PSS Summer 2011

SUMMER 2011

profiles of 23 alums

including John Bracken ’60, Linda Margolin ’70, Jim Moscou ’90, Jonathan Schoenberg ’90, Felicia Crump ’02, Ellen Kotzen spokes ’85, Sandy Scherzer Gross ’85, Vincent R. DiGregorio ’64, P’13 and others

PLUS: Campaign for the Colleges at $189M, just $11M from goal HONORS: Faculty-Student Partnerships

IN CLASSNOTES: First Person Stories of Life After HWS from 9 Young Alums

Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011 Catherine Williams EdiTOR Peggy Kowalik ART diRECTOR/dESigNER Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05 ASSiSTANT EdiTOR Kathryn Bowering ’11, Ken DeBolt, Mary LeClair, Belinda Littlefield ’11, Cynthia L. McVey, Megan Metz, Dominic Moore ’05, Jeanne M. Nagle, Margaret Popper, Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05, Sarah Tompkins ’10, Andrew Wickenden ’09, Catherine Williams CONTRiBuTiNg WRiTERS/EdiTORS Kevin Colton STAFF PHOTOgRAPHER Andrew Markham ’10, Gregory Searles, Stephen Slade, DaveBurbankPhotography. com, Fidel Amos, Zachary Rittner, John Funkhouser ’04, Don Cochran and Greg Wall CONTRiBuTiNg PHOTOgRAPHERS Rebecca Frank, Mary LeClair, Betty Merkle, Kathy Killius Regan ’82, P’13, Jared Weeden ’91 CLASSNOTES EdiTORS Mark D. Gearan PRESidENT David H. Deming ’75 CHAiR OF THE BOARd OF TRuSTEES Katherine D. Elliott ’66, L.H.D. ’08 viCE CHAiR OF THE BOARd OF TRuSTEES Catherine Williams viCE PRESidENT OF COMMuNiCATiONS Kathy Killius Regan ’82, P’13 diRECTOR OF ALuMNAE RELATiONS Jared Weeden ’91 diRECTOR OF ALuMNi RELATiONS William Smith Alumnae Association Officers: Susan Flanders Cushman ’98, President; Chris BennettWest ’94, vice President; kate Mackinnon ’77, Past President; Lynne Friedlander Jenco ’80, Historian Hobart Alumni Association Officers: Edward R. Cooper ’86, President; James B. Robinson ’96, vice President; garry A. Mendez iii ’96, Historian; Robert H. gilman ’70, immediate Past President vOLuME XXXviii, NuMBER THREE THE PuLTENEY STREET SuRvEY is published by the Office of Communications, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 639 S. Main Street, geneva, New York 14456-3397, (315) 7813700. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Pulteney Street Survey, c/o Alumni House Records, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, geneva, New York 14456-3397.

Opinions expressed in The Pulteney Street Survey are those of the individuals expressing them, not of Hobart and William Smith Colleges or any other individual or group. Hobart and William Smith Colleges value diversity and actively seek applications from underrepresented groups and do not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, marital status, national origin, age, disability, veteran's status, or sexual orientation.

Partnership for Global Education The Hobart and William Smith Colleges and union College Partnership for global Education (PgE) was made possible in 1999 through the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The PgE’s main goal is to explore the benefits of a consortial relationship in providing consistent, efficient and high-quality study abroad programs, and innovate new and better ways to integrate study abroad into the academic and social fabric of campus life.

Celebrating its 12-year anniversary, PgE has been successful in expanding abroad opportunities for faculty and students at both institutions while also streamlining administrative costs.

Headquartered at HWS in Trinity Hall, the PgE creates and operates programs to help students better prepare for their time abroad, and apply their new-found knowledge and experience when they return to campus.

Learn more about HWS partnerships on page 12.

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Worlds of Experience. Lives of Consequence.

Contents

2 Lakeviews

5

Overheard

6

Commencement 2011

8 Extraordinar y Philanthropy

10 Seneca Society

Students from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Union College explore the geography and geology of Rotorua, New Zealand, from their kayaks. The photo is by Zachary Rittner, a student at Union.

13

Par tnerships

43

Par tners Through Honors

50

Athletics

52

Classnotes

80 Reunion 2011 82

Alumni and Alumnae News

84

Bookshelf

On the cover: Members of the nationally-ranked HWS sailing team on Seneca Lake.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

1

Lakeviews

Dear Friends,

S

ummer in the Finger Lakes is a season of unparalleled beauty. And as the City of Geneva fills with visiting tourists, so too does our campus. People come from around the world to attend conferences and camps at Hobart and William Smith. In addition, each summer about 100 students remain on campus to participate in research with faculty mentors or to work in Admissions and Institutional Advancement, among other offices. At the end of the work day, it’s not unusual to find our students downtown at one of Geneva’s new coffee shops or cafés, jumping off the dock at Bozzuto Boathouse, or taking a bike ride along Seneca Lake.

In the midst of these summer activities, work is well-underway to prepare for the arrival of the Classes of 2015 who bring with them a strong set of academic, leadership, athletic and service credentials. With enhanced academic preparation and quality measured by class rank, standardized tests, and greater ethnic, racial and geographic diversity, the Classes of 2015 are shaping up to be one of the most engaging and vibrant we have ever enrolled. I was particularly pleased that an unprecedentedly large number of the entering cohort—40 percent—enrolled through Early Decision, making Hobart and William Smith Colleges their first and only choice. There is much evidence to show that when a class enters with these kinds of characteristics, they are more likely to persist and thrive.

We are currently planning for an incoming class size of 690 students, somewhat more than we expected. We knew from a variety of metrics and modeling that our position in the marketplace was steadily gaining ground so we opted to accept 300 fewer students into the first-year classes this year than last. But no metrics or model could have predicted the unprecedented interest that students are showing in Hobart and William Smith. Certainly, when they arrive on campus, they will bring with them a wide array of perspectives that will make educating them a stimulating and rewarding experience. As one college counselor e-mailed to me, “Hobart and William Smith is a hot school.”

We are seeing the same kind of unprecedented interest in Campaign for the Colleges. This year, the levels of giving to the Campaign have exceeded all expectations. Giving to the Annual Fund has never been higher. Interest in our planned giving program, The Wheeler Society, is tremendous. The Campaign itself, which is at $189 million toward our goal of $200 million, is progressing with encouraging momentum. As we look forward to successfully closing Campaign for the Colleges on May 31, 2012, I remain grateful to those of you who continue to make the Colleges a philanthropic priority.

With every best wish, I remain,

Sincerely,

Mark D. Gearan President

2 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

Coxe Lawn | ca.1925 WAVELENGTHS

Commencement At the Hobart College Commencement of 1925, five men received honorary degrees.

They included: Samuel Paul Capen, the first, full-time, salaried Chancellor of the University of Buffalo who was known for his strong defense of academic freedom; The Rt. Rev. Water Henry Overs, the Episcopal Bishop of Liberia; William Ward Plummer, a pioneering orthopedic surgeon from Buffalo; Guy Emery Shipler, the editor of The Churchman; and Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher, the dean of the department of agriculture and director of the Agricultural Experiment station at the University of Minnesota.

Top Daily Update Stories

4

Overheard

5

Classes of 2011

6

Extraordinar y Philanthropy 8 Seneca Society

10

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

3

TOP Daily Update Stories

1

COLLEGES NAMED TO PRESIDENT’S HONOR ROLL

Hobart and William Smith have been named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to civic engagement.

2

PERKINS RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS FULBRIGHT

Rebecca Perkins ’11 has received a Fulbright Teaching Assistant grant to Russia. Perkins will continue the research on Russian women’s issues that she began during two previous trips. Only 20 students nationwide receive a Fulbright position in Russia.

www.hws.edu/dailyupdate

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DISABILITY IN THE ARTS FESTIVAL

For the second year, the Disability in the Arts Festival celebrated the accomplishments of artists with disabilities throughout the month of April. Through speakers, workshops and interactive events, the festival inspired inclusion and creativity. The festival culminated with an Arts Gala finale, including an art show, dance performances and film shorts.

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2011 PHI BETA KAPPA INDUCTEES

The Phi Beta Kappa, Zeta of New York Chapter, elected 23 seniors and three juniors to join its membership. The nation’s most prestigious undergraduate honors organization, it invites approximately one percent of students graduating from American colleges and universities to join each year.

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NSF GRANT UPDATES SCIENCE BUILDINGS

The Colleges recently received a federal grant of more than $1 million to update campus science facilities from the National Science Foundation. The funding will support an upgrade of the Eaton/ Lansing science complex to enhance the student summer research program.

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STUDENTS ATTENDED CLINTON’S INITIATIVE

Brianne Ellis ’13 and Anna Dorman ’14 attended the fourth annual Clinton Global Initiative University in San Diego.

Each pitched her own commitment to action. Ellis will develop a series of social leadership sessions for young women, while Dorman will organize donations of water filtration systems to families in Africa.

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THE HERALD GOES DIGITAL

The campus newspaper, The Herald, now has an online website in addition to its original newsprint format. The website launched with the April 22 edition. New editions will be published in print and online. Visit online at hwstheherald.com.

SALISBURY SUMMER INTERNSHIPS AWARDED

The Charles H. Salisbury Summer International Internship Fund has been awarded to Wendi Bacon ’12, who is conducting stem cell research at the Cambridge Institute of Medical Research; Tom Luly ’12, who is interning with the Carnegie Moscow Center; and Rosemary Scheibel ’12, who is working with the Foundation for Sustainable Development in Nicaragua.

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TARDUNO ’13 NAMED HOLLINGS SCHOLAR

Maria Tarduno ’13 has been awarded a place in the highly competitive Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program offered through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). As a scholar, Tarduno earned a 10week paid internship with NOAA as well as travel expenses.

WAVELENGTHS

“Y

ou are part of this global community, and you need to give back and think about the consequences. ‘Doing good’ gives you greater confidence to do anything.”

—DAN ROSENSWEIG ’83, chief executive officer and

chair of Chegg.com, an online textbook rental company

“Sexual orientation was completely unknown in the time of the Bible … You can’t take a modern notion and plug it back into an ancient text and not do violence to that text.” —9th bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire and the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church V. GENE ROBINSON

At The President’s Forum During the spring 2011 semester, the Colleges hosted five leaders as guests of the President’s Forum Lecture Series.

“The rising of women is the rising of us all.”

—U.S. Ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues MELANNE VERVEER

“We live in a global world, what we do affects everyone else. Every single time we destroy the environment, we cost ourselves more in the long run; it is a cost we cannot afford.” —PHILIPPE COUSTEAU JR., chief executive officer of Earthecho International and the grandson of legendary marine conservationist Jacques Cousteau

“Any expectation we have of tomorrow is absurd. The next big thing is change. It is those with disabilities, those who are prepared for change, who will be ready for tomorrow.” —JOHN HOCKENBERRY, award-winning journalist and paraplegic

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

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Classes of 2011

Seniors Kelly Biggs and Brian Burbank greet faculty, friends and family after the Classes of 2011 received their diplomas.

Graduates encouraged to serve others

“Y

our generation is one that lives on the brink of possibilities, on the brink of open horizons,” said Patrick Corvington, chief executive officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service, as he delivered the 2011 Commencement Address. “Anything you choose to do, you can do.”

In his Valedictory Address, Colleges President Mark D. Gearan continued the theme of service and working together to make change. “You must take on the mantle of being global citizens. Our interdependent world needs you,” Gearan said.

The Classes of 2011 included 296 William

6 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

Smith undergraduates, 209 Hobart undergraduates, seven MAT students, and one Ontario ARC College Experience student.

This ceremony was the 186th Commencement of Hobart College and the 100th Commencement of William Smith College. During the ceremonies, former Dean of William Smith College Cerri Banks HON’09, along with members of the platform party and faculty, wore a special badge with the number “100” printed on it to commemorate the historic event for William Smith.

Jessica Greger ‘11 and Caleb Campbell ‘11 also addressed the crowd. “Really tough days will come along and test what’s truly

inside of you,” said Greger. “You must rise up and face these days, take on these challenges with all that you have—including your education and your experiences here at HWS.” Echoing Corvington’s Commencement Address, Campbell said, “I do not believe that change is inevitable. I believe, as Patrick Corvington does, that change is a choice.

I believe if we want to view the world differently then we must choose to do so. If we want to change the way we live our lives then we must choose to do so.”

On behalf of the Colleges’ Board of Trustees, Gearan presented honorary degrees

WAVELENGTHS

to Corvington; Makiko Tanaka, president of the Tanaka Memorial Foundation, for her visionary leadership and commitment to cross-cultural innovation, including programs that have significantly benefitted the Colleges and its students; Thomas J. Burr, the current director of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station and James Hunter, the past director of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, for their leadership of the many professors and technicians who have mentored HWS students over the years, and for their perseverance in creating a sustainable model of agriculture; and Teresa Amott, current president of Knox College and former HWS provost and dean of faculty, for her great passion and skilled leadership that has shaped the current and future nature of the Colleges’ academic program. ●

The Classes of 2011, led

by President Mark D. Gearan and Dean Eugen Baer HON ’07 and former Dean Cerri Banks HON ’09, begin the traditional walk to Houghton House for the Senior Dinner. Photo galleries from Senior Week and Commencement can be found on hws.edu/news/ commencement2011.aspx.

Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service Patrick Corvington delivers the Commencement Address to the Classes of 2011.

The Classes of 2011 join family, friends and community members in quiet reflection during the traditional Baccalaureate Service held in Trinity Church on Saturday.

Rita Fields, a retired assistant principal from Bronx, N.Y., congratulates her former second-grade student, Walter Cruz ’11, during the Saturday night reception at the President’s House.

Fields was a recipient of The Touching the Future Award.

Kelsey Bair ’11 shares her excitement with her mother, Laura Bair, following commencement. Bair, of Cranbury, N.J., graduated cum laude with degrees in political science and American studies.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

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Extraordinary Philanthropy Campaign set to close on May 31, 2012

REBECCA BORSUK ‘11, KATHRYN BOWERING ‘11 AND NICHOLE GEARY ‘11 REHEARSE FOR THE SENIOR DANCE CONCERT. TOGETHER, THE THREE CHOREOGRAPHED ALL OF THE DANCES IN THE SHOW.

EDDIE ’55 AND JOANNE FROELICH

8 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

WAVELENGTHS

W

ith Campaign for the Colleges in its final months, and an end date set for May 31, 2012, the Campaign’s three major priorities–strengthening the Colleges’ endowment, increasing Annual Fund support and addressing facilities needs– continue to receive unprecedented support from the HWS community.

“The momentum we’re experiencing is exceptional and record breaking,” says President Mark D. Gearan. “We’re currently just $11 million from our overall Campaign goal of $200 million. I continue to be thankful for the generosity and commitment of our alums, parents and friends.”

During the 2010-2011 fiscal year, gifts to the Annual Fund totaled more than $3 million, the largest annual fund in the Colleges’ history.

In that same time period, The Wheeler Society, the Colleges’ planned giving recognition society, welcomed 35 new members, more than three

times the number of commitments made the previous fiscal year.

In total, a record number of donors have supported the Campaign. There have been more than 21,502 individual gifts to the campaign so far, and 31 donors have made gifts of $1 million or more. The vast majority of gifts to the Campaign are under $50,000, and Annual Fund gifts continue to make up the majority of participation in the Campaign.

Since the Campaign was publicly launched in 2006, Eddie ’55 and Joanne Froelich have supported all three pillars of Campaign for the Colleges, endowing scholarships, making consistent gifts to the Annual Fund and continuously supporting capital projects. In 2010, the Colleges named the new gatehouse at Boswell Field in honor of their longstanding commitment to HWS. “The Froelichs have been unyielding supporters of Campaign for the Colleges and its core priorities,” says Vice President for Institutional Advancement Bob O’Connor. “At every stage of this Campaign, no matter where our focus has been, the Froelichs have been right there with us.”

“I believe you should give back from whence you came,” explains Eddie. “Without the philanthropy of others, I wouldn’t have had the opportunities I did in the 1950s. I want to help make the HWS experience even better for current and future students.”

Recently, the Froelichs have turned their attention to the last remaining capital priority of Campaign for the Colleges, making a commitment to support academic space for the performing arts. “I remember when I was a senior, standing on stage in Coxe Hall,” says Eddie. “Even then, it was not a theatre of great capacity. Students should have something that matches their talents, and the Colleges should have a Performing Arts Center that makes this campus shine.”

The gift from the Froelichs is earmarked for the 2,000 square-foot choral rehearsal hall, the first dedicated, acoustically-optimum rehearsal space ever built on campus. “We saw the Chorale when they performed in New York,” says Joanne. “They’re really quite good. We enjoy choral music and are thrilled to be able to turn something we enjoy into something that will benefit the Colleges.”

In addition to rehearsal and performance space for the music department, the proposed facility will also include teaching and performance spaces for students interested in theatre,

dance and tech as well as faculty offices and common areas for the entire HWS community.

“HWS is a small school that offers a lot. I’ve always been impressed by that,” says Joanne, who graduated from Cornell University. “When it’s completed, the Performing Arts Center is just one more opportunity that the Colleges will be able to offer bright, talented students.”

One of those talented students is Jamar Green ’12, a double major in dance and media and society. “When I injured my Achilles tendon playing football, I got great advice from an unexpected source – NFL wide receiver Randy Moss,” Green says. “I read how he used dance to rehab from an injury and how it helped him with balance and body control – very important for an NFL wide receiver. So following his advice, I tried dance. I’m still an athlete, but I feel the arts are as much a part of my life as breathing.”

A sociology major with a double minor in women’s studies and political science, Kelly Biggs ’11 concurs. “During my time at HWS, I tried so many things. I auditioned and was selected for chorale, joined the a cappella group 3 Miles Lost, played club ice hockey, lived in a theme house supporting the William Smith Centennial, spent a semester abroad in Vietnam, and worked in the Deans Office,” Biggs explains. “I look back and think, how could I have been this lucky? The new Performing Arts Center will attract a whole new group of talented students who will add so much to the HWS community. I look forward to coming back to campus in the not-too-distantfuture and seeing the curtain go up on the first production held when the Performing Arts Center becomes a reality.”

Though fundraising for the ambitious project is ongoing, final plans for the Performing Arts Center are well underway.

“The Colleges, in concert with its architecture firm, the Gund Partnership, have begun the design phase of the project, working to finalize construction plans so that we are shovel-ready when fundraising is complete,” says O’Connor.

“We’re confident that HWS community members will continue to make Hobart and William Smith–and the Performing Arts Center–a philanthropic priority.”

For more information about the Performing Arts Center as well as naming opportunities, contact Vice President for Institutional Advancement Bob O’Connor at (315) 781-3535 or oconnor@hws.edu

HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES

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Seneca Society Welcomes New Members

New members of The Seneca Society include: Langdon P. and Lyn G. Cook P’99, P’05 The Cooks came into the Hobart and Members of the Seneca Society gather in New York City, including (standing, l to r) Takeshi UESHIMA, PRESIDENT Mark D. William Smith family when two of Gearan, Honorary Trustee Charles Salisbury Jr. ’63, P’94, L.H.D.’08, BOARD CHAIR David Deming ’75, John Ashton, Trustee their children graduated from Hobart: Langdon Cook P’99, P’05, James Caird ’56, Trustee Thomas Poole ’61, P’91, L.H.D.’06, Edward Froelich ’55, Richard Abramson, Whitney in 1999 and Freddy in 2005. VICE PRESIDENT FOR INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT Robert O’Connor, (sitting, l to r) Makiko Tanaka L.H.D. ’11, Trustee Jane Napier P’89, Marylouise Napier Zuzunaga, Edith Salisbury, Patricia Barron, Rita Ashton P’04, P’07, Lyn Cook P’99, P’05, Cynthia Caird, Lang and Lyn have both been active Mary Jane Poole P’91, Joanne Froelich and BOARD VICE CHAIR Katherine Elliott ’66, L.H.D.’08. participants on the Parents’ Executive Committee, and Lang continues to others will be able to take advantage of a Hobart serve on the Board of Trustees and later, fund the Abraham Sports Medicine Room and William Smith education. the Campaign Steering Committee. Through a and Endowment as well as the Joe Abraham generous gift, The Cook Family Endowment has Prize in memory of Joe Abraham, former George E. Paulsen ’49* been established to help the Colleges inspire HWS athletic director. The Froelich Gatehouse, After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War members of the Hobart and William Smith which welcomes fans to the Caird Center for II, Paulsen graduated from Hobart with a B.A. in community to give back in even greater ways.

Sports and Recreation, is named in honor of history. He went on to earn his M.A. from Rutgers their commitment to the Colleges. Eddie and and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University. George David F. ’64 and Frances A. Eberhart Joanne have continually supported scholarship taught courses in history and policy at Arizona After earning a degree in economics, David funding including the Kathryn D. Cook Memorial State for more than 30 years. He established served on the Board of Trustees and has been Scholarship Fund. They have also established the the George E. Paulsen ’49 Endowed Scholarship a consistent champion of endowment support.

Edward A. ’55 and Joanne I. Froelich Endowed Fund and, upon his death, the George E. Paulsen In celebration of his 40th Reunion, he worked Scholarship Fund and are providing support for ’49 Endowed Chair in American History and tirelessly to make the Classes of 1964 Endowed the creation of the Performing Arts Center.

Government, currently held by Professor of Chair–currently held by Professor of Art Elena History Clifton Hood.

Ciletti–the largest fund currently supporting an Sheldon and Ruth Goldstein GP’04, GP’07 and endowed professorship. The lasting legacy of the Rita Goldstein Ashton P’04, P’07 Jane Shepard Ritter ’48, L.H.D. ’05* Eberharts will be their support of exceptional Through the Ruth and Sheldon Goldstein After earning her degree in religion, Ritter teaching at the Colleges.

Foundation, Ruth Goldstein has made gifts to the remained an active alumna, serving on the Colleges in honor of her granddaughters Rachel Alumnae Council and the Board of Trustees, Cynthia Gelsthorpe ’82 and John F. Fish ’04 and Sarah ’07. The Goldstein Family Carriage where she helped to shape the future of the Since earning a B.A. in psychology, Cynthia has House stands as a beautiful example of those Colleges during a period of enormous growth. served as a role model for students and alums. gifts. Most recently, Rita Ashton, the Goldstein’s Jane supported many scholarship programs A leader on campus, she has championed the daughter, has been instrumental in providing including Geneva Scholarship Associates and the William Smith Centennial Fund Committee as leadership support for the Performing Arts Jane S. Ritter ’48 Centennial Scholarship. Ritter’s well as the Geneva Partnership. In 2008, Center through the Ruth and Sheldon Goldstein advocacy on behalf of the Wheeler Society and Cynthia made the lead gift to renovate the Foundation. planned giving attests to the importance that one Centennial Center for Leadership, the heart person can have in the history and growth of an of leadership development programming on John T. McCarthy ’34* institution. ● campus. Most recently, Cynthia has made a A physics major at HWS, McCarthy went on to leadership gift in support of the Performing earn his Ph.D. at Yale and spent the rest of his Arts Center.

Formed in 2006, the Seneca Society honors those life teaching physics at Case Western Reserve and whose philanthropy has remarkably altered the the University of Cincinnati. His son, Michael, Edward A. ’55 and Joanne I. Froelich left instructions in his will for the establishment course of Hobart and William Smith history.

Eddie’s love of Hobart Athletics while earning of the John T. McCarthy ’34 Memorial Endowed his degree in English led the couple to, years Scholarship Fund in honor of his father so that * deceased 10 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

photo by kevin colton

O

n May 19, 2011, the members of the Seneca Society gathered in New York City for their third biennial welcome celebration for new members.

“When I look at the group gathered here this evening, I see the heart and soul of Hobart and William Smith,” said David Deming ’75, chair of the HWS Board of Trustees and himself a Seneca Society member.

“We share a deep respect for the Colleges. Our past and future commitments will ensure that Hobart and William Smith are excellent well into the future.”

The Explorer | ca.1987 FEATURE

All Aboard!

HWS students and their faculty mentors have been studying Seneca Lake for decades. In this photo, originally run in the June 1987 issue of The Pulteney Street Survey, First Mate John Abbott works with Stacey Amorosi ‘91 on the Colleges’ research vessel, then known as the HWS Explorer. The vessel was renamed in 2003 to honor William Scandling ‘49, LL.D. ‘67.

