Fall 2010 PSS

FALL 2010

Home Sweet Home Welcome to The Caird Center for Sports and Recreation

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Pulteney Street Survey | Fall 2010 Catherine Williams EDITOR Peggy Kowalik ART DIRECTOR/DESIGNER Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05 ASSISTANT EDITOR Nick Batson ’11, Kathryn Bowering ’11, Sarah Burton ’11, Ken DeBolt, Andrew Donovan ’12, Lily Farnham ’11, John Heavey ’09, Mary LeClair, Cynthia L. McVey, Jessie Meyers ’09, Megan Metz, Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05, Carrie Stevens ’12, Sarah Tompkins ’10, Andrew Wickenden ’09, Catherine Williams, William B. Zale ’11 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS/EDITORS Kevin Colton STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Elizabeth Baker, Hedrick Blessing, Justin Colton, Lauren Long, Andrew Markham ’10, Gregory Searles CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Rebecca Frank, Mary LeClair, Betty Merkle, Jessie Meyers ’09, 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 Maureen Collins Zupan ’72, P’09 VICE CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES Catherine Williams DIRECTOR 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 ONE 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.

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Contents

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Lakeviews

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Overheard

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Reunion 2010

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Commencement 2010

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Homecoming and Family Weekend

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There’s No Place Like Home

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Faculty and Staf f at Home

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Athletics

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Classnotes

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Associations

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Bookshelf

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The Last Word: Homecoming

Worlds of Experience. Lives of Consequence.

RECORD CROWDS OF FANS FILL THE BLEACHERS FOR THE DEDICATION OF THE CAIRD CENTER FOR SPORTS AND RECREATION. TO SEE A GALLERY OF IMAGES OF THE CAIRD CENTER, GO TO WWW.HWS.EDU/ALUMNI/PSSURVEY/ FALL10/

On the cover: Boswell Field at The Caird Center for Sports and Recreation Photo by Kevin Colton

PHOTO BY KEVIN COLTON

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HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES

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Lakeviews

Dear Friends,

PHOTO BY KEVIN COLTON

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n September, alums, parents and friends returned to campus to celebrate Homecoming and Family Weekend. Although we’ve been hosting Family Weekend for a number of years, Homecoming had not been held in nearly two decades. It was a very successful weekend with more than 4,000 people attending Saturday night’s football game and the dedication of the Caird Center for Sports and Recreation.

Visitors left campus with a great deal of pride for what has been accomplished through Campaign for the Colleges and a clear understanding of the vibrancy of campus life. Our students were equally pleased to show their parents and visiting alums around campus and to explain the ways in which their lives have been changed

by HWS. In honor of the reemergence of this campus tradition, this edition of The Pulteney Street Survey explores the theme of home. We profile alumni and alumnae from all career paths and walks of life who have a special relationship with home.

Not surprisingly, the variety of results – from architects to war veterans to a Disney Imagineer – is fascinating. We then went into the Geneva homes of our faculty and staff, who generously give readers a unique glimpse into their home lives.

Home is a particularly relevant topic, both in response to Homecoming and as I reflect on the number of alums who, upon returning to campus, have remarked that they feel as though they have “come home.”

And I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to state the gratitude my

SUNDAY MORNING AT THE GEARANS. FROM LEFT TO RIGHT ARE: KATHLEEN, MARY, MADELEINE AND MARK GEARAN. ALSO PICTURED IS ‘DUBLIN,’ ONE OF THE GEARANS' TWO DOGS.

family shares for the privilege of living in the President’s House. It is a unique experience to live here and to host students and returning alums. Mary and I are fortunate to call it our home with our daughters.

With every best wish, I remain,

Mark D. Gearan President

The Gearans at Home Mark Gearan When I’m in the living room, I am reminded of the many wonderful people who visited the campus – like Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1947, she came to this house while hosting a conference on internationalism.

Mary Herlihy Gearan I love being in the library. Through the windows you can see the students on the Quad and hear the chapel bells. Hearing the bells peal reminds me of all the beautiful times we’ve had on campus.

Madeleine Gearan My favorite part of the house is this porch. The tree right next to it is one of the first to turn in the fall. It’s a great place to read and watch the seasons change.

Kathleen Gearan The kitchen is my favorite place because that’s usually where everyone is most of the time.

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The President’s Home

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f the walls of 690 South Main Street could talk, they’d no doubt boast of visits from Nobel Laureates, Secretaries of State, United States Senators and Congressmen, heads of Finance, Poet Laureates, awardwinning journalists, and even a United States President. Since the house was first purposed as the president’s residence in 1885, countless newsmakers, scientists, reporters, authors, scholars and activists have shared meals and conversation here with students, faculty, staff and community members.

But despite its role in the life of the Colleges, the Greek revival structure is and has always been, a home. Seventeen HWS presidents and their families have lived here.

Since 1999, the Gearans – Mark and Mary Herlihy Gearan and their two daughters, Madeleine and Kathleen – have created and

maintained their family traditions at the President’s Home, a space that reflects both the history of Hobart and William Smith and the personalities of the Gearans themselves.

The entire first floor is scattered with photos and mementos from the Gearans’ time in Washington D.C., when Mark was Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Communications in the White House. Over the piano is a large image of President John F. Kennedy signing the Executive Order to create The Peace Corps, where Mark served as director. The mantles and curio cabinets display items from their travels around the world as well as gifts from international students who have found the Gearans’ hospitality central to building their own home at HWS. On the walls is a large art collection, some pieces owned by the Colleges and others

PHOTO BY KEVIN COLTON

by the Gearans. These include Pro Patria, an Asher Durand oil painting donated by Trustee Chair Emeritus L. Thomas Melly ‘52, L.H.D. ‘02 and After Holbein, a Jasper Johns lithograph donated by Dr. George N. Abraham ’59.

But perhaps most meaningful are the dozens of photographs of family and friends.

“Many of the photos are snapshots of moments we’ve shared with HWS students and faculty here in the home,” says Mary. Others are candid shots of Madeleine and Kathleen who were just seven and two years old when the Gearans arrived in Geneva.

“Our girls and our family have grown up in this house and it’s very much a part of who we are,” says Mark. “When we arrived, Madeleine was in first grade; this fall, she’s applying to college.”

THE PRESIDENT’S HOUSE: A TIMELINE

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The President’s House: A Timeline

1929

The interior stairwell to the second floor is moved, opening the living spaces

1858

1976

1925 1835

1837

1870

1885

1885

Adrian H. Muller is commissioned to build the home

Muller sells the home to Anne J. Gallagher for $7,000

After Gallagher’s death, the home is sold to the Reverend Walter Ayrault for $8,000

HWS acquire 690 South Main Street from Ayrault’s widow for $9,000

HWS President Eliphalet Nott Potter moves into the home

1991 1954

The house is restored to its original condition

1991

1890

STORY AND RESEARCH BY NICK BATSON ’11, MELISSA SUE SORRELLS GALLEY ’05 AND CATHERINE WILLIAMS

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HWS | ca.1966 WAVELENGTHS

School Spirit Got spirit? Let’s hear it! Co-ed cheering squads have been a staple on the sidelines for more than 100 years at HWS, including in the late 1960s. These days HWS Cheers revs up the crowds during games throughout the year.

Top Daily Update Stories

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Overheard

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Reunion 2010

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Commencement 2010

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TOP Daily Update Stories

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CLASSES OF 2014 ARRIVE

The 618 members of the Classes of 2014 as well as 16 transfer students arrived on campus in late August. The incoming students include the largest number of international students in the Colleges’ history, coming from Switzerland, Turkey, Nepal and Kenya, among others.

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SALISBURY CELEBRATES FIVE

The highly-competitive Charles H. Salisbury Summer International Internship Fund turned five years old. This year, three students had the opportunity to study and work in India, Brazil and Denmark. The internships are funded through the generosity of Honorary Trustee Charles H. Salisbury Jr. ’63, P’94, L.H.D.’08.

www.hws.edu/dailyupdate

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MILLER RECEIVES NIH GRANT

The National Institutes of Health awarded Associate Professor of Chemistry Justin Miller a three-year, $355,000 grant for a project designing anticancer molecules. The goal of Miller’s project is the synthesis of anticancer chemotherapeutics structurally similar to natural products that inhibit a protein partly responsible for carcinogenesis.

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INAUGURAL CAREER SERVICES AWARD

John Hogan ’88 (second from right), managing director and chief risk officer for JP Morgan Chase, received the inaugural Board of Trustees’ Career Services Award during a surprise ceremony in Manhattan.

The award recognizes significant efforts in support of students. Several alums hired and mentored by Hogan were in attendance.

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IN THE AMAZON

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Eugenio Arima and Hobart student Matthew Wallace ’11 spent three weeks this summer in the Amazon working on an educational documentary about environmental applications of geospatial technologies. Funded by NSF, the two looked at how the technologies have been used to halt deforestation.

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Two members of the Classes of 2010 and one faculty member were awarded Fulbright scholarships: Brittany Flaherty ’10 is in British Columbia studying the impact of agriculture on the Sumas River.

Alexandra Hallowell ’10 is in Turkey researching women’s perceptions about Turkish society. Associate Professor of Education Helen McCabe is in China studying disability.

HWS FEATURED BY U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ED

HWS are highlighted in a new publication by The U.S. Department of Education, “Field Experiences in Effective Prevention” as a model program for alcohol and other drug abuse and violence prevention in higher education. The HWS program is built on the social norms approach, developed by Professor of Sociology Wes Perkins and Professor of Chemistry David Craig.

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PEACE CORPS DIRECTOR VISITS HWS

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps, Aaron S. Williams, 18th Director of the Peace Corps, spoke during Convocation 2010, challenging students to make a difference in their communities. He also received the President’s Medal, given to individuals for outstanding service to the community, the country and their profession.

THREE AWARDED FULBRIGHTS

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HAND IN HAND FOR HAITI

Edward J. Brennan P’06, P’09, chief executive officer and chair of DFS Group, visited campus to speak with students about Hand in Hand for Haiti, a facility designed to educate 750 Haitian students from pre-kindergarten to secondary school.

During his visit, Brennan was honored with the HWS Career Services award.

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WAVELENGTHS

o come back to a brandnew field, a brand-new stadium, a brand-new locker room, brand-new uniforms, it’s amazing!”

—Linebacker KYLE O’LAUGHLIN ’11 on the new Caird Center for Sports and Recreation

“You got nothing on us, Dean Baer!” —Overheard at the FALL NATIONALS as competing teams attempt to psych one another out before the race down William Smith Hill

“I feel like all doors of opportunity are now open to me. It’s an answered prayer.”—AMIRA ALI ABDULKADIR ’14,

from Kenya, whose HWS education is supported

by The Zawadi Africa Educational Fund and by local philanthropist ART SANTELLI

“Frankly, I can’t believe we’re 90.” —CATHERINE KIRCHNER ROTH ’42, who celebrated her birthday with triplet sisters MARGUERITE KIRCHNER MILLER ’42 and FRANCES KIRCHNER HORNBERGER ’42

Overheard “If I could triple major and quadruple minor without sacrificing my sanity and sleep, I would major in Biochemistry, Physics and Music, and minor in French, Health Professions, Theatre and Psychology.”

—Blackwell Scholar NICOLE ZANGHI ’14 on her academic interests

“They would never say that they know it all. They’ve just about won it all, though.”

—Author GARY BROWN SUMMER commenting on William Smith Coaches Pat Genovese, Jack Warner, Sally Scatton and Aliceann Wilber in NCAA Champion magazine

“Memory is a blessing. It creates bonds rather than destroying them. And it also creates responsibility. To remember is to affirm faith in humanity, to affirm faith in history and to affirm a fundamental optimism about the future.” —Professor of Religious Studies MICHAEL DOBKOWSKI, talking about The March: Bearing Witness to Hope trip

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Remember ...

Reunite ...

2010

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2 1. ALUMS MARCH DOWN PULTENEY STREET DURING THE ANNUAL REUNION PARADE.

2. JUDITH BLEAKLEY O’NEILL ’62, JANE FOCKLER MESSERSMITH

’60 AND CRAIG MESSERSMITH ’59 RECONNECT DURING A RECEPTION FOR ALUMS CELEBRATING THEIR 50TH REUNION. 3. ALUMS GATHER FOR A PHOTO ON SATURDAY NIGHT DURING THE CLASS DINNERS ON THE QUAD.

4. ALUMS POSE FOR A PHOTO-OP AT THE TOP OF ST. MARK’S TOWER.

PHOTOS BY KEVIN COLTON, JUSTIN COLTON AND ANDREW MARKHAM

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WAVELENGTHS

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obart and William Smith kicked off the month of June by welcoming more than 700 alums and their families from 28 states and three countries back to campus for Reunion 2010. This year’s threeday gathering included special celebrations for Classes ending in five and zero.

“I used to see all these old people coming through, and now I’m one of them,” said Bill Persell ’65, laughing. Persell, with his wife Nancy, returned to campus from Cleveland, Ohio, to celebrate his 45th. “We see a lot of friends from the Colleges regularly, but it’s great to see the ones I haven’t in a while.”

Alumni and alumnae enjoyed familiar Reunion favorites, including courses taught by faculty members, a parade through campus and art and jazz music at Houghton House.

The Alumni and Alumnae Associations’ Distinguished Faculty Award (DFA) was presented to Professor Emeritus of Geoscience Donald L. Woodrow P’83 and the late Professor of Physical Education Joseph N. Abraham L.H.D. ’81 in honor of their outstanding teaching.

“These educators deserve the Distinguished Faculty Award because their

impact on students has lasted far beyond graduation,” said Kristen Stram Pempel ’94, a member of the Distinguished Faculty Award committee.

Reunion 2010 hosted the first U.S. Health Care Symposium at HWS, an in-depth and interactive conversation regarding the conflicts, costs, benefits, and social implications of health care reform. The event, spearheaded

by Will Weinstein ’60, L.H.D. ’04, featured two nationally-renowned experts on health care: Dr. Judy Feder, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and Trustee Dr. Richard Wasserman ’70, president of DallasAllergyImmunology.

Also new during Reunion 2010 was a panel discussion on the history of HWS Athletics and the ALAA Throwback Party, a fundraiser for the Collins and Henderson Scholarship Funds, both of which benefit students of color at the Colleges.

While some components of the Reunion celebration changed, many favorites, including the annual lakeside golf outing and happy hour at the Oaks tent, remained the same. The weekend, as former Trustee Susan Albert ’75, P’07, P’09 said, “couldn’t have been better.” ●

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5. MICHAEL C. GAGE ’75 AND CAROLINE STANIS-GAGE DANCE TO THE TUNES OF BRASS TAXI.

8. SAM CROCKER, SON OF JULIE CHAMBERLAIN CROCKER ’00, ENJOYS HIS AFTERNOON BOUNCING AROUND WITH FELLOW HWS KIDS.

6. PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF GEOSCIENCE DONALD L. WOODROW P’83 ACCEPTS THE DISTINGUISHED FACULTY AWARD.

9. JANE WELTON ORENSTEIN ’60 SHOWS OFF HER 50TH REUNION BADGE AND PIN, A PHOTO FROM HER DAYS AS A WILLIAM SMITH STUDENT.

7. THE U.S. HEALTH CARE SYMPOSIUM FEATURES PANELISTS DR. JUDY FEDER AND TRUSTEE DR. RICHARD WASSERMAN ’70. WILL K. WEINSTEIN ’60, L.H.D. ‘04 MODERATES THE DISCUSSION.

10. CELEBRATING THEIR 25TH REUNION, PETER O’REILLY ’85, SUSAN HESS ’85, ELANA GITTER ’85 AND HORACE ALLEN ’85 CATCH UP AT CARR MCGUIRE HOUSE. 11. HWS FACULTY AND ALUMS WAVE “GOODBYE” AS THE WILLIAM SCANDLING DEPARTS FOR A SCIENCE TOUR OF SENECA LAKE LED BY PROFESSOR OF GEOSCIENCE JOHN HALFMAN. HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES

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Graduates Called to Change the World

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oday, a new generation, represented right here, has been called upon to change the world,” said President of Refugees International Daniel Glickman, who delivered the 2010 Hobart and William Smith Colleges Commencement Address. “There’s a notion that you have to choose between your career and ideals. That’s not the case. Looking out here, I see all this amazing potential and a road that’s open to you.”

In his Valedictory Address, Colleges President Mark D. Gearan continued the theme of possibility through change: “We need – and indeed, here we expect – you to be engaged as responsible and responsive citizens who understand that the torch has now been passed to your generation. Much like President Kennedy’s oft-quoted statement 50 years ago, you now must wear the mantle of engaged, global citizens.”

During the ceremony, the 99th Commencement of William Smith College and the 185th of Hobart College, Hobart Dean Eugen Baer P’95, P’97, HON ’07 and William Smith Dean Cerri Banks HON ’09 presented bachelors degrees to 235 Hobart seniors and 261 William Smith seniors. Provost and Dean of Faculty Teresa Amott awarded seven Master of Arts in Teaching degrees and one Ontario

ARC College Experience Certificate.

On behalf of the Colleges’ Board of Trustees, Gearan also presented honorary degrees to five individuals who have committed their lives to service at the state and local levels, as well as in the Hobart and William Smith community.

Recipients included Arthur O. Eve P’89 for his service as a New York State Assemblyman and his establishment of Higher Education Opportunity Programs throughout the state; George and Harriet McDonald for their tireless work on behalf of the homeless through New York City’s Doe Fund; Patricia Heieck P’88 for selfless decades of service to HWS as the campus catering manager; and Commencement Speaker Daniel Glickman, for his long record of global service.

Gearan also recognized James F. Caird ’56, who, after joining the U.S. Army, had to miss his own graduation ceremony and never had his name called as part of Commencement. To applause and a standing ovation, Caird was recognized for the difference he has made to HWS. Again echoing the possibilities ahead of this year’s graduates, Gearan concluded the Commencement ceremony, saying, “Live the life you’ve imagined.” ●

PHOTO BY KEVIN COLTON

Classes of 2010

CAPTIONS

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HWS | ca.1965 FEATURES

Homecoming Parade In the 1960s and 70s, Homecoming meant one thing: parades! In 1965, students from the Kappa Alpha Society took Ursinus College down a peg during the annual Homecoming Parade. (Ursinus … Your Sinus … Get it??) Later, the Statesmen football team took on – and defeated – Ursinus College on the football field, beating them for the second season in a row.

Homecoming and Family Weekend

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There’s No Place Like Home

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Faculty and Staff at Home

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THE CAIRD CENTER FOR SPORTS AND RECREATION AND THE NEWLY RENOVATED BOSWELL FIELD

More than 4,000 alums, parents and friends returned home

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FEATURE

T

he first ever combined Homecoming and Family Weekend, held on campus

September 24-26, was an enormous success, with more than 1,500 alums and parents returning home to Hobart and William Smith and more than 4,000 guests attending the Homecoming game.

During a weekend designed to bring alums, parents and friends together on campus, one old tradition – Fall Nationals – and one new tradition – Super Tailgate – gave everyone an opportunity to celebrate the Hobart and William Smith spirit.

