St. John's College Alumni Magazine 2023

THE

Opening QUESTION

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What responsibility do we have toward the communities and institutions that formed us?

Creator of How Culture

ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI MAGAZINE | 2023

BY 2024, the electricity needs of the Santa Fe campus will be met entirely through solar energy, thanks to a Freeing Minds gif from two anonymous alumni and an energy audit supported by the Class of 2019.

The Opening Question is a collaboration of the St. John’s College Alumni Relations and Communications Offices, brought to you by:

Phelosha Collaros (SF00)

Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations

Kayleigh Steele (AGI22) Alumni Communications Program Manager

Frank O’Mahony Associate Director of Marketing and Communications

Melissa Latham-Stevens Senior Graphic Designer and Campus Art Curator

With contributions by:

Nora Demleitner St. John’s College

Annapolis President

Mark Roosevelt

St. John’s College

Santa Fe President

Emily Langston

Former Associate Dean of Graduate Programs (Annapolis)

Gigi Escalante (A92) Alumni Association President

Eve Tolpa

Anne Kniggendorf (SF97)

Keri Brinegar Administrative Assistant for Development

Jen Behrens Communications Manager and Strategist

Polly Becker Illustrator (cover and inside back cover)

Fused Graphics Group, Lubbock, TX Printer

“Anyform of communication is representation,” my tutor observes one night in seminar this semester. I jot it in the margin of my text, thinking of this magazine. That evening found us spending time in conversation with French Marxist philosopher and theorist Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle. Debord was thinking of modern society in the 1960s when he described the spectacle as “the uninterrupted conversation which the present order maintains about itself, its laudatory monologue,” but I could only think of my role communicating on behalf of St. John’s, a college and a community I value so highly.

To a polity centered around dialogue, a magazine presents a formal challenge. The medium can never generate a true conversation because its audience has no equitable means of responding to any claims made within and, without the benefit of an interlocutor, it can become all too easy to slip into laudatory monologue. Provoked by Debord and, as always, by seminar, my ever-present questions as our team has worked on this publica-

tion in the past months have been: what ostensible reality does

this magazine assert, and will our depiction of St. John’s ring true St.

within our discerning community?

Perhaps the best we can do within our medium’s limitations is with now in 2023 and as we to create something that serves to begin a dialogue with you, our build to the future. We will alumni, that must necessarily continue outside the pages of this show you ways the college magazine. What better way to start a dialogue than with an opening question? is tackling those questions

This magazine will present you with some of the questions St. and introduce you to alumni John’s College is grappling with now in 2023 and as we build to the leaders working alongside us future. We will show you ways the college is tackling those questions and introduce you to alumni leaders working alongside us to to answer them. answer them.

In a present context which sees a growing dependency on artifi-

cial intelligence and misinformation in its full bloom, St. John’s remains what it ever has been—a haven where unanswerable questions can be asked, disagreements can be had in good company, and the right to change one’s mind is held holy. As we work to preserve this college we so love for future generations of Johnnies, we must ask our most crucial question: what responsibility do we have toward the communities and institutions that formed us? This is The Opening Question

Kayleigh Steele (AGI22) Alumni Communications Program Manager

“

This magazine will present

you with some of the questions

John’s College is grappling

What role can alumni have in sustaining our community?

Like the Program itself, St. John’s alumni volunteerism is multifaceted. It translates into a range of action, from reviewing students’ resumes to helming booths at school fairs—or even embarking on a highly personal project, such as Jack Armstrong (SF83) did a decade ago.

For his 30th reunion, Armstrong put together a nearly 70-page “memory book,” as he calls it, detailing the lives of his classmates in words and pictures. He’s in the business of typesetting and printing election ballots, so his production skills were well-honed, and because he spent time at each campus, he reached out to fellow 1983 Johnnies from both Santa Fe and Annapolis.

Now Armstrong is making a second such publication to distribute at his upcoming 40th reunion. “The lovely surprise, which is what made me so excited to do this again, is that asking people to help with this created a lot of enthusiasm,” he says. “There were quite a few people who said things like, ‘You know, I didn’t know anybody cared.’”

Armstrong carries his college experiences close to his heart. “From the first time I went as a prospective student, I felt like I had just stepped through a portal straight into Mount Olympus and was somehow privileged to spend four years among the gods,” he says. “My classmates and I have a bond; we went through something together that changed us.”

His interest in commemorative books was inspired, fittingly enough, when he was an undergraduate. “I had this friend at St. John’s who made these beautiful scrapbooks of her life and her family, and it always stayed with me.”

Armstrong finds the entire process “fantastically rewarding,” he says. “Talking to people, reading their stories, finding photos, sorting them, editing the photos—every part of it is just a joy.” Q

JACK ARMSTRONG (SF83) Creator of

BY EVE TOLPA

Memories

How can the vital questioning done at St. John’s be encouraged beyond our campuses?

The Program without Borders Johnnies Pursue Opportunities to Share the Great Books

BY EVE TOLPA

The rigorous, open-ended inquiry of the St. John’s Program is well known to Johnnies. They might not be aware, however, of the number of partnerships between the college and other programs that advance that particular approach to learning.

Whether they point students in the direction of St. John’s or foster opportunity for members of the college community, these organizations “are having an impact on education by bringing in discussions of foundational texts,” says Emily Langston, former associate dean for graduate programs at Annapolis.

Michael Mlodzienski (AGI15) is the national faculty talent recruiter for Great Hearts Academies, the largest classical education network in the country. Comprising 44 public charter schools in Arizona, Texas, and, starting in fall 2023, Louisiana, it aims, he says, “to cultivate the minds and hearts of our children, from kindergarten all the way up.”

“We see the pursuit of the things that are universally true and good and beautiful as being worthy pursuits for their own sake,” he continues, “which I think is exactly the same mindset at St. John’s.”

He considers the organization an obvious fit for Johnnies pursuing educational careers—in teaching, leadership, or home office support roles from accounting to development—and estimates that nearly 40 St. John’s alumni are currently employed by Great Hearts.

At any given time, there might be about five Johnnies working at the Colorado Springs-based Thomas MacLaren

School, cofounded by Executive Director Mary Faith Hall (SFGI97) and her husband, attorney and former teacher Eric Hall (SFGI94), who met as Graduate Institute students.

Like Great Hearts, MacLaren School offers K-12 programming, and its approach overlaps somewhat with St. John’s. “We have a very similar reading list, but we go at a much slower pace,” Mary Faith says.

MacLaren participates in the St. John’s Southwest Scholars program, which seeks to attract students from New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and Oklahoma to undergrad, GI, and summer programs. “It’s this really bilateral relationship,” says Mary Faith. “It provides a lot of opportunities to expose both our students and our faculty to St. John’s.”

Reid Pierce (EC08) is also uniquely situated to introduce students to St. John’s. A teacher at Mahindra United World College (UWC) in Pune, India, he observes “the relationship between St. John’s and UWC getting stronger and stronger.”

Though it doesn’t utilize a Great Books curriculum, UWC shares with St. John’s a passion for awakening a love of lifelong learning in its students—and since St. John’s is a Davis United World College Scholars partner institution, UWC students are able to receive major financial support to attend. “I’ve encouraged several students over the past few years to go to St. John’s,” Pierce says.

Sanyum Dalal (SF25) was recommended to the college by Pierce. “He told me that I would really like St. John’s and that it would be a great fit for me,” she says. Dalal fell in love with philosophy at Mahindra and is now

continuing the pursuit as a Davis Scholar at the Santa Fe campus.

The Annapolis campus was recently involved in the Bridge to the Liberal Arts Through Primary Source Texts (BLAST) program, a three-year partnership between St. John’s and Anne Arundel Community College (AACC). Funded by a $100,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant, BLAST trained community college faculty to lead discussion-based classes. The program wrapped up in January 2023, but AACC faculty continue to use the teaching methods, which are extremely popular. St. John’s is building on that success, says Langston, by pursuing additional partnerships with community colleges in collaboration with a separate organization called the Great Questions Foundation.

A fairly new partnership with the Notre Dame of Maryland University gives GI students on both St. John’s campuses online access to attain certification for teaching in public schools. “The agreement has been finalized,” says Langston, “and we already have a couple of students from the Annapolis GI who are interested in moving through it.”

The Annapolis GI has long enjoyed a partnership with the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where nine academic credits from the GI can be applied to a JD, and vice versa. “This jointdegree initiative has been available for a couple decades,” Langston says. “We’re making it more visible.”

Then there’s the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, in Sydney, which, Langston says, “is trying to help revive

liberal education in Australia, where almost all post-secondary education is technical or vocational.” It offers a different kind of GI partnership, providing scholarships for up to six students a year to earn an MALA at Annapolis while participating in a Washington, DC, internship.

“I feel incredibly fortunate that the philanthropy of Paul Ramsay has allowed me to study at St. John’s,” says Sydney Rowe (AGI24). “There’s a mystical power to an education that draws its curriculum from the Great Books.”

Mlodzienski goes one step further. “Pursuing education for its own sake is revolutionary,” he says, noting that it shouldn’t have to be. “That’s what we’re trying to change.” Q

ARE YOU A JOHNNIE IN EDUCATION?

The Teacher Project aims to identify, recognize, and partner with alumni educators from all levels (elementary to university) to be passionate advocates of St. John’s College, Socratic inquiry, and the study of human thought.

Complete a simple form and St. John’s will send you a package of swag, including a Great Books poster for your classroom!

sjc.edu/teacher-project

EDUCATION FOR ITS OWN SAKE IS REVOLUTIONARY.

MICHAEL MLODZIENSKI

MARY FAITH HALL REID PIERCE AGI15 SFGI97 EC08

JOHNNIE WEEK

THE ANNAPOLIS CUP | RETURN TO SEMINAR | EARTH DAY IN SANTA FE APRIL 15-22, 2023

Johnnies win again! The record now stands at 31 wins for the Johnnies and eight for the Midshipmen.

