boston through Clergy and Laity
for Affordable Housing, which
recently held two successful
fundraisers. Pat Horan Latham
continues with cases for the
American Arbitration Association
and Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority. Pat was also elected
board chair of a federal credit
union. In the past year, Bruce
Leimsidor was in Chechnya
investigating charges concerning
an alleged gay pogrom; discussed
LGBT rights in Europe and
problems in this context in Ukraine
at the University of Odessa,
Ukraine; lectured at Drexel and
Brandeis on EU asylum law and the
European immigration situation;
and counseled asylum seekers
in Europe pro bono. To distract
himself from migration concerns
and European politics, Bruce
collects early Buddhist sculpture
and 17th- and 18th-century Italian
and French drawings. He divides
his time between Paris and Venice,
and invites classmates to contact
him if they visit those cities.
On MLK Day, Dave McLanahan
marched in Seattle, holding a
banner, Physicians for National
Health Program. Tom and Barbara
Daly Metcalf took a Road Scholar
trip to Ethiopia, perhaps their last
exotic travel fling. Jim Patton
JOIN THE
LEGACY CHALLENGE
Learn more on
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swarthmore.edu/
legacychallenge
moved to Stratham, N.H., from
Maine, to be closer to family and
better able to make day trips to
Baltimore for his land-development
consulting work. In Amsterdam,
Ellen Perchonock and former
husband Ron Schaefer ’64
attended Joan Baez’s farewell
concert and took Shameika
Black ’11 out for an Indonesian
dinner. Shameika, visiting
Amsterdam for the first time,
found Ellen’s name in the Alumni
Directory and contacted her for
information about what to do. Abby
Pollak and Helen spent springtime
in Portugal, the Pyrenees, and
Paris. Clyde Prestowitz’s grandson
graduated from the University of
Northern Arizona and received a
full ride to Utah’s chemistry Ph.D.
program.
In December, Terry Spruance
was hospitalized with MRSA in
one of his knee replacements.
Surgeries, rehab, and all that
can accompany such a situation
followed. In March, Jane Jonas
Srivastava traveled in Australia
for seven weeks—hiking, sleeping
in swags under the stars,
and sharing space with small
kangaroos. Diana Judd Stevens’s
Swarthmore connections: dinners
with Crosslands neighbors Connie
Spink Fleming ’43, Esther Leeds
Cooperman ’48, and George
and Maralyn Orbison Gillespie
’49; lunch with Claire Thurman,
Barbara Seymour, Martha Baird
Ralphe, Paul Stevens ’65, and
Bennett Lorber ’64; and lunch
with ’63’s class scholar, Bethany
Wiggin ’94, after she lectured on
“Environmental Humanities and
the Right to Research” for an
Osher Lifelong Learning class at
the University of Delaware. Earlier
this year, Atala Perry Toy’s nature
spirit and sacred geometry photos
were in three art exhibits. Atala
figured out a way to get her nature
spirit photos onto jewelry, which
is now for sale in her Geneva, Ill.,
store, Crystal Life.
John Warn accepted United
Technologies Aerospace Systems’
request to return to work as a
contractor doing heat-transfer
work, so his retirement didn’t
last long. After our 55th, Sandy
’62 and Izzie Phillips Williams
traveled by boat up the Rhine
NICK BARBERIO
ALUMNI PROFILE
“At Swarthmore, there was an intense conversation that seemed everywhere in the air,”
says Leonard Barkan ’65, the Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton. “There was
an atmosphere of talk—a vividness, a sophistication, a sense that I could learn more from
listening to an evening’s conversation than I could learn in a book.”
RENAISSANCE MAN
His ‘life of the mind’ is guided by his heart
by Elizabeth Slocum
JUST TO BE CLEAR, Leonard Barkan
’65 is not retiring.
He understands the confusion,
considering the fete held in his honor
in May. The two-day “Barkanfest,”
planned largely by his former graduate
students, brought together friends,
colleagues, and mentees to wax poetic
about Princeton University’s esteemed
Class of 1943 University Professor of
Comparative Literature.
The gathering wasn’t so much
a scholarly event as it was a
celebration—of his academic work
spanning five universities and nearly
50 years, and of his passion for art
and theater, food and wine, Berlin and
Rome.
“It was one of the great events of
my professional—and personal—
life,” says Barkan, an expert on early
modern literature and culture. “The
talks were extraordinary in their
range of approaches. One learned
about literature, about art, about the
Renaissance, about friendship—often
all at the same time.”
Barkan found his calling early at
Swarthmore, studying English under
Samuel Hynes (now a colleague as
a professor emeritus at Princeton).
In one class, Hynes spent the entire
period on a seemingly naive four-line
medieval poem, enlightening Barkan
to the richness and density of premodern cultural activity.
“It was written when—as I always
say to students—they didn’t even have
flush toilets, showing that you didn’t
require modernity and all its comforts
to write masterpieces,” Barkan
says. “Our own time blankets us so
thoroughly in the present. My job is to
break open the monopoly the present
moment has on our imaginations.”
Though Barkan has always enjoyed
studying literature, he’s also always
needed something else, he says. Early
in his career, that was theater, when
he worked professionally as an actor
while serving as an assistant professor.
Later on, it was art, so he remade
himself as an art historian over a
10-year period. Barkan’s first book on
the subject won the Christian Gauss
Award from Phi Beta Kappa, “but I
always say, the first time I was ever
in an art history classroom, I was the
professor.”
Barkan’s more recent interests
in food and wine have led to his
forthcoming book Reading for the
Food, a scholarly look at the eating and
drinking detailed in works of antiquity
and the Renaissance. Among his
explorations: the 60 feasts mentioned
over the course of The Odyssey, and the
bread and wine (and potentially other
food) present at the Last Supper.
Given the consideration Barkan
lends to menus of the past, it was
only fitting for him to have a say in
the menu of the present. The honoree
selected the wines served at the
Barkanfest, whose “star performers”
included Marjorie Garber ’66, H’04,
Tom Laqueur ’67, H’14, and Ron
Martinez ’69.
Dear friend Alexander Nehamas
’66, a fellow professor at Princeton,
delivered a “deeply learned toast” at
the final banquet. A tribute to a career,
and a life, enriched by the humanities.
“The humanities are a place where
we leave our own egocentrism and step
into the mind, soul, and time of others,”
says Barkan. “And we all have to do
that, whether we think we’re living in
good times or bad.”
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
53
class notes
and down the Danube; hiked in
Utah’s five national parks; and
had summer get-togethers with
Renee and Paul Shield and Marvin
and Peggy Schoenberg Menzin
at the Menzins’ Cape Cod home,
and with Andy and Lynn Hollen
Lees. The Williamses greeted their
second grandchild in November.
Earlier this year, Izzie had a large
consulting job, sang in Mozart’s
Requiem, and pulled her first
all-nighter in a long time preparing
tax letters as assistant treasurer
of their Unitarian Universalist
fellowship.
Marianne and Phil Wion made
music in Ireland with Pittsburgh’s
East Winds Symphonic Band.
2018 was not the best for David
and Austine Read Wood Comarow.
Shortly after moving Dave’s
mother to Las Vegas, she died.
Then Austine was diagnosed with
non-Hodgkin lymphoma, currently
in remission. 2019 is looking better.
Austine was one of eight artists
selected for the Las Vegas Aerial
Gallery Banner Artwork Exhibition.
On behalf of ’63, I sent a
sympathy note to the family of
David Morgan, who died Feb. 26.
1965
Kiki Skagen Munshi
kiki@skagenranch.com
smore65.com
In February, I was invited to appear
on an educational television
program in D.C. There was also a
Swarthmore connection to the trip,
which included some other East
Coast visits.
In Cambridge, Mass., Andrea
“Andy” Fleck Clardy came over for
a cup of coffee and conversation.
Andy is an accomplished
playwright with one-acts being
produced across the country,
and we discussed her vision
of presenting “the other” to
audiences. I learned that she had
been in labor relations publishing
for many years before her present
incarnation.
Then in the middle of
54
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
Massachusetts, Elizabeth
“Elly” Rosenberg Rumelt invited
classmates for lunch. I’m not sure
Elly meant for it to last until 5 p.m.,
but we just couldn’t stop talking—
it was a group of really interesting
and interested people. Peter Bloom
held forth on music, composers,
and his feelings about amateur
singing groups. Helen Lutton
Cohen was mostly at another
table, but I caught a bit about
her work as a Unitarian pastor.
Virginia “Ginger” Blake-Harris
spoke passionately about the
environment. Elly recently moved
to Massachusetts and is clearly
settling in very well.
Frances Halsband moves from
strength to strength. She was
cited in Engineering NewsRecord’s annual class of the
top 25 newsmakers. These are
individuals who have “served the
best interests of the construction
industry and their communities.”
ENR selected Frances “for her
work in rallying the members of the
[America Institute of Architects]
College of Fellows to endorse an
anti-abuse and anti-harassment
resolution to amend the AIA’s
Code of Ethics and Professional
Conduct.”
Dick and Gay Sise Grossman were
off to Iceland for three days, then
proceeded to Ireland for a medical
meeting and exploration. Dick
presented on why family planning
is the most effective way to slow
climate change.
Earl Tarble is president of his
HOA this year. “At least this way I
know the meetings will be short. …
As members of the Albuquerque
Newcomers Club, we have several
opportunities a month to go out
and eat with a group of people.”
Earl’s also a co-chair of a monthly
wine-tasting meeting. That helps
to keep his cabinets renewed
with interesting wines, since he is
no longer close to the California
vineyards. “I remain an assistant
treasurer at our Episcopal
church. Next trip in April will be
the intercoastal waterway from
Jacksonville, Fla., to Charleston,
S.C.”
David Darby wrote to make sure
we all know they’re still in Billings,
Mont. (not Fiji), where Mary Lee
paints and gardens while Dave
SUMMER 2019
putters, serves on several boards,
golfs, studies governance and
public policy, and writes occasional
guest opinions for the newspaper.
Mary Lee now has two paintings
in the Yellowstone Art Museum
permanent collection.
Dave’s opinion articles “have
included *****************
(redacted).” In 2018, he alleges,
they spent 18.6% of their time
reading and watching TV news,
33.1% doing household chores
and trying—but failing—to get
organized, 16.8% on enjoyable
leisure activities, 26.5% napping
and sleeping, and 15.4% on travel
and ‘other.’” Remember, he adds,
“that 67.4% of all statistics are
made up on the spot, unless you
are the U.S. president, in which
case it is more like 96.7%.”
Tom Kramer is not relaxing.
“Work went well in 2018. Version
3.0 of the Quality Information
Framework was finished and
became a national standard.
(Google it.) I have been one of the
primary developers since 2011.
Since April, I’ve been working on
the NIST Cyber-Physical Systems
project. I was asked to fix complex,
broken, undocumented code in a
language I did not know written by
a guy I do not know. Is that fun, or
what?! The grant from which I was
paid ended on Dec. 31. A new grant
proposal is in the works. … If the
grant gets funded, it will probably
be decided that I am employed.”
Walt Pinkus has taken over
the class website and is doing a
splendid job with it. He is heavily
involved in all-things-computer
at their Arizona community. His
term as Computer Club president
was extended, and he was given a
number of other responsibilities.
He put his “old Swat researching
skills” to work looking at
commercial scale networks in
order to deal with the internet
and Wi-Fi capability in their
community center—only to find
much of the problem was political
rather than technical. Not only is
Walt managing to prevail on both
fronts, the club has named him a
Volunteer of the Year.
And speaking of computers and
volunteers, send me your news—
never forget, never ever let this get
far from your minds … and thanks.
1967
Donald Marritz
dmarritz@gmail.com
swarthmore67.com
Janet Munnecke Madden is
“having an especially happy year
while our younger son, Sam, who’s
on sabbatical from MIT, is living
here in San Diego with his family.
FaceTime is all very well, but not
nearly as nice as having our two
youngest grandchildren, 6 and 8, in
hugging range.”
Larry Arnstein has been writing
a detective novel. “I already wrote
the last chapter so I don’t have to
figure out how it ends. One time,
in my so-called career as a writer,
I wrote a movie where I was so in
love with the beginning, I figured
the characters would explain to me
what the ending was. Ha ha ha. My
advice to anyone writing anything
is, ‘Don’t ever do that.’” Since
October, Larry has been involved
with a creative writing workshop
sponsored by a social service
agency that serves the area’s
large homeless population. In
conjunction with a Cal State–San
Diego professor, participants have
written “Dear Detainee” letters
to undocumented immigrants in
federal detention (aka jail) while
awaiting decisions on their asylum
applications. Participants also
write poetry, some of which Larry
says is “staggeringly good.”
Spence Putnam planned to attend
the 50th Reunion of wife Fran
Hostettler Putnam ’69 and hoped
to reconnect with other ’67ers
there. He and Fran work on climate
issues, and he’s “dismayed that
Swarthmore’s Board of Managers
still refuses to confront global
warming by divesting from fossil
fuel investments.”
I am sorry to report the loss of
Russ Kimura, who died peacefully
at home in Cogan Station, Pa., in
March, after courageously fighting
lung disease in recent years. He is
survived by wife Denise, daughter
Keri, and other family members.
After Swarthmore, Russ moved to
Williamsport, Pa., where helped
start a school and met his wife,
with whom he built a home on
Sunshine Farm, land they shared
with friends. The farm was one of
his greatest sources of joy. Yearround he could be found outside
working, gardening, cutting wood,
hiking, or cross-country skiing.
Russ was a man who could fix
anything, was never afraid to try
something new, and who loved
to create. He cared deeply for his
community and devoted time to
a number of nonprofits. He was a
humble person who treated every
individual with respect and whose
advice was always measured,
honest, and kind.
“On an entirely delirious note,”
Jack White ’68 “spent a splendid
afternoon catching up with Paula
Lawrence Wehmiller and husband
John ’66 in Swarthmore. We
covered a lot of ground. I feel
revived by reconnecting and hope
that she and I will build on it.
She’s a remarkable person from a
remarkable family.”
I asked Greg Gibson if he wanted
me to put in something about
what I called the Galen Project,
his lifelong effort to make sense
of his son’s senseless death and
his ensuing gun-control efforts. I
can’t improve on Greg’s passion,
eloquence, and determination, so
here’s how he responded: “Why
don’t you write that … I replied that
I’d never thought of it as ‘the Galen
Project,’ but of course it was, and
I liked that name a great deal. The
Galen Project commenced in 1974
with Galen’s birth and did not cease
with his 1992 death in an ‘early’
school shooting. Anyone curious
about where this has led can check
out the project’s website, goneboy.
com. It’s all there. Gun violence
prevention work is frustrating, but
not as frustrating as golf, and the
highs are infinitely higher. Deeper.
I don’t expect results anymore;
the meaning is in the doing. And
how terrific is it to be this old and
learning new stuff every day?”
If you are not yet a member
of the Class of 1967 website
(established for our 50th Reunion),
please consider signing up, at
swarthmore67.com, so that you can
better keep in touch with what’s
going on. And please send news!
Because we’re old and sage, our
class notes get space in every
Bulletin issue.
1969
Jeffrey Hart
hartj@indiana.edu
We were all excited about the
prospect of seeing one another at
our 50th Reunion, May 30–June 2.
Audrey Melkin retired from
scholarly publishing last year and
enjoys NYC more than ever. “I’m
taking art classes—pastels and
stained glass, at present—and love
having more time to visit museums
and galleries and for general
exploring. I still study piano and go
to classical concerts, the opera,
and plays. I’m finding my way with
volunteering and political activism,
leaving time for a slower, reflective
pace to see what may come. Life is
good, and I feel blessed!”
Mary Schmidt Campbell
(2019’s McCabe Lecturer) is
now Spelman College president.
Clinton Etheridge won a Stanford
Tapestry Award and published a
memoir about his experiences in
Africa. Fran Hostettler Putnam
co-founded the Evergreen
Preschool in Vergennes, Vt.,
and served on its board for 24
years. She is also a founding
member of the Weybridge Energy
Committee and Interfaith Climate
Action Network; a dedicated
elementary school volunteer;
and a longtime participant in the
College’s student-led Sunday Night
Environmental Group.
Judith Shenker is retiring
“at the end of this year from
practicing law in NYC (none
too soon) and devoting myself
to philanthropic adventures. I
have contacted Memorial Sloan
Kettering hospital to volunteer in
the pediatric ward and also want
to begin teaching preteens and
teens. I am sure it will be a lot
more fulfilling than law. While I
have no children, I have my cousin
Jack, who is like my grandson
and turns 16 in August. I also
have many cousins in their 20s
in Austin, Texas, with whom I am
close, so I am very lucky indeed.”
Liza Crawford and husband
David Porter “have retired from
our adventure as goat farmers and
cheese-makers for 12 years. The
book on this wonderful interlude
is in the works. I work part time in
medicine but am thinking about
retiring from that, too. We take
care of David’s mother in our
home—an enormous task, but very
worthwhile. We are traveling more,
most recently to Giverny, Monet’s
amazing garden outside Paris. No
one told us that growing older held
so many exciting changes!”
James Ribe retired after 30 years
in forensic pathology as senior
deputy medical examiner at the
Los Angeles County Department of
Medical Examiner-Coroner, where
he specialized in child death and
child abuse pathology.
Marilyn Holifield was elected to
Harvard’s Board of Overseers. She
previously served as Harvard’s
Alumni Association director and on
its Executive Committee.
