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WINTER 2021
Periodical Postage
PAID
Philadelphia, PA
and Additional
Mailing Offices
SCENES CHANGE
p22
MURALS MOVE
p52
FAITH TRANSFORMS
p40
500 College Ave.
Swarthmore, PA 19081–1306
www.swarthmore.edu
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
Almost a quarter of students in the Class of 2024 receive Pell Grants, and 22% are the first
generation in their family to attend college. Swarthmore is committed to keeping college
accessible and affordable. Make a gift today at gift.swarthmore.edu.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
WINTER 2021
HELP US MEET THE NEEDS OF OUR STUDENTS,
ESPECIALLY IN THESE UNCERTAIN TIMES.
seeking
beauty in
turbulence
in this issue
MOMENT IN TIME
Copy
+
ALCHEMY
21
Curative Power
Malado Francine Baldwin ’97
says art offers hope in times
of crisis.
by Tara Smith
Malado Francine Baldwin ’97, who imbues
her artwork with “the magical properties
of love,” created a series of “Inner Light”
collars inspired by the late Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsberg. Baldwin gave the yellow collar to
Ginsberg in the fall in honor of her service.
READ MORE: bit.ly/
MOMENT IN TIME
Dance the night away: A physically
distanced outdoor dance this fall allowed
students to engage in some creatively
organized downtime.
22
2
57
FEATURES
DIALOGUE
CLASS NOTES
Scene Change
Editor’s Column
Alumni News
and Events
Artists pivot — and
continue to create — under
the pandemic’s constraints.
by Cristina Rouvalis
32
Think Again
Swarthmore faculty are
finding creative solutions
to navigate new ways of
teaching.
by Ryan Dougherty
40
Faith Lights the Way
Letters
Community Voices
Cynthia Terrell ’86 and
Melanie Phillpot Humble ’86
Studentwise
Bayliss Wagner ’21
Books
Global Thinking
Richard Okello ’98
9
COMMON GOOD
Their Light Lives On
Looking Back
84
SPOKEN WORD
K. Elizabeth Stevens
Swarthmore Stories
Liberal Arts Lives
Dave Johnson ’73
Aaron Hirschhorn ’99
Malado Francine Baldwin ’97
Meet Molly Mabray,
the animated star of a PBS
show about the adventures
of a 10-year-old Alaska
Native girl from the
fictional village of Qyah.
p48
Alumni reflect on hope and
humanity in the wake of a
year of tumult. As 2021
begins, their views
illuminate a spiritual path.
ON THE COVER
Part science experiment, part
art project: Water makes a
new home for jets of food
coloring. Swirls ensue. Photo by
Laurence Kesterson.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
by Elizabeth Slocum
Carol Nackenoff, the Richter Professor of
Political Science, and seven other Swarthmore
faculty members from across the disciplines
reflect on the implications of November’s
election in a series of videos. Their topics
include the Supreme Court, the “Biden
doctrine,” racial equity, school funding,
and the lack of shared reality in America.
+ WATCH: bit.ly/ElectReflect
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
1
dialogue
ON OUR RADAR
EDITOR’S COLUMN
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
Editor
Kate Campbell
Managing Editor
Elizabeth Slocum
Senior Editor
Ryan Dougherty
Class Notes Editor
Heidi Hormel
Designer
Phillip Stern ’84
CONNECTED TO SCIENCE
Friends Across Boundaries
Thank you [to Bennett Lorber ’64, H’96, in “Trust in
Science,” summer+fall 2020] for sharing your wisdom and
facts in these uncertain times. ... I especially appreciated
that you connected science to our shared beliefs and values.
I’m working to bring about a Blue Tsunami for Nov. 3 to
save our democracy, our society, and our planet. Onward!
Forward!
— SHANNON LOUDEN ’85, via bulletin.swarthmore.edu
My classmate Stephen Arbuthnot ’70 and I are grateful that the
Bulletin touched upon some of Yukio Okamoto’s accomplishments
at the apex of Japanese-American diplomatic relations (“Their
Light Lives On,” summer+fall 2020). While reminiscing about our
lifelong friendships with Yukio, we reflected on how Swarthmore’s
two-year program for Japanese foreign officer trainees embodied
and advanced the College’s humanistic values through authentic
friendship across national boundaries, intellectual engagement,
and historical perspective.
During World War II, Swarthmore trained Navy officers in
engineering, likely preparing many of them to fight in the Pacific
Theater. We can be proud that the Japanese Foreign Ministry
recognized Swarthmore as a place to develop its young foreign
service officers to represent Japan in a new era of peace and
(hoped-for) internationalism — and that Swarthmore welcomed
them. Yukio was at Swarthmore in 1968–70, during the height
of protests of America’s war against an Asian nation. In tributes
to Yukio, a common theme is how he managed to be an effective
advocate for Japanese interests without hiding his love for
America. That combination undoubtedly elicited trust in him by his
American counterparts, making it possible to conclude difficult
agreements, such as over the U.S. military presence in Okinawa.
Yukio’s character, humanity, and wide-ranging passions
imbued both his friendships and his professional
accomplishments. Looking at your photo, I hope your readers
can discern, as Stephen and I do, the empathy, curiosity, and
understated humor that lurk behind his stoic visage.
— ARTHUR BLOCK ’70, New York, N.Y.
VETERANS FOR PEACE
Freelance Designer
Geneen Pintof
Photographer
Laurence Kesterson
Administrative Coordinator
Lauren McAloon
Editor Emerita
Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49
bulletin.swarthmore.edu
Email: bulletin@swarthmore.edu
Telephone: 610-328-8533
Editor
WINTER 2021
The Swarthmore College Bulletin (ISSN
0888-2126), of which this is volume
CXVIII, number II, is published in October,
January, and May 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.
©2021 Swarthmore College.
Printed in USA.
pr inted w
i
th
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
The Philadelphia chapter of Veterans for Peace is now officially
the Thompson Bradley Chapter 31 [named for the late professor
emeritus of Russian]. Tom was an active member for decades,
and we all loved him and miss him very much.
— BILL EHRHART ’73, Bryn Mawr, Pa.
WEIGHING IN ON INVESTMENTS
Send address changes to
records@swarthmore.edu
nd
e
2
Send letters and story ideas to
bulletin@swarthmore.edu
ly
H-UV
ks
KATE
CAMPBELL
e c o-fri
IN THE SWIRLING image on this Bulletin cover,
we observe how art moves. It can move us, too,
allowing us to see in new ways.
As 2021 begins, the turbulence caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic continues unabated with
immeasurable consequences. In moments of such
uncertainty, it is the gift (and perhaps the duty) of
the artist to help illuminate. We reached out to Swarthmore’s painters, writers,
dancers, and musicians to ask how they interacted with and responded to 2020
and its profound trials. They shared their experiences of weaving art in the
midst of disruption. Faculty and students, too, energetically approached the
year’s challenges with a renewed focus on learning in a time of upheaval. From
Zoom calls to wind tunnels to a virtual orchestra, the Swarthmore community
has redoubled its efforts in the rigorous pursuit of education. In these pages,
we are also guided by the wisdom of Swarthmoreans who have tapped into
their faith. Collectively, the stories remind us — like the message of a simple
drawing (above) or a complex symphony — to stay invested in hope.
This winter issue marks the beginning of a new year and a new sequence
for the Bulletin. The magazine will be published three times annually, in
winter, spring, and fall. We are excited about this strategic shift. Not only
does it support the College's ongoing focus on sustainability, it provides us
with a chance for deeper storytelling and to share a new digital platform
(swarthmore.edu/bulletin).
Please accept our wishes for a safe and healthy 2021 as we share these
stories of those who are creatively keeping the flames of knowledge alive, even
in menacing storms.
by
We welcome letters on articles 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. Read the full letters policy at
bulletin.swarthmore.edu.
in
Managing an endowment portfolio is difficult. Managing a
portfolio with the ethics police peering over your shoulder
and advising which investments are “worthy” is next to
impossible. My education at Swarthmore taught me that
around every political, social, or cultural issue there will be
diverse opinions and passionate disagreements. The decades
since have taught me humility in that some beliefs that we
viewed as unquestionable in the 1960s have in fact become
questionable or even been rejected as time passed. Donors
to the endowment should not have to worry that their money
might be used for causes they oppose or removed from
causes they support according to the whim of the political
judgment du jour. Let the money be used for the one purpose
we all agree on, the financial security and stability of the
College. Students, faculty, and alumni can directly support
any cause they wish. Let the endowment be for Swarthmore.
— JOEL JAFFE ’65, Beverly Hills, Calif.
JESUS (JESSE) RIVERA
Creating New Worlds
KEEP LOOKING UP: There are the Horsehead and Flame
Nebulae. While teaching Introduction to Astronomy this fall, Jesus
(Jesse) Rivera, visiting assistant professor of astronomy, helped
students use the Peter van de Kamp telescope to view planets, the
moon, and some galaxies, too.
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
3
dialogue
COMMUNITY VOICES
FRIENDSHIP & SISTERHOOD
Activism and art fueled a passion for democracy building
by Cynthia Terrell ’86, Founder and Director of RepresentWomen
Melanie Phillpot Humble ’86 and I met on
our first day at Swarthmore in September
1982. We were assigned to a quint in Mary
Lyon and found ourselves sharing the big
main room, with a charming fireplace and
a generous roof just outside our windows
that became the perfect place for soaking
in the sun and sharing confidences.
Swarthmore College in the 1980s
was a hotbed of activism on divestment
from corporations doing business in
South Africa, working toward racially
just admissions processes, sane foreign
policy in Central America, and, of course,
campus politics. Melanie and I were at
the center of many of those efforts and
spent a good deal of our time plotting
strategy in affinity groups, joining
protests, and organizing political events
on campus. I was lucky to have Melanie
and our quint-mate Jennie Uleman ’86
take the lead on crafting my campaign
platform and literature when I ran for
Student Council. Thanks to them, I
served a number of terms.
Our careers took us in different
directions and to different parts of the
country. Melanie took a teaching job in
Carrabelle, Fla., right after graduation,
4
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
while I took a job on a U.S. Senate
campaign in Pennsylvania that has
led to a lifetime of work in politics and
nonprofits.
Our friendship has always felt more
like a sisterhood. Melanie and my mother
have bonded over conversations about
faith, immortality, and beauty, while I
have bonded with Melanie’s parents over
politics, knitting, and Britishisms; our last
rendezvous was an impromptu beertasting in Brussels.
My Quaker ancestry, my activism at
Swarthmore, and my experiences working
within the American political system
have fueled my passion for building a
democracy where voters have real power
to elect candidates of their choice and
where legislative bodies reflect the people
they serve.
I helped to found FairVote in the
1990s and more recently founded
RepresentWomen to address institutional
barriers in politics so that more women
can run, win, serve, and lead.
In fall 2019, Melanie and I hatched
a plan to create a Calendar of Women
Leaders to celebrate the centennial of
suffrage. The calendar featured art by
Melanie, birthdays of female leaders,
women’s suffrage milestones, pages
devoted to female-candidate firsts, and
RepresentWomen’s reform agenda.
The team at RepresentWomen wrapped
and delivered more than 1,500 calendars
with personal notes on Melanie-designed
cards to members of Congress, female
mayors and governors, women on the
Supreme Court, college presidents, female
athletes, and many others. In response,
we received lovely and encouraging
thank-you notes and requests for
additional copies from fans like former
Swarthmore Dean Janet Smith Dickerson
H’92, who assigned us to the same quint
all those years ago.
Melanie and I make a great team in
the work for women’s representation and
equality. We share a sense of pragmatic
idealism that is grounded in the four years
we spent at Swarthmore learning to think
critically, to question the status quo,
to praise generously, and to encourage
professors to come out of the classroom
and onto the beautiful grass of Parrish
Lawn to see the world with fresh eyes.
Finding a way home
by Bayliss Wagner ’21
C
OLLEGE IS SUPPOSED to
become your second home
the moment you move in, but
I will admit that Swarthmore
hasn’t always felt like home
to me.
As a writer and editor for The Phoenix,
I found a group I loved, yet my reporting
sometimes reinforced the feeling that I was
an observer, rather than a participant. It was
the self-assured campus activists, leaders, and
achievers I would interview that embodied
“Despite the tumultuous times that have characterized the last four years, so
Swarthmore. Not me. That’s how I felt, anyway.
many good memories tie me to Swarthmore,” writes Bayliss Wagner ’21, an English
But this September, after months of
major and computer science and French minor.
lockdown, I realized that somewhere between
arriving at Swarthmore as an awestruck
18-year-old and entering my final year here, my feelings had
much I would miss seeing new classmates in the line for
changed.
the Science Center coffee bar, how lucky I had been to have
It was a hot, buggy Friday night when some friends and
time with friends built into all of my Sharples mealtimes,
I took our last chance to wander the campus we’d grown
how helpful it had been to be able to pop into my professors’
familiar with over the years. As we approached Parrish West,
offices when I needed to talk.
it was as if I could see myself and my Phoenix co-editors
How does one casually bump into someone in the infinite
bleary-eyed but content, streaming out of that door at 2 a.m.,
space of the digital universe that now separates us?
or 3 a.m., or 4 a.m., in some pre-pandemic parallel universe.
The people I thought of during my nocturnal fall walk
I remembered the excitement of Wednesday publication
are people I still “see” on a regular basis, some living just
night, the buzz of conversation that energized the room even
upstairs from me in our apartment building a few blocks
as it became outlandishly late. When we found our way to
from campus, some thousands of miles away. They’re the
Crumhenge, I thought of the times I had run up that gravel
professors who met with me at all times of the day when I
hill and flown over mossy rocks by the Crum Creek trying to
needed help or simply a pep talk, who emailed to check in
keep up with my friends on a long run. The sweeping garden
on me during the lockdown, and who, like Professor Rachel
near the president’s house reminded me of when I had told
Buurma ’99, encouraged me to pursue my dream of becoming
Professor Megan Brown that I thought I was too burned out
a reporter. They’re the staff members who smiled at me
to finish finals and she had predicted, correctly, that I’d feel
when I was a sleep-deprived zombie, the classmates who
differently after resting under the cherry blossoms for a
struck up conversations all over campus, or, now, over social
while.
media. They’re the friends who comfort me, who read my
Despite the tumultuous times that have characterized
sometimes-terrible drafts, and with whom I stay up talking
the last four years, so many good memories tie me
about every possible subject.
to Swarthmore. Before, we complained about the
In a few months, I will leave behind the Phoenix office,
claustrophobia of campus, how once you met someone one
my favorite study rooms at McCabe, and my Crum Woods
time, you both felt obligated to say hi every time you saw
hideouts. But I’ll take with me a new family that will remain
each other until the day one of you graduated or transfered.
in my life as I continue to pursue a career in digital and data
But being off campus, both during my time studying abroad
journalism.
in France and during this remote semester, I’ve come to
I’ll be a visitor again — but Swarthmore will always be
immensely appreciate our community. I never knew how
home.
WINTER 2021
LAURENCE KESTERSON
MELANIE PHILLPOT HUMBLE ’86
“My admiration and gratitude for Cindy
and the work she does to make our country
and world more representative, more fair,
more loving, and more vibrant is limitless.
Drawing is my way of saying ‘yes’ to her vision
for the present and the future. It enables me
to really see the struggle, beauty, sacrifice, and
triumph in the faces of those women and men
she honors and supports with her work.”
— Melanie Phillpot Humble ’86
STUDENTWISE:
TIME AND
TRANSFORMATION
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
5
dialogue
Submit your publication for consideration: books@swarthmore.edu
BEHIND THE BOOK
WHY FISH DON’T EXIST:
HOT TYPE: New releases by Swarthmoreans
by Tara Smith
Art Bell ’78
A STORY OF LOSS, LOVE, AND THE HIDDEN ORDER OF LIFE
IF FISH DON’T EXIST, if nature
has no edges, and if the categories
upon which we build our lives are in
question, what then?
This page-turning debut by Lulu
Miller ’05, part memoir and part
science adventure, offers satisfyingly
thought-provoking responses to these
compelling questions. Seeking purpose
and significance in her own life, Miller
became intrigued by the extraordinary
persistence that taxonomist David
Starr Jordan displayed when he picked
up and carried on after the 1906 San
Francisco earthquake destroyed his
life’s work.
As she searched for clues in Jordan’s
voluminous writings, Miller unearthed
some startling and disturbing truths in
the complicated life and legacy of the
man who was the founding president
of Stanford University, who discovered
a fifth of the species of fish known in
his day, and who was also a prominent
eugenicist.
“This book is a culmination of
so many of the skills I learned at
Swarthmore,” says Miller, who is also
co-host of NPR’s Radiolab. These skills
include her love for primary sources,
her dedication to working iteratively,
and her eye trained to “look under
the lines we draw over nature (be it
religion or science) for the Real Stuff.”
Why Fish Don’t Exist (Simon
& Schuster, 2020) unveils the
exhilarating, if slightly unnerving,
freedom of embracing chaos and
blinking away preconceptions to see the
world, and ourselves, through a fresh
perspective. It was rugby and improv
comedy at Swarthmore, Miller says,
Constant Comedy: How I Started
Comedy Central and Lost My Sense of
Humor
Ulysses Press
Just 10 years after
leaving Swarthmore,
Bell pitched an idea
for a TV station
focused solely on
comedy, laying the
groundwork for
what is now Comedy
Central. In this
memoir, Bell goes
behind the scenes to
share the highs and lows of the showbusiness startup, while including some
anecdotes from his College years, too.
that “taught me to embrace the chaos,
of humanity and the world, and meet
it with creativity — to see it as a dance
partner instead of an adversary.”
The Biblical Hero:
Portraits in Nobility and Fallibility
by Tara Smith
EVERY HUMAN HERO, ancient and modern, has a flip side. A weak, impatient
man founds a nation; a legendary soldier and leader is destroyed by his own
arrogance; a venerated and deeply spiritual king is also deeply deceitful.
In The Biblical Hero (University of Nebraska Press, 2020), Elliott Rabin
’86 explores these biblical heroes — Moses, Samson, and David — as well as
Esther, Abraham, and Jacob. He compares them to literary heroes and asks
why the Bible depicts its heroes less gloriously than other cultures. In so doing,
he opens a critical conversation not only about the nature of heroism but also
about our inherent need for “human-scale” heroes. Rabin’s original approach to
these texts and his reconsideration of these characters yield fresh insights into
power, achievement, failure, and identity that are profoundly resonant in our
contemporary context.
Rabin, who holds a doctorate in comparative literature from Indiana University,
attributes his lifetime interest in the field to his Swarthmore education.
Swarthmore professors, he says, “cultivated my unkempt passion for books into
a more disciplined study informed by generations of scholars and trained me to
look for ways that verbal arts engage with currents in society, philosophy, history,
religion, and more.”
6
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
Leah Oppenheim Oppenzato ’96
What’s in a Name: Perspectives from
Nonbiological and Nongestational
Queer Mothers
Demeter Press
In this collection of 15 essays, edited by
Sherri Martin-Baron, Raechel Johns, and
Emily Regan Wills, Oppenzato and other
writers tackle the complexities of queer
parenthood, including ever-changing laws
and an evolving culture. While examining
their roads to becoming parents and
sharing their unique experiences, the
authors also reflect on their own identities
— and on the meaning of “mother.”
Jean-Marie Clarke ’74
Et in Alter Ego: Portrait of the Artist as
a Name and a Life
Private edition
“If your signature is a kind of self-portrait,
then your name written by someone
else can be seen as a portrait,” Clarke, a
multimedia artist, writes about his book,
which features inscriptions of his name as
written by 111 people. Part autobiography,
part homage to the craft of handwriting,
Et in Alter Ego sits at an intersection
“where writing and drawing have an equal
status as graphic performances.”
Wayne Patterson ’68
William Nelson Lovatt in Late Qing
China: War, Maritime Customs, and
Treaty Ports, 1860–1904
Lexington Books
Patterson draws from
newly discovered
journals and other
materials to explore
the late Qing dynasty
as experienced
by William Nelson
Lovatt, a BritishAmerican who
spent most of his
adulthood in China in the late 1800s. A
veteran of four wars, Lovatt also served
40 years in the maritime customs service
and lived in 11 treaty ports, giving him a
unique look at the institutions and their
populations, including Chinese residents,
missionaries, and customs officials.
Jack Riggs ’64
High Tension: FDR’s Battle to Power
America
Diversion Books
Riggs details
President Franklin
D. Roosevelt’s
efforts to electrify
America — literally
— by connecting
all corners to the
power grid, in one
of the country’s
greatest examples of
balancing government intervention with
private market forces. These moves not
only brought electricity to the masses;
they also positioned the United States for
industrial success and created a model
for the public-private issues of today.
Sarah Wise ’96 (et al.)
Facilitating Change in Higher
Education: The Departmental Action
Team Model
Glitter Cannon Press
Written as part of a research collaboration between the University of Colorado,
Boulder, and Colorado State University,
this book offers a road map for creating
positive, sustainable change within higher
ed. Among the topics covered are building
a productive team culture, interacting
with stakeholders, and developing the
agency for change, presented through a
blend of theory and practice.
Jane Flatau Ross ’73
Two Centuries of French Education in
New York
TBR Books
Ross’s case study
of French schools
outside of France,
including the
85-year-old Lycée
Français de New
York, provides a
look at globalization
in practice. While
examining how
the French national education system
functions beyond France, the book
also explores the changes to cultural
diplomacy and Franco-American relations
that have occurred since the 1800s.
Darwin Stapleton ’69
A History of University Circle in
Cleveland: Community, Philanthropy,
and Planning
MSL Academic Endeavors
Making use of
interviews, archival
documents,
and a range
of scholarship
materials,
Stapleton traces
the 200-year
history of
Cleveland’s
educational,
medical, and cultural center, University
Circle. Community, philanthropy, and
planning are explored, along with the
racial tensions, scientific activities,
and business deals that influenced and
impacted the area.
The Bulletin receives numerous submissions of new publications from the talented Swarthmore community and can feature only a fraction of those
submissions here. Please note that work represented in Hot Type does not necessarily reflect the views of the College.
SUMMER+FALL 2020
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
7
dialogue
SALI SALI PHOTOGRAPHY, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
CHANGES ACROSS
AFRICA
His firm invests in food, consumers, and renewable energy
by Sherry L. Howard
THE PATH THAT Richard Okello ’98
took to co-founding a private-equity
firm started in a Welsh boarding school
and widened at Swarthmore.
As a teenager in Uganda, he was
chosen to attend the United World
College of the Atlantic in Wales. He
knew that he was lucky, he says. It
could have been any other smart, selfassured student, so he decided that he
had to find a way to give back.
After college, he figured he’d return
to Uganda, hire some
people, and make
money. But Philosophy
Professor Richard
Schuldenfrei urged him
to think more deeply,
suggesting he might
do a lot more than he would by simply
barreling down a single path.
“It took me off the ‘Get on this path,
drive down, execute,’” says Okello, who
initially had questioned his need for
philosophy.
At Swarthmore, he developed a
“broader public mindset,” he says.
A driven and focused student, he
graduated in three years with a B.A.
in economics and a minor in public
policy. He then received an MBA from
Pace University in New York.
Okello was a principal and partner
at two billion-dollar global funds
before co-founding Sango Capital
eight years ago. Based in South Africa,
Sango has a portfolio of $400 million
and manages three private-equity
funds. It specializes in three sectors —
consumer, food, and renewable energy
— while investing in 20 countries in
Africa, including Nigeria, where it
worked with a company to provide
natural-gas power
plants.
“Historically, you
have had a lot of capital
that came into the
continent, either from
a charitable ‘let’s help’
perspective or from … development,”
he says. “What was missing was
the type of commercial capital that
had a real impact in Asia," where
investments not only gained high
returns but “ended up doing a lot of
good.”
“This was one of the few geographies
left where you can accomplish great
commercial returns and fantastic
impact at the same time. We set up the
business with that in mind.”
RICHARD OKELLO ’98
Investor
“My goal has always been to leave
each community or situation in
which I am involved better than
I found it.”
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
“The greatest returns and the greatest
impact have always happened in places
where people initially don’t want to go to,”
says Richard Okello ’98, co-founder of Sango
Capital.
Africa, he says, is “the last frontier.”
It has 54 countries and a fast-growing
population — now at 1.3 billion — of
primarily young, urban consumers.
But too many people still view the
continent through a derogatory lens,
Okello says.
“The greatest returns and the
greatest impact have always happened
in places where people initially don’t
want to go to,” he says. “The challenge
to Africa is that a lot of people get one
skewed view, and then it’s too difficult
to work through that from thousands
of miles [away] to say, ‘OK, I want to
get invested.’”
Okello has taken on the push for
investment in Africa with a deliberate
focus — as he has with other issues. In
primary school in Uganda, he helped
outlaw caning. His freshman year at
Swarthmore, he became the guardian
of three of his adolescent sisters and
worked to support them.
“My goal has always been to leave
each community or situation in which
I am involved better than I found it,”
says Okello, who is on the board of
an organization that develops young
leaders. “I believe that we have what
is probably a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to be a part of or help drive
monumental positive changes across
Africa.”
ON
THE
WEB
CHANGES IN VOTING
Students in Carol
Nackenoff’s American
Elections class produced
a map highlighting the
differences in voting
laws over the years.
+ INTERACT
bit.ly/VotingMapSwat
HIGH MARKS
Swarthmore was the
only college honored for
housing design by the
American Institute of
Architects, for the new
PPR Apartments.
+ CELEBRATE
bit.ly/PPRhousing
TALKING DICTIONARIES
Linguist K. David
Harrison continues
to grow a repository for
the world’s endangered
languages.
+ EXPLORE
bit.ly/KDavidHarrison
ROOTING OUT RACISM
Provost Sarah
Willie-LeBreton took
part in a discussion on
anti-racism efforts in
suburban America.
+ LISTEN
bit.ly/AntiRacismSWL
LAURENCE KESTERSON
GLOBAL THINKING
8
common good
SHARING SUCCESS AND STORIES OF SWARTHMORE
Josh Vandervelde ’23 expressed his gratitude before leaving campus in November ahead of Thanksgiving. His
“Thank you essential workers” display, which faced the SEPTA tracks, honored everyone at Swarthmore who made the
semester possible, while also recognizing the tireless efforts of front-line workers in the broader community.
WITH GRATITUDE
Uplifting
Messages
IN ADDITION TO THIS HEARTFELT “Thank
You” student-created art installation, President
Valerie Smith also shared a message of gratitude
to the Swarthmore community. Smith highlighted
the contributions of students, faculty, and staff in
minimizing the spread of COVID-19 while carrying
out the College’s academic mission during this
difficult period in history. “I want especially to thank
our colleagues in dining, environmental services,
facilities, and public safety, who have been a constant
presence on campus throughout this pandemic,”
Smith said.
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
9
common good
Democracy
Under Duress
Although the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many aspects of the fall
semester at Swarthmore, it did not deter the College community’s
commitment to civic engagement through voting.
The Get Out the Vote committee once again met its charge of
getting students to the polls — and, increasingly this year, to mail and
drop boxes — for November’s general election. Comprising faculty,
staff, and students, GOTV met students where they were, whether
online, in the classroom, or elsewhere on campus.
“From promoting the importance of participating in the democratic
process, to helping students navigate the complexities of registering
and voting amid the COVID-19 crisis, to organizing [committee-guided
walks to the polls], the members of the GOTV committee served
the College and our democracy well,” President Valerie Smith wrote
the day after the election. “Collectively, our community committed
extraordinary energy to fostering an environment of civic engagement
so that people could make their voices heard.”
LAURENCE KESTERSON
LAURENCE KESTERSON
MAKING THEIR VOICES HEARD
To assist with in-person voting, members of the Get Out the Vote committee led groups of students from the Dean Bond Rose Garden on
campus to their polling place at the Swarthmore-Rutledge School a few blocks away. No classes were held on Election Day.
PRESIDENT VALERIE SMITH
co-authored a column in Forbes in
the fall titled “Democracy Is Under
Duress,” about the imperative need
to get students involved in the
election. Written with James Madison
University President Jonathan Alger
’86, the column argued that the role of
higher education is inextricably linked
to fostering civic engagement among
students.
“Some people portray the role of
colleges as a private good, simply
preparing students for the workforce,”
Smith and Alger wrote. “But our
institutions are in the business
of developing and disseminating
knowledge, and instilling in our
students the skills and abilities that
enable them to contribute to creating a
more just and inclusive democracy.”
LAURENCE KESTERSON
GETTING THE WORD OUT
+ MORE: bit.ly/DemocracyDuress
Liam Rodgers ’24 displays a vote sticker ahead of November’s election.
Swarthmore’s Get Out the Vote committee, which included faculty, staff,
and students, worked tirelessly this fall to get students to the polls (and to
ballot drop boxes) by generating excitement for Election Day, assisting with
voter registration, and promoting the importance of engaging in the voting
process.
10
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
TO MAXIMIZE THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS
participating in the general election, the Get Out the Vote
committee embarked on an array of efforts. The keystone
was the comprehensive GOTV website, which walked
students through how and where they could register to
vote and cast ballots — especially crucial information this
year, with the pandemic forcing roughly half of all students
off campus. Through the website and follow-up messages
shared over email and social media, the committee
reminded students to register and urged them to come up
with personal voting plans.
The committee also produced videos from President
Valerie Smith as well as one from faculty and students on
why they consider it important to vote; provided voting
information at Orientation and, during the semester,
at tables outside Sharples Dining Hall; presented
information on the voting effort at a faculty meeting;
visited academic classes to get the word out; partnered
with Athletics to achieve 100% voter registration
among athletes; issued a survey to gauge student voting
characteristics that drew responses from nearly half of the
student body; and more.
NAVIGATING THE
PROCESS
To boost inclusivity, President Valerie
Smith designated Election Day as a
College holiday this year: No classes
were held, and most staff members were
able to take off.
The Get Out the Vote committee also offered students
free stamps for voting purposes, sent members to the Dean
Bond Rose Garden on Election Day to help students reach
the polls, and treated voters to ice cream and a physically
distanced watch party of election results.
“I want to thank the members of the GOTV committee
for their thoughtful and creative efforts to engage students
(residing on and off campus) on their voting options during
this unprecedented election,” says Pam Shropshire, special
assistant for presidential initiatives, who served as chair
of the committee. “I want to give a huge shout-out to our
students who successfully navigated a complicated and
sometimes bewildering process to cast their ballots and have
their voices heard.”
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
11
common good
COURTESY OF YALE UNIVERSITY
12
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
A Million-Dollar
Mask Idea
BRANDON ZUNIN ’20, a biomedical
engineer, was part of a team that
reached the finals this past fall in the
$1 million Next-Gen Mask Challenge,
presented by the nonprofit XPRIZE
Foundation.
The challenge, which was open
to innovators ages 15–24, sought
inventive new mask designs that
addressed barriers to regular use,
including comfort, functionality, and
stylishness. The prototype created
by Zunin’s team, Merlin! — one of
five teams globally to reach the finals
— was designed to reduce voice
distortion and eliminate glasses fog
while leaving 60% more of the face
exposed.
A special major in applied
philosophy in human factors, with a
double major in engineering, Zunin
was also a MakerSpace student
technologist during his time at
Swarthmore.
COURTESY OF ANDREA STOUTLAND ’83
Aperture, an acrylic on paper, was painted by
Bennett Lorber ’64, H’96 in September. “Art transcends
spoken language, geography, and time, and reveals
our common humanity,” says Lorber, a physician who
specializes in infectious diseases. “It brings comfort
and hope in troubled times.”
TWO SWARTHMORE ALUMNI
shared in the recognition as the United
Nations World Food Programme was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for
2020.
Allison Oman Lawi ’91 is director,
ad interim, for the WFP Nutrition
Division, while Andrea Stoutland ’83
is special assistant to the director
of human resources. The WFP was
recognized Oct. 9 by the Norwegian
Nobel Committee for its efforts to
combat hunger and contribute to
improving conditions for peace, and
for leading in efforts to prevent the
weaponization of hunger in war and
conflict.
Headquartered in Rome, the WFP
helps to save lives in emergencies,
build prosperity, and support
a sustainable future for people
recovering from conflict, disasters, and
the impact of climate change. In 2019,
the organization provided assistance
to close to 100 million people in 88
countries who were victims of acute
food insecurity and hunger. According
to Executive Director David Beasley,
the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize
to the WFP is recognition of the work
of the agency’s staffers who, under
dangerous and unstable conditions,
bring food and assistance to hungry
children, women, and men around the
world.
“It would be difficult to express what
this means to me, but given my major
at Swarthmore was a self-designed
peace studies (sociology, anthropology,
and religion), you might get an idea,”
says Oman Lawi. Now working in
Rome, she had been based at the
regional bureau in Nairobi, Kenya,
since 2014 where she was a senior
regional nutrition adviser on programs
including social protection, school
feeding, and HIV.
“I always have believed that how we
attempt to distance ourselves from
the suffering of others is the measure
of our dislocation with ourselves, and
service to others is the only way to
COURTESY OF ALLISON OMAN LAWI ’91
President-elect Joe Biden announced in November the formation of the
Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, co-chaired by Marcella NunezSmith ’96, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David
Kessler, and former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.
The task force was formed to advise Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala
Harris, and other members of the transition team on developing a federal
response to the pandemic ahead of taking office in January.
Nunez-Smith, a native of the U.S. Virgin Islands who was a special major
in psychology and biological anthropology at Swarthmore, is an associate
professor of internal medicine, public
health, and management at Yale
University and the associate dean
for health-equity research at the Yale
School of Medicine. Her work focuses
on promoting health and health care
equity for structurally marginalized
populations; some of her research
interests include global health, social
discrimination, and health care
disparities.
“Our country is facing an
unprecedented time with COVID-19
cases accelerating nationwide,”
Nunez-Smith said in a recent interview
“Everyone is affected by this
with Yale News. “Everyone is affected
pandemic,’’ says Marcella Nunezby this pandemic, yet the burden is
Smith ’96, an associate professor
disproportionate. We know communities
of internal medicine, public
health, and management at Yale
of color are grieving at high rates and
University and associate dean for
are facing substantial economic impact.
health-equity research at the Yale
The transition advisory board is setting
School of Medicine.
a course for everyone in our country
to experience recovery. I’m honored
to help lead on that work and thank President-elect Joe Biden for the
opportunity to serve.”
Nunez-Smith is one of two individuals connected to the COVID-19
advisory board with a degree from Swarthmore. Rebecca Katz ’95, who
majored in political science and economics at the College, was selected
as an adviser to the board. Katz, a professor and director of the Center
for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical
Center, has expertise in pandemic planning. For more than a decade, she
has worked to help design systems and implement policies to facilitate a
coordinated response to potential microbial outbreaks and pandemics.
From 2004 to 2019, Katz was a consultant to the Department of State,
working on issues related to the Biological Weapons Convention, pandemic
influenza, and disease surveillance.
FEEDING THE WORLD
ART TRANSCENDS
BENNETT LORBER ’64, H’96
NATIONAL TRANSITION
COVID-19 ADVISORY BOARD
INCLUDES TWO
SWARTHMOREANS
Allison Oman Lawi ’91 (left) is director, ad interim, for the Nutrition Division at the U.N.
