Mills Quarterly winter 2003

Mills Quarterly Winter 2003 Alumnae Magazine

Professors

Who Made a

Difference

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12 PHILIP CHANNING

FREDERICK RICHARDSON

25 TERRY LORANT

Mills Quarterly

CONTENTS WINTER 2003 10

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Reunion and Convocation

Professors Who Made a Difference Brandy Tuzon Boyd, ’91, Katherine M. Brown, ’01, Alison Earle, ’00, MFA ’02, Donna Hamer, ’65, Katherine (Kit) Farrow Jorrens, ’57, Jane Cudlip King, ’42, Amy Ryken, ’85, Jenny Sit, ’03

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“Why Are We Reading a Handbook on Rape?”: Teaching and Learning at a Women’s College Madeleine Kahn, Associate Professor of English

D E PA R T M E N T S 3

Letters

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Inside Mills

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Mills Matters

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Alumnae Action

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Calendar

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Passages

Facing page: Camellia Hudson Franklin, ’73, at her fifth Reunion in 1978.

Photo by Peg Skorpinski.

ABOUT THE COVER: Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies Melinda Micco in the classroom. One of her popular courses is Images and Icons: American Indians in Film, Literature, and History. With a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, Melinda Micco is a Mills professor who “makes a difference.” Cover photo by Philip Channing.

Mills Quarterly Volume XCI Number 3 (USPS 349-900) Winter 2003 Alumnae Director Anne Gillespie Brown, ’68 Editor David M. Brin, MA ’75 dbrin@mills.edu

On this Issue

Design and Art Direction Benjamin Piekut, MA ’01 Quarterly Advisory Board Robyn Fisher, ’90, Marian Hirsch, ’75 Jane Cudlip King, ’42, Jane Redmond Mueller, ’68 Ruth Okimoto ’78, Cathy Chew Smith, ’84 Ramona Lisa Smith, ’01, MBA, ’02, Sharon K. Tatai, ’80 Heidi Wachter, ’01 Class Notes Writers Barb Barry, ’94, Laura Compton, ’93 Barbara Bennion Friedlich, ’49, Sally Mayock Hartley, ’48 Heather Hanley, ’00, Cathy Chew Smith, ’84 Special Thanks to Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Board of Governors President Karen May, ’86 Vice Presidents Judy Greenwood Jones, ’60 Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Treasurer Bevo Zellick, ’49 Alumnae Trustees Judy Greenwood Jones, ’60 Sara Ellen McClure, ’81 Sharon K. Tatai, ’80 Faculty Representative: Ruth Saxton, MA ’72 Student Representative: Erin Mandeson, ’03 Governors Lynne Bantle, ’74, Micheline Beam, ‘72 Harriet Fong Chan, ‘98, Leone Evans, MA ’45 Lynn Eve Fortin, ’87, Linda Jaquez-Fissori, ’92 Leah Mac Neil, MA ’51, Rachael E. Meny, ‘92 Patricia Lee Mok, ’81, Nangee Warner Morrison, ‘63 Jennifer E. Moxley, ’93, Toni Renee Vierra, ‘98 Sarah Washington-Robinson, ’72, Sheryl Wooldridge, ‘77 Regional Governors Joyce Menter Wallace, ’50, Eastern Great Lakes Joan Alper, ’62, Middle Atlantic Albertina Padilla, ’78, Middle California Adrienne Bronstein, ’86, Middle California Judith Smrha, ’87, Midwest Linda Cohen Turner, ’68, North Central Brandy Tuzon Boyd, ’91, Northern California Katie Dudley Chase, ’61, Northeast Gayle Rothrock, ’68, Northwest Louise Hurlbut, ’75, Rocky Mountains Colleen Almeida Smith, ’92, South Central Julia Almazan, ’92, Southern California Dr. Candace Brand Kaspers, ’70, Southeast Ann Markewitz, ’60, Southwest The Mills Quarterly (USPS 349-900) is published quarterly in April, July, October, and January by the Alumnae Association of Mills College, Reinhardt Alumnae House, 5000 MacArthur Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94613.

Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, CA and at additional mailing office(s). Postmaster: Send address changes to the Mills Quarterly, Alumnae Association of Mills College, P.O. Box 9998, Oakland, CA 94613-0998.

Statement of Purpose The purpose of the Mills Quarterly is to report the activities of the Alumnae Association and its branches; to reflect the quality, dignity, and academic achievement of the College family; to communicate the exuberance and vitality of student life; and to demonstrate the world-wide-ranging interests, occupations, and achievements of alumnae.

If you were given the task of building a great college from the ground up, what would you do first? Build a library and fill it with the best books? Build a computer network with access to the most advanced databases and search engines? Build classroom buildings, an assembly hall, or dormitories?

I would start by hiring the best faculty possible—even if it meant only one or two great teachers. While buildings, books, and computers may all be necessary for modern learning, I believe that the core of a great education is great teaching.

Nothing can replace the experience of learning from an outstanding teacher. Mills is fortunate, because its exceptional faculty and intimate size give students the opportunity for close contact with superlative professors, thereby increasing the students’ chances of a profound learning experience.

This issue’s theme is “professors who made a difference.” This theme runs through many issues of the Quarterly; a similar series of articles ran in the November 1988 issue. We have recently run articles on Diana O’Hehir, George Hedley, and Madeleine Milhaud. Because of its importance, we plan to continue this theme into the future.

In this issue you will find articles about Mills professors who inspired, who showed the way, who taught thinking and creativity. I have chosen articles about nine professors and a riding instructor by alumnae whose classes range from the ’40s to the present decade. Although the variety is great, chances are your favorite professor is not featured. Why? Mills has had so many wonderful professors, we couldn’t write about them all! The attempt was to be representative, but no attempt was made to be complete or comprehensive.

I hope you will enjoy this issue!

ALUMNAE INPUT TO THE COLLEGE’S STRATEGIC PLAN

In October of 2001 the Mills Board of Trustees approved a motion to “Reaffirm Mills’ dedication to undergraduate education for women and graduate programs for men and women as a continued strategic direction for the College, and endorse the recommendation by the Ad Hoc Committee on Strategic Planning to strengthen current graduate programs and to explore additional graduate programs designed for the advancement of women in positions of leadership in the community and in the professions.” The strategic plan being developed includes goals for academic development, finance, facilities, recruitment and enrollment, student life, community life, and technology and information. If you would like to review the plan, you can find a copy of it at <www.mills.edu/PRES/STRATPLAN/> or call the AAMC at (510) 430-2110, and we will send you a copy. We are gathering alumnae input through January 31, 2003, and will be happy to take your comments to share with the College.

Letters to the Editor Men’s Liberation I just received the summer 2002 issue of the Mills Quarterly and wanted to tell you immediately how much I enjoyed the inside front cover—“Thirty-six years ago . . . ” In one small sentence, Ms. Obaid says so much: “My father sent a clear and loud message to the society—education was my honor as well as his.”

I have long suspected as much— the end result of liberating women is to liberate men.

Carolyn Strong Eychenne, ’87 A Happy Return to Mills I was so happy to attend the 2002 Reunion, which coincided with Mills’ 150th year celebration. It was the first Reunion I’ve attended, and I felt proud marching in the Convocation processional with my six-year-old daughter, Sherry, beside me. I was very excited and happy to see so many alumnae from Orchard Meadow, and the renovation is beautiful!

Abonesh Tamrat, ’77 Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due It was delightful to find Josephine Carson writing in the fall Mills Quarterly, and I was so sad to find out that she died before the issue went to press. [For a brief obituary on Josephine Carson, see the Passages section of this issue.] Jo was a dear, and I thoroughly enjoyed her creative writing course, which she let me audit.

I do want, however, for the sake of Mills history, to correct one mistake in her article. Diana O’Hehir did

not establish “the first creative writing courses at Mills.” When I came to Mills in 1958, Allan Wendt was teaching creative writing. (Sheila Ballentyne always spoke of the help and encouragement he was to her in her student writing.) Before Allan there was, to my knowledge, another man who had taught it. Further back than that I do not know, but it wouldn’t surprise me to be told that someone alternated teaching poetry and fiction even then.

It was undoubtedly Diana’s interest and drive that enlarged the course offerings, and she saw that we always had at least one published writer teaching for us. It was under her aegis that creative writing really flowered and flourished.

But Mills does not get enough credit for its early beginnings in many areas—in 1958 we had a trickle of older “resuming” students long before the flood tide arrived. We had Asian students from the time of Cyrus and Susan, and though there were only a few black faces in 1958, the admission office was seriously interested in increasing their number. Mills changes with the times, but let us acknowledge with pride that she is often, even if quietly, right up there leading with the innovators.

Roussel Sargent, Professor Emerita of English

Josephine Carson’s article introducing Diana O’Hehir, and Diana O’Hehir’s article comparing students of 1961 and 1990.

Also, I very much enjoyed the update on Stephanie Mills, a person I’ve wondered about since her unusual, and I thought, perceptive valedictory speech, much discussed, pro and con, at the time. Thanks for that article, which I thought had many insights.

Barbara Sweetland Smith’s letter about Betty Jane Narver and public policy, in the same issue, was fun to read. Barbara was a super-bright student from my time at Mills. Even at Mills she was politically savvy— she knew absolutely everything about U.S. politics and elections.

She practically fainted when I told her I wasn’t sure who was the governor of my own state, Connecticut—and her appalled reaction made me pay more attention from then on. (Now I am very political— she’d be pleased; perhaps she was an influence!)

Keep up your excellent work.

Nancy Franz Langert, ’57

Express Yourself!

Write to the Editor, Mills Quarterly PO Box 9998 Oakland, CA 94613

Compliments to the Quarterly Many times after I’ve read the Quarterly, I’ve thought of writing a note to say what a fine job you are doing. Today’s the day! I truly enjoyed the fall Quarterly, especially

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inside mills MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT As most of you know, declines in the U.S. financial markets have affected many colleges and universities around the country. For Mills, the dual realities of the diminished value of our invested endowment and the continuing prospect of modest returns on investments require us to plan carefully for the future. We are fortunate to be moving ahead with plans to restrict growth in expenses at the same time that we are discussing goals for a strategic plan for the College. The conjunction of these two planning efforts will help us develop a budget that is fiscally responsible and capable of preserving and enhancing major initiatives of the last decade that contribute to our current academic strength.

For example, since 1992 we have increased student financial aid; implemented a plan aimed at developing a multicultural curriculum, diverse workforce, and an inclusive campus; enhanced graduate education to respond to emerging educational needs of women and men in the 21st century; improved student retention; funded strong salary programs for faculty and staff; completed campus construction projects worth $60 million, addressing academic and co-curricular program needs, seismic safety, accessibility improvements, and deferred maintenance; added $55 million to the invested endowment for a current total of $130 million; and raised approximately $75 million in the Sesquicentennial Campaign, surpassing all previous fundraising records for the College.

Over the next few years, we must build on the success of this work while recognizing the reality of slower revenue growth.

Within the budgeting guidelines set by the Board of Trustees at its October meeting, we must consider cuts in allocations for faculty and staff compensation, which represent 60 percent of total budget expenses each year, because most of the remaining budget allocations at Mills are fixed costs. If we are successful in cutting core costs, the necessary reductions can be made without resorting to measures such as the imposition of hiring or wage freezes. Our track record as a strong and innovative institution shows that we have the foresight and adaptability to create a new framework for the operating budget that reduces core costs without compromising our academic excellence. With the active involvement of faculty and staff leaders, we expect to have a fully integrated budget plan for the next two fiscal years to present to the Board at its February meeting.