Par tnerships

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Profiles of some of the many par tnerships that make up the Hobar t and William Smith Community.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

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hen two or more entities join forces and resources, a kind of alchemy is ignited that, when tended carefully, can bubble into extraordinary outcomes. A new way to think about non-profit management. A unique piece of performance art. Life-changing reconstructive surgeries. A universe-expanding gravitational wave detector. Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Every partnership has its own individual narrative that is driven in large part by the chemistry of the people and ideas involved. But what they all have in common is the belief that by sharing a vision, by jointly owning success and failure, the whole that emerges truly is greater than the parts.

The stories on the following pages are just some of the many partnerships that make up the Hobart and William Smith community.

HOBART ANd WiLLiAM SMiTH COLLEgES

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PARTNERSHIPS

Partners Against Crime Celeste Lopes ’80 and her guide dog navigate the streets of NYC

by Dominic Moore ’05 and Catherine Williams

H Lopes, who is visually-impaired, has been teamed with guide dogs for more than 30 years.

“It’s like you can read each other’s’ minds. If the partnership is a good one, it’s intuitive and anticipatory. But it also takes a huge amount of trust.”

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e knows upwards of 180 words and understands complex concepts like ‘find.’

Nine times out of 10, he can find the nearest Starbucks or an empty seat on a subway.

He works long hours every day, commuting from Long Island to Brooklyn. And he’s also, Celeste Lopes ’80 says affectionately, “a bit of a spoiled brat.”

The spoiled brat in question is an 80-pound Labrador retriever, Lopes’ guide dog who pilots her through the crowded streets of New York City.

The dog, whose name she won’t reveal so that strangers can’t distract him, is her sixth. Lopes, who is visually-impaired, has been teamed with guide dogs for more than 30 years.

“It’s like you can read each other’s’ minds,” she explains. “If the partnership is a good one, it’s intuitive and anticipatory. But it also takes a huge amount of trust.”

A Deputy Bureau Chief of the Rackets Division in the King’s County District Attorney’s Office, Lopes has been a prosecuting attorney since 1983. She previously served as a senior assistant district attorney in the Major Frauds Bureau, where she supervised 15 assistant district attorneys. Her canine partner helps her navigate offices, courtrooms and judges’ chambers with ease. “If the partnership is working correctly, it becomes invisible to the people around me, including colleagues and witnesses,” she says.

It’s a relationship that requires a heroic investment from both parties. “It can take as long as 18 months to partner with a dog,” Lopes says, “and it’s a process more difficult than anyone can imagine.”

A guide dog will start attending rigorous training classes at about 12 months of age. Then, anywhere from 7-12 months after that, the newlytrained dog will be given to a handler like Lopes.

The next year and a half are a grueling time, both physically and emotionally, as the two learn to live and work together. At the same time, Lopes is saying goodbye to an older animal on the way to retirement.

“I’ve been lucky that all of my dogs have either been able to stay with me after retirement or have gone on to homes with friends or coworkers,” she says. “Despite that, I’ll often spend the last month with my old dog crying while I’m also welcoming a young, bouncy, overly-

rambunctious new presence into my life.”

Lopes was a highly active member of the Colleges’ community, working for four years at the student-run coffee house Amaranth, spinning records at WEOS and becoming one of the founding members of Newman Club. “At Hobart and William Smith, I became confident in going down new roads and trying new things,” she remembers. “I learned how important it is to stand up for what you believe in.”

A mathematics major, Lopes had a talent and passion for law and its strict logic. There were many hurdles to overcome, especially, she says, in the days before the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, but Lopes says she found the HWS culture of optimism to be invigorating.

Supportive faculty encouraged her through each challenge, giving her a life-long appreciation for “optimism, confidence and a positive attitude.”

Instead of hearing why the visually-impaired couldn’t succeed in the field of law, faculty told her “I believe in you and this will work.” At the Colleges, Lopes remembers fondly, “I never heard ‘I can’t’ or ‘we won’t.’”

Can’t and won’t aren’t in Lopes’ vocabulary.

In addition to a successful career, she rides horses and is involved in Ski for Light, a nonprofit that teaches visually- and mobility-impaired adults how to cross-country ski. She is the Vice Chair of the National Board of Learning Ally, an organization that records texts for the visually impaired. She’s also a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Guide Dog Foundation.

She has testified before the Congressional appropriations committee, advocated for equal access for people who are blind and has appeared in public service announcements distributed by the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, the American Foundation for the Blind, and the Department of Justice. She received her law degree from Boston College and was given the William Smith Alumnae Achievement Award in 2003.

“What matters to me is that I’m really helping people through my job,” Lopes explains. “I’m aiding victims of crimes and, I hope, making society a bit more kind and gentle. My guide dog allows me to do this.” ●

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

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PARTNERSHIPS

JIM MOSCOU ’90

JONATHAN SCHOENBERG ’90

Rock Solid in the Rockies

Friends partner to make TDA_Boulder a success

by Jeanne M. Nagle

A

n oft-repeated dictum in advertising is that “sex sells.”

The same can be said of humor.

If these two conceits hold true, then Jonathan Schoenberg ’90 and Jim Moscou ’90 are likely sitting on a gold mine.

Friends since high school, Schoenberg and Moscou currently work together at the Colorado-based advertising and design agency TDA_ Boulder, a small creative shop that has received some big industry accolades of late. Schoenberg is creative director and co-owner with the company’s founder, Thomas Dooley, while Moscou is the agency’s managing director.

Since early 2010, Schoenberg and Moscou have spent a good portion of their time working on the Sir Richard’s Condom Company, a brand born out of the agency’s creative department, funded by Boulder investors, and overseen by Moscou, the fledgling venture’s interim CEO. Sir Richard’s recent campaign interweaves humor, practicality, responsibility and just a soupçon of social consciousness. For example, Sir Richard’s packaging includes suggested

16 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

retail price stickers like “$874 less than a bugaboo stroller” or “$1,154 less than a year of diapers.” And for every condom sold, the company donates one to a developing country. This fall, Moscou will head to Haiti for its inaugural condom drop in partnership with the renowned international health organization, Partners in Health.

“Branding and launching Sir Richard’s Condom Company has been a rather unique experience,” says Moscou.

“The Schoenie and Jim from our Hobart days would have gotten a good chuckle out of it. But I also think they would be proud that we are helping to create a business that is doing good.”

After graduation, the two friends followed separate career paths.

Schoenberg attended a writers’ program at Columbia University before embarking on a career in advertising as a copywriter at the international advertising agency Ammirati Puris Lintas and the now-defunct New York City firm Mad Dogs & Englishmen.

In 1996, Schoenberg had a oneyear stint with TDA before returning to New York so that his wife, Megan Battle Schoenberg ’91, could finish her master’s in social work. He returned to Boulder and the company in 1998, and has been there since.

Moscou put his master’s in journalism and mass communication from University of Colorado to good use, making a name for himself as an award-winning reporter. His work has appeared in US News & World Report, Newsweek and the New York Times, among others. In 2001, he was selected as the American Journalism Fellow at Oxford University. Today a selfproclaimed “recovering journalist,” he left reportage and landed in the Boulder office of Crispin Porter + Bogusky as a senior strategist working on Microsoft’s global campaigns and Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection. In 2009, at the request of Schoenberg and Dooley, he joined TDA.

“When I switched careers and understood what it took to be great in this industry, and saw what Schoenie and Thomas were doing creatively at TDA, my gut told me this could be a great ride,” Moscou says.

Moscou’s instinct may be right.

This year, TDA_Boulder was one of only three advertising agencies worldwide recognized by all four 2011 One Show competitions, the industry’s top creative recognition. TDA also won a coveted 2011 Clio for its Sir Richard’s package design.

In addition to Sir Richard’s, TDA_Boulder helped to brand BOT, a successful beverage venture started by Brian ’90 and Cricket Jacobs ’92 Allen.

The agency also boasts clients such as LL Bean, Russian Standard Vodka, 1% for the Planet, First Bank and Avery Beer.

Their work on Webroot’s “Social Media Sobriety Test”—a computer plugin that keeps people from posting while under the influence—resulted in a huge awareness jump for the software company. The test was downloaded by users in 173 countries and was the subject of news stories around the world.

Schoenberg credits Moscou with keeping the company on track.

“Jim joining the company has been so incredibly helpful,” he says. “We have grown a lot and needed someone we trusted to take over the running of the company so my business partner and I can focus on creative and agency culture.”

For his part, Moscou is, as he suspected, enjoying the ride. “When you leave college you hope that you can enjoy your work while also having fun,” Moscou says. “Twenty years later, that’s not only the case but I get to do it with one my best friends in the world.” ●

Out of This World

HWS professor and alumnus partner to advance science

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

T

PHOTO BY KEVIN COLTON

he greatest projects in experimental physics depend on multidisciplinary collaboration: scientists and engineers working together to solve complex problems and move the knowledge of our universe forward.

As a member of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration, Associate Professor of Physics Steven Penn is part of a team of more than 500 scientists, working together to detect and measure cosmic gravitational waves–ripples ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS STEVEN PENN AND LEN MOTT ’66 in the fabric of space and time created by DISCUSS OPTICAL COATINGS IN PENN’S LAB IN EATON HALL. powerful events in the universe.

As president and co-founder of MLD Technologies, Len Mott ’66 works with a team of 25 engineers and technicians to conceive, design and produce high-performance optical coatings and other optical components used in medical and aerospace instruments.

Together, Penn and Mott, although seemingly involved in unrelated areas of science and technology, have forged a partnership that is small in scale but galactic in its impact.

“One day about five years ago, I was working at my desk on the Saturday afternoon of Reunion while everyone else was having fun on the Quad, and there was a knock at my door,” says Penn.

On the other end of that knock was Mott, who was visiting campus for his 40th Reunion. “I introduced myself as the ‘M’ in MLD Technologies,” says Mott.

As it turns out, Mott and Penn have been working together for years, although they’d never met. “My company makes some of the mirror coatings used in Steve’s experiments. But, until recently, I didn’t know he was an HWS professor, and he had no idea I was a Hobart graduate.”

Funded by the National Science Foundation, LIGO is one of the largest and most ambitious science experiments in history. When completed, scientists hope the Observatory will be able to accurately measure space-time oscillations thousands of times smaller than a proton. Those measurements will provide invaluable data about black holes, neutron stars and the birth of our universe. It will provide a window on some of the most energetic events in our universe that cannot be seen any other way.

As with any project of this size, there are a number of challenges to overcome. Penn and his colleagues are particularly focused on the limitations of the thin-film coatings used on LIGO’s optical mirrors.

“Currently, our ability to ‘see’ black holes and neutron stars is limited by the optical coatings used on our mirrors,” explains Penn.

Mott’s company specializes in depositing super-thin multi-layers on optical mirrors using a process called Ion Beam Sputtering. These thin-film coatings control reflection and transmission of light, as required by the design of the LIGO instruments.

In order to maximize the sensitivity of the Observatory, LIGO requires optical components with very low absorption and very low mechanical loss, which will minimize thermal noise.

“Thermal energy causes the mirror coatings to vibrate but it makes it appear that the whole mirror is vibrating,” explains Penn. “We ‘see’ gravitational waves by sensing the location of the mirrors. The thermal motion in the coating creates a noise. This motion is tiny, but it is enormous compared to the ripples of space-time we try to observe.”

“At the moment, we know we can create low absorption coatings,” explains Mott, whose company develops prototype mirrors that have been tested at HWS and in other labs across the country. “Our current focus is on reducing the mechanical loss, which allows Steve and his team to evaluate the thermal noise.”

Since their initial meeting, Mott and Penn have stayed in contact, and Mott even returned to campus to talk with current physics majors at Penn’s invitation. “Our majors loved Len’s talk,” recalls Penn. “It was like looking into the future at an image of what they could achieve.”

Both men are confident that their partnership will bear fruit and move our knowledge of the universe forward. “I’ve worked on several cutting-edge projects over the past 40 years,” says Mott.

“But this is a really challenging and exciting one.” ●

HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES

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PARTNERSHIPS

Cup of Cooperation Three alums partner to share non-profit resources

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

“F

JULIA RUSSELL EELLS ’81

CURT SPALDING ’81

JILL PFITZENMAYER ’79

18 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

ebruary was my month of coffee,” laughs Julia Russell Eells ’81, head of Lincoln School in Providence, R.I. On many of the 28-days throughout the shortest month of the year, Eells sat down with leaders from Rhode Island-area non-profit foundations and private institutions to talk about sharing resources and advertising. “Providence is incredibly non-profit rich,” she says. “We tend to engage the same kind of investors, so there’s huge opportunity for overlap. I thought, why not work together?”

In an economy where not much money is changing hands, Eells believes that non-profits should support each other by developing mutually-beneficial programs and resource-sharing initiatives.

“It’s all about co-branding and co-programming,” says Eells. “If we work together we will all be the beneficiaries of the rising tide for great arts, education, culture and environmental organizations.”

“Whether you’re the leader of an independent school or the leader of a non-profit, right now, your job is very challenging,” agrees H. Curt Spalding ’81. Spalding is a member of Lincoln’s Board of Trustees. He’s also the current U.S. EPA Region I Administrator and the former director of Save the Bay, which promotes environmental stewardship of the Narragansett Bay region. “With declining support from federal sources of funding, non-governmental organizations need all of the help they can get.”

With support from Spalding and the rest of her Board, Eells started small, reaching out, sharing coffee and starting to build relationships. And then she met Jill

Pfitzenmayer ’79, director of the Initiative for Nonprofit Excellence at Rhode Island Foundation. “Jill is the mastermind,” says Eells. “She has inspired so many of us to work together in a mindful way.”

The Initiative for Nonprofit Excellence is dedicated to strengthening Rhode Island’s more than 3,000 non-profit organizations through leadership training and development. As part of that mission, Pfitzenmayer and her team are currently focused on how non-profits cope with shrinking resources and growing need.

“Recently, we’ve been looking at collaboration,” says Pfitzenmayer.

“There are financial benefits to sharing resources, of course, but it’s also good synergy when you get like-minded people together to think about problems. Many non-profits are trying to tackle big, complicated social issues, and the solutions are often big and complicated. It helps to have lots of different approaches and energies.”

To support and encourage partnerships between non-profits, the Initiative organized the 2011 Nonprofit Collaboration and Shared Services Forum. “It was a way for leaders to meet, talk and find ways to connect,” says Pfitzenmayer.

“Collaboration is all about caring for and nurturing connections, so it doesn’t happen quickly, but we are in a unique position to facilitate those kinds of meetings and help get the ball rolling.”

Pfitzenmayer would like to continue to develop programs designed to help NPOs work together over time to deepen their skills and broaden their engagement.

“Julia’s interest and enthusiasm have spurred my work in a way,” she says. “It got us thinking about different ways we can get leaders

together more informally to meet and talk.”

Which brings us back to all of those lattes Eells drank in February.

As a result of those meetings and the relationships she developed at the Nonprofit Collaboration and Shared Services Forum, Eells is in the early stages of partnerships with several non-profits that will provide enhanced programming for Lincoln School students.

“One potential partnership is with Save the Bay,” Eells says.

“We’re talking about our students going out to the Save the Bay Center once a week for hands-on lessons, and in return, we share their mission and message with our families, tapping them into a new pool of members and donors.”

As part of another still-developing partnership with Providence Athenaeum, the library may become a “literary partner” during Lincoln’s annual Rhode Island Festival of Children’s Books and Authors. By displaying antique and classic children’s books during the Festival, Lincoln students will be exposed to new ideas while the Athenaeum is introduced to potential members.

“Lincoln School offers a strong, traditional approach to education, so these partnerships will provide real-world context,” says Spalding.

“Our students will have access to learning experiences and perspectives that they can’t get any other way.”

“Right now, things are germinating. We’re building relationships that will help support our communities,” Eells says. “I believe that these kinds of partnerships are the wave of the future. We’re not going to get any better or stronger unless we get smarter.” ●

The Cross D Bar Trout Ranch

Di

Howdy, Partner!

ck M

a

n

Dick Mandel ’51 transforms his cattle ranch into an outdoor oasis

de

l’ 51

by Jeanne M. Nagle

A

family ski trip to Colorado in the mid-1960s altered the life of Dick Mandel ’51 in a big way. It was during this mountain vacation with his wife, Margaret, and children that Mandel, a petroleum engineer by trade, decided he wanted to lay claim to a portion of the paradise that surrounded him.

So he purchased a cattle ranch called the Cross D Bar, located near Westcliffe, Colo.

Today the 1,000-acre spread has undergone a transformation of sorts, attracting anglers instead of cowpokes. The Cross D Bar Trout Ranch offers city slickers weary of the urban grind a place to pull a little lip (“go fishing,” in layman’s parlance) and experience a number of other adventures in the great outdoors.

At first Mandel’s purchase of the ranch was more tax dodge than Dodge City. “There are lots of good [tax] advantages to being in the cattle business,” he says. Being something of a tenderfoot in most matters bovine, he partnered with a seasoned local cowhand named John Carlson.

“He was the last of a breed of the old-time cow punchers,” Mandel says of Carlson. “He was fiercely protective of the ranch. He wouldn’t let anybody set foot on it.”

When Carlson died in the late 1980s, Mandel decided to expand ranch operations to include fishing on the property’s four lakes. Three of the four had originally been dug as cattle watering holes, and were subsequently enlarged to accommodate a stock of fish.

Over time the ranch’s cow-and-calf trade has dwindled. “At my age I figured that was a little too much,” says Mandel, “so now I just lease out the grazing to a number of my friends in the cattle business.”

The fishing and recreation aspects, however, are chug-

ging along nicely. The Cross D Bar features an RV park and guest cabins. Activities for guests on the ranch include hiking and mountain biking. Rafting, horseback riding, golf, tennis, swimming, and mountain climbing are available nearby and can be booked through the ranch. Mandel hires retired couples from “hot states” such as Texas and Mississippi to help run the operation from Memorial Day through Labor Day. There is also a ranch manager and his wife on site.

In 1989, Mandel created the Cross D Bar Recreation Foundation, designed to serve the elderly and disabled. Working with volunteers from local chapters of Trout Unlimited and the Federation of Fly Fishers, and in cooperation with the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the foundation hosts a number of outdoor events each year. Developmentally disabled individuals, area nursing home residents and disabled Armed Forces veterans from nearby Fort Carson take advantage of these programs.

“Over the lifetime of the foundation we have serviced more than 35 institutions and organizations,” Mandel notes proudly.

At present, the future of the Cross D Bar Trout Ranch is something of an unknown. Mandel, who is still active on the boards of several small oil companies, ceded ownership of the ranch to his children about a decade ago. He has gone over all their options, including slimming down operations or taking an environmental easement, which would protect the property from development.

“The sentiment that I get is they don’t want to sell it,” says Mandel. The tone of his voice hints that keeping the ranch open—in perpetuity—would suit this oil man turned cattle rancher turned entrepreneur and philanthropist just fine. ●

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

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PARTNERSHIPS

Plugging the Brain Drain HWS alums partner to keep young professionals in Upstate New York State

I

t’s called the “brain drain,” and it’s no secret that every year Upstate New York loses young people to more appealing (and warmer) destinations like Atlanta, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. But several young alums are partnering to make the Empire State more appealing to young professionals.

In 2007, former New York First Lady Silda Wall Spitzer organized a summit at SUNY Cortland to come up with programming that would create job and internship opportunities for recent college graduates in the hope that they would stay upstate. An outgrowth of that summit was the creation of the New York Young Leaders Congress, a volunteer organization made up of 15 young professionals in upstate working to attract and retain young talent. In 2009, Jeremy Cooney ’04 was recognized for his work in the Rochester young professional community and was appointed to the Young Leaders Congress

by Governor David Paterson. Today, he leads the volunteer organization as its chair.

Over the course of four years, the Young Leaders Congress has grown into a statewide coalition. In 2010, it rebranded itself as “We Live NY” and is now managed by a steering committee of 50 young professionals from both upstate and downstate communities.

In addition to Cooney, Lou Guard ’07 representing the Finger Lakes Region and Garry Mendez III ’96 representing Manhattan, also serve on the steering committee.

20 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

In March of this year, the steering committee presented the “2011 We Live NY Summit” at Cornell University in Ithaca. The summit brought together more than 500 young professionals from across the state for a three-day conference with more than 30 workshops and 60 speakers. Topics addressed at the summit included business and entrepreneurship development, government and civic engagement, and neighborhood revitalization, among others.

In order to plan this massive event, We Live NY partnered with a Syracuse-based young professional group, “40 Below,” to organize the programming. Benjamin Sio ’07, who coordinates 40 Below, was the architect of the summit. Knowing he needed a sophisticated marketing and public relations strategy for the summit, Sio partnered with his classmate, David Grome ’07 and his agency, Eric Mower & Associates, to brand the summit and promote its importance to the young professional movement. Grome’s hard work paid off, and the summit caught the attention of several colleges and universities, including HWS, which budgeted funds to send ten students to the summit.

In addition to the summit, We Live NY has partnered with other statewide organizations, like the New York State Urban Council and Empire State Development Corporation, for initiatives that help tackle the brain drain. For example, We Live NY has a Young Professional

Group Start Up Program, which provides resources and connectivity to communities looking to form a young professional group. It also created and manages a comprehensive jobs and internship website portal (www. essentialnyjobs.com), which is a one-stopshop for employment and lifestyle searches by region in New York. We Live NY is the creator of the Livable Communities Capacity Grant program, which offers $2,000 block-grants to young professional groups seeking to undertake projects to enhance urban centers.

For more information on We Live NY, visit its website www.welivenewyork.com.

“Without question, there is more work to be done in the fight against the ‘brain drain,’” says Cooney. “But by continuing to form meaningful partnerships, We Live NY strives to make New York State a more attractive place to live, work, learn, and play.” ● Jeremy Cooney ’04 is an attorney and vice president for development of the YMCA of Greater Rochester. David Grome ’07 is a senior account executive with Eric Mower & Associates in Rochester. Lou Guard ’07 is a third-year law student at Cornell Law School. Garry Mendez III ’96 is a communications consultant at Insight Capitalists through Rockefeller Consulting in New York City. Benjamin Sio ’07 is the director of sustainable infrastructure and policy development with CenterState C.E.O. in Syracuse.

John Bracken ’60

Different but Complementary

Linda uhlen Margolin ’70

HWS alums practice law with an emphasis on collaboration

by Dominic Moore ’05

F

rom the first moment Linda Uhlen Margolin ’70 met John Bracken ’60, she knew that, at this law firm, things would be different. “I walked into the office and John was in the middle of a conversation about ethics,” Margolin remembers. “A focus on the ethics of law just wasn’t common then; it wasn’t something you heard everywhere you went. That impressed me.”

A love of innovation and a commitment to best practices, even in the often traditional business of law, was never outside the norm for either Margolin or Bracken. Their Long Island-based firm, Bracken Margolin Besunder LLP, has made a name for itself in the tough corporate legal universe of contract litigation, land use, partnership disputes, commercial litigation and legal malpractice among other disciplines. Helming this operation are two law partners and HWS graduates who draw from distinct yet complementary skill-sets. Fellow HWS graduate, William Ferris ’68, P’02 is counsel in the firm.

Bracken is an accomplished athlete and U.S. Marine Corps veteran. His Hobart career was marked by a string of successes in a variety of sports: three years on the football gridiron making tackles, mastering lacrosse, basketball and wrestling, while at the same time holding himself to equally stringent academic

standards —becoming a member of the Orange Key Honor Society and working for SAGA.

Margolin eschewed sports (“I was blissfully unaware of most of them,” she remembers) in favor of more didactic pursuits: the “genuine intellectual inquiry” she found in classroom discussions and close relationships with faculty. An English major and member of Phi Beta Kappa, Margolin worked hard to perfect her writing skills and spent long afternoons immersed in literature.

Although their careers would take divergent tracks, a chance encounter in the early 1980s brought Margolin and Bracken together to practice. The experience was a revelation.

As legal partners, the two HWS graduates discovered their strengths and abilities to be very different but highly complementary.