World Food Programme’s headquarters in Rome, while Andrea Stoutland ’83 (right, in blue) is
special assistant to the director of human resources. The two are among thousands of global
WFP employees who celebrated the organization’s winning of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2020.
close that distance,” says Oman Lawi,
whose thesis was on the political use
of a food as a weapon of war in the
Eritrea–Ethiopia conflict. “I have a
beautiful job, I love the work that I do,
and to have it recognized by the Nobel
committee is more than I ever dreamt
possible.”
Stoutland recently moved from Cairo
to Rome to take up a new job in human
resources; WFP has more than 19,000
employees worldwide. “Before Cairo, I
spent two years in Juba, South Sudan,
heading emergency operations,” she
says. “Yemen is one of WFP’s biggest
and most complex operations, and
the Nobel Peace Prize recognizes
the work it does there, together with
nongovernmental organizations and
local authorities, providing food in very
challenging contexts.”
According to the WFP, climate
shocks and the global pandemic are
pushing millions more to the brink
of starvation. The WFP continues to
work with government organizations
and private-sector partners who share
core values of integrity, humanity, and
inclusion.
“Humanitarian work is so rewarding
because you have this privilege of trying
to right the wrongs and support people
and do what you can to bring the world
back into balance,” says Oman Lawi. “I
am humbled by this work — being able
to provide food or running nutrition
programs for those that have suffered
a shock or crisis. It reminds me that all
of us are only one major shock away
from needing help from someone else,
and I am genuinely grateful for an
opportunity to do my part.”
“It is heartbreaking to know
anyone will go to bed hungry, and to
know this is a reality for hundreds of
millions of people around the world
is devastating,” she adds. “So many
things cause hunger: our behavior,
our greed, our distancing from one
another. I believe that working to end
hunger can help bring peace in the
world and to end conflict.”
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
13
common good
LAURENCE KESTERSON
A Landing at Swarthmore
bit.ly/LSantry22
NEMATODE
NEUROSCIENCE
Can the neurons inside a nematode’s gut provide insights
into the human brain?
That’s what Gurrein Madan ’17 is researching at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A Ph.D. student in
brain and cognitive sciences, Madan recently received a
School of Science MathWorks Fellowship to further her studies
on gut-brain signaling in the C. elegans worm, research that
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
NEW ASSOCIATE
ATHLETICS DIRECTOR
The College announced Valerie Gómez as its
new associate director of athletics. Gómez
comes to Swarthmore from Seton Hall
University, where she had been the associate
athletics director for marketing for the NCAA
Division I Pirates. Gómez also brings Division
III experience from time at Montclair State
University and Keystone College. Gómez
earned a bachelor’s in government and
law from Lafayette College and an M.S.Ed.
in sport management from Old Dominion
University, and she is pursuing an Ed.D. in
higher education leadership, management,
and policy from Seton Hall. Gómez also has
SafeZone training and certification in inclusive
leadership. “I look forward to working with the
athletic department, and the entire campus
community, to build upon the tremendous
progress that has been made in the areas
of athletic success, academic excellence,
student-athlete development and community
engagement,” she says.
could have practical implications for human health.
A transparent creature measuring just a millimeter in
length, C. elegans features genes that have counterparts
within the human brain. Gurrein’s research on the neurons
that line the worm’s gut — on their response to food and to
nervous-system feedback — could aid in the treatment of
gut-brain signaling dysregulation, which has been linked to
psychiatric disorders in humans.
“The general topic of how the gut is influencing the brain
is a relatively new field,” Gurrein, a neuroscience major at
Swarthmore, told MIT News. “I think there is a lot of space
for novel, exciting contributions.”
COURTESY OF AKILI KIDS!
LIAM SANTRY ’22, a Navy veteran who transferred to the
College last spring, is grateful for the military path that led him to
Swarthmore.
Growing up in an underserved community in Jacksonville, Fla.,
the linguistics major says he wasn’t challenged to pursue anything
academically rigorous after high
school. He viewed the military
as a way to serve his country and
access greater opportunities.
After some time in the service,
Santry began to see he could also
make a positive impact in a nonmilitary role.
“The military gives you five
years to think about what you
want to do in life,” he says, which
for Santry includes law school,
followed by something related to
public service or public policy.
“I chose Swarthmore because
I believed that a liberal-arts
“I admire what the Navy does to
education could make me a more
lift people out of certain situations in
ethical, rational, and driven
life,” says Liam Santry ’22, who earned
person,” he says. “The small
the rank of petty officer second class
class sizes and attention to
as an air-traffic controller and aviation
detail my professors pay to my
administrator.
assignments make me a better
student. The thoughtful and outspoken opinions I hear from other
students make me consider my conclusions more carefully.”
+ MORE:
14
HIGH MARKS
“There are 20 million children in Kenya, but there was nothing free for kids,” says
Jeff Schon ’73, who grew up overseas without a TV. The above photo advertises the new
channel Akili Kids!, which is meeting the moment in East Africa.
Finding the Right
Channel
Pioneering children’s television in Kenya
by Heather Rigney Shumaker ’91
O
NE, TWO, THREE!
Moja, mbili, tatu!
Though his own
Kiswahili language
skills may be on
the beginner level,
Jeff Schon ’73’s new children’s
television channel is hitting high
marks with Kenyan families. Schon
and co-founder Jesse Soleil started
Akili Kids!, a free, 24/7 children’s TV
network in Kenya.
“There are 20 million children in
Kenya, but there was nothing free for
kids,” says Schon. Before Akili Kids!
came along, children’s TV was largely
for affluent viewers with satellite
service.
“Akili” means “smart” in Kiswahili,
one of two official languages in Kenya.
Ten percent of the shows are in
Kiswahili, the rest in English. That’s
purposeful. Kenyan families want
their children to learn both languages,
and after grade four, schools teach
exclusively in English.
While traveling in Kenya, Jeff talked
with Uber drivers about their lives,
families, and access to television.
When he explained he was developing
a children’s channel, he asked what
language they preferred for it to be in.
The response, uniformly, was English.
Akili Kids! builds on the PBS
educational programming model, but
with a Kenyan twist. Public-service
announcements include “Ask Dr.
Pamoja,” teaching kids COVID-19
hygiene. Shows like Ubongo Kids and
Akili and Me are produced in Tanzania.
“My passion is for developing
economies,” Schon says. “We’re
creating jobs, creating fun.”
The channel also includes global
favorites like Dora the Explorer and
Bob the Builder.
“Initially, I thought: Bob the Builder?
Really?” says Schon. “But it was
successful.” Each program must be
educational and entertaining, and a
Kenyan team evaluates and decides
whether it’s a good fit for Kenyan
audiences.
Preparing to launch Akili Kids! took
“eight long years,” Schon says. Finally,
in late 2019, the program received
$1.8 million, with the nonprofit Kays
Foundation as the lead investor. The
team prepared for launch day. Then
COVID-19 hit.
“On March 23, they started a 7 p.m.
curfew, closed airports, and sent kids
home from school. Akili Kids! went
on air March 31,” says Schon. With all
the children at home, viewership shot
past their expectations, soaring to 9.5
million viewers weekly.
“In terms of viewership,” says Schon,
“we’re double where we thought we’d
be four-and-a-half years from now.”
Akili Kids! aims to fill 40% of its
content with programs created in East
Africa. That’s important, especially for
ages 10–14.
“As you go up in age, it’s harder to
find things that will travel well,” says
Schon. He’s hiring Kenyan animators,
voice talent, actors, and more to realize
this vision. He’s now getting calls to
expand Akili Kids! into Uganda and
Tanzania, with possible interest in a
pan-African channel.
Schon’s passion for children’s media
began at Swarthmore, where he was
an economics major. A cinema theory
course taught by Professor T. Kaori
Kitao sparked his lifelong interest.
“This is what I want to do,” he says he
realized.
During his career, Schon developed
Peep and the Big Wide World, which
introduces preschool science concepts,
and produced the first edition of
Pee-wee’s Playhouse. And now — moja,
mbili, tatu! — his work for children’s
educational television in Kenya is off
to a great start.
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
15
common good
IN MEMORIAM: ROBERT ROZA
AND LARRY WESTPHAL
“I learned to not be afraid to ask for help,” says Marie Inniss ’23, who directed a
series of outdoor performances on campus in the fall.
The Show Went On
by Roy Greim ’14
DURING THE FALL SEMESTER, a group of enterprising
Swarthmore students wrote and staged in-person performances of
a collection of 15 short plays, no small feat amid a pandemic that has
shut down live theater on a global scale.
Marie Inniss ’23, a native of Dallas, Texas, directed the project,
which used the prompt “how to kill your husband in seven days” to
solicit stories from student playwrights. The quartet of Reid Mansur
’23, Daniel Oakes ’24, Rosie Palmieri ’24, and Neil Steinglass ’23
starred in the production’s three live outdoor performances, staged in
Scott Amphitheater while observing College policies regarding masks
and social distancing.
Inniss initially believed that producing live theater was not feasible
during the pandemic but wanted to see if creative solutions could be
found under the unusual circumstances.
“Because of their masks, all the emotion conveyed had to be done
through speech or through their eyes, which is a lot harder than using
the entire face,” she says. “Staging was also a challenge: Everything
had to be blocked so the actors were always 6 feet apart. I actually
enjoyed it because it meant finding creative ways to portray closeness
without anyone actually being close. It was cool to see choices the
actors made within these parameters.”
“I learned to not be afraid to ask for help,” Inniss adds. “Having a big
group of people working together to create art was amazing, especially
during these isolating times. It taught us how to communicate and
collaborate, which created a bond between us all.”
Other participants included stage manager Simon Herz ’23,
assistant director Pablo Famodou ’23, producer Jules Lee-Zacheis ’24,
and technical director Mason Hartley ’24.
The student playwrights were Herz, Lee-Zacheis, Mansur,
Steinglass, Nooria Ahmed ’22, Benelli Amosah ’24, Jaxson Freund
’23, Grace Griego ’22, Addie Klingbeil ’24, Paige Looney ’23, Camryn
Slosky ’22, and Alex Witherspoon ’23.
16
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
President Valerie Smith selected eight courses
to support as part of the President’s Fund
for Racial Justice, the first component of an
effort to improve the lives of Black and Brown
people and other marginalized groups through
engaged scholarship. The College invited
members of the faculty to propose courses
for the January term and spring semester
that focus on transformative justice. After a
review of course offerings, faculty identified
more than 80 courses across 19 programs
and departments with race and racism and
their relationship to power and privilege as
central queries for interrogation and study,
Sarah Willie-LeBreton, provost and dean of the
faculty, wrote in a message to the community.
The courses reflect broader curricular
and co-curricular initiatives outlined in the
President’s Fund for Racial Justice that will
take place especially, but not exclusively, in
local and regional communities.
Smith established the fund in response
to a renewed movement against systemic
racism, hate, and discrimination following the
killing of George Floyd at the hands of police.
As a groundswell of protests spread across
the country, Smith wrote to the Swarthmore
community: “We stand today with those
who are suffering from the threat and the
consequences of racial violence, economic
despair, disease, and death. Inspired by our
values and ideals, we must dedicate ourselves
to fighting for justice; to caring for those who
are sick, hungry, or hurting in mind or spirit;
and to repairing our broken world.”
The fund was created in keeping with
Swarthmore College’s steadfast commitment
to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and its
mission of educating students, promoting
social justice, and serving the common
good. It will support Swarthmore programs
focused on transformative racial justice,
such as the Chester Children’s Chorus and
summer research opportunities through the
Swarthmore Black Alumni Network, as well as
initiatives with a focus on local and regional
communities, all with the goal of improving
the lives of Black and Brown people and other
minority groups.
COURTESY OF PAFA
LAURENCE KESTERSON
RENEWED ACADEMIC FOCUS
ON TRANSFORMATIVE
JUSTICE
ART FROM AFAR
Writer and art critic Miriam Scheiber Seidel ’73
was part of a recorded talk in the fall for the
opening of the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts show at Hot.Bed
gallery in Philadelphia. With no public reception
possible, a virtual documentary helped to
share the creativity. “I recorded comments
about a number of the works, and these were
incorporated as voice-overs in a film created by
John Thornton,” says Seidel, who has written
for Art in America, The Philadelphia Inquirer,
and Dance Magazine. A psychology major at
Swarthmore, Seidel attended PAFA from 1976
to 1980.
+ WATCH: bit.ly/pafaSeidel
ART AND THE
ENVIRONMENT
Njideka Akunyili Crosby ’04,
H’19 and Dan Hammer ’07 were
tapped this fall by the Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary Art for
its new Environmental Council,
the first for a major American
art museum. Crosby, a worldrenowned Nigerian-born visual
artist and 2017 MacArthur Fellow,
joins as a founding council
member, while Hammer, a founder
and partner at Earthrise Media
and a climate fellow and senior
adviser at X Development, joins as
an expert adviser to the council.
SWARTHMORE mourns the
recent loss of two retired faculty
members.
Robert Roza, the Susan W.
Lippincott Professor Emeritus of
French, died April 9 at age 88.
During his 33-year tenure at
the College, Roza taught classes
on symbolist poetry, modern
drama, the 20th-century novel,
Nouveau Roman, and Realism and
Naturalism, among other subjects.
He introduced French cinema to
the curriculum, as well as co-taught
a course on Marcel Proust and
Robert Roza, the Susan W.
James Joyce.
Lippincott Professor Emeritus
“Bob’s intellectual curiosity had
of French
no bounds,” says longtime friend
and colleague Philip Weinstein,
the Alexander Griswold Cummins
Professor Emeritus of English
Literature. “Thanks to a capacity to
consider life’s frightening aspects
as well as its delightful ones,
he approached books and ideas
without preconceptions. No less, he
possessed a — dare I say French? —
delight in life’s bizarreness.”
Larry Westphal, the J. Archer
and Helen C. Turner Professor
Emeritus of Economics, died Nov.
11 at age 78.
Westphal came to Swarthmore
in 1985 after 11 years at the World
Larry Westphal, the J. Archer
Bank, where he focused on the
and Helen C. Turner Professor
economic engines of emerging
Emeritus of Economics
Asian economies as the youngest
division chief in the Bank’s history.
However, among Swarthmore
students, Westphal was perhaps most infamously known for teaching
Intermediate Microeconomics, a departmental institution in which,
during weekly recitations, the 70 or more students were graded on
solving problems in front of the class.
A passionate underwater diver, Westphal was also instrumental
in the formation of the College’s short-lived scuba program and the
Environmental Studies Program. He retired from the College in 2012.
“Larry was my adviser when I was a student here and has been an
important mentor throughout my undergraduate and postgrad career,”
says Assistant Professor of Economics Jennifer Peck ’06. “Over the
years, I’ve been so grateful for his kindness and wisdom.”
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
17
common good
Theodore “Dorie” Friend, an award-winning historian,
served as president of Swarthmore from 1973 to 1982.
A
PRODIGIOUS SCHOLAR and former
Swarthmore president, Theodore Wood
Friend III, known by all as “Dorie,” died
Nov. 4 at age 89. With his passing,
Swarthmore has lost a widely respected
repository of institutional memory and one
of its most engaging and enthusiastic advocates — known
for his gracious leadership style
and his ability to balance a range of
competing institutional interests and
priorities.
“I was fortunate to spend time with
him on numerous occasions,” says
President Valerie Smith, “and enjoyed
his warmth, candor, wisdom, good
humor, keen insights into the history
and culture of the College, and wideranging intellectual curiosity.”
A native of Pittsburgh and a lifelong
Pirates fan, Friend earned a B.A. in 1953 from Williams
College, where he won a contest to name Ephelia, the
school’s ubiquitous purple cow mascot. He later received
a Ph.D. from Yale University and pursued his studies as a
Fulbright Scholar in the Philippines, where his work formed
the basis for his first book, Between Two Empires: The Ordeal
of the Philippines, 1929–1946 (1965). It won the prestigious
Bancroft Prize in American History, Foreign Policy, and
Diplomacy.
In 1959, Friend joined the history faculty of the State
University of New York at Buffalo, where he taught for 14
years before being selected as Swarthmore’s 11th president
— with perhaps the most Quaker-like of names in College
history.
Friend faced a number of challenges at Swarthmore. Just
a few years before, one predecessor had died in office, and
another had held the position only briefly. Within a year of
Friend’s taking office, the value of the College’s endowment
dropped more than 50%. The country was also grappling
with the Vietnam War and the Watergate crisis, and
confidence in the nation’s leadership was at a low ebb.
Although he acknowledged that his years in office were
difficult, Friend accomplished a lot during his tenure. He
reinvigorated the Honors Program, successfully completed
the College’s $30 million Program for Swarthmore
campaign, and oversaw a significant increase in admissions
applications, which ran counter to national trends.
Priorities for the Program for Swarthmore included new
scholarships, professorships, and curriculum development.
The Program also supported construction of Cornell Science
Library, Ware Pool, and Mertz Hall, as well as improvements
to academic buildings.
Upon the campaign’s conclusion in 1981, the Board of
Managers honored Friend and his wife, a vital presence on
campus, by creating the Theodore and Elizabeth Friend
Scholarship. It is awarded annually on the basis of financial
need to a worthy student.
Friend threw himself, sometimes literally, into connecting
with students. In his first year at Swarthmore, he played
pickup soccer with the men’s team in a match against the
football team — and got run over by a football player. The
collision severed his ACL. On
another occasion, in 1976, a tug of
war took place across the Crum
Creek — students vs. the provost,
the registrar, two faculty members,
and Friend. The more senior team
was dragged, amid cheers, into the
creek.
Friend held open office hours
for students and took an active
interest in student concerns. Late
in his tenure, he also co-taught a
class on Southeast Asia with religion professor Don Swearer,
something he said he wished he had done sooner.
Throughout his tenure as president, Friend steadfastly
upheld the College’s mission. “There is something really
quite extraordinary about the learning atmosphere here,”
Friend said, “and that is really where my satisfactions
ultimately are.”
“There is something really
quite extraordinary about
the learning atmosphere
here, and that is really
where my satisfactions
ultimately are.”
18
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
+ FULL OBITUARY: bit.ly/DorieFriend
LIBERAL ARTS LIVES
DAVE JOHNSON ’73
Running Man
LAURENCE KESTERSON
ELEFTHERIOS KOSTANS
IN HONOR OF SWARTHMORE COLLEGE’S 11TH PRESIDENT,
THEODORE FRIEND
At Swarthmore, Johnson learned “how to map out a complex task into smaller pieces
and set up a procedure. Most of the things I’ve done or accomplished have been through task
management and getting the pieces in order and fitting together.”
NEARING THE FINISH LINE
For years, he’s gone the extra mile as
director of Penn Relays
by Sherry L. Howard
Track and field has been the running
theme in Dave Johnson ’73’s life: as a
cross-country runner in high school and
at Swarthmore (where in 1970 he cofounded the 18-lap McCabe Mile in the
library’s basement stacks); as a writer for
several publications; and as a 50-year
collector of books, programs, scrapbooks,
and meet results that fill his basement
and two storage lockers.
Johnson will be retiring this spring as
director of the venerable Penn Relays, but
he won’t be leaving town.
Instead, he’ll move down the hall
from his office at the University of
Pennsylvania to a space where he’ll
develop a research library covering
the Relays and track and field in the
Philadelphia region and along the East
Coast. It will include a collection Johnson
started in high school when he retrieved
old track records from his coach. His
knowledge and the records in his
collection help to piece together answers
for callers searching for a relative who
was in the Relays.
Most important, Johnson has for
years orchestrated hundreds of officials,
volunteers, and staff in pulling off one of
the most prestigious competitions in the
country.
“I need to have at least a sense of what
all these different groups are doing and
try to make sure they’re on the same
page with each other, that each adjacent
jigsaw puzzle is meshing properly,” says
Johnson, who spends his 25-minute train
commute from Lenni, Pa., with the New
York Times crossword. “I’ve always loved
puzzles.”
Each April, more than 15,000 athletes
and 110,000 visitors converge on Penn’s
Franklin Field for three days of track and
field events. Begun in 1895, Penn Relays
was the first track meet in the world to
feature relay races, and it remains the
largest. In October 2019, it was awarded
a World Athletics Heritage Plaque, which
was to be celebrated this year but for the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Johnson’s first Relays as director was
in 1996. His main accomplishment, he
says, was the move from paper to digital.
The number of athletes has increased by
40%, and “the races are run with a greater
rate of frequency, with the pace of the
meet becoming more frenetic,” he says.
“In the heats of the 4x100, 36 athletes
are on and off the track, with setup and
running of each race lasting less than 90
seconds.”
At Swarthmore High School, Johnson
was dragged into track by a friend. By
senior year he was the cross-county
co-captain.
“The town and the College changed
my life immensely,” he says. “It was just a
tremendous place to live and grow up, and
a fabulous place to go to college.”
Aiming for a degree in political
science, Johnson switched to religion
instead. Though raised a Presbyterian,
he discovered an affinity toward Asian
religions after a class with Professor Don
Swearer and his own readings in Taoism.
“At the time, Asian religions felt innate
to me, and Christianity was something
that I had to learn,” Johnson says. He
graduated with a major in religion and a
minor in philosophy. He likened the final
day of the Relays to the completion of the
Honors Program at Swarthmore.
“You grind away for an entire year,”
he says. “At the end there’s this threeday ‘stand and deliver,’ and you have no
choice but to do it the best you can and
hope it all works.”
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
19
common good
LIBERAL ARTS LIVES
INVESTING
IN ANIMALS
MALADO FRANCINE
BALDWIN ’97
Artist
Can every problem
be solved?
20
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
“I realized this was a wide-open opportunity,” says Aaron Hirschhorn ’99, whose venture
capitalist-backed company Gallant was featured on the TV show Shark Tank. “No one is
doing the equivalent of cord-blood banking for dogs.”
BECKY BUSH ’96
AARON HIRSCHHORN ’99 spent his
30s in agony.
Two herniated discs left him with
constant back pain, and no treatment
seemed to work. Then, three years
ago, he tried a procedure that involved
removing stem cells from his bone
marrow and injecting them back into
his body.
“It basically cured my chronic back
injury,” he says. “I was curious: How
could something that worked so well
not be known?”
Hirschhorn, an entrepreneur, had
worked in the animal space as the
founder of DogVacay, an app that was
born out of a bad experience with a
pet-sitter. He raised $47 million from
investors, and in April 2017 sold the
company to Rover.com. After his
injury, he saw a chance to combine his
interests in tech investing, animals,
and healing.
“I realized there was this wide-open
opportunity,” he says. “No one is doing
the equivalent of cord-blood banking
for dogs.”
So Hirschhorn created Gallant, a
venture capital-backed company that
banks stem cells for dogs for therapies
to treat future illnesses and injuries.
The Gallant scientists harvest stem
cells from tissue that is normally
discarded after a dog is spayed or
neutered, eliminating the ethical or
moral questions typically associated
with embryonic stem cells.
The cells are banked and can be used
to treat illnesses in dogs such as renal
COURTESY OF AARON HIRSCHHORN ’99
by Holly Leber Simmons
“Stubbornness and fortitude have made me very resilient as an artist,” says Malado
Francine Baldwin ’97. “We’re able to speak to moments in time, to find and create beauty
amidst chaos.”
LIBERAL ARTS LIVES
THE CURATIVE POWER OF ART
In times of crisis, her work offers hope
disease, osteoarthritis, liver disease,
and intervertebral disc disease, similar
to what Hirschhorn himself had.
The innovative company has made
a national impression: In fall 2019,
Hirschhorn pitched Gallant on the
TV show Shark Tank, garnering
a $500,000 deal with two of the
investors.
Hirschhorn has made a career of
finding solutions, whether it’s making
pet-sitting easier and better or helping
pets live healthier lives.
AARON
HIRSCHHORN ’99
Entrepreneur
It’s a mindset he says he was able to
create at Swarthmore.
“Every problem can be solved,”
he says. “You just have to go about it
systematically and passionately.”
by Tara Smith
“Artists are a kind of conduit,” says
Malado Francine Baldwin ’97. “We’re able
to speak to moments in time, to find and
create beauty amidst chaos. Art makes us
slow down, pay attention, feel things more
deeply.”
For 30 years now, Baldwin has been
attentive to liminal spaces, performing the
kind of alchemy that gives shape, color,
and texture to dreams and ideas. Inspired
by world cultures both ancient and
contemporary, she creates new narratives
of cultural inheritance in diverse media.
She paints, draws, sculpts, embroiders,
films, and even employs 3D printing to
share what she’s thinking with the world.
Baldwin grew up in a mixed-race
family, spending her formative years
in Senegal and Mali, and her rich
multicultural experiences flow through
her work. Her major in comparative
literature at Swarthmore also provided
an open framework for exploring diverse
disciplines, and she’s grateful for the
liberal arts education that equipped her to
delve into layers and meaning in her art.
“That strong foundation was incredibly
important in my work. It’s still feeding me
today,” she says.
Baldwin has been reimagining
artifacts like films and notebooks from
her Swarthmore days in recent projects,
including her Lost Tapes series of films.
An enthusiastic and curious lifelong
learner, Baldwin has approached
side careers over the years — in film,
publishing, and art conservation — as
research for her art. These months of
working remotely during quarantine have
afforded her a rare time of deep focus
and immersion in her environment, for
which she’s grateful as she looks toward
what she calls “the wise years” of her
mid-career.
“Stubbornness and fortitude have made
me very resilient as an artist,” she says,
“and I call on that at times like this.” The
artist’s role has always included that of
healer, or shaman, and Baldwin has been
mulling over possibilities for how, once
the pandemic is over, artists can offer
the global community ways to process its
manifold losses.
Inspired by various sacred traditions,
Baldwin recently designed a series of
beautifully embroidered “Inner Light”
collars. Struck by the intersection with
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s symbolic
collars, she gave a collar to Ginsburg last
summer — in gratitude for her tireless
advocacy for equality and justice for
all Americans. In her heartfelt letter
accompanying the gift, Baldwin wrote, “I
believe art has the capacity to heal, unite,
and beautify our world.”
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
21
Artists pivot — and continue to
create — under the pandemic’s
constraints
by Cristina Rouvalis
LAURENCE KESTERSON
W
22
Ben Kapilow ’13 sits inside the empty
Media Theatre in Media, Pa. When
the pandemic forced the closure of the
production he was directing, Kapilow turned
his focus to teaching music.
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
HEN THE MEDIA THEATRE in Media,
Pa., canceled its live performances, musical
director Ben Kapilow ’13 found himself
missing his busy schedule — and his
creative outlet.
After almost a month of rehearsals, he
was devastated when the musical Baby was forced to close
before the public had a chance to see it.
“It was very sad,” says Kapilow. “Everybody put in a lot
of work. We had three preview performances, which went
great. On the third and final one, the executive director of the
theater told the cast and crew and musicians it had to shut
down.”
The small but iconic theater, constructed in 1927 as
a vaudeville house, was converted into a space for the
performing arts in 1994 after a renovation brought the
English Renaissance-style building back to its glory.
Kapilow, 30, has stopped conducting and composing music
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/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
CHRISTIAN BEGEMAN
there, but still goes into the acclaimed regional theater to
teach lessons and small-group classes. He has redirected his
creative energy into helping his young students write their
own music and create virtual concerts filled with animated
graphics, photos, and other creative flourishes.
For the composer, 2020 has been a test of adaptability.
“A lot of the ways that I was trying to be creative prior are
not possible now,” he says. “Teaching used to be one of the
things I did on the side. Now, with 55 private students, I have
plunged full on into teaching.”
As a successful composer who received a B.A. in music and
psychology from Swarthmore and a master’s in composition
from the Peabody Conservatory, Kapilow is imparting his
knowledge to his songwriting and composition students. He
wrote the score for three children’s musicals for the Media
Theatre, including Peter Pan and Wendy, which won the
Broadway World “Best of Philadelphia Theatre” award for
Best New Work and was also produced at A Contemporary
Theatre of Connecticut in 2018.
To mitigate the COVID-19 risk, he did his annual student
recital virtually, compiling student videos, editing them, and
live-streaming the recital on YouTube. He opened one by
saying: “Although I miss the days of teaching in person and
being able to scream rhythm syllables super-loud to the kids
without being hindered by masks and the decibel limits of
microphones, teaching during the pandemic has been great.
These videos will show kids can be creative and still have fun
during the pandemic.”
A student named Josephine shows a music video of her
song “Summer,” juxtaposing photos of herself with bright,
beachy graphics. Another student wrote a political rock song
about fighting injustice. “It’s fun to work with a student on
something that is not a musical, in a completely different
universe than something I would write,” Kapilow says.
The pandemic continues to inspire other student scores.
“The arts are one way for them to try to make sense of all
the craziness going on. … This is a lot to take in and make
sense of,” Kapilow says. “Writing lyrics and writing music
is one way to use the arts to try to channel all their different
emotions.”
Kapilow is grateful for the virtual recitals, and plans to
continue them even after the pandemic ends. But while he
enjoys teaching remotely, he misses the camaraderie of his
pre-pandemic life.
“Sometimes I would accompany for auditions and meet
hundreds of actors, or I would lead a small orchestra of
professional instrumentalists through a music rehearsal,
or I would play piano and conduct in front of a 300-person
audience,” he says. “Today, due to the pandemic, all of that is
gone. As rewarding as teaching is, I do greatly miss the social
thrills of professional music directing.”
I SEARCH THE FIELDS
Eliza Blue ’00 (aka Beth Bonacci) is a transplanted city girl
who herds sheep and tends to grass-fed cows on a ranch
in South Dakota, more than a mile from her next-door
neighbors. The closest town is the high-plains hamlet of
Bison, population 331.
The singer-songwriter never expected to call this home,
but nine years in, it’s no longer a stop along the way. Living
close to the land, she’s discovered a connection with nature
and the wide-open sky that inspires her lyrically.
This summer, during the darkness of the pandemic and the
rancor of political divisions, the words poured out of her like
never before. The Black Hills and open spaces conveyed a
message of inner hope.
“ARTISTS ARE UNIQUELY QUALIFIED TO ENGAGE WITH THE TURBULENCE
OF UNPRECEDENTED TIMES. WHETHER IT IS FIGURING OUT HOW TO
REACH AUDIENCES IN A NEW WAY OR INTERPRETING UNFOLDING
EVENTS, ARTISTS’ CONTRIBUTIONS TO PROCESSING AND COPING WITH
CRISIS BRING NUANCE AND CATHARSIS TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF
WHAT’S OCCURRING.”
— Eliza Blue ’00
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/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
25
FOR MUSEUMS, A NEW
WAY OF INTERACTING
by Max Gruber ’20
MAX GRUBER ’20 is a gallery assistant at Helena Anrather
gallery and Tina Kim Gallery in New York City. He earned a
B.A. in art history, history, and Spanish.
26
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
Across the plains,
the wide world open
the grasses wave,
the sod’s not broken.
Weaving wire round
all I’ve stolen,
I long for words
that can’t be spoken.
“I DON’T NECESSARILY WRITE
IN RESPONSE TO FORCES
OUTSIDE, IN THE PRESENT.
I HAVE PLENTY OF
MATERIAL INSIDE OF ME
ALREADY THAT I USE FOR
INSPIRATION, WHETHER
FROM MY OWN LIFE
EXPERIENCES OR FROM
HISTORY. AND THE HISTORY
I WRITE ABOUT — SLAVERY
AND THE U.S. UNDER
LEGALIZED SEGREGATION
BEFORE THE VOTING ACT OF
1965 — MAKES TODAY’S
CRISES PALE IN
COMPARISON.”
I search the fields
for scraps and tatters
the sparrow’s flown
but left her feathers.
Against the loom of love
I’ve shattered everything
that I thought mattered.
Let there be light.
“It wasn’t my mission to write songs that unite us,” says
Blue. “The songs just come out the way they come out. But
that is what they mostly have been — finding the comfort we
can bring to ourselves and to each other.”
For Blue, songwriting is not a daily practice but a burst
of inspiration. She writes whenever she can catch a few
minutes, such as in the bathroom when her two young
children are taking baths, or after they go to sleep.
Her English literature degree from Swarthmore helped
her to craft lyrics. Her extracurricular work in theater
refined her stage presence. “I learned about connecting
to an audience as well as how to tap into my intuition
as a performer,” she says. “The emphasis in most of the
productions was finding authenticity in performance,
and I continue to bring that to my work as a singer and a
storyteller.”
In the 17 years she spent on the road touring, Blue sang
and played her guitar, banjo, and violin in venues ranging
from ramshackle front porches to big concert halls. She
stopped touring before the pandemic hit. It was too hard
with two kids in tow, and it became increasingly difficult to
make a living as a musician with Spotify and other streaming
services eating into album sales.
She and her husband now support themselves mostly
through ranching. She also wrote a book called Accidental
Rancher — the story of how her break from touring
unexpectedly turned into a whole new lifestyle.
In some ways, Blue’s background as a folk singer and
songwriter has prepared her for the uncertainty brought
about by the pandemic.
“I feel like every artist I know spends their entire career
braced for everything to fall apart. It’s like, ‘When is the
next project? Is it even gonna happen? Am I going to get any
WESLEY BUNNELL
Since the beginning of the pandemic, governments,
businesses, and people around the globe have
radically altered the way they interact with and
inhabit the world. For some, the rhythm of everyday
life has adapted to this “new normal.”
In the world of the visual arts, however, this new
landscape has prompted institutions to adopt a
number of new practices and strategies, some more
problematic than others.
Most institutions are still reeling from the
financial blow dealt to them last March and April.
Mass layoffs and furloughs have left many entrylevel and part-time employees without work. To
offset this loss, museums and galleries have been
eager to hire interns, a more cost-effective solution
than reinstating laid-off employees on a full- or
part-time salary. Entry-level opportunities in art
had already paid poorly, if at all. Now, they are
almost exclusively limited to those who can afford
to eschew full-time pay to gain a foothold in the art
world.
The financial toll of the pandemic is also affecting
museums’ permanent collections. Faced with huge
losses of income due to the spring shutdown, some
institutions have turned to deaccessioning artworks
from their collections in order to stay afloat.
For others, the decision to jettison untaxed,
valuable works of art from an ostensibly
“permanent” collection in the name of fundraising
appeared callous and unethical. However, some
have argued that retaining pieces with astronomical
prices may not be as valuable as the myriad
programs that could be funded through their sale.
Despite the universal belt-tightening faced by
museums and other art spaces, the pandemic has
also led to new instances of community-building
and collaboration. The “streaming-age” initiative,
led by the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum
in Madrid, is a digital platform for artworks and
projects from around the globe to address the
pandemic, education, climate justice, and other
issues of social justice.
Institutions in India, Chile, the United States,
Saudi Arabia, Colombia, and more have participated
in the project. By fostering international dialogue
and exchange, streaming-age demonstrates the
potential of new initiatives to build community and
address the important issues of our day.
— Kim Foote ’00
money? Am I gonna pay my rent?’”
But letting go of music was never an option.
