Boston College Magazine, Summer 2022

BOSTON COLLEGE SUMMER 2022

MAGAZI NE

LEGEND

PLUS ADMISSIONS 101

It’s harder than ever to get into BC—here’s how the selection process works.

MORE HOCKEY!

What’s next for twotime Olympic medalist Cayla Barnes ’22?

A farewell to record-setting hockey coach Jerry York

Contents // Summer 2022

FEATURES

22

28

32

44

A Farewell to Jerry York

Inside BC Admissions

A New World Order?

Goal Driven

After twenty-eight years and four national championships at BC, the legendary hockey coach has retired.

It’s never been more difficult to get into Boston College. We spoke with John Mahoney ’79, vice provost for enrollment management, about how the selection process works, and what students can do to make their application stand out.

The War in Ukraine.

The Rise of China.

The weakening of democratic norms.

We asked BC experts about the future of the liberal world order.

By Elizabeth Clemente



BC hockey star Cayla Barnes and Team USA skated off with silver at the Winter Olympics in Beijing. What’s next?

By Courtney Hollands

By Jack Dunn and John Wolfson

CV2

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photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters via Alamy

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LINDEN LANE 4

A One-Man Cast of Thousands The many roles of P.J. Byrne ’96.

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Campus Digest

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How the Post Office Shaped American Literature BC Professor Christy Pottroff explores snail mail’s contribution to our literary tradition.

9

Making Waves in Cancer Research Swim Across America, a nonprofit founded by a BC alum, is the subject of a new documentary series.

10 A Gallery-Worthy Gift Peter Lynch ’65 has donated more than $20 million in art from his private collection to the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College.

12 Bringing BC’s History to Life Clough Millennium Professor Emeritus of History James O’Toole on his new book about the history of Boston College.

18 CLASS NOTES

14 Children and Natural

Disasters

As catastrophic events become more frequent, BC Associate Professor Betty Lai is researching how to promote recovery and resilience in kids.

52 Alumni News and Notes 54 Class Notes 66 Fond Farewells 68 Advancing Boston College

16 Odds and Ends A look at the eclectic collection of scientific gizmos maintained

by Chemistry Professor Emeritus T. Ross Kelly.

18 BC Basketball Gets

72 What I’ve Learned Thomas D. Stegman, SJ

73 Parting Shot

a New Facility

The Hoag Basketball Pavilion will help position the teams for success.

20 What Makes

Education Catholic?

BC School of Theology and Ministry Professor Thomas Groome’s new book explores the essence of a Catholic education.

Retiring men’s hockey coach Jerry York hoists the 2010 NCAA championship trophy. photo: Mark Hicks. NCAA Photos via Getty Images

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Conversation

into some type of stew. And, then, like magic, the same ingredients the next night! Who needs food stations with custom pizzas, ethnic foods, and sushi when you can indulge your culinary senses in a single-option dinner plopped on your plate, loaded with carbs, salt, fat, and other unknown substances.

Of course, our tuition, room, and board in 1973 was probably 1/25th of the same today. And, fortunately, we have the money, time, and enjoyment of cooking to make our own açaí bowls and General Tso’s cauliflower. Some pleasures are best deferred.

Great article.

Peter and Jane Deming Scanlon ’77 Woodland Park, Colorado

THE PANDEMICS TO COME This was a very fine roundtable discussion [Winter 2022]. These members of the BC faculty are expert witnesses, so to speak, and highly thoughtful and articulate. I wondered, however, whether the political realities might have been edited out. All one has to do is turn in the same issue to the Books section to find the article “The Trump Administration and COVID-19,” about Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta’s book, Nightmare Scenario.

Our BC health professionals spoke about getting the truth out about the science to increase vaccine equity and reduce hesitancy (not to mention outrage and violence against basic public health measures).

So just how public health officials can communicate to the broader public against the onslaught of Fox News and the whole caravan of right-wing news outlets and social media posts is the bigger question still, and probably needs to be addressed directly in such a discussion.

Bob Begiebing M’70 Newfields, New Hampshire

“

I survived on hamburgers and pizza at BC and the occasional steak night.”

Steve Fainer, via Facebook

WHY I WRITE “But I have learned that a person can never be free by hiding their emotions or turning away from their aspirations” [Winter 2022]. Inspirational words to be sure, but certainly more so words to live by. Great piece!

John Leonard ’66 Quincy, Massachusetts

CLOSING THE HEALTH CARE GAP As a BC alum, a Salvadorean, and a health care professional, I applaud the important partnership the School of Social Work has with Mass General Brigham [Winter 2022]!

The need for more social workers who speak the language—both figuratively and literally—is dire. I’m sure the work is impactful and transformative for the community and social workers. Yet the name of the Latinx Leadership Institute made me pause.

According to a recent study, only 2 percent of Hispanic voters refer to themselves as Latinx, with a full 40 percent saying the term “offends” them. In order to be culturally relevant, I urge the Latinx Leadership Institute to revisit their name to speak to more Latinos in the language they prefer.

Kathleen Haley, ’93, M’97 Newton Centre, Massachusetts

CHAMPIONS AT LAST In the article about the women’s lacrosse team [Fall 2021], there was a glaring omis-

THE TASTE OF SUCCESS I just finished reading the piece and drooling over the accompanying food photos [Winter 2022]. Too bad we missed Chef Colon Cora during our year in Xavier Hall in 1973–74. During our multiple trips each day to McElroy, we enjoyed the everinventive ways the food service provider put noodles, potatoes, frozen vegetables, and some unknown species of meat together 2

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photo: Nina Gallant (dining)

BOSTON COLLEGE MAGAZI NE

VOLUME 82

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NUMBER 2

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SUMMER 2022

EDITOR

John Wolfson ART DIRECTOR

Keith Ake DEPUTY EDITOR

Courtney Hollands STAFF WRITER

Elizabeth Clemente DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Lee Pellegrini SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Caitlin Cunningham

sion in the statement that Acacia WalkerWeinstein joins only Jerry York and John Kelley as other BC coaches to win national championships. Greg Wilkinson (pictured below), the current head coach of the sailing team, has led the team to several national titles, and I believe he may in fact be among BC’s all-time winningest coaches.

Not to take anything away from the outstanding accomplishments of the women’s lacrosse team, but leaving out Greg illustrates the all-toocommon focus on the “revenue-generating” sports teams. As is often pointed out, the majority of collegiate athletes go on to careers outside of sports, but participation while in college is both formative to the athletes and important to the college community.

Greg stands out among his peers within collegiate sailing and also among college coaches more broadly, and continues to both deliver championships to the University and great experiences to his athletes. A good reminder that we are blessed at BC to have coaches like Greg, Acacia, Jerry, and the many others that lead our varsity teams.

Ernest Bourassa ’06 Sailing team captain, 2005–06 Rye, New York

because sailing is not an official NCAA sport, Wilkinson has not had the opportunity to win a championship recognized by that organization.]

SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION In the article on the new Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society [Winter 2022], the splendid photographs (above) show a very attractive building designed with both thoughtfulness and dedication to the institute’s purpose. It would be good to know who the architect was.

Samuel R. Blair ’59 Fitchburg, Massachusetts [Editor’s Note: Our article about BC’s new 245 Beacon Street science building should have recognized the architectural firm Payette for its fine work.]

Boston College Magazine welcomes letters from readers.

Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Please include your full name and address.

EMAIL: bcm@bc.edu MAIL: BCM, 140 Commonwealth

Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 Connect with @BostonCollege

[Editor’s Note: We remain enormous Greg Wilkinson fans here at the magazine! But photos: Andy Caulfield (245 Beacon); John Quackenbos (Wilkinson)

Please send address changes to: Development Information Services Cadigan Alumni Center, 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 (617) 552–3440, Fax: (617) 552–0077 bc.edu/bcm/address Please send editorial correspondence to: Boston College Magazine 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 (617) 552–4820, Fax: (617) 552–2441 bcm@bc.edu Boston College Magazine is published three times a year by Boston College, with editorial offices at the Office of University Communications.

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Postmaster: Send address corrections to: Boston College Magazine Development Information Services Cadigan Alumni Center, 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 Please direct Class Notes queries to: Class Notes editor Cadigan Alumni Center 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 email: classnotes@bc.edu phone: (617) 552–4700 Copyright © 2022 Trustees of Boston College.

All publications rights reserved.

Printed in U.S.A by The Lane Press.

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Linden Lane

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A One-Man Cast of Thousands The many roles of P.J. Byrne ’96.

BY COURTNEY HOLLANDS

Earlier this year, the actor P.J. Byrne ’96 jumped on the latest celebrity social-media trend. In a video posted to Instagram and set to the catchy Ting Tings song “That’s Not My Name,” he cycled through a highlight reel of his most memorable TV and movie characters. A sampling: the shady stockbroker Rugrat from the Oscar-nominated The Wolf of Wall Street; Principal Nippal from the HBO limited series Big Little Lies; the mutton-chopped record company lawyer Scott Levitt from the HBO period drama Vinyl; and Bolin from the animated sci-fi series The Legend of Korra.

He could have kept going. Indeed, with more than a hundred acting credits and parts in films directed by Hollywood royalty such as Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese— not to mention his voice-acting projects and commercials—the bespectacled Byrne is certainly prolific. No wonder he looks so familiar. And you’ll have even more chances to see him in the coming months. Among other projects, Byrne will play a leading role in the new series Irreverent on NBC’s Peacock streaming service, and also appear in director Damien Chazelle’s hotly anticipated movie Babylon, which premieres on Christmas Day. Yet if it wasn’t for the nudging of John Houchin, one of Byrne’s theater professors at Boston College, he probably wouldn’t have had an acting career at all. Byrne grew up the younger of two kids in a politically connected family in New Jersey. (His mother worked as a press secretary for the former New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne, who was his father’s cousin.) He enrolled in Boston College’s Carroll School of Management thinking he’d get his MBA and work on Wall Street for a few years before heading into politics, or as Byrne called it, “the family business.” But then, on a whim, he auditioned for a student play during his sophomore year. He got the part and later starred in the BC production of Tartuffe, in 1995, and with the encouragement of Houchin, who has since retired, he decided to pursue a double major in finance and theater.

When Byrne’s senior year at BC rolled around, he had already lined up a postgraduation job on Wall Street. Houchin, illustration: Ryan Olbrysh

however, implored him to attend drama school instead, even going so far as to fill out Byrne’s applications for him. “That man’s gesture changed my life,” Byrne said. “I think he knew that I understood the music of comedy, that I could come up with a quick joke.

But he also knew I needed to be properly trained.” So in the fall of 1996, Byrne started at the Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago.

After graduating with an MFA in acting in 1999, Byrne moved to Los Angeles.

To learn the business side of Hollywood, he reached out to the Batman and Robin actor— and fellow Eagle—Chris O’Donnell ’92, H’17, P’22, P’25, who had a production deal with Warner Brothers. Byrne worked in development with O’Donnell’s company for a few

“

Will Ferrell and Stephen Colbert started laughing hysterically—and Will is famous for not breaking.

It was such a big deal. That’s the moment I knew, I’m supposed to be here.” years in increasingly senior roles while earning supporting parts in television and movies, and spots in commercials. He eventually gave up the development job to focus on acting and auditioning. “That’s when my career took off,” he said.

It was during the filming of Nora Ephron’s 2005 movie Bewitched, based on the 1960s sitcom, that Byrne felt like he had truly

arrived. He was playing a writer in the film, and at a table read, he began pitching some funny ideas to the movie’s stars, Will Ferrell, Stephen Colbert, and Nicole Kidman.

“Will and Stephen started laughing hysterically—and Will is famous for not breaking,” Byrne said. “It was such a big deal. That’s the moment I knew, Oh, I’m allowed to sit at this physical table and this bigger-idea table. I’m supposed to be here.”

Byrne approaches every new script with his particular brand of humor, jotting down jokes and identifying places where he can riff. “People know I’m going to bring something extra that’s not on the page,” he said. “I always think, What are the first four jokes that came into my head? Someone else is probably going to say them, so I use my fifth joke. My mind now naturally goes to the fifth joke immediately.” This penchant for playful improvisation and Byrne’s nice-guy attitude have served him well in an industry not exactly known for civility. His time at the Carroll School has also come in handy.

He drew from his experience interning for a Boston bond salesman while at BC for an audition monologue that impressed Martin Scorsese and landed him the part in the The Wolf of Wall Street. “They knew I had a finance degree and that I knew the lingo,” Byrne said. “But that’s the point: whatever you do, you never know when it is going to be worthwhile. Always be intrigued and interested because I promise you, it will be useful at some point in your life.”

Though it may seem that Byrne has already had almost every role imaginable, he said he’d like to be cast in a war movie or as a superhero someday. But in the meantime, he can be found hanging out with his family—he and his wife, Jaime, who works as a fundraiser and event producer for nonprofits, have two daughters and a son—and waking up delighted each day that he’s able to do what he loves. “I maybe could’ve been happy going to an office on Wall Street, but I just feel so blessed that I get to play make-believe—and that someone is paying me to do it,” Byrne said. “Truly, every day is a pinch-me moment. Right before they said action, Jack Lemmon used to go, ‘magic time.’ That rings so true to me.” n su m m e r 20 2 2 v bcm

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Linden Lane // Campus Digest

STUDENT CLUB SPOTLIGHT

BC Equestrian Team established: 1993 current members: 28

BC to Introduce New Two-Year College The University plans to open a two-year residential college in 2024 that will offer an associate’s degree. Messina College will be located on the campus of the former Pine Manor College in Brookline (above) and is part of BC’s new $100 million Pine Manor Institute for Student Success, which works to enhance educational opportunities for underrepresented, first-generation students. “Boston College was founded in 1863 to help educate Boston’s immigrant community,” said University President William P. Leahy, SJ. “The Pine Manor Institute reflects our heritage, and represents an extension of our mission and a response to societal needs.” The institute was established in 2020 when Boston College and Pine Manor College signed an integration agreement. Its other initiatives include the Academy, a cost-free summer enrichment program for students in grades 8–12 hosted on the BC campus, and an ongoing outreach program that will provide support for graduates of the Academy and Messina College.

what it is: This coed club sport allows equine-loving students of all levels to continue riding in college without the expenses of owning or leasing a horse. The team practices weekly in Grafton, Massachusetts, and competes in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association against other local schools including BU and Tufts.

“Our team and coach are always there to help beginners, and we are all constantly learning from each other. We also have riders who have competed since they were 5 years old.”

—Team president Natalie Azzolini ’22

BIG NUMBERS

37

The percentage of BC undergraduates majoring in a STEM field.

383

The number of undergraduates majoring in neuroscience.

Introduced in 2019, the growing neuroscience major this year became the 10th-most-popular major at BC.

Pomp and Circumstance The BC mace once again led the academic procession at Commencement on May 23, hoisted by the chief marshal. Designed by Francis Sergi, SJ, and fashioned by Patrick J. Gill & Sons in 1938, the celebratory staff is topped with a golden eagle that’s perched on a globe inscribed with the words Religioni et Bonis Artibus (“Dedicated to Religion and the Fine Arts”). The orb sits in a crown-like vessel, which is accented with fleurs-de-lis and crosses and emblazoned with the University’s shield and its motto, “Ever to Excel,” written in Greek, as well as with a silver dove representing the coming of the Holy Spirit. source: BC A to Z: The Spirit of the Heights,

by Thomas H. O’Connor

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photos: Caitlin Cunningham illustration: Shutterstock

Campus News Odette Lienau, professor of law and former associate dean for faculty research and intellectual life at Cornell University Law School, has been named the inaugural Marianne D. Short, Esq., Dean at Boston College Law School. During the search process, Lienau “stood out as an accomplished scholar and educator who offered up a compelling vision for the future of BC Law School,” said Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley.

CHARACTER SKETCH

Andrea Yoch ’89

Michael C. McCarthy, SJ, will be the new dean of the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, effective July 1. Fr. McCarthy, the former vice president for mission integration and planning and associate professor of theology at Fordham University, will succeed Thomas Stegman, SJ, who announced in January that he would step down at the end of the semester to focus on his ongoing battle with glioblastoma.

The Center for Optimized Student Support at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development has been renamed the Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children thanks to an anonymous $10 million gift. The new name honors the professor who founded the threedecade-old program City Connects, which serves 45,000 students each year.

Despite pandemic-related challenges, 96 percent of 2021 School of Theology and Ministry graduates secured placement within six months of graduation.

The most popular fields of employment were parish ministry (18.9 percent) and high school teaching (15 percent).

Boston College is a top producer of Gilman Scholarship winners. The prestigious program, sponsored by the U.S. State Department, allows undergraduates to study or intern abroad. Over the past two decades, BC has had 111 students chosen for the initiative—more than any other similarly sized university in New England.

Andrea Yoch ’89, the first female Heights sports editor, is a former marketing executive with the Minnesota United men’s soccer team. She’s now the president and a cofounder of the Minnesota Aurora, a new minor-league women’s soccer team that’s community-owned.

—Courtney Hollands

One of our founders was getting frustrated that there was no chatter in our market about a women’s team starting. He thought that maybe instead of waiting for somebody else, we should figure out a way to do it ourselves, so he sent a message to a group of people who he knew were passionate about soccer. It was during the pandemic, so we met outside in a park six feet apart with our masks on. Out of that came a small group of nine founders.

Most leagues want somebody to write a big check—one person, a single owner. And none of us were able to do that. The United Soccer League was open to our communityownership model and awarded us a franchise in 2021. We have 3,080 owners from forty-eight states and eight countries. Part of why we were so successful was because we were the first independent women’s team in the country to do this, and we are at this moment in time where everybody is finally understanding how women have been treated in sports and in the workplace. People want to do something about inequality. We came along and said, This is something you can do. Do you want to help women in sports? Buy shares in our team.

I’m really excited about having more women visible in sports, in the front office and on the field. I hope that we are inspiring the generation behind me—my sons’ friends—to dream of being in sports or in places where women haven’t traditionally been. Our trainer on the sidelines is a woman and our team doctor is a woman, too. If you look at the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team, a lot of the people on the sidelines are men.

They are working hard to change that, and we want to work hard to change that. Part of it is showing girls where they can go.

photo: Kelly Kamish/Kix Photography

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Linden Lane

How the Post Office Shaped American Literature

BC Professor Christy Pottroff explores snail mail’s contribution to our literary tradition.

BY JESSICA TAYLOR PRICE

Anne Royall was penniless. Following the death of her husband, William, in 1812, her in-laws claimed his estate and left her with virtually nothing. Royall may have been poor, single, and in her 50s, but she was resourceful. She eventually wound up traveling the country on U.S. Postal Service–owned stagecoaches on a shoestring, recording what she saw and making history as one of the country’s first female journalists. “It was just a remarkably savvy strategy,” said Christy Pottroff, an assistant professor of English at Boston College. “The post office really underwrote her entire career.”

In fact, as Pottroff has explored in her research, the U.S. Postal Service was instrumental in the careers of many 19th-century

writers, especially marginalized ones. It was a common means of transportation, Pottroff said, in part because hitching a ride with a USPS stagecoach was affordable. This facilitated the advent of a popular genre in American literature at the time, travel writing. “Anyone who did travel writing in the early 19th century was most likely writing in the seat of the stagecoach that was delivering the mail,” she said.

Royall was one of those writers, even though riding a stagecoach must have been “terrifying” for a single woman at the time, Pottroff said. Everywhere Royall went, she interviewed locals, and then she wrote books—Sketches of History, Life, and Manners in the United States, Letters from

The Routes That Writer Anne Royall Traveled on U.S. Postal Service Stagecoaches

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Alabama, and others—about her travels.

Because they were so long, her books were too expensive to sell through the mail, so she loaded them in a trunk and sold them around the country using the same stagecoach routes.

But the USPS did more than transport writers: it helped to disseminate their literature. While Royall’s contemporaries such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville—both wealthy white men—had access to publishing houses that could print and distribute long works, everyone else had to get creative. If you were a writer looking to distribute your work for cheap, distribution via mail, and in short pieces, was the way to go.

That’s why, when the Black author Henry “Box” Brown decided to circulate his life’s story, he did so in the form of a mailed pamphlet. (Coincidentally, he got the nickname “Box” for mailing himself to freedom from Richmond to Philadelphia in a box.) “He was able to mail his narrative and share his experience by writing a story that fit the parameters of the post office itself,” Pottroff said.

And when the famed essayist Judith Sargent Murray couldn’t find an established publisher to print her books, she wrote shorter essays, letters, and plays that ran in newspapers and magazines delivered by the USPS. Whether writers were using the post office for transportation or distribution, they found themselves limited to places where post offices existed. Luckily, as the 19th century progressed, so did the postal service’s expansion plans. By the end of the Civil War, there were 37,000 post offices in the United States. It wasn’t quite the reach of broadband internet, but nearly everyone in the country was eventually connected to each other, regardless of their race, gender, or social status. “Looking back to the 19th century, we see a lot of innovative ways the post office was used to facilitate broad public good,” Pottroff said. “We may not use the postal service for travel anymore—or even use it for mail. But when you read one of the great American storytellers, its influence is felt.” n map: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division

Participants in a 2016 Swim Across America event in Nantucket.

Making Waves in Cancer Research

Swim Across America, a nonprofit founded by a BC alum, is the subject of a new documentary series.

BY ELIZABETH CLEMENTE

Last fall, three-time Olympian Elizabeth Beisel became the first woman to swim the 10.4 miles from the Rhode Island mainland to Block Island. Beisel performed the historymaking feat to raise money for Swim Across America, a nonprofit founded by a BC graduate that has granted more than $100 million for cancer research and is the subject of a recent Discovery Life documentary series.

Beisel swam in honor of her late father, Ted, who had died two months earlier from pancreatic cancer. She is one of more than 150 Olympians who have participated in Swim Across America events. Today, the organization hosts twenty-one open-water swims across the country each year, but it all started with Matt Vossler ’84, his BC friends, and a 1987 swim across Long Island Sound that raised $5,000.

Vossler got the idea for the original swim from a charity run he and his friends

Swim Across America By the Numbers

had organized three years earlier. In 1984, Vossler, Hugh Curran, and Jeff Keith ’84— who had lost his leg to cancer as a teenager— spent eight months running from Boston to Los Angeles. Billed as Jeff Keith’s Run Across America, it raised $1 million for the American Cancer Society. Vossler returned to the East Coast motivated to continue fundraising, and his Swim Across the Sound grew into Swim Across America, which was incorporated into a public charity in 1992.

Swim Across America’s philanthropic focus is on research and clinical trials. The organization helped finance the early studies of immunologist Jim Allison, for instance.