“John is a terrific trial lawyer,” Margolin says of her partner, noting his electrifying charisma and long experience in the courtroom.

“With jury trials, you need a compelling narrative, a story that makes sense to the jury if you want your client to win. John’s very skilled at putting the evidence together that way – he cuts an impressive figure in court.”

Bracken is equally effusive. “Linda has the best analytical skills I’ve ever seen,” he says, noting that Margolin handles much of the legal analysis, drafting, writing and research.

“She’s smarter than all of us,” Bracken says.

“In fact, I’ve had judges tell me she’s one of the smartest lawyers to ever walk into a courtroom.”

With such a strong appreciation for one another’s strengths, it is no surprise that Margolin and Bracken have built a firm that highlights and shares those values. “We like to work on a collegial basis,” Margolin says.

“Our firm has an open door policy because the sharing of ideas is part of our culture.”

Their commitment to developing collegial partnerships is so strong that their new law facilities were designed from the ground up with this in mind. Margolin notes that years of experience have given them an awareness of how small details can make a big impact in the workflow of a firm. “This may sound odd,” she says, “but 30 to 40 percent of our meaningful discussions happen in public spaces, like the kitchen.”

Their new offices feature large common areas, a design that facilitates collaboration and a rotating series of events to encourage strong relationships in the team. “Some firms are a collection of lawyers practicing individually,” Margolin says, “but that’s not us and never has been.” ●

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

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22 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

The Thin Blue Line Alumna officer reflects on the bonds of partnership that make her career possible

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

A

s she patrolled her beat in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, July 10, 2010, Officer Jamie Buffone ’01 of the Ithaca Police Department heard something disturbing over the crackle of her police-issued portable radio.

“It was my Sergeant’s voice on the speaker, saying that he needed the fire department at his address,” she says. “I could tell from his tone that something wasn’t right, but he didn’t say anything else. It was one of the scariest moments of my entire life.”

Because Sergeant Bangs doesn’t live in the City of Ithaca, his home is out of Buffone’s jurisdiction, so she and her fellow officers could only listen as the sheriff’s department and state troopers rushed to the scene to find the home fully engulfed in flames. Bangs, ‘Banger’ to his officers, was rushed to the hospital.

“I got a call from Banger’s partner, asking me to join them at the hospital and provide him with protection,” she recalls. “Seeing Banger in a hospital bed, covered in soot and wearing an oxygen mask, was absolutely terrifying.”

Sergeant Banger is out of the hospital and doing well, but he hasn’t returned to work. “Though I don’t see him every day anymore, he’s still a huge part of my life,” Buffone says. “I recently started specialized training usually only offered to SWAT team members, and he was the first one to call me up, wish me good luck and remind me to kick ass.”

And she does.

“I always wanted to be in law enforcement, even when I was a kid,” she says. “When I was in college, a friend who worked in the Seneca County Sheriff’s department invited me to do a ride-along so I could experience police work firsthand.”

Soon Buffone was spending evenings in a squad car learning about her future career. “My senior year, while my roommate was getting ready to hang out with friends downtown, I was grabbing my walkman and stretching for a run,” she says. “I worked hard from the start because I knew that if I wasn’t up for the physical and emotional challenges, I might get someone hurt or killed.”

Buffone has an incredible dedication to her career and her fellow officers. “They are like family to me, absolutely,” says Buffone. “This job is not glamorous. It is life or death every day. I know that in a split second, any one from my platoon might sacrifice his or her life to save mine or I might be called on to do the same,” says Buffone, referring to the 11 other officers who work her shift.

She’s especially tight with her squad partner, Stephen Moracco, who she goes out on calls with.

“He’s like my brother,” she says. “It’s one of those relationships where you can look at the other person and know what they’re thinking. He’s my sounding board when I’ve had a bad day and the first person I call when I have good news.”

At the end of the day, Buffone has three families: the one she was born into, her police family and her partner’s family. “My family has accepted Stephen, and his has accepted me. They know that we’re always there to protect each other,” she says. “Whenever I go home, my mother cooks a feast, and she always makes sure I leave with a separate bag full of his favorite treats.”

“It’s a great relationship,” she says. “I would go into any battle with him.” ●

“It’s one of those relationships where you can look at the other person and know what they’re thinking.”

OFFICER JAMIE BUFFONE ’01 with SWAT OFFICER JUSTIN WILLIAMS AND OFFICER KEVIN SLATTERY IN ITHACA. buffone is participating in specialized training usually only offered to SWAT team members.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVEBURBANKPHOTOGRAPHY.COM.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

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PARTNERSHIPS

Lab Partners In Love

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

I

24 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

t all started on the first day of Introduction to Chemistry in the Fall Term of 1999.

“I’d been avoiding chemistry, so I was the oldest guy in the class,” says Tim Riley ’01.

“She was cute. I noticed that right away.”

“He walked right over to me and said, ‘Do you have a lab partner? Well you do now,’” says Kristin Schram Riley ’03.

Through their work in the lab, they became friends, and when they ended up in the same calculus course winter term, Tim and Kristin decided to remain lab partners.

“Tim would get so mad because I always finished my problem sets before him,” laughs Kristin. “I tried to help him along, but I wasn’t a very good teacher.”

Despite Kristin’s super-fast math skills, the pair worked together in three more courses and, over time, fell in love. “We worked well together in the lab and that gave us the equal footing and ways to communicate that started a great relationship,” explains Kristin.

In 2001, Tim began graduate work at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. They continued dating, making frequent trips to visit each other, and in 2003, Tim popped the question.

“I proposed to her during spring exam week her senior year,” he says. “I told all of her professors that I was going to propose, and I sort of kidnapped her for a couple of days.”

They were married the following year, and they never stopped thinking of each other as partners. When Tim started his first business as a photographer, they photographed weddings together.

“Since that’s how we started our relationship, I think we naturally gravitate toward collaborating,” says Tim, who lives in Maine with Kristin and their two-year-old daughter, Ella.

These days, Kristin is a biophysicist at IDEXX Labs, and Tim owns and operates three businesses, including an e-commerce site for summer camp supplies.

“I end up helping him a lot with marketing and sales techniques,” says Kristin. “We brainstorm together. It takes me out of science and gives Tim a different perspective.”

“All of the things that made us good partners in the lab have worked just as well in our marriage,” says Tim. “I love working with Kristin.”

“I always joke that we’re a test tube couple,” says Kristin. “How many people can say that they married their lab partner?”●

Janet Gold Bass ’78

Director of Product Development, Conair Corporation I was a chemistry major, and there were only five other women in my class majoring in chemistry.

We helped each other along; we created study groups, corrected each other’s labs and studied together. We weren’t competitive at all; we wanted each other to succeed. I have spent more than 30 years working in labs, and I can tell you that the best lab partner is the one you can count on to lend a hand, ask the right questions, and give you a hug when your beaker breaks at the end of the experiment. Many thanks to the friends and lab partners I have had over the years, especially those first partners I worked with at William Smith.

Kevin Campbell ’92

Director of US Marketing, Genzyme Transplant and Oncology My senior year, the chemistry department offered a course on water chemistry with Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Ken Carle P’82, P’84, P’90. Part of the course was a trip to Bermuda to study the water table there. It was a small class with only seven students on the trip, and we all worked together. In fact, we were together all the time. In the water, on boats, taking and processing samples, in our living quarters. We became quite close. They weren’t just my lab partners; for that week, we were all good friends and co-conspirators on a wonderful adventure.

Adam Brooks ’12

Biochemistry major, Hobart College The best lab partner is often not someone you choose, but someone who is chosen for you. Last summer, I was partnered with Kristen Kush ’12 on chemistry research. We had been in the same courses but didn’t know each other well. In the lab, we quickly noticed that we share a similar taste in music, and it wasn’t long before we were able to predict what the other needed. Throughout the summer, we ate meals together and shared lab jokes, and this academic year, we worked together on nearly every homework and problem set. I don’t know what I would do without my lab-partner-turned-close-friend.

HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES

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PARTNERSHIPS

Perkins and Craig Form Research Partnership

PHOTO BY KEVIN COLTON

PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY H. WESLEY PERKINS AND PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY DAVID CRAIG P’05

Promoting Public Health and Reducing Youth Risk Behaviors

by Cynthia L. McVey

26 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

S

pend enough time on the second floor of Stern Hall and you’ll hear the term ‘socio-chemist’ bounced around. HWS harbors the first and only socio-chemist in the country – David Craig P’05. A professor of chemistry, Craig’s unofficial title of ‘sociochemist’ is the result of a long partnership with Professor of Sociology H. Wesley Perkins. The two have collaborated for more than 15 years on a number of initiatives surrounding public health promotion and reducing risky behaviors among students.

Perkins’ long and successful partnership with Craig began by happenstance, with a discussion about Perkins’ earlier work on student drinking while they each ran data in a campus computer lab. “We were talking about how there really was no place in the curriculum where issues surrounding alcohol use in the collegiate population was discussed,” explains Craig. “We also thought it would be interesting to simultaneously look at the biochemical and biomedical aspects and examine the sociocultural dimensions of alcohol use, so we created the course ‘Alcohol Use and Abuse: Causes and Consequences.’”

Perkins adds, “It was an opportune time on campus for such a partnership in the curriculum. A number of bidisciplinary and multidisciplinary courses were being developed and the Colleges really encouraged and embraced such approaches.”

Each brought complementary experiences, skills and knowledge to the table. “Wes has the sociocultural dimension of alcohol use and methodology surrounding the research, design and statistical analysis of data, and I have the biomedical/chemical dimension of alcohol use and the skills of computer software design,” explains Craig.

“Our partnership has really been cemented not only in the context of teaching, but also in the research and prevention program we’ve developed,” explains Perkins. Both Perkins and Craig direct the Alcohol Education Project (www.

AlcoholEducationProject.org) based at Hobart and William Smith, an initiative serving not only HWS students but also universities, colleges and secondary schools throughout the United States and internationally. The Project has received multiple national awards from the U.S. Department of Education.

Their research methodologies and prevention-related work on alcohol abuse now range from large scale population surveys of student drinking attitudes and practices to the delivery of information through computer program software and to late night anonymous breathalyzer testing of blood alcohol concentrations documenting actual patterns and problems of drinking.

As their partnership and bidisciplinary

research has evolved, it has helped spur a revolution in the way schools approach unhealthy behaviors. Perkins had been developing the original research and theory for what is now known as the “social norms approach” to promote health and prevent problem behaviors. It is based on the pervasive finding that most people misperceive the healthy norms that really exist as they think it is most typical for peers to engage in problem behavior. This misperception actually causes much of the problem that does exist among students.

Social norms researchers begin by gathering credible data about behavior such as drinking, tobacco use, or other drug use, for example. Then, they intensively communicate the actual healthy norms through media campaigns, interactive programs and other educational venues. Perkins and Craig surveyed students about actual alcohol use and effects (such as missing class, fighting, and impact on relationships) and then implemented an extensive on-campus campaign showing the reality was that, although high-risk drinking is a significant problem, the majority of students are not involved in problem drinking as was commonly perceived.

They used this research both in their campus-wide campaigns and in their course.

As a result of their interventions, evidence showed Hobart and William Smith students demonstrating more realistic perceptions of peer behavior, decreased problem behavior, and growth in positive behavior.

When they later set out to develop a social norms program specifically aimed at studentathletes, the NCAA saw enough potential in the program to sponsor a nine-school pilot, copying the HWS model. Due to the tremendous success of the program at HWS creating more realistic perceptions and decreasing negative behaviors among student-athletes, the NCAA and the U.S. Department of Education provided support for other schools to follow the model that Perkins and Craig developed.

In addition to helping other colleges, Perkins and Craig have conducted research and helped implement social norms programs in diverse middle and high schools throughout the U.S. In recent years, Perkins’ daughter, Jessica, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Health Policy at Harvard University, has joined the team as a researcher and co-author. As a threesome, this team has expanded the work beyond substance abuse to other youth-related problems such as bullying, sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, and underweight and obesity issues. Their work has also expanded to include Spanish-language surveys and surveys among students in the United Kingdom.

It’s not surprising that the groundbreaking

work Perkins and Craig have done over the past decade and a half has gained notoriety within academic circles. They have participated in hundreds of conferences throughout the U.S. and internationally, and their research has made it into numerous academic journals in the social sciences and public health. Perkins and Craig have also been featured in news outlets like the New York Times, CNN, Newsweek, L.A. Times, “20/20,” Shape, Men’s Health, Delta Sky Magazine, and Marie Claire, among many others in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

Both Perkins and Craig say that each has learned far more about the other’s field than he would have imagined.

“Over the years, David has become quite skilled in a lot of the research methods of sociology and that’s quite unusual for someone in the natural sciences,” explains Perkins. “He is one of the strongest advocates for social norms because he gets it. For my part, I’ve picked up a lot more of the computer programming skills and the biochemical effects of alcohol through our work together. Rather than being two distinct competencies, I’d say we’re overlapping.”

Craig adds, “Every faculty member should do something like this. I gained a perspective as to the beauty and complexity of sociology I never could have had looking at it from the outside.”

As common as it has become on the HWS campus to see Perkins and Craig working together in the lab, teaching or presenting together, it is far less commonplace in the academic community at large.

“Having people working across disciplines is still unusual across the nation. At HWS, there’s more interest; programs include interdisciplinary collaboration much more than at other institutions,” explains Perkins.

“David and I constantly get the question of how we started working together. And, as much as finding people working across disciplines is rare, it’s even more difficult to think of a social scientist and a natural scientist working together.”

It’s not that they don’t understand the surprised expressions; both say they never would have imagined such a union – or its benefits – either.

“Without the partnership, we could never have achieved as much as we have together. The added skill set just meshed together so nicely,” says Craig.

Perkins adds, “With each new research project that comes our way, we spur each other on to ask new questions and come up with new intervention innovations. Research can often be a lonely experience. It is a lot more fun to have a collaborator and good friend working with you.” ●

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U.S. NAVY PHOTO

PARTNERSHIPS

Crisis in Japan

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

I

mmediately following the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that rocked the island nation of Japan on March 11, 2011, Hobart and William Smith students, faculty, staff and alums sprang into action.

Within hours, several fundraisers were organized on campus to support the American Red Cross. CBS Reporter and HWS Trustee Bill Whitaker ’73, L.H.D. ’97 was on the ground in Sendai, covering the disaster for CBS Evening News. Dr. Robert Peter Gale ’66, L.H.D. ’87 who coordinated medical relief efforts for victims of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident in 1986, flew to Japan to help the government there manage its response to radiation leaks at Fukushima Daiichi and other plants.

And in the days following the disaster, HWS received word from our many community members who live in Japan as messages of hope and concern were relayed across the Pacific. Early in the morning on March 15, Hobart and William Smith administrators received a chilling e-mail from Susan and Richard Derector P’09, parents of Jake Derector ’09: [Jake] was shopping at a small convenience store in his village when the earthquake hit. He said the cash register just barely missed hitting him! This store was in the harbor area and at sea level. After the large earthquake ended, he went outside and looked at the sea and saw a huge black wall of water approaching. He helped the woman who owned the store to safety and then he drove his car quickly up to his apartment (which is at a high elevation) and then made his way on foot to very high ground (he followed the deer!) above his home. He watched while his village was obliterated by a 30 ft. tsunami. It has ceased to exist.

PHOTO BY ANDREW MARKHAM ’10

Believed to be the closest American citizen to the epicenter of the earthquake, Jake Derector ’09 reflects on his partnership with the people of Japan

JAKE DERECTOR ’09

28 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

Based in Ayukawahama at the time of the

With his duty done, Derector began quake, Derector is believed to be the closest the long trek to Aomori, the northernmost American citizen to the epicenter of the prefecture on Japan’s largest island, where he disaster. “I could see the white crest coming lived for 12 months as a high school exchange toward us, and I watched the town move down student. “My host family in Aomori is my the road on the water,” he says. “Everything just second family, no question,” he says. “I had to washed away.” make sure that they were okay.”

“It was absolutely terrifying,” he says. “It

Following tiny, mountain roads, Derector put my everyday life into sharp perspective. I made the day-long drive, slowly and carefully was buying Old Spice body wash. And in the while trying to conserve gas. “There were lots blink of an eye, more than 80 percent of my of places where the road was impassable, and city was wiped off the map.”

I was driving on the sidewalk or through water,”

Even as he watched the he says. “The scariest village float away, Derector’s part was driving along thoughts were focused on After the large earthquake the coast. I knew, at any the children he had spent the moment, another tsunami ended, he went outside past several months teaching. might come along and An English teacher at several and looked at the sea and wipe out the road–and me schools in the rural and with it. But I made it to the isolated fishing village, he had saw a huge black wall of city alive and with only 20 taken the day off. “I had no km of gas to spare.” water approaching. idea if my students were okay

Miraculously, the or if they were even alive,” tsunamis had spared he says. “It was extremely Aomori. Assured of his difficult.” family’s safety, Derector immediately went to

In the hours after the quake, Derector work at the Aomori Airport. “I was giving news assisted several senior citizens, helping them agencies and foreign aid workers directions,” make it to a safe community center and he says. “As an American and one of the only procuring blankets and food. “One woman was people who’d made the drive from the epicenter, so old and frail that I had to give her a piggy I was the perfect person at the perfect time.” back ride to safety because she couldn’t walk.

He planned to stay in Aomori until the end But, somehow, she’d climbed up a slope to get of April, translating while living with his host away from the water,” he says. “The people of family, but he made a last minute decision to Ayukawahama are amazing.” get on a flight back to America. “My parents

On March 12, Derector was able to make were so worried about me, and I felt like I his way to one of his schools, walking through needed to go home to give them peace of the rubble. He was overjoyed to find all of the mind,” he says. “Coming home was one of the teachers and students there, alive and well. hardest things I’ve ever done.”

“I was so happy to see them,” he says. His

Back in New York, Derector spent several students, though, immediately began teasing weeks raising funds and awareness for his him about wearing jeans to school. “I was like, friends in Japan. He spoke with news reporters, ‘are you kidding me? I just crawled through appeared at fund raisers and lectured at rubble to get here, and you’re asking about my Columbia University. In mid-April, he came back clothes?’ But that’s kids.” to HWS to appear on the Global Solidarity Panel

Over the next several days, Derector and to talk about his experiences. his fellow teachers slept in shifts, watching

Together with current students and faculty over the students. “We tried to keep the kids members, he spoke about the importance of still to conserve their energy because food pledging support to Japan. “Since coming back was extremely scarce,” he explains. “We were to America, I have been talking fairly regularly feeding them half a slice of bread each at with my fellow teachers. There’s still no running meals, and the teachers were forgoing food water, still no electricity,” he said on April 19. altogether.”

“Aid is just starting to make its way to my home

Slowly, information trickled in and the city. They’re just starting to fix the roads. We teachers received word from other local schools. have to work together to help them.”

“Every single one of my students made it

In May, Derector obtained a new visa and through the disaster. Many of their families has returned to Ayukawahama where he is were not so lucky,” he says. “About a third of living in his old apartment and assisting with the students have transferred to other schools cleanup efforts. “This isn’t about me; this is because they’ve had to move in with relatives. about my community,” he says. “That’s where I I’ll probably never see a lot of them again.” need to be.” ●

Eventually, all of the students were sent home with family or community members, and the teachers were able to search for their own families. “It was incredible,” Derector says. “We were all basically stewing in our own uncertainty and fear, but there was never any question that we’d stay until each student was safe. It was our duty to protect them.”

Many of the fundraising efforts organized by members of the Colleges and Geneva communities following the disasters in Japan have been in support of Asahi, Japan, the hometown of Kyoko Klaus, Tanaka Lecturer in Asian Languages and Cultures at HWS. In midApril, Klaus organized a Skype videoconference between members of the Geneva and Asahi communities, including the Asahi mayor.

The men and women from Asahi thanked the gathered students, faculty and staff, and reported on the situation in Japan. Several weeks later, they sent photos of the residents in their shelters, including the above photo as well as photos of the displaced residents reading copies of the Herald. “We are working hard toward restoration and reconstruction,” said Asahi Mayor Tadanao Akechi. “We would like to thank you for your kind heartedness.”

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PARTNERSHIPS

SANdY SCHERZER gROSS ’85

’85 EN SPOkES ELiNOR kOTZ kATHY k iLLiuS

REgAN

’82, P’1 3

The Odd Squad Three alumnae partner for the Finger Lakes Triathlon

by Sarah Tompkins ’10

W

hen the sun rises over Canandaigua Lake on the morning of the Finger Lakes Triathlon, three William Smith athletes—Sandy Scherzer gross ’85, kathy killius Regan ’82, P’13 and Elinor kotzen Spokes ’85—will rise above the competition as team members in the triathlon’s Olympic Relay.

With each Heron hailing from across the eastern united States, team-training for the Triathlon has been a bit unusual, comprised mostly of e-mails containing workout notes and words of encouragement. However, members of “Team William Smith, Herons in Heat,” are doing their best to do their alma mater proud.

“We could have chosen anyone for each leg,” remarks Team Captain and director of Alumnae Relations Regan, who will be completing the running leg of the relay. “But we really wanted William Smith women.”

The team roster looks promising with Spokes on wheels and gross taking on the depths of Canandaigua Lake. Regan, who has finished a marathon and several sprint-distance triathlons, and gross, a lifelong swimmer, discussed the possibility of partnering for a triathlon after speaking at an alum gathering, but were down a cyclist. When Regan saw 30 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

Spokes participating in the Tour de Finger Lakes bike ride at her 25th Reunion, she knew she’d found the woman to complete the dream team. “i might not be the first one in!” admits Spokes, who is no stranger to bike races – she even met her husband thanks to cycling. “it’s just nice to find others who share a passion for being outdoors. The true spirit of this event is camaraderie.”

Spokes isn’t daunted by her leg of the relay. Although short in comparison to her typical rides—the cycling leg of the Triathlon is just 25 miles—distance is no longer her greatest obstacle. “i’m the mother of three kids, and it’s difficult to carve out the time to ride, but summer is my time on two wheels,” says Spokes, who jumped at the opportunity to return to campus. “Whenever i have the chance to do a fun ride in a beautiful place, i never turn it down!”

Not daunted by the prospect of the hilly landscape, Spokes is looking forward to being part of a triathlon. “i may be huffing and puffing— but i’d rather have hills. When you get to the peak, you get the best views!”

Rounding out the team is swimming ringer gross who will swim in Canandaigua Lake, a

distance of .9 miles. A swimmer in college and a member of u.S. Masters, gross is no stranger to freestyle. The alumna’s strongest asset promises to be her sense of team spirit.

She explains that the collective responsibility of being a team member is one of the triathlon’s greatest perks. “i’m a very goaloriented person—and as part of a team i am really held accountable,” explains gross.

Although her last open-ocean swim was in 1999, gross has her game face—and her swim cap—on. “i would have preferred to swim across keuka since it’s only .7 miles,” jokes gross. “Honestly, i think our biggest concern is going to be the paparazzi.” despite any worries, media-related or otherwise, gross is excited to partner with fellow alumnae. “it’s been wonderful working with really supportive—but different —types of athletes,” says gross. “it’s very motivating!”

Assessing her team, Regan looks at the triathlon as a fun and creative way to bring together a group of athletes and William Smithers. it may not be the most difficult race each member has participated in, but it will certainly go down as one of the most enjoyable. “it’s all about having fun,” says Regan. “And girl power!” ●

Inspired Adventures

SOLYOGA PARTNERS THE PRACTICE OF YOGA WITH ADVENTURE, TRAVEL AND ACTIVISM.

Hobart alum creates unique and sustainable partnerships through travel

by Andrew Wickenden ’09

“D

esign and Spanish are, at their core, tools for expression, ways to communicate,” says Ben Crosky ’07. “At HWS, I got a degree in communication, problem solving, innovation and expression that happened to be labeled architectural studies and Spanish.”

Soon after Crosky graduated, he harnessed some of those common bonds between architecture and Spanish to start his own company.

Though it’s not what you may expect.

After a year in Europe and another working for Smithsonian Student Travel, where among other things Crosky coordinated logistics BEN CROSKY ’07 for more than 6,000 students attending the Presidential Inauguration, he transferred those skills in communication, problem solving, innovation and expression to the establishment and growth of SolYoga Trips.

