The College Magazine Summer 2009

CollegeTheS u m m e r 2 0 0 9

S t . J o h n ’ s C o l l e g e • A n n a p o l i s • S a n t a F e

Frederick DouglassConsidering Freedom

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The Collegeis published three times a year by St. John’s College, Annapolis, MD,

and Santa Fe, NM

Known office of publication:Communications Office

St. John’s CollegeBox 2800

Annapolis, MD 21404-2800

Periodicals postage paid at Annapolis, MD

postmaster: Send addresschanges to The College

Magazine, CommunicationsOffice, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD

21404-2800.

Rosemary Harty (AGI09), editor443-716-4011

[email protected]

Patricia Dempsey,managing editor

Jennifer Behrens, art director

The College welcomes letters onissues of interest to readers.

Letters can be sent via e-mail tothe editor or mailed to the

address above.

Annapolis410-626-2539

Santa Fe505-984-6104

Contributors

Sophia KoltavarySara Luell (A09)

Laurel Pappas (A09)Nathaniel Roe (SF08)Deborah Spiegelman

Curtis Wilson (HA93)

Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design

“It is only by the practice of the liberal arts that the human animal becomes a free man. It is only by discipline in these arts that spiritual, moral, and civil liberties can be achievedand preserved. It is in such obvious propositions as these that the founding fathers of 1784and 1789 gave reasons for the institutions they set up.”

Scott Buchanan, Bulletin of St. John’s College, 1937-38.

O n F r e e d o m

The roughly chronological structure of the St. John’s Program puts readingssuch as Marbury v. Madison and Abraham Lincoln’s speeches in senior year.These readings allow students to think deeply about governing and beinggoverned just as they are about to emerge from a college created, in part, torender them educated citizens, guardians of democracy.

Assembled together in one spiral-bound book are the Marbury and DredScott readings, along with works by Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Booker T. Wash-ington. While the selections vary, Johnnies have been reading Douglass’ “The Constitu-tion of the United States: Is it Pro-slavery or Anti-slavery” and “Oration in Memory ofAbraham Lincoln.”

Douglass’ speech on the Constitution was delivered in Glasgow in 1860. Along with hiseloquent argument that the Constitution is anti-slavery, the speech includes his acknowl-edgement that he has examined and revised many of his opinions. He no longer seeks revo-lution—as he had as a follower of William Lloyd Garrison—but reform: “When I escapedfrom slavery, and was introduced to the Garrisonians, I adopted very many of their opin-ions, and defended them just as long as I deemed them true. I was young, had read butlittle, and naturally took some things on trust. Subsequent experience and reading have ledme to examine for myself.”

Douglass’ “Oration” is a moving speech, but one that acknowledges the political reali-ties that faced Lincoln. He calls Lincoln “the white man’s President, entirely devoted tothe welfare of white men.” He recounts the many decisions that “taxed and strained” thefaith of those who sought emancipation. As Douglass was shaped by his youth in bondage,he points out that Lincoln was shaped by a hardscrabble youth: “He calmly and bravelyheard the voice of doubt and fear all around him; but he had an oath in heaven, and therewas not power enough on earth to make this honest boatman, backwoodsman, and broad-handed splitter of rails evade or violate that sacred oath. He had not been schooled in theethics of slavery; his plain life had favored his love of truth.”

When the two men came together, their respect for each other grew, writes James Oakesin The Radical and the Republican: “Both were uncommonly intelligent. Each was a brilliant orator whose greatest speeches fused razor-sharp logic to soaring idealism. . . .They respected self-made men and so they respected each other.”

A few blocks away from the Annapolis campus the life and legacy of Frederick Douglassis commemorated in the Banneker-Douglass museum. On the grounds of the MarylandState House sits an imposing statue of Roger Brooke Taney, most remembered forpresiding in the Dred Scott case. And Lincoln himself walked through campus in February1865 during a brief stop on his way to the Hampton Roads Conference in February 1865.

For her essay in this issue, Laurel Pappas (A09), senior seminar readings fresh in hermind, read Frederick Douglass’ autobiography and explored his life through visits to hishomes in Anacostia and Anne Arundel County. She found in Douglass’ quest for freedomstriking parallels to her own education.

Some changes to The College in this issue: You’ll find the alumni calendar in anexpanded Alumni section, featuring Alumni Association news and what’s happening in thechapters. In its place, on the inside back cover (in the magazine trade, supposedly the waymost readers enter the magazine), you’ll find Eidos, a new section created to highlight thework of Johnnies in the fine arts.—RH

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{ C o n t e n t s }

CollegeTheS u m m e r 2 0 0 9

T h e M a g a z i n e f o r A l u m n i o f S t . J o h n ’ s C o l l e g e A n n a p o l i s • S a n t a F e

p a g e 10

Commencement

At Commencement in Annapolis andSanta Fe, the theme was courage.

p a g e 14

A Freedom Through

Education

A brand-new St. John’s graduatediscovers why education and freedomwere synonymous to Frederick Douglass.

p a g e 16

On Freedom

We gave three tutors free reign to talkabout freedom, and they roamed far andwide with their topic.

p a g e 22

Resilience in a Recession

Few American lives remain unaltered bythe economic crisis. Four Johnnies detailhow their lives have changed.

p a g e 46

Croquet

This year, it was East vs. West as Santa Fefielded its first croquet team, and Vikingsvanquished their foes.

d e p a r t m e n t s

2 from the bell towers

• Norman Levan: a portrait of philanthropy• Launching the Jeff Bishop• The man in the basement • St. John’s new BVG chair• Celebrating 20 years of Summer Classics• What Caritas means to St. John’s• News and announcements • New board members• Still obsessed with the white whale• Letters

30 bibliofile

• J.B. Shank’s The Newton Wars detailshow French thinkers viewed Newton’stheories; plus, celebrating Johnnie poets.

32 alumni

P R O F I L E S

32 Michelle Vest (SF90) explores the lives ofimmigrants in her one-woman play.

36 Jazz producer A.T. Michael MacDonald(SF76) seeks a balance.

41 St. John’s provides an educational modelfor school founder Melanie Hiner (A81).

48 alumni association news

52 st. john’s forever

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o n t h e c o v e r

Frederick Douglass

Illustration by David Johnson

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{ T h e C o l l e g e • St. John’s College • Summer 2009 }

{ F r o m t h e B e l l T o w e r s }

Carmen Schaad sat quietly in a room at Bakersfield’s Heart Hospital.In the bed slept her 88-year-old boss. To pass the time on that longnight in 2004, she watched the Bakersfield Beautiful Awards cere-mony on television.

Dr. Norman Levan, a Bakersfield dermatologist, her employer andfriend for four decades, faced surgery the next morning to clear ablockage from his heart. As Carmen watched people being honored,she chewed on an idea.

Hours later, when Levan awoke from surgery, his office managerlectured him. “If he thought he had nine lives, he had already gonethrough seven of them,” sherecalls telling him.

Her message was clear: Histime was running out. Instead ofjust doling out his money toworthy causes in his will, as heplanned to do, he should give themillions of dollars he amassedthrough his lifelong investingwhile he was still alive.

“I wanted to see the smile onhis face. I wanted him to see thebuildings that would be builtwith his money and theprograms that would be started.And I wanted to nominate himfor an award,” she explained.

She was convincing. Levansoon began giving away hismoney. He also began smiling alot. Both Carmen and his long-time friend, former BakersfieldCollege President John Collins,agree: The giving campaigncame at the right time.

Levan’s wife, Betty, had justdied. The childless couple, who met on a tennis court more than ahalf century ago, were the centers of each other’s lives. Levanprofoundly missed his wife. Her death narrowed his world to his one-day-a-week medical practice and reading books.

His decision to start giving away his money “changed his life,”said Collins, who also is Levan’s patient. “He is now having a lot of fun.”

So far, Levan has made four massive donations—each nearly $6 million—to three colleges and a Jerusalem hospital. With eachdonation he gets accolades, invitations to events and encourage-ment to watch buildings and programs started in his name.Although coy about the size of his wealth, it appears the now 93-year-old plans to give even more.

Each donation is structured to reinforce his lifelong belief that nomatter what your career is, you must study the humanities to be trulyeducated. He is an outspoken critic of his medical profession, whichhe considers dominated by people too focused on science and thecommercial rewards of healing.

His first donation went to Bakersfield College, where it is beingused to develop the Norman Levan Center for the Humanities. His $5.6 million donation is the largest the college has everreceived and is funding the renovation of an existing building tohouse the center and its programs. A portion of the money alsosupports the Levan Institute that offers lifelong learning classes toarea residents 55 years of age and older.

At the University of Southern California, where he earned hismedical degree and later headed the school’s Dermatology Depart-ment, a similar donation funds the Norman Levan Institute for

Humanities and Ethics, encour-aging students to explore newways of thinking.

At Jerusalem’s Shaare ZedekMedical Center, another nearly$6 million donation opened theDr. Norman Levan Center forHumanistic Medicine to fostercompassionate care at the 105-year-old hospital.

St. John’s College in Santa Fe, N.M., is using a fourth $5 million gift to build theNorman and Betty Levan Hall[for] its Graduate Institute ofLiberal Education. . . . Levansays the advanced degree heearned from St. John’s College“changed my life.”

Levan’s medical career andhis passion for studying thehumanities are as remarkable asthe millions of dollars he hasgiven away.

Levan was born in a Cleve-land suburb, where his father,

Joseph, worked as a toolmaker and his mother, Rose, stayed hometo raise Levan, the youngest, and his three sisters. His parentsdivorced and his mother moved with her teenage son to Detroit,where his sister, Goldie, landed a teaching job. It was during theDepression, when jobs were scarce. Levan and his mother laterfollowed Goldie to the West Coast.

A good student whose education was jump-started at home by histeacher sister, Levan skipped grades and graduated from highschool at 16. He then entered USC as an English major. Teased by abrother-in-law that he would end up teaching like his sisters, orselling newspaper ads, Levan took the USC medical schoolentrance exam, passing it with a top score. This was remarkable,since Levan had shunned “boring” science classes and thoughtpre-med students were “quite dull.”

He acquiesced to the school’s demand that he complete at least acourse in organic chemistry and went on to earn a medical degreefrom USC. He served as a medical officer during World War II,with assignments in the Pacific.

A Life Changed by Giving

Prompted by a friend, Dr. Norman Levan (SFGI74) began givingback to St. John’s College and other causes instead of preparingbequests. His $5 million gift to the college makes possible a newgraduate center on the Santa Fe campus.

By Diane HardistyBakersfield Californian

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A teenage bout with acne exposed him to dermatology. That,combined with his wartime experience treating soldiers’ skindiseases, led to his medical specialty. He joined a private practiceafter the war and volunteered to teach in USC’s fledgling Derma-tology Department. When the department expanded, he becameits first chairman and full-time faculty member.

In 1961, a group of Bakersfield doctors asked Levan to travel toBakersfield once a week to treat difficult cases. When he retiredfrom USC a few years later, he and Betty, a champion bridgeplayer, moved to Bakersfield.

Levan credits his fortune to luck. He said he was required toinvest 8 percent of his faculty salary into a university account,which USC matched. He invested another 8 percent privately.

“That was when the Dow was 400,” he recalled. By the time hebegan giving his fortune away, the Dow Jones Industrial Averagehad climbed to more than 14,000.

Levan is similarly humble in explaining his decision to giveaway his money.

With a twinkle in his eyes and a smile on his lips, he quotes19th-century American industrialist Andrew Carnegie: “The manwho dies rich dies disgraced.”

Levan won’t be disgraced. x

Copyright 2009, the Bakersfield Californian. Reprinted withpermission.

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College board member RayCave (class of 1948) was onhand April 22 to christen theracing shell he donated to thecollege in memory of JeffBishop (HA96), who for 20

years served as vice presidentof the college. Bishop died inJuly 2007 after a long battlewith cancer.

Athletic Director LeoPickens (A78) gave a brief

speech, praising Bishop’s dedi-cation to supporting thecollege and its students.Pickens noted Bishop’s willing-ness to tow the college’s firsteight-person shell to thecampus. Bishop also helpedcultivate a relationship withThe Hodson Trust, whichfunded an extensive renovationof the college boathouse andhelped support the crewprogram. Bishop alsoembodied “many of the virtuesthat rowers admire,” Pickenssaid—particularly by showingcourage in the face of over-whelming challenges.

“Jeff loved to compete,”Pickens said. “And perhapseven more than the competi-tion itself, Jeff relished thetraining and preparation thatgoes into any successfulperformance. He was also themost mentally toughcompetitor I have ever known.Rowers here often refer to thatdreaded no-man’s land in a2,000-meter race, somewhere

between the 1,000-meter markand the 1,500-meter mark, as‘the house of pain.’ Jeff showedno qualms about willinglypushing himself across thatthreshold into the ‘house ofpain.’ And even though itseemed that in his last years he,without choosing, lived in thathouse of pain, he never wasdiscouraged or lost heart. He kept his chin up and eyesalways looking forward. This isthe type of courage rowersadmire.”

As he poured champagneover the bow of the college’snewest eight, Cave remarkedthat the tribute was a fittingone, given Bishop’s extraordi-nary success in raising moneyfor the college. Bishop was thedriving force behind St. John’s most recent capitalcampaign, which raised $134 million. “He kept theplace afloat,” Cave said. x

Launching the Jeff Bishop

Ray Cave (A48) christens the Jeff Bishop as Johnnies welcome anew eight to the fleet, (l. to r.): Rachel Ulrich (A11), BrookPendergast (A11), Margaret Ansell (A10), and Virginia Harness(A11).

Construction began this summer on the Norman and BettyLevan Hall, the new home of the Graduate Institute ofLiberal Education in Santa Fe. A LEED silver-certifiedbuilding, Levan Hall will be located between the Fine ArtsBuilding and Weigle Hall and will house seminar rooms,offices, and common rooms. Dr. Levan’s gift provided themeans for a long-needed home for Santa Fe’s two graduateprograms, Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Master ofEastern Classics.

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Breaking Ground

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You can’t go to the Internet tofind the kind of laboratoryequipment required for theclassic, sometimes obscure,experiments conducted at St. John’s. Try findingHauksbee’s globe or Faraday’srotating rectangles in a catalog.

That’s why the college needsGary Dunkelberger to make awide variety of wood and metalapparatus for the college’s labo-ratory program. Before hejoined the college as laboratorycraftsman, Dunkelbergerworked in Annapolis’ boatingindustry as a yacht carpenter.He built classic wooden boatsfrom scratch and crafted theinteriors of mega-yachts (100 feet or bigger) for clients including the late Walter Cronkite.

Laboring in a stressfulindustry gradually took its toll,and after suffering a heartattack, Dunkelberger pursued acareer change. He answered anad for the lab position at St. John’s, and right from thestart, impressed LaboratoryDirector Mark Daly and tutorChester Burke (A74) with hiscraftsmanship and ingenuity.

“Gary began making labora-tory equipment beyond ourwildest dreams,” says Burke.

“He listens intently to ourrequests and then goes quietlyinto his gigantic basement towork his magic.”

Dunkelberger moved into aposition held for years by Al Toft(H02), John Cook, and OttoFriedrich. His special talent forwoodwork has “raised the bar”for the laboratory program. “He really loves beautiful wood,so we’re going from equipmentmade of plywood and 2 x 4s topieces made of cherry, oak, andwalnut. If he makes somethingin brass or steel, he polishes ituntil it gleams. They’re works of art,” says Daly.

Precision is essential to theinstruments, Daly says, andDunkelberger is a perfectionist.“We’re talking about scales of athousandth of an inch range.Everything has to be precise orthe experiment may not work.”

A graduate of York College,Dunkelberger worked in thesteel industry before moving toAnnapolis, and as a self-taughtcarpenter and machinist, foundsteady work in the city’s boatingindustry.

One of Dunkelberger’s firsttasks was to create a set ofFaraday rotating rectangles.These rectangles, of varyingperimeters, are wrapped with

copper wire. It was Faradaywho noticed that when therectangles rotate in amagnetic field, electriccurrent is induced in them,the amount of whichdepends upon the speed ofrotation and the area of therectangles. “This is one ofthe most important princi-ples which we study in thesecond semester of thejunior laboratory and Garyhas given life to thephenomena,” says Burke.

Making the Faradayrectangle involved loopinga length of copper wirearound a wooden frame 500 times—three to fourhours of work for each one.

(Dunkelberger made four.) “Itwas a bit tedious,” he admits.

At one point in his life,Dunkelberger harbored “vaguedreams” of a life in academe;now that he’s part of a collegeenvironment, he takes pleasurein talking with tutors andstudents about the laboratoryprogram and making theirinvestigations possible throughwood, metal, and a lot ofpatience.

As an Annapolitan, Dunkel-berger was familiar with St.John’s, he says. “But I wasrather amazed at the highquality of the students.”

When students in junior laboratory take up Maxwell this

coming year, they’ll exploreelectromotive force and electro-magnetic momentum using amodel Maxwell devised in hisCavendish laboratory. Dunkel-berger used cherry, white oak,and a brass rod to make a beau-tiful and functional instrumentfor students to see for them-selves what Maxwell hoped to show.

Even if—mired in Lagrangiananalysis—students don’t noticethe fine beveled edges andpolished wood, Dunkelbergercan’t resist. “Why not add a bitof beauty?” he asks. x

—Rosemary Harty

The Man in the Basement

above, Gary Dunkelberger has taken over the job of crafting theunusual apparatus required for St. John’s laboratory program.Left, Hauksbee’s globe, just one example of Dunkelberger’shandiwork, demonstrates principles of electricity.

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Michael Uremovich (SFGI05)lives in Virginia, heads a business based in Ohio andCalifornia, and is on the road atleast three days a week. But thenewly named chair of thecollege’s Board of Visitors andGovernors—who tried earnestlyto retire a decade ago—isn’t tooconcerned about taking on therole on top of his businessresponsibilities. After all, hispredecessor, Sharon Bishop(class of 1965), led a successfuland growing company duringher seven years as board chair.

“There’s an old saw that saysif you want something done,give it to a busy person,” says Uremovich.

Uremovich is chairman ofthe board and CEO of PacerInternational, an intermodaland logistics freight transporta-tion services provider.According to the journal SmartBusiness, he’s widely recog-nized as a “logistics industryguru, who helped revolutionizethe business.” For example,Uremovich served as part of ateam that invented the double-stack train, an innovation thatdoubled a train’s capacity fortransporting goods whilereducing costs.

Reared in Tucson,Uremovich earned a bachelor’sdegree in logistics transporta-tion management from theUniversity of Arizona and anMBA from City University ofNew York, Baruch College.Over the years, he’s been aprincipal at the consultinggiant Booz Allen Hamilton andheld key strategic planning andmarketing positions at compa-nies including Pepsi and Amer-ican President Lines. In the1990s, he served as vice presi-dent of marketing for SouthernPacific Transportation andpresident of TSSI (its logisticsoperating company), where hehelped negotiate the company’ssale to Union Pacific. With the

transaction complete,Uremovich moved to Santa Fewith plans to retire.

Early in his business career,Uremovich acquired the 55-volume set of Britannica’sGreat Books of the WesternWorld, which gave him his firstintroduction to St. John’s. He enrolled in the SummerClassics, where his firstseminar was on Galileo. Itdidn’t take long for him tobecome deeply connected withthe college. He got to knowthen-president John Agresto (afellow fly fisherman) andRobert Glick, then serving asvice president for advance-ment. Uremovich went fromfan to supporter, making apledge to support constructionof the Student ActivitiesCenter. He enrolled in theGraduate Institute and joinedthe college’s Board of Visitorsand Governors in 2003.

Enrolling in the GI provideda much fuller experience thanhe could havefound readinggreat booksat home. “It was veryenlighteningfor me,” hesaid. “I hadthe typicalrough spots,as a businesspersoncoming out ofthe real worldto the veryisolated andinsulatedworld of theseminar. Iwas moreused totelling peoplethings, ratherthanlistening.”

Uremovichtook a specialinterest in the

history segment. “I took apreceptorial that examined theGreek plays of the time andjuxtaposed them againstThucydides,” he recalls. “We went through the war andbeing a Vietnam vet myself, I found that really insightful.”

Uremovich chaired thecommittee that led the searchto name John Balkcom’ssuccessor after Balkcom(SFGI00) stepped down in2003. At the time, Uremovichwas back in the business world,running his own consultingfirm, Manalytics. A presidentwas named, but the search wasrelaunched after the appointeeresigned before taking the posi-tion. The second search wasimmensely successful,Uremovich says, puttingMichael Peters in place inSanta Fe in 2005.

It’s a “pretty exciting time”to lead a college governingboard, Uremovich says. “We’refacing significant challenges at

the college in terms ofbalancing the things we valueabout our community with thebrutal realities of the outsideworld,” he says.

Even if the economyrebounds in the coming year,some difficult decisions may bein order, Uremovich says.

“There’s a great saying inthe business world these daysthat you don’t want to waste agood crisis,” he says. “This is a good time to examine theinstitutional infrastructurethat supports the Program. We can go down this path carefully, and begin with arecognition that some compro-mise may be required to get thebest solution.”

St. John’s is in a better posi-tion to meet today’s challengesthan it would have been whenUremovich first joined theboard. The college has strong,stable leadership; the Manage-ment Committee effectivelyguides collegewide decisions;and there’s momentum from a successful capital campaignin which alumni demonstrateda strong commitment to thecollege.

The board itself is one of the college’s best resources.“I’ve been affiliated with manynot-for-profit boards, and Idon’t think I’ve ever workedwith a group of people sosingularly dedicated to the ideaof the institution and its under-pinnings,” he says.

Uremovich has anotherreason for his fondness for thecollege; he met his wife, Susan,in a seminar on Emerson at thecampus. “She ran the crimelabs for the State of NewMexico and was periodicallyintrigued by the college up onthe hill,” he says. “Ours was aCoffee Shop romance.”x

—Rosemary Harty


{ F r o m t h e B e l l T o w e r s } 5

An Exciting Time to Lead a College

Rooted in the Program, St. John’s can weather turbulent times, says BVGChair Michael Uremovich. d

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{ F r o m t h e B e l l T o w e r s }6

The DuelingGluckmansSanta Fe’s popular SummerClassics program marked its20th year this summer withthree weeks of seminars ontopics ranging from the poetryof T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound toThe Godfather.

The program was launched in1990 with a single seminar onThucydides’ History of the Pelo-ponnesian War. The followingsummer, the college offeredthree consecutive weeks ofseminars. Now including bothmorning and afternoonsessions, the Summer Classicshas enjoyed nearly sell-outpopularity. Lively, in-depthconversations—in a captivatingcity—inspire many SummerClassics participants to returnyear after year.

Such is the case with Jon andStephen Gluckman, father andson, who returned this summerfor their second Summer Classics. Stephen discoveredthe program while exploringcolleges in his junior year, andJon has a colleague and friendwho attended the GraduateInstitute.

For their first summer experi-ence (in 2008), Jon, a highschool English teacher in New

Jersey, and his son, about toembark on his senior year inhigh school, decided on twoconsecutive weeklong seminars:Dostoevsky’s The Idiot and theMahabharata. They originallyplanned to fly to New Mexico,but then Tom Waits tickets wenton sale. “We’re big fans,”explains Stephen.