Blue and other musicians received funding from an NPR
affiliate to produce Wish You Were Here, a variety show held
in noteworthy but out-of-the-way small towns. The program
will air in January on South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
“We did intros about the places and what makes them
special,” she says. “It’s meant to be a postcard from that
place. While we still can’t be together, how can we create
shared experiences? I feel that music is just something we
need. Music is an essential part of being human.”
MY OWN SHELF
In Kim Foote ’00’s one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn,
N.Y., almost every corner is filled with books. The tall cherry
bookcase in her living room contains fiction by Octavia
Butler, Ayi Kwei Armah, and other favorite authors.
Then there is what she calls “my own shelf,” where she
keeps copies of the magazines and books where her short
stories and essays have been published. There is a designated
empty space on that shelf — a placeholder for her future
books.
“There is a burning desire in me to tell a story,” she says.
“The way I write, I see movies in my head, and I have to
translate them into words.”
Foote writes literary fiction and nonfiction under the
name Kim Coleman Foote. Her work has been published
in prestigious journals such as Prairie Schooner and The
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
27
MAKING ART IS JOYOUS —
EVERY CHILD CAN TELL
YOU THAT
“IT’S A VERY SLOW,
DELIBERATIVE
PROCESS, WHICH
FELT GOOD DURING
THE QUARANTINE.”
WESLEY BUNNELL
— Hannah
Schutzengel ’11
ANOTHER LAYER OF GESTURES
Missouri Review. She has been awarded writing fellowships
from MacDowell, the Center for Fiction, the New York
Foundation for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, and the
National Endowment for the Arts.
For her, the written word is a way to process some of
the dark and uncomfortable realities of life and to explore
themes such as the transatlantic slave trade, racism, and
trauma.
“I’m deeply grateful for my Swarthmore education,” she
says. “It honed my critical thinking and research skills,
which enabled me to contextualize marginalized histories.”
A night owl, she works in spurts, sitting at a desk in her
bedroom, which is spacious by New York standards. She
writes short stories that fictionalize her family’s experiences
during the Great Migration, traveling from Alabama and
28
Foote, who works remotely as assistant director
of a study-abroad office at New York University, says
social isolation has been hard.
“Despite my many writing accomplishments, I am
still single, and it hurts not to have a partner to share
with,” she says. “Living alone through the pandemic
has only intensified this.”
Regular walks in nearby Prospect Park, and a
writing community through her Zoom critique group,
give her solace.
Foote has experienced the ups and downs of the
fickle publishing world. She previously had an agent
for Salt Water Sister who ultimately told Foote that
the subject was too dark. Others have suggested that
she revise it in ways not true to her vision.
One editor told her, “The writing is really good,
but I can’t work with it because it is set in Africa and
it’s historical. Why don’t you switch it to the United
States?”
“Seriously?” Foote thought.
But she received good news during the pandemic:
She won a prestigious Yaddo writing residency, a
retreat for artists in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. It’s been
delayed this year, but even so, it was gratifying to be
recognized.
One of her short stories, written in Black dialect,
was published this fall in the literary magazine Prairie
Schooner, and an agent who admired it reached out
to her. “You have a fan here,” he wrote. He wanted to
see more of her short-story collection inspired by her
family. She sent him her work and crossed her fingers,
hoping to fill in the bookshelf space saved for her own
writing.
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
Florida, where her great-grandparents were sharecroppers,
to New Jersey, where she grew up.
Their stories of dashed hopes and trauma are told from
the viewpoints of various family members. She’s also been
revising her novel, Salt Water Sister, which tells the stories
of women during the transatlantic slave trade, alternating
between 18th-century West Africa and the year 1999 in the
United States and Ghana. Her novel was inspired by the
college semester she spent in Ghana, where she returned to
conduct follow-up research as a Fulbright fellow from 2002
to 2003.
The harsh realities of the pandemic have made it harder
to immerse herself in that fictional world. “My writing takes
me to such dark and heavy subject matter,” she says. “I am
already in my head a lot.”
Hannah Schutzengel ’11 finds meaning through the
art she makes with her hands — touching, folding, and
refolding pieces of fabric.
It’s an odd juxtaposition — relying on touch to
create multimedia pieces at a time when people
shrink from each other to avoid contracting a deadly
disease.
Like Foote, she lives in a New York City that has
changed dramatically since March. Art openings were
canceled — including a show featuring her work at
the Textile Arts Center that moved online. During the
early months of the pandemic, Schutzengel worked
from home with no access to her studio supplies.
Instead of manipulating fabric, she has created
elaborate pen drawings of folded garments inspired by
Gothic and medieval sculptures.
“It’s a very slow, deliberative process, which felt
good during the quarantine,” she says.
by Monica Eileen Patterson ’97
As Pablo Picasso famously said: “Every child is an artist. The
problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
Arguably, the most prolific and perhaps creative artists in
the world are children. What can we learn from them about
how to engage with art in the challenging context of the
COVID-19 pandemic?
Children use art to express themselves and to
communicate with others. Creating art can also help
them process and explore their feelings and experiences.
Throughout early childhood, making art is a joyous and
significant form of play. But as children get older, they are
given less time, space, and freedom for artistic expression.
Too often, children and their cultural productions are
ignored or disregarded. But engaging with children’s art
has the potential to offer insight into the circumstances,
consequences, and urgencies of this crisis. As experts on
themselves, children are best positioned to explain and
elaborate upon the meaning of the work they create.
Parents, teachers, and museum practitioners are among
those who most often facilitate children’s art-making. Since
the pandemic began, art galleries around the world have
reported dramatic increases in the number of online visitors.
Children, and those caring for them, are one of the main
target audiences. A proliferation of museum programming
and educational materials have helped fill in the gaps of
virtual learning as many schools have chosen to go online.
While enriching and valuable, the vast majority of this
content consists of activities and resources for children,
designed by adults. In this conventional top-down approach,
adults hold most of the authority and set the terms of
engagement. It misses an opportunity to explore content and
programming by and with children, who may have unique
contributions to make, drawing from their own expertise,
capabilities, and capacity for creativity and innovation.
In this emerging field of practice I call critical children’s
museology, children and youth have opportunities to share
their own curations and artistic work, organize their own
programming, and, in rare cases, contribute to the permanent
collections of museums such as the International Museum of
Children’s Art in Oslo and the Foundling Museum in London.
This child-centered approach stands to offer a more
critical component to contemporary museological practice
in at least two senses of the word: critical, as in grounded in
critique of the adult-dominated status quo, but also critical,
as in crucial to engaging with children as valued social
actors and knowledge-bearers.
MONICA EILEEN PATTERSON ’97 is assistant director, curatorial
studies, at Carleton University’s Institute for Comparative Studies
in Literature, Art, and Culture; and associate professor at Carleton’s
Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies.
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29
JUNIOR’S FASHION
BRAND LE CORPS
“IN TIMES OF GREAT TURMOIL, THE
NEED FOR ART THAT UPLIFTS,
EMPOWERS, AND REMINDS US OF
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN
BECOMES THAT MUCH GREATER.”
by Bayliss Wagner ’20
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— Daniel Cho ’15
JACKIE SAJEWSKI
For math and honors studio art major and ballet
dancer Emmeline Wolf ’22, the beginning of the
COVID-19 lockdown last spring meant the loss of
the arts activities and dance rehearsals that had
anchored her hectic weeks at school, as well as the
Ireland painting residency and Bard College fashionmarketing program she was to complete during the
summer. But she knew that for professional artists,
the lockdown had more serious consequences: the
loss of their livelihoods.
To address all of these losses, Wolf created fashion
brand Le Corps/The Body, an original line of printed
and upcycled clothing. The brand donates 25% of
each sale to the Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Emergency Grants COVID-19 Fund, and since creating
the brand in June, Wolf has met her goal of donating
$2,000 relief grant to the fund.
Wolf says an exhibit of Michelangelo’s drawings at
the Getty in Los Angeles inspired her to put paintings
of figures on each item. She used an L.A.-based
sustainable-clothing agency to create printed items
and dug through closets of family and friends to find
vintage clothing she could paint.
What Wolf says she enjoyed even more than
creating these items — and what surprised her about
the process — was creating a community during an
isolating lockdown. She showcased the work of fellow
artists on the brand’s Facebook and Instagram pages
and asked a variety of people around her to model her
clothing: kid cousin, brother, grandmother, friends,
friends’ parents, even a figure made of sticks.
Swarthmore students feature prominently among
these collaborators, including VERO, the music act of
Veronica Yabloko ’22, who performed live on
Le Corps’ Facebook and Instagram pages. Wolf also
raised $125 for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, held
remotely in 2020, in a collaboration with fashion
blogger Cassandra Stone ’20.
“When I started, obviously I was feeling a lack of
funding in the arts and a loss of community,” Wolf
says. “But I don’t think I realized how important it was
for me to rebuild that community and even create
new ones.”
As she took remote classes from a Philadelphia
apartment in the fall, Wolf continued to maintain the
business and look for more opportunities to pursue a
career in fashion marketing.
FINDING A MAKESHIFT STAGE
Now, the 31-year-old Schutzengel is back in the studio
she shares with other artists, creating art at a time when
the world needs it most, she says. She juggles the life of an
artist with steadier-paying jobs, working part-time at an art
gallery and as an adviser in the art department at Hunter
College, where she received an MFA after studying art at
Swarthmore.
Schutzengel’s art keeps changing. At Swarthmore, she
created oil-painting portraits and mixed-media pieces before
she shifted focus to textiles. She rearranges fabrics, threads,
paper, and plastic fragments to form 6-inch squares. Then
she applies a resin, and she finishes by manipulating the
folds again.
“There is this back-and-forth, responding to the way the
resin has solidified these actions,” she says. “Then there is
another layer of gestures.
“All of these gestures feel very different now,” she adds.
“I am thinking of touch at a time when we have all become
hypervigilant about everything, every person we touch, every
place we go.
“It gives a different feeling to my work.”
One August evening in a Cleveland parking lot, Daniel Cho
’15 got a sweet reminder of pre-pandemic life.
Cho swung his arms and stomped his feet, his body
undulating to the African drumbeat. It was electric, the
energy flowing between the audience, peering through their
car windows, and the Verb Ballets company dancers on the
makeshift stage.
Even behind his mask, Cho felt free as he performed in
Surge.Capacity.Force, a modern-dance piece choreographed
by Tommie Waheed-Evans and inspired by the Black Lives
Matter movement. The choreography and soundtrack
communicate the sense of disenfranchisement of minorities
and immigrants, as well as the idea that people of all
backgrounds have a rightful place in America. The political
message resonated with Cho amid the social and political
unrest of the times and as an Asian American artist in the
overwhelmingly white world of dance.
Each dancer had a solo, and Cho ended his by calling out
to the audience: “I belong here. What about my family? I’m a
citizen, too. I have rights as well.”
The drive-in dance performance was emotional, an
adrenaline rush of putting on a live show for the first time in
months. The audience cheered wildly, as thirsty to watch live
dance as the dancers were to get back to the stage.
“Something like that had not been done before, renting out
a parking lot and building a stage,” Cho says.
For artists like Cho, the pandemic has been a particularly
stressful time.
As live performances have dried up, many arts
organizations have laid off performers, while others have
gone under altogether. Yet these are the times when artists
and audiences alike are most in need of the arts.
And so the urge to create and connect bubbles up in new
ways — like a drive-in dance performance.
“It was really emotional,” Cho says. “It was nice to feel the
reciprocity of the audience again.”
Being a professional dancer is hard enough without
a pandemic. Injuries are an occupational hazard — Cho
herniated a disc in his lower back last year — and jobs are
scarce. The lack of support for the arts during the global
health crisis has been disheartening to him: Consider the
contrast between the New York City Ballet laying off some
of the best dancers in the world versus the NBA renting out
parts of Disney World to play basketball.
“It was depressing,” says Cho, “to see how few resources
were given to artists.”
He entered Swarthmore with plans to be a vocalist,
perhaps an opera singer, but then he took his second college
dance class and knew that dance was what he would do
— even with the late start. Since his sophomore year, the
27-year-old’s life has revolved around dance.
“In retrospect, it was kind of crazy,” he says. The small and
supportive dance program at Swarthmore helped nurture
his dreams, and after graduation, he landed a job at Verb
Ballets. The company was small enough to resume in-person
practices in June and send out recitals virtually. But wearing
a mask has been difficult — gasping through six to eight hours
a day of aerobic exercise, the sweat building inside, facial
expressions hidden from view.
Still, going to the studio is cathartic. “For me, the joy comes
from going in every day and just trying to improve yourself
more, the daily habit of working on your craft,” he says. “It’s
like, ‘How can I try this? How can I do this differently today?’
I feel like that’s a great metaphor for life.”
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31
“Students are super
engaged in class, asking great
questions,” says Kathryn Riley
’10, assistant professor of
analytical chemistry.
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WINTER 2021
LAURENCE KESTERSON
THINK
AGAIN
Swarthmore faculty are
finding creative solutions
to navigate new ways of
teaching
by Ryan Dougherty
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
33
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
WE CAN ADAPT
The pandemic spurred a career change
of sorts for Professor of Engineering
Carr Everbach.
“I’ve transformed from a professor
to a YouTuber,” he says, recording
videos that he uploads as lecture
material. Everbach says he once spent
four hours to produce a 20-minute
product with some imperfections.
“For decades, I’ve trained as a live
performer, not a studio musician,” he
says, “and it has been hard to transfer
those skills playing to no one in the
house.”
Such adaptability has been
key. In an ordinary summer, the
Educational Studies faculty would
have coordinated with local schools
to arrange fieldwork; for Associate
Professor Elaine Allard ’01’s course
Educating Emergent Bilinguals,
students would typically spend
LAURENCE KESTERSON
K
ATHRYN RILEY ’10 is
an analytical chemist,
a record-holder and
assistant coach for
Swarthmore softball, an advocate for
diversity and inclusion. But just as
important, she’s a planner.
When the COVID-19 pandemic
unfolded in the spring, Riley struggled
to quickly shift to instruction online.
Having a summer to prepare for the
new academic year helped.
Still, uncertainty abounded.
“I’ve learned a lot about myself in
terms of my ability to think on the
fly,” says Riley, an assistant professor
of analytical chemistry. “You have to
stay on top of all of the little details to
make a course that’s going to serve 140
students run smoothly, but you also
need to see the bigger picture of what’s
going on in the world.”
Across the College, faculty devised
strategies to bring the key elements of
traditional instruction to online and
hybrid class formats. A major part of
this challenge was maximizing student
engagement through technology,
and the comprehensive efforts of
Information Technology Services staff
were indispensable to this effort.
From restructuring courses to
succeed online to connecting with
students and experts around the world
in real time, Swarthmore has stretched
to maintain a human connection for
learning in the pandemic.
“Students are super engaged in class,
asking great questions, working well
together in breakout rooms on Zoom,”
says Riley. “Things are obviously not
ideal, but we’ve been able to capture
quite a bit of what makes our courses
special at Swarthmore.”
And some aspects of teaching feel
unchanged. Professor of Religion
Mark Wallace was already seizing
every opportunity to teach outside,
pre-COVID-19. But while the shift
to virtual was daunting, Wallace is
starting to see some silver linings.
“I’m actually much happier about
the learning dynamic, the energy of
students, and the likelihood of getting
into complicated and nuanced material
than I initially thought was possible,”
he says.
Yelling is optional. Professor of Religion Mark Wallace taught his Radical Jesus course outdoors whenever possible, with plenty of physical
distancing: “We’re kind of yelling at each other across the space of our impromptu class. But that makes that experience much richer and vibrant
because it’s something special.”
three hours a week with bilingual
students in Philadelphia schools
serving predominantly immigrant
communities.
“But this semester, they’re doing
fieldwork by mentoring small groups
of seniors at our partner school, via
Zoom, and by viewing and discussing
classroom video,” says Allard.
Also emphasizing a combination of
video and small-group interactions
was Richter Professor of Political
Science Carol Nackenoff, whose
students streamed films and
documentaries that they then
discussed in online breakout rooms.
Some faculty have actually come to
view elements of virtual instruction
as a more efficient way to share
information than on chalkboards or
projects in class, says Wallace, who
uses a stylus to write ancient Greek
on an iPad for lessons on the New
Testament. “I share my screen to
do this really intimate work with an
ancient language, and we’re all right
there, present in the moment.”
Associate Professor of Psychology
Cat Norris happened upon a benefit
of virtual learning when her seminar
students were set to read an article
written by her friend Professor
Helen Mayberg from the University
of Colorado. Mayberg pioneered the
development and use of deep-brain
stimulation for treatment-resistant
depression.
“I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to
have her pop into the Zoom and talk
about that research project?” says
Norris. “So we had our first ‘surprise’
“I share my screen to do this
really intimate work with an
ancient language, and we’re
all right there, present in the
moment.”
— Mark Wallace, professor of religion
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“I believe turbulence in the world
is a constant fact. Great art,
whatever form it takes, has been
made through some extremely
rough periods in human history.”
LAURENCE KESTERSON
— Logan Grider, associate professor and
department chair of art
“Over the past six to eight months, I’ve heard artists say they can’t work. This seems backwards as I feel the most centered,
the most sensitive and aware when I’m engaged in the studio,” says Logan Grider, associate professor and department chair of art.
visitor. The students’ faces were
priceless: disbelief, awe, amazement.”
Guest speakers also have been a
highlight of Wallace’s course that
connects students to community
partners and leaders in nearby
Chester, easing the loss of
in-person collaborations. A recent
class welcomed Twyla Simpkins,
founder/director of the Yes We Can
Achievement & Cultural Center.
“Being able to learn from and with
residents and community leaders who
have experiences that are intimately
connected to the scholarship we’re
36
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
reading in class brings a whole new
level of meaning,” says Katie Carlson
’23, of Duluth, Minn.
FOCUSING ON THE BIGGER PICTURE
For all of the bright spots of the
shift to virtual, there are significant
challenges. Students and faculty are
balancing coursework with the stress
and danger of a global pandemic,
caring for loved ones, dealing with
financial insecurity, navigating timezone differences, and more.
And, ultimately, nothing compares
to being together in the classroom.
“It’s more difficult to moderate
discussion, to read the students’
body language, to encourage that
somewhat quiet student to jump in,”
says Norris. “I miss engaging with
them more casually, hearing about
what’s important in their lives, and
truly sharing in their Swarthmore
experience.”
“What is missing is the connection
between the textual and the real,” adds
Everbach, stressing the challenge of
moving his labs online. “Engineering
is about turning stuff into things, and
that is currently nearly impossible.”
Unable to share a space with
students in his Introduction to
Drawing course, Logan Grider,
associate professor and department
chair of art, says one of the main
challenges has been that he can’t see
what they see, or follow their decisions
in real time.
“I’ve had to readjust my approach,
delaying the entire teaching
moment until after the drawings are
completed,” Grider says. “It means
losing valuable teaching opportunities.
“The students have all been
wonderful and understanding, putting
up with my clumsiness with all the
tech,” he adds.
And then there is the complexity of
moving a musical-performance class
to a virtual setup.
You can’t have real-time musical
collaboration of more than a few
people online, notes Andrew Hauze
’04, senior music lecturer. Stitching
together prerecorded videos of group
members playing their own parts is
“utterly different from that of making
music in the same space with others.”
This fall, students in Hauze’s wind
and orchestra ensembles rehearsed
online weekly. Since they needed
to mute themselves on Zoom, lest
it “sound like utter cacophony,”
Hauze couldn’t offer corrections or
input in real time. In response, he
made practice recordings for which
he recorded each part on piano,
overdubbed with all the other parts;
students could download a recording
for their instrument, with the sound of
their own part in the right ear and the
sound of the other instruments in their
left.
“That way, when they’re practicing,
students can be sure that they have the
correct notes and rhythms and hear
how their part fits into the whole,”
Hauze says. “So we can focus on the
bigger picture of how the music is put
together during our weekly meeting.”
Also recalibrating opportunities for
student collaboration was Assistant
Professor of Art History Paloma
Checa-Gismero, whose Arts & Craft
as Avant-Garde Labor course this fall
connected students from around the
world through a communal crochet
project.
“We sought to awaken the social
spirit of collaboration by mailing to
each other purposeless items that
grew, in unexpected ways, throughout
the semester,” she says. “From
Swarthmore to New York to Pittsburgh
to Norway and back, these objects
embodied the questions and partial
answers that the historians, artists,
crafters, and theorists that we have
read together describe.”
EVEN ON SCREEN, A HUMAN CONNECTION
Eva Baron ’22 endured another muggy
summer in her hometown of New
York City, with the added layer of the
pandemic.
“It was sluggish in a way that only
being cooped up and apart from most
people can make you,” says the honors
English literature major. “It was
refreshing to log back into Zoom and
be greeted by the familiar faces of my
classmates and professor.”
“Even through the computer screen,”
she adds, the art seminar taught by
Checa-Gismero “has reinvigorated
a sense of curiosity, creativity, and
reflection within me that I had
somewhat abandoned during the
summer away from academics and, of
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37
SPEED, WIND, AND A SOLDERING IRON
How one research group engineered their student project remotely
One research group calibrated the speed and measurements of a
high-speed wind tunnel, constructed a pressure sensor array with
a custom circuit board, 3D-printed an aerodynamic lift body, and
engineered a system to track movement patterns — all without
ever meeting in person.
The group, composed of Josh Vandervelde ’23, Daniel
Curtis ’21, and Professor of Engineering Carr Everbach, studied
Swarthmore’s new wind tunnel, a 45-foot-long tube structure in
Maxine Frank Singer Hall that allows students to extrapolate how
aerodynamic bodies would fare in high-altitude flight.
Funded by a Richard Hurd ’48 engineering grant, their work
this past summer lays the groundwork for future student projects,
while also furthering the research started by Quentin Millette ’20
on kites that generate energy from powerful, high-altitude winds.
Making the project work remotely wasn’t easy. Everbach would
Zoom with the students from the lab, sometimes having to shout
over the wind’s noise as he entered commands for the tunnel on a
computer in another room.
In order for the group to assemble and test their tools at
home, administrative coordinator Cassy Burnett mailed soldering
equipment and other supplies to Curtis in Macomb, Ill., and
Vandervelde in El Cerrito, Calif.
“Even though we were separated, and it wasn’t in ideal
conditions, I definitely learned a lot about the processes of team
engineering,” says Vandervelde, and about “how many things can
go wrong in a project, and just picking yourself up and continuing
to go forward.”
Adds Everbach: “Engineering is all about
the habits of mind, the meta issues — when
something isn’t working, what do you do?
How do you proceed? Those were the real
important lessons learned.”
COURTESY OF CARR EVERBACH
“Engineering is all about the habits of
mind, the meta issues — when something
isn’t working, what do you do?”
Professor of Engineering Carr Everbach with Swarthmore’s new wind tunnel, a 45-foot-long tube structure
in Maxine Frank Singer Hall. Work done by Everbach and two students this past summer, funded by a Richard
Hurd ’48 engineering grant, lays the groundwork for future student projects.
38
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
LAURENCE KESTERSON
by Bayliss Wagner ’21
The simulated magnetic field lines above show the merging of two twisted plasma structures. “Field lines are what we see when we sprinkle
iron filings on paper and bring a magnet underneath,” says Morris L. Clothier Professor of Physics Mike Brown. He wanted to maintain student
involvement with his SSX plasma lab from afar. Intent on incorporating them in the research, Brown asked the students if they were willing to learn
to code so that they could do sophisticated computer modeling of experiments. “I shut down all the pumps and equipment in the lab, and we started
to think about simulations,” says Brown, adding that their efforts led to a substantial grant from the NSF-funded XSEDE Supercomputer Allocation
Program to help boost computing infrastructure in the U.S. “I got to understand the specific challenges and promises of fusion energy,” says Ercong
“Tony” Luo ’21, an honors math and physics major from China. “That’s an important application of our work and something that I passionately believe
is a solution to the crisis of climate change.”
course, campus.”
Fostering such human connection
has been a point of emphasis for
faculty, including Associate Professor
of Philosophy Krista Thomason. She
entered the fall semester excited about
her Peace and Political Philosophy
class, for which students wrote real
scholarly letters to one another and, as
their final assignment, to Thomason.
“We’re far apart, and it’s an intimate
form of communication: scholarly but
conversational,” she says.
Whether classes are remote or in
person, many of the same aspects
of the student experience remain,
says Riley. They can still feel that
connection to Swarthmore.
“That’s something I can take away
from this: that the efforts of faculty and
staff to make adjustments as needed
has been seen and appreciated by
our students,” she says. “Having that
contact with your professor, knowing
they’re rooting for you, knowing they
are doing all they can to help you
succeed, goes a long way.”
Buoyed by this response, many
faculty members say they feel
empowered to take chances.
Navigating the shift to virtual
learning is still a long and difficult
journey, but one with growth and a
renewed understanding of flexible
thinking. “We don’t have to just shut
everything down and hide under the
covers and wait until this goes away,”
says Wallace. “Are there opportunities
there that necessity has triggered or
brought to the surface that we wouldn’t
have found otherwise?”
For many other faculty members and
students, the stresses of daily life can
preclude forward thinking, let alone
optimism. But a consensus is emerging
that while virtual classes are just that
— virtual — they can also be grounding.
“Not only are our classes connected
through a shared sense of something
lost, but also in the shared knowledge
we can gain,” says Ann Sinclair ’23,
of Doylestown, Pa. “There’s a sort of
comfort in the fact that, whatever is
going on in the world, the equations
we learn still work, the books and
papers we read still have something to
teach us, the discussions we have still
open our eyes to new perspectives and
ideas.”
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39
FAITH
LIGHTS
THE WAY
Alumni reflect on hope and
humanity in the wake of a year
of tumult. As 2021 begins, their
views illuminate a spiritual path.
by Elizabeth Slocum
illustrations by Ileana Soon
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
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41
I
N THE YEAR 2020, humanity
experienced more tragedy and
unease than at any other time
in modern memory, enough
for even the most eternal of
optimists to begin losing hope.
While the new year brings new
promises, new challenges also lie
ahead, as the fight against COVID-19 continues
in earnest and a divided country begins to heal.
But after such a dark moment in history, how
do we see the light?
For these six Swarthmoreans, one solution
lies in keeping the faith, whether in a higher
power, in love, or in one another. Though all
inspired by different spiritual backgrounds,
they’re bonded by a common belief: that across
time, and despite unimaginable hardships,
humankind has persevered, together.
RESPONDING TO THE CALLING WITHIN
Sometimes it takes hitting rock-bottom before
things can change, says Ailya Vajid ’09. A
Muslim chaplain at the University of Virginia,
Vajid says the most troubling aspect of 2020
was the way it revealed painful realities that
lie just below the surface, especially in terms
of oppression and racial injustice. However,
the killings of George Floyd and other Black
Americans also raised awareness globally, she
says, opening the door for systemic change.
“I am heartened and hopeful that perhaps
there are many more people standing up against
systemic racism, dehumanization, hate, and
violence than those who are perpetuating it,”
Vajid says. “As much as suffering and injustice
surround us, there is so much goodness,
selflessness, and love embodied by humanity.”
She sees this daily in her spiritual work
with students — a career path that started at
Swarthmore. A religion and Islamic-studies
major, Vajid found mentors in professors
Tariq al-Jamil and Yamina Bouguenaya,
who introduced her to aspects of her faith
tradition that became formative to her College
experience.
Vajid soon realized she sought to walk
alongside other students on their religious
journeys, the way al-Jamil and Bouguenaya
had walked with her. In 2014, she joined
“In the Islamic tradition, it is said
that God tries those whom He loves
and that these trials come with the
opportunity for growth and learning.
It is often through our greatest
hardships that we experience the
most meaningful transformation.”
—Ailya Vajid ’09
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WINTER 2021
Swarthmore as its first Muslim student adviser,
a position now held by Umar Abdul Rahman
(see sidebar, pg. 45).
Above all, Vajid’s faith gives her meaning
for existence, she says, “and a lifelong journey
towards knowing and drawing nearer to God
who is Mercy, Love, Peace, and Everlasting.”
“We can address the devastation of our times
by working toward something better,” she says.
“That change can be within ourselves, it can be
in our communities, it can be broader political
change. We each have a different capacity,
talent, calling, and gift, and if we respond to
that and work on changing both ourselves and
the realities around us, perhaps we can create
something better.”
LOOKING FOR SIGNS OF CARE
If COVID-19 has shown us one thing,
Jacqueline Jones-Smith ’74 says, it’s that it’s an
equal-opportunity pandemic, reaching across
communities, borders, and oceans.
And as it rages on, we’re not just struggling
with the loss of life, she says: “We’re struggling
with the loss of life as we’ve known it.”
“Although the virus can kill us physically, the
loss of hope is killing our spirits individually
and collectively,” says Jones-Smith, senior
pastor at Christ United Methodist Church
in St. Petersburg, Fla. “It feeds our fear that
everything is out of control. But let me tell you,
God is in control.”
Jones-Smith has felt that control in her own
life, which she never expected would lead to the
ministry. A former attorney, Jones-Smith once
argued an appellate case in the D.C. Circuit
before a three-judge panel that included Ruth
Bader Ginsberg. She also served as the first
African-American chair of the U.S. Consumer
Products Safety Commission, an appointment
by President George H.W. Bush at a time when
bipartisanship was more common.
A spiritual experience surrounding a friend’s
death led Jones-Smith to enter the seminary
in 2001. Despite initial anxieties about leaving
her law career, she now can’t imagine doing
anything else.
“God puts us in places where we don’t expect
to be,” she says. “God doesn’t call the qualified.
God qualifies the called.”
In her ministry, Jones-Smith reminds
congregants to look beyond the dark headlines
to see the kind things that people are doing for
one another.
“In the midst of all the devastation, tribalism,
political rancoring, hate, and systemic racism,”
she says, “we see signs of hope through our first
responders, teachers, and others who provide
essential services. They selflessly put their
lives on the line to help others. We also see it
in those who volunteer to provide meals, check
on elderly neighbors, serve in food banks, and
more.
“I truly believe that God uses difficult
circumstances to draw us closer to God and
each other.”
VIEWING EACH MOMENT AS NEW
The isolation brought on by COVID-19 has been
especially hard on vulnerable populations, says
Richard Rudnick ’74, a rabbi and chaplain in
Worcester, Mass. As the pandemic prevents
loved ones from visiting hospitals, hospices,
and nursing homes, Rudnick often serves as a
surrogate family member, offering a welcoming
ear and essential embraces to patients
approaching the end of life.
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43
“Opportunities are
limited right now because
you can’t be around people,
but just giving in whatever
capacity you can is
something that Hinduism
really emphasizes.”
—Abha Lal ’18
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
It’s a connection that Rudnick relishes, both
as a religious leader and a former doctor.
“I spend the time to find out who that person
is and find something in their life that reflects
their ability to go forward,” says Rudnick,
who practiced family medicine for 30 years
before being ordained in 2011. “Something
that’s important to them that will still be there
tomorrow.
“Every time somebody thanks me it’s like,
‘Wait a minute, I got so much more from this
than you did.’ I truly feel that.”
Rudnick moved into Jewish leadership after
feeling the urge to learn more about his faith
tradition, a zeal for knowledge he ties back to
Swarthmore. After a brief attempt at juggling
rabbinical school and his family practice, he left
medicine to pursue religious studies full time.
Chaplaincy allows Rudnick to focus on what he
cherished most as a doctor, the patients, while
sharing a message of hope and love.
For inspiration, Rudnick points to the Old
Testament story of Noah, who, through faith,
survived the Flood.
“Most of the people I spend time with have
had multiple tragedies in their lives,” he says.
“They’ve had losses of parents, siblings, spouses
for many of them, children for some, and
they’ve come out on the other side. I think that’s
a big piece.
“Each moment is new, and we decide how we
react to it. So, if this one’s not so good, the next
one, God willing, will be better.”
Swarthmore’s Interfaith Center strives to support all students on
their spiritual journeys, regardless of whether they follow a faith
tradition.
But the challenges presented by COVID-19 have led the
College’s religious advisers to expand their outreach efforts, to
engage with students both on campus and online and address the
unique concerns Swarthmoreans are facing today.
“We offer a ton of opportunities to connect, and we make
ourselves widely visible,” says Rabbi Michael Ramberg, Jewish
student adviser and co-interim director of the Interfaith Center.
The goal, he says, is for students to know the center is there for
them as they need it.
The increase in stress for students combined with safe
distancing policies present a particular set of challenges, says
Umar Abdul Rahman, Muslim student adviser and fellow cointerim director. “We want students to be able to decompress,”
he says, “so we’re finding ways for them to get what we typically
offer but in a different setting.”
One successful new initiative has been the center’s daily
10-minute contemplative practice sessions. Held virtually and led
by a different religious adviser each day — Ramberg and Abdul
Rahman, along with Catholic adviser Lizzie Chapman, Buddhist
adviser Hojin Park, Protestant chaplain Sabrina LaBelle, and
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship staff worker Lindsey McAleese
— these guided meditations offer the opportunity to slow down,
breathe, and re-center.
Another program, proposed by a student Interfaith intern, is a
support group for helping students deal with the intangible losses
they’ve experienced as a result of the pandemic, whether those
are missed personal milestones or on-campus experiences.
Perhaps the biggest initiative was the online panel discussion
“Faith and Racial Injustice in a ‘Just’ Society.” The October event,
which featured Swarthmore professors Nina Johnson and James
Padilioni, among other speakers, addressed spiritual identity
PHOTOS: LAURENCE KESTERSON
LISTENING ACROSS FAITHS
Rabbi Michael Ramberg,
Jewish student adviser
Umar Abdul Rahman,
Muslim student adviser
and perspectives among people of color amid the pandemic and
demonstrations against racial injustice.
“Our programming always starts with the interns and religious
advisers considering what our individual needs are,” says
Interfaith intern Jayna Jones ’21, a neuroscience major and
religion minor from Wilmington, Del. “Then we try to broaden
those thoughts out to other students on campus to develop
events that can be most impactful.”
For students struggling under the weight of this difficult era,
Abdul Rahman suggests a change in focus.
“Something common in a lot of our traditions is the idea that
even within a trial, there’s a blessing as well,” he says. “So try to
search for the blessings that do exist during challenging times.”
Overall, Ramberg says he’s been amazed by the resilience of
Swarthmore students. “The students are learning a lot of valuable
lessons, and they’re really supporting each other,” he says. “The
way that current students have extended themselves to welcome
new students is very beautiful.
“Some people would say that’s a form of faith, too.”
— ELIZABETH SLOCUM
MOURNING WHAT’S BEEN LOST
As a practicing Hindu, Abha Lal ’18 has missed
the social aspects of her faith during these
days of physical distancing, like the puja
celebrations marking milestones in her loved
ones’ lives. Lal has instead relied on prayer and
self-reflection to keep her connected spiritually
amid life’s uncertainties.
“Hinduism has always been very related to
rituals and being with other people,” says Lal,
a journalist in Kathmandu, Nepal. “It’s been
interesting during the pandemic for the most
important part of the faith to not be there
anymore. Trying to find faith by myself has
been a way of practicing Hinduism that I didn’t
know before.”
In college, as an international student, Lal
found spiritual grounding through the Hindu
ANIMISTIC UNDERSTANDING
In his recent book, When God Was a Bird, Professor of Religion
Mark Wallace introduces himself as a Christian animist — viewing
the Earth as a living soul with a spiritual life force.