According to the company’s website, SolYoga, “is the fusion of inspiring yoga, adventure travel, experiential learning and responsible activism.” Through international partnerships with yoga teachers, yoga studios and nongovernmental organizations, SolYoga’s mission is, “to inspire growth, cultivate peace and spread love through our trips, community involvement and activism.”

“At SolYoga,” Crosky says, “we collaborate with yoga teachers to create yoga-inspired adventures around the world. By combining yoga,

travel, adventure, service and learning, we open deep-rooted channels for growth. For example, we not only tackle our fears by flying upside down on a zip line, but also by going up into a headstand, or trying to communicate with a taxi driver in a foreign city.”

Clients travel to one of nearly a dozen countries, where they practice yoga, immerse themselves in culture, and give back. “We work with NGO’s, like Earth Train in Panama, so that we can make an impact on the local community rather than using it for our own benefit,” Crosky says. “It also gives our travelers the most authentic experience possible.”

“We partner with online journals for stories and giveaways and are now partnering with local organizations like Summer of Solutions in the Bay Area. And, of course, we really work with our teachers so that students can have the most potent travel/yoga/spiritual experience.”

And those fusions—of yoga and travel, learning and activism, businesses and communities—are evidence, Crosky says, of one of SolYoga’s most defining qualities as a business: “our desire to create unique and sustainable partnerships.”

“The biggest thing that I took away from HWS was the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people,” says Crosky. “At SolYoga, we work with NGO’s in Panama, Nicaragua, India and D.C. We work with yoga teachers, musicians, dancers, philanthropists, adventurers, composers, artists, filmmakers, healers, writers and more. We are obsessed with surrounding ourselves with amazing people and amazing companies and with sharing success by creating partnerships in which everyone benefits.” ●

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PARTNERSHIPS

Three’s (Not) A Crowd Partnership of HWS dancers leads to collaborative trio

by Kathryn Bowering ’11 and Sarah Tompkins ’10

I

With each rehearsal, the choreographers quickly learned that creative differences can transform, present new ways to investigate and express an idea, and open minds to create freer expression.

“When there is trust and deep mutual regard, negotiation doesn’t feel like compromise,” echoes Davenport. “It becomes about being in the moment, caring and making art.”

Davenport relishes this cooperative evolution and sees the time spent responding to and learning from her dance partners as the escalation of art.

An ideal collaboration results in a performance that transcends any expression one dancer can achieve individually.

By title alone, “Third Wheel” seems to suggest that trios cannot coexist in the real or dance worlds; however, when Davenport, Iklé and Schickler-Compisi give and take in their powerful performance, it is clear that three is far from a crowd —it is a magical number.

“When we began to dance, it was like having a comfortable conversation with an old friend,” says Schickler Compisi. “I felt myself exhale—we finally had the ideal partnership.” ●

PHOTO BY KEVIN COLTON

n “Third Wheel,” Professor Donna Davenport, Associate Professor Michelle Iklé and Jeanne Schickler Compisi ’96 find themselves in a state of perpetual compromise. The dance —originally choreographed as a duet—is a carefully balanced study of movement, music, intent and partnership among three choreographers simultaneously leading and following.

“Negotiation in collaboration is a dialogue, not an argument,” explains Iklé. “True partnerships work when each partner is present, when there is room for growth and change.”

32 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

Successful Bloodlines Family partnership breeds success in thoroughbred industry

photo by John Funkhouser ’04

by Cynthia L. McVey

F

ounded in 1939, O’Sullivan Farms in “dabble” in horse breeding.

Charles Town, W.Va., is the oldest and

When John’s grandmother, Ruth, took the largest thoroughbred breeding farm in the reins, the dabbling ended and O’Sullivan Farms state. Managed by John Funkhouser ’04, it is began to build its program and its reputation in also what Thoroughbred Times has referred to as earnest. She was joined by her son, Raymond “a prototype for a family-owned Thoroughbred J. “Randy” Funkhouser II, and their partnership breeding farm.” changed the face of the horse racing industry

“It really wouldn’t work without all of us,” through the creation of the West Virginia says John of the team effort with his parents Thoroughbred Development Fund and the West and brother. While John and his father, Virginia Breeders Classics.

Randy, work on the breeding “As a result of their collaboration, program from genetic profiles West Virginia has one of the top to birthing and raising the three breeders programs in the horses, John’s mother, country,” explains John, who Clissy, and his brother, was raised on the farm and Joe, work on the returned after graduation administrative side. His from Hobart to join his mother is a CPA who grandmother and parents. manages the books.

The farm saw its turning Joe is a lawyer who also point that same year, when serves as the farm’s the family arranged for racing manager. three of the best stallions in

The venture Virginia to stand there. was started by John’s “Once we did that, everyone great grandfather, R. J. wanted to ship their mares to us.

John Funkhouser ’04 Funkhouser, who made We really expanded over the next his money during the Great two years significantly and had to Depression as an industrialist, build two new barns. West Virginia never purchasing a package of three companies saw the likes of the stallions we had here,” from J.P. Morgan: Nestlé Chocolate, Pond’s explains John. cosmetics and the O’Sullivan Rubber Company,

Among them was “Black Tie Affair,” who after which the farm is named. The profit from earned United States Horse of the Year in these ventures funded an early retirement and 1991 along with winning the Breeders’ Cup an opportunity to, as his grandson puts it, Classic that year at Churchill Downs. “We were

lucky enough to stand him here starting in 2005 and for a number of years before he was pensioned,” he says.

O’Sullivan Farms has a number of different revenue streams. Through the breeding program run by John and his father, people send their mares to be impregnated. Once they are, they are returned home for the year and sent back to O’Sullivan in time to be foaled out.

On average, they foal out 70 to 100 mares a year—most of them in the middle of the night.

“For some reason, most are at night or early in the morning,” laughs John, noting he has recently become engaged and his fiancé joins him in the nightly ritual and will soon take over some additional business duties.

The farm also breeds its own mares then sells all but two or three that it keeps to race.

Among the most successful of its own racers was “Confucius Say,” one of West Virginia’s only millionaires and the winner of the 2001, 2002 and 2007 editions of the West Virginia’s Breeders’ Classic Stakes.

“We bred, trained and raced him and we were able to expand the farm because of him,” says Funkhouser, noting there is now a stakes race named for Confucius Say. “There’s nothing more exciting than watching your horse, the baby you raised, come across the finish line first. It’s the culmination of all of our efforts.” ● For more information about O’Sullivan Farms, visit osullivanfarms.org.

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PARTNERSHIPS

SURGERY IN INDIA TO HELP A PATIENT WITH SEVERE BURNS. PHOTOS COURTESY OF FIDEL AMOS

Mission: Restore Fathers and sons partner to help burn victims in India

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

34 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

A

t a tiny hospital in Dehradun, India, partnerships cross boundaries, languages, generations and even families. At these crossroads, two father/son duos came together this past spring to perform therapeutic procedures on those harmed by burns and burnscarring.

Student Trustee-Elect Kees Nordin ’13 and surgeon step-father Dr. Vincent R. DiGregorio ’64, P’13 joined Dr. Kush Aeron and his father Dr. Yogi Aeron, who run Dehradun’s Disha Hospital, along with a team of volunteers and surgeons from Mission: Restore, Long Island Plastic Surgical Group’s non-profit foundation.

“The procedures performed at Disha were very sophisticated, but essentially practical,” explains Nordin, a political science and English double major. “For example, they performed corrective surgery on a girl whose ankle had been fused to her hamstring three years ago. In time, she will be able to walk again.”

“Burns are a significant problem in developing nations. More people die from burns in India than from malaria and AIDS combined,” says DiGregorio, Chief of Plastic Surgery at Winthrop University Hospital and Senior Surgeon at Long Island Plastic Surgical Group, which coordinated the trip. He explained that many homes in India are equipped with uncontained fire pits, and accidents are common.

“There’s very little acute burn care available, so burn victims either die from their injuries or live with scaring and scar-related deformities and disabilities,” he says. “I’ve been working with burn patients for more than 30 years, but I’ve never seen the extent and number of burns that I saw on the patients in India.”

“I was able to wear scrubs and hand the surgeons scalpels,” says Nordin, who was also accompanied by his mother, public relations consultant Jennifer Ruys P’13. “It was an unbelievable experience. That would

THE MEDICAL TEAM INCLUDING DR. KUSH AERON AND DR. YOGI AERON WITH PATIENTS.

never happen in an American hospital, but in used to be a kitchen, the other a living room. The India, every able body is needed to help. Many recovery wing is actually two small, windowless recovering patients help out as nurses in the rooms in the attic. hospital, too.”

Drs. Yogi and Kush have a vision of a full In total, the team was able to treat more service hospital that will allow them to operate than 30 patients, offer insight into some of the on more patients and more fully support patient hospital’s most difficult cases and teach both rehabilitation, and they’ve begun construction Drs. Aeron new techniques. “Dr. Yogi Aeron is on the new building. They are currently in the a highly skilled surgeon with many years of process of raising funds to build a housing valuable experience but lacks the extensive unit where their patients’ families can stay formal training received during surgery and

by American surgeons,” rehabilitation. says DiGregorio. “My

“Many families colleagues and I run a travel hundreds of teaching practice, and miles to get to Disha we keep up with the Hospital. Burn repair latest developments in surgeries aren’t like corrective surgery. We appendectomies,” says have a lot to offer the DiGregorio. “They take doctors.” place over a long period

Despite long days, of time, so the families the team was unable to need a place to stay while help all of the patients the patient goes through waiting for help at the the long, painful recovery hospital in Dehradun. process.”

Each day, more than 60

The medical team KEES NORDIN ’13 WITH HIS MOTHER JENNIFER patients lined up outside RUYS P’13 AND STEP-FATHER DR. VINCENT R. was able to visit the DIGREGORIO ’64. for treatment. “One man construction site and told us that he has been was inspired by Dr. Yogi’s coming to the hospital every day for three years,” vision. “Dr. Yogi is the most idealistic, energetic says Nordin. “There’s just not enough space in and ambitious person I’ve ever met,” says the hospital to treat all of the patients that need Nordin. “His energy radiates from him, and I help.” know that his goals are totally feasible.”

Rather than in a dedicated medical building,

DiGregorio hopes to continue the Disha Hospital is based in a refurbished residence relationship with Drs. Yogi and Kush. “It was that Dr. Yogi rents. One of the operating rooms never my intention to parachute in, operate on a

couple of patients and leave. Through Mission: Restore, I want to establish and sustain relationships with doctors like Yogi and Kush in several countries,” he says.

Nordin also hopes to return and continue his work with the hospital. “There’s so much to be done there, from organizing to fundraising,” he says. “They’ll need to set up a sustainable endowment that will continue to fund supplies and operating costs once the hospital compound is complete. I’d like to bring my skills to help with fundraising and organization there.”

“This trip was heartbreaking and wonderful,” says DiGregorio. “My family and I got a lot more out of the trip than we gave. It was a life altering event for me, for Kees and for all of us on the trip.”

“I’d been thinking about joining the Peace Corps before this experience, but now I am even more sure,” says Nordin. “I had such a profound experience in just a week. Imagine what I might learn in two years.” ● For more information about Mission: Restore and Dr. Yogi Aeron’s hospital, call (855) 777-1350 or visit missionrestore.org

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PARTNERSHIPS

Domestic Partnership Alumnus discusses life and love

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

N

CHARLES JEWETT ’66 AND HIS PARTNER TAKASHI T HIKE NEAR CRATER LAKE ON WIZARD ISLAND.

36 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

o matter where in the world he is, Charles “Woody” Jewett ’66 walks every morning. And, when they are in the same state, Jewett’s partner of 12 years, Takashi, joins him.

“We’re lucky to travel a lot. Takashi presents papers at conferences, and I often go with him. We’ve been to Istanbul, Barcelona, Madrid and Kyoto in the past couple of years,” says Jewett, who is retired from the Peace Corps. “In September, we climbed 1,368 steps to the summit of Kotohira Mountain in Japan to visit a Shinto shrine. That was one heck of a walk!”

The pair—competent walkers and avid movie buffs—is just like any other. “I swim; he reads. He has a great memory; mine is hazy.

He’s a great cook; he’s got me on a much better diet than I was before I met him,” says Jewett. “It might sound a little boring but we support each other. Isn’t that what being in a relationship is about?”

Though they’ve been together for more than a decade, they have no plans to officially marry. Legally, in California, they are domestic partners, “Relationships are although that designation isn’t available important, and in Florida, where they live much of the year. Takashi, a professor of economics, they’re good for immigrated to the U.S. without the benefits the community. of marriage, and Jewett has his own health We should honor insurance, allowing them to avoid two issues that impact many gay couples. relationships, “We don’t need a piece of paper from celebrate them, not City Hall. We’ve hosted lunches and gettogethers with friends and family so that try to tear them everyone can get to know us together,” says down with hate.”

Jewett. “That’s a wonderful affirmation of – Charles Jewett ’66 who and what we are to each other. And we’ve been very lucky that all of our friends have accepted our relationship.”

Active in the gay community and in the fight for equality, Jewitt has made civic engagement a cornerstone of his life. “My parents were extremely active in the community where I grew up; they never lectured us about giving back, that’s just what we all did,” he says.

“Right now, I’m giving back to the gay community by raising awareness about issues of equality in whatever way I can,” Jewett continues. “I donate to gay-affirming causes and candidates. I’m active as a blogger and in posting and commenting on Facebook.”

“I grew up in a different world. I didn’t come out until I was in my 50s,” says Jewett. “I feel blessed that Takashi and I have legions of lifelong friends and family who support us.”

Though many of those friends are gay, he and Takashi have never been to a gay wedding. “Not once! Maybe that will change in the future. I hope it will. Relationships are important, and they’re good for the community. We should honor relationships, celebrate them, not try to tear them down with hate.”

Jewett’s two grown children, Caroline and Andrew, have embraced the partnership. “My kids don’t put labels on things. Your gender, ethnicity or orientation doesn’t matter,” he says. “To them, Takashi and I aren’t a gay couple, we’re just a couple. I think that’s a very healthy way to see things.” ●

Partnership at the Center Line William Smith alumna works with top college court stars

by Megan Metz

PHOTO BY STEPHEN SLADE/UCONN

(LEFT) FELICIA CRUMP ’02 WORKING ON A CLASS ASSIGNMENT WITH JEROME DYSON OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT BASKETBALL TEAM TEAM. (BELOW) KEMBA WALKER ON THE COURT. COURT

a top-10 NBA draft pick this year, has joined the Charlotte Bobcats.

“I had a tough transition from high school. Felicia helped me a lot with time management. She made things so much easier for me.”

While a student at William Smith, Crump was a member of the soccer team, earning AllAmerican status as a senior. But her coursework always took first priority, and she tries to pass that same value to her student-athletes.

“I always want what’s best for them. I want them to have the full experience, to realize themselves on the court and off the court,” Crump told a reporter from the NCAA. She credits her experience as a student-athlete with shaping her current teaching philosophy. “At William Smith, I was struck by the importance of teamwork both on and off the field,” she says. “If I had a big exam coming up, my teammates would know about it and ask if they could do anything to help. I was used to the teamwork on the field, but how we functioned as one big family off the field was new to me.”

Now, Crump tries to stress that same off-the-field accountability to her players—that they’re responsible for each other. If she’s having a hard time contacting a certain player, she’ll go to the team captains and ask them to check on their teammate. If someone does VIN COLTON PHOTO BY KE

“I

n 2010, finals ended on May 12,” Felicia Crump ’02 recently told a reporter.

“Kemba [Walker] was back in class on May 14. In January, he was at LeBron James’ skills camp, sending me drafts of papers.”

Crump ’02, academic counselor to University of Connecticut’s recently crowned 2011 NCAA Division I National Championship basketball team, works with the studentathletes, including tournament MVP Kemba Walker, to ensure that every member of the team does well in his academics.

“It’s rewarding to see them work toward something and achieve their goals,” she says.

“At this level, many players come into the program with a good chance of moving on to the NBA. For them, basketball is their job, so I enjoy broadening their horizons while they’re here and getting them to see their opportunities past basketball.”

Crump organizes and supervises study halls and stays in constant contact with the players and their professors. And she keeps the teammates on-track during demanding—and sometimes long—road trips, including their multi-week road to the finals.

“They want to be engaged in their academics, but it’s hard to find time for work with so many competing priorities,” she says.

“I’m definitely the one that brings them down to earth. They don’t always appreciate it, but it’s necessary.”

“We have a great adviser in Felicia Crump,” Walker told a reporter from the NCAA. Walker,

well on a test, she’ll mention it to a few of his teammates and tell them to say “good job.”

Walker, who will graduate this August with a degree in sociology, has helped her rally the team around both academics and teamwork on and off the court. “Kemba is a special kid,” she says, noting that he always shows up on time or early for study halls and practice.

“The younger guys don’t know any different, so they just follow suit,” she says. “It’s been great.

Kemba has made it cool to be both smart and a great athlete.”

“He could be somewhere training for the NBA right now, but he’s still on campus and plans to take classes over the summer to complete his degree,” she says. “Not many student-athletes in his position would have the same dedication to getting a degree.” ●

HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES

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PARTNERSHIPS

Sustainable Agriculture Students and faculty work in partnership with Cornell University’s New York State Agricultural Experimentation Station

by Andrew Wickenden ’09

T

hanks to a longstanding agreement between Hobart and William Smith and Cornell University, the talents of hundreds of burgeoning HWS scientists are shaping the future of agricultural research and its impacts on the local and global communities.

On the northwest side of Geneva, just 60 years after the founding of Hobart College, the staff of the newly established New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) began conducting research. Research, as the New York State Legislature put it, “for the purpose of promoting agriculture in its various branches by scientific investigation and experiment.”

“The overriding mission from the beginning has been to conduct research and extension programs that benefit New York food and agriculture industries with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables,” says Thomas Burr, Cornell University professor and director of NYSAES. “But the impacts of research at NYSAES today go far beyond New York’s borders. They directly touch major national and global issues of food production for a rapidly growing world population, climate change, water resources, food nutrition and safety, bioenergy and climate change.”

Established in 1880 and absorbed by Cornell in 1923, NYSAES is part of a statewide system of agricultural research stations associated with a large university in their respective areas. Today, the Station includes more than 300 faculty, staff, and student researchers and more than 900 acres of land planted as test plots, orchards and vineyards.

During the past 30 years, hundreds of HWS students have collaborated with NYSAES scientists on research in NYSAES’ four academic departments: entomology, food science and technology, horticultural sciences, and plant pathology. Thanks to the hard work and support of students, faculty, alums, and friends, this partnership between the institutions has developed and deepened since its first stages in 1980, when Professor of Biology Tom Glover sent the first HWS researchers to NYSAES. “The relationship is mutually beneficial to both institutions,” says Glover. “We send them conscientious, strong students to assist them in their research and the Station provides that ‘out of classroom’ experience, giving students exposure to the vocational side of their scientific interests.”

In 2008, a Memorandum of Understanding between HWS and NYSAES formalized the

38 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

NATE M MARTIN ARTIN ’13 AND A AUGUSTA UGUSTA WILLIAMS ’13 TRANSPLANTING TOMATO PLANTS AT THE PHYTOPHTHORA B BLIGHT LIGHT F FARM ARM AS PART OF AN ONGOING STUDY AT NYSAES NYSAES..

partnership and underscored its goal: to provide unique opportunities for collaborative research between students and faculty.

According to the agreement, students may receive course credit or monetary compensation for their research work, both during the summer or academic year. The Colleges’ goal is to place 10 to 20 students annually in research positions at the Station.

“The students from HWS become very engaged in the research and have greatly added to our programs and to the vibrancy of our campus,” Burr says.

“Students have an opportunity to work with state-of-the-art equipment, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, and a regional, national, and international research community,” says Assistant Professor of Biology Patricia Mowery, who will succeed Glover as the liaison between the Colleges and the Station following Glover’s retirement this year.

And as Mowery points out, the partnership between HWS and NYSAES not only exposes students to unique equipment, projects and people, “it increases the number of summer research experiences in Geneva available to HWS students.” More research opportunities for more students, with more local impacts and

global consequences.

In 2009, the Brenda and David Rickey Foundation approved a three year, $45,000 grant to support students in the HWS Summer Science Research Program to undertake research projects at NYSAES. The foundation’s support marked the first time the summer program had received funds specifically earmarked for projects performed at the Station.

Since the inaugural class in the summer of 2009, Rickey Scholars have researched everything from the genetics of apples to soil health to the willow as a form of sustainable energy. These—among numerous other NYSAES projects—have allowed HWS students, as Glover says, “to tap into the Station’s extensive resources and gain exposure to state-of-theart equipment and additional mentoring opportunities.”

“We’re thankful for programs like the Rickey Scholars,” says HWS President Mark D. Gearan. “The Foundation has made possible the deepening of the important partnership between the Colleges and NYSAES, the furthered growth of our students, and the continuing excellence of the work conducted at both institutions.”

Presidents representing the New York Six gather for a photo after meeting at President Mark D. Gearan’s home. The presidents include Joan Stewart of Hamilton College, Stephen Ainlay of Union College, Jeffrey Herbst of Colgate University, William Fox of St. Lawrence University, and Gearan.

LAB PARTNERS OF CHRISTINE SMART’S LAB AT THE EXPERIMENT STATION. NATE MARTIN ’13 (SECOND FROM THE LEFT) AND AUGUSTA WILLIAMS ’13 (FAR RIGHT) ARE LAYING LANDSCAPING FABRIC TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF WEEDS IN A TOMATO FIELD.

With the guidance of HWS faculty members and NYSAES scientists, students tackle issues facing local and global communities alike—from the pumpkin blights affecting New York’s farmers to the genetic fingerprinting of crops from across the world—all while expanding their own expertise.

“At NYSAES,” Burr says, “it is possible for HWS students to get exposure to very diverse research programs that include fundamental studies on insects, pathogenic microorganisms and plants, as well as exposure to research that answers immediate questions critical to the food and agriculture industries.”

“You get experience and confidence and get to work independently on a project,” says Amy Norris ’11, a 2010 Rickey Scholar who graduated with a degree in biology. “Bumps come along and you have to figure out how to fix them. In the classroom lab, you often work on short-term projects; one of the most rewarding parts of the research at NYSAES was the freedom to make the project my own and see it through from beginning to end.”

Another Rickey Scholar, Deepa Oja ’11, who researched genetic traits and diversity in apple trees, says the research allowed her to “use what I have learned in my biology classes at HWS and see what full-time research involves.”

During the two summers she worked at NYSAES, biochemistry and English doublemajor Kim White ’09 discovered the spark that would lead her to pursue a master’s degree in enology (the study of wine and wine-making) at Eastern Washington University this fall.

“I have talked with many biology majors about their positive experiences researching at NYSAES,” Mowery says. “Their time at

the Agricultural Station has helped them understand the nature of scientific research and has helped guide them in future career goals.”

However, it’s not only HWS students who benefit from the collaboration with NYSAES.

“Over half of the biology department faculty at Hobart and William Smith have or are currently collaborating with NYSAES scientists,” says Mowery. “The relationship has created a stronger intellectual community that has resulted in numerous grants and publications.”

At this year’s Commencement, the Colleges deepened its partnership with NYSAES by conferring honorary degrees on Burr and James Hunter, the past director of NYSAES, for “their leadership, with the many professors and technicians, who have mentored HWS students over the years, and for their perseverance in creating a sustainable model of agriculture.”

With multifaceted agricultural and environmental challenges still ahead—including the local needs of New York farmers and growers, the effects of climate change, and the global consumption of energy—Burr says that HWS and NYSAES “have the opportunity to strengthen each other collaboratively through enhanced grant writing and by fostering collaborative projects that include research, extension and teaching. I strongly believe the partnership with HWS will continue to strengthen and be increasingly important to both campuses.”

“Without a doubt, the partnership with the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station and Cornell University has been extremely beneficial to our students and faculty” says Gearan. “I look forward to seeing it continue to thrive.” ●

New York Six Partnership of Liberal Arts Colleges Thriving

The Presidents and staff of the “New York Six” recently met at Hobart and William Smith Colleges to discuss their current efforts and initiatives. The New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium, founded in 2009, is a cooperative venture of six upstate New York liberal arts institutions: HWS, Colgate University, Hamilton College, Skidmore College, St. Lawrence University and Union College.