Allison shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for pioneering cancer therapies that mobilize the immune system to attack tumors. Swim Across America also provided funding for the initial clinical trials at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute

that led to the development of Keytruda, a drug approved by the FDA in 2014 that is used to treat several types of cancer. “The people we were funding in the late ’90s,” Vossler said, “are now the people running the labs and helping build the next generation.”

Swim Across America and the thousands of lives it has impacted over the past three decades were the subject of a documentary series that premiered on Discovery Life last summer called WaveMakers. And while the organization may have international reach, its roots are still in the Boston College community, with alumni on the board of directors and among its employees. Mary McCullagh ’85, a former BC swimmer, works as event manager at the SAA headquarters. “The BC impact is truly being felt across the country,” she said. “But more importantly, it’s being felt by the countless folks that have been touched by cancer.” n

$100M+

150

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for cancer research

including Michael Phelps and

Swim Across America

raised by Swim Across

Jenny Thompson (left)—who

research labs in the

America events.

have swum in Swim Across

United States.

The amount of money

The number of Olympians—

The number of named

America events.

photos: Courtesy of Swim Across America; Alamy (Phelps,Thompson)

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Linden Lane

A GalleryWorthy Gift

Peter Lynch ’65 has donated more than $20 million in art from his private collection to the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College.

BY JACK DUNN

The famed investor Peter Lynch has gifted twenty-seven paintings and three drawings, worth in excess of $20 million, to Boston College’s McMullen Museum of Art. The works, from the private collection of Lynch ’65 and his late wife, Carolyn, are by renowned artists including Pablo Picasso, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, and Childe Hassam.

“My hope is that this artwork, all of which my wife, Carolyn, and I collected during our fifty years together, will help students to develop a deeper understanding of art and its importance as a form of expression,” said Lynch (pictured below), the vice chairman of Fidelity Management and Research Company and a BC trustee associate who also received an honorary degree from the University in 1995. “All students definitely can learn from this collection, which includes a diversity of styles of painting, many of which depict the natural beauty of our country from its most celebrated painters.”

The donation includes an additional $5 million grant to support the ongoing curation and exhibition of what will be called the Carolyn A. and Peter S. Lynch Collection, making the total gift one of the largest in University history.

“This is a transformational gift,” said Nancy Netzer, the inaugural Robert L. and Judith T. Winston Director of the McMullen Museum, “allowing expansion of our role as a vital educational resource offered free of charge not only to the Boston College community but also to all students and the public, wherever they may be.”

Netzer, a BC professor of art history, said the museum would work in partnership with University faculty and students and with scholars from around the world to initiate new research on the artwork and share new insights and contemporary interpretations with its audiences.

“Carolyn and Peter Lynch’s generosity,” she said, “and their focused, discerning collecting over many decades have brightened the future of the McMullen Museum’s offerings to New England and beyond.” n 10

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 Martin Johnson Heade Orchid and Hummingbirds Near a Mountain Lake, c. 1875-90 Oil on canvas

photo: Lee Pellegrini (Lynch)

 Pablo Picasso

 Albert Bierstadt

Head

Near the South

Pencil on paper

Pass of the Rocky Mountains, 1861 Oil on panel

 John Singer Sargent Olive Trees, Corfu, 1909 Oil on canvas

 Mary Cassatt Mother and Child Watercolor on paper

 Diego Rivera Family, 1934 Ink on paper

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Linden Lane

Bringing BC’s History to Life

Clough Millennium Professor Emeritus of History James O’Toole on his new book about the history of Boston College.

BY JOHN SHAKESPEAR

a whole has moved toward social history, too.

What are the actual people doing, not just in the president’s office, but on the ground?

society changes, how does the institution change, while still holding on to the essential values that make it what it is?

What sparked the idea for this book? It grew out of the lead-up to BC’s sesquicentennial anniversary in 2013. As we thought about how to mark 150 years, the idea arose to do something expressly historical. University President Father Leahy is a historian by training, so I must say, it was kind of an easy sell.

What is something readers might not know about BC’s history? When BC moved to Chestnut Hill, then-president Father Gasson arranged for a bill to be filed in the state legislature to redraw the line between Boston and Newton along what is now College Road. The bill never passed, but the motive was clear: Boston College wanted to stay in Boston. I was also constantly impressed by what I learned about Newton College of the Sacred Heart. Newton College has often been overlooked, but the women who went there got an outstanding education.

How did you decide to focus this history on people? People say they don’t like history, and I’m sympathetic to that, because there’s a lot of historical writing and teaching that’s just “this happened, then that happened.” Over the course of my career, I’ve come to think history is valuable precisely because it connects to the stories of real human beings. The field as

Why is it important to reflect on the University’s history? Well, one way in which it’s important has to do with the Catholic identity. Though BC welcomed non-Catholics from the beginning, it didn’t originally have to think about that identity—it was walking around campus. Over time, the school has had to be more deliberate and conscious. As

And what can that history teach us about the future? It’s easy for people in any institution to think, This is the way the institution is, and it’s going to stay this way. History teaches us that isn’t true. The larger circumstances will change and make new demands—some we foresee, and many more we can’t. BC will always have to keep asking itself how the education it provides addresses society’s needs.

But history also shows us the values that have persevered since the beginning. To this day, students here talk about service and the common good. You don’t have to ask. They volunteer it.

To University Historian James O’Toole ’72, Ph.D.’87, the story of Boston College is first and foremost about people. For his new book, Ever to Excel: A History of Boston College, O’Toole conducted twelve years of research on the students, alumni, faculty, administrators, and staff who have shaped BC since its founding in 1863. We asked him about the process of writing this social history.

How did you decide where to end this book?

The anniversary Mass at Fenway Park in the fall of 2012 seemed like a fitting cap to BC’s third half-century. In many ways, Fr. Leahy’s presidency isn’t history yet—it’s the ongoing present. In fifty more years, another historian will look back and put it into context. n

Ever To Excel

A History of Boston College James M. O’Toole

left: Construction on the Recitation Building—later renamed Gasson Hall—began on June 19, 1909. above: The cover of James O’Toole’s new history of Boston College.

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photo: Burns Library

BC DIPLOMATS

Jane Hartley Nominated as U.K. Ambassador If confirmed, she will be the first woman to hold the post in forty-five years.

Nicholas Burns ’78 Is the New Ambassador to China

The BC alum tweeted that he’s looking forward to doing “vital work for our country.”

BY ELIZABETH CLEMENTE

In March, Nicholas Burns ’78 arrived in Beijing as the new U.S. ambassador to China, filling a post that had been open for more than a year. The longtime diplomat was nominated by President Biden last August, but wasn’t confirmed by the Senate until December. “I am grateful to President Biden for this opportunity to represent the United States in the People’s Republic of China,” Burns tweeted after his confirmation. “And I am looking forward to working with our superb career professionals at our embassy and consulates who are doing such vital work for our country.”

During his Senate confirmation hearing last October, Burns described the relationship between the U.S. and China as “complicated and consequential.” He pledged that the United States would compete with China in areas including the economy, critical infrastructure, and emerging technologies, and cooperate with the country in areas that are in America’s interest, such as climate change, drug enforcement, global health, and nuclear nonproliferation. Maintaining the relationship between the American and Chinese people is important, he said in his opening statement, but “we will challenge

the PRC where we must, including when Beijing takes actions that run counter to America’s values and interests; threaten the security of the United States or our allies and partners; or undermine the rules-based international order.”

Burns has previously spent decades in the State Department, serving in roles such as under secretary of state for political affairs; ambassador to NATO and to Greece; and State Department spokesperson. Burns has prior experience working with the Chinese government on issues including the war in Afghanistan, the United Nations sanctions against Iran and North Korea, and U.S. policy in the Indo-Pacific. Most recently, he worked as the executive director of the foreign policy think tank the Aspen Strategy Group, and as a senior counselor at the consulting firm The Cohen Group. He is on public-service leave from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he is a professor of the practice of diplomacy and international relations. Burns is also a Boston College Trustee. (Burns declined to comment for this article, as his legal team has advised him against speaking to any institution where he has served as a board member.) n

photos: Courtesy of Harvard’s Belfer Center (Burns); Charles Platiau/Reuters/Alamy (Hartley)

President Biden has nominated Jane Hartley NC’72 to be the next ambassador to the United Kingdom. The Senate held a confirmation hearing in early May, but as of press time a date had not been set for a final vote on her nomination. Hartley served as ambassador to France during the Obama administration, and if confirmed, she will be the first woman in forty-five years to serve as ambassador to the United Kingdom. Her nomination comes at a time of complicated relations between America and the U.K. Both President Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have committed to the ongoing security and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, for instance, but Biden has voiced concerns that the fallout from Brexit could jeopardize the peace in Northern Ireland.

Throughout Hartley’s time as the ambassador to France, a particular focus was counterterrorism cooperation. She served during the fatal 2015 shootings at the Charlie Hebdo magazine and the Bataclan theater, and the 2016 truck attack in Nice, and ultimately received the Legion of Honor award from French President François Hollande. Previously, Hartley was chief executive officer of the international advisory firm the Observatory Group.

She also holds board positions at several organizations.

—Elizabeth Clemente

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Linden Lane // Research

ects linked Ike with a lack of activity among kids. And in a third study, she found that students experienced post-traumatic stress and elevated anxiety after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, leading to an increased likelihood of trouble at school. “The good news is that many children are resilient after disaster events, and we do have great treatments,” Lai said. “But a lot of those treatments are very intensive and expensive. We need a plan for triaging and understanding which children are highest-risk so we can intervene early.”

Witnessing the struggles of kids is what inspired Lai to study child psychology. As a New York City teacher in the early 2000s, she was struck by how problems outside of

the classroom seemed to affect students’ academic outcomes. Lai was pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Miami when, in 2008, Hurricane Ike hit Galveston, Texas. “I wanted to understand how we could help children in a community recover from an event like that,” she said. And that’s exactly what she does now at BC. Her Lai Lab researches how children and families recover not only from natural disasters, but also from other traumatic events such as pandemics and war.

Most previous work on this topic has focused on the “average” child. But Lai’s research emphasizes that not all children are the same. One study she conducted in Texas, for example, found that Hurricane Ike affected academic functioning more negatively in lower-income public schools. That is why she’s developing statistical models that researchers can use to understand which children are most vulnerable to the lingering effects of a disaster, and how to intervene before their symptoms become long-lasting. Her most recent study identified “symptom trajectories” among youth exposed to major hurricanes, pinpointing characteristics—such as age, ethnicity, and gender—that predispose children to more serious forms of chronic post-traumatic stress.

For the most vulnerable kids, early intervention is key. That includes implementing trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy quickly after a disaster. It also involves preventive measures, such as increasing the number of school counselors. While the American School Counseling Association recommends one counselor for every 250 students, Lai said, only two states currently meet that ratio. And as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of disasters, it’s more important than ever to be prepared. “Many children will experience at least one potentially traumatic event in their lifetime,” Lai said. “We need to better prepare communities and families before these events that we know are going to happen.” n

A new study from researchers at the Lynch School and the School of Theology and Ministry found that although 20 percent of Catholic school students in the U.S. are Hispanic, only 9 percent of Catholic school educators are Hispanic. Boston College will host a national summit this fall to strategize how to better support and retain such teachers, many of whom reported feeling alienated due to a lack of representation.

People alerted to their declining credit scores via email were reluctant to check them and did little to raise them, according to a paper coauthored by Carroll School of Management Assistant Professor Megan Hunter. The unexpected findings suggest that such notifications could lead to negative outcomes for customers and financial institutions, and that further research is needed to determine the driving forces behind these results. —Elizabeth Clemente

Children and Natural Disasters

As catastrophic events become more frequent, BC Associate Professor Betty Lai is researching how to promote recovery and resilience in kids.

BY MOLLY McDONOUGH

After a hurricane wreaks havoc on a community, its effects on kids can linger long after the floodwaters recede. Disasters threaten children’s long-term mental and physical health as well as their academic success, said Betty Lai, an associate professor in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development. “Children are one the most vulnerable groups when exposed to disasters,” she said. “They aren’t just mini adults— the meaning of a big life event is very different in your forties than it is when you’re 5.”

One of Lai’s studies, for example, found that eight months after Hurricane Ike, more than 40 percent of children reported ongoing sleep problems. Another of her research proj-

MORE FROM THE LAB The Boston College School of Social Work’s Research Program on Children and Adversity has received a five-year, $3.3. million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to expand its long-term study of war-affected youth in Sierra Leone. The study, led by the Salem Professor in Global Practice Theresa Betancourt, aims to understand how trauma influences psychosocial development and travels through generations.

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illustration: Sébastien Thibault

BC IN THE NEWS

Boston Globe On the rise of “smishing” schemes, in which scammers send texts that appear to be from a customer’s own number.

“The problem is here to stay—you just have to be on the lookout for it.

Think before you click, whether it’s in an email or text. Don’t trust, verify.”

Kevin Powers, director of BC’s cybersecurity policy and governance programs

“I loved the idea that this was a science-based show. It wasn’t about people’s egos, going out and conquering a mountain for the sake of doing it, which I’ve done a million times. It was in pursuit of science and learning.” —Erik Weihenmayer ’91, H’03 (above, cen-

ter), a blind mountain-climber who guides the actor Will Smith on far-flung adventures in National Geographic’s new series Welcome to Earth.

Washington Post On the EPA’s latest push to end white asbestos use in the U.S.

“Every country around the world that has either banned or reduced asbestos has seen a fall in disease and death.”

Philip Landrigan, director of BC’s Global Public Health Program and Global Pollution Observatory

QUICK Q&A

Stephen R. P. Edwards ’02, the managing director of highway construction in Jamaica.

What does your job entail? We’re responsible for building, maintaining, and operating Jamaica’s highways. Part of the process is acquiring land for development of the highway, and we have to sometimes acquire private property, and that has a whole lot of issues around it. We’re also managing the financial aspect. These are very, very big projects, so a lot of them, by law, have to go out to international bidding. There are long-term plans to expand the highway network across Jamaica, which will require the continuous expansion of the country’s technical and institutional capacity.

CNBC On why the idea of a four-day workweek is gaining traction.

“Some years ago, the logic of work and companies would have been that people need to work longer and harder. It has flipped now, so there’s this idea that people can be more efficient. They can do five days of work in four days.”

Juliet B. Schor, sociology professor at Boston College

What is most rewarding about your work? Seeing that the work you’re doing is really making an impact on people’s lives locally. Because Jamaica is a developing country, this type of capital expenditure on infrastructure really drives the economy. It opens up areas for development, it generates a lot of jobs, and it really affects the country’s gross domestic product.

What is your favorite road to drive on? The North-South Highway links the capital of Jamaica—Kingston—to a major town called Ocho Rios. There’s all this land along the way that is ripe for development, but in addition, the scenery is just picturesque. It’s like a postcard, especially on a sunny day. —Christine Balquist

BBC On how “time poverty,” or a lack of free time, disproportionately affects lowincome parents.

“For families that cannot pay for caretakers for children, the elderly, or ill in their family, childcare and various appointments can claim an inordinate amount of time.”

photos: Skyler Williams (Weihenmayer); Toll Authority of Jamaica (Edwards)

Aleksandar Tomic, associate dean for strategy, innovation, and technology at the Woods College of Advancing Studies su m m e r 20 2 2 v bcm

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Linden Lane

Odds and Ends

A look at the eclectic collection of scientific gizmos maintained

by Chemistry Professor Emeritus T. Ross Kelly.

BY ELIZABETH CLEMENTE

In the early 1980s, Boston College Chemistry Professor T. Ross Kelly was passing a newspaper stand in Italy when an unusual hat caught his eye. It appeared to have a ball levitating above it, thanks to a built-in air jet. Kelly was fascinated by the hat’s mechanics, so he bought it—the first purchase in what would become his “Curiosity Cabinet,” an extensive collection of objects that demonstrate scientific principles or seem to defy logic. During the latter half of his five-decade teaching career at BC, he amassed around 100 gizmos and toys in his office in the Merkert Chemistry Center.

Some of them Kelly even built himself, such as a hairspray-powered potato cannon fashioned from a PVC pipe. (He fired it off the roof of the Beacon Street parking garage into Alumni Stadium.)

In 2014, Kelly digitized the collection.

Two graduate students filmed him demonstrating dozens of his gadgets and uploaded the footage to YouTube. Last spring, one of the videos, depicting gravitational illusions,went viral. It has been viewed more than 27 million times, and several other videos on Kelly’s YouTube channel have been watched hundreds of thousands of times.

Kelly may have retired from BC in 2019, but he remains on the hunt for new curiosities.

“I’m always looking, because once you have it, the fun part’s over,” he said. “Except when you’re sharing it with somebody.” n

Seemingly Impossible Nail

Carbide Cannon

Kelly enjoys items that appear to

When water and carbide—a com-

defy logic, such as this captive nail.

pound made from carbon and lime—

The secret is steam: By steaming a

are deposited into this cannon’s

wood block, Kelly was able to com-

main chamber, they produce the

press the tooth on the end in a vice,

gas acetylene, which turns explosive

drill holes, and slide the nail through

when mixed with oxygen. A spark

the middle teeth. He then steamed

ignites the gas, causing a loud bang.

it again, causing the collapsed tooth to expand to its original shape and “trap” the nail.

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photos: Caitlin Cunningham

Center-of-Mass Bird

Galileo Thermometer

Radiometer

This bird appears to defy gravity by

When the water inside this ther-

Sunlight causes this device’s interior

balancing at an angle without much

mometer warms up, it becomes less

squares to spin. One side of each

supporting it. The trick is that the

buoyant, which causes some of the

square is black, allowing it to absorb

bird’s center of mass is distributed

multicolored liquid-filled balls inside

light energy and radiate infrared

across its wings, allowing it to stay

to sink. After the balls settle, a Cel-

light. This light warms gas nearby in

in place without toppling over—thus

sius degree marker on the outer glass

the glass spheres, causing the vanes

demonstrating the physics principle

lines up with the top resting ball,

to rotate.

of mass distribution.

indicating the temperature.

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Linden Lane // Sports

BC Basketball Gets a New Facility

BY ELIZABETH CLEMENTE

Practice space—The crown jewel of the Hoag Basketball Pavilion will be the 10,700square-foot practice gym. BC basketball players will have access to six courts, including an exact replica of the competition court at Conte Forum.

Construction planning has begun for the Hoag Basketball Pavilion, a state-of-the-art, 40,000-square-foot practice facility that will be connected to Conte Forum. “It is critical to not only provide the men’s and women’s basketball teams with the appropriate facilities that they need to compete at the highest level,” said outgoing William V. Campbell Director of Athletics Pat Kraft, “but also to provide them with health-and-wellness space.”

The Hoag Basketball Pavilion was made possible by a $15 million lead gift, the largest in BC athletics history, from University Trustee Michaela “Mikey” Hoag ’86 and her husband, Jay Hoag. The Hoags said it was important to them to support both basketball programs and “help position them for success for years to come.” Here’s a look at some of the facility’s amenities.

Sports medicine center—This 1,400-square-foot center will house aqua therapy equipment such as underwater treadmills and plunge pools, which can aid in injury rehabilitation and provide a low-impact way to enhance athletic performance.

Sports medicine is advancing rapidly, Kraft said, and providing athletes with modern technology was a priority while planning the facility.

The Hoag Basketball Pavilion will help position the teams for success.

“Who Am I Outside of Volleyball?”

Her famous father left her an athletic legacy, but Jewel Strawberry discovered her passion off the court.

It’s no surprise that Jewel Strawberry ’22 just graduated as the captain of the BC women’s volleyball team. After all, she is the daughter of the legendary baseball slugger Darryl Strawberry, and her mother, Charisse 18

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Fuller, and each of her four siblings played Division 1 sports. But Strawberry is hardly defined by her athletic prowess. In 2020, she became the inaugural president of Eagles for Equality, a new diversity, equity, and inclusion committee for student athletes.

Strawberry excelled on the volleyball court as an outside hitter during her freshman and sophomore seasons, but hurt her shoulder in fall 2019. She underwent surgery but her shoulder never fully recovered, and she finished out her career as a defensive specialist. “When I was hurt,” she said, “I started thinking, who am I outside of volleyball?”

The question helped inspire Strawberry, who was on

Nutrition center—Like other athlete-only dining spaces at Conte Forum, the Hoag Basketball Pavilion’s 1,400square-foot nutrition center will accommodate sports schedules and feed the basketball players when the dining halls might not be open, such as before early morning practices.

Study and relaxation areas— To cater to the whole athlete, the facility will also include 2,100-square-foot locker rooms with attached private lounges. A dedicated video room adjacent to the practice gym will give coaches and athletes space for instructions and scouting. n

the board of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, to take the position with Eagles for Equality. The group has organized unity walks and created a service that allows student athletes to anonymously report discrimination via text message.

Last summer, Strawberry interned with the renowned civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who has represented the families of Trayvon Martin and George Floyd, among many others. She has signed on to work for Teach for America, in Atlanta, through 2024.

After that, she plans to go to law school, and hopes to one day work to reform the juvenile justice system. “If I can be a voice for the voiceless or just for people who feel they can’t speak up,” Strawberry said, “then I’m going — Elizabeth Clemente to be that person.” photo: BC Athletics rendering: Sasaki

AS TOLD TO

Guy Beiner

The new Sullivan Chair in Irish Studies on how we remember our past, and why it matters.

I first traveled to Ireland to study folklore as a historical source. I became fascinated with how people engage with the past, individually but even more so on social and cultural levels. For me, folk history became about not just what happened, but what people thought happened, what people imagined to have happened, and even what people told themselves didn’t happen, yet were invested in. That’s the kind of multilayered history that I wanted to engage with. I realized I had to understand how memory works, because that’s how oral traditions are passed down.

I specialize in the history of social remembrance, and my work in recent years has focused on questions of forgetting, which surprisingly turns out to be another form of remembering. I’ll go to archives and specialist libraries and read against the grain, looking for traces of events that were left off of the official record though they’ve been documented outside mainstream historiography. For example, the Irish Civil War of 1922–23 is one of those episodes that was rarely talked about publicly, but if you look deeper, you’ll find books, plays, and even films about it. Cultural commentators often assert that it’s been forgotten, but if that’s the case, then why do we know about it?

The more you study issues of memory, the more you realize that it’s everywhere. For years, I’ve been working with researchers around the globe to study how the 1918–19 influenza pandemic was remembered and forgotten in different societies. What I found was that quite often there was a lack of public discourse about it, but families had different ways of remembering their lost relatives in private. It’s interesting because it had been assumed by historians that that pandemic had been entirely forgotten. There was lots of cultural engagement with it, but it didn’t make the literary and artistic canon, so it was both there and not there at the same time.