Join us next April for the 40th Annapolis Cup croquet match!

Clockwise from top left: Rusty Wicket Hardison Wood (A98) emcees the opening ceremony; Croquet attendees dance to the Naptown Brass Band; Patrick (A01), Citlali, and Michael McDowell in their finest, as always; US Croquet Association President Damon Bidencope, President Demleitner, and Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley participate in the opening ceremony; the croquet team poses with the Annapolis Cup, held by Imperial Wicket Mia Kobylski (A23); Angus Preston (A26) takes a shot as the Midshipmen look on.

Newly envisioned for 2023, Johnnie Week opened with the Annapolis Cup croquet match, continued with opportunities to join fellow Johnnies and tutors in virtual seminars, and concluded with our Earth Day in Santa Fe celebration. Johnnie Week is a new annual celebration for all members of the St. John’s community: alumni, students, families, and friends.

Did You Know?

St. John’s has a long tradition of participating in Earth Day: in fact, the Santa Fe campus’s original president, Richard Weigle, led celebrations at the very first Earth Day in 1970.

Clockwise from top left: Solar Array ribbon cutting with members of the classes of 2019 and 1969; Armillary Sphere with Tutor Emeritus Bill Donahue (A67); Campus Tree Walk with Jeff Clark; Student Cassie Maverick (SF25) making a bird house; Johnnie-founded EcoSono Ensemble with Matthew Burtner (SF92) in concert; Eco-philosopher Sophie Strand lecture; board member Pam Saunders-Albin (H15) speaks at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

The Importance of Deep Friendship

BY EMILY LANGSTON

During a past weekend as I participated in the Annapolis Graduate Institute’s Convening Weekend—discussing Euthyphro, playing bocce, eating and laughing with both current students and alumni, I found myself thinking a great deal about how much I would miss this community, as I am stepping down as associate dean after eight years. The Graduate Institute experience isn’t grounded in a four-year all-encompassing residential program like that shared by the undergraduates. And yet, many of those around me had traveled long distances to spend this spring weekend together, and the excitement they felt about being here was palpable. Why, I wondered, does this community come to mean so much to so many of us?

The answer that comes to mind immediately, of course, is that it has something to do with friendship—and not

casual friendship, but a kind of friendship that is intimately bound up with the activity in which we all engage together at St. John’s. Many of the authors we read have a great deal to say about the importance of friendship. In this brief piece, I will just remind you of a couple.

Phaedrus, in the Platonic dialogue that bears his name, famously says that “the things of friends are common” (279c). One way in which this is certainly true is that, in a community of learning, our searching for the things we do not know is a common activity. And even more remarkably, not only the activity but the objects or ends of our striving are common as well. This is probably very much unlike our experience in the rest of our lives, in which striving for goods often brings us into conflict with one another. Questions, theorems, forms, the objects of the intellect— these are universally available. Unlike material goods and,

for that matter, unlike power and reputation, they are not diminished by being shared or by the passage of time. Our joy in such an activity is only increased by engaging in it with others. Intellectual inquiry, then, is one of the most natural bases for enduring friendship.

Yet despite its evident goodness as an activity and end, intellectual inquiry can be hard to maintain. We are pulled in many different directions and get caught up in things. For many of us, what was, at the college, a common and communal activity of intellectual inquiry becomes a more occasional and solitary activity. In Book 6 of the Republic, the philosopher is described as one who disdains the temptations of society and “remains quiet, minds his own affairs, as one standing aside under shelter of a wall in a storm and blast of dust and sleet” (469d). I suspect it’s an image that resonates with most of us. Reading and reflecting can be a refuge from the insistent demands of the practical and immediate. Those of us who—like most GI students and all alumni—are caught up in the “storm

and blast” of contemporary life sometimes crave solitude, expanses of time to turn inward for reflection and study. We juggle the demands of family, jobs, politics—and retreat behind our walls to read and think.

The respite we find in reading and study is a great good but I, at least, find that over time it’s hard to continue when I’m crouching alone behind my wall! Learning requires solitude and study, but also openness and effort. The example of Meno, among many others, gives us a sense of the difficulty of maintaining both. The handsome, rich, well-connected young Thessalian seems to have a lot going for him—but in some ways it is this very fact that makes it so difficult for him to admit an error or sustain a strenuous effort. We, like Meno, may sometimes need persistent, caring interlocutors to draw us back to the conversations about less pressing but more enduring things—whether that be by exposing our mistakes and false assumptions, or by telling us encouraging stories that make us once again “eager and keen on the search” (Meno, 81e) when the task seems too daunting.

In a community of learning, our searching for the things we do not know is a common activity. And even more remarkably, not only the activity but the objects or ends of our striving are common as well.

ALUMNI REFER THE BEST JOHNNIES! Know someone who would be a good fit for St. John’s undergraduate or GI programs? Refer a prospective student to the college at sjc.edu/1alum1referral

And these of course are things that we, as friends whose these friendships born of the beautiful but difficult work we friendship was forged in the activity of shared inquiry, undertake together. By choosing to be a part of one anothcan do for one another. Aristotle tells us in the Ethics that er’s lives and the ongoing life of St. John’s we inspire one the greatest joy of true friends comes in living together. another to continue thinking, questioning, and searching Beyond the limits of the few years we spend at the college, together for the things we do not know. As Socrates reminds most of us can’t do that. And indeed we probably shouldn’t; us, the search itself may make us “better people, braver and the other worlds in which we have a stake enrich our lives, less idle” (Meno, 86b). It will certainly bring us great joy! Q bringing their own important commitments. But we can choose to put aside time to come together and nurture

THE GRADUATE INSTITUTE SEEKS JOHNNIES!

All alumni receive a 25 percent discount on tuition when you complete the application for need-based financial aid.

The Master of Arts in Liberal Arts degree is now open to alumni who earned a BA from St. John’s more than five years ago. You can start in the fall, spring, or summer; in person, online, in the evening, or only in the summers. The choice is yours.

The Master of Arts in Eastern Classics is open to all alumni, with classes on campus in Santa Fe or online.

PURSUING A CAREER IN TEACHING?

Earn a Master of Arts in Teaching through our Graduate Institute partnership with Notre Dame of Maryland University, which can be completed in person or online and allows you to be certified to teach in Maryland, New Mexico, and many other states.

sjc.edu/grad

How can we best prepare our students for life after graduation knowing that our educational Program does not directly train Johnnies to enter the workforce?

Resume Writers Prep Johnnies for Career Success

Sabina Sulat (A92) says she can’t imagine not being involved with her alma mater. For nearly 10 years, she and a small group of fellow alumni have helped students with resume writing and career advice on the Annapolis campus of St. John’s College.

But it hasn’t always been this way for her. As an older student with a full-time job, Sulat’s spare time as an undergraduate was booked solid—and not with waltz parties, soccer matches, crew, or any of the other student bonding activities that cemented relationships between her classmates.

So, even though she stayed in town after graduation, she wasn’t initially drawn back to campus other than for milestone reunions.

And then Career Development reached out. The college knew that Sulat had been working in the human resources field and specialized in organizational development and corporate learning. She’s since gone on to write a book called Agile Unemployment: Your Guide to Thriving While Out of Work and has a podcast of the same name.

“I was pulled in to help with writing an internship toolkit,” Sulat says. “This was probably about 2010. From that, my name kind of got in the mix, and I was asked to do mock interviews with students.”

Then, after Homecoming in 2013, she and Annapolis Career Development Director Jaime Dunn worked out a plan to offer regular resume writing workshops to students.

The idea took and, 10 years later, Sulat is still offering her expertise, along with a rotating group of alumni, of which Samantha Warburton (A03) is an original member, and Gigi Escalante (A92), Kieran Dowdy (A09), Allison Hicks (A10), Haley Dunn (A17), and Thea Chimento (A10) are core members.

Dunn says this small group has gotten close to the students they help, but also to each other—almost all alumni they never would have met otherwise—satisfying in

Sulat, and perhaps others, that long-ago missed bonding.

“It’s such a commitment to the college,” Dunn says. “It really is an example of how loyal alumni are to the college. The longevity of it has surprised me; they just keep coming back.”

Escalante, who also serves as the president of the Alumni Association, says it’s her belief in the power of community that keeps her volunteering.

She says an obvious example of that power “is central to the pedagogy of St. John’s—striving for greater understanding through collaborative effort around the seminar table.”

Escalante says a similar benefit can be achieved through volunteerism and engagement, which enriches everyone’s life in a way that only a collective effort can.

“We have so much to learn from each other and in practicing the values we explored at St. John’s,” Escalante says.

Over the past 10 years, Dunn says that about 134 attendees have participated in the biannual resume workshops, and many received additional support from the group beyond the meetings.

One recent graduate Sulat mentions is George S. Kalandadze (A22).

“George was someone who came up to me in last year’s resume writing workshop to help him do a career transition for someone who didn’t really have a career yet, and that worked out quite well for him. I’m very happy about that,” Sulat says.

Kalandadze had considered a career in medicine but, thanks to working with Sulat and the resume group, he found his way into the completely different field of branding.

He says, “Make as many connections as you can … I got [to] many places by accessing things like the alumni network, talking to people, and learning from various experiences.”

Sulat says networking has been important both to her and the students she helps—once she understands the sort of work a student or new graduate would like to pursue, she often can think of an alum in that field and she connects them.

“I’ve never reached out to an alum and asked for assistance and not gotten a response back,” Sulat says, “even if it was a ‘I can’t at this time, but have you tried so and so?’ It always leads to something. I worked at another very prestigious university, and they did not have that kind of camaraderie with their alumni.” Q

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We have so much to learn from each other and in practicing the values we explored at St. John’s.

How do institutions adapt to their community’s evolving needs?