“The New York Six is allowing us to work within a multi-institution collaboration to increase cost-savings and efficiencies while expanding opportunities for students, faculty and staff,” says President Mark D. Gearan. “It also allows us to collectively consider the ways in which we can work together to continue to enhance Upstate New York’s vibrant community.”

At the Presidents’ meeting, presentations were made regarding the group’s pilot projects and research.

Projects include the development of a faculty network that will provide workshops on topics like budgeting and mentoring of new faculty; the creation of joint procurement opportunities; and the sharing of best practices related to student affairs, diversity initiatives and sustainability programs, among others.

For example, library directors and chief information officers from each of the six institutions are currently working together on a project they’ve named MediaShare. “Colleges and universities across the country are continually working to meet the increasing and changing demand for technology services and resources that a modern campus requires,” explains HWS’ Chief Information Officer Fred Damiano. “MediaShare will allow the New York Six to make media collections available in an on-demand model where faculty and students can access these resources via the web, from anywhere at any time.”

Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Consortium facilitates collaboration among its member institutions in fulfilling their educational missions and serving the public good. Through the sharing of expertise and resources, the Consortium enhances opportunities for students, faculty, and staff, while reducing colleges’ individual and collective operating and capital costs. ●

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

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PARTNERSHIPS

A Partnership with Geneva

PHOTO BY DON COCHRAN

by Mary LeClair

F

PROF

ESSOR JACK HA

RR

IS

or more than 15 years, Professor of Sociology Jack Harris P’02, P’06, along with many of his faculty colleagues, has been building synergies between the needs of the Geneva community and the campus’ dedication to community-engaged learning.

In stride with the Colleges’ long history of community engagement, Harris has been placing senior sociology students in consultancies in the surrounding region to help solve real-life challenges, offering them the opportunity to learn while making meaningful contributions to Geneva.

“The partnerships are truly exercises in citizenship aimed at improving the Geneva community and engaging students in authentic and solvable problems,” Harris says.

His efforts have cultivated productive relationships with community leaders who seek fresh perspectives and want to collaboratively develop solutions. Representatives from a myriad of agencies such as Geneva Housing Authority

40 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

and the Geneva Business Improvement District join Harris’ classroom and provide the fledgling senior sociologists with ideas and issues that need research and recommendations. The students and community partners then work one-on-one to develop and implement strategies to assist.

“It is a partnership in that it is a give and take,” Harris explains. “The community agency has an idea and students work with them to identify the project, formalize the agreement and then complete it. Over the life of the project, the students need to go back and forth with the client to refine the study.”

This approach to service learning opens communication and creates a platform for dialog between students and community members. Students are afforded the opportunity to present their work in a number of settings such as city council meetings, non-profit agency board sessions, and on campus at Senior Symposium and Community Based Research forums. “It

opens issues to a wider audience,” says Harris.

“The students learn that they have practical sociological skills, that ideas have consequences, and that there is a community out there with enormous knowledge.”

Harris’ work is just one piece of the Hobart and William Smith culture of service that educates students to become civic leaders.

Known as the Geneva Partnership, the initiative was established in the fall of 2007 by President Mark D. Gearan to serve as a model to identify, expand and focus the good work that has been done between the Geneva community and Hobart and William Smith, honoring the dedicated history of partnership that has existed since Hobart was founded in 1822.

“The Geneva Partnership is about leveraging the Colleges’ resources to continue to make the City of Geneva and the surrounding area an even more vibrant place to live,” says Gearan. The partnership focuses on developing seven key areas: education, economic development, vitality of cultural life, civic engagement, well-being of families and children, the environment, and public safety and community-building. “Part of attending Hobart and William Smith is living in the community of Geneva. This is a way to not only be helpful to the community but to teach students good citizenship.”

CC

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DIRECTOR KAT

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Under the direction of Katie Flowers, the Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning (CCESL) is the Colleges’ administrative center for service work.

Flowers connects students who have an interest in civic engagement with community partners.

As local boards identify needs—whether for demographic studies, impact of services analysis, or tutors, for example—they come to Flowers so that students can be offered the chance to provide the needed support.

The volume of assistance provided through these collaborative opportunities is impressive.

Last year, the community service contribution of students and employees in the Geneva area is estimated to be more than 190,000 hours. This is the equivalent of 4,760 forty-hour work weeks, or 91 full-time jobs. One of the biggest recipients of student services are school children. Last academic year, more than 180 America Reads and America Counts tutors—all HWS students —worked with 210 local children in reading and math skills, serving about 7,300 hours.

“We’re fortunate to have positive relationships with local and regional agencies,” says Flowers. “I’m confident that when an HWS student is engaging with the many wonderful community partners, they are receiving as much as they give. It is a reciprocity that mutually benefits all involved.”

Another office constantly tapped by the local community is The Finger Lakes Institute (FLI), which provides environmental expertise to citizens, municipalities and watershed agencies through research, public lectures and seminars and teacher training. Established in 2000, the Institute serves as a clearinghouse for information on the health and vitality of the Finger Lakes to the greater Geneva area.

“I believe the Finger Lakes Institute connects the Colleges and the broader Finger Lakes Region,” says FLI Director Lisa Cleckner. “Our partnership with the community is why we are here, serving as good stewards and promoters of this great resource of the Finger Lakes.”

Professor of Economics and Interim Provost and Dean of Faculty Pat McGuire explains that even though the service learning benefit to the community has been the focus of the past decade, it should not overshadow the economic partnership that the Colleges have with the community. In economic studies that span more than two decades, McGuire has sought to quantify the financial value of the Colleges to the community. His latest study released in March 2011 found that the total spending impact of the Colleges on the Geneva

area is estimated to be nearly $131 million per year.

McGuire adds that above the total annual spending, the Colleges have a multiplier effect.

The Colleges spend more than $40 million in annual compensation; employees then use that compensation to purchase goods and services which is an additional revenue stream to local businesses.

This revenue stream then promotes job creation in the community. He also notes that the Colleges have been a good economic stabilizer for an area that has witnessed a downturn in industrial development.

But in no way does McGuire find the relationship one-sided. “The essence of the relationship is an interdependence; you can’t have one without the other. No one layer is more important than another,” says McGuire. “Part of the excitement of Geneva is the added benefit to city life that exists because of the Colleges. The community benefits from that interdependence.

It’s not a thread; it is an interwoven fabric.”

Assistant Professor of Architectural Studies Kirin Makker is a relative newcomer to Geneva. Arriving three years ago, she wasted little time before walking downtown to meet business owners and entrepreneurs to seek out new internships for students interested in design, applied arts, and planning careers. Her students have done promotional work for the Cracker Factory gallery and performance space, designed and installed exhibit furniture for the Geneva Neighborhood Resource Center and

fabricated a bike rack for a business owner downtown.

“In their classes, our students learn about the power of design and how little changes in the built environment can improve city life. I believe our students should struggle with trying to implement some of what they learn in the classroom by getting involved and experiencing it,” says Makker. “I want them to come back in future years not just to visit HWS, but also to check-in on Geneva, the place where they worked and that was a significant component to their learning.”

One young alumnus, Josh Strenger ’09, believes this is true. While an anthropologysociology student, Strenger worked in many capacities with the local community such as the city’s economic development office, with the city planner, and through internships with the city mayor and Finger Lakes Railway.

Strenger, who is now an analyst for the Department of State in Washington, D.C., says that when he first began working in Geneva, he was amazed at the openness of the community.

“They cared about what I thought. The Geneva community is a caring group of folks who want to see Hobart and William Smith students succeed. They see us as growing and they are taking a mentorship role in that growth. There is definitely a partnership. In reality we support each other.”

Samantha Tripoli ’11 was also welcomed by the residents she encountered while engaged with her research team’s senior sociology project on the revitalization of the downtown area. “I was impressed by the passion that Geneva residents have for the community.

Everyone is so optimistic about Geneva’s future. Their passion and commitment is very inspiring.”

GENEVA HEROES, A GROUP OF HWS STUDENTS AND LOCAL MIDDLE SCHOOLERS, VOLUNTEER TOGETHER IN THE GENEVA COMMUNITY. Hobart and William Smith Colleges

41

Bob Doeblin of the Geneva Housing Colleges’ assistance. The residents of Geneva Authority has worked with the have come to depend on the HWS Colleges on several projects. community and especially the Some have been with Harris’ students. They are comfortable “I think we’ve class that have, for example, with the fact that students are come a long way in the helped the housing around. They are used to authority conduct them being here. In turn, I past 20 years in our ability surveys on rent and hope that we are providing property management a great location for them to build positive relationships satisfaction. Doeblin to study. The Colleges have with many organizations. But I always been a part of my also works on projects with CCESL and the life and I think that’s true believe it is our students who Office of Intercultural for most in Geneva.” have built that bridge.

Affairs where students Professor of Public with technology savvy Policy and Political Science — Professor of Public Policy have helped seniors with Craig Rimmerman has spent and Political Science Craig computer issues. much of his life studying Rimmerman

“It has been overall politics, activism and service. In completely a positive experience,” July, the revised fourth edition of his says Doeblin. “We keep accomplishing book The New Citizenship: Unconventional things we wouldn’t be able to do without the Politics, Activism, and Service was released.

Being an author and expert with a 25-year history teaching HWS students allows him an opportunity to create a 360-degree-view of the citizenship that has formed between HWS and the Geneva community. Rimmerman credits the Colleges with increasing faculty involvement and making improvements in the administration that have made it easier for members of the community to find assistance. But it’s the students who he believes have truly created the bond.

“I think we’ve come a long way in the past 20 years in our ability to build positive relationships with many organizations,” says Rimmerman. “But I believe it is our students who have built that bridge. We have outstanding young people whose maturity and dedication is impressive. They could choose to do other things with their time but they are driven by learning from and contributing to the Geneva Community.” ●

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1. Hobart and William Smith students coordinated the annual Community Barn Sale on campus, raising a record $6,282 for the United Way of Ontario County.

2. Members of the Hobart and William Smith basketball teams frequently go into local elementary schools to teach basketball skills.

3. Celeste Smith ’12 and Catherine Hotaling ’11 visit Foodlink food bank as part of Smith’s community-based research project with the Ovid Food Pantry.

4. Derek Weiss ’12 and Katherine Marino ’12 photograph fish species found in the pond in Seneca Lake State Park. Marino is conducting research on the area’s environment as part of her project to increase the public use of the park.

Since its inception in the 1950s, the Honors Program has provided an opportunity for HWS students to challenge themselves intellectually and creatively by exploring an academic subject in depth.

Developed as a part of the Western Civilization curriculum and championed by the late Professor Emerita of English Katy Dapp Cook L.H.D. ’84, Honors continues to allow students to explore areas of interest while laying the groundwork for graduate work or a future career.

Each year, 20 to 30 students, typically about five percent of graduating seniors, undertake this rigorous process, which requires candidates to create a lengthy written or artistic project and take written and oral examinations. The many faculty members who participate in the program as advisers and examiners do so over and above their regular teaching load and out of deep commitment to their students.

In honor of this special issue of The Pulteney Street Survey, some student and faculty pairs agreed to give us an inside look at their partnerships.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

43

Deirdre Wholly ’11, Chemistry Solid-phase Synthesis of Depsipeptidic HDAC Inhibitors Through Chemoselective Macrocyclization

Justin Miller, Adviser A member of Miller’s research team, Wholly examined the synthesis of potential anticancer chemotherapeutics structurally similar to natural molecules that inhibit a protein partly responsible for carcinogenesis. Which is a very technical way of saying that Wholly’s Honors project investigated the creation of molecules that could one day be used to fight cancer.

DW: I started working with Professor Miller during my first spring on campus. I was in his organic chemistry class, and I applied to do research with his team. I love organic chemistry and solving problems. The work is a lot like a logic puzzle.

JM: One of the things I really appreciate about working with Deirdre is that she thinks like me.

Several times, I’ve graded her exams to find that not only does she have the right answer, but the answers are identical—both in clarity and logic—to what I have on my answer key.

DW: I’d say that of all my professors, I’ve clicked with his teaching style the most. The way he presents problems—that’s how I think about things.

Alexandra G. Aquadro ’11, Architectural Studies Drawing as a Way of Seeing: A Study of South Main Street, Geneva, New York

Stanley Mathews, Adviser

Aquadro discovered her passion for drawing while taking Mathews’ Visual Journal course during a semester abroad in Rome. Her Honors project is a book of sketches and historical profiles titled Drawing as a Way of Seeing: A Study of South Main Street, Geneva, N.Y. AA: We’ve been working together since my first year at HWS. I have taken classes with him every semester, and he was my adviser while studying in Italy.

SM: It’s been a pleasure to see Alex’s progress. She’s a lot more mature. And she can draw now, which wasn’t so true four years ago.

AA: He’s right! Over the course of the semester in Rome, I developed my style of drawing. Sketching became a form of analysis, helping me understand the significance of structures. When I got back to Geneva, I continued to draw. And I remained interested in the history. I started researching how the city grew and the historical background of the buildings I was drawing.

44 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

SM: I helped her along the way but she really worked independently on this. It’s been great to watch it come together.

AA: When I started, I didn’t know anything about graphic design or making a book.

I learned everything as I went along.

Toward the end of the process, I had the opportunity to meet with a lot of the people whose houses I drew. I learned about their families. Some of them have lived in the houses a long time. That added another dimension to the book.

SM: The final book is just stunning. You can buy it on LuLu.com. We both get so excited every time someone buys a copy!

JM: Being a scientist is about being prepared and applying your knowledge. Deidre is careful and attentive to detail. We knew pretty early on that she was going to do Honors.

DW: For science majors, the writing part of Honors gets really compressed. You spend so much time performing experiments and collecting data, and then all the writing is done in one month.

JM: I often have students over to my home for dinner, and my family has grown to really love Deirdre.

DW: Professor Miller and his family even hosted me and my family for dinner the night before graduation. I love his kids; we crack up laughing together. Getting to know them has given me a family here, and that has meant so much to me.

Courtney Good ’12, History A Cultural Biography of Henry Ford

Clifton Hood, Adviser Good’s Honors project, which will be complete in fall 2011, is a cultural biography of Henry Ford, setting his personal and public behavior in historical context.

CG: I first met Professor Hood when I took his course, Intro to American Experience. I sat in the back row.

CH: She had been talking during class and I remember thinking, ‘What a brat.’

CG: But I was only answering someone’s question!

Neala R. Havener ’11, Writing and Rhetoric Food Poor, Poor Food: Three Voices of the National School Lunch Program

Cheryl Forbes, Adviser Havener’s project focuses on changing attitudes about the national school lunch program, providing a discourse analysis of the language surrounding the current Michelle Obama-led movement for healthy school lunch against the language used in Their Daily Bread, a report issued by the Committee on School Lunch Participation in 1968.

NH: My first year, I was placed in one of Cheryl’s upper-level courses. I was petrified of her; she was truly one of the hardest professors I’d ever had. But I ended up taking courses with her every semester.

CH: And then she did very well on her midterm.

She started to come more regularly to office hours and then I asked her to help me with some research on a new book I’m writing on imposters.

CG: It’s a great project; I’ve been working on a database of grifter biographies. I knew after my research with him that I wanted to do an Honors project. At first I thought I wanted to do something on Free Masons.

CH: I encouraged Courtney to get more specific.

CG: That’s when Henry Ford, who was a Free Mason, emerged. Professor Hood gave me Gordon Wood’s biography of Benjamin Franklin.

That book gave me a shape for my project on Ford. There are so many contradictions in his story, so many cultural values at play. I’m now about 90 percent done with my research and am writing the first draft of the article.

CF: I am surprised to hear that you were scared of me. But I have to say, I always thought Neala was exceptional. I was lonesome when she went abroad. It was like losing one of my closest friends.

NH: In the fall, I’ll begin a graduate program in Health and Risk Communication at Michigan State University. That’s Cheryl’s alma mater. I’m hoping she’ll come visit me and we can go to this ice cream shop she’s always talking about.

Dancehall Kings and Queens: ‘Profiling’ Gender in Jamaican Dancehall Culture

Marilyn Jiménez, Adviser Diamond’s work is a study of the hyper-masculinity and hyper-femininity present in Jamaican Dancehall culture, a rave culture that’s developed among disenfranchised lower class youth as a way to exercise cultural, social and political autonomy.

SD: I knew I wanted to do Honors. I wanted to get my hands dirty. But I didn’t know what I wanted to study. Professor Jiménez suggested hyper-masculinity.

MJ: I think she gives me too much credit.

I don’t even remember suggesting hypermasculinity. I’m sure it was more like a therapy session. She talked and I drew the ideas out like threads so we could build on them.

SD: I was interested in studying something from Caribbean culture because that’s where I’m from. The portrayal of gender through attitude, markings, clothing, music and dances is incredibly complex and interesting.

MJ: To be honest, I learned a lot through her research. That’s invaluable when you’re studying something that’s contemporary and evolving.

NH: We were both going through personal transitions when we met. We met at the right time–she was just what I needed, and I think I helped her, too. When I decided to do Honors, there was no question of who I’d work with.

And working with Cheryl is … interesting. She e-mails her every thought, and I’m not sure she ever sleeps. I’d wake up in the morning and find eight e-mails from her. Long ones.

CF: But you’d always answer right away. As soon as her Honors project was done, she started getting really sassy! Now she likes to give me a hard time. Neala sets very high standards for herself. She’s easily my best student in the past 15 years.

Sharlene Diamond ’11, Africana Studies

SD: My friends were so jealous. While she was on leave, she sent me voice notes! I could click a button, and there was her voice, telling me what she thought. It was like she was right there with me even though she was thousands of miles away.

CH: A project like this is in many ways inspired fumbling. My role, often, is to say—fumble more. To do Honors work in history is to have self-discipline.

CG: I created my reading list, set up my reading schedule and then had to stick with it.

CH: You have to have stubbornness and a genuine interest in your subject. You cannot be an acolyte. Courtney has been impressive by not being defensive. She’s been open to critique.

MJ: Originally, I thought of Sharlene as an activist. I thought she would be doing things and getting involved, but she has really surprised me as a researcher. This project has helped her become a lot more centered on her goals.

SD: I enjoy this kind of work. I’d like to explore this topic further, maybe go to Jamaica to study it firsthand and see how it’s changing and growing.

CG: Professor Hood had some students over for dinner and we had hot dogs. Apparently, I use too much ketchup.

CH: Yes, you absolutely use too much ketchup.

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Lisa E. Philippone ’11, Anthropology Culture Drought: Water Scarcity in Rural Rajasthan

Brenda Maiale, Adviser Philippone’s Honors project investigates the strategies villagers are taking when the water they need both for life and ritual is scarce or polluted.

Supported by the Charles H. Salisbury Summer International Internship Stipend Award, Philippone traveled to India for research. She’s currently studying Hindi in the Himalayas and hopes to continue her research in graduate school.

LP: My first course with Brenda was Intro to Cultural Anthropology.

BM: I had two Lisas in that class. She was the quiet Lisa. She was a good student, but it took me a while to get to know her. She’s still a good student but she’s not so quiet anymore.

LP: Well, I gained a lot of confidence during my semester abroad in India. That was also where I became interested in the ideas of pollution and purity. They use water in their rituals as a purifying agent. But they use that same water to wash their clothes, as interment for their dead and as a garbage dump. How can dirty water be purifying?

Joel S. Andruski ’11, Economics

Thomas Drennen, Adviser

I asked all of the students to contribute to a blog. Joel was the most vocal blogger with the longest posts. And he kept coming to my office hours. So I asked him to work with me on an energy modeling project I was doing for the government in Singapore.

Working on a project for the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and the Department of Energy, Andruski used Power Systems L-CAT, a dynamic electricity cost model he developed with Drennen.

JA: Then we started to work on a project for NETL in Pittsburgh. They wanted modeling done that would look at the costs and risks of various fuels when building a new energy plant.

Applying Risk Assessment to an Electricity Cost Model

JA: I attended Hobart for a year and then traveled throughout the west and lived in California. I started shopping at an organic grocery store and worked on a farm. I became interested in the efficiency of farms. How we feed people is dependent on the supply of water. I began to think about returning to college to combine my interests in climate, energy and agriculture.

BM: Did you know she’s had malaria? When she writes about it, she has lived it.

LP: Malaria used to be a statistic to me.

Now it’s very real. People say they’re ‘dying of thirst,’ as a matter of speech, but most people have no idea what it’s like to be truly thirsty. In India, there was water everywhere, but you couldn’t drink any of it. And this is an issue all over the world. Over the next several years, water is going to be the global issue.

BM: Lisa has such a passion and commitment to her topic and that area. She was committed enough to live in difficult areas, to be an insider, to live life without her usual comforts. She is able to fully surrender to her field research, and that is the hallmark of a really good anthropologist.

46 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

TD: When he returned to campus, he looked me up and said that he wanted to do something with water.

JA: I had actively studied the professors I wanted to work with and I naturally gravitated to Tom. TD: I focus on energy and economics, not water. And I already had too many advisees.

JA: But I hounded him. All energy is developed in some way or another with water.

TD: He was in an intro course with me and

TD: There are always tradeoffs in this work between the economics of the situation, the type of energy used and the corresponding environmental impact. What would a new plant cost? What is the environmental impact of that? And their models weren’t making sense. We needed to hash it out so we drove down to Pittsburgh and back in one day for a meeting. We had ideas in the car for a better model.

JA: My final Honors project is an initial model for NETL. They were impressed with the work and have given us funding to continue modeling more variables. So I’m staying on with Tom through the end of the calendar year to keep working. I think that the value of the Honors program is that one-to-one contact with a professor.

TD: It’s a great way to liberate students from grades. Honors allows you to dig deep. It takes motivation. It’s a tribute to Joel’s hard work that NETL has continued to fund this project.

Shelby Pierce ’12, International Relations

Michael J. Doane ’11, Psychology

Language from the Barrel of a Gun: Understanding the Lord’s Resistance Army Beyond the Western Press

Religion and Health: A Study Among Students in the Republic of Ireland

Portia Dyrenforth, Adviser

Kevin Dunn, Adviser

Doane’s project hypothesizes that those religious individuals who are motivated to attend church services due to an ‘inner’ desire for religious growth will report having higher levels of religious social support and better overall health and psychological well being.

Pierce’s project focuses on how the Lord’s Resistance Army arose, exploring the LRA in terms of identity, the establishment of nation-states, and other insurgencies/rebellions in contemporary East Africa. Her final paper investigates how the LRA is portrayed in the media, arguing for a more nuanced understanding of the group.

Whitman Littlefield ’11, English “With Whom We Stand: A Search for Place”

Anna Creadick, Adviser Littlefield’s Honors project combines oral history and creative nonfiction to produce a ‘people-scape’ of Geneva, N.Y. When read together, the essays are a treatise on place, both in how it shapes people and how people shape it. A prolific writer, Littlefield won a New York State Associated Press award for a story he wrote about Geneva’s Sideshow bar while interning at The Finger Lakes Times.

SP: I took Intro to International Relations with Professor Dunn at the end of my sophomore year. The class was harder than I thought it was going to be but I liked it. So I did an independent study with him on Contemporary African Politics. We read a book a week and I wrote a paper a week.

KD: I was impressed with Shelby and asked her to be my teaching colleague for a FirstYear Seminar. She’s a stand-out student.

SP: In high school, I saw the movie Invisible Children about kids in Uganda forced to serve in the LRA. I became interested in how most Western media sensationalizes guerilla movements, especially the LRA. I argue in my Honors thesis that the LRA is not unique and must be understood beyond the sensationalism. Before you can enter into a conversation about the LRA, you truly have to unlearn everything that the Western media has taught you.

KD: I don’t think you ever intended to focus so heavily on Africa or on guerilla movements.

SP: No, I thought I would branch out and study the Middle East. But my intellectual curiosity about Africa is strong. My favorite part of the Honors project, though, was discovering that Professor Dunn is one of the world’s foremost experts on Uganda and the LRA. I started looking up articles online and they were all written by him.

KD: Maybe not all.

SP: Yeah, but enough. He’s inspired me to become a professor.

