Hamilton Magazine - Fall 2022

Magazine

Fall 2022

THINGS YOU’LL LEARN Key Grips Get Emmys Before “Camera ... Action” come “Lights.” Mort Korn ’80 has earned Emmy Awards for his work as a key grip overseeing lighting, rigging, set construction, and camera movement for pre-taped segments on Saturday Night Live. PAGE 5

Libraries Bridge Divides President and CEO of the Brooklyn Public Library Linda Johnson ’80 discusses Books UnBanned, a new program designed to combat the growing nationwide effort to remove books from library shelves. PAGE 26

History Demands a Reckoning Retired U.S. Army brigadier general, professor emeritus of history at West Point, and now visiting professor of history at Hamilton, Ty Seidule grew up revering Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Now his views have radically changed. PAGE 38

Cicadas Can Be Soulmates Cole Wassiliew shares how he discovered an unexpected bond with an insect. Cate van den Beemt writes about having three moms, while Katy Appleman paints a picture of hiking through forest fire scorch as the first female Boy Scout from her hometown.

Meet eight of Hamilton’s first-year students through their admission essays. PAGE 44

How to Make Creamy Soup ...

WITH NO CREAM! Check out the Bookshelf section for a recipe for killer creamy tomato soup from Emma Laperruque’s ’14 book Food52 Big Little Recipes: Good Food with Minimal Ingredients and Maximal Flavor. PAGE 52

On the cover

Self-appointed “dean and docent” of the Hamilton cemetery, Fred Rogers says, “To pluck a blade of grass in the College cemetery is to pull a golden thread that leads deep into Hamilton history.” Read about some of the cemetery’s inhabitants. PAGE 28 ILLUSTRATION BY MARK M. MULLIN THIS PAGE: With chillier days fast approaching, we thought it would be fun to turn back the calendar to last spring and take one last look at students celebrating Holi, the traditional Hindu event also known as the Festival of Colours.

PHOTOS BY JOSH MCKEE

COMMENTS

HAMILTON MAGAZINE FALL 2022 VOLUME 87, NO. 2 EDITOR Stacey J. Himmelberger P’15,’22 (shimmelb@hamilton.edu) SENIOR WRITER Megan B. Keniston ART DIRECTOR & DESIGNER Mark M. Mullin DESIGNER Bradley J. Lewthwaite PRODUCTION MANAGER Mona M. Dunn PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Phyllis L. Jackson CONTRIBUTING WRITER Jorge L. Hernández ’72 STUDENT WRITER Claire S. Williams ’25 STUDENT ILLUSTRATOR Sawyer Kron ’25 PHOTOGRAPHER Zack Stanek WEB COORDINATOR Esena J. Jackson SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR Tim O’Keeffe

VICE PRESIDENT, COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING Melissa Farmer Richards

CONTACT Email: editor@hamilton.edu Phone: 866-729-0313 © 2022, Trustees of Hamilton College

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THE PEOPLE MAKE THE PLACE.

J

OHN BARTLE WAS one of the first professors I met when I arrived at Hamilton 27 years ago. It was late March, a time when I would normally be happily shoving my winter coat to the back of my closet. However, this is Clinton.

One day while walking across a blustery Martin’s Way, I ran into John, who smiled through the wisps of frozen particles. As soon as he learned I was new to campus, he suggested we head to Café Opus. Ten minutes into our conversation, I experienced that hard-to-put-into-words feeling I had heard so many people describe — “it’s just something about this place that makes you feel at home.”

Fast forward 23 years. I’m sitting in the Events Barn with my daughter at Accepted Students Open House. Having practically grown up on College Hill, she was not nearly as excited about the campus tour as she was to sit in on a few classes.

She selected one in government, her intended major, and I suggested she also try a Russian language course with Professor Bartle. We headed to Christian Johnson and found the class of about eight students. She was the only high schooler. John introduced himself and the Hamilton students did the same — in Russian. They proceeded

with their lesson for the day, including her in the discussion.

Of course, she was quickly forgiven for her mispronunciations and “allowed” to get some help in English, but the experience engaged her. The following spring as a first-year Hamilton student, she took a class with John that prepared students for tutoring refugees in Utica.

I have had the great fortune to interact regularly with John over the years, whether it was discussing his work with The Refugee Project or sharing a laugh at a campus reception. He always greeted me with that same warm smile. After his unexpected death earlier this summer (see hamilton.edu/ bartle), many alumni shared reflections about the beloved professor on social media. This one from Lauren Lanzotti ’14 made my eyes well up: “Professor Bartle was one of my most memorable educators at Hamilton. He advised me on my Comp Lit thesis, and we would typically discuss thesis chapters at a random restaurant

in Utica — each chapter deserving a different venue. He wanted me to see all the wonderful people and foods of Utica before I graduated, and when I married my husband at Hamilton this past January, our wedding website included a list of ‘Prof. Bartle’s Utica Gems’ in our places to eat. He is the reason I care and speak passionately about the refugee programs in Utica, the reason my Russian Lit thesis is to this day one of the things I’m most proud of, and the example I use when explaining how the lack-of-curriculum works so well at Hamilton. He was a professor with no sense of departmental boundaries — he taught and talked to everyone and anyone. I know his tie dye shirts and fantastic laugh will be missed on the Hill, and Utica has surely lost one of its greatest gems.”

I still believe that, at Hamilton, the people make the place.

But for me and so many others whose lives have been changed for the better simply by having known John, the place also makes the people.

Stacey J. Himmelberger P’15,’22, Editor

COMMENTS THE TRUSTEES David M. Solomon ’84, P’16, Chair Robert E. Delaney, Jr. ’79, Vice Chair Linda E. Johnson ’80, Vice Chair

READING THE WINTER 2022 issue of the Hamilton magazine, I was struck by how many of the articles resonated with me in remarkably various ways. Here’s a curious list: First, in the “10 Things Not to Miss in Clinton” blurb, the Clinton Cider Mill was listed first. In the early fall of my freshman year, a friend and I happened on the Cider Mill and purchased cider and cheddar cheese. This small purchase began the transformation of my relationship to food.

I’d never drunk true cider, only apple juice, and I’d never had superb cheese sliced from a huge round, aged 3 years. Incredible tastes. I don’t exaggerate in saying that this was the beginning of my love for the kinds of food I never ate when growing up.

Second, I admired the information in the short blurb about Owen Routhier ’23 and his summer studying blue carbon sequestration on Cape Cod. I have fond memories of Cape Cod, and I taught seminars on environmental literature during my years at San Jose State University.

Owen is involved in a terrific project.

And third, I loved the article on “Teaching Tools” regarding Michael Lang ’67 and the Rare Book Room. My senior year (’69’70) after Lang had graduated, I had a work-study job in the library, overseen by the wonderful Mrs. Browning, and during that year I fell in love with the Rare Book Room/Treasure Room. I therefore feel an affinity with Mr. Lang. My fascination

with the collection in this room probably had some influence on my decision, later, to pursue a doctorate in Early American literature and to consult a number of manuscripts held by various research libraries.

John Engell ’70, professor emeritus of English at San Jose State University “LOOKING FOR HENRY” – great article [Winter 2022] about two terrific Hamilton alumni who volunteered to risk their lives in a war that became very unpopular as time went on and as our efforts proved futile. The only article I read in its entirety.

Henry Little [’65] and Tom Macy [’65], and roommate Norm Smith [’65], were class leaders who all led very purposeful and productive lives. It was a joy to read about them while they are still alive. All too often we read about a friend’s life after they have died, and we wish we had been more in touch while they were still with us. Many Hamilton alumni have led very interesting and productive lives, and it would be a great addition to the Hamilton magazine to spotlight accomplished alumni in each issue.

Special kudos and thanks to Sydney Shafroth Macy, whose excellent writing told a good story and would easily have passed Hamilton’s strenuous English writing requirements.

Jon Vick ’64

KUDOS ON SYDNEY MACY’S excellent “Looking for Henry” memoir. Though we shared a class or two during our three years on the Hill, I never knew either Tom or Henry well. So, when I read the piece, coming as it did in the magazine’s back section (formerly reserved for the Necrology), my first thought was that one or both had passed. An impression, I believe, reinforced by the article’s subtle tone, which I found to convey the sad fondness reserved for a lost loved one.

I promptly reached out to my good friend Barry Seaman [’67], who assured me both men are still very much with us. Confusion aside, I can only say how deeply affecting I found the story of these two remarkable fellow alums and Vietnam vets who went on to lead immensely constructive and meaningful lives.

CHARTER TRUSTEES Aron J. Ain ’79, P’09,’11 Mason P. Ashe ’85 Manal Ataya ’01 Richard Bernstein ’80 Peter B. Coffin ’81, P’14 Julia K. Cowles ’84 Daniel C. Fielding ’07 Carol T. Friscia K’77 Amy Owens Goodfriend ’82 Philip L. Hawkins ’78 David P. Hess ’77 Gregory T. Hoogkamp ’82 Lea Haber Kuck ’87, P’24 Sharon D. Madison ’84 Christopher P. Marshall ’90 Robert S. Morris ’76, P’16,’17 Daniel T.H. Nye ’88, P’24 Montgomery G. Pooley ’84, P’16,’19 Ronald R. Pressman ’80 Imad I. Qasim ’79 R. Christopher Regan ’77, P’08 Nancy Roob ’87 Alexander C. Sacerdote ’94 Jack R. Selby ’96 David Wippman

Jeff Denker ’66

LIFE TRUSTEES Henry W. Bedford II ’76 David W. Blood ’81, P’12 Harold W. Bogle ’75, P’14 Brian T. Bristol P’11 Christina E. Carroll P’90 Gerald V. Dirvin ’59, P’84, GP’17 Sean K. Fitzpatrick ’63, P’87 Lee C. Garcia ’67 Eugenie A. Havemeyer GP’00 Joel W. Johnson ’65, P’93 Kevin W. Kennedy ’70 † A.G. Lafley ’69 † George F. Little II ’71, P’04 Arthur J. Massolo ’64, P’93 Donald R. Osborn P’86, GP’16 Mary Burke Partridge P’94 John G. Rice ’78 Stephen I. Sadove ’73, P’07,’10,’13 † Howard J. Schneider ’60, P’85,’87,’89, GP’17,’21 Thomas J. Schwarz ’66, P’01 A. Barrett Seaman ’67 Nancy Ferguson Seeley GP’17 Chester A. Siuda ’70, P’06 Susan E. Skerritt K’77, P’11 Charles O. Svenson ’61, P’00 Thomas J. Tull ’92, P’13 Susan Valentine K’73 Jack Withiam, Jr. ’71, P’16,’20 Jaime E. Yordán ’71 Srilata Zaheer † Chairmen Emeriti

Send your letters, story ideas, and feedback to editor@hamilton.edu or Hamilton magazine, 198 College Hill Road, Clinton, NY 13323.

We welcome comments on topics discussed in the magazine or on any subject of possible interest to the College community. Please include your name and class year, and whether you intend for your letter to be published. We reserve the right to judge whether a letter is appropriate for publication and to edit for accuracy and length.

ALUMNI TRUSTEES Betsy G. Bacot ’84 Aditya Bhasin ’94 Phyllis A. Breland ’80 Kathleen Corsi ’82, P’23 Mark T. Fedorcik ’95 Eric F. Grossman ’88 John Hadity ’83 Monique L. Holloway ’87, P’14,’18 Marc B. Randolph ’81 Daniel I. Rifkin ’88, P’23 Lindsey L. Rotolo ’97 Sharon S. Walker ’90

PRESIDENT OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION John J. Christopher ’83, P’14

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COMMENTS

THERE IS A FOOTNOTE to the Macy-Little friendship story.

When I was convalescing at Valley Forge General Hospital in 1968, I learned that the U.S. Army was going to retire me, thus making me eligible to attend graduate school at the VA’s expense. That prompted me to go into the admissions office of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance, where I happened upon my Hamilton acquaintance Bill Laidlaw [’64], who as an MBA grad student was working in that office. Bill was very helpful in securing my admission to Wharton’s MBA program, for which I thanked Bill again many years later when I learned he was interim dean of Case Western Reserve’s graduate business school.

Indeed, Hamilton connections run deep.

would press them for us and give us the juice in big bottles (can’t recall if we paid for the bottles).

We were not asked to pay for the pressing. In my memory, it was the most delicious cider ever! I’m delighted to know that the Cider Mill is still there.

Geoff Emerson ’61 I APPLAUD YOU on the winter 2022 edition of Hamilton magazine. Every page seemed to be cheering on the College’s encouragement of diversity, on and off campus. Thusly, it is all the more galling to think back to 2015 when Peter Thiel was chosen to deliver Hamilton’s Commencement address. He stands against the magazine’s fine ideas and his appearance on campus will forever stain the College’s otherwise illustrious history.

OVERHEARD ONLINE

B

ACK IN THE SPRING when the Communications Office shared news of Professor of Chemistry Karen Brewer receiving the Class of 1962

Outstanding Teaching Award, one of her former students, Leontine Hillenaar ’95, took time to congratulate her on Facebook — and share a memory …

Sandy Gottlieb ’79

Henry Little ’65 ON PAGE 39 of the [Winter 2022] issue, in an article titled “10 Things Not to Miss in Clinton,” the Number 1 place mentioned was the Clinton Cider Mill. A wonderful memory came back to me.

In the 1960s, before Kirkland College was built, there was an abandoned apple orchard beyond Root Glen. Every year the apples were uncollected and would just fall to the ground.

Several of my classmates, including Bill Rockino ’61, and I would collect them in cartons and take them down to the Clinton Cider Mill. The owners very kindly

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‘WE ARE HAMILTON’ GOLD!

SPECIAL EDITION . Edited by EDVIGE JEAN-FRANÇOIS ’90

HAMILTON Magazine

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Winter–Spring 2021

WE ARE HAMILTON 1

HE WINTER-SPRING 2020-21 issue of Hamilton magazine, We Are Hamilton, has received the gold award in the 2022 Council for the Advancement and Support of Education Circle of Excellence competition as the best college or university magazine special edition. Kudos to guest editor Edvige Jean-François ’90 for working with the magazine’s staff on this issue featuring

essays and comments from more than two dozen alumni and community members who shared what it means to them to be Black in America.

The judges noted: “In a year where this important topic was discussed, we felt that this issue stood out from all the others. It was beautifully laid out with very strong photography, and the stories were told through a variety of voices. Well done.”

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EDIT A LEGACY

Chris Woodbridge ’87 RETIRED U.S. MARINE CORPS Colonel Chris Woodbridge ’87 is humbled to be entrusted with the stewardship of what he calls one of the U.S. Marines Corps’ “family treasures.” He is editor and publisher of the Marine Corps Gazette, a professional journal in publication since 1916.

“I publish articles on subjects of importance for today’s Marines written by all ranks and specialties,” Woodbridge says.

“As a veteran, this is a great way to give back and stay connected to the Marines and their mission.”

At Hamilton, he majored in Asian studies, concentrating in Japanese and Chinese languages. “I am forever grateful for the emphasis Hamilton placed on written and spoken communications,” he says. “Nothing has served me better as a leader in the Marine Corps and beyond.”

After graduation, his first deployment was to Okinawa and the Philippines; his first combat operation was Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Woodbridge earned a master’s degree in strategic studies from the Marine Corps War College in 2007. From 2001 until he retired in 2015, his career included stints in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, the Philippines, and Korea.

Woodbridge began heading the Gazette soon after his retirement. When he leaves this post, the Brooklyn, N.Y., native says he may continue consulting for professional military education organizations.

“I won’t take on a real job beyond beach and travel,” he says. n

GET A GRIP

Mort Korn ’80

AS KEY GRIP for the Saturday Night Live film unit, Mort Korn ’80 supervises technicians who create the pre-taped content integral to the show’s weekly comedic mix.

Among his favorite projects are skits that featured Kate McKinnon satirizing Kelly Anne Conway and the TV commercial parody for the Mercedes AA class, a luxury vehicle that runs on 9,648 AA batteries.

“We get a script Wednesday night, it shoots Friday, and is on the air Saturday night,” Korn says. “In that timeframe we parody hundred-million-dollar movies and elaborate music videos, and create political satires.”

Grips are staffers responsible for setting up equipment that supports the camera on a set. The key grip is their supervisor who oversees lighting, rigging, set construction, and camera movement. For his work on SNL, Korn has been honored by the Television Academy with Emmys for his contributions to the Outstanding Variety Sketch Series during the show’s past two seasons.

Korn started out as an English major at Hamilton. During that time the College

offered one video production course and two in film production. “There was minimal equipment, a couple of Bolex hand-wound film cameras, a few barely operational lights, and a Sony Portapak video camera,” he says.

“We edited our 16mm film with primitive cutters, basically razor blades on a hinge. It was as basic film production as you could find, but you were forced to use your ingenuity and powers of invention.”

Despite these limitations, a number of students — Korn included — went on to careers in film production. Six months after graduation he found steady employment as a production assistant at a TV commercial production company. He segued to jobs as a union grip, started running his own crews, and established a clientele doing TV commercials. In 1996, that experience led to his current job.

“When I first started at SNL, we’d have spots on maybe half the shows. Now we have a weekly gig,” he says.

The New York native lives in Nyack, N.Y., with his wife, Kim Coons ’79, a retired Mercy College administrator.

