5 minute read
Long We'll Remember
Alumnus reflects on the ROAD NOT TAKEN, and all the difference that has made.
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By Karl Zender ’59, PhD
The mailing label on the copies of the Case Alumnus that appear in my mailbox reads “Karl F. Zender, ’59 PhD.” The label does not list my major at Case, the university where I received my PhD, nor my field of study. My major was Physics. I earned my PhD at the University of Iowa in 1970, and my field of study was English literature. On the transition across those 11 years hangs, as Shakespeare would say, a tale.
I have many fond memories of my time at Case: freshman beanies; Robert Shankland, chair of Physics, explaining why a pitched baseball really can curve; the friendships I formed on campus and in my fraternity, Theta Chi, where the other members included Donald Knuth, who even then was on his way to becoming a world-renowned expert in computer science.
In retrospect, one of the most important of those memories is of a course I took in the second semester of my senior year, an elective in American literature, where I first read William Faulkner’s The Bear. Along with many of my classmates, I found the stylistic difficulties of the story baffling. Yet something about that story (in which the central character, Isaac McCaslin, learns of his family’s shameful history) must have planted a seed, because in the subsequent 60 years I’ve returned repeatedly to reading, and writing about, Faulkner’s fiction.
While at Case, I’d earned almost as many credits in math as in physics, so it seemed to make sense when I graduated to take a job with IBM, at its Cleveland office, where I, too intended to enter the field of computer science. Yet for a variety of reasons, not the least my father’s death in November of that year, I found myself adrift and desperately unhappy. So I quit my job at IBM, took a part-time job at Standard Oil, down in the Flats, walked across the fence to WRU, and was introduced to Shakespeare’s plays by a charismatic professor. I earned an MA in English, then the PhD at Iowa, and moved on to a career in teaching and literary research, first at Washington University in St. Louis, then, since 1973, at the University of California at Davis, where I am now Professor Emeritus.
The philosopher Kierkegaard observed that we live life forward but understand it backwards. In looking back, it’s important to avoid imposing a false clarity on an experience that at its inception may seem ill-formed and chaotic, and, in my instance, was opposed by friends and family. They had difficulty understanding why I would walk away from a promising career and instead begin study in a field where, as the joke has it, you major in learning how to become a barista.
In nonetheless making this choice, I found support in a similar decision by Jim Kincaid, who also was an enrollee in that seminal course in American literature. Jim, who majored in electrical engineering and was a genuine BMOC, also crossed the fence to WRU, earning an MA there, then a PhD at Ohio State, both in English, followed by a distinguished career, culminating in a named professorship at the University of Southern California.
I’m confident that Jim would agree that our shift in fields was by no means a clean break. I’ve carried away from my years at Case a number of benefits — an analytical cast of mind, a skepticism about the universality of the right-brain left-brain dichotomy, an appreciation of the elegance and the artfulness of a well-made proof in mathematics. I’ve taken away as well the ability to use myself as an example when I tell students, uncertain about their futures, that the road they first walk on may not be the one they later find themselves traveling.
Thank you, Case, for these benefits, and more.
Karl is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of California, Davis. His most recent book, “Shakespeare and Faulkner: Selves and Others,” was published in 2021 by Louisiana State University Press.
Do you have a Case memory to share? Let’s hear it. Email robert.smith@casealum.org
The stockholder’s advantage: A gift of stock can achieve a win-win
If you own stock or other securities that have increased in value since you bought them, and you’ve owned them for at least one year, you have a unique opportunity for philanthropy. When you donate securities to the Case Alumni Foundation, you receive the same income tax savings (if you itemize) that you would if you wrote us a check, but with the added benefit of eliminating capital gains taxes on the transfer — which can be as high as 20 percent.
Making a gift of securities to support students, faculty, and programs at Case is as easy as instructing your broker to transfer the shares or, if you have the physical securities, hand-delivering or mailing the certificates along with a stock power to the Case Alumni Foundation in separate envelopes. (Tip: Using separate envelopes protects your gift, as the certificates will not be negotiable without the stock power.)
Here’s an example of how a gift of stock works:
Dave owns stocks valued at $25,000 that he purchased for $10,000 several years ago. He would pay $2,250 in capital gains tax if he sells the securities ($15,000 X .15 capital gains tax rate). Instead, Dave decides to donate the stock to the Case Alumni Foundation. Dave receives an income tax charitable deduction for the full fair market value of $25,000 and eliminates any capital gains tax.
Using assets other than cash also allows you more flexibility, especially if you plan your gift creatively. For example, if you aren’t ready to give up these assets during your lifetime, a gift of securities through your will or living trust allows you the flexibility to change your mind at any time. You can continue to receive dividends and participate in shareholder votes, and the securities are still yours if you need them for other expenses.
Through creative gift planning, you can secure your own financial future and help support a cause that’s close to your heart. We can work with your advisors to help you plan for tomorrow and receive maximum benefits today.
We can also help clarify and document the steps to donate stock to the Case Alumni Foundation. Simply contact Stephen Zinram, Executive Director, at 216.368.8841 or stephen.zinram@casealum.org to see how this gift can be win-win.
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