This is just a short note to let you know that Mark Vonnegut's father Kurt died a few days ago. Below is a story that appeared in my local newspaper -- The Bloomington Herald-Times -- on April 13 that is a good supplement to the various obituaries in national newspapers:
Vonnegut’s son, Mark, will speak April 27 in Indianapolis in place of his father, who died Wednesday at 84 after suffering brain injuries in a recent fall at his Manhattan home.
Friends and fans who were eagerly awaiting his Butler University speech are now crestfallen, said Chris Cairo, the Marion County Public Library’s director of project development.
“We’re just heartbroken,” she said Thursday.
Vonnegut was set to receive numerous honors during his appearance at Clowes Memorial Hall. Now, those will be presented to Mark Vonnegut, who’s a pediatrician in Milton, Mass.
Cairo said the event will serve as “a public memorial for his friends and adoring fans” who she said felt they knew him through his works that mixed humor with acidic social commentary.
“He’s sort of an uncle we all wanted to meet and shake his hand. And now we can do that through this tribute to him,” she said.
Vonnegut, who authored “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and nearly two dozen other books, was regarded by many critics as a key influence in shaping 20th-century American literature.
He was born and grew up in Indianapolis, the youngest of three children, hailing from an affluent German-American family that played a key role in the city’s early development.
Vonnegut’s paternal grandfather was a prominent architect who designed several Indianapolis landmarks. His father also was an architect, but the family’s fortunes fell sharply during the Great Depression.
Despite those woes and later family tragedies that included his mother’s 1944 suicide, Vonnegut recalled his childhood in Indianapolis as a happy time.
“Indianapolis was home. I had brother and sister and a dog and a cat and a mother and father and the whole thing, uncles and aunts and tons of cousins,” he said in a January interview. “It was all here for me music, science, people so smart you couldn’t believe it, people so dumb you couldn’t believe it, people so nice or so mean you couldn’t believe it.”
Vaughn Hickman, who bought Vonnegut’s childhood home in 1987, said the author dropped by nearly every time he visited Indianapolis.
Invariably, Vonnegut walked to the home’s back porch to look at a concrete banister that contains five handprints those of Vonnegut’s parents, Vonnegut’s tiny childhood handprint and those of his siblings, Alice and Bernard.
A few years ago, Hickman said a friend told he and his wife, Melissa, that he drove by their home and saw a cab parked out front, and Vonnegut standing on the lawn, contemplating the home.
“He stopped by several times when we weren’t home. So we told him, ‘If you’re going to come by let us know and we’ll be there,”’ Hickman said.
He said Vonnegut likely would have come by the house again this month to look at the 11-room Arts and Crafts-style home, which is on the market for about $1.1 million.
When city officials announced in January that 2007 would be “The Year of Vonnegut” with readings and forums intended to encourage people to visit libraries and read Vonnegut said the was “thunderstruck” by the honor.
The tribute at Butler University will include a seven-minute recording of him reading from “Slaughterhouse-Five,” the novel that arose from his firsthand account as a prisoner of war of the Allies’ 1945 firebombing of the German city of Dresden.
The next day, a copy of “Slaughterhouse-Five” will be placed with other items in a time capsule that will be sealed inside the city’s newly expanded Central Library. That capsule is scheduled to be opened in 2057.
-----------------------------
May 24, 2007
Dear Classmates:I am following up on the previous message concerning the death of Kurt Vonnegut. Here is some reporting from a variety of sources on Mark's delivery of a speech that his father wrote for an event in Indianapolis that he was obviously unable to deliver himself:
- http://dawgnetnews.com/archive/070430/4220.html
- http://www.nuvo.net/articles/mark_vonnegut_advocates_museum/
- http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2007-04-29-vonnegut-tribute_N.htm
- http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070505/FEATURES06/705050392/1040
A Note From Mark Vonnegut
In accord with Kurt's wishes, a brief memorial service attended by family and close friends was held on Saturday, April 21, 2007 at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan. An impromptu jazz group played traditional New Orleans music and guests sang along on "I'll Fly Away," "Down by the Riverside," and "Amazing Grace."There was a lot of laughing and crying. Prior to the service, dirt from his garden was deposited at The New York Public Library, the Chrysler Building, Grand Central Station, Times Square, and three places in Central Park -- the statue of Balto, the Avenue of Literature, and the Dairy Building.
We're all a little puzzled about what to do next but we'll think of something.
Mark Vonnegut
May 7, 2007
source: http://yearofvonnegut.org/
After reading about Kurt Vonnegut, Karen Rosin Sollins was moved to write about the recent death of her father:
Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 14:51:20 -0400
To: hartj@indiana.edu
From: "Karen R. Sollins" <sollins@csail.mit.edu>
Subject: my father died recently also
Hi Jeff,
My father, Axel Rosin, died on March 27th at home in Manhattan. He was married to a Swarhmore grad, my mother Katharine Scherman Rosin ('38), the father of one, me, grandfather to one, my son Peter Sollins ('98), and grandfather-in-law to one, Amy Tapia Sollins ('97) my daughter-in-law. Attached is his obituary from the NY Times.
Although he was very ill (had had Parkinson's for many years) and very old (99), it is still difficult to lose a parent. My heart goes out to Mark Vonnegut.