Bob Snow retired in 2017 but
is “involved with NGOs and
civil-society organizations in
Asia, including a foundation that
supports grassroots humanrights groups in India; a Londonbased group that works with
human-rights lawyers in China;
and an NGO that is training the
next generation of documentary
filmmakers in Cambodia. I get to
Asia about once a year. From my
Boston home, I help with grantwriting and fundraising. And I have
two wonderful grandchildren who,
happily, live nearby. My (nowmarried) partner, Howard Block,
and I have been together for 15
years.”
Linda Lee retired from Marquette
University and volunteers with Ten
Chimneys and the AARP Milwaukee
Leadership Council. Mark Dean is a
retired financial executive formerly
with LNP Plastics in Exton, Pa.
Leonard Nakamura is an associate
VP and economist at the Federal
Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
Darwin Stapleton writes,
publishes, and speaks. He is a
historian of technology, science,
and medicine, and a consultant
SPOTLIGHT ON …
TOM O’DONNELL ’69
Folk singer Tom O’Donnell ’69 recently released his seventh
album, Rothbury in the Fall, and celebrated his 50th Reunion
with performances at Alumni Weekend.
“I am passionate about this music,” he says, “and find it
incredibly joyful and fulfilling to be doing—finally—what I
always wanted to do.”
+
MORE: bulletin.swarthmore.edu and folksinger.info
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
55
class notes
to nonprofits and historical
archives. Bill Herdle retired from
Momentive Performance Materials
in Wilmington, Del. Debbie Seeley
Averill is retired in Portland, Ore.,
but stays active in social work,
focusing on children placed in
foster and adoptive homes. Kristin
Wilson is a solution architect at
Kaiser Permanente in the Bay
Area. Elizabeth Leavelle Bennett
’68 is special counsel at Astor
Weiss Kaplan & Mandel LLP near
Philly. Greg Englund is of counsel at
Laredo & Smith in Boston, focusing
on tax law. Andrew Weinstein
practices medicine near Philly
and is associated with Asthma
Adherence Population Health.
Alan Brooks helped found the
Quoddy Regional Land Trust
in 1987 and became executive
director in 1988. The trust merged
with a neighbor in 2009 to form the
Downeast Coastal Conservancy,
at which time he became its
stewardship director. He retired
in 2013.
Lyon Evans is English professor
emeritus at Viterbo University.
Betsy Weisberger Seifter is a selfemployed consultant and writer.
Deb Frazer moved with husband
Jack Malinowski into a longawaited condo April 25, 2018, and
retired five days later. “I would
never recommend combining those
two life events, but it’s done. We’re
recovering from all the changes
and loving the condo eight blocks
away from our house of 41 years.”
John McDowell was the Alan
Dundes guest lecturer at UC–
Berkeley, delivering the talk
“Ecoperformativity: Expressive
Culture at the Crux of Ecological
Trauma.”
Finally, Nolan Jones, a
postbaccalaureate student at
Swarthmore during 1968–69, died
in Houston in December 2017. He
was possibly best known among
our class as one of the students
who occupied the admissions
dean’s office in January 1969 to
protest administrators’ persistent
disregard of African-American
students. Nolan completed
a political science doctorate
at Washington University in
St. Louis and was a professor
at the University of Michigan
before joining the headquarters
56
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
JOIN THE LEGACY CHALLENGE
Roy Shanker ’70 and Linda Gibson
have generously pledged $2 million
to inspire you to consider the legacy
you can leave to Swarthmore. Each
gift you make that matures in the
future qualifies the College to receive
up to $10,000 in matching funds
from Roy and Linda through their
generous bequest to benefit financial aid. Gifts by will count
toward the Changing Lives, Changing the World campaign
for those who are 60 and older by June 30, 2020.
+
LEARN MORE: swarthmore.edu/legacychallenge
staff of the National Governors
Association; he eventually became
an NGA liaison to Congress. Our
condolences to Nolan’s family and
friends.
1971
Bob Abrahams
bobabrahams@yahoo.com
swarthmore71.org
We are sad to report the loss of
three classmates since our last
column: Bryan Butler died Oct.
1; John Palmer died Dec. 19; and
Peter Cook died Jan. 12. We send
our condolences to their families
and friends.
Bob Cushman joined Alumni
Council, “despite not knowing
exactly what I was getting myself
into. But it’s been rewarding so
far. The Council is involved in
issues such as sustainability (both
on-campus and global, including
fossil-fuel divestment), Title IX,
and the value of Greek life. We
recently met on campus and hosted
a trivia contest as a study break for
students. We also offer ‘SwatTalks’
(bit.ly/SwatTalks)—online seminars
featuring professors, students, and
alumni.”
Neil Prose has expanded his
interest in empathic provider-
SUMMER 2019
patient communication. A
research professor at the Duke
Global Health Institute, Neil is
working in Ethiopia and the south
of Chile to develop curricula for
midwives and health-extension
workers in respectful maternity
care. He also helped create a short
documentary on the ways that
hospital housekeepers participate
in healing. The film, Keepers of
the House, will be the centerpiece
of a curriculum for health care
providers and students on
empathy and teamwork. His TED
Talk on “Empathy, Curiosity, and
Human Connection” can be viewed
at tedxduke.com.
IndieCollect and Independent
Filmmaker Project (IFP) founder
Sandra Schulberg was honored
at the 69th Berlin International
Film Festival with the Berlinale
Camera, awarded to individuals
and institutions that have made
an extraordinary contribution to
filmmaking. “The IFP and First
Run Features were inspired by my
encounters in 1977 with founders
of the Filmverlag der Autoren, the
filmmakers behind New German
Cinema, so I’m especially touched
by this recognition from the Berlin
Film Festival,” Sandra says. “This
award allows me to shine a light
on the current plight of indie
films, many of which are doomed
because of the shift to digital
technology. Films on celluloid have
to be converted to state-of-the-art
digital files—a huge investment—
and we all face an even larger
investment to keep updating the
digital files so the films remain
accessible.”
Tom Stephenson—musician from
Music Orbis and Phaedra fame,
sound engineer at Roland, author
of The Warbler Guide, and inventor
of the BirdGenie birdsong app—had
an article on Audubon.org about a
good (though not obvious) place
to watch birds in the winter (bit.ly/
TomAudubon).
As previously noted, Lynn West
Salvo made a 70-day ride across
Canada last summer, with a theme
of world peace—and she set the
Guinness World Record for oldest
female to do so, finishing just
weeks before her 69th birthday.
Lynn put together a documentary
about it, posted on YouTube. Find
the link at swarthmore71.org. (Lynn
notes that “it’s not a soundbite—it’s
59 minutes long. Break out the
popcorn!”)
Grammy Award winner Don Mizell
reminds us that his music group
Not Dead Yett!! (though that’s not
what he won the Grammy for) has a
debut album from a few years ago
available on Spotify.
David Inouye reports on a recent
trip with wife Bonnie Gregory
Inouye ’69: “We spent most of
February in northern Patagonia,
in part to look for the now-rare
native bumblebee species, which
has been largely displaced by an
introduced European species that
flew in from Chile, where it was
introduced for crop pollination. (We
finally saw two of the native bees.)
We enjoyed the mountains, lakes,
and summer fruits and vegetables,
and crossed the Andes to Chile
with a combination of boats and
buses. When we got back to
Colorado, spring was starting at
our house at 5,800 feet, with dwarf
iris flowering. But up at 9,500
feet, snow was up to the roof of
our cabin at the Rocky Mountain
Biological Lab when I skied there in
mid-March. Looks like the coming
research season will have a late
start. We plan to be in Swarthmore
for Bonnie’s 50th Reunion* (which
overlaps with our 50th wedding
anniversary).
Skip Atkins welcomes advice
from those navigating a course to
retirement. “I’m finding even the
first steps quite difficult.”
Well, I’m happily retired. Any
thoughts on this? Email me.
*And by the time you receive this
Bulletin issue, it will be just under
two years until our 50th Reunion.
Save the dates: May 27–30, 2021
(with Memorial Day on Monday
the 31st).
1973
Martha Shirk
swarthmorecollege73@gmail.com
swarthmorecollege73.com
Since leaving her “day job” in 2015
as curator of Philly’s Gershman
Y Galleries, Miriam Scheiber
Seidel has “finally figured out
how to make regular time for
my own writing.” The result:
her first novel, The Speed of
Clouds, published by New Door
Books last year. She’s working
on another, and she’s also busy
with book editing, volunteering
with 350 Philadelphia, blogging at
miriamseidel.wordpress.com, and
being a mother-in-law. (Son Ethan
got married last year.)
Laura Welch retired last year as
medical director for the Center
for Construction Research and
Training, but finds herself busier
than ever. “I’m spending a good
amount of time on electoral
politics here in Maryland and
in neighboring states, moving
democracy forward bit by bit
(or maybe just preventing more
backsliding). And I’m president
of our local Village, a national
movement to support aging in
place. I hope the organization will
be here when I no longer can drive
a car.”
Martha King’s departure for a
one-year Peace Corps Response
stint in Zambia was delayed
twice, once by bureaucratic
sluggishness and a second time
by the government shutdown, but
she finally made it in January. She
is stationed in Kabwe, a small city
a few hours north of Lusaka, and
working with Zambia’s Ministry of
General Education in partnership
with a USAID-funded initiative to
support HIV-prevention education
and other services for high-risk
girls and women.
Carey Donovan retired in 2015
after 28 years as K–8 guidance
counselor in Mount Desert Island,
Maine, where she met husband
Art Paine, an artist and boat
builder/captain, while waitressing
there decades ago. They live on a
fishing harbor in Bernard, Maine,
and have two adult children,
Rebecca and Nathaniel, and two
grandchildren. Carey is a citizen
activist, previously serving as
a Girl Scout leader, chair of the
Tremont School fund, and chair
of the library board, and now as
chair of Tremont Democrats, a
library trustee, and the town’s
representative to the Acadia
Disposal District. She is also active
in A Climate to Thrive, a grassroots
sustainability group. “Living in a
small town suits me,” she writes.
After 40-some years creating
thousands of products, ad
campaigns, and infomercials,
Arthur Johnson is a fulltime photographer. “Much to
learn, but a year after taking
ArthurPix online, I have a
registered trademark and 16,618
subscribers—and I invite, nay
beg, classmates to sign up and
check out my work at ArthurPix.
com. Meantime, I framed my
first songwriting royalty check
for pieces I co-wrote with David
Hicks ’71 of Phaedra. Impossibly,
long-lost Phaedra tapes were
found, painstakingly cleaned
up, and transformed into two
epic albums—and in February
we were informed by our online
‘label,’ CollegeBand, that Phaedra
had already won three Gold
Records. We want more, so please,
classmates, go to CollegeBand.
com, search for Phaedra, and start
listening!”
JoAnn Jones, who had a long
public service career as an
attorney and public agency official,
retired in 2014 as deputy director
of Philly’s Office of Housing and
Community Development and
began preparing for an encore
career. She graduated from the
General Theological Seminary
and was ordained as an Episcopal
priest in December 2017. She
is now associate rector and
transitional deacon at Church of
the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr, Pa.
Polly Simonds Saltet retired
from the Hartsbrook School, a
Waldorf school in Hadley, Mass.,
after teaching eurythmy (an
expressive movement art) for 28
years. Husband Jan-Kees retired
from Hartsbrook at the same time,
giving them more time to visit
daughter Elisa, a Waldorf teacher
in Berkeley, Calif. (As someone
once said, the apple doesn’t fall far
from the tree!) Polly continues her
private practice with adults and
children.
After an academic publishing
career, Julia Hough has provided
private therapeutic yoga sessions
for almost 20 years from her home
studio in Weehawken, N.J., as
well as various yoga classes in
the New York area. She also leads
courses on how to teach chair
yoga and mudras (hand and finger
gestures). On the personal front,
she says she’s enjoyed living for
the past two years with Phil Kapp
and his two cats.
Robert Weissman is in his 28th
year at TechLaw after spending
nine years as an attorney with
the EPA. He was recruited by the
founder, his EPA mentor, and now
works for his son. He and wife
Marilyn have two adult children,
Adam and Sarah, and live in
Alexandria, Va.
Condolences to the families and
friends of Julius Nicholas, who
died Jan. 10, and Terrence Hicks,
who died Oct. 18.
To find more news
about classmates, visit
SwarthmoreCollege73.com. While
you’re there, create or update
your own profile! And start a
conversation at facebook.com/
SwarthmoreClassOf1973.
1975
Sam Agger
sam.agger@gmail.com
Tom Casey writes: “After 30 years
we are moving; downsizing a bit,
mostly shedding the yard. Two
kids married. Both of us are still
working without any intention of
retiring; I was recruited last spring
and love being back downtown
with a bunch of very young (it
seems) colleagues.”
The Reporters Committee,
which provides pro bono legal
representation and resources to
protect First Amendment freedoms
and the newsgathering rights
of journalists, honored David
Bradley at its annual Freedom
of the Press Awards on May 7
in NYC. The awards recognize
leaders in journalism and media
law whose work demonstrates
a deep commitment to the First
Amendment and press freedom.
Eric Stein retired in May 2018
and has been traveling and
helping son Jon at his craft
brewery, Fogtown, in Ellsworth,
Maine. “Spent a lovely week in
San Diego with David ’71 and Carla
Neuhauser Scheidlinger. Now
proud to serve as treasurer for the
Bobby McKinstry for PA Senate
campaign. He’s got a great shot
at getting elected in 2020 with a
very (you guessed it) progressive
platform. Good luck, Bobby!”
Very exciting that the
Swarthmore men’s basketball
team finished second in the NCAA
Division III tournament—and Ken
Andres was there!
John McKitterick planned to
retire from Honeywell in March.
“While the technical work is still
challenging, and my co-workers
stimulating, there is little joy in
going to work anymore. Time to
attend to the other things that are
coming up. My daughter, Amelia, is
getting a microbiology Ph.D. from
Berkeley this summer and moving
on to a postdoc at Harvard. My
son, Chris ’09, is getting married
in September. And I’m taking on
a leadership role in the Maryland
Ornithological Society. A busy
start to retirement!”
Gary Albright wrote about
the four “babies” he and wife
Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio have
produced and nurtured: Their
first, the Cactus Pear Music
Festival, is going into its 23rd
season of bringing world-class
chamber music to San Antonio
in the sizzling days of July. Their
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
57
class notes
second bambino, Bella, 20, will
spend the next academic year in
San Sebastian, Spain, immersing
herself in the language, Basque
culture, beaches, and cafés. Third
offspring Brie, 18, capped her
senior year of high school with
a state championship win in We
the People, the national citizen
and Constitution program. She
and her teammates competed
for the national title in D.C.
this spring. And to ward off
empty-nest syndrome, Gary and
Stephanie begat “child” No. 4:
Chamber Music Reno, a Nevada
nonprofit whose mission is to
provide chamber music locally
with its “Silver Soirée Series” and
to mentor aspiring high school
musicians. And despite the music
ringing in his ears, Gary still plays
the game he loves: soccer.
Pekka Mooar reports the birth
of first grandchild Shea Mikala
Kelleher. “My youngest went back
to school for a postbac program
and is now a first-year Temple
medical student. So, I had four
years added to my sentence as
I had started to plan to retire. I
will stop operating in July but
will continue seeing patients in
the office and teaching as well as
supervising the ortho department
clinical trials and research support
office. I will also continue in my
role as a unit-based medical
director in the hospital.”
Sadly, T.J. Morrison died Dec.
13 surrounded by his family. He
graduated with a B.A. in political
science with a concentration
in Black studies and was
instrumental in the founding of
Swarthmore’s Black Student
Union. T.J. went on to receive his
MBA from Columbia and became
a VP for J.P. West Inc., a Wall
Street-based brokerage firm. He
also served as city manager for
Plainfield, N.J., before relocating
with his family to Hartford, Conn.,
JOIN THE
LEGACY CHALLENGE
Learn more on
pg. 56 or at
swarthmore.edu/
legacychallenge
58
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
where he was the city’s director
of finance. An avid golfer, T.J.
loved his family and was especially
proud of his father’s legacy as a
Tuskegee Airman. To cherish his
memory, he leaves his devoted
wife, Felicia; children Jason,
Janelle, Tamara, and Krysta;
mother Madeline Morrison; and
sister Chandra Morrison. He
also leaves grandchildren Jaden,
Ezekiel, and Isabella.
Peace to T.J.’s family, friends,
and all.
1977
Terri-Jean Pyer
tpyer@hartnell.edu
Greetings, everyone! I wonder
how many of us have retired or
are considering retiring from our
career jobs, and are contemplating
something different for the next
act. I’d love to hear your thoughts
about that transition, and I’m sure
others would, too. Drop me a line,
and let me know if I can share it
here.
Lou Ann Matossian earned
the professional designation of
Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy
from the American College
of Financial Services in Bryn
Mawr last year. That program
gives professionals the broad
knowledge and skills to help
clients and prospective donors
reach financial and philanthropic
goals, and the designation
recognizes fulfillment of rigorous
educational, experience, and
ethical requirements.
I am sorry to report the loss of
Lewis Shuster, who died Dec. 13
after a brief battle with advanced
pancreatic cancer. Lew graduated
with honors in economics and
then earned an MBA with honors
from Stanford. He spent more than
three decades in the life sciences
field, holding executive positions
in several companies before
starting his own firm where he
could advise, consult, and invest
in promising biotech startups.
Wife Kate shared this from
SUMMER 2019
his obituary: “He was a loving
husband and father, a wine
aficionado, and a tennis player.
He also loved classical music,
hiking in our national parks, and
pie. He is survived by his wife
of more than 25 years, Kate;
his daughter, Anna—currently
attending Georgetown University;
stepson Trevor of Encinitas, Calif.;
parents Duane and Irene Shuster
of Avon Lake, Ohio; brother David
and his wife, Jean, along with
their sons, Jason and Robert, of
Canton, Ga. Memorial donations
would be especially appropriate to
the Yosemite Conservancy (San
Francisco) or Mainly Mozart (San
Diego).”