Fall Nationals saw five “soapbox

PHOTO BY KEVIN COLTON

derby cars” — including one armchair on wheels — race down William Smith Hill in a death-defying and often hilarious bid for bragging rights. Matthew Mead ’13 of Team Cess Clothing Co. was declared the winner.

Super Tailgate, held on Boswell Field, provided good food, good company and good music, including a live soundtrack provided by The Rum Runners – featuring James Baker ’96, Brad Shelsy ’96, Jim Mastrianni ’94 and Chris Hamlen ’94.

The weekend featured a celebration of the new and renovated athletics facilities and was packed with sporting events, including the “Thrilla on the Hilla,” pitting Hobart Soccer against Union on Cozzens Field. The Heron lacrosse team played a scrimmage on their new home field, Boswell, and the William Smith JV

soccer team took on Canisius College.

Off campus, the Herons kept school spirit alive, taking on Union in soccer and field hockey; both games saw the Herons victorious.

The Statesmen football game on Saturday night was the highlight of the weekend. Steven Webb ’14 energized the stadium, packed with HWS supporters, by scoring an amazing two touchdowns, his first a 63-yard sprint to the end zone.

After the game, festivities in Bristol Field House, led by Rochester band Brass Taxi, continued well into the night.

“This weekend was all that we had hoped for and then some,” says Director of Alumni Relations Jared Weeden ’91. “This old tradition is officially back and here to stay.” ●

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CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR OF NBC NEWS CHUCK TODD AT HOMECOMING

SCHOOL SPIRIT HOUSE DECORATING CONTEST

SENECA LAKE BEACH CLEAN UP

HWS FANS

COIN TOSS BY TRUSTEE TIMOTHY S. EDEN ’79

EMERSON SOCIETY DINNER CELEBRATES JAMES F. CAIRD ’56 AND CYNTHIA L. CAIRD

SUPER TAILGATE

WS LACROSSE GREEN AND WHITE SCRIMMAGE

AFTER-GAME PARTY

PHOTOS BY KEVIN COLTON, ANDREW MARKHAM AND GREG SEARLES

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ith thunderous applause and pounding feet, more than 4,000 fans gathered at Boswell Field to thank James F. ’56 and Cynthia L. Caird and to dedicate the Caird Center for Sports and Recreation.

“Tonight we gather in celebration of the most recent project to result from Campaign for the Colleges – The Caird Center for Sports and Recreation,” said President Mark D. Gearan. “What the Cairds have done at the Colleges is truly transformational. With the addition of the Caird Center for Sports and Recreation, our entire community now has an exceptional athletic facility; a place we can be proud to call home.”

Prior to the celebration, the Cairds received a private tour of the facility and were able to see firsthand the significant impact of their contribution on Hobart and William Smith Athletics and the campus community.

“Jim and I are more than content to know that our contributions have been used for worthy enhancements – in this Center and in Caird Residence Hall,” said Cynthia Caird. “The Hobart and William Smith campus has made incredible advances since Jim was here, and

we are honored to be a part of that. We believe that at this stage of our lives we have an obligation to reimburse Hobart and William Smith for the effort they make to educate and prepare young students.”

Spectators at Saturday night’s football game against St. John Fisher witnessed the generosity of the Cairds during the half-time dedication of the center as the Cairds cut a large, ceremonial purple and green ribbon, officially opening the impressive athletic center.

During Homecoming Weekend, the Cairds also visited the Kappa Sigma fraternity—Caird’s fraternity. During their visit, they were surprised with another dedication – this time of the newly renovated common room in the house.

“Mr. and Mrs. Caird have shown such generosity to the brotherhood,” said Travis Ferland ’11, addressing the Cairds during the intimate ceremony.

“On behalf of all the Kappa Sigma brothers, I thank you for the tremendous opportunities you have given us for better living and athletics on this campus.”

“It’s incredibly emotional to come back to this house after 54 years,” said James Caird, who was accompanied by

PHOTO BY KEVIN COLTON

FEATURE

Caird Center Dedicated

DURING HALFTIME, JAMES F. CAIRD ’56 AND CYNTHIA L. CAIRD CUT THE RIBBON, OFFICIALLY DEDICATING THE CAIRD CENTER FOR SPORTS AND RECREATION

his fraternity roommate, Louis C. Bush III ’56. “The stories these walls could tell....”

“Jim and I are so honored; this is very touching to both of us,” said Cynthia Caird during the emotional dedication. “This house has taken a turn for the better, and you all should be incredibly proud of yourselves.”

James Caird was born in Troy, N.Y., and graduated from Hobart in 1956. He founded the world’s largest privately owned personal lines insurance agency, Auto Insurance Specialists. Cynthia Caird has traveled the world in the airline industry and has served the USO as an event planner. In tribute to their continued generosity, the Colleges have also named Caird Residence Hall in their honor. Additionally, the Cairds have founded the James F. ’56 and Cynthia L. Caird Endowed Scholarship Fund, which aids academically qualified and financially deserving students from the Albany, N.Y. area. In 2008, the Cairds were presented with dual President’s Medals by Gearan in recognition of their contributions to the Colleges and their unwavering support of education. ● HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES

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There’s No Place Like

ome

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HOME

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rofessor of Philosophy and Dean of Hobart College Eugen Baer P’95, P’97, HON ’07 says that the concept of home is utopian and that utopia, when translated from the Greek, literally means ‘no place.’ When Dorothy clicks her ruby red slippers three times and whispers, “There’s no place like home,” she expects to return to Kansas. When Baer clicks his oxford heels together and whispers, “There’s no place like home,” he has no expectation that he will end up anywhere other than where he is.

“We all live in exile,” Baer says. “We are all wandering. We are all looking for home. So the lesson we must learn is that we must have compassion; we should all take care of one another on this journey.”

Our utopian vision of home might not exist outside of fairy tales and Hollywood musicals, but all of us understand that feeling of being at home – in one’s body or in a place, with a small group of friends or in a crowd.

Home is the town where you grew up.

The house where you vacation every summer. Your childhood bedroom.

Your grandmother’s lap. Home is a feeling of comfort and security, connection and belonging.

“At the Homecoming football game I saw many alums, families, students, faculty and staff engaging with each other and sharing stories,” says Dr. Jeff VanLone, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Director of The Center for Counseling and Student Wellness. “The connection was immediate and obvious, even

for those who’d never met and those who’d only been a member of the community for a short time.”

For the more than 26,000 alums and countless parents, faculty and staff members who’ve been part of the HWS community over the years, Hobart and William Smith Colleges are home. That connection to the HWS community – that compassion that we show to one another and the world – is incredibly strong.

In honor of home and in the spirit of Homecoming, we’ve dedicated this issue of the magazine to the concept of home. The following pages include profiles of alums whose work and lives give them a special perspective on the subject.

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Sculpted,

Not Assembled

PAGOMO, DESIGNED BY JACK SNOW ’79, EMERGES FROM ITS ENVIRONMENT.

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HOME

JACK SNOW ’79

Jack Snow ’79 designs houses at home in the environment

by Sarah Tompkins ’10

T

he homes that Jack Snow ’79 and his wife Sally Brainerd design at their Vail, Colo., firm RKD Architects are unlike any ranch or lodge you might find in the mountain states. A perfect balance of glass, wood and stone, RKD creates dwellings that emerge from the Rockies.

“Often times out here, people take the standard idea of home and simply add natural elements,” says Snow of Colorado mountain architecture. “Instead, we try to think of what structure makes sense to both the client and the environment.”

Snow’s work has multiple influences – Japanese, art deco and prairie, among others. He explains that he doesn’t design within any one particular style. “It’d be boring if I did! I’d be shoved in a corner,” he says. “Working off someone else’s style? That’s not art. Any great artist you can think of has broken the boundaries of style.”

For Snow, building homes is about breaking boundaries and about creating art. “Art and home have to coincide,” says Snow. “Like any art form, the external environment can and should be used in the creative process.”

And like art, each of Snow’s homes has a name. PaGomo (pictured left) means “on the mountain” in the southern African dialect Shana. But this particular design is more than on the mountain, it is a part of it. PaGomo’s stone towers are crafted from on-site materials and seem to emerge from the ground like rock formations. An abundance of windows leaves the interior visually open to the elements. The sloping rooflines mimic the foothills of a nearby mountain range.

“The environment acts as the framework for a piece of art,” explains Snow. “As an architect, you have to ask yourself: what’s appropriate there? To me, the most successful houses look like they belong among the mountains, while also looking completely original.”

As far as Snow is concerned, cookie cutter homes don’t work for families in the rugged beauty of the Rockies. There, where the environment is such a substantial visual cue, a house must be sculpted, not assembled. The process of creating a sculpted home is, as Snow says – ‘completely left brain, right brain’ – with a creative period followed by months of detail work.

“The origin of a design starts with sketching, tons of drawing pads and frantic waving of hands,” he says. “We’re just trying to get a visceral response to a design and a space. You feel different on the top of a mountain than you do in the center of a city. Your surroundings are always going to impact you, and it’s our job to react to that.”

Above all, a home has to be a place a family can live and grow. “It has to work perfectly for the clientele,” Snow surmises. “If they have two kids or 20 kids, the house has to be appropriate. Kids grow, people change, and the house needs to be able to adapt to that.

That changing – that’s what differentiates a house and home.”

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From Shelter to Sanctuary Tom Bozzuto ’63 builds houses and creates homes

by Jessie Meyers ’10

A

s Chairman and CEO of The Bozzuto Group, a privately-held real estate services company, it’s Trustee Tom Bozzuto’s ’63 job to think about homes every day.

Based in Greenbelt, Md., Bozzuto oversees the operation and growth of diversified home building. Between his six operating companies (Bozzuto Homes, Development, Management, Construction, Acquisitions and Land) and ten partners, he oversees 1,200 employees and builds upwards of 1,200 residences per year. Most of those residences are multi-family including garden, midrise, and high rise apartments; condominiums; residential developments; and student housing.

“I have one of the most gratifying careers that someone could have,” he says. “I create jobs and homes for people. When I see someone move into their house for the first time and turn it into a home – that’s the most rewarding part for me.”

Since its inception in 1988, The Bozzuto Group has committed itself to building creative living spaces while being sensitive to the environment.

Embodying the core values of concern, creativity, passion and pursuit of perfection, Bozzuto estimates that he’s built more than 45,000 homes during his lifetime.

As Chair of the HWS Buildings and Grounds Trustee Committee, Bozzuto also ensures that HWS students can find a sense of home while at Hobart and William Smith.

“A home is something more than just shelter,” Bozzuto explains. “What a home is, in its most fundamental sense, is a sanctuary. It is where our most meaningful emotional experiences take place. It is where we laugh, cry, dream, hope and plan. That is what a home is, and that is what the Colleges are to me.”

Appointed a Trustee in 1999, Bozzuto returns to campus regularly where he enjoys seeing students with the same level of enthusiasm and curiosity he saw when he was a student studying English, playing football, serving as president of the student body, and taking part in Theta Delta Chi. More than ten Hobart and William Smith graduates work for Bozzuto’s companies.

“What has always been notable about HWS is the TOM BOZZUTO ’63 genuineness and friendliness of people on campus and in town. From my first day on campus, wearing my Hobart beanie, my classmates said hello to one other and that made me feel at home. I have to tell you, to this day, I say hello to everybody. It’s a wonderful way to greet life.”

Bozzuto and his company have won numerous awards for their projects as well as their commitment to the environment, affordable housing and philanthropy. In 2010, The Bozzuto Group was named

by The Washington Business Journal as one of the “Best Places to Work in the Greater Washington Area.” Bozzuto is the 2010 recipient of Urban Land Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The Bozzuto Boathouse, home to Hobart and William Smith’s championship sailing team, was THE DELANCEY BY THE BOZZUTO GROUP dedicated in memory of his father in 2003.

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HOME

From House to Home Hobart alum helps clients find their perfect base

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

J

oshua S. Lautenberg ’90 is the co-owner of Sonnenalp JOSHUA S. LAUTENBERG ’90 Real Estate, a boutique firm dedicated to luxury properties in Vail Valley, Colo. Lautenberg, who majored in English, originally moved out West in 1991 in search of a slower-paced lifestyle and a career as a ski instructor and competitor. He still lives there with his wife, Christina, and their children, Hannah and Sam. And although he continues to ski competitively and to make people feel at home on the slopes through lessons, in 1998, he segued into real estate.

How did you go from ski instructor to real estate guru?

As a ski instructor, your focus is on your students and helping them have the best experience possible. As a realtor, my job isn’t much different.

It’s all about customer service and being trust-worthy. The two careers have turned out to be sort of symbiotic in other ways, as well. Most of my best real estate clients are also my ski students. It’s a fantastic place to live, and I love helping others make this their home, too.

How do you take a vacant space and help your clients see the potential?

You have to fill it with warmth and life. If there’s a good view, we open the blinds and let the sunshine in. If it’s a nice day, we’ll open the doors and let some air flow through the house. It’s all about dressing the space up so that families can imagine what it will be like to live there. You want a house to feel like a home before potential buyers even walk in the door.

How do you know when you’ve found the right home?

It can take three years or three minutes. There’s no telling how long it’s going to take to find the perfect home, but when you do, it’s immediately clear. The first indicator is when the family starts running around the house. You can see it in their faces. There’s more energy all of the sudden. When they split up, that’s when you know you’ve found it. When the kids run up the stairs, the mother runs out to the garage, and the father is checking out the kitchen – that’s the right house. You end up spending an entire hour there, like they can’t bear to leave. You can tell you’ve made a perfect match.

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Surviving Middle School Bonnie Johnson-Aten ’82 talks homeroom and homework

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

“K

ids at this age are tough,” says Bonnie Johnson-Aten ’82. “If you take them at face value, you’re likely to lose them because they change every day.”

Johnson-Aten is the principal at Edmunds Middle School in Burlington, Vt., where she oversees approximately 350 students in the throes of pre-adolescence. “Your initial reaction to them may be negative because they’re always testing their boundaries, but you can’t give up on them or you’ll miss out.”

It takes a special person to work with pre-adolescents, but Johnson-Aten doesn’t shy away from difficult situations. Before taking on the role of principal, Johnson-Aten served as the diversity equity coordinator for the Burlington School District—a district known for its overwhelming lack of diversity.

Over the past several years, though, an influx of refugees from all across Africa has changed the makeup of Burlington. It’s currently the state’s most culturally diverse district and nearly one-fifth of Johnson-Aten’s students are refugees.

“The arrival of so many multicultural students has created a really interesting dynamic in the school. My experience with diversity programming has been handy when I’m working with this group of students,” she says.

But many of the issues her students deal with are the same – whether they are refugees or native Vermonters.

PRINCIPAL BONNIE JOHNSON-ATEN ’82 WITH HER HOMEROOM STUDENTS.

“We’re very focused on their social and emotional development.

Ultimately, these kids are all struggling to figure out who they are,” she says. “Their tendency is to push adults away, and they need to know that they have the unconditional love and support of someone they can trust.”

Johnson-Aten believes strongly that school should be a safe place, and she works hard to create a positive environment where students and teachers are empowered to build relationships. She has implemented a homeroom program so students are

with the same homeroom teacher for their three years at Edmunds Middle School.

“I have a homeroom,” she says. “Those kids know me and know that they can come to me for absolutely anything. I get to see them grow over three years, and I am also better able to see it when they’re struggling.”

“These kinds of close, personal relationships with adults are so important to adolescents,” she continues. “It can often be quite hard for parents to relate to their children and vice versa. We

try to help families moderate those natural stresses.”

To that end, Johnson-Aten and her staff want Edmunds Middle School to be as welcoming and safe for parents as it is for students. “Adolescence is a very difficult time not just for the student but for the entire family,” she explains. “I want parents to know that it’s okay to come to us for help negotiating the changes their children are going through.

Because we’re with preadolescents all day, we’re able to normalize the behavior for them.”

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HOME

Lost [and Found] in Translation Hobart hockey player conquers English and creates a home

by Jessie Meyers ’10

L

PHOTO BY ANDREW MARKHAM

istening to Aleksey Koval ’10 recount his experiences on the Hobart hockey team, you’d never guess the former Statesman has only been living the U.S. for five years.

Poised and eloquent, he speaks with a confidence that only a few years ago seemed far from reach. Recruited to Albany Academy’s hockey team in 2005, Koval left his homeland in Ukraine knowing only a handful of simple English words: yes, no, please and thank you. Socially and linguistically, Koval felt alien in his new country, struggling to learn a brand-new alphabet and vocabulary.

ALEKSEY KOVAL ’10 These roadblocks, however, didn’t convince him to pack his bags and catch the next flight back to Kiev.

“Moving to another community, country or continent requires courage,” he reflects. “Everyone has his or her own path, and no matter what obstacles are in the way, I’ve learned that anything can be solved.”

After a successful season in Albany, he chose to play hockey for Hobart College. Though his English had improved during his year at Albany Academy, he still felt uneasy communicating.

“I was really shy around Americans,” says Koval. “I was worried I would be misinterpreted.” Luckily, he found a community with other HWS international students, who, as he says: “spoke, and thus understood, broken English.”

With the support of Head Hockey Coach Mark Taylor, teammates, professors, the Gearan family and of course lots of practice, Koval began to feel truly comfortable conversing with native English speakers. “That’s when life got much, much simpler,” he explains.

Finally, HWS felt like home. With his carefully-honed communication skills, Koval aced the Writer’s Seminar he’d withdrawn from during his first year, was named to Dean’s List, and earned his B.A. in both economics and international relations. In May, he also earned a spot on the 2009-2010 Eastern College Athletic Conference West All-Academic Team.

Koval has recently made a new home for himself in New York City, where he works for the Princeton Council on World Affairs. A non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to improving the state of well-being of more than 150 emerging and frontier countries, the Princeton Council serves as an interface for businesses around the globe and promotes economic and social development.

As Membership Director, Koval creates strategies to recruit new members, contributors and sponsors, also working on obtaining the USTDA grants. So far, he’s adapted quickly to his new home of New York City.

“Having friends to rely on is the best thing in a new place,” he says. “Make friends to create a sense of home. And have a plan.

You have Plan A? Make Plan B, C, and D, too.

Do these things and you’ll be prepared for whatever the future brings.”

PHOTO BY KEVIN COLTON

Today, kids are extremely busy and often stressed out, says Johnson-Aten. On top of struggling with issues of identity, they also often experience pressure to excel in the classroom and on the athletic field, while at the same time their attentions are divided among family, friends and other hobbies.

“Of course it’s important to let your child know that school is important and that doing well will open opportunities to them in the future,” says Johnson-Aten. “But the best way a parent can help is by being positive and supportive and providing a quiet place to do homework.”

And what about all that homework and the nightly battle to get it done? Johnson-Aten says: “Parents and children have plenty of reasons to fight. Homework shouldn’t be one of them.

“We’ve all had a teacher who wasn’t able or willing to make homework relevant or who assigned nightly busy work, but that’s not what homework should be,” says Johnson-Aten. “Homework is most valuable when it reinforces what’s already been taught in the classroom. It should be practice, not busy work.”

“Think about it this way,” she continues. “As an adult, you don’t want to come home from work and do more work! It’s the same for children—we need to help them find balance in their lives. Home time should be about unwinding and de-stressing, not stressing out about school work.”