Librarians Face the Future

BY ANNE KNIGGENDORF (SF97)

The book stacks of a library are a familiar and favorite haunt for Johnnies, so it should come as no surprise that many in our community are drawn to careers working in libraries. As society’s common repositories of knowledge, libraries have a certain intellectual and aesthetic charm, but in speaking with Johnnie librarians, there appears to be something in the nature of the work itself that makes St. John’s alumni particularly wellsuited to responding to the evolving challenges of the profession.

“The popular conception of libraries is that we are fixed institutions, that we always do things the same, that librarians are just there checking out books and telling you to be quiet,” says Emily Drabinski, president of the American Library Association and critical pedagogy librarian at the Graduate Center

at the City University of I always look at the New York.

“Libraries are always big picture. And that having to deal with the might be a St. John’s changing world,” she argues. The needs of the thing. Why are we patrons, along with the cities and neighborhoods doing this? Should we libraries are nestled in, be doing this? Could we are constantly evolving, necessitating a certain do it another way? adaptability in those who seek to best serve their communities.

Lisa Rosenblum (A80) is the executive director of the King County Library System in Washington state, managing 50 branches and a budget of $140 million. “I always look at the big picture,” she says. “And that might be a St. John’s thing. Why are we doing this? Should we be doing this? Could we do it another way? You can’t just question, though; it’s a combination of questioning but also being outcome- and results-driven.”

Drabinski says, “You have to be sort of nimble enough to change how you do things, and what kinds of materials

you collect based on your community. Those things change, but what doesn’t change is the need to build a collection that meets the needs of our community.”

The term “collection” here refers to much more than books. Today’s patrons need a library’s offerings to include government forms, English as a second language courses, career services, technology access, and more.

“It’s not been just about books for a very long time,” says Ron Scrogham (SF93), the dean and director of libraries and research at the Cowan-Blakley Memorial Library at the University of Dallas. He earned master’s degrees in French and Library Science after graduating from St. John’s and has experience working in both public and academic libraries.

Scrogham particularly calls out “UX”—the user experience—a consideration which libraries have borrowed from commercial spaces. He says what librarians “attempt to do is view the entirety of the library and its systems through the perspective of the user. You’re always trying to enhance that, and that lends itself to greater autonomy for the user.”

Where once a librarian worked as a sort of mediator between a patron and sought-after information, the rise of the internet has produced a clientele who are much more adept at doing their own research than they previously were.

Rather than continuing to force an old model, libraries have developed alongside the abilities of those they serve. The not-so-intuitive model of library organization of the past has changed into easily searchable databases similar to internet search engines.

But librarians’ considerations extend beyond the library’s collection and how patrons access information; they also consider the library as a physical, tangible space.

My Nguyen (A09) is a librarian in the DC Public Library system. She didn’t plan on becoming a librarian during her time at St. John’s, though as a teenager she volunteered as a library page for the Central Arkansas Library, the system she grew up using.

As a now-seasoned librarian, she understands that libraries compete with coffee shops and cozy coworking spots to be the so-called “third space” in the lives of

community members.

“There’s certainly been a shift from the damp, dusty cinderblock buildings where you feel like you’re in a little cell and studying and learning just seemed more like a grind, not something vibrant and fun,” Nguyen says. What libraries try to offer now are thoughtfully designed spaces filled with natural light and comfortable furniture.

Nguyen suggests, though, that the patrons themselves are largely the same as ones who have always walked through the doors. “The new customer base, in my opinion, looks very much like the old customer base: it’s patrons who are curious and patrons who are dedicated to thriving and learning.”

When called upon to assist community members, a distinctive part of a librarian’s work that changes unpredictably from one patron to the next, Nguyen says she constantly relies on the skills she learned at St. John’s of listening closely and asking clarifying questions to identify the subtexts of what patrons say to serve them best.

“St. John’s has really helped me in being tireless,” Nguyen says. “Rising to the challenge of reading those Great Books at St. John’s was instrumental. It gives you courage; if you can read Kant—maybe not very well—but if you really made a good effort doing something difficult like that, then you can surely try to answer somebody’s obscure reference question.”

Rosenblum agrees that St. John’s pedagogy was instrumental in honing within her the arts of observation and conversation. “If you’re in seminar and you have to stick up for your ideas,” she says, “you must figure out a way you can talk to people that is not condescending, that is positive and gets your message across. I call it reading the room.”

She also has that quintessential Johnnie confidence when approaching topics that are new to her. “I can walk into a room and not know something and say, ‘Okay, I don’t know this, but teach me about it,’” she says.

It is this agility that ensures she, and other Johnnie librarians like her, can continue to meet the needs of their communities through the library, which Rosenblum calls “the most democratic institution we have right now.” Q

RON SCROGHAM SF93

LISA ROSENBLUM A80

How do an institution’s core values survive times of great upheaval?

How Culture Evolves— the Johnnie Librarian View

Elisabeth Long (A86) was appointed Sheridan Dean of University Libraries, Archives, and Museums at Johns Hopkins University in January 2023. She comes to Johns Hopkins after a long career at the University of Chicago. We sat down with her to discuss the role of an academic versus a public librarian and the evolving culture of academic libraries, with any lessons she has for St. John’s.

Elisabeth is part of a strong Johnnie family. Her father, Donlin Long (H21), is an honorary alum; her mother, former Board of Visitors and Governors member Harriett Long (AGI93) attended the college, as did siblings Kimberly Long Riley (AGI87) and David Long (A90).

Talk about the life of an academic librarian and the different demands placed on the role versus a public librarian.

There are obvious differences. A public library is just that—public—while an academic library is focused on its college community. A public library has a deep role in civic society, responding to demands that range from cookery classes to help with immigration applications. And of course it has books suitable for all ages. Academic libraries, on the other hand, are there for the student and faculty audiences, with a heavy research emphasis and a focus on collecting and preserving knowledge for the long haul—even if it isn’t being used today. They might have children’s books, but it would be to support researchers studying them.

Work at institutions such as mine is increasingly collaborative—librar-

ies are no longer places purely for study, but they are locations for groups of students to gather and do projects together. This reflects the fact that teaching is changing and often expecting students to work collaboratively. And students themselves often want to study together. We still, of course, welcome, and have spaces for, individual study. There are times when there’s no substitute for coming to a quiet place, spreading out five books around you, and really digging into a subject. So, as we accommodate new student habits, we think a lot about appropriate “zoning”— creating collaborative zones and quiet zones.

What shifts in your services do you currently face?

It’s the challenge of digital content. Faculty produce their research digitally—fewer old-fashioned notebooks. Archives are coming to us in digital form. And the government agencies that fund research are starting to require that the results be made publicly and freely available. They

started out just requiring that researchers share their articles—now it’s the underlying research behind those articles as well. This is creating fundamental shifts in the publishing ecosystem which, in turn, has a major effect on academic libraries.

What does digital transformation mean for you?

We must develop sophisticated digital storage and retrieval systems. It has implications for the people who work here—the people we hire for the library—and also for students and faculty who have to use these rapidly evolving systems. Also, especially with students, I worry that anything that’s not available on the internet becomes invisible. We have an entire historical record of material that remains vitally important. That history—especially cultural history—cannot be allowed to become invisible So we are looking for ways to make it available in a format that’s approachable to today’s researchers. And signals matter—I’m advocating for putting our microfilm readers into a new digital scholarship center we’re working on. Researchers still use them, and we don’t want them in some dusty room, but rather alongside what’s currently the latest tech. Once they were the latest tech. In 1945, Vannevar Bush imagined something he called a Memex—millions of books at your fingertips in a small machine with interlinking trails between works and automated association of content that can be shared with others—that sounds a lot like AI and the internet, except he thought it would be built on microfilm! It is such a great example of prescience bounded by the constraints of the technology of the day. It is a reminder to identify our own blind spots as we look toward the future.

What other issues are you tackling?

We simply cannot collect everything—there is so much produced now, and it’s getting more expensive. This has led to much deeper collaboration between libraries so we can coordinate our collection development. It is also important for research libraries to be much more diverse in what we collect. Many voices and types of materials have been traditionally under-represented in academic collections. But that can mean looking beyond the traditional publishing channels that don’t always help us when we want, for example, indigenous literature being produced in Mesoamerica, or ‘zines being traded at art fairs.

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The maintenance of culture, as defined by a set of core values, is vital. For so long, a library has been about books. Are we still a library as we move to a world of bits and bytes?

Let’s talk culture: how does it survive at a time of great upheaval?

You have a deep family connection to St. John’s. What are your fnal thoughts on the college?

I think that times like these—for institutions like Johns Hopkins and indeed St. John’s—the maintenance of culture, as defined by a set of core values, is vital. For so long, a library has been about books. Are we still a library as we move to a world of bits and bytes? We need to understand what our true nature is—it isn’t just about the format; it is about the knowledge it contains. So while we used to collect books, now we also must collect research data sets and complex digital objects that may be layering medical data onto maps to visualize distribution of an illness. We

people I was never in school with because of the bond that the common program creates.

I think the school has gotten better at focusing on its values and communicating them. And it needs to celebrate what some might see as drawbacks—for example, the all-required curriculum meant I took classes I would never have chosen. I loved that. It taught me to stretch outside my comfort zone. This openness to being outside your bubble is a core value. The other benefit—value, if you like—of the all-required curriculum is that it gave me a common language to speak to other alums everywhere I meet them. I’ve made so many friends with need to translate what we have always done, help knowledge flow, into this new environment. But we also need to hold onto what hasn’t changed. Sometimes it is still about the format.

It might be wonderful to have a digital copy of the Gutenberg Bible, but nothing will substitute for the importance of the original. I am a letterpress printer and book artist, so I have a deep appreciation for the materiality of books, and in some cases the physical object is as important as the abstract knowledge held within it. So we need to rigor-

My St. John’s education exposed me to so much thought in so many fields that in my professional career I’ve been able to talk to and collaborate with faculty from across the university. Not only can I connect with their subject, but I can enter a conversation with the confidence that I will be able to understand their research. Once you have struggled your way through Kant or Maxwell’s equations, you become fearless!