1979
Laurie Stearns Trescott
sundncr88@comcast.net
Tim Dodge wrote a new music
history book, Rhythm and Blues
Goes Calypso. It explores the
roughly 20-year period starting
in 1945 when African American
R&B artists made more than 170
recordings incorporating West
Indian calypso. Tim is a reference
librarian at Auburn University
and is serving a two-year term as
Southeastern Library Association
president.
Besides teaching securities law
at Brown, Ari Gabinet is taking
jazz lessons and building guitars.
He thanks Ira Gitlin ’80 and
Charlie McGovern ’80 for being
his musical inspirations.
Dana Mackenzie’s book (cowritten with Judea Pearl) The
Book of Why was named one of
the Best Science Books of 2018 by
Science Friday. The book has been
translated into many languages,
and Dana enjoys following its
Amazon reviews. By far the
most meaningful comment came
from his co-author, who said,
“More people tell me that they
understand my work than I’ve had
in the last 20 years.” Dana says
this means the book has achieved
its objective! The book’s top
Amazon ranking was No. 77, one
notch higher than Baby Touch and
Feel Animals. Dana quips that any
time you write a serious science
book that sells more than a book
with cute bunnies on the cover,
you’ve done something right! (He
adds that they were ahead of the
bunnies for a day, at most.)
Peter Plocki and wife Merry
celebrated their 25th wedding
anniversary with an October
trip to Iceland, which “did not
disappoint,” he says, and they
hope to return soon. (I interject
here because we loved our trip
to Iceland, as well—everyone I
know who has visited has come
back with wonderful stories and
photos.)
Workwise, Peter is completing
his 2.5-year detail to the Federal
Transit Administration, where
he’s been involved with safety
oversight of D.C.’s subway
system, and returning as the
Department of Transportation’s
deputy assistant general counsel
for litigation. Caught in the latest
government shutdown, Peter
spent a week volunteering at José
Andrés’s World Central Kitchen,
where thousands of sandwiches
and salads, and thousands of
gallons of soup were turned out to
feed federal workers furloughed
or working without pay. Peter
commends Andrés’s drive and
generosity and says this was one
of the most uplifting experiences
he’s ever had. Peter says Diana
Furchtgott-Roth is now also at
DOT as deputy assistant secretary
for research and technology. She
had been at the U.S. Treasury
awaiting Senate confirmation to
her new position, which places
her office two floors down from
Peter’s.
Wendy Ruopp is still managing
editor of EatingWell, but things
have gotten busier since they
absorbed Cooking Light and
went from six issues a year to
10. For fun, she and Tom do
trivia at least once a week with
a multigenerational team—they
recently won all six rounds at
literary trivia (her English lit
degree in action! Wendy quips).
Her family includes son Caleb,
recently married and a chocolatier
in New Hampshire; and daughters
Emma, a theatrical production
manager in NYC, and Maggie, who
works in university admissions
and residential life in California.
This column will reach you
after our 40th Reunion. I look
forward to hearing from more
of you after the festivities, and I
invite all classmates, generally, to
contribute to this space. Happy
summer, everyone!
1981
Karen Oliver
karen.oliver.01@gmail.com
Not too many notes this time
around, but some of us are in the
news:
Who knew Jonathan Franzen
was such a birdwatcher? Read all
about it in this November Guardian
article on climate change and
birding: bit.ly/FranzenBirds
And check out Elizabeth
Anderson in the January New
Yorker piece “The Philosopher
Redefining Equality”: bit.ly/
AndersonEquality
Congrats to Medha Narvekar,
who was named Penn’s vice
president and secretary of the
university! Medha had worked in
Penn’s Development and Alumni
Relations Office for 32 years,
beginning shortly after she earned
an MBA from Wharton. “Medha
is both renowned and respected
across Penn,” Penn President
Amy Gutmann said. “Her extensive
experience across all areas—
including working directly with
trustees, overseers, and Penn’s
most generous donors—gives
her a unique capacity to step into
the important position of vice
president and secretary.”
Reporting from the secondgeneration Quaker matchbox:
Marc and Tina Sandberg Forster
announce that daughter Sara
Forster ’11 married Max Wilson ’10
in Scott Amphitheater last Aug.
4. In attendance were 19 alums
(Danny Melnick, Todd Mayman,
Julia Cutler Sullivan, Carrie
Figdor, Meena Shivraj Desai, Keith
Blaha ’10, Caitlin Adams ’11, Cecilia
Marquez ’11, Emily Evans ’11, Jenn
Medeiros ’15, Ariel Martino ’11,
Jeffrey Lazarus ’10, Joe Spagna
’12, and Kevin Pytlar ’12—plus
the bride and groom, parents
of the bride, and the bride’s
grandfather Bob Forster ’49) and
three Swarthmore professors
(Allen Schneider, Patty White,
and Amy Vollmer). The ceremony
was followed by cocktails on
the Sharples patio and dancing
to music by the Narwhals (Tom
Sahagian ’74, Peter Jaquette ’74,
and the rest of the band) under a
tent on the lawn.
From a bit farther south: Pete
Alexander has been in Mexico
City for the past two years
managing the Latin America sales
organization for Rohde & Schwarz,
a Munich-based technology and
test-and-measurement company.
“It’s been an amazing experience
exploring Latin America with my
wife and some of the amazing
cultures here. I’ve been asked
to take on a new role in North
America, so we’ll be moving to
Miami to begin our adventure
there. While I’ll miss Mexico and
still have more to discover here,
I’m looking forward to playing
lacrosse regularly in one of the
many ‘senior’ leagues in South
Florida.”
As for me, Karen Oliver, I moved
in May 2018 for a view of the
Washington Monument and a
10-minute walk to work at the
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
(near DuPont Circle in D.C.).
Missing my daughters (Peace
Corps Morocco and University of
Vermont Medical Center student
in Burlington) but happy to
explore the city parks with my
dog, Riva. In December, I had the
chance to catch up with Darius
Rejali on a D.C. work trip, and he
invited Marcus Noland to join us.
Turns out Marcus not only works
across the street from me (at the
Peterson Institute for International
Economics) but he also lives on
my street. We must live in different
time zones as our paths rarely
cross. And Pete isn’t the only one
playing in a “senior league”—I
just started my 14th season with
a women’s soccer team called
Vintage.
That’s all for now, folks. Hope to
hear from more of you next time!
1983
John Bowe
john@bowe.us
Mamie Duff gave up the
motorcycles and now rides
to hounds—foxhunts—in
the ancient tradition. After a
lifetime of devotion to 2-D art,
she completed her first bronze
sculpture—of her actual horse, a
paint mare. “Neither activity very
Swarthmore-y!” she notes. She is
pleased to hear (and envious) that
there is a real studio art program
these days.
Matt Sommer celebrated being
halfway finished with his threeyear term as Stanford’s History
Department chair.
Beth Varcoe’s youngest heads to
college this fall, and her eldest is
graduating. Her nest is not quite
empty, still with a dog, a rabbit, and
a pampered horse.
Like many of us, though, Leigh
Kyle’s nest is empty, her son
having graduated from Macalester
in May. She hosted an extern at
her landscape architecture firm
in San Diego in January, noting
“she was 10 times more focused
than I ever was as an undergrad.”
Leigh was delighted to reconnect
with Professor Patrick Henry, late
of the Religion Department, who
contacted her out of the blue as he
ran across her senior thesis while
going through old files.
Dan Werther is two years
past his last company, a candy
manufacturer, and has purchased
G&S Fight Supply, a well-known
80-year-old boxing brand from
NYC’s Lower East Side. He has
partners this time around, which
he finds comforting. His wife
is active in the art world. Their
elder son is pursuing an MBA at
Wharton and younger son is in
venture capital in NYC.
Suellen Heath Riffkin met up
with Ellen Singer in Philly last
fall. Daughter Sophie earned an
occupational therapy master’s. “A
‘higher’ degree—Matt [who died in
2014] would have been so thrilled.”
Suellen and partner Don live
in Philly, Utah, and Long Beach
Island, N.J. In February, they did
a weeklong Habitat for Humanity
build in Buenos Aires, then
roughed it with a few 20K hikes in
Patagonia.
Congrats to Amy Robertson and
husband Tim Fox on receiving the
Carle Whitehead Memorial Award,
recognizing lifetime commitment
to protecting and extending civil
rights and civil liberties.
Deb Felix and Dave Hawver
’85 bought “an awesome little
house in [Deb’s] hometown of
Wellfleet, Mass.,” after selling
their place in Maryland. They’ll
split time between the two states.
Deb can “work from anywhere
as a (100% ethical!) college
admissions consultant.” Their son
has added standup comedy in
D.C. to his acting repertoire, and
their daughter is “crawling toward
finishing a B.A. in biology.”
Kevin Kuehlwein and husband
purchased a large Georgian house
in Salem, N.J.’s historic district,
where they will sell antiques. “You
learn a lot about yourself when
you rehab a house—not all good!”
Kevin notes it is a great, relaxing
escape from city hassles, and he
has enjoyed playing and recording
his own music.
Shoshana Kerewsky’s textbook,
Finding Your Career in Human
Services, was published by
Cognella.
Ellen Argyros has become
interested in reading anything—
novels, memoirs, scholarship—
about Hitler-occupied Greece.
She’s looking for suggestions. Her
elder son is starting a real estate
company in Austin, Texas, while
the younger one is an engineer at
NorChem, which provides greener
chemical cleaning solutions.
Dave Gertler and Sue Kost’s
third and youngest child, Eli, was
accepted to his top choice, Duke.
“That means we’ve gone 0 for 3 on
continuing the family’s Swarthmore
tradition, but at least he picked a
school with a similarly outstanding
basketball team.” Meanwhile, Dave,
after leaving his middle-school
teaching career last spring, has
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
59
class notes
begun working (remotely) for the
D.C.-based education nonprofit
Great Minds, where he is an editor
for their widely used curriculum
Eureka Math.
Linda Estes writes: “Three
years ago, my dad chose to
use Washington state’s Death
with Dignity law (which allows
physician aid in dying) when
cancer exploded throughout his
body. The law is complex and
difficult to access in our corner
of the state, so I decided to make
sure no family had to go through
what we did. I’ve established a
volunteer group, worked with our
local hospital to change its policy,
brought pharmacists and doctors
on board, and am working on a
statewide advocacy program. I
never believed that thing about
‘one person can make a difference’
until I did it myself! Thank God for
that liberal arts education—I’ve
used every inch of it during this
process.”
I, John Bowe, went on my first
Alumni College Abroad trip in
March, to Iceland. It’s a fabulous
country. By coincidence, Ethan
Landis ’84 was on it, too.
1985
Tim Kinnel
kinnel@swarthmore.warpmail.net
Maria Tikoff Vargas
maria@chrisandmaria.com
It’s time for the next installment
of As the Swattie Turns. However,
this will be more YouTube-seriesepisode length, since only a few
of you were able to escape the
Schwarzschild radius of the
Mueller report. (Sorry, it’s hard to
stay topical with a three-month
lead time.) On with the show!
Lourdes Rosado is “delighted to
announce that I have joined the
New York Civil Liberties Union as
its inaugural program director.”
Lourdes oversees the legal, policy,
and field-organizing departments,
the Education Policy Center, and
chapters and regional offices.
“I went back to school to switch
careers,” writes Lucy Harrington,
“from nonprofit fundraising to
teaching.” In her second year
teaching English language arts at
Middle School 131 in Chinatown,
NYC, Lucy says, “I’ve never worked
harder in any job, but I’m beginning
to see some light at the end of the
tunnel.”
Writes David Landes: “My first
year of retirement has been a joy
and very interesting. In addition to
100 books, predominantly science
fiction/fantasy, my wife and I
kicked off ‘Museum Tuesdays.’
… It turns out that if you are not
dragging kids—or having them
drag you—you can spend a lot of
time in a museum.” David was also
selected for grand jury duty, three
days a month for a year. “I enjoyed
it greatly and learned an awful lot.
For example, about 1 in 10,000
hundred-dollar bills is counterfeit.”
David notes that sister Jordan
was named curator of the Friends
Historical Library. A Haverford
graduate, Jordan “will now have to
stop teasing me about Swat.”
Sue Levin hosted a terrific winter
extern. “Alaina Chen ’21 was with
us for a week shadowing me at
work and living with our family.
She was absolutely lovely, and we
spent a lot of time getting caught
up on how things used to be and
how they are now. One thing hasn’t
changed, and that’s Willets, where
she lives now and I lived freshman
and sophomore year with Gloria
Thomas and Ellen Meeks. I walked
through the Class of ’85 yearbook
with her (haven’t looked at it in
decades) and dredged up a lot of
memories. It was a bit shocking
how long ago it all seems!”
Patrik Williams and wife Melissa
were slightly agog at sending off
daughter Lauren—seemingly just
yesterday boarding the bus for
kindergarten—for her freshman
year at the University of Delaware.
Patrik became superintendent of
the Smyrna (Del.) School District
in 2017, but this is his 34th year(!)
of public education.
Finally, Babak Etemad ruminates
on nearly 11 years since returning
to Philadelphia from New Orleans.
“Winter’s a bear. [ed. Maybe you
should host a Swarthmore extern!]
Can’t wait for spring. Waiting for
Chanticleer, Scott Arboretum, and
other regional gardens to help put
the cold and gray behind us.”
ALUMNI COUNCIL NEWS
Greetings from your Alumni Council! Our members swarmed onto
campus in March and had a terrific time meeting with students
and hosting several events, including:
•
Our annual Dress for Success professional clothing
giveaway, with personalized tape measures and
measurement cards.
•
A senior class cocktail party, where we welcomed our
newest alums to the fold and announced a matching gift
challenge to the graduating class. Alumni Council members
had 100% participation this year to match this gift!
•
A multigenerational—and very competitive—Trivia Night,
which included many students and alums and cool prizes.
This will probably become an annual event.
We are currently seeking nominations for new Alumni Council
members. Email acpresident@swarthmore.edu to nominate a
peer or yourself, or with any questions about Alumni Council.
Students joined Alumni Council members this March at the annual
Dress for Success clothing giveaway.
We hope to have seen many of you at Alumni Weekend. We’ll
be back on campus in October for Garnet Weekend to host our
annual Career Networking Dinner with Alumni Council members,
current students, and members of other volunteer groups—
always a fun, diverse, and inclusive evening!
alumni@swarthmore.edu
60
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
Fortunately, as you read this, that
will have happened.
That’s it for this round. Don’t
forget to write!
not only important for students to
believe in their ability to create, it
is important that they believe that
they can create it here in Africa—
in Accra, in Lagos, in Nairobi, all
across the continent.”
1989 1991
Martha Easton
measton@elmira.edu
Kathy Stevens
stevkath@gmail.com
There’s not much to report,
although I’m sure many of us
connected at the reunion. Hope to
have seen you there!
Stephanie Gonzalez Ferrandez
writes: “Life is crazy hectic
at 50+ with three jobs! First, I
opened a law practice in 2014 and
have been helping lots of teens
with family law needs for their
immigration cases. Second, after
the presidential election, I was
compelled to do something. So in
2017, I ran for and was elected to
my local school board, where I deal
with an encroaching charter, rising
special-ed costs and dwindling
funding. And third, my favorite,
I’m enjoying life with my two kids
and husband! Maybe 60+ will be
quieter.”
Patrick Awuah wrote an
interesting, reflective Quartz
piece on education—for and by
Africans—and his own experiences
(bit.ly/AwuahQuartz). “The work
we do as educators is about
making the world a more hopeful
place for the generations that
come after us,” he writes. “We’re
in the hope business. Our job is
to help the next generation look
beyond present challenges to a
brighter future, and equip them
with the skills to create it. But it is
FOLLOW US!
Facebook and Instagram:
@SwarthmoreBulletin
#SwatBulletin
Nick Jesdanun
me@anick.org
This is the year many of us turn 50.
Rather than dwell on the past—all
the opportunities we might have
missed, the bad decisions we might
have made, the hopes and dreams
left unfulfilled—let’s look forward
instead … to the next generation.
Starting with Cammy Voss and
Denis Murphy ’89: Daughter Eliza
’23 got into Swarthmore through
early decision, so she’ll join brother
Declan Murphy ’21 this fall. Declan
hopes to major in biology and
environmental studies.
Brett Summers and David
Anthony’s eldest child, Willa, is
a freshman at Earlham College
in Indiana. Brett describes the
small Quaker school as “a sort of
Midwestern sister of Swarthmore.”
She’s immersed in college life and
already giving admissions tours.
High school sophomore Jasper
enjoys working in the ceramics
studio and is an accomplished
graffiti artist and shoe refurbisher,
according to Brett. Oh, and he’s
now driving himself to school,
which Dave says “has aged us a
bit.” Hazel, a fifth-grader, loves
gymnastics and the piano. Brett
teaches high school English to
an underserved population in
Providence, R.I.
Alex and Dawn Rheingans
McDonnell have just 10th-grader
Kieran left at home. Grace is a
senior at Washington University
in St. Louis; the triplets are all
first-years—Alex and Rose at
Northeastern, and Amelia at Bryn
Mawr.
Alex, who was on Swarthmore’s
men’s basketball team with Dave,
says he was thrilled to follow the
team as it reached the Division
III championship game. (Sadly,
Swarthmore lost.) Dave and Brett
got to see the team play in Amherst,
Mass., during the Sweet 16 and
Elite 8 rounds.