The plane trip became amusic-themed road trip thatultimately took five weeks, with the Waits concert in Birmingham, Ala., and theSanta Fe Opera’s production ofBilly Budd among the high-lights. Their blog (www.gluck-manvroom.blogspot.com),chronicles their cross-countryadventure.

At St. John’s, Jon andStephen shared a suite with twoother men, both long-timeparticipants, who shared theirseminar discussions on theAeneid and the Iliad. “[Our]tutors were great … [asking]probing questions that broughtthe most out of the texts,” Jonwrites on their blog, adding:“We made a bit of an impres-sion being dueling Gluckmansin our two seminars.”

“Somewhere between amonastery and mountainresort” is how Gluckman Seniordescribes the Santa Fe campus.

“These were truly two of themost inspiring and renewingweeks of the summer.”

When they returned home,both felt the lingering benefitsof their experience. “I’d alwaystaught somewhat like St. John’sdoes, but this solidified what Ido and honed the way I ques-tioned my students,” Jon notes.

“It definitely made me moreconfident in my classes,”Stephen says.

The two hoped to renew theirfriendships with some of theirfellow Classics participantswhen they returned this July, toread Thomas Mann’s Josephand His Brothers. After theirsummer in Santa Fe, Stephen isoff to Sarah Lawrence. Andwhile Stephen’s unsure of hisplans for next summer, hisfather plans to be back in SantaFe, he says. “This will becomemy summer camp.” x

—Deborah Spiegelman

A Summer’sJourney withSuffering SoulsI arrived at St. John’s on a blus-tery April afternoon to visit thecollege with my daughterduring her junior year in highschool. I was immediately taken

with the natural beautysurrounding the college,but it was the brief stop atthe bookstore that tookmy breath away. Plato,Aristotle, Dante andMontaigne—these werethe books I had longed toread in college. I returnedhome with my daughterwondering how I could re-do my college education.A few years later Ihappened upon an adver-tisement for Summer Clas-sics in The Atlantic andimmediately signed up forthe mailing list.

The following springthe brochure arrived in

the mail. After discovering myfirst choices were filled, Isettled instead on The Letters ofVincent van Gogh and theBrothers Karamazov. Soon mybooks arrived, and I happilyplunged into the mysteriousworld of Aloysha and hisbrothers.

On the shuttle from Albu-querque to Santa Fe, the drivernoticed my Brothers K on mylap. He inquired about the bookand St. John’s. As we turnedonto Camino Cruz Blanca heasked, “Why are you studyingabout suffering souls?” Whyindeed, I asked myself, as Iwrestled with my book-ladensuitcase up the stairs at St. John’s. I mused, “Aren’t we all suffering souls?”

The lunches at St. John’sbecame an extension of theclassroom discussions.Munching on tuna salads, wewondered about Dostoevsky’sown faith as we explored hisexquisite discourse on free willand religion in the GrandInquisitor’s speech. A doctorwondered why many of Dosto-evsky’s characters sufferedfrom “brain fever.” Classmatesbecame friends as we delightedin the process of joint intellec-tual exploration. The refrainwas similar: “We do not haveanyone to discuss books withback home.”

Last summer I had the goodfortune to study Plato’s Sympo-sium and the Phaedrus. On thelast day of the class a classmateasked our tutor, Eva Brann,whether it is possible to reachtranscendence other thanthrough love. Miss Brannsmiled. “Ah, you will just haveto read Plato’s other dialoguesto find out.” With those wordsin our hearts, most of us willreturn for another summer ofintellectual delights. x

—Sophia Koltavary

Summer Classics Program Draws Devotees

A Santa Fe’s Summer Classics seminar was a bonding experience for Jon(l.) and Stephen Gluckman of New Jersey.

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7{ F r o m t h e B e l l T o w e r s }

It was the summer of 1973, andJim Jarvis (A75) was gettingready to take a job waitingtables at a Colorado resortinstead of embarking on hisjunior year at St. John’s. Afteradding up his grants, loans,and personal savings, he cameup $500 short for tuition androom and board. “I know itdoesn’t sound like a lot now,but it was more than anyone inmy family could scrape up,” herecalls. He wrote a letter toBarbara Leonard (H55), thenassistant dean, to tell her hewas taking a year off.

Jarvis had been visitingfriends in New York City at theend of the summer, and hestopped at a phone booth inGrand Central Station to callhis mother, who had an urgentmessage for him: “BarbaraLeonard wants you to call herimmediately.”

He reached in his pocket formore change, but didn’t haveanother quarter. “So, therewere my friends and I scram-bling around Grand Central,panhandling for sparechange.” When he reachedLeonard, she was characteris-tically direct. “What’s thisabout you not coming back?”When Jarvis said he couldn’tfind the money, Leonardreplied: “Just get on the train,come down here, and don’tworry about the money.”

About two weeks after thesemester started, Jarvislearned that the grant to keephim in school came from theCaritas Society. By way ofthanks, he picked up his guitarand with Janet Hellner (SF77)on flute, gave a recital for aCaritas luncheon.

For more than 40 years,Caritas has been helping John-nies with emergency financialneeds, and over the past year,their support has made a greatdifference in the lives ofstudents whose families are

suffering in theeconomic downturn.In thank-you letters tothe society, studentswrote of health crisesin their families, fore-closures, and joblosses. One studentwas grateful for themoney that allowedher to go to thedentist—her familyhad no insurance andcould not afford the$2,000 bill.

“Caritas has alwayshelped students whostill come up shortwhen all the financialaid has been doledout,” says LynnYarbro, the organiza-tion’s president.“When we read these letters,we know their burden has beensoftened somewhat.”

Working with the college’sfinancial aid office during the2008-09 academic year,Caritas made $34,650 in emer-gency grants to 13 students.Another $2,000 from thesociety’s Weigle Great BooksFund helped five students buyProgram books. During thecapital campaign, the societyestablished an endowedCaritas scholarship to supportneed-based financial aid for astudent.

All this is supported by themembership of about 200 andby the group’s fundraisingevents: a November Book andAuthor event (this year’s starattraction is novelist AliceMcDermott), and a benefitperformance by the Capitol

Steps in March. What moti-vates the group, says Yarbro, isa deep admiration for thecollege, its academic program,and especially, the students.

“If we can make a differencefor even a handful of studentswho might not be able to stayat St. John’s in this economy,then all our efforts are worthit,” Yarbro says.

More than 30 years later,Jarvis looks back on thesupport he received fromCaritas with enduring grati-tude. Instead of waiting tablesat a luxury resort, he settledinto a wonderful corner roomin Pinkney. He had Frenchwith Brother Robert, who ledhis advanced class throughRemembrance of Things Past.He studied Darwin with LeonKass and discovered scientificideas that intrigued him. And

he decided on the course forthe rest of his life: a career inmedicine and research.

“The research I’m doingnow is the research I predictedI would be doing in my junioressay: studying biologicalcomplexity,” he says. “It wasliterally a life-changing year.”

Today, Jarvis is a professorof pediatrics at the Universityof Oklahoma Health SciencesCenter, where he specializes in pediatric rheumatology.Among his research projects is a study to determine whyjuvenile arthritis afflictsNative Americans at a higherrate than other populations, aswell as an ongoing investiga-tion into the role the innateimmune system plays inchronic arthritis in children.

Who knows what might havehappened if he’d gone toColorado, Jarvis muses. Butbecause one life touches manyothers, “there is a room full ofmedical students right next tome” conducting importantresearch because Caritasstepped in. “It reverberatesfrom 1973 right to thepresent,” he says. x

Dr. Jim Jarvis (A75, third from left and shown with students in his lab)almost missed a year at St. John’s, until Caritas stepped in.

In thank-you letters to the CaritasSociety, Annapolis students wrote

of health crises in their families,foreclosures, and job losses.

A Life-Changing Year

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8 { F r o m t h e B e l l T o w e r s }

Annapolis VP Honored BARBARA GOYETTE (A73), vice president for Advancementin Annapolis, was among 26 women selected to receivethe YWCA’s Tribute to Womenin Industry (TWIN) Award for2009. The award recognizesextraordinary women who areleaders in their corporations,organizations, and communi-ties. Goyette has been vice president since 2002, over-seeing fundraising, alumni relations, and communicationsat the college. She joined thecollege in 1994 as director ofpublic relations.

Alumna Appointed toDOT PostANNE FERRO (A80) has beennominated to lead the Depart-ment of Transportation’sFederal Motor Carrier SafetyAdministration, charged withreducing crashes, injuries, andfatalities involving large trucksand buses. A former Peace Corpsvolunteer in Cote d’Ivoire, Ferrowas most recently President ofthe Maryland Motor Truck Association. Between 1997 and2003, she directed Maryland’sMotor Vehicle Administration,where she established a strongrecord in highway safety, regula-tory compliance, and agencyleadership.

SF Alumni WinFulbright AwardsTwo recent St. John’s graduateswill be heading overseas thanksto the Fulbright Program. THADDEUS THALER (SFGI09)received a Fulbright grant tostudy in Russia. Thaler willexamine how Russia’s image ofLatin America was shaped byfilm and telenovelas (soapoperas) between 1959 and 2009.AUSTIN XAVIER VOLZ (SF09)received a Fulbright English

Teaching Assistantship. He plansto pursue questions about how asecond language is learned andhow advanced students accom-plish fluency in speaking andwriting another language.

Allanbrook Honored WYE JAMISON ALLANBROOK,professor emeritus at the

University of California,Berkeley, was named anHonorary Member of theAmerican MusicologicalSociety. She served on theAnnapolis faculty for 25 years.She currently holds an AndrewW. Mellon Emeritus Fellowshipsupporting research for2008–10. x

News & Announcements

The Board of Visitors andGovernors welcomes these newand returning members:

KEITH HARRISON (SF77) isprofessor of law and the chair ofthe International Criminal Lawand Justice Graduate Programsat Franklin Pierce Law Centerin Concord, N. H. He hasserved on the Board of Trusteesfor Capitol Center for the Artsin Concord, the PlanningCommittee for the EmergingLeaders of Color Conference,and the American Bar Associa-tion. He previously served onthe board from 2001-2007. He

received his JD from theUniversity of Chicago.

MIKE MILLER is principal ofThe Arundel Group, as well as afinancial consultant at a Wash-ington, D.C., area public utility.Previously, he worked forFlorida Memorial College,Africare, IBM, and PepsiCo.Miller earned a bachelor’sdegree in history from YaleUniversity and an MBA infinance from the University ofNorth Carolina, Chapel Hill.He currently serves as a BoardMember of the District 30Democratic Club in Annapolis,

Maryland, and is a formerboard member of InternationalServices Agencies, Africare,and the Sandy Spring FriendsSchool.

CATHY RANDALL (A82) ranthe Philadelphia and Baltimoreoffices at Deutsche Bank AlexBrown for 20 years. She servedon the firm’s ExecutiveCommittee, which handledsuch items as how to stan-dardize procedures across thebranches by comparing andcontrasting effectiveness andcompliance with firm andindustry rules and regulations,and gathering best practices forconducting business.

DANIEL VAN DOREN (A81)received his law degree fromBoston University School ofLaw in 1985, where he co-founded the Public InterestProject, a fellowship programthat distributes grants tostudents for summer work inpublic interest jobs. Since 1986,he has worked in several of hisfamily’s real estate companiesand currently serves asmanaging director of VanDoren Management Co, LLC,in New York City. He served aspresident of the New Yorkchapter of the St. John’sCollege Alumni Associationfrom 2004 to 2009. x

new board members

Ready for a ride: The Senior Gift of the Class of 2009 inAnnapolis launched a bicycle-lending program on campus. Thanksto donations from the graduating students, six high-qualityGlobe bikes (tested above by Carol Partonen, A12; ZachHarrington, A11; and Katie Corder, A11) were purchased tolaunch the program.

Annapolis VP Barbara Goyettewas honored by the YWCA.

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At the University of Pennsyl-vania, Mike Kelly (AGI06) wastorn between a career ineconomics and a careerteaching literature. Economicswon out, and right after gradu-ation in 1972, Kelly landed ajob at NASA. One of the collegebooks he kept was a paperbackcopy of Moby-Dick, a novel hefell in love with as a teenager.

“It’s one of those stories youcan’t get out of your mind,” he says.

In the fall of 2004, Kellybrought that same copy—nowpatched up with duct tape tokeep the pages from escaping—to the Graduate Institute,where he joined other studentsin a preceptorial on the novel.In a lively class in which eachparticipant had a passionateinterest in Ahab, Starbuck, andthe rest of the doomed crew ofthe Pequod, he added to hismargin notes, wrote a paperabout courage, and left witheven more questions aboutMelville’s masterwork.

In part, this obsessivepursuit of the white whale canbe pinned on the preceptorial

tutor, David Townsend. Inresponse to one of Kelly’sobservations, Townsend wrotein the margin: “What wouldAristotle say about this?” Evenwith his diploma in hand in thespring of 2006, Kelly was stillgrappling with that question,and as soon as he retired, hedevoted himself to pursuing it.He applied to the GI to write amaster’s essay, and on aSaturday afternoon in April, satfor his oral examination.

Any GI graduate who desiresto write a paper may do sowithin two years of graduating.Kelly is one of a handful ofstudents who have taken thisstep, although there’s notangible benefit to one who hasalready completed the degree.GI students can substitute themaster’s essay and oral for onepreceptorial.

“I think the fact that peoplewant to do an essay even aftergraduating shows two things,”says Marilyn Higuera, directorof the Graduate Institute inAnnapolis. “One: the essay isreally serving the purpose itwas meant to serve, namely

that it provide an opportunityfor graduate students to engagein an extended, focused studyof some question which arosefor them during their timehere; the fact that people wantto follow up on such questionseven though it doesn’t ‘count’toward a degree drives thatpoint home.”

Also, Higuera says, manystudents are reluctant to giveup the rich discussions of GIpreceptorials in order to writethe master’s essay.

Kelly worked for 35 years as abusiness deputy at NASA’sGoddard Space Flight Center,supporting key projects such asweather and communicationssatellites. But he never lost hislove for literature, and heenrolled in the GI just at thetime he was preparing forretirement. “I loved every

minute of it,” he says of thegraduate program.

Soon after he retired fromNASA in 2007, Kelly askedTownsend to be his adviser, andhe sat in on Townsend’s under-graduate preceptorial on thenovel. It was a pleasure forTownsend to take the journeythrough Moby-Dick with Kellyagain, helping him synthesizeother ideas from his graduatestudies. “Mike Kelly took onMoby-Dick as a genuine loverof wisdom, confrontingsquarely the need for couragein facing the deepest questionsof life and death,” saysTownsend.

Kelly doesn’t plan to beretired for long. He beganlooking for a teaching job lastspring. x

—rosemary Harty

Still Obsessed with the

White Whale

Letters The Spring 2009 edition of The College contained a list ofthe “best” booksellers. You failed to mention a wonderfulbookstore, The Symposium, on Hayes Street in San Fran-cisco. It’s a unique store, with great selections, and isowned and operated by two recent graduates of St. John’s. I think they merit a note of recognition. Bookselling is avery difficult business, and I think they would appreciate amuch-deserved comment for carrying on the tradition ofthe Great Books.

Doug Head

Editor’s note: Robin Dunn only recommended bookstoreshe has visited personally for “The Love of Books” in theSpring issue. He’ll be sure to visit The Symposium next timehe’s in the Bay area, thanks to this tip from Mr. Head, aJohnnie parent. Also, The College heard from John R.Traffas (SFGI75), who chided us for not including EighthDay Books in Wichita. He has high praise for the store, witha setting that “inspires cordial and wide-ranging conversa-tion,” has free coffee, and offers a good selection of seriousbooks, including “a shelf of Loebs.”

Corrections A story on Karen Cook (SF74) in the Spring 2009 issueincorrectly identified the institution for which Cook works.It’s the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

In the same issue, a story on Touchstones had the wrongtitle for Stefanie Takas (A89). She is Touchstones’ executivedirector.A preceptorial paper on Moby-Dick left Mike Kelly with more

questions than ever, prompting him to write a master’s essay.

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{ C o m m e n c e m e n t }

It was an unlikely coincidence that rain forced Commence-ment ceremonies indoors in both Annapolis and Santa Fe,but both ceremonies went off without a hitch in the FrancisScott Key Auditorium and Student Activities Center, respec-tively. For both ceremonies, alumni were speakers, and

both touched on the theme of courage in their addresses to thegraduates.

In Annapolis on May 17, 110 undergraduate students receivedtheir Bachelor of Arts degrees, and 39 Graduate Institute studentsreceived their Master of Arts in Liberal Arts degrees. Tutor AnitaKronsberg (class of 1980), completing her third term as assistantdean this spring, told graduates not to worry if they fail toremember in perfect detail the paradigms and proofs they studied.

Kronsberg’s speech focused on courage—the courage needed toenroll in a college such as St. John’s and the courage required topursue a lifelong habit of subjecting one’s opinions and beliefs toconstant scrutiny. “What is good is difficult, and questioning theopinions we cherish is among the most difficult things to do,” shesaid. “It requires courage, and when you leave this college it willrequire more courage, for you will often be without communalencouragement to it. But you will carry with you a disposition toseek out this and other forms of what is good, and this is aresource.”

In her address, Kronsberg likened the journey students takethrough the Program to that of the hero of Homer’s Odyssey—inpart because Johnnies spend their four years reading the works oflong-dead authors, and Odysseus travels to the Land of the Dead.But while Odysseus made his trip alone, Johnnies journey in thecompany of their “shipmates” as they encounter strange newthings. They draw courage from each other.

“The illumination and enrichment of your life through yourefforts to coax the dead into a living conversation will be differentfor each of you,” Kronsberg told the graduates. “Some of you mayhave heard here what sort of life lies ahead for you, many of you are,just now, overwhelmed by the welter of possibilities. All of you have

CELEBRATING COURAGE

Commencement Speakers Laud Graduates for Choosing a Different Path

by Rosemary Harty (AGI09)

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Left, Annapolis graduates Tabitha Silver (l.) and Jessica Zimmerberg-Helms toast their success.

Opposite page: Top, Kevin Andrus and Erin Destito. bottom, Anita Kronsberg (A80) spoke to the value of a Johnnie’s journey“in the land of the dead.”

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the disposition to enter into the experience of another as far aspossible while remaining the author of your own opinions.”

On May 23 in Santa Fe, 86 seniors and 21 graduate candidatesheard from Dr. Stephen J. Forman (A70), chair of the Hematologyand Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Department at the City ofHope Cancer Center in California. Forman is also the principalinvestigator for a $15.2 million, five-year National Cancer Institutebone marrow transplantation program project grant and principalinvestigator of a five-year, $11.5 million Specialized Program ofResearch Excellence grant by the NCI for translational researchstudies for Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Forman focused his remarks on the way in which the college hasbeen a continuing presence in his life and work. He explained whyhe chose his specialty in medicine and why he has devoted himselfto working toward a cure for cancer: “When asked about my choice,and the unusual college background that could lead me to suchwork, I often answered that I chose the most philosophical of themedical specialties as it forces one to confront, daily, the importantquestions in our life and its meaning, about how we live our life, andour relationship to each other, our family, and community, ourcountry, our world,” Forman said. “In essence, the work hasallowed me to continue to think about the same questions that you

“You have practiced courage through the constant practice of making mistakes of various kinds, both publicly

and in the presence of an ever-sharper inner witness.”Anita Kronsberg (A80)

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have been considering for the last four years.Graduates are not the only ones to benefit from St. John’s,

Forman said. Because the college cultivates lifelong habits such as“learning, listening, and the pursuit of truth,” the benefits of St.John’s extend to graduates’ families, co-workers, and communities.When graduates are asked about the significance of their liberalarts education, Forman advised: “. . . I would say that we havehelped our young to become lifelong students, capable of anything,who understand listening to be a virtue, who will pursue truth intheir work and in their life. Not a bad education.”

He congratulated students and their parents for choosing St.John’ and the commitment this education demands. “I do hope thatyou will remember this day, as we celebrate your graduation, thecourage that each of you has demonstrated in coming here, as thisis a very daunting place, as it exposes your fears, and, rather thanrunning away, you have remained, and, with the help of the college,you have overcome them. We celebrate the courage of your parentsto trust you, and the college to guide and protect you and bring youto this day. Yes, you are ‘Johnnies,’ and so are your parents. And, ofcourse, there is the courage of our faculty, resistant to the educa-tional fads of the day and, like you, not here by accident or casually,who, like you, face their own challenges in learning and teaching inall parts of our community of learning. And, like all of you, I remaingrateful and respectful of their role in preserving this oasis oflearning.” x

{ C o m m e n c e m e n t }12


“You have learned to pursue truth, an often painful process, which has an inherent integrity, which is never ending

and as Socrates taught us, is not always welcome. But it is the pursuit of truth that will enrich your life’s work,

deepen your friendships and your love of another human being.”Stephen Forman (A70)

Above right, Commencement speaker Dr. Stephen Forman (l.)and Santa Fe President Michael Peters. Bottom right, TutorDavid Levine and other faculty members lined up in Santa Fe’sSAC weight room for the processional. Bottom left, parents Benand Anna Bernanke with daughter, Alyssa, at the post-gradua-tion reception in Iglehart Hall.

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Among the graduates who marched across the stage in AnnapolisMay 17 was Noel Brockett, the third and last member of aConnecticut family to receive a St. John’s College diploma. In theaudience were his parents, Philip and Nancy; sister, Gillian(A07); and brother, Hayden (A04), who launched the family’sdevotion to St. John’s when he received a college brochure in themail and made his college decision almost instantly.

It’s not unusual for a family to send several children to St. John’s. Children follow parents, brothers follow sisters, andlegacies are born. Philip Brockett remembers when his eldest soncame home for Thanksgiving during his first year, brimmingwith excitement about the books, his tutors, and his friends atthe college. “He told us St. John’s was home for him,” he says.“On the one hand I was really glad for him, on the other hand, I was a little taken aback that he felt so comfortable at thecollege. He was so enthusiastic about St. John’s that he became asalesman for the college to his younger siblings.”

Reluctant to follow her older brother, Gillian spent a year atthe University of Connecticut. By the second semester, however,“she wasn’t satisfied with the educational experience she washaving” at the large university, Nancy Brockett says. Aftervisiting her older brother in Annapolis, “she called us up andsaid she wasn’t going back to U Conn. It just wasn’t the right fitfor her. But she did really well at St. John’s.”

Noel decided in his sophomore year of high school that he washeaded to Annapolis. “There was never really a doubt in my mindthat I was going to St. John’s,” he says.

St. John’s brought out their children’s talents, the Brockettssay, and each participated in the life of the college in his or herindividual way. Hayden was the waltz archon and editor of The

Gadfly. Gillian was devoted to intramural sports and discovereda love for science in the lab program and by working in thecollege observatory. Noel proved to be passionate about theliberal arts and Georgian culture and helped found a nonprofitorganization called OLEG (the Organization for Liberal Arts inGeorgia) to support a discussion-based liberal arts program atNew Gelati Academy in Tbilisi. He helped create a student clubthat organized Georgian feasts and a Georgian dance class. Alongwith other OLEG members, he applied for and won a $10,000Davis Peace Grant to bring a two-week program, based on read-ings from classic works, to Georgian youth this summer.