ALEKSEY KOVAL ’10 ON THE ICE IN THE COOLER.

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FRISANT DESIGN BY ERIC COHLER ’81

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HOME

Eminently Portable The mixmaster of interior design, Eric Cohler ’81 finds his way home

by Jessie Meyers ’10

F

or Eric Cohler ’81, one of the country’s leading and most sought-after interior designers, the hallmark of a home is “a luxurious sense of repose, security, being enveloped in comfort.” But he also believes that a home has to have a certain sense of tension.

“Good tensions, known as frisant in French, are how you know something has clicked,” he says.

“It’s an elastic tension you don’t want to go slack or the experience loses everything. If I don’t get that feeling in a place, then it’s not right for me.”

He connects with these feelings by traveling. Travel, he says, better enables him to create homes for his clients. By going abroad, he heightens his sense of coming home.

“Travel allows you to divorce yourself from the preconceived notions you bring from home and accept new cultures around you.

It’s a matter of taking yourself out of your own sphere and merging yourself with others. Travel is how we transport, translate and filter ourselves, and ultimately how we find our way back home.”

As a young man, Cohler traveled abroad each summer, expanding his world view in Greece, Egypt, Italy, Africa and Asia. Following in the footsteps of the classical tradition, he compares his travels to the “grand tour,” a trans-European adventure popular in the 18th and 19th centuries and taken by young men in polite society.

“Anyone with basic intellectual curiosity has something to learn from travel, whether you cross the ocean or go around the block,” he says. “We’re all taking a grand tour in one way or another.”

Behind his sophisticated world-view is a solid, classically trained background. After completing his art history

degree at HWS, he literal sense. went on to earn a “While I may masters degree in not be privy to historic preservation the childhood ERIC COHLER ’81 from Columbia décor details University School of of my clients, I Architecture and a certificate in feel it is important to use as many design from the Harvard Graduate of their heirlooms as possible,” School of Design. He established writes Cohler in House Beautiful’s Eric Choler Design, a full-service ‘Thoughts of Home’ column. design firm, in 1991.

“When designing a new home Dubbed “The Mixmaster” or redecorating an existing one, by industry editors, Cohler is these objects from the past are inspired by his travels, and his like comfort food. Favorite things interiors combine the classical provide a sense of security and with contemporary. His work was family, the memory of home, recently featured on Elle Décor’s of holidays, of celebrations, of list of top 25 designers, and he is everyday life. And so, I believe that a regular fixture in international home is eminently portable; our periodicals, books and design vision of home is right alongside television shows, including us, safe and sound.”

Traditional Home, Elle Décor and as COHLER SUPPORTS AN ANNUAL a featured designer on Selling AWARD THAT ALLOWS ONE HWS New York.

STUDENT TO INTERN AT ERIC COHLER Cohler believes that you can DESIGN FOR TWO WEEKS AND THEN carry home with you wherever you STUDY IN EUROPE FOR TWO WEEKS. go – both figuratively and in a very

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MARILU SEGURA ’07, JOSE ANTONIO HERNANDEZ AND THEIR DAUGHTER EMILY SARALEY HERNANDEZ-SEGURA.

Bordering on Home Marilu Segura ’07 is one Green Card away from creating a home

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

T

hey say that “home is where the heart is,” but what do you do when your heart is torn in two, and the U.S. government is right in the middle?

Marilu Segura ’07 struggles with this question every day, trying to keep her life together while her parents, daughter and home are in Geneva, N.Y., and her husband, Jose Antonio Hernandez, is fighting for his green card in Mexico.

“I feel like I don’t really have a home right now,” says Segura, who teaches Spanish at DeSales High School in Geneva. “I know that this is my home, but I can’t deny that part of me feels like I should be with him in Mexico. What should I do? Where do I belong? ” Born to migrant farm workers, Segura is no stranger to the immigration process. Her family came to the United States when she was just

eight years old, and they lived in several places before settling down in the Finger Lakes region when Segura was a teenager.

“I consider the U.S. my home,” she says.

“I have memories of my family in Mexico, and I love to visit them, but this is where I went to school. This is where I grew up. This is my home.”

She was still a student at Hobart and William Smith when she met Hernandez. He was a friend of her brother-in-law’s, and they immediately hit it off. When they met, Hernandez had come to the Finger Lakes for work. She didn’t know he was an illegal immigrant until after their relationship had blossomed.

Hernandez didn’t intend to remain in the country when the working season was over, but his relationship with Segura changed his plans.

“His concept of home changed when we fell in

love. My concept of home changed when we fell in love,” she says. “Our home is each other.”

The couple married in 2007, and Segura quickly realized that Hernandez was going to have to apply for citizenship. “I couldn’t live with the constant fear that he might be deported at any moment,” she says. “I wanted to make it right.”

Segura and Hernandez hired an immigration lawyer and started the paperwork that would allow Hernandez to apply for a green card with Segura as his sponsor. As part of the process, Hernandez had to leave the country while his paperwork was considered.

A necessary hardship of the process, the separation took on new meaning and frustration when the couple gave birth to a baby girl in June 2009.

“He went back to Mexico in March 2010,”

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HOME

KATIE MCGUIRE ’05

— Katie McGuire ’05 works in the Office of Citizenship at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services supporting community-based organizations that help immigrants Segura says. “The days dragged on and on.

It seemed to be taking forever. He finally got a hearing for his waiver in April, and we were so excited. We made plans for our reunion and for our daughter’s first birthday. We were ecstatic.”

Unfortunately, their excitement was shortlived. Hernandez’s waiver was referred for later review and decision.

“We never imagined that his appeal might be deferred,” she says.”It may take another full year before they make a decision. He’s already missed our daughter’s first birthday; is he going to miss her second birthday, too?”

Segura considered joining Hernandez in Mexico until his appeal is resolved, but she believes that her home and her life are here in America. “As far as I’m concerned, that is not a viable option,” she says. “My daughter will have more opportunities here than she has in Mexico. That’s why my parents brought me here.”

So Segura remains in the U.S., raising her daughter with help from family members and making frequent phone calls to Hernandez. “I don’t regret marrying Jose and I don’t regret helping him apply for citizenship. I am let down by this process, but I know we are doing the right thing,” she says. “I just have to keep hope.”

prepare for citizenship. She graduated from William Smith with dual degrees in media and society and French. She completed a masters in international communication at American University.

“O

ver the past several years, I have learned that home is not a finite place. You can have many different ideas and experiences of home, and they all hold an important place in your heart. This is especially true for immigrants.

In many ways, home is still the country they came from and often means family and traditions left behind. But home is also their new life in the U.S. and new opportunities for themselves and for their children.

I feel so pleased to be helping immigrants make the U.S. their permanent, legal home, but I am especially proud that

our work helps build community and helps people feel a sense of belonging in a new place.

Coming from Buffalo, N.Y., and moving to Washington, D.C., I am familiar with that feeling. I was fortunate enough to meet lots of great friends and fall in love with my neighborhood. D.C. feels like one kind of home, but it will never mean the same to me as the home where I grew up.

For me, home is not so much about a place as it is about people who support you and care for you. And in this sense, I am lucky enough to have a lot of homes.”

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WILLIAM GETTE ’66 LEADS A TOUR OF JOPPA FLATS EDUCATION CENTER AND WILDLIFE SANCTUARY. PHOTO COURTESY OF LIVING ON EARTH.

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HOME

Our Home in the Ecosystem Battling loss of habitat, invasive species and climate change, William Gette ’66 is working to save our home

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

A

t the Joppa Flats Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary in Newburyport, the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s northern-most sanctuary, home means different things to different animals. Some organisms are temporary residents, only staying for a week or two during their migrations. Some come during breeding season, residing in the area for half a year or more. There are also uncountable numbers of organisms that make the Joppa Flats area their permanent residence.

Think of Sanctuary Director William Gette ‘66 as a very, very busy caretaker, looking after the temporary and permanent homes of the organisms that take up residence in Joppa Flats. “We monitor the numbers and the health of the animals, and one of the biggest reasons for the dwindling numbers of animals is loss of habitat,” he says.

As humans expand their own habitats at the expense of animal habitats, as global warming changes the climate and as invasive species continue to encroach upon the delicate native ecosystems, dire consequences for our wellbeing and the wellbeing of the planet become clear.

“We all know that we share our homes with trillions of organisms, but what many people don’t know is that we’re all completely dependent on one another,” says Gette. “We

are part of a very delicate food web, so we need to be careful. Disrupting any layer of that web destabilizes the whole ecosystem with repercussions on our lives and on our economies.”

Gette cites salt marshes as a prime example of his assertion: as our pollution and development destroys salt marshes, fish die.

“As a result, there are less fish for us to eat, but that also means that thousands of people lose their jobs in fisheries and other related industries,” he says. “You also have to think about what the loss of those fish has done to the ecosystem. What other animals ate those fish? What will happen to those populations?”

In protecting the habitats of the animals at Joppa Flats, Gette had found himself coming up against the effects of global warming as well as invasive plant species, like the Japanese Knotweed, which chokes out native species. At Joppa Flats, it’s not unusual to see Gette and a group of volunteers removing invasive plants from the Sanctuary, but their efforts don’t stop there.

“Mass Audubon is very active in advocating for policies and practices that will protect our ecosystems, from limiting invasive species to lowering carbon emissions,” he says. “We also do a lot of work helping people understand the

ramifications of their decisions and how easy it can be to make better choices.”

Among their education tools is Joppa Flats itself, a green facility that uses cost-effective technologies to reduce its imprint. “We produce 42 percent of our electricity with solar panels.

And we flush our toilets, clean equipment and water our gardens with rain water we collect on our roof,” he says. “It can be done.”

“This is exciting, beautiful work, but it is also deadly serious work,” says Gette. “We are trying to address global issues through good example, advocacy and education. If we don’t make a change, all of us—humans and animals—will suffer. Once our ecosystems start to break down, it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to reverse the damage.”

“T

he Virgin Islands are a special place. We have friends in the islands that come from all over the world, but we’ve all adopted this place as our home. The community is small so we suffer through tough times and celebrate the good times together. You become attached to the people around you very quickly.

Of course, the weather is fantastic, and it would be nice to spend all our free time on the water, but I believe that you have to get involved with a place in order to make it your home. My work in the community has strengthened my ties to the people and to the island. I know I am making a difference now and for the future.”

— Steve Morton ’86 originally moved to the Virgin Islands in 1986 and has spent most of the years since graduation living with his family on St. Thomas where he is the President of Topa Properties, Ltd. He serves on the Boards of The St. Thomas/St. John Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Revitalization, Inc. and The St. Thomas Yacht Club. He grew up on the coast of Maine and lived briefly in San Francisco and Boston, but the Virgin Islands are his home.

STEVE MORTON ’86 IS PRESIDENT OF TOPA PROPERTIES IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS. HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES

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A Feeling of Home A William Smith senior finds a new sense of home after her father deploys to Afghanistan story by Lily Farnham ’11, edited by Kathryn Bowering ’11 For Lily Farnham ’11, military service has always been a fact of life. Her father joined the Vermont National Guard in October of 1979 and was promoted to Brigadier General and Joint Chief of Staff for the Vermont National Guard in 2007.

His service inspired her to get involved in the community. Through an organization called “Operation Military Kids: Vermont,” Farnham uses a portable technology lab to run workshops for children across the state to show them ways to communicate with deployed family members.

We asked her to reflect on her concept of home after learning that her own father was deployed to the Middle East.

Currently, Brigadier General Jonathan Farnham is serving as Director of the Afghan National Security Forces Development Assistance Bureau (ADAB), in Kabul, Afghanistan, a unit charged with monitoring the training of the Afghan army and police force.

Lily Farnham is completing her studies in public policy, education and psychology. A senior, she hopes to continue her work with Operation Military Kids and to raise awareness for those government officials who have shown commitment to supporting military families.

H

ome is where you feel loved. In my 21 years, home has been in various locations from sharing a tiny bedroom with my two younger sisters to a large house on the shore of Lake Champlain. But home is not a physical location; it’s the sense of security you feel when you are surrounded by the people you love. Home is where you feel supported, where you are free to be yourself and you know that all of those around you will support your decisions and help you achieve your dreams.

Last fall I had a new experience of

home. While I was studying in Galway, Ireland, I learned that my father, Brigadier General Jonathan Farnham, would be deployed to Afghanistan for 12 months. Words cannot describe the fear and overwhelming emotions that followed this news.

Suddenly home seemed like the only place that could console me. In the moments after the news and as my friends comforted me, I made a phone call to my Dad. As we spoke, home started to feel closer and closer.

Instead of feeling terrified and alone, I began to feel overcome with pride and respect for my Dad. He was given the opportunity to support Afghanistan in its effort to rebuild the country, and he accepted the challenge.

I decided to channel that pride and newfound energy into Operation Military Kids.

Not only can I empathize with them, but I am uniquely qualified to make sure that they get the support and guidance they need to remain positive and engaged in the community during a difficult and frightening time in their lives.

Throughout this process, I’ve learned that everyone has a different way of handling the news of deployment, and I’m no different. For me, it meant creating new homes – new support systems of family and friends who make me feel like I am home when I can’t be there physically.

Today, home is still my Mom’s home and my Dad’s home which are both in Burlington, Vt., but home is also e-mails, text messages, phone calls, and Skype video calls that provide me with the secure, loving feeling of being surrounded by my family.

Currently, for my Dad, home is seeing the faces of his three daughters on Skype on Sunday and Wednesday nights, as he is waking up early in the morning for a long day and we are getting ready for bed. Home is not a physical location but the feeling of reassurance you gain from communicating, in person or through technology, with the people you love.

LILY FARNHAM ’11 (FAR LEFT) WITH HER SISTERS AND FATHER, BRIGADIER GENERAL JONATHAN FARNHAM, THE DIRECTOR OF THE AFGHAN NATIONAL SECURITY FORCES DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE BUREAU IN KABUL, AFGHANISTAN.

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HOME

Coming Home

The last flight of the Vietnam War

by Jessie Meyers ’10

J

ohn Norvell ’66, P’99, P’02 is a retired lieutenant colonel of the U.S. Air Force, a scholar of history, the former Director of Alumni Relations at Hobart, and a teacher.

This last title has affected the way he views history and defines himself. “I’m always a history professor at heart,” says Norvell, who has taught at DeSales High School and the U.S. Air Force Academy Norvell wasn’t the first member of his family to serve. His father was a master sergeant in World War II and the Korean War and his great-grandfather fought in the Civil War. He even has ancestors who took part in the American Revolution. For Norvell, who fought in the Vietnam War, there was never a moment during which he doubted his decision to fly.

“When you’re an aviator, it’s your job. You know what you have to do,” he explains. “If you end up in combat, that’s just your job.”

Norvell was commissioned into service in 1966, just as the Vietnam War was gaining momentum. He witnessed numerous demonstrations against the war while working on a command post in Washington, D.C., heard Martin Luther King, Jr. give his last public speech in 1968, and watched Bobby Kennedy’s children mourn at their father’s grave the day after he was buried.

He also flew 42 combat missions, one of which was the last fighter mission of the Vietnam War. “There was a lottery to see who would fly the mission among the high ranking officers of the base,” Norvell explains. “We were lowly fliers, but we had to sit alert that day and, after the ‘official last flight’ took off, we scrambled.

We took off at 10:30 and the war ended at noon on August 15, 1973. So we were the last flight of the Vietnam War.” Norvell even has a recording from this flight. Right at noon, a mysterious message was broadcast over the command radio net: ‘Little Orphan Annie has crossed the Blue Ridge Bridge. I repeat: Little Orphan Annie has crossed the Blue Ridge Bridge...’

“We thought, ‘What does that mean?’ thinking something important was about to be announced,” says Norvell. “And then we heard

LT COLONEL JOHN E. NORVELL ’66, P’99, P’02 (THEN CAPTAIN), IN FRONT OF AN F-4 FIGHTER AIRCRAFT AT UDORN ROYAL THAI AIR FORCE BASE IN 1973, BEFORE HEADING ON A COMBAT MISSION OVER SOUTH EAST ASIA.

it – the sound of a toilet flushing. Yep, it was a joke, and that’s how eight years of air war ended. This was someone’s idea of the end of the war, an ironic commentary – all those missions and all those lives flushed down the toilet.”

For his service in Vietnam, Norvell received four air medals.

But readjusting to post-war life back home was challenging. “Service people weren’t well-received after the Vietnam War,” Norvell recalls. “There were no parades, no welcomebacks. I ended up going to Alaska, where I flew intercept missions against Soviet bombers.

Anchorage was a place out of time. I didn’t feel the same sort of resentment like I did on the mainland. Sometimes Homecoming simply means being able to be back home. It means being there, doing your job, and moving on to do another job; that’s all there is to it.”

Vietnam did, however, foster deep friendships. “You and your comrades become a band of brothers, a fraternity,” says Norvell.

“You don’t get any time off from each other and so you get to know these people better than anyone else.”

“I don’t usually talk about my time in combat,” Novell explains, “but this is an

example of how HWS alumni have found themselves linked to major events, trends and issues in American history.” Another example Norvell notes is his first-year roommate – Dr. Robert Peter Gale ’66, who coordinated medical relief efforts for victims of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Accident.

For many years after the war, Norvell taught modern American military history.

Interestingly, his focus is the First World War, not the Vietnam War. “I focus on WWI because it drove so much of the history of the United States.”

The biggest difference between World War I and the Vietnam War? “Weapons,” Norvell says. “Nuclear warfare has shaped everything from social to political to military history for the last 50 years and drove so much of the latter part of the 20th century.”

After studying and teaching American history, Norvell has learned that, “…the study of liberal arts allows you to become a better thinker, a better organizer of information, and a better writer. You’re more logical and critical in the way you look at things. I try to teach my students not to take things at face value. People have to think about what they’re seeing.”

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Leaping Tall Buildings in a Single Bound Chicago’s ‘Building Doctor’ preserves the city’s sense of home

by Sarah Tompkins ’10

“I

have a different view of Chicago than others,” admits Mary Brush ’88, who on any given day can be seen scaling the side of one of the city’s many skyscrapers. While not the conventional superhero, Brush spends her time saving the city of Chicago – or rather, its buildings.

“All existing projects start with a leak,” jokes Brush of her career as restoration architect for the country’s oldest architecture firm, Holabird & Root. “If my project is a church steeple, I have to figure out why it is leaking. I have to climb up, take pictures and measurements, and solve the problem.”

During her career as an architect, Brush, a Chicago native, has helped to restore some of the city’s most iconic buildings including the Rookery, Monroe and Gage Buildings.

With a masters in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania and another in

MARY BRUSH ’88

architecture from the University of Chicago, she has also been the recipient of many awards including the 2005 laureate of the Richard Morris Hunt Fellowship. That education has given her a sense of reverence for older buildings. “Many architects seem to gravitate toward new design. I gravitate toward wanting to understand what we already have; I love the discovery of learning how a building was constructed.”

However, learning the specifics of a building’s formation is only a small portion of the restoration. To repair an old building, one must be attuned to that structure. “It’s about understanding the dynamic of a building. I have to understand how each building works so that I can figure out why it is behaving the way it is. I’m a building doctor.”