Fran Altvater is taking a break
from her job as associate dean
for student academic services at
the University of Hartford’s Hillyer
College. She’ll be on sabbatical this
fall, writing a book exploring the
history of Christianity through art
made for everyday worshippers—
no Michelangelos! Husband Ed
Bernstein works in the university
library and played the ghost of
John Barrymore in I Hate Hamlet
for the community theater. Their
elder child is headed to college.
Where? All she had decided as of
this writing was, “Not where you
teach, Mama.”
Laurel Hester moved on from
teaching and is now assistant
provost at Keuka College in upstate
New York. Her job description has
some 30 bullet points, including
“assist colleagues in defining the
question they are trying to answer
and then assist in interpreting
results.” Though she finds the job
overwhelming, she’s learning a lot
and supporting an institution she
cares about.
Jim Ellis is finishing a yearlong
stint as executive assistant to
Director of National Intelligence
Daniel Coats. Jim’s next gig is as
a professor at National Defense
University, which Jim points out is
conveniently across the street from
the new D.C. United stadium.
Sadly, Jed Bell’s partner of 20
years, writer Wickie Stamps, has
died. Jed continues film studies
at San Francisco State University.
A short film he and Wickie made
together, Dropping Penny, has
screened in the U.S., Australia,
and Sweden and is on the festival
circuit.
Dan Gura is director of business
development at AlgometRx, a
medical device startup spun off
from Children’s National Medical
Center in D.C. The technology
seeks to measure pain, just like
heart rate or blood pressure. It
makes measurements by tracking
how pupils react, so that doctors
don’t have to rely on patients’
subjective descriptions and can
figure out what drug might work
best. It’s in clinical trials, with a
goal of getting devices to health
care providers by early 2021.
Dan got involved after a health
care investor contacted him.
He describes the experience as
“amazing and blessed.”
Many of you already know about
my addiction to running. Now I
have a new one: movies (bit.ly/
NickFilmFan). I saw 200 movies in
theaters last year (201 if you count
watching the Mamma Mia sequel
twice). And I’ve seen 90 this year
through the end of March.
That’s meant I had to cut back my
running to 3,000 miles last year.
Sigh.
It’s probably all my 50-year-old
body can take anyway.
Sigh.
1995
Sally Chin
sallypchin@gmail.com
Erik Thoen
erik_thoen@alum.swarthmore.edu
Greetings from N.Y.! Some news
from classmates across the U.S.:
Suzanna Bräuer was promoted
to full professor of biology at
Appalachian State University in
Boone, N.C. The title officially
conferred on July 1.
Beth Bruch is mourning the loss of
her beloved companion of 19 years,
her fluffy, smart, and talented
cat, Yo-Yo, aleha hashalom, who
transitioned in January. Beth
enjoys being a high school librarian
and also rabble-rousing with
Jewish Voice for Peace–Triangle
NC chapter, the Demilitarize:
Durham2Palestine campaign, and
the Movement to End Racism and
Islamophobia.
Matt Cohen is now a full professor
at the University of Florida and
has spent the past year raising
kids, building a house, and taking
a sabbatical to work in Antarctica
and (soon) Spain and France.
Sampriti Ganguli joined
Swarthmore’s Alumni Council and
has had a wonderful time getting
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
61
class notes
reacquainted with the College
and its curriculum in motion,
and hosting a trivia night with
freshmen. They bonded over a
mutual love of ABBA (for her, the
band; for them, the movie). During
free time, she helps register new
voters and was appointed an
officer of election in her Arlington,
Va., precinct. She looks forward to
our 25th Reunion and is looking
for a few good folks to be on the
Reunion Committee.
Hunter Gehlbach is swapping
coasts (again)—this time
trading Santa Barbara, Calif.,
for Baltimore, where he will be
vice dean of the Johns Hopkins
School of Education (and will have
much easier access to the 25th
Reunion). He encourages any and
all to drop him a line next time they
are in Charm City.
Carolyn Harp writes: “After 13
years home with the kids and lots
of volunteering, I have returned
to the paid working world. I am
our school district’s newest
occupational therapist and am so
happy to have this position! Plus,
having the same vacations as my
kids is a huge benefit.”
Caitlin Killian teaches sociology
at Drew University and was very
happy to see fellow sociologists
from Swarthmore last summer
at the dinner of the American
Sociological Association meeting
in Philly. An article she coauthored, “Beyond Color-Blind
and Color-Conscious: Approaches
to Racial Socialization Among
Parents of Transracially Adopted
Children,” was published in
the journal Family Relations.
Over spring break, Caitlin went
to Turkey as a U.N. consultant on
gender mainstreaming in livelihood
programming for Syrian refugees. A
colleague from Drew did interviews
in Jordan and Lebanon, and they
are working on their report about
the response in the three primary
host countries. Caitlin has a son
graduating from high school, a
son in seventh grade, a stepson in
fourth grade, and a stepdaughter in
second grade.
And this from Youngjae Lee on
Brett Kavanaugh and the future of
the Supreme Court: bit.ly/Youngjae
Gene Sonn hosted another extern
at his WHYY office in January and
62
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
early March. He and his family
returned to campus to cheer on
the men’s basketball team in its
epic trouncing of MIT in the NCAA
Tournament. In April, Gene was
back on campus to join a panel of
Swattie journalists talking about
the present and future of local
news, which “was an opportunity
for me to brag a bit about a
collaborative journalism project
in our area. It’s called Resolve
Philadelphia, doing solutionsoriented journalism (where we look
for ways to fix problems, not just
depress everyone with bad news).
Our current project, brokeinphilly.
org, just got a shout-out from the
folks who put out the Pulitzer Prize
(though not to be confused with
actually winning that prestigious
award): bit.ly/NewsSurvival.” Gene
adds that he is now super busy, as
sons Sam, 8, and Eli, 11, are doing
Little League for the first time.
As for me, Sally Chin, last year I
won the Hamilton lottery and got
to see the musical on Broadway
from the front row for only $10.
It was amazing—and a year on, I
am still playing the lottery to try to
see it again. I highly recommend
the lottery app! I also highly
recommend getting in touch
with Sampriti to plan for our
25th Reunion!
1997
Lauren Jacobi
laurenjacobi@hotmail.com
Justin Herring and his wife have
lived in Harlem for five years
with their son, almost 3. He loves
raising a child in the city but finds
it’s very different from where he
grew up—in rural Alaska! Justin
works in Newark, N.J., as a
federal prosecutor and chief of the
Cybercrimes Unit. He’s fortunate
enough to see some Swatties
regularly, including Phil Spector,
Joseph Khan, Joseph Goodman,
Damon Taaffe ’99, and Gene
Yoshida ’98. And, of course, his
sister, Stephanie Herring ’99!
Lena Loewenthal Lewis
SUMMER 2019
GARNET SNAPSHOT
Ben Schall ’97, A.J. Shanley ’97, Aaron Bond ’97, and Jeff
Greeson ’97 cheered on the Garnet men’s basketball team
in March during their Final Four game against Christopher
Newport University in Fort Wayne, Ind.
completed a master of public
policy at the University of Virginia
and now works on energy and
climate policy for the Nature
Conservancy Virginia Chapter.
She and husband Dave Lewis live
in Charlottesville, Va., with sons
River, 12, and Zeke, 9.
Katie Jozwicki Morgan has been
acting in local stage plays and
comedy shows, covering themes
ranging from the celebration of
famous African-Americans to ’80s
pop culture. She lives in Houston
with her husband and son, 5.
Johanna Peters-Burton Greeson
reports that a healthy contingent
of ’97ers headed to Fort Wayne,
Ind., in March to cheer on the Swat
men’s basketball team in their
Division III Final Four appearance
against Christopher Newport
University. The team subsequently
lost to the University of Wisconsin–
Oshkosh, but not for a “valiant and
admirable effort.” Those present
were Johanna and husband Jeff
Greeson, Aaron Bond, Eric and
Kate Dempsey Walton ’95, David
Sacker, Ben Schall, and A.J.
Shanley. On a related note, Eric
reports that he and Kate are in
their 12th year in Ann Arbor, Mich.,
and notes how “incredible it was to
be able to make it down to watch
the Swat men’s basketball team.
… The fact that so many from the
administration came to show their
support seems to indicate that
the school truly turned a corner
regarding appreciating athletics.”
After almost 12 years in the
Social Security Administration’s
Office of the General Counsel, Uri
Ko Yoo joined the Government
Accountability Office’s
Procurement Law group. She lives
in Silver Spring, Md., with her
husband and two boys.
Martin Carrillo is proud to be
finishing two years of designing
event and installation sound for
L.A.’s Broad Museum. In April, he
was on the mix team that brought
Karen O and Danger Mouse’s new
collaborative work to the Marciano
Art Foundation for seven sold-out
surround-sound, multisensory
presentations. Also, daughter Sonia
Margot won the Glendale District
Spelling Bee.
Briana Maley finally dusted off
her longtime dream of writing
fiction. She’s had a few short
stories published so far and was
named the 2019 winner of Lilith
Magazine’s annual fiction contest.
Her winning story was to be
published in their spring issue.
Kasia Anderson lives in SoCal, is
executive editor of Truthdig, and
teaches journalism M.S. students
at USC, where she received a
communication Ph.D. last year. She
looks forward to seeing a couple
of Swatties at her wedding to Boris
Trifunovic this October.
Hannah and Robin Mandel
welcomed baby Iris Briggs Mandel
in early February. She joins brother
Arlo, born in September 2016. Last
November, Robin had a solo show
of sculpture and video installations
at Swat’s List Gallery and got to
see professors Randy Exon, Brian
Meunier, Syd Carpenter, and
Connie Hungerford.
Marianne Yeung works at the VA
Palo Alto Health Care System and
is a clinical assistant professor at
Stanford. She recently took on a
new role as associate chief of staff
for specialty and hospital-based
services, in which she oversees
daily operations of the emergency
department, inpatient areas,
and ICUs. She and her family—
including three spirited kids—live
in the Santa Cruz Mountains with
their 26 chickens! She hopes to
get together with Kate Harrod-Kim
again soon.
Abby Swingen was appointed
associate vice president for
research at Texas Tech University,
where she is an associate professor
in the history department. In her
new position, she will manage
Texas Tech’s internal funding
programs and research awards, as
well as provide outreach from the
Office of Research & Innovation to
humanities disciplines on campus.
Our condolences to the family
of Bryan Berg, who died Jan. 25,
2018. Bryan was living in Florida at
the time of his passing.
1999
Melissa Morrell
melrel99@hotmail.com
Alex Robinson, an assistant
professor in USC’s Landscape
Architecture and Urbanism
graduate program and a principal
of the Office of Outdoor Research,
had his book The Spoils of Dust:
Reinventing the Lake that Made
Los Angeles (pg. 7) reviewed
in November’s issue of Nature.
Swarthmore professor Daniel
Laurison was interviewed for the
February issue of The Atlantic
about his recent book The
Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to Be
Privileged.
Erin Denney-Koelsch was
promoted to associate professor
at the University of Rochester
Medical Center. A palliative doctor
for all ages, Erin loves teaching
and researching in perinatal
palliative care (how to best care
for the sickest of babies). By
summer, she will have completed
designing, editing, partly writing,
and publishing the first-ever book
on the subject! She and husband
Matt are raising two amazing kids,
an organic garden, and a flock of
happy chickens.
Play and opera director Michal
Zadara and wife Barbara Wysocka,
an actress and director, have three
kids and work in Poland, Germany,
Austria, and Switzerland. “We will
both be Cornell visiting professors
at Swarthmore next school year,
teaching theater and multimedia
performance and Greek tragedy.”
Deborah Stein and husband
Andy Horwitz welcomed son
Jacob Arthur in December. “We’re
over the moon and deliriously
sleep-deprived, and can’t wait to
show Jacob around Swarthmore
someday.”
Chloe Dowley is completing
her third year working in the
kindergarten at Maine Coast
Waldorf School in Freeport,
Maine, where she fills her day with
outdoor work, cooking, and songs.
She was excited to cut the rug with
you at our reunion in June. In the
meantime, she is soaking up momtime with her rapidly growing sons
and trying to live the cliché “Life
begins at 40.”
Tobie Barton ended her 20-year
acting hiatus and excitedly joined
the cast of a local production of
the musical Fun Home, as the
understudy for Alison and Helen.
Daughters Zoa and Polly spend
most of their time on stage, too,
and her husband tolerates a lot
of singing and dancing around
the house. Tobie works for the
National Center on Early Childhood
Health and Wellness and was
looking forward to taking her kayak
up to nearby Lake Tahoe when the
snow melted.
Roger Bock was excited to
speak about his work to Rich
Wicentowski’s Natural Language
Processing class and finds it
fascinating that computer science
has grown from something you
couldn’t major in to one of the
biggest departments at Swat. He
loved that the students (in true
Swattie fashion) asked deep
questions about things like ethics
in AI, and he couldn’t wait to see
familiar faces at the reunion.
Vanessa Carter has “officially
entered the sandwich generation,
taking care of my parents living
with Alzheimer’s and my beautiful
baby Westley, who joined us Jan.
29. They all teach me so much
every day.” In anticipation of his
birth, many a Swattie gathered last
fall: Leena Kansal, Tim Bragg, Mac
Funk, Emily Hanawalt, Hallie Taylor
’02, Meredith Weems ’00, Richard
Vezina, and Ilmi Granoff came from
near and far with partners and
kiddos for a heartwarming mini
reunion. “I won’t be back for our
20th, but please reach out if you’re
in the Bay Area. Parental leave is
lovely!”
Stacey Bearden quit her job
last September to stay home
with son Glen. “We’re going to
the library, the local space and
science museum, and playgrounds
together, plus having fun at home
with treasure hunts and tickle
fights. It’s not all fun and games:
I’ve also gotten him un-addicted
to YouTube videos, and got him
picking up after himself and helping
with chores (a little bit). I plan to
stay home at least until he starts
kindergarten in September. My
spouse is doing repairs and other
work on our house, so this means
we are a no-income family for now.
Worth it, though—I’m glad I was
focused on saving while working.”
This past year, I, Melissa Morrell,
have been busy volunteering
at my daughter’s school as a
math and reading tutor and at a
nonprofit focused on preventing
homelessness in Seattle. I’ve also
been traveling all over the dirt
roads of the West. I keep finding
myself in Death Valley, the Mojave,
and, most recently, the AnzaBorrego Desert. Besides being
warm there when it is cold and
raining (or snowing!) in Seattle, the
majesty of the desert—the foliage
and geology especially—keeps
drawing me back.
Tragically, Reuben Canada died
April 24 after a battle with mental
illness. Rebecca Louie wrote this
touching tribute: “Reuben was one
of the most vibrant, intelligent,
intuitive, and charismatic human
beings I have ever met. He has
been a rock, a sounding board,
an inspiration, and too, too much
fun these last few years since
we reconnected after college. All
of the colors were brighter when
he was in a room, and he could
power a city with the light in his
smile. (We were once pulled over
for speeding in his new fancy
convertible, and he somehow
flashed those pearly whites and
charmed the pants off the cop and
walked away with no ticket and a
new Jin+Ja customer. Classic!) I
love you, Ru, and am so grateful for
the times (and FaceTimes!) we’ve
had. Your friendship was a gift that
changed my life. I’m devastated
you’re gone, but I hope you are at
peace and that your spirit soars
to the heights and happiness your
soul was made for. Thank you for
everything.”
2001
Claudia Zambra
claudiazambra@gmail.com
CJ Riley grew up an only child but
recently discovered 11 half siblings
with whom he shares a donor
father.
Bonnie French is a sociology
professor at Caldwell University
in New Jersey and at Essex County
Correctional Facility, and she
recently published her first book.
She is so grateful for Swarthmore
friends and experiences that
started her on this path!
Darren Wood welcomed son
Owen Harcourt Wood on Oct. 4. At
6 months, he’s doing great and is
a delight to his terrifically helpful
and caring big brother and sister.
Ilya Leskov finally finished his
medical training and started
his retinal surgery practice
as an assistant professor of
ophthalmology at SUNY Downstate
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
63
class notes
ALUMNI PROFILE
64
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
his office and for his support of
youth-focused refugee educational
programs, with a particular interest
in anti-bullying initiatives.
2003
Robin Smith Petruzielo
robinleslie@alum.swarthmore.edu
Jeremy Schifeling joined the
full-time coaching world, helping
people break into tech jobs at
breakinto.tech. Jeremy recently
saw Kai Xu in the Bay Area and is
super envious of his jet-setting,
ski-the-world lifestyle.
Eric Schober Maya teaches tenthgrade geometry at the Columbus
School in Medellín, Colombia,
where he enjoys living closer to his
parents and brother.
John Fort is delighted to teach
geology and honors chemistry at
the historic Chaffey High School
in Southern California. Daughter
Amelie is starting to look at
colleges. John enjoyed meeting up
with Kate Hurster and her daughter
last fall.
Davita Burkhead-Weiner is a
child, adolescent, and young adult
psychiatrist in Ann Arbor, Mich.
She raced in the Aquabike World
Championship in Spain after a
great experience last September
racing in the Ironman 70.3 World
Championship in South Africa.
Laurel Eckhouse started a faculty
job at the University of Denver.
Amelia Hoover Green’s book
The Commander’s Dilemma was
published, and she has almost
completed the tenure process at
Drexel. Amelia and husband Jarrod
still sing with PhilHarmonia, the
choir they helped found several
years ago. They live in West Philly
with son Henry, 3, housemate
Angelo, and three dogs.
William Tran appeared on the
May 31 episode of Jeopardy!