Hayden, who met his wife, Mary Townsend (A04), when he wasa prospie in her freshman seminar, just graduated from GeorgeWashington University’s School of Law and now works at theDepartment of Justice. Gillian worked at the United States NavalObservatory for a year before accepting a position as a medicalresearcher at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. She’ll bestudying optical instrumentation in a master’s program at the

university’s department of System DesignEngineering. “I would not have discov-ered my love for astronomy or astro-physics if not for the relationships I builtwhile at St. John’s,” she says. She alsomarried a Johnnie, Ian McCracken (A04).

And after spending most of the summerin Georgia, Noel plans to remain inAnnapolis and work on OLEG, with an eyeto graduate studies in philosophy in thenear future.

The Brocketts say that it was a sacrificeto send three children to a private liberalarts college. But as Philip Brockettexplains, they believe in two principleswhen it comes to raising children. “One,we’ve never regretted any money we’vespent on our children’s education,” hesays. “And our other mandate was to doeverything we could to ensure our chil-dren are independent. College is aboutlaunching your kids into the world. AndSt. John’s was just the right place tolaunch them.” x

—rosemary harty

The Last of the Brocketts

Each of the Brocketts (l. to r. Hayden, Gillian and Noel) found a special niche atSt. John’s, but they and their parents (Nancy and Philip) share a deep appreciation for the college.

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{ F r e d e r i c k D o u g l a s s }

After four years of St. John’s it wastime to read a bestseller. I neededsomething accessible, mesmer-izing, full of colorful events andcharacters to snap me out of theaftershock of graduating. I hit onsomething modern, from 1845:Narrative of the Life of Frederick

Douglass, an American Slave.

As a student, looking ahead usually consisted of checkingthe seminar list to see what we would read next. As a graduatelooking ahead means wondering what I should do. Impressedby the necessity for action in my own life, I was delighted toencounter in Frederick Douglass a man whose genius was soimmediately applied to improving the world. Douglass makeshis childhood and the challenges of his growth central in hisbooks, and I soon realized that anyone who has soughtfreedom through education can identify with his pursuit of it.I was reminded that freedom is not merely a liberated body,but a liberated intellect.

No Program author is as physically present in Maryland asDouglass. He was born a slave on the Eastern Shore, workedin a shipyard in Baltimore, had a summer house in HighlandBeach and made his final home in the Anacostia neighbor-hood of Washington, D.C. His Anacostia home in particularrevealed the breadth of Douglass’ curiosity, innovation, andlearning. He taught himself the violin, made his own checker-board, spoke and wrote in German and French, read in Greekand Latin, appreciated the arts and had one of the mostmodern homes of his time. However, it turns out that heshared more than his renaissance ethic with St. John’s. When

our tour guide, Noelle, learned where I went to college herface lit up in a smile. Knowing that her news would delight,she exclaimed, “Douglass loved to play croquet!”

As early as age 7, still ignorant of the existence of the freestates, Douglass knew the concept of freedom. “I distinctlyremember being, even then, most strongly impressed withthe idea of being a freeman some day,” he wrote in his autobi-ography. He wrestled to understand the commonplacebrutality of the plantation. He was told that God, who wasgood, made white men to be masters and black men to beslaves. He recalls, “I could not reconcile the relation ofslavery with my crude notions of goodness.”

In 1826 Douglass was sent to Baltimore to live with theAuld family. His new mistress, Sofia, began to teach the 9-year-old Douglass how to read. The lessons were halted aftershe guilelessly told her husband that “Fred” was a fine pupil.The resistance of his master awoke in Douglass a “slum-bering train of vital thought.” He suddenly understood whathad mystified him about the power men had to perpetrateslavery. He saw ignorance at the root. He realized that,“knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.”

If his mistress’ help cracked the door to literacy, hismaster’s resistance only reinforced the importance ofpressing all the way through. He reflected later that, “He iswhipped oftenest, who is whipped easiest.” Douglass was noteasily whipped, either by the obstacles keeping him from aneducation or by the brutality he faced later.

The speeches he found in his first book, The Columbian

Orator, gave him the means to articulate his own thoughts.“The more I read them, the better I understood them. Thereading of these speeches added much to my limited stock of

F R E E D O M T H R O U G H

E D U C A T I O Nby Laurel Pappas (A09)

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language, and enabled me to givetongue to many interestingthoughts, which had frequentlyflashed through my soul, anddied away for want of utterance.”He had discovered the power ofnaming. Notably, Douglass alsopored over a short dialogue inThe Columbian Orator between amaster and his freshly capturedrunaway slave. The master pointsto the kindnesses he has shown tohis slave and insists that the slaveexplain why he attemptedescape. The arguments of theblack man sway the master atevery turn; in the end, the masteremancipates him. Douglass’ andhis lifelong devotion to speakingfor social justice can be seen as aliving out of the texts that firstgave voice to his own thoughtsand desires.

After seven years in Baltimorehe was sent to St. Michael’s.When Mr. Covey, the man hiredto break him, gave him a serioushead wound for being too ill to work, Douglass walked the 12 miles to St. Michaels and sought help from his master. He knew he would receive no aid on the grounds of hishumanity, but argued that as property, he would be irre-versibly damaged. His master sent him back. Douglassreturned to the farm of Mr. Covey and refused to be beaten.He recounts that he and Mr. Covey gripped each other in acow pen for several hours and that there were no blowsexchanged between the men because Douglass neither

administered nor permitted them.“This battle was…the turningpoint in my ‘life as a slave.’ Itrekindled in my breast the smoul-dering embers of liberty; itbrought up my Baltimore dreams,and revived a sense of my ownmanhood. I was a changed beingafter that fight. I was nothingbefore; I WAS A MAN NOW.”

Four years later he escapeddisguised as a sailor, and his freepapers were purchased in 1845 byfriends. However, before he waslegally emancipated Douglassmade himself free through hisaccess to the written word, bygaining the power to name his ownthoughts, and by confirming andembracing his stature as a man.

His learning was not static. Hetaught black men to understand and love words, and later,when he was invited by abolitionists to join their circuit, hetaught white men to understand and hate slavery. Wheninitially invited to speak he was instructed to tell his story andleave the philosophy to the white abolitionists. Douglasschafed in this role. He later wrote that repeating the samestory night after night “was a task altogether too mechanicalfor my nature. I could not always obey, for I was now readingand thinking.” He wanted to do more than relay the horrorsof slavery; he wanted to condemn them. In a nation deeplysaturated in its prejudices Douglass persisted and becameone of the most gifted orators America has ever known.

In reading, I was enthralled by Douglass’ spiritedness. Hispalpable legacy in Maryland helped me to meet, not simplythe force of Douglass’ sentiments, but a man. The bestsellingauthor I encountered did not help me sort out the particularsof what I should do with myself, but his example encouragedme. Douglass is a reminder that a true education, while for itsown sake, is toward practical life.* x

*“Statement of Educational Policy and Program,” Spring2006, Michael Dink (A75)

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{ F r e d e r i c k D o u g l a s s }

The Frederick Douglass summer home: Twin Oaks inHighland Beach, Maryland. 410-267-6960 (open byappointment)

Frederick Douglass National Historic Site: Cedar Hillin Anacostia:www.nps.gov/archive/frdo/freddoug.html

The Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis, Maryland: www.bdmuseum.com

Douglass on the Eastern Shore of Maryland: Douglasswas born on the Anthony farm, near the banks of theTuckahoe River. A historical marker on the EasternShore on Route 328 is six miles away from Douglass’birthplace.

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In Frederick Douglass, LaurelPappas (outside the Banneker-Douglass house in Annapolis)found a man devoted to educationas a means of improving the world.

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{ T h e P r o g r a m }

“In any account of Freedom the great symbols

are chains and fetters. There is no universal and

immediately transparent symbol of Freedom as

such. The torch and the Statue of Liberty, the

Phyrigian cap, the gesture of open and uplifted

arms—these all symbolize freedom at best indi-

rectly, by way of some historic or sentimental

connotations. But chains—that’s different. They

mean, directly, always and under all circum-

stances, compulsion. Why is this so? I think,

because, in the most concrete way, we are never

free. We are inescapably bound to the necessities

of life, we cannot escape death; we depend

intrinsically on everything around us, in the

present as well as in the past.”– Jacob Klein, “The Problem of Freedom.”

In an essay he delivered 40 years ago at whatwas then the Aspen Institute for Human-istic Studies, Jacob Klein spoke of bothpolitical freedom and the freedom ofhuman beings as “thinking beings and asbeings having a will.” The concept offreedom comes up frequently in program

readings, from Aristotle to Faulkner. In readings suchas the Dred Scott decision, the concept of freedom ismade most clear when we’re confronted with its oppo-site: bondage. The College asked three tutors to thinkabout freedom and write an essay. Not surprisingly,the Program itself came to mind for tutor JonLenkowski. Bill Pastille questions whether each indi-vidual unknowingly sets up barriers to freedom. And Claudia Honeywell turned to a fictional char-acter, Mrs. Dalloway, to examine freedom through thedifficult choices of one woman’s life.

O N F R E E D O M

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The Being-at-Work of Human Freedomby Jon Lenkowski, tutor, Annapolis

As much as is possible, given all of the external exigenciesto which we are subject in our daily lives, St. John’s Collegetries to provide us with freedom from certain sorts of wantsand needs, as well as freedom from care and from distrac-tion. The ancient word for this condition is schole, fromwhich we get our modern words “school” and “scholar.”The word schole originally means leisure, as well as theplace where leisure activity takes place, thereforesuggesting a deep connection between leisure and study, orthat study is the proper work of leisure. The liberal artshave been traditionally conceived as the arts of freedom,not only because they depend on leisure, but also becausethey provide us with certain kinds of resources to help leadus out of ignorance and blindness. In this way the liberalarts can be viewed as liberating.

Any liberal arts college worth its salt must subscribe tothis view of the liberal arts. But here at St. John’s we go evenfurther than this: Learning can itself be slavish. What I

mean by this is that one can become enthralled by anynumber of great thinkers, so that one takes a fancy to a newway of thinking, or a new view of things, or a new technicalvocabulary, and learns it almost by rote, letting it takepossession of one’s soul without scrutinizing it carefullyenough to see whether it is really worthy of such an exaltedstatus. And then there are all the various methods andprocedures and models that one comes across in this or thatdepartmental specialty; these tend to be forced upon thelearner as though they were simply the truth of things; andeven without this compulsion and enforcement these alsooften have a tendency to insinuate themselves into oursouls surreptitiously and almost automatically. These areall forms of enslavement and un-freedom. And thus it is thetask of the liberal arts to be liberating in yet a further way,that is, to help us develop powers of criticism such that wedon’t simply and immediately internalize unthinkinglywhat we read, hear or learn.

Thus then the liberal arts as liberating. But all this is ina way only preparatory to another freedom, which is themost essential sort of freedom that we can achieve here. It is perhaps the quintessence of our interior freedom.

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Freedom: Comedy?William Pastille, tutor, Annapolis

Some years ago I gave a lecture questioning the value of ques-tioning. The Socratic project of radical questioning in theservice of the Delphic injunction “Know thyself” had becomeunsatisfying for me. It seemed that all the questioning I wasdoing was merely uncovering a host of unexamined prejudices,long-standing beliefs, and inherited errors that had beenplanted—often without my knowledge—in a hidden part in mysoul. For all I could tell, this subconscious network of thoughtwas irreducibly complex; and if that were the case, the Socraticproject would never be realized. I could spend my entire lifeexposing the errors and the ignorance of my subconscious“self” to the light of day, sanitizing its piles of trash, cleaning upits mistakes, patching its holes—and I would be no closer toknowing myself at death than I was at birth. Or, as Schiller onceput it, I would “miss” myself for the sake of an unrealizableSocratic project.

In fact, it seemed to me then that the subconscious selfcontrols our lives far more than the conscious one. The wholeattempt to probe, to question assumptions, and to correcterrors is conditioned by the subconscious self, since it is thesource of the difficulties that radical questioning seems touncover, and it retains them until the conscious self happens tolight on one of them. Hence, the Socratic project is a sort of self-deluding servitude to the hidden self: by convincing ourconscious self that something is being accomplished by ourcontinual exposure of unexamined assumptions, we conceal orplay down the impossibility of the project and the futility of ouractivity. The subconscious self will never let go, no matter howmany errors the conscious self corrects. Seen from this perspec-

tive, questioning leads to slavery rather than to freedom.In the question period, my colleague Chaninah Maschler

asked, “What is the obsession with freedom? Why is freedom soimportant that it overrides everything else?”

“It bothers me,” I replied, “to think that something else isliving my life for me.”

“You should be grateful!” she shot back.Everyone else in the room, including me, burst into laughter.

* * *Of course, I thought that Ms. Maschler had somehow misap-prehended my point, but in the days that followed, her “Youshould be grateful!” kept running through my mind. Soon Irealized that it was a signal directing my attention to the factthat I had gotten something very wrong. And it was not longbefore the problem made itself known.

By assuming that the unconscious self was dominant, I hadgranted it autonomy in its relations with the conscious self. Butsurely this is a mistake. The unconscious self is evidently notwholly self-determining, since ideas surreptitiously enter itfrom the outside, and since the conscious self can modify itthrough Socratic inquiry. So neither the conscious self nor thesubconscious self are independent, stable, fundamental beings.Was it possible that there could be a more fundamental self? Ifso, where was it, and how could I come to know it?

It turns out that there is a candidate for this more funda-mental self. It is an aspect of consciousness that is sometimescalled “the watcher.” Despite the mystical overtones, there isreally nothing strange or extraordinary about it, even thoughfor the most part we do not notice its activity. In order to noticeit, you need to “step aside” from your thoughts and percep-tions. The process for uncovering the watcher is well known inmeditative traditions, and is pretty simple: Choose a quiet place

This is the freedom ofthought, the freedom to beable to think in whateverdirection the logos seems tolead us, to follow its point-ings wherever they may lead,without fear of reprisal orconsequence—to questionand interrogate each of thesepointings as vigorously as wecan at each and every step ofthe way, and then to be ableto say openly what we havelearned and what we think.But this freedom also brings

with it a new responsibility—viz. to seek out those greatthinkers who can best help usto formulate questions in justthe right way, and help uspursue them and think aboutthem most profitably—forwithout this guidance we runthe risk of missing manythings, as well as the risk oftrusting in our own abilitiesalone, and just spinning our own wheels, as self-indul-gently delightful as that maybe.

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where you can be alone, and close your eyes. In your mind’s ear,recite a line of poetry that you know well. Slow it down progres-sively until there are long gaps between the words. Thenconcentrate intently on the gaps between the words. If you dothis repeatedly and with persistence, you will sooner or laternotice the presence of a constantly active awareness that isalways ready to take up content in the form of thoughts orperceptions, but is just as lively when no such stimuli arepresent. As far as I can tell, it is always the same every time Iclear space for it—an empty attentiveness without distin-guishing marks. Is this the independent, stable, and funda-mental self that grounds the unconscious and the consciousselves?

It seems unlikely. Although it appears to have stability, it ishardly self-determining: it cannot resist being filled withcontent. The conscious self must strive to keep thoughts andperceptions off to the side in order for the watcher to remain inthe open. This shows that the watcher is yet another self thatdances with the conscious self in a continual interplay ofsubmission and dominance, servitude and freedom.

Maybe there just isn’t a fundamental self.* * *

And yet perhaps we can learn something from the process ofbringing the watcher into the open. What if the stepping asidethat makes room for the watcher is the right kind of activity, butjust isn’t complete enough to clear the way for the fundamentalself? What if we need to step aside not only from thoughts andperceptions, but also from the body, the conscious self, thesubconscious self, the watcher, our memories, our variousidentities, and whatever else may be in our makeup—fromeverything that makes us ourselves? What if only somethingthat total could open up the clearing necessary for the funda-

mental self to appear? What if only something like that couldreveal to us the “something else” to which we should begrateful for living our lives for us?

Strictly speaking, such a total stepping aside is inconceiv-able. It would be a complete metastrophe, a turning of ourbacks to our very existence, a kind of self-naughting. And if aninconceivable experience of this kind were to open a clearingfor the fundamental self, then it would also be a supremeparadox: how could we be gone and yet something be left over?

It seems likely that the approach to such an experience wouldbe terrifying, amounting, as it were, to a kind of death. Andindeed, in religious and mystical traditions where somethinglike this collapse of the self is discussed, it is often treated as adeath. Hence the famous dictum attributed to Mohammed:“Die before ye die.”

But I wonder what the experience would look like on theother side of the collapse. Would it be like suddenly getting thepunch line to a gag that had seemed utterly nonsensical before-hand?

* * *There is an old Zen joke: A student approaches his master withthe question “Master, how can I be liberated?”

“Who binds you?” the master responds.“Why no one binds me, master.” “Then why do you want to be liberated?” the master says with

just a hint of a smile.Wouldn’t it be ironic if we have been missing ourselves just

because we are in our own way; if the divine comedy really is ajoke—and the joke is on us; if the best way to step out of our ownway is to fall out of it by slipping on the banana peel of being?Wouldn’t it be funny if learning to laugh at ourselves is the realkey to ultimate freedom? x

As paradoxical as this formulation may seem, it is—finally—this interior freedom of thought that is the greatfreedom that we have tried to force you to exercise.

Now, having said all of this, let me add a restriction: Wetutors are always under the gun. We spend the better part ofour waking lives in the service of this college, preparing,and preparing and then preparing again. The things westudy are so difficult and so many-sided. A single page of abook may point in a dozen different directions, and we feelobligated—and it is both an intellectual and a moral obliga-tion—to follow up each and every one of these leads. Therenever seems to be enough time. We always feel rushed andhardly ever feel adequate to the task. Usually we prepareright up to class-time, and almost always go to classthinking: if only we had another hour or two! But once

inside the classroom something magical happens: theconversation starts and a spirit of fluency takes over wherewe anticipated only a sort of stuttering and hemming andhawing. And so the class goes on quite wonderfully asthough it had a life and spirit of its own. And so it turns outthat we were all up to the task after all. And this happensbecause our students have also been busy, preparing and

Our classes work because wehave trusted you and you have

lived up to that trust.Jon Lenkowski

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preparing again. Our classes work because we have trustedyou and you have lived up to that trust by investing your-selves in our common enterprise.

You are not our pupils, but rather our co-workers, sincewe learn from you, as you learn from us. This makes you fullpartners in this great adventure of the Spirit that is at oncethe quintessential being-at-work of human freedom.

Adapted from a toast given in December 2008 to degree

candidates of the Graduate Institute, Annapolis.

The Freedom to Be HerselfBy Claudia Honeywell, tutor, Santa Fe

Thanks to the education and opportunity we have had, ourmost pressing concern with freedom is often with the

highly individual choices that give us the freedom to beourselves. Yet our personal choices may be difficult forthose who love us to understand or even accept.

Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway gives an interestingexample of this. Peter Walsh, who has loved Clarissa for 30 years, does not understand why she rejected him andchose instead Richard Dalloway and a marriage devoid ofpassion.

The loss of personal freedom that Clarissa’s choiceentailed is emphasized throughout the novel, beginningwith the famous opening line which introduces her only by her husband’s name and limits her autonomy to a frivo-lous trip to the flower shop. Yet in spite of being defined byher husband, Clarissa has not succumbed, like Lady Brad-shaw, to the “slow sinking, waterlogged, of her will intohis” (100). In fact, she is more open-minded than she was30 years ago: “She would not say of any one in the world

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now that they were this or were that… and she would not say of Peter, she would not say of herself, I am this, I amthat” (8).*

Clarissa chose to marry Richard although she knewherself to have stronger feelings for Peter. As the novelprogresses, her choice appears due to something unfeelingin Clarissa herself. Peter would like to condemn her for“this coldness, this woodenness”, but instead he sensesthat it is “something very profound” and finds himself onthe day of the novel “unable to get away from the thought ofher… trying to explain her” (76).

Clarissa’s lack of feeling is what connects her toSeptimus, her parallel character in the novel. Clarissa,thinks Peter, is “cold as an icycle” (80),while Septimus, the narrator tells usrepeatedly, “could not feel” (86). Thisquality of detachment, explored throughthese two otherwise unrelated characters,is the main theme of the novel. Septimus isdriven to suicide because those around him are so threatened by his detachment.Clarissa avoided Septimus’ fate by rejectingPeter, with whom “everything had to beshared; everything gone into” (8). Bychoosing to live “like a nun” with theemotionally undemanding Richard, ClarissaDalloway has ensured that she will not beharassed for her own detachment.

Although not an artist, Clarissa thus has a certaintemperamental connection to the woman of “A Room ofOne’s Own” who needs “money and a room of her own ifshe is to write fiction” (4). In “A Room of One’s Own,”Virginia Woolf suggests that detachment is a truer artisticresponse than passion. Romance, she says, may have beenalways an illusion:

“Shall we lay the blame on the war? When the guns firedin August 1914, did the faces of men and women show soplain in each other’s eyes that romance was killed?. . . .Why,if it was an illusion, not praise the catastrophe, whatever itwas, that destroyed illusion and put truth in its place?” (15).

Although Clarissa’s enigmatic detachment was out ofplace during the pre-war summer of romance andcourtship that ended with her choice to marry Richard, it issuited to the realism of the post-war aesthetic. Peter, whoonce believed that passion was the most important thing inlife, has since learned that it is not passion but detachmentthat gives “the supreme flavour to existence—the power oftaking hold of experience, of turning it round, slowly, inthe light.” (79).

Peter realizes that there is a connection between the wayClarissa’s “emotions [are] all on the surface” (75) and hercreativity, her “extraordinary gift of making a world of herown wherever she happened to be” (75). Peter creditsClarissa’s detachment with giving her this ability to expresslife fully by her presence, to make a world of her own, “to sum it all up in the moment as she passed” (174). UnlikePeter and Sally Seton, who are diminished in the post-warworld, the detached Clarissa retains her compelling presence.

Peter and Sally looked for fulfillment in private life, butthis option was never open to Clarissa, for private lifedemands the feeling that she lacks. Clarissa can only

express herself socially, where human rela-tions are more abstract than intimate. Shesees her party as an occasion to get at some-thing “unreal in one way; much more realin another” (171) and her party is for her anend in itself: “it was an offering tocombine, to create, but to whom? Anoffering for the sake of offering, perhaps”(222). Clarissa’s connection is not to indi-viduals, but to human life as a whole: “inthe ebb and f low of things, here, shesurvived. . .she was part” (9).

Until the final lines of the novel, Peterthinks of this as Clarissa’s “transcendentaltheory” (152), which, he acknowledges,

“worked to this extent: brief, broken as their actual meet-ings had been… the effect of them on his life was immeas-urable” (153). But in the novel’s closing line, Peter findsthat Clarissa’s transcendence is not just theoretical, itmanifests in her being, in her presence in the world.Through Peter’s experience of Clarissa’s presence, welearn that Clarissa has retained the rare and personalfreedom of being herself.