Axel obit NYT 070328.pdf
Finally, here is a short message from Michael Hattersley:
From: Mehatt@aol.com
Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 21:43:23 EDT
Hey Jeff. Mark was a dorm mate my freshman year and I have a couple of vivid memories of him -- and also of Paul Williams who was founding Crawdaddy during that period. It's great to be reminded of that time - -65-66 when, for me at least, learning to become a bohemian morphed into political/hippiedom. Recently visited my step-nephew who's now a senior at Swarthmore, stayed in his suite, went to the concerts and parties -- had great time, talked to a lot of wonderful kids, and sort of enjoyed feeling like a relic of another age.
Best -- Michael Hattersley
In the recent Swarthmore Alumni Magazine there is a short item about Judy Lorick and a new book published by Rich Wolfson:
http://www.swarthmore.edu/bulletin/index.php?id=517
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-University-Physics-MasteringPhysics-Richard/dp/0805392122/ref=pd_bbs_4/104-1700281-5128756?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179989151&sr=8-4
----------------------
Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2007 00:18:36 -0400
From: Jeffrey Hart <hartj@indiana.edu>
Subject: Swarthmore Class of 1969 News
-------------------------------
Date: Wed, 13 Jun
2007 15:20:57 -0400
From: Jeffrey Hart <hartj@indiana.edu>
Subject: Swarthmore Class of 1969 News
I messed up on the link for the video of Sheryl Graves. Here is the correct link:
http://openvault.wgbh.org/saybrother/MLA001089/index.html
Chris Grant still works on vaccines for Aventis, but the name of the firm changed when Sanofi Pasteur acquired Aventis. Here is a recent article about her:
Christine M. Grant
Christine Grant, Former New Jersey Cabinet Member and Commissioner of Health and Senior Services and is a nationally recognized expert on healthcare and pharmaceutical law, financing, and public health crises. Chris is Founder and CEO of InfecDetect, a company dedicated to optimize utilization of rapid diagnostic tests for infectious and food-borne diseases.
Chris became active with the [American Bar Association's] Section of Science & Technology Law in 1997 when she was a panelist on the Section's Presidential Showcase Program "Science and Technology Law for the New Millennium." She served on the Section's Council, and worked to revitalize the Public Health, Bioterrorism and Environmental Law committee of the Physical and Life Sciences Division. She developed the Section's 2004 Annual Meeting program in Atlanta "What You and Your Client Need to Know about
Pandemics," and a leadership visit to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). A 2007 session on Life-Science and the Law "Fast forward 2007” is being planned for the San Francisco Annual Meeting. She and colleagues organized a teleconference “Food
Safety It's on everyone's Regulatory Menu” in June 2006. She worked on the committee drafting a Homeland security grant application. She has written several articles for The SciTech Lawyer.
Chris has also served on the AAAS/ABA
National Conference for
Lawyers and Scientists (NCLS). She has worked to bring several new
members into the
section and build relationships with the CDC and the Sloan Foundations
UNC Law and
Public Health Program. She co-authored the article "21st -Century
Scientific Evidence
Issues in Public Health: Quarantines and Takings" in the Section's
recently published Scientific Evidence Review Monograph No.7. Chris is
currently the Section Secretary. Chris emphasizes team work with other Section committees, the
Health Law Section and
outside groups including the Federal Centers for Disease Control and the
American
Association for the Advancement of Science to extend the reach of the
Section. She
graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in Zoology. She also has
degrees
from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business, and
Rutgers Law
School in Newark, where she was business manager and an editor of the
Law Review.
She's had careers in law, as an associate at McCarter & English, New
Jersey, as well as
in government and pharmaceutical companies Merck and Aventis (now
Sanofi Pasteur).
She has tremendous respect and interest in the Section's cyber law and
IP law roots and
its emphasis on maintaining diversity. She hopes to bridge the talents
and interests of all
in the Section. She is particularly interested in retaining SciTech's
unique features while
building stronger programming and publishing links to natural ABA
partners in
Intellectual Property Law, International Law, General Practice Solo and
Small Firm
Division, and Health Law among others.
Source:
http://www.abanet.org/scitech/docs/Nominating_Committee_Report_for_2007.pdf
--------------------------------------
Sarah Vaugh Sayre has retired from teaching at Carroll Community College
in Maryland. Here is the story:
http://www.lundwall.com/carroll/summer06/story2.html
I strongly recommend that you register with the Swarthmore College
alumni online system to let everyone know your current address. The new
system allows you to keep your email address confidential and only
allows other registered alumni to send you messages. Here is the URL:
http://www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/SWT/homepage.cgi
--------------------------------------------------
From: Ginny Moore <tgmoore@gci.net>
Here we're revelling in our midnight sun and finally some real summer
weather - and we suddenly have two new grandchildren 8 months apart. Our
granddaughter, Frida, lives in Homer, 250 miles away. Her parents are
both bird biologists and her father is from Germany, so they are hoping
to bring her up bilingual - so far she speaks German just as well as she
speaks English - but it all sounds like Babel! Springer is our brand
new grandson and he lives just a mile away by trail. Today the whole
family is here! These are our greatest successes!
I'm still working as an energy use consultant, doing a variety of things
from educational classes in bush communities to building databases for
tracking energy audits and savings.