We also expect to present a nearly final draft of our strategic plan to the Board in February. During the fall semester, faculty, staff, and student groups participated in further refinement of the goals, implementation strategies, and key performance indicators of the strategic plan. I especially want to thank Karen May, ’86, AAMC President, for convening alumnae leaders to provide their perspectives on the directions for the College.

In closing, I want to convey the campus community’s deep gratitude to all our alumnae for all the ways you support Mills College. The active engagement of Alumnae Admission Representatives, Alumnae Fund and Major Gifts volunteers, regional and branch leaders, and all donors of time and resources is an essential element of Mills’ strength and excellence.

As I write this, we mourn the loss of Suzanne Adams, ’48, an outstanding example of dedication and generosity. Proud women, strong women, Mills women make a difference. We count on you.

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JENNIFER SAUER

S E S Q U I C E N T E N N I A L C A M PA I G N N E W S

MILLS AND THE CALIFORNIA LANDSCAPE: A SESQUICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY

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ills College has been integral to the California Landscape for 150 years, so it was a fitting tribute when San Diego alumnae suggested that San Diego County celebrate the Mills Sesquicentennial and Campaign with a private showing of Maurice Braun paintings at the newly restored Lodge at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, both hallmarks of the California landscape.

On November 14, 2002, 94 guests gathered at The Lodge to see a onenight-only exhibition of Maurice Braun paintings gathered from the private collections of Mills alumnae and friends.

Maurice Braun, the father of Mills alumna Charlotte Braun White, MA ’57, was one of the foremost California plein-air painters working during the first part of the 20th century. The paintings were exhibited in the Maurice Braun Ballroom at The Lodge, where guests mingled during a champagne reception and later enjoyed dinner overlooking the ocean.

Co-chairs David and Kay Porter ’49, Dick and Victory Lareau, ’64, and Edie Roberts, ’30, hosted the evening, one of the largest gatherings of San Diego Mills alumnae in the history of the College. Charlotte Braun White talked

about her father’s paintings with interested guests and William Chandler, former assistant curator of American art at the Art Museum of San Diego, provided a historical perspective on the works. President Janet L. Holmgren inspired guests with news of the campus and of the success of the Sesquicentennial Campaign.

“This is fantastic,” said Kay Porter.

“Mills has such a strong history in San Diego; it’s important that we continue to come together and honor that legacy. Tonight has been witness to the support the College has here!”

Far left: Patricia Beckman, ’55, and Trustee Jill Fabricant, ’71, at the event at Torrey Pines.

Left: At the Lodge at Torrey Pines in La Jolla are, left to right: Victory Lareau, ’64, President Janet L. Holmgren, Kay Porter, ’49, Charlotte Braun White, MA ’57, Edy Roberts ’30, and Sterling Dorman, ’47.

SALLY RANDEL

SALLY RANDEL

JULIA MORGAN AND MILLS COLLEGE

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ctober 15, 2002, was the date of a Mills Sesquicentennial Anniversary celebration, “Julia Morgan and Mills College, 150 years of Women’s Leadership,” at the Julia Morgan House and Gardens in Sacramento. The event was co-chaired by Mimi Miller, ’50, and Loadel Piner, ’50, and their husbands, R. Burnett Miller and Norman Piner. More than 100 alumnae, parents, and friends attended, making this one of the largest-ever Mills gatherings in the area. In addition to an update on the College by President Janet L. Holmgren, the evening’s program included insights into Julia Morgan’s life and work as told by

her goddaughter, Lynn Forney McMurray, and a special appearance by Julia Morgan, performed by Betty Marvin. There are five buildings designed by Julia Morgan on the Mills campus: Alderwood, Carnegie, El Campanil, Geranium Cottage, and the Student Union. It is said that the lack of damage to Carnegie and El Campanil in the April 1906 earthquake drew attention to Morgan’s expertise, leading to her receiving contracts for projects such as the reconstruction of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.

At the Sacramento event, left to right: event co-chairs (and Mills classmates) Mimi Miller, ’50, and Loadel Piner, ’50, with President Janet L. Holmgren.

SALLY RANDEL

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inside mills OENOPHILE: A CELEBRATION OF MILLS WOMEN IN WINE

by Anna L. Henderson, Associate Director of Major Gifts

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midst the hustle of “Crush,” the busiest season for California winemakers, some of Mills’ most prominent alumnae in the wine industry took a day off on October 13 to relax, enjoy hors d’oeuvre, and share their wines with Mills.

Incoming Chair of the Mills College Board of Trustees Vivian Stephenson opened her Calistoga home in honor of Mills women in the wine industry and major Bay Area donors who are pushing the Sesquicentennial Capital Campaign forward. Over 100 guests gathered to sample 22 wines from eight wineries, seven of which are owned or co-owned by Mills alumnae.

Vintners poured some of their best and most unusual wines. A few of the highlights of the afternoon: John and Flo Bryan, ’46, represented Freemark Abbey Winery with an outstanding 1999 cabernet and a 1999 Edelwein Gold, and Bill and Mary Seavey, ’70, of Seavey Vineyard, poured a big 1998 cabernet. Julie Johnson, ’76, who co-founded Frog’s Leap and recently began Tres Sabores, introduced three zinfandels, each created from the same organic vineyard but crafted by a different winemaker.

Diane Johnson Mayo, ’56, and her son, Jeffrey, of Mayo Family Winery, brought a 2001 sauvignon blanc that was ideal for the warm afternoon, and Jeanne Cecchi, ’97, of Grey Fox Vineyards, shared a moscato dolce that complemented poolside dessert. Beverlee Simboli, ’74, and her husband, Professor Daniel McFadden, of Simboli Vineyard, poured a 1999 “Nobel Rot,” a zinfandel/cabernet that is playfully named for Daniel’s recent Nobel Prize in Economics. Angela Bortugno, ’97, with Chalone Wine Group, shared a 1999 Acadia pinot noir and a 1999 Jade Mountain syrah; and Carla Saunders Trefethen, ’62, MFA ’64, brought a great 1999 cabernet from Trefethen Vineyards.

Debra Smith Eagle, ’82, Director of Marketing for Trinchero Family Estates (Sutter Home Winery), contributed her expertise as well as champagne to finish the event.

It was a terrific day in the country for vintners, alumnae, and Trustees: the wine was excellent; the view, superb—and the company (including Professor Nancy Thornborrow and recent MBA graduates), edifying.

SALLY RANDEL

SALLY RANDEL

Right: Alumna Trustee Judy Greenwood Jones, ’60, conversing with vintner Flo Eyre Bryan, ’46, of Freemark Abbey Winery.

Above: Tina Lee, ’01, MBA ’02, and Mills senior Miriam Warren.

SALLY RANDEL

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VIVIAN STEPHENSON NAMED NEW BOARD CHAIR

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he Mills Board of Trustees announced the appointment of Vivian Stephenson, new chair of the Board effective October 25, 2002. Vivian succeeds Suzanne Adams, who stepped down as chair less than a month before she died on November 20. “We have lost a good friend and valued member of the Mills community now that Suzanne is no longer with us,” Vivian wrote in an email to the Mills community.

One of only a few women in the country to head information services for a Fortune 40 corporation, Vivian is the former executive vice president and chief information officer for Target Corporation.

Vivian currently serves on the boards of the California State Automobile Association and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. She is also an advisor to Target as well as Williams Sonoma.

She brings to Mills a devotion to women’s advancement and world affairs, and significant experience as an executive and volunteer leader. According to President Holmgren, “Mills will benefit

from Vivian Stephenson’s considerable expertise in leadership, strategic thinking, and management as we plan to advance women’s higher education and leadership opportunities into the next century.”

Vivian “loves Mills’ dedication to liberal arts and the expanding role women can play in society. Women are moving ahead from being consumers of culture to being shapers of culture; Mills clearly prepares them for this task.”

A Board member since 1999 and active on the Finance Committee, Vivian has served as vice chair of the Mills Board since 2001. As a member of the Ad Hoc Strategic Planning Committee, she has helped to formulate future directions of the College.

“I am truly honored to take the reins of the Board as Mills prepares for the next century with plans based on the College’s longstanding values,” says Vivian. “We will continue to enhance the undergraduate liberal arts core, and expand select graduate programs that will allow Mills to meet the educational requirements of women

while filling societal needs.”

Born in Havana, Cuba, where she lived for 23 years, Vivian earned an MBA from the University of Havana, as well as her BA degree in mathematics from New York University. Vivian and her partner of 27 years, Margarita Gandia, divide their time between San Francisco and Calistoga.

PLANNED GIVING UPDATE

by Sally Randel, Vice President for Institutional Advancement

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haritable gift planning can be a winwin situation. Here’s a real example of a recent gift I had the pleasure of working on. I’ve changed the names and a few details so as not to reveal the identity of the donors.

“I really want to do something special for my class’s fiftieth reunion fund,” Theresa said. “When I heard how a charitable gift annuity works, a light bulb went on in my head. It sounded like a great way to improve our annual income at the same time as making a significant gift to Mills.” Charitable gift annuities and other planned gifts offer their donors an income for life, after which Mills College receives the invested principal.

Frank and Theresa are both retired public school teachers, both are about 70 years old. They had inherited stock from their parents in the early 1980s. While the stock’s value was not at its all-time high, they still would have had a significant taxable capital gain if they had sold the stock.

The stock, valued at nearly $100,000, produced less than $1,000 per year in income.

After establishing a $100,000 charitable gift annuity, they will now receive an annual income of $6,600 in equal quarterly payments from Mills College. In addition, they will bypass capital gains taxation and will be eligible for a current-year charitable tax deduction of nearly $22,000. “We have our payments set up with a direct deposit to our bank account,” says Frank, “so I don’t

have to worry if we’re traveling at the end of the quarter.”

Theresa and Frank are not the only ones who have taken advantage of this method of giving. Several other Mills alumnae got on this bandwagon in 2002.

And remember, this is one instance in which being older is a real advantage.

The income rate for a woman in her 90s could be more than 11 percent.

If you want more information on charitable gift annuities or other types of life income trusts, please call me at (510) 430-2101, email me at <sallyr@ mills.edu> or write me at the Office of Institutional Advancement, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613.

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MILLS MATTERS

NEWS OF THE COLLEGE

Sesquicentennial Exhibition and California Paintings on View at Art Museum

by Moya Stone, MFA ’03

Did you know that Mills College had its own streetcar stop from 1888–1937? That there was a Kapiolani club?

That Mills women kept scrapbooks and knew how to waltz? These are some of the facts you will discover at the Mills College Sesquicentennial Exhibit opening on January 21, 2003, at the College Art Museum.

Mills College librarians Renée Jadushlever, Janice Braun, and Karma Pippin were busy during the fall semester digging into the College archives for the exhibit, which is called Many Roads: 150 Years of Mills College. “It would be impossible to give a comprehensive and definitive picture of the College’s 150 year history, so we chose items

that would reflect our mission, accomplishments, curricular direction, and so on,” says Assistant Vice President for Library and Technology Renée Jadushlever. The focus of the exhibit is a visual timeline briefly covering aspects of the College’s beginnings to its present day. Items displayed include promotional posters, yearbooks, college handbooks, dorm-room photos, scrapbooks, and letters and journals.

A documentary video on Mills history produced by Angie Alvarez, ’02, will play continuously during the exhibit.