I came to Boston College in 2019 as a visiting Burns Scholar, and then last year I was fortunate to become the chair of the Irish Studies department. The fact that Boston College appointed an Israeli to this distinguished role reflects a shift in the field. It’s still largely focused on history and literature, but there’s remarkable potential to reinvigorate the field by engaging with other disciplines, asking new questions, and making new connections.

I’ve never left folklore, and I’m always curious about how to redefine it because it’s constantly reinventing itself. It’s not just about familiar folk tales, it’s about cultural traditions in many forms. The internet is full of folklore, and it’s become much more multimedia.

It’s particularly interesting for me as a historian because we’re trained to look at “facts,” not folklore, but the stories people tell about their past, no matter how fanciful, have meaning and can influence their lives. It puts me in my place because, in reality, historians are very small players in the popular construction of the past.

We might think that by publishing a book we’ve determined how historical events will be remembered, but a movie that tells it differently will probably have more impact on people’s image of the past— how do we engage with that? History is riddled with subjectivity, and the more we explore the complex relationship between academic knowledge and popular traditions, the more rich and meaningful history becomes.

— As told to Alix Hackett photo: Caitlin Cunningham

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Linden Lane // Books

What Makes Education Catholic?

BC School of Theology and Ministry Professor Thomas Groome’s new book explores the essence of a Catholic education.

BY KATHLEEN SULLIVAN

The vast network of Catholic schools likely constitutes the largest single system of education in the world today. This enormously influential educational system has some 55,000 schools, ranging from kindergartens to research universities, located in 200 countries and serving more than 150 million students.

But what exactly does it mean to place the word “Catholic” before such terms as school, education, or teacher? In his new book What Makes Education Catholic: Spiritual Foundations, the internationally renowned religious education expert Thomas Groome explores the history of Catholic education from its spiritual roots to the present day in order to define what Catholic education is and provide a reflective resource for today’s Catholic school educators.

“I’ve been thinking about this book for about forty years,” said Groome, a professor of theology and religious education in the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry and founding director of the Ph.D. program in theology and education. In a recent interview, he recalled an experience he had decades ago in Pakistan. Unlike the Catholic schools he was familiar with in his native Ireland or in the United States, the Pakistani school was staffed predominately by Muslim teachers and the students were also Muslim.

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Groome has seen a similar phenomenon during visits to Korea and Hong Kong— Catholic schools delivering a Catholic education even though the educators and student body were primarily not Catholic.

“Catholic schools educate from a faith perspective and for a faith perspective,” Groome said. The curriculum of a Catholic school should give students an academically rigorous, competent, and capable education that prepares them to make a living, he said, but that also prepares them to have a life grounded in some kind of faith perspective as they engage in the world. He added that it doesn’t mean imposing Catholicism on students, but rather inviting students “to consider a spiritual grounding for their lives in the world that might make their lives a little more meaningful, worthwhile, purposeful, ethical, and might sustain them in the tough times.”

In the face of the declining presence of the ordained and vowed religious in Catholic schools, the key to maintaining the Catholicity, said Groome, is forming and nurturing teachers and staff in the deep values that undergird Catholic education and Catholicism, such as mercy, compassion, justice, integrity, truth-telling, respect, care for the poor, and care for the neighbor and the common good. Groome said that a Catholic school also needs its top

person to be a spiritual leader who can articulate the school’s faith-based vision, with support from a cadre of faculty and staff who know the charism and can serve as custodians of the institution’s Catholic identity.

In What Makes Education Catholic, Groome offers brief overviews of some of the important voices in the Catholic intellectual tradition and Catholicism, such as Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Julian of Norwich, Ignatius of Loyola, Angela Merici, and Mary Ward. He shows how these foremothers and forefathers of Catholic education can ground and shape the spirituality of Catholic educators in today’s postmodern world. These foundations ensure that Catholic schools deliver the education they promise to students—not only to Catholics but to those of many religious traditions.

There are prompts throughout the text that encourage readers to engage in reflection and dialogue. Catholic education is best realized in practice, Groome said. It is seen in “how teachers go about teaching and principals go about administering schools: the environment, the atmosphere, and values the school reflects in its own way of being.”

Groome would like to see his book become a catalyst for a fresh conversation among Catholic educators around the world, and since its publication in November, he’s been contacted about it by teachers and principals from Canada to Australia. “There is great purpose in Catholic schools; they are the Catholic Church’s contribution to the common good,” Groome said, “and they have never been more needed.” n photo: Caitlin Cunningham

Inside the Criminal Mind

BRIEFLY

In her new book, CSON Professor Ann Wolbert Burgess details her trailblazing work with the FBI in investigating serial killers.

“It was a raw confrontation with horror,” Connell School of Nursing Professor Ann Wolbert Burgess writes in a new memoir about her groundbreaking work with the FBI. In A Killer by Design: Murderers, Mindhunters, and My Quest to Decipher the Criminal Mind, Burgess details how she helped to establish the discipline of criminal profiling to identify serial killers, which, in turn, inspired the hit Netflix show Mindhunter.

The book, coauthored by Steven Matthew Constantine, the associate director of marketing and communications at the Connell School, draws on crime scene drawings and transcripts of interviews with serial killers to take readers behind the scenes of several gruesome murder cases. In the early 1970s, Burgess and her BC colleague Lynda Lytle Holmstrom became pioneers in sexual assault research by studying its traumatic effects on victims at Boston City Hospital. A lecture that Burgess gave at the FBI Academy on this research led to a two-decade partnership with the bureau’s Behavioral Science Unit to examine the psychology of the perpetrators.

She worked with FBI agents on an innovative project to interview incarcerated murderers to better understand their motivations. Burgess “understood both the psychology of the disturbed individuals,” she writes, “and the steps needed to develop this messy, nonnumerical research into a standardized study.” The team ultimately used this criminal profiling to catch dozens of violent criminals.

Nearly thirty years after her work with the FBI ended, Burgess’s trailblazing methods are now widely used by law enforcement.

She said she was inspired to write her book, in part, by the #MeToo movement, which has brought discussions about sexual assault to the forefront. Its publication also comes at a time when the popularity of true crime podcasts and shows has exploded. “The more you hear these stories,” she said, “the more you think in terms of ‘How can I prevent this?’”

—Elizabeth Clemente illustration: Joel Kimmel

Touring China: A History of Travel Culture, 1912–1949

by Yajun Mo Traveling to faraway destinations for pleasure might seem like a modern luxury. But in her new book, Mo, a BC assistant professor of history, reveals that China’s tourism culture in the first half of the 20th century was booming, if complicated: While a developing railway system connecting the nation’s regions made leisure travel easier, political instability often threatened to divide the country.

Pork Belly Tacos with a Side of Anxiety

by Yvonne Castañeda MSW’18 The daughter of Cuban and Mexican immigrants, Castañeda struggled with bulimia and anxiety as she tried to reconcile her heritage with American societal expectations.

Castañeda, a part-time faculty member at the School of Social Work, eventually overcame her troubles and told BCSSW News that she hopes her memoir will help others realize that “change is possible, that grace is possible, that healing is possible.”

Rena Glickman, Queen of Judo by Eve Nadel Catarevas CSOM’79 Catarevas combines her passion for biographies and children’s literature in her debut picture book. It tells the true story of Rena Glickman, a renowned judo practitioner, known professionally as Rusty Kanokogi, who battled anti-Semitism to become a champion of the sport in the 1950s and ’60s.

Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close ’08 In her latest novel, the best-selling author Jennifer Close follows three generations of the Sullivans, a Chicago-based, restaurant-owning family—described by Booklist as “maddening, loving, (and) stubborn”—as they navigate both the loss of a beloved patriarch and —Elizabeth Clemente the repercussions of the 2016 election.

WHAT I’M READING

The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis “This is the fascinating story of the long-running partnership between psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who truly changed the way we understand decision-making. The book shows the power of persistence and how far people can go when they truly collaborate, and how quickly that collaboration suffers when the issue of who gets credit pops up.”

—Aleksandar Tomic, associate dean for strategy, innovation, and technology at BC’s Woods College of Advancing Studies su m m e r 20 2 2 v bcm

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A Farewell to Jerry York After twenty-eight years and four national championships at BC, the legendary hockey coach has retired.

By Elizabeth Clemente

opposite: York and his players celebrating the 2012 NCAA championship.

photo: Steve Nesius/Reuters/Alamy

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T

hroughout the thousands of practices and games that made up his career, the legendary BC Hockey Coach Jerry York ’67 was rarely seen without a spiral notebook in hand. Generations of York’s players speculated about just what was written inside. They never found out.

And now, the contents of York’s notebook will remain a secret forever, as the winningest coach in college hockey history has retired. All told, York coached Division 1 college hockey for fifty years at three different institutions— Clarkson University, Bowling Green State University, and BC. Along the way, he won a staggering 1,123 games and five national championships (no other college hockey coach has won 1,000 games). York, who is widely known for his humility, announced his retirement with little fanfare, simply issuing a press release. The end of his 50th season seemed like the right time to step down, he said. “I am so blessed to have been involved with Boston College these past twenty-eight years,” he said during a meeting with his players and coaches, “and to have had the opportunity to coach so many wonderful student-athletes.”

An outpouring of praise for York followed his announcement. “Jerry York is not just a championship coach,” the renowned sportswriter Mike Lupica ’74 tweeted. “He is one of the greatest figures in the history of our school. And he is one of the great gentlemen any college sport has ever produced.” The former BC hockey star Blake Bolden ’13, who in 2015 became the first African-American woman to compete in the National Women’s Hockey League, also tweeted her appreciation. “My goodness, thank you Coach Jerry York,” Bolden wrote. “An icon that has shaped the lives of so many young men and women, including mine.”

Speaking of icons, perhaps no one in the world is better qualified to assess York’s career than his fellow coaching legend Jack Parker, who led the Boston University men’s hockey program for forty years, won three national champi24

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onships of his own, and is the third-winningest coach in the history of college hockey. Parker and York have spent the majority of their lives as friends—and fierce on-ice rivals.

They both grew up in the Boston area, played against each other first in high school and then in college (York at BC, of course, and Parker at BU), and eventually spent a few decades battling each other as head coaches. That started in the 1970s, when York was coaching Clarkson University and Parker was already at BU. Whenever Parker’s team would play at Clarkson, Parker recalled, the two head coaches and their assistants would get together at York’s house to talk hockey over beers. Eventually, their competition would play out on one of the biggest stages in college hockey. “BU and BC is an unbelievably heated rivalry,” Parker said. “When games were over we’d shake hands at center ice. It was always hard to lose to BU or to BC when you were playing each other. And yet it was always an enjoyable handshake. I don’t remember ever having a bad thought about Jerry York as the head coach.” Well maybe just one, Parker admitted when pressed. That time had to do with York successfully recruiting a player Parker also wanted. Parker couldn’t remember the player’s name at first, recalling only that he was a small center. Then it came to him—Brian Gionta. “I thought ‘Boy, that kid is going to make BC,’” Parker said.

Gionta ’01 did indeed go on to become one of BC’s greatest athletes ever. As captain, he led the Eagles to the NCAA championship in 2001, BC’s first since 1949. He then played for sixteen seasons in the NHL. When Gionta heard York was retiring, his first reaction was shock. “That kind of longevity, that kind of run, that kind of success, it’s unsurpassed in hockey,” he said. But the lesson that has stuck with him after playing for York all those years ago has nothing to do with hockey. “He reinforces how you treat people,” Gionta said. “Whether it is the athletic director, or it’s the security guard when you walk in, or it’s the janitor, the trainer, the equipment manager, everyone is on the same level. No one is above anyone and no one is below anyone, and everyone is to be treated with respect.”

Outgoing BC Hockey Captain Marc McLaughlin ’22 may have joined the program two decades after Gionta, photo: John Quackenbos (top, bottom right); Burns Library (bottom left, middle)

top: York, notebook in hand, coaching BC to a 1-0 victory over BU for the 2016 Beanpot title. bottom, from left: York in 1967 with coach “Snooks” Kelley; striking a pose in 1967; coaching BC’s 2004 home opener.

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How did Jerry York become a coaching legend?

1,123 victories, a record 5 NCAA titles: 1984 (with Bowling Green), 2001, 2008, 2010, 2012 18 NCAA tournament appearances 12 Frozen Four appearances 12 Hockey East regular-season titles 9 Hockey East Tournament titles NCAA Division I Coach of the Year in 1977 (with Clarkson) from top: York leading a 2012 practice at Fenway Park; after a 2012 win against BU; meeting former Senator John Kerry JD’76 in 2010; with a fellow coaching legend, BU’s Jack Parker, in 2005.

5-time Hockey East Coach of the Year: 2004, 2011, 2014, 2018, 2021 9 Beanpot titles Member of both the Hockey Hall of Fame and U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame 4 players who won the Hobey Baker Award 18 former players selected in the 1st round of the NHL draft 58 former players with at least 50 games in the NHL

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photos: John Quackenbos; John Bohn (bottom)

but the lessons were the same. Asked for a memory of playing under York, the first thing McLaughlin mentioned was the friendship the coach had developed with a custodian who cleaned the team’s locker room. “Coach York went and introduced himself to him, created a relationship with him, and really made him feel like what he was doing was important to our team and we were all in this together,” recalled McLaughlin, who recently signed with the Boston Bruins. Later in the season, York brought the custodian in again to give the Eagles a motivational speech before the playoffs. “It’s just little stuff like that,” McLaughlin said. “He really went beyond the hockey aspect of being a coach.”

Several of York’s former players have gone on to hold prominent positions in the NHL. Among them is George McPhee, who won the Hobey Baker Award as the nation’s outstanding player while playing for York at Bowling Green and today is president of hockey operations for the Vegas Golden Knights. McPhee said that he always admired York’s personality at Bowling Green, so uplifting that he often wondered if the coach had ever had a bad day. So when it came time for his son to choose a hockey program, McPhee knew exactly where he belonged. Graham McPhee ’20 played for York at BC. “ He’s demonstrated for the rest of college sports that there’s a right way to do it,” McPhee said. “It wasn’t just about hockey for Coach York, it wasn’t about this cloistered life. It was about family, education, and faith, and then hockey.”

York is one of only three coaches to have won NCAA photos: Mike Devries (top); BC Athletics (right)

titles with two different schools—Bowling Green in 1984, and BC in 2001, 2008, 2010, and 2012. He also led the Eagles to twelve Frozen Four appearances, nine Hockey East Tournament titles, twelve Hockey East regular-season championships, and nine Beanpot titles. His forty-one NCAA Tournament victories are the most ever, and he was named Hockey East Coach of the Year five times, most recently in 2021.

York coached four Hobey Baker Award winners in his career.

Eighteen of his former players were selected in the first round of the NHL draft, and fifty-eight have appeared in at least fifty games in the NHL. In 2019, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. And in 2020 he was named to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.

Of course, York was a celebrated player before he became a coach. He scored 134 points for Boston College during his collegiate career, and still ranks among BC’s alltime leaders in points, goals, and assists.

And somewhere along the way, he started carrying that notebook. “For us, that was the running joke,” Brian Gionta said. “We wanted to get ahold of his notebook and see what’s in there. His game notes, or whatever it might be.” Unfortunately for the many players who have called him coach, Jerry York has closed the book for the final time. n

Meet the New Coach Greg Brown ‘90 has been selected as BC’s next Schiller Family Head Hockey Coach. It’s a homecoming for Brown, an All-American defenseman at BC who served as an assistant on Jerry York’s staff from 2004 to 2018. “I am truly honored to be named coach,” he said, “and to succeed my coaching mentor and friend Jerry York.”

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Inside BC Admissions It’s never been more difficult to get into Boston College.

We spoke with John Mahoney ’79, vice provost for enrollment management, about how the selection process works, and what students can do to make their application stand out.

BY JACK DUNN AND JOHN WOLFSON

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OR THE FIRST TIME EVER, Boston College this year surpassed 40,000 undergraduate applications…for 2,300 spots in the Class of 2026.

As BC has continued to climb the rankings, becoming ever more selective in the process, many alumni have wondered about the state of admissions at the University. What does it take to get into BC these days? What is the future of standardized testing in the application process? What is Early Decision, and how does it work? To answer these questions and many more, we sat down with John Mahoney, vice provost for enrollment management. We asked him about how the applicant pool at BC has changed through the years, how applicants are evaluated, and what they can do to stand apart from the crowd. To hear an expanded version of the discussion, listen to the podcast by scanning this QR code. illustration: Gary Neill

BC seems to regularly set new records for the number of undergraduate applications it receives.

Last year we had a 35 percent increase in applications. That was largely driven by the fact that, because of the pandemic, we made it optional for students to submit standardized test scores. This year was also test-optional. The applications increase was more modest, 2 percent, but we still set a record with 40,400 applications for the Class of 2026, which will have 2,300 students.

What do those numbers tell us about BC’s selectivity?

When all is said and done, we’ll offer admission to about 6,500 students in order to enroll that class of 2,300. In other words, we’ll admit about 15 percent of the applicant pool. That will be a new record. The most capable students are seeking the best academic institutions in the country, and BC is in that universe now. We’re one of those schools they aspire to.

Will standardized tests such as the SAT and the ACT continue to be an optional part of BC’s application process?

I don’t know what the future holds, but test-optional is something we’ve committed to for one more year. We’ve not committed to it beyond that. We’re doing research right now. We’ve kept standardized testing because we do su m m e r 20 2 2 v bcm

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believe that it adds value—it’s not the be all, end all in evaluating applications, but tests are a good predictor of success in the freshman year.

For the Class of 2026, 43 percent of applicants chose to submit standardized test results. For the Class of 2025, which just completed its freshman year, half submitted scores and half did not. We’re researching how they did—we’ve looked at their first-semester GPAs, for example, by submitters versus non-submitters.

We’ll continue that study into the next academic year.

What is the profile of a student who’s accepted to BC these days?

Test scores during the pandemic have been skewed because those who choose to submit are likely to have high scores, but the mean SAT score for students who submitted scores and were admitted to the Class of 2026 was 1,484. And the mean ACT was 34, with 36 being the maximum score. So for students looking to apply to the contemporary Boston College, I think good guideposts are SAT scores of at least 1,400 to 1,450, and minimum ACT scores of 33 to 34. Does that mean students should not apply if they’re below those levels? It doesn’t mean that at all. What it does mean is that the other aspects of the application—the grades, the rigor of the program, the AP courses—need to be strong.

Those are very high bars. How does the challenge of being accepted to BC today compare with years past?

The competition is much higher today than it was when I became director of admission in 1990. But I would go back even farther, to when I was a student here from 1975 to 1979. There is just no question that the caliber of student today is greater than it was at that time. Look, I got a firstrate education here at Boston College. There were professors who changed my life. But BC was a different institution then. It drew some students from outside the Northeast, but it was mostly a regional institution. I was a commuter for all four years here, and BC really didn’t have housing available for students who lived locally. But we couldn’t stay regional. The overall number of high school graduates has plummeted. When I graduated from BC in 1979, there were 3.2 million high school graduates in the country. By the time I became director of admission, the first couple of years were down to 2.4 million. And the biggest drop-off was in the Northeast. So BC had to begin to recruit nationally and internationally. From a demographic standpoint, 30

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that was just sheer survival. But the other thing that was happening concurrently was that BC’s academic reputation was steadily rising.

What does BC’s emergence as an elite institution mean for the children of alumni?

Some additional consideration is extended to children of alumni in the admissions process, but it’s inevitable that we’re going to disappoint some young people who come from BC families. Boston College has become one of the nation’s premier universities. As alumni, we are proud of that. We celebrate it. We also have to recognize that as selectivity has gone up so much, it’s become much more challenging for our own children who were raised on the BC tradition to get in.

Beyond grades and test scores, what are the more subjective qualities you’re looking for in an applicant?

Believe me, this evaluation is holistic. The numbers are just the first pass. Next, we look at the human being behind the numbers.

So how do you get a sense of that human being?

We get it from teacher and guidance counselor testimonials, but we get it from the students, too, in the form of essays—the personal statements are critically important.

BC is a member of the Common Application, so there’s a Common Application essay. But we also ask a BC-specific essay question that’s aligned with our mission and identity.

The BC Admission website lists those questions for students interested in applying to Boston College.

What makes for an effective essay?

I have read tens of thousands of admissions essays—I’ve got a manila folder on my desk where I’ve saved some of the very best I’ve seen. The essay is a way to distinguish yourself from thousands of other qualified and deserving students, and I think the single best piece of advice that I can give is, tell us a story about yourself. It should be selfrevealing, not self-glorifying. And don’t overthink it. These stories comprise what I call the family folklore. They’re the stories that you and your family laugh about, cry about, have told over and over. They’re stories of adversity, stories of success, stories of failure. Choose one and tell us that story. Because the essay is a vehicle for you to tell us something meaningful and important about you. photo: Lee Pellegrini

What sets the essays in your folder apart from the thousands of others you’ve read?

Let me give you an example of a great one. Here’s the opening sentence, which I’ve never forgotten: “Everybody saw it and laughed.” I was hooked right away. This young lady used that opening sentence to tell a story about an elementary school poster project. This student had been assigned to make a poster about North Carolina. Now keep in mind her opening sentence—“Everybody saw it and laughed.” She went on to describe that, unlike many of her classmates, she had done everything by herself. She had cut out the picture of the state bird and the state flag.

She’d written down the motto. She’d used Elmer’s glue.

So the poster was a little bumpy, the writing was a little off kilter, but she’d done the whole thing herself. Now on the day of the presentation, there were all of these other posters, glorious laser-printed ones that clearly had the fingerprints not of young elementary school students— you know whose fingerprints they were. But this young lady took pride in the fact that there was no parental involvement with her poster. Yet she described people walking by and giving disdainful stares at her self-made poster. They were laughing at it. But she was proud anyway. She’d done it herself. She wrote that she had always been independent and outspoken, following her own path.

Her parents had given her that kind of freedom. She said that she was going to push things, and that the poster project revealed the kind of independent-minded, strongwilled young woman that she saw herself as. I could see the person behind the words. She told me what we would

ested in. Colleges don’t dictate that. BC is proud to be a Division I sports institution. I like to think of us also as a Division I arts institution. We’re looking for great musicians. We’re looking for people who can make contributions to the debate team. We’re looking for students who’ll be writers for the literary magazine. And we’re hoping that students have some understanding of and appreciation for what Jesuit education is about. So when the admissions office is reviewing applications, that’s the way we approach the process.

BC introduced the Early Decision option to the application process a few years ago. What is Early Decision?