If I had not gone to St. John’s ously question what is important and why, and not have a one-size-fits-all answer as we navigate the changing environment. Institutions like libraries need to think deeply about the value they bring and constantly articulate why they are still relevant.

In terms of St. John’s, I reject the meme that says the college is just reading books by dead white males. My experience of the Program was of the vibrancy of reading the revolutionaries of their time. We get to see what it looks like to be the person with the new and radical thought. By reading in chronological order, as St. John’s students do, we also watch the evolution of ideas over time—how they respond to each other, building on or reacting against each other. And how they eventually transform from new and controversial to accepted, and maybe even to antiquated or obsolete. I like to think those perspectives are one of the reasons why St. John’s students can have productive conversations with wildly different perspectives at the table. You learn how to talk across those gulfs of difference. That’s so core to the St. John’s experience, and a critical skill for the world today.

I likely would have focused on the humanities and never have discovered the wonderful world of math, astronomy, and physics. But because of St. John’s I find myself incorporating math and astronomy into the artists books I create. And I was able to get involved in a project that took me to CERN to talk with high energy physicists about the preservation of data coming off the Large Hadron Collider. I credit St. John’s with giving me the facility to engage with anybody professionally and figure out how to get things done, from understanding physics to the book artistry, letterpress printing, and papermaking I will revive once I find a new home in Baltimore for my beloved 1,500 lb printing press! Q

Did you know that Santa Fe and Annapolis local alumni have borrowing privileges at our campus libraries?

Check out all of your alumni benefits at sjc.edu/alumni-benefits

I reject the meme that says the college is just reading books by dead white males. My experience of the Program was of the vibrancy of reading the revolutionaries of their time.

THE INAUGURATION OF Nora Demleitner

AND A CELEBRATION OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE

PRESIDENT NORA DEMLEITNER’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS

Delivered Saturday, March 25, 2023

I’d like to start by thanking the St. John’s polity for your generosity in welcoming me into this distinctive community. I need to thank the Board of Visitors and Governors and all of today’s speakers for their support. And I also want to thank the Annapolis community and Maryland for their warm embrace.

What unites us all is our student body. St. John’s students are thoughtful in their questions and candid in their perspective on challenges and opportunities: smart, probing, thoughtful, skeptical—a tad absent-minded and a bit quirky—but also funny and incredibly personable. You’ll never tire of the

conversation or run out of questions if you find yourself in the company of a Johnnie. There is a secret formula to this place—not everyone is a fit here, but everyone who is here, fits. …

Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan must have felt [a] mix of hope and uneasiness when they charted a new path for St. John’s nearly 100 years ago. Their path to an education in the liberal arts, which included math and science, was through a radical pedagogy embedded in a new and non-elective curriculum that centered around a selection of great books. We often invoke Barr and Buchanan and the impact their decision has had on the college. But their story, our story, is also one of broader context. …

Then termed a “new” program of instruction, it created an approach that set us apart from other institutions of higher education, it brought the college back from the brink of financial failure, and it has earned the college national recognition and support. Holding Barr’s position as president now, I feel certain he and Buchanan recognized the gravity of their daring choice, and the potential for failure, but also the possibilities it offered to impact the lives of young people. Our pedagogy, our interdisciplinarity, and our promise of an “education for all” remain at the heart of the college. The content of the program has never been stagnant, and it will continue to change, just as the participants have over time. …

Neither time, nor geography, nor culture lessens the impact of this kind of education, nor the relevant history that led us to where we are today, nor the skill set of respectfully questioning everything—including, perhaps most importantly, ourselves—especially when we are the most certain of our path and of our righteousness. And yet, if we spend all of our time looking backward through the long halls of history, we risk not seeing the world as it is today; not thinking about how we effectively respond to it. We must not fall into this trap. Instead, we must pursue our mission and be as responsive to the needs and

demands of our time as Barr, Buchanan, and their successors were to the needs of their own.

I now carry the responsibility of charting the course into an unknown and unknowable future, one that will hold pitfalls and challenges, but also opportunities. Our times and circumstances will force us to confront—again—difficult questions: will we have the courage to engage more actively with the world, as our predecessors did? Will we live up to our ideals and provide a platform for engagement in some of the major debates of our day? ...

Still, just as it must have been in 1937 when the new Program was founded, it can be hard to find hope amidst the trends of our time. It is easy to wonder if we—as humans—will find our humanity again. I believe that the search starts with two things: a dedication to having real conversations and a commitment to the institutions that fortify society. They are part of why I chose to be at St. John’s College. We need institutions like this one that feed the best in us; help us see the best in each other and in our history; unite us in a common purpose; and help us talk, learn, and grow together. Now, good institutions also see clearly, and learn from, their own failings. …

Married with a deep respect for our history, the power of our collective experiences ... enables us to meet contemporary

IT IS EASY TO WONDER IF WE—AS HUMANS—WILL FIND OUR HUMANITY AGAIN. I BELIEVE THE SEARCH STARTS WITH TWO

THINGS: A DEDICATION TO HAVING REAL CONVERSATIONS AND A COMMITMENT TO THE INSTITUTIONS THAT FORTIFY SOCIETY.

challenges: how will we use our educational model to more effectively help students find a purposeful life and purposeful work? How will we offer broader access to students from diverse backgrounds, who will add to the special chemistry of the St. John’s College experience? And how will we ensure they succeed here? And of course, as a Johnnie would ask, what does success even mean?

As we reach new inflection points, I believe we are well positioned to face these and other challenges. We have the brain power, the practiced skill of questioning, and the tools to have hard conversations and react to meet the moment, and to push boundaries that sustain and evolve our distinctive pursuit of service to our students, our country. …

It is my vision that St. John’s College sustains its unique spirit and continues to set itself apart from other institutions of higher education—and that we keep leaning into our distinctive curriculum while responding to the needs of our time, remaining relevant for the next 100 years and beyond.

We must champion an atmosphere where students have a strong sense of belonging, and they are set up for success as participants in civic life and the workforce; an environment where we are engendering responsible citizenship and lifelong learning, while responding thoughtfully

and ethically to the demands of the marketplace; a wellspring of diversity embraced by and encouraged in our student body, staff, faculty, and program of study; and a place where affordability for our students is always front of mind. We’ve created great momentum with the tuition reset, and the continued generosity of our alumni, friends, and the state of Maryland. Our philanthropic model must be tended to regularly, to ensure our financial security and to continue allowing students from all walks of life to experience our world-class education.

As the leader of this institution, I am privileged to be surrounded by supporters who represent a diverse background of experience: our board, faculty, staff, student body, and alumni—each well-versed in addressing challenges present and predicted. My thanks, again, to all of you. ... Q

SPEECH ABRIDGED

Read President Demleitner’s remarks in full and view a recording of the ceremony at sjc.edu/inauguration

Eva Brann: Louis, would you read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 94 to me?

Louis Petrich: Eva, I would be delighted. It’s like asking me to drink some fine wine. As long as you promise to answer all the questions I will have

EB: Yes.

LP: It’s hard not to put a little point in there at the end, isn’t it?

LP: So Eva, my first question is… well actually it’s two questions I’d like to ask you: Why do you find yourself at the age of 92 plus reading Shakespeare’s sonnets?

EB: 92 and three quarters!

LP: 92, almost 93—reading Shakespeare’s sonnets, which are mostly about love, romantic love. And why in particular did you want me to read 94 of all the… you know there’s 154 sonnets.

EB: Yes.

LP: Why this one?

EB: Well, as far as the answer to the first question is concerned, you think there is a date on love?

LP: I can say at the age of 61, I have not found that yet to be so.

EB: And I will tell you that at the age of 92 and three quarters, I have not found it to be the case either.

LP: Really?

EB: And the other one, the other question is why is it my favorite? Because look, I turn to the first page of my book of the sonnets, and I have a notation there: “Rule for rating the sonnets: go for the logic.” And this is a sonnet that has a lot of logic in it.

LP: Oh. So you think there’s an argument being made?

EB: There’s an argument, yes.

LP: Okay. With a beginning, and premises, and—

EB: If you think that that entitles you to ask me what the argument is, then don’t.

LP: No, I’m very interested! I mean, one of the things one hears about the sonnets as a schoolboy—I can remember this—is that they often begin with a certain problem. And he’s got 14 lines—three quatrains and a couplet—to flesh it out and hopefully solve it, often in the couplet.

EB: Yes, yes.

LP: It sounds like you’re, at least in general, kind of agreeing with this.

EB: Yes, yes. Except that I’m specifying what it means to set a problem. It means to engage in some sort of logically connected speech. And it leaves us with the interesting proposition that love and logic, passion and thinking, are closely intertwined.

LP: That’s excellent.

EB: Thank you. A+!

LP: But so you mean it’s not that love has a logic of its own that’s kind of different from what we normally use that word for. It is itself logical as, say, mathematics is logical.

EB: Yes, I think so.

LP: And you like 94 because it’s particularly exemplary in this way?

EB: Yes. That’s one reason. But I have another more particular reason. It shows Shakespeare’s... Well, you and I teach at a school that makes fidelity and interest in texts, ancient and modern, sort of our major enterprise. That’s what we do. We read books.

LP: Over and over.

EB: Over and over. Well, here is Shakespeare showing that he was familiar both with Aristotle and with the Bible. ... And I think the poem says something very, very strange. It says: “it’s more humane to hurt than to ignore.”

LP: Yeah. I think that’s right. That is, maybe initially, counterintuitive because you think you shouldn’t hurt people.

EB: Well, it’s some sort of counter to virtuous behavior.

But what’s virtue got to do with love?

An original web and podcast series featuring St. John’s tutors. All 20 episodes now streaming at sjc.edu/watch and on all major podcast platforms.

How can wisdom from the Great Books be applied beyond the seminar table?

A Gift That Makes Philosophy Personal

Inspired by the Santa Fe Class of 2018 and named in their honor, the SF18 Koina Ta Ton Philon Student Support Fund covers those seemingly small life expenses that end up making a big difference down the line.