The idea behind the exhibition is to celebrate the College’s sesquicentennial by reflecting on the community’s rich history as well as its interesting present. “The

Two New Books on Milhaud The Mills Center for the Book has recently published Darius Milhaud: Interviews with Claude Rostand, translated by Jane Galante. During the course of the 18 interviews, Milhaud reveals his opinions about the music and musicians of his day and about his own creative process. He discusses the influences of his native Provence, of his travels, and of the important musicians and cultural figures he knew. He talks about his teaching style and about the concerns of his students. Always modest about his accomplishments, Milhaud still impresses the reader with his unending flow of ideas. The book is nicely illustrated with photos from the Mills College archives. For information on how to obtain this book, contact the Center for the Book, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94613, or call (510) 430-2047.

The English translation of Portrait(s) of Darius Milhaud has also just been published, by The Darius Milhaud Society, in cooperation with the Bibliothèque nationale de France. This book also reflects Milhaud’s astounding creative powers and is in an attractive scrapbook-like format. Particularly useful is an illustrated chronology of Milhaud’s life and a list of his musical works. For information on how to obtain this book, contact the Darius Milhaud Society, 15715 Chadbourne Rd., Cleveland, OH 44120.

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exhibit presents a lot of contrasts,” says Janice Braun, special collections librarian.

“It shows the good of Mills’ past and what’s exciting about the present.”

The exhibit includes two display cases, one for the year 1902 and one for 2002, designed to compare the two eras. “The purpose of the comparison is to show the culture, priorities, and achievements of the College and how these things have changed or stayed the same,” says Braun.

Another aim of the exhibit is to inform viewers of some aspects of the College’s unusual history. The College librarians sought out materials that may be unfamiliar to the Mills community. “Everyone should be able to learn something new from seeing the exhibit,” says Jadushlever. “Each chosen piece for the installation tells us something unique about Mills, such as what early 20th century students wore for tennis class, the content of a student paper in the 1890s, and what famous people taught summer school at Mills.”

Interspersed throughout the installation will be reflections and reactions at Mills to world events, such as World War II, the Japanese internment camps, and the Vietnam War. Through photographs and documents, viewers will get a sense of how these major events affected the Mills community.

Many Roads will be a step back in time and a look to the future, all the while reminding us of the exceptional qualities of our community.

Running simultaneously with the sesquicentennial exhibit will be California Paintings 1910–1940: Selections from the Mills College Art Museum.

Exhibition curator Ann Harlow writes in the accompanying brochure, “The core of this exhibition is a group of paint-

PHOTO BY ROI PARTRIDGE. © BY THE ROI PARTRIDGE TRUST. USED BY PERMISSION. COURTESY OF MILLS COLLEGE ARCHIVES, F.W. OLIN LIBRARY

ings collected by Mills College for the opening of its new Art Gallery in 1925. With the addition of other works by California artists painted within 15 years of 1925, these oils and watercolors provide an enlightening cross-section of art activity in the state during an active and eclectic period.”

On display are landscapes, still lifes, and portraits by artists such as Maurice Braun, Granville Redmond, Anne Bremer, William Wendt, and Maynard Dixon.

The exhibits run from January 21–March 6, 2003, at the Mills College Art Museum. For more information, call the museum at (510) 430-2164.

ALUMNAE ACTION Palo Alto House Tour The Palo Alto Area Mills College Club announces its 12th annual tour on April 4 and 5, 2003, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The tour features five individual and interesting—even fascinating—homes, all remodels appropriate to the budget of the area homeowner, all real homes, which are shown as lived in by their owners. These are not decorator showcases but homes volunteered by members of the community who are rarely Mills alumnae. Similarly, our group of “wouldn’t miss this event” tour goers who come year after year are members of the community, which gives Mills a good deal of exposure.

With a central committee of eight or so, each year about 100 alumnae from the Palo Alto, Peninsula, and Santa Clara Valley areas serve as docents at the houses. Because of this dedication, the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club has been able to make significant contributions to the Alumnae Fund each year. If other groups away from this area would be interested in a similar effort, we stand ready to provide the how-to guide.

Contact PAAMCC branch president, Isabel Mulcahy, ’44, at (650) 493-6260.

Tickets are $25 each, in advance, or $30, at the door. For ticket information, call (650) 368-5798. Come and bring your friends!

Recommended Modifications of the AAMC Bylaws These changes are being proposed by the Bylaws Committee of the Board of Governors of the Alumnae Association of Mills College and will be voted on at our annual meeting on Saturday, May 17, 2003, at Reinhardt Alumnae House, at 2:00 p.m. All alumnae and alumni are invited to participate in this meeting and to vote on these proposals.

(Additions to the Bylaws are indicated by italics and deletions by strikethroughs.)

ARTICLE IV: Board of Governors Section 2. Composition of the Board; Number and Qualifications of Governors and Regional Governors The Board of Governors of the Association shall be composed of (a) not less than eighteen (18) nor more than twenty-seven (27) Governors, including the President, Vice Presidents, Treasurer, Alumnae Director/Corporate Secretary, the Alumnae Trustees, the Student Governor and, if possible, at least one Mills College alumna faculty member, with the exact number of such Governors to be fixed by the Board; . . .

Section 4.B.—Provisions for Nominating Candidates for the Board of Governors Any member may be nominated except for current Nominating Committee members as a candidate for President, Vice President, Treasurer, Governor or Regional Governor . . .

The date for the close of nominations shall

be the date which is one hundred twenty (120) thirty (30) days before the date of the election for which candidates are being nominated, and no nominations may be made after the date set for the close of nominations, except for nominations made in person at a meeting at which governors are to be elected, if such a meeting is necessary. If two or more people are nominated for any office or position, the names of all nominees shall be published along with the notice of the meeting of members at which the election of governors shall take place.

Section 11—Quorum Two-thirds (2/3) Three-fifths (3/5) of the Governors then in office, exclusive of Regional Governors, shall be necessary and sufficient to constitute a quorum for the transaction of business at any meeting of the Board of Governors, and the act of a majority of the voting members of the Board present at any meeting at which there is a quorum shall be the act of the Board, except as may be otherwise specifically provided by statute or these Bylaws.

Article VI: Nominating Committee Section 2—Composition and Selection of Nominating Committee The Nominating Committee shall have seven (7) members, at least three of whom must serve concurrently on the Board of Governors. At its last meeting of each fiscal year, the Board of Governors shall elect a

N E W S O F T H E A L U M N A E A S S O C I AT I O N

Branches Give to the AAMC The Alumnae Fund’s success in raising nearly $1 million for Mills College was greatly helped by contributions from our branches. The Alumnae Association would like to thank the following branches for their gifts during the 2001–2002 fiscal year: Alumnae Association of Mills College—Tokyo Branch: $1,000 Los Angeles Mills College Alumnae: $1,125 Marin/Sonoma Mills Club: $400 Mills College Club of Colorado: $150 Mills College Club of New York: $3,075 Oakland-Berkeley Branch, Mills College Alumnae Association: $200 Palo Alto Area Mills College Club: $17,350 Puget Sound Area Mills Alumnae Club: $300 Sacramento Mills Alumnae Branch: $180 San Joaquin Mills Club: $1,000

Chair of the Nominating Committee for the next fiscal year from among its members who will continue to serve on the Board in the next fiscal year. The Nominating Committee Chair shall serve a term of one (1) year commencing on June 1 of the year in which she is elected and until the commencement of the term of her duly elected and qualified successor. At the annual meeting of members of the Association, the membership of the Association shall elect six additional members, at least two of whom shall be members of the Board of Governors for the next fiscal year, and three alternates to the Nominating Committee for the next fiscal year. Any member nominated shall be present at the meeting, or shall have agreed, in advance, to have her name put forth. Nominating Committee members shall serve for a term of one (1) year.

Article IX—Financial Affairs Section 1—Fiscal Year The fiscal year of the Association shall commence on June 1 July 1 and end on May 31 June 30 of each year.

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Reunion and Convocation 2002 Approximately one hundred alumnae wearing regalia marched to the Greek Theater for the Convocation ceremony, the official opening of the academic year. Kavita N. Ramdas, president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, gave the convocation address, excerpted below. Other speakers included President Janet L. Holmgren and AAMC President Karen May, ’86.

Dare to Lead: A Feminist Manifesta Excerpts of the Convocation Speech by Kavita N. Ramdas

progress are defined in terms of gross consumerism, military t gives me great pleasure to be with you this beautiful might, and environmental exploitation. As a global communiSeptember morning and to share with you the sense of ty, we have at our fingertips the scientific skills and technologpossibility, the excitement, and slight trepidation that ical abilities to ensure that every human being on this earth is accompanies each of us as we embark on a new journey. The well fed, sheltered, and may live in peace. Yet, even as I immediate journey ahead for students at Mills is about learnspeak, our own leaders are squandering or preparing to ing and growing and making the most of this precious opporwaste these resources in military adventures and wars that tunity called an education. have the potential to kill thousands of innocent people.

But the years you will spend or have spent at Mills repreAs a result of these misguided priorities, more than 50% sent an important step in a longer, more challenging jourof the world’s children go to ney—one that each of us bed hungry each night; 90 has been engaged in since million girls are denied an we first arrived on this earth. education, 585,000 women On that journey—in every die each year in childbirth or period of history, women pregnancy . . . 80% of the travelers have been forced world’s refugees are women to shoulder a disproportionand children as are 90% of ately heavy load and have the world’s poorest people. not had the benefit of walkAnd, despite the fact that ing on an even, well paved, women do 70% of the labor road of equality and choice. in the world, they own less Instead, they have stumbled than 1% of the world’s in bound feet, in burquas assets. Even as the United that hindered their freedom, States pours millions of dolin corsets that restricted lars a day into the “war their breathing and conagainst terrorism,” it has strained their mobility. They withdrawn its support from have carried young children other crucial battles—battles who depended on them; in which women are frontthey have walked without line soldiers. These include the right to vote, to employthe struggle against ment, or good health. They HIV/AIDS that kills over have persevered despite the 6,000 Africans every day, violence that they face both Kavita N. Ramdas, President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women and the fights against poverty, within the home and outside. illiteracy, and injustice. If these battles are lost, we can never And, remarkably, amazingly, women have forged their own hope to defeat the terror that feeds on despair. . . . paths—often overcoming the narrow confines of gender disWomen have never wavered in their vision of a just, crimination to prove by example that to live life as women is humane, and compassionate world. Today, we have the to dare to lead. . . . ability to turn that vision into reality. Together we can and I cannot think of a more appropriate moment in time to must demand that conflicts are resolved through dialogue emphasize the critical role of women as leaders. Now more and diplomacy rather than violence and murder. We can than ever we need to order our world around the values and create a world that values cooperation and human interacvision that women have long brought to all aspects of their tion over selfishness, greed, and competition. . . . I know work and lives. . . . that your steps and actions will make a significant and Our earth, our shared world . . . stands poised at the edge lasting difference in our world. Walk tall and proud on your of a precipice. Narrow self-interest, blind nationalism, and journey. Dare to lead. corporate greed have pushed it to a point where success and

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The Centennial Class of 1952 Sets Precedent for Future 50th Reunion Giving The Class of 1952 gave $218,000 to Mills at their 50th Reunion. The precedent-setting gift from the Centennial Class was presented to President Holmgren at Convocation, and contained two important components, a gift to the Alumnae Fund and a gift to renovate a classroom in the historic Music Building.

The pioneering Class of 1952 voted to sustain an important priority of the College by designating the first $50,000 of their gift to the Alumnae Fund for student scholarships and faculty salaries. This is the first time in the history of Mills College that a 50th Reunion Class has designated a portion of their gift to the Alumnae Fund. The Class recognized the importance of annual giving and the time-honored tradition of support from alumnae.