Laura Zager and husband Kieran
are in Portland, Ore., raising their
daughter, age 4. Kieran has a
guitar-making business (Downes
Guitars), and Laura is a patent
lawyer.
SUMMER 2019
Paul Wulfsberg is in D.C. until
September learning French before
starting his next State Department
job as spokesperson of the U.S.
Embassy in Algeria. Wife Rana
and children Reema and Zade live
in Boston but join him during the
summers.
After three years as data librarian,
David Conners Isaak began a new
role as Reed College Library’s
director of collection services.
Gabriel Hankins celebrated the
birth of Stengrim Virgil, who turned
1 in April.
David January and his children
have been making lots of fun
dishes and desserts, including
naan, cream puffs, chicken tikka
masala, sticky toffee pudding,
and coconut shrimp. He’s learned
that his 9-year-old makes better
gnocchi than he does!
Tim Applebee became a
registered architect in Vermont
and Connecticut. He works on
independent education, public, and
higher education projects around
the country, and he adjuncts in the
University of Hartford’s master of
architecture program.
Krista Marshall Cooke and
husband Cleve welcomed her
father as the latest addition to their
home. He joins their three adorably
rambunctious kids (ages 9 months,
4, and 6), a rabbit-hunting hairy
dog, home hospice caregivers, and
a motley crew of Sunday visitors.
Patty Park is in her second
year as an assistant professor
of creative writing in American
University’s MFA program. She is
working on her second novel, EL
CHINO, about a Korean Argentine
boy who falls in love with jazz
during the Dirty War.
Todd Gillette and wife Laura are
returning to the D.C. area, where
Todd looks forward to taking on a
new position in machine learning.
The couple visited Grand Bahama
in January, where Todd won the
tie-breaking round of a resort
dance-off and took home the top
limbo prize. Todd has a side project,
Democracy onAir, building an
open-access knowledge network
and set of university chapters to
promote democratic engagement
at the local and state levels. They
provide a platform for engaging
residents, candidates, and elected
officials, starting with Virginia
onAir at va.onair.cc. Feedback
and technical/organizational help
welcome!
Robin Smith Petruzielo and
husband Frank welcomed son
Emory in November. Emory enjoys
playing with his cousin Cameron
Weisel, son of Robin’s sister Hillary
Smith, who recently started as
assistant professor of physics at
Swarthmore.
2005
Jessica Zagory
jazagory@alum.swarthmore.edu
Books and babies were the theme
for these class notes.
Raghu Karnad’s book, Farthest
Field: An Indian Story of the
Second World War (pg. 7), received
a Windham-Campbell Prize in
nonfiction from Yale University’s
Beinecke library. The committee
called it “an epic of un-forgetting”
that combines “forensic archival
research with imaginative fire.”
Raghu will be at Yale in late
September for a festival where
he will collect the prize, which
includes a $165,000 grant, and
would love to catch up with any
’05ers there.
In October, Elena Cuffari and
George Fourlas, and son Niketas,
welcomed Felix Ioannis to the
family. Somewhere around the
same time (a bit overshadowed by
Felix’s delightful presence!), Elena’s
co-authored book Linguistic
Bodies: The Continuity Between
Life and Language came out from
MIT Press. She enjoyed a lessproductive but no-less-busy spring
with these new creations.
Matt Wallaert writes: “New book,
Start at the End, is up on Amazon
for preorder and comes out June
13 from Penguin. A portion of
the proceeds will be donated
to the new Computer Science
Endowment to support attendance
of underrepresented students at
professional events to promote
diversity in the field. Other than
that, all the usual troublemaking
JAMILAH KING
Medical Center in Brooklyn. He
would love to reconnect with area
Swatties!
Claire Feldman-Riordan Robbins
and research collaborator
Rosemary Perez (Iowa State) were
awarded a Spencer Foundation
grant to study the role of graduate
colleges in advancing equity,
diversity, and inclusion at public
universities. Claire also received
the Diamond Honoree award from
ACPA–College Student Educators
International for her contributions
to student affairs practice and
higher education research.
Aryani Manring is in Yangon,
Myanmar, with her spouse, Scott,
and two kids. She is the U.S.
Embassy spokesperson, while
Scott heads up the Embassy’s
political unit. They welcome
visitors before their assignment
ends in 2021.
Kate Fama and Alexander
Tzschentke welcomed daughter
Hannah Margaret Fama on Jan
21. Hannah enjoys giggling, long
spring walks, and Skyping with
baby Tamar (Sari Altschuler and
husband Chris’s new addition).
On Jan. 29, Xanthi Carras and
husband Dan welcomed Ryan Erick
Hsu. Kiara, 5, loves her big-sister
role.
Ken Kim stays busy in the
South, working at the University
of Alabama at Birmingham
as an associate professor in
gynecologic oncology and director
of multispecialty robotic surgical
education and training. Most
recently, Ken was appointed the
national scientific program chair
for the Society of Gynecologic
Oncology. His 6-year-old twins
keep him even busier, though!
Rich Aleong moved from
Evanston, Ill., back to Chicago,
settling on a new home in
Bucktown, with the youngest
having graduated a semester early
from high school. Rich still works
at Comcast, helping to improve
internet and home security product
reliability.
Jared Solomon, a lawyer and
PA state representative from
Northeast Philly, received a Golden
Door Award for advocacy from
HIAS Pennsylvania. Among other
things, Jared was recognized
for the hiring of immigrants in
“Nearly every interaction at my school is an opportunity to build cross-cultural
understanding,” says Rita Kamani-Renedo ’08, a teacher in Brooklyn, N.Y.
LESSONS IN LANGUAGE
She’s building community in the classroom
by Kate Campbell
NOT TOO MUCH SURPRISES Rita
Kamani-Renedo ’08.
After eight years of working with
New York City teenagers, the high
school humanities teacher still relishes
every opportunity to watch her
students uncover new ways of seeing
themselves or one another.
On any given day, she interacts with
88 young people at International High
School at Prospect Heights, each with
a range of educational experiences.
The students come from more than
10 countries and speak more than 15
languages.
The needs of each student vary,
says Kamani-Renedo, who teaches
English language arts and English as
a new language at the Brooklyn public
high school, which serves newcomer
immigrant and refugee youths. “My
students trust that I’m there to help
them reach their fullest potential,
and I trust that they will be willing to
try whatever I’ve cooked up for them
tomorrow, even if today didn’t go as
planned.”
The humanities are critically
important, Kamani-Renedo says,
because they reveal the world in its
deepest complexity.
“They give us the language and space
to understand ourselves, and encourage
us to see and think about the world from
a different perspective,” she says. “I’m
lucky that in my time as a humanities
teacher, I haven’t felt undervalued. The
schools and organizations that I’ve
worked in have been deeply invested in
helping young people think critically
about the world around them and in
making connections between our past,
present, and futures.”
It’s rewarding work, she says, but
“every day brings reminders of the
systemic realities that limit our ability
to meet our students’ needs, and of the
global conditions that have led to the
trauma and violence that pushed many
of our students out of their homelands
and into our schools.”
Despite that reality, Kamani-Renedo
strives to build more opportunities for
the moments when students “can feel
successful, feel seen, or feel like what
they are learning in school is relevant to
their lives.”
As a language arts teacher, she
uses poetry and stories as “windows”
and “mirrors” for her students to see
themselves reflected in what they are
learning.
Her career was inspired by classes
in Swarthmore’s Educational Studies
Department. “Those courses helped
me see very clearly the connections
between education and justice, between
schooling and social stratification,
between critical pedagogy and critical
thinking,” she says.
Kamani-Renedo knew she wanted
to work in education, particularly with
multilingual students. She lived in
Chile for a year and then moved to New
York for graduate school. She enjoyed
working in an educational nonprofit
that focused on human rights education
and youth leadership development—but
something was missing.
“I felt called to the classroom and
wanted to be more stably rooted in a
school community,” she says. “It took
some time to land where I am now, but I
am grateful to have found my school.”
At Swarthmore, Kamani-Renedo
was surrounded by people who were
motivated by a vision for social justice
and a critical understanding of how
identities shape experience. Those
relationships continue to inform her
teaching and shape her life.
“My Swarthmore community has
mentored me, cheered me on, and
supported me through the ups and
downs,” she says. “Many of my closest
friends are Swatties, and without the
guidance of those people throughout
these years, I am not sure I would still
be teaching today.”
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
65
class notes
applies: Chief behavioral officer at
Clover Health; trying to get more
men involved in gender equity; Bear
is 3 and thus proving he can be
more stubborn than me.”
Daren and Emily Szydlowski
Tedeschi welcomed second son
Nathan last autumn and moved to
Princeton Junction, N.J. Jawaad
Hussain and his wife welcomed
child No. 3, Aaliyah Mehvish
Hussain.
Lulu Miller is overjoyed to
welcome son Jude into the family.
He was born in September 2018
and is now a happy, healthy,
smiling, and laughing bundle
of joy. After almost a decade in
Charlottesville, Va., and D.C., Lulu
is moving to Chicago in June with
her family. She finished writing a
book, Why Fish Don’t Exist (Simon
& Schuster, 2020), a nonfiction
adventure story about when the
desire to order the world turns to
madness, and will file NPR stories
remotely from Chi-town.
Andrew ’06 and Samantha Brody
Terker live in Nashville, Tenn., with
sons Brody Eli, 5, Judah Hendrix,
3, and Ari Gabriel, 6 months.
Andy is finishing a residency in
Vanderbilt University Medical
Center’s physician-scientist
training program and is excited
to get back to kidney physiology
research. Sam enjoys working as a
data scientist at Digital Reasoning.
Jesse Young is in NYC full
time but occasionally returns
to Philly to hang out with sister
Talia Young ’01 and nephew Max,
2. Jesse also sometimes sees Sam
Breckenridge, and they go to Ikea
together. Julie Lindenberg works
in an alternative-to-incarceration
program in the Bronx, and provides
mental health and substance-use
treatment and court advocacy for
young adults in the criminal justice
system.
Philly resident Keerthi Potluri
became an assistant professor in
the University of Delaware’s English
department, following work at the
New Jersey ACLU and completion
of a Ph.D. at UC–Berkeley.
Chelsea Ferrell started a new job
as assistant director of Harvard’s
South Asia Institute. She would
love to meet up with any Bostonarea Swatties! Viva Horowitz
is finishing her third year as an
66
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
assistant professor of physics at
Hamilton College. Last summer,
she conducted research at the
University of Oregon, and the
work was published in the journal
Nano Letters. Viva plans to return
to Eugene during her 2019–20
sabbatical year.
Kira Alvarez lives in Berlin and
works in the music industry. She
also teaches at Freie Universität
Berlin and holds seminars in
former German concentration
camps.
Arthur Chalmers has had a
pretty wild year: bought a house,
went back to the Bay Area for an
annual Thanksgiving feast with
David Mister ’04, celebrated a
year in psychiatry with his first
international ski trip to Canada,
and started a dog-walking and
boarding business. “For the most
part, I get along with the dogs
much better then my patients, but
I have a boarder here who might
disagree. I just spent 30 minutes
bribing this angry floof with
cheese, and he still won’t let me
put a leash on him. I look forward
to cleaning his urine tomorrow
morning (a task I usually get to
delegate at work!).”
Emiliano and Kelly O’Neil
Rodriguez are settled in South
Philly. Kelly loves working as a
clinical psychologist in CHOP’s
GI unit. Emiliano organizes
low-wage food-service and hotel
workers with UNITE HERE, and
he’s become more involved in the
local Democratic Party. The pair
welcomed a new addition on March
7, Harlan O’Neil Rodriguez, who “is
keeping us all good and tired, but
he’s wonderful.” Harlan joins older
brother Knox, 4.
Emiliano also graciously
agreed to cover Class Notes
responsibilities for the next couple
of columns, so please send him
your news: erodrig1@gmail.com.
Jorge Aguilar and Eugene
Palatulan must not be doing
much in their pediatric (Children’s
Hospital of Philadelphia) and
physical medicine and rehab
(Columbia/Cornell) residencies,
respectively. Instead of sending
updates on being published
(Jorge) or being recognized as
resident of the month (Eugene),
they are clearly too busy planning
SUMMER 2019
next summer’s 15th Reunion. We
can’t wait to see you all!
2007
Kristin Leitzel Hoy
kleitzel@gmail.com
Nathaniel Peters and wife Jane
delightedly welcomed son John
Henry Landon, born 8 pounds
10 ounces on Nov. 25. John is a
happy, energetic, vocal little man.
Nathaniel runs the Morningside
Institute, which hosts lectures,
conferences, seminars, and
cultural outings for students and
professors in NYC on topics in
philosophy, religion, and the liberal
arts. Jane is remotely finishing a
Ph.D. from Marquette.
Catherine Healy and Heather
Canapary welcomed baby Mary
Clare Canapary Healy in October.
In the winter, they moved back
to hometown Chicago, where
Catherine was called as rector
of the Church of St. Paul & the
Redeemer in Hyde Park.
Miriam Newman and Alex George
’09 welcomed baby Avi George
Newman in June 2018. They live
near Boston, where Miriam is an
editor (recently promoted!) at
Candlewick Press.
Sonya Reynolds got married and
took a new position as senior data
and technology strategist at The
Movement Cooperative.
Duncan Gromko has lived in
Freiburg, Germany, since 2016 with
partner Aurora Munoz ’10. He uses
his strategic location to regularly
attend European soccer matches
with former Garnet teammate
Colton Bangs. In between, he
works on agricultural sustainability
projects in several countries,
especially Kenya, Ethiopia, Laos,
and Paraguay. Germany has been
great, but Duncan and Aurora plan
to move back to the USA in August.
Philly is high on Duncan’s list of
cities, so he’d love to hear from any
Swatties still there.
Juliet Braslow works on
sustainable development with the
United Nations in Santiago, Chile,
and Carlos Villafuerte ’08 on
his innovative training company,
Cultum Vita. They spend days
chasing after, traveling with, and
laughing with growing baby Orion.
Swattie visitors welcome!
Caleb Ward lives in Berlin with
partner Michele and daughter
Béla, 2. He’s writing a philosophy
dissertation on sexual consent,
getting pretty good at German
(thanks to the input of eight
flatmates), and learning a lot about
toddler communication norms.
Sherelle Harmon received a
clinical psychology Ph.D. from
Florida State University. Kendra
McDow, Ja’Dell Davis ’06, and
Jaky Joseph ’06 attended the
graduation. Sherelle is now a
postdoctoral research fellow in
Harvard’s psychology department.
In July, Ben Thuronyi starts as an
assistant professor of chemistry
at Williams College, where he’s
excited to teach organic chemistry
and synthetic biology. With his
research group, he hopes to teach
a very fast-growing bacterium
new tricks, like manufacturing
biodegradable plastic. He and Katie
Sauvain ’09 are eager for country
life and access to everything the
Berkshires offer.
Longtime readers, first-time
writers Ian Adelstein and Elizabeth
Richey welcomed son Maxwell this
year. They live in the East Rock
section of New Haven, Conn., and
work for Yale, where Ian teaches
mathematics and Elizabeth
practices general internal medicine.
Alysia Chevalier lives the good
life in the Bay Area. She has her
dream job doing HR for Google
and, between travels, is putting the
finishing touches on the decor of
her first home.
2009
Melanie Spaulding
maspauld1@gmail.com
Todd Friedman opened a law
practice last summer. He focuses
on plaintiff’s work, primarily
representing families bringing
wrongful-death claims against
tobacco companies, investors
who lost money in cryptocurrency
scams, and businesses facing
commercial litigation issues. In free
time, he tells anyone who will listen
that they should open a business
and stop working for other people.
Martha Marrazza works on refugee
issues at the State Department,
focusing on the Horn of Africa.
She loves running into other State
Department Swatties, including
Sandra Clark ’78, Juan Martinez
’91, JeeYoung Oh ’08, and Kristin
Caspar. She also got married on
Sept. 29 to Sloan Holzman with
numerous Swatties in attendance,
including aunt Annette DiMedio
’75, Madeleine Case, Josh Cohen,
Loretta Gary, Vivaan Nehru, Dan
Perelstein, Sara Nawaz ’11, and
Emily Bryant ’12.
Charles Decker was elected to
the New Haven (Conn.) Board
of Alders (what most cities
call City Council) in November
2017, representing Ward 9.
This January, he introduced
a substitute amendment that
passed unanimously, establishing
a Civilian Review Board to provide
oversight of the New Haven Police
Department. Jonathan Leung’s first
(and possibly last) book, Standing
Watch: American Submarine
Veterans Remember the Cold War
Era, was released in April, a decade
after its turbulent birth in Trotter
Hall. In his unrelated day/night
job, Jonathan enjoys the challenge
of ensuring that the hundreds of
airplanes traversing the Hawaiian
skies don’t collide with one another.
Gerrit Straughter moved to
Oakland, Calif., and loves it!
Sasha Shahidi has been building
her portfolio as an independent
contractor in travel and tour
management, handling the program
management and logistics of shortterm study abroad programs for
university students from the U.S.
and Australia. Some of the past
year’s destinations included L.A.,
San Francisco, France, Belgium,
Costa Rica, and Hong Kong.
Sasha loves the work: managing
tours on the ground, teaching
students about sustainable
travel and cultural sensitivity,
and expanding worldviews. Each
course is different—from global
health to history, tropical biology to
aviation—so she gets to learn a lot
and meet people all over the world.
Sasha also attended Lisa Cabral’s
wedding in Northern California in
October with Farah Hussain, Jess
Pritchett, and Celeste Abou Negm
Kafri. It was beautiful!
Jeff and Virginia Tice McManus
had their first baby! Anna
McManus was born at midnight
Jan. 6; she has already applied
early-early decision to Swarthmore.