What’s next in his career? “Retirement,” Korn says. n

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MANAGE OCEAN RESOURCES Jon Kurland ’90

AS THE ALASKA REGIONAL administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Jon Kurland ’90 oversees the management of commercial fisheries, marine mammals, and ocean habitats. He notes that Alaskan waters produce over half of the nation’s seafood, and support nationally and globally significant marine mammal populations and habitats.

“My office develops and implements regulatory programs to maximize commercial, recreational, and subsistence fishing opportunities while ensuring the sustainability of fish stocks and fishing communities in

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Alaska,” he says. “We also co-manage subsistence use of marine mammals like whales, sea lions, and fur seals with Alaska Native organizations.”

As a government major at Hamilton, Kurland’s senior thesis focused on the relationship between law and social change. “I was involved in Hamilton’s nascent environmental action club, and spent spring semester of my junior year with the Williams-Mystic maritime studies program,” he says.

Kurland had considered law school, but decided that wasn’t the right fit. Attending an environmental careers conference in Boston his senior year (with support from Hamilton’s Career Center) led him to an internship with NOAA and a summer job there after graduation. He then completed a master’s degree in marine affairs from the University of Rhode

Island, specializing in the management of large marine ecosystems.

“My first jobs with NOAA involved habitat conservation, based in Gloucester, Mass. Then I took a job at NOAA headquarters, leading a new national program to identify and protect essential fish habitats,” Kurland says.

In 2002, he moved to Juneau to lead the Alaska Region’s Habitat Conservation Division, eventually switching roles to lead the Protected Resources Division focused on conservation and recovery of marine mammals.

Now he heads the agency’s Alaska region.

“After 20 years in Alaska, I’m excited to be in a new and broader role with NOAA,” Kurland says. “I hope to help the agency navigate new challenges for managing ocean resources sustainably as ecosystems respond to climate change.” n

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DEVELOP STRATEGICALLY Cimone Jordan ’19

AS DIRECTOR OF HOUSING and neighborhood planning for the City of Syracuse, Cimone Jordan ’19 coordinates housing and code enforcement initiatives to help her hometown deal with blighted properties. On the job since April, she oversees the process for city tax-based seizures, which includes spearheading the Cities RISE Community

MAKE SPACE

kylie burnham ’15 KYLIE BURNHAM ’15 IS ALWAYS working on a lot of projects. While they might appear unrelated, there’s a common thread: they all make people’s lives better. burnham enjoys “crafting experiences for joy and learning, exploring gender, relation, and liberation.” Following her work at Hamilton as an educational technologist, burnham now helps faculty and students as a digital media specialist for the Digital Design Studio in the Tisch Library at Tufts University, where she just completed her master’s in museum education. A self-described eclectic artist and out-of-classroom educator, burnham has sought to “position museums, galleries, and libraries as sites for wellbeing and an exploration of the benefits of art and object interpretation for mental health and self-discovery.”

Ambassador Program and Syracuse’s infill housing development mission to add living units into existing areas.

“Each day varies to include everything from mapping, property research, talking before the Common Council, and meeting with housing developers,” she says.

Jordan, an environmental studies major, credits Hamilton with sparking her interest in urban development. “I was always interested in the natural environment, but my professors challenged me to consider the built environment and explore how the two interact, and examine what roles humans play in the revitalization or destruction of both,” she says.

After graduation, Jordan joined Syracuse’s Department of Neighborhood and Business Development as a city planner

“Museum educators often practice visual thinking strategies, which focus on amplifying the visitor’s voice and allowing them to construct knowledge while having their reality valued and affirmed,” she says. “That can be a really beneficial thing to experience if you are a survivor of traumatic events or deal with depression.” burnham moved to Boston with the intention of making community art. She and a friend co-founded the Queer Theatre Project in 2021, an all-volunteer, recreational community theatre company for and by the LGBTQIA+ community who enjoy the art of performance. The group recently choreographed a genderless version of Twelfth Night.

They perform in parks and other venues in and around Boston.

“It has brought together many parts of the queer communities,” burnham says. “It’s really nice that it has been a space where we have people of all genders and sexualities.”

In between it all, burnham still has spare time to help run the housing co-op she lives

conducting outreach on zombie properties — vacant and abandoned properties in foreclosure that banks are responsible for maintaining. She advanced to her current role and sees herself staying in city government for the next few years before moving into the private sector and joining an urban planning firm or going into real estate.

But for now, her focus remains on her current job.

“One of my favorite projects is reimagining how Syracuse can pair infill housing development with strategic tree planting to improve access to public health benefits associated with trees,” Jordan says.

“Hamilton gave me the space to think broadly, allowing me to bring a fresh perspective and introduce non-traditional solutions to age-old problems.” n

in, make books and puzzles with her recently purchased book press, and pursue becoming an accredited financial counselor to help those with less financial means.

“I’m very passionate about mental health,” she says. “I think that is visible in a lot of my work and in the collection of things I’ve been doing lately, and that it will be visible in whatever might be next.” n

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PATIENTLY PRESERVE James Bramley ’73

PROVIDE HEADSPACE Morgan Selzer Handel ’03

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thinking and effective communication to honing my writing skills, I learned much from my time on the Hill.”

A government major, Handel moved to New York City and used the alumni database to net an assistant marketing job at Miramax.

From there she moved to MTV’s development team, working on shows like Laguna Beach and The Hills. While at MTV, the Washington, D.C., native relocated to LA. After MTV, Handel spent a year at a production company developing shows and producing TV pilots. She joined Style Network as its director of development before moving on to Country Music Television, where she advanced to senior VP of programming and development. At CMT, Handel was executive producer of Nashville, Music City, and Wife Swap.

Today, Handel feels blessed to have found a career at Headspace. “It’s been life changing to work on content that truly helps people live a better life, reduce their stress and anxiety, and take care of their mental health,” she says. n

ZACK STANEK

EMMY AWARD-WINNER Morgan Selzer Handel ’03 has turned a passion for entertainment into a career in the visual fields of film, TV, and now producing content to help people live better lives.

Three years ago, Handel joined the meditation-based app Headspace as chief content officer. She manages a team responsible for content strategy and production, along with overseeing brand, talent, and content partnerships.

Morgan is executive producer for Netflix’s Headspace Guide to Meditation, Headspace Guide to Sleep, and Unwind Your Mind. She also launched a slew of podcasts, including the hit daily Radio Headspace, collaborating with artists such as John Legend, and worked with Sesame Street to create kids’ content.

Handel and her team were nominated for three 2022 Emmy Awards for the Netflix projects and won for Best Main Titles/Graphics for Headspace Guide to Meditation.

“My liberal arts education provided me with invaluable skills that set me up for success in my career,” Handel says. “From critical

THERE ARE NO IDLE HANDS for James Bramley ’73, who in retirement crafted a table with an unusual Hamilton provenance.

During the summer of 1972, Bramley was hired as a student to help the College grounds crew prune and cut trees. While clearing trees along Peter’s Lane, they came upon an old apple tree.

“As we cut through the trunk, we could see that the core was hollow, and the bark and sapwood had created an interesting architecture,” he recalls. Bramley had acquired an interest in forestry from his father, William Bramley ’40, who had also done basic furniture making. “I immediately saw the potential for the trunk to make a glass-top table,” he says.

Bramley saved a tree section and stored it in his garage as career intervened. A biology major, he studied medicine in Italy and at Georgetown University before serving as an ER physician and then completing an infectious diseases fellowship at Brown.

Bramley was in private practice in the Utica area for 30 years before retiring in 2019.

He then set to work on the table and, with the help of an artisan friend, completed the project. “It was not difficult and required only some hours recutting, sanding and staining, and designing and purchasing the glass top,” Bramley says.

Fifty years later, the old trunk sits as a lamp table in Bramley’s home, a souvenir of a youthful summer spent working on College Hill. n

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WRITE WHAT THEY KNOW

works as the strategic initiatives editor at New Lines, a magazine launched in 2020 “for the best ideas and writing about the Middle East and beyond.” She is also founder of the podcast Dignified Resilience and hosts a weekly “Good Talk” Instagram Live series.

Though Asimovic Akyol has achieved esteem in her field, her path was in no way linear. A double major in world politics and French at Hamilton, she explored careers in the fashion and film festival industries. She

was well on her way to a Ph.D. in international relations when she realized there were other avenues to express her ideas.

Encouraged by her husband, public intellectual Mustafa Akyol, she began channeling her passions for in-depth academic research and storytelling into a journalism career. “I was scared of giving up my Ph.D., but it was one of the best decisions I have made,” she says.

Asimovic Akyol took each opportunity to build a reputation of consistent, high-quality work. After nine years of freelance journalism, she finds herself in a new position in which she can build new products, share fresh perspectives, and offer opportunities to other writers, all while fostering growth within New Lines.

“I’ve always given my best in the work that I’ve done,” Asimovic Akyol says. “But this is the first time that I’m participating in building something, and it’s quite exhilarating.” n — Claire Williams ’25

“I could feel the entire theatre breathing. It just heightened the experience and made me realize how much people can be with you when they are experiencing theatre.”

Higginbotham often thinks about the Hamiltonians who believed in him as he pursued acting: professors Mark Cryer, Craig Latrell, and the late Carole Bellini-Sharp, as well as fellow Broadway actor Brad Fleischer ’00, who helped Higginbotham resume acting after a brief hiatus. Now, in addition to his Broadway debut, he has ventured beyond the stage to earn screen time on television shows like The Blacklist and Shining Vale.

“Hamilton got me to open up and explore more of the world and art in the world, social change, and culture ... It sparked that desire to branch out, expand, and see where I could

go,” he says. “I think that curiosity was always in me, but Hamilton coaxed it out of me in a way that I’m deeply grateful for.” n

Riada Asimovic Akyol ’07 WHEN THE BOSNIAN GENOCIDE occurred, it was only by accident that Riada Asimovic Akyol ’07 was not one of its victims.

As a Muslim woman, she understands how identities intersect within politics. These parts of herself inspire her journalistic work, driving her to write pieces on genocide, gender, religion, and politics.

“I speak both from my personal experiences and scholarly expertise to produce my journalistic writing,” Asimovic Akyol says. “I feel that it’s my responsibility to keep contributing and adding nuances to the conversations.”

Asimovic Akyol’s articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Al-Jazeera, Al-Monitor, and The Nation. Based in Washington, D.C., she now

BRING THEATRE TO LIFE

Jonathan Higginbotham ’12 THERE ARE MANY PERFORMANCES that Jonathan Higginbotham ’12 remembers fondly, but he’ll never forget one particular night at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

He was cast as Phillip in the Tonynominated Slave Play, a three-act play about race, sex, power relations, trauma, and interracial relationships. When the production moved to LA after a remount on Broadway, the theatre hosted Black Out Night, an evening reserved for an all-Black-identifying audience to experience the performance free from the white gaze. Higginbotham felt the theatre come alive.

“The audience is an important final piece of any show or project, but that night Slave Play became a whole different play,” he says.

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CUT THROUGH NOISE Gianni Hill ’21

REVERE, MASS., MAYORAL AIDE Gianni Hill ’21 has parlayed his Hamilton public policy senior thesis into a job with his hometown city government. He’s seeking ways to offset noise pollution from nearby Boston Logan International Airport.

As an intern in the mayor’s office in 2020, Hill was asked to research the feasibility of establishing a municipal airport hazards committee in Revere. His study ultimately became the foundation for his senior thesis, the results of which he’s now using to convince elected officials to approve the hazards committee.

His senior project was a cost-benefit analysis on various Logan airport noise

amelioration scenarios. Suggestions included alteration of flight paths depending on time of day and residential sound insulation projects.

“I also have been tasked with reforming the city’s boards and commissions, evaluating aspects such as compliance with state law, appointment processes, and more equitable representation,” Hill says.

Hill graduated with a dual concentration in public policy and Hispanic studies. He produced a second senior thesis in Spanish comparing the work of two Cuban writers.

“Strong writing and research skills are essential to the work I do, and my ability to communicate in Spanish as well allows me to assist even more constituents,” he says.

Hill started his new job fresh from a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Spain, where he oversaw the writing center at the IE

University of Madrid. Eventually, he plans to enter law school to cement his work in public service in Revere.

“I hope to use my legal education to better serve my hometown community,” he says. n

Graduating as class valedictorian, Moore majored in economics and studio art at Hamilton. She first worked on Wall Street for 12 years at UBS and Credit Suisse, mostly in the fixed income divisions of the banks. “I was a credit strategist who developed investment ideas for fixed income portfolio managers such as insurance companies, pension funds,

management funds, and hedge funds,” she says.

Moore says she was always involved in the arts outside of her day-to-day financial job.

To further that passion, she switched careers in her 30s and attended Harvard University Graduate School of Design to earn a master’s degree in architecture. “My experience at Hamilton set the foundation of my interdisciplinary work later on,” she says.

Moore worked at European and New York architectural firms, including OMA, Bjarke Ingels Group, and Thomas Juul-Hansen, before starting her own architecture and development business in 2019.

Besides the Adams renovation, her focus has been working on museum and rural economic development projects, including a 27,000-square-foot art center in Shandong, China, that opened in 2020.

“I finally feel that my education in economics and art are intertwined in the most productive way,” Moore says. n

RENOVATE

Yina Luo Moore ’03 WITH APOLOGIES TO THE BARD, all the world’s a stage — and Yina Luo Moore ’03 is ensuring that professional performers have their forum in Adams, Mass.

Moore is the owner and architect charged with renovating a theatre building that has stood vacant since the 1960s. She purchased it in May 2021 and is in the thick of work to bring it up to code. She expects the retail space of the venue to be ready later this year, with the auditorium up and running for performing arts in 2023.

“The theatre renovation work is a continuation of my passions in spatial design, arts development, and interdisciplinary collaborations,” the Shanghai, China, native says. “My goal is to foster more creative partnerships among the arts communities in Berkshire County.”

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BECAUSE HAMILTONIANS [...]

SUPPORT THE GRIEVING Sara Bert Web ’06

DEATH IS PART OF LIFE, yet it can feel like being lost in the dark depths of the wilderness for those experiencing or coping with it. Sara Bert Web ’06 strives to be the light that guides them through.

While at Hamilton, Web experienced her first big loss when her grandmother, who made her education possible, passed away. No one in her family knew what to do.

“I promised myself that I would never be so lost in that process again,” she says.

Web soon found a community of people learning how to navigate grief and death, and she stayed engaged in it for years while

GIVE VOICE

Jean McGavin K’76 FOCUSING ON HISTORY AT KIRKLAND and drawn to ideas, culture, and the lived experiences of people led Jean McGavin K’76 to serve as a champion of stories that draw marginalized groups into the mainstream.

As the founder of historychip.com, an online archive of true stories, McGavin

working as a keeper at zoo aquariums. When the pandemic hit, she was laid off and took her career in a different direction. She trained to become a death doula, a professional endof-life guide who serves the dying and their loved ones, those facing the loss of a beloved pet, and animal care professionals experiencing loss at zoos and aquariums.

Since launching her business, Illumination End-of-Life Guidance, Web has helped local clients and others around the world via phone and Zoom. Her services, which have been featured in TIME and on MSNBC and NBC News, don’t replace endof-life medical care. Instead, she supports and complements the care provided by doctors and hospice or other palliative care resources.

“I can offer the gift of time. I can give more undivided attention,” she says. “I’m a

ensures personal stories have a global platform. “Without the perspectives of slaves, for example, the history of slavery could be neither accurate nor truthful,” McGavin says. “Growing up during the end of Jim Crow in Virginia, I learned that inclusion of all the pertinent voices was required to make history truthful.”

History Chip revolutionizes history by inviting those around the world — women, people of color, those in developing countries, LGBTQ+ people, the disabled — who do not figure into traditional narratives to tell their stories and take their place.

At Kirkland, McGavin focused her studies on late 19th-century European humanities, including art history, philosophy, history, and literature of the period. After taking her first studio art class during her senior year, she pivoted in a different direction.

“After Kirkland I received an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in theatre design and worked as a freelance set

consistent presence throughout the entire process.”

As she guides others, she is reminded of the sage advice she received from the late Professor of Theatre Carole Bellini-Sharp and lessons learned in class from theatre professors Craig Latrell and Mark Cryer, among others.

“They taught us about the pure gold currency of raw, genuine presence, and they taught me how to access that on stage. That’s my currency now with my clients,” she says. “I show up in a profound way. That’s something I learned how to do at Hamilton.” n

designer, predominantly as an assistant, on Broadway for 10 years,” she says. Her credits include Rags, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Song and Dance.

But life rerouted her. “My daughter was born with a serious medical condition that was so much more important than Broadway,” McGavin says. “She survived and is healthy and gorgeous, and I never looked back.”

On a stage set, and foundational to History Chip, McGavin appreciates the minutiae that tells a story — the wallpaper or books on the shelves. These details of ordinary life, along with the stories of all people, are required for a truthful and robust history.

“I have a number of benchmarks to reach with History Chip that will keep me busy for some time,” McGavin says. n

FALL 2022

11

RECENT NEWS HIGHLIGHTS From across the Hamilverse

1 1 BABBITT PAVILION

Goats and cats and dogs, oh my! Students enjoyed some end-of-semester stress relief last spring thanks to furry four-legged friends. The Campus Activities Board sponsored a yoga session, where adorable goats joined participants in stretching, posturing, and breathing. Later, HAVOC (Hamilton Association for Volunteering, Outreach, & Charity) sponsored Paws to Relax, where students snuggled and played with pets who visited campus with their faculty and staff owners.