The Class of 1952 then designated $168,000 of their gift for the renovation and naming of a classroom in the Music Building. The Music Building is a campus landmark and its

restoration is one of the College’s highest facility priorities.

The Class’ gift pays tribute to the importance of the building in the life of the College and to the outstanding history of the music department.

Reunion Giving didn’t begin and end with the Class of 1952.

Overall giving to the Alumnae Fund from alumnae celebrating their fifth through 60th Reunions and from alumnae from the Classes of 1953 and ’54, who are raising funds for their 50th Reunion Campaigns, totaled more than $680,000 in fiscal year 2002. Participation by Reunion-year alumnae increased 6% last year, with 42% participation by all classes ending in 2s & 7s.

A special thank you to all of you who participated in Reunion Giving Campaigns, as donors and fundraisers alike.

Your participation is deeply appreciated and felt by so many of us here in the Mills community.

—Donna Nishiyama Chan, ’90, Associate Director of Reunion Giving

Toni L. Putnam, ’57, shown with her self portrait at the Celebration of the Arts

At the president’s garden reception, left to right: Thomasina Woida, ’80, Nangee Warner Morrison, ’63, and Jennifer Moxley, ’93 ESTRELLITA HUDSON REDUS, ’65, MFA ’75

A Call for Artists from among Members of the Classes Ending in 3 and 8 Let all the talented members of classes ending in 3 and 8 who are in dance or studio arts make yourselves known to us. Dance and studio arts will be the principal attractions at the Reunion 2003 Celebration of the Arts on Saturday, September 20, 2003.

Your qualifications must be received by Friday, March 7, 2003. Send your name, address, email address, phone, fax, and four concise paragraphs which must contain the following: 1) Artist statement: describe work/performance, and what have been your inspirations 2) Biographical information: education, important classes/instructors (at Mills and elsewhere), home, family 3) Honors, awards, recent exhibitions/performances; web site, if applicable 4) Work/performance examples, with a minimum of one of the following: pictures, slides, videos, tapes, brochures/ exhibition catalogues.

Mail, email, or fax to Gail Indvik, Director of Alumnae Relations, Reinhardt Alumnae House, Mills College, P.O. Box 9998, Oakland, CA 94613-0998; email: <gindvik@mills.edu>; fax: (510) 430-1401.

DAVID M. BRIN, MA ’75

Reunion Highlights More than 300 alumnae and their guests returned to Mills in September for Reunion 2002. The Centennial Class of 1952 was welcomed in this Sesquicentennial Year to celebrate their 50th reunion. Reunion highlights included the President’s Colloquium, entitled Educating Women through Changing Times: The Evolution of Mills from 1952–2002, and the Celebration of Arts. A studio arts exhibition in the Life Science Center lobby was a popular feature of this year’s celebration, as were dance performances by three alumnae and the Mills Repertory Dance Company led by Assistant Professor of Dance Mary Cochran. Art Museum Director Stephan Jost gave a talk on the recent redesign of the Art Museum. Alums especially enjoyed opportunities to socialize with classmates at meals and receptions, including the President’s Garden Reception, and at special class gatherings. One alumna wrote, “Our Reunion was a treasured and memorable experience. This is a reminder once more of the personal attention and ‘TLC’ provided by a small, liberal arts college such as Mills.”

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Professors Who Made a Difference: Nine Top Teachers Throughout the decades, Mills students have had the opportunity to learn from their professors in an intimate setting. The result is a kind of learning that is rarely possible at a large university. In this series of articles, a variety of alumnae pay tribute to Mills teachers who made a difference in their lives. Teachers, because not all were professors: one alumna chose to write about an inspirational riding instructor.

No attempt has been made to be complete; many legendary professors have not been mentioned. What makes a great teacher? Read on, and see how some alumnae would answer that question.

Fast Course on Life:

Elisabeth Siekhaus, Professor of German Studies

by Katherine M. Brown, ’01

ARIEL EATON THOMAS, ’63

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On the first day, Professor Elisabeth Siekhaus asked each of us to state why we chose the Age of Goethe class. Most of my fellow classmates turned out to be students on a German studies track or graduate liberal studies master’s degree candidates, all of whom threw in German terms when they answered. I felt as overwhelmed as a polar bear in Fiji within those introductory minutes; I had simply signed up for the course because I needed an elective, and because it fit into my schedule. I never knew that Goethe should be pronounced “Ger-tah,” (I’d been saying Go-the), or what period of literature this covered.

Before my turn came, I plotted an escape—perhaps I could duck under my desk and crawl toward the door. But my turn came, all eyes turned upon me, and since I couldn’t dazzle anyone with my German knowledge and experience, I simply said I’d felt curious, but now I knew I’d be inept in this class.

“Nonsense,” said Professor Siekhaus. “Don’t worry about the German, you’ll get by without it. Anyone can take this class and enjoy it. Stay and learn something new.”

That day, in the spring of 1999, Elisabeth Siekhaus began teaching me about myself and giving me lessons in life for outside the classroom. Just by sitting through that first day of class, I learned that my present knowledge was nothing to be embarrassed about, that being an anomaly, though uncomfortable, didn’t have to be a hindrance, a bad thing. She set a metamorphosis in motion: if I stayed only within the areas I felt comfortable with, my world could not expand. She also taught me that expansion does not stop upon meeting a challenge.

I stayed in her class, despite frequent bouts of insecurity, and felt the pride of conquering a mountaintop when I finished the first assignment.

When she returned it, Professor Siekhaus offered positive comments, focusing on the strengths of the work. Elated, charged with new confidence that I’d met a challenge, I decided to stay with a sure thing and build off the idea of my first assignment to complete my second assignment. “You could,” she said, “but you could also explore another idea. A new idea. You

know this one now.” She did it again, opened another door, one I could walk through or not—either choice would be okay. But her message floated in the air: if you accomplish one thing, don’t stop there.

Some people might live for challenge, be the first to volunteer. I’m the sort who hovers in the shadows, wrestling between talking myself into or out of action.

Professor Siekhaus had an instinct for giving me momentum. I pushed myself down the unknown avenue in my second assignment, and though I did well, I realized that my real success did not come from the assignment’s grade, but from my pilgrimage.

Elisabeth Siekhaus oozes a philosophy of forward progression, one that she does not emulate, but lives by. Once or twice while I helped her cart books to her car, she referred to her physical limitation, her muscular disorder and need for crutches, speaking of it without distortion, and yet, somehow removed it as a tangible presence. I’d shake my head in amazement during my drive home, thinking about how, in her daily life, she lives by what she exudes.

What she has taught me, by her own example and by the tactile lessons she offered me, is that limitations—fear of the unknown and fear of failure—build walls, false self-imposed walls that lead to false selfdefinition. She taught me that defining oneself need not be definitive at all, but infinitive. I emerged from her class with remodeled thinking—that one can variegate perceived obstacles into simply an interesting path. If obstacles do not become defined as hindrances, well, then, look at all those possibilities!

Katherine Brown is a 2001 Mills graduate presently attending an MFA program at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Professor John Vollmer with Suzanne Lester, who earned a PostBaccalaureate Premedical Certificate from Mills in 1998.

Continued Dedication to Science Education: John Vollmer, Professor of Chemistry

by Amy Ryken, ’85

JENNIFER SAUER

By encouraging me to study the fields of science and education, and by sharing his scientific expertise, Dr. John Vollmer, professor of chemistry, helped me to mentor others into the world of science. As a demanding, interesting, and encouraging teacher, he taught me that science is a lens for understanding the world. Little did he realize that his influence started me on a career journey that unites my interests in science and learning.

I took Dr. Vollmer’s organic chemistry class my first year at Mills. On the first day of class he called me into his office and told me that he had never had a freshwoman take organic chemistry, and that I had until the first exam to demonstrate that I could handle the material. (I studied!) His chemistry courses were always enjoyable and his use of visual diagrams and physical models enhanced my learning and later my teaching.

At the beginning of my junior year, Dr. Vollmer called me to his office once again. He had noticed that I spent a lot of time tutoring classmates. He was the first person to ask me if I had ever thought about being a science teacher. He encouraged me to think about my future at a time when I wasn’t even contemplating what I might do after graduation. He introduced me to a professor in the education department and I subsequently decided to earn my teaching credential while still an undergraduate. Dr. Vollmer was supportive and encouraging during my senior year, when I was overloaded with student teaching while still trying to complete requirements for my major.

Dr. Vollmer started me on a path that would lead me to a teaching career at a small liberal arts college. After graduating from Mills with a BA in biochemistry and a teaching credential, I taught chemistry, biology, and integrated science at Berkeley High School for seven years. Afterwards I coordinated a biotechnology internship program for high school and community college students for another seven years. I am now an assistant professor at the University of Puget Sound, where I share my love of science and math, and my teaching expertise, with pre-service teachers.

I last saw Dr. Vollmer at the dedication of Mills’ new education center in 2001. While talking with Dr. Vollmer about his involvement in planning the new science center, I was struck by his continued dedication to improving science education at Mills. As an educator, I sometimes wonder if my work makes a difference—Dr. Vollmer can know that he has made a difference in my life.

Amy Ryken, ’85, has a master’s degree in public health and a PhD in education. In 2000 she was awarded the Distinguished Professional Award by the Association for Women in Science for making significant contributions to mentoring people into science.

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Teaching by Example:

Sarah Pollock, Associate Professor, English and Journalism

by Brandy Tuzon Boyd, ’91

DAVID M. BRIN, MA ’75

I cannot remember what I expected the first day of class in the fall of 1987, but when I walked into Newspaper Journalism, new professor Sarah Pollock greeted me. Freshwomen, both of us.

The thing that struck me first about Sarah was the fact she was not just a teacher, but also a working journalist. During my tutelage, she held posts as features editor and staff writer at the Oakland Tribune, editor-in-chief at Pacific Discovery magazine, and she reviewed literary journalism and fiction titles for the San Francisco Chronicle Review of Books. It is not uncommon for collegelevel journalism courses to be taught by someone who has not stepped in a newsroom for years, so I know that a professor like Sarah is a rarity.

Sarah not only taught by example, she required me and her other students to venture out of the classroom and into the community to cover government meetings, police stories, and court hearings, and to participate actively on the Mills Weekly. We were required to read a daily newspaper and the Associated Press Stylebook; pop quizzes ensured we kept up with current events and our reading assignments. Sarah also invited other journalists—such as the late Bob Maynard, then-publisher of the Oakland Tribune—into our classroom as guest lecturers.

After four semesters on the Weekly and a yearlong internship at the Children’s Advocate, I was encouraged by Sarah to take my learning to the next level. Together we developed an independent study course during which I freelanced for editors at several Bay Area publications, including the Montclarion and the Daily Californian. I turned in copies of my published articles for Sarah to critique and grade, and I earned credit toward my college degree. I am positive this experience and the published articles helped me land my first full-time staff reporter position and gave me the experience I needed to do the job.

Since I graduated, Sarah has remained accessible while juggling duties as mother, Mills professor, and senior editor at Mother Jones magazine. She has continued to be a sounding board in matters both personal and professional.

During a recent conversation Sarah told me, “I engage intensely with my students. . . . It’s exciting when they connect back.” I am not the only Mills alumna who feels this connection with Sarah—an informal poll of some of her past and current students generated descriptions of Sarah as “a god,” “a steady, positive force,” and the person who “inspired me to be a journalist.”