Early Decision requires a binding commitment from students. They sign that, if admitted via Early Decision, they will enroll at BC and withdraw all other college applications. So it’s a big decision. The first Early Decision class was enrolled in 2020, and we’re getting ready for our third class. About 50 percent of the incoming freshman class applied via Early Decision. We have two rounds: Early Decision I in November and Early Decision II in January.

The second round is for students who were not admitted to their top-choice institution during Early Decision I and view BC as their clear next choice.

Students who apply Early Decision are committing to attend BC even before knowing whether they will receive financial aid. Does that favor students from wealthier backgrounds?

It’s a good question. Obviously, if you’re making a commitment, you have to know that you can afford to pay the significant costs of higher education these days. Fortunately, Boston College is one of just twenty-one need-blind For students applying to BC, good guideposts institutions in the country that meet the are SAT scores of 1,400 to 1,450, and ACT scores full demonstrated financial need of every student we accept. If you’re from a more of 33 to 34. For students below those levels, middle-income or lower-income family, the rest of the application will need to be strong. if you’ve decided that BC is the place for you, we hope that you’ll take that Early Decision leap because we’re confident that we can come up with a financial aid package that will be getting if we enrolled this young woman. And to this make it affordable for you. It’s a matter of institutional day, I think about her poster. That’s a final piece of advice: priority here to make a BC education affordable to great Have a lingering image from the story that will remain students from all kinds of financial backgrounds. About 40 with the reader. percent of our undergraduate students receive institutional need-based grants. In the academic year of 2021–2022, Are there specific extracurricular activities that make an we spent $160 million on need-based grants. There are no applicant stand out? work-study jobs or loans factored into that amount—that’s We’re not going to dictate to you the things you should be pure institutional money. So roughly $35 million to $40 doing. We want to see what you’ve done, what you’ve made million a year per class. The annual operating budget here your own, and what you are going to bring to the Boston is about $1 billion, so that’s more than 10 percent of the College community. So let me dispel any notion that there’s operating budget. n a formula we’re looking for. You decide what you’re intersu m m e r 20 2 2 v bcm

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A New World Order?

THE WAR IN UKRAINE. THE RISE OF CHINA. THE WEAKENING OF DEMOCRATIC NORMS. WE ASKED BC EXPERTS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE LIBERAL WORLD ORDER.

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ussia’s invasion of Ukraine, the largest attack in Europe since World War II, has set off waves of speculation about whether the international order that has regulated the planet for three-quarters of a century is beginning to crumble.

An ascendent China is challenging America for global primacy. The West’s commitment to democratic norms seems more fragile than at any time in memory. And Russia, long recognized as one of the world’s superpowers, is suddenly looking more like a paper tiger. What does all of this mean for the future of the world order? We asked a number of BC experts, and in the pages ahead we present their thoughts on the future of everything from the United States and China to Russia, NATO, and nuclear nonproliferation.

—John Wolfson

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On the World after Ukraine

By James E. Cronin, Research Professor in History

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ntil recently, it was common to refer to the international system as a “liberal order” or at least a “rules-based order.” This system was created at the end of the Second World War as leaders of the wartime alliance sought to construct a world that would be the opposite of the illiberal order that the Nazis and their Italian and Japanese allies had imposed at home and threatened to extend to the lands they conquered. In time, that effort led to the establishment of the United Nations, to arrangements about the international economy that were agreed to at Bretton Woods in 1944, and to the setting up of institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The liberal order aimed to be universal, but it inevitably became embedded in a broader cold war order, which resulted in further programs like the Marshall Plan and in alliances such as NATO. Through it all, the international system has endured. It survived decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s, which enlarged the number of states in the system, and it even outlived the cold war. In fact, when the cold war ended, beginning in 1989, “liberal order” spread. What emerged after that was reasonably regarded as “liberal” in that it was led by the United States and its allies, who sought to promote democracy and free markets. The expansion was accompanied by economic globalization, which brought open markets and free trade to ever more sections of the world. Even China, which posed the most serious threat to the rulesbased order, chose to pursue its interests cautiously.

For three-quarters of a century, then, the international order has persevered. Now it suddenly finds itself challenged by Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, which has shocked the world. It has been clear for some time that Russian revanchism and China’s determination to acquire geopolitical power commensurate with its waxing economic clout were a looming threat to the liberal world order. With the invasion, the order has now suffered a serious rupture that will not be quickly or easily repaired.

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What makes repair so hard is that the war has brought about a fundamental reassessment of the regime in Russia and a change in its role in the international order. Political leaders and scholars have for years been eager to treat Russia as a great power with a legitimate role in the existing international system. The hope was that in treating it thus, it might actually become a better international actor. It has been understood that Russia has its own interests, that it is extremely sensitive about the eastern expansion of NATO, that it cares deeply about its so-called “near abroad,” and that there is considerable nostalgia focused on its diminished status after the collapse of the Soviet Union. However the Russia of today compares to its Soviet past, the country has continued to be understood to play a major role in the global order. And then it launched its disastrous war in Ukraine.

The justifications offered for the war utterly lacked credibility and made it clear that Russia’s “security concerns” were a ruse, a cover for a grand effort to expand Russia’s power and influence and, in the process, destroy a functioning democracy. Vladimir Putin and his supporters now argue further that Russia is involved in a clash of civilizations that pits holy and traditional Russia against a decadent West obsessed with commercialism and LGBTQ rights, and that Ukraine is not a real country with a distinct

James Cronin Cronin’s research interests include the rise and fall of the cold war world order. His book Fragile Victory: The Making and Unmaking of Liberal Order will be published in early 2023.

identity but a wayward part of the Russian world (Russkiy mir) governed by neo-Nazis. Putin has surrounded himself with advocates of this grand and nasty vision, and has bonded with the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church who bless this outlook and this war. His regime has also tightened control of the media within Russia and threatened to imprison those who even call the war a “war.”

Russia’s clumsy execution of its invasion, at least in its first phase, also stripped away the pretense that it was a sophisticated military powerhouse. It still has lots of guns and ships and planes and, most important, nuclear weapons, but the incompetence with which it wages war suggests that the inefficiencies, rigidities, and corruption of the state and society have infected its military. And it appears that military weakness has led not to restraint but to brutality and war crimes. The failure to advance on Kyiv, in particular, led to the bombing of civilians and civilian infrastructure and to revenge killings in places Russia’s beleaguered troops had occupied. Pictures from destroyed and terrorized towns like Bucha have served to encourage states supporting Ukraine to increase their aid and to tighten and extend sanctions on Russian banks, businessmen, and political leaders. Putin, long the poster boy for tough but effective strongmen—admired by Le Pen, Orbán, Trump, and various reactionary Christians—has been exposed as incompetent, an untrustworthy liar, and a thug and dictator.

All this means that whatever the outcome on the ground in Ukraine, the nature and functioning of the international order will be drastically rearranged. For as long as the current international order has existed, Russia has been a leading member of it, one of the world’s very few superpowers. But the country and its leader are now international pariahs who’ve been exposed as ineffectual and not nearly as powerful as we’d supposed, and it is difficult to imag-

For 75 years, the international order has persevered. Now it is challenged by Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, which has shocked the world.

ine how they will escape the consequences of that status.

Putin’s bet in deciding to invade was that his moves would be denounced at first, but then acquiesced to. The Ukraine resistance lost him that bet. The surprisingly united and forceful response by NATO was unexpected, but revulsion over the conduct of the war made it more resolute.

Europeans, and Germans especially, buy much of their natural gas and oil from Russia, and might therefore be tempted to waver on the sanctions imposed after the inva-

sion. But they seem more likely to stay the course and move toward ending their dependence on Russian fossil fuels.

To the extent that Russia remains an outcast internationally after the war, it will be forced to reorient and reorganize its economy, a painful readjustment that will leave the country weaker. It will also, presumably, attach itself more closely to China, but at what cost? The effect of that realignment will render the global order more multipolar and threatening. The institutions through which it is governed will continue to stand, but they will be less often venues for bargaining and negotiation and more often sites of confrontation. It is not an attractive option, but it is the most likely consequence of recent events. n

On Russia

By Paul T. Christensen, Political Science Professor of the Practice

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ladimir Putin and his elite allies who currently rule Russia never believed that the cold war ended, and they never accepted the loss of a significant proportion of “Russia’s” territory, population, and influence that the dissolution of the Soviet Union entailed. The country’s ruling elite chafed, and still chafe, at being treated as a minor player in the global system, insisting that Russia remains a “great power” with security interests and a “sphere of influence” that must be respected. In short, Russia’s current rulers have never accepted the post–cold war international order.

Ever since Putin came to power, his goals internationally have been focused on what Georgetown professor Angela Stent described in Foreign Policy magazine as “reversing the consequences of the Soviet collapse, splitting the transatlantic alliance, and renegotiating the geographic settlement that ended the Cold War.” Putin has tried to accomplish these goals using hard and soft power, but in the past he has always been risk-averse. For example, Putin used brute force in the Russian region of Chechnya in 1999, but that was an internal affair. He first used force externally in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia in 2008, but that operation had a limited scope—Russia did not su m m e r 20 2 2 v bcm

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invade the whole of Georgia. Even the 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula was an opportunistic and relatively limited operation, which Putin rightly assumed would not lead to a robust Western response.

This is why virtually no one in the international relations community expected Putin to invade Ukraine, an aggression that represents a much more profound challenge to

Can Russia succeed in overturning the post–cold war order?

Given what we know about Putin, it’s clear that he wants to.

world order than anything he has done before. But now that war is once again a reality in Europe, scholars and nonspecialists alike must grapple with the question of whether we are witnessing the end of the post–cold war international order. The war in Ukraine certainly has the potential to destabilize the entire post-Soviet region and Europe for years; it is disrupting the global economy, and it is leading Russia down the path to Orwellian dictatorship. Answering the question of why Putin decided to invade is necessarily speculative, but three factors appear paramount. First, Putin has increasingly embraced the view that he is destined to restore Russia’s greatness, adopting the ideology of Yuri Kovalchuk, his closest confidant, with whom he shares “a worldview that combines Orthodox Christian mysticism, anti-American conspiracy theories and hedonism,” as the journalist Mikhail Zygar recently put it in a New York Times article. Second, Putin saw the West—particularly the United States—in disarray, embodied in Donald Trump’s contempt for democratic norms at home and alliances abroad, and Trump’s open admiration for Putin and other authoritarian figures. Third, the decision was driven by miscalculation and misinformation. Putin’s small group of acolytes refuse to tell him anything that he does not want to hear. As a result, Putin miscalculated about the performance of his military, the strength of Ukrainian resistance, and the response of the West. Putin has created what is an existential crisis for Ukraine, but also a perilous crisis for the world as a whole.

Can Russia succeed in overturning the post–cold war order? Given what we know about Vladimir Putin, it is clear that he wants to. On the surface, that order has appeared to be remarkably stable. On the security side, there have been no direct confrontations among the major powers in the system, and most states (most of the time) have respected the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. On the economic side, the global economy has been integrated through free trade and the construction 36

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Paul T. Christensen Christensen’s research focus includes Russian domestic politics.

He is working on the book Semi-peripheral Globalization and the Political Economy of Labor in Post-Communist Russia.

of global commodity and supply chains (that is, “globalization”). Ideologically, the post–cold war order has been based on universal values of human rights and freedoms as reflected in international conventions and law. Not everyone would subscribe to all of the particulars of the above description, but it reflects the dominant Western narrative since 1991.

In reality, this world order is more fragile, and less just, than the above suggests. While there has been no major conflict among the most powerful states, the “great powers” never stopped pursuing what they perceive to be their fundamental interests. The United States has adhered to a “rules-based system” when convenient, and ignored it when not, as in the Iraq War in 2003. In the 1990s, Moscow basically followed the rules—because it had no choice, since Russia was politically, economically, and socially prostrate.

But simply put, there are no global institutions with the power to enforce norms if an aggressive dictator like Putin decides to invade another country.

So, could Putin actually overturn the current world order? The answer to this question must also be speculative, given the ongoing war in Ukraine. It is of course possible that Putin, if he feels trapped, could resort to using

nuclear weapons, which would make the question of international order moot. Barring that, there are a number of factors that make it highly unlikely that Russia will succeed.

The first concerns the political economy of Russia. The Soviet Union had a diversified industrial economy that was insulated from the pressures of global markets. After 1991, the Soviet economy collapsed, and Russia rejoined the global economy as a center for resource extraction. As the world moves away from fossil fuels, the basic sources of Russia’s wealth will disappear, and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will only accelerate this process. Corruption, built into the system at all levels, meant the long-term prospects for the Russian economy were dismal even before the latest round of sanctions. It is entirely possible that existing sanctions will damage the Russian economy in ways that rival what occurred in the 1990s. If this were to happen, it would wipe out any semblance of the economic and social stability that has been Putin’s core source of legitimacy.

The second factor involves allies: Russia alone simply does not have the heft to change the post–cold war order.

Since the invasion, it has been widely noted that China has refused to criticize Russia. China might well stand

by Russia for now, but any long-term alliance between these two dictatorships is unlikely. Russia does not have that much to offer China except gas, oil, and minerals, and China is focused on developing its power in Asia. It is also hard to believe that either Vladimir Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping would be willing to play the role of junior partner in any anti-Western bloc. It is not necessarily easier for dictatorships to cooperate with each other than it is for democracies. Whether China could succeed in changing the terms of the post–cold war system is another matter, but if it did there is no guarantee that Russia would like the new terms any better than the old ones.

Finally, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine so far has accomplished strategically the exact opposite of what he expected.

Ukraine is now unified in its desire to be part of the West; the European Union is more united than ever in its desire to distance itself from Putin’s regime; and NATO is strengthening its presence on its eastern borders, with further NATO expansion now more likely rather than less.

The post–cold war international order faces a number of challenges, and Putin’s fantasies of imperial restoration are not the most important of them in the long run.

Climate change is the most central challenge; it affects Russia as much as it does all of us, and Russia’s existing environmental threats are legion. In terms of both climate change and global trade, the future of the Arctic is key to the future of the world order, as melting sea ice opens the Northern Sea Route for shipping and natural resources for exploration and exploitation. How Russia approaches the

Arctic will be crucial; the future of both the Russian and global economies will be profoundly affected by how that region is managed and developed. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of global cooperation in the face of threats to global health; in this regard as well, Russia will be an important player, for good or ill. In short, Russia remains an important country in terms of the future of the world order, but ultimately the use of force and intimidation will only leave it more isolated and less capable of meeting the challenges that it faces along with the rest of the world. If Putin can learn anything from the invasion of Ukraine, it is that the world will not take orders from him.

People around the globe have been rightfully inspired by the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people in defense of their country, the democratic values that they seek to protect, and their rights as human beings to live in peace and security. One can only hope they prevail, and that we will take the opportunity to honor them by striving to make the postwar world order work better for everyone. n

On China A Q&A with Robert S. Ross, political science professor

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ow would you describe China’s geopolitical position at the moment? China’s borders are secure, and in East Asia it’s quickly displacing the United States as a hegemonic power. So China is quite the success story. Outside East Asia, China has a long way to go to become a global power. Yes, it’s a major international trading partner, a major market for the world. The question is, will China rival the United States as a great power around the world? I think that, beyond East Asia, it’s going to be simply a global presence, not a global power.

What does it mean to be a global presence? If you think of the United States after World War II, if a poor country needed a bridge built, it went to the United States. Today, it’s more likely to look to China. If you have an emergency or a humanitarian crisis, maybe China will be there first to help out. China has become the “go-to country” of the 21st su m m e r 20 2 2 v bcm

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century. China wants to take its place in the global system as a leader. And certainly it has the resources to do that. So it’s an image issue, it’s a drive for status. The Chinese are proud of what they have accomplished, and they want to compete with the United States and assume the leadership role of the United States.

How does this role benefit China? China wants other countries to take into account Chinese power. It also wants the United States to worry. It wants the U.S. to disperse its resources, to be concerned about the Mediterranean or the Middle East or the Western Pacific. Finally, there’s a lot of national pride in the notion that China is indeed a humanitarian state in, say, the Middle East. Chinese global leadership can help the Chinese Communist Party achieve legitimacy and support from the Chinese people.

Why is it important for the party to have the support of the people in a country that’s not a democracy?

Make no mistake, leadership in China—a single-party, authoritarian country—is always concerned about instability and thus maintaining support from its people. So we see the crackdown domestically, the greater restraints on freedom of speech, on newspapers, on television. They wouldn’t be doing this if they weren’t nervous. And when China is perceived by the people to be doing well, the Chinese Communist Party does well.

What do you make of speculation that China and Russia are forging closer political ties as a bulwark against the West? Certainly, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has transformed Europe and America’s role in Europe. However, I think the expectation that you will see closer Chinese-Russian relations and the emergence of blocs is misplaced. Consider the sanctions on Russia. If you look at the American demands on China, the consensus seems to be, We don’t expect China to follow our sanctions, but we expect it not to undermine them. And so far, the Chinese have done that. Also, the Chinese aren’t necessarily pleased with Putin’s actions. They gave him a royal welcome to Beijing during the Olympics and said, “We have your back, no limits to our friendship.” And then he goes off and he invades Ukraine, dragging the Chinese into a conflict with Europe and the United States. They can’t be happy. Now, over the longer term, China’s the big beneficiary of the war. First, the United States has been trying

The future is a U.S.-China world.

When people ask, Can we get help dealing with China? the answer is, no.

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Robert S. Ross Ross, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, specializes in research on Chinese security policy and defense policy, East Asian security, and U.S.-China relations.

to pivot its attention to East Asia since 2010. And every time we try, we get drawn back into the Middle East—Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan—and now we’re getting drawn back into Europe. So how can we reallocate resources and attention to Asia when we’re getting bogged down in Europe?

Second, with their military decimated in Ukraine, the Russians will be increasingly dependent on China in the years ahead. And these sanctions are going to make China a more important economic lifeline for Russia. As Russia gets weaker every day, Russia needs China more and more.

China and India each maintain a strategic relationship with Russia, yet the world’s two most populous nations are probably best described as rivals.

Americans often misunderstand India’s strategic alignments. The Indians buy weapons from Russia, but the Russians are no help for Indian strategic interests. Russia cannot help India with Pakistan. It can’t help India on the border with China. And it can’t help India deal with the Chinese navy in the Indian Ocean. There’s only one country that can do all of that: the United States. So beneath the surface, U.S.-India relations are getting better each year. The Indians have a long commitment to nonaligment, so they’re not going to be overtly American, but look

beneath the surface and you see India beginning to cooperate more with the United States, simply because of the growth of China.

How does this relationship further American interests? This is America’s containment policy. We are collaborating with India, Australia, Japan, and many smaller countries on the perimeter of East Asia to contain the Chinese navy inside East Asia. The Chinese see this very clearly and they aren’t happy. They accuse the United States of wanting to create a new East Asian NATO, directed at China. But, for the most part, China is also quite content with its growing military influence in East Asia. They’re mostly content with the direction of their security.

Do you see any countries right now that are in the position China was thirty or forty years ago and that someday could become a superpower? Many Americans think a rising India might help us with China, but the problem is that the gap between India and China—in GDP, in technology, in naval power—grows every day. So India is actually declining relative to China. And Japan can’t help us. It has a population of 120 million and a stagnant economy and little growth. Brazil is not going anywhere very quickly. So the future is a U.S.-China world. When people say, Can we get help in dealing with China? the answer is, No. If America wants to contain China, it’s going to have to do it by itself. n

pressing involved the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Did it have a future? It had, after all, been created in 1949 to guard against the Soviet threat, and that threat was gone. Would the member states therefore dissolve their partnership? Mearsheimer thought not.

“We’ll probably stick with it for a while,” he mused, “for reasons of…nostalgia.” The lecture hall roared.

Three decades on, we are still stuck with the alliance, and as recent events demonstrate, it is no laughing matter.

NATO has become obsolete. Indeed, Washington’s whole Europe-first orientation is anachronistic, a wasteful, expensive holdover from the cold war that ought to have been abandoned years ago and that distracts us from the true dangers we face abroad.

Mearsheimer, to his credit, deplored this development more vehemently than anyone. A self-described “unrepentant realist,” he had no patience for the aggressive internationalism that defined Western statecraft in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama presidencies. NATO as an anti-Soviet bloc made sense to him; NATO as an ever-expanding club of vaguely like-minded nations was foolish—and dangerous. According to the tenets of realism, when one great power trespasses upon another’s sphere of influence, the

On NATO

By Seth Jacobs, History Professor

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was in graduate school at the University of Chicago when the cold war ended, and I had the privilege of taking John Mearsheimer’s legendary course on great-power conflict. With the Berlin Wall coming down, the Warsaw Pact dismantled, the Red Army in retreat, and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe John Galvin admitting to CNN that he no longer knew which line he was supposed to defend, we students had many urgent questions about the emerging new world order. One of the most

Seth Jacobs Jacobs studies the political and cultural history of the U.S. in the 20th century. His research focuses on the connection between U.S. domestic culture and foreign policy.

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result is nearly always conflict, and Mearsheimer insisted that that was the case with NATO’s eastward march. It did not matter that officials from the United States and its European allies insisted that they had no designs on Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was not convinced. He perceived their encroachment as an existential threat and responded violently, first by annexing Crimea in 2014, then by invading Ukraine in 2022. While most pundits in the West denounced Putin’s barefaced breach of international law, Mearsheimer proclaimed that NATO was to blame, that its leaders ought to have recognized that their apparent intent to incorporate Russia’s bordering countries into their alliance would trigger war, and that Putin was only

NATO has become obsolete.

Indeed, Washington’s Europe-first orientation is anachronistic, a wasteful, expensive holdover from the cold war.

doing what an American president would do if, say, Iran built a military association and invited Mexico and Canada to join. In a gauntlet-flinging guest essay for the Economist in March and a follow-up interview in the New Yorker, Mearsheimer condemned NATO for naiveté and called for a pragmatic solution to the crisis that would keep Ukraine as a neutral country and leave Putin in power, with Crimea and the Donbas in his grasp.

I am not a realist, repentant or otherwise, and I have problems with Mearsheimer’s glibness and moral relativism. Nonetheless, I agree with him that NATO no longer serves a coherent purpose. The principal geopolitical challenge to U.S. primacy in the 21st century comes from China. That is where America’s focus should be. Russia might still qualify as a great power in terms of boots on the ground, but its economy is one-dimensional and shot through with corruption, its population shrinking and aging, its weapons and equipment outmoded, and its troops demoralized. By no stretch of the imagination could it overrun Europe as the old Soviet Union once seemed capable of doing. Britain and France have nuclear weapons. They do not need the United States to defend them. Why, then, does Washington continue to station forces in Europe and bear most of the cost of this transatlantic military partnership?