Healing the ailing buildings of one of America’s largest cities helps to keep Chicago,

and its past, alive. “The concept of preserving buildings combines physical heritage with history.

Whether that building is two or 200 years old, it should be preserved. Seeing an older building next to a newer allows you to see the progress and change. You can see the richness of a city; you can see how it has developed.”

Brush’s dedication to the buildings of Chicago is more than a position as caretaker.

Brush helps maintain the vibrancy of life in the Windy City. “In Chicago, architecture is a celebration of life.”

“Chicago is doing all it can to transform its buildings and downtown into residential areas so that the city doesn’t die at the end of the day,” says Brush of the hard work she and fellow Chicagoans have done for their home. “They’ve converted old office buildings into lofts and offer free concerts in the parks. They use festivals and museums to trace the history of the city through architecture, turning the buildings into a celebration.”

However, it is the people who inhabit the buildings Brush works hard to preserve who breathe life into the city. “In an urban environment, people can walk around and get to know their neighbors. It’s this community that people want and need.” This is the community that Brush dangles hundreds of feet above ground to preserve.

“The urban Chicago community brings people together – that’s what home is, not just a nuclear family that you share a house with or a place you do your homework. It’s where you feel like you belong, where you interact with neighbors. That’s what Chicago does; it gets people to talk to each other,” declares Brush before she is off to her next challenge.

“I feel lucky I am inspired by my job.” And rappelling down buildings? Laughs Brush, “It sure beats sitting at my desk all day!”

PHOTO BY HEDRICK BLESSING

THE CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER COMMISSIONED HOLABIRD & ROOT TO RESTORE THE LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY ART GLASS DOME IN PRESTON BRADLEY HALL.

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Lightly on the Land Jennifer Siegal ’87 re-imagines the mobile home

by Jessie Meyers ’10

U

sing Los Angeles as her personal laboratory, designer Jennifer Siegal ’87 has been melding art, technology, psychology, sociology and science for the past 12 years to create homes suited to the needs of her clients. The founder of the Office of Mobile Design (OMD) in Venice, Calif., Siegal started her firm to, as she says, “…actively engage in designing non-permanently sited structures that move across and rest lightly upon the land.”

For Siegal, a good mobile structure connects indoor and outdoor living while using alternative energies and sustainable products. Working under some of the strictest building standards in the country, Siegal’s creativity has blossomed into a unique solution for SoCal living: eco-friendly prefab houses.

If you’re having difficulty imagining how mobile homes can be environmentally friendly, don’t let the connotation of the term fool you – Siegal’s designs are far from the metal boxes on wheels of the mid-20th century.

“These are spaces that are responsible, sustainable and precision-built,” she explains.

They are also thoroughly modern and surprisingly approachable. In Siegal’s world, good design, like good technology, doesn’t tie the user down, but rather provides a sense of freedom. “Like cell phones, an architecturally ‘wireless’ environment allows for a home to be truly open,” she explains. “Tall ceilings and natural light are healthier mentally; they make you feel lighter and less claustrophobic, more creative and open.”

Siegal cites her upbringing in small-town New Hampshire and her undergraduate years spent in Geneva, a city closely tied to nature, for influencing her green thinking and commitment to eco-friendly architecture. Fittingly, her homes not only support the green movement, but are more cost effective than building on-site and can be completed in half the time, which means less stress on the environment. Their frames are sturdier, too, to better withstand earthquakes, which makes her creations both fluid and longstanding.

It’s these benefits that have resulted in numerous awards and the successful completion of dozens of homes and schools.

“I want OMD to be a resource for like-minded individuals who are seeking good, green design options and solutions,” she says. “My clients come to me because they’re interested in what I’m doing. They’re aware of the possibilities of alternative living.”

Siegal received her master’s degree from Southern California Institute of Architecture and earned their Distinguished Alumna Award in 2009. She was recently honored with USA Network’s “Character Approved” award in 2009 and the History Channel’s 2006 Infiniti Design Excellence Award for her competition entry for the Los Angeles City of the Future 2106. In 2003, she spent a year as a Loeb Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design. Her work has been exhibited, televised and published extensively. She is also a visiting professor at University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

JENNIFER SIEGAL ’87

THIS PREFABRICATED HOME IN SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ., IS ENGINEERED TO BE TRANSPORTABLE VIA ROADWAY AND IS DESIGNED FOR USE ON OR OFF THE GRID. UNPLUGGED IT RELIES ON RAINWATER COLLECTION, REUSABLE GREYWATER, SOLAR ORIENTATION, NATURAL VENTILATION AND PHOTOVOLTAICS. HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES

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DAVE ’87 AND SARAH STRAIN ’87 KING AT THE LAKE GEORGE RV PARK, WHICH THEY OWN AND OPERATE.

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Home on Wheels Dave ’87 and Sarah Strain King ’87 own and operate the Lake George RV Park

by William B. Zale ’11

“H

ome is my business,” says Dave King ’87, president of Lake George RV Park in upstate New York. “An RV may not be the first thing you think of when someone says ’home’ but ultimately, RVing is about recreating your home in the

wilderness.”

His wife, Sarah Strain King ’87, agrees. “The best thing about the RV is that it is literally your home; you don’t have to worry about leaving things behind in a hotel or sleeping in a strange bed. It’s your home on wheels.”

Dave King has been in the ‘home on wheels’ business for as long as he can remember. “My mother and father started the RV Park in ’66, and it was actually the first park in the country dedicated to the RV. I’m proud to be part of that heritage.”

More than 40 years later, Lake George RV Park is still the archetype for many RV parks across the country. And it’s plain to see why. The park is clean, safe and well-kept, with more than 400 full-service RV sites spread out over 130 acres.

“Taking care of the facility isn’t a 9-5 job that you just clock out of at the end of the day. I’m here 24/7 during the season, and everything that happens here is very personal to me,” says King. “We try to have a real attention to detail that you might not find at other parks.”

To keep up that attention to detail, the Kings built a home just three miles from the property more than 20 years ago and see the Park as an extension of their home. “I view every guest as a guest in my own home,” he says.

Sarah agrees. “We’ve come to know many of the returning campers, year after year,” she says. “I think of them as members of our family. We exchange holiday cards and birthday gifts.”

Nurturing family is important to the Kings. They both see family togetherness as one of the best reasons to pack up the family and go RVing. Traveling in an RV itself is a bonding experience, they say, but the activities that typically accompany an RV trip, like hiking, biking, fishing and being around a campfire, only serve to reinforce that connection.

“In the modern day, there are so many technological barriers. With cell phones, texting and social media, the traditional sense of familial intimacy can be lost,” laments Dave. “The RV lifestyle brings people closer together on a level you really don’t see anywhere else.”

Lake George RV Park helps 6,000 families come together each year, seeing as many as 1,500 visitors each day during peak season. And many of those are return guests, those who visit the Park year after year. The Kings keenly appreciate those bonds, because they have a similar bond with Hobart and William Smith.

“There is a great sense of intimacy at HWS, both on campus and in the town of Geneva itself,” says Dave. “I fell in love there. I married my college sweetheart. I’m still in close contact with my freshman year roommate. Those conversations that you have while you’re learning stick with you for the rest of your life.”

They both recall their time at the Colleges fondly, and have found some unexpected ways to keep that bond strong over the years. “For the past few summers, we’ve been fortunate to call current Hobart student Evan Lipinski ’11 a member of our staff,” says Dave, of the student/ groundskeeper who’s become an unofficial part of their family. “Evan has been great to work with and he will be missed as he returns back to school.”

While Evan’s cracking the books, Dave and Sarah will be hard at work.

While most of us want to do anything but think of work while on vacation, the Kings enjoying putting wheels to pavement and visiting other RV parks when they can get some time off.

“As a child growing up in New Jersey, I don’t even think I knew what an RV was,” laughs Sarah. “But it really is a great way to travel. Dave and I have gone as far as Texas in our RV. It takes a lot of time, but it’s so cozy.”

They don’t get on the road as much as they’d like because of their hectic family schedules, but they take great joy in making sure that other families have the best time possible.

“Every day, I get to see kids catch their first fish or learn to swim,” says Dave. “That’s something you just don’t find in every career.”

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A Tree Grows on Martha’s Vineyard The only resident landscape architect on Martha’s Vineyard creates outdoor homes

by Sarah Tompkins ’10

A

KRISTEN REIMANN ’91

12-foot Japanese maple tree bent gently over the porch of Kristen Reimann’s ’91 childhood home.

“It had this arching dome with twisting branches inside. It was the most beautiful tree,” Reimann remembers.

The unique maple started as a sapling in the 1920s, and was part of a rather eclectic collection of flora surrounding Reimann’s house.

“The man who lived in our house prior to us collected plants from around the world, so there were lots of plants that were not very common,” Reimann recalls. “That landscape really influenced me.”

Although it might seem natural that Reimann would pursue a career in landscape architecture, the path to designing landscapes was less than straight forward. “When I started at William Smith, I was a double major in economics and Chinese because I thought that I was a different person. I thought that I wanted to be in the business world,” explains Reimann. “I did that for two years, and I finally realized: this is not me.”

While her classmates were spending time abroad, Reimann did some soul and career searching. “I interned with the Bank of Boston. I wanted to find out if I could wear a suit and stockings every day.” After a few weeks, Reimann had her answer. “I found out: no, I couldn’t.”

When she returned to HWS, Reimann declared an independent major in environmental studies, but it was not until the summer before her senior year at the Colleges that she finally found a career that felt like home. “I did an internship with the Brooklyn

Botanic Garden,” explains Reimann. “It was during that time I learned how the gardens were laid out. That whole summer I kept thinking: who does this kind of work? This is what I want to do!”

Discovering landscape architecture eventually led Reimann to Cape Cod, where she was able to nurture her love of natural sciences as well as harness her artistic side. “After I graduated, I was home for four weeks when Carolyn Coleburn ’91 called me up and said, ’Hey I’m down on the Vineyard. You want to come down and work?’” recalls Reimann. “I was supposed to be there a month, but I ended up being there a year.

Eventually, I married a builder who was also in love with the island, and together, we knew that we were going to make a home on Martha’s Vineyard.”

The isolation of the island, however, proved to be a challenge.

“I knew that if I wanted to live on Martha’s Vineyard, I would have to commute,” says Reimann. “I also knew that I wanted a family, and that I couldn’t commute and work long hours while maintaining the kind of relationship with my kids that was important to me.”

The challenge was no match for Reimann’s determination and hard work. After receiving her masters in landscape architecture from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and completing the necessary three years of internship, Reimann was able to sit for the landscape architecture national examination.

She is now the only registered landscape architect on Martha’s Vineyard.

“I do what I love here,” says Reimann, sitting in the office she

STAIRS TO THE CHILMARK HOME ON MARTHA’S VINEYARD.

and her husband built next to their Oak Bluffs home. “And my kids always know where to find me if they need me,” says Reimann, mother to eight-year-old twins.

Designing landscapes on Martha’s Vineyard is unlike creating outdoor space anywhere else. “Out here, the edges are very different,” explains Reimann.

“Unless you live in town, there are no fences; property lines are blurred.”

The island is naturally rich with twisted oak trees and huckleberry blankets the ground.

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HOME

At Home on Stage KS Stevens ’94 redefines the concept of home

KS STEVENS ’94

by Jessie Meyers ’10

“T

Reimann embraces these plants, and uses them to create a sense of home within nature. “A lot of people have a difficult time visualizing landscape,” says Reimann. “You have to readjust your definition of ’floors, walls and ceilings’ and of what those words mean. Instead you have the ground, trees, and sky.”

Design, Reimann says, is also personal. “You need to get to know the family and their lifestyle,” she says. “You need to know how your client lives. Do they have children or grandchildren? How much

entertaining space do they want?”

It’s that marriage of personal style, function and solid design that makes a landscape feel like home.

So Reimann has found that she has had to redefine her own Japanese maple inspired vision of beauty. “Even though I have my own expectations about how my own landscape should look, I set aside space for trampolines,” admits Reimann, “because to me and my family, those are just as important landscape features as anything else.”

he purpose of my plays is to bring people together by first acknowledging their differences and then peeling back the layers so that we can see how similar we are. I create characters for cultural art and public consumption. I put myself into these characters,” says playwright KS Stevens ’94.

Born in Vietnam and adopted by an American family during the Vietnam War, Stevens knows firsthand the importance of home. “Growing up, I took comfort in the messages of hope and belonging that I saw in productions like Annie, The King and I, and Oliver. These are what I tap into when I write, trying to make those universal themes current and heartfelt.”

As a butch lesbian, Stevens also felt alienated and uncomfortable in her skin for much of her young adult life. “At some point, I started telling myself, ‘God could not have put me on this planet to be miserable.’ I knew there had to be a way to reframe my life and live up to my potential,” says Stevens, who feels more at home in her own body since embracing the similarities and differences in everyone.

With a new outlook on life, Stevens has found love and acceptance in the NYC LGBT and theatre communities. She was crowned Miss Lez 2009 in Murray Hill’s annual New York City queer pageant. In 2010, GO Magazine, the nation’s most widely distributed free lesbian publication, named her as one of “100 WOMEN WE LOVE.” “It is my hope that my works inspire dialogue and motivate individuals to look at characters, situations and stereotypes with fresh eyes so that we can empathize and have more respect for ourselves and each other,” she told GO Magazine.

Her most current project is co-hosting and co-producing a web series titled Queer Arts Now. “Queer Arts Now gives queer artists a voice,” says Stevens. “Many of these artists and events are unlikely to get covered in the mainstream media, so we’ve created our own discussion.”

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Home as a Human Right Frank Morales ’71 battles homelessness in NYC

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

H

ome is the place where you lounge in your PJs, put your feet up and connect with your loved ones. But, for millions of homeless Americans, home is not only unattainable but also unimaginable.

“Homelessness limits a person’s horizons, slashes their self-worth, tears up families and severely damages psychological stability,” says Reverend Frank Morales ‘71, a housing rights activist, ordained Episcopal minister and the housing coordinator for Picture the Homeless. “Try to envision yourself in that place. Fatalism takes over more quickly and more completely than you would think.”

Picture the Homeless, a grassroots organization founded and led by homeless people, works to combat that fatalism, helping the homeless come together as a community to build up hope.

“Working together, organizing and struggling side-by-side allows the homeless to envision an alternative life,” he explains. “That is very powerful.”

“For some, the concept of home is frightening,” says Morales.

“I helped move a local homeless man into an apartment a few months ago, and when I went back to visit him later, he still had a bare apartment. He was sleeping on a cot, and all of his clothes were rolled up in a ball underneath. He had no idea how to even go about making the place a home.”

Morales is careful to note the difference between the right to ‘home’ and the right to ‘shelter.’ In New York City, what he calls the “homeless industrial complex” spends billions each year

sheltering the homeless, four to a 12x12 room.

“For about half of what the state spends on shelters and transitional housing, they could be providing housing vouchers for even more people than they’re helping now,” he explains. “It gets to a point where it’s pretty clear that this isn’t about economics. It’s about social control.”

In the mid-80s, Morales became the leader of the squatter movement in the Lower East Side of New York, determined to fight social control by opening up abandoned buildings and making something from them—homes, soup kitchens, daycare centers.

“These buildings were a mess when we moved in. They were bombedout zones of displacement. We put a lot of work into these buildings, and we continue to maintain them,” he says.

The group took over 22 buildings in the East Village, but lost 11 of them to evictions over the intervening years. The remaining 11 buildings are currently home to more than 200 squatters—including Morales and his family. “A squatter’s home doesn’t look any different from your home,” he says. “We live in a sixth floor walk up in tenement-style housing, like many New Yorkers.

We’ve been there more than 20 years, and we’re doing just fine.”

In 2002, the city shifted the title for the building to a nonprofit agency. “Look, this paid off for us in the end, but homelessness is on the rise, and there are lots of people who can’t wait for it to pay off for them,” he says, noting that women and children make up the fastest growing segment of the homeless.

“If you don’t exercise what I believe is the basic human right to home, then it doesn’t exist,” he asserts. “That’s what we, as squatters, are doing. The situation is desperate for millions of Americans. The only way we’re

going to force policy change is through direct action.”

“For me, it comes down to a basic question: do we believe that ‘home’ is something you should make a profit on? Or is ‘home’ a human right?”

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HOME

CHRISTIAN CEDACERO ’12 IN FRONT OF THE RURAL AND MIGRANT WORKER EDUCATION CENTER HE HELPED ESTABLISH.

“R

ural, farm and migrant laborers often don’t know their rights when it comes to immigration and domestic violence. We established this center as a place where they can come for help, where they can learn to be independent and stand up for themselves.

While they’re with us, we try to show them some sense of home.

We have potluck-style meals here every week, and we speak both Spanish and English. America is such a different environment for so many of them that it can be a difficult transition. But after a while, especially for those who have been here for a few years, it starts to become home for them, and I am proud to be part of that.”

— Hobart student Cristian Cedacero ‘12, pictured outside of the rural and migrant worker education center he helped to establish in Lyons, N.Y., as part of a summer internship with the Rural and Migrant Ministry, a state-wide non-profit. On campus, Cedacero is the co-president of Project Nur, a Muslim student organization. He also volunteers at the Community Lunch Program as well as at the Living Center, a local nursing home.

FRANK MORALES ’71, HIS WIFE KATHY AND THEIR DAUGHTER DAKOTA NEAR THEIR HOME IN NEW YORK CITY.

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Home on the Range

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free The breezes so balmy and light That I would not exchange my home on the range For all of the cities so bright Home, home on the range

T

hough she doesn’t cook over a campfire and you’ll rarely see her in a cowboy hat, William Smith alumna Bluesette Larsen Campbell ’96 does brand cattle, fix fences and ride horses.

“I grew up on a sheep ranch in Montana,” she explains. “I majored in geoscience, and I didn’t intend to go back to agriculture after HWS, but I was offered a job managing a sheep and cattle ranch. It felt like my agrarian roots were pulling me back.”

It was on that ranch that Campbell met her husband, Mark Campbell, a third generation rancher. Today the couple and their two children live and work on the B-C Ranch—4,500 acres of flat, grassy lands northwest of Meadow Lake in Saskatchewan. The ranch has been in her husband’s family for more than 60 years and is currently managed by three nuclear families of Campbells: Mark and Bluesette, Mark’s brother Scott and his wife Jenna, and Mark’s mother and father, Don and Bev. “Nothing is perfect, but being so close to family is certainly advantageous,” says Campbell. “The kids always have their cousins around to run and play with, and if something comes up, Mark’s family members are there to pick up the slack around the ranch with no resentment. We’re all in this together.”

The Campbells believe that by properly managing resources through holistic management practices, they can enhance the environment that sustains us all. This approach has allowed the B-C ranchers to come through

BLUESETTE LARSEN CAMPBELL ’96 WITH HER HUSBAND, MARK, AND THEIR CHILDREN.

difficult financial times and even increase their livestock capacity over the past several years.

Currently, the ranch runs approximately 700 cow/calf pairs and a long yearling program.

They strive to raise 100 percent grass-fed cattle, producing healthier, better-tasting beef, and their management is actually improving the grass and soil on the ranch.