We'd love to have visits from any classmates who might find themselves
in the Anchorage area!
Thanks for re-connecting.
Ginny Moore
-------------------------------------
interesting story about Fania Davis:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5422563
--------------------------------------
From: "Glen Castore" <gcastore@ll.net>
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 19:47:12 -0500
Jeff,
Barbara Zaveruha ('70) and I are building a wood-fired pottery
kiln. A project long in planning but many other things intervene, such as
getting the house in liveable condition. I am a scavenger in the local
economy, working on projects ranging from helping a small company get some
business process in place to financing a waste treatment facility for a
local food (is ice cream really food?) manufacturer. Barb is doing pottery
full time, selling it locally, and enjoying it tremendously. I hope you are
well.
Glen
-------------------------
Leonard Nakamura just sent this:
From: Leonard.Nakamura@phil.frb.org
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2007 13:06:28 -0400
Dear Jeff,
Sad news. Margaret Helfand died on June 20 after a brief intense battle with metastatic colon cancer. Peggy, as you know, played a large role in the upgrading of the Swarthmore campus, particularly with her designs for Kohlberg Hall and the Science Center.
There was a notice in the NYTimes: ARTS | June 29, 2007
The following was published in the Architectural Record
Margaret Helfand, Noted Female Architect, Dies at 59
June 26, 2007
by Suzanne Stephens
Margaret Helfand, FAIA, died June 20 at the age of 59. Her death was due to colon cancer. Since she opened her office in 1981, Helfand had created a body of work distinguished for its clean, Modernist vocabulary and skillful use of natural materials, combined with a quiet and subtle inventiveness. Her commitment to the craft of construction, the exploration of materials of varying textures, as well as her attention to details, set Helfand apart from a number of her colleagues.
Photo: Courtesy Helfand Architecture
Margaret Helfand
Except for a brief partnership, Helfand practiced on her own and gradually broke through gender typecasting. Female architects often find themselves relegated to designing houses and interiors for their entire careers, but Helfand was able to start small and go on to execute the large-scale institutional and commercial work that is more frequently the preserve of her male counterparts.
Helfand’s best known projects include such major school buildings as Kohlberg Hall at Swarthmore College, in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania (in association with Eckstut Ehrenkrantz and Kuhn, RECORD, February 1997, page 70), and Unified Science Center, also at Swarthmore College (in collaboration with Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, RECORD December 2004, page 198).
At Kohlberg Hall, Helfand’s combination of ashlar and cobweb gneiss with granite fit the Modernist building supremely well within the context of stone and slate collegiate-Gothic structures at the wooded campus. In the Unified Science Center, Helfand designed laboratory and social gathering spaces again using local stone in a manner that invokes Alvar Aalto’s and Eliel Saarinen’s architecture.
In her design for Automated Trading Desk, in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (with McKellar & Associates, RECORD, June, 2003, page 156), Helfand created a headquarters acclaimed for the way individual work places are integrated with the landscape. In addition to creating large-scale projects, Helfand also continued designing interiors, including the offices of Time Out magazine at two successive locations in New York City and one in Chicago. At the time of her death, the first phase of Helfand’s renovations for educational facilities at Friends Seminary, New York, was nearing completion.
Throughout her career, Helfand remained committed to serving the architectural community. Following 9/11, during her term as the president of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects, she was co-chair of New York New Visions, a coalition of numerous organizations, including the AIA, which proposed to government agencies urban design and planning guidelines for rebuilding the World Trade Center site.
“Helfand wanted to ensure the public was involved in the planning procedures,” says Frederic Bell, FAIA, executive director of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects. “She was very giving of herself and her time to the architectural community, which is often so difficult to do for a sole practitioner. She managed to do that and turn out an exemplary body of architectural work.”
From 1999 to 2003, Helfand acted as the chair for the Premises Committee for the Center for Architecture, a building being designed especially for the New York A.I.A. on La Guardia Place. While involved in this ad hoc task force overseeing the Center’s construction, Helfand was also a prodigious fundraiser for the chapter. In 2006, she designed the installation for the exhibition “The Fashion of Architecture, Constructing the Architecture of Fashion” at the Center.
Helfand won a Rome Prize to work in residence at the American Academy in Rome from 2002-2003, one of numerous awards recognizing her accomplishments. She was named a Fellow of the AIA in 1998.
Born in Pasadena in 1947, Helfand attended Swarthmore College from 1965-68, and completed her undergraduate education at the University of California Berkeley in 1969. A year later, she enrolled at the Architectural Association School, in London, where she also studied at the International Institute of Design. During this period, she and a group of friends bought a 90-foot-long, three-masted schooner, rebuilt it, and sailed to Spain and the Caribbean.
Helfand returned to Berkeley, where she earned an M.Arch. in 1973, and then sailed another year from Costa Rica across the South Pacific. Her experience on the boat, as Paola Antonelli writes in the introduction to Margaret Helfand Architects: Essential Architecture, gave her experience in carpentry and cabinet making. It also instilled a love of vernacular architecture. In addition to sailing, Helfand considered her interest in modern dance, as a performer and spectator, to be instrumental in the understanding of the movement of the body through architectural space.