Institutional factors play a role, of course—NATO employs many bureaucrats who have a stake in its preservation, and no business dissolves itself voluntarily—but the main reason, in my opinion, is that Americans have yet to outgrow the delusions that prevailed in what neoconservative columnist Charles Krauthammer called the “unipolar 40

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moment,” that heady time after the cold war ended and no one appeared to threaten the security of the United States.

Flush with victory, Washington policymakers believed that they could use this period of unprecedented economic, military, diplomatic, and geopolitical supremacy to remake the world in the American image, and they thought NATO was the perfect vehicle for accomplishing this goal on the Eurasian landmass. Thus they changed NATO’s original mandate and set about trying to foster liberal democracies in new member states like Hungary, Estonia, Bulgaria, and Slovakia. (Of course, the War on Terror saw this pattern extended to the greater Middle East, as the George W. Bush administration sought to democratize Afghanistan and Iraq.) A widely held assumption was that increasing the number of liberal democracies would make war less likely, since democracies do not fight one another. NATO aggrandizement would therefore create a broad zone of peace from the Elbe River to the gates of Russia, and perhaps beyond.

Events have not played out in that fashion. Far from nourishing democracy, NATO has seen the rise of farright nationalist political movements in four of its oldest and most powerful members—Britain, Germany, France, and the United States—while Viktor Orbán’s second term as Hungarian prime minister witnessed an erosion of press freedom, a decrease in judicial independence, and Hungary’s descent by eleven places on the Democracy Index. Similar democratic backsliding has characterized Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey and Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s Poland. As for being a force for peace, the carnage in Ukraine serves as eloquent testimony to NATO’s failure in this regard. Mearsheimer’s diagnosis of the origins of the conflict may be wrong—Putin might have tried to integrate neighboring nations into a greater Russia regardless of Western actions—but NATO did nothing to halt his aggression. And, of course, there is the perennial free-riding problem, with America’s allies counting on Washington to protect them even if their economies are robust enough to pay for their own defense. Moving NATO eastward has increased the number of countries America is obliged to safeguard at a time when a COVID-induced recession makes such commitments unaffordable.

Clearly, NATO has outlived its usefulness to the United States. The Biden administration should disengage from the alliance as soon as practicable. This can be done diplomatically, with some face-saving rhetoric and assurances that the departure of U.S. troops will not adversely affect Euro-American investment or trade. We could also remind nations like Spain and Turkey that they remain free to arm themselves to the teeth with American-made weapons—provided, of course, that they foot the bill. Then Washington should recalibrate its grand strategy to conform to the changed global balance of power. n

On Arms Control A Q&A with Jennifer L. Erickson, political science associate professor

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o you agree that we’re seeing the emergence of a new world order? Over the past few years, we’ve experienced a number of major events—from Brexit and the U.S. elections in 2016 to the pandemic and now Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—that have led to debate about the end of the so-called liberal world order. Yet while I agree that we’re seeing the relative rise of China as a global military power, it’s not really clear to me what will become of the post-1945 institutional order. It’s also not clear to me right now that the vast majority of countries outside of the NATO core really see Russia’s war as a battle of institutions and values that is causing that order to crumble. The war has created clear dividing lines—not only those firmly opposed to it and those backing Russia but also some fence-sitters such as India—that are reminiscent of the cold war. But whether that becomes a starting point for a new order or just an important anomaly to the existing order remains to be seen.

There’s been a lot written about how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has set off a wave of defense spending in other countries. Is this the beginning of a new international arms race? Actually, global arms transfers have been increasing for years. There was a downturn after the cold war, but since 9/11, we’ve seen a steady increase in arms exports and defense spending. Recent numbers from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute show that world military expenditures last year surpassed $2 trillion for the first time. But I think that’s indicative of different regional concerns rather than necessarily a global arms race. In Asia, for instance, China has been rapidly growing its military, and we’ve seen some of the other countries in the region, like South Korea, responding to that with military spending of their own. In the months since Russia first threatened invasion of Ukraine, we’ve seen European countries respond with more spending, but some of that might also be driven by doubts about long-term U.S. defense commitments.

The world has responded to the heartbreaking invasion of Ukraine by providing the country with arms to

Jennifer L. Erickson Erikson’s research focuses on international security and arms control, conventional and nuclear weapons, the laws and norms of war, and sanctions and arms embargoes.

defend itself. That seems appropriate, especially given Russia’s targeting of civilians, but is there any chance that the move could have unintended consequences?

There’s always the potential for unintended consequences with arm sales, however justified they are. And I think you’ve hit on the core dilemma for a lot of people who study the arms trade. Many may support arming Ukraine, as there do not seem to be good alternatives to that. But there’s also concern about what could happen down the line as the result. A basic problem for countries that sell weapons is that once you sell them you’ve given up practical control of them. Think about U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia before the Yemen war, which were intended to be largely defensive weapons in response to an Iranian threat. Military intervention in Yemen was not the intended purpose of those weapons, yet that’s how they have been used. It’s also hard to guarantee that the weapons you sell will stay with the people you wanted to arm and not end up in what we often call the “wrong hands.” In Syria, small arms that were intended for a certain rebel group often ended up on the black market, helping to spread arms around the region, or were diverted to al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria. A fighter in a group that you’ve armed might defect or sell a weapon because they need the money. A group’s stockpiles might also be looted.

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hands. That’s an important part of the risk calculation that countries should make when they export weapons, and it’s really difficult to control in practice.

Are there any laws governing the sale of arms to other countries? In the 1970s, the U.S. put into national law and policy that the risk of conflict and regional instability should be considered when making arms-exports decisions. In practice, that ends up as just one consideration among many. Typically, U.S. arms exports are driven more by political considerations and perceptions of economic gain. In cases where it might be sending small arms to non-state actors in a conflict zone, the U.S. has tried to vet the groups that are receiving them. It wants to make sure the armed group is not an al-Qaeda affiliate, for instance.

But even when an exporter does that, it can’t really control where those weapons are going to end up. So there’s a very big question about whether there is a better way to do this. That’s something the international community is still trying to figure out, and it hasn’t been resolved yet in any meaningful way.

Russian saber-rattling since the invasion of Ukraine has reminded the world of what it’s like to live in dread of a nuclear attack. Nuclear weapons are likely to continue to shape international security and superpower relations. But, unfortunately, I worry that arms control has become more politically difficult in recent years and that nuclear deterrence may not function as well going forward as it has in the past. First, some scholars suggest that technological changes will enable more precise nuclear weapons. If

Once you send weapons—especially small arms, which is what the U.S. is sending to Ukraine—control is out of your hands.

they can be more precise, and less broadly destructive, then they might be seen as more usable in conflict under the laws and norms of war. Second, although the U.S. and Russia remain the largest nuclear powers, it’s clear that this isn’t just a U.S.-Russia game anymore. China, especially, is growing and upgrading its nuclear arsenal, and that’s going to make arms control much more complicated. The big political security tension to come is one between the rival U.S. and Chinese superpowers, and if they don’t know how to manage their nuclear relationship and haven’t fostered clear norms and lines of communication, that’s potentially very dangerous. The final big challenge is the future status of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. It’s the cornerstone of the 42

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world’s nuclear order, but there are political tensions within that order. One big point of tension is whether some states might decide that they could be better off abandoning the treaty and developing the bomb. If those states believe that developing nuclear weapons will protect them from being invaded by a more powerful nuclear-armed neighbor, then the world could become a much more dangerous place. n

On the Middle East

By Ali Banuazizi, Research Professor of Political Science

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hile the war in Ukraine has so far involved primarily the United States, the European Union, and NATO members opposing Russia’s blatant and bloody aggression, other countries around the world will no doubt bear the war’s adverse economic and political consequences for years to come. The Middle East will be no exception.

In assessing the current and the longer-term ramifications of the conflict for the region, we must keep in mind that the countries that comprise today’s Middle East differ considerably from one another in their economic resources, political and security concerns, and strategic ties to outside superpowers. “Arab nationalism,” an ideology that once united the Arab countries of the region, has given way to sectarian and ethnic loyalties, extremist Islamist movements, and territorial ambitions that have led to proxy or outright interstate wars. Moreover, the three most powerful non-Arab states in the region—Iran, Israel, and Turkey— pursue policies and interests that are independent of, or often in conflict with, their Arab neighbors.

In its early stages, the challenges posed by the Ukraine war for the Middle East have been primarily economic in nature, though hardly the same across the region. For major oil- and gas-exporting Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, the challenge has been to balance their windfall profits from skyrocketing oil prices against diplomatic pressures from the United States and other Western powers to limit price hikes and increase production levels, at least temporarily.

For the non-oil-rich states in the region, the war has caused serious disruptions in the import of vital agricultural products. In Egypt, for example, which relies on Ukraine and Russia for 85 percent of its imports of wheat and other grains, the disruptions have led to sharp increases in the price of bread and other food items, which could further impoverish the poor and lead to social unrest.

Despite these economic hardships and diplomatic pressures, Middle Eastern leaders, while expressing sympathy for the Ukrainian victims of the war, have refrained from condemning Russia’s aggression. The United Arab Emirates, for example, was one of only three countries that abstained from a U.N. Security Council resolution that condemned the Russian invasion last February. (China and India were the other two.) Egypt, shortly after voting in favor of a U.N. General Assembly resolution that condemned the Russian invasion, released a statement that affirmed Russia’s legitimate national security concerns in relation to Ukraine and denounced the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe. In nearly every case, the fencestraddling and reluctance of these states to fault Russia reflect their desire to protect their expanding relations

Ali Banuazizi Banuazizi studies the political cultures, religions, civil society, and politics of the Middle East, as well as the social history, contemporary domestic politics, and foreign relations of Iran.

with Russia (and indirectly China) at a time when the U.S. seems intent to reduce its footprint in the region.

Both Israel and Turkey have been cautious in their reactions to the Russian aggression, and they have tried to play an active mediating role between the West and Russia— though with no success. In Israel’s case, the friendly relationship with Russia has included a tacit agreement that allows regular Israeli air strikes on Iranian weapons depots and militias in Syria, with Russian forces looking the other way.

Syria and Iran, in sharp contrast to other Middle Eastern countries, have been unequivocal in their support for Russia. In the case of Syria, whose incumbent regime owes its survival—after a decade of civil strife and deadly attacks by the Islamic State—to Russia’s military intervention and protective shield, President Bashar al-Assad’s explicit solidarity with Russia is hardly surprising. For Iran, growing ties with Russia and the consistent support of its mission in Ukraine are best explained as balancing acts to fend off the crushing economic and political impact of America’s “maximum pressure” policies over its nuclear program, and to ensure protection from a powerful ally in case of a potential military attack by Israel and the United States should the current negotiations in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement (JCPOA) fail.

The longer-term political consequences of the war in Ukraine for the Middle East and the rest of the world will depend to a large extent on whether the conflict will be treated by the U.S. and its global democratic partners as an exceptional and transient crisis or, as President Biden has stated more than once, a “battle between democracy and autocracy.” Beyond its clear warning to Russia and, implicitly, to China, the latter view would have significant ramifications for future U.S. dealings and policies toward the Middle East.

Perhaps more than any other world region, the Middle East has long suffered from a combination of three factors: authoritarian rule in “rentier” states that rely on their enormous oil revenues to win their citizens’ loyalties and subservience; the support of such states by world powers motivated by their own economic interests and priorities; and the rise of extremist Islamist ideologies. Creating an alliance of nations committed to democratic governance and adherence to international rules and norms would be a tall order, but declaring such ideals as the guiding principles in international relations and, more specifically, in how we deal with authoritarian regimes would be a laudable step forward. Such declarations, as they become part of the official and public discourse on foreign policy, could also provide an ethical compass by which we could measure the extent to which our past policies toward autocratic regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere have digressed from these ideals. n su m m e r 20 2 2 v bcm

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GOAL N E V I DR d n a s e n r a B la y a C r a t s y BC hocke t a r e v il s h it w f f o d e t a k Team USA s g. in ij e B in s ic p m ly O r e t the Win What’s next?

BY COU RTN EY HOLLAN

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photo: Caitlin Cunningham

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Barnes pursues the puck, and Rebecca Johnston, during the USA’s gold-medal game against Team Canada.

ockey star Cayla Barnes ’22 took a year off from Boston College to live and train with Team USA in Minnesota, preparing for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The Americans wound up winning the silver medal. It was the second Olympic medal for Barnes, who was the youngest member of the team that won gold in 2018. We spoke with Barnes not long after she returned from China, and asked her about the pride of representing her country once again at the games, the bittersweetness of winning silver while losing to arch-rival Canada, and her goal of inspiring young girls to play hockey. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. To hear an expanded version, please scan this QR code.

Boston College was well represented on Team USA. From left: Alex Carpenter ’16, BC associate head coach Courtney Kennedy, Cayla Barnes ’22, and Megan Keller ’19.

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This certainly was an Olympics like no other.

There was a lot leading up to the Olympics, a lot of adversity, a lot of COVID-19 restrictions, a lot of things we had to do to get to that point. But to be able to have our whole team make it there and step off the plane in Beijing—that was awesome.

From the journal you kept for us (see page 49), it’s obvious the Olympics were an amazing experience. The results on the ice were impressive, but you’ve been upfront about the fact that winning silver was a bit of a disappointment.

We ended up losing to Canada in that last game, which was tough. We never like to lose to them. But coming off a gold medal in 2018, it was especially tough. The gold medal is the expectation that we set for ourselves

and that’s the goal we’ve worked for, not only this whole year but the past four years. To fall short was really tough and something that we had to adjust to. It’s not what we wanted, not what we came for, but at the end of the day, the silver medal’s still pretty cool. Our team was great. We just loved being around each other, so we just held onto that.

We’re with each other and just embraced the emotions, the feelings, everything, and made the most of it.

Canada and the U.S. have faced off in six of the seven women’s hockey gold-medal games at the Olympics. How would you describe the rivalry?

Yeah, it’s intense. We definitely do not like each other on the ice—off the ice it’s fine, but we do not like each other on the ice. Those are the games that you want to play in, so it definitely gets physical. A lot of things are said. It’s just…it’s a rivalry that’s one of the greatest in sport, and hopefully more people get to learn about it because it is one of the best things that I’ve ever been a part of.

Describe the atmosphere in the locker room before this year’s goldmedal game against Canada.

The perks of having gone to an Olympics before, you know what to expect, just the experience of how to photos: Courtesy of Cayla Barnes (opposite); Bruce Bennett/Getty (above)

handle that. So I actually slept really well the night before. Then I got up in the morning and treated it like any other day. Emotions in the locker room differ for everyone—some of us were first-time Olympians, some were four-time Olympians, we have a big range, so everyone handles it a little bit differently. I think everyone was feeling really good. It was exciting. We were ready to go.

There was a lot of energy around, a lot of dancing and playing soccer.

Do you have a personal pregame ritual?

Not really. I tape my stick, grab a snack, some water, and then I just bop around, talk to people, just not think about the game. That’s kind of my thing. If I think about it too much, that’s when I get in my own head. I just try to be calm.

You scored your first-ever Olympics goal in the semifinal game against Finland.

That goal was really exciting. I just got chills thinking about it. We were knocking on the door all game and we just hadn’t really gotten any luck. We were on the power play, and I was in the right place at the right time. Hannah Brandt made a great play to me and I just tapped it in. It su m m e r 20 2 2 v bcm

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was pretty easy for me. She did all the work but it was definitely an exciting moment, one I won’t forget.

You spent the entire school year leading up to the Olympics away from the Heights, training with the U.S. Women’s National Hockey Team in Minnesota. What was that like?

I moved out there in September and got an apartment with one of my teammates. We never really get to have an opportunity like that. Usually, we just have camps, and we get together for a couple of weeks, maybe a month at a time during the year, so it was really nice to have the extended period of time where we could be together, hang out with each other, be at the rink every day, train, lift, skate, and do all that together, and really become a team. I think part of why we became so close and so good on the ice is that we were together all the time. It was a really great experience. top: Though Barnes is a defender, she scored an Olympic goal against Finland. bottom: Barnes poses with hockey fans after winning gold in 2018.

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Of course, that also meant spending all that time away from BC and your team here.

I was supposed to have been a senior this year, so it definitely was hard to be away from the team. But I talked to them a lot. I came back in October and saw some of their games, but I definitely missed them a lot, and I’m excited to be back. photos: Sarah Stier/Getty (top); Dave Sandford/Getty (bottom)

Olympic Journal We asked Cayla Barnes to keep a personal diary of her experiences at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

January 24

January 30

Today is the day! We are finally heading to Los Angeles for Team USA processing. It has been a long couple months of quarantining and training in Minnesota, so it is incredible to finally be here. Had a great sendoff from family, friends, and an entire elementary school. The journey begins now.

We were up super early this morning because we still have not adjusted.

Each day it gets a little bit easier, but this thirteen-hour time difference is no joke. Got to try some new food in the dining hall from the host country. My favorite thing was the fresh papaya and I will definitely be back for more.

January 27 We are leaving L.A. at 10 a.m. to

January 31 A day off the ice. Our strength

get on our charter to Beijing. We’re not looking back. It is going to be almost a 24-hour travel day. Beijing, we are coming for you.

coach ran us through a workout and then we had a nice bike ride to flush out our legs.

Finally starting to adjust and feel normal. Our first game is in two days.

January 28

We made it…. Our travel day was the longest one I have ever been a part of and I can barely stay awake. We had our first practice today, which was not pretty due to jet lag, but it was cool to see the arena. It’s 7 p.m. and it is almost bedtime for us here in China. Adjusting will take a couple days.

February 2 Finally woke up at a reasonable hour. After practice it was a beautiful day so I went to visit all the flags at the Olympic Village. Every country is represented in one place and it’s a great visual to remind you that people from all over the world are in one place at the same time.

February 3

Had our first game today, versus Finland. It was a late one, at 9 p.m., and we won 5-0. I have never played that late, but it was a great way to kick off the tournament.

Our nutritionists are the best and made us the most delicious postgame smoothies so we wouldn’t be hungry.

February 4

Got to walk in the opening ceremony today. The most surreal experience, and the honor of my life to represent Team USA at the Olympics. This moment was a dream and I’m so blessed to have shared it with my best friends.

So proud to be American. Let’s rock ’n’ roll.

February 5 Had another late game today, against Russia, and pulled out a win. We are now 2-0. Starting to get into the thick of the tournament where everything takes a toll on the body. Have to get some sleep, as it is a quick turnaround for our game versus Switzerland tomorrow.

CONTINUEd ON next page

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A series of snapshots from the 2022 Winter Olympics provided by Barnes.

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>>>> CONTINUEd from previous page February 6 To help us prepare for the Switzerland game, our nutrition staff made us pancake cups as our pregame meal. They reminded me of home. We won the game and are now 3-0. Much-needed day off tomorrow!

February 8

Had a noon game today versus Canada. It was a tough game and we ended up losing 4-2 to close out round-robin play.

Not the result we wanted, but we are going to reset as we move into the medal round.

February 10 We had an awesome quarterfinal win against the Czechs, and got to watch some other sports, which was fun. There was a rumor that there was a water shortage in the village so we stole some cases of water from the dining hall. Good news: The rumor was false.

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February 11

We went to the USA vs. Canada men’s game and ran into the Shaun White. The legend himself sat with us at the game and was so nice. He was into hockey and it was cool to talk with him before he departed from China, his last Olympics. Also, it was awesome to see fellow Eagles Marc McLaughlin, Drew Helleson, and Jack McBain compete for their respective teams!

February 12

A snowy day here in the village.

We had a crazy team snowball fight on the way to practice. Love these people.

February 14

A huge semifinal win against Finland which means…we get to play for a gold medal! So excited, as we have worked our whole lives for this and we are so close.

February 17 I’m writing this before the goldmedal game to get all the excitement out on paper. We are finally here. Whatever the outcome, I could not be prouder to be a part of this team and journey. It’s go time.

February 18 Tough result yesterday—not achieving what we set out for at the beginning of this journey. A silver medal is still something to be so proud of, and I wouldn’t have wanted to do it with any other group. We are here for a few more days, so I’m excited to cheer on other athletes and hang out with those who are still here in the village.

February 20 It’s closing ceremony time. So bittersweet leaving here, but feeling blessed to be a part of something so special with incredibly special people. An experience of a lifetime I will never forget!

You grew up just outside of Los Angeles. When did you first pick up a hockey stick and how did you get into the sport?

I started skating when I was probably 2 years old. I have four older brothers, and they all played hockey. I followed them around everywhere, went to all their games—I just wanted to do what they did. I started out as a figure skater.

My mom was like, “Yes, I finally have a girl,” so she put me in that. But I was like, “Eh, I want to do what my brothers are doing.” So eventually they got me on some hockey skates, got me on a team. My first couple of years, I wasn’t good at hockey at all. I didn’t even touch the puck.

My mom was like, “What are we doing? She is not good.

Why are we doing this?” My dad said, “No, she loves it.

It’s fine. Just let her keep playing.” Eventually, it kind of clicked. Then growing up in California, there was not a lot of women’s hockey there, but I remember vividly watching the Olympics in maybe 2010, I was 11, and I was like, “I want to do that.” I told my mom, “I’m going to be an Olympian.” That’s when I knew and that’s when I started to train toward that goal.

When you think about California, hockey isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.

It’s definitely not the most popular sport in that state, but it’s growing. Boys’ hockey there is pretty good. I played on a boys’ hockey team, and six or seven of them are in the NHL now, which is incredible.

Do you think the success of the U.S. women contributes to the growth of women’s hockey in America?

I definitely think that it does. I think winning the gold in 2018 was a really big step toward growing the game because we hadn’t won in twenty years. We saw a spike in girls wanting to play hockey after that. You find that when you talk to girls, they don’t really care about the color of the medal. They just think it’s so cool that that’s something that they can maybe do one day, and that’s our goal: If they can see it, they can dream it. If they can’t see it, they don’t know that they can be it. We just try to grow the game however we can, regardless of the color of the medal.

You have two more years of hockey eligibility at BC. What comes next?

I’ll be back at BC next year, and maybe the year after that, and then I’ll be looking to play professionally. Hopefully, there’s a women’s league that’s sustainable and I can make a living doing that. Then, obviously, continuing with the women’s national team. I’m still young, so I’m hoping to go for another Olympics, maybe two if I can. Then from there, who knows? I definitely want to stay in hockey after I retire, whether that’s coaching, whether that’s scouting, whatever it may be. I want to stay involved in the game, and help grow the game for young girls. n portrait photos: USA Hockey; Hockey Canada (McBain)

Eagles in Beijing

Cayla Barnes had plenty of company in the BC hockey contingent at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Alex Carpenter ’16, forward Carpenter, who graduated with the most goals and assists in BC women’s hockey history, also won a silver medal with Team USA in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and has played for the Women’s Hockey League in China in recent years.