Reina Chano Murray switched
jobs in November and is now
the geospatial data curator and
applications administrator at Johns
Hopkins University, which is a
long title for saying she manages
the GIS systems and licenses, and
also works on setting up a system
to preserve and curate geospatial
data so others can easily access
it. “I’m based in the library, and I’m
still not over the fact that students
are now allowed to eat food of all
kinds in here. Otherwise, it’s been
nice to get back into an academic
setting. School is certainly more
pleasurable when you’re getting
paid and you don’t have exams.
My husband (Tom Murray ’07)
and I are looking to move back into
Baltimore and hope to connect with
Swatties in the future.”
Dylan Smith married Megan
Fleming on Dec. 1 in Tarrytown,
N.Y. They tore up the dance floor
with Colin Aarons, Grant Yoshitsu,
Jeff McManus, Raul Ordonez,
Kevin Kooi, Nick Orton, Sam
Faeder ’07, Evan Buxbaum ’06, and
Noah Lang ’10. Dylan still works
with the production company
he founded with Evan and Noah,
the Hexagon Studio. Check out
thehexagonstudio.com!
Jessica Hamilton is in the second
year of a clinical psychology
postdoctoral fellowship at the
University of Pittsburgh, studying
social media, sleep, and adolescent
suicide. She also married long-term
FOLLOW US!
Facebook and Instagram:
@SwarthmoreBulletin
#SwatBulletin
partner Jordan Hoachlander last
Labor Day weekend. Lots of ’09ers
attended the “Camp Hamilander”
wedding, including Kristin Caspar,
Marissa Schaffer Sartori, Ami
Belmont, Juliana Macri, Alexa
Bensimhon, Jennie Park, Ben
Young, David DeSimone, and
Stelios Wilson. There was a lot of
zip-lining, swimming, campfires,
and dancing!
Colin Aarons happily shares his
first update since graduating. He
informs us of the happenings of the
inaugural season of the “Centennial
Conference Hall of Famers” fantasy
football league, made up of a
Stranger Things-esque clique of
Swatties (plenty of nerd, minus
the telekinesis): Grant Yoshitsu,
Tyler Wallace, Raul Ordonez, Kevin
Kooi, Nick Orton, Sam Lacy ’11,
Dylan Smith, JB Donnelly, and
Noam Fliegelman ’08. “The stakes
couldn’t have been higher this first
season: Who wouldn’t want to
walk away victorious as the firstever champion of the Centennial
Conference HOF? And boy, the
season didn’t disappoint. Tyler,
using an apt team moniker (“First
Place Team”), did indeed cruise
to first place and remained atop
the league for most of the regular
season. Then the championship
matchup was set, a veritable David
vs. Goliath. Tyler, riding high from
his impressive regular-season
run, was the favorite to pummel
the ever-scrappy, never-say-die
Grant Yoshitsu. The battle raged,
but at the end of the day, the heady
strategy Grant employed propelled
him to victory, thus enshrining
him as our first—and, for the time
being, only—champion.” Colin
resides in Astoria, Queens, and
is engaged to his lovely fiancée,
Cathleen.
I, Melanie, keep busy with my job
at the New York State Department
of Tax and Finance and volunteer
position on the Schenectady
County Environmental Advisory
Council. I also became an aunt to
baby Ronan in the fall! I went on a
Scandinavian adventure in October,
spending 10 days in Stockholm,
Copenhagen, and biking the streets
of Oslo. I plan to travel to San
Francisco and Phoenix in April,
and hope to have seen you all at
reunion in May!
2011
Debbie Nguyen
dnguyen616@gmail.com
Ming Cai
mcai223@gmail.com
The Class of 2011 returns to Class
Notes in full force. We hope you
have not missed us too much
while we’ve been doing cool things
around the globe.
Starting from far-flung places:
Andrew Loh works with the Tony
Blair Institute for Global Change
in Abu Dhabi. Orion Sauter is in
Annecy, France, searching for
gravitational waves with the Virgo
Collaboration. Serra Kornfilt works
for a startup in Paris. Ben Van Zee
is spending his fourth year of a
history Ph.D. in Berlin conducting
dissertation research. Shameika
Black celebrated her 30th birthday
in The Netherlands and Germany
on her first solo trip. While there,
she connected with a few older
Swatties.
Stateside, newlywed Jean
Dahlquist is studying urban and
regional planning and real estate at
Portland State. Finn Black lives in
the Bay Area, splitting time among
health-justice activism, applying to
nursing school, and doing homeless
health outreach. Finn also got a
medical geography master’s from
San Francisco State, researching
the intersection of gentrification
and the HIV epidemic. Will
Hopkins celebrated five years with
Google. Bryan Baum, co-founder
of the startup Blue Vision, now
is part of Lyft’s team. Blaine
O’Neill is completing a design
media arts MFA at UCLA and is
a DJ, graphic designer, and web
developer. Kathryn Stockbower is
completing a pediatric residency
at Oregon Health & Science
University and will start a pediatric
sports medicine fellowship at the
University of Colorado–Denver.
Ernesto and Rachel Baumann
Manzo welcomed a beautiful
daughter to the world. Ernesto is
finishing a molecular and cellular
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
67
class notes
SPOTLIGHT ON …
STEVE DEAN ’11
Steve Dean ’11, a dating consultant & matchmaker at Dateworking.
com, is doing many cool things in the Big Apple, including hosting a
live dating show, a podcast called Modern Connection, a biweekly
speaker series (nycsalon.fun), and monthly gatherings for New
Yorkers looking to make friends (hygge.nyc).
“Creating genuine, heartfelt, lifelong connection is what I do.
It’s what I live for,” says Steve. “My greatest joy comes when I can
connect people so perfectly that their newfound interactions send
positive ripples into the world.”
+
biology Ph.D. at the University
of Arizona and will start a
postdoctoral position at the Vollum
Institute in Portland, Ore. Rachel
finished a pediatrics residency
and is completing a year as chief
resident at the University of
Arizona. She is excited to continue
her pediatrician journey at a joint
private practice in Oregon. Rebecca
Woo is in the fourth year of a
school psychology Ph.D. program
at UT–Austin. Rebecca got married
last year to a non-Swattie. She also
takes singing lessons and plays
the ukulele. Close friends Devon
Novotnak and Sarah Lambert
talk every day. Devon danced her
way to Dallas to surprise Sarah
on her 30th birthday, and Sarah
ate squash rings and s’mores with
Devon in Brooklyn for hers. They
are planning a SoCal fall holiday for
Disneyland and wineries.
Fumiko Egawa will start a general
surgery residency at Creighton
University. Karen Shen is in
year two of an internal medicine
residency at Barnes-Jewish
Hospital at Washington University
in St. Louis. Sara Lipshutz got an
evolutionary biology Ph.D. and is a
postdoctoral researcher at Indiana
University. Sophia Uddin finished a
neuroscience Ph.D. and is in year
two of medical school at UChicago.
She lives with Gabe Riccio and
their cockatiel, Willow. In free time,
Sophia plays music with Gabe
and volunteers at a parrot shelter.
Camilia Kamoun is finishing a
pediatric residency in Cincinnati
and heading to the Children’s
68
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
CONTINUED: bulletin.swarthmore.edu
Hospital of Philadelphia for a
pediatric endocrinology fellowship.
Daniel Hwang studies
cryptography and researches
at Johns Hopkins. He also
runs a startup that provides an
onboarding platform for new
cryptocurrency users. Sarah
Bedolfe works for the international
conservation NGO Oceana in the
D.C. area. She is on the Science
and Strategy team—and loves
it. Emily Crawford is working on
a documentary about gaming for
mental health. After six years,
Ambar La Forgia will graduate
from Wharton’s Ph.D. program
and join Columbia University as an
assistant professor of health policy
and management. Allison Goldberg
is in the second year of a pediatrics
residency at St. Christopher’s
Hospital for Children in Philly.
Alicia DeWitt and Josh Sokol got
married in Scott Amphitheater last
year. That same week, Josh also
won the Evert Clark/Seth Payne
Award for science writing. Caitlin
Russell will start as a clinical
genetic counselor at the Clinic
for Special Children in Strasburg,
Pa. Nell Bang-Jensen is a theater
director in Philly. She finished
an interim position as associate
artistic director of Pig Iron Theatre
Company and teaches directing at
UArts. Joanie Jean was to graduate
in May from Penn’s School of
Dental Medicine and move to the
University of Connecticut Health
Center for a pediatric dentistry
residency. Neena Cherayil will
complete a neurology residency at
SUMMER 2019
Penn this year and stay for a year
of fellowship training.
Alex Hollender lives in Brooklyn
and is a designer and researcher
for Wikipedia. Alex also
collaborates with Yaeir Heber on
the Field Semester program Yaeir
is developing for Bay Area high
schoolers. Eva Amessé manages
learning and development for
Sony Music and volunteers
with the Coca-Cola Scholars
Foundation. She lives in NYC with
husband Matt Hamilton. Ruby
Bhattacharya received a master’s
in higher education from Harvard
in 2017 and works in Barnard
College’s admissions office.
She was elected vice president
of admissions and enrollment
practices for the International
Association for College Admission
Counseling. Stephan Lefebvre is
in an economics Ph.D. program at
American University and will move
to Ithaca College for a one-year
teaching and research predoc.
Kevin Labe defended a physics
doctoral thesis at UChicago
and is now a postdoc at Cornell
working at Fermilab. Nicole
Topich is a tenure-track faculty
member at SUNY Upstate Medical
University in Syracuse, where
she is the archivist and special
collections librarian. She received
the 2018 Mid-Atlantic Regional
Archives Conference Arline Custer
Memorial Award and was elected
to the Native American Archives
Section Steering Committee and
the J. Franklin Jameson Archival
Advocacy Award Subcommittee of
the Society of American Archivists.
Nick Gabinet and Beck Ringle
are together in New England. Nick
is starting his final year of Brown
medical school and plans to apply
to general surgery programs.
Beck is the sales manager of a
small organic produce company
in Massachusetts but spends a
lot of time taking care of a new
house and training their black
Lab, Po. Nina Pelaez is acting
associate director for academic
and public engagement at the
Williams College Museum of Art,
overseeing public programs and
interpretive strategies. She is also
a member of the Association of Art
Museum Interpretation’s steering
committee. Leland Kusmer is
preparing to defend a linguistics
Ph.D. dissertation at UMass–
Amherst. Last fall, the Mandelbrot
String Quartet (Amy Langdon, Ben
Dair, Sophia Uddin, and Leland)
celebrated their 10th year of playing
together with a little house concert
in St. Louis. Susanna Mitro is in
her third year of an epidemiology
Ph.D. at Harvard’s School of Public
Health. Sam Barrows is in law
school at Boston College. Josh
Abel and Debbie Nguyen celebrated
their first year of marriage. Josh
is finishing an economics Ph.D.
program at Harvard and in free time
plays pickup basketball. Debbie is
a nonprofit strategy consultant and
volunteers with youth-development
organizations in Boston.
2013
Paige Grand Pre
jpgrandpre@gmail.com
Huge congrats to those who
received graduate degrees this
year! Emily Dolson completed a
Ph.D. in March and moved to Ohio
for a postdoctoral position at the
Cleveland Clinic, studying ecoevolutionary dynamics in cancer.
Rebecca Hammond graduated from
Harvard Medical School in May.
She plans to be a professional
obstacle racer for at least a year,
but when she goes into residency,
it will be in psychiatry. This spring,
Rebecca was a participant on the
CBS show Million Dollar Mile,
produced in part by LeBron James
and hosted by Tim Tebow.
Anna Rothschild earned a
master’s this spring from Yale
School of Architecture. She
missed our 5th Reunion last
summer because she was taking
a monthlong drawing seminar
in Rome. After the program, she
visited Berlin and Provence,
France, as well as Sweden and
Norway. Anna’s last semester of
studio and coursework took her to
Peru to learn about architectural
traditions and the relationship
between the coastal desert and
El Niño. In Cuba, Anna looked at
the hybridity of influences in its
architecture and urbanism, and in
England, she studied the history of
the British landscape in gardens
and estates surrounding York,
Oxford, and London. And, finally,
Anna became an aunt in February!
Emma Spady defended her
dissertation, “Biosynthetic and
Pharmacokinetic Approaches to
Improve Steroid Therapeutics,”
and received a chemical biology
Ph.D. from Harvard this spring.
Hannah Kurtz started as program
coordinator for The Pilgrimage in
D.C. and received a master’s in
ethics, peace, and global affairs
from American University’s School
of International Service. Yin Guan
received a master of theological
studies in Buddhism from Harvard
Divinity School and started
working at MemTea, a Bostonbased tea company. She is excited
to take this step toward making her
tea dreams a reality.
Malik Mubeen loves life in
Hoboken, N.J. He’s in the
second semester of a business
intelligence and analytics MS
program at Stevens Institute of
Technology, and works part time
in the Fire Department of New
York’s analytics department.
Moreover, Malik won the men’s
doubles division of the Prospect
Park Tennis Championship last fall
in Brooklyn with another varsity
tennis alum, Preston Poon ’14. Kyle
Erf is now a multi-award-winning
audiobook narrator. Daniela
Jaeger was excited to move back
to New Jersey, where she began
a psychiatry residency at Robert
Wood Johnson University Hospital.
Adam Schlegel repatriated back to
the U.S. after nearly a year working
in Dubai. He moved to Santa
Monica, Calif., in April to begin a
private equity job, and would love
to catch up with area Swatties.
Becky Painter was named to the
2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for
the finance industry.
Finally, mazel tov to those who’ve
expanded their families! Sydni
Adler married Feivel Rubinstein in
April in Malibu, Calif., with Joanna
Venator as a fantastic bridesmaid.
In May, Sydni was ordained as a
rabbi at L.A.’s Ziegler School of
Rabbinic Studies, with Swarthmore
professor Rabbi Helen Plotkin ’77
as her presenter. Lisa Sendrow
married another Pennsylvania
liberal arts college graduate
on Aug. 3. Ben Kapilow, Aster
Richardson, and Joanna Venator
were in the wedding party, and
many other Swatties attended.
Eric Verhasselt and wife Christine
welcomed first child Owen “The
OG” Verhasselt, and are trying to
figure out this whole parenting
thing. Says Eric: “It is hard, but
rewarding (that’s what she said).”
2015
Abigail Frank
abigailcrfrank@gmail.com
Nate Cheek
nathan.n.cheek@gmail.com
Emma Madarasz and Elyse Tierney
got married this fall in Philly with
20 Swatties in attendance. Emma
works in Residence Life at Ursinus
after receiving a master’s from
the University of Denver. Elyse
is completing a master’s at Bryn
Mawr and is an assistant lacrosse
coach at Swarthmore.
Julia Denney received a teaching
master’s from USC and is now a
long-term substitute at a projectbased learning high school in LA.
Julia is creating a curriculum
to help newcomer Englishlearner students compose their
immigration stories for the national
project “I Learn America.”
Lucia Luna-Victoria Indacochea is
halfway through a Latin American
history Ph.D. program at UC–Davis
and looks forward to a solo trip
through Europe this summer—her
first vacation in 10 years!
Erin Kast studies philosophy at
Loyola University Chicago and does
ministry work at the Cook County
Juvenile Temporary Detention
Center for his formation for
priesthood in the Society of Jesus
(the Jesuits).
Gabriela Campoverde is back in
NYC—she couldn’t stay away. She
is a technical program manager
at Marquee—a fintech startup
within Goldman Sachs—and loves
it even though she never thought
she would do this after getting art
history and linguistics degrees!
Paolo Debuque finished his first
year teaching at a Minnesota
private school and encourages
area Swatties to reach out! Tamsin
True-Alcalá is an editorial assistant
in Boston, editing textbooks for
students of Chinese.
Lucy Peng gets facials, goes to
Flywheel, and practices flossing.
She lives in Brooklyn. Louise
Spencer is in the second year of
medical school in Jackson, Miss.
Alis Anasal is an adjunct
lecturer of remedial English at
Kingsborough Community College
in Brooklyn and finishing a master’s
in adolescent special education
at Hunter College. Karl Barkley
is in Chengdu, China, finishing a
year of running a youth basketball
program, and hopes to move back
to the Bay Area soon.
Chelsea Matzko started a new job
as a clinical research coordinator
in orthopedic surgery at Lenox
Hill Hospital in NYC. Ian Hoffman
leverages his English literature
degree as a software engineer in
San Francisco. He enjoys being a
tech bro.
Sabrina Singh is in the second
year of Harvard Law. She studies
international human rights law
after working for two years with
rural farmers and entrepreneurs in
her home country, Nepal.
Nikki Richards loves working
at the American Friends Service
Committee—finally realizing
her childhood dream of being a
professional Quaker.
Danielle Delpeche is headed to
Sanda, Japan, to teach math and
history at YSE International School
and pursue a master’s.
Justin Cosentino enjoys graduate
school at Beijing’s Tsinghua
University but looks forward to
returning to San Francisco—and
the lovely Swatties who live there—
for the summer.
Danielle Fitzgerald received a
master’s in education, culture, and
society from Penn in May and will,
hopefully, have a new job by the
time you read this in July!
Kimaya Diggs (pg. 19) put out her
first album, Breastfed, in 2018,
and spent much of the past year
performing. She left her job as a
high school choral director after
suffering a vocal injury. Now,
postsurgery, she’s preparing to
record another album, managing
a brewery, and volunteering for a
hospice. She’s an enthusiastic tour
guide if you ever find yourself in
western Massachusetts!
Adrian Wan is at Verily in
Northern California, making health
care better through advances in
technology. He’s working on a new
surgical robot, among other things.