WL: With my adviser on sabbatical, I was searching for someone to work with on Honors. The faculty kept recommending Professor Creadick but I had never taken a class with her.

AC: It was crazy of me to even consider it.

But he was so bold in his approach and his idea was intriguing, so I took him on.

WL: I have always been very connected to my hometown of Providence, R.I., so when I came to Geneva, I felt I would be able to develop my own sense of place independent of my past. When everyone else was going abroad, I was thinking, why would I want to go to a new place again? I just got here and there’s so much to learn.

AC: I was teaching a First-Year Seminar called Geneva 101: You are Here with Associate Professor of Political Science Kevin Dunn and Associate Professor of Art Nick Ruth. We took Whitman on as a teaching assistant.

MD: People go to church for all different reasons – for social support for example, or to establish better business contacts. There’s so much research in this area that shows a link between participation in a religious community and longer and healthier lives. I wanted to know if that link remained if the individual was participating for some reason other than spiritual growth.

PD: Although my own research doesn’t have anything to do with religion, I was intrigued

by Michael’s ideas and thought it was a great subject for Honors work.

MD: In the summer after my sophomore year, I had the opportunity to stay on campus and work with Professor Dyrenforth on her research about positive emotions and sociability.

PD: Michael is a very committed and curious student. It’s been rewarding to see how he’s applied the things he’s learned working with me to his own research to create a project that is very much his own.

MD: It was my first hands-on experience with psychological research. We submitted an abstract for a conference in Social and Personality Psychology and presented our findings in Las Vegas. I’ve done things I never would have imagined doing when I was a first-year student—I’ve been to Ireland twice for research, administered surveys, analyzed data and presented findings.

PD: His final project is a graduate level thesis. It’s very well done.

MD: I did find that people who attend religious services due to obligatory explanations report lower levels of overall health and well-being.

This is absolutely a project I want to continue in graduate school.

WL: Professor Creadick really got me to think about place from a theoretical perspective.

It’s easy to mistake place for location but place is about people.

AC: Whitman has an uncanny gift for connecting with people. They open up to him and share the details of their lives.

WL: I didn’t know that the anecdotes I had collected – about a one-legged peacock or about trapping foxes with a man in Geneva, for example – should be written down. And once I did that, I began to see the connections between people and places.

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Robert Taylor ’11, Biology The Irruptive Migratory Strategy of the Blackcapped Chickadee: An Integrative Study of Energetics and Spatial Orientation in Poecile atricapillus

Mark Deutschlander, Adviser

Eleanor C. Eckerson ’11, Women’s Studies Feminism at the Founding: An Exploration of ‘Feminism’ and the Emergence of Women’s Shelters in the 1970s

Emma J. Luton ’11, Women’s Studies “Something for the Girls” - Girl Scouts’ Subversive Role in Female-Centered Activist Communities

Betty Bayer, Adviser Both Eckerson and Luton worked with Bayer on projects concerning the narrative of 20th century feminism. Eckerson’s Honors paper questions why so little attention has been paid to the role of women’s shelters in the histories of the women’s movement when the movement itself claims that domestic violence shelters are a sign of second wave feminism. Luton considers how feminist principles are embodied within the Girl Scouts and the organization’s place within feminist history.

Taylor’s Honors project investigates the Black-capped Chickadee, which unlike migratory birds only travels distances when there are periodic food shortages.

Taylor’s hypothesis is that since Chickadees are responding to a food shortage, they will be leaner instead of experiencing the usual weight gain of birds before migration.

RT: I’ve always been interested in wildlife and birding was a hobby I did with my parents. My First-Year Seminar with Mark was a good fit.

MD: In the course Bird Obsessions, first-year students look at the cultural identity of birds and well as the biology. We study the people who are obsessed with birds and the ways in which birds are used as models for conservation.

RT: Because he was my seminar professor, Mark was my adviser by default. I decided to stick with him. I studied biology and environmental studies.

MD: I asked Bob to be a teaching colleague and then encouraged him to get an internship with Project Puffin off the coast of Maine.

EE: No, not at all. In fact, my interest in this subject matter came about because I had done an internship in a women’s shelter.

EL: I come from a strong Scouting family and wanted to contextualize those experiences within what I learned majoring in Women’s Studies.

BB: Each one of you, though, had some major research to do.

EE: I had an internship at a women’s shelter in Wales when I was abroad. It felt like meaningful work. So when I returned to the States, I got an internship with a shelter in Connecticut. I was assuming that the work I was doing in shelters was feminist. So I stepped back and looked at the founding moments of seven shelters in the 1970s and how they were influenced by the women’s movement. When I started doing research, I realized that domestic violence and shelters have been left out of narratives of the feminist movement. I went through nearly 70 books to see if I was right.

BB: Their projects both critically engage how the women’s movement is told. These are very serious academic endeavors. Their work certainly challenged me in my thinking.

48 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

Classes and Correction: A Case for Education in Prison

Laurence Erussard, Adviser Clarke’s project focuses on the importance of education in correctional facilities. Clarke was Erussard’s teaching assistant at the Elmira Correctional Facility, where they traveled weekly to teach a course to inmates on Male Heroism in the Middle Ages. In his senior year, Clarke intends to look at judicial approaches to education both in the United States and abroad.

JC: The subject of the class made the experience fascinating. It’s about male heroism, vengeance, revenge and justice, which fits perfectly in a correctional facility. I had expected the students to kind of defend themselves and their past actions. Instead, they defended justice, explaining to me that people need to be punished for their crimes.

BB: Neither of you knew that the other was taking on a project that would investigate feminist history.

EL: I was fortunate, through the William Smith Dean’s Office and the Office of Student Affairs, to get funding to support traveling to New York City and Savannah, Ga., to look at the Girl Scout archives. Trustee Katherine Elliott ’66, L.H.D. ’08 let me stay with her in New York and a friend of Trustee J. Paul Hellstrom ’64 let me stay with him in Savannah. Being able to see the original sources was crucial in my work.

Jonathan Clarke ’12, English

RT: I also did the bird-banding training program at Braddock Bay Bird Observatory on Lake Ontario where Mark is on the Board of Directors. That’s where I got interested in Chickadees.

Their unusual migration is not a well-understood phenomenon.

MD: At Braddock, you might normally encounter about 100 Chickadees. In an irruption year, we may see more than 1,000.

RT: For my research, I used data sets from Braddock Bay, Cornell University and the USGS. I learned that Chickadees are leaner before migration and that they follow a consistent migration pattern on a Northeast to Southwest axis.

MD: Bob has been a fantastic student and I’m looking forward to seeing what he does next.

RT: I just took a job in Hawaii at the Maui Bird Conservation Center, an extension of the San Diego Zoo, where I’ll be helping to reintroduce native species into the wild.

MD: It’s important in ornithology to have a great deal of field experience. Bob already has so much and he’s got a great plan to gain more.

LE: I have taught in prisons in the past and I find the students to be exceptional. When I knew that there was a possibility of teaching at Elmira, I mentioned it to Jonathan. Jonathan is a wonderful student who always gets maximum grades on his papers. He immediately asked if he could help.

JC: I wasn’t expecting her to say okay but I really wanted to do this.

LE: In the prison, in Elmira in particular, the conditions were difficult. The prison is not organized in a way that encourages education, with prisoners being pulled out constantly for various reasons.

JC: In my Honors project, I want to argue that education is critical in correctional facilities and it needs more support and funding. If the point of incarceration is rehabilitation, how can that happen without education?

LE: You also visited a prison in the Philippines.

JC: Yes, originally I’m from the Philippines.

The prisons there are much different. There are no educational opportunities at all. That’s probably where my interest in this subject comes from.

Geneva, N.Y. | ca.1953 ATHLETICS

The Quarterback Club Each Monday night, Hobart Football Coach Eddie Tryon (center) and more than 100 HWS community members would come together for a meeting of the Quarterback Club, reviewing game footage, reporting on the following week’s opponent and voting on the Player of the Week.

Hobar t Rows at Henley

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Heron Rowers Place Nationally

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Hobar t Lacrosse Visits Europe

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Patten Sails to Honors

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Hobart and William Smith Colleges

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Athletics

For up-to-the-minute news and results go to www.HWSAthletics.com

Hobart Heads to World Famous Henley

D

uring a two-week stay in the United Kingdom in June, Hobart raced in the Henley Royal Regatta’s Temple Challenge Cup and the Reading Town Regatta, where they made it into the second round of racing before being bested by the University of London, one of the UK’s top collegiate rowing programs.

Traveling to Henley were: Andrew Cobb ’11, David Grossman ’11, Reynaldo Kelly ’11, Dillon Nachbar ’11, Peter Nettl ’11, David Roberts ’11, Gerry Samson ’11, Max Swagler ’11, and Jack Trimble ’11 as well as Harald Zurakowski ’12 and Coty Burgess ’13.

“Having an opportunity to race in Henley was an incredible experience,” says Cobb. “Henley is, without a doubt, the most prestigious event in rowing. I couldn’t have had this experience at any other college, and I’m so grateful that I was able to row with this team.”

In the Henley Royal Regatta, crews raced head-to-head on a 2,112-meter course in a knockout format. The Temple Challenge Cup is for “student eights.” The entry list has teams from across the UK as well as Holland, Ireland, Norway, and the United States. In addition to Hobart, representing the U.S. were Cal, Florida Tech, Harvard, Virginia, and Yale.

The Statesmen eight and a pair raced in the Reading Town Regatta, an 800-meter sprint on the Thames, upriver from the Henley course, where they outdeuled an alumni eight composed of Yale and Virginia graduates, but came up short against the Kent School alumni.

First held in 1938, the Henley Royal Regatta is the most renowned regatta in the world. Hobart returned to the field for the first time since 1994. ●

HOBART OARSMEN ON THE RIVER THAMES.

50 Pulteney Street Survey | Summer 2011

HERONS COMPETE IN THEIR SECOND CONSECUTIVE NCAA ROWING CHAMPIONSHIP.

Heron Rowers Place 5th in National Championship

M

embers of the Heron Rowing Team stayed on campus to prepare for their second consecutive NCAA Rowing Championship appearance, which took place in Sacramento, Calif. William Smith finished fifth in the Division III Championship at the Sacramento State Aquatics Center. The Heron varsity eight, which came into the championship ranked sixth in the CRCA/USRowing Coaches Poll, placed fifth in the grand final.

Kim Goral ’13, Liz Hafer ’13, Libby Hughes ’14, Claire Brown ’13, Jess Steketee ’13, Lauren Blake-Whitney ’14, Tess Wiggins ’12, Crary Chandler ’11, and Sarah Gordon ’13 surged off the line into third place at the start, but were overtaken by Wellesley and Ithaca by the 500-meter mark. The Herons stayed in contact with the Bombers for most of the race, but couldn’t improve their standing over the final 1,500 meters. William Smith crossed the finish line in 7:14.04.

The Herons earned a berth in the grand final with third place finishes in their opening heat and the grand qualifier on the first day of the championship.

Also in action on the water in the Golden State, the William Smith second varsity eight included Christine Babcock ’11, Christine Reighley ’14, Maggie Smith ’12, Laura Cappio ’13, Alaria Pizzo ’11, Katie Paige ’14, Sinead Reilly ’14, Alyssa Trebilcock ’14, and Leila Peraro ’13.

In the petite qualifier, they put up a valiant fight, holding the fourth and final qualifying spot for most of the race, but Trinity’s second varsity eight clipped them at the line to squeeze the Herons out of the championship.

William Smith’s fifth place finish in the grand final matches the team’s performance at the 2007 championship in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The Herons’ fifth place team finish is the program’s best since a third place showing in 2002. ●

ATHLETICS

Hobart lacrosse visits France, Belgium In June, the Hobart lacrosse team completed an eight-day playing tour in Europe, spending time in both France and Belgium.

Participating in a flags raising ceremony at Omaha Beach, the team played two games in Port-En-Bessin before visiting Bayeux, the first city liberated following the D-Day invasion.

On D-Day, the Statesmen observed the 67th anniversary ceremonies and visited the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.

“The D-Day ceremony was surreal,” says Sean Regan ’13.

“I’ve read about D-Day in textbooks, but to actually be on Omaha Beach on June 6 was something else. It was an honor to meet some of the veterans and to hear their stories.” ●

Skipper Caroline Patten ’11 earned Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Women’s Skipper All-America honorable mention at the Sperry Top-Sider/ICSA Women’s National Championship awards banquet. She is just the second Heron to be named a Women’s Skipper All-American, joining Chrissie Jurczak ’00, a 2000 honorable mention.

Patten has represented William Smith in the ICSA Women’s National Championship in each of her four seasons on campus. She turned in her best performance on the national stage at the 2010 championship, finishing 12th in the A Division. Patten helped the Herons finish second in the MAISA Women’s Spring Championship and also posted A Division victories in the 2010-11 Finger Lakes Women’s Intersectional, the MAISA Women’s Fall Championship, and the Dellenbaugh Women’s Trophy.

Patten’s classmate, skipper Kelly Crane ’11, also made history at this year’s women’s dinghy championship. She teamed with crews Holly Huffine ’11 and Hannah Littell ’11 to win B Division, the first time a Heron has won a division at nationals. The championship was plagued by intermittent winds, but Crane and her crew handled the conditions better than their competitors to finish in the top five in five of the seven races completed during two and a half days of competition.

Hobart and William Smith wrapped up the championship week with a sixth place showing in the ICSA APS Team Race National Championship and a second place in the ICSA Coed Dinghy Championship.

Statesmen skipper David Thompson ’11 and crew Chris Klevan ’12 were also named AllAmericans. A team captain, Thomspon competed in four ICSA championships during his career, including a fourth place finish in A Division at this year’s coed championship. Klevan has three national championship appearances on his resume, taking third in B Division at the 2011 coed championship.

Since Andy Horton ’98 and Ady Symonds ’96 were named All-Americans in 1996, Hobart and William Smith sailors have earned 45 All-America awards. ●

photo by greg wall

Patten sails to All-America honors

Hobart lacrosse alums gather on the field at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Md., to celebrate Hobart’s first 14 NCAA national championship lacrosse teams. The 1976 and 1977 Statesmen were recognized at halftime of the Division II championship game, while Hobart’s unprecedented championship streak, running from 1980 through 1991, was honored at half-time of the Division III title game. The Statesmen also won the 1993 NCAA Division III national championship, and that squad will be honored at the 2013 championship.

The Eldest Statesmen (pictured) won the Grandmasters (50+) title at the 2011 Vail Lacrosse Shootout for the third year running. The Eldest Statesmen were known to have the division’s most potent offense, and during the last three Grandmasters Championships, the men have only allowed six goals and have outscored their opponents 34 – 6 in those matchups. The Elder Statesmen competed for the Supermaster (40+) title, losing against C2C Magic Wands in the Championship game.

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Classnotes

Photos Greg Davidson ’08 and Brad Davidson ’71 share a smile at the finish line of the 2010 Athens Marathon. The father and son ran the marathon along with 13,000 other runners from around the globe.

The ladies of Sill House, Ann Sauer ’76, Shelley Wolf Harris ’76, Diane Halley ’75, Eileen Emerson ’76 and Carol Brotman White ’76, gather at Emerson’s cottage on Lake Tuscarora, N.Y., in July 2010.

Mary Stowell Nelson ’82, P’10 tops the William Smith pyramid during her 50th birthday celebration in Aspen, Colo.

Supporting Nelson are her WS roommates (middle row) Cathy Berlings Castaldi ’82, Anne Richardson Rowley ’82, (bottom row) Trustee Cyndy Gelsthorpe Fish ’82, Annmarie McNamara Massie ’82 and Stacy Solomon Bach ’82.

Maria Trainor ’10, Hansen Williams ’08 and Stephanie Wells ’10 meet in Boston to catch up on life after graduation.

Rich Havranek ’62, Mary Slate Havranek ’64 and Dave MacPherson ’62 reconnect in southwest Florida.

Rich Havranek ’62, Mary Slate Havranek ’64, Bud Ames ’64, Diane Ames, Larry Slattery ’64 and Sue Slattery gather at the Ames home in Naples, Fla., to celebrate Larry’s induction into the Statesmen Hall of Fame.

Christine Buckingham Rolland ’76 and Carol Brotman White ’76 pose for a photo at Monet’s Gardens in Giverny, France.

Jenna Logue ’01 and Sarah Redman were married on March 12, 2011 at Old South Church in Boston, Mass. In attendance were (l to r, standing) David Baird-Miller ’04, Kerry Sullivan ’05, Kris Ward, Sharon Bowen Murray ’00, Ave Bauder ’81, Alexandra Ziolo Kuhns ’01, Joshua Leach ’01, Nadia Kinderman Maccera ’01, Natalie Henderson Macquire ’01, Beth Boisi ’01, Sheri Friedberg ’00, (l to r, sitting) Jennifer Mecus ’04, Jenna Logue ’01 and Sarah Redman.

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Classnotes

Marissa Athas ’09 married Matt Beck on New Year’s Day in California. Guests include (standing, l to r): Kathryn Lawton ’09, Matt Beck (groom), Marissa Athas ’09 (bride), Michelle Badagnani ’09, Colleen Carpinella ’09, Susan Albert ’75 (mother of the bride), Sarah Holland ’09, (kneeling, l to r) Neil Sjoblom ’75 and Michael Athas ’07.

Kent Thorpe ’07 graduated from New York Chiropractor College on April 2, 2011. An honor student, Thorpe received the Libero A. Violini Award, for outstanding clinical intern. He has joined his father, Dr. David Thorpe, and is practicing in Fayetteville, N.Y.

Lisa Vinikoor-Imler ’02 married Andrew Imler. In attendance were (back row, l to r) Andy Sabo, Tim Harms, Anne Erickson Harms ’02, Amber Kling ’02, Scott Anderson, Melissa Martinho ’02, Marleah Tkacz ’02, (front row, l to r) Casey Post ’02, Juan Jimenez ’03, ’Benjamin Franklin,’ the bride, the groom and Leah Fitzpatrick ’02.

Caitlin Caron ’08 and Morgan MacCuaig ’08 show their William Smith pride after completing the Key Bank Vermont City Marathon Relay in Burlington, Vt. Caron and MacCuaig each ran 12 miles as part of a two person relay team.

Eric Hall Anderson ’59 on a warm day in January en route from Falera to Laax in the Canton of Graubunden, Switzerland.

Elizabeth Avis Fisher Fennelly, daughter of Judge Shireen Avis Fisher ’70 and Gregg R. Fisher ’70, married Ken Fennelly.

Pictured with the bride and groom are (l to r) Shireen Avis Fisher ’70, Gregg Fisher ’70, Kate Fisher, Christine DeGiacomo-Langlois ’70, Armand Mazzaroppi and Janet Roberts Mazzaroppi ’70.

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Classnotes

Peter A. Yaverbaum ’96 and Christine H. Kim were married in Vermont on August 14, 2010. HWS alums celebrating include Nancy Baum Lohman ’72, Stephen R. Lohman ’71, Jason K. Walbourn ‘96, Interim Provost and Dean of Faculty Professor Patrick McGuire, the Bride and Groom, J.B. Robinson ‘96, Erin Sutfin Susulka ’96 and Christopher W. Kirvin ‘96.

Young alums Dana Greechan ’09, Phil Perkins ’08, Katie Hampson ’09, Lauren Peters ’09, Sarah Pariseau ’09, Caroline Monahan ’09, Katie Parker-Magyar ’09, Derek Serpe ’08, Peter Gronlund ’08, Wells Ross ’09 and Mary Kate Bates ’09 enjoy a ski trip in Vermont.

Susan Dick P’09, Michael Dick ’70, P’09, Trustee Richard Wasserman ’70, and Tina Wasserman pose for a photo during a recent trip to the Galapagos Islands.

Jill Ort Haskell ’94 married P. Thomson Haskell III in May at the Spring Lake Golf Club in Spring Lake, N.J. In attendance were Heather Seligman ’94, Chrissy Bennett-West ’94, Stephanie Bosch Hubbard ’94, Steve Hubbard ’91, Graham Vest ’82, Jill Ort Haskell ’94, Carolyn Proga Vest ’82, Douglas McDonald ’94, Tara Kelly Aves ’94 and Kate Bogart Bones ’94.

Kendra Leckie ’08 married Brian Ohman ’07 on June 1, 2010, in Ridgefield, Conn. In attendance were (l to r) Jessie Schwartz ’08, Anthony Hobaica ’09, James Thompson ’07, Joshua Weiss ’07, Jerome Chambers ’08, Erin DeRemer ’10, Ryan Mcwalter ’07, the groom, the bride, Nino Giambrone ’07, Kyle Martin ’07, Tyler Mason ’07, Cassandra Kounas ’09, Alex Bryce ’09, Olivia Nohr ’10 and Charles Brutten ’07.

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Students from Phelps-Clifton Springs Central School District in New York show off their HWS pride. These students were lucky enough to have Melissa Bowman Eagley ’03 as their teacher.

Classnotes

Five Phi Sigma Kappa Hobart fraternity brothers meet at the Cornell Club in New York City. In attendance at the mini-reunion are Tom Hadlock ’64, Jim Hockett ’64, Mal Davis ’62, Jerry Bolstein ’62 and Louis Kahn ’63.

Ashley Leimkuehler Spencer-Smith ’98 recently married Garth Spencer-Smith in Cape Town, South Africa. The couple held a small reception in Boston with friends, family and HWS alums, including Abigail O’Connor Scharbach ’96, Rev. Albert Scharbach ’94, Amy Alvarez ’01 and Jared Sims.

Anne McPheeters ’03 married Meredith Johnson in Biddeford Pool, Maine, last September. From left to right are: Marcee Yadgar Bar-Isaac ’03, Sarah Trbuhovich Amador ’03, Jessica Teicher ’04, Lindsey Ehrenwerth ’03, Meredith Johnson, Anne McPheeters ’03, Adrian Mott ’03, Sarah Shapiro ’03, Rob Childs ’01, Sheryl Witlen ’03, Liz Keller ’03, Liam Cooney ’04, Glenn Madio ’03.

Laura Golson Goldman ’08 and Zachary Goldman ’06 were married at the Central Park Boathouse on September 4, 2010. In attendance were Kathleen Kohl ’08, Mandi Markee ’07, Mairin Wilson ’08, Jamie Landi ’08, Trevor Moore ’07, Dave Barrett ’07, Emily Golson ’08, Meredith Eppers ’08, John Storck III ’05, Marian Spurrier ’07 and Molly Lawson ’06.

1.

2.

3.

Kathleen Gould and Dr. Michael DePersis ’07 were married in May at St. Stephen’s in Geneva. Photographed during the reception at Ventosa Vineyards were Dr. Nolan Robinson ’07, Dr. Kent Thorpe ’07, Nino Giambrone ’07, the bride, the groom, Brian Ohman ’07, Christopher Whipple ’07 and Douglas Blakowski ’07.

4.

1) Michael Fazio ’04 and Heather Hawkins Fazio’03 welcomed Bennett Michael Fazio on October 26, 2010.

2) Future Statesman Thomas Bozzuto, grandson of Trustee Thomas S. Bozzuto ’68, shows off his Hobart pride.

3) Harrison and Brayden Porter don Hobart gear. Their mother, Heather Hatlo Porter, works with Dan Rosensweig ’83 as the manager of Philanthropy & Executive Projects at Chegg Inc. 4) Jim Beardsley ’61, ready for a performance in Christmas Revel, an annual celebration at Sanders Theater, Cambridge, Mass. Beardsley credits his love of music and performance to Lindsay Lafford P’65, P’71, L.H.D.’87.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

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Classnotes

Obituaries The Colleges appreciate notification of the death of any member of the Hobart and William Smith community.

In order to include notice in the Pulteney St. Survey, we must receive notification that is printed and verifiable. If possible, please send a printed obituary or legal notification (as from an estate) of the death. Personal testimonials and remembrances, in written form, are also welcome. Their use in the Survey, though, is subject to length restrictions.

Deadlines for obituary submission are the same as for Classnotes.