Drew Helleson, defender A top defender for the gold-winning Team USA at last year’s International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championships, Helleson signed with the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks during his junior year at BC.

Megan Keller ’19, defender A three-time Hockey East Best Defenseman, Keller was also a member of the gold-medal Team USA at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

Courtney Kennedy, asst. coach Kennedy, an associate head coach who has been a part of the BC women’s hockey coaching staff for the past fifteen years, also served as an assistant coach for the 2021 U.S. Women’s National Team.

Jack MCBain ’22, forward The Toronto native, who played for Team Canada at the Olympics, missed fourteen games last season because of injuries and his commitments to the national team, but still scored nineteen goals for BC. He recently signed with the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes.

Marc McLaughlin ’22, forward The BC captain netted twenty-one goals in his senior season and capped his Olympic team selection by signing with the Boston Bruins and scoring a goal in his NHL debut.

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NEWS & NOTES

CALL We

AND

asked and you answered! In January, the Boston College Alumni Association launched a survey of BC graduates to learn about how you want to engage with the BCAA and to help shape future communications, programming, and more.

Here’s some of what we learned!

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RESPONSE completed surveys

8,500+ 7,036 Undergrad alumni

1,473 Grad alumni

194 195 0s 196 0s 0.0 197 0s 4 top reasons 0 1 s 198 .54 % % 8.9 you to bc s 199 0give 0 0 1 s 200 3.7 % 4 14. % 201 0s 7 To give deserving 0 1 202 1 s 7.6 3% 9 0s Eagles a chance 17. % 18. 21% 82%BC honor 7.3 your 2 To 4 % experience

3

To support BC programs you care about

4

To ensure BC remains a world-class University

5

respondents by class decade

The Classes of 2020 and 2021 had an impressive 8.5% response rate!

2020s

2010s

18.8%

Email

1940s

.04%

1950s

1.5%

7.3% 1960s

8.9%

1990s

17.7%

top response rate by school undergrad

1

2

Social media

13.7%

17.2%

1980s

14.7%

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Snail mail

63% 21% 16%

1970s

2000s

To help attract the best faculty and students

Lorem ipsum

how would you like to hear from the bcaa?

events and programs you're most interested in

3

TOP

5

topics you want to hear about from bc

1

Where BC is headed

2

Events in your local area

3

What’s happening at BC

4

BC initiatives and programs

5

News and info about your classmates

Lorem ipsum

Lynch School of Education and Human Development

Carroll School of Management

Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences

opportunities

grad

1 Woods College of Advancing Studies

2 School of Theology and Ministry

 Volunteer/service

3 Lynch School of Education and Human Development

 Class reunions  Local chapter events  Career networking  BC sporting events

bc alumni social media you're following

26% 14% Want to follow?

Visit bc.edu/socialmedia 53

Inside

CLASS NOTES Profile 57

Bill McDonald ’68

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Angela Donkor ’12

Advancing Boston College Making Dreams 68 Come True

1950s Warren Lewis ’50 wrote about his life: he received an MBA from Northeastern University (night school) in 1960. At Boston College, he played hockey and was All-East four times and All-American once. He led the team in scoring all four years and was a member of the 1949 NCAA championship team. Warren married Margie Casey of Dorchester and they had 10 children, seven of whom went to BC. He was president of the largest cold storage company in the world before retiring to Cape Cod and Marana, Arizona.

Anthony Michael “Mike” Briana ’50 recently received a Golden Hammer Award from Habitat for Humanity for 20 years of volunteer service on Cape Cod. After a 33-year career in engineering with Raytheon, Mike retired to the Cape and began volunteering in the town of Falmouth. He was one of a group of volunteers who established the Upper Cape Cod chapter of Habitat, working on the Building Committee and helping many low-income families achieve home ownership. Not only was the work rewarding, it led to lifelong friendships with other Habitat volunteers.

Maureen Cohalan Curry NC’54 is doing well in Bristol, Rhode Island, in spite of the winter storms in her area recently, and the inconveniences of the pandemic.

STAY CONNECTED Follow us on social media

bc.edu/socialmedia View upcoming chapter, class, and affinity group events at bc.edu/alumni Submit your news and updates for inclusion in Class Notes at

bc.edu/classnotes

To get the latest info on programming and to stay in touch with your BC family, update your profile in our alumni directory at

bc.edu/update 54

cla s s notes v s umm e r 2022

Mary Evans Bapst NC’54 is in Geneva, Switzerland. She is recovering from some health issues and would appreciate your prayers.

Mary Shaughnessy Sharp ’55 passed away in January 2022. She was a wonderful wife, mother, and grandmother. All of her children were with her when she passed. She loved being a Boston College School of Nursing graduate and carried her cherished nursing career with her throughout her life.

Jim Brosnahan ’56 has finally retired after 60 years of trial practice in San

Francisco. He received the NITA (National Institute of Trial Advocacy) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021 and the Lawyer’s Club of San Francisco inaugural Legend of the Law Award in 2002.

Bill Cunningham ’57 hosted a group for lunch in December after a COVID-19 hiatus. In attendance were Paul McAdams ’57, Ed Brickley ’57, Paul Daly ’57, Fr. Gene Sullivan ’57, Frank Higgins ’57, Dave McAvoy ’57, Bill MacKenzie ’57, and John Harrington ’57. Sadly, Bill Cunningham passed away in February in Naples, Florida. Our deepest condolences to his wife, Joan, and family.

Cathy Connolly Beatty NC’57, a treasured musician, is living at Foxhill in Westwood.

For sure, she is a talented addition to their community.

Lucille Sacone Giovino NC’57 moved to an apartment in Dedham (Legacy Place) with her daughter Adrienne and, though missing Frank, is very active as always.

Lucille has been in touch with Nancy Bowdring NC’57, who is doing well.

Vinnie Murray Burns NC’57 is in their new living community in Auburn, Maine.

They miss going to Florida each year (and golf) but like the advantages of senior living. Meanwhile, they sold their long-term house in lovely Wayne, Maine.

Liz Doyle Eckl NC’57 sends word that her new living arrangement in a highrise condo is a first but working well.

She has met interesting people but is still near family, old friends, walking paths, and many conveniences. She sends good wishes and thanks for our attempts to stay in touch.

Kate McCann Benson NC’58 is still in her health community in Hanover, New Hampshire, near her daughter’s family.

She is doing well and in good spirits.

Richard Irving Barrett ’58 (BC High 1954) passed away in February at Pennybyrn at Maryfield in High Point, North Carolina.

He is survived by his wife Judy, two daughters, and five grandchildren.

Paul ’58 and Moira Feeley Lyons ’58 have relocated to Waltham after living in their Belmont home for 48 years. Fortunately for those who wish to contact them, their phone number and email addresses have not changed.

John O’Connell ’55 and Barbara Cuneo O’Connell ’58 have relocated from Newton to Plymouth and kept their phone number and email addresses.

Anthony Busa ’59 and Bea Capraro Busa ’58 were recently back at Chestnut Hill for the graduation of their granddaughter, Christine Busa, from BC, Class of 2022.

Marian Bernardini DeLollis ’58 thanks Lois Zeramby Shea ’58, Joan Downing Lachance ’58, and Jack (Mucca) McDevitt ’58 for their efforts over 64 years keeping the Class of 1958 treasury solvent and keeping up with all the

purchasing and bill-paying for the class.

Lois was class treasurer through the 25th reunion year, and set up the systems for keeping classmates informed and collecting class dues annually. Special thanks to all members of the Class of ’58 who dutifully paid annual dues to keep the class functioning for six decades!

Those class dues resulted in reduced event costs and free cocktails at class functions.

Peter Murphy ’59 is finally fully retired and a “man of leisure.” He tries keeping busy with local civic projects in Monaco, the Order of Malta humanitarian efforts in Europe and the Middle East, and also as trustee of the Princess Grace Irish Library. Peter is proud of son Marc, a chef in NYC who is well-known on TV (“Chopped,” etc.) and social media.

Marc has been on the Ukraine-Polish border with World Central Kitchen, directing the feeding of thousands of refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

1960s Sheila O’Connor Toal NC’60 wrote that her eldest granddaughter graduated from Dartmouth two years ago and starts med school this fall. Her sister is a freshman at Dartmouth while another granddaughter is a senior in high school. Her eldest grandson graduated from Middlebury in 2021 and is working at Goldman Sachs in the wealth management dept. and her youngest grandson is a freshman in high school.

Martha Clancy Rudman NC’61 hopes to see many classmates at their belated 60th Reunion.

Eileen Corazzini Faggiano ’62 has a copy of “THE CLASS OF ’62” written

by University historian Thomas H. O’Connor. It details BC as it was when we walked the campus as students. If you would like a copy, email Eileen at efaggiano5@gmail.com.

Laetare Sunday The Boston College Alumni Association hosted the 71st annual Laetare Sunday celebration—BCAA’s oldest tradition—on March 27 in Conte Forum. The event, which marks the midpoint of the Lenten season, featured Mass presided by University President William P. Leahy, S.J., and an address by Katherine E. Gregory, dean of the William F. Connell School of Nursing. s um m er 2 0 2 2 v cl a ss no t es

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Samuel Fardy ’62 reports that the BC Community Band is back in business and rehearsing at 300 Hammond Pond Parkway after a COVID interruption. The band has a commitment to do a concert at the Hatch Shell on July 17, 2022. We hope to see you there.

Barbara Connor Flaherty ’62 and husband Tom are proudly enjoying their eight grandchildren. All of them are actively involved in sports. Last year, granddaughter Devyn, a junior at FSU, played softball here at the new field in the Harrington Athletics Village.

Watching the games on TV is second to experiencing the excitement while sitting in the BC stands and eating hot dogs.

Charles Chevalier ’62, a.k.a. Chuck, shared that he lives in the North End but that doesn’t keep him from having breakfast at IHOP in Harvard Square.

“Thank God I went to BC and not to Harvard! I talk to a lot of the guys, Charles Bunker ’62 who is good, John Coyle ’62 who is doing well, and Gerald Greely ’62. Do you know he drives a motorcycle with Mary Anne on the back?

I’ll never take Frank Faggiano off my contact list.”

Gerald Dyer ’62—Jerry to all who knew him—passed away last September after spending a career doing all that he loved: classroom teaching, guidance, and theater, producing well over 100 plays as well as doing some acting. He was never far from his alma mater, for he maintained season football tickets for almost 50 years and, after retiring, coached speech at BC. James Moran ’62 passed away. He was in the Army Reserve and worked for many years as a training specialist at Stratus Securities Corp. His wife died before him in 2005.

William “Bill” Thomas Redgate II ’63 of Fairfield, Connecticut, passed away in June 2020 in Bridgeport from cardiovascular disease. He was the husband of Ellen Shaughnessy Redgate.

Born in Bridgeport, he was the son of 56

cla s s notes v s umm e r 2022

Mary Hollister and John Crawford Redgate and graduated from Fairfield Prep. Bill had a master’s degree from Fairfield University and had been a captain in the United States Marine Corps. He had a storied career, was a member of the Fairfield Prep Hall of Fame, and a board member for Guenster Rehabilitation Center, American Red Cross, and United Way of Stamford.

Tony Rendeiro ’63, affectionately known as “Vovo” to his family, passed away peacefully in New Port Richey, Florida, with his wife and daughter by his side.

He was husband of 49 years to Christine Elizabeth Wood; proud, loving father of Michael and Marisa; cherished grandfather of Ruby, Mia, and Alessandra.

After service in the US Army at Fort Knox as an officer, Tony was a supersuccessful executive and international banker. He held many Xerox Corporation positions during an impressive 18 years.

As VP, he lead expansions into Canada, South America, Egypt, and the Caribbean.

He held executive positions at Credit Suisse First Boston, Nations Bank (now Bank of America), PaineWebber, and Merrill Lynch.

Margie Reiley Maguire ’63 from Milwaukee had a wonderful Christmas visit with her son and his family. Lots of “grands”…two in college, two in high school, one in the seventh grade and two (twins!) in the fifth. All are bright and doing well. What a treat! Margie is dealing with the pandemic blahs head-on: volunteering at the symphony, the performing arts center, and the repertory theatre…all proper mitigation observed. Way to go, Margie!

Colette McCarty NC’63, Marj Dever Shea NC’63, Mary Droney Reynolds NC’63, and Janice Magri Renaghan NC’63 met for lunch at Revere Beach.

It was full of laughs and memories, some bittersweet, like starting off married life with a husband in Vietnam.

Kathleen O’Riley NC’63 received an 80th birthday party thrown by family. Can you even imagine the fun? On a calm

day Kathleen is a dynamo…I’m sure “memorable” doesn’t come close!

Mary Jane Larkin NC’64 organized a lunch last fall in Plymouth for nine classmates. The lucky attendees were Joyce Hartke NC’64, Susan Gannon NC’64, Toni Pompeo NC’64, Sheila Donovan NC’64, Reenie Davis NC’64, Betsey Maher NC’64, Anne Marie Russell NC’64, Mary Connelly NC’64, and, of course, Mary Jane. She said “it was a beautiful day and we celebrated being together and our good health.”

It sounds like the perfect antidote to these crazy times. Thanks, Mary Jane, for reminding us how wonderful these Newton connections are.

Harry Kushigian ’64 shares that John “Hoof” Flanagan ’64 passed away on January 19. He was a member of the BC football team and lived in Saco, Maine, where he hosted gatherings for many years on his deck overlooking the ocean for his ’63 and ’64 teammates. We had terrific reunions there for decades.

Mary Lou Cunningham Mullen NC’64 and husband, Pete Mullen ’61, attended Pete’s 60th class reunion in midOctober. Happily, their granddaughters, first-year Elise Mullen and senior Audrey Mullen, were there to celebrate with them. Mary Lou comments “what are the odds that our two oldest grandchildren would be on campus for Pete’s 60th reunion? What great fun.”

Peggy Cox Curran NC’64 is settling in nicely in North Carolina. She said that last year was difficult to really get to know people, with everyone wearing masks! She’s working for AARP as a volunteer intake worker for tax preparation. She’s also very happy to be so close to her daughter, Tory, and help out with her grandchildren. Peggy said that she and Sheila Boes NC’64 were planning a get-together.

Priscilla Weinlandt Lamb NC’64 had lunch in November with Carol Sorace Whalen NC’64 and Kathy Wilson Conroy NC’64. Discussion included politics

“Now, I meet new people, engage in fun and often important work, and stay connected to a place I love—all to the good.”

BILL MCDONALD ’68

DETAILS: Founding Editor, Boston College Magazine Former President, San Diego Chapter of Boston College Alumni Association

You Had to Be There

N

ame a key BC moment of the past half-century and Bill McDonald ’68 likely has a yarn to spin about it.

Working alongside Bob Ryan in the sports room of The Heights (“I taught him everything he knows,” Bill jokes).

Being “invited” upon graduation from Boston College to join the Navy (a.k.a. drafted to serve in Vietnam) and having to tell his graduate school he was “going on a little bit of a vacation.”

Watching the Flutie pass on a corner TV during an alumni chapter meeting.

Attending the first joint-BC and Notre Dame game watch (it was also the last, rather predictably).

Over the course of his time as a student at Boston College, his 19 years as a staff member, and his many years as a pillar of the San Diego Chapter of the BCAA, McDonald has been nothing if not an Eagle through and through.

As a student, he experienced the Heights at a uniquely tumultuous time in American history—in the midst of the Civil Rights movement, with the war in Vietnam escalating and the MLK and RFK assassinations happening in his last semester. He recalls a protest of one kind or another taking place on campus practically every day.

McDonald jokes that a former colleague always said “the Class of ’63 was the last docile class.”

When offered the position of publications editor in BC’s PR office, McDonald says the decision to join was “a no-brainer.” In his first stint as a BC employee, he helmed Boston College Magazine as its founding editor.

“When we started BCM, we wanted to be provocative in thought, engage people with content that wasn’t pablum, and help readers celebrate their connection to BC.” Since retiring and moving to San Diego, McDonald has been a mainstay of the Southern California BC alumni community, helping build bonds among West Coast Eagles. Having organized and attended countless events, from game watches and zoo trips to hikes and service projects, he relishes working alongside and spending time with younger alumni. “Having that connection with new generations is something really great that BCAA involvement gives me,” he notes.

Asked what’s kept him so close to the University over the years, his answer is simple: “the people. I just made so many friends there—as a student, as an employee, as an alum. You form personal relationships and those relationships have stood the test of time.” s um m er 2 0 2 2 v cl a ss no t es

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(how could it not?), grandchildren, but almost no medical complaints. Which isn’t to say we don’t have any!

Alice McDowell NC’64 has written a new book, Dance of Light: Christian, Sufi and Zen Wisdom for Today’s Spiritual Seeker. Alice says that it details the dance between stages of the personal journey and is a culmination of much of her life’s work.

Maureen Sullivan Driscoll ’66 sadly shared that her beloved husband of 54 years, Joseph Robert Driscoll ’66, passed away in December 2021. From the first time they met in Lyons cafeteria in winter of 1966 they were inseparable.

Both were avid BC fans enjoying season tickets to football games, tailgating, and trips to West Point, as well as the Beanpot as a couple and with their children: Colleen ’90, Joe ’92, and Christine, LAW’97. Joe was an important voice in health care through leadership positions at Blue Cross Blue Shield for 25 years, lastly as executive vice president. He became president and CEO of Private Healthcare Systems in Waltham and then CEO of Socios Mayores en Salud in Puerto Rico, a position enjoyed by the whole family!

Joe’s family was most important to him and they enjoyed time together— summers in Popponesset on Cape Cod and winters in Bonita Springs, Florida, grew to include the seven Driscoll grandchildren. He never missed a game, concert, or play; he loved it all. Traveling was a great joy for Maureen and Joe domestically and in Europe. Whenever possible, it included golf! As members of the New Seabury Club, many hours were spent on the golf course with his lifelong friends from BC and his son, Joe. Before Joe died, he spoke to his grandchildren about things that were important in his life, including the quote, “failure is an opinion, not a fact.”

Farewell, Joe. Indeed you are an example of a life well-lived.

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Arnold Garber ’66 is retired with wife Marsha in central New Jersey at an active adult retirement community. He completed a 37-year career with Dunkin’ Donuts (26 as a marketing director and 11 as GM with multi-unit franchise).

Arnold states that he has always valued both his education and associations from BC, and was sad to hear of the passing of friend Chris Mungovan ’66 a year ago.

Donna Beucher Line NC’66 and her family have been developing and managing Mission Inn Resort in Howeyin-the-Hills, Florida, since her father bought the land and its historic golf course in 1964, seven years before nearby Disney World came into existence. Today, Donna and her five siblings still work in the business. The resort is currently the site for PGA Canada and Latin America Tour events and the Florida State High School Championships. They also have hosted 19 years of NCAA championships and several Florida state golf tournaments.

The 1,200-acre property has 310 homes in a residential community. In the past, Donna’s role has been as VP of golf operations; today she is resort owner.

Nancy Haas-Dreyer NC’66 died early in 2021. Nancy started at Newton as a full-time student in 1955 (before she was an RSCJ) and then became a part-time student in the 1960s. After graduating from Newton, she did graduate work at Boston University and spent 15 years as a teacher in the religious order.

Later, she became a social worker in Massachusetts and met and married Bob Dreyer. They moved to Fort Myers, Florida, where she continued to practice social work.

Carl Johnson ’66 was recently elected to the Massachusetts Association of Science Teachers Hall of Fame. Carl taught marine biology and oceanography during most of his 38 1/2 years at South Boston High School. He was well-known in the Boston teaching community as a naturalist and a conductor of extensive field-trip opportunities, including

long-distance sailing trips with his students in the open ocean from Virginia and New York to Boston on schooners and a frigate. Carl has been happily married to Linda Mackie Johnson for 43 years and they have two sons, David and Matthew, along with two granddaughters, Lale and Hayal, and daughter-in-law Nil. Tina Crowley NC’67 shared coffee with Noreen Connolly NC’67, who visited family in California. She also reported some internet connections with Maureen Dailey Young NC’67, Kathleen Hegenbart NC’67, and Paula Lyons NC’67.

Susan Egan Giannelli NC’67 heard In February that Susan Armstrong Boulay NC’67 passed away after a courageous battle with lymphoma and COVID. The ladies were roommates as juniors and seniors, staying in touch afterwards.

Reminiscing…” she was a beautiful person both inside and out. I was blessed to have her in my life…I will miss her dearly.”

Jacqui Werner Scarbrough NC’67, PhD’97 reported the arrival of a grandson, born to her youngest son living in San Francisco. Her older son has the other three grands, but they are teenagers!

Mary Catherine (Kate) McDonough ’67, after a brave battle with cancer, has died. Kate was the director of the JFK Center in Charlestown and in the early ’70s became director of the Santa Monica Health Clinic, as well as the Planned Parenthood Health Center in Manchester, New Hampshire. Kate resided in Milton.

Peter Alberico ’67 passed away. He was a double Eagle, having graduated from BC High. Peter earned his master’s degree from Babson College and served in the Army during Vietnam.

Mary Ann Mahoney ’67, who was predeceased by her husband and classmate Phil McGovern ’67, passed

away after a battle with a fast-moving cancer. She was a professor in the nursing program at Salem State University for many years.

Bill Risio ’67 of Needham and a member of past reunion committees and the football team, passed away in October 2021. Our condolences to their friends and family members.

Dick “F” Powers ’67 passed away. He served on the board of the foundation for the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Dick was a former Naval Officer and served during Vietnam. He taught a course at NWC as and spent winters in Palm Beach.

Joseph Burns ’67 of Needham retired after 36 years at the Heights. Joe has served in so many leadership roles (associate dean of A&S; associate vice provost for undergraduate academic affairs) that he is referred to as BC’s greatest “utility player.”

Bernadette (Pie) Fogel Mansur NC’68 passed away in February in Naples, Florida, after a long illness. She was predeceased by her husband Michael Mansur. Pie had a celebrated career as a marketing and communications executive including over 20 years in leadership positions for the National Hockey League. In 2014, Pie retired as executive director of the NHL Foundation.

Donations may be made in Pie’s honor to the Alzheimer’s Association.

Cara Finnegan Groman NC’69 has died.