“Since coming here, my perspective on agriculture and my relationship with food have completely changed,” says Campbell. “I think the world would be a much better place if everyone had a connection to the earth and knew—or were even just curious about—where their food comes from and how it gets to them.”

Along with making agriculturally and fiscally sound decisions, the Campbells also put a high premium on the human element.

“It’s right there in the ranch mission statement: quality of life is our utmost priority,” she says.

“We are not doing this to get rich or buy lots of things. We are here to support our families and have a good life.”

For the Campbells, that means spending lots of time with their kids, having dinner together every night and working as a family.

“It’s beautiful here. It’s a wonderful place to raise kids. About 75 percent of what my children eat, we raise right here on our land.

Everyone has things they’d change,” she says, “but there are some things that are really important and, when it comes down to it, some that just aren’t.”

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HOME

Home Free

Protecting U.S. borders is the job of Kevin Haggerty ’02

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ‘05

K

evin Haggerty ‘02 was born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y. He still lives and works there, and he considers Buffalo ‘home.’

But as a supply chain security specialist with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Customs -Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program, Haggerty travels a lot. And, when he’s on the road, his definition of home isn’t necessarily fixed.

“I think of home as where you are from,” he says. “Buffalo is my home. But the farther away I get from Buffalo, the more my perception of home expands to New York State or even the United States.”

He’s traveled to Bangladesh, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia and many other countries, verifying companies’ supply chains to ensure that they are secure enough to enter U.S. borders. “Some may like it, some may not, but we are the world’s protector,” he says. “I truly believe that

PHOTO BY GREG SEARLES

through programs like C-TPAT, we are trying to do what’s best.”

From a young age, Haggerty knew he wanted to serve the public by working with the government. He studied political science at HWS, both because he enjoyed it and because he knew it would help him attain his goal.

“My political science background has helped in identifying current world conflicts and also gave me some background knowledge of people and different cultures,” says Haggerty, who says he also enjoys connecting with other Americans while he’s traveling.

“When I am traveling and I meet someone from the U.S., I feel a bond to that person,” he says. “There’s a connection

to America, even when you’re abroad.”

While he acknowledges that traveling to some of the world’s most beautiful and exotic locals is one of the perks of the job, he says he’s always happy to return home.

“There are many nice places that I have traveled to but no place compares to the U.S.,” he says. “The freedoms and opportunities we are afforded in this country are not evident throughout the world and I feel that sometimes we take them for granted.”

“Going on trips for work is interesting,” he says. “But it is always great to come back home.”

KEVIN HAGGERTY ’02 AT THE BUFFALO NIAGARA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.

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SLEEPING BEAUTY’S CASTLE, THE OLDEST OF ALL DISNEY CASTLES

This is Your Home on Pixie Dust Hobart alum makes Disney’s Main Street America’s Main Street

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ‘05

“W

PHOTO CREDIT ELIZABETH BAKER

hen you’re at a Disney property, whether you’ve been there before or not, it feels like home. It’s safe and familiar but more magical than your everyday life,” says Toby Pugh ’67, director of Facilities Standards and Specifications at Walt Disney Imagineering. With a background in architecture and a heart full of wonder, Pugh is responsible for making some of that Disney magic come to life.

“We have some of the most creative minds in the world coming up

with storylines for Disney experiences,” explains Pugh. “I look at it from a technical perspective—the buildings have to have plumbing, of course, and be up to code, but they still have to be authentic to the experience and in line with the story.”

Creating that authenticity is a challenge that Pugh relishes. “We are constantly developing new ways to make a brick look more like the stereotypical image of a brick, make shingles look older than they are—anything that’ll transport the visitor to the place we want them to be,” he explains.

In fact, everything, from the

lamp fixtures to the texture of the walls, is deliberately selected to create an aura of authenticity. “We go to great lengths to create a cohesive environment. Every space feels like something you know, whether from your own experience or your cultural knowledge, so it has a sense of familiarity.”

“Of course, the comfortable, familiar feeling goes beyond architecture. Our Cast Members do an amazing job of making our guests feel like they’re exactly where they belong,” he says, referring to the carefully trained Disney employees who serve meals, provide directions and keep the parks running.

“The entire Disney team does an amazing job of making Disney parks and resorts feel like ‘home.’”

TOBY PUGH ’67

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HOME

Unpacking Home For Pugh, to be a “home,” a place must provide four key elements: 1.

A sense of shelter and safety.

“A home has to have a roof, of course, and doors. Architecture can do this in many obvious and subtle ways. We do everything we can to make Disney properties comforting, inviting and safe because you can’t relax if you don’t feel secure.”

2.

Rest and recuperation.

“Obviously, a home is a place you go to eat and sleep and relax. It’s a place where you can kick off your shoes, put your elbows on the table and just hang out. Disney resorts are sort of like that, too. We want everyone to feel relaxed and to unwind.”

3.

History and relationships.

“Home is where your parents are, where your family is. It’s a place where you’re known, where you have memories. Most of our guests have a long history with Mickey Mouse. Even if they’ve never been on a particular attraction before, they recognize the music and have a relationship with the characters. All of it is part of our history that makes us feel at home.”

4.

Discovery.

“Humans are inquisitive, and we like to learn new things. It’s like going back to your childhood home to look at photographs—you always discover something new. Things are always changing, and that’s certainly true of Disney. As Walt Disney himself used to say, Disneyland will never really be done.

No matter how often you visit, and as long as there are active imaginations, there will always be something new and exciting to discover.”

An airline pilot totes home around the world

by Cynthia L. McVey

W

hen you travel more than half of your life, you “kind of pack home in your suitcase,” says Fred Mosher ’80, P’08.

He’s been a pilot for the last 28 years, first for the U.S. Air Force and then for Delta Airlines. In the past 20 years, he’s seen a lot change in the industry and in the pilot’s lifestyle, but the most significant improvement is the ability of technology to bring home to a hotel room.

“A hotel room is just a hotel room.

It’s a box. My laptop and my cellphone are the home I carry with me to every empty room,” he says.

Before cell phones and laptops, Mosher carried a small book of family photos and tried to arrange calls to his wife when neither he nor she were working and both were likely to be near a landline. When the children, now 22 and 24 years old, were young, his wife was often at a lacrosse practice or other activity away from a phone.

“I’d often talk to my wife one time during a four-day trip,” he recalls. The fact that he often worked nights and his wife days further complicated finding a convenient time for both. “Now, I call home at least once a day and I can talk to the kids whenever I want.”

The small photo book has been replaced by a laptop full of photos, but the laptop has also presented Mosher with many more ways to stay in contact with home. He’s even found himself reconnected to the Colleges through the Internet. A lacrosse player as a Hobart student, Mosher only returned for a few games after graduation. Now, when he can, he arranges his schedule to be off during the lacrosse games and watches them live online.

“I was going to be the last person to own a cell phone or a laptop,” Mosher laughs, “And now I’m addicted to the technology because of the difference it makes in my life by letting me stay connected to home.”

FRED MOSHER ’80, P’08 AT THE WHEEL OF HIS MOTORBOAT.

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On the Ball

Brian Mahoney ’91 slides into home

by Sarah Tompkins ’10

T

he elation that Brian Mahoney ’91 felt when the Phillies won the 2008 National League pennant was short-lived. As the director of advertising sales for the Philadelphia Phillies, a World Series victory would be a grand slam professionally.

“But I suddenly realized the Phillies might have to play the Red Sox in the World Series,” recalls Mahoney.

While this may not seem like a life or death situation, for Mahoney – born and raised a Boston Red Sox fan – it nearly was. “My grandfather worked for the Red Sox for decades; they are in my blood. I wanted my family to have that win to secure the pennant.”

But halfway through the American League Championship, when the Red Sox were playing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Mahoney realized he was rooting for the Rays. “I just didn’t think I could deal with a World Series in which the Phillies played the Red Sox. I realized I was a Phillie!”

Despite fraught nerves, Mahoney was grateful for his discovery.

Because of baseball, Mahoney had found a home. “With home, with baseball, you’re touching nerves that run generations – like my family’s devotion to the Sox. I knew I was at home in Philadelphia and with the Phillies when I realized that I wasn’t rooting for the Red Sox BRIAN MAHONEY ’91 for that one game.”

Long before baseball built a home for him in Philadelphia, it helped Mahoney find a connection with others on the HWS campus.

“One of the best parts of our baseball team at HWS was the diversity. There were Hobart men

from all corners of campus. It was a reminder of how baseball appeals to and connects everybody,” he says. “It still amazes me how you can be male, female, 8 or 80 years old, from any background, and still love this game.”

In fact, Mahoney relies on the emotional ties of baseball daily. “My job is in corporate sales, and my toughest sale is always to someone with no emotional attachment to the Phillies,” he explains. “People who love baseball – and love the Phillies – want to be tied to this family, to be connected to the Phillies.”

“Of course, you can’t score runs or win games unless you get home,” he reflects.

The newfound Phillie believes that the connection between America’s National Pastime and ‘home’ runs deep. “There’s a pace within baseball that people find comfort in; it’s like the pace of everyday life and the comfort of being at home,” he explains. “Home is every day. Baseball is every day. If you lost a game yesterday, guess what – you’re playing again today. In life, you have good days, you have bad days, you have great days; baseball is the same.

“You know that feeling when you walk into your house after a long vacation?

That’s what it feels like when you turn on a baseball game; it just feels great to be home.”

As for his home run career, Mahoney is lucky never to have been far from home.

“Citizens Bank Park, where I work, is my home away from home, and I have three daughters who feel at home at the ballpark.

Every day of my working career since Hobart, I’ve shown up at a baseball field,” Mahoney laughs.

“What more can you ask for?”

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HOME

CITIZEN’S BANK PARK, HOME OF THE PHILADEPHIA PHILLIES, WHERE BRIAN MAHONEY ’91 IS DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING SALES.

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A Home for Performing Arts at HWS

P

erforming arts – theatre, dance and music – are fundamental to the rich, interdisciplinary education and social experience at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Engaging sensibilities, stretching imaginations and offering cultural, historical, political and literary reflections, the performing arts offer our students – both as performers and spectators – a living laboratory for active learning.

The new Performing Arts Center, designed

by The Gund Partnership, will create a cultural

and creative anchor on Pulteney Street, bringing the academic facilities for music, theatre and dance under one roof.

“This project is critical to Hobart and William Smith’s future,” says Reynold Levy ’66, the President of Lincoln Center and the chair of fundraising efforts for the HWS Performing Arts Center. “Participation in the arts, whether onstage or in the audience, compels us to be inventive in our lives and critical in our thinking. It challenges us to see both difference and interconnectedness; it is at the heart of the liberal arts.”

To learn more about the planned Performing Arts Center and to view a 3-D flyover of the project, go to http://www.hws.edu/alumni/activities/ performing_arts.aspx.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of project, contact Assistant Vice President for Institutional Advancement Mara O’Laughlin ‘66 at olaughlin@ hws.edu or 315-781-3743.

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FACULTY AND STAFF AT HOME

INSIDE THE HOMES OF FACULTY AND STAFF

Home Sweet Home

A

bout half of all Hobart and William Smith employees live in Geneva, creating a community that is rich in social and intellectual interaction. In honor of this special issue of The Pulteney Street Survey, members of the Hobart and William Smith faculty and staff graciously opened their Geneva homes to our photographers to give us all an up-close and personal look at what home means to them.

FACULTY AND STAFF AT HOME PHOTOS BY KEVIN COLTON UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. TO SEE MORE PHOTOS OF FACULTY AND STAFF AT HOME, GO TO WWW.HWS.EDU/ALUMNI/PSSURVEY/FALL10/

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CHAPLAIN

Lesley Adams “Early in my career, I discovered that the most successful ministries were those that had food at the heart of them. When we take the time to slow down and do things by hand, like making and enjoying a home-cooked meal, we end up sharing the work and spend more time talking. These are invaluable opportunities to build community.

It’s interesting that the slow arts feature the practices that remind us of home, but the ‘home’ in most cases is not our own home. In most cases it’s likely the home of our grandmothers. Many of the activities that are becoming popular as ‘slow’ are also practices of home from a time before modern conveniences, like cooking and eating together, gardening, canning and knitting.”

HWS Chaplain Lesley Adams is part of a group of Episcopal priests who have received a grant to study the slow arts movement. She hosts a weekly pasta night in her home, open to all students, as well as a weekly knitting circle. Throughout the year, she opens her home for baking apple pies, making pasta sauce from scratch and canning parties. She lives next door to St. John’s Chapel with her husband, Dr. David Newman, and her two cats, George and Smokums.

CHAPLAIN LESLEY ADAMS HOSTS PASTA NIGHT AT HER HOME.

PHOTOS BY ANDREW MARKHAM ’10

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FACULTY AND STAFF AT HOME ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS

Pasad Kulatunga and RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Sara Lagerholm Continuing a tradition that

Tucks, and their three daughters

The space is filled with a fully-

their home. “Everything about this

stretches back to the founding of

– Elsa, age 7, a second grader;

equipped children’s kitchen, baby

place is home,” says Lagerholm.

Hobart and William Smith, Pasad

Astrid, age 5, a kindergartener;

dolls, strollers, and books galore.

“It is such a warm and welcoming

Kulatunga and Sara Lagerholm

and Selma, 16 months old. All five

are raising their children within

say their favorite spot at home is

Even though Kulatunga is from

campus is wonderful. We are very

blocks of campus. Their Jay

“The Playroom,” which doubles

Sri Lanka and Lagerholm from

happy in Geneva and at HWS.”

Street house is home to their dog,

as Elsa and Astrid’s bedroom.

Sweden, they consider Geneva

community and living so close to

Assistant Professor of Physics Pasad Kulatunga joined the faculty in 2005. His research is in ultracold atoms and microscopic dipole traps, and he regularly teaches courses in modern physics, optics, photonics and advanced labs. Sara Lagerholm is a Research Assistant in the HWS Biology Department where she works on the antennal development of moths with Associate Professor of Biology Kristy Kenyon.

ELSA, SARA LAGERHOLM, SELMA, PASAD KULATUNGA AND ASTRID IN THE PLAYROOM.

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DEAN OF WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGE

Cerri Banks “William Smith deans have been living in Hillcrest

home cooked meal; alums and parents often stay

House for decades and it is my privilege to now

in the guest rooms; and I’ve had the pleasure

call it home. It has been my goal since moving

of hosting numerous receptions here. This is

in to make sure that this is a place for the

an old home but it’s got a contemporary feel,

entire community to gather in conversation and

which I love. And like most homes, people tend to

celebration. It’s not unusual for people to be in

congregate in the kitchen.”

the home three or four days a week. Students come over to study, hold meetings or share a

Named Dean in 2008, Assistant Professor of Education Cerri Banks HON ’09 has a bachelor of science in inclusive elementary and special education, a masters degree in cultural foundations of education, a certificate of advanced studies in women’s studies, and a Ph.D. in cultural foundations of education, all from Syracuse University. Her first book, “Black Women Undergraduates, Cultural Capital, and College Success,” was published in 2009.

DEAN CERRI BANKS IN THE KITCHEN OF HILLCREST HOUSE AND WITH HER DOG, ISABELLA, ABOVE.

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FACULTY AND STAFF AT HOME HEAD COACH OF HOBART LACROSSE

T.W. Johnson Head Coach of Hobart Lacrosse T.W. Johnson and his wife, Elizabeth, live in the city of Geneva with their daughter, Abby, and puppy, Flash. Elizabeth is a volunteer coordinator for Happiness House and Abby is a first grader in the Geneva Public School District. The Johnsons purchased the home in 2005 from the Mapstones (see page 58). Within a radius of just a few blocks are more than a dozen other homes belonging to faculty and staff members. “We have a real community here,” says T.W. “Our neighbors are fantastic.”

T.W. Johnson arrived at HWS in 2004 as Hobart’s top assistant lacrosse coach and was promoted to Head Coach in 2008. Johnson has been instrumental in the team’s success.

During the 2008 season, the Statesmen posted an 8-6 record, including a 4-3 mark in the ECAC Lacrosse League. Working closely with Hobart’s defense, Johnson guided the Statesmen into the top 10 nationally in mandown defense twice over the past five years.

ELIZABETH, T.W. AND ABBY IN THEIR BACKYARD.

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PROFESSOR OF HISTORY

Susanne McNally A landmark of South Main Street, the mile of row

“Food,” McNally explains, “is

houses that lead from the Colleges to the City

the most powerful heuristic

of Geneva has served as home to generations

device I know. I thought

of faculty, staff and students. Susanne McNally

that it would be gender, but it’s not. Food opens

bought her row house 25 years ago and she raised

conversations about the environment, public

her two sons here. Built in the 1830s and renovated

policy, healthcare, poverty, religion, science and

100 years later, the home has a small backyard

war. How we manufacture it, how we distribute it,

garden that McNally uses to grow vegetables and

how we eat it – food gets at the heart of who we

herbs. She supplements her harvests through the

are as individuals and as a society.”

Trinity Church community garden.

Professor of History Susanne McNally joined the faculty in 1972. Trained in Russian history, she has been interested for decades in global and local food systems. She’s teaching a first-year seminar titled: ‘You Are Where You Eat.’ In the course, students are reading, writing, harvesting, cooking and eating in the style of many of the people who have lived in Geneva, N.Y., including Iroquois, French Trappers, English settlers, African free and slave communities, and recent Geneva immigrants from Italy, Syria and Latin America. On the first day of class, students discussed Socrates and the mind-body distinction while making dorm food – Quesadillas melted with an iron.

SUSANNE MCNALLY ON THE FRONT STEPS AND (ABOVE LEFT) PICKING BASIL BEHIND HER ROW HOUSE ON SOUTH MAIN STREET. SHE’S COLLECTED RUSSIAN EGGS, ABOVE RIGHT, FOR YEARS.

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FACULTY AND STAFF AT HOME DEAN OF HOBART COLLEGE

Eugen Baer “For 28 years, I traveled with a jar of sweet orange marmalade,” says Eugen Baer. On Baer’s many trips to Europe to attend lectures and give seminars on the philosophy of medicine and semiotics, that jar was a visceral reminder of home. Now that the jam is readily available around the world, he no longer has to pack it, but the lesson is still relevant – home for Baer is much more nuanced than a roof and four walls. For Baer, home is about people, senses, history, experiences and books. The alchemy of these things together is what creates Baer’s experience of home.

When he isn’t on the road, Professor of Philosophy and Dean of Hobart College Eugen Baer P’95, P’97, HON ’07 lives on South Main Street in a home rented from Trinity Church.

He and his family – wife Karen Baer is the Executive Director of the Geneva Human Rights Commission and their son, Geni, is a fourth grader – moved here so that Eugen could be closer to campus. The couple also owns a house in Lodi, across Seneca Lake, and spends time each summer in Switzerland where they’ve rented the same chalet for years.

DEAN EUGEN BAER IN HIS HOME STUDY. HIS FATHER, A MOUNTAIN GUIDE AND PAINTER, IS A STRONG INFLUENCE IN THE ROOM; ON THE MANTLE IS A PHOTO OF HIM CLIMBING IN THE ALPS AND A SELF PORTRAIT. ABOVE LEFT: BAER POSES WITH WIFE, KAREN, AND SON, GENI. ABOVE RIGHT: BAER AND GENI COMPARE PHILOSOPHIES.