Hobart John R. Iredale ’32 died at the age of 101 on March 2, 2011 in St. Petersburg, Fla. He graduated with a B.S. in chemistry and physics and later earned a master’s of science from Syracuse University in education. John also studied at the then Adelphi College on Long Island. He was a member of Lambda Pi when it became Kappa Sigma, as well as participated in science club, swimming, baseball and basketball. John worked at Oneida Limited as an analytical chemist before teaching high school chemistry and physics for nearly 30 years. He taught throughout New York State, teaching in Long Island for 16 years, and was a member of two professional fraternities for educators, Kappa Phi Kappa and Phi Delta Kappa. John is survived by stepson, William Jones; daughter, Shirley Ellsworth; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He is predeceased by his father, John Iredale’15; first wife, Beulah (Ruth); second wife, Ann; and brother, Henry D. Iredale ’36.

Frederick “Fred” W. Moore ’39, P ’65 died on Feb. 28, 2011 in Southern Pines, N.C. Fred graduated cum laude with a B.A. French and German. A year later he received his M.A. in romance philology from Harvard and his Ph.D. in French from Yale in 1956. Fred served in the U.S. Navy in World War II and the Korean War, retiring at the rank of commander. While at Hobart, he was president of Kappa Sigma, a Phi Beta Kappa, a member of Orange Key, Chimera, Echo, Intramural Board, Phi Sigma Iota, Delta Phi Alpha and the Inter-fraternity Council. He also played football and lacrosse and was named to the Hobart Hall of Fame in 2006 for his time on the 1938 lacrosse team. Fred served as a language professor, starting his career at the Colleges in 1946. After serving in Korea, he taught French at SUNY Albany for 30 years and achieved the status of professor emeritus. Fred was an active alumnus and financial supporter of the Colleges. He served as class correspondent and Reunion coordinator, and received an Alumni Citation in 2004 for his dedication to the Colleges. Fred is survived by his wife of 72 years, Eleanor; daughters, Constance M. Grahn and Janet B. Kirby; sons, Charles

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R. and William E. Moore II ’65; cousin, Susan Thomas Buzzee ’65; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He is predeceased by his uncles, Ralph C. ’04 and Charles E. Willard ’18; aunt, Leo Norma Willard ’18; and brother, William E. Moore ’38.

Dr. Thomas W. Morgan ’40, P’81 died on Dec. 28, 2010 in Fort Myers, Fla. Thomas attended Hobart for two years after studying the sciences and pre-med at the University of Alabama. While at Hobart, Thomas studied sciences, and participated on the boxing team. He later attended the University of Rochester and the University of Buffalo, where he obtained his M.D. in 1946. He also served in both the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, and was discharged as a captain in 1953. As an anesthesiologist, he worked for the military abroad in France and in the U.S. in Virginia. He later served as director of the Department of Anesthesiology at Genesee Hospital in Rochester, N.Y. Thomas is survived by his wife, Ruth; and daughters, Elizabeth M. Barefoot ’81 and Margaret. He was predeceased by his daughter, Joanne.

James “Jim” M. Chapman ’41 died on Feb. 8, 2011 in Tucson, Ariz. At Hobart, Jim majored in science, was a brother of Theta Delta Chi, and participated in the Science Club and Orange Key. He worked for several national companies as a sales manager such as Magnavox Company and Phillips Electronics, as well as a real estate broker. Upon his first retirement, he and his wife took an 18-month trip around the world. Jim remained active through power walking, dancing, music, and cycling. He became an avid cyclist and won dozens of medals, including some from the Senior Olympic Games. Jim is survived by his wife, Elena; and children, Thomas, Sara, and Mark. He is predeceased by his first wife, Jacquelyn.

Harry N. Herber III ’42 died on Jan. 3, 2011 in Centereach, N.Y. Harry majored in business while at Hobart and went on to earn an M.B.A. in accounting from New York University. Harry was a brother of Sigma Chi, participated in the Newman Club, baseball and the Intramural Board, and was on the Dean’s List. He served in the U.S. Army with the amphibious engineers in the Pacific and was honorably discharged as a corporal in 1945. He later served as a bank examiner in the New York City area. Harry was married to Frances; and had three children, Marilee, Thomas and Harry IV. Robert B. Tate ’43 died on Jan. 4, 2011 in Whispering Pines, N.C. Robert received his B.A. in history from Hobart and also studied at the University of Rochester and St. John’s University. At Hobart, Robert was a member of Kappa Alpha Society and also participated in band and the rifle club. He served in the U.S. Air Corps in Europe during World War II as a staff sergeant. He also served in the U.S. Army for three years. Robert later worked as a production supervisor for Eastman Kodak Co. in Rochester, N.Y. until his retirement.

He is survived by his wife, Betty Maurinus Tate’43; son, Robert; three grandsons, and five great-grandchildren.

Robert E. Wilner ’45 died on March 10, 2009 in Media, Pa. The Colleges recently learned of Robert’s passing. He attended Hobart for three years and also attended Wichita University. Robert was a brother

of Delta Psi Omega and later served as a private in the U. S. Army Medical Corps.

He also worked for Boeing Aircraft Co. He preceded his sister, A. Isabel Wilner ’42.

Richard “Dick” W. Morris Jr. ’47 of Syracuse, N.Y., died on Feb. 12, 2011.

Dick graduated with a B.A. in English, after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II. After his training, he served in the Pacific Theater, fighting in the Battle of Iwo Jima, and serving in the occupation force in Nagasaki. Dick was discharged as a first lieutenant in 1946 bestowed with several honors, including a Purple Heart.

While at Hobart, Dick was a member of Sigma Chi, Schola Cantorum, Little Theatre and Board of Control, and played football and lacrosse. Dick also attended Cornell University, Eastman School of Music and University of Rochester. As an alumnus, Dick was a great supporter of the Colleges, forming and serving as the first president of the Statesmen Athletic Association. Dick also served on the Hobart Alumni Council as a Career Network volunteer, and was a member of the Hobart Hall of Fame. He received an Alumni Citation in 1972 and the Statesmen Athletic Association’s Annual Award in 1989. He remained a passionate and interested donor to the Colleges, endowing a scholarship in his parents’ memory. Dick held a career as a business executive and was president of Morris Protective Service, Inc., until his death.

He is survived by his children, Richard, Michael and Lisa, and two grandchildren.

He was predeceased by his wife of 58 years, Pauline.

John “Jack” J. Swords ’48 died on March 15, 2011 in State College, Pa. Jack earned a B.A. in mathematics from Hobart and a M.Ed. from Penn State University in 1969; he also attended Cornell University. He was a brother in Theta Delta Chi and participated in baseball and boxing, football and basketball. After Hobart, Jack served in the military for 26 years. He first enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving in the Pacific during World War II, and later joined the U.S. Marine Corps and participated in combat operations in Korea, Lebanon, Dominican Republic, and Southeast Asia. He retired a lieutenant colonel with military honors including the Silver Star and a Purple Heart.

After his military career, Jack worked at Penn State as assistant to vice president of student service and director of veteran’s affairs. Jack is survived by his wife, Marion; children, Michael and Stephanie; and five grandchildren.

The Rev. Dr. Donald E. Chapman ’49 died on March 22, 2011 in Spartanburg, S.C. Donald graduated magna cum laude in history and later received his M.A. from Columbia University, M.Div. from the University of the South School of Theology, and D.Min. from Union Theological Seminary. At Hobart, Donald participated in Canterbury Club, St. John’s Guild, International Relations Club, Commons Club, and completed Honors. He served in the U.S. Army’s Quartermaster Corps in World War II. He went on to become an Episcopal priest, teaching and serving at a number of schools and parishes throughout the Southeast. Donald is survived by his daughters, Mary and Laura; and four grandsons. He was predeceased by his wife, Mary “Skippy.”

Robert “Bob” E. Morrison ’49 died on April 21, 2011 in Wolfeboro, N.H. He graduated with a B.A. in history and political science and later received his M.Ed.

from Columbia University. At Hobart, Bob was a brother of Phi Phi Delta, lacrosse team manager and completed Honors. He served in the U.S. Army in World War II as a corporal in Japan. Bob held a career as a school principal and history teacher. He administered and taught in the U.S. in New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Louisiana, and abroad in Aruba and Libya. He also founded the Gilford Middle High School in N.H. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Mary Cox Morrison’48; children, James and Lynn; cousin, George Ehrhardt Jr.’54; and four grandchildren.

Richard “Dick” F. Hirt ’50 died on May 13, 2011 in Little Rock, Ark. Dick graduated with a B.S. in chemistry and was on the Dean’s List. He served for three years in the U.S. Army and was honorably discharged as a sergeant in 1946. Dick went on to become a chemist and technical director in several paint manufacturing companies. He served as a volunteer counselor for nearly 20 years at SCORE, a nonprofit association that helps educate entrepreneurs and small business owners, and was an active church member at Highland Valley UMC. He is survived by his wife, Sara; daughter, Tracy; and brother and sister-in-law, Philip T. ’50 and Sara Kintner Hirt’49; and brother, William M. Hirt’62. He is predeceased by a son, Kenneth.

Robert N. Tuthill ’50 of Springfield, Mass., died on Jan. 21, 2011. Robert graduated with a B.A. in history, and also attended Norwich University. At Hobart, he was on the Dean’s List several times. Robert enlisted in the U.S. Army before coming to Hobart, serving until 1946 as a private first class. He later worked as an insurance appraiser and inspector in New England.

He enjoyed traveling.

Owen “Hap” G. Davis ’51 died on Jan. 29, 2011 in Aiken, S.C. Hap majored in economics and sociology while at Hobart and did graduate work at the University of Michigan and Temple University. He was a brother of Alpha Pi Delta when it became Phi Sigma Kappa, serving as its secretary. Hap was also involved in the Echo, Canterbury Club, St. John’s Guild, Spanish Club, Westminster Club, was the assistant basketball manager, and president of Young Democrats Club. Hap served in the U.S. Army in the Korean War, earning the rank of first lieutenant, armor. He also served in the Michigan National Guard and Army Reserve. Hap worked for several years at Scott Paper Co. in human resources and industrial relations. He later established his own human resources consulting practice.

Hap was an active volunteer, serving Chamber of Commerce, United Way, Kiwanis Club and the Human Resources Management Association. Hap was survived by his children, Daryl Ann, Dudley, Braden and Marshall; and nine grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife of 55 years, Carole Jane “CJ.” William “Kim” F. Kimberly Jr. ’51 died on March 14, 2011 in Buffalo, N.Y. Kim earned a B.A. in French from Hobart, and a M.A.L.S. in literature from Hollins College.

At Hobart, he was a founding member of Delta Chi, vice president of Phi Sigma Iota, and a cheerleader. He also participated in the Canterbury Club, Little Theatre, Glee Club, Schola Cantorum and was on the sailing team. Kim served in the U.S. Army from 1953-1955 as a corporal and then held a career as an English and French teacher at the Nichols School in Buffalo for nearly 40

Obituaries years. Kim was a loyal alumnus of Hobart serving on the Reunion Social Committee and the Hobart Club of Buffalo. He is survived by his wife of 27 years, Susan; and his children, Dana, Charlotte, and J. Townsend. He is predeceased by a son, William “Tad” III. Elbert “Jim” J. Ulm Jr. ’51 died on Feb. 18, 2011 in Onondaga Hill, N.Y. Jim graduated with a B.A. in economics and was a brother in Theta Delta Chi. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II in Okinawa. Jim worked as a manager at the manufacturing company Carrier Corps.

He was an avid member of Onondaga Hill Presbyterian Church, and an avid golfer and bowler. He is survived by his wife, Susan Fisk Ulm ’51; sons, Robert and David; and three grandchildren.

I. Stanley Levine ’52 died on Sept. 20, 2010 in Miami, Fla. Stanley earned his B.A. in economics from Hobart and went on to earn his LL.B. and J.D. from University of Miami, both cum laude; he also attended the University of Rochester and Syracuse University. At Hobart, he was involved in the Rifle Club, intramural sports and was on the Dean’s List. Stanley held a career as a business attorney and established his own firm in Florida. He served his community on a number of boards for numerous organizations. Stanley is survived by his wife, Elaine; children, Kenneth, Alan, Tina, and Robert ’78; and five grandchildren.

John A. Polimeni ’52 of Canandaigua, N.Y., died on May 28, 2011. John served in the U.S. Army for 18 months during World War II, touring in Germany and France, and then attended Hobart for one year. He lived in his hometown of Canandaigua all his life and started and ran two restaurants and an ice cream shop with his family. John also owned and managed Polimeni’s Red Jacket Mobile Home Park. John was involved in his community, serving on the city council and on the city’s Republican Committee. John is survived by his children, John and Susan; brothers, Albert, Joseph and Russell F. ’58; and four grandsons. He is predeceased by his wife, Shirley; and brother, Rocco ’58.

Dr. Martin O. Bock ’54 died on March 24, 2011 in Roswell, Ga. Martin graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with his B.A. in biology and chemistry and later graduated from Jefferson Medical College; he also attended C.C.N.Y. At Hobart, Martin was a brother in Phi Kappa Tau, and participated in WEOS, marching band, Epsilon Pi Sigma, and the staff of the H Book. He later served in the U.S. Army for two years as lieutenant colonel before practicing internal medicine in Florida. He is survived by his wife of 44 years, Cecile; children, Robert, Stephanie and Heather; four grandchildren; and nephew, David E. Kartzinel’66.

William L. Brookfield ’54 of Daytona Beach Shores, Fla., died on March 26, 2011. William attended Hobart for one year and then enlisted in the U.S. Army and fought in the Korean War. After the war, he worked for Cavalier Mica in Mexico, and later moved to Florida and began a career in real estate development. After working for Bellmead Development Corporation, he formed his own company, Brookfield & Associaties, Inc., and was president of Real Estate Advisory Group, Inc. He was appointed to the Volusia County Planning Board in 1976 and was board chair from 1981 to 1983. A charter member of the

Daytona Beach Area Board of Realtors, he served as president in 1967, the same year he was named the Board’s Realtor of the Year. He was elected president of the Florida Association of Realtors in 1976. He served as both director of the National Association of Realtors and trustee of the Associations Realtor Group Insurance Trust.

William was appointed by Gov. Bob Graham to the Florida Real Estate and Research Foundation Advisory Committee in 1985.

He is survived by his former wife, Frances Wilson; children, Kate, William, Richard, Beth and Jonathan; eight grandchildren; one great-grandson; and his longtime friend Ms. Marty Erisman.

Carl L. Baldwin ’55 died on Jan. 29, 2011 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He was a U.S. Army veteran stationed in Germany prior to coming to Hobart. Carl graduated from Hobart with a B.S. in mathematics and chemistry. During his time at the Colleges, he participated in the Herald and band, played on the Hobart football team, and was a member of Delta Chi fraternity. After Hobart, he graduated from Simmons School of Embalming and Mortuary Science. He served as a New York State licensed funeral director for 40 years, primarily with the Bussing and Cunniff Funeral Home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., as the firm’s licensed manager. He was survived by his children, Deborah, Theresa, Mary, Lori, Carl Jr., Michael, David and James; 23 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.

Elliott M. Johnson ’55 of Eden, N.Y., died on June 1, 2011. Elliott attended Hobart for two years, majored in economics, was a member of Sigma Phi and played on the football team until he was drafted. Elliott served in the U.S. Army with occupation forces in Germany; he was also a tank commander along the Czechoslovakian border in the 1950s. After working for several communications companies in sales, Elliott co-founded TxRx Systems, a radio systems manufacturing company, serving as vice president and general manager of sales and marketing. He is survived by his sons, Andrew, Sean and Timothy; five grandchildren, and his former wife, Joan.

Dr. George S. Lassiter ’56 of Fredericksburg, Va., died on May 3, 2011. George received his B.S. in biology. At Hobart, he was class president for all four years, a member of all of the Hobart honor societies and was captain of the lacrosse team. He was also a member of WEOS and Phi Phi Delta, played on the basketball team, and worked at Saga. A two-time All-American, he was the first African American selected to play in the annual Senior All-Star Lacrosse game. He was one of the recipients of the Colleges’ Bicentennial Awards for Excellence. In 1998, he was inducted into the Statesmen Athletic Hall of Fame. He delivered the 150th anniversary address honoring Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell of the Geneva Medical College.

After graduating from Hobart, he attended Hahneman Medical School and then went on to practice medicine in Morristown, N.J. for 36 years. He served in the U.S. Navy and was chief of medicine at All Souls Hospital. He is predeceased by his wife, Madhu and his brother, Dr. James Lassiter ’53. He is survived by his children, Naina, Nayan and Milan.

Marcellus F. Liotta ’56 died on April 22, 2011 in Washington, N.H. Marcellus received a B.S. in physics from Hobart, where

he was a member of WEOS and ROTC and served as president of the Newman Club.

He entered the order of Capuchin Friars and was ordained in 1964. While a monk, he earned a M.Div. in pastoral theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary in 1976 and his M.S. in pastoral counseling from Iona College in 1982. Marcellus taught physics in private and public schools where he developed the curriculum for AP, Honors and Conceptual Physics. Marcellus received the distinguished Teacher AwardCommission on Presidential Scholars in 1987. Retiring from teaching in 1999, he worked part-time as an assistant librarian at the Shedd Free Library in Washington, N.H. for several years. He is survived by his wife, Patricia; children, Vincent, Terri and Michele; two grandchildren; and greatgranddaughter.

George E. Siegel ’57 of Scarsdale, N.Y., died on June 16, 2009. George received a B.A. in American history and political science from Hobart. During his time at the Colleges, he was a member of Beta Sigma Tau fraternity and Pi Gamma Mu; he also participated in the International Student Club, Spanish Club and the Herald.

As an alumnus he served on the Capital Gifts Committee, Special Gifts Committee, and Annual Support and as a member of the Statesmen Athletic Association. After graduation he went on to receive his LL.B from New York University in 1960. During his career he worked as an attorney for his father’s law firm, Mitchell & Siegel as well as Walter, Conston, Alexander & Green, both in New York City. He is survived by his wife, Alice; children, Andrew, Howard and James; and cousins, Burton J. Jacowitz ’59 and Leslie J. Stark ’59.

Reginald M. Norris ’59 died on April 21, 2011 in Sharon, Conn. Reginald received his B.A. in history from Hobart and a MBA from New York University. At Hobart, he was a member of Sigma Phi fraternity, the Inter-Fraternity Council, the Newman Club and the sailing team. As an alumnus, he served as class chair. After service in the U.S. Army, Reginald moved to New York City and worked at various companies such as Banker’s Trust, REA Express, Diversified Mortgage Investors, Interway and Transamerica. For the past 20 years, he worked as a consultant helping small companies with financial and partnership issues. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Sue; two sons, Andrew and Anthony; and two grandchildren.

Lawrence R. Puccia ’60 died on March 13, 2011 in Fayetteville, N.Y. Lawrence attended Hobart for one year and played on the football team. He worked at Niagara Mohawk in Watertown for 36 years as lineman and foreman. Lawrence was survived by his wife of 54 years, Juliette; daughters, Emily, Claire and Laura; and six grandchildren.

J.T. Terry Brune ’63 died on March 29, 2011 in Vero Beach, Fla. Terry earned a B.A. in English from Hobart in 1963, participated in the Air Force ROTC program, Interfraternity Council, Judicial Board, as well as serving as both treasurer and president to his fraternity, Sigma Phi. He spent his career working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. He was a member of the New York Stock Exchange, Sons of the American Revolution, The Moorings Club of Vero Beach, Union Club in NYC, North Woods Club and Lake Placid Club. He is survived by his children, William, Timothy, Constance and Tilney; cousin, C. Wendell

Wickersham III ’60; and four grandchildren.

The Rev. Larry J. Donoghue ’63 of Denver, Colo., died on March 9, 2011. He received his B.A. in history, participating in the Canterbury Club, Little Theatre, WEOS and St. John’s Chapel. Larry served in the U.S. Navy before attending Nashotah House Seminary. Ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1969, he served in many parishes including St. Laurence’s in Conifer, Colo., for 17 years. Larry retired in 1999 and continued to serve at St. Francis Center and various churches in the area.

As an alumnus, he served as an Admissions Volunteer and supported the Annual Fund. Larry is survived by his life partner Bob Mosher, several cousins and numerous friends.

Jeffrey R. Otto ’63 died on May 31, 2010 in Davie, Fla. Jeffrey received his B.A. in psychology before going on to receive his J.D. from Albany Law School. He worked for the law firm of Roskoski and Otto in Newburgh, N.Y., for more than 30 years.

Jeffrey is survived by his wife of 36 years, Doris Otto; and son, Jason.

George B. Rabinowitz ’63 of Chapel Hill, N.C. died on March 18, 2011. George received his B.A. in mathematics, participating in golf. After graduation, George earned a master’s in mathematics and a Ph.D in political science from the University of Michigan. George taught political science and conducted research at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for nearly 40 years. Together with his wife, Stuart Elaine Macdonald, his longtime collaborator, George was awarded the Heinz Eulau Prize by the Norwegian Society of Science and Letters in 1991 for their directional theory of issue voting. He is survived by his wife; sons, Joshua and David; and grandson, James.

Eric J. Chapman ’64 of Lincolnshire, Ill., died on April 7, 2011. He received his B.A. in history at Hobart and earned a M.A. in history from Trinity College in 1969. While at the Colleges, Eric served as captain of the tennis team, participated in Little Theatre and Orchestra, and was a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. Eric, a violin retailer, played viola for 45 years in civic orchestras, founded the Ann Arbor Summer Symphony in 1974, and remained active in chamber music. Before opening a violin shop, Eric was a teaching fellow in African-American studies at the University of Michigan and taught history at St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire. As an alumnus, he served as a Campaign volunteer from 1984-85 and a Career Counseling volunteer. He is survived by his wife, Adina; and children, Ariel and Raphael.

Carl J. Barba Jr. ’68 of Chicago, Ill., died on Nov. 17, 2010. Carl graduated with a B.A. in political science. At Hobart, he worked at Saga, was a member of the track team and Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.

After graduation, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served for a year in the Republic of South Korea. Carl later earned his M.S. in accounting from SUNY Binghamton, and began his career as an accountant at Arthur Andersen & Company in Rochester, N.Y., where he earned his CPA certificate. During his career, Carl worked for several corporations, including serving as vice president of finance at Welch Foods, and vice president of finance and administration for Scandia Trading Company. Carl became an ALA member and legal administrator in 1992, when he Hobart and William Smith Colleges

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Obituaries joined Nutter, McClennen & Fish, where he worked as executive director and chief financial officer. Most recently, he worked as a certified business coach with ActionCOACH. As an alumnus, Carl served on the 30th Reunion Committee, as treasurer of the Boston Alumni Club, career counselor, campaign volunteer, and as class correspondent from 1980-2010. Carl is survived by his wife, Elaine; children, Jennifer and Anthony; and brother, Louis J. Barba ’70.

Jeffrey D. Keast ’78 of Dover, Mass., died on May 1, 2011. Jeffrey received his B.A. in individual studies and received Honors.

After graduation, Jeffrey went on to receive a M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a research associate at the MIT Media Laboratory. As an independent software consultant, Jeffrey worked for many companies in the Boston area in the biomedical, financial and technology industries. Most recently he worked as an instructor at Northeastern University College of Engineering. Jeffrey holds a patent on Digital Video Panoramic Image Capture and Display. As an alumnus, Jeffrey served as a career counseling volunteer. He is survived by his wife, Nancy; and children, Jeffrey C., Christina and Phillip.

William Smith Janice Humphrey Wildman ’36 died on Jan. 30, 2011 in Louisville, Ky. Janice earned her B.A. in biology and chemistry. She participated in Little Theatre and played field hockey; she was also a member of the Pine, chorus, Madrigal Ensemble, dance club and international relations club. After graduation, Janice completed a nurses training program at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City. For more than 25 years, Janice served as executive director of the Greater Bridgeport Heart Association. As an alumna, Janice served as the 1936 class agent until 1995, served on the Reunion social committee since 2000, and was an Admissions volunteer.

Janice is predeceased by her husband of 57 years, Lorenzo. She is survived by her sons, Spencer and Scott; four grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Lorraine Harwood Rich ’38 of Ithaca, N.Y., died on April 15, 2011. Lorraine earned her B.A. in sociology from William Smith, where she played baseball and volleyball and served as a member of the glee club.