“Koina ta ton philon” is a phrase from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics that translates to “The things of friends are common.” It’s also the inspiration for a philanthropic project created by father-daughter team Dale and Alexandra “Lex” Gentsch (SF18).

The Gentsches established the SF18 Koina Ta Ton Philon Student Support Fund in 2019 with a five-year

gift to the Freeing Minds campaign. The fund provides up to $10,000 a year to Santa Fe Johnnies for those seemingly small, day-to-day incidental expenses that help them thrive—and sometimes have the potential to create a chain reaction of hardship when left unfulfilled.

The fund represents a continuation of the dynamic that Lex and her friends shared throughout their four years at St. John’s, loaning—and sometimes outright giving—each other money to handle unexpected costs.

“Some of us came from wealthier backgrounds, some of us didn’t,” she says. “A lot of different groups in my grade

year helped each other out like this. It’s just the right thing to do.”

Lex characterizes the class of 2018 as generous and supportive. “We embodied the sentiment ‘The things of friends are common’ in how we conducted ourselves,” she explains in the gift agreement. “After we had all graduated, my father and I recognized the necessity of helping students at St. John’s in a similar fashion, even if we did not know them personally. The fund was created to do that.”

For the Gentsches, philosophy is not an abstraction but something practical and actionable: the first step in bringing personal values to life. When Lex was a student, she often hosted groups of friends at her father’s home in Santa Fe, where they spent countless weekends discussing philosophy with Dale, who earned a BA in the subject from the University of Missouri.

Inevitably, he became aware of some of the students’ financial challenges, many of which were familiar to him. “I saw my experiences in [my daughter’s] friends, so one by one, I helped them with what they needed to get by,” he says. “Sometimes they needed a monthly amount; sometimes it was a one-time thing, like new glasses. One time it was a bag of quarters to do laundry.”

“Things were less expensive in the late ’60s and early ’70s,” he continues, recalling his own college days. “I had a scholarship to cover tuition, student activity fees, and books. I worked every summer to earn enough money for rent and utilities,

but that still left food and miscellaneous expenses to cover. The fund is meant to fill the gap that many Johnnies and I have experienced that makes achieving graduation more difficult.”

Chief among the Gentsches’ goals for the SF18 Koina Ta Ton Philon Student Support Fund was to make as large an impact as possible for as many students as possible. Beyond that, they hoped that the fund’s resonant mission and potential for immediate, tangible results would inspire participation from St. John’s family, friends, and alumni. According to Lex, many recent graduates have felt energized to support the fund, especially those who benefited from it.

“My generation is not the wealthiest generation, and this was something where they could give $50 to $100 and it would actually be utilized toward the students directly,” she says. “It was a way of knowing that $50 would save somebody and keep them in school. That’s the difference of what it can be sometimes.”

St. John’s issues periodic updates to the Gentsches, citing examples of the sort of disbursements that have made exactly that kind of difference.

Monthly stipends are often distributed to students in extraordinary circumstances: a senior whose family suddenly became reliant on disability benefits or an international Johnnie who had both parents lose their jobs due to the pandemic. The one-time emergency grants, on the other hand, fund things like dental work, computer repair, and postage fees for mailing Program texts home after graduation.

“We appreciate that my father and I get reports about how the money was actually being utilized,” says Lex, who adds that in a school like St. John’s, small financial interventions can make a big impact. “Sometimes it’s eight or ten students that need that [help], but for a school this size, that’s a significant increase in the graduation rate.”

Lex sees the college’s curriculum as “an intensive program that’s meant to take everything you think you believe and make you question your whole reality,” and says, “For a lot of people, that’s very destabilizing.” She notes that while the Program’s intensity can have an impact on student retention, “the community at St. John’s is quite tight-knit, and there are a lot of good people who want to keep everybody there.”

The SF18 Koina Ta Ton Philon Student Support Fund contributes to that effort while at the same time revealing the values behind the Gentsches’ actions.

“If you believe that society should be fair and equitable, you do what you can to make it fair and equitable,” says Lex. “I also think the way you talk about things, the way you think about things, changes the world in the simplest of ways, but also in long-term ways. I find that basically to be what magic is: the willing of something into being.”

Dale agrees. “We are creators of reality,” he says and states his credo, one that he repeatedly shared with Lex and her friends during their student years: “If you don’t take philosophy personally, you are missing the point.” Q

To support the SF18 Koina Ta Ton Philon Student Support Fund please email development@sjc.edu

If you believe that society should be fair and equitable, you do what you can to make it fair and equitable ... I find that basically to be what magic is: the willing of something into being.

Why would alumni choose to support our community beyond their lifetimes?

Johnnie Family Visits Campus to Honor a Legacy

Fall of 2022 brought a bittersweet surprise to Max Mertz, brother of the late Dr. Margaret Stover Mertz (SF83) and executor of her estate. Although Margaret passed away at age 57 from complications arising from ovarian cancer in early 2019, it was when their mother died three years later that funds became available for donation to one of her lifelong loves.

“Margaret had redone her will and specified that any money would go to first my mom’s care, and then secondly to St. John’s,” says Max. “Never in my wildest imagination did I think we would have any money left over.”

When three generations of the family—siblings, spouses, children, and grandchildren—gathered in New Mexico for the Mertz matriarch’s funeral last October, they took the opportunity to visit St. John’s Santa Fe and present the college with a substantial check on Margaret’s behalf.

“It was emotional for me, honestly,” says Max. “She always felt a responsibility not only to family but to supporting the things that were important to her, and St. John’s was one of those.”

The Santa Fe gift comprised two parts: the Margaret Mertz Faculty Music Fund, to be administered by the

dean’s office, and the Margaret Mertz Music Internship Endowment, to be administered by the Office of Personal and Professional Development.

“Margaret had a very nice Steinway parlor grand piano that, after she passed, we donated to the school, as well,” says Max, who characterizes his sister as “very strong mathematically and very gifted musically—a pianist interested in more of the academic side of music.”

As a high school student in Houston, he recalls, she had been “looking for something kind of different” and fell in love with St. John’s. “My other sister and I liked to laugh that Margaret got all the brains in the family. St. John’s is pretty rigorous, not a light undertaking. She really thrived on that.”

Adds Max, “Her senior thesis attracted the attention of some of the math and music folks at Harvard, and they invited her to go there on a full ride.” At Harvard, Margaret earned a master’s and PhD in music, writing her thesis on Benjamin Britten’s opera The Rape of Lucretia.

She then taught and worked in arts administration at schools across the country, including New Mexico Highlands University, North Carolina School of the Arts, and the University of Florida, before returning to New Mexico in 2014 to take a position in the St. John’s development office.

It was during those final years that she reconnected with one of her dearest friends, Leslie Kay (SF83), who joined the Mertz family for the Santa Fe celebration of Margaret. “We were very close in college but lost touch for a few years after,” says Kay, who runs her own laboratory at the Institute for Mind and Biology at the University of Chicago.

“We were part of a small handful of people who went into academia as professors and educators, and we bonded a lot over that,” says Kay. “I was really excited to join the

Board of Visitors and Governors at St. John’s so that I could see her more often. That, unfortunately, didn’t last as long as I hoped. The plan was to be old ladies together, right?”

Their junior year of college, the two friends shared a house on Canyon Road, with Margaret’s piano taking a prominent space in the living room. “We had a fateful seminar at our home, on Mozart’s Don Giovanni,” Kay remembers.

“We invited the whole seminar over to the house for din-

ner and snacks, and we were very excited. Then our plumbing went out that day, so it was a little bit of a bust! But Meg was always about music. It was always there in her life, and it was always there in her relationships. I mean, we would not have invited everybody over to do a Kant seminar. No, it had to be for music.”

Kay had also become close with Margaret’s family over the years. “It was lovely getting together with them; it was such a happy occasion,” she says of the St. John’s gathering, during which they visited Margaret’s beloved Steinway en masse. “She was given the piano when she was a child, by a friend of the family. She played it all the time, it’s part of her.”

As for Max, he is inspired by his sister’s gift to the college. “My wife and I hope to add to that at some point,” he says. “We were moved by what Margaret did. St. John’s is unique, and I can’t imagine a better spot than to fund this unique educational opportunity. We’re thrilled to be able to do so.” Q

“

She always felt a responsibility not only to family but to supporting the things that were important to her, and St. John’s was one of those.

in a Name?”

Celebrating Alumni Who Have Made Supporting St. John’s Their Life’s Work

From the desk of President Roosevelt

Why does the college name a building after someone? Specifically, why did we recently change the name of Randall Hall to Fielding-Rumore Hall? And why was this decision so easy to make?

Money is important of course. The hall’s new namesakes, alumni Ron Fielding (A70) and Susan Rumore Lobell (A70), have been extraordinarily generous to St. John’s. Their $25 million gift, alongside Warren Spector’s, was essential in getting the Freeing Minds campaign the momentum it needed to have a fighting chance. And every time we need a donation to fund a new initiative to improve the student experience, they step up. How much has this mattered during these last tough years? More than I can say.

There is also their commitment of time, energy, and dare I say it, love. Ron has worked so hard as chair of the Board of Visitors and Governors over the last seven years: countless meetings, not many of them very much fun; Zoom calls that have interrupted holidays; and all unfolding during a period that Ron and Susan may have mistakenly thought were their retirement years. How much has this meant to the college as we have fought to regain our footing? Again: more than I can say.

Then, importantly, there is who they are at their core— good people. They found each other at the college, where, thankfully, they also fell in love with the Program. While almost none of us have the resources to match their philanthropy, we can all seek to emulate their lack of

“What’s

pretention, willingness to pitch in when needed, and deep love and respect for St. John’s.

During the Fielding-Rumore Hall dedication, both Ron and Susan delivered moving remarks about their love for the college and we have decided to share them in full with you here. Please take the time to read them. And, if you are fortunate enough to run into them at Summer Classics, at a board meeting, or even online in a virtual seminar: offer your thanks for all they have done for the college.