2

2 SCHAMBACH CENTER

Among the highlights of Reunions in June was the first time a Half-Century Class Annalist Letter was presented by women.

Betty Hagerty Marmon K’72 and Donna Orenstein Kerner K’72 delivered the address, titled Kirkland Everlasting, on behalf of the Kirkland Charter Class of 1972.

3 KENNEDY CENTER FOR THEATRE AND THE

STUDIO ARTS

Issues of race, class, and the intensity of the maternal bond came to the stage in the Theatre Department’s spring production of Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks’ Fucking A. Described as “a riff on The Scarlet Letter,” the production blended story and song as Hester’s branded letter “A” became a provocative emblem of vengeance, violence, and sacrifice.

4 DAYS-MASSOLO CENTER

As students, Kye Lippold ’10, Geoffrey Hicks ’09, Robyn Gibson ’10, Amy Tannenbaum ’10, Corrine Bancroft ’10, Stephanie Tafur ’10, and Wai Yee Poon ’10 worked to improve the experiences of marginalized groups on campus as leaders through the Social Justice Initiative.

In celebration of the Days-Massolo Center’s 10th anniversary, the SJI leaders returned to Hamilton in February for a panel discussion where they shared stories of their past work.

WANT MORE HAMILTON NEWS? Visit hamilton.edu/news.

And if you’re not receiving our monthly Hamilton Headlines in your inbox, send a note to editor@hamilton.edu, and we’ll add you to the list.

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3

5 5 BOB SIMON GOLF CENTER

Time spent on the PGA-quality golf practice facility paid off last spring as Continentals men’s golfers captured the NESCAC championship for the first time since 2003. The team went on to the 2022 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship for the second time in program history.

6 FIELD HOUSE 4

6

7

Hamilton hosted not one, but two Commencement exercises last spring. On May 22, 494 members of the Class of ’22 were welcomed into the ranks of alumni, while about 325 graduates of the Class of ’20, whose inperson ceremony was postponed due to the pandemic, returned to celebrate on June 4.

Offering words of wisdom to the classes were Gillian Zucker ’90, president of business operations for the NBA’s LA Clippers, who addressed the Class of 2022, and Marc Randolph ’81, co-founder and first CEO of Netflix, who spoke to the Class of 2020.

7 TAYLOR SCIENCE CENTER 8

When COVID-19 paused Science Exploration Days, an annual event where third-graders from local elementary schools visit Hamilton’s Science Center to participate in experiments and learn about scientific processes, Assistant Professor of Biology Natalie Nannas and a group of her students took a different approach. The team launched the Hamilton SciKids YouTube channel to offer a remote way to get even more students wondering if science may be in their future.

8 BURKE LIBRARY

The quad outside Burke Library was hoppin’ and boppin’ as hundreds of alumni gathered at the One Hill of a Party concert during Reunions in June. On hand to entertain were two acts — rock ‘n’ blues band Ghost Hounds, with Thomas Tull ’92, P’13, and DJ David Solomon ’84, P’16.

ILLUSTRATION BY TOM WOOLLEY

FALL 2022

13

KEVIN WALDRON

VISION

Hamilton welcomes three new vice presidents

Life and across campus. His role supports the interdependence of the academic and co-curricular pieces of students’ education.

A

S THE SAYING GOES, “All good things come in threes.” This summer, Hamilton welcomed three new senior officers — Ngonidzashe Munemo, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty; Christopher Card, vice president and dean of students; and Sean Bennett, the inaugural vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Born in Zimbabwe, Ngoni Munemo comes to Hamilton from Williams College, where his roles included professor of political science, chair of the Global Studies Program, and, most recently, interim vice president for institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from Bard College and master’s degrees and a doctorate from Columbia, Munemo served as a visiting instructor at the College of William and Mary before joining the Williams faculty in 2007. He has taught courses ranging from contemporary African politics to democratization and institution building, and is the author of several academic articles and the book Domestic Politics and Drought Relief in Africa (2012).

Munemo served on several committees at Williams, including chair of the Faculty Steering Committee responsible for

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representing faculty concerns. At Hamilton, he is charged with supporting faculty scholarship and development, promoting teaching in the classroom, enhancing curricular innovation, incorporating diversity and inclusion across academic domains, and supporting academic success of students. He also holds a position as professor of government.

Chris Card spent the last five years at Lawrence University as vice president for student life after serving nearly 20 years at Trinity College, most recently as dean of students. He has experience overseeing such areas as residential life, student conduct, dining, student wellness, and the career center.

Having earned a master’s degree in law and diplomacy at the Fletcher School, Tufts University, and a bachelor’s degree at Clark University, Card’s accomplishments at Lawrence include co-chairing a task force on emotional wellbeing; helping to secure $5 million to endow a dean position for the career center; and leading a renewed mission and programs for the Diversity and Intercultural Center.

A native of Jamaica, Card will serve Hamilton as an active student-facing leader while enhancing collaborative partnerships among offices within the Division of Student

Sean Bennett most recently served in a similar role at Salem State University. As Hamilton’s first vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), he will provide leadership for constructive and collaborative change, guiding and educating campus stakeholders and championing transparency and shared accountability for DEI initiatives at all levels at the College.

Bennett earned an Ed.D. in higher education management at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Clarkson University and master’s of education degrees from the State University of New York at Brockport and Harvard University.

Before his appointment at Salem State in 2020, he served 10 years as an assistant dean and three years as director of the Multicultural Center for Academic Success at Rochester Institute of Technology in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. There he created a distributed leadership model for college advising and led retention initiatives that helped increase first-year retention in the College of Applied Science as well as the college’s participation in the university honors program.

We asked the new vice presidents their initial thoughts on coming to Hamilton.

Here are a few of their comments.

NANCY L. FORD

VISION

Ngoni Munemo FROM BARD TO WILLIAMS, YOU’VE BEEN DRAWN TO LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES. WHAT LED YOU TO HAMILTON? I reached a moment in my career where I had a choice — go back to being a faculty member or consider administrative roles. I initially didn’t know which to pick, so I pursued both.

I actually found out I had been selected as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar to South Africa the day before my first interview with the search committee at Hamilton. The College’s motto [Know Thyself] really pulled me in. Of course, the purpose of education is to find ways to think beyond oneself, but one must start with the self. The liberal arts allows for that journey, from the inner to the outer, and I find it interesting to think about what kind of a liberal arts experience best prepares students for lives in a complex and always-changing world. During my interviews and campus visits, the deep commitment of the faculty to the educational mission was clear, and I knew this was a place where I could see myself.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HAMILTON’S OPEN CURRICULUM? The open curriculum is ideal for the very curious, inquisitive, and self-starting student, one who is open to the breadth of courses offered

and willing to see where they may lead. That is who I met at the matriculation ceremony [in the Kirkland Cottage] — students who showed intellectual curiosity and expressed a willingness to try a whole host of things.

On the faculty side, the open curriculum similarly requires an open mind and a willingness to engage in deep conversation with students, offering the occasional nudge or even some cajoling as faculty help students develop an overall coherence and clear trajectory for the courses they are taking. As the new ALEX [Advise Learn, EXperience] program evolves, students will have an expanded network of advisors they can connect with, which will only help them both take advantage of the open curriculum and find their own paths in and through it.

HAMILTON HAS SEEN QUITE A FEW FACULTY RETIREMENTS OVER THE PAST FIVE-10 YEARS. WHAT CAN YOU SAY REGARDING ATTRACTING THE FINEST TEACHER-SCHOLARS TO HAMILTON? Renewal is essential for any community of learning. We are accustomed to thinking about renewal on the student side — a new class arrives every year as another one leaves.

It can make us nervous when the renewal is on the faculty side. On one hand, with a shift [in the faculty] a wealth of knowledge is lost.

Retaining that institutional and scholarly memory, making sure it’s woven into who we are and how we continue, is important for our students and our mission.

But it’s an exciting time, too. We need the scholarship, creative work, and new ways of thinking about old questions that come with people who more recently earned their advanced degrees. This brings us back to our motto of knowing thyself — how do we prepare students for engagement in the 21st century? I am lucky to come in at a moment when so much incredible work has already been underway to recruit a phenomenal faculty. It’s imperative that we continue the

momentum of developing a generous program of startups so [new faculty] can launch their scholarly and creative projects when they arrive.

YOU’VE PUBLISHED ON A RANGE OF SUBJECTS. HOW DID YOU ARRIVE AT YOUR RESEARCH INTERESTS AND CAREER IN HIGHER EDUCATION? I was raised by my grandparents. My grandmother taught primary school for almost 50 years. My grandfather’s first job was as a teacher and then a headmaster. Education was their priority, and they were proud to send me to the University of Zimbabwe.

There I encountered two politics professors who took me under their wing. One even invited me to join a weekly seminar with his colleagues as faculty shared their research.

During my final year, I was invited to participate in a year-long exchange program at Bard, where I worked with incredible faculty mentors and met the woman who would become my wife. I returned home and worked for six months, but went back to Bard in 2000 to finish my undergraduate degree. I had the opportunity to write a senior project — mine was about the evolution of African education in colonial Zimbabwe — which gave me a taste of the kind of research I wanted to do in the longer term. At Columbia, my Ph.D. dissertation focused on drought and famine relief, the project that informed my first book. My current research involves understanding the cause of persistent student protests in higher education in South Africa.

But beyond my research, I have loved my time in the classroom and advising students one on one. That connection to what drew me to the liberal arts in the first place — interacting with students — remains at the heart of my work today, with faculty at Hamilton. n

FALL 2022

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NANCY L. FORD

VISION

Chris Card HOW HAVE YOUR PAST EXPERIENCES INFORMED YOUR APPROACH AND LEADERSHIP STYLE? I try to be present and engaging, direct and transparent. For me I’ve always lived on campus. It’s important to have that shared experience with students. I use that to inform how I lead and model appropriate behavior. I have high expectations, and although [college life] isn’t always going to be easy, students should know that, when things get difficult, there’s a strong support network.

I have learned, coming from Jamaica to where I am now, to be mindful that many folks from my background don’t end up in places like this. I am privileged to have had access to rigorous education as a ticket to success. I was raised by a single parent, a mom who instilled a deep commitment to academic excellence as an educator herself. I believe in providing that transformational power of education to others by working to create an environment where all students can grow, learn, and challenge themselves in a supportive community. This is our precious burden.

I have seen how education can lift people, families, and communities. I am a testament to that.

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DO YOU HAVE ANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THE PRIORITIES YOU WILL TACKLE FIRST?

AT LAWRENCE YOU CO-CHAIRED A TASK FORCE ON WELLBEING. WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THAT EXPERIENCE?

I’m looking forward to engaging my [student life] colleagues, faculty, and especially students to learn about the things we should build on and those we need to change. There are these important notions of belonging and striving for equity of experience for all of our students. All colleges are wrestling with “what does DEI mean?” How do the lived experiences of all students get played out? And how do we bring cohesion to learning inside and learning outside the classroom to create a seamless experience for our students? The whole college should be a lab for learning — walking paths, dining halls, residence rooms. My leadership will be informed by what I’m hearing and what students are requesting and what staff is requesting.

One priority is tackling staffing challenges within the student life sector. We have an amazing staff here at Hamilton and some key positions to fill. Our process for recruiting and retaining top staff and supporting them should be deliberate and intentional, as we are also mindful that four years of a student’s time here goes by quickly and these are issues that affect them today.

Student wellness is integral to academic success. There’s been significant scholarship on mental health issues concerning the current college population. We know that this age is often developmentally when mental health challenges manifest. Both academic factors and issues outside the classroom should be evaluated. [At Lawrence], our data showed some issues tied to the curriculum that were stress points. More students committing to social change as activists, and the emergence of Black Lives Matter and Me Too, also affected mental health. Our work in this area must ensure that we are at best-practice levels for services we deliver. This includes educating our community to refer and respond when they encounter a student who may be having an issue. Students who come to us now have just gone through a big disruption and are emerging from COVID into this space of independence. What will that mean for students’ ability to cope and grow? We will have to watch and monitor this over time.

“I believe in providing that transformational power of education to others by working to create an environment where all students can grow, learn, and challenge themselves in a supportive community.”

WHAT KEEPS YOU OPTIMISTIC IN YOUR WORK? Not a single dean of students in the country doesn’t sit with pride on commencement day watching students who have grown and changed over the years cross the finish line. I have learned that the outcomes we want to see may not happen over four years. Sometimes that lightbulb doesn’t switch on until later. I have a box of letters that I keep from former students. One came from a former student 12 years after he graduated. He wrote to me the day he became a father. “Dean Card, I felt compelled to write. I know we had a difficult time, but today I am holding my first child. In that one instance I realized what you were doing to get me to this point to be a responsible man.” Learning may not happen all at once. That is the reward. n

NANCY L. FORD

VISION

Sean Bennett YOU’VE BEEN AT SALEM STATE AND RIT AND CLARKSON, BOTH KNOWN FOR THEIR FOCUS ON STEM AND RESEARCH. WHAT DREW YOU TO THE LIBERAL ARTS AND HAMILTON? While I was studying engineering [as an undergraduate], my professors’ biggest critique [of my course selection] was around my interests in anthropology, sociology, and writing. I couldn’t divorce myself from a world around me connected to language and words.

As a person of color at a predominantly white institution, I found peace in reading [James] Baldwin and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The open curriculum here gives students the freedom to explore. It harkens back to what I wished [my undergraduate experience] would have been more like.

I am still a nerd and a techie. To really wrap your arms around diversity, equity, and inclusion, you must understand how it crosses many different areas — human resources, student affairs, faculty — and view it through the lens of how it works, what is on the inside, what are the pieces. Engineering is a beautiful marriage for seeing the parts and how they might fit together.

“My hope for young people is that in understanding what we’re experiencing today, they can see the possibilities for when they have children of their own.”

WHAT ARE YOUR INITIAL THOUGHTS ON THE ATMOSPHERE OF EQUITY AND INCLUSION AT HAMILTON? The recommendations of the president’s advisory council that led to the creation of my position suggests the College is looking to do this very important DEI work in a way that it hasn’t in the past — to look at ourselves in the mirror. I’m just starting to assess the climate and begin a listening journey. One area, for example, is the challenge of staff retention.

It’s important to learn from and hear individual stories while also being analytical around understanding why people leave, understanding the data.

The role of a DEI leader is still in its infancy. I think back to my time as an undergraduate. There was no such thing as a computer science department; it was part of mathematics. In a lot of ways I feel that’s where we are in this field — transitioning DEI so it is seen as its own entity that connects to all the work we do. My first few months will very much be about understanding all the pieces and advising the president on the structure of how these things might fit together. Then come the recommendations and doing the training and implementing.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MEASURES OF PROGRESS IN TERMS OF BECOMING A MORE INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY? In welcoming and embracing all of the ways diversity opens doors for marginalized

groups, let’s not forget the origin of this work is about racism. Diversity can’t be used to “clean up” this other work that we as a country have not wanted to deal with. We should embrace all identities but not in a way that suppresses or diminishes the origins of some of the work or ignores the history of racism in our country or institution.

Our work will include engaging in campus climate surveys and gathering and critically analyzing data around such areas as recruitment and retention. In identifying tools with colleagues who work in this space, we must be sure to represent the voices of our community in meaningful ways and capture the identity of Hamilton. I don’t know that we will ever get to a point where everyone is 100% satisfied. But we should be telling the uncomfortable stories as we do the comfortable [ones].

IN A NEWS ITEM ANNOUNCING YOUR APPOINTMENT, YOU SAY, “ALTHOUGH WE LIVE IN A TIME OF GREAT CHALLENGES, I REMAIN OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE POSSIBILITIES.” WHAT MAKES YOU HAVE THAT OUTLOOK? Building relationships is tricky because everyone is coming from different experiences.

“Know thyself ” is a starting point, but to what purpose? You can find optimism for the future by reflecting on your history — reflecting on those who set the table and preceded us. Go back to those who saw a very different America and said, “We want better.” It’s important not to lose sight of where we’ve been and where we’ve come from and what we need to do next — to reflect on the history of sacrifices people made. How dare I consider Dr. King’s America and say I’m too tired.

How dare I say I can’t do the work. We have momentum — why can’t we do more and do more faster? My hope for young people is that in understanding what we’re experiencing today, they can see the possibilities for when they have children of their own. n

FALL 2022

17

SHOW AND TELL

1 2 3

7 6

4

5

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H A M I LTO N

SHOW AND TELL

EVERY DOOR on Hamilton’s campus leads to opportunity. How many of these doors have you walked through?

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8

11

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1

Siuda House

2

Sadove Student Center at Emerson Hall

3

Christian A. Johnson Hall

4

Babbitt Residence Hall

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Kirner-Johnson Building

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Eells House

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Kirkland Cottage

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Beinecke Student Activities Village

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Benedict Hall

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Carnegie Residence Hall

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Blood Fitness and Dance Center

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Chapel

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Couper Hall

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Bristol Swimming S U M M Pool ER 2022

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NANCY L. FORD

DISCOVERY

A Chance Discovery, An NSF Grant

A

N AHA MOMENT. A cry of eureka.