During the early 1970s, Helfand worked for Backen Arrigoni & Ross, Hank Bruce Architects, and Skidmore Owings & Merrill in San Francisco, before coming to New York City in 1975, where she joined Marcel Breuer Associates. She remained there until she opened her own office. In 2005, she opened a special joint firm with Tanner and Hecht, in San Francisco, to pursue institutional work in California.
Helfand is survived by her husband of 28 years, Jon Turner, and a sister, Judy Helfand, of Kenwood, California.
-----------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Jul 2007 17:43:58 -0400
Here is a recent message from Belle Brett:
From: "Belle Brett" <bellebrett@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: A Memory of Margaret Helfand
Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007 18:26:09 -0400
I was saddened to read of the death of the talented Margaret "Peggy" Helfand. My only sister died four years ago at age 58, also of colon cancer. Last year, our class lost another Peggy--Peggy Hollyday, who was part of my inner circle of S'more friends. We are at an age when many of us have said goodbye to our parents. If we (and they) have been lucky, they lived full and long lives. But when one of our contemporaries passes away, it is unsettling, especially where there has been some kind of connection.
Margaret Helfand was my freshman roommate. Other than an interest in art, we couldn't have been more different--I, the sheltered, somewhat naive East Coaster, she, the sophisticated, West Coaster, who had already spent some time at college. I remember those first few weeks when the pain of walking into Sharples alone was so great that I would wait for her to show up on the terrace at lunchtime. Sometimes the waits were long, but she was always very nice to me despite what must have seemed like somewhat pathetic behavior. We went our separate ways in the middle of the year when she moved to a single, allowing me to also have a single, a rarity for freshmen. We didn't keep up with each other. But at our last reunion, I was enthralled by her tour of the science center she had designed, and we had a brief, but nice conversation about our lives. I am grateful for that moment of reconnection.
I wish the rest of you good health and long life.
Belle Brett
----------------------------
See the transcript of the recent Bruce Fein appearance on the New Hour at:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/jan-june07/showdown_06-28.html
-------------------------
Date:
Wed, 04 Jul 2007 14:48:35 -0400
dorothy twining globus.
-----------------------------------
Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:42:54 -0400To: hartj@indiana.edu
From: Jeffrey Hart <hartj@indiana.edu>
Subject: Class of 1969 News
Carl Kendall is the new holder of the Stan Fulton Endowed Chair in Health Disparities at New Mexico State University. This endowed chair, established in 2004, will provide funding for a professor and director for the Southwest Center for Health Disparities Research.
Kendall is new to NMSU after a career at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in Louisiana. He has collaborated with colleagues in more than 40 countries to address global problems of maternal and childhood illnesses, vector-borne diseases, and HIV/AIDS. Currently Kendall manages projects in eight countries with full-time staff in four of those countries.
Source: https://engr.nmsu.edu/news_publications/news_07_01_17_nmsu_fac_honors.htm
------------------------------
Lewis Pyenson selected as dean of Graduate College
[at Western Michigan University]
March 28, 2006
KALAMAZOO--As the result of a national search, Dr. Lewis
R. Pyenson, a research professor and historian at the
University of Louisiana-Lafayette, is set to assume the
role of dean of the Western Michigan University Graduate
College, effective June 15.
A scholar with extensive international experience,
Pyenson served as dean of Louisiana's Graduate School
for six years, from 1995 to 2001, before moving to his
current role as research professor at the Center for
Louisiana Studies and professor of history. Pyenson,
whose academic focus is the history of science, also is
an adjunct professor of physics, philosophy, modern
languages and cognitive science at UL-Lafayette, a
school with some 16,000 students, including nearly 1,700
at the graduate level.
Pyenson's background includes faculty affiliations with
such schools as the universities of Toronto and Montreal
and the Virtual University of Quilmes in Argentina. He
also has served as a visiting fellow at Princeton and as
Suntory lecturer at four Japanese universities. In
addition, he served in 2000 as a Rockefeller Foundation
Fellow in Argentina at the Ethnographical Museum in
Buenos Aires, the Atomic Research Center in Bariloche
and the Cordoba Academy of Sciences. In 2005, he
lectured as the George Sarton Chair at the University of
Ghent in Belgium, and he is the recipient of the 2006
Herbert C. Pollock Award of the Dudley Observatory in
Schenectady, New York.
"Dr. Pyenson brings with him a successful track record
in graduate program leadership as well as a wealth of
experience as an active scholar in his own right," says
Dr. Linda Delene, WMU provost and vice president for
academic affairs. "His background is an unusual blend of
science and the humanities that I think will be
invaluable in his work here at WMU. This University will
benefit from his energetic leadership and creativity as
well as the unique point of view that comes from his own
research and writing. He will also participate in the
comprehensive review of graduate programs now under
way."
A prolific writer, Pyenson is the author or co-author of
six books and scores of book chapters and professional
articles. His books include "The Young Einstein: The
Advent of Relativity," "The Art of Teaching Physics,"
co-edited with Jean-François Gauvin, and "Servants of
Nature: A History of Scientific Institutions,
Enterprises, and Sensibilities," which he wrote with
co-author Susan Sheets-Pyenson.
Pyenson says he's eager to begin his new role and
expects to visit campus several times before his
official start date. He notes that his conversations
with colleagues around the world in recent weeks have
revealed a wealth of good will and shown him the breadth
of the University's reputation.