Ana Perez Camayd NC’69, who lives in Florida, sent in a tribute which was read at the funeral mass for Cara in Dover, Massachusetts. Her message spoke of her amazing enthusiasm at freshman orientation when most of us were scared stiff! It spoke of her outgoing personality and of her amazing singing voice which she shared with others as a member of the Newtones. Ana has a daughter Cristina, who is married. She and her husband both work at Johns Hopkins in

the medical field doing clinical trials and evaluating international public health. They have twins, a boy and a girl named Mauricio and Zora, who were born at the beginning of the pandemic.

Ana went to help and didn’t leave for several months.

Kathy Hartnagle Halayko NC’69 has a home on Kiawah Island and would like to know if there are any other classmates or Newton alumnae who also frequent Kiawah.

1970s Mary McAllister Fader NC’70 and spouse Sam finally bit the bullet and decided to downsize, clear out, and sell their home in Dover to save their kids that job. Local Dover friends have generously offered the use of their guest cottage when they’re in Massachusetts.

It may take a while to unpack, but they have settled in comfortably and try to

DEDICATION OF THE PETE FRATES CENTER On Saturday, March 26, Boston College dedicated the Pete Frates Center at Harrington Athletics Village on Brighton Campus. The state-of-the-art indoor baseball and softball training facility was named in honor of the former BC Baseball captain and Class of 2007 graduate who popularized the Ice Bucket Challenge to support ALS research, helping raise more than $220 million worldwide for ALS research before dying of the disease in 2019 at age 34. Attending the dedication were members of Pete’s family, including (from left) brother Andrew Frates; wife Julie Frates ’12; daughter Lucy Frates; parents Nancy ’80 and John Frates ’80, P’04, ’07; and sister Jennifer Mayo ’04.

“

Whatever they’re feeling that day, they have Pete’s name on the wall to remind them...[that] they’ve got this and just to persevere.”

Julie Frates ’12

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laugh every day. Mary feels liberated from too many personal belongings, and can’t wait to continue to purge.

Once COVID subsides, they look forward to lots of travel. Of course, Mary will need to retire, but that is another story! Mary still sees Mary Jo Pucci Orsinger NC’70 and Joyce Verhalen Pandolfi NC’70, and just had lunch with Kathy Reilly Corkum NC’70. Occasionally she participates in Zoom calls with Kathy and Ann Nethken Ehlers NC’70, Lanie Odlum NC’70, and Jane McNamara Bieber NC’70.

Pat Quilty Halunen NC’70 moved back to Kingston, New York, to be closer to siblings, nieces, and nephews.

Eileen Marquette Reilly NC’70 has traveled too: She and Ed visited their Florida condo for the first time in two years. Living near Los Angeles, with its strict masking and vaccination protocols, they found it daunting to traverse two airports, fly with a mask for five hours, and visit an area that was more relaxed about wearing masks. But relying on full vaccinations and booster shots, they ventured forth for a very enjoyable trip and long-awaited reunion with Florida friends.

Margaret Molidor Dooley’s NC’72 spouse, Joseph, passed away in January.

Please keep Margaret in your prayers.

Jane Hartley NC’72 was nominated by President Joe Biden as the next Ambassador to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. If confirmed, Jane will become the second person who has served as the U.S. Ambassador to France and the UK. Mariann Sullivan NC’72 lives in Rochester, New York, after working as the deputy chief court attorney in New York State Appellate Division, First Department. The Fordham Law School alumna no longer actively practices law but still teaches animal law at Cornell Law School and is publishing two podcasts, the weekly “Our Hen House,” which is a general animal rights podcast 60

cla s s notes v s umm e r 2022

by Jasmin Singer, and the monthly “Animal Law Podcast,” which she solely hosts. Mariann has also been the adjunct professor of animal law at Benjamin Cardozo Law School, Brooklyn Law School, and New York University Law School.

Meg Barres Alonso NC’72 and Mario Alonso ’72 were delayed by COVID from beginning their condominium renovations until now. Meg is now on the board of her condominium association, where she is learning all facets of condominium ownership.

Shelly Noone Connolly NC’72 and Mike used the time set aside for a January cruise to have fun with their grandchildren.

Joe Abely ’74 and his wife welcomed their ninth grandchild this winter—their first grandson. They are looking forward to getting back to traveling soon and still spend some time in Osterville on the Cape in the summer.

Bonnie Smith ’74 was inducted into the National Association of REALTORS REALTORS Political Action Committee Hall of Fame in February. She and Dave live in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Ellie Pope Clem NC’75 has a grandson, Peter Clem, who will be ordained to the Youth Apostles in Virginia on the weekend of Newton reunions, so she won’t be at any festivities in person.

Melanie Byrne Thomas NC’75 moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in late 2018 to be near her sister and her family, and works as an oncologist at Duke. After working in the environmental field, she changed careers and went to BUSM and did residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Melanie moved to Houston in 1999 to do her medical oncology fellowship, staying there until 2008, and then was in South Carolina for several years. In her free time she hikes, cycles, and has done several big adventure trips, including Mount Everest Base Camp 2017, climbing Kilimanjaro in

2018, Mt. Blanc in 2019, and most recently walked 335 miles on the Camino de Santiago in Spain in fall 2021.

Melanie keeps in touch with Beth (Walsh) Alexander Stevenson NC’75 and Posey Holland Griffin NC’75.

Mary Griffin Ciaccio NC’75 retired after 40+ years working in New York state government, then as a government affairs representative for Citigroup, and her last job as president and CEO of the Life Insurance Council of NY. Over the years, she was blessed with many wonderful colleagues and bosses/ mentors from whom she learned so much. Now Mary and husband John get to spend more time with their four grandchildren and enjoy their camp in the Adirondacks and winters in Vero Beach, Florida. Her dad passed away this past November at age 92. “While we all miss him terribly, he had a long, happy, and successful life and we were blessed to have him for so long.”

Anna Stocklein Frankel NC’75 retired in 2019 after 30 years at The Arc Greater Hudson Valley, having opened and managed a multidisciplinary outpatient clinic. Her husband retired around the same time from his job with New York state. She keeps busy with some consulting work, her role as a board member for resilientchildfund.org and organizing a fundraising walk for the Lustgarten Foundation in gratitude for her 25-year anniversary as a survivor of pancreatic cancer!

Deborah Joyce Drake NC’75 saw Anna Frankel over the summer while planning their 50th high school reunion.

Unfortunately, their reunion was canceled due to COVID concerns.

Deborah recently spent time with Mary Ann Eagan NC’75.

Julie Ryan Parker NC’75 celebrated her 50th high school reunion in Pittsburgh, then caught up with Mary Ferris NC’75 for a great dinner in Boston as she was traveling through.

She also visits Cape Cod, where she

sees Carol Finigan Wilson NC’75. In Florida, Julie and Karen Foley Freeman NC’75 are about an hour away. She keeps busy with golf and her vintage jewelry collecting/selling. Pop into her Etsy or Instagram shop: Alwayslookclassic ~ such fun. Julie hopes everyone stays well and maybe she’ll make it to our 50th in 2025!

Lesley Visser ’75, H’07 spoke at a sold-out celebration for John Madden at the Oakland Coliseum. Raider fans paid $32.14 for a ticket that went to charity— numbers that reflected Madden’s win over Minnesota in Super Bowl Xl. She’d known the iconic coach and broadcaster for more than 35 years and had traveled on his Madden Cruiser many times. She recalled riding through Utah on the way to a 49er game that John uttered a vintage line. “Dark chocolate,” he said, “I don’t get it. It’s like they got halfway to milk, and quit.” Leslie, who in 2006 became the first woman enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was in the same class as Coach Madden and she thanked him for all he’d taught her about football and life.

Jack Hamilton ’75 was in banking for 45 years starting as a repo man for BayBank Newton-Waltham and ultimately president and CEO of Charles River Bank for 20 years. During his time at Bay State Savings Bank in Worcester, he was the lead financier of affordable housing units and led the state in the number of SBA loans to women and minority-owned businesses, and the number of jobs created by those loans in Worcester’s inner-city neighborhoods.

In 2001, Jack was named Worcester’s Citizen of the Year by the National Conference of Christians & Jews, and was the US SBA Small Business Services Advocate of the Year in 1998. Jack and his wife Trish live in Mendon with three Rhodesian ridgebacks, a mini bull terrier, and a house full of guitars and golf clubs!

Virginia (Ginny) Vasil Dorn ’75 has lived in Medfield for 40 years and retired in

2015 after 40 years in banking, the last 35 of which were with Bank of America.

She served in various capacities, with her last role as a project manager developing their business recovery plans. Ginny has also been teaching Hatha-style yoga for 20 years, and currently teaches five classes per week, three at a studio in Millis and two at the Norfolk Senior Center. She is looking forward to spending time with family and friends this spring and summer in Naples, Florida, and Martha’s Vineyard.

1980s Kathleen O’Connor Pierce ’80 was honored by Coldwell Banker Realty as the leading sales producer in the Cape Elizabeth, Maine, office for the third consecutive year, and is a member of the International Diamond Society, which represents the top 12 percent of Coldwell Banker agents worldwide.

Kathleen is married to Ken Pierce ’79.

Michael Dwyer ’81 retired from teaching, which presented new opportunities.

He is now pastor of the Pittsford Congregational Church, located just two miles from his home in Vermont. While it is a complex story as to how all this happened, there is one thing he cites as invaluable preparation for what he is doing now: persevering through David Gill’s class in Greek! He relies on that just about every week in sermon prep.

Randy ’84 and Susan (Ghidella) Howard ’84 hosted a reunion of Hillsides D-54 at their home on Long Island, New York.

Sue is a woman’s healthcare nurse practitioner in Manhasset, New York.

She and Randy have three grandchildren.

Randy is senior vice president for corporate facilities services at Northwell Health in New York.

Donna Kusnierz Foley ’84 works for Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Susan McKenzie Kendrat ’84 is retired.

She and her husband are moving to Bethany Beach, Delaware.

Sandra Williams ’84 is a journeywoman pipefitter for Local 537 in Boston. She broke many glass ceilings as the first female in her local to hold multiple elected offices and the first female teacher at 537’s apprentice school. She and her husband live in Weymouth.

Joanne Malitsky Carloni ’84 and her husband live in Gilbert, Arizona, and are moving to a new home in the state.

Carolyn Cushing Willard ’84 works in real estate in Portland, Maine.

Barry Bocklet Jr. ’84 has lived in many places since graduation, including Manhattan, Westhampton Beach, Boston, San Francisco, and California’s Manhattan and Newport Beaches, before finally settling down in Vero Beach, Florida, for the past 17 years.

After a 20-plus-year career on Wall Street among other endeavors, Barry currently works for the nationally acclaimed Dale Sorensen Real Estate.

He lives beachside and enjoys the beach, boating, golfing, biking, fishing, traveling, and downtime with his life partner, Carol. Barry looks forward to reunions and hopes to take in BC football games. He hopes classmates are doing well and are still “Ever to Excel-ing!”

Michael Nurse ’84 has relocated to the Dayton, Ohio, area to be vice president and general manager of both the ABC and Fox TV stations of Sinclair Broadcasting.

Joann McCarthy Oleynik ’84, husband Ken, and family celebrated their son Ryan’s Class of 2020 BC graduation in October 2021. Ryan majored in biology and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. It was a special day as Joann’s father, Robert McCarthy, graduated BC in 1951. Ryan is a secondyear dental student at UConn School of Dental Medicine. Their daughter, Colleen, graduated from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and is completing her dental residency in Massachusetts. s um m er 2 0 2 2 v cl a ss no t es

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Jim Moore ’85 lives with his wife Mary in Bangor, Maine. Two of their sons are in graduate school and their third son is an Army Field Artillery officer at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Returning to the practice of law following retirement as an assistant U.S. attorney, Jim is now a full-time legal aid lawyer for Pine Tree Legal Assistance, where he defends low-income Mainers in state court eviction proceedings.

Tommy Burke ’85 recently retired after 30 years of production work in the entertainment industry, including work on 60 films and 30 TV shows. He has recently released a book available on Amazon titled Not Just Sunglasses and Autographs: 30 years of Film and Television Production with Life (& Near Death) Lessons. Tommy lives in Southern California and plans to travel and do speaking engagements on his career, the hard lessons that he has learned, and some of the things he has seen. Watch for him on tour in your neighborhood.

Maria Leonard Olsen ’85 recently did her first TEDx Talk at City University of New York, entitled “Turning Life’s Challenges into a Force for Good.” Learn more about her books and work at marialeonardolsen.com.

of Melrose. Colleen has been a great friend since the old Cheverus Hall days!

Gonzalo Fernandez ’85 was a partner at Devereaux, Stokes, Fernandez & Leonard for over 20 years and now has established his own plaintiff’s trial firm, Fernandez Law. The St. Louis firm represents people who have been injured by the negligence or misconduct of others as a result of defective products, civil right abuses, truck accidents, medical malpractice, catastrophic injury, car accidents, or other acts of abuse and negligence.

Beth Cadle ’89 has joined Milford Regional Medical Center as chief financial officer and vice president for finance. A Certified Public Accountant, she brings to her new role more than 30 years of accounting and financial management experience, the majority gained in a variety of healthcare settings. Most recently, Beth served as director of finance for the anesthesia physician practice at Boston Children’s Hospital. She has also served as controller at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston and Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, where she served in progressive roles for nearly 20 years.

Jei Lee Chong Freeman ’87 and Barry Freeman of Winchester are proud to announce that their daughter, Lucy, will be a Class of 2026 Eagle! On hand to celebrate the news was J. Colleen (Aylward) Ingalls ’87 and Tom Ingalls

Kristin Cleary Welo ’89, JD’93 is working for Artful Jaunts, co-founded by husband, Tobias Welo. Artful is a luxury travel business that curates turnkey vacations for small groups with a goal of helping elevate guests’ understanding of

b e a l e a d e r … a n d a f o l l o w e r. (go set the world aflame)

(check out @bcalumni on social media)

@Boston College Alumni

Follow the official BC alumni channels for notes about your fellow Eagles, peeks back at campus, and so much more.

@BCAlumni @bcalumni Blue skies and bell towers…more View all comments

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cla s s notes v s umm e r 2022

contemporary art (trips include visits to museums, galleries, artists’ studios, and more).

Katie Canty ’89 earned an MFA in screenwriting in August 2020. Her thesis script, “LEGACY,” made it to the second round at the Austin Film Festival and was a semi-finalist in the Final Draft Big Break contest.

Lynne Maher Williams ’89 celebrated the 25th anniversary of her marketing company, California Designs & Awards, Inc, and recently completed the “Screaming Eagles” Eagle mascot stress ball project for Marching Band Director David Healey ’90.

Christopher Gassett ’89 was named chief ethics & compliance officer at Abercrombie & Fitch.

Miguel Correa-Cestero ’89 has been working at Banco Popular de PR (now Popular Securities) in Puerto Rico since July 1989; both kids go to University of Michigan.

Lisa Crowley Dutile ’89 passed away after a long-fought battle with cancer.

Our thoughts are with her children Katherine and Michael, husband Dale Dutile ’89, and the many dear friends of both in our class.

1990s Candi Carter ’91, a veteran TV executive, joins e-commerce company Knocking as chief content officer. Carter, the former executive producer of the “Tamron Hall Show” and “The View,” and an “Oprah Winfrey Show” alum, brings unrivaled professional experience from her successful 30-year media career to the rapidly expanding tech company.

She will focus on developing the company’s successful partnerships and expanding its model across all platforms.

Joe Driscoll ’92 is alive and well, despite reports to the contrary. He is senior vice president and general counsel for South Shore Health System and lives in Braintree with his wife, Lauren, and his two sons, Joe and Sean.

Joanne Gigante Thalheimer ’89 is a childcare consultant for Cultural Care Au Pair (she previously worked as a buyer at Bloomingdales, Lord & Taylor, and French Connection). She and husband Ross live in Manhasset, New York.

Daughter Jessica ’21 lived in three of her mom’s same dorms. Her son Bryce runs at Johns Hopkins and Cole is a freshman at Manhasset High School.

She loves getting together with her BC roommates Christine Caswell ’89, Sandra Higgins ’89, Karen Melendy ’89, and Beth Lebel ’89.

Dave Wedge ’93 has a new book, Riding With Evil: Taking Down the Notorious Pagan Motorcycle Gang (William Morrow/HarperCollins). Publishers Weekly gave it a “starred review” and called it “must reading for true crime aficionados.” Kirkus described it as “a breathless enthralling thrill ride.”

Wedge’s previous book, The Last Days of John Lennon, which he wrote with James Patterson and Casey Sherman, spent two months on the New York Times bestseller list earlier this year.

Wedge, a former Boston Herald investigative journalist, and Sherman brought their true crime podcast Saints Sinners & Serial Killers to the live stage April 20 at the Wilbur Theater in Boston.

Todd Laggis ’89 and friends celebrated their 32nd annual golf tournament with a tremendous turnout from all over the country (even John Pope showed for the first time).

Jared Stinebeck ’93 wrote, “For the longest time I didn’t send this update in but I figured it’s overdue. I went back to school in 2008 to University of Florida for my physician assistant studies.

Brenda Morano ’89 decided to get her master’s at Curry College during the pandemic and graduated in May 2022.

I graduated with my master’s in 2010 and have been working in multiple ERs for the past 12 years. The last two years have been difficult but I still enjoy the profession immensely. I met my wife Amanda in 2011 in Gainesville, Florida, got married in 2014, and now have two young boys, Dylan and Eli. We live in Tampa and enjoy the warm weather but sometimes miss the cooler side of things.”

Nicole (Huber) Jensen ’94 has settled into her new home in Gilbert, Arizona, with her husband, Wade, and their three children. The pandemic has kept her busy working in a hospital as a physical therapist and life coach.

Kevin Gardner ’94 recently joined LifeSci Partners in Boston as managing director. LifeSci Partners is one of the top healthcare IR firms in the world.

Kevin has been doing institutional equity sales for Wall Street banks since graduating from Boston College.

Kate (McCarthy) Brandt ’98 recently launched Kate Brandt Marketing, a consulting practice that focuses on arts and cultural organizations. Kate previously led marketing teams on staff at theaters including Trinity Rep (Providence), Merrimack Rep (Lowell), and Artists Rep (Portland, Oregon).

Mike Power ’98 started 2022 as the vice president of university partnerships for BARBRI Global, allowing him to maximize both his education and law degrees.

2000s Joe Baratta ’00 joined Bonhams as senior vice president, head of trusts and estates, West Coast–based in the Los Angeles office after twenty years at Abell Auction Co. Joe works closely with an extensive network of professional fiduciaries, trust officers, attorneys, and client advisors on estate collections ranging from fine art and jewelry to collectible motorcars. s um m er 2 0 2 2 v cl a ss no t es

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Juan DeJesus ’04 was recently recognized for excellence and innovation in his field by the Sports Business Journal “40 Under 40” and will be featured in the June 27 issue of Sports Business Journal. After graduating from BC, Juan was an analyst at JPMorgan, then left for various positions at Major League Baseball, before getting his MBA at UC Berkeley. After grad school, he joined Facebook’s strategic sports partnerships group. He is now VP, NBA Top Shot & basketball partnerships at Dapper Labs. He lives in Redwood City, California, with his wife, Amanda, and their daughter Camila.

Katie (Weiss) Romano ’04, JD’07 is an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, in the criminal division.

Nathan Jones ’04 was elected president of the Massachusetts Society of Anesthesiologists. He lives in Wellesley with his wife, Lauren Ferrara ’06, and their sons William and Brian.

Michael Stefanilo, Jr. ’06 was named one of the Best LGBTQ+ Lawyers Under 40 in the country by the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association. He will receive this prestigious honor in Hollywood in the summer of 2022.

Amanda Sindel-Keswick ’06 and husband Jason Stockmann welcomed Philip Jay Stockmann-Keswick in September 2021. Amanda has also

made a career pivot and is studying at BU School of Law, but missed orientation due to Philip’s birth.

Justin Galacki ’06 and Laurel Daly were married in Jersey City in August 2021 after delaying their nuptials nearly a year due to COVID-19. Numerous BC alumni were in attendance, including groomsmen Brian Aldridge ’06 and Frank Deluccia ’06, officiant Dave Levy ’06, and best man Trevor Leb. The couple honeymooned in Hawaii before returning to their home in Westport, Connecticut.

Michael Tarascio, MA’08 launched his own boutique financial planning firm last year and recently partnered with New York-based financial planning and advising powerhouse Zoe Financial. Michael has been serving small businesses in Oregon for 11 years, working for a large corporate bank.

A great deal of Michael’s success he attributes to his years at Boston College.

His experience at a Jesuit institution shaped him deeply to be in service of others and he is forever indebted to the great men and women on the faculty, in particular to Fr. Jack Butler for his deep counsel and spiritual guidance.

Kaitlin Eisler ’09 has joined Maslon LLP in Minneapolis as a corporate and securities attorney. Katie graduated summa cum laude from William Mitchell College of law (St. Paul, Minnesota) in

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2010s Elise McMullen Bitter ’12 married Matthew John Bitter (Naval Academy) in September 2021 in Bay Head, New Jersey. There were over 40 Boston College alumni in attendance ranging from class years 1976 to 2023.

Brennan Carley ’13 has spent the last year as the U.S. editor for pop superstar Dua Lipa’s debut newsletter and podcast, Service95 and Dua Lipa: At Your Service. He’s loving getting to use his years as a magazine editor, writer, and talent booker—working for companies like the New York Times, Spotify, Condé Nast, Hearst, and more—to help the Grammy-winning singer launch her media empire, and he still pinches himself every time he hears her music in the grocery store and thinks, “That’s my boss!”

Kimberly Sykes ’13 and her husband Robin Clark are pleased to announce the birth of their second daughter, Juliette, in November 2021.

Fil Piasevoli ’14 and Jess Marenco ’14 got married in Santa Barbara, California, in September 2021. They celebrated with many of their friends who were also there when Fil and Jess met in Vanderslice Hall back in 2011.

Sarah McGervey, MA’16 is running for State Representative in Ohio.

Have you…

…gotten married?

2014 after earning a BA in history from Boston College.

Anthony Gallo ’17 graduated from Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford, New Jersey, in May 2022. He will begin his internal medicine residency at the Cleveland Clinic in July.

CORRECTION: The last issue of Class Notes included incorrect degree credentials for a Boston College alum.

The listing should have read: Patricia Boslet ’15, MA’21. The Boston College Alumni Association regrets the error.

“The Jesuit, Catholic education I received at BC taught me the necessity of stepping out of yourself, meeting people where they are, and sitting with them in their struggles.”