Clarissa’s power to draw Peter fully into the present is acreative power, akin to the power of the author herself. In“A Room of One’s Own,” Virginia Woolf discusses thedifficulties that women have faced in developing theircreative powers. Clarissa’s strange choice to marry Richardnow appears guided by her woman’s intuition of how toprotect and develop her own unique self. Mrs. Dalloway

gives us a woman’s insight into the source of creativity andencourages us to give up our romantic illusions and learn,with Clarissa, to “wish everybody merely to be themselves”(126).

* Line numbers are from the Harcourt edition.x

Clarissa can onlyexpress herselfsocially, where

human relationsare more abstract

than intimate.Claudia Honeywell

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R E S I L I E N C E in the face of

R E C E S S I O N

Unemployment, foreclo-sures, bankruptcies—theseare unsettling times forAmericans. The experi-ences of these four John-nies reflect the gravity of a

prolonged recession, but they also inspireoptimism. Policy analyst Jim Sorrentino(A80) helps people keep their homes.Small business owner Trudy Koch(AGI82) rides out the recession in a tinyVirginia town, helping others along theway. Mandy Dalton (A89) fearlesslyventures into a new career. And in Cali-fornia, where the economy is staggering,therapist Tom Horvath (A75) teachesclients to hang on even when they’relosing everything.

“This is A bout Community” Jim Sorrentino (A80) Offers Hope for Homeowners

Jim Sorrentino (A80) fondly remembers the movie It’s a

Wonderful Life from the days when he ran the film programat St. John’s. When the Depression hits, there’s a run on thebank, and George Bailey offers the cash he saved for hishoneymoon trip to keep the Building & Loan and hisBedford Falls neighbors af loat. “Let’s face it,” saysSorrentino, a policy analyst at the Office of Housing andUrban Development. “There are no George Baileysanymore. Lenders, whether they are large or small compa-nies, aren’t interested in the homeowner. Once they origi-nate a loan for a home mortgage, they immediately sell itand get it off their books. Once it’s sold, the homeowner’sability to stay above water is no longer the lender’sproblem. There is no sense of community anymore.”

At HUD headquarters in Washington, D.C., an Orwellianconcrete building that Sorrentino and his colleagues affec-tionately call “10 floors of basement,” the water-cooler talkincludes terms like “ninja loans,” “subprime,” “trenches,”and “foreclosure contagion.” Working in a windowlessoffice, Sorrentino is one of many anonymous, unsungheroes of the bailout, something of a modern-day GeorgeBailey. He doesn’t hand over his own cash, but Sorrentinowas tapped by the Treasury Department in 2008 to help

by Patricia Dempsey

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Jim Sorrentino, outside HUD headquarters in Washington, D.C., is an unsung hero of the Bailout.



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“There are no George Baileys anymore.”Jim Sorrentino (A80)

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craft a plan to funnel Troubled Asset ReliefProgram (TARP) funds into the righthands. The funds provide lender incentivesfor foreclosure prevention and relief. “My job is public service,” saysSorrentino. “I want to help people stay intheir homes. What one person pays out,another benefits from. In this way we are in this bailout together. This is aboutcommunity.”

In 2008 Sorrentino was tapped to workfor six months in the Treasury’s newly created Homeown-ership Preservation Office, assisting in the development ofthe Making Home Affordable program, the federal govern-ment’s attempt to address the housing part of the economiccrisis. Today Sorrentino is back at HUD, continuing towork on foreclosure relief through the recently revisedHope for Homeowners program, administered by theFederal Housing Administration (FHA). As a result of thisprogram, the percentage of FHA loans is on the rise. “TheFHA market share dropped dramatically over the years.Now we’re on our way to close to 20 percent. By the end ofthe year 30 percent of the nation’s homebuyers will be inFHA mortgages.” That’s compared to just 2 percent ofhomeowners in 2005-6, he points out.

In 1985, Sorrentino, just out of University of Maryland’sSchool of Law, was hired by HUD’s Baltimore field office asan attorney-advisor to assist homeowners facing foreclo-sure when Baltimore’s slumping steel industry left thou-sands out of work. Then he went to HUD headquarters as apolicy analyst in foreclosure prevention and relief and dealtwith the collapse of the shale oil industry in Colorado in thelate 1980s. “Those were regional crises,” Sorrentinoexplains. “What we haven’t had for a long time is a collapseof national scale. I remember in the late 1980s going out toour office in Denver and driving down street after streetand seeing foreclosure signs. Those folks left—they went toanother city. They had a place to go. Now there is no placethat is a safe haven financially. So we are all in thistogether.”

Sorrentino first heard the term “subprime” in Chicagoover a decade ago. “In 1998 I taught a class on a programthat required all FHA lenders to evaluate potential home-owners. I taught this program at the Federal Reserve Bank

of Chicago and after class, this gentlemencame up to me. He was from a medium-large mortgage lender. He didn’t exactlysay we [HUD] were wasting our time, buthe implied it. He said, ‘Nice presentation,but I gotta tell you the next big thing issubprime mortgages. Lenders will look atyour programs and say, ‘This is too compli-cated. There are so many rules, consumerprotections, to get an FHA-insured mort-gage, so we’re going to get out of the FHA

and all its verifications.’”At that time lenders were beginning to eagerly extend

subprime or “ninja” (no income, no job, no assets) loans tohomeowners. “The mortgage business came up with allsorts of creative terms to aggressively market thesesubprime loans to homeowners. They refer to subprimeloans as ‘nonprime’ or ‘fault A rating’—that is one of myfavorites. One lender, Countrywide, called their programWhole Spectrum. No credit? No problem. We’re WholeSpectrum, for everyone, like a big happy family. Thus, themagic of mortgage-backed securities took flight. Thelender could sell the loan in a package very quickly and bedone with it. When the loans were off their books, it was nottheir problem.”

Investment banks and hedge funds bought mortgage-backed securities to sell to investors. “Depending on theamount of risk involved they would package these thingsinto ‘trenches’—pronounced “tra-ah-h-nches.” They lovedto use the fancy French terminology,” explainsSorrentino. “This was all part of the marketing hype, thesales seduction.”

The lure of easy money attracted not just unsophisticatedborrowers, but highly educated, savvy borrowers whothought “their property would appreciate until the end oftime,” says Sorrentino. “People were getting fairly complexloans, an adjustable rate tied to the London Libor rate,terms many of us have never heard of. How is that person,even a highly educated person, supposed to really under-stand what kind of obligation he or she has signed?” Bycontrast, Sorrentino has kept a tight rein on his ownfinances and only refinanced his home once in the lastseven years. “We only took out enough to cover theexpenses of adopting our children,” he says, “and just last

“Now there is noplace that’s a safehaven financially. So we’re all in this

together.”Jim Sorrentino

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month we refinanced a secondtime, for home renovations.”

For those like Sorrentino, whohave managed their financesconservatively, shelling out taxdollars for TARP bailout funds isa tough pill to swallow. Heunderstands why people wholive within their means angrilywonder why their tax dollarsshould help those who didn’t.“My answer is this is a nationalcrisis,” he says. “Besides, howmany foreclosed homes do youwant on your street loweringyour property values? In placeslike Detroit there is somethingwe call ‘foreclosure contagion.’Guys pull up, kick down thedoor, and remove all the copperpipes from foreclosed homeafter home. The values deflateeven further. We need to all care. We need to pull togetherto get through.”

Though he primarily deals with foreclosure policy, insome cases borrowers track Sorrentino down. Sometimes,they’re referred to him after they’ve complained to theircongressman, senator, or even the White House about thelenders’ terms for their restructured loans. If a case looksreasonable, it may land on his desk, and Sorrentino reviewsthe case with the loan servicer, sees if the lender violatedpolicy, and gets the HUD field office involved to offerhousing counsel to the borrower. “I try as much as possiblenot to be a go-between between borrower and lender –that’snot my job, but I’ve done it on many occasions. I have heldonto thank-you letters from borrowers that I have helpedout. I hope that as the years went on they managed to gettheir lives straightened out. I hope I helped them in someway with that.”

Now that the percentage of FHA loans is increasing,Sorrentino is home on weekends, no longer putting inextra hours. This leaves him more time to spend with hiswife, his 6-year-old daughter and 6-month-old son. It’s a

sad irony that the Sorrentinos were able to adopt their sonbecause the child’s mother, who lives in Maryland, couldnot afford to raise him. In that way, Sorrentino says, “Ourbaby was a gift of the recession.”

Quilts Made With LoveTrudy Koch (AGI85) Fosters Goodwill

Times are threadbare in Tappahannock, Virginia, a sleepycolonial town along the Rappahannock River. “There arenow three ‘cash-to-you’ places in town. This is a bad sign,”says quilt shop owner Trudy Koch (AGI85). “Some weeks Isell not even a yard of fabric.” While sales of fabric andnotions at her downtown shop, Water & Queen, haveslowed, Koch is rich in time, friends, and energy. The longtables in her brightly lit shop in a rambling colonial houseare often filled with customers, neighbors, and friends,who quilt and talk while listening to the radio. Water &

While the recession means slow sales at her quilt shop, TrudyKoch is devoting time to making quilts for good causes.

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Queen is more than a gathering spot; it’s a stage for a reces-sion trend Koch calls a return to service. “Some things inthis depression, and people sense it, are important. Theseare the things that do not cost money—kindness and freeenergy. It’s not about turning a buck. It’s about goodwilland service.”

Koch, who settled here after retiring from teaching,organizes fellow quilters to create “Quilts of Valor,” hand-stitched works of art, often in red-white-and-blue and stars-and-stripes motifs, for injured vets of the Iraqi war. “Theseare soldiers who are severely mutilated, legs blown off,limbs severed. How good it must feel to drape beautifulcolors over these injuries, whether in a wheelchair, or overa bed, they can savor the bright, cheery colors.” Koch’sgroup, called the Sting Ray Quilters, is part of a largernational movement and ships the quilts to vets in regionalhospitals as well as those across the country and overseas.“Every now and then we get a thank-you letter, but thatisn’t why I make them,” says Koch. “Down in the corner ofmine I embroider ‘God, bless this American soldier’because I feel so deeply for the tragedies of war and how itaffects these strong young people. These quilts are madewith love.”

Koch also creates brightly colored quilts—block square,diamond, and Baltimore album patterns, and fancyappliqués—for those in need who live closer to home. Sheand fellow quilters, a cross-section from various churchdenominations in Rappahannock County, reach out to thehomeless and others in county shelters and rehab centers.The program is called “Project in So Much,” a reference toa Bible verse: “. . . for what I do unto brothers that you dounto me in so much. . . .” “I donate fabric and we makequilts in my shop for the homeless in shelters for batteredwomen, lap robes for elderly in wheel-chairs at rehab centers, and even tote bagslined with cheery fabric for the handi-capped.” Her group is called “TheMenders,” says Koch, because “we hopewe mend hearts and lives as well as fabric.”

Koch is no stranger to resiliency andsurvival. About 30 years ago, then a publicschool teacher in Montgomery County,Maryland, she wrote a letter to the Grad-uate Institute asking for a scholarship.

“The director was so helpful. St. John’s changed my life,”she says. She attended during summers and cooked family-style dinners for fellow GIs to pay for gas for the drive toand from her home in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she raised six children as a single mother. “Money was sotight that during the week when I was in Annapolis, Icooked big dinners and charged $3 a person,” she says. “I would write the menu on a brown paper bag—things likefried chicken, corn on the cob, cornbread—and post it.We’d eat at the house where I was staying. The sense ofcommunity was wonderful.”

Koch creates a sense of community wherever she lives.Even though she’s a “come-here” in Tappahannock, she’sgained acceptance in a town sometimes wary of outsiders.“When strangers walk in the shop I say, ‘Come visit. Let’sput on a pot of tea and talk.’ You meet the most wonderfulpeople. They tell me their life stories. Some come to quilt.I don’t charge people anything to use the space. Eventuallythey will buy some fabric.”

The Fears of a Clown Mandy Dalton (A89) Shifts from Mime to New Media

When people cut back on expenses, apparently clowns areamong the first to go. That’s what Mandy Dalton (A89),known as “Mandy the Clown,” was facing when theeconomy sank. Like Americans in all walks of life she hashad to reinvent herself to survive.

“Around 9-11, back in 2001, the bottom dropped out ofthe event market in this area. That’s how I was makingmost of my money,” says Dalton. “During the next sixmonths special events went into a tailspin. Municipal func-tions, grand openings, corporate events weren’t

happening. People didn’t feel like cele-brating. Then there was the sniper scare inWashington, D.C., and the anthraxthreats, schools were shutting down.People had the jitters.” Even the buildupto Iraq slashed her bookings says Dalton,who had numerous clients at Fort Meade,an army base in Maryland. “Not manypeople want to have a party when theirloved ones are going to war.”

Just as things were starting to pick up

“Not many peoplewant to have a partywhen their loved ones

are going to war.”Mandy Dalton

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again, the recession “knocked my business out of thewater,” says Dalton. This past February, she didn’t have a single booking. And one of her corporate clients whoowed her money declared bankruptcy. “By the time I wouldhave gone to New York and attended the bankruptcyproceedings to try and collect it, I would have gottenpennies on the dollar. Besides, can you imagine the judgein bankruptcy court, what he or she would have to say abouta fee for a clown?”

Dalton, who attended professional clown school for twoyears before attending St John’s, has spent decades culti-vating what she calls her clown personae. “There is nopretense. You pull something out of yourself and reveal it.My persona is an overgrown 5-year-old. I’m a rag doll on Red Bull—with red hair.” She’s feisty and resilient, much like Pippi Longstocking, but last winter when shewas laid up with a back injury, Dalton hit bottom. “I was flat on my back for threedays. Clowning is very phys-ical work. I juggle, I walk onstilts, I goof around a lot and fall a lot. My knees can’t take the stilts anymore,and my back is in bad shapeafter falling for more than 20 years. My doctor wants meto stop.”

Finally, Dalton faced thefact that she had to findanother way to make a living.Since then she has transi-tioned her flair for perform-ance, stunts and stilts intoanother precarious profes-sion: journalism and itscutting edge of new media.

Dalton’s bright red hairstands out on the UnitedPress International (UPI)

website, where her footage as a news videographerconducting man-on-the-street interviews appears in the“Issue of the Day” feature. “I’ve always been a news junkieand have had a long interest in video—the production,writing, editing—since high school. I also still love theability for analysis that I cultivated at St. John’s.” Daltonsought mentoring from a friend who is a production editorat ABC News and informally worked as his personal editingassistant. Then last fall she landed her part-time internshipwith UPI. “I tell people I’m transitioning right now. At 43 looking for a new line of work means I’ve been facinga lot of unspoken age discrimination. But given the reces-sion and the fact that so many people are looking to careershift, this has been a good time to transition.”

Being a news and event videographer adds anotherdimension to her repertoire as professional clown, dramainstructor, and mentor to youth. “The best part is how

When bookings for “Mandy theClown” began dropping off,Mandy Dalton looked to hertalents for a new career plan.

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clowning and news videography inform each other. Theyfeed one another in a natural way.” For instance whenDalton conducts interviews for UPI, she poses questionsthat her producer has written on a subject that is breakingheadline news. Dalton stops some 50-75 people a day to askthem for 30 seconds of their time to comment on theseissues. Her producers may write the questions, but it’s up toDalton to get people to open up. “Most people walk fast,avoid eye contact, talk on their cell phones, but I have thisgesture from my clown training—I keep my mike pointeddown and put my hand over my heart. I don’t knowscientifically why it works, but it does. People stop and talkto me. From my years of clowning I’m more sensitive and Ifind this gesture helps. People see my sincerity. I fear

becoming robotic, too aggressive, chasing the bouncingsilver ball of news.”

Some days as a UPI videographer are especiallycompelling. “It involves writing, creating, observing,listening, storytelling—all the things I love. The Johnnie inme likes to go out and start a conversation with peopleabout random subjects. When [Justice David] Souter wasretiring from the Supreme Court, we jumped on it to findout what qualities people would want to see in a SupremeCourt Justice. A woman rushed out of Starbucks and said tome, ‘I have to talk to you about this.’”

In the future Dalton wants to improvise and create herown questions for her video interviews. “Money is fasci-nating, especially in a recession. What is the meaning of

money ultimately? Have you done anybartering to save money? I’d like toease into a conversation about money.People want to know how I fare as aclown in the recession. What aboutthe other side? I want to know howthey are dealing with money.” Sheeven has already found some peoplewho want to laugh about money.“They are laughing through theirtears about money, but who knows,the desire to laugh means that myclowning business might pick upagain.”

A Lifeline in Times of StressTom Horvath (A75) Knows

How to Listen

Therapist Tom Horvath sees theemotional toll the recession is takingon his clients who come to him fortreatment at Practical Recovery in LaJolla, California. One of his clientsjust lost her home and is coping with

Tom Horvath’s clients are strugglingthrough California’s hard times.

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anger and doubt as she’s forced to makefinancial decisions. She and her husbandhave moved into a rental property, andher mother is paying for the treatment tohelp them get through their crisis. “Shewants to come through this with somesense of honor,” Horvath says. “The bankkeeps squeezing her and her husband. . .pressuring them to sign a $50,000 note toavoid foreclosure and ruining their creditrating. Even though her husband is aconstruction worker and they are breaking even right now,they won’t be able to keep up with those payments. Shefeels it is dishonest to sign the note, since she knows theycannot afford it.”

Horvath can empathize with the stress of financial loss.Horvath, who has a doctorate from the California School ofProfessional Psychology, founded his addiction treatmentcenter, Practical Recovery, in San Diego in 1985. Threeyears ago, when San Diego’s economy took a nosedive, hisbusiness was hard hit. “It was a disaster,” says Horvath,“Spending is more discretionary here so we felt the reces-sion sooner than the rest of the country. Discretionaryspending, which includes counseling, fell dramatically.” In2006, Horvath laid off four people. “By 2007, I had to putmy own money into the practice to keep it afloat, and I tookno salary for a year,” he says.

Horvath hired three new employees this spring, and hisbusiness is strong, thanks to a new Internet marketingstrategy. As a small provider in a big industry, Horvath haddifficulty competing with larger, well-known treatmentcenters such as the Betty Ford Center. In May 2008, hehired a consultant to help build an online presence, and theinvestment paid off. “Since September 2009, we typicallyrank near the top in searches for addiction counseling,”Horvath says. “While revenue was down 20 percent threeyears ago, now it’s up 20 percent.”

With his business on solid ground, Horvath can focus onwhat he does best: counseling clients who struggle withaddiction. He has clients from the San Diego area and fromaround the world who come to his center, which offers bothinpatient and outpatient treatment. Horvath says PracticalRecovery offers “an empowering alternative” to the tradi-tional view of addiction as disease and the 12-step program

as treatment. His clients include theaffluent, as well as those who struggleeconomically and attend free therapysessions offered through PracticalRecovery’s community program. Bothgroups experience anger and grief relatedto their economic woes, though ondifferent scales. “We’ve had clients comein who are under stress because they’velost a lot of money,” says Horvath. “Theirportfolios are not what they used to be.”

As a psychologist, Horvath has his pulse on crisis-relatedstress. As the author of the book, Sex, Drugs, Gambling

and Chocolate: A Workbook for Overcoming Addictions, heunderstands how human beings crave comfort during hardtimes. “During Hurricane Katrina, a time of catastropheand crisis, there was an increase in substance problems. Itis a natural response,” says Horvath. “I have noticed statis-tics that show that in the last year since the recession,alcohol sales [nationwide] are up by 10 percent, romancenovels have seen a 33 percent increase in sales. This is akind of female pornography; women escape into awonderful relationship in these novels. Men tend to steertowards Internet porn in times of stress. The economydipping is a factor that is out of one’s control, so thatcreates a stress. And escape is a time-honored way to dealwith stress.”

In his work Horvath draws on the Johnnie approach toconversation and listening. As part of SMART Recovery, anorganization he helped to establish and led as presidentfrom 1995-2008, Horvath occasionally leads a SMARTRecovery meeting, one of more than 400 recovery discus-sion groups held weekly around the world. “There is ahandbook and like a math tutorial, we work through prob-lems,” Horvath says. “The discussion focuses on rationalanalysis of thoughts, feelings, and situations. This is a wayto give back, especially to those who cannot afford treat-ment. When I’m leading one of these these groups, ortraining the volunteer facilitators, I feel very much like a Johnnie.” x


“By 2007, I had to putmy own money into

the practice to keep itafloat, and I took no

salary for a year.”Tom Horvath

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The Newton Wars and theBeginning of the FrenchEnlightenmentJ.B. Shank (AGI92)University of Chicago Press (2008)

By Curtis Wilson (HA83)

J.B. Shank’s The Newton Wars andthe Beginning of the French Enlight-enment is an account of changingattitudes and controversies amongFrench thinkers, from the 1690sthrough the 1750s, regarding thescientific and presumptive moral andmetaphysical import of Newton’sPrincipia. From the start, Frenchreviewers praised Newton’s mathe-matical achievement in this book butcomplained of his failure to explainhow bodies could attract one anothergravitationally over distancesthrough empty space. The Cartesianvortex theory, which assumed transmissionof force by contact of solid bodies, seemedmore rational. (Truth to tell, “solidity” and“contact” are as problematic as action at adistance.) Other objections, moralistic andmetaphysical, were raised later. Was notthe metaphysics implicit in Newton’s book,Leibniz asked Samuel Clarke in 1716,conducive to materialism, atheism, andimmorality? (See The Leibniz-ClarkeCorrespondence.) At times the controversyturned ugly.

Shank follows the twists and turns of thisdiscussion in detail. He focuses on the poli-tics and sociology of it: the “self-fash-ioning” whereby individual players in thefield sought to create a persona that couldsurvive and prosper amidst controversyand the politics of a stratified society. For42 years, from 1697 to 1739, the ‘perpetualsecretary’ of the Académie des Scienceswas Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, agentleman of the Cartesian persuasion. He was succeeded, for still a few moreyears, by another gentleman of the samepersuasion, Dortous de Mairan. For thesegentlemen, the correct posture was that ofthe honnête homme, fair-minded, decent,ready to compromise, ‘rational.’ The ulti-mate power over the Académie, to be sure,rested with the King’s minister, for theAcadémie was state-funded, the creature ofthe monarchy.

Yet by 1758, according to d’Alembert, ayounger member of the Académie, the

Cartesian theory of vortices was a deadduck. How had it happened? Shankportrays the change as the result of theself-fashionings and shrewd interventionsof two men, Pierre-Louis Moreau deMaupertuis, working from within theAcadémie des Sciences, and the enfantterrible Voltaire, hurling his witty barbsfrom the safe distance of Cirey, the homeof his learned Newtonian mistress, the

marquise du Châtelet. The impor-tant result, in Shank’s view, was theemergence of a new public persona,the philosophe, free-thinking, liber-tine, Newtonian, instigator andagent of Enlightenment.