"Western has a strong presence internationally, and I've
been pleased at the number of different graduate
programs people talk about when I bring up WMU," Pyenson
says. "What really strikes me, across the board, is the
strength of the programs and the encouraging balance
between professional and traditional academic programs
on campus. And the quality of the facilities is really
impressive."
Pyenson says he sees great potential for the University
as a whole and its graduate programs in particular.
"This is a time of great change in higher education," he
notes, "but I think it's also a time of opportunity for
enterprising institutions to rise to national
prominence."
Pyenson serves on the advisory board for the journals
History of Science (Cambridge) and Historical Studies in
the Physical and Biological Sciences (Berkeley). He also
is on the international advisory board for Japanese and
Argentine journals focused on science history. He is a
fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a corresponding
member of the International Academy of History of
Science in Paris, and an elected member of Sigma Xi and
Phi Kappa Phi honor societies.
He earned a bachelor's degree with honors in physics
from Swarthmore College in 1969, a master's degree in
physics from the University of Wyoming in 1970 and a
doctoral degree in the history of science from Johns
Hopkins University in 1974.
Source:
http://www.wmich.edu/wmu/news/2006/03/091.html
-----------------------
------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 07 Jul 2007 14:45:43 -0400To: hartj@indiana.edu
From: Jeffrey Hart <hartj@indiana.edu>
Subject: Swarthmore Class of 1969 News
I heard from both Carl Kendell and Lew Pyenson in the last few days. Lew calls it the Katrina Diaspora.
Carl is apparently maintaining his ties to Tulane while trying out New Mexico State.
I got the following message from Ellen Daniell:
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 21:18:02 -0800 (GMT-08:00)
From: Ellen Daniell <ellen_daniell@earthlink.net>
Dear Jeff,
I just saw an obituary in last Friday's NYTimes for Margaret Helfand. In case this is the first you've heard of it, here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/arts/29helfand.html
The Swarthmore science buildings are mentioned.
At our last reunion I spent a fascinating hour talking to Margaret about our very different experiences of Swarthmore in 1965-67, her reasons for leaving, and our lives since then. She was truly eloquent discussing and explaining architecture (including her opinion of the designs submitted for the World Trade Center Memorial --- also mentioned in the Times obituary.) We exchanged cards, I "meant to get in touch" when I was in New York, never did, and I regret that I missed that opportunity. She was a champion of beauty, simplicity, and respect for the environment; Swarthmore was fortunate in choosing her to design the science center.
Ellen
Ellen Daniell
Ellen_Daniell@earthlink.net
(510) 531-6261
Here are a few URLs that also deal with Margaret Helfand's demise:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3575/is_n1202_v201/ai_20757198
http://archrecord.construction.com/news/daily/archives/070626helfand.asp
http://www.aiany.org/eOCULUS/newsletter/?p=576
The following has pictures of the Swarthmore Science Center:
http://www.birdsandbuildings.org/docs/MargaretHelfand.pdf
-------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:02:21 -0400
--------------------
Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2007 00:19:29 -0400To: hartj@indiana.edu
From: Jeffrey Hart <hartj@indiana.edu>
Subject: Swarthmore Class of 1969 News
------------------------
Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:24:38 -0400To: hartj@indiana.edu
From: Jeffrey Hart <hartj@indiana.edu>
Subject: Swarthmore Class of 1969 News
From: "Arisika Razak" <arazak@ciis.edu>
Dear Jeffrey:
When I was at Swarthmore, I was known as Donna Allen. I received an African name while at Swarthmore and legally changed my name in 1981. I am currently working at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, California. I teach and direct the Integrative Health Studies (MA) Program there and I am also an Associate Professor of the Women’s Spirituality (MA and PhD) Program. I have worked as a nurse midwife, women’s health advocate, and health care administrator for over 25 years; my artistic work integrates the disciplines of Women's Studies/ Women's Spirituality, and Women's Health and Spiritual Dance. Last spring I was honored along with 14 other women as a “Dream Speaker” for my artistic work as a dancer by the Purple Moon Dance Project. My film credits include: A Place of Rage by Pratibha Parma which explores the work and struggles of African American women activists Alice Walker, June Jordan and Angela Davis; Fire Eyes by Soraya Mire, the first full length feature film by an African woman to explore the issue of female genital cutting; and Who Lives Who Dies a PBS special on health care services to marginalized and underserved populations. Tomorrow I will be presenting on "Birth and the Healing Wisdom of Earth-Based Traditions." in a telephone interview for the New School at Commonweal from 10 AM till 11:30 AM (PST). If any one wants to be part of the call, they should dial the main conference number: 866-740-1260. They will also need to enter this access code: 8680970.
I am interested in locating Bunty Barus, Carl Barus’ wife and wonder if anyone has an address and phone/e-mail numbers for her.
Best wishes to all,
Arisika Razak
----------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 23:03:55 -0400To: hartj@indiana.edu
From: Jeffrey Hart <hartj@indiana.edu>
Subject: Swarthmore Class of 1969 News
Subject: Margaret Helfand
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 11:53:53 -0400
For the time being, Jeff Lott at the Swarthmore Bulletin has turned me down for an article about Margaret Helfand. The magazine has a no-obituaries and no-weddings policy--which makes sense, when you think about it. Maybe when a year or two has passed, I can sell him something about the college and its architects, and Peggy will get her due then.