“All of creation and its many inhabitants are God in a variety of
forms and disguises,” Wallace writes in the book, which earned
the prestigious Nautilus Gold Award in the category of Religion/
Spirituality of Western Thought for 2019.
“It’s a very different take on the Christian religion,” Wallace
says, perhaps even heretical for those steeped in a more
traditional view of Christianity. But Wallace suggests that
Christianity is an Earth-based spirituality — including holy plants,
sacred animals, and hallowed landscapes — rather than an
otherworldly, heaven-bound religion. “There, you’ll see a rich
environmental ethic, not a religion about a God who is distant
and abstract and invisible, up there in the sky somewhere,”
Wallace says. “It’s a way of rethinking Christianity as a way of
life, consistent with the cultures and spiritualities of Indigenous
peoples.”
Wallace points to the animistic understanding of the world
embedded within Christianity, and sounds an urgent call for
society to rediscover it. A more human-centric view of the
religion has set the stage for our planetary ecological crisis, he
told the progressive Christian magazine Broadview, and only by
recognizing the spirit of God in nature can we begin to fix it.
— RYAN DOUGHERTY
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45
LETTING THEIR
LIGHT SHINE
A person joins a Friend in attending Quaker meeting
for the first time. At one point, the newcomer
nudges the Friend and asks, “When does the
service begin?” The Friend smiles and replies,
“When you leave the meetinghouse.”
Mary Noland ’69 points to this Quaker adage
when describing her faith, which she says is
inseparable from her service. A religion major
at Swarthmore, Noland has long been guided by
Quaker ideals: as a teen concerned about civil
rights in Athens, Ga.; as a lawyer who provided
legal assistance to low-income residents; and
now, as a member of Philadelphia’s Green Street
Monthly Meeting, taking steps toward becoming
more actively anti-racist, especially in light of
2020’s injustices.
“My faith helps me believe that if I allow ‘my
little light to shine’ less obstructed by racism and
all the other -isms — including intellectualism —
that I will be more open to meeting ‘that of God
in others,’” says Noland, who joined her racially
inclusive faith community in reading and discussing
two books this summer: Me and White Supremacy,
by Layla Saad, and Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson. “If
you believe, which I do, that there is that of God in
everyone, then action is just the next step. It’s just
what you do.”
A core tenet of Quakerism is to seek the
guidance of that part of God within you, to direct
how to live your life, says Wayne Finegar ’89, acting
general secretary of Baltimore Yearly Meeting. And
that, he adds, is inherently hopeful.
“It has the core assumption that it is possible to
attain that degree of grace,” he says, “and if you
assume that you’ve reached that point, that you’re
going to make good decisions — ones that are
positive for you and for the community and for the
world.”
For Finegar, a former lawyer with a philosophy
degree from Swarthmore, his Quaker faith is an
ongoing question — “a continual ‘Is this the right
answer? Is this the right choice for this situation?’
“And the permanent assumption is that the
answer is no, it’s not the right choice — that you
can always be better, you can always do better, you
can always love more, you can always trust more.”
— ELIZABETH SLOCUM
Club of Swarthmore. Her interest in how
others practiced religion led her to become
an Interfaith intern, and likely played a role
in her decision to major in anthropology and
sociology.
These days, as life feels less under control,
Lal stays grounded by intentionally focusing
on all that’s unfolding around her — even the
unpleasant realities. That allows her to find the
silver linings.
“Distraction can be useful, but it’s also
important to mourn in whatever way you can,”
she says. “Whether it’s for the people you’ve lost
or ideas about your own life or whatever it may
be — just be present and process the things that
you need to process.
“I often think about people who are younger
than me, knowing that they have their entire
lives ahead of them and that there needs to be a
future,” she adds. “You have to keep trying to be
a good person, trying to be helpful to people you
love, and take things day by day.”
SEEKING OUT ROLE MODELS
Erin Kast ’15 looks back on the past year
through many lenses: scientifically, as a
chemistry teacher; philosophically, as a
master’s-level scholar; and spiritually, as a
Jesuit scholastic — a Catholic pursuing the
priesthood through the Society of Jesus. These
viewpoints help bring the year’s events into
clearer perspective.
In the midst of historically difficult times,
says Kast, who teaches at a Jesuit high school
in Omaha, Neb., God has continued to work.
“Scripture reminds us that our limitations
mean that we never need to have all the
answers,” he says. “What we need, as a great
prayer says, is to know the first step in front
of us and to continue taking steps even if it’s
cloudy and foggy and difficult to see a few yards
ahead.”
Kast entered the ministry partly because
of his own questions about God, life, and
existence. While studying biology and religion
at Swarthmore, he worked with a Jesuit
spiritual director to help guide him through
the discernment process. After much prayer
and contemplation, he took a leap of faith and
joined the religious order. He found inspiration
through multiple role models — such as
Dorothy Day, the journalist-turned-Catholic
activist who fought for social justice — and
other figures whose actions he tries to embody.
“If there are people who are happy,” he says,
“seek them out to share in the joy. If there are
people who inspire you, look to see how you
might be called in similar ways.”
To Kast, faith isn’t just a belief, it’s something
he does. Quoting Hebrews, he calls it “the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things unseen.”
FINDING INTERNAL PEACE
In 2020, sadness sank in for Jan Burgess Bays
’66 as greed, anger, and ignorance unfolded
around her. Known in Buddhism as the
three poisons, these three inherent human
weaknesses were causing so much suffering
around the world.
A spiritual practice helps to contextualize
those poisons, says Bays, co-founder and
co-abbot of Great Vow Zen Monastery in
Clatskanie, Ore. “It doesn’t matter if your
foundation is that God is trying to send us
a message about how we’re not being good
stewards of his creation, or whether you’re
Wiccan and it’s Mother Earth crying out, ‘Stop,
stop, stop.’ In Buddhist practice, we look to our
mind as the cause of human suffering.”
The Zen tradition, she says, is based on silent
meditation, which helps people look inward to
see the mischief their mind creates. By clearing
the mind of tangled thoughts and the heart of
confusion, “then wisdom and compassion shine
through.”
It’s a practice Bays has turned to since early
motherhood, when meditation brought peace in
the midst of busy days. Later, while she focused
on child abuse as a doctor, Zen mindfulness
kept her from drifting off into depression. (“It is
wonderful to live long enough to see something
that you did that was thought to be weird to go
mainstream,” quips Bays, who is also the author
of the successful book Mindful Eating.)
These days, as a Zen teacher, Bays helps
others make sense of the world’s senselessness.
One way is by recognizing the Buddhist tenet
of impermanence, that nothing is meant to
last forever. Another is to realize that we’re
all interlocked, she says: “Everything that I do
influences the whole.”
One of Bays’s maxims is that people aren’t
really willing to change until they are suffering.
Yet she says there’s another force that can
compel people into action, into working toward
the benefit of the greater good. That is love.
“If I can be peaceful and loving in my mind
and heart and find my place to do good in the
world, then that’s enough,” Bays says.
And if others could do the same, she adds,
then that would be even better.
At its core, faith provides hope: a belief that
things will never be perfect, but that they can
improve. That there’s a goodness in people and
an eagerness to help. That humanity can unite
for a brighter future.
By confronting racial injustice and heeding
the call to help others; by acknowledging what’s
been lost yet recognizing what’s left to gain; by
taking a breath and realizing that this, too, shall
pass, then perhaps our faith in humanity can be
restored.
Because across distance and demographics
and the spiritual divide, at the heart of faith is
love.
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47
The exciting adventures of an Alaska Native tween radiate authenticity
by Roy Greim ’14
F
MOLLY OF DENALI, TRADEMARK/COPYRIGHT 2020 WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
“There is very little representation of
Indigenous people on television, and the
ones that do exist often perpetuate damaging
stereotypes,” says Dorothea Gillim ’86
(opposite page). She created Molly of Denali
48
College Bulletin / WINTER 2021
to remedySwarthmore
that reality.
A
T FIRST GLANCE, it may be hard to
believe that a Wegmans grocery store was
an inspiration for Molly of Denali, a PBS
show centered on an Alaska Native girl,
10-year-old Molly Mabray from the fictional
village of Qyah.
Molly’s family runs the Denali Trading Post, which show
co-creator and executive producer Dorothea Gillim ’86
likens to the Wegmans in her hometown of Rochester, N.Y.
“It was the hub of the community,” says Gillim, who
also created the PBS program WordGirl. “It was the town
square and much more than a place to get groceries. I always
wanted to do a show about a store, and I thought it would be
appealing to kids because they love to play shop.”
Gillim, who is an executive producer at the Boston public
media station WGBH, is one of five Swarthmore alumni
who contributed to the show during its first season, which
was recently honored with both a Television Critics Award
and a Peabody Award. The alumni group includes Anne
Frankenfield Lund ’99, director of curriculum and content
at PBS Kids; Leah Gotcsik ’97, a script writer; Nell K. Duke
’93, a professor of literacy, language, and culture at the
University of Michigan and an informational text adviser for
the show; and Kit Buckley ’94, senior interactive developer
at WGBH.
The Peabody — an honor bestowed on the most powerful,
enlightening, and invigorating stories — recognized Molly
of Denali for “shift[ing] the ways that the next generation
will think about Indigenous people and for giving
native media-makers a central role in shaping their
own representation.” The authentic depiction of
Alaska Natives and their experiences is critically
important for the team behind Molly of Denali.
After PBS greenlighted a pilot, Gillim and her
co-creator brought together a group of Alaska
Native collaborators, including tribal elders, to
help develop all aspects of the show.
Princess Johnson, a member of the
Gwich’in tribe, was brought on as a
creative producer and is embedded in all
aspects of production. In addition, eight
Alaska Native writers created scripts,
and each Native character is voiced by an actor
of Alaska Native or First Nations heritage.
A writers’ retreat in Fairbanks further helped
writers learn about Alaska and capture the
VANESSA WIEGEL
O
L LOWING MOLLY!
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49
“COLLABORATING WITH ALASKA
NATIVE ADVISERS, ELDERS, AND
TEAM MEMBERS ON STORY IDEAS
WAS REALLY IMPORTANT.”
— Leah Gotcsik ’97
“I always wanted to do a show about a store, and I thought it would be appealing to kids because they
love to play shop,” says Molly of Denali creator Dorothea Gillim ’86.
authentic experience of Alaska Natives like Molly.
“Collaborating with Alaska Native advisers, elders, and
team members on story ideas was really important,” says
Gotcsik, writer of five episodes in the first season. “We spent
several days working, sharing meals, traveling, and laughing
together. In order to tell Molly of Denali stories, we had a lot
to learn.”
The prioritizing of Native perspectives, voices, and values
means that no detail is too trivial to overlook; as Buckley
recalls, an online game in which Molly gathers blueberries
for her father prevents the player from picking all the
berries, as Molly explains that Alaskans take only what is
needed.
These interactive games are combined with the show,
classroom materials, and even a weekly podcast to teach
children ages 4 to 8 about reading and interpreting
informational texts. This refers to anything designed to
convey information through writing, images, or spoken word,
including the oral traditions passed down in Molly’s village.
Because of this educational emphasis, Molly of Denali is
funded in part by a Ready to Learn Grant from the U.S.
Department of Education.
So how does the show manage to teach children about
informational texts without sacrificing entertainment
value? “It’s a delicate dance,” says
Duke, who reviews the educational
materials related to Molly of Denali.
“Informational text should move a
story along as an integral part of it. It
should feel seamless, rather than act as a
teacher’s lecture in the middle of something
entertaining.” This balance is also seen
in the show as Molly vlogs the adventures of
herself and friends in Alaska; these video clips
showcase their use of informational texts presented
in a format that is familiar to children who watch
YouTube for hours.
“We are always trying to show on the screen
things that reflect what kids’ lives are like at
home,” says Lund, who oversees integration
of the show’s curriculum throughout its various
Interactive games are combined with the show,
classroom materials, and a weekly podcast to teach kids
about reading and interpreting informational texts.
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
“We are always trying to show on the screen things that reflect what
kids’ lives are like at home,” says Anne Frankenfield Lund ’99, director of
curriculum and content at PBS Kids.
media. “We want all kids to be able to see themselves in our
programming.”
In more ways than one, the team behind Molly of Denali
understands that children need to feel represented by
what they see on their screen: To wit, the program is the
first nationally distributed children’s series with a Native
American lead, according to PBS. The show reached 47.6
million people, including over 820,000 Indigenous/Alaska
Native viewers, who tuned in to Molly from July 2019 to
October 2020.
“There is very little representation of Indigenous people
on television, and the ones that do exist often perpetuate
damaging stereotypes,” says Gillim. “This sends the message
to Indigenous kids that they’re not important or that
these negative portrayals are who they really are.” Gillim’s
approach to her work is informed by philosopher Alfred
North Whitehead’s idea of the “rhythm of education,” which
organizes learning into three stages: romance, precision, and
generalization. In the first of these, emotional investment
drives learners, especially children, to explore further.
“Television — storytelling, really — has the capacity to
romance viewers,” Gillam says. “When done well, it pulls us
in, excites, and inspires us to want to learn more.”
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51
A MURAL
In the 1930s, artist James
D. Egleson ’29 captured the
relationship of science to
humanity in murals that still
resonate today
by Elizabeth Vogdes
A
The frescoes by James D. Egleson ’29, which focus on the
interaction of science and society, include scenes of heavily
muscled men working intently on physical and mental
tasks alongside those whose lives have been disrupted by
unemployment or war.
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
S ARTWORKS
painted directly
on the walls or
ceilings of a building,
murals symbolize
permanence. When
that building is demolished, the
paintings vanish with it.
But not at Swarthmore.
For 80 years, the unlikely location of
the College’s most significant murals
was a lecture room in Hicks Hall, until
recently home to the Engineering
Department. Painted in the late
1930s by James D. Egleson ’29, the
frescoes’ theme was the interaction
of science and society. Generations
of students were distracted from
lectures by scenes of heavily muscled
men working intently on physical
and mental tasks alongside those
whose lives have been disrupted
by unemployment or war. Images
of a poverty-stricken woman and
an aged-looking little girl appear,
as do symbolic still lifes of bombs,
handshakes, books, and tools.
By 2012, the Engineering
Department needed more wall space
and hid the murals under a removable
covering. Selected views could still
be seen behind small hinged openings
called “truth doors,” says Professor of
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53
— Associate
Professor of Art
Logan Grider
Images of a poverty-stricken woman and an aged-looking little girl appear in
the murals, as do still lifes of bombs, handshakes, books, and tools.
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
recently retired Hungerford last May.
Locating a company that could
move murals was a project in itself.
The committee, along with Susan
Smythe, then senior project manager
in the College’s Facilities Management
office, discovered Materials
Conservation LLC in late 2014. Based
in Philadelphia, the company had
recently moved a Maurice Sendak
mural and understood Swarthmore’s
challenges.
It was a happy collaboration.
“Even the company who supplied
the scaffolding got really excited about
it,” says Smythe. David Facenda, senior
architectural conservator at Materials
Conservation, oversaw the work,
which involved detailed construction
planning and close coordination with
the College.
“Much of the success of the
job,” Facenda says, “was due to the
incremental steps we took to work
through the process, refine our
approach, and figure out ways to
overcome obstacles along the way.”
Those hurdles ranged from the
delicate to the monumental, as the
contractors took great care to keep
the thin painted plaster intact while
moving up to 1,400 pounds of dead
weight supporting each wall section.
The murals had been painted in
traditional buon fresco, applying
pigment directly to wet plaster on the
walls. This method was used by the
Renaissance masters in which one
day’s work in lime-based wet plaster,
called giornata, was prepared daily.
A “cartoon,” or full-scale preparatory
drawing on paper, was laid out on
the wall; pinpricks or other incisions
outlined the figures, and chalk dust
was “pounced” in the paper’s holes to
transfer the design onto the plaster
surface.
Materials Conservation surveyed
and documented the Hicks room. The
company worked with the committee
to determine which murals could be
saved and where they would be placed
in Old Tarble. After adjusting for some
deterioration in a wall section, MC, in
consultation with painting conservator
Gwen Manthey and local structural
engineer Melanie Rodbart, developed
PAINTER JAMES D. EGLESON ’29 had been an
outstanding engineering major at Swarthmore. After college,
he began to take a serious interest in art. He was particularly
stunned by a mural at Dartmouth College called The Epic of
American Civilization painted by José Clemente Orozco, one
of three major Mexican muralists working in that era.
During that time, Egleson decided “that the purpose of work
and science should be to enhance human welfare,” and that
art, too, should have the same objective. “The sense that they
were making art for the people” was central to the Mexican
muralists’ work, Egleson’s son Jan noted.
Egleson traveled to Mexico City and Guadalajara to train
with Orozco from 1935 to 1936. Describing his father as “a
lifelong lefty,” Jan said, “that’s where his radicalism began, in
Mexico through … mural painting.” Orozco influenced a whole
generation of young American artists, including Thomas Hart
Benton and Jackson Pollock.
The Mexican muralists thus helped lay the foundation
for the New Deal’s public art programs. Egleson himself
was galvanized by his self-described “re-education.” He
returned to America looking for “walls of my own to paint.”
He found them at Swarthmore. At the time, there was scant
permanent art at the College and studio art was not part of
the curriculum, but he found a sympathetic ear in President
Frank Aydelotte.
Egleson worked on his murals in Hicks Hall from 1936 to
1938, painting the first few scenes on approval. Near the end
of his project, he reluctantly agreed to make minor changes
in response to criticism from unspecified sources on the
political content of his work.
The murals opened to public acclaim during
Commencement in 1938. Fine Arts Professor Alfred Brooks
proudly noted, “It is as true today as of old that pictures on
walls are the books of the people.”
Nearly 40 years later and not long before he died, Egleson
returned to Hicks to repair the aging murals.
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE ARCHIVES
“This is a great
example of what
you can do in a
building that also
enriches the
culture of the
place and the
teaching that
goes on here.”
Engineering Carr Everbach.
When it became clear a few years
later that the entire building would be
replaced, the big question was whether
the murals would be lost, too. And if
they were saved, where would they
resettle?
The search was on.
The committee concerned with
the murals’ future consisted largely
of art and art history faculty, under
the stalwart leadership of Mari S.
Michener Professor Emerita of Art
History Constance Hungerford. The
curator of the College’s art collection
for four decades, she felt strongly that
the murals should be saved “as both
an exciting teaching resource and part
of the College’s history,” one that was
distinctive for including engineering at
a small liberal arts college.
The committee struggled to find a
suitable spot for the murals in the new
engineering quarters, Maxine Frank
Singer Hall, so Associate Professor of
Art Logan Grider suggested moving
them to the Old Tarble drawing
studios, which were named for the
HOW EXACTLY DID THEY DO THAT?
1
2
First, the painted side of
the wall was protected with
Japanese tissue paper
and rice-starch paste.
The plaster finish on
the back side of the wall
assembly was carefully
removed to expose the
hollow clay-tile substrate.
This was then stiffened with
reinforced epoxy layers.
An aluminum
honeycomb panel
(used in airplane
construction,
lightweight but strong)
was added — one
side of the sandwich’s
“bread” — so the joints
between the individual
tiles couldn’t shift
and break the mural
images.
3
4
5
The mural face was
further protected
with two thin
layers of foam
before also adding
an aluminum
honeycomb panel
“bread” to this side
of the sandwich.
Each sandwich
was secured with
through-bolts in
predetermined
locations and
then seated on
a heavy-duty
aluminum angle
(a kind of sill),
which was bolted
into the tiles.
A forked manual
lift stacker
was inserted
under each wall
segment. The top
and sides were
cut out, and the
whole assemblage
lowered onto a
wheeled cart.
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LAURENCE KESTERSON
a detailed multistep removal plan
for each chunk of wall. This involved
creating bolted-together “sandwiches”
of mural-covered wall sections and
protective coverings.
During summer 2018, “the
guys worked in Tyvek suits and
respirators, and that space was not airconditioned,” Smythe says. “I would
go up to check on them and they would
look slightly melted. And it was noisy
and dusty and every kind of unpleasant
condition you can imagine. But they
were very cheerful about it.”
The murals were removed by August
and spent their leave of absence in
MC’s Philadelphia studio before being
returned to Swarthmore in 2019. They
arrived in their new Old Tarble home
through a window opening, landing
on scaffold that effectively added a
second floor to the double-height
studio space. The plaster was removed
from mapped-out spots where the
mural segments were to be positioned,
and 8-by-8-by- 1/2 -inch shelf angles
were installed in the stone walls. Then
each mural segment was lifted and
shimmed into place. The shelf angles
were fastened to existing ones in the
murals’ bottom edges, and the tops
were secured with clips.
Thin frames covered the mural
edges just enough to protect them and
were painted to match the refinished
plaster, making the images seem more
like part of the wall. Paint conservation
work was needed to rejoin sections
of scenes that had been removed in
pieces and also to repair bolt holes and
some of the facings that suffered minor
damage.
With the crew working only during
College breaks, the job was finished by
the 2019–20 winter holiday.
The whole long process, Hungerford
says, “was quite a miracle.”
Hung high in Old Tarble’s dramatic,
light-filled studio, the mostly lifesize murals are highly visible while
allowing for crucial artist pin-up space
below.
They “have enlivened the space,”
says Randall Exon, the Sara LawrenceLightfoot Professor of Art. “Now it
feels like a museum walking in there.”
Hungerford says that “it’s obviously
too bad that we couldn’t either
Hung high in Old Tarble’s dramatic, light-filled studio, the mostly life-size murals are
highly visible while allowing for crucial artist pin-up space below.
preserve the original site or re-create
it somewhere else, but we’ve preserved
a lot of what it was — most importantly
the scale.”
Exon says when they cropped down
to these individual scenes, they started
to see the value that they had in terms
of composition and in the frame. How
the parts related to the whole within
the individual sections has been very
helpful for teaching, he says.
When a student recently asked
if linear perspective was the way
to convey a sense of space, Exon
responded that it was one way, but
another way, which he could show
in the murals, was through areas of
overlap.
“All the principles and elements of
design” can be taught from the murals,
Grider says, including a few “things
that don’t quite go well.”
And though the murals depict many
difficult subjects, Grider sees a lot
of “tenderness” in them, too. “These
kinds of paintings give me hope,” he
says. “This is a great example of what
you can do in a building that also
enriches the culture of the place and
the teaching that goes on here.”
A small sample mural “sandwich”
will be used in a conservation course
taught by Associate Professor of Art
History Patricia Reilly and James H.
Hammons Professor of Chemistry
Thomas Stephenson.
“It offers a wonderful opportunity
for our students to see firsthand the
structural nature of fresco painting,”
says Reilly.
“I’m glad that the murals have found
a new life that’s relevant to the old life
in the College,” Hungerford says. “It
continues so many of the concerns for
the larger social-justice world in which
we live, and the relationship of science
to humanity.”
In this time of pandemic, their
message could not be more apt.
class notes
A TREASURY OF ALUMNI-RELATED ITEMS
ALUMNI
EVENTS
REUNION CELEBRATIONS
Celebrate milestone reunions
and the connections of
Swarthmore alumni to one
another and the College
virtually throughout the year.
swarthmore.edu/reunion-2021
SWATTALKS SERIES
ON RACIAL JUSTICE
Featuring alumni working
in fields including art, law,
education, and reproductive
justice, these conversations
will focus on racial identity,
representation, access to
resources, and the structural
changes and solutions
necessary to move forward.
bit.ly/SwatTalks
LAURENCE KESTERSON
VIRTUAL EVENTS
Learn about upcoming
workshops, happy hours, panel
discussions, and more for the
Swarthmore community.
swarthmore.edu/alumni
Students received some puppy love at a “Teacher’s Pet” event in November, during which faculty and staff
members brought their dogs to campus to offer a little four-legged support.
1943
Betty Glenn Webber
bettywebber22@yahoo.com
We didn’t sign on for this, did
we? We are way too young to
be deactivated, sidelined, and
immobilized. Those of us in
congregate living, like retirement
complexes, have had extra
restrictions, although mine allowed
me to venture to the grocery store
without quarantining afterward. We
can only hope that by the time this
issue reaches you in January, we
will have turned a few corners.
I am glad to share an update
on Felice Klau Shea: “With the
isolation imposed by the pandemic,
COVID-19 and politics seem to
be everyone’s main concerns. I
remain comfortable at home in
New York’s Greenwich Village.
My few professional activities
are all virtual — bar association,
my law school, the board of a
large hospital. I rely on Instagram,
FaceTime, and the telephone to
keep up with friends and with my
growing family — three children,
eight grandchildren, and four
great-grandchildren.”
A welcome communication from
Bud Baldwin brings us up to date:
“Having been locked up in my
apartment since mid-March and
not allowed back in the office for
another year, they finally offered
me ‘early retirement’ at age 98,
and I took it. Turns out they still
need me, so I’m only half-retired
and am on Zoom nearly every day.”
Bud also found a trove of college
mementos, photos, and many of
those quaint dance cards. That
reinforced for me a longstanding
regret at having pitched my college
scrapbook. It would be fodder for
these columns.
Mary Stewart Trageser “can’t
think of anything important for
my Swarthmore news. I do know
I return to college now in my
memory, remembering highlights
(i.e., Dr. Goddard’s classes in
Russian lit and Shakespeare) and
the campus in all its beauty.” Those
highlights are different for each
of us; how about sharing some of
yours? Meanwhile, stay well.
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
57
class notes
1949
Marjorie Merwin Daggett
mmdaggett@verizon.net
Life has been simplified these
past months and changed in many
ways. Sharing those experiences is
always welcome.
Our condolences to the family
of Jane deVries Stark, who died
Aug. 30. After Swarthmore, she
completed postgraduate studies
and received a medical degree
from Penn. Jane was a practicing
anesthesiologist until retiring in
1995, after which she volunteered
with the Red Cross.
She married James in 1953 and
with him raised three children in
Summit, N.J. Later, they traveled
all over the world. Panther Pond,
Maine, was a special gathering
place for the couple, their children,
and their grandchildren each
summer. Jane had many hobbies,
most recently bridge for recreation
and social interaction.
1954
Elizabeth Dun Colten
lizcolten@aol.com
We had a somber summer with a
new vocabulary: pandemic, social
distancing, remote learning, Zoom,
and masks. I maintain that the lives
of those in our generation have
been less disrupted than others,
but life has certainly changed. Do
you agree?
We Coltens did get to Maine
(July–September), quarantining
as mandated, but had no family
visitors — usually a highlight of
our year. Mary Wren Swain and I
picnicked by the river in Bath, and
Corinne “Kimi” Lyman and friends
headed to parks to hike and eat
outside. Kimi also renewed her
participation in a writing group,
and, like many of us, has been
58
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
sorting and clearing her years’
worth of “stuff.”
Harriet Donow Cornell entertained
on her screened-in porch — no
hugging. Since mid-2019, she has
worked with the nonprofit Suffrage
Forward, which celebrates the
passage of the 19th Amendment
and stresses the strength and
resilience of women and girls.
Grandson Skyler ’21 (son of Keith
’84) spent the first semester of his
senior year in Norway. Also worth
noting, the arrival of a new Cornell
grandson — a newborn adopted by
Kendall ’86. Who spied Harriet’s
letter about presidential debates
published in The New York Times?
Bill Armstrong has a new book,
Father Taylor, Boston’s Sailor
Preacher: As Seen and Heard
by his Contemporaries. Bill was
reading an essay by Walt Whitman
where he talked about a preacher
in a “fourth-class church” down
by the wharves in Boston; he was
curious and, having written other
biographies, began to look into
Taylor’s life.
Cornelia Fuller died in her home
on July 17. She had a passion for
learning and a zest for travel, was
an active volunteer, and was a
talented craftsperson and hostess.
She is survived by her companion,
Lee Johnson; three daughters,
including Natalie Hopfield ’93; six
grandchildren; and one greatgranddaughter. Judy Kahlenberg
Hestoft had spoken recently with
Cornelia, and they reminisced
about the many times their lives
had intersected since Swarthmore.
Judy had been doing physical
therapy for a cracked pelvis caused
by a fall in her house. She was
pleased to discover that the Meals
on Wheels offerings were much
better than she expected.
1955
Bernard Webb
bethel4684@gmail.com
Ron Decker and wife Anne shared
their lives with the virtual reunion
group. For the past 20 years,
they’ve lived on Chicago’s Lake
Michigan, waking up every day to
beautiful views. But their lifestyle
is far from sedentary. They travel
extensively, largely by cruise ship.
Their trips have taken them to
the Panama Canal and Amazon
River. They’ve gone to Africa,
with their favorite place being the
Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania
where they’ve seen vast numbers
of animals, including a lioness they
rediscovered on a subsequent visit.
Meanwhile, in the midst of the two
political conventions in August,
Ron revealed his fascination with
the ancient campaign of Wendell
Willkie and the possession of
a couple of (surely) valuable
campaign buttons.
Correspondence with Ted Phillips
clarified some facts about his
family’s relationship with their
vacation spot on Lopez Island, in
Washinton’s San Juan Islands.
During one vacation there, as they
ferried to the island, they decided
they would purchase a property.
This led to 20 years of visits as
a family. Ted helped administer
the medical program in the clinic
there that ultimately served around
2,500 permanent and summer
residents. At the same time, Ted
was in touch with Tom Preston,
a cardiologist at the University of
Washington medical center in the
1970s. Ted then introduced Tom
to the San Juan Islands and Lopez
Island. The two families enjoyed
many times together, and Tom,
after renting the Phillips cottage for
a few years, purchased a summer
cottage, which he still enjoys.
Neil Holtzman, a pediatrics
professor emeritus at Johns
Hopkins and a director of genetics
and public policy, wrote about
his life in Menlo Park, Calif.,
and seasonal use of a lakefront
summer camp in New York’s
Adirondacks. There are a number
of Swarthmoreans in his area who
visit together, including those
from late wife Barbara Starfield
’54’s class. He has a second
career as a writer (he’d wanted
to be a journalist earlier in life)
and published Adirondack Trilogy,
Blame, and Bethune Murals as
Tony Holtzman. A collection of
short stories will be published
soon. How touching that, busy with
all the writing, he greets one of his
eight grandchildren each day on
his way home from school to have a
snack together. He has conducted
writers’ workshops but, for now,
is concerned enough about the
future of our democracy that he
has laid those aside to engage in
political action. Neil, you set a good
example of all one can do with their
span of years.
Donald McKinley was introduced
to wife Betsy Wilson McKinley ’57
on a blind date that was arranged
by the late Connie Inglessis (whose
passing I will cover below). He has
had a series of jobs in technology.
More recently, he and his wife of
more than 60 years have owned
and tended a 100-acre farm in
Vermont, west of Brattleboro. “We
have tried to make woods and
old pastures productive.” While
managing a Christmas-tree farm
with the help of young people from
the area, they have planted crops,
raised sheep, and produced maple
syrup, but are gradually retiring for
a second time.
Sadly, I share with you news from
Beirut, Lebanon, of Connie’s death.
After a long teaching career at
the American University of Beirut,
he had suffered a lengthy illness,
leading to hospitalization and death
on the day before the August blast.
(Would one of you have a picture
of him on the soccer field?) Please
see Their Light Lives On for further
news of his passing.
1956
Caro Luhrs
celuhrs@verizon.net
It is with sadness I report the
deaths of two classmates and
roommates at Swarthmore, each
named Peter. Peter Lenrow lived
on the East Coast, Peter Svirsky
on the West Coast. They died in
the summer within a month of
each other. Remarkably, each died
unexpectedly while working in his
yard.
After 20 years of an exceptional
career in law and urban planning,
Peter Svirsky and wife Donna
retired to Point Reyes Station, Calif.
The Svirskys, who had no children,
played a major role in raising the
three children of Peter’s sister. The
couple did a lot of volunteer work,
and Peter, who was passionate
about community, set up a
disaster-preparedness program for
the West Marin area. Donna died a
little over a year before Peter. They
had been married for 57 years.
He had a big collection of precomputer data about our class —
even more than the College itself,
it seemed. He saved everything
Swarthmore and had it all on file
in his basement. Years ago, we
tried to figure out the numbers and
names of everyone who had been
in our class. We came as close
as possible, and better than the
College, but not perfect.
At Swarthmore, it was clear Peter
Lenrow enjoyed working with
people. He was active in student
council and was our class president
when we graduated. An honors
major in psychology and a social
relations Ph.D. from Harvard led
to a successful career as a clinical
psychologist who saw private
patients, trained psychologists, and
directed community mental-health
programs.
Peter married Ruthie Renfer in
1957. They had three children,
Laurie, David and Mark, and
divorced in 1979. Peter later
married Rosemary Wetterrings,
who predeceased him.
In retirement in Westport,
Mass., Peter became an excellent
watercolor artist and poet. You can
view his work in a memorial video
at bit.ly/PLenrow.
It is sad to learn of Bernard
Sarachek’s death in August. Bernie
majored in zoology and, like most
of us with that major, went right
into medicine after graduation.
It was like some kind of zoologyM.D. club, and we tended to keep
in touch. Bernie graduated from
Temple Medical School and then
served as a Navy physician for
the Marines at Camp Lejeune,
N.C. We had a nice lunch together
there about 60 years ago when
I was driving through eastern
North Carolina. I remember Bernie
said he planned to start a private
practice. Not long after, he settled
in Concord, Calif. He loved Concord
and being a family physician,
and was active in the community,
including as the physician for the
Concord High School football team.
Clearly, Bernie’s enthusiasm
for medicine and helping people
infected his family. Son Joel is
a family physician and brother
Norman ’60 is an internist/
cardiologist. Our sympathy is
with children Laurel and Joel,
grandchildren Max and Alix, and
Norman.
We also mourn the loss of Roland
Reboussin, who died Sept. 8 in
Gainesville, Fla. Born in the United
States, Roland spent his first few
years in the Normandy region of
France. When WWII was near,
Roland and his mother moved back
to the States, his father staying
in France to serve with the Free
French Forces. He returned after
the war, and the family settled in
Williamsburg, Va.
At Swarthmore, Roland was an
honors psychology major and
found the perfect matchbox match
— Pat Schastey Reboussin, who
was a cute and perky fine-arts
major and artist. They had two sons
and were married for 63 years.
After Swarthmore, Roland served
as a Navy lieutenant. He earned a
psychology Ph.D. at the University
of Kansas, then taught for 14 years
at Beloit College in Wisconsin.
He later did criminology research
and was a research analyst at the
FBI Academy. His emphasis was on
developing quantitative methods to
track serial criminals. This concept
has led to interesting redesigns
in criminology. Our sympathy and
thoughts are with Pat, sons David
and Daniel, and grandchildren
Claire and Auguste.
1957
Minna Newman Nathanson
jm@nathansons.net
After a longer-than-usual stay at
our Cape Cod house, my husband
and I have returned to D.C., but we
miss our canceled cultural events
and are frustrated at being unable
to continue in our volunteer roles
as we wait out the pandemic.
Ron Bodkin writes: “Like many
of you, I read about the recent
success of the men’s basketball
team this past winter, before
COVID-19 shut them down.