Unquestionably, it is a leitmotif ina highly publicized drama. Is it thewhole story? Certain scientificdevelopments, I would urge, canhave had an important role in thetriumph of the Newtonian program.In 1749 Clairaut showed that themotion of the Moon’s apse could bederived from Newton’s theory,contrary to earlier failed attempts,his own and those of other mathe-maticians. In 1749 d’Alembertpublished his Recherches sur laPrécession des Equinoxes, showingNewton’s attempted derivation ofthe precession (in Prop.39 of BookIII of the Principia) to be fatallyflawed. But d’Alembert then went

on to show that both the precession andthe nutation (an effect established empiri-cally by James Bradley in 1748) were exactconsequences of Newton’s theory.Newton’s failure had been due to his lack ofa correct dynamics for rotational motion,which had been responsible as well for hisfailed disproof of the Cartesian vortextheory of planetary motion. Also in 1749was published Euler’s Recherches sur laquestion des inégalités du mouvement deSaturne et de Jupiter. Here Euler intro-duced trigonometric series, which made itpossible for the first time to compute themutual perturbations of planets systemati-cally and exactly. Newton had had no wayof computing these effects. A reasonablyaccurate table of the perturbations in theEarth’s motion due to planetary perturba-tion became available in 1758 in Lacaille’sTabulae Solares. The Earth was the plat-form from which astronomical observa-tions had to be made, and errors in its posi-tion were unavoidably projected into allcelestial observations.

In sum, by the 1750s a Newtonianprogram to account for planetary and lunarmotions precisely was an up-and-goingenterprise, and success could be reason-ably hoped for, independent of disputedmetaphysical questions. In this race theCartesian vortex theory was not yet out ofthe starting-gate. Where to put one’s betswas a no-brainer. x

Excerpt:On May 28, 1728, a little-known memberof the Paris Academy of Sciences rosebefore the assembly to deliver a paperon celestial mechanics. The academi-cian was Joseph Privat de Molières,and in the spring of 1728, although fifty-two years old, Private de Molières wasstill struggling to establish his reputa-tion as a savant. He began his career asan Oratorian priest and teacher,studying mathematics with FatherReyneau at Angers in the 1690s and thenserving as a priest and professor ofmathematics at the Oratorian collegesof Saumur, Juilly, and Soisson from1699 to 1704. He had come to both theOratory and mathematics through adevotion to the writings of Nicolas deMalebranche, and in this way his intel-lectual trajectory mirrored that of manyothers in France in the same period.

J.B. Shank, The Newton Wars.

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Celebrating

Johnnie Poets

Trust Liz Waldner (A83)Cleveland State Poetry Center, 2008

Our senses entrust to us the world that theheart minds, and so gives us a point ofview, the “sight we hope to see through(to) / Always.” Deeply attentive to formand music, each of Liz Waldner’s poems,written between the early eighties and mid-nineties, serves as a trust for the mendingof that sense of separateness. Ever thestranger in yet another strange place—insubway and orchard, ER and library, ceme-tery and classroom—they ask: “What is theshape?” of the story. “Who is mindful ofme?” and sometimes answer: “Thank you,I have enjoyed / imagining all this.”

Trust won the Cleveland State PoetryCenter’s Open Book Competition in 2008.Born in Cleveland, Waldner grew up inrural Mississippi and worked in variousfactory, janitorial, botanical, and museumjobs before graduating from St. John’s. Shelater earned an MFA at the University ofIowa’s Writers Workshop. She wrote for 18 years before publishing the first of hersix previous books, which have won suchawards as the Iowa Poetry Prize, the

Beatrice Hawley Award, and the Academyof American Poets’ James Laughlin Prize.

Editor’s note: see the inside back cover ofThe College for one of Waldner’s recentpoems.

Each Month I Sing L. Luis Lopez (SFGI69)Farolito Press, 2008

Longino Lopez’ Each Month I Sing is acollection of poems inspired by the monthsof the year, capturing the poet’s impres-sions, observations, and experiences ofeach month. The book won The AmericanBook Award, presented by the BeforeColumbus Foundation at Berkeley, whichhonors works that represent multiculturaldiversity in American literature. TheColorado Independent Publishers Associa-tion also honored the work with an EVVYfirst-place award for poetry.

Lopez, in his 44th year of teaching, iscurrently at Mesa State College in GrandJunction, Colorado, where he has, untilrecently, served as director of the Acad-emic Honors Program. He received twoNational Endowment for the Humanitiesfellowships, one to study lyric poetry withHelen Vendler at Harvard, and a second tostudy the literature of innocent sufferingwith Duke University’s Terrence Tilley.

Lopez has published two other volumesof poetry, Musings of a Barrio Sack Boyand A Painting of Sand.

InterloperL.S. Klatt (AGI98)University of Massachusetts Press, 2008

Lewis Skillman Klatt teaches literature andcreative writing at Calvin College in GrandRapids, Michigan. His poems haveappeared in Columbia Poetry Review,Turnrow, the Southeast Review, NotreDame Review, Phoebe, and Five FingersReview. He also published a new essay onthe poetry of Walt Whitman in theSouthern Review.

In 2008, Klatt was named the winner ofthe University of Massachusetts Press’Juniper Prize, for which he was a finalisttwice before. The prize included publica-tion of his manuscript, Interloper. Thepoems in this volume unsettle frontiersbetween disparate worlds so that the imag-ination is given room to roam: pearsbecome guitars, racks of ribs arepresented as steamboats, and helicopterstransmute into diesel seraphs. The poetryaspires acrobatically in the manner ofprayers and pilots, but adventurethroughout the book is viewed as precar-ious and the will to conquest leads toapocalypse and ruin. The interloperwanders through crime scenes and crashsites as he glosses the landscape—at homeand not at home with the America ofyesterday and tomorrow. In symbols thatscat and ricochet, the interloper scores anew song, one that composes—and decom-poses—on the page. x

Poet L.S. Klatt, author of Interloper.

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{ A l u m n i P r o f i l e }

“They line up. First the men, then the

women, then the children. My first job?

Fell in my lap. I was out driving around

looking to dig a grave on the outskirts of my

family’s ranch. It’s that way, you know.

It’s a country unto itself out there. We own

miles not just acres. Have for more than six

generations. Funny, it was Mexico then . . .

it’s Arizona now.”

So begins the dramatic mono-logue written and performed byMichelle Vest (SF90), part ofher one-woman play, Sole

Survivors: Journey Across

Borders. The speaker is Maria,the adult daughter of an Arizona rancherwho starts out with altruistic intentionstoward the migrants she encounters on herland but eventually becomes a greedy, hard-ened “coyote.”

Based on extensive interviews with docu-mented and undocumented Southwesternmigrant workers, the play is a stirring pres-entation of the experiences of immigrantswho risk everything for a chance at a betterlife in the United States. “I wanted to lookbeneath the usual stereotypes and assump-tions and explore the more enliveningtruths that exist there,” Vest explains.

Inspired also by Woody Guthrie’s“Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),”Vest presents four characters: the coyoteMaria, and three immigrants: Rosa, Jesus,and Juan. Though their stories are contem-porary, the characters are named for thefour deportees killed in the 1949 NewMexico plane crash Guthrie memorialized.Rosa, who grew up in a small Mexicanvillage, left her son behind to cross theborder illegally in search of work. Juan, also undocumented, tells of how he came toaccidentally kill a man who was trying totake his job. Once a professor in SanSalvador, Jesus was forced to flee his countryduring the civil war of the 1980s. He left hisfamily behind to seek political asylum in theU.S., reuniting with them 11 years later.

A mariachi band opens the play with atraditional song about immigration andremains on stage throughout as a South-western-inspired version of a Greek chorus.Vest moves to stage right to transition from

one character to another, changing hershoes or shirt, or putting on a hat—all part ofthe drama. “A lot of people are mesmerizedby this,” Vest says.

The shoes symbolize the many connota-tions of the word sole, as an allusion to thecharacters’ footsteps across the border andto the notion that the ordeal of migration isa test of individual determinism. The playon words (sole, soul) also underscores Vest’sdesire to draw from these stories thecommon threads of humanity—love for one’sfamily, hopes and dreams, resiliency, loss—that unite people of different backgroundsand experiences.

Since debuting her show in Santa Fe inOctober 2007, Vest has performed in D.C.,Philadelphia, and New York City. After asold-out show last year in New York, Sole

Survivors returned to New York in June for alimited run at Stage Left Studio, followed byperformances in Albuquerque.

Born in Annapolis and raised just twoblocks from the St. John’s campus, Vest metJohnnies at her family’s downtown restau-rant and in the college library, her preferredhomework spot. An early enthusiast of theclassics, she developed an aptitude forlanguages and fascination for othercultures. After a year at Florida State,

she enrolled at St. John’s in Santa Fe.“St. John’s just happened to be what I

needed,” Vest says. “To be with a group ofstudents who shared a similar love [forlearning] changed my whole life scholasti-cally. I never knew that education could beso well-rounded and that I could love everyaspect of it.”

After graduation, Vest attended theCleveland Institute of Arts’ internationalprogram in Florence to study painting. Shemoved to San Francisco to pursue photog-raphy and later worked as a documentaryphotographer at the Smithsonian’s Museumof Natural History. Since returning to SantaFe in 1997, Vest has shown her photographsin a number of galleries around town, andher paintings were included in the 2005New Mexico Women in the Arts JuriedShow at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Vest found her way to performance viadance. Physical movement, she speculates,triggered talking, which led to acting. Keenon developing a one-person show, Vestplunged into a yearlong workshop taught byTanya Taylor Rubinstein, artistic director ofProject Life Stories (and now the director ofher show). One assignment—to deliver ashort monologue based on an interview—changed Vest’s life. Talking with her house-keeper, a native of Mexico, Vest was struckby both the differences and commonalitiesof their lives.

Motivated by the workshop’s enthusiasticresponse to her monologue, Vest begancollecting more stories, including that of aman she had known while working in a SanFrancisco café. He served as inspiration forher character Jesus. The former professorwas now the cleaning person, while she, acollege graduate, was “taking money andselling muffins.”

Her experience in the Program, with itsemphasis on dialogue and careful listening,greatly influenced the spirit of Sole

Survivors, says Vest. St. John’s “was a safeplace to admit that you didn’t know some-thing, and also to affirm the importance ofwanting to know.” If her play is part questfor knowledge, she has found a gratefulaudience. “They tell me that I did a greatservice [by telling these stories],” Vest says.“They are listening.” x

Listening to the Unknown

Michelle Vest (SF90)

by Deborah Spiegelman

In her play Sole Survivors, Michelle Vestwent beyond stereotypes to portray theexperiences of migrant works in America.

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{ A l u m n i N o t e s }

1932HENRY SHRYOCK, JR., is amember of the Cosmos Club ofWashington, the WildernessSociety, the Census Alumni Asso-ciation, Nature Conservancy,Population Connection, SoOthers May Eat (SOME), and theUnion of Concerned Scientists.

1937A retired dental surgeon,HAROLD BROOKS writes that heand his wife, Norma, will bemarried for 72 years on Nov. 26,2009. They live in sunny Sebas-tian, Fla., and are in good health.

1942ERNEST HEINMULLER haspublished a new book, ADifferent Focus. It’s available atthe college bookstore, onAmazon.com, or in the library.The poems are from 1938-2008,including some haikus he wrotehis freshman year.

1943“How nice to see the names of somany members of the classes of1940 through 1944 in the capitalcampaign report,” writesMARTIN ANDREWS. “They evokevivid and happy memories. Inrecent years, the enchantment ofSt. John’s has even expanded forme by the good fortune ofmeeting and getting to know theincomparable Eva Brann.”

BURTON ARMSTRONG has beenliving in Charlottesville, Va.,since 1982. He recently became agreat-grandparent to HenryBurton Alt, age 1.

1945EDWARD MULLINIX reports: “Inrecent months, I have beenheavily involved as a member ofthe American College of TrialLawyers Task Force onDiscovery, which has beenworking with the University ofDenver’s Institute for theAdvancement of the AmericanLegal system on a project seekingreforms to reduce the out-of-control cost of civil litigation inthe United States. Our finalreport, released to the public onMarch 11, 2009, puts out a seriesof proposed principles fornationwide discussion—builtaround the most significant principle, which calls for radicalreduction of the pretrialdiscovery procedures currentlypermissible. The report has beenthe subject of widespreadpublicity in the general mediaand in law-related media.”

“For the old bod I do tai chi(after a fashion) and walk(slowly). For the rapidly disap-pearing gray cells, I write stufffor judges (incredibly technicaland boring), play mediocrebridge, and read, most recentlyCrime and Punishment withgreat pleasure and American

Pastoral with lesser pleasure. We travel lazily, mainly on cruiseships, today’s best travel deal.Am in the hands of doctors liter-ally from head to toe, but hey, if Iweren’t, I probably wouldn’t bewriting this. Just the same, oldage should happen to youngerpeople,” writes GEORGE BRUNN.

1946PETER WEISS, in his capacity aspresident of the LawyersCommittee on Nuclear Policy,addressed the NonproliferationTreaty Conference at the UnitedNations on May 5 and gave a

lecture on “The Legal Obligationfor Nuclear and General Disar-mament” at a Peace ThroughLaw Conference in Berlin onJune 26. “I have also decided totry my mind at topical poetry inmy retirement,” says Weiss:

If you’re feeling kind of blue/But

not unhappy through and

through/Is what you’re having a

depression/Or, you hope, just a

recession?

1950THOMAS MEYERS writes: “I havebecome one of those old men Iused to see at Homecoming whenI was a St. John’s freshman. I recall meeting a very nicegentleman who had been gradu-ated from St. John’s when I wasbut 6 years old. Wow! I may notbe as gentlemanly as he, but Ihave made it to 87 years. Andcounting!”

1955HAROLD BAUER has taken hislife’s activities beyond the worldof music, the world in which hehas spent most of the past 50 years. Painting (mostly oils)has become a major area ofconcentration. He regularly takesclasses at the Evanston ArtCenter in Illinois, where in addi-tion to being a student, he alsoserves as president of the Boardof Trustees. He also has becomean involved Rotarian. He wasfirst attracted to the Evanstonmorning club by their extensiveinvolvement in internationalhumanitarian outreach and nowwill become the chair of thatcommittee. He felt a strong needto “do something” for theseverely needy of the world, andthis seemed to offer a windowinto that possibility. He’s

wondering if the 55th anniver-sary year is going to bring class-mates back to Annapolis in 2010.

JOHN GORDON retired from filmand video production in 1997 andis happily engaged in designinglandscapes and gardens in Mary-land. Most recently back toschool in the landscape architec-ture program at the University ofMaryland, John has taught land-scape design at the USDA grad-uate school for two years. Havingpreviously traveled widely as adocumentary film cameraman,John and his wife, Jenny, will bein Italy this summer on a tour ledby a landscape architect.“Anyone need a Renaissanceparterre garden designed?” he asks.

1957MARCIA DEL PLAIN REFF

reports that she and herhusband, Martin, are continuingto enjoy life in Naples, Fla.Marcia is in her third year aspresident of the Naples Orchestraand Chorus. She was playing theviolin in the orchestra but taughtherself to play the viola and madethe switch last season. Marciaalso enjoys teaching bridgeclasses at the local duplicateclub. Her son, MICHAEL

O’MAHONY (A77) also lives inNaples. The Reffs enjoyed a visitin May to Annapolis to visit sisterPAULA DEL PLAIN BINDER

(class of 1959).

1959ROBERTO SALINAS PRICE writeswith an update and someHomeric musings: “A new lifebegins for me with the loss of myfriend, mistress, wife, of morethan 50 years, but, in the mean-time, before we meet yet againforever, I continue with myHomeric researches. I am

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currently writing ‘Homer, fromScholion to Myth,’ in which Ihope to show how ‘myth’—nonsense data about this or that—developed from a lack of tutorialguidance in Homeric thinking.”

1960JOHN LANE is doing somecommunity work in retirement.He is the vice president of theCascades Homeowner’s Associa-tion, with 6,500 households, thelargest HOA in NorthernVirginia. He is vice chairman ofthe Loudon County Board ofEqualization, which hearstaxpayer appeals on assessment.He has acquired a real estatelicense and is a practicing realtorin Great Falls, Va. “Retirementhas turned out to be a shorttime,” he says. “Life is good.”

PETER RUEL writes with hopes toattend the 50th reunion of hisclass. He also noted that theUniversity of Chicago held a“spring weekend” devoted toDarwin: “How could we pass thatup? Darwin, Freud, and Einstein:three fascinating authors for thesenior year at St. John’s.”

1961As part of a featured exchangetitled “Life Without Lawyers” inits May 14, 2009 issue, The New

York Review of Books publisheda letter by HARRISON SHEPPARD.Sheppard’s letter, criticizing thebook of that name by Philip K.Howard and its review byAnthony Lewis in the publica-tion’s April 9, 2009, argued thatboth the book and the reviewfailed to identify the root cause ofabuses in American legal educa-tion and practice attributable tothe dominance of an adversarial“war-making” model as opposedto a “problem-solving, peace-

making model” of the kind YaleLaw school Dean AnthonyKronman identifies as the“lawyer-statesman ideal.” Shep-pard maintains his solo civil lawpractice in San Francisco whilecontinuing his nonfiction writingand editing. His last publishedbook was Too Much for Our Own

Good: The Consumeritis

Epidemic. He is now editing themanuscript of a distinguishedphysician concerning the need toseparate the teachings ofdogmatic religion from reason-able moral judgments, and asecond manuscript relating tothe early career of Elvis Presley,written by a woman who, as ateenager, had dated Presley.

1962JERRY BRENNIG reports: “I continue to work at theDepartment of State, now 12 years since I retired from theForeign Service. The longcommuting time is definitely adownside, and I would like togive more time to my garden, butI work in the bureau that coversPakistan and Afghanistan (andIndia, too). There is no lack of

daily stimulation and the satisfac-tion of being involved withcentral concerns of our country.”

1963“After more than 30 years inadvertising, I am now retired andenjoying as many weeks on CapeCod as the weather will allow,”writes JED STAMPLEMAN. “I amalso participating in the monthlyseminars held by the New Yorkalumni chapter. I went through about of cancer but I am doingfine, and the doctors are happywith my recovery. Best to all atSt. John’s.”

WILL DAVIS, retired from hislongtime work as chairman of theBoard of the Berklee College ofMusic, continues working forCredit Suisse from his office inHolderness, N.H., where he andJESSICA HOFFMANN DAVIS (classof 1965) now live most of thetime. Jessica retired fromHarvard in 2004 to do morewriting and has completed threebooks so far. They enjoy visitsfrom their three sons and theirwives and their three sons’ three sons.

1965TOM EATON is retired at age 67. He has served as class captainand an alumni interviewer for anumber of years. Additionally, heset up a small library fund in hismother’s name in Santa Fe andwas able to persuade three of hisstudents to attend St. John’s.

In the “better late than never”category, MICHAEL WOOLSEY

writes: “Forty-four yearsremoved from St. John’s and fiveyears into retirement, I receivedthis May a Master of LiberalStudies degree from the Univer-sity of Minnesota. My thesis titleis “The Limits of Liberalism: A Study of Liberal Disillusion-ment in the Twentieth Century.”The thesis relies heavily on thepolitical thought of former tutorLeo Strauss and former deansScott Buchanan and JacobKlein.”

1968“At the prompting of my childrenand grandchildren, I’ve enteredthe brave new world of Face-book,” confesses SARAH FISHER

(A). “It’s fun, but I wonder if Ican keep up? Time for reflectionand consideration doesn’t seemto be part of the picture.”

DEAN HANNOTTE (A) has created a new website devoted tothe 20th-century philosopherPaul Rosenfels. It makes avail-able for free all of Rosenfels’ writings as well as numerouscontributions from his manystudents around the world. Visitthe Paul Rosenfels Community atwww.rosenfels.org.

ANTIGONE PHALARES (SF)reports that the Sacramento-areaseminar group has received amost welcome influx of a numberof local and not-so-local St. John-nies: “Most meetings have been


Ahead of the Pack

CARL HAMMEN (class of 1944) has been running inraces all over the country. “There was a bigrunners’ weekend in Tampa, Feb. 28 to March 1,the Gasparilladistance classic,with thousands of

runners from all over the U.S.,” hewrites. In the 5k race, Carl wonthe M85-89 division, and his wife,Deborah Kazor, finished twelfthin the F55-59, which had 276women. This summer, they werebusy training for the NationalSenior Games this August in PaloAlto, Calif. x

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held at TOM (HA94) and MarionSLAKEY’s home and also at othermembers’ homes. I became agrandmother December 17,2008. Iris Aurore Marie WastynMoore at three and one halfmonths has three passports:Peruvian (she was born in Lima);has an American mom (mydaughter) and a U.S. passport;and a French passport from herfather (who is French). When achild is born, so is a grandparent!It’s lovely being a parent onceremoved. I’m still teachingmiddle-schoolers at a publicschool in south Sacramento. I have 13 more years to go to getto 30 [years]!”

1969The Before Columbus Founda-tion awarded LONGINO LUIS

LOPEZ (SFGI) the AmericanBook Award 2008 for his latestbook of poetry titled Each Month

I Sing. The book also won firstplace in poetry from theColorado IndependentPublishers Association.

1970DAVID DEBUS (SF) finished abachelor’s degree in English atUCLA, and after three years as aconscientious objector duringthe Vietnam War working at aUnited Methodist Church withstreet kids, attended the Clare-mont School of Theology: “Inever had a ‘call’ to be a pastor.

Then I entered doctoral studiesat the United States InternationalUniversity in San Diego (nowcalled Alliant InternationalUniversity) and received adoctorate in clinical psychology. I stood for the test in 1980 andpassed the first time. After manyyears in private practice and asthe clinical director of a thera-peutic community for schizo-phrenia founded by Moira Fitz-patrick, Ph.D., I enrolled inmusic at University of San Diegofor studies in music.”

RONALD FIELDING (A) retiredfrom OppenheimerFunds on May20. “Three days later my wifeand I took off for a three-weektrip to Europe, starting inBarcelona, cruising the Mediter-ranean Sea with 74 other guestsand three professors on a small(and 30 percent empty) cruiseship and ending in Greece.Surely the highlight for me toreport to Johnnies was enteringthe huge so-called Treasury ofAtreus, but really the Tomb ofAgamemnon, just outside thewalls of Mycenae. It’s quiteamazing how the Greek legendsand Homeric poems seamlesslymerge into Greek history, fromPerseus to the present. We havesold our residence in Rochesterand established residency in abeach house on Kiawah Island,just outside of Charleston, S.C.,though we will get a muchsmaller summer house inRochester to evade the hot,humid summers here. I will beback on the Board of Visitors andGovernors in July, as well as asmall insurance company board,

a tiny mutual fund board, and the International Museum ofPhotography board. Plenty ofstuff to keep me busy betweentrips hither and yon. And I needto attend Summer Classics again, too.”

MARTIN ROSENTHAL (SF)recently published a novel, The Cult Teacher, using thepenname Phillip Ahtmann.There is a chapter which takesplace at St. John’s Annapolis is1966. It is available atwww.amazon.com or atwww.theCultTeacher.com.