Sarah is one of those special professors who reaches beyond her role as teacher; she is also a mentor and friend. It is not every student who has a professor like Sarah—a professor who brings insight and experience into the classroom, who encourages students to explore their interests, and who inspires them to pursue their dreams.

Brandy Tuzon Boyd is an award-winning journalist living in Sacramento, California. Her ideal job would be at National Geographic.

Teachings and Jokes:

Wah Cheng, Associate Professor of History

by Jenny Sit, ’03 Wah Cheng has a few jokes up his sleeve, but by far his favorite one is this: “Where does McDonald’s get its beef?” Wah would ask, usually on the first day of class when students were expecting some kind of introduc-

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PHILIP CHANNING

tion to the course. Unable to comprehend what the joke had to do with a history course, they looked back at him with blank stares. After enough time had passed, Wah would chuckle a little and say, “From Macau!”

I heard this classic Wah joke as a student in his Traditional China class in the spring of 2001. Little did I know I’d hear it again the following semester in his Modern China class, and again the following semester in his Communist China class. He couldn’t get enough of his own jokes—each time he told it he’d find it newly amusing and his sincerity was contagious. I laughed every semester even though I already knew the answer.

To be sure, I didn’t come back three semesters in a row for the Macau joke. I signed up for Wah’s classes because they fulfilled a need for knowledge that I hadn’t been able to satisfy before he came to campus in 1999. Wah teaches Chinese and Asian history, a subject I felt compelled to study as a Chinese American woman. It was a subject that wasn’t available to me before Wah was hired.

In each of his classes, I felt that I was getting to know a part of myself, a part of my own history.

Having moved from Hong Kong to the States when I was only nine years old, I could not take much with me. I had only vague and fragmented notions of my own history, culled from whatever sources were available to me through my years in the public school system and from my family. Wah’s Traditional China class opened my eyes to schools of thought like Confucianism and Taoism, and the impact they had on the cultural development of China. It was so gratifying to think critically about my own history, and to analyze the effects it had upon my own experience.

The 1989 Tiannamen Square incident in which student demonstrators were gunned down by the government had a profound effect on my life. The hysteria the incident created in China and Hong Kong was one of the driving forces behind my family’s uprooting, and as a nine-year-old, I could hardly

understand the event’s political and social impact.

For me, it meant a lot of people died, and I was to be taken out of school and flown halfway across the world to America. More than a decade later, as a college student in Wah’s Communist China class, I was able to trace the historical and social developments that led up to the incident, as well as the repercussions and consequences that followed.

Once, Wah’s class even solved a lifelong puzzle. I had grown up hearing the Chinese expression, “AhQ spirit.” Not knowing what it really meant or where it came from, I just guessed at it by context. In the Modern China class, we read short stories by Lu Hsun, dubbed by Chinese historians to be the father of modern Chinese literature. It turns out Lu Hsun wrote a short story called “The Story of Ah-Q,” a story so monumental that “Ah-Q” had entered the Chinese lexicon. Wah cites a classic example from Lu Hsun as “someone (Ah Q) who is beaten up by a bully but keeps convincing himself that he is being bullied by an unfilial son.” Hence, “Ah-Q spirit” means someone or some group of people who, despite their inferior station, are always able to interpret their experience of failure as a celebration of triumph.

Mills is lucky to have a professor like Wah. I will leave the college a fuller, more well-rounded person thanks to Wah’s classes, and I’m glad to know that he was tenured last May so that Mills women in the years to come will be able to experience his teachings and jokes as I have.

Jenny Sit graduated from Mills in January of 2003 and is currently a reporter at the Tribune in San Luis Obispo, California.

Scenes from a Luminous Tapestry of Learning: Reynold M. Wik, Professor Emeritus of History

by Katherine (Kit) Farrow Jorrens, ’57 How I delight in tracking the milestones of this remarkable relationship, which began when I left Rochester, New York, to attend Mills College in September of 1953 and met Reynold M. Wik, professor of American history, who became my freshman advisor, life-long mentor, and devoted friend.

What an auspicious beginning to my college days when this warm, witty, sandy-haired “man of the Dakota sod” with impish grin began imparting his wisdom in our freshman humanities course—ever challenging us, prodding us, and questioning us.

Woven throughout the brilliant fabric of Rey Wik’s teaching were the passionate spirit of inquiry, the dilemmas that ensued from our debates, and the M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY W I N T E R 2 0 0 3

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Kit Farrow Jorrens and Rey Wik at Kit’s 45th Reunion, September, 2002

power of an idea to lay down crucial cornerstones. In the spring of my senior year, Rey and his colleagues, Franklin Walker, professor of American literature, Lawrence Sears, professor of philosophy, and Alfred Frankenstein, professor of art and music, led 20 fortunate seniors including this French major in an exhilarating interdisciplinary course funded by the Ford Foundation called Patterns of Contemporary American Thought.

Those ringing classroom exchanges still echo in my ears today.

Rey Wik and his gentle, Nebraska-born wife, Helen, devoted music librarian at Mills, often invited students to their Oakland home, which became a haven for those of us far away from our families. As a French major, I spent my junior year in Paris while Rey was at the Free University of Berlin as a Fulbright lecturer. In April of 1956, while making a visit to Paris, Rey found me by chance seated at a left-bank café on the Boulevard St. Germain—what a truly sublime encounter to be followed by many more adventures around Paris together. It has been “a moveable feast” ever since.

Here in New England I have served as branch president and Northeast regional governor and have often returned to Mills for Alumnae Councils and Reunions. What sheer delight to stay on for extra days with Rey and Helen. In September of 1985, Rey and Helen joined me and my Germanborn husband, Peter, at our home in Acton, Massachusetts. Once again it was another moveable feast of stories shared of our Mills, Paris, and Berlin days as we walked many historic sites including the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, where our colonial farmers on April 19, 1775, fired the shots heard ’round the world, beginning the American Revolution. In September of 1997, I joined my 1957 Mills classmates for a memorable 40th Reunion, inviting Rey and Helen Wik to our class dinner to honor and pay tribute to all that they had been for us ever since our earliest days at Mills.

Rey Wik grew up in the tens and twenties in the Midwest and often shared his vivid impressions of that earlier era with his Mills students. He became a nationally recognized scholar in social history and American technology, and in 1972 his Henry Ford and Grass-Roots America was published by Eaton Press and acclaimed for its fine writing on Ford and his impact on rural America. Here are his opening lines: “Since we cannot escape past experience, it can be said that this book originated in 1920 when my mother bought a Model T Ford to provide transportation for herself and eleven children on a five-hundred acre farm in Faulk County, South Dakota. After eight years of rugged service, little stamina remained in the vitals of that car, but its mechanical career marked the memories of those who knew it intimately.”

Rey Wik taught at Mills from 1951 to 1975 and continued teaching until 1985 at Sioux Fall College, his alma mater, in South Dakota. The Reynold M. Wik History Prize is now awarded every spring to an outstanding Mills student in the department. Helen died on May 13, 2001; Rey had his 92nd birthday on March 19, 2002. We eagerly reach each other through exuberant phone calls coast to coast and 40-plus years of “historic and colorful” correspondence.

As an instructor of French and English as a second language, I give thanks over and over for the bountiful gifts of Rey Wik’s mind and heart that he has so generously bestowed on me and a legion of Mills students and for the continuously unfolding wonder and delight of a Mills education. I will forever hold this valiant and resilient professor close to my heart and rejoice in this luminous tapestry that we have so lovingly woven together.

For the past 20 years, Katherine (Kit) Farrow Jorrens, ’57, has taught French and English as a second language to an extended family of students from around the world at Language School International in Acton, Massachusetts.

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Beloved “Boss”

Howard McMinn, Professor of Botany

by Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Howard McMinn came to Mills in 1918 and retired a month following his stroke in 1957. With a bachelor’s degree from Earlham College, in Indiana, and a master’s from U. C. Berkeley, he arrived at Mills at the age of 27 to teach botany there for the rest of his career.

Beloved of the botany majors, who called him “Boss,” loved by all students who knew him, and admired greatly for his quiet scholarship, particularly by his science colleagues, he served as professor of botany and frequently chair of the science department. He was the author of several books, and my particular favorite has always been Ceanothus, written in collaboration with the director of the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden, because I spent over two years in independent study with him doing research for this book.

I never pursued my botany major, but I have found that Mr. McMinn’s training in research methods has been the foundation of everything I have ever undertaken. I shall never forget, nor cease to be as proud now as I was at the time, when Mr. McMinn came to the lab door where I was working and said to me, “Jane, I have just figured out that you are the fifth ranking expert on Ceanothus in the world.” Boss, I thank you still.

Jane Cudlip King, ’42, is vice president of the Alumnae Association of Mills College, a past member of the Board of Trustees of Mills College, and is famous for her tours of the Mills campus, given during Reunion and known as “Jane’s Strolls.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF MILLS COLLEGE ARCHIVES, F.W. OLIN LIBRARY

Capturing Interest and Enabling Understanding: Ann Metcalf , Associate Professor of Anthropology

by Brandy Tuzon Boyd, ’91 Look at my bookshelves and you will see a range of titles. There are prose, creative nonfiction, series of mystery titles, and a handful of classics. Few of my college textbooks have a home on these shelves, but one in particular, a neon-green and black paperback, stands out in my mind as significant.

The Forest People: A Study of the Pygmies of the Congo by Colin M. Turnbull is an all-time favorite. Although I have not read it since it was required for my first class with Professor Ann Metcalf, I expect to keep it always. Because of this book I chose ethnic studies and anthropology as my major core of study—despite a mediocre grade in Cultural Anthropology my second semester at Mills.

By the time graduation rolled around in May of 1991, I had taken four classes taught by Ann. Cultural Anthropology was followed by Ethnicity, Race and Child Development, Traditional Native American Cultures, and an independent study on urban Native American ceremonies during which I planned and coordinated the annual on-campus Pow Wow. Growing up, I always enjoyed social studies classes and meeting people from different cultural backgrounds. But at Mills, the classes I took from Ann and other ethnic studies and anthropology professors captured my interest and enabled me to understand the role different cultures play in society.

These classes also helped shed light on my own upbringing and ethnic identity as a third-generation Filipino American.

My interest in ethnic studies, nurtured in Ann’s classes, has stayed with me and has remained an important part of my journalism career and personal life.

Early in my career I was compelled to pen a series of articles about the Hmong community, and today I continue to pursue and write about a wide range of cross-cultural issues. Over the years, Ann has remained an important resource. For example, when I started work on an article about the effects of diabetes on Native American elders, she was the first person I called.

Thanks to email, keeping in touch and up-todate about ethnic studies and anthropology at Mills is easy. Recently Ann told me the focus of classes like Ethnicity, Race, and Child Development has shifted to include experiences of Asian Americans in M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY W I N T E R 2 0 0 3

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addition to African Americans. With the advent of the Mills CARES Center, more students now participate in service learning where they earn credit for community work as part of a number of courses, including three taught by one of my favorite professors, Ann Metcalf.

Journalist Brandy Tuzon Boyd is founder of a women’s writing cluster and teaches writing courses for the Learning Exchange and City of Sacramento.

Learning Life’s Lessons in Unexpected Places: Bob Lorimer, Riding Instructor

by Donna Hamer, ’65

PHOTO COURTESY OF MILLS COLLEGE ARCHIVES, F.W. OLIN LIBRARY

Alice Wittenberg, ’24, jumping a horse over a hurdle at Mills

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In September of 1962, I discovered that horseback riding was offered as a physical education course at Mills. I raced over to sign up. The instructor, Bob Lorimer, sat alone at a folding table. Asked about my riding experience, I explained that I was an experienced rider, actually quite advanced.