Congratulations! The late Bob
Fisher would have been so proud
of the accomplishments of his old
team. COVID-19 will probably keep
Brenda and me in Canada this
winter. You have enough of the
virus in Arizona without importing
more from Canada.”
Did you catch that the New York
Times Book Review’s New and
Noteworthy column cited Norm
Rush ’56’s novel Mating? The
“What We’re Reading” reviewer
asked: “Is it too late to say I’m in
intellectual love with a novel?” I
agree, as it’s one of my favorites for
re-reading, which many of us are
doing now.
I received notice of the deaths
of two classmates. Mary Roberts
Craighill, who died July 25 in
Lexington, Va., was born in
Shanghai, China, to Episcopal
missionaries. During WWII, while
her father was interned in a
concentration camp (along with
her future father-in-law), Mary’s
mother took her and her brothers
to Honolulu and then to Princeton,
N.J. The reunited family was later
in Beirut, where Mary finished
high school. Following a sixyear romance with her brother’s
Shanghai playmate Peyton during
which their careers took them to
opposite sides of the globe, the
couple wed in Taiwan. Mary, who
taught at the Beirut College for
Women and earned a master’s at
the American University of Beirut,
pursued a career in lay ministry
and Christian education. She is
survived by children Cecily and
Peyton and their families.
Ronald Sutton died Aug. 26 in
San Diego, where he had retired as
professor from American University
School of Communication. He is
survived by wife Sara, children
Kimberley and Steven, two
grandchildren, and two greatgrandchildren.
Please share your memories of
these classmates for our next
column.
1958
Editor’s note: After more than two
decades of writing 1958’s column,
Vera Lundy Jones has retired as
class secretary. We thank you,
Vera, for your service!
If you are interested in taking
over, please contact Class Notes
Editor Heidi Hormel at classnotes@
swarthmore.edu.
1960
Jeanette Strasser Pfaff
jfalk2@me.com
I’m writing in September, and you’re
reading in January. A great deal will
have happened, or not, between
those dates. So think of this as a
snapshot of where we were last fall.
Joan Bond Sax shared “big and
somewhat anxious news”: She
has put her house on the market.
“This means sorting, saving, and
discarding (mostly the latter)
decades of detritus — especially
books. Then I have to find a place
to live somewhere within an hour’s
drive from my oldest daughter,
who lives in the Boston area. It’s a
daunting task.”
Andy and Debbie Kurmes van
Dam “have been safely cocooned
since mid-March and rarely go out
into ‘the real world,’” Andy writes.
“I continue, via Zoom, teaching
my two classes and running a
small undergraduate research
group. It has been a good summer
for biking and kayaking (for me)
and gardening (for Debbie), as an
antidote to the seven-day/week
Zoom marathons.”
Lolette Sudaka Guthrie muses on
what dealing with life in a pandemic
has taught her: “It has forced me
to fully enter the digital age. We
have wonderful FaceTime or Zoom
family visits. Nearly everything we
need — food, drink, medicine, and
even batteries and lightbulbs —
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
59
class notes
are ordered online and delivered
to our home. Most doctor visits
are virtual. My art-critique group
meets on Zoom, as do our gallery
committees and business meetings.
The greatest learning curve has
been getting the gallery online. All
the featured-artist shows this year
have been online only, and they
have, amazingly, been successful.”
Sara Bolyard Chase: “As I unpack
the movers’ boxes (we downsized
over a year ago), I have considered
offering some museum an ‘office
of the last decade of the ’teens.’ I
started working freelance in 1990,
and, as a consultant, I needed a
full panoply of things that could ‘be
the office,’ when out at a job site.
Things to deal with undigitized life
seem awkward, don’t they? Has
anyone else noticed that?”
Peter and Joan Schuster Faber
are mostly staying indoors and
doing activities online. “Music
lessons by Zoom leave something
to be desired, but they are better
than nothing. At some point,
someone will figure out how two
people can play together and
hear each other!” Joan is on
the board of National Sawdust,
a contemporary music, mostly,
institution that sponsors emerging
female composers. “As chair of the
nominating committee, I’m heading
their diversity initiative to get more
people of color on our board.”
Peter Filene picked a bad time
(mid-March) to move to a Chapel
Hill, N.C., retirement center.
“Instead of entering a community,
I was isolated in my lovely cottage,
with meals delivered to the door.
As restrictions loosened, I was able
to teach, in person, a seminar to 15
residents, 6-foot-distanced under
a big tent. It’s like Swarthmore
for white-haired or balding
classmates.”
Bill and Linda Rothwell Lee
celebrated 60 years of marriage
in September with 12 other family
members, all of whom tested
negative for COVID-19 ahead
of time. “We kept some social
distance and spent much of the
time outdoors. We relived a lot of
memories.”
John Harbeson: “I miss my two
choral groups greatly. COVID-19
restrictions mean my church is
limited to a couple of co-cantors,
60
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
singing through masks. I belong to
an organization of foreign-affairs
professionals, and it’s been my
job to organize its annual fall
conferences. The upcoming one
is ‘Climate Change and National
Security.’ Elsewhere, 25 of us with
contiguous Lake Michigan-fronted
cottages will erect a seawall to save
our homes from record-high water
levels.”
Chris Clague: “Lynn and I are
completely hunkered down,
going out only to walk in the
neighborhood and drive to a
grocery store where they put the
bags in the trunk. Lynn would like
to go to an orthopedist to have
her knee X-rayed, but her immune
system is compromised. She is at
a high risk of severe effects from
the virus. One granddaughter at the
University of Iowa has had the virus
and may be immune.”
With sadness, I report the
death of David Denhardt. He was
recognized in the summer/fall
issue’s Their Light Lives On. Also,
we were just made aware that
John Darley died Aug. 31, 2018. Our
belated condolences to his family
and friends.
On a lighter note, we heard from
Mimi Siegmeister Koren on how
some freshmen try to reinvent
themselves. “Once in my 30s, I
stopped during a long car trip and
did some ballet-style exercises
to work the kinks out. A guy
approached and asked if I was a
dancer. ‘Oh, yes,’ I said, ‘I dance
with the New York City Ballet.’ (I
didn’t.) ‘Oh, you must know my
daughter,’ he replied. ‘She’s with
the City Ballet, too.’ I had to walk
that one back, and never tried it
again.”
1961
Pat Myers Westine
pat@westinefamily.com
May this find all of you safe and
well and ready to have a virtual
60th Reunion this spring. (The
College announced that all
2021 reunion activities must be
virtual.) Class president Maurice
Eldridge and I have volunteered
to co-chair. We need volunteers
for the committee to plan virtual
activities. Maurice would like
title and panelist suggestions
for a discussion that would be
shared with the class and possibly
other alums (via SwatTalks). I
would like to organize informal
Zoom groups for classmates to
reminisce and update each other
on what we 80-plus-year-olds are
doing. Please help; our thanks to
Randy Moore, who has already
volunteered.
Dorothy Smith Pam switched to
remote teaching in the spring for
her Antigone and The Oresteia
classes. She was working on
online teaching techniques for
her Classical Theater and Public
Speaking classes this fall. She
and husband Bob are elected
officials in Amherst, Mass.: Bob
is treasurer of Jones Library’s
board of trustees, and Dorothy
is a member of the town council.
They see Alice Carroll Swift and
Lee Rosenblum Edwards ’62, who
are active in local politics. Dorothy
serves on the finance and town
services committees and attends
meetings on land use, zoning,
historical preservation, affordable
housing, the school system, and
public safety. She says it was fun
returning to office in Amherst 32
years after winning five elections
in the ’70s on Long Island, N.Y.,
as a reform Democrat. Daughter
Caroline and her husband, a
farmer, organized the Sunderland
(Mass.) Farm Collaborative, which
delivered boxes of organic food
during the pandemic.
Ilene and Yale Richmond live in
rural Hunterdon County, N.J., and
have reacquainted themselves with
the area’s many parks and trails.
Life’s busyness kept them from
this kind of exercise for years, so
they were happy to see that lots of
land had been made into parkland.
Since they were unable to dine
in nearby NYC, Yale says they
subsequently lost weight, but as
restaurants reopened, they were
delighted to return to more caloric
meals. Courtney ’91 is a ecologistbiology professor at Rowan
University (the former Glassboro
State), and Graham ’95 is in Paris,
where he counsels applicants on
acceptance to MBA programs
for a Philly-based business. Both
Paris grandchildren are bilingual
Montessori students.
I watched granddaughter Kira
Emmons ’20 graduate virtually in
May with degrees in engineering
and computer science. How
delightful when President Valerie
Smith announced a surprise
speaker, Dr. Anthony Fauci. That
weekend, I was included in a Zoom
group of the engineering faculty
and graduates and families — 60
years after Kira’s grandfather Peter
Westine ’62 was an engineer at the
College.
I am sorry to announce the
death of Bill Brownfield of Mount
Pleasant, Pa. He attended several
reunions after returning to his
hometown in western Pennsylvania
after his retirement from the U.S.
Forest Service as a civil engineer.
Please send me any memories you
may have of Bill to be shared in a
future column.
Also, please send Maurice or
me your suggestions and offers
of help, and join us virtually this
spring to celebrate our 60th
Reunion.
1963
Diana Judd Stevens
djsteven1@verizon.net
Now that the pandemic has
shaped our lives more than it
had in March, I am back to my
“old habit” of writing ’63’s notes
just in time to make the deadline.
Being able to Zoom all committee
meetings and classes with which I
am involved means I rarely have a
“good” reason to miss a meeting or
class, so I seem to be busier than
ever. Do keep your news coming
as our class notes help keep us
connected.
Like others during the pandemic,
Alison Archibald Anderson
sometimes finds it difficult to keep
track of time. She is on the board
of her co-op, works to increase
her technology literacy, and values
staying in touch. Weekly Zoom
conferences have connected Kelly
Ann Lister’s family, which hasn’t
had a physical reunion in years.
Kelly Ann volunteers at a golf
course, plays golf almost weekly,
and visited New York City. Henry
and Monica Pannwitt Bradsher are
healthy and mostly staying home in
Baton Rouge, La., where they were
spared damage from hurricanes
and storms; they would have
welcomed rain in their parched part
of the state.
Despite the pandemic, two
classmates moved. Jerry ’60 and
Ricky Strong Batt relocated to Glen
Mills, Pa., to live closer to family.
Kathie Kertesz moved to Fairfax,
Calif., her fourth move in four
years. Bill Steelman’s widow, Linda,
moved to Kendal at Longwood in
May. In September, Paul ’65 and I
had dinner with her and Chuck and
Nell Lee Kruger ’64. Speaking of
moving, if you do move or change
your email address, please let me
know.
Clyde Prestowitz emailed that
Bob Putnam’s The Upswing:
How America Came Together a
Century Ago and How We Can Do
It Again received a positive review
in The Wall Street Journal (Oct.
10–11 weekend edition). A New
York Times article reported that
Bob and Rosemary Werner Putnam
’62 stayed at their New Hampshire
home during the pandemic. Bob,
“the national bard of community”
because of his book Bowling Alone,
thinks about voting alone and
contemplates whether feeling alone
or isolated makes one less likely
to engage in politics. In the article,
Bob noted that the internet can
supplement, not replace, real-life
connections. Clyde’s newest book,
The World Turned Upside Down:
China, America, and the Struggle
for Global Leadership, will be
published by Yale University Press
in January. Last spring, Leo Braudy
had an article in the Los Angeles
Review of Books about Daniel
Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague
Year, in which Leo compared
the London plague and today’s
pandemic.
Dave McLanahan is on the board
of Backbone, an “artful activism”
organization that has been a
catalyst in building Movement
ALUMNI COUNCIL NEWS
Greetings from your Alumni Council!
This fall, the Alumni Council welcomed its eight newest
members, bringing energy and diverse perspectives as
alumni representatives to support students, alumni, and
the College. Joining the Council are Thomas Finholt ’83,
Katherine Pearce Gledhill ’80, John Goodman ’60, Daniela
Kucz ’14, Frank Kyei-Manu ’06, Sean Thackurdeen ’12, Ian
Yarett ’09, and Jason Zengerle ’96.
SwatTalks Series on Racial Justice:
The Alumni Council has launched a special series of
SwatTalks on Racial Justice featuring alumni working
in fields including art, law, journalism, education and
reproductive justice. Inspired by President Valerie Smith’s
recently created President’s Fund for Racial Justice, these
SwatTalks focus on racial identity, representation, access
to resources, and the structural changes and solutions
necessary to move forward.
SwatTalks are an Alumni Council initiative to engage the
broader Swarthmore community in free, virtual seminars; all
alumni are encouraged to join the conversations. A calendar
of the Racial Justice SwatTalks series — plus recordings of
past SwatTalks — can be found at bit.ly/SwatTalks.
Final note:
The Alumni Council continues to adapt initiatives to
our virtual age, including an Alumni Pub Night, a Career
Networking event, Alumni Awards, and our Senior Gift
Giving Challenge for the Student Emergency Fund.
Separately, Alumni Council President BoHee Yoon ’01
addressed first-year students at the First Community
Gathering in September.
For more information on the Alumni Council, please visit
swarthmore.edu/alumni/alumni-council.
alumni@swarthmore.edu
of Movements, which, he said,
is critical for building a real
democracy and has supported him
in his activism around single-payer
Medicare for All.
Because she won a Bach online
international music competition,
Marianne and Phil Wion’s daughter
Jennifer will play at Carnegie Hall
next October. During the pandemic,
Atala Perry Toy, like many others,
moved her workshops to Zoom
and has found her audience is
worldwide. As she started to
downsize, Atala discovered she had
hundreds of photographs she never
displayed, so she started a daily
blog to showcase the pictures.
A year ago, Dan Menaker emailed
he had been diagnosed with
pancreatic cancer. In September,
Dan wrote that he had three to
four months, was feeling OK, and
was at peace. Dan died Oct. 26.
In the fall, he emailed reviews of
the publication of his first poetry
collection, Terminalia. The poems
were written during the course of
Dan’s diagnosis and treatment.
“Instead of offering the reflective
calm of a memoir or the drama of
a cancer survivor’s story, Menaker
uses vigorous language, unsettled
forms, and a restless voice to
lead us urgently into the actual
experience of the disease and its
treatment. The reader will come
away linguistically stimulated and
emotionally gripped,” Billy Collins
writes.
In Their Light Lives On, there is
a tribute to Dan as well to Mary
Williams Clark, who died July 22,
and Austine Read Wood Comarow,
who died July 31. As noted in the
emails sent to our class, Mary
and Austine were active, involved
’63ers. Mary’s legacy lives on in
the many patients she cared for as
a pediatric orthopedist. Less than
a year before Austine’s passing,
daughter Cara and family moved to
the Las Vegas area so Cara could
take on a greater responsibility in
running Austine’s studio.
I look forward to hearing from
you, especially those whose news
has not appeared in our notes in a
long time.
1965
Kiki Skagen Munshi
kiki@skagenranch.com
In the absence of the usual news
— travel, visits from children,
etc. — I asked people what they
have been reading, since I’ve
been immersed in books on India
and thought others might also
be reading. Ann Erickson: “Maya
the Adventures of a Little Bee (a
children’s book with chapters,
translated from German and
published in the 1920s), and
The Circle, a funny mystery by
Peter Lovesey.” Leonard Barkan:
“Besides what I read for a living
(these days, Shakespeare,
including his absolutely worst
play King John), I’ve been reading
British women novelists from the
first half of the 20th century —
Barbara Pym and Stella Gibbons.”
Two classmates were reading
books by Swarthmoreans. Vivian
Ling was immersed in What We
Carry by Maya Lang ’00. George
Thoma’s “recent reading has
included Passage West (bit.ly/
RishiReddi), a novel by Rishi
Reddi ’88 about Indian immigrants
(mostly Sikhs) in California’s
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
61
class notes
Imperial Valley at the turn of the
last century.”
Julie Diamond: “Herb and I have
been reading Can You Forgive Her?
We got through War and Peace
(took about 10 months). I haven’t
been reading much independently
beyond the Times and New
Yorker,” but she signed up for a
short-story class.” Diana Burgin
has been reading about Beethoven
and Tutankhamun.
Katherine Johnson: “I’m reading
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann,
partly because I’m studying
German. It’s good; I’m reading a
translation, of course. I also read
The Ancestor’s Tale. I’m improving
my Finnish as well with Duolingo.
I can say ‘blue bunny’ and ‘green
snake,’ but I can’t write my Finnish
friends with news yet. Other than
that, my main activity is eradicating
common buckthorn, which is trying
to take over my yard.” Bill Porter:
“I’ve been absorbed in a trilogy
about WWII in the Pacific by Ian
Toll, who has written only four
books in the past 20 years. This
trilogy is the best in-depth writing
of this subject I’ve read, and I’ve
read a lot.”
Daniel Kegan had a succinct
list. In recent months, he has
read Spying on the South by Tony
Horwitz, Autobiography of Calvin
Coolidge, Born a Crime by Trevor
Noah, Blowout by Rachel Maddow,
and The Johnstown Flood by David
McCullough. Fortunately, awhile
ago, he read The Great Influenza
by John M. Barry and Hitler:
Ascent: 1889–1939 by Volker
Ullrich. Next for him was Too Much
and Never Enough by Mary Trump.
We had other news, as well. Bob
Cohen wrote that biology professor
Bob Enders lost a lung during the
1918 flu pandemic, but “he could
still run up the stairs in Martin
faster than I,” and the two of
them spent Saturday afternoons
chopping wood in preparation for
tea in front of the fire on Sunday.
Julie Diamond was phone
banking for Biden with Vote
Blue. Dana Carroll, who is at the
University of Utah, just finished
serving on an international
commission on the Clinical Uses
of Human Germline Genome
Editing. “Our report is available
as a free PDF at the National
62
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
Academy of Medicine website. Our
principal conclusion was that the
technology is not perfected to the
point that it could be used safely
and effectively to modify the DNA
of prospective children. I would be
happy to correspond with anyone
who would like to learn more on
the topic or offer an opinion.” Dana
has given me his email address; let
me know if you want it.
Dave Wright: “On behalf of
our Sierra companies, I’m glad
to report that I/we were again
included on Barron’s annual
list of the Top 100 Independent
Advisors.” He’s bummed that
so much of California and other
Western states are experiencing
such devastating fires.
It’s been a difficult six months
in terms of loss. Although our
classmates living in the Western
states had (to date) come through
the fires without major damage,
we all mourn the loss of life and
habitat. And speaking of loss, we
are without three of our number:
John Thoms, Jim Preer, and John
Troyer. Expanded information was
sent to those on my email list. If
you wish to get all the news, not
just that which is fit to print (in the
Bulletin), let me know and I’ll add
your name.
1966
Jill Robinson Grubb
jillgrubb44@gmail.com
A flurry of recent emails has led
to my sending in an extra column,
and apologies to those whose
news I can’t find.
Eleanor Bly Sutter gave
granddaughter Bela her first
taste of corn harvested, shucked,
cooked, and served in under 10
minutes. So different from what we
buy in the store. Bela is a freshman
at Rice in Houston. Eleanor prayed
she’d be safe.
Bela’s sister Ruth, a rising
sophomore at Emory in Atlanta,
had online classes. Ruth helped a
friend move, then found out later
the friend had tested positive
for COVID-19. Ruth went into
quarantine in her room and later
tested negative.
Allen Shoenberger is in his 49th
year at Loyola School of Law in
Chicago.
I received notices of the passing
of Jim Preer ’65 from Jean Lyon
Preer, and of Gareth Jenkins from
Jody Pullen Williams. These men,
like so many classmates, were
people of wide interests and deep
talents.
Jody is chasing husband David’s
five grands to get them to interview
him with serious “tell me about
your life” questions, but being
college- and high school-age, they
are Zoomed out. David turns 90
soon, and Jody said he needs to
have his life story captured now.
Still active in improving the world,
Jody is mesmerized by the social
justice movement, the history of the
19th Amendment, and more. Her
favorite volunteer activity, court
mediation, is Zooming without her.
I, Jill, am Zoomed in, reading
Anne of Green Gables to four
of my friends for an hour every
Wednesday and six or seven
children’s books to grandson Kai, 4,
in Berkeley, Calif. He’s enraptured
by Stellaluna.
Liz Probasco Kutchai took a
quick trip to see Fallingwater,
the Frank Lloyd Wright house in
Pennsylvania, as the driver for
an older friend. She remembered
learning about the house while
at Swarthmore when she was
sneaking into Modern Architecture
lectures. (She’d been told they
didn’t allow auditors.) Her
cellphone got flooded with water
and died on the weekend trip, and
she returned to find the landline
wasn’t working, either.
Judy Petsonk’s second historical
novel, Justice: Maccabees &
Pharisees, came out in November.
It was a culmination of seven years
of work and covers the historychanging conflict between the
Pharisees and the Sadducees, as
seen from a female point of view.
I hope we can gather in 2021.
Many of us would love to see
classmates.
Please send me a long sentence,
starting with “If” or “Once,” or
something else for the spring issue.
I love hearing from you.
1967
Donald Marritz
dmarritz@gmail.com
Due to the combined summer/
fall 2020 issue of the Bulletin,
some of the notes submitted for
’67 are included here. We regret
any inconvenience this may have
caused for our contributors.
In January 2020, Tom Harriman
and Sheridan Phillips spent two
weeks on St. Martin and St. Barts.
Tom then spent a month in the
central highlands of Vietnam,
where he served for 19 months in
the Army in 1967–68. “Everything
has changed. I visited the Con Dao
Islands, famous for the ‘tiger cage’
prisons dating from the Frenchcolonial period, now known for
scuba diving, good beaches, and
seafood. Saigon has huge highrises and a metro system that has
been under construction for years.
I flew home while I still could,
as neighboring countries were
blowing up with COVID-19.”
Kathy Hubenet says: “It’s been
busy here in Seattle. We’ve
switched our Friends Meeting to
Zoom, which works surprisingly
well for silent worship. Beth
Blattenberger joined us from Salt
Lake City. Also, I’m working on a
guide to nursing a person at home
who is ill with coronavirus. It’s
modeled on Florence Nightingale’s
Notes on Nursing. Because of the
nature of the pandemic, the guide
will never be finished but can be
updated by other users and by me.”
Arne Yanof writes: “Unfortunately,
I have pancreatic cancer.
Fortunately, I have survived for a
year, and it has been one of the
best years of my life. No pain,
lots of hospital visits, a massive
surgery, and chemo. I feel closer
to people, especially my wife, Lita,
who takes good care of me, and my
children and grandchildren. I’m still
ballroom dancing and playing flute
and guitar. I’m also writing physics
workbooks and hope to teach again
next semester.”
Our classy class president and
professional healer, Franklin Apfel,
started an online newsletter,
Connecting Communities, to help
people weather COVID-19. The “aim
is to provide a selected sampling
of ‘news you can use’ to inform
your own behavior and help others.
Pass it on to your friends, family,
networks: cccovid19.org.”
Last April, Ken Turan retired
after close to 30 years — a
“considerable run” — as film critic
for the Los Angeles Times. Under
Ken’s watch at Swarthmore, we
were treated almost every weekend
to movie classics, from Kurosawa
to the Marx Brothers to all of those
French guys, in the old Clothier
auditorium. He “started in this
business on a series of manual
typewriters and ended by tweeting.
Being useful as a critic — being
(to steal a title from [philosopher]
Maimonides) a guide for the
perplexed — has always been one
of my guiding principles. It feels
especially fitting that my final piece
is not ruminative or filled with
reminiscences but very much in
that pragmatic spirit.” Thanks for
the suggestions, Kenny, but most
of all for the indelible memories as
well as an utterly distinctive and
infectious laugh.
Marc Hofstadter has a new book
of poetry, The Brass Ring, which is
on Amazon.
Larry Arnstein writes more than
his share for these notes “because
I make stuff up.” He hopes to
become posthumously famous
when his work is discovered in an
attic somewhere. In the meantime,
he is enjoying his granddaughter,
who is “the cutest and most
intelligent 4-year-old on the
planet,” while awaiting a second
grandchild in January.
Eddie Fei had “started the
process of retiring, with a target
date of November 2020.” He was
barbecuing every Sunday for his
daughter’s family and his ex-wife,
in the former’s driveway. Due to
some investment advice from Jan
Vandersande, he expects to be
rich in the near future. To practice
for that, he is driving a “neat 2018
BMW convertible.”
For a mere $11.64 a month to
pay off a tax liability, Deborah
Hamermesh White is “a tax resister,
protesting the obvious illegality of
the current administration.”
Ken Guilmartin delightedly reports
that “daughter Lauren (whose
mom is Karen Johnson Guilmartin
’69) gave birth to a baby girl. The
happy family is living in Brooklyn,
where Lauren had been working
from home since the COVID-19
lockdown as director of early
learning for my company, Music
Together Worldwide. Me? I’m
busy with occasional recording
projects and Music Together
owner responsibilities, as well as
supporting the Music Together
management team in putting all of
our classes and programs online.”
Gene Weeks, who celebrated
his 75th birthday, has “been very
fortunate in having good health
so far. I am working full time, sort
of, mostly from home these days.”
He put on a new deck surface,
which was much harder work
than he’d anticipated. “I guess I
must be getting older. My family
is all well: five adult children and
six grandchildren. My oldest
granddaughter is a high school
senior. The youngest started first
grade. My partner, Joan, has
continued to be a source of joy
to me.”
1969
Jeffrey Hart
hartj@indiana.edu
Tom O’Donnell and his wife are
settling into their new home
in Henderson, Nev. They also
maintain a home in Rothbury, U.K.,
but will be wintering in Nevada.
Fran Hostettler Putnam reported
good news from Vermont, where
the state Legislature overrode
the governor’s veto of the Global
Warming Solutions Act. She and
Spence ’67 were well and riding
out the pandemic with family and
friends.
In Connecticut, Carol Cymbalak
Foster was sheltering in place
and her cucumber crop was so
abundant that she “can’t even give
them away.”
Marilyn Holifield was appointed
to the executive committee of the
Harvard Board of Overseers and
was recognized as a “trailblazer”
by Florida’s Daily Business Review.
She is a co-founder of the Miami
Museum of Contemporary Art of
the African Diaspora.
Ellen Daniell and granddaughter
Byrdie went backpacking in the
Sierra mountains before Byrdie
had to return to St. Olaf College
in Minnesota for her sophomore
year. They managed to avoid
the California wildfires, and the
wildflowers were magnificent.
Nadia Earl Ilyin and husband
David Mote survived the fires in
Oregon without having to evacuate
their home. The smoke was severe
for several days.
Leonard Nakamura is working on
a book about the U.S. economy,
how it is growing too fast and
rewarding excessive profits
to innovators (engendering
inequalities). He is being assisted
by Avery Rome, Mark Vonnegut,
Ron Martinez, and Paul Courant
’68. Write him at leinakam@msn.
com if you want to help out.
James Ribe is alive and well in
Southern California.
Joan Goldhammer Hart still
collects antique Kashmir and
paisley shawls, along with robes
from around the world. She will
exhibit some items from her
collection at the Ashmolean
Museum in Oxford, England, in
2022. She completed a book
on Heinrich Wölfflin, one of the
founders of art history. She and
husband Jeff live happily in
Berkeley, Calif.
Ron Thomas was in the middle
of a five-year program of study,
meditation, and retreat in the
Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan
Buddhism. He is the Vajrayana path
coordinator and a mentor for the
Natural Dharma Fellowship.
Mary Schmidt Campbell
celebrated her fifth anniversary
as Spelman College president.
She was elected to the board of
Unity Technologies, a firm that
specializes in 2D and 3D platforms
for game developers.
Darwin Stapleton published the
e-book A History of University
Circle in Cleveland: Community,
Philanthropy, and Planning.
Farrell Bloch’s book Identity and
Prejudice addresses such timely
topics as diversity, white privilege,
and political correctness.
Mary “Malka” Kramer Schaps
finished writing a novel about a
physics professor at Swarthmore,
focusing on his complicated
relationship with his daughter and
her son. She is looking for beta
readers. If you are interested,
contact her at mschaps@math.
biu.ac.il.
Kristin Wilson has worked
remotely for Kaiser Permanente
for nine years, and six years on
site before that. She was surviving
the pandemic by focusing on her
many home projects, although
she misses going to the store,
rarely sees friends (unless socially
distanced on her back patio),
and is not traveling or seeing her
grandchildren.
Dorothy Twining Globus posted
beautiful pictures of her children
and grandchildren, who were
spending time with her on Fire
Island, N.Y.
1971
Bob Abrahams
bobabrahams@yahoo.com
Last year was a strange one, so we
can now look back at it with 20/20
hindsight. We’ll see how this year
goes. One thing is that there will
be no in-person get-together for
our 50th Reunion. Like many other
events over the past many months,
the reunion will be virtual.
Ken Giles teaches violin and
viola at the DC Youth Orchestra
Program. “While we focus on the
classical-music repertoire, I teach
my students peace songs, union
anthems, and civil rights songs.
This helps students understand
how music and history intersect.
The Bulletin did an article about
my students two years ago (bit.ly/
KenGiles).”
Don Mizell is near his second (and
final) term on the U.S. Civil Rights
Commission’s Advisory Committee
for Florida. In this two-year term,
the committee focused on voting-
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
63
class notes
SPOTLIGHT ON …
GEOFFREY GREENE ’71
Geoffrey Greene ’71, a professor at the University of Tennessee,
Knoxville, with a joint appointment at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, will be awarded the 2021 Tom Bonner Prize for Nuclear
Physics from the American Physical Society, regarded as the top
prize in the field.
“Swarthmore provided me with a solid intellectual background,”
he says. “But more important was the encouragement of some
wonderful Swarthmore faculty who supported my enthusiasm
and bolstered my confidence. I would particularly call out the
mentorship of the late Paul Mangelsdorf ’49, whose kindness and
intelligence influenced me greatly.”
rights disenfranchisement. It held
hearings across the state, and Don
is a co-author of the Findings and
Recommendations Report, which
was planned for release before the
November election.
David and Bonnie Gregory Inouye
’69 had a wonderful trip to Japan
in March. “I got to show son Brian
’91 and our granddaughter the small
coastal town where my grandfather
lived before moving to California,”
David writes. “Fortunately,
COVID-19 wasn’t prevalent where
we traveled, although museums
were closed. The National Science
Foundation gave us a grant for
another decade of our long-term
studies of how climate change
is affecting the phenology and
abundance of wildflowers and, in
turn, their pollinators. I’ve started
to pass leadership of that project to
Brian and his wife.”
Monica Carsky-Kennedy also
reported on an overseas trip in
March: “My sister Chris and I were
on the Swarthmore-sponsored
trip to Morocco that ended with
some of us stranded there for four
extra days. The most stressful
thing was not knowing when we
would leave after our original
flight reservations were rescinded.
We all made it back safely (care
of British Airlines), and no one
got sick from the trip. If you ever
have a chance to visit Morocco
in a post-pandemic world, it’s a
great place with beautiful sights,
fascinating history, and friendly
people.” Not much else is new with
Monica and husband Bill Kennedy
64
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
’70, “except that we’re getting a bit
older and creakier.”
Ellen Edwards died Feb. 27. She
was an epidemiologist, specializing
in pediatric illnesses, who taught
at Johns Hopkins School of Public
Health, where she received her
Ph.D. in 2007. She also worked
for the Pan American Health
Organization and the World Health
Organization as a consultant on
the health consequences of natural
disasters. A longtime resident of
Baltimore, she was active in socialjustice causes, most recently as an
advocate for immigrant children.
Marcia Satterthwaite died in her
sleep Aug. 2, of complications from
progressive supranuclear palsy.
A resident of Haverford, Pa., and
Hightstown, N.J., and a graduate
of Swarthmore and the Bryn Mawr
School of Social Work, she was a
beloved mother, sister, and cousin,
and a longtime social worker,
travel writer, book lover, and family
historian. She is survived by sons
David and Geoffrey, and the father
of her children, Richard Wertime.
In a little less than half a year
from now, our 50th Reunion will
be held virtually, and we hope
most of you will join us. The
Reunion Committee welcomes
all suggestions for creating
a terrific virtual reunion. The
coordinators include Martha
Meier Dean (martha.dean3201@
gmail.com) and Nancy Shoemaker
(nancy.e.shoemaker@gmail.
com). Many classes with reunions
in 2020 had meaningful virtual
events with much less planning
time than we’ve been granted.
We’re optimistic that virtual
events will be able to capture at
least some of the highlights of our
major milestone. Please check
swarthmore71.org for the schedule
and information on how to get
connected.
1973
Martha Shirk
swarthmorecollege73@gmail.com
If you watch public TV, you’ve seen
the work of Ann Benjamin. After 33
years at ABC News directing World
News and 20/20, she switched to
public TV in 2013. She became a
staff director at Thirteen, NYC’s
PBS station, in 2018. She directs
Amanpour & Company, Firing Line
with Margaret Hoover, NewsHour
Weekend, and many shows
for All Arts, the downloadable
arts channel. She also directs a
syndicated show, Hiring America,
which helps veterans find jobs. “I
have also become an Upper East
Side resident after 22 years of
being below 23rd Street in NYC.”
Amanda Orr Harmeling retired
from her third career since college.
First social work, then teaching,
and then, “after the youngest of
our four children left for college, I
received my M.Div., was ordained
in the United Church of Christ
and ministered in a parish and
as a hospital chaplain (bit.ly/
VirusNoOther). I resigned as
spiritual care co-director in
hospital chaplaincy. After four
months of remote work, I could
not safely or easily return to
work in the hospital and continue
to see our four children and 10
grandchildren.”
Robert May retired July 1 after a
34-year career with the University
of California — 20 years at UC–
Irvine and 14 years at UC–Davis,
where he was Distinguished
Professor of Philosophy and
Linguistics. He spent the last two
years as chair of the UC Academic
Senate. In November 2019, he
married Andrea Bink, a postdoc
clinical psychologist at the San
Francisco VA hospital. “I remain
hard at work on research projects,
giving talks, albeit virtually, and
being involved with university and
higher education politics.”
Arthur Saint-Aubin plans to
retire from Occidental College this
year. Louisiana State University
Press published his book on Kurt
Cobain, The Pleasures of Death,
in December. “People often ask
me how I went from the Haitian
revolution, the subject of my last
book, to grunge music. It was a
circuitous route indeed, but there
is a logic laid out in the preface
that explains the connection
between Cobain’s lyrics and
journals and 19th-century French
Romantic traditions.”
Miriam Scheiber Seidel’s short
story “Wantonly and Recklessly”
was published in Into the Ruins,
a journal of “the best in deindustrial, post-industrial, and
post-peak science fiction.” The
story imagines how people in the
future might view our failure to
deal with climate change.
In May, Elizabeth Enloe realized
a long-held dream when she
launched papersandpossessions.
com to help clients navigate
decisions regarding memory-rich
personal effects. She’s also helping
complete a memoir of a South
African exile who was instrumental
in the U.S. anti-apartheid
movement.
Anne Anderson retired in May
2019 after 10 years of teaching
applied statistics part time at
Fitchburg State University in
Massachusetts.
Anke Van Hilst Gray writes:
“Three years post-unexpected
divorce, I am happily ensconced in
a lovely townhome north of Seattle.