He did crack the door open a little, asking for something short for the letters column. I sent him an appreciation of Peggy, as short as I could make it. He may trim it some more, if he prints it--and even that will take months to appear. So I thought I'd share the whole text right now with your '69 network.
Best,
David
David Wright
dwrightmusic@earthlink.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Editor,
I'd like to note the passing of my classmate, the architect Margaret Helfand '69, last June 20, from cancer. Her beautiful and useful designs for Kohlberg Hall and the Science Center have transformed Swarthmore's upper campus, and will be enjoyed by generations of students and faculty who don't know her name, and may barely notice what wonderful spaces they're in as they rush on their daily rounds.
In college days we called her Peggy, but later she told me that girlish nicknames don't help you get ahead in her male-dominated profession. (Boyish nicknames are just fine, of course.) So Margaret Helfand it was.
And she did get ahead, designing many noted buildings and eventually becoming president of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Margaret came back to campus to take people around the Science Center, and I was lucky to be along for the tour. She described how the materials and the shape of the building came from talking to the people who would use it. She forgot to mention what a master she was of complex architectural forms that both arise from and benefit their sites. She didn't need to--it was right there in front of us.
Her obituary in "Architectural Record" was headlined "Margaret Helfand, 59, Noted Female Architect." Ouch! Would you say Eudora Welty, noted female author? Or Georgia O'Keeffe, noted female artist?
But I guess the headline, in its clumsy way, was trying to say that Margaret helped make a path for women to the top. Maybe also that Margaret improved her profession with personal traits that are thought of as feminine--the ability to listen and make something better, a sense of the context of what you do, and modesty and a sense of humor, which get you places that behaving self-importantly does not.
We will miss her. But it's good to know that her vision is now tangibly a part of Swarthmore.
David Wright '69
Wellesley, Mass.
(781) 235-0349
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Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 23:04:40 -0400To: hartj@indiana.edu
From: Jeffrey Hart <hartj@indiana.edu>
Subject: Swarthmore Class of 1969 News
I have decided to put all future class photos on Flickr. For a sample of pictures regarding Margaret Helfand and her work, see:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/90338469@N00/sets/72157601159648142/
Let me know if you think this is a better or worse way to update the picture archives.
------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:41:01 -0400To: hartj@indiana.edu
From: Jeffrey Hart <hartj@indiana.edu>
Subject: Swarthmore Class of 1969 News
Mike Schudson has moved to a new position at Columbia University:
http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/cs/ContentServer/jrn/1165270051276/JRN_Profile_C/1165270082820/JRNFacultyDetail.htm
I learned this from the October 1, 2007 issue of Newsweek in which he was quoted on matters regarding citizenship tests:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/41772
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a not-so-recent message from Debbie Averill:
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 07:51:40 -0500
From: Debbie Averill
Subject: Changed e-mail address and news
I was getting entirely too much spam, so I now have a new e-mail address. It is debbie2007@edaverill.com .
News: I just completed a post-master's certificate in therapy with adoptive families through Portland State University. Hoping to retire from the state child welfare agency and do a very part-time private practice for a few years. As part of the program I designed a training curriculum for foster parents hoping to adopt children already in their care. This has been a missing piece in our system for a long time, so we hope to implement the curriculum soon. If it works well in my county, then I will think about marketing it around the state after I retire. It's copy-written, so I hope to make a bit of money with it.
Ed and I are planning our retirement home. We intend to build a geodesic dome home on two acres we have purchased in southwest Washington. The land has a wonderful view of the Columbia River. It is where the river turns north, and we see it looking west. The sunsets are fabulous.
That's about it from here.
Debbie Averill
----------------------------------
Here is an embarassingly old message from Lyle Snider:
From: "Lyle B. Snider" <snider123@alltel.net>
Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:20:41 -0400
Dear Jeffrey,
Flickr is a fine way to post photos on the net. Whatever works for you. Thanks so much for helping us keep track of each other.
Earlier this month, my wife, Cynthia Cole, and I had a great week at a NC beach with two sons, their wives & their 3 grandchildren ranging in age from 2 – almost 5. The grandchildren had a great time finding mole crabs, hermit crabs, and small clams. We also enjoyed cooking & eating fresh seafood & local fruits and veggies. I am blessed with a wife and children who are VERY good cooks.
Best Wishes! Lyle
Lyle B. Snider, Ph.D., PLLC
Big Sandy Regional Public Health Epidemiologist
Headwaters Health Consulting and Analysis
224 Eversole Street
Hazard, KY 41701
(606) 436-8860
cell (606) 438-2758
----------------------
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:34:58 -0400To: hartj@indiana.edu
From: Jeffrey Hart <hartj@indiana.edu>
Subject: Swarthmore Class of 1969 News
-------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:42:15 -0400To: hartj@indiana.edu
From: Jeffrey Hart <hartj@indiana.edu>
Subject: Swarthmore Class of 1969 News
I just received the following message from Randall Larrimore:
Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 05:07:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Randall Larrimore <rwlarrimore@yahoo.com>
Subject: Swarthmore Class of 1969 News Update
To: Jeff Hart <hartj@indiana.edu>
Jeff,
I sent this to the Swarthmore Alumni Office, but I'm also sending it to you for your "Swarthmore Class of 1969 News". I hope all is well with you. Thanks so much for keeping us all updated.