There are many ways to describe what happened in Associate Professor of Chemistry Max Majireck’s lab on that day in late June 2016, but, by his own admission, it was most likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience — the discovery of a novel and potentially valuable class of compound known as pyridinium ketene hemiaminals.

This summer, after six years and the help of more than 30 Hamilton student researchers, Majireck received a $247,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to continue building on that foundational discovery. He and his latest crop of students are working to develop new types of reagents, substances used to facilitate a chemical reaction such as the synthesis of pharmaceutical products (i.e., antibiotics).

Like many great things, Majireck’s discovery happened by chance.

Over the past 80 years, only a few scattered reports had been published on compounds similar to those that would first be identified in Majireck’s lab. Since most were found to be unstable, little follow-up research had been conducted despite their potential for useful applications.

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Majireck and his student researchers initially discovered this new class of compound by mistake. They were attempting to synthesize a natural product with anti-HIV activity.

Although that specific experiment failed, the group identified an interesting side product — the first example of a pyridinium ketene hemiaminal that was also, surprisingly, stable.

It took a while longer to determine the identity of this mystery compound with absolute certainty. The Majireck team gathered an extensive set of data using both standard and advanced techniques in nuclear magnetic resonance, infrared spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. “We had to be extra skeptical of our own interpretations of this data, given the unusual nature of the finding and predicted instability of this new compound,” Majireck recalled in a 2018 news article. “And there were some other possibilities that we could not rule out with our data alone.”

Majireck reached out to his undergraduate mentor Charles Kriley, a professor of chemistry at Grove City College. Known for his expertise in x-ray crystallography, Kriley described the structure determined from his x-ray data. Due to the rarity of this initial finding, Majireck and his students expanded

their research to include other examples of this compound class. They collaborated with Eric Reinheimer, a crystallographer at Rigaku Oxford Diffraction, who had access to state-of-the-art x-ray diffractometers. The high-quality data generated by Reinheimer unambiguously proved the structure of this rare compound.

In the meantime, Majireck’s lab began optimizing a protocol for synthesis of pyridinium ketene hemiaminals and expanded the scope of their protocol to include multiple compounds having similar structures — all but one were found to be stable. Yet the question remained … why?

The answer came from someone right next door: Associate Professor of Chemistry Adam Van Wynsberghe, an expert in computational, theoretical, and physical chemistry.

By computationally modeling the structure and dynamic nature of these compounds (i.e., how the molecule moves), the researchers

Max Majireck meets with students in his lab back in 2017, including (from left) Danielle McConnell ’20, Caroline Sullivan ’20, and Danielle Rodrigues ’19, who were co-authors with him on a recent publication on pyridinium ketene hemiaminals. Behind Majireck is Giovanny Dominguez ’18, who worked on another project.

DISCOVERY

Defining ‘Home’

W

ITH GLACIER BAY National Park to the west and Tongass National Forest to the east, Kaitlyn Bieber ’23 and Olivia Chandler ’23 found a month-long home amidst the nation’s largest stretch of protected wildlands. Their goal was to learn how the expansive Alaskan wilderness impacts those living around it and how place can be integral to environmental education and advocacy.

Their Levitt Center-sponsored summer research took them to the small town of Gustavus, home to about 600 year-round residents and the Tidelines Institute, an environmental education organization that connects students to the uniquely rural and remote place around it.

Chandler, a government major, engaged in observational research to explore Tidelines’ infrastructure and philosophies.

She and Bieber also conducted interviews with Gustavus community members. The pair biked from their rented cabin to residents’ houses, across the flat plain once shaped

by glacial meltwater. At each interview, they learned about the residents’ paths in life.

“These were really inspiring conversations,” Chandler says. “There were days where I went down the rabbit hole of ‘oh we’re doomed because of climate change, and there’s no hope.’ But then we had some interviews with people who have dedicated their lives to advocacy and environmental work ... They had spent their lives fighting for the younger generations, and I think there’s so much value in that.”

Chandler and Bieber conducted 10 interviews that helped shape their final projects: Chandler’s academic paper and Bieber’s photo essay. For Bieber, whose photo essay included personal narrative, the experiences she had exploring Gustavus played an important role in her project’s development — especially when considering wilderness as a transformative and regenerative power.

“It’s really looking at how being in these spaces and existing with them can reshape and reframe your perspective on life,” said Bieber, an environmental studies major. “And I think being in Gustavus, I definitely experienced that. When you are in a landscape that is so indifferent to your existence, it forces you to reconsider what actually matters, and it helps put life into perspective.” n — Claire Williams ’25

KAITLYN BIEBER ’23

gained further insight into the chemical behavior and stability of these compounds that could not be obtained otherwise.

Majireck’s deep dive into discovery is what ultimately led to the National Science Foundation grant; his work on the project is only beginning. He and his students have already expanded the availability of this understudied but highly valuable material for future research. In addition, they have identified multiple new reaction types involving the compounds, which they believe will be adopted by other synthetic chemists for a range of new applications such as drug or material synthesis.

“I’m particularly proud that such a large team of undergraduates contributed to this project over the years,” Majireck says. “It’s a testament to their hard work and skill in the lab that every new student who joined the project could easily replicate the results of prior students. They developed a robust set of procedures that both a novice and experienced chemist can execute.”

Since joining the Hamilton faculty in 2013, Majireck has made it a priority to engage students in research. They have presented alongside him at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society and appeared as co-authors in such academic journals as Molecules and The Journal of Organic Chemistry. As a first-generation college student who admittedly had some difficulties adjusting to college himself, Majireck understands the power of scientific inquiry and creating opportunities for his students.

“Research provided me with a safe haven.

The lab is a place where there’s always the potential to do something unique,” he says.

“When my students have those moments when the lightbulb goes off — that energizes me. It’s incredible to be a part of that. It’s the reason I do research and the reason I teach.” n — Stacey Himmelberger with Maureen Nolan

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THE BIG PICTURE

A Dream Fulfilled HAMILTON ROWING HAS been powered by passion since its founding as a club sport in 1983. Those first rowers became ardent alumni supporters as the program grew into a varsity sport and as both the men’s and women’s teams became national contenders. Last spring, that team effort of rowers past and present resulted in the dedication of the Jason P. Andris [’96] Boathouse.

Located along the Erie Canal in Rome, N.Y., the 4,770-square-foot structure features a team room, coxswain’s electronic station, coach’s office, and boat bay that can store up to 10 eight-person boats, 10 four-person boats, and oars.

As he christened the new headquarters with champagne, Head Rowing Coach Jim Lister told the enthusiastic crowd, “We ask the waters of the canal to accept the name of Jason P. Andris Boathouse and to also help our boats be strong and swift.

May many new rowers come through these doors, and may alumni return to share memories together.”

PHOTO BY NANCY L. FORD

VOICES

VIEW FROM COLLEGE HILL

New Colleagues

BY DAV I D W IPPM AN

NANCY L. FORD

The nearly simultaneous recruitment and hiring of three new vice presidents consumed considerable time and attention this past spring, and I am indebted to the dozens of community members who met with search firm representatives, served on the respective search committees, reviewed applications, and met with finalists. Their efforts were rewarded with the selection of three outstanding new colleagues and accomplished academic leaders:

S

OON AFTER ARRIVING at Hamilton in 2016, I attended the annual Harvardsponsored seminar for new presidents. Several months ago I returned, this time as an invited panelist, and was reunited with Hamilton’s former Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Suzanne Keen, who was participating in the seminar as the new president of Scripps College in California. As difficult as it was to see Suzanne leave Hamilton, I was happy to see her begin settling into a role she so richly deserves.

Suzanne’s departure created one of three openings on the College’s senior staff this year.

Terry Martinez’s retirement in May after more than 30 years in the profession and five years as vice president and dean of students at Hamilton was also a considerable loss. A third cabinet-level position opened when we created a new office focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to be headed by our first-ever vice president for DEI.

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H A M I LTO N

•

N GONIDZASHE MUNEMO, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty

•

C HRISTOPHER CARD, vice president and dean of students

• SEAN

BENNETT, vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion

Ngoni and Chris inherit strongly performing divisions with ambitious agendas, while Sean will build on the recent work at the College to make Hamilton a more inclusive and welcoming community. You can learn more about Ngoni, Chris, and Sean on pages 14-17.

A recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Higher Ed Is Looking to Refill Jobs. But It’s Finding a ‘Shallow and Weak’ Candidate Pool,” is the reality faced by many colleges and universities, but the applicant pools for these three searches at Hamilton were exceptionally deep and drawn from across the nation, providing

evidence that Hamilton is viewed highly not just by prospective students, but by prospective employees as well.

Even among high-performing organizations, however, there is always room for growth and improvement. Ngoni, Chris, and Sean bring with them years of experience and new perspectives that will help ensure Hamilton continues preparing students for lives of meaning, purpose, and active citizenship. They have joined a senior leadership team of highly regarded administrators, three of whose members have each served more than 18 years at the College, thus providing Hamilton with the perfect blend of institutional understanding and new perspectives to serve our students, faculty, and staff.

Of course, Hamilton is not immune from the labor market challenges facing most colleges and most industries. We have many openings across the College, and we are actively recruiting new colleagues who will help us continue to deliver the gold standard in liberal arts education. n

QUOTABLES

And little did we know that when the Four Tops sang ‘I’ll Be There’ in the Alumni Gym during the 1969 Winter Carnival, they were actually referring to their visit to the Psi U house in about an hour.

Jon Hysell ’72 in the Half-Century Class Annalist Letter presented in June during Reunions ’22.

Use my name.

Words that changed the life of Gillian Zucker ’90, president of business operations for the NBA’s LA Clippers, who addressed the Class of ’22 at Commencement in May. The directive came from Neal Pilson ’60, then president of CBS Sports, whom she had contacted asking for job advice after her own Hamilton graduation. He sent her a list of five sports PR agencies with “Use my name” scrawled across the top. The second agency on the list hired her.

Utilize hooks, anecdotes, and analogies to keep your audience engaged.

Advice from Abbie Wolff ’22 on how to give a great speech. She is the 2022 winner of a McKinney Speaking Prize and the Warren E. Wright Prize in Public Speaking.

German public opinion has shifted against Russia. Moscow has lost its traditional base of supporters within the Bundestag.

Alan Cafruny, the Henry Platt Bristol Chair of International Affairs and professor of government, in the Newsweek (May 26, 2022) article, “Russia Squandered Decades Worth of Soft Power Gains Over Ukraine War.”

Elaine Paravati Harrigan, visiting assistant professor of psychology, in the Today (NBC) Daily Magazine (April 18, 2022) article “Moms are having a fashion moment ... in their underwear” that discusses how glamorous media images of motherhood are mirroring how women feel about self-care in the wake of the pandemic.

It’s as though moms are saying, ‘Bam we’re back!’

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with equal fervor as we defend those we do not agree with. The library is the modern-day town square providing a platform to debate and discuss the dilemmas of our day.

How did Books UnBanned get started?

through

A

S PRESIDENT AND CEO of Brooklyn Public Library, Linda E. Johnson ’80 heads one of the largest library systems in the country, an organization serving more than one million patrons in 62 branches and dozens of outposts including homeless shelters, prisons, and laundromats, to name but a few. During her 11 years at the helm, she has overseen the transformation of the library from an analog system to a library with state-of-the-art technology and digital collections available free of charge to all Brooklyn residents.

The library’s latest initiative, Books UnBanned, launched in April to address what she calls a troubling and growing effort among legislators to remove books from library shelves — particularly books addressing race and LGBTQ+ issues. Through the program, young adults from throughout the U.S. can send an email to the Brooklyn Public Library asking for free access to its collection of more than a half million e-books and audiobooks. In its first four months, more than 5,000 subscribers representing

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H A M I LTO N

all 50 states have checked out over 16,000 items. As part of the initiative, a Council of Brooklyn Teens has been working throughout the summer to put together book lists and host virtual book discussions with their peers in other parts of the country.

Before becoming president of the Brooklyn Public Library, Johnson served as president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, CEO of the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation, and president of JCI Data, an information services and database management provider.

She serves Hamilton as vice chair of the Board of Trustees. We asked her to tell us more about Books UnBanned and the role of libraries today.

Why is taking a stand against book banning important?

Brooklyn Public Library stands firmly for the principles of intellectual freedom. We cannot sit by while books rejected by a few are removed from the shelves for all. As a public library, we defend the books we agree with

Book banning has been more extreme this year than in any of the past 20 years. We initially thought about how we could help, especially in parts of the country like Texas where many of our textbooks are published, and Virginia where censorship has been extreme. When progress was slow we decided to approach the problem by going directly to the audience we are aiming to help: young adults who cannot find the books they want to read on the shelves of their school or public libraries. We issued a national press release explaining that anyone 13 to 21 years old who sent us an email asking for a digital library card would be given access to our digital

BOOKS UNBANNED LAUNCHED IN APRIL TO ADDRESS WHAT SHE CALLS A TROUBLING AND GROWING EFFORT AMONG LEGISLATORS TO REMOVE BOOKS FROM LIBRARY SHELVES — PARTICULARLY BOOKS ADDRESSING RACE AND LGBTQ+ ISSUES.

Linda E. Johnson ’80

collection for one year. Four or five days in, it went viral, and we went from a few hundred requests a day to thousands.

What kind of feedback are you getting?

GREGG RICHARDS, BPL

The emails we have received are poignant but at the same time dispiriting. Young people grappling with issues relating to sexuality or race feel isolated, particularly when the material they want to read on such topics as critical race theory, LGBTQ+ issues, even the Holocaust, is unavailable. One wrote, “I am 15 and live in North Dakota. I would like to be able to read books that I want to read not what others in power deem appropriate.

I think that being able to form my own opinions is very important.”

What has changed for libraries in the past decade or so?

When I started [at the Brooklyn Public Library], there was a perception among those outside the library world that libraries were on a forced march to obsolescence. The argument was based on the notion that search engines like Google would put libraries out of business. I don’t hear this argument these days. And certainly with the onset of the pandemic, people who are online all day long began to realize how challenging life can be without good internet access, much less with inadequate broadband at home. The public library played a role in leveling the playing field between those on the two sides of the digital divide. In this country’s cities, the number of people who do not have internet access at home is as high as 30%. If you were trying to keep your children in class via Zoom or work remotely and do everything else the pandemic required, internet access was critical. The pandemic amplified the struggles of being on the wrong side of the digital divide. Libraries are here to bridge that divide.

What drew you to this work?

In a past life, I ran an information services company that provided services to magazine publishers and direct marketers. In the ’90s, when the dot-com bubble was expanding, the whole business model for publishers started to shift with the advent of the electronic transmission of information. I began thinking about how changes in the publishing world were affecting libraries. I knew people at the Free Library in Philadelphia so I started there. While use of the internet and digital materials was growing, libraries were still stuck in the old model — people were still coming in to borrow hardcopy books written in English. While the changes I expected to see had not begun, I began learning about the role of libraries in nearly every community in this country. And the more I

learned, the more interested and committed to the institution I became.

Libraries are the most democratic institution in our society. To be welcome in our branches all you need is the inclination to walk through our doors, and the world’s knowledge is at your fingertips. Race, socioeconomic status, and immigration status are immaterial.

If you are curious enough to venture through our doors — even our electronic portals — the material in our collections is there for you together with librarians who help library patrons navigate all that information. n

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To pluck a blade of grass in the College cemetery is to pull a golden thread that leads deep into Hamilton history, conjuring the service of women and men who have shaped an institution that is striding assertively into its third century. Yet common is the alumni refrain:

“i lived here for four years and never even knew the cemetery existed.”

I 28

n the hope of changing that, for nearly a decade

Center to the south, the cemetery perpetuates the

i have led tours of our tombs, welcoming more

memory of an extraordinary range of people who

than a thousand guests to enter a portal into

devoted much of their lives to shaping the Hamilton

an engaging and edifying College past from which the

of today. On their shoulders the College stands, with

present continues to draw. Situated almost invisibly

all the commanding grace of the Chapel spire casting

between Morris House to the north and Bristol

its serene shadow over the Oriskany Valley below.

H A M I LTO N

An early vote of confidence

A place of happy resort

T

Creating a burial site for the future worthies of this young

T

college was an extraordinary gesture. It underscored a far-

principles of the Rural Cemetery Movement popularized

seeing conviction that here would blossom an institution of

during the first half of the 19th century. According to its

significance, created and sustained by people who would

leading proponent, Andrew Jackson Downing, cemeteries

deserve remembrance.

were not intended to be maudlin zones of sadness and

HE CEMETERY WAS ESTABLISHED by the trustees in 1820, just eight years after Hamilton received its charter from the State of New York.

HE LOCATION AND LAYOUT of our cemetery ref lects the aesthetic sense that characterized the planful design of Hamilton’s buildings and

landscaping. It recapitulates, albeit in miniature, the grand

The original act restricted the cemetery’s tenants to

gloom like the flyblown churchyards of the colonial era.

“the officers of the College and their families, the students

On the contrary, they were to be celebrations of life and

of the College, and others attached thereto,” a basic reg-

nature, where one might go to sit a spell and reflect. From

ulation amended by the trustees only slightly over the

Hamilton’s cemetery visitors have a view of the beautiful

years. There have been exceptions, but not many. The

Mohawk Valley.