Most of my activities have moved
online, e.g., Dutch class, nonfiction
book club, lectures, symphony, and
tai chi (taught by Deborah “DD”
Smith Hilke). I do miss dinners
with friends and live theater, but it
is nice to just walk to my computer
rather than have to drive an
hour in traffic.” Speaking of DD,
two knee replacements in 2019
required just a temporary pause in
her classes for the Yang Chengfu
Tai Chi Center in Redmond, Wash.
(now online only). Husband John
consults for the Federal Trade
Commission. From mid-2016 to
mid-2018, he worked half-time in
Ukraine on the FTC’s work with
the Anti-Monopoly Commission of
Ukraine.
Steve Lang checked in from
Serbia, where he was filming a
sequel to his 2016 movie, Don’t
Breathe. From afar, he was helping
daughter Lucy ’03 in her campaign
for Manhattan district attorney
and readying for publication
an illustrated book about the
Civil War, The Wheatfield. A
new grandson, Sonny, “supplies
motivation to hope and fight for a
better future.”
Other new grandchildren: Martha
King is a happy grandma to Noah
Burke Silver, born Sept. 11, which
“renders the date more hopeful
for me.” David and Ginny Mussari
Bates reported new grandson
Jamie, born July 4. Randy Thomas
gained granddaughter Aeris
last March. And Angela Mercer
and husband Regi Corinaldi ’75
welcomed two grandsons in 2019:
Lucca Corinaldi born Aug. 26 and
Sundiata Corinaldi born Oct. 28.
“Regi and I were so very fortunate
to have our three children and
their families visit this summer,”
Angela writes. “What a difference
life becomes when you become
a granny. After appropriate
quarantining and testing, we were
able to get all of the hugs and
kisses we could from the babies.”
Visit swarthmorecollege73.
com or facebook.com/
SwarthmoreClassOf1973.
1975
Sam Agger
sam.agger@gmail.com
Larry Schall writes: “In July, I left
Oglethorpe University, after serving
as president for 15 years. Betty
and I moved to Cambridge, Mass.,
to take on a new job as president
of the New England Commission
of Higher Education, the regional
accreditor for the six New England
states. We love Cambridge, very
different in almost every way from
Atlanta, which still feels like home,
but winter is coming so I’ll let you
know later if we survived the cold.
Would love to connect with any
Swarthmore alums up this way.”
Mark Schwartz writes: “Having
achieved my bucket-list pardon
of my client who served 44 years
in prison, there is no shortage
of discrimination cases that are
simply deplorable and harming
the least fortunate. I have been
representing several prison guards
whose pay was cut because they
stayed home when they contracted
COVID-19. The prison’s policy was
to extend a $1,000 bonus to those
who completed their shifts without
interruption for a period of time.
This encouraged people who were
sick to come to work. When I can, I
enjoy my four grandchildren.”
Dave Gold’s law firm, Gold & Gold,
opened another New York office.
Hugh Young writes: “Back at
reunion-Zoom time, I was looking
at a premature retirement, but
three weeks later the contractor
who won the bid for the Patent
Office search services contacted
me with a job offer. It was for
reduced pay, but 100% telework,
so I’ve relocated from Silver
Spring, Md., to York, Pa., which
has a well-preserved downtown. I
discovered York because it has an
old-fashioned camera store that
processes film, across the street
from a Thai restaurant. Rent is
about half as much as is the cost of
living compared with Silver Spring,
and there is zero commute. The
weather is more like upstate New
York where I grew up, so it’s all a
wash in the end. In 20 months or
so, I’ll consider ‘really retiring.’ See
you all next June.”
Richard Barasch ’76 “completely
failed retirement after selling
my company (and leaving the
Swarthmore board) in 2017. I’m
busier than ever with not-for-profit
and for-profit work, including the
board of Maimonides Medical
Center in Brooklyn and the advisory
boards of Brown University School
of Public Health and the Columbia
University School of Public Health.
I had a front-row seat to the
COVID-19 crisis response. There
was incredibly heroic work on the
ground, that was often undermined
by uncoordinated efforts among
the key players.”
Anita Cava is “grateful to have
spent 4.5 months with both my
daughters during this pandemic
— the longest we’ve been together
in 15-plus years — and lucky to
have traveled to Africa in fall 2019
with cherished friends Molly and
Alex Henderson, along with hitting
bucket-list stops: Victoria Falls,
and then a photo safari in Chobe
National Park and the remote
Okavango Delta, both in Botswana.
I paid my respects to personal hero
Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg
and Cape Town, South Africa, on a
solo adventure — transformational
and good timing.”
Like many of you, your 45th
Reunion Committee of Anita, Kip
Davis, Suzanne Durrell, Barbara
Sieck Taylor, and me, Sam Agger,
missed getting together on campus
in May, and we were equally
bummed to learn that our in-person
2021 gathering has been canceled,
as well. Based on the success of
our Zoom reunion, we have decided
to do it again in February, hopefully
with more classmates than the 45
we had in May. We’ll try to make
the breakout rooms less random so
that each of us will have a chance
to chat with all of our classmates
in a more intimate setting. Please
make sure the College has your
up-to-date email address.
In her introduction to the Zoom
reunion, President Valerie Smith
announced the three Alumni Award
winners, including Kip Davis and
Terry Fromson (swarthmore.edu/
alumni-weekend-2020/alumni-
awards). A hearty virtual hug for
now and real congrats postpandemic.
Stover Jenkins sent in a short
note: “Sad news about Garth
Trinkl. Fall is definitely coming. It
feels good. Cool nights and sunny
days up here in NYC. Again, thank
you so much for taking the time to
be in contact. Stay safe.”
David Briggs writes: “I remember
Garth from the top-floor library
classics corner. A number of us
hung out there. One hilarious
memory is one of the females in
the group striking poses with her
index finger in the air, like she was
a Roman senator.”
1979
Laurie Trescott
sundncr88@comcast.net
John and Carol Shapley Etter
downsized from uptown New
Orleans (December 2018) to a
more suburban neighborhood,
and enjoy their newer, single-story
open floor plan. Carol is a manager
of planning, performance, and
analytics for Entergy, the regional
gas and electric utility, and is part
of their storm-response team,
which is extremely busy during
hurricane season. John retired
from his law firm in 2019 and
after the COVID situation settles
down, he wants to do volunteer
immigration-law work for Loyola
New Orleans’ law clinic. Both are
pursuing glass art as a hobby;
John enjoys glass-blowing and
Carol fused glass. Their kids and
grandkids are doing well.
Martha Salzman-Gay is sharing
an apartment with her son, 31,
“so I’m not wasting away from
loneliness. When my husband
died, I spent several years closing
down his real estate business,
and my son and I are, hopefully, at
the end of spinning the last of it
down. To fill my creative side, I am
writing the one-woman show that
has been marinating in my head
about discovering after my father
died, when I uncovered a box of
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/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
65
class notes
documents, that he was a Jew who
had escaped Vienna during WWII.
I had been raised a Unitarian and
had no idea! I donated his papers to
the Holocaust Museum in D.C., and
this show is about all that I learned
along the way. I have maintained
my sanity during quarantine by
pedaling away on my Peloton and
with weekly scheduled FaceTime
calls. Feel free to reach out — we
can catch up over coffee or adult
beverages, thanks to technology!
Sadly, Debra Bennett died
peacefully Aug. 9; per her request,
her cats were allowed to visit her
at NIH that final weekend. A very
close friend of hers shared how
deeply Debbie touched the lives
of others and how she had an
incredible drive and zest for life.
Debbie was diagnosed early with
sickle cell anemia, and doctors
didn’t think she would make it to
30; given a painful and debilitating
sentence, Debbie was not deterred.
She dealt with each curveball
with stoicism and optimism. Just
after college, Debbie worked at a
law firm, then went on to pursue
interior design with several premier
Baltimore firms, later freelancing.
After attending a fiber conference,
she took up knitting and became
a master at it, supplementing her
income with commission work.
Debbie was also well-known in
local theater, where she both
acted and directed; her friends
loved her dedication, support, and
wry sense of humor. She is most
remembered for her integrity and
for being a loyal friend; she will be
greatly missed by all whose lives
she touched.
Be well and stay healthy,
everyone. This has been a
challenging year. Wishing you more
hopeful 2021.
1981
Karen Oliver
karen.oliver01@gmail.com
Dean Baker ’80, co-founder of the
Center for Economic and Policy
Research, was quoted extensively
66
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
in an NPR story in March about the
U.S. deficit: bit.ly/DBakerNPR.
Here is an hourlong peek into the
work of Neil Gershenfeld at MIT,
and as is the way with Neil, there is
a lot going on: bit.ly/Gershenfeld.
Ruth Goldberg writes: “Like
everyone else, I am living in a
pandemic topsy-turvy world. I feel
very lucky to be safe and healthy,
along with my immediate family.
This past summer, we had a death
on my husband’s side of the family,
not from COVID-19 itself, but from
a condition that was exacerbated
and accelerated by total isolation
from loved ones. I know this is
happening to lots of folks, and my
heart goes out to all of you.
“I’m very sorry we will not be
convening in person for our
reunion. I continue to be in regular
contact with Denise Peterson, Ira
Gitlin ’80, and Greg Pearson. I had
the rare treat of seeing Denise in
person when she came to my place
bearing coffee and croissants for a
socially distanced backyard visit.
“The view from inside the
federal government is particularly
interesting right now, as other feds
among us can attest and the rest
of you can imagine. My unit has
been teleworking since mid-March,
and if anything, our workload has
increased. As a communications
staff in a U.S. Department of
Agriculture agency, my group was
at first kept busy with COVIDrelated updates for the agency’s
website. Since June, we were
very involved in an initiative to
advance civil rights in our agency.
The parameters of that initiative
keep changing. (As I write, I’m
preparing to serve on a discussion
panel for an agency-wide forum
about racism and its impact on the
workplace.)”
Alan Gordon and Judy Downer
excitedly share that son Robert
Gordon married longtime girlfriend
Adriana Poveda in a pavilion in her
family’s backyard. “Everything was
beautiful, and we adore her. We felt
very lucky to be there in person,
given the craziness.”
Doug Miron is still kicking and
thanks Swarthmore for reminding
us that the reason for doing the
right thing is because it is the right
thing. He has lived for seven years
in Beaufort, N.C. He has always
been a waterman, and there he
can regularly get his dinner from
the sea — or just enjoy its many
moods. He has “retired” from any
regular job, meaning he works
harder than ever as a carpenter,
waiter, bartender, teen-court
judge, actor, and pirate — the
life he has always dreamed of.
He also has become a latter-day
social activist. Most of his life
he worked for social justice, and
progressiveness within the system,
as a teacher and attorney. Now,
each day, he stands with protest
signs in front of the Confederate
monument in Beaufort, which
was put in place in 1926 with the
Ku Klux Klan officiating. It faces
the historic Black church across
the street and is on the public
courthouse grounds. He stands
silently, garnering a fair amount
of support and negativity. He does
respond conversationally to those
who come to talk. He goes every
day, not because he necessarily
expects it to change things (at
least not soon), but because he has
to. He cannot let that statue face
the town and his friends’ church
without intervening with his “old
white carcass.”
On Wednesdays, Doug convenes
a social-justice discussion group.
“We are provocative in our way, but
support no violence nor destructive
actions, and no incivility. I would be
happy to have any Swatties join us.
It’s kind of a ‘happening thing,’ as
our older brothers and sisters said
when we were kids.” He likes to
think that someone in every town is
doing the same thing.
1983
John Bowe
john@bowe.us
I write from six months into
our pandemic, at last, in
Massachusetts.
Leslie Johnson Nielsen’s youngest
child was married at a very small,
COVID-disrupted wedding near
Boston. Now all three kids are
married. The past year has seen far
fewer guests and travel for them,
but a lot of time at her family’s
cabin on Puget Sound, Wash. —
when smoke from the fires was not
hampering visits.
Diane Wilder anticipated her
empty nest when her daughter
graduates in May from Moore
College of Art & Design in Philly
and launches her graphic design
career. Diane signed a contract for
her first book of poems, expected
to hit the streets this winter. She
works remotely for Haverford
College and feels incredibly
fortunate to have a job during these
stressful times.
Andrea Davis-Griffin moved her
business, Greenhouse Therapy
Center, to a larger space in
Pasadena, Calif., a month before
COVID-19 quarantines. Her
daughter was wrapping up her
architecture studio projects from
her apartment for her master’s at
Harvard, and her son, an essential
worker, was interning for a San
Diego vet. “It’s rough, but we are
doing OK. It is beautiful to work
from home, mostly outdoors on the
terrace under the massive trees,
except when wildfire smoke drives
us indoors.”
Lisa Berglund is serving a second
term as English department chair
at Buffalo (N.Y.) State College,
where she was awarded the 2020
President’s Award for Excellence in
Academic Advisement. She is also
executive director of the American
Society for Eighteenth-Century
Studies. During these odd times,
she said Buffalo was excited to
host the Blue Jays, rather than
Toronto.
In September, Ed Rock was named
chief medical officer of Partner
Therapeutics, a commercial
biotechnology company, where he
will oversee clinical-development
activities.
Matt Sommer finished a threeyear term as chair of Stanford’s
history department and began
a long-delayed, sorely needed
sabbatical during which he planned
to complete a book. His hope is
that “the pandemic’s cancellation
of travel and in-person socializing
will enhance my efficiency and
productivity.” He has enjoyed Zoom
“quarantinis” with Frank Borchert,
Chris and Siu Li GoGwilt, Roger
Inouye, and Amy Robertson.
Katy Roth and Dreux Patton ’84’s
daughter Megan ’20 graduated
remotely this spring, and youngest
son Colin ’24 started on campus
in September. On the way home
from Swarthmore, they caught up
in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., with Laurent
Guy ’80 and Pam Duke ’84, who are
serious beekeepers with five hives.
Katy and Dreux had their annual
pool party with John Walsh and
Bonnie and Dave Pazer.
Betsey Dodds Buckheit reported
her husband’s sabbatical to Oslo
was canceled, along with fun
summer trips to Denmark and the
Outer Hebrides of Scotland. They
are remodeling their house to make
retirement and “aging in place”
an option. Her daughter, a history
Ph.D. student at Yale, has become
friends with former Swarthmore
religion professor Patrick Henry,
who was Betsey’s mentor from way
back.
Deb Felix “loves living in Wellfleet
[Mass.] again with its beautiful,
expansive areas to hike, kayak,
swim, bike, etc.” Last summer
included a lot of sailing on an 18foot boat, which was “perfect for
social distancing.” Deb works from
home helping kids get into the right
college, a process that has gone
crazy since March.
Kevin ’84 and Kristie Stokes
Hassett are empty nesters now.
Their youngest is a freshman at
Columbia, which went virtual after
dorm assignments. Their elder son
graduated from Columbia in 2017
and is in grad school for economics
at Boston University, where some
classes were being held in person.
The pandemic and California
fires derailed their fall plan for
Kevin’s post as a visiting fellow at
Stanford’s Hoover Institution.
Fred Thomsen marked 10 years
as IT director for the School of Arts
and Sciences at Johns Hopkins. He
had a non-COVID medical incident
mid-pandemic when a previously
undetected heart-valve problem
required surgery. Reminder for
folks our age: Staying generally
healthy makes recovery from such
things go better.
My (John Bowe’s) youngest
graduated in May from Lafayette
and moved to his first apartment
this fall, so we are really empty
nesters. I find the nuts-and-bolts
part of my job at Akamai, an
internet infrastructure company,
goes well working remotely, but the
nuances and much of the fun are
missing. Be well!
1985
Timothy Kinnel
kinnel@swarthmore.warpmail.net
Maria Tikoff Vargas
maria@chrisandmaria.com
At the beginning of the COVID-19
crisis, we got a few terse
responses. This time we’ve gotten
first novels, but column space is
limited, like pandemic TP.
Sadly, we missed our 35th
Reunion, but there will be a
35th/36th in 2021, so keep your
eyes peeled for info. Still, Paula
Rockovich Gable says we did quite
well toward our fundraising goal.
Thanks to her and the rest of the
Reunion Committee — Bruce
Abernethy, Keith Dolliver, Adam
Reeves, Shannon Louden, and Ted
Abel — for dealing with a difficult
situation.
Richard Wetzell lives with
husband Larry and is a research
fellow and editor at the German
Historical Institute in Washington,
D.C. Paul Owens left a 28-year
journalism career in 2018 to
become president of 1000 Friends
of Florida, a nonprofit “promoting
smart growth to protect the
Sunshine State’s environment,
economy, and quality of life.”
“I’m working at home and
simultaneously providing care to
my son with COVID,” writes Gloria
Thomas, director of the Carolina
Women’s Center at the University
of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.
With her son and daughter home,
plans to travel and work toward
racial and gender equity have been
put on hold, but she’s managed to
reconnect with Becca Zerkin ’93
and Ihsan Taylor ’94, and Eliana
Miller Perrin ’93.
Debbie Spielberg lives in Silver
Spring, Md., and is a special
assistant to Montgomery County
Executive Marc Elrich. “I’m deep
into governance at the local level.
I have two daughters: one in
California working on an organic
farm (where she had to evacuate
because of the Creek Fire) and
another spending the fall semester
of her high school junior year in
Vienna.”
Andrew Sutherland lives and
codes in London. His daughter was
doing a semester abroad at Tulane
University in Louisiana when she
was sent home but decided to stay
with friend Gareth Gaston ’86 and
family in the United States. She
returned home in July. Meanwhile,
his son was doing A-levels.
Abigail Honeywell, who is also
in the U.K., is “keeping up with
a group of Swarthmore friends
via regular Zoom calls, and we’ve
started a book-discussion group.
We normally meet for a weekend
each year; this year, that will
instead be another Zoom call with
the required champagne in hand.”
Natalie McKie-Johnson, who’s
been in education almost since
graduation, sends greetings from
Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. After four
years of teaching elementary
science, she’ll teach first grade.
Good luck, Natalie!
The pandemic has provided
an unexpected silver lining for
Ned Barlas and wife Ariela,
who became long-distance
grandparents in February. “We had
resigned ourselves to watching
our granddaughter grow up via
FaceTime from L.A. In June we
asked our granddaughter (and her
parents) to ride out the pandemic
with us in the Philly area, turning
our house from an empty nest into
a multigenerational home.”
Deirdre Murano stayed above the
fray in Seattle, “writing postcards
for Reclaim Our Vote, urging people
to vote early.” She’s also been
listening to SwatTalks and reading
Toni Morrison’s Paradise. Renato
Negrin and wife Siu Ping are “living
the crazy NYC COVID life.” They
have three girls: a Washington
University senior, a University of
North Carolina sophomore, and
a ninth-grader at home. Renato
is frequently in touch with Rick
Vanden Bergh ’86.
Elizabeth Wolfe Davies and
her husband are officially empty
nesters with a freshman at Kenyon
College and a senior at Haverford
College. Elizabeth is dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences at the
University of St. Francis in Joliet, Ill.
Ben Backus and husband Carl
are in Oakland, Calif., where
Ben is chief science officer for
Vivid Vision Inc., a startup that
gamifies aspects of vision medicine
treatments. “I grew up here, and
we both went to grad school at
Berkeley — although the recent fire
season has been disconcerting.”
Shannon Louden also listened
to SwatTalks, between caring for
her now-well father, chairing the
Andover, Conn., board of education,
and helping son William start the
college-selection process.
Finally, the Woodliff-Stanleys
were keeping busy. Ruth, an
Episcopal priest, was doing
“interesting work that puts
the church where we need to
be — doing race and economic
justice, focusing on care for the
Earth, and using our property
and assets to partner with local
communities to create more vibrant
commons.” Nathan, after a stint
with the American Civil Liberties
Union, is interim minister for a
Unitarian Universalist fellowship
in Carbondale, Colo., and coconvener for an effort to abolish
slavery from all state constitutions.
1987
Sarah Wilson
swarthmore87@gmail.com
This edition of class notes is
being guest-written by Katy
Stokes, as Sarah Wilson is busy
in NYC juggling a full-time job in
communications for the largest
health care union in the country (all
essential workers during COVID-19,
Sarah included) and fosterparenting an energetic toddler,
while living in the Manhattan ZIP
code hardest hit by COVID-19.
Huge props to Margaret Huang
for inspiring several classmates
to exercise daily during the
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/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
67
class notes
pandemic. In May, when it was
apparent that we were in it for
the long haul, Margaret wanted
some walking buddies, so Sharon
Younkin and Allison Hart-Young
joined in as virtual walking
“accountabilibuddies.” Soon, the
group added Sarah Shirk, me,
Abigail Feder-Kane, Courtney
Austrian, Andrea Barr Goldman,
and Julia Stein. In the spirit of
inclusivity, we even invited some
’88ers, including Laura McKee ’88,
Nikki O’Dell Odim ’88, and Mark
Chronister ’88. WE (Walkaholic
Enablers) are committed to
moving at least 30 minutes a day,
and Margaret’s leadership from
Oakland, Calif., has inspired us
with photo challenges. If you are
interested in joining this merry
little group, please reach out to
Margaret on Facebook.
When she isn’t organizing us,
Margaret is using this opportunity
to start a leadership-development
company to help senior teams
build the confidence, courage,
and commitment to undertake
systemic changes for equity and
diversity. She finished a certificate
in emotional intelligence, which has
proved immensely helpful during
the pandemic. She is happily rooted
in Oakland, where she has posted
on Facebook protest art of local
activists from her daily walks.
Allison sent greetings from
Kalamazoo, Mich., where she’s
in her 25th year of teaching at
Western Michigan University.
Having taken up violin five years
ago, she learned three Handel violin
sonatas this summer, which makes
up for not being able to sing in her
church choir during the pandemic.
She and wife Valerie were grateful
for their fantastic vegetable garden.
Besides participating in
Margaret’s walking group, Sarah
was also serving on the Garnet
Club and enjoyed following the
Swat athletic program as it reached
new heights. From a Chicago
suburb, she was training for the
2020 Huntsman World Senior
Games track and field competition,
but the pandemic postponed that
opportunity. Sarah would love
to put the old relay team back
together in 2021. Sharon lives in
Westerly, R.I., with common-law
husband Patrick Clays. She has
68
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
GARNET SNAPSHOT
In October, Katy Stokes ’87, Allison Hart-Young ’87, and
Hannah Swallow ’87 had the good fortune to meet for a socially
distanced walk near Allison’s home in Kalamazoo, Mich.
been a psychotherapist (clinical
social worker) for Rhode Island
Cognitive Behavior Therapy
for the past 10 years and has
been very busy with clients via
telehealth sessions. One of the
more interesting turns of events
has been collaborating with her
church’s minister on a Facebook
show called Food For Thought.
Sharon joked that she is the local
Sanjay Gupta of mental health,
reaching out to the community
twice a month. Daughter Callan
was completing a graduate degree
in playwriting/screenwriting in
London. Sharon has been unable
to see her only child since last
January. She looks forward to
when she can hug her loved ones
once again.
Hannah Swallow and husband
Dee were adjusting to life with only
their youngest (Lily, 15) at home.
(Two older sons, Oliver and Ian, had
headed off to college until at least
Thanksgiving.) In a lucky twist,
Hannah and I crossed paths in St.
Louis in March while transporting
kids in opposite directions. Hannah
was enjoying her work as a clinical
psychologist in Oklahoma, as well
as spending time with horses,
walking the dogs, and fretting/
phone banking her way to the
election. For some great advice
about how to talk to kids about the
pandemic, watch this Q&A between
Hannah and Oklahoma’s lieutenant
governor: bit.ly/HannahLtGov.
Props to Chhaya Rao, who lives in
the D.C. area and created a Little
Free Library in her yard. During
the pandemic, she converted it
into a Little Free Pantry (bit.ly/
RaoPantry).
We lost one of our own Aug. 23.
Ann Roberts, adored wife of David
Weigert, died peacefully after
coping gracefully with Huntington’s
disease for many years. Ann and
David, as well as their teenagers,
Sophie and Zach, attended our
30th Reunion in 2017, and many
of us had the privilege of spending
time with Ann as she beamed
proudly at her family. We hold
David, Sophie, and Zach in the
light.
1989
Kathy Stevens
stevkath@gmail.com
Martha Easton
measton@elmira.edu
As we live in the midst of the
COVID-19 pandemic, I, Kathy, hope
you and your families are doing the
best you can. I did not receive a
lot of news, but I have these great
updates.
Naomi Chesler wrote after seeing
my call for news on Facebook.
“Mid-pandemic, my family and I
moved west from Madison, Wis.,
to Irvine, Calif., where I joined the
faculty of biomedical engineering at
UC–Irvine and direct the Edwards
Lifesciences Center for Advanced
Cardiovascular Technology. We are
slowly acclimating to life in SoCal
and would be happy to connect
with classmates in the area. My
husband, Dan Sidney, and I have
three daughters (16, 14, and 10),
one dog, and two guinea pigs. All
eight of us are excited to meet new
people and make new friends.”
Also writing in with big life
changes, David Salmanson “bought
a house and got engaged on the
same day.” He and his fiancée
started blending their families of
six kids, ages 5 to 18. As part of
his COVID-survival strategy, he
has been doing a weekly Zoom call
with CJ Malanga, Dan Garfield,
Gerald Quirk, Bob Scher, and
Doug Horgan. They’re occasionally
joined by Brian Murry ’90 and
Jamin Halberstadt, who are in
Paraguay and New Zealand,
respectively.
Congrats to Steven Sell. Former
CEO and president of Health Net,
Steven will lead Agilon Health’s
next growth phase and efforts
to build collaborations and
partnerships with local physicians.
He joined Agilon on June 1 after
a 22-year career with Health
Net and related companies.
There, he was responsible for the
strategy, execution, and financial
performance of a $14 billion
business with 3 million members
He has an MBA from Stanford.
Don’t hesitate to be in touch.
1991
Ben Rothfeld
plannerben@gmail.com
For our second COVID-era notes,
I’m happy to share all the good
news I’ve heard from our class.
Bethany Clement, food critic for
The Seattle Times, wrote about
coping mechanisms for the
isolated that included prosecco,
takeout comfort food, and the film
The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Economist extraordinaire
Michael Greenstone, director
of the University of Chicago
Becker Friedman Institute for
Economic Research and former
chief economist on the Council
of Economic Advisers for the first
Obama administration, had an
op-ed in The Washington Post. He
argued that the government should
pay Americans to get tested for
COVID-19 (and maybe other things,
but I used up all my free articles).
Farther north on I-95, John
Krinsky, director of Community
Changes Studies at City College
of New York, also published an
op-ed about COVID-19, this one
in City Limits. John called on
NYC to house homeless people in
hotels rather than use the police
to roust them from the streets into
unhealthy, crowded congregate
shelters.
Bruce Maxwell is using his
sabbatical from Colby College to
help establish the Roux Institute, a
Northeastern University graduate
program in Portland, Maine, that
partners with industry and focuses
on technology and science.
Meanwhile, his and Jill McElderry
Maxwell ’92’s son, Fox, has begun
a career as a middle-school math
teacher, like your humble class
secretary.
The borough’s own Jennifer
Rowley reported that after decades
of living in and around Swarthmore
while teaching and tutoring Latin,
three years ago she moved to
EcoVillage at Ithaca, N.Y. She
edits and proofreads, avoids 175
acres of aggressive allergens,
and finds Swatties in unexpected
places. “This summer, I have been
reading Latin weekly with classics
professor William Turpin and other
fellow classicists via Zoom. Our
group consists of a few oldsters
like me, more recent alums, and
current students — easily the
highlight of my week. If the world
(and our guest rooms) should ever
reopen, as you set out for Ithaca, I
would welcome your visit.”
In my own personal news, I
should have received my master’s
in teaching from Relay Graduate
School of Education by the time
you read this. Usually, I was older
than the people seated on either
side of me in class — combined.
Heather Rigney Schumaker
managed lockdown from northern
Michigan, where she juggled
homeschooling two children
and trying to find replacement
income when all her author
speaking events, book festivals,
and conferences were canceled.
“Still, it was a good time to write
books. I learned the new ways of
crowdcasting and Zooming events,
and created weekly YouTube
author chats called ‘Fiction Friday’
for kids and teachers.” Her newest
book, The Griffins of Castle Cary,
is out in paperback and won best
children’s fiction for 2019 from the
Society of Midland Authors.
Closer to campus, Chad Tingley
celebrated 24 years of sobriety and
frequently plays bridge with James
Jones and Elliott Smith. What’s
the average height of that game, 6
foot 5 inches?
Deb Vagins joined the National
Network to End Domestic Violence
as its new CEO and president in
December 2019. In that role, Deb
is leading the organization’s work
addressing the needs of survivors
and their advocates, focusing on
housing, legal, technology, and
economic solutions, among others.
In her work, she connected with
Cindi Leive ’88, who helped create
an online event, Night of Solidarity,
to support survivors of abuse
and raise funds for organizations
working with them.
Deb was deeply shaken and
saddened by the passing of Nick
Jesdanun, with whom she was
corresponding right before his
death. But she was heartened
to see all the moving tributes to
his indomitable and joyful spirit.
Smiling and laughing is the way
she will always remember him.
Let’s tip our caps to Allison Oman
Lawi (pg. 13), a director at the
World Food Programme, which
won the Nobel Peace Prize in
October. “It would be difficult to
express what this means to me,
but given my major at Swarthmore
was a self-designed peace studies
(anthropology and religion), you
might get an idea. I got into food,
food insecurity, famine studies,
and ultimately nutrition because
of my commitment to social justice
and my belief in humanitarian
principles.”
1995
Erik Thoen
erik_thoen@alum.swarthmore.edu
Sally Chin
sallypchin@gmail.com
While I, Erik, have been hunkered
down in my home office, our
classmates have kept busy,
including Matt Peck and Laura
Bartley, who moved to Pullman,
Wash. Laura moved her plant
biochemistry and molecular
biology lab to Washington
State University, where she is
an associate professor in the
Institute for Biological Chemistry.
Matt is a curriculum and
outreach coordinator in the same
department. This opportunity
arose during the family’s ninemonth sabbatical in Japan, where
Laura was a visiting scholar at
the University of Kyoto. Their two
sons enjoyed living abroad and
attending Japanese public and
international schools. When the
COVID-19 crisis emerged, they
received invaluable advice and
help from Matt Lawlor, Praful
Saklani, and Cathy Federici.
Matt Lawlor and his family
have been doing their best to
get through this tumultuous
year. When not providing remote
school tech support for Koby,
9, and Jonathan, 6, Matt led a
coronavirus vaccine development
program. (Thank you!) Wife
Rebecca is shouldering most of the
parenting load, and they’re both
dreaming of great vacations in
2021 and beyond.
Also migrating to the Northwest
was Tania Lihatsh, who moved
to Portland, Ore., at the start of
the pandemic, after 25 years
in the Bay Area. She and her
partner are thankful to be able
to work remotely and support
local and national racial-justice
organizations. They were looking
forward to properly exploring their
new city once it was safe to do so.
“If there are any Swatties near [the
airport] who would like to connect,
they are welcome to reach out via
the accursed Facebook.”
Cristina Pérez began her 24th
year at Friends’ Central School
(FCS) in Wynnewood, Pa.,
where she is the world language
department chair and teaches
upper-school English and Spanish
literatures and Spanish history.
With COVID-19, she and her
partner (also at FCS) spent much
of the summer preparing for many
school-opening scenarios that
were considered, planned, and
simulated, only to be scrapped
as new information came to light.
I’m sure the whole process is
familiar to many of you. In the fall,
Cristina’s sixth-grade daughter,
Maria Sofia, joined her at FCS’s
main campus. Cristina also visited
Betsy Murray and Russ Stark in
St. Paul, Minn., which was the
highlight of her summer.
After 20 years in academia, Chi
Yun joined a biotech startup. She’s
lived in NYC since 2001 and spent
the summer in Sag Harbor, N.Y.,
and the Outer Banks, N.C. She
was prepping for remote schooling
for her fourth- and sixth-grade
kids and staying sane with virtual
karaoke and happy hours.
Annika Rockwell graduated
from Keiser University in South
Florida, completing a bachelor’s
of science to get her credentials
as a registered dietitian/licensed
nutritionist. Annika’s endocrinology
internship at Cleveland Clinic in
Florida occurred “right at the peak
of COVID-19, which was quite an
intense experience.” Her online
private practice will focus on
pediatric nutrition for brain and
behavioral challenges, including
attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder and anxiety.
Right before it was clear how bad
the pandemic was going to be,
Karl Knaub quit his job and started
a machine-learning consulting
company with a friend. Though
starting a new business at the
start of the recession seemed like
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
69
class notes
a doomed venture, so far they’ve
been successful, but no one is
asking them to come visit on site.
Returning to his mathematical
roots, Richard Tchen is enjoying
his new role in the “Mathematical
Thinkers Like Me” prototyping
project of the EF+Math program.
He’s been reunited with Math
Forum alumni and benefits from
the counsel of numerous Swatties
across many classes. Outside
of work, he’s been enjoying
Pennsylvania retreats far and near.
Leveraging the creativity
instilled through our liberal arts
education, Gene Sonn led the
news department of Philly’s WHYY
from his basement laundry room.
Reporters covering COVID-19
and ongoing protests hung
microphones from 6-foot poles
for microphones to do interviews
while still staying socially distant.
“After one of our reporters was
swept up and arrested by police
while covering a protest, we
all went through training from
reporters who cover both protest
movements and conflict zones.”
Gene’s wife, Jess, teaches part
time at a community college and
is homeschooling sons Sam and
Eli. Gene writes, “A highlight of the
early summer was definitely seeing
so many classmates on Zoom
when we couldn’t be together for
reunion.”
On that note, we appreciate the
outpouring of news and hope to
keep hearing from all of you.
Pittsburgh, spent four months in
Switzerland on sabbatical over
the spring and summer. He noted
that the Swiss managed COVID-19
well, “and life was essentially
normal. Also, I got retweeted by the
president. So overall a big year.”
Awesome, Walid!
In news that did not make it
into our last notes, Thanh Hoang
Barretto said that once every
few months, she gets together
with Matt St. Clair, Colin Schatz,
Anna Rich, Rebekah Rodriguez
Bundang, Norma Nangju (who has
a daughter attending Swarthmore),
Melinda Yin, Kristin Sims Levine,
and Erik Huneke. “I do some sort
of virtual get-together to keep
abreast of each other’s lives. It’s
always so great to hang out like the
old days. Cecilia Tsu ’98 (a history
professor at UC–Davis) and I talk
at least once a week, and every
summer we try to get together with
Faye Bulaon-Siek ’98, her twin
sister, Fannie, and Vi Truong ’00.
The Swarthmore community is still
going strong despite the distances.
I reached 21 years of teaching
high school at my alma mater, and
[husband] Gil ’98 is still working
for Yahoo! (which is owned by
Verizon). We homeschool four of
our six children and are having a
grand adventure.”
I, Lauren, am in Massachusetts.
Husband Rick and I became proud
owners of a COVID Weimaraner
puppy we named Cosimo. He is a
sweetheart, even when chewing
up the occasional shoe. If you’re in
Massachusetts, get in touch.