I married my high school sweetheart, Eileen, in April 2007 in a small family wedding. (Eileen and I dated during my freshman year at Swarthmore, so many of you may have met her.) After I separated from my former wife, we discovered through our relatives that both of us were "single" and eventually met in NYC after not seeing each other for 40 years. We discovered that our interests had become aligned, that our value systems were the same and that we still enjoyed each other's company. Interestingly, Donna Hanover, former wife of Rudy Giuliani, married her high school love and wrote a book called My Boyfriend’s Back about why so many previous sweethearts reconnect. She found that there are strong biological and psychological forces that drive the rekindled love experience. One, of course, is the trauma of dating new people -- strangers about whom you know little. Reunited sweethearts start with the same value system and trust one another. They know each other’s families; they walked the same streets, shared similar experiences, went to the same church and had many of the same friends. We found this to be so true -- getting together again was like going home. It’s been wonderful. From our engagement after a Frankie Valli concert (“Let’s Hang On” was the song playing when I gave Eileen my high school ring) to recreating our 1964 high school prom for our reception, it’s been a whirlwind of memories.
Recently I was selected as one of 25 value-based leaders profiled in a new book: Apples Are Square: Thinking Differently About Leadership, by Susan and Thomas Kuczmarski. The book outlines six critical values needed to lead and succeed in today’s workplace – humility, compassion, transparency, inclusiveness, collaboration and values-based decisiveness. The authors based their conclusions on extensive interviews with 25 “pioneering leaders who embody these values and offer an important alternative approach to leadership,” (Chicago Sun-Times, 7/12/07). As Business Week wrote in their September 28, 2007 issue, “Apples Are Square makes an effective case for risk-taking within a framework of humanity.” A more extensive summary of my thoughts on value-based leadership can be found at http://www.swarthmore.edu/bulletin/index.php?id=121. This website contains the keynote speech I gave at the Lax Conference at Swarthmore. It details how my life led me to a strong belief in value-based leadership, how such leadership creates more profitable companies, discusses my views on leadership and tries to convince students that they can make a difference.
On a more serious note, I recently had a Robotic Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy at Vanderbilt University. Fortunately, the prostate cancer was caught at a very early stage and the biopsy results indicated that all of the cancer was removed. The recovery has been relatively painless and I am suffering almost no side effects. One bit of advice:
be sure to check the change in your PSA from one year to the next. My level was not really out of line; it was the velocity of the PSA change that indicated a biopsy should be done. I’d be happy to discuss the various options with anyone facing prostate cancer.
Currently I'm retired, although I still serve on a two corporate boards, Campbell Soup Company and Olin Corporation, which allows me to remain engaged in the business world. Eileen and I travel, go to the theater, visit museums and enjoy each other. Life is good, as I hope it is with you.
Warm regards,
Randy
Randall W. Larrimore
PO Box 1180
Bethany Beach DE 19930
302-537-1506
322 S. Fayette Street
Alexandria VA 22314
703-888-2073
cell: 847-508-6223
rwlarrimore@yahoo.com
---------------------------------------------------------
Googling last week I discovered the sad news of the death of Joanne Luoto:
http://nihrecord.od.nih.gov/newsletters/2006/10_20_2006/10202006_Record.pdf
go to p. 13
------------------------------------------------------------
You can find a recent picture of Jack Lohr at
http://www.pcfl.org/PastorsMessages/
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you know that classmate Stephan Lynn was in the emergency room when John Lennon was
brought in mortally wounded?
Recalling the Night He Held Lennon's Still Heart
By COREY KILGANNONPublished: December 8, 2005 in the New York Times
Even now, 25 years later, many John Lennon fans can vividly recall the helplessness and frustration they felt on Dec. 8, 1980, when the singer was shot outside the Dakota.
Skip to next paragraph
![[]](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/12/08/nyregion/08lenn184.jpg)
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Dr. Stephan G. Lynn was running the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital on Dec. 8, 1980, the night John Lennon was fatally shot.
So can Dr. Stephan G. Lynn, who was running the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital that night. He felt Lennon's death firsthand: He was the one who grasped Lennon's heart, massaging it to try to force it to pump again. It never did.
"There was just nothing left to pump," Dr. Lynn recalled in an interview. "There was so much damage to the major blood vessels leading from the heart" that his blood just leaked out.
Dr. Lynn, 58, is still an emergency physician at Roosevelt. He stood in the bustling emergency room in his scrubs one recent morning and recalled the night 25 years ago when the police carried in the singer. Lennon's vital signs showed that he was already dead when he arrived at the emergency room, and after a 20-minute battle to resuscitate him, Dr. Lynn and two other doctors officially declared him dead.
"All the nurses broke out in tears, and most of us said, 'What just happened here?' " Dr. Lynn said. "There was a sense we had all just witnessed a major event."
That Dr. Lynn would have a bit part in history was not immediately apparent when he rushed to the emergency room that night. He had been called back to work to treat a man with three gunshot wounds to the chest. The patient had a pierced lung and no pulse. He was not breathing or moving and had lost a lot of blood. He was gaunt, and his hair was a mess. He was not wearing any glasses.