—Mark Roosevelt

RON’S STORY

Thank you, Nora, for your kind words and for providing such a warm welcome for Susan and me and our guests. I hope you will bear with me as I tell my St. John’s story, which in many ways is my life story and that of other members of my family as well.

My paternal grandparents were born, grew up, and married in the late 1800s in a small village in what is now western Ukraine, 20-40 miles northeast of Lviv. The family had been there for generations. With only 50 families in the village, no one needed, or had, a surname. Boris, son of Ivan Ivanovitch, worked fine. My family was relatively prosperous, as they owned one of the two water wheels in town, the only technology in an otherwise medieval village.

I should note that virtually everything I know of this generation of my family comes not from any oral tradition, but from a book my great uncle, Harry Burroughs, wrote in 1930, called Tale of a Vanished Land. I didn’t learn about the book until I was in my mid 20s, only weeks before my father died, and wasn’t able to get a copy and read it until my mid 30s. It consists of 330 pages of very dry reading, with a map and seven woodcut prints. You can get a good summary of the village and family situation in two hours by watching Fiddler on the Roof. My uncle’s book and the movie end in much the same way:

They quickly loaded up a horse-drawn wagon with some personal items, walked out of the Ukranian village, and headed for America with barely enough money for third-class train and steamer passage.

increasing police attacks on Jews, and, around 1905, expropriation of their land and water wheel. They quickly loaded up a horse-drawn wagon with some personal items, walked out of the Ukrainian village, and headed for America with barely enough money for third-class train and steamer passage.

My father was born in Boston in 1907 and was given the name Herbert. His generation learned English quickly, and he was earning money selling evening newspapers after school by the time he was six or seven years old. My siblings and I also began paper routes at about the same age. He worked hard and was part of the family’s first generation to go to college. He went to Brown University! After graduation, he returned to Boston, and did one semester of graduate work at MIT before entering the Harvard Business School.

But the Great Depression of the 1930s was getting deeper. There was no money, and he and his younger brother Harry quit school to start a bond-brokerage business. They each changed their surname from “Finegold”—the name my grandparents had gotten at Ellis Island—to Fielding, to better appeal to Boston’s Brahmins. But the business failed anyway.

A year later my father found work in New York City; he became the head book buyer for Macy’s department store in Manhattan. Macy’s was the largest bookseller in America, the Amazon of the 1930s! He was paid very well to read and review multiple books each day and decide which ones to stock and promote. At that time, he began courting a Polish American Catholic girl named Edna, impressing her with his annual purchase of a brand-new car and ski trips to Mount Cranmore in Maine and Mont-Tremblant in Canada. (He delighted in having made 8mm movies to show his children in later years.) He does not know it, of course, but he was at his life’s peak prosperity, paradoxically while the country was still in the Great Depression.

Then came December 1941, Pearl Harbor. The United States went to war. My father was 34, not in danger of being drafted, but in 1942 he proposed and married my mother, quit his great job at Macy’s, and joined up to fight the Nazis as a private in the US Army.

Three and a half years later the Allies

President Mark Roosevelt and President Nora Demleitner with Ron Fielding and Susan Rumore Lobell.

won the war and my father was now a major, happily based at an army base in Yakima, Washington.

But then letters arrive from his uncle Harry Burroughs. Harry had become an affluent attorney and political advisor in Boston, able to retire from the law in 1932 at age 42. He started and was managing a camp in Maine for orphan boys, street urchins, and also founded the Burroughs Newsboys Foundation to help newsboys in Boston attend college. In his spare time Harry wrote a second book, Boys in Men’s Shoes, published in 1944, about his ideas to better bring up otherwise wayward boys of the streets. It was very favorably reviewed by local Boston newspapers, the Chicago Sun, the Reader’s Digest, and Time magazine. But in late 1945, Harry was dying; he wanted my father to take over managing his two nonprofit enterprises. Reluctantly, my father agreed. And with my mother and their newborn son Richard, born just a few weeks after the death of President Roosevelt, and hence getting “Franklin” as his middle name, they took the transcontinental train back east.

I was born in 1949 and spent my first four summers with my two older brothers at the Agassiz Village camp, while my father managed a summer staff

... the next day began my student aid job in the dining hall on Randall’s main floor, cleaning up after lunch and preparing the tables for family-style dinners. And that’s where I met Susan Rumore.

for 100-150 campers in each two-week period.

In 1953, after seven years as director of Agassiz Village, and now with four children, my father resigned to return to higher paying retail work with Sears Roebuck. But 11 years had passed since the Macy’s job, he was now in his mid 40s, and had missed key years for management advancement. His life was much tougher.

In December 1961, my older brother, Richard, now 16 years old, came home for winter break from his junior year at Phillips Academy, which he attended on a newsboy scholarship. He announced that he didn’t want to go back to Andover for

his senior year; instead, he applied to a small college in Annapolis, Maryland. My father was shocked, but he researched St. John’s College and fell in love with its “Great Books” curriculum and pedagogy. He had never thought that Brown was as good as its Ivy League reputation. My father was so excited about the Program that he applied to be a tutor at the college. My brother was admitted to the Class of 1966 without completing high school, but my father was rejected. Two years later, my brother Robert also entered St. John’s, Class of 1968.

In 1964, I was admitted with a scholarship for my junior year to the Putney boarding school in Vermont, and loved being away from teachers who continually compared me to my two older brothers. But a year later my father suffered a stroke, and he was unable to return to work full time. My mother learned to sell World Book Encyclopedias door to door. Except for some AT&T stock that my father had bought and put away during the Depression, there was no money for multiple kids in private schools at the same time. But St. John’s did provide enough aid to Richard and Robert to continue their studies. My father said I “can go anywhere I want for college, just find the money.”

Susan Rumore Lobell and Ron Fielding with Susan’s youngest daughter, Tira Hightower, and Tira’s oldest daughter, Eva Hightower.

But I didn’t want to go to a college where the teachers would again compare me to my older brothers, so I applied to different colleges: Reed and Haverford. I was admitted to both, but neither offered enough financial aid for me to attend. My father was furious that my Putney grades weren’t better. As with St. John’s, Putney had grades but did not send them out to the kids or their parents, until my father demanded them. He also told me to apply to St. John’s, as they seemed more generous with financial aid.

So, I wrote my application essays on the morning of my Putney graduation in June 1966, then came home and got a job restocking engineering books in the MIT library inside that iconic dome.

In July, St. John’s notified me of acceptance, with college aid, a Pell Grant, and campus job. And I also received a grant from the Burroughs Newsboys Foundation for my freshman year. I was admonished by both the foundation and my father that it was my responsibility to do well enough to get other money after that.

I arrived that September to begin the Great Books program, moved into the top floor of Randall, and the next day began my student aid job in the dining hall on Randall’s main floor, cleaning up after lunch and preparing the tables for family-style dinners. And that’s where I met Susan Rumore, another financial aid freshman working that same shift.

But without telling Susan or anyone else, I immediately applied to transfer to Reed for sophomore year; in March 1967, I was accepted, and with enough aid to go, but by then I was smitten with the Program, and perhaps Susan as well. I stayed in Annapolis to complete the Program.

In June 1970, my parents returned to Annapolis to attend my graduation. My father was truly beaming as “our” names were called: “Ronald Herbert Fielding, cum laude.” St. John’s gave honors awards back then, long since discontinued, in favor of equity, I suppose.

After graduation, I began graduate work in economics at the American Institute for Economic Research during summers, and at the University of Rochester during the academic year. Susan wanted to get

married, but I was not ready for that obligation, and in 1972, Susan married someone else. I was shaken when I read this in The College magazine. It was 1984 before I finally got married and started my family.

Then, in 2011, my wife died of cancer. I reconnected with Susan, and we married in August 2016, almost exactly 50 years after we first met in Randall Hall.

Now it is March 2023, and I’m part of my old dorm/dining hall’s rededication. If you don’t like the name change, blame Mark Roosevelt, as I never asked for this. It was all his idea. But I think Susan’s appreciation was evident in her talk, and I can definitely feel my father’s joy at having his family name on a building at the college he came to love, and so much enjoyed through his three sons.

Thank you, Mark, for providing this honor for me and Susan, and a true memorial for my father.

SUSAN’S STORY

Thank you for the great honor of naming this building as the Fielding-Rumore Hall. I want to tell you a little about myself so that when you see my name on the building you will have some idea of the person behind it.

Surname: My grandparents came to America from Italy in search of the American dream, specifically to enable their children and grandchildren to get an education. Although they didn’t live long enough to see me graduate from St. John’s, I know they would have been proud of me and they would have been thrilled to have their name on one of the buildings at one of the finest colleges in America. I am very glad that my daughter and granddaughter, Tira and Eva Hightower, are here today to share the family honor.

The Program: I was one of those kids who fell in love with the Program at St. John’s the minute I read about it when I was in high school. And I remain in love with the Program to this day. As the young lady who just spoke (a current student) said, it does have its challenges. To the point, last night I attended a seminar with my granddaughter on Aristotle’s Politics. I remembered then that this reading, while difficult, is the least difficult of the difficult texts we read. It was also sometimes

There is one important thing I want to say here: my education at St. John’s College has sustained me and served me well in my life.

a challenge to live amongst a bunch of 18- to 22-year-old-students, all of whom were Johnnies. However, I truly cherish the time that I was here. And I am so glad my college roommate, Maureen Barden, is here today. Maureen, we did this together! My Career: After graduation from St. John’s, I lived in New York City; Evanston, Illinois; Belmont, Massachusetts; Ridgewood, New Jersey; and now South Carolina. When it comes to speaking of my career, there are five big categories that matter most to me. They are: high school math teacher, textbook editor, wife, mother, and grandmother. As all of you know, each of those roles has subsets of other roles as well. There is one important thing I want to say here: my education at St. John’s College has sustained me and served me well in my life. Repeat: my education at St. John’s College has sustained me and served me well in my life. For this I am grateful to the faculty of St. John’s and all the people who keep the college running.