Sara Blazevic co-founded and
is managing director of Sunrise
Movement, which launched the
Green New Deal campaign in
November alongside U.S. Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Shell Myers is getting a family
therapy master’s at Drexel, so they
are now a Swarthmore Phoenix and
a Drexel Dragon. If you know other
universities to attend with mythical
mascots, let Shell know.
After quitting her corporate
job, Raisa Reyes realized there
were people out there doing work
they love. Seeing an epidemic of
people struggling to find work
that resonates with the deepest
part of themselves, she created
The Fire Within Podcast to share
stories of female pioneers who
started movements based on
their conviction and soul-guided
purpose.
Rebekah Gelpi became a
permanent resident of Canada.
She has been a research assistant
at a University of Toronto
developmental psychology lab
and, this autumn, will start an
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
69
class notes
Last but also least, you can catch
Abigail Frank reading away at a
literary agency in NYC, while Nate
Cheek is probably at the Wawa on
Princeton’s campus. They would
like to thank their parents, friends,
secret admirers, and the Academy
for the honor of being the new cosecretaries of the Class of 2015.
GARNET SNAPSHOT
2017
Emily Wu
emilywu1456@gmail.com
Elyse Tierney ’15 and Emma Madarasz ’15 had 20 Swatties in
attendance at their wedding last fall at the College of Physicians
of Philadelphia.
M.A./Ph.D. program there to
continue her research. Rebekah
is also developing her plating
and photography skills to start a
cooking Instagram.
Erika Cancio-Bello is pursuing an
MFA in writing for children and a
master of library and information
science at Simmons University.
Following a newly discovered love
of rock climbing, she works part
time at a rock gym and volunteers
as a caller for visually impaired
climbers at the Adaptive National
Championship.
Dyan Rizzo-Busack graduated
from the University of Edinburgh
with a master’s in Scottish
ethnology, in which she looked at
the emotional impact of performed
folktales while directing plays
with local companies. After having
several short pieces accepted and
produced, she’s excited to bring
an original show, Never None (but
She), to the Edinburgh Fringe this
August.
Erick White is a research
specialist in HIV/SIV pathogenesis
and therapeutic projects at Emory
University. He will attend graduate
school in the fall for a zoology Ph.D.
Jay Wu lives in D.C., having just
moved in with Margaret Hughes ’17.
Jay works at the National Center
for Transgender Equality, and has
been director of communications
since October.
70
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
Elisabeth Tawa tore herself
away from Baltimore for bucolic
Princeton, where she is a secondyear neuroscience Ph.D. student.
She is pursuing (sub-)elite running
and can often be found in the DMV
(D.C., Maryland, Virginia—not the
Department of Motor Vehicles).
Dorothy Kim is a second-year
nutritional sciences Ph.D. student
at Cornell.
Kate Wiseman, Julia Murphy, and
Lauren Barlow are holding down
the fort in Chicago. Julia is rocking
her first year of Northwestern med
school while lamenting Chicago’s
lack of mountains. Lauren works at
UChicago and completed her first
marathon in Philly! Kate is readying
to get 150 sophomores jazzed
about Macbeth while performing in
three improv groups.
Harshil Sahai is a second-year
Ph.D. student at UChicago,
studying environmental and
development economics. His
adviser is a Swattie and he’s
collaborating with two Swatties on
research. You can leave Swat, but
Swat can’t leave you.
Emma Sindelar and Brady White
lived in Philly while Brady pursued
a mechanical engineering master’s
at Penn and Emma worked at a
prison education nonprofit. They’re
heading west as Emma pursues a
master of public administration at
the University of Colorado–Denver.
SUMMER 2019
Isabel Clay
isabelmarieclay@gmail.com
Stephen O’Hanlon won the 2018
Brower Youth Award. Congrats!
Patrick Holland had worked in
the Manhattan D.A.’s office for
a year and a half, but in April he
began hiking all 2,190 miles of the
Appalachian Trail. After he’s done,
he will head to law school this fall.
David Ranshous finally
expanded his wardrobe outside of
Swarthmore swimming gear.
Vinita Davey is finishing as a
paralegal at Davis Polk & Wardwell
in NYC and starting at Penn Law
School this fall. Aaron Slepoi is
moving to Charlottesville in August
for law school at the University of
Virginia. He can’t wait to be back in
a classroom!
Sarah Branch is a program
coordinator at Opening Act, which
uses theater and improvisation to
teach social/emotional learning
skills to youths. The nonprofit
works with students attending NYC
public high schools with less than
a 30 percent graduation rate or
no after-school arts programming.
Check out openingact.org.
Peter Daniels finished his 1L year
at Harvard Law and is working for
the California attorney general
in Oakland this summer. Marissa
Bradley received a BSN from
Salisbury University in December
and accepted a registered nurse
position in critical care at Peninsula
Regional Medical Center in
Salisbury, Md.
Briana Cox is a fellow with the
Tennessee Playwrights Studio in
Nashville. She is also pursuing a
clinical speech pathology degree at
Purdue University.
Isabella Bellezza-Smull works
for a human rights organization
focused on U.S. defense oversight,
drug policy, and forced migration.
She will either move to Sicily for
Fulbright-funded research on
forced migration to the EU or start
a political science Ph.D. at Brown
this fall.
Steve Sekula and Sam Lebryk,
close friends and roommates
of three years, are building and
designing a trading-card game,
Gem Blenders, which they hope
to release on Kickstarter this
summer or fall. What started as a
small project has become a pretty
intense endeavor. They play-test
multiple times a week and bring it
to Brooklyn gaming venues. Check
out gemblenders.com and
@gemblenders on Instagram. They
are looking to share it with new
people, especially leading up to
their Kickstarter campaign.
Margaret Hughes just wrapped
up the Yes on 3 campaign in
Massachusetts, where they
won a statewide transgender
nondiscrimination law at the ballot
for the first time in history. She
moved to D.C. to live with partner
Jay Wu ’15 and is now baking a lot
of popovers and looking for a job.
Jigme Tobgyel will move to NYC
this fall. Robert Abishek starts
med school this summer at Sidney
Kimmel Medical College. Joshua
Goldstein spent the year at home
but will start a math Ph.D. program
this fall, possibly at Texas A&M.
Christina Chen was admitted
to the UC Berkeley–UCSF Joint
Medical Program. She looks
forward to spending the next five
years in Bay Area sunshine training
to become a physician while doing
interdisciplinary research. Before
she starts, she plans to travel to
China and Japan with Brandon
Chow to see friends and relatives,
eat lots of good food, and hug
pandas (hopefully at a discounted
rate for Chinese citizens before she
gives it up for U.S. citizenship!).
She might also try to catch this
summer’s total solar eclipse in
Chile and visit her best friend from
elementary school there.
their light lives on
our friends will never be forgotten
expanded tributes at bulletin.swarthmore.edu
Hertha Eisenmenger Flack ’38
Elizabeth Stubbs Cooper ’38
Elizabeth, a homemaker, Girl Scout
leader, and avid golfer who shot her
age at 86, died Feb. 25, 2019.
Elizabeth read the News
Virginian and New York Times
every day and was fully up to date
on current events and sports,
especially the Virginia Cavaliers,
New York Yankees, and PGA.
A mother of four who enjoyed dance,
music, art, and traveling, Hertha died
March 23, 2019.
“Tah” was a tireless hiker and
published a book with her late husband
about their exploits, Ambling and
Scrambling on the Appalachian
Trail. She also held her own in
golf, horseback riding, and tennis
(backhand notwithstanding), and
helped to establish and support several
organizations, including FENCE
(Foothills Equestrian Nature Center),
the Hospital Foundation, and the
Community Foundation.
Ethel Wolf Boyer ’41
A natural leader and devoted family
matriarch, Ethel died March 25, 2016.
Ethel’s efficient and effective
organizational skills were put to use
as national president of the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers
Auxiliary; president of the Women’s
Board of Lankenau Hospital; docent
and president of the Philadelphia Zoo
Docent Council; and longtime volunteer
at the Philadelphia Ethical Society. A
Girl Scout leader for many years, Ethel
also enjoyed ballroom dancing and
playing bridge with husband Vincent
Boyer ’39, who predeceased her.
David Oliver ’41
David, a petroleum economist with
Atlantic Refining Co. and the U.S.
Department of Energy, died May 4,
2019.
Dave served in the Army from
1943 to 1946, earning the European
Service Medal and the World War II
Victory Medal. He enjoyed tennis and
woodworking, and was the widower of
Charlotte Bolgiano Oliver ’41, who died
in 2013.
John Dugan Jr. ’43
A businessman and World War II Navy
veteran, John died April 17, 2019.
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
71
in memoriam
Frost, died Feb. 14, 2019.
A mother of six, Peggy was a charter
member of the Habitat for Humanity
of Kearsarge/Sunapee (N.H.), worked
with the Council on Aging and the local
garden club, and attended the First
Baptist Church in New London. She
loved travel and adventure, and enjoyed
many years riding a tandem bicycle with
husband Dave up and down the East
Coast and through Ireland and Europe.
Robert Ehrmann ’44
Sarah Lippincott Zimmerman
’42, M’50
Sarah, who broke ground in the
use of astrometry to discover
the character of binary stars and
search for extrasolar planets, died
Feb. 28, 2019.
Sarah was a protégé and
colleague of internationally
recognized astronomer Peter
van de Kamp for nearly 30 years
before succeeding him as longtime
director of Swarthmore’s Sproul
Observatory. A professor of
astronomy, Sarah published more
than 100 academic papers and
co-authored two books, Point
to the Stars and Philadelphia:
The Unexpected City. Among
her numerous honors were the
Kappa Kappa Gamma Alumnae
Achievement Award in 1966, an
honorary doctor of science from
Villanova University in 1973,
and election to the Distinguished
Daughters of Pennsylvania in 1976.
After the war, Jack earned an MBA
from Wharton and worked for 25 years
in business, primarily with Johnson &
Johnson, and 25 years in nonprofits,
including as founder and president
of The Buck Hill Conservation
Foundation. A Navy reservist until
1961, Jack was also an avid sportsman,
and was especially accomplished in
golf, tennis, and paddle tennis.
Margaret Keeler Bowen ’44
Margaret, a devoted volunteer with a
passion for poetry, especially Robert
72
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
SUMMER 2019
A gynecological pathologist who
enjoyed gardening, photography, and
world travel, Robert died Feb. 24, 2019.
Robert studied at NYU College of
Medicine and was later director of
the Boston School of Cytotechnology.
His accomplishments included
participating in tissue culture research
under the late Dr. George Gey, and
authoring the text Benign to Malignant
Progression in Cervical Squamous
Epithelium.
During World War II, Bob joined
the V-12 program at Swarthmore
and at Duke, where “The Bulldozer”
played for the national championship
football team and won a Sugar Bowl
gold football. As a scientist at IBM, he
researched the physics of magnetic thin
film, and subsequently helped develop
technology used in the production of
the early electroplated computer disk.
Bob combined his passion for fitness
and physics with the development
of innovative exercise equipment
decades before such devices became
commonplace.
Richard Landis ’46
Richard, a general practitioner who at
his retirement in the ’80s was one of the
few doctors still making “house calls,”
died March 4, 2019.
Dick’s time at as a premed student at
Marcia Gauger ’44
A successful magazine editor who
enjoyed volunteering and adventures,
Nancy died April 4, 2019.
Nancy “backed into a career” that
started in New York assisting a foods
publicist and ended up in San Francisco
as senior editor of American Home.
Along the way, employers included
cosmetics queens Helena Rubenstein
and Jacqueline Cochrane; magazines
Successful Farming and Better Homes
& Gardens; and “the Monarch of the
Dailies,” The San Francisco Examiner.
Robert Smith ’45
Robert, a pioneering physicist and
brilliant inventor whose work resulted
in 50 patents, died March 10, 2019.
Dorothy Bowman Trippel ’46
Dorothy, who took an active role in
local concerns in Illinois, including the
integration of housing in Evanston, died
March 9, 2019.
A mother of six, Dorothy
also co-founded the Dewey
Community Conference; created
an interdisciplinary psychology/
anthropology class at Evanston
Township High School; managed a
large Scandinavian design retail store;
volunteered at the Evanston Ecology
Center; and taught in Evanston’s adult
literacy program.
Frank Lockhart NV
Marcia, a journalist and former New
Delhi bureau chief for Time magazine,
died May 14, 2018.
Marcia began as a researcher for
Time’s business section and later
became a reporter, traveling widely in
Europe, the Middle East, the Soviet
Union, China, and India. Her papers are
housed at Harvard’s Schlesinger Library
on the History of Women in America.
Nancy Carpenter Hewitt ’45
Swarthmore was interrupted by World
War II and the need for doctors. He
was sent to an accelerated program at
the University of West Virginia, and
completed med school at Jefferson
Medical College in Philadelphia. Dick
continued his military service through
most of his medical career, retiring as
a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve in
1975.
Dietrich Oberreit ’45
Dietrich, a “ski nut” who fulfilled
his family’s dream of building and
operating a ski lodge, died April 6,
2019.
A mechanical engineer who
participated in the Navy V-12
program, Dietrich and wife
Anneliese moved their family
from New Jersey to Wyoming in
1965 to open the Alpenhof Lodge,
one of the first hotels at the newly
developing Jackson Hole Ski Area.
After selling the Alpenhof in 1988,
Dietrich stayed active in the Rotary
Club and skied until he was 90,
always stopping for lunch at lodge’s
“Dietrich’s Bar & Bistro.”
Frank, who spent a year each at Duke,
Drexel, and Swarthmore studying
engineering in the Navy V-12, died Feb.
25, 2019.
Frank started a family sand and
gravel business, Lockhart Inc., later
becoming president and CEO of Liberty
Corp. when the companies merged. A
golf enthusiast who shot four holesin-one over his amateur career, Frank
also enjoyed singing in the choir at his
beloved Christ Episcopal Church in La
Crosse, Wis.
Karl Moberg NV
Karl, who served in the U.S. Navy from
1943 to 1946, died July 16, 2018.
A longtime resident of Syracuse, N.Y.,
“Bud” was a skilled metal fabricator and
woodworker who loved to golf and fish.
William Tise NV
William, who finished an engineering
degree at Virginia Tech, died Nov. 29,
2017.
After his Navy service, William
pursued marketing management in the
field of industrial rubber. He retired
from his own company at age 72.
Janet Tooley Kuhn ’47
A chemistry major whose many
interests included pottery, photography,
orchids, and minerals, Janet died Sept.
25, 2018.
Janet loved to travel, especially to
Disney’s Animal Kingdom lodge, where
she could spend time among nature’s
most beautiful creatures, her favorite
being the giraffes. She also enjoyed
watching movies, going out to eat, and
living life to the fullest.
Nancy Eberle Valtin ’47
A history major and one-half of a
Quaker matchbox marriage, Nancy died
March 15, 2019.
Nancy and Rolf ’48 were married for
70 years, until his passing in August
2018. “Nancy was passionate about
many things, including her family,
her beloved pets, reading, politics, the
beach, and the Baltimore Orioles,” her
loved ones wrote. “We will miss her
good humor, frankness, frugality, and
compassion for the less fortunate.”
Christine Dorsey Abram ’48
Christine, a passionate advocate who
worked for many years on Capitol Hill,
died Feb. 24, 2019.
A quiet observer and lover of
learning, Chris held a master’s in
special education. She also enjoyed
books, bugs, and nature, and in
retirement volunteered at Selby
Gardens in Anna Maria Island, Fla.
Ann Thompson Miller ’48
Ann, who served in the Navy after
graduating from Swarthmore, died Aug.
23 2016.
Always involved in the community,
Ann was a leader in the League of
Women Voters, a volunteer for hospice,
and very active at her local YMCA and
Congregational church.
Eloise Schlichting Twombly ’48
A professional musician and devoted
Unitarian who enjoyed tennis, golf,
swimming, and sailing, Eloise died
March 31, 2019.
Eloise played the cello with the
Augusta Symphony for 48 years and
taught piano for more than 25 years,
mentoring students who won South
Carolina state competitions. A founding
member and first president of the
Aiken County (S.C.) Council on Human
Relations, Eloise was most proud of
her accomplishments as a civil rights
activist in the early 1960s.
Frank Solomon Jr. ’50
A lawyer who built a successful real
estate investment and management
business, Frank died Feb. 16, 2019.
Frank practiced law in San Francisco
and Marin County, Calif., but gradually
discovered a penchant for real estate
transactions. Active in civic affairs,
he was an elected member of the Las
Gallinas Valley Sanitary District
Board for 28 years, and served on the
Marinwood Community Services
District Board during the years that
saw the establishment of the local
community center, pool, and fire
department.
Richard Longaker ’49
Richard, a political science professor
who became provost at Johns Hopkins
University, died Sept. 22, 2018.
A skilled mountain climber and
skier, Richard served in the Army’s
10th Mountain Division during World
War II. His achievements as provost
and vice president of academic affairs
at Hopkins included the establishment
of the Nursing School, the Center for
Talented Youth, and the JHU–Nanjing
University Center in China.
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
73
in memoriam
Kenneth Conrow ’54
Anne Thomas Moore ’51
Anne, a devoted Quaker and volunteer,
died Jan. 24, 2019.
While raising her three children in
Lawrence, Kan., Anne served on the
board of the American Friends Service
Committee and was active with the
Friends Committee on National
Legislation. She was also a director
of the Volunteer Clearing House,
a supervisor of VISTA volunteers,
and a founding member of Lawrence
Coalition for Peace and Justice.
A proud Quaker and accomplished
chemist who became a pioneer in
Kansas State University’s computer
science department, Kenneth died
March 18, 2019.