1997 1999
Lauren Jacobi
laurenjacobi@hotmail.com
As I write this column, I send
each of you thoughts of hope and
good health. It seems many of you
are hunkered down due to the
pandemic, so we only have a few
updates for this round of notes.
Please keep in touch.
Walid Gellad, an associate
professor of medicine in the
Division of General Internal
Medicine at the University of
70
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
Melissa Morrell
melrel99@hotmail.com
In February, Aaron Hirschhorn (pg.
20) was featured on Shark Tank
with his company Gallant, a stemcell-banking company for pets; he
got funded.
Darragh Jones Paradiso took a
new posting at the U.S. Consulate
General in Strasbourg, France, and
would love to connect with any
Swatties in the area.
Mariah Peelle Sotelino teaches
Pilates in McLean, Va. Insight
Pilates, her teacher-trainer and
workshop company, held a Pilates
Group Mat certificate course in
January 2020 and a workshop
in Rio de Janeiro in July 2019.
Her latest workshop is Anatomy
in Clay. Mariah founded Insight
Design, an illustration and graphicdesign company that specializes
in scientific illustration. She
illustrated pests for Trees for the
Future, where John Leary ’00
is executive director. At home,
Mariah, husband Daniel ’01,
daughters Marisa, 12, and Vivian,
10, and boxer pups Zico and Bossa
cope as best as they can with
quarantine life by playing a ton of
music.
Anna Tischler shared a nice
memory from this year: a Zoom
birthday party for twins Susan
and Diana Hunt on the Fourth of
July, which is their actual birthday.
Many Swatties logged in, including
Yvonne Lee, Hillary Thompson,
Meg Flynn Lippincott ’01, Dominic
Sagolla ’96, Jove Graham ’96, and
Matt St. Clair ’97.
Erica Turner and Tony Sturm
had third child Emilio in January
2020. He joins brothers Rocco,
10, and Dante, 7. “Erica earned
tenure at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison last year in
the Educational Policy Studies
program, so we are in Madison for
the long term. I’m practicing family
medicine at an independent clinic
in Madison and really enjoy my
work.”
Rachel Brooker moved this
summer from Berlin to a tiny village
nearby. She’s learning to lay brick
and garden (the latter somewhere
between permaculture and fertile
chaos) and started a yoga YouTube
channel in English (Turiya Yoga
Berlin: bit.ly/TuriyaYoga). She
trains children’s yoga teachers
and celebrated her daughter’s
first day at the local Waldorf
school with a traditional German
Einschulungsfeier, including a
cornucopia full of sweets and
school supplies, along with a family
party. She keeps in touch with
Amber Frank and Nate Schaffran
’00 with texting and extremely
sporadic visits, and is grateful for
the technology that makes it so
much easier to stay connected
from abroad than when she first
crossed the pond in 2006.
Charlie Parlapanides writes: “To
be honest, there’s not much to
report here, as my wife, daughter,
and I have been pretty vigilant
about social distancing. Six
months in, we still haven’t eaten
out or picked up food. Maybe we’re
being overzealous — not sure what
to believe anymore. That said,
we found a beach not far from us
here in SoCal that is super quiet
and sparsely attended. We try to
get there at least twice a week,
but besides that, it’s just hiking
and lots of reading.” Meanwhile,
Charlie has been working on a
short anime web series for Netflix,
Blood of Zeus (formerly known as
Gods & Heroes). It went live on the
platform Oct. 27. His company, Asia
Minor Pictures, has been working
closely with John Derderian ’97,
who runs the anime/Japan division
for Netflix.
Richard Vezina took on a new
role as senior program officer
at the Blue Shield of California
Foundation, which is dedicated
to advancing health equity and
ending domestic violence. “Closer
to home, I’m the room parent for
my daughter’s second-grade class
and getting creative about how to
build community as school remains
remote.”
As for me, Melissa Morrell, I’ve
been doing OK. Daughter Clara
started to get the hang of online
learning in fourth grade and
is doing it again in fifth grade.
Quarantining has been broken
up with rounds of exploring and
camping in the backwoods of
Idaho, Nevada, and the Mojave
desert, a pastime that has been a
regular part of my life for the past
eight years. (For details of our
adventures, see adventuretaco.
com.)
What has kept me sane has been
my weekly Skype call with my
Worth roommates — Helen Oliver,
Ian Brown, Carl Wellington, and
Jenny Briggs, with occasional
appearances by Andy Caffrey and
Kirran Bari — which we’ve done
since April. This whole situation
has brought us so much closer,
and I love it.
2001
Claudia Zambra
claudiazambra@gmail.com
Timothy Stewart-Winter married
Greg Edwards on Oct. 12, 2019, in
Ypsilanti, Mich. The ceremony was
attended by Nicholas and Claire
Feldman-Riordan Robbins, Joanna
Curtis, Ben Maulbeck ’99, and Dan
Korobkin ’02.
Last spring, Michael Seifert
received tenure as a physics
professor at Connecticut College.
Scott Nesbit was tenured this past
year at the University of Georgia,
where he teaches history and
historic preservation. In January
2020, Jordan Brackett was
named executive director of the
Educational Alliance’s 14th Street
Y, the Jewish community center in
New York’s East Village.
Elaine Allard is in West Philly
with husband Josh and kids Oliver,
8, and Alma, 4. She teaches in
Swarthmore’s Educational Studies
Department and was promoted to
associate professor last spring,
just in time for the pandemic. After
a long postkid hiatus, she’s also
gotten back to singing. She is an
alto in the Mendelssohn Chorus
of Philadelphia (where she was
thrilled to reconnect with Susan Lin
’00) and also occasionally sings
jazz with Justin Kramon ’02 on
piano. She looks forward to hosting
a big tenure party and getting back
to making live music once things
get back to normal.
Kwabena Adu and wife Kate’s first
child, David Kofi Nhyira Adu, turned
1 Sept. 20. Kwabena is in Barbados
pastoring a church and enjoying
island life. On Jan. 3, 2020, Ben
Keys and Meghan McNally had
Maura Catherine Keys, whom you
can meet at our upcoming 20th
Reunion.
Antoinette zu Eltz lives in London
and would love to reconnect with
anyone who is there or traveling
through. Throughout lockdown,
she has gotten more serious about
one hobby — playing bridge — and
tried to improve her skills. She was
looking forward to winter, hoping
she could travel to do some skiing.
Ken Kim moved to L.A. during
the pandemic. He was recruited to
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to be
director of gynecologic oncology
and education and training and
co-director of women’s cancer.
He moved from hurricanes
and tornados in Alabama to
earthquakes and fires in California.
His family is safe and doing great,
and he’s looking for Swatties in L.A.
Jordan Wales received tenure
and a promotion to associate
professor of theology at Hillsdale
College in Michigan. Reaching back
to earlier training, he is a member
of a consultation on artificial
intelligence and theology, organized
by the Holy See’s Pontifical Council
for Culture. He will spend his
sabbatical developing this work
into a book. Wife Kathryn teaches
drama at their children’s school,
where she directed Shakespeare’s
The Tempest set to music by
Carl Orff. Their three boys enjoy
reading, Legos, and football — the
last mystifying their non-athletic
father.
Talia Young has a visiting
teaching gig in Haverford College’s
environmental studies department.
She teaches a fisheries class
and another on Black & Asian
Foodways. The Fishadelphia
community seafood program is
alive and well, and Gabe Cumming
’00 has been helping out with
that project. She is grateful to be
in a pandemic pod with Elinore
Kaufman ’04 and Maria Alvarez
’04, who live around the corner.
In February, Nicole Moss, Yasemin
Sirali, and Fabien Tepper left L.A.,
Istanbul, and Boston, respectively,
to visit the sort-of-equidistant Cape
Verde Islands and observe “The
Turning of 40.” Fabien is infinitely
grateful to have seen them, and
a fascinating, wind-blasted new
place, just before everything
locked down. Back in Boston, her
daily life has reassumed some
familiar contours, full of dogs,
balcony gardening, and, lately,
belly-dancing. She went to Vermont
to take a long country stroll with
Sarah Yahm and her toddling
daughter, Rosie.
Andrea Juncos’s last year or so
has been eventful. She married
Philip Thai near their home in
Somerville, Mass., in June 2019.
Several Swatties helped them
celebrate. They had son Felipe
Owen Juncos Thai in November
2019. Her maternity leave from
Jobs for the Future was followed
closely by the pandemic lockdown.
The silver lining was lots of quality
time as a new family. She’s also
grateful for regular Zoom calls with
her Swattie family, who keep her
grounded and laughing through
these unsettling times.
Aryani Manring sends greetings
from the end of the monsoon
season in Yangon, Myanmar. The
country was experiencing its first
major COVID-19 outbreak from
local transmission and preparing to
hold the second national elections
Nov. 8. She will be there until
summer 2021.
Matt Garmur and friend Ariel
Dovas, with voiceover help from
Evan Gregory, created St. Pancakes
Day, a monthly shelter-in-place
family activity (bit.ly/StPancakes).
Pat Murray is officially tired of the
pandemic. Me, too.
2003
Robin Smith Petruzielo
robinleslie@alum.swarthmore.edu
Amelia Hoover Green lives in West
Philly, where she teaches at Drexel
University. Son Noah was born
April 12 and joins sibling Henry.
Amelia started a new appointment
as the associate dean for diversity,
equity and inclusion in Drexel’s
College of Arts and Sciences.
Blair Cochran reported that son
Lucas Amine Guttridge arrived
in July. Brother Nicolas and the
two cats who found them during
lockdown are enjoying Lucas and
his toys. They are at Casablanca
American School in Morocco.
Elizabeth Zimmerman Scott was
awarded a credential in drama
therapy as a registered drama
therapist, a journey she began in
2014. She was looking forward
to practicing in the field with
children and families. She has been
studying school counseling at the
University of Arizona and enjoying
living outside Tucson, Ariz., with
husband Marlon, an electrical
engineer.
After living in NYC for nearly 20
years, Meggie Miao, husband Adi
and their two kids moved to L.A.
They’re excited to start a new
adventure on the West Coast.
Meggie is a senior producer for
Voice of America’s Global Mandarin
digital program and makes artwork
during the little free time she has.
Lucy Lang declared her candidacy
for Manhattan district attorney,
thanks to the support of Swattie
friends and team members. Check
out her plans for transformative
change to NYC’s criminal legal
system at votelucylang.com. The
Democratic primary is June 2021.
Laura Hirshfield was awarded
tenure as associate professor in
medical education and sociology at
the University of Illinois at Chicago
and is looking to buy a permanent
home in Chicago.
Eden Wales Freedman began a
new job as vice provost of faculties
and academic affairs at St. Mary’s
University of Minnesota, where she
oversees academic programs and
curricula across three campuses
with 6,000 students. In addition
to her work as an administrator
and researcher (she continues to
publish and present scholarship),
Eden regularly offers anti-bias
training and workshops in
confronting racism, sexism, and
other forms of prejudice.
Veronica Herrera and Ben Wiles
are living the California dream in
L.A. Six months of COVID-related
quarantining, wildfires that make
it hazardous to be outdoors,
and distance learning for two
elementary-age children (first
and fourth grade) have made life
challenging. They were grateful to
find pockets of clean air along the
SoCal coast when they could.
John Anderson was busy
contributing to the World
Bank’s COVID-19 response,
helping provide financing for the
emergency health response and
for potential vaccines (bit.ly/
VirusNoOther).
After having the good luck to
spend six months telecommuting
from Boston while with his family
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
71
class notes
during lockdown, Paul Wulfsberg
was back in Algiers as the U.S.
Embassy’s spokesperson.
Danielle Masor Stember lives in
NYC and has three boys, Jacob,
Ben, and Emanuel. She is a
neurologist for the Department of
Veterans Affairs.
Author and teacher Patty
Park wrote in The New Yorker
about helping her family at their
NYC grocery store, which was
considered an essential business,
(bit.ly/PattyPark).
Eran Ganot was listed No. 17 on
ESPN’s list of the top 40 college
basketball coaches under 40.
2005
Jessica Zagory
jazagory@alum.swarthmore.edu
With crowdsourcing, Justin Tsui
raised $12,000 for the homeless
and elderly during the NYC
lockdown (bit.ly/JTsui). Raghu
Karnad, a journalist and author
of Farthest Field: An Indian Story
of the Second World War, was
interviewed in February by The
New Yorker about mob violence
against Muslims in India (bit.ly/
RKarnad).
2007
Caitlin Markowitz Smith, husband
Brian, and son Ray welcomed Milo
Abraham Smith in late August.
Baby Milo was adjusting to life at
home, and Ray was enjoying being
a big brother.
Maria Maciá had baby Celia
in April. Although Celia arrived
early (a personality trait she did
not inherit from her mother), her
exceptional sleeping abilities
allowed Maria to finish teaching for
the semester via Zoom while hiding
Celia on her lap. This summer,
Maria extended her stay in South
Bend, Ind., by accepting a tenuretrack position at Notre Dame Law
School.
Ben Thuronyi and Katie Sauvain
’09 had second child Oliver Reed
Thuronyi Sauvain in July. Ben
survived their first year at Williams
College, barely, and is unbelievably
grateful to be focusing on their
baby and preschooler Milo this
semester, rather than on pandemic
teaching. Ben has also been
grateful for figuring out pronouns
that fit them better, and finding
a mostly supportive personal
and professional reception to the
change.
Alan Walsh received a Ph.D. in
economics from the University of
Cambridge and moved to Ottawa,
Ontario, where he is a senior
economist at the Bank of Canada.
After a decade in NYC, Melissa
Phruksachart and Pat Kolodgy ’09
moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., where
Melissa started as an assistant
professor in the University of
Michigan’s Department of Film,
Television, and Media. Her Boston
Review essay “The Literature of
White Liberalism” examined last
summer’s anti-racist bestsellers.
Juliet Braslow and Carlos
Villafuerte ’08 were grateful to
be in Bangkok with toddler Orion,
discovering the wonder of language
and the simple things. Juliet works
at the U.N. Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the
Pacific to support the use of space
applications and digital innovations
to help countries in the region
achieve sustainable development
goals.
Jacob Winkler lives in central
New Jersey and runs therapy
groups online based on authentic
connection and intimacy. He has
also been exploring real-estate
investment.
2009
Melanie Spaulding
maspauld1@gmail.com
I hope everyone is getting used to
the new normal of COVID-19 life.
I’ve enjoyed the slower pace, but
I miss seeing friends in person,
without the fine sheen of anxiety
hanging over the proceedings.
My boyfriend, Mark Barish, and I
had some good quarantine news
in September when we closed
on a house. Between both of
us working from home and four
animals underfoot, we needed a
slightly more spacious area, and I’m
compiling these notes from my new
home office.
Sven-David Udekwu, at time of
writing, was quarantining for a few
more days in Juba, South Sudan,
after deciding to leave a country
with “2,500” cases to visit America
in September. During this trip, a
masked and socially distanced visit
was conducted with the family of
Gina Grubb Fisher ’10 to meet the
newest family member. As with
most people, COVID-19 prevented
any vacations, and Sven was stuck
in his duty station in Wau for eight
months prior to this foolhardy
excursion. Sven is networking and
accessing work with armed groups
and authorities for the International
Committee of the Red Cross in
northwest South Sudan. He says
he probably won’t have a job next
year, so visit soon, as COVID-19 is
making countries less able to fund
humanitarian efforts. “We will see
if the same plight falls equally on
funding for war.” Marc Engel’s work
has also been shaped by COVID-19,
as he helped shepherd a public
high school in Brooklyn through
the pandemic and into the hybridlearning era.
In August, Erek Dyskant and Kate
Goertzen bought their first home
in D.C.’s Trinidad neighborhood,
having adopted a hound named
Bruno in December 2019 when
Kate learned she’d be working
remotely. She also started a job in
January 2020 with the National
Harm Reduction Coalition, an
organization that creates space for
dialogue and action to help heal the
harms caused by racialized drug
policies.
Swattie classmates continue
to rack up advanced degrees,
with Julia Barber receiving her
Ph.D. in the history of arts and
Kristin Leitzel Hoy
kleitzel@gmail.com
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
2011
Debbie Nguyen
dnguyen616@gmail.com
Ming Cai
mcai223@gmail.com
Nina Thanawala married Nigel
Barrella in June, in a virtual
wedding and reception attended
by family and friends from around
the world. They were so happy
and grateful to have been able
to celebrate with Mu Yang, Emily
Gasser Zucker, Kannie Chim,
Rosemary Gonzaga, and George
Hang. In another pandemic life
change, Nina switched jobs and is
an attorney at the Federal Trade
Commission.
72
architecture from Brown in 2018.
Daniel Perelstein joined the faculty
at Arizona State University and
married Lissie Jaquette ’07.
After four years in Baltimore,
Aleta Hong moved to Worcester,
Mass., to start as an attending
at the UMass Medical Center,
where she is in the emergency
department. She has enjoyed being
closer to family and exploring
her new home, but she misses
her D.C.-based Swat friends,
Eric Loui and Lin Gyi and Peter
Evangelakis. Ian Yarett started as
a primary-care physician in Rye,
N.Y., in September after finishing
an internal-medicine residency at
NYU in June. He and his wife also
welcomed baby Lucie in August.
Other ’09ers have also had
babies. Abbey Agresta and husband
Eric Holzhauer ’10 had Julian
Agresta Holzhauer on Aug. 16. If
anyone has a lead on a Swarthmore
onesie, Abbey would appreciate a
tip, as the online bookstore is sadly
deficient in that area. Garth Griffin
and wife Ariel Horowitz ’10 were
thrilled to welcome son Gideon
Griffowitz on June 1.
Reina Chano Murray, the
geospatial data curator and
applications administrator at Johns
Hopkins University, helped create
the university’s COVID-19 maps.
WINTER 2021
SPOTLIGHT ON …
LISSIE JAQUETTE ’07
Lissie Jaquette ’07 was named a finalist for the National Book
Award for Translated Literature, for her translation from the
Arabic of Minor Detail by Adania Shibli. The executive director
of the American Literary Translators Association, Lissie has a
master’s in anthropology from Columbia University and was a
CASA Fellow at the American University in Cairo.
Finn Black started nursing school
at UC–San Francisco. They live
in San Francisco, where they
continue to do work in harmreduction and street medicine.
Jean Dahlquist and husband
Jesse Liebman purchased a large
house and are using it to run a
co-housing experiment in Portland,
Ore. Andrew Loh is a dual-degree
candidate at the Stanford Graduate
School of Business and Harvard
Kennedy School.
After completing a pediatric
sports-medicine fellowship in
July, Kathryn Stockbower moved
to Portland, Ore., to work at the
same pediatric practice as Rachel
Baumann Manzo. Between general
pediatrics and sports-medicine
patients, there is never a dull
moment.
Zack Ontiveros and Kate Walton
had son Samuel Walton Ontiveros
on Aug. 24. Last year, Jennifer
Trinh quit her tech job and started
writing romance novels. Jennifer’s
next project will be a slightly more
serious book about her parents.
Rebecca Woo is applying to
psychology predoctoral internships
to get a Ph.D. in school psychology
from UT–Austin. Rebecca also
has two animal babies. Shilpa
Boppana moved back home to
Birmingham, Ala., to complete a
clinical psychology internship.
Shilpa has been wearing masks to
work that were handmade by Amy
Smolek. Sam Barrows is finishing
up at Boston College Law School.
Starting next year, Sam will work at
Latham & Watkins in Boston.
Shameika Black debuted as a
photographer in the Swarthmore
Black Cultural Center’s 50th
anniversary exhibit, Four Points
of View: Alumni Making Art. Alex
Hollender lives in Burlington, Vt.,
where he grew a small garden
this summer. Alex is a designer
at Wikipedia and working on a
small(ish) redesign of the desktop
site. Alex is also starting to mentor/
teach some local students about
design and code.
Having completed their linguistics
Ph.D., Leland Kusmer moved to
Cambridge, Mass., just in time
to be quarantined. Leland used
their newfound free time to build
RingingRoom.com, a platform for
online bell ringing that’s being used
by thousands of ringers around
the world; this had the unexpected
result of earning them an interview
on the BBC.
Eva McKend is in D.C., reporting
on Congress for Spectrum News
television, where she’s been
since 2018. Nicole Topich started
a faculty position as the history
of psychiatry special collections
librarian at Weill Cornell Medicine
in NYC. She lives in the East Village
with cats Cow and Boudicca.
Jiuxing “June” Xie is doing her
thing as a test-kitchen manager
for Delish. Find her on Delish’s
YouTube channel, where she
shows viewers how to eat on $5/
day in NYC. Debbie Nguyen and
Joshua Abel are fortunate to have
purchased a home in the Boston
suburbs, and they are keeping
busy with the joys and burdens of
homeownership.
2013
Paige Grand Pré
jpgrandpre@gmail.com
To say it’s been a strange year is
an understatement, but the Class
of 2013 forges on, with our peers
achieving new heights in their
educational journeys. Miriam
Goldstein “fiiiiinally” finished a
clinical psychology Ph.D. and
moved back to Ann Arbor, Mich., to
start a postdoc at a group private
practice, which she really liked,
while Marina Tucktuck wrapped up
their third year of clinical medical
rotations at Trinitas Regional
Medical Center, Elizabeth, N.J.
Ahmad Ammous finished medical
school in Lebanon and was
nearly finished with an internal
medicine residency in Staten
Island, N.Y. He’d started looking
for jobs but was “unsure where
to go in this gigantic country.
Got any suggestions?” Rebecca
Hammond “has gotten B-list fancy
in the past few years.” While at
Harvard Medical School, she
became a professional athlete in
obstacle racing and was on a TV
show “where she got to destroy
people’s dreams of making money
to do things like pay for their
dying father’s medical expenses.”
Rebecca graduated and proceeded
to take a year (or two) to be a
full-time athlete, plus look deeply
within herself and discover
whatever it was mushing around
in her guts. What she saw told her
that she should pursue psychiatry,
because, well, it’s gotta be the
human mind or physics if you’re
too much a fan of first principles,
which she is. She was applying
to residencies in psychiatry and
excited to resume her medical
training in an expansive and rapidly
changing field. Out West, Luis
Peñate graduated with a master’s
in public health from UCLA and
worked on COVID-19 response
with the California Prevention
Training Center. Luis also moved
to Pasadena with his partner, who
returned to L.A. from Michigan to
begin his dissertation research.
Ana Apostoleris lives in New York
with her dog, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
(socially known as Ruthie). She
passed the New York bar exam in
2019 and is a housing attorney
with the Legal Aid Society in the
Bronx, representing tenants. She
wanted to make sure that all who
read these notes know that NYC
is neither dying nor dead. Eugene
Prymak stayed busy at work,
expanding Powerhouse Equipment
and Engineering’s growth in
the Northeast sales region with
the added support of their new
parent company, Atlas Copco. He
has also taken the opportunity
to begin a part-time master’s
program in sustainable engineering
at Villanova. He welcomed a
new family member — Lula, a
very playful and lovable kitten.
Alejandro Sills continued in his
career with Interactions LLC, which
became a fully virtual job due to
the pandemic. He stayed sane with
a regular morning exercise routine
and reading.
It’s clear there is still love in
the time of corona. Nicholas Felt
married longtime partner Rose
Pozos-Brewer ’15 in September
with a tiny ceremony by the
ocean in Santa Cruz, Calif. Alas,
minimizing risk in a pandemic
meant precisely zero Swatties were
in attendance, but well-wishes
from afar were much appreciated.
Nicholas and Rose looked forward
to celebrating and welcoming
visitors when it’s safe to gather
again. The newlyweds live at
Stanford, where they tend a garden
plot and hope for a less apocalyptic
2021. Don’t we all?
A collection of poetry by Will
Duncan ’14 was available in
October and may have inspired
readers to vote in the presidential
election. Proceeds from sales of the
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
73
class notes
e-book were donated to Fair Fight
2020, an organization devoted to
protecting citizens’ voting rights.
The Tears of Patriots includes 34
poems that chronicle Will’s journey
from heartbreak to outrage over
the destabilization of American
democracy by Donald Trump and
his administration. In addition, Will
posted a poem a day from Oct. 1 to
Nov. 3 on Instagram.
2015
Abigail Frank
abigailcrfrank@gmail.com
Nathan Cheek
nncheek@princeton.edu
It’s been a tough year, and we’re
sad that we couldn’t congregate
at our reunion. But cheers to this
class, which has always been
resilient and, dare we say, yeasty.
Jessie Bacha Hummel married her
best friend in fall 2019. Since then,
they’ve bought a house in Colorado.
In her spare time, Jessie shows her
corgi and puts her science training
to use researching and publishing
an evidence-based website on
pregnancy, birth, and caring for tiny
humans (scienceswaddled.com).
Kimaya Diggs spent most
of quarantine in western
Massachusetts working on her
second album and singing duets
with new dog Quincy, a retired
racing greyhound who was named
by Alison Koziol. Kimaya also
received a grant to create a youth
arts-education/resource-sharing
blog to support families doing
remote learning.
Haydn Welch lives in D.C.,
providing research support on
women’s rights and foreign policy.
She still debates whether she really
needs to get her Ph.D.
Adrian Wan is at Verily, helping
folks live better with chronic
health conditions. He’s been
playing a lot more video games and
wondering how he can expand his
“quaranteam.”
Peter Amadeo is unemployed and
lives in his parents’ basement in
74
Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
rural Connecticut. He was filling
his time watching true-crime
documentaries and roller-skating.
Anirban Ganguly started his first
year at Tulane University School
of Medicine in Louisiana. He was
taking classes and TA’ing anatomy.
Gabriela Campoverde left her
position as chief cybersecurity
officer for Marquee Engineering at
Goldman Sachs to start her MBA
at Wharton. She will also complete
a second master’s at Penn’s
School of Engineering and Applied
Sciences and was happy to be back
in the City of Brotherly Love.
Molly Feldman received a
computer science Ph.D. from
Cornell in August. She then left
rural New York for slightly less
rural Vermont to garden, watch the
mountains and teach at a liberal
arts college with a cow instead of a
phoenix as the mascot.
Rose Pozos-Brewer advanced to
candidacy in her learning sciences
Ph.D. program at Stanford and
was baking sourdough. She also
married longtime partner Nicholas
Felt ’13.
Amanda Epstein started her
final year of law school and asked
whether lawyers should even exist
(#abolishlawyers?). She got a job
as a law clerk starting next fall
and will move to D.C., where she
hopes to find Swatties looking for
new friends. Because classes are
remote this semester, she was
attempting to find a warmer place
than Boston from which to read
about habeas corpus while staying
safe from COVID-19.
Swatties, of course, are all over
the world. Raisa Reyes lives in
London, hosts The Fire Inside
podcast and works as a realization
guide, where she takes clients
through the process of doing. She
has helped her clients reconnect
with indestructible confidence
that, however deeply buried, when
released, takes what it wants,
leaves what it doesn’t, and simply is
without apology.
Nadeen Hamza moved back to
Egypt after a few postgrad years
in India and Tanzania working for
IDinsight. She got married in June
and was spending most of her
time improving service delivery in
private-sector health care facilities
and took up a daily 6 a.m. rowing
routine on the Nile.
Back in the College’s tri-state
area, Abigail Frank and Nate Cheek
are doing great. It was totally
normal that collecting class notes
was a highlight of their year, and
of course, they did not meet up to
(safely) split a bottle of André on
Parrish Porch in celebration.
2017
Isabel Clay
isabelmarieclay@gmail.com
Emily Wu
emilywu1456@gmail.com
Even in turbulent times, the Class
of 2017 has continued to grow,
connect and thrive, with many
pursuing graduate programs. Peter
Daniels was in his final year at
Harvard Law and excited to work
in public-interest environmental
law after graduation. Rhiannon
Smith started a master of science
program in speech-language
pathology at MGH Institute of
Health Professions in Boston.
I, Isabel Clay, started a Ph.D.
in urban education policy at
USC. I would love to see folks in
L.A. as soon as it is safe. Raven
Bennett started at Geisel School of
Medicine at Dartmouth in August.
She and Derek Graves ’18 got
married a few weeks prior. She also
has a YouTube channel, Becoming
MD, dedicated to making med
school as accessible as possible.
Margaret Hughes moved to
Somerville, Mass., in September,
and wants to make friends. Richard
Vu moved to Austin, Texas, to
be with family, study computer
science full time, and find an
internship. Iris Chan created a
virtual performance that she
hoped everyone might enjoy (bit.ly/
IrisChan). Joshua Goldstein left for
Turkey from the U.S. as soon as the
border opened at the end of June.
He and his fiancée had a pandemic
wedding in Izmir, Turkey. He is
learning Turkish and working on
mathematics. Drew Mullins wanted
to thank his classmate friends who
kept him grounded during 2020.
I am similarly grateful for this
community; thank you for all that
you do and for your commitment to
creating a better tomorrow.
2019
Laura Chen
laura.g.chen@gmail.com
Dorcas Tang
dorcastjy@gmail.com
Alex Jin, Sam Gardner, and Nhung
Hoang’s friendship spans three
time zones and a collection of
deadpan emojis.
Amy Kim empowered herself to
break ties with Lego sets and was
listening to High School Musical
unironically. She is financially
independent, and with her
girlfriend.
Zain Talukdar is a second-year
medical student at the University of
Rochester.
This past summer, Gilbert Guerra
and his friend won a grant to start
a podcast on politics, Latinos,
and conservatism. Their first
episode featured former Florida
Congressman Carlos Curbelo and
covered bipartisanship, debates
within conservatism, and carbon
pricing as a solution to climate
change. The episode is up on Apple
and Spotify; read more about the
project at panoramapodcast.org.
Berlin Chen quit his job at NASA
JPL and moved to the U.K. for grad
school.
Gloria Kim was learning another
language (Latin) — in addition to
modern Hebrew, classical Hebrew,
and Koine Greek — a pandemic
silver lining. She definitely needs
to learn a more practical spoken
language. Joseph DeBrine ’18 is
working for TED Talks! He’s so
impressive.
Gilbert Orbea started Yale Law.
If anyone wants to reach out for
words of advice, please do so.
Maisie Luo is pursuing a
theological studies master’s at
Harvard Divinity School on women,
gender, and sexuality in religion.
their light lives on
our friends will never be forgotten
expanded tributes at bulletin.swarthmore.edu
Catherine Ferguson Riisness ’40
David Hewitt ’44
“Kit,” a librarian and director of the
Mentor (Ohio) Public Library, died Nov.
13, 2017.
A loving wife, mother, grandmother,
and great-grandmother, she retired in
1980 as library director and enjoyed
needlecrafts, traveling, and spending
time with her family.
Dave, a member of the actuaries ethics
board, died Aug. 25, 2020.
An Army veteran, he was a senior vice
president specializing in pension plans
for Huggins & Co. He was also president
of the Conference of Actuaries in Public
Practice and served on the profession’s
first national ethics board. He was an
active Quaker, loved classical music
and Gilbert and Sullivan, and sang with
the Mendelssohn Chorus and the Rose
Valley Chorus in Pennsylvania.
Helene Herzberg Suydam ’41
Helene, a mathematics major who
worked at Los Alamos National
Laboratory, died Aug. 3, 2020.
Helene began work at the Naval
Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Va., in
1942, where she helped develop the
Norden bombsight used in World War
II; she was later recruited with her
husband to work in Los Alamos, N.M. In
the late ’50s, the couple moved into the
house that had been occupied by Robert
Oppenheimer during the Manhattan
Project, eventually donating it to the
Los Alamos Historical Society.
Mary Jane Caldwell
Nickerson ’40
M.J., a nurse and former Halcyon
photo editor, died July 10, 2020.
A biology major at Swarthmore,
M.J. also belonged to the archery
and badminton teams and was a
member of the Photography Club.
She received a master’s from the
Yale School of Nursing.
Mary Bradshaw Whaley ’44
“Molly,” a World War II code breaker
and social worker, died Dec. 25, 2019.
Molly attended Swarthmore for
two years, ultimately graduating from
the University of Michigan. She then
became a communications officer for
the WAVES; her unit received a Naval
Unit Commendation for their work on
breaking the Japanese code. She did
postgrad studies in social work at the
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
75
in memoriam
University of Southern California, and
was later employed by the Pennsylvania
Department of Transportation.
Charles Booth ’45
A Maine real-estate broker, Chuck died
Sept. 17, 2020.
After serving in the Army Air
Corps in World War II, he worked
as a lithographic specialist until he
joined the family business, Deemer
Steel Casting Co. in Delaware, as vice
president and production manager in
1952. Upon moving to Maine in 1974,
Chuck earned his broker’s license and,
for the next 30 years, sold real estate.
Joan Seidel Gross ’46
A social worker who displayed wisdom,
integrity and compassion, Joan died
Aug. 24, 2020.
Joan studied political science
in Swarthmore’s Honors Program,
returning to school 25 years later to
earn a master’s in social work from
Bryn Mawr College. She then served as
a social worker at a community mental
health center and the Philadelphia
Geriatric Center.
Susan Harwig ’46
Susan, a psychology major and social
worker, died July 24, 2020.
At Swarthmore, she was a member
of the softball team and editor of the
Phoenix. She later earned a master’s in
social work at Columbia University.
Gerald Nolin ’46
A Navy veteran and industrialist
who provided support and shelter for
political refugees during international
crises, Gerry died Aug. 18, 2020.
In 1942, he joined the Navy V-12
program, studying civil engineering at
the University of Pennsylvania and then
at Swarthmore, where he was student
council president and a member of
Sigma Xi. For 40 years, Gerry worked at
Prouvost Lefebvre, becoming company
treasurer and president of its subsidiary,
the Branch River Wool Combing Co.
Nancy Jones Svoboda ’46
Nancy, who loved dogs, volunteering,
and her family, died July 8, 2020.
She worked in the advertising
industry and later volunteered at various
organizations, including St. Margaret
Memorial Hospital, Cooper-Siegel
Community Library, and Guyasuta
Garden Club, all in Ohio. Nancy was
an avid reader and subscriber to the
arts, and she had a talent for painting,
gardening, and playing the piano.
the University of Pennsylvania while
serving in the Navy, then moved to
Florida and practiced medicine for
more than 30 years in Palm Beach
County. An avid fly fisherman and a
bridge life master champion, John also
scuba-dived and traveled the world as a
nature photographer.
A researcher and a College athlete,
David died Jan. 30, 2020.
At Swarthmore, he was a member
of Delta Upsilon, the basketball and
golf teams, and the orchestra. David
graduated with high honors in political
science, and went on to receive his
master’s in history from Ohio’s Case
Western Reserve University in 1958.
Robert Brown ’49
A pilot who played piano and organ by
ear, Jack died July 22, 2020.
Already a licensed pilot at age 17,
Jack enlisted in the Navy and then
enrolled in Swarthmore under the GI
Bill before transferring to Ball State
University. He began his career as a
teacher before moving to IBM, where
he worked until retirement, and he was
a member of the Civil Air Patrol.
John Bacon ’47
Jane deVries Stark ’49
John, a Florida surgeon, died June 26,
2020.
He earned his medical degree at
Elizabeth Clum Myers ’50
David Armington ’49
Bob, a mechanical engineer who held
six turbine patents, died July 7, 2020.
