Endquotes
“Just say she was a happy woman. She had a happy life, and she’s ready to leave it.” Gertrude “Trudie” Nicholson ’42 in an article about her turning 100 in the (West Lebanon, N.H.) Valley News
“There’s never a moment when she’s not thinking about what she can do next to make things better. She has worked tirelessly to provide a platform for diverse voices in Ultimate. She’s been an incredible advocate for the trans community. She’s organized and run workshops and clinics and meetings and more, learning and teaching us about everything from how to optimize practice time to how to best support ourselves and each other. The Manti grew when Abby grew.” Members of the Preying Manti, Oberlin’s women and trans Ultimate team, in their winning nomination of Abby Cheng ’20 for the 2020 Donovan Award, which recognizes the best in athleticism, leadership, and maintaining the spirit of the game, among other character traits
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“My freshman year, I had gender-neutral bathrooms, an acknowledgment of the nonbinary possibilities of thinking about gender. That was around 2002. It was a pretty amorphous place to develop your mind. I didn’t get many answers at Oberlin, but I learned how to ask a lot better questions.” High Maintenance cocreator and star Ben Sinclair ’06 in an April 10 article in the (northeast Ohio) News-Herald
“As is often said in black churches, there can be no testimony without a test. The coronavirus is our test. Whether we pass will not only determine our testimony, but also shape our legacy. May history judge us kindly.“ Michael J. Sorrell ’88, president of Paul Quinn College, in the Atlantic
“My fellow Obies and I will need to wait another year for our 50th class reunion, when we will fib that we all still look great, then retell old stories about the heady days of our youth. My guess is that, a half-century from now, the Class of 2020, at Oberlin or elsewhere, won’t be much different—except in one regard: Its members will be living in a more just world, a world more in harmony with nature, a better world that they helped bring into being.” Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Michael Dirda ’70 in the Washington Post
“Anyone who has preconceived notions about Oberlin—this is probably going to prove you right.” Filmmaker Emily Cohn '17, in reference to her feature debut, CRSHD, which was written and filmed at Oberlin
“Hearing is like a fingerprint. Everybody hears different.” Gary Bartz, professor of jazz saxophone, on learning to listen