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PROFESSOR OF GEOSCIENCE

GEOSCIENCE LAB TECHNICIAN

John and Barbara Halfman John and Barbara Halfman lived in the City of

John’s brother, Pete, and John’s former student and

Geneva for 15 years before building their dream

now research technician, Kerry O’Neill ’09.

home on the west side of Seneca Lake. With sweeping views of meadows and the lake, the couple

“Our goal was to make it as energy efficient as

moved in a year ago.

possible,” says John. Solar panels on the roof generate so much electricity that the Halfmans sell

“The day we moved in, it felt like home,” says

power back to the grid. Six-inch concrete floors on the

Barbara. “There was no transition for us.” That could

main level soak up sun and radiate heat. The blown

be because John and Barbara designed – and for the

insulation is soy-based and the cement siding will last

most part built – the home themselves with help from

up to 60 years. “It’s the perfect home for us.”

After receiving his Ph.D. from Duke University and teaching at the Universities of Notre Dame and Minnesota, Professor of Geoscience John Halfman arrived at HWS in 1994. He has been a central figure in the creation and development of the Finger Lakes Institute.

Barbara Halfman is a geoscience lab technician at HWS. The couple have three children, all in college, and a dog, Sophie.

JOHN HALFMAN ON THE PORCH AT HIS NEW HOME OVERLOOKING SENECA LAKE. BARBARA AND JOHN (ABOVE LEFT) IN FRONT OF THEIR HOME.

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FACULTY AND STAFF AT HOME PROFESSOR OF ART

PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF ENGLISH

Elena Ciletti and Jim Crenner Elena Ciletti and Jim Crenner live on the east side of Seneca Lake in a farmhouse they purchased 24 years ago. “We didn’t buy a house,” Crenner jokes. “We bought two windows.”

Those windows overlook Seneca Lake, what Ciletti calls, “…the enduring presence in our lives.” A couple of years ago, working with Professor of Art and Architecture Stan Mathews, the couple built an extension including a new kitchen, sitting room and an indoor lap pool. On the walls is an enviable art collection made up of the works of Professors John Loftus, Nick Ruth and Mark Jones as well as students like Courtney Jones ’09. Outside are vegetable and flower gardens backing up to acres of farmland. When asked to define home, Crenner points to Ciletti and says: “Where she is,” while Ciletti points to Crenner and says: “Where he is.”

ELENA CILETTI AND JIM CRENNER IN THE KITCHEN WITH THE SPOILS OF THEIR GARDEN.

Professor Emeritus of English Jim Crenner joined the faculty in 1967 and is one of the founders of the Seneca Review, the Colleges’ literary journal. With a Ph.D. and M.F.A. from Iowa, Crenner’s poems have appeared in numerous journals and four books. He retired from HWS in 2008. Professor of Art Elena Ciletti earned her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She came to HWS in 1973 and currently holds the Classes of 1964 Professorship. Her scholarly interests include Renaissance and Baroque art, women artists and patrons, and African-American art. Her first book, an anthology, The Sword of Judith, was published in 2010.

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PROFESSOR OF ART

PROFESSOR OF ART

Ted Aub and Phillia Yi Artist Ted Aub can trace his ancestry back about 200

can take months between concept and completed

years – not bad for an American. But Korean-born

project with Aub working first on small clay models,

Artist Phillia Yi can trace hers back 70 generations.

eventually creating and pouring molds. Yi produces

Their South Main Street home reflects this natural

her large color woodblock prints using an etching

tension between modernity and history with the art

press, reduction methods and embossing. Each has

of their colleagues and son, Isaac, sharing space

a studio in the basement. “Home for us is from the

with ancient Korean pots. Although Aub and Yi each

heart,” says Yi. “We surround ourselves with things

have a different artistic form – his is sculpture and

we love and that have meaning to us.”

hers is woodblock – they both work in mediums that are time-consuming to produce. Sculpture

Professor of Art A. E. Ted Aub joined the faculty in 1981. His work has been exhibited in prestigious juried art competitions throughout the U.S. and internationally. Among his many commissioned works are sculptures of Elizabeth Blackwell and William Smith, both on the HWS campus. Since 1986, Professor of Art Phillia Yi has been creating her prints and woodcuts at HWS. The former John Milton Potter Professor in the Humanities, she is the recipient of the Award for Excellence in Teaching and a Fulbright Research Grant to South Korea.

PHILLIA YI AND TED AUB IN THEIR DINING ROOM, AND (ABOVE LEFT) IN THE KITCHEN. AT TOP RIGHT ARE PHOTOS OF THEIR BASEMENT STUDIOS.

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FACULTY AND STAFF AT HOME ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT OF INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT

Mara O’Laughlin “I remember watching Frank walk up the driveway with 12 trees in one hand,” laughs Mara O’Laughlin. Now the remaining trees – four willows – tower over the east side of the property overlooking Seneca Lake. Home to Mara and her late husband, Professor Emeritus of History Frank O’Laughlin, the two-story Georgian, built in 1806, has undergone a number of improvements including a library addition to house some of Frank’s 11,000 books and a patio created from bricks from the original Boswell Field Gatehouse on Pulteney Street. “We were fortunate that the interior with its beautiful woodwork, six fireplaces and Chinoiserie details was intact,” says Mara. “This historic house and the acre is sits on are a labor of love. This is my home and I’m proud to be its steward.”

MARA O’LAUGHLIN ON HER JOHN DEERE MOWER AT HER HOME ON THE EAST SIDE OF SENECA LAKE.

Mara O’Laughlin ’66 was director of admissions of William Smith College from 1974 to 1992, and then of Hobart and William Smith Colleges until 2005 when she took on a new role – that of assistant vice president of Institutional Advancement. She was instrumental in planning the William Smith Centennial and is currently fundraising for the new Center for the Performing Arts. Mara has established the Frank and Mara ’66 O’Laughlin Scholarship, which targets middle income students of high promise in their first year.

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FACULTY AND STAFF AT HOME

ASSISTANT DEAN OF HOBART COLLEGE

Dave Mapstone It all started because Dave and Kara Mapstone wanted to live on property large enough to house Kara’s horses.

So five years ago, they found a 40-acre farm on the east side of Seneca Lake. Perfect. Then Kara started spinning yarn, so they bought three sheep. Then Dave read The Omnivore’s Dilemma and wanted to try raising animals for food. And so it continued. Today, they have dozens of animals on the farm including sheep, horses, ponies, dairy goats, pigs and chickens. They joke that the pets are Kara’s responsibility and the consumable animals belong to Dave. They have a vegetable garden and make their own maple syrup. The couple and their three children, Sadie, Max and Bridget, are entirely self-taught and although they say the upkeep of the farm is a tremendous amount of work, it’s all worth it. “We made a conscious decision when we moved to the farm that we were making a long-term commitment to this area,” says Dave. “This was a lifestyle change; moving from college to college in order to climb the career ladder is no longer important. I would rather spend time Assistant Dean of Hobart College Dave Mapstone ’93 coordinates the HWS Learning Community initiative, is responsible for the Hobart first-year classes, is adviser to the Druid Honor Society, and coordinates the Pre-Orientation Adventure Program. He is completing his Ph.D. in Education from Syracuse University. Kara Kelly Mapstone ’92 has a masters in elementary education from Syracuse University and is a former elementary school teacher. Their children – Sadie, Max and Bridget – all help with chores.

helping my kids climb an aluminum ladder in order to fill the hay loft.”

THE MAPSTONES AT HOME ON THEIR FARM.

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FACULTY AT HOME

HWS | ca.1952 ATHLETICS

HWS Bowls Edwin J. Cook ’52, Thomas C. Powers ’52, Melvin R. Schantz ’52, Honorary Trustee L. Thomas Melly ’52, L.H.D.’02 and Stanley H. Long ’52 were members of the HWS Bowling Club. Today, there are more than 150 clubs for HWS students to choose from, including a cycling club and a chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

Retur ning to Ser ve

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Running Down a Dream

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Updates

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Athletics Returning to Serve

by Carrie Stevens ’12

PHOTO BY KEVIN COLTON

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GABY BERKMAN ’11

She attended every practice, cheered during every match and maintained a positive attitude. “It was difficult to watch my teammates and not be able to compete with them,” Berkman confesses.

aby Berkman ’11 picked up a tennis racket for the first time when she was five years old. “From a young age, it was something I really enjoyed doing,” the self-professed music buff says. But Berkman, who also ran cross country in high school, couldn’t imagine how far the sport – and its lessons – would take her.

As a William Smith first-year, Berkman began her career as a Heron with seven straight wins. She posted a team best 16-2 record. She collected the Liberty League Rookie of the Week Award twice. She earned an Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Scholar Athlete nomination. She soared.

But the course of her flight changed dramatically. An MRI in December 2008 revealed a labrum tear in her right shoulder, and the doctors hoped that taking a season off would help heal the damaged cartilage. Prohibited from competing, the Shelburne, Vt., native discovered other ways to support her teammates. She attended every practice, cheered during every match and maintained a positive attitude. “It was difficult to watch my teammates and not be able to compete with them,” she confesses.

Chip Fishback, William Smith’s tennis coach, noticed Berkman’s contributions and presented her with the Elizabeth Laird Redway Heia ’84 Tennis Coach’s Award at the 2009 Athletics Award Banquet. “To me, the award meant a ’great job, keep it up’ type of thing.

And it further proved that athletics and tennis extend off the court.”

In June 2009, Berkman underwent reconstructive labrum-capsule shoulder surgery. She studied abroad in Norwich, England, during the following fall semester and practiced with the squad during the spring season. This year, however, marks her resurgence on the court.

Her athletic accolades are impressive, but Berkman believes her greatest tennis

accomplishment is being able to don the signature William Smith green and white again. “Coming back and playing again is so important. It’s taught me not to take anything for granted and it’s reinforced the sheer joy I get from playing.”

Fishback welcomes Berkman’s return as well. “Wherever she plays [in the lineup], we know she won’t back down. With her big heart and strong commitment, Gaby is immensely valuable to the team as a leader. She is wise beyond her years, and I know her teammates have the utmost respect for her, for her game, and for what she’s had to overcome. She’s a terrific tennis player, but she’s an even better person. She is invaluable to this team.”

Besides teaching her resiliency, dedication and commitment, Berkman says tennis has helped her in the real world. “This summer I interned at Green Mountain Coffee, and they were impressed with my time management skills, my confidence in speaking and interacting with others, and my ability to overcome challenges.”

Working 40 hours a week for the Waterbury, Vt.-based company, Berkman’s responsibilities as a paid public relations intern included communicating with food and beverage bloggers, conducting demographic research, scanning company ads, circulating mailings and acting as a liaison between the corporate team and the consumers. The English major even wrote a few blog entries and press releases. “I enjoyed the PR world,” she says. “It was a great opportunity and I made some great connections. However, I would love to enter the advertising business after graduation.”

Most importantly, Berkman credits athletics as a stepping stone toward success. “I don’t think I would’ve had the confidence to go out and get an internship without the confidence I gained though playing tennis.”●

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ATHLETICS

Running Down a Dream

H

eeding Tom Petty’s advice, Hobart cross country runner Michael Doane ’11 is running down his dream.

The psychology major’s race began in seventh grade when he joined the Marathon High School track and field team. Running year-round – going from cross country in the fall to indoor track in the winter to outdoor track in the spring – fostered a passion for the sport.

“I decided running in college would be a great way for me to pursue my interest,” says Doane. “In addition, I knew being on the cross country team would give me the opportunity to become part of a tight-knit group on campus.”

When Doane toured the Hobart and William Smith campus as a high school senior, he discovered another dream he wanted to chase: studying abroad.

“One of the reasons I decided to attend Hobart College was its extensive amount of study abroad programs. When I first heard about the Galway, Ireland, program, I realized I wanted to be a part of such an amazing opportunity.”

‘Going wherever it leads’ took Doane to Ireland. The cognition, logic and language and sociology dual minor spent the fall 2009 semester in the city and studied at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG). While there, he formed a

Athletics Updates

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ith the fall seasons nearing the midway point at press time, here’s a quick look at how the Herons and Statesmen are doing: HWS SAILING Ranked 10th in the Sailing World coed rankings and 11th in the women’s rankings, the HWS sailing team is off to another strong start. The squad owns four regatta victories so far, most notably at the Faye Bennet Trophy. Arielle deLisser ’14 became the first Heron to win the Bennet, earning a berth in the ICSA Women’s Singlehanded National Championship.

WILLIAM SMITH SOCCER (7-2-2, 1-0-2) On the strength of a non-conference schedule that included three nationally ranked teams, the Herons are ranked seventh in the nation. William Smith

relationship with Doctors Brian Hughes and Siobhán Howard, conducting research at NUIG’s Center for Research on Occupational and Life Stress. Doane’s exemplary work as a visiting researcher yielded an offer for a summer position.

“My experience with collegiate athletics has definitely helped with my academics,” Doane says. He believes the commitment of being on a team helps him prioritize work and other obligations.

For five weeks, Doane assisted the university with its Sleep, Health and Wellness project. “The most rewarding part was the hands-on experience I gained with data analyses and the research process,” he says. “Additionally, I was able to help organize and run an international conference for the Stress and Anxiety Research Society.”

Geneva-based for one more year, Doane returned to the cross country team for his senior campaign. Coach Ron Fleury is excited to have the leader back. “He is one of our captains for this fall. I’m very proud to have worked with him in the past I’m looking forward to this fall season.”

Looking ahead, Doane has his sights set on another dream: graduate school. “I’m applying to Ph.D. programs in social and personality psychology. I want to continue my studies and conduct research in my areas of interest, like religion and well-being.” ●

PHOTO BY ANDREW MARKHAM

by Carrie Stevens ’12

MICHAEL DOANE ’11

When Doane toured the Hobart and William Smith campus as a high school senior, he discovered another dream he wanted to chase: studying abroad.

FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE SCORES, GO TO WWW.HWSATHLETICS.COM

has posted impressive wins over No. 18 Denison 4-1 and No. 7 Williams 3-1.

All-American BreLynn Nasypany ’11 has continued her climb up the scoring charts. With nine goals and four assists this year, she is fourth on the career lists for goals (44), assists (23) and points (111).

WILLIAM SMITH FIELD HOCKEY (9-2, 2-1) With seven consecutive wins to start the season, the Herons climbed into the national rankings. William Smith moved up to No. 15 after beating No. 17 Franklin & Marshall 2-1, but slipped a spot following a loss at No. 15 Skidmore. Emily Atwan ’11 paces the offense with 22 points, including a Liberty League leading nine goals.

HOBART SOCCER (6-2-2, 0-1-1) The Statesmen raised eyebrows with a 2-1 overtime win at two-time defending national champion Messiah, vaulting to No. 2 in the coaches’ poll. A 1-2-2 swoon saw Hobart slip out of the poll, but the team bounced back with wins over Nazareth and Fredonia heading into important Liberty League matches. The Statesmen boast a balanced attack with 20 players recording at least one point this season. Kevin McCarthy ’11 leads the way with seven.

back Steven Webb ’14. He leads the conference in touchdowns (9) and is on pace to match the season record of Don Aleksiewicz ’73 (20 in 1971).

HOBART FOOTBALL (2-2, 0-1) While Hobart has had mixed results heading into a key conference game with Union, there’s no denying some of the Statesmen are off to fast starts.

Grabbing the headlines with four straight Liberty League weekly awards is running

HOBART CROSS COUNTRY The Class of 2014 has led the Statesmen in every race this season.

Josh Kirkman ’14 was the first Hobart harrier across the finish line in the first four races, including a third place effort in the Hobart Invitational, leading the Statesmen to the team title.

WILLIAM SMITH CROSS COUNTRY Maggie Nash may only be a first-year, but she’s leading the Heron cross country team like a veteran. The first William Smith entry across the line in all five races this year, Nash has three top-10 finishes to her name and has led the Herons to a pair of team titles.

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Classnotes

PHOTO BY ANDREW MARKHAM

Classnotes HWS students have the need for speed. James Baker ‘96, representing Alumni House, and Matthew Mead ‘13 of Team Cess Clothing Co., race to the bottom of William Smith Hill in 2010. Mead was DECLARED the winner. (inset) students take their marks for the race in the early 1970s.

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Classnotes facebook pages for ALL Classes are now online

Abridged Classnotes.

A Lifetime of Service

by Jessie Meyers ’10

Return Date: June 4, 2010 Reason For Coming Home to HWS:

Reunion 2010

“I

love the liberal arts,” says Will K. Weinstein ’60, L.H.D. ’04. “It’s why I love this school and why I support its students.”

Even though Weinstein currently works, teaches and lives on the West Coast, the thousands of miles between Geneva and San Francisco aren’t enough to keep him away from his alma mater.

Not only does he visit campus often, he volunteers at the Salisbury Center for Career Services, regularly supporting the Colleges with his expert advice and philosophy. For his extraordinary dedication to the Colleges, Weinstein was honored with the Alumni Association’s Lifetime Service Award at his 50th Reunion in 2010.

“I have respect and sincere appreciation for my time at HWS. Since my time as a Hobart student, it has developed into a school I’m genuinely proud of. President Gearan places importance on what matters to the people here,” he reflects.

Today Weinstein is Chairman of WIG, LP, a money management firm in San Francisco, Calif., and serves as a financial and investment adviser and money manager to a number of individuals and corporations. Serving on the advisory board of several business and health care organizations, he has delivered health care commentaries at conferences and institutions of higher learning, as well as on radio and television. Recently, Weinstein returned to HWS for Reunion 2010 to moderate the first Reunion Symposium, focused on U.S. health care reform.

Will Weinstein ’60, L.H.D. ’04 Weinstein is also an adjunct professor at San Francisco State University and the University of Hawaii-Manoa where he lectures on ethics in the graduate business and law schools. “Even if I only reach 100 or 200 people, it’s something,” he says of his teaching.

Weinstein double majored in philosophy and psychology as a Hobart student. He was active in his fraternity, Beta Sigma Tau, and in the philosophy and psychology cubs. A Druid and member of the Orange Key and Chimera societies, he also played soccer and baseball.

He earned a masters degree in psychology from Ohio State University in 1962 and, for the past 40 years, has been active in the financial services industry, as governor of the Midwest Stock Exchange, governor of the American Stock Exchange, and partner, chairman and CEO of several brokerage firms.

From 1974-1979, he served on the Colleges’ Board of Trustees.

In 1983, he established The Drs. Abraham and Lenore K. Weinstein Scholarship and the Lenore K. Weinstein Social Service Scholarship.

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Classnotes

Returning Home: An Educator’s Perspective

A More Humane Society for All

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

Return Date: June 4, 2010

by Kathryn Bowering ’11

Reason For Coming Home to HWS: 45th Reunion

Return Date: Feb. 16, 2010 Reason For Coming Home to HWS: Professionals in Residence lecture: “How to Have a Long, Happy Career in Education: A Practical Guide”

“D

uring my first and sophomore years at HWS, I was the only black woman on campus,” says Joan Adams ‘65.

Her social situation was sometimes isolating—for example, she was the only first-year student assigned to a single room—but she developed solid friendships and greatly enjoyed her academic experience. She credits her liberal arts education with teaching her to ask ‘why.’