Bob’s steady gaze recorded my qualifications: shoulder length hair massively pinned into a full French twist, carefully tapered, polished nails, and a slight build free from evidence of any sustained athletic effort. He then penciled my name in on the beginning class sign-up sheet in graceful script.

For my first lesson Bob assigned me to ride Penny, a geriatric chestnut, and then walked away. Surprised to discover I had to saddle and bridle my own horse, I began tentatively and when Penny raised her head and rolled her eyes at me, I quickly fled for help. Bob returned and patiently showed me how to place the bit, buckle the throat-latch, and cinch the saddle. He made no comment when I bent my thumbnail back in the process.

That first class consisted of rail work at a walk and trot and some simple figures. Then Bob asked us to canter. Everyone moved into the faster gait.

However, I rode on at an increasingly violent trot, losing hairpins with every lap and gamely urging Penny into a higher gear. I was certain that with a different horse next time, I would be able to ride in the advanced class. After class, I was looking to discuss the matter with Bob when his five-year-old daughter brightly asked me to give her a leg up on Penny for the next class.

Once seated, she cantered off easily, her small legs vigorously kicking the sides of Penny’s saddle. I returned to Orchard Meadow Hall and cut all my fingernails. I rode in the beginning classes for more than a year.

I rode at Bob’s Oakland Riding Academy for the next six years, working hard to move into the advanced classes. Bob taught me to ride and jump perhaps 15 different horses. His teaching style was not for everyone.

Standing in the middle of his covered arena or on the cross-country course, Bob would deliver Army-style commands to his riders. His hesitating speech, annoying in ordinary conversation, would give way to a wry wit interspersed with general observations and rambling stories. It was not uncommon for students to take offense at his remarks. A few even left his classes in tears. But I refused to give in to hurt or angry emotions. I quickly learned that if I had something to prove to Bob, I could not be afraid. And subordinating fear was important to me, especially when it came to jumping.

On occasion Bob would personally demonstrate how to execute a figure or settle a horse whose rider had sparked a conflict. With great patience, never bravado, he would mount a student’s horse, adjusting the stirrups cavalry style as the horse moved off briskly. Then followed a running monologue of what we should be trying to do with this horse in this situation. His auburn hair shining, head slightly bent and reins placed evenly in his lap, Bob rode so deeply in the saddle that only the flexion of his ankles was visible as the horse worked fluidly through its paces beneath him.

Conversations with Bob were rarely about horses.

He loved to read and talk about history, architecture, sports, and aviation. During the time I knew him, he learned to fly airplanes, sculpt in clay, and paint with watercolors. His effect on my life was profound. I eventually owned, trained, and bred horses of my own. Through his guidance, I accepted the importance of knowing my strengths, persevering, and moving beyond fear. His patience, understanding, and good humor taught me effective ways to manage horses as well as people. Above all, he demonstrated that the pursuit of one’s interests and passions is a process not limited by one’s job.

Donna Hamer is a paralegal with Hiepler & Hiepler, a law firm specializing in personal injury, medical malpractice, and bad faith HMO/insurance denial litigation. She shares her home in Ventura, California with her two teenage sons, a Welsh corgi, and a tabby cat.

Contagious Enthusiasm: Ajuan Mance, Assistant Professor of English

by Alison Earle, ’00, MFA ’02

ARIEL EATON THOMAS, ’63

Mills professors, in general, are a humble lot. Whenever I attempt to express my gratitude for their instruction the response is usually something like, “You did all the work.

You were hungry to learn.”

True enough, as a resuming student who didn’t have the opportunity to achieve her BA until age 40, by the time I arrived at Mills I was hungry for education and ready to learn. But that didn’t mean I had an easy time of it, and there were several professors who provided extra encouragement as well as brought extra depth and meaning to the education I received. One of those professors was Dr. Ajuan Mance of the English department.

In the fall of 1999, during my senior year, I was a student in the first class Dr. Mance taught on campus, Nineteenth-Century African American Literature. Her lectures were fascinating, the readings challenging, and her enthusiasm was highly contagious. I found

myself writing 20-page research papers when the assignment called for a five-page essay. But Dr. Mance did much more than provide me with academic inspiration and a solid historical and social context in which to examine the complexities of literature.

I would stop by her office weekly to discuss those tomes I handed in and our conversations often wandered beyond topics on the syllabus. Not one to be excessively self-revelatory in the classroom, in her office it was a different story. Dr. Mance related her experiences as a contestant on Jeopardy, as a rugby player at Brown (though I never did get her to sing a fight song) and she shared her true passion with me—art. When I saw her portraits of Black men and women I was amazed that she could put so much time and effort into teaching us and still have the energy left to create vivid, expressive paintings that seem to have enough of their own energy and presence to walk off the canvas.

We’d each been raised on opposite ends of the spectrum. Dr. Mance grew up in Manhattan; I grew up in Montana, and we were equally fascinated by the anecdotes we exchanged. In the spring of 2000, my last semester before graduation, Dr. Mance agreed to become my advisor for my senior project in creative writing. I didn’t have any idea what I was doing with the non-fiction stories I’d begun writing about Montana; I had hopes of assembling them into some sort of collection but I wasn’t sure I had an audience for them outside of my own demographic.

Dr. Mance read through my first 30 pages and said the words that cause both fear and excitement for any writer, “There’s a book here.” I was stunned.

“I never knew a place like this existed,” she told me. “It’s important that you tell this story, not only for yourself, but to document the legacy of your entire community.” I was slightly intimidated by this new challenge she issued me, but every week when we reviewed my work she’d end by telling me, “Just keep doing what you’re doing. I can’t wait to read more.” Dr. Mance became much more than my advisor: she became my audience.

Under her tough editorship and with her encouraging guidance, my senior project grew from a vague idea into the first half of a non-fiction novel that is still in progress. All writers have an editor who lives in their brain and is constantly overseeing their work. I continue to work on this manuscript with Dr. Mance in my mind, still look for the spots where she’d raise her eyebrows and tell me to dig deeper, for the lines that would make her laugh.

One day I’ll thank her in a book dedication.

Alison Earle writes both fiction and creative nonfiction. She lives in Oakland and holds both a BA and an MFA from Mills in creative writing.

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“WHY ARE WE READING A HANDBOOK ON RAPE?”: Teaching and Learning at a Women’s College

by Madeleine Kahn, Associate Professor of English

FREDERICK RICHARDSON

“

Why

have you assigned a handbook on rape?”

What a confusing question this was to me when I first heard it. The student who asked it was first of all offering a startling perspective on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which I had never thought of as a handbook on rape, although it does contain many stories of gods ravishing young women. With her question, this student was suggesting that rape was what the book was primarily about, and that far from being critical of the rapes he described, Ovid was offering instructions on how to imitate them. This was a new perspective on what has traditionally been regarded as a wry compendium of stories about the changeableness of human nature and the fickleness of the gods. This assertion that The Metamorphoses was a handbook on rape contained enough complex implications to keep our class on ancient myths busy for weeks working through this challenge to the conventional view of Ovid’s text as classic literature which transmits some of the enduring values of Western culture.

But the student who asked this provocative question wasn’t only challenging Ovid’s text. She was also directly challenging my authority as a professor with good reasons for assigning The Metamorphoses to the class. The class discussions which ensued brought with them further challenges and disruptions:

Above: Europa being carried off by Zeus, who appeared to her as a friendly bull and then abducted her.

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students spoke both of their personal experiences of rape and of their outrage and confusion about my requiring them to speak analytically in class about a text which they felt conspired with patriarchal culture to silence them as women. “We came to a women’s college to read books that empower us, not books that reinforce our fears,” students said. “We don’t want to be like these women Ovid describes. Are you with us or against us?”

Such challenges in the classroom are not easy to negotiate.

When I first started teaching at Mills almost 15 years ago, I made every effort to contain these challenges and to keep them from interfering with what I saw as my duties as a professor: to teach students something about the literature under discussion, and to teach them the very particular kind of thinking that goes into literary criticism. But the more I clamped down on such angry responses to the text, the fiercer they became.

Gradually I came to realize that not only was it impossible to keep students from responding so passionately and so personally to what we were reading, but it wasn’t even desirable.

For if I had been able to keep them from asking, “Why are we reading a handbook on rape?”, I would have missed learning so much of what my students had to teach me: what I had been seeing as disruptions were instead a vital part of the learning process. That is, “Why are we reading a handbook on rape?” turns out to be a creative and thought-provoking and appropriate question for a young woman to ask when she

encounters Ovid’s Metamorphoses in a class at a women’s college. Moreover, the answers to the question are not obvious, and not simple; I’m still figuring them out. I still assign The Metamorphoses, in my course on ancient myth, but I now have rather different expectations for our class discussions.

In fact, this brief question about Ovid’s “handbook on rape” is so rich in implications for teaching and learning about literature that it and others like it have changed my ideas about what allows real learning to take place in a classroom filled with women. For example, I have come to see that the student questioning my assigning The Metamorphoses would have to trust her responses before I can teach her to analyze them. She would need to say to herself, “It’s not just because my friend was raped that I’ve responded to the text this way. There really is something about these descriptions of male gods ravishing female mortals that carries with it some of the power dynamic that is present in real-world rape.” Trusting their own responses is something that is particularly difficult for young women in our culture. But the task gets even more complicated: Even while she’s trusting her emotional response, this student needs to ask herself analytical questions about that response. While holding on to her sense that the text is somehow designed to silence her, she needs to remember that it is a literary text and therefore might have multiple levels of meaning. “What about the author here? Is he the same as the narrator in these passages that seem like rapes to me?” she might ask. “Is Ovid offering any kind of interpretation of these rapes within the text?”

“How should I take into account the differences between the world in which I’m reading this book and the world in which it was written?”

I see now that this kind of thinking is difficult. It requires both the hard, slogging work of logical thinking and the ability to keep in mind a shifting array of contradictory possibilities. Gradually my perspective on what had first seemed like challenges to the real work of teaching began to change, as did what happens in my classroom. Both of those changes arose in part because of the very basic difference between a women’s college and any other college or university: at a women’s college we think about women. This difference is crucial to what my students learn about themselves and about the roles they might create for themselves. It has also been crucial to the development of my book. I didn’t realize how crucial it has been until I started talking with colleagues about this project. One of the standard greetings in the academic world is, “What are you working on?” which means, “What are you writing?” for your writing is the work that most of the rest of the academic community sees. For the years I’ve been writing this book my answer has been in part, “I’m working on a book about teaching at a women’s college.” More often than not the first response I’ve gotten has been, “Well, have you taught at a men’s college? Have you taught men so you know what you’re comparing your experience to?” Each time I heard it, this question threw me. It seemed so completely beside the point to

me, so far from the concerns I was thinking and writing about.

But I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it. So embedded in our culture is the notion that men are the norm or the standard that at first I didn’t think to wonder about the assumptions behind this question. Finally I realized that my interlocutors were assuming that thinking about women’s experiences is only valuable if we view those experiences in relation to the supposed norms of men’s experiences. Indeed, their seemingly innocuous question assumed that women’s experiences have to be held up to that male standard to be visible at all.