Ken developed several computer
programs, the most famous of which
was Neater2, a reformatting program
that was leased through the KSU
Research Foundation. He was a repeated
commodore of the Blue Valley Yacht
Club, enjoyed biking to work, and was an
avid stamp collector from a young age.
David Dennison ’54
Patricia Meyer Battin ’51
Patricia, a pioneer in the digital library
movement who was lauded for her
contributions to book preservation,
died April 22, 2019.
A former director of library services
and vice president for information
services at Columbia University,
Patricia went on to become the
first president of the Commission
on Preservation and Access. In
that role, she led the commission’s
comprehensive efforts to battle the acid
paper problem, and in 1999 she received
the National Humanities Medal for her
“exemplary public service by organizing
and leading a national campaign to save
millions of brittle books in America’s
libraries and archives.”
Sally Shields Shane ’51
A research specialist, avid reader, and
dedicated volunteer, Sally died Feb. 19,
2019.
Born in Egypt to missionary parents,
Sally fled the Nazi invasion with
her brother at age 10 and was raised
by relatives in Wisconsin. Always
interested in biology, Sally worked with
one of the early electron microscopes at
Haverford College before later joining
the Wistar Institute at Penn.
Jacob Nachmias M’52
Jacob, a Penn professor emeritus of
psychology with a specialty in visual
perception, died March 2, 2019.
Born in Greece, Jack left his home
in Bulgaria with his family in 1939 to
escape the Nazis; their departure on
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the last ship to sail from Paris is the
subject of family legend, documented
online through the Holocaust Museum.
Though legally blind his entire life, Jack
refused to consider that a disability. He
earned a Ph.D. from Harvard, followed
by studies at Cambridge on a Fulbright
scholarship.
Joan Price Spencer ’53
Joan, a beloved teacher who specialized
in remedial reading and English as a
second language, died April 7, 2019.
With a master of education from
Northern Arizona University, Joan
taught elementary students, college
students, adult learners, immigrants,
prisoners, and international students.
A Quaker, she was also a caseworker
for U.S. Rep. Morris Udall, was
instrumental in the New Mexico
Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty,
and volunteered for many organizations.
David, who introduced generations
of undergraduates to the biological
sciences as a professor at Dartmouth,
died March 10, 2019.
With a biology Ph.D. from
Caltech, David taught Dartmouth’s
introductory “Bio 5” class as well
as a popular freshman seminar. An
active skier, hiker, and sailor, David
also trained himself as a clockmaker
and photographer, and maintained an
interest in precision machinery.
Bartlett Jones ’54
Bartlett, who taught history at colleges
in Texas, Ohio, Florida, and Missouri,
died Oct. 16, 2018.
“B.C.” published 20 scholarly articles
in his field, and had lifelong interests in
gardening, duplicate bridge, golf, and
tennis. In retirement, he developed a
passion for Florida wildflowers and
for writing one-act plays, which were
performed locally.
Patricia Bryson Van Pelt ’54
Patricia, whose combined pursuits of
art history and education formed the
basis for many achievements over six
decades, died April 14, 2019.
Patricia’s career started with
volunteer work at the Katonah (N.Y.)
Museum of Art and continued as art
education officer for the Arts Council
of Great Britain. She later founded
a bookstore in Michigan, eventually
donating it to Finlandia University, on
whose board she served for 12 years.
Albert Metcalfe ’54
Albert, who followed in his father’s
footsteps to run Jordan Auto Co. in
Natchez, Miss., died March 15, 2016.
The consummate Southern
gentleman, Albert was devoted
to Natchez, his lifelong home. A
Rotarian and 83-year member of First
Presbyterian Church, he served in
leadership roles with Britton & Koontz
First National Bank, the Salvation Army,
the Red Cross, and Trinity Episcopal
Day School, while cheering on his
beloved Ole Miss Rebels, Trinity Saints,
Atlanta Braves, and New Orleans Saints.
Timothy Coss ’55
A talented editor and tennis player
who served in the Army for two years,
Timothy died April 25, 2019.
Timothy was an editor for the
Civic Education Service and the U.S.
Department of Commerce from 1955
to 1998, and for many years conducted
a mail auction specializing in antique
maps, newspapers, and prints. A skilled
athlete, Timothy was a multiyear
tennis champion for the Maryland/
Virginia/D.C. area as both a junior
and an adult, a five-time participant
in the U.S. Nationals (now U.S. Open),
and champion of the Armed Services
Tournament.
sports fan, he also applied his analytical
prowess to the study of baseball,
inventing a new batting statistic (total
production average) and publishing
numerous articles in his retirement.
William Walker ’55
William, who ultimately graduated
from Babson College, died Nov. 16, 2013.
A retired certified public accountant
and father of three, William was a
longtime resident of Johnsonville, S.C.,
where he was affectionately known as
“Mr. Will.”
Jean Herskovits ’56
Jean, a SUNY–Purchase historian with
a lifelong interest in Africa, died Feb. 5,
2019.
The daughter of a pioneer in the field
Eugene Heaton Jr. ’55
A Korean War veteran and businessman
who loved movies, music, and his dogs,
Eugene died March 19, 2019.
Eugene was a senior vice president
in marketing and social research at
Response Analysis Corp. and Opinion
Research Corp. in Princeton, N.J. A
lacrosse player and avid Baltimore
Pat Niles Middlebrook ’57
A social psychologist who published
two widely used textbooks in her
principal field, Pat died March 13, 2019.
Pat, who earned an M.S. and a Ph.D.
from Yale, also owned and managed a
30-unit apartment complex in Bristol,
Conn. She enjoyed horseback riding and
golf, winning a nine-hole championship
in 1974, and in retirement took up
landscape photography in her beloved
Virginia Beach, using a Leica camera
for which she received special training
in Germany.
Edward Terres ’58
Laura Salas Flores ’55
An early computer programmer who
was proud of her family’s Belgian
heritage, Laura died Feb. 3, 2019.
Laura received a master’s in 1960 and
worked for IBM Corp. before starting
a successful computer consulting
business. A spiritual person who
dedicated herself to helping people in
need, she supported relief work through
the Rotary Club after natural disasters,
and was an active member of her local
Congregational church.
of African anthropology, Jean earned
a doctorate in African history from
Oxford, conducting research in Nigeria,
and later became involved in the antiapartheid movement in South Africa.
She was a member of the Council on
Foreign Relations and the American
Historical Society; on the board of
directors of the Near East Foundation;
and a founding member of the board of
the TY Danjuma Foundation in Nigeria.
Charles Miller ’59
Charles, who devoted his life to
scholarship as a professor and
author, died March 22, 2019.
A professor emeritus at Lake
Forest College, Chuck taught
classes in law—both contemporary
and ancient—as well as nature,
foreign policy, civil liberties,
history, and utopian communities.
His interests were exceptionally
broad, from musical improvisation
to wordplay and contemporary
politics, and he was especially
dedicated to maintaining
recognition for Camp Catawba, a
summer boys camp he attended
in the Blue Ridge Mountains
celebrated in his book A Catawba
Assembly.
Edward, a computer science analyst
and financial manager for the Navy,
died Oct. 28, 2015.
A graduate of American University,
“Todd” was also an active volunteer,
serving on the executive board of the
California Strawberry Festival and
as a Long-Term Care Ombudsman
advocating for residents in assistedliving facilities.
David Teller ’60
A nature lover and professor emeritus
at the University of Washington, David
died in early February 2019.
David worked for 40 years in
“physical biochemistry,” identifying the
exact chemical structure of biological
proteins; his research was capped by
the definitive description of bloodclotting proteins, including Factor XIII,
and rhodopsin—one of the proteins in
the human eye that captures light. He
knew the Cascades and Puget Sound
well, and enjoyed skiing, backpacking,
sailing, and fishing.
Jane Dixon McCullam ’62
A bookseller with a passion for the
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/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
75
looking back
in memoriam
outdoors, Jane died April 25, 2019.
Jane earned a psychology M.A. from
Western Reserve University, and was
active in the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, the Native
Plant Society of Northeast Ohio, the
Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society, and
the Cleveland Memorial Society. Since
1985, she and her husband had operated
Cattermole 20th Century Children’s
Books, specializing in used and out-ofprint kids’ books.
A professor in the Department of
Surgery at UCLA’s David Geffen School
of Medicine, Warren was a pioneer in
the development of instrumentation
for minimally invasive surgery and
the excimer laser for medical use. He
also authored or co-authored more
than 175 journal publications; held two
dozen patents; and was a recipient of
the Pierre Galleti award of American
Institute for Medical and Biological
Engineering.
David Walter ’62
Daniel Jinich ’76
David Morgan ’63
David, who committed himself to
progressive causes to ensure a better
world for all, died Feb. 26, 2019.
For 35 years, David was a professor
in the University of Northern Iowa’s
Department of Philosophy and
Religion, teaching introductory courses
as well as the philosophy of science,
Marxism, logic, and medical ethics. He
was a founder and active member UNI’s
chapter of the American Federation of
Teachers, and he served as an officer
and newsletter editor for his local
Citizens for Peace.
Russell Kimura ’67
An inquisitive soul who embarked on
many career paths, including teaching,
owning a solar business, public
accounting, and banking, Russell died
March 2, 2019.
Responding to an ad for a teacher,
Russ moved to Williamsport, Pa., in
the 1970s, where he and his wife built
a home on Sunshine Farm, one of his
greatest sources of joy. Year-round,
Russ could be found outside gardening,
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Alice Mitchell Rivlin H’76
Alice, a master of budgetary policy
who served as founding director of
the Congressional Budget Office,
died May 14, 2019.
An economist known for
her evenhanded analysis and
unflappable demeanor, Alice
weaved in and out of government
service over a career spanning
more than five decades. During her
long affiliation with the Brookings
Institution in Washington, she
served as a moderating influence
on politically driven ideologies.
“She was the decathlete of
public policy,” economist Robert
Reischauer told The Washington
Post. “There is almost no area of
public policy where she wasn’t
active and contributing at a very
high level, and that’s extremely
unusual.”
cutting wood, hiking, or cross-country
skiing. He retired as vice president and
controller of Woodlands Bank.
Warren Grundfest ’74
Warren, an internationally recognized
surgeon, inventor, and bioengineer, died
Dec. 28, 2018.
A compassionate family doctor and
team physician for Colorado Eagles
hockey, Daniel died March 27, 2019.
The son of a doctor, Dan learned as
a small boy to treat the person rather
than the illness. He was a former chair
of the Larimer Humane Society and
of 3Hopeful Hearts, a nonprofit that
supports families after the loss of a
child.
Alexandre Namour ’86
Alexandre, a New York Police
Department sergeant and one-half of a
matchbox marriage to Leah Schanzer
Namour ’92, died Feb. 3, 2019.
A 22-year veteran of the NYPD, Alex
also leaves behind a daughter, Ella.
the formation of independent
“Beanite” Quakerism, and their
extensive writing collection—
including sermons, 69 diary volumes,
and more than 1,800 letters—is
housed at FHL.
What better place, then, for a
desk than with its papers? Seeking a
permanent home for the piece, Jones
and wife Carolyn Ramm discovered
the Beans’ Swarthmore connection.
They reached out to Carolyn’s
Swarthmorean cousin, Dorothy
Ramm ’58, who helped coordinate
the donation through the College’s
Alumni and Parent Engagement
Office.
“The Joel Bean desk has been
in the FHL Reading Room for just
a few months now, but we cannot
imagine a time that it did not sit in
here, it fits so very well,” says curator
Jordan Landes. “That it does not
entirely conform to ideas of Quaker
plainness is interesting, and it serves
as an excellent artifact to accompany
the library’s Joel and Hannah Bean
Papers.” —ELIZABETH SLOCUM
+
EXPLORE: bit.ly/JoelBean
Reuben Canada ’99
Reuben, a patent attorney who
changed careers to become a
successful beverage entrepreneur, died
April 24, 2019.
The CEO of Canada Enterprises,
Reuben was the creator of Jin+Ja,
an elixir named Outstanding Cold
Beverage of the Year by the Specialty
Food Association in 2013. He gained
national acclaim through CNBC’s
National Business Report, and his
product was also featured on The
Doctors, West Texas Investors Club,
and in USA Today.
Submit an obituary
To report the death of an alum, email obituaries@swarthmore.edu. Please
provide the class year (if known), the date of death, and a short biography or link
to a published obituary.
Newspaper obituaries may also be mailed to Elizabeth Slocum, Swarthmore
College Bulletin, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA 19081.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
David, an artist, athlete, dancer,
musician, perfectionist, and relentless
seeker of knowledge, died March 18,
2019.
An All-American lacrosse player
and gifted wrestler at Swarthmore,
David majored in engineering and
later studied at Princeton Theological
Seminary. He returned to Swarthmore
in the 1970s as a member of the
Admissions Office, while also becoming
a successful portrait painter with
work hanging in numerous East Coast
institutions.
AN ORNATE ROLL-TOP DESK
once owned by prominent Quaker
ministers Joel and Hannah Bean—
lovingly maintained and passed
down from one generation to the
next—made its way to Friends
Historical Library this spring
through a gift from the Beans’ greatgreat-grandson Oliver Jones.
As clerk of the Iowa Yearly
Meaning, Joel Bean (1825–1914)
faced friction during a growing
revivalist movement in the late
1800s. The couple’s teachings in
response to the controversy drove
SUMMER 2019
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
77
spoken word
ENRICHING
CONVERSATIONS
by Kate Campbell
THE NEW ASSOCIATE PROVOST
of academic programs, Professor
of French Studies Jean-Vincent
Blanchard is a writer and specialist in
early modern literature and culture.
His teaching and research include
the philosophy and anthropology
of literature (“A History of the Five
Senses”)and the medical humanities
(“Literature and Medicine”). It all
started, he says, with a great literature
class.
You moved a lot as a child; in what
ways did those experiences inform
who you are today?
My family left Canada when I was
a child, and we then traveled from
country to country, mostly around
the Mediterranean—my father was an
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SUMMER 2019
engineer. Our first stop was coastal
Turkey; since then, I’ve always loved
the seaside, especially when a blinding
sun gives the scenery an abstract
quality. Moving from school to school
was difficult, however, and it makes
me sympathetic toward the students
who describe the social and cultural
shock of arriving on campus. But I
hasten to say that it’s an opportunity
to become stronger. Adaptability while
maintaining a strong sense of self is a
most valuable skill in life.
How did you first become interested
in French literature?
It happened in high school and, guess
what, I hold an excellent French
literature teacher responsible for that.
Madame Vieville, if you read this, I
salute you!
In what ways are you working to
build cross-cultural understanding
in your department, and what are
some misconceptions students have
about French studies?
One of the most widely spoken
languages in the world, French
What led you write your latest
book, At the Edge of the World, and
what were some surprising things
you learned during the process?
At the Edge of the World describes a
formative and essential period in the
history of the French Foreign Legion,
from 1885 to about 1930. The Legion
recruited foreign-born soldiers and
used them to build France’s colonial
empire. I soon discovered that the
Legion was also a haven for marginal
characters, folks who felt disillusioned
in Europe after World War I and who
very often had artistic dispositions—
hence the number of excellent
memoirs on which the book is based.
Many Americans joined, too, including
poet Alan Seeger. I tried to understand
a contradiction, how some of these
hired soldiers could be both highly
sensitive and attracted to war.
What book has been the most
influential in the past year?
Often, you reread a good book and
you find a new aspect to appreciate;
that never fails with Marcel Proust’s
In Search of Lost Time. I highly
recommend the excellent translation
of the first volume by Lydia Davis,
Swann’s Way. Reading Proust is the
perfect antidote to the numbing effect
of time and habit, because that is the
very subject of the novel: making art
the key to unlock affective memory,
those precious moments when the
past surges back in vivid sensory
impressions.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
LAURENCE KESTERSON
continues to grow and evolve,
especially in African countries. By
focusing on the broad Francophone
world, our program meets the needs of
today’s students and is closely aligned
with Black studies, Islamic studies,
and global studies. Our approach
is interdisciplinary. That said, I
maintain that appreciating literature
is important, especially in long forms
such as the novel, and that such an
appreciation requires an introduction
by a competent teacher. Of course, you
can fully enjoy a book by yourself, but
I guarantee you that a great literature
class will add a deeper, essential layer
to the experience.
in this issue
FAMILY FARMING
40
Field Work
Intergenerational cooperation
guides the Rosenbaums of
Winddrift Farms.
by Michael Agresta
MOMENT IN TIME
Dakota Gibbs ’19, an economics
and philosophy major from Newark, N.J.,
at Commencement on May 26.
+
MORE: bit.ly/WhySwat
SUMMER 2019
SEEING HUMANITY
p20
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PAID
Philadelphia, PA
and Additional
Mailing Offices
FALLING FOR THE CLASSICS
p30
CROWNING GLORY
500 College Ave.
Swarthmore, PA 19081–1306
www.swarthmore.edu
am
—Willi
Shakespeare (from Troilus and Cressid
a)
KIN.”
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
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SUMMER 2019
COME BACK FOR GARNET WEEKEND
OCT. 4–5
Family Weekend
Enjoy open houses, tours, and activities with your student.
Homecoming
All alumni are welcome back for special athletic and affinity programming.
Advancement Volunteer Summit
Alumni and parent volunteers will gather for their annual conference.
All attendees are invited to the pep rally, annual McCabe Lecture,
and closing reception with President Valerie Smith.
Registration opens Sept. 2:
swarthmore.edu/garnetweekend
Rooted in Humanities
p44
Swarthmore College Alumni Bulletin 2019-07-01
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
2019-07-01
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.