“others attached thereto” clause has been interpreted to mean only spouses and dependent children. Despite its inviting and bucolic setting, Hamilton’s burying ground is not intended for extended families.

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Best friends forever

N

Chief Skenandoa Samuel Kirkland

O INVESTIGATION OF the cemetery is complete without mention of our founder, Samuel Kirkland, and his great friend and proselyte Chief Oskanondonha, or Skenandoa as he is better known.

In a supreme irony and impressive turnabout, Kirkland came to the howling wilderness of Central New York as a penniless missionary — first to the Senecas, then to the Oneidas. He ended his life, however, as a landed gentleman. After missionizing Skenandoa, Kirkland brought the Oneidas to the colonial side of the Revolutionary War, a service for which he was compensated by George Washington with some 3,000 acres of land, on part of which sits the College today. Over time, Kirkland sold parcels of that tract, enabling him to trade his humble Kirkland Cottage for the fine house he built on Harding Road that in recent years served as an inn and today is a private residence.

Kirkland died in 1808, too soon to witness the collegiate chartering of the institution he birthed. Skenandoa died in 1816, allegedly at the age of 110. The two were buried next to each other on the grounds of today’s Harding Farm at the behest of the chief, who wished to be near his brother in God so that, at the Great Resurrection, he might cling to the hem of Kirkland’s garments and be taken up into heaven. Although the board created the cemetery in 1820, Kirkland and Skenandoa were not transferred to their present (and adjoining) burial sites until 1856.

A president … and his archrival

H

AMILTON’S FIRST PRESIDENT, Azel Backus (reigned 1812-16) was a Yale graduate and Presbyterian minister who advanced the fledgling college from its infancy to its adolescence as a promising institution of higher learning.

He was so corpulent that he required a special carriage and a special sleigh in winter. If Backus was Hamilton’s first and fattest president, he was also perhaps its most self-effacing. When a tutor contracted typhus, the pandemic of that day, Backus nursed him back to health only to contract the disease himself with fatal results. The current Backus gravestone is actually a replacement reverently funded by famed abolitionist Gerrit Smith, Class of 1818, whose first wife was Backus’ daughter, Wealthea.

Another greater irony is that Backus is buried next to his archrival, Seth Norton, a classics professor who had designs on higher office at the College. In fact, Backus once said that Norton was “intriguing for my shoes.”

Norton got his wish when Backus died (he served as interim president for a time). It is certain that neither man would have wanted to be buried in proximity of each other either down in the village cemetery, where they were initially interred, or in Hamilton’s cemetery when their remains were exhumed and brought to College Hill in the 1850s. Norton’s stone is a gorgeous example of Egyptian Revival mortuary art, to be noted — like the majority of other stones in our cemetery — for its lack of religious iconography.

Azel Backus

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Buckshot revenge?

O

UR SECOND PRESIDENT was a Yale graduate — as were five of our first six presidents — and another Presbyterian minister. Henricus “Henry” Davis (ruled 1817-32) triangulated offers from Middlebury and Hamilton, playing hard to get. But come to the Hill he did. By one description “long, lank, and limpsy,” he was a morose, Puritan New Englander, right down to his linsey-woolsey suits and silver shoe buckles, with unbending ideas about collegiate instruction. He became the immediate enemy of trustees and faculty alike, and was not much beloved by students whom he surveilled each night in their residences.

(They were alerted to his roaming presence by a trumpet-like, snuff-induced sneeze.)

His spine of steel, however, kept Hamilton open through the perilous year of 1829 with but nine students — the “Immortal Nine” as they became known — along with a chemistry professor. We owe the College’s continuance through these choppy times to Davis.

In retirement, he penned a turgid treatise, A Narrative of the Embarrassments and Decline of Hamilton College, in which he vented his spleen about everything he believed the trustees had done wrong over many years.

He also exercised his privilege as a retired president to sit sneeringly in the front row of the Chapel during trustee meetings. The pockmarks visible on his gravestone may well be the revenge of some of his detractors.

The father of alpha delt

T

HE M A R K ER FOR Samuel Eells, Class of 1832, is a relatively recent addition to the cemetery, although it honors an early and accomplished alumnus.

Eells hailed from nearby Vernon, the sickly son of a preacher who was an original College trustee. The young Eells matriculated at

Hamilton, but quickly betook himself — on foot — to New Haven, Conn., where he put out to sea for a time to regain his health.

On his return to Hamilton, he founded the Alpha chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, in Room 15 of Kirkland Hall, with the ambition of replacing the vicious and antisocial atmosphere then fostered by Hamilton’s literary societies. He conceived a social organization that celebrated the Greek ideal of a healthy spirit, mind, and body.

Evidently, this wholesome activity gave him strength and courage, as he was one of the Immortal Nine to survive the fateful period of 1828-30 when Hamilton almost closed.

Nevertheless, poor health felled Eells at age 32 in Cincinnati, where he had been a junior partner in the law office of future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Salmon P. Chase.

After interment there and later in Cleveland, the Hamilton chapter of Alpha Delta Phi repatriated his bones to College Hill. For a long time they were kept in a vault under the floorboards of the “goat room” of the fraternity house until their proper reburial in the College cemetery, amid elaborate pomp, in 1999.

What’s in a name?

P

ROFESSORIAL CHAIRS AT Hamilton have a long history. The first named, but not endowed, chair was in classical literature, funded annually from 1836 by trustee Simon Newton Dexter, a local politician, business magnate, Brown University dropout, Erie Canal builder, and manager of

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the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica. Its first incumbent was future Hamilton president Simeon North. His nephew, future Professor of Classics Edward “Old Greek” North, Class of 1841, married Dexter’s daughter and named his son after him. The North family occupies a tidy grove on the cemetery’s eastern fringe, which rivals only the Roots for the number of “others attached thereto” it contains.

The first endowed chair, in law, was the gift of cemetery resident William Hale Maynard, a Williams alumnus who was a Utica lawyer and College trustee. He quit the board in 1827, fearing for Hamilton’s future under Henry Davis, but died in 1832 — the year Davis resigned — and left the College $20,000 to create a chair in his name. It exists today as the Maynard-Knox Professorship in Law and Government, now held by Frank Anechiarico ’71.

A handsome, monogrammed obelisk reminds us of this generous Hamiltonian-by-adoption.

The North name loomed large over 19th-century Hamilton, as it does today, owing to three precious legacies that “Old Greek” instituted during his nearly 60 years treading the red shale pathways of campus.

First, capitalizing on his often decades-long correspondence with former students, he created Alumniana, what we now call class notes. Second, he inaugurated the necrology, a tradition still maintained, by which every graduate receives a memorial biography.

Finally, in 1865, North invited George Bristol to deliver the first Annalist Letter on the occasion of the 50th reunion of the Class of 1815.

North naturally read the letter for his own class in 1891, in which — ever the philhellenist — he described the growing library of such memoirs as “autochthonous literature that had no counterpart in any American college.”

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The Roots run deep

I

N MANIFOLD WAYS, the expansive Root family — 30 of whom dwell in the southeast corner of our cemetery — exerted a tidal influence on College history across many generations. The patriarch, Oren, Class of 1833, taught mathematics and curated a valuable mineralogical collection in the basement of Buttrick Hall. He earned the inevitable nickname of “Cube” Root. His son, Oren, Jr., Class of 1856, also taught math and for his part was dubbed “Square.”

Another son, Elihu, Class of 1864, is without doubt the Jeopardy! answer to “This alumnus is Hamilton’s most famous.” Born in Buttrick, after graduation he taught briefly at the Rome Free Academy where one of his pupils was future Hamilton president Melancthon Woolsey Stryker, who in partnership with Root as board chairman would remake the College. That was all to come.

After gaining his bearings, young Elihu set his cap for New York City, where he earned his degree at NYU Law School and began a lucrative practice defending the likes of “Boss” Tweed of Tammany Hall and corporate potentates such as Edward Henry Harriman, Jay Gould, and William Collins Whitney.

His subsequent career unfolded like a drumroll: U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York; secretary of war for President William McKinley; secretary of state for President Theodore Roosevelt; U.S. senator for New York; and founding president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Root was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912, Hamilton’s centennial year,

for which he composed a lyrical address that aptly describes the distinctive character of Hamilton that is preserved in our cemetery.

The College, he wrote, possesses an “indefinable and mysterious quality which has been transmitted from a remote past … which gives to the institution a personality of its own.”

Surely Elihu Root — long-serving board chair, a trustee for almost his entire adult life, and Sigma Phi brother to the end — contributed mightily to that Hamilton personality. The full gravity of Root’s influence was seized by his biographer and admirer, Philip Caryl Jessup, Class of 1919, who limned the statesman’s epochal burial scene: On February 9th [1937], the cold rain drizzled across the campus as the simple funeral service was conducted in the College Chapel. The College choir sang and the undergraduate members of his fraternity were the only pallbearers.

They carried him along familiar campus aisles under the vaulted nave of gray, high-arching elms. By trees which he and his father had planted, overlooking the valley which they both had loved, the final words were spoken. In that place a symbol of wisdom, truth and great honor now forever dwells.

The power and the glory

back to Alma Mater to be its president in 1892, Stryker was reputedly the highest-paid Protestant clergyman in the nation, earning a cool $7,000 a year in the noted pulpit of Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church. He took a $2,000 pay cut to return to Clinton.

Stryker’s signal contribution, fueled by the energy of his well-placed board chair, Elihu Root, was to articulate — and implement — a national vision for the College. Armed with personal charisma and a well-stocked Rolodex, and prodded by Root who had his own battery of financial and social resources, Stryker was our first modern chief executive. He presided over the electrification of campus and the addition of running water and sewers. He changed the College colors from pink and blue to the more manly (he thought) buff and blue.

More concretely, he wheedled $300,000 out of industrialist Andrew Carnegie to build the residence hall that bears his name, just one of several buildings on the west quad that went up under his baton. According to Professor of Art Paul Parker, who made a study of Hamilton’s architecture, Stryker was a meddler in the design of all the structures he commissioned. “This local Leonardo,” wrote Parker, “who billed himself as a poet and choirmaster in addition to many other talents, could not conceivably allow any architect to make substantial decisions.”

Indeed, Stryker did fancy himself a musician and writer, as well as draftsman.

He composed hymns, which he sang lustily in the College Chapel, and penned volumes of impenetrable poetry, the sole and shining exception to which is his lyric — first in Latin, then in English — of Carissima.

H

AMILTON’S NINTH PRESIDENT, Melancthon Woolsey Stryker, grew up on the family farm down the road in Vernon. After graduating from Hamilton in 1872, he attended Auburn Theological Seminary. When he was called

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‘The last dormitory’

T Winton Tolles ’28

Sidney Wertimer Ellie Wertimer

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HE QUIPPISH NAME for the College cemetery (and the current title of my tour), fell from the lips of perhaps the most earnest aspirant for burial there: Alexander Humphreys Woollcott, Class of 1909. Known as “Puts” — for putrid — as an undergraduate, Aleck cut an obscure figure on the Hill. He was fond of absinthe, played female parts in theatrical productions of the Charlatans, and sat menacingly during pledge season on the stoop of his Theta Delta Chi fraternity house wearing a fez and heavy corduroy trousers, scowling at potential recruits. He was not a regular bather.

Woollcott began his storied career of literary and theatrical criticism right out of Hamilton on the theatre desk of The New York Times. Later, serving in World War I as a reporter for the Army newspaper Stars and Stripes, he fell in with the future founding editor of The New Yorker magazine, Harold Ross. Once stateside, Woollcott pulled in fellow 1909 classmate Ravaud Hawley Truax, who would become the magazine’s chief executive, and lawyer Lloyd Paul Stryker, Class of 1906. The Hamilton troika were vital to sustaining the fledgling magazine during the critical first two decades of its existence.

Concurrently, Woollcott was the lightning rod of the Algonquin Round Table — weekly wine-soaked luncheons of New York’s literati — where he boasted of his College so much that fellow member Dorothy Parker prophesied, “Aleck, when you die, you’re not going to heaven. You’re going to Hamilton.”

And so he did, but not before his ashes

were mailed to Hamilton … New York, where they languished for a time in the keeping of his despised Colgate University. On sensibly paying the $0.67 postage due, the College and its cemetery regained possession of its ever-loyal son.

T

The soul of deanship

WO CEMETERY RESIDENTS, “Squintin’” Winton Tolles ’28 and Sidney Wertimer, effectively invented the role of college dean. Their legacies are generations of alumni whose lives were constructively and irreversibly altered by their firm but fair guidance and all-seeing wisdom.

Tolles, who served as dean from 1947 to 1972, was that perfect Hamilton creation: a literary scholar (he held a doctorate from Columbia and published a noted book on Victorian theatre) who found his calling molding the moral lives of undergraduates under the inspiration of the finest British writers. Rumpled in appearance, displaying traces of lunch upon his tie, with the ever-present cigarette drooping from the corner of his mouth, Tolles — in the words of colleague and fellow cemeterian George Lyman Nesbitt, Class of 1924 — had the ability to “carry the Dean’s Office around with him in his head.”

His decanal protégé, Professor of Economics Sidney Wertimer, assistant dean from 1957 to 1965, was also a practicing academic who toted a degree from the London School of Economics. Wertimer displayed a penchant for peering into the souls of undergraduates and reclaiming the worth and integrity of even the most misdirected of students.

If Wertimer’s own head didn’t contain the entire Dean’s Office, at the very least he had eyes in the back of it. Either that or, if what has been asserted is true, Wertimer’s dog — known for following a different student home each evening — was reporting back.

To mention Sidney Wertimer is to evoke the memory of Hamilton’s only unofficial

and unpaid dean: his wife, Eleanor Walsh Wertimer, who was for numberless students an adviser, friend, counselor, and surrogate mother. Trustee Sean Fitzpatrick ’63 surely had her also in mind when, in delivering his Class Annalist Letter, he uttered the brilliantly epigrammatic tribute to his dean: “Sid Wertimer, my nemesis, my savior.”

Mitzvahs of matzevah

T

HE “SETTING OF THE STONE” is a deeply meaningful Jewish tradition by which visitors to a gravesite leave a stone or pebble on a grave marker as a symbol of respect and remembrance. This occurs frequently in our cemetery, with a uniquely Hamiltonian twist.

The graves of Sidney Wertimer and his wife, Ellie, and of Professor of Philosophy Bob Simon, for example, are usually festooned with pebbles. Hockey coach Greg Batt’s has a hockey puck balanced on top. Propped against the marker of Professor of Geology Don Potter is a rusty geologist’s hammer that has very likely been there since his burial in 2015.

As an aside, Potter’s avidity for a Hamilton inhumation matches only that of Woollcott.

Over the years, he wrote several flaming letters to the administration, complaining bitterly of poor drainage that threatened to wreck certain sections of the cemetery containing College notables. That issue was addressed in 2018 when, to the sorrow of some but courtesy of the cemetery endowment, the old red shale loop road was replaced with porous asphalt and a new culvert added. In consequence, the entire Root family is no longer at risk of being carried away by tides of heavy rainfall.

The grave of professor of mathematics John Anderson ’64 — famous both for his captivating teaching style and for his habit of wearing sneakers to class — is identified by the pair of weathered Converse Chuck Taylors hanging from his stone. Anderson’s

students are a faithful and persistent lot.

There have been three, or possibly four, such pairs placed there sequentially as they disintegrated since his death in 2000.

The tomb of the unknown hamiltonian

A

LL THE OLD MAPS and burial lists show a Plot 269 with no name attached, nor marked by any stone, and until recently a source of continuing perplexity. In the end, like most detective work, a combination of shoe leather and dumb luck cracked the case of the occupant’s identity.

The quest began with a lone internet reference to one Henry Mandeville, age 20, buried in the College cemetery in 1877. There is, indeed, a Henry Mandeville in our tombs, but that would be the Rev. Professor Mandeville, a trustee before his appointment to the faculty when, to his everlasting credit, he firmly instituted public speaking into the curriculum.

He taught from 1841 to 1849, leaving to take a pulpit in Alabama after the trustees rejected his plan to retain his professorship while embarking on a nationwide book tour. He died in 1858 and was transported back to the Hill for burial, later joined by his wife, under an imposing granite marker adjacent to Plot 269.

His son, Dorrance Kirkland Mandeville, Class of 1849, went on to practice medicine in Brooklyn and had a son of his own — named Henry — who died in 1877 at the age of 20. Puzzle pieces were falling into place.

The coup de grâce solving the mystery was provided, as usual, by that year’s Hamilton Literary Monthly (the 19th-century precursor to Hamilton magazine), which recorded the burial of Henry the younger “next to his grandfather” with no mention of a marker.

The absence of a gravestone has been ascribed most likely to the circumstances of Henry’s death, say, for example if it had been a suicide.

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Individualized attention

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URSUING THE BEATING heart of a Hamilton education leads us to the core of the teacherstudent relationship on the Hill: truly personalized instruction. The cemetery holds many deft practitioners of this art, but three call out for special mention.

Christian Henry Frederick “Old Twink” Peters was an academic rock star — branded like many 19th- and 20th-century professors with an affectionate nickname. The first faculty member to hold a Ph.D., Peters left a similar post in Albany to direct our Litchfield Observatory. The discoverer of 47 asteroids, he was forever at his telescope, working with students at all hours, anxiously scanning the heavens for planets, galaxies, and ever more asteroids. Tragically, he was found dead one summer morning in 1890, crumpled in the observatory doorway, an unlit cigar in his hand, no doubt after having completed an exhausting but satisfying night of observations.