And finally, “The Love”: As mentioned earlier today, I met Ronald Fielding during the first week of school while doing my student aid job in the school cafeteria cleaning up after lunch. Ron had the same job. But what hasn’t been mentioned is that I had seen Ron before that. It was a half or whole day earlier. He was standing outside of Randall, his dorm, and I was standing outside of Campbell, my dorm. I looked over and saw him. It was that first look that was a… special moment.

Today, I am very happy to have my name next to his on the Fielding-Rumore Hall. I know I speak for Ron and myself when I say ‘We are proud members of the St. John’s community.’

Thank You. Q

BUILDING COMMUNITY: ABOUT THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION:

What is the Alumni Association?

The Alumni Association of St. John’s College, Inc. is an independent, allvolunteer, non-profit organization that provides opportunities for engagement in the life of the college and in the Johnnie community for all alumni, wherever they may be. One of the oldest alumni organizations in North America, the Alumni Association will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2027. Membership in the Alumni Association is automatic for all alumni of St. John’s College.*

Our Mission

The mission of the Alumni Association is to support alumni and the college by fostering fellowship and mutually beneficial connections among alumni, current students, faculty, and other members of the college community.

Our Work

STAY CONNECTED & GET INVOLVED—

The Alumni Association is an all-volunteer organization with a board of directors, elected by and from the alumni body, and who lead the Association’s volunteer working groups. Volunteers create the foundation of the Association’s work by lending their time, energy, and expertise in support of our fellow alumni, students, and the college community via Association programs and collaborations with St. John’s College. Building on the common experience of our unique education, the Alumni Association strives to nurture community by advocating for our fellow alumni; providing chapter and community-wide activities and events; offering programs for life-long learning; and facilitating opportunities to serve the Johnnie community and our alma mater. To be involved and stay connected, email the Association at sjcaa@sjc.edu. We look forward to hearing from you!

* Those “who have been awarded a degree by the College shall be called Alumni. In addition, all who have completed at least one semester of undergraduate study or at least one segment of Graduate Institute study, but who are not currently enrolled, shall be called Alumni either a) in the case of undergraduate students, when the class with which they matriculated has graduated, or b) in the case of Graduate Institute students, at the end of three full sessions of the Graduate Institute after the one in which they last enrolled.”

Polity, Article I, Section 3, Subsection J

2023 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION ANNUAL MEETING Election Notice for the SJC Alumni Association

At the Association’s All-Alumni Meeting in September, alumni will elect the president-elect of the Alumni Association, seven at-large members of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, and one alumnielected member of the college’s Board of Visitors & Governors.

We hope you can join us for the All-Alumni Annual Meeting and Brunch on Sunday, September 10, 2023 at 10 a.m. MT on the Santa Fe campus.

HOW TO VOTE

If you cannot attend, we encourage you to vote by mail or online ballot. Please see details below on ways to vote.

IN PERSON

At the Association’s annual meeting on Sunday, September 10, 2023 on the Santa Fe campus. Please contact the Association at sjcaa@sjc.edu, for further details.

ONLINE

Via community.stjohnscollege.edu/notice_of_elections

For an online ballot, login and click on the link under Notice of Elections and Annual Meeting.

BY

MAIL OR FAX

Request a paper ballot by contacting the Alumni Office at 410-626-2531 or alumni@sjc.edu. The ballot will contain information regarding how to appropriately return.

Online and paper ballots will be available by August 21, 2023 and must be received by September 7, 2023.

Constance (Bell) Lindgreen (Class of 1966) writes, “A year or so ago, my husband and I returned to Denmark, land of his birth. Our thatched-roof farmhouse dates from the late 1770s and needed enough work to keep our Danish/Lithuanian crew busy for nearly eight months. While they worked on the interior, we rediscovered a circular flower bed and liberated a rose bed from oppression by aggressive weeds. We’re a short walk from Karen Blixen’s house, a short train ride to Copenhagen, and a quick stroll to two local castles. We read, garden, travel (mostly Europe), and host visiting family and friends. It’s been 34 years since I left the US; on each return, it seems increasingly baffling.

I continue to write short stories, a few of which have been published. Revising my novel set in Denmark at the time of the second Schleswig-Holstein ‘conflict’ —which was, of course, a war by another name.

Nowadays, we are often wakened by the roar of military aircraft on training flights. War seems all too close—and all too necessary. Perhaps it’s not pure coincidence that one of the books I’m currently reading is a new translation of the Iliad by Peter Green. Highly recommended.

Playing Schubert helps. And Scarlatti. And reading. La vie continue.”

Class Notes

Bruce R. Baldwin (SF68) writes, “We recently returned from a short cruise out of Tampa. We took our children, Ian and Marisa, their spouses Ashlean and Andy, and kids (three each) for an early celebration of our upcoming 50th anniversary. We are still in Annapolis, where Ena helps our with ESL classes at St. Mary’s, and Bruce has been singing for a number of years with choirs at St. Mary’s and the Annapolis Chorale.”

Harold Morgan (SF68) has completed the manuscript for his history of the first uranium boom in the Ambrosia Lake/Grants, New Mexico, area. As of April 2023, the manuscript was in the final editing stage with finding a publisher the next step. The tentative title is Ambrosia Lake: The 1950s Uranium Mining Boom at Grants, New Mexico. Ambrosia Lake will be the first comprehensive story of the 1950s boom that started in December 1950. Harold hopes the finished book will be available in a year. He continues to live in Albuquerque.

Rick Wicks (SF68) writes, “Two years ago our daughter Linnéa—now a doctor—got married here in Sweden, gave birth to our granddaughter Elsa, and she and Gustav built a house. Recently she gave birth to Elsa’s little brother. We remain connected to Alaska, from where my sister and her husband were just here to visit. And I’m writing memoirs (Reflections on Fragments of a Confused Life)!”

Meredith Anthony (A69) writes reviews of mysteries and thrillers for the quarterly Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine. She lives in New York City.

Tom Pink (A69) and his wife, Ruth Arg��ello, recently finished building their house in the Picacho foothills just outside of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. Now their former home in the historic center of San Miguel is available for vacation rental. Tom and Ruth look forward to welcoming Johnnies to this beautiful place.

Rachel Treiman (A69) writes, “I have moved to Philadelphia! I am having a blast. In the eight months I have been here, I have heard more good music and seen more dance than in the past 20 years in Montana. I am making friends with interesting people. Do I miss Montana? I miss seeing my brother. I miss the night sky. I miss some of my favorite scenery. The advantages of moving more than compensate. If you want to visit, I have a sofa bed and there are lots of hotels here.”

Bruce C. Wheeler (A73) writes, “I have retired to Plattsburgh, New York, after two full careers: Army (Airborne Ranger Captain) and NYS teaching (Special Ed). Some of the locations where I served were Egypt (Sinai), Germany, Alaska, and Panama. I have been a recreational runner for 50+ years and still run every day.” Lost

Donnel O’Flynn (A73) and Janet Christhilf O’Flynn (A74) are coming up on their 48th wedding anniversary. They write, “We’re grateful! After a long absence from alumni affairs, it seems a good time to reconnect. We are living in Montana, where Donnel grew up. Donnel is serving as rector of St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Bigfork, which is converted from a one-room schoolhouse where his mother and her siblings went to school about 100 years ago. Janet is working as dean-at-a-distance for an academic department of rehab in Léogâne, Haiti, going to work every day by laptop. It would be great to visit with Johnnies out here in the wild West!”

K.C. Victor (A75) writes, “My husband, Irv Hepner, who many Johnnies know, and I moved to San Luis Obispo, California, in 2020. We have ensconced ourselves enough here that a few months ago I was elected to be the Political Action Committee chair of the SLO County NAACP, and Irv was elected to be the Legal Redress chair of the same organization. On a more Johnnie-related front, Irv and I did a six-month road trip from April through September of 2022, and on our travels spent a few days with Seth Ginsburg (A75) and his wife, Suzanne, and had a lovely dinner in Annapolis with Mike Dink (A75) and his friend Barbara Flinn.”

Carla Schick (A77) was awarded a 2023 literary award for poetry from Nomadic Press/San Francisco Foundation. Carla’s works will be published in the Black Fox Literary Magazine, Journal X (Cabrillo College), City College of San Francisco’s Forum Literary Magazine, and a Colossus Press anthology on bodily autonomy. Carla was recently published in About Place Journal and Moonstone Arts Center’s annual Poetry Ink Anthology. In addition to spending time writing, Carla is involved in implementing ethnic studies in the public schools and is mentoring new teachers in the district where she worked.

Kelly Bradford (SF79) writes, “I have pulled back to half time work implementing utility-funded low-income energy efficiency programs at Frontier Energy out of Austin, Texas. Last year, I took a few months off to hike the Continental Divide Trail from the Mexican border to Elwood Pass/South Fork, Colorado, about 700 miles of hiking. I plan to find my northernmost footprint this June and continue north on the trail, with the goal to reach the Wyoming border. The hike gave me a chance to see quite a few old classmates in Santa Fe and Albuquerque before and after the trail. Best wishes to friends, classmates, and tutors floruit 1974-1980.”

Elizabeth Affsprung/Buffy Bowser (A81) is now living in central Oklahoma and invites you to visit if you are passing through. She pastors a store-front church in Shawnee.

BJ Roach (A81) writes, “My big accomplishment during the pandemic was to publish a novel, a lifelong goal. I love mysteries and they say, “Write what you know,” so a story about a Johnnie who solves a mystery made sense. In A Lesson in Death, Emma and her husband, Tim, both Johnnies, use their reasoning skills to find out who killed a student at the boarding school where Tim teaches. A little philosophy plus an exciting climax! It’s available at the usual places, or you can order it from the bookstore if you’re on campus (it’s distributed by Ingram).”