Bob earned a master’s in mechanical
engineering from Drexel University
and completed coursework at Harvard
Business School. He worked on turbine
development with the steam turbine
generator division of Westinghouse
Electric Corp., from which he was
drafted in 1950 to serve in the Korean
War, returning to his career in 1956.
When he retired in 1984, one-third
of all electricity generated in the U.S.
came from turbines for which Bob had
design responsibility.
John Pruden NV
Swarthmore. She was a mother of
four, including Janet Muchovej
Horton ’71 and Peter Mucha, who
had a semesterlong fellowship at
Swarthmore.
An anesthesiologist and Red Cross
volunteer, Jane died Aug. 30, 2020.
With a medical degree from the
Edwin Alexander ’50
Ed, a communications technology
inventor, died Aug. 14, 2020.
An Army Air Corps radio
operator in World War II, he
earned two Air Medals and
two campaign medals. After
completing a bachelor’s in
electrical engineering at
Swarthmore, followed by a
master’s at Princeton University,
he worked at Bell Laboratories,
where he helped develop plug-in
wall transformers, fiber optics, and
undersea communications cables.
University of Pennsylvania, Jane
practiced anesthesiology in New
Jersey at Orange Memorial Hospital
and Overlook Medical Center, retiring
in 1995. She was an avid hobbyist and
enjoyed knitting, needlepoint, quilting,
scrapbooking, golf, tennis, crosswords,
reading, sailing, Scrabble, and bridge.
Robert Ganter ’50
faculty & staff
Dining Services in the ’80s, died Aug.
20, 2020. She was 72.
taught at Swarthmore for 33 years,
died April 9, 2020. He was 88.
Elissa Chansky, a former staff nurse
at Swarthmore, died Oct. 9, 2020. She
was 88.
Margaret “Peggy” Giovannini, a
former secretary in the President’s
Office, died Aug. 23, 2020. She was 88.
Bertha Lee Tyson, who worked in
Environmental Services for 25 years,
died Aug. 19, 2020. She was 91.
Theodore “Dorie” Friend III, a
prodigious scholar and Swarthmore’s
11th president, serving from 1973 to
1982, died Nov. 4, 2020. He was 89.
Richard Kelly, a former maintenance
worker in Swarthmore’s physical
plant, died July 16, 2020. He was 70.
Larry Westphal, the J. Archer and
Helen C. Turner Professor Emeritus of
Economics, who taught at Swarthmore
from 1985 to 2012, died Nov. 11, 2020.
He was 78.
Geneva Gilliam, who worked in
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
WINTER 2021
Robert Roza, the Susan W. Lippincott
Professor Emeritus of French, who
A history major and psychologist,
Robert died Aug. 7, 2020.
Robert went on to earn a history
master’s from the University of
Pennsylvania and a psychology Ph.D.
from Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C.
Shirley Bryan Holder ’50
Shirley, a mathematician, died June 20,
2020.
Shirley received a bachelor’s and
master’s in mathematics from what is
now Rowan University after attending
Elizabeth, a lifelong learner and
educator with encyclopedic knowledge,
died June 21, 2020.
She met husband Edward Myers
’53 in high school and dated him
at Swarthmore. Elizabeth earned
a master’s in philosophy from the
University of Vermont and a Ph.D. from
the State University of New York–
Albany, and taught at St. Michael’s
College in Burlington, Vt., and at
SUNY–Albany.
Sylvia Turlington O’Neill ’50
Sylvia, an activist and college professor,
died Oct. 11, 2020.
She earned a psychology Ph.D.
from Cornell University and taught at
Rutgers University before becoming a
full professor at what is now the College
of New Jersey, where she helped create
the women’s studies curriculum. Over
the decades, Sylvia was involved with
the women’s rights and gay rights
movements, and she wrote poetry
and created art at her retirement
community in Madison, Wis.
of Boston’s Trinity Church, and was an
active athlete, an avid bridge player, and
a member of multiple book clubs.
Dabney Altaffer ’51
Dabney, an expert in Native American
law, died Sept. 2, 2020.
After leaving the Army in 1952,
Dabney earned a law degree from the
University of Arizona. He co-founded
a law firm that represented the Tohono
O’odam, Ak-Chin, and Quechan
nations, and he served on the board
of the Arizona Heart Association, the
Arizona Women’s Clinic, and Planned
Parenthood of Southern Arizona,
among other institutions.
Jean Leck Bauman ’51
A social worker, Jean died Sept. 7, 2020.
Jean worked for 28 years in the Santa
Barbara County (Calif.) Department
of Social Services, specializing
in adoptions. She volunteered
with political candidates, peace
organizations, Meals on Wheels, and
Don Piccard ’50
Don, the father of modern hot-air
ballooning, died Sept. 13, 2020.
Don was a Navy balloon and airship
rigger during World War II and served
in New Jersey during the Korean War.
In 1963, he became the first, with Ed
Yost, to pilot a hot-air balloon over
the English Channel. The founder of
Piccard Balloons, he made innovations
that increased the crafts’ safety and
promoted ballooning as a sport,
appearing on The Tonight Show in 1967.
Joan Litchard Wyon ’50
Joan, a banker and supporter of
professional women, died Oct. 8, 2020.
Joan earned an MBA from Simmons
College in 1978 and later was vice
president at the Bank of New England.
She served on the board of Northfield
Mount Hermon School and the vestry
Oscar Moreno ’51
Oscar, a Korean War veteran and
entrepreneur, died Aug. 16, 2020.
Oscar worked as a pharmacology
technician and attended graduate
school at Villanova University and
Jefferson Medical School, earning
an engineering master’s and a
pharmacology Ph.D., respectively.
He and his wife formed MB
Research Laboratories in the
1970s; after 26 years, they sold the
company and retired in Naples, Fla.
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/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
77
in memoriam
Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care, and
served briefly as a docent with Santa
Barbara’s Museum of Natural History.
Nancy Kenney Connolly ’51
A Fulbright Scholar and poet, Nancy
died Aug. 18, 2020.
After earning a Ph.D. from the
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
in 1956, Nancy taught at Michigan State
University, edited college textbooks,
was one of Merrill Lynch’s first female
stock brokers, and was a nonprofit
executive and a research associate.
Nancy was a founding board member
of the Women’s Exchange in Winnetka,
Ill., and the director of the Austin
(Texas) International Poetry Festival,
among other volunteer activities.
Richard Kane ’51
Richard, a retired executive vice
president of Scott Paper Co., died June
27, 2020.
Richard ultimately graduated
from the University of Michigan. He
served in the Navy from 1951 to 1955,
after which he was employed by E.I.
DuPont de Nemours Co. and later by
the Esterbrook Pen Co. He received an
MBA from the Wharton School in 1961,
and then joined Scott Paper, where he
played a significant role in the growth of
its international division.
Presley Brown ’52
Pres, a tinkerer and printer, died April
26, 2020.
Serving in the Army from graduation
until 1954, Pres later earned his
master’s in economics from Temple
University in 1963. After working at
high-stress corporate jobs, he opened
Rapid Press printing company in
1976; while running the press, Pres
also restored two 19th-century pump
organs, repaired the family’s 1837
farmhouse, maintained a collection
of 1,600 hymnals, and constructed
scale-model churches in the form of
birdhouses.
George Place Jr. ’52
A mechanical engineer, Army veteran,
and All-American soccer player, George
died July 26, 2020.
After graduation, George served at
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
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the Army Chemical Center, and then
worked in the petroleum, water, and
concrete industries. He had a lifelong
love of athletics that included coaching
his children’s sports teams and
attending their sporting events.
Walter Schmitz ’52
Walter, a banking executive and lifelong
St. Louis resident, died Sept. 14, 2020.
After graduating and serving in
the Navy during the Korean War,
Walter returned to St. Louis, where he
worked for the old First National Bank,
becoming executive vice president of
commercial lending and credit policy;
he had a similar position at Citizens
National Bank of Greater St. Louis,
retiring in 2000. He was a member
of or served on the boards of many
organizations, including the Risk
Management Association, the Better
Business Bureau, and the Neighborhood
Health Center.
was published by Truman State
University Press.
Franz Allina ’54
Franz, a radio-station owner and board
member of the Committee to Protect
Journalists, died March 30, 2020.
After graduation, Franz worked for
Radio Free Europe and radio station
WMCA before joining the U.S. Agency
for International Development in the
early 1960s. Upon returning to New
York, he was asked to find radio stations
to buy to help fund a new program,
Sesame Street. When that plan was
discarded, Franz bought the stations
himself, founding a radio company that
later sold for a reported $20 million.
Diane di Prima ’55
Diane, a feminist and Beat poet who had
lifelong friendships with Allen Ginsburg
and Jack Kerouac, died Oct. 25, 2020.
Diane’s first collection of poems,
Elise Faulkner Jones ’53
Lisa (pronounced “Leeza”), a
demographer and early family-planning
activist, died Aug. 2, 2020.
Lisa and husband Parry ’50 lived in
Pakistan for two years before settling
in an old farmhouse in Bucks County,
Pa. In the late 1950s, she took the
birth-control pill to help determine
the dosage level while it was still
under development, and she was one
of three women who founded the
Planned Parenthood Association of
Bucks County in the mid-1960s. She
earned a Ph.D. in demography from
the University of Pennsylvania in
1979, before serving for 10 years on
Swarthmore’s Board of Managers.
John Ridland ’53
A poet and English professor at the
University of California, Santa Barbara,
John died Jan. 29, 2020.
John earned a Ph.D. from Claremont
Graduate University, where his poems
appeared in literary magazines; later,
several of his books were published as
Abattoir handpress editions. In 2013,
his mock epic poem, “The Lincolniad,”
was published as a special edition
of Askew magazine, and a volume of
poetry, Happy in an Ordinary Thing,
This Kind of Bird Flies Backward, was
followed by a short-story collection and
a memoir about the Beat generation.
Over the years, she published more
than 40 poetry collections, novels,
and memoirs; championed other
feminist authors; was arrested for
obscenity; once lived at Timothy
Leary’s psychedelic commune; and, in
2009, was named San Francisco’s poet
laureate.
Constantine Inglessis ’55
Connie, an engineering professor at
American University in Beirut, died
Aug. 4, 2020.
At Swarthmore, he indulged in
engineering and soccer before earning
a master’s in civil engineering from
Colorado State University. During his
half-century at American University,
he followed a passion for teaching
and education. His Greek name
disguised his Palestinian roots that
led to a lifetime of work in the cause of
Palestine.
John McNulty ’56
Cornelia Fuller ’54
A teacher, tutor, and volunteer,
Cornelia died July 17, 2020.
She earned a master’s in
education from Cornell University
and lived for extended periods in
Paris, Copenhagen, and Cambridge,
England. Having survived latestage breast cancer at 46, Cornelia
considered the rest of her life a
gift, and she volunteered for many
organizations in Pasadena, Calif.,
including the Gamble House,
the League of Women Voters,
the Pasadena Symphony, and
Huntington Hospital.
Peter Lenrow ’56
Peter, a psychologist-turned-painter
and poet, died July 5, 2020.
Peter trained psychologists and
educators, maintained a private
psychotherapy practice, and was a
director of multiple programs, most
recently the Somerville (Mass.)
Mental Health Association. After his
retirement in 2011, Peter rediscovered
his creative side, becoming an ardent
poet and watercolor painter, and active
with the Westport Art Group.
Jack, the Roger J. Traynor Professor
Emeritus of Law at the University
of California, Berkeley, and a man of
letters, music, and the arts, died Sept.
26, 2020.
A psychology major at Swarthmore,
Jack graduated first in his class from
Yale Law School, where he worked on
the Yale Law Journal and clerked for
Justice Hugo Black in 1959–60. He
joined the faculty at Berkeley Law in
1964, retiring in 2002, and received
a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1977 to
conduct research on structural reforms
of the U.S. federal tax system.
Mary Pearson Noble ’56
Mary, a traveler and teacher, died Sept.
22, 2020.
Mary studied at the University of
Edinburgh before Swarthmore, and
then spent several years in Europe
teaching. She completed a master’s
degree at Simmons College in Boston
before joining the faculty of the
Fessenden School in West Newton,
Mass., teaching international students
for the next 28 years as she continued to
travel the world.
Bernard Sarachek ’56
Bernard, a physician, died Aug. 4, 2020.
A graduate of Temple University
medical school, Bernard spent three
years as a Navy doctor before becoming
a family physician in Concord, Calif.
An avid fan of jazz, college basketball,
and baseball, he was the football doctor
for Concord High School for 20 years;
served on the board of directors of the
Concord Child Care Center and Diablo
Scholarships; and annually supported
about 25 environmental and social
justice organizations.
Roland Reboussin ’56
A research analyst at the National
Academy of the FBI, Roland died Sept.
18, 2020.
After serving in the Navy, he
completed a psychology Ph.D. at
the University of Kansas and then
taught at Beloit College in Wisconsin.
Roland took a job with the Wisconsin
Council on Criminal Justice in 1979,
redesigning crime reporting and
improving abuse prevention, shelter
programs, and halfway houses, before
joining the FBI in 1986.
Mary Roberts Craighill ’57
A daughter of missionaries who, as a
young girl, witnessed the attacks on
Pearl Harbor, Mary died July 25, 2020.
Mary taught at the Beirut College for
Women and earned a master’s degree
at the American University of Beirut in
Lebanon. She served in a joint ministry
at Tainan Theological College in Taiwan,
before returning to the U.S. in 1978, with
a career that culminated with her being
director of lay ministry for the Episcopal
Diocese of Pennsylvania.
Mary Boyce Gelfman ’57
Mary, an expert on special education and
school nursing law, died Sept. 5, 2020.
Mary taught math while completing
a master’s at Columbia’s Teachers
College before moving to Ridgefield,
Conn., where she was involved with the
League of Women Voters, was elected
to the school board in 1969, and earned
a law degree from the University of
Connecticut. She was an attorney with
the state Department of Education
before leaving for private practice and
to work as an education hearing officer.
Ronald Sutton ’57
Ronald, a Methodist minister and
American University professor, died
Aug. 26, 2020.
Ronald was a minister and a teacher
at Wilmington Friends before moving
to Washington, D.C., to work in the
American Film Institute’s education
department and to join the faculty
at American University’s School of
Communication. After retiring in 1997,
he spent the next 20 years in Pinehurst,
N.C., where he served on the boards of
Habitat for Humanity, Arts Council
of Moore County, and the Weymouth
Center.
Stephen Watkins ’57
An honors graduate, Stephen died Sept.
11, 2020.
Stephen received a master’s from
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
79
in memoriam
George Washington University. At
Swarthmore, he was a member of the
drama board, the Student Art Group,
and Swarthmore Political Action.
Austine Read Wood Comarow ’63
Austine, inventor of the art medium
Polage, died July 31, 2020.
With an MFA in illustration from
Syracuse University, Austine was bestknown for creating Polage, which used
polarized light and optically active
materials to create changing colors
and figurative images. She created
works for science and nature centers,
her most recent public work being the
windows at the Kyle Canyon Visitor
Gateway in Las Vegas.
Molly McCaslin Robinson ’58
Molly, a statistics lecturer at Smith
College, died Jan. 5, 2020.
She attended Swarthmore and
Pomona colleges and earned a master’s
in education at Claremont University
in California. Molly taught math in
California before becoming a statistics
lecturer at Smith, from which she
retired in 2004. While she held
positions at various organizations, she
loved leading Girl Scout troops because
they empowered girls.
James Parker ’59
A historian, amateur genealogist, and
longtime Ford employee, Jim died Oct.
10, 2020.
Jim ultimately graduated from
the University of Michigan and then
worked at the Ford Motor Co. from 1961
until his retirement in 1992 as a qualitycontrol specialist. Jim was active in the
American Society for Quality Control
and the Dexter (Mich.), Washtenaw
County, and Webster Township
historical societies, and was co-founder
of the World Chamberlain Genealogical
Society.
William Boehmler ’60
Bill, a Pennsylvania doctor and
psychiatrist, died July 1, 2020.
Bill earned a medical degree from
the University of Pennsylvania on an
ROTC scholarship, then served his
Navy ROTC commitment in Japan. He
was a general physician in Lansdale,
Pa., before completing a psychiatry
residency and joining the staffs of
Reading Hospital and St. Joseph
Medical Center of Reading.
John Darley ’60
John, a social psychologist who
conducted early studies on bystander
intervention, died Aug. 31, 2018.
John earned a Ph.D. at Harvard
University, but his career was started at
New York University, where he delved
into why bystanders who witnessed
a murder did not intervene. After
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four years at NYU, he was hired by
Princeton University and served on
the faculty there for 44 years, studying
behavioral approaches to energy
conservation; the social influence and
group dynamics on how organizations
socialize wrongdoing; and laypeople’s
conceptions of the law and the legal
system. In 2013, he received the
William James Lifetime Achievement
Award for Basic Research from the
Association for Psychological Science.
and developing his role as a beloved
grumpy school bus driver until age 85.
John Munch ’60
Walter Dickey ’61
John, a chemist and professor, died Aug.
23, 2020.
John received a Ph.D. in organic
chemistry from the University of
Wisconsin–Madison in 1965 and
began his professional career as a
chemistry professor at Dickinson
College in Pennsylvania; he later taught
at Meramec Community College in
Kirkwood, Mo. In between, he was a
senior research chemist for more than
20 years at Petrolite Corp.
David Ashworth ’61
David, an Air Force veteran who worked
for GE and Martin Marietta, died Sept.
19, 2020.
His time at Swarthmore was
interrupted by a tour in the Air Force
during the Korean War. After returning
and earning an economics degree,
David continued to serve in the Air
Force, including active duty during the
Vietnam War, transferring to the Air
National Guard in 1977. He spent his
retirement in West Chester, Pa., golfing
William Brownfield ’61
A forestry civil engineer, William died
July 31, 2020.
After Swarthmore, William received
a master’s degree from Arizona State
University. A former employee of the
U.S. Forest Service, William was also
a member of Reunion Presbyterian
Church in Mount Pleasant, Pa.
“Chip,” a consumer-affairs specialist,
died Oct. 18, 2020.
Chip earned a law degree and worked
in IBM’s legal department before
beginning a long career in consumer
affairs at Hallmark Cards, from which
he retired in 1990. He then worked for
nearly a decade as an insurance agent.
Chip was also an active volunteer,
serving on the boards of the Boys &
Girls Club of Greater Kansas, the
Kansas City Lawyers’ Association, and
Swarthmore’s Alumni Council.
Marilyn Emerson Lanctot ’61
Marilyn, a volunteer and veterinary
assistant, died Aug. 3, 2020.
Marilyn earned a master’s in Russian
studies from Indiana University, was a
pre-nursery teacher, and worked with
her husband at the New Hope (Pa.)
Veterinary Hospital. She volunteered
extensively, including with the League
of Women Voters, the New Hope Eagle
Volunteer Fire Co., and the New Hope
and Solebury historical societies.
Mary Williams Clark ’63
Mary, a pediatric orthopedist, died July
22, 2020.
Mary received a medical degree
from Yale University. She was on the
faculty at Hershey Medical Center, the
Medical College of Philadelphia, and
the Medical College of Ohio, and retired
from Sparrow Regional Children’s
Medical Center in Michigan.
James Preer ’65
Jim, a science educator and amateur
musician, died July 20, 2020.
Jim completed an inorganic
chemistry Ph.D. at Caltech in 1970.
He was a conscientious objector,
and his alternative service was as a
teaching intern at Federal City College
in Washington, D.C., which served
a predominantly African American
student body. After finishing his
internship, Jim stayed on the faculty of
Federal City, now the University of the
District of Columbia.
was a Knox Fellow at Wolfson College,
Oxford University, where he remained
a member of the Common Room
until his death. In 1969, he joined
the Department of Philosophy at the
University of Connecticut, where he
taught for 41 years.
Anne Mosher Wimsatt ’65
A English teacher and bookstore owner,
Anne died June 24, 2020.
Anne earned a master’s in teaching
from Cornell University and spent
time as a lifeguard, teacher, Jeopardy!
contestant, computer programmer, and
mother. She was active in civic groups
in Lewistown, Pa., and from 1986 to
1992, she owned and managed The
Book Shop, an independent bookstore.
Jonathan Steinberg ’65
An editor and freelance journalist who
ran track and field at Swarthmore,
Jonathan died Sept. 30, 2020.
A political science major, Jonathan
was very active at Swarthmore, serving
on the Halcyon staff and as news
editor of the Phoenix, and taking part
in a number of student organizations,
including the Social Action Group, the
Drama Board, the Movie Committee,
and the Hamburg Show.
John Thoms ’65
A professor of English literature and a
polio survivor, John died Aug. 2, 2020.
John earned a master’s with high
honors and a Ph.D. in medieval English
literature from Columbia University.
He taught English courses of every
description at several New York-area
colleges before being tenured at the
New York Institute of Technology,
where he taught from 1979 to 2010.
John Troyer ’65
John, a philosophy professor and
member of an Oxford Common Room,
died Aug. 11, 2020.
John earned a philosophy Ph.D.
from Harvard University, and also
Gareth Jenkins ’66
Gareth, an educator who taught in
Massachusetts, Italy, and New Mexico,
died Aug. 18, 2020.
After entering Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, he was sent to the
Army, trained at the language school,
and worked for the Army Security
Agency. After discharge, Gareth came to
Swarthmore and graduated with honors
before receiving a fellowship to study
Russian history at Harvard University,
from which he received a master’s.
Lise Luborsky ’68
An attorney in Philadelphia, Lise died
Oct. 18, 2020.
A Latin major at Swarthmore, she
received a master’s in classics from the
University of Toronto and a law degree
from Villanova University. From 2009
to 2016, she was named a Pennsylvania
Super Lawyer, with a practice
concentrated on insurance insolvency,
insurance coverage, casualty, and
asbestos litigation.
Ellen Edwards ’71
Daniel Menaker ’63
An award-winning author and
executive book editor, Dan died
Oct. 26, 2020.
Dan earned a master’s in English
from Johns Hopkins University
then taught before being hired by
The New Yorker in 1969. In 1995, he
joined Random House where, aside
from a brief time at HarperCollins,
he stayed until 2007, rising to
become executive editor in chief.
As an editor, Dan helped polish the
poetry and prose of Billy Collins,
Alice Munro, and Salman Rushdie,
among other writers. His critically
acclaimed books included The
Treatment and My Mistake, and
last year he published Terminalia,
a book of poems about cancer in a
time of pandemic.
Ellen, an advocate for immigrant
children, died Feb. 27, 2020.
She received her master’s in health
policy from Johns Hopkins University,
after a bachelor’s in philosophy from
Swarthmore. She taught at Johns
Hopkins University as well as worked at
the Pan American Health Organization
and the World Health Organization.
In Baltimore, where she lived, she
supported social-justice causes,
including advocating for immigrant
children.
Marcia Satterthwaite ’71
Marcia, a longtime social worker and
travel writer, died Aug. 2, 2020.
Marcia earned a master’s of social
work from Bryn Mawr College and
was also a travel writer and co-owner
of Tuscan Rentals. She was a former
member of Alumni Council and a book
lover and family historian.
Anne Seagrave Fullerton ’72
Anne, a counselor and educator, died
July 14, 2020.
Anne worked briefly as a paralegal
in New York City before settling in
WINTER 2021
/ Swarthmore College Bulletin
81
looking back
in memoriam
Santa Fe, N.M., in 1978. Anne received
master’s degrees in education and
counseling and was a wellness
counselor in the Santa Fe Public
Schools, while also sitting on nonprofit
boards, counseling in private practice,
directing the Poverty Task Force
for the New Mexico Conference of
Churches, and serving as an adjunct
faculty member at Santa Fe Community
College.
where she was awarded a prestigious
MacCracken Fellowship and coauthored an article published in The
Journal of Early Adolescence.
Paul Sidelko ’89
Hidemichi, a devoted supporter of
Swarthmore’s Japanese program, died
July 23, 2020.
Hidemichi received an MBA from
Columbia University and remained
a staunch advocate for Swarthmore.
He donated to the Japanese Summer
Language Fellowship that enabled
students to accelerate their language
studies and also have the opportunity
to live with a Japanese host family
and experience life in a Japanese
community.
Carolyn Parker Castore ’75
A dedicated supporter of progressive
politics, Carolyn died Sept. 10, 2020.
A graduate of Swarthmore and the
University of Texas at Austin, she
dedicated her life to progressive politics
and strengthening a participatory
democracy. She worked for the
Government Accounting Office and
the National Center for Manufacturing
Sciences, started a company with
her brother, and then went into the
nonprofit sector.
Garth Trinkl ’75
An economist with a passion for
classical music and the performing arts,
Garth died Aug. 30, 2020.
Garth did graduate work in
economics and had a long career as
an economist at Robert R. Nathan
Associates, Brimmer & Co., and the U.S.
Bureau of Economic Analysis. He also
traveled widely, particularly in Central
Europe, where he met his wife.
Ann Roberts ’87
Ann, a loving wife and devoted mother
whose career focused on community
psychology, died Aug. 23, 2020.
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Leah Zallman ’01
Leah, a doctor and medical
researcher with a passion for social
justice and immigrant health, died
Nov. 5, 2020.
Leah devoted herself ceaselessly
to her work, as a primary-care
physician in East Cambridge,
Mass., as an assistant professor
of medicine at Harvard Medical
School, and as director of research
for the Institute for Community
Health. She co-led programming
on improving care for diverse
populations; pushed for improved
access to food, housing, and other
determinants of health; and was on
the brink of fulfilling her dream of
founding a Center for Immigrant
Health Research, which was to be
announced in the fall.
Following graduation from
Swarthmore, Ann taught math to
children in Kenya via World Teach,
followed by work for the Vera
Institute of Justice as an advocate
for alternatives to incarceration for
nonviolent offenders. Later, Ann was
admitted to New York University’s
community psychology Ph.D. program,
Submit an obituary
Rebecca Hill Leising ’95
Rebecca, a landscape architect and
devoted mother, died Oct. 7, 2020.
A biology major at Swarthmore,
Rebecca earned a master’s in landscape
architecture from the University of
California, Berkeley. In May 2019, she
announced she’d been diagnosed with
Lou Gehrig’s disease, leading her to
stop working in January 2020.
Colin Kong ’96
A dentist and an affiliate of the clinical
pediatric dentistry faculty at Yale-New
Haven Children’s Hospital, Colin died
Sept. 3, 2020.
Colin received a doctor of dental
medicine and Ph.D. from the University
of Connecticut and completed two
years of specialty training in pediatric
dentistry. He held diplomat status
with the American Board of Pediatric
Dentistry, was a member of the
American Academy and Connecticut
Society of Pediatric Dentists, and
volunteered with the Special Olympics,
Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Habitat for
Humanity, and the American Diabetes
Association.
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 Swarthmore College Bulletin,
500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA 19081.
COURTESY OF SWARTHMORE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Hidemichi Tai ’72
Paul, a dedicated history professor and
advocate for study-abroad programs,
died Oct. 14, 2020.
Paul studied medieval history at
Swarthmore and earned a Ph.D. from
the University of Toronto. A professor
at Metropolitan State University
of Denver, Paul “was never afraid
to express himself, especially when
it came to defending the academic
enterprise and opportunities for
students,” his loved ones wrote.
For 67 years, the Swarthmore Co-op made its home at 401 Dartmouth Ave., in a building that once housed a Chevrolet showroom and auto garage.
Although the Co-op now lives in a large, modern building next door, it retains the sense of community it’s held since its founding in the 1930s.
THE PANDEMIC has reacquainted
many Americans with their grocery
stores, as forced business closures and
quarantine orders have led them back
into the kitchen.
In Swarthmore Borough, the
quintessential place to buy grocery
essentials has long been the
Swarthmore Co-op. The store, which
doubles as a community gathering
spot, was founded in the 1930s in
response to another global emergency:
the Great Depression.
Records from the Swarthmore
Historical Society, housed at Friends
Historical Library, detail the formation
of the community fixture — one of
the oldest food co-ops in the country
— and the role Swarthmoreans played
in the process.
In 1932, a group of women formed
the Fruit & Vegetable Buying Group
with a mission of bringing affordable
produce to local families. The group —
including Eleanor Paxson Keighton,
Class of 1921, Caroline Biddle Malin,
Class of 1928, and several wives of
Swarthmore professors — operated out
of members’ basements and garages
before settling in a house on the
borough’s edge in 1936. Sam Ashelman
’37, the operation’s first full-time
manager, lived in the home’s second
floor, where he and his wife, Margaret
Peter Ashelman ’38, repurposed orange
crates as shelves.
A year later, the organization set
up shop at 401 Dartmouth Ave. in the
heart of the Ville, in a former Chevrolet
showroom and auto garage. The newly
established Swarthmore Cooperative
Association market opened its doors in
April 1937, with membership costing
just $5 a share. For 67 years, students
and residents visited that location to
stock up on sustenance.
These days, the Swarthmore
Co-op thrives in a modern building
at Dartmouth Avenue and Lincoln
Way, its home since 2004. Yet despite
its growth and multiple moves, its
mission of nourishing the Swarthmore
community has persevered.
— ELIZABETH SLOCUM
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83
“Theater lets us experience the
terrifying truth of our interconnectedness
with the comfort of company.”
DIZZYING
AND DELICIOUS
What happens when
a pandemic brings
down the curtain on
live theater? Associate
Professor and Chair of
the Theater Department
K. Elizabeth Stevens
explains how and why
the ‘show must go on.’
by Kate Campbell
Why does it matter that we
continue to teach theater and
to keep the arts alive in higher
education?
We are communal, embodied
creatures who need to gather and tell
stories together. That is how we build
space in our hearts for ambiguity,
disagreement, and nuance.
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Swarthmore College Bulletin /
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In what ways have you pivoted in
your role during the pandemic?
Making theater, which is the
quintessential ephemeral art form,
“written on the wind,” requires
being present in the same space and
time with our collaborators and our
audience. Finding ways to mimic or
approximate this sense of sharing
space on Zoom is challenging. We
have been experimenting with
available technology, looking for ways
to communicate performance with
impact. We’ve been making use of
film, video, radio plays, and, of course,
Zoom. It’s inspiring to me how much
comes across, though nothing can
replace the complexity, density, and
excitement of live performance.
How does theater help (during
times of crisis especially) to give
shape to conflict, grief, pain,
isolation, or anger brought about
during upheaval?
The truth is we are all in this
together, though we may feel ourselves
to be more or less insulated from
the state of the world. Even though
we may be in denial about our
shared predicament on this planet,
some part of us knows the truth
— that our stories and our fate are
tied to each other. Theater lets us
experience the terrifying truth of
our interconnectedness with the
comfort of company. We tell each
other’s stories and name each other’s
experience to expand our compassion
and curiosity, to inspire us to take
better care of each other. This kind of
seeing is better for the collective and
for us as individuals. The “escapism”
that people crave and that drives us to
read novels, watch live performance,
even to watch Netflix is, in part, a
response to feeling trapped in our own
identities and in our own stories. We
are empathetic, imaginative beings
who thrive when we are relating to
stories other than our own, reckoning
with our actual interdependence on
each other and our planet.
What first drew you to become
interested in theater and the arts?
I was a shy, strange kid, and I felt
welcomed in theater classes and
communities. I could be playful, let my
weird self be seen, feel less alone in
the world. And I was inspired by how
much of my interests and curiosities
came into the work. I don’t have to
compromise or to put any of myself
“away” to do my work as a director.
Theater requires research, so the part
of me that loves libraries, books, and
scholarly rabbit holes is fed. Theater
requires an ear for rhythm and an
eye for what is arresting or beautiful,
so my artistic self is nourished. And
theater is fundamentally collaborative,
so my interest in human behavior and
my hunger for community are included
as well. When I realized that theater
demanded all of my brain, my heart,
and my body, that it mobilized all my
intellectual and creative resources, I
knew it was the right path for me.
Do you have a favorite production
that you were a part of at
Swarthmore?
Several years ago, we did A
Midsummer Night’s Dream in Crum
Woods. The cast, singing songs and
holding lanterns, led the audience
down a path through the woods to a
secret wedding tent. It was November,
and so it was cold. We filled the
tent with heaters, rugs, pillows, and
blankets. We served cookies, hot
chocolate, and cider. People cuddled
up with each other and watched
as we opened one side to the night
woods. Because our “backstage” was
expansive, performers could enter
chasing each other across fields
(there’s a lot of chasing in that play), or
swinging down from branches. It was
dizzying and delicious.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
LAURENCE KESTERSON
spoken word
in this issue
MOMENT IN TIME
Copy
+
ALCHEMY
21
Curative Power
Malado Francine Baldwin ’97
says art offers hope in times
of crisis.
by Tara Smith
Malado Francine Baldwin ’97, who imbues
her artwork with “the magical properties
of love,” created a series of “Inner Light”
collars inspired by the late Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsberg. Baldwin gave the yellow collar to
Ginsberg in the fall in honor of her service.
READ MORE: bit.ly/
MOMENT IN TIME
Dance the night away: A physically
distanced outdoor dance this fall allowed
students to engage in some creatively
organized downtime.
WINTER 2021
Periodical Postage
PAID
Philadelphia, PA
and Additional
Mailing Offices
SCENES CHANGE
p22
MURALS MOVE
p52
FAITH TRANSFORMS
p40
500 College Ave.
Swarthmore, PA 19081–1306
www.swarthmore.edu
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN
Almost a quarter of students in the Class of 2024 receive Pell Grants, and 22% are the first
generation in their family to attend college. Swarthmore is committed to keeping college
accessible and affordable. Make a gift today at gift.swarthmore.edu.
LAURENCE KESTERSON
WINTER 2021
HELP US MEET THE NEEDS OF OUR STUDENTS,
ESPECIALLY IN THESE UNCERTAIN TIMES.
seeking
beauty in
turbulence
Swarthmore College Alumni Bulletin 2021-01-01
The Swarthmore College Bulletin is the official alumni magazine of the college. It evolved from the Garnet Letter, a newsletter published by the Alumni Association beginning in 1935. After World War II, college staff assumed responsibility for the periodical, and in 1952 it was renamed the Swarthmore College Bulletin. (The renaming apparently had more to do with postal regulations than an editorial decision. Since 1902, the College had been calling all of its mailed periodicals the Swarthmore College Bulletin, with each volume spanning an academic year and typically including a course catalog issue and an annual report issue, with a varying number of other special issues.)
The first editor of the Swarthmore College Bulletin alumni issue was Kathryn “Kay” Bassett ’35. After a few years, Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49 was appointed editor and held the position for 36 years, during which she reshaped the mission of the magazine from focusing narrowly on Swarthmore College to reporting broadly on the college's impact on the world at large. Gillespie currently appears on the masthead as Editor Emerita.
Today, the quarterly Swarthmore College Bulletin is an award-winning alumni magazine sent to all alumni, parents, faculty, staff, friends of the College, and members of the senior class. This searchable collection spans every issue from 1935 to the present.
Swarthmore College
2021-01-01
reformatted digital
The class notes section of The Bulletin has been extracted in this collection to protect the privacy of alumni. To view the complete version of The Bulletin, contact Friends Historical Library.