1972HAROLD ANDERSON (A) writes:“I live outside of Washington inGreenbelt. I am currently amember of the core faculty forthe Master of Arts in CulturalSustainability graduate programat Goucher College (where Iteach cultural documentation). Ialso teach cultural anthropologyat Bowie State University. But mymain (pre-) occupation is as acontract ethnographer. And Ihave completed ethnographicstudies of communities in theUnited States and abroad.Currently I am working a projectfor exhibition at the new PrinceGeorge’s County African Amer-ican Museum and CulturalCenter of North Brentwood. Theproject is titled “The Arts ofPraise” and it aims to documentaspects of how people celebrateand perform their faith in PrinceGeorge’s County, Maryland.Products of this project includetranscriptions of oral histories,audio, still photographs, andvideo for exhibition at the PrinceGeorge’s County African Amer-ican Museum.”

EVAN (A) and Jane’s son,Matthew Dudik, will arrive as afreshman in Annapolis this fallwith lexicon in one hand andFrench horn in the other. His

twin is studying bassoon andGerman in Vienna in a gap yearbefore deciding about this or thatcollege/university. Elder brotherGraham appears to be in hissenior year at Portland StateUniversity. Empty nests rule!Jane is thinking about post kids.Evan is running hisstrategy/operations managementconsulting firm including recentprojects with Daimler andNovartis. In between saxophone,painting, art history, he isworking on a book with theworking title “Thinking Inde-pendently.” He’s also finishingup his second term on thecollege’s Board of Visitors andGovernors, having raised enoughhackles for six or seven years.

1973MICHAEL AARON (SF) wasnamed the Director of Bankingand Financial Markets, GrowthMarkets Unit, IBM Corporationin 2009. In this role, he isresponsible for the Banking andFinancial Markets Industryvertical business in the growthmarkets, which cover Asia-Pacific, Latin America, CentralEurope and the former SovietUnion, as well as Africa and theMiddle East. Michael considershis St. John’s education to havebeen an important step in hisdeveloping the capabilities todeal with this type of executiverole, as it requires constantreading, analysis, informed judg-ment and the ability to communi-cate—listening and speaking. It isalso useful to know how to readvery long books on very longflights of up to 24 hours. Michaelremains married to Danuta (30years this August) and has twosons, Daniel and David. TheAarons live in Sydney, Australia,close to Bondi Beach.

MARY L. BATTEEN (A) was chairof the Oceanography Depart-ment at the Naval Postgraduate

Plato Proves Useful

JEFF HUME-PRATUCH (A79) writes that she and herhusband, Tom Pratuch, recently completed the adoptionof their daughter, Meredith, after a long foster relation-ship: “We are ecstatic! Currently, I am working as aneditor for a publisher of scholarly journals. I’m convincedthey hired me because in my first week as a temp, I

caught the author misquoting Plato, Hegel, and Descartes.Who says the Program won’t help you get a job?” x

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{ A l u m n i P r o f i l e }

Michael MacDonald(SF76) brews anothercup of coffee in AlgoRhythms, hismastering studiotucked away in

Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood. He recounts how his journey—from anew graduate with no career plans to amusic producer who has recorded jazzlegends including McCoy Tyner and Tito Puente—began on a bicycle.

“My gift to myself after graduationwas a cross-country bicycle trip,”MacDonald recalls. “I ended up gettinginjured and had to come home early. Iremember sitting in an Amtrak dome cargoing through Montana, just looking atthe stars and soul searching. I askedmyself, ‘what would I really love to do?’”

With time to think about his future,MacDonald decided to become arecording engineer because it combinedhis love of music and knack for science.“After this epiphany, I moved to New York to break into the recordingbusiness.”

MacDonald is best known as a virtu-osic jazz producer; numerous AlgoRhythmssessions have garnered Grammy nomina-tions. His live recordings at the VillageVanguard are considered among the best inthe celebrated jazz club, a space thatdemands masterful microphone placementand sense of musical balance. In addition toTyner and Puente, MacDonald has workedwith legends such as Hank Jones, RoyHaynes, and John Scofield. He has recordedtwo Grammy-winning albums with McCoyTyner, who is most famous for his early workin John Coltrane’s band.

One of MacDonald’s most lasting relationships is with renowned pianist Fred Hersch. “When we work together, wedon’t have to talk about sound anymore,”says MacDonald. “We know exactly how we want it to be.”

During one recording session withHersch, a record company executive cameto sit in. “Fred and I argue to entertaineach other,” says MacDonald. “When Fredcame into the control room and said ‘thissounds awful, can’t you do anything right?’I replied, ‘If you knew how to play piano,

maybe I could help you.’” The record executive didn’t understand

that the old friends meant they were happywith each other’s work. At the end of the dayMacDonald got a pink slip. Hersch sortedout the situation, and the duo finishedrecording together. “We still laugh aboutthat today.”

When he arrived in New York City in 1977,MacDonald began at the bottom of theladder, as an intern at Skyline studios. Sincethen, changes in technology have meantradical changes in his industry. “Because ofthe Internet, most people today considermusic to be a free commodity. This demo-cratic approach can be really great, but let’ssay McCoy Tyner wants to record anotherbig-band project. That recording requires acertain minimum dollar amount. If thepeople investing the money don’t break evenin record sales, they are less likely to fundthe next record. And so Tyner will have toscale back the big band to a trio, so thelistener won’t get the full effect.”

The availability of inexpensive qualityrecording technology has similar drawbacks.“I’m really hard pressed to find jazz record-

ings recorded today that are as good sonically as the golden age, when Sinatrawas recording. [Producers and engi-neers] had limited technology, but theyhad great ears and great training.There’s no technology shortcut for that.”

As an adjunct engineering professor atJohns Hopkins University, MacDonaldtrains budding recording engineers andproducers by emphasizing the basics andsystematically limiting the tools they canuse to complete assignments. His goal is to produce engineers who rely onknowledge and instinct.

In his courses, MacDonald incorpo-rates the St. John’s approach to ques-tions. “A student wanted to know howand why VU [volume] meters wereinvented,” he says. “I scoured up theoriginal 1933 Western Electric whitepaper and held a class discussion.” When no one had questions, MacDonaldpicked out a detail and stumped the class by saying, “I don’t understand whatthis means.” In the ensuing discussion,“we gained insight into a real engi-neering problem and how the pioneers of audio solved it.”

The Program, and language tutorial inparticular, has helped shape MacDonald’soutlook on recording. “What I learned inlanguage class is what has carried me mostthrough my recording career,” explainsMacDonald. “I’m really a translator. Soundis a three-dimensional physical phenomenonthat changes from moment to moment. I’ve got to carefully capture and then translate it into a series of ones and zeroesand somehow reconstruct something thatresembles the original.”

When translating Baudelaire, literallyrendering a word will likely obscure thepoetic qualities of the French. By the sametoken, focusing only on the lyrical qualitiesof words can make a translation vague.MacDonald looks at recording the same way.“When translating, something is always lost.To focus on one part, you necessarily losesomething else. If I make the vocal sound alittle more present, will that affect the righthand of the piano? It’s always a balance.Asking the questions of translation hasalways served me well in recording.” x

Seeking a Balance

Jazz Producer A.T. Michael MacDonald (SF76)

by Nathaniel Roe (SF08)

Michael MacDonald records jazz legends in hisbrooklyn, N.Y., studio.

nat

ro

e

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School in Monterey, Calif., from2001-2008: “I am now on a year-long sabbatical at the HopkinsMarine Station of StanfordUniversity. I am writing a text-book called Exploring Ocean

Physics, which I hope will excitefuture scientists to explore theimportant roles of ocean physics,from helping us understandclimate change to taking bettercare of our earth, which is reallythe Ocean Planet.”

SUSAN MARTIN DRESSEL (SFGI)retired in June 1994 from LosAlamos National Laboratory,where she had served as DivisionLeader for Information Services.Six months later, Susan’shusband, Ralph W. Dressel, died.After a couple of years, Susanrelocated to Albuquerque to benear her son and daughter. InJuly 1999, Susan bought a lot in adevelopment on the Rio Grandeand retained an architect andconstruction boss to build aTuscan-style villa “on spec.”About three months beforeconstruction was to begin, Susanmet Donald Myers, a retiredlawyer and judge, accomplishedpianist and certified flightinstructor. She soon realized shedid not want to manage aconstruction project, sold the lot,and left for a winter on SouthPadre Island with her new friend.They are now married and livingin their mountain home onwooded acreage bordering theCibola National Forest, wherethey both enjoy hiking andbirding. Although back surgeryrequired her to give up skiing andwhite water kayaking/rafting,Susan is happy to be traveling,golfing, and dancing with Don,and spending snowy months inwarmer climes. And she isgrateful to Don for his willing-ness to relocate in New Mexiconear her family “At our ages, aloving family support systembecomes increasingly important.Retirement brings many advan-tages that help compensate forthe aches and pains that come

with advancing years.” She wouldbe happy to hear from any GIalumni.

1974DAPHNE KAPOLKA (neeGREENE, A76) and GERRY

KAPOLKA (A) are celebratingtheir 35th anniversary. Gerrywrites: “I am now Dean of Acade-mics and chair of the Englishdepartment at Santa CatalinaSchool in Monterey. Daphne issenior lecturer in physics at theNaval Postgraduate School, alsoin Monterey. Our daughter,BASIA (A01) is in Chicago aboutto produce a play she has writtenbased on The Jinx, by TeofileGautier. Our older son, Andrzej,is a computer game designer forThree Rings in San Francisco.Our younger son, Marek, will be a junior at San Jose State University.”

MARGARET SANSOM (SFGI)reports: “I am enrolled in TheUltimate Game of Life, a highlyeffective teleconferencingcoaching program led by JimBunch. As a result of partici-pating in the program, I have lost40 pounds, amped up my fitnesslevel, and completely remodeledmy house, a project that I hadbeen just contemplating for thepast five years. Because travelingis my passion, I have been toParis for five months in 2005, to Great Britain in 2006, Alaskain 2007, and Zion, Bryce, andYellowstone in 2008. Next on mylist is a Greek isle cruise in 2011.In the meantime, I am going tostay home and enjoy my home fora couple of years and concentrateon getting the funding at a func-tional level for the scholarshipfoundation that I head. Scholar-ships are awarded to people whohave been out of high school for afew years and have finally realizedthat they need furthertraining/education in order tofulfill their dreams.”

1975BOB SHIMIZU (SF) has recentlyreleased a new CD of jazz for his quartet, Bob Shimizu andSignal Strength. “Cuchillero” is available online at www.signalstrengthband.com.

1977CLIFF ADAMS (A) has been livingin Germany for nearly eight yearsand has been married to aGerman woman since July 3,2008. He worked for Amadeus, atravel services computercompany as a software test engi-neer from 2001-2006 and is nowa self-employed web programmerin Erding, just outside ofMunich. Cliff has been workingon various Mideast peace proj-ects in connection with partici-pating in Landmark Education(www.landmarkeducation.com)programs. The most recent one iswww.israelpalestineproject.com.He has three grown childrenliving in New York.

1979LESLIE W. WESTMORELAND (SF)writes: “I’m a deputy attorneygeneral in the Appeals, Writs,and Trials section of the Crim-inal Law Division of the AttorneyGeneral’s Office of the CaliforniaDepartment of Justice. (That’s amouthful—I’m a trial and appel-late prosecutor.) Married toCarmen Milagros Delgado (dePuerto Rico), a criminal defenseattorney. Living in Fresno withtoo many little dogs, and near ourtwo grandchildren. ClassmateLAIRD DURLEY (SF79) surprisedme recently by dropping by. It seems he lives about one mileaway. I’d love to hear fromanyone who’d like to say hey.”

OWEN GOLDIN (SF) lives inMilwaukee, Wis., with his wife,Miriam Sushman, and theirdaughter Esther, 5. He teachesphilosophy at Marquette Univer-sity. His translation with notes ofPhiloponus’s Commentary onAristotle’s Posterior Analytics 2 isscheduled to be published soonby Duckworth Press.

BEN HAGGARD (SF) divides histime between Santa Fe andBerlin, and divides his energiesbetween Regenesis (an ecologicalconsultancy he helped found 12 years ago) and painting. After 27 years, he and JOEL

GLANZBERG (SF84) are stillworking together, these days asprincipal designers with Regen-esis and contributors to the blog:www.edgeregenerate.com. Benshares an apartment in Berlinwith his partner, Joe, who playsFrench horn with the DeutschesSymphonie Orchester. Photos ofBen’s paintings can be seen atwww.benhaggardstudio.com.He’s planning to attend Home-coming in Santa Fe.

MARILYN L. SCHAEFER (SFGI) isglad to see “growing linksbetween St. John’s and ShimerCollege,” as reported in the Fall 2009 issue of The College.Her sister, Susan Schaefer, graduated from Shimer in themid-1960s, and Susan and herfriends are very enthusiasticabout the college, she says.“There seems to be a naturalcompatibility among grads of St. John’s, Shimer, and theUniversity of Chicago.”

TONY WATERS (A) is a professorof sociology at California StateUniversity, Chico. He is marriedto Dagmar Waters, and theytravel back and forth to hernative Germany frequently. They have two children, both ofwhom are college students at St. Olaf College in Northfield,Minn. His recent books includeWhen Killing is a Crime (2007)and The Persistence of Subsistence


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Agriculture: Life Beneath the

Level of the Marketplace

(2007/2008).

1980“As of January 1, 2009, I am nowvice president for internationalprograms at the Atlas EconomicResearch Foundation,” reportsTOM G. PALMER (A). “I remain asenior fellow at the Cato Insti-tute. At Atlas I direct field opera-tions to promote libertarianvalues worldwide, along withactive programs of bookpublishing, websites, videoproduction, summer schools, andmore in 15 languages. Since thestart of the year I have givenlectures, held conferences,appeared in the media, andorganized new ventures in Tajik-istan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan,Ukraine, Malaysia, Indonesia,the UK, and Brazil and onThursday I depart for India,Pakistan, and Afghanistan. I’ll bequite busy with summer schoolsand site visits throughout thesummer and fall, as well as withadditional programs, includingdelivering papers at academicconferences in Germany, France,and Italy. My book Realizing

Freedom: Libertarian Theory,

History, and Practice, will bepublished later this month. I amkeeping busy, and there is notone single day during which I donot draw on my education fromSt. John’s, which not onlyprovided me with a good spring-board to my further education,but continuously informs how Iunderstand the world and thechoices I make.”

ANGEL ANN PRICE (SF) writes:“For six months, I’ve left myplum position at the US EEOC(federal sector appeals andtraining team) for a detail as aSpecial Assistant US Attorney forthe District of Columbia. I’mprosecuting misdemeanor

domestic violence cases and haveseen more of the inside of thecourthouse, tried more cases,and signed off on more witnessvouchers in the past few weeksthan in almost 15 years of practice. The opportunity tospeak on behalf of the commu-nity comes often, but with only amoment to be heard. The themeof the season is the split-secondrhetorician.”

December 2008 brought somedramatic changes for JIM

SORRENTINO (A): “I began aninter-agency assignment to theDepartment of the Treasury’sOffice of Financial Stability, inthe Homeownership Preserva-tion Office, created as part of theTroubled Asset Relief Program(TARP). It’s exciting, dynamicand challenging—not words oneusually associates with largegovernment bureaucracies. Two weeks or so after I began thejob at Treasury, our adoptionagency contacted us. And onDecember 31, we brought homeour new son! Vincent Sorrentinowas born in mid-December, in

Baltimore. He is a healthy,happy, hungry little boy, and heis a delight to us all. Although itseems a little crazy to become afather (again!) at 49, I recallsomething Brother Robert said tome after meeting my daughter,Sophia (who was not yet three),at Homecoming in 2005: ‘Children complete life, don’t they?’ The answer, onceagain, is yes.”

1982ADRIEN HELLER (A) has been inShijiazhuang, People’s Republicof China for the last three years,teaching English and doing art.

1983JACK ARMSTRONG (SF) writes,“I’ll be driving from Philadelphiato Los Angeles this summer withmy son, Michael. Really lookingforward to it.”

1984PETER GREEN (A) is living inNew York’s Washington Heightsand loving New York. As a worldnews reporter at BloombergNews, he was off to Prague inJune to interview Vaclav Havel,the former Czech president, andthen wander around the East fora few weeks. He’s lookingforward to Homecoming.

TRISHA (FIKE) HOWELL (SF)has been focusing recently on ahealing and life coaching systemshe developed called Lifonics(www.Lifonics.com) She alsocontinues to write books andscreenplays and hopes to resumeher acting career soon. Before ayear hiatus, she was appearing inmany plays and low-budget films.Trisha welcomes hearing fromclassmates at [email protected].

DENNIS ROBERTS (SFGI) retiredfrom the Associated GeneralContractors of New MexicoBuilding Branch after 40 years ofservice. He is currently anadjunct professor in the Depart-ment of Civil Engineering at theUniversity of New Mexico.

MARK POTHIER (A) writes:“ANNIE KEZAR (A) has been tireless in keeping our classengaged and happy.”

1985L. JAGI LAMPLIGHTER WRIGHT

(A) reports: “My first novelcomes out from Tor (a majorpublisher of science fiction andfantasy) this August. It is the firstof a trilogy. A fantasy story set inthe present day with humor andmystery, it is a sequel of sorts toShakespeare’s Tempest. The series is called Prospero’sDaughter. The first novel,coming out in early August, is Prospero Lost.”

Arugula and Wild

Turkeys

JOHN L. BUSH (SF84) and his wife, Elizabeth, aresavoring summer in Blacksburg, Va. “She has hergarden going with the usual garden herbs, tomatoes,peppers, pole and bush beans, basil, fresh arugula, andother greens. I am trying to do more fly fishing and get out to the Blue Ridge for morel and wild turkey hunting

as often as possible. I am also trying to utilize thewondrous natural qualities of the area such as the New River forcanoeing, rafting and small mouth bass fishing, and theAppalachian Trail for hiking, camping, and trail running when-ever possible. We both are beginning to think about a housedesign for some property we have in Ellett Valley in MontgomeryCounty. I am reading Russell Banks and Cormac McCarthy aswell as Grant’s autobiography. Our grown boys are well and pros-pering, and we would love to hear from or visit with old friends.We have made contact with Robert and CHARLA ALLEN (SF79)since they moved back to the Smokies near Asheville and hope tosee their new house and both of them soon. I am running forlocal office this summer for Town Council and so that will keepme occupied and engaged in local politics.” x

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1987PEGGY O’SHEA (A, SF05) wasmarried to Susan Unger in Massachusetts on January 2.

RAY ANDRE WAKEfiELD (A) has published The Disordered

Police State: German Cameralism

as Science and Practice.Wakefield is associate professorof history at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif.

1988JANA GILES (A) will be starting asan assistant professor of 20th-century British literature at theUniversity of Louisiana atMonroe in fall 2009. Her special-izations are modernism, post-colonialism, and aesthetics. Shewould love to have any visitors,so please let her know “in theunlikely event” that you arepassing through Monroe.

1989Having never run before in herlife, SARA CATANIA (A) ran theLA Marathon on May 25 to raisemoney for AIDS Project LosAngeles. Details are available atwww.laobserved.com/runon.

GEORGE TURNER (A) is workinghalf time to make room for“more fun and family time.” He’s training for the CaliforniaInternational Marathon onDecember 6 in Sacramento, withhopes of qualifying for Boston,“the runner’s Mecca.” “Otherthan that,” he writes, “samehouse, same spouse, kids anotheryear older. Life is good.”

1990GRAHAM HARMAN (A) has beennamed Associate Vice Provost forResearch at the AmericanUniversity in Cairo, Egypt. Hisfourth book, Prince of Networks,has recently been published byre.press (Melbourne). His nextbook, L’objet quadruple, will firstappear in French translation withPresses Universitaires de France(Paris) in 2010.

1991JULIE RENNINGER PASS OBER

(AGI) writes: “I am a humanitiesprofessor and painter, and Iretrain thoroughbred racehorses.My paintings and horsetales/tails are all at my blog:www.honeysucklefaire.blogspot.com. My painting,Smoke, was juried into Pennsylvania’s Art of the State2009. This is my third yearaccepted into this show. Horses,art and family consume me!”

1992ANNE ASPEN (née BOYNTON, SF)left her senior city planner posi-tion at the City of Fort Collins inJanuary for a project managerposition at the city’s DowntownDevelopment Authority. “Itallows me to focus on what I lovemost: architecture and our

downtown. We’re doing a lot ofexciting projects here, and I’mlearning some new tricks. Familylife is fulfilling now that the kidsin our life finally moved herefrom Santa Fe. Unfortunately,Jane and I don’t have readyexcuses to visit Santa Feanymore, though.”

1993ALEX and VANESSA ELLERMANN

(AGI, A) are expecting their thirdson in March. Alex is flying forDelta and with the Navy Reserve,and Vanessa is practicing law inD.C. They live in Kensington,Md., and don’t get to Annapolisnearly enough.

John Abraham Kelley, the firstchild of Genevieve and OWEN

KELLEY (A), was born with ashout on September 11, 2008.They still live in Greenbelt, Md.,and Owen still works at NASA.

NANCY MARCUS (A) has moved toCleveland and joined the law firmBerhmen, Gordon, Murray andDeVan, the firm that put Mapp v. Ohio on the map, andhas had a number of otherhistoric successes. Her practiceincludes trial and appellate litiga-tion in the areas of constitutionallaw, civil rights, torts, criminaldefense, and LGBT rights.

Ernest Marlowe Strautmann wasborn in May 2008 to JacobStrautmann and VALERIE DUFF-STRAUTMANN (SF). Valerie’s first

book of poems will be publishedby Salmon Poetry (Ireland) inApril 2010.

1994“My wife, ELIZABETH (RHODES)FARLEY and I (both A), are happyto report the birth of our thirdchild, a boy. Samuel DuncanFarley was born on April 5,2009,” writes DAN FARLEY.“Our other two children, Hannah(11) and Dylan (9), participatedwonderfully in the birth of theirbrother and are now dotingsiblings. We are now measuringour lives not solely with coffeespoons, but also with diapersagain! We have also recently relo-cated to Eugene, Ore., and inviteany Johnnies in the Northwest inparticular to contact us and comeand visit if possible!”

BEN FELDMAN (A) was marriedin January to Chaya Bracha Silverfrom Israel/ N.Y. “I havecontinued to work in New York asa master’s-level psychologist,providing services for develop-mentally disabled individuals.Now, I am getting ready to move,in August with my wife to Cleve-land, Ohio, so I can pursue a PhDin Experimental Psychology,specializing in developmentaldisabilities research, at CaseWestern Reserve University. I will begin by helping to run aresearch study on Prader-WilliSyndrome.”

1995HEIDI OVERBEEK (A) lives in the East Mountains outside ofAlbuquerque and loves it. “My partner, Cindy, and I have a14-year-old son named Ashantewho we adopted five years ago. I work as a labor and deliverynurse and am (leisurely) lookingat grad schools to become a nurse

Dante Meets the Zombies

KIM PAFFENROTH’s (A88) zombified version ofDante’s Inferno, is now available as a limitededition hardback from Cargo Cult Press(www.horror-mall.com). In it, the Florentinestumbles onto an infestation of the undead,and the horrors he witnesses there—people

being burned alive, devoured, decapitated, etc.—are what laterinspires his epic poem. x

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practitioner. I’m a ‘mastergardener’ for the county and tryto live in my garden!”