Lorraine worked for 25 years as a case worker with Erie County Department of Social Services. She is survived by her sons, Bruce, Robert and Douglas; six grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren; and her sister, Nina Harwood McMahon ’38. She is predeceased by her husband, Adin.

Patricia Murphy Dinan ’42 died on Feb. 16, 2011 in Geneva, N.Y. Patricia earned her B.A. in business administration from William Smith. She served as a substitute teacher for the Geneva City School District for several years. She was a member of St. Francis de Sales Church, the Senior Citizens Club of Geneva, and the Geneva Women’s Club. As an alumna, she served as an honors representative to the Alumnae Council from 1989-1994 and treasurer to the Finger Lakes Chapter of the William Smith Alumnae Association. Patricia is survived by her husband of 62 years, William; children, William, Edward, Gary and Patricia; and 10 grandchildren.

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Esther Bunis Haber ’42 died on Jan. 25, 2011 in Buffalo, N.Y. After studying at William Smith for two years, Esther earned a master’s degree in education from the University at Buffalo. She held a career as an elementary teacher, working in Lockport, N.Y. for many years. She is survived by her son, Phillip; and two grandchildren. She was predeceased by husbands, Sol Haber and Robert Kranitz, and a son, Stephen.

of Fatima congregation. As an alumna, she supported the Annual Fund. Mary Jane is survived by her husband of 19 years, Floyd E. Adamson; children: G. Robert’69, Leroy, Jean, Richard R.’80, Patrick J.’82 Cooley; seven grandchildren, including William P. Russell ’09; two great grandchildren; and several stepchildren and step-grandchildren. She is predeceased by husbands, Dean Swain and Glen E. Cooley ’45.

Carol Weatherly Tallmadge ’42, P’67, GP’98, GP’01 of West Chester, Pa., died on April 28, 2011. Carol graduated from William Smith with a B.A. in English, participating in yearbook, Schola Cantorum and student council. During World War II, she worked for RCA Victor Records in Camden, N.J. and went on to hold a career in education working as a school administrator, substitute teacher, and an admissions counselor. She also worked as a social worker at the Lutheran Home in Moorestown. She is survived by her children, Lynn Tallmadge Oberfield ’67, Henry Hobart Tallmadge V, Suzanne E. Dey-Wolfe, Sally B. Tallmadge and Phoebe T. Meyers as well as their spouses, including son-in-law, William J. Oberfield ’67. She also is survived by 10 grandchildren, including Zachary W. Oberfield ’98 and Jillian E. Oberfield ’01; and four great-grandchildren. She is predeceased by her husband, Henry Hobart Tallmadge IV.

Barbara Haupt Gillman ’49 of Lenox, Mass., died on March 9, 2011. Barbara earned her B.A. in English and was a member of the Herald, the Pine, WEOS, Schola Cantorum, Outing Club, Little Theatre and Canterbury Club. After graduation, Barbara went on to study at the Art Students League in New York City, and work as assistant editor at House Beautiful magazine.

As an alumna, she served as Reunion chair in 1979. She is survived by her husband of 56 years Walter, and children: Peter C. Gilman-Bryan ’78, Anne Skakel and Alec Gillman. She is predeceased by her sister, Margaret Haupt Parr ’54.

A. Isabel Wilner ’42 of Tunkhannock, Pa., died on March 16, 2011. Isabel graduated from William Smith with a B.A. in English, participating in Little Theatre, editor of Ridge, and class historian. She went on to receive her B.S. in library science from Carnegie Library School. For more than 30 years, Isabel was a librarian at Lida Lee Tall School, the Laboratory School for Towson University in Towson, Md. She was also the author of four children’s books: “The Poetry Troupe,” “The Garden Alphabet,” “B is for Bethlehem” and “The Baby’s Game Book” and several assorted poems. At Towson University, she taught a course on storytelling and in retirement, she volunteered in schools in order to bring poetry to children. Isabel was also a member of the Dietrich Theater’s Writers Group. As an alumna, she served as class correspondent from 1980-83. She is predeceased by her parents and two brothers, George and Robert E. Wilner ’45.

Joan Drexelius Schultz ’44 of Columbia, S.C. died on April 15, 2011. Joan graduated from William Smith with a B.A. in business administration and was a member of the yearbook and Little Theatre. After graduation, Joan worked in the advertising department of a newspaper for a year and then became a housewife and mother. For a few years she also worked in a photography studio. She is survived by her children, Karen, Wendy, Richard, Douglas and Mark; six grandchildren: and eight great-grandchildren. Joan is predeceased by her husband of 61 years, Earl; daughter, Barbara Joan Schultz; and granddaughter, Susan.

Mary Jane Facer Adamson ’45, P’69, P’79, P’82, GP’09 of Schenectady, N.Y., died on Jan. 20, 2011. Mary Jane earned her B.S. in biology and chemistry. After graduation, Mary Jane went on to earn her R.N. from the Ellis School of Nursing, serve as president of the Schenectady County Medical Auxiliary, Caduceus Garden Club, and was a longtime member of Our Lady

N. Kelly Molnar ’01 of Cranford, N.J., died on April 27, 2011. Kelly graduated cum laude from William Smith, receiving her B.A. in studio art and psychology. During her time at William Smith, she was on the cross country team, received the Katherine Gracey Merrill Award, and was on Dean’s List. Kelly spent semesters abroad in Galway, Ireland, and Rome, Italy. After graduation, Kelly began a career in education in N.J. She most recently worked at Franklin Elementary School in Westfield as a first grade teacher. Kelly is survived by her husband, Darren J. Finkel ’01; daughter, Elliot Claire; and her parents and sister.

Friends of The Colleges, Professors F. Douglas “Doug” Reeland, the coordinator of sports medicine at the Colleges, died on April 23, 2011. Graduating from Oklahoma in 1972 with a degree in physical education, Doug began working as an assistant trainer for the Los Angeles Dodgers before becoming a certified trainer in 1978. In 1979, he joined the physical training staff at the Colleges. For 30 years, Doug oversaw the athletic training program, and served as the head trainer for all sports, and directed first aid and emergency response training of student aides. He was responsible for bringing several innovations to the Colleges, including the purchase of and training on automatic external defibrillators, which in 2003 saved the life of a spectator following a Hobart soccer game. More recently, Doug instituted a comprehensive concussion program to protect student athletes. At the 2010 Hobart Block H Dinner, he was presented with the Coach Bill Maxwell Memorial Award for his longtime commitment to the Colleges. He is survived by his wife, Shelley; and daughters, Kelliann’09 and Brittany’13.

Allan M. Russell P’81, P’86, professor emeritus of physics, died on Feb. 26, 2011.

Allan received his Sc.B. and Sc.M. in physics from Brown University before attending Syracuse University, where he received his Ph.D., also in physics. He taught at the University of California (Riverside) and Wesleyan University before coming to HWS as associate provost in 1967. One year later, he was appointed provost and dean

of faculty serving in that role until 1972.

In 1977, Russell and his colleague, Professor of Religious Studies Mary Gerhart, initiated the first bi-disciplinary course at HWS, combining the two fields. They received a teaching prize from the John Templeton Foundation. Allan was a prolific author, writing a number of books and articles; he and Gerhart were named the first joint Fellows at the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences in Berkeley, Calif.

Allan served as a NASA Fellow at Stanford University, a research associate at SUNY Stony Brook, and a visiting fellow at Universität Würzburg in Germany. He created and endowed the annual Holland Physics Lecture Competition in which students present a result from the world of physics and are judged by the scientific and rhetorical quality of their presentations. The competition memorializes Albert Holland, a former president of the Colleges. Russell is survived by his wife, Marjorie Ann Servis, and their five children, including two William Smith graduates – Susan Russell ’86 and Julia Russell Eells ’81.

Houghton House | ca.1958 ASSOCIATIONS

Gotcha!

Reunion Highlights

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Congratulations!

Upcoming Events

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When Barbara Tobias Volin ’59 got engaged, her roommate, Barbara MacKinnon DeMontes ’60 and housemates, including Nan Page Perkins Harvey ’60, “decorated” her room to surprise her.

Club Event Photos

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Bookshelf

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Hobart and William Smith Colleges

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Reunion 2011: A Wonderful Success

A

s more than 800 Hobart and William Smith community members cheered during fireworks over the Quad Saturday evening, another successful Reunion Weekend drew to a close.

“I love coming back to campus - it really stirs the nostalgia bucket,” said Sharlene Schmidt Vichness ’66, who made the journey to campus from Roseland, N.J., with her husband Paul Vichness ’65. “I met my husband on my third day on campus!”

On Friday, June 3, alums began making their way to campus, bringing spouses, partners, children, and pets to join in Reunion festivities. Many enjoyed the sunny weather on Friday, and jazz filled the Scandling Campus Center Patio in the evening, thanks to alums Bob Masteller ’60 and Steve Venuti ’71.

Saturday morning provided alums with a chance to catch up with current HWS affairs during President Mark D. Gearan’s “State of the Colleges” address and breakfast. Then, as if they were back in college themselves, alums hurried from breakfast to their “Alumni College.”

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Taught by HWS faculty and returning alumni and alumnae, attendees had nearly a dozen courses to choose from, ranging from classes on foreign and domestic policy to creative writing and modern dance.

The sessions also provided a bit of role reversal for a few faculty members. Professor Emerita of Religious Studies Mary Gerhart, who was also the recipient of one of this year’s Distinguished Faculty Awards, was thrilled to attend a session led by her former student—and current Executive Editor of The New Yorker—Dorothy Wickenden ’76. “I don’t want to be late to class,” joked Gerhart.

Afterward, alums showed their class pride in the traditional Alums on Parade, which processed down Pulteney Street and through the Quad—complete with banners and a marching band. The President’s Reunion Forum allowed attendees to join together for lunch to celebrate the contributions of the returning classes.

This year, many classes broke records with their generous gifts. Since their last Reunion in 2006, the Reunion classes made

gifts totaling $7,505,155.43 to the Colleges.

The Distinguished Faculty Awards, which are given to professors who have proved to be influential in the lives of their students, were presented on the Scandling Campus Center Patio. This year, the Alumni and Alumnae Associations honored the late Professor of English Deborah Tall, Professor Emeritus of Biology Joel Kerlan P’89 and Gerhart.

Saturday night, the Quad was alive as alums gathered for an evening of fine food, dancing and reminiscing. The band Brass Taxi performed versions of everyone’s favorite songs. The night’s entertainment was highlighted by photos and video displays on a giant screen and, of course, the annual fireworks display. The next day included a memorial service as well as a brunch on the Quad, thus concluding another successful Reunion. ●

Reunion 2012: June 1-3 50th Plus starts May 31

See more photos at: www.hws.edu/reunion Centennial Bowl Awarded Trustee Katherine D. Elliott ’66, L.H.D. ’08 was presented with the Alumnae Association’s Centennial Bowl in recognition of her ongoing and generous dedication to the Colleges. Celebrating her 45th Reunion, Elliott reflected on the pride she feels as the first William Smith alumna to have named a building, the Katherine D. Elliott Studio Arts Center. “The Colleges have been a truly amazing place for me and so many others,” said Elliott reflecting on her efforts to give back. Elliott is the retired chief operating officer of Petner Asset Management, LLC, a hedge fund, and her history with the Colleges spans generations. Her grandfather was in the class of 1889, her father, the late William Elliott LL.D. ’64, served as an HWS trustee, and Elliott herself has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 1996 and is currently the Vice Chair. At William Smith, Elliott studied economics, played field hockey and was a member of the Canterbury Club..

Distinguished Service Award for Lifetime Service During the President’s Reunion Forum, Trustee Thomas B. Poole ’61, P’91, L.H.D. ’06 was presented with the Distinguished Service Award for Lifetime Service for his steadfast dedication to the Colleges. “Hobart and William Smith has done so much for me,” remarked Poole, celebrating his 50th Reunion. “When you’re dedicated to something you can never quit. I promise I will never leave HWS.” Poole, chair of Hallen Construction Company, has served the Colleges as trustee for nearly 25 years and chaired the committee that brought President Mark D. Gearan to HWS. He has served as director and president of the Statesmen Athletic Association and was inducted into the Hobart College Athletic Hall of Fame, receiving the William Napier Award in 1995. An economics major, Poole was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity and the Board of Control, played lacrosse and was captain of the soccer team.

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Alumni and Alumnae www.hwsalumni.com

Events Friday, August 12 Summer Gathering with special guest President Mark D. Gearan New Jersey Shore Hosted by Jim ’87 and Susan Kellogg Saturday, August 13 Summer Gathering with special guest President Mark D. Gearan Long Island Hosted by Trustee Thomas ’61, L.H.D. ’06 and Mary Jane Poole P’91 Saturday, September 3 A Day at the Races Saratoga Springs, New York

To Peru and Back

by Sarah Tompkins ‘10

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rom the mists of Machu Picchu to the rocky terrain of the Scared Valley, Peru seems to be shrouded in mythology. However, this spring, HWS alumni, alumnae and parents had the unique opportunity to get a true taste of the exciting culture and cuisine of Peru.

Under the guidance of Professor of Latin American Studies and Economics Scott McKinney P’13, who was born and raised in the South American country, members of the HWS community were able to spend nine days immersed in a lush world of ancient ruins, vibrant markets and flavorful dishes.

Among the adventurers was Trustee Maureen Collins Zupan ‘72, P ‘09, who, in a daily blog teeming with cultural observations,

history and vivid photos, reflected on the group’s travels from bustling cities to towering mountains in places such as Lima, Ollantaytambo, Pisac, Machu Picchu and Cuzc. You can read the blog at www.hws.edu/peru/blog.

“New friendships were made and old friendships were renewed. We’ve now had a common experience that will stay with us forever,” explains Zupan in her final blog entry. “I think it would be silly to say it was the best vacation I’ve ever had, or that it was a life changing experience – or that nothing went wrong. But if it isn’t all of that, then it’s as close as it could be.”

Stay tuned for information about other trips being planned for 2012. ●

For more information about these and other upcoming events, visit us on Facebook or at www.hwsalumni.com or call Alumni House toll free at 877497-4438.

In May, HWS alums toured Peru, led by Professor of Latin American Studies and Economics Scott McKinney P’13. The tour included stops in Lima, Machu Picchu and Cuzco. Trustee Maureen Collins Zupan ’72, P’09 blogged about their adventure at www.hws.edu/peru/blog.

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ASSOCIATIONS

Regional Events

Connect with alums in your area by attending an HWS Club event! Visit www.hwsalumni.com for upcoming event information.

Joel Savits ’56, Jacquie Wrubel Savits ’57, Rachel Rabinowitz, Kathy Savits ’82, Matthew Winson, Susan Savits Winson ’90, Jeremy Rabinowitz, Samantha Cooper, Robin Savits Cooper ’87, Hannah Cooper, Hobart Alumni Association President Edward Cooper ’86 and other alums gather in Director of Alumnae Relations Kathy Killius Regan ’82, P’13, Trustee Katherine MacKinnon Baltimore, Md., to celebrate Hobart’s first 14 NCAA national championship lacrosse teams. The 1976 and 1977 Statesmen were recognized at halftime of the Division II championship game, while ’77, Trustee Dr. Deborah S. Pilla ’76, William Smith Congress President Kaylyn O’Brien Hobart’s unprecedented championship streak, running from 1980 through 1991, was honored at ’12, Trustee Gail Herman McGinn ’73, Alumnae Association President Susan Flanders half-time of the Division III title game. The Statesmen also won the 1993 NCAA Division III national Cushman ’98, Former Dean Cerri Banks HON’09, Trustee Adele F. Schlotzhauer ’83 and championship, and that squad will be honored at the 2013 championship.

President Mark D. Gearan gather following the Founder’s Day Brunch.

The Wharton School plays host to the HWS Club of San Francisco and special guest Professor of Economics and Interim Provost and Dean of Faculty Pat McGuire.

Vince Carrozzi ’72, Michael Hollister ’71, Wes Stukenberg ’50, P’77 and Carl Fazio ’72 reconnect at the Misty Creek Country Club in Sarasota, Fla. The luncheon included a lecture

by Associate Professor of Economics Jo Beth Mertens on the economics of baseball.

Members of the HWS Club of Washington D.C. Katy Schuster ’08, Ahmad Koraganie ’09 and Eliza Meyer ’08 pose for a photo during a Young Alum Happy Hour.

Mike Athas ’07, Lauren Coshatt, Jonis Belu-John ’04 and Susan Lee Kim gather for a photo while attending the Gold Cup Races in Warrenton, Va. The event was sponsored by the HWS Club of Washington, D.C.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

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BOOKSHELF

Where and how do you gain inspiration for your creations?

For my book, I drew inspiration from historical engravings of kitchen gardens from the 16th and 17th centuries. I also find ideas by visiting other gardeners.

Do you have a favorite garden type?

I like a classic four square garden design, like The Organic Rotation Garden and The Cook’s Garden featured in my book. Both are compact, and it’s possible to grow a lot of food in a small space.

The Baroness of Basil William Smith alumna writes for the home cook and gardener

by Syeeda Briddell ’12 and Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

E

llen Ecker Ogden ’76, noted author and garden designer, believes that growing and eating your own food is the best way to truly appreciate everything the planet has to offer.

Featuring 15 artistic garden designs and more than 100 seasonal recipes,

her fourth and most recent book, The Complete Kitchen Garden, provides step-by-step instructions for designing, planting and using a garden that is, “as much a feast for the eyes as it is for the palate,” she says.

A kitchen garden combines vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs to create an ornamental, edible landscape. “They’re usually located near the kitchen door so a cook can run out to clip a few leaves of fresh herbs or salad greens while the onions simmer on the stove,” she says.

Ogden, who earned a B.A. in art from William Smith, teaches and lectures on food and garden topics and is a featured speaker at national flower shows and garden events

across the U.S. “I hope that my work inspires everyone to try planting a seed and growing food,” she says.

A nationally acknowledged kitchen garden expert and cookbook author, Ogden cofounded The Cook’s Garden catalog in 1984, introducing home gardeners to European and American heirloom lettuces and other salad greens. The Cook’s Garden is now owned by the Burpee seed catalog, and her gardens have been featured in numerous national publications such as The New York Times, Eating Well, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha Stewart Living, and Horticulture.

To learn more about Ogden and her kitchen gardens, visit: ellenogden.com.

What drives your passion?

Good food. I love to cook and eat, and the food I grow in my garden is more delicious than anything I might buy elsewhere.

What is your favorite meal to prepare?

Savory tarts: I sauté a medley of seasonal vegetables and bake them in a whole wheat crust with a sprinkling of fresh herbs and cheese. Served with salad, it is a healthy way to enjoy a wide range of seasonal vegetables.

Any tips for gardeners who’d like to spruce up their gardens?

Add elements that give your space personality–a nice bench or an arbor for pole beans. Take a fresh look at the pathways in the garden and consider mulching them to define the garden’s shape. Add a fence to define the boundaries and create a natural transition.

Nightstand: What are you reading?

JODI FARLEY ’94 Coca-Cola Company

DAVID WINSTON ’88 Arch Insurance Company

FRANK INSERRA ’78 Federal Communications Commission

KEEPS AN HERB GARDEN

HAS A SMALL BACKYARD GARDEN

TENDS AN EXTENSIVE BACKYARD GARDEN

Favorite thing to grow: Basil. We eat it pretty regularly in salads (toss it in with the greens) and use it to make pesto.

Favorite thing to grow: Garlic–it keeps the vampires away! Actually, the seeds come from plants my grandfather grew, so this is a connection to my relatives.

Favorite thing to grow: Cubanelle peppers. I love their thin skin, lightness of seed and sweetness.

Favorite Cookbook: 2001 Taste of Home Annual Recipes Recent Read: Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

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Favorite Cookbook: Cooking With Mickey - Gourmet Mickey Cookbook Volume II Recent Read: The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes

Favorite Cookbook: My mother’s handwritten recipes, which she assembled in a book for me in 1990.

Recent Read: Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States by Bill Bryson

ASSoCIATE PRoFESSoR oF CHEMISTRY ERIN PELKEY WITH TARYN WHITE ‘13 AND NATHAN BECHToLD ‘12.

On behalf of my research program which has included 35 undergraduate students over the last 10 years, I want to express my gratitude to the Annual Fund and Parents Fund.

Through annual gifts, alumni, alumnae, parents and friends have contributed to the vitality of our research program by supporting half of the total number of summer research students while also providing essential bridge funding between external grants. With the ongoing support of the HWS Community, the research program was recently awarded a major grant from the National Institutes of Health. The Annual Fund and Parents Fund have made a significant difference!” — Associate Professor of

Chemistry Erin Pelkey

F

or the past several years, Associate Professor of Chemistry Erin Pelkey has been conducting ground-breaking research on the synthesis of highly functionalized nitrogen heterocycles—compounds that are found in a variety of pharmaceutical agents and drugs in development, including anti-cancer, anti-HIV, anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory drugs.

Without the support of the Annual Fund and Parents Fund, Pelkey’s research would not have been able to germinate into what is now a nationally-funded project. The Annual Fund gave Pelkey the opportunity to establish his research while working with HWS students on this important, real-world research.

Gifts made to the Annual Fund and the Parents Fund provide budget relieving support for some of the most important priorities at the Colleges including campus enhancement projects, international study, technology, scholarship support and undergraduate research, among many others.

To make a gift, please contact Kristen Einstein at (315) 781-3753, e-mail einstein@hws.edu, or make a gift online at www.hws.edu/onlinegiving.

HoBART AND WILLIAM SMITH CoLLEGES

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Non profit org.

U.S. Postage PAID Rochester, New York Permit No. 357

HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES 300 Pulteney Street Geneva, New York 14456 This publication was printed using FSC Certified paper which enables the environmental savings equivalent to the following: 25 trees preserved for the future 72 lbs waterborne waste not created 10,657 gallons wastewater flow saved 1,179 lbs solid waste not generated 2,322 lbs net greenhouse gases prevented 17,770,270 BTUs energy not consumed

Brock Yates Jr. ’78 Phoenixville, Pennsylvania

David Undercoffler ’03 Los Angeles, California

Event Coordinator, The Tire Rack One Lap of America Driving Instructor, Driving Dynamics

Auto Critic, Los Angeles Times

1. What is the most luxurious feature you’ve seen in a car?

I’m happiest with good seat-warmers.

1. What is the most luxurious feature you’ve seen in a car?

Infrared cameras: at night, it detects humans or animals and highlights them in yellow on the screen

2. If you could own any car from any time period, what would it be?

The John Cooper Works MINI Cooper.

3. What car do you drive on a day-to-day basis?

MINI Cooper S 4. What’s your favorite road trip?

Any road-trip makes me happy. If the route is scenic, with great roads, all the better.

5. What song is the best to play–loud–in the car?

I almost never play music in the car. I believe driving demands all my attention.

6. Who is your favorite Nascar driver?

Ken Schader 7. Name a book that has had a profound impact on you.

Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Something about cars, road-trips and being at Hobart in the 70’s.

8. What is your greatest achievement?

Watching my six-year-old daughter Leda grow up. I work from home so I am part of it every day.

9. How old were you the first time you got behind the wheel?

I was 14, driving a three-speed truck in a pasture as the grazing cows watched warily.

10. Who taught you to drive?

As soon as I could peer over the back seat, well before the age of car seats and seat belts, I watched my father and learned.

2. If you could own any car from any time period, what would it be?

1963 Lincoln Continental convertible with suicide door.

PARALLELS PARALLELS

• • • • • •

3. What car do you drive on a day-to-day basis?

I’m actually between cars at the moment.

4. What’s your favorite road trip?

Northern California has some amazing hidden gems, particularly around the Monterey/Carmel area.

5. What song is the best to play–loud–in the car?

Led Zeppelin exposes the strengths and weaknesses of almost any car stereo.

6. Who is your favorite Nascar driver?

Cole Trickle 7. Name a book that has had a profound impact on you.

Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. It will inspire you to travel and it will simultaneously force you to evaluate what brings true happiness in your life.

8. What is your greatest achievement?

Getting this job. I was selected by my predecessor, Dan Neil, who now writes for the Wall Street Journal.

9. How old were you the first time you got behind the wheel?

I think I was 14. About a decade after I wanted to.

10. Who taught you to drive?

My mom taught me behind the wheel while my dad taught me about the details and subtleties and about cars in general.