“Eventually, I became involved with the Civil Rights Movement on campus,” she says. “I was drawn to issues of social justice, and for me it was important to meet people my age – both white and black – who also recognized the importance of equality and justice.”

Her interest in social justice and diversity led her to a career in social work. She earned a masters degree at the Fordham School of Social Work and worked in mental health settings while participating in civil rights and community empowerment groups outside of work.

Today, Adams is the founder and senior consultant of Anti-Racism and Multicultural Consultation and Training Services at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services. There, she works with social agencies as well as with the New York City Administration for Children’s Services and the NYS Office of Child and Family Services.

She also maintains a private practice, providing psychotherapy as well as consultation and training to organizations around racial equity and cultural competence.

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F Joan Adams ’65 “Throughout my career I have used my clinical skills to train others around the impact of various social identities and structural oppression based on race, culture and sexual orientation,” says Adams.

In addition, Adams works with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, a national organization that helps communities organize to dismantle structural racism by developing an historical analysis and common language about the construction of race and racism in the United States.

“Racism is done. It’s constructed,” she says. “We have a system whose institutions advantage people considered white and disadvantage people of color. The often unspoken acceptance of white superiority that underlies systemic racism is imbedded in our national psyche. We can’t undo that unless everyone understands how racism was constructed, and that’s what the People’s Institute is doing.

“We don’t live in a post-racial society, but we have made strides,” she says. “I am reality-based, but I am not a pessimist. I just have to keep moving, keep spreading the word.”

or Robin Dissin Aufses ‘71, P’11, discovering her life’s calling as an educator began with pursuing her passions as an undergraduate student through courses in the English department as well as through student teaching opportunities and close bonds with professors.

“I would say that everything I do now as a teacher and an administrator was shaped by what I learned at HWS,” says Aufses, who credits HWS as a formative driver behind her nearly 35 year teaching career.

Currently, Aufses is the director of English studies at the bilingual school Lycée Français de New York, a private school founded in 1935 with 1,300 students in nursery school through 12th grade. The curriculum embraces French language and culture while emphasizing American educational values that foster creativity and pragmatism.

The strong bicultural and bilingual program sends graduates to prestigious universities all over the United States, Canada and the European Union.

“It’s really an interesting place,” she says of the school where she teaches advanced placement English courses. “A third of the students have two French parents, a third have one,

Robin Dissin Aufses ’71, P’11 and a third are from families who want an international education for their children. Speaking a second—or third—language is second nature to the students.”

Aufses notes that even with strong French cultural ties, most of her AP English students really identify themselves first and foremost as Americans, creating an interesting multi-cultural dynamic within the school.

Today, as the parent of a Hobart senior, Aufses still feels close to her alma mater. Last February, she gave a talk as part of the Salisbury Center for Career Services’ Professionals in Residence series and met with three education classes together over a roundtable lunch.

“I’m glad I did it. Visiting HWS always feels like coming home,” says Aufses. “No matter what your home situation is, it is always nice to have that ‘other’ home, where you just like being there.

HWS is that place for me. It was only four years of my life, but it was such a vivid four years, such an important, well-lived four years. We had the best time.”

Classnotes

Beyond the Classroom

Staying Connected: 30 Years of Insight

by Drew Monroe ’12

Return Date: April 1, 2010

by Kathryn Bowering ‘11

Reason For Coming Home to HWS: Professionals in Residence lecture: “A Career in Investment Banking”

Return Date: April 21, 2010 Reason For Coming Home to HWS: Professionals in Residence lecture: “Networking for Jobs and Internships from the Employers’ Perspectives”

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ike many HWS students and alums, a high school visit on a beautiful April day was all it took to convince an 18-year-old Craig Stine ’81 to apply to Hobart College. The ability to re-live that feeling is one of the reasons he visits campus.

Another reason? “I think it’s important to help enlighten current students about working in finance beyond the classroom,” he explains. Stine is the cohead of investment banking for Citadel Securities. In the past several years, Stine has been back to campus to offer three Professionals in Residence lectures and has participated in the Salisbury Center for Career Services’ Wall Street Experience in New York City.

“Thirty years ago when I graduated from HWS, I felt there was a radical shift from the comforts of learning economics from a textbook to working in the real world of finance,” he says.

“As an alum, I feel a sense of duty to help interested students and provide insights into the intricacies of finance, the ins and outs of the field that a student can’t learn in the classroom.”

Stine’s expertise serves as a helpful guide for HWS students looking to succeed in the financial job market, and his visits to campus have allowed him to get to know many current students.

“H Craig Stine ’81 Stine’s confidence in HWS students is so strong that he’s even offered employment to HWS grads.

“I met Trevor Pieri ’08 during one of my recent visits to campus,” says Stine. “He has such clear aspirations and strong character, that I hired him. If I could offer employment to many more HWS economics majors, I would.”

Stine also supports students through a recently endowed scholarship fund for an HWS economics junior that covers the cost of the student’s tuition, room and board.

Prior to joining Citadel in 2009, Stine spent nearly 18 years with Citi (Salomon Brothers), most recently as co-head of the North American Financial Institutions Group and head of Diversified Financials and Banks. He began his career with PNC Financial Group in Philadelphia. An economics major, Stine was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity and went on to earn an MBA from Temple University.

ome is a place where you get to find out who you are, where you have the room to think, where you have the room to find out who you are going to be,” says Adele F. Schlotzhauer ‘83. “I think Hobart and William Smith have a phenomenal way, through history and tradition, through staff and faculty, to make you fit to become who you want to be.”

For Schlotzhauer, HWS was and still is home. Since her graduation, staying connected to her alma mater has been a huge part of her life. She has given back in countless ways, from serving as class correspondent for 10 years to working with career services to helping as a reunion volunteer.

Recently, Schlotzhauer joined the HWS Board of Trustees as a William Smith Alumnae Association Trustee.

“All of these things kept me very connected to the institution.

It was truly an honor to be asked to join the Board of Trustees. I can’t think of a more meaningful way to give back,” says Schlotzhauer. “HWS is a strong, vibrant institution, and if I can help sustain that, there is no greater way to give back.”

Schlotzhauer reflects on her time at HWS as, “a very interesting juncture in the history of the institution,” noting that the femi-

Trustee Adele Schlotzhauer ’83 nist movement was in full force and that Dean Rebecca MacMillan Fox L.H.D.’95 represented that spirit.

“She embodied the ability to be a very strong voice for women.

Strong but not adversarial,” says Schlotzhauer, who believes that the strength she saw in Fox was crucial to her own success in the workforce.

“I have worked in predominantly male environments, and William Smith provided a very different platform to move forward in my life than my female counterparts,” says Schlotzhauer, whose human resources career in Boston has encompassed financial services, public accounting and commercial real estate.

Schlotzhauer still uses skills she learned at William Smith, such as collaboration, understanding different ways of thinking, and most importantly confidence in her own voice and abilities. “William Smith as a women’s college and all that that brings with it is the reason I went there and what I carry forward with me. It’s made a difference in my whole life.”

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Classnotes

Photos Kate Ustach ’07 married Rick Beyer ’07 on June 19 in Auburn, Maine. In attendance were (back row, l to r) Ben Sio ’07, Chris Duffy ’07, Rob Stevenson ’07, Edward Cook ’07, Nick Cream ’07, the groom, Allison McCartney ’07, Elizabeth Flynn ’07, Katelyn Miller ’07, Caroline Cooke ’07, Jennifer Beyer Belden ’00, (front row, l to r) Ryan Williams ’07, Shane Saunders ’07, the bride, Hannah Wesley ’07 and Amy Schwartz ’07.

Blake Bonham ’10, Sarah Burton ’11, Dr. Jeremy Cushman ’96 and Susan Flanders Cushman ’98 meet up in Canada.

Caitlin McGrath Brizee ’03 and Truman John Brizee ’03 were married on October 10th, 2009, in Pittsfield, Vt. HWS alums in attendance include (front row, left to right) T. Peter Brizee ’70, Margaret Caraberis ’71, Vanessa Pagnani ’03, Jaqueline Scully ’03, Margarita Huelgas ’03, Truman Brizee ’03, Caitlin McGrath Brizee ’03, Justin Jones ’04, Meg Shaner ’03, Jeff O’Neil ’03, (back row, left to right) Nicole Roche ’03, Nathaniel Breighner ’04, Matt Sinni ’04, Christian Gould ’02, Jennifer Britt Gould ’03, Dan Bobis ’03, Sean Willigan ’04, Matthew Luckey ’05, Heather Easter ’04, Colin Hayes ’03 and Whitney Lanphear Hayes ’04.

Meghan Spelman ’05 and Billy Vigne ’05 were married, and many, many HWS friends were in attendance, including Maid of Honor Liz Orum ’05; Bridesmaids Ashley Knowlton ’05, Paige Ryan’05, Tuohy Ahern ’05 and Lauren Armstrong Spelman ’01; and Groomsmen Matt Sullivan ’05, Kevin Cox ’06 and Thomas Spelman ’01.

Ethel Cermak ’34 (center) and her family vacation on Lake Champlain.

Eric Hall Anderson ’59 in front of ’The Devil’s Lair’ on a trail outside Saas Fee, Switzerland, in June 2010.

Jillian E. Oberfield ’01, Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass), and Caroline W. Spruill ’12 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. This past summer, Spruill served as a Congressional Intern with the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which the Congressman chairs, and Oberfield was a Legislative Assistant to the Congressman in his Washington, D.C. office.

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Don Bogart ’61, P’94 (center) traveled to China for the Huntsman World Senior Games Friendship Volleyball Tour, where he handed out HWS T-shirts to some of the rival teams as a gesture of friendship.

Classnotes

Kappa Sigma brothers Kevin Haggerty ’02, Ryan Adams ’03, Jason Nackley ’03, Trevor Chalmers ’03, Phil Gillio ’05, Derek Beatrice ’03, and Bryan Good ’03 party at The Bogg (currently owned by Good).

Alexis Santi ’99 was married in October of 2008 to Leslie Sanazaro. Attending were Best Man Josh Campbell ’99, Ben Seamans ’99, Patrick Mueller ’99, and Josh Rice ’97.

Professor of Religious Studies Lowell Bloss and Assistant Professor of History Lisa Yoshikawa (left, front) meet with HWS alums and supporters in Japan.

Charlie Updegraph ’90 and wife Roxanne Lawrence enjoy a great view for a World Cup soccer match in South Africa.

Charles Margiloff, son of Trustee Will Margiloff ’92, works the floor at Madison Square Garden.

Joy Klappholz ’01 married Jon Kloss ’03 in Brookfield, Conn., in October 2009. In attendance were (front row, left to right) Carol Lee Pyfer ’01, Matt Ferry ’03, John Funkhouser ’04, Sarah Swanton Madio ’02, Glenn Madio ’03, Marie Swiech-Laflamme ’02, (back row, left to right) Richard Adrian Mott ’03, Amie Blake, Virginia Speitel LeClair ’01, Eric LeClair ’01, Sabine Kullman ’01, Jonathan Kloss ’03, Joy Klappholz Kloss ’01, Aaron Eaton ’03, Lesley Crawford ’01, Heather Metivier ’02, Drew Klappholz ’00, Bob Spencer ’03 and Ana Spencer.

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Classnotes

Mentoring HWS Students

At Home on the Hill

by Sarah Burton ’11

by Andrew Donovan ’11 and Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ’05

Return Date: Dec. 3, 2009

Return Date: June 4, 2010

Reason For Coming Home to HWS: Professionals in Residence lecture: “Careers in Finance Beyond the Numbers.”

Reason For Coming Home to HWS: 25th Reunion

“I

“A

t the end of the day, persistence will always win out.”

Brooke Parish ’84, a partner at York Capital Management, has always followed this advice. As a Hobart student, he developed his persistence as he balanced three on-campus jobs while earning his degree in history.

While none of his on-campus jobs, or his history degree, apply directly to his profession today, he says that they all pointed him in the right direction. “I learned through these experiences that I like to work with people,” he says.

As a result, much of his career has involved managing client relationships, and he is responsible for the management of York’s marketing and client advisory services group.

This leads to Parish’s second piece of advice: “Think broadly about the types of opportunities out there.”

This past December, Parish passed on his advice when he returned to his alma mater to speak with students interested in a career in finance as part of the Professionals in Residence Series. In addition to encouraging students to be persistent and to think broadly, Parish stressed the need, “to leverage resources; to make use of contacts and networking.”

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Brooke Parish ’84 “My motivation for coming back to campus was two-fold,” he says.

“I wanted to give back to Hobart.

I wasn’t an economics major, but I did learn how to learn – to analyze information and to think critically.

I wanted to let students know that they have been given the tools to be successful.”

Parish says that his greatest satisfaction is that, so far, he has been able to connect two HWS students with internships at York Capital Management.

Prior to joining York Capital Management in 2003, Parish worked in New York City at Lazard Asset Management.

Previously, he worked in San Francisco at a start-up alternative asset management firm, and spent seven years with Bessemer Trust where he was the head of the alternative asset management group in New York. Parish’s career began right out of college in Boston in the Employee Benefits Division of Aetna Life Insurance Company.

gained a sense of independence at Hobart and William Smith,” says Mehrnaz Vahid-Ahdieh ‘85, known as Naz to her friends.

“HWS encouraged me to try different things. My professors took the fear out of trying and I wasn’t judged for my failures or for standing against what I disagreed with, but celebrated for my performances and strong beliefs.”

Today, Vahid-Ahdieh is the global market manager at Citi Private Bank. In this role she manages 14 offices in the United States and London that serve the legal industry both at the institutional and individual level. This group is responsible for a significant portion of the revenues at Citi Private Bank.

But when she came to HWS, she wanted to study psychology.

That all changed when she took an economics course with Professor of Economics William Waller. “It was like a light bulb went off over my head,” she says. In the end, Vahid-Ahdieh double majored in economics and sociology with Waller as her mentor. But her William Smith experience wasn’t all about academics.

Vahid-Ahdieh maintained a sense of balance, serving on William Smith Congress and as a resident adviser in Blackwell House. She also worked in the library, in Saga and as a teaching assistant.

When she graduated, Vahid-

Mehrnaz Vahid-Ahdieh ’85 Ahdieh considered working for the International Monetary Fund, but soon after graduation she was offered an internship, and ultimately a job, at CitiBank. She has been with the banking giant for 25 years, but she remembers HWS fondly and visits when she can.

“HWS is my home. It’s where I grew up,” says Vahid-Ahdieh.

“My years in Geneva were the most formidable ones of my life, the years where I developed my work ethic and came into myself as a person. I gained a sense of responsibility for those around me, understood my ability to take a stand against social and economic issues I disagreed with as well as a sense of myself as a feminist. “ Visiting campus during Reunion 2010, she felt proud to show her daughter the statue of Elizabeth Blackwell and happy to share her memories. “My daughter will be starting to look at Colleges in a few years, and that made this visit to campus that much more special,” she says. “Standing at the lake, looking up at the residence halls on the hill—nothing beats that.”

Classnotes

William (Gold) Smith Alumna

Doing Good, While Doing Well

by Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley ‘05

by William B. Zale ’11

Return Date: June 4, 2010

Return Date: June 4, 2010 Reason For Coming Home to HWS: Reunion 2010

Reason For Coming Home to HWS: 25th Reunion

“D

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oldsmith and jewelry maker Ellen Unterberg Celli ‘85 started young.

“I took jewelry-making classes as a kid at the Y and at summer camp, but I never really thought it was something I could do as a career,” says the artist.

To create her tiny, sparkling works of art, Celli starts with raw gold, which she melts into highkarat gold alloy and mills into wire or sheeting. From these materials, she produces her designs by hand – necklaces, earrings, bracelets and other pieces.

“I love working with my hands, thinking about color, seeing new gems and stones. Some days, I spend hours in my studio, melting and milling and thinking about my designs,” she says.

Celli, who studied abroad in Florence during her junior year at HWS, says her works are inspired by the colors and light she first studied during that trip to Italy.

“The art in Italy really caught my eye. In the paintings of the Renaissance, light is often depicted as the color gold. I strive for the same effect in my work,” she says. “I want the gold and the gemstones not just to reflect the light but to be a source of it.”

Her signature design is a pair of simple gold hoops that can be dressed up with more than 80 different interchangeable drops.

The drops come in a wide variety of styles and colors, giving Celli’s clients versatility and allowing them to add pieces over time, almost like a charm bracelet.

“My prices are high but fair for the materials that I use,” she says.

“With the price of gold where it is, it would be cheaper to have

Ellen Unterberg Celli ’85 my pieces manufactured. I could sell more for less, but that’s just not me and that’s not why I do this.”

Though her business started out as a hobby, making pieces for friends in exchange for raw materials, these days Celli sells her wearable works of art online through her website (ellencellijewelry.com) as well as at trunk shows and in retail stores.

“I’ve had several trunk shows in the homes of alums, like Jane Blum Ebby ‘84, who lived next door to me freshman year, Sandy Scherzer Gross ‘85 and Katherine Dietrich Kahn ‘86,” she says. “My William Smith friends have all been very supportive.”

Celli, mother of three and wife to Andrew Celli ‘87, is an active member of the HWS community.

She served on the HWS Board of Trustees from 1996-1999 and has been a Reunion volunteer and Career Services mentor.

“I was so happy at William Smith, so it feels good to give back” says Celli. “The campus has changed in the past 25 years, but I still feel very comfortable coming back to campus and visiting my favorite professors and chatting with students.”

uring my first visit to campus, I fell in love.

HWS immediately felt like home,” says Ludwig Gaines ’88, of counsel at Rich Rosenthal Brincefield Manitta Dzubin & Kroeger LLP. Gaines credits his HWS experience with shaping his voice, a voice that is often heard representing companies, from small and in-need businesses to multimillion-dollar corporations, in court before the local and federal government.

“My experiences at HWS prepared me for all the scenarios I would encounter out in the real world,” says Gaines. He credits Professor Emeritus of Political Science Joe DiGangi, Professor of Political Science Iva Deutchman and Professor of Public Policy Craig Rimmerman with helping to shape his intellect.

Since graduating from Hobart in 1988 with a degree in political science, Gaines earned his Juris Doctor from Howard University, served a judicial clerkship, taught law at Howard University, and was twice elected to the Alexandria, Va., City Council.

In and out of elected office, Gaines has been a powerful voice for those in need, fighting for affordable and workforce housing opportunities, job training, economic development and tourism, support for small business, and first-class public schools.

As a councilman, Gaines led child and senior citizen safety, gang prevention, and emergency preparedness initiatives and established Alexandria’s Poet Laureate. He also co-led and authored the city’s 2009 affordable housing initiative report and was chair of the powerful Metropoli-

Councilman Ludwig Gaines ’88 tan Washington Planning Commission.

After selling their IT management and consulting business, he and his wife, Crystal, recently established the GAINES Foundation to support their community and philanthropic efforts.

For his public service and commitment to the community, Gaines has received a key to the City of Alexandria, the D.C.-area Unsung Hero Award, as well as the NAACP Community Service Award, among other commendations and accolades.