Mark Ernest Pothier (A84) is thrilled to report his debut novel, Outer Sunset, was published by University of Iowa Press on May 15. The book was chosen by Poets & Writers to participate in its inaugural “Get the Word Out” debut author publicity incubator and has received a starred indie press review from Foreword.

Karel Bauer (A88) writes, “I’m a cameraman and director with over 30 years behind the lens. My interest in cultural, social, and environmental subjects has led to work across the spectrum of film and television production, and has spanned over 80 countries on all seven continents. A graduate of NYU film school, I’ve been based in Seattle since 1991. Fellow Johnnie Nancy Harriss (A85) and I have been married since 1994 and have two adult kids—and our recent experience includes the unexpected joy of

Tobias Maxwell (A88) has a new novel, Rafael Jerome, that came out in January of this year. This is his sixth novel. He’s presently at work on a new novel, Alcibiades, Mon Amour, which was greatly inspired by his time at the college. It’s tentatively scheduled for a late fall 2024 publication.

Lee Mendelson (A89) has been living on the North Fork of Long Island with his wife of (almost) 30 years, Shelia, while running his own law practice and serving as general counsel to a Hamptons-based custom builder. He has been appointed to the town of Riverhead, New York’s Industrial Development Agency for the purpose of fostering commercial development within the town. Additionally, Lee is one of the owners of Phyto-Farma Labs LLC, one of the only licensed cannabis testing laboratories within the state, and serves as general counsel to

On set with Rick Steves, Martin Sheen, and Emilio Estévez.

the New York State Cannabis Laboratories Association. If anyone should find themselves visiting wineries on the East End of Long Island, please reach out for recommendations and hopefully the opportunity to share a bottle at one of them.

Shubber Ali (SF91) writes, “After a long and winding journey since my days at the Santa Fe campus back in 1987-1988 (not quite an odyssey, but complete with a siren

or two), I have found myself as the CEO of a brand new for-profit spinout from a national not-for-profit (the National Wildlife Federation). The company, Garden for Wildlife, is focused on bringing more native plants to gardeners across the country to help save pollinators and birds that have been in significant decline over the past 100+ years. In Johnnie fashion, I suppose, it all started with reading a book, in this case, Nature’s Best Hope by Douglas W. Tallamy, just before the pandemic began. The result was doing pro bono work with NWF to help them conceive of this new business and then launch it, which after a few twists and turns ended with the NWF Board asking me to come in as CEO, which I gladly accepted and started last October. My yard is slowly being transformed and is already a certified wildlife habitat.”

Thomas Cogdell (SF92) helps lead the Christ the Reconciler community in Elgin, Texas. He and his wife, Amy, have five children and five grandchildren (so far). Thomas published his first book last year, Unity Through Repentance: The Journey to Wittenberg 2017, with the audiobook following in 2023. In his spare time, Thomas works for Athens Group Services, writes code for Cielo Water (a social venture), and still enjoys reading and discussing good books.

Trish Dougherty (A93) writes, “I received a master’s in English from the Bread Loaf School of English last August. This past March, 35 people gathered at our local Town Hall Theater to perform my book, Forty Poems for Forty Pounds—an amazing testament to the Middlebury, Vermont, community when most people don’t even read poetry books. And I spent a glorious spring afternoon this April marching down Madison Avenue in Manhattan with my bestie, Jessica Trupin (A92).”

Amie Neff (SF93) writes, “After living in Paris for three years, my husband and I returned to our home in the California South Bay where we’ve been living since 2010. The sojourn in Paris marked an end to my career in architecture and, for my retirement, I’m restoring a 22-acre property in Graton, California, located within the historic tribal territory of the Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok.

I’m starting a two-acre regenerative agriculture market garden farm on the east parcel and supporting the west parcel’s return to the favored wetland-dominant habitat. In true Johnnie spirit, education is a major part of our mission. Anyone interested in learning or teaching can reach me at amie.neff@ gmail.com.”

Erika Suski (A93) completed a three-year master’s degree in map reading from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, in 2008 and has been living with her family and marvelous terrier. Drop a note to erika.suski@ yahoo.com. Would love to hear from alumni.

Jehanne Dubrow (A97)’s 11th book, Taste: A Book of Small Bites, was published by Columbia University Press in August 2022 as part of No Limits, an interdisciplinary philosophical series. Structured as a series of “small bites,” the book considers the ways that we ingest the world, how we come to know ourselves and others through the daily act of tasting.

Pam Watts (SF05, SFGI14)’s first novella, The Bonny Swans, was published in January 2023 by Cemetery Gates Media as part of Mother Horror’s My Dark Library series. It’s a queer, gothic tale based on the Irish murder ballad, “The Twa Sisters.”

After years in Texas, Billi London-Gray (AGI08) and partner, Daniel Bernard Gray, moved to Laramie, Wyoming, where Billi is a visiting assistant professor of art at the University of Wyoming. Billi and Daniel will reawaken Zosima Gallery in a basement book crate closet on November 11, 2023 (Dostoevsky’s 202nd birthday).

Sara Luell (A09) joined the staff at St. John’s College Annapolis in 2022 as the director of Communications. Previously, she spent 13 years working for the state of Maryland serving in various public relations and crisis communications roles related to health, housing, and community development. She looks forward to entering the St. John’s Graduate Institute MALA program this fall.

Tom Balding (A20) writes, “For the past several years since graduating, I have been working as a professional croquet instructor at Grandfather Golf and Country Club, as well as Linville Golf Club, in Linville, North Carolina. In addition to that I have been continuing to compete in croquet tournaments, and this past November became the first Johnnie to play for the US team in the MacRobertson Shield, the croquet world team championships, which were held this time in Melbourne, Australia.”

Do you have news to share? Send your note, along with your name and class year, to alumni@sjc.edu. Photos are welcome!

“Class of 1983 40 Year Update”

Thank you for believing in St. John’s College!

Five years ago, St. John’s launched the Freeing Minds campaign, with a goal to raise $300 million, an incredibly ambitious figure for a college our size. On June 30, the campaign came to an end, raising an astounding $326 million. Thank you to all who, through your gifts, will help unlock the potential of today’s Johnnies, preserve the Great Books Program for a new generation, and keep the traditions and values of St. John’s alive.

We thank campaign chair Warren Spector (A81) for his leadership, and extend a warm welcome to him in his new role as chair of the Board of Visitors and Governors.

More

from Jack Armstrong’s

Warren holds a gift engraved with “Thank you, Warren, for believing in St. John’s College” at the Freeing Minds celebration on June 23, 2023, in Annapolis.

In Memoriam

Our remarkable community has lost alumni, staff, faculty, and leadership during 2022-2023. As we continue their legacy, we remember and honor their impact.

Ellis W. Manning Jr. (Class of 1946)

Edward J. Roethel (Class of 1950)

Joseph S. Warhurst (Class of 1950)

Howard Bromberg (Class of 1954)

Joan G. Martin (Class of 1955)

Janet B. Jump (Class of 1956)

Alan P. Brockway (Class of 1958)

Michael D. Sanford (Class of 1958)

John D. Morris (Class of 1960)

Robert G. Neal (Class of 1960)

S. R. Freis (Class of 1961)

Stephen G. Frohlicher (Class of 1961)

John W. Poundstone (Class of 1962)

Stephen Sohmer (Class of 1963)

Claudia J. Fruit (Class of 1963)

Jessica S. Lennon (Class of 1967)

Maureen L. Hollander (A69)

James F. Villeré (A70)

Dennis Sheret (A72)

McKee G. Lee (A72)

Eric J. Geer (A72)

Robert L. Kinsky (A72)

Constantine M. Mantis (A73)

Terance L. Cantrell (SF73)

Roberta E. Fine (SFGI75)

James L. Gollin (SF77)

William Cormeny (AGI79)

Susan E. Heller (A80)

Donald A. Konyha (A82)

Michael Ossorgin (SF82)

Michael Oehmann (AGI83)

Albert B. Barger (SF85)

Lee B. Harley (SFGI86)

Marc D. Carnegie (SFGI90)

David C. Trimmer (A92)

Justin S. Cetas (SF93)

William M. Sothern (A98)

Ellen P. Stevens (EC99)

Joyce Olin (H00, AGI00)

Robert B. Williamson (H02), Annapolis Faculty

Michael E. Uremovich (SFGI05)

Ryan M. McArdle (SF07)

Erik Sageng (H14), Annapolis Faculty Emeritus

John P. McLoughlin, Former Board of Visitors and Governors

Susan B. Kaplan, Former Santa Fe Staff Member

Glen Lopez, Former Santa Fe Staff Member

Rachel McKay (A77) writes, “My mother Joan Gilbert Martin (Class of 1955) was part of the first class of women at St. John’s College. I am writing to report her death last September 13, 2022, just ten days shy of her 92nd birthday. She lived a rich and full life. She was a pioneer and loved her St. John’s education, books, art, her family, friends, her cats, and her garden. In retirement she put her considerable skills as an editor and writer to work on the local history of her hometown, Santa Cruz, California. She is deeply missed.”

Mary-Charlotte Domandi (SFGI91) writes, “It is with great sadness I write that our classmate Marc Carnegie (SFGI90) passed away on February 7, 2023. He would have been 60 this year. I’d been in close touch with him over the last five years or so, and saw him and his dachshund Duffy in Rhode Island several times. His acerbic wit, humor, and intelligence were there til the end. If you have memories to share about Marc, please write to mc@radiocafe.org and perhaps we can reconnect his circle of St. John’s friends.”

This listing honors those who have passed between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023. We care deeply for all members of our college community. If you know of fellow Johnnies who have passed away but are missing from this list, please contact advancement@sjc.edu so we may honor those individuals.

“The best man is not one who practices virtue toward himself, but who practices it toward others, for that is a hard thing to achieve.”

(ARISTOTLE, NICOMACHEAN ETHICS 1130A7)