ANGELA DONKOR ’12

DETAILS: Member, Council for Women of Boston College Recipient of the Thea Bowman Scholarship and Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship

You Can’t Become What You Can’t See

“I

will never forget that girl,” Angela Donkor ’12 says, remembering the Angela who first set foot on Boston College’s campus: a first-generation college student who had emigrated to the United States just two years prior. She felt completely overwhelmed. Now, a corporate lawyer at Amazon advising clients on the Alexa app, Donkor reflects on her time at BC and the moments that shaped her.

“I remember my first class at BC like it was yesterday—Intro to Political Science with Kathleen Bailey. I felt so lost,” she says. “At the end of class, I got up to talk to Professor Bailey and told her I wasn’t going to make it. And even though there was a line of students waiting to talk to her, she spent all that time reassuring me. In those first few weeks at Boston College, I really felt the University wrap its arms around me.”

A microcosm of her relationship with the University, Donkor and Bailey remain close—almost 15 years since that encouraging conversation. In fact, Bailey went on to serve as Donkor’s thesis advisor, and the two traveled to Kuwait together as part of a BC summer program.

After leaving the Heights, Donkor remained involved with the University because “so many peers and professors and mentors went out of their way to care for me and help. When I think of BC, I think of home. The University allowed me to thrive.”

Donkor is a member of the Council for Women of Boston College, has attended numerous alumni events, and been engaged in recruiting and mentoring new students. Recalling her own humble beginnings, Donkor plans to continue her mentorship activity “because there’s got to be another student who feels the way I did when they arrive at the Heights.

The opportunity to turn around and be a role model for current Eagles is very important to me; you can’t become what you can’t see.”

Since graduating from BC, Donkor earned her law degree and worked at several firms before joining Amazon. Today, she travels the globe serving clients the world over—from India to Jordan to France and everywhere in between.

“My clients have joked that I’m a part-time legal advisor, part-time therapist, and part-time cheerleader,” she says.

“In reality, the Jesuit, Catholic education I received at BC taught me the necessity of stepping out of yourself, meeting people where they are, and sitting with them in their struggles. That theme continues to inform my legal career in ways I never could have anticipated.” s um m er 2 0 2 2 v cl a ss no t es

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FOND FAREWELLS boston college alumni deaths

1940s

Paul Dawson ’45 Roger Myette ’48 John Benham ’49 Joseph Collins ’49 Richard Savage ’49 MBA’63 Francis Wynne ’49

1950s

John Casey ’50 Mary Kelly Cass ’50 John Linnehan ’50 MEd’51 Richard McIsaac ’50 Brendan O’Donnell ’50 Renald Paradis ’50 Frank Sanborn ’50 Robert Corcoran ’51 John Corrado ’51 Carl Costanza ’51 Vincent Daily ’51 MA’54 Leonard Kane ’51 William Kelley ’51 Robert Sacco ’51 Mary Whippen Carbone ’52 James DeGiacomo ’52 Bernard Doherty ’52 Philip Frazier ’52 Harold Haskins ’52 Thomas Rice ’52 Anthony Carlisi ’53 Frederick Cole ’53 Walter Corcoran ’53 John Hannan ’53 Paul Lanzillotta ’53 William Shaughnessy ’53 Sigismund Szymczak ’53 James Windt ’53 Margie Carr Kelley MEd’54 Gerry Natoli ’54 Henry Previte MSW’54 Conrad Sawicki ’54 Anthony Varone JD’54 John Cuoco ’55 Rose Dognin ’55 Donald Mayer ’55 James Reynolds Jr. ’55 Mary Shaughnessy Sharp ’55 George Baierlein ’56 MS’61 Ann Carroll Burwell ’56 Mary Cronin Calello MSW’56 JD’98 John Cogliano ’56 66

cla s s notes v s umm e r 2022

Leo Dauwer MEd’56 Jim Desmond ’56 Chuck Faber ’56 Charles Gorman ’56 Helen King Kennedy ’56 Angie Liani ’56 Margaret Murphy ’56 Mary Trepanier Sylvia MSW’56 Helen Barrett ’57 MS’60 William Barton ’57 Edward Buckley ’57 John Carswell MSW’57 Bill Cunningham ’57 Edward Devine ’57 Raymond Fell ’57 Robert Finegan ’57 John Kelliher ’57 MBA’71 Ed McNiff ’57 Molly McHugh O’Grady ’57 Mary Pipia ’57 James Ridge ’57 Mary Carolyn Barrett ’58 Joseph Bethoney ’58 George Bishop ’58 Boots Connelly ’58 Helen Connors Connolly ’58 Martin Connor ’58 Edmond Kelly ’58 MSW’60 William McGovern ’58 Edward Morrissey MSW’58 John O’Brien ’58 MEd’60 Francis O’Neill ’58 Bill Ryan ’58 Shirley Sanborn ’58 Stewart Shapiro ’58 John Vaccaro ’58 Peter Victory ’58 John Blake ’59 Cornelius Brady ’59 Sara Burgess ’59 MSW’64 Anne Campbell ’59 William Canniff ’59 George Larkin ’59 MEd’62 PhD’80 Rodney Morrison ’59 MA’61 Kevin O’Donoghue ’59 William Powers ’59 Jeanne Dorlac Sweeney ’59 Eileen Testone ’59

1960s

William Callaghan ’60 Grace Escudero ’60 Richard Lynch ’60

James McGuinness ’60 Walter O’Leary ’60 Dorothy Hand Quirk ’60 Robert Riordon ’60 Bill Rivers ’60 MBA’72 Edward Sullivan ’60 Richard Allen ’61 John Altieri ’61 Phil Davis ’61 Joseph Dragonetti ’61 John Hajosy ’61 Paul Johnson ’61 Jack Joyce ’61 MBA’70 H’16 Thomas McCarron ’61 Richard McCormick JD’61 Ann Lynch Roche ’61 Robert Rooney ’61 Richard Adler MBA’62 Kevin Blaney ’62 Richard Carlow ’62 Andy Conway ’62 Irene Bailey Cronin ’62 Christopher Davenport MEd’62 PhD’69 Michael DiMarino ’62 Paul Duncan ’62 Kitty Underwood Eustermann ’62 Ronald Fishbein JD’62 Joseph Fullum ’62 Beverly Towle Hall ’62 Nancy Hickman ’62 John Keefe ’62 Beatrice Hanley Lee ’62 Paul McCann ’62 Anne Morgan O’Connor ’62 Michael Tyner ’62 MSW’67 Sheila Hochu Wells MAT’62 Donald Berube ’63 Jack Hogan ’63 Douglas MacQuarrie ’63 Ron Martin ’63 MBA’71 Louise Morante MA’63 Mary Motte MA’63 MEd’67 PhD’73 Michael Panaro ’63 Patricia O’Leary Sullivan ’63 Carol Altonen ’64 James Creed ’64 John Duffy ’64 Ken Fishman LLB’64 John Flanagan ’64 Barbara Flynn MA’64 Vin Hourihan ’64 Tom Manzelli ’64 Mary Helen McComas ’64

Edward O’Connor ’64 George Pawlikowski MA’64 William Rosser ’64 Frederick Tape ’64 Jane Kremers Thompson MSW’64 Bob Caporale JD’65 James Carney MEd’65 Rowie Barsa Elenbaas ’65 Sheila Feeley ’65 MBA’83 Annette Morante Gill MA’65 Richard Hoefling ’65 Mike Pisani ’65 Paul Reynolds JD’65 John Schule ’65 Hugh Wiesman ’65 Donald Bergeron ’66 Mary Farrell Brown ’66 Edward Casey ’66 M.T. Dolan ’66 MEd’69 Joseph Driscoll ’66 James Levis ’66 Edward Mann MA’66 Valerie Tuschmann Mortell ’66 William Osenton ’66 Carol Driscoll Prentice ’66 MS’68 Joe Raffaele ’66 Gail Reardon ’66 Arthur Rozes JD’66 Mary Shannon MA’66 Robert Sullivan ’66 Susanne McInerney Szekely ’66 Peter Alberico ’67 Susan Armstrong Boulay ’67 John Downes ’67 Joanne Howland-Regan Frey ’67 PhD’92 Paula Fanning Herbert ’67 James Logan ’67 Rowland Lucid JD’67 Edward Marmer MBA’67 Robert McCarthy JD’67 Karl Pope MEd’67 Bill Risio ’67 Susan Ferguson Waller MEd’67 Bob Alcarez ’68 John Griffin MS’68 PhD’71 George Hallahan ’68 Frank Hershenson JD’68 John Kulas ’68 Anthony Maio JD’68 Bernadette Pi Fogel Mansur ’68 Jeanie McKeigue ’68 Bob O’Neil ’68 JD’71

John Russell ’68 Thomas Bennett ’69 Noreen Connolly ’69 Robert Cove ’69 Maureen Ferrari MBA’69 Cara Finnegan ’69 MBA’74 Stephen Johnson JD’69 Vincent Mierjeski ’69 Sandra Mott MS’69 Edward Rogowski ’69 Morris Shubow JD’69 Marilyn Slattery MAT’69 Joe Wehr ’69 Lance Winnicki ’69

1970s

Michael Corless ’70 Gary Defoer JD’70 Lars Guldager MEd’70 PhD’73 Eileen Hayes MEd’70 CAES ’71 William Heeney MA’70 Mary Kott ’70 Janet Lyons ’70 Rudi Scherff ’70 JD’73 Paulette St. Ours MA’70 Marcia Watson MEd’70 Eileen Mcrell Ahearn MEd’71 PhD’81 Eileen Dart Bolesky ’71 John Cashman ’71 Thomas Cavellier ’71 Jim Daigle MA’71 John Dolan ’71 Ronald Ferdico ’71 Domenic Fucci ’71 Paul Gitlin JD’71 William Ingram JD’71 John Janitz MA’71 Kongsuk Mantakara MEd’71 PhD’75 Barbara Fulton Shambaugh ’71 Karen Turner ’71 Luigi Del Gaudio MSW’72 Audrey Freeman Jacobs JD’72 Christopher Kelley ’72 Mary Ann McConnell Knewstub ’72 Francis McCarthy MEd’72 Francine McGettrick ’72 MA’79 Michael Mucci ’72 Kathleen Smith Adams ’73 Harold Bloom DHL’73 Preston Bush MA’73 Vernon Jordan H’73 Grayce Carney Sanger MS’73

Bob Steinkrauss ’73 Stephanie Brett-Bell MSW’74 Mark Burlingame ’74 Peter Campbell JD’74 Stephen Desmond ’74 David McKeon ’74 John Shea ’74 Deborah Brennan Collins ’75 MSW’78 Mary Maher Edgin ’75 Carol Lord Gerber ’75 MEd’77 Maria Hermosillo MSW’75 Lee Kulas ’75 James Stokes JD’75 Lewis Sullivan MBA’75 John Doherty ’76 Maureen Kiernan ’76 James Perzan ’76 Jeanette Cormier Childers ’77 Deborah Haddad Holmes ’77 Charles Heran ’77 Floyd McCrory ’77 Jim Nendza MA’77 PhD’87 John Yukevich ’77 Florence Betz MEd’78 Garrett Bonetti MEd’78 Martin Hanopole PhD’78 Maria Kokias ’78 John Kulevich PhD’78 Peter McCue ’78 Patrick O’Connell ’78 Kathleen Walsh-McGovern ’78 Herbert Wolfer PhD’78 Paula O’Leary Chin ’79 MEd’84 Marlene Godfrey MEd’79 Peter Ladutko ’79 Walter Mondale H’79

1980s

Kathleen Greene MST’80 William Riley JD’80 James Chase ’81 Camille Fong JD’81 Jack Harrigan ’81 Kevin Moshier JD’81 Marilyn Sullivan MA’81 Imelda Ying-Schoelnick JD’81 Emily Davis JD’82 Barbara Lamon Lawless MS’82 Ana Papaefthemiou ’82 Barbara Trahon ’82 Christine Sokol ’83 Jim Worth ’83 Bettie Feruzi MEd’84

Jacqueline Kessler MSW’84 Patrick McNamara JD’84 Dennis Reilly ’84 Lisa Provenzano Ross ’84 George Boudreau ’85 Margaret Tannehill Thibodeau MA’85 Madeline Vincunas CAES’86 Anne Marie Lennon MTS’87 Jeffrey Hunt ’88 Edward McDonough ’88 Tina Lynch McKiernan ’88 Sharon O’Hare MA’88 Paul Volcker LLD’88 Kay Hurley Bardige MS’89 Leland Barron MBA’89 Lisa Crowley Dutile ’89

1990s

Chet Delani D.ED’90 Marilyn Norton MSW’90 Michael Walsh JD’91 William Mangano ’92 Teresa Baker MEd’93

William Pineo MSW’93 Nancy DiPietro ’94 Brian Murphy MTS’96 Nancy O’Leary DeMartino ’97 William Godson MTS’97 Donald Gratz PhD’98 Sandra Jones PhD’98 Michael Pandolfi JD’98 Jerome Lively MDiv’99

2000s James Barch ’02 Edward Stack PhD’02 George Caulton PhD’05 Paul Farmer LLD’05 Carolyn Vaughan MBA’05 George Coyne DOCT’07 Jason Dobbs MSW’07 MA’07 Jonathan Bakis ’11 Connor Garstka ’11 Kieran Kelly MA’14 MTS’16 Elena West ’19

BOSTON COLLEGE COMMUNITY DEATHS Francine Cardman, of Somerville, on January 23, 2022. She was associate professor, The Ecclesiastical Faculty from 2008 to 2022 and part-time faculty, The Institute for Religious and Pastoral Ministry from 1979 to 2004.

Patricia Parlon, of Newton, on December 29, 2021. She was Administrative Assistant to the Dean, Boston College Law School from 1997 to 2021.

Charles Smith, Jr., of Newton, on January 13, 2022. He was professor emeritus, Lynch School of Education and Human Development and taught from 1968 to 2016.

Robert Starratt, of South Yarmouth, on January 12, 2022. He was professor emeritus, Lynch School of Education and Human Development and taught from 1997 to 2013.

Catharine Wells, of Newton, on March 7, 2022. She was professor, Boston College Law School and taught from 1995 to 2022.

Correction: In the winter 2022 issue of Boston College Magazine, the following alumni were incorrectly listed as deceased: Michael Giunta ’81; Joseph R. Driscoll ’92; and Erin (Moody) Brennan ’12, JD’15. The Boston College Alumni Association regrets the errors.

The “Obituaries” section is compiled from national listings as well as from notifications submitted by friends and family of alumni. It consists of names of those whose deaths have been reported to us since the previous issue of Boston College Magazine. Please send information on deceased alumni to Advancement Information Systems, Cadigan Alumni Center, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 or to infoserv@bc.edu. s um m er 2 0 2 2 v cl a ss no t es

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advancing boston college

MAKING DREAMS COME TRUE Boston College is one of only 21 private national research universities that admits students on the merit of their applications, not on their ability to afford tuition, and which also meets full demonstrated financial need.

Philanthropic support of student aid remains BC’s highest priority—and every gift toward scholarships provides talented young men and women the opportunity to pursue their passions at the Heights.

Thanks to her BC professors, grants, and donor support, Urwa turned a journalism experience into a book.

Go out there and pursue your ambition. Whatever it is that you’re passionate about, no matter how impossible or how infeasible or how large it seems, is very doable if you have the passion to do it.”

URWA HAMEED ’22

schiller family pops scholar

Each BC student has their own background, their own motivations, and their own story. Here are five Eagles who made it to BC thanks to scholarship support.

Majors: Political Science and International Studies

To hear more from these students in their own words, visit bc.edu/dreamsmadereal.

Hometown: Vernon, Connecticut

You answered the call. Together, we led the charge.

Last month, the Be a Beacon campaign came to a close. But the journey for thousands of Eagles is just beginning thanks to the generosity of alumni, parents, and friends. In under two years, you contributed more than $250 million to support students at the Heights.

be a beacon milestones

$250M 31,000+ 3,300+ raised

donors

scholarships

Learn more at beabeacon.bc.edu

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Point guards need to be able to do it all, and Marnelle fits the mold.

To a young Sabeeh, Batman personified intelligence and strength, inspiring him to study the brain.

Neuroscience is a field that’s going to be really impactful in the next 10 to 20 years. Leading a brain-computer interface company toward a sustainable and awesome future for the world is something I strive to do.”

In middle school, I didn’t want to play basketball, I wanted to be a cheerleader for basketball. My mom said, ‘You’re not going to cheer for other people.

You are going to be the person who gets cheered.’”

MARNELLE GARRAUD ’22 james g. murphy memorial scholar

SABEEH HASSANY ’25 ellis family scholar Majors: Computer Science and Neuroscience Hometown: North Babylon, New York

Concentrations: Information Systems and Business Analytics Hometown: Lynn, Massachusetts

As a member of the Boston College Full Swing dance team, Luke is making all the right moves.

Majors: History and Art History Hometown: Greenville, North Carolina

After a 10-day class pilgrimage through the desert, Linda returned transformed in mind, body, and spirit.

We each discovered what we cling to when we are drained—in all aspects of the word. By the end of the trip, I had a much deeper understanding of myself.”

LINDA JONES ’22

barry family pops scholar

Major: Computer Science Hometown: South Bend, Indiana

Growing up, I was taught to help others and build community over the self because you’re stronger with a community.

So if I can help build a community or maintain one, that'd be really meaningful.”

LUKE SANFORD ’25 parsley family scholar 69

advancing boston college

ore than 500 Boston College alumni, parents, and friends gathered in New York City on April 21 for the 32nd Wall Street Business Leadership Council Tribute Dinner. During the gala, University President William P. Leahy, S.J., presented the President’s Medal for Excellence to Phil Schiller ’82, in recognition of Schiller’s achievements as a senior leader at Apple, Inc. Past chair of the Wall Street Council, Steve Barry ’85, P’14, ’17, Trustee Associate, was also recognized for his leadership of the group for seven years and his ongoing commitment to the University.

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The event, which supports the Gabelli Presidential Scholars Program, celebrated the 17 senior Presidential Scholars graduating in 2022 and raised $2 million. To become a Presidential Scholar, one must not only possess outstanding academic and intellectual potential, but also be a person of great character and integrity. In their passion to make the world a better place, Presidential Scholars demonstrate their commitment to the BC mission.

Student speaker and Presidential Scholar Jenna Mu ’22

2022 Presidential Scholars with program director Kathleen Bailey ’76, PhD’01 (back row, fifth from left), University President William P. Leahy, S.J. (center), and program associate director Jennie Thomas (back row, sixth from right)

Wall Street Business Leadership Council past co-chair Steve Barry ’85, P’14, ’17, Trustee Associate, receives a special award from current Council chair Jon M. Rather ’82, P’10,’12,’14,’17

President's Medal for Excellence honoree Phil Schiller ’82 addresses the crowd

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taken seriously here, as is the formation of students in the classroom. The faculty produces publishing-wise, and the rankings are fine. But I’m more concerned with striving for greatness as it’s set forth in the Gospels.

Jesus reverses the calculus, so to speak: To be truly great is to serve, to give of yourself in loving service to others, to become more generous and more magnanimous.

Being a dean is a lot like coaching a team. You try to put people in a position to succeed, play to their strengths, give them help and support. But don’t ask them to do things they’re not good at or passionate about. You learn what their strengths are, you play to that.

Take risks and push yourself. The other side of just playing to your strengths is that it’s easy to get into a comfort zone in life, to do only the things that I like and am good at. While training people for the ministry, I encourage them to try things they haven’t done before. Have you ever done chaplaincy work? Have you ever done hospice work? We grow by allowing ourselves to be challenged, and by looking at those areas of our lives that we can improve upon.

WHAT I’VE LEARNED

Thomas D. Stegman, SJ In keeping with the advice of his medical team, Stegman stepped down this summer from his position as dean of the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. Stegman, who is 59, was diagnosed in 2019 with glioblastoma, an incurable form of brain cancer. The school flourished during his six years as dean, ascending to the upper echelons of world rankings while maintaining its warm and welcoming culture. Following a yearlong sabbatical, Stegman plans to rejoin the school’s faculty.

—John Wolfson I’m not the God of my life. I know that I’m a creature. I didn’t give myself life. But when we are able to accomplish certain things, when we’re able to feel like we’re in control, it’s easy to forget that I’m not God. With my illness, and remembering that I’m not in control, I’m appreciating that all there is about life really is a gift. I’m appreciating birdsong in the morning, and I’m noticing the gentle breezes, which are a reminder to me of God’s presence, of God’s Spirit re-creating the face of the earth every day and God’s pouring his love into our hearts, refreshing us.

yourself. That way you don’t have to be dependent on others. That works for a lot of things in life. Certainly in the area of scholarship and studies—nobody can do it for you, right?

But there’s a shadow side to that. I can wall myself off from others, and wall myself off from what has always been true, which is that we really do need one another. I have benefited from so much love and support from people here at Boston College and beyond. I find myself very grateful for others in ways that I haven’t been before. I teach these things, but I think I have become better at living them.

Open yourself to others. I’ve kind of operated by, You want something done right? Well, do it

Greatness is measured in many ways. The BC STM has been very productive. Pedagogy is

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bcm v su m m e r 20 2 2

Make use of all the time that’s given to you.

It took me about three weeks from the time of my diagnosis to Google “glioblastoma.”

It took me a long time because I knew it was pretty dire. And then I read the statistics. The median lifespan after the diagnosis and first treatment is fourteen months. And here I am at thirty-five months. About 5 percent make it to five years. So, it’s like there’s two minutes left in the game. What can we get done?

What needs to get done? And that’s really a sharper focus that I actually find very helpful.

Recognize your blessings. A student who learned of my illness asked me if I ever get angry with God. I told her no, not for one second. I have lived a blessed life. I have received so many blessings through the Society of Jesus in terms of the education I’ve been given, the health care I’ve received through our benefactors. I’ve been able to travel as a Jesuit. I have so much to be grateful for. I can go back to many times where I can see God was leading me through circumstances, through people. If I had to go tomorrow, I wouldn’t be happy or thrilled about it, but I would also be able to look back at a very rich, full life. So it didn’t take me long to answer the student’s question: No, I’m not angry with God because God has been so good to me. n photos: Caitlin Cunningham

Parting Shot

Fiddler on the Heights Andrew Caden ’24 has once again qualified for the prestigious All-Ireland Fleadh fiddling competition, at which he’ll challenge the best players in the world. Caden won the 15-to-18-year-old category back in 2017, and in August he’ll compete in the over-18 category. “He’s as good as anyone his age in the world right now,” said Brian Conway, his longtime teacher.

“It’s really important to preserve the tradition—you don’t want it to die,” Caden said. “There’s also a challenge in being your own musician within the parameters of what’s viewed as traditional.”

—Julia Landwehr ’22

See a video of Caden playing »

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