CRAIG SIRKIN (A) reports that heand his wife, Wendy, are happy towelcome a new addition to theirfamily: “Sarah Isabelle was bornon March 10, and due to a veryshort labor was born at homewith me acting as midwife andher older brother, Isaac, sleepingpeacefully in his room. Every-body is happy and healthy.”

“Our impending exodus fromMobile, Ala., has been nudgedalong by the economy, thanks towhich my first small businessventure—a coffee house acrossfrom the university—has come toa close,” writes KIRA ZIELINSKI

(SF). “Not allowing businessfailure to equate with personalfailure has been a tremendousemotional education for me aswell. But I’m learning thatalthough it’s quite possible thatwe are responsible for the entireworld economic collapse, I’mlearning to be OK with that. I’m looking forward to some timeto catch up on life—reading,continuing our home improve-ment saga, getting back intomusic, and putting a match to thecontents of no less than 15 filingcabinets. Despite all the tumult,my wonderful Nathan is still myfiancé, and our pre-marital

counselor allows us to returneach week and invent newpsychoses.”

1996“I am in Vermont,” writesCHERYL HENEVELD (AGI),“sometimes leading discussiongroups for the Vermont Humani-ties Council. Taking a mythologycourse from the nearby statecollege. Re-reading theOdyssey—keep learning the St. John’s way! Come for a visit.”

JEFFREY A. PALMER (A) marriedMARGURITE T. PFOUTZ (SF03)in Pittsburgh, Pa., in a well-executed elopement.

1997DOMINIC CRAPUCHETTES (A)was recently married to KarenLitsinger. They live in Bethesda,Md., and Dominic’s board gamecompany, North Star Games, isgoing strong. “We now have sixpeople working for North StarGames with product in Target,Barnes and Noble, Borders, andmany other locations,” he says.“I’m having a lot of fun growing

the company and spending my weekends with Karen. Life is good.”

VAN CUNNINGHAM (SF) writes,“Mom graduated from the GI afew years ago, Stella’s 9 1/2,Rockstar is a scaredy-dog, we are7 miles from the ocean until wefigure out which mountains tohead to.”

JACOB CURTIS (SF) and DAYNA

SIMS CURTIS (SF98) announcethe birth of their second baby,Atticus Hamilton: “Big sisterClio is adjusting well, we arefeeling very blessed with a boyand a girl.”

BRENDA JOHNSON (AGI) hascompleted the docent trainingcourse at the Walters ArtMuseum in Baltimore, Md. She isenjoying taking some of the28,000 school children who visitevery year through the museum.

JESSICA CAMPBELL MCALLEN

(SF) writes: “Lowry, Isaac, and I welcomed Patrick Oliverwith so much love on February 1,2009. He was 6 lbs. 13 oz. and 19 1/2 in.”

JILL NIENHISER (SFGI)completed a two-year actingprogram at the National Conser-vatory of Dramatic Arts in Washington, D.C., in December.She appeared in The Houseguests

and A Midsummer Night’s Dream

in April, and will perform thissummer with KaleidoscopeTheatre in a two-person produc-tion of The Lion, the Witch, and

the Wardrobe for schools andlibraries.

NATHAN SCHLEIFER (SF) reportsthat his second son, Elijah, wasborn June 16, 2008.

1998STEPHEN CONN (SF) reports:“On the literary front, I recentlyhad my 10th published letter in

Mojo Magazine, and to top it off,I am studying for my MFA inScreenwriting at the Academy ofArt in San Francisco. Any John-nies who feel like a nice Italiandinner in North Beach, feel freeto come on over!”

RICK FIELD (SFGI) and his wifeJessica welcomed twin girls intotheir lives on August 2, 2008.The elder child, by two minutes,was named Grace Apollonia, andthe younger, Alexandra Electra.Both girls love to hear books readaloud, and they enjoy varioustypes of music.

DORA JACOBS (A) and WALKER STUMP-COALE (A00)will both begin law school at theUniversity of Baltimore inAugust. Their son, Mac, is now 11months old and their daughter,Isabel, is almost 2 1/2, so thingswill be crazy at their house for awhile—but not too crazy to catchup with old friends, particularlyif there’s advice to be had aboutmanaging full-time school and a young family. Use [email protected] or [email protected] to drop a line.

1999Having completed seven years offormation at Our Lady ofGuadalupe Seminary in Denton,Neb., BRIAN T. AUSTIN, FSSP(A), was ordained to the sacredpriesthood on May 30 in Lincoln,Neb., and sang a Solemn HighMass of Thanksgiving on June 6in Philadelphia. The Rev. Austinis a member of the PriestlyFraternity of St. Peter, a clericalSociety of Apostolic Life ofPontifical Rite, founded in 1988by His Holiness John Paul II forthe sake of fostering the ancientLatin Liturgy of the RomanCatholic Church.

Business

Leader

PHILLIP KATZ

(SF95) was thesubject of acover story inMilwaukee’sBusiness

Journal. Katz is founder andprincipal of Phillip KatzProject Development, aMilwaukee-based designand management practice.An architect, Katz was among the journal’s picks for Milwaukee’s top 100 “movers and shakers.” x

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At nine years old, Melanie JagoHiner (A81) was a curiousbookworm attending aprogressive school inChicago. “Our social studiesteacher told us we could

study anything we wanted, as long as wecould explain why,” she recalls. “I decided tostudy the Mongolian invasion of China. Imade a scale model of the Great Wall andloved every minute of it.”

While her social studies teacher encour-aged independent thinking and creativity,her math teacher frequently gave timed teststhat made Hiner so anxious she suffered fromstomach aches. “I came to loathe math,” shesays. “And I almost didn’t come to St. John’sbecause the Program included four years ofmath.”

Hiner made the leap and discovered sheloved mathematics. Her experiences at St.John’s—learning through dialogue, being apart of a community, delving into difficultand unfamiliar subject matter—helped toshape her ideas of what education could be.She enrolled in a graduate program at theUniversity of Delaware, focusing on cogni-tion and instruction, and finished the course-work required for her doctorate.

In 1995, at the prodding of her 7-year-oldson, Hiner founded the New School inNewark, Delaware, using St. John’s Collegeas her model for helping children and youngadults become lifelong learners. The school’smotto: “Education for the courageous,inquisitive, and independent-minded.”

“The ‘radical inquiry’ of St. John’s is verymuch at the heart of what we do,” says Hiner.“We’re always challenging the kids to thinkdeeply about things.”

Hiner started the school in the basementof a women’s club with $1,000 and sevenstudents. Now housed in a historic homewith an acre of land, the New School hasabout 40 students in kindergarten throughgrade 12. Students vote on the governingprinciples of their school and decide individ-ually what to study and how to study it. “Chil-dren learn to listen to one another and learnfrom another. We’re not hierarchical. Thereare no experts—just like at St. John’s, theteacher is a fellow learner.”

So far, three New School graduates havematriculated at St. John’s. One of Hiner’s

first students was Molly Roach (A09). “It wasmore like a family than a school,” Roachrecalls. “I was used to being told what to do,so at first, I had a little trouble adjusting tothe self-directed aspect of the school.”

At the New School, Roach enjoyedlearning through conversation. Hands-onprojects such as sewing gained time along-side reading and studying mathematics, andin time Roach began to thrive with her newfreedom. Her senior thesis explored theconcept of paradise, focusing on the Persianroot of the word as enclosed garden. As partof her project, she transformed the school’smeeting room into a “paradise garden,” withplants, a bench, and a fountain.

“If I had gone to a traditional high schooland had all the pressures about test scoresand college applications, I would have beenmiserable because I would have wanted toplease everyone,” says Roach. “I wouldn’thave known anything about what I was actu-ally interested in.”

The New School restricts students choicesin a way, because students are stronglyencourage to seek out things that are difficultand they’re required to explain their choices.The ultimate goal, says Hiner, is creatingself-reliance and perseverance in students.“We talk to them about Plato’s discussion ofthe soul—if you’re just drawn along by the evil

horse to things you merely enjoy doing,you’re not going to get anything worth doingdone,” Hiner says.

On Wednesday nights, Hiner leads semi-nars for New School parents and communitymembers. Readings from The Wealth ofNations, Democracy in America, and Pascal’sPensées have been recent choices. Hiner hasalso developed an informal continuingeducational program for adults. She mentorsadults who want to structure their ownprogram of self-education.

Along with devoting herself to offering aSt. John’s-inspired education, Hiner ismoving into community organizing. Lastyear, she created a nonprofit called OmniaHumanitas, aimed at encouraging individ-uals and communities to pursue “integrated,sustainable lives” that include lifelonglearning, community involvement, and envi-ronmentally responsible lifestyles. Theschool and nonprofit organization togetherallow Hiner to introduce the concept of “theexamined life” to those who haven’t readPlato. “To be fully engaged in what you’redoing, to take time to develop neglectedaspects of your life, to keep asking importantquestions—that’s what it means to live aproductive life,” she says. x

Nurturing a Love for Learning

Melanie Jago Hiner (A81)

by Rosemary Harty

Her own experiences in the classroom led Melanie Jago Hiner to create a school thatfosters creativity and wonder, in the spirit of St. John’s College.

bru

ce w

elle

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MICHAEL HOKENSON (SF) hasbeen spending the last severalyears creating a fund to provideloans to microfinance institu-tions (“MFIs”). The MinlamMicrofinance Fund lent money to10 MFIs, which created morethan 18,000 new loans during2008 in emerging markets fromPeru to Azerbaijan. These loansare intended to help small busi-nesses grow and boost householdincome for poor families, whichis linked to higher investment ineducation, nutrition and health.The institutions have loans withmore than 400,000 women. He continues to live and work inNew York City.

2000Here’s some news from JASON

(AGI) and SUSIE SALINAS

(AGI99): “Susie and I will celebrate our ninth anniversaryon June 10. I just finished threeyears in Annapolis, where Itaught English at the NavalAcademy. This week we movedback to San Diego so I couldreturn to flying helicopters forthe Navy. Susie has been busyraising our two boys, Henry, 4,and Sam, 2.”

2001After five years of living in SantaFe and working in the art galleryscene, BRENDAN BULLOCK (SF)moved back to New England andhas been in Portland, Maine, forthe last two years. “I’ll be movingto Rockport, Maine, shortly tobegin a summer-long position asa teaching assistant at the MaineMedia Workshops, an incredibleinstitution for photographiclearning,” he says. “I’ll beworking alongside some of thebest photographers workingtoday, teaching both seasonedprofessionals and young children

getting involved with photog-raphy for the first time. Thataside, I’ve been getting in plentyof good fishing with fellowJohnnie GEORGE DEANS (A02),who, incidentally, is now workingas a stonemason, has just boughta house and will be gettingmarried to his fiancée, LudmilaSvoboda, in September.”

2002AMELIA ADAMS (A) begins herresidency in Orthopedic Surgeryat Washington University in St. Louis this June.

BENJAMIN ANDERSON (AGI) hasreceived a three-year David E.Finley Fellowship from theCenter for Advanced Study in theVisual Arts at the NationalGallery of Art. “This will supportcompletion of my dissertation(Bryn Mawr, History of Art) onimages of the Ptolemaic cosmosin the early Middle Ages,” hesays. “At present I am travelingabout the near East, researchinglate Roman and early Islamicmonuments, but will spend mostof the next two years in Munichbefore returning to D.C. for thefinal year of the fellowship,insha’Allah!”

ISABEL CLARK (A) writes: “I’vemoved to Austin, Texas, and amworking for Whole Foods Marketon the new healthy eating team

at their global HQ. Before themove, my partner, BrianAmbrose, and I went on an epiccross-country adventure forseveral months (detailed in thearchives of brianandisabel.com).I also have a new website withrecipes, articles, and materialsfrom my previous work doingwellness counseling at forkbytes.com.”

AMANDA SIMONE KENNEDY

FINNEY (SF) graduated fromSouthern Methodist UniversityDedman School of Law in Dallas,Texas, with a Juris Doctor onMay 16, 2009.

2003CHELSIA (WHEELER) HETRICK

(SF) was married May 24, 2009,to Erik Hetrick, whom she metwhile doing her first tour as aforeign service officer inRangoon, Burma. They arescheduled to finish their tour inBurma this September, thenmove to Johannesburg, SouthAfrica, in October.

SEAN MCLAIN (A) writes: “I have been living in Abu Dhabifor the past year and a half, andwriting editorials for a newEnglish-language daily here. I never expected I would end upin the media. However, in retro-spect, getting paid good moneyto tell people what I think ispretty much the ideal career.

The UAE is a fascinating youngcountry. In 37 years it has gonefrom a collection of desertemirates under British mandateto a thriving hub of commerce.There are innumerable growingpains from such rapid growth,and one of the most rewardingaspects of my job is to try to makesense of the country to the worldand vice versa. I don’t know if Icould do this forever, but it iscertainly a rewarding pit stop onthe way to whatever future liesahead.”

MARGURITE T. PFOUTZ (SF)married JEFFREY A. PALMER

(A96) in Pittsburgh, Pa. Theythen ran away together to Portland, Ore., with their cat and some books.

MICHAEL WALDOCK (SFGI) andJOHANNA OMELIA (SFGI02)have launched Ailemo Books inOregon and just released theirfirst title, Voyage 185: A British

Gentleman’s Extraordinary

Adventures Abroad by ThomasHughes Jackson.

2004ENJOLI COOKE (A) will beginoptometry school at Pennsyl-vania College of Optometry atSalus University in the fall. “It isa four-year program without arequired residency, so I will(hopefully) be a practicingoptometrist in four years and two months!”

ANNIE ROLLINS (née BAILY) andDUSTIN ROLLINS (both SF) arecurrently living and working inthe Boston area. Dustin recentlyfinished his MA in Philosophy atBoston College and works asadjunct faculty at several NewEngland colleges. Annie finisheda master’s in teaching at BU andjust wrapped up her first yearteaching senior English in aregional high school. They havepurchased an old colonial house

Called to Virginia

JUSTI SCHUNIOR (A99) recently grad-uated from Candler School ofTheology at Emory University inAtlanta and in June was ordained tothe priesthood in the EpiscopalChurch at the Cathedral of

St. Philip. “I’ve accepted a call toChrist Church in Old Town Alexandria andwill be moving up to Virginia to begin workin July. I hope to make the reunion this falland catch up with class of ‘99. x

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north of Boston in the Bradfordarea and are looking forward tobeginning a family. “Best wishesto our classmates, and give us aholler if you are in the area,” they write.

2005SAMANTHA BUKER (A) plans onhosting musical après-midi in herBaltimore garden all summerlong. First on the performer’slist, JAMES PEARSON, cellist(A05) was well received for hisBach Suite #3 in C. All nearbymusical alums are invited toshowcase their talents. When notinviting musicians to drink herwine and gorge on rich, butterydesserts and decadent fruits, shepraises or pans them in writingfor the Baltimore City Paper’srated Best Local Music Blog:Auralstates. Read her posts righthere: http://auralstates.com/author/sbuker. While this musiccritic stint takes her round to thenation’s top orchestras, it doesn’tpay the rent. So she rounds outher day by delving deep intoFederal Reserve mayhem and allsundry things sociopolitical andeconomic for Agora Financial—particularly enjoying her statusas roving reporter for their Libertarian-leaning rag Whiskey

and Gunpowder.

After two years of post-baccoursework, JAMES HARRISON

(A) will be starting medicalschool at the University ofPhiladelphia this fall. “To oldfriends and classmates, all arewelcome if you’re passingthrough Philly.”

CARLY ROSE JACKSON (SF)began a master’s program injournalism in September 2008.She lives in Boston, goes toschool, interns at a local weekly,and like everyone else in theuniverse has a blog. Cross your

fingers that newspapers will still exist in 2010 when she graduates.

ALEXIS SEGEL (SF) is happy tobe through the first year of herMaster of Fine Arts program atMills College in Oakland, Calif.She will continue her studies inItalian at Middlebury thissummer, and hopes to see someJohnnies at her master’s recitalin spring 2010.

2006DANIEL GRIMM (SF) writes: “I own and operate Fishbar onthe Lake, a seasonal seafoodrestaurant in Montauk, N.Y., the last town in the Hamptons.My partner, Jennifer Meadows, is the executive chef. The restau-rant overlooks Montauk Harborand serves seafood right off local boats, many of which dock right in front of the restaurant. Pictures of the vieware available on our website:www.freshlocalfish.com.Everyone is invited to come!”

MADELINE MAHOWALD (SF) will begin a post-baccalaureatepremedical program at BrynMawr College in May.

CARRY ROSE (A) and her fiancé,Jacob Brown, will be having ababy in November, their firstchild.

KELLY KEENAN TRUMPBOUR

(AGI) was recently named seniordirector of Running Start, anonprofit dedicated to inspiringhigh school and college womento pursue political office.

2007BRENDAN GREELEY (SFGI) has completed primary flighttraining at NAS Corpus Christi,Texas. He will fly the T-45 (Navy

Strike Jet Trainer) at NASKingsville, Texas, where he willearn his “Wings of Gold.”

CHELSEA STIEGMAN (A, nowChelsea Ihnacik) has beenmarried for more than a year toRyan Ihnacik, her boyfriendsince high school. She’smanaging a Starbucks at theAnnapolis Mall and planning togo to law school in the fall of2010. In good weather, she maybe spotted traveling throughtown on her new scooter.

2008Last May, DON BRIGGS (AGI)was a panelist for the NationalAssociation of HomebuildersGreen Building Conference on“Valuing Green Buildings” inDallas, Texas.

ALEXANDRA SCHWAB (A) hasbeen teaching sixth-grade mathfor the past year at The PingrySchool in New Jersey, where shewill be next year, too: “My non-math-related adventures thisyear included vocal coaching forour high school production ofLes Misérables, backup singingfor the middle school’s Godspell,

and helping a student-initiatedfundraiser to help save the Javan rhino.”

2009DALTON LOBO DIAS (A) isworking this summer as an emergency medical technician andwill be starting his premedicalpost-baccalaureate program atBryn Mawr College in the fall. x

Planning and serving in

the Volunteer State

WILLIAM GREGORICUS (SFGI00) is a seniorpolicy advisor in Tennessee GovernorBredesen’s Office of Planning and Policy.His main charge is the coordination of theefforts of the Governor’s Criminal JusticeCoordinating Council, a 15-member

group, appointed by the Governor to examine ways to reducejuvenile and adult recidivism and improve public safety andserving as the deputy to the director of the Governor’s TennesseeRecovery Act Management Office. Prior to joining the Bredesenadministration, he served under Governor Bill Richardson withthe deputy cabinet secretary for Children, Youth and Families,with responsibilities for the Juvenile Justice Division. You canfind him on Facebook. x

What’s Up?The College wants to hear fromyou. Call us, write us, e-mail us.Let your classmates know whatyou’re doing. The next issuewill be published in November;deadline for the alumni notessection is October 10.

Alumni will also be sent a callfor classnotes via e-mail inSeptember. To see the lastmystery picture identified, visit the online community atwww.stjohnscollege.edu, clickon Alumni.

The College Magazine St. John’s College, P.O. Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404; [email protected]

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{ O b i t u a r i e s }

WILLIAM DARKEY, CLASS OF

1942William Darkey, tutor emeritus, died in Santa Fe onJune 22, 2009, at the age of 88.He will be remembered byfriends and colleagues forcontributions that made atremendous difference in thelife of the college. He wasamong the first students ofBarr and Buchanan’s NewProgram, and he spent a year asa tutor right after graduating.As a founding faculty memberand dean in Santa Fe, hehelped create and foster a newSt. John’s College communityin the high desert. As a lifelonglearner and encouragingteacher, he inspired otherswith his passion for ideas.

Mr. Darkey was active oncampus when Victoria Mora,Santa Fe dean, arrived as atutor in Santa Fe. “He had sucha lovely, understated way ofdrawing our attention to theimportant things in facultymeetings,” she recalls. “Hehad a quiet, Mark Twain-likewit. He loved the college andhe loved the Santa Fe campus.He had a fascinating view ofhow the landscape and light onthis campus added to thestudent experience of theprogram, their starknessconfronting the students withthemselves as profoundly asthe books do.”

Mr. Darkey’s lecture on trans-lation remains fresh and rele-vant to the work of the collegetoday, Dean Mora said. “It isused widely in language classesto help students see what apowerful and rewarding experi-ence a simple translation canbe. Bill saw meaning in theeveryday and familiar; whatbetter wisdom does a lifelongdedication to this programhave to offer?”

Raised in Western Maryland,Mr. Darkey attended St. John’son a scholarship and, beforegraduating in 1942, was offereda faculty position. He enlistedin the U.S. Army in 1946 andthen, upon his honorabledischarge, pursued a graduatedegree in English literature atColumbia University. Notedpoet and professor Mark VanDoren was both a mentor andgood friend. Returning to St. John’s in 1949, Mr. Darkeyjoined a cadre of tutors whohelped build the college’s repu-tation, including intellectuals

and refugees from Europe suchas Eva Brann and giftedcomposers such as ElliotCarter.

At the new campus in SantaFe, Mr. Darkey served as deanfrom 1968 to 1972 with “imagi-nation, diligence, and percep-tiveness,” former presidentRichard Weigle wrote in one ofhis memoirs. A dedicatedteacher and proponent of theSt. John’s Program, Mr. Darkeywas known for his intellect, hisgentle manner in the seminarroom, and his ability to bringout different points of view.

He was also appreciated for hisquiet humor.

“He loved music, poetry, andliterature,” says tutor emeritusSam Kutler (class of 1954), whowas a student of Mr. Darkey’s.“He was one of the founders ofthe Key School here inAnnapolis because he caredabout education at all levels.”

Mr. Darkey was preceded indeath by his wife, Constance(SFGI85). He is survived by hisstepson, Peter Nabokov; hisdaughter, Catherine Darcy;and a grandson, Aaron Darcy.

BRIAN WALKER (SF90)

by David Marquez (SF90)

As his classmates, much of ourappreciation of Brian is framedin our shared experience of St. John’s College. To us,Brian’s life is not a series ofaccomplishments and mile-stones, especially given thathe, like us, chose to attend acollege without the usual yard-sticks of letter grades, mid-terms, multiple choice tests orfinal exams. His decision tofollow an ancient method oflearning based on the simpleand complex tasks of readingand conversing and also to leada life full of complexity, beautyand creativity is proof of hisdeep inspiration and feeling forthe world. Our Brian Walkerwas, without a doubt, theexemplary “Johnnie.”

To list Brian’s accomplish-ments is a little like trying totrace the course of a streamfrom its mountain origins as itgrows to a river and onward toits ultimate union with thegreater sea, and in that course,name all of the ways that gift ofwater affects the places andcreatures it touches as itpasses. It is better then to say atleast some of the things Brianwas to those of us who knew

William Darkey will be remembered for his quiet, Mark Twain-like wit, says Santa Fe Dean Victoria Mora.

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{ O b i t u a r i e s }

him. Above all else he was ourfriend: a whirl of life, joy,sarcasm, wit, hilarity, sorrow,vanity, appreciation,generosity, empathy, deepunderstanding, profound imag-ination, grammatical knowl-edge and a boundless well oflove for life and all that was apart of it.