Poet Ezra Pound, Class of 1905 — though himself not in our tombs — was indelibly influenced by two men who are. A transfer from the University of Pennsylvania, Pound had a hard time integrating socially on what he called our “desolate mountaintop.” His muses, however, were two professors who exerted a powerfully formative influence upon him. Joseph Darling “Bib” Ibbotson, Class of 1890, was professor of English, Hebrew, and Anglo-Saxon and served as the College librarian. William Pierce Shepard, Class of 1892, switched improbably from teaching biology to incepting Romance languages, with a well-defined specialty in medieval Provençal poetry that entranced the young Pound. In the classroom, and in lengthy after-hours conversations by fireside, these two scholars provided the intellectual crucible in which Pound’s acknowledged genius was tested and refined. The Cantos, the poet’s greatest work

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which opened the door to 20th-century English literary modernism, may be said to have its roots on College Hill. Pound himself once said, “The Cantos started with a talk with Bib.”

Greater love hath no alumnus

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N 1891, THE COLLEGE graduated the precocious Duncan Campbell Lee with a pronounced bent for public speaking. At that time, Cornell University was looking to create a department of oratory. And where does one look for faculty candidates?

Naturally, to that doughty college in the Mohawk Valley with a Mandevillian tradition of producing fine speakers.

While laboring away as a young assistant professor, Lee kept a sideline in muckraking journalism for the Ithaca Daily News, assisted by a recent Cornell graduate named Frank Gannett. Their reporting ran afoul of a university trustee whose manufactory was polluting the area’s waterways, extinguishing Lee’s hopes for a tenured professorship.

Gannett for his part went on to create the eponymous newspaper empire headquartered in Rochester. Lee crossed the pond and undertook a successful legal career in London at the Inns of Court until his death in 1943. His will expressed the wish that “my body be buried in some shady spot in England,” while his heart should be returned to College Hill. This gruesome deed was accomplished by his widow in 1945, duly attested in the Hamilton Alumni Review.

Haunted after all

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T HALLOWEEN, it is often proposed that the cemetery tour should become a spook ’em, scare ’em affair. This has been resisted in the belief that our necropolis — true to its Rural Cemetery Movement origins — is to be a place of honor, dignity, and respect. To be sure, the register of burials does contain many surprising ironies and oddities. But no ghosts.

Except perhaps one. Carole Bellini-Sharp, the Margaret Bundy Scott Professor of Theatre Emerita and a 43-year veteran of the faculty, died in 2019. First hired by Kirkland College, she has been eulogized as a best-hearted but determined troublemaker, who first fought against the merger, but then joined avidly with others to make Hamilton the best coeducational college it could be.

Beloved and talented at guiding students into influential careers in the performing arts, Bellini-Sharp most of all strove to make them better people, in our finest tradition of humane and personalized instruction.

After choosing her own last dormitory, and noting the cemetery’s proximity to the old Minor Theater, she publicly — and characteristically — announced her intention to “haunt the s--- outta this place.”

Everything but a wurlitzer

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ERHAPS OUR CEMETERY’S greatest poet was Professor of History David Maldwyn “Spoolie” Ellis ’38, whose subtly amusing Class & Charter Day address in 1984 — with the biblically allusive title “Giants in the Earth” — laid the pipe for the cemetery tours Frank Lorenz and I would later give. Describing its history and notable inmates, Ellis sang of the cemetery’s “many distinctions,” including “integration of races, sexes, nationalities, and even academic disciplines; southern exposure and no seepage; total security with no incidents of graverobbing; an Ionic frieze; and a place in literature [referring to The Sterile Cuckoo by John Nichols ’62, which was later a motion picture filmed on campus starring Liza Minnelli]. What more has California’s Forest Lawn Cemetery to offer except a Wurlitzer organ!”

Thanks to Professor Ellis, himself entombed on our hilltop, we can relate the apposite comments of two distinguished faculty whose graves are not far from his.

Upson Professor of the Spoken Word, Willard Bostwick “Swampy” Marsh, always urged students to remember that good speakers know when to stop. “Keep command of your terminal facilities!” he used to say. In reply, Thomas McNaughton Johnston, professor of English, contemplating the site of his own eternity, observed that “the Hamilton College cemetery is itself an excellent terminal facility.”

So here I must stop and hope you agree. n

Fred Rogers, director of gift planning and former director of annual giving, is the self-appointed “dean and docent” of the College cemetery, a role he inherited from the late Frank Lorenz, longtime College archivist and editor of the Hamilton Alumni Review. Rogers is descended from three generations of Hamiltonians and is the parent of Mairin L. Rogers ’21.

For the curious, there are stats.

In all, 352 souls have taken their rest in Hamilton’s cemetery, including seven presidents, 11 senior administrative officers, 25 trustees, 84 faculty, 92 alumni, and 206 spouses and dependent children. Military veterans number 19.

Sadly, there are 12 students, the last two of whom were buried in 1964. There are 77 reservations for future burials.

Recent additions include Vice President for Advancement Joe Anderson ’44 and his wife, Molly, President Martin Carovano, Professor of Music Sam Pellman, Professor of Philosophy Bob Simon, Professor of Theatre Carole Bellini-Sharp, trustees Drew Days ’63 and Keith Wellin ’50, and Grammy Award-winning musician Joanne Shenandoah — a distant descendant of Chief Skenandoa.

Illustrations by Sawyer Kron ’25

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By Megan B. Keniston

KEVIN WALDRON

FACE

ABOUT

A PROFESSOR’S BATTLE WITH TREASON AND TRUTH

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(LEFT) Seidule’s childhood copy of Meet Robert E. Lee, originally published in 1969 (BELOW) Seidule’s book Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause, published in 2021.

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P ON A SHELF in Visiting Professor of History Ty Seidule’s office in Kirner-Johnson Building is a worn copy of his favorite childhood book, Meet Robert E. Lee by George Swift Trow. It serves as an artifact from Seidule’s past, when he was a “southern gentleman” who revered the commander of the Confederate Army.

A retired brigadier general of the U.S. Army who was raised in Virginia and rural Georgia, Seidule spent decades viewing the Civil War through the lens of the Lost Cause myth, an ideology that attempts to preserve the honor of the post-Civil War South by casting the Confederates as heroic underdogs and slavery as a positive good for both owners and those enslaved. Even as he began questioning what the myth perpetuates and acknowledged the war’s actual root cause was indeed slavery, Seidule admits that he still found himself somehow able to venerate Lee. That would all change —his world shifted and his belief systems shattered — in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point archives.

What he learned there changed him and molded him into the scholar, author, and teacher he is today.

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EIDULE GREW UP in a part of the U.S. where Confederate monuments, flags, and tributes were part of everyday life, displayed proudly everywhere he looked. He read from and trusted the school textbooks that idolized Lee and promoted the Lost Cause as fact. He proudly attended Washington and Lee University — where Lee served as president after the Civil War — on an ROTC scholarship. On the day Seidule graduated in 1984, family, friends, and classmates filled Lee Chapel, the commander’s final resting place, for the commissioning ceremony where he and the other cadets took the officer’s oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States

Finally, after too many years, that’s when I had my ah-ha moment.

I understood the question but not the answer, “How did this happen?”

against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Afterward, their pictures were taken alongside Confederate flags and in front of a white marble recumbent statue of Lee, in his uniform and asleep on an unnamed Civil War battlefield that served as the centerpiece in the chapel’s apse.

Seidule went on to serve his country in Kosovo, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and other locales. He then became an assistant professor of history at West Point after earning his master’s degree from The Ohio State University in 1994 and while obtaining his Ph.D. from the same institution in 1997. He left West Point briefly to return to the operational Army, but returned six years later when he was offered a permanent faculty position, eventually becoming head of the history department for the academy.

A few years after he returned, he was walking across the post when he stopped to notice a sign for Lee Barracks. He thought about how he and his family lived on Lee Road, by Lee Gate, in the Lee Housing Area. Then he noted a new memorial, Reconciliation Plaza, that was added while he was away that featured Union Army Commanding General Ulysses S. Grant and Lee. “Finally, after too many years, that’s when I had my ah-ha moment. I understood the question but not the answer,” he writes, noting how he ran around everywhere only to find more and more monuments and spaces memorializing Lee. “‘How did this happen?’ I asked, but no one knew or cared.”

He went to the archives, suspecting that many of these tributes were erected in the years immediately following the Civil War in an effort to heal lingering wounds. Months of research revealed that was not the case.

Even though the academy had deemed any soldier fighting for the Confederacy to be considered treasonous, Lee was first memorialized on the post 65 years after the war in the 1930s. Seidule considered a possible reason: it was right around the time that the first

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MONUMENTS AND MYTHS Dive into the findings from Seidule’s latest Monuments and Myths course on Hamilton’s YouTube Channel.

Black cadet of the 20th century, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., came to West Point.

Seidule continued his research and uncovered that the tributes to Lee and other Confederate memorials came at various times throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries, some more than 100 years after the end of the Civil War. His research illustrated that nearly all of them appeared to correlate with crucial moments in the Armed Forces’ history when faced with racial integration. The more he learned, the more disgusted he was with what he found.

“Not only did the facts change me, but they made me outraged,” Seidule says with conviction. “They turned me into a historian and an activist.”

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NSTEAD OF RUNNING from or avoiding his past, Seidule presses toward it each day. He believes more people will listen if he shines a light on hard truths while acknowledging his own. “My background is as an armor officer responsible for tank and cavalry operations, so my personality is that of a tank officer. Tanks go through things; they don’t go around them.”

He began writing and speaking regularly on the topic. He returned to his alma mater and Lee Chapel where he stood in nearly the same spot he did when he was commissioned decades earlier. There, he called Lee a traitor while standing on his grave. Seidule retired from the Army in 2020 so he could pursue writing his memoir, Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause (St. Martin’s Press, 2021).

Looking for an opportunity to both write and teach, he learned about The Chamberlain Project, named after Civil War general Joshua Chamberlain. It offers retired U.S. Armed Services officers teaching fellowships at top colleges and universities. Life Trustee Elizabeth McCormack helped connect Seidule with Hamilton, and after a snow-covered visit to campus in the winter of 2020, he accepted

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H

the offer to serve as the College’s inaugural Chamberlain Fellow. When the two-year fellowship concluded at the end of the 2021-22 academic year, Seidule asked to stay and was offered a visiting professorship role.

“I’m lucky to be here,” he says. “My classes have been wonderful. The students are amazing. We have great faculty and a dynamite History Department. It’s a great school and a great place.”

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NERGETIC CONVERSATIONS between Seidule and student researcher Bobby Grygiel ’23 could be heard in the back offices of KJ throughout the summer. Grygiel received College funding to work with Seidule to interview Black graduates from West Point’s Class of 1972 who spoke out and successfully fought against President Richard Nixon’s attempt to have the academy add a Confederate monument at the time. A history major, Grygiel planned to talk with nearly 20 graduates and document their perspectives and stories for Seidule’s next book, Our Right to Serve: The Black Cadets Who Challenged the President, Changed West Point, and Inspired an Army.

Even with this important task at hand, Seidule empowered Grygiel to learn through doing and take ownership of his role in the project.

“What I most enjoyed about working with Professor Seidule is the freedom with which I was allowed to work,” Grygiel says. “I liked having the ability to constantly modify

my approach, especially since each interviewee is different.”

Seidule is intentional about finding ways to bring history to life for his students. (He’s even been known to facilitate an outdoor drill session as part of a course, complete with 1860s fife and drum music and Seidule dressed in a U.S. Army Cavalry Stetson giving marching orders.) His approach with Grygiel was no different. “[Bobby was] not in the bowels of some archives going through microfiche. Instead he’s getting to interact with these people and talk and learn about something that happened 50 years ago,” Seidule notes.

Whether he’s at the front of a classroom or working with them one-on-one, Seidule prepares his students to be the next generation of leaders and thinkers who can self-reflect, question perceived truths, and unearth new ones — even about themselves.

In his Monuments and Myths course, students spend the semester focused on one goal: learn everything there is to know about a Confederate monument of their choosing. Each student researches the historical context that led to its unveiling and prepares a 20- to 25-page paper and a short video to share the findings. Seidule encourages his students to write for other people — like grandparents or other family members — and not for him, an approach that allows students to hone key critical thinking and communication skills.

“I tell them, ‘You’re writing to make other people understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it,’” he says, noting that their work should not only affect the greater historical community but also help local communities think about what to do with monuments in their own backyard.

“When you talk to people about a subject they already have an opinion on, you need evidence and expertise, but you also need passion and patience.”

NANCY L. FORD

Speaking at Hamilton’s Commencement in 2021, Seidule advised graduates to “Know your own history. Know your community’s history. … Keep questioning. Because that is really the only way to know thyself.”

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LEADER AMONG THOSE most interested in dismantling Confederate memorialization, Seidule was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to The Naming Commission in 2021, which has provided naming, renaming, and removal recommendations to Congress for all Department of Defense items that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with them. He has served as vice chair on the commission and will finish that work this fall when he testifies before Congress with the results.

“I’ve been proud and excited to do this work,” Seidule says. “We’ve needed to change these since they were named after people who killed U.S. Army soldiers, renounced the oath of office, and fostered a true slave republic. I’m honored to be part of naming them after true American heroes.”

His books, a video lecture titled “Was the Civil War About Slavery?” with more than 34 million views, his speaking engagements, and his work on the commission have garnered Seidule national and international media attention — along with fans and detractors alike. Not everyone appreciates his efforts to vilify Lee and myth-bust the Lost Cause. That only gives him more reasons to keep going.

“I had a boss in the Army who once said, ‘If you’re not tired of hearing your message and if your staff is not tired of hearing your message, then you haven’t said it enough,” he says, noting that while he doesn’t have a staff, his wife hears every Zoom session, and she’s only a little tired of it. “People accuse me of being a traitor or tell me I don’t love my country. No, I love my country. This is why I’m doing it. I want to make my country better.” n

We’ve needed to change [Confederate monuments] since they were named after people who killed U.S. Army soldiers, renounced the oath of office, and fostered a true slave republic. I’m honored to be part of naming them after true American heroes.

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EVEN M O R E

Essays that Worked ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANDREW VICKERY

Hamilton has a long tradition of emphasizing writing and speaking as cornerstone values, and students come here to find their voice. In fact, many embody that aspiration and demonstrate that potential in their application essays.

As we’ve done on occasion through the years, Hamilton magazine is proud to present a few exceptional admission essays written by members of the latest class of incoming students. These essays offer a glimpse into the diverse backgrounds and experiences, as well as the writing talents, so many students bring to College Hill.

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Aubrey Wallen ’26 LAKELAND, TENN.

7

5,000 FLIPPED PAGES. 11,520 packed boxes. 6 school maps.

I began measuring my life in flipped pages, packed boxes, and school maps when I was 6.

As my family and I flitted between states and coasts for my father’s job over the last decade, I shielded myself with fantasy novels. With my head propped on the baseboard near my nightlight and a book held up in front of me by aching arms, I would dance in whimsical forests, fight daring battles, and rule dangerous courts long after dark. In my fantastic universe, I could take turns being the queen, the knight, the hero, and even the villain. These books helped me express the happiness, anger, sadness, and queerness I could not have even begun to imagine alone.

The characters I discovered in novels as I toured libraries and Barnes & Noble stores in strip malls around the country taught me resilience and empowered me to nourish my strengths. Mare Barrow showed me the power of determined women, and I unapologetically strove for academic excellence and obtained a GPA of 4.4. Tane, from The Priory of the Orange Tree, inspired me to push the limits of my own body, so I’ve traversed approximately 1,544 miles in cross-country races and practices. Evelyn Hugo’s unapologetic character compelled me to want to embrace and feel free with my queerness rather than shelter it away in a shameful corner. Even further, this year I am adding a third dimension to my love of fantasy by interpreting Mrs. White in my school’s production of Shuddersome and The Monkey’s Paw

with assistance from Anne of Green Gables, my first fictional idol, who massively influenced my personality and tendency for dramatics. But above all, Leigh Bardugu, my favorite author, gave me permission to even dare to write and to dream that I can.

What began as a safety net in my adolescence has grown to something more, a true passion for English and all that it can express. Language is power and I wish to wield it like a mighty sword. I want to be the puppetmaster, the speaker, and the leader in a world that is crafted in ink. I want to be a New York Times bestseller and to know that whatever I do is impactful and that it creates a difference, no matter how small.

I want to walk down a crowded street and see “my book” spread open in a passing person’s hands, as they refuse to put it down, just like I did so many times in the hallways of my middle school. A writer, a college professor, a publishing lawyer: I want it all, the riots of failure, and the pride of success.

Without the assistance of literature, I wouldn’t be who I am today. If I hadn’t grown up fueled on library hauls I wouldn’t have discovered that I love English.

I wouldn’t get shivers when I fret for a favorite character or celebrate their triumphs, be as ready to face obstacles, or be as adventurous as I am. Without the moves around the country and back, I wouldn’t have become so resilient and open to change, so adaptable to life, but most importantly I wouldn’t have become so in love with language. With every move I burrowed in books, and with every book I became me.