"When someone said it was John Lennon, I thought it was a bad joke," Dr. Lynn said. "But then they found his ID in his pocket, and he had something like $1,000 in cash on him."
Dr. Lynn recalls that he was too busy to let the news sink in. He and two other doctors cut open Lennon's chest to find blood flooding his chest cavity. "The bullets were amazingly well-placed," he said. "All the major blood vessels leaving the heart were a mush, and there was no way to fix it."
Lennon was pronounced dead at 11:15 p.m.
Dr. Lynn was faced with the task of delivering the news to Yoko Ono.
"When I told her, she said: 'You're lying; it can't be true. He's not dead. I don't believe you,' " he recalled. "She threw herself down on the floor and began banging her head on the ground. I was afraid we'd have a second patient. But after two minutes, she accepted it and asked me to delay announcing the news to the media for 20 minutes because her son Sean was home watching the news, and she wanted to tell him first."
The commotion surrounding Lennon's treatment at the hospital caught the attention of another patient, Alan J. Weiss, a producer for WABC-TV who was being treated for a head injury from a motorcycle accident. After seeing Ms. Ono and hearing the police talking about Lennon, Mr. Weiss called the station, which relayed the news to Howard Cosell, to announce during "Monday Night Football." A thicket of reporters and fans gathered outside the hospital. Dr. Lynn walked out to them, blood spattered on his white coat, and told them that John Lennon had just been pronounced dead.
Asked how he felt at the time, Dr. Lynn, a longtime Beatles fan, replied stiffly that emergency doctors are taught not to feel but only to react to medical emergencies. He stifled a slight quiver and gave this clinical judgment: "I think the world would have been substantially different if we could have saved him."
Then he excused himself and returned to his bustling emergency room.
---------------------
To: hartj@indiana.edu
From: Jeffrey Hart <hartj@indiana.edu>
Subject: Swarthmore Class of 1969 News
Today I get to report on the musical activities of some of our classmates.
John Bowdoin Greenly is a clarinetist in chamber music, orchestras and wind ensembles in the Ithaca, NY area. He has played clarinet and bass clarinet with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Binghamton Philharmonic and the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and has been a soloist with orchestras in Germany and France. His principal teacher was Leon Lester of the Philadelphia Orchestra. John produces, writes and performs in programs for the Ithaca chamber music group Music's Recreation, whose family-friendly concerts introduce people of all ages to the delights of chamber music. John is an avid student of the music of birdsong, and helps to teach birders in the Spring Field Ornithology class at Cornell. Here is a recording of John playing a duet with a Hermit Thrush (recording produced by Lang Elliott, NatureSound Studio, with William Cowdery, piano). In January 2007 John co-wrote and performed in the final concert of the 2007 Light in Winter Festival in Ithaca NY. The program, called "The Birds That Roar", was devoted to natural sounds and music inspired by them, and explored also the use of sounds for communication by insects and birds, and finally, how natural sounds were transformed by the Oscar-winning movie sound designer Gary Rydstrom to make the voices of dinosaurs in the "Jurassic Park" movies. John had the great pleasure to play with the piano trio Innisfree on the faculty concert series at SUNY New Paltz in February 2007, with Music on Monhegan compatriots Sylvia and Susan. John has been a research physicist at Cornell University for twenty-five years. He first sailed to Monhegan thirty years ago, and has visited every year since his son Tony was born, heeding the irresistible call of Maine to their Bowdoin family genes.
John's research deals with plasma physics.
http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DPP07/Event/71321
He holds a patent on a device that generates pulsed ion beams:
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPATRE37100&id=UYQGAAAAEBAJ&dq=RE37,100
Fred Feinstein as member of a DC-area cajun band called Squeeze Bayou:
http://users.rcn.com/fredfeinstein/squeeze/
Go to the site to see a picture of Fred and his wife, Karen Collins. You can buy the band's CDs there too.
Fred Feinstein gave testimony on the immigration bill this summer for the SEIU:
http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/Feinstein070524.pdf
Here is more about Fred:
Fred Feinstein, host of WorkLife, was general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, the nation's chief labor law prosecutor, for nearly six years during the Clinton Administration. During that time, Fred received four "Hammer Awards" for innovations in the operations of the Office of the General Counsel. Before that, he served for 17 years as chief labor counsel and staff director of the U.S. House of Representatives Labor-Management Relations Subcommittee. Fred is currently a visiting professor and senior fellow in the Office of Executive Programs at the University of Maryland at College Park, where he teaches, writes on labor issues and develops executive education programs. He is also a member of the popular Cajun band, Squeeze Bayou. Fred is married to musician and teacher Karen Collins, and they have two children, Emma and Sam.
You can see a video with Dorothy Twining Globus talking about collecting at:
http://www.philoctetes.org/Past_Programs/The_Mind_of_the_Collector
Carolyn Cymbalak Foster continues to appear at meeting about competitive intelligence. See:
http://knowledgeispower.typepad.com/knowledge_is_power/2007/10/meeting-oct-9-o.html
There is an update of info about Sherryl Graves at:
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/education/dept/ucare/Sherryl%20Graves.htm
Joan and I ran into John McDowell at a play last week. He is working on finding a way to preserve the IU Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology's Folklore Archives.
His web site can be found at:
http://www.indiana.edu/~jmcd/index.htm
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