With this realization about the assumptions behind my colleagues’ responses to my work came another realization: what a luxury it is to be teaching at a women’s college. For at a women’s school it is possible to assume something quite different. By this I mean the seemingly simple yet far-reaching conviction that women’s experiences, women’s opinions, women’s interactions are fascinating, valuable, thoughtprovoking, perhaps even world-changing in themselves. That assumption is a gift that is available to all of us associated with women’s schools, and it is one that I recognized most fully when it was challenged by that simple question about whether or not I’d taught men. Teaching at a women’s college has made me ever more aware of what is possible in a classroom filled with women, and that is in large part what my book is about. My goal here is to look as carefully and as thoughtfully as I can at my students’ experiences reading and writing about the very challenging literature I teach. I want to see what a generous interpretation of the intellectual and pedagogical issues that have come to the fore in my classes has to offer in terms of insights about teaching and learning.

By a generous interpretation I simply mean one that makes the assumption that a women’s college allows us to make:

I still assign The Metamorphoses, in my course on ancient myth, but I now have rather different expectations for our class discussions.

—Madeleine Kahn that these women have something important to say, and that their experience is worthy of respectful analysis.

Students at Mills have taught me at least as much as I have taught them. They have repeatedly challenged my own preconceptions about how the literature classroom should work, what the relationship between student and professor should be, and what is the true value of what I am able to teach them about literature. And they have—sometimes tentatively, sometimes aggressively—demonstrated in my classroom how much the conventional curriculum and the academic space for discussion both change when those so-called extra-academic concerns are integrated into our intellectual investigations. Along the way they have often created together new and provocative versions of the books we have discussed, along with new possibilities for both teaching and learning in collaboration with each other.

Excerpt from Kahn’s book “Why Are We a Handbook on Rape?”: Tales of Teaching and Learning at a Women’s College. Copyright © by Madeleine Kahn, 2002. Do not cite without permission.

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY W I N T E R 2 0 0 3

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 21– THURSDAY MARCH 6 California Paintings 19101940. Art Museum. (510) 430- 2164

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 7:00 PM Annual Alumnae/Student Career Night. Student Union. (510) 430-2111.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 21– THURSDAY MARCH 6 Many Roads: 150 Years of Mills College. Art Museum.

(510) 430-2164

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 8:00 PM Early Music: Guillaume De Machaut, Flower Of All Melody. Concert Hall.

(510) 430-2296

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 8:00 PM New Improvised Music from Japan plus music from the Center for Contemporary Music.

Toshimaru Nakamura,

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 9:00 AM–NOON AND 1:30–4:30 PM Basic Investment Principles and Vocabulary and History

SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 9:00 AM–NOON AND 1:30–4:30 PM Why Women Need to Invest: Absolute Beginners and Understanding Value Line. For more information email Harriet Chan at <skcots@yahoo.com>.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 7:30 PM Lectures on Contemporary Art: Benoit Maubrey. Lucie Stern 100. (510) 430-2117 SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 8:00 PM The Ives Quartet. Concert Hall. (510) 430-2296

SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 9 AM–NOON, 1:30 –4:30 PM Mutual Funds Investing Class, Part I and Stock Selection Guide Overview.

Lucie Stern Room 101. For more information email Harriet Chan at <skcots@yahoo.com>.

TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 7:30 PM Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton will speak and read from her work.

Student Union.

(510) 430-2239

C A L E N D A R Maggi Payne, and John Bischoff. Concert Hall.

(510) 430-2296

Stanford professor and author Elizabeth Tallent will speak on Tuesday,

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 7:00 PM Lunar New Year Celebration.

Founders Commons.

(510) 430-2110

February 11 at 5:30 p.m. in the Faculty Lounge.

She is the author of a novel, Museum Pieces, and three collections of

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 8:00 PM Angela Hewitt, Dewing Piano Recitalist. Concert Hall. (510) 430-2296 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 8:00 PM Traditional and Contemporary Japanese Koto Music with Kazue Sawai. Concert Hall. (510) 430-2296 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 4:00 PM Russian Chamber Music: Abel-Steinberg Duo with Sara Ganz. Concert Hall.

(510) 430-2296

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TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 5:30–7:00 PM Contemporary Writers Series: Keith and Rosemarie Waldrop.

Faculty Lounge, Rothwell Center. (510) 430-2236

short stories. For more information, call (510) 430-2236.

of Financial Investing.

Lucie Stern, Room 101.

For more information email Harriet Chan at <skcots@yahoo.com>

SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 12:00 PM Swim team vs. Cal Tech.

Trefethen Aquatic Center.

(510) 430-3384

SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 12:00 PM Swim team vs. Cal State Hayward. Trefethen Aquatic Center. (510) 430-3384

MARCH 18 – APRIL 10, 2003 Senior Exhibition. Art Museum.

(510) 430- 2164

SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 9 AM–NOON Mutual Funds Investing Class, Part II and Beginning Toolkit. Lucie Stern, Room 101. For more information email Harriet Chan at <skcots@yahoo.com> MONDAY, MARCH 31, 7:30 PM Contemporary Writers Series: Grace Paley.

Concert Hall.

(510) 430-2236 You can now find fine arts events on the Mills College website by going to <www.mills.edu> and choosing “Click for Mills News and Events.”

Class Notes do not appear in the online edition of Mills Quarterly.

Alumnae are invited to share their news with classmates in the Mills College alumnae community.

To submit notes for publication in the next available Quarterly, send your update to classnotes@mills. edu.

Class Notes do not appear in the online edition of the Mills Quarterly.

Alumnae are invited to share their news with classmates in the Mills College Alumnae Community, alumnae.mills.edu. To submit notes for publication in the next available Quarterly, send your update to classnotes@mills.edu.

PASSAGES Gifts in Honor of

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M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY W I N T E R 2 0 0 3

Gifts in Memory of Pamela Nickerson Angwin, ’49,

by Robert Angwin Joan Shorenstein Barone, ’68,

by Mary Law-Chun, ’68 Florence Porterfield Beardsley, ’29,

by Anne Beardsley Chisham, ’55 George Bertram

by Nancy Bernheim Rogers, ’47 Elizabeth Tompkins Buurma, ’42,

by Elizabeth Ragle Soule, ’42 Terry Foskett Camacho, ’61,

by Mary Doerfler Luhring, ’61, and by Cynthia Foskett Nestle, ’58 Margaret Campbell

by Anita Unikel, ’72 Mary French Clifford, ’41, by Norma Godfrey Vermilion, ’41

Dr. Francis Herrick

by Gertrude Feather Anderson, ’53, and Elaine Hesse Steel, ’67 Merrill Bristow Hintikka, ’60,

by Joyce Howard, ’72 Marion Rowcliffe Howard, ’44,

by Jean Pinckney Nelson, ’44 Marian Ibach

by Christine Ibach Holly, ’62 Nita Worstell Jacobs, ’27, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Dr. Baki Kasapligil

by Irene Crown Merwin, ’67, and Paula Finch Stetler, ’63 A. Stanley Kilstrom

by April Kilstrom, ’83 Sara Laboskey

by Megan Thomas, ’93, MA ’98 Alice Lager Lamb, ’78,

by Alice Longman and MarieMarthe Reiles Scott Larsen

by Lexie Spafford Robbins, ’52, Susan Rubenstein Schapiro, ’52, Caryl Hollender Susman, ’52, and Frances Weiler Varnhagen, ’52 Alexander Libermann

by Nancy Franz Langert, ’57 Susan Long, ’56,

by Judith Ireland, ’56 Jean MacKenzie Pool, ME ’43,

by Jean Pinckney Nelson, ’44 Elizabeth Heller Mandell, ’52,

by Geraldine Clark, ’52, and Frances Weiler Varnhagen, ’52 Winona McClintic Martin, ’42,

by Edith Sheldon Stone, ’43 Howard McMinn

Ellen Jane “Jinny” Carleton Reinhardt, ’39, MA ’42 JINNY REINHARDT, daughter-in-law of former Mills President Aurelia Henry Reinhardt, passed away peacefully, after a long and productive life at the age of 85 on November 6, 2002. She received both a BA and MA in art from Mills. As a student, she met her future husband, Paul, who lived on campus with his brother, Fred, and their mother, President Reinhardt.

During her life, Jinny pursued the arts. She produced jewelry, ceramics, mosaics, sculpture, and photography. She worked as a docent at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, focusing on the 12th and 13th centuries. Her home and garden were full of treasures she collected and made.

For more than 40 years, Jinny was an active volunteer in her community. In addition to serving on the Mills College Board of Trustees, she volunteered with the Palo Alto Junior Museum, the Little House Senior Center, the San Francisco Symphony, the City of Palo Alto, the Dance Applause, the Peninsula Center for the Blind, the Stanford Music Guild, The Palo Alto Medical Research Foundation, and the Stanford Committee for Art. She served as chair of the Channing House Art and Decoration Committee and president of the Residents’ Council for two years. In 1988 Jinny was awarded the Paul Emerson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council for the Arts Palo Alto for her “ardent support of the arts.” On her 80th birthday she was honored at a special ceremony by the Committee for Art at Stanford University for “Outstanding Service in the Visual Arts at Stanford University since 1954.”

She is survived by four children, five grandchildren, two sisters, and a brother. Her husband, Dr. Paul Reinhardt, died in 1999.

MARY HELEN BARRETT

Isabelle Hagopian Arabian, ’45,

by Mary Sellers, ’45 Enrico and Jane Van Rysselberghe Bernasconi, ’54, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Terry Foskett Camacho, ’61,

by Carolyn Jensen Monday, ’61 Myrna Bostwick Cowman, ’57, by Deborah Beck Rosenberg, ’57 Makenna Kelley Davis

by Leslie Decker, ’79 Ann Winsor Doskow, ’57, by Deborah Beck Rosenberg, ’57 Elaine Wertheimer Ehrman, ’47, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Carol Ivanoff, ’95,

by Thomasina Woida, ’80 Jane Cudlip King, ’42,

by Thomasina Woida, ’80 Fred Lawson

by Kate McDonald, ’02 Sherman and Lucy Cowdin Maisel, ’38,—Happy 60th Wedding Anniversary!

by Susan Rubenstein Schapiro, ’52, and Leslie Stein Selcow, ’63 Carolyn Sievers McGuire, ’68,

by Carolyn Spinner, ’68 Donald Mills

by Mary Sellers, ’45 Dr. Laura Nathan by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Sarah Pollock

by Colleen Almeida Smith, ’92 Lesley Griffith Sproul, ’47,

by Ann Thomas Jones, ’47 Dr. Karen Cardon Swearingen, ’63,

by Marian Murphy-Shaw, ’83 Dr. Nancy Thornborrow by Cheryl Weisberg Davidson, ’83 Reynold Wik

by Elaine Hesse Steel, ’67, and

by Muriel Peabody Loomis, ’52 Arnold and Ann Sulzberger Wolff, ’42,—Happy 60th Wedding Anniversary!

by Katherine Zelinsky Westheimer, ’42 Mills AARs

by Teresa Blankmeyer Burke, ’93 In appreciation of the Alumnae Association Staff by Susan Rubenstein Schapiro, ’52 My Favorite Teachers from 1949–1953 by Gertrude Feather Anderson, ’53