Literature has made me in every way, and the only way I can repay it is to become the penman. n FALL 2022

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Nicholas “Cole” Wassiliew ’26 BETHESDA, MD.

I

DREADED THEIR ARRIVAL. The tyrannical cicadas swarmed DC and neighboring areas in 1987, 2004, and again in 2021. I was freaking about Brood X, the worst of them all. Brood X is a cluster of cicadas that descend on Washington, D.C., every 17 years. I live in the epicenter of their swarm. Cicadas battled with mosquitoes for first place in the top tier of the human annoyance pyramid. I hate these off-brand cockroaches.

For 17 years, cicadas live underground feasting off of sap, running free of danger.

Then, they emerge and face the real world.

That sounds familiar. I have lived in the same house, in the same town, for 17 years, with my parents feeding me pasta and keeping me safe.

Is it conceivable that I have more in common with cicadas than I previously thought? Cicadas have beady, red eyes. After a year of enduring Zoom classes, attending tele-health appointments, and spending too much time on social media and video games, I too feel a little blurry-eyed and disoriented.

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But what about their incessant hum and perpetual noise? That is not me. OK, maybe I do make protein shakes with a noisy blender at all hours of the day. Maybe I do FaceTime vehemently with friends, blare music while I shower, and constantly kick a ball around both inside the house and out.

At least I do not leave damaged wings, shedded skin, or rotting carcasses everywhere.

Smelly soccer socks on the clean carpet after a long practice? Check. Pools of turf in the mudroom after sliding all over the field? You got it. Dirty dishes and trail mix stains after accidentally sitting on a mislaid M&M are hardly as abhorrent as cicada remains, right?

The more I reflected, the more I realized these bugs and I are more alike than different.

After 17 years of being cooped up, we are both antsy to face new experiences. Of course, cicadas want to broaden their wings, fly, and explore the world, even if it means clumsily colliding into people’s faces, telephone poles, and parked cars. Just like I want to shed my skin and escape to college, even if it means

getting lost on campus or ruining a whole load of laundry. Despite all my newbie attributes, I am proceeding to the next phase of my life whether I am ready or not.

Only the hardiest of cicadas survive their emergence and make it to trees to mate, lay eggs, and ensure the existence of their species.

I want to be a tenacious Brood X cicada. I will know what it means to travel into the wrong classroom before getting laughed at, bump into an upperclassman before dropping textbooks everywhere, fail an exam after thinking I aced it. I may even become the cicada of the lecture hall by asking a professor for permission to go to the bathroom. Like cicadas, I will need time to learn how to learn.

No matter what challenge I undergo that exposes and channels my inner-cicada, novice thought process, I will regroup and continue to soar toward the ultimate goal of thriving in college.

When I look beyond our beady red eyes, round-the-clock botherment, and messy trails, I now understand there is room for all creatures to grow, both cicadas and humans.

Cicadas certainly are on to something ...

Seventeen years is the perfect amount of time to emerge and get ready to fly. n

Catherine “Cate” van den Beemt ’26 FREELAND, MD.

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WAS BORN TO TWO MOMS. One, my biological mom, Meredith.

One, my mom who adopted me, Mary.

Because they were a same-sex couple, the law required that Mary adopt me in order to be my parent. They used Sperm Donor 3311. All I know about my “father” is that he didn’t have a familial history of cancer, he has a twin brother who is 6'4", and he studied math in school. This is all background information; I don’t even know his name. He doesn’t know mine, nor does he know that I even exist. People often ask “What does your father do for a living?” and I’m forced to respond “I actually have two moms,” triggering reactions like that of my driving instructor, “Oh, well that must be different.”

I’m 17-years-old and still don’t know how to respond to these comments.

When I was 5, Mary, who had been sick for a long time with leukemia, passed away, and my life was turned upside down.

I was old enough to understand grief, and yet I still question why it happened. It was terrifying seeing my mom break down while saying, “Mom died last night.” I wonder what I missed out on and carry guilt that I don’t remember much about Mary, because we just didn’t have enough time together. Many say grief gets easier with time, however, I think the way you grieve just changes over time.

The world kept spinning and, in 2011, my biological mom met another woman, who soon became my stepmom. However, to me, Kerry is also my mom. No longer do I reveal the fact that I have two moms; now I get reactions to the fact that I have three.

Not knowing my father doesn’t leave a void in my life. “Dad” didn’t sing “there was an old lady who swallowed a fly” and tickle me when the old lady swallowed the spider, my moms did. He didn’t take me to Gunpowder Friends Meeting where I shook hands and spent time with 80-yearold friends from the retirement home, my moms did. He didn’t console me when I began crying at the dry-erase board at school

because it reminded me of white boards Mom wrote on when she was unable to talk.

He didn’t teach me that love is love. He didn’t teach me who I was becoming, my moms did that.

I’ve never known my father or that I was supposed to have one, so why would I think my life is any different from the so-called “norm?” If there’s one thing I have learned from my parents, it’s that I have developed a love for difference. I openly accept all those around me and excitedly anticipate the relationships that I will build in my future.

There is no such thing as a normal family structure, and my upbringing has given me that greater world view. My moms have raised me to believe that I can accomplish anything. There are still limits, though.

My family chooses not to travel to Jamaica because we aren’t accepted there. Before each family vacation, we must research to see if it is a gay-friendly place.

I don’t know the answers to questions about my dad’s side of the family. But I don’t let those kinds of things get to me because instead I can talk about the people who raised me. The world is changing as we speak. “Normal” is fading, but it has already disappeared for me. I don’t want anything different than the family I have, and I own that every day. n

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Daniel “Deni” Galay ’26 LONDON, ENGLAND

“

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HE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN an anti-personnel and an antitank mine is not that complicated,” I am told casually, in halting Russian, by a boy even younger than I am during a walk through the Chechen mountains. I am freshly 14 and visiting my father’s homeland for the first time, unfamiliar with the harsh realities that kids half my age already know ironclad. My guide points out the areas where the grass is overgrown and the fruit trees abundant. People and animals alike know to avoid them; someone has learned of landmines the hard way. It shouldn’t surprise me — the scars of war on this rugged country are omnipresent — but it is so jarringly different from my life in London that it is nevertheless hard to digest.

It also differs from my father’s rosy stories about his childhood in Katyr-Yurt, stories that made me wish to swim carefree in icy rivers, devour handfuls of fresh sour cherries straight from the tree, and see nights dense with stars. I still experience these beauties of place, but my eyes are now open to the less romanticized parts, both enriching and complicating my connection to my family’s past. Suddenly, too, I am made uncomfortably aware of the conflicting layers of my familial identity. It is the Russian of my Muscovite, Jewish mother that I grew up speaking at home. Yet the Chechen children speak in broken Russian, and the grownups who are more fluent in it are not keen to communicate in the enemy’s

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language. Seeing the ugly scars of war, both physical and psychological, I cannot help but feel like an intruder, ashamed not only of my Russianness but also of my city-boy naivete.

Despite this shame, I yearn to discover what it means to be Chechen, to see their home through their eyes, and through this desire, I begin to feel a deep connection all of my own to this beautiful, fraught land.

In Moscow, my new awareness of conflicting identities only intensifies, but now on account of the maternal side of my heritage. Relatives there largely see Chechens as terrorists and raise an eyebrow when they hear where I have spent my summer.

Babushka’s neighbour, a nurse who witnessed the carnage from the theatre siege in Moscow, turns away disgustedly when she overhears me relate the beauty of the mountains and

the notable generosity of the people. Once again, I register the fear and distrust of “the other” that reigns in the more homogeneous cultures in Russia, making me appreciate the diversity of London all the more.

When I return there, I cannot slip back into life as normal as I have done after past summers. I find myself pondering the question of identity and the way people interpret their own past, informed just as much by collective emotion and memory as by fact. The cosmopolitanism of London is just as I remembered it, but the things I loved about it I now see in a new light. I had always revelled in the fact that, despite our differences in heritage, my peers and I had seen each other as the same — bound together by being Londoners first and foremost. Now I am interested in conversations that I would never have considered previously, wanting not only to share my newfound experiences but also learn about the personal histories of my friends, many of whom, like me, are the children of immigrants to the UK. When did they come to explore and interrogate their own complicated identities? How did these discoveries make them feel? What does it mean to carry the stories, the poetry, and the pain of so many places within them? Questions like these, which were so important for me to answer about myself, also became a powerful place from which to understand more deeply the people around me and the complex world we share. n

Zachary Yasinov ’26 S Y O S S E T, N .Y.

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KNEW THAT I HAD PREPARED well for this moment. For two arduous months, I readied my fingers for an exciting concert. No anxiety could undermine my confidence in my preparation, and my piano recital’s success was “in the bag.” I selected three pieces for my repertoire: the ambience of Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie No. 1 as the opener, a somber contemplation of Beethoven’s First Movement of the Moonlight Sonata, and Bach’s light and surreal Prelude in C Major for the conclusion.

My shining moment arrived, and I strode purposefully toward the piano. The building in which my performance was held was new, but its dwellers were old. Respect and prestige permeated the atmosphere as I took each stride to my seat. As I sat down, the chair creaked and moaned as if in sympathy with the audience’s aching desire to hear me play. I prepared my sheet music and commenced my epic moment.

Never was such an exhilarating performance heard. All of the little techniques and tricks that I practiced were executed perfectly.

I captured the dynamics I wanted to express in Satie’s phonological experiment with each chord to which I applied varying pressure.

Moving onto one of Beethoven’s most famous works, I crafted the cascading arpeggios of each new chord, which resonated unity uninterrupted in me and in the audience. When I concluded with the airy prelude from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, the room swelled with bliss. Having poured my heart and soul into each piece, I beamed with pride.

As customary for a stellar show, I rose to bow to the audience to thank them for their eruption of applause. Flowers were thrown, cheers elicited, and standing ovations bestowed. From the subsiding din came a faint question to rain on my parade: “Could you play something more lively, darling, say, a Neil Diamond song?”

I work on weekends at a long-term-care facility, and my geriatric audience, although a pleasure with whom to interact, can be brutally honest. Begrudgingly, I thanked Mrs. Hersch for her request, promised her better next time, and stewed in my own irrelevance. Going home that day, my feathers were ruffled. How could any civilized listener, after such a superb medley, disregard such time-honored compositions? The notion was absurd.

Yet perhaps more outlandish, as I later acknowledged, was my visceral reaction to the events that had transpired. Why did I react hesitantly to a simple request made in earnestness? It would have been easier, in fact, to practice “Sweet Caroline” than to break my fingers over Beethoven’s work. Then, in my moments of introspection, I concluded that my choice of musical pieces mattered little as long as my audience enjoyed them. Whether it meant recreating the most tortured and heinously composed pop song or a masterfully crafted Romantic concerto, I vowed to play them all.

Throughout my life, my adult mentors have succored me with platitudes when most needed, which laid the foundation for my confidence. Yet, while working with people who have lived five times longer than I have, experiencing so much more than I can imagine, I know that the world does not revolve around my tastes and interests. I’m okay with that.

Thus, for a couple of hours each day in the living room, unlucky family members passing by are subjected to the torment of my tenth run-through of “Sweet Caroline” as I prepare for my next recital for an audience that has taught me more about personal preferences, and myself, than I anticipated. n

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Katherine “Katy” Appleman ’26 P I T T S B U R G H , PA .

I

HAVE NEVER FELT such palpable emotion, such profound grief emanating from a space, as I did while hiking through the forest fire scorch in Philmont, New Mexico. A universe had once existed under the protection of these Ponderosa Pine, now black and crusted, turning brittle in the wind. It was a landscape that didn’t sing its laments, but whispered of its loss through every pile of scalded timber and skinny, wavering shadow cast by the hollow towers of ash.

I felt prepared when I made the decision to become a scout. I love nature and camping. I love the Scouts BSA program. I love the people. I was definitely not prepared, however, for the numerous challenges I would face during my years as a scout.

I was the first female “boy scout” in my town, which continues to be both my greatest honor and a constant reminder of the isolation and insecurity that comes with being any “first.” I became a symbol, whether for good or bad, and my actions not only spoke of me, but of the future young women in Scouts BSA. I felt like an imposter.

I wasn’t a strong-willed leader like those who usually have “first” stitched into their title. My seventh-grade acting career did little to veil a shy and insecure girl who crumbled at overheard comments on how I didn’t belong or how girls like me were poisoning BSA’s spirit.

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As time passed, I found myself waiting to develop the toughened heart that the leaders that I knew held. As my troop and I backpacked in Philmont Scout Ranch this past summer, my doubts and insecurities seemed to echo from this inky forest.

Coming from Pittsburgh, I had expected the kind of desert with raspy air and coat hanger cacti. Nothing quite shattered this expectation as much as putting on my last pair of dry socks before the fourth day of downpours. We navigated steep cliffs and vibrant meadows, and pulled

ourselves up peak after peak. As the sun set on one of our final evenings, the flat, mountain-ornamented horizon gave way to a modest footpath, daring into a new forest.

This forest, differing from the field of burnt pines we had seen prior, had burned several decades ago. The fire had cleared everything and had left its signature singed onto the bottom 10 feet of every tree. The forest floor was clean. Wild grasses with accents of purple and blue flowers blanketed the ground below the pines like snow, which had fallen while the world was asleep, completely untouched and extending to infinity. Above the burnt limbs of the trees, thick bundles of green needles soared into the sky.

Not long after Philmont, I was awarded my Eagle Rank, the culmination of my experience as a scout. I believe that my time in Scouts BSA has been the first to the forest that is my life. Though scars remain from my experience, new change and strength have flourished out of the damage.

I have come to the conclusion that it is not always the fierce leader who becomes a “first.” It is the extra hours.

It is finding a way to listen to criticism and try harder, rather than feel the thorns. It is using one’s own feeling of isolation to see others who feel alone.

It is the act of going through the fire and staying with it, allowing it to advance you, which changes people who dare to be a “first” into the leaders that they go down in history as being.

As I think back on my experience in Philmont, the first forest we saw, this blackened graveyard, is what I picture. I remember the charcoaled ground so vividly, but more so, I remember the soft purple wildflowers hidden in the desert soil. Though few and far between, against the grieving timber, they were stars. n

Claire Lazar ’26 N E W Y O R K , N .Y.

I

’M 6. The sounds of hornpipe and laughter drift across the gymnasiumturned-cafeteria-turned-auditorium.

Mum caught me dancing to some of her old Irish tapes — the Chieftains, Sinead O’Connor.

She asked me if I wanted to do it for real. I said sure and went back to dancing. Now a freckled woman digs around in a cardboard box and pulls out a pair of dusty, worn black shoes. “Don’t worry,” she says, “you’ll learn eventually.” The shoes are too big; they sag at the toes. I approach the stage. Twenty-five pairs of eyes fix on me. In a room bustling with motion, everything stands still. It doesn’t matter that I feel like a clown in an ill-fitting costume. All that matters is the dancing.

I’m 9. I sit in the hallway of the Times Square Marriott watching girls in big wigs and sparkly dresses run around, squawking like glamorous, unhinged chickens. In my tartan skirt and simple bun, I feel like an ugly duckling. The bobby pins dutifully securing my bun in place make my scalp ache. My hands slide to my shoes. They’re too tight.

Mum put them on her feet to “try and stretch them out a little.” I pass some over-enthusiastic dance moms who put the “mother” in “smother.” I reach the stage. A hundred pairs of eyes fix on me. In a hotel bustling with motion, everything stands still. It doesn’t matter that I’m out of place. All that matters is the dancing.

I’m 12. My brain won’t stop flipping through disastrous scenarios as I stand with my teammates in a hotel in Orlando, Florida. We’ve trained for months, sacrificed everything for this moment. I try to think of happy things: the pride on Dad’s face when he watches me dance, the freedom of flying across a stage on invisible wings. We recite

our steps like a poem, the sequences like a song that carries us through an ocean of fiddles, pipes, and drums. My parents sacrificed a lot to send me here. I want to make them proud. I want to make myself proud.

We approach the national stage. A thousand pairs of eyes fix on me. In a world bustling with motion, everything stands still. It doesn’t matter that I feel like a fraud. All that matters is the dancing.

I’m 15. An Irish accent lilts through the ballroom of the World Championships. It sounds like mashed potatoes and Sunday bests and the green hills of home that I know so well. We mutter a prayer. I’m not sure I believe in God, though I should. I look at my partner and wish we were more than friends.

She smiles. I don’t think God believes in me.

We ascend the stage. A million pairs of eyes fix on me. In a universe bustling with motion, everything stands still. It doesn’t matter that I’ll never be enough. All that matters is the dancing.

I’ll be 18. Murmuring voices will hover in the air of the gymnasium-turned-cafeteria-turned-auditorium. A little girl will approach me timidly, wearing a very old tartan skirt. I’ll reach out softly, adjusting

her bun to soothe her aching scalp. Then, I’ll slide my hands toward her feet, toward a pair of small, dusty shoes. “You’ll learn,” I’ll say. They’ll sag at the toes, but I’ll reassure her: “Don’t worry. You’ll grow into them.” Then, she and I will look at my own beloved shoes. They’ll be worn, but I’ll tell her the creases are

like a map, evidence of the places I’ve been, the heartbreaks I’ve suffered, the joy I’ve danced. My life is in these shoes. We’ll hear the music begin to play, the tide of fiddles, and pipes, and drums. I’ll take her hand and, with a deep breath, we’ll climb the stage. “Ahd mor.” It won’t matter that this is the end. All that has ever mattered is the dancing. n

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Katherine “Kat” Showalter ’26 L O S A LT O S , C A L I F.