In 2003, Gaines returned to the Colleges for several days as the John Henry Hobart Visiting Fellow in Ethics and Social Justice, a position offered to Hobart alums who have “carried forward the values and skills of liberal learning.” Gaines was also well received recently as Hobart’s Charter Day speaker.

“I have always had great affection for the Colleges,” he says.

“But under President Gearan, the opportunity to receive an excellent education has been coupled with the opportunity to perform public service. This school is a remarkable incubator in that regard, an exemplar of scholarship wed to service, and I am prouder than ever to be an alumnus.”

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Classnotes

To Make a Difference

by Amber Jackson ’13

Return Date: June 4, 2010 Reason For Coming Home to HWS: 15th Reunion

“A

t HWS, it was clear that, as students, we had the power and the responsibility to make a difference in the world,” says Reverend Alison Propeck Harrity ’95, an associate rector for Family Ministries and Outreach at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Wayne, Pa. “My academic experience at HWS was wonderful,” she continues, crediting a course taught

by Professor of Religious Studies Michael Dobkowski with helping her discover her calling.

“I never felt that I was here just to get an education and make money. It was not about personal gain,” continues Harrity. “It was all about life enrichment, about becoming aware of the world around you. It was about learning how to use your strengths and gifts to make a difference in the world.”

Her commitment to making a difference has only grown since her graduation from Hobart and William Smith. After graduating with a degree in psychology, Harrity got her masters in divinity at the Church of Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Calif. She was ordained priest at St. Gregory’s in Boca Raton, Fla. in 2000 and in 2004 moved to St. David’s.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to serve the congregation at St. David’s,” she says. “They’re all wonderful people, and they had so much to do with my formation

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Reverend Alison Propeck Harrity ’95 as a priest, pastor, teacher and preacher, wife and mother.”

A native of South Florida, Harrity met her husband Mark Harrity while serving as Youth Minister at St. David’s before she entered seminary. They were married in the chapel at St. David’s in 1998. Now, she and her husband Mark live in the old rectory on the St. David’s campus with their two children, Spencer and Libby.

Harrity credits her success in life, at least in part, to Hobart and William Smith. “I learned the skills and gained the confidence that have allowed me to move forward with whatever I wanted to do.”

Her appreciation for Hobart and William Smith gives her the drive to stay connected to the school as a member of the Reunion Committee and interviewer for prospective students for the office of admissions.

“Every time I come back there is something new, and that’s pretty extraordinary,” adds Harrity.

Gear for Humans and Canines THE COLLEGE STORE

51 St. Clair Street, Geneva NY 14456; Phone: (315) 781-3449 Fax: (315) 781-3450; Hours: MTh: 9 -5; F- Sa: 9-4:30

HWS | ca.1965 ASSOCIATIONS

The Herald The Herald is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Geneva—first published in 1879 as The Hobart Herald. In 1965, the paper had its own base of operations on campus in a small house. These days, the hardworking student editors and writers of The Herald work in a state-of-the-art publications suite in the Scandling Campus Center.

Community Ser vice Aw ard 90 Upcoming Events

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Associations Board Presents Community Service Award

November Rochester, NY Chicago, IL PHOTO BY KEVIN COLTON

www.hwsalumni.com

Upcoming Event Locations

D

uring Moving Up Day 2010, Honorary Trustee Roy Dexheimer ’55, P’86, LL.D. ’80 honored Lucia Lowe Wheeler ’42 with the inaugural Trustee’s Community Service Award.

When presenting Wheeler with the award, Dexheimer said: “Lucia has dedicated her life to

December Portland, ME Boston, MA Buffalo, NY Syracuse, NY New York, NY January Baltimore, MD Washington, DC Rochester, NY Los Angeles, CA San Francisco, CA Westchester, NY For up-to-date information about these and other upcoming events, visit us on Facebook, or at www.hwsalumni.com or call Alumni House toll free at 877-497-4438.

After graduating from William Smith, Wheeler became a teacher. A longtime volunteer for the Ontario-Yates County Rape Crisis Center, the Hospice Center and her church, Wheeler has served on numerous community boards and is a charter member and fourth president of Alpha Tau Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma International, a society of women educators.

Over the arc of her life, her passion for the community has been recognized through numerous awards. In 2000, she was awarded Volunteer of the Year by the Catholic Charities of the Finger Lakes and in that same year was presented with St. Mark’s Outstanding Service Award. In 2003, she received the award for Outstanding Advocacy and Community Work in Ending Sexual Violence from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. In 2004, she received the Donald and Corinne Stork Award for Community Service at Keuka College. ●

Honorary Trustee Roy Dexheimer ’55, P’86, LL.D. ’80 honored Lucia Lowe Wheeler ’42 with the inaugural Trustee’s Community Service Award.

the service of others. She has kept her community at the forefront of her priorities, serving in dozens of capacities and acting as a role model for all those around her.

“At the age of 90, when most people have slowed down, Lucia continues to actively work to improve her community,” he continued. “It seems only fitting that we present her with the inaugural Hobart and William Smith Trustee’s Community Service Award.”

The Hobart and William Smith Colleges Board of Trustees established the Community Service Award in 2009 to recognize members of the HWS community who have demonstrated an extraordinary and sustained volunteer commitment in serving their communities; local, regional, national and international.

“Hobart and William Smith Colleges believe in producing students who are civically engaged and graduates who are active, global citizens,” says Trustee Dr. Richard L. Wasserman ’70, the chair of the Board’s Honors Committee. “The Board of Trustees hopes to celebrate those individuals who live lives of consequence, lives that serve as an example for all of us.”

New ALAA Leadership During its spring meeting, the Afro-Latino Alumni/ae Association elected several Board members, including President Rafael Rodriguez ’07 and Vice President Chevanne DeVaney ’95. The group also set priorities, renewing their commitment to further connecting and enhancing the Colleges’ community of alumni and students of color.

“This year we elected the youngest and most diverse board in the history of ALAA,” says Rodriguez. “We also laid out a set of goals, and we’re very excited to begin working on them in collaboration with HWS staff members.”

ALAA’s objectives include establishing a calendar of annual and regional events, improving communication within ALAA and with the larger alum community, and engaging the HWS administration in areas of concern for alums and students of color.

If you’re interested in learning more about ALAA or would like to become involved, contact Rodriguez at rrodrig1@uvm.edu.

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ASSOCIATIONS

Club Events

Wearing matching Nantucket reds Wyatt Welles; Trustee Chris Welles ’84, P’12; Director of Alumni Relations Jared Weeden ’91; Eric Hall Anderson ’59 and Ben Foster ’95 pose for a photo during a summer gathering hosted by Chris and wife Rene Whitney Welles ’83 P’12.

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

Alums get together in support of the Statesmen lacrosse team during a tailgate at Fairfield University.

Alums gather on the waterfront for a summer gathering on the Jersey Shore, hosted by Daniel and Pamela Lucas ’81 Rew P’14.

Alumni, alumnae, parents and friends of the Colleges gather at the Harbor View Hotel and Resort in Edgartown, Mass., during a Summer Gathering hosted by Alan Worden ‘87.

William Smith lacrosse fans tailgate before cheering their team on against RPI.

At the home of Robert ’73 and Lisa Loring P’06, alums celebrate fine weather and good company with Colleges President Mark D. Gearan. (below) Susanne Madeira Coffin ’79, P’05; Mary Haack P’09; Sarah Coffin ’05 and Harry Madeira P’76, P’78, P’79, GP’05 reconnect at the home of Grant and Trustee Suzanne Folds McCullagh P’11 in Maine.

HWS community members enjoy an HWS Summer Gathering in Watch Hill, R.I., at the home of Stephen and Amy Sills P’11.

The HWS Club of Cleveland assembles outside the home of Tom ’94 and Kate Altadonna ’94 Morley.

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BOOKSHELF

About a Mountain Hobart alum writes about the uselessness of information

by Andrew Wickenden ’09 About a Mountain by John D’Agata ’95 is full of catalogs. Of words, of lives, of city life and life in a desert city, of the vistas of Las Vegas, of the buildings of Las Vegas, of the signs of Las Vegas, of the people of Las Vegas.

The book, about the plan by the U.S. Federal Government to fill Yucca Mountain, located a hundred miles northwest of Las Vegas, with tens of thousands of tons of nuclear waste, becomes as much a meditation on human existence, communication and meaning as on the ecological ramifications of the proposal.

As he worked on the robust, complicated book, D’Agata turned to one of his writing mentors and friends, the late Professor of English Deborah Tall.

“Deborah read the very first draft of About a Mountain—long before I let anyone else read it,” he says. “To be honest, the book was a disaster at that stage, but I didn’t know it. I’d been working on it for so long that I simply couldn’t ’see’ it any longer. Deborah’s clear-eyed criticism—a mix of inspiring encouragement and brutal honesty— helped me realize what the book was actually about, and that ultimately helped me trim down to a book of about 230 pages.”

With several books under his belt, including Halls of Fame and The Lost Origins of the Essay, D’Agata has been praised by the New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe. Also the editor of The Next American Essay, D’Agata currently teaches at the University of Iowa’s Creative Nonfiction program.

“Unquestionably art, a breathtaking piece of writing.”

—Charles Bock, The New York Times Book Review

Q&A What drew you to the Yucca Mountain controversy, and how did that interest evolve into an entire book?

A few years ago, somewhat out of the blue, my mom decided to move to Las Vegas, and so it was in the process of helping her settle into her new home that I started to learn about the nuclear waste facility that was proposed for Yucca Mountain, just north of Las Vegas. I had actually heard about Yucca a couple years beforehand, but I didn’t really pay much attention to it because the project seemed a little too preposterous for me to take seriously as a book project. Once my mom became a part of that landscape, however, I was inevitably drawn to Yucca Mountain as a research project because now that preposterousness had become a personal threat. I spent a couple summers living in Vegas and learned everything I could about the Yucca Mountain proposal— from the abhorrently crooked politics involved in naming Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste facility to the bizarrely dysfunctional science being used to “prove” that the site could work.

started feeling differently about this subject that I’d been living with for so long. For me that’s the ideal way to work—allowing the writing process itself to slowly reveal what it is that fascinates you intrinsically about your subject, which is often something that you’re completely unaware when you begin a book. I think that that’s what makes this form—which I call the essay—so thrilling. An essay is essentially an attempt. The word comes from the French “essai,” which literally means “an attempt, a trial, an experiment.” And so taking that interpretation of the form to heart, I set out in this book to try to understand Yucca Mountain, by which I mean not just its science and politics, but also what that mountain represents in the cultural psychology of Las Vegas.

There are quite a few pages that deal, in one way or another, with a proposed sign to keep people away from Yucca.

What would you put on the sign?

My favorite proposal for the sign would not actually be a sign at all, but something more like an experiential warning. Some suggested surrounding Yucca with a bunch of enormous stone monuments that would be carved in such a way that when the wind hit them they would emit a minor D, a very mournful note.

The idea is that anyone in the future who’d approach Yucca Mountain would start hearing these monuments moaning in the wind and be too frightened to proceed any further.

How long did it take you to research the book before you began working on it?

I spent about three years researching the book before I ever attempted to write anything in it. But the book still took me another six years to finish, because I continued to do some research right up until the bitter end, altering the book every time I learned something new or even just

What is About a Mountain about to you?

It’s about information, and the uselessness of information. It’s about how we can arm ourselves with data, with mountains of facts and statistics, and yet still not be able to answer the questions that really matter in our lives.

JOHN D’AGATA ’95

Nightstand: What are you reading?

Professor Emeritus Jim Crenner English Department, HWS; Graduate, Iowa Writers Workshop

Professor Steve Kuusisto English and Ophthalmology Departments, University of Iowa

Professor Melanie Conroy-Goldman English Department, HWS; Trias Residency for Writers, HWS

I’m always reading five or six books at a time. Right now, one of them is Alexander Pope’s translation of Homer’s The Illiad.

It is a pleasure watching the maestro of 18th century prosody turn the dactylic hexameters of Homer’s ancient Greek into English pentameters in rhymed couplets. Pope’s renderings of Homer’s coruscating effects are a steady source of delight and amazement.

I am currently reading Rebecca Skloot’s remarkable book of nonfiction titled The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It tells the story of a woman whose cancer cells have become the world’s primary strain of cancer research cells. Lacks’ family was never notified about the use of her cells. Skloot weaves a tale of scientific hubris, and she incorporates the struggles of the Lacks family in a narrative of astonishing complexity and pathos.

I’ve just finished reading Tree of Smoke

by Denis Johnson. It is set during the lead up to and height of the Vietnam War and follows a young intelligence officer. To my mind, the most powerful aspect of the novel came from its portrayal of a missionary’s wife who is also a nurse. While the intelligence officer is largely insulated from the horror of the war, it becomes routine for her. In sum, the book is interested in the way that the violence of institutions acts on individuals.

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THE LAST WORD:

“HOMECOMING”

by Catherine Williams Dr. Kathy Platoni ’74, a clinical psychologist and colonel with the Medical Service Corps and U.S. Army Reserve, is currently serving in Afghanistan.

An expert in hypnotherapy and the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, Platoni is one of the nation’s leading authorities on the psychological effects of warfare. She previously served one stateside tour of duty during the Gulf War, command of a Combat Stress Control Detachment at Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay, and one tour of duty in Iraq. Now on the front lines in Afghanistan, Platoni works alongside troops, attending to those whose wounds are not inflicted by bullets or bombs, but are just as severe.

What is it like to return home to ‘normal’ life following a deployment?

Upon returning home, it seems as if we just stepped back into time, everything remaining as it was the day we departed. So much has changed, from our families and all the burdens they have had to assume in our absence, to the growth spurts of children and grandchildren, to the very environmental surroundings of our homes and communities.

We expect to miss the excitement, the rush, the thrill of being a part of something so much larger than ourselves, something of value, meaning and purpose that exceeds all. Outlooks and values and priorities have changed vastly for many of us, as the willingness to give all has come to redefine us. We are less materialistic, as there is no dollar value that could possibly be assigned to those moments in which we witness true and unparalleled heroism and the pure joy derived from a degree of camaraderie and esprit de corps that reaches to incomparable depths of the soul.

What is typical behavior for a soldier returning home?

It is said of warriors that one can never really go all the way home. I know this to be true.

Homecoming has been a painfully difficult task for most, if not all, of us. What has become the new normal is surviving in the war zone. Our old selves are no longer hanging in the closet awaiting our return. In the wartime theater we worry about two critical things: saving ourselves and saving the lives of our buddies. Willingness to lay down one’s life is the force that drives and sustains us in combat.

At home, there is a mass confusion of tasks we have to labor to take on all over again, least of all reintegrating into our families and adjusting to routines and undertakings that are baffling at best. Paying bills, buying groceries, remembering how to drive, disciplining the children, budgeting, figuring out what to wear.

My first week home from Iraq, I couldn’t figure out how to turn on a cell phone or where the DR. KATHY PLATONI ’74 JOURNEYS WITH THE 101ST FIELD ARTILLERY REGIMENT ignition switch in my IN AFGHANISTAN. 14-year-old car was located. I got lost is dealing with the ignorance of the masses, as no because nothing was the same and so many new one could possibly understand what it is to live in structures dotted the landscape. Too often the our boots. The lack of understanding of our plight overwhelming task of readjustment gives rise to and the absolute taking for granted of sacrifices tremendous anger and frustration. often leave me feeling angry and frustrated. This is more than commonplace among returning What have your Homecoming experiences veterans. It is sometimes difficult to be patient been like? and forgiving when someone asks what hotel My own readjustments have been plagued with I lived in during the war. How about a smelly, missing the comfortable presence of buddies mildewed tent without heat or AC for a year? upon whose lives I’ve relied, the absence of an That’s “home” when you’re deployed. austere environment, preoccupation with worry over those left behind to continue the good fight, Is there a special place or an image of home the bone-crushing grief and sadness of the that you keep in mind when you are away? loss of comrades and the guilt over tasks left The images of home that sustain me are of my unfinished. I’ve also missed the adrenalin rush of beloved, saintly and patient husband of 23 years, excitement of living and breathing the wartime John Hutchinson, sitting in the wingback chair, theater, the sounds and smells and sights and covered by an American flag throw, two dogs – noises that become all too familiar (mortar, Skippy and Pricilla – sprawled across his lap. rocket, and RPG attacks, small arms fire, and the like), the meals often unrecognizable as food, To what or to whom do you credit your the heat, the sand, and the challenge of having approach to life? risen to myriad of ungodly circumstances.

It was at William Smith College more than 35 years ago that I learned the significance of In the field, can home become an idealized devoting yourself to something much greater notion? than yourself. Nothing has ever risen to that and The home front is uninteresting by comparison in nothing will ever surpass that. ● so many respects. The most grueling task of all HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES

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Non profit org.

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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: • • • • • •

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Ben Ahearn ’11 Wenham, Mass.

Alan Worden ’87 Nantucket, Mass.

Worden is the founder and Managing Partner of Scout Real Estate Capital, a sustainable resort development and operating company, and the designer of an eco-friendly beach home, custom built for his family.

Ahearn is an architecture major and environmental studies and art minor. The recipient of the 2010 Charles H. Salisbury Summer International Internship Fund, this summer he interned with Force 4 Architects in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1. Why is sustainability critical in architecture?

We’re talking about the built environment where we work, sleep, and raise our families. What’s the alternative – unsustainable?

1. Why is sustainability critical in architecture?

The built environment is accountable for an estimated 48% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions; it is our responsibility as architects to reduce this impact.

3. What is one simple thing that people can do to contribute to sustainability efforts?

Make your mother proud; turn off the lights.

4. When designing a new home, what is the most critical choice people can make to improve their carbon footprint?

Site the home to take advantage of natural light; you’ll use less heat and electricity.

PARALLELS PARALLELS

2. How do you define home?

Wherever I am with my boys, Henry (8) and Charlie (6).

5. What are you working on right now?

My firm is renovating a hotel built between the 1940s and 1970s.

The choice of materials and the energy efficiency are atrocious.

We are studying a major solar installation.

2. How do you define home?

A safe sheltered space where one resides for an extended period of time.

3. What is one simple thing that people can do to contribute to sustainability efforts?

Ditch the car and ride a bike!

4. When designing a new home, what is the most critical choice people can make to improve their carbon footprint?

Use sunlight and make sure the building is properly insulated.

5. What are you working on right now?

Finishing my HWS career on a strong note and looking at graduate schools.

6. Which HWS faculty member had the most impact on you and why?

The ability to design classes for myself and work one-on-one with Craig Rimmerman and Ted Aub was definitely a highlight.

6. Which HWS faculty member has the most impact on you and why?

Kirin Makker. She changed the way I approach design and she always pushes me to the next level.

7. What place on campus makes you feel most at home?

The old Carriage House – I loved being away from the busyness of campus.

7. What place on campus makes you feel most at home?

The third floor architecture studio in Houghton House.

8. What inspires you?

My family, particularly my sister and grandfather.

8. What inspires you?

People who “think big” and have the talent to execute around their passions.

9. What has been your proudest moment to date?

Receiving the Charles H. Salisbury Summer International Internship stipend to work in Denmark.

S S

9. What has been your proudest moment to date?

Watching my boys Henry and Charlie every single day.

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