The Class of 1942 by Carolyn Moulton Nadeau, ’42 The Class of 1962

by Anne Crotty, ’62 The Class of 1972 by Sally Sugden Jesse, ’72, MA ’78 The Class of 1972

by Virginia Wheeler, ’72 The Ladies of the Class of 1957

by Myrna Bostwick Cowman, ’57 All Womyn by Tori Freeman, ’98 Women of the Class of 1952

by Darlene Mahnke SimpsonBrown, ’52

Nancy Speer Cody, ’44,

by Jean Pinckney Nelson, ’44 Willa Wolcott Condon, MA ’32,

by Ann Condon Barbour, ’69 Abigail Brown Conwell

by Susanne Conwell Stephens, ’54, MA ’56 Caroline Plumb Easton, ’56,

by Judith Ireland, ’56 Valaria Davis Edwards, ’87,

by Jennifer Lee Timmons, ’87 Marie Fabre-Rajotte Edwards, ’22,

by Jane Edwards Kenyon, ’47 Gary Erickson

by Mary Ann Doty Erickson, ’82, and Marilyn Learn Charlotte Frey

by Charlotte Bonica, ’68, Elaine Wong Chew, ’68, and Marina Kershaw Simenstad, ’68 Linda Kiyo Fujie

by Tomoye Tatai Helen Odell Gilbert-Bushnell, ’43,

by Norma Godfrey Vermilion, ’41 Coleen Gragen

by Andrea Popovich, ’98 Andree Gignoux Grise, ’61,

by Lila McCarthy, ’61 Sara Amodei Grosskettler, ’58,

by Mary Stewart McClain, ’57 Virginia Patton Hall, ’52,

by Geraldine Clark, ’52 Frederic Hasbrook

by Celia Nesbitt Hasbrook, ’52 Rev. George Hedley

by Gertrude Feather Anderson, ’53, Muriel Peabody Loomis, ’52, and Sharon Graham Niederhaus, ’63

Passages

by Lucille Frost Morris, ’47 Diana Catherine Muirhead by Ellen McDaniels Sanford, ’88 Alfred Neumeyer

by Gertrude Feather Anderson, ’53, Elizabeth Parker Belles, ’48, and Muriel Peabody Loomis, ’52 Alan Newhall

by Barbara Hunter, ’57, and Deborah Beck Rosenberg, ’57 Dorothy Ordway by Leslie

by Elizabeth Parker Belles, ’48, and Margaret Lyon, ’35, MM ’42 Mary Jelliffe Miller, ’44, by Nancy Shambaugh McBride, ’44 Martha Tway Mills, ’45,

by Isabelle Hagopian Arabian, ’45, Ruth Gillard, ’36, Lucile Pedler Griffiths, ’46, MA ’47, Eleanor Hadley, ’38, Mary Sellers, ’45, and Paula Merrix Sporck, ’46 Elmo Morris

Townsend Wade, ’80 Mr. and Mrs. Z. G. Peck by Emma-Jane Peck White, ’35 Elizabeth Penaat, ’55, by Diane Goodyear McClure, ’55 Ross Phinney

by Barbara Fairfax Phinney, ’40 Marie Poppenberger by Kay Poppenberger Bennett, ’73 Cynthia Gilbert Quimby, ’52, by Nadine Dolnick Gelman, ’52 Mildred Ristrom

Live Sparks from Thy Flame Won

ARIEL EATON THOMAS, ’63

SUZANNE ADAMS, ’48, died on November 21, 2002, after a twoyear fight with metastatic cancer and emphysema. No doubt she was surprised to find herself at the Pearly Gates because she hadn’t expected an afterlife, although she had not ruled out the possibility.

World-traveled and always curious, Suzanne asked many questions which St. Peter had difficulty answering. Finally he referred her to Karl Marx, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sappho, and Mahatma Gandhi. They welcomed her warmly, and her remarks about contemporary earth were so enlightening that they invited her to join them twice a week for conversation over wine and cheese.

In providing background to her new colleagues, Suzanne emphasized her Army brat upbringing and two years (1944–46) at Mills College, where as a politics, economics, and philosophy major and Olney Hall resident she made lifelong friends and established intellectual vigor for which she became well known. After a year in Germany, where her father was stationed after World War II, she attended Pomona College at her parents’ behest, graduating in 1949, a member of Phi Beta Kappa. But her heart belonged to Mills, the class of ’48, and the Bay Area. She earned a PhD in psychology from U.C. Berkeley in 1961 and for 30 years followed a varied career as both teacher and administrator with the Peralta Colleges. Retiring in 1986 as assistant dean of science and math at Laney College in Oakland, she returned to serve as a consultant to the Peralta District Office and interim director of PACE programs at Vista College in 1991.

Her heavenly hosts were particularly interested in her volunteer activities, which expressed her broad enthusiasms: young people with Youth Works in Oakland, housing with the Berkeley AAUW, transportation with the City of Berkeley, dramatic arts with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, women’s education with Mills College. Her heart and her energy, as well as her money, were also directed toward innumerable other causes in support of the arts, health, international understanding, the environment, and education. As a hard-working and loyal alumna and past member of the AAMC Board of Governors, and as a member and most recent past chair of the Mills College Board of Trustees, she was recognized for her wisdom, wit, and generosity to the College that was the source of her youthful inspiration.

Of course, Suzanne was too modest to go into some details, which we are supplying for her, and we would like to include the citation on the honorary Doctor of Laws degree Mills bestowed on Suzanne at Commencement in 2001: “To Suzanne Adams, who understands that a college’s heart beats in its gathering places, where chance encounters and conversations generate ideas that bring individual students and teachers together in a true community of learning—a vision her commitment, caring, and leadership have brought to life for the Mills she loves.” It is fitting that a celebration of Suzanne’s life will be held this spring on the Suzanne Adams Plaza at Mills College. Details will be forthcoming.

Her old friends envy her new companions, and we predict that in their discussions one of them will say something with which she heartily agrees and will be rewarded by Suzanne’s twinkling smile and an excited, “That’s IT!” —Muffy McKinstry Thorne, ’48

by Barbara Ristrom Wood, ’47 Harriet Harper Rosenberger, ’52,

by Bette Orvis Cooper, ’40, Elizabeth Head, and Alice Goodwin Lenz, ’52 Edward Rosenfeld

by Sylvia Jaureguy Love, ’47 Dominic Rotunda

by Kay Peabody Lins, ’48 Jean Dondero Schmidt, ’45,

by Alice Kett, Warren, Ann, and Howard Schmidt, and Norma Stokes Laurence Sears

by Muriel Peabody Loomis, ’52 Anne Sherrill

by Kathleen Davis, ’87 Emiko Hinoki Shimizu, ’41, by Norma Godfrey Vermilion, ’41 Ethel Sabin Smith

by Barbara Fairfax Phinney, ’40 Carol Olson Snelgrove, ’52, by Nadine Dolnick Gelman, ’52 Jeffry Staver by Laura Buhl, ’97 Mabel White Stenback

by Emma-Jane Peck White, ’35 Fannie Winkler Stool

by Anna Stool, ’68 Dr. Francis Stryble

by Kathryn Thrift Files, ’33 Flavel I. Temple by Rebecca Temple Bloxham, ’77 Helen Bailey Thirion, ’28, by Mary Schratter Hale, ’82, and Barbara Fairfax Phinney, ’40 Elizabeth Rodman Urquhart, ’52,

by Geraldine Clark, ’52 Evelyn Ross Urrere

by Sharon Zwonechek Barry, ’57, James Graham, Jean Kautz, ME ’51, and Joan Wilson, ’58 Louise Hayes Vanderliet, ’53,

by Teresa Blankmeyer Burke, ’93, Carol Barkstrom Carney, ’53, Judith Ireland, ’56, Janice Church Mann, ’53, Alice Gonnerman Mueller, ’42, Una Kennedy O’Farrell, ’52, Barbara Fairfax Phinney, ’40, Mary Stephens Ryder, ’54, and Marina Kershaw Simenstad, ’68 Aldeen Couch Van Velzen, ’62,

by Bette Chinn Dare, ’62 Franklin Walker

by Muriel Peabody Loomis, ’52 Dr. Imogene Bishop Walker

by Irene Crown Merwin, ’67 Mr. and Mrs. A. E. White by Emma-Jane Peck White, ’35 All my friends with whom I had such good times

by Muriel Peabody Loomis, ’52 All my professors

by Muriel Peabody Loomis, ’52 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY W I N T E R 2 0 0 3

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CHINA

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MIDDLE KINGDOM October 16 - November 1, 2003 Join renowned Asian art expert, Clarence Shangraw, on this 17-day adventure of China’s most dynamic cities and beautiful countryside. Mr. Shangraw was the former Chief Curator and Deputy Director of San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum.

Currently, he is an art consultant to museums and private collectors.

In Beijing, visit the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, and the Summer Palace.

Tour the old Beijing district by pedicab for a first-hand view of traditional life.

Marvel at the Great Wall, ancient China’s most enduring symbol.

Next, fly to Dunhuang to explore the Mogao Caves—one of the world’s great repositories of religious art. Then on to Xian, to view the legendary Terracotta Warriors.

In Dazu, visit Baoding Shan—a spectacular Buddhist grotto with extremely well preserved sculptures. Experience the magnificent Yangzi River. Travel downstream through the spectacular Three Gorges. Tour Fengdu, the “City of Devils,” and visit the Three Gorges Dam construction site in Sandouping.

Finally, fly to Shanghai to visit the colonial Bund, the Shanghai Museum, and the Jade Buddha Temple. A day trip to Suzhou includes the famous literati gardens and a stop by Zhouzhung, a lovely traditional village built on the canals.

Relax on an optional four-day extension to the Yellow Mountains, and take in the beauty of this picturesque mountain range.

Main Tour: $5,090 per person, double occupancy Yellow Mountains Extension: $1,520 per person, double occupancy For more information, please contact the Alumnae Association of Mills College, 510-430-2110, or email: aamc@mills.edu

AAMC Trips 2003 Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego January 23–February 2, 2003 An extraordinary cruise exploring the southernmost portion of the South American continent with its penguins, miles of wild and beautiful tundra, and with excellent naturalist guides. $4,198 inclusive from Los Angeles Death Valley and the Mojave Desert March 28–April 5, 2003 Flora, fauna, and history. Dr. John Harris, Professor of Biology, will host the group with naturalist David Wimpfheimer. $2,290 from Las Vegas Los Angeles Museum Tour April 1–3, 2003 This trip features the John Singer Sargent exhibition. Stephan Jost, Director of the Mills Art Museum, will accompany the group. $992 plus air Sicily May 24–June 2, 2003 Join the Alumni College on this fascinating trip to learn how the Greek and Roman cultures shaped the island. $2,595 all inclusive (air, room, board, and excursions) “A Tale of Two Cities”: London & Paris June 6–15, 2003 At last, a trip that has an emphasis on young alumnae. The

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convenience of group travel in combination with free time to pursue your own interests in each city. $1,149 plus air Scotland July 16–24, 2003 We will be exploring the area of Braveheart and the gateway to the Highlands, with an emphasis on the historical background of Sterling and the capital area with the Alumni College. $2,695 all inclusive Canadian Rockies July 6–13, 2003 A family trip amidst spectacular scenery, the forces of glaciers, and the sculpturing of rivers. Also includes a train ride to Vancouver. $3,695 adults, $2,595 children The Silk Road of China October 16–November 1, 2003 An exceptional offering with Clarence Shangraw, former Curator of the Avery Brundage Collection, as the study leader. The trip includes a Yangtze River Cruise. $5,090 including air For more information about AAMC trips, please call (510) 430-2110 or email <lkrane@mills.edu>.

PA R T I C I PAT E I N T H E N E X T

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Y E A R S

G I V E A G I F T T O D AY !

Hobart Clark (1868â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1948) Up Carmel Valley, ca. 1920 Gift of Albert M. Bender with conservation treatment sponsored by Terry and Paula Trotter, Trotter Galleries, Carmel.

Mills Quarterly Alumnae Association of Mills College Reinhardt Alumnae House Mills College PO Box 9998 Oakland, CA 94613-0998 510 430-2110 aamc@mills.edu www.mills.edu

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