He was a poet and a creator:the very highest honors onecould take from the collegeBrian chose. It was his abilityto use wit and sarcasm thatkept his feet firmly planted onthe ground. His cock-eyed viewof pretentiousness when heencountered it and the way hecould cut to the quick of anysituation to reveal its true formtold all of us that here wassomeone who could seethrough the most carefullycrafted constructs. This was apower to be reckoned with andrespected. For many of us, itwas Brian who would give voiceto what we were all thinking,but could not diplomaticallyexpress.

He was a master of creatingthe world as he saw it and insuch completeness that thoseof us around him could notimagine it not being so. In thisway a big green Ford pick-upbecame both chariot andlimousine, and a student flatwith bad plumbing couldbecome a banquet hall fit for

tasting the world’s finest cham-pagnes. Those of us aroundhim happily engaged in hisworld view not out of dissatis-faction with the world as it was,but because what Brianbrought out in each of us wasthe hope and the belief that theworld would be just as we allimagined it could be: full ofpoetry and low humor, musicand guffawing, crassness andbeauty, and throughout all,love.

It is no coincidence that allwho met Brian in those years atSt. John’s, and I am certain inthose years before and after,are unable to forget him. Thisis because he is one of thoserare individuals who those of usfortunate enough to have as afriend know that because ofhim our view of the world andof our own lives will never bethe same. As he departs it isundeniable that any honors andaccolades that Brian may havecollected during his time hereare only dim reflections of thelight he shared with us.

IRA MILLER (AGI07)Ira Miller, a retired generalsurgeon whose passion for theclassics brought him toSt. John’s, died in March at hishome in Bethesda, Md. He was78 and had prostate cancer.

Dr. Miller was on the staff ofseveral hospitals, includingSuburban Hospital, where hechaired the surgery depart-ment from 1991 to 1993 andserved as chairman of themedical staff from 1993 to1995. A native of New York, he received a bachelor’s degreein English from ColumbiaUniversity in 1951 and amedical degree from theUniversity of Buffalo in 1956.

During retirement he came toSt. John’s to continue hiseducation. “Ira’s years at St. John’s were a veryrewarding time after his retire-ment from surgery,” says hiswife, Barbara. “He was verygrateful for the opportunity tostudy the works of many of thethinkers whose writings he hadglossed over as an undergrad-uate. His studies at St. John’senhanced his abilities as adiscussion leader in the GreatBooks program, and led to hisdeveloping courses on the Iliad

and the histories of Herodotusand Thucydides.”

PATRICK PATRONE (SF78)Patrick M. Patrone, M.D., diedsuddenly at his home inHopkins, Minn., on April 16,2009. He was 51.

Born in Izmir, Turkey, Dr.Patrone spent most of his earlyyears in Fairfax, Va. After grad-uating from St. John’s, heearned an MS in physiologyfrom Georgetown University,and his medical degree fromthe University of Virginia. Hecompleted his residency inpathology at the ClevelandClinic and did a fellowship inpediatric pathology at the Chil-dren’s Hospital of Philadel-phia. He practiced pathology atJefferson University Hospital inPhiladelphia before moving toLancaster County, where heworked as a pathologist atLancaster General Hospital fornine years. He also worked atReading Hospital and mostrecently at Lower BucksHospital in Bristol, Pa. He wasa fellow of the College of American Pathologists.

JOHN M. ROSS (A69)John Maxwell Ross died April 6, 2009, of naturalcauses at his home in Seattle.After graduating from

St. John’s he served for fouryears in the U.S. Coast Guard,where he was stationed in St. Louis, Mo. He eventuallysettled in Seattle, where hespent the next few decadespursuing personal and professional interests.

An accomplished author oftechnical books, Mr. Ross alsopursued other writing projects,including a planned study ofthe writings of E.B. White. He combined his Coast Guardradio engineering experienceand his love for music and folk-lore to serve many local organi-zations, including KRABRadio, Northwest Folklife, andthe Seattle Folklore Society. A dedicated archivist, Mr. Rosswas deeply committed topreserving the musicalheritage of the past in new anddifferent media. He alsoenjoyed collecting local PacificNorthwest wines and makinghomemade apple cider withmembers of the NorthwestCider Society. He served on theWallingford CommunityCouncil.

ALSO NOTED:

RICHARD FRANK (CLASS OF

1949), MAY 5, 2009

CHARLES WYMAN GROVER

(CLASS OF 1948), MARCH 19,2009

STEVEN KEY (A74), MAY 26,2009

ALVIN LEVY (CLASS OF 1938),JAN. 22, 2009

WILLIAM SPRANKLE (CLASS OF

1951), FEB. 7, 2009

KEVIN STACEY (A75), MARCH

23, 2009

BOWEN WEISHEIT (CLASS OF

1940), APRIL 29, 2009

JOHN WINSLOW (CLASS OF

1933), DEC. 28, 2008

brian walker

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Faced withanother Sundaycroquet matchthis spring (Navyhad a schedulingconflict), Alumni

Director Jo Ann Mattson (A87)hit on an idea: why not fill theempty Saturday with a Johnnievs. Johnnie, East vs. Westmatch? When enough Santa Festudents took the challenge,Mattson made it an official partof the weekend. Since Sundaydrew the largest crowd ever—about 3,000 people—theinformal and intimate Santa Fevs. Annapolis match was thehighlight of the weekend formany. “This is what croquetwas like in its early days,” saidMattson, her picnic set up onthe edge of the playing court.“Look at all the students here.”

Students who made the tripfrom Santa Fe, along withtransfers to Annapolis, gath-ered under a tent where theyproudly displayed the NewMexico flag. Other studentslounged on blankets in the sunand did homework or read asthe games went on aroundthem. “I’m not really following

the game,” confessed GinaRussom (A09), who spent herfirst two years in Santa Fe. “Butit’s nice to have a little bit ofSanta Fe here in Annapolis.”

Even though Santa Fe’s teamincluded six former Annapolisstudents who transferred toSanta Fe, Annapolis prevailed3-0. And though the Santa Feplayers practiced a couple oftimes a week, it can’t be saidthat either team took thingstoo seriously on Saturday.Santa Fe’s team was led not byan Imperial Wicket but by a“Grand Marnier.” Anotherplayer donned a clown’s outfitfor part of his match. Alongwith their nicknames(“Drunken Alex” and “FriedSmokra” among them), theSanta Fe competitors printed aquote from the Roman poetClaudian on their red shirts: “It is no victory unless thevanquished admits yourmastery.”

But on Sunday, it was allbusiness. Perhaps it was thespring warmth after a dreary,bad-news winter that broughtsuch a large, enthusiasticcrowd to campus for Sunday’s

match. Dressed as Vikings(costumes chosen to hint atdomination of the seas), theJohnnies triumphed 4-1 overNavy.

Imperial Wicket Micah Beckwas well pleased with thevictory, although he and hispartner lost their match.Perhaps the large crowd hadsomething to do with it, heventured. “There were alumnilining the sidelines watching,”he says. “We had some nervousjitters to work out.”

The following weekend theJohnnies closed out theircroquet season by bringing

home another trophy, aswinners of the National Inter-collegiate Championships heldApril 25-26 at the MerionCricket Club in Haverford,Pennsylvania. The Johnnieswere among the top seedsgoing into Sunday’s play, andthey won all of their six-wicketmatches. Teams were fielded byinstitutions including the NavalAcademy, Bard, Haverford,Davidson, and SUNY-NewPaltz. x

Johnnie vs. Johnnie:

Showdown with Santa Fe

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{ C r o q u e t }

Opposite page: Top right, Santa Fe players consider their choices; Bottomright, a quote from Claudian on a Santa Fe t-shirt; left, Gina Russom (A09)watches the action. Above: clockwise from top, fierce Vikings face off againstthe nattily dressed midshipmen; the Annapolis cup awaits the victor in thealumni tent; the Santa Fe-Annapolis match was like the “old days” ofcroquet; Elsabe Dixon (A11) and Joao Fernandes (A09) join the swing dancers.

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ANNAPOLISFriday, September 254-8 p.m. Registration 4:30-6 p.m. Alumni/student networking and welcome

reception, FSK Lobby5:30 p.m. Class reunion dinners/receptions8:15 p.m. Homecoming Lecture: “Don Quixote and

the Law,” by Pedro Martinez-Fraga (A84)

Saturday, September 268:30-noon Registration continues10:30 a.m. Seminars, children’s story hour and seminarsnoon Family barbeque/ class reunion luncheons2 p.m. Freshman chorus, revisited3 p.m. The Mitchell Gallery’s “Tools in Motion”

exhibit; Soccer Classic4 p.m. All-Alumni Meeting/awards assembly;

book signing5-7 p.m. Cocktail party/birthday celebration7:30 p.m. Alumni banquet 9:30 p.m. Alumni ball; rock party

Sunday, September 2711 a.m. Presidents’ Brunch

CROQUETSt. John’s vs. the U.S. Naval AcademySaturday, April 17, 2010Raindate: Sunday, April 18, 2010

PIRAEUS, Alumni Continuing Education Thursday, June 3, to Sunday, June 6, 2010.

SANTA FEFriday, October 94-8 p.m. Registration4:30-5:30 p.m. Alumni/student reception5:30 p.m. Class reunion receptions6 p.m. GI welcome reception8 p.m. Homecoming lecture10 p.m. Movie

Saturday, October 108:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Registration9:30 a.m.-10:15 a.m. State of the college10:30 a.m.-noon Seminars and children’s story hours12:30 p.m. Picnic2 p.m. Hike to Atalaya2-4 p.m. Bocce tournament and Italian lawn party5 p.m. Speaking Volumes lecture6 p.m. Collegewide Art Show7 p.m. Homecoming dinner9 p.m. Homecoming dance

Sunday, October 1111 a.m. President’s Brunch

CALENDAR

Alumni, it’s time to come home to Annapolis and Santa Fe this fall!

Seniors and alumni came together for a reception at the PacaGardens before Commencement. L. to r.: Jessica Zimmergberg-Helms, Carol Freeman (AGI94), and Alexandra Munters.

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A Day in the

Country

Each May Sharon Bishop (classof 1965) welcomes Wash-ington-area alumni to herhome in Winchester, Va., foran annual “Day in theCountry,” featuring a picnic,

tutor-led seminar, and an opportunity forJohnnies to frolic in the sunshine. Thisyear, the popular event had one of its bestturnouts since Bishop began hosting aboutsix years ago. About 50 participantsattended the event, held on Memorial Dayweekend. Tutors Eva Brann (H89) andPeter Kalkavage led the seminar, on Book10 of Augustine’s Confessions.

Each group talked for an hour, thenBrann and Kalkavage switched groups.Kalkavage’s opening question was: howdoes Augustine lay out the differencebetween the inner man and the outer man? The discussion focused on memoryas the medium for inner man. Brannconcentrated on the chapter as “firstphenomenology.”

Bishop provided a catered lunch (salad,grilled chicken, salmon, lemon squares,chocolate mousse) paired with wines fromalumni winemakers: Hawk’s Crest, fromWarren Winiarski (class of 1952); Frog’sLeap, from Larry Turley (SF69); andSanglier Volant, from the vineyard of thelate Jeff Bishop (H96), the college’s long-time vice president for advancement.

After the seminars, some alumni playedcroquet, bocce, and badminton; otherslounged under shady trees and talked.

Bishop’s bearded collies, Brie andSunshine, participated in every activity.

Ymelda Martinez-Allison (A74) and herhusband, David (A73), were among thosewho made the trek. “The Day in theCountry was fabulous,” Martinez-Allisonsaid. “We had lovely weather and a greattime of socializing. The luncheon wasabsolutely delicious, and the seminardiscussions were lively and fruitful.”

“Thanks to Sharon, it was an absolutelyperfect day,” says Jo Ann Mattson (A87),director of Alumni Relations. “It was sucha generous gift to her fellow alumni.”

“I enjoy hosting the event,” says Bishop.“I love having the house in the country,and I enjoy sharing it. And, we had greatweather.” x

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49

Scenes from a day in the country: Seminars, Augustine onKindle, friends, and badminton. Photos by David Allison.

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{ A l u m n i A s s o c i a t i o n N e w s }50

His health wouldn’t allowWorld War II veteranMartin Andrews (class of1943) to come toAnnapolis to receive theAlumni Award of Merit,

the highest honor given by the AlumniAssociation. So Alumni Director Jo AnnMattson (A87) and Steve Thomas (SF75),vice president of the association, traveledto the Northport Veteran’s AdministrationMedical Center on Long Island, New York,to present the award to him on March 17.

They brought with them a special guest:tutor Eva Brann (H89), who through adedicated correspondence with Mr. Andrews developed a friendship thathas lasted more than two decades. Whenthey arrived at the center Mr. Andrewsintroduced his wife, Jean, to the group and quipped to Miss Brann, “she knows Ilove you.”

The Award of Merit was presented by Mr. Thomas, in recognition of Mr. Andrews’ outstanding service to thecountry, his affection and dedication for St. John’s and the ideals it represents, Mr. Andrews has been deemed a mostworthy recipient of the Award of Merit,” hesaid. The ceremony was held in a commonroom of the VA Center, where Mr. Andrews

lives, and his family and friends joined incongratulating him. In her remarks at thebrief ceremony, Miss Brann noted that Mr. Andrews is “the alumnus of alumni.”He left St. John’s in 1941 to enlist as anaviation cadet in the Army Air Force. Afterhe completed his flight training in 1942,Mr. Andrews was promoted to 1st Lieu-tenant and flew the B-17—the FlyingFortress—out of England. On his 13thmission, his plane was fired on by Luft-waffe fighters, and Mr. Andrews was forcedto set his damaged bomber down in neutralSwitzerland. He spent seven months ininternment camps there before beingreleased through a prisoner exchange withGermany. (Along the way, he carried out aspy mission for Allen Dulles, who headedup the OSS in Europe.) After the war Mr. Andrews settled in New York, where hebecame a documentary filmmaker.

Although he didn’t finish the Program,Mr. Andrews carried the ideals of the

college to war with him, Miss Brann said:“Under the pilot’s window of the FlyingFortress he piloted, he preempted thedisplay of the customary buxom blonde bya stenciled quotation from our old seal:Nulla via invia virtutis—No way is impass-able to courage,” she said. “From hisaircraft he released catalogues of the New Program attached to little parachutes.It still makes my heart leap to think ofthese plans for a liberal education floatingdown from the heavens into totalitarianGermany.”

Miss Brann recalled meeting Mr. Andrews at Homecoming in 1998, and shortly afterward, she received thefirst of his letters, an account of his warexperiences. “ How young they all were,Lieutenant Andrews himself only 23? Andwhat the world owes them. He won’t, I hope, mind this way of putting it,although he modestly disowns any praisefor his personal courage.”

She expressed her gratitude for thefriendship that has developed throughletters: “When I see his beautiful hand-writing on an envelope, I’m happy.” Shenoted that they have occupied the sameplaces but at different times or underdifferent circumstances during their lives.For example, in 1943 Mr. Andrews passedunder escort through San Sebastian in Spainafter his release from internment in Switzer-land. “As it happens, I too passed underescort through San Sebastian, but in 1941,when a last refugee transport was mountedleaving Berlin for Lisbon.” Miss Brann andher family settled in Brooklyn, and afterearning a doctorate at Yale, she became atutor at St. John’s in 1957.

“So now, once more, space and timehave happily made connection for us,”Miss Brann concluded. “It is indeed purelywonderful to me, for I’ve grown to loveMartin.”

Still dapper at age 89, Mr. Andrews was visibly moved by the presentation. He expressed gratitude for both the honorfrom St. John’s and the visit from Miss Brann.

“This is a thrilling moment for me,because Eva Brann is an extraordinarywoman,” he told the guests. “She is thedearest correspondent I have, and I loveher dearly.” x

A Special Correspondence

Alumni Association Honors WWII Hero

Penpals Eva Brann and Martin Andrewshave developed a deep friendship, rootedin mutual admiration.jo

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“. . .He modestlydisowns any praise forhis personal courage.”

tutor Eva Brann, on Martin Andrews

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When HannahEagleson (AGI04)moved back hometo Hershey, Pennsylvania, towork on her

doctoral dissertation on lyric poets, shefound herself missing seminar. She missedthe conversations she had at the St. John’sGraduate Institute and as a graduatestudent at the University of Delaware.

It might have been easy to find a bookgroup or a reading club in the area, butthat wasn’t what she was looking for. “I wanted to meet more people whoenjoyed reading and wrestling with texts in the way that Johnnies tend to,” she says. “Many of my friends in this areaare thoughtful readers, but they might not have time for a St. John’s style reading group.”

In February, Eagleson started a St. John’s alumni reading group in nearbyHarrisburg. Meeting once a month at alocal coffee house, participants gettogether to discuss works. Leadership ofthe discussion rotates between members,who can ask an opening question if theychoose. Participants in the group includealumni from both campuses, and fromboth the undergraduate and graduateprograms. Regular participants include

Randy St. John (AGI87), Aaron and SarahFrederickson (SF95), Kristen Litsinger(A93), Marvin Israel (SFGI73), RebeccaStevenson (AGI95), Mike Jerominski(SF97), and Kristin Lockhart (SF97).

Readings have included selected poetryof John Donne and King Lear, whichRandy St. John has been leading the groupthrough act-by-act. Group members areeager to move beyond the seminar toarrange social and cultural outings; they’replanning to attend a local Shakespeare inthe Park production of Cymbeline, as wellas organize a group hike.

“We’re still figuring out a lot of things,but it’s been very exciting so far,” Eaglesonsays. “[I]t has been a great pleasure to givecareful attention to texts together, and to

hear what everyone else has to say. I lovereading with Johnnies because they tend tobe interested in approaching the text on itsown terms, but also interested in how textsinteract with life experience.”

The group typically meets on the fourthFriday of each month at CornerstoneCoffeehouse, 2133 Market St., Camp Hill,Pennsylvania. Contact Hannah Eagleson([email protected]) for moreinformation.

— Sara Luell (A09)

Spotlight: The Harrisburg

Reading Group

ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATIONAll alumni have automatic membership in the St. John’s College Alumni Association. The Alumni Association is an independentorganization, with a Board of Directorselected by and from the alumni body. Theboard meets four times a year, twice on eachcampus, to plan programs and coordinate theaffairs of the association.

President – Jason Walsh (A85)Vice President – Steve Thomas (SF74)Secretary – Joanne Murray (A70)Treasurer – Richard Cowles (A70)

Mailing address – Alumni Association, St. John’s College, P.O. Box 2800, Annapolis,MD 21404, or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599.

In June, Nancie Wingojoined the Santa Festaff as director ofAlumni Activities.Prior to joining thecollege, Wingo

worked in Richmond, Va., forthe YMCA of Greater Rich-mond Association. She heldnumerous roles in her sevenyears with the association,most recently directingmember services.

A native of Merced, Calif.,Wingo is a 1981 graduate of

Baylor University, where she earned abachelor’s degree in communications.She has also held jobs in public relationsand marketing. She has two sons:Harrison, 23, and Andrew, 19. An avidtraveler, Wingo enjoys tennis, hiking,reading, films and trying new recipes.

Wingo is pleased to join “this gem of acollege” and eager for the opportunity toreach out to Santa Fe alumni. “I have adeep and growing respect for the College,the Program, a stimulating community,and the opportunities that the futureholds,” she says. x

Introducing Nancie Wingo

“I love reading withJohnnies because theytend to be interested in

approaching the text onits own terms. . .”

Hannah Eagleson

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{ S t . J o h n ’ s F o r e v e r }

Acentury ago this pastFebruary—just as thecollege was preparing tocelebrate the 125th anniver-sary of its charter—McDowell Hall was gutted

by a blaze most likely caused by defectivewiring. President Thomas Fell had beenworking in his McDowell office thatSaturday morning, February 20. He latertold the Baltimore Sun that he and hissecretary had smelled smoke, but they boththought someone was burning trashnearby. Fell went home to lunch at 1 p.m.,but within minutes, his secretary was at thedoor, reporting that McDowell was on fire.

Students formed a bucket brigade, butthey soon realized they could not reach thesource of the flames. Instead, led by facultymembers, they concentrated on saving thebuilding’s contents, including collegerecords (including some from King

William’s School), class shields andportraits of the college’s presidents. Led byLt. E. Berkely Iglehart (class of 1894), asquad of students was dispatched to carryout the 30,000 rounds of ammunition forthe college’s military program stored inthe basement. Firemen and midshipmenfrom the Naval Academy also helped fightthe blaze, which could be seen for milesaround and attracted hundreds of specta-tors to the campus.

When it was all over, the upper twofloors of McDowell were gone. Fallingdebris and water left the building’s firstfloor in ruins.

Though badly damaged, the masonrywalls were intact, and this helped Fell andthe board decide that McDowell would riseagain. Contributions from alumni startedpouring in immediately. With theirfinancial support, the college rebuiltMcDowell according to its original design,

with the largely intact rear rooms servingas models. By June 1910, the reconstruc-tion was complete.

In 1989, the college undertook an exten-sive restoration of McDowell, movingadministrative offices to a new wing inMellon Hall and refiguring them as class-rooms, installing heating and air condi-tioning, and shoring up the floors andgalleries.

It’s hard to imagine the Annapoliscampus without McDowell. Its iconic belltower was carried over to the design ofanother building 2000 miles away, whatwould become Weigle Hall in Santa Fe. x

For more on McDowell’s history and a fullaccount of the 1909 fire, consult McDowellHall at St. John’s College in Annapolis:1742-1989, by John Christensen withCharles Bohl.

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{ E i d o s }


On Moving Again

This evening, walking along the long fieldMy eye was drawn to a living shimmer in the sky:Three aspens alone alive in a world of almost motionless Cottonwood and willow and Chinese elm trees.

The breeze that barely stirred the othersSprang it free, spangling leaves like light on water,An electric flutter, the secret energyIn the heart of the world revealed. Free.

An aspen leaf might believe itself inordinately busy(especially comparatively) and certain thereforeIt will expire prematurely, useless, stupid, failed.From where I stood, it was the most beautiful thing to see.

My life could be similarly pleasing to God.I guess this could be service enough for me.

Liz Waldner

About the artist and poetKarina Hean’s Nebulous (36" x 24" charcoal, conté, and graphiteon cotton rag paper, 2007) was created for an exhibit at theUniversity of Colorado. After teaching at Fort Lewis College andcompleting several national and international fellowships and resi-dencies, Hean (A00) will be a visiting professor at the Universityof Montana this fall. Upcoming solo exhibitions include theContemporary Center for the Arts in December 2009, Fort LewisCollege in January 2010, and ArtHaus 66 in summer 2010.

Liz Waldner (A83) is the author of Saving the Appearances; DarkWould (the missing person),winner of the 2002 ContemporaryPoetry Series; Etym(bi)ology; Self and Simulacra (2001), winnerof the Alice James Books Beatrice Hawley Prize; A Point Is ThatWhich Has No Part, winner of the 2000 James Laughlin Awardand the 1999 Iowa Poetry Prize; and Homing Devices (1998). Herpoetry has appeared in the New Yorker, Colorado Review, DenverQuarterly, Ploughshares, VOLT, and many other publications.

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Documents

The College Magazine Summer 2009