T

HE BLACK VOID DESCENDS toward the young girl standing in the grassy field. It slowly creeps up on her, and as it reaches for her perfectly white dress … Swipe. I quickly wipe away the paint without a thought except for panic.

Before I realize what I have done, the black droop becomes an ugly smear of black paint.

The peaceful picture of the girl standing in the meadow is nowhere to be seen. Even though I successfully avoid having the spilled paint touch the dress, all I can focus on is the black smudge. The stupid black smudge. As I continue to stare at the enemy in front of me, I hear Bob Ross’s annoyingly cheerful voice in my head: “There are no mistakes, only happy accidents.” At this moment, I completely disagree. There is nothing happy about this, only frustration.

Actually, there is one other emotion: excitement. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not excited about making a mistake and definitely not happy about the accident. But I am thrilled at the challenge. The black smudge is taunting me, challenging me to fix the painting that took me hours to do. It is my

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opponent, and I am not planning to back off, not planning to lose.

Looking back at the painting, I refuse to see only the black smudge. If lacrosse has taught me one thing, it is that I will not be bested by my mistakes. I snatch my picture and run downstairs, carefully setting it against the living room window.

The TV newscaster drones in the background, “California continues to be engulfed in flames as the fires continue to burn.” I slowly step back from my painting. California fires, I think, as I look up into the blood-orange sky. California Fires! I look at the painting, imagining the black smudge not as a black void, but smoke creeping up on the girl as she watches the meadow burn.

I grab my painting and run back to my room. The orange sky casts eerie shadows as I throw open my blinds. My hands reach first toward the reds, oranges, and yellows: reds as rich as blood; oranges as beautiful as California poppies; yellows as bright as the

sun. I splatter them on my palette, making a beautiful assortment of colors that reminds me of one thing: fire. A rich, beautiful, bright thing, but at the same time, dangerous. My hand levitates toward the white and black.

White, my ally: peaceful, wonderful, simple white. Black, my enemy: annoying, frustrating, chaotic black. I splat both of them onto a different palette as I create different shades of gray.

My brush first dips into red, orange, and yellow as I create the flame around the girl. The flame engulfs the meadow, each stroke of red covering the serene nature. Next is the smoke, I sponge the dull colors onto the canvas, hazing over the fire and the trees, and, most importantly, hiding the smudge.

But it doesn’t work. It just looks like more blobs to cover the black smudge. What could make the gray paint turn into the hazy clouds that I have been experiencing for the past several days? I crack my knuckles in habit, and that’s when a new idea pops into my head. My calloused fingers dip into the cold, slimy gray paint, which slowly warms as I rub it between my fingers. My fingers descend onto the canvas, and as they brush against the fabric, I can feel the roughness of the dried paint as I add the new layer. As I work, the tension from my body releases. With each stroke of my fingers, I see what used to be the blobs turn into the thing that has kept me inside my house for weeks. As I lift my last finger off the canvas, I step back and gaze at my new creation. I have won. n

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Bookshelf Creamiest Tomato Soup Without Any Cream

Emma Laperruque ’14

Food52 Big Little Recipes: Good Food with Minimal Ingredients and Maximal Flavor (Berkeley, Calif.: Ten Speed Press/Random House: 2021)

T

hrow out that long grocery list.

This cookbook, named one of the year’s best by The Washington Post, features 60 recipes that deliver mouth-watering results “in five, four, three … or, yep, even two ingredients,” notes the publisher.

Emma Laperruque ’14 is food editor at Food52 and an award-winning columnist. She shares tips for classics such as chili or eggplant parmesan that can be whipped up even on busy weeknights; chicken noodle soup made with just three ingredients; and amazing lemon bars with olive oil shortbread (that your Hamilton magazine editor baked to rave reviews from her family).

And what’s more the publisher adds, “You’ll find tons of need-to-know tips, mini-recipe spreads, and choose-yourown-adventure charts to give meal-planning a burst of energy: A fervent case for simpler homemade stock, a loving ode to canned tuna, a very good reason to always have bananas in your freezer, and more.” n Emma was kind enough to share one of her recipes with Hamilton magazine. Reprinted with permission from Food52 Big Little Recipes by Emma Laperruque © 2021 by Food52 Inc. Photographs © James Ransom.

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THE ANSWER TO the creamiest tomato soup? Skip the cream. From a distance, this seems counterintuitive, illogical, unbelievable. But the answer comes by way of two other ingredients that just happen to be dairy-free: cashews and onions.

You’ve probably already heard of cashew cream, aka the easiest nut milk ever. Unlike almonds, cashews are soft enough that you don’t need to soak them overnight. And while something like coconut milk tastes unavoidably coconutty, cashew cream just tastes creamy.

And so do onions. I first learned of onion-cream thanks to chef Grant Lee Crilly via our Genius Recipes column. The idea being: If you puree cooked onions, you end up with a cream look-a-like, ready to take dinner by storm. In this case, we simply sauté a lot of onions to start the soup. By the time everything gets buzzed together, you achieve a vegan cream of tomato that’s even creamier and more savory than the original — though no one will quite know why.

SERV ES 6

1 1⁄3 cups (185g) raw cashews 5 tablespoons (75ml) extra-virgin olive oil 2 pounds (910g) yellow onions, halved and roughly chopped Kosher salt 1 (6-ounce/170g) can tomato paste 2 (28-ounce/795g) cans whole peeled tomatoes and their juices

POUR the cashews and 1 1/2 cups (360ml) water into a blender to soak while you start the soup.

SET a stockpot over medium heat and add 4 tablespoons (60ml) of the oil. When the oil is hot, add the onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 12 minutes, until the onions are translucent and soft — lower the heat as needed; we don’t want them to brown.

STIR in the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and the tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, until the tomato paste is super fragrant and becomes a rustier, deeper shade of red. (This means bigger, better tomato flavor.)

DEGLAZE the pot with 1 cup (240ml) water, scraping the bottom to release any caramelized bits.

Add the whole peeled tomatoes, their juices, and 2 teaspoons salt. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 40 minutes, until the soup has thickened a bit and tastes very flavorful.

Turn off the heat and use an immersion blender to blend until smooth.

BLEND the cashews and water until smooth, then pour into the soup. Blend with the immersion blender again. Taste and adjust the salt if needed, and stir in more water if you want it thinner.

This freezes beautifully.

Susan Hartman K’74

City of Refugees: The Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life into a Dying American Town (Boston: Beacon Press, 2022)

M

eet Sadia, a spirited Somali Bantu teenager who rebels against her mother; Ali, an Iraqi translator who creates a new life while still traumatized by war; and Mersiha, a hard-working Bosnian who dreams of opening a café.

All three are newcomers to the U.S., and Susan Hartman K’74 follows them for eight years as they and their families adjust to life in Utica, a city revived by the influx of refugees. These immigrants have transformed the area over the past four decades — opening small businesses and repairing abandoned houses. “City of Refugees is a complex and poignant story of a small city but also of America — a country whose promise of safe harbor and opportunity is knotty and incomplete, but undeniably alive,” the publisher notes.

The author is a journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and Newsday. She notes about the book project: “My editor at Beacon Press turned out to be a recent Hamilton graduate, Haley Lynch [’17]. And she is brilliant! The book actually opens with [Professor of Economics] Erol Balkan, who guided me into this project; my time at Kirkland is also part of the intro. So, it’s a bit of a family affair.” n

Andrew S. Curran ’86 and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (editors)

Who’s Black and Why? A Hidden Chapter from the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 2022)

I

n 1739, Bordeaux’s Royal Academy of Sciences announced a contest for the best essay addressing the following question: “What is the physical cause of the Negro’s color, the quality of [the Negro’s] hair, and the degeneration of both [hair and skin]?”

Curran and Gates’ book, which features 16 previously unpublished submissions to the notorious contest, represents a chronicle of the rise of scientifically based, anti-Black racism. Although the slave trade had yet to reach its peak, by the time the contest was announced, some four million Africans had been kidnapped and shipped across the Atlantic.

The essays, written in French and Latin, were dispatched from throughout Europe. Their authors ranged from naturalists to physicians, theologians to amateur savants. “Some affirm that Africans had fallen from God’s grace; others that blackness had resulted from a brutal climate; still others emphasized the anatomical specificity of Africans,” the publisher notes. “All the submissions nonetheless circulate around a common theme: the search for a scientific understanding of the new concept of race. More important, they provide an indispensable record of the Enlightenment-era thinking that normalized the sale and enslavement of Black human beings.”

Andrew Curran ’86 is the William Armstrong Professor of the Humanities at Wesleyan University and a leading specialist of the Enlightenment era. n

STEPHEN CROWLEY ’82. Putin’s Labor Dilemma:

Russian Politics between Stability and Stagnation (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2021).

BILL FEARNOW ’73. Stories From Way Out West (Tubac, Ariz.: Full Court Press, 2020).

JANE K. SIMMONS GLEN ’04. The Joy of Eating: A

Guide to Food in Modern Pop Culture (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing, 2022).

BRUCE GOLDSTONE ’84. Zero Zebras: A Counting Book about What’s Not There (New York: Orchard Books/Scholastic, 2022).

HARRY GROOME ’60. Giant of the Valley (Villanova, Pa.: Connelly Press, 2022).

ANNIE HARTNETT ’08. Unlikely Animals: A Novel (New York: Ballantine Books, 2022).

AMY HATKOFF K’78. Shaped by Love: The Extraordinary Impact of Nurturing (New York: Abrams Books, 2022).

SABRINA KLECKNER ’19. The Art of Running Away

(Mendota Heights, Minn.: North Star Editions, 2021).

HELEN MORSE K’76. The Difficult Girl: A Memoir (Newbury, Mass.: Sparrow Press, 2022).

KATHERINE H. TERRELL, PROFESSOR OF LITERATURE.

Scripting the Nation: Court Poetry and the Authority of History in Late Medieval Scotland (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 2021).

PAGE WEST ’74. Strategic Management: Value Creation, Sustainability, and Performance (Winston Salem, N.C.: Riderwood Publishing, 2020).

NIGEL WESTMAAS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF AFRICANA STUDIES. A Political Glossary of Guyana (Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen Press, 2021).

For descriptions of the books listed, and links to where you might purchase them, visit hamilton.edu/alumni/books.

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R

OUGHLY EIGHT MONTHS remain in the Because Hamilton campaign. The College’s most ambitious fundraising effort launched in 2018 with a goal of $400 million. To date, $366 million has been secured with the campaign scheduled to close on June 30, 2023.

Already, more than 30,079 trustees, alumni, parents, friends, corporations/ foundations, and estates have made a gift to the Because Hamilton Campaign.

Their generosity is strengthening the Hamilton experience and further increasing access and opportunity for talented and deserving students.

Campaign priorities include financial aid, digital fluency, living & learning, career exploration, support for the humanities, and the Hamilton Fund.

Here are just a few examples of how students are already experiencing the benefits of the campaign.

For information about campaign priorities and how you can help Because Hamilton finish strong, visit

hamilton.edu/becausehamilton.

H

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[FINISHES STRONG] $366,000,000

$0

$400,000,000

Because Hamilton [ANALYZES] WHITNEY HINTZ ’23 plans to one day help rehabilitate individuals convicted of a crime.

After taking a computer science course and a few in statistics, the psychology major began to see how data analysis tools will be key in her profession, providing insight into such areas as violence risk assessment.

As one of three senior data science tutors, Hintz assists fellow students with questions as they consider how data can inform their coursework and research projects. She holds office hours in Kirner-Johnson where her primary “clients” are economics students. Fluent in three programming languages — SPSS Statistics, Stata, and R — she helps her peers understand how to accurately interpret data and analyze it to solve specific problems.

“For example, a student wanted to know if attendance at professional hockey games is directly linked to a win in the previous game,” she says. “We considered different statistical methods he might use to determine if this is the case — or maybe it’s combining two different methods.”

Gathering and interpreting data also play a part in two research projects Hintz is

working on. One is a group project with two professors looking at moral judgment and how individuals’ perceptions may vary based on how personally relevant a topic is to them.

The other is her senior thesis focused on how past incidents of self-harm can inform the likelihood that a person might commit an act of violence in the future.

“Conducting research at Hamilton has allowed me to explore my interdisciplinary interests and interact with a wide variety of departments,” Hintz says. “My research has affirmed my goal of entering a clinical psychology Ph.D. program and eventually becoming a forensic psychologist.” n The Because Hamilton campaign supports Digital Hamilton by providing funds for new faculty leaders and technologists, programs such as a new concentration in data science, a digital learning center, and high-performance computing resources that foster innovation and technology-enhanced learning across the curriculum.

FINANCIAL AID | DIGITAL HAMILTON | LEARNING & LIVING | CAREER EXPLORATION | HUMANITIES | THE HAMILTON FUND

GABRIEL BIT-BABIK ’25 ARRIVED on College Hill knowing he wanted to take advantage of the many opportunities Hamilton has to offer. The only problem was where to start.

That’s when he turned to ALEX. Now in its second year, the Advise, Learn, EXperience program pairs incoming students with an advisor available to counsel them through graduation. While faculty advisors guide students’ academic journey and career counselors help them prepare for and identify post-graduate options, ALEX advisors introduce students to resources ranging from off-campus study opportunities to how to find balance in your life.

Bit-Babik approached ALEX to “navigate how college works,” but it was his advisor, Kevin Alexander ’13, who kept him coming back. “Kevin is always willing to share his opinion, and we have productive dialogues,” Bit-Babik says. “Sometimes he just listens to me vent, but he’s always ready to recommend [resources] that help me directly or put me in touch with the person who can.”

Because Hamilton [CONNECTS] Last spring, Bit-Babik stepped up to co-chair the Young Democratic Socialists of America, a student club that was planning a campuswide event to express solidarity with the people of Ukraine. In soliciting ideas, he contacted Alexander, who helped him develop a plan for organizing a gathering in the Chapel that raised both funds and awareness.

After learning about Bit-Babik’s interest in public policy, Alexander suggested he visit the Levitt Center. Bit-Babik spent the summer coordinating the Community Impact Fellows, students who volunteer as collaborative partners with local organizations. A native of Utica, Alexander again proved helpful when Bit-Babik asked him to meet with students

Because Hamilton [ENGAGES] FATIMA OLIVA ’23 has spent a lot of time at Hamilton in the field collecting data or in the Science Center analyzing results. She worked with Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Heather Kropp studying buckthorn, an invasive species of trees that is hindering the vitality of the College’s forestlands.

Oliva has loved her Hamilton science courses and plans to apply to graduate programs in environmental science. That’s why it may come as a surprise to learn that she also spends a substantial amount of time at the Wellin Museum. She’s one of about 40 student docents who are trained to guide visitors through the current exhibit and answer questions.

“I’ve always had an appreciation for art.

It’s therapeutic for me,” Oliva says. “By talking about art with students and people from the community — from all different backgrounds and ages — I build my social skills.

Developing those communication skills is important no matter what career I go into.”

Being a docent takes practice, the ability to “read the room,” strong presentation skills, and an in-depth knowledge of the content being presented. Docents might lead a tour for a sociology class one day and introduce a group of third graders to the exhibit the next.

Engaging people with art is a goal for Oliva. As a sophomore, she created and organized the first Latinx Art Walk now

to share his viewpoint on ways they can best contribute.

“Kevin gave me a lot of good tips, and he gave me the confidence to reach out and take advantage of the Hamilton network,” BitBabik says. n Because Hamilton promises to help students fulfill the College’s motto, “Know Thyself,” the campaign ensures that all students develop the requisite skills to engage in career preparation, build networks that lead to successful outcomes, and develop self-confidence and marketable life skills.

held each fall at the Wellin during Hispanic Heritage Month. She works with museum staff, along with La Vanguardia and BLSU, to select works by Latinx artists from the museum’s permanent collection and invites the campus community to stop by and learn more. “As a person of Mexican heritage, it’s great to dedicate a day to connecting students with art in this special way,” she says. n In addition to the arts, the Because Hamilton campaign supports living and learning on College Hill through programs focused on health and well-being; continued renovation and expansion of athletics facilities; and the Common Ground program, which brings together people from varying backgrounds to exchange ideas from different perspectives — to name a few.

PHOTO BY JANELLE RODRIGUEZ

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You’re the Top “H” IS FOR HAMILTON and the Herculean work done by Josie Collier ’97, P’14, who just concluded her term as president of the Alumni Association. Here she is atop the giant “H” sculpture with fellow members of the Class of ’97 who celebrated their 25th reunion in June.

PHOTO BY ADAM J. BROCKWAY

HAMILTON 198 College Hill Road Clinton, NY 13323

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Hamilton College

[Hamilton’s cemetery has] recently been laid out in an appropriate manner and attracts many visitors by its rural beauty and its memorials to the honored dead.”

– Amos Delos Gridley, Class of 1839, History of the Town of Kirkland, 1874

T he stone memorializing Christian Henry Frederick

Peters, director of the former Litchfield Observatory, who discovered 47 asteroids between 1861 and 1889.

The Greek quote that rings the top translates to: “The stars fled rising and spinning when he died.”